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Showing posts from November, 2014

"Driving Miss Daisy" (1989)

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Driving Miss Daisy (1989) Review/Film; 'Miss Daisy,' Chamber Piece From the Stage LEAD: ''That car,'' says Miss Daisy, ''misbehaved.'' ''That car,'' says Miss Daisy, ''misbehaved.'' ''Cars don't misbehave, Mama,'' says Boolie Werthan. ''They have to be caused to misbehave.'' That morning Miss Daisy (played by Jessica Tandy) had been inching out of her Atlanta driveway when the car suddenly zoomed back across the flower beds, up and over a small retaining wall, so as to teeter, with its rear end exposed, over her neighbor's yard. Miss Daisy had put her foot on the gas instead of the brake, though Boolie (Dan Aykroyd) has the good sense not to accuse his mother of the obvious. She's not around the bend yet. Miss Daisy is in her 70's and has all her faculties. She has, however, reached a point where cars tend to misbehave when she is behind the wheel. Ag

"The Kid with a Bike" / Le Gamin au velo (2011)

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The realistic movies of the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the former aged 60, the latter 58, have been winning prizes for 15 years now, including two Palmes d'Or at Cannes. They've established their own particular geographical area (largely working-class small towns in post-industrial, French-speaking Belgium) in which they explore a familiar series of themes and situations that inevitably arise from this milieu – broken families, alcoholism, unemployment, conflict with and exploitation of immigrants. Their elliptical, carefully observed films dig deeper and find new things to say each time they put their hands to the plough, and  The Kid With a Bike  (aka  Le Gamin au vélo ) sees them in good form, if somewhat short of their very best. The Kid With A Bike (Le Gamin Au Velo) Production year:  2011 Country:  Rest of the world Cert (UK):  12A Runtime:  87 mins Directors:  Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne Cast:  Cecile De France, Fabrizio Rongione, Je

"A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers" by Xiaolu Guo

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A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers  by Xiaolu Guo  I not Chinese. I British. I prefer read book with sentences not made look like broke. I prefer writer who not pretend not speak English when actually I think she speak English very goodly. If you think this is annoying in a review, you might want to think carefully before picking up A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. The heroine, Z, is a 20-year-old girl from small-town China who lands in London and finds: 'I am alien, like Hollywood film Alien, I live in another planet, with funny-looking and strange language. I standing in most longly and slowly queue with all aliens waiting for visa checking.' Heathrow airport is Heathlow airport. Fizzy water is filthy water. A rucksack is a rocksack. There are lots of points that Xiaolu Guo is trying to make with her use of language: about Chinese and British culture, about the impossibility of perfect communication between two people, about belonging and not

"A Spot of Bother" by Mark Haddon

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You're a BAFTA winner and the author of 15 children's books. Your last novel was awarded more than 15 literary awards, including the Whitbread Book of the Year prize. Where do you go from here? If you're Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, you write about a family of four. Living in Peterborough. It opens in a changing room in Allders, and it doesn't really get much more rock 'n' roll than that. But, by goodness, A Spot of Bother is nothing short of brilliant. George Hall is a retired 57-year-old whose wife Jean is having an affair. His son, Jamie, is gay, much to George and Jean's discomfort, and his daughter, Katie, is about to marry Ray, a man they most certainly do not approve of. Then George discovers a strange lump on his hip, which, he becomes convinced, means terminal cancer. So he works himself up without telling anyone of his fears until he decides to take drastic action. I can't say more about the p