Sometimes the best piece of advice you can give about a new TV series is to just stick with it. Most find their groove eventually and in speculative shows like Upload, there’s a whole world and a lot of rules that need to be established before we can completely buy into its new concepts. The…
Kids may find more than adults in the far-fetched children’s fantasy Four Kids and It. Thirteen year-old Ros (Teddie Malleson-Allen) is a bookworm, with aspirations of becoming a writer. But she’s yet to find her own voice. She, and her younger brother, Robbie (Billy Jenkins), are good kids – being brought up by their British…
How clever and creative. Circa’s Carnival of the Animals is an engaging, endearing, comedic and delightful family show – circus with a decided difference. When we enter the Playhouse at Arts Centre Melbourne, in the middle of a barren stage is a small stack of old-style suitcases of various sizes. As the show starts, these “props” are…
Academy Award-winner Cameron Crowe turns his attention to second chances in this comedic romance. Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper), a celebrated military contractor, returns to the site of his greatest career triumphs – the US space program in Hawaii – and reconnects with a lost love, Tracy Woodside (Rachel McAdams). Tracy is now a mother of…
I pulled Disclaimer by Renee Knight from my to-review shelf, thinking it would be a good book to take on a five-hour flight to Sydney. I was wrong. I finished the book before I even left the house. It was that hard to put down. Here’s the blurb: What if you realized the book you were reading…
Elegant production design, a big name cast and twists aplenty characterise Death on the Nile, a new take on the Agatha Christie classic. After five killings, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) solves the crimes, but not before all stand accused. We’re introduced to Poirot’s extraordinary mind through his remarkable instincts on the battlefield during World War…
I’ve never particularly been interested in climbing a mountain, and after seeing this dramatic feature about a tragic attempt to climb Mt Everest in 1996, I have even less interest. Although paradoxically many who watch the film may somehow be inspired to take up the challenge. Since Edmund Hillary conquered Mt Everest in 1953, replicating…
If you like books that warm your heart, make you cry and want to read it all over again, Our Song by Dani Atkins might just hit the spot. Here’s the blurb: This is the story of Ally and Charlotte, whose paths have intersected over the years though they’ve never really been close friends. Charlotte…
Seventies band The Eagles successfully blended country and rock and reached a massive audience. Of all of the members of the band though, Don Henley has had the most successful solo career, and given us hits like The Boys Of Summer. He has just released his first solo album of new material since 1989’s The…
What a thoroughly entertaining showpiece! I last saw The Wedding Singer when it played at the Athenaeum Theatre last May. Now, at the State Theatre, at the Arts Centre, it remains just as fun filled and comedic, but it appears even slicker. The leads are intact among the 20-strong cast and are truly memorable. Collectively, the company sing,…
