The films of Pixar, from their debut feature film Toy Story (1995) through to their latest release Monsters University (2013), have always inspired a tremendous amount of devotion from their legion of fans (and anticipation with the excitement about next year’s releases Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur reaching Continue Reading
Movie review: A Long Way Down
Anyone who has ever attempted to make a satisfying go of this contrary thing called life will acknowledge that getting it right poses some considerable challenges indeed. It isn’t enough to simply build yourself a lovely house, surround it with a white picket fence, fill it with a partner Continue Reading
So many sunny days: Happy 45th birthday Sesame Street
It’s mid 1971, and in a lounge-room in Grafton, NSW, Australia, a wide-eyed five year old is sitting cross legged in front of his family’s TV set early one morning, unable to take his eyes off the program on the screen before him. He had only just been introduced a Continue Reading
Animal-themed rock songs roar to life with artist Tracy Worral/Dorothy’s Rock and Roll Zoo
Animals, in all their multitudinous variety and multi-faceted expression, have always made for some pretty potent imagery. Snakes have long been associated with either potently eternal evil (Judeo-Christian) or “gracious morality and great wisdom” (Chinese Zodiac), lions with nobility and bravery, and elephants with mindfulness and the power of memory. Continue Reading
Trailers, teasers and posters galore: Minions, Chappie, Into the Woods
MINIONS SNAPSHOT The story of Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s Minions begins at the dawn of time. Starting as single-celled yellow organisms, Minions evolve through the ages, perpetually serving the most despicable of masters. Continuously unsuccessful at keeping these masters–from T. rex to Napoleon–the Minions find themselves without someone Continue Reading
The Walking Dead: “Self Help” (S5, E5 review)
* THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD … and NOT A LOT OF HOPE * Hope in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, much like the faces, arms, legs and bodies of the undead themselves when hit by a fire truck’s water cannon – something which actually happened in “Self Help”, Continue Reading
Whether you’re Darth Vader or a Stormtrooper, you know it’s All About That Base (Star Wars parody)
Regardless of whether you’re a music obsessive like I am, or a casual radio listener or streamer who has music playing in the background, there’s a way better than average chance that you’ve heard Meghan Trainor’s catchiest-as-all-hell breakout hit “All About That Bass”. The debut single by the Massachusetts-raised Continue Reading
Let’s hear it for season 4 of Girls! (new trailer)
SNAPSHOT Last season left off with Hannah (Lena Dunham) struggling to make her life in New York work both professionally and romantically with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Adam. Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) learned that she was three credits short of graduating and attempted to get Ray back, Marnie (Allison Williams) Continue Reading
Behold the epic final trailer for The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
SNAPSHOT From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the third in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies brings to an epic conclusion the adventures of Continue Reading
Book review: The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer
One of the cruellest fates that can befall a person is that of becoming “marooned in time”. That is, to watch helplessly as, one by one, your contemporaries die around you, taking with them all your commonly shared memories, cultural touchstones, and common experiences, leaving you alone to remember Continue Reading