Went to see John Grant at my favourite music venue in Melbourne, for a night of exquisite balladry and funky grooves.
Tag: review
Sleater-Kinney @ The Croxton
A mid-week gig in Thornbury that’s unlikely to start before 10 pm would normally be a terrible prospect, especially during a week that’s already been sleep-deprived because of a late Mad Max showing at the Melbourne IMAX theatre. But if there’s any act worth going deaf in one ear and feeling like a zombie at work the next day for, it’s these amazing ladies.
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back – Film Review
Out of all original trilogy films, I was curious to rewatch this one the most, because I’m sure I had only ever seen it once, and remembered virtually nothing except the big scenes that even little green aliens on Mars probably know about. And something about the ice planet. Oh and this totally not awkward scene:
Steve Jobs – Film Review
I was glad I wasn’t the only person interested in the 10am Saturday session of this movie at the Palace Cinema Como. It’s no fun being by yourself in an empty cinema, as I found out last year. Luckily, two more people showed up to sit behind me mid-commercials, and even better, they turned out to be a nice quiet couple who didn’t act as if they were watching Netflix at home, so I didn’t have to shush or employ a basilisk stare.
Brooklyn – Film Review
I guess I can just get all the adjectives to describe Brooklyn right out of the way: charming, heartfelt, sincere, sweet, warm, unpretentious, lovely, old-fashioned, gentle. Whether it deserved its recent Best Picture Oscar nomination is debatable – it’s more of a filler to make up the numbers than a serious contender – but there’s no denying its modest appeal.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope – Film Review
For all its massive flaws which I wrote plenty about, The Force Awakens did manage to pull me into the Star Wars world, so I’ve decided to revisit the original trilogy, which I haven’t seen in over 15 years. Well, not the “original” trilogy but the one George Lucas updated, which is ironic considering that all that extra CGI crap he added looks really really dated these days. Luckily, the annoying tweaks in this movie are minimal and mostly involve a few fake-looking critters and environments.
The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman – Book Review
I’ve read this book in a bizarre pattern – read the first 50 pages, got distracted and put the book away, decided to start over, re-read the same 50 pages, got distracted again for a shorter period, picked up the book where I left it, then finished the whole thing in a day while staying at home with a cold. It started off in an intriguing enough fashion, but at one point it becomes such an emotional rollercoaster it was simply impossible to put down. It’s not without faults, but it’s a powerful read about love, family and good people making bad decisions.
Room – Film Review
This movie had one hell of a harrowing premise: a young woman is imprisoned in a tiny garden shed for seven years, together with her five-year-old son Jack born as a result of her captor’s visits. In order to create some kind of semblance of normality for the boy, she pretends that the 10 square metres they’re trapped in is in fact the entire world, that beyond the walls and the roof window there’s nothing but outer space, that the humans he sees on TV are make-believe.
The Danish Girl – Film Review
Based on a true story of Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo sexual reassignment surgery in 1920s, The Danish Girl is unfortunately too wispy, sentimental and suffocatingly conventional to do its subject justice.
Gillian Welch @ Palais Theatre
I had such great time at this concert. Beautiful venue and incredibly enthusiastic audience; I’m used to the Melbourne crowd being reserved, but from the moment Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, her musical partner (and amazing guitarist), walked onstage they got nothing but cheers and rapturous applause throughout the show.
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