The entire time that I was reading Markus Zusak’s new novel, Bridge of Clay, I had Josh Pyke’s song “Feet of Clay” going around and around in my head. Perhaps, this has only strengthened my belief that the entire novel is really some sort of extended metaphor, although for what exactly I couldn’t say. One…
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Robert Ian Bonnick is a warrior. This successful man has had a career that most people could only dream of. But, what some of us may not know is that he had to overcome extreme adversity and challenges in order to get there. In his debut book, Soul Survivor, he describes his own personal rags-to-riches…
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Though he doesn’t always nail them, M Night Shyamalan deserves praise for the ending of Split: the highly successful 2016 thriller, revealed in the very final moment to be part of the same universe as 2000 alt-superhero film Unbreakable. Very few people, especially those that had no idea he was working on a sequel to…
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In 2005 Nigel Marsh wrote Fat, Forty & Fired about his year embracing life away from the office. In some ways, Jacqueline Raposo’s The Me, Without: My Year on an Elimination Diet of Modern Conveniences is cut from the same cloth. Raposo’s book is both memoir and a case study into her failed life at…
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Jennifer Lopez has a pretty spotty track record when it comes to her acting career. The last great film in the past 20 years is still Steven Soderbergh‘s crime flick Out of Sight. While she still has her charismatic and likable presence on-screen, unfortunately her choices of scripts have been quite sub-par. Apart from some…
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On a stormy night in 1809, Captain John Lacroix returns home from a disastrous campaign on the Continent. Shaken by the events he witnessed in a little Spanish village while his army retreated, he cannot bring himself to report back to his regiment when the call comes. Instead, he deserts, making his way to the…
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Inaugural novella, Echo Boom, by Jameson Ketchum has landed, with music journalist, publicist and Hopecore Magazine columnist Ketchum taking us on a diarised journey through the words and mind of fictional “writer” Edward Caspian. An over thinker to the end, Caspian, guides the reader through his twenty-nine year friendship with his friend, Giles Green, who has…
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Australia’s favourite storyteller, Di Morrissey, returns with her Twenty-sixth book, Arcadia, a modern mystery born in a timeless Tasmanian forest. Set in the 1930’s, Arcadia tells the story of a young new wife, Stella, as she arrives at her husbands isolated property in Tasmania, where she finds love and beauty nestled amongst the nearby untouched forest. The…
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Edinburgh 1847. Evie, a prostitute visited by apprentice doctor Will Raven, is dead. Raven is shaken by the discovery of her twisted corpse, and, as other victims began to appear across the city’s Old Town, he sets out to get to the bottom of the gruesome deaths. Teaming up with the fiercely determined Sarah Fisher,…
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Imagine actress Parker Posey is occupying the seat beside you on a plane, her beloved pooch Gracie on her lap. Imagine she’s feeling rather conversational. Parker Posey, that is, not Gracie. That’s the basic premise of You’re On An Airplane, the first memoir from the versatile performer and star of Dazed and Confused, the recent…
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When Claudia Carter returns home to the small town of Winston for her wedding, she is expecting chaos. She is expecting that her estranged parents won’t get along, that her sister Poppy will be a brat, and that her Aunt Mary will be a pain in the arse. But she’s put all of that aside…
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A Coveted Possession documents the popularity of the piano in Australia. Once a treasured member of the household, the piano fell out of favour once people became switched on to the likes of radio and television. Michael Atherton’s highly readable and intriguing book explores the rich cultural history behind this, at times, beloved instrument. Atherton, a professor,…
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You don’t really need to know much about The Meg aside from that it is entertaining enough to justify it’s spot on the box office. That’s the most we could ask from a movie about a gigantic prehistoric shark unwittingly released from the depths of the ocean by hapless scientists who are stationed over the…
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The average woman is said to criticise herself around eight times each day. It is in this headspace and society that a rom-com like I Feel Pretty exists. The film had the best of intentions and tries to tackle some complex topics like how hard we women can be on ourselves and the feelings of…
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I’m going to throw out a hot take – It’s tough to be a woman in comedy these days. Late night talk shows and weekly round ups are still dominated by male comics, you try to put out a new-take on an old concept with an all-female cast and unearth the wrath of legions of…
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Is there anything Dwayne Johnson can’t overcome? Earthquakes, tsunamis, oversized gorillas, Vin Diesel’s ego…the hulking man mountain has tackled them all and emerged victorious. For his latest spat with big screen-worthy roadblocks, the man no longer credited with his “Rock” moniker faces his biggest challenge yet – a skyscraper some three-times taller than the Statue…
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The average woman is said to criticise herself around eight times each day. It is in this headspace and society that a rom-com like I Feel Pretty exists. The film had the best of intentions and tries to tackle some complex topics like how hard we women can be on ourselves and the feelings of…
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Mild-mannered Sam (Jon Bernthal) is a retired rodeo champ living a quiet existence as a motel manager in a quiet Alaskan town. We get the impression that he’s not asking for much – just a space to live out his days as peacefully as he can, perhaps get to know Bernadette (Rosemarie DeWitt) a little…
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Suffragette was a film that covered the British women who protested in order to gain the right to vote. The Divine Order (Die göttliche Ordnung) is a film that covers things from a Swiss perspective. Whereas the suffrage movement happened in the UK in the early 20th century, for Switzerland it was 1971 before the…
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Mary Magdalene extends the long list of biblical film adaptations, and with it, brings a competent yet flawed look at one of the most scrutinised and controversial figures surrounding the life of Jesus Christ. While Mary Magdalene brings some refreshing aspects to the table, it also becomes the victim of its own ambition, sacrificing any…
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In Australia we had John Safran playing provocateur and spending time with white nationalists in his book, Depends What You Mean By Extremist. In the US, a SXSW documentary takes a similar approach with filmmaker, Adam Bhala Lough embedding himself with some representatives from political extremes in Alt Right: Art of Rage. The film ultimately…
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A film that appears more episodic than cohesive, The Square is an indulgent and uncomfortable piece of work from a filmmaker who’s clearly enjoying himself as he dissects human behaviour and the pretension of modern art. Excited to present his latest art installation to the public – the titular Square – chief curator at a…
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Microsoft have asked us, “Where do you want to go today?” The answer can be found in their new slogan, “Empowering us all” and in the film, Big Dream, which they helped fund. This documentary draws together the stories of several inspiring young women who are challenging the male-dominated STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths)…
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Fans of Michael Haneke and, in particular, his earlier works should take a swift and immediate liking to Happy End and stick with the patient-testing film throughout. It’s a cynical, pointed and rather sharp jab at the hypocrisy, selfishness and tragedy of droll middle-class life; well-made, beautifully acted and painstakingly (sometimes painfully) complex, although the…
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Ridley Scott made a very tough, very challenging decision in direct response to last year’s accusations of sexual assault against Kevin Spacey; he decided to pull the actor from All the Money in the World entirely, even after most of the scenes had been shot (and a trailer was released), with only a month left…
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Building King Ezekiel’s regal facade has been given little screen time on The Walking Dead. The “king” with a knack for role-playing to build a sense of escapism and confidence for his “Kingdom” only took on a pivotal role deep into last season, and with the way the show is structured the writers have had…
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“Monsters” is very much a direct continuation from last week’s “The Damned”, and on the surface that is very wise choice for The Walking Dead, treating these as installments in a wider thread rather than thematically distinctive “episodes”. This week, we were dropped right back into the all-out assault against The Saviours, coming from Team…
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Three Summers is a film that is as light and breezy as its title suggests. It’s also an ensemble comedy that is written and directed by the legendary, Ben Elton. The latter is known for his novels and the TV shows: The Young Ones and Blackadder. In Three Summers he creates a warm-hearted and well-intentioned…
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If there was Australia’s answer to the film, Play Your Gender, then Breaking The Mould is it. This music documentary includes interviews with Australian artists about their thoughts and experiences with gender in the local industry. The film is an interesting one about our history and it is something that should help shape the conversation…
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The Walking Dead hasn’t lost sight of its impressive history nor it’s central cast, and “Mercy”, the landmark 100th episode of the juggernaut survival-horror drama, is a well-rounded declaration of that. The start to what will hopefully be a return to form following a haphazard seventh season, it’s an episode imbued with the kind of…
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