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Keywords: Critic

There are more than 200 results, only the first 200 are displayed here.

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Gladiator II: Are you not entertained?

    • Eddie Hampson
    • 20 November 2024

    Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II promises grandeur. Paul Mescal dazzles, Denzel Washington commands, and sharks make their sword-and-sandals debut. But spectacle overshadows story in a sequel that’s more baffling than breathtaking. Are we entertained? Sort of.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Theory and Practice: In conversation with Michelle de Kretser

    • Michael McGirr
    • 15 November 2024

    Michelle de Krester's new book Theory and Practice is a creative combination of fiction and essay, and concerns the moment in which the encounter with literature, a connection with another human imagination, is replaced by something called 'Theory'. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Disclaimer in a streamer world

    • Peter Craven
    • 15 November 2024

    Starring Cate Blanchett at the height of her powers, Disclaimer, the new streamer by Alfonso Cuarón, has already been dubbed the finest thing ever made for the new television, with the director claiming not to have made a serial, but a continuous film. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The Booker Prize and why it matters

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 12 November 2024

    As the Booker Prize winner is announced, the perennial questions resurface: What does winning truly mean for writers — and for readers? As public values shift, literary prizes ignite fierce debate about artistic merit, cultural relevance, and the commercial impact of awards. Can a prize still shape the future of fiction?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino review

    • Peter Craven
    • 08 November 2024

    Al Pacino is an actor we’re inclined to take for granted, given his presence in some of the greatest popular films of the last half century, not least his Michael Corleone in Coppola’s Godfather trilogy, which revealed an actor of extraordinary stature. Sonny Boy is a consistently diverting and illuminating book by a man who has little pomp and circumstance about him. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    In Juice, Tim Winton turns to mad dystopian climate fiction

    • Peter Craven
    • 25 October 2024

    In Juice, Tim Winton crafts a haunting world where climate apocalypse and moral ambiguity collide. This monolithic novel depicts a dystopian future scarred by climate change, with Winton’s intricate prose showcasing his mastery and leaving readers to grapple with its fierce ethical landscape.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    When poetry became war reporting

    • Warwick McFadyen
    • 16 October 2024

    If only those who send their nation’s youth to war would read Muse of Fire, World War I as seen Through the Lives of the Soldier Poets. It is both homage and horror story. It carries the reader across several fronts – the disparate journeys that led these men to the killing fields of Europe, the blood-soaked chrysalis from which the words of the war poets arose.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Has the developed world run out of ideas?

    • David James
    • 14 October 2024

    Advanced industrial societies are running out of ideas, masking stagnation with financial trickery, which is now faltering. In contrast, developing nations can clearly advance through industrial phases, especially by building infrastructure. For them, the path to improving lives is clear; for developed nations, it remains uncertain.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Songs of Cretan liars and the rambling voice of truth

    • Peter Craven
    • 09 October 2024

    With moments of shared perspective and common ground, the weird thing about the CBS debate the debate between the two putative vice-presidents, J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, was how civil and considerate it was and (in its way) how impressive.  

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    'Megalopolis': Is Coppola's swansong genius or madness?

    • Eddie Hampson
    • 02 October 2024

    After decades of cinematic highs and notorious flops, Francis Ford Coppola self-financed this grand spectacle — his boldest gamble yet. But in a film landscape that favors safe bets, can Megalopolis rise to the occasion, or will it be a final, glorious folly from one of cinema’s greats?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Remembering Maggie Smith’s enduring magic

    • Peter Craven
    • 02 October 2024

    If you care about theatre and film and television you should be grateful to have lived at the same time as Maggie Smith. She was an artist of incomparable power and nuance, of tremendous wit and complementary poignancy. The Harry Potter kids are lucky to have experienced such style and know-how and grace. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The end of the morning

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 20 September 2024

    The End of the Morning provides a rich reading experience, showing the reader an Australia that has been largely lost. But most readers will have a sense of dissatisfaction: they will want more. An unfinished novel, and an unfinished life.

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