Arts and culture
No Other Land isn’t what it seems
The Oscars, an institution that claims to celebrate artistic excellence, this week played a leading role in a sophisticated and…
Netflix’s ‘With Love, Meghan’ is surreally dull
My experience of Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex and Muchness of Montecito, has I imagine been quite a common one.…
Netflix’s ‘With Love, Meghan’ is Brand Sussex’s final hope
So here it is, the undistinguished thing, at last. I had hopes that, after its postponement because of the Californian…
In every kind of film
The fact that the eminent Irish actor Stephen Rea is doing Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at the Adelaide Festival from…
Cinema doesn’t have to be stuck in a loop
If you’ve recently been to the cinema or turned on your streaming platform of choice, no doubt you’ll have been…
Knowing how to cast
Simone Young conducted Mahler’s Third at the Opera House on Wednesday 19 February and with its dense lyricism, its lush…
Newsreader fascinates
It’s a fascinating thing that The Newsreader is back on ABC iview. This is the soap about a couple of…
Bridget Jones is no feminist
Bridget Jones isn’t what she used to be. The latest film, Mad About the Boy, features Bridget as a grieving widow…
The perfect genius of P.G. Wodehouse’s ‘never-never land’
Pelham Grenville (PG – or Plum) Wodehouse breathed his last on Valentine’s Day fifty years ago. As Evelyn Waugh saw…
Sweeping exit
It will be fascinating to see what Jamie Martín, the head of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, makes of Mahler’s Second…
It ain’t me, Bob
It’s always a bit extraordinary how much an art form lives on the legends it has created. Everyone is looking…
Nothing like a Dame
Art takes every possible shape and size. The exhibition of Japanese ukiyo-e prints (running at the National Gallery of Australia…
Classical music is worth the effort
Last week I attended a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.3 at the Barbican Centre in the City of London. Gustavo…
What made David Lynch cool
When one of your favourite filmmakers dies, it is hard not to feel a deeply personal sense of loss; the…
Pacific Paradise Lost
Back in the childhoods of the baby boomers everyone seemed to know that Shakespeare was born in 1564 because there…
The triumph and tragedy of Tony Slattery
Tony Slattery was outrageously funny. And he was funny because he was outrageous. The actor and comedian, who died yesterday…
Thrillers
It’s funny the preconceptions you have about the Christmas/New Year period. I hadn’t anticipated seeing Juror #2 the new Clint…
Summer Reading
There are a thousand ways of celebrating the Christmas holiday that are culture specific but have a universal appeal. You…
The triumph of When Harry Met Sally
Look at any list of the ‘greatest ever romcoms’ and you’ll find When Harry Met Sally near the top of…
Pulp have always been in the wrong place at the wrong time
Pulp, the legendary band fronted by Jarvis Cocker, have revealed that they’ve signed a new recording deal with equally legendary…
Take it easy on a long, hot summer
It’s a strange time, the summer holidays in Australia. Some people have riveting memories of Boxing Day tests, of Australian…
The most immodest thing
So they’re having another go at removing the varnish and the accumulated dark oiliness and other accretions from that most…
Drunk in a midnight choir
Biography can create the most heightened sense of drama. Just at the moment SBS On Demand is showing a streamer…
Such grandeur in the mind
There’s always something breathtaking about the prices great art can fetch but the sale of Leonardo’s ‘Salvator Mundi’ at Christie’s…
Striving of the individual soul
The Australian Ballet seems to have had a smash hit with Oscar. Not only did the ballet, choreographed by Christopher…
