Next to Normal begins with a familiar modern family scene; suburban mother Diana Goodman (Carly Skelton) waits up late for her son Gabe (Christopher Batkin) and attempts to comfort her academically-anxious daughter, Natalie (Hannah Kassulke). Soon husband Dan (Adam Bartlett) rises to help prepare the family for “Just Another Day”. Yet their lives are anything…
This quite unconventional Australian film is well worth a look. The combination of a story centring on an opera singer that takes place in an exotic north Queensland castle-like setting makes Celeste notable before the opening frames even commence. There’s a decidedly European flavour to the proceedings, but only up to a point. You can…
Raja (Mariya Belkin) and Victor Frankel (Vladimir Friedman), a couple in their 60s, were the unsung heroes of Russian cinema. For several decades they had dubbed Hollywood epics into Russian for cinema audiences. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the couple left Russia and migrated to Israel. But like thousands of…
Sweden is more than idyllic red cottages and affordable housing in flat packages. Today it is also a country with a big youth unemployment problem. It is so massive, in fact, that hundreds of thousands of young Swedes see no option other than to move across the border to Norway. They hope to find work…
Of all the horror tropes, witches have had a lean run lately. Seems you can’t turn around without a new movie about zombies, vampires or ghosts being released; but witches have somehow stayed quietly in the background. Until now that is, and the release of Robert Eggers’ genuinely creepy indie film, The Witch. An audience…
Contemporary dance mixes with ancient ritual in Chunky Move’s double-header Next Move 11. The first work, titled “Nether”, is directed, choreographed and performed by Lauren Langlois. She shares the stage with James Vu Ahn Pham, who collaborated on the choreography. “Nether” has an otherworldly feel. It’s a fusion of light, music and movements that are on…
The Dapto Chaser is a new Australian play by Mary Rachel Brown. It was commissioned by Illawarra’s Merrigong Theatre Company, in 2011. Dapto, a suburb of Wollongong, has a ‘famous’ greyhound race track. The play concerns a family, the Sinclairs, and their greyhound connections, ambitions and dreams. Horse racing is known as the Sports of…
Sunday Reed is a firecracker. She is a woman unlike any other. She is instinctive … a free spirit. Although she has some mental health issues, Sunday doesn’t hold back. She says what she thinks and feels. Married to John, he surprises her when – on a whim – he purchases a farm in Heidelberg (in Melbourne’s northeast) in the…
Inferno is the third film adapted from the series of novels written by Dan Brown featuring the religious symbologist Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks). A symbologist is the type of arcane profession that only exists within the cloistered world of academia or the pages of thriller novels. Although the second novel in the series,…
– Mrs Lowry & Son – Only in cinemas from 28 November 2019 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Umbrella Entertainment. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Artist L.S. Lowry (Timothy Spall) lives all his life with his over-bearing mother Elizabeth (Vanessa Redgrave) who constantly tries to dissuade him from…
