Everything old is new again. That popular expression could apply to the sequel to Disney’s Freaky Friday, which again features Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan and Mark Harmon. The conceit of the original, 22 years ago, was that Tess Coleman (Curtis) and her daughter, Anna (Lohan), are at loggerheads. And then, after a freak accident,…
Here we go again… More than ten years later and Mamma Mia! the Musical is still delighting fans. Despite the fact that many audiences members were born well after ABBA’s heyday, the pop anthems interwoven with a sweet story of love and family still generate smiles, whoops and applause after every performance. If you’re not…
Based on a true story, this is a tale of one man’s obsession to build a monument to his beloved daughter. Set in France, the film begins in 1979 and pans some three decades. Joseph Cheval (played by Jacques Gamblin) is a quiet, withdrawn and solitary postman who has just buried his first wife and…
Among Alien fandom there’s a broad consensus that the canonical films are the first two: Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) and James Cameron’s Aliens (1986). Fede Alvarez’s new instalment Alien: Romulus is perhaps ideally placed between the two. So it serves as a kind of sequel to Alien and a prequel to Aliens. For me at…
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…
Upon listening to Passion Pit’s new album Kindred, something felt off. As a big fan of the band’s first two albums, I had hefty expectations for this new one. The usual electronic pop was there, a little more slick and clean this time around. I went back and listened to the first two albums (Manners…
Misbehaviour – as its name suggests – mixes activism with fun. Director Phillipa Lowthorpe crafts a crowd-pleasing film that delivers a (perhaps surprisingly) nuanced message. This is actually second film this month to look at the “women’s liberation” movement (after the Australian doco Brazen Hussies). The two clearly share some DNA. Both, for example, explore…
Not everything is spelt out in writer-director Itay Tal’s drama God of the Piano. In Israel, Anat (Naama Preis), makes a shocking decision in hospital after receiving unexpected news following the birth of her son. The daughter of an elite piano teacher, Arieh (Ze’ev Shimshoni) Anat never reached his heights, despite her talent. She never…
Silvia Moreno-Garcia seems determined to prove that she can deliver in any genre. Her breakout book Mexican Gothic was, as the name suggests, in the traditional gothic style with a Mexican twist; her book The Beautiful Ones was a historical fantasy set in an alternate Central America; and her Gods of Jade and Shadow was…
From the earliest days of rock & roll, there’s been a special place for power trios, like Cream, Rush, Nirvana, Husker Du, The Jam, King’s X, The Police, and plenty more. These are bands that relied on the essential less is more formula, often just guitar, bass & drums, and one or more sang, they…
