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A Mind of Her Own

a mind of her own movie review

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a mind of her own movie review

Nicky Talacko (Sophie) Amanda Rawnsley (Becky) Ashley Cook (Peter) Juliette Grassby (Jenny) Morgan Crossley (Richard) Pippa Webster (Young Sophie) Hayley Doyle (Carrie) Gerard Logan (Harry) Claire Ferdinando (Miss Frensham) Owen Carey Jones (Mr Brown) Tom Davidson (Cardiologist) Samantha Cooper (Miss Watson) Paul Hurstfield (Chemistry Teacher) John Barber (Frank) Edmund Herd (Chairman) Neil Harrison (DI Tester) Stephanie Preacher (SSS Tester) Will Drever (Sophie's GP)

Owen Carey Jones

Inspired by a true story, 'A Mind of Her Own' tells the poignant, moving story of Sophie, a determined young girl whose ambition to become a doctor is obstructed by the fact that she is severely dyslexic. But Sophie, encouraged by her closest friend Becky, has never been one to give up, and despite being advised by parents and teachers to be realistic and pursue something less academic, she puts herself through college and university, in the process achieving a first-class degree in biomedical science and a PhD conducting research into post-trauma regeneration of the spinal column which ultimately leads to her achieving worldwide recognition for her work and helping to develop a cure for paralysis.

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A Mind Of Her Own 2006

A mind of her own.

A Mind Of Her Own

Inspired by a true story, A Mind of Her Own tells the poignant and moving story of Sophie, a determined young girl whose ambition to become a doctor is obstructed by the fact that she is severely dyslexic. But Sophie, encouraged by her closest friend, Becky, has never been one to give up and, despite being advised by parents and school teachers to be realistic and pursue something less academic, she puts herself through college and university, in the process achieving a first class degree in biomedical science and a PhD conducting research into post trauma regeneration of the spinal column which ultimately leads to her achieving worldwide recognition for her work and helping to develop a cure for paralysis. Written by Owen Carey Jones

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A Mind Of Her Own

Where to watch

A mind of her own.

2006 Directed by Owen Carey Jones

Inspired by a true story, A Mind of Her Own tells the poignant and moving story of Sophie, a determined young girl whose ambition to become a doctor is obstructed by the fact that she is severely dyslexic. But Sophie, encouraged by her closest friend, Becky, has never been one to give up and, despite being advised by parents and school teachers to be realistic and pursue something less academic, she puts herself through college and university, in the process achieving a first class degree in biomedical science and a PhD conducting research into post trauma regeneration of the spinal column which ultimately leads to her achieving worldwide recognition for her work and helping to develop a cure for paralysis. Written by Owen Carey Jones

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Owen Carey Jones

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07 may 2006, releases by country.

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A MIND OF HER OWN

by  Owen Carey Jones

An against-the-odds story about Sophie, a young girl with dyslexia who puts herself through school and university in order to achive her dream: to become a world-renowned doctor.

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A Mind Of Her Own (2006) Stream and Watch Online

A Mind Of Her Own

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Fancy watching ' A Mind Of Her Own ' on your TV or mobile device at home? Hunting down a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or view the Owen Carey Jones-directed movie via subscription can be a challenge, so we here at Moviefone want to do the heavy lifting. We've listed a number of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription choices - along with the availability of 'A Mind Of Her Own' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into all the details of how you can watch 'A Mind Of Her Own' right now, here are some details about the drama flick. Released May 7th, 2006, 'A Mind Of Her Own' stars The movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 33 min, and received a user score of 52 (out of 100) on TMDb, which compiled reviews from 5 top users. Curious to know what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "Inspired by a true story A Mind of Her Own tells the poignant and moving story of Sophie a determined young girl whose ambition to become a doctor is obstructed by the fact that she is severely dyslexic But Sophie encouraged by her closest friend Becky has never been one to give up and despite being advised by parents and school teachers to be realistic and pursue something less academic she puts herself through college and university in the process achieving a first class degree in biomedical science and a PhD conducting research into post trauma regeneration of the spinal column which ultimately leads to her achieving worldwide recognition for her work and helping to develop a cure for paralysis Written by Owen Carey Jones" 'A Mind Of Her Own' is currently available to rent, purchase, or stream via subscription on Amazon Prime Video , Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, VUDU Free, and Plex .

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'Montpensier': A Bauble With A Mind Of Her Own

Jeannette Catsoulis

a mind of her own movie review

Dating Game: Marie (Melanie Thierry) is doe to the stags of three French noblemen who vie for her affection — even after her father marries her off to a fourth suitor. Etienne George/IFC Films hide caption

The Princess Of Montpensier

  • Director: Bertrand Tavernier
  • Genre: Historical romance
  • Running Time: 139 minutes

With: Melanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Gaspard Ulliel, Raphael Personnaz

In French with English subtitles

Watch Clips

'A Moment Alone'

Credit: IFC Films

'You'll Marry!'

'Sword Fight'

Bodices are tight and morals are loose in The Princess of Montpensier , a lusty romance that begins on one battlefield and continues on another. But though it's set against the backdrop of the French wars of religion — that 16th-century smackdown between Catholics and Protestants, whose representatives keep popping up at intervals to batter one another to bloody pulp — Bertrand Tavernier's 25th feature cares little for war and even less for religion. The only battle on its mind is the one between the sexes.

To that end, Tavernier and co-screenwriter Jean Cosmos (gleefully adapting Madame de La Fayette's 1662 novella) immerse themselves in a simmering love quadrangle bristling with swords, corsets, male entitlement and female obedience. At its center is pretty, pouty Marie (Melanie Thierry), a teenage heiress whose blooming body and wads of cash are catnip to a trio of variously flawed aristocrats.

There's the rakish Duc d'Anjou (Raphael Personnaz), whose likes include chasing skirts and giving orders. (Dislikes: commitment and not getting his own way.) Then there's Henri, Duc de Guise (Gaspard Ulliel), an arrogant stallion who has already won Marie's heart, if not her eminently pinchable thighs.

Poor Marie, however, doesn't get a vote. Married off to Prince Philippe de Montpensier (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet), a shy 20-year-old who keeps running off to battle whenever his new wife needs to talk, Marie struggles to replace tingling remembrances of her true love with submission to marital duty. Helping her learn her place and her letters is the more mature Comte de Chabannes (Lambert Wilson), Philippe's former tutor and a recent deserter from the Protestant army. Sickened by the excesses of both religions, Chabannes has chosen neutrality, which leaves him in need of diversion. You can see where this is going.

Long on temptation and larded with violence, Princess gazes on its reckless heroine with avuncular fondness. Like any sheltered, willful teenager, Marie fights for agency even when she knows her choices are dangerous. But her fate is just the frame for Tavernier's sly re-creation of a time when men were men and women mere chattels, prizes to be won and then subdued or ignored. "I will if you order me to," responds Marie tartly when her husband asks if she will ever love him — and as Anjou prepares to snatch Poland from its weak ruler, his plan to snag Marie from her husband is conducted with equal openness and droit du seigneur.

Paralleling the campaign for Marie's affection with the fight for her country's religious soul, Princess seems outwardly like more-conventional Tavernier. Yet despite the Merchant-Ivory setting and lush cinematography (courtesy of Bruno de Keyzer), the film digs deep into a society clogged with a chauvinism that's both sexual and national. Using de Chabannes as the film's conscience and moral fulcrum, Tavernier — just as he did in his 1996 film Captain Conan — exposes the shame of a meaningless war and the psychological damage borne by those fighting it.

But that's all subtext. In plain sight is a society where privacy is rare, nudity is commonplace and a wedding night is a family affair. As Anjou and a gaggle of male friends prepare for bed after a party, their boisterous communal disrobing has an unselfconscious naturalness that's tremendously appealing. Somewhere, Calvin Klein is probably taking notes.

Interview: Bertrand Tavernier, Telling Of Unlikely Love

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A Mind of Her Own

Inspired by a true story, A Mind of Her Own tells the poignant and moving story of Sophie, a determined young girl whose ambition to become a doctor is obstructed by the fact that she is severely dyslexic. But Sophie, encouraged by her closest friend, Becky, has never been one to give up. Despite being advised by parents and schoolteachers to be realistic and pursue something less academic, she puts herself through college and university, in the process achieving a first class degree in biomedical science and a PhD conducting research into post trauma regeneration of the spinal column. Ultimately, she achieves worldwide recognition for her work helping...

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Khady Mane in a bright yellow t-shirt, smiling broadly in a field, in Banel and Adama

Banel & Adama review – powerfully subversive Senegalese love story

Khady Mane dazzles as a young wife with a mind of her own in Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s poetic Palme d’Or-nominated debut feature

T here are few characters more unsettling in cinema – or theatre, or literature for that matter – than a single-minded woman determined to shape her own destiny at any cost. It shouldn’t be so, obviously. Why can’t a woman exhibit the same drive and ruthlessness as her male counterparts? But as Anatomy of a Fall demonstrated, a strong, self-interested female character tends to be viewed by society (and by extension, the audience) as inherently suspect. In the case of Banel (a knockout performance from the mesmerising Khady Mane), the besotted wife of Adama (Mamadou Diallo), that suspicion is justified.

The Pulaar-language feature debut from French-Senegalese film-maker Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Banel & Adama has a sparse, fable-like quality and poisonous, creeping momentum. Dealing with a passionate love that tips into something darker, the story unfolds in a Senegalese rural community in which gender roles are firmly inscribed and tradition is a guiding force in the lives of the villagers.

Even at the very start of the film, when the sun smiles on the devoted love between Banel and her husband of one year, there are indications that she is different. She rejects traditional scarves and wears her hair defiantly uncovered; she prefers the man’s work of herding cattle alongside Adama to the women’s field work and laundry. And, as several lizards learn to their cost, there’s a violence lurking in her heart. Banel’s will is fearsome, but when a drought strikes, she finds herself facing up against the might of the natural world. Tragedy is inevitable, but the poetry of Sy’s vision is fresh and distinctive.

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Desert Road Review: A Mind-Boggling Thriller Steered by Its Fantastic Lead Actress [SXSW 2024]

Desert Road finds an unnamed woman stranded and alone after her car breaks down, and the road she's on carries a frightening sci-fi mystery.

Desert Road proves that the desert can be as terrifying as it is beautiful. At one moment, the way the sun hits the rocks and the sand makes for a gallery-worthy photograph, and being this far removed from the burdens of life (in the city, at work, in an office) is freeing. But, the next moment, the heat becomes heavy and starts to play tricks on the mind. More than that, the horizon seems to stretch endlessly in all directions. Being alone in such a desolate place is scary, but what's even scarier is being trapped here with shady characters you can't trust.

Brimming with a sense of paranoia and desperation, Desert Road marks writer-director Shannon Triplett's feature directorial debut. The film made its premiere at the 2024 SXSW , and follows an unnamed woman (Kristine Froseth), who is driving along a desert highway, on her way to visit her mom in Iowa. She stops at a gas station to refuel, but shortly after getting back on the road, her front tire bursts, and her car skids off the road. She walks back to the gas station to call a tow truck; being a budding photographer, she decides to explore the area. This is where things take a turn: to her horror, the woman discovers that no matter which direction she walks in, she somehow ends up back to where her car has crashed.

A Sci-Fi Mystery with Lots of Heart

Desert road (2024).

  • Triplett creates a confident and thrilling debut with great cinematography.
  • Kristine Froseth anchors the film and is excellent.
  • You may solve the mystery long before the character does.

What's remarkable about Desert Road is how it achieves so much by using so little. The cast may be small, and the locations minimal, but the film doesn't feel barren in any sense of the word. This is an especially incredible feat, considering how it is set in a desert , which, with a less discerning eye, could easily have felt static or one-dimensional.

Indeed, Triplett takes full advantage of the natural landscape, effectively infusing the film with a gritty verisimilitude. Whether it's relying predominantly on natural light — we can feel the scorching sun beaming and beating down on the Woman — or the rustling of the sand and the scraping of the rocks, the desert feels like a living, even threatening, organism.

It also helps that the spotlight is firmly on the Woman at all times. Right from the beginning of Desert Road , in fact, we are introduced to her in a way that immediately anchors us to her; she is the ground on which we stand throughout this ordeal. Triplett's script takes great care in establishing and maintaining the Woman's emotional stakes, and while some emotional chords don't necessarily strike the perfect note, you can't help but root for her. Playing the Woman, Froseth is fantastic, deftly walking the line between her character's determination and her desperation with aplomb.

The juxtaposition of a deeply human story on one hand and a sci-fi mystery on the other is well-balanced, too. To be sure, Desert Road is a sci-fi movie that doesn't feel like sci-fi , but it's not as if you're left wanting more science fiction elements. In a clever move by Triplett, the rules of this sci-fi world unravel like a murder mystery, teasing a harrowing climax. Some may see the twist coming, but the roads the film takes to get there will certainly keep you entertained.

Outstanding Cinematography That Maintains Tension

Alongside Froseth's lead performance, Desert Road 's cinematography plays a crucial role in the film's overall impact. In this way, DP Nico Navia deserves major praise for his camera work. Just as the film itself maintains a mercurial state, shifting from a taut thriller to the artist's journey with ease, Navi's lens operates with similar fluidity. He captures the vastness of the desert around the Woman, often moving in a straight line as she runs from one end of the road to the other, but also favors close-ups on the lead character. We are as intimate with her as we are with the world we're in, allowing a simultaneous familiarity yet strangeness with this mysterious environment (which, without spoiling the mystery, enhances the satisfying climax).

Desert Road is far from the first film to explore life as an artist , nor is it the first film to bend, blend, or up-end the rules of genres. This, of course, doesn't make it any less thrilling of a debut from Triplett, who offers a perspective on genre filmmaking that, particularly in the realm of sci-fi, is instantly unique and exciting. Triplett's promise as a director and storyteller stretches as far as the sun on the vast horizon, and we are so lucky to be witnesses to it.

Watch this space for distribution and release information for Desert Road .

a mind of her own movie review

Frida (2024) Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Amazon Prime Video

Frida (2024) is an engaging and intimate American documentary drama film. Directed by Carla Gutierrez, the film gives viewers a raw and candid glimpse into the life of the iconic artist Frida Kahlo and attempts to present the actual story through Frida’s own words from her illustrated diaries.

Here’s how you can watch and stream Frida (2024) via Amazon Prime Video.

Is Frida (2024) available to watch via streaming?

Yes, Frida (2024) is available to watch via streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

The film takes audiences inside the magnetic world of globally iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Primarily, the film is set in an upbeat Mexico City. Besides, the filmmaker has tried to give audiences an authentic glimpse inside the unnoticed facets and personal life of Kahlo. Kahlo’s world is vibrant with emotional undertones just like her paintings. Moreover, the film is an ode to the finesse-filled art legacy of Frida Kahlo.

Frida (2024) film stars the iconic Mexican painter and artist Frida Kahlo.

Watch Frida (2024) by streaming via Amazon Prime Video

Frida (2024) is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon Prime Video is a globally noted OTT streaming platform with a curated canvas of countless American documentary drama films in multiple languages and different genres that cater to avid documentary drama film lovers worldwide.

You can watch via Amazon Prime Video by following these steps:

  • Go to Amazon Prime Video
  • Select ‘Sign in’ and ‘Create your Amazon account’
  • $14.99 per month or $139 per year with an Amazon Prime membership
  • $8.99 per month for a standalone Prime Video membership

Amazon Prime is the online retailer’s paid service that provides fast shipping and exclusive sales on products, so the membership that includes both this service and Prime Video is the company’s most popular offering. However, you can also opt to subscribe to Prime Video separately.

The official film synopsis is as follows:

“An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Told through her own words for the very first time - drawn from her diary, revealing letters, essays, and print interviews - and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.”

NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

Imaginary Review: An Ambitious Misfire

Bad boys 4 star vanessa hudgens praises ‘action-packed' sequel, the crow: salvation blu-ray gets exclusive limited release, matt johnson reveals how blackberry helped get nirvanna the band movie funded.

The post Frida (2024) Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Amazon Prime Video appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More .

Frida (2024) Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Amazon Prime Video

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People Hated ‘Madame Web’ — But They Were Desperate to See Dakota Johnson Mock It.

T​he star has never quite said the movie was bad, but it’s fun to imagine a celebrity going scorched-earth on her own bad movie.

a mind of her own movie review

By Peter C. Baker

If you’ve heard one thing about the new superhero film “Madame Web,” it’s almost certain what you heard is that it’s bad. Really bad. “How’d this get made?” bad. Twelve percent on Rotten Tomatoes bad. “People reading reviews and canceling their tickets” bad. If you’ve heard a second thing about “Madame Web,” it’s probably that Dakota Johnson, the film’s star, seems not only fully aware of how bad the movie is but also incapable of hiding this awareness, even during publicity appearances notionally arranged for her to promote the product. These appearances have threatened to eclipse the film itself: Here is a flop so bad that even its star is winkingly trashing it.

It is true that, if you click through clips of Johnson’s recent appearances, you will not get the impression of an actor with a deep well of positive regard for the movie she is talking about. This is partly because of Johnson’s signature affect: Often, when being interviewed, about “Madame Web” or anything else, she radiates a profound lack of interest in the chummy conventions of celebrity P.R. There is a part she is meant to be playing, but she often seems reluctant to play it; instead, she comes across as both puzzled and bored by the whole ritual, and unwilling to pretend otherwise in the name of politesse. (Something similar could be said of her performance in “Madame Web,” in which her delivery of the film’s wooden dialogue seems to come with a trace of a smirk.)

On this press tour, though, it goes beyond mere affect. If the joke is that the film is brain-dead slop, she looks thrilled to play along. A few weeks ago, in a “Saturday Night Live” monologue , she cheerfully described it as a superhero movie starring Sydney Sweeney — “so, kind of like if A.I. generated your boyfriend’s favorite movie.” On “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” when asked what superhero backstory viewers would need in order to enjoy “Madame Web,” Johnson assured Meyers there was none required; in fact, she added, laughing, “You don’t have to know anything about anything at all to watch this movie.” Then she kept spinning out the bit: “You don’t got to know nothing. It’s great for America.” “You know nothing? Come see our movie.”

There were other moments, none especially pointed on their own but hard to ignore once woven together by pop-culture obsessives. She told Entertainment Weekly that she found the experience of filming against a blue screen “ absolutely psychotic .” She told The Wrap that the script underwent “drastic changes” from the version that initially persuaded her to sign on. She told Meyers her Gen Z castmates annoyed her and, in an interview with E! News, speculated that they excluded her from their group chat. She told a radio program that she hadn’t seen the movie yet and didn’t know if she ever would. Throughout, the fact that “Madame Web” exists, and that she stars in it, seemed above all like a source of amusement to her.

Pop-culture discourse has eaten this up. A representative selection of reactions: “Yes, Marvel’s ‘Madame Web’ Is a ‘Schlocky, Janky’ Disaster, but Dakota Johnson’s Press Tour Is a Joy.” (The Guardian.) “Johnson Seems to Be Less Than Thrilled With ‘Madame Web,’ and We Love It.” (AV Club.) “Dakota Johnson’s ‘Madame Web’ Press Tour Was the Real Movie.” (Jezebel.) There are many more where these came from and similar sentiments ricocheting all over TikTok. Johnson’s movie is flopping, but her public image is more beloved than ever.

I, too, got a kick out of watching this unfold. So much celebrity culture is incredibly stale, especially when it comes to the cinematic-superhero-industrial complex. The actors who appear in these films trot around a circuit of similar press stops, saying similar things about their similar performances in similar movies. They’re smiling; they’re happy to be here ; they’re so excited to talk about this project . There’s something cheering about watching Johnson bring some irrepressible authenticity to a fakery-clogged machine.

You can’t help noticing that it’s also P.R. genius. As “Madame Web” became the subject of a nationwide roasting, what better move than to shrug and join in? Johnson never quite said the movie was bad, but she did seem to be winking at the audience: You know it’s a stinker, I know it’s a stinker, I know that you know, you know that I know. Eventually she tipped into earnestness, telling Bustle that while the poor reception wasn’t pleasant, “I can’t say that I don’t understand.”

It’s not as if this kind of thing is even necessarily bad for a movie. Sometimes it seems almost helpful, as when feverish gossip about behind-the-scenes drama on the set of “Don’t Worry Darling” appeared to help it at the box office. But even if that’s not the case for “Madame Web,” it’s fine for Johnson: She’s still that partygoer who manages to make anything look cool, even tripping on the carpet and spilling Champagne down her shirt. Her conspiratorial smile lets you feel like her collaborator: It’s not humiliating if you’re both laughing. The trick might be catching on. In her own “S.N.L.” monologue, Sydney Sweeney happily joked that “you might have seen me in ‘Anyone but You’ or ‘Euphoria.’ You definitely did not see me in ‘Madame Web.’”

Moves like these are especially well suited to the moment, when we track celebrities not just as artists but as media personalities, looking for people to cheer specifically for how they navigate the obstacle course of fame. This has long benefited Johnson, whose star power radiates just as much from press appearances as from film roles — and from the suggestion that she is something of a lovable chaos agent. In 2019, she had another viral moment, this time on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”: DeGeneres made an offhand reference to not having been invited to Johnson’s birthday party, but Johnson insisted — and kept insisting, in a deadpan refusal to let it go — that DeGeneres had in fact received an invitation. The moment was indeed awkward, puncturing the norms of daytime TV in a way that set it up perfectly for virality. But it wasn’t nearly as vicious or confrontational as people clearly wanted it to be, or as it has been portrayed in the many, many articles memorializing it as a prime example of Johnson’s zero-fakes-given approach to public life.

Similarly, watching Johnson’s “Madame Web” press appearances in full, I found them not quite as “chaotic” as the headlines and the video compilations wanted me to believe — nor even as critical of “Madame Web.” OK, so she found her blue-screen experience weird. She didn’t watch “Madame Web,” but she says she doesn’t watch most of her movies, a not-uncommon strategy among successful actors. She said her Gen Z castmates annoyed her; she also said she loved them. She mocked her career a bit on late-night TV. Is this really so strange?

It’s fun to imagine a star breaking protocol and going scorched-earth on her own bad movie. Plato thought only philosophers who had no interest in being king deserved the job, and we seem to feel something similar about famous people. We desperately crave celebrities who are unbeholden to celebrity culture, who are willing to commune with us about what sucks or who’s fake. We’re hungry enough for authenticity to risk making some up, treating the most minor breaches of the status quo as signs of some long-wished-for revolt. “I’m just not good at talking to journalists,” Johnson said in her “S.N.L.” monologue. “I think the big problem is that I say stuff, and then they write it down. And it’s really unfair.” The line got a hearty laugh. But then Johnson kept going. It’s unfair, she explained, because “most of the time I’m joking.” That got fewer laughs.

Source photograph for illustration above: Screenshot via Entertainment Tonight. Peter C. Baker is a freelance writer in Evanston, Ill., and the author of the novel “Planes.”

Inside the World of Gen Z

The generation of people born between 1997 and 2012 is changing fashion, culture, politics, the workplace and more..

For many Gen-Zers without much disposable income, Facebook isn’t a place to socialize online — it’s where they can get deals on items  they wouldn’t normally be able to afford.

Dating apps are struggling to live up to investors’ expectations . Blame the members of Generation Z, who are often not willing to shell out for paid subscriptions.

Young people tend to lean more liberal on issues pertaining to relationship norms. But when it comes to dating, the idea that men should pay in heterosexual courtships  still prevails among Gen Z-ers .

We asked Gen Z-ers to tell us about their living situations and the challenges of keeping a roof over their heads. Here’s what they said .

What is it like to be part of the group that has been called the most diverse generation in U.S. history? Here is what 900 Gen Z-ers had to say .

Young people coming of age around the world are finding community in all sorts of places. Our “Where We Are” series takes you to some of them .

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Janet Planet

Janet Planet (2023)

In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visito... Read all In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet. In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet.

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‘Adrianne & the Castle’ Review: A Grieving Man Builds a Shrine to His Late Wife in a Beautiful Documentary About a Love Larger Than Life

Lauren wissot.

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a mind of her own movie review

“Reality is for those who lack imagination” is one of the many witticisms dispensed by Adrianne Blue Wakefield St. George, the star and subject of Shannon Walsh’s documentary “Adrianne & The Castle” and a woman who also once proclaimed: “I am my own art.” Indeed she was. A gloriously Rubenesque force of nature who appeared to take her fashion and beauty tips from Divine , Adrianne was muse not only to herself but likewise to her adoring husband Alan St. George, who built a castle for — and his entire life around — his beloved wife of 30-plus years. 

“In our house, architecture is like frozen opera,” Alan explains to Walsh’s constantly roving lens as the camera searches through rooms filled with paintings and statues and clothes and dolls in a floor-to-ceiling shrine to all things Adrianne. “It’s an illusion,” Alan adds. Like a magic trick.” Ironically enough, that magic trick — motivated by Adrianne’s unwavering demand for a larger than life existence — is funded by the international mascot-making company Alan founded over half a century ago, whose notable clients include the Walt Disney Company itself. 

So while this unmoored protagonist was still struggling to find meaning outside of Adrianne, Walsh — a filmmaker long focused on humanistic issues ranging from labor rights (2021’s “The Gig is Up”) to loss (2019’s “Illusions of Control”) — reached out to extend her own grieving hand; and broach a novel collaborative approach that would ultimately add another sweet layer to this weird cinematic confection. Together they would cast an actor to play Adrianne, opposite another as a younger version of Alan, and shoot reenactments of pivotal moments from the couple’s shared past. Moments like the mid-‘70s car ride when Alan first spotted his future bride through the window of a city bus and fell in love with her at first sight. Walsh and the surviving St. George would also throw in some musical numbers for their hired thespians to tackle because, well, Adrianne never passed up an opportunity to sing and perform, so what better way to honor such an inspirational diva?

The question hangs in the air. Personally, I saw “Adrianne & The Castle” as a queer hetero love story between a female drag queen and her submissive partner, even if that very 21st century assessment feels totally out of sync with the couple’s turn-of-the-20th-century aristocratic lifestyle. And yet the ambiguity of Walsh’s film is also the greatest strength of the intoxicating story it tells in such intimate and specific detail, a story whose moral is to throw such mundane thinking aside and embrace the higher truth that love conquers all — doubt and death alike.

“Adrianne & the Castle” premiered at SXSW 2024. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.

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    Inspired by a true story, A Mind of Her Own tells the poignant and moving story of Sophie, a determined young girl whose ambition to become a doctor is obstructed by the fact that she is severely dyslexic. But Sophie, encouraged by her closest friend, Becky, has never been one to give up. Despite being advised by parents and schoolteachers to be realistic and pursue something less academic ...

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    A gloriously Rubenesque force of nature who appeared to take her fashion and beauty tips from Divine, Adrianne was muse not only to herself but likewise to her adoring husband Alan St. George, who ...