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…
Francis Lee follows up his well-received debut feature, God’s Own Country (2017), by mixing fact and fiction in Ammonite*. This finely constructed drama explores a real-life relationship, but takes it in directions not necessarily supported by the historical record. As in God’s Own Country, Ammonite delves into a same-sex relationship in a somewhat remote location….
A calm movie from time to time is something I welcome. Not a flashy, action film where you’ll get nervous because the scenes follow each other at a rapid pace and stroboscopic effects get you a cutting headache. Submergence undoubtedly belongs to the calm movie category. So, no nauseating headache. No disorientation. You’ll certainly not…
Thirty years on Nick Enright’s play about young men and youths callous disregard for the fairer sex continues to resonate. Trash talk and surf culture go hand in glove in the fictitious seaside working-class suburb of Blackrock. After 11 months away, arrogant Ricko (Bailey Griffiths) – who others look up to – returns and resumes…
One of the most lauded plays of the 20th century, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a high stakes cat and mouse game. Husband and wife adopt a take no prisoners’ attitude to the unfolding conflict. Before this is over, both will be metaphorically beaten up, as will their unwitting younger guests who become part of the…
Of all the high concept TV around at the moment, The Good Place probably has the highest concept of them all. I mean, it’s a brave show that starts out with a dead protagonist. It’s an even braver show that tackles deep philosophical themes. But it’s a brilliant show that can pull all that off…
Into the World by Stephanie Parkyn is historical fiction that’s both rich in fiction and character, delivering a memorable story of a woman named Marie-Louise, who dresses as a man and finds herself on a dangerous expedition around the world. This is the blurb: 1791. In the midst of the French Revolution, unwed mother Marie-Louise Girardin…
Even if you’re not a ballet fan, it’s likely you’ve heard of Rudolph Nureyev. Along with Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, he’s an icon of the art form. But in The White Crow, actor turned director Ralph Fiennes delves into some lesser-known parts of Nureyev’s story to create a fascinating portrait of a supreme –…
Twenty-one-year-old Leo Joseph-Connell (Shiv Palekar) values his independence. He’s fallen out with his mother Jane and is on a cross-country bike trip. The family hasn’t heard from him in weeks and they are worried. Leo lands on the doorstep of his 91-year-old grandmother Vera Joseph’s (Nancye Hayes) apartment in Greenwich Village, dirty and smelly. He’s…
Do tech bros, that is entrepreneurs in the tech industry, rule the modern world without taking personal accountability for their missteps? You need not think too hard to come up with names that roll off virtually everyone’s tongues. That is a concept explored in this horror sci-fi about such a man who sets about trying…
