Michael from Lessons from the Screenplay – you can sponsor him on Patreon and you should, you really should – creates breathtakingly detailed but beautifully-accessible video essays. In one of his latest instalments, he explores how a big, bombastic blockbuster, Jurassic Park, used it riveting storyline and finely-etched characters Continue Reading
Now this is music #110: NONONO, Kirsten Ludwig, Alison Wonderland, Robyn, Miss Eaves + RIP Aretha Franklin
We all love music that lifts up, lightens the soul, stirs up the joyous and the good, stills the anxious and the bad. That kind of music is all the better when it’s accompanied by lyrics that speak to the human condition in authentic, accessible, profoundly touching ways. Too Continue Reading
Welcome to Dreamland: Meet the characters of Disenchantment
SNAPSHOT In Disenchantment, viewers will be whisked away to the crumbling medieval kingdom of Dreamland, where they will follow the misadventures of hard-drinking young princess Bean, her feisty elf companion Elfo, and her personal demon Luci. Along the way, the oddball trio will encounter ogres, sprites, harpies, imps, trolls, Continue Reading
Fear the Walking Dead: “People Like Us” (S4, E9 review)
SPOILERS AHEAD … AND ZOMBIES WHO ARE BLOWING IN THE WIND … THEY’RE BLOWING IN THE WIND MY FRIEND Things got more than a little Z Nation in the opening episode, “People Like Us”, of the second half of the fourth season of Fear the Walking Dead. The undead, Continue Reading
What They Had: Sometimes going home brings us closer to where we belong
SNAPSHOT The film centers on a family in crisis. Bridget (Hilary Swank) returns home to Chicago at her brother’s (Michael Shannon) urging to deal with her mother’s (Blythe Danner) Alzheimer’s and her father’s (Robert Forster) reluctance to let go of their life together. (synopsis via Coming Soon) Life, for Continue Reading
Book review: The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder by Sarah J. Harris
Jasper Wishart is a remarkable 13-year-old boy. A child on the autism spectrum, he also has synaesthesia, a condition which joins one or more senses together, meaning that where we might just hear someone speaking, someone like Jasper both hears them and sees what they are seeing in various Continue Reading
Wreck It Ralph 2 is off to the colourful madness of the interwebs (new trailer)
SNAPSHOT Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 leaves Litwak’s video arcade behind, venturing into the uncharted, expansive and thrilling world of the internet—which may or may not survive Ralph’s wrecking. Video game bad guy Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) and fellow misfit Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Continue Reading
Phoebe Buffay: The Mystery Ingredient of Friends (video essay)
SNAPSHOT Phoebe is the secret mastermind of the group. She uses her insights about the other characters to pull invisible strings. …Phoebe the puppet master can be a bit of a troublemaker …she has a habit of being loose lipped and even straight-up meddling in her friends personal lives. Continue Reading
Get ready for the judgement day! The Marvellous Mrs Maisel S2 exuberant teaser trailer debuts
The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel leads the pack of the shows I would love to be watching but simply don’t have the time to get to, alas. That’s largely because it sits on its own streaming platform, Amazon, and I’m hardpressed to keep up with two I do have – Continue Reading
Novella review: Manifest Recall by Alan Baxter
There is something brilliantly seductive about a story that grabs you right from the get-go, that immediately and successfully plunges you into a world far removed from your own, making it feel like it’s somewhere with which you’ve always been familiar (and yet not), populated by people who are Continue Reading