Posted in Movies on Jan 29th, 2006 No Comments »
This film was great, for the animation, plotline, and good feeling I had when leaving the theater. In the movie, four children are sent away from London to an eccentric, old professor’s house in the hopes of protecting them from bombers assaulting London during WWII. When the children discover a wardrobe that is really an […]
Posted in Movies on Jan 28th, 2006 No Comments »
Madagascar is an animated film from Dreamworks, the same company that did Shrek. The movie starts at the Central Park Zoo in New York City, where four animals, a lion, zebra, hippo, and giraffe, are on display for the public. The four are actually happy in captivity, until the penguins plant the idea of living […]
Posted in Movies on Jan 27th, 2006 No Comments »
When Caterina moves from the small village of Montaldo Di Castro to Rome, she is thrown into a world of new friends, politics, parties, and homemade tattoos. While only 12 or 13, the students constantly have political battles over communists and fascists and Caterina is forced to takes sides. Though Caterina explores new friendships, she […]
Posted in Movies on Jan 22nd, 2006 No Comments »
This Coen brothers film was about three convicts who escape jail and go on a search for a mysterious treasure in the deep South. The three find themselves constantly confronted by obstacles (relatives who turn them in to the police, a bankrobber, the KKK) yet, they all manage to escape and ultimately receive a pardon […]
Posted in Movies on Jan 20th, 2006 No Comments »
This film is about a young South African woman, Yesterday, who finds out she’s HIV positive. Even though she is devastated by the news, she works hard to support her daughter, while her husband is away in Johannesburg. While the movie never explicitly goes into how Yesterday gets the disease, it is assumed she got […]
Posted in Books on Jan 19th, 2006 No Comments »
Oscar Wilde
This was one of those captivating books that I couldn’t put down. Dorian Gray, a young, beautiful socialite in England, is good-natured, friendly, and easily attracts friends. One day, while sitting for his picture, his friend Basil Hallward introduces him to Lord Henry Wotton. Through Basil and Lord Henry, Dorian learns of his incredible […]
Posted in Books, Audiobooks on Jan 19th, 2006 No Comments »
Joan Didion
In late December 2003, Joan Didion’s daughter goes into septic shock from pneumonia, and, barely alive, is in intensive care. Five days later, as Didion and her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, are having dinner, he slumps over, dead from cardiac arrest. Thus begins the Year of Magical Thinking. As a writer, Didion records […]
Posted in Movies on Jan 15th, 2006 No Comments »
This was a light and easy film to watch. Two brothers, Jake and Will, travel from town to town scamming townsfolk by pretending to “exorcise” them from made-up demons. As the two become famous, they are called to help a small village where children really are mysteriously disappearing. The two must rely on courage and […]
Posted in Books on Jan 13th, 2006 No Comments »
Tracy Chevalier
While I have enjoyed Tracy Chevalier’s other books, I found this one disappointing. The plot and characters were dull and flat and I found that I wasn’t even interested in how the book ended. This historical fiction takes place in Paris in the 15th century. An artist, Nicolas des Innocents, is commissioned by Jean […]
Posted in Movies on Jan 7th, 2006 No Comments »
Code Unknown brings together several unrelated lives through one small event that takes place on a Paris street. When Jean throws a piece of trash at a homeless person, he starts a series of events into motion that have far reaching effects. Amadou sees Jean throw the bag at the beggar, starts a fight with […]