I have not watched the British TV series The Office, so was not sure what to expect from this belated spin off feature length film. There have been many attempts to extend a 30 minute sitcom to feature length, such as the recent belated Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, which was unfortunately laboured, unfunny, past its…
Fear and activism sit alongside one another in a deeply felt, personal story about apartheid, set in South Africa in January 1976. In this world premiere production, the focus is on a “coloured” family, which has lost its matriarch. After several years away studying, 24-year-old Ezra Jones (Barry Conrad) returns to his hometown in Natal….
For a long-running and successful franchise, you’d have to say the Mission: Impossible series has been one of the patchiest in memory. It kicked off well enough in 1996 as simply Mission: Impossible under the experienced hand of Brian de Palma, but the goodwill generated by that film was largely dissipated by the clunky sequels…
Faith is put to the test in this tearjerker based upon a true story about a Christian family. It was Albert Einstein who said there are two ways to live your life – one as if nothing is a miracle and the other as though everything is. Many of us reach a crucial moment in…
Sometimes third albums put artists in weird places. You have your introducing debut, avoid the sophomore slump with either more of the same or pushing your artistic boundaries and then where do you go? For Best Coast, it is no different with a great debut like Crazy For You (2010) that put Bethany Cosentino on…
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….
Booker Prize winning author Aravind Adiga takes on the issue of refugees and asylum seekers, focusing on Australia in his latest novel Amnesty. Set in Sydney, on a day sometime in the recent past, the book concentrates on Dhananjaya Rajaratnam, aka Danny the Cleaner, as he grapples with his duty to society and his…
Donald Trump is one of the most controversial and divisive figures in contemporary American politics at the moment. And he has dominated the political landscape for the better part of a decade. In the lead-up to the 2024 election it’s easy to see why he and his campaign have tried to ban this drama. The…
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a masterpiece from absurdist playwright Edward Albee. It’s a treat for lovers of his provocative works that look at the human condition with all its flaws and extremes. Queensland Theatre presents the State Theatre Company South Australia production of the play with its original cast and it sure does…
Absurdist but with heart, Louis Nowra’s Cosi is fun to watch but appears to have aged. The setting is the Vietnam War era – 1971 to be specific – and the location is a mental institution. So, yes there’s a little bit of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest about it. A young man, Lewis…
