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Playwright Joanna Murray-Smith pays tribute to the gift of an actor. The actor is her uncle John Bluthal who died on November 15 north of Sydney, aged 89. Bluthal was born in Poland, raised and educated in Australia and worked as an actor for stage and screen for seven decades, mostly in London. His career included lead roles in West
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The first episode of SBS’s four-part drama On the Ropes (which premiered this week) begins with an image reminiscent of Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler: a behind-the-back handheld shot tracing the steps of a person marching towards the ring. We assume this character, Amirah Al-Amir (Nicole Chamoun) is a boxer, but discover upon her arrival that
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By Shane Murphy
Tropical Fuck Storm, the latest project from Drones mainstays Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin, Erica Dunn from Mod Con/Harmony/Palm Springs and Lauren Hammel from High Tension, collaborated with promoters Hear My Eyes to present a live score to the Coen Brothers’ 2013 film No Country for Old Men this week. TFS as a rock band incorporate
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The extra half star is a generous gesture aimed at those who haven’t read the fourth instalment of the Millennium books, written by David Lagercrantz after the untimely demise of original author, Stieg Larsson. Anyone who has read the books, and particularly The Girl in the Spider’s Web, will spend much of the time caught
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Head to the cinemas while you still can. In the United States, cinema attendance plummeted to its lowest in 25 years. At home, Screen Australia’s CEO Graeme Mason said movie theatres are surviving on blockbusters alone. With streaming platforms like Netflix freeing us from the collective watching experience – anyone who loves popcorn, a choc
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The veteran rabble-rouser Michael Moore’s latest film Fahrenheit 11/9, which opened in Australian cinemas last week, begins by invoking déjà vu. The shock-doc-jock presents images of political rallies on the evening prior to the 2016 US presidential election, as people prepare for the supposedly inevitable: the election of Hillary Clinton as President of the United States.
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By Helen Razer
Australia is a wretched sunbed maintained by debt and founded in unspeakable acts of racist brutality. Even so, sometimes the old girl does us proud. One day, I’m all “this is a culturally inert toilet remarkable only for its willingness to be shat upon by empire”. And then the next? Well. There are few among
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What is more important for a filmmaker: telling an interesting story in interesting ways, or attempting to evoke the sensation that ‘you were there’? In his historical drama First Man, about the career and various NASA missions of astronaut and first man on the moon Neil Armstrong (played by a workman-like, restraint-exhibiting Ryan Gosling), director
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Daily Review presents actor Neil Pigot’s series of 60 minute podcasts in which he interviews artists from a range of disciplines about making art. In Episode Seven of Making Art he talks to academic and theatre director Julian Meyrick (co-author of the new book What Matters – Talking Value in Australian Culture) and Mark Williams (author of Falling Through
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How do you design a unique aesthetic for a sci-fi series based in the not-too-distant future? The dank, rain-clogged and violated skyline look, with city streets full of neon signs and gaudy electronica, was popularised by Blade Runner and is a common reference point – creepily beautiful and perhaps realistic, but hardly innovative. The slicker
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