Thursday Movie Picks #217: The New Kid at School

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is The New Kid at School

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I've been the new kid at school before, but I was very young and it's easier for younger kids to make friends. However, it must be terrifying to be an older kid being new to a school where everyone else have known each other for most of their lives like in the movies I've picked today.

Mean Girls (2004)
Having never gone to school before, new girl Cady gets a lesson on the social structure of a school. 

Twilight (2008)
The first third or so was all about Bella having to move to live with her dad, being the new kid at school in a small town and becoming some sort of a novelty at school since everyone else knows everything there is to know about each other already.

Morris from America (2016)
Morris from America is the new kid having just arrived in Germany. It's summer, so this isn't quite school, but Morris is enrolled in some classes at the youth center probably to prepare him for his eventual school life and he is struggling to fit in what with him speaking little German and being the only foreign black kid.
 

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Monthly Book Picks: The Month of August 2018

Hey, if you've ventured past my usual movies post and found this book blog post, welcome. It's a new series that I've started: Monthly Book Picks where I select my favourite reads of the past month on the first Monday.

This is one of the rare times that I actually remember to do a post when I'm supposed. Here are my picks for August.

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning (2011)
Formerly obese Neve who is still working towards a size 10 begins a practice relationship with her sister's colleague Max, so that she can be ready for a real relationship with her crush William, who is coming home after years of working abroad.
While I have read a few Sarra Manning's YA titles, this is the only adult title of hers that I've read and I am pleasantly surprised as I didn't like her YA titles that much, but I love this. I enjoyed her writing much more here and the story is just sweet, charming and funny. I definitely recommend it to readers who enjoy UK chick lit especially those by Sophie Kinsella and Mhairi McFarlane.

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (2018)
1950, Vermont. A girl from a boarding school for troubled girls goes missing. 2014, Vermont. Fiona, a journalist, is still haunted by the murder of the her sister 20 years ago whose body was found near the ruins of a girls' boarding school. When a shocking discovery is made during the restoration and renovation of the same school, a link is soon found between what is found now to the events of 1950 and 20 years ago. 
This book is like so hot this year, I keep seeing it on a lot of 2018 books-to-read lists and I can totally see why now because I really like it. It's part mystery thriller and part ghost story which made it such a good spooky atmospheric read. I especially love the ghost story part of this and how the ghost haunts is just so creepy and scary. I'd recommend it to anyone that like mystery thrillers with a side of paranormal.

Thursday Movie Picks #216: TMP Television Edition - College

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five titles and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is TMP Television Edition - College

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I've always wondered why there have been so few college series, I mean college is a great setting for a story right? Anyway here are the ones I like.

Felicity (1998-2002)

I don't think I managed to watch the last season, but I did enjoy the show a lot. And yes, I did not like Felicity's haircut in the second season.

Undeclared (2001-2002)
I don't remember much about this anymore, just that it was funny and short-lived.

Fresh Meat (2011 - 2016)

A UK series that I watched recently about six university students sharing a house and it was hilarious. I kinda wish the series didn't end and simply continued with a set of new students and the one original main character that did not graduate like the rest.

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Thursday Movie Picks #215: A Discovery / Exploration

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is A Discovery / Exploration

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I'm going totally fictional and it's with discoveries.

Primer (2004)
Friends tinkering about in their garage ultimate discovers they have created a time machine. It's one of those movies that you've really got to pay attention to, which tend to be the case with time travel movies, this one especially so with things getting progressively crazier and confusing. It's a movie I'd love to rewatch.

Proof (2005)
Proof follows the daughter of a recently deceased brilliant but mentally ill mathematician who struggles with the possibility that she may have inherited both his genius and his illness when one of her father's ex students discovers a ground breaking mathematics theory in his office. One of my favourites.

Chronicle (2012)
Three high school boys gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery in an underground cave. It's all fun and games in the beginning until one of them starts abusing his powers. I enjoyed this a lot. There had been talk of a sequel which I was looking forward too, unfortunately it did seem to pan out. 
 

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Thursday Movie Picks #214: Non-English Language Movies

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Non-English Language Movies

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Like the TV Edition edition one, I will make this theme a permanent fixture, so you'll see it again next year if we are still doing this thing. Here are my picks from some of my recent watches:

The Invisible Guest (2016)

A wealthy businessman, Adrian, is arrested when he is found in a hotel room with his dead lover. While his own lawyer is away on a lead for his case, Adrian is recommended to meet with another veteran lawyer who can help build a defense for trial and so he begins to tell her all that had happened that led to his arrest. I really enjoyed this, it's a nice mystery thriller with a couple of twist and turns that makes you question if you can believe the story you are being told.

Orbiter 9 (2017)

A young woman who has spent her entire life on a spaceship heading towards a distant colony planet has her world upended when an engineer boards her ship for repairs. I like it. It's a space sci-fi movie that isn't too sci-fi-ish. It's a little like Moon with the whole cost of science and putting people through strenuous ordeals for it, so if you like that, you might like this. 

I Am Not an Easy Man (2018)

After an accident, a shameless chauvinist wakes up to a world where gender roles are reversed and women dominate in every aspect of society. Despite the premise, this is quite a light comedy, still some of the details in it are just so well observed. I think the people who wrote and made this must have had a lot of fun coming up with how the world would look like with the roles reversed.
 

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Thursday Movie Picks #213: A Siege

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is A Siege

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When I think of a siege what comes to mind is some ancient or medieval city barricading themselves in their walled city against outside forces and a few movies do come to mind. But I thought let's go for something more modern. They turn out to be all horror movies and here are my favourites:

Dog Soldiers (2002)

A squad of British soldiers in the Scotland wilderness for a military exercise are hunted by a pack of werewolves. They barricade themselves in an empty country house and with the werewolves circling it, they prepare for battle. 

Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Survivors of a zombie apocalypse hole up in a shopping mall as hordes of zombies surround them.  

 
30 Days of Night (2007) 

A coven of vampires descends on a small Alaskan town that is enveloped in darkness for the month. The surviving humans hole up in various buildings to wait till daylight comes. 

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Monthly Book Picks: The Month of June and July 2018

Hey, if you've ventured past my usual movies post and found this book blog post, welcome. It's a new series that I've started: Monthly Book Picks where I select my favourite reads of the past month on the first Monday.

I'm so terrible at this; because it is a once-a-month thing, last month I forgot to do a post. So this month, it will again be for two months: June and July.

June 2018

“I am shocking. What was done to me was shocking. I am outside the boundaries forever, no longer decent.”

All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry (2013)
The Gist: Four years ago, Judith disappeared from her town. Two years ago, she finally returns with her tongue cut out. While Judith herself is unable to speak about what happened to her, she is assumed to be a fallen woman thus now an outcast ignored by family and friends. Only when something threatens her town does the past slowly reveals itself. Let's start off with the cover; I hate it. The cover makes it seem like it is some grungy high school contemporary story. It is not. This is actually historical fiction set in unnamed period which is likely during the time of the Puritans. The rest of it I actually love (ok maybe not so much the ending, just because it feels as if everything wraps up a little too quickly in the last 10% and a little too nicely, but maybe that's just me being a little too nitpicky). I especially love the second person narration; Judith telling us her story through silently speaking to her childhood crush (now a man, out of reach for her now due to her outcast status and him being engaged to another) in her thoughts. It's filled with such longing and wanting to be seen and not assumed the worst that is so excruciatingly heartbreaking which just further fittingly illustrates her isolation and loneliness.

“Learn to spot irrelevant people. Don't expect someone who doesn't know who they are to care who you are.”   

Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane (2015)
The Gist: When Edie is found kissing the groom at a colleague's wedding, all the blame falls on her, and she is quickly shamed online and at work. In order to give the incident some time to cool off, Edie's boss sends her away to ghostwrite an autobiography of a hot new actor currently filming in her hometown. I used be such a book snob (I still am :), but in other ways) and turn up my nose on chick lit, but now I greatly enjoy them and I love love this one. The best chick lits, isn't all about the romance. It's usually about overcoming something usually with the help of family and friends, finding romance along the way and all with a lot of humor mixed in it...and Who's That Girl? is I think one of the best I've read thus far.


July 2018

“It's a special art, asking people to do things, yet making it seem as if you never asked at all.”   

Sunburn by Laura Lippman (2018)
The Gist: Two strangers, Polly and Adam, meet at a local tavern. Both are supposedly just passing through in the summer, yet they end up staying, starting an affair. But neither of them is being truthful about who they really are and when someone dies, the truth slowly begins to surface. I really enjoyed this. The book had like little hints of Gone Girl in the beginning with Polly being such a strong character who just dominates the story. With her true self/back story revealed ever so slowly, Polly always just seemed she could be so much more dangerous than she let on, which made Sunburn such a page turner for me.