Two big movies in a week must be something of a record, but that’s what’s happened with Amy Adams this week. Coinciding with the release of Nocturnal Animals is Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, a very different film to showcase Adams’ talents. I have to say the premise sounded a bit hokey to me – alien craft…
4/4 is characterised by a series of complex movements and maneuverings against a stark stage and backdrop. It is black, white and grey all the way, save for the golden sun peeking through at the end. This, against a strong and dynamic sound bed. 4/4 is a highly expressive work, with eight performers paired off. Ostensibly dressed in black…
Mozart’s delicious tale of skulduggery from inveterate womaniser Don Giovanni is given life anew by Melbourne Opera. This is a man who can’t help himself when it comes to the fairer sex. Large or small, pretty or plain, attached or single, from noble stock or otherwise, with the help of his hapless servant Leporello he…
I’ve heard so many good things about Rashida Murphy’s book, The Historian’s Daughter, that I had to read it for myself. Here’s the blurb: In an old house with ‘too many windows and women’, high in the Indian hills, young Hannah lives with her older sister Gloria; her two older brothers; her mother – the Magician; a colourful…
For better or worse, there’s only one Woody Allen. The master of that dry, self-deprecating New York wit is back with Café Society, a film that strikes me as possibly one of his most personal — as it serves as a kind of love letter to two things Allen clearly cares deeply about – old movies…
What was the overall feeling after watching Atomic Blonde? For me it was a mixture of confusion and excitement at the same time. Confusion because of the complex story with a multitude of twists and spy-related mumbo jumbo. To be honest, I always have that with this kind of movies. So you can assume that…
A Life in the Theatre, by David Mamet, is an early play (1977) and considerably out of the usual area and style of his more well known genre – of the ‘Mamet-speak’ with macho, foulmouthed men squabbling over the way to make money; epitomised in his famous Pulitzer Prize winning, Glengarry Glen Ross, of 1984,…
Okay, I admit I’ve been a bit slack. I really should have written something on the quirky Search Party before now. However, it’s thankfully still airing and available, so it’s not too late to dive in. Part of my hesitation over this show involves just how to describe it. It’s funny; but it’s not a…
Early on in Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Miss Marx, the writer-director makes it clear she considers her subject to be a kind of punk rock icon. Pity then that her film largely shuns that angle and instead meanders into becoming another tepid costume drama. The film ostensibly features a fiery feminist icon, but it plays out as…
Creative – yes. Original – my word. Captivating – not so much. I struggled with Apologia, which is a reflection on language, interpretation and communication across boundaries. It is a piece for selective tastes. Apologia is a bold undertaking and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, I commend courageous theatre. The problem…
