Long before Hollywood, this sizzling legal drama from the masterful Aaron Sorkin dominated Broadway, and now court is in session in the Playhouse for QPAC’s 40th Birthday celebrations. One misfit US Marine is dead, two others stand accused of killing him, and the whole corps is on trial as a team of young military lawyers uncover a sinister conspiracy in this gripping judicial thriller.

Inspired by actual events at Guantanamo Bay in 1986, this “brilliant, intelligent, cutting, shivering and even nasty script” (The Independent) sparkles with the signature quickfire repartee of Sorkin’s screen hits The West Wing, The Newsroom and The Social Network.

Turning a spotlight on the toxic internal culture of the United States military, A Few Good Men interrogates the idea that instilling unquestioning loyalty in a soldier has dark and terrible consequences, and that patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. Helmed by three-time Matilda Award-winning director Daniel Evans, a cast of rising stars go head-to-head with a swathe of stage legends in this courtroom tour-de-force.

Can you handle the truth?

A Few Good Men
22 November – 7 December 2025
Playhouse, QPAC, Brisbane
www.queenslandtheatre.com.au

Jesse Eisenberg has never been better as Mark Zuckerberg, the man/boy who turned and burned most everyone he came in contact with while creating the Internet tsunami that is Facebook. Director David Fincher tones down some of his more overt mannerisms and gets things just right. Even Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker (the creator of Napster) delivers career-defining work.

It’s a sign of the level of film mastery that a subject with so little visual identity could be made into such a rich visual canvas. This is a film without flaws and one that fascinates to the last frame.

It would be wise to read up a bit on the subject, if your knowledge is light in regards to the creation and people behind Facebook. It will greatly enhance your viewing pleasure.

As a coda to the film, Zucerberg’s early partner and only apparent friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), the one he burned nonetheless has a reported personal wealth of over a billion dollars from the undisclosed sum settlement brokered in later half of the film.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/SonyPicturesAUS

Screenplay writer Aaron Sorkin’s influence can be felt in more than just the words in the film as the Sorkinisms just keep piling up. The famous walk and talk shot is used throughout, as is the uber intelligent and quick witted conversational style. The brain pool on display is never short of exceptional as are the acting chops.

Michael Fassbender as Jobs is fantastic as is Kate Winslet as Job’s right hand woman Joanna Hoffman. Winslet’s take on Hoffman with her strange accent and speaking cadence really brings alive one of the few people in Job’s life that had the measure of the man and his intellect.

For the army of Apple sycophants, this film will present some challenges as Jobs is presented as a deeply flawed human being. The representation here is that he is so driven that he is almost unaware that his humanity is slipping away. In real life those who knew the man can attest to his mellowing out and placing more importance on his family in the later phase of his life. That’s good because the period that this film focuses on makes it feel like it just wasn’t that much fun being Steve Jobs.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU

Molly was once a Olympic caliber athlete who rose to infamy after being arrested by the FBI for running illegal high-stakes poker games. The movie jumps from flash back views of Molly’s earlier life to present day scenes of the goings on between lawyers, their clients (in this case Molly) and government prosecutors.

The story is told with enough salient details that even those with no previous knowledge of the actual case can easily get ensnared in the infectious details. As with most of Sorkin’s work there is a moral agenda and with the current state of exposure of corrupt male practices, having a female character this strong is a welcome edition to the lexicon of today.

Few female roles have been written with so much character strength that don’t fall into the cliche of posturing relying on sex. It’s hopefully subsidises the start of a new direction. Any film that can win one over with this much reliance on voiceover to drive the story along gets extra points as that story telling technique is one of my least favourite.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/MollysGameMovie

Screenplay writer Aaron Sorkin’s influence can be felt in more than just the words in the film as the Sorkinisms just keep piling up. The famous walk and talk shot is used throughout, as is the uber intelligent and quick witted conversational style. The brain pool on display is never short of exceptional as are the acting chops.

Michael Fassbender as Jobs is fantastic as is Kate Winslet as Job’s right hand woman Joanna Hoffman. Winslet’s take on Hoffman with her strange accent and speaking cadence really brings alive one of the few people in Job’s life that had the measure of the man and his intellect.

For the army of Apple sycophants, this film will present some challenges as Jobs is presented as a deeply flawed human being. The representation here is that he is so driven that he is almost unaware that his humanity is slipping away. In real life those who knew the man can attest to his mellowing out and placing more importance on his family in the later phase of his life. That’s good because the period that this film focuses on makes it feel like it just wasn’t that much fun being Steve Jobs.

Rob Hudson
www.stevejobsmovie.com.au