A rites of passage story with strong romantic elements and a film built on the musical foundations of 1980s British bands, Sing Street focuses on the perils and wonders of teenage life. Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is one of three children living in a toxic environment. At just 15, he has a brother, six years his…
Based on the hoary chestnut of opposites attracting, Long Shot is a far-fetched comedy that, by and large, works. I dare say it will appeal to many fans of the two leads, Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen, because a) they’re in it and b) it is so unlikely a tale, born of the #MeToo generation….
Filmmaker Guy Ritchie gathers together most of his usual band of players for Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. And this action-packed but cliched globe-trotting spy movie ticks all the right boxes for the genre. When a mysterious device (the film’s MacGuffin) is stolen from a secret laboratory MI6 needs to act quickly to recover it…
Cassandra Austin’s debut All Fall Down was a sometimes dreamlike Australian gothic tale set in a rural country town. While it is at times a little more grounded, her latest book Like Mother, finds Austin in similar territory. An Australian country town in the late 1960s in the middle of a heatwave and a set…
Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., in the mid ‘70s John Denver was one of the world’s most popular entertainers. His 1973 Greatest Hits album was on the Billboard magazine chart of best sellers for about three years. Of the 24 albums he released on the RCA label during his lifetime, 14 went gold (that is…
Bold and provocative, Thomas Ian Doyle’s latest work – The Upstairs Trilogy Part 1: The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name – tackles a futuristic Australian government that has found a way to “correct” same sex relationships. Homosexuality is outlawed and a simple, painless two-dose injection – with minimal side effects, if any – subjugates…
A sensitive drama with a mystery at its core, the Israeli feature The Kind Words combines humour and pathos. At age 35, Dorona’s (Rotem Zissman-Cohen) life seems to have hit a dead-end. She can’t have children, she’s abandoned attempts at adoption and she seems intent on pushing her loving husband, Ricky, as far away as…
Two of Australia’s finest folk singer-songwriters, John Flanagan and Liz Frencham, have announced plans to head out on a co-headline tour this October and November. Flanagan and Frencham are both firm favourites on the folk and festival scenes and getting the chance to see them in the same space is going to be truly magical….
Right off the bat, here are three reasons you should see Alien: Covenant: Ridley Scott is back. The xenomorphs are back. If you’ve seen Prometheus, it will finally make sense. Yes, Ridley Scott is once more in the director’s chair to take us back into the dark, unforgiving world of the Alien franchise. The result is, thankfully,…
Dazzlingly frocked up, the seemingly ageless Rhonda Burchmore sizzles as the dastardly Carabosse in the delicious pantomime Sleeping Beauty, A Knight Avenger’s Tale. At one point she literally soars above the audience belting out Cher’s 1989 hit “If I Could Turn Back Time”. That’s one of several popular numbers that punctuate a familiar story with…
