Category Archives: Review

Film Review ~ Red Sparrow (Jennifer Lawrence)

Posted on March 27, 2018 by odeboyz

Red Sparrow is a tour de force for Jennifer Lawrence. Red Sparrow is set in a Russia which hasn’t acknowledged that the Cold War has ended. All the familiar tropes are hard at work. There are assassins (Yes- pre-Salisbury), and … Continue reading →

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Book Review : Paul Murray ~ The Mark and the Void

Posted on March 20, 2018 by odeboyz

Paul Murray has written a beautiful satire on the 2008 financial crash. He sets his book in Dublin, which was a ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy, which seemed to reinvent banking and economics. Another example of millenial insanity was Iceland, which has … Continue reading →

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Film Review ~ I, Tonya (Margot Robbie and Allison Janney)

Posted on March 13, 2018 by odeboyz

Allison Janney (LaVonna Fay Golden) rightly won the 2018 best supporting actor Oscar for a stunning performance throughout I, Tonya. She’s the horror show mother of Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) who’s been cultivated since early childhood to be a champion … Continue reading →

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Book Review: George MacDonald Fraser ~ Flashman at the Charge

Posted on February 27, 2018 by odeboyz

The Flashman series is twelve books long. They were very popular in the 1970s but have faded with time. This review is therefore a review of a re-read. How does it stand up to the expectations of a former devotee? … Continue reading →

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Film Review ~ Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf)

Posted on February 20, 2018 by odeboyz

Lady Bird is a coming-of-age film with the angst of mother and daughter extremely well done. The daughter is the underachieving ‘Lady Bird’, who’s renamed herself. She’s stuck in a Catholic school in Sacramento, California. She’s dissatisfied. The school is … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Boris Akunin ~ The Coronation (Translated by Andrew Bromfield)

Posted on February 13, 2018 by odeboyz

Boris Akunin is Russia’s top-selling thriller writer. He writes historical mystery novels which are securely placed within a factual context. This one in his in Erast Fandorin series and is loosely in the Sherlock Holmes genre. It has wit, intelligence, … Continue reading →

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Film Review ~ All the money in the world (Michelle Williams and Christopher Plummer)

Posted on February 6, 2018 by odeboyz

As a signal to all #MeToo Hollywood doubters Christopher Plummer is nominated in the Oscars best supporting actor section. Presumably his nomination comes in the ‘Not Kevin Spacey’ category. The spectre of Kevin Spacey lurks in the background of this … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Ayelet Gundar-Goshen ~ Waking Lions (Translated by Sondra Silverston)

Posted on January 30, 2018 by odeboyz

Waking Lions is an Israeli novel which is very hard hitting. Israeli society isn’t normally thought of as racist but they too have an illegal immigrant ‘problem’. In this case it’s Africans and especially Eritreans who walk to Israel. Neurosurgeon … Continue reading →

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Film Review ~ Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell)

Posted on January 23, 2018 by odeboyz

Will Gompetz wrote an enthusiastic review for the BBC (referenced below) saying that Frances McDormand (Mildred Hayes) was a certainty for an Oscar. He also described Three Billboards…. as a ‘black comedy’. The first is a decent prediction but ‘black … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Iris Origo ~ War in Val d’Orcia: an Italian War Diary 1943-4

Posted on January 16, 2018 by odeboyz

Iris Origo was a wealthy American who married an Italian aristocrat in 1923. They bought nearly 9000 acres in the Val d’Orcia and began a 20th century version of a feudal relationship with their 57 farms. When war came she … Continue reading →

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