Like the recent Judy (about the tragic Judy Garland), The United States vs Billie Holiday is a biopic featuring a talented but self-destructive singer who shone briefly and died too early. This film follows many of the familiar tropes of this rich sub-genre. The product of a turbulent childhood Billie Holiday was a jazz singer…
Damian Chazelle made a splash with 2014’s Whiplash, and now he takes a headlong dive into the deep end of the Hollywood pool with La La Land. This brilliantly conceived and handsomely executed paean to the Dream Factory is definite Oscar-bait and will also win a strong following from everyday moviegoers who should respond to…
The Curators’ homage to great Norwegian playwright Henrick Ibsen’s controversial Ghosts is innovative from even the initial moments. Smoke haze meets the audience on entering the Vintage Pop-Up Theatre in Red Hill’s St Barnabas Hall. In opening, characters emerge to move forward towards us from behind a makeshift plastic scrim screen. A menacing soundtrack signals…
– Beautiful Boy – Only in cinemas from 25 October 2018 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Transmission Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Beautiful Boy is a deeply moving portrait of a family’s unwavering love and commitment to each other in the face of their son’s addiction and his…
I quite enjoy a good crime read, so when author Sandi Wallace approached me to review her debut novel, Tell Me Why, I found myself agreeing despite a heavy review shelf. What attracted me initially was the setting – this book is set in rural/small-town Victoria, a place I’m familiar with. Tell Me Why is the first…
– Chappaquiddick – Only in cinemas from 10 May 2018 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Transmission Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE CHAPPAQUIDDICK is a riveting reexamination of the true events surrounding the most difficult seven days of Senator Ted Kennedy’s career when he drove off a bridge…
Both a prequel and a sequel to Mamma Mia! from 2008 , Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is a lightweight, fun-filled romp. In 1979, high-spirited Donna, Tanya and Rosie – aka Donna and the Dynamos – graduate from Oxford University. Donna joyfully embarks on her adventures through Europe to fulfil her destiny on the…
Netflix has a whole host of films with interesting premises and solid performers that well suit the streaming platforms rather than the big screen. The Titan is one of these. Perfectly entertaining for a cold night in, but you’d be a bit peeved if you’d ponied up to watch this low key film at the…
The unique talent that was Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunipingu is showcased in this reverential documentary written and directed by Paul Williams. Gurrumul is known as a band member of Yothu Yindi; and a supreme artist in his own right. He spoke little, but said so much through his evocative music. More often than not he let…
About Endlessness is the sixth film from Swedish auteur Roy Andersson, and, according to some suggestions, possibly the last of his career. It is his first film since 2015’s A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, (which I must admit, I loathed) and is pretty much in the same style as the rest…
