SNAPSHOT In the wonderfully heartwarming animation “If You Fall” by Tisha Deb Pallai, a little girl named Lila is learning how to ride a bicycle, but is not yet ready to ride alone. As this is happening, Lila’s parents, he a struggling artist and she a television news reporter, are finding Continue Reading
ZZZZ Lucas the Spider is tired — but where can he nap?
It’s summer holidays time in Australia which means lots of food, lots of reading (for me, anyway) and lots of naps. After all, when else can you catch up on that lost sleep from throughout the year? Lucas the Spider, created by Joshua Slice, knows just what I’m talking about Continue Reading
Book review: Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton
For all the existential car crashes it has left in its wake, humanity remains a curiously-upbeat species. It must be an evolutionary quirk that enables us to stare disaster and loss, much of it of our own creation, in the face and still believe, all evidence to the contrary, that Continue Reading
One summer can change everything: Stranger Things season 3
It’s been a while coming but now we have a poster for Stranger Things season 3, an ominous tagline, a teaser date annoucement video (complete with a hidden message in all its cryptic glory) and a release date! What we don’t know is why Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) looks so Continue Reading
Little Women at 150 and the patriarch who shaped the book’s tone (curated article)
by Ryna Ordynat, Monash University It’s 150 years since Little Women by Louisa May Alcott was published and in the time since, the book has never been out of print. The story of the March sisters struck a chord with readers – especially young girls – early on, and Continue Reading
Retro movie review: Wreck-It Ralph
It’s easy, through the divorced-from-childhood eyes of adulthood, to assume that cartoons- all bright colours, manic movements and quippy oneliners – are lacking in any kind of real substance. After all, we’ve been trained to see cartoons as childish bits of frippery and live action as suitably adult, a demarcation Continue Reading
The tonality of it: Actor Domhnall Gleeson and the art of learning accents
SNAPSHOT It’s funny, Southern American is definitely easier than a more general American or something from either coast. The southern thing I don’t know. I think because of the way that the sentences work and the open down of the tonality of it you can hear it you can, grab Continue Reading
Happy pop culture new year everyone!
Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs: Puppet Master reveals the challenges of creating believability
SNAPSHOT It was a huge challenge – a huge challenge and I think probably the most ambitious stop-motion film certainly I’ve ever worked on. There’s always a lot of detail. Stop-motion sort of thrives on that you know. You’re creating miniatures, so when you create miniatures they have to Continue Reading
I need more popcorn and candy stat! My 20 favourite films of 2018
So much was the same and yet so much was different this year when it came to sampling the seemingly endless cinematic delights on offer. While I still made it to a significant number of films in actual cinemas, consuming in the process far more lollies (candy) that is Continue Reading