Churchill is a fascinating portrait of a man of high intellect who was facing a fight on two fronts in the final months of the Second World War. On the one hand there were the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men whose lives he was about to put on the line and then there…
What an amusing movie The Banker was. It’s the kind of movie you start watching and before you know it, the end credits roll across your screen. Even though the subject won’t get you very excited. The world of real estate and banking. A world populated with stiffs in perfectly fitting suits who prefer to…
At a time when alternative music had progressed from post-punk into grunge (the late 80’s and early 90s), Greg Dulli got together with John Curley, and Rick McCollum and quickly evolved from a garage band to a dark, heavy art rock band that was obviously obsessed with R&B and soul music. Dulli once described Afghan…
It’s taken the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble until its 20th birthday year to finally mount a full production of arguably Shakespeare’s best-known play – Romeo & Juliet – and the outcome is most definitely worth the wait. Some would say that it’s hard to put a new twist on the oft-performed play, however the window dressing…
Slingsby’s production of Oscar Wilde’s The Young King (adapted for the stage by Nicki Bloom) is a deceptively simple but lusciously layered show. That is once the acclaimed Adelaide theatre company’s show actually starts as before the audience makes it into the theatre space, things begin with an immersive entry process through the Cremorne Theatre…
If there’s something Travolta remained loyal to, then surely it’s his distinctive, sad look. Ever since I saw him the first time appearing in Saturday Night Fever (ages ago), he uses that sad expression. It always looks as if he’s going to burst out in tears. And the movie The Forger is substantively perfect for…
From little things, big things (re)grow. After a three-year hiatus, the Brisbane International Film Festival is back. And while this new BIFF is very much a slimmed down version of what it once was, the very fact of its return is a cause for celebration. Where once BIFF screened close to 200 films, the “new” festival…
One of the truisms of gambling says the house always wins. However, with The House – a supposed comedy about an ordinary family that set up an illegal underground casino in the leafy streets of suburbia – it’s the audience who are the losers. Let’s face it – when was the last time Will Ferrell made…
In The Belko Experiment, the Belko of the title is a US non-profit organisation based in Bogota in Colombia. It works to facilitate American businesses wanting to operate in South America. One day though an unusually high level of security appears around the high-rise office building. As the employees go about their business, a wall…
With overtures of Tomorrow When the War Began and the love triangle in The Hunger Games, yet another dystopian film franchise kicks off, this time starring Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass). Earth has been invaded by what are termed The Others; aliens whose mother ship hovers menacingly over the United States. At first that is all…
