In terms of views and images, Jupiter Ascending is a spectacle with an impressive space footage, sometimes rousing action sequences and titillating extraterrestrial fantasies. But just as a book of Jack Vance, it really doesn’t make any sense in the beginning. The difference is that while reading that book of Vance, the intended message becomes…
The romantic comedy The Fall Guy delivers plenty of action, hairy scenes and hijinks. Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) loves his job and his life. He’s a noted movie stuntman and body double for arrogant action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). More than that, Seavers is head-over-heels for camera operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), who aspires…
Written by James Elazzi, the two protagonists at the heart of Son of Byblos – Lebanese Australian cousins – are living a lie. They are not comfortable in their own skin and are afraid to share the truth with their nearest and dearest. Claire (Anna Khaleeda Rasheed), 26, has just returned from Lebanon with big…
Discomfort looms large as two old school friends reunite after 12 years in Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut, Passing. It’s the 1920s. Irene (Tessa Thompson) is the wife of a doctor, Brian (Andre Holland) and mother of two school age sons, Ted (Justus Davis Graham) and Junior (Ethan Barrett). They live in Harlem, where she volunteers…
“One of the most internationally acclaimed films of the decade,” declares the advertising blurb. Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard that before, right? But in the case of Burning, the hype is real. This is absolutely one of the best films you’ll see this year. Asian cinema sometimes gets marginalised in our Hollywood-obsessed popular culture. But with…
“I’m so sick of – fill in the blank” is the first line you hear out of founder and singer/songwriter Will Toledo’s creative brain from the excellent new long player, Teens of Denial, from his Car Seat Headrest vehicle. It’s sonic boom and attack represents the first real song Car Seat Headrest has released with…
With overtures of Schindler’s List, The Zookeeper’s Wife is based upon fact. It is the true story of gentiles who put everything on the line to save hundreds of Jews from annihilation during the Holocaust. Warsaw in Poland in 1939 was a very, very dangerous place to be. It was where Antonina Żabińska (Jessica Chastain) and her…
In Full Time, Julie (Laure Calamy) is a single mother who works as the head chambermaid in a prestigious five-star hotel in Paris. She lives in the outer suburbs and daily commutes to and from work. She juggles the demands of her job with raising two young children (Nolan Arizmendi and Sasha Lemaitre Cremaschi). She…
The second line of Peter Allen’s iconic anthem I Still Call Australia Home contains the words “From New York to Rio and old London Town”. It then goes on to say, “I still call Australia home”. Only Rio doesn’t feature in The Australia Ballet’s three parter Instruments of Dance. The triple bill has the works of resident…
One of the most creative and engaging plays I have had the good fortune to see, the moment it finished I wanted to see it again. What better recommendation is there? Put succinctly, North by Northwest is a beauty. So was the Alfred Hitchcock-directed movie, mind you, so the issue became how best to translate…
