They’re living in a totalitarian State, where Big Brother is everywhere. There’s a 6pm curfew that must be met. Drones hover overhead, tanks roam the streets and “peacekeepers” ensure the law is obeyed. But there is a great deal of discontent and anger at being “caged”. One 16-year-old, Immy Marcus (Tsungirai Wachenuka), who feels the pain of her mother,…
What expectations do you have when you’re going to see a disaster movie such as San Andreas? Obviously you’re looking forward to see how a metropolis like San Francisco is reduced to an immense mess, strewn with rubble and twisted steel. Immense skyscrapers collapsing like a house of cards and tumbling down one after the…
For the uninitiated, The Good Room’s productions can be difficult to define. The celebrated, independent company founded by Daniel Evans and Amy Ingram creates unique theatre experiences, often from community, crowd-sourced content. Continuing on from its previous Brisbane Festival successes, Let’s be Friends Furever follows a familiar format to pull together a celebration and commemoration…
I don’t usually talk about cover art of the books that I review but just this once, I have to say that the Australian cover of Stef Penney’s excellent historical novel The Beasts of Paris does not do it justice. Some of the action of The Beasts of Paris is set in and around the…
There’s a poignant and melancholy quality to the sweet-natured Lucky. It serves as the swansong for revered actor Harry Dean Stanton, who passed away in September this year at the age of 91. Stanton delivers one of his finest performances in this low key independent drama. The film is an existential meditation on mortality and…
Have you thought about running your own pub? Could you resist drinking the profits? What about the diverse range of regular customers you’ll engage with? In Two, the attraction of pub ownership will either be cemented or disintegrated before your very eyes! And the three words you never want to hear are “on the house”….
Social media is a language. Those you speak it will appreciate the authenticity of the early scenes of Lewis Treston’s IRL, which sees 17-year-old Alexei (Will Bartolo), back and forthing in messenger conversation with his closeted internet crush Thaddeus (Byron Lankester Howells), complete with the awkwardness and overthinking insecurity the manifests itself in any such…
A remarkably adept, clever and enchanting tale of illusion and dance, Shadowland, by internationally acclaimed troupe Pilobolus* – founded in 1971 – also includes circus elements. As the first theatrical event of its kind to tour the globe, the 80-minute show without interval incorporates multiple moving screens of different sizes and shapes. It is a…
One of the most bizarre plays I have seen, The Amateurs is a tragicomedy from 2015 American Pulitzer Prize finalist Jordan Harrison. This is its Australian premiere. While I can’t claim to have liked it, to say it is unusual is an understatement. A troupe of mismatched mediaeval players make their way across Europe in a…
The film’s subtitle A Year on the Frontline of Australian Environmental Activism tells you all you need to know about this documentary from veteran filmmaker Sally Ingleton. Wild Things traces the history of environmental activism in Australia from the fight to save the Franklin River from being dammed to the current fight to stop the…
