The possibilities of cinema are endlessly expansive. For every serious, Oscar-worthy film, there are equally well-made films that are full of quirk and wonder and a glimpse of the human condition told through wholly different and welcomingly offbeat eyes. These three films, all coming to a cinema or streaming service Continue Reading
Book review: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
Social media is supposed to be the great unifier of far-flung people, like-minded souls and connection-hungry 21st century denizens. And in many ways it is, bring people into contact who might otherwise never meet, spreading ideas that can make the world better and and helping people to feel just that Continue Reading
Interview me! Promo fun with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda from Grace and Frankie
It’s tale as old as time … or at least the entertainment industry – if you make it, you must promote it. Most of the time, from what many actors and producers say, its sheer drudgery, a box to be ticked and nothing more, but sometimes the heavens align, interviewer Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #22: BAYNK, French 79, Big Wild, blackbear, Yumi Zouma + Eurovision update
Time to turn things down, people. Not simply because it’s Friday, it’s been a big week and we are ridiculously exhausted but because quiet times are good for the soul. And the heart and the body … and really, just about everything. These five quietly but powerfully talented artists know Continue Reading
Goodnight, ABBA: Björn Ulvaeus reads a bedtime story to the inner child in all of us
It turns out, and why would you have doubted it, that ABBA are good for even more than just stellar classic classic pop songs and an almost assailable position at the very heights of the pop pantheon. They are, in fact, warm and engaging storytellers; well, at least we have Continue Reading
Movie review: Sell By #MGFF20
Cinema, for all the nuance it brings to some of its storytelling, loves extremes. Especially when it comes to love where we are either treated to the glories and wonders of love true love in all its candy-coloured euphoria or the very darkest, bleakest end of times where the once Continue Reading
Book review: The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan
Grief does strange things to a person’s life. Often without warnin, all the old certainties are upended and you are plunnged into a chaos borne of sadness, loss, pain and a sense that everything good you have ever known is gone. In reality, it’s not extreme of course but such Continue Reading
Star Trek: Picard review: “The End is the Beginning” and “Absolute Candor” (S1, E3 & E4)
SPOILERS AHEAD … AND A FAKE VINEYARD AND NOT SO FAKE XENOPHOBIA AND LINGERING REGRET … In the normal course of things, humanity in general, and Star Trek in particular like their heroes to be bright, shiny and above reproach. It fits nicely with the idea that, all evidence to Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: The truth of who we are in My Body
SNAPSHOTA teenage girl is staring at herself in a mirror. She doesn’t like what she sees; fat, skinny, ugly, she looks like a monster. Maybe she should just take a step back and realize she’s not that monstrous. (synopsis via Laughing Squid) Seeing ourselves as we really are is never Continue Reading
Book review: Saving Missy by Beth Morrey
Missy Carmichael needs saving. Though at the time we meet her, at the start of Beth Morrey’s delightfully warm and insightful debut novel, Saving Missy, she would no doubt disagree with any assessment that she needs any kind of help at all. A 78-year-old English woman whose 79th birthday is Continue Reading