Immersive and interactive theatre excites me. It always has. We don’t see enough of it in Australia. That is why I entered The Austral in Collingwood (a former theatre, cinema and roller-skating rink that dates back to 1921) with a heightened sense of anticipation. Forty-three rooms, eight characters, with us – the audience – free to go where…
Frozen meets Shrek in Onward, the latest adventure from the Disney-Pixar stable. The hype around this film has been understandably muted; but even though it’s a little “off”, it still delivers exactly what most audiences will want. Like Shrek, the Onward is set in a kind of split dimension in which the world of fantasy…
Arthurian legends get a PG makeover in The Kid Who Would be King. It’s a bit like King Arthur meets The Lost Boys with a splash of Stand by Me thrown in. The result is a rollicking kids-own adventure, with enough to keep adults at least engaged. The idea of a group of kids banding together…
Tasmanian-born Errol Flynn was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s, and the swashbuckling star of action films like Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood dominated the box office. The charismatic and handsome movie icon also had a reputation as a hard-drinking cavalier womaniser and a hell-raiser off-screen….
The House with A Clock in its Walls presents as a magic-carpet ride that goes from charming silly to just plain silly. Ten-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) moves in with his Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) after being orphaned. He discovers a hidden world of mystery in the curious mansion filled with clocks that is his new…
There’s a fine line with fantasy that can, and often does, cross the line of credibility. A Wrinkle in Time absolutely smashes it. Meg Murry (Storm Reid) is a typical middle-school student. Struggling with issues of self-worth, she just wants to fit in. The daughter of two world-renowned physicists, she’s intelligent and uniquely gifted. So is her…
It’s hard to believe it’s been 17 years since Angelina Jolie made the role of Lara Croft her own in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Jolie was in her mid-twenties at that time. Now we see generational change, with 29-year-old Alicia Vikander stepping into the role. In Tomb Raider – an origin story – Lara is the fiercely independent…
James Marsh (The Theory of Everything) directs the true story of an audacious amateur sailor in The Mercy. The year is 1968 and the sailor is Donald Crowhurst (Colin Firth). With his business and home on the line, Crowhurst decides to leave his wife, Clare (Rachel Weisz), and their children behind to take on an epic…
Into the World by Stephanie Parkyn is historical fiction that’s both rich in fiction and character, delivering a memorable story of a woman named Marie-Louise, who dresses as a man and finds herself on a dangerous expedition around the world. This is the blurb: 1791. In the midst of the French Revolution, unwed mother Marie-Louise Girardin…
Writer and director Rian Johnson (Looper) has delivered in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the second film in the sequel trilogy. Johnson takes over from J.J. Abrams, who is due to direct Episode IX. Following the events of The Force Awakens (2015), Rey (Daisy Ridley) starts her training under the surly and powerful Jedi Master Luke…
