March, 2019
A showcase of the unexceptional: the 2019 Berlin Film Festival
Culture / Film
This year’s offerings did little to arrest the event’s apparent decline
Culture
March, 2019
Rats, heroes and Kevin Rudd’s ‘The PM Years’
Culture / Books / Politics / Federal politics
This memoir answers some questions about his deposal and return but raises others
March, 2019
Culture / Art
The Australian artist opens up on the eve of a retrospective exhibition
February, 2019
Streaming highlights: February 2019
Culture / Television
Adolescent antiheroes in ‘Sex Education’ and ‘Pen15’, Eric Bana shines darkly in ‘Dirty John’, new ‘Counterpart’, and the irreverent charm of ‘Russian Doll’
Most Popular
➊ A showcase of the unexceptional: the 2019 Berlin Film Festival
This year’s offerings did little to arrest the event’s apparent decline
➋ Streaming highlights: February 2019
Adolescent antiheroes in ‘Sex Education’ and ‘Pen15’, Eric Bana shines darkly in ‘Dirty John’, new ‘Counterpart’, and the irreverent charm of ‘Russian Doll’
➌ ‘Manus’: troubling and obligatory viewing
An Iranian play brings stories of Australia’s offshore detention centres to the Adelaide Festival
Books
February, 2019
‘Zebra and Other Stories’ by Debra Adelaide
Difficult-to-grasp characters populate this new collection
February, 2019
‘Exploded View’ by Carrie Tiffany
This new novel is most striking in how it diverges from its predecessors
February, 2019
On Louise Adler, academic publishing and cultural barbarism
The debate about MUP has been remarkable for its intellectual poverty
December, 2018
Welcome to The Summer Library: selected extracts from the best new books this summer
December, 2018
Welcome to The Summer Library: selected extracts from the best new books this summer
December, 2018
Welcome to The Summer Library: selected extracts from the best new books this summer
Music
February, 2019
Clicks, plinks, hoots and thuds: Matmos’s ‘Plastic Anniversary’
The American experimental duo embrace the ‘sounds’ of a ubiquitous material
February, 2019
The Monthly music wrap: February 2019
On the precarious state of live music in NSW and the impact of proposed festival-licensing laws
February, 2019
Pete Shelley’s Buzzcocks: 40 years on
The history and legacy of a punk pioneer
November, 2018
Female fandom and Jessica Leski’s ‘I Used to be Normal’
They’ve been dismissed and patronised, but Beatlemaniacs, Directioners and other fangirls are very self-aware about their boy band ‘affliction’
November, 2018
The Monthly music wrap: November 2018
A festive EP from Tyler, the Creator; new releases from Anderson .Paak, Mariah Carey and cupcakKe; and David Byrne live
October, 2018
A bigger, shinier cage: Julia Holter’s ‘Aviary’
A classically schooled composer seeks shelter from the cacophony of modern life
Film
February, 2019
‘Stan & Ollie’: a beautiful lie
Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are perfectly cast in this affectionate biopic
February, 2019
Natalie Portman grapples with celebrity’s demons in this unconvincing film
February, 2019
‘Capharnaüm’: giving voice to the voiceless
Nadine Labaki on what motivated her exploration of turmoil’s impact on children
January, 2019
At last: Claire Denis’ ‘Let the Sunshine In’
Juliette Binoche is luminous in this funny and lucid portrait of desire
December, 2018
The lady vanishes: ‘The Beehive’ at Sydney Festival
Zanny Begg and Philippa Bateman on their enigmatic film that explores the unsolved disappearance of Juanita Nielsen
December, 2018
Alfonso Cuarón’s masterful ‘Roma’
This Academy Award favourite elevates the domestic to the monumental
Television
February, 2019
Lena Dunham’s new comedy series is an accidental portrait of toxic femininity
February, 2019
A bug in the code: ‘Russian Doll’
This existential comedy is 2019’s first must-see Netflix series
February, 2019
This Scottish–Australian drama successfully subverts the missing-child genre
December, 2018
‘The Little Drummer Girl’: a masterclass in subterfuge
‘Oldboy’ director Park Chan-wook takes on a le Carré spy drama, with genre-rattling results
December, 2018
‘My Brilliant Friend’ breaks the spell
The television adaptation lacks the all-consuming magic of Elena Ferrante’s novels
November, 2018
The magnificently messy ‘House of Cards’
The show that made Netflix a major player comes to a satisfying and ludicrous end
Art
February, 2019
Ahead of a major survey at the Art Gallery of SA, the artist talks about the anxiety that informs his work
February, 2019
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili: ‘From my Heart and Mind’
Thinking is feeling in this exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
February, 2019
The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at QAGOMA
Politics, culture and colour collide in Brisbane
December, 2018
‘Primavera 2018: Young Australian Artists’ at the MCA
This exhibition of the up-and-coming asks complex questions about who we are
November, 2018
‘Masters of Modern Art from the Hermitage’ at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
From Matisse to Malevich: a considered snapshot of adventurous Russian collecting
November, 2018
William Kentridge at the Art Gallery of NSW
This exhibition gives rare insight into the boundlessly curious artist’s process
Theatre
February, 2019
Barrie Kosky’s reimagined ‘The Magic Flute’ heads for Australia
The director on why his film-inspired production almost didn’t happen
January, 2019
Ned Kelly as you’ve never seen him before
Composer Luke Styles on his opera that casts the bushranger in a new light
December, 2018
Performing philosophy: ‘La Passion de Simone’ at the Sydney Festival
The creatives behind this Sydney Chamber Opera production on the extreme empathy of Simone Weil
October, 2018
Eddie Perfect goes to Broadway
The Australian composer has two musicals – ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘King Kong’ – opening in New York
October, 2018
Geoff Sobelle is making a house a ‘Home’ at Sydney Festival
The creator of this participatory performance is keen for the audience to add their own stories
October, 2018
‘Watt’ at the Melbourne International Arts Festival
Beckett’s knotty novel is masterfully interpreted for stage by Barry McGovern
Dance
September, 2018
Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company is bringing light and shade to Australia
A conversation with members of the Italian company ahead of their tour to Brisbane
June, 2018
Bangarra’s latest production explores Aboriginal Australians’ sophisticated farming practices
December, 2017
Dance and the digital: An interview with Wayne McGregor
The Sydney Festival-bound show’s choreographer loves mixing the body with technology
July, 2017
‘Bennelong’ by Bangarra Dance Theatre
Sydney Opera House (touring Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne)
July, 2015
Body Electric’s jazz ballet for adults
September, 2014
The best of Australian arts 2014
Critics give their picks for the year’s top ten
Architecture
June, 2018
Two worlds at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale
The consumption of space, land and habitat is Australia’s focus at the world’s pre-eminent architecture event
June, 2018
A new four-day tour in Tasmania is owned and guided by Aboriginal people
September, 2017
Beautiful on the outside … the tragedy of Bennelong Point
May, 2017
Brutalist masterpiece or harbour eyesore? Sydney’s Sirius building faces an uncertain future
October, 2016
The Australian Islamic Centre is notable for what it isn’t as much as for what it is
August, 2016
Durbach Block Jaggers is a practice in argument
Fashion
November, 2017
Victoria Lee takes on the Victoria’s Secret runway
September, 2014
‘The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier’ at the National Gallery of Victoria
November, 2013
‘Modern Love: Fashion visionaries from the FIDM Museum LA’
At the Bendigo Art Gallery
June, 2013
The iconic Australian brand has a new co-owner
October, 2011
Romance was born - ‘The Oracle’, 2011
June, 2010
Fiction
November, 2017
Unfinished business: A short story
Can a young wartime couple pick up where they left off?
January, 2015
Hamish Hamilton; $32.99
November, 2014
October, 2014
The pencil and the damage done
The perverse attraction of autobiographical fiction
June, 2014
‘All the Light We Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr
HarperCollins; $29.99
March, 2014
Karl Ove Knausgaard’s ‘Boyhood Island’
The third volume of the epic autobiographical novel ‘My Struggle’
Poetry
September, 2018
Barron Field and the myth of terra nullius
How a minor poet made a major historical error
March, 2015
Clive James’ ‘Sentenced to Life’ and Les Murray’s ‘Waiting for the Past’
September, 2014
A century of Dylan Thomas
November, 2012
Meeting Ko Un
September, 2012
'Radar' by Kevin Brophy and Nathan Curnow
September, 2012
Peter Steele (1939–2012)