The Reunion

Set in the present day, Mike, Will, Dustin and Lucas came back to Hawkins for their high school reunion. A couple of the guys are doing well, a couple not. Someone is married to Elle. Maybe Lucas. One’s a millionaire. Whatever. Anyway, Nancy goes mi...

This morning I was listening to American writer Chuck Klosterman speak about a trick of the mind that makes the past seem ordered and reasonable, and the present random and chaotic (something I've written about before). It got me thinking about two oddly...

It’s a good film, Sicario. It’s tense, and well acted and shot, and unpredictable, and Benicio del Toro’s hair really is on freaking point. Sadly the movie does lose some credit for failing the Dilawar test. Wait, you don’t know about the Dilawar test? I supp...

On November 15 Melbourne will host UFC 193, which is expected to be the largest event the Ultimate Fighting Championships have ever mounted. Up to 70,000 will be at Etihad Stadium that afternoon, with many there to cheer on Ronda Rousey as she defends her wo...

Once I was sort of, almost friends with Harvey Pekar, who was an American file clerk, curmudgeon, cancer survivor, everyman, comic book writer, and, most famously, frequent guest on David Letterman’s talk show.

Pekar was bought in to the...

Since the Second World War there have been two moments that have defined the West’s relationship with Iran. The first was in 1953 when Teddy Roosevelt’s grandson Kermit (‘loveable and fuzzy’ was apparently a naming convention in the Roosevelt household) and...

‘Death to the dentist,’ cries my Facebook, to a chorus of likes, shares and supporting comments. Friends have said it, so too Piers Morgan and PETA. And why not? In the digital age every mistake is retained forever, ready to be regurgitated at a moment’s notic...

Twitter has informed me that the Man Booker Prize long list was released yesterday, which reminds me of an interview I read with last year’s winner Richard Flanagan. In it the Tasmanian author said he’d destroyed five complete drafts of his novel The Narrow Ro...

I cried after the cold opener of Casino Royale, real tears, and lots of them. There were some contextual factors in play; it was the premiere of the film, and I’d just gotten out of hospital a few hours earlier after having a heart attack. I’d been in hospital...

A few weeks ago a friend who runs a creative agency asked me to go into her office and speak to her staff about storytelling. It’s a thing they do in their office.

Sure. No worries. I can do that.  

I’d be coming in a few days after returning from the E3 video...