September 12, 2025 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

(courtesy Hachette Australia) OOOO OOOO OOOO (courtesy official author site) OOOO OOOO OOOO

Sci-fi review double: Invasion S3 (E1-2) and Star Trek Strange New Worlds S3 (E 6-8)

(courtesy IMP awards) INVASION season 2 Episode 1: “The Ones We Leave Behind” When last we visited the blighted citizens of Invasion Earth, the alien mothership had crashed into a mountain range, heroes, U.S. soldier Trevante Cole (Shamier Anderson) and British schoolboy-turned-alien-psychic Caspar Morrow (Billy Barratt) were MIA, presumed dead, Continue Reading

Retro movie review: Jaws (50th anniversary)

(courtesy IMP Awards) It’s well recognised time memories are a wholly unreliable witness. We might think we are recalling things exactly as they are, but when the truth of the matter surfaces, it soon becomes clear that we remember is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth but Continue Reading

Season 2 is the death of me: Thoughts on Wednesday S2 Part 1

(courtesy IMP Awards) How do you, to wildly and wilfully paraphrase a song from The Sound of Music, solve a problem like keeping a franchise fresh and vital years after the height of its emergent and zeitgeist dominating popularity? It’s a great and enduring conundrum, one given even more present Continue Reading

Book review: June in the Garden by Eleanor Wilde

(courtesy Text Publishing) We all crave a place to belong. There’s an innate drive to find our tribe, our people which defines all of us, with the presence of whatever we know as family enriching us and its absence impoverishing and isolating in ways innumerable. In short, we need companions Continue Reading

Songs, songs and more songs #127: Dyan Tai & Lupa J, Lydia Night, Alison Wonderland, MØ + Nemo + Eurovision 2026 updates

(via Shutterstock) Pop music is catchy yes but you also want it to say something, mean something and make you feel something. There must be dancing and thinking and dives into the depths of the soul, all of which we get with these five songs from incredibly talented and marvellously Continue Reading

How does an original TV show come to be? ScreenCrush reveals all in this fascinating video

SNAPSHOTTV Shows have a long production gestation, which goes through stages like pitching, writing, rewriting (lots of rewriting), development, and production. ScreenCrush guides you through every step of this process to understand how they actually make TV Shows. (courtesy Laughing Squid) When you fire up your favourite streaming platform and Continue Reading

Book review: The Best Way to Bury a Husband by Alexia Casale

Comedy, if you’re not paying attention, might look for all the world like a rip-roaring fun fair of ephemerally hilarious nothing, there one amusing minute and gone the more soberly serious next. But in the hands of someone who truly knows what they’re doing, a richly comedic story can wield Continue Reading

Movie review: Elio

(courtesy IMP Awards) Stepping into a Pixar film, you are usually guaranteed of two things: Elio well and truly meets that expectation; but here’s the things with Pixar – where other filmmakers might be happy to do the deliver the same trademark elements over and over because they are expected Continue Reading

Book review: The Life of Chuck by Stephen King

(courtesy Hachette Australia) Like many other people, I am well acquainted with Walt Hitman’s immortal line “I contain multitudes”, taken from his poem “Song of Myself, 51”. It is one of those popularly understood but not always fully ruminated on lines that resonate with people, even if many of us Continue Reading

Get ready to go on a Big Bold Beautiful Journey with a gorgeously emotive second trailer

(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTWhat if you could open a doorway and walk through it and re-live a defining moment from your past? Sarah (Margot Robbie) and David (Colin Farrell) are both single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves Continue Reading