Like most genres that have spent a fair amount of time in the cinematic sun, romantic comedies have begun to look worn, tired and more than a little wrinkled in recent years. It’s not that recent entries have been bad as such, although goodness knows some have been, but simply Continue Reading
Shot-by-Shot: Cast members of Stranger Things 3 dissect the Russian base scene
Stranger Things 3 was a very intense season, full to bursting (if you were an infected rat, quite literally) with some deeply-unsettling Invasion of the Body Snatchers horror, lots of musing on growing up, gender identity and ’80s pop culture touchstones and even some Cold War humour and subterfuge. That Continue Reading
Book review: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
With words like “complete destruction” and “catastrophe” echoing around its definition like rabid World War Z zombies, it’s hard to see an apocalypse as anything other than an expansive, overwhelming, world-ending event. It is, in other worlds, no small thing. Quite how small it isn’t comes home in full force Continue Reading
The beguiling, entrancing beauty of YA fantasy All the Stars and Teeth
SNAPSHOTAs princess of the island kingdom Visidia, Amora Montara has spent her entire life training to be High Animancer ― the master of souls. The rest of the realm can choose their magic, but for Amora, it’s never been a choice. To secure her place as heir to the throne, Continue Reading
Christmas in July short film: Redesigning Christmas
SNAPSHOTIn this short vignette, the anxious young protagonist from Me and My Moulton looks on as her architect parents re-design Christmas. The tree, presents, and cake are all re-made in simple, clean lines using the principles of good design. But will Santa be able to get through the contemporary chimney Continue Reading
Haha! Dying isn’t funny but The Good Place S3 gag reel is
If there’s one thing we have learned over three fantastically good and spectacularly inventive seasons of The Good Place, it’s the afterlife has a real chance of being really, really funny. Sure, you may have the Bad Place nipping at your heels and you may in fact be damned and Continue Reading
Book review: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Who are we without our memories? Are we better off? Diminished markedly or does our present state of being and our innate sense of self make up for any perceived deficiency caused by the loss of an lifetime’s worth of accrued experiences? It’s a weighty question indeed but it is Continue Reading
A whole lot of sequel fun with the living and the undead: Zombieland – Double Tap
SNAPSHOTThe original followed four strangers who meet on the road in the middle of the zombie apocalypse and, while initially at each other’s throats, they soon come to bond with each other and form a close-bonded group. Harrelson played the violent cowboy Tallahassee, Eisenberg played geeky Columbus, with Stone and Continue Reading
Christmas in July ’70s festive songs: Paul McCartney, Slade, Wizzard
INTRO “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney No need to introduce Paul McCartney, an artist who has found success in every decade of his artistic working life, not least, of course, with The Beatles. But it’s his Christmas song as part of Wings, “Wonderful Christmastime”, that long captured my festively-inclined heart Continue Reading
Oh no, Goofy! Mickey and Donald race to save their friend in cartoon short “Gone to Pieces”
SNAPSHOTWhen a random accident inexplicably leaves Goofy broken apart like a mannequin, quite alive but scattered all over Mickey’s backyard, the mouse and Donald take it upon themselves to literally put him back together again… which isn’t as easy as it sounds. (synopsis via Scrooge McDuck wiki (c) Disney) There Continue Reading