One of my favorite musical scenes in film is that long opening sequence at the beginning of the movie Once, where you can hear Glen Hansard playing guitar and singing while the camera tracks along the dark streets of Dublin before settling on the singer/songwriter busking in front of a storefront. Knowing that Hansard’s career…
They don’t make many movies about lesbian nuns these days. Thankfully provocative Dutch auteur Paul Verhoeven is here to fill in this cinematic void. Verhoeven’s films have often courted controversy – from the sexy police thriller Basic Instinct through to the lurid and trashy Showgirls. Verhoeven has always been something of a subversive and provocative…
During my youth I spent many hours next door with the neighbor boy. Not just for having fun or horsing around, but also because in their veranda there was a disused closet with sliding doors where you could always find some old comics lying around. I suppose these were from the older brother who was…
In 2008, Philip Roth published his 29th novel, Indignation, a story that returned him to his own youth, growing up in Newark, New Jersey before attending a small liberal arts college. One of America’s most honored and accomplished writers – having received a Pulitzer Prize – Roth was 75 years old when he turned back…
– Io Capitano – Only in cinemas from 28 March 2024 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to Rialto Distribution. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE IO CAPITANO (ME CAPTAIN) tells the adventurous journey of two young men, Seydou and Moussa, who leave Dakar to reach Europe. A contemporary Odyssey through…
By their very nature, human relationships are often messy. The vast majority don’t hit the headlines, but public figures are considered “fair game”. So, it is that 44-year-old television anchor Anna Kay (Caroline Craig) starts trending and is “slut shamed” when she takes up with 27-year-old SAS soldier Lexie (Callan Colley). Their relationship began after she interviewed…
What a story! What power! What magnificent singing and acting and one of the most dramatic scores in opera. Then we had murder, torture, rape and suicide for good measure. There’s no doubt Opera Queensland’s Tosca had everything and it was brilliantly revealed on opening night. What has been described as the greatest opera of…
The original Ouija, released in 2014, cost some $5 million to produce and ended up grossing some $100 million at the box office, so it’s no wonder that production company BlumHouse went back to the well for a second helping. But as the title suggests, Ouija: Origin of Evil is more of a prequel than…
The Oscar-winning writer of the powerful film Juno, Diablo Cody, has crafted another beauty, this time the storyline behind the stellar musical Jagged Little Pill. The result, a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. Like Juno, Jagged Little Pill is a comedic drama, with inclusion at its core. And who can go past the acerbic tongue…
Tragedies and reckonings during 2020 brought the issue of sexualised violence prominently into the headlines. So Emerald Fennell’s powerful contemplation on the topic, Promising Young Woman, couldn’t be better timed. Fennell is a British actor and writer (she worked on the hit UK shows The Crown and Killing Eve), and Promising Young Woman marks her…
