SNAPSHOTHaving embraced his difference as what makes him special, nothing can stop Chickenhare from exploring the world with his sidekicks Meg, a martial arts expert skunk, and Abe, a sarcastic turtle. An unexpected encounter with Gina, his sister, radically changes his plans. Chickenhare is not the only one of his Continue Reading
There’s more life out there … it appears we’re Not Alone
(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTIn his first-ever feature-length animated film, 4-time Oscar-nominee Timothée Chalamet stars as Joe, an introverted rocket mechanic who lives a quiet life alone. Co-starring with Chalamet in this story is Selena Gomez who plays Fran, a brilliant astro-botanist who is developing the world’s first-ever plant-fueled rocket. When Continue Reading
Christmas in July redux: Music review: Snow Waltz by Lindsey Stirling
This review was first published 9 December 2022. Christmas is supposed to be a thousand good and wonderfully light-as-air, joyously uplifting things. And while it often is – all that tree trimming, laughing with friends and brightness of decoration can only make you feel like a million festive bucks – Continue Reading
Christmas in July book review: Christmas on the Isle of Skye by Kirsty Ferry
Zac Fallon and Ivy McFarlane have a problem. They haven’t declared their undying love for each other to each other, what with suppressing how they really feel and not wanting to risk looking like a fool or deciding that a onetime dream of a goal trumps present bliss and happiness, Continue Reading
Christmas in July redux: Retro festive movie review: White Christmas
(courtesy IMP Awards) This review was first published Christmas Eve 2023 Returning to a much-loved Christmas classic many years after it was last watched is an interesting exercise. Our minds are fiendishly clever things but one of the interesting dynamics they employ is to appropriate snatches of a plot in Continue Reading
Christmas in July book review: Home Again for Christmas by Emily Stone
(courtesy Hachette Australia) When you have been hurt deeply, traumatically so, it’s understandable, especially if you’re a child and your ability to process the level and type of hurt isn’t yet developed enough to think it all through, to recoil and withdraw from whatever hurt you. Distance, we think, is Continue Reading
Movie review: Minions & Monsters
(courtesy IMP Awards) There’s a glorious sense of escapist release that comes from watching the Minions in action. They are, despite all their efforts to serve the greatest evil down throughout history and to do so with single-minded determination, as klutzy and ridiculous silly as they come, and while some Continue Reading
Christmas 2026 book preview: Stay Another Christmas by Phillipa Ashley
(courtesy Phillipa Ashley email) SNAPSHOTThe perfect festive Lake District escape from bestselling author Phillipa Ashley. After a life-changing accident, Katie’s plan for Christmas is simple: rent a spectacular island house in the Lake District, gather the people she loves, and enjoy snowy walks, crackling fires and the promise of a Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: Nube and the sacrifice and love of motherhood
(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTAfter witnessing an old dark stormy cloud painfully rain and die in sorrow, Noma, a puffy white cloud realizes [sic] that Mixtli, her daughter, a dark stormy cloud, is in danger of raining prematurely. Nube is an animated short film written and directed by Mexican filmmakers Diego Alonso Sánchez de Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Step by Bloody Step by Spurrier-Bergara-Lopes
SNAPSHOTTHERE IS A GIRL. She has no memory and no name. Nothing but a GUARDIAN. An armored giant who protects her from predators and pitfalls. TOGETHER THEY WALK across an extraordinary fantasy world. If they leave the path the air itself comes alive, forcing them onwards. Why? The girl doesn’t Continue Reading