Director Nicolas Winding Refn delivers a vicious combination of imagery and violence which draws much of its cinematic appeal from the electronic pop score composed by Cliff Martinez. Ryan Gosling stars as the unnamed protagonist, whom we can call the driver. The driver moonlights as a getaway driver and is a stunt driver by day […]

1904: young, attractive, Jewish, Russian Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) suffers from hysteria. At the start of the film we see her, writhing and laughing maniacally, carried from a coach into a psychiatric hospital in Zurich. Thirtyish, good-looking, Protestant, Swiss Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) has hopes of helping Sabina using a new talking treatment known as […]

Playhouse Theatre, Qld Performing Arts Centre Charles Dickens used his gift of the gab as journalist, author and actor to climb the social ladder. Miriam Margolyes, character actor extraordinaire, accompanied by pianist John Martin, gives us a whirlwind social tour of Dickens’ life. They settle comfortably into the Victorian drawing room featuring a gilt-edged portrait […]

Great team work by Nash Theatre has resulted in a powerful and effective production of The Laramie Project. The play begins with eight actors standing among eight chairs on a dimly-lit stage. Together they proceed to tell the shocking story of the 1998 fatal beating of gay university student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, in the […]

Off the Wall Diner is a humble burger joint in Wellington Point that says without hyperbole and on the authority of Guinness World Records that it makes the world’s spiciest burger. The technical measure of spice heat is a “Scoville unit”. By virtue of some secret chilli concoction, Off the Wall’s “Megadeath Burger” has a […]

Director Rupert Wyatt has excelled in producing a phenomenal prequel of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes. Wyatt’s depiction inevitably proved a remarkable technological progression of the classic ’60s sci-fi representation. Avatar‘s Oscar-winning visual effects masterminds, Weta Digital, combined with renowned producers and screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver to created not only a […]

Jenni Kelly was one of six award-winning artists who took part in the “Travellers’ Tales” exhibition funded by the Moreton Bay Regional Council. The event was held this month at the Pine Rivers Art Gallery in Strathpine. The theme “Travellers’ Tales” embraced memoirs of the artists’ intrepid travels derived from photographs translated into art pieces […]

Based on an iconic book and epic three-hour movie, the musical adaptation of Dr Zhivago has a lot to live up to. After all, song and dance would not be the first choice for many to convey the loneliness, individualism and ideology explored in Boris Pasternak’s novel. Yet director Des McAnuff and composer Lucy Simon […]

Preparations for a school concert will always be nerve-wracking for students and teachers alike. But when the big event is to be held at the Sydney Opera House and the music teacher is the determined, passionate Mrs Karen Carey, the potential for a riveting documentary is created. Mrs Carey’s Concert follows the teachers and students […]

Based on real events, Oranges and Sunshine gives a deeply moving account of the deportation of thousands of British children to Australia. Between 1947 and 1979 up to 130,000 British children were deported to different institutions around Australia, unbeknown to their families. The film centres on Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson) a British social worker who […]

When you walk into a gallery you never expect to leave haunted by an image that you saw. South African photographer Jodi Bieber captured the very confronting image of a disfigured Afghan girl who had both her ears and nose cut off as retribution for fleeing her husband’s home. This photograph is so powerful in […]

The combination of a great photo and explanatory text is powerful. The shock of the image stays in your mind in a way that even the most descriptive story never does. World Press Photo 11, the 54th annual World Press Photo exhibition of photojournalism is showing at Brisbane Powerhouse. It has been publicised with a […]

Queensland Theatre Company and the Bell Shakespeare’s immersion into necromancy, incest, rape, and self-mutilation somehow makes for a good night at the theatre. Like Dr Faustus who in compact with Lucifer brings the dead to life, director Michael Gow has revived the Faust myth itself: that old and prolific parable of the spineless genius who […]

Snowtown is definitely not a movie for the faint-hearted. Directed by Justin Kurzel it’s based on the chilling murders in South Australia 10 years ago and show how the worst serial killer in Australia’s history manipulates those around him to believe the lies he tells. Lucas Pittaway plays Jamie Vlassakis as an unsuspecting teenager who […]

This is an example of Hollywood’s worst commercial instincts and its continued decline from the heights of classic, original well-acted movies. It features generational audience targeting – the mocking of Gen Y’s intelligence – and a moronic storyline sparsely dotted with good acting performances but excellent special effects. Its interesting concept of human evolution that […]