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I Feel Pretty (2018)
I Feel Pretty (2018)
2018 | Comedy
Renee (Amy Schumer), a later, twenty something who lives in New York City. She works in a small division Lily LeClaire, a high end beauty product company. From a tiny ramshackle office, she dreams and one day working at the glamorous HQ in downtown Manhattan. She finds out that there is a position available, but she does not think that she is good enough to get the job.

 In her quest to look better and feel better, she enrolls in Soul Cycle class at her neighborhood gym. Within minutes, she had injured herself and her pride. Smarting from the injury, we see her looking into the mirror with disdain and self loathing. Schumer conveys the discomfort, embarrassment and self-doubt that every one of us have felt at some point in our lives.

 Renee does not give up, going to class the second day. In her enthusiasm, she forgets to tighten a bolt and is taken down by the bike. The event immediately changes how she looks at herself, immediately seeing her visage as everything she would want. The film highlights the all human issue of self-confidence, struggles of imperfection with our bodies and our overall self image, how our own perceptions are our own mental constructs than reality.

 Schumer is able to convey the negative thoughts we all have felt about ourselves when we don’t like how we look. However, externally, the self negativity is not noticed.. We can be own worst critic and take down our own self esteem without the help of bullies. Even though Renee’s self image is altered by an accident, her humor, intelligence doesn’t change, her extraverted confidence shines the light directly on her attitude.

 There were some moments where I expected a makeover montage. Cause, good 80’s alternative soundtrack and it’s a film about a woman’s lack of self esteem. Surprisingly, it was devoid of any fancy changing room quick changes. The movie addressed how we all have moments where our levels of self confidence and self esteem are reduced due to our own ideas because we all can be our own worst critic.

 The story had its moments where I would have liked to see more depth and connection in Renee’s relationships with her best friends Vivian (Aidy Bryant) and Jane (Busy Phillips). These are friends that have known each other for years and I would have like to see a little of the psychic shorthand friends develop over years of knowing each other. I did like how Vivian and Jane didn’t let Renee get away with behaving as an ass. They are not mean in their rejection which is more true to honest friendships.

 Amy Schumer’s humor at times can make us a bit uncomfortable because she holds the mirror up to us to teach us how to laugh at ourselves and to show that we are not alone in all these feelings. I enjoyed the movie, even though it would have been good to see more depth in the relationships. It is a perfect Girls Night Out film
  
Feel Me Fall
Feel Me Fall
James Morris | 2020 | Contemporary
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
More reviews at https://bbookinspector.wordpress.com

Sometimes I wonder, why great books like this one don’t get published, and you hardly will find it in the book stores, and other, average books, get published and sold everywhere… It is my little mystery, to which I do not have an answer

Three boys and three girls, magically survive a plane crash. Their main goal is to survive, to survive in Amazon, where danger is behind every tree. They need to work as a team to get back to civilisation, find food, shelter and overcome the past which follows them even in a middle of a jungle. Eventually, only Emily Duran is saved, so what happened to the rest of her friends? That was the question, which kept me glued to this book.

I absolutely loved the characters of this book, they all are teenagers who went to same school and are sharing some difficult relationships. I really enjoyed the different personalities of each and every character. All characters are incredibly complex, charismatic, realistic and very interesting personas. Everyone will have a great variety to choose from as their favourite. I really couldn’t pick one as my favourite, because they all had some great qualities, which left me baffled.

The narrative of this novel is told by moving between past and present. Emily is telling the story of what happened in Amazon, and she comes back to the present, to share how all this influenced her present life and relationships. I really enjoyed how Morris manipulated readers mind in this novel. When I started believing in some course of action, author threw in a turn or twist which changed everything, and left me guessing again. This book is not long, that’s why the action and pace had to keep happening in every chapter, and I am thankful that there was no unnecessary writing.

The writing style of this book is very pleasant, it is easy to read this novel, and it is very skillfully written. It is a survival novel, and people died in this book, and to be honest, it is quite graphic, so if you are sensitive and don’t like graphic death scenes, you might want to avoid this book. The chapters of this book were pleasantly designed, dividing the chapters into smaller sub-chapters, which didn’t leave me uninterested, and kept the suspense going. I was absolutely amused and shocked by the ending of this novel and I give nothing but applause to the author for it. I think that ending was absolutely fantastic!

I could carry on praising this book, but the only thing anyone could do, is read it. It is not a typical survival novel, it has fresh approach to it, it is very nicely written, gripping, twisty and very enjoyable to read. Not to forget, it discusses some very important issues, which teenagers are facing, and how it can change in a matter of minutes. So, yes, I do strongly recommend this book and I really hope that publishers will notice this great work, and one day people will be able to buy it everywhere.

Was given this book by author for honest review.
  
TC
Thursday's Children (Frieda Klein #4)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
There is something about Dr. Frieda Klein's past that no one is aware of. She has had no reason to share the secret with anyone until her past comes knocking at her door. When a friend from her childhood who she hasn't seen in over twenty years asks Frieda for help with her troubled daughter, Frieda is willing, but reluctant to help. When the daughter tells Frieda a story that is strangely familiar, she set out on a quest to discover the truth behind her own secret.

This was a book I couldn't put down. This book really touched me on a personal level What would you do if you told the one person you loved the most something traumatic that happened to you and they didn't believe you? What if their disbelief was so strong it had you doubting your own self and made you sad and depressed and wanting to be hidden from everyone? What if telling your secret got you killed?

In this 4th Frieda Klein novel, Frieda is forced to face a past she left behind 23 years ago. In pursuit of the truth, she rekindles some relationships that were probably better left to stay in the past. Traveling from her home in London back and forth to her hometown she left behind and never went back to in Braxton, will Frieda finally be able to find answers she didn't realize she needed.

I've finally hit a winning streak in reading good books. This one did not disappoint one bit and it's highly recommended.
  
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Sam (74 KP) rated Attachments in Books

Mar 27, 2019  
Attachments
Attachments
Rainbow Rowell | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry
7
7.4 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
I’ve wanted to read Attachments for the past few years, but I’ve always managed to find a book I wanted to read more, and it got forgotten about until I was looking to see what books I wanted for Christmas. I’m so glad I did finally get around to reading it.

Attachments follows the life of Lincoln, a man who works in IT at a newspaper office in 1999. Lincoln is a loner who works night shifts mainly monitoring ‘WebFence’, checking that employees emails aren’t inappropriate. This is where he discovers Beth and Jennifer – two best friends whose emails are constantly being flagged up. Lincoln finds himself reading these emails and falling for one of them.

I never expected this novel to be very deep, after all, it’s about a man who stalks the emails of two women. However, it goes into the issues both Beth and Jennifer have in their lives such as their relationships and happiness.

Lincoln is such a lovable character. He’s nerdy, rubbish at making friends and still lives with his mum.

I was shocked when I saw that the Goodreads rating for this one is only 3.9 because I actually preferred it to any of her other books I’ve read. I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve only ever read her YA before but I just thought this was so much better. In some places, it did feel a little bit slow, but it soon picked up again. It’s definitely better than Rainbow Rowell’s YA novels.
  
Searching (2018)
Searching (2018)
2018 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Catfish 2.0
After dealing with the death of his wife from cancer, a father tries to deal with raising his high school daughter only to find out everything with her and her life is not what it seems when she goes missing. He frantically starts combing through her social media accounts and contacting her friends to find out any lead as to her whereabouts.

A local police detective also comes to his aid to follow up on leads and keep the investigation going.

The story didn't follow the "Catfish" formula, only the way the story is told. The movie entirely exists through webcams, social media posts and TV footage and that is it's biggest triumph. Any unique way f telling a story, especially a compelling and inventive one, deserves attention in my book since most movies' formulas sort of run together these days.

As a parent, the film really does make you think about how much do we really know our teenage children? Could they be having relationships without our knowledge or conducting themselves in a way they were not raised?

My wife and I actually talked about this a bit while viewing the film. The entire world of social media can be very scary if you think about it and how much of our lives we have exposed out in cyberspace for others to see and potentially exploit.

I got rid of my Facebook around a year ago and haven't regretted it once.

  
Show all 5 comments.
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Andy K (10823 KP) Apr 6, 2019

Yeah I really liked it.

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Erika (17789 KP) Apr 6, 2019

I loved this movie too, I think it was one of the best last year, next to Widows.