Alexander Payne doesn’t make movies all that regularly – only five full features between 2000 and 2020. But when he does, everyone takes notice. And while his previous film, Downsizing (2017) might have been a little underwhelming, there’s nothing disappointing about The Holdovers. Payne’s best-known film is probably Sideways (2004), and here he teams with…
Senior high in the US in the late 1950s is re-energised in the colourful new production of Grease The Musical at Her Majesty’s Theatre. It is set in fictional Rydell High School (named after pop singer Bobby Rydell). That is where Australian blonde beauty Sandy Dumbrowski unexpected bumps into her summer love, the too cool for school,…
K-dramas (from South Korea), have been making a huge impact on Netflix in the past few years (e.g. Squid Game), with one of them, The Glory, making it into the top 10 for 2023. Gyeongseong Creature arrived with much hype, with the irresistible pairing of a couple of well-loved actors – Park Seo-Jun and Han…
Australian rural crime author Adrian Hyland brought character Jesse Redpath from the red outback of Northern Territory to a tinder-dry Victorian country town in Canticle Creek. There was a raging bushfire in the climax to Canticle Creek but when Hyland’s follow-up The Wiregrass opens, the weather could not be more different. Jesse finds herself working…
The magic is top shelf. So too the – at times frightening – rola bola routine (that is where an artist balances precariously on objects that move). There is also an impressive hula hoop act. The rest I could have done without. As good as it is, Circus of Illusion feels like an unnecessarily stretched out…
Rouge your knees and dig your seamed stockings out, Chicago is back in town for an Australian tour. This revival of the Broadway classic features iconic Fosse choreography, slick costumes and a pared-back set that gives equal stage-space to a live 15-piece jazz orchestra playing Kander & Ebb’s memorable songs. To recap: In 1920s Chicago,…
A backyard pool all but becomes a living entity in the horror film Night Swim. The malevolent force does its worst early on before we settle into the main storyline, which loops back to what happened at the start. The appearance of a toy boat seemingly operating by itself in the dead of night portends…
If you want to see a show full of feel good, life affirming entertainment, you should look no further than The Choir of Man. Straight from London’s West End, it is sensational. Music, revelry and heartfelt exchanges with the audience are the name of the game and the punters get to join it even before the show…
Some of the most extraordinary and outrageous feats performed on stage. Add next level, utterly hilarious, child participation and you have Circus 1903. No Big Top here. Rather, the creature comforts of Arts Centre Melbourne’s premier venue. It goes down a treat thanks to the supreme artistes and the cheeky and cherry patter of ringmaster David Williamson. He is…
On 14th August 1936, the US eights rowing crew did something very special at the Berlin Olympics. The Boys in the Boat is their story. The eight, plus an alternate and a cox were drawn from working class men during the Depression era. The team was handpicked by well-meaning and decent University of Washington coach…
