As a young gay man growing up in a Christian household back in the ’70s and ’80s, there was a distinct moment, most likely several really, when it dawned on me with a sickening sense of dread that I was not like everyone else around me. All the good Continue Reading
Ozark: Delve into the dark, dangerous, and sometime quirky, world of money laundering
SNAPSHOT Ozark is an upcoming American drama series created by Bill Dubuque. Jason Bateman will play financial planner Marty Bird, who suddenly relocates from a Chicago suburb to a summer resort community in the Missouri Ozarks, and who must pay off a debt to a Mexican drug lord, with Continue Reading
Toying with expectations: Michael Tucker examines the storytelling of #GameofThrones
With season 7 of Game of Thrones mere nanoseconds away from kicking off – a slight bit of hyperbole but after waiting so long, it does feel like that – Michael Tucker aka Lessons From a Screenplay arrives with a timely look at the way HBO’s ratings juggernauts frames Continue Reading
Book review: Yuki Chan in Brontë Country by Mick Jackson
Grappling with the death of parent from known or unexpected causes is hard enough; but when they die in mysterious circumstances, most likely at their own hand, it’s even harder to find a way to deal with their loss, their absence, and the void upon empty void that is Continue Reading
Rikki Tikki Tavi! Rick and Morty have some new non-canonical adventures
Rick and Morty is, hands, and other sundry body parts, down, one of the most fabulously weird, gloriously and delightfully over the top cartoons on anywhere. There is nothing I don’t like about it – it’s witty, clever, gleefully crass, spectacularly imaginative (the world-building and characters are nothing short Continue Reading
Presto and Zesto in Limboland: New Maurice Sendak book found
The loss of Maurice Sendak in 2012 was a cruel blow for anyone who delights in brilliantly-imaginative stories for children. He was a fearless writer and illustrator, happy to buck trends and go for broke, unwilling to simple churn out the same old same old because that’s what had Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: Funny comic strips on empty takeaway coffee cups
Let’s be honest here – if you drink coffee, you want what’s in the cup and usually don’t much care what’s on the outside. All of “Ulysses” in teeny-weeny text? Sure. Medieval paintings of peasants plating squash? Whatevs. Truth is, if it’s not the thing with the caffeine itself, Continue Reading
Welcome to Hawkins huh? New Stranger Things S2 poster presages ominous things to come
SNAPSHOT It’s 1984 and the citizens of Hawkins, Indiana are still reeling from the horrors of the demagorgon and the secrets of Hawkins Lab. Will Byers has been rescued from the Upside Down but a bigger, sinister entity still threatens those who survived. (Official Netflix synopsis) The arrival of Continue Reading
Retro French movie review: Amélie #BastilleDay
There is an exquisitely-sweet, existential joy to every last frame of Jean-Pierre Jeneut’s Amélie. Suffused with a whimsy that might seem overly self-conscious at first (but ultimately isn’t), it is an effortless celebration of what it means to be human, and the myriad flaws, foibles and blips of the psyche Continue Reading
Rip’d from the pages of my childhood: The Adventures of Asterix #BastilleDay
When you’re growing up, you don’t really have the insight or emotional maturity to fully understand why something matters to you or why you like it so much. But when you reacquaint yourself with a much-loved childhood book series like Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix, originally written by René Continue Reading