SNAPSHOT During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, Continue Reading
Book yourself some laughs with Jeff Wysaski’s series of parody bookstore titles
Let’s be honest – who of us hasn’t walked into the bathroom and wondered what the hell that reflective slab of wall is in front of us, in which is imprisoned an unsettlingly eerie likeness of ourselves? Hands up! Oh, just me? Right, moving on … But wait, you must have Continue Reading
Movie review: Jurassic World
Ladies and gentleman please stand and welcome the return of the Satisfying Blockbuster, back on our screens after quite a while lost in the creative wilderness of Hollywood. Lest you think that too extravagant a way to introduce the latest instalment in the Jurassic Park trilogy, the Colin Trevorrow-directed Jurassic Continue Reading
Outlander: “To Ransom a Man’s Soul” (S1, E16 review)
* Many a spoiler and some stampeding cattle lie ahead * One of the most defining aspects of the television adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s series of Outlander books has been how fearless, utterly fearless its producers have been in telling its long and winding, heart-stoppingly epic tale. Manifestly lacking Continue Reading
Now this is music #51: Axel Flóvent, Cajsa Siik, The Magic Gang, Hey Elbow, Fickle Friends
Firmly fixed in Europe this post, thanks to three Scandinavian outfits and two Brighton, England-based ones, we are treated to music that manages to combine the most beautiful of music with lyrics that pierce the soul. This is music that caresses the ears, gets you thinking, and feeling deeply, Continue Reading
Movie review: Hill of Freedom (Jayuui Eondeok) #sff2015
A very wise, enduringly articulate man by the name of William Shakespeare once observed that “the true course of love never did run smooth”. Given he took in his last breath some 400 years ago, it’s highly doubtful he had Hill of Freedom, noted Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s 16th feature film Continue Reading
Hand-drawn wonder: The magical animation of Klaus by Sergio Pablos
I have always been the sort of person who happily moves with the times. iPod instead of a Discman and an unwieldy stack of CDs? Why sure. Skyping instead of dealing with crackly international phone lines? Yes please! All my news conveniently delivered by Twitter instead of inky newspapers and Continue Reading
So Captain Picard, what’s with all the Blunt Talk then?
SNAPSHOT Set in Los Angeles, Blunt Talk follows Walter Blunt, a British import intent on conquering the world of American cable news and the fallout from his well-intentioned, but mostly misguided decision-making, both on and off the air. Through the platform of his nightly cable news show, Blunt is on Continue Reading
“She does everything and nothing”: The possibly glam life of Mistress America (poster + trailer)
SNAPSHOT In MISTRESS AMERICA, Tracy (Lola Kirke) is a lonely college freshman in New York, having neither the exciting university experience nor the glamorous metropolitan lifestyle she envisioned. But when she is taken in by her soon-to-be stepsister, Brooke (Greta Gerwig) – a resident of Times Square and adventurous Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: Mourning in beautiful black and white with Hikari Toriumi’s Koishi
SNAPSHOT “A boy overcomes the loss of his father through the encounter with the spirits of ancestor. The title is a Japanese pun, ‘KOI’ being the kind of fish used for the flag designs and ‘KOISHI (こいし)’ meaning ‘I miss you’.” Grief, as so many of us regrettably know from Continue Reading