It takes a while to understand just what is going down here, but – make no mistake – Underneath Ms Archer is a stunning, original work. Behind it are the two outstanding actors. Louise Siversen plays veteran flight attendant Kelly Archer, while Peter Houghton is cast as medieval knight Willliam Marshall. The pair wrote the piece, with dramaturgy…
With overtures of Schindler’s List, The Zookeeper’s Wife is based upon fact. It is the true story of gentiles who put everything on the line to save hundreds of Jews from annihilation during the Holocaust. Warsaw in Poland in 1939 was a very, very dangerous place to be. It was where Antonina Żabińska (Jessica Chastain) and her…
From little things, big things grow. Director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi transforms a short story by Haruki Murakami into a 3-hour paean to love, loss and healing with Drive My Car. The film is a transcendent exploration of almost unbearable pathos, but with a shining light at the end. Another Murakami short story provided the source material…
The true crime podcaster as investigator is continuing to trend in crime fiction. Recent examples include Benjamin Stevenson (Greenlight), Amy Suiter Clark (Girl 11) and Charlie Donlea (Don’t Believe It). In Double Lives Kate McCaffrey, if anything, doubles down on this trend, as many of the chapters are podcast episode transcripts. Amy Rhinehart is a…
The fifth cycle of Marvel Cinematic Universe films kicks off with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. In the hands of director Peyton Reed (who directed the previous two Ant-Man films), this feels like something of a throwback. While nodding to the MCU’s current multiverse mania, Reed delivers an action film steeped in nostalgia. The only…
With three jazzy piano albums under his belt in the last couple years, it’s no surprise by now that one of Phil Madeira’s musical heroes is jazz icon Thelonious Monk. That may be a surprise to anyone who’s only heard Madeira at his day job, playing backup to one of country music’s best-loved female vocalists…
A feel-good road trip, The Peanut Butter Falcon concerns a couple of outcasts who take to each other like ducks to water. A down-on-his-luck fisherman and a young man bent on achieving an impossible dream make their way down the waterways of a mythical American South. At a loose end since the death his brother,…
From acclaimed Estonian filmmaker Zaza Urushadze (Three Houses) comes this Oscar nominated anti-war drama, set in the disputed territory of Abhazia during the war between Georgia and Chechen rebels in the early 1990s. Tangerines is a strong and provocative but very human look at the horrors of war, but it also looks at the futility…
While the recent Yesterday concentrated on the music of The Beatles; Blinded by the Light, focuses on a young man heavily influenced by The Boss, Bruce Springsteen. This one is inspired by fact, which isn’t the case with the other. Set in 1987, during the austere days of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, Blinded by the Light…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 16 February 2024. Psych-rock gurus Levitation Room have released their third full-length record Strange Weather. For the last decade, Levitation Room has been known for their self-produced, otherworldly music that’s connected with fellow travelers in the hallucinogenic world of…
