There is something strangely fascinating watching older (wiser) men talking about how they performed institutionally sanctioned violence. In many ways The Gatekeepers reminded me of The Act of Killing. Although the documentaries are poles apart in form and narration (as are the interviewed men), they have a striking similarity; That is of the killers seeking […]
Author Archives: lisathatcher
September
04
The Gatekeepers – Dror Moreh and the impossible access. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
September
03
The Canyons – Paul Shrader and Brett Easton Ellis on the death of film. (Sydney Underground FFF review)
posted by lisathatcher
The Canyons is one of those films that is very difficult to define. Sure its bad. Startlingly so. But given the talent behind the camera, its difficult to know how deliberately bad it is. There is something about the film that makes it one of those car crashes that may end the right way up […]
September
03
See You Next Tuesday – Drew Tobia and the ugly real. (Sydney Underground Film Festival Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Even in the year 2013, it’s a courageous film that shows women at their worst. Not a caricatured worst, but a real, low-down and dirty, dare I say it, unattractive worst. As Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine sweeps the film watching world (a film about an extremely attractive female playing a supposedly unattractive female falling apart) […]
September
02
Spur of the Moment – Anya Reiss and the future of theatre (Theatre Review)
posted by lisathatcher
The Australian Theatre for Young people is fifty years old this year, and as part of the celebration, there is a very polished and well performed production of Spur of the Moment available for Sydney audiences to enjoy. What is most remarkable about Spur of the Moment is not the play itself, but that it […]
September
02
Fred – Lisa Chappell, Christopher Stollery and the cultural meal. (Fringe Festival Theatre Review)
posted by lisathatcher
One of the joy’s of The Sydney Fringe Festival is the lucky-dip theory of never being sure of what you’re going to get. However when you have talent like Lisa Chappell and Christopher Stollery you know that you’ve dipped into that bag with your eyes wide open. Fred is an action packed, thrilling one-woman show […]
August
31
The Sydney Underground Film Festival – Sept 5 – Sept 8
posted by lisathatcher
The Sydney Underground Film Festival runs from Thursday the 5th of September through to Sunday the 8th of September. You can purchase tickets here. Highlights of this years Underground film fest are Alejandro Jodorowsky’s latest film, The Dance of Reality and Paul Schrader’s latest film The Canyon’s. Each of these films are opening and closing […]
August
29
The Rocket – Kim Mordaunt and the intelligent feel good film. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
If we must have feel good films these days (and we must) at least let them have a brain as well as a heart. Let them expose us to our global differences as well as our similarities without trying to ‘educate’ us. Let them inspire us without reducing our struggles to personal weakness. Let them […]
August
27
Equus 40 years on with Elliott Marsh, head of Nomadic Artists. (Sydney Fringe Festival Interview)
posted by lisathatcher
I saw the fortieth anniversary reading of Equus a couple of weeks back. You can read my review of the reading here. The reading was the introduction to a large-scale project by Nomadic Artists to bring this fascinating and controversial play to the Sydney audiences in 2013 as a part of the Sydney Fringe Festival. […]
August
26
Michael Haneke and Benny’s Video 20 years on. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
“My films are intended as polemical statements against the American ‘barrel down’ cinema and its dis-empowerment of the spectator. They are an appeal for a cinema of insistent questions instead of false (because too quick) answers, for clarifying distance in place of violating closeness, for provocation and dialogue instead of consumption and consensus.” — From […]
August
25
Jerusalem – Helen Tonkin brings Jez Butterworth to lucky Sydney. (theatre review)
posted by lisathatcher
And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England’s pleasant pastures seen? And did the Countenance Divine Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here Among these dark Satanic mills? Bring me my bow of burning gold: Bring me my […]
Lisa Thatcher 