Author Archives: lisathatcher

January 22

Hotel Sorrento – Hannie Ryson and Genesian Theatre examine the Cultural Cringe. (Theatre Review)

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Hotel Sorrento Genesian Theatre 18 January through to 22 February Buy tickets through the Genesian Theatre Website.      “The problem with loyalty is that you can keep on and on, living a lie. And you don’t even know you’re doing it.” Australia is not the only post-colonial country to suffer from the cultural cringe, […]

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January 21

The Unintentional Sea – Rafael Anton Irisarri and the sound of the erosion of life. (Music Review)

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Is man-made environmental tragedy suicide? If, according to Camus, suicide is an open admission that life is not worth living, then perhaps environmental degradation is a subliminal declaration of the same? What does it mean when we will not act to repair our own environmental damage? For Rafael Anton Irisarri, an artist inspired by existentialists […]

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January 20

Stories We Tell – Sarah Polley and the intangible truth. (Film Review)

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Sarah Polley has said many times, including in Stories We Tell, that she wants to make a film about the nature of memory and the way that narrative is carved from perspective, but what comes through in Stories We Tell, and what makes it such a remarkable film, is its subliminal examination of what we […]

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January 19

Wittenberg – Richard Hilliar and the endless excitement of words. (Theatre Review)

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In Wittenberg, David Davalos has created an ongoing fictional argument between Faustus and Luther that focusses primarily on Luther’s growing concern regarding inconsistencies of faith between himself and the church, but inevitably touches the famous Faustus as he tries to persuade Luther to think outside of the prescribes limits of theology. The church will famously […]

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January 16

12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen assuages white guilt. (Film Review)

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When the Howard Government won a mandate in this country in 2004, part of which stood on the shoulders of their unprecedented poor treatment of asylum seekers that included incarceration and bald-faced lies about these people trying to drown their children in order to curry favour with the Australian public, compensation was made for leading […]

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January 15

The Great Beauty – Paolo Sorrentino and the floating nature of beauty. (Film Review)

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“To travel is very useful, it makes the imagination work, the rest is just delusion and pain. Our journey is entirely imaginary, which is its strength.” Journey to the end of the Night. Louis-Ferdinand Céline This review / commentary gets a little personal, so my apologies in advance if it is a boring read. Confession time. […]

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January 14

The Wolf of Wall Street – Scorsese supplies what we secretly demand. (Film Review)

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A singular moment upon which The Wolf of Wall Street stands, exists when Jordon Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), sitting in a booth at a diner guru-like, before his slack-bellied, poorly educated males desperately searching for their masculinity, asks his charges to sell him the pen he holds in his hand. Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal), a successful […]

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January 13

Her – Spike Jonze and the all white on line universe.

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With its muted colours, its non fashion specific clothing, it’s ambiguous imaging of Los Angeles, and its floating camerwork, Spike Jonze has created a world that could be our past, our present or our future, particularly given how many white Anglo people he has walking around Shanghai, which is the real setting for Her. Underlying […]

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January 12

The NOW now 2014 – Group Show launch (Festival Review)

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If 2013 told us anything about experimental music, it is that it is getting more and more difficult to pin modalities and ‘completed’ product down, according to fashion, region or technology. If 2013 saw the rise of text as a movement that is simultaneously a step closer and further away from the sound, it also […]

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January 09

Short Term 12 – Destin Cretton and the harrowing world of the loveless child. (Film Review)

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Short Term 12 is a film that teeters precariously on the verge of a “cool-Indie-sundance-esque-cliche” and one of the best films (to date) revealing the private hell that children and teens, developed enough to feel adult pain, but not to make sense of themselves and the world around them experience in the harrowing early days, […]

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