If you miss Harry Potter and you are into the phantasmagorical stories created by J.K. Rowling, I dare say you will find plenty in which to immerse yourself in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the start of her latest fantasy series. The action takes place decades before the round-goggled wonder came to be…
Which Way Home is a play by Katie Beckett. It is a kind of ‘love letter’ to her father. She wanted, she writes in the program notes to the production, ‘to give him something so he knows how special he is and what he means to me.’ Set in a car on a road journey…
Think back. You’re 14 and nothing in this world (and I do mean nothing) means more to you than your total infatuation with your teen idol. You can’t eat. You can’t sleep. You daydream of him having eyes only for you. You have to find a way. Whatever it takes. That is the starting point for the wickedly…
Regular readers of The Blurb will be familiar with the film reviews of our friend and long-time contributor, John Bale. We’re sad to advise that John passed away this week in Melbourne after a long battle with illness. Through the years, John contributed close to 400 reviews for The Blurb. His last was the Jennifer…
Although I’ve seen a considerable number of episodes of the television series Star Trek at a young age, I’ve never felt like a real Trekkie. It fascinated me, but not to such an extent that I’d greet everyone in my daily life using a Vulcan salute. When the next generation Star Trek episodes started (with…
– Silence – Only in cinemas from 16 February 2017 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Transmission Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE SILENCE is the story of two young 17th century priests who go in search of their missing mentor in the mysterious and exotic land of Japan,…
After something of a misstep with the uneven Thor: Love and Thunder, director Taika Waititi returns to the kind of gentle humour that has marked his career with Next Goal Wins. If you like early Taika – Eagle vs Shark, or Flight of the Conchords, for example – you’ll likely warm to this rollicking underdog…
Intelligent couple Stevie (Claudia Karvan) and Martin Gray (Nathan Page) have been happily married for 22 years. They have a 17-year-old gay son, Billy (Yazeed Daher) and all live a good life. Martin, who has just turned 50, has had, arguably, the finest week of his professional life. He has just been awarded the premiere prize for architecture,…
After is a film that knows its audience and delivers to it. Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) is a dedicated student and dutiful daughter to her single mother Carol (Selma Blair). She’s a loyal girlfriend to her high school sweetheart Noah (Dylan Arnold). When Noah and Carol drop off Tessa for her first year of college,…
Here we have a new Australian musical that I wanted to embrace, but I struggled with. Most of it is set in a traditional Irish/American bar, called Flannigan’s, in Fresno, California. It is operated by Sam (Douglas Rintoul), who took it over from his dad. His only employee appears to be his best mate, JJ…
