(courtesy IMP Awards) As a child of the Church (thought failed, ultimately, to stick in childhood), it’s always fascinated this reviewer how something as pure as belief in the goodness of a higher power, which should always elevate and enliven can somehow become a tool for oppressive, punitive religious expression. Continue Reading
Book review: A Recipe for Christmas by Jo Thomas
(courtesy Penguins Books Australia) Life is full of “It seemed like a good idea at the time” moments. We can, we believe anyway, have all the wisdom of Solomon and the insight of a god, in one crystal moment of absolute clarity and act accordingly, only to find not that Continue Reading
Festive movie review: Hot Frosty
Having your festive viewing expectations subverted is a rare and precious thing indeed. Much of the time in Christmas viewing land, what you see is what you get, and that is usually a good thing since you want fun, escapist entertainment with a heartwarming moral core, and that is precisely Continue Reading
Comedy review double: Season wrap-ups of Frasier (S2, E9-10) and Only Murders in the Building (S4, 9-10)
(courtesy IMP Awards) Frasier (S2, E9-10) If you’ve been paying attention , and for the sake of my robustly fragile writer’s ego, I hope you have, you will have noticed how thrilled I am that Frasier 2023, as it’s often termed, has well and truly come into its own in Continue Reading
Book review: The Secret Christmas Bookshop by Cressida McLaughlin
(courtesy Harper Collins Collins Australia) If there is one universal theme in the rich and varied storytelling of humanity, it is the need to belong. Sure, we all want to fall in love, to know connection and find our village, but at the heart of all these story types, is Continue Reading
Something big and loud this way comes: Sneak peek at the Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special, “Joy to the World”
(courtesy BBC/Disney+ via The Gallifreyan Newsroom) SNAPSHOTBridgerton‘s Nicola Coughlan will be starring in the title role of “Joy to the World” as a traveler checking into a London hotel over the festive period. Before long, Joy’s quiet holiday is interrupted by a Silurian wandering into her hotel room and the sudden arrival of The Continue Reading
Movie review: Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point
(courtesy IMDb) In popular culture at large, Christmas is often seen in very distinct, sharply-realised ways. It is variously a season of miracles or healing or wondrous discovery, and there is always some sort of point to proceedings whether it’s saving Christmas itself by helping Santa or doing a life-changing Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #117: Breakfast Road, Maria Sur, Griff, Late June +Vlossom
(via Shutterstock) Want some fast songs, then a shwostopper slow one that sparkle with beauty and emotion and possibility and then a couple of mid-fi electronic numbers that keep the energy up while subtlely also dialling it down? You’ve got it! It’s a surprising mix of curated sounds but it Continue Reading
Festive book review: The Christmas Cottage by Sarah Morgan
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) If you have always felt like you belong, like you have an undeniable, fixed and unquestionably certain place in this world, then you are a very lucky and blessed individual. We all want and need that, with an animal need for community running hard, deep Continue Reading
This is the end, my globe-trotting, spy drama loving friend, the end: Mission Impossible – Final Dropping drops a trailer
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTA continuation of the iconic Mission: Impossible series following Ethan Hunt formerly of the IMF, and the conclusion following Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023). Paramount Pictures and Skydance Present, A Tom Cruise Production. “Our lives are the sum of our choices.” Tom Cruise is Continue Reading