The singing and dancing in this Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) musical spectacular is off the charts. Featuring a blend of hip-hop and Latin rhythms – salsa, merengue and samba – it is an energetic and colourful cultural celebration, marked by superb performances. It is clear why In the Heights, which opened on Broadway in 2008, claimed…
School holidays are once again upon us, and there are plenty of options for some family friendly films to enjoy with Harold and the Purple Crayon, the Australian film Runt, and the animated origin story of Transformers One. However, easily the best of the bunch is the superb animated The Wild Robot, which has been…
Creativity abounds in The Drill, which is unlike anything I have seen – a combination of circus arts and interactive experiences. We’re in the midst of WWI and campaigners for peace are adamant they want politicians to listen to their pleas. A rally is planned and a petition for an end to the war is…
In Harry Macqueen’s Supernova, Sam (Colin Firth) is a classical pianist, and his partner Tusker (Stanley Tucci) is a writer. Now middle-aged, the couple have been together for decades. They know how to press each other’s buttons, but are still very much in love. One day they decide to dust off the old camper van…
Atmospheric, Nosferatu puts the bite on an impressionable youngster, who carries her commitment to Dracula into her marriage, with terrifying consequences. Writer and director Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse) is at the helm of this supernatural horror film. He was inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897) and by the screenplay for Nosferatu: A Symphony of…
It takes a while to understand just what is going down here, but – make no mistake – Underneath Ms Archer is a stunning, original work. Behind it are the two outstanding actors. Louise Siversen plays veteran flight attendant Kelly Archer, while Peter Houghton is cast as medieval knight Willliam Marshall. The pair wrote the piece, with dramaturgy…
A wintry wonderland hides dark secrets in the atmospheric thriller The Snowman, which has undertones of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the frigid landscape, a sociopath who calls himself “The Snowman Killer” has targeted the one person he wants to appreciate his methodical, unthinkable “skills”. That person is Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender), lead investigator…
This British series about an extended family in Manchester offers a refreshingly different take on the family drama genre. For one thing, it’s created, written and executive-produced by Russell T Davies (Doctor Who). Director is Simon Cellan Jones (Boardwalk Empire). The title is very literal, with each episode jumping forward in time over 15 years…
Warlords of Wyrdwood is the second book in RJ Barker’s Forsaken trilogy. It does what all good middle books do: broadens out the world that readers were given hints of in book 1 – Gods of the Wyrdwood – deepens and complicates the relationships between the main characters and antagonists and sets everything up for…
Twenty years on, for director Roland Emmerich (Godzilla), Independence Day Resurgence marks a return to the universe he and co-writer and producer Dean Devlin created. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented…
