Sweden is more than idyllic red cottages and affordable housing in flat packages. Today it is also a country with a big youth unemployment problem. It is so massive, in fact, that hundreds of thousands of young Swedes see no option other than to move across the border to Norway. They hope to find work…
Gritty, grungy and wickedly pleasurable, Patti Cake$ is a downbeat rags tale about a blue collar rap wannabe. Patricia Dombrowski, a.k.a. Patti Cake$, a.k.a. Killa P. (Australian newcomer Danielle Macdonald), has had it with life in her rundown New Jersey hometown. At 23 she is ready to hit the road and make a play for…
Man, was David Mamet angry or what when he wrote Glengarry Glen Ross? From the opening scene to the epilogue, this dialogue-packed production is full of the most colourful and lewd insults you are likely to hear. Did I feel intimidated? A little. Was I surprised by some of the language? Yes. Were the characters,…
Pain, depression and death get a working-over in killers. The Owl & Cat’s production is the world premiere of New York playwright Kevin Armento’s work. Miranda’s (Holly Chadwick) earliest memories are destructive thoughts – mayhem, torture and split blood. At primary school she meets and befriends Bobby Barrett (Charles Russell). The pair bond over their collective negativity. In no time, they are dishing…
“It’s a little bit harder as a woman to get a film financed in this country as a director,” says filmmaker Kim Farrant who has just made her feature film debut with the taut new Australian psychological drama Strangerland. In the film Farrant explores how people cope with crises. In this case, the Parker family…
An engaging script, a strong showing by two of the leads and good humour are hallmarks of this picture, which introduces us to a founding member of The Avengers’ universe. Marvel Comics first introduced Hank Pym/Ant-Man in 1962 in “Tales to Astonish #27” and the following year Pym appeared alongside The Avengers in the team’s…
Danger Close provides an insight into the horror and heroism of the Battle of Long Tan from an Australian perspective. Although overacted, this is a movie not easily forgotten. The movie is based on the true story of that battle in South Vietnam on 18 August 1966. It saw 108 young and largely inexperienced Australians…
Treachery and subterfuge abound in the Australian premiere of a new production of Richard Wagner’s otherworldly romance Lohengrin. It is a big and bold work – a spectacle – headlined by arguably the world’s most in-demand tenor, Jonas Kaufmann, in a lead role he makes his own. We are introduced to the war-torn environment in which…
I think I like adaptations rather than translations – especially from Russian and German. Turgid prose tends to translate to turgid prose. Daniel Evans is good at the adaptation business – Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Any More is a good example and this one bears his unique in-your-face style, with bad language, lots of smoking,…
The Regulars by Georgia Clark has a chick-lit premise but offers depth and plenty of food for thought. Here’s the blurb: Best friends Evie, Krista and Willow are just trying to make it through their mid-twenties in New York. They’re regular girls with typical quarter life crises: making it up the corporate ladder, making sense…
