It was Lysander, in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream who remarked that “The course of true love never did run smooth” but it’s Ollie, the protagonist from Sophie Gonzales’s passionately heartfelt tale of young gay love, Only Mostly Devastated, who can issue a hearty “Amen!” some 400 years after the Continue Reading
Movie review: Corpus Christi
There are very few genuine second chances in life. Oh, we love to mythologise and celebrate them, holding them up as proof positive that one mistake in life does not a condemned existence make. But as Corpus Christi (Polish: Boże Ciało) demonstrates with a quietly nuanced but furious intensity, opportunities Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #38: Tate McRae, Aluna, Astrid S, Alex Porat, London Thompson
Being honest about your feeling is hard. Damn hard. If you’re like most people, you fear being judged or misunderstood or seen as weak or immature; the truth of the matter though is that there is a freedom in baring your soul and asking whether anyone else feels like you Continue Reading
Book review: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
In one sense, there is nothing in The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix that you haven’t read a thousand times before in any number of fantasy books where an ordinary everyday mortal discovers they have a far richer and more fantastical inheritance than they could ever have imagined. Continue Reading
Weekday pop art: What if Wes Anderson had designed The Simpsons?
SNAPSHOTWes Anderson is a genre of film unto himself. One of the biggest reasons is that he has his own signature aesthetic. His meticulously crafted, often symmetrical sets with a distinct pastel color palette are like quirky living dollhouses. Nothing else resembles them, so you can always identify one of Continue Reading
Fear the Walking Dead: “Honey” (S6, E5 review) + The Walking Dead: World Beyond – “Shadow Puppets” (S1, E6 review)
FEAR THE WALKING DEAD SPOILERS AHEAD … AND THE WORST MASK PARTY *EVER* … Life is woefully short on fairytales. That’s even more the case in the zombie apocalypse where the scarcity of happy-ever-afters and princesses finding and kissing their princes (or princesses) is all too apparent. So, you have Continue Reading
Book review: Lucky’s by Andrew Pippos
Life can be so unremittingly bleak at times, 2020 being a perfect case in point, that it’s important to be reminded of the opportunities it affords for salvation, redemption and fresh starts. These are not exactly lying on the ground for us to gather up as we will, but as Continue Reading
The Mandalorian – Chapter 10: The Passenger (S2, E2 review) / Star Trek: Discovery – “Forget Me Not” (S3, E4 review)
THE MANDALORIAN SPOILERS AHEAD … AND STAR WARS EASTER EGGS GALORE … In a franchise with a history as illustrious and long-lasting as Star Wars, it’s all but inevitable, and thoroughly, wonderfully welcome, that its books, movies, and in this case, TV shows, will feature a treasure trove of Easter Continue Reading
Movie review: Operation Christmas Drop
Fittingly for a film that acts in part as a soft, warmhearted US military recruitment campaign, Operation Christmas Drop arrives on Netflix with a great big target painted on its altruistic back. Why, you might ask, might anyone want to target a film dedicated to celebrating the Christmas spirit, a Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: Greeting cards get a funny pop culture twist
It’s always been lovely to get a card in the mail, especially around big, important events like birthdays and Christmas. But in the current climate, where the pandemic has rendered many of us physical strangers to each other, they are even more special, a sign that we are being thought Continue Reading