RIFLE RANGE BOY

Adolescence (2025) Miniseries (4 episodes) https://kinocheck.com/show/s23/adolescence This miniseries has everyone buzzing. It is likely regarded as the most surreal creation to grace screens since 16-year-old Linda Blair portrayed Regan MacNeil in the 1973 film, The Exorcist. This is Netflix's latest blockbuster offering. The subject matter is undeniably dark, involving a 13-year-old student murdering a fellow female student as a result of cyberbullying.  The miniseries features the filming of each episode in a single shot. While it may feel sluggish at times, this approach enhances the story's immersion as the case unfolds. The essence of the story begins with a police raid to apprehend a teenager suspected of murdering another teenager. From that moment, it evolves into a police procedural drama as the legal system processes the accused. It showcases the overwhelming emotions experienced by everyone involved: the police officers, the supportive staff, the lawyer, the social ...

The Graduate 1963 novella by Charles Webb 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols In the past, existential crises typically arose after a certain age of maturity. Following a prescribed path, an adolescent would transition into adulthood. One must work diligently, persevere, and slog through challenges to realise his true potential. As the Peter Principle states, "In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties," they may attain the highest position for which they are ill-suited, leading to subsequent brooding. Only then do they begin to question the meaning of it all. What is the purpose of existence? What is one good for? What is their contribution to humanity, and what will be their legacy?  In the days when seeking knowledge was laborious, one had to be content with passive diffusion. Learning intimate biological know-how was peer-driven. Rightly or wrongly, that remained a go-to source for quick references. In the spring of y...

Y tu mamá también  (And your mother too,  Mexican Spanish, 2001 ) Director: Alfonso Cuarón Interestingly, sex has always assigned the duty of maturing someone and smacking people with the profound answer of the reason for existence. Tinseltown impresses us that sex is the panacea to all our worldly problems. Of course, we all know that sex may also create problems of its own. There was a time when sex was accorded a special status in society. Because of its mysterious nature, which was ill-understood by primitive men, sanctioning permission to indulge in this biological activity was complicated. Many requirements and rituals had to be fulfilled to obtain access. As the societal restrictions became increasingly questioned with no logical explanation in sight, the biological act came to be treated as such, a biological process, not needing frills and pomp. Humans were merely continuing the spread of their seeds for the continuity of species. Slowly sex lost its respected status ...

Lady Bird (2017) This coming of age movie is made by a debutante director. Bringing up children may not be so gratifying after all. After the initial awe of the wonder of the Universe to create a body within a body, reality soon hits you. You do not mind all the sleepless nights and backbreaking chores to keep the little one breathing. All the lethargy somehow vanishes at the sight of the little one carving a slight smile at us. Devious devils soon reveal their dormant selves quick enough. As they hit puberty, they metamorphose. Blame it on growing pains, changing hormones, undeveloped pre-frontal cortex or dopamine cravings, they view the hands that feed them as aggressors. They feel that the parents suffer from a siege mentality. Their obsessions with thrift and stickling to time are utterly too stifling. Growing up sheltered, the chicklings perceived the whole wide world as gentle as their domestic guardians. The peer pressure to conform to the...

Looks like a new form of parenting has crept into our society. The little one, usually a toddler would be given sort of of a running commentary of all the things that go around him. Bring him to a checkout counter, while the mother is busy unloading the trolley of food stuff, the father would be busy narrating what is being done and how the transaction is recorded, calculated and so forth. At the obstetrician's office, whilst having the good doctor examine the yet-to-be-born addition to family, father does his duty again. He explains to the confused toddler of the various anatomical parts of his offspring as seen on the ultrasound screen much to the annoyance of the attending obstetrician. The doctor who is still living suspended in the good old time where children were seen and not heard,  seriously wonders whether the child really understands what in heaven's name is going on, but the father's duty has to go on! He is waiting for the son to ask the father, "Who ...

Blame my Brain (the amazing teenage brain revealed) Nicola Morgan 2005 Had the honour of meeting the author of this book in KL recently when this Scottish lady was conducting a workshop for writers of teenage stories. Her passion to write ignited at the age of 9 but had to wait for 27 years to publish her first book. She has written books in many genres, fiction and non -fiction, mainly for teenage readers. It is an amazement how those cuddly lovable cuties metamorphose into a volatile piercing thorns, something in the line of gremlins when exposed to water. In the case of tweens, it is adolescence! They may be the next most difficult thing to analyse after the female brain! In this 200 odd page book, the author offers an reasonable explanation for this transformation. It can basically be blamed on nature, 3 main punching bags - genes, evolution, neuro-chemicals. The author's target group seem to be teenagers and those in constant contact with teenagers with the hope of givi...