“Rebecca waited for the ferry staff to give her the all-clear to walk down the gangway. She felt a thrill of anticipation at finally setting foot on the island. There was something else, too, a voice breathing over her in the faint breeze. She liked to think it was saying Welcome home, Rebecca but it…
Often riotously funny, Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Twelfth Night is brilliantly staged by MTC and features several wonderful performances. With lots of musical ditties, it’s a tale of mistaken identities, love triangles and pranks. Here I’m indebted to SparkNotes for helping me to unravel the intricacies of Shakespeare’s Old English. The action is set in the…
– Freeheld – Only in cinemas from 5 November 2015 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to eOne Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Based on an inspiring true story, Freeheld stars Julianne Moore and Ellen Page as a couple who, in their darkest hour, take on the biggest…
Christchurch based author Paul Cleave has had a way of creating scenarios and settings for his novels that have kept this reader awake and mildly anxious for a long time now. Whatever it Takes is a bit of a departure from his previous style, set in the USA, eschewing a lot of the slight paranormal…
Geelong-born, Melbourne-based former street artist Rone (birth name Tyrone Wright) has crafted a remarkable time capsule three years in the making. It is set in the long-abandoned third floor wing of iconic, heritage-listed Flinders Street Station. Time is a nostalgic love letter to mid 19th century working class life in one of the world’s great cities. It is…
Only The Animals surprised me. This remarkably well-constructed French mystery-thriller is three stories in one. Alice Farange (Laure Calamy) is in a loveless marriage in rural France. She’s having an affair with a strange loner named Joseph Bonnefille (Damien Bonnard), who barely tolerates her. Then Bonnefille seemingly callously ditches her giving no reason. There’s a…
First up, an admission. My job in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre on 28th April, 1996, in which 35 people were murdered and 20 wounded, was to try to come up with strategies to restore tourism to the area. I had visited the UNESCO world heritage listed site – Australia’s largest and most…
The tense Holocaust drama Farewell, Mr Haffmann concerns a Jewish jeweller in France caught up in the maelstrom as the Nazis spread their tentacles. It is May 1941 and Joseph Haffmann (Daniel Auteuil) runs a small jewellery shop. He’s noted for his fine craftsmanship. Haffmann sees the situation in occupied Paris worsening and understands the…
A cast of non-professional autistic actors does a mighty job breathing life into an unconventional love story in Keep the Change. We meet wealthy David (Brandon Polansky) on his first day at Connections, a community for adults with autism. The other attendees confirm he doesn’t belong there … at least that’s the way David feels…
An enticing, exotic new theatrical concept has hit Melbourne with force … and the only shame is that you have very little time to see it before it will disappear. Called Bordello, it is a journey through a house of ill repute as we, the audience, are voyeurs to the fragile foundations that are the…
