April 16, 2025 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

(courtesy Doctor Who Facebook page) If you have ever watched a Doctor Who episode, and given it’s been around for about six decades, there’s a reasonably good chance you have, you will have noticed that there’s a certain pattern to how new companions are introduced. They are always babes in Continue Reading

AFFFF25 movie review: In the Sub for Love (A toute allure)

(courtesy Alliance Francaise French Film Festival 2025) As premises for romantic comedies go, and let’s face it they are as wide and different as the days in the middle of summer are long, In the Sub for Love (A toute allure) has an absolute cracker. A handsome male flight attendant, Continue Reading

Streaming review: The opening episode of Doctor Who season 15/season 2 “Robot Revolution”

Book review: Cascade Failure by L. M. Sagas

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) There are countless space operas out there in the world of science fiction, a great many of them imaginatively adept at crafting galaxies of possibility, good and bad, and of taking us on rip-roaring journey from planetary pillar to cometic post. But not all of them Continue Reading

More delightfully quirky Wes Anderson goodness coming up in the beguiling The Phoenician Scheme

(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTThe story of a family and a family business. A dark tale of espionage following a strained father-daughter relationship within a family business. Wes Anderson’s unique twists revolve around betrayal and morally gray choices in this spy comedy thriller. The Phoenician Scheme is both written and directed by Continue Reading

She has nowhere to go but up: Thoughts on North of North

(courtesy IMP Awards) Stories of empowerment generally take the form of someone discovering they are lost and trapped in a place shorn of agency and vivacity who then takes steps to change their lives in ways that are triumphant and overcoming. But while these stories are meant to be inspiring, Continue Reading

Road to Eurovision 2025: Week 3 – Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, Sweden + Ukraine (semi-final 1, part 3)

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

“Do you think we can trust it?” The innate humanity of Murderbot is on full display in its first trailer

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTBased on Martha Wells’ Hugo & Nebula Award-winning book series, Murderbot is a sci-fi thriller/comedy about a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients. Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really Continue Reading

Book review: By Her Hand by Marion Taffe

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) By and large this reviewer, an habitual buyer of books even though his TBR is threatening to collapse on him at some point in the not-too-distant future, doesn’t usually have books bought for him. But when that does happen, when someone does take the chance Continue Reading

Movie trailer double! Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Ocean with David Attenborough

(via Shutterstock) My cinematic tastes are nothing if not eclectic, and if you need proof of that, take in the two choices for this movie trailer double. The grand finale to a two-parter of possibly one of the greatest action movie franchises ever shares space with the legendary Sir David Continue Reading

The short and the short of it: The Social Chameleon learns to live on his own terms

(courtesy Premium Films) SNAPSHOTCosmo the Chameleon doesn’t fit in with the other animals and must learn to live by his own colors. (courtesy Premium Films YouTube) Not fitting in with the crowd is something with which I’ve long been familiar. Growing up, I was bullied furiously and relentlessly, and I Continue Reading