Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - Blinded By The Light

I missed this one when it played at the cinema last year, cos you can't see everything, although now with hardly any movie theaters open I miss going out to see a movie.    Blinded By The Light is the story of Javed Khan, a teenage Muslim boy living in Luton, England during the 1980s.  With unemployment high and racism prevalent,   Javed is searching for love and trying to figure out his future.   One day, his friend gives him a Bruce Springsteen cassette to listen to, and he finds his life and plans about to change.

This is the type of movie that the British do so well, the feel good rise above it type story, with real characters and a bit of grittiness to give it some realism.  I did get annoyed when they were saying he finished his end of summer job, when he arrived home with a tree outside that had spring blossoms on it.  At least the 1980s fashion was spot on, shouldno garish day glo, but lots of dull sweatshirts and baggy jeans.  4/5

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - The Goldfinch

I picked up the book this movie was based on, when it came out, and only made it through 20 pages or so before discarding it.  So bravely, I thought maybe the movie would be better for me - but nope.  Boring.  Theo is with his mother at the museum when she is killed in a bombing, and he leaves with a famous picture.  He is damaged - of course and struggles as a teen and an adult to deal with everything. 

It seemed to me that the movie missed on so many points.  So many speeches and moments, that were all disconnected and lacking in real emotion with sad girls and crocodile tears.  So even at 99c this one was not really worth the ticket price.  2/5

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - Crawl

So its raining and dark outside and I'm not going outside after watching this movie.  There is a hurricane blowing into Florida and Haley goes in search of her father.  As the water rises it is not just the storm they need to watch out for.  I hope I can sleep tonight.  3.5/5

The Oceans Between Us - Gill Thompson

Jack is five when a bomb explodes in his London home during the war, and he is separated from his mother Molly.  Sent to Australia as part of a child migrant scheme it is hard for him to adjust to his changed circumstances and he wonders if he will ever see his mother again.

Based on real life events. I found this book easy to read and I did have an interest in the characters, but found it a bit predictable in parts.  3/5

Music Monday - Wings - Birdy (live)

Just beautiful and she was only 17 singing this.  Amazing.

Breaking & Mending - Joanna Cannon

I like a good medical memoir, and Joanna Cannon writes a compelling story.  I liked that she started medical school in her 30s and was a "wild card" pick for her position.  As always there are nice stories about patients but it is the power of the personal experience that draws you in.  How close she came to burning out completely, how doctors working long hours in stressful circumstances with little to no support are often themselves worn out and tired, when we need them to be in top form when they are looking after us or our loved ones.  4/5

A Dream of Italy - Nicky Pellegrino

I was happy to read this bit of escapism during lockdown.  The story of three groups of people who are searching for something and all apply to pay one Euro for a home in a remote Italian mountain village.  They all travel to visit their new homes, and reading this book I got the sense of warm summer evenings, red wine and yummy Italian food, and it made me want to pack my bags and move.  Except you can't go anywhere at the moment anyways. 4/5

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - The Hollars

Say what?  Two nights in a row watching movies.   It's a new crazy world and I figure I can do what I want.  Actually there were a couple of shows on tv, but I find it better to record the whole series and then binge watch it, as I seem to follow the story much better that way.  Middle aged lady memory has trouble following the plot weeks apart.

So this was another 99c special on itunes, and I had to watch it as it only had 2 days left before I lost my money.  I knew nothing about this one going in, which sometimes offers up a small surprise.  This is the story of John Hollar a 30ish year old, who returns to his home town when his mum becomes sick.  Although a familiar story it has it's own charms.  A grumpy father and dysfunctional brother seem more humanized and realistic than other movies.  Sad and sweet in equal measure, it was pretty quick to watch and not too memorable.  3.5/5

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - Midsommar

Yippee the small independent cinemas have opened this weekend, although with social distancing there is some limits on the amount of people allowed at the movie.  The big multiplex chains have indicated that they will not be ready to open up until July.  I like the small independent Lighthouse cinema as you are unlikely to have anyone there under 25, and few cellphones and no popcorn, which suits this middle aged movie goer.  They are only playing movies that were on 7 weeks ago at the moment, and I will try and avoid crowds for a while.

So it is a Saturday night on the couch for me.  Midsommar played at last years film festival, but it was one I skipped although there is a special kind of thrill watching a horror with a big group of fans.  I am not sure that I totally got the whole story, but it was a departure from the other types of horror movies I have seen, and almost felt like a throwback to early genres.  A group of American friends travel to a midsummer festival in Sweden, set in a picture perfect set of meadows and hills, with a cast of beautiful Swedish folk.  Of course the once in a 90 year festival is involving a bit of killing.

I am not sure that I can stomach to much of the horror/thriller genre anymore.  This middle aged lady can't quite take the blood and gore, and even the scary music is a bit too much.  Luckily the laptop is a bit of a distraction while the movie plays.  3/5

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - Maiden

This one only played a couple of times at our 2019 international film festival.  I then missed it on its reshowing at the arthouse cinema, so was pleased to find it as a 99c special on itunes a couple of weeks ago.  So now was the time to sit down and watch it.   Especially thinking that it is unlikely that there will be a festival this year.

Maiden is the story of Tracy Edwards and her mission to have an all womens team sailing in the Whitbread around the world sailing race in 1989.  You think a film about sailing would be boring, but there is tension and action and I found it an interesting watch to see the type of sexism that women faced 30 years ago, and still face in the sports world which is dominated by men, who still do not consider women as equals.  4/5

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - Ad Astra

Oh Brad Pitt I can tell that you are a deep thinker.  There are so many more wrinkles on your forehead and you spend a lot of time doing the silent look away look in this movie from the Joey Tribiani school of acting.  Sending you into space in this movie was a good way of helping to fix my insomnia - that and a couple of Southern Comforts and L&P.  It is a movie that is mostly quiet with a few action sequences, but the silences of space and large vistas helped me to nodd off.  I was trying to make my living room like a cinema, and turn the lights off because movie theaters seem a long way off. 

Even you were not enough to sell me this story of quiet heroics.  Of facing your distant father, and of finding out what is important in life.  All the big questions.  I bet you could save us all though Brad.  I hope you do.  Can you invent a vaccine?  Can you beat the virus?  That's a movie I'd watch.  2/5

Music Monday - Let It Go - James Bay & Lewis Capaldi

I found this one on youtube and have been re watching it over and over the past week.  I have a special respect for artists that sound better live than their recorded versions.  I'm all about the soothing music at the moment.  Nothing too loud or crazy.  I'm wondering how long it will be before we can see live music again or when bands will tour?  I imagine it will be ages.

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - Ben-Hur

It was cold and wet in the city tonight and so after an afternoon nap and a delicious dinner of chicken curry and rice,  I planted my middle aged butt on the couch ready to watch some shows.  Ben-Hur was playing on the box, and as I had memories of watching Charlton Heston in the 70s play this iconic role, I switched this one on to watch it.  Made in 2016, it has the big scenes and the nadsome male actors, and a couple of female roles that had been expanded.  Somehow though in the telling of this big story, the personal story, was somewhat diminished and it felt a bit  busy and  over acted.  There were very few soft, quiet moments that make it a great movie.  Thinking of Russell Crowe in the field of wheat in Gladiator.  I did like the clothes and jewelry though - very nomad and of the moment.  2.5/5

Brother & Sister - Diane Keaton

This short book feels like an extended part of a memoir telling the story of Diane Keaton and her relationship with her younger brother Randy.  As soon as Diane started talking about how Randy was when he was younger of not being particularly social, being disturbed by planes it made me wonder if he was autistic?  Although they were two years apart in age, the only time they seemed close was when they were young and sharing a room together, and as they grew older they grew more and more apart with separate lives.

This felt like a very brave book, as Diane describes her brothers struggles with alcohol and depression, especially as he is still alive, but living in a care home.  I found it quite confronting when her and her sisters were a bit pushy and  forced him to go ahead with a liver transplant, when the doctors were aware that he was unlikely to give up drinking or be compliant with his medication.  In the end I think the book is a story about loving someone when the loving isn't easy, when they aren't easy to love, but looking after them and loving them for all of their faults.  4/5

The German Midwife - Mandy Robotham

This novel is a bit of an alternative fiction about a young Midwife Anke, who is using her skills to help young women deliver their babies in the horrors of Ravensbruk Camp.  Her skills are recognized and she is plucked away to assist another woman in private, and finds herself and her family at risk if anything goes wrong.

A short novel, it does a good job of telling a somewhat complex story without weighing it down with too much detail.  I liked that the plot of Ankes backstory is spread out along the story, and I did like her as a character, while feeling slightly uncomfortable with the subject material.  4/5