SNAPSHOTSand. A hostile world of burning sun. Outlines of several once-busy cities shimmer on the horizon. Now empty of inhabitants, their buildings lie in ruins. In the distance a group of people—a family—walks toward us. Ahead lies shelter: a “shuck” the family calls home and which they know they must Continue Reading
Book review: The Last Blade Priest by W. P. Wiles
Vivid. That’s the word that strikes most often as you dive into and are gloriously consumed by The Last Blade Priest by W. P. Wiles, a novel that is, in every conceivable respect, a story well told, vividly realised and epically alive. A fantasy story grounded in the earthy fallibility Continue Reading
Just how unlucky are you? We find out in the hilarious new trailer for Luck
SNAPSHOTFrom Apple Original Films and Skydance Animation comes the story of Sam Greenfield, the unluckiest person in the world, who when she stumbles into the never-before-seen Land of Luck, sets out on a quest to bring some good luck home for her best friend. But with humans not allowed, her Continue Reading
#ChristmasInJuly movie review redux: The Night Before
Much as we might love our parents and siblings and crazy Aunt Phyllis and her 20 cats, it’s often the families we create throughout our lives of close, trusted friends that come to define our adult lives most profoundly. That’s certainly the case in Jonathan Levine’s The Night Before, a Continue Reading
#ChristmasInJuly festive animation review: Sonic Christmas Blast
Not being a game player of any kind, this reviewer’s only real contact with Sonic the Hedgehog had been the great pop culture soup in which many of us happily swim these days thanks to the internet where you can be exposed to a huge degree by characters and properties Continue Reading
Book review: The Eulogy by Jackie Bailey
There is a curious time in everyone’s lives, in the immediate, disorienting aftermath of the death of a loved one, when time seems to stop but also go into a mad overdrive, mixing together the past and the present in an blender-frenzied attempt to make sense of a loss so Continue Reading
Head back, waaaay back to Middle-earth: Trailer drops for Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
SNAPSHOTPrime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of Continue Reading
Life, death and scarred humanity: Five Days at Memorial (Apple TV+)
SNAPSHOTFive Days at Memorial chronicles the impact of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath on a local hospital. When the floodwaters rose, power failed, and heat soared, exhausted caregivers at a New Orleans hospital were forced to make decisions that would follow them for years to come. The stacked ensemble cast Continue Reading
Movie review: Thor – Love and Thunder
Without putting too fine a point on it, because Odin knows Taika Waititi (who can normally do no wrong – see Our Flag Means Death, Thor: Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit) certainly hasn’t, Thor: Love and Thunder is unholy, unruly, near unwatchable mess. That’s not to say there aren’t some fine elements Continue Reading
Starting over in your 40s: Neil Patrick Harris confronts single gay life at a certain age in Uncoupled
SNAPSHOTMichael Lawson (Neil Patrick Harris) seems to have it all figured out. He’s a successful New York City real estate agent with a great career, a supportive family, close friends, and a loving relationship with his partner of 17 years, Colin (Tuc Watkins). But when Colin unexpectedly moves out on Continue Reading