After The Fault In Our Stars, If I Stay is the second painful teen rom-com hitting our screens this year. And it’s just as beautiful as the first. Based on the book by Gayle Forman, the surrealist story follows Mia Hall as she has an out-of-body experience while in a coma. Mia (Chloë Grace Moretz) … Continue reading
Author Archives: Diary of a Chocaholic
The Hundred-Foot Journey
In the past decade, food-related movies have sprouted (see what I did there?) every few of years or so, each making you salivate more than the last. You only have to remember dribbling in front of Chocolat, Simply Irresistible, Julie and Julia, Ratatouille, No Reservations, Chef etc. The French (obviously) have their own string of … Continue reading
Romance May Be Dead, But Love Certainly Isn’t
If you’ve ever been called a hopeless romantic, or gotten into an argument with friends about whether love is dead or not, then you’ll understand how I feel at times. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs of course, and if you’ve been hurt before, you’re twice as likely to believe it’s all rubbish and … Continue reading
Why Gender Equality Still Isn’t Easy
I’m back in the homeland for the holidays and driven by boredom yesterday, a friend and I ventured into a toy shop (it’s not that silly considering we both work with children). While I get that the Barbie section is pink (and boy, do Barbies nowadays look like sluts), and the baby section is a … Continue reading
Begin Again
If you’re into Indie musicals (or movies about music), and if you liked Once, then Begin Again is your lucky ticket. The plot focuses on the two main characters and their separate back stories that eventually merge into the present: Gretta (Keira Knightley) is the talented but shy girlfriend of sudden new pop sensation Dave … Continue reading
Quiche Lorraine
I love quiche. There are so many different versions, with vegetables or fish, but the classic is still my favourite: quiche Lorraine. Thanks to Wikipedia, I now know that: “The word “quiche” comes from French, which ultimately borrowed the word from Lorraine Franconian “Küeche” (meaning “cake”). Central Franconian typically unrounded the “ü” [y] and shifted … Continue reading
The Fault In Our Stars (movie)
I have friends who still read a lot of “teenage” fiction. Sometimes, so do I. I do own the John Green book, I just haven’t read it yet. Nevertheless, I went to see the movie yesterday and (obviously) cried my eyes out. For those of you who’ve been living under a rock for the past … Continue reading
Belle
Odeon cinemas made Belle the movie of the month. And rightly so! Not only is Belle an(other) compelling stand against our slave trading past, but its cast is simply brilliant. When Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode, with way too little screen time) finds out he has a daughter from a liaison with a black … Continue reading
Maleficent Or Sleeping Beauty 2.0
Well if you know Disney then you’ll know that they do enjoy rehashing their former glories every now and then. A new “humanised” version of Cinderella will be released in 2015. A new Lion King sequel and TV show is also in the making. And most of it is hit and miss. Maleficent, it has … Continue reading
My Guilt
Have you ever thought about World War Two and felt guilty? Many of you won’t, because you come from a country that was on the “winning” side (US, UK, Russia etc.) But for those who are German, French, Austrian and Polish (to name but a few) “guilt” is a word that can be filled with … Continue reading