The John Steel Singers
The Kahn Brothers
Sherlock’s Daughter
Melanie Horsnell
Des Miller and Sui Zhen

The Annandale Hotel
Saturday July 26th, 2008
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The modern phenomenon of high school shooting massacres has to be one of the hardest pills to swallow for societies in the developed world, particularly the US. Why on earth does it happen? What motivates these teenagers to load up with weaponry and try to take out as many of their peers as possible before invariably killing themselves? Is it really as simple as a savage rebellion against social ostracism? Gus Van Sant’s Elephant is a mesmerisingly intimate portrait of the perpetrators and victims of a fictional high school massacre. But don’t expect any pat answers to the problem – in fact, it might just leave you more confused about how such a thing can occur than ever before. Read the rest of this entry »

Garth Nix emerged from nowhere with his novel, Sabriel, the first volume of the Old Kingdom Trilogy. With its blend of richly imagined magical rules and a fascinating relationship between the realms of life and death, it established him as one of the world’s most exciting young fantasy authors. In the second volume, Lirael, Nix fleshes out the Old Kingdom with greater detail, more realised characters and, most importantly, more hordes of shambling zombies! Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re working with great material, what else do you need to do as a director other than recruit the right actors and shoot it well? Although Roman Polanski won’t blow your mind with a radical re-imagining of Oliver Twist, he will draw you in to savour the richness of Charles Dickens’ classic story so effortlessly that you might not even notice how brilliantly skillful a film-maker he really is. Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Burton has a bright and bubbly personality, and his delightful new musical Sweeney Todd, will leave you smiling and laughing for days after you see it…. NOT!!!! Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, the American Dream! Where would Hollywood be without it? Or where would the American Dream be without Hollywood? For surely, the old rags to riches fairy tale that has been bread and butter to the industry since its beginnings plays an important propaganda role to ensure that Americans know how lucky they are to live in the land of opportunity. But Gabriele Muccino’s film of Chris Gardner’s memoir keeps the hyperbole to a minimum to ensure that it comes across as a story from the real America, where opportunity exists but sometimes you have to work like a mofo to make it happen, and no one makes it easy for you. Read the rest of this entry »

Not content to rest on his laurels between the second and third volumes of his Revelation Space series, Alastair Reynolds felt compelled to provide us with a couple of novellas set in the same universe, but outside that story arc. If he’s happy to keep churning this stuff out, we’re more than happy to read it! Read the rest of this entry »