Skip to content

SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Andrew's wonderful world of pop culture

Book review: Snake Island by Ben Hobson

Posted on June 11, 2019June 11, 2019 by aussiemoose

We are an idealistic species. It may not look that way at times, most times if we’re honest with ourselves, with war, poverty, disease, brutality and avaricious criminality the seemingly obvious defining marks of what it means to be human; dig down a little further, however, and it becomes clear Continue Reading

Posted In Books

The short and the short of it: The endless parental love of Freaks of Nurture

Posted on June 11, 2019June 10, 2019 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTFreaks of Nurture is an animated short about a neurotic mother-daughter relationship inspired by the filmmaker’s own unorthodox upbringing with her single-parent mom, who is also a foster parent and dog breeder. Self-deprecating and bursting with energy, the film reveals that no matter how grown-up we think we are, we Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Something inhuman approaches: Carnival Row and the fight against intolerance and darkness

Posted on June 9, 2019June 8, 2019 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTBloom (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Delevingne (Suicide Squad) star in Carnival Row, a series set in a Victorian fantasy world filled with mythological immigrant creatures whose exotic homelands were invaded by the empires of man. This growing population struggles to coexist with humans — forbidden to live, love, or Continue Reading

Posted In TV

Movie review: Brittany Runs a Marathon

Posted on June 9, 2019December 9, 2019 by aussiemoose

If you were to use the likes of Oprah and Tony Robbins are your guides, you would have to assume the world is awash in victorious people, staring down all manner of existential perils and emerging, self-realisation trophy in hand, on top every single damn time. But as we know Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Book review: The Lost Puzzler by Eyal Kless

Posted on June 8, 2019June 8, 2019 by aussiemoose

Is humanity its own worst enemy? History is littered with example after bloody example that would suggest we are, and then some, the holders of daggers to our throats that are briefly raised only to be plunged in again and again, as we cut off our existential nose to spite Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Saturday morning TV: The Herculoids

Posted on June 8, 2019June 6, 2019 by aussiemoose

If I were Zandor (Mike Road) of The Herculoids, ruler of the Lost in Space-ish planet Amzot/Quasar, I would seriously consider installing some kickass space defence systems, or at the very least, a really big, red “Beware of the space dog” sign that would sail around in orbit and perhaps Continue Reading

Posted In Animation, TV

Movie review: The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia

Posted on June 7, 2019June 7, 2019 by aussiemoose

New beginnings are always a curious thing. They come with the shiny promise of everything new and unsullied, and yet lurking somewhere deep within, is the knowledge, however energetically repressed, that the past is never truly left behind. Whatever the truth of this observation, in The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Songs, songs and more songs #8: Foster the People, Aurora, Alex Lahey, Ava Max, Jai Wolf

Posted on June 7, 2019December 6, 2019 by aussiemoose

One of the reasons certain songs stick with us is because they connect so deeply and profoundly with something we have gone through. It helps, of course, if they sound insanely catchy musically, but ultimately what hooks them deep into our souls is a sense that this artist is speaking Continue Reading

Posted In Music

Fear the Walking Dead: “Here to Help” (S5, E1 review)

Posted on June 5, 2019August 19, 2020 by aussiemoose

SPOILERS AHEAD … AND KIDS WITHOUT PARENTS … ZOMBIES WITHOUT SOULS AND SOME SECOND-HAND IDEALS LOOKING WORSE FOR WEAR … There’s a great yawning chasm between ideals and execution at the best of times – you know, when there’s running water, bedding and fresh episodes of Grace and Frankie – Continue Reading

Posted In TVTagged In Fear the Walking Dead

Keep off the grass … or you might get Stuck

Posted on June 5, 2019June 3, 2019 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTDarby (Heather Matarazzo) finds herself in trouble with the law, and is sentenced to house arrest. Now she must serve 30 days in the home she used to share with her ex-boyfriend Mo (Amir Talai), that he now shares with his new fiancé. Stuck is directed by American actress-turned-filmmaker Jillian Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Posts pagination

Previous 1 … 3 4 5 Next

Recent Posts

  • Book review: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine
  • Songs, songs and more songs #129: Georgia, BENEE, Sigrid, Ella Collier + Moyka
  • Don’t let the bullies win … The Twits drops its feisty trailer
  • Book review: The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi
  • Movie review: All of You

Recent Comments

  • aussiemoose on Book review: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
  • Sean Lusk on Book review: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
  • aussiemoose on Movie review: Thor – Love and Thunder
  • Carla Krae on Movie review: Thor – Love and Thunder
  • Daryl Devore on On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain? Thoughts on Baymax!

Archives

  • October 2025
  • September 2025
  • August 2025
  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010

RSS SparklyPrettyBriiiight

  • Book review: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine
    (courtesy Hachette Australia) Life can often like a series of existentially testing events, punctuated by rare moments of levity and joy and wrapped in a lifetime of pain, hurt, loss and hard-won gains. That might seem bleak but for most it’s an accurate take on this thing called life, and Continue Reading
  • Songs, songs and more songs #129: Georgia, BENEE, Sigrid, Ella Collier + Moyka
    (via Shutterstock) There are some months that just reward you with brilliant songs. Songs that, for a whole host of reasons, you play over and over again and which, for this beleaguered commuter reviewer at least, making walking to the train station and back not feel quite so arduous and Continue Reading
  • Don’t let the bullies win … The Twits drops its feisty trailer
    (courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTAcademy Award-nominated filmmaker Phil Johnston reimagines Roald Dahl’s iconic characters, Jim & Credenza Twit, in their first feature animated adventure. The Twits tells the story of Mr. & Mrs. Twit, the meanest, smelliest, nastiest people in the world who also happen to own and operate the most Continue Reading
  • Book review: The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi
    (courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) Plunging into the latest novel by John Scalzi, and fortunate to have read a number of his books before this, I was well aware of just good a writer this man is and how well he imagines realities beyond our own, bringing them to life with Continue Reading
  • Movie review: All of You
    (courtesy IMP Awards) Knowledge, especially when it’s anchored in scientific truth, is a good and powerful thing. Though there are far too many in the world today who believe that facts are situational and malleable and able to bent at will to suit whatever purpose you have in mind, the Continue Reading
  • Book review: Foreign Country by Marija Peričić
    (courtesy Ultimo Press) One of the ways we survive the many vagaries of life is to tell ourselves stories; they’re usually self-serving storylines that reinforce the internal narrative we have long told ourselves to help us make sense of events that would otherwise defy easy categorisation. Are they always truthful? Continue Reading
  • One week for a lifetime … Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation gets the cinematic treatment
    (courtesy BRIT + CO via Yahoo) SNAPSHOTFree-spirited Poppy (Emily Bader) and routine-loving Alex (Tom Blyth) have been unlikely best friends for a decade, living in different cities but spending every summer vacation together. The careful balance of their friendship is put to the test when they begin to question what Continue Reading
  • Movie review: The Lost Bus
    (courtesy IMP Awards) Survival against all odds stories can often descend into overwrought melodrama with uncanny ease. Maybe it’s because the creators of these larger than life tales are dealing with such hyperbolically enhanced events that it’s all too easy for them to get swept up in the adrenaline-rushed facts Continue Reading
  • Book review: Eva Reddy’s Trip of a Lifetime by Fiona McKenzie Kekic
    (courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) Life, we are told, is a series of sliding door moments. Step one way, and your life will head down one, hopefully beneficial and rewarding course; go in the other direction and your trajectory takes on another look and feel entirely. If the choices were Continue Reading
  • The building always wins … Thoughts on Only Murders in the Building S5 E1-5
    (courtesy IMP Awards) As season five dawns, many shows are struggling to remain buoyant, fresh and divertingly interesting, with a significant number succumbing to the inevitable ennui that afflicts many a once vital program. But thanks to its previous insistence on sparkling writing, richly idiosyncratic characterisation and a willingness to Continue Reading
Copyright All rights reserved. Theme: Flash Blog by Unitedtheme.