A penniless wheeler and dealer gets in with the big boys and finds himself caught up way over his head. That, in a nutshell, is what the cleverly conceived and executed mind-bender Norman is all about. Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) lives a lonely life in the margins of New York City power and money. He is a would-be…
Based on a true story, the Australian courtroom drama Don’t Tell shares a common theme with the Oscar winning drama Spotlight. Both films deal with themes of sexual abuse, cover ups, abuse of power, truth, justice and the courage to fight against injustice. While Spotlight depicted the Boston Globe’s investigation into allegations of sexual abuse within…
An intense study of vulnerability, heartache, anger and loss, Shrine packs punch. Written by Tim Winton – the only author to have won the Miles Franklin Award four times – the play is directed by Marcel Dorney. 19-year-old Jack Mansfield (Christian Taylor) has died in an early morning car crash. He was in the vehicle with…
Pablo Neruda was the pen-name (and later legal name) of Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, who lived from July 12, 1904 to September 23, 1973. In 1971, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Lyrical, poetic and steeped in politics, Neruda is what I would term a “festival” film; one for purists. It’s…
A Boston-born Jew in Montreal and a Gaza-born Palestinian in Melbourne have just published the first English-language anthology worldwide in any genre of drama, prose or poetry by Jewish and Palestinian writers. The winner of Canada’s prestigious biennial 2017 Patrick O’Neill Award, Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas is edited by award-winning playwrights…
Doubt. A Parable, the play by John Patrick Shanley, won the Pulitzer prize and the Tony Award in 2005. All four of the actors were nominated for the Tony, too. The actors, Cherry Jones and Brian F. O’Bryne won. It was made into a film, directed by Mr Shanley, with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman,…
Energetic, powerful and haunting – such is Spring Awakening. This is a musical journey from adolescence to adulthood set in Germany in 1891. Teenagers struggle with the adversity of coming of age at a time when sexual education is deliberately ignored and adults appear to hold all the cards. The focus is on Wendla Bergmann (Jessie-Lou…
Guy Ritchie (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) puts his own take – a gritty, modern edge – to the classic Excalibur myth and the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Arthur is not yet king, instead a ruffian, a thoroughly reluctant hero compelled to discover…
John Wick, the ultra-violent 2014 action flick that starred Keanu Reeves as a cool, taciturn, ruthlessly efficient and seemingly invincible assassin, was something of a guilty pleasure and a surprise hit at the box office. So now we get this sequel, which once again takes us into this shadowy world of assassins and their strange…
The contrast between the haves and have-nots is starkly evident in The Viceroy’s House, a historical drama based on fact. When the English wanted out of India, the country was deeply divided along religious and cultural lines. Indians were literally killing each other and the man tasked with orchestrating a smooth handover was the highly regarded Louis…
