Five Troll brothers were once part of a successful boy band, BroZone, but that came to an inglorious end. Now, all these years later, getting the group together again is the only way out for one of the guys, who has been kidnapped by imposters. That, in short, is the plot to Trolls Band Together;…
Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge has never seen the likes of it. Take the classic tale A Christmas Carol and put a Jewish twist on it. That is what writer Elise Esther Hearst has done with Phillip Kavanagh … and they have absolutely nailed this world premiere. Oy Humbug! Channel Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) on the US TV series…
Freelance is a disposable action-comedy from French filmmaker Pierre Morel, best known for putting Liam Neeson through his paces in the thriller Taken in 2008. Freelance stars former wrestler turned actor John Cena as Mason Pettits, a former special forces operative who left the military after a mission in the fictitious South American country of…
Social media is a language. Those you speak it will appreciate the authenticity of the early scenes of Lewis Treston’s IRL, which sees 17-year-old Alexei (Will Bartolo), back and forthing in messenger conversation with his closeted internet crush Thaddeus (Byron Lankester Howells), complete with the awkwardness and overthinking insecurity the manifests itself in any such…
This exhilarating hip-hop musical from Queensland Theatre is a huge crowd-pleaser, ending the year of productions on a high note. Set immediately post-Vietnam predominantly in a refugee camp in Arkansas, U.S.A., with flashbacks to Saigon, Vietgone is written by Qui Nguyen (who’s since gone on to write for Disney animation projects since penning this in…
Where did it all go so wrong? After several era-defining movies, the Marvel franchise seems to be sputtering. Judging by the ill-conceived and frankly illogical The Marvels, it seems to have run out of ideas for these characters. The Marvels draws together Captain Marvel (2019), the Disney + mini-series Ms Marvel and a few scattered…
Imagine if Shakespeare wrote the cult favourite movie Ghostbusters. Same inherent storyline – fighting poltergeists in New York City – but what would it have sounded and looked like if the dialogue had been written by the Bard? Well, wonder no more, because if you visit The Motley Bauhaus in Carlton you can get to…
Inspired by the 2009 Dutch horror film The Human Centipede, Synergy Production Co. has given us a musical parody featuring the same characters. Like the movie, it concerns a deranged German surgeon – Dr Heiter – who kidnaps three tourists and conjoins them surgically, mouth to anus … I kid you not. Dr Heiter is renowned for…
A Dodgeball Named Desire is a clever, creative and involving hoot, contrasting the literary with the sporting. It is a decidedly fresh take on A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. First performed on Broadway in December 1947, that is the story of former Southern belle Blanche DuBois, whose personal circumstances have changed for the worse. An…
Toys run amok, killing and maiming, in director Emma Tammi’s Five Nights at Freddy’s. Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is a troubled soul. A shopping centre security guard, his massively aggressive treatment of the father of a young son sees him fired and looking for a new job. At that stage, we – the audience – don’t…
