If 2020 was a shock to the movie-going system, 2021 was – in many ways – worse. Lockdowns, delays and uncertainty cruelled both the Australian and international film industries. Many studios deferred their biggest releases, hoping for smoother sailing ahead. As a result, it was no coincidence that the two biggest films at the box…
Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti is a good-natured and lively affair with mistaken identities at its core. Emotionworks – the brainchild of former Opera Australia principal and before that a jazz musician and singer Julie Edwardson – presents opera shortened and performed in English mashed with contemporary music, all of which follows a theme. Edwardson’s aim…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 2 December 2022. The British multi-instrumentalist, orchestral arranger and composer Fiona Brice has drawn on her abundant talents to forge her new album, And You Know I Care. It’s a deep listening experience that raises the post-classical bar, eschewing…
Currently in limited release, Of an Age is a sensitive coming-of-age drama told in two time frames. The film opens in 1999 and Kol (Elias Anton) is three weeks off turning 19. He is friends with hyperactive Ebony (Hattie Hook), who wakes by the water’s edge at a beach in Altona dazed and confused. Using…
Pardoner, the San Francisco-based indie rock band, has returned with their fourth album, Peace Loving People, and it’s a fantastic display of their evolving sound and songwriting prowess. Building upon the foundation they laid on last year’s excellent Came Down Different, Pardoner delivers a collection of songs here that continues to push boundaries, experiment with…
There is no subtlety in Sleepless, a gritty crime thriller starring Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained) and Michelle Monaghan (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). Almost everyone is dirty or corrupt, or both. It is simply a case of determining the wood from the chaff. When Las Vegas cop Vincent Downs (Foxx) and his partner Sean (Tip “T.I.”…
Set in Paris in the lead up to the French national day, Bastille Day is an action-thriller featuring British actor Idris Elba (Pacific Rim) as a rogue CIA agent. He plays Sean Briar, the agent tasked with trying to come to terms with what at first appearances could be a terrorist attack. An explosion kills…
In the same way that Spider-Man transposed from live action back to animation so successfully, now Transformers has done the same. Transformers One is a high-octane adventure with umpteen twists and turns, and extremely well-realised. I’d also like to think that as with Spider-Man, the same will be the case for Transformers moving forward. This…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 11 June 2021. Rio is the fifth album from the sensational French jazz pianist Florian Pellissier. It was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio (New Jersey, USA), fulfilling one of Pellissier’s long-held dreams. The album was mixed by Jordan…
Eucalyptus, the fully realised new opera, made its premiere at Brisbane Festival in a co-production by Opera Australia, Victorian Opera, Perth Festival and Opera Queensland. Based on Murray Bail’s fantastical, haunting 1998 novel of the same name and winner of the Miles Franklin Award, Eucalyptus was first performed in a concert version earlier this year…
