Happy pop culture Christmas everyone! – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Festive wishes from Hiro and Baymax … and from me to you! Thank you for reading and just being here with me. (Image via Pinterest (c) **Sharkie19, Deviant Art**)

Book review: The Naked Neanderthal by Ludovic Slimak

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026 It is perhaps inevitable that we filter everything we see through our well-entrenched worldview. Try as we might to look beyond what we intrinsically know and understand, and it is to course possible to do that, Continue Reading

Weekend movie poster art: Character posters for GOAT

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTFrom Sony Pictures Animation, the studio behind Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, comes GOAT, an original action-comedy set in an all-animal world. The story follows Will (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin), a small goat with big dreams who gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to join the pros and play roarball Continue Reading

Movie review: Marty Supreme

(courtesy IMP Awards) It is a rare thing indeed in this information-saturated, preview-addicted, spoiler-suffused, endlessly-reviewed digital world of ours that anything subverts and surprises and blows expectations well and truly out of the water. Marty Supreme, starring recent Golden Globe winner Timothée Chalamet as the titular character, Marty Mauser and Continue Reading

Book review: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. What a magical story is contained in the novella-length pages of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newtitz. Set in a post-apocalyptic mid-21st century California, which has just won its independence after a brutal war with an insidiously Continue Reading

“I was born to play this character.” The meta fun of Wonder Man

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTWonder Man is a meta live-action Disney+ series with a “story about acting and the journey of an actor in Hollywood.” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as Simon Williams, a working actor who auditions for the lead role in Wonder Man, an upcoming reboot of a classic Wonder Continue Reading

Graphic novel review: The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos by James Tynion IV and Tate Brombal (writers) and Isaac Goodhart (artist)

(courtesy Tiny Onion / Dark Horse Comics) This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. Who are the real monsters? It’s question often asked in storylines where the obvious monsters turn out to be the good guys, or at least not the most reprehensibly Continue Reading

A mini-mass of movie trailers 2025 #1: The Sheep Detectives, Jimmy + Greenland 2: Migration

(via Shutterstock) Another year and lots more movies to watch! Hurrah! Apart from reading books, my other great enduring love is losing myself in a lovely, long movie and with eclectic tastes, that opens a lot of movies to watch when I’m in the mood. Which, yes, is pretty much Continue Reading

Book review: Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. If you’re a book lover, you will be well acquainted with the magical power of bookstores to soothe the stressful soul, to calm the rapidly beating heart and to make you feel like all the things Continue Reading

The short and the short of it: A lonely robot selflessly looks after others in Sunspark

(courtesy official Sunspark site) SNAPSHOTIn a post-human wasteland, a robot scavenger unexpectedly finds the broken body of another robot while looking for spare parts. After failing to fully revive her, he must decide how much of himself he’s willing to give in order to bring her back to life. Sunspark Continue Reading

Back on the job: Thoughts on Man on the Inside S2

(courtesy IMP Awards) When it comes to sitcom royalty, you would have to consider Michael Schur, who has had a hand in creating and delivering standouts of the genre such as Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place, as occupying the top of a very hilarious heap. He Continue Reading

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