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SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Andrew's wonderful world of pop culture

#ChristmasInJuly movie review redux: The Night Before

Posted on July 17, 2022July 17, 2022 by aussiemoose

Much as we might love our parents and siblings and crazy Aunt Phyllis and her 20 cats, it’s often the families we create throughout our lives of close, trusted friends that come to define our adult lives most profoundly. That’s certainly the case in Jonathan Levine’s The Night Before, a Continue Reading

Posted In MoviesTagged In Christmas In July 2022

#ChristmasInJuly festive animation review: Sonic Christmas Blast

Posted on July 17, 2022July 17, 2022 by aussiemoose

Not being a game player of any kind, this reviewer’s only real contact with Sonic the Hedgehog had been the great pop culture soup in which many of us happily swim these days thanks to the internet where you can be exposed to a huge degree by characters and properties Continue Reading

Posted In Animation, Short film, StreamingTagged In Christmas In July 2022

Book review: The Eulogy by Jackie Bailey

Posted on July 16, 2022July 16, 2022 by aussiemoose

There is a curious time in everyone’s lives, in the immediate, disorienting aftermath of the death of a loved one, when time seems to stop but also go into a mad overdrive, mixing together the past and the present in an blender-frenzied attempt to make sense of a loss so Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Head back, waaaay back to Middle-earth: Trailer drops for Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Posted on July 16, 2022July 16, 2022 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTPrime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of Continue Reading

Posted In Books, Streaming

Life, death and scarred humanity: Five Days at Memorial (Apple TV+)

Posted on July 15, 2022July 15, 2022 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTFive Days at Memorial chronicles the impact of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath on a local hospital. When the floodwaters rose, power failed, and heat soared, exhausted caregivers at a New Orleans hospital were forced to make decisions that would follow them for years to come. The stacked ensemble cast Continue Reading

Posted In Books, Streaming

Movie review: Thor – Love and Thunder

Posted on July 15, 2022September 10, 2022 by aussiemoose

Without putting too fine a point on it, because Odin knows Taika Waititi (who can normally do no wrong – see Our Flag Means Death, Thor: Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit) certainly hasn’t, Thor: Love and Thunder is unholy, unruly, near unwatchable mess. That’s not to say there aren’t some fine elements Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Starting over in your 40s: Neil Patrick Harris confronts single gay life at a certain age in Uncoupled

Posted on July 14, 2022July 14, 2022 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTMichael Lawson (Neil Patrick Harris) seems to have it all figured out. He’s a successful New York City real estate agent with a great career, a supportive family, close friends, and a loving relationship with his partner of 17 years, Colin (Tuc Watkins). But when Colin unexpectedly moves out on Continue Reading

Posted In Streaming

Book review: The Boy With a Bird in His Chest by Emme Lund

Posted on July 14, 2022July 14, 2022 by aussiemoose

It’s all too easy to begin hiding yourself away from the world, especially if you’re told repeatedly that this is something wrong with you, that people will reject you if they know. Or even if they don’t. Sometimes that rejection and sense of fear can be cruelly anticipatory, foreseeing problems Continue Reading

Posted In Books

On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain? Thoughts on Baymax!

Posted on July 12, 2022July 20, 2022 by aussiemoose

Baymax, the medical robot that injected a huge amount of heart into 2014’s Big Hero 6, is adorable. He is algorithmically relentless. It makes sense; he’s been programmed to provide the best care possible to those he identifies as being in need and he will do it whether you want Continue Reading

Posted In Animation, Streaming, TV

Weekday character posters burst: Get to know everyone in DC League of Super-Pets

Posted on July 12, 2022July 8, 2022 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTIt sure isn’t easy being Superman’s dog! Krypto hails from Krypton and has super-powers like his owner; but his social skills are decidedly alien at the dog park and he has no idea how to be ordinary. But when Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the rest of the Justice Continue Reading

Posted In Animation, Movies

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  • Life is a rollercoaster: Thoughts on Trying S5
  • Sci-fi September book review: Scion by James Islington
  • The short and the short of it: The emotional canine journeying of Archie
  • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S4 review: “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass” (E7) and “Orders of Magnitude” (E8)
  • A trio of triumphantly tantalising trailers: Whalefall, The Cat in the Hat and Below

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RSS SparklyPrettyBriiiight

  • Life is a rollercoaster: Thoughts on Trying S5
    (courtesy IMP Awards) Making all your dreams come true is an intoxicating feeling, but what happens when the dust settles and reality bites and you have to deal with the fact that the dream may be wonderful but it has some thorns attached with all the floral zest and colour? Continue Reading
  • Sci-fi September book review: Scion by James Islington
    (courtesy Text Publishing) One of the things that makes or breaks a sci-fi novel is how well an author establishes a sense of evocatively definitive time and place; half-do it and you find it hard to imagine the world they create as anything real or tangible, potentially hobbling the ability Continue Reading
  • The short and the short of it: The emotional canine journeying of Archie
    (courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTArchie is devastated to learn of the death of his beloved aunt. He makes the long journey to the home she’s left him in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and a new day brings renewed hope for Archie and his dog. Archie is written and created by Domenica Continue Reading
  • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S4 review: “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass” (E7) and “Orders of Magnitude” (E8)
    (courtesy Memory Alpha) “Like Chronotons Through the Hourglass” One of the best things about Star Trek storytelling in general and Strange New Worlds (SNW) in particular, is its ability to channel what I like to call the “Nordic Effect”. In essence, it’s the co-existence of both light and dark in Continue Reading
  • A trio of triumphantly tantalising trailers: Whalefall, The Cat in the Hat and Below
    (via Shutterstock) How can you not love going to the movies? Look at the dazzling variety in these three films alone – a gripping if fantastical thriller, a garrulously chaotic animated delight based on an iconic Dr Seuss book and some seriously Halloween adjacent supernatural goings-on in an otherwise ordinary Continue Reading
  • Sci-fi September book review: Massif by Garth Nix
    (courtesy Allen & Unwin – Australia) One of the reasons this reviewer loves science fiction is because at its heart, it is devoted to exploring, thinking through and celebrating big ideas; woven into its storytelling DNA is an impelling need to peek behind the curtain, to wonder why things are Continue Reading
  • Italian Film Festival movie review: Life is Life (La vita va così)
    (courtesy IMDb) If there’s one thing audiences love, it’s a David vs. Goliath tale. In the real world, we sigh inwardly and rail with quiet fury, and often not-so-quiet fury, at the gross injustices of companies not paying tax and in effect screwing over the public they serve, fascistic politicians Continue Reading
  • Songs, songs and more songs #142: Rose Gray, Violet Days, Slayyyter, almost monday + Cherry Bomb … plus ABBA’s most and least streamed songs
    (via Shutterstock) Songs are made to make us feel something, the more emphatically the better. Whether it’s the music or the lyrics or a delicious combo of the two, the right song can make you feel, think, move and look at life, or at least a part of it, from Continue Reading
  • “I decide when I return!” Haunted Hotel S2 drops teaser trailer for October 9 return
    (courtesy YouTube (c) Netflix) SNAPSHOTA single mother tries to run the world’s most haunted hotel with her ghost brother, two kids, a demon trapped in a little boy’s body, and an ever growing collection of ghosts, monsters, and supernatural disasters. Haunted Hotel features the voices of Will Forte (Nathan), Eliza Coupe (Katherine), Skyler Gisondo (Ben), Natalie Palamides (Esther) and Jimmi Continue Reading
  • Is it too late to be me? … Thoughts on Lucky
    (courtesy IMDb) A protagonist with a heart of gold trapped in a world of dubious intention and darkly self-serving execution is a mainstay of storytelling; there’s something innately appealing about someone who has been exposed to the worst of humanity and yet somehow has emerged innocent and pure of heart, Continue Reading
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