Paul Schrader’s nihilistic films have often explored troubled men and outsiders with a violent past who are seeking redemption for their past deeds. Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is one such man, hiding from the demons of his past, making him a quintessential Schrader creation. Roth is the chief horticulturalist tending to Gracewood Gardens, the sprawling…
Whenever I read news reports about films that make people suffer from migraine attacks and even make them sick, my curiosity is immediately awakened. The final verdict can go two ways. Either the film indeed has an ingeniously elaborated story and is provided with images the average stomach can’t bear. Or it’s the umpteenth overrated…
Bernadette Robinson brings sizzle to the Melbourne Recital Centre, paying homage to some of the greatest female singers to have played at Carnegie Hall. It is an emotion-charged 85-minute set with the 40-piece Australian Pops Orchestra, conducted by David Young, featuring musical director Mark Jones on piano. Time and again, Robinson extracts maximum value from…
Set against the backdrop of The Troubles* in Northern Ireland, this searing debut play for Australian writer Grace Chapple tells of the personal fallout for a group of friends. With explosions heard at close quarters, events take place in Belfast, near the border, over three time frames. Besties Dierdre (Enya Daly) and Niamh (Ella Ferris)…
The painfully unfunny Little is a variation on the body-swap formula that drove films such as Big and Suddenly 30. There’s little about this dud to recommend it to audiences. Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) was a nerd when at school. But twenty years later, she’s a high-powered millionaire. Jordan has become a ruthless, work-obsessed executive…
The original animated version of Dumbo (Disney’s fourth feature film) came out in 1941. It’s now it has been re-imagined in live action form. Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists former circus star Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his children, Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins), to care for a very different newborn…
The contemporary heist Western Hell or High Water comes from British director David MacKenzie (the violent prison film Starred Up), who gives us a rather bleak picture of an economically depressed dustbowl area in rural Texas, where family farms are falling into disuse and disrepair and the roads are lined with signs offering debt relief….
It is such a cliché, but trust the magnificent wordsmith in Joanna Murray-Smith to give it so much edge and polish. I speak of an older man leaving his long-term wife for a younger woman. In this case, it is a feted journalist married to a writer – a poet, no less. She gave up…
The novels of British author Daphne du Maurier have provided a great source of material for filmmakers with their deft mix of intrigue, mystery, murder, mistrust and romance. Alfred Hitchcock captured the gothic atmosphere of her novel Rebecca, while he brought a sense of unease and menace to his adaptation of The Birds, a tale…
– Tea with the Dames – Only in cinemas from 7 June 2018 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Transmission Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE TEA WITH THE DAMES is a unique celebration of the lives and careers of four of our most iconic actresses; Dame Eileen Atkins,…
