Author Archives: lisathatcher

January 01

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet – Alain Resnais and the refusal to limit reality. (Film review)

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The title You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet is a lusty incitement from a ninety-one year old director at its surface, possibly designed to hush the eulogic rumblings from reviewers and film commentators over his last film Les herbes folles (2009) but when the director is not only one of the greatest living,  but one of the greatest […]

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January 01

The Free Indie Reader #1 – Vive la revolution! (Book Review)

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There is no doubt now (and there was doubt for years) that publishing is undergoing a global transformation. Battles in the war for or against transformation are being held on many fields: Online v’s Real Life book stores / Small v’s Large Press / Print Media v’s zines and blogs / E books v’s hardcopy […]

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December 30

2013: A Magic Year in Film – My favourite films of 2013.

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I said in my first post on this topic that 2013 is being touted as one of the best years for film, and after searching through archives for my “X years ago today series” (new to this blog) I can tell you we have been truly spoilt in 2013 with the wonderful films on offer. […]

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December 30

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marraige – The simplified world of Alice Munro. (Book review)

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Alice Munro didn’t just win the Nobel Prize for literature this year, she also won the more elusive crown of being one of the few writers to win without controversy and possibly the only female winner to do so. That she won is no surprise in Canada where her books regularly grace the best seller […]

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December 30

Saving Mr Banks – Disney’s unapologetic hagiography v’s the critical thinker. (Film Review)

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Saving Mr Banks is not the first film to shamelessly re-tell history through the eyes of a victor, nor is it the first film to reduce a person of brilliance and talent to petty details that render them unrecognisable, nor is it the first unapologetically capitalist venture to use the precision timing of advertising acumen […]

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December 22

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson steps into the light. (Film review)

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I have a perverse loyalty issue with TLOTR / Hobbit franchise, and that is I’m a sucker for these ground-breaking, mythologized pictures that are so huge and big and enormous and massive that you can’t remember who you are or where you are or why you are, nothing in your mind making sense because of […]

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December 22

August: Osage County – Tracy Letts homage to American theatrical dysfunction. (Film Review)

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Lett’s opening lines in August: Osage County, voiced by patriarch Beverly (Sam Shepard – of course) from T.S. Elliot ‘Wasteland’ (because he didn’t write anything else), come with the disclaimer that Elliot wasn’t the first to say them, nor the last, but because he wrote them down formally (copyrighted them) we have to pay him homage […]

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December 21

2013: A Magic year in Film – Films that were duds, dodgy or just bored the hell out of me.

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2013 is already being touted as a magical year for film, and I agree with that.  The Sydney Film Festival hops on the back of Cannes and Sundance and so this city often see the years best films in that tremendous tw0-and-a-half week marathon, a just compensation for the appalling difference in release dates we […]

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December 20

Theatre in 2013

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Everyone who reads this blog knows I’m not a list post person and especially I am not an “end of year” list person, but I do think it’s worth acknowledging the passing of a year and the work displayed, particularly when it has been a landmark year. I said half way through 2013 that this […]

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December 19

Frozen – The cold never bothered me anyway! Disney’s princess’ go feminist. (Film Review)

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Please note there are spoilers in this review. Frozen is purportedly based on the Hans Christian Anderson children’s story, ‘The Snow Queen‘, but it actually seems more like Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Shane Morris had a moment of inspiration when they heard “Let It Go” written by the wife and husband team of Kristen […]

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