The fifth cycle of Marvel Cinematic Universe films kicks off with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. In the hands of director Peyton Reed (who directed the previous two Ant-Man films), this feels like something of a throwback. While nodding to the MCU’s current multiverse mania, Reed delivers an action film steeped in nostalgia. The only…
The European co-production Corage is an unconventional biopic looking at the (largely fictional) last year in the life of Empress Elizabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps). Elizabeth is married to Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister), but she feels like she is merely an appendage. Given no real power, her duties are considered merely ceremonial. It is…
Even though this is a work of fiction (termed “an act of female imagination”), the starting point for Women Talking was a recent real-life event in Bolivia. Between 2005 and 2009, more than 100 girls and women in a remote Mennonite colony discovered they had been raped in their sleep. A group of men from…
The play starts with a heartfelt warning from one of the characters that only tragedy puts you on the map. A plea to save ourselves as it is too late for her rings out. Hence begins the tale of an unremarkable mining town in Tasmania beset by evil. It is called Bluewater and after a chequered history it…
Showmanship, humour, pathos, anger, overt messaging and song are part of this well-meaning but noticeably stretched offering. At its core is a gay man, Cole (Stephen Loftus), now comfortable in his own skin, although it wasn’t always that way. He talks about his school years and coming out to his parents. And then, after Cole references a mentor…
‘What are the things I know to be true?’, a naïve and broken-hearted 19-year-old Rosie Price (Eleni Koutsoukis) wonders after an ill-fated encounter hiccups her great European adventure, forcing her to return home to her family in Adelaide. Why wouldn’t she return when her family is the best thing since sliced bread? As we are…
As the title suggests, the outcome of Spoiler Alert is obvious at the start of the film. The film charts a 13-year love story between two guys. Michael Ausiello (Jim Parsons) is a sensitive journalist who writes about TV shows. As a child, he dreamed about a sitcom with him at the centre and his…
Jonathan Larson wrote the smash hit Broadway musical Rent. How he got there involved pain and persistence. That’s the subject of tick, tick … Boom! Living in New York, Jon (Hugh Sheridan) dreams of being a Broadway musical writer. His creativity is recognised by his close and loyal friends, but he is on the cusp of 30…
Wittenoom, the former town and declared contaminated site in the Pilbara region of Western Australia was, in short, a death trap. During the 1950s and early ‘60s, it was Australia’s only supplier of deadly blue asbestos. The mine was shut down in 1966. Wittenoom, the play – a work of fiction – uncovers just how toxic an…
The story made world news. On 15 May 2010, 16-year-old Jessica Watson became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop and unassisted. It was just her, a 10-metre-long boat named Ella’s Pink Lady and the elements. In the Netflix movie True Spirit, Teagan Croft plays Watson. Her mentor is a Ben Bryant (Cliff…
