Author: Dom

Soul

This one comes from the Pixar Studios, which as far as I can remember, has never put a foot wrong. The film was supposed to be out last summer, but suffered the same fate as a lot of movies set for a June outing: faced with the prospect of empty cinemas, the studios delayed the release, hoping that the pandemic would be sorted by Christmas.

Well, for the UK and the US . . . not even close. So with no end in sight, the studios have three options:

  1. Keep delaying the film until audiences can return to the picture houses, and hope they’re still interested in seeing it. (No Time to Die)
  2. Release to the cinemas anyway and hope enough people are willing to risk infection to see it. (Wonder Woman 1984)
  3. Release it to a streaming service and see if it attracts new customers.

Pixar went for option number 3 (which they can do since they can stream on Disney+), and frankly, they deserve to have the gamble pay off.

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Book review: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist was published years ago (1988, according to GoodReads), so … I’m a bit late getting to it. I picked it up because a friend said if I enjoyed Silk then I might enjoy this. He was right; I did, though I don’t think it was the story as much as the simple, poetic writing and the insights into the human condition it presented.

The story is about a shepherd boy who embarks on an adventure to find a treasure buried near the pyramids. Along the way he meets a king, a merchant of fine crystal, bandits, men of learning and of course … an alchemist. But this wasn’t really about finding the treasure, it was about the journey the shepherd undertook to reach it, and how the people he met along the way changed him and his perspective on life and his future.

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