Emily Bitto won the Stella Prize in 2015 for her first novel The Strays. Her second, Wild Abandon, was worth the wait. Wild Abandon is a kind of coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of two very different sides of America (the book itself is divided into two sections, each titled ‘America’), both seen slightly…
Award winning Irish author Sebastian Barry deals with the stain on his country’s soul in his latest book Old God’s Time. But he does it in a roundabout way, taking his time to get there and delivering plenty of regret and tragedy along the way. It is the mid-1990s and Tom Kettle is a retired…
There have been plenty of books and movies about pandemics. Given the current reality, if you want to read about a pandemic, it may be more satisfying to read about the more idiosyncratic, literary ones. For example, in Ling Ma’s Severance, people who succumbed to the virus found themselves endlessly repeating common tasks. But there…
Oh, Canada is a confessional … a reckoning for a dying man. Writer and director Paul Schrader collaborated with actor Richard Gere 45 years ago on American Gigolo and it has taken them this long to reunite. Gere plays feted Canadian documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife at the end of his life, while Jacob Elordi is…
A story of aspiration and achievement, the documentary Dawn Raid is a ripper. Dawn Raid Entertainment became an institution in New Zealand in the late ‘90s and noughties. Co-founded by a couple of young big guys from South Auckland who met at business school – but only completed about a year – and didn’t have…
A somewhat surprisingly worthy follow up to the new age retelling of Snow White, namely 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, this has clout as well as pyrotechnics. The Huntsman: Winter’s War is billed as a prequel. It tells how the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), also known as Eric, came to be. That involves the malevolent…
The debut feature for Brisbane-based filmmaker Samuel Gay, A Guide to Dating at the End of the World is in essence a romantic comedy, albeit with a touch of sci-fi thrown in for good measure. Alex (Kerith Atkinson) is set up for a blind date by her friends, but she finds John (Tony Brockman) a…
Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner is the sequel to Missing, Presumed. Here’s the blurb: As dusk falls a young man staggers through a park, far from home, bleeding from a stab wound. He dies where he falls; cradled by a stranger, a woman’s name on his lips in his last seconds of life. DI Manon…
– British Film Festival – At Palace Cinemas nationwide from 3 November 2021 We have 5 double passes to a session (excluding special events) at BFF21 thanks to the British Film Festival. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Tickets are digital Watch the trailer HERE The British Film Festival celebrates the best of British with a…
– Sting – Only in cinemas from 18 July 2024 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to StudioCanal. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is…
