(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
Movie review: Robot Dreams
(courtesy IMP Awards) Humanity is anchored and defined by its relationships. While romantic love steals much of the showy, relationally performative limelight, it is friendship that often sustains us and endures long beyond the flashy pop and fizz of eros, giving us a sure point of return in the chaotic Continue Reading
Find your rhythm and sparkle on … Thelma the Unicorn drops a funny, colourful and heartfelt trailer
(courtesy First Showing (c) Netflix) SNAPSHOTThelma is a small-time pony who dreams of becoming a glamourous music star. In a pink and glitter-filled moment of fate, Thelma is transformed into a unicorn and instantly rises to global stardom. But this new life of fame comes at a cost. Thelma the Continue Reading