Rocketing towards certain destruction, Katherine and Lily are two women that have little in common and nothing that they are willing to share. Precious You examines the bitter and bloody path of female conflict that is born in the workplace but inevitably extends far beyond into the outer lives of its contenders. Katherine is a…
The publicity blurb for Kyle Perry’s thriller debut The Bluffs describes it as a cross between Picnic at Hanging Rock and Mean Girls. The hook is four teenage girls missing in the inhospitable landscape of Tasmania’s Great Western Tiers and the aftermath of their disappearance, coupled with a bit of horror-inspired local folklore. Whatever Perry’s…
It’s been a while between drinks (Bad Boys II came out in 2003, five years after the original), but Will Smith and Martin Lawrence still have unmistakable chemistry. With a high-octane script, plenty of action, and no shortage of good humour, Bad Boys for Life is an unexpected winner. Unexpected because I approached it with…
Allegra in Three Parts made me cry, I’m not going to hide it. Grab your tissues, because this story of a young girl (Allegra, aged 11 and three-quarters) who has to be one person for one grandmother, another for the other, and a third for her dad, really tugs at the heartstrings. Allegra’s being brought…
Whereas the first film in the Star Trek reboot (simply titled Star Trek) was all about forming the group that would become a family, and the second (Star Trek: Into Darkness) galvanised them in the face of a new threat, both of those were ultimately Earth bound. Star Trek: Beyond is the first time we…
Celebrity – it’s the dream of many and the nightmare of some. Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli (in his English-language debut) takes a quirky but deep dive into the nature of celebrity in the current cultural moment with Dream Scenario. The result, while a little uneven, is nonetheless intriguing. Depicting dreams in cinema – or any…
Young Jewish comedian Michael Shafar relates stories about his life as they pertain to his girlfriend of nine years, Amanda, and his parents. They include a particularly lame “dad joke” that keeps haunting him and various body parts of his that his mother has kept. His grandmother also isn’t spared his opprobrium – all these…
I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while but after a run of books focusing on the Nazi regime, I held off reading it until I was ready. When I finally picked up the novel, I discovered a quirky character tale that lingered with me. Here’s the blurb: Aged 105, Rose has endured more…
The best storytelling comes from showing not telling… that is using action (or lack of, as the case may be) to reveal the emotions intended to be interpreted by the audience. Awareness of this is at the core of Hannah Belanszky’s mainstage debut work Don’t Ask What the Bird Look Like from its very outset…
British musician Mike Oldfield was still in his teens when he recorded his first studio album, the iconic number one chart topper Tubular Bells. It was the first release on Richard Branson’s fledgling label Virgin Records and went on to sell tens of millions of copies. Sales surged when Tubular Bells’ opening theme was used in the…
