Review by Tim Lam
Celia and Nonna | Book |Victoria Lane and Kayleen West
Taking place every September, World Dementia Day is a timely opportunity to reflect on the impact that ageing and illness can have on families.
For many children, watching their grandparents grow old can be a confusing experience. Illnesses such as dementia are particularly difficult for ...
Review by Larry Marshall
Book | Towards a sane society | Professor Siri Hettige
Uniting Through Faiths was proud to launch this important book at the synod offices in Melbourne last month. It was officially launched by Lionel Bopage and Prof Paul Komesaroff, who gave excellent summaries of the breadth and depth of these essays on public policy.
The author, Prof ...
Review by Penny Mulvey
Play | The Weir | Melbourne Theatre Company
Three Irishmen in a pub, and in comes a younger woman. No, this is not a joke, it is the premise for the latest offering from the Melbourne Theatre Company – the 1997 play The Weir, by Conor McPherson.
And like a good joke, it is a beautifully ...
TV | Go Back To Where You Came From
Review by Tim Lam
It has been three years since Go Back To Where You Came From last appeared on Australian television. Since then, the ‘Papua New Guinea solution’ was implemented, Operation Sovereign Borders commenced, the Border Force Act was passed, boats have been turned back and more asylum seekers ...
Book | Supermarket Monsters: The Price of Coles and Woolworths’ Dominance | Malcolm Knox
Review by Garth Jones
“We are an oligopoly community. We shouldn’t fight it.” Andrew Robb, Federal Minister for Trade, August 2013
The ethics and morality of food production, distribution and consumption are prominent topics in the news of late.
From the ACCC’s ‘unconscionable conduct’ ...
Book | Guaranteed Pure | Timothy EW Gloege
Review by Emmet O’Cuana
Gloege’s Guaranteed Pure sets out to establish how American business culture in the late-19th century became an essential element of middle-class Protestantism. In effect, the author is tracing the roots of contemporary America’s religious identity.
Guaranteed Pure claims that at the base of what is ...
Play | Death and the Maiden
Review by Penny Mulvey
“People can die from excessive doses of the truth.”
These words, uttered by Gerardo Escobar (Steve Mouzakis) in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s latest production, Death and the Maiden, speak into the very heart of the play.
Playwright Ariel Dorfman wrote this play as a tribute to those ...
Book | From Duntroon to Dili | By Gary Stone
Book review by Chip Henriss
It’s 1990 and, in the middle of the wasteland that divides the opposing armies of Iran and Iraq, drives a small vehicle sporting a big United Nations flag. On board are international peace keepers including Australian Gary Stone.
“As far as the eye ...
Film | Inside Out | PG
Review by Emmet O’Cuana
The dedication that ends this film’s credits says simply –
‘This film is dedicated to our kids. Please don’t grow up. Ever.’
Yet few other children’s films have ever explored the pain of growing up so well. With subtlety and tenderness, this latest Pixar animated movie captures ...
TV | Death: A Series About Life | PG
Review by Tim Lam
When I was a child, death seemed simple and straightforward. I was taught that once you die you go to heaven. Over the years, some of that childhood innocence has been replaced by a realisation that death is complicated and, at times, incomprehensible.
Death: ...
Book | The Songs of Jesse Adams | Peter McKinnon
Review by Deb Bennett
Author Peter McKinnon follows in the footsteps of a long line of writers in re-imagining the life of Jesus in fiction.
From Leo Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God Is Within You to the man-in-black himself, Johnny Cash’s Man in White; writers, philosophers and artists have ...
Film | Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief | M
Review by EMMET O’CUANA
Documentary maker Alex Gibney’s Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room was an acclaimed piece of film-making applauded for exposing the hubris and contempt for ordinary citizens that lay at the heart of one of the greatest financial scandals of the 21st Century.
What remains remarkable ...
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