recommended movies

by

Penned Con, Cover Update, Dragons

In a little over a week I’ll be signing books at Penned Con 2018 in St. Louis. This is a really down-to-earth con with two giant rooms packed with authors and readers. You can talk books with real people for two days straight! There’s also a theme dinner, auctions, games, and drawings. Tons of fun. Check out the details here, and come!


 

 
I haven’t read any Seriously Good Books lately but ohmigosh do I have a movie to recommend to you.

I Am Dragon
Amazon | IMDb

I watched it on Amazon Prime but you might find it elsewhere.

It’s Russian, and in Russian, so you’ll get English subtitles but the language is beautiful and can’t be missed. I won’t tell you anything else about it other than it’s an old-fashioned fairy tale that’s darkly romantic, with great costumes and scenery, good acting, and a great love story. Just watch it.
 

 
Did you notice THE ALIGNMENT had a little update to its cover? As much as I loved the original, I think I might love this one even more…

 

by

Remember Me

We started a movie the other night hoping for a sweet love story to ease us from hectic day to bedtime. From the first scene, we knew we were wrong. We were in for some intensity. We were right.
remember_me_movie_poster
Remember Me is a movie about people, and how lives are forever changed by things in our control, as well as things very much out of our control. I hesitate to call it slow because it sounds like a bad thing, but in this case, the pacing is part of its brilliance. The acting and characterization are exceptional, creating people who are real and relatable. And it has one of the most effective and unpredictable endings I have ever seen. With the strength packed into a subtle delivery, it’s more than touching–it’s a full-on grab that will keep its hold for days. What a rare thing for a movie to leave me so stunned, sobered, and contemplative. And a bit traumatized. I feel like this movie has picked me up and moved me somewhere else. That’s a powerful thing.

If you read anything else about this movie you’ll rob yourself of its power. Don’t read the synopsis on Netflix or IMDB, and whatever you do, don’t read reviews. Turn it on, settle in, and lose yourself in it. Once you reach the end, you’ll be so found you’ll be speechless.

by

1744 More Words, Barefoot

All day Monday was spent writing—in pink fuzzy socks, not barefoot like the title suggests—and I’m 1,744 words closer to the end. Not a big number for an entire day of work, but I’ll take it. I’m finally past a scene I was dreading and I’m proud to say I DID NOT CRY while writing it. Nope, I didn’t. NOPE! MY EYES DID NOT DAMPEN ANY MORE THAN USUAL EVERYDAY DAMPNESS AND THAT IS MY FINAL WORD.

I’ve started the read-aloud edit phase from page one during my weekday commute, so I’m both writing the end and editing the beginning now which is a great use of time but also kind of scrambling my brains. A once-a-week night off from books helps, especially when I’m lucky to see yet another great movie…
Barefoot_Poster
My husband briefed me on Barefoot, and at first I said, “Sounds really Manic Pixie Dream Girl tropey. Pass.” But as he scrolled past it online, I caught the words “bad boy” and I was like, “Wait, bad boy? Okay, sold.” LOL

Usually the MPDG trope is used alongside a geeky, stuffy, downer of a hero, with the MPDG heroine’s one and only dimension being used to teach the hero how to lighten up and live again. A “Wish Fulfillment from stir-crazy writers” as the article says. Add a bad boy though, and it changes the formula. (And who can turn down a bad boy hero? I mean really.) Barefoot might have contained hints of the MPDG trope, but the heroine was fleshed out enough to make it mostly disappear. The reasons for her MPDG qualities made sense to *her* story, so she became a real character to root for and not just a stand-in for a trope or a convenient motivator for the hero. Reviewers say it’s a knock-off of Tangled (another slight MPDG done well enough to avoid being tropey, in my opinion). I see that now, but I didn’t while watching it.

Another well-written, believable love story. Sweet but not cheesy, unpredictable enough to keep my interest. Good writing, good acting, good everything. Maybe not as good as In Your Eyes, but good enough to recommend.