Reviews 1040 results

Jasper Jones Theatre Review

Set in the dying days of 1965, the play pulls no punches is showing how difficult it was growing up in a small town where racial intolerance was the tone of the day and the grind of daily boredom was never far away. Into this environment Charlie, a boy who dreams large comes face to face with many of life’s ugly truths while he acts as the show’s narrator. The play is presented in a brisk fashion, with the clever use of a revolving stage and having the actors play multiple roles to ...

The Wife Movie Review

There was a time the deception was with purpose, to overcome the conditions and gender bias of the times. Then through time the lie became one person’s reality and the other’s trap. This is a story with bold overtones and one that requires the right touch to tell.   //   Director Björn Runge (Daybreak & Mouth to Mouth) combines a great cast and fine screenplay by Jane Anderson (based on a novel by Meg Wolitzer) to produce a gripping work. It is a timely exposé ...

Mark Wingfield – Tales from The Dreaming City Music Review

Mark Wingfield is just such a wizard. He strives to use extended vibrato to give his notes a wavering human voice quality that bridges the gap between the sometimes cold perfectionism that some shredders use and the inviting warmth that is at the root of accessibility. Just giving the audience finger gymnastics is not going to get it done in this day and age.   //   It’s also more than just note selection, exposing fresh nuance in both melody and tone is not easy with ...

Lysa and the Freeborn Dames Theatre Review

Three angelic women (Barbara Lowing, Roxanne McDonald and Hsiao-Ling Tang) play host and impart words of wisdom to both actor and audience. Their words are part truth, part humour and always cut to the heart of the matter. The laughs keep the lessons from becoming too heavy while still imparting universal truths. The play also gives key scenes more than one point of view, often times replaying a scenario with dramatically different outcomes. This gives the audience the ability to ...

RBG Movie Review

. Now in her eighties and every bit the fire brand of her younger years, she has become emblematic of how things can be if brilliant minds are put to task and party politics are left behind. It’s a stark contrast to the ever widening division now being perpetrated in America between the haves and have nots in relation to basic human rights.   //   It’s also a love story that shows a man can support a woman in all ways and not be thought the lesser for it. Her succes...

The Humanity Bureau Movie Review

These non-essentials are being relocated to a place called New Eden, a place with a very dark secret. The only problem with Kross is he has yet to be drained completely of his humanity, so when he takes one last relocation job, he bristles under the rules that have governed his actions for so long.   //   As the story progresses, you discover the reasons for the attachment he feels for this last family he has been sent out to deal with. He soon goes against his years of ...

Mama Mia: Here We Go Again Movie Review

It tries its best to deliver something new with what is in essence the same set of songs as the first film (and musical on which the movie is based). It dips into flash backs, origin stories and flushes out the characters with extended back stories. They even add Cher to the mix and bring Meryl Streep back from the grave.   //   It’s unfair to be too critical of all this effort as the end product is rather infectious and more than a little bit charming. The challenge ...

Skyscraper Movie Review

The plot must have gone up in flames during the fire that burns up the world’s tallest building as there are almost no details to get in the way of all the big screen action. The sets being both real and computer generated are also as impressive as the leading man’s muscles and they act as one of the stars as well.   //   Also of note in a nod to current times is finding out that the ultimate hero in the piece is actually Will Sawyer’s (Johnson) wife Sarah, played ...

Ant-Man and the Wasp Movie Review

After the intensity and dark nature of Avengers: Infinity War, it’s a relief to have a MCU film that doesn’t take itself too seriously and places a high value on humour and ease of consumption. It’s not completely divorced from company direction though and the coda at the end of the film puts things in perspective (so stay till the very end.).   //   Paul Rudd is back as Scott Lang (AKA Ant-Man) and he still plays the role mostly for laughs but does rises to the ...

Belle and Sebastian, Friends for Life Movie Review

Belle and Sebastian, Friends for Life brings the conclusion to the trilogy of films and has all the ingredients for a classic family yarn. Good guys and girls, a despicable bad guy, unconditional love, a struggle to overcome and ultimately a victory and bittersweet happy ending.   //   Set in the high mountains of the French Alps, life for young Sebastian is idilic after the dramas on the first two films. That is until his father and newly married step-mother let slip of ...