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Alex First

Alex First is the editor of The Blurb. Alex is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He also contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.

The Broken Mill (Chapel off Chapel)

The bizarre meets the macabre and the maudlin in The Broken Mill. Through original song, storytelling and mime, six performers and four band members tell the tale of the manipulative and murderous Mama (Sarah Wall). She has taken in the destitute and disenfranchised and pulled together a cabaret involving misfits and mould breakers. Some are convinced she…

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The Truth (MTC)

A six-month affair with a best mate’s wife is the starting point for a French comedy about deceit, which has been translated into English. The central focus is businessman Michel (Stephen Curry). His bestie Paul (Bert LaBonté), with whom he plays tennis, was unceremoniously dumped from his job three weeks ago. Michel has been with his wife…

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Cactus (La Mama)

A time of change, discovery and shock. That is what confronts Abbie (Ayesha Harris-Westman), a high school student who meets her bff in the most unlikely place. Abbie is in the bathroom at school when she has her first period and doesn’t have the necessary female hygiene product with her to deal with the situation in which she finds…

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Fast and Furious 9 – movie review

If there was any doubt The Fast and Furious franchise couldn’t up the ante, #9 eradicates that. Think outer space and mega magnetic force for starters. It’s action-packed from start to finish, with no shortage of surprises. The central concept is a feud between two brothers as a result of their father’s untimely death on…

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Heroic Losers – movie review

Sebastián’s Borensztein’s Heroic Losers is a feel-good comedy set in a small Argentinian community in the early 2000s. Fermin Perlassi (Ricardo Darin) and his wife, Lidia (Veronica Llinas), decide they will take over an abandoned grain store facility and form a cooperative. Doing so will require financial input from many of the locals who are…

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Spirit Untamed – movie review

Directors Elaine Bogan and Ennio Torresan deliver a charming and colourful animation in DreamWorks’ Spirit Untamed. The story concerns a feisty 13-year-old girl and a wild horse. The youngster is Lucky Prescott (the voice of Isabela Merced), who is being brought up by her aunt Cora (Julianne Moore), in a prim and proper household, governed…

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