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Red Joan – movie review

Sleeper agents hold a weird fascination. When one is uncovered, the media seem intrigued. But of course the reality of someone playing a “long game” of espionage is often far more prosaic than sensational headlines would suggest. That reality fuels Trevor Nunn’s stagy drama, Red Joan. Lindsay Shapero wrote the original screenplay, basing it loosely…

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The 15:17 to Paris – movie review

I have no idea why a director of Clint Eastwood’s standing would associate himself with such a poor quality movie as The 15:17 to Paris. Maybe because it features three heroes who play themselves? But let’s face it, they’re not actors and this isn’t a documentary. I’m talking about Anthony Sadler; National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos; and US…

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American Animals – movie review

How not to plan and execute a heist. Four totally clueless amateurs get involved in something they should never have attempted in American Animals. Frighteningly, it’s based on relatively recent reality. The story centres around unpredictable wild child Warren (Evan Peters) and aspiring artist Spencer (Barry Keoghan), two friends from the middle-class suburbs of Lexington,…

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One Song (Melbourne Town Hall) – theatre review

Music like, I dare say, you have never seen it performed before. An hour-long pulsating beat, complete with athleticism, instruments struck and strummed outside the norm, treadmill vocals and wild cheering from the bleachers. There’s also a commentator and a highly enthusiastic cheerleader who, too, breaks the conventional mould (in fact, the whole performance piece does). All…

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Mothering Sunday – movie review

Mothering Sunday is a period drama about doomed love which comes across like an edgier variation on Upstairs Downstairs. The film is set mainly in the spring of 1924. The central character is Jane Fairchild (played by Australian actress Odessa Young), a maid working for the aristocratic Niven family. Jane is an orphan and although…

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