It is possible to find yourself in the most banal of circumstances, but the truth is, most of the big epiphanic moments usually only take place when you’re plucked out of your day-to-day existence and thrust, whether by accident or design, into somewhere wholly and extraordinarily different. For most of Continue Reading
Imagine a place where wishes come true … Disney drops trailer and poster for Wish
SNAPSHOTIn Disney Animation’s Wish, Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force—a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe—the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico—to save her community and prove that when the Continue Reading
Shoot for the moon: Thoughts on Hello Tomorrow!
People, by and large, are not great fans of reality. Oh, we’re stuck right in the middle of it, like a ’50s movie serial character stuck in quicksand at a cliffhanger moment, but we don’t much like it; while we watch epic love and thrilling action and huge twists and Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2023: Week 6 – Iceland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, San Marino and Slovenia (Semi-final 2, part 3)
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
Book review: Celestial by M. D. Lachlan
It’s a tricky business delivering up mystery and explanation in one tight sci-fi storytelling package. Tip too towards the mystery and you end up with Solaris or Arrival, both fine films in their own way which are hampered by the fact that they deliver up far more questions than answers Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Paper Girls volumes 1 & 2 by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Cliff Chiang (artist)
Time travel is always a compelling element to add to the narrative mix. There’s the inherent upsetting of the linear natural order, the frisson of excitement that comes from wildly unpredictable parts trying to fit into a whole to which they don’t organically belong and the confusion/thrill of characters grappling Continue Reading
Get ready for a “different vibe”: Heartstopper season 2 drops a teaser trailer and release date
SNAPSHOTNick and Charlie navigate their new relationship, Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) face unforeseen challenges and Tao (William Gao) and Elle (Yasmin Finney) work out if they can ever be more than just friends. With exams on the horizon, a school trip to Paris and a prom to Continue Reading
Book review: Go as a River by Shelley Read
Picking up a book that is meant to be the next big thing, the next Lessons in Chemistry or Where the Crawdads Sing or Still Life, is always a little fraught. You want to believe with all your literary-loving heart that the novel will be every bit as good as Continue Reading
Movie review: Tetris
History doesn’t always make for good stories. In-between all the big battles and epic moments, there’s an awful lots of business-as-usual incidents that don’t lend themselves to exciting storytelling, no matter how much extra made-up oomph Hollywood might inject into proceedings. And then there are stories like the one behind Continue Reading
Sitcom review round-up 2! Ted Lasso (S3, E4-6) and Not Dead Yet (S1, E 6-10)
Ted Lasso Good lord but Ted Lasso has a big heart. When it has a mind to, of course, which, granted is much of the time, although not as strongly in season 3′ first three episodes as had previously been the case. While the episodes – “Smells Like Mean Spirit”, Continue Reading