Safely ensconced here in the Southern Hemisphere, few Australians have first-hand experience of America’s sometimes-toxic racial politics. In general, we experience it from afar, via either the news or some other media (like the recent film Get Out). Our national experience, while arguably no better than the USA’s, is however markedly different. So the Netflix…
What caused Osama bin Laden to become the most hated and hunted man on the planet? The controversial drama Bin Laden: The One Man Show asks that question about the once-feared al-Qaeda leader. It’s the work of UK’s Knaïve Theatre; specifically writer and performer Sam Redway and fellow writer and director Tyrrell Jones. Redway came…
The Cornish contingent from Fisherman’s Friends (2019) are back to appreciate sea shanties anew in Fisherman’s Friends: One and All. The earlier film was about many local mates who were unexpectedly signed to an international record label and recorded a top 10 hit with their debut album. In the sequel Jim (James Purefoy) once again…
Imagine you are driving late at night. It’s raining heavily and you don’t know the area at all. You might be lost. You pull over to rest in a tiny, empty town. And then someone bangs on the window, pleading for help. Behind her is a man. What would you do? This split-second decision forms…
In many countries, homelessness is a big problem. But the scale of the issue hasn’t led to a lot of films exploring it. Emilio Estevez – making his first feature since 2010 – tries to redress the imbalance at least a little with The Public. This ambitious and rather surprising film deftly delves into the…
Colin Thiele’s cherished 1964 novel Storm Boy is part of Australian folklore. The poignant story is of 11-year-old Mike, the titular Storm Boy (Conor Lowe) – named after being seen wandering the Coorong dunes during a dangerous storm – and his gruff reclusive hermit father, ‘Hideaway’ Tom (John Batchelor). Their lives are altered when Storm…
Of all the high concept TV around at the moment, The Good Place probably has the highest concept of them all. I mean, it’s a brave show that starts out with a dead protagonist. It’s an even braver show that tackles deep philosophical themes. But it’s a brilliant show that can pull all that off…
Sean Baker is an intriguing filmmaker who doesn’t repeat himself, although most of his films follow characters who are marginalised. His breakthrough film was 2015’s Tangerine, a low budget independent drama about a transgender prostitute looking for her pimp – it was entirely shot on a mobile phone. He followed that film in 2017 with…
The sensitive and affecting film Adam takes a close up look at two women from a poor Casablanca neighbourhood caught in an emotional maelstrom. Abla (Lubna Azabal) is a dour widowed mother who can’t get over the untimely death of her husband. Meanwhile, Samia (Nisrin Erradi) faces the imminent birth of a child alone and…
The rush to write apocalyptic narratives doesn’t seem to be slowing. Inga Simpson channels her experiences in the recent Australian bushfires and a dash of pandemic and wraps them up into something worse in her latest book The Last Woman in the World. Just the title is enough of a tip off that things are…
