Luke Rogers, director of the new Australian play In Real Life, began a collaboration with writer Julian Larnach almost three years ago. In the program notes, Mr Rogers uses a quote from Sherry Turkle, a Professor of Science and Technology: ‘Technology doesn’t just do things for us. It does things to us, changing not just what we…
Death becomes her. That’s a rather facetious reference to what kicks off the key character’s journey in this dramatic sci-fi horror – a re-imagining of the 1990 film of the same name. Five medical students are obsessed by the mystery of what lies beyond the confines of life. They decide to undertake a daring and…
Heal the Living is a French art house drama with decidedly European sensibilities dealing with the touchy subject of organ donation. It is actually three stories in one, based on a novel by Maylis de Kerangal. Three young surfers leave before dawn on a pilgrimage to the raging sea. They are on their way back home when…
The Dancer is an unusual story about achievement, heartbreak and pain. This period film concerns a dancer who rewrote the rule book. Born in the American Midwest, nothing in her background destined farm girl Loïe Fuller (Soko) to become the toast of Europe’s Belle Epoque cabarets. But – hidden behind metres of silk, her arms…
In 1973, former Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs played women’s champion Billie Jean King in a spectacular tennis match – dubbed the Battle of the Sexes – at the Houston Astrodome. Riggs was also a serial tennis hustler, gambling addict and sexist braggart. It proved a landmark that ultimately had repercussions for the status of women’s tennis and…
Director Kriv Stenders (Red Dog, etc) seems like he is trying to set up a series of films centred around significant national holidays. In 2007, he gave us the powerful but bleak, grim drama Boxing Day which told the story of one man’s desperate struggle to try and reconcile his estranged family on this one…
Discomfort underpins Beatriz at Dinner, a fable about power, privilege and responsibility. At an elegant dinner party in a swanky hilltop home, conversation between a soft spoken holistic healer and a hard-nosed businessman and tycoon explodes into a bitter clash of cultures. Beatriz (Salma Hayek), a self-effacing and spiritual immigrant from Mexico, has spent her adult…
Exploitation and heartache are at the centre of Indivisible, a gritty story about attractive, singing 18-year-old conjoined twins. Connected at the hip, Daisy (Marianna Fontana) and Viola (Angela Fontana) are gifted. They have beautiful voices and often sing at local weddings, family functions and communions. Their father, a seedy, small-time businessman, has turned them into an…
In The Belko Experiment, the Belko of the title is a US non-profit organisation based in Bogota in Colombia. It works to facilitate American businesses wanting to operate in South America. One day though an unusually high level of security appears around the high-rise office building. As the employees go about their business, a wall…
Guess it wasn’t that simple to do this. Making a film that focuses solely on an American marine named Mike (Armie Hammer) who stepped on a landmine and who doesn’t dare to take any further steps. For 90 minutes, there’s nothing else to see than this soldier who has to wait 52 hours for a…
