Reviews

Considering most children’s films are saccharine explosions of gaudiness rendered in bargain basement 3D animation with glib, feel-good pop music for soundtracks, it’s nice to see a children’s film with a sense of craft about it. Kubo and the Two ...

Having been a regular listener of the excellent Writing Excuses podcast for several years, it’s amazing that I’ve never read any of Mary’s novels before now. But Ghost Talkers felt like a good introduction, being a standalone fantasy novel. Not only ...

Is the modern Texan western a genre now? I can’t help feeling that since No Country for Old Men, we’ve seen a number of imitators or people following that tradition. In this case, the ‘state of Texas’ seems to be ...

Woody Allen is renowned, prolific and inconsistent. He’s been making a minimum of two films a year since the 1970s. Everyone remembers his greats. His flops produce grimaces but tend to be forgotten in the unrelenting stream of his productions. ...

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this series reboot, both from reviewers I respect as well as personal recommendations from friends. Having read volume 1, In the Bag, I have to admit that I don’t understand what all ...

Europe is to be carved up anew in the wake of World War I. Relocated to France with his American diplomat father and his European mother for the duration of the negotiations, Prescott is a troubled boy. Growing up amid ...

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is damn fun.While Becky Chambers’ debut might not have the most polished prose or general technical skill that an established SF writer, more science fiction novels should err on the side of ...

The lives of international arms dealers must be formulaic. By the end of the nominally ‘based on true events’ War Dogs, I was struck by just how neatly the protagonists’ lives had dovetailed into a screenplay template. The fact that ...

Parody films of this nature are like a blanket and a cup of tea on a cold day. Pure comfort. Popstar was never going to break the mold, say anything particularly new or incisive, or be the next big thing ...

If there were ever a novel to have strong feelings about, this is it. I’m angry at this novel, disappointed by it, frustrated with it, and sucked in by it. The prose is so obnoxiously purple I want to wring ...