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Decentring Urban Governance: Narratives, Resistance and Contestation

Peter Matthews, Mark Bevir and Kim McKee

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Book

Decentring Urban Governance seeks to rethink governance not as a particular state formation, but as...

Foundation: The History of England: Volume 1

Peter Ackroyd

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Book

Having written enthralling biographies of London and of its great river, the Thames, Peter Ackroyd...

Intelligence Engineering: Operating Beyond the Conventional

Adam D. M. Svendsen

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Intelligence continues to undergo significant changes at a remarkable pace, notably developments...

Michael Korda recommended Paths of Glory (1957) in Movies (curated)

Paths of Glory (1957)

1957 | Classics, Drama, War

8.9

(8 Ratings)

Movie Favorite Watch

"All right, Stanley Kubrick was a genius, the master of the big, ambitious film that stuns the senses, like 2001: A Space Odyssey. But Paths of Glory is one of the last great triumphs of black-and-white filmmaking. It is also a tribute to the talent of Kirk Douglas, who here takes on the role of a French colonel in the trenches of the First World War with such explosive energy that one realizes how many films (and directors) were unworthy of Kirk’s genius as an actor—his first acting role, by the way, was onstage as the servant in Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, with Catherine Cornell, Judith Anderson, and my mother as the sisters and Ruth Gordon as the dreadful sister-in-law. Nobody has ever captured the First World War better on film (except perhaps for Jean Renoir in Grand Illusion, which is in a class by itself). A heartbreaking giant of a film, not a bad shot or a wasted frame in it; perfect filmmaking."

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Kudos

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated The Town (2010) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020

The Town (2010)

2010 | Action, Drama, Mystery

7.7

(10 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

First half is flawed, as clichéd as a bank heist movie could possibly get - but that second half is a goddamned powerhouse (the only *half* conventional ending notwithstanding). Just sucks it took that long to become what it wanted to be the whole time. There's a really terrific story in here about parasitic men on both sides of the law playing with the lives of women like toys to either save their own asses, bring them down with them, or simply just because they can - all encased in a seedy, abusive popcorn heister of bullets and gracious amounts of Boston expletives - but I'm not sure this was ready to fully be that film. Think I'm willing to mostly forgive for how amazing Affleck is in this, and how amazing *everyone* is in this for that matter - along with how admittedly rousing the second hour is. But for the most part this takes nearly every predictable route you'd expect it to. Not really much more or less generic than 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘉𝘺 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, just a lot less gutted.

Kudos

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2395 KP) rated Nancy's Mysterious Letter in Books

Oct 10, 2020

Can Nancy Drew Find Nancy Drew?

Nancy Drew has received a letter from a law firm in London. They are trying to track down a Nancy Drew who has become an heiress in England. Obviously, she isn’t the intended recipient, but she sets out to find the woman with the same name. Meanwhile, she’s also trying to track down a mail thief who hit very close to home. Can she solve both cases?

With some of the other Nancy Drew books I’ve reread as an adult, I’ve complained about too many coincidences in the plot. That’s not the case here. Nancy may jump to a few wild but correct conclusions, but by the time we reach the end, everything has come together logically. Along the way, we get some great twists and turns that are tons of fun. The characters remain thin and there are a few dated references, but overall, this is a book that will keep the intended audience, middle graders, turning pages as quickly as they can to figure out exactly what is going on.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Ready or Not (2019) in Movies

Oct 3, 2019 (Updated Oct 3, 2019)

Ready or Not (2019)

2019 | Comedy, Horror, Mystery

7.6

(46 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Knockabout horror comedy film probably deserves more credit for being reasonably successful at both genres. A young woman (Samara Weaving, who appears to be some kind of genetically-engineered hybrid of Emma Stone and Margot Robbie) marries into an extremely wealthy family and is told that, as part of a family tradition, she has to play hide and seek with them. Mildly amused by their funny little ways, she trips off to find a place to hide; unbeknownst to her, her new father-in-law starts handing out axes, crossbows and shotguns to the assembled brood.

It's a brilliant moment, and it's just a shame the publicity for the film spoils it; certainly most of the rest of the script is concerned with coming up with a back-story to justify it and a pay-off that isn't totally overshadowed by it. It just about manages it, though the film is more successful when it comes to delivering laughs than actual scares (it is pretty gory though). Good fun, anyway.