Author: Natalie Salvo

The words ‘Opera Australia’ and ‘piano ditty’ are not normally things you would typically associate with one another. But in the latest Sydney Opera House production Two Weddings, One Bride, the pair look set to become a marriage made in heaven. This operetta is a fun and accessible romp through comedy and farce in the…

Put in simple terms, Below Her Mouth is a story about a girl meets a girl except that the latter is engaged to a boy. It’s a tender lesbian romance that showcases the sexual awakening of one of its lead characters. But it’s also one that could do with a lot more conversation and a…

Dust Cloth (Toz Bezi) is the sort of film you’d get if you crossed Phil Collins’ “Another Day in Paradise” with Radiohead’s “No Surprises.” It’s the subtle, everyday story that shows the poverty that two working class women in Istanbul endure. While it is a well-observed and well-intentioned tale, this is also a character study…

Just like starting over. That’s the name of a John Lennon song but it’s also a line that could be used to sum up the French film, Things To Come (L’avenir). The story is a subtle character study about a middle-aged woman and how she negotiates a bunch of set-backs with a kind of understated…

Casting JonBenet is a film that requires you to know this unsolved murder case but also leave your expectations at the door. In the 20 years that have passed since the murder of the child beauty queen, JonBenet Ramsey there have been all manner of documentary exposés and coverage of this crime. Yet Casting JonBenet…

It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s Supergirl! The documentary, Supergirl is a film about an American girl with superhuman strength. It’s an inspirational story that is about kicking down barriers and achieving the impossible in the competitive world/sport that is powerlifting. This documentary is the debut feature length film by director Jessie Auritt. The story focuses…

Girlboss is a series that may leave viewers feeling conflicted. While it’s great to see an underdog making good and pursuing her passion it’s also hard to root for a lead character who is so inherently unlikeable. This Netflix series is ultimately like a fun ball of fairy floss, it’s pleasant enough at first bite;…

Before there was Loving there was Sophie & The Rising Sun (well, sort of). Sophie & The Rising Sun is a romantic story and like Loving it is one that’s all about a bi-racial couple. The film is ultimately a beautiful but fictional love story where you can really sit back, relax and get lost…

Clementine Ford’s latest book Fight Like A Girl packs punches in the best possible way. The feminist commentator has penned a volume that is like a personal polemic; one that is not dissimilar to the work of Lindy West, Caitlin Moran, Tara Moss et al. Fight Like A Girl then, is another important and welcome addition to the ongoing…

Wendy & Lucy is a film that could be renamed “A Street Dog Named Lucy.” I tells the story of a homeless and nomadic American woman and her faithful companion, a dog named Lucy. The story is a slow character study that is lacking in characterisation, drama and detail. The story is directed by Kelly…

Our favourite former congresswoman, senator, vice-president and U.S. president, Selina Meyer is officially out of the oval office for season six of Veep, which returns to our screens next week. As we wait to watch what her future holds on the show we thought we’d put together a list of possible jobs for the woman who can…

The name Henrietta Lacks may not mean an awful lot to some people but in reality it should be one of the most famous names in history. Lacks is responsible for revolutionising modern medicine and contributing to every recent major medical breakthrough from vaccines for polio, HPV and the flu-shot; to IVF and treatments for…

Talk is a play that feels like Frontline version 2.0. It’s a satirical look at the modern state of journalism, a place that has seen many experienced reporters lose their jobs while amateurs and citizen journalists have risen up. This Sydney Theatre Company production is a searing indictment on the current media climate as it…

Long Strange Trip is a documentary about the Grateful Dead that feels just like being at one of the band’s concerts. It is a sprawling, swirling psychedelic affair that lives up to its name as it celebrates a band that has notched up over 50 years in the music business as the reigning kings of…

Lindy West was one of the highlights from this year’s All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House. So it is unsurprising that this Guardian columnist and Jezebel blogger’s book, Shrill – Notes From A Loud Woman is funny, accomplished and excellent. West’s book is ultimately a hybrid between memoir, with personal anecdotes, and…

Stop and take a moment to think about what you were doing at the age of 27 or what you will do if it’s yet to come. If you’re a musician it is likely that you are dead but if you were working at NASA during the Apollo era then you had a hand in…

Loving is a film that shares a few things in common with A United Kingdom. They are both based on true stories and at the centre of each film you have a married, interracial couple who just want to live together as husband wife and leave the politics out of the bedroom. Loving is a…

When we think of an “Australian story” the ones that typically spring to mind are predominantly about the country, bush or the past. So what is a reader to do when they want something that reflects their own modern life in the Western suburbs of Sydney? Thankfully, Peter Polites has answered this in his debut…

Porn is a big business. In just six years the planet has watched over a million years’ worth of videos and 100 billion pages are visited and streamed annually. But is there a dark side to the industry? Ovidie, a French journalist and former porn-star attempts to answer this question in her documentary film, Pornocracy,…

As Donald Trump continues promoting his idea of building a wall between the US and Mexico it’s heartening to see that there are some people taking a different approach. Through The Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film is a documentary about a land art installation that attempted to reinforce the notion that borders are an…

Kalinka (Au nom de ma fille) is a French film that is based on the real-life events surrounding the Kalinka Bamberski case. It’s a dark and suspenseful thriller about one man’s dogged determination for justice. It’s a fight that spans multiple decades and traverses a couple of different country’s borders with the pure aim of…

David Stratton is the doyen of Australian cinema. He is a respected film critic who has watched in excess of 25,000 films, peed on Fellini and entertained Australians for decades through his movie reviews with sparring partner Margaret Pomeranz. David Stratton: A Cinematic Life is a documentary about his life and brilliant career and is…

Miss Sloane could be renamed, “Ms Stone.” The film is about an ambitious and icy woman who acts as a lobbyist for a firm that is advocating on behalf of a gun control bill in the States. It’s a tense, political drama with as many power-plays, twists, turns and slights of hand as The Ides…

There are many people who ask themselves, “What would Jesus do?” but in the case of Meshel Laurie, it was, “What would Buddha do?” The Australian writer, comedian and radio personality was looking towards her Buddhist faith as a way of making sense of the end of her 19 year marriage. Except that there were…

Michael Gow’s Away is one of Australia’s most popular plays and this latest production makes it easy to see why. The current Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre Production sees the play return to its second home at the Sydney Opera House (the show played here one year after it debuted at the Stables Theatre…

For most people the iconic artist, Andy Warhol is synonymous with the colourful pop art of Campbell’s soup cans, portraits of Marilyn Monroe and the record sleeves from The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones. What some people may not realise is that Andy Warhol was an accomplished commercial illustrator and draftsman who worked in…

The 9 Months That Made You is an informative and entertaining documentary series. It traces how we grow from a single cell and form into a human baby. This series is presented by Dr Michael Mosley and is produced and directed by Nicola Cook (Horizon). Through a series of excellent animations and case studies we…

There was the bride stripped bare and now there’s the dumped stripped without a care. In The Helen 100, broadcaster and writer, Helen Razer is disarmingly honest in recounting the aftermath of the breakdown of her 15-year relationship. It’s a tale that thumbs its nose at traditional, dating self-help guides and instead offers something more…

Rillington Place is a grim, biological crime drama about one of the UK’s most prolific serial killers of the 20th century and a gross miscarriage of justice. Here are five things we learned from this series, which is currently airing on BBC First. 1. Samantha Morton is a brilliant actress. Some readers will be familiar…

Cameraperson shines a light on the individual behind the camera. In this case it is cinematographer, Kirsten Johnson, a woman with some 25 years’ experience in the movie-making business. She’s also known for having worked on films like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Citizenfour, among others. Cameraperson is a documentary that lets the footage speak for itself…