A tension-filled head scratcher, unease is apparent from the get-go in Far Away. A young girl, Joan (played by Noray Hosny, who alternates in the role with Darcy Sterling-Cox), is spending the night at her aunt Harper’s (Alison Whyte) place. It is the wee small hours and both are still up. Joan tells Harper she heard shrieking. Her…
Symbolic contrasts abound within The Curators’ stylish production of Angela Betzien’s Children of the Black Skirt, starting from its initial folly of youthful frolic and then soon-after stark at-attention responses of children in-fear. This establishes both the aesthetic sophistication and the narrative premise of the now-iconic work which is set in an abandoned orphanage that…
The genius, the arrogance and the madness of Spanish artist Salvador Dali (played by Ben Kingsley) is front and centre in Daliland. Mary Harron’s (American Psycho) film presents a picture of a 70-year-old man obsessed with sexual creativity, but who doesn’t actually have sex. Dali deeply loves his volatile wife, Gala (Barbara Sukowa), who controls…
The Tokyo Ballet’s romantic, tragic and haunting Giselle is spectacular. It looks and sounds magnificent. It is the story of a charming and naïve peasant girl with a weak heart, who attracts the attention of a woodsman, Hilarian and a count in disguise, Albrecht. Giselle falls for the latter, but humiliated, the former vows revenge. That comes when…
Love and friendship are tested in the comedic drama This is Living. Hugh (Marcus McKenzie) and his partner Will (Wil King), both in their 30s, are taking a short break to Hepburn Springs to see in the New Year. It was costume designer Hugh’s idea and Will, who works in a theatre restaurant, couldn’t talk him out…
It is the summer of 1967 and the Vietnam War remains troubling. Young Australians are being drafted to serve. Back home, life continues. Tom (Rupert Bevan) and Meg (Cait Spiker) are in a high school production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Tom takes a fancy to Meg and engages her in awkward conversation. When their respective parents…
Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell began the Insidious franchise in 2010. The first Insidious featured Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert, Rose Byrne as his wife Renai, Ty Simpkins as their son Dalton and Lin Shaye as the medium Elise Rainier. It concerned a family looking to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose…
Loneliness. Pain. Emotional connection. Desire. Sexual kinks. Consent. That is US writer Clare Barron’s Shhhh, which has its Australian premiere at Red Stitch Theatre. Bold, confronting and, on occasions, perplexing, it is a play that concerns itself with sexual assault, rape culture, mental and physical wellbeing, and the sisterhood. Playwright Shareen (Jessica Clarke), who suffers from a…
An indigenous lad (Aswan Reid) reshapes the lives of those living at a remote monastery in 1940s Australia in Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy. The outback facility serves as a mission for Aboriginal children. It’s run by a feisty, renegade nun, Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett). At the time only men could operate missions. But the…
It would be easy to dismiss this charming crowd-pleasing little film as a Gallic variation of the Oscar winning Driving Miss Daisy. But this French drama, which screened during the recent Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, is so much more. Madeleine Keller (played by veteran singer and actress Line Renaud, recently seen in Call My…
