A family is traumatised by the tragic death of a child in Vaughn Stein’s Every Breath You Take. Philip (Casey Affleck) is a psychiatrist and lecturer, his wife Grace (Michelle Monaghan) a real estate agent. They have a young son, Evan (Brenden Sunderland) and he has a senior school age daughter, Lucy (India Eisley) –…
– Europa! Europa! Film Festival – Sydney and Melbourne 4 – 27 February 2022 We have 2 double passes to a session at the Festival (excluding Opening Night) Note: tickets are digital *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Festival website HERE From international film festival favourites to star-studded blockbusters and subversive works helmed by Europe’s most…
I find Ruben Östlund a polarising filmmaker. In my experience, you either “get” him or you don’t. While his 2014 film Force Majeure was well-received, his 2017 art world parody The Square left many cold. Even so, it picked up the Palme d’Or at Cannes; so obviously someone liked it. His latest film, Triangle of…
Formed in Glasgow, Nightshift has been active for five years. The collective has experienced line-up changes and released two albums prior to Homosapien. Their 2021 album Zöe and a compilation tape, Made of the Earth, marked their previous outputs. The current lineup includes Chris White moving from drums to guitar, Eothen Stearn on vocals and…
The multi-award winning Marshland was one of the highlights of the recent Spanish Film Festival. This is a rather grim and dark police thriller set in a rural area of Andalucia in the south of Spain. It takes place in 1980, which was a time of great transition for Spain as it moved from the…
Recorded by the Patea Maori Choir in 1984, Poi E was an infectious song that became a cultural phenomenon and a cultural touchstone for the Maori people. It was the first song in the traditional Maori language to top the charts in New Zealand. It topped the charts for four consecutive weeks and even outsold…
The Beekeeper is a wild ride – ultra-violent, over-the-top nonsense. But – dare I admit it – also a guilty pleasure. Some of the dialogue is horrendous. The scene that gets the plot going is extremely wooden. Plausibility is never in question because it simply doesn’t exist. And yet the choreographed action, with one man…
There have been a few excellent, heart-wrenching movies made in recent years about disabled men being looked after by caring attendants. Those that immediately come to mind are The Intouchables (2011) with François Cluzet and Omar Sy, The Sessions (2012) featuring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, and The Theory of Everything (2014) starring Eddie Redmayne…
Barbarian is a genuinely creepy horror movie with bite. It opens with the power of suggestion, but morphs into something far more sinister. Tess (Georgina Campbell) has driven herself to a very shady part of Detroit, where she intends to stay for the night ahead of a job interview. But with rain falling, when she…
Some books you save for a rainy day. Season of Salt and Honey by Hannah Tunnicliffe landed on my review shelf a while ago, but I’ve been saving it. I sensed that this was a book for savouring … and I was right. The cover spoke to the foodie in me and finding out there were recipes…
