September 2, 2018 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Aubrey Plaza wants A Night With Beverly Luff Linn … and you will too

Posted on September 2, 2018September 1, 2018 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOT After getting fired by her scheming husband Shane Danger (Emile Hirsch) from his cappuccino shop, dissatisfied Lulu Danger (Aubrey Plaza) is stunned when a TV commercial for “An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn For One Magical Night Only” reveals a mysterious man from her past (Craig Robinson). When Continue Reading

The short and the short of it: Everything can change in an Instant

Posted on September 2, 2018September 1, 2018 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOT After a desperate criminal takes a bar hostage, six people must face their demons – past and present – in order to survive. But one of them is keeping a big secret that could change everything in an instant. Directed by Alex Albrecht, produced by Roddenberry Entertainment, lead Continue Reading

Book review: Extinctions by Josephine Wilson

Posted on September 2, 2018May 22, 2019 by aussiemoose

Extinctions the 2017 winner of Australia’s Miles Franklin award is an ambitious novel on a lot of levels. In its 280-page length, Josephine Wilson has packed an impressive number of issues, sending the two main characters in the book, ageing academic engineer (obsessed with the use of concrete and Modernist Continue Reading

Merry pop culture Christmas to all … and to all a good streaming-reading-listening night! (Bonus The Penguins of Madagascar Christmas Special)

(courtesy Pinterest (c) Peanuts) Merry pop culture Christmas everyone! Another year has somehow zoomed right through, around and past us, offering up far too many books and movies and TV/streaming show and songs and graphic novels to consume in one lifetime, but reminding us as we gobbled what we could Continue Reading

Festive children’s book review: The Christmas Carrolls: The Christmas Competition by Mel Taylor Bessent

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) Is it possible to celebrate Christmas too much? That’s not something the titular characters from Mel Taylor-Bessent’s The Christmas Carrolls might ever have said; after all, they mark the most wonderful time of the year every single day with endless roast dinners, legions of Christmas Continue Reading

Festive holiday short review: The Boy & the Octopus

(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTThe film follows the journey of a child who discovers a curious octopus has attached to his head during a seaside vacation. After returning home, the boy forms a true friendship with the octopus by introducing his new companion to his life on land – harnessing the power Continue Reading

On 12th day of Christmas … I read Christmas at the Little Bookshop by the Sea by Eliza J. Scott

(courtesy Storm Publishing) Whenever you plunge into a festive romcom, you rightly expect that you will feel like you’ve given the warmest and cosiest of hugs. One made of love and redemption and healing and all the trappings of the season from decorations and mulled wine, snowmen and wreaths string Continue Reading

Festive animated feature film review: Santa’s Apprentice

If you watched a fair amount of festive programming, you will be well familiar with the idea that there are not a lot of new ideas under the Christmas storytelling sun. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; we like our festive tropes and cliches held close and to pop up Continue Reading

On 11th day of Christmas … I watched new The Simpsons festive special “Oh C’mon All Ye Faithful”

(courtesy IMDb (c) Disney+) The Simpsons are known for their irreverence and willingness to skewer all the weird and strange and bombastically expressed pomposities of life. But for all the propensity of the 36-season-long, Matt Groening-created show to parody and satirise and push the critical envelope, it has demonstrated over Continue Reading

Festive book review: Finding My Elf by David Valdes

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers) Life crises, especially those of a more existential variety, are never a loot of fun. All of the things you once took as gospel, the certainties you could count on in a world not exactly sporting them in profusion, are suddenly well and truly up in Continue Reading

On 10th day of Christmas … I listened to Sleigher by Ben Folds

(courtesy YouTube) I am, for all my love of upsetting apple carts and pushing envelopes, especially creatively, quite traditional when it comes to Christmas music. That’s not to say that this reviewer wants choral extravaganzas or hymn-drenched carols, though they can be delightful in a sparing context; no, traditional in Continue Reading

Festive short film review: An Almost Christmas Story

(courtesy IMDb (c) Disney+) SNAPSHOTAn Almost Christmas Story (produced by five-time Academy Award® winner Alfonso Cuarón & directed by David Lowery) is inspired by the true events of a tiny owl rescued from the New York City’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in 2020. The short’s trailer reveals Moon, a curious Continue Reading

On 9th day of Christmas … I read The Merry Matchmaker by Sheila Roberts

(courtesy Harper Collins Canada) If you’re going t do a festively fun take on a novel as loved and revered as Jane Austen’s Emma, then you need to be up to the task of doing it justice. Thankfully, Sheila Roberts is more than up to the task with her new Continue Reading