Film: The Invite, A Comedy, Directed by Olivia Wilde, 2026

First of all, I have not seen recently in an American movie such bad acting! Worst acting by Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde – so over the top, foney, literal, and patronizing the viewer. This is their depraved idea of playing in a comedy – so unprofessional, so provincial…The other two stars in the film, Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz, are trying to save face by just being more “natural”. When I come across rave reviews of the film, it feels like living in the bizzaro world. Has everyone gone dumb or simply all reviews are paid ?

The film is based on a play, a trashy one at that, by a popular Spanish writer, worth presenting by a touring unprofessional theater in provincial locations. It is predictable, humourless, and titillating the lowest common denominator of a provincial audience – sexually aroused by the prospect of swapping marital partners. All the supposed “twists” in the plot are cliches of the farcical genres and there is not a single scene in the film worth watching to its end without immense annoyance. In the end, marital harmony is restored, illustrated by the act of the two main characters playing the piano in four hands. You must be kidding me!

Books: Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton, 2025

One of these non-fiction books that reads like fiction. An illustration of how when one focuses one’s attention on something for a long time and really really looks at it in depth and with concentration they can discover a whole new and exciting world.

A professional woman used to the hustle and bustle of international politics from London to the Middle East as her occupation, is forced to live alone in a farmhouse about an hour away from the big city – it is the time of Covid and lockdown. She finds a leveret, a baby hare, in the winter field and saves it. This starts a relationship between the narrator and the wild animal that is worth tracking for 155 pages. The main characters – narrator and animal, remain nameless, the animal never becomes a pet, and the narrator never quite the owner, even though she has to take the hare to the vet at some point and fill in a form with a field for “owner.” This uncanny relationship makes the woman discover new things about her own life as a human. She tries not to ascribe human features to the hare as she endeavors to understand at least a small aspect of the nature of the wild creature that remains a mystery to the end. The book is wonderfully written, never falling into the traps of “cuteness” and sentimentality. It uncovers, through the eyes of the narrator, a world of serenity and danger in wilderness, and offers a new understanding of nature, by making it “interesting” – from the grass seeds to the beady eye of the hare following her moves and the predatory hawks criss-crossing the sky, that is worth knowing and loving.

Books: A Stranger in Corfu, A Novel by Alex Preston, 2026

A spy book set in Greece, Corfu or to be more precise an island in the Ionian sea called Vidos, reimagined by the author as Spyland. It is a place inhabited by failed former spies who are parked there as an embarrassment for MI6 – yes, it is reminiscent of Slow Horses by Mick Herron.

Despite the interesting premise – the story of double agents working towards the failure of MI6 missions in the world, the collapse of the Western ideology and ironically – the triumph of the communist ideal, the novel leaves an aftertaste of dissatisfaction. Somehow, we suspected from the very start that Oxford-educated aristocracy and top KGB offspring were conspiring to dominate the world together…

There are some wide-gaping plot holes, some illogical moves, a lot of fluff “events” or “fillers” not contributing to the story’s integrity. There is more psychology than a reasonably entertaining spy novel can possibly sustain. There are well-crafted but quite long descriptions of physical action – a lot of swimming, running, sightseeing, or eating. The author deserves a credit though for communicating skillfully the beauty of the Ionian sea, and the bliss of a long morning swim.

The most interesting character, Nina is somewhat underdeveloped – and maybe, that is what makes her interesting. The rest of the characters are excessively “explained” – especially Benedict, who is supposed to be the most dramatic of them all.

Overall, as far as genre fiction goes, this one deserves a 6 out of 10. And yes, quality genre fiction is hard to find.

Books: Children of Wolves, A Novel by Lawrence Osborne, 2026

Very disappointed by the latest novel of Lawrence Osborne, an author I have been recommending left and right in the last five years. I can’t believe that after Hunters in the Dark, The Forgiven, and Beautiful Animals (the works that I rate highest among his oeuvre) he penned this half-baked story.

The plot of the novel, the mechanism that makes all its other parts tick is very week, to the point of not making much sense. What would you think of a terrorist cell of four who select one of them to commit the murder of their target, but then all of them have to be present at the glamorous event where the murder is supposed to happen without any of them having a role in the murder – just to have to plan their escapes?! Why would they need to be at this event in the first place?! Just to hang out and then escape?!

Things like that, as well as other non-consequential happenings, make you think what is mandatory for a good novel – it can’t offer just cool settings, ethnographic details like Turkish cuisine and drinks, descriptions of exotic Istanbul topoi, clothing, and expensive hotels…The characters are vague, their motives banal, they can be reduced just to their physical descriptions and some random behavior that does not engage the reader. The plot cannot withstand a very basic logical questioning.

What happened? It seemed like the author had a contract with the publisher and had to churn up something in a hurry….What a pity.

Books: Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden

Would this book be so popular if the author had not been a high society Martha’s Vineyard housewife, Babe Paley’s granddaughter, and a Vanderbilt descendant? The simple answer is – no.

Still, it addresses every housewife’s deep fear of her husband cheating on her. It is like cancer – you may have it and not know about it. Hence, the popularity of the book. It is also intelligently written and offers some insights into women’s choices regarding marriage, career, and parenting. These insights are not particularly new or original. Belle Burden realizes she has traded safety and security for independence. She has consciously selected not to know or care about family finances and has focused on raising her children. The most original, probably, revelation of the book is that actually divorce is NOT the end of a woman’s life and can make a woman a better person!

What I find problematic about this book is that its main premise – living twenty years with a “stranger” – does not ring true. Whose fault is it that Belle Buden did not know much about her husband. He was visiting the family on weekends and spending one week with them at Martha’s Vineyard during the summer. The author points out as proof of her happy years with her husband the fact that he made family videos, that they had a common diary (as newlyweds), and that he was a caring parent ( except for doing baths and homework). The signs of a non-functioning family are in plain sight. This is though, the acceptable marriage model for stay-at-home mothers who are “provided” and have given up their careers. Well, who made this choice? The choice not to be interested in financial matters, not to go to work, not to deal with bosses and difficult colleagues, but instead drive the children to school and various activities, play tennis and go to parties, enjoy long walks, meet friends while the kids are at school, and basically take it easy! I am not sure the insights of such a female can be valid for the majority of modern women.

The shock of the husband’s not willing to explain why he left is a bit overplayed. He was alienated, not entirely present, very powerful, rich, and he already had his own life apart from the family. He just formalized through a divorce the choices he had already made. Makes you wonder what the author’s standards or notions of a good marriage were not to have noticed that.

The choice of a phony person and a narcissistic actress like Gwyneth Paltrow to play the main character in the future film Strangers is quite symptomatic, no?

Books: Look What You Made Me Do, A Novel by John Lanchester

It is a pleasure read and it gives you the feeling it was written for pleasure by John Lanchester. Inspires me to read more of his writing. Maybe, next one on my to read list will be his most famous novel Capital.

The plot is engaging as all revenge stories are. Closer to the end, it becomes predictable and a bit repetitive. Not all plot twists need to be explained as the narrator Kate does…But the plot meanderings are not the main source of the pleasure of reading. It is the language – incisive and witty. Lanchester has the gift of capturing and representing truthfully the class and age of his characters by rendering their conversations – intellectual discourse, dinner banter, intimate dialogue. He makes you reflect on the nature of willful or just fashionable socializing, of courtship and friendship, of passion and jealousy – through language. Kate, one of the two main narrators in the novel gets plunged into misery by witnessing her most intimate marital discourse becoming the dialogue of a popular TV show. Phoebe – the second narrator, pleases most with her cynical and blunt descriptions of her manipulative and deeply unhappy mother Sarah.

The other feature of this novel that contributes greatly to the pleasure of reading it is the deeply amoral nature of its characters (but they are all super intelligent). There are no “nice” people in this book (except for probably Phoebe’s partner). Thus the book, never gets didactic. It just follows the domino effect of people’s egotistical behavior – the effect of “look what YOU made me do”. Everybody is “innocent” as the ending suggests. It is other people that make us behave badly and Lanchester’s point is that this bad behavior is quite enjoyable. The characters just can’t help it.

The description of the Oxford students’ love triangle was great. The seventies atmosphere, the college culture, the excitement of complex and playful but in the end life-defining relationships – all captured so well! Makes you realize how the act of “falling in love” breakes all the rules of decency and has nothing to do with morality or generosity of spirit.

Film: The Odyssey, Directed by Christopher Nolan, 2026

Much anticipated and ultimately quite disappointing. This is a film made with its eyes firmly fixed on the prize. It will almost certainly earn Christopher Nolan the long-coveted Oscar, but it may also come to define the last great Hollywood director under the age of eighty as a filmmaker willing to compromise his artistic integrity. Too much of the film seems designed to please the Academy rather than to remain faithful to its own artistic vision.

As someone smartly noted – this is “an Odyssey” not “the Odyssey”. Its interpretation of the ancient epic poem is grossly modernized. Thus, it becomes symptomatic of our time – the Odyssey of 2026. It is made as an antiwar movie – Odysseus carries the guilt of creating the Trojan horse and destroying Troy. It seems that Nolan wants to continue here the Oppenheimer theme – Odysseus as Oppenheimer and the Trojan horse as the atomic bomb. He should have done a better job in exposing the LACK of guild in Oppenheimer in his biopic instead of now injecting alien to the Greek epic ideas. Having Helen of Troy send her apologies to Odysseus for causing the Trojan war – this is done in very poor taste and is one of the film’s most ludicrous lines. Basically, all the faults of the film are inherent in the script – the modern concepts, (e.g. Odysseus as a “veteran” of the Trojan war with a PTSD), the modern street language, the pseudo psychological insights…All tasteless.

The above is combined with some very long action scenes. The viewer might keep thinking how difficult it was to film all these given that Nolan uses very little CGI. Still, appreciating the “difficulty”, or the craftsmanship is not enough for truly liking the film.

One of the most annoying performances in the film is that of Anne Hathaway. Otherwise a fine actress (e.g. WeCrashed), she is definitely inappropriately cast. She sentimentalizes the character, her trembling chin is ridiculous, her hissing remarks about not being able to become the queen of Ithaca are out of place (here the blame goes to the script again), etc. etc. An infantile audience could be fooled that this is high art, but most vieweres understand that here we are dealing with the interpretation of one of the foundational works of the Western canon and things can’t be that literal and simplistic!

Books: The Calamity Club, A Novel by Kathryn Stockett, 2026

It is a very hard read – too long and too “all-over-the-place.” I doubt many readers who begin it can endure to the end (at least without skipping pages.) Stockett wanted to touch on so many subjects of “woke” nature that it became a book about everything. The story of an orphan trapped in an unjust orphanage system, a single female struggling with financial hardship, a gay husband and his family wishing to “cure” him, a goodhearted wealthy alcoholic, a single mother sent to jail by a racist society, etc. etc.

All of this is told from an overtly feminist perspective, despite being set in 1930s Mississippi. The novel finally descends into implausibility when its three central female characters establish and successfully run a brothel in Oxford, Mississippi, as a way of surviving the economic devastation of the Great Depression. As a plot device—and as a statement of feminist empowerment, it sounds ludicrous.

There is not one original idea in this book – everything is predictable because it is premised on an ideological matrix – the plight of women and gays in the 20th century American South. Nothing to discover here, nothing we did not already know. The characters are sentimentalized and well-designed to fit the scheme of historical critique intended by Stockett.

Books: Question 7, by Richard Flanagan, 2023

Not quite a novel, the book is part memoir part journalistic non-fiction, and research-based fictionalization of the development of nuclear science leading to the creation of the atomic bomb.

It is a example of late-modernist type of literature where personal accounts mix with research and scientific exploration of (most frequently) atrocities committed by humanity against itself, wars, genocides, environmental disasters – of the type of W.G. Sebald and his book “The Rings of Saturn.” Or, to use Flanagan’s own example, it follows H. G. Wells, who, he argues, “reinvented journalism as literature, prefiguring much of what literature would become.” Unfortunately, that is indeed what much contemporary literature has become. One need only look at recent Nobel laureates such as Olga Tokarczuk and Annie Ernaux.

The most exciting pages of the book cover the affair between H.G.Wells and Rebecca West. They are full of psychological insight, stylistic craftsmanship, and literary history fictionalized in a hilarious ingenious way.

By contrast, the sections devoted to the author’s earliest memories, family history, and portraits of his parents and relatives come across as deeply narcissistic. The attempt to filter major historical events through intensely personal experience is often irritating, if not self-aggrandizing. Reading and interpreting history through a fictionalized “I” raises questions about the ethical implications of such an approach.

Flanagan’s philosophising about the past, is at best helpless – “the past stays with us, that what was, is and shall be”, what is happening has happened and will always happen and other similar “deep thoughts” sound hollow.

The title of the book is taken from a Chekhov’s story – and again Flanagan misinterprets Chekhov by trying to imbue some grand meaning into the question “Who loves longer.” Where Chekhov is parodying, Flanagan is sentimentalising. The latter is right about one thing – his book is asking questions, without providing answers. As in Chekhov’s stories “the only people who have all the answers are the fools.”

Books: More Than Enough, A Novel by Anna Quindlen, 2026

Anna Quindlen is an achiever in fiction writing. She knows the rules and she is so industrious, so detail oriented, so sensitive to women issues, mood swings, and life’s surprises that you can’t really complain about the quality of her writing. And — still you can! This book attempts to cover absolutely everything—and does so formulaically. It feels as though Quindlen gathered a checklist of every modern female concern, striving to address each one without ever achieving depth or finding an original angle. While she occasionally captures a sharp detail or mirrors a familiar feeling perfectly, the overall narrative ultimately leaves an aftertaste of banality and dissatisfaction.

This clutter is the inevitable result of cramming a dizzying array of subplots into a single novel:

  • Mother-daughter friction
  • Deep father-daughter affection
  • Cross-marital betrayal
  • Late-in-life discovery of a biological father
  • Dealing with a parent’s dementia
  • A sister’s tight bond with her gay brother
  • Watching a fabulous best friend die of cancer
  • Chronic parental self-doubt
  • The quiet grief of a childless family
  • Desperation to conceive
  • A child coping with maternal loss

While Quindlen meticulously anchors these subtopics to her protagonist, the execution feels synthetic. In the end, it feels like she was busy checking boxes rather than writing about life itself.