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SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Andrew's wonderful world of pop culture

Who put the ’80s into Stranger Things? Why the Russo brothers, of course!

Posted on September 7, 2019September 7, 2019 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTIf you’ve ever seen the show Stranger Things, you’ve probably noticed a movie reference or two. Series creators Ross and Matt Duffer are huge film buffs, and they’ve used every opportunity they can to reference some of their favorite movies in Stranger Things. (synopsis via Laughing Squid) One of the Continue Reading

Posted In Movies, TV

Book review: The Rig by Roger Levy

Posted on September 7, 2019September 7, 2019 by aussiemoose

There is something utterly beguiling about walking (literally or figuratively) into what feels like nothing and watching it grow and grow until it is most definitely something. This is true of novels as much as anything, and especially true of Roger’s Levy deceptively simply-titled The Rig, an economically-named book that Continue Reading

Posted In Books

That was your life: The Good Place promos its final season

Posted on September 7, 2019December 12, 2019 by aussiemoose

Anyone who says modern sitcoms aren’t bristling with humour (pretty importance since it is the “com” that goes with the “sit”), thoughtfulness and intelligence clearly has not laid their jaundiced eye on the jewel in NBC’s crown that is The Good Place. Not only has the show, which is set Continue Reading

Posted In TV

“Just unbelievable”: Stan Lee talks about his beloved Marvel movie cameos

Posted on September 6, 2019September 6, 2019 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTWith the home release of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel released two incredible bonus compilations that pay tribute to the late, greatly missed Stan Lee. In both compilations, the ever-gracious Lee talks about his joy to watch his original creations come to life, how much he loves making cameo appearances in Marvel Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Fear the Walking Dead: “Ner Tamid” (S5, E12 review)

Posted on September 6, 2019September 4, 2019 by aussiemoose

SPOILERS AHEAD … THE PRESENCE OF GOD, JEWISH ZOMBIES AND CHEESY DOORMATS FULL OF EXISTENTIAL LONGING … If there’s one thing the zombie apocalypse is short of – okay there’s a lot of things it’s lacking but bear with me here for the purposes of a killer opening sentence – Continue Reading

Posted In TVTagged In Fear the Walking Dead

Book review: Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted by Jennifer Armstrong #ValeValerieHarper

Posted on September 4, 2019September 3, 2019 by aussiemoose

The very recent death of Valerie Harper, who played Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spinoff show, simply titled RHODA with wit, sass and lovable intelligence, prompted me to read finally the history of The Mary Tyler Show and how this brilliantly-clever, very funny and heartfelt Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Movie review: Animals

Posted on September 4, 2019September 3, 2019 by aussiemoose

Hollywood likes neat endings, largely because, I suspect, people, the ones who puts bums on seats in cinemas, are also rather enamoured of them. It makes sense that we are so enraptured – life is gloriously messy and full of frayed ends, and try as we might to tie everything Continue Reading

Posted In Comics

When you don’t fit in, stand tall: The challenges of being Tall Girl

Posted on September 3, 2019September 3, 2019 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTJodi (Ava Michelle) has always been the tallest girl in school — and she’s always been uncomfortable with it. After slouching her way through life for 16 years and being made fun of by classmates, Jodi meets Stig (Luke Eisner), a seemingly perfect Swedish foreign exchange student who’s even taller Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Retro movie review: UP (10th anniversary)

Posted on September 3, 2019August 26, 2019 by aussiemoose

Human beings love dreams. Not the kind that litter our sleep like so much psychedelic, nonsensical candy (though they do hold a certain attraction) but the ones that hold out hope that beyond the banal humdrum of life, true excitement and adventure awaits if only x, y or z plan Continue Reading

Posted In Animation, Movies

Book review: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Posted on September 2, 2019September 2, 2019 by aussiemoose

One of the great gifts of of being alive is when something small and unexpected becomes something altogether toweringly transformational, changing life for the better in a thousand different fundamental ways. It makes even more of an impact when this great change emerges from something calamitous or dark, such as Continue Reading

Posted In Books

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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

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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
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