Christmas came early to the Melbourne Recital Centre, as the mellifluous voice of Silvie Paladino filled the concert hall with glad tidings. She was the starring artiste warbling carols to the musical accompaniment of conductor John Foreman’s spectacular Australian Pops Orchestra. It was an afternoon and evening of celebration (there were actually two concerts) after…
Scott Cooper, who directed Jeff Bridges to an Oscar with Crazy Heart, returns with Antlers. This eerie and deeply unsettling horror film set in a small and forgotten mining town in Oregon that has been devastated by the opioid epidemic. The film has been produced under the auspices of horror/fantasy veteran Guillermo del Toro, whose…
At first, I just tried to ignore this movie and I was hoping I would come across it someday on some television channel during a quiet Saturday night. First of all because I’m not dying to see a movie with Jennifer Lawrence acting in it. Even if the antagonist is played by the charming Chris…
– One True Loves – Only in cinemas from 7 December 2023 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to StudioCanal. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Emma and Jesse are living the perfect life together, until Jesse disappears in a tragic helicopter crash on their first wedding anniversary. Four years later,…
The hero in Hadestown goes to hell and back in his quest to rescue the love of his life. This is a modern retelling of an ancient Greek myth, with the original character names retained. It is a tale of good versus evil, delivered with sass. With confidence and attitude, it is the narrator Hermes…
Racism, disadvantage, “the mob” and money collide in the incendiary new work from Declan Furber Gillick, five years in the making. Commissioned through MTC’s NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program, the cumulative impact of the 100 minutes is devastating. Indigenous man Jacky (Guy Simon) is on the road to “making it”, or so it seems. He is renting a…
Knowing where we came from and understanding what shaped the lives of our descendants can be confronting. In the context of Indigenous Australians, whose history stretches back eons, understanding is even more complex as it involves the disturbing events of post-European settlement. One woman’s story of discovery and understanding is told in A Letter for…
A sea change turns into a tsunami of grief in Sixty Seconds by Jesse Blackadder. Here’s the blurb: The Brennans – parents, Finn and Bridget, and their sons, Jarrah and Toby – have made a sea change, from chilly Hobart to subtropical Murwillumbah. Feeling like foreigners in this land of sun and surf, they’re still…
George Miller’s latest opus in the “extended Mad Max Universe [TM]” is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The film delivers two things Australian audiences love: fast cars and, um… Greek mythology (?). Yep, Miller takes a page from the likes of Theo Angelopoulos (Ulysses’ Gaze) and the Coen Brothers (O Brother, Where Art Thou) by…
Talented photographer Diane Arbus (Diane Glenn) meets sex symbol Mae West (Melita Jurisic – complete with sultry voice) in the MTC’s new play Arbus & West. In 1964, Arbus arrived at West’s pristine LA apartment to take snaps of the famous star, then 71. The play explores a fictional account of that real encounter between…
