fbpx

Lovesong (Red Stitch) – theatre review

Poignant. Deeply moving. Brilliantly conceived and executed. A life story rich and redolent. That’s what awaits you when you enter Red Stitch Theatre to experience multi award-winning British playwright Abi Morgan’s Lovesong. Billy and Maggie are a young English couple who have migrated to Australia. He practices as a dentist and she’s a librarian. They…

Read More

Leave No Trace – movie review

You can see the raw emotion; feel it; you can almost taste it in the reflective and haunting drama Leave No Trace. Some films mark the breakthrough role for an actor. I’m thinking, for instance, of Winter’s Bone for Jennifer Lawrence.That’s the case here for New Zealander Thomasin McKenzie, who is stupendous as a dutiful…

Read More

West of Sunshine – movie review

The Melbourne-shot drama West of Sunshine is an exploration of a troubled father-son dynamic. The film follows the plight of Jim (Damian Hill), an inveterate and hapless gambler who’s trying to pay of a $15,000 loan to a ruthless loan shark (Tony Nikolakopoulos). He has until five o’clock to pay off the debt or there will…

Read More

The Happytime Murders – movie review

In 2016 we had the graphic animated comedy Sausage Party. Some absolutely hated it, while others regarded it a work of raunchy comic genius. Well, here we go again; as puppetry interplays with live action in The Happytime Murders. The film is many things: a murder mystery, a buddy cop story, a tale of diversity…

Read More

Book Club – movie review

Four lifelong friends (represented as women in their 60s) have their lives turned upside down when their book club – of four – tackles the infamous E.L. James’ novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Diane (Diane Keaton) is recently widowed after 40 years of marriage. Successful and single-minded business woman Vivian (Jane Fonda) enjoys her men…

Read More