(via Shutterstock) How can you not love going to the movies? Look at the dazzling variety in these three films alone – a gripping if fantastical thriller, a garrulously chaotic animated delight based on an iconic Dr Seuss book and some seriously Halloween adjacent supernatural goings-on in an otherwise ordinary Continue Reading
Italian Film Festival movie review: Life is Life (La vita va così)
(courtesy IMDb) If there’s one thing audiences love, it’s a David vs. Goliath tale. In the real world, we sigh inwardly and rail with quiet fury, and often not-so-quiet fury, at the gross injustices of companies not paying tax and in effect screwing over the public they serve, fascistic politicians Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #142: Rose Gray, Violet Days, Slayyyter, almost monday + Cherry Bomb … plus ABBA’s most and least streamed songs
(via Shutterstock) Songs are made to make us feel something, the more emphatically the better. Whether it’s the music or the lyrics or a delicious combo of the two, the right song can make you feel, think, move and look at life, or at least a part of it, from Continue Reading
“I decide when I return!” Haunted Hotel S2 drops teaser trailer for October 9 return
(courtesy YouTube (c) Netflix) SNAPSHOTA single mother tries to run the world’s most haunted hotel with her ghost brother, two kids, a demon trapped in a little boy’s body, and an ever growing collection of ghosts, monsters, and supernatural disasters. Haunted Hotel features the voices of Will Forte (Nathan), Eliza Coupe (Katherine), Skyler Gisondo (Ben), Natalie Palamides (Esther) and Jimmi Continue Reading
Is it too late to be me? … Thoughts on Lucky
(courtesy IMDb) A protagonist with a heart of gold trapped in a world of dubious intention and darkly self-serving execution is a mainstay of storytelling; there’s something innately appealing about someone who has been exposed to the worst of humanity and yet somehow has emerged innocent and pure of heart, Continue Reading
Sci-fi September book review: The Traveler by Joseph Eckert
(courtesy Macmillan Publishers) One of the marks of an exceptionally good writer is the ability to take a story steeped in a fantastical premise, one ripe with all kinds of imaginative possibility and to do something impactfully meaningful with it. It’s a real art; lean too hard into the fantastical, Continue Reading
Aliens and foxes and a journey across the cosmos: The Saga of Rex trailer
(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTA little fox. A flying saucer. An alien world. A journey that will change his life forever. Abducted from his home and taken across the cosmos, Rex is paired with a mysterious being named Aven and forced to face a series of extraordinary trials. As they struggle Continue Reading
Wocka Wocka! It’s The Muppet Show’s 50th anniversary!!!
(courtesy IMDb (c) Jim Henson Productions) I remember in the dim, dark days of the mid-seventies when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and the Egyptians were building the pyramids (yes, I am that old) lying on the floor of the loungeroom of our house in Alstonville, up in northern NSW, excitedly Continue Reading
Sci-fi September book review: Jitterbug by Gareth L. Powell
(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia) It is always a pleasure of the greatest magnitude when you dive into a sci-fi novel which always promises some thrillingly big and sweeping storytelling and it goes even bigger and bolder than you expected. It’s hard to be surprised in our everything-on-the-table preview-manic digital Continue Reading
Movie review: The History of Sound
(courtesy IMP Awards) Love in its purest form is supposed to elevate, enlarge, enthrall us, building and growing what was into something altogether bigger and better and different. That’s the grandly idealistic promise that romantic love makes to us and much of the time, if allowed free and full expression, Continue Reading