(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) Good lord but swashbuckling space operatic fun is good for the too tightly tied down soul. When all the stresses and obligations of life have you feel suffocatingly pinned into a very small and ever-diminishing space, picking up a superlatively good piece of wide-ranging sci-fi Continue Reading
Can you rebuild love? That’s the question at the heart of quirky sci-fi film, Daniela Forever
(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTGrieving the loss of his girlfriend Daniela, Nicolás (Henry Golding) is consumed by sorrow. But he sees a glimmer of hope when he’s offered a chance to participate in groundbreaking sleep therapy simulating reality. But as dream and memory blur, he must confront what healing really means—and Continue Reading
Book review: The Lonely Hearts Quiz League by Lauren Farnsworth
(courtesy Hachette Australia) It has long intrigued this reviewer why it is that we love “found family” stories so much. It’s not that they don’t present a comforting and warmly lovely scenario; after all, who doesn’t love the idea of sadness, loss and crushing social isolation being countered by slowly Continue Reading
“It’s not about surviving. It’s about taking our home back.” Thoughts on The Eternaut (El Eternauta)
(courtesy IMP Awards) If you’ve much streaming content over the last ten years, you will be well and truly acquainted with the fact that the world is coming to a messy and inglorious end. Well, maybe not today, or tomorrow even, but imminently in some way, shape or form, and Continue Reading
Book review: The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
(courtesy Hachette Australia) There is an inestimable joy to finding your people. We all start out in life with a family into which we are born, which can either work for us or not, but along the way, if we’re lucky enough, we accumulate friends so close they become that Continue Reading
“Please, open the door for me …” Jurassic World: Rebirth puts the fear of dinosaurs in everyone all over again (new trailer + poster)
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTThis action-packed new chapter sees an extraction team race to the most dangerous place on Earth, an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park, inhabited by the worst of the worst that were left behind. Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion (released in Continue Reading
The humour and heart of humanity: Thoughts on Murderbot S1, E1-2
(courtesy IMP Awards) Watching a literary adaptation spring to life is always a fascinating exercise. Will it spring fully formed from the page like the visual manifestation of all the little films your mind inevitably feeds you as you read or will it feel like another story entirely, one that Continue Reading
New places to go, a new mystery to solve … Zootopia 2 releases new trailer + poster
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTZootopia 2 is directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, written by Bush, and stars Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Shakira, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, and Quinta Brunson. In the film, detectives Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) find themselves Continue Reading
Book review: Alice Austen Lived Here by Alex Gino
(courtesy Scholastic) If you have grown up and are comfortably ensconced as a member of the heteronormative majority, you will have likely seen little to trouble your secure worldview. Almost everything caters to the idea that society, and indeed civilisation as a whole, has been shaped in its entirety by Continue Reading
Eurovision 2025 wrap-up: No “Wasted Love” as Austria wins this year’s contest
(courtesy Eurovision.tv) We’re off to Austria! The superbly passionate and gloriously operatic performance by Austria’s JJ aka Johannes Pietsch, a singer at the Vienna State Opera, garnered 258 points from the international jury vote, which was allocated first by the traditional appearance of representatives from all 37 competing countries, and Continue Reading