A cleverly conceived and executed piece that purports to be one thing and turns out to be something else entirely, I am loathe to go into detail about the narrative arc for fear of spoiling the surprise. Suffice to say, the story concerns a couple of old mates – a straight girl and a gay…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 11 October 2024. Pressing play on the self-produced Backbone will take listeners on a journey through not only where Kasey Chambers has been over the years, but where she’s at right now. Chambers enlisted some of the usual suspects…
What a mess – a script that lurches one way, then the other, around and around, that simply ends up feeling tortuous. It is also oh so obvious. It feels forced – all the way. Sure, I can find praise for the choreographed dance numbers and the musicality, although I could also argue that the…
What a night; laughs galore, some of the funniest characters you’ll ever seen on a stage, amazing comic performances from a superb cast, brilliant set, lighting and costumes, a whole heap of catchy new music from Tim Finn and finally a well deserved and triumphant standing ovation. Shakespeare would have been applauding in his grave….
This fascinating insight chronicles the adventures of an eclectic group of young pioneers who … well … changed the world. These were Canadian hippie journalists, photographers, musicians, scientists and American draft dodgers who set out to stop Richard Nixon’s atomic bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska and end up creating a worldwide green movement. Greenpeace was…
Award winning Australian author Charlotte Wood takes her main character to a retreat in her latest book Stone Yard Devotional. Set in a small, humble monastery in the Monaro high country near Australia’s Snowy Mountains mainly during the Covid years, the book follows one woman’s search for meaning and a deeper understanding of the world….
Nominated for eight Oscars, David Lynch’s 1980 dramatic biographical film The Elephant Man – featuring Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft and John Gielgud – remains seared into my consciousness. Now a clever and creative group of writers and composers (Marc Lucchesi, Sarah Nandagopan and Jayan Nandagopan) has taken the story’s essence, twisted it and turned…
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…
The whole brash and bold Portokalos family is back for more of the larger than life hijinks in a world where everyone has a little bit of Greek in them. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, released in 2002, became the highest grossing romantic comedy of all time. Nia Vardalos wrote the screenplay for the film…
Writer and director Mike Mills (20th Century Women) makes superb, insightful films that tap into the human condition … and now here is another. C’mon C’mon is a remarkable, sensitive work about tapping into your feelings. Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny, who – along with a few colleagues – is making a radio documentary. They are…
