I've been getting fed up with Blogger at the minute because, well, I can't work it well. I've been trying to tweak and improve my blog to make it look better but I changed, so I've moved over to Tumblr because I know this site a lot better!
My new blog is HERE
Please give it a follow if you're on Tumblr. Thank you!
Thursday 8 January 2015
Tuesday 6 January 2015
Nowhere Boy - Review
My rating: 10/10
As this is my first film review, I decided to stick with something I know and love. Nowhere Boy, released in 2009, is one of my favourite films. Not only for the obvious reason that it depicts the adolescence of John Lennon - one of my favourite musicians - it is also a beautifully crafted, poignant production. For those who have never watched it, here is the trailer:
As this is my first film review, I decided to stick with something I know and love. Nowhere Boy, released in 2009, is one of my favourite films. Not only for the obvious reason that it depicts the adolescence of John Lennon - one of my favourite musicians - it is also a beautifully crafted, poignant production. For those who have never watched it, here is the trailer:
The wild essence of John Lennon is one which is incredibly hard to capture, but Aaron Johnson makes it look easy - scrap that, he makes it look natural. Of course the intricately designed Teddy Boy costumes and hairstyles play a role in this (particularly in the scene during The Quarry Men's first gig in which John's character wears a replica of the shirt he wore in real life), but his thick scouse accent and rebellious attitude are vitally and wonderfully authentic. Despite the more serious subplot, the film as a whole is very comical. John's antics are hilarious to watch; even trivial moments like when he smashes the washboard over Pete's head had me laughing. However, underneath this 'tough-lad' exterior, Johnson maintains the constant lurking of emotional disturbance that shook John Lennon's childhood and youth, which is exposed during tragic scenes of revelation and loss.
 |
| Nowhere Boy compared to a real photograph |
Thomas Brodie-Sangster also performs excellently in his role as Paul McCartney (my all time favourite - sorry John). Despite the real Paul McCartney's comments about his height - which was apparently too short for his liking in comparison to John - I believe Brodie-Sangster made an excellent Paul. His polite, moral and level-headed way of thinking is conveyed in a way that intertwines with the wildness of John to create a harmonic balance, giving an accurate portrayal of their friendship.
Of course, beyond the infamous story of the creation of The Beatles, there is far more depth to John's life and character in the film. The women in his life - Aunt Mimi and his mother Julia - play equally important roles through their influence. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Aunt Mimi, with whom John grew up from the age of five. She accurately captures the strict nature of Mimi through severe facial expressions and a stern voice, whilst still making it clear that she loves John unconditionally. Much like John, underneath this she has inner emotional turmoil, brought to light when she declares the truth about how she came to take care of John. Her loss of emotional control combines with that of John in an overwhelming scene which literally brings me to tears. I challenge you to watch this film and not cry. I dare you.
As a huge ('huge' being a huge understatement...) Beatles fan, I naturally was very eager to analyse the historical accuracy of Nowhere Boy. I have to say - it's pretty damn good. Paul McCartney and others closely related to the Lennon family have argued otherwise, pointing out minor details that didn't actually happen. For instance, Paul McCartney has been said to question the scene in which John punches Paul. I'm fully aware that the film isn't 100% accurate, but I don't see this as such a dense issue. It is a film, not a documentary, and provides a more than sufficient amount of detail in my opinion to satisfy Beatles fans and create a great quality plot. Yes, those closest to him might disagree, but I would argue that the film isn't for those who witnessed the true events; it is for those who long to have been there and seen the magic happen, even just a glimpse of it.
Nowhere Boy is a without-a-doubt must watch for all Beatles fans, and non-Beatles fans for that matter. Around a year ago my friends came over to my house and I convinced them to watch it with me and they loved it, despite not being Beatles fans. If you haven't already, then I really urge you to watch it, and witness the making of music history.
Friday 2 January 2015
'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury - Review
My rating: 10/10
In continuing my ever-growing love for dystopian novels, I finally got around to reading this modern classic that I was bought last Christmas. Yeah, 2013, a long time ago now, but with all of the A level reading and the two foot high stack of unread books I have, it kind of got pushed back along with everything else. I wish I'd read this sooner though, because it is brilliant.
The first thing that made love this book is, unsurprisingly, the fact that it's about books. A book about books but also about so much more than just books. That's the dream, and it's so impeccably fulfilled. Bradbury's language is so poetic and articulate, it is a pleasure to read. He creates a plot that provides enough background information about the futuristic American society in which books are outlawed, without revealing too much that would eradicate the unsettled mystery of the novel. A prime example of such mystery lies in the horror that is the Mechanical Hound: an eight-legged, dog-like robot that helps the firemen as they burn all books that are found. Eight-legged dog-like robot? What a perfect creation for a dystopian, and one which I still can't quite fathom or visualise precisely in my mind. My image of the Hound changed a lot throughout the novel as I learnt more about it, which was actually quite beneficial to me. I often find that creating and altering images of characters (if the Hound can be called a character?) in my mind improves my own creative writing skills. It reminds me to consider how the reader will visualise the characters which I create. In some cases, I like characters to be described perfectly so that I can picture them, but sometimes the vague mystery just works, and this is one of those cases. What's more, the Hound is seriously terrifying. It's so scary that the unrealistic basis of it becomes void because I'm too busy hiding under my quilt to realise that no such creature could actually be real. Well played, Bradbury.
My favourite character at first was Clarisse, then it became Faber, then Clarisse again, and now I've given up because they're both fantastic. Clarisse reminds me very much - and I hope the aged 30+ readers who deem Harry Potter not worthy of being classed as 'literature' will forgive me for this; I am one of the lucky generation who grew up around the series - of Luna Lovegood. Mystical, fascinating and endlessly thoughtful. This is the kind of person I aspire to be. The reason I love Faber is quite different. His character is so honest, so openly aware of his faults and determined to teach the lessons he has learnt from them to Guy. Then there is Guy himself, who I also love, but in a way that everyone loves the protagonist of a novel no matter what. His thoughts captivated me, observing his psychological change as he goes from being ignorantly content in his corrupt occupation, to inexplicably stirred by the wonder that is Clarisse McClellan and subsequently realises that he isn't happy.
Obviously I'm not going to talk about the ending of the novel, or even the middle, because I'm not that cruel and I understand that many people won't have read it. However I will say this: dystopian novels are some of the trickiest to end in a way that will satisfy the reader. I understand this, and so I always approach such endings with an open mind. Fahrenheit 451, I was pleased to discover, ends not without risk, but not without hope, and is played safely. Whilst I am more than happy with the way it ended, it is one of the few novels that I would have loved to read a sequel to. Without an inch of a doubt, I recommend this novel to anyone willing to trust my judgement (especially if you're a fellow avid fan of dystopian literature).
In continuing my ever-growing love for dystopian novels, I finally got around to reading this modern classic that I was bought last Christmas. Yeah, 2013, a long time ago now, but with all of the A level reading and the two foot high stack of unread books I have, it kind of got pushed back along with everything else. I wish I'd read this sooner though, because it is brilliant.
The first thing that made love this book is, unsurprisingly, the fact that it's about books. A book about books but also about so much more than just books. That's the dream, and it's so impeccably fulfilled. Bradbury's language is so poetic and articulate, it is a pleasure to read. He creates a plot that provides enough background information about the futuristic American society in which books are outlawed, without revealing too much that would eradicate the unsettled mystery of the novel. A prime example of such mystery lies in the horror that is the Mechanical Hound: an eight-legged, dog-like robot that helps the firemen as they burn all books that are found. Eight-legged dog-like robot? What a perfect creation for a dystopian, and one which I still can't quite fathom or visualise precisely in my mind. My image of the Hound changed a lot throughout the novel as I learnt more about it, which was actually quite beneficial to me. I often find that creating and altering images of characters (if the Hound can be called a character?) in my mind improves my own creative writing skills. It reminds me to consider how the reader will visualise the characters which I create. In some cases, I like characters to be described perfectly so that I can picture them, but sometimes the vague mystery just works, and this is one of those cases. What's more, the Hound is seriously terrifying. It's so scary that the unrealistic basis of it becomes void because I'm too busy hiding under my quilt to realise that no such creature could actually be real. Well played, Bradbury.My favourite character at first was Clarisse, then it became Faber, then Clarisse again, and now I've given up because they're both fantastic. Clarisse reminds me very much - and I hope the aged 30+ readers who deem Harry Potter not worthy of being classed as 'literature' will forgive me for this; I am one of the lucky generation who grew up around the series - of Luna Lovegood. Mystical, fascinating and endlessly thoughtful. This is the kind of person I aspire to be. The reason I love Faber is quite different. His character is so honest, so openly aware of his faults and determined to teach the lessons he has learnt from them to Guy. Then there is Guy himself, who I also love, but in a way that everyone loves the protagonist of a novel no matter what. His thoughts captivated me, observing his psychological change as he goes from being ignorantly content in his corrupt occupation, to inexplicably stirred by the wonder that is Clarisse McClellan and subsequently realises that he isn't happy.
Obviously I'm not going to talk about the ending of the novel, or even the middle, because I'm not that cruel and I understand that many people won't have read it. However I will say this: dystopian novels are some of the trickiest to end in a way that will satisfy the reader. I understand this, and so I always approach such endings with an open mind. Fahrenheit 451, I was pleased to discover, ends not without risk, but not without hope, and is played safely. Whilst I am more than happy with the way it ended, it is one of the few novels that I would have loved to read a sequel to. Without an inch of a doubt, I recommend this novel to anyone willing to trust my judgement (especially if you're a fellow avid fan of dystopian literature).
Friday 10 October 2014
Treasures from San Francisco
A few weeks ago, my dad went on holiday to San Francisco to visit some relatives. About half way through his trip it occurred to me that he must have been staying quite close to the legendary City Lights Bookstore & Publishers - where one of my favourite Beat writers Allen Ginsberg published his most famous collection of poems, Howl and Other Poems. So, seizing any opportunity for a glimpse inside the store, I asked my dad if he'd be so great as to look for the bookstore and take a few pictures of it for me. He actually did find it, which surprised me because I didn't think he'd have time. So at around 3am BST one morning I received a lot of pictures on my phone from my dad of City Lights. Here are my favourite two:
After taking and sending those pictures, my dad decided to be even more brilliant by buying me a copy of Howl. So I now have a copy of one of my favourite poetry collections from the actual bookstore in which it was published. He also bought me a City Lights T-shirt (which I love, it's so cosy), some postcards with the bookstore, John Lennon and Andy Warhol on them, some pens and a badge; aka the best collection of gifts he could have gotten me.
I hope that, one day, I will be lucky enough to go to San Francisco and see City Lights for myself, but for now I am very much more than happy with all of this! Thanks Dad!
Friday 26 September 2014
'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde - Review
My rating: 10/10
(Spoiler alert!)
Wow. I just finished reading Dorian Gray about an hour ago, so I'm still in that emotionally unstable phase that I get stuck in whenever I finish an amazing book; or as I like to call it, the 'what am I supposed to do with myself now?' phase.
Unfortunately, many online reviews of this masterpiece place extensive focus on the controversial reception of the book due to its implications of homo-eroticism. I for one am going to simply talk about the book itself and how it was written, not how it was read.
Before I get into the actual plot, I want to mention the way the book's style. Oscar Wilde's narrative is simply beautiful. Even in a very sinister, Gothic novel such as this one, it can't be denied that Wilde's writing is intelligent, articulate and enthralling. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of those books in which, when you read it, you can tell that the author has put so much of themselves and their faith into it.
The key theme of the novel is unarguably aestheticism, through art and the human form intertwined. This is shown through the emphasis on the aesthetic philosophies embodied by Dorian and Lord Henry Wotton, as well as Wilde himself, creating parallels between Wilde and his characters. Throughout the novel, these two crucial characters exert their beliefs perfectly, through language, attitudes and downright snobbery. In fact, this is the entire basis of the novel, as Dorian is so entranced by his beauty in the eponymous portrait. However, Wilde arguably presents the excessive commitment to such a belief as ultimately destructive. He does this by showing how the over-indulgence in his beauty (and the exchange of his soul for eternal youth as a result) of it is the intrinsic cause of the corruption of Dorian's life.
Surprisingly, this is the first (or one of, if I've forgotten one) book that I've read in which I've detested the protagonist. Not because he is unrealistic, but because he's simply a cruel person; his outlandish egotistic nature is quite frankly repulsive. Nevertheless, I find his character quite fascinating, with his complex (to say the least!) thoughts and seeming desire for a corrupt lifestyle. Lord Henry Wotton has almost the exact same summary in my mind; I see him as starkly similar to Dorian, with the exception that he is older and even more shockingly opinionated. My favourite characters of the novel were Sibyl and James Vane. With my love for sibyl comes a twinge of anger - her future is so promising, her acting depicted as so remarkable, it is a tragedy that she is denied true potential. The way her character almost transforms entirely is painful to read, conveying highly destructive influences of patriarchal Victorian society. I have seen many people say that James Vane is not a believable character - I disagree. He's one of my favourites. Possibly this is because I have two older brothers myself, and so I know that level of protection as being a constant presence in my life. I took thrill in the constant lurking of James being somewhere, watching, searching, culminating his anger for the perfect moment. Frustratingly, he is another character who tragically does not fulfill his desires, much like Sibyl (although their desires are very different).
The violation of Sibyl and James is what makes the ending oh so satisfying. As I approached the final pages, I quite honestly had no clue as to what would happen. I knew what I wanted to happen, and what should rightfully happen in order to prevent me throwing the book out of the window in rage, but it wasn't happening, and the last page dawned upon me. However - and this is a big however: that last page... that will probably remain my favourite ever last page of a novel. The brewing and boiling of tension throughout the novel is finally released in a climax that blew my mind because, in my naivety, I hadn't worked out that this was coming. I got all that I wanted and more from the ending; satisfaction, closure and a shocked O shaped mouth.
Of course, I don't want to glorify the novel - or its ending - in any way, because it's far better to read a book with few expectations, but I can't help sharing that it really did blow my mind a bit. I'm also aware that I talked about the ending in this novel whereas I don't in other reviews, but this was vital because the ending is so fundamentally powerful to me that it couldn't go unmentioned. Seriously, get reading.
(Spoiler alert!)
Wow. I just finished reading Dorian Gray about an hour ago, so I'm still in that emotionally unstable phase that I get stuck in whenever I finish an amazing book; or as I like to call it, the 'what am I supposed to do with myself now?' phase.
Unfortunately, many online reviews of this masterpiece place extensive focus on the controversial reception of the book due to its implications of homo-eroticism. I for one am going to simply talk about the book itself and how it was written, not how it was read.
Before I get into the actual plot, I want to mention the way the book's style. Oscar Wilde's narrative is simply beautiful. Even in a very sinister, Gothic novel such as this one, it can't be denied that Wilde's writing is intelligent, articulate and enthralling. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of those books in which, when you read it, you can tell that the author has put so much of themselves and their faith into it.The key theme of the novel is unarguably aestheticism, through art and the human form intertwined. This is shown through the emphasis on the aesthetic philosophies embodied by Dorian and Lord Henry Wotton, as well as Wilde himself, creating parallels between Wilde and his characters. Throughout the novel, these two crucial characters exert their beliefs perfectly, through language, attitudes and downright snobbery. In fact, this is the entire basis of the novel, as Dorian is so entranced by his beauty in the eponymous portrait. However, Wilde arguably presents the excessive commitment to such a belief as ultimately destructive. He does this by showing how the over-indulgence in his beauty (and the exchange of his soul for eternal youth as a result) of it is the intrinsic cause of the corruption of Dorian's life.
Surprisingly, this is the first (or one of, if I've forgotten one) book that I've read in which I've detested the protagonist. Not because he is unrealistic, but because he's simply a cruel person; his outlandish egotistic nature is quite frankly repulsive. Nevertheless, I find his character quite fascinating, with his complex (to say the least!) thoughts and seeming desire for a corrupt lifestyle. Lord Henry Wotton has almost the exact same summary in my mind; I see him as starkly similar to Dorian, with the exception that he is older and even more shockingly opinionated. My favourite characters of the novel were Sibyl and James Vane. With my love for sibyl comes a twinge of anger - her future is so promising, her acting depicted as so remarkable, it is a tragedy that she is denied true potential. The way her character almost transforms entirely is painful to read, conveying highly destructive influences of patriarchal Victorian society. I have seen many people say that James Vane is not a believable character - I disagree. He's one of my favourites. Possibly this is because I have two older brothers myself, and so I know that level of protection as being a constant presence in my life. I took thrill in the constant lurking of James being somewhere, watching, searching, culminating his anger for the perfect moment. Frustratingly, he is another character who tragically does not fulfill his desires, much like Sibyl (although their desires are very different).
The violation of Sibyl and James is what makes the ending oh so satisfying. As I approached the final pages, I quite honestly had no clue as to what would happen. I knew what I wanted to happen, and what should rightfully happen in order to prevent me throwing the book out of the window in rage, but it wasn't happening, and the last page dawned upon me. However - and this is a big however: that last page... that will probably remain my favourite ever last page of a novel. The brewing and boiling of tension throughout the novel is finally released in a climax that blew my mind because, in my naivety, I hadn't worked out that this was coming. I got all that I wanted and more from the ending; satisfaction, closure and a shocked O shaped mouth.
Of course, I don't want to glorify the novel - or its ending - in any way, because it's far better to read a book with few expectations, but I can't help sharing that it really did blow my mind a bit. I'm also aware that I talked about the ending in this novel whereas I don't in other reviews, but this was vital because the ending is so fundamentally powerful to me that it couldn't go unmentioned. Seriously, get reading.
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