(courtesy IMP Awards) Any time you’re around Paddington Bear is a good, warmhearted and wonderful time. In the case of this reviewer, it began some decades ago with the books of Michael Bond, the man who gifted us this remarkably lovely and thoughtful character, beginning in 1958 with A Bear Continue Reading
Movies
Movie review: Wallace & Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl
(courtesy IMP Awards) It’s a rare thing in this hyperconnected, digitally frenzied age where something is demanded of you almost every second of every day to just sit back, switch off and spend some time with old friends. And when that happens, when the gods smile upon you with an Continue Reading
Movie review: Grey Matter
(courtesy IMDb) What is it like to lose someone before you actually lose them? Ask anyone who has walked with a loved one through the long dimming road of dementia, and you will hear harrowing tales of what it is like to see that person disappear task by task, memory Continue Reading
What does it feel like to be alive? Love Me asks some big and deeply moving questions
SNAPSHOTLong after humanity’s extinction, a buoy and a satellite meet online and fall in love. As filmmakers Sam & Andy demonstrate in their wildly imaginative debut feature, telling the love story of a smart buoy and an orbiting satellite that spans a billion years and probes the mysteries of being Continue Reading
Movie review: Mufasa: The Lion King
(courtesy IMP Awards) Full admission upfront: this reviewer, for reasons that still evade him, never quite warned to The Lion King, the 1994 animated gem from Disney that introduced us to the world of Mufasa, Simba and the Elton John-soundtracked Circle of Life. Two trips to the cinema were made Continue Reading
Movie review: Sonic the Hedgehog 3
(courtesy IMP Awards) Is it possible to quip merrily while still saving the world? You might think the level of concentration needed to avert global annihilation might preclude any and all comedic utterances, black humour laced and otherwise, but in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, directed by Jeff Fowler (who also Continue Reading
Movie review: Falling Into Place
(courtesy IMP Awards) Most romantic comedies (romcoms) would have you believe, and honestly this kind of escapism is why we loe them so much, that all you have to do to move beyond the pain and trauma of your past or present is to meet someone special and suddenly, WHOOSH!, Continue Reading
Popcorn and wine and a comfy seat in the dark: My top 25 films of 2024
(via Shutterstock) This was a year in which I still watched a lof of films but where I was just as apt to watch them on a streaming platform as at a cinema. It’s not that I’ve fallen out of love with seeing movies out in the cinematic wild, and Continue Reading
Merry pop culture Christmas to all … and to all a good streaming-reading-listening night! (Bonus The Penguins of Madagascar Christmas Special)
(courtesy Pinterest (c) Peanuts) Merry pop culture Christmas everyone! Another year has somehow zoomed right through, around and past us, offering up far too many books and movies and TV/streaming show and songs and graphic novels to consume in one lifetime, but reminding us as we gobbled what we could Continue Reading
Festive animated feature film review: Santa’s Apprentice
If you watched a fair amount of festive programming, you will be well familiar with the idea that there are not a lot of new ideas under the Christmas storytelling sun. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; we like our festive tropes and cliches held close and to pop up Continue Reading