I Care a Lot

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Film: I Care a Lot

Director: J. Blakeson

Cast: Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza Gonzalez

Genre: Dark Comedy/Thriller

Streaming On: Netflix

"I've Been Poor. It Doesn't Agree With Me."

Marla Grayson (Pike) is a dubious court-appointed legal guardian of several vulnerable elderly citizens. Using her influential network of people she swindles their assets lawfully. While doing so she comes across Jennifer Peterson, a senior citizen who allegedly has no kin of her own. This leads Marla to get entangled in a mafia world.

Pike won Golden Globe for this role and rightly so. She plays this sinister, ruthless woman to the T with child-like innocence. If you enjoyed Gone Girl you ought to like it too. It is nice seeing Peter Dinklage for the first time after GOT finale. He plays Roman pitted against Grayson beautifully.

The film makes us question the authenticity of guardian system in US.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

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Book: The Beekeeper of Aleppo

Author: Christy Leftery

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Language: English

“Where there are bees there are flowers, and wherever there are flowers there is new life and hope.”

The Beekeeper of Aleppo follows the journey of couple Nuri and Afra who flee war-torn Syria to Turkey to Greece and ultimately Britain to join their remaining family.

This book is not an easy read. Not in terms of writing, but the depth of subject. It gives us the insight into the trial and tribulation refugees had to endure. It is easy to pass judgment on them, calling names. But have we ever for a second thought what would be our condition if we had to leave our hoe, family, our almost perfect life for no fault of ours?

Though a work of fiction author's experience over volunteering for two summers in Athens at a refugee center inspired the story line.

Wonderful read of the year.

Chernobyl

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TV Miniseries: Chernobyl

Genre: Historical drama

Cast: Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, Emily Watson, Paul  Ritter

Episodes: 5

Director: Johan Renck

Streaming Platform: Disney +Hotstar

Year: 2019

"The truth doesn't care about our needs or wants- it doesn't care about our governments, our ideologies, our religions- to lie in wait for all time. This, at last, is the gift of Chernobyl."

Our knowledge of Chernobyl was only limited to the fact that it was one of the worst man made disasters. Sometimes you need little nudge to watch something that probably would have slipped your mind. Here the push came from the brother and we were set.

Circa April 1986 of USSR the nuclear power plant explodes in Chernobyl (Che-no-byl). The emitted radioactive slowly released to Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, western Europe, and Scandinavia. Valery Legasov (Jared Harris), Soviet's nuclear physicist is the first to grasp the magnitude of situation. Along with Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård), vice chairman of counsil of ministers and Stellan Skarsgår (Emily Watson), another nuclear physicist he tries to contain the disaster and investigate how the reactor exploded in the first place.

A brilliant series that captures not only the explosion and its aftermath effects, but also about the ignorance, high handedness of authority, Russian politics, sacrifice, above all humanity.