Review: The Darkness
Smithers reviews Simon J Green's horror short film The Darkness . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 12, 2017•2 min
Art Smitten
Art Smitten is SYN's weekly guide to arts, culture and entertainment in Australia and around the world. With a focus on youth and emerging arts, we're here to showcase culture ahead of the curve. From our base in Naarm/Melbourne, contributors interview, review, and cover the very best of what the world’s second-most liveable city has to offer. Whether it's film, fashion, photography or Fauvism you're into, Art Smitten is the place!
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Episodes
Review: The Privatisation of Ward 9B
The Privatisation of Ward 9B follows a desperate psychiatrist, Doctor Craven (played by David McCrae) in his efforts to supplement diminishing public funding by dragging his patients into the merciless world of economic enterprise. Written in 1991 at a time when the Hawke-Keating government was privatising public services such as airports, airlines, telecommunications and banks, Bill Marshall’s social message still rings clear - we bring an emphasis on profit making and cost cutting into the pro...
Feb 12, 2017•4 min
Review: Silence
Faith is a difficult concept to explain to non-believers. I was never raised religiously, or even with any sort of a belief in a god. As such, I generally struggle to connect to stories of faith and to characters who so strongly experience faith, and it takes something special to make me truly understand what these people are going through. But Martin Scorsese, with his latest film Silence , has managed to do just that. Himself a lapsed Catholic, he may just be in the best position to convey the...
Feb 12, 2017•6 min
Review: Kooza
The only time I ever went to the circus was easily ten years ago, somewhere in Melbourne where I remember only feeling a little bad for the animals on display there. My second outing to the circus being this, I must say, that no animals were harmed in Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza; apart from if you count the man dressed as a dog who urinated on an audience member at one stage. I go into Kooza having a background in Theatre myself, both in acting, design and technologies such as lighting and sound. W...
Feb 12, 2017•3 min
Interview: Lisa Ramey
Hamish and Christian chat to New York triple threat Lisa Ramey from the cast of Cirque du Soleil: Kooza, performing in Melbourne until March 26. Click here to listen to Hamish's review See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 12, 2017•19 min
Interview: Peter Blackburn
Hamish, Gill and Smithers chat to Peter Blackburn about what it's like to direct a re-imagining of a classic Chekhov play, in this case Stupid F**king Bird , Aaron Posner's 'remix' of The Seagull , on at Metanoia Theatre until February 26. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 10, 2017•9 min
Review: Todd In Venice
Theatre has been my thing for a few years now, easily being my best subject in high school alongside Media. Thus, I’ve been a lot of theatre, both good, bad, amateur and professional, yet I’ve never seen a La Mama production until now. Todd in Venice is a Midsumma Festival show on display at La Mama from February 1st-5th. Written by Sofia Chapman, a musician and writer who has previously had plays on at La Mama, Todd in Venice details Anges Kermode and Michael Bark’s travels in Italy, where they...
Feb 09, 2017•6 min
Interview: Peter Houghton
Hamish, Gillian and Smithers chat to actor Peter Houghton about his latest role (or rather, roles) in the Victorian premier of Aidan Fennessey's The Way Things Work , on at Red Stitch Actor's Theatre until March 5. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 09, 2017•7 min
Interview: Kent Morris
Christian chats to Kent Morris, CEO of the Torch Project about Confined 8 , an exhibiton on at The Gallery in St Kilda Town Hall that features 140 artworks by 130 Indigenous artists in or released from Victoria prisons. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 08, 2017•18 min
Interview: Angharad Wynne-Jones
Molly talks to Arts House Artistic Director Angharad Wynne-Jones about their participation in the 2017 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts with Kok Bunny by Luke George and Daniel Kok, Times Journey Through A Room by chelfitsch and Kagerou - Study of Translating Performance by the Hamanaka Company. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 07, 2017•11 min
Review: No Man's Land
Review transcript: You’re listening to Art Smitten on SYN. I’m Rebecca Houlihan, and today I’m going to be talking to you about a National Theatre Live production of No Man’s Land , written by Harold Pinter, and this version is directed by Sean Mathias. So this play was originally produced in 1975, which is where it’s set. The big draw card of this version is the two Sirs, Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian Mckellen. It’s a four-man play, and it focuses on conversations between the four characters....
Feb 07, 2017•5 min
Review: Toni Erdmann
Toni Erdmann is a German-Austrian comedy directed, written, and co-produced by Maren Ade. It centres on the relationship between the eccentric prankster father, Winfried Conradi (played by Peter Simonischek), and his stressed, work-a-holic daughter, Ines (played by Sandra Hüller). Spurred by the death of his dog, and the loss of his piano students, Winifried decides to spontaneously visit Ines, and thus essentially begins interfering in her life through pranks, questions, and inopportune comment...
Feb 07, 2017•2 min
Review: Le Ride
For me personally, reality television is not something that I’m a fan of; I don’t like the staged humour, staged love, and staged drama, as I could get all that from an actual written episode of fictional television, such as Fargo or The Fall . However, Phil Keoghan's The Amazing Race , alongside some other American reality shows, stand out among others, for either its ridiculousness, or its actual credibility, such as Keoghan’s show. Thus, stepping into the directing seat for another documentar...
Feb 07, 2017•4 min
Interview: Phil Keoghan
Hamish and Christian chat to The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan about his new documentary, Le Ride , now playing at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image until February 12, 2017. Click here for Hamish's review of the film See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 07, 2017•10 min
Interview: Stephen Zagala
Hamish, Smithers and Gillian speak to Senior Curator Stephen Zagala about Life Aquatic , his exhibiton that's currently showing at the Monash Gallery of Art until February 26, 2017. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 07, 2017•13 min
Review: Jackie
There always seems to be something unsatisfying about these personal depictions of major historical events. Human dramas with a historical "backdrop" work well enough, but if the huge scale history is in the foreground it can really upset the balance. Jackie , the first English Language film from Chilean director Pablo Larraín, shows the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination from the point of view of his wife, Jacqueline Lee Kennedy. Mostly it's a psychological portrait of a gri...
Jan 11, 2017•6 min
Arrival, Nocturnal Animals and A Little Resistance
Special guests Mike Loder and Charles Terrier stay around to tell Andrew and Christian what they admired about Amy Adams' two big releases of 2016 and how they might influence their own future cinematic work. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 11, 2017•10 min
Interview: Charles Terrier and Mike Loder - Part 2
Part 2 of the interview where Christian and Andrew chat to Melbourne filmmakers Charles Terrier and Mike Loder about their debut indie feature A Little Resistance , the " Moulin Rouge of war films" that's also “ Cinderella meets Platoon .” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 11, 2017•12 min
Interview: Charles Terrier and Mike Loder - Part 1
Christian and Andrew chat to Melbourne filmmakers Charles Terrier and Mike Loder about their debut indie feature A Little Resistance , the " Moulin Rouge of war films" that's also “ Cinderella meets Platoon .” Click here for Part 2 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 11, 2017•11 min
Review: Paterson
After the melancholy vampire story that was Only Lovers Left Alive , Jim Jarmusch has delivered an equally meditative human drama with Paterson . It’s a film that shows a week in the life of a lovely artistic couple living in Paterson, New Jersey. Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) is an avid painter, designer and cupcake maker, with a distinctive monochromatic colour scheme in everything she makes, and wears, though ironically she is a very colourful character. Her husband, Paterson (Adam Driver), is ...
Jan 11, 2017•4 min
Review: The Founder
The Founder is screenwriter Robert D. Siegel’s scathing portrait of Roy Kroc, the eponymous creator of the McDonald’s Corporation, not to be confused with the McDonald brothers who created, well, McDonald’s. If that sounds as all suss it’s probably because it was. Kroc, as written by Siegel, and played by Michael Keaton, is a shameless anti-hero, an opportunistic businessman who listens more to his motivational tapes than he does to his own conscience, if indeed he has one. The film follows his ...
Jan 10, 2017•5 min
Review: Threadbare
Threadbare Featuring: Fipe Preuss, Elnaz Sheshgelani and Phillipa Russell Choreographer: Kathleen Gonzales Producer: Natasha Jynel Threadbare is a three-part multidisciplinary show that celebrates the diversity of Australian identity through dance, poetry and visual art. The show is presented in languages including English, Spanish, Tongan, Arabic and Auslan. Threadbare invites audiences to shift their perspectives and open their eyes with ideas that challenge convention in modern Australian soc...
Jan 10, 2017•3 min
Review: Arrival
Arrival is the latest film by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, written by Eric Heisserer and adapted from a short story by Ted Chiang. It’s a science-fiction film in which aliens arrive on Earth and Dr Louise Banks, a linguist, played by Amy Adams, is asked to help decipher their language in order to find out their purpose on Earth. Over the course of the film we join Dr Banks in solving this curious puzzle, as she races against the worldwide chaos caused by the presence of these creatures. I...
Jan 10, 2017•4 min
Interview: Sammy J, Sammy J and Randy Land
Erin is joined in the studio with Melbourne comedian Sammy J, one half of the comedy duo, Sammy J and Randy. Sammy J has been busy working on a new stage show since his hit tv election series, Playground Politics, and co-writing and acting in Sammy J and Randy in Ricketts Lane , which was nominated for the 2015 ACCTA award for Best Television Comedy Show. The duo are now reopening Sammy J & Randy Land , which promises haunted ghost trains, velociraptor petting zoos, and the infamous "Sphinct...
Dec 07, 2016•8 min
Review: Hacksaw Ridge
Hacksaw Ridge is quickly turning into the must-see film of the year: the true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a pacifist army medic who saved the lives of 75 World War II soldiers without ever holding a weapon. It's that powerful combination of a visceral war film, a compelling social justice story and a very poignant biopic that always gets people talking. Audiences all seem to be appreciating a journey into the hellfire of war that leaves them with more than just a feeling of pointles...
Dec 06, 2016•7 min
Review: Rust and Bone, La Mama
The audience at La Mama Courthouse demanded encore bows from the cast of Rust and Bone on the night of its Victorian premiere performance, which they very humbly gave and most definitely deserved. Caleb Lewis’ three-pronged play asks a lot of its actors, and quite a bit from its audience as well. A trio of male performers - Luke Mulquiney, Adam Ibrahim and Glenn Maynard in this production - play out three of the stories from Craig Davidson's collection of the same title. Ibrahim plays a SeaWorld...
Dec 06, 2016•3 min
Interview: Nakkiah Lui, Blaque Showgirls (Malthouse Theatre)
Hosts Ben and Andrew are joined in the studio by playwright and actor, Nakkiah Lui, the playwright behind Malthouse Theatre's production of Blaque Showgirls. Loosely based off the movie, Showgirls (1995), the story is set in Brisvegas, where a young Ginny Jones seeks to join the Blaque Showgirls. Christian Tsoutsouvas' review can be found here ! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Dec 06, 2016•10 min
Review: Blaque Showgirls, Malthouse Theatre
Blaque Showgirls is a merciless interrogation of Australian racism in the form of a stage parody of dance movies, including, of course, Showgirls (1995). Written by Nakkiah Lui, the acclaimed Aboriginal activist and playwright who recently worked on the ABC’s Black Comedy , it’s a play that mocks and borrows from film and tv in equal measure. Eugyeene Teh’s set design even resembles a television set as well as a theatre within a theatre, something that director Sarah Giles takes full advantage o...
Dec 06, 2016•5 min
Review: Nocturnal Animals
As fantastic as it is to see Arrival gaining so much traction, I do hope that Amy Adams’ other big release, Nocturnal Animals , still gets enough attention. Tom Ford’s second feature, after A Single Man (2009), sees Adams playing an equally sleep deprived but much less scholarly professional at the peak of her career. Susan Morrow is the jaded owner of a glitzy contemporary art gallery, a realist in a world that is anything but reality. She first entered the creative world when she wanted to a b...
Dec 06, 2016•6 min
Review: F., Riot Stage (Poppy Seed Festival)
F. is a theatre production by Riot Stage, a youth theatre company based in Melbourne. It is part of Poppy Seed Festival, Poppy Seed is in its second year, it aimed producing shows made by independent and emerging theatre companies. F. followed a lives of a group of teenagers, it was composed of short scenes playing out different stories throughout the show, they sometimes became connected and it all ending in a huge stylised movement and piece. These explored all sorts of themes around being in ...
Dec 06, 2016•4 min
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