The Hunger Games franchise has so far grossed more than US$2.2 billion at the global box office. It is based upon the runaway success of the novel trilogy by Suzanne Collins, which was released between 2008 and 2010. Mockingjay Part 2 is the fourth and final movie in the series (the first came out in…
Comedies about sex and coupling have long been big business in Hollywood because, let’s face it, sex sells and most envisage finding a Mr or Ms Right with a happily ever after ending – be that realistic or NOT! So give it up for yet another rom-com on the subject. When we are first introduced…
I regularly whine about the quality – or lack of it – in Australian movies. Today is the turn of a ham-fisted family comedy. Caroline Morgan (Robyn Butler) is delighted when her sister, ‘stage mum’ Beth (Portia de Rossi), brings her precocious movie star daughter, Honey (Lucy Fry) home from LA for a visit, complete…
A taut, tense drama-cum-thriller that doesn’t let up from start to finish, 99 Homes concerns a ruthless businessman and his questionable ethics, and a single father facing eviction. You could sum it up with the words “sleeping with the devil”. Andrew Garfield plays Dennis Nash, a tradie who simply isn’t getting by. He lives with…
Dead Centre by Tom Holloway, and Sea Wall, by Simon Stephens, two monologues, are presented as a Co-Production from the Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Melbourne, and Red Line Productions, at the Old Fitz Theatre. Sea Wall was written by contemporary British playwright, Simon Stephens (On the Shore of the Wide World), in 2008. A monologue…
I thought that Skyfall was one of the best Bond movies of the past fifty years, so I was eagerly looking forward to the latest instalment in this long running franchise. After all, Skyfall director Sam Mendes was back at the helm. But Spectre was a little disappointing. At 148 minutes, it is over long…
Justice or revenge? If someone close to you was murdered, what would you want and what would happen if you didn’t get what you wanted? That conundrum is at the heart of this thriller. I like a good police whodunit, an involving mystery that entangles you until the final frames. You might think you have…
Take a base of screwball comedy, add a dash of French New Wave, stir in some 1970s Woody Allen sensibility and top with a dollop of Clueless – now if you can wrap your head around all that, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect from Mistress America. This is director Noah…
My second Escape Room experience in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs was just as intriguing as the first I had back in June. I mentioned then that mind-bending activities like this are infectious and apropos of a glass of fine wine or a mouth-watering dessert, it is hard to stop at one.So, I was unashamedly excited to…
Kate Morton is one of my favourite mainstream Australian writers; the type of books she writes – gothic-style mystery with old houses and buried secrets – are my favourite. There’s something incredibly romantic about big old houses, once-beautiful but now tangled old gardens, yellowing letters, haunting secrets, ghostly apparitions … they put me in a…
