The Golden Age, by Louis Nowra was published in 1985. The first production was given at the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne, Directed by Rex Cramphorn. I first saw the play in a NIDA production by Neil Armfield with Richard Roxburgh, as Francis – it was a truly memorable production. I have had, always, a ‘romance’…
The name Dalton Trumbo is little known outside of those with an interest in Hollywood history, but this hugely successful (as in Oscar winning) writer is the subject of Jay Roach’s detailled and compelling biopic, Trumbo. For a little background, Trumbo was a prolific and celebrated screenwriter during the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. His many…
Legend certainly won’t be remembered as a brilliant gangster movie. You certainly can’t compare it with a gangster epos like The Godfather or The Untouchables. This film about the notorious Kray twins surely exhibits a successful retro look and shows how the brothers founded their business empire full of glamor and violence, and how it…
Flamenco dancing is like a drug: once it gets into your system, the pounding rhythms and body music hook you for life. I was 22 on my first visit to Spain when I sat in an open air club underneath the stars and watched and heard my first show. I could not believe how such…
Cassie (Claire Sara) and Kurt (Timmy Knowles) are a mega-rich couple in their late thirties, who have more money that most people would know what to do with. You see they have just won $337 million in the lottery and how do they celebrate? They don’t quit their jobs, rather they hire an escort –…
10 years is a long time between albums, so Scheherazade is a true welcome back to the simple folky rooted songs from Catherine Ann Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean of Freakwater. For some, this reunion is something special as their 1995 record, Old Paint, is always an album you may hear listed as helping put…
A searing portrait of depravity in the darkest of times, this debut feature for Hungarian director and co-writer László Nemes is a remarkable and evocative film. Son of Saul focuses upon a Jewish man, Saul Ausländer, a role filled by Géza Röhrig (a 48-year-old writer and poet), who is forced to aid the disposal of…
A front cover endorsement recommending this to fans of Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne piqued my interest, and a review from Carol at Reading, Writing and Riesling piqued it further. I do enjoy reading thrillers, so these two things made sure I put Ben Sanders’ debut American Blood on my reading list. Was it a…
Derek (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) are back with a vengeance as fashionistas the likes of which the world hasn’t seen. When we last set eyes upon these male models, they were enjoying the wonders of the “Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good…
There have been many film versions of Shakespeare’s bloodiest and most cinematic play, from Orson Welles’ idiosyncratic 1948 version through to Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood in 1961, which reinvented the play as a samurai drama. More recently Australian director Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper) gave us a more contemporary take on the play, setting the…
