It becomes obvious, almost from the first pages of The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, where we meet the savvy though often misjudged Soweto latrine emptier Nombeko Mayeki, that Jonas Jonasson (The 100 Year Old Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared) is a talented heir apparent to Continue Reading
The travails and joys of being Jane the Virgin
SNAPSHOT Set in Miami, the series will detail the surprising and unforeseen events that take place in the life of Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez), a hard-working, religious young Latina woman whose family tradition and a vow to save her virginity until her marriage to [her] detective [boyfriend] Mike (Brett Dier) Continue Reading
Movie review: Magic in the Moonlight
Life is, notes one of the main characters in famed writer/director Woody Allen’s latest love letter to the glories and excesses of the Jazz Age, Magic in the Moonlight, a Nietzchean exercise in self-delusion, with every moment dedicated to distracting ourselves from what the German philosopher called “the horror Continue Reading
Marvellous Massing of Movie Trailers: Monsters: Dark Continent, Maggie, Shaun the Sheep, Burying the Ex, Exists
These are not your grandmother’s movie trailers my friends. Un less of course they have a thing for the undead, weird tentacled beasties from outer space, legendary creatures from the dark woods or talking claymation sheep. OK maybe that last one is so scary or deeply unsettling but really Continue Reading
Batman meets The Incredibles: Pixar’s creation is given a suitably dark, Nolan-esque vibe
I adore pretty much everything Pixar does. Even owned as it is by Disney (who truth be told have lifted their game under Pixar maestro John Lasseter), it remains the most magical, inventive, innovative animation studio there is, able to invest every single one of its films – yes Continue Reading
Between the living and the dead: Scott Westerfield’s thrilling new novel Afterworlds
An interesting has happened to my reading patterns of late. Long held in thrall by adult fiction and deeply-detailed non-fiction tomes, it’s now increasingly finding room for quite a few Young Adult (YA) novels such as those by John Green (The Fault in Our Stars) and Patrick Ness (Chaos Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: The imaginatively dark and quirky claymation art of Evil Corp
Ever since I clapped eyes on the whimsical claymation twosome Wallace and Gromit, I have been enamoured of an artform that requires intense creativity, patience and an eye for detail. You can’t just whip up these figures on a whim – they need a whole lot of time to Continue Reading
Movie review: What We Do in the Shadows
If ever you look around and the glamourously undead denizens of Twilight, Nosferatu, Interview with the Vampire, and yes even the relatively “young” whippersnappers of The Vampire Diaries are nowhere to be seen, then book yourself a ticket to Wellington, New Zealand and you will likely find them, dancing Continue Reading
Now this is music #37: Manfred Kidd, Lemonade, Nick Hakim, Fantastic Fantastic, Perfume Genius
More music to warm the heart, cheer the soul and keep summer alive and kicking no matter where you may be. With the artists hail from diverse parts of the globe – Australia, Sweden, UK and the USA – they all share one thing in common, which is an Continue Reading
“Piglet I am your father!”: What if Darth Vader sounded like Winnie the Pooh?
If there are two enduring pop culture influences in my life, that have sustained and delighted over the years in almost equal measure, it is Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh. So with that in mind, you can likely imagine my great delight when I discovered, via Huffington Post, Continue Reading