What a glorious way to bring in the New Year! Witness three powerhouse performances from musical theatre royalty, accompanied by conductor John Foreman’s Australian Pops Orchestra. It is the stuff of goosebumps. Silvie Paladino, Paulini and Josh Piterman lay it all on the line. Emotional resonance is palpable throughout. Many times, I had a lump…
Between September 7th, 1940 and May 11th, 1941, the Nazis carried out an intense bombing campaign in London and other strategic cities across Britain. The offensive came to be known as the Blitz (after the German word for lightning war – blitzkrieg). During the Blitz, 1.25 million British living in urban centres, more than half…
Jesse Eisenberg has used his Jewish family’s roots to craft A Real Pain. The film follows cousins making a pilgrimage to their late grandmother’s childhood home in Poland. Eisenberg plays David Kaplan, an anxious New Yorker, married father of one and digital ad salesman. His travelling companion on the week-long trip is Benji Kaplan (Kieran…
Colour, movement and hijinks are back in the latest instalment of the video game spin off Sonic The Hedgehog 3. Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and his pals, Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), have settled into domestic bliss in Green Hills. That is after their decisive victory over the evil Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey) in…
The limits of friendship are tested in acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s English language debut, The Room Next Door. This lovingly crafted and often moving drama treats the very serious subject of assisted dying with grace and compassion. And despite the subject-matter, it’s not nearly as depressing as you might think. You can see on…
Dreaming of an Italian getaway? Want to go to Naples in particular? Then you’ll want to catch Paolo Sorrentino’s gorgeous but enigmatic new film, Parthenope (pronounced Par-then-o-pay). This sweeping story about the city and its residents hits many of Sorrentino’s trademark beats. And while it can be puzzling at times, I found myself falling into…
Let’s clear up the most obvious question about Better Man, so I can get on with talking about the film. Yes, Robbie Williams’ biopic sees the pop star portrayed as a CGI monkey and that is because he always saw himself as a little less evolved than others. While you obviously do a double take…
Set in Mumbai and in an Indian seaside village, All We Imagine as Light is an empathetic, slice of life film that focuses on the fate of three women. Foremost amongst them is Prabha (Kani Kusruti), a dedicated and highly regarded nurse at a Mumbai hospital, who is largely introspective. She is in an arranged…
Sean Baker is an intriguing filmmaker who doesn’t repeat himself, although most of his films follow characters who are marginalised. His breakthrough film was 2015’s Tangerine, a low budget independent drama about a transgender prostitute looking for her pimp – it was entirely shot on a mobile phone. He followed that film in 2017 with…
Mufasa (the movie) explores how Mufasa (the lion cub who almost drowned in a flood) was separated from his parents and went on to become king of the jungle. His story is told by shaman mandrill Rafiki to another young lion cub, Mufasa’s granddaughter, Kiara (the daughter of Simba and Nala). Lending a mischievous hand…
