The ability to write, direct and act in your own play is no mean feat. Especially when it’s a world premiere! So, accolades to Megan Wilding for her creative, humorous and sometimes confronting storytelling in A Little Piece of Ash. It’s only when those closest to us are gone do we begin a new appreciation…
Buzz has been building around Wolf Alice for a few years now. With several singles and two EP’s already under their belt, the London band has put in a lot of legwork prior to the release of their debut full-length. My Love is Cool is an album full of soaring moments from a band with…
A decidedly offbeat love story between two troubled individuals, What If It Works? is a heap of fun. It’s the first feature film for writer, director and co-producer Romi Trower. Adrian (Luke Ford), an irrepressibly chirpy tech nerd, suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder … and how. He walks around wearing trousers that aren’t quite long enough…
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…
Coming-of-age stories about the unconventional but uplifting friendship between children and animals have been a staple of cinema for years. Henry Safran’s 1976 film of Storm Boy was a heartfelt classic from the period of the re-emergence of the Australian film industry and it touched a generation of filmgoers. Adapted from Colin Thiele’s beloved 1964…
Two new and very different works, each lasting just under an hour, constitute the opening of the 2023 ballet season in Melbourne for The Australian Ballet. Named Identity, in a nutshell it is contemporary dance versus traditional ballet. While there were elements of both that I admired, I felt there was too much repetition in the first,…
Manipulative youngsters behaving badly. Well, two in particular. That is what Cruel Intentions The 90’s Musical is all about. It is based on the 1999 movie of the same name, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe and Reece Witherspoon. It began its journey in 2015 as an unauthorised work, brought together by Jordon Ross and Lindsay Rosin….
Trap is the latest film from M Night Shyamalan and, like so much of his oeuvre, it’s driven by an intriguing premise. But as with so many of his previous films it begins to lose momentum and credibility, especially during the unnecessarily drawn out third act. The film opens with Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett), a…
I decided to watch Russian Doll when I saw Amy Poehler was one of the show’s writers and producers. But if you think this show is going to be a light Parks & Recreation-style comedy, think again. It is a comedy but it’s dark – a fact the writers specifically acknowledge in one episode. The…
Clever and melodic, The Dark Web is a delightful, rib tickling, original musical from the vivid imagination of its writer, composer and star Ariella Gordon. The 90-minute show without interval, with four principal performers and another four in the ensemble, concerns a dysfunctional family. June (Gordon) plays 15-year-old Andy’s (Eleanor Davey) aunt, to whom she is…
