One of the great tropes of any kind of love story is that of opposites attracting, the idea that two people can come from completely different backgrounds, sensibilities, and outlooks and still find common ground in the fertile surrounds of true love. It’s an intrinsically appealing idea but rarely has Continue Reading
Retro romantic movie review: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist #ValentinesDay
Depending on where you look in popular culture, love is either a many-splendoured thing, torturously complicated or an agony beyond all belief. It is not, despite all the romantic comedy storytelling out there that lauds the transcendent beauty and wonder of falling in love, seen to be a simple and Continue Reading
Love, hope and expectations: Thoughts on the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (season 2)
Part of the inestimable joy of watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in all its hyper-exuberant, dazzlingly gorgeous, cleverly quirky glory is simply sitting back and let the vibrantly witty wordplay wash over you like some sort of heavenly linguistic balm. Every character is brilliantly smart and funny, every word they Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: MaskHoles and a humourous clash of robotic colleagues
SNAPSHOTTwo co-workers return to work during the pandemic. One annoyingly disregards the rules while the other annoyingly adheres to them. As the week wears on, nerves get frayed, circuits get shorted and the situation explodes. What follows is an inventive, yet vengeful solution to the entire problem. (synopsis via Vimeo) Continue Reading
Movie review: Minari
As an articulation of hopes and expectations go, it is hard to go past The American Dream. As an idea at least; in practice, of course, as with any headily idealistic thought given voice by people, it is often deeply and unequally flawed in its delivery, more akin to a Continue Reading
Book review: Space Hopper by Helen Fisher
It is impossible not to feel a soul-hollowing sense of devastatingly cataclysmic loss when you someone you love dies. It is the ultimate battle of the heart and mind, the former grief-stricken beyond all reason and the latter desperately trying to make sense of something that will bow to logicality Continue Reading
Movie review: Greenland
We are accustomed when sit down to watch a disaster movie to the fact that spectacle, horrific, viscerally terrible spectacle, will win out over emotional nuance and robust, multi-dimensional characterisation almost every time. It’s part of the deal from filmmakers of this genre – we give you a ringside seat Continue Reading
Mini-mass of movie trailers: Moxie + Jump, Darling + Jumbo
Quirky and heartfelt are two qualities I value most highly in a film. If you can offer both these wonderful things, and throw in some great visuals and stunning good performances, I am home and hosed. That’s why these three films appeal. They have a certain offbeat sense of self, Continue Reading
Book review: End of Time by Gavin Extence
If there is one thing that has become clear in the last couple of decades, it’s that people, never very good it must said at the best of times at looking beyond their own self interest, have developed an empathy deficit of frighteningly gaping proportions. In a world where war, Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer
Smash the patriarchy! That may sound like a militantly abrasive way to start a review about a graphic novel but truth be told, it’s the perfect encapsulation of Hannah Templer’s Cosmoknights, queer story about three women who roam the galaxy seeking to bring a feudalesque system that for all its Continue Reading