What do you get when you take a bit of Truman Show, mix in a little Evil Dead and of course the secret ingredient: a whole lot of love? You get: The Cabin in the Woods. The film is the brainchild of geek-god Joss Whedon (Buffy, Avengers) and Drew Goddard (Angel, Lost, Cloverfield), with Goddard […]

Opera Queensland’s production of The Mikado fizzes with charm which belies its serious message. Flirting, the capital crime in The Mikado, reflects the hot potato of London politics in March 1885: child prostitution. The age of consent was raised from 13 to 16 some months later – after a sensationalist newspaper article (“The Maiden Tribute”) […]

I loved Sarah Polley’s impressive 2006 directorial debut film Away From Her. She showed a subtle hand in depicting an elderly couple dealing with the onset of Alzheimer’s without sinking into midday movie territory. In this her second feature film, the young Canadian actress, writer and director takes on the topic of marital infidelity. The […]

If Iron Sky were to be summarised in two words it would have to be “Moon Nazis”. As a fun idea for a B-movie it’s up there with Snakes on a Plane and Lesbian Vampire Killers. But much like those two movies, a single clever idea isn’t quite enough to sustain Iron Sky through its […]

A mother comforts her injured son. The scene echoes the Christian iconography of the Pietà – Mary holding a crucified Jesus. Except this mother and son are inside a mosque. On display at the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the 55th annual World Press Photo exhibition is the Photo of the Year for 2011, taken […]

From the opening shot of an oval, pebble shaped ship rumbling away before a sickly white human-looking individual you know you are watching a film which is unabashedly science fiction. The plot centers on an expedition to uncover the meaning behind a cryptograph depicting a constellation placed in a 25,000-year-old cave on earth. The mission: […]

Kate Forsyth’s novel Bitter Greens interleaves the scandalous life of Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force (1650-1724) with Persinette (“Little Parsley”), her retelling of Petrosinella – the first published Rapunzel tale – by Giambattista Basile (1634). Mademoiselle de la Force changed the ending to have the prince’s eyes healed by Persinette’s tears and to redeem […]

Le Havre is a fairy tale. Set amidst domestic shabbiness and commercial ugliness in the French port city from which it takes its name, it radiates a charm buoyant yet wistful. Finnish writer-director Aki Kaurismäki has composed a film about small miracles which is itself a small miracle. Its deceptively subdued surface shimmers with wonders […]

Everyone deserves a happy ending, don’t they? From the producers and writers of LOST comes a fairytale ending, but not for everyone! This series has put its own delicious spin on the once beloved fairytales we grew up reading and explores each character in two different worlds. The evil queen’s curse is the main reason […]

Local community theatre company New Farm Nash Theatre have achieved an entertaining and engaging production of this romantic but dark comedy. In spite of a shoestring budget, the enthusiasm and dedication of the cast and crew make this more memorable and intimate than many bigger budget productions. The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s […]

Harvest Rain Theatre Company Popular 1984 movie The Neverending Story comes to life in this stage adaption. Director Tim O’Connor succeeds in asking the audience to use similar levels of imagination to the book on which the tale is based. O’Connor’s own imagination has flowered into a clear and compact concept that fits — magically […]

The superhero movie to end all superhero movies, The Avengers has finally hit cinema screens across Australia but does the film live up to the hype? The Avengers is the culmination of a plan by Marvel Entertainment to create a multi-film universe with each film contributing to the marvel tapestry. Just as Nick Fury is […]

Life is like a big story book, everything will be all right in the end, and so if it’s not all right, it is not yet the end. From the director of Shakespeare in Love comes a movie that can captivate audience’s attention which shows about life, after life. This film has a wonderful cast, […]

Hasbro, the company, which brought us Transformers and G.I Joe, has provided the world another film derivative of a popular toy from yesteryear. Battleship is sure to entice younger moviegoers, as the film’s formula is no different from other Hasbro films. You have goodies and baddies, the girl, loud explosions, great one-liners and Michael Bay-like […]

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 […]

Brisbane’s inaugural urban design and film festival will be launched tonight at the State Library of Queensland. The design festival called U.R.(BNE) will focus on Brisbane’s public spaces throughout May. The Films project seeks to raise the awareness of urban design and the built environment and generate a greater interest in architecture, public spaces and […]

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 […]

The Brisbane City Hall organ will make its grand re-entrance to Brisbane’s cultural life next year after restoration costing about $1.9 million. Intense restoration work on the 1890s classic organ continues in a workshop at Hemmant in Brisbane’s east. Master organ builder Simon Pierce said a 10-member team from Pierce Pipe Organs was restoring the […]

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 […]