The main event which steers the story in The Lovely Bones is horrific and spine-chilling. And yet, it is not a tale of fear. Quite the opposite. Hope, peace and solace are recurring themes. While not uplifting, the play provides an understanding of human failings and frailties. The Lovely Bones centres around 14-year-old Susie Salmon…
Writer-director Adam McKay’s new film, Don’t Look Up, spoofs the materialistic, pop-culture world we live in. Earth is about to be destroyed by a comet, but do people care? Apparently not and the lack of interest is led by no less than the US president. PhD student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers the comet. At…
Stephen Chbosky’s Dear Evan Hansen is a film adaptation of the Tony and Grammy Award winning musical of the same name. And it features the original Broadway lead actor in the pivotal role. Teenager Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) struggles with anxiety and depression, and is seeing a therapist. He is being brought up by his…
Over the course of her nearly 40 year career, Aimee Mann has pretty much done it all. In the 80’s she led the new wave band ‘Til Tuesday, composing their biggest hit, “Voices Carry,” and even sang a rare duet with Rush’s Geddy Lee. When she went solo, Mann signed to an indie label start…
Are you into French culture? How about classic American writing of the 1950s and ’60s? Haute cuisine? Student politics? Post-modern art? Balloon-assisted crime? Chess? If you said yes to any of those, chances are you’ll love Wes Anderson’s new film, The French Dispatch. Anderson is, let’s face it, a divisive filmmaker. In my experience, few…
Maggie Shipstead’s third novel Great Circle was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. And for good reason. This is a shaggy, great American novel spanning the last century but focussing on the golden age of aviation, stunningly written, full of rich characters and complex themes, fascinating situations, and plenty of resonance. Great Circle is built…
Is it real or a fake? That was the $64,000 question … or, in the case of The Lost Leonardo, a lot more. The film examines the tale of Salvator Mundi, a painting that could be (but probably isn’t) the work of Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci. Depending on the source, as few as 15…
At certain times of year or at a certain age we have perhaps all felt a little like the Ebenezer Scrooge of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. As shake and stir theatre company’s adaptation reminds us, however, the cold-hearted elderly miser that we meet at the outset of the story is still capable…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 3 December 2021. Modern Nature have dropped their new album, Island of Noise, out now via Bella Union. The album is released only as a deluxe double vinyl box set with a second companion LP titled Island of Silence:…
Disney enlists Lin-Manuel Miranda for Encanto, an animated family adventure that comes off a bit like In the Heights transplanted to rural Colombia. While this is a film filled with colour and energy, its rather muddled plot and lashings of treacle diminished its impact for me. Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith share…
