A feelgood, against-the-odds dance movie set in Sydney and New York, Dance Academy – which continues the storyline from the twice Emmy-nominated Australian TV series of the same name – has energy and dynamism. On television, the show saw a group of teenagers through the ups-and-downs of elite training at the National Academy of Dance….
Some mad movie scientist has spliced together the DNA of Alien, John Carpenter’s The Thing and Gravity, and the result is Life, a slick claustrophobic sci-fi thriller. This extra-terrestrial creature feature is familiar stuff and ticks all the right boxes, and it fills a void and will suffice until Ridley Scott unleashes his Alien Covenant…
A thick air of foreboding hangs over the mind-bending psychological thriller A Cure for Wellness like a seemingly never-ending blanket of fog. Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spider Man 2) stars as Lockhart, a driven Wall Street stockbroker who is sent by his firm to a remote alpine medical spa. His mission is to retrieve the firm’s…
One of the most anticipated films of last year was Rogue One, the latest stand alone film in the Star Wars franchise. While it doesn’t quite live up to the hype it is still a solid film that delivers plenty of action that won’t disappoint the die-hard fans of the series. This “stand alone” Star…
Une Pratique De Pays? After screenings at the French Film Festival the gentle bittersweet drama The Country Doctor gets a limited cinematic release on the art house circuit. Jean-Pierre Werner (played by Francois Cluzet, from The Intouchables) is a dedicated doctor in a regional area of France. He is the sort of old fashioned doctor…
Chimerica, is a three hour (plus interval) play of epic scale, written by Lucy Kirkwood, that premiered at the Almeida Theatre, in London, in 2013. The play is epic in length, epic in production values, epic in cast, and best of all, epic in ideas. On a virtually empty stage, with the action of a…
If you miss Harry Potter and you are into the phantasmagorical stories created by J.K. Rowling, I dare say you will find plenty in which to immerse yourself in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the start of her latest fantasy series. The action takes place decades before the round-goggled wonder came to be…
Two is play by Jim Cartwright written in 1989. It is a play for two actors playing fourteen characters. Two, like Mr Cartwright’s first and famous play, Road (1986), comes from his identity and personal ownership of the private dilemmas of his community, focusing on the marginalised and disenfranchised. He was born in Farnsworth, Lancashire,…
Hot Thoughts, the new album from Spoon, has just been released on the Matador/RemoteControl Records label. Produced by Spoon and Dave Fridmann, the band believe they have created the bravest, most musically inventive work of their illustrious career. In addition, Spoon have announced two intimate stripped down in-store appearances to precede their live shows in Sydney and Melbourne…
As a bit of a film nerd, I find war movies are generally love-it-or-hate-it propositions. The great ones stay with you and provide valuable insight, but the remainder I could frankly live without. Many try to (literally and figuratively) “blast” you out of your seat with pyrotechnics or gore (I’m looking at you, Mel Gibson);…
