British author E.L. James’ novel Fifty Shades of Grey “struck” a chord around the world, just as Christian Grey loved to “lash” Anastasia Steele. Featuring bondage and sadomasochism, it was translated into more than 50 languages and has sold well over 100 million copies. Of course, further books followed and then a film series. The…
Nicole Kidman is virtually unrecognisable for much of Destroyer. Her hair is dishevelled, and her face is blemished and hollow. Her eyes have no life in them and it’s difficult to make out what she’s saying. Talk about bleeding for your art. As a young detective, Erin Bell (Kidman) and her partner Chris (Sebastian Stan)…
Five years ago, an endlessly optimistic guy named Emmet rose to become The Special in The LEGO Movie. Overcoming his doubts and an apparent lack of any notable skills, this LEGO figure in a bright orange vest bravely followed his destiny. He became a Master Builder and – with the help of his friends –…
Wrestling’s fake, right? It’s all stage-managed to draw the crowds. But it’s a very serious business for one family in Fighting with My Family. The Knights from Norwich in England are an odd bunch, and all of them wrestle. They’re Dad, “Rowdy” Ricky Knight (Nick Frost); mum Julia (Lena Headey); sons Roy (James Burrows) and…
What price success? That’s the key question asked in Clare Barron’s Australian premiere satirical comedy Dance Nation. Set in the US, the seven kids – six girls and one guy – are looking to replicate their local dance club’s previous successes. They want to make it all the way to the national dance championships. But…
Patrick is a British comedy celebrating our love of pets. It’s told through the eyes of a young woman whose life changes when she unexpectedly inherits her grandmother’s pampered pug. That woman is Sarah Francis (Beattie Edmonson). Her partner has just called it quits on their relationship. She’s about to start a new teaching job…
The subject matter of Pimped is tawdry; nasty in fact. This is a film that starts out without much promise, but gradually draws you into its deviant web. It’s a psycho-sexual thriller in which the protagonist is emblematic of the #MeToo era. Sarah Montrose (Ella Scott Lynch) is a conflicted, mysterious woman. I say that…
Dread is palpable throughout Arthur Miller’s drama A View from the Bridge. The Melbourne Theatre Company’s version features seven actors and one old wooden chair but held me transfixed for two hours. The time is the 1950s; and the place an Italian-American neighbourhood near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The narrator is Alfieri (Marco…
The events depicted in Hotel Mumbai are ghastly … made all the more so because the story is based on fact. I, like so many, recall the day it started and how horrific the reports and images were. For three days in 2008 — from 26 to 29 November — Mumbai was under siege. Arriving…
I loved the droll humour in the slow-moving Sometimes Always Never. The film features the supreme acting of Bill Nighy at his aloof best. The plot concerns a Scrabble-obsessed family and the impact the game has had on their lives. Nighy plays a Merseyside tailor, Alan, whose eldest son, Michael, stormed out of the house…
