Jackie Chan is one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. He’s known for his energetic and carefully choreographed fight scenes and for doing his own, often dangerous, stunts. But Hollywood hasn’t quite known how to handle him properly. Chan has found himself stuck in a number of formulaic lightweight action comedies like the…
Bangarra Dance Theatre’s world premiere work Horizon shines on the main stage as their first cross-cultural collaboration, and its national tour has arrived in Brisbane where it is showing as part of Clancestry, a celebration of identity and connection providing a platform for established and emerging First Nations artists to share their stories, perspectives and…
With a powerful rock score, the talent on display in the new Australian tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch is phenomenal. With music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and a book by John Cameron Mitchell (JCM), the storyline is hardly conventional. The musical burst onto the scene off Broadway in 1998, before beginning a…
Justin Chon treads a difficult path in his new film Blue Bayou. The writer-director (and star) seeks to highlight a little-known social issue in America; but he uses a problematic protagonist to do it. The result is a heartfelt and moving film, but one that’s perhaps less powerful than Chon intended. The issue is the…
Jerico Stewart (Kevin Costner) is a danger to society. He’s locked up in a maximum-security prison as a chained wild beast. An unruly person without feelings. A psychopathic person who doesn’t even know the difference between right and wrong (“You can’t punish someone who doesn’t know he did something wrong“). And this thanks to his…
A huge cast brings youthful energy and drive to the dark and humorous Matilda The Musical Jr. In a battle of wills, dastardly principal Miss Trunchbull locks horns with bright bookworm Matilda Wormwood and her encouraging teacher, Miss Honey. The story, based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel, features music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, with…
Intelligent couple Stevie (Claudia Karvan) and Martin Gray (Nathan Page) have been happily married for 22 years. They have a 17-year-old gay son, Billy (Yazeed Daher) and all live a good life. Martin, who has just turned 50, has had, arguably, the finest week of his professional life. He has just been awarded the premiere prize for architecture,…
They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Clearly screenwriters believe that the way to a cinema goer’s heart (and wallet) may be through the stomach too. In the past few years we’ve had a gluttony(!) of films where food, more specifically, those who cook it, chefs, have been the main…
Kaleidoscope is a maze of mirrors that had me totally flummoxed. Set up in the forecourt of Arts Centre Melbourne, the outside multicoloured panels give you not a jot of an idea of what awaits you inside. Long vertical mirrors greet you at every turn. Rotating prisms, mood lighting and music add to the experience. As you…
Is the rock a portal to other worlds, the conduit for transformative magic, which allows people to simply disappear? These are questions raised in playwright Tom Wright’s adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s classic 1967 Australian novel, which spawned Peter Weir’s 1975 film. As Lindsay originally intended in her book, the theatre production raises important questions about…
