From the earliest days of rock & roll, there’s been a special place for power trios, like Cream, Rush, Nirvana, Husker Du, The Jam, King’s X, The Police, and plenty more. These are bands that relied on the essential less is more formula, often just guitar, bass & drums, and one or more sang, they…
The renaissance of Australian crime drama continues. Following on from Mystery Road comes SBS’s Dead Lucky, featuring Rachel Griffiths. And while this limited series may not have the sprawling ambition of Rachel Perkins’ outback drama, it still has a lot going for it. In a direct contrast to Mystery Road, Dead Lucky is set in…
The 6th Czech and Slovak Film Festival acknowledges the 50th anniversary of the Prague Spring as well as the centenary of the establishment of Czechoslovakia. This year the program focuses on some historic films from Czech filmmakers, including The Fireman’s Ball, Milos Forman’s final film in his native country before moving to the US. The…
What the hell am I seeing? What does it mean? Why am I even in the theatre? What a total and utter waste of time and space. How boring. These thoughts came flooding into my head five minutes into Working With Children. A slightly transparent white curtain and a pair of white runners and folded…
Lee Alexander McQueen set the fashion world alight when he burst onto the scene. He was also deeply troubled through various periods of his life. The beautifully shot and illustrated McQueen is a sanitised version of that life. The youngest of six children, he was born in a working-class London neighbourhood in 1969. His family…
In 1987 Pat Cash won Wimbledon, but he didn’t win the Australian male athlete of the year award. Instead, that accolade went to Wayne Gardner. That was the year Gardner became the first Australian to win the 500cc Motorcycle World Championship. The documentary Wayne charts his story from humble roots in Wollongong to the top…
It’s not just the fact that defenseless young children are victims of unscrupulous people who use them in networks for pedophiles. The most disgusting aspect of this is that these circuits are visited by people who occupy important positions in daily life. Individuals who show a respectable and neat appearance to the outside world. But…
We got our first glimpse of the demonic nun Valak, in The Conjuring 2. She plagued Lorraine Warren’s visions and filled her with dread. Now she gets her own outing in The Nun. The epic battle of good vs. evil pits a priest with a dark history and a sister who has yet to take…
Although corny at times, the quintessentially Australian comedy The Merger is also endearing. The township of Bodgy Creek has seen better days: the population is dwindling, jobs are scarce and litter has built up around the fading Tidy Town sign. The next victim of the town’s decline is set to be its cash-strapped Aussie Rules…
Teenagers have it tough. Physical and emotional changes can wreak havoc. So imagine how much harder it would be if your parents decided these changes were just “wrong” and the only solution was isolation and religion. One teenager has to face just that dilemma in The Miseducation of Cameron Post. This beautiful and moving film…
