Talk about a force of nature taking to a stage and theatrical space and making it her own. Meow Meow does so and how! She is a consummate performer with a golden voice and a smart mouth. First up a couple of musos run across the stage in shiny gold jackets and bright orange plastic…
As the director of Borat and Bruno, Larry Charles can hardly be accused of playing it safe. So it is again with Dicks: The Musical. This is a hard-swearing, politically incorrect comedy, which will delight those sick and tired of woke. Dicks is the cinematic adaptation of the musical stage play F…ing Identical Twins: The…
Accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment for mental illness should be a given, but as history shows, often that’s not the case. In Asylum, two involuntarily institutionalised patients are put through the wringer by an overly officious (read: downright brutish) doctor. One is a young man, Ben (Steven Oktaras), who believes he is dead. Most of all, he…
I was actually looking forward to watching this new version of Tomb Raider. Not only because I had a lot of fun with the PC game years ago (and amazed by the used graphics in those days). And not because Lara Croft was a hot and good looking video game character. No wonder she had…
The 6th British Film Festival is the biggest yet. Running across seven cities (most until 24th November, 2019) and 19 cinemas, it showcases 30 films, including 16 Australian premieres. Below are reviews of some of those premieres. To download the program, for more information and bookings, go to www.britishfilmfestival.com.au Official Secrets (MA) – 112 minutes…
There is disconnect between three members of the one family, a husband, wife and daughter who live in regional Australia and are struggling. It is not as if they want it that way, but that is what they are living with. They speak about their thoughts and feelings. They dare to dream and live out…
It’s been a long time since I have read George Johnston’s 1964 Miles Franklin Award-winning My Brother Jack. However, through the lens of undergraduate literary-study nostalgia, I still recognise the seminal Australian novel’s place as part of our country’s canon, despite its challenge to our comfortable assumptions of national character. Still, like many I imagine,…
There have been a few excellent, heart-wrenching movies made in recent years about disabled men being looked after by caring attendants. Those that immediately come to mind are The Intouchables (2011) with François Cluzet and Omar Sy, The Sessions (2012) featuring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, and The Theory of Everything (2014) starring Eddie Redmayne…
Listening to the latest from Icelandic chanteuse Björk, can feel like stepping through the curtain to enter an audio/visual piece at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. At first it can feel jarring, disorienting as the music pulses with what may seem at times like several different pieces of electronic music at once, and…
More twisted weirdness from New Zealand filmmaker Ant Timpson, best known for his work as a producer on gory horror films like the 2012 horror anthology The ABCs of Death. Timpson makes his feature directorial debut with this irreverent, nasty and darkly comic thriller about a young man who tries to reconnect with his estranged…
