Thursday, March 9, 2023

Thursday Movie Picks #449: Companion Reads



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 Companion Reads (Pair a book to a movie that makes a good companion read because they feature similar themes/subject - not necessarily the book it was based on)

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This is coming in late. I'm picking some of the movies I’ve enjoyed and paired them with some of books I like that I think make great companion reads.

Strangers on a Train (1951) and The Kind Worth Killing (2015)
Strangers on a Train itself is adapted from a Patricia Highsmith novel, but if you want something contemporary, a little similar but different, try The Kind Worth Killing, which according to its own blurb is a reimagining of Strangers on a Train. The initial premise is certainly very similar, two strangers meet in an airport, one of them expresses a desire to kill their cheating spouse and the other willing to do it. That’s where the similarity ends as The Kind Worth Killing gets a whole lot more twisty, it even kills one of its major character quickly and on the whole is such a wicked fun read. This has a sequel, The Kind Worth Saving, which was released just the past week.

Practical Magic (1998) and Garden Spells (2007)
Practical Magic the movie is a little different being more supernatural and magical as compared to the book which is more of a family drama of a gifted family and Garden Spells is more like the Practical Magic book. But the basic premise is very similar, a family with two sisters with some magical skills, with one sister returning to the family home after a long time away. I really enjoyed Garden Spells so if you’ve enjoyed Practical Magic, movie or book, it’s likely you’ll enjoy it too.

Promising Young Woman (2020) and Sadie (2018)
In Promising Young Woman Cassandra’s best friend died when she was in medical school and for the years after that Cassandra has been out on a reckless and suicidal quest for justice and revenge. In Sadie, Sadie’s sister was recently killed and she herself had recently disappeared out on a desperate, reckless and suicidal quest for justice and revenge. Sadie is a dual narrator novel; the other (the first is Sadie) narrator is a radio host who has been tasked to start a true crime podcast. When Sadie’s disappearance gets his attention, the missing Sadie becomes the focus of the podcast. If you like Promising Young Woman I highly recommend Sadie as it is quite similar in its basic premise and is soo good. However, in all its bleakness Promising Young Woman still had moments where it was darkly funny…Sadie on the other hand is relentlessly bleak and heartbreaking.

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Thursday, February 23, 2023

Thursday Movie Picks #448: Romance Tropes / TMP Television Edition - Friends To Lovers


Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your 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 Romance Tropes / TMP Television Edition - Friends To Lovers

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Hey it's February and it's time for the Romance Tropes Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month. 
 

February 2 - Romance Tropes Edition: Travel Romance
February 9 - Romance Tropes Edition: Cinderella Plot (A heroine being swept off her feet by a wealthy guy)
February 16 - Romance Tropes Edition: Forced Proximity (characters are stuck together perhaps sheltering from a storm together, or are on a long haul flight, or stuck in a lift…etc)
February 23 - Romance Tropes / TMP Television Edition: Friends To Lovers

This theme turned out to be quite tricky. I’m picking three British series I like.


Misfits (2009 -2013)   
This is a gem. A favourite. The gist: 5 juvenile delinquents (about late teens early 20-ish youths?) are stuck doing community service at their community center when they get hit by lightning during a freak storm and get some special abilities. They all sort of become friends as they each learn how to use their new powers. Two of them eventually become more than friends, but in the new world of special abilities, things get difficult for them.
 
Fresh Meat (2011 - 2016)
This is a funny comedy about six university students sharing a house, two of them eventually form a romantic relationship, though a difficult on and off type. The series ended in 2016, but I thought it was the kind of series that could have continued on with a fresh batch of students living in the house.

Crashing (2016)
The series follows a group of mostly 20 and 30 somethings who are friends/lovers/rivals living in a disused hospital as property guardians. Two of them are childhood best friends who have recently reconnected and have always been sort of in love with each other but have trouble admitting it, so much so that when one or the other inadvertently admits it, each immediately take it back treating it as a joke. They're a disaster but the series itself is very funny and I was disappointed that it only had the one season.

 
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Thursday, February 16, 2023

Thursday Movie Picks #447: Romance Tropes Edition - Forced Proximity


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 Romance Tropes Edition - Forced Proximity

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Hey it's February and it's time for the Romance Tropes Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month. 
 

February 2 - Romance Tropes Edition: Travel Romance
February 9 - Romance Tropes Edition: Cinderella Plot (A heroine being swept off her feet by a wealthy guy)
February 16 - Romance Tropes Edition: Forced Proximity (characters are stuck together perhaps sheltering from a storm together, or are on a long haul flight, or stuck in a lift…etc)
February 23 - Romance Tropes / TMP Television Edition: Friends To Lovers

This theme is harder than I thought it would be. I’m picking the first three that came to mind.

Can You Keep a Secret (2018)
While on a flight, I think because she was nervous during turbulence, a woman starts rambling random things about herself to a stranger seated next to her, only to discover later when she got back to her office that he is their new boss. The movie is ok, rather forgettable. I don’t know why they keep making American adaptations of Sophie Kinsella’s novels. I’ve read many of her stand-alone books (not the Shopaholic series), and would love to see a British adaptation of one of them because I think much of their humour have been lost in translation in previous adaptations.
 
Destination Wedding (2018)
Two middle age singles attend a destination wedding and ended up having to share or get placed together often. Like I think they were on the same flight, airport shuttle and taxi and roomed next each other…and so on. The movie is so-so, but it was nice to see Ryder and Reeves reunited on screen almost three decades since Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Before Sunrise (1995)
Jesse and Celine met when they were seated near each other on a train in Europe. I actually never liked Before Sunrise that much, it was just a so-so movie to me as the banter between the two was not that engaging with little spark. I am glad though, that despite how unimpressed I was with Before Sunrise, I did decide to watch Before Sunset when it was released…because I really love the sequel.
 
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Thursday, February 9, 2023

Thursday Movie Picks #446: Romance Tropes Edition - Cinderella Plot


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 Romance Tropes Edition - Cinderella Plot (A heroine being swept off her feet by a wealthy guy)

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Hey it's February and it's time for the Romance Tropes Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month. 

February 2 - Romance Tropes Edition: Travel Romance

February 9 - Romance Tropes Edition: Cinderella Plot (A heroine being swept off her feet by a wealthy guy)
February 16 - Romance Tropes Edition: Forced Proximity (characters are stuck together perhaps sheltering from a storm together, or are on a long haul flight, or stuck in a lift…etc)
February 23 - Romance Tropes / TMP Television Edition: Friends To Lovers



I’m going the period drama route as such plots are more suited in a historical setting where women have almost zero career options, so to better themselves financially, the only option often is to marry well. I’m picking the movies I like.

Mansfield Park (1999)
The book is actually my least-liked Austen novel as Fanny Price was so dull and doormat-like in the book. However, in the movie they changed her personality, Fanny is more lively and opinionated with a sharp tongue, which is why I enjoyed it more. In Mansfield Park, Fanny is in love with one rich man and courted by another charming rich guy and yeah one of them is actually her cousin which is gross but this is set in the late 18th or early 19th century when such things are acceptable and normal.
 
I Capture the Castle (2003)
This is a charming adaptation of one of my favourite books. In the movie, two sisters living with their family in a crumbling castle and surviving on their father’s meager book royalties see an opportunity for a better future when the rich American-British brothers and owners of the castle come to visit their properties.
 
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Elizabeth wasn’t quite impressed by Darcy’s wealth due to his lack of social skills and poorly delivered proposal. Things change though when she sees how grand Pemberly is and how fondly his sister and housekeeper speak of him.
 
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Thursday, February 2, 2023

Thursday Movie Picks #445: Romance Tropes Edition - Travel Romance


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 Romance Tropes Edition - Travel Romance

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Hey it's February and it's time for the Romance Tropes Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month. 
 

February 2 - Romance Tropes Edition: Travel Romance
February 9 - Romance Tropes Edition: Cinderella Plot (A heroine being swept off her feet by a wealthy guy)
February 16 - Romance Tropes Edition: Forced Proximity (characters are stuck together perhaps sheltering from a storm together, or are on a long haul flight, or stuck in a lift…etc)
February 23 - Romance Tropes / TMP Television Edition: Friends To Lovers

Today is the start of the Romance Tropes Edition which will run the whole of February. This is the third year I'm running this annual special edition. The Romance Tropes Edition, if you weren't here previous years, is very much inspired by the sub-genres and popular tropes in the romance novels I’ve read. Here are the movies that I like.

Somewhere in Time (1980)
Two types of travel featured: domestic travel and time travel. I really enjoyed this romantic period drama fantasy. Christopher Reeves plays a playwright. Taking a break from work, he leaves the city to stay at a hotel. There he finds a photo of a beautiful young woman, a famous actress from several decades ago who was once a guest at the hotel whom he soon realises is also the same old woman who had approached him with an odd message when he was a college student.
 
Before Sunset (2004)
The whole Before trilogy involves travel and romance but my favourite is Before Sunset, the middle movie. In it, Jesse, now a published author, goes to Paris as part of his book tour and is finally able to reconnect with Celine.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
It’s a nice little romantic drama about a writer who travels to Guernsey to meet members of a book club. While there she becomes engrossed with their World War 2 experience living under German occupation and falls for a local guy.
 
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Thursday, January 26, 2023

Thursday Movie Picks #444: TMP Television Edition - 2022 Freshmen Series


Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your 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 - 2022 Freshmen Series
 
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I'll reiterate what's been said in previous years' similar posts, limited series cannot be included today. This TMP theme refers to Freshmen, which means the first season, therefore a limited series with only one planned season is not the first of anything. Here are my favourite freshmen series of 2022, all of which have been renewed for new seasons...there really were some really good new series that launched last year.
 
Slow Horses (2022 - )
This series follows members of MI5 that have screwed up and have been relegated to Slough House where they are called Slow Horses and get the "boring" jobs or the ones the agency wants to distance themselves from with plausible deniability. This is so much fun and one of the funniest spy series I've seen and with Gary Oldman being so sharply funny as this cranky, unhygienic and sarcastic ex-field agent/spy now head of the losers known as Slow Horses. The series had its first season in April 2022 followed by the second season in December. Each season is a short 6 episode with one story arc and I've enjoyed both seasons...I am really liking series with short seasons...its the best way to tell a story concisely without dragging out a plot with unnecessary fillers  Anyway Slow Horses have been so well received, it's already been renewed for season 3 and 4 with season 3 already shot and its sneak peak viewable at the end of season 2.
 
Heartstoppers (2022 - )
It's about two boys at school who becomes friends and start to fall for each other. This is one the most adorable sweetest teen romance drama series I have ever seen. It is soo good. Teen dramas tend to have a lot of kids just being nasty towards each other, here they make an effort to be kind and compassionate which is just refreshing. If you like The Half of It, I would highly recommend Heartstopper.

Bad Sisters (2022 - )
Four sisters plot to murder their vile sexist, racist, homophobic brother-in-law to free their beloved sister and niece from his control. This darkly funny dramedy is told like a mystery, where we know from the beginning he is dead, we just don't know how he died. It slowly reveals the events that would lead to his death through multiple flashbacks. Bad Sisters is a funny funny series, but also rather sad and horrific...the brother-in-law is just a horrible horrible person...like criminally so. Anyway I was so surprised that this is getting a second season since I thought the first season ended neatly.
 
The Recruit (2022 - )
A lawyer working for the CIA gets entangled in a case where a former asset threatens to expose her relationship with the agency. This is actually a very fun action spy series with a bit of humour. I do like its rather unique angle to a spy story where the main character is a lawyer, whose main job is to assess and advise on the agency's legal options, but instead gets drawn into a case that puts him in multiple dangerous situations that he is ill equipped to cope being not an agent and have zero fighting skills. 

Severance (2022 - )
In an unknown near future, employees can volunteer for a procedure called Severance, where their memories are surgically divided between their work and personal lives. I found the first few episodes so dull; I didn't know why people liked it and giving it such high praise, I almost gave up...but I ended up liking the series a lot. I'd say you have to see at least halfway through the season, that's when everything sort of clicked for me and the series just got better with each episode. It really is a terrifying vision of a future version of work life balance. 
 
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Thursday, January 12, 2023

Thursday Movie Picks #443: 2022 Releases



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 2022 Releases

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This is coming in late, so it’ll be another quick one. I am picking my favourites. 

Catherine Called Birdy (2022)
This is such a fun and funny coming of age comedy about a girl in medieval England.

Kimi (2022)
I really enjoyed this tech thriller that feels very current and highlighting a very real privacy issue for virtual assistant tech.

The Valet (2022)
The plot kinda seems silly and it kinda gives an impression of being a romantic comedy, though it is not.  It’s just a comedy and it is funny and just very sweet. 

The Wonder (2022)
The opening was kinda odd. The story moved rather slowly and only started picking up halfway through but I ended up liking the movie a lot; it was beautifully shot and haunting. The main character, the nurse, reminds me a lot of Jane Eyre; independent, with a quiet strength and very resolute.
 
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Sunday, January 1, 2023

2023 Thursday Movie Picks Schedule (Final)


Just one thing before you scroll down to the final schedule. If you haven't read my 2022 Thursday Movie Picks Schedule (Preliminary) post, click the link and read it. I had written about some RUDE participants. Basically if you want to participate in TMP, participate properly…don’t be that rude person.

 
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So back to all you other decent folks who have been participating, thanks for joining in the past and here is a refresher on the two requirements for Thursday Movie Picks (TMP) participation. 

1. Submit your link in the linkup widget.
2. Link back to my blog on their own TMP post.

This 2023 run of TMP is the tenth year I'm doing the series and I really contemplated either not doing it at all or just doing it on my own so that I can do sporadically rather than every single Thursday. 2023 is going to be a little busy so doing every Thursday is going to be a challenge. In the end I found a middle ground. As you may have noticed the schedule is shorter.

The 2023 TMP is going to run on the second Thursday of every month for the regular movie edition and the last Thursday of the month for the TV edition. The exception is February for the Romance Tropes Edition and October for the Halloween edition which will run every single Thursday for that month.

This is the final schedule. Any mistakes, questions or clarification needed please leave a comment. Also can someone check the dates for me as last year I made quite a number of mistakes with dates leading to extra themes.

 

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2023 Thursday Movie Picks Schedule (Final)


January 12 - 2022 Releases
January 26 - TMP Television Edition: 2022 Freshmen Series
February 2 - Romance Tropes Edition: Travel Romance
February 9 - Romance Tropes Edition: Cinderella Plot (A heroine being swept off her feet by a wealthy guy)
February 16 - Romance Tropes Edition: Forced Proximity (characters are stuck together perhaps sheltering from a storm together, or are on a long haul flight, or stuck in a lift…etc)
February 23 - Romance Tropes / TMP Television Edition: Friends To Lovers
March 9 - Companion Reads (Pair a book to a movie that makes a good companion read because they feature similar themes/subject - not necessarily the book it was based on).
March 30 - TMP Television Edition: Companion Reads (Pair a book to a TV show that makes a good companion read because they feature similar themes/subject - not necessarily the book it was based on).
April 13 - Erotic Thrillers
April 27 - TMP Television Edition: Lukewarm Second Season (Series that had a hot First Season and a not so hot Second Season)
May 11 - Period Drama
May 25 - TMP Television Edition: TV Score and/or Theme Song
June 8 - Seasons in Title
June 29 - TMP Television Edition: Revenge
July 13 - Book Adaptation
July 27 - TMP Television Edition: Con Artists
August 10 - Workplace: The Female Experience
August 31 - TMP Television Edition: Female Investigators (Private or Police)
September 14 - Non-English Language Movies
September 28 - TMP Television Edition: Book Adaptation
October 5 - Halloween Edition: Tourist Experience
October 12 - Halloween Edition: New Person (eg. new girlfriend, new stepfather, new colleague…etc)
October 19 - Halloween Edition: Workplace
October 26 - Halloween/Television Edition: Cults/Secret Societies
November 9 - A Different Perspective (a well known story told from the perspective of a different character. An example is the recent Rosaline movie which is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of Rosaline, you know the girl Shakespeare mentions Romeo had been infatuated with and conveniently forgot about when he met Juliet)
November 30 - TMP Television Edition: Non-English
December 14 - Day or Night in Title
December 28 - TMP Television: Sports (Scripted Series. Non-Reality)

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