Blitz – movie and streaming review
Between September 7th, 1940 and May 11th, 1941, the Nazis carried out an intense bombing…
Top Ten Books of 2024 – book reviews
Percival Everett’s James, a reimagining and recontextualising of Huckleberry Finn is a masterpiece. Satirical, cutting, compassionate, but also in many ways reverential to the original text. Francis Spufford delivers an amazing alternate history crime novel in Cahokia Jazz. Noir detective styling allows an exploration of a richly imagined alternate America of the 1920s with a…
School of Rock The Musical – musical theatre review
It’s lively. It’s cheery. It upends political correctness. In fact, it is the perfect holiday treat. I speak of School of Rock The Musical, featuring the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Glenn Slater and book by Julian Fellowes. Based on the 2003 film, which was a hit for Jack Black, who played…
Paddington in Peru – movie review
Paddington (the voice of Ben Whishaw) gets back to his roots in a rollicking adventure with the Brown family in Paddington in Peru. The intelligent bear remains living comfortably with the clan, although there is now little connection between the parents and their two children. Judy (Madeleine Harris) is applying for university entrance and mum…
Nosferatu – movie review
Atmospheric, Nosferatu puts the bite on an impressionable youngster, who carries her commitment to Dracula into her marriage, with terrifying consequences. Writer and director Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse) is at the helm of this supernatural horror film. He was inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897) and by the screenplay for Nosferatu: A Symphony of…
Top movies of 2024
Photo by Krists Luhaers on Unsplash Despite some dire rumblings, the Australian cinema scene posted a respectable 2024. According to Screen Australia, overall attendances showed a small rise of around 200,000 on 2023 – from 57.9 million to 58.1 million. The gross box office however grew about 5%, from $940 million to $985 million. This…
John Foreman’s Australian Pops Orchestra New Year’s Eve & The Day Before Gala Concerts (Hamer Hall) – concert review
What a glorious way to bring in the New Year! Witness three powerhouse performances from musical theatre royalty, accompanied by conductor John Foreman’s Australian Pops Orchestra. It is the stuff of goosebumps. Silvie Paladino, Paulini and Josh Piterman lay it all on the line. Emotional resonance is palpable throughout. Many times, I had a lump…
Blitz – movie and streaming review
Between September 7th, 1940 and May 11th, 1941, the Nazis carried out an intense bombing campaign in London and other strategic cities across Britain. The offensive came to be known as the Blitz (after the German word for lightning war – blitzkrieg). During the Blitz, 1.25 million British living in urban centres, more than half…
A Real Pain – movie review
Jesse Eisenberg has used his Jewish family’s roots to craft A Real Pain. The film follows cousins making a pilgrimage to their late grandmother’s childhood home in Poland. Eisenberg plays David Kaplan, an anxious New Yorker, married father of one and digital ad salesman. His travelling companion on the week-long trip is Benji Kaplan (Kieran…
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 – movie review
Colour, movement and hijinks are back in the latest instalment of the video game spin off Sonic The Hedgehog 3. Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and his pals, Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), have settled into domestic bliss in Green Hills. That is after their decisive victory over the evil Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey) in…
The Room Next Door – movie review
The limits of friendship are tested in acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s English language debut, The Room Next Door. This lovingly crafted and often moving drama treats the very serious subject of assisted dying with grace and compassion. And despite the subject-matter, it’s not nearly as depressing as you might think. You can see on…
