Author Recommendations Circle Jerk

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I borrowed a John Lescroart book from the library only to find that it was crap. According to the cover, he is a New York Times Bestselling Author. On the back were five glowing blurbs for John Lescroart from fellow bestselling authors. It’s safe to assume that not only is John Lescroart a crap writer, but so are C.J. Box, Karin Slaughter, Catherine Coulter, Gayle Lynds, and Robert Dugoni … all crap writers supporting one another in one big circle jerk.

Movies Watched -- Parallel Mothers (2021)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In Spanish. 123 minute running time so at least 23 minutes too long … pretty mild and mainstream for an Almodovar movie … Penelope Cruz still looks good for an old lady … beautiful people, beautifully dressed, beautiful apartments, no money problems … all this was nice, but it was kind of boring too. Fascist mass grave angle sort of interesting, but felt tacked on. Massive product placements from both Apple and Suzuki Motors. You can give it a miss.

She’s going to be dark like you.

Movies Watched -- Synonyms (2019)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In French. 123 minute running time so at least 30 minutes too long. This was a movie about a young Israeli man named Yoav and his big, thick cock. His big, thick cock is prominently featured throughout the movie because this was a French movie. Yoav is in Paris and he has abandoned Israel and swears never to go back. This was a weird movie and may have had some humor in the vein of Lanthimos, but I didn’t get it. I can’t recommend this and have no idea how it ended up in my queue, maybe Farr is to blame? No, he isn’t.

Jonathan Romney correctly writes: “"Synonyms can’t be faulted on individuality or indeed rage, but many viewers are likely to find it abrasive, grating, infuriating and other synonyms besides.”

Big, thick cock briefly under wraps (yes, a pun)

Movies Watched -- The Breaking Point (1950)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

97 minute running time … this was good, I enjoyed it … Manó Kertész Kaminer (Michael Curtiz) was a great director … I’m not a big fan of Jacob Garfinkle (John Garfield), but the other actors were all good, and the writing was really good (based on a Hemingway story) … interesting that this movie was “disappeared” after Garfield was blacklisted, and a real shame since it’s probably Curtiz’s best movie (much better than the overrated Casablanca). Thanks to John Farr for the reco. This is a green-go.

Give a little … roll with it … relax!

Movies Watched -- Rosetta (1999)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In French. 95 minute running time. This won the Palm d’Or, but there ain’t that many French-language movies every year so there are some real clinkers that have won the title… this was a depressing tale about a teenage girl who has an alkie mother and no father … they live in a trailer park … the girl suffers from terrible menstrual cramps and is always running from one place to the next … she’s desperate to find a job though it doesn’t really ring true given the European welfare state … she’s pretty, she has good bones as does her alkie mom (again this doesn’t really ring true) … friendship and betrayal touched on. I wasn’t thrilled with this. SPOILERS: I did appreciate the humor of the botched suicide attempt.

You have a normal life. I have a normal life.

Movies Watched -- Brooklyn Castle (2012)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

92 minute running time .. sweet documentary about the chess team at a public middle school in Brooklyn (I.S. 318) … the kids are mostly black and Hispanic and they have won every middle school competition at the national level for a long time … two white teachers, John Galvin and Elizabeth Vikary, lead the chess club … Vikary is interesting for sure, she seems to be somewhere on the autism spectrum (FIDE std 2149) … they try to dramatize things with budget cuts threatening the program post-GFC (not able to fly 57 kids around the country twice a year, plus the train trip to Saratoga) … I enjoyed it.

The answers really aren’t clear to anybody