– Split – Only in cinemas from 26 January 2016 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Universal Pictures Australia. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to…
Fleur Kilpatrick’s stage adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five explores the horrors of war and the effects of PTSD. The play centres on the Allies’ firebombing of Dresden between February 13 and 15, 1945 in which tens of thousands of people died. The book’s narrator (and author), who’s also part of the play, has…
Here is an engaging documentary about a woman in her ‘90s who still has the world at her feet … in her case the world of fashion and creativity. Her name is Iris Apfel and she is 93, extremely quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed and still married to a man who turned 100 during the making of…
Dread is palpable throughout Arthur Miller’s drama A View from the Bridge. The Melbourne Theatre Company’s version features seven actors and one old wooden chair but held me transfixed for two hours. The time is the 1950s; and the place an Italian-American neighbourhood near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The narrator is Alfieri (Marco…
Although it has some delightful elements, Last Christmas is an uneven mix of silliness and fun. Kate (Emilia Clarke) hasn’t exactly got her life together. She’s personable, but far from stable. She doesn’t see eye to eye with her overbearing mother, Petra (Emma Thompson), an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia. Nor is she disciplined enough…
Raja (Mariya Belkin) and Victor Frankel (Vladimir Friedman), a couple in their 60s, were the unsung heroes of Russian cinema. For several decades they had dubbed Hollywood epics into Russian for cinema audiences. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the couple left Russia and migrated to Israel. But like thousands of…
The tumultuous life of the world’s most awarded female vocalist is put under the spotlight in I Wanna Dance with Somebody. Whitney Houston (Naomi Ackie) was the greatest voice of a generation, who enjoyed the highest of highs and succumbed to excess, indulgence and heartache. Tragically she died at 48. The fact that she had…
A couple of powerhouse performances are at the heart of this drama about a pair of gamblers, one of whom lays it all on the line. Mississippi Grind was inspired by films from the ‘70s such as Five Easy Pieces, Scarecrow, The Last Detail, California Split and Midnight Cowboy. The movie is about flawed characters…
In story, Swallow is about when strangers cross paths. Thematically, however, the work gives audiences so much more to contemplate. And the result is a challenging but rewarding experience thanks to the excellent execution by all involved in the production. Hermitted in her home, Anna (Elise Greig) is in need to focus, frenetically completing self-decided…
Hindsight, they say, is 20-20. But the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia can distort the lens. In Belfast, director Kenneth Branagh delivers a love letter to his childhood hometown. But I couldn’t shake the feeling his memory might have taken the hard edges off a tumultuous time in Northern Ireland. That’s understandable – after all, the…
