December 6, 2020 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

THE MANDALORIAN SPOILERS AHEAD … AND MYSTIC JEDI STUFF AND WHOLLY UN-MYSTIC HUMAN STUFF TOO … The tearing sound you hear in “Chapter 14: The Tragedy” in the uniformly excellent second season of The Mandalorian is Din Djarin’s (Pedro Pascal) heart absolutely and completely breaking. Granted, you can’t see his Continue Reading

“I don’t know anything about saving worlds, but you do!” Trailer and posters drop for Deadpool & Wolverine

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTDeadpool will change the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Wolverine. Or will he?! The third movie in the Deadpool franchise, Deadpool & Wolverine, formerly known as just Deadpool 3, is directed by the American producer / filmmaker Shawn Levy, director of many movies including Just Continue Reading

The short and the short of it: The reality-bending truth of Regular Rabbit

(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTThe good name of a seemingly regular rabbit falls victim to an unstoppable tide of disinformation. [YouTube intro] This Regular Rabbit short is created and 3D-animated and written and directed by animation filmmaker Eoin Duffy – originally from Ireland, now based in Vancouver, BC. You can see more Continue Reading

Comics review: Dunce – Arctic Tales by Jens K Styve

(courtesy & (c) official Jens K Styve site) Discovering a new gold standard comic strip is always a rare and precious joy. While there are a lot of very good comic strips out there, few merit a “drop everything and look here!” response with this reviewer’s attention only being seized Continue Reading

Star Trek: Discovery S5 review: Episodes 3 (“Jinaal”) and 4 (“Face the Strange”)

(courtesy IMP Awards) EPISODE 3: “Jinaal” While treasure hunts are lots of fun and give a competitively frenetic sheen to birthday parties and even weekends away with friends, they’re not the most efficient way to find things. But then, a party host is not trying to fill a streaming season’s Continue Reading

A trio of enticing trailers: Trap, Hit Man and I Used to be Funny + a sneak peek at Kinds of Kindness, the new film from Poor Things’ director Yorgos Lanthimos

(via Shutterstock) As the years goes screaming up, its calendar days begging to be filled with content, there’s absolutely no risk we’ll run out of things to watch. While the writers’ strike of 2023 may yet create some kind of short-term content storage, for now there’s more than enough to Continue Reading

Book review: James by Percival Everett

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) When you consider a classic book like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, first published in 1884/85, it’s hard to imagine that the much-loved and adapted story could have any new light shone on it. It’s so well known and it’s lead character so well Continue Reading

Road to Eurovision 2024: Week 5 – Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece and Latvia (Semi final 2, part 2)

What is the Eurovision Song Contest?Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to Continue Reading

Movie review: Wicked Little Letters

(courtesy IMP Awards) What would you do if a letter arrived in the mail full of grossly insulting expletives that accuse in swearing-laden ribald terms that you are the very worst and lowest of people? Well, for a start in the third decade of the digitally-savvy 21st century you’d likely Continue Reading

Book review: The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

(courtesy Bloomsbury Publishing) Could it be possible that the whodunnit can be reborn at the very end of the world? Well, to be fair, in the case of the inimitable Stuart Turton that happened a number of years back with the head-scratchingly brilliant The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) Continue Reading

Songs, songs and more songs #105: Kasbo, GusGus, Lindsey Stirling, Maddy O’Neal & COFRESI + Zerb & the Chainsmokers

(via Shutterstock) Sesame Street is always encouraging us to work with others nicely and in a spirit of fruitful cooperation and it’s heartening to see that many of the artists in this post have taken that to heart. By combining their hearts, they have given us tracks that are not Continue Reading

The Mandalorian – “Chapter 14: “The Tragedy” (S2, E6 review) / Star Trek: Discovery – “The Sanctuary” (S3, E8 review)

Life, and Christmas, got you down? Even Santa his down days according to this funny, lovely ad