They came up with the following slogans for Hereditary: “The scariest film ever” and “A highlight in horror in the last 50 years”. Well, I wonder what they would say about Ghostland? I won’t say this is the most masterful horror of all time. And no, it’s not as frightening as The Exorcist. That one…
Where Hands Touch sheds light on how Germans treated bi-racial people during WWII. The Nazis contempt for Jews is well known (and again features in this film) but the focus is on a bi-racial teen and her increasing victimisation. It’s 1944. In the Rhineland, Lenya (Amandla Stenberg) is coming of age. She’s the teenage daughter…
Many of us will remember the television science program hosted by Professor Julius Sumner Miller in which he always famously asked “Why is it so?” This question is an underlying theme in Once in Royal David’s City. Playwright Michael Gow uses his central character Will Drummond (Francisco Lopez) to search for the meaning of life;…
Jordan Peele’s (Get Out) latest horror-thriller, Us, explores the concept of evil doppelgängers. Peele writes, directs and co-produces. He’s played on his fear of look-alikes. Lupita Nyong’o is Adelaide Wilson, a woman returning to her childhood home. She’s bringing her husband, Gabe (Winston Duke), and their two children, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan…
In 2014’s The Fault in Our Stars, two teenage cancer patients fell in love. Five Feet Apart focuses on the challenges faced by two besotted teens with cystic fibrosis. They’re forbidden from touching one another … and definitely can’t kiss. Haley Lu Richardson (The Edge of Seventeen) and Cole Sprouse (Riverdale) bring to life Stella…
Regularly I’m asked to watch a low-budget film and to give my opinion about it. And once in a while, I’ll accept such a favour. But when someone asks me, to watch a horror movie every month, and then report on it, I can hardly refuse it. It’s a win-win situation. I’m simply a mega…
Nicole Kidman is virtually unrecognisable for much of Destroyer. Her hair is dishevelled, and her face is blemished and hollow. Her eyes have no life in them and it’s difficult to make out what she’s saying. Talk about bleeding for your art. As a young detective, Erin Bell (Kidman) and her partner Chris (Sebastian Stan)…
The thing I like about the Limelight on Oxford is that the audience enters the theatre via the stage. Hence, we tread the same boards as the actors. It gives us an additional dimension from which to inhale the atmosphere of the production, besides ambience, lighting and comfort. So, we’re off to a good start…
It’s been a long time since I have read George Johnston’s 1964 Miles Franklin Award-winning My Brother Jack. However, through the lens of undergraduate literary-study nostalgia, I still recognise the seminal Australian novel’s place as part of our country’s canon, despite its challenge to our comfortable assumptions of national character. Still, like many I imagine,…
The subject matter of Pimped is tawdry; nasty in fact. This is a film that starts out without much promise, but gradually draws you into its deviant web. It’s a psycho-sexual thriller in which the protagonist is emblematic of the #MeToo era. Sarah Montrose (Ella Scott Lynch) is a conflicted, mysterious woman. I say that…
