Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 15 December 2023. Composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire makes his Nonesuch Records debut with Owl Song. The album features a trio with two musicians Akinmusire has long admired, guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Herlin Riley. “This is my reaction…
The youngest generation possibly hasn’t experienced either Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka, dating back 52 years and 18 years respectively. So, now they have their own Wonka and the singing, dancing Timothee Chalamet makes a good fist of it in the title role. Willy Wonka is charming and effusive as the magic man…
Partly Cloudy is the full-length debut from the enigmatic female dream pop/folk rock artist who is most comfortable sharing her deepest, most intimate thoughts from behind her somewhat mysterious cat face mask. Most of the 13 tracks here are rooted very closely to simple acoustic guitar folk rock, with producer Billy Mohler providing just enough…
Magic Mike or Santa? Honestly, there are times you can’t tell the difference in this sexually promiscuous, irreverent Christmas revue that provides no shortage of fun. It upends everything you thought you knew about the festive season and keeps the laughs coming. A traditional Christmas carol behind curtains gives way to smut and innuendo, which the enthusiastic…
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s fantasy novel City of Last Chances came out earlier this year and was marketed as a stand alone. That was a richly conceived fantasy novel centring on a city under occupation and a revolt that brews and explodes on its streets. There was so much world building around the city of Ilmar and…
The Eight Mountains presents a beautifully shot and languidly paced story exploring the friendship between Bruno and Pietro over the course of four decades. “I didn’t expect to find a friend like Bruno in my life. Nor that friendship was a place where you put down roots” says the adult Pietro in the opening moments…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 8 December 2023. One of Australia’s most captivating creative minds, singer-songwriter, Woodes has released her second album The Great Unknown – displaying the breadth of, and dynamics within, her creativity and artistry. Her new record brings together Woodes’ previous…
Actor-director Bradley Cooper shows his success in A Star is Born was no fluke with Maestro. This impressionistic portrait of the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein is technically dazzling, although its oblique approach may distance some viewers. As with A Star is Born, Cooper again pulls triple duty as director, actor (in the titular role…
Paul Schrader’s nihilistic films have often explored troubled men and outsiders with a violent past who are seeking redemption for their past deeds. Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is one such man, hiding from the demons of his past, making him a quintessential Schrader creation. Roth is the chief horticulturalist tending to Gracewood Gardens, the sprawling…
As the director of Borat and Bruno, Larry Charles can hardly be accused of playing it safe. So it is again with Dicks: The Musical. This is a hard-swearing, politically incorrect comedy, which will delight those sick and tired of woke. Dicks is the cinematic adaptation of the musical stage play F…ing Identical Twins: The…
