Inga Vesper’s debut crime novel The Long, Long Afternoon takes readers into the Stepford world of 1950s Los Angeles and then blows it up from the inside. When the book opens, seemingly devoted housewife Joyce Hayney has disappeared. The investigation into that disappearance will reveal cracks in the façade of her marriage and the community…
Pablo Larraín is a Chilean filmmaker of distinctive style. Much loved in art house circles, his films are often marked by slow narratives punctuated by arresting visuals – and occasionally violence. His latest film to reach these shores, Ema (actually made in 2019) follows a similar pattern. Larraín’s Jackie (2016) was one of my favourite…
One of the joys of experiencing a Shakespearean play on stage rather than page is hearing the poetic beauty of the Bard’s language and expressions nuanced with articulations of human truth. It is initially startling, therefore, that Queensland Theatre’s Taming of the Shrew starts without words. In its opening scene, we are left long in their…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 14 May 2021. Over the past four years, Juliana Hatfield has kept fans engaged and intrigued as she oscillates between impassioned original releases (Pussycat, Weird) and inspired covers collections (Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police)….
The Man in the Hat sounds like something from the pen of Dr Seuss. Rather this is a quirky and offbeat Tati-esque comedy about an unnamed man (played by Irish actor Ciaran Hinds) driving through the French countryside in his little Fiat 500. He drives through backroads and byways and small villages, and interacts with…
– Cousins – Only in cinemas from 10 June 2021 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Vendetta Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Mata, Missy and Makareta. Three cousins. Three lives. Separate, yet bound together forever. Orphaned Mata believes she has no whānau and lives out her lonely childhood…
In 2015, Robert Eggers played with the intersection of the real and the fantastic in the horrifyingly effective The Witch. Now writer-director Emily Harris treads similar territory in the creepy Carmilla. Like The Witch, Harris explores the line between reality on one hand, and fear and superstition on the other. But where Eggers left a…
Spiral: From the Book of Saw is the ninth film in the Saw universe, and an attempt to reboot a franchise long thought moribund. It’s been over a decade since the torture porn franchise came to a conclusion with Saw: The Final Chapter, although there was the disappointing attempt at a belated reboot with 2017’s…
One for the adrenaline junkies, Those Who Wish Me Dead combines daredevil firies and ruthless assassins. The movie starts with a bang – literally and figuratively – setting up audience expectations. Two killers – Jack and Patrick Blackwell (Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult) – posing as utility operators, deliver an unforgettable message to a district…
It was such a delight to welcome back to the stage musical theatre royalty in Debra Byrne. It was the mid ‘80s when she appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats and a decade later she followed that up with another star turn in the maestro’s Sunset Boulevard. So, it seems only fitting that she should reprise solo…
