Desire is a powerful emotion. Perhaps the most powerful, alongside hunger, but sometimes it leads you in directions that aren’t the best for you. I was reflecting upon that as I watched Drama, a rather quirky slice-of-life reality piece starring Sophie Mathisen. Anna (Mathisen) travels to Paris to meet John (Tom Wren), unintentionally causing tension…
Relatively Speaking, by Alan Ayckbourn, was his first big commercial hit, in1967. It had a cast that included Michael Hordern, Celia Johnson and introduced Richard Briers to the London West End. The play, originally called Meeting My Father, came out of the ‘revolutionary’ era of the English Swinging Sixties with all its entertainment taboo explorations…
A dozen years ago, Gabrielle Savrone, one of the co-owners of The Owl and Cat, joined a cult and for the next 36 months she was prey to its whims and fancies. She has channelled that experience into Red Boots and Half-Smoked Cigarettes, an esoteric play set in an art gallery. Why that setting? Because…
Life throws up curve balls. You just never know when one will be pitched your way. So it is when thirty-something and balding Vincent Machot (Kyan Khojandi) – who has inherited his father’s hairdressing salon – goes out of his way to satisfy his mother’s food cravings. Machot cycles to the grocery store owned by…
Twenty years ago Lee Tamahori gave us one of the best films to come out of New Zealand with Once Were Warriors, an exploration of masculinity, violence, family and Maori pride. After spending over a decade working overseas with actors of the calibre of Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman and Nicolas Cage on large scale big…
Kriv Stenders’ Red Dog was a feelgood film that captivated Australian audiences way back in 2011. It was a genuine crowd-pleaser and a tear-jerker and also one of the highest grossing films of the year. It proved so popular that are sequel was probably inevitable given how the industry works. But is has taken five…
Another scintillating performance from Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) is one of the distinguishing features of The Edge of Seventeen, a first rate coming-of-age story that also features Woody Harrelson in a memorable role. Growing up is the great equaliser. No matter your family situation, walk of life, or specific personal experience, anyone who has gone…
Intended as a feel-good, calamity film for the festive season, this one tries hard but produces few, if any, belly laughs. Morale is at an all-time low at IT company Zenotek’s Chicago office after its hard-ass, pragmatic interim CEO Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Aniston) announces plans sack 40 per cent of its work force and ban…
Colourful characters, a great soundtrack and elements of The Voice are my immediate reflections when considering Sing, the latest animation from the studio that brought us Despicable Me, The Lorax and Minions. It is the first collaboration between writer/director Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and the founder and CEO of Illumination Entertainment,…
From the director of the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom and the critically acclaimed Best of Enemies, comes The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble , a new doco about a renowned international musical collective created by legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma. It follows a group of diverse instrumentalists, vocalists, composers,…
