Book Review - Shiver by Allie Reynolds

Title: Shiver
Series: -
Author: Allie reynolds
 
Description: When Milla is invited to a reunion in the French Alps resort that saw the peak of her snowboarding career, she drops everything to go. While she would rather forget the events of that winter, the invitation comes from Curtis, the one person she can’t seem to let go.
 
The five friends haven’t seen each other for ten years, since the disappearance of the beautiful and enigmatic Saskia. But when an icebreaker game turns menacing, they realize they don’t know who has really gathered them there and how far they will go to find the truth.
 
Review: On a glacier in a beautiful ski resort in the French Alps, an old group of friends meet. They last saw each other ten years ago and broke up at the time after Saskia went missing. After all these years, Saskia is still missing.
 
When the group of friends arrives at the resort, they soon realize that something is not right. Someone has lured them up there and is trying to rekindle the missing persons case and the events of the time. Where has Saskia gone? And who can be trusted?
 
The story is written from the perspective of Milla. Milla is one of the friends in the group at the time. She was the least experiences snowboarder and new to the group. Since the winter in which Saskia disappeared, she has not touched a snowboard. She lives with a sense of guilt, as she feels is to blame for Saskia’s disappearance. This guilt and her personal struggle in who she can and cannot trust from the group of friends is clearly woven into the thoughts and dialogues written by the author.
 
Author Allie Reynolds was a snowboarded herself, which is an important subject in this novel. The friends know each other through this sport and bond over that. They are driven, helping each other, but also challenging each other, taking considerable risks. It’s clear that Reynolds is familiar with this sport, because it’s described in extreme technical detail. It wouldn’t have mind if that was toned down a bit, I couldn’t really relate to this aspect of the story, since it’s not something I’m interested in.
 
The story switched between the present and the past (going back 10 years). What Reynolds does really well, is ending each chapter on a cliff hanger, which makes you want to continue reading. And even though the snowboarding aspect doesn’t interest me at all, the location and setting is excellent for a thriller like this. The characters hace no connection to the outside world and this provides a lot of psychological tension I the book. At least in the chapters set in the present. The parts set in the past provide is with more information about each character and what happened ten years ago. The story would have been more powerful and exciting if Reynold had kept the book 100 pages shorter. At the end, it drags a bit.
 
Until the end of the story, it remains suspenseful though, as to who challenged the group and what exactly happened to Saskia. I was a little bit disappointed in the twists, one of them was fairly obvious in my opinion.
 
The book is strong because of its setting, the well-fleshed out characters (which are all unlikeable, but I don’t mind that) and the cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. Unfortunately the story didn’t surprise me as much as I hoped. Enjoyable read, but pretty average.
 
Rating: 3/ 5

Movie Review - Boiling Point

Director: Philip Barantini
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 92 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Alice Feetham, Ray Panthaki, Hannah Walters, Malachi Kirby, Izuka Hoyle, Taz Skylar, Lauryn Ajufo, Jason Flemyng, Lourdes Faberes, Áine Rose Daly
 
Description: Enter the relentless pressure of a restaurant kitchen as a head chef (Stephen Graham) wrangles his team on the busiest day of the year.

Review: The pressure on the chefs and waiters is well displayed in a London restaurant as chef Andy Jones must do his utmost to keep things together. A behind-the-scenes look at a busy London restaurant, it sounds like a documentary, but it isn’t. In one fluid take, the chaotic Friday night at a restaurant is depicted. Several perspectives are followed, but the anchor, our main character is chef Andy Jones. The film begins as he is on his way to the restaurant to begin his shift. “Boiling Point” manages to portray the perspectives of all the restaurant employees well. As a viewer, you sympathize with the service staff who have to deal with demanding, annoying and sometimes racist costumers, and you feel a surge of stress when seeing the struggles in the kitchen. All the people both staff and customers, feel extremely real. By the end of the film, you feel like you got to know some of these people.

Director and writer Philip Barantini has a background as an actor, restaurant worker and chef. The experience he brings with him is extremely valuable: this includes knowledge not only about food preparation, but also about the hierarchy and atmosphere in a kitchen and cooperation with the service staff. To familiarize the actors with this, Barantini had the cast watch along at various restaurants so they could properly convey the authenticity of their roles.

“Boiling Point” is a unique film and deserves all the praise it’s been getting. The actors are all fantastic and deliver realistic performances. The camera work is tremendously clever and makes the whole thing a special viewing experience. The fact that this film was done in one take just amazes me. “Boiling Point” is definitely one of the best films of 2022.

Rating: 5/ 5

Book Review - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Title: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Series: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder # 1
Author: Holly Jackson
 
Description: The case is closed. Fiver years ago, schoolgirl Andie bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.
But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t sure. When she chooses the case as a topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?
 
Review: Everyone in Little Kilton knows the story: the beautiful and popular graduate student Andie bell was murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh, after which he committed suicide.
 
Even five years later, Pippa Fitz-Amobi still sees the impact the case has on the town. Pip has always wondered exactly what happened. When she chooses the case as her topic for her final school project, secrets soon surface that someone would have preferred to keep hidden. It seems like that person is working against Pip and she starts to believe more and more that she was right about the fact that Sal didn’t kill Andie.
 
The book starts out like most: a introduction to the characters, the situation is outlined, you learn about the case of Andie Bell and Sal Singh. It’s a nice build-up. The film alternates in ways to get you invested in the story and investigation. Besides the normal storyline, we get to see journal entries for Pip’s log, where she writes down her thoughts on the matter, what she has found out, who she suspects to know more about the case. There are also transcripts of interviews she has with people about Andie and Sal. We also gets some text messages, e-mails and copies of documents. I really loved this format, it kept the story even more interesting and shed a light on the case in many different ways. And it was enjoyable to be a part of Pip’s thoughts.
 
The book has well-developed characters. They all feel very real and believable. The story itself is suspenseful and has many layers of mystery. The many plot twists make for an even better reading experience. And overall “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” is a very creative mystery thriller.  It’s the first in a series (and a debut novel as well, which is amazing) and I most definitely will continue in this series.
 
Rating: 5/ 5

00s Movie Review - Runaway Jury

Director: Gary Fleder
Genre: Crime/ Thriller/ Drama
Runtime: 127 minutes
Year: 2003
Starring: John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Bruce Davison, Bruce McGill, Jeremy Piven, Cliff Curtis, Leland Orser, Jennifer beals, Bill Nunn, Luis Guzman, Nora Dunn, Dylan McDermott

Description: A juror on the inside (John Cusack) and a woman on the outside (Rachel Weisz) manipulate a court trial involving a major gun manufacturer.

Review: Rankin Fitch is a ruthless jury consultant who must select a jury for a revolutionary trial to ensure its verdict. He fears nothing or no one. One the trial begins, it turns out that the selection of one juror can cause problems. He finds himself in a situation that shows he doesn’t know his opponent as well as he initially thought after all.

The films starts with a gruesome shooting in an office that kills many people. We are then place two years later when it is revealed that the shooting caused a trial to now take place that should set a precedent. The wife of one of the men killed is suing the gun manufacturer because it caused guns to be easy to get.

On one side us the conscientious lawyer Wendell Rohr. On the other, the man who is one the side of the gun manufacturer and who actually ges paid for it if the trial is won: Rankin Fitch. His job is to make sure who gets on the jury, because justice in the USA is still left to juries, so it is important to know the people on the jury well. Fitch’s team takes this very seriously and also very far.

Both parties are given a list of names and files of all the people who were called for jury duty, for them to decide which of them will actually be on that jury. Fitch thinks that they got this one, but someone within the jury is there with a purpose.

It is based on a John Grisham novel, an author known for his court dramas. But “Runaway Jury” is one of my favorites and it’s not your standard court drama either. We get to experience how incredibly flawed the jury system is. This movie is about manipulation, corruption, extortion and so on. And even though this movie came out in the early 2000s, this film is still so topical.

“Runaway Jury” is a very strong crime thriller with some surprising twists throughout and a fantastic cast. A movie that is underrated if you ask me.

Rating: 4/ 5

Movie Review - Slumberland

Director: Francis Lawrence
Genre: Family/ Adventure
Runtime: 117 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Marlow Barkley, Jason Momoa, Chris O’Dowd, Kyle Chandler, Weruche Opia, India de Beaufort
 
Description: A young girl (Marlow Barkley) discovers a secret map to the dreamworld Slumberland, and with the help of an eccentric outlaw (Jason Momoa), she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father (Kyle Chandler) again.
 
Review: In “Slumberland”, we follow hermit daughter Nemo, who after her father’s sudden death is sent to her uncle Philip in the city where she discovers that her father’s robber stories were not made up. Together with her father’s robber buddy Flip, Nemo travels through Slumberland to the Sea of Nightmares in search of a magical pearl.

Slumberland is the land you enter when you fall asleep and consists of a dream made especially for you. However, Nemo’s father and Flip have stolen a map that gives them access to not only their own dreams, but also the dreams of others. Agent Green has been chasing Flip for years because of the stolen map, and Nemo herself is found to have a deadly nightmare hunting her. These factors are gradually introduced in the first strange dreams in which Flip and Nemo find themselves.

Despite the excessive use of CGI in the dream world, the film remains entertaining because of the excellent characters. Each character has an entirely unique personality that, with the exception of Flip, are all highly entertaining. For example, Nemo is a wonderfully smart eleven-year-old and Philip is a delightfully awkward doorknob salesman. Flip is the character I liked the least, because although he is the good guy and played with charm by Jason Momoa, his physical humor is not nearly as entertaining as the film seems to think. Just too much time, especially in the first hour, is spent on Flip’s uninteresting rambling though the dream world.

Nemo and her little friend Pig are definitely the stars of the film, with Philip becoming a character you come to understand more once you get to know him better. And I love what they did with his character. He is a more important character then you might think.

“Slumberland” is a family fantasy film with extra layers, that can be enjoyed with the entire family.

Rating: 3, 5/ 5

Movie Review - Nope

Director: Jordan Peele
Genre: Horror/ Science Fiction/ Mystery
Runtime: 130 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Michael Wincott, Steven Yeun, Wrenn Schmidt, Brandon Perea, Keith David
 
    
Description: The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.

Review: Director Jordan Peele manages to give his film projects something special. All of them are pleasant genre films that do not rely on scare effects or other cheap effects, but are completely based on atmosphere, mutual tension and subcutaneous fear. At the same time, the director constantly holds up a mirror to us by addressing themes such as racism and the state of American society, without beating us over the head with them. Peele’s third film is not thematically a repeat of “Get Out” and “Us”.

Everyone knows the first well-known footage of a black man on a galloping horse from 1878. Its creator became world famous, but no one knows the name of the rider even though it was really the first real movie star. In “Nope”, his (fictional) descendants are a brother and sister who manage a horse range. Their noble animals are used for movies and commercials, but when OJ shows up with his horse for the filming of a commercial, he is hardly taken seriously and is even belittled.

Six months earlier, the two lost their father during an unexplained shower of objects. Their father was killed by a coin that pierced his eye, while a horse was pierced by a falling key. When OJ witnesses a strange presence in the sky one afternoon, it takes little effort on his part to convince his sister Emerald. They decide to capture the phenomenon on camera, but just at that moment, let every electrical appliance fail. With the help of a tech salesman, they still try to get a handle on the matter.

When OJ is chased one evening, gets out of his car and then looks up at the sky, his brief response is a confident ‘nope’, after which he safely gets back into his vehicle. With this, Peele seems to want to say that you shouldn’t look for something behind everything, which is in star contrast wo the messages he wanted to convey with his other two movies.

One of OJ’s potential customers is a former child star who once had an extremely traumatic experience with a murderous and vengeful chimpanzee. Why exactly Peele brings up this storyline remains somewhat unclear, but he seems to want to convey that man is powerless in the face of nature. This ties in with the manhunt that OJ and Emerals make for the unknown presence above their ranch. And balloons are somewhat of a factor as well, but I will not elaborate on that, for spoilers sake.

Jordan Peele proofs with “Nope” that he doesn’t only have a great talent for content, but also as a true visionary. The visuals are impressive. With its leisurely build-up and slow pace, “Nope” may not fully appeal to seasoned horror fans, but it’s certainly a skillfully crafted unconventional blend of genres that colors delightfully outside the lines. I truly loved “Nope” and considering Jordan Peele as one of the best modern horror directors.

Rating: 4,5/ 5

10s Movie Review - No

Director: Pablo Larraín
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 118 minutes
Year: 2012
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Nestor Cantillana, Antonia Zegers

Description: An advertising executive (Gael Garcia Bernal) comes up with a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile’s 1988 referendum.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 48: A MOVIE SET BU SOUTH-AMERICA
 
Review: René Saveedra is doing well: his career is running smoothly and he makes commercials for anyone who offers enough money. He is a man who deep inside still has ideals but manages to hide them away within his professional life. We meet him in 1988 on the eve of a referendum that will decide the country’s future. The United Nations has forced the dictator Pinochet’s regime to call this referendum: with a simple yes or no. Chileans must decide whether or not to keep the man who has been the country’s undisputed leader since 1973.

René is asked to collaborate in the no campaign. The campaigns gets to fill 15 minutes each day leading yp to the referendum with a message against Pinochet’s regime. René knows that taking this job may mean losing his well-to-do position in society but lets his ideals overcome him; he accepts the challenge. He will have to endure much, the main obstacles being the intimidation of the Pinochet regime and the divisions within the members of the No campaign: a motley crew of communists, democrats and anarchists.

Director Pablo Larraín has tried to capture the zeitgeist of the 1980s with every detail of the film. Every little detail has been thought of: fro the clothes and the way the characters speak to the film material used. Parts of the film were filmed with the U-Matic video format. U-Matic was the name of a video cassette that recorded in analog. The footage shows little detail bit is functional. This gives the film an authentic feel and resembles a documentary shot at the time of the No campaign. Gael Garcia Bernal, who plays René, is fantastic in the film. He is an underrated actor.

“No” is a bit slow at times, which is the only downside to the film. This movie is a great study of a period in history not known to many people.

Rating: 4/ 5