SNAPSHOTWhen a little bird suddenly drops dead in its cage, all eyes are on the cat. Desperately he tries to make everything right again but actually making everything worse in the progress. (synopsis via Laughing Squid) Have you ever wondered how quickly can a situation get out of control? Wonder Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #11: Florist, Cross Record, Dominic Fike, Gashi, Slenderbodies
It’s tempting to think of pop music as throwaway music that entertains briefly, shimmers and shines for a moment before ebbing away into nothingness. That’s not true, of course, but nowhere is this better illustrated than in the artistic efforts of the following five artists who blend sparse, elegantly-beautiful melodies Continue Reading
Fear the Walking Dead: “The Little Prince” (S5, E6 review)
SPOILERS AHEAD … AND A LITTLE KINDNESS WHICH GOES A LONG WAY … AND REALLY, *REALLY*, CLOSE-UP ZOMBIES … Goddamit but Fear the Walking Dead has made kindness muscular and sexy! That’s quite a feat and not simply because kindness is usually the preserve of Care Bears, Hallmark cards and Continue Reading
Movie review: Booksmart
In the high school system, things divide, more or less fairly neatly, between the cool kids, the not-cool kids, and the ambivelnt Switzerland-like group in the middle who somehow manage, by some act of teenage alchemy, to be all things to all people. Of course, high school being the monstrously-complicated Continue Reading
Book review: Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi
No one ever handles life quite like they expect to, nor the way triumphantly-inspiring feel good Hollywood tales laud or cajole you. That’s partly because life is unpredictable daring you to ready yourself for its almost wilful twists and turns but because we are imperfect beings, our heads full of Continue Reading
Animated Aladdin revisited: Outtakes of the masterful Robin Williams at work as the genie
The late great much-missed Robin Williams was a master of his comedic craft and his role as the manic, hilarious, oneliner-spitting genie in the 1992 animated movie Aladdin was one of his most memorabl roles. And for good reason. Every scene that Williams’ bombastically-hilarious blue-toned genie is in is a Continue Reading
Christmas in July … watching Yogi Bear’s All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper
First airing, in seasonally-appropriate style, on 21 December, 1982, Yogi Bear’s All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper was the third and final festive special for Jellystone Park’s favourite pic-a-nic loving resident. (Yogi Bera is voiced by the legendary Daws Butler) Gathering together a panoply of Hanna-Barbera characters from the well known likes Continue Reading
Christmas in July: Lucas the Spider makes some festive friends
Lucas the Spider is freaking adorable any time of the year. But there’s something about Christmas, a time of peace, goodwill and togetherness (and stripey festive peppermints), that makes him even more adorably sweet as he tries to befriend a fly to be his buddy at the most wonderful time Continue Reading
Movie review: Spider-Man – Far From Home
Ah, ain’t it great to be young and in love? Maybe, but don’t run that particular line of dreamy romanticism by Peter Parker aka Spider-Man anytime soon. Throughout Spider-Man: Far From Home, which marks Tom Holland’s second standalone outing as the webbed superhero (he has, of course, appeared in a Continue Reading
Stranger Lambs: Shaun the Sheep’s Farmageddon gets very zeitgeist-y
SNAPSHOTWhen the intergalactic visitor – an impish and adorable alien called LU-LA – crash-lands near Mossy Bottom Farm, Shaun soon sees an opportunity for alien-powered fun and adventure and sets off on a mission to shepherd LU-LA home. Her magical alien powers, irrepressible mischief and galactic sized burps soon have Continue Reading