It's one of the world's biggest sporting goods retail brands, found in over 30 countries and dubbed by many as 'the ALDI of activewear'. And now, France's famed Decathlon — which launched an online store here last year — has physically hit Aussie shores, yesterday opening the doors to an enormous Sydney flagship store. Located in Tempe Retail Park next to Ikea, the new space is a monster 3800 square metres, stocked with an impressive 7000 sport-related products and promising savings galore. And to see locals happily through the festive season, it's set to stay open 24/7 for the next two weeks. If you've got a sports nut or fitness fiend in your life, put this one at the very top of your Christmas shopping hit-list. CEO of Decathlon Australia Mr Olivier Robinet said that the company wants to make sport accessible to all locals. "Australians are some of the most active people in the world, the whole country is like a playground," he explained. "Until now many Australians have had to spend hundreds of dollars to get a quality product. Decathlon has now changed this." So how cheap is it? Well, a pair of yoga pants range will set you back between $12 and $40, while a two-person tent is $30. More than just a standard store, Decathlon's Tempe venue also features dedicated active zones, where customers can roadtest certain products, and its own community sporting areas, where local sports clubs can host sign-up days, barbecues and fundraising events. Find Decathlon at Tempe Retail Park, 634–726 Princes Highway, Tempe. The store will be open 24/7 in the lead-up to Christmas and then 5am till midnight in 2018. For more info, visit decathlon.com.au. Image: Decathlon via Facebook.
Not all that long ago, the idea of getting cosy on your couch, clicking a few buttons, and having thousands of films and television shows at your fingertips seemed like something out of science fiction. Now, it's just an ordinary night — whether you're virtually gathering the gang to text along, cuddling up to your significant other or shutting the world out for some much needed me-time. Of course, given the wealth of options to choose from, there's nothing ordinary about making a date with your chosen streaming platform. The question isn't "should I watch something?" — it's "what on earth should I choose?". Hundreds of titles are added to Australia's online viewing services each and every month, all vying for a spot on your must-see list. And, so you don't spend 45 minutes scrolling and then being too tired to actually commit to anything, we're here to help. We've spent plenty of couch time watching our way through this month's latest batch — and, from the latest and greatest through to old and recent favourites, here are our picks for your streaming queue from November's haul. BRAND NEW STUFF YOU CAN WATCH FROM START TO FINISH NOW SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF When word arrived that a new version of Scott Pilgrim was on its way, it felt as inevitable as the person of your dreams having a complicated romantic past. That said, making a Scott Pilgrim anime series also felt more fitting than most similar movie-to-TV jumps. Thanks to the manga-style aesthetic that filled Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novels, the video game-esque plot about battling seven evil exes and the cartoon vibe that Edgar Wright brought so engagingly to his 2010 big-screen live-action adaptation, imagining how O'Malley and co-writer/co-producer BenDavid Grabinski (Are You Afraid of the Dark?) — plus Wright (Last Night in Soho) again as an executive producer — could bring that to an eight-part animation was instantly easy. And so, called Scott Pilgrim Takes Off rather than Scott Pilgrim vs the World, this series begins as a straightforward Scott Pilgrim anime, introducing the same tale that's been spread across pages and cinemas (and played through via a video game, too) right down to repeated shots and dialogue. Meet Scott Pilgrim again, then. The Michael Cera (Barbie)-voiced twentysomething bassist is once more fated to fall in love with literal dream girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ahsoka), who first appears to him as he slumbers, then fight the seven folks who dated her before him. When sparks fly, he also has his own amorous mess to deal with, including that he's dating high-schooler Knives Chau (Ellen Wong, Best Sellers) and remains heartbroken over being dumped by now-superstar singer Envy Adams (Brie Larson, The Marvels). He's still in Sex Bob-Omb! alongside his friend Stephen Stills (Mark Webber, SMILF) and ex Kim Pine (Alison Pill, Hello Tomorrow!). He still gets Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha, Sense8) introducing him to his battles to be with Ramona. Accordingly, just like Kim shouting "we are Sex Bob-Omb!" at the beginning of a set, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off starts with comfortable familiarity. But at the end of its initial instalment, after every detail looks like the graphic novels and film given the anime treatment to the point of feeling uncanny, in drops the first twist. There's reimaginings, and then there's this playful take that adores the comics and movie, pays homage to them, riffs on and even openly references them, but charmingly shirks the idea of being a remake. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off streams via Netflix. Read our full review. LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY Brie Larson makes a great Captain Marvel. She's even better as Elizabeth Zott. In the 2015 Room Best Actress Oscar-winner's first non-franchise on-screen role since 2019's Just Mercy, she turns executive producer, too, guiding a page-to-screen adaptation of Bonnie Garmus' bestseller that needs her performance as its star ingredient. A chemistry genius and then a TV cooking show host who is forced to battle sexism as both, Elizabeth is as complicated as the holy-grail project that she works in secret as a lab technician, and as the recipes that she later perfects for television audiences. Regardless of whether you've read Lessons in Chemistry's 2022 source material or are coming anew to the small-screen version, the character is magnificent to watch because Larson steps into her shoes so completely. Elizabeth is direct, determined and conscientious. She's not just nonplussed about being likeable, but near-allergically averse to that being her primary goal. She's curious and dryly funny, too, albeit careful about who she's open with. But being serious and rightly cautious about how 50s and 60s America routinely disregards women doesn't mean that she's anything but authentic, whether she's asserting what she's always held dear, navigating life's traumas or finding space for others in her life. Lessons in Chemistry starts with a brief jump forward to cameras and adoring viewers, and with Elizabeth's Supper at Six series an established hit. It'll take half of the broader show to get back to TV cooking with no-nonsense science explanations, an appreciation for domestic duties and an uplifted fanbase, but the opening burns an imprint, signalling that its lead character's days of being expected to make coffee for male-only Hastings Research Institute scientists are numbered. Although Elizabeth has a master's degree in chemistry, her Southern Californian employer cares little about that, or that she's the smartest person on their books, because she lacks a Y chromosome. Instead, they scold her for after-hours experiments — the only time that she can delve into her own work — and lack of interest in the company beauty pageant. It's at Hastings that Elizabeth meets Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman, Outer Range), however, who inhabits another world when it comes to respect, yet resides on the exact same non-conformist turf. And it's through him and their romance that she'll meet his neighbour Harriet Sloane (Aja Naomi King, How to Get Away with Murder) in Los Angeles' Sugar Hill, in a series that expands upon the novel as it richly explores trauma and oppression. Lessons in Chemistry streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. RUSTIN After Selma, One Night in Miami and Judas and the Black Messiah arrives Rustin, the latest must-see movie about the minutiae of America's 60s-era civil rights movement. All four hail from Black filmmakers. All four tell vital stories. The entire quartet boasts phenomenal performances, too — complete with a Best Supporting Actor statuette for Judas and the Black Messiah's Daniel Kaluuya, plus nominations for his co-star Lakeith Stanfield and One Night in Miami's Leslie Odom Jr (Selma's David Oyelowo was robbed). Colman Domingo, an Emmy-winner for Euphoria and Tony-nominee for The Scottsboro Boys, deserves to join that Academy Awards list for his turn as Rustin's eponymous figure. His performance isn't merely powerful; it's a go-for-broke portrayal from a versatile talent at the top of his game while digging into the every inch of his part. Domingo doesn't only turn in a showcase effort in a career that's long been absent on-screen leading role, either; he's everything that Rustin hangs off of, soars around, and lives and breathes with. Focusing on Bayard Rustin, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom director George C Wolfe's latest feature already had a riveting and important tale to tell, but Domingo proves its stunning beating heart. Rustin's namesake holds a place in history for a wealth of reasons, but here's one: it was at the event that he conceived, organised and gave almost everything he had to ensure took place that Martin Luther King Jr have his "I Have a Dream" speech. That moment at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963 will never be forgotten. Nor should Rustin's efforts in ensuring there was a protest — a historic demonstration with more than 200,000 attendees, in fact— to begin with against overwhelming pushback. Dr King (Aml Ameen, I May Destroy You) is a supporting player in this film, which explores the behind-the-scenes hustle and bustle from idea until the day, as well as Rustin's fight not just against racism but also homophobia as an openly gay Black man (including the battles he's forced to wage among his fellow crusaders for civil rights). Even while only covering a sliver of his subject's life, Wolfe largely takes the traditional biopic route, working with a script by Julian Breece (When They See Us) and Dustin Lance Black (an Oscar-winner for Milk); however, the potency of the Rustin's deeds and struggles, the importance of everything that he was rallying for and Domingo's electrifying lead performance all make his movie anything but standard. Rustin streams via Netflix. THE ARTFUL DODGER For nearly two centuries, everyone has known the Artful Dodger's story. Charles Dickens wrote the character, aka Jack Dawkins, to life in 1838's Oliver Twist — and readers have thumbed through the pickpocket's part of the tale ever since. But what happened once the book's narrative ended? What if Fagin's apprentice was on the straight and narrow 15 years later, living in penal colony-era Australia? What if he was a navy-trained surgeon now plying his trade on the other side of the world from London, and great at it? What if Fagin is still alive despite Dickens' words on the page, and he's the latest convict arrival, complete with a plan that cares little about Dodge's new upstanding reputation? If you're wondering how the Aussie-set The Artful Dodger can exist, that's how: by telling the above story. Australian-made as well, with Jeffrey Walker (The Clearing), Corrie Chen (Bad Behaviour) and Gracie Otto (Seriously Red) directing, it's not an origin story — it's an after story. Two decades on from Love Actually, Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Queen's Gambit) plays the show's namesake, while David Thewlis (Landscapers) is his former mentor. This eight-part series also enlists a hefty lineup of Aussie talent, from Damon Herriman (The Portable Door), Miranda Tapsell (Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe), Susie Porter (Mercy Road) and Tim Minchin (Upright) to Damien Garvey (Troppo), Jessica De Gouw (C*A*U*G*H*T) and Kym Gyngell (Black Snow). Chief among the homegrown actors is Maia Mitchell (Good Trouble) as Lady Belle Fox, daughter of the Governor, and an aspiring doctor herself — not that a female surgeon in the 1850s is approved of. That's the groundwork laid, with Dodge endeavouring to keep on the up and up, even with a shady gambling debt to pay on penalty of losing a hand, which he needs to continue his line of work; Fagin up to his usual scheming, plus ample gloating about how his pilfering instructions helped his protege earn his new calling: and Belle deeply uninterested in just finding a husband no matter what's expected of her. Energetically told, and always entertaining, the end result is anything but an old-school period piece. The Artful Dodger streams via Disney+. Read our full review. THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER Daisy Ridley hasn't been on-screen enough in the past four years. After her pivotal role and excellent performance in the three most recent Star Wars movies adorned with Roman numerals — that'd be Episode VII — The Force Awakens, Episode VIII — The Last Jedi and Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker — neither Chaos Walking nor The Bubble have done her justice. The Marsh King's Daughter is her best part since her time as Rey, then, and a film that capitalises upon the resolve that she was so adept at portraying in the sprawling space opera. Here, Ridley is Helena Pelletier, in another flick that has father issues. She's also the titular figure, while Ben Mendelsohn (Secret Invasion) similarly swaps a tale set long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (aka his Rogue One: A Star Wars Story villain role) for something earthbound as that pivotal dad. Divergent and Voyagers director Neil Burger fills out his main cast with Brooklynn Prince (Cocaine Bear), Caren Pistorius (Unhinged), Garrett Hedlund (The United States vs Billie Holiday) and Gil Birmingham (Yellowstone), but it's both Ridley and Mendelsohn who unsurprisingly make this page-to-film thriller worth watching. Here's a two-film trend: British actors named Daisy who were thrust to enormous fame via one big role, then took on American accents in movie adaptations of US books about complicated relationships in swampy surroundings. Where the Crawdads Sing made it to the screen first, of course. In The Marsh King's Daughter, everything that the young Helena (Prince) thought that she knew about her father is shattered when she discovers that their wilderness-based survivalist life in Michigan's remote reaches was been forged from kidnapping her mother Beth (Pistorius) and keeping her against her will. As an adult married to Stephen (Hedlund), and also a mother to Marigold (Joey Carson, House of Chains), the past she's spent decades trying to move on from returns to threaten her new family. Whether or not you've read Karen Dionne's 2017 book has no influence on knowing where this story will go, but Ridley is in sterling form. No one plays shady and downright chilling characters like Australia's own Mendo, too. The Marsh King's Daughter streams via Prime Video. QUIZ LADY Jeopardy! fans, or whichever quiz show takes your fancy, prepare to feel seen. If firing back answers while watching a daily slice of TV trivia or puzzles has ever been part of your routine, Quiz Lady understands, especially if you've ever built your schedule around it and found that half-hour stint your happy place. Since childhood, Anne Yum (Awkwafina, Renfield) has kept a standing date with Can't Stop the Quiz. Now in her 30s, she settles in nightly with her dog Mr Linguine — and she isn't just skilled at responding; rather, she's exceptional. Shy, introverted and terrified of public attention, she's content playing along from home instead of auditioning to give the real thing a go. Thanks to the title of director Jessica Yu (Misconception) and screenwriter Jen D'Angelo's (Totally Killer) movie, however, getting Anne into the studio doesn't come as a shock to audiences. For the character, it involves her mother absconding to Macao from her aged-care facility, leaving an $80,000 debt that local heavy Ken (Jon "Dumbfoundead" Park, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens) comes to collect via dognapping, and Anne's chaotic older sister Jenny (Sandra Oh, Killing Eve) secretly filming a video of Anne in prime Can't Stop the Quiz savant mode, which goes viral. For more Jeopardy! nods, Will Ferrell (Strays) plays host Terry McTeer, bringing his sketches in Alex Trebek's shoes in Saturday Night Live's Celebrity Jeopardy skits instantly to mind. Although he's not behind the microphone as he is in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Jason Schwartzman joins Quiz Lady as the long-running Can't Stop the Quiz contestant who desperately wants McTeer's job, with his character feeling like a nod to Ken Jennings. That's all colour and texture, though. At this comedy's core is an adult coming-of-age story and a tale of two sisters finally finding common ground. Without Awkwafina and Oh splashing around their spectacular chemistry as those two squabbling siblings, and selling its slapstick antics and heartfelt emotions alike in the process — both gloriously playing against type, too — Quiz Lady could've easily faltered. With them, it's an entertaining odd-couple effort that's happily silly, frequently amusing and largely entertaining. Quiz Lady streams via Disney+. NEW AND RETURNING SHOWS TO CHECK OUT WEEK BY WEEK THE CURSE It has always been impossible to watch TV shows by Nathan Fielder, including Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, without feeling awkwardness gushing from the screen. The films of Josh and Benny Safdie, such as Good Time and Uncut Gems, are such masterclasses in anxiety and chaos — and so astute at conveying life's anything-that-can-go-wrong-will certainty — that viewers can be forgiven for thinking that their chairs are jittering along with them. From Easy A, La La Land and Maniac to The Favourite and Poor Things, Emma Stone keeps proving an inimitable acting force. Combine Fielder, the Safdies and Stone on one series, then, and whatever sprang was always going to be a must-see. Exquisite new dark satire The Curse is also as extraordinary in its brilliance as it is excruciating in its discomfort. As well as co-creating the ten-part series, Fielder and Benny Safdie co-star, co-write and co-direct. Stone joins them on-screen and as an executive producer, with Benny's brother Josh doing the latter as well. The Safdies' regular collaborator Oneohtrix Point Never, aka Daniel Lopatin, gets the show buzzing with atmospheric agitation in one of his best scores yet — even after winning the Cannes Soundtrack Award for his unforgettable work on Good Time. Yes, The Curse is everything that the sum of these parts promises. It's more, in fact, then even more again. It flows with disquiet like a burst hydrant. It fills each almost hour-long episode with a lifetime's worth of cringe. It's relentless in its unease second by second, moment by moment and scene by scene. It's also a marvellous, intense and hilarious black comedy that apes the metal Doug Aitken-esque houses that Stone and Fielder's Whitney and Asher Siegel like to build, reflecting oh-so-much about the world around it. The Curse takes the show-within-a-show route, with the Siegels eager to grace the world's screens as reality TV hosts. Their angle: environmentally sustainable passive homes that only use energy that they create, which Whitney and Asher consider their contribution to their adopted New Mexico hometown of Española. The newly married pair have American pay TV network Home & Garden Television interested in Fliplanthropy, as well as their efforts to green up the community, create jobs for locals, and revitalise a place otherwise equated with struggling and crime stats. Lurking between the couple and HGTV is producer Dougie Schecter (Safdie, Oppenheimer), Asher's slimy and manipulative childhood friend with a nose for sensationalism — particularly when he gets the scent of disharmony among his stars as they try to start a family, get their show on the air, build their gleaming houses, find ideal buyers, honour the area's Indigenous history and overcome The Curse's title. The Curse streams via Paramount+. Read our full review. A MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD Whichever miniatures are stuffed inside a snow globe, a simple shake surrenders them all to the same fate: flakes falling in their tiny dome. Pop culture's enduring murder-mystery obsession can feel much the same way. When the pieces start raining down in Disney+'s seven-part miniseries A Murder at the End of the World, there's much that instantly feels familiar from a heavily populated field of recent and classics whodunnits. That checklist includes a confined single setting, potential victims cooped up with an unknown killer, rampant secrets and lies, fingers pointed everywhere, Nordic noir's frosty climes, an eerie butler, a wealthy host who might just have the most to lose and, of course, a gifted gumshoe sleuthing through the group. A Murder at the End of the World radiates its own Gen Z Sherlock Holmes vibe, though. That's even how its sharp protagonist is described, and early. In the role of 24-year-old hacker-turned-author Darby Hart, who is invited by billionaire recluse Andy Ronson (Clive Owen, American Crime Story) to an intimate Iceland symposium of bright minds, Emma Corrin (Lady Chatterley's Lover) also turns Agatha Christie. The OA creators Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij have put their own intriguing, involving, can't-stop-watching spin on their addition to the genre, as they make clear early. As the duo share writing duties and split time in the director's chair — with Marling also co-starring — they take cues from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Stieg Larsson's sequels as well, all while also sliding their series in alongside Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery; however, the mood, ambition, pursuit of weighty themes, shadowy conspiracies, earnestness and love of telling puzzle-box tales match perfectly with their last show, plus their film collaborations Sound of My Voice and The East. Two timelines unspool: the present-day storyline at the ideas salon, where bodies soon start falling; and the the road trip that Darby took with fellow Reddit-aided citizen detective Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson, Scrapper) to solve the case that fuels her debut novel. Both are compelling; shake this snow globe for more and you won't want to stop. A Murder at the End of the World streams via Disney+. Read our full review. MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS Godzilla is still big, but the picture around cinema's most-famous kaiju gets smaller in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the Japanese-created creature's new TV series. This ten-episode show sits within the American Monsterverse, which has previously filled movie theatres with 2014's Godzilla, 2017's Kong: Skull Island, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and 2021's Godzilla vs Kong — and it hits streaming with a scaled-down focus on family drama. People matter in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, far more than they have in any of the US franchise's instalments so far. The folks hopping around the globe chasing the giant critter and its fellow titans are also worth caring about. As a result, there's nothing little about how engaging Monarch: Legacy of Monsters proves. Getting Kurt and Wyatt Russell involved helps. The real-life father-son pair portray the same character with not just ease but charisma. Wyatt slips into Lee Shaw's military uniform in the 1950s, Kurt (Fast and Furious 9) plays the retired elder version in the mid-2010s, and jokes reference how well the pivotal figure has aged to make the maths work out (in the later timeline, Shaw has to be in his 90s). Needing to make that gag is worth it for such stellar and captivating casting. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters isn't about Shaw's family, however — at least not as bonded by blood. In 2015, a year after the G-Day events of the 2014 film, San Franciscan teacher Cate Randa (Anna Sawai, Pachinko) is suffering from kaiju-inflicted PTSD and mourning her missing father Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira, Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story), making a trip to Japan to pack up his Tokyo apartment challenging several times over. There, she finds artist Kentaro (Ren Watabe, 461 Days of Bento), a shared history and links to secret government monster-hunting organisation Monarch. Those ties comes courtesy of a satchel filled with documents that Bill Randa (John Goodman, returning from Kong: Skull Island) is seen tossing into the sea in a 70s-set prologue; having possession of it sparks chaos for not only Cate and Kentaro, but also the latter's hacker ex-girlfriend May (Kiersey Clemons, The Flash). When a shadowy international outfit is on your trail, who can assist? Given that Shaw was a 50s-era colleague of Hiroshi's parents Keiko (Mari Yamamoto, also Pachinko) and Bill (played by Inventing Anna's Anders Holm in the earlier timeline), his help is swiftly needed. And amid Cate, Kentaro, May and Shaw's attempts to evade the "like the CIA, but for Godzilla" operation pursuing their every move, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters also dives into Shaw, Keiko and Bill's backstory. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters streams via Apple TV+. 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. Fargo streams via SBS On Demand. 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 chaotic 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. Slow Horses streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. SCRUBLANDS There's no forgetting Scrublands' opening. There's no chance of not being hooked, either. After a Sunday congregation, as his worshippers disperse, Riversend priest Byron Swift (Jay Ryan, Muru) starts shooting with a sniper rifle. Five men are killed, with the man of the cloth not living out the fray himself. After that introduction, the bulk of this four-part series picks up a year later as the small, remote and deeply drought-stricken town is still attempting to live with an event that it'll never get over. In drives journalist Martin Scarsden (Luke Arnold, True Colours), who has been dispatched from Sydney to write about the situation 12 months after the unthinkable occurred. His welcome is mixed, with bookstore owner Mandy Bond (Bella Heathcote, C*A*U*G*H*T) initially frosty, then more open; police officers Robbie Haus-Jones (Adam Zwar, Squinters) and Monica Piccini (Freya Stafford, New Gold Mountain) varying in their cooperation; and resident chief landowner Harley Reagan (Robert Taylor, The Newsreader) blunt but reluctant. Among those who lost husbands and fathers, the response is just as complicated. Recurring among most of the townsfolk: the certainty that the picture painted of the cleric that changed everything isn't what it seems. In the official tale doing the rounds, abuse allegations were levelled at the priest just days before the incident. So, in outside law enforcement's minds, that's the case closed. But Martin is increasingly unconvinced — and, far from writing the "torture porn" that he's initially accused of, starts digging deeper. The list of Australian films and TV shows that involve a big-city outsider galloping in to run through a regional area's problems, struggles and secrets is considerable, including The Dry, Black Snow, Limbo and Deadloch in recent years. Scrublands happily fits the bill. As those aforementioned movies and series have shown, and this page-to-screen effort based on Chris Hammer's novel as well, such as setup can provide the basis for weighty stories, meaningful performances and eye-catching imagery when presented with care, thought and style. As well as being involving and gripping, Scrublands is all of those things. Helming all four episodes, Greg McLean isn't in Wolf Creek or Wolf Creek 2 territory. Scrublands streams via Stan. Read our full review. Need a few more streaming recommendations? Check out our picks from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September and October this year. You can also check out our running list of standout must-stream shows from this year as well — and our best 15 new shows of 2023's first six months, top 15 returning shows over the same period and best 15 straight-to-streaming movies from January–June 2023, too.
Lock up your children: the Sanderson sisters are back and they're wreaking havoc again, as this witchy trio are known to. Twenty-nine years after Hocus Pocus first cast a spell on audiences, the beloved flick is getting a sequel — arriving on Disney+ this month, on Friday, September 30, and with a new full trailer to prove it. The latest sneak peak at Hocus Pocus 2 follows an initial teaser back in June, and the results are the same: more witchy mayhem as originally seen in 1993; more Bette Midler (The Addams Family 2), Sarah Jessica Parker (And Just Like That...) and Kathy Najimy (Music) getting spooky; and oh-so-much nostalgia this time, of course. In this second effort, Winnie, Sarah and Mary Sanderson are unleashed in modern-day Salem again, and things naturally get chaotic. As the trailers show, the magical siblings make a reappearance thanks to a different threesome — a trio of teenage pals who, early in the initial trailer, are told that "it's on the 16th birthday that a witch gets her powers". Cue a black cat, a book of spells, chanting in a graveyard and big The Craft vibes. Soon, cue Winnie, Sarah and Mary as well. Story-wise, Hocus Pocus 2 naturally follows what happens next, as the Sandersons try to unleash their child-eating ways — and the high schoolers who conjured them up attempt to stop them before dawn on All Hallow's Eve. It's been 29 years since someone last lit the black flame candle which resurrects the 17th-century sisters in the movie's world, just as it has in our own, and the witches aren't happy about it. That said, in this new sneak peek, the Sandersons also get an origin story. So if you've always wanted to know more about the sisters, here's your chance — and Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddingham factors into it. Hocus Pocus 2 also features Sam Richardson (The Afterparty), Doug Jones (The Shape of Water), Whitney Peak (Gossip Girl), Belissa Escobedo (American Horror Stories), Lilia Buckingham (Dirt), Froyan Gutierrez (Teen Wolf) and Tony Hale (Veep). While the original film was directed by Kenny Ortega — before the filmmaker gave the world the High School Musical movies — this one has Dumplin', Hot Pursuit and The Proposal's Anne Fletcher behind the lens. And yes, the Mouse House's streaming platform sure does love dropping seasonal-themed movies at the appropriate times. Here's hoping this one turns out better than last year's Christmas-focused Home Sweet Home Alone, though, when it hits the platform just before the scariest month of the year. Check out the full trailer for Hocus Pocus 2 below: Hocus Pocus 2 will be available to stream via Disney+ on Friday, September 30. Images: Matt Kennedy. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Following the success of last year's Pokémon Go craze, the latest smartphone foray into augmented reality sees the launch of Snapchat's art lens, which will again see people wandering around using their smartphone to locate 'virtual objects' all across the globe. This time though you can claim a cultural pull, because instead of hunting collectable monsters, you'll be scouting out three-storey-high digital sculptures by acclaimed American artist Jeff Koons. Having dabbled plenty in AR with its face-morphing selfie filters and World Lens feature, Snapchat's now dropped a series of Lenses that will let users view a selection of Koons's colourful installations in specific locations worldwide. Right now, the series includes a shiny gold balloon dog in New York's Central Park, a rainbow playdough sculpture on Brazil's Copacabana Beach and a monumental likeness of Popeye at Sydney Opera House. Each sculpture will remain virtually in one place for a few weeks, before moving to a new location. If you're hooked up with the latest version of Snapchat, the app will give you the option of using the art lens when you're within 300 metres of one of the sculptures. The sculptures will appear on your screen once you're nearby — you can't miss them. Snapchat's also put the call out for other artists to jump aboard their virtual global art exhibition — here's hoping some local works are added to the mix.
Have you ever noticed the effervescent trail of light that follows your mobile phone screen when you move it in a dark room? Or how you can create shapes by whirling a glow stick around at night? Both are rudimentary examples of a recent trend: light painting. Light painting essentially consists of capturing light moving by using high exposure photography; the result is an image of the moving lights' path through the air. According to geek.com, the trend began "with a group of artists that wanted to map urban WiFi signals. This project created a visual landscape of technology we couldn’t see before, giving perspective on something we use everyday." Since then, artists and technology nerds alike have been creating floating works of light. In order to 'paint' properly, the painter must have an understanding of both the creative and scientific elements involved. The photography must be spot-on, and the hardware and software well-managed. Introducing the LightScythe: one of the first light-painting devices designed specifically with artistic endeavors in mind. The hardware is simply a long staff covered in LED lights, controlled by arduino boards and software the Mechatronics Guy designed. Watching the process, it may seem as though someone is just walking slowly with a large stick in hand, but the photographs reveal much more. The Mechatronics Guy uses the LightScythe to create floating images and text, and he wants you to, too. Check out the directions online and get to painting for yourself.
Since being formed in 2001, Melbourne nine-piece The Bamboos have released more than five acclaimed albums, placed songs in TV shows like Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty and Underbelly and worked on the soundtrack for a multi-platinum Nintendo game. But frontman and periodic electronic producer Lance Ferguson isn't one to let the band rest on its smooth, funk-born laurels. Over the years he's injected new flavours into the band by collaborating with other artists, fusing elements of hip hop and psych, and constantly shaking up the lineup. In 2012 The Bamboos joined up with Tim Rogers of You Am I for the Triple J-championed track 'I Got Burned'. An addictive combo of the band's rhythmic grooves and the singer's distinctive howl, the track featured on The Bamboos latest album Medicine Man — their biggest release to date. This year they're taking the alliance live with The Rock n Soul Medicine Show. We caught up with Lance before the tour to talk about collaborating, staying current and the frustrations of being pidgeonholed. You guys have been pretty busy over 2012 did you manage to get a break over Christmas? I did, I had a week in Lorne in January, which was really good. It feels like a distant memory now though. You did Falls Festival didn't you? That's right. So how did you come to team up with Tim Rogers for 'Burned'? I first met Tim when I was playing guitar in Washington and we were playing the BDO tour. It was a few years back now, and I met him backstage and we hit it off. Just musical nerd talk of old records and stuff. We seemed to connect on that level, and on a personal level as well, and even at that point we talked about collaborating together — way before anything actually happened. https://youtube.com/watch?v=hZEN_l4j6mY Is collaborating with other artists an important thing for you? You've also got Aloe Blacc and Daniel Merriweather on the album too. Yeah it definitely is, and The Bamboos have often had guests involved with different records. Most of the collaborations have stemmed from some kind of friendship and the whole collaboration evolved organically rather than me on the phone to my manager going, "get me this guy." Most of these things have happened in nice natural and sincere progression. I do prefer that, because getting complete strangers in the studio can be weird if you're trying to connect musically. It is such an intimate thing, writing a song with someone, for me, so I do prefer it to stem from some kind of friendship I guess. https://youtube.com/watch?v=_4G96KbQ4SI What about Syl Johnson? Yeah well we toured with him twice, pretty much as his backing band. Both times were incredibly valuable. The last time unfortunately he had a heart attack when we were playing with him in Brisbane, which was just a terrible turn of events. And then he spent some time in hospital, bounced back and did a show in Melbourne after that, which was incredible. So yeah, such a cool guy actually. Going back to the ARIAS and the recent popularity of acts like Saskwatch and Chet Faker, what do you think it is about soul music now that has people taking notice? Do you think the music has changed or are we just becoming more receptive? Well it's been such a battle with this music, from my perspective. I recently put out a compilation called The Soul Of Melbourne with a friend of mine Chris Gill — a compilation of soulful Melbourne acts — so it was great to put that together, and you can see how the scene has crystallised. But I think what's happened is that there's a younger generation of fans and music lovers who are maybe in their late teens or early twenties now, and who came up through their teens hearing Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones. I think that has created a sort of hotbed of people who know that music through being exposed to it. So now that they're at the age of going to gigs and going to festivals that music just seems sort of natural to them, like "oh it's a soul music band, we know what that is and we like it." So there's definitely the element of generational acceptance. https://youtube.com/watch?v=pxBnzQtdHdM You made the Triple J Hottest 100, which is a pretty big deal for a funk/soul-driven group. Yeah, I mean as much as that's a cool thing I do sort of battle with The Bamboos to not be such a genre-driven band. [Funk and soul] is definitely where we've come from and where we've started, and it's ostensibly what we do in terms of the sounds we create, but for me I just really don't think of The Bamboos as a band of any genre now. I just try to think of it as, "We're The Bamboos and we're just going to make some music." It could have some psych rock elements, it could be a blues tune, it could be anything — it could incorporate a whole bunch of influences now. So I definitely have tried to break the band out of just being like a soul/funk band. I'm not saying that to have a go at you, by the way! Well that's what's so unique about your music is that it incorporates so many unexpected sounds. Your electronic project, Lanu — do you think that influences The Bamboos music at all? I don't know if it influences but it's another avenue for me as a songwriter. I think anything I write separately from The Bamboos though, even if unconsciously, I reckon it must inform it. Whether it's just different forms or different ways of looking at putting a song together... So yeah, I reckon it does influence our music actually. What about other local acts — anyone in particular you been listening to heavily? My vocalist for The Bamboos, Ella Thompson, has a band called Axolotl, who do this sort of dreamy, electronic, indie stuff. I'm really into them, they supported us on our last national tour. There's another band Hiatus Kaiyote that defies genre labels, and is doing some amazing things internationally as well. They just won the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards for Break-Though Act, so they're really being flagged internationally. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Iae6LmWTXPw Obviously live performance is a massive part of The Bamboos appeal, and Melbourne has a very healthy live music scene. Do you think about that when making songs? I look at the studio thing and the live thing as two very separate entities, and we started out as a live act before we ever recorded anything. [The live show] has been something I've tried to improve on and tweak and be progressive with. Now we come out and basically play our songs, which sounds really obvious — but I think the lineup we've had the last year and a half is possibly the strongest, best and most solid lineup in the history of the band. For me it's an exciting time to play live. How do you see the band's sound developing over the next year or so? There were some thing in that album that were real bubblegum pop things, and I think with the next recording that things might become a little more muscular again. A bit darker. That's what I'm feeling at the moment. Is there anything else you want to say about the upcoming tour and what we can expect from it? Not really, just that it's The Bamboos and Tim Rogers rather than The Bamboos featuring Tim Rogers, so I'm really working with Tim on some new originals and we're picking out a bunch of whole new covers. There's going to be a whole new music for the band to play, which is always good for keeping us on our toes. Tim Rogers & The Bamboos Rock 'n' Soul Medicine Show: Saturday 23 Feb - Perth Festival, Perth, WA Thursday 28 Feb - QPAC, Brisbane, QLD Friday 1 March - Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne, VIC Saturday 2 March - Leongatha Memorial Hall, VIC Thursday 7 March - The HiFi, Sydney, NSW Friday 8 March - Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle, NSW Saturday 9 March - Uni Bar, Wollongong, NSW Sunday 10 March - Womadelaide, Adelaide, SA
Thanks to social distancing restrictions, we're having to take a break from some of our favourite food experiences right now, from mimosa-matched bottomless brunches, to sit-down dinners at actual restaurants. But at least in the meantime, you can get your culinary fix delivered via soundwave, by tuning into one of the many podcasts dedicated to life's tastiest of pleasures — food. Whether you're hungry for some fun food history facts, or fancy tucking into an interview with one of Australia's hospitality legends, we've pulled together a menu of food podcasts to satisfy all your culinary cravings. And, unlike a visit to your favourite fine diner, these won't require you to change out of your trackies. Get downloading and whet your appetite with a few of these audio gems. DEEP IN THE WEEDS For an especially timely, locally focused food fix, try this new podcast headed up by restaurant critic and food journalist Anthony Huckstep. A real no-holds-barred look at the impact COVID-19's had on the Australian hospitality industry, Deep In The Weeds is dishing up honest conversations with a range of chefs, restaurateurs, producers and other hospo folk who are riding the storm. You'll get insight into the many issues currently facing our venues and their staff, and learn about the creative plays being made in an effort to help keep things afloat, sitting down with names like Jacqui Challinor (Nomad), Rockpool's Neil Perry, Attila Yilmaz (Pazar Food Collective) and Colin Fassnidge (4Fourteen, Banksia). HOME COOKING WITH SAMIN NOSRAT Born in response to the world's newfound passion for kitchen projects — thanks, COVID-19 — Home Cooking is the new podcast from chef Samin Nosrat (star of Netflix's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat) and producer Hrishikesh Hirway (Song Exploder). As the name suggests, it's designed to be the ultimate companion to your home cooking adventures, no matter where your skill levels are (or aren't) at. These affable hosts will help you whip up culinary success with whatever random ingredients you've got lying in the pantry, turning the everyday basics into inspired food creations. You might learn how to transform those tinned beans into something fab, or find an unexpected use for that less-than-fresh loaf. Best of all, Nosrat and Hirway are even taking audience requests for upcoming episode topics. THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING HUNGRY Aussie food journalist Lee Tran Lam hosts this largely Sydney-centric podcast, where each episode features a sit-down with a different local food legend, the program ranging from star chefs to renowned restaurateurs. You'll hear tales from the industry frontline, behind-the-scenes goss and plenty of colourful personal back stories, interspersed with hot tips on all the city's (and Melbourne's) best spots for eating and drinking. Seafood maestro Josh Niland (Saint Peter), celebrated chef Monty Koludrovic (Icebergs Dining Room, The Dolphin) and croissant queen Kate Reid of Lune are just some of the high-profile names to be found among this rich back catalogue. A worthy antidote for anyone who's missing dining out. RADIO CHERRY BOMBE A big ol' celebration of the boss ladies that have helped make our food scene what it is. Radio Cherry Bombe is an audio spin-off of the US magazine of the same name, now with over 270 episodes under its belt. That juicy back catalogue is brimming with inspiring stories about the industry's clever, creative female talent, starring guests ranging from chefs and cookbook authors, to food stylists and gutsy entrepreneurs. Get up close and personal with the likes of best-selling writer and activist Yasmin Khan, Canadian cake queen Lyndsay Sung (Coko Cake Land), cereal artist Jessica Siskin (aka Misterkrisp) and loads more. And if you tune in to recent episodes, you'll get the low-down on how some of our female hospo heroes are handling the global pandemic. GASTROPOD What kind of food crops might we one day be able to grow in outer space? How did liquorice become England's first branded candy? What the heck are blue raspberries and where did they come from? They're the kind of quirky questions you'll find answers to over at long-running podcast Gastropod, which aims to sate your inner foodie, history buff and science nerd, all at once. Co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley take listeners on a series of fun, investigative journeys, with each of the fortnightly episodes diving into the often surprising science and history behind a different food-related topic. Listen in for a treasure trove of cool facts you can throw around at your next dinner party. THE SPLENDID TABLE A spin-off of the acclaimed debut book from food writer and cooking teacher Lynne Rossetto Kasper, The Splendid Table began life as a public radio show way back in the 90s. These days, it's a weekly podcast hosted by renowned food writer Francis Lam, continuing the same mission of celebrating the countless ideas and stories of our global food culture. Sharpen your skills with expert cooking tips, catch sit-downs with top international food heroes, explore the history of your favourite ingredients and dishes, and get acquainted with a smorgasbord of cuisines from all across the globe. One week, you might find yourself hearing René Redzepi chat all things fermentation, while the next, you're reigniting your passion for dairy with tales from a team of international cheese experts. RACIST SANDWICH A food podcast served up within a slightly different context, Racist Sandwich dives into the politics behind what you're eating, and why. It's hosted by a pair of American writers, with (mostly) fortnightly episodes that explore the various ways in which concepts like race, gender and class intersect with the big wide world of food. Prepare to catch a diverse spread of insightful investigations and guests, from one food justice advocate's mission to preserve Salvadoran culture through its recipes, to an interview with a French prisoner and Instagram food star who's whipping up culinary magic behind bars. Make yourself a cuppa and settle in to score some fresh perspectives. EATER'S DIGEST Famed food publication Eater backs up its online feed with this weekly podcast serving up all the tastiest news morsels from the culinary world, both across the USA and further abroad. Join Amanda Kludt and Daniel Geneen as they dissect food trends, unearth new hot-ticket dining destinations, celebrate favourite cuisines and touch base with a swag of big-name hospitality heroes. You could tune in to a discussion about the world's new obsession with food TV, learn some unexpected secrets from a top restaurant critic, or get taken through a definitive list of all the very worst dining-out habits, as revealed by New York hospo staff. Right now, Eater's Digest is also dishing up plenty of honest insight into how COVID-19 is affecting the restaurant game as we know it.
Sisters Grimm do not make theatre the way you might usually think of theatre. The trashtastic Melbourne satirists (also known as Ash Flanders and Declan Green) staged their DIY 2010 theatre piece Little Mercy in a car park and 2012's Summertime in the Garden of Eden in a suburban garage — and got rave reviews for both. So much so that the anti-establishmentarians have gone establishment, in the nicest possible way, as the Sydney Theatre Company is bringing them out to reimagine Little Mercy, a high-camp ode to 'evil child' movies, for their Wharf 2 stage. (Summertime in the Garden on Eden, meanwhile, will get a run at Griffin Theatre in November). Marcus Costello caught-up with Ash, who as well as writing and directing is playing the mother character Virginia, on his first day treading the boards at the Wharf. Here's what he had to say on stepping up to the main stage, the joys of the low-brow, and how they're adapting their "aesthetic of failure". First day of rehearsals, how's it going? We haven't stopped laughing that we’re actually here at STC. Well it's a long way from where you gave birth to Little Mercy in a Melbourne car park all those years ago. How has the show changed since then? Oh, you know, just little tweaks — like rewriting the whole show. Our shows are always staged in response to the space we're working in and the resources we have available, which is usually next to nothing. Our work ends up being an exercise in the aesthetic of failure, which is where much of the comedy comes from. Of course, being here [at STC] we can't just pretend we have no money so we're responding to the idea and construction of conventional theatre. In a way it's not that radical a departure because we're all about the interrogation of genre — finding the cracks, tearing it apart, and putting it back together. We like to see how much pressure something can take before it's completely unintelligible. Stepping up to the main stage... I like to think of it as STC stepping down [laughs]. Good call. In any case it's a collision of worlds. If you like it here and want to stick around, how is that going to affect your anti-establishment practice? If we can get paid to do shows on big stages, great, but it was never really our aim to make it to this point at settle-in. I think we'll always do scratch shows because mixing up where we perform is really important to us. I mean, we'll ride this out and have fun along the way, but we won't get so big-headed that we'll stop performing in living rooms and backyard sheds, or car parks, even. By the same token, if performing in car parks to a bunch of our adoring friends was all we ever did, it wouldn't amount to much. We don't plan to play it safe. A character at the centre of your play, Rodger, is a wealthy theatre director. Should we take that as a dig at the establishment? Um, [laughs] oh I don't know how meta we want to get about that! I mean, yeah, his job, his taste comes across as increasingly ridiculous throughout the show. We needed a job where the husband/father could become totally engrossed in what he does. As we both know, directors can get way too involved with their own projects and stop seeing the world around them — maybe even fail to see their own child is a psychotic killer. You say that the goal of your theatre is to make the audience laugh. I reckon your gritty-camp shtick might rankle with some of the more conservative STC season subscribers, don't you think? We don't intend to shock them too much. I mean, we won't be flopping our dicks out. In a way, our comedy is kind of old-fashioned. A man in a dress isn't new, but what we do with it hopefully is new and interesting and funny. At least we hope so because we think laughter in the theatre is vital. If you go to the theatre to take your medicine, to eat something that's good for you, then you've killed a lot of the joy. I don't like to go to the theatre to be educated. Dialectical, polemical, preachy theatre, theatre where the performers blast their politics at you, that doesn't inspire me. At least, if I learn something I want it to be incidental to the laughs. And if it's not making me laugh, it should make be gasp. Whatever is does, it needs to make me feel something. There are a number of Australian theatre-makers at the moment who set out to hurt feelings and sensibilities. How do you feel about that? Oy vey! That's not something we would deliberately set out to do. Our kind of humour can be quite hoary and hokey but I think if anything was going to offend, especially the STC audience, it would be the stupid jokes — because we would offend their intelligence [laughs]. I'm not playing Virginia for a joke, but every time I get on stage there will be laughter for a good five seconds. That's interesting because you're not unknown to the Melbourne drag scene. How does it feel having an audience laughing at you not with you? I'm totally fine with it. It’s not my job to know why people are laughing, it's really not. I'm happy with laughs wherever they’re derived from. I'm just not that precious; I'm aware of the grenade that I am. Little Mercy is on at the Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf 2 from March 7 to 24. Tickets are available from their website.
Australia's global cultural clout is about to receive a huge boost, with the Art Gallery of NSW's new Sydney Modern Project finally throwing open its doors on Saturday, December 3. Perched upon a hill next to the original AGNSW, looking down on Woolloomooloo's Finger Wharf, the world-class museum boasts a series of stunning and immersive exhibition spaces housed within an expansive open-plan glass building. On Tuesday, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet called the Sydney Modern Project New South Wales' "most significant cultural build since the Opera House". [caption id="attachment_880682" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Aerial view of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' new SANAA - designed building, 2022, photo © Iwan Baan[/caption] The ambitious four-level, $344-million project is filled with breathtaking works of art. Wonder through the gallery and you'll discover fully immersive exhibition spaces, vibrant works from world-renowned artists, and huge sculptures welcoming you into the building or looking out onto the harbour. The first piece of art that's sure to catch your eye is the pair of massive, larger-than-life bronze statues that stand at the front of the museum. Created by artist Francis Upritchard, these tree-like figures are playfully incorporated into the outdoor foyer of the building. [caption id="attachment_880677" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Installation view of the Dreamhome: Stories of Art and Shelter exhibition in the new building at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, featuring Samara Golden Guts 2022 © Samara Golden, photo © Iwan Baan[/caption] Once inside, there's plenty to discover. As you enter, head into the Yiribana Gallery that's been relocated from the lowest level of the original AGNSW building to the entrance of Sydney Modern. Here you'll find a showcase of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks spanning across mediums and messages. One of the nicest touches of this new Yiribana Gallery is its floor-to-ceiling glass windows that offer views of the surrounding ocean and trees, connecting the space with its natural surroundings. Continue around the gallery and you'll find works from two of Japan's most renowned artists. Yayoi Kusama has created a set of massive spotted flowers that can be observed from a large outdoor space overlooking Woolloomooloo. One level below these multi-coloured structures, you'll find Japan Supernatural: Vertiginous After Staring at the Empty World Too Intensely, I Found Myself Trapped in the Realm of Lurking Ghosts and Monsters, a chaotic 2019 artwork from Takashi Murakami. [caption id="attachment_880681" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Tank space in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' new SANAA - designed building, 2022, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter[/caption] Some of the opening exhibitions include Dreamhome: Stories of Art and Shelter, a multi-media exhibition ruminating on the concept of home and shelter; Outlaw, a series of works from rule-breaking artists inside a space purpose-built for evolving time-based art; and Adrián Villar Rojas: The End of Imagination, a fully immersive work that places visitors in the gallery's underground exhibition space called The Tank, shrouded in darkness with each piece of art slowly being revealed by a set of spotlights. For five years now, the Sydney Modern Project has been on its way — originally announced in 2017, officially given a green light in 2018 and revealing its first commissioned artworks in March 2022. [caption id="attachment_880685" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Exterior view of the Welcome Plaza of the Art Gallery of New South Wales ' new building , featuring Yayoi Kusama Flowers that Bloom in the Cosmos 2022 , photo © Iwan Baan[/caption] The Sydney Modern Project is located next to the Art Gallery of NSW. It will open on Saturday, December 3 with extended opening hours of 10am–10pm until Sunday, December 11.
Planning a trip to the Red Centre for NAIDOC Week? The Ayers Rock Resort celebrates the occasion with '50 Years of NAIDOC' — a feast for the senses, where vibrant cuisine and captivating storytelling combine with art, culture and more. Running from Sunday, July 6–Sunday, July 13, Indigenous chef Mark Olive, aka 'The Black Olive', headlines the experience, taking over the resort's Arnguli Grill & Restaurant with a three-course set menu brimming with native bush foods and Indigenous wines. Olive will also host an intimate dinner on Wednesday, July 9, with guests invited to enjoy the exclusive menu sat alongside Olive, who'll recount stories and insights behind each dish and the ingredients' significance. Meanwhile, Olive will also present a complimentary Bushfood Masterclass, where culinary tradition, technique and storytelling blend across various sessions in the Gallery of Central Australia's outdoor amphitheatre. Beyond these gastronomic encounters, the Ayers Rock Resort has also produced a series of art experiences and cultural activities. Aṉangu artists Billy and Lulu Cooley will present their wood-carving talent in the Town Square Circle of Sand. Plus, the Sunrise Journeys encounter sees guests connect to Country at dawn, as three local Aṉangu artists bring the desert landscape to life each day using laser projection, music and the natural environment. On Wednesday, July 9, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park's Cultural Centre Inma Ground offers insight into traditional working tools and ceremonial song and dance, while the Town Square Lawns features the NAIDOC Markets, teeming with community, culture and cuisine on Sunday, July 6. For cinephiles, the Arkani Theatre will host the Indigenous Film Festival, screening free films throughout the week, including Charlie's Country and Bran Nue Day. Images: Carly Earl / Matt Lambley.
Forget flame-grilled, British company Bompas & Parr are taking the backyard barbecue to new, hardcore heights — using molten lava. Experts in curating spectacular culinary experiences that go beyond the wildest dreams of Willy Wonka himself, Bompas & Parr one-upped Sydney's last New Year's display with the world's first edible fireworks in London. This year, they're forecast to trump our favourite summer pastime, the age old Australian barbecue. We can't help but be impressed. The duo teamed up with lava expert Professor Robert Wysocki from New York's Syracuse University to learn how to transform billion-year-old basalt into magma that would cook a nice T-bone at 1350 degrees. Experiments like this one have ensured the pair have honed their charring technique to perfection. Now, Bompas & Parr are offering British diners the chance to host the ultimate summer barbecue. Apart from the five-tonne furnace for those lava-seared steaks, the company will provide designers to makeover the venue, invitations hand carved from volcanic rock and lava-heated hot tubs in which to enjoy cocktails. Plus, they promise a weird and wonderful soundscape fusing real-time volcanic frequencies from around the world with more conventional tunes. The catch to getting Bompas & Parr barbecuing in your own backyard? You'll need a minimum of 500 friends to join you. But come on, though that may seem a little high and possibly saddening, who wouldn’t want to go to this barbecue-to-end-all-barbecues?
Star Wars fans, prepare to punch it on down to Sydney's Powerhouse Museum in November — and prepare to come face to face with 200 original objects from the popular sci-fi franchise at Star Wars Identities: The Exhibition. You might have to wait more than 12 months until Star Wars: Episode IX reaches cinemas late next year, but you can spend your days from November 16, 2018 until June 10, 2019 perusing the items that helped make space opera movie magic happen. Coming to Australia for the first time, that includes costumes, props, models and artworks from the Lucasfilm archives, complete with a galaxy's worth of favourites — think BB-8, R2-D2 and the Millennium Falcon just for starters. Get a glimpse of Yoda, you will, circa Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back. You'll also feel the power-hungry menace radiate from Darth Vader's suit from Star Wars: Episode VII — Return of the Jedi. Star Wars Identities is also an interactive exhibition, with creating your own unique character also part of the experience. If you've ever felt as though you should be hanging out in a cantina somewhere on a remote planet, here's your chance to answer a heap of questions, work through a series of stations and find your inner Star Wars hero. You won't need to use the force — rather, you'll receive a smart technology bracelet and a headset to use while you're in the exhibition. But if you want to say that you are using the force — or even want to give midi-chlorians some credit — no one will stop you. The Powerhouse Museum is no stranger to Star Wars shenanigans, having hosted a weekend's worth of May the Fourth fun earlier this year. For those already planning their costumes for this 90-minute experience, you're welcome to attend as Han Solo, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker or whichever other character you'd like — but helmets and masks will need to be left in the cloak room, and you'll also need to leave your lightsabers at home. Star Wars Identities: The Exhibition displays at the Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris St, Ultimo from November 16, 2018 until June 10, 2019. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the exhibition website.
Sit down for a drink at Amsterdam's Vesper, and your cocktail just might contain more than just alcohol, garnish, ice and mixers. As part of a waste-reducing initiative called Trash the Place!, the Dutch bar is recycling all food-related items that it can, finding imaginative ways to use them, and throwing it all in their beverages. "One man's trash is another man's treasure" is the fitting line of thinking behind it, which sees Vesper's bartenders recovering and re-using food offcuts that were otherwise destined for the garbage pile, particularly where fruit is involved. As the bar's Julian Bayuni told MUNCHIES, "for example, we use strawberries to make our own strawberry Campari.. [then] we filter the fruit out of the Campari and mix it with some mango, fresh tomato, cilantro, and onion to make a fermented salsa, which we serve with our tortilla chips." While operating in a more sustainable fashion is an ongoing focus, Vesper are specifically showcasing their creative, environmentally conscious concoctions until the end of September, with not only their staff getting in on the task, but guest bartenders from other Amsterdam establishments as well. In an industry that creates as much waste as hospitality, it's an inventive and inspiring step — and joins the likes of fellow Dutch venue De Fruithaven, who run on power generated by food waste, plus New Zealand-based vodka company 42BELOW, who've been turning leftover bar garnishes into hand soap. Via MUNCHIES. Image: Vesper.
Not all that long ago, the idea of getting cosy on your couch, clicking a few buttons, and having thousands of films and television shows at your fingertips seemed like something out of science fiction. Now, it's just an ordinary night — whether you're virtually gathering the gang to text along, cuddling up to your significant other or shutting the world out for some much needed me-time. Of course, given the wealth of options to choose from, there's nothing ordinary about making a date with your chosen streaming platform. The question isn't "should I watch something?" — it's "what on earth should I choose?". Hundreds of titles are added to Australia's online viewing services each and every month, all vying for a spot on your must-see list. And, so you don't spend 45 minutes scrolling and then being too tired to actually commit to watching anything, we're here to help. From the latest and greatest to old favourites, here are our picks for your streaming queue from May's haul of newbies. BRAND NEW STUFF YOU CAN WATCH IN FULL RIGHT NOW GIRLS5EVA First, a word of warning: the hit song that brought fictional late 90s/early 00s girl group Girls5eva to fame is such an earworm, you'll be singing it to yourself for weeks after you binge through the sitcom that bears their name. That's to be expected given that Jeff Richmond, the composer behind 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's equally catchy and comedic tunes, is one of the talents behind it. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock produce the series, too, so you what type of humour you're in for. Starring Sara Bareilles (Broadway's Waitress), Busy Philipps (I Feel Pretty), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton) and the great Paula Pell (AP Bio), Girls5eva follows four members of the eponymous band two decades after their heyday. Their initial success didn't last, and life has left the now-fortysomething women at different junctures. Then a rapper samples their hit, they're asked to reunite for a one-night backing spot on The Tonight Show, and they contemplate getting back together to give music another shot. As well as being exceptionally well-cast and immensely funny, the series is also bitingly perceptive about stardom, the entertainment industry and the way that women beyond their twenties are treated. Also, when Fey inevitably pops up, she does so as a dream version of Dolly Parton — and it's as glorious as it sounds. The first season of Girls5eva is available to stream via Stan. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Two words: Barry Jenkins. Where the Oscar-nominated Moonlight director goes, viewers should always follow. That proved the case with 2018's If Beale Street Could Talk, and it's definitely accurate regarding The Underground Railroad, the phenomenal new ten-part series that features Jenkins behind the camera of each and every episode. As the name makes plain, the historical drama uses the real-life Underground Railroad — the routes and houses that helped enslaved Black Americans escape to freedom — as its basis. Here, though, drawing on the past isn't as straightforward as it initially sounds. Adapting Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same moniker, the series dives deeply into the experiences of people endeavouring to flee slavery, while also adopting magic-realism when it comes to taking a literal approach to its railroad concept. That combination couldn't work better in Jenkins' hands as he follows Cora (Thuso Mbedu, Shuga), a woman forced into servitude on a plantation overseen by Terrance Randall (Benjamin Walker, Jessica Jones). As always proves the case in the filmmaker's work, every frame is a thing of beauty, every second heaves with emotion, and every glance, stare, word and exchange is loaded with a thorough examination of race relations in America. If something else this affecting reaches streaming queues in 2021, it'll be a phenomenal year for audiences. The Underground Railroad is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. LOS ESPOOKYS It has taken almost two years for the delight that is Los Espookys to reach Australian screens — and it'll take you less than three hours to binge its six-episode first season. This HBO comedy is both worth the wait and worth devouring as quickly as possible, though. The setup: horror aficionado Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco, Museo) wants to turn his obsession into his profession, so he starts staging eerie scenarios for paying customers, enlisting his best friend Andrés (Julio Torres, Shrill), pal Úrsula (Cassandra Ciangherotti, Ready to Mingle) and the latter's sister Tati (Ana Fabrega, At Home with Amy Sedaris) to help. Torres and Fabrega co-created the show with Portlandia and Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen, who also pops up as Renaldo's parking valet uncle. This mostly Spanish-language series only uses its biggest name sparingly, however, because its key cast members own every moment. Following the titular group's exploits as they attempt to ply their trade, and to weave it into their otherwise chaotic lives, Los Espookys always manages to be both sidesplittingly hilarious and so meticulous in its horror references that it's almost uncanny. There's nothing on-screen quite like it and, thankfully, it has already been renewed for a second season. The first season of Los Espookys is available to stream via Binge. OXYGEN When Elizabeth Hansen (Mélanie Laurent, 6 Underground) awakens in a cryogenic chamber, she doesn't know who she is, where she is or why she's there. She's strapped in via an array of invasive tubes and restrictive belts, the pod's oxygen levels are rapidly depleting and, in trying to work out what's going on and how to survive, she only has the unit's artificial intelligence program, called MILO (voiced by Sound of Metal's Mathieu Amalric), on hand. That's how Oxygen starts, taking cues from everything from Buried to Locke. But each engaging single-setting, talk-driven thriller lives or dies on the strength of its story, dialogue and cast, all of which hit their marks here. It helps having Laurent at the film's centre, as tends to happen when the French Inglourious Basterds star is pushed into the spotlight. Also pivotal: director Alexandre Aja's horror background, which includes the remake of The Hills Have Eyes and 2019's Crawl. As he demonstrated with the latter, he's particularly skilled at not merely working with familiar tropes and conventions, but at getting the most out of them. Accordingly, even as Oxygen nods to a wealth of one-location and survival flicks — and a hefty number of closed-in sci-fi movies as well — it still grippingly wrings every ounce of tension it can out of its nightmarish scenario. Oxygen is available to stream via Netflix. AMERICAN UTOPIA On paper, American Utopia's concept doesn't just sound excellent — it sounds flat-out superb, stunning and spectacular. A new David Byrne concert film, capturing his acclaimed American Utopia Broadway production, as directed by Spike Lee? Sign the world up, and now. In the most welcome news of the past year, the execution matches the idea in this instant masterpiece (and wonderful companion piece to 1984's Stop Making Sense). It'd be hard to go wrong with all of the above ingredients, but the second of Lee's two 2020 films (after Da 5 Bloods) makes viewers feel like they're in the room with Byrne and his band and dancers like all concert movies strive to but few achieve in such engaging a fashion. Every shot here is designed with this one aim in mind and it shows, because giving audiences the full American Utopia experience is something worth striving for. Byrne sings, working through both solo and Talking Heads hits. He waxes lyrical in his charming and accessible way, pondering the eponymous concept with an open and wise perspective. And he has staged, planned and choreographed the entire performance to a painstaking degree — from the inviting grey colour scheme and the open stage surrounded by glimmering chainmail curtains to the entire lack of cords and wires tethering himself and his colleagues down. American Utopia is available to stream via Binge and Amazon Prime Video. Read our full review. MADE FOR LOVE When author Alissa Nutting penned Made for Love, no one needed to think too hard about her source of inspiration. Now bringing its tale to the small screen courtesy of the series of the same name, her story ponders one of the possible next steps in our technology-saturated lives. Hazel Green-Gogol (Cristin Milioti, Palm Springs) seems to live a lavishly and happily with her tech billionaire husband Byron (Billy Magnussen, Aladdin). They haven't left his company's desert campus in the entire ten years they've been married, in fact. The site is designed to cater for their every desire and whim, so they shouldn't need to go anywhere else — or that's how Byron views things, at least. Then his next big idea looks set to become a reality, and Hazel decides that she can't keep up the charade. She certainly doesn't want to be implanted with a chip that'll allow Byron to see through her eyes, access her feelings and always know where she is, and she's willing to take drastic actions to escape his hold over her life. Bringing the plot to the screen herself, Nutting favours a darkly comedic and sharply satirical vibe as she follows Hazel's quest for freedom, with Made for Love filled with blisteringly accurate insights into the tech-dependence that's become a regular part of 21st century existence. That said, the series wouldn't be the gem it is without Milioti, as well as Ray Romano (The Irishman) in a scene-stealing supporting part as Hazel's father. Made for Love is available to stream via Stan. AND TOMORROW THE ENTIRE WORLD Submitted as Germany's entry for Best International Feature at this year's Oscars, And Tomorrow the Entire World mightn't have ultimately earned a nomination or the prized gong itself, but it's still a compelling and confronting — and timely — film. And, an impassioned one as well, with filmmaker Julia von Heinz (I'm Off Then) leaving zero doubt about her feelings on the re-emergence of right-wing extremist views in general, and specifically in a country that'll never escape the shadow of the Holocaust. University law student Luisa (Mala Emde, Shadowplay) swiftly shares her director's horror and anger. Brought up in comfortable middle-class surroundings, and in a family where taking a weekend hunting trip is commonplace, she has her eyes opened at school when she joins an anti-fascist group. They're soon doing whatever it takes to combat hate-filled ideologies, including letting their actions speak louder than words; however, the stakes are raised when they endeavour to thwart an upcoming attack. Aesthetically, von Heinz opts for edge-of-your seat immersion. Feeling like you're in Luisa's shoes as she steps into a topical conflict is part of the experience, as is feeling her struggles as she grapples with the reality of counteracting abhorrent views by violent means. Emde is exceptional in the lead role, pulsating with urgency in even the quietest of scenes — as does everything in the film. And Tomorrow the Entire World is available to stream via Netflix. RETURNING SHOWS TO CHECK OUT WEEK BY WEEK MYTHIC QUEST When its first season arrived back in 2020, it took a while for Mythic Quest to find its groove. Once it did, though, the sitcom shone — and brightly. Co-created by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day, and starring the former as a visionary video game developer, Mythic Quest follows the daily ins and outs around the studio behind the eponymous massively multiplayer online role-playing game. McElhenney's Ian Grimm is drunk on his own ego, lead engineer Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao, Content) barely manages to cope, their executive producer (David Hornsby, Good Girls) is a ball of neuroses, and finance head (Danny Pudi, Community) couldn't be more ruthless in general or less interested in the people he works with. Mythic Quest doesn't break the workplace sitcom mould, or reshape it. Still, as it navigates its chosen industry, calls out its insular nature and examines its other issues, it's as smart and entertaining as the genre's recent classics such as The Office and Parks and Recreation. And, picking up where its pandemic special left off, the show's second season proves just as sharp and funny, including while exploring the struggles women in gaming face in a big way. The second season of Mythic Quest is dropping new episodes each week via Apple TV+. CLASSICS TO WATCH AND REWATCH ROUND THE TWIST Sometimes, you're eager to spend your spare hours binging your way through serious dramas. At other times, only clever comedies will do. But, there also comes a time when you just want to feel nostalgic — including by revisiting the local TV show that absolutely every Aussie kid watched in the 90s and 00s, and more than once. For two seasons between 1990–93, then another two from 2000–01, Round the Twist adapted Paul Jennings' popular books into an offbeat fantasy series. If you were the right age, it was must-see TV. It's the source of plenty of lighthouse obsessions, given that's where the Twist family lived. And, it's also a show that knew how to balance humour, strangeness and scares. Yes, the latter two seasons of Round the Twist really aren't as great as the first two, but we're betting they're still baked into your childhood memories anyway. And, we're certain that you'll now have the show's theme tune stuck in your head for at least the rest of the day, which is where it'll likely stay until after you've finished binging the series on Netflix (and probably for plenty of time afterwards as well). All four seasons of Round the Twist are available to stream via Netflix. A HEAP OF CLASSIC AUSTRALIAN FILMS When Netflix launched in Australia, it took three years for the huge streaming behemoth to produce Tidelands, its first original Aussie series. Another three years later, the nation's creatives are still calling for it and other streamers to invest heavily in local productions — including via content quotas that would legislate its obligation to plunge part of the profits it earns from Australian subscribers back into the Aussie film and TV industry. That battle is ongoing. For now, though, Netflix has added a hefty batch of local films to its catalogue. The lineup is eclectic because Australian cinema is eclectic, but you can start with Two Hands, follow it up with BMX Bandits, then check out Dating the Enemy (and watch Heath Ledger, Rose Byrne, Nicole Kidman, Claudia Karvan and Guy Pearce in the process). Or, you could plunge into Dark City's twists, hit the beach with Puberty Blues, and see Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths co-star in Cosi, not Muriel's Wedding. Just as My Name Is Gulpilil reaches cinemas, you can also stream your way through the actor's standout roles in Walkabout (the Indigenous icon's first feature from 50 years ago) and The Tracker (which won him an AFI Award for Best Actor). Check out Netflix's Australian range via the streaming platform. Top image: The Underground Railroad.
“You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge”. So begins both the film and the song ‘Straight Outta Compton’, and it’s equal parts preview and warning. The ‘street knowledge’ of NWA’s leading trio — Dr Dre (played by Corey Hawkins), Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr, playing his real-life father) and Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) — was an affront to the establishment, a threat, even, but also helped facilitate the group's rapid rise from neighbourhood group to musical ascendancy. Acquired over two decades of daily exposure to gang violence, racial vilification and police persecution, it instilled in them a bravado, passion and unyielding determination that permitted neither retreat nor weakness. It also came at a price, however, because not all streets are the same, and when Crenshaw Boulevard became Rodeo Drive, the blinders and shortcomings of that knowledge became all too apparent. Straight Outta Compton, then, is not just an NWA biopic but a cautionary tale about loyalty, friendship and the corrosive effects of celebrity. Directed by F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job), this is a slick, provocative and timely film that absolutely warrants your viewing. Straight Outta Compton (© 2015 Universal Studios) is in cinemas nationally from September 3, and thanks to Universal Pictures Australia, we have 10 double in-season passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter and then email us with your name and address. Read our full Straight Outta Compton review here. Follow the movie via its website or Facebook page. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au
Aussie brick enthusiasts, get excited. Sydney will join the likes of New York, London, Hong Kong and Copenhagen on the list of cities boasting a flagship LEGO store very, very soon. The Harbour City is set to welcome the world's largest official LEGO store to Sydney Arcade, overlooking Pitt Street Mall, on Saturday, November 11. Announced earlier this year, the massive two-storey, 900-square-metre Sydney LEGO store will officially swing open its doors at 9.30am next Saturday morning and promises to be your one-stop shop for all things colourful plastic bricks. "Every new store contributes to the LEGO Group's global mission of inspiring and developing the builders of tomorrow," Vice President and General Manager of LEGO Australia and New Zealand Troy Taylor says. LEGO fans can expect an interactive storytelling table that will give them behind-the-scenes looks at their favourite sets and designs; Australia's first Minifigure Factory, where visitors can create LEGO versions of themselves or their loved ones; and a pick-and-build wall boasting an enormous catalogue of different pieces. Official Brick Specialists will be on hand to help guide you through everything the superstore has to offer — and if you're after a challenge to get your creativity flowing, there will be in-store builds and monthly events. Basically, you'll have everything you could need to bring your wildest imagination to life. There will also be Australia-specific elements of the store with large-format sculptures of Australian and Sydney cultural touchstones decorating the new Sydney LEGO store's space. "The world's largest LEGO Store will stand as a must-see destination for LEGO fans across the globe whilst bringing a world-class retail experience to Australia," says Executive Chairman of the store's retail partner Alquemie Group Richard Facioni. The flagship Sydney LEGO store will open at Sydney Arcade, Pitt Street, Sydney on Saturday, November 11.
For cheese fiends, there's only one suitable way to tuck into the beloved dairy product: all the time, or at least as much as possible. That's an idea that Australian cheese festival Mould not only understands but encourages, and has since 2017. In 2023, from May through to August, those cheese dreams will be continuing as well. Because you can never have too many occasions to eat cheddar, brie, camembert, raclette or whatever other cheese takes your fancy, Mould is back for another year, letting dairy lovers to explore and devour the mild, hard and soft bites that Australia's best cheese wizards have to offer. The event hails from Bruny Island Cheese Co cheesemaker Nick Haddow and the organisers of Pinot Palooza, and will hit up not just Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney but also Perth for its latest run. Running for either two or three days in each city, Mould will kick off in Brisbane in May, then head to Melbourne in early June, plus Sydney at the end of June and beginning of July. As for Perth, it's getting a Mould x Pinot Palooza combo — because cheese and wine are that fine a pairing. There won't just be a few cheeses on the menu at each stop. Usually, more than 75 artisan cheeses from around the country are ready and waiting for you to devour, spanning dairy from around 30 producers. In past years, that lineup has included Bruny Island Cheese Co, naturally, plus Grandvewe, Milawa Cheese, Yarra Valley Dairy and Stone & Crow, as well as Section 28, Red Cow Organics, Nimbin Valley Cheese, Dreaming Goat, Long Paddock Cheese and Second Mouse Cheese. Alongside unlimited tastings of Australia's best cheeses — snacking on samples and purchasing slices and slabs to take home with you — the fest features cooking demonstrations, masterclasses and talks. And it wouldn't be a cheese festival without beverages to wash it all down with, so expect a bar serving Aussie wines, whisky, vodka, gin, beer, cider, cocktails and sake, all of which match nicely to a bit of cheese. Unsurprisingly, Mould is mighty popular. In 2021, attendees tucked into a one million samples across the fest's three cities, and also took home over 3.5 tonnes of Aussie dairy products. So, if this the kind of event that your cheese dreams are made of, you'll want to nab an early-bird ticket ASAP for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane — with the Perth event not yet on sale. MOULD — A CHEESE FESTIVAL 2023 DATES: Friday, May 12–Sunday, May 14 — John Reed Pavilion, Brisbane Showgrounds, 600 Gregory Terrace, Bowen Hills Friday, June 2–Sunday, June 4 — The Timber Yard, 351 Plummer Street, Port Melbourne Friday, June 30–Saturday, July 1— Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh, Sydney Friday, August 25–Sunday, August 27 — Centenary Pavilion, Claremont Showgrounds, Perth Mould — A Cheese Festival tours Australia from May. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the event's website.
If you like your sleep, chances are you missed catching Saturday morning's eclipse, when a red hued moon and the planet Mars put on a rare show at 5.30am. Well, luckily, that wasn't the last of the celestial treats in store this week — last night saw Mars really making its presence known, as it hung out closer to Earth than it's been in 15 years. According to NASA, the red planet only travels close enough to ours for these spectacular views once or twice every 15 or 17 years. Back in 2003, it made its closest approach in almost 60,000 years, and after this week's events, it isn't expected to make its next 'close approach' until October 6, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/nasasolarsystem/photos/a.164320877917.120400.79209882917/10155603764502918/?type=3&theater If you've been skygazing over the past few days, you would have seen Mars appear brightest from July 27 to 30, as it reached the point in its orbit that puts it closest to Earth. It was on show for most of last night, sitting just 57.6 million kilometres away from us — a relative sliver compared to the 401 million kilometre distance it reaches at its farthest. You'll be able to glimpse the planet for a few more nights, though it's set to get fainter by mid-August as it continues on its orbit. To catch the Red Planet, look east. "Mars will be rising as the sun sets, and rising high and high in the eastern sky during the evening," University of Sydney astronomer Tim Bedding told The Age. "Later in the evening it will be more prominent, passing overhead at midnight." If you find yourself stuck with anther cloudy night, NASA has kindly uploaded a four-hour video of the planet's approach from the Griffith Observatory in LA. Image: NASA
To the joy of folks who love ice cream but don't consume animal products, tucking into a creamy frozen dessert that's 100-percent vegan is much easier than it used to be. You'll find vegan Magnums, Cornettos and Weiss Bars in your supermarket freezer, vegan choc tops at Event Cinemas in Sydney and Brisbane, vegan ice cream sandwiches at Lord of the Fries around the country, and a selection of vegan sorbets at Gelato Messina — and now you'll find a new vegan lineup at gelato chain Gelatissimo as well. Gelatissimo already has its own vegan sorbet range, spanning flavours such as green apple, lemon, mango, passionfruit, raspberry, strawberry and coconut. Now, it's also scooping up dairy-free gelato. As part of the new selection, two varieties are on offer at present, with a third still to come — and they're the first in the chain's ongoing commitment to providing flavours for all dietary preferences. If you like your frosty desserts with a dash of decadence, you're in luck, with caramel mudcake and triple chocolate flavours on the menu. When you're licking your way through a cup or cone of caramel mudcake vegan gelato, you'll be enjoying vegan caramel gelato combined with caramelised sugar, as well as chunks of vegan caramel mudcake. As for the vegan triple chocolate gelato, it blends West African cocoa, vegan dark chocolate morsels and vegan chocolate sauce, then dusts the whole thing with cocoa powder. Available until Thursday, April 2 — or until stocks last — in all Australian stores, both dairy-free flavours use coconut and soy milk. Just what the third vegan gelato flavour will be, or when it'll be available, hasn't been revealed as yet. Gelatissimo's new vegan range is available from all stores nationwide until Thursday, April 2 — or until stocks last. If you're choosing to go out and support local businesses, have a look at the latest COVID-19 advice and social-distancing guidelines from the Department of Health.
Fancy seeing one of Brisbane's most popular spaces in a completely new light? Or, to be more accurate, with more than 22,000 square metres of lights flickering in, around and over the top of its lush greenery? As every home renovation-focused TV show has told us time and time again, a splash of colour can make a world of difference — and, at Roma Street Parkland's returning Enchanted Garden, it can turn an already picturesque space into a glorious festive wonderland. This local favourite pops up year after year, delighting Brisbanites of all ages — and 2022 is no different. This year, you'll be heading along from Friday, November 25–Wednesday, December 21, with the event sticking around for an extended season due to past demand. We all sure do love glowing lights, clearly. Designed to take half an hour to wander through and stretching along a one-kilometre walk, The Enchanted Garden combines custom-made LEDs — plus special effects, light sculptures, lasers, projections and holograms — with an immersive audio soundscape. The aim: getting merry and celebrating nature, with the 2022 installation featuring five sections. One will pay tribute to the parklands' water sections, another focuses on its rock formations, while a third showcases the locale's fig tree avenue. There's also a section that's all about floral art, and one filled with moving shadow sculptures. Unsurprisingly, it's a family-friendly affair — and, like in 2021, there is a fee. You'll pay $7 to head along and stare up at all that dazzling brightness. Once you're in, you can soak up the luminousness for as long as you like. Attendees shouldn't go expecting the kind of setup that you've been ignoring on every street corner in Brissie's suburbs. Lights will twinkle and decorations will sparkle; however, this isn't a tacky DIY display. Nope, not at all. That said, a word of warning: people love all things glittery, so prepare to a heap company. Also, tickets usually get snapped up quickly, with this year's going on sale at 9am on Monday, November 7. Sessions run from 6–9.30pm and, if you're organised enough, you can always pack a picnic, arrive early and enjoy dinner beforehand. Plus, you can BYO drinks to one of the few public places that allows them in our fair town — although Roma Street Parklands' licensed areas are only licensed until 8pm. Food trucks will also be onsite at the Celebration Lawn from 4–9.30pm daily if you don't get around to taking care of your own nosh. The Enchanted Garden returns to Roma Street Parkland from Friday, November 25–Wednesday, December 21. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Monday, November 7 — head to the event's website for further details.
"The World Has Enough Superheroes". That's not our opinion, mind. Rather, it's literally the slogan for Venom, right there up on the posters. After watching the film, one wonders if it wasn't actually a studio note placed on the banners by accident. It's true, Venom is more antihero than superhero, but given he is still part of the wider Marvel universe (a Spider-Man spinoff owned by Sony Pictures), to call this anything other than a superhero movie is as laughable as Tom Hardy's attempt at bumbling comedy. Here he plays Eddie Brock, a VICE-like gritty street journalist whose video segments focus on taking down the rich, powerful and corrupt. Fixed firmly in his sights this time is the Elon Musk-esque tech mogul Carlton Drake (Rogue One's Riz Ahmed), whose determination to advance humankind routinely requires him to also sacrifice them in human trials. Drake's current focus is on four "symbiotes": amorphous sentient blobs from space who need to occupy a human host in order to survive our atmosphere. But Drake believes they also hold the key to humans being able to survive in space (which we'll need to do, because...global warming). In the course of his investigation, Eddie becomes entangled with one such symbiote (aka Venom), who wildly enhances Eddie's strength, speed and stamina, but also compels him to commit regular acts of extreme violence (mainly head eating) as they grapple to form some sort of symbiotic relationship. It's a device not entirely unlike the earlier Spider-Man villain Doctor Octopus, but even more so the recent Aussie film Upgrade, whose protagonist becomes infused with an AI that speaks to his subconscious and allows him to fight off hordes of villains whilst essentially watching on as a passenger in his own body. Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), Venom flicks back and forth between violent battle scenes and mismatched buddy comedy, so much so that it never fully lands the vibe of either. It's almost as if Fleischer himself was possessed by a studio symbiote, one compelling him to make one type of film whilst he sought to make another. This incongruity is never clearer than in Hardy's misfiring performance as Brock, whose scratchy and stammering accent sounds like a half-baked Adam Sandler impression. Brock's presented as a hard-hitting journo one minute, then consistently called a loser the next – including by Venom. He's shown as principled and driven, then spends half the movie avoiding responsibility. He'll do whatever it takes, but often does nothing at all. The result is a character without an arc, ending the film – at best – somewhere in the ballpark of where he started. In all, Venom feels like an enormous squandered opportunity. Hardy is a juggernaut of charisma and physicality when given the right material, so to use him in this way is like using a prized stallion for birthday party pony rides. The same goes for his character's fiancée in the film, Anne, played by Michelle Williams. Decked out in the Spider-Man franchise's weirdly consistent tartan skirt and knee-high boots ensemble (seriously, what's up with that?), she's a paper-thin character with almost no reason to be there. An actor of her calibre deserves far better. There's the inevitable teaser of a sequel in the film's closing moments, including the introduction of another terrific performer. It's possible that with the back story and setup out of the way, Hardy and the gang could cast off the origin movie shackles and properly go for it next time round. That's assuming they even get the chance, which is by no means a lock given Venom's disastrous beginning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Mv98Gr5pY
After shooting Elvis on the Gold Coast, Baz Luhrmann dubbed the Queensland city "Goldiewood". For four days in February 2024, the coastal spot will certainly become the centre of the Aussie film and television industry when the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts sweeps into town. As well as hosting its annual awards, AACTA will put on a festival around the accolades — and after announcing its first program details in 2023, that lineup has just expanded. A series of free outdoor film screenings, a Yellowjackets Q&A, and chats with the teams behind Colin From Accounts and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart lead the new additions for AACTA Festival, which takes place from Thursday, February 8–Sunday, February 11 at HOTA, Home of the Arts. For those keen to see a flick under the stars, you have three options, all with Aussie ties. Of course Barbie tops the list, as part of a barbecue bash where dressing up is highly encouraged — cinephile Barbie, anyone? — and there will indeed be the appropriate food spread. Also hitting the screen: a 25th-anniversary screening of 10 Things I Hate About You, celebrating the Heath Ledger-starring film, this time with a 90s shindig. And, rounding out the movies is The Greatest Showman, complete with Australian filmmaker Michael Gracey on hand to introduce the Hugh Jackman (Faraway Downs)-led flick. Yellowjackets fans, get excited about Aussie actors Courtney Eaton (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Liv Hewson (Party Down), aka teen Lottie and teen Van, talking about the series — including its cliffhangers and supernatural elements. Leah Purcell (Shayda) will discuss The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, while the Colin From Accounts chat will feature producers Ian Collie and Rob Gibson (who both also worked on Scrublands) ahead of season two's arrival. [caption id="attachment_894476" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME.[/caption] Now that the AACTA nominations have been announced — which hadn't happened before AACTA Festival's first lineup drop — sessions where you can meet both the film and TV contenders have been added as well. Exactly who'll be attending hasn't been revealed as yet, however. Also joining the bill is music by Sunny Luwe, Kent Dustin and Alisha Todd; panels about streaming's future and screen trends in general; and a speed-networking session for women in the industry. AACTA Festival already boasts a heap of other highlights, all surrounding AACTA's Industry Awards on Thursday, February 8 and then its main glittering ceremony on Saturday, February 10. If Talk to Me creeped its way onto your list of favourite Australian horror movies, directors Michael and Danny Philippou will dive into it. Warwick Thornton is also on the lineup to discuss The New Boy as part of the fest's 'meet the creators' events, as are the teams behind Limbo, Sweet As and The Newsreader. Trent Dalton will talk about the Boy Swallows Universe TV series — and, giving the event one of its international standouts, Lessons in Chemistry's Bonnie Garmus is on the bill as well. There's also behind-the-scenes explorations of The Matrix, the stunts of Mad Max: Fury Road and, for some more overseas flavour, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse's animation. Or, enjoy a chat with Wellmania and The Way We Wore's Celeste Barber about her career, then find out more about Aussie-made Robbie Williams biopic Better Man and the sequel to Mortal Kombat. AACTA Festival will run from Thursday, February 8–Sunday, February 11 at HOTA, Home of the Arts, 135 Bundall Road, Surfers Paradise Gold Coast. For further details, head to the fest's website.
This Valentine's Day, the sound of tap, tap, tapping will be echoing around Victoria Park's mini golf course. While that's hardly unusual, it'll be making hearts go all a-flutter between Thursday, February 10–Monday, February 14. Because nothing says romance like getting putting — or so Victoria Park hopes — the venue is celebrating the date with a themed makeover. Yes, it has also previously marked easter, Halloween and Christmas in much the same way; however, this time one of its greens will be turned into a lovers' lane. Hearts, flowers and the colour pink feature heavily at the course's revamped first hole, and there's also a pop-up seltzer bar from 5pm onwards each day — aka your go-to for a pre-game drink. This temporary makeover is much shorter than Victoria Park's past pop-ups — but if you're looking for an excuse to compete with your other half for mini golf glory, or just find putt putt inherently romantic, this'll be the event for you. Grab your special someone and swing by from 6am–10pm on the Thursday and Sunday, or between 6am–11pm on the Friday and Saturday — which means that you can stop by on your way to work, during your lunch break or after quittin' time as well, with tickets costing $20 and online bookings essential. Images: Pandora Photography. Updated February 11.
Trailblazing graffiti artist Nychos has landed in Australia. Gracing our shores over late February and early March, the Austrian artist who recently took New York City by storm will be splitting his time between Sydney and Melbourne for this tour, presenting exhibitions, hosting workshops and leaving his unique mark on walls around town — including a brand new work just outside Work-Shop in Redfern. The new piece, titled Translucent June, is a homage to Sir Frederic Leighton's Victorian painting Flaming June. The classical work, which was painted back in 1895, is thought to allude to Greek sculptures of sleeping nymphs. In Nychos' depiction, June is wearing a similar orange dress — however, it (and her skin) is translucent, revealing her blood and bone. Here's the finished product. A post shared by nychos (@nychos) on Feb 28, 2017 at 12:01am PST In Sydney, Nychos just headed a graffiti art workshop at Work-Shop and presented a screening of his street art documentary The Deepest Depths of the Burrow. In Melbourne, the workshop and screening will take place on March 11. He'll also launch a pair of exhibitions, showcasing his new sculpture project, Vienna Therapy, featuring the three-foot-tall Dissection of Sigmund Freud in Federation Square from March 8-12, and his solo exhibition, MONOCHROME ORGANISM, at Juddy Roller Gallery in Fitzroy from March 10-24. Images: Kimberley Low.
As we've all been told for centuries on the page, then on the stage, and also on the screen since the birth of film, vampires can live forever. Here's another undead fact: stories about the horror favourites definitely seem to. And, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and What We Do in the Shadows have shown, such tales are mighty skilled at prolonging their lives. In both of the above instances, movies became TV shows — and fantastic ones at that. On the big screen, What We Do in the Shadows was delightful and hilarious. A New Zealand-shot and -set vampire sharehouse mockumentary made by and starring Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi was always going to be. On the small screen since 2019, the American TV version of What We Do in the Shadows has also proven the same. In fact, with fellow spinoff Wellington Paranormal — the NZ television show that stuck with the movie's cops (Mike Minogue and Karen O'Leary) as they keep investigating the supernatural — it's part of the best on-screen universe there is. Thankfully, the small-screen take on What We Do in the Shadows shows no signs of slowing down. Come mid-July, its fourth season will hit Australia via Binge and New Zealand via Neon, in fact. Even better: based on the two trailers so far — one dropping in early June, and the other to round out the month — fans are set for another wonderfully amusing bloodsuckers gem. For the uninitiated, this iteration of What We Do in the Shadows is set in Staten Island. No, Pete Davidson doesn't show up. Instead, the series focuses on a household where vamps Nandor (Kayvan Novak, Cruella), Laszlo (Matt Berry, Toast of London and Toast of Tinseltown) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga) all live. Energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch, The Office) and Nandor's familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillen, Werewolves Within), slayers have also staked a claim in the story. There's much, much more to the Shadows television spinoff than that — and plenty to laugh at as well. This time around, there'll also be a vampire nightclub, undead dance-offs, a vamp freestyle rap, a genie's lamp, polyamory, multiple dead wives returning at the same time, and a baby version of Colin. Given that two 'Rasputin'-soundtracked trailers can't tell the full story, as wonderful as both sneak peeks are, expect plenty more where all of that came from. Check out the latest trailer for What We Do in the Shadows season four below: What We Do in the Shadows' fourth season starts streaming in the Australia via Binge on Wednesday, July 13 and New Zealand via Neon on Thursday, July 14.
Celine Song understands the power of a moment. Past Lives, her debut feature, is filled with scenes and meetings — minutes and mere seconds, too — that are so potent they're almost overwhelming. Making the leap to cinema from the stage, the playwright-turned-filmmaker has crafted a quiet, patient, contemplative and deeply felt romantic drama that knows intimately how emotions can swell to bursting point in something as simple and commonplace as a glance, walk, Skype call or drink at a bar. One of the movies that had 2023's Sundance Film Festival talking, plus everywhere from Berlin to Sydney to New Zealand since — and is destined to be showered in awards love, too — Past Lives is well-aware of what it's like to spend oh-so-many moments wondering what could've been or still might, and about what's meant to. Arriving after focusing on the stage, getting experimental with Chekhov live and online with The Seagull on The Sims 4 and writing for the initial season of streaming series The Wheel of Time, Song's first effort as a filmmaker springs from a specific moment, in fact — and one that she also recreates on-screen with her characters Nora (Greta Lee, Russian Doll), Hae Sung (Teo Yoo, Decision to Leave) and Arthur (John Magaro, The Many Saints of Newark). Past Lives takes inspiration from the writer/director's own experiences in a number of ways. "I would say it's an adaptation of my life, or inspired by," she tells Concrete Playground. It was the power of a moment sat in a New York bar with her American husband and Korean childhood sweetheart, however, that helped put the picture in motion. "I wasn't sure if there was a movie in it, but I think that what I really did feel is that it did feel like a significant and special moment, and a very revelatory moment in my own life," Song shares, chatting in August when she was in Australia for the Melbourne International Film Festival. "I feel like living your life as an ordinary person, I think that there are moments in your life where your life suddenly feels completely extraordinary — and it's totally epic, too. Then you just suddenly feel the total sheer scale of your life expand." "That kind of was this weird moment where I was like 'huh, nobody in this bar probably knows this or feels this, but I think that I just am feeling so massive sitting here in this little bar with these two people'," Song continues. "I think that it made me feel like 'maybe this is something that might connect with other people?'. And then, more and more, I learned that it does connect with a lot of people, and that honestly has made me feel less lonely more than anything." Past Lives begins with Nora, Hae Sung and Arthur sipping and chatting as fellow bar patrons observe, guessing about who the trio are to each other. From the outset, the film connects with that powerful moment in Song's own existence, with the three figures that'll wander through her feature's frames coping with love and life, and with viewers doing their own watching and pondering as well. From there, the movie heads backwards, first to Nora (Moon Seung-ah, Voice of Silence) and Hae Sung's (Leem Seung-min, Good Deal) time together as pre-teens, before the former and her family move to Canada. Then, it jumps forward twice in 12-year increments, checking in wth the pair — and Arthur once he enters Nora's life — as time passes on and distance stretches their youthful bond. As this tender and heartbreakingly honest picture unfurls, Past Lives' audience doesn't just experience an affinity with folks realising that they're having a moment, but with the "what if?" questions in life, being torn between the past and the present, and trying to work out who you truly are. With its title drawn from the Korean concept of in-yeon, aka the fate that connects anyone who crosses paths, Past Lives' viewers feel a date with destiny as well. Getting swept away by Past Lives is easy; making it play that way wasn't, of course. Song chatted us through the details, including subjectivity, authenticity, getting the personal to feel personal to everyone else, and the ins and outs of casting when you're taking cues from your own life. ON MAKING SONG'S FIRST FEATURE "I wish that I could give you some a lofty thing that I was trying to do. But honestly, I think because it was my first movie, it was just getting through the day and getting a movie made more than anything. I think that every day, the number-one goal that you're facing is just 'okay, how do I make this movie — how do I get through today, and get the footage and get the performances I need?'. That really was the primary drive. I wish I had big, lofty dreams for things, but it was so much more like I was like learning how to do it as I go because it was my first movie. That really was so fully occupying me that it was hard actually for me to feel like I could have any goals beyond making the movie." ON TAKING INSPIRATION FROM REALITY, AND FROM SONG'S OWN STORY "It really does start from that amazing subjective place — that is the part that is the autobiographical moment, which is that moment in the bar. But then, of course, in turning it into a script there is an objectification of the subjective moment, where it becomes a script that you're writing. And then from there, there's another layer of objectification, where you, with hundreds of people who are working on the movie, turn it into a film — which is then a whole other set of objectification. And, part of it is the subjectivity of the actors, for example: they come into the picture and you're working with the actors to create these characters. So, by the time that I was making the movie properly and then finishing the movie and all that, I really was looking at the thing as making this movie. I think that at that point I felt pretty distant from the aspects of the movie that were that started from an autobiographical place. But now that what I really love is it's kind of full circle now — the audience is coming to meet this movie, and they're actually then able to experience it subjectively. They feel like it connects with them autobiographically on their own, too. I think that's the process of making personal work, and I think that's really what the process was for this. I really do think of it as a very personal film because of that. And the words I would usually use, I would say it's an adaptation of my life, or inspired by, or something like that." ON MAKING A PERSONAL FILM THAT FEELS PERSONAL TO AUDIENCES, TOO "That's always the dream and goal for it, because I feel like I have to believe that if I'm being as honest and authentic with the experience of what it's like to be a person, I just know that there is an audience that's going to also connect to it like that. I've really treated it very much as a test of how real can I be with the audience, and how real can the filmmaking be. Of course, I'm talking about the truth of the thing, rather than the facts, because some of it is about the truth of what it's like to be a person. As long as it is communicated in the best way, as clearly as possible — I think I used the word 'clearly' often, as you want to be able to tell the story as clearly as possible — at the end of it you really do want the audience to come along for this journey. And even though it's really specific, I think that the dream is that you're able to see yourself in it and you're able to connect it to your own life. This movie doesn't have conventional ideas of spectacle. We don't have wild costumes. We don't have VFX. We don't do anything that is outside of what is likened to human experience. So I think some of it just had to be relying on the authenticity of performance, and that's where the story is going to be. That's how the story was going to connect with the audience — they're going to feel how real the movie is going to be, the way that the movie is going to reach everyone. I've been finding that no matter what walk of life you come from, you're going find something in the movie that you feel connected to." ON MAKING AN AUTHENTIC "WHAT IF?" STORY WHEN EVERYONE SHARES THAT TRAIN OF THOUGHT "That really is the the part that is difficult about making a movie where you can really feel connected to it. It's going to live and die on if the audience will come along for the journey and believe it, and believe the characters and believe the story. I think without question, that's where you're going to be able to see very, very high emotional standards. We do, of course, all experience 'what could have been?'. Sometimes it's the person, but sometimes it's a city — and sometimes it's a lifestyle or a job. If you ever have had an experience like that, I think you're going to connect to the movie." ON THE INTRICACIES OF CASTING WHEN YOU'RE TAKING CUES FROM YOUR OWN LIFE "I don't think that I was looking for actors who were going to play basically those people [IRL]. I was looking for people who were going to play the characters that I've written. So something that I wanted is to make sure that none the actors thought that what they were trying to do is to replicate people who exist. I wanted then to come with me in finding the characters that we're trying to to pick for the screen, because it's a completely different thing altogether — characters in movies are very different than people in real life. People in real life, it's not so clear what their arc is. In our lives, I don't think that we know what our arc is in our real life, because we don't live in narrative. We live in a life, compared to characters in a film who have to live in a narrative, because that's what we're going to be watching. Without question, the actors were not being asked to replicate real people. What they were being asked to do is the scenes, and part of the thing that I was looking for in the actors is, first of all, are they great actors? The way that I wanted to make the movie, sometimes I would ask the actors to just do the whole scene — which is, of course, something that comes from my background as a playwright — and I really wanted them to be able to do the whole scene if I asked them to. That's something that only actors that are really excellent actors are able to do. So, that was the first thing that I was looking for. The other thing I'm looking for is what I would call a soul match to the characters, where I really wanted the actors to have some deep kind of soul connection to the characters — it has to do with the way they're talking about the characters, but it's also, more importantly, the engine or the fire that a character has to have. It is something that the actors themselves could have — that the heart of Nora is going to be found in Greta's heart as well. I think you could really feel that in the film, where Nora is showing up but it's not just that Greta is playing Nora. I know that for the film, the only way that this movie can work is that Greta had become Nora. That's what's both amazing about casting and also what's very difficult." ON THE RESPONSE TO PAST LIVES SO FAR — AND THE SUNDANCE EXPERIENCE "You just hope for the best for the movie that you're making kind of in secret. I really did think about it as something that was a bit of a secret between me and everybody who was working on the movie. Then, as for how the world was going to receive it, that's been an amazing part — it's just nothing but joy and like excitement. I remember at Sundance, I'd been working on the movie again in secret with the people who worked on the movie with me for many years. Then I remember waiting at the backstage of Sundance, knowing that it's going to be in the in the public's hands from this moment on. I remember really feeling in that moment like everything's going to change, and this is going to be a moment where I'm going to have to let go of control or let go of everything. It really was like wandering into the unknown. I think that every time that there has been such a warm response, which is how it been, it's just such an exciting thing — because great word of mouth means that more people are going to come see the movie, and I think that's always the dream for it. You want to be able to share this thing that you made." Past Lives opened in cinemas Down Under on August 31. Read our review. Images: courtesy of A24.
Stargazers in Tasmania and New Zealand are happy they didn't skip town for Vivid last weekend. On Sunday night, Aurora Australis made a pretty dramatic appearance, filling the horizon with a spectrum of light. Also known as the Southern Lights, Aurora Australis tends to show up when a coronal mass ejection (CME) occurs. To cut a long story short, a CME happens when the sun releases a bunch of plasma filled with electrons and protons (the bits inside atoms, Year 7). This plasma travels 150 million kilometres before hitting the Earth's magnetic field at a speed of six million kilometres per hour. The result is a wild geomagnetic storm. As the atoms slow down, they send out light of various colours, which we see most easily at the North and South Poles, where the atmosphere is thinnest. In the North Pole, the aurora is called Aurora Borealis. Like earthquakes, auroras are rated according to their power. While most rate around 1 or 2 kp (out of a possible 9), Sunday night's hit 7, making it particularly spectacular. It's difficult to predict when the next Aurora Australis will appear — your best bet is to keep an eye on the official Facebook page, where hopeful activity is reported. If you're keen to cop an eyeful, then you'll need to head as far south as possible. It's also a good idea to get away from towns and cities, so light pollution doesn't corrupt your view. In Australia, that means making tracks to Tassie. On social media, epic photos of Sunday night's show came in from Devonport and Bruny Island. However, the lights were also seen as far north as New South Wales, including in Merimbula, Bawley Point and Williamstown. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the place to be was the South Island. Over the weekend, Aurora Australis was seriously impressive in Lake Te Anau, Dunedin, Invercargill, Waipapa Point and Queenstown, among other spots. Here's a few otherworldly Instagrams to give you an idea: How lucky have we been in #MySouthland this week with this breathtaking #auroraaustralis light show! Spectacular 📷 @the_curious_kiwi #nzmustdo #southlandnz A post shared by Southland, New Zealand (@southland.nz) on May 30, 2017 at 5:19pm PDT Sunday's breathtaking Aurora Australis as captured by staff member @purnellpictures out on the Otago Peninsula.😍#dunnerstunner #OnlyOtago #auroraaustralis A post shared by University of Otago (@universityofotago) on May 29, 2017 at 10:02pm PDT Incredible #AuroraAustralis in Tasmania's skies 😮. Tassie's the best spot in Australia to view the Southern Lights. Basically, the further south, the better. 📷: Sophie Fazackerly A post shared by ABC News (@abcnews_au) on May 28, 2017 at 7:33pm PDT NIGHT LIGHTS. The Milky Way with a hint of Aurora over Mount Iron earlier this week. Wanaka, NZ. #nightsky #milkyway #stars #aurora #auroraaustralis #southernlights #nzmustdo #purenewzealand #landscape #nofilter #astrophotography #stargazing #stars #starlight #lovewanaka #wanaka #mtiron #southisland #newzealand #longexposure #canon_photos A post shared by @the_viewfinda on May 30, 2017 at 7:57pm PDT After posting a photo of the Southern Lights yesterday people have asked me if I could really see them with the naked eye. The answer is YES. For a few very special minutes they danced like laser beams on the horizon line. The Milky Way stole the limelight afterwards. 🌌✨ A post shared by Kyle Te Kiwi | New Zealand (@barekiwi) on May 30, 2017 at 3:04am PDT After posting a photo of the Southern Lights yesterday people have asked me if I could really see them with the naked eye. The answer is YES. For a few very special minutes they danced like laser beams on the horizon line. The Milky Way stole the limelight afterwards. 🌌✨ A post shared by Kyle Te Kiwi | New Zealand (@barekiwi) on May 30, 2017 at 3:04am PDT Top image: Ben (Flickr).
If you avoid glass observation decks atop high structures like the plague, then you might want to look away. Those cash-grabbing, genius high rise developers have taken our apparent insatiable desire to stand on a floor of reinforced glass at great heights to the next level and turned the standing attraction into a sliding one. Yep, a see-through glass slide has just opened on top of Los Angeles' highest skyscraper. Terrifying. The slide — aptly named Skyslide — is part of the iconic U.S. Bank Tower's new Skyspace development, which opened on Saturday, June 25. Skyspace has turned the tower's 70th floor into an impressive open-air observation deck (the highest of its kind in California), and the slide is just an extra addition for people who feel that merely looking at a view of Downtown LA from 1000 feet is not enough. That said, the slide is relatively short at about 14 metres — it only travels the length of one floor, from the 70th to the 69th. So it's a bit of a short-lived ride. But if you're scared of heights, you can at least take comfort in the fact that it'll be over before you know it. Well, we assume there's nothing quite like moving at high speed in a glass tube on the side of a building to truly appreciate the view. Even if it is only for 3.5 seconds.
As warmer weather starts to make its presence known, including an unseasonably hot September patch in Sydney and Brisbane, we're all clamouring for our favourite cooling devices. Fans, air conditioners, pools, any patch of water you can find, frozen drinks, boozy icy poles, all the ice cream you can handle: if it can combat the heat, even for a brief instant, it's a spring and summer staple. Imagine, however, just slapping on a temperature-regulating smartwatch rather than camping out under your aircon or getting comfy in a paddling pool with an esky filled with cold beverages. Or, in addition to all of the above. That's the idea behind the Aircon Watch, a device two years in the making. It claims to offer a reprieve from feeling too warm — or, in winter, too cold — by sending hot or cool signals to the wearer's brain through its special pulsating wrist strap. If you're a little skeptical, that's understandable, though the folks behind the watch point to the instant cooling effect that running an ice cube over your wrist can have — as well as a 2012 research study by Stanford University, which used a cooling glove to indicate that heat exchange can occur through the extremities. And if you think it sounds like a winning idea, you're not alone. Currently running a Kickstarter campaign, the Aircon Watch has already reached its funding goal more than 26 times over. At the time of writing, it's still accepting backers for 18 more days, with the watches expected to start shipping in December. Image: Aircon Watch.
There are thousands upon thousands of street signs all over New York City, but have they ever had rap lyrics on them? They have now. Street artist and graphic designer Jason Shelowitz, better known as Jay Shells, has combined his love of hip hop music and his brilliant sign-making skills to create the ongoing project titled 'Rap Quotes'. Shells creates "official-looking" red street signs with famous rap lyrics and puts them all over the streets of New York. From a distance the signs might look quite normal, but don't be mistaken by their official look; there are definitely rap lyrics printed on them. Shells has strategically placed the 30-plus signs at specific locations and street corners throughout the city, in the exact places by which the lyrics were inspired. For example, the lyrics "'Cause I want to be on 106 and Park pushing a Benz" by Kanye West were affixed onto a street pole on 106 and Park. According to Hip Hop Wired, Shells' first sign was inspired by the late rapper Big L. Now Shells' signs feature lyrics from Kanye West, Jeru the Damaja, Jay-Z, KRS-One, Heavy D, Big Daddy Kane, Nas, Jim Jones and others. https://youtube.com/watch?v=54yahfgbqQE Website ANIMAL posted a video of one of their team members following Shells around virtually every street corner in the city as he carried out his very site-specific project. In the video, Shells says he values people's inevitable interaction with the project. "The [signs] we put up this morning might already be gone. It depends what happy-go-lucky hip hop fan walks by one and scratches their head," he says. "I don't care if people take them. I would take them. I'm sure they're going to get taken. That's the good part about documenting it. They can live on that way." Via PSFK.
Now that we all carry digital maps in our pockets, finding our way around is as simple as whipping out our smartphones, typing in a location and following the stated directions. And, with Google Maps featuring extensive real-life images of the globe's roads and spaces in its Street View mode, it couldn't be easier to double-check that the place in front of you is your intended destination. If the above describes your usual process when you're trying to navigate your way to somewhere new, then you'll also be keen on Google Maps' new Live View feature. Using augmented reality, it combines the service's directions with Street View, superimposing arrows, street names and directions over the actual view that's in front of you — rather than a map or photographic representation of it — literally pointing users in the right direction. Whether you've been distracted while walking around New York and ended up in the wrong place, or found Tokyo's busier districts a bit of a labyrinth, this'll help. The same applies if you're notorious for paying more attention to the sights and sounds around you instead of looking at where you're going, which, when travelling, is an experience we can all relate to. After testing Live View with its local guides and via Pixel phones over the past few months, Google is now expanding the feature — which is currently still in beta testing — to Android and iOS devices. To use it, your phone will need to support ARCore (the company's platform for building augmented reality experiences) and ARKit (Apple's equivalent). Then, after typing in a location into Google Maps, you'll just need to tap the directions button, select walking directions and look for the Live View option. The rollout comes part of the tech giant's broader suite of updates in the travel space. Users can now also use Google Maps to track hotel and flight bookings, find restaurants tailored to their tastes and use their Location History timeline to make notes on each place they visit. Google Maps' Live View is now available on Android and iOS devices. For more information, visit Google Maps.
What do one of 2022's huge box-office behemoths and one of 2023's most-anticipated movies have in common? In Avatar: The Way of Water and the new live-action The Little Mermaid alike, darling it's better down where it's wetter. Come May, the Mouse House's latest remake of its beloved animated hits (see also: Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Lady and the Tramp, Mulan, Pinocchio) will get Halle Bailey (Grown-ish) slipping into Ariel's scales and tail, and take a dip into the story of a mermaid pining for a different life. While it was busy dropping Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny trailers during the Super Bowl, Disney has just unveiled the latest sneak peek at the new The Little Mermaid — and, like the first glimpse in 2022, it's going big on look and feel. Given that viewers already know and adore the first flick, the trailers for the latest movie don't need to dive too far into the narrative, although the just-released second glance does bring a pivotal figure into the mix. [caption id="attachment_868655" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] Fans of the original 1989 movie, aka everyone given how popular The Little Mermaid-themed events have proven over the years — such as screenings with live orchestral scores and cocktail experiences at aquariums — are well aware that Ariel dreams of being human, and is willing to make a deal with a sea witch to see her wishes come true. That involves a trade, though: giving up her voice to get legs in return, which'll allow her to live above the water. Accordingly, as well as Bailey as Ariel, this new version of The Little Mermaid features Jonah Hauer-King (The Flatshare) as Eric, the human prince that Ariel falls for; Javier Bardem (Lyle, Lyle Crocodile) as King Triton, Ariel's protective father; and Melissa McCarthy (Nine Perfect Strangers) as Ursula, said sea witch — who pops up at the end of the new glimpse. Also among the cast, on voice duties: Daveed Diggs (Snowpiercer) as Sebastian the crab, Jacob Tremblay (Doctor Sleep) as Flounder and Awkwafina (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) as Scuttle. Based on the two trailers so far, this take on The Little Mermaid from filmmaker Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine, Into the Woods and Mary Poppins Returns) and not Sofia Coppola promises vivid underwater realms, glowing light shining down from above, mermaid dances, bright coral, friendly fish and floating jellyfish — and the flick's star singing 'Part of Your World'. As for the tunes, they come courtesy of Alan Menken — returning from the original movie, as do all those old songs — and upcoming Australia visitor Lin-Manuel Miranda. Check out the new teaser trailer for The Little Mermaid below: The Little Mermaid will release in cinemas Down Under on May 25, 2023.
As a movie, it's a masterpiece. As a stage musical, it's one of the most famous there is. And when it returns to Australia for the first time in almost 20 years with Sarah Brightman starring as Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard is going to be big. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony-winner, which first took the leap from the screen to the stage in 1993 — and picked up Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical, and awards for leading actor, leading actress and featured actor for its efforts, among more — is bringing its Hollywood story Down Under again in 2024. The production will kick off its new Aussie run in Melbourne in May, debuting at the Princess Theatre, then move to the Sydney Opera House from August. As Desmond, Brightman will make her global debut in the part, taking on her first theatre role in over three decades. She'll also add to a spectacular career that includes originating the role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera back in the 80s. Here, she's taking on a part that saw Gloria Swanson nominated for an Oscar in 1951 and Glenn Close win a Tony in 1995. Debra Byrne played the part in Australia back in 1996, while Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls is doing the same in West End right now. "I am so delighted to be returning to Australia after many years, and to be marking my return to the stage in a musical after so long. It is only fitting for it to be with such an exquisite production as Sunset Boulevard," said Brighton. "I have always admired Andrew's work on this musical and I very much look forward to exploring the incredible score and also the iconic character of Norma Desmond. Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close up!'." As Billy Wilder's 1950 film first covered in a feature that's been influential not just in inspiring stage adaptations, but on every other movie about Tinseltown since, Sunset Boulevard follows silent star Desmond. With her career getting small with the advent of the talkies, she dreams about making a comeback. The movie famously starts with a man's body floating in a swimming pool, then flashes back to Desmond's time with screenwriter Joe Gillis, her latest attempts to reclaim her success and the events that bring about that watery end. On the stage, Sunset Boulevard will echo with tunes such as 'With One Look', 'The Perfect Year' and 'As If We Never Said Goodbye' as it tells the above tale. GWB Entertainment and Opera Australia are behind Sunset Boulevard's latest Aussie stint — and if you're wondering who'll star alongside Brightman, the casting process has just begun. For audiences outside of Melbourne and Sydney, details of possible stops in other cities are yet to be announced. View this post on Instagram A post shared by @sunsetmusicalau SUNSET BOULEVARD 2024 DATES: From May 2024 — Princess Theatre, Melbourne From August 2024 — Sydney Opera House, Sydney Sunset Boulevard will play Melbourne from May 2024 and Sydney from August 2024, with Melbourne pre sales from Tuesday, October 10 and general sales from Friday, October 13. To join the ticket waitlist and for more information, head to the musical's website. Sarah Brightman images: Simon Fowler.
Watch a Mark Wahlberg-starring movie, tuck into a burg from Wahlberg's burger chain Wahlburgers, get the words 'burger' and 'Wahlberg' stuck in your head for days: that's now on the menu in Australia. After first announcing plans to open Down Under back in 2021, Wahlburgers has just launched its first Aussie store — so, Sydneysiders, it's time to pair a burger with some Sunkist. Because there's a reality TV show for everything, you've probably heard of the chain thanks to the 2014–9 series Wahlburgers, which turned its lens on the burger joints owned by the actor formerly known as Marky Mark and his brothers. Now — in Sydney from Thursday, February 17, at least — you can also eat the Wahlburgers' fast-food fare, rather than just watch a show about it. As also announced last year, Wahlburgers has now made its home at Sydney's Circular Quay, with its first Aussie outpost joining more than 50 stores in the US, Canada and Germany. Folks in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane can all look forward to munching on the brand's bites to eat, too — and in New Zealand as well — with the chain expected to launch 20 stores across Australia and NZ. On the menu: burgers, obviously, including a meat-free Impossible burg that's been dubbed 'Mark's choice', plus a barbecue bacon burger that bears his fellow actor brother (and ex-New Kids on the Block member) Donnie's tick of approval. There are 13 burg options to choose from in total, with two types of chicken schnitzel burger, a crispy fish option, and a truffle burger — which pairs a beef patty with truffle aioli — also available. Or, you can opt for salads, sides that span everything from French fries and sweet potato fries to onion rings and bacon mac 'n' cheese, and loaded versions of your favourite fries and potato gems. There's also a breakfast menu, complete with avocado on toast, granola, pancake stacks, breakfast burgers and French toast sticks. And, for dessert, you can pick from fried dough — yes, that's what the menu says — and three types of lamington from Tokyo Lamington. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wahlburgers Australia (@wahlburgersau) To answer the most important question, at least if you happen to remember that Mark Wahlberg was in the music business before he started acting and, as part of his hip hop group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, he released the 1991 single 'Good Vibrations': yes, Wahlburgers serves Sunkist, as referenced in that track's lyrics. Drinks-wise, there's also other soft drinks, coffees, shakes and spiders in both boozy and booze-free varieties, 17 types of cocktails, a small wine list, and beers that include Wahlbrewskis, the chain's signature beer. If the Wahlberg name has you thinking about movies — with Mark starring in everything from Boogie Nights to Joe Bell, and co-owner Donnie also featuring in The Sixth Sense and the Saw franchise — then that won't change with Wahlburgers' Aussie jaunt. In fact, the chain's entire venture Down Under is a collaboration with United Cinemas, and some of the former's sites will be located within the latter's picture palaces. United Cinemas now operates the cinema at Opera Quays that used to be a Dendy, for instance. The picture palace brand also currently runs venues at Narellan, Collaroy, Warriewood and Avalon in Sydney, Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, Craigieburn in Melbourne, Indooroopilly in Brisbane and Rockingham in Perth, so that's where you might be getting your Walhburger fix in the future, too — but Walhburgers will be opening stand-alone stores as well. Just when the chain will launch more locations around Australia and NZ hasn't yet been revealed. Wahlburgers is also co-owned by chef Paul Wahlberg — another Wahlberg sibling — and, given its name, the chain decks out its sites with photos and memorabilia from the brothers' lives. Wahlburgers is is now open at Opera Quays, 18a/7 Macquarie Street, Sydney, operating from 7am–10pm Sunday–Wednesday and 7am–11pm Thursday–Saturday. Further stores in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and New Zealand are also set to open in the future — we'll update you with exact locations and dates when they're announced, and you can keep an eye on the chain's website and Facebook page in the interim. Top image: Michael Rivera via Wikimedia Commons.
Looking for a top-notch tipple to sip? Plenty of prizes, nods and gongs have you covered. Looking for a great wine bar to drink them in, when and where it is safe to do so? That's the domain of the Wineslinger Awards, which has just announced its top 50 venues for 2020. As voted on by more than 100 industry experts — think sommeliers, winemakers, hospitality tastemakers and journalists — the Wineslinger Awards were created in 2018 by Rory Kent, who also founded the Young Gun of Wine Awards. Where the latter prize aims to recognise stellar up-and-comers, the former is all about excellent and innovative places where vino lovers can enjoy an ace drop. In this year's list, Wineslinger has shared the love around the country. Fifteen bars are located in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, 12 in Victoria, eight in Western Australia, and five each in South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland. Even better — almost half of the 2020 top 50 have been named for the first time, with 20 venues earning that honour. For folks looking for your next drinking spot, that means you have plenty of places to add to your must-visit list. Some are located in wine regions, others have been plying their trades for decades, and others still have only just opened — yes, during the pandemic. From the top 50, Wineslinger will single out a number of venues for trophies, which'll be awarded at a virtual presentation on Monday, October 19. The top gong is simply called 'Wineslinger', naturally, while other prizes span the self-explanatory 'Best New Haunt', as well as the 'Maverick' award for a venue that pushes the limits. And, for vino aficionados at home, there's also the 'People's Choice' prize — which is open for online votes right now, closing at midday on the day of the ceremony. As part of the public vote, Wineslinger is also supporting hospitality relief fund Tip Jar, via a $1 donation for every vote received. You can win prizes for having your say, too — including a heap of wine, obviously — but knowing that simply nominating your pick will help raise money for the industry is pretty great motivation. [caption id="attachment_781186" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Love, Tilly Devine, Darlinghurst via Nikki To[/caption] WINESLINGER AWARDS 2020 TOP 50 NSW/ACT 10 William Street, Paddington Alberto's Lounge, Sydney Bar Rochford, Canberra Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Sydney Bibo Wine Bar, Double Bay Dear Sainte Eloise, Potts Point Ester, Chippendale Fix Wine, Sydney Fleet, Brunswick Heads Love, Tilly Devine, Darlinghurst Ode Bar, Bondi Poly, Surry Hills Ragazzi, Sydney Where's Nick, Marrickville WyNo x Bodega, Surry Hills QLD Cru Bar + Cellar, Fortitude Valley La Lune Wine Co, South Brisbane La Lupa, West End Maeve Wine Bar, South Brisbane Snack Man, Fortitude Valley SA Hellbound, Adelaide Leigh Street Wine Room, Adelaide Mother Vine, Adelaide The Salopian Inn, McLaren Vale The Summertown Aristologist, Summertown TAS Havilah, Launceston Lucinda, Hobart Sonny, Hobart Stillwater, Launceston Tom McHugo's Hobart Hotel, Hobart VIC Bar Liberty, Fitzroy Carlton Wine Room, Carlton City Wine Shop, Melbourne Embla, Melbourne Etta, Brunswick East France-Soir, South Yarra Geralds Bar, Carlton North Marion, Fitzroy Napier Quarter, Fitzroy Old Palm Liquor, Brunswick East Union Street Wine, Geelong Winespeake, Daylesford WA Lalla Rookh, Perth Le Rebelle, Mount Lawley Liberté, Albany Lulu La Delizia, Subiaco Madalena's Bar, South Fremantle Petition Wine Merchant, Perth Settlers Tavern, Margaret River Wines of While, Perth To vote in Wineslinger's People's Choice Award before midday on Monday, October 19, visit the awards' website. Top images: Snack Man, Fortitude Valley; Ode Bar, Bondi; Marion, Fitzroy; Le Rebelle, Mount Lawley; Hellbound, Adelaide.
Brush up on your spells, Potterheads. Specifically, get ready to shout "accio iPhone". As first announced back in 2017, the wizarding world of Harry Potter is coming to your mobile — and the powers-that-be have revealed when as part of a new teaser trailer. Some time in 2019, Potter fans be joining the Ministry of Magic, wielding their wands and trying to contain traces of wizardry throughout the muggle world, all within Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. What else it involves is being kept in a chamber of secrets, although the game website does explain that players will enlist in the new Statute of Secrecy Task Force, where they'll be required to "hone lightning fast wand reflexes", "sniff out the faintest whiff of magical disorder from afar" and be proficient in the "advanced casting of multiple spells". Basically, it's a Pokemon Go-style step into the Harry Potter universe, giving everyone another augmented reality mobile game to get addicted to. And, it's from Niantic, the developers behind said game, who have teamed up here with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. When Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was first announced, Niantic noted that "players will learn spells, explore their real world neighbourhoods and cities to discover and fight legendary beasts and team up with others to take down powerful enemies" — in case you were wondering how it might emulate Pokemon Go. It also said the game "will leverage the full stack of the Niantic Platform while also providing an opportunity to pioneer all new technology and gameplay mechanics". That's about all we know for now — although you can check out the teaser below: It's up to you to protect the wizarding world. Enlist immediately for the Statute of Secrecy Task Force: https://t.co/b9UtoUA3gS #WizardsUnite pic.twitter.com/2NSlOpgj3W — Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (@HPWizardsUnite) November 14, 2018 For more information about the game, you can sign up for updates via www.harrypotterwizardsunite.com.
Set in the backstreets of suburban Brisbane, Trent Dalton's award-winning 2018 novel Boy Swallows Universe is destined to become an Aussie classic. In fact, it already is. As everyone who has read it as quickly as they possibly could knows — because they couldn't get enough of it, obviously — it follows a young boy, his prophetic brother and his jailbreaking best friend as they navigate the heroin-filled underworld of 80s Queensland. And, it's been winning heaps of fans for good reason. Boy Swallows Universe also nabbed admirers new and old when it came to life on the stage in Brisbane in 2021 — and that isn't the only adaptation this beloved book is getting. Next stop: Netflix, with the streaming platform announcing that it's turning the novel into an eight-part streaming series with an Aussie cast and crew. Exactly when it'll hit your queue hasn't yet been revealed, and neither has the lineup of actors who'll be stepping into the story, but this page-to-screen future must-see already boasts a heap of talent. Screenwriter John Collee (Master and Commander, Happy Feet, Hotel Mumbai) is doing the honours, while the show's executive producers include Troy Lum (The Water Diviner, Saving Mr Banks, Mao's Last Dancer), Andrew Mason (The Matrix, The Water Diviner), Sophie Gardiner (Howard's End, Chimerica), Kerry Roberts (Foe, Boy Erased), and Aussie actor and filmmaker Joel Edgerton (The Underground Railroad, The Green Knight). In a statement announcing the news, Dalton said "that sound you hear is my heart exploding. Internal fireworks popping and flashing in pinks and purples and golds. Let me scrape my jaw from the floor and whisper those words again and make sure this dream is true: BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE IS BEING ADAPTED FOR THE SCREEN FOR NETFLIX!". He continued: "an epic multi-part limited television series traversing the darkness of the Australian suburbs and the fabric of the human heart and stretching to the edges of the universe and our wildest dreams. My boyhood potty mouth always comes out in times like these. I start dropping random whispered F-bombs around the house. Talking to myself before mirrors in the bathroom and such: "How the flippin' heck did it all come to this'." Dalton also stepped into the backstory behind the book. "When I was a boy, my three older brothers and I found a secret underground room beneath the outer-western Brisbane house of a dangerously successful Queensland heroin dealer whom my mother loved with all her heart," he advised. "Inside that secret room was nothing but four brick walls and a rotary dial red telephone. I never understood as a boy why that phone was in that room or who could possibly be on the other end of that line. In 2018, I wrote a book called Boy Swallows Universe that suggested that phone existed for magic. I wrote about all the very real things I saw as a kid growing up in the outer suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in the 1980s: drug addiction, drug dealing, ex-cons and ex-killers, imprisonment, poverty, violence and love. So much love. And so much hope. So much discovery of hope through the power of love." On the page, Boy Swallows Universe has snagged a slew of local awards, including Book of the Year, Literary Book of the Year and Audio Book of the Year at the 2019 Australian Book Industry Awards. The novel, which has sold a hefty amount of copies in Australia alone — 160,000 in 2019, when the play was announced — was also longlisted for Australia's most prestigious literature prize, the Miles Franklin Award. And, this news has been in the works for some time, with Harper Collins selling the television rights to the novel back in 2019. Edgerton has been set to produce the show since then — but if you've been waiting to actually lock your eyes on a Boy Swallows Universe series, now it's finally happening. Boy Swallows Universe will hit Netflix as an eight-part series sometime in the near future. We'll update you with further information, including a release date, when it's announced. Top image: Boy Swallows Universe stage production, David Kelly.
There's an intrinsic connection between emerging bands and pubs. The neighbourhood pub is a testing ground; the crucible where garage bands find out whether they've got what it takes to make it in front of a crowd. Who better to help these local legends get their start in the live performing world than Rolling Stone? A household name in music. Rolling Stone AU/NZ has teamed up with Keno for Local Legends, a multi-state gig series that pairs up-and-coming bands with great pubs. There are two gigs going down in May: the first at the Stock Exchange Hotel in Brisbane on Saturday, May 24, and the second at Hotel Steyne in Sydney on Saturday, May 31. Both events are free, with doors opening at 4pm before you wrap your ears around of a lineup of tunes from bands from all over Australia. So who's on the lineup at the Stockie? Once the crowds have filled the space, the first act to take the stage at 5pm is a local Brisbane group: The Steele Syndicate. This funk-rock octet may be new to the scene, but they're pinned for shows at Bluesfest and Peaks Festival later in 2025, so they're one to watch. Following that, enjoy an acoustic-style set at 6pm from Sydney-based indie pop star Charli Lucas and Central Coast-born pop artist Molly Millington. Then at 7.15, New Zealand pop rock trio BORDERLINE bring the noise ahead of Perth indie rock headliners Great Gable — who are fresh off an Australia/New Zealand album tour for their 2024 release Small Fry. The best news? Entry to the gig is completely free. Come for the music, bring your mates and enjoy a great night out checking out Australia's emerging musical talent in an intimate space. Rolling Stone Local Legends will take place at the Stock Exchange Hotel on Saturday, May 24, from 4pm. For more information, visit the Rolling Stone website. Gamble Responsibly. Think! About your choices. Help is close at hand. Call Gambler's Help, ACT Gambling Counselling and Support Service or GambleAware 1800 858 858 gambleaware.nsw.gov.au or www.gamblinghelponline.org.au.
Have you ever sipped a daiquiri under the Barbie-head chandelier at Lychee Lounge? Check. Dined whilst sat cross-legged on a rug at Garuva? Check. Visited the gents' with a one-way mirror at the Regatta? Check. But have you had dinner in a shipping container? Well, every Friday and Saturday night, you can do just that. Brisbane's patron saint of markets, restaurants and cafes, Peter Hackworth, will transform Hamilton Wharf into a foodie's dream, creating a gastronomic spectacle never seen in Brisbane before. The team from Eat Street Markets — including Hackworth, John Stainton and Jacki MacDonald — have worked together to deliver 60 shipping containers to the wharf, creating a street market with originality coming out the ears. The goal is to "recreate in Brisbane the hustle and bustle of the fabulous food markets of Asia" according to Hackworth, a goal that is set to be achieved by inviting local chefs to whip up their take on South-East Asian cuisine, complemented by boutique beers, cocktails and fine wines, all set to the unique aural offerings of local musicians. If you're heading down over the Australia Day weekend, expect special edition treats from your favourite vendors — we're talking a possible second batch of chocolate Cronut ice cream, a special 'Turkish Delight' dessert gozleme with Nutella, bananas and walnuts, special edition handmade confectionery from New Farm Confectionery and All The Lamb Chops from Redgate Farm — as well as live entertainment and your usual array of local food and wine delights. Eat Street is on from 4-10pm every Friday and Saturday night. See their website for more details.
On February 17, 1936, when Sir Reginald Ansett first took flight in his Fokker Universal passenger plane from Hamilton, Victoria, he wasn't to know that his would be a legacy in two acts. A legacy not just of iconic Southern Hemisphere aviation, but also of the dankest wearable swag this side of that $19 Bunnings cap with the built-in torch. Yet, some 82 years later, in a rural tin shed-cum-hangar-cum-museum — located at the birthplace of the aforementioned national aero-identity — lies, in mint-ish condition, the most complete collection of Ansett Australia paraphernalia you never knew you were in grave spiritual free fall without. And much of which money can buy. Because we're suckers for nostalgia and weird experiences accessible from the city, it was time to beeline — nay, V/Line — 288 kilometres west to the good township of Hamilton (town slogan: "One place, many possibilities") and examine the loot. But first: the 'museum'. There she blows. If you're not familiar with Ansett Australia, it was an airline — much like Qantas is currently an airline — until 2001 when it was placed into administration following a gnarly financial collapse. At its peak, it sponsored the cricket, provided Winnie The Pooh pencil cases and colouring books for kids, and served hot food on board when the competition bothered not to. It was the official airline of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, flying the torch from Auckland to Uluru, and it sponsored Neighbours during the iconic Kylie era of the late 80s. The museum tells of the erstwhile airline's rise and fall (mostly the fall) and houses a neat grab of quintessential airline detritus. It also houses a heap of derelict (and creepy) mannequins — perhaps the most complete collection of derelict mannequins in the entire Southern Grampians region — cracking out in costume, for your pleasure. Some are more headless than others. About halfway through the museum, we hit a room covered with testimonials from former employees penning some pretty deep plane's-going-down truths. Some were undyingly positive — "It should not have gone down / We were fabulous / We could have blasted QF and VG out of the sky" — others more sombre — "To everyone, for everything, thank you" — and some a little bit extraterrestrial: "We might all be gone but our spirits will last forever". Also in the room was this scary unexplained bus. Aside from the reminiscing and the scrutinising decaying mannequins, what you're really here for is that euphoric airline swag of yore. Like this 90s schoolyard must-have. What a ride. If you're not ready to go home, or you can't for whatever reason, a volunteer — let's call him Gary — who'll put on a historical Ansett Australia DVD in the headless mannequin room. It's ok — two stars. Otherwise it's an exit through the gift shop, where you'll find many things you can buy with your money and wear to cool nightclubs. You can buy this stubbie cooler ($8). That you can pair with this beanie ($10). Or this fresh self-mulleting legionnaires hat ($10). And put it all in this nightclub-essential bum bag ($9). Probably drape one of these ($5) around your best finger, too. It all feels a bit like when an elderly relative dies and you have to spend a weekend going through their things — only the deceased was an airline and owned more stuff. But, hey, treasure is treasure. The Ansett Australia Museum is located just three and a half hours from Melbourne in Hamilton, and is weird and good. Did I say good? I meant strange. Entry is $10 for adults, $8 for concession, but you can also not go into the museum and just go to the gift shop — though you'll have to explain that to Gary. You can also just go to this website and buy heaps of this stuff online, but you would really be missing out on the whole experience. Ansett Museum is located at the corner of Ballarat Road and Riley Street, Hamilton, Vic. It's open daily from 9am–4pm. To book a visit call (03) 5571 2767. Images: Frank Sweet.
Drawing attention away from any one of Timothée Chalamet (Wonka), Zendaya (Euphoria), Javier Bardem (The Little Mermaid), Rebecca Ferguson (Silo) or Josh Brolin (Outer Range) isn't easy, let alone from all five in the same films. And yet, the desert expanse that's roamed across by the stars of Denis Villeneuve's Dune franchise demands notice above everyone and everything. The person guaranteeing that viewers not only spy the sand stretching as far as the eye can see, but feel its impact: Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser. On both Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two, his work for the Blade Runner 2049 director ensures that audiences spend ample time with Chalamet and company as well. The two movies are as intimate as they are epic. But these pictures couldn't exist without their namesake receiving such prominence. Sand isn't just sand in Dune, or to Fraser. With Dune: Part Two, Frank Herbert's books now reach cinemas for the third time — David Lynch's 80s adaptation came first — but they couldn't value golden grains more highly even when they were only playing out in readers' imaginations. In the Dune realm, all that siliceous substance is spice, also known as melange. It powers interstellar travel, extends lives and expands consciousness. It's only found on Arrakis, the planet that Chalamet's Paul Atreides is sent to live on in Dune: Part One when his father (Oscar Isaac, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) is installed as its new ruler. It's hardly astonishing, then, that past overseer Baron Vladimir Harkonnens (Stellan Skarsgård, Andor) isn't thrilled about losing control of such a treasure trove. It's similarly unsurprising that the Fremen, Arrakis' Indigenous population, is determined to fight for their home and destiny. Spinning this story for cinema was always going to be a sandy endeavour, with Fraser's skills pivotal. For Dune: Part One, which stunned with its spectacular desert-swept visuals and set the bar stratospherically high for its sequel, he won the Best Cinematography Oscar. "You become an expert in the dunes," he tells Concrete Playground about not just making the first film, but also returning for Dune: Part Two. He didn't shoot the initial flick with its follow-up in mind, however — or even dream back when he lensed his first-ever feature, 2005's Jewboy, that this is where his career would take him, or to an Academy Award-nomination for Lion before his Dune win. Bright Star, Let Me In, Zero Dark Thirty, Foxcatcher, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Mandalorian, The Batman, The Creator: they're all also on Fraser's resume. "It's funny because, it's going to sound a little bit weird, but I just didn't think full stop," Fraser shares about his mindset when he was initially starting out. "Whenever I was doing a movie when I was younger, or even now, frankly, it's one foot in front of the other as opposed to a master plan. I wish I was smart enough to be in that Dune world of plans within plans, and manipulating events to my end. But really what I was just trying to do was just trying to do the best job of the thing that was sitting right in front of me." "So no, I can tell you that right now, when we were filming in Bondi for that movie, on a bus in Bondi" — for Jewboy, that is — "that I categorically was not ever thinking about the possibility of doing something like Dune. That was never on my radar. Obviously I knew what I liked, and I knew the films that I loved. And it just became a a race — or a game, I should say — of doing what I love doing. And then if I was doing what I love doing, and then doing the best job that I could, then hopefully that then leads to the next thing that I love doing. And that's kind of how the career's gone. It's a little bit of a simplistic way of describing it, but that's a genuine, honest take on it," Fraser continues. To say that his career is going well is an understatement. Now that Fraser has returned to Dune — including showing moviegoers what Arrakis and all of its sand looks like under an eclipse, and also bringing the planet of Giedi Prime, which dwells beneath a black sun, to the screen — he'll next shoot the Dark Knight again on The Batman Part II. We chatted with the cinematographer about his work on both Dune films to-date, his Oscars recognition, how daunting it is to try to back up his Dune: Part One accolades on Dune: Part Two, his new expertise on sand dunes, taking Arrakis and Giedi Prime from the page to the screen, and more. [caption id="attachment_774009" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dune: Part One. Image: Chiabella James. Copyright: © 2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] On Lensing Dune: Part One Without Presuming That Fraser would Be Returning on Dune: Part Two "You never take anything for granted, and doing a movie is a miracle. People talk about us as a species having evolved, that's kind of a miracle — because there's a million things that could have gone wrong with a film getting up and going, but then there's another million things that could have gone wrong with me being able to do it. I could have been committed on another project. Denis may have chosen to to use another cinematographer, as is his right and he should and could, to create something different. Because that's what he he does — he casts his crew like he cast his actors. And so there's a whole myriad of reasons why I may not have been able to do Part Two. So I wasn't necessarily doing Part One on the proviso that I do Part Two. I was trying to make — as Denis was — Part One as good as possible, and do the best job for my director as possible. Then, with Part Two — obviously, we knew there was more of the story, but it's not dissimilar to to something like Rogue One. You know there's more to the story because the Star Wars universe is bigger than just Rogue One, but you don't make Rogue One thinking there's going to be another one or a series. You make the best thing you can." On Winning an Oscar for Dune: Part One — and Receiving a Nomination for Lion Before That "I love Lion, as I know a lot of people do. There's a lot of love out in the world for Lion. So, to have done that — the recognition is interesting, because the recognition from my peers is really important, and particularly peers that I respect and know. There's been a few events in my life where I've been given a pat on the back by people that I respect, and that's what effectively the Oscars are. A nomination for that is that exact thing. It's a pat on the back by your peers. And the win itself is, of course, icing on the cake, but that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is the nomination, because it basically says that of the movies of that year, that your peers feel like you are in the top five — and that's a big deal. For a kid from Melbourne who used to shoot short films and music videos with his buddies, to have made the top five film of the year for two years, I guess, now — two nominations — that's a big deal to have kudos from your peers, that I think's quite, quite fantastic. And also as a pat on the back to not just me, but also my director. Because if you recall in that year, Garth Davis directed Lion and that's a pat on the back to him. And Denis in the year that Dune was nominated, it's a massive pat on the back to him." On Being Daunted on Dune: Part Two After the Accolades and Acclaim Earned by Dune: Part One "Suddenly there's hype behind it. If it'd just been people going 'yeah, good one, that's great', well Part Two, you've got nothing to lose. But going into Part Two for us meant that we had everything to lose. Suddenly the stakes where a thousand times higher because everybody was going 'well, that won all these awards, this has got to be better'. Now, I will say just on the record, there have been many, many movies that have not won Academy Awards that are incredibly deserving — and there are many, many that have that aren't. So winning an Academy Award, in my opinion, is not always for the best film, out of respect for other films that don't win. But there is an inbuilt kind of consensus that that becomes the best film of the year. So therefore we were like 'alright, well all of us basically won that year'. Myself, and Patrice [Vermette, Foe] the production designer, and Paul [Lambert, First Man] the effects supervisor, and Joe [Walker, The Creator] the editor — we all kind of went 'gulp, we've got to make this better'. We want to make it better for ourselves anyway, and for the director anyway. But we're now like 'okay, now we've got to make it better better better better better'. Again, regardless of what it does in the awards season, I feel like we've made it better. I think every department stepped up. I didn't think that was even possible, frankly — that the design could be any better than last time or the VFX could be better than last time. But it is. And it was. And we did. And it felt better." On Becoming an Expert in Sand Dunes "What happens that I've learned — so here is the the masterclass of the sand dunes, if anybody wants to go out and shoot sand dunes — is that the time of day is critical. So you might be scouting a place in the morning where the sun's coming from east and you might not love it. You might dismiss it as a location. But you're driving past there in the afternoon, and the way the sun works its way across the the tops of the sand dunes and backlights the wind, it can change the location massively. Often at the beginning of our journey, back in 2019–2020, we would scout at the wrong time of day — or we would scout at a time of day that we weren't shooting. And we soon came to realise that 'okay, when this is scheduled, let's scout when it's scheduled, and that's the afternoon'. Which, in hindsight, is logical, and I'm surprised it even took us the couple of days it took us to figure that out. But yeah, I've become a bit of an expert when it comes to what the sand dunes are going to look like with the right light." On Giving Arrakis a Different Colour Palette for Dune: Part Two "We didn't want to start the movie the same way that that Part One ended. And it was a very deliberate, very deliberate process. Denis obviously had a really long time to think about this film — because even though I had done The Batman between the two Dune films, he had not. He was finishing Dune: Part One and he was preparing Dune: Part Two. So he had a lot of time to think about it, and he came to me and said 'I don't feel like we should start this the same way we ended'. And he said 'should we consider doing this as a night scene?'. And you know, I read the script, and a night scene for that scene would have been technically really tough, in the desert with lights. It would have been not only tough — nothing was impossible, of course — but I don't think the end result would have been as good. So we looked at day for night options. We looked at other ways to film it, to make it look different. And I found a filter that that cuts out a lot of blue and green light — not all of it, just a part of it, so it changes the spectrum, and it felt a little bit reddy-orange, but it still had colour. And we went 'perfect, that's what this world looks like when there's an eclipse'. So we said 'okay, we have the ability to to make an eclipse whenever we want'. And so we went 'let's start the film with an eclipse'. The funny thing was, we didn't plan for this, but during our time filming that sequence there was actually an eclipse in Jordan. Not to that degree — but we did a shot, we had our splinter unit DP Christoph with the long lens filming the sun, and so he did film the eclipse. I think there might be shot of the actual eclipse that we filmed in the film." On the Striking Look of House Harkonnen's Giedi Prime "Again, it's conversation with Denis. So Denis said 'listen, there's a fight scene. Feyd-Rautha [played by Elvis' Austin Butler] is gladiator, and there's a fight scene, and it's outside in a gladiatorial environment — but it can't look like Arrakis'. You think about all the gladiator films you've seen, and they're all on sand, aren't they? And they're all under the sun. So you would be confused if it looked like Gladiator or something, because it would be too similar to Arrakis. I'm not sure if this is in the book or not, but Denis wanted to create a a black sun for that world. And I was like 'wow, okay, what does the black sun do? Does it suck light out? Well, if it does, then it's black. It's a black hole.' But we were like 'no, it sucks the colour out. It emits an infrared light, but it sucks all the colour'. All work that's outside — the sun, effectively anything that's hit by sun or the effects of sun — is an infrared type of light with no visible colour. There are some scenes where it's inside in Giedi Prime and it's muted colours, but it's not black and white. When anybody comes from the Baron's box, for example, when they're inside in artificial light, let's call it, it's colour. It has colour. But then when they get hit by the sun, they become just this white, almost-ghoulish kind of effect. The benefit of that was that it really helped us tell that story of why the Harkonnen look the way they do — why they look so pale, and why they have alopecia, and why they have such gaunt, pale, pasty skin. It's because they don't get any of the ultraviolet from from the real sun. That's a backstory that never gets discussed in the movie, but hopefully with an audience it starts to become logical that you go 'okay, I get why they're so white and they need protection in the desert, because they can't handle the UV'. On Balancing the Epic and the Intimate On-Screen "I love extremes. I love dramatic extremes. I'm visually quite dramatic, I would like to think. So there's nothing more fantastic to me than seeing a closeup, then cutting to an extreme wide [shot] and seeing scale and grandeur that we possibly can't even imagine. It's something that I love about the Star Wars series. These guys get on the Millennium Falcon, which is massive, and then the Millennium Falcon flies up close to the Death Star, which then the Millennium Falcon becomes tiny. It's all about scale. It's people that we know get into something big, and then that big thing flies into something even bigger, which is beyond belief. It's hard to imagine that scale. As humans, we rarely come across scale that that absolutely floors us. I know people start talking about things like the Grand Canyon, they start talking about massive structures — massive earth-mining machinery, about the scale of those things that just literally blow their mind. So with filmmaking, we have that ability to create this scale that's beyond beyond this world, but mindblowing. Like those worms, I mean, those worms are beyond massive." On Making a Third Dune Film If It Comes to Fruition "Absolutely. I love working with Denis, so anytime Denis asks me to do a movie, I'll be there if the stars align — I'd be absolutely there. How it would look is a different story. I can't tell you what that would be, and that's what's fun about the process of discovering what a film is. Because Part Three would not look like Part One and Part Two. It would look different, and I don't know how that would be different at this point, which is fun because it means you got to work it out — and we could be talking again in whenever it comes out, five, ten years, whatever. If I get the chance to shoot it, then I'd love to talk about how different we made it. But at the moment, I don't know. It's a funny thing. I would love to do it. And if it comes off for me and the timing's right, fantastic." Dune: Part Two opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, February 29, 2024. Read our reviews of Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two.
This time last year, we'd all spent far too much time in front of our TVs. Sadly, that hasn't changed all that much in 2021. That's life during a pandemic — which means that you've likely rewatched all your favourite television shows, and possibly more than once, while we've all been spending more time indoors of late. There's nothing like getting cosy with a TV series you truly love, whether for the second, fifth, 11th or 20th time. But if you're always eager to add some fresh standouts to your viewing list, 2021 has definitely delivered plenty so far. They're the new series that'll sit atop your rewatch pile in years to come, because they're all just that exceptional. Love powerful dramas that interrogate the past? This year has served up those. Fancy smart new comedies with local ties? Yep, 2021 has thrust those in front of eyeballs, too. Also debuting over the past six months: new gems from the teams behind old favourites, twisty thrillers and more than a couple of series with casts that knock it out of the park. Yes, the list goes on. With the year at its halfway point, here are our picks of 2021's best new TV and streaming series that you owe it to yourself to seek out now. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Two words: Barry Jenkins. Where the Oscar-nominated Moonlight director goes, viewers should always follow. That proved the case with 2018's If Beale Street Could Talk, and it's definitely accurate regarding The Underground Railroad, the phenomenal new ten-part series that features Jenkins behind the camera of each and every episode. As the name makes plain, the historical drama uses the real-life Underground Railroad — the routes and houses that helped enslaved Black Americans escape to freedom — as its basis. Here, though, drawing on the past isn't as straightforward as it initially sounds. Adapting Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same moniker, the series dives deeply into the experiences of people endeavouring to flee slavery, while also adopting magic-realism when it comes to taking a literal approach to its railroad concept. That combination couldn't work better in Jenkins' hands as he follows Cora (Thuso Mbedu, Shuga), a woman forced into servitude on a plantation overseen by Terrance Randall (Benjamin Walker, Jessica Jones). As always proves the case in the filmmaker's work, every frame is a thing of beauty, every second heaves with emotion, and every glance, stare, word and exchange is loaded with a thorough examination of race relations in America. If something else this affecting reaches streaming queues in 2021, it'll be a phenomenal year for audiences. The Underground Railroad is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS Named after a meme, and focusing on characters that can hardly be described likeable but are nonetheless instantly recognisable, Australian sitcom Why Are You Like This takes aim at 21st century life. Its three main figures are all twentysomethings endeavouring to navigate a never-ending onslaught of personal and professional problems, such as getting fired, battling with colleagues, money troubles, hiding boyfriends, losing moon cups and trying to spark a workplace revolution but ending up getting other people fired — so, yes, they're just like the rest of us. Penny (series co-creator Naomi Higgins, Utopia) wants to be an ally to everyone. Her bestie Mia (Olivia Junkeer, Neighbours) matches that determination with both self-assurance and a self-serving mindset; if she's sticking up for anyone, it's always herself. Rounding out the trio is Penny's housemate and aspiring drag queen Austin (Wil King), whose glittery outfits and super-sized personality can't always hide his internal crumbling. Across the show's six-episode first season, these three friends keep trying to stand out in their own ways. They also keep demonstrating both their best and worst traits. As satirical as it is candid and relatable, Why Are You Like This knows that everyone and everything is awful, and leans in. And, in terms of the series' style of comedy, the fact that Higgins created the show with lawyer and illustrator Humyara Mahbub and Aunty Donna's Mark Samual Bonanno says plenty. Why Are You Like This was available to stream earlier in 2021 via ABC iView — keep an eye on the platform in case it pops up again. Read our full review. IT'S A SIN More than two decades after creating Queer as Folk, Russell T Davies gives the television landscape another excellent queer drama. The screenwriter and television producer has been busy over the intervening period thanks to everything from Doctor Who to Years and Years — and he also has 2015's Cucumber to his name, too — but It's a Sin is one of the very best things on his lengthy resume. Stepping back to the AIDS crisis of the 80s and early 90s, the five-part miniseries follows a group of friends chasing their dreams in London. Ritchie (Olly Alexander, Penny Dreadful) heads to the city to become an actor, and to avoid telling his stern parents that he's gay. Roscoe (Omari Douglas) flees his parents' home when they keep threatening to take him back to Nigeria. Colin (Callum Scott Howells) arrives for an apprenticeship at a high-end tailor shop, but soon finds himself seeking an escape from his lecherous boss. Given the era, there's no doubting where the story will head. It's a Sin is as joyous and vibrant as it is soulful and heartbreaking, though. Ritchie, Roscoe and Colin not only cross paths, but form a makeshift family in their modest flat, with the former's college friends Jill (Lydia West, Dracula) and Ash (Nathaniel Curtis) rounding out the quintet. Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Fry also feature, but they're never It's a Sin's stars — because, in series that looks and sounds the period part at every moment, the show's five main players are simply phenomenal. It's a Sin is available to stream via Stan. STARSTRUCK When Rose Matafeo last graced our screens, she took on pregnancy-centric rom-coms in 2020's Baby Done. Now, in Starstruck, she's still pairing the romantic and the comedic. In another thoughtful, plucky and relatable performance, she plays Jessie, a 28-year-old New Zealander in London who splits her time between working in a cinema and nannying, and isn't expecting much when her best friend and roommate Kate (Emma Sidi, Pls Like) drags her out to a bar on New Year's Eve. For most of the evening, her lack of enthusiasm proves astute. Then she meets Tom (Nikesh Patel, Four Weddings and a Funeral). He overhears her rambling drunkenly to herself in the men's bathroom, they chat at the bar and, when sparks fly, she ends up back at his sprawling flat. It isn't until the next morning, however — when she sees a poster adorned with his face leaning against his living room wall — that she realises that he's actually one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Yes, Starstruck takes Notting Hill's premise and gives it a 22-years-later update, and delivers a smart, sidesplittingly funny and all-round charming rom-com sitcom in the process. When a film or TV show is crafted with a deep-seated love for its chosen genre, it shows. When it wants to do more than just nod and wink at greats gone by like a big on-screen super fan — when its creators passionately hope that it might become a classic in its own right, rather than a mere imitation of better titles — that comes through, too. And that's definitely the case with this ridiculously easy-to-binge charmer. Starstruck is available to stream via ABC iView. Read our full review. WAKEFIELD Scroll through the list of Wakefield's cast members, and many a famous Australian name pops up. Ryan Corr (High Ground), Wayne Blair (Rams), Kim Gyngell (Brothers' Nest), Harriet Dyer (The Invisible Man), and comedians Felicity Ward and Sam Simmons are just some of them, but this ABC series belongs to phenomenal British talent Rudi Dharmalingam (The Split). With an Aussie accent so flawless that all other actors attempting the feat should study it in the future, he plays nurse Nik Katira. His workplace: the eponymous Wakefield, a mental health hospital in the Blue Mountains. Nik's days involve caring for his patients, navigating the usual workplace politics and grappling with his personal life, with all three often overlapping. That might sound like the usual medical drama, but Wakefield isn't ever as straightforward as it might appear. From its very first episode — one of five directed by The Dressmaker filmmaker Jocelyn Moorhouse, with the other three helmed by The Rocket's Kim Mordaunt — the series purposefully throws its viewers off-kilter. With roving cinematography and looping stories, it keeps everyone watching guessing, just as the figures within its frames are doing about their daily existence (including and sometimes especially Nik). Already set to be one of Australian TV's most impressive new series of the year — and likely the best of the year, too — Wakefield is gripping, twisty, powerful and almost devastatingly empathetic about a topic that is rarely handled with as much care and understanding. In other words, it's a knockout. Wakefield is available to stream via ABC iView. MARE OF EASTTOWN Kate Winslet doesn't make the leap to the small screen often, but when she does, it's a must-see event. 2011's Mildred Pierce was simply astonishing, a description that both Winslet and her co-star Guy Pearce also earned — alongside an Emmy each, plus three more for the HBO limited series itself. The two actors and the acclaimed US cable network all reteam for Mare of Easttown, and it too is excellent. Set on the outskirts of Philadelphia, it follows detective Mare Sheehan. As the 25th anniversary of her high-school basketball championship arrives, and after a year of trying to solve a missing person's case linked to one of her former teammates, a new murder upends her existence. Mare's life overflows with complications anyway, with her ex-husband (David Denman, Brightburn) getting remarried, and her mother (Jean Smart, Watchmen), teenage daughter (Angourie Rice, Spider-Man: Far From Home) and four-year-old grandson all under her roof. With town newcomer Richard Ryan (Pearce, The Last Vermeer), she snatches what boozy and physical solace she can. As compelling and textured as she always is, including in this year's Ammonite, Winslet turns Mare of Easttown into a commanding character study. That said, it's firmly an engrossing crime drama as well. Although yet again pondering the adult life of an ex-school sports star, The Way Back's Brad Ingelsby isn't just repeating himself by creating and writing this seven-part series, while The Leftovers and The Hunt's Craig Zobel takes to his directing gig with a probing eye. Mare of Easttown is available to stream via Binge. GIRLS5EVA First, a word of warning: the hit song that brought fictional late 90s/early 00s girl group Girls5eva to fame is such an earworm, you'll be singing it to yourself for weeks after you binge through the sitcom that bears their name. That's to be expected given that Jeff Richmond, the composer behind 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's equally catchy and comedic tunes, is one of the talents behind it. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock produce the series, too, so you what type of humour you're in for. Starring Sara Bareilles (Broadway's Waitress), Busy Philipps (I Feel Pretty), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton) and the great Paula Pell (AP Bio), Girls5eva follows four members of the eponymous band two decades after their heyday. Their initial success didn't last, and life has left the now-fortysomething women at different junctures. Then a rapper samples their hit, they're asked to reunite for a one-night backing spot on The Tonight Show, and they contemplate getting back together to give music another shot. As well as being exceptionally well-cast and immensely funny, the series is also bitingly perceptive about stardom, the entertainment industry and the way that women beyond their twenties are treated. Also, when Fey inevitably pops up, she does so as a dream version of Dolly Parton — and it's as glorious as it sounds. Girls5eva is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. CALLS Everyone has heard about the response that The War of the Worlds reportedly sparked back in 1938. That's when Orson Welles adapted HG Wells' novel into a radio play, and the result was so convincing that it reportedly incited panic among listeners. Watching Calls, it's easy to understand how. 'Watching' isn't exactly the right term for this mystery series, though. Like all those folks glued to their radios 83 years ago, Calls' audience is forced to listen intently. Indeed, in terms of visuals, the series only provides two types: words transcribing the conversations heard, and abstract visuals that move and shift with each sentence uttered and every suspenseful pause left lingering. Accordingly, focusing on the snippets of phone chats that tell the program's stories is what Calls is all about. Remaking the French show of the same name, and directed by Evil Dead and Don't Breathe's Fede Álvarez, something much more than a small-screen version of a story-fuelled podcast eventuates. A starry cast voices the chats — including everyone from Parks and Recreation duo Aubrey Plaza and Ben Schwartz to Wonder Woman 1984's Pedro Pascal and The Lodge's Riley Keough — but it's the tension and power of their words that leaves an impression. Each of the nine episodes tells a short story that eventually builds an overall picture, and getting caught up in them all is far easier than the underlying concept might initially make you think. Calls is available to stream via Apple TV+. MADE FOR LOVE When author Alissa Nutting penned Made for Love, no one needed to think too hard about her source of inspiration. Now bringing its tale to the small screen courtesy of the series of the same name, her story ponders one of the possible next steps in our technology-saturated lives. Hazel Green-Gogol (Cristin Milioti, Palm Springs) seems to live a lavishly and happily with her tech billionaire husband Byron (Billy Magnussen, Aladdin). They haven't left his company's desert campus in the entire ten years they've been married, in fact. The site is designed to cater for their every desire and whim, so they shouldn't need to go anywhere else — or that's how Byron views things, at least. Then his next big idea looks set to become a reality, and Hazel decides that she can't keep up the charade. She certainly doesn't want to be implanted with a chip that'll allow Byron to see through her eyes, access her feelings and always know where she is, and she's willing to take drastic actions to escape his hold over her life. Bringing the plot to the screen herself, Nutting favours a darkly comedic and sharply satirical vibe as she follows Hazel's quest for freedom, with Made for Love filled with blisteringly accurate insights into the tech-dependence that's become a regular part of 21st century existence. That said, the series wouldn't be the gem it is without Milioti, as well as Ray Romano (The Irishman) in a scene-stealing supporting part as Hazel's father. Made for Love is available to stream via Stan. LOS ESPOOKYS It has taken almost two years for the delight that is Los Espookys to reach Australian screens — and it'll take you less than three hours to binge its six-episode first season. This HBO comedy is both worth the wait and worth devouring as quickly as possible, though. The setup: horror aficionado Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco, Museo) wants to turn his obsession into his profession, so he starts staging eerie scenarios for paying customers, enlisting his best friend Andrés (Julio Torres, Shrill), pal Úrsula (Cassandra Ciangherotti, Ready to Mingle) and the latter's sister Tati (Ana Fabrega, At Home with Amy Sedaris) to help. Torres and Fabrega co-created the show with Portlandia and Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen, who also pops up as Renaldo's parking valet uncle. This mostly Spanish-language series only uses its biggest name sparingly, however, because its key cast members own every moment. Following the titular group's exploits as they attempt to ply their trade, and to weave it into their otherwise chaotic lives, Los Espookys always manages to be both sidesplittingly hilarious and so meticulous in its horror references that it's almost uncanny. There's nothing on-screen quite like it and, thankfully, it has already been renewed for a second season. Los Espookys is available to stream via Binge. RUTHERFORD FALLS He co-wrote and produced The Office. He did the same on Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which he co-created as well. And, he gave the world The Good Place — which makes Michael Schur one of the best in the business when it comes to kind-hearted, smart and savvy small-screen laughs. His new show, Rutherford Falls, continues the streak. Co-created with star Ed Helms and showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas (Superstore), it also boasts his usual charm and intelligence and, as with all of the above programs, it's exceptionally well-cast. Plus, it's immensely easy to binge in just one sitting, because each one of its ten first-season episodes leave you wanting more. The setup: in the place that gives the sitcom its name, Nathan Rutherford (Helms, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun) runs the local history museum. One of his descendants founded the town, and he couldn't be more proud of that fact. He's also very protective of the towering statue of said ancestor, even though it sits in the middle of a road and causes accidents. So, when the mayor (Dana L.Wilson, Perry Mason) decides to move the traffic hazard, Nathan and his overzealous intern Bobbie (Jesse Leigh, Heathers) spring into action. Nathan's best friend Reagan Wells (Jana Schmieding, Blast) helps; however, the Minishonka Nation woman begins to realise just how her pal's family have shaped the fate of her Native American community. Also featuring a scene-stealing Michael Greyeyes (I Know This Much Is True) as the enterprising head of the Minishonka Nation casino, Rutherford Falls pairs witty laughs with warmth and sincerity, especially when it comes to exploring the treatment of First Nations peoples in America today. Rutherford Falls is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. THE SERPENT One day, Tahar Rahim will likely win an Oscar. He's that phenomenal an actor, as he has shown in everything from A Prophet, The Past and Daguerreotype to The Eddy and The Mauritanian. In The Serpent, however, he's never been more unsettling — but given that he's playing Charles Sobhraj, that comes with the territory. If the real-life French serial killer's name doesn't ring a bell, then this eight-part series will make sure you'll never forget it. The instantly riveting drama tells a grim true tale, and an unnerving one. With his girlfriend Marie-Andrée Leclerc (Jenna Coleman, The Cry) and accomplice Ajay Chowdhury (TV first-timer Amesh Edireweera), Sobhraj targeted young travellers in Bangkok and south Asia in the 70s — usually luring them in with a scam first, or trying to flat-out steal their money, then drugging them, killing them and stealing their passports. Ripper Street writers Richard Warlow and Toby Finlay intertwine Sobhraj, Leclerc and Chowdhury's murderous exploits with the efforts of Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg (Billy Howle, Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker) to find two missing tourists. After being tipped off about two bodies by a loud-mouthed Australian in Thailand (Damon Herriman, Judy & Punch), Knippenberg begins to piece together the broader story. It's easy to feel just as he does while watching The Serpent, actually, because getting swept up in its distressing details is simply inevitable. The Serpent is available to stream via Netflix. Looking for more viewing highlights? Check out our list of film and TV streaming recommendations, which is updated monthly.
It was 35 years ago in the original 1977 Star Wars film that Princess Leia called for the help of Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi through holographic messaging. At the time we thought anyone would be out of their mind to think such a thing would be possible. We were wrong about a lot of things back in 1977. Educated as an industrial design engineer but always fascinated by lights, Japanese artist Makoto Tojiki turned his head to creating art in 2003 and for five years has worked on his life sized light sculptures. Through the medium of thousands of LED lights and optical fibres, the futuristic celestial like sculptures approach the idea of 'physical presence' in an illuminating way. Tojiki explains his stunning 'No Shadow' light installation sculptures: "An object is seen when our eyes capture light that is reflected from the object. If we extract just the light that is reflected from ‘something,’ are we still in the presence of that 'something?' Using contours of light, I try to express this 'something.' Playing with perception and space, Tojiki encourages the audience to interact with his sculptures from different angles and distances, in turn altering viewer experience. Despite the international success of Tojiki's artworks, his talents are not limited to LED sculptures. Dabbling in interior design and jewellery, Tojiki hopes to see his artworks integrated with fashion brands and featured at events, stores or showrooms. For all you Harry Potter fans, check out Tojiki's 'Horse with No Shadow' installation. Created for Hermes, and probably with no connection to the wizarding world whatsoever, I can't help but see a comparison to Harry Potter's Petronus charm. [Via The Cool Hunter]
"Your nose like a delicious slope of cream / And your ears like cream flaps / And your teeth like hard shiny pegs of cream." Le Diner en Blanc — like Howard Moon's poem — will have you in all white. But sorry, Booshers: this Brisbane event, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2023, is just for the sophisticated. Now popping up all around the world, the Diner en Blanc began in Paris more than three decades ago thanks to François Pasquier and friends. This year, Brisbane's creme de la creme will once again dress in all-white on Saturday, November 4 and flock along, with the event held at a predictably stunning location that remains secret until the very last moment. Following an evening of elegance, fine dining and live music, the 2000-plus foodies then pack up their crystal, dinnerware, tables, chairs and litter. Like ghosts (white 'n' all), they leave behind no sign of their rendezvous. That said, don't get any ideas — a white sheet thrown over your figure will not do for an outfit. Le Diner en Blanc guests must either be invited by a member from the previous event, or get on the waiting list for a ticket — with the latter open for registrations now. And, if you're wondering what the event entails — other than eating, drinking and wearing white and white only — you'll need to bring a table and two white chairs with you, as well as your own picnic basket, glassware, white tablecloth and white dinnerware. You can order a catered picnic, though, if you don't want to bring your own. Booze-wise, you'll either need to opt for wine or champagne via the event's e-store, or be happy bringing your own non-alcoholic beverages. Wondering where Le Diner en Blanc might pop up this time? In past Brissie outings, it has brought its all-white setup to Eagle Farm Racecourse, New Farm Park, Roma Street Parklands and the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. Images: The Edit Suite / Balvin Productions.
Paul Manser really puts himself into his writing. When reading the self-penned adventures and misadventures of the Melbourne-based travel scribe, you experience the destination and surrounds from his singular POV. The scenes he often sets have a shambolic, gonzo feel as though something is about to go terribly awry, with Paul giving huge main character energy as both narrator and observer. Things often do go terribly awry and those breakneck narrative zags make for great stories, many of which are featured in his recently published collection of travel mini-memoirs Life Plans On Dive Bar Napkins, a series of stories that include a profane interlude at San Francisco's disgracefully under-recognised Hunky Jesus Contest, stinking out Pamplona due to an unfortunate case of missing luggage, and other incidents that imply Paul is fortunate to be alive and/or not incarcerated. If you are planning a trip to Los Angeles in the coming months and would be interested in some sound, sensible advice on what to do, please do not read the following guide that Paul Manser kindly compiled for us. [caption id="attachment_875641" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The author Paul Manser on a bike[/caption] PAUL MANSER: Los Angeles is the suggestive, shapely leg that slips out from beneath conservative Middle America's full-length skirt. It is the kind of leg that shows enough skin to let you know there are good times to be had, but that you could have your bank account cleaned out for your indiscretions. Not just a city built for good times, LA is also a magnet for aspiring movie stars who are drawn to the city like a mosquito, drunk on summer's blood, is to a caravan park's fluorescent blue bug zapper. You jump in an Uber and before you know it, you're listening to the CV of an out-of-work actor who played a lactose intolerant lifeguard in Baywatch for two episodes in the 90s, as they take you the long way from Santa Monica to West Hollywood just to make a few extra dollars. With so many people waiting to be 'discovered', it can be a little hard to find the real Los Angeles these days; the city the locals live. To help, here's my guide that you may (or may not) want to follow: [caption id="attachment_875639" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Santa Monica pier by Vincentas Liskauskas via Unsplash[/caption] WHERE TO GO On my first visit to LA I was told don't drink the tap water, avoid hiking Runyon Canyon in flip flops and don't ever, under any circumstances, be out in Downtown LA after dark unless you are so enamoured with acupuncture you're willing to let a teenager poke you with a blunt knife for the contents of your wallet. However, things have changed. These days Downtown LA is so cool the ice wouldn't melt on the sidewalk in a mid-afternoon heatwave. With some of the most innovative restaurants in the city like 71Above, amazing rooftop bars like Upstairs at The Ace, boutique designer hotels and an abundance of skinny-jeaned, bushranger bearded locals, downtown LA is now the place to go to eat, get rowdy and find a drinkable coffee the day after — which is no mean feat in America. [caption id="attachment_875643" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Upstairs at The Ace, The Ace Hotel Los Angeles via The Ace Hotel[/caption] WHERE TO DRINK If New York is the city that never sleeps, LA is where the beautiful people doze in seal-placenta face masks before spending their days doing hot yoga, discussing the latest colonic hotspot and looking fabulously bored poolside at one of the many party hotels of West Hollywood. While the city is undoubtedly glamorous, any self-respecting traveller with a thirst to quench will forgo the latest Insta-famous rooftop restaurant to trawl the city's bars of yesteryear. Sunset Boulevard's infamous Viper Room, Whisky a Go Go and Rainbow Bar and Grill have seen stars come and go and given birth to many a road trip playlist's favourite band, including Guns 'N' Roses. Don't assume that because the venues are a little less polished, that your night will be devoid of celebrities, although the high-profile patrons may be less 'washed' and more 'washed up' these days. That is not to say that you won't be rewarded for seeking out a more sophisticated drinking environment. Located in downtown LA, The Wolves is a spectacularly overindulged Parisian-style cocktail bar featuring Tiffany glass ceilings. The dark, moody bar features more wood and dark leather than you'd find in a friendly neighbourhood BDSM swingers club. The Wolves draws an eclectic crowd on the weekends with a cocktail list as long as the security line at LAX, but if you really feel adventurous let one of the bartenders guide your evening. That way at least you'll know who to blame when you wake up in the morning full of regret. [caption id="attachment_875652" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Wolves at Downtown LA, image via The Wolves[/caption] WHERE TO EAT While sucking down a wheatgrass and kale smoothie next to Billie Eilish as she chews on a raw vegan lasagne at Crossroads Kitchen might seem peak Los Angeles, you're probably going to need something more substantial (and a bit greasier) to soak up the booze. Try the ramen burger at Tatsu Ramen (if it is on the menu at the time.) A glorious artery-clogging delicious patty of beef sandwiched between to ramen noodle buns. Five stars. WHERE NOT TO STAY Last time I stayed in LA, I awoke to sunlight piercing the soft mustard surrounds of a hotel room that self-proclaimed three stars, but that would soon be on the receiving end of a biting TripAdvisor review I was penning in my mind. Four paragraphs alone were to be dedicated to reporting the hotel owner to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague over the fluorescent purple shower curtain that would burn holes into the retinas of small children. Then I decided that a negative review was not enough. No. A parody webpage dedicated to a hotel room that went missing in the 1970's was more fitting. It would include photos and satirical descriptions for how best to recognise the room. "ATTENTION: Be on the lookout for a hotel room with a burn mark in the two-tone green carpet resembling a snake making love to The Leaning Tower of Pisa. A stain that looks like the outline of where a jockey had been murdered with an ice cream scooper. And a bible with a series of stunningly accurate genitalia drawn throughout." Honestly, I'd tell you where this hotel was in LA, but I don't want to be sued. So maybe just avoid every hotel in the city to be safe and stay in an Airbnb instead. This guest house looks pretty good: WHERE TO BE SEEN LA is one of those cities where you go not only to see, but to be seen. With more instantly recognisable faces big screen packed into a few square miles than anywhere else in the world, paparazzi-dodging-people-watching can resemble a bloodsport at times. But what fun is merely watching others get all of the attention? Where can you go to not only watch others, be a part of the action yourself? Chateau Marmont is a place of celebrity legend. It's where Led Zeppelin rode motorcycles through the lobby in the 1960s and one of the first places to ban Lindsay Lohan from entry. These days drinking poolside at Chateau still offers up a decent chance of lounging next to brutally hungover, non-communicative, blood-shot eyed celebrity. If the Chateau sounds like the spot for you, maybe pack a pair of reflective Ray-Bans so you can get a good look at everybody, without coming across as some crazed stalker. AND, WHERE TO ESCAPE TO Los Angeles is a hot mess. The city is impossible to cross at peak hour and realistically you shouldn't attempt using the public transport unless contracting dysentery is on your bucket list. Sometimes it's a city you just need to get away from. But where to? While the internet is plastered with images of celebrities escaping to sun themselves on the beaches of Malibu, those looking for a piece of old Hollywood glamour should head inland to Palm Springs. A playground for the icons of Hollywood in the golden age of cinema, Palm Springs was the place that fabled celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin came to escape Los Angeles. A sun drenched desert Oasis, these days travellers come to Palm Springs to admire its mid-century modern architecture, for mammoth music festivals like Coachella and Stagecoach and relax and people watch poolside in one of the many impeccably styled hotels which appear to have jumped straight out of a photo-spread in a design magazine. [caption id="attachment_875657" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Palm Springs by Cody Board via Unsplash[/caption] Paul Manser's book Life Plans On Dive Bar Napkins is available from various book stores or you can order it from Dymocks. For more of Paul's travel tales visit his website. Main image by Jake Blucker via Unsplash.
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 12 that you can watch right now at home. Anatomy of a Fall A calypso instrumental cover of 50 Cent's 'P.I.M.P.' isn't the only thing that Anatomy of a Fall's audience won't be able to dislodge from their heads after watching 2023's deserving Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winner. A film that's thorny, knotty and defiantly unwilling to give any easy answers, this legal, psychological and emotional thriller about a woman on trial for her husband's death is unshakeable in as many ways as someone can have doubts about another person: so, a myriad. The scenario conjured up by writer/director Justine Triet (Sibyl) is haunting, asking not only if her protagonist committed murder, as the on-screen investigation and courtroom proceedings interrogate, but digging into what it means to be forced to choose between whether someone did the worst or is innocent — or if either matters. While the Gallic legal system provides the backdrop for much of the movie, the real person doing the real picking isn't there in a professional capacity, or on a jury. Rather, it's the 11-year-old boy who loved his dad, finds him lying in the snow with a head injury outside their French Alps home on an otherwise ordinary day, then becomes the key witness in his mum's case. Also impossible to forget: the performances that are so crucial in telling this tale of marital and parental bonds, especially from one of German's current best actors and the up-and-coming French talent playing her son. With her similarly astonishing portrayal in The Zone of Interest, Toni Erdmann and I'm Your Man's Sandra Hüller is two for two in movies that initially debuted in 2023; here, she steps into the icy and complicated Sandra Voyter's shoes with the same kind of surgical precision that Triet applies to unpacking the character's home life. As Daniel, who couldn't be more conflicted about the nightmare situation he's been thrust into, Milo Machado Graner (Alex Hugo) is a revelation — frequently via his expressive face and posture alone. If Scenes From a Marriage met Kramer vs Kramer, plus 1959's Anatomy of a Murder that patently influences Anatomy of a Fall's name, this would be the gripping end result — as fittingly written by Triet with her IRL partner Arthur Harari (Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle). Anatomy of a Fall streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Poor Things Richly striking feats of cinema by Yorgos Lanthimos aren't scarce. Sublime performances by Emma Stone are hardly infrequent. Screen takes on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein couldn't be more constant. For Lanthimos, see: Dogtooth and Alps in the Greek Weird Wave filmmaker's native language, plus The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Favourite since he started helming movies in English. With Stone, examples abound in her Best Actress Oscar for La La Land, supporting nominations before and after for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and Lanthimos' aforementioned regal satire, and twin 2024 Golden Globe nods for their latest collaboration as well as TV's The Curse. And as for the best gothic-horror story there is, not to mention one of the most influential sci-fi stories ever, the evidence is everywhere from traditional adaptations to debts owed as widely as The Rocky Horror Show and M3GAN. Combining the three results in a rarity, however: a jewel of a pastel-, jewel- and bodily fluid-toned feminist Frankenstein-esque fairy tale that's a stunning creation, as zapped to life with Lanthimos' inimitable flair, a mischievous air, Stone at her most extraordinary and empowerment blazing like a lightning bolt. With cascading black hair, an inquisitive stare, incessant frankness and jolting physical mannerisms, Poor Things' star is Bella Baxter in this adaptation of Alasdair Grey's award-winning 1992 novel by Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara (The Great). Among the reasons that the movie and its lead portrayal are so singular: as a character with a woman's body revived with a baby's brain, Stone plays someone from infancy to adulthood, all with the astonishingly exact mindset and mannerisms to match, and while making every move, choice and feeling as organic as birth, living and death. In this fantastical steampunk vision of Victorian-era Europe, London-based Scottish doctor Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe, Asteroid City) is Bella's maker. Even if she didn't call him God, he's been playing it. But curiosity, the quest for agency and independence, horniness and a lust for adventure all beckon his creation on a radical, rebellious, gorgeously rendered, gloriously funny and generously insightful odyssey. So, Godwin tries to marry Bella off to medical student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef, Ramy), only for her to discover masturbation and sex, and run off to the continent with caddish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law). Poor Things streams via Disney+, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Priscilla Yearning to be one of the women in Sofia Coppola's films is futile, but for a single reason only: whether she's telling of teenage sisters, a wife left to her own devices in Tokyo, France's most-famous queen, the daughter of a Hollywood actor, Los Angeles high schoolers who want to rob, the staff and students at a girls school in the American Civil War, a Manhattanite worried that her husband is being unfaithful or Priscilla Presley, as the writer/director has across eight movies to-date, no one better plunges viewers into her female characters' hearts and heads. To watch the filmmaker's span of features from The Virgin Suicides to Priscilla is to feel as its figures do, and deeply. The second-generation helmer is an impressionistic great, colouring her flicks as much with emotions and mood as actual hues — not that there's any shortage of lush and dreamy shades, as intricately tied to her on-screen women's inner states, swirling through her meticulous frames. Call it the "can't help falling" effect, then: as a quarter-century of Coppola's films have graced screens, audiences can't help falling into them like they're in the middle of each themselves. That's still accurate with Priscilla, which arrives so soon after Elvis that no one could've forgotten that the lives of the king of rock 'n' roll and his bride have flickered through cinemas recently. Baz Luhrmann made his Presley movie in Australia with an American (Austin Butler, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as Elvis and an Aussie (Olivia DeJonge, The Staircase) as Priscilla. Coppola crafted hers in North America with a Brisbanite (Jacob Elordi, Saltburn) in blue-suede shoes and a Tennessee-born talent (Cailee Spaeny, Mare of Easttown) adopting the Presley surname. The two features are mirror images in a hunk of burning ways, including their his-and-hers titles; whose viewpoint they align with; and conveying what it was like to adore Elvis among the masses, plus why he sparked that fervour, compared to expressing the experience of being the girl that he fell for, married, sincerely loved but kept in a gilded cage into she strove to fly free. Priscilla streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Cailee Spaeny. All of Us Strangers As Fleabag knew, and also Sherlock as well, Andrew Scott has the type of empathetic face that makes people want to keep talking to him. Playing the hot priest in Phoebe Waller-Bridge's (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) acclaimed comedy, he was the ultimate listener. Even as the Moriarty to Benedict Cumberbatch's (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar) Holmes, and with a game always afoot, conversation flowed. All of Us Strangers puts this innate air — this sensation that to be in Scott's company is to want to unburden yourself to his welcoming ears — at its tender and feverishly beating heart, this time with Paul Mescal (Foe) as one of his discussion partners. Dreamy and contemplative, haunting and heartfelt, and also delicate and devastating, the fifth film by Weekend and 45 Years writer/director Andrew Haigh, which is his first since 2017's Lean on Pete, is stunningly cast with Scott in seeing-is-feeling mode as its isolated screenwriter protagonist alone. That Scott is joined by Mescal, Claire Foy (Women Talking) and Jamie Bell (Shining Girls) gives All of Us Strangers one of the finest four-hander casts in recent memory. Awards bodies clearly agree, with nods going around for everyone (alongside wins for Best Film and Best Director, the British Independent Film Awards gave all four of the feature's core cast members nominations, with Mescal scoring the Best Supporting Performance trophy, for instance). Haigh isn't merely preternaturally talented at picking the exact right actors to play his on-screen figures, but it's one of his most-crucial skills, as every performance in his latest shattering picture demonstrates. It comes as no surprise that Scott, Mescal, Foy and Bell are all excellent. It's similarly hardly unexpected that Haigh has made another movie that cuts so emotionally deep that viewers will feel as if they've been within its frames. Combine these stars with this filmmaker, though, and a feature that was always likely to combine its exceptional parts into a perfect sum is somehow even more affecting and astonishing. All of Us Strangers streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Drive-Away Dolls No one might've thought of Joel and Ethan Coen as yin and yang if they hadn't started making movies separately. Since 2018's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, their latest feature together as sibling filmmakers, the elder of the Coen brothers went with Shakespearean intensity by directing 2021's The Tragedy of Macbeth on his lonesome — while Ethan now opts for goofy, loose and hilariously sidesplitting silliness with Drive-Away Dolls. The pair aren't done collaborating, with a horror flick reportedly in the works next. But their break from being an Oscar-winning team has gifted audiences two treats in completely different fashions. For the younger brother, he's swapped in his wife Tricia Cooke, editor of The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Man Who Wasn't There, on a picture that couldn't slide more smoothly onto his resume alongside the madcap antics that the Coens combined are known for. Indeed, spying shades of the first of those two features that Cooke spliced in Drive-Away Dolls, plus Raising Arizona, Fargo and Burn After Reading as well, is both easy and delightful. As a duo, the Coen brothers haven't ever followed two women through lesbian bars, makeout parties and plenty of horniness between the sheets, though, amid wall dildos and other nods to intimate appendages, even if plenty about the Ethan-directed, Cooke-edited Drive-Away Dolls — which both Ethan and Cooke co-wrote — is classic Coens. There's the road-trip angle, conspiracy mayhem, blundering criminals in hot pursuit of Jamie (Margaret Qualley, Poor Things) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan, Cat Person), dumb men (those crooks again) in cars and just quirky characters all round. There's the anarchic chases, witty yet philosophical banter and highly sought-after briefcase at the centre of the plot, too. And, there's the fact that this is a comedic caper, its love of slapstick and that a wealth of well-known faces pop up as the zany antics snowball. The Joel-and-Ethan team hasn't made a film as sapphic as this, either, however, or one that's a 90s-set nod to, riff on, and parody of 60s- and 70s-era sexploitation raucousness. Drive-Away Dolls streams via Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. May December A line about not having enough hot dogs might be one of its first, but the Julianne Moore (Sharper)-, Natalie Portman (Thor: Love and Thunder)- and Charles Melton (Riverdale)-starring May December is a movie of mirrors and butterflies. In the literal sense, director Todd Haynes wastes few chances to put either in his frames. The Velvet Goldmine, Carol and Dark Waters filmmaker doesn't shy away from symbolism, knowing two truths that stare back at his audience from his latest masterpiece: that what we see when we peer at ourselves in a looking glass isn't what the rest of the world observes, and that life's journey is always one of transformation. Inspired by the real-life Mary Kay Letourneau scandal, May December probes both of these facts as intently as anyone scrutinising their own reflection. Haynes asks viewers to do the same. Unpacking appearance and perception, and also their construction and performance, gazes from this potently thorny — and downright potent — film. That not all metamorphoses end with a beautiful flutter flickers through just as strongly. May December's basis springs from events that received ample press attention in the 90s: schoolteacher Letourneau's sexual relationship with her sixth-grade student Vili Fualaau. She was 34, he was 12. First-time screenwriter Samy Burch changes names and details in her Oscar-nominated script — for Best Original Screenplay, which is somehow the film's only nod by the Academy — but there's no doubting that it takes its cues from this case of grooming, which saw Letourneau arrested, give birth to the couple's two daughters in prison, then the pair eventually marry. 2000 TV movie All-American Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story used the recreation route; however, that was never going to be a Haynes-helmed feature's approach. The comic mention of hot dogs isn't indicative of May December's overall vibe, either: this a savvily piercing film that sees the agonising impact upon the situation's victim, the story its perpetrator has spun around herself, and the relentless, ravenous way that people's lives and tragedies are consumed by the media and public. May December streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Mean Girls On years ending in four in even-numbered decades, we watch new Mean Girls films. So goes the 21st century so far, as the hit 2004 teen comedy about high-school hierarchies returns to the big screen in 2024 as a musical, after breaking out the singing and dancing onstage first. Just like donning pink every Wednesday because Regina George (Reneé Rapp, The Sex Lives of College Girls) demands it, there's a dutifulness about the repeat Mean Girls. Tina Fey, writing the script for the third time — basing her first on Rosalind Wiseman's 2002 non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes — seems to fear the consequences for breaking the rules, too. Cue a Mean Girls movie musical that truly plays out as those four words lead viewers to expect: largely the same down to most lines and jokes, just with songs. Anyone looking at the longer running time in advance and chalking up the jump from 97 to 112 minutes to the tunes is 100-percent spot on. The latest Mean Girls also resembles protagonist Cady Heron (Angourie Rice, The Last Thing He Told Me): eager to fit into its new surroundings after being perfectly happy and comfortable elsewhere. That causes some awkwardness, sometimes trying to break the mould, but largely assimilating. Penning her first film script since the OG Mean Girls was her very first, 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Mr Mayor creator Fey revises details and gags that were always going to need revising. Social media, the internet and mobile phones are all worked in, necessarily so, as is sex positivity. Mean Girls 2024 is primarily dedicated to making Mean Girls 2024 happen, though; here as well, it's exactly as those three words have audiences anticipating. Scrap the songs and choreography (other than the Winter Talent Show performances, of course), and directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez (Quarter Life Poetry: Poems for the Young, Broke & Hangry) would've just remade the first film two decades later. Mean Girls streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Angourie Rice. Force of Nature: The Dry 2 "Nature holds us all to account" is one of Force of Nature: The Dry 2's trailer-friendly lines. Even for those who didn't see the film's sneak peeks in the months between its arrival and the feature's release — a period stretched by Hollywood's 2023 strikes, pushing the picture's date with cinemas from August to February 2024 — it sounds primed for promo snippets when it's uttered in the movie itself. But this Australian detective franchise has earned the right to occasionally be that blunt and loaded with telling importance in its dialogue. And, it makes it work. In 2021's The Dry and here, in a flick that could've been called The Wet thanks to its drenched forest setting, the Aaron Falk saga uses its surroundings to mirror its emotional landscape. Nature holds its characters to account not just in a narrative sense, but by reflecting what they're feeling with astute specificity — so much so that the parched Victorian wheatbelt in the initial movie and the saturated greenery in Force of Nature are as much extensions of the series' on-screen figures as they are stunning backdrops. Chief among this page-to-film realm's players is Falk, the federal police officer that Eric Bana and his Blueback director Robert Connolly treat like terrain to trek through and traverse. His stare has its own cliffs and gorges. His life upholding the law and beyond has its peaks and valleys as well. In The Dry, it was evident that the yellowed, drought-stricken fields that monopolised the frame said plenty about how much Falk and everyone around him was holding back. In Force of Nature, all the damp of the fictional Giralang mountains — Victoria's Otways, Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Valley IRL — speaks volumes about what's streaming through the movie's characters inside. Cinematography is one of this franchise's strengths, and that Andrew Commis (Nude Tuesday) lenses the second picture's location just as evocatively and meticulously as Stefan Duscio (Shantaram) did the first is crucial: these features make their audience see every detail that envelops Falk and company, and therefore constantly spy the parallels between their environs and their inner turmoil. Force of Nature: The Dry 2 streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Eric Bana and Robert Connolly. Argylle For the past decade, spy films have been Matthew Vaughn's caper, thanks to Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle and The King's Man until now. With Argylle, he's still being playful with a genre that he clearly loves but isn't precious about, and he's also approaching espionage antics from another angle. 80s action-adventure comedy Romancing the Stone, which isn't about secret intelligence operatives, is one of this page-to-screen effort's blatant inspirations. Something that both do have at their centres: writers caught up in scenarios that would usually only happen on paper. 2022's The Lost City took the same route — but Argylle throws in a touch of North by Northwest, and also gets meta about its own origins. And no, Taylor Swift didn't write the source material. For his eighth feature, which hits 20 years after he made his directorial debut with the Daniel Craig (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery)-starring Layer Cake, Vaughn adapts the novel that gives Argylle its name; however, the specifics aren't quite that simple. The IRL title was only published as the flick hits cinemas, starting a franchise on the shelf. That said, the film — which is similarly aiming to begin a series — jumps to a later as-yet-unreleased book. Those tomes are credited to Elly Conway, which is the name of the movie version of Argylle's protagonist. In the feature, Elly (Bryce Dallas Howard, Jurassic World Dominion) is also an author who has written a saga about spies. Back in reality, who she really is has sparked a frenzy, hence the theories that she could be one of the world's biggest pop stars amid a massive world tour and a huge concert film. Again, despite Swifties' dreams, that speculation needs to be shaken off. Argylle streams via YouTube Movies and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Matthew Vaughn. The Color Purple For most, there isn't much in Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel The Color Purple that screams for the musical spin. Broadway still came calling. On the page, this tale always featured a jazz and blues singer as a key character. When it initially reached the screen in 1985 with Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans) directing, it also worked in an anthem that earned an Oscar nomination and has been much-covered since; Quincy Jones composed the film's score and produced the movie. But if the idea of lavish song-and-dance numbers peppered throughout such a bleak account of incest, rape, domestic abuse, racism, injustice, violence and poverty feels like hitting a wrong note, claims otherwise keep springing. First arrived 2005's Tony-winning stage adaptation, then 2015's also-awarded revival. Now, joining the ranks of books that became movies, then musicals, then musical movies just like the new Mean Girls, a second feature brings Walker's story to cinemas — this time with belted-out ballads and toe-tapping tunes. With each take, The Color Purple's narrative has predominantly remained the same as when it first hit bookshelves, crushing woe, infuriating prejudice and rampant inequity included. Musicals don't have to be cheery, but how does so much brutality give rise to anything but mournful songs? The answer here: by leaning into the rural Georgia-set tale's embrace of hope, resilience and self-discovery. Ghanaian director Blitz Bazawule follows up co-helming Beyoncé's Black Is King by heroing empowerment and emancipation in his version of The Color Purple — and while the film that results can't completely avoid an awkward tonal balance, it's easy to see the meaning behind its striving for a brighter outlook. When what its characters go through as Black women in America's south in the early 20th century is so unsparing, welcoming wherever light can pierce the gloom is a human reaction, and how Celie (American Idol-winner Fantasia Barrino in her feature film debut) copes. The Color Purple streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Madame Web When a spider spins a web, the strands are designed to trap prey for the eight-legged arachnid to consume. Madame Web tries to do something similar. The fourth live-action film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, it attempts to create a movie meal by capturing bits and pieces from anywhere and everywhere. There's Spidey nods, of course, variations on the "with great power comes great responsibility" line and more than one Spidey-like figure included. Introducing a new superhero to the screen, it's an origin story, complete with a tragic past to unfurl. Set in 2003 but with ample 90s tunes in the soundtrack, it endeavours to get retro as well. In its best touch, Madame Web winks at star Dakota Johnson's (Cha Cha Real Smooth) Hollywood family history, with a pigeon bringing The Birds, as led by her grandmother Tippi Hedren (The Ghost and the Whale), to mind. And, catching inspiration just like flies, the film also strives to be a serial-killer thriller. Look out, though. Here's hoping that spiders have more luck snaring a feast than Sony has in swinging Madame Web into its not-MCU franchise. They're not officially counted as part of the saga, and they're both exceptional unlike this, but the studio's animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also help explain Madame Web's existence and approach. In trying to carve out a Spidey space around the Peter Parker version of the webslinger, who is now part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony has been throwing everything it can at the screen. In the Spider-Verse flicks, that means a kaleidoscope of spider-folk, plus dazzling visuals and creative storytelling to match, demonstrating that people in suits isn't the best way to tell caped-crusader tales in cinema. In the SSU, focusing on a heap of peripheral Spidey figures is instead the tactic — and it's as piecemeal as it sounds. Madame Web streams via YouTube Movies and Prime Video. Read our full review. Next Goal Wins American Samoa's 31–0 loss to Australia in 2001 wasn't the biggest-ever defeat in football history, but it set the world record for the largest trouncing in an international match. It's also the scoreline behind an impassioned quest to achieve something that the US territory in the South Pacific Ocean had never done before in soccer: kick a goal. And, it's the starting point for a documentary and a comedy both called Next Goal Wins, with the first arriving in 2014 and the second now Taika Waititi's eighth feature. Each charts the squad's attempt to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and each tells an underdog tale. One strikes charmingly and winningly, the other keeps deserving red cards — and it's Waititi's long-delayed flick, which was initially filmed before the pandemic, underwent reshoots in 2021, then finally premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, that shouldn't be on the pitch. Since leaping from New Zealand indies Eagle vs Shark, Boy, What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Waititi might've won an Oscar for Jojo Rabbit; however, his best post-Thor: Ragnarok work has been on the small screen. Neither Jojo Rabbit nor Thor: Love and Thunder reached the filmmaker's past heights, but the hilarious US TV spinoff of What We Do in the Shadows, sublime Indigenous American dramedy Reservation Dogs and heartwarming pirate rom-com Our Flag Means Death have all proven gems. The current underwhelming cinema streak continues with the Michael Fassbender (The Killer)-led Next Goal Wins, which is as forceful as his last non-MCU picture in wanting to be a quirky, silly and sweet crowd-pleaser, and as clumsy, awkward and thinly sketched. While new takes on already-covered stories never mean that the originals are binned, sending viewers sprinting towards Mike Brett and Steve Jamison's (On the Morning You Wake (to the End of the World)) iteration of Next Goal Wins can't have been Waititi's intention. Next Goal Wins 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 and February 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 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.
2023 marks 65 years since Australia's film and television industry first started recognising its best work of the year with accolades. Back then, the gongs were called the AFI Awards. When the Australian Film Institute created the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts in 2011, the awards changed names to the AACTAs. The country's standout flicks and TV highlights are still rewarded with shiny trophies, though — and, since making the switch in monikers in 2012, the big winners paint quite the picture of Australia's screen output. Red Dog, The Sapphires, The Great Gatsby, The Babadook, The Water Diviner, Mad Max: Fury Road, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion, Sweet Country, The Nightingale, Babyteeth, Nitram and Elvis have all been anointed Australia's top movie. Among the small-screen recipients, Best Drama has gone to East West 101, Puberty Blues, Redfern Now, The Code, Glitch, Wentworth, Top of the Lake: China Girl, Mystery Road, Total Control, The Newsreader and Mystery Road: Origin. They all now have company, with the 2024 awards looking back on 2023's highlights announced on Saturday, February 10. Talk to Me was named Best Film, while The Newsreader claimed Best Drama again. The AACTAs are known to concentrate the love towards a few titles each year. 2024 is different, however. The list of winners goes on, and makes an ace must-see lineup of top-notch Aussie movies and TV shows to catch up on or revisit from the past year. Here's 13 that you can watch now: Movie Must-Sees Talk to Me An embalmed hand can't click its fingers, not even when it's the spirit-conducing appendage at the heart of Talk to Me. This is an absolute finger snap of a horror film, however, and a fist pump of a debut by Australian twins Danny and Michael Philippou. As RackaRacka, the Adelaide-born pair have racked up six-million-plus subscribers on YouTube via viral comedy, horror and action combos. As feature filmmakers, they're just as energetic, eager and assured, not to mention intense about giving their all. Talk to Me opens with a party that's soon blighted by both a stabbing and a suicide. It segues swiftly into a Sia sing-along, then the violent loss of one half of the Aussie coat of arms. A breakout hit at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it sparked a distribution bidding war won by indie favourite A24, it's constantly clicking, snapping and ensuring that viewers are paying attention — with terror-inducing imagery, a savvy sense of humour, both nerve and the keenness to unnerve, and a helluva scary-movie premise that's exceptionally well-executed. The picture's outstretched mitt is the Philippous' Ouija board. That withered and scribbled-on paw is also a wildly unconventional way to get high. In a screenplay penned by Danny with fellow first-timer Bill Hinzman, but based on Bluey and Content executive producer Daley Pearson's short-film concept — yes, that Bluey — shaking hands with the distinctive meat hook is a party trick and dare as well. When the living are palm to palm with this dead duke, in flows a conjuring. A candle is lit, "talk to me" must be uttered, then "I let you in". Once heads are kicking back and the voices start, no one should grasp on for more than 90 seconds, as Hayley (Zoe Terakes, Nine Perfect Strangers) and Joss (Chris Alosio, Millie Lies Low) explain. But, as she navigates the anniversary of her mother's death, Mia (Sophie Wilde, Boy Swallows Universe) is up for going as far as she can. Here, being consumed by sinister spirits, not consuming booze, is an escape. That, and filming whatever twisted chaos happens when you connect with the otherworldly. It isn't all fun and frights and games, though; when her best friend Jade's (Alexandra Jensen, Joe vs Carole) 14-year-old brother Riley (Joe Bird, First Day) takes part, traumatic consequences spring. AACTAs Won: Best Film, Best Direction (Danny and Michael Philippou), Best Lead Actress (Sophie Wilde), Best Editing, Best Hair and Makeup, Best Original Score, Best Screenplay, Best Sound. Where to watch it: Talk to Me streams via Netflix, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Danny Philippou. Limbo When Ivan Sen sent a police detective chasing a murdered girl and a missing woman in the Australian outback in 2013's Mystery Road and its 2016 sequel Goldstone, he saw the country's dusty, rust-hued expanse in sun-bleached and eye-scorching colour. In the process, the writer, director, co-producer, cinematographer, editor and composer used his first two Aussie noir films and their immaculately shot sights to call attention to how the nation treats people of colour — historically since its colonial days and still now well over two centuries later. Seven years after the last Jay Swan movie, following a period that's seen that character make the leap to the small screen in three television seasons, Sen returned with a disappearance, a cop, all that inimitable terrain and the crimes against its Indigenous inhabitants that nothing can hide. Amid evident similarities, there's a plethora of differences between the Mystery Road franchise and Limbo; however, one of its simplest is also one of its most glaring and powerful: shooting Australia's ochre-toned landscape in black and white. Limbo's setting: Coober Pedy, the globally famous "opal capital of the world" that's known for its underground dwellings beneath the blazing South Australian earth, but reimagined as the fictional locale that shares the film's name — a place unmistakably sporting an otherworldly topography dotted by dugouts to avoid the baking heat, and that hasn't been able to overcome the murder of a local Indigenous girl two decades earlier. The title is symbolic several times over, including to the visiting Travis Hurley (Simon Baker, Boy Swallows Universe), whose first task upon arrival is checking into his subterranean hotel, rolling up his sleeves and indulging his heroin addiction. Later, he'll be told that he looks more like a drug dealer than a police officer — but, long before then, it's obvious that his line of work and the sorrows he surveys along the way have kept him hovering in a void. While he'll also unburden a few biographical details about mistakes made and regrets held before the film comes to an end, such as while talking to the missing Charlotte Hayes' brother Charlie (Rob Collins, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) and sister Emma (Natasha Wanganeen, The Survival of Kindness), this tattooed cop with wings inked onto his back is already in limbo before he's literally in Limbo talking. AACTAs Won: Best Indie Film. Where to watch it: Limbo streams via iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Ivan Sen and Simon Baker. The New Boy Warwick Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Deborah Mailman, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis: name a better Australian quintet. The director of Samson & Delilah and Sweet Country, the two-time Oscar-winner and Tár tour de force, the local screen mainstay, and the Bad Seeds bandmates and seasoned film composers all combine not for the ultimate Aussie dinner party, but for The New Boy. None are debuting in their jobs. All are exceptional. They're each made better, however, by the luminous and entrancing Aswan Reid. As well as playing the titular part, the 11-year-old first-time actor lives it among such a wealth of acclaimed and experienced talent — and he's such a find in such excellent company, while saying little in words but everything in every other way, that Thornton's third fictional feature owes him as much of a debt as its applauded and awarded household names. There's a spark to Reid from the moment that he's first spied grappling with outback law enforcement under blazing rays as Cave and Ellis' (This Much I Know to Be True) latest rousing score plays. His sun-bleached hair couldn't be more fitting, or symbolic, but it's the confident way in which he holds himself as New Boy, plus the determined look on his face, that sears. Wily and wiry, the feature's eponymous figure is toppled by a boomerang, then bagged up and transported to the remote Catholic orphanage doted on by Sister Eileen (Blanchett, Nightmare Alley) in the 1940s. The cop doing the escorting notes that the kid is a bolter, but the nun is just as fast in her kindness. She sees what Thornton wants his audience to see: a boy that beams with his presence and through his sense of self, even though he's been snatched up, taken from his Country and forced into a Christian institution against his will. Sister Eileen is as drawn to him as the movie, but — and not just due to the red wine she likes sipping and the subterfuge she's keeping up about the resident father's absence — she isn't as certain about what to do. AACTAs Won: Best Lead Actor in Film (Aswan Reid), Best Supporting Actress (Deborah Mailman), Best Cinematography, Best Production Design. Where to watch it: The New Boy streams via Binge, Prime Video, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Read our full review, and our interview with Warwick Thornton. John Farnham: Finding the Voice There's no need to try to understand it: John Farnham's 1986 anthem 'You're the Voice' is an instant barnstormer of a tune. An earworm then, now and for eternity, it was the Australian song of the 80s. With its layered beats, swelling force and rousing emotion, all recorded in a garage studio, it's as much of a delight when it's soundtracking comedy films like the Andy Samberg-starring Hot Rod and the Steve Coogan-led Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa as it is echoing out of every Aussie pub's jukebox. Making a noise and making it clear, 'You're the Voice' is also one of the reasons that Farnham's 1986 album Whispering Jack remains the best-selling homegrown release ever nearing four decades since it first dropped. But, as John Farnham: Finding the Voice tells, this iconic match of track and talent — this career-catapulting hit for a singer who'd initially tasted fame as a teen pop idol two decades prior — almost didn't happen. Whispering Jack also almost didn't come to fruition at all, a revelation so immense that imagining Australia without that album is like entering Back to the Future Part II's alternative 80s. Writer/director Poppy Stockwell (Scrum, Nepal Quake: Terror on Everest) and her co-scribe Paul Clarke (a co-creator of Spicks and Specks) know this, smartly dedicating a significant portion of Finding the Voice to that record and its first single. The titbits and behind-the-scenes anecdotes flow, giving context to a song almost every Aussie alive since it arrived knows in their bones. Gaynor Wheatley, the wife of Farnham's late best friend and manager Glenn, talks about how they mortgaged their house to fund the release when no label would touch the former 'Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)' crooner. Chris Thompson, the English-born, New Zealand-raised Manfred Mann's Earth Band musician who co-penned 'You're the Voice', chats about initially declining Farnham's request to turn the tune into a single after the latter fell for it via a demo. AACTAs Won: Best Documentary. Where to watch it: John Farnham: Finding the Voice streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Shayda Whether or not Noora Niasari was ever explicitly told to write what she knew, the Iranian Australian filmmaker has taken that advice to heart. Her mother listened to the same guidance first, even if it was never spoken to her, either. The latter penned a memoir that has gone unpublished, but helped form the basis of the powerful and affecting Shayda. This account of a mum and her daughter attempting to start anew in a women's shelter doesn't entirely stick to the facts that writer/director Niasari and her mother lived through. The Sundance-premiering, Melbourne International Film Festival-opening, Oscars-entered feature — it was Australia's contender for Best International Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards, but wasn't nominated — isn't afraid to fictionalise details in search of the best screen story. Still, the tale that's told of courage, resilience, rebuilding lives and finding a new community is deeply and patently personal. Perhaps even better, it's inescapably authentic. Niasari peers back at being barely of primary-school age and making a new home. Fleeing to a women's shelter is the only option that the film's eponymous figure (Zar Amir Ebrahimi, 2022's Cannes Best Actress-winner for Holy Spider) has to get away from the abusive Hossein (Osamah Sami, Savage River), whose controlling nature is matched by that of their patriarchal culture. So, Shayda leaves with six-year-old Mona (debutant Selina Zahednia). As she waits for her divorce proceedings to go through — a complicated task under Iranian law and customs — she seeks refuge at a secret site overseen by the caring Joyce (Leah Purcell, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart). Even surrounded by kindness and filled with desperation for a better future, every iota of Shayda's decision is fraught and tense; Niasari starts the film with Mona at an airport being told what to do if she's ever there with her father, should he try to take her not only away from her mum but also back to Iran. AACTAs Won: Best Casting. Where to watch it: Shayda streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Noora Niasari. Carmen Breaking down a classic tale best known as an opera, rebuilding it as a lovers-on-the-run drama set across the US–Mexico border and making every moment burst with emotion, Benjamin Millepied's Carmen is a movie that moves. While its director is a feature debutant, his background as a dancer and choreographer — he did both on Black Swan, the latter on Vox Lux as well, then designed the latest Dune films' sandwalk — perhaps means that the former New York City Ballet principal and Paris Opera Ballet Director of Dance was fated to helm rhythmic, fluid and rousing cinema. His loose take on Georges Bizet's singing-driven show and Prosper Mérimée's novella before it, plus Alexander Pushkin's poem The Gypsies that the first is thought to be based on, is evocative and sensual. It's sumptuous and a swirl of feelings, too, as aided in no small part by its penchant for dance. And, it pirouettes with swoon-inducing strength with help from its stunningly cast leads: Scream queen and In the Heights star Melissa Barrera, plus Normal People breakout and Aftersun Oscar-nominee Paul Mescal. When Mescal earned the world's attention in streaming's initial Sally Rooney adaptation, he had viewers dreaming of fleeing somewhere — Ireland or anywhere — with him. Carmen's namesake (Barrera) absconds first, then has PTSD-afflicted Marine Aidan (Mescal) join her attempt to escape to Los Angeles. Carmen runs after her mother Zilah (flamenco dancer Marina Tamayo) greets the cartel with thunderous footwork, but can't stave off their violence. Aidan enters the story once Carmen is smuggled stateside, where he's a reluctant volunteer border guard in Texas alongside the trigger-happy Mike (Benedict Hardie, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson). As the picture's central pair soon hurtle towards California, to Zilah's lifelong friend Masilda's (Rossy de Palma, Parallel Mothers) bar, they try to fly to whatever safety and security they can find. That may be fleeting, however, and might also be in each other's arms. AACTAs Won: Best Costume Design. Where to watch it: Carmen streams via Stan, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Benjamin Millepied. The Giants Nature documentaries rarely simply spy the earth's wonders, point cameras that way and let the planet itself do the talking. Instead, films such as 2017's The Ancient Woods are by far the exception rather than the rule. And yet, the best footage within any movie about our pale blue dot makes viewers wish that more favoured the "a picture is worth a thousand words" approach. Take The Giants, for instance. When it includes talk, which is often, it's no lesser a feature. The conversation and commentary offered is illuminating, in fact. But when it wanders through Tasmania's colossal foliage within the Styx Valley, Southern Forests and the Tarkine, which is also regularly, it feels like it barely needs to utter a single thing. This isn't merely a factual affair about flora, with environmental campaigner and pioneering former Greens senator Bob Brown firmly at its core, but The Giants knows that paying tribute to both is best done by staring at leafy surroundings as much as it can. It's no everyday feat to get a movie-watching audience admiring the natural world while peering at a screen, even if the frequency with which David Attenborough's docos arrive has helped everyone both think and expect otherwise. Indeed, notching up that achievement is a mammoth accomplishment on the part of The Giants' filmmakers Laurence Billiet (Freeman) and Rachel Antony, plus cinematographer Sherwin Akbarzadeh (Carbon — The Unauthorised Biography). Crucially, it assists what was always going to be a fascinating ode to bloom as much as any plant that it waters with attention. When you're crafting a documentary that intertwines a love letter to Australia's ancient native forests and their ecosystems with a powerful portrait of a hefty figure who has devoted much of his life to fighting for them, showing all the green splendour it possibly can is equally a must and a masterstroke. AACTAs Won: Best Cinematography in a Documentary. Where to watch it: The Giants streams via DocPlay, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story Post-viewing soundtrack, sorted: to watch Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story is to take a trip down memory lane with the Australian music industry and hear homegrown standouts from the past five decades along the way. Unsurprisingly, this documentary already has an album to go with it, a stacked release which'd instantly do its eponymous figure proud. His tick of approval wouldn't just stem from the artists surveyed, but because Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story's accompanying tunes comprise a three-disc number like Mushroom Records' first-ever drop, a 1973 Sunbury Festival live LP. To tell the tale of Gudinski, the record executive and promoter who became a household name, is to tell of Skyhooks, Split Enz, Hunters & Collectors, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly, Kylie Minogue, Archie Roach, Yothu Yindi, Bliss n Esso, The Temper Trap, Gordi and Vance Joy, too — and to listen to them. Need this on-screen tribute to give you some kind of sign that the Gudinski and Mushroom story spans a heap of genres? Both the film and the album alike include Peter Andre. Any journey through Michael Gudinski's life and career, from his childhood entrepreneurship selling car parks on his family's vacant lot to his years and years getting Aussie music to the masses — and, on the touring side, bringing massively popular overseas artists to Aussies — needs to also be an ode to the industry that he adored. The man and scene are inseparable. But perhaps Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story plays as such an overt love letter to Australian music because it's an unashamed hagiography of Gudinski. Although the movie doesn't deliver wall-to-wall praise, it comes close. When it begins to hint at any traces of arrogance, moodiness or ruthlessness, it quickly does the doco equivalent of skipping to the next track. Australian Rules and Suburban Mayhem director Paul Goldman, a seasoned hand at music videos as well, has called his feature Ego and there's no doubting his subject had one; however, the takeaway in this highly authorised biography is that anything that doesn't gleam was simply part of his natural mischievousness and eager push for success. AACTAs Won: Best Sound in a Documentary. Where to watch it: Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Small-Screen Standouts Deadloch Trust Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, Australia's favourite Kates and funniest double act, to make a killer TV show about chasing a killer that's the perfect sum of two excellent halves. Given their individual and shared backgrounds, including creating and starring in cooking show sendup The Katering Show and morning television spoof Get Krack!n, the pair unsurprisingly add another reason to get chuckling to their resumes; however, with Deadloch, they also turn their attention to crime procedurals. The Kates already know how to make viewers laugh. They've established their talents as brilliant satirists and lovers of the absurd in the process. Now, splashing around those skills in Deadloch's exceptional eight-episode first season lead by Kate Box (Stateless) and Madeleine Sami (The Breaker Upperers), they've also crafted a dead-set stellar murder-mystery series that ranks among The Kates' best work in almost every way. The only time that it doesn't? Not putting the tremendous pair on-screen themselves. Taking place in a sleepy small town, commencing with a body on a beach, and following both the local cop trying to solve the case and the gung-ho blow-in from a big city leading the enquiries, Deadloch has all the crime genre basics covered from the get-go. The Tasmanian spot scandalised by the death is a sitcom-esque quirky community, another television staple that McCartney and McLennan nail. Parody requires deep knowledge and understanding; you can't comically rip into and riff on something if you aren't familiar with its every in and out. That said, Deadloch isn't in the business of simply mining well-worn TV setups and their myriad of conventions for giggles, although it does that expertly. With whip-smart writing, the Australian series is intelligent, hilarious, and all-round cracking as a whodunnit-style noir drama and as a comedy alike — and, as Box's by-the-book Senior Sergeant Dulcie Collins and Sami's loose and chaotic Darwin blow-in Eddie Redcliffe are forced to team up, it's also one of the streaming highlights of the past year. AACTAs Won: Best Acting in a Comedy (Kate Box), Best Casting in Television, Best Editing in Television, Best Original Score in Television, Best Screenplay in Television. Where to watch it: Deadloch streams via Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart In The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, blooms are rarely out of sight and petals never evade attention. Adapted from Holly Ringland's 2018 novel, the seven-part Australian miniseries is set on a farm that cultivates native flora. It dubs the women who tend to them, an ensemble from various backgrounds largely seeking refuge from abusive pasts, "flowers" as well. Whether stem by stem or in bunches, its characters use florets as their own secret language. And yet, as much as bouquets linger, getting all things floral on the mind, star Sigourney Weaver burns rather than blossoms. Fire is another of the show's strong recurring motifs, so it's still fitting that its biggest name is as all-consuming as a blaze. She needs to be that scorching: this is a story about endeavouring to survive while weathering woes that ignite everything in their path. Weaver also draws upon almost five decades of thriving before the camera, often playing steely, smart and sometimes-raging women. Her on-screen career began sparking with Alien, the film that made her an instant icon. Since then, everyone has heard her performances scream — and, in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, she's again dazzling. Flowers frequently surround Weaver's June Hart far and wide. With a carefully selected cutting, the shotgun-toting matriarch of Thornfield Flower Farm can say all she needs to. That's what the eponymous Alice (Ayla Browne, Nine Perfect Strangers) quickly learns about her grandmother when she arrives at the property following a tragedy, becoming one of the farm's flowers after losing her pregnant mother Agnes (Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Hotel Mumbai) and violent father Clem (Charlie Vickers, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power). The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is a tale about traumas, secrets and lies that lurk as deeply as the earth — about the choices and cycles that take root in such fraught soil, too. When nine-year-old Alice relocates fresh from hospital, the determined June, her doting partner Twig (Leah Purcell, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) and their adopted daughter Candy Blue (Frankie Adams, The Expanse) aim to shower the girl with sunlight to blaze away her horrors. You can't just bury problems, however, then hope that something vivid and colourful will grow over the top. Dedicating its first half to Alice's childhood and its second to 14 years later, when she's in her early twenties (Alycia Debnam-Carey, Fear the Walking Dead), The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart understands this immutable fact in its core. AACTAs Won: Best Miniseries, Best Cinematography in Television, Best Production Design in Television, Best Sound in Television. Where to watch it: The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart streams via Prime Video. Read our full review. Colin From Accounts A girl, a guy and a meet-cute over an adorable animal: that's the delightful and very funny Colin From Accounts' underlying formula. When medical student Ashley (Harriet Dyer, The Invisible Man) and microbrewery owner Gordon (Patrick Brammall, Evil) cross paths in the street one otherwise standard Sydney morning, they literally come to an impasse. He lets her go first, she flashes her nipple as thanks, then he's so distracted that he hits a stray dog with his car. As these circumstances demonstrate, Colin From Accounts isn't afraid to get awkward, much to the benefit of audiences. There's a syrupy way to proceed from the show's debut moments, intertwining sparks flying with idyllic dates, plus zero doubts of a happy ending for humans and pooches alike. If this was a movie, that's how it'd happen. Then there's Dyer and Brammall's way, with the duo creating and writing the series as well as starring in it, and focusing as much on ordinary existential mayhem — working out who you want to be, navigating complex relationships and learning to appreciate the simple pleasure of someone else's company, for example — as pushing its leads together. Just like in the Hollywood versions of this kind of tale, romance does blossom. That Dyer and Brammall are behind Colin From Accounts, their past chemistry on fellow Aussie comedy No Activity and the fact that they're married IRL means that pairing them up as more than new pals was always going to be on the show's agenda. It's how the series fleshes out each character and their baggage — including those who-am-I questions, Ash's difficult dynamic with her attention-seeking mother Lynelle (Helen Thomson, Elvis), and the responsibility that running your own business and committing to care for other people each bring — that helps give it depth. Colin From Accounts lets Ash and Gordon unfurl their woes and wishes, and also lets them grow. Sometimes, that happens by peeing and pooping in the wrong place, because that's also the type of comedy this is. Sometimes, it's because the show's central couple have taken a risk, or faced their struggles, or genuinely found solace in each other. Always, this Aussie gem is breezy and weighty — and instantly bingeable. AACTAs Won: Best Narrative Comedy Series. Where to watch it: Colin From Accounts streams via Binge. Read our full review. The Newsreader Aspiring Australian actors, take note: modelling your career after Anna Torv's so far is highly recommended. She's among the lengthy list of Aussies to call The Secret Life of Us one of her launch pads (another: Joel Edgerton). For five seasons and 100 episodes, she led fantastic US sci-fi series Fringe opposite Joshua Jackson (Fatal Attraction). The Daughter and Force of Nature: The Dry 2 in cinemas, plus Secret City, Mindhunter and The Last of Us on TV: they're also on her resume, which boasts both Hollywood and homegrown standouts. In the latter category, so is The Newsreader. Debuting with a six-episode first season in 2021, returning for the same stretch in 2023 and with another half-dozen on the way in 2024, it casts Torv as Helen Norville, News at Six's first-ever female newsreader. With the show set in the 80s, that gig isn't easy as misogyny and sexism run rife in the media industry — and as major real-life events, including the Challenger explosion, the Azaria Chamberlain case, Chernobyl and the 1987 federal election, are weaved in, all requiring news coverage. Torv is unsurprisingly excellent as Helen, and also in great company. As Dale Jennings, who starts the series as a budding reporter, Sam Reid is every bit up to the task. (He'a also someone whose own filmography is impressive both at home and abroad, thanks to past parts in The Railway Man, Belle, '71, Prime Suspect 1973, Lambs of God, The Drover's Wife the Legend of Molly Johnson and the Interview with the Vampire TV series.) The Newsreader isn't just anchored by two stellar leads, however, or guided by a cast that also includes Robert Taylor (Scrublands), William McInnes (NCIS: Sydney), Michelle Lim Davidson (After the Trial), Marg Downey (Jones Family Christmas), Chum Ehelepola (Preppers) and Stephen Peacocke (Five Bedrooms). It's textured at the character level, and also enthralling in its newsroom antics and glance backwards at Australia's past. Indeed, it's no wonder that more seasons keep coming. AACTAs Won: Best Drama Series, Best Lead Actress in a Drama (Anna Torv), Best Supporting Actor in a Drama (Hunter Page-Lochard), Best Costume Design in Television, Best Direction in Drama or Comedy. Where to watch it: The Newsreader streams via ABC iView. Love Me Add Love Me to the list of Aussie dramas set in Melbourne and featuring starry casts, alongside The Secret Life of Us, Tangle and Offspring. In this one, which first arrived in 2021, then returned in 2023, the ensemble runs deep — starting with Hugo Weaving (The Royal Hotel) and Bojana Novakovic (Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)). Bob Morley (In Limbo), Celia Pacquola (Utopia), Heather Mitchell (Jones Family Christmas), William Lodder (Bali 2002) and Shalom Brune-Franklin (The Tourist) also feature. Kim Gyngell (The Artful Dodger), Eryn Jean Norvill (Preppers) and Frank Woodley (The Ex-PM) each pop up as well. Given that this is a series about a family and their complicated romantic relationships, the who's who-esque roster of familiar Aussie talent is particularly fitting. The show steps inside the Mathieson clan's amorous ups and downs, in this Aussie adaptation of Sweden's Älska mig, and with such superb casting instantly creating a sense of intimacy in an effort that marked Binge's first local series when it initially debuted. Weaving's Glenn is the father of Novakovic's Clara and Lodder's Aaron. They quickly have death to deal with, as well as love; that life is messy thrums through the series from the outset. What stands out isn't always every minute detail in the plot, as universal and relatable as the storylines are, but the folks navigating it. That, again, is a testament to such savvy casting. Of course, putting Weaving is anything is usually reason enough to press play, especially when he's in thoughtful and layered mode as an everyman grappling with the fact that existence brings pain as well as joy. Amid the scenic vision of Melbourne roved over by helmers Emma Freeman (The Newsreader) and Bonnie Moir (Foe's second-unit director), this series brings characters to the screen with deeply engaging performances that feel layered and lived-in, and worth spending time with. AACTAs Won: Best Lead Actor in a Drama (Hugo Weaving), Best Supporting Actress in a Drama (Heather Mitchell). Where to watch it: Love Me streams via Binge.
There's a reason that galleries favourite white walls and cavernous halls: they're a canvas to fill with exhibition after exhibition, and with the glorious art that comes with them. At Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art, that setup has seen its central atrium play host to everything from Yayoi Kusama's kaleidoscopic finest, Chiharu Shiota's red wool webs and Patricia Piccinini's inflatable pieces through to a black cube playing David Lynch clips and an ode to Marvel — and, next, 13 floating mirrored spheres. Those reflective orbs are part of GOMA's next must-see showcase, and the next reason for art fans both in Brisbane and further afield to make a date with the South Bank gallery. Across summer 2022–23 and into autumn, running from Saturday, November 26, 2022–Sunday, April 23, 2023, the venue will play host to Air, which ruminates on that very topic. Back in 2019–20, during the same time slot, GOMA pondered water in an exhibition called, yes, Water. Consider this the sequel. GOMA isn't merely filling its spaces with the life-sustaining substance — it already has, obviously — but is concerned with pondering air's cultural, ecological and political dimensions. [caption id="attachment_677199" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gallery of Modern Art, Exterior, South & East face, James Turrell artwork[/caption] Those aforementioned globes are part of newly commissioned showcase piece Drift: A cosmic web of thermodynamic rhythms, which hails from Argentinian-born, Berlin-based artist Tomás Saraceno. The 13 spheres will be suspended in the atrium, at different heights, to get audiences contemplating the poetry if air and its imaginative side. Looking up at them, you'll see yourself looking back — and you'll also witness them move gently, like they're breathing. Where Water set up a huge indoor riverbed, Air will feature volcanic mounds and clouds of pigmented dust instead, thanks to fellow highlight Origins I–III by Dora Budor. Also set to be a standout: Chalk Fall from UK artist and filmmaker Tacita Dean, with the multi-panel drawing resembling England's Cliffs of Dover — but in chalk. [caption id="attachment_876732" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mona Hatoum / Lebanon / United Kingdom b.1952 Hot Spot III 2009 / Stainless steel and neon tube /234 x 223 x 223cm / Installation at Fondazione Querini Stampalia Onlus, Venice /© Mona Hatoum / Courtesy: Fondazione Querini Stampalia Onlus, Venice / Photograph: Agostino Osio.[/caption] Or, there's also Hot Spot, a neon-lit sculpture by Mona Hatoum that's about the planet's burning political turmoil, but also fits the globe's environmental situation. Bird-like sculptures will feature via Jonathan Jones's untitled (giran), which is accompanied by a soundscape created with Dr Uncle Stan Grant Sr AM — and black moth and butterfly silhouettes are a focus of Carlos Amorales' Black Cloud. Fancy seeing air? Anthony McCall's Crossing uses shafts of light and smoke haze to allow that to happen. Similarly — but in a completely different way — Rachel Mounsey's photography series displays the perilous red skies of Mallacoota's horrific 2019 bushfires. [caption id="attachment_876733" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rachel Mounsey / Australia b.1975 /Mallacoota fires in the sky 8 (from 'Mallacoota fires in the sky' series) 2020 / Inkjet print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag paper / 50 x 75cm / Purchased 2022. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rachel Mounsey.[/caption] Air will also see plant-filled twin concrete towers pop up via new commission Portal from Jamie North, plus a cloud of air created from a collage of images in Jemima Wyman's Plume 20 — with everything in the exhibition fitting into chapters called Atmosphere, Shared, Burn, Invisible and Change. Clearly, it's a hefty showcase, complete with major works by more than 30 Australian and international artists. Air also comes with a film program in the Australian Cinémathèque, plus an opening weekend filled with artist talks, discussions, pop-up performances and drop-in workshops. [caption id="attachment_876731" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jemima Wyman / Pairrebeener people / Australia b.1977 / Plume 20 2022 / Handcut digital photos / 450 x 530cm / Courtesy: Jemima Wyman, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney / In memory of Mark Webb (1957–2022) For the complete title of this artwork please visit: https://qago.ma/plume20 / © Jemima Wyman / Photograph: Ed Mumford.[/caption] "At this moment in history, as global temperatures rise, we are sensitive to air as never before: alert to airborne threats and aware of our reliance on this precious mix of gases," said Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow, QAGOMA's Curatorial Manager of International Art. "Air asks us to consider how we share oxygen with all other life, reflect on what it means to breathe freely and examine air as a metaphor for change," she continued. Air kicks off what's set to be a huge new year for GOMA, complete with a blockbuster fairy tales exhibition — and a twisted woodland with it — in the summer 2023–24 slot. [caption id="attachment_876734" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yhonnie Scarce / Kokatha and Nukunu peoples / Australia b.1973 / Cloud Chamber 2020 (installation view, 'Looking Glass: Judy Watson and Yhonnie Scarce', TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Vic. 2020) / Collection: TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria/ © Yhonnie Scarce / Image courtesy: Yhonnie Scarce and THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne / Photograph: Andrew Curtis.[/caption] Air displays at Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art from Saturday, November 26, 2022–Sunday, April 23, 2023. For more information and tickets, head to the GOMA website. Top image: Tomás Saraceno / Aerocene 2 and Aerocene 1.2 2016 (installation view, '163,000 Light Years', Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey / ©Tomás Saraceno / Photograph: Studio Tomás Saraceno.
This neighbourhood eatery in Paddington was once called Shouk Cafe. One of its biggest fans, who used to be a guest at Shouk, has taken over the old Queenslander to run transform it into Naïm — now, six years later, the owner B.J. Wall runs the venue alongside co-owner, Vince Estacio. Their friendship and love of food has remained a constant. Estacio was formerly a chef at Michelin-starred restaurant, Mourad, and he brings his contemporary take on Middle Eastern cuisine to Naïm. One of the stand-out dishes is the shakshuka — eggs are baked with a tomato and capsicum sauce, paired with saffron labneh, white beans and kalamata olives. You'll also nab some housemade challah bread, which comes toasted, to help soak it up. Keeping with the joint's Middle Eastern-theme, you can add an optional merguez sausage as well.
It's been home to David Lynch's eerie filmscapes, Yayoi Kusama's infinity and obliteration rooms, Gary Carsley's projected jacarandas and Patricia Piccinini's forest of flowers that aren't quite flowers. It has also welcomed a riverbed, a snowman and a suspended installation that visitors can climb through, too. Marvel has taken over the place, and European masterpieces from The Met have graced the walls as well. But a labyrinth of red and black wool? That's about to completely transform Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art this winter. Yes, GOMA loves an immersive installation. It loves this one in particular — and yes, it should sound familiar. Originally, Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles was announced as part of the gallery's 2020 lineup; however, we all know how that year turned out. So, it's coming Brisbane's way as an Australian exclusive from June 18–October 3 this year instead. The eye-catching exhibition will showcase the Berlin-based Japanese artist and her work over the past quarter-century, coming to Brisbane after premiering in Tokyo back in 2019. And while it won't sit 53 storeys up or come with panoramic views of the city, like it did in Japan, Shiota's string-heavy installations are certain to garner more than a little attention. Fashioned from millions of strands, they resemble weaved, maze-like webs and take up entire rooms. The Soul Trembles is the largest-ever solo exhibition by the artist — and although GOMA hasn't revealed just how much of the Tokyo lineup is coming to Brisbane, art lovers can expect an array of sprawling installations, sculptures and video footage of Shiota's performances, as well as photographs and drawings. Highlighting her fascination with intangible concepts, such as memory, anxiety, dreams and silence, the ticketed display is Brissie's big art date for the winter. [caption id="attachment_750700" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chiharu Shiota. b.1972, Kishiwada, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Uncertain Journey (2016/2019). Courtesy: Blain | Southern, London/Berlin/New York. Installation view: Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, Mori. Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019. Image courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. Photograph: Sunhi Mang.[/caption] Top image: Chiharu Shiota b.1972, Kishiwada, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. In Silence (2002/2019). Production support: Alcantara S.p.A. Installation view: Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019. Courtesy: Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya/Tokyo. Image courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. Photograph: Sunhi Mang.
