J G Ballard’s prescient dystopian 1975 novel High-Rise was a bleak allegory for the class warfare and decline of civilization and the breakdown of society. Ballard wrote the novel in the 70s during a period of tumultuous upheaval in the social fabric of Britain before the economic downturn and rampant unionism drove Thatcher’s conservatives into…
War Dogs is a story so ridiculous it couldn’t possibly be real – but it is. From director Todd Phillips (The Hangover trilogy), this is a comedic drama based upon true events (notwithstanding the fact that they use composite characters and undoubtedly embellish). It stars Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Miles Teller…
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the cinema, along comes another shark thriller in the form of The Shallows. Ever since Steven Spielberg gave us the summer blockbuster with Jaws in 1975, great white sharks have been given something of a bad reputation by Hollywood filmmakers. The success of Jaws…
Bold (to a point) and imaginative, writer and director Thomas Ian Doyle’s latest work Between the Sheets straddles the line between film and theatre. The contention is you don’t really need to “act” to appear on film, but theatre takes a lot more time and effort. Tristan Beckett (Jayden Popik) has signed a $32 million contract…
– Lavazza Film Festival – Only in cinemas from 13 September 2016 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Palace Cinemas. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE The Lavazza Italian Film Festival driven by Fiatwill once again showcase the very best new Italian cinema when it screens exclusively at Palace Cinemas. The…
– Spin Out – Only in cinemas from 15 September 2016 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Sony Pictures Releasing. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Billy and Lucy have grown up together in a small, close-knit Australian country town, where they form one of the town’s most formidable Ute…
Looks like I’ve found myself another author for my must-read list. S.K. Tremayne’s latest novel The Fire Child is everything I want in a psychological thriller. Here’s the blurb: When Rachel marries dark, handsome David, everything seems to fall into place. Swept from single life in London to the beautiful Carnhallow House in Cornwall, she…
As the program told us, when Endgame was first performed in 1957 it polarized audiences and critics alike. People saw Beckett as either a genius or a babbling fraud. I’m one of the latter. I put Beckett alongside of Picasso as a successful deceiver of people in an Emperor’s new clothes sort of way. But…
Bogan culture on our screens is nothing unusual, dating back to The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie right through to Fat Pizza, Housos, and their ilk. And now the ugly bogan stereotype raises its head again in Down Under, a politically incorrect black comedy set in the aftermath of the 2005 Cronulla Riots. This is very…
It’s rude, it’s crude, it sets out to push the envelope and succeeds in doing so, but is also quite clever. I’m talking about Sausage Party, an animated feature from the warped minds of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Jonah Hill. The language is full on. From the outset, it is rampantly sexual with the cartoon…
