Thanh Nguyen

Reviews and other content aren't verified by Google

[RUN] 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣’𝙩 𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙚 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧’𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 Another psychological thriller movie, another “darker plot” that Sarah Paulson was outstanding and absolutely nailed the wicked character in ‘Run’ as well as in ‘Ratched’. ‘Run’ is quite an old thriller plot when motherhood is taken to an evil overprotective level of behavioural disorder and mental complexity due to a trauma in the past. The movie is predictable but still gives such a good thrill. While Sarah Paulson brought such calmness yet resentful aura out of the mother character - Diane Sherman, Kiera Allen was successful in bringing out the fear, the continuous resistance and the revenge in the end of the daughter character - Chloe Sherman. And it was absolutely impressive for Keira’s first debut role. The ending was resentful. I would enjoy it completely if it has a better ending with a meaningful message. It seems like every psychological thriller has the same boring, dramatised ending and lack of depth. It would be better if Chloe could move on, leaving the past behind and raise a family of her own with a better example of motherhood to show her unfortunate mother. Anyway, it’s a good thriller which will give you such perplexed tension when it built up the fear and the pain of the characters to an extreme level until a horrible truth was uncovered. ‘Run’ definitely nails a clever way to tell an old plot.

“𝙔𝙤𝙪’𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤𝙤 𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙖 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙮 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣.” - I once heard that saying, so I bought myself this book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass” and have just finished 289 pages of it. Growing up with this old tale, I have always been curious about wonderland through Alice’s eyes. Until now, Alice’s imaginary world is still alive in front of my eyes through beautifully poetic writing style of Lewis Carroll. In Alice’s world, there is no rule, boundary or standard. So, there comes no judgement, because everything is right in every way - as only imagination makes sense. Everything through Alice’s eyes becomes alive and characteristic, even flowers, trees, winds, cats, etc.. - where rabbits know how to host a tea party, a caterpillar can smoke hookah, a mock turtle can be friend with a gryphon and share a dance, and especially a cat with a grin. Every creature can talk, walk, and be unafraid of telling stories. A world without standard, rule or boundary seems like a messy and mad world. But that nonsense world of Alice makes such great sense when it is full of colours, lives and adventures. That’s why Alice can never get bored of her own Wonderland on the other side of the looking-glass. It might be just reflection to others, but it’s an open door to a different world in Alice’s eyes. Somehow the looking-glass does not exist at all because it is transparent. If you read a fairy tale with a grown-up’s mind, you’ll find it mad and silly. Then, you’ll laugh about it. But it’s good if you can laugh at least. To somebody, it’ll remain temper because of all the unsatisfactory nonsense. But let me tell you one thing, grown-ups can hardly see magic in everything as we own such doubtful hearts by setting bunches of limits, pressures and standards on ourselves. So, grown-ups all live in their own dull prisons. 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯-𝘶𝘱𝘴.

Never has a book that gave me such tears and thoughts about death so deeply like “When Breath Becomes Air”. I’ve learned quite an amount of medical terminologies through this book because this book is about Paul’s life as a neurosurgeon before and as a patient after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. The last chapter written by his wife quickly made me burst into tears as I could feel the tragedy of death that Paul faced like I was there in his room at the hospital. When Paul decided to take off the mask and the monitor to be administered with morphine and slowly slipped into death, “Paul inhaled and then released one last, deep, final breath.” I shed tears as a stranger witnessed a person going through his last moment of being alive before saying a forever “goodbye”. This is a beautiful and peaceful death when being surrounded with the love of families and friends. Paul was a good doctor and a brave person to face death with integrity. He’s also the lucky one not to die in loneliness, but in love and care of his loved ones as well as his 8-month-old daughter. Death comes for all of us regardless how rich, successful and knowledgeable we are. Besides neuroscience, Paul found his love for literature right before he knew he would die soon. Writing helped him live the last moments of his life to the fullest and this book captures everything about Paul on the journey accepting death. Lucy and Paul’s marriage bounced back stronger than ever when Paul was diagnosed. Like every marriage, we tend to forget the importance of our partner because when a couple stay together all the time, they tend not to make time for each other anymore. And it takes an event to realise it or even a lesson to learn from it. Lucy and Paul realised how much love they have for each other and Cady was born to fulfil those last days of their marriage. Lucy asked Paul “Can you breathe okay with my head on your chest like this?” His answer was “It’s the only way I know how to breathe.” At moments, the weight of death became palpable. It was in the air, the stress and misery.

I Care A Lot Ok folks, let’s crack on this movie review! This movie was released in September, 2020 until it’s aired on Netflix recently, it caught great attention, quite a debate, likes and dislikes from viewers. I’m quite a fan of psychological thrillers and this movie uncovers a downside of nursing home & guardianship system in America through pretty toxic entertaining. Pointing out all the dirty truths of the world nowadays, from the “miscarriage of justice” to wrongful conspiracies and fake news, I think this movie is quite a success, but depressing and hard to accept. Sadly, it’s something happening in the real world where some monsters undercover as guardians to have access to wealthy elderly people’s assets, take their money and lock them up in a home care for the rest of their lives. While the society pictures guardianship as a humane system of giving great care to elderly people when they’re no longer able to take care of themselves, it’s literally a prison of food, activity and mind control towards elderly people. Playing by the rules in America doesn’t make you a good person where the truth can be bent easily to comply with the rules, like how Marla got the defendant in her coils and won every courtroom. Arguing or being emotional only makes you appear unstable. You can’t really judge what’s right or wrong when everything is twisted. The movie is grave, real and nauseating. It leaves you a careful thought of learning the battle you fight before taking it to the next level. About Rosamund Pike, I could see a drastic change in her acting career. I still remember her innocent and fragile beauty playing Jane Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice”, then her smart and fearless beauty playing Marie Curie in “Radioactive” in 2019. Here, in “I Care A Lot”, she came back and surprised everyone with a brand new, quite a monstrous character, Marla Grayson. She completely and successfully brought out the character of a business woman representing the world we live in everyday. When people seem to idolise leaders with false promises and business men/women with tricky and twisted minds as successful images in the society. The ending strikes us all with a surprise and satisfying reminder of karma.