A family is traumatised by the tragic death of a child in Vaughn Stein’s Every Breath You Take. Philip (Casey Affleck) is a psychiatrist and lecturer, his wife Grace (Michelle Monaghan) a real estate agent. They have a young son, Evan (Brenden Sunderland) and he has a senior school age daughter, Lucy (India Eisley) –…
Four disparate individuals enter a twilight zone. No, that’s not the starting point for a gag. In fact, far from it. Rather, it is the beginning of what could turn out to be a long journey back. Each of the quartet – strangers to one another – has attempted to take their own life by different methods…
Like the recent Judy (about the tragic Judy Garland), The United States vs Billie Holiday is a biopic featuring a talented but self-destructive singer who shone briefly and died too early. This film follows many of the familiar tropes of this rich sub-genre. The product of a turbulent childhood Billie Holiday was a jazz singer…
Brutality, cynicism and tongue-in-cheek humour mark Mortal Kombat – a video game franchise turned big screen fight night. The story thread begins with an ancient fight to the death. It is 1617 in Japan. A warrior and father of two carries a tattoo of a dragon. He confronts an opponent who can literally freeze people…
In Harry Macqueen’s Supernova, Sam (Colin Firth) is a classical pianist, and his partner Tusker (Stanley Tucci) is a writer. Now middle-aged, the couple have been together for decades. They know how to press each other’s buttons, but are still very much in love. One day they decide to dust off the old camper van…
Power and control shift constantly in the drama The Cane, which is set in England. On the verge of retirement after 45 years in the job, Edward (Dion Mills) is a deputy school head. It is Sunday and his wife, Maureen (Caroline Lee) – who also used to be a teacher – has been busily preparing for his…
It is the 1980s. King Hamlet has died suddenly. A month later, his sister – Claudia – is crowned monarch and the divided kingdom of Elsinore is in upheaval. That is the contention in an immersive theatrical experience at Malthouse Theatre, which draws inspiration from Shakespeare’s explosive Hamlet. We – the audience – are theatrically masked…
If you want to see basically every space-movie trope collected in one neat package, Neil Burger’s highly derivative Voyagers could be it. This outwardly beautiful but shallow film tries hard, but ultimately falls short. The obvious starting point – as it often tends to be – is Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey. From…
Amanda Muggleton has the room in the palms of her hands as she assumes the role of actress and femme fatale Coral Browne (23rd July, 1913 – 29th May, 1991), who won the 1984 TV BAFTA for An Englishman Abroad. At just over an hour, this one person play, written by Maureen Sherlock, is the story…
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is front and centre in a searing and poignant new play from Walkley Award-winning ABC journalist and author Sally Sara. Semi-autobiographical, the world premiere of Stop Girl starts in 2011 when Suzie (Sheridan Harbridge) is in the final weeks of reporting from the Afghan capital, Kabul. There to catch up with her…
