March 11, 2025 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTIn the midst of the first millennium, Rome is desperate to conquer the last independent village in Gaul — the home of Astérix and Obélix. The secret to the Gauls’ battle superiority is a magic potion, but when the potion master is struck by amnesia, the villagers are Continue Reading

Break out of your role: Thoughts on Interior Chinatown

(courtesy IMP Awards) How powerful are the stories we tell ourselves, individually and as a society? Pretty damn powerful if Interior Chinatown is to be believed, a streaming show based on Charles Yu’s book of the same name that takes meta (the idea, not the company, thank you) to a Continue Reading

Left to their own devices … Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight trailer

Fire up the streaming algorithm! Two new shows for your viewing delight – The Studio and Government Cheese

(via Shutterstock) The bounty of streaming continues! True, finding the time to watch it all is a challenge – I’m not sure when TV went from escapist fun to a timetabling-intensive pursuit but here we are – but with so many great shows to watch, it’s the kind of challenge Continue Reading

Book review: Death Valley by Melissa Broder

(courtesy Bloomsbury.com) One of the qualities most lauded among people under stress is the ability to go on face of incalculable and often heavily wearing odds. And while resilience in any form is to be admired, what is frequently missed when we are admiringly placing people under great duress on Continue Reading

Grab the popcorn! It’s time for another mini-mass of movie trailers – Night of the Zoopocalypse, A Nice Indian Boy + Bullet Train Explosion

(via Shutterstock) A mixed bag at the cinema this time around but who doesn’t love some eclectic popcorn and choc top-accompanied visual entertainment? Bring it on and let’s giddily switch between animation and rom-com and action, a genre expansive romp through the movies which can only do us good. Well, Continue Reading

AFFFF25 movie review: Souleymane’s Story (L’Histoire de Souleymane)

(courtesy IMDb) When did compassion become a dirty word? In our modern age of plenty and digital connectivity when we should be feeling that we are more of a community than not, humanity is pulling up the drawbridge and staring stonily, and often with bristling, cruel hatred, at those looking Continue Reading

Book review: Never Ever Forever by Karina May

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) Falling in love is really quite delightful. Stating the obvious there I know, but sometimes when you dive into a rom-com that’s not exactly humming along on all rose-petal fueled cylinders, you could be forgiven for wondering if it’s worth all of the misassumptions, toing-and-froing and Continue Reading

The silly and the serious, the cartoonish and the evil: Doctor Who drops new S2/S15 trailer

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOT… [Doctor Who] audiences will join The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) on an epic quest to get Belinda back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-traveling TARDIS team must face great dangers, ferocious enemies and wilder terrors Continue Reading

“If we want to save this world, creativity is key to survival” A Minecraft Movie unleashes a final fun-filled trailer

(courtesy IMP Awards) Welcome to the world of Minecraft – where creativity doesn’t just help you craft, it’s essential to one’s survival! Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa), Henry (Hansen), Natalie (Myers) and Dawn (Brooks)—find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal Continue Reading

Book review: Extinction by Bradley Somer

(courtesy Harper Collins Australia) How far would you go to protect something you truly and deeply love? It’s an academic question for most of us, but for Ben, the protagonist of Bradley Somer’s Extinction, it’s a real and pressing question that could him relationships, friendships, any sense of wellbeing left Continue Reading