Arts and Entertainment Archive

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! …

This year’s Vivid festival again brought Sydney alive with art. We had Kraftwerk and the parti-coloured Opera House; we had Wagner-a-la-multimedia and Johnny Cupcakes. But one of the most striking and jaw-dropping works presented under the Vivid umbrella was ‘test pattern ’, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Documentary movies made for the big screen generally present a dichotomy. The aim to tell the truth, get the raw facts out, is credible, but then the desire to make it a box office success or attract large audiences can lead to …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …