Timothy Spall looks nothing like most of the characters he’s played – and yet like all of them. The acclaimed actor is stylishly dressed, even sporting a light jacket despite the oppressive heat outside. He’s a man who seems comfortable in his own skin. Polite and thoughtful, he’s very much the image of a leading…
Judy and Punch is a real mixed bag. This Australian production from actor-turned-director Mirrah Foulkes is something of a breakthrough for the local industry. It proves Australian cinema can be more than just sunshine, beaches and gritty dramas. But its wildly uneven tone and confronting themes will test audiences’ patience. Domestic violence presents a huge…
The power and punch of Martin Crimp’s 2019 free adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, as superbly realised by Artefact Theatre Company, will stay with me for a long time. It is a sharp, modern version of Edmond Rostand’s classic love triangle, set in 17th century France, with toxic masculinity at its core. Insecurity and self-loathing…
Many of us will remember the television science program hosted by Professor Julius Sumner Miller in which he always famously asked “Why is it so?” This question is an underlying theme in Once in Royal David’s City. Playwright Michael Gow uses his central character Will Drummond (Francisco Lopez) to search for the meaning of life;…
“You have to write everything down,” newbie funeral director Steve (Mitchell Bourke) is told by a colleague on his first call-out. Thankfully for theatre-goers, Toowoomba born playwright Steve Pirie has done exactly that, with Return to the Dirt, winner of the prestigious Queensland Premier’s Drama Award (QPDA), the largest playwriting award in the country, which…
The Little Things is definitely not the movie I was expecting from director John Lee Hancock. After all, when you’ve got The Blind Side, Saving Mr Banks and The Founder on your resume, you might feel a little typecast. But Hancock breaks the mould here with a gritty crime thriller. And more than that, he…
Director Cesc Gay adapts his own play in The People Upstairs, a dry comedy whose dialogue-heavy approach sublimely reveals shifting relationship dynamics. The film takes place entirely in a modern, slick apartment occupied by long-time couple Ana (Griselda Siciliani) and Julio (Javier Cámara). After 15 years, their relationship has grown stale which manifests itself with…
What if the cartoon world turned into real life? Well, that’s what happens in Carlos Saldanha’s family-friendly fantasy Harold and the Purple Crayon. Harold (Zachary Levi) is the manifestation of the vivid imagination of writer Crockett Johnson. He’s a character in a book, who along with his buddies, Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya…
The six adult children of Frazer Lattimer have an entire childhood of fraught experiences to draw upon for examples of bad parenting. Their mother, Kathleen Lattimer, was an utter saint though and often served as a buffer between her overbearing husband and their three sons and three daughters. With Kathleen now gone, and Adam Lattimer…
Intelligent couple Stevie (Claudia Karvan) and Martin Gray (Nathan Page) have been happily married for 22 years. They have a 17-year-old gay son, Billy (Yazeed Daher) and all live a good life. Martin, who has just turned 50, has had, arguably, the finest week of his professional life. He has just been awarded the premiere prize for architecture,…
