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Heartstopper Volume One
Heartstopper Volume One
Alice Oseman | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)
8
9.2 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
This review and more can be found at my blog https://aromancereadersreviews.blogspot.com/

A Romance Reader's Reviews

This was a recommendation on Goodreads after finishing Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda so when I saw it on Amazon today as a 99p deal, I just went and bought it. As a graphic novel, it's a quick read and I did find it very cute.

So Charlie is an openly gay young man in an English all-boys school. He's a really good runner and is invited by his form group seating partner, Nick, to join the rugby team as they are needing new players. The pair grow close as they spend time practising the game and talking in their form group and spend time around at each others houses. Charlie quickly falls for Nick but Nick's straight, right?

I did really like this. The storyline was engaging and I really felt for these two characters.

The artwork was a little strange at times but really detailed at others. I loved head on shots, the dog ♡, the trainers/converse near the end.

I would love to continue this at some point since it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.
  
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Julianne Moore recommended Little Women in Books (curated)

 
Little Women
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott | 2012 | Children
7.9 (75 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"My mother gave me “Little Women,” telling me that she thought I was ready for it. I can’t count the number of times I read it between the ages of 10 and 15 – I used the book like a set of worry beads. It soothed and enchanted me, and it was only much later, as an adult, that I realized that Louisa May Alcott (and my mother) had given me a road map of the journey from childhood to adulthood. It is, obviously, a highly moral book, but to me it felt as if its precepts were based on a personal (rather than a Christian) morality. In the world of “Little Women,” the girls all learned what their responsibility was toward one another, themselves and the world at large – the choice was up to them. They could choose to be headstrong (Jo), unengaged (Meg), shy (Beth) or selfish (Amy). But through their thoroughly engaging adventures they learned to be productive and ambitious ( Jo), loving and domestic (Meg), musical and devoted (Beth) and artistic and philanthropic (Amy). I learned that I could be whatever I wanted to be, and that you could come from anywhere to achieve [it]."

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Colin Hanks recommended Funky Monks (1991) in Movies (curated)

 
Funky Monks (1991)
Funky Monks (1991)
1991 | Music
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The last film I’m going to list is a documentary about Red Hot Chili Peppers recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik that was called Funky Monks. It’s about an hour long, it’s shot in black and white, and it’s about them recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik in this house in Beverly Hills. Blood Sugar Sex Magik was arguably the most important album of my young adult life. It sort of put me on my musical path. I guess now, looking back on it, it’s not at all ironic that Funky Monks was the first documentary that I ever watched. It sort of set me on a documentary path, where it wasn’t just narrative movies that interested me, but also real-life stories told in documentary form were now available to me. It greatly influenced me, not only in the Tower Records documentary, but also in all the documentary work that I’ve done. It is, I find, an incredibly engaging film about a subject that I am very passionate about, which is that particular record, and that particular time, not only for that band, but for music in general."

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The Devil's Own (1997)
The Devil's Own (1997)
1997 | Action, Drama, Mystery
I don't know what's worse: a film that's underwritten and knows it, or a film which sets up such thought-provoking themes only to immediately ditch them by the wayside (which this one is). It's so frustrating how this had most of the elements just on principle alone to be really, really good and it still wasn't. Seemingly intentionally unexciting, so much so that Brad Pitt's middle-schooler-impression-of-Daniel-Day-Lewis-from-𝘐𝘯-𝘵𝘩𝘦-𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦-𝘰𝘧-𝘵𝘩𝘦-𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 accent is actually the best part of it. Gets semi-engaging in the last 45 minutes if only because it finally gets some of the right look + feel for what this wants to be, but even then it's got no bite and is disgustingly pro-cop (a cop who shot dead an unarmed victim multiple times then tried to force everyone to cover it up and doesn't regret it can be redeemed without doing anything!). Poises itself to go over issues of oppression, nationalism, trauma, violence, and what happens when they all intersect - but never does. Harrison Ford is so bland here, too. Doesn't even care about its own story, what a fucking shame. This really coulda been something.
  
Project Power (2020)
Project Power (2020)
2020 | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
Another glossy but slightly underwhelming Netflix genre movie. A new drug granting temporary superpowers is being sold on the streets of New Orleans, and a maverick cop, a ex-military drifter and a teenage girl team up to put a stop to it.

Maybe some of these Netflix movies would be more impressive on a big screen where all the special effects and sound design would get an appropriate delivery and have the faculty-numbing effect this sort of film is depending on. Or maybe not, I don't know. As it is this has an interesting premise, charismatic leads and seems to genuinely want to do some social commentary about US society, the nature of power, etc etc. But that would require a level of downbeat grittiness wholly at odds with the extravaganza of lavish CGI and show-offy direction this film also wants to be, and it's the latter elements that win out. As a result it is watchable and engaging on a superficial level but you sort of lament the loss of the more interesting and restrained film this could have been instead. Hey ho.
  
Kingpin (1996)
Kingpin (1996)
1996 | Comedy
Familiar Farrelly fare to a fault (I swear to God that repetition was unintentional) - it's got every single hallmark of their films all rolled into one: extremely juvenile peepee/caca/sex jokes, USA heartland road trip, lovable doofus + straight man lead pairing plus the underdeveloped woman who puts them at odds with each other, runtime that's about 15 or so minutes too heavy, unpointed misogyny, and heaping helpings of sentimentality. For better or worse, this is the quintessential Farrelly film. On the whole though, it's okay. Comedy is hit or miss here but this can be damn funny, specifically Bill Murray - who easily runs away with this entire film (the film's biggest flaw? that there isn't more of him). Randy Quaid is a riot too, though this is oddly a better sports movie than it is an outright comedy. All these (still fair) gross-out comedy trappings are infused into your model sports film formula but it's oddly really engaging as that, and the comedy is just a bonus. I like how this movie portrays skill, and it's also one of the Farrellys' best looking ones, too. All of this is still rather simple but it's fun.