Janine Hosking’s The Eulogy provides a compelling portrait of an virtuoso Australian pianist who died far too young. This intriguing film is among the finest documentaries of the year. The starting point is the controversial eulogy former Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered at Geoffrey Tozer’s memorial service (which the ex-PM agreed to re-enact for this…
I got a lump in my throat when I watched Teresa Palmer – as Michelle Payne – cross the line to become the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. That’s despite remembering a great deal about that fateful day on the first Tuesday in November 2015. I was concerned that knowledge might detract…
Just as all families are unique, it’s safe to say that all have their own individual issues and, accordingly, suburban family life has long been fodder for theatrical works. In the case of From Darkness Steven Oliver’s take comes with humour but so much more; the darkly funny drama is, at its core, about bigger…
Bill Bateman, author of the Vince Hanrahan series, was a rural based GP himself, and that shows. Both in his affection for the town, the people and the depiction of the day to day life of the slightly harried GP, but mostly in the way that some presentations are never quite what they seem and…
– Ride Like a Girl – Only in cinemas from 26 September 2019 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to Transmission Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE As a little girl, Michelle Payne dreams of the impossible: winning the Melbourne Cup — horse-racing’s toughest two-mile race. The youngest of 10…
You’ve next seen a family Christmas quite like this before. Australian Realness has each cast member playing dual roles – one bourgeois and the other uncouth. The time frame is Australia in the late ‘90s. The posh and haughty meet the rough and ready. And for one heavily pregnant family member, a dream quickly turns…
The Australian Dream is a vitally important documentary that calls out intolerance for what it is. I’m ashamed to say – and notwithstanding that many, most even, may deny it – I believe Australia is a racist country. Are we more racist than other nations? Perhaps not, but that’s not the point. Any racism is…
I’ve been a big fan of the Stella Hardy series (Good Money, Too Easy and now Shoot Through), and I will admit that the setting of this one appealed enormously – what with Stella returning to the family farm in the Wimmera (there’s something going on with lots of books being set in that part…
– The Australian Dream – Only in cinemas from 22 August 2019 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to Madman Entertainment. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE The Australian Dream uses the remarkable and inspirational story of Indigenous AFL legend Adam Goodes as the prism through which to tell a deep…
One of Bryan Brown’s early films was 1980’s Palm Beach, a low budget surfing movie set on the idyllic beaches of northern NSW. Nearly forty years on Brown returns to that eponymous location for this drama about a gathering that can be called The Big Chill – Australian Style. Secrets and lies, personal failings, regrets…
