June 18, 2025 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

(courtesy IMP Awards) Season 2, E 1-5 review One of Poker Face‘s great strengths in its first season was that even thought it never trivialised murder, which was always seen as an evil act in need of some form or redemptive justice – handed out, of course, by protagonist Charlie Continue Reading

Comic strip review: Crabgrass Comic Adventures Vol. 1 by Tauhid Bondia

(courtesy Andrews McMeel Publishing) We’ve all been there – innocently browsing through an online store when suddenly, or not so suddenly since they are stalking us every step of our impulsive shopping ways, the resident algorithm decides you MUST have a certain title. These sorts of insistent suggestions can be Continue Reading

Book review: How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers) The power of books to shape and mend peoples’ lives for the better is well and often remarked upon. Reading is seen, and quite rightly too, as a way of engendering wonder, curiosity and empathy, of opening the minds of those who lose themselves in books Continue Reading

#SydFilmFest movie review: The Ballad of Wallis Island

(courtesy IMP awards) A mistake often made is that for something to have real emotional power, an impact that rends the heart and sears the soul, that it must be big, bombastic and loud. But while there are more than enough movies that mistakes neon sign-cloaked, well-telegraphed emotional touchpoints, clumsily Continue Reading

Bring on the snarky giraffe! Full trailer releases for the animated fun of In Your Dreams

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTSearching for a family adventure that won’t break the bank? Coming to Netflix this fall, In Your Dreams takes you on a fantastical journey from the comfort of your own home. In this enchanting tale, Stevie (voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and her brother, Elliot (voiced by Elias Continue Reading

Book review: The Show Woman by Emma Cowing

(courtesy Hachette Australia) When you think of hopes and dreams, those alluring baubles of possibility and fulfillment that dangle prettily far above the grungily depressing landscape of life, you never really think in terms of how much it takes to make them happen (assuming they happen at all but who Continue Reading

“This is where everything is headed” … Foundation S3’s awe-inspiring trailer

(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTBased on the award-winning sci-fi novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire. The premise of the stories is that, in the waning days of a future Galactic Continue Reading

Book review: Dancing With Bees by Anna Maynard

(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) Love is way more weighty and muscular and substantial than many people give it credit for. There is a prevailing idea that romantic love is wispy and wafty, all red roses and swoons and sighs and dreamy looks at your beloved, and while yes, Continue Reading

PAF! BAM! TCHAC! Thoughts on Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight (Astérix et Obélix : Le Combat des chefs)

(courtesy IMP Awards) One thing that struck me, even as a kid when I first came across the Asterix (Astérix or Astérix le Gaulois) series of stories courtesy of my very progressive, globally conscious local country town library, was how fun the creators writer René Goscinny (1959–1977)/Albert Uderzo (1980–2009) and Continue Reading

Book review: The Empress Murders by Toby Schmitz

(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) Ladies and gentlemen and ill-advised members of the ocean liner-going public – this novel is not your grandmother’s Agatha Christie. The Empress Murders by Toby Schmitz, which first moves at a liner-appropriate pace before hitting the narrative pedal-to-the-metal and gloriously defying all expectations, may Continue Reading

Strap yourself with a full-on ride with The Wild Ones

(courtesy First Showing (c) AppleTV+) SNAPSHOTExplore hidden corners of the Earth with a trio of experts as they try to save six endangered species from extinction. With crafty camerawork & survival skills, the team race to find, record, protect these elusive creatures before it’s too late. Battling the North Atlantic, Continue Reading