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Andrew's wonderful world of pop culture

More than just toys: How Toy Story beautifully explores issues of abandonment (video essay)

Posted on June 30, 2019June 30, 2019 by aussiemoose

No one likes to be abandoned or neglected. It cuts to the very core of our self-worth and lovability and the even the prospect of it, quite understandably, leaves us quaking in our existential boots. The same goes for the toys of Pixar’s Toy Story series, says Isaac of The Continue Reading

Posted In Animation, MoviesTagged In Pixar

Comics review: Check, Please! (Book #1: #Hockey) by Ngozi Ukazu

Posted on June 30, 2019June 30, 2019 by aussiemoose

If you have even one romantic bone in your body, and I’m guessing there must be than one unless your heart is concrete and your soul solid granite, put aside any notions that you have looking at the cover of Check, Please! (Book #1: #Hockey) by the supremely-talented Ngozi Ukazu. Continue Reading

Posted In Comics

A mass of movie trailers: Ad Astra, After the Wedding, Plus One, Trolls World Tour, Under the Silver Lake

Posted on June 29, 2019June 29, 2019 by aussiemoose

Movies! Movies! Movies! Fortunately for a cinephile like myself, they never stop but keeping up with the neverending cascade of trailers can take a lot of time and effort, and were I to put them all on the blog, more site real estate than I could afford, and frankly that Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Book review: While You Were Reading by Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus

Posted on June 29, 2019June 28, 2019 by aussiemoose

Have you ever made a titanically bad life decision, the kind for which there is no reasonable response, other than to run for the hills and tried to pretend that barn burner of a life-changing incident never happened? Beatrix Babbage has; after an accidental confession lays her best friend Cassandra’s Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Movie review: Yesterday

Posted on June 28, 2019June 28, 2019 by aussiemoose

At what point do you give up on a dream, one that has sustained you through dead end jobs, living at home with your parents, a rolling tumbleweed of a romantic life and a general sense of early promise unfulfilled? That’s the great dilemma facing Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), who Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Songs, songs and more songs #10: BANKS, Sigrid, MXMS, Olivia O’Brien, Holy Ghost!

Posted on June 28, 2019December 6, 2019 by aussiemoose

One of the great joys of life is listening to music that you really love. I mean really, REALLY love. Each month I listen to a lot of new music, and while I like pretty much all of it, not all of it really gets down into the very depths Continue Reading

Posted In Music

Book review:The Lady From the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara

Posted on June 26, 2019June 26, 2019 by aussiemoose

History can be cruel. A person can stand, deservedly or not, atop the passing colossus of time, full as it is of flimsy whims and fickle fortunes, as if they were and are always meant to be there, and then a scant generation later, they are nothing but a footnote Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Weekday movie poster art: Toy Story 4

Posted on June 26, 2019June 24, 2019 by aussiemoose

I love movie posters and I love and adore the Toy Story series of films, the latest of which Toy Story 4 is a brilliantly-worthy addition to films 1, 2 and 3, and so, the creation of posters by a group of artists celebrating what I would argue is Pixar’s Continue Reading

Posted In Animation, MoviesTagged In Pixar

Fear the Walking Dead: “Skidmark” (S5, E4 review)

Posted on June 25, 2019August 19, 2020 by aussiemoose

SPOILERS AHEAD … AND CLEVER CATS, BURNT-OUT PLANES AND INTERESTING NEW FRIENDSHIPS … You gave got to love Daniel (Rubén Blades). A consummate survivor who has survived the very worst that the zombie apocalypse, and Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) for that matter, can throw at him, Daniel is the kind Continue Reading

Posted In TVTagged In Fear the Walking Dead

Some friendships are wild at heart: The enduring friendship of Animals

Posted on June 25, 2019June 24, 2019 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTWild, outrageous and utterly hilarious, Animals is the acclaimed new film from director Sophie Hyde based on the book of the same name by Emma Jane Unsworth, featuring stunning lead performances from Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat. (synopsis courtesy Jumpcut Online) At first glance, you may not think that Australian Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

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Recent Posts

  • Life is a rollercoaster: Thoughts on Trying S5
  • Sci-fi September book review: Scion by James Islington
  • The short and the short of it: The emotional canine journeying of Archie
  • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S4 review: “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass” (E7) and “Orders of Magnitude” (E8)
  • A trio of triumphantly tantalising trailers: Whalefall, The Cat in the Hat and Below

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RSS SparklyPrettyBriiiight

  • Life is a rollercoaster: Thoughts on Trying S5
    (courtesy IMP Awards) Making all your dreams come true is an intoxicating feeling, but what happens when the dust settles and reality bites and you have to deal with the fact that the dream may be wonderful but it has some thorns attached with all the floral zest and colour? Continue Reading
  • Sci-fi September book review: Scion by James Islington
    (courtesy Text Publishing) One of the things that makes or breaks a sci-fi novel is how well an author establishes a sense of evocatively definitive time and place; half-do it and you find it hard to imagine the world they create as anything real or tangible, potentially hobbling the ability Continue Reading
  • The short and the short of it: The emotional canine journeying of Archie
    (courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTArchie is devastated to learn of the death of his beloved aunt. He makes the long journey to the home she’s left him in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and a new day brings renewed hope for Archie and his dog. Archie is written and created by Domenica Continue Reading
  • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S4 review: “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass” (E7) and “Orders of Magnitude” (E8)
    (courtesy Memory Alpha) “Like Chronotons Through the Hourglass” One of the best things about Star Trek storytelling in general and Strange New Worlds (SNW) in particular, is its ability to channel what I like to call the “Nordic Effect”. In essence, it’s the co-existence of both light and dark in Continue Reading
  • A trio of triumphantly tantalising trailers: Whalefall, The Cat in the Hat and Below
    (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
  • Sci-fi September book review: Massif by Garth Nix
    (courtesy Allen & Unwin – Australia) One of the reasons this reviewer loves science fiction is because at its heart, it is devoted to exploring, thinking through and celebrating big ideas; woven into its storytelling DNA is an impelling need to peek behind the curtain, to wonder why things are 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
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