Set in Tehran, this Oscar nominated film for Best International Feature is a distressing, but compelling watch. For the past 20 years, lawyer Iman (Missagh Zareh) has worked for the authoritarian regime in Iran. Now, to the delight of his wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), he has been rewarded with an upgraded position as an investigator…
Evil pervades in the fifth collaboration between writer and director Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther, Fruitvale Station, Creed). We’re in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1932, which is where identical twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return after seven years away. They were part of the Chicago gangland scene,…
An entertaining psychological thriller, Drop involves menacing trolling in the most unlikely of circumstances. Violet (Meghann Fahy) is a widow and psychologist with a five-year-old son, Toby (Jacob Robinson). She is still traumatised by the domestic violence she experienced, to which Toby was privy. Since her husband died, she hasn’t been on a date, but…
A young employee, Eli (Oliver Tapp), is sacked from his sales job for his intimidatory social media posts outside work to ex-girlfriend Carina. She subsequently reported him to his employer. He is angry and aggrieved and seeks her out for an explanation, but she keeps blocking him. Short of rent money and in a dark…
New York-bound Circus Oz bring daring feats of athleticism and strength, as well as laughter to Melbourne Town Hall. They enjoy clowning around to entertain an appreciative audience, but these artistes – short and tall – are seriously good at the circus arts. As someone who has been fortunate to see many circus shows, there…
With a powerful and pulsating music base, inspired by Berlin in the 1920s, Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett is slick and sizzling, ribald and rambunctious. It presents the finest of cabaret, circus acts and gender bending bravado, which gives the middle finger to convention with a cheeky grin. It is hip and happening and the crowd…
The concept is a game show-based pop quiz with a musical focus, overlaid with a manufactured relationship breakdown by the host, Uma Dobie. Of the former, think Britney and Bizet, Madonna and Mozart, Beyonce and Bellini. Of the latter, when calling for her assistant, being her lover, Trevor, he appears on video, brutally dumping her,…
Scotsman Danny Bhoy is a brilliant, easy-going, personable, eminently relatable comedian who has been plying his trade full-time around the world for 25 years. He is a beloved figure and his patter and banter are just so natural. I have witnessed none better. To see him in action is akin to getting into the cockpit…
Drag star Trevor Ashley et al slay it in a riotously funny show that derives its conceit from Baz Luhrmann’s jukebox musical Moulin Rouge! The setting has moved from the Parisian cabaret club to the Moulin Beige in Kings Cross, run by Astrid Zeneca (with legendary Carlotta in the role). Here, the star is not…
Mel Bracewell is comic gold. She is a delightful yarn spinner, who turns the ordinary into the special. Appropriately, she has the audience in fits of laughter as a result. Well named, A Little Treat is exactly that, a memorable hour of mirth and merriment, although the title is also drawn from her final salvo….
