Who knows what the future holds? One thing seems certain, namely artificial intelligence (AI) will play a controlling role in our lives. This issue is the fundamental theme in Control, a play by Keziah Warner, presented by New Theatre at Newtown. If not for Warner’s humorous style, the subject matter would be quite dark and…
Colour, movement and hijinks are back in the latest instalment of the video game spin off Sonic The Hedgehog 3. Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and his pals, Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), have settled into domestic bliss in Green Hills. That is after their decisive victory over the evil Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey) in…
Quirky, comedic and endearing are three words to describe this charming independent film starring Jemaine Clement, from Flight of the Conchords. Clement plays Will Henry, a 40-year-old graphic novelist (he draws cartoons), a teacher at a school of visual arts and the father of twins. At the girls’ fifth birthday party, his seemingly picture-perfect Brooklyn…
For those of you still missing the soaring strings of a certain English drama, try Belgravia. Set in the early Victoria era, a time in which the aristocracy was losing its treasured sons to the Napoleanic wars, Belgravia is a lavish and grandiose production in which evidently no expense has been spared. Beginning with the…
You don’t have to look hard to see the shadows looming over Lisa Joy’s Reminiscence. The film is essentially a re-working of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, with futuristic elements overlaying the noirish story. What Joy does with the tale is clever, but it never surpasses the original. Joy is better known as a screenwriter, notably for…
“Did that just happen?” a mischievous Michael Banks (Fraser Goodreid) wonders to sister Jane (Dorothea Seierup) after their first outing to the park with Mary Poppins sees park statutes come to life. There are lots of similar moments in Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Mary Poppins. Cheeky young Michael has some of the…
The beat goes on, as does girl power. Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs blended live music with creative tap dancing the likes of which we hadn’t seen before and it was electrifying. That kicked off a quarter of a century ago. A few years earlier a British idea saw everyday objects such as rubbish bin lids, brooms, matchboxes…
Hercule Poirot step aside; for Chief Inspector Jules Maigret is on the case. In director Patrice Leconte’s Maigret, Gerard Depardieu takes on the title role as an ageing, unwell cop trying to track down a murderer. It’s Paris, 1953 and a young woman has been found dead. The victim, Louise Louviere (Clara Antoons), is no…
“It was great to be able to go off and start making films because, all of a sudden the challenge was greater, and the emotional punch was greater,” says British filmmaker Mike Newell, who has just released his latest film, a lush adaptation of the best-selling novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society….
In Full Time, Julie (Laure Calamy) is a single mother who works as the head chambermaid in a prestigious five-star hotel in Paris. She lives in the outer suburbs and daily commutes to and from work. She juggles the demands of her job with raising two young children (Nolan Arizmendi and Sasha Lemaitre Cremaschi). She…
