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The unexpected depths of Netflix’s ‘BoJack Horseman’. Still from BoJack Horseman

The unexpected depths of Netflix’s ‘BoJack Horseman’

An animated satire about an anthropomorphic former sitcom star gets surprisingly real
Craig Mathieson
Seeing both sides in Ken Burns’ ‘The Vietnam War’. kenburns

Seeing both sides in Ken Burns’ ‘The Vietnam War’

The prolific documentarian’s new series finally acknowledges that American stories have an impact on the stories of others
Matthew Clayfield

Liveworks in review: ambitious, engrossing

The annual festival of experimental art energised Sydney’s Carriageworks over ten days
Fiona McGregor

‘The Second Woman’: a triumph of endurance theatre

Nat Randall plays a five-minute scene of attempted reconciliation – with 100 different men over 24 hours
Fiona McGregor
Arts & Letters / Books

Don’t believe the hype

Adam Greenfield’s ‘Radical Technologies’ is an essential guide to the tech revolution
Scott Ludlam
Arts & Letters / Film

Ghosts in the machine

Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Blade Runner 2049’ is maddeningly close to a classic
Shane Danielsen

Most Popular

  1. The Nation Reviewed
    Strutting & fretting
    Paul Kelly
    Strutting & fretting. Illustration by Jeff Fisher

Books

Noted
‘The Sparsholt Affair’ by Alan Hollinghurst
Picador; $32.99
Stephanie Bishop
The shape of a generous mind. Image of Oliver Sacks
Arts & Letters / Books
The shape of a generous mind
Oliver Sacks’ brilliant ideas echo on through ‘The River of Consciousness’
Kate Cole-Adams
Simon Leys, navigator between worlds. Cover of Navigator Between Worlds
Simon Leys, navigator between worlds
Reflections on one of the great essayists at the launch of a new biography
Martin Krygier
Girls and the grotesque in ‘Sour Heart’. Cover of Sour Heart
Girls and the grotesque in ‘Sour Heart’
Jenny Zhang’s short-story collection offers complex, radical versions of immigrant girlhood
Jessica Au


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Music

Drakeworld. Image of Drake
Arts & Letters / Music
Drakeworld
The exhausting omnipotence of Drake
Anwen Crawford
The Monthly music wrap: October 2017. Image of Tetsuya Umeda
The Monthly music wrap: October 2017
The intriguing Tetsuya Umeda, a marriage-equality mixtape, new releases from raven and Kelela, and Burial’s ‘Untrue’ ten years on
Anwen Crawford
Amy Winehouse, behind the beehive. Image of Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse, behind the beehive
An exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Australia pieces together missing components of the late singer’s identity
Jenny Valentish
This is not an opera house. Image of the Sydney Opera House
The Monthly Essays
This is not an opera house
Beautiful on the outside … the tragedy of Bennelong Point
Darryn King


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Film

The art of the hustle in the Safdie Brothers’ ‘Good Time’
The lo-fi New Yorkers take on a Robert Pattinson–starring genre thriller
Harry Windsor
The hope of redemption in ‘Who We Are Now’
Matthew Newton’s latest film is – appropriately – a story about facing up to the past
Shane Danielsen
Big little lies in ‘Ali’s Wedding’
Australia’s first Muslim rom-com is a shimmering, engaging romp
Steve Dow
Blurring the lines. Still from The Silent Eye
Blurring the lines
‘The Silent Eye’ is the latest of Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s films to resist easy categorisation
Lauren Carroll Harris


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Art

Two approaches to abstraction. Brent Harris, the small sword 2017, installation view, Tolarno Galleries
Two approaches to abstraction
Exhibitions by Brent Harris and Karl Wiebke reinforce how abstract painting can both beguile and explore big questions
Quentin Sprague
The possibilities of flux at the TarraWarra International . Still from Cao Fei’s Rumba II: Nomad
The possibilities of flux at the TarraWarra International
Five Australian and international artists engage with history, impermanence and decay
Quentin Sprague
The world sneaks in. Illustration
The Nation Reviewed
The world sneaks in
Take a walk through the TarraWarra Museum of Art’s International exhibition
Patrick Witton
A beautiful chaos. Illustration
The Nation Reviewed
A beautiful chaos
The Artful Dodgers Studios is a haven for young artists and musicians
Jaye Kranz


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Theatre

The strange magic of ‘Rhetorical Chorus’. Image of Rhetorical Chorus
The strange magic of ‘Rhetorical Chorus’
Agatha Gothe-Snape’s performance work interrogates and celebrates one of the great conceptual artists
Fiona McGregor
Painting the picture. Illustration
The Nation Reviewed
Painting the picture
Audio describers bring theatre to life for the vision impaired
Paul Connolly
A family in flux
Taylor Mac’s ‘HIR’ at Belvoir is not your average kitchen-sink drama
Fiona McGregor
Looking for Joseph Merrick. Image of Daniel Monks as Joseph Merrick
Looking for Joseph Merrick
Malthouse Theatre’s ‘The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man’ runs the risk of erasing its protagonist
Alison Croggon


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Dance

‘Bennelong’ by Bangarra Dance Theatre. Beau Dean Riley Smith in Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Bennelong
Noted
‘Bennelong’ by Bangarra Dance Theatre
Sydney Opera House (touring Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne)
Fiona McGregor
The Nation Reviewed
Destiny’s children
Body Electric’s jazz ballet for adults
Nikki Lusk
The best of Australian arts 2014. Tammy Wynette (2014) by Linda Marrinon
The best of Australian arts 2014
Critics give their picks for the year’s top ten
The Monthly
First contact. Jasmin Sheppard as Patyegarang
Arts & Letters / Theatre
First contact
The secret history of Bangarra Dance Theatre’s ‘Patyegarang’
Steve Dow


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Architecture

SOS. Illustration
The Nation Reviewed
SOS
Brutalist masterpiece or harbour eyesore? Sydney’s Sirius building faces an uncertain future
David Neustein
Murcutt’s mosque. Roof detail of the Australian Islamic Centre
Arts & Letters / Architecture
Murcutt’s mosque
The Australian Islamic Centre is notable for what it isn’t as much as for what it is
David Neustein
The Nation Reviewed
Compressed contemporary
Durbach Block Jaggers is a practice in argument
Erik Jensen
Twelve of a kind. Crown Sydney image
Arts & Letters / Architecture
Twelve of a kind
Why is Australia planning so many new casinos?
David Neustein


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Fashion

The artisan. Tanel Bedrossiantz, in a dress from the Jean Paul Gaultier Barbès collection, ready-to-wear, Autumn–Winter 1984–85
Arts & Letters / Fashion
The artisan
‘The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier’ at the National Gallery of Victoria
Karen de Perthuis
‘Modern Love: Fashion visionaries from the FIDM Museum LA’ . Sarah Caplan’s World Trade Center dress
Arts & Letters / Fashion
‘Modern Love: Fashion visionaries from the FIDM Museum LA’
At the Bendigo Art Gallery
Karen de Perthuis
The Nation Reviewed
RM Williams and haute couture
Karen de Perthuis
Arts & Letters / Masterpieces
Fashion masterpiece
Romance was born - ‘The Oracle’, 2011
Clare Press


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Fiction

Noted
‘Clade’ by James Bradley
Hamish Hamilton; $32.99
Michael Lucy
Josephine Rowe
Story
Sinkers
The pencil and the damage done. Self-portrait with Easel and Mirror (1646), by Johannes Gumpp
Arts & Letters / Books
The pencil and the damage done
The perverse attraction of autobiographical fiction
Ceridwen Dovey
Arts & Letters / Noted
‘Golden Boys’ by Sonya Hartnett
Penguin; $29.99
Robyn Annear


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Poetry

Arts & Letters / Poetry
Late styles
Clive James’ ‘Sentenced to Life’ and Les Murray’s ‘Waiting for the Past’
Justin Clemens
Majesty and burning. The young Dylan Thomas
Arts & Letters / Books
Majesty and burning
A century of Dylan Thomas
Kevin Rabalais
Wild Pilgrim. Ko Un, with his books
Arts & Letters / Poetry
Wild Pilgrim
Meeting Ko Un
Barry Hill
'Radar' by Kevin Brophy and Nathan Curnow. 'Radar' by Kevin Brophy and Nathan Curnow, Walleah Press; $25
'Radar' by Kevin Brophy and Nathan Curnow
Geoff Lemon


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