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The American Couple by Robert Olen Butler Exceptional story

  The American Couple by Robert Olen Butler Exceptional story If this were a film, there would be two lead roles and two supporting ones. In the lead roles we have a Vietnamese couple, Vienh and Gabrielle. Supporting them would be Frank and Eileen. They meet in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Both Eileen and Gabrielle have won the trip as a prize in TV game shows. Gabrielle is very astute and she can generally guess what is behind the face, gestures and acts of a person. She is so good that it seems her husband is uneasy knowing this ability to read behind whatever he does. Well, almost everything he endeavors to do. Vinh appears somewhat annoying, with complaints about the road from the hotel to the airport and a general attitude of disapproval, even if he paid nothing for a vacation that looks so enticing for an ordinary man. Gabrielle is very observant and identifies other personages present at the hotel as winners of various games. But she gets to know Eileen and they somehow initiate...
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The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams

The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams Excellent   What a great play! And there is also a movie based on the work of Tennessee Williams. All the characters are fascinating, except perhaps for the “pool boys”, who are torturing the iguana, albeit on orders from their boss. Shannon is at the center of it all. He is the rugged man, with plenty of vices and failures- perhaps we could even call him “loser” in some ways. And yet he is the coveted prize that three women want, all the major female personages, including a supporting role. Reverend Lawrence Shannon has been defrocked and ever since he had spoken out in a sermon that had offended people and got him out of the church, he works in the travel business. At the beginning of the play, we meet Shannon as he is taking a group of women to the hotel run by his friend Maxine Faulk. As a tour guide, he has managed to upset the leader, who is concerned by the relationship between Shannon and young Charlotte Goodall. The fact is tha...
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What Keeps You Alive, written and directed by Colin Minihan Seven out of 10

  What Keeps You Alive, written and directed by Colin Minihan Seven out of 10 Up to a point, this is an interesting, different, perhaps modern, somewhat unusual thriller that the critics have so far appreciated, if not exuberantly. First, the main characters are women, which is a welcome change and a premise that has been called for in a world where heroes have mostly been male- that is wrong, it was not mostly, overwhelmingly or even totally and this is still the case. However, important as the female figures are for the plot – indeed, even one of the two other personages of this motion picture that appear on the screen is also a woman – they are not the epitome of the role model…one might venture to say that not even the victim would embody all that is positive, desirable and humane, if we don’t condone vengeance as sanctionable. Hannah Emily Anderson portrays Jackie and Brittany Allen is Jules. Jackie and Jules travel to the forest, near a beautiful lake where the former used to...
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Into the Woods, based on the musical by James Lapine 8.6 out of 10

  Into the Woods, based on the musical by James Lapine 8.6 out of 10 If musicals and/or children stories are your cup of tea, then you will love this film...assuming of course that you read this note and then look for it. Otherwise, the merit of the film would rest with the spectacular cast, led by Emily Blunt, nominated for a Golden Globe and other trophies for this role, and the iconic Meryl Streep, shortlisted for the Oscar and other prizes for her performance. The latter is an impressive Witch - with rather flamboyant blue hair on my screen - that is in conflict with Emily Blunt aka the Baker's Wife and her husband aka James Corden, who also voices the narrator. In order to annul a spell, The Witch asks The Baker and his Wife to gather four items, a white cow, a special coat among them, or else have a terrible curse set upon them. All this involves in incursion into other children stories, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and more. The cocktail is enticing at times, bold and da...
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Green for Danger, based on the novel by Christianna Brand Eight out of 10

  Green for Danger, based on the novel by Christianna Brand Eight out of 10 Green for Danger is an excellent thriller, launched in 1946. The film is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list: https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/checklist/9 The crime story begins in an operating theater, during World War II, when a patient named Joseph Higgins is brought in. Doctor Eden is the surgeon operating; Doctor Barnes aka the excellent Trevor Howard is the anesthesiologist. A few nurses are helping: Sister Bates, Sister Carter, Nurse Sanson, Nurse Linly and Nurse Woods. Even if the condition of the patient was not serious, he dies, even before any surgery is performed. Furthermore, before being sedated, he cries out that he recognizes a voice, just as nurse Woods was talking. Given the strange circumstance of the case, a suspicious death, Doctor White, who is in charge, wants to take steps. He asks Doctor Barnes is he would consider...
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Father’s Little Dividend directed by Vincente Minnelli was the 1952 Winner WGA Award (Screen)for Best Written American Comedy, given by the Writers’ Guild, and it was also the 1951 Nominee for The Directors’ Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, but otherwise it is not as if you must look this seventy four years old feature and see it, I was amused to think that neither is this note so marvelous, indeed, I should try and put in lines only of forgotten books and films, except I invite you to visit my blog and/or YouTube channel, where I have more than five thousand notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other pages, plus another five thousand reviews on magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html maybe you have something to say

Imagine
  Father’s Little Dividend directed by Vincente Minnelli was the 1952 Winner WGA Award (Screen)for Best Written American Comedy, given by the Writers’ Guild, and it was also the 1951 Nominee for The Directors’ Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, but otherwise it is not as if you must look this seventy four years old feature and see it, I was amused to think that neither is this note so marvelous, indeed, I should try and put in lines only of forgotten books and films, except I invite you to visit my blog and/or YouTube channel, where I have more than five thousand notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other pages, plus another five thousand reviews on magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html maybe you have something to say     7 out of 10   Vincente Minnelli was a fabulous film maker, even ...
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Nightmare Town by Dashiell Hammett

  Nightmare Town by Dashiell Hammett We have one surprise after another -              And men fall down, if not like flies, at least in an unusual number -              But hey, this is the Nightmare Town, remember? Dashiell Hammett is best known for The Maltese Falcon that has been included on the TIME list of best novels. And adapted for the big screen, with Humphrey Bogart in the title role, a super star that liked to whine- I have learned recently. At the beginning of this story, a Ford car nearly kills a woman…and not just once, but twice, even if only unintentionally. The driver is so drunk that he cannot stand on his feet and tries to challenge the Marshall, when he arrives to take him. This will be our hero, albeit he does not look the part, with all this behavior there would be no Sam Spade. Nevertheless, once sober, the man is the best we can ...
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