Review by Emmet O’Cuana
Film | Mad Max: Fury Road | MA
When I was far too young, I was shown a film that featured horrific violence, death, fascist oppression and, ultimately, the end of the world.
The reason this was thought acceptable for young Emmet to watch was because the film in question, Russell S. Doughten’s A Thief ...
Film | Evaporating Borders | R
Review by Tim Lam
Evaporating Borders opens with an image of the Mediterranean Sea. Tens of thousands of asylum seekers cross the Mediterranean every year to find refuge in Europe. Cyprus is one of the most common entry points into the European Union.
Book | Beyond Literal Belief: Religion As Metaphor | David Tacey
Review by Garth Jones
In Beyond Literal Belief, Professor David Tacey presents a passionate treatise, brimming with reverence and ambition, on rescuing the perception of religious faith from literalism and the idolatry and fundamentalism he suggests it potentially begets.
Presenting a series of allegorical readings of well-known Biblical parables, ...
Book | God, Ethics and the Secular Society. Does the church have a future? | John Gunson.
Review by Rev Colin Johnston
The Christian churches in Australia are in serious decline. The world has stopped listening to us. The church’s reaction is here and there to try a few new ways of doing church, but above all ...
Television | 12 Monkeys | M
Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys was released in cinemas 20 years ago to critical acclaim. The time-travel classic quickly became a cult favourite with its quirky vision, intricate plot and brilliant performances.
Two decades later, 12 Monkeys has been adapted into a television series for the Syfy channel ...
Review by Penny Mulvey
Book | A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie
John Baillie’s classic book of prayers has been given new life by editor Susanna Wright with the assistance of Rev Dr Robin Boyd, a student of Dr Baillie at New College Edinburgh.
A Diary of Private Prayer was first published in 1936 and is regarded as ...
Review by Emmet O’Cuana
Film| Testament of Youth| M
Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, the first of a series of lengthy memoirs, is a classic appeal to pacifism inspired by the horrors of the First World War. Having already inspired a BBC television miniseries in 1979, this is a stately and respectful cinematic adaptation.
Book | Working with Disaster – Clergy & Bushfires
Review by Ros Marsden
“The people I met that very first night. Their faces still haunt me; burnt, covered in ash. A local family. Going up the mountain the next week. Seeing the devastation, the blue and white police tape, the melted bitumen and cars, and knowing people died in those ...
Play l Endgame l MTC
There is no curtain call at the conclusion of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, the latest Melbourne Theatre Company production. The curtain comes down, ending as it began, with a high pitched chorus of sound in total darkness.
Endgame describes the final moves in the game of chess, but the play, first performed in 1957, ...
Film l ‘71 l MA
After the collapse of the Northern Irish civil rights movement, violence between Catholic and Protestant communities across the region set in motion the horrific events of Bloody Sunday on 30 January 1972. The sudden escalation in the city of Belfast is the backdrop to ‘71, a political thriller with nuance and a battered ...
Movie l Chappie l MA
It’s not too long ago that the cruise control in our cars, the phones in our pockets and the ability to extract money out of a wall were concepts of fantasy. So director Neill Blonkamp’s latest movie release Chappie, about a robot implanted with emotional intelligence, may well be a concept our children ...
Movie l Selma l M
Selma is based on a specific historic event in the life of Martin Luther King. Driven by his Christian belief that all people are equal before God, Rev Dr King galvanises and collaborates with others to fight endemic and violent racism.
Directed by the much talked about Ava DeVernay, the story centres on a three ...
