Take a base of screwball comedy, add a dash of French New Wave, stir in some 1970s Woody Allen sensibility and top with a dollop of Clueless – now if you can wrap your head around all that, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect from Mistress America. This is director Noah…
Colson Whitehead deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize (and a bunch of other awards) for his previous two novels. Both detailed tragic times in the history of America: The Underground Railroad (2016) was a dark fantasy on responses to slavery, while The Nickle Boys (2019) explored the impact of institutionalisation and the associated abuse of young…
Over the decades, county music has loved a hard-luck story, a tears-in-your-beer weeper about a romance gone bad, hard livin’ and hard lovin’ with the promise of a party on the weekend. But it also came with the expectation of authenticity, the idea that the person singing the song had lived it, or at least…
Movies about weddings, with all their inherent potential for high drama and comedy, are a popular choice for both filmmakers and audiences. Top Wedding, directed by Wayne Blair (The Sapphires), should prove a crowd-pleaser in this country although whether it will translate to overseas audiences will be interesting to watch. Marketed as a romantic comedy,…
I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of The Blue Rose by Kate Forsyth, but I put off starting it for weeks. I knew that once I’d started, I’d be swept away by Kate’s story and wouldn’t want the story to end. And yes, that’s exactly what happened with The Blue Rose – I…
We mainly know Mark Kilmurry as the artistic director of the Ensemble Theatre at Kirribilli. In Murder on the Wireless, Mark’s theatrical abilities are well on display as he has written, directed and acts in the production. A courageous undertaking but one successfully carried out, I’m pleased to report. Murder on the Wireless is a…
Wrong Turn amps up the consequences of taking, well, a wrong turn. The horror thriller keeps on coming at you even after the final credits start rolling, so don’t walk out too soon. Three young professional couples decide to take a hike in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia. When they arrive in a backwater…
Australian actress, director and former head of the Queensland Theatre Company and the Sydney Theatre Company, Robyn Nevin, AO, is the type of figure who deserves applause upon her every stage entrance. That is what deservedly happens at the start of Christopher Hampton’s powerful play A German Life. Nevin plays Brunhilde Pomsel and shares the…
Quirky, comedic and endearing are three words to describe this charming independent film starring Jemaine Clement, from Flight of the Conchords. Clement plays Will Henry, a 40-year-old graphic novelist (he draws cartoons), a teacher at a school of visual arts and the father of twins. At the girls’ fifth birthday party, his seemingly picture-perfect Brooklyn…
Formed in the fall of 1998, Dead Meadow rose out of the Washington, D.C. indie/punk scene and have continued to evolve their sound through each record into the heavy modern psych you hear today. This psych path was highlighted on their Levitation Session album that was released in 2021. Force Form Free truly spotlights why…
