I’m a sucker for a good spy drama – and Killing Eve is an exceptional spy drama. This BBC production (available here on the ABC) is a taut psychological thriller as you might expect. But its insight and its determination not to treat the viewer as an idiot are remarkable. If any TV series is…
The Goldfinch spends a great deal of time working out how the puzzle fits together. Theodore “Theo” Decker was 13 years old when his mother was killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not surprisingly, it changed the course of his life. Moments before Theo’s attention was taken by a pretty, young…
I knew very little of the Shakers before I read The Visionist … and if you’d asked what I knew, I would have said furniture. Yes, the Shakers are well known for their simple, practical but beautifully made furniture, but less is known about the religious movement itself. Reading The Visionist provided me with some insight into the movement,…
A little late for Halloween maybe, but Freaky will definitely scratch that comedy-horror itch. Co-writer and director Christopher Landon builds on the success of his Happy Death Day films with this enjoyable romp – even if he doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. While the Happy Death Day series riffed on Groundhog Day,…
A slow burn drama with comedic elements, Minari weaves its magic over time. The film follows an immigrant family having a hard time of things. We’re in 1980s America. Jacob (Steven Yuen) is an accomplished chicken sexer who works fast, distinguishing the male chicks from the females. It’s a job he’s had for a decade,…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 24 September 2021. The Shivas’ new record Feels So Good // Feels So Bad is an album about acceptance. Sometimes that acceptance feels enlightened and sometimes it feels like the end result of a lot of kicking and screaming….
As The Wild Feathers entered their second decade as a band, they were more or less forced to pause and reflect on their early successes, like when their 2013 Jay Joyce produced debut rose to number one on the Billboard magazine’s Heatseeker’s chart of up-and-coming acts, and the band’s 2016 live sold-out concert release, Live…
Speculative fiction often lives and dies by its premise. So long as the author can sell the premise and hold it together, speculative fiction has the capacity to open minds and deeply explore issues. Guy Morpuss’s debut novel Five Minds has what can only be described as a double speculative premise. On top of this…
PIP Theatre’s first offering for 2024 is the hilarious Banging Denmark, written by Van Badham and directed by Heidi Gledhill. Badham wrote the play as a way to cope with the horrendous online trolling she faced as a journalist for The Guardian. Banging Denmark was shortlisted for the 2020 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Nick Enright…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 27 January 2023. Phoenix is the highly-anticipated, expansive new album in the musical evolution of alto saxophonist and composer Lakecia Benjamin. The album was produced by the multi-Grammy-award winning Terri Lyne Carrington and features a star-studded line up of…
