David Leveaux’s The Exception cleverly melds historical fact and smart fiction. This WWII spy thriller turned romantic drama showcases some fine talent, though none more so that the irrepressible Christopher Plummer. Experienced TV writer Simon Burke produced the screenplay, adapted from Alan Judd’s novel, The Kaiser’s Last Kiss. Leveaux himself is a renowned theatre director,…
While it mightn’t be 28 Days Later, Cargo is an Australian zombie film with bite. It’s a survival story with a difference. Andy (Martin Freeman) and Kay (Suzie Porter) are holed up on a houseboat with their one-year-old daughter Rosie, but are fast running out of food. Something is keeping Andy from going ashore. All…
Love in the slaughterhouse? On Body and Soul is a quirky drama about an unlikely romance between two lonely employees in a Budapest abattoir. The film won the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival; but it’s an art-house film that will have limited interest to a broader audience. Endre (Géza Morcsányi) is the…
The MTC’s Wild is an example of a play in which technological achievement outdoes narrative content. To say any more about the former would be to spoil the surprise and I’m not about to be a party pooper. Andrew (Nicholas Denton) is an ordinary Joe one day – and America’s most wanted the next. The…
On the night of 18 July 1969, a car driven by the last remaining scion of the famous Kennedy family careened off a bridge on Chappaquiddick, a small island just off Martha’s Vineyard. The political cost to Senator Ted Kennedy was great, but nothing like the devastation suffered by the family of Mary Jo Kopechne,…
– Hereditary – Only in cinemas from 7 June 2018 We have 5 double in-season passes thanks to StudioCanal. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they…
At the risk of offending true believers, this is a church movie. It pivots around forgiveness. To the best of my knowledge, it was largely, if not entirely, funded from church resources. I dare say its key audience will be those of the faith, and ex-pat New Zealanders (it was made there, and is set…
A crucible is a vessel in which substances are heated to high temperatures; when impure elements are melted away, only the pure parts remain. Metaphorically speaking, it therefore represents the perfect titular description for American playwright Arthur Miller’s award-winning classic The Crucible, a play which was itself written as an extended metaphor of the hysteria…
Imagine if we lived in but one version of the world and there were other incarnations. What would be the benefits and the dangers? That mind-bending contention is at the heart of the low budget Australian sci-fi drama, The Gateway. Physicist and researcher Jane Chandler (Jacqueline McKenzie) is happily married to writer, Matt (Myles Pollard)….
Breath is a haunting and elegiac coming-of-age tale. Set on the wind-swept coast of Western Australia in the 70s, it centres on two 14-year old surf rats. Bruce Pike – aka Pikelet – (Samuel Coulter) and Ivan Loon – aka Loonie – (Ben Spence) are best friends. Pike is a good boy from a respectable…
