The Lion King – movie review
Disney gives The Lion King a Jungle Book treatment, turning animation into a blend of live action and computer-generated imagery. The visual effects are spectacular. If you haven’t seen the 1994 original cartoon version, I suspect you’ll be satisfied with this 2019 representation of the story of young Simba’s rise. Director of The Jungle Book,…
If It Bleeds (Stephen King) – book review
When reviewing a new Stephen King book, you can only really compare such rich work to that of his own. There is no other writer, past or present, quite like him. King is the gold standard, the literary bar, a unique category. A problem other authors would no doubt like to have. If It Bleeds…
CLOSED: Win tickets to Long Shot
– Long Shot – Only in cinemas from 2 May 2019 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to StudioCanal Australia. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) is one of the most influential women in the world. Smart, sophisticated, and accomplished, she’s a powerhouse diplomat with a talent…
Kodachrome – movie review
In these days of instant communication, you have to come up with a pretty good reason for a road trip. The creative team behind Kodachrome have done so by going old-school. The result is a film yearning for a golden past that – perhaps – never existed. Matt Ryder (Jason Sudeikis) is a music executive…
Skin Deep – movie review
This low budget female centric film from director Jonny Leahy, a recent VCA graduate, is an honest and comical urban comedy/drama looking at the developing friendship between two troubled young women from different backgrounds. Leah (newcomer Zara Zoe) is a young woman who has been diagnosed with terminal melanoma, who has a chance encounter with…
Do Something Else (Old 55) – theatre review
Do Something Else is a new work devised by two dancers Cloe Fournier and Ryuichi Fujimura and sculptor/theatre maker Bridget Vidler with director Michael Pigott. Says Mr Pigott: “I was interested in seeing if you could make theatre that emulates thought processes, the different ways that we deal with material within our own minds; dreams,…
Midnight Family (Docplay) – movie review
In Midnight Family, the audience become front seat passengers riding along with the Ochoa family in Mexico City after dark. Underground private ambulances compete for patients, beg for money and pay police bribes. The government operates fewer than 45 emergency ambulances in Mexico City for a population of nine million. The documentary explores urgent questions…
e-baby (Ensemble) – theatre review
e-baby is a new Australian play by Jane Cafarella, for two women, seen first in Melbourne, last year. The play charts a surrogacy pregnancy. We first meet Catherine (Danielle Carter), a 46 year-old, ex-pat Australian, living the ‘dream’ as a high-flying lawyer based in London, with a practice in New York, who after trying with…
Fawlty Towers – Live – theatre review
Fawlty Towers is cult comedy. It began life as a two season BBC TV production back in the 1970s. There were just 12 shows, but they have lived on, gaining new generations of fans. But would the morphing of old TV show scripts into a two-act live stage comedy work? Absolutely. John Cleese took three…