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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Black Christmas (1974) in Movies
Dec 8, 2020
Black Christmas is one of those all timers, a horror film that is ground breaking, brimming with well written characters, and most essentially, is still scary as fuck 40+ years after it's release.
Considered by many to be one of the first modern slasher horrors alongside The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (and predating Halloween by 4 years), it's importance can't be understated, and still remains at the top of the pile in terms of quality.
Straight off the bat, Black Christmas is genuinely unsettling. The largely unseen killer makes his presence known mainly through phone calls, but the things he says, and the tone of his voice is genuinely disturbing, and all too realistic. The couple of glimpses we do get are iconic, namely the underside shot during the infamous glass unicorn scene, and then the goosebump inducing moment where lead character Jess spots a singular eye of his staring at her through a crack in a door. It's honestly horrific. Pair that with other creepy shit, such as the corpse in the rocking chair from the poster, and you have some pretty nightmare inducing stuff.
The Christmas setting also provides an unsettling atmosphere, a time that is mostly considered a happy and festive, soured by all of the unpleasantness going on here, and it's all topped off with a pretty bleak ending.
The characters are great - the mostly female cast are all likable, intelligent, well developed protagonists that you want to see win. Stands outs include Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder, both great actresses who's early career appearances here bring a touch of class to proceedings. It's always nice to see genre favourite John Saxton too.
The narrative is pretty straight forward stuff - little is revealed about the killer so nothing gets bogged down in exposition, and it's perfectly paced. It's never gets boring, and the dialogue centric scenes are engaging. It also deals with heavy topics such as abortion, toxic masculinity, and manages to be subtly feminist, a quality that propels the movie as a whole even further, especially being a 70s film.
Black Christmas is pretty much perfect in my opinion, and easily stands shoulder to shoulder with Halloween in terms of slasher greatness.
Considered by many to be one of the first modern slasher horrors alongside The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (and predating Halloween by 4 years), it's importance can't be understated, and still remains at the top of the pile in terms of quality.
Straight off the bat, Black Christmas is genuinely unsettling. The largely unseen killer makes his presence known mainly through phone calls, but the things he says, and the tone of his voice is genuinely disturbing, and all too realistic. The couple of glimpses we do get are iconic, namely the underside shot during the infamous glass unicorn scene, and then the goosebump inducing moment where lead character Jess spots a singular eye of his staring at her through a crack in a door. It's honestly horrific. Pair that with other creepy shit, such as the corpse in the rocking chair from the poster, and you have some pretty nightmare inducing stuff.
The Christmas setting also provides an unsettling atmosphere, a time that is mostly considered a happy and festive, soured by all of the unpleasantness going on here, and it's all topped off with a pretty bleak ending.
The characters are great - the mostly female cast are all likable, intelligent, well developed protagonists that you want to see win. Stands outs include Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder, both great actresses who's early career appearances here bring a touch of class to proceedings. It's always nice to see genre favourite John Saxton too.
The narrative is pretty straight forward stuff - little is revealed about the killer so nothing gets bogged down in exposition, and it's perfectly paced. It's never gets boring, and the dialogue centric scenes are engaging. It also deals with heavy topics such as abortion, toxic masculinity, and manages to be subtly feminist, a quality that propels the movie as a whole even further, especially being a 70s film.
Black Christmas is pretty much perfect in my opinion, and easily stands shoulder to shoulder with Halloween in terms of slasher greatness.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated The Grinch (2018) in Movies
Sep 25, 2019
After watching The Grinch my heart grew three times.
This is the first time that I've ever encountered The Grinch... yes, ever. Apart from calling people a grinch when they moan about Christmas. Never read the book, never seen previous incarnations. I really don't know how.
I'm really pleased that this film was good. After most of Secret Life Of Pets and all of Sing I was starting to lose faith in Illumination. This is a much better offering and genuinely a nice film. It's funny, it's thoughtful and it's Christmassy all rolled into one.
Despite the film being called The Grinch the stars of the show were Max and Fred. Max shows you just how happy a dog can be all of the time even if they're surrounded by negative feelings, and Fred, well... those puppy dog eyes... good boys! I did also love Cindy-Lou Who. That kids has a fantastic eye for gadgets that must come from repeated viewings of other holiday classics like Home Alone.
There really isn't a lot else to say about this other than it's a great film. Cindy-Lou is a great motivational speaker and the whole film in general fills you with the desire to do good things and take a new perspective on things... well it did for me... this film might have brainwashed me.
As a little extra we also take a step back to the good old days where you got a cartoon before the main screening! Yellow Is The New Black. An amusing diversion. Those poor little minions.
(P.S. The reason this is getting four and a half stars and not five is that the alarm clock. If you've seen the trailer you'll understand my slight disappointment... I suppose what they've done is more in keeping though. *grumpy sigh*)
What you should do
Don't be a Grinch. You should go and see this... kids, no kids, it doesn't really matter. It's brilliant animation with a wonderful story to tell.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I'll take a giant portion of Cindy-Lou's ingenuity please!
This is the first time that I've ever encountered The Grinch... yes, ever. Apart from calling people a grinch when they moan about Christmas. Never read the book, never seen previous incarnations. I really don't know how.
I'm really pleased that this film was good. After most of Secret Life Of Pets and all of Sing I was starting to lose faith in Illumination. This is a much better offering and genuinely a nice film. It's funny, it's thoughtful and it's Christmassy all rolled into one.
Despite the film being called The Grinch the stars of the show were Max and Fred. Max shows you just how happy a dog can be all of the time even if they're surrounded by negative feelings, and Fred, well... those puppy dog eyes... good boys! I did also love Cindy-Lou Who. That kids has a fantastic eye for gadgets that must come from repeated viewings of other holiday classics like Home Alone.
There really isn't a lot else to say about this other than it's a great film. Cindy-Lou is a great motivational speaker and the whole film in general fills you with the desire to do good things and take a new perspective on things... well it did for me... this film might have brainwashed me.
As a little extra we also take a step back to the good old days where you got a cartoon before the main screening! Yellow Is The New Black. An amusing diversion. Those poor little minions.
(P.S. The reason this is getting four and a half stars and not five is that the alarm clock. If you've seen the trailer you'll understand my slight disappointment... I suppose what they've done is more in keeping though. *grumpy sigh*)
What you should do
Don't be a Grinch. You should go and see this... kids, no kids, it doesn't really matter. It's brilliant animation with a wonderful story to tell.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I'll take a giant portion of Cindy-Lou's ingenuity please!
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018) in Movies
Sep 25, 2019
I'm not sure whether you need to watch the other films in this series being that this is number four in the sequence. I did buy them before this came out but never got round to them. I don't think I've missed out of anything, but you can never be sure.
We get a lot of striking black and white (sort of) shots throughout the film. The snow and dark buildings are very effective. As were the action sequences. You can see a snippet of the home invasion in the trailer and the slow motion leap. I do wonder how many films put them in just because they think it's the done thing. But the whole piece worked well.
I don't really know what it is about her but I'm not a fan of Claire Foy. This is the third film with her in this year and none of them have hit the spot. Out of the three this one in my favourite, there's something a little less irritating about her on-screen presence. Perhaps it's that the character of Lisbeth is naturally awkward.
When I saw Stephen Merchant in the trailer I'm not going to lie, I was a little concerned. I find him amusing and generally enjoy his hop across the pond to movies and TV. Those have mostly got a comedic lean to them though. This roll however had none and I'm not really sure it suited him. He's still got those slightly oddball characteristics that don't really fit in such a serious movie.
Sadly I don't feel like there's much more I want to say about The Girl In The Spider's Web apart from mentioning the James Bond vibes you get from everything from the opening credits to, well, the general feel of the whole thing.
What you should do
It's certainly not a waste of time watching it, definitely catch it when it hits streaming or the TV.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Some amazing IT/hacking skills wouldn't go amiss in my day to day life.
We get a lot of striking black and white (sort of) shots throughout the film. The snow and dark buildings are very effective. As were the action sequences. You can see a snippet of the home invasion in the trailer and the slow motion leap. I do wonder how many films put them in just because they think it's the done thing. But the whole piece worked well.
I don't really know what it is about her but I'm not a fan of Claire Foy. This is the third film with her in this year and none of them have hit the spot. Out of the three this one in my favourite, there's something a little less irritating about her on-screen presence. Perhaps it's that the character of Lisbeth is naturally awkward.
When I saw Stephen Merchant in the trailer I'm not going to lie, I was a little concerned. I find him amusing and generally enjoy his hop across the pond to movies and TV. Those have mostly got a comedic lean to them though. This roll however had none and I'm not really sure it suited him. He's still got those slightly oddball characteristics that don't really fit in such a serious movie.
Sadly I don't feel like there's much more I want to say about The Girl In The Spider's Web apart from mentioning the James Bond vibes you get from everything from the opening credits to, well, the general feel of the whole thing.
What you should do
It's certainly not a waste of time watching it, definitely catch it when it hits streaming or the TV.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Some amazing IT/hacking skills wouldn't go amiss in my day to day life.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated The Last Shark (1981) in Movies
Aug 15, 2020
An oldie... but a goodie?
A large great white shark is interested in taking part in a seaside town's regatta but the major would rather it stayed away so that paying visitors can go about safely spending their money.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that The Last Shark was actually Jaws 2, evidently Universal thought that too and sued the life out of them. With such a familiar feeling to the whole affair it felt like it went fairly quickly, at times, too quickly. More than once I noted down that the scenes just left out the "boring bits" of filler and went straight to the nitty-gritty of moving the story along... this is what we always wanted right? In practice, it's not all that great.
When I started my notes with "what is this, windsurfing porn?" (I started writing watersports fun but quickly changed that.) I felt confident of daft enjoyment ahead, and with a great transition from music over the scene to music in the scene... well, it won me over. Then to throw in the classic line "absolutely nothing is going to happen!" Wow!
Being serious about this review feels a little over the top, so let's just say it's exactly what you'd expect from a film ripping off another film when both those films are shark films... there were corners cut obviously and it tries to keep to the action side more than anything else but that works pretty well considering.
My note taking highlight (after windsurfing porn) was the fact that the local butcher must have been doing a roaring trade, forget all those BBQs, he was selling slabs of meat for bait hand over fist. At least someone came out of all of this better off!
You've got teens in peril, people hunting the shark, a local politician with bigger things on his mind, and that's what makes Jaws... sorry... that's what makes Jaws... DAMNIT... The Last Shark! That's what makes The Last Shark an amusing watch.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-last-shark-movie-review.html
A large great white shark is interested in taking part in a seaside town's regatta but the major would rather it stayed away so that paying visitors can go about safely spending their money.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that The Last Shark was actually Jaws 2, evidently Universal thought that too and sued the life out of them. With such a familiar feeling to the whole affair it felt like it went fairly quickly, at times, too quickly. More than once I noted down that the scenes just left out the "boring bits" of filler and went straight to the nitty-gritty of moving the story along... this is what we always wanted right? In practice, it's not all that great.
When I started my notes with "what is this, windsurfing porn?" (I started writing watersports fun but quickly changed that.) I felt confident of daft enjoyment ahead, and with a great transition from music over the scene to music in the scene... well, it won me over. Then to throw in the classic line "absolutely nothing is going to happen!" Wow!
Being serious about this review feels a little over the top, so let's just say it's exactly what you'd expect from a film ripping off another film when both those films are shark films... there were corners cut obviously and it tries to keep to the action side more than anything else but that works pretty well considering.
My note taking highlight (after windsurfing porn) was the fact that the local butcher must have been doing a roaring trade, forget all those BBQs, he was selling slabs of meat for bait hand over fist. At least someone came out of all of this better off!
You've got teens in peril, people hunting the shark, a local politician with bigger things on his mind, and that's what makes Jaws... sorry... that's what makes Jaws... DAMNIT... The Last Shark! That's what makes The Last Shark an amusing watch.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-last-shark-movie-review.html
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Chopping Mall (1986) in Movies
Sep 28, 2020 (Updated Sep 28, 2020)
So yeah, I freaking love Chopping Mall. It's a prefect slice of ridiculous and cheesy sci-fi horror from the 80s and a great example of how fun low budget horror can be...
The premise alone is amazing - eight teenagers get locked in a state-of-the-art shopping mall after a lightning storm hits the roof-situated antenna that controls the malls' robotic security team, sending the machines haywire and turning them into killer robots. Less than ten minutes in and Chopping Mall has absolutely all of my attention.
A huge positive about this movie is how likable the group of survivors are. A couple of them are a little throwaway, but the majority of them are given just enough backstory to make them feel real, and are all played well by their respective actors (ALWAYS love to see Barbara Crampton).
It's almost a shame when they start to get picked off. As is par for the course with this era of horror, Chopping Mall uses practical effects for the most part, and what we see he is pretty decent (ridiculous head explosions anyone?) and the few "special" effects we are treated to (the robots lasers for example) are so wonderfully low budget that it ends up adding even more charm. There is also an unholy amount of explosions just for good measure.
The dialogue is typical slasher fare, but it's boasts such gems as "Let's send these fuckers a Rambo-gram", "it's gonna be good time to the max!", "They're trying to french fry us, well I'm no damn potato" and "I'm sorry, I guess I'm just not used to running around a shopping mall in the middle of the night being chased by killer robots". Just spectacular really, especially the big guy stuffing his face whilst dead pan saying "Waitress, more butter" before an immediate cut away.
Chopping Mall for me is near the upper echelon of 80s horror. Sure it's cheap and silly but it's also great, and gets criminally overlooked due to more popular franchises. Do yourself a favor and give it a watch if you haven't before.
Also, the soundtrack absolutely slaps.
The premise alone is amazing - eight teenagers get locked in a state-of-the-art shopping mall after a lightning storm hits the roof-situated antenna that controls the malls' robotic security team, sending the machines haywire and turning them into killer robots. Less than ten minutes in and Chopping Mall has absolutely all of my attention.
A huge positive about this movie is how likable the group of survivors are. A couple of them are a little throwaway, but the majority of them are given just enough backstory to make them feel real, and are all played well by their respective actors (ALWAYS love to see Barbara Crampton).
It's almost a shame when they start to get picked off. As is par for the course with this era of horror, Chopping Mall uses practical effects for the most part, and what we see he is pretty decent (ridiculous head explosions anyone?) and the few "special" effects we are treated to (the robots lasers for example) are so wonderfully low budget that it ends up adding even more charm. There is also an unholy amount of explosions just for good measure.
The dialogue is typical slasher fare, but it's boasts such gems as "Let's send these fuckers a Rambo-gram", "it's gonna be good time to the max!", "They're trying to french fry us, well I'm no damn potato" and "I'm sorry, I guess I'm just not used to running around a shopping mall in the middle of the night being chased by killer robots". Just spectacular really, especially the big guy stuffing his face whilst dead pan saying "Waitress, more butter" before an immediate cut away.
Chopping Mall for me is near the upper echelon of 80s horror. Sure it's cheap and silly but it's also great, and gets criminally overlooked due to more popular franchises. Do yourself a favor and give it a watch if you haven't before.
Also, the soundtrack absolutely slaps.
ABC - Letters, Numbers, Shapes and Colors with Mathaliens
Education and Games
App
* A product from our extremely popular new educational line (all three iPad products ranked in top...
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Love And Friendship (2016) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
Beckinsale excels in a comic tale of Girl Power in the 1790’s.
Set in 1790, Kate Beckinsale plays Lady Susan Vernon, an 18th century cuckoo-like ‘MILF’ (actually, more ‘LILF’, but using the ‘Lady’ term loosely) who with her glamourous demeanor is lusted after by both younger beaus as well as married aristocracy: an example being Lord Manwaring (Lochlann O’Mearáin).
Playing many different ends against the middle, Lady Susan – with the collusion of her American friend Alicia (Chloë Sevigny) – attempts to both find a suitably rich suitor for her daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark) as well as finding a rich husband for herself to allow her to stay in the manor (sic) to which she has become accustomed. A tale of deception, pregnancy and a marriage of convenience follows: does Lady Susan have to choose between her sexual desires and the rich, stupid and dull Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett, “David Brent: Life on the Road”). Or can she have her cake and eat it?
Based on a Jane Austen short story, “Lady Susan”, this is a delight from beginning to end. However, it does require the attention of the viewer: characters get introduced to you in rapid fire succession, and keeping track of who’s who and how they interrelate is quite a challenge.
But this is a tour de force for Kate “Underworld” Beckinsale who delivers a depth of acting ability that I’ve not seen from her in the past. Her comic timing is just sublime, and while comedies are often overlooked in Awards season, this is a role for which she richly deserves both BAFTA and Oscar recognition.
Stephen Fry joins what is a superb ensemble cast. But outstanding among them is Tom Bennett who is simply hilarious as the nice but dim Sir James. The comic routine about his misunderstanding of “Churchill” (Church – Hill) – a running gag – is sublime and a challenger (with “Was that it t’were so simple”) for the comedy routine of the year.
Directed by Whit Stilman (“The Last Days of Disco”) from his own screenplay, this is one for the more sophisticated viewer: requiring of your full attention, but a treat for the eyes, ears and brain.
Playing many different ends against the middle, Lady Susan – with the collusion of her American friend Alicia (Chloë Sevigny) – attempts to both find a suitably rich suitor for her daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark) as well as finding a rich husband for herself to allow her to stay in the manor (sic) to which she has become accustomed. A tale of deception, pregnancy and a marriage of convenience follows: does Lady Susan have to choose between her sexual desires and the rich, stupid and dull Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett, “David Brent: Life on the Road”). Or can she have her cake and eat it?
Based on a Jane Austen short story, “Lady Susan”, this is a delight from beginning to end. However, it does require the attention of the viewer: characters get introduced to you in rapid fire succession, and keeping track of who’s who and how they interrelate is quite a challenge.
But this is a tour de force for Kate “Underworld” Beckinsale who delivers a depth of acting ability that I’ve not seen from her in the past. Her comic timing is just sublime, and while comedies are often overlooked in Awards season, this is a role for which she richly deserves both BAFTA and Oscar recognition.
Stephen Fry joins what is a superb ensemble cast. But outstanding among them is Tom Bennett who is simply hilarious as the nice but dim Sir James. The comic routine about his misunderstanding of “Churchill” (Church – Hill) – a running gag – is sublime and a challenger (with “Was that it t’were so simple”) for the comedy routine of the year.
Directed by Whit Stilman (“The Last Days of Disco”) from his own screenplay, this is one for the more sophisticated viewer: requiring of your full attention, but a treat for the eyes, ears and brain.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Ron's Gone Wrong (2021) in Movies
Oct 14, 2021
Cute animation with funny characters, this seemed like a nice diversion from the usual, mainly heavy, festival lineup.
Barney has an eccentric family. Dad is trying to make ends meet and Gran’s solution is food and a song. But for Barney, who just wants to fit in with his classmates, scraping by means not having the latest “Best friend in a box” robot to hang out with like everyone in his class.
As well as looking for something light hearted to watch, I was a little bit excited to see a children’s film in an adult only screening. I’m easily pleased, it’s the dream screening really.
When kids films from bigger studios don’t appear on my radar well in advance of their release I’m always a little sceptical. But the idea behind Ron’s Gone Wrong sounded like it was going to be a bit of a win, after all, it's either friendship or all out war, there's generally no in between.
Despite it having some bigger names in the cast, I really couldn’t put my finger on any of them as I watched. Performances were a little forgettable if I’m honest, out of everything, it’s the antics that are memorable, not the voices. The dialogue felt a little anaemic and it really just didn’t hit the spot for me.
Then there’s the animation, again, a bit of a shrug. It’s lovely but familiar. The little robots are a fun creation though and the way they interact with their humans and the online world is nicely done. As I watched it though I had flashes of other films. I tried to remember the name of the bots as I wrote the synopsis, but all I could think was PAL… but that’s Mitchell’s vs the Machines, and if you’ve seen that then you’ll more than likely draw some comparisons. That’s not the only film either.
Ron's Gone Wrong has some nice messages about friendship and it tries to shoehorn some ethics in there for the adults, but all in all, despite being a nice film, it doesn’t hold much of a punch to stand out from the crowd.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/10/rons-gone-wrong-movie-review.html
Barney has an eccentric family. Dad is trying to make ends meet and Gran’s solution is food and a song. But for Barney, who just wants to fit in with his classmates, scraping by means not having the latest “Best friend in a box” robot to hang out with like everyone in his class.
As well as looking for something light hearted to watch, I was a little bit excited to see a children’s film in an adult only screening. I’m easily pleased, it’s the dream screening really.
When kids films from bigger studios don’t appear on my radar well in advance of their release I’m always a little sceptical. But the idea behind Ron’s Gone Wrong sounded like it was going to be a bit of a win, after all, it's either friendship or all out war, there's generally no in between.
Despite it having some bigger names in the cast, I really couldn’t put my finger on any of them as I watched. Performances were a little forgettable if I’m honest, out of everything, it’s the antics that are memorable, not the voices. The dialogue felt a little anaemic and it really just didn’t hit the spot for me.
Then there’s the animation, again, a bit of a shrug. It’s lovely but familiar. The little robots are a fun creation though and the way they interact with their humans and the online world is nicely done. As I watched it though I had flashes of other films. I tried to remember the name of the bots as I wrote the synopsis, but all I could think was PAL… but that’s Mitchell’s vs the Machines, and if you’ve seen that then you’ll more than likely draw some comparisons. That’s not the only film either.
Ron's Gone Wrong has some nice messages about friendship and it tries to shoehorn some ethics in there for the adults, but all in all, despite being a nice film, it doesn’t hold much of a punch to stand out from the crowd.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/10/rons-gone-wrong-movie-review.html
Having read, loved and recommended The Bees many times (and The Ice, too!), I thought I knew what to expect from Laline Paull. Well, I was right and wrong!
Firstly, I loved Pod.
Secondly, it gave me a lot to think about.
Thirdly, how does Laline Paull put herself in a dolphins shoes (flippers? Sorry…) and not make it sound like a children’s book? And I should stress: this is NOT a children’s book.
Paull may have anthropomorphised dolphins, various fish, all and any sea life, but she has stayed pretty close to what I’ve learnt is their true nature (thank you David Attenborough!). Dolphins are very intelligent, playful and seem to know what humans want (maybe that’s just me reading more into these things). But they’re also hunters, they have a pecking order, and I don’t think you’d want to be at the bottom of it if you were a dolphin!
This novel shows the joyful side of being a dolphin, the way that they must work together for the greater good of the pod. It also shows how violent they are - there’s even a dolphin rape scene that was every bit as upsetting as if it had been a human.
In amongst all the dolphin drama is a message for us humans. We see the damage the human race is doing to the oceans: pollution, over-fishing, capturing dolphins for food, entertainment, or warfare.
Pod is graphic in places. It most definitely doesn’t pull its punches - and why should it?
This novel is not sentimental, jam packed with happy, child-friendly dolphins. Pod looks at the real struggles of sea life (and there’s not just dolphins involved). These dolphins are fighters, authoritarian, protective of one another, followers of tradition as well as migration routes, they deal with the results of humanity’s selfishness and cost-cutting.
The imagination and empathy that must have gone in to writing this: I’ve seen how a dolphin, a whale, a wrasse, a clam, a remora and a sea anemone feel and behave (I like to think so, anyway!).
How could I NOT love this book? 🤷🏼♀️
Firstly, I loved Pod.
Secondly, it gave me a lot to think about.
Thirdly, how does Laline Paull put herself in a dolphins shoes (flippers? Sorry…) and not make it sound like a children’s book? And I should stress: this is NOT a children’s book.
Paull may have anthropomorphised dolphins, various fish, all and any sea life, but she has stayed pretty close to what I’ve learnt is their true nature (thank you David Attenborough!). Dolphins are very intelligent, playful and seem to know what humans want (maybe that’s just me reading more into these things). But they’re also hunters, they have a pecking order, and I don’t think you’d want to be at the bottom of it if you were a dolphin!
This novel shows the joyful side of being a dolphin, the way that they must work together for the greater good of the pod. It also shows how violent they are - there’s even a dolphin rape scene that was every bit as upsetting as if it had been a human.
In amongst all the dolphin drama is a message for us humans. We see the damage the human race is doing to the oceans: pollution, over-fishing, capturing dolphins for food, entertainment, or warfare.
Pod is graphic in places. It most definitely doesn’t pull its punches - and why should it?
This novel is not sentimental, jam packed with happy, child-friendly dolphins. Pod looks at the real struggles of sea life (and there’s not just dolphins involved). These dolphins are fighters, authoritarian, protective of one another, followers of tradition as well as migration routes, they deal with the results of humanity’s selfishness and cost-cutting.
The imagination and empathy that must have gone in to writing this: I’ve seen how a dolphin, a whale, a wrasse, a clam, a remora and a sea anemone feel and behave (I like to think so, anyway!).
How could I NOT love this book? 🤷🏼♀️