SNAPSHOT In 1995, a teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan discovers that her father is having an affair. (synopsis via IMDb) Wouldn’t it be lovely if life worked out exactly as we imagined it would? Well the good bits anyway … In Landline, Jenny Slate’s character Continue Reading
Is there existential depth to Rick & Morty? “Wubbalubbadubdub yes!” says creator Dan Harmon
One of the really impressive things about Rick and Morty, Adult Swim’s incredibly clever animated series about an alcoholic scientist grandfather and his often hapless but EQ-rich grandson, has been the way it merges bright, funtastic visuals, amazingly imaginative worldbuilding and intelligent storytelling that doesn’t just spin out a Continue Reading
Fear the Walking Dead: “100” (S3, E4 review)
SPOILERS AHEAD … AND NO WATER FOR SOCIALISTS … Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. (from Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge) Never were truer poetic words committed to the written word. And never were they more pertinent or desperately poignant that in Continue Reading
James Corden presents … Crosswalk the Musical: Mary Poppins
No matter how you slice it, James Corden is a joy. An actor, singer and host of The Late Late Show With James Corden, he is an imaginatively talented man who is responsible for the viral-happy Carpool Karaoke, very funny skits and interviews, and the subject of this post, Continue Reading
We were once humanity: Rakka, the first of the short films from Neill Blomkamp’s Oats Studios
SNAPSHOT RAKKA is the story of broken humanity following the invasion of a technologically superior alien species. Bleak harrowing and unrelenting, the humans we meet must find enough courage to go on fighting. (official synopsis via Laughing Squid) There is something deeply, viscerally confronting about Rakka (Japanese 落下 meaning “fall”), Continue Reading
Watch happiness come pouring out: Goodbye Christopher Robin
SNAPSHOT “Goodbye Christopher Robin” gives a rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children’s author A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin (Will TIlston), whose toys inspired the magical world of Winnie the Pooh. Along with his mother Daphne (Margot Robbie), and his nanny Olive (Kelly Continue Reading
Can horror be adorable? Oh yes, says Mary & Marsha in The Manor of Madness
SNAPSHOT Sinister secrets await as Mary helps her girlfriend Marsha escape from her parent’s gothic mansion one dark and eldritch night in a film which features a blend of hand-drawn art and 3D assets and takes us on a Lovecraftian escapade through the Manor of Madness. (synopsis via Vimeo) Continue Reading
The only Batman for me: RIP Adam West
One of my fondest memories growing up was watching Adam West and Burt Ward fight the bad guys with a BIFF! a BAM! and a POWWW! in ABC’s three season-long TV series Batman. Camp, colourful and endlessly entertaining, it was the gloriously trippy Caped Crusader’s yin to Christian Bale’s Continue Reading
Movie review: Wild Mouse
If you ever get the feeling that life is a messy business, guessed at imprecisely, executed randomly and full of uncertainty and self-recrimination, then there’s a good chance you’ll find a lot to identify with in Josef Hader’s comedy Wild Mouse (Wilde Maus). Leveraging the general sense of current Continue Reading
Wonder Woman goes retro in this glorious 8-bit trailer
I love the new Wonder Woman movie. I also love 8-bit representations of, well, pretty much anything. Combining the two is thus akin to pouring the nectar of the pop culture gods down upon me and allowing me to luxuriate in it. It takes me way back when, the Continue Reading