It may follow the playbook, but The Way Back still grips tightly. Back in high school, Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) had everything going for him. A basketball phenomenon, he could have punched his ticket to college or even the pros. Instead, he chose to walk away from the game, forfeiting his future. Jack’s glory days…
A cleverly conceived and executed piece that purports to be one thing and turns out to be something else entirely, I am loathe to go into detail about the narrative arc for fear of spoiling the surprise. Suffice to say, the story concerns a couple of old mates – a straight girl and a gay…
A darkly comedic, sick and twisted story concerning an extreme job interview to find a perfect hit man or woman, you are highly unlikely to forget this one in a hurry. Six candidates enter a premises without any idea of what they are in for. The agency looking to recruit a new employee is KOC – which…
A harrowing dramatic story about a troubled relationship between a son and his alcoholic father, Honey Boy features a series of stellar performances. From a screenplay by Shia LaBeouf, director Alma Har’el brings to life a young actor’s stormy childhood and early adult years, as he struggles to reconcile with his father through cinema and…
A delightful Indiana Jones-like mystery, Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears features colourful characters, lavish costumes and magnificent locales. While this is her first time on the big screen, stylish private detective Phryne Fisher built a solid following in books by Kerry Greenwood, which date back to 1989. Phryne also appeared in three series…
A slow moving, wordy piece about loneliness, fragility and connection, I can’t say The Curtain lit up my life. Set in a small country town, Ada Munroe (Milijana Čančar) is a widow. She lost her husband John some time ago and on the anniversary of his passing each year she visits his grave and then…
Billy Elliot The Musical remains as moving and evocative as when I first saw it in Melbourne more than a decade ago … and what a magnificent show it is. For me this is up there with the best musicals brought to the stage. It is based on the successful 2000 film, which starred Jamie Bell…
The creator of and actors in Italian American Reconciliation, which premiered off Broadway in 1988, seem to have forgotten the adage “less is more”. Aldo (Josh Massarotti) is a larger than life character – a single Italian American – who hasn’t seen his best mate Huey (Dean Gunera) for a while, so he calls around…
The Great Australian Play is a thoroughly bewildering take on Australian history – specifically one of this country’s most alluring legends – and contemporary Australia. Of the former, I speak of a vast gold-bearing deposit in the MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory purportedly discovered by Harold Lasseter around the turn of the 19th century. After…
Fun, funny, light hearted, colourful and energetic, Shrek The Musical surprised me with its warmth, relatability and good natured banter. Of course, the 2001 Dreamworks Animation film starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow – upon which it is based, along with the 1990 book by William Steig – was a huge box office…
