It’s a rare thing indeed to reference another review in your own but in this case it’s pertinent because the charmingly appreciative words of Laline Paull, author of The Bees, are what convinced me, along with a whimsically bittersweet title, to buy Seni Glaister’s remarkably lovely first novel with Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: Fishwitch and the surprising selfless acts of love
SNAPSHOT A cantankerous, iceberg-dwelling witch is taken by surprise when a relentlessly cheery merman gets caught in her net and attempts to befriend her. Before long he begins to uncover a secret, long kept buried in the ice. (synopsis via Laughing Squid) What a delightful piece of storytelling this Continue Reading
Movie review: I Kill Giants
If there is one thing that life is very good at doing with its myriad unexpected twists and turns, its delights and its traumas, it’s making us feel like we have absolutely no control over anything. Time and again, our attempts to rein in the unruly beast of life Continue Reading
Onward into moody dystopia: Blade Runner 2049 continues on in comic book form
SNAPSHOT The comic series will continue to unravel the future-set continuity of the Blade Runner universe, picking things up after the events of the long-awaited 2017 movie sequel, director Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, which followed the exploits of replicant blade runner K (Ryan Gosling), whose circuitous existential crisis leads him into Continue Reading
Way before they were Yellow: Coldplay documentary A Head Full of Dreams
SNAPSHOT A Head Full of Dreams offers an in-depth and intimate portrait of the band’s spectacular rise from the backrooms of Camden pubs to selling out stadiums across the planet. The film is helmed by Mat Whitecross – director of Supersonic, the acclaimed 2016 Oasis documentary – who met the Continue Reading
Every family is Atypical (season 2 review)
There is something utterly freeing and refreshing about Sam Gardner (Keir Gilchrist), the protagonist on Netflix’s Atypical. An 18-year-old senior on the autism spectrum, Sam is a reassuring presence for all of us, regardless of who we are or our circumstances, that it’s entirely okay to be yourself, and Continue Reading
HO! HO! HO! Action … The Christmas Chronicles and Anna and the Apocalypse (new trailers)
There’s no such thing as too many Christmas movies! You have to trust me on this; I have watched hundreds of the eggnog-soaked things and I am perfectly fine and do not dream of Christmas all year long, itching to decorate the tree, eat chocolate-covered sultanas and buy and Continue Reading
Choose wisely: The serious fun of live action Aladdin (poster + trailer)
SNAPSHOT The Aladdin cast includes: Two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith (Ali, Men in Black) as the Genie who has the power to grant three wishes to whoever possesses his magic lamp; Mena Massoud (Amazon’s Jack Ryan) as Aladdin, the hapless but lovable street rat who is smitten with the Sultan’s daughter; Naomi Scott Continue Reading
Book review: Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo by Boris Fishman
In this ever-more mobile digital age, where job tenure is fleeting, geographic locales are a home but for a moment, and social ties fray and fasten at the speed of tweet, we remain, as a species, heavily-dependent on a sense of place for our sense of identity. Even when Continue Reading
Can catastrophe be averted? Two brothers race to find out in Exit Strategy
SNAPSHOT A man in a time loop must work with his brother to prevent a catastrophic fire. (synopsis via Vimeo) Exit Strategy is one powerful piece of deeply-affecting storytelling that runs its entire length including a bittersweet emotional whammy, in the course of 15 tightly-plotted but deeply human moments. Continue Reading