Ferdinand Mount has had a varied and fascinating career – head of Margaret Thatcher’s Policy unit, columnist and former editor of the Times Literary Supplement. So he probably knows a thing or two about politics and journalism. And in his latest novel Making Nice he turns that knowledge with a decidedly satirical eye to the…
Inspired by a seven-year affair between celebrated British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor Harold Pinter and television presenter Joan Bakewell, the silences say as much as the words. In fact, when he had finished writing the play, Pinter sent it to Bakewell, who was shocked her life was being raked over. As she read through…
The story made world news. On 15 May 2010, 16-year-old Jessica Watson became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop and unassisted. It was just her, a 10-metre-long boat named Ella’s Pink Lady and the elements. In the Netflix movie True Spirit, Teagan Croft plays Watson. Her mentor is a Ben Bryant (Cliff…
Quirky, comedic and endearing are three words to describe this charming independent film starring Jemaine Clement, from Flight of the Conchords. Clement plays Will Henry, a 40-year-old graphic novelist (he draws cartoons), a teacher at a school of visual arts and the father of twins. At the girls’ fifth birthday party, his seemingly picture-perfect Brooklyn…
A first for Brisbane, the inaugural SUPERCELL: Festival of Contemporary Dance Brisbane presents contemporary dance in all its wildest forms from around the world, starting tomorrow. The festival will be held at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts from 18 through 25 February 2017 with a packed program of local and international artists, performances,…
Former Australian journalist Michael Brissenden’s third novel Smoke (after The List and Dead Letters) was inspired by the devastating bushfires that ravaged the Australian east coast in late 2019 and early 2020. But rather than setting his story in that time and place, Brissenden takes the action to another fire flashpoint – the forests of…
Countless film enthusiasts were waiting impatiently for the new Star Wars movie last year. Believe it or not, I wasn’t really. On the contrary, I was waiting for the new film by Quentin Tarantino. Sorry Tarantino haters, but Yankee Doodle Dandee, this was again a brilliant film by the most rebellious, anarchic director Hollywood ever…
Caroline, or Change is a work, an autobiographical work from Tony Kushner. He is famous for Angels in America (1993). Born in Manhattan, his family moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana, when he was a young boy. He wanted to write about race relations, the civil rights movement, and African Americans and southern Jews in the…
The year 1968 was a turbulent time in American history and politics. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated; US involvement in the war in Vietnam increased; and President Johnson raised the draft total to 3,500. And the Democratic National Conference in Chicago was marred by riots between police and anti-war protestors. They had…
Jesse Eisenberg has used his Jewish family’s roots to craft A Real Pain. The film follows cousins making a pilgrimage to their late grandmother’s childhood home in Poland. Eisenberg plays David Kaplan, an anxious New Yorker, married father of one and digital ad salesman. His travelling companion on the week-long trip is Benji Kaplan (Kieran…
