Emily Bitto won the Stella Prize in 2015 for her first novel The Strays. Her second, Wild Abandon, was worth the wait. Wild Abandon is a kind of coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of two very different sides of America (the book itself is divided into two sections, each titled ‘America’), both seen slightly…
As we approach another hot, dry summer here in Australia, this inspiring documentary is both timely and relevant. A Fire Inside was filmed largely during the bushfires that devastated much of Australia’ east coast in the so-called “Black Summer” of 2019-20, the worst fire season ever recorded. An area the size of the UK was…
The ABC’s brilliant little gem Rosehaven is now no more. We’ve reviewed it in the (web)pages of The Blurb previously. But with the show now wrapped forever, it seems a fitting time to look back at this memorable work of local production. What began as “the little show that could” in 2016 has vaulted into…
Not to be confused with Barry Levinson’s 1994 erotic thriller of the same name, the provocative and intimate drama Disclosure looks at the darker side of suburban life in contemporary Australia. Two sets of parents gather together to discuss an incident involving their children, but things turn ugly as the impromptu meeting progresses. Natasha Bowman,…
Nicola West’s debut, Catch Us the Foxes set in a regional coastal town south of Sydney, is a strange, potentially potent brew of ideas. Never sure what it wants to be, it presents as a true crime memoir within a novel for reasons that only become obvious late in the piece. The memoir itself is…
– Buckley’s Chance – Only in cinemas from 24 June 2021 We have 10 double in-season passes thanks to Transmission Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE A year after the loss of his father, Ridley and his mother, Gloria, move to Western Australian to live with Ridley’s estranged grandfather Spencer. Once…
The main thing to say about Australian TV series, Wakefield, is that you just have to watch it. It really is that good. Unfortunately in the past, local shows have tended to stick to safe (read ‘boring’) formulaic material featuring cardboard cut-out doctors, nurses, lawyers or cops but in recent years some creativity has been…
Cassandra Austin’s debut All Fall Down was a sometimes dreamlike Australian gothic tale set in a rural country town. While it is at times a little more grounded, her latest book Like Mother, finds Austin in similar territory. An Australian country town in the late 1960s in the middle of a heatwave and a set…
– June Again – Only in cinemas from 6 May 2021 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to StudioCanal Australia. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE In the heartfelt dramedy JUNE AGAIN, a twist of fate gives family matriarch June (Noni Hazlehurst) a reprieve from an ongoing illness. Much to their…
– My Name is Gulpilil – Only in cinemas from 27 May 2021 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to ABCG Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE In what is very likely his final film, the great Australian actor David Gulpilil faces his own mortality: he is dying of lung…
