We’ve all heard the adage “family first”, but this is ridiculous! Every time a person marries into this wealthy and secretive family … at midnight they have to play a game. That is a time-honoured tradition that can’t be broken. You see, this clan made its money off the back of board games. The new…
While the recent Yesterday concentrated on the music of The Beatles; Blinded by the Light, focuses on a young man heavily influenced by The Boss, Bruce Springsteen. This one is inspired by fact, which isn’t the case with the other. Set in 1987, during the austere days of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, Blinded by the Light…
Three rich, rounded and nuanced performances bring to life a beautiful elegy about love, loss and yearning. The trio of women – in their 20s, 40s and 60s – live in Shetland (an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland). The youngest is Sylvia (Liza Meagher), who married her childhood sweetheart Paul in what was…
A mixture of performance art and theatre, unHOWsed is a laudable and creative look at homelessness from the perspective of eight mature-age women (aged 50 plus to 77) who have been there. It’s a piece open to interpretation, in which a great deal isn’t spelt out. Instead, it is left to the audience to fill…
Questions of morality and decency are at the heart of an outstanding comedic drama concerning the interactions of two night security guards and two police officers in New York. Jeff (Charles Grounds) was booted out of the navy after three years for dope smoking, something his father – who was a naval hero – was…
A haunted mansion in the middle of suburban Melbourne. Who knew that was a thing in this town? The perfect venue for a creep show where things go bump in the night. It is about broken love and apparitions. There is a back story, given to us by a narrator (Mike Snell) in the hallway…
Just as it depicts Judy Garland’s life Judy, the movie, is a train wreck. In fact, I couldn’t wait for it to end. Garland wasn’t allowed to be a regular kid and was lauded over by the studio head Louis B. Mayer and her obnoxious, overbearing mother, Ethel. Given pill after pill at an early…
A hard working wife and mother has her life is turned upside down in Michal Aviad’s Working Woman. Orna (Liron Ben Shlush) is happily married to Ofer (Oshri Cohen). They have three young children. Two months ago, Ofer opened a restaurant, but the business is struggling. Middle-aged businessman Benny (Menashe Nov) offers Orna work selling…
Janine Hosking’s The Eulogy provides a compelling portrait of an virtuoso Australian pianist who died far too young. This intriguing film is among the finest documentaries of the year. The starting point is the controversial eulogy former Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered at Geoffrey Tozer’s memorial service (which the ex-PM agreed to re-enact for this…
Hustlers is a comedic drama about savvy strip club employees who turn the tables on their Wall Street clients. At the start of 2007, Destiny (Constance Wu) is struggling to make ends meet. She needs to provide for herself and her beloved grandmother, who brought her up. But it’s not easy: the managers, DJs and…
