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 Mathematics of Longing Theatre Review
The Mathematics of Longing tackles this conundrum head on with the kind of flourish that round out a multi-media rampage as only live theatre can. Lights and motion and sound sometimes coming at you from multiple sources all at once.
The cacophony of five voices battling for your attention and that one loan power chord to argument the truth. There are many equations that equal results that charge the mind with as much force as some of our baser instincts charge the body.
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Foxcatcher Movie Review
How a member of one of America’s richest families comes to murder an American Olympic star is one of the strangest tales ever told and even with the liberties taken with time lines and some of the actions on screen, the story remains true to life and true to being very bizarre.
Almost unrecognizable under make up and facial prophesises, Steve Carell as John Eleuthère du Pont drops the dry funny man stick and delivers the performance of his career, albeit a very creepy one. From his ...
The Theory of Everything Movie Review
The life and times of theoretical physicist, cosmologist and million selling author Stephen Hawking is told via a screenplay based on a book by his first wife of thirty years, Jane Wilde. We are given a window into his life from his early years and get to spend time with him before the revenges of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) took over his body.
While the force of the man’s will and his defiance of the medical profession’s estimate of the time of his demise is very inspiring, ...
American Sniper Movie Review
Clint Eastwood’s take on Navy Seal Chris Kyle’s (Bradley Cooper) autobiography certainly sets a scene of dread and foreboding as we follow Kyle and his descent into the war in Iraq.
Kyle is a good old boy from Texas, a former competitive cowboy and a very proficient marksman. His entry into the service is spurred on by the events of 9/11 and his upbringing with a very strong and opinionated father. This background is revealed is very broad strokes and lacks the nuance to really ...
The Imitation Game Movie Reivew
It had a high profile cast (for its time) in Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Saffron Burrows, Jeremy Northam and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who would, later on become much more famous as a pivotal character in an obscenely popular medieval TV show. There's a problem with Enigma, however and it's the fact the filmmakers substituted the real-life homosexual mathematician, Alan Turing, for a fictional heterosexual mathematician named Thomas Jericho and indeed the story centres around his very hetero...
Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Movie Review
Mexican writer and director Alejandro González Iñárritu has delivered a story inside a story about a past his use by date movie star, Keaton, who previously reaped the riches and empty adulation that went with his role of playing the big screen superhero Birdman. He is seeking redemption (artistically and humanly) by writing, directing and starring in his own Broadway play.
Alejandro uses music masterfully as the first three quarters of the film is set to a drum solo and not the ...
Taken 3 Movie Review
Hollywood has a long history of impossibly cool heroes. Operatives whose talents can stop any foe and often times dead in their tracks. If the character is strong enough it can even start its own cottage industry. From a list that includes heroes like James Bond, Indian Jones and Jason Bourne, the powers to be are trying to add the name Bryan Mills.
As a screen superstar, Mills (played so far by Liam Neeson) ticks a lot of the requisite boxes: former secret operative (CIA, SAS, you pick the ...
Big Hero 6 Movie Review
Disney's cinematic adaptation of Marvel's Big Hero 6 markets itself off the back of Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen but it is an inferior film to both of those movies, lacking the intergenerational appeal and depth of those predecessors.
Big Hero 6 is all just a bit ‘kiddie’ and twee compared to its contemporaries. Yes, this is a kid’s movie but after all the intergenerational ‘kids’ movies we've had from Pixar and others, a plain ol' kids movie barely cuts it anymore. The beauty of ...
Yagull – Kai Album Review
Taking away the often times bombastic soundscape that heavy use of outboard gear allows gives band mainstays Sasha Markovic and Kana Kamitsubo the opportunity to create a world of both introspection and intimate appeal. These are songs that invite you to get inside them, like the feeling of wrapping yourself up in a warm blanket on a cold winter’s night.
The band’s duo core is supplemented by a plethora of guests that further expand the scope of the proceedings. Dewa Budjana and ...
