There's no Academy Award solely for vocal performances. If there was, Lupita Nyong'o might've added another of Hollywood's prized statuettes to her mantle when the 2025 ceremony rolls around. A decade after taking home an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave, her first feature, and following standout work in everything from Black Panther and Us to Little Monsters and A Quiet Place: Day One since, she's the voice of Roz — short for ROZZUM unit 7134 — in the big-screen adaptation of Peter Brown's The Wild Robot. Unsurprisingly, she's marvellous and moving, taking viewers on an emotional journey even while playing a robot without facial expressions. When Roz is fresh out of the box, powering up on an animal-filled island devoid of humans in a futuristic vision of earth, Nyong'o lends her vocals to the perky Siri and Alexa peer that audiences will wish spoke back to them from their own devices. As the task-oriented mechanical helper learns that there's more to life than her programming — as she befriends a gosling that she names Brightbill (Kit Connor, Heartstopper) and a fox called Fink (Pedro Pascal, Drive-Away Dolls), too, and wins over other wild critters who are initially fearful of the metallic interloper — the warmth that begins to infuse Roz's tones couldn't feel more genuine. The Wild Robot doesn't only prove a gem thanks to Nyong'o's pivotal performance, but it wouldn't be even a fraction of the film that it is without her. In 2024, the actor has had two movies in cinemas. In A Quiet Place: Day One, speaking was one of the worst things that anyone could do. In The Wild Robot, Nyong'o's entire portrayal comes down to talking. "I love that you made that comparison. I hadn't even thought about it that way," she tells Concrete Playground when we point out the contrast, and also ask what she seeks out in new projects at this point in her career. "What gets me excited? I think about the character that I've been offered to play, and I think about what I will require to play the character — and what I could learn as well from playing the character, what I'm curious about. If the character makes me ask questions of the world and of myself and I'm excited to find out the answers, then I want to play that character," Nyong'o explains. When The Wild Robot came her way, she didn't say yes immediately, however. For Nyong'o, voicing Roz was always going to need to be a creative collaboration; just showing up to speak her lines and leaving it at that isn't how she wanted to work. "I don't know how to be just a voice for hire. I have opinions and I want to share them, and I want to make sure that the person I'm sharing them with wants to hear them," she notes. Nyong'o joined the film after meeting with director Chris Sanders and understanding his vision. "You shape these things together. You go on this journey together, and she is a creative force just like every other artist in this film, for sure," he tells us. "And I have to say, she's an absolute genius. Taking Roz apart bit by bit to understand her thinking kept me honest as a writer," he continues. The Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods director — and voice of Stitch — couldn't be more enthusiastic about the latest picture that now sits on his packed resume (also on his filmography from the 90s when he was starting out: production design on The Lion King, visual development on Beauty and the Beast, and story credits on both alongside Aladdin). Before signing on for The Wild Robot, Sanders describes himself as "book-adjacent" to Brown's illustrated tome, as his daughter had read it. "I saw it sitting around the house and I'd actually forgotten about it until the day I came into DreamWorks to look at what was in development. And there was the book, and they described it, and I thought 'that's the one I'm interested in'," he advises. As the feature's writer and director, he's crafted a version that takes inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki's enchanting Studio Ghibli fare, classics such as Bambi and the work of painter Claude Monet, too — and a gem for all ages. How does Nyong'o tackle a voice-acting part — and, whether she's seen on-screen or heard echoing from it, how does she find the right voice for a character? What kind of thinking and planning goes into expressing Roz's inner journey? How important was it to Sanders that the film didn't shy away from animals being animals, not just in appearance but also into recognising the food chain and cycle of life? We chatted with the pair about all of the above as well, and more, including how animated movies trade in big emotions —because we all have that flick, or several, that we'll never forget — and how that sits in your mind when you're making one. On How Nyong'o Approaches a Voice-Acting Part, Especially Playing a Character Without Facial Expressions Lupita: "I think the animators did a great service to Roz — and a great service to an audience — by not giving her facial features. Because then we stay truer to the fact that Roz is not a feeling entity. She is a robot and has a goal — she's goal-oriented and her goal, luckily, is to be of service to whomever purchased her. So that lends itself to kindness. And she's also very adaptable, so she's able to adapt to the behaviours and expressions of the wild animals that she is now living with. And through that, you can adopt sensibilities akin to emotional expression. I like figuring that out cerebrally. How do I play a character without emotions but still be able to convey a bunch of emotions, and then trust that an audience will project their emotions onto her? We are given that license because she doesn't have facial expressions, so she's not doing it for us. We were very much a part of the performance." On Finding the Right Voice for the Right Character Lupita: "It starts off with understanding the given circumstances of the character. What are the facts, right? And so for Roz, one of the main facts that was very important was that she is a programmed robot. That was very informativem and it led me to listen to automated voices like Siri and Alexa, the voices on TikTok and Instagram — they were an inspiration, their relentless, positive vibrancy was the inspiration there. For someone like Red in Us, I knew that there had been a strangulation at some point, and so that fed my imagination on what could that sound like if you were strangled. Things like that. Then I also work very closely with a vocal coach, and I worked with her on both Us and The Wild Robot, and that's really helpful to just externalise my ideas and make sure that I'm doing it in as healthy a way as possible to stave off injuries." On What Sanders Was Excited to Bring to the Screen in Adapting The Wild Robot Chris: "The story for sure. I've always wanted to do a robot movie. And the other thing that I never thought I'd get a chance to work on would be an animal movie like this. This is a lot like Bambi — the forest, the animals, the creatures. And it's a real forest, they're only slightly anthropomorphised. Bambi is a huge favourite. It always will be. One of the things I think that you cannot understate is the emotional power of that film. It has a staying power and a beauty that we wanted to emulate. Aspire to it, actually, is a better way to say it — that and the art of Miyazaki films. These are things that have a huge influence on us as animators and filmmakers. So we had big boots to fill if we were going to equal the power and the scale of those of those stories. Our animators really took to it, by the way. I didn't understand until they started working on the film the level of excitement that they had to do animals that were animals. That kind of movement, I guess, is really a huge thing for an animator. They're usually doing animals carrying cell phones and they have jobs, etcetera. Animals that are animals, there's a purity to the motion that I was really struck by. The animation went unusually quickly because of the lack of things, like jackets and coats and stuff. And so it was a joy to see all of this come to life day by day." On the Importance of Not Shying Away From the Reality of Animals Being Animals Chris: "It was critical because if there isn't consequence, then the story is just not going to work. We don't want to shy away from any of those things because we need that kind of ballast. I would actually harken back to things in The Lion King — if you don't have consequences, you're not going to have that emotional resonance, and I don't think you going to have a movie that works. So death shows up several times in this movie. The first time, of course, is the critical and pivotal event where Roz accidentally, quite literally, runs across this goose's nest by accident and that sets this whole story in motion. Later on, we revisit it, but we often revisit it with humour. We get a laugh out of it. It's a dark kind of humour, but boy is it effective. The animals on this island have programming, and that's the way that Roz looks at it. She's a creature of human programming, and she sees the animals as running programs as well. I thought that was a really interesting way to look at the world, and one of the load-bearing ideas and themes of the film is the idea that someday you may have to change your programming in order to survive. In our lives, we are creatures of habit, we resist change, and we may have to change the way we think. I think that sometimes we're so fearful of losing ourselves for some reason. I think we're very protective of ourselves. I can only speak for myself, but I get that — but whenever I've been forced to see things in a different way, I've been better for it." On What Goes Into Conveying Roz's Inner Journey Through a Vocal Performance Lupita: "I would say the intention was set at the beginning. Before I took on the role, I asked Chris why he thought I would be good for it, and he said he liked the warmth of my voice. So that was very good information for me, so that I knew what I had for free to offer Roz, and so that was where we would end up — that's the voice when Roz has taken on and embraced the role of mother most fully, that she sounds most like me. And then in the process, a two-and-a-half-year process, the script is developing, and along with it our understanding of who Roz is and how we experience her evolution is also developing. That was really quite technical, and we had certain markers, certain benchmarks for where the quality of my voice was shifting. And I did it quite technically, so it dials up in a way that when you're watching the performance is perhaps, hopefully, quite subtle and unnoticeable — until you meet the robots that are more like the other robots like her, towards the third act of the film." On the "Miyazaki by Way of Monet" Visual Approach to the Natural World Within the Film Chris: "All these things we've been talking about, what a perfect line of questioning actually, all these things are linked together like spokes of a wheel. I felt that it was absolutely critical, and I pushed very hard for this level of sophistication in the look of the movie. Think back to what we were talking about with Bambi, that level of sophistication, I felt, would make our audience see this film in the right way, if that makes sense. This is a film that kids will love. Kids should go see it. Families should go see it. But it's not a little kids' film — it's a film. And that's how Walt Disney looked at those stories as well, he always said so. So that level of sophistication helps us to get into the film in a certain way, and it really immerses us in a way that I've never seen a film like this accomplish. I have gotten so much feedback since we finished the film that it really blurs the line between a live-action film and an animated film, frankly, the way that you see it — and that was very deliberate. And I have to credit the artists and the incredible advances that DreamWorks had made technologically that allowed this look. The funny thing is all that technology opened this film up so that humans are more present than ever before. Literally everything is hand-painted. It would be as if I took out a brush and started painting dimensionally in space. That's exactly what they were doing. So there are no forms underneath the trees or the rocks. It's free handed. So the beauty that you get from that, there's no substitute for it. There's an analogue warmth that we reconnected with on this journey that we've taken through CG." On How Animation Allows Audiences to Have Big Feelings — and Thinking About That When You're Making an Animated Film Lupita: "You have to keep the audience in mind. One of the things that I remember us discussing, Roz has a lot of robotic language, just mumbo jumbo that she says — and you want to keep that in a way that allows for children to grow their vocabulary, and also a way for adults to understand and appreciate what she is saying. But you can't make it too difficult that you lose the children altogether. So those were fun workshops where we tried different words. I remember in the script, there was a time when a character asks Roz something and she goes 'hmm, let me see'. But 'hmm', that's a very human expression, and so I said 'processing' and everybody broke out laughing, and it became part of Roz's vocabulary. For children, that is perhaps maybe a new word — children never say processing, I can't imagine they do. But in that sense, you've expanded their vocabulary and stayed true to the character." Chris: "It's something I don't know if I'm really thinking about it, but in a sense I'm striving for it as I'm working on scenes. I'm scaling things. I think one of the neat things about taking a story like Peter Brown's to the screen is the potential for how big these feelings can be. I'm always going for audacity and scale. And I will run a scene over and over and over in my head, modifying it before I even commit anything to paper a lot of the time, until I'm feeling I've found every edge of the boundaries of that particular moment, and I've built it as large as it possibly can be. Because why wouldn't you, you know? Why wouldn't you? And then the really amazing thing is, I take it only so far, and then we have our actors and our and our animators — and eventually the cinematographer, the lighting, and then eventually Kris Bowers [who composed The Wild Robot's soundtrack]. I cannot overstate his contribution as well. I credit him for, I think, the gosh-darn best score I've ever heard in a movie ever." On What Nyong'o Makes of Her Career Over the Past Decade Since 12 Years a Slave Lupita: "I was sitting at the premiere of The Wild Robot at TIFF [the Toronto International Film Festival], and there was a moment, I think it was a moment when Brightbill is flying away and a feather floats into Roz's hands. And it's a very emotional moment within the story. But in that moment, I was just caught, I was struck by the truth that I have been living out my dreams and this project is another dream come true. I was just filled with gratitude, because not everybody gets to live out their dreams so exactly. And I've had that wonderful, wonderful privilege, and I just don't take it for granted. It's been deliberate. It's sometimes been scary. I've had to say no before I knew I could in order to wait for the project that felt like it would give me the kind of expansion I was looking for. And those times that I've said no have paid off. And looking at the last ten years, I'm very, very proud of the work that I've been able to do, and I look forward to continuing to live out my dreams one decision at a time." The Wild Robot opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, September 19, 2024.
Some museums are filled with art. Others are dedicated to interesting pieces of history. The National Communication Museum in Melbourne, Australia's latest, falls into the second category. It's also a museum with a hyper-specific focus, celebrating the technology that's allowed humanity to interact and, in the process, shaped how we engage with each other. Rotary phones, cyber cafes, MSN Messenger: they all get a nod here. Opening to the public on Saturday, September 21, 2024, and marking the first new major museum in Melbourne for more than two decades — since the Melbourne Museum launched — the National Communication Museum lives and breathes nostalgia, then. Phone boxes, burger phones, the speaking clock that you could call to get the time and only shut down in Australia in 2019: they receive some love as well. But this space isn't solely about looking backwards, with peering forwards also part of its remit. Yes, that means grappling with what artificial intelligence might mean for communication in the future. Emily Siddon, NCM's Co-Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director, calls the two-level Hawthorn site "a trip down memory lane", but also notes how it looks at the present and what might come. "The technologies featured in NCM were developed in response to the innate human need to communicate and connect — yesterday, today and tomorrow," she explains. "It also answers the pressing questions about communication technology today. Things like: how far away are we from uploading our consciousness? How am I tracked and where does my data go? And how can I tell real from fake or human from machine?". Across an array of rooms featuring both permanent and temporary exhibitions — located in an old 1930s telephone exchange building, which includes a working historical telephone exchange — visitors can dive into First Nations storytelling, celebrate the speaking clock, explore a 90s-era internet cafe and check out an interactive display that takes its cues from regional Australia's phone booths. There's also a section dedicated to research, spanning both successful and unsuccessful ideas, plus launch exhibitions dedicated to surveillance, the human-made satellites sent into space to circle the earth and the infrastructure underpinning digital communication. Find the National Communication Museum at 375 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, from Saturday, September 21, 2024 — open 10am–5pm Wednesday–Sunday. Head to the venue's website for more details. Images: Casey Horsfield.
Not once, not twice, but at least 17 times, Robert Pattinson (The Batman) dies in Mickey 17. In the just-dropped full trailer for the new science-fiction film, his character is not too happy about it, either. But when you've signed up to be an 'expendable', as Mickey has in this adaptation of Edward Ashton's book Mickey 7, you've agreed to kick the bucket over and over and over for a living. On the page, the lead character is the seventh version — thank human printing — working as part of an effort to to colonise an ice world and soon finding himself trying to fend off the eighth. Mickey 17 has clearly upped that to the 17th version of its lead character. And, with Korean director Bong Joon-ho writing and directing, making his long-awaited first feature since Parasite, it's leaning heavily on comedy as well. Mickey 17 has been in the works for years, even dropping an initial teaser trailer at the end of 2022. Back then, the flick was targeting a March 2024 release date; however, that changed early this year, with the movie now hitting cinemas in January 2025. Thanks to everything that the last few years have served up, 2019, when the Palme d'Or-, Sydney Film Festival Prize- and Oscar-winning Parasite released, seems like a lifetime ago. So, waiting for anything since that innocent pre-pandemic time feels like waiting forever. But a new Bong movie has always been worth it so far, as his impressive cinematic resume attests. He's also the filmmaker behind stunning crime procedural Memories of Murder, creature feature The Host, dystopian thriller Snowpiercer and the offbeat Okja, after all. Mickey 17 looks set to mark the filmmaker's third movie mostly in English after Snowpiercer and Okja, with Pattinson leading a cast that also includes Steven Yeun (Beef), Naomi Ackie (Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody), Toni Collette (Mafia Mamma) and Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things). Science-fiction fans will spot that the premise alone gives off big Moon, Sunshine and Voyagers vibes — and brings High Life, RPatz's last exceptional sci-fi flick, to mind. That said, Bong isn't a filmmaker to follow in anyone else's footsteps. How he makes this concept his own already looks like a treat to see based on the two sneak peeks so far. Mickey 17 is a return for Pattinson, too, given that he hasn't been seen on-screen since his debut turn as Bruce Wayne — although he could be heard in the English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron, adding a movie by another iconic director to his filmography. Check out the full trailer for Mickey 17 below: Mickey 17 releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, January 30, 2025.
It was true in 2023 and it's the case again in 2024: The Calile in Brisbane is the best hotel in both Australia and Oceania. After earning those honours on the inaugural World's Best 50 Hotels list last year, the Fortitude Valley venue has backed up the accolades for a second year. This time, it isn't the only Aussie accommodation spot to make the cut, but it still ranked higher than anywhere else Down Under. In 2023, The Calile came in at 12th place. In 2024, it sits in 25th. The awards called the James Street hotel an example of "laid-back, sun-soaked, chic Aussie hospitality", noting that it "riffs on modernist Miami and Palm Springs while also nodding to the design stylings of 1960s Australia". Also getting some love: its onsite dining and drinking spots, such as Hellenika, Biànca, Sushi Room, SK Steak and Oyster, and Lobby Bar, some of which have scored Nigella Lawson's approval as well. "Brisbane is becoming an increasingly interesting place to dine and The Calile's six restaurants have been instrumental in making that a reality," the World's Best 50 Hotels noted. Praise was also showered upon the site's ability to ensure that indoors meets outdoors, the 30-metre pool surrounded by cabanas and the service. "The Calile's stunning botanical pool deck is undeniably the hotel's centrepiece, with sun lounges filled with tanned and leggy guests, overlooked by the curved balconies of the hotel's poolside rooms. The seven cabanas can be booked for dinner or cocktails, which are the best place to observe all the action of Brisbanites at play," the accolades continued. The Tasman in Hobart is the other Australian spot to nab a place in the top 50, coming in at number 48. It received attention for its "three distinct architectural eras cleverly melded into one seamless, luxurious whole". "What binds this eccentric collection of styles together is an uncompromising attention to detail, a sense of relaxed luxury and a uniquely Tasmanian style and pace," the awards also advised. If you're looking for Aussie spots for a staycation or vacation, there's your top two suggestions sorted. If you're keen to say at some of the world's best hotels beyond Australian shores, you have 48 choices, capped by Capella Bangkok — which was 2023's Best New Hotel — in first place. [caption id="attachment_973399" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Capella Bangkok[/caption] Passalacqua in Moltrasio in Italy dropped down from top spot last year to second this year, while Rosewood Hong Kong came in third and Cheval Blanc in Paris ranked fourth. From there, The Upper House in Hong Kong sits in fifth place, Raffles Singapore came in sixth, Aman Tokyo ranked seventh, Soneva Fushi in The Maldives nabbed eighth place, and The Atlantis Royal in Dubai and Nihi Sumba on Sumba Island in Indonesia round out the top ten. Per continent, as well as The Calile being named the best spot in Oceania, Capella Bangkok did the same in Asia, Passalacqua was named Europe's top hotel, Chablé Yucatán in Mexico did the honours in North America, Rosewood São Paulo notched up the feat in South America and Mount Nelson in South Africa scored the title in Africa. [caption id="attachment_918889" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Passalacqua © Ruben Ortiz[/caption] The World's Best 50 Hotels sits in the 50 Best stable alongside the World's 50 Best Restaurants, the World's 50 Best Bars, Asia's 50 Best Bars, Asia's 50 Best Restaurants and more. Debuting in 2023, the countdown highlights excellence among places to stay, and initially favoured Europe heavily among its selections — but its second year sees Asian hotels earn more spots on the list than anywhere else with 19 in total, including four from Bangkok alone. European accommodation spots are represented in 2024 by 13 places, North American hotels nabbed nine, Africa features four, Oceania scored four as well and South America has one. The World's Best 50 Hotels winners for 2024 were picked by more than 600 international travel experts, all with a significant number of stamps on their passports, with the list unveiled in London. [caption id="attachment_819667" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rosewood Hong Kong[/caption] "To have been selected two years in a row marks a significant affirmation of The Calile's place on the global hotel industry stage. This is a win for our team, our collaborators, our loyal guests and a win for Brisbane as a destination, and we are humbled to again represent Australia and be recognised as leading in the Oceania region," said The Calile Hotel co-owner Catherine Malouf, who attended the ceremony in the UK. Brisbane keeps garnering the international spotlight, as does the broader Sunshine State as well. The River City was named one of the best places to go in 2024 by The New York Times, travel guide Frommer's also selected the city as one of 2024's best spots to visit and TIME put it on its world's greatest places list for 2023. Further north, Palm Cove near Cairns topped Condé Nast Traveller's beach list for 2024, and was named the home of the best hotel in the South Pacific, and also Australia, by Tripadvisor. For the full World's 50 Best Hotels list for 2024, head to the awards' website. The Calile images: Cieran Murphy.
If you're fond of staring at the heavens with your own two eyes to see a stunning sight, you'll want to spend Wednesday, September 18, 2024 looking up. A supermoon is upon us, with the best time to see it arriving just after sunset Down Under — so if you train your peepers upwards this evening, you'll be in for a glowing show. While super full moons aren't particularly rare — several usually happen each year, and one occurred just last month — there is a good reason to peer upwards this time around. If you're wondering why, we've run through the details below. [caption id="attachment_769713" align="alignnone" width="1920"] NASA/Joel Kowsky[/caption] What Is It? If you're more familiar with The Mighty Boosh's take on the moon than actual lunar terms, here's what you need to know. As we all learned back in November 2016, a supermoon is a new moon or full moon that occurs when the moon reaches the closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, making it particularly bright. They're not all that uncommon — and because September 2024's supermoon is a full moon (and not a new moon), it's called a super full moon. It's also a harvest moon, too, which refers to the time of year in the northern hemisphere, because this is when the autumn harvest tends to begin in the other half of the world. Of course, that doesn't apply in the southern hemisphere, but the name still sticks. When Can I See It? As mentioned above, your best time to look at the harvest supermoon is from sunset on Wednesday, September 18, 2024. The moon always appears full for a few days, however, so if you already thought that the night sky looked a little brighter this week, that's why. To catch a glimpse, you'll want to peek outside when it gets dark to feast your eyes on a luminous lunar sight. Head over to timeanddate.com for the relevant moonrise and moonset times for your area. In Sydney, the moon rises at 6pm on Wednesday and sets at 6.19am on Thursday. Those times for Melbourne are 6.26pm Wednesday and 6.43am Thursday, while Brisbane's are 5.53pm Wednesday and at 6.13am Thursday. In Perth, it's 6.26pm Wednesday and 6.44am Thursday, while Adelaide's are 6.23pm Wednesday and 6.40am Thursday. Where Can I See It? You can take a gander from your backyard or balcony, but the standard advice regarding looking into the night sky always applies — so city-dwellers will want to get as far away from light pollution as possible to get the absolute best view. Also, if you've heard about the supermoon partial lunar eclipse, sadly that's not visible from Australia — but you can watch it online from 11am AEST Down Under. Via NASA / timeanddate.com. Top image: Andrew C.
When the original UK version of The Office turned workplace awkwardness, cringeworthy bosses and frustrating coworkers into a huge comedic success two decades ago, it found humour in parts of the 9-to-5 grind that we all recognise. When the hit show inspired the hugely popular American series, the mere fact that it sparked a spinoff also spoke to another employment truth: that office chaos, overbearing managers and unpleasant colleagues aren't a mere product of one place, company or country. It's no wonder that more iterations have kept following, with everywhere from Canada, France and Germany to Israel, India and Poland serving up their takes. Next, marking the franchise's 13th adaptation, comes Australia's own The Office — and it now has a trailer. It's time to clock on: come Friday, October 18, The Office is reopening, this time Down Under. Back in 2023, Prime Video announced that it was making an Aussie version of the sitcom, featuring actor and comedian Felicity Ward (Time Bandits) as Flinley Craddick Managing Director Hannah Howard. This is also the first take worldwide with a female boss. Move over David Brent, and also Michael Scott — it's now Howard's turn to become the manager that no one wants but everyone has worked for. She oversees a packaging company. When she receives news that head office is shutting down her branch, with everyone working from home instead, she's determined to keep her team together. Obviously, that won't go smoothly, or there'd be no sitcom antics to be had in The Office's Aussie stint. Joining Ward is a hefty cast spanning Edith Poor (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), Steen Raskopoulos (The Duchess), Shari Sebbens (Preppers), Josh Thomson (Young Rock), Jonny Brugh (What We Do in the Shadows), Pallavi Sharda (The Twelve), Susan Ling Young (Barons), Raj Labade (Back of the Net), Lucy Schmit (The Pledge), Zoe Terakes (Talk to Me) and Claude Jabbour (Last King of the Cross). Also featuring: Susie Youssef (Deadloch), Justin Rosniak (Colin From Accounts), Carlo Ritchie (A Beginner's Guide to Grief), Rick Donald (Population: 11), and Chris Bunton (Wolf Like Me). Viewers will be able to binge Ward and company's antics, with the entire eight-episode first season of the The Office dropping at once — so get your staplers in jelly ready. Check out the trailer for the Australian version of The Office below: The Australian version of The Office streams via Prime Video from Friday, October 18, 2024. Images: John Platt and Prime Video, © BBCS and Bunya Entertainment.
Sometimes in The Whitsundays, sometimes outside the Sydney Opera House, sometimes in the rooftop carpark of a Melbourne Woolworths, thousands of people have disrobed for Spencer Tunick. The New York-based artist stages naked installations in public places that also become nude photography works. He's filled Bondi beach, Federation Square, Munich's Bavarian State Opera, a patch of the Nevada desert and many more places with folks sans clothes, too — and, in both 2023 and 2024, he's turned his attention to Brisbane as well. Tunick first hit the Sunshine State last November for a piece called TIDE by the Brisbane River, which formed part of 2023's queer arts and culture-focused Melt Festival. On a spring Saturday, more than 100 participants shed their attire for the camera by the water. Before that installation even took place, it was revealed that he'd back in 2024 for an installation now called RISING TIDE. It too is part of the same fest, and it also involves another Brisbane landmark: the Story Bridge. [caption id="attachment_973212" align="alignnone" width="1920"] TIDE, Spencer Tunick[/caption] On Sunday, October 27, 2024, the famous river crossing will welcome thousands of naked volunteers. Accordingly, it isn't just traffic that will bring the structure to a standstill this spring. For the shoot, the stretch across the water is closing to cars. If you're keen to get your kit off for the camera — and be part of history — there's no limit to the number of people who can take part. RISING TIDE is just one way to engage with Tunick's art in Brisbane this year, however. The other: the just-announced TIDE Exhibition, featuring images from his debut in the River City. It'll display at Brisbane Powerhouse from Saturday, September 28–Sunday, November 10, also falling into Melt, featuring projected video from the installation. [caption id="attachment_970675" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brisbane, Spencer Tunick[/caption] The TIDE Exhibition marks a few firsts for Tunick as he celebrates 30 years of making his style of art, over which period he's staged more than 100 installations. This is his first-ever Australian exhibition, and it's the first time that his work will be on display for the public. The single-channel video at the heart of the TIDE Exhibition not only includes imagery from the shoot by the Brisbane River, but also stories from participants. "Creating TIDE was a very special experience, and I hope the exhibition will speak to diverse groups of people. It is a privilege to be making art that centres around the LGBTQIA+ community with all its beauty and vibrance," advised Tunick. When RISING TIDE was announced, the artist said that "the series will hopefully speak to diverse groups of people, and everyone navigating their way through the difficult challenges of our current world". "This challenging work on the Story Bridge marks the second in my two-part series in Brisbane scheduled one year apart, in 2023 then 2024. It is the first time I have ever worked on installations with the same institution for an extended two-year project. This will allow me to deeply explore the city, its light, environment and its people." [caption id="attachment_973211" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sydney, Spencer Tunick[/caption] [caption id="attachment_973210" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Barcelona, Spencer Tunick[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926439" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gateshead, Newcastle, England by Spencer Tunick.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_874950" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dublin, Spencer Tunick[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926442" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jay Cull[/caption] Spencer Tunick's TIDE exhibition displays from Saturday, September 28–Sunday, November 10 at Brisbane Powerhouse, 119 Lamington Street, New Farm. Spencer Tunick's 2024 Story Bridge installation RISING TIDE takes place on Sunday, October 27, 2024 during Melt Festival. Head to the festival website to register to take part. Top image: Spencer Tunick.
For the second time in 2024, Hollywood's TV talents have spent a night celebrating the best and brightest shows to hit the small screen, plus the folks that make our television and streaming favourites happen. If you love awards ceremonies, or just the reminder about what to watch that they always offer, this is a busier year than usual — because there's been not just one round of Emmys, but two. Back in January, the Emmys first took place for 2024 after the 2023 event was postponed from its usual September timing during Hollywood's writers' and actors' strikes. So, now that September is here for 2024, there's another Emmys — the ones that were always due to happen at this part of the calendar. Already worked your way through the winning shows from earlier in the year? Get ready for your next batch. Here's nine shows that've just received shiny trophies that you should watch, be it for the first or the fifth time. (We've also run through the full list of nominees and winners, too.) The Bear The more time that anyone spends in the kitchen, the easier that whipping up their chosen dish gets. The Bear season two is that concept in TV form, even if the team at The Original Beef of Chicagoland don't always live it as they leap from running a beloved neighbourhood sandwich joint to opening a fine-diner, and fast. The hospitality crew that was first introduced in the best new show of 2022 isn't lacking in culinary skills or passion. But when bedlam surrounds you constantly, as bubbled and boiled through The Bear's Golden Globe-winning, Emmy-nominated season-one frames, not everything always goes to plan. That was only accurate on-screen for Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White, Fingernails) and his colleagues — aka sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, Bottoms), baker-turned-pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce, Hap and Leonard), veteran line cooks Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas, In Treatment) and Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson, Fargo), resident Mr Fixit Neil Fak (IRL chef Matty Matheson), and family pal Richie aka Cousin (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, No Hard Feelings). For viewers, the series' debut run was as perfect a piece of television as anyone can hope for. Excellent news: season two is better. The Bear serves up another sublime course of comedy, drama and "yes chef!"-exclaiming antics across its sizzling second season. Actually make that ten more courses, one per episode, with each new instalment its own more-ish meal. A menu, a loan, desperately needed additional help, oh-so-much restaurant mayhem: that's how this second visit begins, as Carmy and Sydney endeavour to make their dreams for their own patch of Chicago's food scene come true. So far, so familiar, but The Bear isn't just plating up the same dishes this time around. At every moment, this new feast feels richer, deeper and more seasoned, including when it's as intense as ever, when it's filling the screen with tastebud-tempting food shots that relish culinary artistry, and also when it gets meditative. Episodes that send Marcus to a Noma-esque venue in Copenhagen under the tutelage of Luca (Will Poulter, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), get Richie spending a week learning the upscale ropes at one of Chicago's best restaurants and jump back to the past, demonstrating how chaos would've been in Carmy's blood regardless of if he became a chef, are particularly stunning. Emmys Won: Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Jeremy Allen White), Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Supporting Actress in a Actor in a Comedy Series (Liza Colón-Zayas) and Directing for a Comedy Series (Christopher Storer, The Bear). Where to watch it: The Bear streams via Disney+. Read our full review of The Bear season two. Hacks Sometimes you need to wait for the things you love. In Hacks, that's true off- and on-screen. It's been two years since the HBO comedy last dropped new episodes, after its first season was one of the best new shows of 2021 and its second one of the best returning series of 2022 — a delay first sparked by star Jean Smart (Babylon) requiring heart surgery, and then by 2023's Hollywood strikes. But this Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner returns better than ever in season three as it charts Smart's Deborah Vance finally getting a shot at a job that she's been waiting her entire career for. After scoring a huge hit with her recent comedy special, which was a product of hiring twentysomething writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder, Julia), the Las Vegas mainstay has a new chance at nabbing a late-night hosting gig. (Yes, fictional takes on after-dark talk shows are having a moment, thanks to Late Night with the Devil and now this.) At times, some in Deborah's orbit might be tempted to borrow the Australian horror movie's title to describe to assisting her pitch for a post-primetime chair. That'd be a harsh comment, but savage humour has always been part of this showbiz comedy about people who tell jokes for a living. While Deborah gets roasted in this season, spikiness is Hacks' long-established baseline — and also the armour with which its behind-the-mic lead protects herself from life's and the industry's pain, disappointments and unfairness. Barbs can also be Deborah's love language, as seen in her banter with Ava. When season two ended, their tumultuous professional relationship had come to an end again via Deborah, who let her writer go to find bigger opportunities. A year has now passed when season three kicks off. Ava is a staff writer on a Last Week Tonight with John Oliver-type series in Los Angeles and thriving, but she's also not over being fired. Back in Vanceland , everything is gleaming — but Deborah isn't prepared for being a phenomenon. She wants it. She's worked for years for it. It's taken until her 70s to get it. But her presence alone being cause for frenzy, rather than the scrapping she's done to stay in the spotlight, isn't an easy adjustment. Emmys Won: Outstanding Comedy Series, Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Jean Smart) and Writing for a Comedy Series (Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky). Where to watch it: Hacks streams via Stan. Read our full review of Hacks season three. Baby Reindeer A person walking into a bar. The words "sent from my iPhone". A comedian pouring their experiences into a one-performer play. A twisty true-crime tale making the leap to the screen. All four either feature in, inspired or describe Baby Reindeer. All four are inescapably familiar, too, but the same can't be said about this seven-part Netflix series. Written by and starring Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, and also based on his real-life experiences, this is a bleak, brave, revelatory, devastating and unforgettable psychological thriller. It does indeed begin with someone stepping inside a pub — and while Gadd plays a comedian on-screen as well, don't go waiting for a punchline. When Martha (Jessica Gunning, The Outlaws) enters The Heart in Camden, London in 2015, Donny Dunn (Gadd, Wedding Season) is behind the counter. "I felt sorry for her. That's the first feeling I felt," the latter explains via voiceover. Perched awkwardly on a stool at the bar, Martha is whimpering to herself. She says that she can't afford to buy a drink, even a cup of tea. Donny takes pity, offering her one for free — and her face instantly lights up. That's the fateful moment, one of sorrow met with kindness, that ignites Baby Reindeer's narrative and changes Donny's life. After that warm beverage, The Heart instantly has a new regular. Sipping Diet Cokes from then on (still on the house), Martha is full of stories about all of the high-profile people that she knows and her high-flying lawyer job. But despite insisting that she's constantly busy, she's also always at the bar when Donny is at work, sticking around for his whole shifts. She chats incessantly about herself, folks that he doesn't know and while directing compliments Donny's way. He's in his twenties, she's in her early forties — and he can see that she's smitten, letting her flirt. He notices her laugh. He likes the attention, not to mention getting his ego stroked. While he doesn't reciprocate her feelings, he's friendly. She isn't just an infatuated fantasist, however; she's chillingly obsessed to an unstable degree. She finds his email address, then starts messaging him non-stop when she's not nattering at his workplace. (IRL, Gadd received more than 40,000 emails.) Emmys Won: Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Richard Gadd), Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Jessica Gunning) and Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Richard Gadd). Where to watch it: Baby Reindeer streams via Netflix. Read our full review. Ripley Boasting The Night Of's Steven Zaillian as its sole writer and director — joining a list of credits that includes penning Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and The Irishman, and also winning an Oscar for Schindler's List — the latest exquisite jump into the Ripley realm doesn't splash around black-and-white hues as a mere stylistic preference. In this new adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1955 book, the setting is still coastal Italy at its most picturesque, and therefore a place that most would want to revel in visually; Anthony Minghella, The Talented Mr Ripley's director a quarter-century back, did so with an intoxicating glow. For Zaillian, however, stripping away the warm rays and beaches and hair, blue seas and skies, and tanned skin as well, ensures that all that glitters is never gold or even just golden in tone as he spends time with Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers). There's never even a glint of a hint of a travelogue aesthetic, with viewers confronted with the starkness of Tom's choices and actions — he is a conman and worse, after all — plus the shadows that he persists in lurking in and the impossibility of ever grasping everything that he desires in full colour. On the page and on the screen both before and now, the overarching story remains the same, though, in this new definitive take on the character. It's the early 60s rather than the late 50s in Ripley, but Tom is in New York, running fake debt-collection schemes and clinging to the edges of high-society circles, when he's made a proposal that he was never going to refuse. Herbert Greenleaf (filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan, who has also acted in his own three features You Can Count on Me, Margaret and Manchester by the Sea) enlists him to sail to Europe to reunite with a friend, the shipping magnate's son Dickie (Johnny Flynn, One Life). As a paid gig, Tom is to convince the business heir to finally return home. But Dickie has no intention of giving up his Mediterranean leisure as he lackadaisically pursues painting — and more passionately spends his time with girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning, The Perfect Couple) — to join the family business. Emmys Won: Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Steven Zaillian). Where to watch it: Ripley streams via Netflix. Read our full review. Fargo This is a true story: in 2014, Hollywood decided to take on a task that was destined to either go as smoothly as sliding on ice or prove as misguided as having a woodchipper sitting around. Revisiting Fargo was a bold move even in pop culture's remake-, reboot- and reimagining-worshipping times, because why say "you betcha" to trying to make crime-comedy perfection twice? The Coen brothers' 1996 film isn't just any movie. It's a two-time Oscar-winner, BAFTA and Cannes' Best Director pick of its year, and one of the most beloved and original examples of its genre in the last three decades. But in-between credits on Bones, The Unusuals and My Generation, then creating the comic book-inspired Legion, writer, director and producer Noah Hawley started a project he's now synonymous with, and that's still going strong five seasons in. What keeps springing is always a twisty tale set in America's midwest, as filled with everyday folks in knotty binds, complicated family ties, crooks both bumbling and determined trying to cash in, and intrepid cops investigating leads that others wouldn't. Hawley's stroke of genius: driving back into Fargo terrain by making an anthology series built upon similar pieces, but always finding new tales about greed, power, murder and snowy landscapes to tell. Hawley's Fargo adores the Coenverse overall, enthusiastically scouring it for riches like it's the TV-making embodiment of Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter's namesake. That film hailed from Damsel's David Zellner instead, and took cues from the urban legend surrounding the purported Fargo ties to the IRL death of Japanese office worker Takako Konishi; however, wanting the contents of the Coen brothers' brains to become your reality is clearly a common thread. Of course, for most of the fictional figures who've walked through the small-screen Fargo's frames, they'd like anything but caper chaos. Scandia, Minnesota housewife Dot Lyon (Juno Temple, Ted Lasso) is one of them in season five. North Dakota sheriff, preacher and rancher Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm, Good Omens) isn't as averse to a commotion if he's the one causing it. Minnesota deputy Indira Olmstead (Richa Moorjani, Never Have I Ever) and North Dakota state trooper Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris, Woke) just want to get to the bottom of the series' new stint of sometimes-madcap and sometimes-violent mayhem. Emmys Won: Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Lamorne Morris). Where to watch it: Fargo streams via SBS On Demand. Read our full review of Fargo season five. Shōgun Casting Hiroyuki Sanada (John Wick: Chapter 4), Cosmo Jarvis (Persuasion) and Anna Sawai (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) as its three leads is one of Shōgun's masterstrokes. The new ten-part adaptation of James Clavell's 1975 novel — following a first version in 1980 that featured Japanese icon and frequent Akira Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune — makes plenty of other excellent moves, but this is still pivotal. Disney+'s richly detailed samurai series knows how to thrust its viewers into a deeply textured world from the outset, making having three complex performances at its centre an essential anchoring tactic. Sanada plays Lord Yoshii Toranaga, who is among the political candidates vying to take control of the country. Jarvis is John Blackthorne, a British sailor on a Dutch ship that has run aground in a place that its crew isn't sure is real until they get there. And Sawai is Toda Mariko, a Japanese noblewoman who is also tasked with translating. Each character's tale encompasses much more than those descriptions, of course, and the portrayals that bring them to the screen make that plain from the moment they're each first seen. As Game of Thrones and Succession both were, famously so, Shōgun is another drama that's all about fighting for supremacy. Like just the former, too, it's another sweeping epic series as well. Although it's impossible not to see those links, knowing that both battling over who'll seize power and stepping into sprawling worlds are among pop culture's favourite things right now (and for some time) doesn't make Shōgun any less impressive. The scale is grand, and yet it doesn't skimp on intimacy, either. The minutiae is meticulous, demanding that attention is paid to everything at all times. Gore is no stranger from the get-go. Opening in the 17th century, the series finds Japan in crisis mode, Toranaga facing enemies and Blackthorne among the first Englishmen that've made it to the nation — much to the alarm of Japan's sole European inhabitants from Portugal. Getting drawn in, including by the performances, is instantaneous. Shōgun proves powerful and engrossing immediately, and lavish and precisely made as well, with creators Justin Marks (Top Gun: Maverick) and Rachel Kondo (on her first TV credit) doing a spectacular job of bringing it to streaming queues. Emmys Won: Outstanding Drama Series, Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Hiroyuki Sanada), Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Anna Sawai) and Directing for a Drama Series (Frederick EO Toye). Where to watch it: Shōgun streams via Disney+. Read our full review. True Detective: Night Country Even when True Detective had only reached its second season, the HBO series had chiselled its template into stone: obsessive chalk-and-cheese cops with messy personal lives investigating horrifying killings, on cases with ties to power's corruption, in places where location mattered and with the otherworldly drifting in. A decade after the anthology mystery show's debut in 2014, True Detective has returned as Night Country, a six-part miniseries that builds its own snowman out of all of the franchise's familiar parts. The main similarity from there: like the Matthew McConaughey (The Gentlemen)- and Woody Harrelson (White House Plumbers)-led initial season, True Detective: Night Country is phenomenal. This is a return to form and a revitalisation. Making it happen after two passable intervening cases is a new guiding hand off-screen. Tigers Are Not Afraid filmmaker Issa López directs and writes or co-writes every episode, boasting Moonlight's Barry Jenkins as an executive producer. True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto remains in the latter role, too, as do McConaughey, Harrelson and season-one director Cary Joji Fukunaga (No Time to Die); however, from its female focus and weighty tussling with the dead to its switch to a cool, blue colour scheme befitting its Alaskan setting, there's no doubting that López is reinventing her season rather than ticking boxes. In handing over the reins, Pizzolatto's police procedural never-standard police procedural is a powerhouse again, and lives up to the potential of its concept. The commitment and cost of delving into humanity's depths and advocating for those lost in its abyss has swapped key cops, victims and locations with each spin, including enlisting the masterful double act of Jodie Foster (Nyad) and boxer-turned-actor Kali Reis (Catch the Fair One) to do the sleuthing, but seeing each go-around with fresh eyes feels like the missing puzzle piece. López spies the toll on the show's first women duo, as well as the splinters in a remote community when its fragile sense of certainty is forever shattered. She spots the fractures that pre-date the investigation in the new season, a cold case tied to it, plus the gashes that've carved hurt and pain into the earth ever since people stepped foot on it. She observes the pursuit of profit above all else, and the lack of concern for whatever — whoever, the region's Indigenous inhabitants included — get in the way. She sees that the eternal winter night of 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle come mid-December isn't the only thing impairing everyone's sight. And, she knows that not everything has answers, with life sometimes plunging into heartbreak, or inhospitable climes, or one's own private hell, without rhyme or reason. Emmys Won: Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Jodie Foster). Where to watch it: True Detective: Night Country streams via Binge. Read our full review. Slow Horses In gleaming news for streaming viewers, Mick Herron's Slough House novel series boasts 12 entries so far. In an also ace development, several more of the British author's books have links to the world of veteran espionage agent Jackson Lamb. That thankfully means that Slow Horses, the small-screen spy thriller based on Herron's work, has plenty more stories to draw upon in its future. It's now up to its third season as a TV series, and long may its forward path continue. Apple TV+ has clearly felt the same way since the program debuted in April 2022. In June the same year, the platform renewed Slow Horses for a third and fourth season before its second had even aired. That next chapter arrived that December and didn't disappoint. Neither does the latest batch of six episodes, this time taking its cues from Herron's Real Tigers — after season one used the novel Slow Horses as its basis, and season two did the same with Dead Lions — in charting the ins and outs of MI5's least-favourite department. Slough House is where the service rejects who can't be fired but aren't trusted to be proper operatives are sent, with Lamb (Gary Oldman, Oppenheimer) its happily cantankerous, slovenly, seedy and shambolic head honcho. Each season, Lamb and his team of losers, misfits and boozers — Mick Jagger's slinky ear worm of a theme tune's words — find themselves immersed in another messy case that everyone above them wishes they weren't. That said, Slow Horses isn't a formulaic procedural. Sharply written, directed and acted, and also immensely wryly funny, it's instead one of the best spy series to grace television, including in a new go-around that starts with two intelligence officers (Babylon's Katherine Waterston and Gangs of London's Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) in Istanbul. When the fallout from this season's opening events touches Lamb and his spooks, they're soon thrust into a game of cat-and-mouse that revolves around secret documents and sees one of their own, the forever-loyal Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves, Creation Stories), get abducted. The talented River Cartwright (Jack Lowden, The Gold) again endeavours to show why being banished to Slough House for a training mistake was MI5's error, while his boss' boss Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas, Rebecca) reliably has her own agenda. Emmys Won: Writing for a Drama Series (Will Smith, Slow Horses). Where to watch it: Slow Horses streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. The Crown It's the season that originally wasn't going to happen, telling the story that's still ongoing IRL, and wrapping up a seven-year run for a star-studded regal drama that's proven a royal hit. But, thankfully, it did — with The Crown coming to an end with a sixth go-around split into two parts. The focus for the Peter Morgan (The Queen)-created show's final episodes: the relationship between Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki, MaXXXine) and Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla, Moon Knight), including the tragic events of their trip to Paris; the changing attitudes towards the British monarchy, and Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton, Downton Abbey: A New Era) entering her ninth decade; what his mother's advancing years meant for Prince Charles (Dominic West, The Pursuit of Love); Princess Margaret's (Lesley Manville, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris) stroke and lifestyle changes; and Prince William (Ed McVey) going back to Eton, then attending St Andrew's University and forming a crush on Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy). When The Crown began, it kicked off with Queen Elizabeth II's life from her marriage to Prince Philip back in 1947. The first season made its way to the mid-50s, the second season leapt into the 60s, and season three spanned all the way up to the late 70s. In season four, the royal family hit the 80s, while season five hopped to the 90s. News around the show's fifth and sixth seasons changed a few times, including Netflix announcing that it would end the royal drama after its fifth season, only to have a change of heart and proceed for a sixth season after all. While there was always going to come a time to say goodbye, especially given that this is a IRL tale without an end, it's hard to see how the show would've fit in everything it needed if it hadn't delivered its sixth batch of episodes — and, among everything else viewers can be glad for Debicki's excellent performance. Emmys Won: Supporting Actress in a Actor in a Drama Series (Elizabeth Debicki). Where to watch it: The Crown streams via Netflix.
Plenty happens at an awards ceremony. For 2024's second round of Emmys — the first took place in January, after the 2023 event was postponed from its usual September timing during Hollywood's writers' and actors' strikes — history was made before the glitzy televised ceremony even happened. At the Creative Arts Emmys, Shōgun picked up 14 awards, making it the most-decorated show in a single season ever. The love for the series continued on Monday, September 16, 2024, and rightly so, with the historical Japanese drama also nabbing four more gongs: for outstanding drama series, directing, lead actor and lead actress. The Bear also won big again in the comedy categories — after hosts and Schitt's Creek favourites Eugene and Dan Levy joked in their opening monologue that, in the true spirit of the dramedy, they wouldn't be making any jokes in their gig. The pair's opening remarks spanned everything from calling out the number of movie stars now popping up on streaming series to noting how often Nicole Kidman (The Perfect Couple) graces the small screen these day. Baby Reindeer "sent from my iphonn" gags and recognising that it took three seasons for the Emmys to even nominate the sublime Reservation Dogs also helped get the ceremony started. A Schitt's Creek reunion, Jeremy Allen White advising that The Bear changed his life, Murphy Brown great Candice Bergen meowing, a tribute to Saturday Night Live's 50th year, a Happy Days ode with Henry Winkler punching a jukebox, John Leguizamo celebrating diversity: they all happened once the night started flowing. So did Fargo's Lamorne Morris telling The Sympathizer's Robert Downey Jr he has a poster of him in his house, Slow Horses' Will Smith riffing on the fact that he's not that other Will Smith, Brendan Hunt going all Coach Beard, Joshua Jackson's reaction to 'I Don't Want to Wait' from Dawson's Creek playing him on and familiar faces from The West Wing all together. At the first post-Succession Emmys, the list of winners is similarly hefty. While a few shows went home with multiple statuettes — including Shōgun, The Bear, Baby Reindeer and Hacks — the list of recipients also spans Slow Horses, True Detective: Night Country, Ripley and Fargo. And, thanks to The Crown, Australia was represented among the accolades with Elizabeth Debicki emerging victorious for playing Princess Diana. As always, if a nominated series didn't end up with its stars or creators on the Emmys stage, that doesn't mean it wasn't ace. Cases in point: Only Murders in the Building, Reservation Dogs, Mr & Mrs Smith, Abbott Elementary, Lessons in Chemistry, Loot, Palm Royale, Fallout and more. What did nab a trophy? Who else was in contention? We've got that covered. Here's a rundown of the awards handed out at the main ceremony, plus the nominees competing for them — and you can check out nine winning shows that you should watch ASAP, too. Emmy Nominees and Winners 2024: Outstanding Drama Series The Crown Fallout The Gilded Age The Morning Show Mr & Mrs Smith Shōgun — WINNER Slow Horses 3 Body Problem Outstanding Comedy Series Abbott Elementary The Bear Curb Your Enthusiasm Hacks — WINNER Only Murders in the Building Palm Royale Reservation Dogs What We Do in the Shadows Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series Baby Reindeer — WINNER Fargo Lessons in Chemistry Ripley True Detective: Night Country Lead Actor in a Drama Series Idris Elba, Hijack Donald Glover, Mr & Mrs Smith Walton Goggins, Fallout Gary Oldman, Slow Horses Hiroyuki Sanada, Shōgun — WINNER Dominic West, The Crown Lead Actress in a Drama Series Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show Carrie Coon, The Gilded Age Maya Erskine, Mr & Mrs Smith Anna Sawai, Shōgun — WINNER Imelda Staunton, The Crown Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Matt Berry, What We Do in the Shadows Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building Jeremy Allen White, The Bear — WINNER D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Reservation Dogs Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Ayo Edebiri, The Bear Selena Gomez, Only Murders in the Building Maya Rudolph, Loot Jean Smart, Hacks — WINNER Kristen Wiig, Palm Royale Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Matt Bomer, Fellow Travelers Jon Hamm, Fargo Tom Hollander, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Andrew Scott, Ripley Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country — WINNER Brie Larson, Lessons in Chemistry Juno Temple, Fargo Sophia Vergara, Griselda Naomi Watts, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Tadanobu Asano, Shōgun Jon Hamm, The Morning Show Mark Duplass, The Morning Show Billy Crudup, The Morning Show — WINNER Takehiro Hira, Shōgun Jack Lowden, Slow Horses Jonathan Pryce, The Crown Supporting Actress in a Actor in a Drama Series Christine Baranski, The Gilded Age Nicole Beharie, The Morning Show Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown — WINNER Greta Lee, The Morning Show Lesley Manville, The Crown Karen Pittman, The Morning Show Holland Taylor, The Morning Show Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Lionel Boyce, The Bear Paul W Downs, Hacks Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear — WINNER Paul Rudd, Only Murders in the Building Tyler James Williams, Abbott Elementary Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live Supporting Actress in a Actor in a Comedy Series Carol Burnett, Palm Royale Liza Colón-Zayas, The Bear — WINNER Hannah Einbinder, Hacks Janelle James, Abbott Elementary Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary Meryl Streep, Only Murders in the Building Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Jonathan Bailey, Fellow Travelers Robert Downey Jr, The Sympathizer Tom Goodman-Hill, Baby Reindeer John Hawkes, True Detective: Night Country Lamorne Morris, Fargo — WINNER Lewis Pullman, Lessons in Chemistry Treat Williams, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Dakota Fanning, Ripley Lily Gladstone, Under the Bridge Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Aja Naomi King, Lessons in Chemistry Diane Lane, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Nava Mau, Baby Reindeer Kali Reis, True Detective: Night Country Directing for a Drama Series Stephen Daldry, The Crown Mimi Leder, The Morning Show Hiro Murai, Mr & Mrs Smith Frederick EO Toye, Shōgun — WINNER Saul Metzstein, Slow Horses Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty Directing for a Comedy Series Randall Einhorn, Abbott Elementary Christopher Storer, The Bear — WINNER Guy Ritchie, The Gentlemen Lucia Aniello, Hacks Mary Lou Belli, The Ms Pat Show Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Weronika Tofilska, Baby Reindeer Noah Hawley, Fargo Gus Van Sant, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Millicent Shelton, Lessons in Chemistry Steven Zaillian, Ripley — WINNER Issa Lopez, True Detective: Night Country Writing for a Drama Series Peter Morgan and Meriel Sheibani-Clare, The Crown Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, Fallout Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover, Mr & Mrs Smith Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, Shōgun Rachel Kondo and Caillin Puente, Shōgun Will Smith, Slow Horses — WINNER Writing for a Comedy Series Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo, The Bear Meredith Scardino and Sam Means, Girls5eva Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky, Hacks — WINNER Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, The Other Two Jake Bender and Zach Dunn, What We Do in the Shadows Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror Noah Hawley, Fargo Ron Nyswaner, Fellow Travelers Steven Zaillian, Ripley Issa Lopez, True Detective: Night Country Writing for a Variety Special Alex Edelman: Just for Us — WINNER Jacqueline Novak: Get on Your Knees John Early: Now More Than Ever Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool The Oscars Outstanding Reality Competition Program RuPaul's Drag Race The Amazing Race The Traitors — WINNER The Voice Top Chef Outstanding Scripted Variety Series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver — WINNER Saturday Night Live Outstanding Talk Series The Daily Show — WINNER Jimmy Kimmel Live! Late Night with Seth Meyers The Late Show with Stephen Colbert The 2024 Emmy Awards took place on Monday, September 16, Australian time. For further details, head to the Emmys' website.
A new hotel in a historic building. A name well-known Down Under opening its first-ever location beyond Australia and New Zealand. A fresh excuse to spend your next holiday in southeast Asia. These all apply to the latest venue to join the QT Hotels & Resorts chain: the just-opened QT Singapore. Maybe you've experienced the gothic charm of QT Sydney. Perhaps you've enjoyed slumbering at the site of a former cinema at QT Melbourne. At QT Gold Coast, you could've slept in rooftop cabins. Or, at QT Newcastle, you might've bunked down in a clock tower. QT Queenstown comes with alpine views, while QT Auckland heroes the harbour. Now, add staying in Singapore's Eastern Extension Telegraph building, which dates back to 1927 and is located right next to the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre, to the list. It was back in May that QT revealed that it was launching in the city-state come spring — and the brand's Singapore hotel has opened its doors on Monday, September 16, 2024. Guests can check into one of 134 rooms behind the iconic building's striking facade, which has remained the same while the interiors have undergone a complete revamp to deck it out in QT's aesthetic. The chain's look varies from hotel to hotel, but always stands out from other places to stay. Interior designer Nic Graham has done the honours, with reflecting Singapore's climate and evolution — and the building's location and heritage — the main aim of his approach to the site's decor. Think: bold colours yet delicate lighting, woven rattan and black framing featuring heavily, print works by local artist Jill Tran in public spaces and a classic-yet-contemporary vibe. The array of rooms includes junior, corner, balcony and premier suites with double ceilings. Whichever type you choose, each one features a walk-in rain shower in the ensuite bathroom, a QT Dream Bed, an iPad to control everything around the room (including the Chromecast and wireless Bose speakers) and Dyson hair products. Holidaymakers can also take advantage of the dining and drinks options onsite, such as signature bar and grill Cygnet, plus rooftop bar Rooftop by QT. The first is a Manhattan-style steakhouse with chef and restaurateur Sean Connolly leading the charge — and a place that serves up its signature dishes tableside. The second sits alongside a sky-high pool for sips and splashes with a view, goes big on cocktails made from local ingredients and peers out over the skyline. And, if you're keen on having a shindig on your getaway, private dining is also on offer. Find QT Singapore at 35 Robinson Road, Singapore — and head to the hotel's website for bookings and further details. Images: QT Hotels & Resorts.
After headlining the post-parade party at the 2020 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and then bringing her Future Nostalgia tour Down Under in 2022, Dua Lipa has announced her latest trip to Australia and New Zealand. The Grammy-winner's massive Radical Optimism tour just got bigger, adding more than 40 new dates worldwide. On the 2025 list: stops in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. 2024 has been a huge year for the singer, with her third studio album Radical Optimism releasing in May and then the artist headlining Glastonbury. She also popped up in Argylle in cinemas. 2023 was no slouch, either, given that 'Dance the Night' graced the Barbie soundtrack and Dua Lipa featured in the film as a Barbie. But with her new tour, 2025 looks set to be even bigger. [caption id="attachment_972947" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tyrone Lebon[/caption] The Radical Optimism gigs kick off in November 2024 across Asia, with concerts in Singapore, Jakarta, Manila, Tokyo, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Seoul. Fans in Australia and Aotearoa get their turn to find the star under lights and turning the rhythm up in March and April 2025, thanks to shows at Rod Laver Arena, Qudos Bank Arena and Spark Arena. If you're located outside of Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland and you've noticed a lack of Down Under dates elsewhere, you'll need to travel to see the 'Don't Start Now', 'Physical', 'Break My Heart', 'Cold Heart' and 'Houdini' talent. The Aussie and NZ leg will restart the Radical Optimism tour in 2025, with dates also announced across Europe in May and June next year, and in North America in September and October afterwards. As well as Radical Optimism and Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa has tracks from her self-titled 2017 debut record to bust out, including 'Be the One', 'Hotter Than Hell', 'Lost in Your Light', 'New Rules', 'IDGAF' and 'Blow Your Mind'. Dua Lipa Radical Optimism Tour 2025 Australia and New Zealand Dates Thursday, March 20 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Wednesday, March 26 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Wednesday, April 2 — Spark Arena, Auckland Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism tour heads Down Under in March and April 2025, with Amex presale tickets from 11am local time on Wednesday, September 18, artist presales from 12pm local time on Thursday, September 19 and general sales from 1pm local time on Friday, September 20. Head to Dua Lipa's website for more details. Live images: Raph_PH via Flickr.
Who hasn't gone on vacation, soaked up their idyllic temporary surroundings but felt pangs of envy towards a few specific fellow travellers who seem to be having a better time than everyone else? That's how Speak No Evil begins — and it's meant to be relatable. The situation that Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis, Station Eleven) and her husband Ben (Scoot McNairy, Invincible) find themselves in while travelling to Tuscany with their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler, Dead Boy Detectives) is a classic grass-is-greener setup. When the American couple look at the brash but charismatic Paddy (James McAvoy, His Dark Materials) and his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi, Stopmotion), and as they get to know them over dinners and drinks, they wish that they too were that happy, that carefree and that relaxed. Hopefully no one has endured IRL what comes next in this Blumhouse horror movie directed by Eden Lake and The Woman in Black's James Watkins, which remakes 2022 Danish film Gæsterne, also called Speak No Evil in English. Reluctantly on Louise's part but eagerly by Ben, the Daltons accept an invitation to spend a weekend with Paddy and Ciara, plus their son Ant (Dan Hough, Hollyoaks), at their rural property back in Britain. Actually, we've all been in a scenario where passive-aggression simmers behind smiles and plastered-on friendliness, social discomfort flavours every interaction and toxic masculinity festers. For the Daltons, however, this second getaway turns particularly grim when they discover what lurks behind the blissful facade that their hosts were such experts at projecting in Italy. Both versions of Speak No Evil take viewers on an unsettling trip — but only the do-over boasts powerful performances by McAvoy and Davis. While no one in the cast puts a foot wrong, including Davis' Halt and Catch Fire co-star McNairy, The Nightingale standout Franciosi and the feature's youngest actors, its two leads are tasked with encapsulating the film's clashing sides. Paddy presents himself as earthy and approachable, packaging up his ideas of manhood — notions that can be called traditional at best and outdated if you're still being polite — with a seemingly wholesome, laidback vibe. Louise is understandably constantly anxious and worried, and yet just as persistently eager not to cause a scene. The more time that she spends in Paddy's farmhouse, the more that she realises that she's being forced to ignore her every instinct about him. Speak No Evil also unpacks why that reaction also feels so familiar. These are complicated and layered roles to play, and a balancing act on both McAvoy and Davis' parts. That's one of the things that attracted them each to the movie, the two tell Concrete Playground. For McAvoy, he's back in the darker psychological terrain that he traversed in Split and Glass for M Night Shyamalan — chatting with us back in 2017, the filmmaker called the actor's work in the former "fearless; he was just very fearless about the whole thing" — and also in the unrelated Filth before that. He credits his excellent, can't-look-away efforts both in Split and Speak No Evil to great writing first and foremost. "I was lucky enough on those two particular jobs, this one as much as any other, to be able to feel really strong going into it and make strong choices," he explains. For Davis, she adds another complex portrayal to a resume teeming with them (see: the aforementioned Station Eleven, Black Mirror's 'San Junipero' episode, Blade Runner 2049, Tully, Happiest Season and more), all while ensuring that she's never repeating herself. "Not retreading footsteps that I've already walked in" is what gets her excited about any new role, she advises. "That's a weird mixed metaphor. Honestly, I read so many scripts and I barely like any of them, and then one comes and you're like 'oh, maybe this is a fucked-up little thing to do'." Davis sums up Speak No Evil perfectly, as audiences Down Under can experience in cinemas from Thursday, September 12, 2024. We also chatted with the film's lead pair about the rollercoaster ride that the movie takes viewers on, where inspiration came from to flesh out their parts, being able to see themselves — or aspects of them — in their characters, digging into what it means not to speak up, ensuring that the movie's emotional journey feels logical and more. On McAvoy Having No Fear When Diving Into Dark Roles, Such as in Split and Speak No Evil James: "I think when you've got a good text and you've got a good character drawn well with a good arc, you've got a solid foundation from which to jump. And that was definitely the case with Split, and that was definitely the case with Speak No Evil. And they both happen to be Blumhouse movies, which is great because they're underpinned by something — not just pieces of entertainment, which they are, which they deliver upon, but they've also got something interesting to say socially. So it was a really strong foundation that it jumped from. I think when the text isn't so strong, maybe I'm not so fearless and maybe a bit more fearful. But I was lucky enough on those two particular jobs, this one as much as any other, to be able to feel really strong going into it and make strong choices." On Davis' First Reaction to the Script, and What She Saw That She Could Bring to the Role Mackenzie: "I loved it. I hadn't seen the original, and I knew it existed but wasn't really familiar with anything else other than the title. So this is my first exposure to the conceit — and I just love things that feel as dangerous as being hunted and killed, being placed on that same plane. Because committing, not like a social faux pas or a gaffe, but like really offending someone or hurting somebody's feelings in a really meaningful way, you can get kind of the same adrenaline response as you do when you're trying to save your life. And they do feel like mortal dangers at the time, and I liked how it how it dealt with that. I wasn't sure at first, honestly, because there's a lot of Louise looking to her husband to act, and that worried me a little bit. But I had lots of long, really meaningful chats with James Watkins, the director, and he assured me that he was really interested in Louise's experience of being silent. Like, it's one thing to not speak, and it's another thing for the camera to be interested in why they're not speaking and what they're thinking while they're not speaking. And as long as that was part of it, then I thought it was a really interesting role. I think James [Watkins], before we started making the movie, convinced me that that was important to him. Then in the movie, I really see that, that he's interested in how Louise is feeling and it's not always through a monologue." On Working Through Speak No Evil's Many Layers James: "I was just so glad that I was getting to be involved in something that could be entertaining, could make people laugh, could make them jump, give them the horror experience or the scary experience that you want in the cinema in a communal, sitting-down environment — but at the same time, it had stuff to say as well, which elevates it. Blumhouse do that time and again, and they do it so so well. So it's a privilege to be a part of something like that because you get to do two things at once. Also part of it was about a conversation about masculinity, which I feel is quite timely as well — and what men are attracted to at the moment in terms of looking for answers. Somebody like Ben, who's really drifting, really lost, really hurt, really damaged, he's looking for answers. And here comes along this sort of totem of toxic masculinity, but he seems to have the answer to one of the questions in life, which is how to be happy. He seems really happy. In fact, I would argue he is really happy. As much as he's rage-filled and anger-filled, he's also capable of great joy and happiness, and he really enjoys his life. And that's an attractive quality, but it's also a scary thing in somebody who's also got such worrying doctrine." On the Film's Relatable Situation, Including the Balance Between Trying to Keep the Peace and Recognising Your Instincts Mackenzie: "What's important to me is that I can see myself in that situation. I relate to the choices she makes, even when they're stupid. I can understand why she's doing the thing that might feel wrong to an audience, because you get that there are other things at play other than the right thing and the wrong thing. There's the marriage and keeping that intact. And then there's 'oh my god, did I just make some sort of enormous, grievous misunderstanding of a situation where I thought I was saving my family, but actually I was villainising myself and really offending these lovely people who are hosting us?. And am I being a snob?'. There's so many currents of thought that are going on all the time, and you kind of have to choose one to follow. And I get why, for a lot of the movie, she's prioritising, with difficulty, keeping the peace — and then at a certain point the dam breaks and she just cannot do it anymore. I think that's really, really relatable, trying to be all things at once." On the Balancing Act Required for McAvoy to Play Someone Who is Charismatic, Earthy and Seemingly Free-Spirited, and Also Angry, Reckless and Unsettling James: "The whole film is a balancing act, and the whole performance for me is a bit of a balancing act, because you can't go too far one way or the other. You can't go too scary or too safe. You've got to be right in the middle, until the end anyway, because you dissipate the tension of horror or a scary movie if you just go full bore too quickly. And that's the same either side. Too safe, too dangerous. Too masculine, too not masculine. Too safe masculine, too toxic masculine. Too politically correct, too politically incorrect. You have to ride this line so that both versions of him are possible at all times without ever jumping down and nailing your colours to the mast on one side or the other. So it's a bit of a balancing act that was orchestrated by myself and by the director definitely on the day, James Watkins. He did a lot of that on the page, but even then on the day, it was about getting shades, colours and levels so that when he was in the edit, he had the opportunity to calibrate as he went in that environment as well." On Acting Opposite McAvoy's Powerful Performance Mackenzie: "There's a moment in the movie where he has this sort of smile and then his eyes go dead, but then his mouth twitches a little bit still, and it's so unsettling. And he's playing three different things in like one second. And that's what it feels like to work across from him. He's really surprising. He's enjoying what he's doing so much, which is so fun, because you shoot one scene for like six hours. You're hearing the same lines over and over, and what you want is an actor that's finding a new way into it every time so that it feels exciting and stimulating to engage with it, and he just does that in spades. He's a wonderful person and a really great actor." On What McAvoy and Davis Each Drew Upon to Help Flesh Out Their Complex Characters James: "I've got a friend who will look into my eyes and sing me an entire song, and there's something weirdly sort of threatening about it — because I don't know the song and I'm not singing it back with him, but he's singing it like he's singing some old favourite that we both know. I drew on that, because that's a kind of masculinity. That's a kind of 'I'm dominating you right now'. And I actually do that in the film with Scoot — and my mate will watch this and be like 'you're totally doing me right now'. He's nothing like Paddy, by the way. What did I draw upon? I guess, weirdly, myself. I'm not like Paddy, but I could be, and I could be if I'd made different decisions or indulged different parts of my personality and animal instincts when I was younger, or if different things had happened to me and I reacted to them differently. So those parts of Paddy that are objectionable or even attractive that aren't immediately apparent or inflated in me, they're still in me. So it's about imagining them growing. It's imagining them into your mind, and imagining them into your soul and into your heart, and then letting them out on camera. They'll never become a part of me properly, but if you just quite imagine who you would become, who you would be if your life had been different and things had changed in different ways. I think the parts of Paddy that we find objectionable and frightening are in us all. We all have the capacity to kill, and we all have the capacity to steal and to hurt others, to be selfish and to put ourselves before everyone else. And that's kind of what he does. And I think we all have that in us. It's just we've had different experiences or made different decisions to get us there. But you can look at yourself and recognise Paddy, I think." Mackenzie: "For me, I just want things to make sense. I'm almost a bit mathematical about it in going through the script and being like 'okay, well, why does she do this and how does that make sense, and if she does this, then what does this mean?'. And as long as I can make the math — and everybody has their own particular math, there is not one unifying, it's just the logic of that person — as long as her logic feels believable and at least consistent enough, to me, that the inconsistencies are exciting and surprising, then I'm great. It's when things just feel random and I can't find the throughline that I'm like 'meh, probably I'm not the right person to play this part'." On What Davis Would Do If She Was in the Same Situation as Louise Mackenzie: "I think you'd be charmed by dreams. I think it would be fun. I think were I in the situation, I can see myself being like 'I don't want to spend two days at their house, we don't even know them'. And then being like 'you know, you've got to have adventure in your life. At the very least, it'll be like a good story'. And it was. So maybe I would make the same decision. I keep saying I wouldn't, but now I guess I've kind of convinced myself it'll be fun to do something weird." Speak No Evil opens in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, September 12, 2024.
The best glamping sites in New Zealand are made for travellers who want to explore and stay amid the country's spectacular natural landscapes without having to rough it. Either hit a few of these as you road trip through the North and South Islands or find a location you love then stock up and stay for a good few days. Whether you're after seaside glamping or a mountain escape, with fantastic lodgings scattered across the countryside, Aotearoa's best assets are on full display at these glamping destinations that get you closer to nature than any hotel (although there's no shortage of great hotels in New Zealand). Recommended reads: The Best Places to Go Glamping in Australia The Most Romantic Places to Stay in Bali The Best Spas in Auckland The Best Spas in Wellington Glam Camping, Queenstown At Glam Camping, you'll find a collection of geometric dome tents perched along a hillside looking down on the green valley and lake just a 20-minute drive from Queenstown. During the day, take the 90-minute walk around Moke Lake or go horse riding. You can even join a morning yoga class or organise a wine tasting tour around one or many of Queenstown's famous vineyards. But we are particularly excited about the Glam Camping's food and drink offerings. You can opt to cook your own food (with all the produce provided by the hosts) or let a private chef treat you and your travel buddies to a three-course feast on the property. [caption id="attachment_880413" align="alignnone" width="1920"] SJL Photography[/caption] Kawakawa Station, South Wairapa This sprawling farming property spans across rolling grassy hills by the South Wairarapa coastline. And until the end of April 2023, the Kawakawa Station team invites guests to stay in a series of large tents hidden within the pastures. But, unlike other bell tents, these have clear ceilings so guests can stargaze from the comfort of their own bed. It also has a fully equipped kitchen on the property, so you can prep your meals without needing to bring a heap of gear. You can easily spend a few days at this New Zealand glamping site, hanging out among the sheep and strolling around the property. But, if you're after a proper adventure, Kawakawa Station also offers an epic hiking experience. The three-day hike along the Station Walk takes you through forests, along creeks and right down to the coast. The team will put you up in a bunch of different accommodations along the way, too. Coromandel Luxury Escapes, Coromandel It's in the name but still deserves being repeated — Coromandel Luxury Escapes is a truly luxurious glamping site in New Zealand. It is all powered and comes with a mini fridge, oil heater, large king bed as well as a private free-standing outdoor bath. A massive deck with a BBQ is also there for you when you want to cook up some locally caught fish. Apart from the site, one of the biggest selling points is the location. It's close to some of New Zealand's best beaches, including the picturesque New Chums Beach. And, if you're up for a 50-minute drive, you've got to visit Hot Water Beach. Here, you can dig a hole in the sand to find naturally hot water bubbling up to the surface — just be careful when digging, as this water can reach temperatures beyond 100 degrees Celsius. Use Coromandel Luxury Escapes as your base when exploring the Coromandel region which is just a two-hour ferry ride from Auckland. Lavericks Bay, Christchurch The Lavericks Bay glamping spot has two tents making up this wonderfully bucolic site. Seclusion is almost totally guaranteed. Apart from the property's wandering sheep. You'll feel as if you have the entire bay and rolling countryside to yourselves — for exploring or just sitting back and taking in the views. During the day, head to the beach for some leisurely swimming at the property's private beach to check out the resident dolphins and seals that tend to float past. And, at night, you can't say no to a dip in the large wooden hot tub in which you can do some proper stargazing. There's no light pollution here, so you'll be guaranteed a stunning night sky. Waitomo Hilltop, Waitomo The Waitomo Hilltop glamping site feels like it's pulled from a fairytale. Atop a hill, in the green Waitomo countryside lies this luxury tent that's been kitted out with everything you could need. Cook up fresh pizzas in its woodfired oven, rug up by the fire pit watching movies via projector or take a dip in one of the outdoor baths overlooking the countryside. There used to be just one glamping tent available, but Waitomo recently finished creating another equally luxurious site. The new campsite has two tents joined together with a glass walkway — including three separate bedrooms, a lounge area and a massive kitchen and dining room. It is technically a tent, but looks far more like a bricks and mortar home. The Black Yurt, Oakura This one is for the keen surfers out there. You're a short walk away from Oakura's surfing beach which is known for having some fairly reliable swell. The Black Yurt is also close to town — walking distance from plenty of boutique stores, restaurants and bars. It may be one of the least remote New Zealand glamping spots on this list but it still feels miles away from crowds. The large yurt is surrounded by palms and native bushland, offering up some well-needed privacy. The interiors of the yurt are also extra cushy. There's a king bed, a queen futon mattress as well as some schmick bathroom facilities. And, if the weather is good, you can open the dome and windows to let the outside in. [caption id="attachment_879080" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lisa Sun Photography[/caption] Tawanui Farm, Cheviot It doesn't take long to find jaw-dropping vistas outside of New Zealand's main cities. Just an hour-long drive from Christchurch lies Tawanui Farm, a working sheep, cow and deer farm. Here, the Loughnan family have set up two geodesic domes, a central camp kitchen (with couches and cooking gear all provided) and a large hot tub looking out over the pastures. It's easily one of the best New Zealand glamping sites out there. Each dome sleeps up to four people, and no matter how many guests you book for, you'll get the entire site — that makes Tawanui Farm great for larger groups. Either laze around playing boardgames and drinking in the hot tub or use it as a base to explore the rest of the region. You can fish at the local Hurunui River, swim and surf at Gore Bay or take an ATV farm tour to learn a little more about Tawanui Farm. Dealer's choice. Kanuka, Rotorua This is just about as remote as it gets. A single Kanuka glamping tent is hidden up in the bush, right next to Lake Tarawera, and can only be reached by a boat ride or hike. The campsite comes with a large tent and queen-sized bed, a bush kitchen with everything you need to cook up some grub, a dining area as well as a separate bathroom. The essentials are sorted. And, once you're all settled in, what you choose to do around here is totally up to you. The Kanuka team can provide a kayak for exploring the lake, there's a sandy beach less than 50 metres away and you can hike along a number of trails (with one leading to a natural hot pool in the bush). Ah, you've got to love New Zealand and all its thermal hot springs. [caption id="attachment_880412" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dan Kerins[/caption] Camp Kekerengu, Kaikoura Coast If you're travelling with a bunch of mates or a big family, Camp Kekerengu is perfect. Here, you will find three large tents, a group kitchen and a covered lounge area — all with uninterrupted sea views. But, be prepared for living it a little rougher than you might like. The entire glamping site is off grid. This will force you to fully unplug and enjoy nature. You're a short walk from the beach, close to several walking trails and simply surrounded by wide open plains and rolling mountains. It's stunning. And is the perfect example of why people love to go glamping in New Zealand. Here, you get the best bits of Aotearoa's natural landscape all in one location. Feeling inspired to book a getaway unlike anything else out there? Only through Concrete Playground Trips, our new travel booking platform, can you now purchase holidays specially curated by our writers and editors. We've teamed up with all the best providers of flights, stays and experiences to bring you a series of unforgettable trips at destinations all over the world. Top images: Waitomo Hilltop
Besides the lamington, fairy bread and the democracy sausage, the humble meat pie is as close to a national dish as Australia can claim. With an obligatory slather of ketchup, the classic Four and Twenty is a faithful hunger buster at the footy, but chefs across the country have also sought to elevate this faithful snack, lofting it from simple grab-and-go grub to a thing of culinary beauty. To celebrate this gourmet glow-up, The Great Aussie Pie Competition, now in its 35th year, searches the country for pie perfection. At an event held in Melbourne between September 2–5, over 1500 pies vied for the title of Australia's best as 16 of the nation's "most dedicated pie connoisseurs" considered the colour, flavour, size, pastry and finesse of the meat-filled morsels in the running. In addition to bragging rights and eternal glory, competing bakers were also battling it out for more than $30,000 worth of prize money spread across the competition's various categories. Much to the delight of the local crowd, Victoria's Buddy's Bakery in Melton took out the top spot in the coveted Best Plain Meat Pie category, beating Four Seasons Patisserie and Bakery in High Wycombe, WA, which took home the sliver. However, Western Australians still have plenty to be proud of, with the state racking up the most awards with a haul of seven gongs including a win for Four Seasons Patisserie and Bakery in the Best Apple Pie category. In addition to the top honours, Victoria earned another four awards, while New South Wales took home four awards, including Best Gourmet Sausage Roll, Best Slow Cooked BBQ Pie, Best Vegan or Vegetarian Pie and Best Gluten-Free Pie. Meanwhile, South Australia took home three awards and Queensland, just a single laurel. The Winners of The Great Aussie Pie Competition Plain Meat Pie: Buddy Bakery in Melton, Vic. Runner-up: Four Seasons Patisserie & Bakery in High Wycombe, WA Gourmet Pie: Jack's Bakery in Halls Head, WA Plain Sausage Roll: Orange Spot Bakery in Glenelg, SA Gourmet Sausage Roll: Orange Pie Company in Orange, NSW Pastie: Orange Spot Bakery in Glenelg, SA Tom Lindsay Pepper Steak Pie Award: Country Cob Bakery in Springvale, Vic Apprentice Category (Pepper Steak Pie): Sam Anderson from Rolling Pin Pies & Cakes in Ocean Grove, Vic Shepherd's / Potato Top Pie: Jack's Bakery in Halls Head, WA Slow Cooked BBQ Pie: Forster Bakehouse in Forster, NSW Game Pie: Paradise Bakehouse in Bundaberg, Qld Poultry Pie: Country Cob Bakery in Springvale, Vic Red Meat Pie: Jack's Bakery in Halls Head, WA Vegetarian/Vegan Pie: Forster Bakehouse in Forster, NSW Pork Pie: Four Seasons Patisserie & Bakery in High Wycombe, WA Seafood Pie: The Little Red Grape in Sevenhill, SA Apple Pie: Four Seasons Patisserie & Bakery in High Wycombe, WA Brekkie Pie: Jack's Bakery in Halls Head, WA Gluten Free Pie: Heatherbrae Pies Ourimbah in Ourimbah, NSW Gluten Free Sausage Roll: Jojo's Gluten Free Goodies in Kernot, Vic For a full list of all the nominated bakeries and their placings, visit The Great Aussie Pie Competition website. Top image: Jelleke Vanooteghem
Over the past 47 years, in this very galaxy, how much Star Wars merchandise has been collected? Not even a Jedi could probably give a definitive number. When it makes its Australian premiere, The Fans Strike Back: Exhibition won't answer that question either, but it will give fans of the space-opera franchise a glimpse at a hefty range of Star Wars memorabilia — one of the planet's largest private collections of replicas, in fact. The force is strong here, and so is love for everything in the George Lucas-created big- and small-screen saga. Soaring into Melbourne from Saturday, November 23, 2024, and then set to tour the country afterwards — with dates for its other stops not yet announced — The Fans Strike Back: Exhibition features Star Wars starships, lightsabers, droids, creatures and even battles. An entire section is about the dark side, with Sith obviously starring heavily, while another is called The Jedi Temple. Some pieces are life-sized. Others are detailed models. Either way, Star Wars will surround attendees everywhere they look. This isn't an official showcase, however, with only private works featured. The Fans Strike Back: Exhibition finally heads Down Under after past stops in New York and Los Angeles in the US, and also London, Madrid and Paris in Europe. After Melbourne, where it'll display at The District Docklands, it's also set to show in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth. The Fans Strike Back: Exhibition is one of two Star Wars-related celebrations with an upcoming date with Australia. The other: Lego Star Wars: The Exhibition, which is a world-first showcase of Lego models based on the franchise. It'll arrive in 2025, making its global premiere. The two showcases aren't linked in any way, other than adoring Star Wars. The Fans Strike Back: Exhibition hails from the same crew that've also celebrated Banksy and NBA Down Under, and have a Wes Anderson tribute about to hit Melbourne. The Fans Strike Back: Exhibition opens at The District Docklands, Level 1, corner Star Crescent and Studio Lane, Docklands, Melbourne on Saturday, November 23, 2024, with tickets on sale from 6pm AEST on Wednesday, September 18, 2024. After that, it'll head to Brisbane, Sydney and Perth, with dates yet to be announced. Head to the exhibition's website for more details.
Do you have the time to listen to Green Day live? Do you now have 'Basket Case' from the California-born band's iconic 1994 album Dookie stuck in your head? To celebrate three decades since releasing one of the records that defined the 90s, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool are returning to Australia to play it in its entirety — and to also bust out their American Idiot album from 2004 in full as well. If you're a Green Day fan, welcome to paradise come March 2025, when the band will hit up stadiums in Sydney, Melbourne and on the Gold Coast. We hope you have the time of your life getting a blast of 90s and 00s nostalgia, complete with 'When I Come Around', 'Longview', 'She', 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams', 'Wake Me Up When September Ends', 'Holiday' and, yes, 'American Idiot' echoing through Engie Stadium, Marvel Stadium and CBUS Super Stadium. [caption id="attachment_972774" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alice Baxley, Apple Music[/caption] While the visit is part of the group's global The Saviors Tour, which is named for their 14th studio album Saviors, they're clearly happy to keep working through their best-known tunes — and, while they aren't on either Dookie or American Idiot, 'Minority', 'Brain Stew' and 'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)' have been on Green Day's recent setlist overseas. "We've never been more excited to unleash new music than with Saviors, a record that's meant to be rocked live, together. And we can not wait to return to Australia, it's been way too long. So let's thrash," said Green Day, announcing their Down Under visit. [caption id="attachment_972776" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Raph_PH via Flickr.[/caption] In support, also bringing the 90s and 00s to mind, fellow California-born group AFI will share the stage on Green Day's three Aussie gigs in 2025. It's currently a great time to hear beloved albums in full live in Australia, given that Green Day's tour comes just days after The Killers announced their own trip for late 2024, including playing Hot Fuss from start to finish at some gigs. [caption id="attachment_972775" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alice Baxley[/caption] Green Day The Saviors Tour Australia 2025 Saturday, March 1, 2025 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne Monday, March 3, 2025 — Engie Stadium, Sydney Wednesday, March 5, 2025 — CBUS Super Stadium, Gold Coast Green Day are touring Australia in March 2025, with presale tickets available from Monday, September 16 (at 1pm for the Gold Coast, 2pm for Melbourne and 3pm for Sydney) and general sales from Friday, September 20 (at 12pm Gold Coast, 1pm Melbourne and 2pm Sydney). Head to the tour website for more details. Top image: Raph_PH via Flickr.
How do you say goodbye to one of Australia's great music festivals? Bringing together as many local acts as possible, filling the event's stages with homegrown talents, is one excellent option. When Bluesfest bids farewell with its 2025 fest, it'll also have help from international artists, but so far the lineup is jam-packed with Aussie names. It's the end of an era, and it's going out with some impressive assistance. Come April 2025, Crowded House, Ocean Alley and Vance Joy will lead the roster of talent getting behind Bluesfest's microphones in Byron Bay for the last time, as already revealed back in August. The festival has now dropped its second lineup announcement, which adds everyone from Hilltop Hoods and Budjerah to Kasey Chambers and The Cat Empire to the bill — and there's more on the list now, and still more to come. [caption id="attachment_969986" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] On their return to Bluesfest, Hilltop Hoods will headline Sunday night lineup. Also no strangers to the event: Xavier Rudd and John Butler. From there, the bill also features Miss Kaninna, Velvet Trip, Melbourne Ska Orchestra, CW Stoneking, Lachy Doley Group, Ash Grunwald and Kim Churchill. The new additions will join Tones and I, Gary Clark Jr, Rag'n'Bone Man, RY X, Allison Russell, Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram and plenty others across Thursday, April 17–Sunday, April 20, 2025. Another announcement is on its way soon, which is when international artists will start hitting the roster. [caption id="attachment_969990" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joseph Mayers[/caption] "While this lineup focuses on our homegrown talent, it's still a strong blues and roots announcement, staying true to the heart of what Bluesfest has always been about. I can't begin to tell you how many incredible artists have reached out, wanting to be part of our final festival," said Festival Director Peter Noble about the second Bluesfest 2025 lineup drop. "Scores of amazing talents from across the country have thrown their hats in the ring. It's a testament to how special this festival is to the Australian music community. As much as I would love to include everyone, there are only so many spots we can fit into one lineup." "That said, I'm thrilled to welcome back some of our all-time favourites. You can't say no to artists who have helped shape this festival over the years, including Hilltop Hoods returning after a 20 year gap — and how can we be doing a best of Bluesfest without Xavier Rudd, John Butler, The Cat Empire and the incredible Kasey Chambers, alongside some rising Australian stars who represent the future of our music scene? This mix of legendary performers and up-and-coming talent is what makes this announcement so special and uniquely ours." The festival has been showered with affection since news arrived, also back in August, that it was planning to wrap up after the 2025 event. An ePetition has been launched by New South Wales MP Tamara Smith, asking the NSW Government to put together a rescue package for Bluesfest — a petition that'll be debated in the state's parliament if it hits 20,000 signatures. "It's been truly humbling to see how much Bluesfest means to so many of you. While the future remains uncertain, I am encouraged by the petition that's been raised to keep the festival going by our state member of parliament. There's real hope that with your continued support, and the backing of our community, we might just keep the Bluesfest legacy alive for generations to come," advised Noble. Bluesfest 2025 Lineup: First announcement: Crowded House Vance Joy Ocean Alley Tones and I Gary Clark Jr Rag'n'Bone Man RY X Allison Russell Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram Brad Cox Here Come the Mummies The California Honeydrops Marc Broussard Pierce Brothers Taj Farrant Fanny Lumsden 19-Twenty WILSN Cimafunk Neal Francis Second announcement: Hilltop Hoods Xavier Rudd John Butler The Cat Empire Kasey Chambers Melbourne Ska Orchestra CW Stoneking Budjerah Lachy Doley Group Ash Grunwald Kim Churchill Miss Kaninna The Beards Velvet Trip FOOLS ROSHANI Sweet Talk The Memphis Three featuring Fiona Boyes, Jimi Hocking and Frank Sultana [caption id="attachment_969988" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Roger Cotgreave[/caption] [caption id="attachment_969989" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] [caption id="attachment_969987" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] [caption id="attachment_867504" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kurt Petersen[/caption] Bluesfest 2025 will run from Thursday, April 17–Sunday, April 20 at Byron Events Farm, Tyagarah. Early-bird tickets are on sale now — for further information, head to the Bluesfest website.
In the space that an average-sized Australian home sprawls across, how many smaller houses could fit instead? This question won't just be a topic of conversation outside the National Gallery of Victoria from November 2024. Each year at the venue's Melbourne grounds on St Kilda Road, the institution unveils its annual Architecture Commission, a site-specific pop-up construction that experiments with design concepts while pondering subjects of public importance. This year's pick is a tiny house — which might sound standard, except that it's a pint-sized abode within the frame of the standard Aussie home, and the contrast between the two is obvious. Created by Melbourne-based architecture and design studio Breathe, Home Truth continues the firm's focus on sustainable architecture that'll endure and has a purpose — and, from Wednesday, November 13, it'll get NGV visitors wandering through a house-within-a-house labyrinth. First, you'll step inside the larger abode, which represents the average 236-square-metre Australian residence. Then, drawing attention to alternative modes of housing, you'll enter the smaller-scale nestled within it. [caption id="attachment_706568" align="alignnone" width="1920"] NGV International[/caption] To get from one to the other, you'll enter via the larger house's garage door, then mosey through rooms and hallways. When you reach the tinier home, you'll feel like you've hit the centre of a maze. Attendees will notice two different materials distinguishing each abode, too, with the bigger spot constructed from framing pine and the smaller house from the waste-made saveboard — offering up a comment on how homes are currently built in Australia as well. "Through its clever play on scale and materials, this thought-provoking work of architecture sparks a fascinating conversation about housing and sustainability in this country," explained NGV Director Tony Ellwood, announcing the 2024 Architecture Commission. "Home Truth speculates that overconsumption of space and materials translates into ecological and social consequences — for both us and the planet. But importantly, it offers a provocative vision of a new way of thinking about building — seeing the value of living in spaces that are of smaller scale — a vision that prioritises people and planet," added Ewan McEoin, NGV's Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture. [caption id="attachment_927585" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Installation view of the 2023 NGV Architecture Commission: (This Is) Air designed by architect Nic Brunsdon in collaboration with ENESS. (This Is) Air is on display from 23 November 2023 until June 2024 at NGV International, Melbourne. Photo: Ben Hosking.[/caption] Home Truth follows 2023's stunning pick (This is) Air, a giant inflatable sphere that breathed, as created by Australian architect Nic Brunsdon with Sky Castle, Airship Orchestra, Cupid's Koi Garden and Lost Dogs' Disco' ENESS. The 14-metre-high piece did indeed expand with air, then release it — so, yes, it inhaled and exhaled all day — to get everyone thinking about humanity's need for and relationship to air, how essential it is, how dependent we all are upon the element, how finite it is and how its quality is being impacted. In the past, NGV's Architecture Commission has also seen a colourful mini Parthenon, a bright pink pool to wade through, a bamboo garden with its own deck and an unforgettable pink carwash pop up, all as part of an initiative that started in 2015. [caption id="attachment_890113" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Temple of Boom, NGV, Michael Pham[/caption] [caption id="attachment_840624" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pond[er], NGV, Derek Swalwell[/caption] [caption id="attachment_602904" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Haven't You Always Wanted..?, Sean Fennessey[/caption] 'Home Truth' by Breathe will be on display at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne from Wednesday, November 13–April 2024 — head to the NGV website for further details. Image: Render of NGV Architecture Commission 2024 'Home Truth' by Breathe. Image courtesy of Breathe.
This piece of tour news will get you smiling like you mean it: The Killers are returning Down Under before 2024 is out, announcing their latest stint on Australia's stages. The Las Vegas-born rockers were last here in November and December 2022 — including playing intimate midnight shows — and will head back across the same months this year to get local crowds singing 'Mr Brightside' and 'Somebody Told Me' again. Hot Fuss, the album that gave the world those two beloved tracks — and 'Smile Like You Mean It', 'Jenny Was a Friend of Mine', 'All These Things That I've Done' and more — is the reason for the tour. 2024 marks 20 years since it first released, so Brandon Flowers and company are celebrating. More than that, they're playing two types of gigs on their Aussie trip. Most will be Rebel Diamonds shows, pumping through the group's hits across their entire career. In Sydney and Melbourne, however, The Killers are doing an extra night to work through Hot Fuss in its entirety. [caption id="attachment_972411" align="alignnone" width="1920"] © 2022 Chris Phelps[/caption] Open up your eager eyes, Australia: destiny is calling you to those two concerts apiece in the New South Wales and Victorian capitals, at Qudos Bank Arena and Rod Laver Arena, as well as to single shows at Brisbane Entertainment Centre in the Sunshine State capital and Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville. Sadly, the November/December timing means that The Killers won't be repeating their AFL Grand Final berth after stealing the show back in 2017. They will be in the country for the AFLW Grand Final, however, if you want to start crossing your fingers. Given the band's lengthy back catalogue, The Killers won't just be focusing on Hot Fuss tunes at both kinds of shows on their tour, but have plenty more songs to bust out. Also likely to get a whirl as well: 'When You Were Young', 'Bones', 'Human', 'The Man' and latest single 'Bright Lights', just to name a few. The Hot Fuss gigs have been receiving a workout in the group's hometown of late, where they played a soldout residency at Caesar's Palace from mid-August till early September. The Killers 2024 Australian Tour Dates: Saturday, November 30 — Rebel Diamonds — Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville Friday, December 6 — Rebel Diamonds — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Saturday, December 7 — Hot Fuss — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Monday, December 9 — Rebel Diamonds — Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane Thursday, December 12 — Rebel Diamonds — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Friday, December 13 – Hot Fuss — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne [caption id="attachment_831494" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The Killers are touring Australia in November and December 2024. Pre-sale tickets go on sale at 3pm local time on Tuesday, September 10, with general tickets on sale from 4pm local time on Monday, September 12. For further details, head to the tour website. Top image: Raph_PH via Flickr.
Whether you tuned in the 90s and early 00s as it aired — staying up late in Australia to catch it on free-to-air TV on a weeknight, or taping it to view afterwards — or binged it via DVDs or streaming later, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has never been a television series that audiences watch casually. Jane Schoenbrun and Brigette Lundy-Paine, writer/director of A24 hit I Saw the TV Glow and one of its stars, have both OG fandom and more-recent obsessions covered. Schoenbrun calls the show their "first love", they explain to Concrete Playground. Lundy-Paine only started viewing it for I Saw the TV Glow but misses it now when they're not watching it, they also tell us. Schoenbrun, Lundy-Paine and audiences everywhere have Buffy to thank for a movie that's cast its own glow since its Sundance Film Festival premiere — and across stops at the Berlin International Film Festival, SXSW in Austin, Sydney Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival since, too, before reaching Australian theatres in general release. Earning its praise as an instant trans cinema cult classic, the pair's collaboration doesn't just take inspiration from Schoenbrun's affection for a pop-culture phenomenon about a high schooler that the undead feared. One of the standout films of 2024, and from A24's adored roster of flicks overall, it's the source of all-consuming passions itself, while also contemplating that very topic. With their 2021 debut feature We're All Going to the World's Fair, Schoenbrun has already pondered how screen fixations can help mediate identities. Two movies in, they have a niche — and a pivotal one. Their films examine the space where fandom and pop-culture obsessions overlap with alienation, dissociation and dysphoria. They explore how they filtering who you are through an internet or TV fixation can assist in processing those emotions and states, and aid in unlocking something that you mightn't have had the tools to recognise otherwise. Two features in, Schoenbrun has earned their own adjective as well: their films are positively Schoenbrunian. It isn't just the common themes that mark We're All Going to the World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow as works from the same inimitable voice, but also a shared dreamlike aesthetic, plus a knack for poetic and revealing dialogue. Watching their movies feels like plunging in, being enveloped and experiencing everything that their characters do; it's no wonder that the filmmaker's fare, especially their sophomore picture, is so easy to obsess over. Where We're All Going to the World's Fair follows a teenage girl making connections through an online horror challenge, with the feature digging into dysphoria along the way, I Saw the TV Glow does indeed have a television show at the centre of its plot. In the 90s, teens Owen (Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves' Justice Smith, plus Let the Right One In's Ian Foreman as the younger version) and Maddy (Lundy-Paine, Atypical) strike up a friendship over the Buffy-meets-Goosebumps style supernatural series The Pink Opaque. The show is their escape from their adolescent reality, and a coping mechanism — one that Owen, especially, didn't know that he needed. It's also where these new friends feel like they finally see their real selves. Then Maddy disappears suddenly, The Pink Opaque is cancelled just as abruptly, and the 00s come calling. I Saw the TV Glow jumps further forward, too, as it uncovers the different ways that Maddy and Owen embrace — or don't — their authentic identities. The parallels with the egg-crack moment, the term used when someone realises that they're trans, are as bright and clear as the light emitted from every screen that bathes the movie's main duo in The Pink Opaque. Schoenbrun is always about showing rather than telling, though, and about viewers stepping into Maddy and Owen's emotional state with them rather than simply being informed about it. Again basking in 90s nostalgia on the big screen after 2020's Bill & Ted Face the Music — where they played Billie Logan, daughter to Keanu Reeves' (John Wick: Chapter 4) Ted — Lundy-Paine was drawn to the raw feeling evident in Schoenbrun's script, as well as their shared perspectives and experiences. We spoke with both Lundy-Paine and Schoenbrun about TV devotions, inspirations, Schoenbrun thematic and stylistic go-tos, telling personal tales, 90s nostalgia and more. On Falling in Love with Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Then and Now Jane: "I was just obsessed. I had other TV obsessions, but Buffy was the biggest one that I'll ever have. When I think back a bit on it, and I mean this quite literally, I think of Buffy as my first love. The amount that I put into that show emotionally, the amount of headspace it took up, each week waiting for the next episode to air, reading about it online — it was just a total obsession. And in many ways, I think — and the film is exploring this as well — it was a coping mechanism, a way for me to express myself in fiction, in a place that felt safe and outside of the quote-unquote real world. How did I fall in love with Buffy? I was flipping channels on the TV in my parents' bedroom, where I would be relegated when they were watching something on the main TV. And I remember coming across a rerun of the episode from the first season called 'The Pack'. It was the summer after the first season aired, and I was like 'I'm watching this show again next week' — and it just developed from there. I'd say by the second season, it was my favourite TV show. And by the third season, I was spending a lot of time with Buffy. I had tapes. I made my own tapes. I had the episode guides. I posted online about it. It really became almost this like space for me to hide and I just loved it so much. I remember when it was ending, thinking 'oh my god, this is like losing family'." Brigette: "I watched up to season five of Buffy before we started [I Saw the TV Glow], and I just totally fell in love with it. I miss it when I'm not watching it now. I fell in love with the community, and the idea that magic was real — that there was no question. I feel like I watched it kind of as Maddy, but I'll always love it as Brigette with the respect of it isn't mine completely, because I didn't watch it when I was young, but I really love it." On How Schoenbrun Obsessing Over Buffy — and Also Admiring Twin Peaks — Inspired I Saw the TV Glow Jane: "I think the experience that the film is trying to talk about — and it's doing this not only in a plot about 90s television, but through the aesthetics and tropes of 90s genre television — is a youth spent in front of the screen. I was a young queer kid growing up in the American suburbs, and the main thing that got me through that, or the main source of romance and mystery and joy in my life in this place where I think I not only couldn't be myself but I wasn't really being given any information to help me understand myself, the main place that I went looking for myself was in the screen. This is ultimately why I think like a show like Buffy or Twin Peaks became an obsession, because it was somewhere where I could catch a flicker of something more mysterious, something more magical. And I do think in many ways this was a queer experience. The movie, I think, talks about this very specific kind of parasocial relationship with fiction about fandom, about obsession, about searching for truth in fiction before you're ready to look inside yourself. And it's doing this using these genre cues that I learned from rewatching my Buffy tapes obsessively. It's a movie about people who love a show like that, but it's also very much a movie that's set in the heightened world of a Buffy or a Twin Peaks or an X-Files." On Lundy-Paine's Equivalent of Buffy or The Pink Opaque Brigette: "I think the first show that I really loved the way that Maddy and Owen loved The Pink Opaque was The OC. I watched it after it had been released, so I would record reruns from the soap channel. But I was really obsessed with the characters, and I felt like they were my friends — and it was the most devastating thing I've experienced when Marissa died in season three." On Making Films About Mediating Our Lives, and Coping with Alienation and Dysphoria, Through Fandom and Pop-Culture Fixations Jane: "I remember feeling like I've always been an artist, and I've always told myself stories and written screenplays or fan fiction, or anything that I could to be creative. It's a need that I have. But I had so much shame for the longest time about what kind of art I could make that would be authentic and not just a rip off of the things that I love, that would speak from a perspective in a place that that was deeply personal, and that could only come from who I was and where I came from. And a lot of that shame was repression. But there was this moment that was sort of in tandem with my coming out and my artistic awakening, where I kind of realised this cheat — which was they say 'write what you know', but what I know is watching. What I know is staring at a screen. And I think I'm enough of a self-reflective person to understand that that experience isn't all good or all bad, but that it is rife with mystery and ambiance and loneliness, and connection and love and sadness. And it can feel scary and alienating. It has political resonance, and it has personal resonance — and it's sort of the thing that we all do that we don't talk about in our art. It mediates our lives so deeply at this point, that in exploring that and not just exploring that from a political perspective but from my own life staring at a screen, and the way that it intertwined with who I was and what I was hiding from in myself, this just became, like I said, a cheat code of sorts to finally unlock my personal voice as an artist. I find the screen as a symbol just very compelling, both thematically and aesthetically, and it's something that I can return to over and over again without repeating myself so far. I find myself just wanting to dig deeper and deeper into that abyss." On Starring in a Movie That Is So Personal and Specific to Its Filmmaker Brigette: "One of the things about Jane that is so exciting is that they're able to communicate these really, really deep experiences and personal feelings in a way that other people feel a part of. I think that was one of the reasons the film was able to get made, was that in meeting after meeting they told their story, and they talked about what it meant for an egg to crack, which is the term of a trans person realising that they're trans. But also for myself, I had been experiencing the same things or very similar things to Jane, and that was one of the things we connected on when we first spoke — and I think one of the reasons that we trusted each other to make this movie together and to be fully vulnerable for it." On How Lundy-Paine Came to Be Involved in I Saw the TV Glow Brigette: "My good friend for a long time, Sam Intill, they sent me the script because they'd met Jane after seeing Jane's first film at Sundance, and they'd come on to produce this second one in its very, very early stages. And Sam connected Jane and I, and Jane and I just got along really, really well right away. We have a very similar sense of humour and experience, our perspectives of what making movies and what Hollywood meant to us — and the rules that we both wanted to break, and the experiences that we both wanted to help convey to the audience. So that was, I think, maybe two years before production. And then it was pretty locked in for Jane and I that we wanted to work together, and it was just a long process of Jane convincing A24 that that I would play the part. I had done a TV show, but I'm not a huge name and I think that was tricky for A24 to believe. But Jane was like 'no, it it has to be us. It has to be me and Brige'. And I was very grateful for that. And I had the script for a long time because of it, so I was able to like get really deep and comfortable with the words." On Lundy-Paine's First Reaction to the Script, What Resonated the Most and What They Saw That They Could Bring to the Film Brigette: "I think I was just so moved by how real it felt — and how it almost felt like mythology. The emotions of it were coming from such a raw place. And I really liked the way that Jane plays with the sort of shallow, cliched teen dialogue and then moves into a realm of almost subconscious communication to explore the actual meanings of what they're talking about. I think I felt the colours of the film really strongly. I felt this blue and pink neon electric sensation, and I also just knew that it was a character that I really wanted to have in my body, and I was really anxious to get to know her. I think I knew that arc very well. If I was different than Maddy myself — but I know, and I really wanted to free myself in the same ways that she did. So I was able to pull from my own angst and fear and love, and obsession with the stories and the worlds that that Maddy finds safety in." On Schoenbrun's Dreamy, Hazy, Like-You're-in-the-Characters'-Heads Aesthetic Jane: "Film as a dream was something that I was really interested in from the earliest stages of thinking about a language as an artist, like the idea of the experience of sitting in a dark room and seeing this thing — the only thing you can see. I had and still have these recurring dreams where I'll be watching something and then all of a sudden I will be inside of it. There were just these repetitions of interest in the process of travelling from watching something to being synonymous with the screen. There's a shot in We're All Going to the World's Fair where we slowly zoom in on a screen until the screen is no longer a screen, and it's our screen. This feels very trance-like to me. This feels like the process of falling asleep or dreaming. It feels very oneiric, and it's just fascinating to me because I think film is a medium so interested in time and space. Another big influence is the experimental film Wavelength, where we spend the entire movie just slowly moving across the room towards a painting. I find it like such a simple reminder of the power of the medium and perspective in the way that the third eye of the screen can help us understand space in a way that our own eyes can't. I just like it. There's a deepness and a mystery to it that I find myself continuing to chip away at. I could speculate about why I'm drawn to it. I read a really great book of queer trans film theory called Shimmering Images — Eliza Steinbock, I believe. I read this after I had made We're All Going to the World's Fair and it was an entire book of theory written about trans people's aesthetic connection to the shimmer, to liminality, to a space that is very transitory in its essence, and that we find some comfort in that space of transitory self because we relate to it. But I think there are so many resonances and so many reasons why I'm fascinated by haze, and by the screen and liminality and lo-fi aesthetics." Brigette: "I had so much fun with it because it's rare to work with a director who has a vision of such specific pacing and tone. And so we would do these scenes with, as I mentioned, sometimes the dialogue almost feels like canned or cliched, but because of Jane's style and the way that they're playing with that type of dialogue, it's about the pace and the rhythm. So we would have rehearsed a lot, but even when we got to set, we would do the scenes too fast. And so Jane had to continuously slow us down and remind us that it was almost as if we were existing in separate universes from each other, Owen and I. And so Jane would say 'this time, do it and don't even expect him to respond'. And I think that brings out some of that eerie, dreamlike quality." On Lundy-Paine's 90s Nostalgia Bent with Bill & Ted and Now I Saw the TV Glow Brigette: "I think it's something that interests me because it's something that activates a real personal and vital process for the directors or for the people who are making these films. I was born in 94, so I didn't experience too much of the 90s, but I obviously understand what it feels like to be nostalgic for, say, 2010. And so I think working on projects that are set in the 90s, it means a lot because it's the childhood, because it's a real place for the people creating these worlds. And also it just feels iconic. I remember I watched like Fight Club and Donnie Darko while we were filming, just randomly, and both times I was like 'I want to make a movie set in the 90s'. And realised 'ohh we are making a movie set in the 90s right now'." I Saw the TV Glow is screening in select Australian cinemas now, after opening on Thursday, August 29, 2024. Images: A24.
It's happening again: if a particular hit murder-mystery comedy is going to keep living up to its title, there's set to be another murder in the building. Viewers are currently watching what happens when someone is killed in New York's fictional Arconia complex for the fourth time, thanks to Only Murders in the Building season four — and a fifth round is now on the way as well. Everyone is already well-aware of the show's setup, too. Each season, a new murder takes place in the apartment tower that its main sleuthing trio call home. It was true in 2021's season one, 2022's season two and 2023's season three, as well as in the now-streaming season four. When season five will arrive hasn't been revealed, but the series has been dropping new episodes annually so far. Variety reports that there'll be ten episodes in the fifth season — so, ten more chances to see Selena Gomez (The Dead Don't Die), Steve Martin (It's Complicated) and Martin Short (Schmigadoon!) as neighbours and podcasters Mabel Mora, Charles-Haden Savage and Oliver Putnam. There's no word yet on guest stars, with Only Murders in the Building fond of enlisting plenty of other famous faces. Sometimes they play themselves, as Sting (The Book of Solutions) and Amy Schumer (IF) have. Sometimes the show gets Meryl Streep (Don't Look Up), Paul Rudd (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), Tina Fey (Mean Girls) and more into character. At present, in a season that's also taken them to Hollywood, Mabel, Charles and Oliver are looking into the death of Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch, Velma), Charles' stunt double. They're also grappling with the fact that a Tinseltown studio wants to turn their podcast into a film. Cue Molly Shannon (The Other Two), Eugene Levy (Schitt's Creek), Eva Longoria (Tell It Like a Woman) and Zach Galifianakis (The Beanie Bubble) all popping up, with season four's new cast members also including Melissa McCarthy (Unfrosted), Kumail Nanjiani (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) and Richard Kind (Girls5eva). Alongside Short, Gomez and Martin, plus Lynch, fellow long-running Only Murders in the Building regulars Michael Cyril Creighton (American Fiction) and Da'Vine Joy Randolph (a newly minted Oscar-winner for The Holdovers) are also a part of season four. As always, knowing that there'll be another death in the Arconia doesn't mean knowing what's to come in season five — other than Mabel, Charles and Oliver getting sleuthing, with a heap of fellow big-name talent both helping and hindering their investigations. There's obviously no trailer yet for season five, but check out the full trailer for Only Murders in the Building season four below: Only Murders in the Building streams Down Under via Star on Disney+, with season four streaming now. Season five does not yet have a release date. Read our reviews of season one, season two and season three. Via Variety.
Before SXSW Sydney made its debut in 2023, movie lovers in the Harbour City — and those keen to travel there for a getaway spent in darkened rooms — had one major film festival to look forward to each and every year. Now, there's two. While Sydney Film Festival showcases the latest and greatest in cinema from around the globe each winter, SXSW Sydney's Screen Festival does the same in spring. Last year's The Royal Hotel-opened lineup was impressive. Revealing more program details for 2024, with plenty still to drop before the event's Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 dates, 2024's already is as well. SXSW Sydney has been unveiling the films on its roster for a few months, but this is its biggest lineup announcement for 2024 yet, with over 20 new movies added to the bill. Cults, cat-loving animation and Christmas carnage: they're all included. So are a heap of titles that've had festivals around the world buzzing — and an array of homegrown highlights. Azrael sports an Aussie link courtesy of actor Samara Weaving (Scream VI), who stars in a post-apocalyptic tale about a woman's attempt to escape from mute zealots. For feline fanciers and Japanese animation fans alike, Ghost Cat Anzu follows a girl with a phantom mouser for a guardian. And, the Yuletide mayhem comes courtesy of Carnage for Christmas, with a true-crime podcaster in the sights of a psychotic killer. Among the pictures continuing to do the festival rounds, mom-com Babes is led by Ilana Glazer (The Afterparty) and helmed by Pamela Adlon (Better Things); Audrey features Jackie van Beek (Nude Tuesday) as a mother who steals the identity of her teenage daughter, who is in a coma; DiDi unpacks Californian adolescence for the Asian American son of immigrants circa 2008, and won two awards at Sundance; and Grand Theft Hamlet sees out-of-work thespians stage one of Shakespeare's most-famous plays in a video game during lockdown. Or, there's two different stints of incarceration: the maximum-security prison-set Sing Sing boasts Colman Domingo (Drive-Away Dolls) at its centre; and Inside, which stars Guy Pearce (The Clearing), Cosmo Jarvis (Shōgun) and Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders), is directed by Charles Williams, who won the 2018 short film Palme d'Or for All These Creatures. Other standouts span Pavements, which sees filmmaker Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell) focus on the band Pavement via an experimental blend of documentary, narrative, musical and more — and, still on tunes, the 2009-set mockumentary Rap World, about friends trying to make a rap album in one evening. Plus, doco Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird spends time with At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, while Teaches of Peaches goes on tour with its namesake. In a roster of flicks that has a little bit of everything, Lucy Lawless (My Life Is Murder) moves behind the camera for the first time to direct documentary Never Look Away about CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth, Peter Dinklage (Unfrosted) and Juliette Lewis (Yellowjackets) lead western-thriller The Thicket, dark Australian comedy A Grand Mockery will make its world premiere, The Gesuidouz brings a slice of Japanese horror, and Witches digs into the connection between maternal mental health and society's depiction of witchcraft. Even sports graces the bill, with Aussie documentary Like My Brother charting the journey of four aspiring AFLW players from the Tiwi Islands, and Queens of Concrete following three skateboarders trying to balance being teens with attempting to score an Olympics berth. The above movies — and more — boost a lineup that already features documentary The Most Australian Band Ever! about the Hard-Ons; S/He Is Still Her/e: The Official Genesis P-Orridge, which is executive produced by Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace; Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara, about thrash metal in the Māori language; and, after That Sugar Film and 2040, Australian actor-turned-filmmaker Damon Gameau's Future Council, chronicling a cross-Europe trip with eight young minds to explore climate change solutions. There's also Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts, the latest documentary from Barbecue and We Don't Deserve Dogs' Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker, who are no strangers to SXSW in Austin — with the Australian-born, Brooklyn-based duo exploring the US today through former Pizza Hut buildings. SXSW Sydney's Screen Festival includes a hefty lineup of speakers as well, which is where attendees can look forward to hearing from Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton (The New Boy), Aussie composer Jed Kurzel (Monkey Man), Barbie executive producer Josey McNamara, Brave co-director Mark Andrews and Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire composer AR Rahman — and Lawless, too. [caption id="attachment_971937" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Courtesy of Focus Features / Talking Fish Pictures, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.[/caption] SXSW Sydney 2024 runs from Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details.
What if you were at a Titanic museum and Céline Dion was there? What if she was not only your narrator, but her songs accompanied the tale that she was telling? What if Titanic, the king of the boat-set blockbuster world, got an off-Broadway musical-comedy parody that went heavy on Dion, then? That's Titanique — and it's coming to Australia. This amusing ode to James Cameron's (Avatar: The Way of Water) movie docks in Sydney from Thursday, September 12, 2024 to make its Aussie debut. Nearing three decades since Titanic first splashed into cinemas, the film's status in popular culture will clearly go on. Near, far, wherever you are, you'll need to set sail for the Harbour City to see Titanique, which is playing an exclusive season at The Grand Electric in Surry Hills. "I am so excited that Sydney will be the next stop on Titanique's international cruise. If you love Céline Dion, if you love the film Titanic and you love having a completely silly night out, then this show is for you. Titanique is a nonstop waterfall of pure joy that will literally melt your troubles away. I can't wait to see you there!" said Tye Blue (RuPaul's Drag Race), Titanique's director and co-writer. "I am so thrilled that Titanique will make its maiden voyage to international waters in Sydney for its Australian debut, and I cannot wait to see that Aussie sense of humour embrace this hysterically funny nautical fantasia when it comes to life down under this September," added Titanique's original producer Eva Price. Titanique will dive back into the story of Jack and Rose until at least early November, with Drew Weston and Georgina Hopson stepping into Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon) and Kate Winslet's (The Regime) shoes as Jack and Rose — and Marney McQueen playing Dion. It was back in 2017 that the show premiered in Los Angeles, and in 2022 that it set a course for off-Broadway. It also has berths in Toronto, Montreal and London in its future. So far, the production has three Lucille Lortel Awards to its name, plus two Dorian Awards and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical, among other gongs. And as for the songs, co-writers Blue, Marla Mindelle (Sister Act) and Constantine Rousouli (Cruel Intentions) — with the latter two originally starring as Céline and Jack — have worked in everything from Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On', of course, to Where Does My Heart Beat Now' and 'A New Day Has Come'. Titanique plays The Grand Electric, 199 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills, Sydney from Thursday, September 12, 2024 — head to the show's website for tickets and further information. Images: NYC Off-Broadway cast, Daryl Roth Theatre, NYC, Evan Zimmerman.
Fifty years, oh-so-many epic campaigns, and everything from movies to video games, too: that's the Dungeons & Dragons story. 2024 marks half a century since the tabletop roleplaying game first had its players rolling the dice and spinning fantasy tales, a milestone that's being celebrated Down Under with the Australasian premiere of Dungeons & Dragons' leap to the stage. Get ready for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS The Twenty-Sided Tavern. Normally a trip to the theatre means engaging via watching, not by playing a part; however, that fittingly isn't the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS The Twenty-Sided Tavern experience. Audience members don't simply view this version of the game, which is also currently running off-Broadway — they also play along, choosing the characters and helping shape the story. Here's how it works, as Australians will discover when DUNGEONS & DRAGONS The Twenty-Sided Tavern hits the Sydney Opera House Studio from Sunday, December 15, 2024: when you take your seat, you're a key aspect of the show. Entering the Forgotten Realms, you also pick the experiences and other elements of the performance using Gamiotics software, with more than 30 playable characters, 34 backgrounds and 28 combat effects involved. Still on numbers, the production also features 40-plus custom character illustrations, 40 item cards and over 300 individual pieces of content. Five actors take to the stage to bring all of the above to life, including via games, combat, puzzles and riddles — and, because of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS The Twenty-Sided Tavern's interactive nature, they're not just performing the same roles each time. Shaking things up for the audience and the cast alike, this experience is never the same twice. "As passionate gamers and D&D players, the creators of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS The Twenty-Sided Tavern set off on a quest to explore what a live interactive experience of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS could look like. What started as a D&D-style RPG onstage with folding tables and a box of props has grown beyond our wildest imagination — it's now an experience that has allowed us to forge a deep connection with gamers and non-gamers alike, with each night seeing the story play out in a way unique to that audience," explains co-creator and producer David Carpenter. "Dungeons & Dragons has an enduring and near-mythic appeal across generations, with so many adaptations and features in pop-culture moments over the past 50 years. But it's safe to say, no one has done anything like DUNGEONS & DRAGONS The Twenty-Sided Tavern before – and we're thrilled to be giving audiences the first chance to see it outside the US," adds Sydney Opera House Head of Contemporary Performance Ebony Bott. "This theatrical production captures the imagination, inviting everyone to join the adventure and interact with a new world from the moment they walk in the door." DUNGEONS & DRAGONS The Twenty-Sided Tavern will play the Sydney Opera House Studio from Sunday, December 15, 2024. Head to the venue's website for more details — and for pre-sale tickets from 9am on Tuesday, September 10 and general sales from 9am on Thursday, September 12. Images: Bronwen Sharp.
Bali is bursting with all kinds of romantic accommodations, be they hidden up in the jungle surrounded by rice terraces or an oceanfront spot down on one of the region's countless beaches. It offers an embarrassment of riches for those looking to honeymoon, pop the big question or just run away with their special someone. Stay in a treehouse overlooking the Indian Ocean, take part in a small wellness retreat, find your own patch of paradise in luxury bamboo homes or go all out and really spoil yourselves at the most luxurious of resorts. The options are endless — and stupid-beautiful. Camaya Bali, Sideman Romance is built into every part of Camaya Bali. They have a series of private villas dotted throughout the property, each with its own unique design (made for taking advantage of the view across open planes and rice fields). They can come with pools of varying sizes and shapes as well as those netted hammocks you see all over Instagram. Thankfully, even if this place is flooded with influencers you won't see them – each villa offers absolute seclusion for guests. You can wander the grounds as much as you'd like, or let their team organise a whole host of activities for you. There are nearby whitewater rafting tours, temples and palaces, yoga centres and small villages to explore. If you're after a Big Moment, you can take a hike up into the jungle and rice fields to find the perfect proposal vista. The Korowai, Uluwatu Each of Korowai's wood-framed rooms are carved into the limestone cliff overlooking Bali's famous Impossible Beach (known for surfing, not partying). Marvel at the ridiculous uninterrupted 180-degree views across the ocean from the privacy of your own little balcony adorned with traditional Balinese décor. It's romantic and unpretentious. The glitz and glam of other Uluwatu resorts doesn't exist here. Instead, you and your partner will feel as if you've found your own hidden oasis. But, when or if you do want to get into town, the hospitable resort staff will rent you a scooter or organise a taxi ride. Plus, there are a few walkable restaurants nearby if you somehow get tired of dining at their restaurant overlooking the beach. Hangin Gardens of Bali, Payangan The Hanging Gardens of Bali sits far away from the crowds, up in the lush rainforest surrounded by local wildlife and charming rice terraces. The luxury resort has also won so many international accommodation awards thanks to the breathtaking views, super luxurious villas and warm service. Staying here, it's obvious to see why the island is at the top of so many people's travel bucket list destinations. Take the private villas for example. This high-end resort has 44 of them, each perched high atop wooden pillars overlooking the private valley below. Wake up and enjoy this view from your extra-large canopy bed before rolling out into your own private plunge pool — it's paradise on stilts. And each villa is full of character. Couples can also lean into the romantic vibes with massages, private dining experiences in the valley and breakfast served on a floating wooden boat in your own plunge pool. Desa Eko, Munduk Sometimes, a romantic getaway doesn't mean spending the entire week alone as a couple. Desa Eko is the place to come and feel a part of something bigger than yourself. It's a wellness retreat made for nature lovers, located in what the owners describe as 'the village above the clouds'. It's set in stunningly serene surrounds. You can book huts up in the trees, tents on stilted platforms or opt for the more conventional studio accommodation. But, as oasis-like as these rooms are, you will be drawn away for yoga by the river, dinners at their bamboo-clad restaurant and group hangs and hikes throughout the rainforest. It's a bit hippie. And we are all for it. Padma Resort Legian, Kuta If you're wanting a romantic place to stay in Bali, but want to be closer to the action, then the five-star Padma Resort Legian is for you. It's located near Kuta, a notorious party town with stacks of bustling beaches and places to shop — but it's far enough away that you can easily escape it all. Like Hannah Montana, you'll get the best of both worlds. Spend the day jumping from pool to pool (there are four here) and sipping on cocktails made at one of the seven bars. It's a huge resort, meaning you can carve out your own patch of tropical calm in countless nooks. You're also right on the beach. Cross the hotel lawns and set up home on this quiet sandy shore. You can do a bit of everything from here. Amarta Pesagi Retreat, Tabanan This is your quintessential romantic remote Bali accommodation. Small multi-level bamboo villas are located amongst within the jungle, surrounded by rice fields and all manners of wildlife. You feel cut off from the rest of the world, in all the best ways. Sit out on your private balcony looking into the wilderness while your partner swims in your own plunge pool below. Slide on some sandals and make your way to the restaurant for lunch or dinner. And, if you dare leave this paradise, you actually aren't that far from the outside world. Taman Ayun Temple and local villages are just a short bike ride away — and the Amarta Pesagi Retreat team will help you get there so there's no chance of getting lost in the jungle Six Senses, Uluwatu This is the place to go if you have a large budget and want a holiday where you can live in total luxury. This impressively sustainable resort is located at the southernmost tip of Bali (where you'll find most of the more high-end resorts), looking out over the ocean. The Six Senses rooms are just about as glam as you could imagine but it's the extras that make this spot even more romantic. The staff will organise floating breakfasts in your private plunge pool, quaint cinema nights under the stars, dinner for two on the beach, couples' massages, cooking classes and private tours to anywhere on the island your heart desires. Expect a superb level of service to match the views and incredible lodgings. Segara Village Hotel, Sanur This luxury hotel is set in the quiet beach town of Sanur. Head to the pool surrounded by palm trees and overgrown gardens for some solitude (or to hit up the swim-up bar. Or walk down to the beach and nab yourself one of the hotel's lounge chairs and spend the day hanging out on the beach with your loved one. The nearby town is also full of things to do — without being overly populated by swarms of tourists. Spend your days wandering along Sanur's restaurant-lined boardwalk, stopping off for a bite to eat and a cocktail (or two) and soaking up the laid-back island atmosphere before returning to Segara Village Hotel. Now you can book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips, and discover inspiring deals on flights, stays and experiences. Top image credit: Desa Eko
"You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?" Jack Nicholson's (How Do You Know) version of the Joker asked in 1989's Batman, just because he liked the sound of it. Here's another question: have you ever seen the Tim Burton (Wednesday)-helmed, Michael Keaton (The Flash)-starring classic caped-crusader movie on the big screen with a live orchestra playing its score? Whatever your answer to the first query, you can soon respond to the second with a hearty yes. To celebrate 35 years since the superhero classic initially reached cinemas, Batman is making a silver-screen comeback Down Under to see out 2024 and start 2025 — and in each of its six stops, beginning in Melbourne then heading to Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart and Sydney, it's giving the film's tunes the symphonic treatment. It's Batman in concert, with the movie playing, plus John Foreman's Australian Pops Orchestra, Southern Cross Symphony, Perth Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and The Metropolitan Orchestra picking up their instruments as the flick screens. They'll be busting out Danny Elfman's Grammy-nominated score, which is just one of the feature's music highlights. The other: songs by the one and only Prince. As well as marking three-and-a-half decades since the picture debuted, these concert screenings also commemorate 85 years of the character on the page — and have been announced just as Burton and Keaton reteam again for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. For the Batman Live in Concert sessions, audiences can follow the bat signal to Melbourne's Regent Theatre across Thursday, October 24–Saturday, October 26; AEC Arena in Adelaide across Wednesday, November 13–Thursday, November 14; Perth's PCEC Riverside Theatre on Friday, November 29–Saturday, November 30; the BCEC Great Hall in Brisbane from Tuesday December, 3–Wednesday, December 4; MyState Bank Arena in Hobart over Friday December, 13–Saturday, December 14; and ICC Sydney Theatre on Friday, January 10. Keaton's stint in Bruce Wayne's slick suits by day and Batman's cape by night kicked off a big-screen four-movie series that ran from 1989–1997, and also saw Val Kilmer (Top Gun: Maverick) and George Clooney (IF) inhabit the role — a character played elsewhere by everyone from Adam West and Christian Bale (Amsterdam) to Ben Affleck (Air) and Robert Pattinson (The Batman). As part of a global tour of events, only Batman going the concert route so far, not Batman Returns, Batman Forever or Batman and Robin. If you're keen to dress up to attend, that's encouraged — and there'll also be merchandise on sale. Batman Live in Concert Dates: Thursday, October 24–Saturday, October 26, 2024 — Regent Theatre, Melbourne with John Foreman's Australian Pops Orchestra Wednesday, November 13–Thursday, November 14, 2024 — AEC Arena, Adelaide with Southern Cross Symphony Friday, November 29–Saturday, November 30, 2024 — PCEC Riverside Theatre, Perth with Perth Symphony Orchestra Tuesday December, 3–Wednesday, December 4, 2024 — BCEC Great Hall, Brisbane with The Metropolitan Orchestra Friday December, 13–Saturday, December 14, 2024 — MyState Bank Arena, Hobart with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Friday, January 10, 2025 — ICC Sydney Theatre, Sydney with The Metropolitan Orchestra Batman Live in Concert is touring Australia from October 2024–January 2025. Head to the event website for tickets and further details.
The time of boring holidays is over. No longer are we locking ourselves inside a three-star resort for two weeks, limiting ourselves to whitewashed itineraries and experiences we could find at home. To really explore the world, we must occasionally check comfort and familiarity at the door. That's what you could do with a guided, small-group tour organised by Intrepid Travel. We've teamed up with the global exploration extraordinaires to showcase just a taste of the experiences on offer. All you need to do is dive right in. [caption id="attachment_970293" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] ChanwitOhm via iStock[/caption] Hike up a Volcano in Lombok When it comes to Aussies on holiday, Bali is an all-time classic pick. The neighbouring island of Lombok isn't that far afield either, but there's more to an Indonesian getaway than massages and cocktails by the beach. Instead, you can secure a spot on a 12-day adventure across the islands of Bali, Lombok and Gili. You'll hike, bike and kayak your way through some of the most scenic landscapes Indonesia has to offer. The peak (literally) of the adventure comes on the island of Lombok, where you'll spend two days hiking up an active volcano, camp at its crater (at nearly 2600 metres high) and enjoy stunning panoramic views of the ocean — if the weather is clear. Watch the Sunrise From the Tallest Mountain in Borneo Borneo is one of the last wild nations on Earth, with a hugely diverse ecosystem and a range of iconic native wildlife—orangutans being the most famous among them. This 11-day expedition allows you to get up close and personal with those gentle forest creatures, as well as sea turtles, macaques, bears and maybe even pygmy elephants. During your adventure, you'll also get to scale Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in the country. To see the sunrise from the summit, 4095 metres above sea level, you'll spend the night on the mountain and set off at 2am — but the views will be worth it. When you've descended, you will spend the afternoon unwinding in hot springs. Help Reforest an Island in Cambodia Community service in Cambodia is a highly regarded activity for Aussies abroad, but this eight-day tour of the country will put you in touch with more than just good karma. You'll bike through the Cambodian countryside, explore ancient ruins, meet endangered river dolphins and spend two days on an island in the Mekong River. On the small island of Koh Trong, you'll overnight in a local homestay, giving you ample time to explore the island's shores, rice fields and fruit orchards. Once you've had a good night's sleep and a home-cooked meal, you'll lend a hand to a local reforestation project to put some good back into the earth. Immerse Yourself in the Himalayas Along the Trans-Bhutan Trail There are few secrets on planet Earth as well hidden as Bhutan. Literally and figuratively dwarfed by its neighbours, India and China, this tiny Buddhist kingdom transports you back in time and takes your breath away with its awe-inspiring landscapes. You can spend 11 days exploring this remarkable nation with Intrepid. The altitude might thin out the air, but it's cleaner than anywhere else since Bhutan is the world's first carbon-negative country. Breathe deep as you drive and walk across the country's heart, stopping at high-altitude mountain passes, fortified Buddhist complexes and ancient monasteries built into the sides of rock faces. Kayak Amongst Stunning Limestone Islands in Lan Ha Bay Vietnam's scenery is on another level, with mountains, valleys and fields that create incredible memories (and photographs). It's a quintessential destination for travellers, but the art of balancing its many moving pieces is best left to travel agents and trip organisers. It's a good thing Intrepid offers an 11-day tour that'll see you hiking, biking and kayaking all over the country. First, you'll venture through the busy capital city of Hanoi for an on-the-ground Vietnam experience. Then, you'll stop in regional cities and towns like Sapa, Khau Bau, Mai Chau, Ninh Binh and Cat Ba Island. Those landlocked locales will see you hit the trails and fields on bicycles and your own two feet, but the latter is in Ha Long Bay's World Heritage designation and features the iconic limestone cliffs and white sand beaches by the plenty. Explore the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka Sometimes overshadowed by its larger neighbour, India, Sri Lanka has been slept on as a destination by many for far too long. One of the most varied ways to explore it is a fairly physical eight-day exploration of the island, which will take you through mountains, tea fields, thick jungles and fast-flowing rivers. Along the way, you'll get up close and personal with four of the eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites throughout the country. First, there's the city of Sigirya, built atop a granite rock over 1500 years ago. You'll then head to the jungle-coated Knuckles Mountain Range, the Sacred City of Kandy and finally, the fortified Old Town of Galle. Trek to the Base of the Highest Mountain on Earth When talking adventure tours in Asia, we'd be remiss not to touch on the most famous of all: the two-week journey to the Base Camp of Mount Everest. It's a trip and a destination carved into human history, but the Base Camp trek is easier than the journey up the mountain itself. This tour starts in Kathmandu, but you'll fly to your real starting point in Lukla before setting off on the hiking journey of a lifetime. Take in the snow-crested peaks and green valleys of the Himalayan ranges as you make the journey up to Base Camp before turning around and taking a different route back to Lukla. You'll be spending your nights in teahouses and are likely to meet other hikers along the way since this is one of the most famous hiking routes in the world. Get out, explore, dive into adventure and find your WOW with Intrepid Travel. Find out more on the website.
To really get a feel for a country, you have to experience its cuisine. And that doesn't just mean eating in nice restaurants—it means learning about the history, stories, sources, recipes and love that goes into creating dishes that have endured for centuries. If you're seeking inspiration for experiences like that, we've teamed up with Intrepid Travel and picked out eight of the best culinary holidays Asia has to offer. You get the best of both worlds: sightsee like a tourist but live and eat like a local. South Korea When thinking of South Korea, do you think of fried chicken, bibimbap, Korean barbecue and, of course, kimchi? You can get the chance to explore all these tasty treats on an eight-day loop of the country. Start in Seoul with a trip to Gwangjang Market (as seen on Netflix's Street Food) before attending a kimchi-making session in Jeonju. Other highlights include a dive into the burgeoning microbrewery scene, a home-cooked meal in Busan and a celebratory barbecue experience back in Seoul. South Korea's rich and diverse food scene offers much to explore, and this tour is an ideal taster of what the country has to offer. Sri Lanka The beautiful island nation of Sri Lanka is known for both its culture and its food, and you can experience the best of both on this twelve-day tour. Be part of the action at the famous Negombo fish market, tuck into traditional curries and dosas cooked by Tamil families and enjoy a local snack of buffalo curd and treacle. While the food isn't to be missed, there's much to do besides. Lion Rock is a picturesque climb with ancient frescoes, and the journey from Kandy to Bandarawela is a breathtaking scenic train ride. For the grand finish, you'll hit Colombo, the country's capital, where you can take in the city buzz and enjoy a meal celebrating the area's Dutch heritage. Thailand You probably enjoy a pad Thai now and again, and there's a decent chance you can whip up a fairly decent Thai curry (if armed with a jar of paste and a tin of coconut milk), but have you ever experienced a khan tok dinner? A Northern Thailand speciality, this eleven-dish meal has long been a traditional welcome, and the opportunity to prepare, cook and eat this customary feast is arguably the highlight of Intrepid's eight-day excursion to Thailand. Elsewhere, there are trips to Chiang Mai temples, an overnight train ride across the country, and a visit to Tha Kha Floating Market. You'll be blown away by the vibrancy and beauty at every turn. India Far too often, we make the mistake of thinking of Indian food as one single cuisine while, in reality, it's one of the most rich and varied food cultures on the planet. That's why you need half a month for a trip stretching all the way from Delhi to Goa. The itinerary reads like a spice lover's dream. You'll hit the 'Lane of Parathas' in Delhi, a chaat crawl in Agra, Rajasthani desserts in Jaipur, thali in Udaipur, a street crawl in Mumbai, and a cooking class in Goa. That's without even mentioning the Taj Mahal, Sikh temples and the Bollywood movie experience that will punctuate your time away from everyday life. [caption id="attachment_970029" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Yana Tatevosian via iStock[/caption] Georgia Located on the edge of Asia on the banks of the Black Sea is the gateway to Europe: Georgia. Australia may be pretty good for overseas cuisine these days, but you'd struggle on these shores to find dishes like nigvziani badrijani (eggplant and walnuts), zhizhig galnash (noodles and lamb) or khinkali (traditional Georgian dumplings). All these dishes and more are available on this circuit of the country, starting in the capital, Tbilisi, and also taking in Telavi, the Pankisi Valley and Gudauri. And it's not just food. There's also the opportunity to hike up to Gergeti Trinity Church and catch a glimpse of Mt Kazbegi, a glacier that stands over 5,000m tall. Vietnam Banh mi, pho and bao are high-street staples here in Australia, but there's nothing like the real thing. You'll get to sample the genuine article on this tour of Vietnam, which also includes a cooking class in Hoi An that's preceded by a trip to the local market to find ingredients. There's also plenty of travelling and a bunch to see as part of this itinerary. There are two overnight train journeys, boat cruises, picturesque drives and even a sightseeing trip aboard a motorbike. This holiday comes to an end in Ho Chi Minh City, where you can soak up the atmosphere of the busy markets and marvel at the incredible produce on offer. Japan The Land of the Rising Sun has something for everyone, from skiing and sightseeing to cherry blossoms and huge city metropolises. But what we're talking about here is food and, more accurately, damn good food. Sushi is obviously a must, and in this Tokyo tour you'll be schooled in the art of sushi — which includes its history, how to choose the best cuts and, of course, how to prepare it. Additionally, there's a home cooking class in Kanazawa on the north coast, a visit to a green tea farm in Uji, a sake tasting in Kyoto, and more besides. Cambodia This diverse southeast Asian country has a rich heritage and vibrant food culture. This organised trip will show you the best this gem of a country has to offer. You'll see where reportedly the world's finest pepper is grown and taste pepper ice cream. You'll get to experience a traditional Khmer cookery class in Phnom Penh. You'll even get the chance to make cocktails in Siem Reap using local fruits and herbs. There's also plenty of opportunity for sightseeing, and you'll come away from your trip feeling like you've got to know Cambodia and perhaps even planning your next trip back. Get out, explore, dive into adventure and find your WOW with Intrepid Travel. Find out more on the website.
There's much that's wild and unlikely about Kneecap's story — the band, that is, but plenty of it fuels the movie of the same name, too. When Naoise Ó Cairealláin, aka the Irish-language trio's Móglaí Bap, was christened, the British Army thought that the ceremony was an IRA meeting, even bringing in a helicopter. When the Belfast group formed decades later, Móglaí Bap and Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, aka Mo Chara, found their third member in then-schoolteacher Jj Ó Dochartaigh, who took the moniker DJ Próvaí and dons a balaclava in the colours of the Irish flag onstage. Their first single 'C.E.A.R.T.A' was banned from the radio. They've now turned the whole ride so far into a big-screen music biopic. In said flick, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Próvaí all play themselves. It's true of Kneecap the band and Kneecap the film alike, of course: yes, their shared title springs from a form of violence well-known in the trio's parts during The Troubles. Leaning in in the name of subversion is one of the things that this threesome does best — and via their music and now their feature as well, they're passionate about reframing the way that the world thinks about their home city. Championing their mother tongue, and the sense of Northern Irish identity that it helps forge, is equally crucial. Roll all of that into a movie, then enlist Michael Fassbender (Next Goal Wins) and take some inspiration from Trainspotting, and the result is a blast of a picture — and one of the instant greats of its genre. Naturally, all of the details mentioned above — the christening, which made the newspapers; DJ Próvaí's background, plus his school's reaction to his side gig; the disdain from the airwaves; the texture of Belfast beyond the well-documented conflicts; the fight for the Irish language — were always going to be key elements of any silver-screen take on Kneecap, even a purposefully playful one that isn't afraid of diverting from the facts if it suits (director Rich Peppiatt has claimed is about 70-percent true). As Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara tell Concrete Playground, starring in the movie themselves felt just as inevitable. They call their on-screen parts the roles they were meant to play, which is a cracking line, but the proof is in the vibe and vitality of the film. The trio also co-wrote the feature with British filmmaker Peppiatt, who made their acquaintance by being persistent about trying to have a drink with them, and helmed their 'Guilty Conscience' music video. Ensuring that Kneecap reflected Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Próvaí, their tunes, their personalities, their experience, the causes they're committed to and their view of their hometown was obviously paramount. Ask Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara, too, if they ever thought that this was a path that Kneecap would take when they formed the band, and they joke about awards and recognition — "we knew the accolades were coming after the first song," says Mo Chara; "we're waiting on a Nobel Peace Prize next, hopefully," adds Móglaí Bap — but, when they get serious, they stress that hitting cinemas was all about making a movie for Belfast. "It's a very colloquial film with lots of slang, and lots of jokes that maybe people only from where we are from would understand. And we never dumbed that down. We never made it more digestible for anyone outside of Ireland in that way," explains Móglaí Bap. "And I think for that reason, we didn't think beyond Ireland. The movie was made for Ireland, for Belfast. And we didn't think beyond that. I think that's the reason that we created such an original, authentic movie, because we weren't looking outside of Ireland to try and make it more digestible. We're just making it for people like us." Adds Mo Chara: "I think a lot of funders would like to feel like if they give half a million towards the movie, they would like to feel like they've had half a million worth of input. And whenever you let many people have input, it waters it down. It becomes digestible for the world, but it means nobody likes it, and especially people from where you're from." Kneecap haven't had to worry about nobody liking their film. After picking up the NEXT Audience Award at Sundance, it earned the three main gongs at Galway Film Fleadh — the Audience Award, plus Best Irish Film and Best Irish-Language Film — which has never happened before in the fest's history. It's also in Oscar contention, selected as the country's submission for the Best International Feature Film at the 2025 Academy Awards. Across the whirlwind last eight months, the band released their second album Fine Art as well. In March 2025, they'll tour Australia for the first time. We also spoke with Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara about everything that this year has brought their way so far, the reaction to the movie in Belfast even before it hit cinemas, riffing on reality, taking a risk in bringing their story to the screen, dream casting, balancing everything they wanted in the film, enlisting Fassbender's involvement and more. On How 2024 Has Panned Out Since the Film Premiered at Sundance — and with a New Kneecap Album Out, Too Mo Chara: "We've been busy little boys. We've been very busy, but we're getting opportunities that not a lot of young people, especially where we're from, get. So we're enjoying it. We're loving it. We've seen a lot of the world that we would probably not have seen, Iceland and all sorts of places. So we're enjoying it. It's hard to balance the music and the movie at the same time, but we're giving it a good go." Móglaí Bap: "Ying and yang." On the Response to the Film in Belfast, Even Before It Hit Cinemas Mo Chara: "I feel like people in Belfast — well, most, the majority of people — are very proud of us, because Belfast is something that has always just been negative in world media. And it's seen as a place that's not very …" Móglaí Bap: "Progressive." Mo Chara: "… or fun or whatever it is, or that people do well or get creative in. So I feel like a lot of people, especially the older generation, they're all just very, very proud and they're very happy that there's two or three young people, or bands, coming up, or movies being made that show Belfast in not such a negative light all the time, even though there's negativity." Móglaí Bap: "There's a little bit, just like with anywhere." On Bringing Their Origin Story to the Screen, Riffing with Reality and Rich Peppiatt's 70-Percent True Claim Móglaí Bap: "He made that up, surely." Mo Chara: "70 percent — how the fuck does he judge that? But the origin story of Kneecap, though – we're not getting into the blurred lines, but 100 percent, DJ Próvaí was a teacher. And we released the song, and the school started finding out that he was the man behind the mask and sacked him, basically. That's true." Móglaí Bap: "And the police meetings and the Irish language legislation, and all these things. Most of the crazier stories in the movie are true. The christening at the very start of the movie with the British Army helicopter is based on a true story, that's based on my christening. I was christened on a mass rock. It was kind of like an altar made of stone hidden away in the forests when Catholicism was outlawed during the Penal Laws, and I got christened there in the 90s." Mo Chara: "The first christening there for 200 years." Móglaí Bap: "Yeah, the first mass there for 200 years. And the British Army thought there was some sort of IRA meeting going on." Mo Chara: "Like a training camp for the paramilitaries." Móglaí Bap: "And then they hovered above the procession for the whole time as being as being squirted with water by priest." Mo Chara: "I hope it was water." Móglaí Bap: "I think it was water, anyway. And they hovered there above the whole time. There's a newspaper article about it. It was quite an iconic moment. So like stories like that are based on truth, and we like to leave it there. But as Rich says, some of the crazier stories are based on truth." On Eventually Saying Yes to Rich Peppiatt's Persistent Efforts to Have a Drink with Kneecap — and How the Film Started From There Móglaí Bap: "We were very skeptical, of course, because Rich is obviously from England." Mo Chara: "Don't be so hard on him." Móglaí Bap: "And we're very skeptical of English people who want to profit off Irish people. So we kept him at arm's length for a while. But eventually, his arm reached across with a pint and we accepted it. It was from there that we got together very well. I think because Rich is from England is actually is his best quality. It sounds like a negative thing, but it was the best thing about him because he didn't come with any preconceived ideas of what we should represent or what culture we come from. He kind of left it to us to tell him. And because of that, there was a great line of communication in the back and forth. If we didn't feel that some scenes represented our culture or the youth culture, he would listen to us in that way. So there was a great communication between us and Rich, and he was very open director." Mo Chara: "He's done a great job portraying Belfast." Móglaí Bap: "Yeah, he did a great job of portraying Belfast — and portraying the modern era of Belfast and the youth in Belfast. So kudos to Rich." On Taking a Risk by Trusting Kneecap's Story to Any Filmmaker Mo Chara: "The biggest risk of all was the fact that our music career was on the up, and we were doing very well — well, very well for where we were at that time — and the last thing that we would have needed, for example, was a really cheesy, shit movie to come out that was hard to watch and made people cringe. Nobody's going to be able to take a music career seriously after doing a really shit film, I feel. So it was a risk we didn't need to take, but some risks are worth taking and we consider ourselves to be risk-takers. And we put a lot of trust in Rich — and I think Rich put a lot trust in us." Móglaí Bap: "It paid off for him." On the Decision to Play Themselves — and Dream Casting Ideas If That Didn't Pan Out Móglaí Bap: "I wanted to get Brad Pitt, but he was too old." Mo Chara: "He was too old, too ugly." Móglaí Bap: "And then Cillian Murphy, he was too small." Mo Chara: "As we always say, they were the roles we were born to play. So we were glad it was us and we felt like we were the only ones who could probably do it justice. It was funny, we got one of the reviews that said 'at the start I thought these actors were really good rappers. It actually just turns out that these rappers are really good actors'. So we fooled a lot of people with. I'm glad we did it." Móglaí Bap: "I think actually it still happens — during some of the film premieres, some people leave the movie still not knowing that we're an actual band and think that we're just a fake band that we created for the movie. So I think that's a good sign." On the Kind of Preparation That Goes Into Playing Yourself in Your First Acting Roles Mo Chara: "We got an unbelievable acting coach called Kieran Lagan. At the very start, it was a lot of warm-up games — and as Kieran would say, in acting, if you're in your head you're dead. You have to be present. You have to be in the room. There was a lot of staring into each other's eyes for five minutes. I don't know if you'll ever be close enough to somebody to do that. It's very awkward. And you have to describe each other's face and stuff. So there was a lot of really awkward games for us at the start. But by the end of this couple of months that we did, it became very therapeutic for us to go and do these sessions, and then we would leave and everybody would be in good form." Móglaí Bap: "We all nearly fell in love, because apparently if you stare into someone's eyes for ten minutes, you fall in love. I don't know if that's true." Mo Chara: "Speak for yourself." On Covering Kneecap's Lived Experiences, the Post-Troubles Reality in Northern Ireland, the Impact of the Police, the Campaign for the Irish Language to Be Recognised and More, All in One Film Mo Chara: "We had the term 'kill your babies'. So we would have some great ideas, but it just wasn't going to work in the film. So stuff that we really liked, we had to just cut it. And that's always tough. But I suppose that's the game. Even some scenes that were in it that have been cut that we really liked, because the the first draft was like two hours and 15 minutes. And so we went and had to cut loads of scenes. So that's always tricky. But yeah, there's a big political sphere here that we wanted to represent, but we just couldn't get everything in because it's such a complex history here. But we got what we felt was important to the story and what was important for people to understand the contacts of the of politics here. I think we got most of it across with the Irish Language Act, and the Unionist and Republican politicians." Móglaí Bap: "I think the core element of the movie, which we always came back to, is identity. Identity is so important, especially in post-colonial countries that do have Indigenous languages. Language and identity are all intertwined, and I think that's something that resonates with people. We've seen in America or places where they speak minority languages, that what resonates with them mostly is identity. And people I've met people who watch the film, they literally instantly either want to learn Irish or want to learn whatever their own Indigenous native language is. That's something that we're very proud of. That's the effect this movie is having." On Getting Michael Fassbender Onboard to Play Móglaí Bap's Father Dad Mo Chara: "It made the difference." Móglaí Bap: "He was completely starstruck when he met us." Mo Chara: "We always say that, that he was completely starstruck — but he actually was a fan of Kneecap. And I feel like he really liked the script. So it was amazing to have him. So we wrote the film. We were ready to go, basically, in a few months time, but COVID happened. So it put everything back a few years. But COVID actually in itself was a blessing, because it was after COVID or towards the end of COVID, that we got Fassbender involved. So COVID actually worked in our favour. But it made all the difference. It gave the film legitimacy, whenever you have such a big star like that involved. We already had Josie Walker [The Wonder, This Is Going to Hurt, Belfast] and Simone Kirby [The Buccaneers, Hidden Assets, His Dark Materials], who've done plenty of huge, huge roles as well. But Fassbender brought this new legitimacy to it. And also it meant anyone who was on set the day of Fassbender, everybody upped their game. Everybody wore their best clothes. The catering was better. Everyone acted better." Móglaí Bap: "We got real plates." Mo Chara: "We got real plates and cutlery." Móglaí Bap: "We got real forks and knives, instead of all the paper ones we were using." Mo Chara: "So it really just upped everyone's game, having him involved, and it it just pushed everyone just to strive to be better." Kneecap opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, August 29, 2024. Images: Madman / Sony Pictures Classics.
How did Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard become one of the biggest Australian musicians around the world right now? Attend SXSW Sydney in 2024 and you'll find out. The singer-songwriter better known as The Kid LAROI is the latest addition to the event's constantly growing lineup, in a key spot: the 'Stay', 'Without You', 'Thousand Miles', 'Love Again' and 'Girls' talent has been revealed as the fest's music keynote speaker for this year. In 2023, Chance The Rapper did the honours. SXSW Sydney isn't skimping on big names, clearly. On Saturday, October 19, 2024 at the ICC Sydney Theatre, expect The Kid LAROI to step through his career journey so far, from Redfern to streaming superstardom — and also what his future holds. The Kid LAROI postponing his Australian tour to this spring from February 2024 has worked out well for SXSW Sydney, then. As part of the event, he'll also help develop professional development workshops and performance opportunities for Waterloo and Redfern's First Nations communities. After he's chatted about his career to SXSW Sydney's patrons, The Kid LAROI will embark upon a seven-city Australian tour in support of his debut studio album The First Time. On the itinerary: HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Commbank Stadium in Sydney, Perth's RAC Arena, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, MyState Bank Arena in Hobart and Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena. Migos frontman Quavo and Sydney's own ONEFOUR are also on the bill everywhere except the Gold Coast and Hobart. [caption id="attachment_926206" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Adam Kargenian[/caption] SXSW Sydney's 2024 lineup just keeps expanding, after Lucy Lawless, Grace Tame and Tim Minchin — plus sports stars Nick Kyrgios and Noémie Fox, playwright Suzie Miller, former Bangarra Dance Theatre Artistic Director Stephen Page and more — also joined the program to round out August. Set to take place across Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 dates, the event began revealing its program back in May, which was just the beginning. Another announcement arrived in June, then not one, not two, but three more in July — and also another, focusing on the free hub at Tumbalong Park, at the beginning of August. Then came more music acts and speakers, still in August. SXSW Sydney 2024 will run from Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details.
There's no one right way to experience SXSW, whether you're attending the Austin or Sydney version, but one of the event's huge highlights is its high-profile list of folks who get talking. This is the kind of event where you could be listening to Chance The Rapper one moment, then Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker the next, as everyone learned in the Harbour City in 2023. In 2024, it's also the type of festival where Lucy Lawless, Grace Tame and Tim Minchin will be chatting — plus Nick Kyrgios, Noémie Fox, Suzie Miller and Stephen Page as well. Another week, another lineup drop for 2024's SXSW Sydney as it moves closer and closer to its Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 dates. The event began revealing its program back in May, which was just the beginning. Another announcement arrived in June, then not one, not two, but three more in July — and also another, focusing on the free hub at Tumbalong Park, at the beginning of August. Then came more music acts and speakers, still in August, and now arrives even more talents that'll be part of SXSW Sydney's conference. [caption id="attachment_971189" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paul McMillan[/caption] From just the people mentioned above, SXSW Sydney 2024 has warrior princesses, activists, comedians, sports stars, playwrights and the former Bangarra Dance Theatre Artistic Director on its bill. Among the highlights, Lawless has moved behind the camera for the first time on documentary Never Look Away about CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth, and will chat about her directorial debut — while Stephen Page and actor Hunter Page-Lochard (Critical Incident), his son, will explore whether there's a global market for First Nations content and artists. With fellow guests such as Ogilvy Global CEO Devika Bulchandani, Google Analytics and Google Voice founder Wesley Chan, Intel Corporation's first futurist Brian David Johnson, and MIT Technology Review CEO and publisher Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, everything from artificial intelligence in marketing and entrepreneurs keen to make the leap to America through to thinking about the future and new tech innovations will be covered as well. Also among the new additions: Fox joining Clare Stephens for But Are You Happy? live, Welcome to the Future! with Charles Firth and Dom Knight similarly taking to the stage, and sessions digging into neurotechnology and how to change habits. [caption id="attachment_971190" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ian Laidlaw[/caption] SXSW Sydney's latest 2024 wave expands a program that already features Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton (The New Boy), Aussie composer Jed Kurzel (Monkey Man), Barbie executive producer Josey McNamara, Brave co-director Mark Andrews, Mortal Kombat helmer Simon McQuoid, human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, author Johann Hari, Australian race car driver Molly Taylor, pianist Chad Lawson, Aussie astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg, TikTok marketing head Sofia Hernandez and Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire composer AR Rahman — among a hefty list of others. More lineup details will keep being revealed over the coming month and a half, with the full event set to span more than 1000 speakers, 60-plus tech exhibitors, over 200 artists, 120-plus games and more than 75 screenings. [caption id="attachment_971191" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jaimi Joy[/caption] [caption id="attachment_971192" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paul McMillan[/caption] [caption id="attachment_967878" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jaimi Joy[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953724" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jaimi Joy[/caption] [caption id="attachment_923286" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney[/caption] SXSW Sydney 2024 will run from Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details.
So, you're in Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide. You love music festivals. You've been watching the winter avalanche of lineup drops for this coming summer. Been eyeing off the Beyond The Valley bill? Lost Paradise's roster of talents? Can't make it to Victoria or New South Wales? That's not the only reason to get excited about Wildlands' return for 2024–25 — but it's one of them. This dance music, electronic and hip hop fest is known to share its big names with fellow festivals around Australia — and its latest round of events, which will kick off in Brisbane to celebrate New Year's Eve 2024, is no different. Accordingly, Fisher, Ice Spice, Chase & Status, Marlon Hoffstadt, Tinashe and Royel Otis are among the acts that now have dates locked in with Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. Across all three cities, Lola Young and BARKAA will also take to the stage. Everywhere but Adelaide, Sammy Virji, Wilkinson, RL Grime, Becky Hill, Horsegiirl, Confidence Man and Joy (Anonymous) are on the list as well, as are Malugi, Sam Alfred, Hannah Laing, Issey Cross, Messie, Little Fritter, Sammythesinner, Moss and Djanaba. Just in Brisbane, there's two more talents: 1tbsp and Girlthing. It's now been five years since Brisbane first welcomed Wildlands to the city, with the teams behind Victoria's Beyond The Valley and Perth's Origin Fields fests giving the Sunshine State a big new summer party. Then, it was over the summer of 2022–23 that the festival expanded to Perth and Adelaide as well, taking care of three cities that might've missed its impressive lineup otherwise. As always in the River City, Brisbane Showgrounds is the destination to mark NYE at the fest. After that, Wildlands welcomes in 2024 on Saturday, January 4 at HBF Arena Parklands, Joondalup and Sunday, January 5 at Ellis Park, Adelaide. Wildlands 2024–25 Lineup: All cities: Fisher Ice Spice Chase & Status Marlon Hoffstadt Tinashe Royel Otis Lola Young BARKAA Brisbane and Perth only: Sammy Virji Wilkinson RL Grime Becky Hill Horsegiirl Confidence Man Joy (Anonymous) Malugi Sam Alfred Hannah Laing Issey Cross Messie Little Fritter Sammythesinner Moss Djanaba Brisbane only: 1tbsp Girlthing Wildlands 2024–25 Dates and Venues: Tuesday, December 31, 2024 — Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane Saturday, January 4, 2025 — HBF Arena Parklands, Joondalup Sunday, January 5, 2025 — Ellis Park, Adelaide Wildlands will hit Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide across December 2024–January 2025. Head to the festival website for further details and tickets — including registering for presales, which start at 6pm local time on Wednesday, September 4. Wildlands images: Jordan Munn, Bianca Holderness and Daniel Marks.
It's set in Canada. It pays tribute to iconic Iranian filmmaking. It took home Cannes Directors' Fortnight's inaugural Audience Award. It's now the recipient of the Melbourne International Film Festival's Bright Horizons accolade, too. The movie to put on your must-see list if you haven't already caught it at MIFF 2024: Matthew Rankin's Universal Language, the picture chosen by the event's 2024 jury as the pick of the fest's competition titles. It was back in 2022 that the Victorian film festival, which is Australia's oldest, revealed that it was introducing a prize for standout new filmmaking talents. The Bright Horizons Award heroes both first-time and sophomore directors — and gives each year's winner a cool $140,000 for their troubles. Nabbed by Afrofuturist musical Neptune Frost in its initial year and Senegalese-French love story Banel & Adama in 2023, that hefty amount of prize money makes the gong one of the richest film fest awards in the world. Debuting at Cannes, and also set to make its North American premiere on home soil at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, Universal Language explores a vision of Winnipeg that resembles Iran in the 80s — and where Farsi as well as French are the official tongues. Alongside helming his second feature after 2019's The Twentieth Century, Rankin also appears in one of the movie's stories, as he spins absurdist tales about two kids on an adventure started by a random banknote, an unhappy teacher and a filmmaker. "Our task as jury was joyful, invigorating and inspiring. It was also incredibly arduous, heartbreaking and some might even say cruel, because how could anyone choose a favourite or pick a winner from such an incredible lineup of films, all worthy of accolades in their own ways, all testaments to the fact that the future of cinema is bright indeed?" said 2024's MIFF Bright Horizons jury, which was led by Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen (Limbo). "One movie represented all of the facets of the Bright Horizons Award: a film whose cultural specificity transcends borders; whose cinematic playfulness is matched equally by its sensitivity; and whose very form is in conversation with cinema past, present and future. This is why the Bright Horizons Award goes to Universal Language by Matthew Rankin," continued the group's statement, with director David Lowery (Peter Pan & Wendy), producer Yulia Evina Bhara (Tiger Stripes), costume designer Deborah L Scott (Avatar: The Way of Water) and actor Jillian Nguyen (White Fever) joining Sen. The quintet also gave a Special Jury Award to Flow, an animation about animals on a boat, when selecting Universal Language from a packed pool of contenders. Other films in the running included Janet Planet, the debut movie from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker; Inside, a prison drama with Guy Pearce (The Clearing), Cosmo Jarvis (Shōgun) and Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders) that's directed by Charles Williams, who won the 2018 short film Palme d'Or for All These Creatures; and The Village Next to Paradise, the first-ever Somali film play Cannes. Also since 2022, MIFF's lineup of prizes spans the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award as well, which recognises an outstanding Australian creative from one of the festival's movies. 2024's recipient to the tune of $70,000: Jaydon Martin for Flathead. "We were captivated and affected by Jaydon Martin's visually arresting and very moving portrait of individuals often forgotten about in society — in this case, the real people of small town Bundaberg," advised the jury. "Flathead's seamless merging of realities and fiction, both so raw yet so cinematic, had a profound effect on our jury. We hope all of you have a chance to watch this brilliant, sensitive examination of survival, of humanity and of mortality, which will stay with you for days to come." In 2023, MIFF launched its First Nations Film Creative Award, which is now named the Uncle Jack Charles Award — with April Phillips winning for XR piece kajoo yannaga (come on let's walk together) in 2024. As chosen by festival attendees having their say as they're spending all of their spare time in a cinema, 2024's MIFF Audience Award went to two Australian movies: documentaries Voice and Left Write Hook, with the first about seeking support across the country for the Indigenous Voice referendum, and the second stepping into a boxing and creative writing program for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival runs from Thursday, August 8–Sunday, August 25. For more information, visit the MIFF website.
Before the pandemic, when a new-release movie started playing in cinemas, audiences couldn't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the past few years forcing film industry to make quite a few changes — widespread movie theatre closures will do that, and so will plenty of people staying home because they aren't well — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Perhaps you've been under the weather. Given the hefty amount of titles now releasing each week, maybe you simply missed something. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here are nine that you can watch right now at home. Longlegs Faces carve deep impressions in Longlegs, in both their presence and their absence. As Agent Lee Harker, Maika Monroe (God Is a Bullet) does so with a clenched jaw, permanently on-edge eyes and mere bursts of words, aka the guise of a woman who'll never stop being vigilant in every moment but doesn't always know exactly why. As the movie's namesake, as announced in the opening credits, Nicolas Cage (Dream Scenario) has audiences straining to catch whatever glimpse they can whenever they can — and when a full look comes, it's scorching and haunting in tandem in the stare alone. Blair Underwood (Origin) gives Harker's boss Carter a weary gaze, but with fully rounded life experience beyond his FBI gig evident behind it. Alicia Witt (Switch Up) plays Ruth Harker, mother to Lee, as distance and struggle personified. As she relays a tale as survivor Carrie Anne Camera, Kiernan Shipka (Twisters) demonstrates how disconnected a grim reality can be from a dream. For his fourth feature following 2015's The Blackcoat's Daughter, 2016's I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House and 2020's Gretel & Hansel — the first of which also starred Shipka — writer/director Osgood Perkins has clearly assembled an excellent cast for his unease-dripping, get-under-your-skin, torment-your-nightmares serial-killer thriller. Another face leaves an imprint beyond his actors, however. Bill Clinton's portrait assists with setting the scene as it adorns bureau offices, with the majority of the movie taking place in the 90s. Think the FBI and three decades back, and there's no lack of pop-culture touchstones. The Silence of the Lambs is one. Monroe's portrayal as a newly minted operative tracking a murderer is every bit as layered, complex and unforgettable — and awards-worthy — as Jodie Foster's (True Detective: Night Country) Oscar-winning performance was. Longlegs streams via Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Maika Monroe and Osgood Perkins. MaXXXine As played as an unrelenting force by Mia Goth (Infinity Pool), even when slasher killers have other plans, Maxine Minx was always going to go big and never go home. To wrap up the horror trilogy with the ambitious actor at its centre (when Goth hasn't also been playing Pearl, its other protagonist, as both an elderly and a younger woman), MaXXXine shoots for the stars as well, including in shifting to new surroundings. Gone is the New Zealand-standing-in-for-Texas production base of X and its prequel Pearl. Absent is the claustrophobic feel of mainly making one spot the franchise's location, whether it was taking place in the 70s in its first entry or in the 1910s in its second. This Los Angeles-set leap to 1985 sparkles with the same scorching drive and determination as its titular figure — and Minx, Goth, writer/director Ti West (Them) and MaXXXine alike won't accept a life, or a swansong instalment in one of the best sagas in the genre in the 2020s, that they do not deserve. From its debut with 2022's X, which turned a porn shoot in a remote farmhouse into a bloody stalking ground, West's big-screen series has always understood that sex and violence so often intersect in the arena that it's paying tribute to: moving pictures. X, Pearl and now MaXXXine also see how censors and the pearl-clutching equate one with the other. Equally, these pictures glean how a woman with a libidinous appetite — or simply the craving to succeed and the unwillingness to settle — can be deemed a larger threat to morality than a murderer. They also spy what a battle it too frequently is for women to chart their own path free of society's expectations, no matter their aspirations. West not only continues splattering these ideas through the Elizabeth Debicki (The Crown)- and Kevin Bacon (Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F)-co-starring MaXXXine, but layering them, plus stacking his latest unpackings of them with X and Pearl. The true target in his current sights, however: what it just might cost to make it in a realm as ruthless and ravenous as stardom. MaXXXine streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Elizabeth Debicki and Kevin Bacon. The Bikeriders Can a dream ever exist for more than a fleeting moment? That isn't just a question for oneirology, the field of psychology focused on studying the involuntary visions of our slumbers, but also applies whenever tales of motorcycle clubs rev across the screen. Stories of hitting the open road on two wheels, finding camaraderie and community in a group of likeminded outsiders, and perhaps discovering a purpose along the way are stories of chasing dreams — of freedom, of belonging, of mattering, of meaning in a world seemingly so devoid of it if you don't fit in the traditional sense. So it was in TV series Sons of Anarchy and in Australian film 1%, two titles set within the roar and rush of biker gangs in recent years. So it was in The Wild One, 1953's Marlon Brando-starring classic that immortalised the query "what are you rebelling against?" and the reply "whaddaya got?". Now, so it equally proves in The Bikeriders, about a 60s and 70s leather- and denim-wearing, motorbike-riding crew formed after infatuation got motors runnin' when founder Johnny (Tom Hardy, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) saw The Wild One on TV. A family man, Johnny has a dream for the Vandals MC out of America's midwest — and so does Benny (Austin Butler, Dune: Part Two), the closest thing that the club has to a spirit animal. The latter is introduced alone at a bar wearing his colours, refusing to take them off even when violence springs at the hands of unwelcoming patrons. He won't be tamed, the sixth feature from writer/director Jeff Nichols after Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special and Loving establishes early. He won't be anyone but his smouldering, swaggering, rebel-without-a-cause self, either. Courtesy of the Vandals, he not only has the space to stand firm, but the assurance. He's a lone wolf-type, but knows that he has the devoted backing of the pack anyway. Johnny has fashioned the gang as a tribe and a place to call home for those who can't locate it elsewhere, and is open about how his fellow bikers need Benny — and how he does as well — to look up to. The Bikeriders streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Austin Butler. Twisters A cinema plays a key part in Twisters. Frankenstein flickers across its screen, but mother nature proves not only more of a monster, but also an audience member worse than folks who can't manage to spend two hours in a darkened room without their phones. There's a knowing air to featuring a picture palace in this disaster-flick sequel from Minari director Lee Isaac Chung and The Boys in the Boat screenwriter Mark L Smith, reminding viewers how deeply this genre and this format are linked. Almost three decades ago, as co-penned by Michael Crichton fresh off Jurassic Park's mammoth success, 1996's Twister packed movie theatres worldwide to the tune of nearly half-a-billion dollars, doing so with a spectacle. No matter if its sequel reaches the same heights at the box office globally, it too delivers better-on-the-big-screen sights, chief among them Chung and cinematographer Dan Mindel's (Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker) naturalistic imagery. For those unaware going in that the filmmaker behind six-time Oscar contender Minari — a helmer who received a Best Director Academy Award nomination for his gorgeous and heartfelt work, in fact — is also steering Twisters, it isn't hard to guess from its look, including in its opening moments alone. The movie begins with storm chasers doing what they enthusiastically do. It also kicks off with a horror turn of events thanks to a tornado that exceeds their expectations, and with the crew's survivors afterwards struggling with trauma that'll later drive them forward. In these scenes and beyond, this isn't a picture of visual gloss and sheen, as witnessed right down to its lighting. Twisters remains polished, of course. It also can't tell its tale without CGI. But a choice as pivotal as valuing a genuine aesthetic tone over a gleaming one has a massive impact. Twisters streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos and Lee Isaac Chung. Inside Out 2 They're basic: joy, sadness, fear, disgust and anger, that is, the five emotions that swirled inside human heads in Pixar's 2015 hit Inside Out. In nine-years-later follow-up Inside Out 2, that quintet of feelings isn't enough to cope with being a teenager, which is where anxiety, envy, ennui and embarrassment come in. The newcomers arrive with the onset of puberty, literally overnight. They have no time for simple happiness; they've levelled up some of the emotions adjacent to sorrow, fright, dismay and fury, too. Although its now 13-year-old protagonist Riley Andersen (Kensington Tallman, Summer Camp) isn't actively choosing how to manage her feelings because her feelings themselves are doing that for her, Inside Out was always an all-ages ode to mindfulness, as is its sequel — and discovering how to accept and acknowledge apprehension, unease and nerves is here, like in life, a complicated balancing act. In the Inside Out world, feelings are characters, led in Riley's noggin by the radiant Joy — who, with Amy Poehler (Moxie) shining with Leslie Knope-esque positivity in the voice-acting part, is one of Pixar's best-ever cast figures. In an ideal inner world, they all get along. But workplace comedy-style, getting viewers thinking about Parks and Recreation again, that's never the case. Joy, Sadness (Phyllis Smith, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar), Fear (Tony Hale, Quiz Lady), Disgust (Liza Lapira, The Equalizer) and Anger (Lewis Black, The Last Laugh) have their routine down pat when Inside Out 2 kicks off. They can handle everything from high-stakes hockey games, complete with a stint in the sin bin, through to learning that Riley's best friends Grace (Grace Lu, Fight Krewe) and Bree (debutant Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) will be going to a different high school. Then their status quo is upended by the Inside Out equivalent of new colleagues storming in. Inside Out 2 streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. A Quiet Place: Day One There seems little that could be utopian about an alien invasion film where people are picked off by hulking, spider-limbed, lightning-fast, armour-clad creatures who punish every sound with almost-instant death, but prequel A Quiet Place: Day One makes the opening status quo of horror franchise-starter A Quiet Place look positively idyllic. If you're forced to try to survive an extra-terrestrial attack, where better to be than at your well-appointed farmland home with your family, as the John Krasinski (IF)-helmed and -starring 2018 feature depicted? Most folks, including the third movie in the saga's protagonist Samira (Lupita Nyong'o, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), a terminal cancer patient with just a service cat called Frodo left as kin, can only dream of being that lucky — not that there's much time for fantasising about a better way to be conquered by otherworldly monsters when what looks like meteors start crashing down to earth. Samira is in hospice care as the A Quiet Place big-screen series, which also spans 2021 release A Quiet Place Part II, steps back to the moment that its apocalyptic scenario begins in New York. She hugs her black-and-white feline companion like letting go would untether her from life even before existence as the planet knows it changes forever — when she's sharing surly poems among other patients, being convinced to attend a group excursion to see a marionette show and, when the promise of pizza on the way home is nixed, telling kindly nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff, Oppenheimer) that he's not actually her friend. Written and directed by Pig filmmaker Michael Sarnoski, A Quiet Place: Day One explores the ground-zero experience for someone who feels so alone in this world and connected only to her devoted pet, and also answers a question: how do those on more than two feet react when the worst that humans can imagine occurs? A Quiet Place: Day One streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. In a Violent Nature Again and again, fans of slasher films have seen the one about the unhinged murderer butchering teen victims. They've seen more than one, in fact. It's a horror convention: take a bunch of young adults, then dispense with them person by person as a killer works through childhood trauma. Penning and helming his first feature — his short Z Is for Zygote was included in The ABCs of Death 2, and he did special effects work on Psycho Goreman, too — writer/director Chris Nash knows the basics of his chosen genre as much as any other diehard viewer. He's just as aware of the great, and greatly influential, flicks gone by such as Halloween and Friday the 13th. He's well-versed in their tropes in storytelling and in form alike. Making his full-length debut with a picture called In a Violent Nature, he's also clued up on what happens when someone sinister gets a-stalking in scenic surroundings. Plot-wise, Nash isn't trying to break the mould with his account of Johnny (Ry Barrett, Massacre at Femur Creek) and the folks who are unlucky enough to fall across his path. But the filmmaker asks a question: what if a rampaging slaughterer's terrors came not with a score heralding their every menacing move (even when those tunes can become iconic, as John Carpenter's Halloween music has), but with the ordinary silence of everyday life in nature punctuated only by noises just as commonplace, and then by the sounds of a killer at their insidious worst? In its imagery, In a Violent Nature adds another query: what if the audience wasn't biding its time with those likely to perish, tension dripping from not knowing when and where the murderer would strike, but was stuck at the side of the force causing such gruesome mayhem as the inevitable approaches? There's seldom any escape from a slasher; however, Nash finds a new way to take that idea literally. In a Violent Nature streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. The Promised Land The transfixing terrain of Mads Mikkelsen's face has been cast against formidably frosty and inhospitable climes before, weathering mirroring weathering. Sporting a piercing and determined glint in his eye, the Danish acting great has previously surveyed the Scandinavian landscape, too, seeing possibility where others spot peril. It was true in Arctic, in Valhalla Rising and now in The Promised Land: there's no stare as mesmerisingly resolute as his. When Ludvig Kahlen, Mikkelsen's latest character, insists that he can do what no one else has done — to begin with: settling the heath on the heather-covered Jutland moorland and building a colony for the king, a feat considered virtually impossible in the mid-18th century — doubting him isn't a possibility for anyone in the movie's audience. The BAFTA-nominated Another Round star has danced in historical drama territory for his countryman director Nikolaj Arcel in the past as well, with the pair reteaming after 2012's Oscar-nominated A Royal Affair. A different king sits on the throne in this film, Frederick V instead of Christian VII; however, the regal shadow remains inescapable. This time, Mikkelsen and Arcel tell not of a doctor influencing a monarch and a country, but of a soldier aligning his quest for a better future with a sovereign's wish, and learning what it means to chase a dream only to realise that you need something less tangible. Kahlen's attempt to farm land considered barren is equally a battle against entitlement and arrogance thanks to his clash with Frederik de Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg, Borgen), a cruel local magistrate who contends that the king's land is his own — and feels far enough away from Copenhagen for there not to be any consequences for his claim. The Promised Land streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. The Taste of Things Cooking is an act of precision. It's also one of feeling. On the movie that nabbed him the Best Director award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Trần Anh Hùng (Éternité, Norwegian Wood) helms with the same care, spirit and emotion that his characters display in the kitchen. The Taste of Things' audience has a front-row seat to both, as this 1885-set French picture begins with dishes upon dishes being whipped up and the feature's gaze, via cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg (Final Cut), lenses their creation intimately and sumptuously. The film's extraordinary opening 30 minutes-plus, as the camera is trained on the stove and counter with slight detours around the room to collect or wash ingredients, is meticulously crafted and at the same time instinctual. Think: the sensations of observing the finest of fine-dining chefs and being a child watching your grandmother make culinary magic, as nearly every kid has, all rolled into one appetising introductory sequence. In the home of gourmand Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel, The King of Algiers), and in its heart, his personal chef Eugénie (Juliette Binoche, The New Look) is so skilled and fastidious that she'd do small-screen hit The Bear proud; she's clearly a conjurer of the culinary arts, too. Hùng and Ricquebourg — the latter a well-deserving Lumiere Award-winner for his efforts here — are methodical with the choreography of setting the scene, while equally deeply immersed in the flow of the kitchen's tasks. As soundtracked by chirping birds, if this was The Taste of Things for 135 minutes and not just half an hour-ish, it'd remain a mesmerising movie. (A word of warning: eat before viewing, lest hunger pangs not just simmer but boil over.) Adapting 1924 novel The Passionate Epicure: La Vie et la Passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet by epicure Marcel Rouff as he scripts and directs, Hùng does more than fashion among the most-handsomely staged and shot imagery of a meal coming to life, but his approach to this entrée establishes the flavour. The Taste of Things streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Looking for more viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and fast-tracked highlights from January, February, March, April, May, June and July 2024 (and also January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December 2023, too). We keep a running list of must-stream TV from across 2024 as well, complete with full reviews. And, we've also rounded up 2024's 15 best films, 15 best new TV shows, 15 best returning TV shows and 15 best straight-to-streaming movies from the first half of the year. Also, here's 2023's 15 best films, 15 best straight-to-streaming movies, 15 top flicks hardly anyone saw, 30 other films to catch up with, 15 best new TV series of 2023, another 15 excellent new TV shows that you might've missed and 15 best returning shows as well.
When Touch played Australia's Scandinavian Film Festival, which fittingly fills cinemas around the country each winter, it wasn't the only feature from Iceland on the program. Of the four titles from the Nordic nation, however, two of the fellow movies around this tender romantic drama fell into the thriller category. Scandi noir has become its own genre, buoyed by the success of efforts across the Nordic region such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels, and the likes of The Killing and The Bridge on TV. Icelandic television series Trapped also sits in the same camp, as created by one of its most-famous filmmaking names: director Baltasar Kormákur. Kormákur knows how to lean into the genre that the rest of the planet now considers synonymous with his part of the globe. He's also well-aware that there's far more to Iceland's screen output than its moodiest efforts, and how important it is to ensure that other tales are being told. An actor before moving behind the lens — and sometimes afterwards, including for himself — he's just as familiar with a recent trend among features from his homeland: movies with animal-themed titles (see: Of Horses and Men, Rams and Lamb). In comparison, Touch takes its own path, eschewing both noir and critters. That said, character-driven films are hardly new to the country; Kormákur has been there before himself, in fact, starting with his 2000 directorial debut 101 Reykjavík. Consider Touch a reminder, then, that crime-thrillers, the frosty landscape and the animals that live upon it are only a part of Iceland's storytelling. Hopping between Iceland, the UK and Japan, as well as between time periods, Kormákur's latest feature found its details on the page via the filmmaker's compatriot Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, who co-wrote the script — and its narrative spreads far beyond what's become regarded of late as typical Icelandic fare. It all kicks off in Reykjavík, where widower Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson, another Trapped alum) does indeed have a mystery to solve: the whereabouts of the woman he loved five decades earlier. In the late 60s, he was a student (played by the director's son Pálmi Kormákur, The Deep) in London who took a job in a Japanese restaurant, with a romance with his boss Takahashi-san's (Masahiro Motoki, Giri/Haji) daughter Miko (Kōki Kimura, Ushikubi Village) blossoming. Touch begins in 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was shutting down existence as everyone knew it. Before he flies out to the UK, it also commences with Kristófer receiving an early-stage dementia diagnosis. As the film flits back and forth between the elder version of the character on his search for the Hiroshima-born Miko and his memories of their time together, it contemplates paths not taken, connections that will never fade, choices that haunt and emotions that last forever. It plunges, too, into one of the 20th century's horrors and its lingering ramifications. Kormákur also sees Touch as a picture about seeking closure, and knows how universal that idea is — and how cathartic Kristófer's journey is to watch. He feels that link personally. "As the years come in, it becomes a heavier burden," he tells Concrete Playground. "There are things — you did something wrong to somebody, or weren't fair or left a love relationship in the way you shouldn't, whatever it is — there's the need to rectify and close. Not to necessarily pick up. I don't think Kristófer is there to pick up and run around with a newfound love, no. It's about finding closure and understanding. I have very strong ties to that. That has come very a heavy burden in my life, which I didn't think much about when I was in my 20s and 30s." [caption id="attachment_970779" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kormákur hasn't just crafted a departure from the current Nordic norm. He's now spent decades jumping between both sides of the Atlantic, with English-language action and survivalist movies dotted across his resume. The Mark Wahlberg (The Union)-starring Contraband and 2 Guns, scaling mountainous heights in Everest, the also based-on-a-true-tale Adrift, Idris Elba (Hijack) fighting lions in Beast: they've all boasted Kormákur behind the lens, but he doesn't see himself as linked to or fascinated by any one genre.[/caption] We also chatted with the filmmaker about discovering Ólafsson's book and being inspired to turn it into a film, celebrating a different kind of Icelandic movie than the kind worldwide audiences are often seeing of late, juggling Touch's different locations and eras, and casting when you're telling a story across half a century. On Kormákur Coming Across the Novel and Knowing That He Wanted to Turn It Into a Film "It was given to me by my daughter as a present for Christmas. And I opened it right away and started reading, and I couldn't put it down. I think I read it in less than 24 hours. First, it took its time in the beginning, and then it just got me more and more and more. And there's something about the way that it reflects time and life through the two story threads. I also wanted to find a love story, but a real one to me, something that would mirror my experience in some way with love, because I've had a relationship with love for now 58 years. It was just a great vessel for that in the movie. It's also very unusual for Icelandic films to have these kind of cross-cultural references, and an opportunity of travelling through space and time." On Making an Icelandic Film Away From the Country's Frosty Landscape and the Nordic Noir Genre "I think it's very important. I think it's actually more important, possibly, than people realise in the moment. I think always when you break a little bit of boundaries in telling stories, it gives the young people who are coming after you a different perspective and opens up to them — 'yeah, well if that's an Icelandic film, then I can maybe do something of that kind or something different'. I think with small countries, often there is a tendency that there are certain kinds of films that are accepted and tend to be repeated. We've done a lot of films about domestic animals in Iceland. I think every title — we have Lamb, we have Rams, we have Of Horses and Men. It's all good, very good films, don't get me wrong, but at some point we're running out of domestic animal titles. So it was about time for something else. But also I come from a background of two nations. I'm half Spanish and half Icelandic. My parents actually met pretty much like Miko and Kristófer in the story — in a restaurant in Reykjavík as my father was passing through. He was a Spanish artist escaping Franco at the time, and he ran into my mother and he just stood up in the restaurant. He was coming in, she was working in the restaurant, and 18 days later they were to be married — and 60 years later they're still together. Unfortunately he has a bit of Alzheimer's, like the character. So there's a lot of things that connected me to the story on many levels. Also the need for closure, which is very important to me, and I feel like is coming harder and harder down on me — like the need to close certain chapters and stories and make peace with them." On Balancing Multiple Different Time Periods — and Hopping Between Iceland, the UK and Japan "It was very, very complicated in terms of shooting. People thought Everest was complicated, but this is actually more complicated because there's also three languages. But I love it. We are allowing more languages and more culture into films, and it's getting more accepted, and I think it's really important. And for me, it has to be in the language that these people would authentically be speaking to each other. Then the market comes next and says 'I'm not going to...' because there was this idea, somebody came and said 'what about if Kristófer is in England rather than Icelandic and we can just have him...'. And yeah, it would work, but that's not my story. So, that's very important. And of course, it's incredibly complicated to create a restaurant. A Japanese restaurant in England 1969, there are hardly any references. But by digging, we found actually a couple still alive that ran a restaurant — a Japanese couple, immigrants in England — that gave us a lot of information about their place. So, for me it was so much about all the preparation and work. We had Japanese people working with us from day one, everyone possible in Iceland in the Japanese embassy. And the respect — when you come from a small culture like Iceland, your country and your culture has been tarnished by Hollywood, just because they don't care. It's a small market. So the names are usually wrongly used, and there is not much authenticity to the story. But I think that's lazy. Because you can tell this is a good story, and even better, you can just little do a little homework and digging and learning about cultures. Also, I love the fact, and I didn't say that in the beginning, that this story leads you to one of the most horrific acts in history, war crimes in history, in such a different and unique way. It's just to one victim that wasn't even born at the time of the bombing, and it affects a life of an Icelandic guy whose whole life is affected by this. So this choice of taking just a single view, when I read the book, I didn't see that coming — an Icelandic novel dealing with the aftermath of Hiroshima." On Casting When You're Working with Both Younger and Older Versions of the Same Characters "For me, it's more about finding the right person for its purpose. I wasn't necessarily chasing that it had to be totally aligned for Kristofer — for me, it's more important that the actors are right for the role and for their purpose, and then matching them up. It was very important for the younger actors that they would sit on the baseline in the role. They don't have to be playing someone else. They'll allow you to come closer, because falling in love is an intimate thing. And I wasn't going for the sexual version, I was going for the sensual version of it. And for me, it's very innocent and you have to allow the camera into the act rather than him playing it for you. And I think I chose the two of them from that perspective, the young cast. On the other hand, it was very important to me — I told you about my father — Egill reminds me a little bit of my father. A very nicely dressed man, even in his Alzheimer's and the fog of that, he always carries himself with some grace. Egill used to be the sex symbol of Iceland. He used to be this big singer and actor. All my youth, everyone knew who Egill was. Then, he now actually has Parkinson's, and it's just changed his whole demeanour. He's very gentle and he steps to the earth very carefully. I learned this about him, and I thought he was absolutely perfect for the role. It's just something about the grace and I wanted him to be romantic in a way, but not somebody you would feel sorry for — actually, you can go on this journey and you can want him to have his closure." On the Approach to Flitting Across Genres When Your Career Jumps Between Romance, Action, Thrillers, Survivalist Tales and More "I do not look at genre in the beginning of choosing a project. If something, like with Beast, I've been fascinated with lions all my life since I was a kid. I loved pictures of lions when I was a kid. When I got Everest, it was like 'this is like me walking to school in Iceland every day'. There are certain things that you just are drawn to, and then the genre comes around it. And then everyone, people are like 'oh, he's the action guy, he's the survival guy'. I've had so many versions of 'guy'. But for me, I just choose the project that I'm drawn to and genre is something that it comes after, and I work with that. I understand that genre or tone is very important. But I have many genres inside of me. I am an athlete in some ways, when I was younger. But I'm also a lover. These are two genres inside of me. So I'm full of genres, and I just don't want to limit myself to one thing. It's not conscious, to be honest. It's just when projects — like when I read this book, I love this book. I want to do it and then I do it. And then I let the specialists analyse it." Touch opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, August 22, 2024. Images: Lilja Jonsdottir and Baltasar Breki Samper / © 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.
Attenzione! Once a year, Australia's cinema screens swap their usual fare for a trip to Italy. That time is almost upon us for 2024. Didn't spend your winter in Europe? Don't have a getaway to the other side of the world planned any time soon? Keen to see an Italian box-office smash without leaving the country? Haven't caught The Godfather Part II on a big screen before? Eager to check out Ralph Fiennes (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar) and Stanley Tucci (Citadel) as Cardinals electing a new Pope? The Italian Film Festival has you covered. For a month between Wednesday, September 18–Wednesday, October 23, the fest will play a range of picture palaces in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne, Byron Bay and Ballina, Adelaide and Perth — with dates varying per city. Whichever spot you call home, a diverse lineup of Italian cinema will flicker through the projectors, led by opening night's Gloria!. If the name Gloria always gets the song of the same moniker stuck in your head, that's fitting: this movie is directed and co-written by a singer. Margherita Vicario didn't give the world the famous tune, but she is the driving force behind this feature about a maid at a refuge in Venice. Vicario is also travelling to Australia for the Italian Film Festival, attending the opening-night festivities in Sydney and Melbourne. Gloria! is just one of the fest's high-profile picks in showcase slots. The Great Beauty, Youth and The New Pope filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino's latest is playing as the festival's centrepiece film, with Parthenope following a woman in Naples with the same title as the mythical siren that the city was once named after — and co-starring Gary Oldman (Slow Horses). Then, closing out the fest is Conclave, which is where Fiennes and Tucci come in (plus Killers of the Flower Moon's John Lithgow and Spaceman's Isabella Rossellini, too) for papal thrills. The aforementioned cinema hit on Italian shores? That'd be post World War II-set melodrama There's Still Tomorrow, aka 2024's Sydney Film Festival Prize-winner. It follows a wife and mother who dreams of a different future, with actor Paola Cortellesi (Petra, Don't Stop Me Now) both starring and making her directorial debut. And Francis Ford Coppola's (Megalopolis) masterpiece The Godfather Part II is celebrating its 50th anniversary at the festival, in one of two throwback flicks. The other: Bread and Tulips, which opened the first-ever Italian Film Festival back in 2000. Other standouts include Marcello Mio, with Catherine Deneuve (The President's Wife) and Chiara Mastroianni (Monsieur Spade) playing versions of themselves in a comedy that explores the legacy of Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, the mother-daughter pair's respective former partner and father — and also the Thom Yorke-scored, love affair-focused Trust; Commandante, which opened the 2023 Venice Film Festival; Alba Rohrwacher (La Chimera) in drama In The Mirror; and the mystery-led A Dark Story. The lineup goes on, whether you're interested in a revenge-thriller meeting a coming-of-age tale in We Were Children, Monica Bellucci (Mafia Mamma) and Vincent Cassel's (The Three Musketeers: Milady) daughter Deva Cassel starring in the page-to-screen The Beautiful Summer, laughing at actor Margherita Buy's (Ripley) directorial debut Volare or catching Beatrice Grannò from The White Lotus season two in rom-com Bad Conscience. In Sydney and Melbourne, the fest will also say ciao to documentary The Rise of Espresso — so coffee fiends, take note. Italian Film Festival 2024 Dates and Venues: Wednesday, September 18–Wednesday, October 16 — Palace Moore Park, Palace Norton St, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema, Sydney Wednesday, September 18–Wednesday, October 16 — Palace Electric Cinema, Canberra Thursday, September 19–Wednesday, October 16 — Palace Barracks and Palace James Street, Brisbane Friday, September 20–Thursday, October 17 — The Astor Theatre, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Penny Lane, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Pentridge Cinema and Cinema Nova, Melbourne Thursday, September 26–Wednesday, October 16 — Palace Byron Bay and Ballina Fair Cinemas, Byron Bay and Ballina Wednesday, October 2–Tuesday, October 22 — Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas and Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas, Adelaide Thursday, October 3–Wednesday, October 23 — Palace Raine Square, Luna Leederville, Luna on SX and Windsor Cinema, Perth The 2024 Italian Film Festival tours Australia in September and October. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
There's something about the end of winter that gets Australian music festivals locking in their plans for spring, summer and beyond. Already as 2024's frostiest season come to a close, Meredith, Always Live, Beyond The Valley, Bluesfest, Lost Paradise and SXSW Sydney have either announced or added to their lineups. Next up: Good Things. Back when winter was just beginning, the fest confirmed that it'd be back this year and set its dates across the country's east coast. Now, its roster of acts is here just before spring arrives. Korn, Sum 41, Violent Femmes and Billy Corgan will lead the bill when Good Things heads to Melbourne on Friday, December 6, then Sydney on Saturday, December 7 and finally to Brisbane on Sunday, December 8. [caption id="attachment_970650" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Maurice Nunez[/caption] As in previous years, Good Things is again taking over Flemington Racecourse, Centennial Park and Brisbane Showgrounds. That's where you'll hear 'ADIDAS', 'Got the Life', 'In Too Deep', 'Pieces', 'Blister in the Sun', 'Add It Up', 'Today', '1979' and more from the fest's first four big names alone. The complete lineup features both international and local highlights, including Germany's Electric Callboy, plus America's Mastodon, The Gaslight Anthem, Kerry King and L7. Among the homegrown acts, Jet, The Living End and The Butterfly Effect will all take to the stage, as will Killing Heidi performing their 2000 album Reflector in full. Festivalgoers can also look forward to carnival-style stunts and acts at STAGE 666, which returns after proving a hit in 2023. This year's hefty list of bands follows in the footsteps of the reunited TISM, Bring Me the Horizon, The Amity Affliction, NOFX, Millencolin, Devo, Fall Out Boy, Limp Bizkit, Corey Taylor and Pennywise, all of which have graced Good Things in the past two years alone. Good Things 2024 Lineup: Korn Sum 41 Violent Femmes Electric Callboy Billy Corgan Mastodon Kerry King The Gaslight Anthem Jet The Living End L7 Northlane Bowling for Soup Alpha Wolf Sleeping with Sirens The Butterfly Effect 311 AViVA Destroy Boys Dragon Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls From Ashes to New Grandson Highly Suspect Imminence Killing Heidi (performing Reflector in full) Loathe Reliqa Taylor Acorn Good Things 2024 Dates: Friday, December 6 — Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne Saturday, December 7 — Centennial Park, Sydney Sunday, December 8 — Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane Good Things hits Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in December 2024. Presale tickets go on sale at 10am AEST on Tuesday, August 27, with general sales from the same time on Thursday, August 29. Head to the festival website for more information. Good Things images: Kane Hibberd.
Wave your hand, see a massive roster of musicians behind the microphone across the Harbour City: that's the SXSW Sydney Music Festival setup. The live tunes part of the event lets you wander between more than 20 performances on 25 stages over seven days if you have a wristband, and the 2024 lineup just keeps expanding. After a successful Australian debut in 2023, SXSW Sydney is back for a second year from Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 — and the program announcements continue to drop. This time, the festival's music strand has added over 25 acts, plus a heap of speakers. When you're not dancing to China's Berlin Psycho Nurses, Indonesia's KATHMANDU and mindfreakk, YONLAPA from Thailand and Sydney's own 2touch making their live debut — and also the likes of Touch Sensitive, Heno., dogworld, GIMMY and Kurilpa Reach — you'll be hearing from Academy Award-winning composer AR Rahman as the man behind the Slumdog Millionaire score gets chatting. SXSW Sydney 2024 started revealing its lineup details back in May, and has kept growing it since. A further announcement arrived in June, then not one, not two, but three more in July — and also another, focusing on the free hub at Tumbalong Park, at the beginning of August. Accordingly, no one can say that they don't have anything to see when the fest makes its comeback this year, especially if the music bill gets your toes tapping. Other fresh additions span Arky Waters, Bakers Eddy, Big Sand, Charm of Finches, Dave Kent, Elizabeth M Drummond, Holiday Sidewinder, Hydra Fashion Week, Ivoris, Kinder Bloomen, Majak Door, Nao Yoshioka, overpass, Rub Of Rub, Tim Hicks, YAHYAH and Yawdoesitall among the folks taking to the stage. Joining the speakers: Priyanka Khimani, who was named one of the top music lawyers by Billboard; veteran bookers Marty Diamond and Larry Webman; A&R Island Records head Marihuzka Cornelius; and plenty more. In one of those aforementioned July drops, 2024's SXSW Sydney Music Festival also added 40-plus talents, such as the UK's Jorja Smith on the 'Be Honest' musician's Australian tour — and also Canada's Aysanabee, Thailand's PYRA, New Zealand's Brandn Shiraz and XUZZ, and the UK's Submerse. Aussies Brazen Barbie, Jamahl Yami, Kitschen Boy and Special Feelings scored a spot as well. And prior to that, the 2024 program already confirmed human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, author Johann Hari, Australian race car driver Molly Taylor, pianist Chad Lawson, Westworld's Luke Hemsworth hosting a session about the Tasmanian tiger, Aussie astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg, TikTok marketing head Sofia Hernandez, Heartbreak High star Ayesha Madon, cricketer David Warner, Mortal Kombat director Simon McQuoid and documentary Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts, about the new uses of former Pizza Hut buildings across America — and that's barely scratching the surface of the lineup specifics announced so far. SXSW Sydney 2024 will run from Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details. Images: Peter McMillan, Jordan Kirk, Jess Gleeson and Ian Laidlaw.
Wherever your suitcases are currently stashed, dig them out: spring is almost here, Jetstar has dropped an end-of-winter flight sale, and a range of Australian and international destinations await. There's no better motivation for a getaway than cheap fares, whether you're keen to soak up the sunshine away from home, book your next big overseas trip, lock in a pre-Christmas vacation or plan your first holiday of 2025. All of the above scenarios are covered by the Australian carrier's latest batch of discounted flights, which start at $34. As always, that price spans trips from Sydney to Byron Bay. From there, the Gold Coast, Hamilton Island, Uluru, Bali, Tokyo, Hawaii, Bangkok, Seoul and Vanuatu are among the options, and the list goes on from there. Some specific highlights include Sydney to Hamilton Island from $79 and Melbourne to Hamilton Island from $109, Brisbane to Cairns from $69 and Brisbane to Tokyo from $335 — plus Honolulu flights from $280 out of Sydney, $285 from Melbourne and $359 departing from Brisbane. Domestically, other destinations span Newcastle, Darwin, Mackay, Busselton, Sunshine Coast, Whitsunday Coast, Hobart, Launceston and Hervey Bay. And from the overseas bargains, you also have Osaka, Queenstown, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Fiji, Singapore, Manila, Phuket, Krabi and Ho Chi Minh City to pick from. Travel periods vary, starting as early as September 2024 and ranging as late as July 2025, if that helps you to decide where — and when — to go. You've got until 11.59pm AEST on Monday, August 26, 2024 to nab your flights, or until sold out if they're snapped up by other travellers before then. There are a few rules, as is always the case. All sale fares are one-way, and they don't include checked baggage — so you'll need to travel super light or pay extra to take a suitcase. Jetstar's Just Plane Good Sale runs until 11.59pm AEST on Monday, August 26, 2024 — or until sold out, if snapped up earlier. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Cruising is a classic way to holiday. The stress-free system has you forgo most responsibilities in favour of fun, be it a two-week romp through the Pacific Islands or a midweek run up or down the Australian coastline, there's a leg of voyage suitable to any traveller. In the case of this ocean-bound writer, it was the latter, and I was in for an unfortunate surprise. Waking on day three of a five-day voyage on the Pacific Adventure to the sight of Moreton Island just out of reach, the passengers were informed that the small transfer boats would be unable to ferry us to the island due to rough seas. Would you believe the same thing happened on the last Moreton Island cruise I was on mere months earlier? I think that makes me uniquely qualified to answer this next question. What do you do on a cruise with no destination? Plan Ahead When Packing No matter how fine-tuned and considered your itinerary, the universe is unlikely to obey your wishes for the whole trip. When it comes to the weather, you should naturally be planning ahead. A good book is a must, plus headphones, a portable charger, sunglasses, a lanyard to carry around your cruise card and, probably most importantly, sea sickness medication. If the weather is bad enough for a shore visit to be cancelled, it means there's likely a large swell on the water. Everyone handles motion sickness differently, so a simple travel calm ginger might cut it, but if you need something stronger, the onboard medical centre stocks plenty of the good stuff. Make Use of the Onboard Itinerary The serious advantage of cruising is the fact that it's just as much about the journey as it is about the destination. In the case of a Moreton Island cruise from Sydney, you're scheduled for two full days at sea on either side of the shore stop. On our cruise, that became three full days at sea. Our itinerary adapted in a flash, with a fresh day of activities available to replace our cancelled stop by the time we'd finished breakfast. Exact activities vary on a ship-by-ship basis but almost all vessels share some similarities: pools, gyms, spas, theatres, arcades and lounges. You can choose to spend your time however you'd like, be it a visit to the spa, catching a comedy show or theatre act, or kicking back on the outer decks. Every night while you're at dinner, a new itinerary is left in your room for the following day. On board the Pacific Adventure, we kept our sea days busy with shopping and reading mostly. One evening was spent with In Pour Taste, a comedy show crossed with a wine tasting, helmed by Melbourne comedy duo Sweeney Preston and Ethan Cavanagh. The following day saw us hit the spa and the Byron Beach Club. Then on the final day, we took a cocktail mixing class and watched the wildly raucous Blanc De Blanc Uncorked cabaret show after dinner. Dine Differently Every Day You're massively spoiled for choice with dining while onboard a cruise ship. Buffet dining is typically the easiest choice for breakfast, with no extra cost and a great variety of dishes on offer. Come lunchtime, there are several options. The Pacific Adventure includes Luke's Burger Bar, which serves up the finest surf shack-style feeds you can get at sea. When day rolls into night, cruise ships open up multiple venues for dinner. In the case of Pacific Adventure, Waterfront Restaurant is a reliable go-to and Angelo's offers a fine-dining spin, as does Luke's Bar and Grill (the sibling of the burger bar, both created by restaurateur Luke Mangan). [caption id="attachment_967826" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Alec Jones[/caption] For more specific cuisines, there's a great mix of Italian dishes available at P&O Trattoria, or you can enjoy high-end Asian eats at Dragon Lady. Plus, since this is almost like a floating resort, you can always opt to stay in your room and order room service instead. Pacific Adventure is also home to 13 bars and nightclubs — from easily accessible spots like the Adventure Hotel (think quintessential Aussie pub but floating) to more out-of-the-way attractions like the onboard speakeasy The Bonded Store and Altitude Nightclub, where you can get a drink and have a boogie at the highest point on the whole vessel. Don't let naysayers dissuade you. A cruise with no destination is entirely survivable. Take it from us. Check any cynicism at the door (or gangplank, in this case), and you'll have a great time. In early 2025 P&O's Pacific Adventure, along with Pacific Encounter, will be integrating into the Carnival Fleet, becoming Carnival Adventure and Carnival Encounter. While sailing under new names both ships will continue to offer the same great holiday experience. Voyages from now until 2026 are available to book via pocruises.com.au. Concrete Playground was invited on the Sydney to Tangalooma cruise by the P&O Group. Images courtesy of the P&O Group.