Tag: documentary
Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story
Sunday, September 3rd, 2023 Film Reviews,Michael Gudinski was a serious burner of candles at both ends. In describing the flamboyant record executive and concert promoter, most of his friends talk about his “energy” and “passion”. Director, Paul Goldman, who admits to a spiky relationship with his subject, says he set out to avoid making a hagiography. Nevertheless, this is what […]
Quant
Friday, May 19th, 2023 Film Reviews,Fashion is a frightening business to be in. Mary Quant Having just seen the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Karl Lagerfeld exhibition, I’m […]
Richard Mosse: Broken Spectre
Tuesday, October 18th, 2022 Sydney Morning Herald Column,It may seem remarkable that anyone would view their short-term profits as more important than the survival of humankind, but this is the simple reason we’re losing the battle against Global Warming. The complex reason is slightly trickier. In the words of British philosopher, Timothy Morton, the warming of the planet is a “hyperobject” – […]
Ticket to Paradise & Moonage Daydream
Thursday, September 15th, 2022 Film Reviews,George Clooney and Julia Roberts have bought a ticket to Paradise, but which Paradise is that? They think they’re in Bali but someone has sold them a pup, because it’s actually Queensland – the Whitsundays to be precise. Their confusion is understandable because they seem to have landed in a colony of Balinese people, all […]
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song
Saturday, July 16th, 2022 Film Reviews,Hallelujah, the Hebrew word of praise for the Lord, is all over the Old Testament. How strange, but how very typical of our contemporary neediness and confusion, that Leonard Cohen’s song of that name should have become a secular pop anthem for our times. Daniel Geller and Dayna Golding’s innovative documentary, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A […]
The Beatles: Get Back
Friday, December 17th, 2021 Film Reviews,After an hour of this lengthy three-part documentary about the Beatles, I was wondering if it was going to be nothing more than an extended jam session – gripping stuff for diehard fans, but a long haul for the rest of us. When Peter Jackson got his hands on this never-before-seen footage, he must have […]
The Lost Leonardo
Saturday, December 11th, 2021 Film Reviews,Yves Bouvier is either one of the world’s sharpest operators or a man with a death wish. In 2013, on behalf of exiled Russian oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Swiss agent purchased the painting, Salvator Mundi, allegedly by Leonardo da Vinci, for US$75 million. He then passed it on to his client for US$127.5 million. The […]
Schumacher
Thursday, September 23rd, 2021 Film Reviews,Formula One must be the most dangerous of spectator sports. Cars reach speeds in excess of 300 kph, requiring drivers with lightning fast reflexes, steely nerves, an intuitive feel for the track – and luck. If something goes wrong with your steering column when rounding a bend at 180 kph, no amount of skill will […]
Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali
Friday, September 17th, 2021 Film Reviews,“Destiny can take your best friend as an instrument to cause you harm and your worst enemy to do you good,” says Muhammad Ali a few minutes into this absorbing Netflix documentary. He is referring to black activist, Malcolm X, who had fallen out with Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, a […]
The Met: Art Museums in a Changing World
Tuesday, September 7th, 2021 Sydney Morning Herald Column,While New South Wales lockdowns roll on, Queenslanders can go to Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art and view the blockbuster exhibition, European Masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It’s almost certainly the most impressive show to reach our heavily barricaded shores this year but the pandemic has made it hard to imagine […]