(courtesy Bloomsbury Publishing) Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius (translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles)is that most universal and yet achingly specific kind of novel. At once a coming-of-age tale of one young Sámi woman battling to find in place in a world that holds obstacles and antagonism within and without, sometimes violently so, she Continue Reading
Movie review: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
(courtesy IMP Awards) In a sweeping saga like the Planet of the Apes series, it’s easy to get lost in the blockbuster weeds, to see only the big, massive moments when what’s left of humanity and apes clash, the once-set master-servant relationship now turned on its world transforming head. And Continue Reading
#Eurovision cultural festival 2024 streaming review: Love & Anarchy (Kärlek & anarki) S1
(courtesy IMDb (c) Netflix) Ah but it’s a good and glorious thing to have your expectations thoroughly and robustly thwarted! Especially when it comes to a TV/streaming show such as Love & Anarchy (Kärlek & anarki), a Swedish series which presents itself in its whimsically light and frothy trailer as Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #106: Lawrence, Alice Merton, BYHAZE & SAFA, Sabrina Carpenter + Ayumu Imazu + ABBA’s Waterloo piano moment
(via Shutterstock) You need to groove a little more! Yes you do, and so do I; there’s something about just the right mid-fi pop song coming on with all the right beats and a just-so sense of atmosphere and style to make all the stress fall away. All that matters Continue Reading
Star Wars-n’t? Rebuild the Galaxy – a fun fresh alternative take on that galaxy far, far away …
(courtesy First Showing (c) Disney+) SNAPSHOTLEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy is a “four-piece” animated special. The entire Star Wars galaxy gets completely mixed up when an ordinary nerf-herder, Sig Greebling (voiced by Gaten Matarazzo), unearths a powerful artifact called the Cornerstone found within a hidden Jedi temple. He finds Continue Reading
#Eurovision cultural festival 2024 movie review: Thank You, I’m Sorry (Tack och förlåt)
(courtesy IMDb (c) Netflix) If you have ever struggled to find a way to describe how grief feels in all its complexity and lostness, then you likely should embrace and adopt one pivotal line in Thank You, I’m Sorry (Tack och förlåt) where a character observes something along the lines Continue Reading
Book review: Nick and Charlie (A Heartstoper novella) by Alice Oseman
(courtesy Harper Collins Australia) Life all too often feels like a series of endless goodbyes. Or possible goodbyes anyway; just when things seem to have settled into a pleasing and happy pattern, and we feel like this life things is forming itself into some existentially rich and satisfying shapes, along Continue Reading
What’s the next stage? Thoughts on The Big Door Prize (S2, E1-4)
(courtesy IMP Awards) It will surprise precisely no one to say that we live in an age where it feels like everything, and we mean everything, is on frantic frenetic, screamingly loud and epic fast-forward draped in garish neon and with a thumping electrobeat pounding out of the speakers. That’s Continue Reading
Something borrowed, something Bluey: why we love a TV wedding (curated article)
(courtesy IMDb (c) Ludo Studio) Article via Liz Giuffre , Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology Sydney via The Conversation There is nothing like a wedding episode. Bluey’s first 28-minute special, “The Sign”, was the ultimate wedding television. Full of family, and family-friendly, the wedding between Bluey’s godmother Frisky Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2024: Week 7 – The Big 6 – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, UK (Grand final)
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