Arts and Entertainment Archive

Review: This is the End

Review: This is the End

Seth Rogen’s vivid imagination sucks in the viewer, transporting him to Los Angeles, once a bejewelled city, now metamorphosed into one big hell of fire, cannibals and insanity as the Almighty grasps the Universe in His hands to end it all. Jesus! …
Review: Waks, Songs from the Open Road

Review: Waks, Songs from the Open Road

If you’re wondering where wandering songstress Miriam Waks has been for the past year and a half, the answer is anywhere but here. Deeply frustrated and consumed with an overwhelming desire to “feel alive”, she has been off meditating in India, tangoing …
Review: Oh Boy

Review: Oh Boy

Oh Boy is the creation of first-time director Jan Ole Gerster. In 2013, the film received the most prestigious German film award, the Lola, and has audiences fascinated by its unique look at everyday life in Berlin. The film screened during this year’s Sydney Film …
Review: Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer

Review: Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer

If you want to get an insight into Putin’s Russia check out Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer, a documentary by a British and a Russian director about the official reaction to a performance by female punk band Pussy Riot in a Russian Orthodox cathedral …
Mister OTT double single launch at Sydney’s 505

Mister OTT double single launch at Sydney’s 505

Acclaimed jazz saxophonist Matthew Ottignon assured me that Saturday night’s launch of his new band Mister OTT would be “something a bit different for the 505 crowd”. Despite his self-confessed “pretty standard” taste in jazz – John Coltrane, Wayne Shorte, Miles Davis, …
Review: I Am Divine

Review: I Am Divine

Filmmaker John Waters and drag queen extraordinaire Divine are the undisputed king and queen of filth. Divine tore up the screen in Waters’ cult classics Mondo Trasho, Pink Flamingos and Hairspray. Divine was a trendsetter and a rule breaker. He was counter culture pin up, partied …

Review: Phedre, Bell Shakespeare

You could be forgiven for thinking you were in an Amphitheatre on a cliff somewhere in the Mediterranean, not on Sydney Harbour watching a rare performance of the Jean Racine classic Phedre. The elegant but sharp Ted Hughes translation of the Racine …
Review: Lovelace, Sydney Film Festival

Review: Lovelace, Sydney Film Festival

In all the arts – music and film especially – many sins can be forgiven if a work has heart. The Beatles’ chirpier songs, The Sound Of Music, most Country music, Sly Stallone’s original Rocky – all beloved by millions, and who …