Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s film Force Majeure (2014) marked his arrival as a filmmaker of note. Americans Nat Faxon and Jim Rash wrote the screenplay for The Descendants (2011) and directed The Way Way Back (2013). But it seems the European sensitivities of Östlund’s film have been a little lost in translation in Faxon and…
Justice or revenge? If someone close to you was murdered, what would you want and what would happen if you didn’t get what you wanted? That conundrum is at the heart of this thriller. I like a good police whodunit, an involving mystery that entangles you until the final frames. You might think you have…
Does it seem to you also that 2020 is the year in which we’re all finding out that many of our long time favourite shows are winding up? Here’s another. Season 14 is the second last season ever of Supernatural, so get your hooks in now to enjoy all the schlocky horror before Season 15…
In JJ Winlove’s debut feature, June Again, a go-getting woman is gone. In her place is an empty shell. June Wilton (Noni Hazlehurst) has vascular dementia. She’s being well looked after in an appropriate facility, where the staff is kind and understanding. Her condition means she has visions of the past as if they were…
Lively, colourful and at times exhilarating, Bring It On, The Musical focuses on the competitive world of cheerleading. With music by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, lyrics by Amanda Green and Miranda and book by Jeff Whitty, the Tony Award-nominated musical was inspired by the 2000 film of the same. On her last day of…
A superb production breathes new life into the multi award-winning story of vice that is Bob Fosse’s Chicago. We’re in the roaring Twenties. Married to the dim-witted Amos, chorus girl Roxie Hart is enraged when Fred Casely breaks off an affair and shoots him dead. She tries to pin the murder on her hapless husband, although that backfires. Sent…
Far From Men is set in Algeria in 1954, a time of great unrest and violence as the war for independence from the French is beginning. Daru (played by Viggo Mortensen, from Eastern Promises) is a school teacher in a remote village. But he is charged with the task of escorting the dissident Mohamed (played…
Club Vegas is a fulsome variety show that would be quite at home on casino stages around the world. It combines modern interpretations of hit songs with rolled gold classics and colourful, bejewelled, bedazzling costuming with feathered headdresses to die for. Quite the spectacle. I couldn’t get enough of it. The dancers take to the stage from the…
Desire, loss and madness are in the spotlight in the Australian premiere of Right Now. This comedic drama asks the question: what’s real and what is imagined? Quebecois playwright Catherine-Anne Toupin wrote the play, and Chris Campbell translated it from the French. Alice (Christina O’Neill) is a beautiful young woman. She’s been married for three…
Ira Sachs is better known for his queer themed films like Keep the Lights On and the wonderful Love is Strange, starring Alfred Molina and John Lithgow. His latest film is a subtle, accessible, enjoyable and charming New York set coming of age story exploring the blossoming friendship between two thirteen year old boys from…
