March 19, 2025 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTSiaja (starring Anna Lambe) is a young Inuk mother who dreams of reinventing herself in her tiny Arctic community of Ice Cove. After a spontaneous — and extremely public — exit from her marriage, Siaja goes from a stale but stable life at the side of self-absorbed Continue Reading

Book review: Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession

(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Thanks to the many loud and shouty tentacles of the digital age, it’s usually the case that when something happens to someone, we know about it. Or, at the very least, we have the potential to know about it. Hence, we hear celebrities celebrating their good Continue Reading

Take a special look at the upcoming second series of Andor: A Star Wars Story

(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTWhile Season 1 followed Cassian’s reluctant journey from cynical nobody to revolutionary volunteer, the long-awaited conclusion in Andor season 2 will see the characters and their relationships intensify as the horizon of war draws near and Cassian becomes a key player in the Rebel Alliance. Everyone will Continue Reading

AFFFF25 movie review: All Stirred Up! (Tous toqués!)

(courtesy Alliance Francaise French Film Festival) Having your world upended is not always the best of outcomes. But when it results in life getting way better, and in defiance of every expectation you may have held to that point, then rather than collapsing in good old sack cloth and ashes Continue Reading

Book review: Wild Massive by Scotto Moore

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) Science fiction as a genre is usually not short of big, epic, mind-blowing ideas. Those kinds of ideas, all space operatic, wildly imaginative and fearlessly brave, are the genre’s stock in trade; if you can dream it, sci-fi can make it even better than you dreamt Continue Reading

Mini-mass of movie trailers: That They May Face the Rising Sun, Sneaks, Thunderbolts + teaser trailer for The Life of Chuck

(via Shutterstock) Grab the popcorn! Pick your favourite choctop icecream! Ordered an upsized wine. It’s time to head to the movies, and if you’re wondering what to see, then wonder no more because here are four brilliant films coming your way, all different, all compelling and all deserving of some Continue Reading

Book review: The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains by Sarah Clutton

(courtesy Allen & Unwin Australia) Uncorrected proof of The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains provided by Allen & Unwin via Better Reading in return for an honest and objective review; the novel releases 29 April 2025. It goes without saying that if a novel is to truly capture your heart, Continue Reading

Every path has a price: The Last of Us drops a bleak, horror-filled but compelling full trailer

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOT“You can’t stop this.” After a global pandemic destroys civilization, a hardened survivor takes charge of a 14-year-old girl who may be humanity’s last hope. Five years after the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other and a world Continue Reading

Oscars catch-up movie review: A Real Pain

(courtesy IMP Awards) Much as we like to think we are up and close and personal with real life, that we are intimately and bruisingly acquainted with the slings and arrows of grave fortune, we are, for the greater part protected and inured to the horrors that simply being alive 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

(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