A fabulous, fun-filled 90 minutes greets those who venture along to see Senior Moments. It combines some terrific musical numbers with skits and a series of funny voice-overs. Many of the songs are spoofs of familiar tunes, like “Quick Go The Years” rather than “Click Go the Shears”, or “I Am the Very Model of…
From South African filmmaker John Trengrove comes the controversial film, The Wound. It’s about a group of teenage boys of Xhosa background. They’re are taken to a remote bushland for their manhood initiation ceremony of ulwaluko – a circumcision. Mentors, who have previously undergone the secret ritual, are on hand to help the boys through…
Between Us is Clare Atkins’ second young adult novel. Like her first novel, Nona and Me, Between Us uses personal stories to explore cultural politics in Australia. Three distinct voices tell the story of Between Us— Ana, Kenny and Jono. Ana, is a teenage asylum seeker from Iran. She lives with her pregnant mother and…
Mark Haddon’s best-selling award-winning novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has been adapted to the stage by fellow playwright an Olivier winner himself. The novel which has become a staple of the school curriculum. Haddon himself thought the novel unadaptable, but Stephens’ version has been quite successful, remaining reasonably faithful to the novel….
A decent set up gives way to quite a convoluted storyline in Insidious: The Last Key, the fourth instalment of the supernatural horror franchise co-created by Leigh Whannell. He has also served as screenwriter for the quartet. It started back in 2010 and the central figure is a psychic, Dr Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye). Where…
Three Cs describe Hir: confronting, colourful and comedic. By the way, the title is a gender-neutral pronoun. One character also likes being addressed as “ze”, as distinct from “she” or “he”. After three years in the Marines picking up shattered body parts on the battlefield, Isaac is looking forward to coming home and sleeping in his own bed….
A compelling piece with a realistic feel, Menashe is shot almost entirely in Yiddish (there are a few lines of English). Set within a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, Menashe follows a kind but hapless grocery store clerk named Menashe (Menashe Lustig). He’s trying to maintain custody of his son Rieven (Ruben Niborski) after his wife…
Sitting there watching Fifty Shades Freed, the final instalment in the Shades of Grey trilogy, I could only think, “Lame, tame and who to blame?” So very little happens … for so much of the film. Yes, the characters have sex – most of it conventional and a few turns in the red room – but that,…
I have no idea why a director of Clint Eastwood’s standing would associate himself with such a poor quality movie as The 15:17 to Paris. Maybe because it features three heroes who play themselves? But let’s face it, they’re not actors and this isn’t a documentary. I’m talking about Anthony Sadler; National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos; and US…
A scintillating script by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood and a trio of dynamic performances make for a highly involving two hours of entertainment in The Children. The devastating effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 inspired the play. When Kirkwood heard about the heroism of the retired work force returning to the plant to help…
