Thomas D Lee’s debut Perilous Times is a strange amalgam of post-apocalyptic eco-thriller and classic fantasy liberally laced with plenty of satire. It is set in a Britain ravaged by climate change, features rapacious corporations, plucky revolutionaries and climate refugees. But it also centres around the Arthurian legends and the knights of the Round Table….
Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell began the Insidious franchise in 2010. The first Insidious featured Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert, Rose Byrne as his wife Renai, Ty Simpkins as their son Dalton and Lin Shaye as the medium Elise Rainier. It concerned a family looking to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 7 July 2023. The first album in over six years from American songwriter Julie Byrne is a testament to patience and determination, the willingness to transform through the desolation of loss, the vitality of renewal, and the courage to…
Think of the hijinks in Crazy Rich Asians, Bridesmaids and The Hangover and you go some way to understanding why Joy Ride will be a fan favourite. There are laughs, silliness and good times aplenty. As five-year-olds, Audrey and Lolo meet by chance in 1998 at a New York park. Born in Asia, Audrey –…
Greatness often emanates from very humble beginnings. The story of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, is one such example. In Bronte, writer Polly Teale provides context about how three cloistered sisters wrote English literary classics such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Polly Teale’s storytelling is engaging and…
Loneliness. Pain. Emotional connection. Desire. Sexual kinks. Consent. That is US writer Clare Barron’s Shhhh, which has its Australian premiere at Red Stitch Theatre. Bold, confronting and, on occasions, perplexing, it is a play that concerns itself with sexual assault, rape culture, mental and physical wellbeing, and the sisterhood. Playwright Shareen (Jessica Clarke), who suffers from a…
An indigenous lad (Aswan Reid) reshapes the lives of those living at a remote monastery in 1940s Australia in Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy. The outback facility serves as a mission for Aboriginal children. It’s run by a feisty, renegade nun, Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett). At the time only men could operate missions. But the…
It would be easy to dismiss this charming crowd-pleasing little film as a Gallic variation of the Oscar winning Driving Miss Daisy. But this French drama, which screened during the recent Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, is so much more. Madeleine Keller (played by veteran singer and actress Line Renaud, recently seen in Call My…
The high-octane ride that is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is again directed by Christopher McQuarrie. He wrote the screenplay with Erik Jendresen. It is the seventh movie in the franchise and is the longest yet at 2 hours 43 minutes. Spectacular stunts, car chases, a runaway train heading for destruction, humour and…
Superb staging is a hallmark of Mozart’s dramatic opera Idomeneo, set on the island of Crete shortly after the Trojan War. Ilia, daughter of the defeated Trojan King Priam, expresses conflicting emotions. She has love for her rescuer, Idamante, son of Cretan King Idomeneo, and hatred for her father’s Greek enemies, who killed both her dad and…
