Top 10 books of 2023
Robert Goodman For more of Robert’s reviews, visit his blog Pile By the Bed
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John Foreman’s Aussie Pops Orchestra New Year’s Eve & The Night Before Gala Concerts (Hamer Hall) – musical theatre review
Goosebumps! That is what I had while watching and listening to three of Australia’s preeminent musical theatre performers on stage with the Aussie Pops Orchestra. The occasion was one of three New Year’s Eve & The Night Before Gala Concerts at Hamer Hall (included amongst them was a matinee). Complete with a 60-piece orchestra, the mastery of their…
Dream Scenario – movie review
Celebrity – it’s the dream of many and the nightmare of some. Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli (in his English-language debut) takes a quirky but deep dive into the nature of celebrity in the current cultural moment with Dream Scenario. The result, while a little uneven, is nonetheless intriguing. Depicting dreams in cinema – or any…
Next Goal Wins – movie review
After something of a misstep with the uneven Thor: Love and Thunder, director Taika Waititi returns to the kind of gentle humour that has marked his career with Next Goal Wins. If you like early Taika – Eagle vs Shark, or Flight of the Conchords, for example – you’ll likely warm to this rollicking underdog…
Top movies of 2023
If 2022 saw a return to normality for the first time since 2019, in 2023 cinema took a beat to consolidate. And if 2022 was really all about Top Gun: Maverick, in 2023 the pie got divided up rather more evenly. Australian box office dominated by “Barbienheimer” with the international smash hit Barbie taking out…
Two Tickets to Greece
Opposites attract, repel, and attract again in the French comedy Two Tickets to Greece. In 1989, brash teenager Magalie and conservative Blandine were besties at school. An argument over a boy saw an end to that and Magalie moved away. Now, three decades on and two years after her husband left her, radiology technician Blandine…
Coup de Chance – movie review
Although out of favour in the US, Woody Allen is still a revered filmmaker in France. So fittingly enough, his fiftieth film as a director is actually set and shot in France. And, surprisingly enough, the dialogue is in French, with subtitles. Coup de Chance (Stroke of Luck) also turns out to be one of…
Migration – movie review
A fun-filled, animated adventure, Migration focuses on a family of four wild ducks, also known as mallards. This is a delightful, humorous film, with much to commend it. The story is from Mike White (who wrote the screenplay) and Benjamin Renner (who directed the film, alongside Guylo Homsy). The father of this ducky brood is…
Poor Things – movie review
Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos makes weird but oddly compelling and visually arresting dramas and absurdist comedies. His resume includes films such as The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and The Favourite, which have won numerous awards on the festival circuit. But his deadpan approach and detached style have proved polarising and controversial with…
One Life – movie review
James Hawes’ One Life is an emotional, heart-felt journey, jumping between the onset of World War II and the late 1980s. The film opens in December 1938. Nicholas “Nicky” Winton is a mild-mannered British stockbroker headed for a week in Prague. Increasingly, refugees have fled there to try to outrun the growing Nazi presence in…