Five Stars

Sundance Film Festival Review: Mayday is a wonderfully unique, genre-shifting ode to female resilience

Do you know how it feels to describe a dream? A moment where you are not really sure what you just witnessed and yet you remember seeing certain things and oddly enough, you remember feeling everything about it? That is basically how it feels like watching Mayday, the feature-length directorial debut by writer/director Karen Cinorre….

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Skyglow

Book Review: Lose yourself in Leslie Thiele’s short story collection Skyglow

A woman adjusts to her new urban landscape. A slaughterman comes to terms with the death of his wife. A rodeo ringer blows into town, wreaking havoc. These are just a handful of the eclectic characters, locations, and stories that come gloriously together in Leslie Thiele‘s recent collection Skyglow. Bouncing from the past to the…

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Ball Park Music

Album of the Week: Ball Park Music are back and bloody glorious on their new self titled LP (2020 LP)

There’s a strange level of satisfaction reviewing a new album for such a universally loved band like Ball Park Music. It’s like listening to the news that your best friends are getting married, that you’re going to become a parent for the first time or that the coronavirus has been eradicated. It’s pure, unadulterated excitement,…

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TIFF Review: The magnificently mesmerizing Wolfwalkers will have audiences howling with joy

Whenever one thinks of animation studios, the main ones one would think of would be either Disney and Pixar from the West and Studio Ghibli overseas. Then on the lesser known side, there would be studios like Laika and Aardman studios. But there is one that is even more obscure and that is called the…

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TIFF Review: Shiva Baby is one of the funniest films of 2020

Rachel Sennott stars as Danielle, a young bisexual Jewish woman, traipsing through life going through a phase of self-defeat as she essentially performs sex work for money; all under the guise of sexual empowerment excused by her gender studies degree. The mindset of Danielle is set up in a succinctly and hilariously tired fashion as she has sex with her…

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The Mother Fault

Book Review: Kate Mildenhall’s The Mother Fault is deservedly one of this year’s most hyped Australian novels

In an indeterminate future Australia where everything is run by The Department, Mim’s husband, Ben, goes missing. Unable to track him using the technology that all citizens are fitted with, members of The Department begin asking questions. They claim to be concerned for his welfare, but they take Mim’s passport and those of her two…

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The Spill

Book Review: Imbi Neeme’s The Spill explores the ins and outs of family ties

Imbi Neeme‘s debut novel The Spill was released in June, in the midst of a pandemic. Rather than despairing at the changed world of publishing that her first novel was born into, Neeme embraced the challenges and opportunities that this brought. She has since launched a campaign to support those Victorian Writers who, like herself, were…

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The Vanishing Half

Book Review: Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half is every bit as good as promised

The release of Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half early last month was met with great excitement, with the book quickly becoming a bestseller. Bennett’s sophomore novel is the story of the Vignes twins, Stella and Desiree, who grow up in an American town called Mallard during the 1960s. There are two things to know about Mallard…

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Conjure Women

Book Review: Afia Atakora delivers a cautionary tale about the narratives of history in Conjure Women

Set in the years immediately preceding and immediately after the American Civil War, Afia Atakora‘s debut novel Conjure Women is an exploration of both what it meant to be a woman and what it meant to be a slave in the Antebellum South. Conjure Women is the story of Rue, a ‘conjure woman’ in a small community made up…

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Momentum True Wireless 2

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 Review: The best wireless earbuds yet?

There are now some fantastic choices if you’re in the market for a pair of truly wireless earbuds. Apple has the Airpods Pro, Sony have their excellent WF-1000xm3 (review here), Bang & Olufsen is still having fun putting out new colourways of the E8 (review here), and there are some promising pieces coming from Bose…

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The Rich Man's House

Book Review: Man and nature collide in Andrew McGahan’s final work, The Rich Man’s House

South of Tasmania sits The Wheel. It is the largest mountain in the world, almost triple the height of Everest. Accompanied by a small island, complete with its own formidable peak, The Wheel has been conquered by only one man – American billionaire climber Walter Richman. It’s been more than fifty years since Richman stood…

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Fauna

Book Review: Donna Mazza makes a spectacular return with Fauna

It’s been thirteen years since WA writer, Donna Mazza, won the prestigious City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford award for her novel, The Albanian. But her second book, Fauna, out earlier this year through Allen and Unwin was certainly worth the wait. Set in 2037, in an Australia which shows only subtle differences from our own,…

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Euphoria Kids

Book Review: Alison Evans’ YA fantasy Euphoria Kids is a stunning contemporary fairytale

Iris, Babs, and the boy without a name. One from the earth, one made of fire, and one who isn’t quite sure what he’s made of just yet. For this trio, navigating school and family life should have been enough. But there’s trouble brewing. Iris, who counts the faeries and dryads amongst their friends, is…

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Akin

Book Review: Emma Donoghue’s Akin is a historical story told from the present day

Akin is Emma Donoghue’s tenth novel for adults, but only her second set in the modern day. Known by most readers for her 2010 novel, Room, Donoghue has published countless novels which examine little known pockets of history, such as 2014’s Frog Music and 2016’s The Wonder. At first glance, Akin is something entirely different to Donoghue’s back catalogue, including…

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Book Review: Helen Garner’s Yellow Notebook is an exhilarating look inside the writer’s mind

Helen Garner is a Virginia Woolf fan. This is especially apparent in her latest release, Yellow Notebook: Diaries Volume 1 1978-1987. Woolf once said, “Examine for a moment an ordinary mind on an ordinary day. The mind receives a myriad impressions – trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with a sharpness of steel.” This quote amply…

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Book Review: Emily Paull makes an assured and emotive debut with short story collection Well-Behaved Women

An expert free-diver disappears while training with her son. An unlikely Blanche DuBois makes her theatrical debut. A group of teens head to a music festival. And two young women run away together. These are just some of the tales that make up Well-Behaved Women, the debut short story collection from Perth writer Emily Paull….

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Book Review: Meg Mundell’s The Trespassers shows a dystopian future with links to Australia’s past and present

You might be forgiven for thinking that there are echoes of the past in Meg Mundell’s newest novel, The Trespassers, as a boatload of British folk board a boat bound for Australia to escape overcrowing, unemployment and disease at home. Instead, it’s the not-too-distant future. Among the passengers are our three protagonists: Cleary, nine years old and…

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Live Review: The Teskey Brothers + Harmony Byrne – Metro Theatre, Sydney (03.11.19)

There’s a strange level of community in country and blues music. It’s not the genre of music I’d listen to the most. But, every time I head along to a gig by a band playing this type of music, I’m bound to walk away after ninety minutes with a big dumb smile on my face…

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MIFF Review: Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a brimming, hot-blooded and passionate romance at its best

French director Céline Sciamma is one of the best writer/directors in French Cinema working today. She specializes in coming-of-age dramas and this reviewer has been a fan of her work ever since he saw her film Tomboy. From fantastic directorial work like her directorial debut Water Lilies and her prior film Girlhood to stellar screenwriting…

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Album of the Week: Angie McMahon’s Salt (2019 LP) is the sound of an artist demanding to be listened to and heard

When I first saw Angie McMahon about this time in 2017, you sensed there was something special about this unassuming artist standing behind her guitar and microphone. In support of The Jezabels at Sydney’s Lansdowne Hotel, Angie was fresh off the back of being crowned that year’s winner of the Josh Pyke Partnership for up…

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Film Review: Booksmart is so damn good, you’d want to rub your face in it

The fact that the existence of another raunchy teen comedy — jam-packed with sex, drugs and alcohol — may not mean much but it has been a very long time since I have heard this much hype for a comedy such as Booksmart. Ever since its premiere at this year’s South by Southwest, it has…

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Parasite

Film Review: Parasite is a spectacularly insidious film you would want to latch on to

Director Bong Joon-ho is one of cinema’s most eclectic filmmakers working today. What makes his work stand out so much is his assured directorial hand in mixing genres that usually do not associate with each other and yet somehow, he executes them brilliantly. But no matter what genre he works in, he always manages to…

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Sydney Film Festival Review: Pain and Glory (Spain, 2019) is one of Pedro Almodovar’s best films

Viva Almodovar! If that opening didn’t clue you in, I am a huge fan of the work of acclaimed Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar. His filmmaking is an extravagant blend that is both wondrously idiosyncratic and entertainingly melodramatic; capped off with a colourfully vibrant eye. Even his supposedly disappointing films have won me over time,…

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Book Review: Omar Sakr’s The Lost Arabs is an intimate, passionate and timely collection of poetry

Omar Sakr’s The Lost Arabs was one of my most anticipated new releases for the year. It has more than lived up to expectations, which isn’t always the case. It’s intimate, vibrant, beautifully composed and engages creatively and powerfully with a whole host of concerns and themes intrinsic to understanding the modern world.  The Lost…

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Sydney Film Festival Review: The Souvenir (UK, 2019) is one of the best films of 2019

Before I start off this review, it must be said that I have not seen any of the works by director Joanna Hogg. It wasn’t due to any prior indiscretions, rather my personal ignorance. But upon hearing the massive amounts of praise from festivals and critics all over the world for her latest film, The…

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Vivid Live Review: Maggie Rogers – Sydney Opera House (29.05.19)

Normally when I write an article about a gig I’ve seen, a lot of what I talk about is very subjective to my own experience. I’m sure there’s been times where I’ve written things that others haven’t agreed with. This article isn’t going to be one of them. What follows is totalling and utterly objective:…

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Live Review: Ruel + Genesis Owusu – Sydney Opera House (16.05.19)

Pure pandemonium took over the Sydney Opera House on Thursday when sixteen-year-old pop protégé Ruel graced the stage. The electricity of nervous girls was reminiscent of the One Direction Up All Night concert tour when the boy band first blessed Australian shores. Needless to say, Ruel’s trajectory is looking to be a similar superstardom with…

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Book Review: Spotlight on the girl from Botany Bay in Meg Keneally’s Fled

Meg Keneally may have a literary giant for a father, but her career speaks for itself.  Beginning her working life as Junior Public Affairs Officer at the Australian Consulate-General in New York, she has worked as a sub-editor and freelance features writer in Dublin, as a journalist at the Daily Telegraph in Australia, as a talkback…

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Live Review: Basement Jaxx vs. The Metropolitan Orchestra bring the Baroque Bangers to the Sydney Opera House

Contemporary act-plus-orchestra shows aren’t a new phenomenon in rock, with arena-size bands churning out orchestral projects since the 80’s; an attempt at legitimising corporate rock, re-selling already existing albums and making mums proud. With dance music reaching maturity, EDM acts and DJs are beginning to jump on the bandwagon as their audiences age and new…

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Theatre Review: West Side Story‘s limited run in Melbourne highlights why it is still the best of the best

Widely regarded as one of the greatest musicals of all time, the original 1957 production of West Side Story stunned audiences and changed the game for American musical theatre going forward. Since then there have been a multitude of productions focused on retelling this timeless story to new audiences. In 1961 it received a film…

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