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The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
Dominic Smith | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
In a sweeping story based on the works of Dutch Golden Age painter Sarah van Baalbergen, Dominic Smith goes from 17th Century Holland, to mid-20th century New York and ends in 21st century Australia. Find out why I found this book so fascinating in my review here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2016/04/28/landscapes-of-deception/
  
The Lion King (1994)
The Lion King (1994)
1994 | Action, Animation, Drama
The Story, The Animation, The Characters and Songs (0 more)
Nothing (0 more)
A Classic Disney Film
From the Golden age of Disney, 'The Lion King' combines beautiful animation, a solid story, humour and also some real tension and emotion. All topped`off with some great songs. That's why this is my favourite Disney film.

Even though there have been some successful remakes of Disney's classic animations, I feel that the new version of this story isn't going to live up to this animation. If it isn't broken, why try and fix it?

 If you want film for both children and adults, I definitely recommend this.
  
Westworld  - Season 1
Westworld - Season 1
2015 | Sci-Fi
Stellar cast (2 more)
Brilliant writing
Stunning visuals
Are We Really In Control?
This is another prime example of how we are currently living in the golden age of television. Everything about this show is great, the amazing performances, the plot twists, the incredible visuals, the pacing, the tone and the writing and direction. Hopkins is amazing, as is Thandie Newton and Ed Harris. The other performances are great as well and they all come together to make a fantastic ensemble of intriguing characters in an existential, insane world. If you are a fan of dark, morally ambiguous sci fi stories, then this is the best there is.
  
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
2015 | Fantasy, Medieval, Miniatures, Wargame
Great social opportunities (1 more)
Creative outlet
On the expensive side (0 more)
A great game in so many ways
I've been playing Age of Sigmar since its release and it is a great table top wargame. Combines that fantasy feel with classic Warhammer grim darkness. Whether it's modelling, painting or playing this game has something for everyone. It's also a great way to get out and meet people at clubs and events linked to the hobby. One day you could even find yourself on the competitive scene either playing in Grand Tournaments at Warhammer World or entering the Golden Daemon painting competition.

Great for all ages and abilities.
Would recommend.
  
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
2019 | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Love letter to Golden age of Hollywood. (2 more)
Chemistry of the cast carries the film.
Hilarious, tense and moments of sheer genius from Tarantino.
Plot is thin, and at times, weak. (0 more)
OUATIH is very simply put; A love letter to the golden age of Hollywood. It spans through the 1960's of Hollywood's obsession with Westerns, whilst focusing on the friendship of an ageing irrelevant actor, and his no nonsense and loyal stuntman, all set to the backdrop of the infamous Manson murders.

That alone sounds like a cocktail only Tarantino could blend, and a runtime of almost three hours unbelievably isn't enough to immerse me into the plot. It just feels second nature to what the film wants you to focus on, which is the friendship of Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Their chemistry is the forefront and heart of OUATIH, bringing hilarious and ludicrous moments every minute their on screen together.

The Manson family and Sharon Tate's brief film exposure do serve their point with the overarching storyline of Rick's dying career, but they don't make you care as much. That being said, the moments of pure madness, especially in the grand finale, really do keep you biting your fingernails. Remember, this is Tarantino, its bound the get a bit bloody.

The 9th entry in Tarantino's outstanding catalogue is by far not his best work, but it's a really sweet and sentimental love for all things cinema.
  
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Jcadden76 (64 KP) rated Netflix in Apps

Jun 13, 2018  
Netflix
Netflix
Entertainment, Lifestyle
8
8.7 (589 Ratings)
App Rating
So portable to all my devices (1 more)
Easy to throw to a Chromecast
My Binge-Watching Friend
I currently use the Netflix app on my Phone (Android), Laptop, Tablet, PS3, and PS4. Needless to say, I have a heavily curated Watch List that I never get to because I will always find something else to binge.

Let's leave the Netflix content, original or otherwise, out of it for the time being and talk about the app. Ease to navigate, easy to search, and always available. Also, all of your watching, and your accounts and everything else follows you from device to device. We live in a golden age.

Now I have to go binge.
  
[Empire of Sin]by [Gary Krist] was an interesting account of the downfall of what I would have thought as the golden age of New Orleans. New Orleans was the last bastion of sin in the South during the Gilded Age in America. This was a time period when people were trying to live by Victorian standards and New Orleans went against them all. This was a war between cultures and depending who won, New Orleans was bound to be changed.

The book was well written. It started out really strong and the characters in the book were very colorful, more so knowing they were real people. This was a character driven non fiction which makes sense for New Orleans which had more than it's share. My only complaint was towards the end of the book [Krist] seemed to be quickly wrapping up some stories not giving the details that were present in the beginning.

I have recommended this book to quite a few people though. It was a much needed non-fiction fix.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Amazing Johnathan Documentary (2019) in Movies

Nov 19, 2019 (Updated Nov 19, 2019)  
The Amazing Johnathan Documentary (2019)
The Amazing Johnathan Documentary (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Documentary
8
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Impossible to categorise documentary turns out to be impossible to predict, too. Starts off looking like a fairly conventional documentary, complete with celebrity interviewees (Penn Jilette, Weird Al Yankovich, etc) and archive footage, but very soon the narrative of the documentary takes a hard left turn and becomes something totally unexpected.

Sort of a commentary on and deconstruction of the current golden age of documentary feature film making, but also a genuinely intriguing puzzle box of a film. It stops being about the putative subject and becomes a documentary about what it means to make documentaries. The director starts to question everything that's going on and I did, too. Maybe it doesn't have the big reveal at the end I was expecting, but it's still fascinating, thought-provoking, and often very funny.
  
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Sjon recommended The Taiga Syndrome in Books (curated)

 
The Taiga Syndrome
The Taiga Syndrome
Cristina Rivera-Garza | 2019 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This slim novel is one of the most intriguing works of literature I have come upon in a long while. Part mystery, part metaphysical journey, part fairy tale, part adult love story, it brought me to a state of the most welcome strangeness, similar to the one I sought out as a young reader of books that challenged how we perceive reality and reconstruct it in text. In the narrative’s mysterious, slow burn of a chase, a woman who has left her husband is tracked down in The Taiga, a territory where the laws of nature are as much out of joint as the rules of its isolated human society. In its uneasy atmosphere there are echoes from Tarkovsky's film Stalker as well as from golden age private eye novels."

Source
  
TD
The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)
Josephine Tey | 1951 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I've read this several times before, but it has been a while and I'd forgotten just how good a book this is! It's really almost like a play in some ways, as the action takes place entirely in one location - a hospital ward. Mentally of course, the reader follows Inspector Grant's mind as he finds an intellectual exercise that ends up absorbing him and taking him right out of the hospital bed!

Josephine Tey may have been writing in the golden age of detective fiction, but she's didn't stick to the accustomed 'rules' and went her own way, making for some very interesting books. The Daughter of Time is probably her best known book. It's a book that works on more than one level as it's about what it's ostensibly about, but I also see it as a comment on the meaning of Truth (The Daughter of time of the title) and of course, Tonypandy! In our modern age with 24 hour news, social media, 'fake' news, I'd say this book is more relevant than ever!

It's just a very well written book and I'll finish with one bit that really came out to me this time as simply a fantastic thought, beautifully put: "...perhaps a series of small satisfactions scattered like sequins over the texture of everyday life was of greater worth than the academic satisfaction of owning a collection of fine objects at the back of a drawer."