Arts & Culture
A Place for Me, now showing at Cinema Paradiso in Northbridge, tells the story of a family of writers and the changes that occur in their lives over the course of a year.
The movie begins on Thanksgiving day, where acclaimed author William Borgens (Greg Kinnear) is busy preparing Thanksgiving dinner with his son Rusty (Nat Wolff), and waiting for daughter Samantha (Lily Collins) to arrive home for the holidays.
Despite being separated from his wife Erica (Jennifer Connelly) for over three years, William still sets a place at the table for her, an action which is the first hint of William's refusal to let go of his relationship.
On this Wednesday evening, my partner and I ventured to the State Theatre Centre of WA to watch the opening night performance of Goodbye Jamie Boyd, a collaboration between Buzz Dance Theatre and Monkey Baa Theatre Company.
The key character in the play is Anna, who lives with her family on a farm in a little country town. She is best friends with her brother Jamie - so close that they do everything together. Then her brother Jamie starts to turn on her, becoming threatening and a menace to her life, forcing Anna to perform dangerous acts.
Rufus Norris's movie Broken, now showing at Luna Leederville, is a coming of age tale which follows the lives of a neighbourhood of families seen from the perspective of Skunk, an 11 year old girl.
The movie won the best British Film at the British Independent Film Awards and stars the likes of Tim Roth (of Pulp Fiction), Cillian Murphy (of Inception) and features an amazing screen debut by Eloise Laurence as Skunk.
Through Skunk’s eyes, we witnesses one violent encounter after another that occur to the people around her that she loves or knows. These encounters leave a lasting imprint on her young mind as she prepares to enter adolescence.
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is considered to be one of the classic plays of the twentieth century, and with good reason.
Black Swan State Theatre Company's take on this milestone of theatre is stripped back right to the essence of things - the characters and their struggles to achieve the American dream - and the fallout that occurs when the dream goes sour.
And while the term "powerful" is thrown around often when describing a play - for this production the phrase is spot on.
In Promised Land, which is now showing at Luna Leederville, actor and writer Matt Damon and director Gus Van Sant team up once again, along with screenplay co-writer John Krasinski, to bring us a modern American folk story that delves into the nature of people and trust, through the lens of a corporate vs rural America encounter.
Matt Damon stars as Steve Butler, a corporate salesman for Global Crosspower Solutions, who is sent to the small rural town of McKinley with partner Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand) for a routine three day sales drive to purchase natural gas drilling rights on the town folk's properties.
First position showing at Luna Palace Cinemas is an American documentary that follows the lives of six youths from across the globe who are competing to get to the top of the world of ballet. The movie follows each young person’s life, over the course of a year, and as the story unfolds the performers share their passion for this art form, and the many challenges and triumphs experienced during their exciting journey.
The movie is directed by Bess Kargman and brought to us by well known Australian film distributors Hopscotch Films. First Position has won multiple awards, including Winner of the Doc NYC Film Festival, the Portland Film Festival and the San Francisco Doc Fest.
Sleepwalk with Me is now showing at Cinema Paradiso in Northbridge - it is a beauty of a movie, funny yet heart wrenching at times. If you enjoy story telling at its best you will be touched by the characters in this movie, who share the journey of their life as they navigate through some of life’s most challenging issues that can bring unbelievable anguish and pain.
The movie is brought to you by the producers of This American Life and stars Mike Birbiglia as Matt Pandamiglio. It is interesting to note that the story was inspired by his own life – Birbiglia has worn many different hats – first as a comedian, then playwright and now filmmaker.
As we follow Matt throughout the movie we can only sympathise, groan, and at times laugh at the situations that he gets into – he certainly has more than a few issues to tackle.
