Happy pop culture new year everyone! – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Here’s to more movies, books, songs, TV shows, cartoon and comic strips and so much more in 2019!

She has nowhere to go but up: Thoughts on North of North

(courtesy IMP Awards) Stories of empowerment generally take the form of someone discovering they are lost and trapped in a place shorn of agency and vivacity who then takes steps to change their lives in ways that are triumphant and overcoming. But while these stories are meant to be inspiring, Continue Reading

Road to Eurovision 2025: Week 3 – Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, Sweden + Ukraine (semi-final 1, part 3)

What is the Eurovision Song Contest?Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to Continue Reading

“Do you think we can trust it?” The innate humanity of Murderbot is on full display in its first trailer

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTBased on Martha Wells’ Hugo & Nebula Award-winning book series, Murderbot is a sci-fi thriller/comedy about a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients. Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really Continue Reading

Book review: By Her Hand by Marion Taffe

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) By and large this reviewer, an habitual buyer of books even though his TBR is threatening to collapse on him at some point in the not-too-distant future, doesn’t usually have books bought for him. But when that does happen, when someone does take the chance Continue Reading

Movie trailer double! Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Ocean with David Attenborough

(via Shutterstock) My cinematic tastes are nothing if not eclectic, and if you need proof of that, take in the two choices for this movie trailer double. The grand finale to a two-parter of possibly one of the greatest action movie franchises ever shares space with the legendary Sir David Continue Reading

The short and the short of it: The Social Chameleon learns to live on his own terms

(courtesy Premium Films) SNAPSHOTCosmo the Chameleon doesn’t fit in with the other animals and must learn to live by his own colors. (courtesy Premium Films YouTube) Not fitting in with the crowd is something with which I’ve long been familiar. Growing up, I was bullied furiously and relentlessly, and I Continue Reading

Book review: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) At first glance, the premise for When the Moon Hits Your Eye, seems nonsensically silly and hardly the kind of plot to support a hard-hitting and substantially thoughtful exploration of humanity and the many it expresses itself under pressure. But then, then if anyone can weave Continue Reading

Worlds … will … collide … Tron: Ares delivers an impressively intense first trailer

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTTron: Ares follows a highly sophisticated program, Ares (starring Jared Leto), who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings. The highly anticipated sequel to the sci-fi classics Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010). Continue Reading

Look out for it: Thoughts on Pixar’s Win or Lose

(courtesy IMP Awards) There are always stories behind the stories – if you care to look for them, of course. Which is precisely what Pixar’s first TV/streaming series, Win or Lose, with the studio’s customary blend of whimsy and hard-hitting, heartfelt humanity. Set in a small U.S. community on the Continue Reading

Road to Eurovision 2025: Week 2 – Estonia, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway + Poland (semi-final 1, part 2)

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