Look Back – Manga Review

Posted on October 24, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga Look Back is a bittersweet story about friendship and art, with a strange twist that would feel right at home in something like David Lynch’s Mullholland Drive. It follows two manga artists Fujino and Kyomoto who make their start in the school paper. At first Fujino is widely acclaimed within the school for her funny strips, and is asked to allow Kyomoto to write one of the strips for the paper. Kyomoto’s very talented with drawing highly detailed backgrounds, which pushes Fujino to try harder, seeing Kyomoto as rival. That is until the pair meet and start working together, quickly getting one-shots published before Fujino is offered a serialised job.

At first the story is a fairly straight forward drama about manga artists competing with each other, then around half way through the story something happens and everything takes quite a dark turn. Up to that point it seems quite light-hearted with the pair inspiring each other to work harder, but the event shakes everything up. Fujino rips up the manga that caused them to meet in the first place, which ripples through time and causes a separate timeline where they didn’t end up working together. You don’t spend that much time in the alternative timeline, but you get enough to see how their lives would be different. It’s not clear whether it’s real, or just a fantasy within Fiujino’s head. It walks a line between reality and dream.

Like with everything Tatsuki Fujimoto has written, I really enjoyed Look Back. It’s a gripping read, that’s around 150 pages long, so you can read it easily in one sitting. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a manga that’s slightly different.

Thanks for reading! If you liked my review, please subscribe to never miss a post:

Posted in Book reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What I’m Looking Forward To

Posted on October 23, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

2022 has been a great year for films so far, but there’s still so much more to go. I wanted to share some of the upcoming releases that I’m looking forward to. What are you looking forward to? Let me know in the comments.

Barbarian

This comes out on the 28th October in the UK after it was shown at FrightFest back in August. I didn’t get to see it then, but I did see a fair few amazing reviews. I saw the trailer last week before Halloween, and it looks incredible. I’m very excited for it, and I’m hoping it gets shown in a cinema close to me.

It’s about someone who rents out an Airbnb and when she arrives, there’s already someone staying there, who also rented it out. Instead of finding somewhere else, as it’s late, she agrees to stay there for the night and sort it out in the morning. Things then get very weird. It seems to be very scary and tense.

Prey for the Devil

Another one being released on the 28th, so should make for a good double bill next Friday evening. This one looks like a more standard exorcist flick, but it still looks very good. I’ve not heard much about it, but the trailer makes it look good, although a little predictable.

Confess, Fletch

I’ve not seen the old Fletch films, or read the books they’re based on, but I have heard very good things about this upcmoing release and I’m a fan of Jon Hamm. The trailer made me laugh a few times, so it should be a good time at least. I’ve heard that it’s pretty good.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Knives Out was brilliant, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the sequel since it was announced. I missed it at London Film Festival, due to timings, but will be watching it as soon as it’s out in a cinema nearby. I think it’s December 23rd for Netflix, but has a late November release in some cinemas. I’m sure this will be brilliant, and from what I’ve heard it’s just as good as the original.

So those are what I’m most excited about soon. There’s obviously more to look forward to, from Black Panther 2 to Avatar 2. The trailer for Creed III, which is a little further off in March 2023, was released recently and that looks incredible as well. What are you most looking forward to?

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Quick Reviews – Till and The Lost King

Posted on October 22, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Till – London Film Festival

This is based on the story of Emmett Till, a 14 year old who was lynched in 1955 and I found this incredibly harrowing and hard to watch. The film is shown through his mother’s eyes, first as she worries about him travelling and then as she tries to find justice for him. The murderers got away with it completely, and that’s just heartbreaking.

The Lost King

Danielle Deadwyler plays Emmett’s mother Mamie Till, and her performance is absolutley brilliant. You really feel everything she’s going through. It’s an emotional story and one that left the audience stunned. I could hear people all around me crying, and no one got up to leave straight away as the credits started to roll. It’s a completely gripping story and one that you don’t want to believe is true and yet it is.

A true story about Phlippa Langley, played by Sally Hawkins, who found the lost remains of King Richard III. After generations of historians thought his body was thrown into a river and lost forever, her research led to its discovery. This is one of those low-stakes true story films that is completley charming. Sally Hawkins is incredible, as always. I remember this happening in real life, but it’s always good to see the story.

There’s been a lot of controversy that’s overshadowed the film, as the University and members of staff debate their portrayal in the film. Whatever the truth is, the actual story is stil entertaining. It sent me down a rabbit hole of reading about history, which is something I always enjoy and it made me want to read the book the film is based on.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Updates – 21/10/2022

Posted on October 21, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Hello again. I wanted to give an update on what I’ve been up to recently with writing and reading. It’s been a busy few weeks for me, travelling to London for the film festival, as well as going to Turin. I’m thinking about writing a more detailed post, but not sure if I actually will or not. I did really enjoy the cinema museum in Turin and would recommend it to any film fans. There’s a lot of great stuff from the early days of cinema and it was really interesting. The main reason we went was for the Dario Argento exhibit which was really good. I’ll try and write some more about it soon.

With next month being NaNoWriMo, I have a plan for a new story that I’m hoping to write. Last week while on a coach I had an idea to flesh out an idea I’ve had for a while so I’m excited to get writing with that. I don’t have it plotted out fully, but I have a few key moments ready to go.

In my last update post I mentioned a reading challenge, which I didn’t finish in the end. I was hoping to read all of the shortlist for the Booker prize award, and managed to read 4 out of the 6 by the time the winner was announced. I’m still planning on finishing the other 2 and writing a post about them.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Amsterdam – Film Review

Posted on October 20, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: David O. Russell

Writer: David O. Russell

Starring: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldaña, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro NIvola, Rami Malek, and Robert De Niro

Rating: ★★★

David O’ Russell’s latest film is turning out to be both a critical and a commercial disappointment. Despite it’s overwhelmingly brilliant cast, the reviews are mixed at best and worst of all not many people are going to see it. For a film that has a production budget of approximately $80 million, it’s turning out to be one of the bigger flops of recent years. Despite that, it’s still worth watching and has some fun moments, even if it’s just to learn about one of the more bizarre moments in modern history.

The story is inspired by the ‘Business Plot’, a real-life alleged conspiracy in America to remove the president and replace him with a dictator. To explore this strange point in modern history, writer and director David O. Russell focuses on a trio of friends who are bound together after making a pact shortly after the first World War. Around fifteen years later Burt (Christian Bale) and Harold (John David Washington) are hired to investigate the death of Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.) and end up uncovering a conspiracy to overthrow the government.

This film boasts one of the best ensemble casts ever, and they’re all absolutely brilliant without a single weak link. The first half of the film is just being shocked by how many people are in it. Every scene is filled with very well-known faces, to the point that throughout the film you forget some of them are in it and get to be surprised all over again when they reappear later. Every performance is excellent, especially Christian Bale proving yet again that he’s one of the best actors of all time. Visually the film is amazing, with some incredible sets and costumes.  

There’s a lot of really funny moments throughout the film, with a lot of offbeat and quirky jokes. It gets a little weird at points, for example the main trio singing a nonsense song is a plot point, but it manages to stay funny, even when there’s darker moments. There’s a couple of surprising moments, with a very shocking death, and an autopsy that’s a little grizzly. It has a very fast pace that’s kept up for the entire, two hours plus, run time. You’ll be able to tell almost straight away if this is a film for you, if the style doesn’t click in the first couple of minutes, then this isn’t for you. Even if it does click, it’s still a lot. It does start to veer into being weird just to be weird at points.

Amsterdam is let down by its excess. The plot is too wacky, the tone is too zany, there’s too many characters, and in the end it all becomes a little too messy. It’s honestly exhausting to watch, and while there’s definitely really great moments, overall, it has the same feeling as eating too much of a really rich chocolate cake.

Thanks for reading! If you liked my review, please subscribe to never miss a post:

Posted in film reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment