Last week we brought you a potted preview of this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. Now with the festival well and truly underway, our intrepid and bleary-eyed reviewer Greg King sorts through some of the highlights and not-so-high-lights of this year’s event. Force of Destiny Paul Cox is a perennial favourite of the Melbourne International…
Boxing films of distinction have a long and illustrious history. Think Rocky, Raging Bull, When We Were Kings, The Boxer, Million Dollar Baby and The Fighter, to name but a few. First up then, a technical explanation. Southpaw, in boxing parlance, for those not associated with the sport, is the regular stance for a left-handed…
Focus is another of those heist caper crime films about a clever and charismatic con man, and it adheres closely to the familiar formula followed by films like Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels, Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men. These films are all about misdirection, and the audience sees what they want to see. But ever since…
Risque business? Unfunny business? Long gone are the days when Vince Vaughn used to make energetic and enjoyable comedies. But recently the aggressive motor mouthed comic actor has recently made a number of largely unfunny, mediocre and embarrassingly dull comedies of late, with films like The Dilemma, Fred Claus, The Watch and Delivery Man to…
Writer John Hughes kicked off National Lampoon’s Vacation series with Chevy Chase playing the bumbling Clark Griswold and Beverly D’Angelo his ever-patient wife Ellen in 1983. Then they turned out European Vacation two years later and Christmas Vacation in 1989. Now, those hideous adventures at America’s favourite family fun park, Walley World, come back to…
Great Lake Swimmers know their lane and stay in it during their most recent LP, A Forest of Arms. That lane is aptly described by the album’s title; triumphant and scenic, the band sticks to that aesthetic for album’s entirety. The Toronto-based band members presently include Tony Dekker (vocals, guitar), Erik Arnesen (banjo, guitar), Joshua…
Double act author A J Rich (Amy Hempel and Jill Ciment) build on themes introduced in the classic 18th-century French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, also known as Dangerous Liaisons. I’ve seen the 1988 film version and the play – both are fascinating – so I had high hopes for The Hand That Feeds…
With backing from Forest Whitaker and Pharrell Williams (the man responsible for the huge global hit “Happy”), this is one of the season’s hot new movies. It was a critical hit and audience favourite at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and an official selection at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight. DOPE centres…
This crime drama is set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically the most dangerous year in the city’s history. The story plays out within a maze of rampant political and industry corruption that is plaguing the streets of a city in decay. Doing business at the epicenter of capitalism became fraught…
Yet another sold out show from Queensland Ballet, and one aimed squarely at the children. This restaging of the Houston Ballet production has lots of slapstick comedy, sword fighting, pirates, mermaids, scary Red Indians, and fairies. There’s not a tutu in sight and a complete lack of adagio! There were also a lot of masked…
