Serenity ⁉ Film Review

 

Written by Thelonia


Serenity is one of the wildest, most bafflingly earnest movies I’ve ever seen, something which is whole heartedly helped by the fact that I had literally no idea this movie existed until about four days ago, when I heard a couple of critics talk about how fucking weird it is. And, my friends, I can now indeed confirm, it’s weird as hell.


No Improvement Podcast 👯 Episode 86




No Improvement is a sort-of-funny talk show that explores the vast, untapped potential of TV shows, books, films, and more. Quill & Slate blog runners Thelonia and Tia review—and then reimagine—the stories you know and love until you can barely recognize them anymore. Hopefully in a good way. And if not, well, we hope you are still entertained.

In the 86th episode of No Improvement, we watch, discuss, and review The Autopsy of Jane Doe, the 2016 mystery/horror/thriller that we compared to a similar film we watched previously, The Possession of Hannah Grace. Let's talk similarities and differences!

In two weeks, we will be watching, talking about, and reviewing the drama/mystery/horror film Escape Room, which is currently in theaters and was released January 4, 2019.

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An Anonymous Girl 🙅 Book Review

  

Written by Thelonia


A woman, a doctor, and her husband all come together in a tangled mess of a situation in Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkenan's new domestic thriller, An Anonymous Girl. The set up is intruiging, with contested loyalties, and family secrets, and messy relationships, but ultimately, the payoff just isn't there. For a thriller, a genre whose premise sort of relies on suspense, An Anonymous Girl really shows its cards very early on, and there aren't any new developments that would justify continuing to read past about the two thirds mark.

All in Good Storytime 📚 Episode 54


All in Good Storytime is an interactive, bookish, book club podcast hosted by Alanna, Katya, and Tia. To join the club, make sure you're following us on Twitter to get updates on what book we're reading and to what chapter we are reading through (or what anime we're watching and what episode we are watching through), and listen to the podcast here or on iTunes (see link below) to join in on the discussion. And don't forget to read along!

In the 54th episode of All in Good Storytime, we discuss chapter 12 through the end of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. In these chapters, we see Camille attend a party and take drugs with her 13-year-old sister, watch as Camille quickly develops a sexual relationship with the 18-year-old John Keane, and finally learn the identity of the killer(s) of all crimes implicated in the story.

We delve into the power dynamic at play in the Preaker household and in Amma's world at large that pushed her to murder Natalie and Ann when Camille's response to the same toxic environment was to only hurt herself. We discuss how the women in the town are precocious and aggressively mature as children and then refuse to relinquish their youth and high school identities as adults.

We discuss how morally reprehensible it was for Richard to discover that Adora had murdered Marian and then keep it a secret from Camille. We revisit the issue of generational trauma and consider whether or not Adora herself had been a victim of factitious disorder imposed on another as a child. We end by questioning how much of a role the town had in allowing these murders to continue.

In two weeks, we'll talk about chapters 1 through 7 of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.

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All in Good Storytime 📚 Episode 53


All in Good Storytime is an interactive, bookish, book club podcast hosted by Alanna, Katya, and Tia. To join the club, make sure you're following us on Twitter to get updates on what book we're reading and to what chapter we are reading through (or what anime we're watching and what episode we are watching through), and listen to the podcast here or on iTunes (see link below) to join in on the discussion. And don't forget to read along!

In the 53rd episode of All in Good Storytime, we discuss chapters 6 through 11 of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. In these chapters, we learn that our toothless victims had a tendency towards biting the townsfolk. We see a romantic relationship bloom between Camille and detective Richard just as Camille's relationship with her mother is hitting rock bottom. We are given a tangible link between Adora and the two dead girls when we learn she was their tutor. Finally, we learn that being a boy and crying over your dead sister makes you suspect #1 in Wind Gap.

We discuss Camille's doomed romance with Dick, her desire for agency, and her complicated views on sexuality as shaped by her childhood traumas. We express disgust towards Amma as she extracts joy while watching a shackled sow forced to nurse at the pig farm. We continue to question the motivation behind Camille's self-harm and challenge whether or not Marian's death is also the driving force behind Amma's recklessness. We address Amma's interesting form of self-awareness where she is able to acknowledge that she is inconsistently kind but she is not able to do anything to change her behavior.

We draw a connection between Adora biting a random child that reminded her of an apple to Mia's desire to eat her own apple baby in "Little Fires Everywhere." We end by concluding that Adora is most certainly the murderer and is driven by her need to extract revenge on the headstrong girls who bit her as well as her desire to avoid actually killing off Amma by going after carefully selected surrogates.

In two weeks, we'll talk about chapter 12 through the end of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.

Subscribe on iTunes!

No Improvement Podcast 👯 Episode 85



No Improvement is a sort-of-funny talk show that explores the vast, untapped potential of TV shows, books, films, and more. Quill & Slate blog runners Thelonia and Tia review—and then reimagine—the stories you know and love until you can barely recognize them anymore. Hopefully in a good way. And if not, well, we hope you are still entertained.

In the 85th episode of No Improvement, we watch, discuss, and review Bird Box, the 2018 Netflix apocalyptic drama/thriller/horror, based on the book of the same name.

In two weeks, we will be watching, talking about, and reviewing The Autopsy of Jane Doe, the 2016 mystery/horror/thriller that we compared to a similar film we watched previously, The Possession of Hannah Grace. Let's talk similarities and differences!

Subscribe on iTunes!

All in Good Storytime 📚 Episode 52

All in Good Storytime is an interactive, bookish, book club podcast hosted by Alanna, Katya, and Tia. To join the club, make sure you're following us on Twitter to get updates on what book we're reading and to what chapter we are reading through (or what anime we're watching and what episode we are watching through), and listen to the podcast here or on iTunes (see link below) to join in on the discussion. And don't forget to read along!

In the 52nd episode of All in Good Storytime, we discuss chapters 1 through 5 of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. In these chapters, we are introduced to Camille Preaker, a struggling reporter from Chicago with a history of cutting and alcohol abuse. She returns to her small hometown in Missouri where her mom, stepdad, and half-sister still reside in order to cover the murder of a young girl and the kidnapping of another. We also learn about Camille's tumultuous childhood and her deceased younger sister Marian.

We discuss how trustworthy of a narrator Camille is and question how reliable her descriptions of other characters are, especially when it comes to her half-sister Amma. We dissect Camille and Adora's strained relationship and consider to what extent Adora may be manipulating Camille regarding Marian's death. We examine the nature of Camille's cutting words into her skin and wonder if the book hints at it's etiology in her childhood trauma.

We surmise that the Wind Gap murderer is either building a house with the teeth they are collecting from their victims or saving them to throw as weapons at their enemies. We end by predicting that the murders have been carried out by Amma, Adora, Amma, and Adora together, Camille, Marian who isn't really dead, Curry who was inexplicably aware of these crimes early on and may also be Camille's biological father, or Richard who just wanted a fun case to solve.

In two weeks, we'll talk about chapters 6 through 11 of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.

Subscribe on iTunes!