Accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment for mental illness should be a given, but as history shows, often that’s not the case. In Asylum, two involuntarily institutionalised patients are put through the wringer by an overly officious (read: downright brutish) doctor. One is a young man, Ben (Steven Oktaras), who believes he is dead. Most of all, he…
The well-being of a brilliant seven year-old is on the line in the feel-good weepy Gifted. Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is a single man raising his spirited young niece Mary (Mckenna Grace) in a coastal town in Florida. Though Mary is a child prodigy, Frank’s intends that she lead a normal life. His aim is thwarted…
A compelling doomsday scenario underpins the dystopian drama, The Way Out. Mankind is hanging by a thread after a civil war 15 years earlier. The air is polluted. Facemasks are mandatory for survival outdoors. Unless sanctioned, travel is banned outside one’s “zone”. All clothing is synthetic. Food is of a low quality and in short supply, while much…
Well meaning, but heavy handed, All Saints tells the true story of a church at the edge of extinction. After trading in his corporate career to become a preacher, Michael Spurlock (John Corbett) finds his first assignment is a quaint country church with only a dozen members. The job comes with a catch: he has to close the…
An emissary from a New York publishing house (Giuseppe Rotondella) is dispatched to Switzerland to convince reclusive crime novelist Patricia Highsmith (Jenny Davis) of The Talented Mr. Ripley fame to sign a new contract. A bold move to stage a two-hander at an hour forty five minutes with no intermission in the Heath Ledger. The…
The Winter’s Tale: a fitting production to put on in this mild weather, it would seem. This is one work by Shakespeare I hadn’t seen before and am now quite happy to add it to my memory’s library. The play was performed by the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble and directed by Michelle Miall. This tight knit…
“A broken bird and a scarecrow. An artist and a fish-peddler. A mismatched pair. Two souls existing on the fringes of society who find one another and change each other in the course of their lives together.” So says director Aisling Walsh (The Daisy Chain) about the two outsiders who form the nucleus of Maudie….
Killing Ground is part of a long tradition of Australian cinema, which delves into our sense of unease in our own backyard. When young urbanites Ian (Ian Meadows) and Sam (Tiarnie Coupland) go camping, they arrive at their isolated destination to discover a tent already set up, but no sign of its owners. With the other campers at…
Intense and compelling, The King’s Choice is a historical drama is based around Norway’s entry into World War II. Inspired by a book of the same name by Alf R. Jacobsen, it concerns three dramatic days in April 1940. The King of Norway is presented with a monstrous ultimatum from Nazi Germany: surrender or die….
If you’re scared of sharks, 47 Metres Down isn’t the film for you. It isn’t Jaws, but cut from the same cloth … the same well of fear. Two sisters are holidaying together in Mexico. The conservative elder sibling, Lisa (Mandy Moore), has been dumped by her boyfriend. Devastated and hurting, Lisa fails to tell her sibling, Kate…
