There’s a poignant and melancholy quality to the sweet-natured Lucky. It serves as the swansong for revered actor Harry Dean Stanton, who passed away in September this year at the age of 91. Stanton delivers one of his finest performances in this low key independent drama. The film is an existential meditation on mortality and…
Fremantle singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly is definitely the current darling of the indie singer-songwriter scene in Australia. After a successful tilt at this year’s BIGSOUND conference, winning the inaugural Levis Music Prize, Donnelly has just announced plans to head out on a bunch of tour dates around the country. Stella Donnelly has already been announced on…
Birdland is a British play written in 2014 by Simon Stephens. He generally writes from a ‘working class’ perspective (the provincial English city of Stockport is the usual location) and focuses on the struggles of particular ordinary individuals dealing with the social and materialistic difficulties that the ‘progress’ of the world throws at them. Mr…
Life is complicated. A young man growing up in New York who has fallen for an attractive young lady, who happens to be his best friend. You might think you’ve heard it all before, but you haven’t. Unless you’ve seen the trailer for The Only Living Boy in New York – which I sincerely wish…
Australian singer/songwriter Leah Senior’s second album finds the artist travelling the quiet path of the folk song troubadours of years past. Pretty Faces is recorded, for the most part, in the minimalist folk-singer tradition of Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and the early work of Joni Mitchell. Senior’s gentle voice floats over finger-picked or lightly strummed…
Much remains unanswered in the low-budget mystery-horror film, It Comes at Night. Award-winning filmmaker Trey Edward Shults follows his breakout debut Krishna with this psychological thriller. It centres on a teenage boy, Travis (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), as he grapples with mounting terrors – both external and internal – in the aftermath of an unnamed cataclysm. Seventeen…
Finding your place in the world is hard enough for most. But when dealing with teen angst and sexuality, it can be harder still. Writer/director Kerem Sanga (The Young Kieslowski) explores these fraught issues in First Girl I Loved. Anne Smith (Dylan Gelula – TV’s Casual) is a bright high school senior. She’s best friends with a…
Woody Harrelson stars in the title role as Wilson, a lonely, eccentric misanthrope who reunites with his long estranged wife Pippi (Laura Dern). He gets a shot at happiness when he learns he has a teenage daughter, Claire (Isabella Amara), he’s never met. The script has been written by Daniel Clowes, based upon his graphic novel…
Maturity is a weird thing because not only does it seem to happen overnight but you can typically identify the very “moment” it takes place. You can recognize it in your friends, in your own kids, your favorite athlete, actor and author and usually in your favorite artist. For the lighthearted and laid back indie…
At a time when alternative music had progressed from post-punk into grunge (the late 80’s and early 90s), Greg Dulli got together with John Curley, and Rick McCollum and quickly evolved from a garage band to a dark, heavy art rock band that was obviously obsessed with R&B and soul music. Dulli once described Afghan…
