Question: How often can you watch a musical based on a 1939 MG movie musical? Answer: As often as they revamp the story the amazing way this production was. What a magical re-interpretation The Wizard of Oz is. You will be smiling all the way home when you leave the theatre. Jon Driscoll’s video designs were…
Imagine if you had the ability to see into the future and change the outcome. That idea is at the centre of Marvel’s latest superhero movie, which the studio would like to turn into a franchise. Brought up in foster homes, Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) is a paramedic. All she knows is that her mother…
Addiction unplugged. The rollercoaster. Ecstatic. Imaginative. Outrageous. Vitriolic. Sexually charged. Ugly. Brutal. Destructive. Deadly. So is the relationship with the bottle explored in Joe White’s no holds barred drama Blackout Stories. Alice is gregarious, demonstrative and creative – the life of a party. She drinks and her mind is like a sieve. She constructs colourful stories. She spots…
In Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies, five 20-somethings gather at a “hurricane party” to see out an impending cyclone. The venue is David’s (Pete Davidson) family’s remote mansion. With the gathering underway, a couple of others walk in. Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) – David’s childhood friend – has had a stint in rehab and has a…
A thriller centred around a fixer who negotiates deals between corrupt corporations and whistleblowers, Relay becomes more tightly wound as it reaches its climax. Tom (Riz Ahmed) is that middleman or fixer I speak off. An IT whiz, he is a problem solver for those who can’t see any other way out. He makes money…
Political rivalry between church and state might seem like a dry subject for a movie, but writer-director Tarik Saleh turns into a compelling drama in Cairo Conspiracy. As well as directing episodes of Westworld and Ray Donovan, Saleh directed Chris Pine in the 2022 actioner The Contractor. So he knows his way around intrigue. Cairo…
The prequel to The Wizard of Oz is back to delight anew and delight it most certainly does in a dazzling display at Melbourne’s finest theatre – the grand Regent. This is top shelf entertainment in every way. I speak of the talent, the choreography, the staging, the lighting and the sound. We are in the…
Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn makes the most of her starring role in Birds of Prey. She’s undoubtedly the bright star in a fantasy that has much going for it until it loses its way. Birds of Prey is, indeed, a twisted tale, as told by Harley herself. Harleen Quinzel is a former psychiatrist who…
The deeply personal coming-of-age tale Armageddon Time is loosely based on director James Gray’s own childhood experiences. And while the film explores many themes that have been typical of his canon, this one builds a strong emotional response from the audience. Gray’s counterpart here is Paul Graf (newcomer Banks Repeta) an eleven-year-old who is just…
Who doesn’t love their pet or pets? Many of us dote over them as if they were the most precious and prized member of the family. I know my wife certainly does. So the idea behind The Secret Life of Pets – what pets do behind closed doors when humans are not within earshot –…
