A New Map of Love by Abi Oliver* brings readers an old-fashioned life-in-an-English-village story about George, who leads a predictable but comfortable life until his wife, Win, dies. Life is suddenly a whole lot less predictable but a whole lot more exciting, especially widow Sylvia arrives on the scene with her heaving bosom and fluttering…
A perennial festival favourite, the Lavazza Italian Film Festival screens at Palace Cinemas around Australia in September. Italian/Australian actor Greta Scacchi is on board as this year’s Festival Ambassador. She’ll be participating in Q&As at selected festival screenings of Tenderness (La Tenerezza), Gianni Amelio’s latest film, in which Scacchi features. The opening night film is…
A relentless, super intelligent mind puzzle, which gets better and better as the stakes grow, this is one of the year’s best offerings. Based upon Herman Koch’s 2009 international bestselling novel – which has been published in more than 50 countries – The Dinner is a dark, suspenseful drama about the lengths people will go…
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…
Raw and refreshingly different, That’s Not Me is a feel-good, independently produced comedy that needs work. Polly Cuthbert’s dreams of making it as an actor are comically shattered when her identical twin sister, Amy, lands a lead role in an HBO show, starts dating her co-star Jared Leto and catapults to international stardom. Dropped by…
There’s a great deal to enjoy about IT, and enough scares to keep all but die-hard horror fans satiated. Forget those funny clowns you may have seen at the circus as a kid, the red nosed star of the piece here, known as Pennywise, is one devious and nasty dude. The film, directed by Andy Muschietti…
The AICE Israeli Film Festival is currently in full swing in Sydney and Melbourne. Having run since 2005, the festival aims to bring the best in Israel’s national cinema to Australia. The festival opened with with Home Port (see below) and will be running until 17 September. A special festival event promises to be the retro…
Lip Service is a new Australian play that premiered in a separate production in London earlier this year with the title: Madame Rubenstein. That production featured the indomitable Miriam Margolyes, as Rubinstein and Frances Barber, as Elizabeth Arden. At the Ensemble we have Amanda Muggelton playing Madame Rubinstein, and it is a performance that I…
Johnny Saxby (Josh O’Connor, from TV series Peaky Blinders) is a sullen, morose young man working on his family farm in Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country. Since his father Martin (Ian Hart) suffered a debilitating stroke, he has had more responsibility loaded on his shoulders. It’s a hard and often lonely life for Johnny. He…
Eliza Henry-Jones is a new writer to me. Everything about Ache is beautiful, from the cover, with those piercing eyes, to the prose, which tumbles from the page and into readers’ hearts. Here’s the blurb: A year ago, a devastating bushfire ripped Annie’s world apart – killing her grandmother, traumatising her young daughter and leaving…
