Ben Elton is back to bring us Three Summers, an ensemble comedy that embraces the diversity of modern Australia. At a summer music festival – “Westival” – the feisty lead singer of an Irish folk band (Rebecca Breeds) meets a folk-music-hating Theremin player (Robert Sheehan) and sparks literally fly. Characters surrounding this awkward romance include a…
A brilliantly re-imagined musical is on offer in The Production Company’s Brigadoon. Lerner and Loewe’s original opened on Broadway in 1947 and in the West End in 1949, before making its Australian debut in 1951. However, many will recall the 1954 film version, which starred Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Cyd Charisse. It was nominated…
Brigsby Bear deals with themes of family, friendship, the loss of innocence, love, the indelible impact of pop culture, nostalgia, and the power of movies to heal and transform. This inventive and quirky independent film comes from debut feature filmmaker Dave McCary (better known as a writer on SNL), James (Kyle Mooney) has led a…
The Australian premiere of actor Andy Serkis’ directorial debut, Breathe will open the 2017 Cunard British Film Festival. Coming straight from opening the 61st BFI London Film Festival, the film stars Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge) and Claire Foy (The Crown), in the inspiring true story of a couple who refuse to give up in the face…
Sally Robbins and Steven Bradbury featured in two of the most notorious moments in Australian Olympic history. Robbins is known as “Lay Down Sally” because she gave up and lay back in her boat 250 metres from the finishing line during the women’s eights’ final at the Athens Summer Games in 2004. She was reviled for…
“You call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye” – Glenn Frey & Don Henley. Those lyrics from the Eagles song “The Last Resort” floated across my consciousness during a bravura sequence in this show where Chris Isaacs’s character describes the sights of an unexpected road detour in Bali. I won’t spoil the impact by providing further…
Between them, the husband and wife team of writer/director Nancy Meyers and director/producer Charles Shyer produced many of the popular but formulaic romantic comedies of the 80s and 90s Films like Baby Boom, the remake of Father of the Bride, and The Intern – many of which starred Diane Keaton. Now their daughter Hallie Meyers-Shyer…
Beauty may only be skin deep, but not according to the ethos of the four fine looking gentlemen who constitute the GLEAM (Good Looking and Aesthetics Movement) team. Their mantra is that you have to look good to feel good and vice versa. The shallow bunch featured in Beautiful Things: A Really Good Looking Musical consists of a…
A decidedly offbeat love story between two troubled individuals, What If It Works? is a heap of fun. It’s the first feature film for writer, director and co-producer Romi Trower. Adrian (Luke Ford), an irrepressibly chirpy tech nerd, suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder … and how. He walks around wearing trousers that aren’t quite long enough…
Groundhog Day gets a killer twist in Happy Death Day. In this clever teen horror film pays tribute to the slasher films of the 80s, a college student is brutally murdered, but gets to relive that day repeatedly until she can uncover the identity of her killer. Tree Gelman (played by Jessica Rothe) is a…
