I kicked off the Easter long weekend with this lively and funky show by the husband-wife duo from Mali. I love our homegrown talent but it’s great to finally see an international act after nearly two years!
I had a very lovely evening at the Melbourne Recital Centre, listening to one of my favourite records from last year played live with a 17-piece chamber orchestra.
Another Australian cinema classic I always meant to watch for the last twenty years, Lantana is a moody and incisive examination of trust and fractured relationships, finely interweaving complex character drama with a police investigation.
An early thriller that turned out to be much more enjoyable than I initially expected. It’s a silly romp with a far-fetched plot that requires a healthy suspension of disbelief, but you get a sense that it was written with tongue firmly in cheek.
The new noirish Batman reboot from Matt Reeves is one of those frustrating instances when I can’t decide if the movie’s strengths win over its major flaws, or vice versa. There’s a lot to admire about it, but it’s also overstuffed and punishingly long.
A Friday night show at the beautiful Forum Theatre, featuring one of our finest Australian singers-songwriters. I missed that faux night sky and the Greco-Roman sculptures!
This camp classic-slash-disaster would have been a pretty forgettable movie if not for Faye Dunaway‘s unhinged, all-guns-blazing performance that somehow transcends the conventional ideas of “good” or “bad” acting. It is truly something else.
This foray into the swinging sixties doesn’t seem to be highly thought of among Agatha Christie fans, but I enjoyed it quite a lot, maybe because the idea of Hercule Poirot among mods and beatniks is just too much fun.
I picked up some great releases by the Australian artists after working through Double J’s Best of 2021 list, including a couple of impressive debuts and an intriguing musical re-invention.