One of the most creative and engaging plays I have had the good fortune to see, the moment it finished I wanted to see it again. What better recommendation is there? Put succinctly, North by Northwest is a beauty. So was the Alfred Hitchcock-directed movie, mind you, so the issue became how best to translate…
It somehow seems ironic that a film exploring the last days in the life of a famous artists should itself be about as interesting as watching paint dry. At Eternity’s Gate is a biopic of the eccentric and misunderstood artist Vincent Van Gogh who died at the age of 37 in 1890. This story of…
Australia: The Lucky Country. And through the eyes of a teenage, orphaned girl in Singapore, it represents her dream, her hope for a better life and an escape from the emotional shackles that the death of her mother has dealt her. Although inspired by the early years of its writer Merlynn Tong, Golden Blood is…
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Slow West is a quirky adventure set in Colorado in the second half of the 19th century. It tells the story of 16-year-old aristocrat Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who journeys from Scotland across the American Frontier in search of the woman…
I’m theatre traditionalist at heart; I don’t like puppets, audience participation…. or magic. So needless to say, The Illusionists: Direct from Broadway is my first (somewhat reluctant) show of its sort. And what a spectacular show I must admit it is. From the moment it begins with The Trickster (Paul Dabek) cheekily pitting two young…
Worst Little Warehouse is a funny, risqué and frenzied ode to housemates. Based on a true story, the cabaret’s inspiration was what happened to real-life couple – writer/performers Lala Barlow and Robbie Smith – while living in a converted warehouse in North London. Struggling with exorbitant rents and the city’s ongoing housing crisis, the pair…
Alexander Payne doesn’t make movies all that regularly – only five full features between 2000 and 2020. But when he does, everyone takes notice. And while his previous film, Downsizing (2017) might have been a little underwhelming, there’s nothing disappointing about The Holdovers. Payne’s best-known film is probably Sideways (2004), and here he teams with…
We seem to have been getting more European – specifically French – films in Australian cinemas recently. That might be a hangover from Hollywood’s troubles over the past year or two, but it provides an opportunity for more diverse offerings. And few films could be further from a Hollywood blockbuster than Catherine Breillat’s enigmatic Last…
It’s taken the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble until its 20th birthday year to finally mount a full production of arguably Shakespeare’s best-known play – Romeo & Juliet – and the outcome is most definitely worth the wait. Some would say that it’s hard to put a new twist on the oft-performed play, however the window dressing…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 26 April 2024. Grammy Award-winning vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Judith Hill reclaims her strength on a deeply emotive new album, Letters From A Black Widow (out now via Regime Music Group). ‘Black Widow’ finds Hill confronting the malign label…
