I’ve come to enjoy reading short stories more and more as I experiment with the form, and there was a lot for me to learn in Fine by Michelle Wright. Here’s the blurb: Fine shines a light into the quiet corners of human life. By observing the traumas, doubts and isolation of its characters, the…
After a break of 16 years (since 2006’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Road), award winning author Cormac McCarthy returns with a pair of connected novels. The first of these is The Passenger – centring on salvage diver Bobby Western. McCarthy sets the scene with a suicide, an event that is central to Bobby’s life. This…
Huge on effects, writer and director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) takes Superman into a newly imagined DC universe. The film’s opening sets up the contention that, for the first time, the superhero has been beaten … and it has just happened. He lays bloodied on the snow, barely alive, and needs to call…
It is quite possible that every generation needs its own version of High Fidelity to hit the screen. Very broadly based on the 1995 Nick Hornby novel of the same name, this new adaptation is also set in a record store, Championship Vinyl, chronicling the relationship heartbreaks of its young and determined owner, the adorable…
Heavy Moss formed in Geelong in late 2022 when Lucas Harwood and Sam Ingles reconnected after moving back to their hometown. The two had previously played together in Atolls, a band known for its gritty, retro-inspired sound. Seeking a fresh direction, they brought in Kyle Tickell and Bec Goring to complete the lineup. With Harwood’s…
Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf (1894) is a searing portrait of angst. Rita (Elisa Armstrong) is deeply in love with Alfred (Damien Harrison). He’s a writer and they have been married for a decade, but she fears his feelings for her have shifted. He’s just returned from a fortnight walking in the mountains, a trip he has…
Body image is a hot topic at the moment, something The Substance recently tapped into with great success. But while The Substance leaned more into a particular kind of body horror, Aaron Schimberg goes in a different direction with his intriguing but perplexing A Different Man. In the film, the main character has neurofibromatosis. Basically…
Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) possesses a brilliant mind. But a rare blood disorder has left him crippled and in agonising pain. Under the watchful eyes of his consulting physician Emil Nikols (Jared Harris), Morbius befriends a new patient Milo (Matt Smith). Early on, Morbius helps save young Milo’s life when the machine he is attached…
Designed to provoke (but ultimately to reflect) The Insult is a powerful film with politics at its core. In present-day Beirut, Tony Hanna (Adel Karam) is a passionate member of the Christian Party. He’s a motor mechanic who employs a number of workers. His wife, Shirine (Rita Hayek), is expecting their first child. Opposite their…
In keeping with the original (2002) and the sequel (2016), My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 is very much in feel-good territory. The extended Portokalos family is in fine voice. Everyone is wanting to have their say on a trip to Greece to attend a reunion for the extended family in their father’s home village….
