Trustees is an obscure work that’s bound to polarise audiences. It’s also bold, audacious and evocative. I’m not convinced I made sense of it all. When the 90-minute play starts, five actors appear on stage One is a moderator, and the other four are on either side of a debate hosted by a (fictitious) body…
The new tween adventure Harmony is another walk down the dark side of fantasy. Harmony (Jessica Falkholt) is different … very different. She has the supernatural power to absorb others’ fear. Each person she touches literally loses their trepidation. She absorbs it as a black liquid that she later washes from her skin. So, healing…
Friends and family gather for a weekend in the countryside in Michael Mayer’s version of Chekhov’s The Seagull. While everyone is caught up in passionately loving someone who loves somebody else, a tragicomedy unfolds about the eternal desire to live a purposeful life. Sorin (Brian Dennehy), a retired government employee, and his sister Irina (Annette…
Plays like The Architect are why I gained an appreciation of theatre. Because it has the ability to move you … to feel deep-seated emotion. Helen (Linda Cropper) is a no-nonsense woman in her late 60s. She is dying. She lives in Victoria and is in a 10-year relationship with a doting partner, John Stafford…
How not to plan and execute a heist. Four totally clueless amateurs get involved in something they should never have attempted in American Animals. Frighteningly, it’s based on relatively recent reality. The story centres around unpredictable wild child Warren (Evan Peters) and aspiring artist Spencer (Barry Keoghan), two friends from the middle-class suburbs of Lexington,…
You know what’s fun sometimes? Haphazardly starting a film without knowing what it is about and afterwards admitting you were pleasantly surprised. That’s my experience with Don’t Hang Up. A film with a bit of suspense and tension. And thanks to the short playing time you don’t have the feeling it was a waste of…
This low budget drama is the sophomore feature film from Australian writer/director Benjamin Gilmour, and follows his 2007 drama Son of a Lion, set in post 9/11 Pakistan. Gilmour is familiar with the region and has chosen to set his new film in Afghanistan. Jirga deals with an Australian soldier who returns to the region…
Custody is built on fear – the fear inspired by a man prepared to do anything to get back a woman who wants nothing to do with him in a bid to escape his violent behaviour. Miriam (Léa Drucker) and Antoine (Denis Ménochet) Besson have divorced. Antoine is seen as a permanent threat to those…
Set during the last great Ice Age in Europe some 20,000 years ago, Alpha is an epic adventure. This brutal tale of survival in a harsh wilderness is a bit like a prehistoric version of The Revenant. It’s also something of a coming of age tale as it follows a teen’s journey to manhood. There…
Joaquin Phoenix is ideally suited to fill the role of an inveterate drinker who pays a horrendous price for his addiction, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. Phoenix frequently tackles more obtuse material and appears to revel in it. The last day slacker John Callahan (Phoenix), who lives in the US city of…
