On April 20th, 2010, one of the world’s largest man-made disasters occurred on the Deepwater Horizon, an ultra deep-water drilling rig off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the story of some of the 126 crew members working aboard the Deepwater Horizon that day, caught in the most harrowing circumstances. Mark…
Trust is in short supply in the Disney animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon. That’s because 500 years ago, sinister monsters known as the Druun turned most of the people and the dragons (who until then had lived in harmony) to stone. But the collective energies and special powers of five dragon siblings saved…
Elvis: A Musical Revolution is an exciting spectacle from its outset as the audience is transitioned from its recreated iconic mononymic neon ’68 Comeback Special signage, through an electrifying ‘Burning Love’ dance number, to the Beal Street and Sun Record Studio days of Elvis’ early 1940s and ‘50s life. The award-winning exploration of pivotal moments…
Ego focusses on the impact and legacy of Michael Gudinski through his five-decade involvement in the Australian music industry, from the inaugural Sunbury Music Festival in 1972 through to the establishment of Mushroom Records and to his work promoting tours from both local and international artists. Gudinski was a larger-than-life figure full of passion and…
The 2016 AICE Israeli Film Festival is currently in full swing in Sydney and Melbourne ( at the Ritz and Nova cinemas respectively). The event aims to present a diverse range of films from Israel in a variety of genres – including romantic comedies, a Holocaust mystery, a Bedouin family drama, a Polish/Israeli horror film…
I had seen Ai Weiwei’s work advertised on TV and was curious to see his big works, like his mountain of stainless steel bike frames and his masterpieces built from Lego blocks, but Warhol’s “pop art” had never held any appeal with what I saw as crude drawings with a wash of colour. French Impressionism…
Israeli actress Gal Gadot imposes herself on screen in a rare outing for Hollywood – a big budget superhero movie featuring a female in the lead role. It is hard to believe it has taken this long for Wonder Woman to make it to the big screen in her own right. In comic book form she…
Inspired by events in his life, Miles Ahead is an impressionistic, no-holds barred portrait of one of 20th century music’s creative geniuses, Miles Davis. Working from a script he co-wrote with Steven Baigelman, Don Cheadle, who also stars as Davis, makes his directorial debut. In the midst of a dazzling and prolific career at the…
Although a story about Vikings making friends with dragons seems very “high concept”, the How to Train Your Dragon franchise has been a big success. I mean, not MCU-style success, but it’s more than held its own in the world of animated movie franchises. The films have raked in more than $1 billion – nothing…
If you are after something that is mighty special, you shouldn’t go past Melbourne Opera’s stunning rendition of La Bohème. It is simply sensational. The story. The music. The voices. The realisation. It is so lively and emotional. It is cheeky and sexy and fraught. Giacomo Puccini composed the opera in four acts between 1893…
