MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja
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Ace hand from Aaron Sorkin
MARIA DUARTE recommends a gripping tale about high-stakes poker from a first-time director
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
KENNY MacASKILL relishes a fictionalised account of the life and death of the principled Irish anti-colonialist, executed for betraying his English imperial masters
FIONA O’CONNOR admires an ambitious first novel that loosens South Africa’s rainbow collective to examine the racial tensions within
Aussie mining corporation murder, Liverpudlian ex-cop amnesia, a naive vigilante tries to reset capitalism, and the riddle of the dead psychoanalyst
SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by an entertaining play that the true miracle of Lourdes would be for attitudes toward disability to change
Molly's Game (15)
Directed by Aaron Sorkin
THE RISE and fall of entrepreneur Molly Bloom — the “Poker Princess” — who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being apprehended by the FBI is depicted in this slick, stylish and absolutely engrossing directorial debut feature by writer Aaron Sorkin.
Based on Bloom's memoirs, it's a warning against the seductions of power and fame, and it's peopled by Hollywood A-listers, sports stars, business tycoons and, unbeknown to her, members of the Russian mob who attend her games.
There are $100 million losses, Mafia hitmen and FBI raids as the excitement and tension build, but Sorkin also highlights the pitfalls of greed and mingling with the rich, the powerful and the overprivileged.
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