(via Shutterstock) Some 163 million people around the world watched the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. That’s a lot of eager viewers and a brilliant way for any artist to get their name out there and raise their profile worldwide. But all of the personal brand building can come to nothing Continue Reading
Preview book review: The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Preview copy provided by Angry Robot Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The Way Up is Death publishes 14 January 2025 in UK and 4 March 2025 in Australia. Reading a book is a rarely a surface-level experience. Continue Reading
It’s Christmas! The most wonderful time of the year … or is it the Breakup Season?
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTUnemployed yet ambitious 24-year-old Ben Russell (Chandler Riggs) brings his girlfriend named Cassie ( Samantha Isler ) to his rural Oregon hometown to meet his family and celebrate Christmas. The arrival is bumpy. The family’s dynamic unearths internal conflict Cassie is having with Ben. The night they Continue Reading
Caught between competing priorities: Thoughts on English Teacher
(courtesy IMP Awards) Walking into a streaming series of a perceived idea of what it is, and then finding out it is that but so much more, is one of the great delights of plunging into this sort of binge-happy storytelling. If you are to watch the trailer, and we Continue Reading
Book review: A Clock Stopped Dead by J. M. Hall
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) As juxtapositions go, “cosy crime” is right up there on the list of sub-genres that might make you a double take. After all, what could possibly be cosy about murder, injustice and weirdly depraved attacks on people? Quite a lot as it turns out; not Continue Reading
A trio of tasty TV (streaming) trailers: Earth Abides, A Man on the Inside + The Sticky
(via Shutterstock) The year may be drawing to a close but is the pace of streaming releases slowing down as we grow ever more tired? No! And while, yes, a part of us would like things to wind down a tad so we can catch our breath after watching a Continue Reading
Feel good fabulousness with new trailer and poster for Paddington in Peru (Paddington 3)
(courtesy Bleeding Cool / © 2024 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.) SNAPSHOTPaddington in Peru brings Paddington’s story to Peru as he returns to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy, who now resides at the Home for Retired Bears. With the Brown Family in tow, a thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery Continue Reading
Post Halloween movie retro movie review: Shaun of the Dead (20th anniversary)
(courtesy IMP Awards) Got relationship troubles? Is your life feeling directionless and uninspired? Failing to realise your true potential? We’ve all been there in one way or another, and while the solution to your relational and existential woes may seem elusive, have you perhaps considered the zombie apocalypse as the Continue Reading
Post Halloween book review: Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning
If you have ever watched a slasher flick – think the Scream series or the Halloween franchise starring Jamie Lee Curtis to name just two of many – you will be well acquainted with the prevailing tropes and cliches of the genre. Eminently disposable characters suddenly find themselves stalked and Continue Reading