#2stars

[haroldgross]

Marty Supreme

[2.5 stars] I should start with the reality that I am not a fan of Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems). Neither his world view nor his story-telling. Marty Supreme has not moved the needle much on that. He can get amazing pacing and certainly pulled a great performance from Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) who continues to build a catalog of amazing, award-worthy efforts. Odessa A’zion also delivers…

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[thegirlintheredchair]

BOOK REVIEW: LOVE LETTERS TO THE DEAD BY AVA DELLAIRA

Hello everyone! Yes I have resurfaced from the depths of my busy life to bring to you a pending book review of a book I read in August 2020. Don’t at me cause A) I did get really really busy B) even when I had time I was just too lazy to take pictures C) I love odd numbers and needed three points so…

Lets just get on with the review before I start rambling.

P.S : Lowkey obsessed with this pen This will be in all my future posts now. Heads up!

Look at this book! Gorgeous cover, love the beautiful purple Sky.

Magnetic name: “Love Letters to the Dead.” You can already imagine some morbid fantasy! *sigh*

It just looks like a book that would leave you a sobbing mess. A book you cried a storm over because the story was just raw pure grief and you were so attached to the characters and what they went through!

It is NONE of those things!!!

The premise looked so promising: it basically starts as an assignment where you write a letter to your favorite person (dead or alive), and Laurel turns this into a year-long project. Writing in stunted sentences and then busting out philosophical metaphors about life. Her nonexistent grief for her sister and how she pines over a guy called Sky and shoplifts wine with her friends.

This is how the entire book is written:

Dear Famous Person,

You are amazingly cool because *insert a bunch of random facts about the said person that are easily google-able*. You left the earth too early but even though your dead, I think you’re life is far more interesting. You spend a part of it living out your dream on unicorn wings or angel dust or something.

I spent the day in high school with my “too cool for school friends” and then I went home to my very sad dad who watches baseball re-runs cause he lives his dream through them.

I saw into Skys soul cause “There is something fragile like moths inside of him, something fluttering. Something trying desperately to crowd toward a light. May was a real moon who everyone flocked to. But even if I am only Sky’s street lamp, I don’t mind.” SKY! More Sky. A BUNCH of EXTRA SKY. God, SKY is the universe.

Yours,

Laurel.

P.S oh and my sister died or possibly committed suicide. But we’re not going to talk about that. In fact, I’m going to tell you zilch about my sister or what happened on the night off.

I’m going to keep mum about everything inclusive of the events that led up to it. Because SKY and the moths inside him are far more important than my sister or what I went through.

??????

*whispers* the entire book follows this pattern *eye twitch*

You get it, right? Do you get that this book is pointless? Like it is trying to deal with a lot of heavy topics like suicide, loss, grief, molestation, etc #TriggerWarnings but in the dullest way possible. The letters have no substance. 75% of the letters are about Sky. 15% about her female friends who skirt around their feelings. Another 5% each about her family (sad dad, run away-mom and church-going Aunt Amy) and her cool older friends. Is that 100% complete? Did I mention her sister? Whoops, I forgot? Just like the author!! There is literally a 0.2% mention of her sister.

I’ve tried to sum it up in bullet points:

Annoying Protagonist: Laurel is about as interesting as a brick. She reminded me a lot of Bella in the sense that “every guy in school liked her” and thought she was “pretty” and she was too unaware of it! Also, Laurel made decisions or lived her high school life based on peer pressure. She did nothing unless she was dragged along for the ride, much like Bella Swan. Laurel was also a little like Laura jean because she was naïve and innocent. But Laura still had character whereas Laurels personality is nowhere to be seen. She does stupid stuff with her friends (like shoplifting wine or asking random strangers to buy it), cause she just wants to be loved really badly. But like no one pays attention to her cause she is not her sister !?!?!!? If this book aimed to relay an annoying teen with zero personality, then job well done!!!

The Romance: even though 75% of her letters are about Sky and how he is so cool, he hung the moon cause he’s the “Sky” (I am not sorry for that extremely bad pun), there are zero sparks between the two! He is a cool loner that can’t be bothered with girls, but Laurel is the one for him. Ugh! Teenagers, I guess.

Trauma: there is no grief over her sister’s death. Like I literally felt nothing. The epilogue of the book was the only piece of writing that stirred something in me. Like laurel is so passive about her grief to the point that she just never talks about it! Like why would I want to read a book about that? Also, some horrible things happen to Laurel on Mays watch, and that’s why she offs herself or whatever, but TBH I could not sympathize with her. Hell, even the secondary characters were dull.

Final Verdict: This book was pointless, pretentious, and manipulative to the point that it was trying too hard to get an emotion out of the reader. The inconsistent writing from 10-year-old fangirl to 20 something philosophy about life did it for me. Also annoying protagonist, I just can’t with a book then. That remains one of my biggest book peeves…

Recommend to no one ever! Good day! Hope you enjoyed this rant!

[rxinydayss]

low quality pic of a lame ass. 👌🏻

[haroldgross]

Greenland 2: Migration

This is a great outline of a story that might of been the sequel to the first disaster installment, but it's a lousy movie. It lurches from issue and challenge to issue and challenge with boring resolutions and little learned in between as the family leaves the bunker and tries for a new safe haven. And yet, despite the high-stakes setup, somehow it's all done without a dollop of any real emotion. Think The Martian but without anything clever fixing each beat and no heart to keep it going. The fault here really is the script and the directing. More than once we hear "we can't explain it but..." which is the death nell of a solid science fiction piece when heard even once. Several times? Yikes. The returning actors are all capable, but they've nothing to work with. There just isn't any there, there. Honestly, I'd skip this if I were you. It isn't unwatchable as it sparks ideas. It just isn't nearly as enjoyable as the first... or even without the comparison on its own. Where to watch

[haroldgross]

Greenland 2: Migration

[2 stars] This is a great outline of a story that might of been the sequel to the first disaster installment, but it’s a lousy movie. It lurches from issue and challenge to issue and challenge with boring resolutions and little learned in between as the family leaves the bunker and tries for a new safe haven. And yet, despite the high-stakes setup, somehow it’s all done without a dollop of any…

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[haroldgross]

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice

[2 stars] Comedy is a delicate, and often personal, thing. What will send one person into convulsions making it hard to breathe as tears stream down their face in abject delight will bore or even offend another. And with that in mind, write/director BenDavid Grabinski’s romp, however clever, is just not my taste… maybe it will be yours? For me, the real problem was style. The actors, with a solid…

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[haroldgross]

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice

Comedy is a delicate, and often personal, thing. What will send one person into convulsions making it hard to breathe as tears stream down their face in abject delight will bore or even offend another. And with that in mind, write/director BenDavid Grabinski's romp, however clever, is just not my taste... maybe it will be yours? For me, the real problem was style. The actors, with a solid core of Vince Vaughn (Nonnas), James Marsden (Paradise), and Eiza  González (Ash) along with Keith David (The Lowdown), just were trying too hard to be funny. It was a director thing more than an actor bit, often driven by how the action was guided rather than mugging, but it just felt entirely disingenuous. Despite it clearly being made by someone who could deliver a film, after about 25 minutes I turned it off and went in search of something more engaging. You'll have to decide for yourself, but I'd skip this one. But if you decide to try it, don't read what it's about if you can avoid it...enjoy the surprises that it does offer. Where to watch

[haroldgross]

Ash

Science fiction/horror films have a number of challenges for audiences. They're a double leap for audiences who need to learn a new world and learn a new danger. Most get around this by really just making one genre or the other with the trappings of the genre they didn't focus on, or by making it all into a comedy. In this case director Flying Lotus and writer Jonni Remmler tried to deliver a real science fiction that presents as horror until you understand the story. The result is, however, uneven with the sense of Event Horizon meets The Thing (both horror films with sf dressing) and their familiar tropes. But the energy of Ash is lacking despite some real effort by Eiza González (Fountain of Youth), Aaron Paul (Dual), and Iko Uwais (Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins). Part of the challenge is that they are all being held in control...something I usually appreciate in space-faring stories. Too often the characters are hysterical or otherwise ill-suited to space travel. These folks seemed to keep their heads (until they didn't). The root story is actually rather good, though I will admit the coda (during the credits) was somewhat cheap to my mind. But I didn't dislike the bones of the story, only the pacing which bordered on glacial at times. Despite that, I'd really like to see what Flying Lotus comes up with next. They clearly were able to convince some talent to get on board the project and they have interesting ideas. Now, the question is did they learn enough to make their next outing more solid? Where to watch