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Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Carlito's Way (1993) in Movies

Mar 3, 2020  
Carlito's Way (1993)
Carlito's Way (1993)
1993 | Drama
8
7.6 (8 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
De Palma’s best films are thrillers, told with a sense of dread and urgency. His characters are flawed anti-heroes either running toward something or away from it, sometimes both at once. As is the case with Carlito, played with an unforgettable lisp and absolute relish by a Pacino let loose to do his thing without restraint. It’s a big film with broad strokes, that sucks you in and keeps you on a tightrope right to the inevitable end, that you should see coming, but somehow didn’t. A transformed Sean Penn steals the show, with a solid gold turn, quirky, intense and thoroughly repugnant. But it is the story that drives it – a man who always wants “out” and finds himself in a labyrinth of pressure and bad choices, in a world overflowing with fools and selfishness. The set pieces are sublime, the pace is relentless – a film where everything comes together to create more than the sum of its parts.
  
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Bostonian916 (449 KP) rated The Hunt (2020) in Movies

Jun 29, 2020  
The Hunt (2020)
The Hunt (2020)
2020 | Action, Horror, Thriller
8
7.4 (26 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
After some controversy surrounding the release of this movie I was a bit curious as to what all the fuss was about. After viewing, I figured it out.

Perhaps what's the most disturbing in reflection is that in the climate of the world today, I can actually see something similar being played out in real life. Obviously without the twists and turns of Hollywood, but suffice it so say that there are some bonkers things going on in the universe we live in.

Back to the movie...

Incredible acting by everyone involved. I can think of at least three different occasions where I began to really track and follow a character thinking that they were going to be a main protagonist (or antagonist, depending on your point of view) only to then almost immediately watch them get snuffed quicker than a bag of nails at a hammer convention. Pretty interesting way to approach it. But honestly, it worked well for this particular movie.

The choreography of the final sequence was remarkable. Humor was appropriately injected and the scene made you actually believe that it could happen under similar circumstances, to a degree, of course.

All in all, I'm thankful that everyone involved finally had the fortitude to release this movie. Regardless of what side of the political fence you fall on, there are lessons to be learned, even though it might be uncomfortable to do so. And to be frank, at the end of the day, just a bit of compassion and understanding would have prevented the events of this film from unfolding. But that wouldn't have made for much of a movie.
  
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Hazel (1853 KP) rated These Shallow Graves in Books

Dec 17, 2018  
These Shallow Graves
These Shallow Graves
Jennifer Donnelly | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>This eBook was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review </i>

Known for her young adult series about mermaids, Jennifer Donnelly also proves she is an excellent writer of historical murder mysteries. <i>These Shallow Graves</i> is set in the USA during the late 1800s where Josephine Montfort, a headstrong seventeen-year-old from a respectable family, is expected to marry well and produce a male heir. However, Jo’s innocent lifestyle is disrupted after her father’s mysterious death. With her passion for writing at the forefront of her mind, Jo rejects social etiquette and begins searching for answers.

Jo meets Eddie, a young, ambitious newspaper reporter who agrees to assist with her enquiries. However it is not as straightforward as Jo expects it to be. As the pair begin to uncover dangerous secrets, Jo is also witness to the injustices in the world. Life for the rich was a whole different world from that of the poor, but as Jo learns, that does not make anyone less worthy of being treated as a person.

<i>These Shallow Graves</i> is an exciting story that is gripping from beginning to end. Not only is there a crime to solve, Jo also ends up in a forbidden relationship that crosses the boundaries of her social status. From an historical point of view it is refreshing to read of a female challenging her position in society rather than being the naïve protagonist that many novels written during this time period contain. In some ways she is comparable to Jo March in <i>Little Women</i>, and not only because of their shared name.

Having read the first two books in the <i>Waterfire</i> saga, and been slightly disappointed with the writing style, I was a little apprehensive when beginning to read <i>These Shallow Graves</i>. I presumed I would get bored part way through, or find the narrative dreary, however I was pleasantly surprised. Donnelly is significantly better at historical fiction. The book was greatly researched thus the setting and dialogue were perfectly in keeping with the time period.

As with most murder mysteries the murderer is only revealed at the very end of the story. I guessed who it was fairly early on, however that is all it was, a guess. Most readers will be left hanging until the final chapters – will you work out who it was before then?