British musician Mike Oldfield was still in his teens when he recorded his first studio album, the iconic number one chart topper Tubular Bells. It was the first release on Richard Branson’s fledgling label Virgin Records and went on to sell tens of millions of copies. Sales surged when Tubular Bells’ opening theme was used in the…
In Midnight Family, the audience become front seat passengers riding along with the Ochoa family in Mexico City after dark. Underground private ambulances compete for patients, beg for money and pay police bribes. The government operates fewer than 45 emergency ambulances in Mexico City for a population of nine million. The documentary explores urgent questions…
Cinematic exchanges between Australia and Iceland are, understandably, rare. But that hasn’t deterred director Jeremy Sims, who successfully translates Grímur Hákonarson’s 2015 Icelandic hit Rams into RAMS (note the subtle difference). The tyrannies of distance and language prove no barrier for Sims. And when you think about it, maybe Australia and Iceland have quite a…
I love a good psychological thriller so I was keen to get stuck into Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica (author of The Good Girl). Here’s the blurb: She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away….
A Midnight Visit is an award-winning immersive live theatre show that, having previously been unleashed in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne, has recently resurrected in Brisbane. Inspired by the life and works of Edgar Allen Poe, the magnificently macabre multi-room experience, invites its guests to explore a dark dream world of gothic thrills, obsession, decadence and…
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…
– Finding Your Feet – Only in cinemas from 22 February 2018 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to eOne Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Featuring an acclaimed British cast led by Imelda Staunton, Celia Imrie, Timothy Spall and Joanna Lumley, Finding Your Feet is a hilarious and heartwarming comedy proving…
Multi-award winning indigenous American author Louise Erdrich has set her new novel The Mighty Red in the heartlands of the Ojibwe people (Erdrich herself is a member of the Turtle Band, a tribe of the Ojibwe). Set on the banks of the Red River in North Dakota, country used for growing sugarbeet but also subject…
Is there anything that Meryl Streep cannot do? At an age when most actresses find it hard to land meaty roles or substantial character parts, Streep is a chameleon who seems to still be going strong, playing a variety of diverse and challenging roles. A case in point is her new film in which she…
This contemporary retelling of Gustav Flaubert’s 1856 tragic tale Madame Bovary is something of a dull affair despite its lashings of sex, infidelity and comedy. The film is based on the popular graphic novel written in 1999 by Posy Simmonds, who previously wrote Tamara Drewe, which was filmed starring Gemma Arterton. Arterton appears here again…
