Short Reviews 24Q2
Second Quarter 2024
Being a list of brief notes on other culture consumed over the this quarter of the year that I either abandoned or don’t feel needs a longer discussion.
Palmer - Apple TV. No film can truly move you if you don't care about the characters.- and this films succeeds because we do care. There are no black or white heroes and villains here, just plain folk trying to do their best and not necessarily making good life choices around kids and jobs. Good acting and on intersting and moving story.
Ferrari - Sky Cinema. An intriguing bio-pic of Enzo Ferrari. It was well acted by all concerned and the Italian sunshine looked lovely, although the mumbled Italian accents were less welcome and hard to understand at times. Equally baffling were the (over-long) racing scenes, never quite sure who was who and where they all were. Wacky Races did this better... However I felt the movie was marred by the completely unnecessary and horribly graphic scenes of the accident site. The accident itself was shocking enough without needing lingering shots of body parts. I guess the film makers wanted to understand the shock and peril that Enzo was in as the people looked for answers but the whole court case and its peril just went away with a line or two of dialogue. Not needed.
The Great Courses: The Life and Works of Jane Austen - Audible. Devoney Looser. Interesting and lively lecture series by a great presenter with a cool name. I would recommend this and intend to listen to it myself again.
One Summer in Paris - Sarah Morgan. Comfort reading and better for it! Easy, fast moving stores, although the characters seem to have swapped age appropriate names and Grace has a supernatural ability to locate Audrey based on the smallest of clues-but at least it keeps the plot moving along. A book to cuddle up at any time of the year.
Turtles All the Way Down - Sky Cinema. A sweet film about a girl with OCD and her best friend. Well acted, everyone in nice clothes and American high school kids that actually seemed to be nice to each other! The billionaires son role in the story line was a bit improbable but get over that and there's quite a lot to like. It tells the OCD story well and has realistic, rounded characters with flaws and strengths.
The Great Courses: The History of the Bible: The Making of New Testament Canon - Bart D. Erhman. Very focussed on the title topic but interesting and engaging delivery. I learned a lot about the timline of events, the books and the creation of accepted canon. A good listen
The Modern Scholar: From Jesus to Christianity - A history of the Early Church - Thomas F. Madden. This was potentially really interesting but I've had to listen to the whole thing at least twice as the delivery was so flat that I kept drifting off. Good material but poor presentation.
British Rail - Christian Wolmar. An easy read about an interesting subject. clearly the author has a well known agenda here but doesn't let it intrude too much on a fairly straight forward history-Good but not great.
Rebus - ITV+. Is there ever a detective without a dark past and a major hang up? This was pretty grim around really, well written and acted and all that but you feel a bit grubby from watching and its not exactly an uplifting experience so not for me.