Movie review - "Seven Snipers" (2026) **

 Starts strongly, then gets more and more wobbly as logic holes emerge (why do they stand around so much? why don't they call for help). The film really should've been about seven snipers after Radha Mitchell. There is some Bondi casting when using more authentic military types might've been better. Some effective moments. Tim Roth looks as though he's about to fall asleep.

Movie review - "Two Years Later" (2026) **

 Feels like a decent feature rom com dragged out over eight eps - instead of subplots it adds banter. Also feels like a Melbourne show, with its lockdown trauma. Nice photography and a genuine sense of catharsasis at the end. No chemistry between the leads who seem bored.

Movie review - "Kangaroo Island" (2025) ***

 Really sweet, well made drama about a hot mess actress (Rebecca Breeds) coming home to Kangaroo Island, dealing with her dad (Eric Thompson) born again sister (Adelaide Clemens) who is married to her ex (Joel Judge).

A flew clunky moments - a car crash happens, prompts a monologue then is over - and it doesn't quite pull all the narrative strands together, but it looks great, it's made with a lot of heart, nice acting.

Movie review - "One More Shot" (2025) **1/2

 Sweet, if over-familiar time loop comedy with Emily Browning taking shots that bring her back to the start of the night and it's New Year's Eve. Starts off a little wonkily and maybe doesn't develop all its subplots and support characters well (eg lesbian couple) but gets better as it goes along.

Movie review - "The Fall Guy" (2024) ***

 Fun, irreverent, a good time. Maybe too much up its arse with film injokes and 80s power ballads. Also Emily Blunt's character is passive until the last 30 minutes. I'm just throwing theories here.

Movie review - "Furiosa: A Max Max Saga" (2024) ***

 Sublime action, terrific technical achievement, acting very good. I can see why it wasn't a hit - this is in hindsight. There's nothing at stake. We know Furiosa will live and can guess her friend will die. But Mad Max 2-4 were about saving a group of people. That's not done here.

The opening sequence is amazing because the stakes are so huge - trying to hide the nice community. But this is dropped for the rest of the film. The movie needed to be about protecting that.

Fantastic stuff here. But some stuff could've gone - like seeing how Chris Hemsworth (excellent) rose to power. Didn't need it.

TV review - "Territory" (2024) ****

 Good, solid soap. Intergenerational. Plenty of different motivations and clashing parties. Gorgeously shot. Pretty good acting. Some slightly smelly scenes that reek of pointless rewriting but the basic story holds really well.

Movie review - "Anyone But You" (2023) ***

 An ad campaign basically bullied people into going to see it but I think a rom com was overdue and it's a respectibly budgeted movie - small ish cast - about attractive people in nice locations. Glen Powell and Sydney McSweeney give off supporting actor vibes but their game and good looking, both keen to strip in a good cause, it's very well directed by Will Gluck, the plotting is contrived but there are bright lines, it's a good ad for Australia.

Movie review - "Late Night with the Devil" (2023) ***1/2

 Great premise, well executed, done with style, smarts and humour. Very well acted - I particularly liked Ian Bliss' smarmy sceptic and Josh Quong Tart's producer. Loved the period detail. Slow burn horror but solid bangs and pleasing finale. I thought of Carrie.

TV review - "The Artful Dodger Pilot" (2023) ***1/2

 Classy, entertaining and lots of fun. Impressive production design. Liked it a lot.

TV review - "Fisk Season Two" (2022) ****

 Even better. Tightly plotted. More warm. Occasionally still prone to go OTT eg the current affairs plot I didn't like. But a real family feel.

TV review - "Fisk - Season One" (2021) ***1/2

 Very, warm, accurate look at life in a suburban probate firm. In hindsight a great ABC show because it's about older people and dying. Kitty Flanagan is an engaging lead. Occasionally the playing of the guests is a little broad and there's a few too many unresolved plot strands - the latter issue would be fixed for the second season.

Movie review - "Elvis" (2022) ***

The unique vision of Baz Luhrmann/Catherine Martin adapts well to the Elvis story, with its low rent, tin pan origins (carnivals, appropriated culture, hayrides), and high rent kitsch (Vegas). Austin Butler does fine in an  impossible role. He mimics Elvis as well as I guess anyone can - but he's not the real thing and isn't as charismatic. But then no one can.

Tom Hanks' make up takes getting used to. I never did. He's always a cartoon. Richard Roxbrough and Helen Thompson score strongly as Elvis' parents.

The research felt wikipedia deep in terms of script - not in production design. It kind of is about the Colonel and Elvis but then the Colonel takes a step back for slabs of running time and it becomes about the beauty of Dacre Montgomery - and then Luke Bracey gets all these close ups as one of Elvis' gang (though he doesn't do anything). Priscilla is in there, worried, and that's it - no cheating on Elvis with the karate instructor in this one, but I know they needed .

Bright, bubbly, a spectacle. It got wearying after a while. This needed an intermission more than Australia did.

Play review - "Crunch Time' by David Williamson (2020)

Williamson's last play to date, I think. 

Mixed feelings. 

Great idea - rich man dying, wants to make amends with kid. Younger Dave would've gone for it full throttle - done King Lear (which Williamson adapted in the 70s), a rich monster tormented here by his greedy kids. He could've drawn on his own experience of blended families - the first wife, etc. A version of The Great Man where the Great Man is alive. Something like that.

But, no.

Here it's just two kids, both sons. One's a bit of a smart talking pants man, the other a nerd. Nerd is so bitter about having been fired by dad, justifiably, he doesn't let his father see his grandchildren. This makes the nerd a major fuckwit but I think we're meant to empathise.

Female characters are thin, even for Dave - gold digging faithless shrew (nerd's wife), cuckolded woman (smooth talker's wife), faithful well educated Kristin substitute (tycoon's wife). The word "tart" gets trotted out. Does this get a big laugh?

A promising subplot about the nerd rooting his brother's wife is hinted at but not done - why not have them have sex? It would've given the piece more point.

Tremendous potential here. The father dying painfully and wanting the kids to assist kill him - that's very good. The scene where he dies is powerful - this is good writing.

Not so good is the fact so much of it consists of short scenes and the action is told in chronological fashion. This all could have played out in two scenes - asking for help to die and then dying with all the exposition played out. Did Williamson lose interest in long scenes?

The euthanasia stuff is fresh. The regretful patriarch is tired as is the sooky son. A great play in here if only Williamson was forced to do a few more drafts.

Movie review - "Ticket to Paradise" (2022) **1/2

 I enjoyed this but I saw it on a plane which is maybe the best way. But it's got funny lines, pretty scenery, treats Bali culture with respect (even if it was shot in Australia) and most of all the high wattage star power of Julia Roberts and George Clooney, both getting on but both still have It.

Frustrating things abound - why not give Billie Lourd a subplot? Why not have a woman chase Clooney? Kaitlyn Dever, a brilliant actor, never seems in to her finace. 

But a fun time. And I did like the reason why they broke up i.e. their dream house burnt down. That's a traumatic event. It gave hope that maybe they could make it work again - as opposed to some insolvable inherent problem.

Movie review - "True Spirit" (2023) **

 Sweet film based on the Jessica Watson story. Tegan Croft is very likable as Watson, Josh Lawson and Anna Paquin and some other actors hang around the house as her parents, Cliff Curtis is a crusty mentor. Todd Lasance is a smarmy journo.

It's hard to make an engaging film about a solo sailor, let along one where everyone has to be nice because they're based on real people, but it's heart is in the right place and it's nice to have a family you can watch with your little daughter.

TV review - "Colin from Accounts" (2022) ****

 Funny, lovely, warm rom com which doesn't overstay its welcome (I would've liked to have met her dad). Very well done.

Movie review - "The Interceptor" (2022) **

 Plenty of cheese and high spirits in this cheerful Die Hard in on a se platform with Elsa Pataky having a high old time as a soldier who winds up as America's last hope when a secret American base containing missiles to intercept nukes is taken over by baddies led by Luke Bracey.

Familiar Oz actors like Rhys Muldoon, Colin Friels and Zoe Carides flesh out the support cast.

Play review - "Family Values" by David Williamson (2020)

Its heart is in the right place. Nice to see an elder statesman playwright engaging in contemporary politics. Some funny lines - I especially love the dispute over lego. It has one of the best concepts of a Williamson play: a conservative judge finds his birthday party interrupted when his daughter drags in a fugitive refugee. The right audience would love this.

I found it terrible. One of Williamson's worst. People just spout things as if culled from the opinion pages of The Age. No nuance. Not even that much research, it seems. A lot of speeches. A lot of re-used tropes and characters: the lesbian sister and Christian brother was in Brilliant Lives for instance, a far better play which could dramatise the issue. It's on the nose to which you could argue "well it's just that sort of play" but then there's the lovely lego stuff and the mixture jars. The refugee is a 2020 noble savage (i.e. perfect only this case a medical student). Characters applauded speeches.

I did appreciate it mostly took place in real time and had decent suspense - the refugee turning up, the wife of one of the daughters working for Border Force. And this play has received some excellent reviews. It just wasn't for me.

Documentary review - "The Test: A New Era for Australia's Team" (2020) ***

I'm a cricket fan so I was always going to like it, but I didn't love it. Far too often it was too close to The Office with Justin Langer as David Brent walking around spouting philosophies and talking about being a good bloke and giving speech after speech and basically trying to turn coaching cricket into coaching AFL. Good on him for exposing himself I guess - those poor players having to watch all that talking.

There is some decent access which is interesting - I loved every scene of a batsman throwing his bat across the dressing room after being dismissed (Shaun Marsh, Dave Warner, Aaron Finch).

Tim Paine and Finch come across as grown men. Steve Smith comes across as a talented child. Zampa and Stoinis are funny - I wish there had been more of them. Mitch Marsh seems like a lot of fun. Shaun Marsh seems like a nice guy. I came away with more respect for Khwaja. Travis Head seems sensible.

There's notable omissions. No Greg Chappell. No discussion of the favouritism Langer showed his pets. Very little talk about sandpapergate.

There's tantalising glimpses of a bigger story. David Saker tentatively offering some criticism (he would eventually resign). Trevor Hohns hanging around. The really, really, really large support staff - I mean what to do they all do? Langer asking for honest feedback from his staff - whose jobs depend on him don't they? Does performance manager Dene Hills ever run data on how Australia collapse when they have a number six who averages 30 with the bat.

Too much of it was like a stock doco - cutting from talking heads (including people like Gerard Whatley and Gideon Haigh) back to news footage, stock standard narrative.

I mean, I'll take it. I just wish it was better. I get things were off limits but even just letting the camera roll in the change rooms for longer periods would have been better. You get the feeling there were notes "let's not bore them" so they shoved in talking heads when sitting back and letting the action talk would have been better.