With charming characters and impressive special effects, the reimagined Snow White is delightful. The original 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, helped established Disney as an animation powerhouse. Based on the classic fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm, the movie introduced the iconic characters of Snow White, the Evil Queen and the…
Tom Cruise feels totally miscast in The Mummy, a horror mishmash that the filmmakers spent far too much money on. Thought safely entombed deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella – Kingsman: The Secret Service) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in the present day. She was destined to…
It’s been a long time since I have read George Johnston’s 1964 Miles Franklin Award-winning My Brother Jack. However, through the lens of undergraduate literary-study nostalgia, I still recognise the seminal Australian novel’s place as part of our country’s canon, despite its challenge to our comfortable assumptions of national character. Still, like many I imagine,…
Aimed at Gen Z, Zola has attitude but, arguably, few smarts. The premise is straightforward enough, namely how two twenty-something women fall out. Zola (Taylour Paige) works at a fast-food restaurant. She’s befriended by Stefani (Riley Keough) who she serves at the diner. Both are pole dancers and they have a night out in a…
Nearly 25 years after Gladiator, Ridley Scott has gone back to the well… and this time there are sharks in the Colosseum. In Gladiator II, Russell Crowe, who played Maximus in the original, is only seen in a couple of quick throwback scenes. But even with the focus squarely on his son, Lucius (Paul Mescal),…
Not even the purists could fault this modern day version of Much Ado About Nothing. The setting maybe a luxury home among the palm, trees and the characters drink champagne and cocktails rather than mead and beer, but it was pure Shakespeare in thought, deed, and action. It was also rollicking fun and a roller-coaster…
The success of the original Knives Out took many by surprise. On the surface a twisty “drawing room” mystery (though in reality much more), the film was a runaway success, prompting Netflix to sign director Rian Johnson up to at least two more films featuring the enigmatic detective Benoit Blanc. Now the first of them…
Opening night saw Melbourne embrace the power, the passion and the perfection of one of the world’s great entertainers, Michael Jackson. Driven by his hard-edged father, Joseph, Michael sought excellence – faultlessness. That is behind his approach to his 1992 Dangerous World Tour, which plays out in rehearsals, as well as in a nostalgic look…
Up For Love could have been re-titled The Tall and Short of It, as much is made of a little guy dating a woman significantly taller than him. While comedic, the underlying story is all about the measure of a man, having nothing to do with his height. When small time lawyer, Diane (Virginie Efira)…
One of my mantras has been when working in the theatre: “The writer is God.” I have always held the writer in the highest esteem, especially the playwright, and in my working as an actor, director or teacher of acting, I have always applied a kind of ‘forensic fanaticism’ to the writer’s words and clues,…
