OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny

Dir. James Mangold

Age-defying archaeologist Indiana Jones returns to the big screen (hat intact) to retrieve a legendary dial that can change the course of history.

AT BEST: ‘A comforting if not especially challenging reboot.’ — Dave Calhoun, Time Out

AT WORST: ‘Just a compendium of old bits from the earlier films. That it ends at all is a blessing.’ — Roger Friedman, Showbiz 411

Joy Ride

Dir. Adele Lim

Four unlikely friends embark on an epic adventure that becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, and belonging.

AT BEST: ‘A hilarious, high-energy film that follows the road trip genre closely before subverting in its own way.’ — John Fink, The Film Stage

AT WORST: ‘May not be Bridesmaids-level brilliant, but it’s got more than a couple hall-of-fame-worthy comedy set-pieces.’ — Peter Debruge, Variety

Susie Searches

Dir. Sophie Kargman

An awkward college student with a failing true-crime podcast seizes the opportunity to boost her campus and online popularity by solving the mystery of the missing hometown heartthrob.

AT BEST: ‘Some bitingly funny moments and clever surprises along the way.’ — Kristy Strouse, Film Inquiry

AT WORST: ‘Aims to be about loss and loneliness, but spins its wheels toward mediocrity instead.’ — Robert Daniels, indieWire

Talk To Me

Dir. Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou

A group of friends are thrilled to discover they can conjure spirits, until one unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.

AT BEST: ‘A terrifically scary horror offering thanks to powerful performances.’ — Kristy Puchko, Mashable

AT WORST: ‘Hardly a bad horror film, but the disconnect between what was and what could be looms large.’ — Matthew Monagle, Austin Chronicle

In Jamie Brenner’s Gilt , a budding jewellery designer is out to reclaim a storied family diamond that her estranged grandparents denied her deceased mother. “Family drama, summer love, and one fabulous piece of jewellery combine to create a delicious page-turner that I positively could not put down. Brenner’s perfect pacing and prose shine as brightly as the diamond at her novel’s centre — and cement her status as a standout voice in fiction,” praises fellow author Kristy Woodson. “A light yet juicy family drama… If you love gossip and diamonds, or are a big women’s fiction reader, best-selling author Jamie Brenner’s latest is the perfect poolside read for you,” reviews Reader’s Digest. In Publishers Weekly, Brenner’s work is hailed as a “great skill” for “describing fine jewellery and the workings of the industry, and makes all of her characters engaging.”

“This compelling novel weaves together the past, the present, and a possible future in a panoply of memory, experience, and social unrest,” writes the Library Journal of Erika Kobayashi’s Trinity, Trinity, Trinity. “[It] examines the shifting sands of memory and interconnected identity in a fluid landscape shaped by nuclear radiation, social media, and social connection. Highly recommended.” Vulture was equally impressed: “It’s this layering that makes Kobayashi’s otherwise subtle, light-footed writing intriguing. She stacks and Tetrises themes in such a way that their meanings only become clear when seen in relation to one another — the Olympics, Nazis, Hiroshima.” Fellow author Susanna Moore writes that the novel, “Encloses the reader in a terrifying world undreamed of by the irrational. Humans reduced to themselves, their solitude and incompleteness, make their way cautiously through a world of ordered disequilibrium. Kobayashi writes with an ironic potency that illuminates the actual at every mysterious point.”

In Influence is Your Superpower,

Zoe Chance — the professor behind Yale School of Management’s most popular class — divulges the one thing that influences behaviour more than anything else. “This book is special,” states New York Times bestselling author, Robert Cialdini. “It invites you in with the promise of a truly important topic, charms you with engaging stories and stylings, and treats you to a buffet of beautifully presented, scientifically grounded life lessons about social influence. By the end, my greatest wish was for even more pages.” Another bestselling author, Daniel H. Pink, writes that the book “is so jammed with insight that you’ll find useful advice on almost every page. This smart, accessible book will definitely make you a better persuader — and might even make you a better person.” Meanwhile, fellow Yale professor Laurie Santos calls it, “An absolute treasure trove of small (and often surprising) changes that we can all make each and every day to become more effective influencers.”