A slow-moving, intense jigsaw puzzle, a mood of unease permeates nearly every scene in UNA. Based on David Harrower’s Olivier Award-winning one-act play Blackbird, the film follows a young woman’s journey to reclaim her past. Fifteen years ago, 13-year-old Una ran away with and had sex with an older man, Ray – a crime for which…
If you can follow the intricate (at times maddening) plot in Transformers: The Last Knight then “You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din!”. At least that is until Anthony Hopkins’ character pulls together the threads well into the film. It is the fifth film in the series, following on from 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction. …
All Eyez on Me chronicles the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, including his rise to superstardom as well as his imprisonment and controversial time at Death Row Records. The film’s title comes from his double album, “All Eyez on Me”. Tupac Shakur (Demetrius Shipp Jr.) was raised in the Bronx by his outspoken mother Afeni (Danai…
Sarah Ruhl is an American writer and Sydney has seen In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (2009) and her adaption of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (2003), both for the Sydney Theatre Company (STC). The Clean House introduces us to a household belonging to a married couple Lane (Mary-Anne Halpin) and Charles (James Bean), both successful doctors….
If you find period ghost stories appealing and are a fan of Charles Dickens, I may have just the ticket for you. British writer Hugh Janes has combined five of Dickens’ lesser-known ghost stories with elements of the author’s private life, his books and letters to create The Haunting. The action is set in an ancient…
Between 1915 and 1923, the Ottoman Empire murdered some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children in a systematic policy of genocide aimed at wiping out the entire population. It has been recognised as one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. But when the history of WWI is written, this horrific episode is…
A series of vignettes about what it is like being disabled and chronically ill, and the judgments others make, Have You Tried Yoga? is both illuminating and engaging. The star of the piece is also the creator and director, Rachel Edmonds; who makes her professional theatrical debut. Edmonds radiates warmth with her matter-of-fact style of storytelling….
The novels of British author Daphne du Maurier have provided a great source of material for filmmakers with their deft mix of intrigue, mystery, murder, mistrust and romance. Alfred Hitchcock captured the gothic atmosphere of her novel Rebecca, while he brought a sense of unease and menace to his adaptation of The Birds, a tale…
Churchill is a fascinating portrait of a man of high intellect who was facing a fight on two fronts in the final months of the Second World War. On the one hand there were the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men whose lives he was about to put on the line and then there…
Slow moving, intelligent and thought-provoking, Graduation is a slice-of-life piece tackles fear, honesty and morality. Forty-nine year-old Romeo Aldea (Adrian Titieni), a physician living in a small mountain town in Transylvania, has raised his daughter, Eliza (Maria Dragus), with the idea that once she turns 18, she will leave home to study and live abroad. His…
