Following on from their first round announcement last month WOMADelaide have now dropped their entire 2018 program – and it’s absolutely huge. Joining the likes of Le Vent du Nord, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Yirrmal next year will be Scottish neo-Trad quintet Elephant Sessions, country-blues favourites Hat Fitz & Cara, roots collaboration Mama Kin Spender,…
Discomfort looms large as two old school friends reunite after 12 years in Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut, Passing. It’s the 1920s. Irene (Tessa Thompson) is the wife of a doctor, Brian (Andre Holland) and mother of two school age sons, Ted (Justus Davis Graham) and Junior (Ethan Barrett). They live in Harlem, where she volunteers…
I regularly whine about the quality – or lack of it – in Australian movies. Today is the turn of a ham-fisted family comedy. Caroline Morgan (Robyn Butler) is delighted when her sister, ‘stage mum’ Beth (Portia de Rossi), brings her precocious movie star daughter, Honey (Lucy Fry) home from LA for a visit, complete…
A penniless wheeler and dealer gets in with the big boys and finds himself caught up way over his head. That, in a nutshell, is what the cleverly conceived and executed mind-bender Norman is all about. Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) lives a lonely life in the margins of New York City power and money. He is a would-be…
If provocative theatre and the art of confrontation are your thing, then have I got a play for you! Ulster American is wildly funny, but not for the feint-hearted. Playwright David Ireland takes aim at politics and the treatment of women. Jay Conway (Steve Bastoni) is an arrogant – but Oscar-winning – actor. The American…
The original Jumanji (1995) concerning a board game coming to life, which starred Robin Williams, was a rolled gold winner. The reboot – two years ago – was in my eyes an unmitigated disaster, notwithstanding its box office success. This sequel is slightly better than that, but still basically very, very silly. Give me the…
Arrogance, entitlement and indulgence meet desert justice in The Forgiven. This rich and textured movie by John Michael McDonagh (Calvary) is based on Lawrence Osborne’s eponymous 2012 novel. Medical specialist David Henninger (Ralph Fiennes) and his wife Jo (Jessica Chastain) spend a lavish weekend with old friend Richard Galloway (Matt Smith) in Morocco. The location…
Well meaning, but heavy handed, All Saints tells the true story of a church at the edge of extinction. After trading in his corporate career to become a preacher, Michael Spurlock (John Corbett) finds his first assignment is a quaint country church with only a dozen members. The job comes with a catch: he has to close the…
The Second Mother is a film about a set of social rules, which have been in place in Brazilian culture since colonial times and which continue to affect its emotional architecture to this very day. Val (Regina Case) is the kind of live-in housekeeper who takes her work seriously. She wears a crisp maid’s uniform…
The latest from Finnish auteur Aki Karismaki, The Other Side of Hope was the opening night film at the 2017 Scandinavian Film Festival. This comedy is full of his usual droll humour, deadpan style and absurdist touches. Karismaki often pokes fun at the Finnish working class and their daily struggles. The Other Side of Hope…
