August 25, 2020 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

The alternate history genre of storytelling is often dismissed as a fanciful game of “what ifs”, a moving around of real world people and events to create an altogether different perspective on a particularly transformative moment in time. But the really good alternate histories perform an altogether more important role Continue Reading

Movie review: Wolfs

(courtesy IMP Awards) Life almost never comes with do-overs. If you stuff up, and pretty much all us do in ways big and small, you have to live with the mess and the chaos, the consequences of your ill-judged actions hanging around your neck like a medieval seafaring albatross. But Continue Reading

Festive book review: Christmas Actually by Lisa Darcy

(courtesy Bloodhound Books) Of all the seasons about which we section off and mark the calendar year, Christmas is supposed to be the one where all the good and perfect things happen, where all the drab and challenging realities of life are pushed happily aside by roasting chestnuts, peace & Continue Reading

Fall hard, love harder: Thoughts on Heartstopper season 3

(courtesy IMP Awards) Watching a new season of Heartstopper, just like reading the graphic novels upon which they are based, feels like coming home. That may sound like an extravagantly sentimental thing to say, but Alice Oseman’s wondrously inclusive creation feels, even at its darkest and most seriously contemplative (and Continue Reading

Movie preview: Out of My Mind (trailer + poster)

(courtesy First Showing (c) Disney) “Let them hear you.” Melody Brooks (starring Phoebe-Rae Taylor), a sixth grader with cerebral palsy, has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but because she is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, she is not given the same opportunities as her classmates. When a young Continue Reading

Book review: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) As you gaze upon the twisted vista of the current world, it’s all too easy to feel that there is nothing good or magical left anywhere for us to discover. Driven out by neoliberalism and the ceaseless quest for more, more, more, whether it’s Continue Reading

Graphic novel review: Alice Ever After by Dan Panosian (writer) and Giorgio Spalletta (artist)

(courtesy BOOM! Studios) SNAPSHOTAlice first visited Wonderland as a child. Now grown up, it’s become her only escape from a cold, harsh world that feels even less real—a distant family, a tormented lover, and a father with secrets he’ll do anything to protect. But in order to return to her Continue Reading

Christmas preview: Character poster art for Red One

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTAfter Santa Claus (starring J.K. Simmons as the Big Man) – Code Name: RED ONE – is kidnapped, the North Pole’s Head of Security (Dwayne Johnson) must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter (Chris Evans) in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas. Red Continue Reading

Book review: Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd

(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Something superlatively wonderful happens when truly beautiful writing comes together with an arrestingly clever narrative. In an ideal world, this would happen in every single book you read, but it’s not always the case and so, when masterfully executed writing and a beguiling storyline rich in Continue Reading

Movie review: Bonnard: Pierre et Marthe

(courtesy IMDb) Wondrous though it often is, the road to true love, and well beyond into the thorny existential thickets of life, is rarely a smooth and trouble-free journey. Oh, there is hope and possibility and a future draped in rose-coloured romance and loveliness, but it really plays out the Continue Reading

Happy 10th birthday to The Boxtrolls! To celebrate, here’s a brand-new trailer …

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTThe Boxtrolls are monsters living below the streets of Cheesebridge, who crawl out of the sewers at night to steal what the townspeople hold most dear: their children and their cheeses. Or so the townspeople have always believed… In truth, the Boxtrolls are just a community of Continue Reading

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is SO serious … no, really, it is now and it’s very cool

Book review: On a Barbarous Coast by Craig Cormick and Harold Ludwick