British director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) was raised on a diet of Hollywood genre films, but his quirky sensibility and sense of humour subverts the usual tropes of the genre. His Hot Fuzz was a loving homage to those American crime films he enjoyed watching. A decade on he returns to the crime…
Superb, power-packed performances are the hallmark of Paris: A Rock Odyssey. This dynamic concert tribute is a version of a show co-written by the late, great Jon English (who passed away in March 2016). His son, Jonathan, is in the orchestra and the last number specifically acknowledges Jon, with a large full-screen video headshot being the…
I’m really not ashamed to admit that I’m always looking forward to watch a live-action rendition of a Disney cartoon. We’ve seen a few of those already passing by. One more succesful than the other. Or better, one I liked more than the other. Maleficent, The BFG and especially The Jungle Book were, in my…
Dan Auerbach is now at a musical level where everyone takes notice when he is involved with a project. It does not matter if he is producing records from the likes of The Pretenders, Cage The Elephant or Ray LaMontagne, playing in his side band The Arcs or his day job with The Black Keys….
We all know someone who is hard at work, trying the meet quotas and deadlines or just trying the make ends meet. They are our parents, children, siblings, and partners. Yet it’s not often one will find a piece of theatre that really represents these people. Michele Lee’s Rice as presented by Queensland Theatre, Queensland…
Noises Off has been around for a few decades – it was written by British playwright Michael Frayn in 1982. And unlike The Play That Goes Wrong or Fawlty Towers, it feels like it. The farce appeared dated to me and it was inclined to push the envelope too far at every turn. The first act…
Much remains unanswered in the low-budget mystery-horror film, It Comes at Night. Award-winning filmmaker Trey Edward Shults follows his breakout debut Krishna with this psychological thriller. It centres on a teenage boy, Travis (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), as he grapples with mounting terrors – both external and internal – in the aftermath of an unnamed cataclysm. Seventeen…
The most problematic of the Marvel superheroes is given a reboot in Spider-Man: Homecoming. When I say problematic, I mean because of his movie history more than anything else. In just the past 15 years, there have been no less than six movies featuring the teenage web-slinger. Sam Raimi’s 2002 – 07 trilogy starring Tobey…
The fourth Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival takes off from 11 July with a slate of 20 films from the Nordic region. The program opens with Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side of Hope. The film won Silver Bear for Best Director at this year’s Berlinale. This important and entertaining film reflects the modern day experience of…
In a tour de force performance, the multi-talented Christie Whelan Browne (The Drowsy Chaperone) takes us on a journey on Christmas Eve, while visiting her character’s dying mother. But don’t fret, Vigil is no downer. Using Steve Vizard’s words and lyrics, and composer Joe Chindamo’s original music, Whelan Browne mesmerises us, switching seamlessly from humour to…
