The Literate Kitty

If all you had to go by was what you know of my reading and watching habits, you might assume I'm a grim, humorless thing. (In reality, that couldn't be farther from the truth, but like I said... going by the stuff that pulls me in, you'd be forgiven for assuming so.) But sometimes, even I'm surprised by how dark something is.  If  " Hinterland "-- which I've finally gotten around to watching--were a color, it might be a super-dark and utterly-depressing shade of green, like sodden, rotting vegetation. Or maybe it would be a blue so murky and opaque that it was nearly black, like the bottom of the ocean. That's how the characters in " Hinterland " strike me. There is, you see, no smiling in " Hinterland ". Seriously. I've watched all but the last couple of episodes, and I can't remember anyone smiling. Now, maybe-- surely(!) --someone showed a smidgeon of humor, for a split second, at some point... but if that...

"Movie Monday"... In a   surprising (and pretty damn bold) move, someone, somewhere made the decision to forego the upcoming April theatrical release of the third film in the " Cloverfield " family, bumping it to air immediately after 2018's Super Bowl (Feb 4, if American football isn't your thing)... on Netflix.  Say what? A Cloverfield anything, getting the "Do-Not-Pass-Go-or-Stop-Anywhere (meaning those High-Dollar-Houses-o'-Films)-but-Go-Straight-to-Streaming" treatment? Yup. That. It'll be plenty interesting to follow the fallout from this decision, and to see whether or not this gamble pays off in a big way. In the meantime, though, what about "The Cloverfield Paradox" ...   since we did, after all, get it a full two-plus months early? Eh, that's a tricky one. There's plenty to like about "Paradox" , to be sure. It's shiny and pretty and has some nifty effects. The cast is, mostly, interes...

"What I'm Reading Wednesday/Travel Thursday"... With two other books currently in progress (I know, I know--" pick one and finish it, Ms. Fickle! "), the only thing I've managed to go cover-to-cover on over the past couple of weeks has been a travel guide. (Didn't see that one coming, did you? 😄)  Why's that, you ask? Because for the first time in nearly 2.5 years, this gal is goin' on holiday! Better yet, my two-city/two-country itinerary is gonna put me smack-dab in the midst of two of the "Happiest Countries in the World"(yeah, it's a thing, and America is NOT in the Top Ten), which actually makes me happier just thinking about it. (The only downside is, I may not want to come back ... aside from the boycat, that is, as he'll be "guarding the fort" [😂] whilst I'm away.) Sweden and Denmark, here I come! So... quickie review of said tour book, Lonely Planet Pocket Stockholm , by Becky Olsen.  Since m...

"Fitness Friday"... Just a fast funny, today... I do a lot of my workouts at home ( more about that in a future post ), which means there's ample opportunity for the Ragdoll Photobomber™(😆) to do his thing. (Which he does, quite well.) Abs & a Boycat...  ~GlamKitty

For me, one of the best movie trends from the ‘80s and ‘90s was the rash of “buddy-cop” films. (Think your “Beverly Hills Cops”, “Lethal Weapons”, and“Die Hards”.) What made those movies, in particular, so much fun—and better than others in the same genre—is that they knew what they were about, then executed it. The macho butting-of-heads early on between partners who had somehow gotten stuck working together? Yep. Exciting action (fights and chases) scenes? Check. Interesting stories (that weren’t so complicated you needed to take notes to keep track)? Roger that. Humorous banter aplenty? Absolutely. And finally, a sense that these two characters actually grew to kind of like (or at least, tolerate) each other--became buds--by the time the credits rolled? Definitely. When I sat down to watch “Bright” (a Netflix Original movie) last month, it wasn’t with high hopes. The trailer looked lame, frankly—a muddled mess that didn’t seem to know what it was trying to be. Plus, ...

It’s our nature to be sympathetic to others—particularly when they’re going through something horrific. (We could have a big discussion about whether it’s really that altruistic of us, or if the truth is more that we’re just relieved it’s them and not us—which in turn frees us up to feel badly for them—but let’s just leave it as a basic human response for our purposes here.) The first season of “ The Missing ” (which originally aired on BBC One and Starz, but is now available to stream on Amazon) gives an intelligent, thoughtful look at what happens when a child vanishes… what the terrifying experience is like for the parents, how the police proceed, how the media respond, and how everyone else in the vicinity is affected. So, the basics: A couple from the UK, Tony and Emily Hughes, head off to France with their 5-year-old son Oliver for a holiday, in 2006. What seems like a fun little getaway for the threesome in a charming small town soon turns to disaster, though, when Oli...

“ If you’re gonna butcher something, you might as well butcher the  $h*t out of it, ” must’ve been director Tomas Alfredson’s mantra during the making of “The Snowman” … because there is No. Other. Way. to explain how a project with this much potential— based on a Scandi-noir bestseller! with legit star power! Scorcese! —could’ve gone so tragically wrong. Seriously, this adaptation of Jo Nesbø’s thriller goes wrong, right out of the gate. In the first scene, a boy calls another character “Jonas” (with a hard “j”, like saying the word “joy”). What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, nothing… if this film were set somewhere in America (which it isn’t), or if Jonas and the boy in question were Americans (which they aren’t). No, “The Snowman” takes place in Norway, with almost-entirely Norwegian characters (including these two), meaning “Jonas” would’ve rolled off the boy’s tongue with a “y” sound (as in the word “yo-yo”). An off-putting directorial choice, which—as it turns ou...