Happiness! It’s what we all crave, what we need, what we must have in all its technicolour, eye-poppingly perfect, sadness-banishing glory, right? Well, yes, in a sense – I mean who doesn’t want to be happy? But in Lucie Britsch’s brilliant novel, Sad Janet, it becomes patently clear that happiness, Continue Reading
Delicious shorts: A review of the ten bite-sized stories of Pixar Popcorn
There is no point at which you can ever say “I have had enough Pixar, thank you.” The now Disney-owned and run animation powerhouse has a proven track record for delivering animated features that is visually lush and evocative, stories that don’t simply tug at the heartstrings but rip them Continue Reading
Book review: Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes
Do space operas always have to be so deadly serious? Sure, the protagonist’s life, and that of their gallant, family-sized crew are often in the balance, the galaxy is teetering on the edge of oblivion and bad guys and gals seem to be creeping out from under asteroid and half Continue Reading
Movie review: My Salinger Year
In an idealised world, pursuing your dreams is a thing of ethereal perfection, a waftingly hopeful sensation that is equal parts sigh-inducing wonder and a tenacity to succeed that always pays off and is never less than astoundingly and soul-enrichingly triumphant. Alas, we beings with feet of dream-hollowing clay do Continue Reading
Book review: The Beginning at the End by Mike Chen
“The end of the world” is one of those soul darkening phrases that sounds definitively, irrevocably, irreparably final. But what if the end of the world wasn’t so much an end, though in many ways it is, but simply a “pause”? What might that be that like? In The Beginning Continue Reading
Crack them open! Easter Eggs revealed for The Mandalorian and Soul
If you consume any kind of pop culture media in our postmodernist, digital, information saturated age, you will be well acquainted with the concept of “Easter eggs” which are defined, as per Wikipedia, as “a message, image, or feature hidden in a video game, film, or other, usually in electronics, Continue Reading
Movie review: Godmothered
If it were possible, and to be fair, she is only one woman (though an extraordinarily gifted one at that), it should be mandated that Jillian Bell be cast in as many movies as can accommodate her. There is something about this actress, who first made it on many peoples’ Continue Reading
Book review: The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman by Julietta Henderson
On title alone, you could be forgiven for thinking that The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman by Julietta Henderson is one of those deliciously escapist slice-of-life British adventures where idiosyncratically good things happen to people who really need some good to come into their beleaguered lives. And while, there is Continue Reading
Review of WandaVision episodes 1 and 2: Is this just real life? Is this just fantasy?
Fun and escapist and sometime extremely emotionally confronting though Marvel’s prodigious cinematic output is to watch, it is a rare thing indeed to think of them as daringly creative original in any way. Each and every movie, with some rare exceptions, follows roughly the same template, with an ever-escalating series Continue Reading
Book review: Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
When you think of the end of the world, you picture it happening in colours bold and wild, events unfolding on screens before you, death and destruction beckoning, with streets filled with screaming people and sights beyond horrific imagining. But in Rumaan Alam’s intimately unnerving and gloriously beautifully-written novel, Leave Continue Reading