With a fine, strong singing voice and a great sense of humour, to indefatigable 28-year-old Stephen Valeri opening those pipes is akin to breathing. He’s wanted to do it for as long as he can remember. And do it he does at breakneck speed in Your Diva Needs You. This is a 90-minute ode to the divas…
Ambition and success sometimes don’t go hand-in-hand. With a heavyweight pedigree and intellectual heft, George Clooney’s latest, Suburbicon, should (by rights) be up there with his best. Yet this undoubtedly ambitious but deeply flawed film dallies with greatness without ever fully achieving it. With the backing of the Coen brothers and Clooney’s go-to collaborator George…
Regrets and letting go are the cornerstones of The Midwife. This French drama looks at a fractured relationship between a straitlaced woman and her free-spirited elder. Cesar-winning writer/director Martin Provost’s (Séraphine) film pairs two of French cinema’s most beloved stars, Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot. Gifted midwife Claire (Frot) has led a quiet, focused life. She’s…
I can’t help thinking the latest Thor outing, Thor: Ragnarok (which introduces several Marvel Universe characters) is yet another elongated, derivative outing. In the story, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer. He finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to…
Birdland is a British play written in 2014 by Simon Stephens. He generally writes from a ‘working class’ perspective (the provincial English city of Stockport is the usual location) and focuses on the struggles of particular ordinary individuals dealing with the social and materialistic difficulties that the ‘progress’ of the world throws at them. Mr…
Confession time…. I hate interactive/immersive theatre and I’m not much of a zombie fan. Yet I didn’t hate Directors of the Extraordinary’s Containment. This zombie adventure game sees the Brisbane Powerhouse transformed into a paramilitary-protected private research facility. Scientists have been weaponising a contagion that zombifies humans… until there was a leak in the lab….
As a critic, I learned long ago to lower my expectations. When you expect greatness, that is when you get burnt. The same goes about expecting a poop emoji. If you go into a record thinking it is going to suck…most likely it will. That is why music is subjective. I say all of that…
The Australian premiere of actor Andy Serkis’ directorial debut, Breathe will open the 2017 Cunard British Film Festival. Coming straight from opening the 61st BFI London Film Festival, the film stars Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge) and Claire Foy (The Crown), in the inspiring true story of a couple who refuse to give up in the face…
Sally Robbins and Steven Bradbury featured in two of the most notorious moments in Australian Olympic history. Robbins is known as “Lay Down Sally” because she gave up and lay back in her boat 250 metres from the finishing line during the women’s eights’ final at the Athens Summer Games in 2004. She was reviled for…
“You call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye” – Glenn Frey & Don Henley. Those lyrics from the Eagles song “The Last Resort” floated across my consciousness during a bravura sequence in this show where Chris Isaacs’s character describes the sights of an unexpected road detour in Bali. I won’t spoil the impact by providing further…
