(courtesy IMP Awards) Hollywood of chock full of movies based on real events, and given the predisposition and often narrative need to embellish even the most impressive of real world events, you often have to wonder just how much truth lurks within the folds of the often inventive storyline. In Continue Reading
Book review: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry (Sunderworld Vol. 1) by Ransom Riggs
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) If you have read any novels featuring a “Chosen One” hero, you will be quite familiar with the idea that someone of great talent and abilities but no real awareness of them will be plucked from anonymity and obscurity to become the saviour of Continue Reading
When dreams come true: The home truths and joys of Trying S3 and S4
(courtesy IMP Awards) SEASON 3Finding a perfect TV or streaming series is surely up their with pink glitter-smattered uniforms or the ideal boss, a thing of myth and legend that many a Reddit chat or Twitter (now X) thread has long and noisily ruminated on. But as you watch season Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: The joyful remembrance of Run Totti Run
(courtesy IMDb (c) Shad Lee Bradbury) SNAPSHOTA young boy and his dog in the rice fields of Cambodia encounter an unmoving obstacle that will bring their love to light in this endearing story between best friends. [Directed by] Shad Bradbury [who] has worked in animation for over 20 years. He Continue Reading
Book review: Kit McBride Gets a Wife by Amy Barry
(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia) There’s something about a plucky, funny protagonist who won’t take no for an answer that absolutely reels you in. While society as a whole, and indeed their own family, are happy to tow whatever the agreed line of mainstream behaviour has been deemed to be Continue Reading
Ho Ho (Summery) Ho! Get ready for A Sudden Case of Christmas
(courtesy YAHOO!) SNAPSHOTAn American couple bring their 10 year old daughter, Claire, to her grandfather Lawrence’S hotel in The Dolomites, Italy. They usually come for Christmas but this year it’s August. The fact is they are breaking up and want Lawrence to be the one to tell Claire, especially as Continue Reading
Movie review: Touch (Snerting)
(courtesy IMP Awards) There is an aching beauty and hopefulness to Touch that very quickly digs down into your soul. In this exquisitely soulful and thoughtful film, directed by Baltasar Kormákur to a screenplay by Kormákur and Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson (who wrote the book on which it’s based), themes of Continue Reading
Book review: The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt by Mark Mupotsa-Russell
(courtesy Affirm Press) When you pick up the superlative gem that is The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt by Mark Mupotsa-Russell, you first think that here is a quirky, whimsical read of a ex-hitwoman, now happily and cosily domiciled in suburban life in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, who Continue Reading
Darker and more dangerous yet … Thoughts on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S2, E1-3
(courtesy IMP Awards) The Bible has said it. Countless novels has ruminated on the idea. And it’s been observed more than once by everyone from social commentators to political experts that evil often wears a pleasing and amenable face. It makes sense, of course. After all, as a species we Continue Reading
Book review: Valley by Stacey McEwan (The Glacian Trilogy, book 3)
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Valley releases 10 September in Australia via Penguin Books. (ARC provided by NetGalley) When you’re reached the end of a gripping fantasy trilogy, where the stakes are high and the fate of multiple characters and narrative arcs hang precariously but meaningfully in the balance, sticking the Continue Reading