If you’re looking for the TL;DR of this review, here it is: the new Kindle Oasis is a fast, responsive, and lightweight device that I have enjoyed reading with immensely since it arrived. But at $250, there is no reason I could give as to why it is as expensive as it is, nor any reason I could justify saying to anyone that they should spend that amount when the Paperwhite is $119, and the … Continue reading Kindle Oasis 2017
We have guest review of a tabletop game that has a romantic element. Huge thanks to Suzanne for submitting this review and thinking of the Bitchery. In addition to raising two valkyries and tending a growing menagerie, Suzanne reads and reviews romance and comics in Southern New Hampshire. She runs a site devoted to romance comics and assists a couple of authors with their romance-writery needs as well. … My husband and I play lots … Continue reading Guest Game Review: Love Letter
Sarah: I had my hair cut this week, and as I got in the car, I thought that having very short hair is very appropriate for watching this film. “And Introducing Audrey Hepburn…” Oh, we have met, I assure you. I love the long opening credits. And Edith Head did the costumes! Of course she did. This is a trope that works for me – individual bound by a massive weight of duty and expectation … Continue reading Smart Bitches Movie Matinee: Roman Holiday
Among people who keep an eye on movie news, Tulip Fever has been a bit of a folk tale. It was announced in 2013, and screened at the 2015 Venice film festival, but then its release dates kept getting pushed back and back and back. When Fandango actually put up a release date, it was for the last weekend in August, but in reality it opened on Labor Day weekend. It’s a weird movie with … Continue reading Movie Review: Tulip Fever
Based on a Russian novella, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, this movie takes a bunch of tropes that we know and love in Romancelandia, turns them inside out, and then takes them to a (semi) logical conclusion. We are familiar with the coupling that starts off with the bride essentially being bought because she comes with a chunk of land, and we’ve seen heroines married to someone who’s got a weird dominant vibe. What we don’t … Continue reading Movie Review: Lady Macbeth
NB: Sometimes you just need to work out your frustrations with writing an F-grade, and Rhode Red did just that! Not to be confused with RedHeadedGirl in Boston, Rhode is a redheaded feminist in Providence. She works in business (aka trade) publishing by day, reads romances and SFF by night, buys more art than her house can hold and grows vast quantities of flowers. “I’ve tried not to keep this film in my mind, and … Continue reading Guest Movie Review: Maudie
The following review is of a horror/drama/comedy/ zombie/feminist movie. It’s not a romance. There will be spoilers. Read at your own risk. I‘ve always said that I can’t watch horror because as someone with anxiety I don’t need any extra. However, in the last couple of years, I’ve finally started to understand the cathartic effect of a certain kind of horror. I’m increasingly fascinated by horror in which (GENERAL SPOILER) Add that to my fondness … Continue reading Movie Review: It Stains the Sands Red
If you’ve been on Twitter over the past month, you might have seen tweets and photos about the dad-dating simulator Dream Daddy, created by Game Grumps and written by Vernon Shaw and Leighton Gray. In the game, you play a single dad with a teen daughter named Amanda (she’s way cooler than me) who just moved to the small town of Maple Bay. In Maple Bay, there are seven dads available to romance: Mat – hipster dad … Continue reading Game Review: Dream Daddy
A Quiet Passion is a strange little movie about Emily Dickinson. It works best if you don’t think of it as a biopic but rather as a meditation on the life of a prickly, strange, and brilliant person. This movie came out in limited release early this year and is finally available on iTunes for those of us who missed it on the big screen. A Quiet Passion kicks off with young Emily, played by … Continue reading Movie Review: A Quiet Passion
When I first started seeing the previews for Atomic Blonde (Charlize Theron IS Jason Bourne!) there was a collective question of, “Is this super male gaze-y or not? I can’t tell from these two minutes but I think I’m gonna watch the shit out of this.” This is a spy thriller set in Berlin around the week the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Every intelligence agency in the world has people in Berlin, and … Continue reading Movie Review: Atomic Blonde
In our effort to keep you informed on all things Beauty and the Beast, I have been WAITING for the French version to arrive on streaming services. It was released in France a few years ago, and had a brief run in American the theaters last year – so brief that I did not get to see it because I took a nap or something (or maybe it didn’t even make it to Boston?). Anyway, … Continue reading Movie Review: Beauty and the Beast (2014)
