The Eurovision Song Contest, whether you love it, hate it or are blissfully indifferent to it, is almost impossible to ignore. Taking place usually in May in the nominated city of whichever country won the event the year before (COVID-19 plagued years like 2020 aside), and established in the wake Continue Reading
Find your heart at the top of the world in The Sunlit Night
SNAPSHOTBased on author Rebecca Dinerstein’s novel, The Sunlit Night follows the story of an aspiring painter from New York City to the farthest reaches of Arctic Norway for an assignment she hopes will invigorate her work and expand her horizons. In a remote village, among the locals, she meets a Continue Reading
Book review: Wilding by Isabella Tree
We live in an increasingly blighted world. This is not an assessment borne of alarmism or sensationalist tendencies; study after study is showing that the Anthropocene age, the dates of which have not been conclusively agreed but which aligns roughs with humanity’s impact on the Earth’s geology and environment, is Continue Reading
Muppets Now – doing some fun things on Disney + (Is that OK, Joe from Legal?)
SNAPSHOT“At the core conceit of Muppets Now is that each Muppet has his or her own unscripted series – one could be a cooking show, the other a variety show, etc. And celebrity guests are invited onto one of these shows and madness ensues. It’s a mixture of classic Muppets like Miss Continue Reading
Book review: Devolution by Max Brooks
For all its love of creature comforts and security, humanity does loves a good scare. There is something soul-excoratingly visceral about sitting in your armchair or snug in bed reading about people in peril, especially when they are characters whose reality is not manifestly removed from our own. The residents Continue Reading
How animated characters got their groove: The inspired marriage of Rotoscope and Cab Calloway
SNAPSHOTIt started with Max’s brother Dave dancing on a roof in a clown costume. Footage of that was then used to model the classic Koko the Clown cartoons, which formed the basis for many Fleischer Studios films. Today, animators still use techniques like rotoscoping to turn real movement into animation. Continue Reading
Unprecedented eternal chaos or more of the peaceful same? Foundation and the fight for the future
SNAPSHOT[Foundation], based on the books that inspired films such as Star Wars, will “chronicle the thousand-year saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it.” Foundation stars Lee Pace (Guardians of the Galaxy, Halt and Catch Fire) as Brother Continue Reading
She can hear the soundtrack of your life: Thoughts on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
SPOILERS AHEAD It’s obvious from the moment you see the all-singing, all-singing, technicolour quirky trailer for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist that this is one show that knows its way around a whimsical storyline. It practically shouts out in every gleefully-delivered frame that Zoey Clarke (played by Suburgatory‘s (Jane Levy) is a Continue Reading
How far would you go to bring back the one you love? Archive asks the big questions
SNAPSHOT2038: George Almore is working on a true human-equivalent AI. His latest prototype is almost ready. This sensitive phase is also the riskiest. Especially as he has a goal that must be hidden at all costs: being reunited with his dead wife. (synopsis via ScreenRealm) When you lose someone you Continue Reading
Book review: Saturdays at Noon by Rachel Marks
Finding a place to call home is all any of us really want. We may talk about a thousand and one other needs and wants but if really pressed, and everything else is taken away from us, all that matters is that we have people to whom we are connected Continue Reading