‘What are the things I know to be true?’, a naïve and broken-hearted 19-year-old Rosie Price (Eleni Koutsoukis) wonders after an ill-fated encounter hiccups her great European adventure, forcing her to return home to her family in Adelaide. Why wouldn’t she return when her family is the best thing since sliced bread? As we are…
The attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 is the jumping off point for A Voice in the Night, the debut Australian crime thriller by Sarah Hawthorn. 9/11 was a global trauma, played out on live television, the consequences of which still resonate. The events of the day are told through the…
In the 90s Renny Harlin was arguably the premier director of out-and-out action films. Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and The Long Kiss Goodnight are all his. Since then though his reputation has suffered with a succession of lower budget B-grade films and television work. His latest film is unlikely to restore his reputation though. The…
Louise Brooks was one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era. So you’d think a movie featuring Brooks as a character would delve into some of the mystique surrounding the star. Yet Michael Engler’s The Chaperone largely sidesteps Brooks’ career in favour of a stodgy love story. Julian Fellowes – best known for…
The cover of Beat The Champ, the latest album by The Mountain Goats, has a picture of two wrestlers going at it in the ring. John Darnielle’s 15th studio album is indeed a theme album about the wonders (and gruesomeness) of professional wrestling. And no, not the WWF or WWE of your youth; this is…
What if The Breakfast Club characters had to work on a yearbook project together instead of just talking? Reading Sarah Ayoub’s latest book, The Yearbook Committee, I was instantly reminded of the aforementioned movie (a favourite of mine) because of the way it dealt with timeless issues facing young people. Here’s the blurb: Five teenagers. Five lives. One…
Produced under the auspices of Blumhouse, which specialises in horror, The Invisible Man is a taut psychological thriller that effectively combines elements of sci-fi and horror. Written and directed by Melbourne filmmaker Leigh Whannell (a co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises), this serves up a refreshingly different take on the mad scientist character originally…
The renaissance of Australian crime drama continues. Following on from Mystery Road comes SBS’s Dead Lucky, featuring Rachel Griffiths. And while this limited series may not have the sprawling ambition of Rachel Perkins’ outback drama, it still has a lot going for it. In a direct contrast to Mystery Road, Dead Lucky is set in…
What a buzz. How much energy does School of Rock: The Musical have? What a riotous night for the whole family. How good are Brent Hill, Amy Lehpamer and the 12 talented children? This is a sensational production you could see over and over. Based on the 2003 movie, it features music by Andrew Lloyd…
At 80 pages, Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada (translated by David Boyd) is more a novella than a novel. But Oyamada manages to pack a punch into this brevity. The three connected stories that make up the novel explore issues of parenthood and responsibility from a Japanese perspective. In the first part of…
