It’s almost hard to say what’s more surprising here, that Taylor Swift dropped a surprise new album last Thursday that was entirely recorded in the months of this coronavirus pandemic quarantine, or that you’re reading about it here, where I primarily focus on independent rockers. However, when the 30 year old pop star turns to…
A Dog’s Journey is true to its title, following on in the trajectory of its forerunner, A Dog’s Purpose (2017). The result is a contrived tear-jerker with plenty of heart; despite some serious overacting, The dog of the title, Bailey (the voice of Josh Gad), is living the good life on the Michigan farm owned…
Jim Cummings gives a bravura performance as a man on the edge in Thunder Road. This offbeat drama concerns a small-town US police officer who suffers a breakdown after the death of his mother. Cummings wrote and directed the piece, and appears in almost every scene. It’s based on his short film of the same…
How long can you party for? When is it time to stop the music and take greater care and responsibility for the rest of your life? Laura (Holliday Grainger) and Tyler (Alia Shawkat) have been flatmates and besties for 10 years. They maraud around the streets of Dublin, rejecting the expectations that bombard modern women…
Both a prequel and a sequel to Mamma Mia! from 2008 , Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is a lightweight, fun-filled romp. In 1979, high-spirited Donna, Tanya and Rosie – aka Donna and the Dynamos – graduate from Oxford University. Donna joyfully embarks on her adventures through Europe to fulfil her destiny on the…
I knew very little of the Shakers before I read The Visionist … and if you’d asked what I knew, I would have said furniture. Yes, the Shakers are well known for their simple, practical but beautifully made furniture, but less is known about the religious movement itself. Reading The Visionist provided me with some insight into the movement,…
Book Club: The Next Chapter is a feel-good sequel to the 2018 film Book Club. It concerns the ongoing fate of the four women at the centre of the original as they undertake a special girls’ trip. Vivian (Jane Fonda), perpetually single, has just been asked for her hand in marriage by her long-term, suave…
Miranda July is a force of nature. The multi-talented writer (for both page and screen), artist, musician and actor can seemingly turn her hand to anything. But with everything on her plate, her film output has been a little sporadic. But she’s come roaring back with Kajillionaire, a film that will almost certainly please her…
The third album from St. Louis band, Foxing, arrives in your speakers with an expected sense of presence and purpose. The band’s panoramic, high end and expansive sound is so bold, wide and cinematic that it takes several listens to be able to distinguish the unique instrumentation, as the stacked, passionate vocals seem to dominate…
Veronica Roth is best known for her popular YA Divergent series. Much like fellow YA writer Leigh Bardugo (Ninth House), with Chosen Ones Roth mas moved away from YA concerns into more adult territory. In doing so, she takes readers past the good-defeats-evil narrative of much YA fare into something more complex and with a…
