(courtesy IMP Awards) There is an aching beauty and hopefulness to Touch that very quickly digs down into your soul. In this exquisitely soulful and thoughtful film, directed by Baltasar Kormákur to a screenplay by Kormákur and Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson (who wrote the book on which it’s based), themes of Continue Reading
Book review: The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt by Mark Mupotsa-Russell
(courtesy Affirm Press) When you pick up the superlative gem that is The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt by Mark Mupotsa-Russell, you first think that here is a quirky, whimsical read of a ex-hitwoman, now happily and cosily domiciled in suburban life in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, who Continue Reading
Darker and more dangerous yet … Thoughts on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S2, E1-3
(courtesy IMP Awards) The Bible has said it. Countless novels has ruminated on the idea. And it’s been observed more than once by everyone from social commentators to political experts that evil often wears a pleasing and amenable face. It makes sense, of course. After all, as a species we Continue Reading
Book review: Valley by Stacey McEwan (The Glacian Trilogy, book 3)
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Valley releases 10 September in Australia via Penguin Books. (ARC provided by NetGalley) When you’re reached the end of a gripping fantasy trilogy, where the stakes are high and the fate of multiple characters and narrative arcs hang precariously but meaningfully in the balance, sticking the Continue Reading
“All kinds of bad people getting in the water now.” Thoughts on Bad Monkey S1, E1-4
(courtesy IMP Awards) Even though he’s about two centuries late for the rise of TV streaming, there’s no doubt that Scottish playwright, novelist and poet would have found a lot with which he could relate with the sunny beachside film noir storyline of Bad Monkey. Based on the book of Continue Reading
Book review: The Betrayal of Thomas True by A. J. West
(courtesy Simon & Schuster UK) In his atmospherically-titled novel, The Betrayal Of Thomas True, A. J. West manages a rare and enthrallingly intense double feat. He delivers up a epically tense mystery, a race of one man to uncover the spy who has betrayed the “mollies” of 1715 London, often Continue Reading
“I believe in glasses half-full and silver linings…” First trailer for stop-motion gem, Memoir of a Snail by Adam Elliot
(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTOriginal intro from Annecy: “Grace Pudel is a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love for books. At a young age, when Grace is separated from her fire-breathing twin brother Gilbert, she falls into a spiral of anxiety and angst. Despite Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #111: Yannis & the Yaw, Skeleton, Ellur, Lodet and The Blessed Madonna & Kylie Minogue
(via Shutterstock) INTRO “Rain Can’t Reach Us” by Yannis & the Yaw (courtesy Yannis & the Yaw official Facebook page) One of the things that songs capture almost better than anything are emotions so intense they feel as if no vessel, human or otherwise, can contain them. In the songs Continue Reading
Movie review: Alien – Romulus
(courtesy IMP Awards) An inescapable part of every movie that falls into the now venerable Alien franchise, now in its 45th year, is how starkly monstrous and otherworldly the xenomorphs are. Everything about them feels alien, hence the title, and it horrifies us that anything that primal and darkly dangerous Continue Reading
Book review: Finding Mr. Write by Kelley Armstrong
(courtesy Hachette Australia) One of my reading happy places, and as an eclectic reader there are many, is when a writer combines books and love in one beautifully realised package. There’s something about the idea of a rom-com which is all about books and writing that sets the pulse racing Continue Reading