TC Boyle, the author of Outside Looking In and The Terranauts continues to zig and zag when other authors just stay in their comfort zones. Talk to Me is his 18th novel, and while some of its themes and character types are familiar from Boyle’s earlier works, the subject matter is new and the depth…
Much-loved international klezmer ensemble the London Klezmer Quartet return to Australasia this month their latest album. LKQ’s fourth album, To the Tavern, takes their evocation of the celebratory and soulful music of Jewish Eastern Europe (klezmer) to a whole new level. The recording, which they will re-create live in performance for the tour, is a…
Dream Machine is a new band from lo-fi master Matthew Melton (Bare Wires, Warm Soda) and his wife Doris. You get Melton’s craft of fuzzed up power pop with the late 60’s / early 70’s rock of The Doors, Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly. This mix brings you plenty of organ with lots of riffing…
English novelist Naomi Alderman gained plenty of attention for her last novel The Power, a speculative look at what might happen in a shift of global power. She has followed that book up with something a little closer to reality, but still on the speculative side. The Future takes as its premise three of the…
Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a dedicated kindergarten teacher. But she seems stuck in a sort of midlife crisis. Her homelife is rather dull, and to try and add some spark she has enrolled in an adult poetry writing class in New York, run by the handsome Simon (Gael Garcia Bernal). But he’s initially dismissive…
Post 9-11 it’s hard to think that there hasn’t been speculation about the next shock and awe campaign. I bet nobody thought there’d be an Australian, rough and tumble ex-commercial pilot, come spy at the centre of it all. The theory that Michael McGuire proposes in his thriller Flight Risk is, however, just believable enough…
Two US soldiers are literally in the firing line in the unrelenting psychological thriller The Wall. The pair are Sergeant Isaac (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), an army ranger who serves as spotter; and his sniper partner, Sergeant Matthews (John Cena). They’re pinned down by an Iraqi sniper. But the fight becomes as much a battle of wills and…
Performances worth of Academy Award nominations highlight a politically complex drama reminiscent of All the President’s Men. Foremost among them are Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford, with Noni Hazlehurst also showing the way in a small but telling scene. Written and directed by James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man), who makes his directorial debut, Truth is…
King Kong and Godzilla move over. There’s a new kid in town. Let me put it this way: Rampage isn’t a gentle romantic comedy. It is a CGI-driven destruction-fest with The Rock providing an endearing link between a gigantic albino gorilla and humanity. Primatologist Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) oversees the ape habitat at the San…
In May, Palace Cinemas will once again bring the best of American independent film to Australian screens with American Essentials. Twenty films will make their Australian premiere—many hot on the heels of their world premieres at A-list festivals around the world—as the three-week festival tours five cities, celebrating the latest indie treasures in narrative feature…
