I try not to play favourites with my pop culture children … Oh, who am I kidding? That’s all, and pretty all of us do! So my delight at finding out that my favourite modern Doctor Who – and quite likely my favourite overall sorry Doctor #4 (Tom Baker) Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: Tokyo Cosmo’s flying pigs and monsters
SNAPSHOT Directed by Takahiro Miyauchi and Takuya Okada, Tokyo Cosmo takes us inside the home of a woman with a fantastic imagination. Her imagination is so powerful that a simple household nuisance soon becomes an epic struggle. Things get so crazy we even get to see a courageous flying Continue Reading
Birthday movie review: The Crow’s Egg (Kaaka Muttai)
There is a temptation when telling the story of anyone from a disadvantaged background to gild the poverty lily somewhat; in other words, to cast the deprivations of life on the proverbial wrong side of the tracks in some sort of rose-tinted, we-have-no-food-but-we-have-love glow. And while you can well Continue Reading
“Welcome a-Bird!” Big Bird tries his hand at comedy writing
Working out what you want to do when you grow up can be kinda hard. After all there’s so many possibilities. Especially if you’re Big Bird and you’ve lived on Sesame Street all of your young life, where your told every day you can be and do anything you Continue Reading
He is not like us: The emotionally powerful mystery of Midnight Special
SNAPSHOT In the sci-fi thriller Midnight Special, writer/director Jeff Nichols proves again that he is one of the most compelling storytellers of our time, as a father (Michael Shannon), goes on the run to protect his young son, Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), and uncover the truth behind the boy’s special Continue Reading
Andrew turns the big Five-O: The 50 favourite singers and songs of my life
I can’t imagine a time when music wasn’t a major obsession. Granted I never took up the guitar or drums and joined a band, and my efforts to learn the paino were dismal at best (right Mrs. Noble?), but as a listener I was devoted beyond all reason. It didn’t Continue Reading
Book review: The Story of Alice – Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Like many of us, Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Johnson, was a rich study in contrasts. Born to a moderately well off middle class family in the isolated Cheshire parish of Daresbury, Carroll was to all appearances a shy, studious man, more given to the pursuit of religion, mathematics Continue Reading
Alice in Wonderland at 150: Why fantasy stories about girls transcend time (curated article)
It’s 150 years since an Oxford mathematics don published the most important work of children’s literature and one of the most influential books of all time. The origins of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in a story that Charles Dodgson told 10-year-old Alice Liddell and her two sisters while rowing Continue Reading
Andrew turns the big Five-O: The 50 favourite TV shows of my life
I was not always as enamoured with television as I am now. Back in 1970, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth and there were no such things as Apple TV or Netflix – IKR GASP! – my family and I had just returned from years spent living in rural Bangladesh Continue Reading
Andrew turns the big Five-O: The 50 favourite movies of my life
Ever since my mother took me to see Star Wars in a small wooden single-screen cinema in Ballina, N.S.W. in 1977, I have been enraptured by the power of movies to tell wholly-engrossing, utterly-immersive stories. It doesn’t matter if it’s fun lightweight blockbuster or a serious “issues” movie, cinema Continue Reading