Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 26 February 2021. Singer/songwriter Chris Pierce stands by the notion that music can cut through the isolated and static feelings for those of us worn down by the chaos of everyday life. He calls out to unite us under…
Boss Level, directed by Joe Carnahan, uses a video game framework to capture a fun, action-packed storyline. The film follows ex-military operative Roy Pulver (Frank Grillo) who re-lives the same day, but progresses further each time to unravel a plot that could annihilate the planet. In the same vein as Groundhog Day, mixed with Edge…
Patricia Cornelius is one heck of a writer. She doesn’t pull her punches. Her dialogue hits you between the eyes. And so it is with RUNT, which she has co-created with her collaborators in an earlier multi award-winning work, SHIT, Susie Dee and Nicci Wilks. RUNT benefits from a stellar solo showing by Wilks, a searing…
Not to be confused with the 1984 thriller that starred Drew Barrymore as a young girl who could start fires with her mind – Firestarter is a documentary that looks at Australia’s Bangarra Dance Company, one of the foremost indigenous dance companies in the world. The company was founded in Sydney in 1989 by Stephen…
The controversial topic of euthanasia comes under the microscope in Roger Michell’s drama Blackbird. Lily (Susan Sarandon) is in her late 60s and is terminally ill. Her husband, Paul (Sam Neill), a doctor, has the medication, which is legal in several states, but not where they live. He intends to administer it and make up…
At this point, with seven studio albums under their belt since debuting on the scene in 2004, The Hold Steady have locked down a pretty reliable piece of rock & roll real estate around the storytelling narratives of singer/songwriter Craig Finn. The band’s 2019 album, aptly titled Thrashing Thru The Passion, featured five new songs…
Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel Open Water is a deeply personal exploration of the connection between two people and whether that connection can survive the pressures of the world. It is clearly, from the first page, a love story, but it is much more than that, as Nelson considers what it means to be young…
Fight for what you believe in. Fight for decency. Fight for who you are. In fact, just fight. That is one, perhaps uncharitable, representation of Malcolm & Marie. This black-and-white two-hander focuses on an African-American filmmaker Malcolm (John David Washington) and his live-in partner Marie (Zendaya), a former drug addict. It’s 1 a.m. and they’ve…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 19 February 2021. Mogwai’s tenth studio album As The Love Continues, is out now through Spunk Records. Mogwai have advanced without a plan since they were teenagers, there have been no secretive meetings to work out the master plan….
Documentary is a wonderfully flexible form, but paradoxically it rarely strays from a defined formula. You know – some establishing shots, some archival footage, some talking head interviews. But directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw obviously don’t feel beholden to those conventions. Their new film, The Truffle Hunters, is about as radical a departure from…
