One-liner: This anime fantasy mystery adventure transcends the medium with its amusing, enchanting, imaginative and spellbinding mix of the familiar. Studio Ghibli has an excellent reputation when it comes to animated films, having gone with the quality over quantity principle, delivering 24 films over their time as a production studio. Hayao Miyazaki’s quest for transcendent film experiences through the medium of hand-drawn animation remains steadfast, sticking to the traditional format, which launched the studio with continuous improvements rather than a complete reinvention. Often referred ..read more

Having been on numerous radio stations over the last 15 years, whether by weekly feature, phone-in interview or as a guest, Spling has garnered experience on air as well as off air in hosting and presenting podcasts over the years. Having experience across the board, he’s able to offer some insights into what will surely be the next step for podcasts. Spling has been presenting Talking Movies on Fine Music Radio for 10+ years, a show that’s converted into a weekly podcast. Now available on MFM, this weekly film programme has been running for well over 500 episodes. Confessions of a Movie Criti ..read more

Welcome to Talking Movies, I’m Spling. This week we embark on episode 10 of Remembering Barry, a heartfelt tribute to the beloved entertainment journalist and film critic Barry Ronge. A rare privilege, I stepped into Barry’s tranquil Johannesburg home and conversed with his partner of 47 years, Albertus van Dyk. Their starry-eyed story unfolds beautifully, a love that blossomed against their shared passion for the silver screen. You mentioned earlier that you kind of feel a little bit like a curator of some of the things that have made this celebrity so enigmatic and interesting and he’s capt ..read more

If you go down to your local cinema, you’ll notice something that’s become quite prevalent over the last few years. It’s difficult to find a film that doesn’t have a fantasy or family slant with blockbuster movies tending towards sci-fi fantasy and animated features offering audiences an escape from the hard reality and “daily grind”. It’s easy to understand, given our recent history with the pandemic and the rise of superhero films with movies being one of the great unspoken child-minding services of the last 50 years. While it seems parents are more reluctant to let their little ones go and ..read more

Welcome to Talking Movies, I’m Spling. This week we embark on episode 10 of Remembering Barry, a heartfelt tribute to the beloved entertainment journalist and film critic Barry Ronge. A rare privilege, I stepped into Barry’s tranquil Johannesburg home and conversed with his partner of 47 years, Albertus van Dyk. Their starry-eyed story unfolds beautifully, a love that blossomed against their shared passion for the silver screen. He’s led such a splendid career as an entertainment journalist and movie critic. Do you think he ever suffered from imposter syndrome in that time? Yes, we can thank ..read more

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is an investigative docu-series from Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz that delves into concerns surrounding Nickelodeon content produced by Dan Schneider. Centred on Schneider and Nickelodeon shows from the late 1990s and early 2000s, the four episode miniseries questions the showrunner’s role and influence in the creation of these programmes on child actors and viewers. Tackling the documentary from the perspective of two show writers, Quiet on Set gets to grips with the toxic culture from on set working conditions to behind-the-scenes for both children ..read more

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things may be reaching the peak of its popularity in this streaming stretch post Oscars night, but the next work of lunacy from the director (and a re-team with Emma Stone) already has a release date. Not only that, it’s closer than most anyone may have guessed. We had presumed there may have been an outside chance it would come out by the end of the year. Instead, Kinds of Kindness is slated for a June 21st release, per Searchlight Pictures. Co-starring alongside now twice-minted Oscar winner Emma Stone are Willem Dafoe (who can also be seen in Poor Things), Jesse Plemo ..read more

One-liner: Casting, character and storytelling challenges undermine this gritty and promising 90s style action thriller. Heart of the Hunter is a man-on-the-run action thriller from director Mandla Dube, based on the novel by acclaimed and bestselling author, Deon Meyer. Credited as a co-writer alongside Willem Grobler, the adaptation tracks with a retired assassin who’s dragged back into the game when a dangerous government conspiracy with far-reaching consequences threatens to destroy him and his family. Published in 2002, it’s easy to understand Heart of the Hunter’s foray into old school ..read more

Welcome to Talking Movies, I’m Spling. This week we embark on episode 8 of Remembering Barry, a heartfelt tribute to the beloved entertainment journalist and film critic Barry Ronge. A rare privilege, I stepped into Barry’s tranquil Johannesburg home and conversed with his partner of 47 years, Albertus van Dyk. Their starry-eyed story unfolds beautifully, a love that blossomed against their shared passion for the silver screen. When you get to a point where you want to look back and reference some of the stuff, then it does feel a bit like you’ve lost chapters. But that’s, I think, where your ..read more

The Sparks Brothers is a music documentary about Russell and Ron Mael, whose rock band ambitions have kept them in the music business with 25 studio albums, 300 tracks and 50 years. It’s a remarkable accomplishment, which has lead them from high profile live TV performances to the dizzying stunt of performing all 25 of their albums live over just as many days. Having seen them perform in Top of the Pops in 1979 at the age of 5, director Edgar Wright has been a lifelong fan and is perfectly poised to drive this documentary chronicle of the Sparks story. The documentary features photos, concert ..read more