Review
Frightfully ugly endurance test
DAVID STRATTONIt’s been billed as a new classic in horror, but Darren Aronofsky’s new film mother! is pretentious and overwrought.
Gyllenhaal’s awkward TV demand
Alex MorrisMaggie Gyllenhaal and David Simon were having lunch when she told him she wanted to masturbate on television.
Love match
Philippa HawkerDespite the pressures of portraying tennis icon Billie Jean King, Emma Stone found much she could identify with.
Pauline’s ups, downs and ups
Ross FitzgeraldAn intriguing book based on a revealing documentary canvasses Pauline Hanson’s fluctuating political fortunes.
More than a knockout
GRAEME BLUNDELLWhy is the ABC axing its most popular locally commissioned show?
Grandkids: perfect politicians
Greg SheridanPolitics is for infants; the smaller the infant, the better the politician.
Heart and soul
Stephen RomeiTwo low-budget local films are worth seeing, for what’s on the screen and the force behind them.
A hope to reconnect and resolve
Eddie CockrellLook Me in the Eye, hosted by Ray Martin, explores what happens when two people, alienated from one another for years, come face-to-face again.
Court in the act
JANE CORNWELLThe audience is the jury in Terror, a new courtroom drama exploring moral dilemmas of the age of terror.
Climate ripe for bold debate
Paul MonkA solvable apocalypse, a political environmental slant and reef concerns: three climate views add to the torrent.
The power of illusion
Nick Park’s Aardman studio is the master of turning plasticine into engaging adventures.
At home with the Bard
EMILY RITCHIEA reimagined Globe Theatre has popped up in Melbourne and is set to delight Shakespeare fans.
Moyet resurrection
Iain SheddenFrom earsplitting punk bands to 1980s pop stardom, Alison Moyet is now enjoying her musical freedom.
Naturally perfect crop
Matthew WestwoodPeter Dombrovskis’ large-format photographs are wonders of landscape photography that also document the wilderness.
Wild One’s wild suit
Bronwyn WatsonRock ’n’ roll star Johnny O’Keefe knew the importance of flamboyant costume in establishing his celebrity.
Across the Celtic spectrum
TONY HILLIERGo-to flute/whistle man Mike McGoldrick and acoustic guitarist John Doyle link opposite flanks of the Celtic spectrum.
Poets waste time if no rhyme?
Stephen RomeiOur readers have spoken: and they do not like the trend for poetry that doesn’t rhyme.
Under water
Sian PowellGhosts of the Tsunami features a series of stories about a nation savagely pummelled by nature at its most brutal.
The Cold War Olympiad
Gideon Haigh‘The Friendly Games’ of 1956 seethed with seedy politics, secret agendas and desperate dreams of freedom.
Rushdie’s satire takes us away
Malcolm ForbesIn Salman Rushdie’s 13th novel, set in New York, he reins in fantastical flourishes and resumes his grip on reality.
Wily statesman all but forgotten
Troy BramstonAlfred Deakin is one of Australia’s most important and consequential political figures, but is sorely misunderstood.
Our weather obsession
Fiona WrightWeather is no longer just the backdrop for our experiences and lives. Now more than ever, it’s shaping everything.
Fresh insights into plants
Simon CatersonTerrifying triffids were one view of plant evolution, but plants may indeed be more animated than we think
Soccer’s rise in step with modern nation
David BrearleyAustralian soccer is in a golden age, but how did it overcome the false dawns and frustrated passions of the past?
Colonial labour comes to life
Babette SmithGiving birth during Australia’s colonial age — on land and at sea — was fraught with danger.
Home fires, flights of fancy
Thuy OnHarriet McKnight knits together narratives of two women under duress and writes of incapacitating disease with insight.
Harrowing portrait of a childhood lost
Peter PierceGarry Disher’s Her is a taut, often horrifying portrait of a childhood lost in an often wicked adult world.
A collective disappearing act
Ed WrightShaun Prescott’s The Town is not the kind of writing that invests in the aesthetic luxury of its individual sentences.
Click go the shares
EMILY RITCHIELocal filmmakers are taking the world by storm, with their YouTube offerings putting them on the fast track to fortune.
Comic hero’s space race
PHILIPPA HAWKERChris Hemsworth wanted to take Thor, god of thunder, in a new direction: the result is a comic surprise.
Meet Dave, rock dad
DAVE GROHLI’m still changing diapers at 48 years old. One kid wants her nose pierced, one is in diapers.
The president and the also-ran
Andrew BroertjesThe political lives of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to provide work for pundits, writers and historians.
Ironing out smart casual doubts
DEIRDRE MACKENSmart casual is such a relative term that the invitation may as well say: Take a punt, nobody else will get it right.
Portrait of a prize
GRAEME BLUNDELLThe Archibald takes us behind the scenes of our most controversial annual art event.
Second take on teenage chills
Stephen RomeiThe more I have thought about the new remake of Stephen King’s It, the more unsettled I feel.
Royal affair with true intent
DAVID STRATTONThere’s scandal in the royal court as Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with an Indian Muslim.
Review Editorial
Battle of sexes not over yet
Tim DouglasEmma Stone as Billie Jean King sheds light on a fascinating era in history, one that still has a long way to go.
MORE STORIES
From the east with love
Philippa HawkerAn Australian’s passion for Czech and Slovak cinema delivers a unique film festival.
Thoughtful director’s final cut
Philippa HawkerTo producer Melanie Coombs, filmmaker Cris Jones, who died suddenly this month, “was the best-read person I ever met”.
Late-career cult success, dies
THE TIMESThere is much of Harry Dean Stanton in the character he portrayed in Wim Wenders’s Paris, Texas.
‘We’ve lost a great man’
Amos AikmanDr G Yunupingu has been farewelled at a ceremony in Darwin that included a tribute from the Queen and cultural performances.
Soaring with a Romantic’s strength
Graham StrahleUnder Nicholas Carter, the Adelaide Symphony’s performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No 4, Romantic, was one to savour.
Light shone on shady Caravaggios
Tom KingtonA museum in Rome teams with fashion house Fendi to sort fake Caravaggios from the real thing.
Rape of country’s riches writ large
MEREDITH BOOTHIndonesian artist Maryanto says his landscapes are designed to intimidate audiences and make them feel dirty.
Nic conquers the small screen
Justin BurkeNicole Kidman stood on stage in LA to accept her first Emmy award and immediately evoked home for her Hollywood peers.