Mortido by Angela Betzien is a new Australian play co-commissioned by Belvoir and Playwriting Australia and presented as a co-production by the State Theatre of South Australian and Belvoir. Mortido begins with a storytelling by Detective Grubbe, of a Mexican fable about a Madre – a mother, The Boy – her son, and an Old…
Set in the aftermath of WWII, Phoenix is a slow burn noir-like psychological thriller about identity, survival, obsesion and betrayal. It bears some similarity to the Hitchcock classic Vertigo as well as Brian De Palma’s Obsession. Disfigured Jewish concentration camp survivor Nelly Lanz (Nina Hoss, recently seen in A Most Wanted Man) has undergone plastic…
A couple of powerhouse performances are at the heart of this drama about a pair of gamblers, one of whom lays it all on the line. Mississippi Grind was inspired by films from the ‘70s such as Five Easy Pieces, Scarecrow, The Last Detail, California Split and Midnight Cowboy. The movie is about flawed characters…
The early-20th Century struggle for women’s suffrage in Britain is given earnest, if somewhat pedestrian, treatment by director Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) in Suffragette. The film ticks a lot of boxes, but never quite elevates itself beyond many other solid British period dramas. The film’s release hasn’t been particularly well-timed. With the aftermath of the…
An elegant and enigmatic drama, Youth focuses upon holidaymakers at a beautiful establishment at the foot of the Swiss Alps and two of them in particular. Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) and Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) are two very old friends. Fred, a composer and conductor, is now retired. He’s been coming to the same place…
To think that equal rights are still being fought for in the 21st century makes me sick. That was my mindset while watching this moving drama based upon a true story. Julianne Moore stars as Laurel Hester, a 20-plus year veteran of the New Jersey Police Department, highly regarded by all and as good a…
The patience of Job would be a great asset when setting out to watch this slow moving martial arts film with a young female protagonist. Set in 9th century China (towards the end of the Tang Dynasty), Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi), a general’s daughter, is abducted by a nun who initiates her into the art…
It was inevitable that the runaway success of The Blacklist would spawn imitators. No doubt the attraction of having a ready-made “list” of episodes provided a “lightbulb moment” for many a producer. But where we never get to actually see Raymond Reddington’s “blacklist”, in Blindspot, the clues are literally laid out for you. In the…
Blood Bank is a new Australian play by a new writer Christopher Harley, at the Ensemble Theatre. It was part of the Ensemble Stages 2013 Spring Reading. It is set in the waiting room of a blood bank. Michael is waiting to donate blood to his very ill twin brother Justin, both played, well, by…
Gustave Flaubert’s 1865 brooding and bittersweet tragedy about a 19th century self destructive woman and her tragic fall from grace has been filmed many times. There was even a recent contemporary take on the character with the recent French film Gemma Bovary. And Woody Allen used Flaubert’s famous character as the template for his Blue…
