It was Napoleon who, two hundred years ago, called China a sleeping giant and warned of the consequences when she awoke. Since the fall of communism after the death of Chairman Mao, China has emerged as an economic superpower and its influence and wealth is somehow seen by America as both a challenge and a…
RBG is easily the best documentary to hit our screens so far this year. This insightful, inspiring and surprisingly entertaining documentary takes a look at the life and work of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a long serving and influential justice of the US Supreme Court. At the age of 84 she’s still full of energy, conviction…
Jennifer Garner returns to the big screen in Peppermint. This by-the-numbers crime actioner features a vigilante seeking revenge. I counted one surprise in the entire film. The criminal justice system fails Riley North (Garner). She and husband Chris (Jeff Hephner) have a 10-year-old daughter, Carly (Cailey Fleming). While they may be struggling to make ends…
Writer-director Anthony Fabian takes his audience on a giddy trip around Paris and the would of haute couture in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris. Despite the fact the film is based on Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel Mrs ’Arris Goes to Paris, its closest relative seems to be the recent Netflix series Emily in Paris. The…
This Oscar-nominated Swedish comedy about a socially awkward grumpy old man rediscovering his humanity and the sense of community is essentially Gran Torino with subtitles. A Man Called Ove is a life-affirming tale. At first I thought it was going to be a Scandinavian variation of the perennial Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, but…
We finally have some new music from indie-folk favourites The Lumineers with their track “Gloria”. The song is the first from the band’s upcoming full-length album III, due on 13 September 2019, and is full of the foot-stomping goodness you’ve come to expect from The Lumineers. “Gloria” is the first in a series of 3…
Over the years I’ve read a few Lynda La Plante novels featuring DCI Jane Tennison. Actor Helen Mirren, who portrayed Tennison in the award-winning ITV television drama series Prime Suspect, described Tennison as “extremely directed, ambitious, talented and very uncompromising”. Fans of the series, both book and television, will know that although Tennison is an extremely skilled detective,…
Melbourne based singer-songwriter Emma Russack released “Be Real”, the newest single from her upcoming album Winter Blues, due on the 5 July 2019. Channelling 90s grunge and indie rock, “Be Real” is Russack’s reaction to the selfie culture. “[“Be Real”] is about my frustration with phone obsession, social media, hype and trend – the phoniness…
A slow-burning Iranian movie, Wednesday, May 9 lifts the lid on the role of women and the subjugation of them in a repressed society. It takes a while to unravel the threads, because the story is presented as a puzzle with the pieces being fitted together over time. We first meet a woman with a…
For those of us who fondly remember shoving disc after disc into our car CD players for company on our long drives, the audio book has certainly come a long way. From the first days of single voice actors narrating entire novels, the audio book has evolved into an aural universe complete with full musical…
