Tim Minchin’s genius in picking out the best bits of our common Australian experiences and presenting them back to us like a proud parent is evident once again in Upright. Upright opens with Lucky (Minchin), on the wrong side of the country from his mother who is seeing out her last days at home, in…
Choosing the remote island of Lark to relocate to is a decision made by the Kendricks in the wake of enormous loss. Viola and her mother Deborah will never be the same again now it is only the two of them, and the safety offered by the tiny community of Lark seems heaven sent at…
Feel good entertainment in a good, old-fashioned pub – what could be better than that? Well … simple, really – feel good entertainment in a good old-fashioned pub on stage, with no shortage of audience participation. That is the show and the group known as The Choir of Man – nine talented singers and musos….
Killing crooks with kindness. That is the concept behind this original animated feature, which turns traditional methods of spying on its head. Lance Sterling (the voice of Will Smith) is an elite loner – the best of the best, who does things others can’t. Mind you he doesn’t always follow the instruction of the agency…
Feeling and sensitivity pervade every fibre of the sensual and artistic work by French auteur Céline Sciamma (Girlhood). We’re in Brittany, France in 1760. Slow-moving but compelling, Portrait of a Lady on Fire concerns a secretive and developing relationship between a painter, Marianne (Noémie Merlant) and her subject, Héloïse, (Adèle Haenel), who has just left…
There’s a great deal of warmth and good humour in filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu’s (who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for Shoplifters) wry new dramedy The Truth. It is his first film abroad in a language not his own and he worked with a totally French crew. It also marks the first time beloved Academy…
By the end I was bawling like a baby. CATS, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as a Tom Hooper-directed and co-written (with Lee Hall) film, is a triumph of theatrics – costuming, make-up, choreography, colour and emotion. In the original 1980s stage musical, CATS takes place on the night of the annual Jellicle Ball, when…
It is suspected that viewers of The Witcher will fall into two camps – fantasy readers/gamers, and Henry Cavill fans. You’re in for a sizeable treat if you happen to be both of these things. Sure, last Friday night you may have been one of those people who trudged off to see the latest Star…
After taking on vampires (What We Do in the Shadows) and superheroes (Thor: Ragnarok), hugely talented NZ director Taika Waititi takes on Nazis in Jojo Rabbit. But unlike the breezy charm of those films, this time Waititi goes to some very dark places. Jojo Rabbit is a cautionary tale about the dangers of “drinking the…
The offspring of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) trying to resolve deep-seated familial issues is front and centre in this official close of the Skywalker odyssey. A largely masked Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is given the opportunity to be the unchallenged galaxy leader, with power and control…
