From the trailer, you’d think No Hard Feelings was another Judd Apatow-movie clone full of raunchy comedy. But director Gene Stupnitsky and his writing partner John Phillips obviously didn’t get the memo. Because they’re crafted a slyly intelligent comedy with some actual heart. Stupnitsky’s most recent feature film was Good Boys (2019), which hit a…
There’s a determined, purposeful up-tempo feel on Jenny Lewis’ fifth solo project, the aptly titled Joy’All. It’s as if the former child actor and former Rilo Kiley singer has decided that little is gained by holding on to past harms when you can “follow your joy’all.” But she’s not living in denial either. In the…
Caribbean novelist Kevin Jared Hosein’s third novel Hungry Ghosts is set in Trinidad “sometime in the 1940s”. It follows a disparate group of connected characters who are united only in tragedy, as inter-generational traumas, illicit desire and class divides come into play. The book opens with four boys making a blood oath. Two of these,…
Nicole Holofcener’s comedic drama You Hurt My Feelings asks whether it’s okay to lie if you’re trying to protect a loved one. Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Don (Tobias Menzies) are a ridiculously loved-up middle-aged couple. Beth is the author of a moderately successful memoir, struggling to find a publisher for her first novel. She also…
An eclectic comedian and singer with a working-class style and a potty mouth, MJ Wilson sets us up for a show about love … and horses. With a pleasant, mellifluous voice, he proceeds to warble Elton John’s Your Song. Changing tone, he makes light of what he calls his “dribbling” and speech impediment (which I couldn’t hear)….
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 16 June 2023. The fifth full-length studio album from the UK four-piece was conceptualised by Django Django co-founder and powerhouse Dave Maclean, buzzing on ufology as “a way to go beyond”, to bring new voices, new rhythms, new experimentation…
Following its success last winter, a new, gorgeous exhibition of colour and creativity returns to the Royal Botanic Gardens this year. The after dark experience that is Lightscape features a stunning array of large-scale, colour-changing, illuminated sculptures. All but two are fresh designs. Back to captivate anew is last year’s piece de resistance, Winter Cathedral, and the…
The Jurassic Park/Jurassic World movie franchise has grossed more than $6 billion globally. Let’s face it, dinosaurs are big business and long before their film adaptation they held not just scientific, but public fascination. Now, in time for the school holidays, family friendly Jurassic Creatures has come to Cheltenham (opposite Southland Shopping Centre). We’re talking about more…
Set in Dubin in 1912, Richard Rowan (Doug Lyons) is a highly intelligent writer plagued by self-doubt. Richard married the woman he desired, Bertha (Lucy Payne), but nine years on their light appears to have dimmed. When the couple moved to Rome, he exchanged long letters and chapters of his book with another woman from his past,…
Two new and very different works, each lasting just under an hour, constitute the opening of the 2023 ballet season in Melbourne for The Australian Ballet. Named Identity, in a nutshell it is contemporary dance versus traditional ballet. While there were elements of both that I admired, I felt there was too much repetition in the first,…
