(courtesy Hachette Australia) As someone who grew up incredibly socially isolated thanks to incessant bullying from the first day of school until almost the last, this reviewer appreciates a story in which someone similarly cut out of the mainstream finds their way into a place of belonging, and the unconditional Continue Reading
Retro movie review: Twister
One of the great delights of life is returning to a movie you haven’t seen in years and discovering, oh happy days, that it is every bit as good as you remember. Or, in the case of Jan de Bont’s 1996 tornado masterpiece, Twister, even better. What makes this 28-year-old Continue Reading
Star Wars: Acolyte review – what went down in E5 (“Night”), E6 (“Teach/Corrupt”), E7 (“Choice”) and E8 (“The Acolyte”)
(courtesy IMP Awards) If religious dogma and legalistic ideology prove anything, it’s that a good many people like their beliefs neatly binary and plainly explained. They also want to believe, to an almost amusingly delusional degree, that the institutions charged with keeping those beliefs sustained and upheld are perfect and Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #109: Jessie Ware & Romy, Kylie Minogue & Rexha & Tove Lo, Pixey, Tones and I and Michael Franti & Spearhead
(via Shutterstock) There’s a lot of awful stuff going on in the world. No newsflash there, alas; what also needs to be mentioned though is that there’s also a lot of good still around which includes these five songs from artists who refuse to let a broken reality get them Continue Reading
Book review: Hurdy Gurdy by Jenny Ackland
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) The way the world is going at the moment, you would have to be the hardiest and perkiest of optimists to think that the way forward is strewn with anything but death, disaster and destruction. Fascists are making their cruelly odious presence felt around Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: Happily ever after takes some work to pull off in The End
(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTThe End is an award-winning animated film about Hilderose, a determined princess who must go back in time and save her Happily Ever After when her gallant knight and fiancé Sir Maximilian dies on the day of their wedding. Voice Acting by Samantha Cooper and Will AkanaScore by Continue Reading
Movie review: Godzilla Minus One (Gojira Mainasu Wan)
(courtesy IMP Awards) It’s a rare monster movie indeed that leaves you feeling that you’ve been through the emotional mill. Most times these big scary blockbusters go hard on the epic scenes and the awe-inspiring special effects and leave any effect on audience members sitting purely in the shock and Continue Reading
Book review: How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) The past, we many of us know all too well, very rarely stays snugs and safely in the past. Whether we carry past scars with us or the law or estranged family members or a host of other things catch up with us, the past has Continue Reading
Back to Point Place: That ’90s Show Part 2 review
(courtesy IMP Awards) Sitcoms are funny things. And we don’t mean in the obvious sense; yes, done well, they should be laughfests that lift the heavy burden of the everyday and leave you feeling like, yes, life’s great dilemmas and problems can be easily solved in just 20 or so Continue Reading
#ChristmasInJuly book review: Mistletoe at Moonstone Lake by Holly Martin
Ah, the magic of Christmas. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, which is where, of course, all the traditional Christmas visuals and vibe comes from, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, the season when reality takes a much welcome hike and all the travails and sadness of the Continue Reading