Just like 2024, the viewing opportunities in 2025 grew so fast that I found myself yet again frantically juggling all of my streaming services and struggling to get to the cinema often enough because as always, I seemed to have an over-abundance of new release material to trawl through. This year my viewing was made all the more challenging because I was working and travelling a lot more, which did leave me feeling exhausted more often than usual as well, so needless to say, I didn't get through nearly as much viewing as I would've liked to overall, but I did still manage to see a lot of quality offerings.   
And just like 2024, there was a head spinning amount of high quality viewing material to absorb this year, and I was very grateful to be constantly distracted by a huge variety of viewing choices.  Long story short, we were all very spoilt for choice and if you couldn't find something to watch in 2025, then in my opinion, you just weren't trying hard enough!
I managed to get through 163 movies and 114 television series this year. Basically, I was flat out watching something most days of the year and I still barely touched the sides of my forever lengthening 'to see' list, which has now blown out to more than 600 titles, so it is fair to say that I am not going to be slowing down any time soon. 
The task of seeing everything that is released in a year has become arduous beyond anyone's means, and unless you are willing to permanently strap yourself to the couch and do nothing but watch movies and TV, there is just no way that you can manage to see it all in one year. So now more than ever, you must be discerning, and hopefully this is where I can offer a hand and some sound advice around what you should be investing in your time in; if you haven't done so already. 
Again, I was thrilled to be able to view so many great movies and TV across all genres, for which I am always grateful. In particular, I again really appreciated seeing so many excellent horror, thriller and sci-fi offerings; most of which boasted stunningly good visuals, terrifically original storylines and some exceptional re-tells as well. 
And so, without further ado....here is my selection for the best viewing experiences of 2025. 
BEST MOVIES (2025 release):
Nosferatu - Horror 4.5 Chilli Peppers 
Dracula: A Love Tale  - Horror  4.5 Chilli Peppers 
One Battle After Another - Crime/ Action  4 Chilli Peppers
Frankenstein - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers
Wicked - Musical 4 Chilli Peppers 
Weapons- Horror  4 Chilli Peppers 
Predator: Killer of Killers  - Sci Fi 4 Chilli Peppers
Bring Her Back - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers 
Friendship  - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers
Bugonia - Sci Fi  3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Together- Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Caught Stealing - Crime/Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Wallace and Gromit: Vengence Most Fowl - Kid Friendly  3.5 Chill Peppers 

HONOURABLE MENTIONS - 2025 Release:
Companion - Sci Fi 3 Chilli Peppers 
Sinners  - Horror 3 Chilli Peppers
The Monkey - Horror 3 Chilli Peppers

Here are my top recommendations for pre-2025 releases that I didn't get around to seeing until 2025:
FLOW - Kid Friendly 5 Chilli Peppers 
Past Lives - Romance 4.5 Chilli Peppers
Conclave - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Rule of Jenny Penn  - Thriller 4 Chilli Peppers  
A Real Pain - Comedy  4 Chilli Peppers
Memoir of a Snail- Art House 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Thelma - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Hundreds of Beavers- Art House 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Dinner in America - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Nothing Compares - Doco 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
A Man Called Otto - Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Wicked Little Letters - Comedy  3.5 Chilli Peppers
Nightbitch - Sci Fi  3 Chilli Peppers 
​Babygirl - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers

BEST TELEVISION SERIES 2025:
The Studio - Comedy 5 Chilli Peppers 
Alien Earth - Sci Fi 5 Chilli Peppers 
The Pitt - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Severance S2 - Art House 5 Chilli Peppers 
Task - Crime/Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Pluribus - Sci Fi 4.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Death of Bunny Munroe - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
The White Lotus S3 - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
Interview with the Vampire S2 - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Last of Us S2- Sci-Fi 4 Chilli Peppers 
Adolescence - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
100 Years of Solitude - International/ Fantasy 3.5 Chilli Peppers
The Bear S4 - Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Serpent Queen S2 - Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Black Mirror S8 - Sci Fi 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Righteous Gemstones S5 - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 

2025 TV HONOURABLE MENTIONS: ​
Eat the Invaders- Doco 3 Chilli Peppers 
Amandaland- Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Apple Cider Vinegar  - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers 
Mythic Quest S3 - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Side Quest- Drama 3 Chilli Peppers 
Always Sunny in Philadelphia S17 - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
American Primeval-Drama 3 Chilli Peppers 
Love on the Spectrum S3 - Reality  3 Chilli Peppers 
Abbott Elementary S4 - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers
Nine Perfect Strangers S2- Drama 3 Chilli Peppers
Four Seasons - Drama  3 Chilli Peppers 
Sirens- Drama  3 Chilli Peppers 
Too Much- Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Overcompensating - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Ed Gein- Horror 3 Chilli Peppers ​
BUMP S5 - Comedy/ Drama 3 Chilli Peppers 

FLOW
Release Date: 2024
Rating: G
Running Time: 85 mins 
A French, Latvian and Belgian animated adventure directed by Gints Zibalodis. Flow is a true feast for the eyes and a beautiful journey into an inspiring and mostly silent form of animated storytelling. Even more impressive, is the fact that the entire film, which took four years to complete, was created using the free, open source software, Blender. 
A stray black cat attempts to survive an apocaplytic environment, where the water levels keep rising at an alarming rate, along the way befriending a motley crew of other animals also trying to survive against the flood. 
In a word, enchanting. This film is visually stunning and utterly captivating, I was mesmerised. The animal characters are so well fleshed out that they literally come alive on the screen, and the story itself is so thoughtfully delivered. I cannot fault this, its a slice of unmissable cinema and a stroke of visual genius!
FINAL SAY: A silent marvel 
5 Chilli Peppers ​

I have indeed allowed time to slip through my fingers again like grains of sand; and although my intentions and thoughts went to Spicywatch on so many occasions, I was just so fatigued over the past six weeks that I barely had time to shower in the evening before exhaustedly falling into bed each night by 9pm. No, it was not a graceful slowing down for the end of the work year for me, but rather a fast furious skid into a stop sign on December 24th that made me feel every day of my 51 years on the planet deep within my bones. In a nutshell, I was weary; deeply, deeply weary and it made me want to retreat to my room to sleep for days.
However, you cannot do that on Christmas Day and not even Boxing Day really; but today, today I did. I slept soundly until after 10am and awoke with a new a smile because I still have two weeks to recharge my batteries before the cogs begin to turn once again.  For the next 14 days I am going to do yoga, and meditate and take very long walks, and read books and share my time with people that I love  - and that is all that I will be doing. 
And as I lay there in bed thinking about this joy, I reflected on the whirlwind that the last 365 days of my life have been and I contemplated the ways that I have spent that time.
Unfortunately, I did not get to marinate in as many books, movies or TV series this year as I would normally, but this has meant that I have had to be more discerning about my choices. And two things that have been an ongoing theme for me this year has been the need to travel and the  amount of classic tales that have come into my life. For some reason there are just a lot of classics being re-made and re-told, particularly horror and science fiction classics. And although I can't always watch or read them when driving, I can audiobook them, so my audiobook count has risen quite a bit this year. I've listended to heaps of classics like The Eeerie Book, The Midwich Cuckoos, Frankenstein, The Woman in Black, Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Haunting of Briarwych Church, and In a Glass Darkly. And I have also noticed that many movies/ TV series that have presented themselves to me were also retell classics this year; like Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Dracula: A Love Tale,  Wicked, Alien Earth and IT: Welcome to Derry.  
And across the board I have had lots of opportunity to rediscover something old in new ways. Even returning to a position in Outside School Hours Care has been a returning to an old aspect of myself; however, when ever we return to something, we never really return to it in quite the same way do we? And that is because we are different, we have changed and that is why the return sometimes feel like rediscovering something for the very first time. We are not seeing it throught the same lens that we saw it the first time, we see it with many more years of experience and wisdom behind us, so what we see is different. 
I suppose what I cam trying to say is, that I am returning to the old in new ways. I am rediscovering old books, old movies, old TV and even old ways of the self in fresh, original and unique ways. And what I have learned from this, is that we sometimes need to go back. Not because we want to dwell in the old but rather because we want to rediscover how it looks now that we have changed. What new can be gleaned from the old? And honestly, I would have to say quite a lot. And this too is true for all things that lie buried in the past, through reflection we can often discover a new truth or perspective if we give it enough space, and that is not because the situation or thing has changed, its because we did. I guess the old cliche is true, sometimes in order to move forwards, first you have to be willing to go back...

DRACULA: A LOVE TALE 
Release Date: 2025 
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 134 mins 
An English-language, French gothic, romance-fantasy film written and directed by Luc Besson. Based on the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, this lush and beautifully realised version leans into the undying romance behind the tragic figure of Dracula retelling the story with a mixture of tenderness and violence that I found incredibly enjoyabe to watch. 
Prince Vladimir of Wallachia renounces God and becomes Dracula after the death of his beloved wife Elisabeta during a battle with the Ottomans. Over the centuries, Dracula attempts to track down the re-incarnation of his long lost love, creating vampiric companions to assist in the search. Four hundred years later, whilst negotiating real estate plans with Jonathon Harker, Dracula discovers that his wife to be Mina is the reincarnation of his beloved Elizabeta and attempts to find her in Paris and rekindle her memories of their immortal love. 
There are some fresh ideas being presented here that I really appreciated, and the overall appearance of this film is simply stunning. The sets, costumes and attention to the finer details are something that you do not often see any more in modern cinema and I really enjoyed just how good this was visually. 
The perfomances were equally fabulous with Caleb Laundry Jones delivering an explosive and compelling Dracula whilst being incredibly well supported by Zoe Bleu as Mina Murray and Christoph Waltz as the priest. I enjoyed this just as much as Nosferatu which came out early in 2025 and think that they both delivered very different and fresh perspectives on the classic tale of Dracula.
FINAL SAY: Do you think God will forgive us for loving each other so much?
4.5 Chilli Peppers ​

It is incredibly interesting when you meet someone who has no social awareness or social boundaries. They have the power to make everyone else in a room feel very uncomfotable and yet be blissfully unaware that they sit at the epicentre of everyone elses discomfort. I have recently come into contact with someone like this and it is both incredulous and disconcerting when I have to spend time with them. 
Their behaviour is quite interesting; a mix of attention seeking and immaturity speckled with a good dusting of rudeness that manages to make the air thick, people exchange glances and in some instances, I've even seen people just stare down at their feet in an attempt to dis-engage. And they are (as far as I can tell) completely unaware of this, and this is where the biggest problem lies because you can't really go around correcting adults on their social behaviours, you kind of just have to tolerate them. And it's really hard, because a few minor adjustments and things could be so much better. 
Social rules are tenuous and can make or break many interactions, but there are eight very simple rules that I try to maintain when I am socialising and generally they never steer me wrong.
1. Silence will trump any argument - not every opinion requires a reply, so just say nothing. 
2. The calmest voice controls the room and power doesn't shout. 
3. Gossip once and lose trust forever because people remember. 
4. Ask more and talk less, listeners win hearts.
5. Praise in public and correct in private and respect will go viral. 
6. Mirror their energy not their chaos - stay in control of yourself regardless of anothers behaviour. 
7. Interrupting shows that you have weak self control, let people finish. Watch first and talk later, smart people talk last.
8. Be polite, be kind and be interested. 

Do I always get them right? Oh hell no! I make mistakes in social situations all of the time, I am hardly a genius but I really do try. I used to suck so hard at social interactions, so I did a lot of work to improve my skills in this area, and anyone can get better at being great socially - but at the end of the day - they have to want to get better and that, unfortunately,  doesn't always occur. 

THE RULE OF JENNY PEN
Release Date: 2024
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 104 mins 
A psychologial thriller based on Owen Marshall's short of the same name, The Rule Jenny Pen had a deeply disturbing affect on me. Maybe it was because I have an elderly parent and two elderly in-laws but the idea of a psychotic and unhinged predator lurking inside of an old aged home really upset me, and I found this material to be quite distressing, mainly because of it's absolutely possibly and plausibility. 
Stefan is an elderly judge (Geoffrey Rush) who suffers a stroke in court and finds himself in a care home for the aged. He attempts to keep to himself but soon realises that there is a terror lurking within the walls of the home itself.  A deranged man called Dave (John Lithgow), who masquerades as confused old man during the day but repeatedly abuses and terrorises residents of the home with late night vistis from himself and his sadistic hand puppet called Jenny Pen.
This movie was made all the more affecting by the exceptional acting of Geoffrey Rush as judge Stefan and the distressingly good John Lithgow who unforgettably haunts as the very disturbed character Dave. I cannot deny that this film left me saddened and quite shook and if you also have elderly parents, you too will find this film a hard watch. 
FINAL SAY: We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing.
3.5 Chilli Peppers ​

I have strangely become very quickly accustomed to having less time to marinate in things lately. Don't get me wrong, I am still practising meditations and yoga, spending time in the kitchen and journaling and often contemplating and pondering as I like to; I still do enjoy a multitude of mindful and gentle practises. I just don't spend as much time sitting around anymore, or over -thinking things, because I honestly just don't have the time to that kind of thing anymore. 
See the need and sort it, make a commitment and stick to it and keep your integrity and honesty in check and usually things seem to go reasonably well. Sure there are evenings that we don't sit down to eat until 7.30pm or later, and when the day comes to an end I do look forward to the soft landing of my bed - when I am in town to be able to access my own bed that is. However, all in all - things have still been seen to and attended to and no one is freaking out about me being out of town regularly. I still have ample time to share with friends and family and I haven't had to give up any of the things that I love to do, so it really hasn't been as challenging as I thought it would be. 
I actually think that I may have been a bit of a time waster to be perfectly honest. A fluffer of sorts, just plodding along and often pouring way to much energy into things that never actually required it of me. And because I had more time, I wasn't as discerning about the ways that I spent it. I gave my time to people who, quite honestly, probably didn't deserve it. I can think of a few people that I poured a lot of energy, attention and care into that turned out to be a complete waste of my time. Now that I have less time that is my own, well I just can't be doing that kind of thing. The people that get a share of my free time now are the people that matter to me greatly - and it is as simple as that. 
You could say that too much free time had allowed me to create some unhealthy habits around the way that I invested it. I had a monkey on my back of sorts, because I had felt obligated to use up my free time and probably invested that time in some pretty bullshit 'people pleasing' things, but not anymore - no sir! That monkey  is off my back for good. Now I worry a hell of a lot less about pleasing other people and I spend a lot more time focused on what pleases me; and it's turned out to be incredible!
In the last month I've spent quality time with my husband, children, my grand-daughter, my mother, my best friends, my new work colleagues and my old work colleagues. I've gone out for drinks, caught up with mates for pizza, I've had spa treatments, and nights away with friends, I went to Tasmania for work, attended a sangha and a book club evening, hosted a Spicywatch movie night, stayed away in Shepparton, Melbourne and Portland, had lunch at a friends house and just last weekend went to the LUME in Melbourne to do yoga. This weekend I am hosting Easter in Enfield and next week I have another trip to Shepparton, a night with Zoe,  a trivia night and a New Moon Sound-bath happening. Happily busy, never bored and certainly not pouring any energy into things that don't deserve my time anymore!

Another whirlwind month slides by as I settle into my new employment and watch my grand-daughter grow more independent and beautiful by the day. I recently turned 51 and spent some time over the long weekend reflecting; as I do when I have a birthday, about the blessings that I have in my life. Whenever I have another lap around the sun, I am always blown away by how generous and kind my loved ones are and how terrifically my friends treat me. Again I was showered with love and attention, some gorgeous and thoughtful gifts and lots of messages and offers to share time in celebration of my life.  Blessings, so many blessings and much to be grateful for.
In the last month I have had so many reason to feel grateful, its hard to name all of them, but some highlights for me were The Bohemian Summer Festival, regular stays with Zoe, Ben and Freja in Bendigo due to work travel, Soundbathing with friends, my mums cast coming off the wrist that she broke in January, seeing Kinky Boots at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sip Champagne bar with Zoe, the Book Club group, trivia nights rebooting, Spicywatch movie night, the National Gallery of Victoria with Seth and watching the Oscars with my feet up and a glass of bubbles in hand!  A bloody amazing month and a reflection of how genuinely lucky I am to be able to engage and afford to be doing so many fantastic things. 
And, I also have my next month of movies lined up thanks to the awards season which always takes the thinking out of 'what to watch' for me for weeks to come. And don't worry - just in case you missed it, here are the nominees and winners in every category of the 2025 Academy Awards. Happy viewing!

Best Picture

• WINNER: Anora
• The Brutalist
• A Complete Unknown
• Conclave
• Dune: Part Two
• Emilia Pérez
• I'm Still Here
• Nickel Boys
• The Substance
• Wicked

Director

• WINNER: Anora — Sean Baker
• The Brutalist — Brady Corbet
• A Complete Unknown — James Mangold
• Emilia Pérez — Jacques Audiard
• The Substance — Coralie Fargeat

Leading Actor

• WINNER: Adrien Brody in The Brutalist
• Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown
• Colman Domingo in Sing Sing
• Ralph Fiennes in Conclave
• Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice

Leading Actress

• Cynthia Erivo in Wicked
• Karla Sofia Gascon in Emilia Perez
• WINNER: Mikey Madison in Anora
• Demi Moore in The Substance
• Fernanda Torres in I'm Still Here

Supporting Actor

• Yura Borisov in Anora
• WINNER: Keiran Culkin in A Real Pain
• Edward Norton in A Complete Unknown
• Guy Pearce in The Brutalist
• Jeremy Strong in The Apprentice

Supporting Actress

• Monica Barbaro in A Complete Unknown
• Ariana Grande in Wicked
• Felicity Jones in The Brutalist
• Isabella Rossellini in Conclave
• WINNER: Zoe Saldana in Emilia Perez

Animated Feature Film

• WINNER: Flow
• Inside Out 2
• Memoir of a Snail
• Wallace & Gromit: Vengence Most Fowl
• The Wild Robot

Cinematography

• WINNER: The Brutalist — Lol Crawley
• Dune: Part Two — Greig Fraser
• Emilia Perez — Paul Guilhaume
• Maria — Ed Lachman
• Nosferatu — Jarin Blaschke

Costume design

• A Complete Unknown — Arianne Phillips
• Conclave — Lisy Christl
• Gladiator II — Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
• Nosferatu — Linda Muir
• WINNER: Wicked —  Paul Tazewell

Documentary feature film

• Black Box Diaries
• WINNER: No Other Land
• Porcelain War
• Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
• Sugarcane

Documentary short film

• Death by Numbers
• I Am Ready, Warden
• Incident
• Instruments of a Beating Heart
• WINNER: The Only Girl in the Orchestra

Film editing

• WINNER: Anora — Sean Baker
• The Brutalist — David Jancso
• Conclave — Nick Emerson
• Emilia Pérez — Juliette Welfling
• Wicked — Myron Kerstein

International feature film

• WINNER: Brazil: I'm Still Here
• Denmark: The Girl with the Needle
• France: Emilia Pérez
• Germany: The Seed of the Sacred Fig
• Latvia: Flow

Makeup and hairstyling

• A Different Man — Mike Marino, David Presto and Crystal Jurado
• Emilia Pérez — Julia Floch Carbonel, Emmanuel Janvier and Jean-Christophe Spadaccini
• Nosferatu — David White, Traci Loader and Suzanne Stokes-Munton
• WINNER: The Substance — Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli
• Wicked — Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah Nuth

Music (original score)

• WINNER: The Brutalist — Daniel Blumberg
• Conclave — Volker Bertelmann
• Emilia Pérez — Clément Ducol and Camille
• Wicked — John Powell and Stephen Schwartz
• The Wild Robot — Kris Bowers

Music (original song)

• WINNER: El Mal from Emilia Pérez; Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard
• The Journey from The Six Triple Eight; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
• Like A Bird from Sing Sing; Music and Lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada
• Mi Camino from Emilia Pérez; Music and Lyric by Camille and Clément Ducol
• Never Too Late from Elton John: Never Too Late; Music and Lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin

Production design

• The Brutalist — Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Patricia Cuccia
• Conclave — Production Design: Suzie Davies; Set Decoration: Cynthia Sleiter
• Dune: Part Two — Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
• Nosferatu — Production Design: Craig Lathrop; Set Decoration: Beatrice Brentnerová
• WINNER: Wicked — Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

Short film (animated)

• Beautiful Men
• WINNER: In the Shadow of the Cypress
• Magic Candles
• Wander to Wonder
• Yuck!

Short film (live action)

• A Lien
• Anuja
• WINNER: I'm Not a Robot
• The Last Ranger
• The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Sound

• A Complete Unknown — Tod A. Maitland, Donald Sylvester, Ted Caplan, Paul Massey and David Giammarco
• WINNDER: Dune: Part Two — Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill
• Emilia Pérez — Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldère, Maxence Dussère, Cyril Holtz and Niels Barletta
• Wicked — Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson and John Marquis
• The Wild Robot — Randy Thom, Brian Chumney, Gary A. Rizzo and Leff Lefferts

Visual effects

• Alien: Romulus — Eric Barba, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Daniel Macarin and Shane Mahan
• Better Man — Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft and Peter Stubbs
• WINNER: Dune: Part Two — Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes — Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story and Rodney Burke
• Wicked — Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk and Paul Corbould

Adapted screenplay

• A Complete Unknown — Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks
• WINNER: Conclave — Screenplay by Peter Straughan
• Emilia Pérez — Screenplay by Jacques Audiard; In collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi
• Nickel Boys — Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
• Sing Sing — Screenplay by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John "Divine G" Whitfield

Original screenplay

• WINNER: Anora — Written by Sean Baker
• The Brutalist — Written by Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
• A Real Pain — Written by Jesse Eisenberg
• September 5 — Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum; Co-Written by Alex David
• The Substance — Written by Coralie Fargeat

A REAL PAIN
Release Date: 2024
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 90 mins
A comedy-drama, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg who also stars in the lead role, A Real Pain delivers a thought provoking at relationship that is greatly bolstered by Keiran Culkin's incredible portrayal of Benji, a troubled young man who swings between being magnetically care free and offensively careless. Culkin landed the both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor off the strength of his role here and he shines very brightly as Benji. 
David and Benji, mismatched and once close cousins, take a pilgrimage to Poland using the funds that their deceased grandmother left for them. They join a Jewish heritage tour in the hopes of seeing the home that she grew up in and connecting with their Jewish family history. Along the way the odd couple cousins engage in a series of activities that has a profound effect of them both and upon their relationship with each other. 
I loved the way that this movie played out, with Benji's 'real pain' character actually being the main catalyst for change and growth in others, in spite of his own misgivings and at times complete disregard for social norms and etiquette.
A Real Pain is as charming as it is disturbing, brilliantly written and perfectly cast, it's one not to miss. 
FINAL SAY: We used to be different. 
4 Chilli Peppers ​

Just like 2023, the viewing opportunities in 2024 presented themselves so fast that I found it pretty much impossible to juggle all of my streaming services and keep up with all of the new releases at the cinema. The over-abundance of new release material to trawl through was  absolutely phenomenal!
There was a head spinning amount of high quality viewing material to absorb this year, and I was very grateful to be constantly distracted from all of the drama that 2024 delivered with a saturation of fantastic cinematic offerings. I also, again, received many welcome high quality recommendations from friends and family throughout the year as well, which stretched my viewing choices even further. Long story short, we were all very spoilt for choice and if you couldn't find something to watch, then in my opinion, you just weren't trying hard enough!
I managed to get through 211 movies and 143 television series this year. Basically, I was flat out watching something every day of the year and I still didn't get to half of the material that still sits waiting on my 'to see' lists, which has now blow out to more than 600 titles, so it is fair to say that I am not going to be slowing down any time soon either. 
The task of seeing everything has become arduous beyond anyone's means, and unless you are willing to permanently strap yourself to the couch and do nothing but watch movies and TV, there is just no way that you can manage to see it all in one year. So now more than ever, you must be discerning, and hopefully this is where I can offer a hand and some sound advice around what you should be investing in your time in; if you haven't done so already. 
Again, I was thrilled to be able to view so many great movies and TV across all genres, for which I am always grateful. In particular, I again really appreciated seeing so many excellent horror, thriller and fantasy offerings this year; most of which boasted stunningly good visuals and terrifically original storylines. I am now sure that audiences are becoming more acclimated to a few jumps and jolts, and more and more people are embracing high quality horror, thriller and challenging viewing choices, because these genres do thankfully seem to still be on the rise. 
And so, without further ado....here is my selection for the best viewing experiences of 2024, full movie reviews can be found on the corresponding genre pages in the drop down menu above. 
BEST MOVIES (2024 release):
Anora - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Dune Pt2 - Sci-fi 4 Chilli Peppers 
Longlegs - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers
The Wild Robot - Kid Friendly 4 Chilli Peppers
Late Night with the Devil - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers
The Substance - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers 
Handling the Undead - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers 
Alien Romulus - Sci-Fi 4 Chilli Peppers ​
Hitman - Romance 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Iron Claw- Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers
MadS - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Oddity - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers  
Civil War - Action/ War 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice - Supernatural 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Smile 2 - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers  
Inside Out 2 - Kid Friendly 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
HONOURABLE MENTIONS - 2024 Release:
Speak No Evil- Horror 3 Chilli Peppers 
Heretic - Thriller 3 Chilli Peppers 
Abigail - Horror 3 Chilli Peppers 
Lisa Frankenstein - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Action 3 Chilli Peppers 
Deadpool and Wolverine - Action/Super 3 Chilli Peppers 

Here are my top recommendations for pre-2024 releases that I didn't get around to seeing until 2023:
Poor Things - Art House 5 Chilli Peppers 
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse - Kid Friendly 4.5 Chilli Peppers
Pink Floyd: The Wall - Musical 4 Chilli Peppers 
Blackfish - Doco 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Killers of the Flower Moon - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
Departures - International 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Holdovers - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
Tale of Tales - Fantasy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Rye Lane - Romance 4 Chilli Peppers 
Wild Tales - International 4 Chilli Peppers 
Society of the Snow - International 4 Chilli Peppers 
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers
American Fiction - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Leo - Kid Friendly 4 Chilli Peppers 
For Sama - Doco 4 Chilli Peppers
Zone of Interest -  War 4 Chilli Peppers 
Dream Scenario - Art House 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
After the Wedding - International 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Babylon - Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Bread and Tulips - International 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Rent-a-Pal-Gritty 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Coffee Table - Gritty 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
All of Us Strangers - Romance 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Five Devils - International 3 Chilli Peppers 
Nyad - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers 
Blood and Gold - War 3 Chilli Peppers 
Sisu - Action 3 Chilli Peppers 

BEST TELEVISION SERIES 2024:
Baby Reindeer - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Scavengers Reign - Sci Fi/ Animation 5 Chilli Peppers 
The Bear S3 - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Mr and Mrs Smith - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Boiling Point -Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
FALLOUT- Sci-Fi 5 Chilli Peppers 
The Boys S3 - Super 4 Chilli Peppers
One Day  - Romance 4 Chilli Peppers 
Love Has Won: Cult of the Mother God - Documentary 4 Chilli Peppers 
True Detective: Night Country -  Thriller 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Gentlemen- Crime/ comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Reservation Dogs S3 - Comedy/ drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
Yellowstone (Final Eps) - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
Colin from Account S2 - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers  
ERIC- Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
House of the Dragon S2- Fantasy 3.5 Chilli Peppers
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S2 - Fantasy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Shrinking S2- Comedy/ Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
What We Do in the Shadows S6 - Horror/ comedy  3.5 Chilli Peppers  
Secret Level- Animation/ Sci Fi 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Earth Abides - Sci Fi 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
3 Body Problem - Sci Fi 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
THEM 2: SCARE - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers 

2024 TV HONOURABLE MENTIONS: ​
Kaos- Fantasy  3 Chilli Peppers 
Life and Beth S2 - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Love on the Spectrum S2- Reality 3 Chilli Peppers 
Nobody Wants This - Romance/ comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Mirror Mirror S3  - Documentary  3 Chilli Peppers 
Boy Swallows Universe- Comedy/ drama 3 Chilli Peppers 
Such Brave Girls - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
For Those About to Die - Period Drama 3 Chilli Peppers 
Ghosts S4-Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Baskets S4 - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Killing It S2- Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers
Fisk S3- Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers
Entitled - Art House 3 Chilli Peppers 
Mr Big Stuff - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Palm Royale - Drama/comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
It's Florida Man - Dramatisation  3 Chilli Peppers 
Queer Eye S9 - Reality 3 Chill Peppers 
Dick Turpin - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
How We Wore (Celeste Barber) - Documentary 3 Chilli Peppers ​

THE SUBSTANCE
Release Date: 2024
Rating: R 18+
Running Time: 141 mins 
A satirical body-horror; written, directed and co-produced by Coralie Fargeat that is sure to raise some eye brows and churns some weaker stomachs with it's sickly, visceral and highly amusing stab at Hollywood's relentless cries for youth and beauty. 
Actress and fitness guru Elisabeth Sparkle has just turned 50 and her sleazy producer Harvey is already showing her the door. Unwilling to go down without a fight, Elizabeth orders a mysterious serum called 'The Substance' that promises a more youthful and perfect version of the self. Elizabeth immediately administers the serum and sets about re-establishing herself in Hollywood as Sue, a much hotter and youthful version of herself. But youth and beauty always has a price, and Elizabeth finds that she is now on a very slippery slope of desperation and depravity.
The Substance is a brilliant horror film; it has an interesting storyline, lots of gross out scenes and some really solid performances from both Demi Moore as Elizabeth and Margaret Qualley as Sue.  Honestly, this could be Moore's big come back film, she is just great in this.
In truth, there is a lot to like about this movie. Sure, the last half hour is straight up bonkers, but who cares? No-ones goes to see a body-horror flick expecting to see a completely sensible slice of cinema anyway, so just strap in and enjoy the ride, I guarantee that you won't forget it! 
FINAL SAY: There has been a slight misuse of the Substance.
4 Chilli Peppers ​

You know what they say about the best laid plans right? Well, I got a really big serve of 'nah ya don't' from the universe this month, that I did not see coming at all. And I could've crawled into a hole and cried for days but I did not do that, even though I really wanted to, more than once or twice. Okay, well in all honesty, I may have cried a bit for a day or two, but not nearly as much as I wanted to. I did however decide to get all proactive and take the bull by the horns and I think that I have managed things pretty well, all things considered. 
So, let's start at the beginning. Things started to go south for me on December 3rd when I discovered that I needed to find a new job. After seven years of working 'one to one' with a blind student, I thought that I had given my employer plenty of signals and enough verbal interaction for them to know that I was not willing to undertake another 'one to one' learning support role in 2025. Working 'one to one' with high needs students has a 'burn out' factor that can really only be explained when you have walked the miles yourself, so to speak, and I can assure you that it takes its toll. It takes its toll physically, emotionally and mentally and everyone deserves a break from that level of intensity and I knew that I needed one.
Anyway, my employer did not listen closely to my conversations or requests, and also did not follow through on previous implications around my role, and rather unfortunately placed me in an awkward position where I found myself again in a 'one to one' capacity. Only this time, I was placed with an even more complex student that also needs to be toileted. And to that I said - hmmmm, no thanks! And that is what I told them, thank you, but no thank you. 
Which meant that I was left with less than three weeks of term to find another job. Time to draft my resume and get my cover letter sorted, I was back on the market! Fine, I got this. Then, two days later I was racing Seth to hospital because he had tonsilitis and his throat and epiglottis swelled up so much that it was closing over his wind pipe and he was choking. That was a fun ride to the hospital with my pulse racing so fast that I nearly needed an ambulance as well. 24 hours later, Seth's throat was sorted but I was struggling to sleep. That was also the day that we found the baby brown snake hanging from the garage door and I thought, what the hell is actually happening here? Mind racing, I pulled out of my work staff party (who feels like partying when you feel like that?) and my monthly sangha because I was a bit over-wrought and not great company; in fact my stress levels were quite high at that stage and I just had to retreat and have a re-group. 
I went in hard and applied for six jobs and got two interviews within ten days, which wasn't bad odds. I accepted a terrific job offer on Monday 16th December, only to receive a better one on Wednesday 18th December and then I had to have another awkward conversation to pull out of the first offer. I actually really hated doing that too because I do not like to go back on my word and it was a really good job. However, the job that I did end up taking is excellent and it is probably my last shot at leadership, so I felt that if I didn't take it I would be doing myself a disservice.
Plus, I had asked, or rather prayed, to my dad to help me on this one. I've not asked for his help with anything since he died five years ago, but I was so lost and overwhelmed that I actually called on him for a favour and asked for his support, and sure enough I landed an excellent job - so thanks dad. I really did feel like you and the universe had my back on this one. Crisis averted, got a job lined up for 2025, had my streak of three bad things, I must be coming out of the poo-pit by now right?
Yeah, not quite! After an emotional farewell to the Year 6 graduating students that I have worked with for seven years, a goodbye to the blind students that I have supported for just as long and an exit from my workplace (that's a lot of goodbyes at once - and a lot of feelings right there), I left work on the 20th feeling relatively good in spirit and ready to enjoy a well earned break and rest. All the Christmas shopping done, all I had to do was relax and enjoy the festive season. And then yesterday, because a work colleague had tested positive for covid, I thought I had better, especially since I had mum staying over for Christmas and yep - you guessed it - positive!  I have bloody covid again, for the third time and the second time over Christmas! UUUGGHHH!
​So, yep, Christmas plans had to change again! As I said, the best laid plans right? Honestly it's enough to make you cry. It turns out that Zoe, Ben and Freja all had covid last week, so they have full immunity and can still join us, which is actually fortuitous, if covid can actually ever be fortuitous. Anyway, they are still coming and will arrive tomorrow for a few days. Poor mum however cannot be anywhere near us, so she is the one who really lost out with this, but I have promised to make it up with two fun days out with her as soon as I get a negative test result. 
Anyway, long story short, it is two days until Christmas. I have experienced my own kind of fresh hell in the lead up to it but I do not want to harp on about the shitty stuff anymore. It's time to crack open the champers, put up my feet and share some quality time with my lovelies out here in Enfield. I am ready for some Christmas joy and don't want to hear another bad word about any of it. I am leaving it all behind me with 2024 and moving on up to higher ground. 

SPEAK NO EVIL
Release Date: 2024
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 110 mins
If there is one thing that James McAvoy can do well, it is crazy, and he is completely delivering 'the crazy' in Speak No Evil. A psychological thriller and a remake of the Danish- Dutch film of the same name that was made in 2022, Speak No Evil manages to bring just enough intrigue and interest to keep you invested until the bitter end. 
While vacationing in Italy, an American family of three befriend a free spirited British family and gain an invitation to holiday at their farmhouse in Devon. With the option of free travel available, the Americans happily head to the remote English location to immerse themselves in some local culture but soon discover that they have become embroiled in some very sinister goings on.
The story isn't exactly ground breaking, and the writing is on the wall very early on here, but the incredible cast really sell this film with their on-point delivery; especially Aisling Franciosi, Mackenzie Davis,  Scoot McNairy and as I mentioned earlier, especially James McAvoy who brings so much sinister side eye and sly smiling that it is impossible not to feel unnerved.  For a simple thriller, this is definitely worth a gander. 
FINAL SAY: Because you let us!
3 Chilli Peppers ​

My mindful practises have expanded over the school holiday break and I am now embracing slow living. Slow living is kind of like mindfulness, but it is really more focused on grounding and re-setting yourself than needing to be mindful.  Lord knows that I spend a lot of time in mindful contemplation, so the idea of just switching off every now and again, or just doing something for the utter joy of it certainly has great appeal to me also, and nothing provides more time to meander and marinate than a school holiday term break, so I've been embracing the slow with both hands. 
To be totally honest, I actually do crave slow, even though I am often moving at break neck speed and over filling my life to the brim with exciting adventures and opportunities. From time to time I just have to escape everyone and everything for a few days and I will find myself searching for slow rather than mindful ways of being. And one of the best things about slow living is that it totally fills my hedonist bucket because there is a lot of 5 senses stimulation involved in slow living, and who doesn't want more of that action?
Still not sure what slow living might involve? Well here's a list of ways to kick your slow cooker into gear:

• Spending 15 minutes outside with a good coffee in the morning.
• Eating by candlelight.
• Not using your phone/Ipad/device for an entire day.
• Picking out a new books at the library/ bookstore. 
• Selecting a new gin/ whiskey or wine at a tasting.
• Picking fruit/ vegetables or herbs. 
• Listening to an audio book in the bath. 
• Making your own pizza - base and all. 
• Watching the sunrise or sunset. 
• Writing in a journal.
• Having a long breakfast or brunch and making it from scratch. 
• Giving someone a really long hug or cuddling on the couch.
• Having a candlelight shower.
• Sketching, painting or modelling without purpose or plan. 
• Wearing your cosiest clothes all day. 
• Making a pot of soup and homemade bread. 
• Cutting flowers from your garden and arranging them. 
• Hanging at the farmers market and tasting something new. 
• Listening to music or watching an old classic movie. 
• Handwriting someone a letter. 
• Reading in bed. 
• Knitting, sewing, crocheting or stitching something. 
• Changing the linen on your bed. 
• Finding a new cheese at the local deli. 
• Sleeping in and having breakfast in bed. 
• Planting vegetables, herbs or flowers. 
• Baking biscuits or cupcakes.

Getting the idea now? Slow and steady, deeply enjoyable, filled with sensorial joy and just what one needs when they are on an early spring break. Ah, slow living, if only all the days could be so marvellously gentle. 

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN
Release Date: 1948
Rating: PG
Running Time: 83 mins 
If you haven't yet had the joy of seeing this cult classic, do yourself a favour and take a look. Considered the 'OG' of the horror/comedy genre, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a treasure-trove of classic horror iconography and mighty fine example of old school slapstick comedy. 
Baggage clerks Chick and Wilbur are given the unfortunate job of delivering two large crates to a 'house of horrors' wax museum. Unbeknownst to them, the contents of the crates is none other than Count Dracula in his coffin and Frankenstein's monster, both of whom awaken and with the help of a femme fatale named Dr. Sandra Mornay, begin to exact a devious plan. 
There are few things to really love about this film, the first is seeing Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula, Glen Strange as Frankenstein's monster, Vincent Price as the Invisible Man (keep your ear open for that one) and Lon Chaney Jnr as the Wolfman. The other thing that I really enjoyed was that they chose to make the real villain behind it all a woman, which wasn't a plot line utilised a lot back in the day, and last but not least; well how can you not love a bit of Lou Costello? With his over acting, wheezy, bumbling gestures and silly carry on, he totally steals the show. For me, this is the finest offering that Abbott and Costello have made together and it shouldn't be missed. 
FINAL SAY: I've had this brain for thirty years. It hasn't done me any good!
4 Chilli Peppers ​

Because I have a movie blog, people often ask me how many movies I watch in a year. And I usually just say - a lot. Spicywatch.com only reflects my top 1,000-ish movies, but I have to wade through a lot of movies to find titles that I believe to be 3 Chilli Peppers or more. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. On any given year I can watch anywhere from 250 to 500 films, depending on what else is going on for me and also the quality of television programs on offer that year. Some years I watch more television than movies, and some years it is the other way around. And I also like to read quite a lot of books and listen to music as much as I can as well, so I often find that I am torn between my media passions. 
However, cinema is my first passion and will always hold a special place in my heart and that is why Spicywatch.com is primarily all about movies and not television programs or books or music, even though I do regularly offer my opinion on all of those things well.
​All together, over the course of my lifetime I estimate that I have watched around 10,000 movies, and that is only counting from 15 year of age because before then I know that media was a lot less accessible than it is now, and we never had a VHS tape player until I was 12 years old, so I've not counted my first 15 years of viewing; even though I know that I was already well and truly cinema obsessed by the time I was 10 years old. But, if we calculate say 300 films a year, as an average for 35 years, we land on 10,500 and I think that I sit around there somewhere. 
So, if I have only reviewed around 1,000 worthy cinema choices on Spicywatch.com, then we can safely assume that I have only really enjoy around 10% of the movies that I have ever watched, and I think that is probably a fair statement, not just for me but also for many other people. One in ten films is a stand out and the rest are either so-so or stinkers. I don't review mediocre, and I certainly don't want to review hall of shame offerings, because cinema is like art for me. It's subjective and open to interpretation, and if someone went to the trouble of making it into a movie, then someone really loved it, and who the hell am I to shit all over that? No-one, I'm nothing more than a lady who likes movies and my opinion is no more valuable than yours or anyone else's. 
So, it really doesn't matter how many films I have seen, it's kind of irrelevant really. What I can say for sure however, is that in order to get through around 300 odd movies a year you need to be a bit of a night stalker. And I do love a late night movie marathon! 

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL
Release Date: 2024
Rating: R 18+
Running Time: 93 mins 
A supernatural horror; written, directed and edited by Colin and Cameron Cairnes that uniquely uses elements of documentary filmmaking to deliver a found footage energy to a wickedly fresh script, and the result is just mesmerising. 
It's 1977 and Night Owls, a variety talk show hosted by Jack Delroy is having a special occult themed Halloween episode.  Special guests include a self proclaimed psychic, a sceptical former magician, a parapsychologist and a 13 year old girl called Lilly who is reportedly possessed by a demonic spirit. What could possibly go wrong? 
This is a delightfully twisted offering, cleverly hinging on 1970's America and its obsession with late night talk shows and all things occult related. David Dastmalchian is just exceptional, and perfectly cast  as talk show host Jack Delroy; and with a strong supporting cast bringing all of the cheesy banter and silly antics of talk show TV to life perfectly, Late Night with the Devil delivers on all fronts. A must see for horror lovers looking for something different. 
FINAL SAY: We met amongst the tall trees...remember? 
4 Chilli Peppers ​

Just like 2022, the viewing opportunities in 2023 grew so fast that I found myself yet again juggling all of my streaming services and struggling to get to the cinema often enough because as always, I seemed to have an over-abundance of new release material to trawl through.
There was a head spinning amount of high quality viewing material to absorb this year, and I was very grateful to be constantly distracted from the political and environmental disasters of 2023 with cinematic offerings. I also received many welcome high quality recommendations from friends and family throughout the year as well, which has stretched my viewing choices as well.  Long story short, we were all very spoilt for choice in 2023, and if you couldn't find something to watch, then in my opinion, you just weren't trying hard enough!
I managed to get through 180 movies and 160 television series this year. Basically, I was flat out watching something every day of the year and I still didn't get to half of the material that still sits waiting on my 'to see' lists, which has now blow out to more than 580 titles, so it is fair to say that I am not going to be slowing down any time soon either. 
The task of seeing everything has become arduous beyond anyone's means, and unless you are willing to permanently strap yourself to the couch and do nothing but watch movies and TV, there is just no way that you can manage to see it all in one year. So now more than ever, you must be discerning, and hopefully this is where I can offer a hand and some sound advice around what you should be investing in your time in; if you haven't done so already. 
Again, I was thrilled to be able to view so many great movies and TV across all genres, for which I am always grateful. In particular, I again really appreciated seeing so many excellent horror, thriller and fantasy offerings this year; most of which boasted stunningly good visuals and terrifically original storylines. I am now sure that audiences are becoming more acclimated to a few jumps and jolts, and more and more people are embracing high quality horror, thriller and challenging viewing choices, because these genres do thankfully seem to still be on the rise. 
And so, without further ado....here is my selection for the best viewing experiences of 2023. 
BEST MOVIES (2023 release):
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Kid Friendly 4.5 Chilli Peppers 
Oppenheimer - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
The Banshees of Inisherin - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
Saltburn - Thriller 4 Chilli Peppers 
Talk to Me - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers 
Barbie - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
John Wick Chapter 4 - Action 4 Chilli Peppers
Evil Dead Rise- Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers
The Killer - Crime/ Action 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Leave The World Behind - Sci-Fi 3.5 Chilli Peppers  
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - Action/ Super 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Guardians of the Galaxy VOL 3 - Super 3.5 Chilli Peppers 

HONOURABLE MENTIONS - 2023 Release:
Skinamarink- Horror 3 Chilli Peppers 
No Hard Feelings - Comedy  3 Chilli Peppers 
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - Action/ Adventure 3 Chilli Peppers 

Here are my top recommendations for pre-2023 releases that I didn't get around to seeing until 2023:
Pinocchio - Kid Friendly 5 Chilli Peppers 
Aftersun - Drama 4.5 Chilli Peppers 
Triangle of Sadness - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
The Menu - Drama  4 Chilli Peppers
You Wont Be Alone - Art House 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Worst Person in the World - Art House 4 Chilli Peppers 
Paul Dood's Deadly Lunch Break-  Art House 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Delicious - International 4 Chilli Peppers
Boiling Point - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
RRR - International 3.5 Chilli Peppers
The Call - International 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Marcel the Shell with Shoes on - Kid Friendly 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Wildcat - Doco 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
A Man Called Otto - Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Bones and All - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers
The Survivor- War 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Where the Crawdads Sing - Romance  3 Chilli Peppers
Deerskin-Art House 3 Chilli Peppers 
Baby Teeth - Romance 3.5 
Be My Cat: A Film for Anne - Gritty 3 Chilli Peppers 

BEST TELEVISION SERIES 2023:
Lessons in Chemistry - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
The Bear S2 - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Succession S4 - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
The Last of Us- Sci-Fi 5 Chilli Peppers 
Love and Death - Drama 4.5 Chilli Peppers
Tiny Beautiful Things  - Drama 4.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Fall of the House of Usher - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers 
Beef - Drama/ comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Slip - Fantasy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Dave S3 - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Righteous Gemstones S3 - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Platonic - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers
Life and Beth - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
GEN V- Super/ Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers
Copenhagen Cowboy - Fantasy/ Art House 4 Chilli Peppers
Shrinking - Comedy/ Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Interview with the Vampire - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers  
Mythic Quest S3- Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
FISK S2- Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Our Flag Means Death S2 - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Mirror, Mirror by Todd Samson S3 - Doco 3.5 Chilli Peppers 

2023 TV HONOURABLE MENTIONS: ​
1899- Fantasy  3 Chilli Peppers 
Down for Love - Reality 3 Chilli Peppers 
The Big Door Prize - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Poker Face  - Crime 3 Chilli Peppers 
Cunk on Earth - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Daisy Jones and the Six - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers 
Always Sunny in Philadelphia S16 - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Somebody, Somewhere S2-Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
High Desert - Comedy/ Crime 3 Chilli Peppers 
Jury Duty - Reality/ Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers
Aunty Donna's Café- Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers
Deadloch - Crime/comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Swarm- Horror  3 Chilli Peppers 
War on Waste  S2- Doco 3 Chill Peppers 
The Traitors - Reality 3 Chilli Peppers 
What We Do in the Shadows S4- Horror/Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers ​

TALK TO ME
Release Date: 2023
Rating: R 18+
Running Time: 95 mins 
An Australian supernatural horror, directed by Danny and Michael Philippou. Talk To Me made its worldwide premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and has been seriously creeping out audiences ever since. With a virtually unknown cast and a seriously unsettling storyline, Talk To Me is destined to become a cult horror classic. 
A group of teenagers get their kicks from conjuring spirits, filming the outcomes and posting them onto social media. With the aid of a mysterious embalmed hand they are able to allow entities to possess their bodies, but as with all stories of possession, things go wrong and the consequences are of course, dreadful!
This is a genuinely gripping horror tale that had me captivated from start to end. Touching on concepts of grief, loss and the desperate need for belonging when it comes to teens, this film plays out in believable and disturbing ways, with the main actors giving convincing and emotional driven performances. 
Talk To Me really does get under your skin, and it also delivers enough gore and shock value to appease hardcore fans of horror. 
FINAL SAY: I let you in. 
4 Chilli Peppers ​

Looking back across the landscape of 2023, I see that overall it was a year of massive growth for me. I did a lot more than I expected to do, faced some challenges, had some celebrations and also had some massive highlights along the way as well.
I do love to brag about my amazing yearly achievements, not because I want to rub anyone's face in them, but mostly because looking back and remembering a year completely really helps me to identify all of the joys, personal highlights and reasons to be grateful, of which I have many in my life. Just take a look over the epic year that 2023 was for me: 
JANUARY: 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene, Escape Room Adventure, Seth's 18th birthday,  Mini Spa Day, Enfield deck revamp, Seth got his license, Clunes Ghost Hunt, Seppelt Winery Tour, Halls Gap Road Trip, Chinese New Year celebrations, tuned in to the Triple j Hottest 100.
FEBRUARY:  Italian Dinner Party, Blackberry picking. 
MARCH: International Women's Day, My birthday, McQueen Exhibition, Harmony Day Intercultural Celebration, Kate Bush Tribute Show. 
APRIL: Easter Sunday with the family, April holiday break, Spa Day with Craig, Eastern European Dinner Party, Craig's birthday.
MAY: Spicywatch's 9th Birthday, Golden Plains Art Trail, Mother's Day.
JUNE: Mushrooming,  Fleetwood Mac Tribute Show, The Garden's of St. Erth, Torquay Trip, Zoe's 26th Birthday.
JULY: Winter School Holidays, The Sound of Music Theatre Show, Horror Movie night, Bishop's Palace Ghost Tour, Addams Family Theatre Show.
AUGUST: Immigration Museum, Middle Eastern Dinner Party, Borealis at Daylesford Lake, Book week dress up. 
SEPTEMBER: Amazing trip to Uluru, Father's Day, Spring School Holiday Break, Mum's 80th Birthday.
OCTOBER:  Girls Shopping Day, Photo Biennale in Ballarat, Moulin Rogue Theatre Show, Yoga at Chat for Tea, Yoga Festival in Bendigo, Halloween horror movie/ dinner night.
NOVEMBER: 29th Wedding Anniversary, Deep Blue Spa, Enfield Smoke event, Public Speaking Event, Zoe and Ben's baby Shower.
DECEMBER: Summer Holidays kicking off, Seth buys his first car, Wreath Making and Candle Decorating events, Enfield Xmas Brunch, Christmas Day with the fam, Family Smoke Event. 

There is a lot here to celebrate and appreciate that's for sure. And on top of all of that, I have also managed to squeeze in:

• Daily meditation.
• 66 books.
• Workouts - 5 times a week.
• 180 movies.
• 11,000 average steps a day.
• 160 TV series - a new record for me!
• 26 brunches/ lunches and  delicious restaurant meals with family and friends. 
• A daily French lesson on Duolingo.
• Brain Gym everyday for 10 minutes.
• A daily journal entry. 
• And....I reviewed another 38 movies on Spicywatch.com bringing the total number of reviews to more than 1,000! 

Woohoo! That's a lot of 'doing' for one year! 
And now, as 2024 gently unfurls itself before me I wonder what will arrive in the next 12 months. Probably the most exciting thing will definitely be the arrival of my grandchild! As for the rest, well only time will tell, but let's hope it's as exciting as the last year was!​

SALTBURN
Release Date: 2023 
Rating: R 18+
Running Time: 127 mins 
A psychological thriller and a black comedy; written, directed and co-produced by Emerald Fennell, Saltburn is definitely one of my favourite films of 2023. Steeped in gothic mystery, chock full of unscrupulous characters and peppered with kinky interludes, Saltburn is deeply intriguing and absolutely original in every respect. 
Oliver is struggling to fit in at Oxford University. He becomes fast friends with Felix Catton, a rich and influential student that takes Oliver under his wing and asks him to join him at his family home 'Saltburn' for the summer break. Saltburn is a sprawling estate in the British countryside, filled with strange and entitled people and offering a release and a refuge to Oliver who has shared his tragic upbringing and difficult home life situation. But nothing is at all as it seems at Saltburn. 
Sumptuously designed from the costumes and sets to the exceptionally good soundtrack, Saltburn is a true jolt to the senses. Intoxicating in every way, you just cannot look away, especially from the incredible cast that sports the likes of Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Alison Oliver, Carey Mulligan and Rosamund Pike. This film made me long for a summer holiday and envy the privilege of wealth, but most of all, it made me laugh and it made me blush, and for that I am giving this a big fat tick and a very high recommendation. Feel the burn of Saltburn for yourself!
FINAL SAY: I'm sorry my performance wasn't good enough. 
4 Chilli Peppers ​

I was having a great chat with Zoe (my daughter) recently about the way that we measure health. She is 14 weeks pregnant and is glowing from within. Her skin, nails and hair are immaculate and she has the happy disposition of a first mother-to-be, which is generally a mixture of curiosity about the unknown and excited anticipation about what inevitably lies ahead. In short, she is demonstrating what it looks like to be a healthy expecting mother. 
We got to talking about weight gain (since it is always on the mind of expectant mothers) and I chatted with her about my personal weight loss goals for the year, which are going along pretty well. And although the scales are moving backwards very slowly but surely, my body is looking firmer and feeling stronger by the day, which I love more than any number on a scale. And then she posed a very thought provoking question to me, which was - why do I feel like I need to be a certain number on a scale?  I gave her my BMI rant and explained that it is one area that I feel like I have struggled to maintain control over and it bothers me. Okay, she said, but rather than it being based on a BMI number why don't you make it goal around fitting into something for Summer or Spring that you already own, something that may be tight at the moment? Hmmmm....my mind was ticking. 'You do know,' she went on, 'that BMI is really outdated and fails to measure many other important health indicators right?' Ah, no, not really. Okay so this lead me into a deep dive, was this true? Is BMI outdated, is true health measured in other ways? And if so, in what ways? 
Turns out, she is bloody well right. Physicians all over the world are seriously questioning the usefulness of BMI. For a start it was created in the 19th century, which makes it seriously outdated and out of touch with what a real measurement of health actually is, and it does not account for age, sex, ethnicity, genetics or gender. It was popularised in the 1970's when thin was in, and yet it still continues to dominate as a health measure today. In fact there a number of other health metrics that are now giving physicians a far more accurate measure of what health is and these are the things that you should be paying attention to when measuring your own health levels:
Waist Circumference:
A larger waist circumference - one greater than 35 inches (85cm) in women or 40 inches (101.6cm) in men - indicates greater body fat in the abdominal area, which is associated with a higher risk of chronic disease. 
Hip to Waist Ratio:
A high ratio (greater than 0.80 in women or greater that 0.95 in men) indicates higher fat stores in the stomach area and is linked to a greater risk of heart disease and chronic disease. A low ratio (lower than or equal to 0.80 in women or lower that or equal to 0.95 in men) suggests higher hip fat storage which is associated with better health.
Blood Pressure:
A normal blood pressure reading is between 120/80 mmHg and 129/84 mmHg.  Having a high blood pressure raises your risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney damage, vision problems and sexual dysfunction. 
Heart Rate:
A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. Find yourself over that and you're at risk of heart failure, stroke and even sudden cardiac death. 
Cholesterol Levels:
For a healthy population, your cholesterol should be less than 5.5 mmol/L. A high cholesterol reading can lead to narrowing arteries, heart attack, stroke, mini stroke or peripheral heart disease. 
Blood Glucose Levels:
A normal range of fasting blood glucose levels is between 70 and 100 mg/dL. Everyone knows that diabetes is a serious problem with a multitude of health related risks attached. If you have high blood glucose readings you could find yourself with a diagnosis for diabetes.  
Overall Inflammation:
How does your body feel? Do you have a lot of injuries, pain, aches, physical symptoms that are debilitating or detrimental to your ability to function well? If you are suffering from recurring or persistent inflammation anywhere in your body, this can be an indication of poor health. 
Mental Wellbeing:
How's your head space and your mindset? Do you have a positive outlook and a sunny disposition or are you struggling with your mental wellbeing, wellness and general lust for life? Mental health is a serious component of overall health and can have detrimental effects on many other parts of the body and lead to physical symptoms and inflammation if it goes unchecked. 
Diet and Water Intake:
You are what you eat and unfortunately if you eat and drink crap you will feel like crap and your body will get ill. What you put into your body will determine how well it will run, how effective your immune system will function and  how much energy you will have to face the day, so be discerning and eat properly and wisely. 
Sleep Patterns:
People that sleep better live longer and have less health problems overall. Your body not only rests when you are sleeping, it heals itself as well and sleep is vital to tissue repair and the regeneration of healthy cells. If you aren't getting 6-8 quality hours of sleep a night, you may find yourself with some serious health issues as a consequence. 

The good news for me is, that I pass on all of those other tests. I am within the normal range of each of those other health indicators, which is super good news for my wellbeing. Does this now mean that I no longer want to lose a few kilos? Nah, I still want to, but not to reach a certain number on the scale so much anymore, but just for my own satisfaction. Zoe said to me  -do you really think that people are going to stand around at your funeral and say "if only she was a stone lighter, we would've loved her so much more!" Which, when you really think about it is pretty funny and totally true. It is fine to want to lose some weight, but the people who really love you the most are going to love you bones and all no matter what, and there is a great deal of comfort to be found in that knowledge. 

BONES AND ALL
Release Date: 2022
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 121 mins 
A romantic horror directed by Luca Guadagnino and based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Camille DeAngelis. Bones and All unpacks a fresh horror perspective as well as a coming of age love story in one fell swoop.
It's the late 80's and Maren, a teenager, finds herself abandoned by her father when she acts on her increasing hard to ignore cannibalistic tendencies. On the run and searching to discover the true nature of who and what she is, Maren bumps into some of her own kind which has both delightful and disastrous consequences. 
Not for the faint-hearted, Bones and All  delivers something equal parts repellent and compelling. The acting here is incredibly good with Timothee Chalamet, Taylor Russell and Mark Rylance bringing stunning and genuine performances all round. The overall effect is seriously contemplative and very original. 
FINAL SAY: There's before bones and all, and then there's after. 
3 Chilli Peppers ​

There is nothing quite like a stretch of crappy winter weather to provide the perfect opportunity for a bit of cosy self care time. All of the best self care can be done from the comfort of your own home and in winter, you need to really hone your self care skills. It's easy to get run down, depressed and unwell during the darker months, so making sure that you are doing lovely things for your mind, body and spirit is not only a good idea, its downright wise. 
Here is a useful list of delightfully simple and inexpensive ways to recharge your batteries, reenergise your mood and re-invigorate your system on a wet and gloomy winter weekend.

• Stream a movie
• Listen to some music or make a new playlist
• Read a book
• Knit a scarf or beanie
• Take a bubble bath
• Grab an umbrella and take a walk in the rain
• Try a new recipe
• Clean out your wardrobe
• Binge watch a tv series 
• Do some mindful colouring in
• Learn a new language
• Look through your old photo albums
• Make a vision board
• Put on a face mask
• Have coffee and cake with a friend
• Listen to a podcast
• Meditate
• Plan a holiday 
• Do YouTube yoga
• Make a dessert
• Give yourself a make over
• Sew something
• Take a nap
• Home manicure or pedicure 
• Declutter a cupboard
• Take an online class
• Play a video game
• Start a journal
• Read a magazine or blog
• Play cards 
• Do YouTube Pilates
• Bake biscuits or cupcakes
• Create a collage 
• Call a friend or family member 
• Sing and dance to your favourite songs
• Make a bucket list
• Paint a picture 
• Put outfits together in your wardrobe 
• Write thank you cards to people you value
• Give yourself a new hairdo
• Play a board game 
• DIY something around the house
• Play an app 
• Make a time capsule
• Try nail art
• Watch a documentary 
• Plan a vegetable garden to plant in the spring
• Play with a pet
• Make soup 
• Do an online workout 
• Meal prep
• Donate to a charity online
• Watch funny YouTube clips
• Do a puzzle
• Learn how to read tarot cards 
• ​Watch a movie off the spicywatch Hall of Fame list

Just find something to do that makes you feel amazing! Try to embrace the quiet calm of the winter months and above all else, be kind to your beautiful self. 

THE LODGE
Release Date: 2019
Rating: R 18+
Running Time: 113 mins 
A psychological horror film directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala that delivers a grim and hard hitting portrait of a family in crisis. Ever since Ari Aster gave us the brilliant thriller Hereditary, a lot of other movies have jumped on the 'mentally scarred family in deep crisis' trope and have not been able to deliver. The Lodge certainly does deliver, but it's extremely large helpings of grim isolation, mental torment and painful grief are definitely going to be too jarring for some viewers. 
After their mother suicides, teenage Aidan and young Mia go to live with their father who has just entered another serious relationship with a woman named Grace that he met through his latest research novel about cults. They all retreat to the family's remote lodge in Massachusetts during the deep winter period for some rest and relaxation, what could possibly go wrong?
Everything about this film felt like a red flag to me. You've got the clearly grieving, betrayed and angry children, the clueless father who willingly takes an ex-cult member on holidays to a remote place and Grace herself who is stealthily guzzling meds and has a little dog that appears to do nothing but sit in a basket. It all felt a bit contrived and highly unlikely at its essence. However, there were some good plot twists and ideas being tossed around here, and Riley Keough who plays Grace delivers a gripping and convincing portrayal of a women in peril. 
Not a life changer, but a worthy watch nonetheless. 
FINAL SAY: Nearer, My God, to Thee.
3 Chilli Peppers ​

Why do we defy? What is happening inside of us when we feel the need to defy? Usually it is some kind of authority or something that we may feel oppressed by or overwhelmed by that may trigger a need in us to resist openly and boldly. The need to defy rather than accept is human, we all do it, but the degree that we feel compelled to do it, does differ from person to person. So why do some people feel like they need to defy more often or more strongly when others are just happy to comply? And what is actually going on when we find ourselves falling into defiance? 
The topic of defiance is as complex in its psychology, design and origin as the cosmos. Sometimes defiance happens because it is expressing a need, other times it is expressing a deficit or disgust and sometimes defiance can be as simple as your mood or your internal stress levels on any given day. Whatever the reason, we have all at some stage felt the urge to fight back, push back, refuse to accept or bristle against, and that my friends is defiance.
What I can tell you, is that people don't defy for nothing, so for whatever reason, the person in defiance feels very justified in their defiance, which makes it one of the most difficult states to alter and manage and it is why people will so stubbornly adhere to their defiance's. Just like our values and morals, our defiance levels are part of who we are, but there has been some interesting scientific investigation into the topic of defiance that suggests that some people may have less control over their defiance than others. 
At its most simple definition, defiance is basically control aversion. It is the urge that all humans have to rebel against control over one's decisions or ideals. It can be explained by investigating the connectivity between two regions of the brain (the parietal and frontal lobes) as well as behavioural measures of distrust or a lack of understanding. It has been scientifically proven that people with stronger synchronous activation of the two mentioned brain regions were more likely to demonstrate stronger defiant behaviours. They were also more likely to struggle with trust, real consequence constructions and overall decision making. 
When children go into defiance mode, they go hard; this is because they are generally lacking the language or emotional aptitude (due to their immaturity) to restrain or comprehend their feelings of defiance, so they often demonstrate their defiance physically, violently or in extreme measures. Defiance in children often looks like stubbornness, annoyance, refusal or obstinance. It can look pretty much the same in people that have a strong link between the partial and frontal lobes of their brains. These people are synonymous throughout history with rebellion, insurrection, mutiny, revolt, revolution and uprising. They are people who can get a crowd into a flurry when they get going!
And sometimes, we need people to perform these tasks, we need people to revolt, to speak out, to push back and to question the status quo. If there was never any defiance in the world we would have some very serious problems. Corruption, abuse, war and and manipulation would be rife and people with little conscience would rule the planet while everyone else would happily conform like a bunch of mindless lemmings. Not a very appealing prospect at all.
It is true, we do need defiance, it serves a purpose, we need it to protect and defend ourselves and others. However, it is worth noting that not everyone has their defiance levels in check and some people will defy that the sky is blue just to engage another persons limits. This is when defiance is not pro-active or necessary, it is destructive, foolish and thoughtless. It is not empowering, it is disempowering. It is not strong, it is challenging. It is not pushing back, it is pushing over.
Learning to understand where your own levels of defiance sit and where the line sits between proactive and destructive defiance is a moral obligation that we all owe to ourselves and everyone else that we share this incredible planet with. Sometimes defiance is needed and sometimes compliance is necessary, and knowing when to use each of them will make you a better person. And if like me, you think that you may have a strong connection between your parietal and frontal lobe that make you want to fight the powers that be and be a little more defiant than you probably need to be at times, don't despair. Put your penchant for defiance to good use and always stand up for the underdog, question anyone that is obviously a gas lighter, oppressor or fuckwit and try hard to use your powers of defiance to do good things in the world. You don't have to start a revolution to be making changes and you don't have to insight a rebellion to gain a following, and don't you forget that!

​SAINT MAUD
Release Date: 2021 
Rating: MA 
Running Time: 84 mins 
A British psychological thriller that could have easily sat on the gritty list due to its disturbing behaviours and shocking outcomes. Directed by Rose Glass in her feature directorial debut, Saint Maud has received rich critical acclaim for its direction, atmosphere, performances and score. 
A young and deeply pious hospice nurse becomes obsessed with her client, a terminally ill dancer. Desperate to save her client's soul before she dies, Maud goes to extreme and dangerous lengths. 
Saint Maud is a genuinely unsettling watch that constantly swings between religious fanaticism, social awkwardness and a nauseating sense of discomfort and unease. Morfydd Clark portrays Maud with such striking and disturbing effect that you find yourself swimming upon the waves of ecstasy and horror along side of her and the finale delivers a slap down ending that is pretty unforgettable. 
Not an easy watch but Saint Maud is definitely not one to miss either. 
FINAL SAY: Never waste your pain.
4 Chilli Peppers ​

Just like 2021, the home viewing opportunities in 2022 grew so fast that I found myself juggling all of my streaming services, and I always seemed to have an over-abundance of new release material to trawl through. There was a head spinning amount to absorb this year, and I was also very grateful to be constantly receiving high quality recommendations from friends and family throughout the year as well.  We were again, all very spoilt for choice, and if you couldn't find something to watch in 2022 then you just weren't trying hard enough!
I managed to get through 205 movies and 158 television series this year. I also re-watched the entire Game of Thrones series, which was just as good, perhaps even better, the second time around. Basically, I was flat out watching something every day of the year and I still didn't get to half of the material that is on my 'to see' lists, but I did have a bloody good go at it!
The task of seeing everything has become arduous beyond anyone's means, and unless you are willing to permanently strap yourself to the couch and do nothing but watch movies and TV, there is just no way that you can manage to see it all. And so you must be discerning, and hopefully this is where I can offer a hand and some sound advice around what you should be investing in your time in; if you haven't done so already. 
Again, I was thrilled to be able to view great movies and TV across all genres, for which I am always grateful. In particular I really appreciated seeing so many excellent horror, thriller and fantasy offerings this year; most of which boasted stunningly good visuals and terrifically original storylines. I think that audiences are becoming more acclimated to a few scares and chills these days, and the demand for quality horror does thankfully seem to be on the rise. 
And so, without further ado....here is my selection for the best viewing experiences of 2022. 
BEST MOVIES (2022 release):
Everything Everywhere All At Once - Art House 4 Chilli Peppers
All Quiet on the Western Front - War/ Action 4 Chilli Peppers
The Sea Beast - Kids 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Barbarian - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Nope - Sci- Fi 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Blonde - Gritty 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
ELVIS - Musical/ drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers  
The Batman - Action/ Super 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - Action/ Super 3.5 Chilli Peppers
The Northman- Action  3.5 Chilli Peppers
Thor: Love and Thunder - Action/ Super 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Fresh - Thriller   3.5 Chilli Peppers
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery - Crime  3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Bodies, Bodies, Bodies - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Smile - Horror  3.5 Chilli Peppers

2022 HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
Hustle - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers
Terrifier 2- Horror 3 Chilli Peppers
Hellbender-  Horror 3 Chilli Peppers 
I Want You Back - Romance/comedy  3 Chilli Peppers 
Clerks 3 - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 

Here are my top recommendations for pre-2022 releases that I didn't get around to seeing until 2022:
C'mon C'mon - Drama 4.5 Chilli Peppers 
Licorice Pizza - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
Nightmare Alley - Horror  4 Chilli Peppers
Spiderman: No Way Home - Action/ Super 4 Chilli Peppers 
West Side Story - Musical 4 Chilli Peppers 
Flee - International 4 Chilli Peppers
Annette - Art House/ Musical 4 Chilli Peppers 
Nitram - Gritty 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Raid: Redemption - Action 4 Chilli Peppers 
Titane - Art House 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Love Witch - Art House 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Dolemite is My Name - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Antrum - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Ron's Gone Wrong - Kids 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Ghost Busters: Afterlife  - Horror  3 Chilli Peppers
Silent Night - Sci-Fi 3 Chilli Peppers
How I Live Now - War/ Action 3 Chilli Peppers 

BEST TELEVISION SERIES 2022:
Somebody, Somewhere - Drama/ Comedy 5 Chilli Peppers 
Atlanta S4 - Art House 5 Chilli Peppers 
Ozark S4 - Crime/ Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Maid - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Better Call Saul S6 - Crime/ Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson - Comedy 5 Chilli Peppers 
Dopesick -  Drama 5 Chilli Peppers
The White Lotus S2 - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Severance - Fantasy 4.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Peacemaker - Super/ comedy 4 Chilli Peppers
Pam and Tommy - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Boys S3 - Super/ Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers
This is Going to Hurt - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
FROM - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers 
Pistols - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
Umbrella Academy S3- Fantasy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Dahmer- Horror/ Crime 4 Chilli Peppers
Black Bird - Crime 4 Chilli Peppers 
The Bear- Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
What We Do In The Shadows S4 - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Woodstock '99 - Doco 4 Chilli Peppers 
Love, Death and Robots S3 - Fantasy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Our Flag Means Death - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Stranger Things S4 Part 1 - Sci-Fi 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Mirror, Mirror by Todd Samson - Doco 3.5 Chilli Peppers 

2022 TV HONOURABLE MENTIONS: ​
House of the Dragon- Fantasy  3.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Serpent Queen - Period/ fantasy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Man vs Bee - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Colin from Accounts - Comedy - 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Always Sunny in Philadelphia S15 - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Bloods S2-Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Ghosts S4 - Comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Lizzo's Watch out for the Big Grrls - Reality 3 Chilli Peppers
Moon Knight - Super 3 Chilli Peppers
The Outlaws - Drama/comedy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Brassic S4- Crime/comedy  3 Chilli Peppers 
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Fantasy 3 Chill Peppers 
The Sandman - Fantasy 3 Chilli Peppers 
Wednesday - Fantasy 3 Chilli Peppers 

Anyone that knows me well, knows that I love Halloween. I called my first cat Samhain (which was the name of the Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season aka Halloween) and my new cat is called Salem, home of the infamous witch trials. I like to go ghost hunting in my spare time, I adore horror movies and novels and love sweet treats. So yeah, of course I love Halloween. I love everything about it and who wouldn't? You can dress up in scary garb, eat tonnes of candy, pull out the tarot cards and Ouija board and watch creepy arse movies, to be honest it is kind of hard to find any negatives here. 
I wish that we had some scary haunted houses to walk through like they do in other countries though, and that more kids engaged in the trick or treat aspect of the holiday. This year, because of the dreadful weather, we hardly had any  little trickers come to the door in Enfield, which was so disappointing. I now have a massive bowl of uneaten candy to contend with, and considering that I still need to squeeze into my 'mother of the bride' wedding gown in less than a month, this kind of temptation is not welcome right now. 
We do have two banging Jack O' Lanterns at the front door though. Craig and Seth did a stellar job of carving up a couple of pumpkin heads for us. I bloody love a good Jack O' Lantern and I always feel much safer at Halloween with a couple of them burning at the entrance of our home. For those of you that don't know your Jack O' Lantern history, please allow me enlighten you. 
The carving of vegetable effigies and gourd heads has been common practise around the world for centuries. It is believe that the carving of  what we now call a 'Jack O' Lantern' at Halloween first began in Ireland in the 17th century when turnips and mangle wurzels were hollowed out to act as lanterns. They often had grotesque faces carved into them to deter uninvited guests. They were set out during Samhain when it was believed to be the time of the year that supernatural beings and the souls of the dead walked the earth freely for one night only every year.
On the 31st of October, the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is said to be at its thinnest, and by placing a burning root vegetable out of the front of your home and ensuring that it stayed alight all night, you were safeguarded from allowing any ill natured or unwelcomed spirit entrance into your home. 
Every year on October 31st, we have at least one Jack O' Lantern on our porch that burns throughout the entire night. And whether it is superstition or just good luck, we have not had any unwelcomed guests to our house on Halloween night either, so it is a tradition that has continued for us. Not only that, but they look so awesome and they are so much fun to design and carve.  The kids in our neighbourhood know that if they see the burning Jack O' Lantern on the doorstep then we are open for some serious candy distribution. 
Perhaps one day I will make it overseas for one of those big, glitzy and all out Halloween celebrations, but in the mean time I am happy to keep my Halloweens on the low down. Just me, my tribe, my good friends, my black cat, my Jack O' Lanterns, my horror movies and my unfortunately still too big bowl of candy!
​And for my keen horror viewers, here's my pick for this year's Halloween movie feature:

BODIES, BODIES, BODIES
Release Date: 2022
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 94 mins 
A suspense thriller with a slasher/ gore undertone, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies delivers dark humour and a rising body count in equal measure. Directed by Halina Rejin and written by Sarah DeLappe, this mystery driven tale about a bunch of entitled twenty-somethings will keep you guessing until the very last moments with an extremely satisfying reveal. 
Wealthy Sophie is hosting a "hurricane party" at a mansion owned by her family. As the weather closes in, the group imbibe a number of illicit substances and then decide to play "Bodies, Bodies, Bodies" which is a murder in the dark type game. It's all fun and games until someone has their throat slashed mid-game. Immediately, the group begin to turn on each other and suspicions start to spin out of control as the body count continues to rise as the night progresses. 
This is a well-crafted, modern, whodunnit that explores friendship loyalties, youthful archetypes and the effect that social media has posed around logical thinking and problem solving for our twenty-something cohort. The cast is pretty terrific, with Rachel Sennott, Pete Davidson, Maria Bakalova and Lee Pace bringing loads of youthful energy and believability to their roles.
Every bit as entertaining as the original Scream movie, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies is destined to generate a cult following in years to come. 
FINAL SAY: Did you just fucking shoot me? 
3.5 Chilli Peppers ​

Your body is sending you signals all of the time. Most of the time we are so wrapped up in whatever we are doing that we fail to hear or recognise these signals. When this happens, we get lethargic, we feel weary and sometimes we even get ill. In extreme cases we can even suffer disease, serious sickness or worse still; incurably poor health.
Recently a lot of research and energy has gone into understanding our bodies as a type of eco-system. An individually and uniquely designed system that needs to be in balance to thrive and blossom. Our bodies need balance, rest, nutrients and attention in order to work at peak performance, so ignoring even the most subtle of messages can spell disaster down the track if it goes unnoticed. 
So what should we keep an eye out for? To be honest any signal of imbalance should be treated as serious and dealt with right away in order to quell further problems, but it is a good idea to know what some of those subtle differences may be and potentially what they could be indicating. 
Let's start at the top of the body and work our way down from there. The head is a vitally important part of our body, it houses our brain, eyes, ears, nose and mouth, not to mention it is often fully exposed to the elements much of the time and can therefore also be prone to skin eruptions and abrasions. In short, head signals can be very unforgiving and frequent. 
Headaches can be a sign of feeling overwhelmed or having difficulty dealing with new demands, this in turn can lead to sleeping difficulties, a lack of alertness or agency and can cause people to lose control of situations around them. Any headache or brain discomfort should be investigated immediately by a trained physician, as should any interruptions to the senses of the face such as sight, hearing, smelling or tasting. Many stress, anxiety and anger signals are triggered around the face and head and can indicate a need for attention, therapy or adjustment. If you have frequent headaches it can indicate a serious underlying condition and you should seek medical advise asap. 
Down to the chest we go and we are on the look out for any shortness of breath or laboured and uneasy breathing. Chest pressure can be your bodies way of signalling potential threats or fear of the unknown and it can be alleviated through calming and meditative practises. Of course, any serious chest or breathing problems should always be checked by a professional, but recognising when your body is reacting to certain situations will allow you to better understand when the need for professional intervention is required and when it is not. Hundreds of people rock up to the emergency department every year with chest pains and breathing difficulty claiming to be having a heart attack when they were really just have a panic or anxiety attack. This is why it is important to get to know your body so that you can decipher what it is trying to tell you. 
Heading down further we encounter the gut. The gut is a labyrinth of nerve endings and a biome of its own that resides within your lower abdomen. Recent studies believe that the gut is every bit, perhaps even more, complex than the human brain. It appears that we store much of our stress, anxiety and worry in our gut and any digestive problems or changes in appetite can be a call to attention around unresolved issues and emotional baggage. Gut feelings really are gut feelings, and recent research into the gut is revealing a multitude of fascinating and important body hacks about the gut, so keep your ear to the ground on this topic because I think we are going to be seeing a lot more focus in this area of health in the coming years. 
Now lets not forget to address out limbs, back and feet. Sore feet, muscle fatigue, tension, pinched and aching limb ailments have all been linked to supressed emotions. Turns out that your gut isn't the only thing storing all those bad vibes, your muscles, skin and bones do it too and it can manifest in a number of aching and annoying ways throughout your system. Skin break outs, rashes, aches, pains, stiffness, throbbing and numbness have all been linked to stress and anxiety conditions and have shown vast improvement when treated with gentle, holistic and calming treatment methods. 
Any restlessness, inability to settle or ground yourself is another way that your body sends you signals that you aren't operating at 100%. Even a simple niggle or nuisance pain can turn into something significant if it is left unattended for long enough, so long story short, never ignore the signals that your body sends to you. Listen to that twinge, notice that knot and be attentive to anything that seems odd, out of the norm or annoying within your system. And never forget one of my favourite pieces of advise; that if you listen to your body when it whispers, then you'll never have to hear it scream. So please, tune in and stay strong. 

NOPE
Release Date: 2022
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 130 mins 
Jordan Peele delivers a unique mix of sci-fi suspense and horror that is destined to become a cult classic with Nope. With elements of early '80s Spielberg and a big nod to classic sci-fi monster horror, Nope manages to be sharp, funny and creepy in ways that the sci-fi/ horror genre hasn't been in a very long time. 
Em and OJ Haywood have inherited their father's ranch after he is killed in a freak accident on the property. The two attempt to keep the family legacy afloat by selling horses to a nearby Western Theme Park, however, at night, strange and inexplicable things are occurring and their horses are being effected. 
This sounds like a simple story, but it really isn't. There is also a second story running along side that invokes a chimpanzee and a '90s sitcom TV program, but I really don't want to spoil anything for you. In fact the less you know the better here. I went in blind and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. 
The cast is really strong here with Keke Palmer, Daniel Kaluuya, Brandon Perea and Steven Yeun all giving terrific performances. Michael Wincott is also fabulous as the creative film-maker and Keith David rounds things out perfectly as the Haywood patriarch and ranch owner Otis Haywood. 
Teamed with excellent special effects and unnerving sound effects, Nope will stick with you and have you pondering the clouds more than you did before you saw this film. 
FINAL SAY: Yeah, nah nah nah. 
3.5 Chilli Peppers ​

Last week we welcomed a new kitten into our lives. Salem, our black eight week old kitten arrived in Enfield just ten days ago after a screaming drive home from Melbourne to relocate with us. Born from a stray cat and delivered inside of a lawn mower catcher in my brothers backyard, Salem is anything but meek and has been tearing up our home, scratching up the place and making herself more than comfortable in our now very kitten proofed home. 
I cannot deny that I seriously under-estimated how much energy kittens can have, especially since we had a geriatric cat for about a decade that did nothing but eat, snuggle and sleep. Salem does those three cat things a lot as well, but she also jumps, runs, skitters, drags,  chews, destroys, pounces, climbs, bites and scratches. And all of this is apparently very normal for a now nine week old kitten, but boy is it tiring! I am feeling a new level of fatigue that I haven't experienced since my children were toddlers. 
Kittens need a tonne of attention, that's the bottom line. And they require so much of your time, energy and commitment if they are to become well adjusted, content and loving adult pussy cats. In the last ten days alone we have had to navigate settling Salem into her new home environment, a trip to the vet for vaccinations and chipping (which made her so lethargic that I thought she was going to die) and then to add icing to the already quite stressful kitten cake, she also had a bout of explosive kitten diarrhoea which was not only messy and smelly, but truly gross and distressing.  
Has it been amazing? Yes at times, it has been extremely cute, cuddly and enjoyable. But mostly, it has been tiring, taxing, stressful and troubling. And so it should be right? We have literally introduced a wild animal into our home, what did we really expect was going to happen? Sure I had visions of tiny kitten cuddles, morning snuggles and sweet head-butting behaviours teamed with gentle but cute play, and yes we did get all of that, but we also got a tiny bundle of claws and teeth! A pint sized, furry, killing machine that appears to be hellbent on wearing us out, wrecking all of our stuff and keeping us up at night. 
The other day Seth was at home sick, really quite sick indeed and in need of some rest and recovery time.  He said that he was more than happy to do a spot of kitten sitting whilst he was resting at home. When I got home from work I asked how Salem had gone without Craig or I around. Poor Seth proceeded to explain that whilst we were out Salem had bouts of extremely high energy which involved zooming about the house, leaping off the furniture, scaling the fly wire screens, biting his feet, jumping on top of his head and attacking him on and off throughout the day. Needless to say, Seth did not get a lot of rest with all of that going on and he was also sporting some seriously welted battle scars on his stomach, arms and feet; clear evidence that Salem was indeed going bonkers and attacking him roughly. This was the point when we realised that our tiny Salem was going to be a handful and that the 'settling in to her new home' honeymoon was well and truly over!
And what do the experts say about all of this? They say that this is all very normal stuff, and we just have to stay calm and ride it out, that the kitten phase only lasts about a year so we should try to make the most of having a baby in the house. A YEAR! Wtf? I am going to look like that crazy cat lady off the Simpsons if this continues for a year! Walking around aimlessly in an unkempt state and talking gibberish to myself with a cat hanging off my back all of the time. I am praying that our little hellbender settles down a little bit sooner than that, but we will just have to do what the cat whisperer says and find our peace with it. 
When you adopt a pet you have to take it on completely. You sign up to see it through the vet visits, the bouts of explosive diarrhoea, the destruction of property and in our case the mental kitten stage! And you do that for the duration of its lifetime, no matter how it all turns out. When you become a pet owner, its a little like being a parent all over again, you don't get to tap out or check out and you have to make your peace with things going wrong from time to time. And I really cannot deny that in spite of Salem's hellbender antics, those delightful pussy cuddles, feathery soft fur pats and delightful tiny facial expressions do make every bit of the effort utterly worthwhile. 

​HELLBENDER
Release Date: 2022
Rating: R 18+
Running Time: 86 mins 
When it comes to low budget independent films, Hellbender has everything and everyone else trumped. While the rest of the world was lollygagging about during the covid-19 lockdown period, the Adams family were making this movie. And when I say making it, I mean writing, directing, filming, editing, costume designing, music composing and also acting in the lead roles. The trio - composed of John Adams, Toby Poser and Zelda Adams, collaborated on this low budget horror and the results are deeply impressive. 
A mother and her teenage daughter live a solitary life on an isolated mountain. They have their own band, they forage their own food and they appear to live a very peaceful and natural lifestyle, except for one detail. They are hellbenders, and if you want to know what that is, then you'll need to see the movie!
What Hellbender delivers may be janky in effects, but it more than makes up for that with its brilliant cinematography and gripping atmosphere. I was hooked at the 10 minute mark and I think that this little hidden gem deserves  lot more attention and applause. Toby Poser and Zelda Adams are incredibly good in front of the camera here, delivering a mother-daughter, coming of age folk tale like no other. 
FINAL SAY: Growing up is hell. 
3 Chilli Peppers ​

The Queen's birthday long weekend could not have arrived at a more convenient time. Three days of wintery Enfield bliss was just what my flagging system needed and I spent much of the last few days bopping about in my flannelette PJ's, sipping alcoholic beverages and binge watching an absolute swag of TV and movies.  And I have to say that there has been a lot to enjoy on streaming services lately as they all seem to be scrambling over the top of each other to stream a multitude of good quality viewing opportunities. 
It is around this time every year that I like to offer my list of the best of the year so far to my faithful readers. Well, the best that I have watched anyway, I know for sure that there is a lot more out there to see than just what I put forward, but if I was recommending,  these are the TV programs and movies that I believe deserve your attention, your time and your energy so far.  So, in no particular order - 
TV SHOWS:

• Atlanta S3 - Drama SBS
• Our Flag Means Death - Comedy Foxtel
• Severance - Mystery/ Sci Fi Apple+
• EVIL S2 - Horror Stan 
• Ozark S4 -  Crime/ Drama Netflix 
• The Pentaverite - Comedy Netflix
• Peacemaker - Comedy/ Super Foxtel
• After Party - Mystery Apple+
• This is Going to Hurt - Docuseries Foxtel 
• Stranger Things S4 - Sci Fi Netflix 
• The Outlaws - Comedy/ Drama Prime
• Bloods S2 - Comedy Stan
• The Boys S3 -  Super Prime
• Pam and Tommy - Drama Disney
• Love, Death and Robots S3 - Sci Fi/ Animation Netflix
• Love on the Spectrum US - Reality Netflix
• Cursed Films S2 - Documentary Shudder 
• Lizzo's - Watch Out for the Big Grrrls - Reality Prime 
• Moon Knight - Super Disney 

MOVIES:

• The Batman - Super
• Fresh - Thriller 
• I Want You Back  - Rom/Com
• The Northman - Action 
• Nitram - Gritty 
• Everything, Everywhere All At Once - Fantasy 
• Hellbender - Horror 
• ​Spiderman - No Way Home -Super 

THE BATMAN
Release Date: 2022
Rating: M
Running Time: 176 mins
The latest offering in the DC comic world, The Batman directed by Matt Reeves plunges us back into the seedy underbelly of Gotham City in perhaps the most gothic and dark portrayal of Batman so far. It was universally praised by fans and critics alike for it performances, score and cinematography and quickly became one of the highest grossing films of 2022. 
A masked psychopath calling himself the Riddler begins a grisly killing spree across Gotham City, leaving notes for the Batman at every crime scene. Batman must try to uncover the true identity of the Riddler and put his diabolical plans to an end before more lives are lost. 
All of the original villains are back in action here with The Penguin, Cat woman and the Riddler all making an appearance and they are a far cry from their first portrayals in the Tim Burton originals. In fact the entire Batman franchise has shifted gear again; moving further into the realms of lavish noir and further from the comic book cheap thrills of its earlier days. 
Across the board the cast is fantastic, with notable efforts from Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Andy Serkis, John Turturro and Colin Farrell. Robert Pattinson has the lead role and portrays Batman with an entirely new level of broody emo that the character was missing from previous instalments. And although this is not my favourite Batman movie, I do think that Pattinson may be my favourite Batman to date. 
​Almost as good as The Dark Knight, and certainly as visually appealing, The Batman although clearly overlong, is a worthy and enjoyable superhero watch. 
FINAL SAY: Fear is a tool. When that light hits the sky, it's not just a call. It's a warning. 
3.5 Chilli Peppers ​

Spicywatch.com celebrated its eighth birthday last Saturday evening. And how she has grown over the years from a humble dozen or so movies reviews when I first launched her in May 2014 to the massive 933 reviews that she now has under her belt. In the 8 years that Spicywatch has been on the internet I have had over 130,000 hits and on average, good old Spicywatch manages to rustle  up around 3000 readers a month.
So naturally, I had to celebrate the wonderful and joyful occasion of Spicywatch's 8th birthday and invite some movie loving family and friends around to Enfield to share in the movie chatter. 
With the perfection and infinity of the number 8 in mind, I asked my guests to share a clip that they felt was perfect in some way.  It could be perfect in dialogue, scene, costume, lighting, atmosphere, composition or just perfectly memorable to them and something that they go back to time and time again. 
As it has been at every Spicywatch birthday occasion, we traversed all of the genres together; laughing, crying and remembering the movie moments that have stuck with us throughout the years. 
Here is a sampling of some of the movies that made it to the viewing arena for their perfect  and memorable scenes:

• The Fall
• Toy Story 3
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Pan's Labyrinth 
• Whale Rider
• Big Fish 
• Kill Bill 
• The Lord of the Rings 
• The Conjuring 2
• ​Samsara
• Moulin Rogue
• Marriage Story 
• Henry V
• House of Flying Daggers 
• The Lighthouse
• Soul
• Napoleon Dynamite
• The Great Gatsby
• Beautiful Creatures
• Fantastic Mr Fox 
• The Bourne Identity
• Mr Bean's Disaster Movie
• Shadow
• Rosemary's Baby
• Much Ado About Nothing 
• Dancer in the Dark
• Midsommar
• Suicide Squad 2
• The Great Beauty 
• Apocalypto 
• The Ghoulies 

Many thanks to the special people who gave up their Saturday evening and made the very cold journey out to Enfield to share the celebration of Spicywatch.com with me, your presence was a wonderful and treasured gift. Make sure that you keep on viewing because I am rounding the 1,000 review mark and we will definitely need to celebrate that when it happens! 

EIGHTH GRADE
Release Date: 2018
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 94 mins
Written and directed by stand up comedian Bo Burnham, this coming-of-age tale had me squirming in my seat with it's accurate and embarrassingly memorable recount of early adolescence and teenage awkwardness. 
Kayla Day is completing her final week of eighth grade and preparing to enter high school. Shy and socially awkward, Kayla spends her free time making motivational videos on YouTube that get little to no views. Between navigating social media, school cliques, crushes and her clingy single father, Kayla is just trying to do her best to stay optimistic. 
This movie feels so genuine and real, the character of Kayla (played perfectly by Elsie Fisher) offers an accurate and unpolished version of early teenage awkwardness that was so desperately missing from the coming-of-age genre and it is delivered in such a fresh and plausible way. 
Although completely different in so many ways to my own adolescent experiences, there were still moments when I recognised the awkward longings and difficulties of Kayla as I watched; proving that teenagers are still just teenagers and that growing pains haven't changed all that much in 30 years. 
FINAL SAY: Growing up can be a little bit scary and weird. 
3.5 Chilli Peppers ​

Your mind, like mine, consists of three different modes of thinking. When we are doing mundane or neutral types of activities like driving, brushing our teeth, shopping or running errands, we are usually engaging our Rational Mind. And when we are having times of high fear, excitement, sadness or joy we are engaging our Emotional Mind and coming in third place  is the ideal state of mind that we don't engage as often as should, and it is called our Wise Mind. 
Let's take a better look at these three states of mind because doing so will help you to understand yourself a whole lot better. In fact, if you can identify when you are triggering automatic responses from these modes of thinking you're going to able to to save yourself a lot of heartache and worry down the road. 
Firstly, let's examine the Emotional Mind. Basically, this mind kicks into gear when our thinking gets triggered by our external experiences of the world, for example:

• When you are arguing or disagree with someone.
• When you are fighting the urge to have a drink .
• When you procrastinate.
• The feelings you get from certain people, places or events. 

In general, the emotional mind is not impartial, it is reactive and it can be crippling. It can hijack our thoughts and sweep us over like a tsunami with dread, anger, sadness, fear, anxiety and many other big and often unhelpful thoughts and feelings. 
Next comes the Rational Mind which is pretty much opposite to the Emotional Mind. The rational mind bases all of its decisions on facts, evidence and things that worked well for us in the past. Situations that engage the rational mind may be things like:

• Deciding what to cook for dinner.
• Driving to work.
• Planning an event or social gathering.
• Learning a new language.
• Fixing a leaky tap or changing a flat tyre. 

The Rational Mind is straightforward, logical and thinking and because it is quite polarised to the Emotional Mind it can create great inner turmoil within people when they are trying to be decisive or precise. 
Enter the third state of mind - The Wise Mind. The Wise Mind is the ideal mind because it takes into account both the Rational and the Emotional mind without allowing them to conflict or overwhelm each other. Rather than allowing the Rational mind to wag its authoritarian finger at the sensitive Emotional mind, it instead seeks to build a bridge between the two and encourages a sense of harmony and acceptance. 
The Wise Mind honours and accepts emotions whilst taking into account the facts by working in a manner that is reasonable. 
A Wise Mind is mindful, aware, observant, patient and kind to us and that is why is we need to try and engage it as often as we can. 
Another way to conceptualise the three Minds, is to imagine how they might form a dialogue with one another. 
Rational Mind: You should get out of bed and go to the gym, you have a lot to do today.
Emotional Mind: I don't feel like getting up, you're stressing me out!
Wise Mind: I can feel stressed out and still get to the gym, I know that I will better once I have gotten my workout done for the day. 
Good old Wise Mind always finds the happy medium that is required to get the job done! And that's why we need to try really hard to recognise which state of mind we are using most of the time by being mindful and aware. This allows Wise Mind to take the reigns and make far better choices, decisions and pathways so that we can stay calm, focused and fresh. 
Being mindful about your 'mind state' will make your life easier and has been proven to assist in the management of anxiety and also to help individuals to identify unhelpful and hijacking thoughts that they entertain within themselves. Engaging your 'Wise Mind' is deeply self empowering, try it for yourself!

FRESH
Release Date: 2022
Rating: R18+
Running Time: 114 mins 
An American thriller film adapted from a screenplay by Lauryn Kahn and directed by Mimi Cave, in her directorial debut. Fresh delivers a unique blend of storytelling that is part American Psycho and part Silence of the Lambs with a sprinkling of Delicatessen and a side of How to be Single, and somehow it works!
Noa is struggling to find a suitable partner when she bumps into Steve in the fruit and vegetable aisle of the supermarket. Steve is handsome, smart and romantic and after several dates the new couple decide to go on a holiday together. Whilst on holidays, Noa discovers the truth about Steve; who he really is and his extremely disturbing appetites.  
This film is greatly strengthened by the terrific performances. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan are really solid here which adds a lot of credence and jet black humour to the story. There's plenty of gripping and disturbing interludes, some nice little twists and some pretty nasty behaviours to wrangle, but overall it's an enjoyable ride. 
FINAL SAY: It's about giving. Giving yourself over to somebody. 
3.5 Chilli Peppers ​

Over the years I have invested in a number of ghost hunting experiences. I have done the ghost investigation tour at the Aradale Lunatic Asylum in Ararat, the Ballarat Walking Ghost tour, the Melbourne Walking Ghost tour, a tour of J Ward in Ararat, the Old Melbourne Gaol tour and I have even been to Monte Christo in Junee which claims to be one of the most haunted sites in Australia as well.
In fact, all of these sites and tours claim to be in very active and haunted places and all them failed to deliver any ghostly activity that I would consider to be significant or particularly memorable. Now I am not saying that these sites aren't actually haunted, many if not all of them probably are, but I myself failed to have what I would consider to be a  significant ghostly encounter at tours of this nature; that was until this week.
Seth had desperately wanted to do a ghost investigation for his 17th birthday and we were all booked in to do just that on his birthday in January.  However, the God's did not smile upon this and not only did the tour guide get Covid-19 and have to isolate, but the actually site that we were going to investigate got totally flooded the week prior to us attending and had to close for refurbishment. Seriously, if that's not a sign that you're not meant to go then I don't know what is really. Anyway, we had to withdraw and reschedule for a future date and not wanting to leave it too long after Seth's birthday to get the ghost hunting rolling, I booked the two of us in to a ghost hunting experience and investigation session at the Blackwood pub last Wednesday night. 
The Blackwood pub is a small venue about 15 minutes outside of Ballan in Victoria. It was once a morgue for the graveyard that is adjacent to the venue and it's history is speckled with both tragedy and mystery which our guide and host "Dolly" informed us of whilst we enjoyed a hearty pub meal before embarking on two hours of ghost investigating. 
Armed with an array of ghost detecting equipment (that had been kindly supplied by our host) and an extensive knowledge of the history of the venue, we were allowed free reign to the venue and graveyard to explore at will. And I am not going to lie, I was not really expecting to experience anything much and had pretty much agreed to do the tour with Seth for a few shits and giggles. And how wrong I turned out to be. 
I can say without any hesitation that the Blackwood pub is haunted, very haunted. And I am not sure if it was the combination of people that were in attendance that evening, if it was just the right pace at the right time or if this place is always running this hot but both Seth and I felt  and saw a lot of odd phenomena that night. From scary shouting ghost box messages, flashing lights, EVP activity, orbs caught on camera, sensations of feeling compressed, dizzy, disorientated and listing from side to side to photos that appear to depict full apparitions, unseen movements and even ghostly faces - we had it all going on. Other people in the group of around 20 people claimed to being touched and grabbed, which thankfully Seth and I did not experience and one poor woman was even struggling to stay upright throughout the night. It was weird beyond all explanation and was easily the most significant and active ghost investigation tour/experience that I have ever been involved in. 
This was both good and bad. Good because if you are going to invest your time and energy in to doing a ghost hunting tour then you do want all of the bells and whistles and this certainly delivered on those fronts. However, it was also kind of bad because when you are around that much activity you need to make sure that nothing is latching on. I had to burn a shit tonne of sage and Palo Santo and do lots of white light meditations after the effect to make sure that nothing came home with us or had latched on to us. And I have never felt compelled to be that thorough when I have been doing a ghost investigation with a tour group before because they just aren't usually that active or significant. 
So would I recommend doing a ghost investigation of Blackwood pub? Yes, I would. But as I said before it is always hard to say just what it is that makes these kind of supernatural experiences amplify, because in all sincerity I have no doubt that someone else could do this tour and experience nothing at all. I personally do think that Blackwood pub is haunted and I do think that there are active spirits at the venue. Can I guarantee an experience if you go? Of course not, but when you stack it against the other ghost related tours that I have been on, it's the best experience that I have had in a tour group thus far and that is worth noting. 
Even if you are a total sceptic, at worst you'll still enjoy a decent pub meal and a little intrigue and a bit of local history. At best, like Seth and I, you'll be shocked and surprised by the levels of activity and creeped out for days to come about what you just experienced first hand. I don't know why I like this kind of stuff so much, at heart I have always loved ghost stories and the unexplained and having had lots of supernatural and eerie experiences all on my own I suppose that it is just nice to have a shared experience with like minded others as well. It is not only affirming but also very bonding, and what's not to like about that? 

GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE 
Release Date: 2021 
Rating: PG 
Running Time: 124 mins 
Made for kids and playing out with as much youthful energy as The Goonies and enough sentimentality as any good Spielberg film, Ghost busters: Afterlife directed by Jason Reitman, delivers a simple and sweet supernatural tale that the whole family can enjoy together.
Egon Spengler, one of the original ghostbusters, passes away and leaves him weird home to his estranged family. Upon moving in, the youngest child of the family Phoebe discovers that Spengler is communicating with her from beyond the grave and is trying to warn her about an impending doom that lies ahead. A supernatural doom that consumed his entire life and now threatens the lives of everyone on the planet.  
There are plenty of call backs to the original film for die hard fans and all of the original gang make appearances at some point during the movie, except of course for Harold Ramis who originally played Egon Spengler in the first Ghostbuster film and passed away in 2014; and there is a tribute to him at the end of the film. Along with the old Ghostbusting crew, the new recruits: Finn Wolfhard, McKenna Grace and Logan Kim are terrific here and Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd fill in the shoes of the supporting adults nicely as well. 
I won't lie, it is a little sappy at times and super sentimental, but it is also a PG rated film, so it kind of needs to be. Ghostbusters: Afterlife is not a life changer, but it is wasn't a bad way to spend a couple of hours either. 
FINAL SAY: I don't remember this job being so painful. 
​3 Chilli Peppers ​

I've always loved films that don't follow a linear path. I love strange and eccentric films, honestly, I think that I like 'strange and eccentric' anything really but movies, music and literature that pushes the boundaries has always had a special place in my heart. 
Who doesn't like a bit of bizarre and surreal speckled into their everyday lives? Well, I'm sure there are actually quite a lot people who don't like material that challenges, confuses or disturbs them, but boy, they are really missing out on all of the fun, aren't they? Some of my favourite films of all time are weird as hell!
Some film makers and directors have practically specialised in producing absurd, unusual and inexplicable films, they've made a household name for themselves out of it. Take David Lynch, Harmony Korine, David Cronenberg or Yorgos Lanthimos to name but a few. If people weren't into weird, then these guys would never had made it big in Hollywood. And I for one, love to ask myself 'what the fuck did I just see?' after viewing a movie because then I know that what I have seen will leave me thinking. It will leave me pondering for days, going back to it in my mind and turning it over like an unsolvable puzzle box. 
And isn't that what we want from artistic and creative film making? Something that makes us think, something that will stretch our boundaries and push our limits. Well, maybe you don't, perhaps I am part of a small group of weirdos that does enjoy this type of cinema, but over the years I have reviewed an array of edgy, unusual, confronting and just plain weird films. Films that weren't just odd, but were, in my opinion also very, very good. And today I am sharing the pick of the litter here for you. 
If you are looking for something quite left of centre but also deeply engaging, then I suggest that you take a look at these beauties.
Full reviews can be found in the appropriate genre list tab. 
ART HOUSE/ MUSICAL/ INTERNATIONAL

• The Lighthouse
• Sorry to Bother You 
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 
• The Killing of a Sacred Deer 
• Dave Made a Maze
• Swiss Army Man 
• The Lobster
• The Mermaid
• The Brand New Testament
• The Skin I Live In
• Kung Fu Hustle 
• I Heart Huckabees 
• Dogville
• Mulholland Drive
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• Being John Malkovich
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 
• Pi
• Delicatessen 
• Wild at Heart 
• Blue Velvet 

GRITTY/ CHALLENGING

• Titane
• Swallow
• Mother!
• Enter the Void
• Dogtooth
• Requiem for a Dream
• Irreversible 
• Dancer in the Dark
• Gummo

HORROR

• Saint Maud
• Possessor
• Midsommar
• Mandy
• Hereditary 
• Susperia
• A Dark Song
• The Neon Demon
• Kill List
• Martyrs
• Jacob's Ladder

SCIENCE FICTION/ FANTASY

• Color Out of Space
• Vivarium
• Annihilation
• The Cell
• The Endless
• Predestination
• Under the Skin
• Melancholia
• The Fall
• The Fountain
• Mirrormask
• Donnie Darko
• eXistenZ
• 2001: A Space Odyssey 

​TITANE
Release Date: 2021 
Rating: R 18+
Running Time: 108 mins 
A French language film written and directed by Julia Ducournau that got tongues wagging, not just because it won the 2021 Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, but also for its intense, jaw dropping concepts and striking imagery. 
Alexia, a dancer with a metal plate in her head due to a childhood accident, has an unusual affinity with cars. She also has an affinity to killing and does so ruthlessly. However, after a sexual encounter with a vehicle (yep, you read that right, a car) she finds herself pregnant and on the run from the law.  Alexia decides to take on the persona of a child that went missing a decade ago in an attempt to go into hiding. The lost boy's father Vincent, a lonely fire captain, is also desperate for a new beginning and he takes Alexia in and allows her to charade as his son. 
This is a seriously provocative and original film. However, it is also not an easy watch by any stretch. There is a lot of graphic body horror and some deeply disturbing depictions that some people may find too much. However, for all of its ugliness, Titane is really about desperate, lost people that genuinely crave love and meaningful relationships, which makes it equal parts distressing and emotional. 
Agathe Rousselle is giving everything here as Alexia and spends much of the movie involved in awkward, weird and revolting interludes. Vincent Lindon brings the term 'damaged' to new light with his misogynistic firefighter crew antics and desperate need to hold back the ravages of time on his body. 
There's a lot to like and also a lot not to like in Titane. I suggest that you see it for yourself and be the judge. 
FINAL SAY: It's very solid. It's titanium. 
3.5 Chilli Peppers

It was another strange year of cinema to say the least. I cannot deny that the home viewing opportunities in 2021 grew so fast that I found myself juggling all of my streaming services and an abundance of new release movies to no end. There was a head spinning amount of material to absorb and we were certainly spoilt for choice. If you couldn't find something to watch in 2021 then you just weren't trying hard enough!
I devoured 213 movies and 142 television series this year. Basically I was flat out watching something every day of the year and I still didn't get to half of the material that is on my 'to see' lists. The task of seeing everything has become arduous beyond anyone's means, and unless you are willing to permanently strap yourself to the couch and do nothing but watch movies and TV, there is just no way that you can manage to see it all. 
However, like I do every year, I did give it my very best shot and I did see a great deal of incredibly good things. 2021, just like 2020 managed to deliver greatness across all of the genres, for which I am always grateful. In particular I really appreciated seeing so many excellent horror and science fiction films this year; most of which boasted stunningly good visuals and terrifically original storylines.
And so, without further ado....here is my selection for the best viewing experiences of 2021. 
BEST MOVIES (2021 release):
The Power of the Dog - Drama  5 Chilli Peppers (Hall of Fame) 
Dune - Sci-Fi 4 Chilli Peppers
Nomadland - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
Promising Young Woman - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
Don't Look Up - Sci-Fi 4 Chilli Peppers
CODA - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
Pig - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
Saint Maud - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers 
Bo Burnham: Inside  - Comedy  4 Chilli Peppers
The Last Duel - Action/Period  4 Chilli Peppers
Encanto - Kids 4 Chilli Peppers
The Dig - Drama   3.5 Chilli Peppers
Nobody - Action 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Mitchell's vs The Machines- Kids  3.5 Chilli Peppers
Fear Street Trilogy - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Cruella - Kids 3.5 Chilli Peppers

2021 HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
Palmer - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers
The Conjuring 3 - The Devil Made Me Do It - Horror 3 Chilli Peppers
Army of Thieves-  Action 3 Chilli Peppers 
Finch - Sci-Fi 3 Chilli Peppers 

Here are my top recommendations for pre-2021 releases that I didn't see until 2021:
Portrait of a Lady on Fire - Romance 5 Chilli Peppers (Hall of Fame) 
The Father - Drama 4.5 Chilli Peppers 
The Trial of the Chicago 7 - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always - Drama  4 Chilli Peppers
Another Round - International  4 Chilli Peppers
One Cut of the Dead - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers
The King of Staten Island - Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers
Possessor - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers
You Were Never Really Here - Gritty 3.5 Chilli Peppers  
Host - Horror 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
On the Rocks -Drama  3 Chilli Peppers
The Dry - Drama  3 Chilli Peppers
Hillbilly Elegy- Drama 3 Chilli Peppers
Blinded by the Light - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers 

BEST TELEVISION SERIES 2021:
Ted Lasso S2 - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Midnight Mass - Horror 5 Chilli Peppers 
Succession S3 -  Drama 5 Chilli Peppers
The White Lotus - Drama 5 Chilli Peppers 
Mr Inbetween S3 - Crime 5 Chilli Peppers
Britannia S3 - Fantasy 5 Chilli Peppers 
EVIL S2 - Horror 5 Chilli Peppers
It's a Sin - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers
Wandavision - Super 4 Chilli Peppers 
Reservation Dogs - Drama 4 Chilli Peppers 
American Gods S3 - Fantasy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Black Summer S2- Horror 4 Chilli Peppers
Mare of Easttown - Crime 4 Chilli Peppers 
SEE S2 - Fantasy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Brand New Cherry Flavour - Horror 4 Chilli Peppers 
What We Do in the Shadows S3 - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Love on the Spectrum S2 - Reality 4 Chilli Peppers 
Resident Alien- Sci-Fi 4 Chilli Peppers
Ghosts S3 - Comedy 4 Chilli Peppers 
Foundation - Sci-Fi 4 Chilli Peppers 

2021 TV HONOURABLE MENTIONS: ​
Master of None S3- Drama  3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Young Offenders S3 - Comedy 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
BUMP - Comedy - 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Behind Her Eyes - Drama 3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Cowboy Bebop - Sci- Fi  3.5 Chilli Peppers 
Loki- Sci-Fi/ Comedy  3 Chilli Peppers 
Scenes from a Marriage - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers
Valley of Tears - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers
Nine Perfect Strangers - Drama 3 Chilli Peppers 
Mr Corman - Art House 3 Chilli Peppers 
The Kominsky Method S3 - Drama 3 Chill Peppers 
AHS Double Feature - 3 Chilli Peppers 

PIG
Release Date: 2021 
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 92 mins 
An American drama, written and directed by Michael Sarnoski in his directorial debut. And I think that it would be fair to say that the subject material here certainly had people raising their eyebrows with scepticism, but in all honesty, Pig is one of the most unexpectedly heartfelt and affecting films of the year, so don't be mislead.
A hermit truffle hunter named Rob (Nicholas Cage) has his truffle hunting pig stolen and will stop at nothing to get it back again, even if it means venturing back into a world that he abandoned long ago. 
As far as the storyline goes, we have all seen this before; a damaged, lonely man becomes attached to his pet and it gets taken from him, hello John Wick. However, it isn't very far into the movie that we see that this is not just a film about avenging a stolen pig, it is actually about having the courage to choose what you really want out of life and the pure joy of simple pleasures. 
Nicholas Cage is bringing his all and hasn't been this good since Leaving Las Vegas, he is actually that good. It's a riveting performance and testament to the fact that he still has it. Alex Wolf is equally good along side of Cage and the two are a powerhouse of emotion together.
I adored the contemplative tone of this film from start to end, I thought that the film's strength dwells in its simplicity. In my opinion, Pig is definitely one of the best drama offerings of 2021.
FINAL SAY: We don't get a lot of things to really care about.
4 Chilli Peppers ​

Halloween came and went for another year. This year we all gathered in Enfield to carve pumpkins, eat our body weight in candy and various sugary substances and watch as much horror as we could squeeze into one weekend.  And boy am I am paying for it this week, not the horror binging but the candy overload.  My poor struggling system is working overtime in an attempt to remove the high sugar, chemical shit-storm that I have willingly smashed into my face over the last 48 hours.
I can still easily digest hours and hours of horror but my ageing body cannot process the filth that is put into lollies these days. What am I saying? That filth has always been in lollies, my body just doesn't know how to process it anymore because I don't eat that kind of shit anymore. I haven't really eaten sweets and ice-cream for the better part of a year now, probably not since last Halloween if the truth be told, and my system is giving me major push back for re-introducing toxins at such a high and furious rate. I have had bloating, cramps, headaches, insomnia and stomach aches like I haven't had in a very long time; a type of horror that I am glad to be seeing the back end of that's for sure. In the future my Halloween's are going to be squarely focused on the horror films and not at all on the candy, and I can assure you of that!
So back to the movies, I did manage to digest 6 horror films in total over the weekend between Friday and Sunday evening. We even managed to get to the cinema - God it has been an age! However, due to more relaxed COVID restrictions and the fact that we are all vaccinated I was thankfully able to receive my first cinematic embrace in 6 months. And did it feel good to slide back into those squeaky faux leather seats with the huge plastic drink holders and smell that buttery popcorn smell again? Oh yes, yes it did! How wonderful it was to be embraced by the darkness and noise of a cinema and how marvellous it was to be swallowed up in 100 minutes of mindless slasher horror that came in the form of (most appropriately) the latest offering in the Halloween franchise - Halloween Kills. 
Okay, not going to lie here, the movie was not great, however the experience of being back in the cinema for a full surround sound, big screen adventure most certainly was. And it seemed timely and extremely appropriate to engage in a Halloween film on the actual day of Halloween. Anyway, it may not have been my favourite offering in the Halloween franchise, but it did get us all out of the house and laughing a lot more than screaming in our seats, which for me is definitely a win and a mighty fine way to spend any Halloween. 

HALLOWEEN
Release Date: 1978
Rating: R 18+
Running Time: 91 mins 
Anyone that knows me well also knows that slasher horror films are my least favourite of all the horror sub-genres. However, although Halloween is technically a slasher it was also the first film to launch a long line of other slasher films that followed, including the 13 instalments in the Halloween franchise. It also spawned the 'final girl' storyline through the long enduring character of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) whom we have all come to know and love, and it has an unforgettable soundtrack that could give anyone the chills. So it is fair to say that Halloween is probably the best, most genuinely original and renowned slasher horror film of all time, and for that reason it would be downright negligent of me to not acknowledge the contribution that it has made to the horror movie industry over the last forty plus years. 
Directed by John Carpenter, (who incidentally also wrote the movie's  haunting soundtrack) Halloween tells the story of a deranged mental patient named Michael Myers. Myers  was committed to a sanitarium for brutally murdering his baby-sitting sister when he was only six years old. Fifteen years later, Myers escapes the hospital facility on Halloween night and returns to his home town. Donning a bleached out William Shatner mask, Myer's swiftly commences 'getting his stab on' and embarks on a bloody rampage. 
With a penchant for baby sitters (particularly Laurie Strode) and bloody big kitchen knives, Myer's has managed to stab, strangle and mutilate his way through 13 Halloween movie instalments, a video game, a novel and even a comic book series, and has become one of the most iconic horror figures in history. Are all of the films great? Absolutely not, in fact are some are downright comical because they are so bad, but as far as the original 1978 Halloween film goes, there is no denying that it was certainly horrifying in it's time and it does deserve at least one viewing in every serious horror fan's repertoire. 
FINAL SAY: It's Halloween. Everyone's entitled to one good scare. 
3 Chilli Peppers ​