For a long time local filmmaker Lawrence Johnston (Life) has been fascinated with neon, and he even managed to include images of neon lights into his documentaries Eternity and the whimsical Night. But now he has made a carefully researched feature length documentary exploring the heritage, design and history of neon and neon lighting. While…
Brisbane theatre company Shake & Stir has brought audiences many exciting theatre experiences (A Christmas Carol, Roald Dahl stories, Animal Farm). Their latest, Fourthcoming, is sure to be another hit. At various points, Fourthcoming invites audience members to use their smartphones to choose a path for the characters in the show. Whichever answer receives the…
I can’t think of a Saltpillar Theatre endeavour that I have enjoyed more than this delightful production of Beau Jest. Premiering in Chicago in 1989, the romantic comedy written by James Sherman moves along at pace and is simply so much fun. It concerns a nice Jewish girl who dearly loves her parents, but tries…
There’s one word that comes to my mind after watching Mad Max: Fury Road, and that’s the word “madness”. This is a perfect visualization of what the term madness means. I truly believe that the creators and writers of this hallucinatory trip were fed with hallucinogens. A spacious cocktail of exotic mushrooms, barbiturates and other…
Opposites attract, repel, and attract again in the French comedy Two Tickets to Greece. In 1989, brash teenager Magalie and conservative Blandine were besties at school. An argument over a boy saw an end to that and Magalie moved away. Now, three decades on and two years after her husband left her, radiology technician Blandine…
If you’re scared of sharks, 47 Metres Down isn’t the film for you. It isn’t Jaws, but cut from the same cloth … the same well of fear. Two sisters are holidaying together in Mexico. The conservative elder sibling, Lisa (Mandy Moore), has been dumped by her boyfriend. Devastated and hurting, Lisa fails to tell her sibling, Kate…
With an introductory nod to J.C. Williamson’s premiere season of Annie in Melbourne in 1978, this intoxicating, family friendly musical sizzles and sparks anew. All the elements – music, performance, staging, choreography, lighting and sound – come together seamlessly and make for a delightful night at the theatre. Despite being set during the Great Depression,…
Early on in Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Miss Marx, the writer-director makes it clear she considers her subject to be a kind of punk rock icon. Pity then that her film largely shuns that angle and instead meanders into becoming another tepid costume drama. The film ostensibly features a fiery feminist icon, but it plays out as…
With all the anti-Muslim bile being peddled at the moment, along comes Ali’s Wedding. This feel-good entertainment, based in fact, puts a smile on your dial. There’s something of The Castle’s sensibilities about this one. It’s funny and silly at the same time. Some of it seems incredibly far-fetched, but given what we are dealing with here, that…
Colossal is one bizarre film, and this low budget effort serves us a weird mash-up of sci-fi, Korean kaiju style monster movie, romantic comedy and domestic drama. Gloria (played by Anne Hathaway) is an insecure and self-destructive alcoholic on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Following her breakup with her increasingly frustrated career-obsessed boyfriend Tim…
