Rachel Robbins
Bio
Writer-Performer based in the North of England. A joyous, flawed mess.
Please read my stories and enjoy. And if you can, please leave a tip. Money raised will be used towards funding a one-woman story-telling, comedy show.
Stories (162)
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All Happy Families (2024)
I wasn’t going to write about my weekend viewing. My partner and I went to see All Happy Families (2024), and at the end of the film, we didn’t rave about it, but nor did we sit in the car and tear it to pieces. We were, however, both smiling. It was what the Guardian describes as ‘likeable’ – a solid three star piece of date-worthy entertainment. I didn’t think I had anything to say about it. However, at the end of the date, there was one scene we both commented on…
By Rachel Robbins10 months ago in Geeks
Judy and Lucille
New York, August 1953 Dear Lucille I know it’s been a while since my last letter, but I just had to let you know how much I love “I Love Lucy”. I tune in every week to see you so that I can laugh at a wonderful witty woman, taking her place, centre screen. Please see this as a fan letter and treat it as you would any other letter from a deranged, well-meaning fan. Read it. Enjoy the compliments. Then burn after reading.
By Rachel Robbins11 months ago in History
Lady Blackbird in Concert. Top Story - February 2025.
Going to see Lady Blackbird I realised that, maybe, I don’t have the vocabulary to describe music. I understand genre, tone and the way a bass note can hit in the chest, or a sustained high note takes you floating. But music, it seems, is a language of its own that gets lost in translation. Something gets misshapen when words do their clunky business.
By Rachel Robbins11 months ago in Beat
Barbara Walker at the Whitworth Art Gallery
Sunday afternoon. The weather was awful. I can cope with the wind, the rain or the cold, but not all three attacking my face. I didn’t want to spend the afternoon looking at two screens half-heartedly. I wanted something different to view. I normally go for a walk, but I didn’t want to brave the elements.
By Rachel Robbins12 months ago in Art
A Complete Unknown (2024)
A Complete Unknown is a story about the relentless pace of change, whilst steeped in its own nostalgia. This is not a criticism, just an observation. This is a successful film and that success lies in part in the nostalgic atmosphere, as well as the conflict of the drama – progression vs. tradition, or change vs. consistency.
By Rachel Robbins12 months ago in Geeks
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Apologies for the last minute entry to this challenge. I didn’t think it was for me. I am not great at making New Years Resolutions and I blame the foggy mist of a Greater Manchester January. It is probably the wrong setting to attempt fresh thinking. I am back from a drizzle-laden walk and my hair has frizzed and I feel bedraggled. The snow has disappeared and there is black ice in the parks, so I had to stick to main roads that were slightly too noisy to catch everything my air pods were trying to tell me. The pavements were wet and uneven. I was walking against a small tide of commuters, all with their heads down. Nobody used an umbrella against the dampness in the air that couldn’t quite be called rain.
By Rachel Robbins12 months ago in Motivation
A Real Pain (2024)
The critics agree that A Real Pain is a great film, with a high-energy, tortured central performance which led to Mick LaSalle of the San Franciso Chronicle declaring that a new genre had been invented – “the Kieran Culkin movie”. Honestly, it is a brilliant performance. The high-energy twitching of neurosis captured in every move.
By Rachel Robbins12 months ago in Geeks
Tiffany's Epiphany. Top Story - January 2025.
Tiffany Higgins had been sitting on the hard plastic chairs, feeling her behind get numb and her courage failing. She was still in her office clothes and the sweat was gathering in her polyester armpits. The sudden silence and the anxious stares became the prompt for her rehearsed lines. Her voice was hesitant.
By Rachel Robbinsabout a year ago in Fiction
