Hindsight, they say, is 20-20. But the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia can distort the lens. In Belfast, director Kenneth Branagh delivers a love letter to his childhood hometown. But I couldn’t shake the feeling his memory might have taken the hard edges off a tumultuous time in Northern Ireland. That’s understandable – after all, the…
Don’t mess with the classics, they say. But when something has been through as many iterations as Shakespeare’s Macbeth, who knows what the definitive “not to be messed with” version is anyway? Even in the film canon, versions of this story go back as far as the early 20th Century. You’ve got Orson Welles’ traditionalist…
Political lobbyists have a reputation on a par with – if not below – politicians themselves these days, so the idea of a feature film devoted to a lobbyist spinning their dark art is perhaps an unlikely one. But in the sure hands of Shakespeare in Love director John Madden, Miss Sloane proves to be…
Luna Gale is an American play, by Rebecca Gilman, written in 2014. Luna Gale has been taken into custody for her own safety. She is the baby daughter of Karlie (Lucy Heffernan) and Peter (Jacob Warner). They are, unfortunately, meth addicts, and have been dangerously neglectful of their child. Karlie’s mother, Cindy (Michelle Doake), a…
Have you ever thought about playing mini golf with a tail? No, I am not off with the pixies. Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf, a nine-hole course above Flinders Street Station, gives you that experience. I kid you not. And, I should quickly add, it is far from easy swinging from the hips with…
In the same way that Spider-Man transposed from live action back to animation so successfully, now Transformers has done the same. Transformers One is a high-octane adventure with umpteen twists and turns, and extremely well-realised. I’d also like to think that as with Spider-Man, the same will be the case for Transformers moving forward. This…
One of the most remarkable interactive theatrical experiences I have had, FOOD is about the palate, gluttony, sleight of hand and so much more. As you enter the theatre, you are confronted by a huge square table, around which 30 people are seated on three sides. Further tiered theatrical seating is also available. Suffice to say,…
Australia’s most prolific playwright has come out of retirement and has his finger on the pulse, addressing the cost-of-living crisis. The title of his play refers to the haves and have nots in society. When David Williamson was a boy in the 1950s, the difference in salary between a worker and a managing director rarely exceeded fivefold. Now…
Maverick filmmaker Terry Gilliam finally brings his long-gestating passion project about Don Quixote to the big screen. The struggles he faced have been well detailed in the fascinating 2002 documentary Lost In La Mancha. That film told of the storms that destroyed sets, the lack of financial support and the ill-health of its star, all…
Are you a couch potato? The kind of TV viewer who likes everything laid out neatly for you? If you said yes, then Dig is probably not for you. This US series from the producers behind Homeland is an almost literal labyrinth of a show. For a start, there are three apparently disparate storylines set…
