Life can be a tough thing to get right. It’s shockingly shorter than we imagined it to be, far more complex and demanding and our attempts to make the most of it come with a raft of unintended consequences which often bear little or no resemblance to the way we thought Continue Reading
Movies
Why LPs and books aren’t dead as a Dodo just yet
On April 19 this year, as on the third Saturday of every April since 2008, a strange thing happened outside record stores around the world. People lined up, often overnight and around the block, to buy vinyl records. Yes, vinyl records, which by the clearly incorrect reckoning of most of us had Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: The adorable MacGuffin-inspired art of LA artist 100% Soft
I love the artwork of LA-based artist 100% Soft. One look at the adorable baby-like characters that populate his work and you know which immensely talented person is responsible for them. He is one of those unique artists who not only has a distinctive style that is all his 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
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
“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
Movie review: Predestination
A man walks into a bar … No, this is not the beginning of one of those tired old jokes you have heard a thousand times before, and to which there an equal number of groan-inducing punchlines, but the essential starting point for one of the most wildly ambitious, entertaining Continue Reading