Tag: Film

This week I have been…

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Reading – None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

I have read most of Lisa Jewell’s previous books including Then She Was Gone which I reviewed here. None of This is True is her best book yet in my opinion, as soon as I began reading I was completely hooked. The book tells the story of “birthday twins” Alix, a glamorous podcaster who appears to live a dream life in a huge house with her wealthy husband and two children and Josie, a machinist, who lives a more modest life with one of her two daughters and her much older husband, Walter. Josie and Alix have never met until they happen to be celebrating their forty-fifth birthdays on the same night in the same gastro-pub. Josie introduces herself to Alix in the toilets with the phrase “I’m your birthday twin”. The women discover that they were born in the same hospital and share a moment of connection. Josie, however, isn’t content with just a moment and pitches an idea for a new podcast to Alix. Josie appears to have been the victim in a controlling relationship and Alix wants to help her tell her story. Nathan, Alix’s husband is not so keen on her new friendship, especially as it seems like Josie is becoming a permanent fixture. Thrillers are ten a penny on Kindle but Jewell’s writing is in a different league. Her ability to reel the reader in and weave a story together is really something else. Her books rely on an aura of menace and darkness and the story will stay with you after you have finished reading , you have been warned!

Watching – Your Friends and Neighbors – Apple TV

I don’t have an Apple TV subscription but a friend told me Your Friends and Neighbors is a must watch so I signed up for a free trial. Starring Jon Hamm as Andrew Cooper (famous for Mad Men) known as Coop, and Amanda Peet (Dirty John Two, The Betty Broderick Story) as his estranged wife, Mel. The show makes for glamorous and gripping viewing. Coop runs a hedge fund for a private company and, after an ill-advised one night stand with a younger employee, is fired, losing his capital account and everything he had spent twenty years building He looks for another position but his arrogant attitude alienates everyone and his contract had a clause which meant that he could not bring any of his previous clients with him (or something like that!) Coop’s lifestyle is lavish to say the least. He is used to spending $60,000 on tables at charity events, his house which Mel now lives in with her lover, Nick, has its own basketball court. When Mel and Coop’s son gets into trouble at school Mel casually pledges a quarter of a million dollars to keep him from being expelled. My favourite character, Coop’s business manager, Barney played by Hoon Lee, is struggling to keep up with his wife’s constant demands for more. He says that they have rooms in their house that they never go in yet they are spending money they don’t have to build more rooms and fill them up with shit that they won’t use. Consumerism and keeping up with the Joneses at its finest.

Coop needs to keep earning, as well as his two children he is responsible for his adult sister, Ali, who is struggling with her mental health, He is a fundamentally good guy who loves his famil. Coop’s plan to keep the money coming in is unorthodox to say the least and he gets into more than his fair share of scrapes. By the end of the season I was totally emotionally invested. The actors playing Mel and Coop’s children, Tori and Hunter (Donovan Colan and Isabel Gravitt) are wonderful and I found myself desperately hoping that everything would work out for their sakes. My only criticism of the show is that the styling of the women was so safe and boring, they all looked the same. Glossy brunette hair, cashmere sweaters in neutral tones, accessories by The Row and Hermes. It would have been nice to have seen more interesting fashion choices.

Listening to – Flesh and Code on Itunes

Flesh and code came up in my suggestions as it is presented by Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire the young women behind the hugely successful RedHanded true crime podcast. There are six episodes and some bonus content. Flesh and Code tells the story of an app called Replika which people use to create an AI companion. The app, which is still available, describes its companions as an “AI companion who cares, Always here to listen and talk. Always on your side”

The story centers around Travis who creates Lily Rose, who he goes on to have virtual sex with and even marry. No matter that he already has a wife, Jackie. Travis tells us how he is in love with Lily Rose and I thought how painful it must have been for his real life wife to hear that. There is a side story of Russian intrigue and some very sad developments in Travis’ family.

One Replika encourages its human to go to Buckingham Palace and assassinate the Queen, another encourages a human to send nude photos. People all over the world are in virtual relationships with their Replikas but one day the coding is changed and the sexy conversations stop, the AI become formal and careful about what they say. Travis and those like him are devastated and start an online campaign to have their former “personalities” restored. I didn’t really enjoy this story, I felt too sorry for Travis’s real wife who seemed to have been side lined in favour of Lily Rose who you just know had been created with big boobs and a skin-tight cat suit. Is AI ever a good substitute for real human companionship or is it dangerous tool? You will have to make your own mind up.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Cover Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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Film Review – Bridget Jones – Mad About The Boy

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This review does contain some spoilers. Comedies aren’t really my favourite genre but it’s been a long winter and who doesn’t need a little cheering up at this time of year? I have seen the other films in the Bridget Jones franchise so it seemed a pity not to see how Bridget’s story ends in Mad About the Boy – directed by Michael Morris . It has been nine years since Bridget Jones had her baby and a catch-up is long overdue. My friend booked us tickets to go and see it at The Stag Theatre and Cinema in Sevenoaks. I have never seen the cinema so full, there was not an empty seat in the house and almost all of the film goers were women.

The film opens and we immediately learn that Bridget’s life hasn’t been all sunshine and roses, Mark, her husband was killed on a humanitarian mission to Sudan four years earler. She finds herself alone, in her Hampstead house, with her two young children, Billy and Mabel. The house itself would probably cost about five million pounds, I know because I looked on the website of the posh estate agent that I used to work for. If you don’t fancy a trip to London after watching the film I will be very surprised, there are no pickpockets or phone snatchers to be seen, just the most picturesque locations. Bridget goes on a date in Borough Market, I was there recently and it was horribly crowded but it’s conveniently empty for our heroine. Bridget is, of course, played by Rene Zellweger. Mark Darcy does still make appearances throughout if you are concerned about the lack of Colin Firth. I saw an interview where Hugh Grant said that there really wasn’t any logical place for his character, Bridget’s former love interest Daniel Cleaver, in this film but the writers found a way to include him when Bridget rushes to his side after he has a health scare. Grant really is a scene stealer and the film wouldn’t have been the same without him.

Bridget has been on her own for four years and her friends create an embarrassing Tinder profile for her. She is finally going back out into the world. Of course Hollywood can’t let people be single, even if they seem perfectly happy that way. Any single person must surely be feeling unfulfilled and therefore coaxed back into the dating world. Bridget returns to her previous job as a TV producer and hires an annoyingly perfect, but actually lovely nanny, Chloe played by Nico Parker. The film features a whole host of famous actors, Isla Fisher (who looks just like Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter), Hugh Grant, Sally Phillips and Emma Thomson to name a few.

Bridget takes Mabel and Billy to Hampstead Heath where there’s an unfortunate tree-climbing incident. Although not really so unfortunate as she find two handsome men offering to help, Roxter, played by Leo Woodall and Mr Wallaker, the new science teacher at the children’s’ prep school, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. Roxter is just twenty nine and Bridget is supposed to be around fifty. He thinks she is thirty five and she says yes, lets go with that. They have a fun romance but the age difference looms large. Mr Wallaker seems to appear, as if by magic, at the most embarrassing moments but he is clearly a caring soul. After pretending to be outdoorsy, Bridget accompanies him on the school expedition to the Lake District, another win for the English Tourist Board.

The school scenes did bring back some memories, the one mum who has to get a dig in about how you’re not quite as perfect as she is. The superior mother in this film has twins Atticus and Eros. She is organising hampers for the school raffle and Bridget fishes a half eaten pot of hummus out of her Mulberry bag as her contribution, we’ve all been there! There is a very touching scene at the end when Billy is singing and it really brought home the fact that I won’t have any more school concerts to attend for my own children.

Bridget’s wardrobe is pretty typical of private school mums. She has a Mulberry Bayswater bag which I am sure featured in another one of the films, cashmere cardigans, ankle boots, mini -but-not-too-mini skirts and dungarees. Personally I don’t think anyone over the age of five should be wearing dungarees unless they’re a painter and decorator. She also has a pair of straight Levi jeans which she wears for her visit to Hampstead Heath. For her dates she has pretty tea dresses, a denim jacket and an Anna Hindmarch woven bag. You could pretty much replicate her entire wardrobe with a quick order from White Stuff and Boden. Crew Clothing have this pretty teal cord mini-skirt which is a near match for Bridget’s. One thing Bridget doesn’t appear to be acquainted with is a hairbrush for some reason and she looks fairly dishevelled most of the time.

I doubt author Helen Fielding realised what a success her scatter-brained creation would be when she wrote her column in The Independent in 1995. The first book was published in 1996. Bridget Jones – Mad About the Boy is great fun, beautifully shot and very moving. Not so many laughs as the earlier films and Bridget isn’t quite so hapless which is probably just as well seeing as she is in charge of two small children. One girl sitting behind us left the cinema sobbing – you have been warned!

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Cover Photo by Myke Simon on Unsplash

Film Review – Babygirl

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This review does contain some spoilers. I went to see Babygirl at The Stag Theatre and Cinema in Sevenoaks. My daughter had already seen it and said “Mum, I can’t imagine it will be your cup of tea at all”. I went with a friend whose daughter said the film is porn, “it’s not porn” I said, “as if Nicole Kidman would appear in porn”. Well my friend’s daughter was right, it really is soft porn. The film, directed by Halina Reijn, stars Nicole Kidman as Romy, a fifty something CEO of a robotics company. Romy is married to Jacob, played by Antonio Banderas, they have two daughters. Nora, who is still a little girl and Isabel who is a teenager and in a lesbian relationship. Isabel, played by Esther McGregor, was my favourite character in the film, she was insightful and compassionate. They all live in a fabulous apartment but also have a mansion in the country for weekends and holidays.

The film opens with a filmed upside-down sex scene between Romy and Jacob. As soon as they have finished Romy scurries away from the marital bed, furtively opens her laptop computer and writhes on the carpet whilst masturbating to porn. It transpires that she has been faking it with Jacob for their entire marriage. That pretty much sets the tone of the film.

We learn that Romy is super-stressed with an upcoming deal at work. She rushes off to work leaving Jacob, a theatre director, in charge of the children’s schedules On the way to the office she encounters a dog attacking a fellow pedestrian. Terrified she retreats but the dog lunges towards her. Suddenly, a young man appears and instantly calms the dog. Romy continues into the office where her PA asks if she would like to meet this year’s crop of interns. The interns are ushered into Romy’s office and, surprise, surprise, one of them is the young man, Samuel, played by Harris Dickinson. He immediately asks an insolent question about the ethics of the business and the PA brings the introductions to a hasty close. It is clear that Samuel is confident and very bold. There is a mentoring scheme in place for the interns and Samuel informs Romy that he has chosen her for his mentor. Unaware that she was even on the list she tries to make excuses but a ten minute meeting is scheduled and this is when things begin to get… heated.

Samuel is thirty years younger than Romy but oozes self-assurance. She may be the boss at work but definitely not in the bedroom. He makes it clear that she must do what he tells her. This is where things get a little silly . Romy finds herself on all fours lapping at a saucer of milk. She is sent to stand in the corner like a naughty child. Romy attends a rave dressed in an amber silk pussy-bow blouse and immediately young girls start pawing at her, the blouse comes off. She finds Samuel in the heaving crowd with no trouble and does not seem in the least bit perturbed about being the oldest person in the room by three decades. In real life people would have been wondering whose mum had turned up to take them home.

Although the relationship is entirely consensual there is, of course, a power imbalance and if Romy thinks she can just walk away from the relationship when she chooses she is sorely mistaken. Everyone at her company seems to be capable of blackmail and she is terrified of losing her position and her family. She immerses herself in her affair but it is safe to say that there isn’t a happy ending for Samuel and Romy. However, she finally finds herself able to open up to Jacob about her desires. Disgusted and embarrassed, he tells her to get out of their home. She simply goes to their other spectacular home, the outside of which is all lit up by fairly lights as if it had been expecting her.

Romy has the same uptight air that Kidman’s characters always seem to have. She reminds me somewhat of Julie Andrews playing Mary Poppins, I think it is her toes turned out walk. She struts through the city streets in a wardrobe that could have been borrowed from any of the films/tv productions I have seen her in recently. Kidman is of course still exceptionally beautiful but in one scene Samuel describes Romy as not being girlfriend material because she looks like a mother. Of course men have relationships with women decades younger than them all the time and nobody really bats an eyelid except to predictably suggest it is transactional on the woman’s part.

There were only six of us in the cinema and most people let at an embarrassed laugh at one point or other. I was slightly surprised that Kidman, a huge star, signed up for something so explicit. Babygirl is provocative, raunchy and fairly entertaining but my daughter was right, it wasn’t really my cup of tea.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Cover Photo by Myke Simon on Unsplash

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Film Review – Mothers’ Instinct

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This review contains spoilers. Mothers’ Instinct is a psychological thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. Set in the American suburbs of the 1960’s, Hathaway plays Celine and Chastian plays Alice. The director is Benoît Delhomme who is clearly heavily inspired by Alfred Hitchcock. Alice is styled like Hitchcock’s favourite leading lady, Tippi Hedren with her blonde hair in a french twist and her strappy sundresses. Obviously Hathaway and Chastain are both ridiculously beautiful and they are permanently dressed in ultra-feminine dresses, usually revealing unblemished shoulders and décolletage. Celine even wears six inch stilettoes to do the vacuuming.

Alice and Celine are next door neighbours and good friends, they are both stay at home “moms”, married to successful and handsome men. Alice is married to Simon, played by Anders Danielsen Lie, some sort of accounts executive, and Celine’s husband is Damian, played by Josh Charles. I found Josh Charles a little distracting because he reminds me so much of ex British Prime Minister, David Cameron. Damian is a doctor and Celine is happy to stay at home full time and look after her only child, eight year old Max. Alice and Simon also have an eight year old son, Theo, who is brilliantly played by Eamon Patrick O’Connell. Alice has aspirations to return to her career in journalism but Simon is unsupportive of this and makes some patronising suggestions that maybe she could help out at the boy’s school newspaper. We learn that Celine is unable to have any more children and that Alice has only had one child by choice, Simon would like to have more.

Mothers’ Instinct did have me hiding behind my hands at some points but then I am a lightweight when it comes to scary films. The clues are a bit heavy handed in places. My son and husband are both anaphylactic and it amazes me how potentially fatal food allergies have become such tropes in films and books. Theo is allergic to peanuts and Alice understandably lives in fear of him accidentally ingesting something containing nuts.

Everything is picture perfect in suburbia, Celine drives her gleaming car with Max and Theo, in the back seat, the three of them singing Did You Ever See a Lassie loudy in preparation for a school concert. Celine spends more time looking over her shoulder than at the road and I was sure this is when disaster would strike but no, they made it home to their huge homes without incident.

The couples do a fair bit of socialising in each others homes, decanters and canapes are always at hand and it did seem like wife-swapping may be on the cards but then a dreadful accident befalls Max and everything changes. Does Celine blame Alice for not saving Max or is that just in Alice’s imagination? I was irritated by the fact that there are four main characters and two of them have been afflicted by serious mental illness and they are both of the women. Celine’s unravelling is unnerving to say the least but how ill can she really be to be so conniving? Her gaslighting skills are monumental. Damian and Celine seem unable to help each other through their grief and Damian is also falling apart but in a less spectacular fashion. Celine attends Theo’s birthday party in her mourning garb and stands watching everyone else’s child play happily having only laid hers to rest weeks or even days before. Of course this makes everybody uncomfortable and Simon’s mother tries to tactfully suggest that it isn’t the best place for her, which did not go well. So, is Simon right and Alice having a paranoiac episode or is Celine plotting some sort of terrible revenge? Alice takes matters into her own hands to find out and to protect her family.

I enjoyed Mothers’ Instinct although it was a bit clunky in places. I did not see the ending coming and found it satisfactorily shocking. I loved the glamour of the film which was a remake of a Belgium film, Duelle. Chastain and Hathaway were both wonderful in their roles and complimented each other perfectly and it is refreshing to see two women take to lead.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Cover Photo by Myke Simon on Unsplash

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This Week I Have Been….

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Reading – The House Keeper by Valerie Keogh

I “borrowed” this book from Amazon Prime Reading, I have no idea how this works and I see there is an option to return. I should do that, hopefully there is not going to be the librarian of my childhood with her ink stamp asking me for a fifty pence fine. The predictable Kindle hyperbole reads “The completely addictive, unputdownable psychological thriller”. Well I wouldn’t go that far. The story follows recently widowed Cassie Macreddin who has used her late husband’s life assurance payout to purchase an Hindon House, an old home in need of much TLC. Cassie wants to turn in into a B&B. Cassie hints very early one that she was somehow responsible for her late husband, Richie’s death.

Cassie moves into the pretty much derelict house when other, more sensible, people would probably have made alternative living arrangements while the most essential work was being done. Every little creak makes her jump and she seems very paranoid. She is suspicious of everybody, especially the estate agent who sold her the property, are they trying to drive away because they want the old wreck of a home for themselves? It does not make much sense, why wouldn’t they have just bought it themselves? The kitchen in particular gives Cassie the shivers as does a dark corridor of little rooms that look like cells.

Cassie is ridiculously clumsy and there is description after description of her various falls and injuries. She enlists the help of Daniel, a local builder and, predictably he is handsome and single. He can’t be a very good builder though because he and his team are able to start work immediately, no planning permission or architect needed apparently . When Cassie visits the local café the staff all whisper in a huddle when they learn that she is the buyer of Hindon House, what is it they know that she doesn’t? An elderly neighbor stops by with chocolate cake and Cassie tries to extract some information from her, unsuccessfully.

I was about thirty chapters into The House Keeper when I began to wonder if anything was ever going to happen, it is far too long and repetitive. Towards the end of the book the story picks up pace and moves to a vey far-fetched conclusion. The story would have been better with a lot of the padding removed because by the end I had totally lost interest.

Watching – Omeleto on YouTube

My daughter has been home from university and we have been watching the Omeleto YouTube channel which showcases short films. There are many different genres, horror, sci-fi, comedy, drama, animation etc. The films on the Omeleto celebrity channel feature well known actors such as Barry Keoghan, Maisie Williams and Guy Pierce. Some of the films are only a few minutes long and the overall quality of content is excellent. We watched The Disappearance of Willie Bingham on the Omeleto horror channel, which was far too gruesome for my taste and The IMom on the Sci-Fi channel. We also watched Curve, directed by Tim Egan, on another channel, Short of The Week , a conundrum of a film which I couldn’t stop thinking about.

Listened To – Redhanded – a Wondery podcast on Itunes

Redhanded is an award winning true crime podcast which usually covers a different high-profile crime each episode, occasionally the same case may be covered over two or three episodes. I believe it is the number one true crime podcast in the UK and has an international fanbase. It is presented by two young women who really know their stuff – Hannah MaGuire and Suruthgi Bala. They are both well travelled, funny and intelligent. One of the first episodes I listened to was about the very sad case of Otto Warmbier, the young American student who went on a trip to North Korea, was accused of treason and then returned to his parents after a year in a vegetative state. Sadly, Otto died shortly afterwards. The news coverage of this case upset me greatly at the time and I listened to the episode in the hope of gaining some clarity about what had happened. The show provided just that and Hannah had even visited the border of South and North Korea and had some fascinating insights. All of the disturbing content is sensitively presented with a touch of humour. The episodes on Casey Anthony and Natalia Grace are literally jaw dropping. I found the episodes featuring the Grenfell Tower fire and the murder of Sarah Everard rage inducing because both tragedies could have been so easily prevented if various government officials had only done their jobs properly. Redhanded is free to listen to but you can also sign up for their Patreon and access much more content.

Thanks for reading

Samantha

Cover Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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This week I have been…

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Reading – Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

So many psychological thrillers advertised on Amazon seem to feature a missing teenage girl and her overwrought mother in their storyline. The blurb on the front cover is always the same, Heartbreaking, Addictive etc. Having read one or two of Jewell’s other books I knew that this would not be a churned-out-for-Kindle disappointment. Then She Was Gone is particularly chilling because it is, in part, narrated by her adductor. of the way then fifteen year old Ellie just appears to disappear off the face of the earth. A conscientious student, she had been gong to the library to study in peace for her GCSEs. There don’t appear to be any sightings, leads or clues as to what happened to her. Then one day, after seven agonising years, her backpack is found along with, sadly, some remains and Laurel, Ellie’s Mum, goes back down the rabbit hole of trying to figure our what happened to her “golden” daughter. There is quite a lot of girls being described as golden in this book.

The stress of Ellie’s disappearance causes Laurel’s marriage to break down and her relationships with her two remaining children suffer. Hannah, Ellie’s sister knows that she is a poor substitute for Lauren’s favourite, now dead, daughter  Laurel meets a flirtatious man called Floyd in a coffee shop and begins a tentative new romance. Her new beau is some sort of maths wizard with his own peculiar fan base. He has a seven year old, horribly precocious, daughter, Poppy, who is home schooled and behaves as though she is thirty-five.

When we learn of Ellie’s fate it is horrifying, in part, because the perpetrator is last person anybody would suspect. The cruelty and selfishness involved is staggering. The thought that we go through life brushing shoulders with people who have such sickening personality traits is terrifying. All in all a bleak page-turner that does perhaps stretch the boundaries of believability.

Watching – Saltburn on Amazon Prime Video written and directed by Emerald Fennell

My daughter saw this at the cinema and when I asked her about it she just said it was weird and that she was glad I hadn’t been watching with her! I quite like weird so decided to watch it over the Christmas break. The title Saltburn refers to the name of the stately home that Felix Catton and his photogenic and enormously rich family reside in. The first thing to mention about this black comedy is that Saltburn is full of dazzlingly beautiful people. Australian actor Jacob Elordi who plays Felix is perhaps this generation’s Robert Pattison with his aristocratic good looks and floppy dark hair. His mother, Elspeth, is played by Rosamund Pike who appears to be doing her best Joanna Lumley impersonation. The father is played in a very understated way by a dishevelled Richard E Grant. 

Felix is a student at Oxford University and catches the eye of Oliver Quick, payed by Barry Keoghan. I had previously seen Keoghan in the utterly bizarre and unsettling film The Killing of a Sacred Deer with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell. Oliver is definitely not one of the cool, elite, beautiful people and watches the fun and debauchery from the sidelines. Then one day and opportunity presents itself for him to help Felix and Oliver grabs it with both hands. In no time at all he finds himself invited to Saltburn to meet Felix’s family and once there, Oliver certainly makes an impression. He ingratiates himself with Felix’a parents, has a bizarre sexual encounter with his sister, Venetia, and manages to thoroughly usurp a cousin, Farleigh . There are a couple of, quite frankly, nauseating scenes involving blood and bathwater and this film definitely has plenty of shock value. I couldn’t help but note that, as the plot progresses, Oliver is styled to look more and more like Jude Law in one of his most famous roles. My favourite character was Duncan the butler played by Paul Rhys. His disdainful facial expressions really stole the show.

At two hours seven minutes Saltburn is quite long but doesn’t fail to hold the attention. I would have liked to have seen little more of Farleigh’s backstory, he did just seem to be a little bit of an afterthought and Carey Mullgan’s appearance as “Poor Dear Pamela” was far too brief. The end scene, set to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor, is very funny and outrageous. Keoghan does look a little too old to be playing a teenage student but we can overlook that in light of his brilliant performance.

Listening to – Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald on Itunes

After the rather heavy watching and reading choices I opted for something more light-hearted and fun to listen to this week. Heather McDonald is an American comedian best known for her work on Chelsea Lately which, I must confess, I never watched. She is also known for collapsing in the middle of a stand-up performance just after proclaiming “Jesus loves me the most” as the punchline for one of her jokes (you can watch on YouTube). The conspiracy theorists had a field day with that.

Juicy Scoop is a gossipy pop-culture show which features interesting and usually funny, guests many of them women building their own little empires within the the entertainment industry. There are stories of plastic surgery nightmares, dodgy yet hilarious modelling auditions and glamourous Hollywood parties. Have a look out for the episodes recorded with Heather’s fellow comic and friend, Chris Franjola, perfect for listening to if you just want something to make you laugh.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Cover Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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This week I have been…

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

Reading– Into The Uncanny by Danny Robins

Danny Robins presents a wonderfully spooky podcast called Uncanny. He is also the award winning journalist behind the podcast The Witch Farm and TV series and Podcast The Battersea Poltergeist. The paranormal isn’t really my usual genre but I must admit Robins’ boyishly sincere and enthusiastic presenting style makes for enjoyable listening. He is someone who desperately wants to believe in ghosts but has yet to be convinced.  As he would say, he is hovering between Team Believer and Team Sceptic. The people recounting their personal brushes with the inexplicable are often very credible; scientists, policemen, doctors and the like. Intelligent people who understand that what they have witnessed is impossible but, as the theme song to the podcast attests, they know what they saw.

Into The Uncanny is Robins’ new book which covers never heard before stories, all of them exceptionally chilling. Robins throws in a couple of personal anecdotes and, had I been the editor, I would have omitted the one about his garden shed, it’s just a bit over the top and daft. Other than that, he really is a first rate story teller. Research for this book takes him to Rome to investigate suspected poltergeist activity. Let me ask you a question, if you thought your rental property was haunted by a terrifying poltergeist would you ask a teenage boy to babysit? Then there is the perfectly normal family who had the misfortune to be left with both auditory and visual hauntings after an architectural dig disturbs something (or someone) on their land. The mother and daughter both struggled psychologically for years after these frightening events and Robins treats them very respectfully. I always wonder if the people who sell these supposedly haunted properties disclose the activity to any potential purchasers. 

Robins, possibly the Louis Theroux of the paranormal, can persuade just about anybody to let him look around their potentially haunted property and it is when he takes the original witnesses back to the scenes of the hauntings that things really start to become interesting. The book also covers some UFO activity, again with extremely credible witnesses but, for some reason, these stories don’t interest me so much. I do wonder if he wouldn’t be better to keep the green men separate from the ghosts. Overall a brilliant read and do check out Robins’ podcasts too. 

Watching – Leave The World Behind on Netflix

Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke star in this apocalyptic thriller. They play Amanda and Clay Sandford, a couple who decide to take their two children on a vacation to a luxury rental home. While in bed one night they are woken by a knock on the door and find GH Scott, the owner of the property and his daughter, Ruth, standing there in evening clothes having supposedly come from the opera. GH explains that there has been some sort of blackout and asks if they can come in and spend the night rather than driving back to the city. Amanda is immediately suspicious and Ruth, played by Myha’la, bristles at what she perceives as Amanda’s thinly veiled racism.  Does Amanda not believe that a GH, a black man, played by Mahershala Ai, can possibly be the owner of such an impressive property? To be honest, if complete strangers turned up at my door in the middle of the night begging to be let in I would be suspicious as well. Ruth and GH end up sleeping in the basement, albeit it a very nice basement, of their own house.

The plot is fairly predictable, fear and uncertainty spreads as nobody knows what is happening or who is behind the events A prepper and neighbour, played by Kevin Bacon, is all stocked up with food and medicine but brings out his shotgun when asked for help. There are a couple of genuinely shocking moments, one involving out of control Teslas and the other a gory dental scene. Overall, Leave The World Behind doesn’t offer anything that I haven’t seen a dozen times before.  It is over two hours long and I really had lost interest by the unsatisfactory ending. 

Listening to – Stories from the Village of Nothing Much on ITunes

This gorgeously relaxing podcast is written and narrated by Kathryn Nicolai. Nicolai describes herself as “an architect of cozy”, she has another podcast designed to help listeners sleep, called Nothing Much Happens which has been downloaded over one hundred million times. Listening to Nicolai’s wonderfully soothing voice is almost a form of meditation. The stories themselves are simple yet well written. In them Nicolai potters around the pretty village where her fictional self lives finding cheering things to do to brighten up the winter. Pleasure is found in simple things, a delicious cup of coffee or a browse around a Christmas market. Everybody is friendly and time spent alone is something to be cherished. This village is somewhere that I would quite like to move to myself. If you are feeling frazzled at this busy time of the year then do listen in.

Cover Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

This week I have been…

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

Reading – Manhattan Nocturne by Colin Harrison.

Do you ever think back to a book that you really enjoyed reading years ago but no longer have? You’d love to repurchase it or borrow it from the library but you can’t remember its name. This happens to me ALL the time. I first read Manhattan Nocturne on holiday in Florida in 2000. Because it is such a doorstep of a book and our luggage upon returning home was already overweight, I left in in the hotel room. Anyway, I was recently purchasing from World of Books on eBay and decided to have a browse and what was on the second page of scrolling but this long lost thriller, I immediately recognised the cover. 99p and a few days later I was able to begin re-reading this fantastic thriller.

Porter Wren, a tabloid columnist has a lovely life with his surgeon wife and two children living in their quirky “Apple Tree House” in New York. He meets a beautiful and mysterious young widow at a party who asks him to investigate the bizarre death of her film director husband. Unfortunately for Wren, somebody powerful is watching him very carefully and he soon finds himself in trouble way over his head. This is one of the most gripping thrillers I have read, or re-read, in long time. The author, Colin Harrison, is a former Editor of Harpers magazine and wrote a series of thrillers, all based around money and sex and set in New York. Bodies Electric being the next one I plan to revisit.

Watching-Six Years Gone on Amazon Prime Video

Not what you would call a cheerer-upper, this bleak but very compelling drama directed by Warren Dudley tells the story of Carrie, played by Veronica Jane Trickett. Pretty, young and carefree Carrie has a day off work so, after sending Lolly, her eleven year old daughter off to school, has a nap then a bit of afternoon delight with the local estate agent then pops in for a coffee and catch up with her friend. Carrie is relaxed knowing that her Mum, Mary, is going to pick up Lolly from school. Except that Mary forgets, nobody has realised that she has early onset dementia . Three hours pass before Carrie finds out that her daughter appears to have vanished off the face of the earth.

Suddenly it is six years later and Carrie looks absolutely ravaged by grief and desperation. She and Lolly had previously been living in a big house in Brighton paid for by her her ex-husband but he stops the money and she and Mary, now incontinent and needing constant care, live on a rough estate. Carrie is now working as cleaner and struggling to make ends meet. The men in her life, her ex husband and brother are noticeably absent when she needs assistance, and the police have been totally ineffective in finding missing Lolly.

What struck me most about the film is how, when spotting a young woman having the most miserable time, so many vulture-like people were circling to take advantage. From the manageress at the social club where Carrie cleans to the men who smell her desperation and take whatever they want from her, people are just out for themselves. The only kindness is from a bailiff who shows a little bit of compassion towards Carrie having recognised her name from the news. Be warned, Six Years Gone is a tough watch, there is one particularly harrowing scene, but utterly engrossing with fantastic performances, especially from Trickett and Sarah Priddy who plays Mary.

Listening to – Real Survival Stories Podcast

This is an absolutely addictive podcast and I have been known to drive around the block just to reach the end of a particular story. My favourite so far has been the two part tale Pacific Castaways . Douglas Robertson tells us how, in 1971, his family decided to embark on a trip around the globe in their yacht, The Lucette. After the vessel is attacked by a school of killer whales the seafarer’s dream trip becomes the stuff of nightmares and things just go from bad to worse. I think I would have abandoned all hope within the first ten minutes but not the Robertsons. This is absolutely compelling listening and, even after five decades have passed, Douglas still becomes emotional when recounting the events. This podcast is a Noiser production, I listened on Itunes.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Cover Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash