One of the most comforting parts of Christmas, a season dedicated to making us feel like everything is gloriously and perfectly right with the world, is settling down to watch the slew of new and old Christmas specials, TV shows and movies at our disposal. Most people will have favourites Continue Reading
Movies
Movie review: A Christmas Gift From Bob
Christmas films are the comfort food of the season, a chance to pretend, if only for a couple of hours, that the world is as wonderful as we imagine it to be at this time of year. It’s usually not, of course, because sadly the world at large does not Continue Reading
Movie review: Summerland
If you’ve been paying attention, and really the business of being alive pretty demands it in one form or another, it won’t have escaped your attention that life is a big fan of unfinished moments. We, however, not so much; human beings are made for neat and tidy endings and Continue Reading
Retro movie review: Speed
You may not think that the role of a bus driver in a ’90s action thriller might be a golden ticket to movie fortune and fame but that is exactly what the role of Annie proved to be for Sandra Bullock who took a role that could’ve simply been sidekick Continue Reading
Movie review: Days of the Bagnold Summer
When you’re growing up, figuring out who you are and how the people around you matter is not always a straightforward exercise. It should be, on paper at least, a slam dunk that you would love your mother since she, in all likelihood very much loves you back but in Continue Reading
Movie review: Corpus Christi
There are very few genuine second chances in life. Oh, we love to mythologise and celebrate them, holding them up as proof positive that one mistake in life does not a condemned existence make. But as Corpus Christi (Polish: Boże Ciało) demonstrates with a quietly nuanced but furious intensity, opportunities Continue Reading
Weekday pop art: What if Wes Anderson had designed The Simpsons?
SNAPSHOTWes Anderson is a genre of film unto himself. One of the biggest reasons is that he has his own signature aesthetic. His meticulously crafted, often symmetrical sets with a distinct pastel color palette are like quirky living dollhouses. Nothing else resembles them, so you can always identify one of Continue Reading
Movie review: Operation Christmas Drop
Fittingly for a film that acts in part as a soft, warmhearted US military recruitment campaign, Operation Christmas Drop arrives on Netflix with a great big target painted on its altruistic back. Why, you might ask, might anyone want to target a film dedicated to celebrating the Christmas spirit, a Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: Greeting cards get a funny pop culture twist
It’s always been lovely to get a card in the mail, especially around big, important events like birthdays and Christmas. But in the current climate, where the pandemic has rendered many of us physical strangers to each other, they are even more special, a sign that we are being thought Continue Reading
The short and the short of it #Halloween redux: A Night in Camp Heebie Jeebie
SNAPSHOTDuring a stormy night in Camp Heebie Jeebie, the ghost stories shared by a group of Jeebie Scouts become all too real. Happy Halloween! (synopsis via Vimeo) Yes, yes Halloween has shambled off this festive mortal coil for another year but it’s hard not to take one more scary detour Continue Reading