Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 5 March 2021. Flock is the record that Jane Weaver always wanted to make, the most genuine version of herself, complete with unpretentious Day-Glo pop sensibilities, wit, kindness, humour and glamour. A consciously positive vision for negative times, a…
Director Barry Jenkins proves Moonlight was no fluke with another outstanding piece of filmmaking in If Beale Street Could Talk. This gorgeous, multi-facted film takes a seemingly simple story and builds it into something much more. Jenkins fits together basically three aspects of the black experience in America. First he examines the importance of family….
I swear I close my eyes and I can hear the late, great John Denver. When I open them and see Darren Coggan performing in front of me, he bears a striking similarity to the world-renowned acoustic folk musician, born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31st, 1943 – October 12th, 1997). For well over an hour,…
Just why the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose to only nominate Hidden Figures for three Oscars (Best Film, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay) one can only speculate. For mine, it is one of the films of the year. Hidden Figures is inspirational, poignant, infuriating, witty and warm, an ode to…
Bush crime, or rural noir if you prefer, is having quite the moment as we all know. The challenges of such extreme geographic isolation in the hostile environment of outback Australia lends itself well to works of crime and dramatic fiction. It’s possible there is going to be no one around to witness the occurrence…
In our increasingly connected world, it’s ironically easier than ever to feel disconnected. How you deal with that disconnection is the subject of the disturbing comedy-drama, Ingrid Goes West. Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) is an unhinged social media stalker. She has a history of confusing “likes” for meaningful relationships. Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen) is an Insta-famous “influencer”,…
Blood Bank is a new Australian play by a new writer Christopher Harley, at the Ensemble Theatre. It was part of the Ensemble Stages 2013 Spring Reading. It is set in the waiting room of a blood bank. Michael is waiting to donate blood to his very ill twin brother Justin, both played, well, by…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 19 June 2020. Fronted by Brent DeBoer of The Dandy Warhols (US) and boasting Aussie indie rock queen Courtney Barnett and her bandmates as former members, Immigrant Union are a local band with international rock royalty heritage. With their…
Things no one will say about Charlie Kaufman’s new film, I’m Thinking of Ending Things: “Aww, that was sweet”; “What a cliched Hollywood ending”; “That movie made total sense”. Kaufman’s latest excursion into weirdness is almost Bergman-esque in its inscrutability. Indeed, it shares more than a little DNA with Bergman’s classic Persona (1966). But as…
Just stop for a moment and consider that Australia’s national holiday is the only one in the world that celebrates the imposition of colonialism. What that means for those who were here first is often the subject of spirited debate. In an age of 24-hour news cycles and social media echo chambers, the real issues…
