May December is a richly layered, melodramatic but deliberately ambiguous character study from director Todd Haynes (Carol). The film was inspired by the real-life case of Mary Kay Letourneau, a 34-year-old schoolteacher who was convicted of abusing her 13-year-old student. After completing her jail sentence for statutory rape, she married her teenage victim and started…
One of the much-hyped books this year has been psychological suspense thriller The Nowhere Child by Christian White. The book was the winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and has been raved about for its intriguing premise (a child kidnapped in the US turns up years later in Australia). Here’s the blurb: ‘Her name is…
I can’t go past a good domestic thriller and when The Wife by Alafair Burke turned up in my mailbox, I read every chance I had over the next two days. It’s like the married version of a whodunit with an underlying back beat of “Stand By Your Man” and I lapped it up from start to finish. It’s…
A slow-moving, intense jigsaw puzzle, a mood of unease permeates nearly every scene in UNA. Based on David Harrower’s Olivier Award-winning one-act play Blackbird, the film follows a young woman’s journey to reclaim her past. Fifteen years ago, 13-year-old Una ran away with and had sex with an older man, Ray – a crime for which…
After caning the majority of Australian releases recently, I am delighted to be able to sing the praises of the slow-burn thriller Berlin Syndrome. Unease permeates almost every scene. Clare (Teresa Palmer), a twenty-something Australian photojournalist, arrives in Germany on a sabbatical from work. She intends to photograph Soviet-designed architecture in the hope of publishing…
Some books grab you and don’t let go. Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry is one of them. Here’s the blurb: When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s…
I received Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant (Remember Me This Way) from The Reading Room, started reading and didn’t stop. Here’s the blurb: “I suppose what I am saying is, how much do we collude in our own destruction? How much of this nightmare is on me? You can hate and rail. You can…
I love a good psychological suspense novel, especially edge-of-the-seat stories. Bone By Bone by Sanjida Kay hooked me so deeply, I read it in one sitting. Here’s the blurb: Laura is making a fresh start. Newly divorced and relocated to Bristol, she is carving a new life for her and her nine-year-old daughter, Autumn. But things aren’t going…
