The last time Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu took to the big screen, he carried the awards season with him as his wildly inventive Birdman swept all before it. Now he’s back with a more subdued but just as intriguing film in The Revenant. Where Birdman was style and movement, The Revenant is stillness and contemplation. And…
Journey’s End The true horrors of war feature in the somber WWI film, Journey’s End. The movies tells the story of a company led by the war-weary Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin), waiting to take its turn in the front-line trenches in northern France. A German offensive is imminent and the officers (played by Paul Bettany,…
This documentary is a loving tribute to fashion icon Mary Quant, who typified the changing face of Britain through the 60s and 70s. She was a trailblazer who was credited with creating the mini-skirt and who was well known for her dynamic use of colours and this film puts her life into context with what…
One of Bryan Brown’s early films was 1980’s Palm Beach, a low budget surfing movie set on the idyllic beaches of northern NSW. Nearly forty years on Brown returns to that eponymous location for this drama about a gathering that can be called The Big Chill – Australian Style. Secrets and lies, personal failings, regrets…
Here is a little gift for those who can’t calm their minds long enough right now to dig into long haul television and would rather be entertained with brief screen chunks of intrigue and laughs. You will add a little to your general true crime knowledge bank too as you soak in the casual docuseries…
Michael Gow’s Away is a ‘classic’ Australian play much loved by Australian audiences. I have seen some countless numbers of productions and, I believe, this is the fifth professional production that I have seen. I saw the first production for the Griffin Theatre Company at the SBW Stables Theatre in 1986, directed by Peter Kingston….
Much of both on-screen and written fantasy is based on Western mythological traditions. Witches, wizards, elves, dwarves, unicorns, vampires and dragons are the mainstay of most of the fantasy-related media we tend to consume. From Harry Potter to Game of Thrones to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So it is refreshing to encounter speculative fiction on…
A feel good chicks’ flick that gravitated from irritating the bejesus out of me to seeing me shed a tear, The Meddler stars Susan Sarandon as a well-to-do widow with a lot of time of her hands. Her character is Marnie, a woman whose Italian-American husband passed away almost two years ago and left a…
A superb production breathes new life into the multi award-winning story of vice that is Bob Fosse’s Chicago. We’re in the roaring Twenties. Married to the dim-witted Amos, chorus girl Roxie Hart is enraged when Fred Casely breaks off an affair and shoots him dead. She tries to pin the murder on her hapless husband, although that backfires. Sent…
A penniless wheeler and dealer gets in with the big boys and finds himself caught up way over his head. That, in a nutshell, is what the cleverly conceived and executed mind-bender Norman is all about. Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) lives a lonely life in the margins of New York City power and money. He is a would-be…
