The United Ukrainian Ballet’s stunning production of Swan Lake is only trumped by the spine-tingling moments after the final bars of Tchaikovsky’s majestic score ring out. That is when the company takes to the stage to rapturous applause. They carry with them the bicolour blue and yellow Ukrainian flag, which bares the line “make dance not war”…
In the still-hot realm of Korean cinema, few directors are hotter than Park Chan-wook. The creative force behind Oldboy, The Handmaiden and the miniseries The Little Drummer Girl is back with an intriguing twist on film noir with Decision to Leave. This film owes much to the master of the genre, Alfred Hitchcock, but Park…
Barbarian is a genuinely creepy horror movie with bite. It opens with the power of suggestion, but morphs into something far more sinister. Tess (Georgina Campbell) has driven herself to a very shady part of Detroit, where she intends to stay for the night ahead of a job interview. But with rain falling, when she…
The Australian premiere of Johan Inger’s comic, romantic dance theatre piece I New Then, set to songs by Van Morrison, is the undoubted highlight of DanceX Part I. Inger, a Swedish choreographer, danced with Nederlands Dans Theater and has made works for leading companies all over Europe. The feel-good 28-minute dance experience is energetic and humorous. The music…
A film for fanboys, Black Adam is mired in mythology, which will be far more meaningful if you’ve read the DC comics. The film tells the story of Teth Adam, the slave who became champion, who becomes Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson). The action starts in the ancient city of Kahndaq, where Adam is enslaved before…
For many bands there is still a standard process of releasing a new record every two or three years. More recently, we have seen some artists cranking out records even faster or just releasing a single here and there to what I believe is a focus to stay relevant. Now you add a global pandemic…
Joanna Morrison’s debut The Ghost of Gracie Flynn is a double crime novel. It opens with a death and explores the lead up to that crime. But it is narrated by the victim of a much earlier crime. An event that literally haunts the main characters of this book, former friends who went their separate…
Ana Lily Amirpour’s new film, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, is an intriguing and entertaining fantasy-thriller. Mona “Lisa” Lee (Jun Jong Seo) first appears wearing a straitjacket in a padded cell at a US psychiatric institution. Regarded as a violent schizophrenic, and still only 22, the abandoned Korean immigrant has been there for the…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 14 October 2022. Following their critically acclaimed first volume of Mozart’s violin concertos, Francesca Dego and Sir Roger Norrington complete the set, once again with outstanding support from a reduced Royal Scottish National Orchestra. This cycle not only represents…
Australian filmmakers seem to be fascinated with true crime stories – films like Snowtown, Chopper, Nitram and the TV series Underbelly have all explored violence and the psychology of criminals. Based on the true story of the largest undercover police operation in Australia’s history, The Stranger is an extremely bleak and disturbing drama that’s also…
