Based on the 1988 film, Heathers: The Musical is a slick show about dark issues, including bullying, teen suicide, sexual assault and school violence. What makes this realisation of the rock musical such a success is the way that it leans into the irony built into Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy’s book. It does not shy from the…
The challenges and complexities associated with mental health are front and centre in a compelling play based around a young man who hasn’t been (and isn’t) well. Institutionalised for quite some time, Adam (Ben Smalley) now lives alone. He listens to music, watches TV, shops when necessary, cooks some basics and ostensibly keeps to himself. His…
Justin Williams makes the impossible possible with a big smile on his face. He is an illusionist and balloon artist who recently won the Australian reality TV series Blow Up. That saw 10 people competing to create the best balloon artworks. He has parlayed that success into the world premiere of Justin’s BIG Balloon Show, in which he…
Journalists are sometimes asked to do some pretty unpleasant things. Many will go to great lengths to break a story. It doesn’t always end the way they would have liked or wanted. Just think of the mess in which 60 Minutes was recently embroiled in trying to “recover” the abducted children of an Australian mother…
The sixth album from alt/rock quartet Manchester Orchestra feels like the culmination of their 15 years as recording artists, bringing together their early guitar rock inclinations with the orchestrated compositional depth that came later. 2017’s A Black Mile to the Surface embraced a cinematic, concept album/storytelling approach, inspired by the experience of founding members and…
Watching characters on stage whose lives are steeped in suffering, sadness, loneliness, and despair can be one of life’s great therapies. There’s a strange comfort in witnessing their struggles, knowing that our own lives, by comparison, are far less tumultuous. When we leave the theatre, we may find ourselves reinvigorated, inspired, even uplifted. Uncle Vanya,…
Whatever else you might think about writer-director Damien Chazell’s first two films – Whiplash and La La Land – they definitely had a very clear narrative drive. And, even though it was grander in scope, you could say the same about his third film, First Man. But with Babylon, he replaces sharp linear narrative with…
After addressing the coming of age issues of Transcendental Youth back in 2012, the violent world of professional wrestling on Beat The Champ in 2015, and the dark music and culture of the 80’s era Goths in ’17, singer/songwriter John Darnielle leads The Mountain Goats into imaginative gaming world of Dungeons & Dragons with their…
Beyond Skyline is without a doubt one of the better low-budget SF films I’ve seen in recent years. Visually, that is. In terms of content, I thought it was only half successful. Until the part that takes place in Laos, it’s acceptable. From there on story starts to be pretty absurd. As soon as Mark…
Visually effusive, with the look and feel of a futuristic video game, the storyline of Ghost in the Shell is an all too familiar one. Based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow, Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) directs from a screenplay by Jamie Moss (Street Kings) and William…
