It’s not just the fact that defenseless young children are victims of unscrupulous people who use them in networks for pedophiles. The most disgusting aspect of this is that these circuits are visited by people who occupy important positions in daily life. Individuals who show a respectable and neat appearance to the outside world. But…
We got our first glimpse of the demonic nun Valak, in The Conjuring 2. She plagued Lorraine Warren’s visions and filled her with dread. Now she gets her own outing in The Nun. The epic battle of good vs. evil pits a priest with a dark history and a sister who has yet to take…
Although corny at times, the quintessentially Australian comedy The Merger is also endearing. The township of Bodgy Creek has seen better days: the population is dwindling, jobs are scarce and litter has built up around the fading Tidy Town sign. The next victim of the town’s decline is set to be its cash-strapped Aussie Rules…
Teenagers have it tough. Physical and emotional changes can wreak havoc. So imagine how much harder it would be if your parents decided these changes were just “wrong” and the only solution was isolation and religion. One teenager has to face just that dilemma in The Miseducation of Cameron Post. This beautiful and moving film…
As clever and highly regarded as it is, I can’t say I particularly warmed to Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter. An atmosphere of frustration and menace permeates the setting – a basement in Birmingham. A couple of hit men are awaiting instructions for their next assignment. As the play starts, Ben (John Wood) – the…
Cinema and music have always had a symbiotic relationship. A soundtrack is often a highlight of a feature film, while musicians use visual media to promote their product and in their live shows. It’s hardly surprising then that filmmakers would be drawn to music as a subject. And while, say, Almost Famous examined music stardom;…
Brisbane Festival’s 2018 program brims with big-name acts, more world premieres than ever, and a new light-and-laser show on the river that will see Brisbane illuminated for 22 days of celebration. There will be almost 600 performances – 100 of them free – of close to 70 shows across 17 venues. More than 1,000 artists…
Far-fetched but engaging, Kin is a tense “actioner” with a strong science fiction component. Fourteen-year-old Eli (Myles Truitt) lives in Detroit with his adoptive father Hal (Dennis Quaid), who keeps him on a tight leash. While exploring an abandoned building looking for scrap, Eli happens on the aftermath of an otherworldly shoot-out. In the debris,…
Blasted is a remarkably insightful and deeply traumatising work from British playwright Sarah Kane, first performed in 1995. Ian (David Woods) is a broken, middle-aged journalist. He’s brought a much younger woman, Cate (Eloise Mignon) – who he’s known for some time – to an upmarket hotel room. But when she resists his advances, he…
The term “creepypasta” is one I’d never heard of before, but apparently it was created to describe internet-spread urban legends. One of the more notorious was that of the so-called Slender Man, a boogieman that was created by Eric Knudsen under the pseudonym of Victor Surge in 2009. The character went viral on social media,…
