This is a new production of Carmen, by John Bell for Opera Australia (OA), opening the 2016 Winter Season. A major event , then. I had had, as a kid, a copy of an old 78 recording of Lawrence Tibbett, singing his ‘swaggering’ Escamillo’s Toreador Song – played ad nauseam , according to my siblings,…
Keep is about a young hoarder (Naomi, played by Jess Yates) and her sisters (Jane, Angie Glavas and Kara, Christina Walls), who are trying to intervene and force her to start cleaning her messy house as they reconnect with her. It is inevitable that old wounds are opened, notably the disappearance of another sister (Margo,…
Twenty years on, for director Roland Emmerich (Godzilla), Independence Day Resurgence marks a return to the universe he and co-writer and producer Dean Devlin created. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented…
I loved Hannah Tunnicliffe’s Season of Salt and Honey, so I was more than happy to add A French Wedding to my review list. Here’s the blurb: Max is turning forty. All he wants for his birthday is for his six oldest friends to come to France to eat, dance, drink and laugh for one…
Based on the groundbreaking British documentary series 7-up, A Man With Five Children tells the story of a documentary maker who follows the lives of five people from childhood through to their adult years. The play, by the acclaimed writer Nick Enright, was first seen by Sydney audiences in 2002, a time when reality TV…
Not as ambitious in scope and scale as his previous film Boyhood, which was filmed over a period of twelve years, Richard Linklater’s latest film has been touted as “a spiritual sequel” to his 1993 slacker classic Dazed And Confused. While steeped in a strong sense of nostalgia for the early 80s, it also explores…
A richly layered, superbly written, intelligent script, powerhouse performances and highly creative set design are the hallmarks of MTC’s latest production. Skylight is mesmerising, taut and tense throughout, twisting one way and then the other, based upon the utterings of the characters, complete with liberal dollops of good humour. Helpmann Award-winner Dean Bryant returns to…
Family is at the heart of Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo (2003), which has a standalone script (in other words, if you haven’t seen the former, you can still appreciate the latter). When we are first reacquainted with Dory here, she is living a comfortable existence with loving parents who dote on her,…
France’s nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Oscars, Mustang is, not surprisingly, a riveting drama about five beautiful Turkish girls whose lives are turned to hell by age-old practices. It is the start of the summer. In a remote village in the north of Turkey, Lale and her four older sisters come…
Despite the feeling of satiety when it comes to superhero movies, I still had to see this new hero from the Marvel stable. Now, you didn’t need much to persuade me to watch it. Certainly not after I saw the revealed trailer last year. Immediately I was convinced that this could become a mega blockbuster….
