It’s one of history’s great rivalries. The intriguing story of Elizabeth I and her cousin Mary Stuart certainly has all the elements of a great movie – war, intrigue, family ties and treachery. But while Josie Rourke’s feminist retelling of the tale in Mary Queen of Scots hits the high points, it strays from the…
Trap is the latest film from M Night Shyamalan and, like so much of his oeuvre, it’s driven by an intriguing premise. But as with so many of his previous films it begins to lose momentum and credibility, especially during the unnecessarily drawn out third act. The film opens with Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett), a…
The Father showcases the horrors of dementia with standout performances by its lead actors. First-time director Florian Zeller adapts his own stage play with limited settings and cast, but powerfully wrenches at the heart with the psychological turmoil felt by the eponymous character Anthony. Anthony, played by his namesake Anthony Hopkins, has lived in his…
The best storytelling comes from showing not telling… that is using action (or lack of, as the case may be) to reveal the emotions intended to be interpreted by the audience. Awareness of this is at the core of Hannah Belanszky’s mainstage debut work Don’t Ask What the Bird Look Like from its very outset…
Fans who loved the musical evolution that took folk/rock twin-sister act Tegan and Sara into synth-pop territory for 2013’s Greg Kurstin produced Heartthrob, will find plenty to appreciate on this reboot. Given the success of Chvrches and a host of other sound-a-likes, it’s not hard to imagine why they’ve chosen to lock in on what…
“You’re doing really well … I love you so much,” Simon tells his partner Emily as Naked & Screaming opens to a familiar birth scene scenario – ironic, given the story that will unfold in the following 80 minutes that marks La Boite Theatre’s return. Naked and Screaming may well describe how their baby Dylan…
There have been a few films exploring the lives of genius mathematicians – from the Oscar winning A Beautiful Mind, a biopic about bipolar mathematician John Nash and his inner turmoil, through to The Imitation Game, a drama about Alan Turing, who helped crack Germany’s unbreakable Enigma Code thus turning the tide of WWII. Turing…
If you combine Captain Hook with a swarm of bees you have an idea of the antagonists in the horror-thriller Candyman. This 2021 version is based on the 1992 film of the same name written by Bernard Rose, and the short story The Forbidden by Clive Barker. Jordan Peele (Get Out), Win Rosenfeld and Nia…
Funny, irreverent, with more than a touch of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang about it, The Nice Guys is an action-crime comedy that has the same director and writer – Shane Black – at the helm and stars Russell Crowe (Gladiator) and Ryan Gosling (The Big Short). Black also wrote Lethal Weapon and Iron Man 3,…
An inspiring and uplifting documentary set in outback NSW, this is the story of a 130 strong children’s choir, which is renewed each year, thanks to the efforts of a local for whom this is a passion project. Every March Michelle Leonard steps into her car and heads west. Travelling more than 4,000 kilometres across…
