Best Books & Fabulous Films

Reviews and More

Going to Hell and Back again: Good Omens

By Veronika M. Heinrich

Good Omens LogoHave you ever won­dered what it would be like if the writ­ers of a show gave their fans exact­ly what they wished for – and then broke their hearts?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m com­plete­ly amazed by sea­son 2 of the com­e­dy series, Good Omens. Ever since sea­son 4 of BBC’s Sher­lock, I lost my faith in showrun­ners who allowed queer­bait­ing and gaslight­ing. That is, until sea­son 2 of Good Omens came along. If you haven’t watched it yet, beware of spoilers!

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Behind the Scenes with Tom Hanks

By Sebastian Tants-Boestad

Do you love going to the movies? Do you enjoy watch­ing ‘Behind the Scenes’ clips and doc­u­men­taries? Do you like a good nov­el? If you can answer any of these ques­tions with yes, you should at least con­sid­er putting Tom Han­ks’ debut nov­el, The Mak­ing of Anoth­er Major Motion Pic­ture Mas­ter­piece, on your to-read pile. If you can answer all of them with yes, you should prob­a­bly go and read it right now. (But fin­ish this review first.)

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Dear Ocean Vuong, Your Writing Is Gorgeous

By Charlina Strelow

Is it okay to dog-ear or write in your books? This ques­tion remains a heat­ed top­ic among read­ers. I always thought it was stu­pid to care what oth­ers did with their books but pre­ferred to leave mine in their orig­i­nal state.

This all changed for me when I start­ed read­ing Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gor­geous. Vuong’s words were so beau­ti­ful­ly con­struct­ed that sim­ply read­ing them didn’t feel enough. I want­ed to force myself to linger. I want­ed to embrace the parts that had touched me, want­ed to firm­ly secure the pas­sages I’d lat­er return to.

Or, less dra­mat­i­cal­ly, I want­ed to mark my book.

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The Emotional Men of The Flash (2014–2023)

By Veronika M. Heinrich

Pow! Smash! Punch! Those are expres­sions that eas­i­ly come to mind when think­ing of a super­hero. This is because heroes like Super­man or Bat­man tra­di­tion­al­ly solve their prob­lems with lots of action, some­times even with vio­lence. In the CW show The Flash, Bar­ry Allen aka The Flash takes a dif­fer­ent approach – he tries to under­stand the vil­lains’ back­sto­ries, and if there’s a pos­si­bil­i­ty for redemp­tion, he takes it. But this series doesn’t stop there – many of its char­ac­ters dis­play healthy mas­culin­i­ty. So maybe there’s anoth­er way to save the day.

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Jury Duty’s Ronald Gladden or How to Accidentally Become a Star

By Charlina Strelow

Remem­ber “The Tru­man Show,” the icon­ic 90s movie star­ring Jim Car­rey who slow­ly real­izes that his entire life is being filmed against his will and broad­cast to a mass audi­ence? Well, imag­ine that, but make it true this time.

The set­ting:

Los Ange­les. Four­teen peo­ple are called in for jury duty. Jury duty is part of America’s judi­cial sys­tem where ran­dom­ly select­ed U.S. cit­i­zens are required – unless excused – to appear in court and take part in a case’s verdict.

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Oktoberfest Beer and Blood Serves Up German Debauchery in Six Episodes

By Raul Quinque

 

My Tent is My Cas­tle, or, How a Volks­fest Out­grew its Roots. Cred­it: Okto­ber­fest 2013 — Munich Ger­many by Shut­ter­bug Fotos

What would Ger­many be with­out the Okto­ber­fest? Def­i­nite­ly not worse off, I’d say. Under most cir­cum­stances, I couldn’t be tempt­ed to watch a his­tor­i­cal dra­ma series with the Okto­ber­fest as a back­drop, but the Munich Wiesn innkeep­ers’ irate respons­es to the series have piqued my inter­est. Appar­ent­ly, they feel that the Wiesn is hal­lowed ground and that its past and present virtue must not be dis­graced. So lo and behold and with­out fur­ther ado, I present Okto­ber­fest Beer and Blood.

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