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!

Fantasy April book review: The Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) “I wanted to write a book that felt like a warm hug.” Reading that sentence in the Acknowledgement section of The Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst was not only delightful because who doesn’t know want to know the author of a book they loved actually Continue Reading

We’ve all heard stories … Final trailer drops for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTWe see Grogu with his new Anzellan friends and using a tiny telescope as he works alongside Din Djarin. The Mandalorian’s Zeb Orrelios is back, featured in poster art that also includes Sigourney Weaver’s new character and a pair of Hutts. From toppling Imperial remnant AT-ATs to Continue Reading

Not your average retirement community … head into the post-work strangeness of The Boroughs

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOT“Executive produces of Stranger Things welcome you to a new community.” In the sun-drenched expanse of the New Mexico desert lies The Boroughs, a picturesque retirement community promising its residents the time of their lives. But for new arrival Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina), paradise feels more like Continue Reading

Fantasy April book review: Inner Demons by Stephen B. Platt

(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia) It’s a rare thing indeed to pick up a fantasy novel and to have it be not only fantastically imaginative, with audaciously fun world-building that knocks your absolute socks off, but to be full of off-the-wall ideas that are hilarious, engaging and which come to Continue Reading

The end of the world was just the beginning … The Dog Stars movie adaption drops its first trailer

SNAPSHOTSet in Colorado after the world’s population has been ravaged by a pandemic, a man lives a lonesome existence in an airplane hangar with his dog and a door gunman he has befriended. When a mysterious transmission comes through on the radio while he is flying his old Cessna, it Continue Reading

Death in the cheery sunshine … Thoughts on Blue Murder Motel

(courtesy IMDb) It’s all in the name. When I first came across the idea of “cosy crime”, the name didn’t seem to make sense – how could something so terrible be even remotely warm and lovely? But then I thought back to the days of Murder, She Wrote, and yes, Continue Reading

Movie review: Rodrigue in Love (Avignon) #AFFFF26

(courtesy IMDb) Egos and love are all heavily in the mix in Johann Dionnet’s delightful French romcom, Rodrigue in Love (Avignon), which sees Stéphane (Baptiste Lecaplain), a frustrated but ambitious actor who wants to be known for far more than regional theatrical productions try to lie his way into the Continue Reading

Fantasy April book review: The Tricky Business of Faerie Bargains by Reena McCarty

(courtesy Hachette Australia) If the wondrously good Emily Wilde trilogy of books by Heather Fawcett didn’t convince you that fairies aka faeries were a whole lot of malevolently inconsistent bad news, and nothing like their Disneyfied modern image of light and flittery loveliness, then get ready for the similarly superlative Continue Reading

“We’re stronger together.” Trailer drops for unpredictable animated comedy Swapped

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTSwapped is a buddy comedy about a small woodland creature (voiced by Academy Award winner Michael B. Jordan) and a majestic bird (voiced by Juno Temple). When these two natural sworn enemies of The Valley suddenly swap bodies, they must team up, while walking in each other’s Continue Reading

Fantasy April book review: Cinder House by Freya Marske

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) Retellings of classic tales are often quite illuminating, revealing aspects of the original story that simply didn’t register because of the familiarity attached to their ubiquitous status. We become so used to the beats and tropes of the story, to the well-known elements that define it, Continue Reading

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