Like Alan Parker’s fantastic 1991 drama The Commitments, Kneecap tells the story of an Irish band from humble working-class beginnings. But unlike that film, which was based on a Roddy Doyle novel, Kneecap is drawn from a real-life story. Kneecap is a profane, hyperenergetic drama about an Irish hip-hop trio who found themselves at the…
The spirit of the late great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman permeates this gentle but ambiguous drama from French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love (The Father of My Children) which blurs the line between fiction and reality. Filmmaking couple Chris (Vicky Krieps, from Phantom Thread) and Tony (Tim Roth) arrive on Faro Island, located in the Baltic Sea…
Whit Stillman (The Last Days of Disco) directs his own adaptation of an unfinished Jane Austen novella, titled Lady Susan, in Love & Friendship; a period comedy about matchmaking and heartbreak. Set in the opulent drawing rooms of eighteenth-century English society, Love & Friendship focuses on the delicious scheming and manipulations of a beautiful widow,…
If you are totally immersed in the mythology of James Bond and his adversaries, this show will delight and amuse you. At its core is vengeance and it plays up villainy. It combines a play in three acts with fun facts from the Bond pantheon – comparing the books and the films. The contention of the theatrical…
Margaret Hickey hit the Australian crime fiction scene with Cutter’s End, the first of a (so far) three book series featuring South Australian detective Mark Ariti (also Stone Town and Broken Bay). In her latest book, The Creeper, Hickey is giving both Ariti and South Australia a rest as she moves the action to the…
The theatre makers have thrown the veritable kitchen sink at this one. Narrative, poetry, well-choreographed movements, puppetry, crowd interaction and breaking the fourth wall – it is all there. So much work has gone into the look and sound of the piece, and the result is spectacular. I refer to the set, props, costuming, make-up,…
Mark Hartley is a filmmaker whose specialty is the rather niche world of Ozploitation. His latest film, Girl at the Window, is in a similar vein. Troubled teenager Amy’s (Ella Newton) father died when he fell down a disused mine shaft two years ago. She was nearby when it happened, and blames herself. She’s still…
The DNA of Michael Mann’s 1995 classic Heat runs through the gritty crime drama, Den of Thieves. Los Angeles is the bank robbery capital of the US, with one committed every 48 minutes on average. Merriman (Pablo Schreiber) leads a highly organised and efficient gang of robbers. A former special ops soldier, Merriman uses his training and skills to…
A fresh banana duct-taped to the wall. Is that art? Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created controversy with his ‘nana, named Comedian and regarded as conceptual art, which debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019. The controversy was hardly surprising, but it triggered an intense debate about the definition of art. In fact, that year…
The Cutlers are a crime family that live a gypsy-like lifestyle and live in a makeshift caravan park in the countryside of Gloucestershire. They rob stately homes through a series of daring smash and grab raids. And the local police seem unable to pin anything on them, although they have their suspicions. Colby (Brendan Gleeson)…
