Adapted from a 2012 graphic novel by Joff Winterhart, Days of the Bagnold Summer is a gently funny coming-of-age story. Sue Bagnold (Monica Doland) is a 52-year-old English librarian. She’s raising her son Daniel (Earl Cave) alone. Daniel, 15, is on school holidays and looking forward to travelling to the US to spend time with…
Director Cesc Gay adapts his own play in The People Upstairs, a dry comedy whose dialogue-heavy approach sublimely reveals shifting relationship dynamics. The film takes place entirely in a modern, slick apartment occupied by long-time couple Ana (Griselda Siciliani) and Julio (Javier Cámara). After 15 years, their relationship has grown stale which manifests itself with…
Comedy movies are hard work. Time travel movies are even harder. So combining the two is a big ask. But Australian actor turned director Josh Lawson does a good job with the time-travelling rom-com Long Story Short. This agreeable film zips along – literally – to a crowd pleasing conclusion. The film’s clever title tells…
As I see it, Single Ladies is a variant of a shaggy dog story … in more ways than one. This world premiere production marks the return in this COVID-19 era of Red Stitch Theatre. Set in the inner city Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, three disparate women with issues connect over a missing pooch. Lilike (Caroline Lee)…
We have all had to wait a long time, but surprise, surprise, a new play from William Shakespeare is being performed at Sydney’s Genesian Theatre. A manuscript from the greatest English playwright of all time has been unearthed from a carpark in Leicester and acts as a prequel to many of his famous lifetime literary works….
In this low key Danish/Italian co-production, shot largely in Italy, three women in their sixties rediscover love and the joy of life. The Food Club (aka Madklubben) is a gentle film about friendship, getting old, getting to rediscover yourself and the joys of life, sex and good food. Friends since adolescence, Marie, Vanya and Berling…
Earwig and the Witch continues Studio Ghibli’s well-deserved reputation for excellence for its vivid and creative animated features. Dumped at a country orphanage as a baby, Earwig (the voice of Taylor Henderson) is the child of an English rocker with flaming red hair, who also happens to be a witch. That witch claims she’s being…
A cheeky gangster flick with attitude, Pixie is a bloody delight … and I do mean that literally. As the body count mounts, the star of the show, Pixie O’Brien (Olivia Cooke), bats her eyelids and schemes away. Pixie is the adopted daughter of a gangster who fell out with a bunch of gun-toting priests,…
The dictionary definition of the term “bodice ripper” is: “a novel, on a historical subject, that involves some sex and violence”. Well, now the television equivalent is ripping its way into your lounge room in the form of Netflix’s hit series Bridgerton. Think Emma meets Gossip Girl and you’ve got a pretty good idea where…
While the translation of films for the stage has become routine, screen-to-stage musicals can be troublesome, especially when the source material is not a musical in and of itself. In the case of Shrek The Musical, however, the stage show has everything that made the movie fun and then some. Through David Lindsay-Abaire’s book and…
