After a three-year break, David Fincher is back with a very un-Fincher-like film with The Killer. This finely crafted film sees the director subverting just about every convention of the hitman sub-genre in a way I found both inventive and a little perplexing at the same time. Fincher is of course known for the directorial…
A moving depiction of the early days of colonialism and its impacts on the First Peoples, The Visitors is set on a day the mercury reaches 44 degrees. We meet six Aboriginal Elders and a young indigenous woman, who gather on the shores of Warrane (Sydney Cove) on 26th January, 1788. The 11 ships of the First…
The powerful Australian produced and shot drama Shayda is set in suburban Australia in 1995 but has contemporary resonance as it deals with some important themes. It centres around Shayda (Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi) who is married to Hossein (Osama Sami) who has moved to Australia to study medicine and become a doctor. He…
Martin Scorsese’s new film Killers of the Flower Moon is a Western crime drama set in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Based on fact, it looks at the serial murder of native Americans living on oil-rich land. After arriving home from WWI, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), moves in with his wealthy cattle rancher uncle, William King…
What an uplifting experience Hour of the Wolf is. It is 65 minutes of intriguing, immersive theatre that sees 12 characters interacting across a dozen rooms, arranged as a labyrinth within the Merlyn Theatre and dock. Patrons can choose to wander from room to room at will, follow one or more performers, or a combination thereof. We…
Identity and family are the key ingredients in the incendiary world premiere comedic drama Flake, written by Dan Lee and co-created by Chi Nguyen. With fine direction from Ella Caldwell, the cast does a mighty job bringing to life the story of two 68-year-old Aussie mates and a young Vietnamese woman. Surly and sickly, Bob (Robert…
A gravely dysfunctional family is dealing with the matriarch suffering from dementia in the drama Broken River. When she is lucid, Linda Cookson (Virginia Morris) remains seething with anger over her husband, who left her for another woman decades earlier. She is also deeply suspicious of her two children and daughter-in-law Lily Johnson (Tracey Hamilton), who she…
In Olivier Peyon’s Lie With Me, noted author Stephane Belcourt (Guillaume de Tonquédec) returns to his childhood hometown in the Cognac-producing region of south-west France after a 35-year absence and faces some of the ghosts of his past. He has been invited to be the guest speaker and brand ambassador for the town’s signature cognac…
When depressed, we are urged to remember that things get better for there are many brilliant things about the world… at least a million according to our unnamed narrator’s hopeful list. It his list of these that is the central premise of Every Brilliant Thing … a list of everything worth living for, first compiled…
How unexpectedly and thrillingly different – a bold and unique theatrical offering from the UK, which makes its international debut at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Think WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) crossed with Norse mythology in a story that melds passion and pain with humour and bravado. Mythos: Ragnarok features professional wrestlers – gigantic men and fearsome…
