The Divine Order is a crowd-pleasing light drama from Switzerland. A bit like Pride and Made in Dagenham, it explores how a social movement can bring about change and alter entrenched attitudes. In 1971, women in Switzerland were still denied the right to vote – one of the last countries in the industrialised world to…
Deliciously subversive, Matilda the Musical is undoubtedly one of the high points of a year in which musicals continue to make their mark. Put simply, it is superb entertainment for children and equally engaging for their parents and grandparents. This is no kids’ show with some crossover appeal, but a genuine five-star extravaganza that has…
The Bodyguard plays a significant role in the lives of many a thirty- and forty-something woman. For many of us, it was the first blockbuster movie we saw as teenagers, and it certainly features heavily in the soundtrack of our lives. I don’t know how many times I sang those Whitney Houston tunes at the…
As clever and highly regarded as it is, I can’t say I particularly warmed to Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter. An atmosphere of frustration and menace permeates the setting – a basement in Birmingham. A couple of hit men are awaiting instructions for their next assignment. As the play starts, Ben (John Wood) – the…
Young Jewish comedian Michael Shafar relates stories about his life as they pertain to his girlfriend of nine years, Amanda, and his parents. They include a particularly lame “dad joke” that keeps haunting him and various body parts of his that his mother has kept. His grandmother also isn’t spared his opprobrium – all these…
The complexities of music, human relationships and health all get a working over in Moises Kaufman’s 33 Variations, featuring Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn. In the early 19th Century, Anton Diabelli (Francis Greenslade) is a Viennese music publisher who composes a simple waltz and then invites that city’s leading composers to construct a single variation on…
Intergenerational trauma characterises the incendiary play Anatomy of a Suicide, which sees three family stories set in different timeframes play out in unison. Carol (Ashleigh Coleman) has had suicidal ideation since her school days. Now married to train driver, John (Stephen Whiley), who cares deeply, she has just made another attempt on her life by…
A spoof on mercenary Hollywood producers, The Comeback Trail delighted me. It features three of the biggest stars in the business. It’s Hollywood, 1974. Max Barber (Robert De Niro) is a producer whose lack of success in churning out D-grade dirges precedes him. Barber works in partnership with his nephew, Walter Creason (Zach Braff), although…
A ponderous ode to sad sacks the world over, The Lovers really doesn’t start to resonate at all until nearly four-fifths of it is done and dusted. By that stage you are utterly convinced that watching grass grow is a whole lot more interesting. The Lovers concerns a middle-aged husband and wife, each embroiled in…
AI is a hot topic right now, so it’s only natural filmmakers would want to explore it. One of them is Garth Davis (Lion), who adopts a measured but sometimes oblique approach in Foe. Davis is clearly passionate about the project, having worked with novelist Iain Reid to adapt Reid’s novel of the same name…
