Rocketing towards certain destruction, Katherine and Lily are two women that have little in common and nothing that they are willing to share. Precious You examines the bitter and bloody path of female conflict that is born in the workplace but inevitably extends far beyond into the outer lives of its contenders. Katherine is a…
Three recent drama school graduates – Katie Cawthorne, Jessica Arthur and Laura Lethlean – formed The Anchor company to produce theatre work. Over the past year they have developed this 60-minute play, Two Hearts. It comes from their experiences of past personal relationships and their perception of how important the small details of their relationships…
As a fan of both art and history, I’ve heard the story of Han Van Meegeren several times. And I have to say director Dan Friedkin crafts a mostly (one glaring exception aside) accurate and compelling version of the story in The Last Vermeer. You may know of Van Meergeren as the so-called “most successful…
Lara Thomson’s debut One Night, New York, opens at the top of the Empire State Building in the height of the depression. Two women, Frances and Agnes wait up there, planning to push someone over the edge. In returning to this setup, Thompson will range across the highs and lows of New York City in…
A charming victory against-the-odds story set in France, Ballerina concerns a couple of orphan kids. Félicie (voiced by Elle Fanning) is a wannabe dancer. That is her great passion in life. Victor (Dane DeHaan) wants to become a great inventor. The problem is he is basically a klutz. The pair has also long wanted to…
German author Dirk Kurbjuweit’s first novel to be translated into English was Fear, based on his own experience of being stalked. His most recent book in translation (translated by Imogen Taylor) is a very different beast. Based on the shocking true story of Fritz Haarmann, the Butcher of Hannover, The Missing is more a thinly…
After 16 years, Todd Field makes a long-awaited return to the director’s chair with Tár. Having made two under-appreciated gems of the early 2000s with In the Bedroom (2001) and Little Children (2006), he hurtles back into the cultural conversation with this challenging but dazzling film. Tár is set in the rarefied world of Western…
The Melbourne International Film Festival screens until August 20. Here are a few highlights from the first week of the festival. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Call Me By Your Name is a sensitive coming of age story set in a sun-drenched rural part of Italy in the 1980s and it deals with themes of…
What does it mean to be Australian … to live in this country? What expectations do you have of others’ behaviour towards you … and what is the harsh reality? Who is exploiting who? Who is taking advantage and how significant is the social, class, gender, racial and cultural divide? These are some of the…
Bigger than Ben Hur when it comes to tricks on a grand scale, three of the original four magicians return for a second installment of hijinks and thrills. That about sums up Now You See Me 2, with Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco joined by Lizzy Caplan (who replaces Isla Fisher) to form…
