Superbly acted and directed, the theatrics and dramatics in the richly intelligent Australian premiere of Incognito are compelling. The experience begins as you walk through the narrow passageway into the theatre. That’s when you notice a thin, taut, crisscrossed black rope along one wall and then liberally strewn throughout the theatre itself, dropping down to a…
Strong, emotive performances are the hallmark of Venus in Fur. This sado-masochistic two-hander is brim full of verbiage. It’s a play within a play, during which the power shifts. New York theatre director Thomas (Darcy Kent) is trying to cast the lead female role for a play. It’s a play he’s adapted from the 19th century book…
Janine Hosking’s The Eulogy provides a compelling portrait of an virtuoso Australian pianist who died far too young. This intriguing film is among the finest documentaries of the year. The starting point is the controversial eulogy former Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered at Geoffrey Tozer’s memorial service (which the ex-PM agreed to re-enact for this…
Detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan return for a third time as the leads in Chris Hammer’s sixth book The Seven. Once again he delivers a multi-generational tale of crimes and misdemeanours in a very particular part of the Australian rural landscape. While Treasure and Dirt was set in the opal fields of Northern New…
Nobel Prize winning Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa has long been interested in Latin American politics and history. His 1969 novel Conversations in the Cathedral explored the dictatorship in Peru in the 1950s and his 2000 novel The Feast of the Goat is about the assassination of Dominican strongman Rafael Trujillo. Which brings us all…
Now that Robert Downey Jr has said farewell to Iron Man and the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe he is obviously looking for another potentially lucrative franchise. And he may have found one in the adventures of Dr Dolittle, the Victorian era veterinarian with the unique ability to communicate with animals of all shapes and sizes….
Five years in the making, Australia 3D: The Wild Continent presents a stunning showcase of this country’s flora and fauna. What we see is so striking that, I venture to suggest, anyone viewing it in Australia will be captivated by the plethora of natural wonders in our backyard. As to those who witness the documentary…
After seasons in Sydney and Brisbane, The Bodyguard: The Musical has taken up residence at Melbourne’s regal Regent Theatre. It’s based on the hit 1992 film starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. The stage production debuted in London’s West End on 5 December 2012. The story concerns a former secret service agent turned bodyguard, Frank Farmer (Kip…
This Oscar-nominated Swedish comedy about a socially awkward grumpy old man rediscovering his humanity and the sense of community is essentially Gran Torino with subtitles. A Man Called Ove is a life-affirming tale. At first I thought it was going to be a Scandinavian variation of the perennial Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, but…
During my youth I spent many hours next door with the neighbor boy. Not just for having fun or horsing around, but also because in their veranda there was a disused closet with sliding doors where you could always find some old comics lying around. I suppose these were from the older brother who was…
