George Miller’s latest opus in the “extended Mad Max Universe [TM]” is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The film delivers two things Australian audiences love: fast cars and, um… Greek mythology (?). Yep, Miller takes a page from the likes of Theo Angelopoulos (Ulysses’ Gaze) and the Coen Brothers (O Brother, Where Art Thou) by…
The ‘50s and ‘60s continue to resonate as Shake Rattle ‘N’ Roll gives us a cavalcade of song, movement and colour. The fuse is re-lit and burns for more than two hours, thanks to a poised, polished and preened cast of four singers and 10 dancers. The pretence is the re-creation of famous, gravelly voiced American DJ…
Back in the mid to late 90’s there was a surge in “surf” music that not only found people really digging classics like Dick Dale and The Ventures but new groups came to the forefront like Man or Astro-man?, Los Straightjackets, Huevos Rancheros and The Mulchmen. It was a great time for the genre, then…
There have been plenty of books and movies about pandemics. Given the current reality, if you want to read about a pandemic, it may be more satisfying to read about the more idiosyncratic, literary ones. For example, in Ling Ma’s Severance, people who succumbed to the virus found themselves endlessly repeating common tasks. But there…
Dear Brother is a joyous celebration of young Aboriginal masculinity and a theatre experience that’s memorable and uplifting. Any preconceptions that the subject matter of young First Nations men grappling with what it means to be a man might be rather grim, should be thrown out because this work, presented by Queensland Theatre, is far…
Prima Facie is a one-person play by Suzie Miller. It won the Griffin Award for Best Play in 2018. Tessa is a feisty young woman from a working-class background who finds her talent in the practice of law. In the journey of this play Tessa experiences what it is to be on both sides of…
Breaking News in Yuba County is a low-rent comedy that failed to ignite for me. Married for 30 years and working in a menial job, the awkward Sue Buttons (Allison Janney) is treated shamefully by everybody in small town California. It’s her birthday and she’s keen to share the occasion with her husband, Karl (Matthew…
Humans 2.0 begins with a flash of light as 11 bodies appear, moving in harmony around a round stage space framed by exposed lightbulbs, before their physical limits are pushed to extremes. Created by director Yaron Lifschitz, Humans 2.0 is circus at its best, an amalgamation of acrobatics, sound and light that builds and expands upon…
In 1986 a science fiction movie called Short Circuit introduced us to a robot called Number Five, which became sentient and hence one of its expressions was “Five Alive”. I was reminded of that when I saw the new Australian musical Electric Dreams, which was actually inspired by another movie, which carries the same name….
Is it too soon for a film depicting the 2013 terrorist bombing of the annual Boston Marathon? Some would probably say yes and suggest that the film touches a nerve that is still pretty raw. But others would argue that a film like Patriots Day treats the subject with sensitivity and integrity and respect, and…
