Just how far can artificial intelligence take us? Can it deliver genuine companionship and more for the lonely, elderly and ailing? Those questions are answered in the resounding affirmative by playwright Jose Rivera in his dramatic and comedic work Your Name Means Dream. Aislin (Caroline Lee), of Polish Irish extraction (and whose name means dream…
By the end I was bawling like a baby. CATS, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as a Tom Hooper-directed and co-written (with Lee Hall) film, is a triumph of theatrics – costuming, make-up, choreography, colour and emotion. In the original 1980s stage musical, CATS takes place on the night of the annual Jellicle Ball, when…
Questions of morality and decency are at the heart of an outstanding comedic drama concerning the interactions of two night security guards and two police officers in New York. Jeff (Charles Grounds) was booted out of the navy after three years for dope smoking, something his father – who was a naval hero – was…
The Red Turtle is a dialogue-free animated film from the renowned Studio Ghibli, which has given us Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. But this is an international co production between France and Japan, and is the first non-Japanese film produced by the revered animation studios. This is a richly emotional and resonant exploration of…
If you’re going to ask me what Marauders was about, I’ll owe you the answer. Because to be honest, this was such a complicated story that I couldn’t understand what was happening while watching. Let alone that I could still retell it now. The big jumble of storylines is just as inextricable as a fisherman…
From little things, big things grow. Director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi transforms a short story by Haruki Murakami into a 3-hour paean to love, loss and healing with Drive My Car. The film is a transcendent exploration of almost unbearable pathos, but with a shining light at the end. Another Murakami short story provided the source material…
Two actors, some props, lighting… sounds rudimentary – but the result in The Woman in Black is astounding. This storied play remains the second-longest running production in London’s West End, racking up over 13,000 performances between 1989 and 2023. (The longest-running is The Mousetrap.) Now this localised version of the London production is touring the…
It is the future and Earth Seven is becoming uninhabitable. Too many people, too few resources. It is time to get out, but the opportunity is not there for everyone. In fact, even amongst “the chosen”, everything has to be just right … and it isn’t for Hon, otherwise known as Panther (Melanie Audrey) and Tee (Sodi…
The current grande dames of comedy, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, re-unite for Sisters, a comedy about taking things just that bit too far. Each of course had individual success on television (Fey on 30 Rock and Poehler on Parks and Recreation) but their movie output together has been sporadic (Mean Girls and Baby Mama…
Before Hamilton, there was In the Heights. Cultural phenomenon Lin-Manuel Miranda finally brings his Broadway musical about the largely Latin-American community of Washington Heights to the big screen. He once again collabs with Quiara Alegría Hudes (who wrote the book for the musical) and brings in Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) to direct. The…
