SNAPSHOTMeet The Irregulars: Bea, Jessie, Billy, Spike and Leo. Join this ragtag gang as they uncover the demonic and mysterious depths of Victorian London alongside the sinister Dr Watson and his enigmatic business partner, Sherlock Holmes. (synopsis via YouTube (c) Netflix) It is getting very crowded in the world of Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs: #44: Sumner, Kinder, Peach Tree Rascals, Cat & Calmell, CamelPhat + #Eurovision update
It’s been a tough year and while vaccinations are in the offing around the world, we’re a long way from being out of the pandemic woods just yet. So, it’s good that there are five songs by five supremely talented artists who talk about life, love and the human experience Continue Reading
Movie review: The Big Hit (Un triomphe) #AFFrenchFilmFestival
Can art liberate you? It’s a big question but one with a great deal of rich humanity at its heart in the Emmanuel Courcol-directed film Un Triomphe / The Big Hit, which asks if it possible for art to liberate the spirit when the body has no choice but to Continue Reading
Book review: Radio Life by Derek B. Miller
It is pretty accepted by many people these days that the old idea that the evolutionary path for humanity isn’t as idealistically rosy as it once was. Much of that idealism had its roots in postwar optimism, the kind that existed almost because it had to in the wake of Continue Reading
Comics review: Coady and the Creepies by Liz Princes + Amanda Kirk + Hannah Fisher
Coady and the Creepies is one of those delightful graphic novels that you love from the first page. That might make it sound like the introduction to punk music-playing 16-year-old triplet sisters Coady, Criss and Corey is all lightness and exuberantly fun dialogue, a whirl of visual fun and vividly-realised Continue Reading
Mini-mass of movie trailers: Monday, Oxygen, Just Say Yes
Love and fear are in the air! Sound like a weird mix? Not in this post which showcases trailers for two romantic comedies and one film which takes claustrophobia to a whole other place none of us really want to go to … EVER. My recommendation? Watch the scary one Continue Reading
Book review: The Grand Tour by Olivia Wearne
No one likes to think they are going to get to near the end of their lives and be buried under a mountain of simmering regret. What we all want is to march into the latter decades of our life, head held high, heart full and a list of flawless Continue Reading
Movie review: Antoinette in the Cévennes (Antoinette dans les Cévennes) #AFFrenchFilmFestival
You could be forgiven for thinking that the Caroline Vignal-directed film, Antoinette in the Cévennes (Antoinette dans les Cévennes), is just one big long romantic screwball romp were you to rely on the trailer alone. Certainly there are elements of visual slapstick in the film – if you have ever Continue Reading
Fantastic characters and amazing creatures: The many faces of actor Doug Jones
SNAPSHOTDoug Jones is an actor mostly known for portraying inhuman creatures, usually via heavy make-up and/or visual effects in films and television series. He’s also the go-to colossus in the movies of monster king Guillermo del Toro, first appearing in Mimic and later portraying both the Faun and the Pale Continue Reading
Book review: Driving Stevie Fracasso by Barry Divola
Mix wit and whimsy with hard emotional truth is not the easiest of literary alchemies but Barry Divola manages it near-flawlessly with his debut novel, Driving Stevie Fracasso. Promising one of those revelatory road trip adventures where fun is had but epiphanies, both existential and familial are thick on the Continue Reading