Jasper Jones isn’t your typical drama. It’s presented by Queensland Theatre as a restaging of the Melbourne Theatre Company production and based on the smash hit novel by Craig Silvey. This rollercoaster of a plot – which brings to life the stories of a sleepy 1960’s town, Corrigin – packs a veritable punch. While I…
If you’ve ever wondered how important the ABC is to Australia, watch Mystery Road. Forget about all the political posturing. Just take in how vibrantly this institution depicts and represents our country. This network has recently given us Rosehaven (set in Tasmania) and Harrow (set in Brisbane); and now Mystery Road takes us to remote Western…
Denzel Washington has certainly starred in his fair share of remakes; with Man on Fire, The Manchurian Candidate, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 and The Magnificent Seven to name a few. But in his storied career he’s never appeared in a sequel – until now. The Equalizer 2 is, of course, a follow-up to his…
Sicario is a Spanish word used to describe the hitmen associated with Mexican drug cartels. Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario (2015) was a gripping action crime drama set on the border between the US and Mexico. The sequel, Day of the Soldado, doesn’t disappoint. The film is propelled by two antihero protagonists who venture deep into the…
Last year we had the all-female remake/reboot of the 80s cult comedy Ghostbusters, which opened to lacklustre reviews and box office returns. And now we get this all-female reboot of the comic crime caper Ocean’s Eleven. The original Ocean’s Eleven was basically an excuse for Frank Sinatra and his “rat pack” pals to hang around…
Fortunately, Alexander Skarsgård isn’t by nature a voiceless person. It would have been a strange sight in The Legend of Tarzan. In Mute he’s such a person; with no sound leaving his mouth. And that because of a painful confrontation with the propeller of a motorboat (I suppose). What remains is a guy with the…
Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He only stopped after being captured and put in prison. My Friend Dahmer is the story before that story. Dahmer (Ross Lynch) is an awkward teenager who collects road kill. Young Jeffrey puts these “finds” in bottles filled with acid to dissolve the skin…
Harold is in for a few very bad days – and things aren’t likely to get better any time soon. Nash Edgerton directs his brother Joel in in Gringo. This over-the-top comedic crime caper has more twists and turns than a rollercoaster. Mild-mannered pharmaceutical company executive Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo) has never questioned his boss’s…
The ABC has a (deserved) reputation as a standard-bearer for Australian television production. Aunty’s latest crime drama, Harrow, does nothing to harm that. Okay, it might not have the fun of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries or the grit of Jack Irish; but this is a solid drama with enough intrigue to keep you coming back….
Dark and brooding, Bereft by Chris Womersley was my introduction to a writer I met briefly in the Green Room at the Perth Festival Writers Week wrap up. Aptly dubbed ‘Australian gothic’, this tale of a boy who flees his home town after being accused of murdering his sister, returning years later without really knowing…
