Film Review: 'Beauty and the Beast'

A fortnight ago, I took the train North, ready to begin a week away from uni in the comfort of my family home. I knew I had a lot of coursework etc. to work on while I was there, and my friends from home weren't yet finished with college and uni because my uni gets off earlier (which means I'm now back in the library slogging through an essay, or not, while they are relaxing!). Anyway, in order to catch up with each other we made plans to have dinner out and go to the cinema to see the new Disney live action film Beauty and the Beast.

I had SO been looking forward to it. Firstly, I loved the live action remake of Cinderella a couple of years ago and so reckoned this one would be up my street too - as much as I love the originals, I've always been more into films with actors as opposed to animations. And, secondly, it was starring Emma Watson who I have a slight girl-crush on haha.

On the run up to our night out, I had watched lots of trailers, clips, and interviews with Emma Watson on Youtube, and was getting very excited!

In the restaurant beforehand, my friend told me that the beast was being played by Dan Stevens, who played Matthew Crawley in 'Downton Abbey' - another of my obsessions! This made it even better!

The film was just beautiful and captivating from start to finish. It was perhaps due to how good a mood I was in anyway, but I just adored every minute, and even found myself tearing up towards the
end.


I don't think I really need to include a brief summary... the story of Beauty and the Beast is pretty well known! I'm also not sure that this will be a particularly balanced review - it met all of my expectations and I can feel myself gushing!

Emma Watson portrayed a very beautiful, strong, kind and intelligent Belle - she was very much determined to keep Belle independent, and not for her to appear intimidated or manipulated by men, the beast or otherwise!

Dan Stevens conveyed the perfect mix of anguish, anger, frustration, but also love, tenderness and vulnerability. You do not get to see him in full human form until right at the end, and its a magical moment.

The character of Gaston, played by Luke Evans, was the perfectly stupid yet charming villain, not too over the top, but just enough that he was a real Disney baddy! His side-kick LeFou, played by Josh Gad, was hilarious, as were the pair as a comedy duo. I liked that LeFou was openly gay, something I honestly probably wouldn't even have picked up on as a viewer if it wasn't for the fact that there was lots of controversy surrounding the subject in the media coverage prior to release - which is the way it should be, not the controversy but the complete integration of such a fact that it doesn't draw major attention, in my opinion of course.

I loved all the animated items of furniture and crockery - it was so cool that the features of the actors who voiced them were present in their faces! I particularly enjoyed the dynamic between these characters - the chirpiness and feelings of hope and unconditional love despite tragedy.

The music was phenomenal - possibly one of my favourite Disney soundtracks actually. Some people I know were upset that the actors cast were not first and foremost singers, and perhaps were slightly autotuned in the recording process (I don't known that this is the case, I am simply repeating criticism I have heard).

However, it was clear to me that all of the actors could, at least to some extent, sing and dance, and their voices complimented each other beautifully, so I didn't have a particular issue with the casting (although I suppose I do see where such critics are coming from). I have re-listened to many of the songs since, with my favourite being 'Something There' between Belle and Beast, closely followed, of course, by Mrs. Pott's 'Tale as Old as Time'.

I won't include spoilers, but it is fair to say that the last scene is sooooo enchanting. Not overly soppy, not 'oh and then everyone got married and snogged and lived happily ever after' rubbish. But implied, so beautifully, so heart-warmingly.

I have never been twice to see the same film in the cinema, at least I don't think I have. However, I must say I have been exceptionally tempted with this one and who knows, it may still happen, there's time yet!

The perfect pick-me-up, and a must-see.

Book Review: 'All My Friends are Superheroes' by Andrew Kaufman

So, some of you may remember that, around the time of my 20th birthday back in January, I set myself a challenge to read 21 novels for pleasure before I turn 21 at the beginning of 2018. We are now at April, and this is my first review, and it is a very short novel too!

I am currently studying a module in Comparative Literature at university. This semester we are reading and discussing plays, a new one every week. I am really enjoying it, as I don't read much in the way of drama for pleasure, but have always enjoyed theatre and studying it at school etc. However, the reading takes up a fair amount of time, hence my lack of other reading. It has been wonderful to be surrounded with books on such a regular basis though, only thing that keeps me sane haha! I'll get there though, with the challenge I mean.  I do have a 16 week summer coming up after all!!

Anyway, I downloaded this book for my kindle before going on holiday last July and never got round to reading it until recently. It was a recommendation from the actress and Youtuber Carrie Hope Fletcher, as she has previously named it her favourite book.

Before starting it, I really had no idea what to expect. As I had bought it for my Kindle, I knew nothing about the length, and hadn't even read the blurb as I would with a physical book.

Brief Summary: All of Tom's friends, acquaintances, and even wife are in fact superheroes. The novel tells the story of how Tom became invisible to his wife, and how he must strive to make her see him before he loses her forever, interjected with descriptions of many of Tom's superhero friends: who they are, their superpower, and how they discovered their abilities.

This has to be one of the strangest books I've ever read. It's just bizarre. There is an assumption from the beginning that to be a superhero is perfectly possibly, like there is no explanation for their inclusion or existence, it's just a thing?!

What I love about it is I think there are so many different ways people could interpret this story, and so many different things that different people could take from it.

For me, it was very much about labels. What characteristics and quirks we define ourselves by, how others define us, how we perceive others to define us, and how we define other people. It was a discussion around the idea of our prominent characteristics, whether good or bad, being our superpowers, being our strengths and our challenges and basically our identities. And whether or not we should embrace them, and allow ourselves to be defined by certain things, or fight them.

In that sense, I felt that the book put across a very powerful message which didn't necessary provide answers, but made you think about the function and power of labels.

On the other hand, it could just be read as a rather quirky superhero story with lots of weird and wonderful and abnormal characters, rather than normal people.

The book did make a distinction between superheroes and non-superheroes, but for me also made the point that we are ALL superheroes, so I don't know if perhaps it suggested that to be a superhero we must admit to or embrace what makes us unique and individual, or if I've read more into that than I needed to?!

It's a bit of an odd one to explain, but it doesn't take long to read and I doubt you'll ever read anything similar to it, so if I were you I'd just give it a go!

I personally don't think I could ever call it my favourite book because I don't feel like a lot happens! But I certainly appreciate it as a very creative and amusing discussion of serious topics, which despite its short length is engaging and emotional and captivating all at once. Just read it. Go on, you know you want to.

Catriona


Reading Challenge: 1/21

Film Review: La La Land

This will probably be quite a short review, because, as usual, I left it way too long after watching to get round to writing about it, and also because I have a VERY long to-do list unfortunately (including some more blog posts though!)

I had been wanting to see this film since its release and had made plans with friends to see it several times, which kept falling through! Eventually, after a horrible, long week of uni deadlines, my flatmate and I decided to spend our Sunday in Dundee for a bit of shopping, lunch and cinema. It was a MUCH NEEDED treat.

The hype around this had been huge, and at this point it was nominated for a lot of awards (we went on the Sunday afternoon before the Oscars and all the drama with Moonlight and mix-ups ... if you didn't hear about this then you can read about it in this BBC news article ).

Anyway, despite all of the coverage I realised as we entered the cinema that I actually had very little idea what it was about. All I knew was that it starred Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, was a musical, allegedly had beautiful music, was very emotional and was supposedly rather beautiful! So it sounded right up my street!

Brief Summary: Mia is an aspiring actress, waitressing while she auditions over and over again in LA, and Sebastian is a jazz musician and phenomenal pianist who struggles to keep jobs working as restaurant entertainment, but dreams of opening his own jazz club. The two meet, but can they both love each other and achieve their very separate dreams?

From the very first number it was.. well ... a bit odd! Not in a bad way, but the big, lively opening song appeared to have no real correlation to the rest of the plot.

The music WAS pretty beautiful, and I loved the costumes too. There wasn't really much of a story though! The pair were strangers one minute and in love the next, and the only real climactic point of action was when Mia decided she wants to quit acting, but Sebastian insists she go to the big audition. I make a rule of not including major spoilers, but I will say that that was both a good and bad decision on his part!

It was a love story, and at times that was beautiful, but to be honest I don't think you actually felt connected enough as a viewer to the characters' relationship to root for their love.

What I did root for was their goals. The moments depicting struggle and ambition were particularly heart-warming. Especially Mia's big audition song, "The Fool's Who Dream". I will always relate to the idea of trying to 'make it' in the artistic world, to self doubt, to wondering if its worth it, and I think La La Land, and both Stone and Gosling, depicted these struggles beautifully.

On a side-note, I LOVED

Emma Stone's reaction to

winning her Oscar...

she just seemed so genuine,

like she truly could not believe it!

The dancing, which had been one of the main focuses of the hype, was a little underwhelming! It wasn't that adventurous, and was a bit samey throughout! The idea of two people spontaneously dancing, while a little odd, was pretty romantic though. I particularly enjoyed the museum scene, it was fairly breath-taking.

Finally, I'm afraid I wasn't a fan of the ending. I mean, it wasn't awful... without giving it away, its not a cliché fairy-tale ending, but it is happy in its own way. I just didn't like the way it was done. Like, the whole film is about the couple and let's just say that in an annoyingly short space of time, Mia moves on VERY QUICKLY! Like, who even was that guy at the end?! Rant over.

Overall, I think it was a nice film, and sections of it really were magical and inspiring, but I actually found myself laughing at bits that weren't meant to be funny, just because they were kind of bizarre! I do, however, want to see it again when its on DVD or Netflix, just because I think it's one of those films that could really do with a second watch. Not my favourite film, and I struggle to understand how it got quite that many awards, but certainly a nice feel good for the end of a busy week!

Positive Labels (#IWD17)

The amount of time its taken me to post again is shameful! Not for lack of ideas, as I have a note on my phone that I've been adding to for well over a month, just due to laziness! And the fact that, as I'm a student with very reading and writing heavy courses, my 'free' time is usually spent on Netflix! And getting involved in an increasing number of extra-curricular activities, because I wouldn't be me if I didn't haha.

Once again, I find myself returning to my blog at a time when I couldn't be busier academically! Anything for procrastination. But recently a number of things have contributed to me feeling really creative: reading good books and visiting bookshops; helping out at the local poetry festival; listening to the new Ed Sheeran album; and many other things! To be honest, being a student here in itself is very creatively stimulating. With Spring Break approaching, I'm really looking forward to getting away for a wee while and spending time with family, but every day I'm reminded in some way of how much I love the environment I'm lucky enough to find myself in at the moment. I also thought that bashing out a few rough blog posts (in true 'Draft One' style!) while sitting in a busy library might loosen the writers' block threatening to lower my productivity, and then I might finally get cracking on my essay!

Well, that was some intro! I think this will be one of those rather rambley posts... sorry! This academic year I've really pushed myself to get involved in lots of student activities: the student newspaper, swimming club, student ambassadors, orchestra, trad and folk society, foreign affairs society and a part time job are just a selection of the things I've got involved in my time at university so far. I figure, time here seems to fly by, so I better make the most of it!

It was the annual FAS 'Summit'/conference at the beginning of February that got me note-taking for this post, but honestly I'm not 100% sure what exactly it was I wanted to say, so please bear with me!

The  conference was entitled 'World of Women: Freedom to Succeed Summit'. And I must say, as you can imagine, it was pretty darn inspiring. Since I decided just to listen and enjoy the speeches, I didn't take notes so I won't go into details about what exactly was said, but it was essentially all about empowering women and inspiring stories from across the world. There were reps from many walks of life, from a women who helped found a company producing reusable female hygiene products for impoverished communities, to a woman accountant and business coach, to a lawyer specialising in female Muslim cases, a female representative from NATO,  a student who set up a society aiming to enable female students to believe themselves capable of independent financial security and a well-known journalist, among others. The one thing missing, in my opinion, was a male perspective on the many roles of women in our world. But I suppose not everyone would agree, and it may not have totally fitted with the programme for the day.

Yesterday (March 8th) was International Women's Day, and I spent much of the day pondering what that meant, and if I was a fan! It's similar to the issues I encountered when considered my views on Feminism (see my post called 'I am a Feminist... I think'). Why do we have an International Women's Day? Are we encouraging a binary gender divide and inequality by dedicating a day to women? I'm
not going to claim that those issues are totally cleared up in my head, and everyone is entitled to their view, but I have generally come to the conclusion that raising awareness about the importance of gender equality and the continuing lack of it visible so often in our world is never a bad thing. We just wouldn't exist without distinct roles in society, and certainly without the women in our world. And their achievements and goals and dreams are no more whimsical or idealistic than any man's. Plus, I got to tweet one of my fave old pics of my Mum and I, and celebrate a woman who made me who I am, and I love that.

I don 't think there's much benefit to me getting any soppier, but I'm glad we had #IWD to make us stop and think of these issues. And there was one more point I wanted to touch on. If you read my review of the book 'All the Bright Places' you may remember that, for me, it brought up the problematic issue of 'labelling' and how one of the main characters was caused to really retreat within himself and refuse help as a result of fear surrounding labelling. It was something that certainly struck a chord with me at the time, and must have stayed with me because I thought of it again during this conference, but this time with far more positive connotations...

I was recently speaking to my Mum via Whatsapp, and talking about how I was busy conducting some interviews for the student newspaper, and in her reply she referred to me as a "budding journalist" or "aspiring journalist" or something along those lines. On reflection, as a teenager I definitely shied away from embracing any label that committed me to role or profession, that made me sound productive or successful. Y'know, I'd always answer with "not really" or "haha" or "muuuum... stop being so embarrassing!"  I don't think that that is uncommon.

But sitting in that conference, I suddenly realised that I am proud to call myself an "aspiring journalist", or anything else that reflects my goals and hard work. Because they can change and adapt, but its ok to admit what I want right now and believe it to be possible.

I'm not sure how much sense I've made, but I really should get back to essay writing! To all my fellow lassies out there, dream big, let those dreams become a part of your identity, and keep kicking ass! There you go, my advice in a nutshell!

Catriona x

21 by 21

I turned 20 on Sunday. 20, wow.

Maybe a wow seems a bit of an exaggerated reaction to a birthday that isn't particularly special, but to me 20 was the first birthday that really seemed like a wow. I felt weird about not being a teen anymore! Thankfully, my preceding bummed out feeling was cured by a lovely birthday weekend spent at home with friends and family. And I know that I'm still young, and to feel old is a bit silly. But still, wow. Enough of my premature aging worries- right now I've got to enjoy being 20!! Plus, this post really wasn't supposed to be about my birthday haha....

If you've followed this blog for any time at all, you'll know that I'm a fan of reading. I always want to read more, and to be motivated to do so. So this year I decided to, once again, find a reading challenge for myself. Preferably one that is manageable and isn't too restricting.

I got the idea for it from a friend who turned 20 mid 2016 and decided to follow some lists she found online: 21 things to do before you're 21, and 21 books to read before you're 21. I thought the book thing would make for an interesting challenge.

So I started googling lists, and found plenty. I had read some of the books on each, so I originally planned to invent my own lists, using books suggested on each list. But then I realised that I already have SO many books that I want to read, and that to follow this challenge would mean putting off reading those for a whole year!

So, instead, my challenge is simply to complete 21 books between my 20th and 21st birthdays. Only books that I read for pleasure will count (unfortunately, since I have 9 plays to read for one module this semester!) and I will just review them as normal here on my blog, but I'll make a wee note in each review of how far through my challenge I am.

If you have suggestions of books I should read, please feel free to leave them in the comments! I'm sure I'll manage to find 21, but I always love to get recommendations. This will be a significant challenge for me because, although I think it sounds very doable, I only read 8 books for pleasure last year! Anyway, here we go, I suppose only time will tell...

Film Review: 'A Monster Calls'

I had a friend staying with me over New Year and, while there's not a whole lot to do in my wee town at the best of times, there's even less when it's pouring with rain and a bank holiday. So we decided to take a trip to the cinema.

My friend was keen to see 'A Monster Calls', having seen the trailer, and I was also up for that choice as I had seen the lead actor, Scottish teen Lewis MacDougall, being interviewed on TV a few days prior, and thought it sounded like it should be good.

Brief Summary: Conor's mum is sick (I think with cancer), he is being bullied at school, his father has moved far away, and his relationship with his grandmother is tense. All looks fairly hopeless. Until he 'befriends' a tree, a special tree who tells him stories, and guides him through the emotional turmoil of terminal illness, growing up and dealing with loneliness.

It's worth noting that I was absolutely full of the cold on the day we went to see this, and hadn't had much sleep. So there's a high chance that I was over-tired and therefore unable to fully enjoy and take in the film.

There were several elements which I really liked about the film. Firstly, the CGI was incredible. I don't really know much about animation, but the tree was phenomenal! In fact, I liked the setting in general... despite being (in my opinion slightly oddly) set in a place that was both very isolated and difficult to pin-point in terms of time, I felt as though the surroundings were realistic and effectively understated.

The emotional intensity of the storyline was another plus point. It certainly made you come out pondering the inevitability of our mortality and the relationships we have and cherish.

I believe the film was based on a book, written by a woman who was herself dying of a terminal illness, and I must say that the concept of a young person dealing with the horror of slowly watching a parent leave them was brilliantly portrayed. I could really feel Conor's sense of hopelessness, his frustration, his desire to hold on, and particularly the battle he felt between that desire and the guilt over just wanting the prolonged pain to end.

However, I'm afraid my overall opinions were much harsher coming out of the film, and so I think it's important that I touch on some of those too, because your immediate reaction to a film may caption its true value.

I was disappointed. Sorry, but I was. Firstly, I wasn't particularly impressed with the quality of acting, and I think this was in part the fault of the script. I didn't truly believe a lot of the words the actors said, and I think too many clichés was one of the key things responsible for that.

The lead was ok, actually pretty good considering his debut film appearance was shot mostly in front of a green screen, which I bet is pretty difficult! I immediately recognised the actress playing the mother, Felicity Jones. I think I'm remembering her from 'Chalet Girl', but a quick search shows me that she's in a lot at the moment. She was quite good, brought down by A LOT of cliché lines, but I liked her performance. It was actually Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of the grandmother that most disappointed me- I just didn't find her all that believable and a bit stiff.

I also found it difficult to connect emotionally to the characters, because I didn't feel as though the script really allowed for us to understand the situation at hand (with the ill mother and absent father) until quite late on in the film. For a while I thought the mother may have depression, or be a drug addict. I suppose that was possibly just me being slow, but I didn't find it awfully clear initially.

This flaw also applies to the rest of the storyline. It sounds strange, but I just found it all a bit random. The stories that the tree was 'telling' Conor were almost like bits of tales I've hear before, full of morals but apparently quite irrelevant to the storyline of the film. Even at the end I didn't really see the connection between all the pieces, like the stories and the mystery behind tree's 'appearances' were kind of just there to fill time. The significance of the tree itself, for example, isn't even revealed until right near the end when the mother suddenly makes a heartfelt speech about how its 'their' tree and will help cure her. And I never really figure out how the tree really features in Conor's life at the same time each day... obviously there isn't really a walking, talking, oak tree in his school cafeteria, but he also isn't dreaming because he isn't asleep. I suppose my insistent need to return to reality is what makes me question that haha. Actually, a lot of the timing itself is quite inaccurate. A shot of a clock will show a time which makes absolutely no sense in the chronology of the action.

While many parts of the film were very good, it was all a bit, well, bitty. As though parts had been taken from several films and bunched together, without a strong enough storyline to hold them all together.

It's possible that I'm just not really equipped to deal with slow moving, low-action films. But yeah, I was a bit bored.

Ok, so enough of the slating. My previously mentioned positive points still stand, and I wouldn't discourage a watch, but I also won't be highly recommending, and probably won't bother re-watching in the future. My expectation was a little bit high perhaps, and I came out feeling disappointed.

Reflection and Recycling Resolutions- Take 2

Happy New Year!! Finally got round to returning to my blog following a wee break (which was much needed after Blogmas!). I'm sorry I never really wrapped up Blogmas with a Christmas Day post as I had planned too, but I was just enjoying time with my family, then a wee holiday to London, then a wonderful Hogmanay at home, and then I was ill for a week! Now, I'm back in my uni house and getting myself prepped for the next semester, so I thought it was definitely time to do my resolutions post.... preferably before January 2017 disappears!

So, I have had the same resolutions for the last 2 years, and so I thought I'd take a leaf out of last-year-me's book, and just use this post to update them a wee bit for 2017! Let's have a look at which ones I actually did something about, and which failed spectacularly!


1) Improve my health (particularly weight and therefore body image) by healthy consideration of both diet and regular exercise. As you may remember, I wrote a post in April 2016 following a comment I overheard someone make about my appearance. It was called 'Can harsh be good, or just rude?' and you can read it here. I suppose I'll never be a spectacularly sporty person, but certainly towards the end of 2016 I was feeling much better myself, because I joined the uni swim club and also started going jogging. Now to just keep it up and control the snacking!

2) Take my appearance a little more seriously- if I feel good about how I look, it could do my mental health a world of good. I will never be one of those girls who can be bothered spending hours on appearance, but 2016 saw me finally do something about my skin, buy lots of comfy clothes I like, even take a risk on a dress I'd never normally wear! And I kept up the haircuts haha! It can be really easy for me to just not care sometimes, but I feel so much better about myself when I do.

3) Write more. Yeah the diary didn't last long in 2016 .... I wasn't going to bother even trying this year, but then I was bought one for Christmas so decided to start once more and see hbow it goes! Thanks to Blogmas and a few rushes of inspiration, my blog is now about to begin it's 4th year, crazy! As for the fiction, very little this year bar a few poems, but I have stuff in the works so I plan to make a bit more time for that this year. It's the starting that's difficult. And the ideas haha!

4) Read more. So you may have noticed that in 2016 I decided to number my book reviews to try and motivate me to read more. I only recorded the books I read for pleasure, but it came to an embarrassingly low total of 8!!! If you add this to the (approx.) 10 books I read for my uni courses in 2016, it looks a lot better. As I've mentioned before, reading for pleasure can be tough when at uni, but I vow that even if it takes me a month per book, I'm going to keep up reading this year. Actually, it can't take me a month per book because I'm setting myself a new reading challenge which I'll write a post about soon. This will not include the 9 plays I've got to read this semester for uni!!

5) Be a nicer daughter/sister. Unfortunately, I slipped up around Christmas, which I always seem to find a hard time to get along with people. I think it's the pressure! I also had a bit of a rough patch with my sister earlier in the year which lasted quite a while, and plenty rough patches with my Mum, as usual. So, I suppose 2016 wasn't great on this one, but so far 2017 seems to be going ok, and I'd like to keep it that way! I'm trying, I really am. I love my family very much.

6) A 'romantic' experience of some kind. ugh, can we just move on? 2016 was the year of downloading and promptly deleting Tinder, and wondering why I seem fixed on the road to be being an old maid....

7) Work hard on my studies. Second semester of first year saw me work hard and be kind of disappointed in my grades. I still more than passed, but French kind of took over my life. First semester of second year saw me step it up, but also in my extra-curricular life, hence the continued pattern of last minute essay writing! Therefore, it is now, at the beginning of 2017 that I have (once again) decided to crack down on my academic dedication. Yeah, so everyone says that at the beginning of a new semester, but I know I'm a hard working student who loves to learn and there's no reason why I shouldn't up my grades a little in time for honours years... scary!

So there we have it, a wee update on how my resolutions went in 2016, and my plans to further them in 2017. I've always expected a lot of myself, but you know what? I'm one of those cheesy people who really does view the start of a new year as a brilliant opportunity to make those little changes. Catch you all this time next year for the same  resolutions?! Let me know yours in the comments.