War, it almost goes without saying but it likely still needs to be said given the plethora of present horrific conflicts around the world, is a horrifically terrible thing to live through. But what is it like to live war-adjacent? This disorientingly strange limbo of normal is affectingly explored in Continue Reading
How to win Eurovision: the secret code of the contest’s winning lyrics (curated article)
(The Eurovision Song Contest stage. Review News/Shutterstock) The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the few remaining examples of event TV – and UK audiences lap it up. With 8.9 million viewers in 2022, Britain formed the largest audience of all Eurovision markets. And this time around, there’s even a Continue Reading
#Eurovision cultural festival 2023 UK movie review: Limbo
Severing someone’s connection to time and place, to the world which makes and sustains them is a catastrophic act that understandable generates a cascading wall of trauma that never really abates, unless, of course, by some compassionately selfless act, they are given the opportunity to reconnect in some other meaningful Continue Reading
UPCOMING READS: The apocalyptically toxic world of Battery Life by Brennan Gilpatrick and Gregory Lang
(courtesy Gizmodo / image (c) Blackstone Publishing) SNAPSHOTWelcome to the Junkyard, a toxic wasteland where humans, machines, and everything in between fight for survival among the ruins of a long-forgotten war. This is where Diane Three-One-Seven finds herself after the arkship Cradle—the only home she’s ever known—falls out of the Continue Reading
#Eurovision cultural festival 2023: Songs, songs and five Ukrainian singers worth listening to
Over the last year or so since it was violently invaded by Russia, Ukraine has sadly come to be associated with war, blasted buildings, disrupted lives and a great deal of sadness. In the midst of all this suffering, pain and destruction, it’s easy to lose sight of the artistic Continue Reading
Rift made good or is it? Platonic explores the hilarious landscape of a renewed, all-consuming friendship (trailer and poster)
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTPlatonic follows a platonic pair of former best friends approaching midlife (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) who reconnect after a long rift. The duo’s friendship becomes all consuming—and destabilizes their lives in a hilarious way. Platonic is a series created by writer / filmmaker Nicholas Stoller (aka Continue Reading
#Eurovision cultural festival 2023: British sitcom Extraordinary
When it comes to people getting superpowers, we are habitually used to two key constants: Looks like, rather happily it should be added, that no one sent the memo to Extraordinary, which explores a world in which superpowers have magically been dispensed to everyone and they are so much a Continue Reading
Book review: Beyond the Hallowed Sky by Ken MacLeod
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Humanity has, in many ways, got where it’s got because it’s refused to simply take the universe on the terms obviously presented to it. No matter what the issue is or the challenge to be resolved, we have looked all kinds of supposedly set-in-stone realities of the Continue Reading
A mini-mass of movie trailers: ROBOTS, Next Goal Wins, and Maggie Moore(s)
Grab that popcorn! Maybe some wine? Definitely some candy and sparkling water and head to your local cinema to lose yourself in a (hopefully) good movie. I say “hopefully” because all we have are trailers to go on, and while they look very fine indeed, they are supposed to look Continue Reading
Movie review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
When the first Guardian of the Galaxy film burst chaotically and gleefully onto movie screens in 2014, it became immediately apparent that Marvel had a sense of humour, after all. Of course, fighting dastardly evil villain’s from here on Earth and in realms both galactic and multiversal is a deadly Continue Reading