OK, first things first. If you haven’t seen the first season of How to Get Away with Murder but want to, read no further. Here be spoilers. So, at the end of season 1 we discovered that 1) Frank (Charlie Weber) killed Lila at the insistence of Sam, now-dead husband of Annalise (Viola Davis); 2)…
The Two Popes gives us the behind the scenes story of how one Pope stood aside for another in a move not seen for more than 700 years. The pair – Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) and Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) – didn’t see eye to eye on several issues and yet had mutual respect. One…
Sarah Hopkins’ latest book The Subjects delves into the murky world of big pharma and more particularly, the use of drugs to control and modify the behaviour of young offenders. Except that, for most of its length, it is not directly about this at all. It is only very late in the piece that the…
Think back. You’re 14 and nothing in this world (and I do mean nothing) means more to you than your total infatuation with your teen idol. You can’t eat. You can’t sleep. You daydream of him having eyes only for you. You have to find a way. Whatever it takes. That is the starting point for the wickedly…
Brisbane theatre company Shake & Stir has brought audiences many exciting theatre experiences (A Christmas Carol, Roald Dahl stories, Animal Farm). Their latest, Fourthcoming, is sure to be another hit. At various points, Fourthcoming invites audience members to use their smartphones to choose a path for the characters in the show. Whichever answer receives the…
From acclaimed Estonian filmmaker Zaza Urushadze (Three Houses) comes this Oscar nominated anti-war drama, set in the disputed territory of Abhazia during the war between Georgia and Chechen rebels in the early 1990s. Tangerines is a strong and provocative but very human look at the horrors of war, but it also looks at the futility…
With a fine, strong singing voice and a great sense of humour, to indefatigable 28-year-old Stephen Valeri opening those pipes is akin to breathing. He’s wanted to do it for as long as he can remember. And do it he does at breakneck speed in Your Diva Needs You. This is a 90-minute ode to the divas…
Right off the bat, here are three reasons you should see Alien: Covenant: Ridley Scott is back. The xenomorphs are back. If you’ve seen Prometheus, it will finally make sense. Yes, Ridley Scott is once more in the director’s chair to take us back into the dark, unforgiving world of the Alien franchise. The result is, thankfully,…
Re-tellings of Greek mythology are all the rage at the moment. Some recent forays back into this world include Madeline Miller’s Circe, Colm Tobin’s House of Names, Mark Haddon’s The Porpoise and Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls. The Miller and Barker books, in particular, seek to put a more feminist, female-centric spin on…
In the 1950s, Biblical films were extremely popular. Sweeping epics like the Oscar-winning Ben Hur and the spectacular The Ten Commandments scoring at the box office. These stories featured timeless themes of good versus evil. But in the 60s, their popularity seemed to wane. More modern takes on Bible stories have tended to be revisionist,…
