When the final season of Game of Thrones aired, it earned its fair share of detractors. So, around a million people hopped online and signed a petition asking for the show's last batch of episodes to be remade. That might seem like a silly and implausible reaction but, when it happened in 2019, that kind of fan outcry wasn't new. Just a couple of years earlier, DC Comics aficionados had tried to get Rotten Tomatoes shut down when the reviews for Suicide Squad weren't as positive as the'd like — or positive at all. They're just two examples of fan responses to either beloved properties going awry in their eyes, or not getting the treatment they think they deserve — and of entitlement-driven campaigns asking for those supposed misdeeds to be corrected or punished. Another big instance over the past few years involves fellow DC Extended Universe flick Justice League, which wasn't well-received when it first hit cinemas back in 2017, and deservedly so. The superhero team-up movie definitely isn't the best entry in its franchise. It was also plagued by struggles before it reached the screen, including the replacement of director Zack Snyder with Joss Whedon during post-production. Accordingly, there's been an online push for Snyder's version of the movie to be released — and, because that's the kind of world we live in, it's actually happening. The director also filmed new footage for what's now being called Zack Snyder's Justice League, and the four-hour end product is dropping in March. In the US, HBO Max will be streaming the film; however, given that the service isn't available Down Under, just how Australian viewers would get their chance to see the flick hadn't yet been revealed. Until now, that is, with Aussie streaming platform Binge announcing that it'll add Zack Snyder's Justice League to its catalogue at the same time that it drops in America. Whether you actually liked the original and are keen to see what's changed, you completely hated it and you've been eager for a new version, or you're just bemused and/or bewildered by the fact that the Snyder Cut — as it has long been called online — has actually come to fruition after years of internet pleading, you can head to Binge from 6pm AEDT on Thursday, March 18 to check it out. Following on from the events of 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice — including how that film ended for Superman (Henry Cavill, ) — Zack Snyder's Justice League sees Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) join forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) to band together DC Comics' superheroes to stop a potentially world-ending threat. As well as Batman and Wonder Woman, Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) all make an appearance, teaming up to try to save the planet from a trio of villains. And, as the trailer shows, Jared Leto's version of the Joker also pops up. Check out the trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r_EQ_8JPyU&feature=youtu.be Zack Snyder's Justice League will be available to stream via Binge from 6pm AEDT on Thursday, March 18.
With photographer Nan Goldin at its centre, the latest documentary by Citizenfour Oscar-winner Laura Poitras is a film about many things, to deeply stunning and moving effect. In this movie's compilation of Goldin's acclaimed snaps, archival footage, current interviews, and past and present activism, a world of stories flicker — all linked to Goldin, but all also linking universally. The artist's bold work, especially chronicling LGBTQIA+ subcultures and the 80s HIV/AIDS crisis, frequently and naturally gets the spotlight. Her complicated family history, which spans heartbreaking loss, haunts the doco as it haunts its subject. The rollercoaster ride that Goldin's life has taken, including in forging her career, supporting her photos, understanding who she is and navigating an array of personal relationships, cascades through, too. And, so do her efforts to counter the opioid epidemic by bringing one of the forces behind it to public justice. Revealing state secrets doesn't sit at the core of the tale here, unlike Citizenfour and Poitras' 2016 film Risk — one about Edward Snowden, the other Julian Assange — but everything leads to the documentary's titular six words: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. They gain meaning in a report spied late about the mental health of Goldin's older sister Barbara, who committed suicide at the age of 18 when Goldin was 11, and who Goldin contends was just an "angry and sexual" young woman in the 60s with repressed parents. A psychiatrist uses the eponymous phrase to describe what Barbara sees and, tellingly, it could be used to do the same with anyone. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is, in part, a rebuke of the idea that a teenager with desires and emotions is a problem, and also a statement that that's who we all are, just to varying levels of societal acceptance. The film is also a testament that, for better and for worse, all the beauty and the bloodshed we all witness and endure is what shapes us. Life is all the beauty and the bloodshed, inescapably — and in the film's most recent footage, Goldin fights against the latter. In an essay penned in 2017, published in 2018 in Artforum and given voice now, she reveals her addiction. "I survived the opioid crisis. I narrowly escaped," she says of her time taking OxyContin, which was originally prescribed to her as it is for many: for surgery. "Though I took it as directed, I got addicted overnight. It was the cleanest drug I'd ever met," Goldin continues. The damage that this prescription substance has caused is well-documented, in docos and dramas such as The Crime of the Century and Dopesick alike. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed isn't just another popped from the packet, but a feature that inserts Goldin's battle against the wealthy Sackler family, founders and owners of OxyContin-making pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, into a bigger slideshow. This is a personal fray, again for many reasons; All the Beauty and the Bloodshed's nesting layers exceed any set of matryoshka dolls. The conflict between autonomy and dependence has long been one of Goldin's sources of fascination — given how her sister was treated, how could it not? — and her seminal work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency filters through the film, as well as acts as inspiration. Goldin crusades against the reliance that so-called "miracle drug" OxyContin has sparked, and the rising death toll the opioid epidemic keeps notching up. Co-founding advocacy group PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), she literally rallies against the Sacklers, whose fortune is enormous off the back of the OxyContin's carnage. She directs particular focus to the Sacklers' artwashing, thanks to their hefty donations to galleries and museums, which is where PAIN stages its protests. Many of the cultural institutions accepting the Sacklers' money — many of them bearing the family's name on their buildings, in fact, because that's how much funds such spaces have received— are also intertwined with Goldin's career. An artist's work has to display somewhere, and hers has garnered berths in prestigious spots. PAIN targets them all and more, at considerable risk to Goldin's professional standing, and in a case of an artist firmly putting her principles first. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed begins with action at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and with a "die-in" in its largest gallery space, which is named for the Sacklers. It's a powerful sight, not just filled with prone protestors on the ground but with orange prescription pill bottles scattered around, and bobbing in the room's moat. More such scenes appear throughout the movie, travelling to the Guggenheim Museum and the Louvre — their famous spiral ramp and pyramid, respectively, taken over to make a statement. Poitras could've simply filled a documentary with Goldin's photography or her efforts with PAIN; either way, a gripping film would've eventuated. If she'd just gone with the second option, it could've been another like fellow 2023 Oscar-nominee Navalny that ripples with the tension of a spy thriller, as such scenes do within All the Beauty and the Bloodshed anyway — complete with actual espionage. PAIN's protests are potent to visually behold, Goldin ensuring that they stand out aesthetically and, as the doco sees, photograph well. The passion and piercing emotion of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed wouldn't be what it is without everything around its OxyContin-combating quest, however, because no one action, decision, movement or person is just one thing. This chronicle of the political must also be personal, detailing how Goldin's childhood brought her to life on the fringes, then to photographing it to preserve it, and then to fighting for it. It has to examine how her work is a response to society's marginalisation of women and the queer community, and also crucially a portrait of her own ups and downs, too, showing where her empathy and activism bloomed and why. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed isn't dutifully connecting dots, though, but observing all that makes someone who they are — and makes their deeds, such as Goldin's crusade against the Sacklers, what they are at the same time. It flits backwards and forwards in an act of structural mastery, recreating the feeling of slipping and sliding through memories. Along the way, it gives its marvellous cavalcade of its subject's imagery room to resonate, as it does with her commentary on it, her recollections of her fallen friends like Pink Flamingos star Cookie Mueller and artist/activist David Wojnarowicz, and her constant unpacking of her childhood. It lets court-ordered victim statements to the Sacklers in Purdue's bankruptcy deal echo and linger. Winning the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival as well, this is a remarkable doco about an individual, and the others who've cast their shadows upon her, as well as a stirring account of the clash between individuals and power — Poitras' frequent topic of interest, after all.
Remember when we used to bemoan the fates of so many young women growing up with Bella from Twilight as a hero? Now we know the same generation has had Katniss Everdeen, and the kids are all right. Plus, those of us well on the 'A' side of 'YA' want in on the flamboyant, ultra-capitalist dystopia and its inadvertent girl revolutionary. Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games is a really developed universe, and the story only gets more compelling with Catching Fire, which in film is a 2 hour 25 minute whirlwind. After the gameplay-based formula of the first instalment, it was hard to figure out where the sequels would go — another fight-to-the-death Battle Royale would be repetitive, but if we don't spend any time in an arena, the premise of the trilogy would look pretty disposable. Suffice to say, Catching Fire has it covered. After the act of subversion Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) pulled off on live TV at the end of The Hunger Games, agitation is spreading in the poorer districts of Panem, and the despotic President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the ruling elite of the Capitol will do anything to quell it. Snow manipulates Katniss into placating the proletariat via a tightly controlled publicity tour — and if she fails, he has a plan B. Following the strategy of his sly new head gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman. Just bear with the name), Snow calls for a special-occasion Hunger Games, for which all the competing tributes are drawn from past victors. This throws our old favourites — Katniss, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Effie (Elizabeth Banks), Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) — back together, while also introducing a new field of characters fierce in combat and charisma. Just try not to love matter-of-fact badass Johanna (Jena Malone) and sleazy Finnick (Sam Claflin), an arrogant prepster who nonetheless piggybacks his elderly mentor, Mags (Lynn Cohen), about the place. It's all on Katniss to survive, again — while protecting Peeta, her family and her distant love Gale (Liam Hemsworth). This time, she also has to slot in her obligations to all of humankind. Collins' story gives the film excellent bones. The allegories — to reality TV, consumer society and good old fashioned class struggle — sit very near the surface, but that doesn't dull their impact; it's a thrill to see such politics in a dazzling mainstream package. Several key moments of protest are nimbly handled, such that they provoke real empathy and reflection. Director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) and his team have not dropped the ball. There's no Disneyfication; Catching Fire has a distinct look and sustained dark, gritty mood. The Capitol is made to look both glamorous and repulsive, and comedy is inserted with precision; every time Stanley Tucci does a weird laugh, we do a weird laugh, and Malone kills it in the space of an elevator ride. Of course, The Hunger Games' ultimate weapon is Jennifer Lawrence, and Catching Fire lets her unleash her Jennifer Lawrenciest self, pulling some unpretty faces, cracking a few jokes and being brazenly down-to-earth in the face of Panem-wide 'Girl on Fire' hysteria. We'll follow her into any showdown — including when the final Hunger Games arrives split in two parts, in 2014 and 2015. https://youtube.com/watch?v=MkvUNfySGQU
From the director of Dumb & Dumber, There's Something About Mary and Shallow Hal comes a race-relations drama with five Academy Award nominations to its name. Only a handful of years ago, that would've seemed like one of the most unlikely sentences in the film industry. But Green Book is a Peter Farrelly movie through and through, even if no one gets their tongue stuck to a frosty pole, uses an unconventional type of hair gel or dons a fat suit. It might take its real-life tale seriously, however the same simplicity — and the same penchant for upbeat, easy sentiment — that has characterised the director's filmography remains. Taking to the road across America's Deep South circa 1962, Green Book follows a journey within a journey. As revered classical musician Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and his hired chauffeur Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) venture from town to town on a piano recital tour, this odd couple ventures towards an unexpected friendship. Painfully aware of the discrimination of the time, the reserved, refined Shirley understands the need for a chaperone, but is hardly accustomed to some of his driver's behaviour. For the mouthy, uncouth Lip, a New York bouncer who's happy to treat African-Americans the same way he'd treat an unruly bar patron, working for a black man likewise takes some getting used to. Co-writing the screenplay with Brian Currie (also one of the film's producers) and Nick Vallelonga (son of Tony 'Lip' Vallelonga), Farrelly throws up plot developments like his characters throw fried chicken scraps out of the car window. That's one of Green Book's big scenes, and it's tossed in breezily but lands with a thud. The same is true of much of the movie. Simultaneously light and overt, and shot and styled in the same way, this is a picture that ticks all of the obvious boxes, charts all of the predictable developments and services all of the expected messages. It has a heart, as do most of Farrelly's films, yet it always seems like it's expending most of its energy on stressing its feel-good importance. While scenes that show Tony learning to overcome his own prejudice, saving Shirley from violent attacks and teaching him that stereotypical aspects of black culture may have a basis in truth, they also feel carefully calculated to further the picture's overall vibe. A film that makes Lip the protagonist and Shirley the supporting player, Green Book is also a film that's willing to shape the details to suit its smooth angle on reality. That's far from uncommon in the "based on a true story" game, but even if controversy hadn't sprung up about the handling of specific aspects of Shirley's life (with his family contesting some elements), the movie would've still felt massaged for mass consumption. Indeed, Farrelly has a mould that he's trying to fit, earning and thoroughly deserving the label of this year's Driving Miss Daisy. It's also this year's The Blind Side, aka a picture where a person of colour's narrative is framed through their relationship with a helpful white friend, or saviour. Green Book's questionable approach would've always been apparent, but it perhaps cuts deeper because of the film's biggest success: its performances. Oscar-nominated for their respective roles, Mortensen and Ali truly make the best of the material at their disposal. More than that, they exceed it — as you'd expect from both. In Mortensen's case, there's a welcome looseness to his take on Lip that never feels like he's forcefully pushing buttons or hitting marks, even though the script always is. With likely two-time Best Supporting Actor winner Ali, there's soulful elegance, resounding dignity and quiet vulnerability to his portrayal of Shirley, giving the man what he deserves even if the film around him doesn't. Although a great movie could be made starring the pair, this isn't it. Instead, they lift a polite hug of a picture, one that boils down good intentions to the easiest, most conventional elements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c18JX_RS-Xo
Sometimes Apple TV+ dives into real-life crimes, as miniseries Black Bird did. Sometimes it mines the whodunnit setup for laughs, which The Afterparty winningly achieved. The family feuds of Bad Sisters, Servant's domestic horrors, Hello Tomorrow!'s retrofuturistic dream, the titular take on work-life balance in Severance — they've all presented streaming audiences with puzzles, too, because this platform's original programming loves a mystery. So, of course The Big Door Prize, the service's new dramedy, is all about asking questions from the outset. Here, no one is wondering who killed who, why a baby has been resurrected or if a situation that sounds too good to be true unsurprisingly is. Rather, they're pondering a magical machine and what it tells them about themselves. That premise isn't merely a metaphor for existential musings, although everyone in The Big Door Prize does go down the "what does it all mean?" rabbit hole. When the Morpho pops up in the small town of Deerfield, it literally informs residents of their true potential — for $2, their palm prints and social security number. Adorned with a butterfly symbol and glowing with blue light, the contraption looks like an arcade game. There's nothing to play, though, unless it is playing everyone who sits in its booth. Participants receive an also-blue business card for their troubles, proclaiming what they're supposed to be doing with their life in bold white lettering. Is it a bit of fun? A modern-day clairvoyant game? A gag? Somehow spot-on? Also, where did the machine come from? Who brought it to the local grocery store? Can it be trusted? The longer that folks share their existence with the Morpho, the more queries arise. As seen in the first three episodes that dropped on Wednesday, March 29, with the story then continuing weekly for the show's ten-episode first season — a second has just been greenlit as well — not everyone in Deerfield is initially fascinated with the locale's new gadget. The series opens as high-school history teacher Dusty Hubbard (Chris O'Dowd, Slumberland) turns 40, marking the occasion with that many gifts from his wife Cass (Gabrielle Dennis, A Black Lady Sketch Show) and teenage daughter Trina (Djouliet Amara, Devil in Ohio). Some presents he likes, such as the scooter and helmet. Others he's perplexed by, including the theremin. He's also baffled by all the talk about the Morpho, the new reason to head to Mr Johnson's (Patrick Kerr, Search Party) store. As school principal Pat (Cocoa Brown, Never Have I Ever) embraces her inner biker because the machine said so, and charisma-dripping restaurateur Giorgio (Josh Segarra, Scream VI) revels in being told he's a superstar, Dusty claims he's happy not joining in. Lines sprawl down the street in a town that only really has a main street, and a high school, as Deerfield's inhabitants are drawn in by the Morpho's promise: "Discover Your Life Potential". For someone who keeps saying he's sitting it out, Dusty sure does love obsessing over why everyone else is upending their routines because 80s-esque technology spat out their destiny. His parents announce that they're splitting, for instance, with his dad (Jim Meskimen, American Auto) pursuing male modelling and his mother (Deirdre O'Connell, Outer Range) heading to Europe after the machine advised that she's a healer. When Dusty points that his mum is already a doctor, it falls on deaf ears. So goes the entire town, making snap decisions and grabbing the opportunity to reinvent themselves, mix up lives that didn't ever seem like they'd change and reassess what they truly want. The Big Door Prize itself hasn't appeared out of nowhere, adapting MO Walsh's book of the same name. On-screen, it boasts David West Read as its creator — a writer and producer who knows a thing or two about pursuing alternate storylines thanks to penning stage musical & Juliet, which gives Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet a revisionist twist and continuation, and is also well-versed in small-town hijinks after winning an Emmy for Schitt's Creek. He's in far less overtly comic territory than the latter here; The Big Door Prize is still amusing, but rarely laugh-a-minute, although The Other Two delight Segarra could walk straight out of this and into Read's past hit. Still, this is also about a family disrupted while navigating small-town life, the assorted people who populate such spots, the rituals and gathering points that communities congregate around, and the quest to find significance in the cards you've been dealt. Making the most of its strong ensemble cast, each of the show's first eight episodes focuses on a particular Deerfield citizen and their potential, while keeping Dusty, Cass and their marriage in view, plus Trina's grief over her boyfriend's recent death and his identical twin Jacob's (debutant Sammy Fourlas) efforts to cope. All four earn their own chapter, as does Cass' mother and town mayor Izzy (Crystal Fox, Big Little Lies), Jacob's western-loving dad Beau (Aaron Roman Weiner, Suspicion), aforementioned NHL star-turned-Italian eatery owner Giorgio and school chaplain Father Rueben (Damon Gupton, Your Honor). This approach helps The Big Door Prize get not just philosophical but universal, because the Morpho's fortune-telling means different things to different people, yet sparks ripples that flow over everyone. While only bartender Hana (Ally Maki, Hacks) genuinely opts out, there's a tale around that as well. From the get-go, the Morpho nabs viewers' intrigue — and so do the strange cobalt dots, matching the machine's chosen palette, that appear early on Dusty's rear. There's no shortage of small mysteries in Deerfield, just as there's no lack of quirks (see: the town's staycation spot, aka "the number one nautical-based hotel in Deerfield", plus the canal and gondola inside Giorgio's eponymous restaurant). But like The Twilight Zone-meets-The Box but lighter, with nods to Schitt's Creek and sharing Wes Anderson's love of visually magnifying the everyday, The Big Door Prize gets its audience ruminating over two main questions. The first, in classic Apple TV+ mystery-style: what's really going on? The second: if a machine could advise how to best spend your days, possibly shattering your long-held dreams but maybe confirming your deepest desires, what would you do? In lieu of physically slipping into Dusty and co's shoes, then facing The Big Door Prize's scenario themselves, viewers should watch. Wanting to solve the show's key mystery makes this addictive viewing — and if you start thinking about Lost, or even the theory that Schitt's Creek was happening in purgatory, that's understandable. As written so convincingly across O'Dowd's expressive face, though, The Big Door Prize isn't about delivering instant answers. The likeable The IT Crowd, Bridesmaids and Moone Boy star plays a man who has never actively sought any himself, but just complied with the done thing, a path that's beginning to unravel. Easy proclamations now surround him; however, alongside his fellow townsfolk, he's learning that life's mundanities and enigmas alike don't fit neatly and nicely into any one box — and nor does this engaging series. Check out the trailer for The Big Door Prize below: The Big Door Prize streams via Apple TV+.
It's only been in the country for a matter of months but, following a series of complaints about the product, Duff beer has been found to be in breach of Australia's alcohol advertising code. The official Duff product, which was sold exclusively by Woolworths owned liquor stores such as Dan Murphy's and BWS, will be discontinued immediately. The stock currently left on shelves will be the last smooooth, creamy Duff you'll be able to get your hands on. The complaints voiced about the product's advertising were to do with its effects on underage drinkers, and those making the decision at the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code felt those concerns were valid. "The association of The Simpsons with the product name and packaging is so strongly entrenched in Australian popular culture that the name and packaging will draw the attention of under 18 year olds," said the panel. And you can't really blame them. There's no doubt that the Duff product has strong ties to the much-loved cartoon. Millions of children grew up singing 'Duff beer for me. Duff beer for you. I'll have a Duff. You have one too' and it now serves a dual function as the perfect drinking song. There's also the understandable concern that these younger people would use the product to drink to excess. But for all of us responsible adult drinkers who sometimes like to indulge in some light-hearted Simpsons sessions, this news comes as quite a blow. All we can hope now is that you snag one of the last few bottles. $17 per six-pack or $45 a carton is a nice price to pay for an official collector's item. Via Daily Mail and International Business Times.
You can't finish off a week of shaking up your routine with your regular avo and eggs. Instead, spice up your usual Sunday brunch with the menu at Chop Chop Chang's in West End. Forget about your regular eggs Benny, and get acquainted with the bao Benedict, which features roast pork belly, poached egg, kale, lemon hollandaise, ginger and chilli sauce. Or if you're after a pan-Asian take on something a little more sweet, go for the French toast with glazed mango, strawberry, tropical fruit and coconut ice cream.
UPDATE, March 30, 2021: Raya and the Dragon is currently screening in Australian cinemas, and is also currently available to stream via Disney+ with Premier Access (so you'll pay $34.99 extra for it, on top of your usual subscription fee). It'll hit Disney+ without any extra fee on June 4. Featuring a vibrant animated spectacle that heroes vivid green and blue hues, a rousing central figure who is never a stock-standard Disney princess and lively voice work from an all-star cast, Raya and the Last Dragon boasts plenty of highlights. The Mouse House's new all-ages-friendly release also embraces southeast Asian culture with the same warm hug that Moana gave Polynesia and Pixar's Coco sent Mexico's way — and it's always detailed, organic, inclusive and thoughtful, and never tokenistic. But perhaps its biggest strength, other than the pitch-perfect vocal stylings of Awkwafina as the playful, mystical half of the film's title, is its timing. Disney first announced the feature back in August 2019, so the company can't have known what the world would suffer through from early 2020 onwards, of course. But a hopeful movie about a planet ravaged by a destructive plague and blighted by tribalism — and a feature that champions the importance of banding together to make things right, too — really couldn't arrive at a more opportune moment. COVID-19 has no place in Raya and the Last Dragon; however, as the picture's introductory preamble explains, a virus-like wave of critters called the Druun has wreaked havoc. Five hundred years earlier, the world of Kumandra was filled with humans and dragons living together in harmony, until the sinister force hit. Now, only the realm's two-legged inhabitants remain — after their furry friends used their magic to create the dragon gem, which saved everyone except themselves. That's the only status quo that Raya (voiced by Star Wars' Kelly Marie Tran) has ever known. Her entire existence has also been lived out in a divided Kumandra, with different groups staking a claim to various areas. With her father Benja (Daniel Dae Kim, Always Be My Maybe), she hails from the most prosperous region, Heart, and the duo hold out hope that they can reunite the warring lands. Alas, when they bring together their fellow leaders for a peaceful summit, Raya's eagerness to trust Namaari (Gemma Chan, Captain Marvel), the daughter of a rival chief, ends with the Druun on the rampage once again. Directors Don Hall (Big Hero 6) and Carlos López Estrada (Blindspotting), co-directors Paul Briggs and John Ripa (both Disney art and animation department veterans), and screenwriters Qui Nguyen (Dispatches From Elsewhere) and Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians) mightn't have had much of a tale to tell if Raya and Namaari had gotten on without a hitch from the get-go. But the latter's early betrayal of the former, and her quest to steal the dragon gem, serves more than a key storytelling function. This is a movie about believing not just in yourself, but in others, and it doesn't shy away from the reality that trusting anyone comes with the chance of peril and pain — especially in fraught times where the world has taken on an every-person-for-themselves mentality and folks are dying (or being turned to stone, which is the Druun's modus operandi). If the narrative hadn't been willing to make this plain again and again, including when it picks up six years later as Raya tries to reverse the devastation caused by Namaari's actions, Raya and the Last Dragon wouldn't feel as genuinely affecting. Rolling around desert wastelands on her giant armadillo-meets-pill bug Tuk Tuk, Raya's mission involves collecting every part of the now-fractured gem — which has been scattered across Kumandra — as well as investigating a legend about Awkwafina's Sisu. It's rumoured that the aquamarine-coloured dragon still lives, and Raya is as intent on finding it as she is on piecing her homeland back together. Tracking down the perennially optimistic Sisu actually happens quickly (it's right there in the movie's buddy-comedy moniker, after all) and the film is all the better for it. So giddily buoyant that she's like a teenage girl, the friendly creature becomes the supportive, exuberant cheerleader encouraging Raya to be her better self and to see the best in others, and their match-up — and the meeting of stellar vocals behind them — works a treat. That said, there is an episodic feel to the pair's jumps from place to place, as they enlist the help of a baby pickpocket, plus orphaned ten-year-old and boat restaurant proprietor Boun (Izaac Wang, Good Boys) and lonely warrior Tong (Benedict Wong, The Personal History of David Copperfield). If you're cynical or even just practical, you can also see how all these characters and settings could give rise to their own toys, other merchandise and spinoffs, too. And yet, this is always a deeply moving feature, thanks to its commitment to recognising the risks as well as the rewards of placing your faith in others, its warmly beating heart, and the complexities of Raya and Namaari's relationship — which is never straightforward, and puts the one-note rivalries between young women so often seen in live-action high school-set movies to shame. A familiar Disney formula is at work underneath, and noticeably, but those easily spotted aspects provide Raya and the Last Dragon with its skeleton rather than driving every detail into well-worn territory. Also hitting the mark: the film's comic notes, especially through Awkwafina's voice performance; its balance of world-building fantasy and epic adventure, and of both hopeful and melancholy tones; and the way it equally plays like a fable and also feels ideally suited to the current moment. Tran, Chan and the rest of the movie's cast, including Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) as Namaari's mother, are just as wonderful, and the feature's finale leaves an imprint. Amid these fine-tuned elements and the always-breathtaking imagery also lingers another message, and one that's just as important as the flick's missive of unity. Clouds of familiarity linger over Raya and the Last Dragon, but they never hide the movie's many charms — because judging something based on its most obvious traits is ill-advised within this touching tale, and when it comes to the film as a whole as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T4GIqEYyNk&feature=youtu.be Top image: © 2020 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
Whoever said bouncy castles were just for kids clearly never encountered The Monster. Clocking in at 270-metres and boasting 30 different obstacles, this thing takes the title of the world's largest inflatable obstacle course. Oh, and it's just casually coming to Melbourne next month, as part of its own three-day 18+ festival of fun. Taking over the Grand Pavilion at Melbourne Showgrounds across the Australia Day long weekend, The Monster is the bouncy castle experience of your wildest kidult dreams. Punters are invited to run, jump, dance and scramble their way through the course, with sessions running from noon–10pm each day. It'll likely take you somewhere between five and 20 minutes to complete, depending on speed, coordination and how indulgent your festive season was. What's more, the fun extends beyond the final bounce, with the festival also pulling together a program of DJs, street food vendors and pop-up bars to see you sticking around long into the night. Melbourne's just the first stop on The Monster's soon-to-launch Aussie tour, with organisers TEG Life Like Touring expected to announce more cities next year. The Monster arrives in Melbourne from January 26–28, with access to the obstacle course from 12–10pm daily. Tickets are $39.90 and available from Monday, December 18. You can buy tickets at themonster.com.au.
Praise be, Handmaid's Tale fans. The series' third season is due to hit the small screen in June, and the first proper trailer has arrived. Blessed be not only the fruit but the sneak peek, obviously. Revolution looks set to sweep the fictional society of Gilead in the two-minute-long clip, which follows on from the teaser released in February during the Superbowl. That fiery preview told us that it's time to wake up, and it looks like that's exactly what's happening when we rejoin this dystopian world, its creepy and oppressive way of life, and the chaotic existence of Offred/June (Elisabeth Moss) and her fellow subjugated women. Of course, meaty details about the third season are as scarce as a happy woman in red — but expect to spot Yvonne Strahovski's Serena Joy, Joseph Fiennes' Fred Waterford, Ann Dowd's Aunt Lydia, Max Minghella's Nick and new series regular Bradley Whitford as Commander Lawrence, as well as plenty of handmaids. Given how the second season wrapped up, expect the story to get even darker, too. The 13-episode series will hit soon, airing on SBS and becoming available to stream on SBS On Demand at 8.30pm on Thursday, June 6, then continuing weekly. Lucky for us Down Under, this is the same time as it'll be dropping on Hulu in the States, so hopefully no spoilers will crop up. And, there's plenty more Handmaid's Tale bleakness to enjoy this year (well, not that enjoy is necessarily the right term). Margaret Atwood, author of the original 1985 novel that started it all, is releasing a long-awaited sequel. Called The Testaments, it'll hit bookshelves comes September. Check out the new Handmaid's Tale season three trailer below — under his eye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig3h2JdQDI0 The Handmaid's Tale's third season will screen on SBS and SBS On Demand in Australia, airing weekly from 8.30pm on Thursday, June 6.
When you're a mask-wearing superhero, you've made an active choice. Everyone's favourite friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man wanted to keep his web-slinging identity a secret, for instance, which is why he started covering up his face long before the entire world began doing the same during the pandemic. But, in Spider-Man: Far From Home, that decision was taken out of Peter Parker's hands — leaving the Tom Holland (Chaos Walking)-starring, Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the character exposed to the world. Set to arrive two-and-a-half years after that big — and literal — revelation, Spider-Man: No Way Home will pick up with Parker struggling to deal with the fact that everyone now knows who he is, and that he can't now just be an ordinary high schooler when he's not acting the hero. So, as the just-dropped first trailer for the new film shows, he calls in some help. Cue Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, The Courier), a time- and space-twisting spell, and the beginnings of some multiverse chaos. Wong (Benedict Wong, Nine Days) is also on-hand to warn against messing with the status quo, but obviously if that advice was followed, the movie wouldn't have a plot. Two important things to remember: one, the MCU will keep spinning its interconnected web forever (or so it seems); and two, in March 2022, a little film called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is set to drop. It's the next movie in the franchise after No Way Home hits on Boxing Day Down Under, in fact, so expect the two to link closely together. Also popping up in the No Way Home trailer: Zendaya (Space Jam: A New Legacy), Marisa Tomei (The King of Staten Island) and Jacob Batalon (Let It Snow). Behind the lens, Jon Watts returns after previously helming both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home as well. And, there's another familiar face that'll make you think not just about this current iteration of Spidey, but also of past versions that've graced the big screen over the years — because that's what tinkering with the multiverse is all about. No Way Home isn't as likely to get as playful as the phenomenal animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, though, if that's what's just popped into your head. In a nice piece of symmetry, when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness does hit cinemas next year, it'll be directed by Sam Raimi — who also directed the Tobey Maguire-starring Spider-Man movies in 2002, 2003 and 2007. Check out the No Way Home trailer below: Spider-Man: No Way Home opens in Australian cinemas on December 26.
With metropolitan Melbourne currently subject to strict stay-at-home orders until at least mid-August, the city's cinemas have all gone dark — again. But, as it usually does at this time of year, the Melbourne International Film Festival will still be serving up an 18-day feast of movies for Melburnians to enjoy, this time from the comfort of their homes. Cinephiles around the rest of the country will be able to check out MIFF's 2020 program, too, with the festival going both virtual and national with a lineup it's calling MIFF 68 1/2. After cancelling the fest's physical event months ago, back when the first COVID-19 lockdowns were going into effect, the annual showcase of cinema will deliver a sizeable and impressive online program between Thursday, August 6–Sunday, August 23, which is when the festival would've run if it had forged ahead in-person. Mirroring the fest's physical structure as much as is possible in a digital format, that includes exciting opening night, centrepiece and closing night screenings — as well as other program spotlight titles, a selection of world premieres, and movies that have had film buffs talking at prestigious international festivals. In total, 113 features and shorts are on offer, spanning flicks from 56 countries. So, if you were wondering why you might need almost three weeks to work your way through the program, now you understand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRUWVT87mt8 It all kicks off with Kelly Reichardt's First Cow, one of the very best movies of the past year — and a hit everywhere from Telluride to Berlinale. Stepping back to 19th-century America, the Certain Women director spins the story of a cook (John Magaro) and a Chinese entrepreneur (Orion Lee) who start an illicit but highly profitable business making delicious biscuits using milk stolen direct from the titular animal (the first in their region, hence the name) in the dark of night. It's also one of the 49 percent of MIFF 68 1/2's films that's made by at least one female director. MIFF viewers can also look forward to Peter Pan reimagining Wendy, the long-awaited next film from Beasts of the Southern Wild's Benh Zeitlin, which sits in the fest's centrepiece spot. Wrapping things up is closing night's Ema, from Jackie director Pablo Larrain — with his frequent star Gael García Bernal featuring alongside newcomer Mariana Di Girolamo, and the narrative set in Chile's dance world. Also in the high-profile camp: the Aubrey Plaza-starring psychodrama Black Bear, about a filmmaker who gets involved with another couple's squabbles; the Tilda Swinton-narrated, visually stunning Last and First Men, as directed by late film composer Jóhann Jóhannsson; Mogul Mowgli, with Riz Ahmed playing an aspiring British-Pakistani rapper forced to grapple with a sudden illness; and Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt), a queer Aussie rom-com with a ghostly component. From the documentary selection, there's also this year's Sundance US Grand Jury Prize-winner Boys State, which experiments with democracy from the perspective of teenage boys; On the Record, detailing and exploring the allegations against Def Jam mogul Russell Simmons; and 9to5: The Story of a Movement, which sees this year's American Factory Oscar-winners Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar chronicle the fight to end gender discrimination in the workplace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFFvje2A2vE As always with the consistently super-sized MIFF, the list goes on — with Polish drama Corpus Christi, US black comedy Shiva Baby and the distinctively animated Kill It and Leave this Town on the bill as well. So is award-winning documentary Welcome to Chechnya, about the persecution of queer Chechens, and Maddy the Model's insight into the life of Madeline Stuart, a Brisbane-born model with Down syndrome. Staying local, Aussie film fans can reassess Captain Cook's arrival through the eyes of the country's First Nations population via Looky Looky Here Comes Cooky, and watch the Karrabing Film Collective latest work, Day in the Life. If you really feel like settling in for the long haul, Mark Cousins' Women Make Film: A New Road Trip Through Cinema spends 14 hours diving deep into female-directed cinema (and 183 female filmmakers, in fact), while the four-part City So Real surveys Chicago's 2019 mayoral elections. And, if that's not enough, a program of 44 short films will screen for free — and, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Aussie comedy Death in Brunswick, MIFF 68 1/2 is hosting a virtual table read of the movie's script. MIFF 68 1/2 runs from Thursday, August 6–Sunday, August 23. For further details and to buy online tickets from 9am on Friday, July 17, visit the festival's website.
Do one thing. Do it well. That's a motto Les Bubbles has taken to heart with its signature dish: the steak frites. Don't bother asking for a menu — served with a soft leaf salad, available with three types of sauces and boasting bottomless frites, it's the only main meal on offer. Once you're done eating all the fries you can eat, move onto a six-dish selection of sweets, including crème brûlée and bombe Alaska. Then, ask yourself if you're the kind of person who waits half an hour before getting in the water, or throws caution to the wind and jumps right in. Why? Well, downstairs you'll find The Bath House, which nods to the site's sordid history (this is the Valley, after all) and includes a 15-person spa. Some of their beverages are even designed to be enjoyed in said bath.
From Mad Max: Fury Road and Girl Asleep to Sweet Country and Breath, the past few years haven't been short on Aussie cinema highlights — and if the local contingent headed to the next Sundance Film Festival is any indication, 2019 looks set to continue that trend. A record six Australian feature films will screen at the Utah festival in January next year, topping the country's previous best of five feature films back in 1997. And, in achievements that are just as impressive, all six feature female protagonists and three are directed by women. Five of the flicks will also enjoy their world premiere at the prestigious fest, including the Mia Wasikowska-led Judy and Punch, about marionette puppeteers; Animals, featuring Alia Shawkat and helmed by 52 Tuesdays' Sophie Hyde; and Little Monsters, the Lupita Nyong'o-starring next effort from Down Under's Abe Forsythe. Filmed in the Northern Territory, Top End Wedding reunites The Sapphires' director Wayne Blair and star Miranda Tapsell, while the Adelaide-shot I Am Mother delves into dystopian sci-fi territory with Hilary Swank, the voice of Rose Byrne and Danish standout Clara Rugaard. If the latter movie sounds familiar, that's because it recently screened a work-in-progress version at the Adelaide Film Festival. Fans of one of The Babadook should add the second film from director Jennifer Kent to their must-see list, although The Nightingale is a very different movie to its predecessor. An award-winner at last year's Venice Film Festival, and one that's set in the wilderness of Tasmania circa 1825, it's a stunning picture about Irish convict Clare (Aisling Franciosi) — who's on a revenge mission against a British officer (Sam Claflin), with Aboriginal tracker Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) as her guide. The Nightingale will also hit Aussie cinemas on January 24 — the day that Sundance kicks off in the US — while local release dates for the rest of the Aussie Sundance slate are yet to be revealed. Images: Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
In season one of Netflix's Ugly Delicious, Momofuku founder David Chang and his cohort of famous chefs, comedians and street artists ate pizza in Naples, streetside tacos in LA, hot chicken in Nashville and deer tendons in Beijing. In season two of the non-fiction food show, which hits the streaming platform on March 6, Chang and co are heading Down Under. The four-episode second season will see Chang travel around Istanbul, Tokyo, Mumbai and Sydney with actors Nick Kroll and Danny McBride, comedian Aziz Ansari, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, food writers Helen Rosner and Chris Ying, and street artist Dave Choe, among others. While the just-dropped trailer doesn't give too much away in terms of Sydney locations, it does feature a Crocodile Dundee 'that's not a knife' gag at an Outback Steakhouse. It's possible Chang visited one of the 700-plus Australian-themed, American chain stores located in the US, but it's also possible he tracked down one of the eight scattered around the countryside in Australia — for the sake of, perhaps, authenticity. You also see a flash of Paul Carmichael, head chef at Sydney's Momofuku Seiobo, and taking into account how often Chang waxes lyrical about Golden Century's pipis in XO on Instagram, you can assume the chef will head to both of those spots, too. It also looks like the show will dive into Chang's personal life a little, with the trailer teasing discussions about his and wife Grace's nearly one-year-old baby Hugo. Chang will do a bit of a Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, too, and cook a meal for schoolchildren. While you wait for the second season to hit Netflix next month, you can wait the trailer below. https://youtu.be/1eyFq3addMs Ugly Delicious 2 hits Netflix on March 6.
In the near future, a trip to Herston could involve wandering across suspended canopies, kayaking and swimming in lagoons, moseying through wetlands and watching insects flutter by in a giant walk-through butterfly house. They're just some of the possible ideas under consideration for Victoria Park Vision, the huge new 45-hectare public park that's set to replace the Victoria Park Golf Course. Also mooted: a produce garden, a "food forest" (an orchard, presumably), fountains and waterfalls scattered around the site, and a playground for adults. In good news for your pooch, a water park for dogs is also among the suggestions. As announced by Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, the possibilities go on, including picnic facilities, cafes and restaurants, sporting grounds and attractions that are open both day and night. Other ideas span native gardens, tropical forests, giant slides, replica life-size dinosaurs, areas honouring Indigenous Australian culture and a suspended treehouse playground. While they mightn't all come to fruition, all of the above inclusions are currently being contemplated by Brisbane City Council. The lengthy list is the result of a recent months-long community consultation process, with more than 5400 people tendering submissions and over 3500 folks showing up to an open day back in September. BCC will keep sifting through the suggestions, then combine them with advice from local and international design experts, ready for a draft overview of Victoria Park Vision to be released in late January 2020. Whatever ends up making the final cut whenever the new park becomes a reality — an opening date is yet to be set — the sprawling new space is set to change the face of the inner city. Given that it'll become Brisbane's biggest new park in five decades, that's to be expected. And if you've noticed that mini-golf isn't listed among the huge number of features above, don't worry. While the existing full-size golf course is saying goodbye, Vic Park's current putt-putt and driving range facilities are earmarked to stay. For more information about Victoria Park Vision, visit the Brisbane City Council website.
Pull out that old Discman, break out the cargo pants and start practising your smoothest 90s and early 00s dance moves — the pop tour of your wildest teenage dreams is hitting Australian shores this summer and it's got more stars than a TV Hits sticker collection. Come Thursday, February 9, the So Pop festival is set to deliver a huge serve of nostalgia to Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall, pulling together a juicy lineup of old-school icons, starting with none other than Vengaboys — celebrating their 25th anniversary, too. Heading up the show, Vengaboys will bring Cowboy Donny, Captain Kim, PartyGirl D'Nice and SailorBoy Robin to sing their party-starting smash hits like 'Boom Boom Boom Boom!!' and 'We Like to Party! (The Vengabus)' from the Netherlands — and yes, you now have both tunes stuck in your head from reading this. They'll be joined by Danish artist and producer Whigfield, who'll break out 'Sexy Eyes'; the UK's N-Trance, which means hearing 'Set You Free', 'Stayin' Alive', 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy' and 'Forever'; and Reel 2 Real teaming up with The Mad Stuntman, which is where 'I Like To Move It' and 'Go On Move' come in. Dutch trance/pop outfit Alice DJ is also on the lineup, so get ready to hear 'Back in My Life', 'Will I Ever' and 'Better Off Alone'. And, Nick Skitz is on DJing duties — after releasing Skitmix 59 (DJ Mix) in 2021. SO POP 2023 LINEUP: Vengaboys Whigfield Alice DJ N-Trance Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman Nick Skitz
Everyone has fond memories of playing Uno. If you didn't start a fight by whipping out a draw four just as someone was down to their last card, then you didn't really have a childhood. And we all remember the joy of catching someone out when they didn't exclaim "Uno!" while they held one lonely card in their hand. In short: it really is the game of champions. It's also a game that Barbara is rather fond of, so it's dedicating an evening each month to Uno at its most competitive. A word of warning: this isn't for the faint of heart. Some folks take their Uno rather seriously, as you'll see from 7pm on Wednesday, February 27 — and on the last Thursday of each month afterwards. So flex those fingers, prepare to show off your number- and colour-matching skills, and get geared up to sledge, taunt and distract your opponents. All's fair in love and Uno, after all. Bar prizes are on offer for player that emerges victorious. If someone brings a themed deck (and everything from N*Sync cards to a special Sydney 2000 Olympics version really do exist), then we think everyone will be a winner.
Think floral art and the likes of Martha Stewart, Preston Bailey and your aunty who did that flower arranging course might pop into your head. Think refined, disciplined, unique, and delicate floral art, and only one name should come to mind: Lucy Culliton. She’s won the Portia Geach, Mosman and Kedumba drawing prices and is part of the National Gallery of Australia, Australian Parliament House and the Gold Coast Art Centre collections. In 2012, her exhibition Bibbeluke Flowers was a sell-out, and her newest, Weeds of the Monaro and Others, is likely to receive the same reception. The paintings of Culliton stem from an artistic contentment she’s found in her home and garden, and her collections of work reflect everything from it’s blooming beauties to its pests. It was through constant weeding, that Lucy discovered the wonder, intricacy and inherent beauty of the flowers, shrubs and weeds she was pulling out. While paterson’s curse, dandelions, deadly nightshade and thistles were a pest, and had no place next to the petunias, Lucy found a happy home for them in striped milk jugs, chinese vases and jars, they became obvious subject to paint. The Hold Artspace will be hosting Weeds of Monaro and Others for three days only from August 20.
Christmas means many things: chaos in the shops, carols invading your brain, and a focus on all things red and green. In Brisbane, it also means Queensland Ballet's final production for the season, with The Nutcracker brightening up the QPAC stage every year. Whether you've experienced the Tchaikovsky-scored two-act performance about sentient toys, dancing snowflakes and the Sugar Plum Fairy before, or you're joining little Clara on her Christmas Eve journey for the first time, you're certain to get swept up in the show's magic. And if you don't already have a ticket, don't delay — selling out is also an annual tradition. Queensland Ballet's The Nutcracker dances across the Lyric Theatre from Friday, December 14 to Saturday, December 22. Image: David Kelly.
A college student leaps from sorority life to law school, and a group of aspiring performers take the first steps towards a career in singing and treading the boards. Combine the two, and Legally Blonde: The Musical is the end result, as presented by the Brisbane Academy of Musical Theatre. That's right, you'll witness Elle Woods head to Harvard with her cute chihuahua, Bruiser in tow — initially chasing her ex-boyfriend Warner, but eventually following her own path. She'll bring more than just her love of pink to the prestigious institution, and learn more than just legal knowledge. We know that you're probably already quite familiar with the content — perhaps you've watched the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon, or maybe you've been along to the Tony Award-nominated, Olivier Award-winning production before. You won't be familiar with the players, though, but that might be short-lived. Here, a cult classic gets another on-stage run, and the next generation of talent continues their journey towards becoming stars.
Laughing in a doubled-over, can't breathe, feels-like-you-have-a-stitch kind of way isn't a planned thing. It happens spontaneously. It happens without warning. It happens at times and from sources you mightn't expect. That's what Brisbane Comedy Festival's After Hours component is all about when it returns for 2025: making the humorous magic happen in a different fashion, away from the usual routines, well-oiled jokes and hilarious shows that unleash the same comic gems night after night. Taking over the Fairfax Studio at Brisbane Powerhouse on Saturday evenings throughout the fest — on May 3, May 10, May 17 and May 24, to be exact — this always-changing late-night show is a chance for everyone involved to get loose. As for who that might be each evening, well, that's part of the surprise. The lineup changes weekly, and tickets to this variety show cost $22.
Summer season is officially here — and that means it's time to gather the crew and celebrate in style. A set menu is a fun, super easy way to achieve this. Placing your faith in the will of the chef means you can waste less time um-ing and ah-ing and instead focus on catching up with your pals — that's what the season is all about, after all. Choosing the venue — and menu — for your seasonal get-together depends a lot on what your crowd looks for on a night out. Posh nosh? Clever gourmet twists? Wine pairings? Comfort food and chilled vibes? Whatever you're in the mood for, we've put together a selection of five top-notch options that'll satisfy any clique without breaking the bank.
First, there was the Weekend of Darkness. Then came the Weekend of Tartness — aka the sister festival The Scratch just had to have. Where the former has celebrated ales, porters, stouts and other tipples at the dark end of the spectrum since 2013, the latter cartwheels to the opposite end of the extreme spectrum of beer styles. If it is tart and tangy, it is likely to be on the menu. Between Friday, February 10–Sunday, February 12, beers from more than two dozen breweries will take over the taps of the Milton hangout — tipples of the funkiest, sourest, most refreshing beers being produced in Australia and around the world. It might sound like a gimmick, but these biting brews have been around longer than you might think. In fact, historically, all beers used to be sour. Drinking is only part of the fun, and tickets aren't necessary — just show up whenever the need for a sour brew hits over the three days. As for what you'll be knocking back, breweries taking part include Queensland's own Black Hops, Felons, Newstead, Range and Sea Legs, plus Garage Project, Puhaste, Tiny Rebel, Wildflower, Fairweather, Cascade, Batch and Blood Brothers from elsewhere.
One of Australia's favourite lit events, Women of Letters, is doing a slight, temporary rebranding, simply by dropping their first syllable. Men of Letters brings to the Zoo stage a huge selection of Brisbane's, hell Australia's, best male writers as they rediscover the lost art of letter writing. Included on a pretty amazing lineup are local hotshots Matthew Condon and Nick Earls. Condon is a regular contributor to QWeekend and penned two of Brisbane's great nonfiction exposes, Three Crooked Kings and Jacks and Jokers. Nick Earls is Brisbane fiction royalty — ask any local reader. He's the author of Australian classic Zig Sag Street, as well as 48 Shades of Brown, Just a Father, The Fix, recently released The Analogue Men and many other bookshelf staples. Also having a hand in the day's letter writing are James Reyne of Australian Crawl (yes, Australian Crawl!), Federal Member for Moreton Graham Perett, music journo Everett True, country singer James Blundell, author Jack Vening, and comedian Geoffrey Windle. Each will be penning and reading a letter to 'The Woman Who Changed My Life'. Doors open at 3pm, and wine, cheese, stamps and envelopes are provided. Grab your finest quill and head along.
When the recent spate of jungle-set action-comedies hit the big screen — think: Jungle Cruise and The Lost City over the past few years — they likely didn't have anyone thinking about mini golf. But if you'd like to putt your way through 16 greens that clearly take their cues from such flicks, Tingalpa's The Jungle Adventure Play has the answer. Given the eastside venue's name, applying a leafy theme to its new mini golf course — all 16 holes of it — was always a given. Open since Thursday, January 5, the putt-putt setup includes snakes, vines, caves, ruins and bullet-riddled trucks, all trying to make getting a hole-in-one tricky. That said, given that this is an all-ages activity, there's an easy option for every hole. Putters will find two paths for each — spanning holes both indoors and outside — so you can pick between the simplest way to mini golf glory or challenge yourself. As well as the course, The Jungle Adventure Play has added a licensed bar serving cocktails, slushies, beers on tap and soft drinks — adding to Brisbane's growing list of boozy mini golf spots, such as Holey Moley's three local venues, in the process. The venue also boasts a giant inflatable bag that you can jump onto, climbing walls, high ropes and an indoor ninja course — plus, dating back to early 2022, a 140-metre flying fox track. Called The Hawk, it's the longest electric flying fox in the southern hemisphere. Take a spin before or after picking up a club and you'll be moving at 22 kilometres per hour, all while strapped into a harness eight metres above the ground. It spans both indoors and outside, too, and runs in all weather. And, like the new mini golf course, the flying fox takes inspiration from an impressive source. If you remember the Myer Centre's old dragon coaster, which used to zoom around the CBD shopping complex's top level where the cinemas now sit, then you'll instantly know the experience that The Jungle Adventure Play wants to recreate. Find The Jungle Adventure Play at 31 Proprietary Street, Tingalpa — open 9am–5pm Sunday–Thursday and 9am–8pm Friday–Saturday. Images: Peter Wallis.
Multiple Man are a little bit primitive, a little bit outrageous and a little bit cheeky – and it makes for a heck of a sound. Brothers Sean and Chris Campion are two of the newest additions to Brisbane’s new-wave, synth-fuelled music scene, taking Australia’s latest demand for fun electro-pop and nailing it to a tee. With stellar tunes like Typecast and Built Wrong, these identical twins have a lot to offer with their angsty, aggressive beats and speaker sullying synths. Don't confuse Multiple Man as just another 'ironically cool' synth-band - these guys legitimately have it going on. To celebrate the release of their debut cassette, Multiple Man will be hosting a launch at Crow Bar with creep musicians Sewers, disco kings Soft Power and swamp rockers Occults. Get your weekly dose of synth-pop from all these outrageous local acts – you deserve a great Thursday to bring in Good Friday.
Brisbane is a river city, and there are plenty of things that you can do while you're on, near or around the Brown Snake that winds through the centre of town. But Brisbane's Art Boat, as part of this year's Brisbane Festival, just might be the brightest option — because it'll have you moseying along the waterway while checking out dazzling installations. Between Friday, September 3–Friday, September 24, this floating art experience is taking two of the festival's big attractions — Airship Orchestra and Sky Castle — and popping them on a boat. Yes, it's that simple. You can still enjoy both inflatable pieces on dry land, if you'd prefer, but this'll have you appreciating both the art and the city in a whole new way. Airship Orchestra is doing the honours for the first two weeks, then Sky Castle will bring its arches for the remainder of the fest. There'll be a bar on board, plus live performances by the likes of Tom Thum, Briefs Factory, Sahara Beck and more. And, as well as choosing which installation you want to see, you can choose between a few routes — including South Bank to Northshore, the reverse, or loops from either location. Top image: Airship Orchestra, Ben Weinstein.
Sorry, supermarket desserts. When Gelato Messina serves up one of its special treats, no one's hitting the local ice cream aisle. 2023's limited-edition wares have included everything from red velvet gelato, cake and fudge mixes to a mango gelato spin on Iced Vovos — plus a Neapolitan version of its super-fancy Viennetta, too — and are now gifting folks with a sweet tooth a tub of gianduia gelato topped with hazelnut rocher crack. If your ultimate chocolate is round, covered in gold wrapping and has a crunchy hazelnut centre — yes, we're talking about Ferrero Rocher — then we expect that you'll be keen for this Messina special, dubbed the Get Cracking hot tub. Clearly taking its cues from the famed Italian chocolate, the tubs feature layers of gianduia (chocolate-hazelnut) gelato, cone crunch and hazelnut mousse. Then, on top: that hazelnut rocher crack. The end result mightn't look exactly like the chocolates that you know and love, just in a scoopable form, but it's an ode all the same. Available as part of Messina's 'Hot Tub' series, the Get Cracking gelato can only be ordered online on Monday, August 7, in one-litre tubs. You can then go into your chosen Messina store to pick up your tub between Friday, August 11–Sunday, August 13. A note re ordering: because Messina's specials always attract plenty of gelato lovers, the chain now staggers its on-sale times depending on the state — and, in Sydney, also the part of town you're in. Accordingly, pre-orders commence in Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory at 9am, then hit Victoria at 9.15am, before spreading its New South Wales stores over three slots between 9.30–10am. Gelato Messina's Get Cracking hot tub will be available to order on Monday, August 7, for pick up between Friday, August 11–Sunday, August 13 — head to the Messina website for further details.
A sunny getaway favourite for interstate tourists when the weather gets frostier down south, the Gold Coast isn't typically considered a winter wonderland. But that isn't stopping Cali Beach, the rooftop beach club that's usually about everything that Surfers Paradise's sultry climes have to offer, from embracing the dipping temperature with an alpine makeover. In 2022, the venue debuted The Rooftop Lodge, its wintry alter-ego — a place where you can still peer out over the coast, but you'll do so surrounded by snow and ice. The cold-weather revamp is returning in 2023, too, from Saturday, June 3 until the end of August. And this time, it's bringing ice skating with it. Each Friday–Sunday across the pop-up's season, you can head to the 5000-square-metre venue on a fourth-floor rooftop to pretend you're somewhere far less beachy and yet still at the beach. Yes, the bar is taking the concept seriously, with more than 60 snow-topped trees helping to set the mood and even fake snow part of the site. Expect big alpine energy and mountain chalet vibes as you get warm by the open fire pits as well. With this year's $350,000 temporary revamp, the ice-skating rink is a big addition, and has been purpose-built to replace the volleyball courts for winter. For when you're not sliding across its chilled expanse, The Rooftop Lodge will also feature ice-hockey machines, pop-up performances and market food stalls running all day from 11am till late. Cali Beach's VIP cabanas are also being decked out as luxury alpine lodges, with facades that fit the theme, more fire pits and Swiss ski village-style cosy furniture. So, gathering the gang and hanging out in your own space is still on the agenda, just adapting to the season. One key feature, so that you can still enjoy a dip on the coast: hot tubs. And, in partnership with Veuve Clicquot, The Rooftop Lodge will feature snowy igloo experiences for up to seven people, complete with the obvious drinks. Those transparent but warm spaces will also be decked out chalet-style, and whiling away your time in them will involve winter cocktail and food platters — and a $350 price tag. Wherever you decide to get comfy at The Rooftop Lodge, there'll blankets to help lock in the toastiness, plus fondue, marshmallows to roast by the fires, charcuterie boards, snowball martinis and boozy hot cocoas. Or, opt for the wintry dine-in menu at the View Deck.
Stare at The False Mirror at Magritte, one of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' big summer exhibitions for 2024–25, and the masterpiece of a painting from 1929 will peer right back. Among the Belgian surrealist René Magritte's most-famous creations, the piece features a giant eye looking at the viewer, while also filled with a cloudy blue sky. It's an unforgettable work, and it's one of the stars of the latest showcase as part of Sydney International Art Series. Another striking painting that's on display in the Harbour City from Saturday, October 26, 2024–Sunday, February 9, 2025: Golconda, Magritte's 1953 work that brings two other pieces of popular culture to mind. Just try not to think about Mary Poppins and The Weather Girls' song 'It's Raining Men' while you feast your eyes on the sight of bowler hat-wearing men streaming down from the heavens. At Magritte, which is exclusive to Sydney, The False Mirror, Golconda and 1952's The Listening Room (La Chambre d'Écoute) — which shows an oversized apple — have ample company at AGNSW's south building Naala Nura. In total, 100-plus works are on display. This is not only a huge retrospective dedicated to the artist, but also Australia's first retrospective dedicated to Magritte. More than 80 of the pieces are paintings, demonstrating why Magritte is considered one of the most-influential figures in 20th-century surrealism; however, archival materials, photographs and films also feature. Sydney International Art Series isn't just about one major exclusive showcase, of course. From Saturday, November 30, 2024–Sunday, April 13, 2025, AGNSW is also hosting Cao Fei: My City. Over at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia from Friday, November 29, 2024–Sunday, April 27, 2025, Julie Mehretu is on display as well. Images: installation view of the 'Magritte' exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 26 October 2024 – 9 February 2025, artworks © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Mim Stirling.
A scene-stealer in 2018's The Breaker Upperers, Ana Scotney now leads the show in Millie Lies Low. She's just as magnetic. The New Zealand actor comes to the part via Wellington Paranormal, Shortland Street, Educators and Cousins — and the film first debuted at festivals before her role in God's Favourite Idiot — but it's an exceptional calling card. It isn't easy playing someone so committed to making such utterly questionable choices, yet remaining so charmingly relatable; however, that's Scotney's remit and achievement in this canny, savvy and amusing comedy. It also isn't easy to pull off the timing needed to highlight the hilarious side of Millie's hijinks, while ensuring that her woes, hopes and everything that's led her to lie low but lie about living it up remain understandable; consider her entire portrayal a masterclass in just that. Scotney plays the film's eponymous Wellington university student, who panics aboard a plane bound for New York — where a prestigious architecture internship awaits — and has to disembark before her flight leaves. She says she isn't anxious. She also says it isn't an attack. And by the time she realises what she's done, she's alone in the airport, the aircraft has departed and her own face beams down at her from a digital billboard. Even getting that Big Apple opportunity had made her the toast of the town, and huge things were meant to await, hence the ads and publicity. Now, a new ticket costs $2000, which Millie doesn't have. Admitting that she hasn't gone at all — to her family, friends, teachers, school and the NZ capital at large — wouldn't cost her a thing, but it's a price she isn't willing to pay. First, Millie endeavours to rustle up the cash from her best friend and classmate (Jillian Nguyen, Hungry Ghosts), and then her mother (Rachel House, Heartbreak High). Next, she hits up a quick-loan business (run by Cohen Holloway, The Power of the Dog) but is still left empty-handed. Millie's only solution, other than admitting the situation and facing the fallout: faking it till she makes it. As she searches for other ways to stump up the funds, she hides out in her hometown, telling everyone that she's actually already in NYC. To support her ruse, she posts elaborate faux Instagram snaps MacGyvered out of whatever she can find (big sacks of flour standing in for snow, for instance) and scours for every possible spot, building feature and poster that can even slightly double for New York. There's a caper vibe to Millie's efforts skulking around Wellington while attempting to finance the ticket to her apparent dreams. Sometimes, she's holed up in a tent in her mum's backyard. Sometimes, she's putting on a disguise and showing up at parties in her old flat — eavesdropping on what her mates are saying in her absence, and spying on the boyfriend (Chris Alosio, Troppo) she's meant to be on a break from. While she's doing the latter, she's also reclaiming the car she sold pre-trip to use as loan collateral, because she's that determined to get to America and leave her nearest and dearest none the wiser. Making her feature debut, director and co-writer Michelle Savill has more than just a laugh and a lark in her sights, though, as entertaining as Millie Lies Low's namesake's antics are. There's a caper vibe to the picture of Millie's supposedly perfect existence that she's trying to push upon herself as much as her loved ones as well, like she's selling herself on an unwanted fantasy. Millie mightn't be sure whether the internship is truly her heart's desire, but she's sure that she doesn't deserve it or the fanfare that's come her way with it. Accordingly, Savill has imposter syndrome and the shame spiral it sparks in her gaze, too, and finds much to mine in both an insightful and darkly funny manner. As she follows her protagonist between episodic efforts to print the legend — or post it one Insta picture at a time — her keenly observed film also treads in the perennially great (and relevant) Frances Ha's footsteps. Both movies examine the self-destructive life choices of a twentysomething with a clear idea of what she wants everyone to think of her, but with far less of a grasp on who she really is herself and what she genuinely needs. Some framing and music choices make the connection between Noah Baumbach's Greta Gerwing-starring 2012 masterpiece and Millie Lies Low obvious, but this astute delight is never merely a Wellington-set copy of that fittingly NYC-set feature. Tapping into the reality that no one ever feels like a real adult, let alone a real person, is fuel enough for thousands of movies — and Savill's always has its own mood, thoughts and strengths, including in its interrogation of social media. It doesn't come as news that broadcasting a seemingly idyllic version of your life to everyone you know, and don't, creates pressure to maintain that facade. It isn't a revelation that that's what Facebook, Instagram and the like have inspired to begin with, either. Millie navigates a heightened version of a daily truth for many, and Millie Lies Low does what comedic exaggeration is meant to, acting like a mirror and a magnifying glass. Whether you're a Wellington local or not — or you've visited, or haven't — you can sense the city around Scotney as she flits around; Savill's direction, and Andrew Stroud's (The Changeover) cinematography along with it, has a lived-in look and atmosphere. It feels tangible, too, as do the many shrewd character details and bits of backstory layered through Savill and Eli Kent's (Coming Home in the Dark) script. Nothing about the film would work even half as well if Millie felt artificial, unsurprisingly. Scotney's magnificent performance is crucial, yes, but so is the fleshed-out material she's working with. Millie Lies Low also operates as a cringe comedy, and proves just as textured and relatable as viewers wince and squirm at its central figure's decisions. We cower and recoil — and chuckle — because we can spot the gap between the options that Millie takes and the better alternatives, and because there's nothing pretend about how accurate her fakery feels.
In the Bram Stoker vampire novel that's inspired almost all other vampire novels, Dracula is undead. In popular culture since and forever, the fictional Transylvanian bloodsucker will never die. Regardless of his fate on the page back in 1897, the most-portrayed character in horror movies ever keeps baring his fangs on-screen, rising again and again like the sun that this creature of the night can never bask in. 2023 brings two new Dracula films, which isn't overly notable, but this crop of Stoker-influenced flicks doesn't simply retell the usual 126-year-old tale. Leaning into comedy and action, Renfield sunk its teeth in by giving the vampire's long-suffering familiar some love. Now the dread-dripping Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter hones in on one chapter of the book that started it all, detailing the captain's log from the neck-munching fiend's journey to London via ship. In print, this stint of seafaring isn't Dracula's main focus. In adaptations upon adaptations over the past century, sometimes it isn't even included — or, if it does pop up, it's often a montage or a passing mention. The watery trip glistens with horror-movie potential, however, boasting a specific setting, a captive group, and an ominous force stalking and slaying. Slasher films, haunted-house fare, Jaws, Alien: they've all fed on such scenarios. Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter has spent decades in various stages of development, cycling through a feast of various talents, but bringing this Dracula chapter to the screen was always a sound idea. While the end result doesn't star Noomi Rappace (You Won't Be Alone), Ben Kingsley (Daliland), Jude Law (Peter Pan & Wendy) or Viggo Mortensen (Thirteen Lives) as previously floated, and isn't directed by Robert Schwentke (The Captain, Allegiant), Marcus Nispel (Conan the Barbarian, Friday the 13th) or Neil Marshall (The Lair, Hellboy), a solid concept with eerie, moody and gory potential remains at its core. Leading instead: Corey Hawkins (In the Heights) as physician Clemens, Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale) as stowaway Anna and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) as Captain Eliot. The former hops onto the latter's ship in Eastern Europe, where a promised job falls through due to his race, forcing a pivot onto the Demeter's crew to return to England. Clemens isn't the only new boarding, with the vessel also welcoming 50 unmarked crates from the Carpathian Mountains. Given that the film is named Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter Down Under — elsewhere, it's known as just The Last Voyage of the Demeter — there's no surprises about what's among the cargo. So, as initially told in Dracula's seventh chapter, in the epistolary format of letters, journals and clippings that Stoker's tome deployed across the entire novel, the key contents of those mysterious wooden chests soon begins offing fellow seafarers. As it relishes gothic-horror chills and, later, gruesome blood spills, there's a full-circle air to the latest film by Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal. Of course Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter feels like Alien but Dracula, or Halloween with the nape-chomping Count — all visions of slaughter at sea owe his acclaimed text's 'The Dailygraph' segment a debt, and all slasher flicks owe Stoker's book as a whole. Bragi F Schut (Escape Room) and Zak Olkewicz's (Bullet Train) screenplay isn't quaking about those similarities. It isn't afraid of unfurling a narrative with zero tension about its outcome, either, because Dracula's time in London is already that well-covered. Indeed, after commencing with the end that's so deeply established, the bulk of the movie arrives as flashbacks, as lifted from Eliot's log, of the infernal odyssey that eventuates whenever "a man, tall and thin, and ghastly pale" — aka a Nosferatu-esque Dracula (Javier Botet, His House) — awakes from coffin. Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter's script is an invitation to its filmmaker, then: take this setup, with its familiar situation, famous monster and foregone conclusion, and make it an old-school frightfest through atmosphere, execution and investment in characters. Øvredal largely obliges. Exactly what the audience knows will happen does — regardless of how intimate you are with the source material, or past Drac outings, or not — but this isn't a mere water-treading viewing experience in the Norwegian director's hands. How creepily and compellingly this story is splashed across the screen is as crucial as the plot details. So is the film's willingness to let its antagonist terrify, plus its eagerness to flesh out its pivotal humans. Enlisting Botet, who was also a menacing presence in Mama, Crimson Peak, IT, Insidious: The Last Key and Slender Man, helps. In avoiding relegating Clemens, Anna, Eliot, his grandson Toby (Woody Norman, C'mon C'mon) and first mate Wojchek (David Dastmalchian, Oppenheimer) to just prey and pawns, the rest of the cast also assists. The ins and outs of Schut and Olkewicz's script see the science-minded Clemens set sail, clash with the Demeter's crew over their faith in myth and superstition — they're also not fussed about his attire or smooth hands — then try to hunt down the creature that's leaving a red-streaked body count. The film's narrative also chronicles Anna's shock appearance mid-voyage, as well as a cat-and-mouse game as the living endeavour to stop the undead. Øvredal's committed direction, plus discerning cinematography (by Mortal's Roman Osin and The Ice Road's Tom Stern), production design (Edward Thomas, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions) and composing (Bear McCreary, Foundation), showers that doomed journey with unease. As the helmer's filmography already attests, he knows the horror genre's basics inside out. And, he's equally aware that textured performances leave a mark, whether Hawkins is conveying why believing in the rational is so important to Clemens, or Franciosi is expressing pain and perseverance, or Cunningham embodying down-with-the-ship dutifulness. As it charts its carnage-filled cruise, Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter isn't an origin story but an in-between story. "In-between" sums up the picture overall, too. It lingers in the middle of Hammer flicks and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula. It is gleefully keen on bloodshed, but also frequently refined in look and feel. Øvredal's feature is enthusiastic about staking its own claim; however, as too much does lately, it goes to great efforts to spark a follow-up — and attempt to resurrect Universal's monster movies after 2014's Dracula Untold and 2017's The Mummy failed. (Consider Renfield and Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter's swift-in-succession releases the studio giving itself two new tastes.) This trip with ol' Drac never sinks, yet it also doesn't truly soar. For the bloodsucker himself over this particular journey, that's a welcome outcome. For viewers witnessing a literary masterpiece given a different big-screen spin after its packed history, it's enough to bite into.
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 have been a constant since the birth of moving pictures. 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 in English. With Stone, examples come 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 (which made him a Best Director contender, too), and twin 2024 Golden Globe nods for their latest collaboration Poor Things as well as TV's The Curse. And as for the greatest gothic story there is, not to mention one of the most-influential horror and sci-fi works ever, the evidence spans traditional adaptations, plus debts owed as widely as The Rocky Horror Show and M3GAN (Blade Runner, The Fly, Re-Animator, Weird Science, Edward Scissorhands, Ex Machina, Upgrade, Little Joe and The Creator are also on the lengthy list). Combining Lanthimos, Stone and Shelley results in a rarity, however: a jewel of a pastel-, jewel- and bodily fluid-toned feminist Frankenstein-esque fairy tale that's a stunning and dazzling creation. As zapped to life with Lanthimos' inimitable flair, a mischievous air and Stone at her most extraordinary, Poor Things isn't just unique despite building on three shining successes — it's a treasure that's as audacious as it is subversive, and as breathtakingly willing to get wild as it is downright brilliant. Emotions, ideas, empowerment, twisting Shelley and Promethean myth into a pointed skewering of the societal expectations placed upon women, a committed ensemble, entrancing touches in every frame, a score that's equally jarring and jaunty, a dreamily macabre vibe, furious fearlessness: this film is alive with them all. That a tale about reviving the dead to grapple with mortality and the yearning to thwart it keeps inspiring new riffs has always been fitting, with each new storyteller undergoing that same process in their way, but this version is a lightning bolt. With cascading black hair, an inquisitive stare, incessant frankness and jolting physical mannerisms, Poor Things' star becomes Bella Baxter in this suitably weird and wondrous adaptation of Alasdair Grey's award-winning 1992 novel, as penned by Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara (The Great, and another Academy Award-nominee for The Favourite). Among the reasons that the movie and its lead portrayal are so singular: as a character with a woman's body that's been resurrected with a baby's brain, Stone plays someone from infancy to adulthood, all with the astonishingly exact mindset and mannerisms to match. Putting her comedic skills to excellent use but ensuring that Bella is never a joke, she does so while making each move, choice and feeling as organic as birth, living and death. The entire scope of Poor Things' protagonist is the kind of wish that actors mightn't realise they have because it's so remarkable. With Bella all impulses and curiosity at first, then buzzing with sexual desire and devotedly pursuing autonomy — and with a frenetic-but-stiff doll-like gait that's a marvel to watch, plus say-anything speech patterns — Stone turns the opportunity into an exquisite masterclass. The time and place when Poor Things kicks off: a fantastical steampunk vision of Victorian-era Europe. Although the film begins in colour as a woman ends her own life, Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan (also back from The Favourite, and also with an Oscar nod to his name thanks to that flick) swiftly switch to black and white to meet what becomes of the suicidal person's body. It's due to the London-based, scar-faced Scottish doctor Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe, Asteroid City) that Bella exists; even if she didn't call him God, he's been playing it, including with household pets and other animals. His new human creature toddles around, aiding with his unorthodox surgeries and indulging whatever takes her fancy — smashing plates, smacking visitors, and enjoying new discoveries and sensations with literal childlike glee. But regardless of her father figure's intentions or wants, freedom, horniness, the quest for independence and agency, wanting to know more than the protective world he's left her in and a lust for adventure all beckon. Accordingly, while Godwin tries to marry Bella off to kind and sincere medical student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef, Ramy), she hatches other plans. With Poor Things joining Call Me By Your Name in its carnal use of fruit, Bella discovers "working on myself to get happiness" and "furious jumping" — that'd be masturbation and fornication, with her debut experience with the latter returning the movie's hues as well — and runs off to the continent with caddish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law) instead. Lisbon, a cruise that stops in Alexandria and Paris await. So does a survey of all that living can hold for women, both for the feature's reawakened force and viewers. Lanthimos' fascination for tearing into humanity's social constructions and pretences to expose its realities gets electrified again, as does his concurrent obsession with battling such structures and systems by forming insular worlds, and the need to escape that then springs. Portugal brings hot air balloons, a bewitching all-timer of a dance scene, just some of the flick's acrobatic thrusting, an attempt to enforce civic niceties and Bella steadfastly refusing to be anything but herself. The boat ride introduces books, friendship and the first real female advice that she's received via Martha (Hanna Schygulla, who came to fame half a century back for her work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder). It also sees cynicism and the world's suffering enter her understanding courtesy of Martha's companion Harry (Jerrod Carmichael, On the Count of Three). In France, a lack of cash finds her in the employ of madam Swiney (Kathryn Hunter, Andor) and leaning into socialism with fellow sex worker Toinette (Suzy Bemba, Everything Is Well). And when the past makes a comeback, it's with bullying and misogynistic power dynamics (and with Sanctuary's Christopher Abbott in a key role). As in The Favourite, the hefty use of fish-eye lenses has it: this lavish, libidinous and happily lewd deadpan delight isn't interested in the same old view of liberation, sex, life's transience and conflicts, defying the accepted order and patriarchal control that everyone has seen before, let alone a regular coming-of-age jaunt or a by-the-book Frankenstein iteration. While it splices together nods to gothic horror nakedly, it isn't routine or a patchwork there, either. As Bella goes on a radical, rebellious, gorgeously rendered, gloriously funny and generously insightful odyssey, Poor Things doesn't sport a standard perspective on anything, in fact. As seen in the efforts of a tour-de-force Stone, her co-stars, Ryan, composer Jerskin Fendrix (a film first-timer), editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis (Lanthimos' go-to since 2005's Kinetta), production designers Shona Heath (another feature debutant) and James Price (The Nest), and costumer Holly Waddington (also The Great), it eschews sticking with the typical everywhere. Richness abounds, then. The only thing that's paltry: even clocking in at 141 madcap and magnificent minutes, that Poor Things doesn't run forever.
In Nude Tuesday, you can take the unhappy couple out of their daily routine — and slip them out of their clothes in the process — but escaping to a mountainside commune, ditching the dacks, palling around with a goat and gleaning relationship advice from the author a book called The Toothy Vulva just can't solve all woes. What that list of absurd plot points and experiences can do is fill out a film that's gleefully silly, often side-splittingly funny, and also just as perceptive as it is playful. The basic premise behind this New Zealand sex comedy borrows from plenty of fellow movies and TV shows about stuck-in-a-rut folks seeking bliss and renewal, plus solutions to bland marriages, with a gorgeous change of scenery. But helping make Nude Tuesday such a winner is every offbeat choice that's used to tell that tale. Getting naked is only part of it, given that not a lick of any recognisable language is spoken throughout the entire feature — although plenty of words and sounds are audibly uttered. Nude Tuesday understands one key point, as everyone watching it will: that relationships are all about communication. The film is also well aware that so much about life is, too — and storytelling. Here, though, expressing emotions, connections and narrative details all boils down to gibberish and bodies. This amusing movie from writer/director Armağan Ballantyne (The Strength of Water) and writer/star Jackie van Beek (The Breaker Upperers) does indeed strip down its performers in its last third, living up to its name, but it saddles them with conveying almost everything about their characters via body language before that. Each piece of dialogue spoken echoes in unintelligible nonsense, using completely made-up and wholly improvised terms. Even covers of 'Road to Nowhere' and 'Islands in the Stream' do as well. And while subtitled in English by British comedian Julia Davis (Camping), that text was penned after shooting, in one of the film's other purposefully farcical twists. The result is patently ridiculous, and marvellously so — and hilariously. It's such a clever touch, making a movie about marital disharmony and the communication breakdown baked within that's so reliant upon reading tone and posture, as couples on the prowl for the tiniest of micro-aggressions frequently hone in on. Initially, the feature needs a few scenes to settle into its unfamiliar vernacular, which takes cues from The Muppets' Swedish Chef in its cadence. Via an opening map, which situates the story on the fictional pacific island of Zǿbftąņ, Nude Tuesday's language also resembles an IKEA catalogue. But once Ballantyne, van Beek and the latter's co-stars find their groove — with a literally bloody attempt to make adult nappies sexy, a supermarket tantrum involving tossed cans and a tense anniversary dinner — everything, including the movie's chosen tongue, clicks into place. Van Beek and Australian The Tourist actor Damon Herriman play Nude Tuesday's central pair, Laura and Bruno. In the first but not last example of just how compellingly they use their physicality, the talented lead twosome paints a picture of relatable malaise from their introductory moments together. Laura and Bruno are bogged down in a dull cycle that revolves around working at jobs neither loves — she spruiks those mature-age diapers, he sells bathroom fixtures — then trudging home exhausted and exasperated to deal with their kids, and later crumbling into bed knowing they're going to repeat it all the next day. Sex doesn't factor in, and neither is content with that, but resolving their troubles themselves is out of reach. Then, they're gifted a getaway to ẄØnÐĘULÄ to assist. But this woodland getaway, run by charismatic and lustful sex guru Bjorg Rassmussen (Jemaine Clement, I Used to Go Here), wants its new guests to expose all in multiple ways. Unfurling among gorgeously lensed New Zealand scenery (with Australian Babyteeth and High Ground cinematographer Andrew Commis behind the camera), that starkers setup keeps proving savvy. It also keeps saying plenty beyond the silliness. Nude Tuesday isn't just absurdity for the sake of it, although it'd remain perfectly and thoroughly enjoyable — if slight — if it was simply that. Evoking laughs still comes fast and easily, of course, including getting giggling about coming too fast and too easily. Davis' witty subtitling fires off gags a minute, and the frequent preposterousness of it all — with orgies, drugs, a Twin Peaks-style love of logs and a penchant for ponchos all factoring in — is constantly entertaining. But there's as much heart and smarts throbbing within Nude Tuesday as there was in van Beek's also-great The Breaker Upperers, which similarly found a nifty balance between chuckle-inducing ridiculousness and insight. Here, there are as many observant layers to Nude Tuesday's dance through married misery as there are clothes shed by its cast, too — a list of performers that spans everyone from Black Comedy's Ian Zaro and Down Under's Chris Bunton to Wellington Paranormal's Karen O'Leary and Shortland Street's Yvette Parsons. Accordingly, amid the sight gags, word play, slapstick, jokes about anatomy, plus the other wonderful lashings of ludicrousness, sits a canny undressing of Laura and Bruno's deep-seated struggle to get emotionally bare-assed. At the outset, they're the strait-laced stiffs amid the unburdened and aroused. They're outsiders in this cosy, free-thinking little community of fellow A-frame cabin-dwellers, adding to the film's familiar elements. Unpacking what that means, why, how the couple became that way and what ẄØnÐĘULÄ can gift them is never a by-the-numbers journey, however. It's revelatory several times over, even if the end destination is also hardly surprising. Whether decked out head to toe or disrobing, it'd be tough to find a situation where Van Beek, Herriman and Clement didn't delight, particularly when bouncing off of each other in an anything-goes situation. Nude Tuesday's biggest names are that adaptable, that innately comedic, and that able to smoothly zip between the off-kilter and the astute. Clement doesn't have to plumb many depths, but he always plays Bjorn with the exact right dash of charm and eccentricity. Actually, Ballantyne's film itself achieves that latter feat — while finding ample emotional nooks and crannies to explore. Nude Tuesday mightn't have quite hit the spot if it had played out in English, but not because it relies upon gimmickry; rather, by peeling away the chatter, it's a sharper, savvier and funnier picture of communication struggles, and what it truly means to bare it all.
This news isn't like rain on your wedding day. It doesn't resemble finding a black fly in your chardonnay. And it definitely isn't anything like hitting a traffic jam when you're already late, either. But, it will have you singing those lines — and it is news that you oughta know, too — because 15-time Tony Award-nominated musical Jagged Little Pill is heading to Australia. The acclaimed production is making its first trip beyond Broadway, in fact, when it hits the Theatre Royal Sydney from Thursday, December 2. And, when the curtains are raised, it'll help mark another milestone, reopening the Theatre Royal five years after it closed its doors in 2016. Inspired by Alanis Morissette's 1995 album of the same name, Jagged Little Pill the Musical weaves a story around songs from that iconic record. So yes, it's a jukebox musical like Mamma Mia!, We Will Rock You and Rock of Ages. Famed tracks 'Ironic', 'You Oughta Know', 'Hand in My Pocket', 'Head Over Feet' and 'You Learn' all feature, in a production that boasts music by Morissette and her album co-writer and producer Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, and a book by Juno Oscar-winner Diablo Cody. And, songs such as 'Thank U', 'So Pure', 'That I Would Be Good', 'So Unsexy' and 'Hands Clean' all pop up as well, even though they hail from the musician's subsequent albums. At present, tickets are on sale for shows until Sunday, December 19, all starring Natalie Bassingthwaighte. She'll play Mary Jane Healey, with Jagged Little Pill the Musical telling the Healey family's tale as they struggle with their seemingly idyllic suburban lives after a troubling event in their community. Expect to hear Morissette's tunes — including two new songs written just for the show — used in a story about social issues relevant to today, but also with an overall message of hope, healing and togetherness. Images: Jagged Little Pill the Musical original Broadway cast, Matthew Murphy. Updated September 27.
Artificial intelligence in video games has come a long way in the last few years. Rare now are the days of mindless drones walking pre-determined paths, completely oblivious to the death and destruction around them. In an industry where a single release can pull half a billion dollars in just one day, developers have adapted to an increasingly sophisticated market and pushed AI to a point capable of rivalling the human one. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for action movies, where nameless henchmen continue to run witlessly into hails of bullets like hapless Civil War foot soldiers or extras in Commando. The latest example of this is John Wick, a 'revenge porn' flick starring Keanu Reeves and directed by his former stuntman, Chad Stahelski. Reeves plays Wick, a retired hit man whose wife has just passed away from a terminal illness. On the day of her funeral he receives a pre-ordered puppy from her to ensure he doesn't mourn alone, but during a home invasion the puppy is killed and his beloved car is stolen. In response, Wick unleashes a vengeance-fuelled rampage on New York's Russian mobsters, ratcheting up a body count to rival ebola. It's basically Taken, but with Liam Neeson's daughter played by a foot-long beagle. Is it a dumb premise? Absolutely, but it's also terrifically fun, and let's face it, there have been far worse reasons given for cinematic rampages ("They're going to take you...again"). Stylistically, the action sequences are impressive and exhilarating. Kitted out in bespoke suits, Reeves combines martial arts with gunplay (or 'gun-fu') to despatch his enemies and secure what has to be the record for the most number of consecutive head shots. Stahelski's background in stunts clearly informs his direction, with a greater degree of physicality to the fight scenes coupled with lingering shots that hold longer in the same moment than your average film. The big problem with John Wick, though, is the HS — or 'Henchman Stupidity'. In each of the action sequences, the goons demonstrate a bewildering lack of survival instinct, immediately forfeiting their Darwinian credentials and robbing the scenes of any credibility. The defence raised here is that John Wick is a classic B-movie, but that's too convenient. Yes, it has a lower budget than many of its counterparts, but with a cast that also includes Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Alfie Allen, Dean Winters, Adrianne Palicki and Bridget Moynahan, it's hard not to think the movie pitched for another capital B: 'Blockbuster'. So no, this isn't the thinking person's action film, but an action film it definitely is. As always, Reeves is a delight to watch in full-borne badass mode. He quips and kicks and does it all with an impossible level of cool. https://youtube.com/watch?v=2AUmvWm5ZDQ
Yass, a small NSW town near Canberra received the signature Queer Eye makeover when the Fab Five descended on the town this week. Well, the whole town didn't, but George — a cattle farmer and former rodeo cowboy — did. As did the local pub. A rundown of the show, for the uninitiated, the original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy show hit screens a whopping 15 years ago — running from 2003 to 2007 — and the reboot Queer Eye returned to Netflix this year. The general premise is that the Fab Five give less-fashion-savvy men (and it seems, establishments) much-needed makeovers. In Yass, while three of the Fab Five, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France and Karamo Brown, were looking after George the cattle farmer, the remaining two — Antoni Porowsi and Bobby Berk — renovated the local pub's bistro and introduced a new signature dish to the menu. Fittingly, the five were also crowned — by Yass Mayor Rowena Abbey — Yass Queens. Yas, queen. If this reference is lost on you, it's a term said to have originated in the 80s ballroom community, but recently surged to popularity thanks to this YouTube video. The Australian mini-episode of Queer Eye will hit social channels on June 22, a week after Season Two premieres on Netflix on June 15.
This coffee hub offers something that sets it apart from all other entries on this list: 24 hour caffeination. That's right; whether your cravings hit at 3pm or 3am, you'll find an open door and a hot coffee at Death Before Decaf. You can take your Bellissimo coffee with you or take five in the comfy leather sofa or milk crates out front. Shift workers, musicians and other creatures of the night have never been so awake.
UPDATE, September 14, 2023: The Little Mermaid is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. For anyone without a scaly tail, communing with the ocean can be a routine dip, a refreshing splash or a sail into choppy waters. In Disney's latest dance with merpeople and the humans that its main mythical sea creature yearns for (and desperately wants to learn more about), all three prove true. The next in the Mouse House's long line of live-action remakes — albeit with ample CGI helping to bring its sea-dwelling characters to life, but no hand-drawn animation — the new The Little Mermaid is often content to wade where its beloved 1989 predecessor went before. That's the Disney do-over standard. Sometimes, though, this new effort is its own delightful paddle; when 'Under the Sea' echoes against a literal sea of colour, movement, creatures and energy, it's a dazzling Golden Age Hollywood-esque spectacular. There's no escaping the movie's bloat when it's not merrily floating, however, due in no small part to inflating the storyline from the original's 83 minutes to a hefty 135 minutes. This day at the cinematic beach — glowing highs and waterlogged lows included — keeps the same basic narrative that viewers loved 34 years ago, as loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's 19th-century fairy tale of the same name. A quote from that text opens the film as Alan Menken's revisited Oscar-winning score starts to swell, advising "but a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more". The curious and adventurous Princess Ariel (Halle Bailey, Grown-ish) cries through her siren's song instead, lamenting the strict no-humans rule enforced by her father King Triton (Javier Bardem, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile). And, in rebellious teen-style, she acts out by sneaking off to scour the ocean floor's shipwrecks with her fish best friend Flounder (voiced by Jacob Tremblay, Luca), even when Sebastian the crab (Daveed Diggs, Snowpiercer) is tracking her every move, and stashing trinkets from the world on land in a secret cave. When it's underwater, The Little Mermaid isn't served well by arriving so soon after Avatar: The Way of Water and its stunning beneath-the-waves imagery, or releasing just as Prehistoric Planet 2 is streaming its dive into ancient waters. In director Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins Returns) and cinematographer Dion Beebe's (Gemini Man) hands, plunging into the deep largely appears dark and murky. Indeed, if Bailey and Bardem's hair wasn't shimmering and flowing, it'd just look like a dimly lit set (mostly, it still does). The kaleidoscopic extravaganza that is 'Under the Sea' doesn't only stand out because that's precisely what its bright hues are doing, of course. It's a gloriously choreographed and performed piece amid a coral reef, set to Menken and late, great lyricist Howard Ashman's best (and also Oscar-winning) song, and it's an absolute showstopper. But, as made clear both before and after it drops its calypso-inspired beats, the number sets a standard that the film rarely cares to match elsewhere. When it comes to concern, Ariel has plenty. Her cup runneth over about the boats cruising above, with their sailors shooting fire into the sky, dogs and just humans doing human things — such having feet. As the story still goes, her wistful watching is fortuitous for Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King, The Flatshare). If the mermaid wasn't there to save him when he's knocked overboard, there'd be no romance. Cue a two-way obsession, plus tentacled sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy, Nine Perfect Strangers) offering Ariel a bargain to follow her feelings and taste life out of water. She's given 72 hours in human form to experience true love's kiss, after which she'll be able to stay breathing air. If that went smoothly, and if Ariel's banished aunt wasn't cackling maniacally about taking over from her brother and stealing her niece's gifts, this wouldn't even be a 90-minute flick. Like an unruly sea as a storm blows in, there's turbulence at the heart of The Little Mermaid. While it's easy to see why David McGee's (A Man Called Otto) screenplay has been padded out, it makes for an overextended voyage. Bailey is perfectly cast, and not only when Ariel is singing her heart out. Wanting to spend more time with her is as instinctive as kicking your feet in water. She's an enchanting, luminous, plucky and rousing heroine. She makes the need to know something more than just the pool she's born into feel achingly real. An added sequence where Ariel roams around Eric's library, spying his sea treasures — his equivalent of her own trove — is charming, gives both Bailey and Logan Lerman lookalike Hauer-King standout moments, and is the kind of new material that slips in easily. But the same can't be said for all the feature's new songs (this time with Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda penning lyrics) and even some of its closest recreations. Swooping somewhere new doesn't always pay off, and neither does treading water. Adored in animated form, Sebastian, Flounder and seabird Scuttle (Awkwafina, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) couldn't demonstrate The Little Mermaid's crests and drops more heartily. Diggs' voice acting and singing is unsurprisingly scene-stealing, and Awkwafina is entertainingly lively — but their new tune 'The Scuttlebutt' is instantly forgettable (other than immediately being able to tell that Miranda wrote it). Photorealism doesn't suit their characters, either, bringing The Lion King's eerie uncanny animal valley to mind. That's especially the case for poor Flounder, whose name is more apt here than it's meant to be. Loving the talent but not the execution becomes a familiar sensation throughout this version of The Little Mermaid. So does remembering that Marshall wasn't just behind Chicago and Mary Poppins Returns, but also Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Into the Woods. Back as the 80s came to a close, the first The Little Mermaid was a lifeboat, buoying Disney's animation studio when its fortunes were sinking. In its wash, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King all followed, becoming House of Mouse classics. The new The Little Mermaid marks the last of that quartet to be remade — the tale as old as time, whole new world and circle of life otherwise reappearing in that order — and, towing the company line with these cartoon-to-flesh second efforts, it smacks of playing it safe. When Ariel's latest outing surrenders to the moment and the emotion, whether showing why it's better down where it's wetter with a joyous dash of vibrance, letting Bailey's divine voice convey a lifetime of longing to be part of a different world, or having its swooning lovers dance, discover and deepen their bond, it goes swimmingly. Often, though, it's just like Ursula: biding its time calculatingly and protractedly (that said, McCarthy is having a ball, more so than much of the movie).
The underworld beckons: in 2025, hit musical Hadestown is set to take to the stage for the first time in Australia. Initially premiering as an indie theatre piece in 2006 in Vermont, then reaching off-Broadway in 2016 and Broadway in 2019, the show from musician and playwright Anaïs Mitchell plunges into the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. Audiences at Theatre Royal Sydney can see the production give the ancient Greek myth a new spin from February. The Harbour City is hosting the Aussie debut season of the musical that spent 2019 and 2020 collecting accolades after accolades. From 14 Tony nominations, it won eight awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. At the Grammys, it took home Best Musical Theatre Album. If you're new to the show – which has been seen by more than three-million people and streamed over 350-million times — two love stories get Hadestown's narrative burning. Orpheus and Eurydice share the spotlight with King Hades and Persephone, as Mitchell accompanies their intertwined affairs with a soundtrack of New Orleans-inspired jazz and American folk. The production's Sydney season kicks off on Monday, February 10, 2025. Images: Hadestown Original London Cast.
The Nice Guys mightn't have scored a sequel, but The Fall Guy does nicely instead. Getting a hearty workout: Ryan Gosling's charm, comedic talent that just earned an Oscar-nominated showcase in Barbie and action skills as last seen in The Gray Man. He's back in stunts, too, as Drive first gifted the world so mesmerisingly. A loose remake of the 80s television series of the same name, The Fall Guy is a take-it-and-run-with-it kind of film, then. Not only does it grasp hold of what Gosling does best and sprint, but the same applies for co-lead Emily Blunt (Pain Hustlers) — and, of course, for director David Leitch (Bullet Train), who first took the journey from stunt performer to filmmaker with John Wick, has kept filling his resume with action fare since (see: Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw and Bullet Train) and now virtually comes full circle in helming a flick where his protagonist does the same gig that he once did. Gosling's Colt Seavers is also taking it and running with it — in a profession where it's his job to help bring whatever impossible physical endeavour is required to the screen, as well as on the gig that gets him to Sydney. The Fall Guy starts 18 months prior to his trip Down Under, however, but still with him doubling for Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bullet Train), one of the world's biggest actors. Seavers has a career that he loves and steady work at it thanks to Ryder's fame. He's also happily romancing Jody Moreno (Blunt), a camera operator with dreams of doing more. Then a stunt goes wrong, leaving him badly injured, battered and bruised emotionally and psychologically, and inspiring him to quit the business. Only a call from Ryder-loving producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso) sparks his return to the industry — he makes a crust as a valet once he's fit and able in-between — and, even then, it's only really the fact that Moreno is helming Ryder's latest movie as her directorial debut that nudges him onto the plane. Upon his arrival in Australia, Seavers soon discovers that the situation isn't exactly what he's been told. Ryder is missing from the Metalstorm set, putting the future of the production at risk. Shady folks keep popping up whenever anyone — well, Seavers — goes looking for the absent star. And Moreno had zero advance idea that the man who ghosted her had been enlisted on the shoot, and is far from thrilled about it or the way that their relationship ended. Trying to win her back, getting emotional fortification from Taylor Swift tunes The Bear-style, attempting to track down Ryder, evading the unsavoury figures on this trail, bouncing around Sydney: sometimes while fending off sword-swinging foes, sometimes while wearing fluoro, sometimes while paired with an acting dog who'll chomp on command, that's all on Seavers' plate in Drew Pearce's (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw) zippy screenplay. There's an easy, breezy vibe to The Fall Guy, the kind that comes from knowing wholeheartedly that you're capitalising upon the strengths of your key players. Although Seavers dates back to the television iteration and there was a Jody on the small screen, too (Banks, not Moreno), the film's main pair were moulded around Gosling and Blunt — and it always shows. For him, it's a charisma-forward performance whether he's getting goofy, earnest or thrust into a fray. His Kenergy-fuelled comic timing is impeccable, as is his ability to sell Seavers' soul-searching stint after a career that requires him to be invincible reminds him that no one is. For her, joining a resume that also includes excellent action turns in Looper and Edge of Tomorrow, it's a portrayal built on pluck. When Gosling and Blunt are together, the film boasts as much crackling chemistry — often of the screwball type — as it does dynamic fights, explosions, shootouts and car chases (one of the latter famously on the Sydney Harbour Bridge). And there are fights, explosions, shootouts and car chases (and boat jumps, helicopter battles and vehicular cannon rolls). You don't make a movie about a stunt performer on a mystery-caper adventure while working on a mega-budget alien sci-fi war romance flick — a film that turns the Sydney Opera House into a backdrop while it's at it — without highlighting stunts, stunts and more stunts. You definitely don't hold back if this was once your life as well. The action doesn't disappoint, nor does the commitment to weaving how such action comes to fruition into The Fall Guy's action sequences, complete with underscoring the importance of practical effects in the broader feature and the picture within it. This is a winking-and-nodding movie to its primary genre, lovingly so, right down to references built into the film. With stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Seavers swaps references to other films (The Last of the Mohicans and Rocky III, for instance). One of his prized possessions: a Miami Vice jacket. The words of 'Unknown Stuntman', the theme to TV's The Fall Guy which gets a new cover here, are clearly a guiding light for Leitch on this movie: "I might fall from a tall building, I might roll a brand-new car, 'cause I'm the unknown stuntman that made Redford such a star" is one memorable line. Accordingly, though the very basis of filmmaking's stunt performer-actor setup is that the former are meant to convince the audience that it's the latter risking their lives, revelling in everything that The Fall Guy throws Gosling's way as Seavers means relishing the work of his doubles Ben Jenkin (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and Justin Eaton (The Killer). The campaign for the stunts game to be given the credit it deserves — aka an Oscar category — couldn't earn a more persuasive push, then. Leitch's feature manages something that most flicks would kill for, because action deployed for the sake of it, then shot frantically and edited messily, gets repetitive; The Fall Guy is the lively, passionate and meticulously crafted antithesis of routine smashing and bashing. Back-and-forth rom-com bantering can similarly fall flat if the stars and the vibe aren't right. There's something about Sydney of late: in Anyone But You, Sydney Sweeney (Immaculate) and Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) made it work in the Harbour City, as Gosling and Blunt do in the same place in The Fall Guy. So, while The Nice Guys mightn't have received a follow-up, it's easy to see The Fall Guy becoming a big-screen franchise, and welcomely. At the very least for its magnetic leads, it should set a new repeat double act in motion. Gosling teamed up with Emma Stone (Poor Things) three times on Crazy, Stupid, Love, Gangster Squad and La La Land, and makes an equally delightful duo with his current co-star. Just as there should be no underestimating stunt feats in general or in this flick, as Leitch stresses again and again, there should be no downplaying the ride that Gosling and Blunt take their characters on in this fun film, either — from doing the hard work while others win the glory to finally getting their time to shine.
Whether you're an early riser or perpetually out late with mates, Brisbane is a vibrant city with a jam-packed schedule of exciting to-dos — all year round. Sunlight or city lights, kid-friendly or up-past-bedtime, in 2023 you'll be more than set to explore the city your way. Early bird? Rejoice! You've come to the right place — it is the Sunshine State, after all. Sate your appetite for science with an intellectual festival feed. Be enraptured by song with a stellar calendar of music events. Take to the skies via artistic explorations of our earth's atmosphere in a world-class exhibition. Flock together for storytelling and cultural conversations. See your city habitat transformed by immersive installations that query the lines between art, science, human, nature and AI. There are tours and workshops, parties and playtime — all before the sun sets. Though, they don't call her Bris Vegas for nothing. Bright lights and late nights, baby. It's not the city that never sleeps — but there's more than enough to keep you occupied well into the night. In 2023, expect festivals and innovative cultural events, immersive experiences and guided night tours, groundbreaking theatre and augmented reality landscapes. Explore art, science and the space in between via pop-up installations; catch rare films in an art-gallery cinema; watch an epic opera al fresco; witness light shows and fireworks along the river; and feed your musical appetite at a huge urban festival dedicated to the most exciting, fresh talent in the Australian music scene. Whether you prefer to stay indoors or venture into the darkness, Brisbane will keep the lights on for you. Here, we've compiled a bunch of arty things to do and see in 2023, so that no matter what time you're heading out in Brisbane you're guaranteed to have a ripper time. Read on for all the daytime fun, then flick the switch above and we'll turn down the lights and show you the best events happening at night.
Feel so passionate about your Friday night pizza delivery that you want to wear it? Now you can. New Zealand fashion label YOUKNOW has teamed up with Pizza Hut to create a range of clothing dedicated to that controversial call: putting pineapple on pizza. If you're staunchly in the "it belongs" camp, you'll want to take a squiz at this limited-edition capsule collection inspired by the chain's Hawaiian Deluxe pizza. There aren't many (if any) dine-in Pizza Hut restaurants left around Australasia so this range is giving us a heap of nostalgia, thanks to the illustrations of the chain's iconic red roof and Hawaiian palm trees. The colours are all inspired by delicious pizza toppings like streaky bacon, pineapple and aioli. And now we're hungry. Designed and made over the ditch, YOUKNOW'S capsule range includes t-shirts, tote bags, shorts and bucket hats. Buy the items individually or get the whole damn 'fit for your next summer festival — according to the website, the label ships to Australia via DHS. YOUKNOW founder Joe Webb says the collaboration with Pizza Hut marks a "significant milestone" in the brand's journey. "It's a really special moment for us. It's amazing to see how this milestone translates over to the garments that we're super stoked to produce here in Aotearoa." It's not the first time we've seen a clothing line inspired by a classic takeaway feed. Who can forget this Big Mac-inspired 'fit or last year's ugly KFC Christmas jumpers? If you like to choose your clothing based on your weekend drive-thru order, you'll want to add one of these items to the current lineup. YOUKNOW's range is available to buy online now, with prices starting at $25 NZD — not including international shipping costs. Check out the full range here.
Whether it's via a post or tweet or message, in a comment or status update, thanks to a Notes app screenshot or in an email, mean words aren't hard to share two decades into the 21st century. Click a few buttons, slide your finger across a touchscreen, then vitriol can be directed virtually instantaneously worldwide. Countless people — too many, all sticklers for unpleasantness — do just that. Such behaviour has almost become a reflex. A century ago, however, spewing nastiness by text required far more effort. Someone had to put ink to paper, commit their hatred to physical form in their own handwriting, tuck it into an envelope, pay for postage, then await the mail service to deliver their malice. Wicked Little Letters isn't an ode to that dedication, but there's no avoiding that sending offensive missives in its 1920s setting was a concerted, determined act — and also that no one could claim just seconds later that they were hacked. Times change, and technology with it, but people don't: that's another way of looking at this British dramedy, which is indeed based on a true tale. Director Thea Sharrock (The One and Only Ivan) and screenwriter Jonny Sweet (Gap Year) know that there's a quaintness about the chapter of history that they're bringing to the screen, but not to the attitudes behind the incident. In Sussex by the sea on the English Channel, spiteful dispatches scandalised a town, with the situation dubbed "the Littlehampton libels". Today, much worse than the swearing and insults initially sent to Edith Swan, then to other villagers as well, can be seen on social media constantly. Someone can fire off unhinged pettiness in seconds. No one in another 100 years will be making a movie about wicked little letters of the 2020s, then — where would they start, or end? Right now, in this flick about disagreeable and distressing communications, contrasting the reality of the human penchant for mud-slinging across a century springs from a well-told story. In Wicked Little Letters' account of the Littlehampton events, Edith (Olivia Colman, Wonka) keeps receiving notes that overuse vulgar terms, and the God-fearing, prim-and-proper spinster, who lives with her strict father (Timothy Spall, The Heist Before Christmas) and dutiful mother (Gemma Jones, Emily), is certain that she knows the source of her unwanted mail. Living next door, Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley, Fingernails) is an Irish single mother to Nancy (Alisha Weir, Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical), has Bill (Malachi Kirby, My Name Is Leon) as her live-in boyfriend, and is fond of a drink at the pub and of sharing her opinion. The two neighbours are as chalk and cheese as women of the time could get, but were once friendly. When Edith blames Rose, the latter's pleas that she's innocent — and that she'd just tell the former her grievances to her face, not send them anonymously — fall on deaf ears among most of the resident police. The reaction from the constabulary isn't astonishing. Papperwick (Hugh Skinner, The Witcher) and his chief Spedding (Paul Chahidi, Chad) think that it's an open-and-shut case, arrogantly and pompously so. Initially, "woman police officer" (as her colleagues insist on calling her) Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan, Black Mirror) shares the same conclusion. But when your very presence as the first female cop is treated as a novelty day in and day out at work, it isn't a leap to spot how preconceived prejudice dictates the use of the law — sparking Gladys into investigating whether there's more afoot, going against Spedding's orders, but with a trio of local women (Saltburn's Lolly Adefope, Boat Story's Joanna Scanlan and Doc Martin's Eileen Atkins) assisting. As Wicked Little Letters spins a whodunnit around its expletive-filled correspondence and lapses in accepted propriety — albeit one with low stakes, given that the culprit is largely obvious regardless of whether you know the real-life details going in — it does so with top-notch casting. Watching any Colman-starring film means seeing one of Britain's best actors put on a show, as everything from The Favourite to The Father attests. Here, it also involves witnessing a layered portrayal, not that that's unusual for the Oscar-winner. Edith is the picture of Catholic piety, but yearns for constant approval (being called a "pretty young Christian woman" gets her beaming with pride) after spending her entire existence under her abusive father's thumb. Envy also clearly courses through her veins towards the former acquaintance that she's sending to jail. Enjoying Colman's turn also means revelling in her ability to sling profanities when the narrative calls for it ("piss" and "foxy-arsed" are high among the scribe's terms of choice). Buckley, also as always, is as spirited as she is earthy — and expertly balances Rose's bold forthrightness with her inner vulnerability as the village witch-hunt keeps pointing its pitchforks Rose's way (primarily for daring to be unmarried, a mother, cohabiting with a man, known to curse and nothing but her irrepressible self). She's having as much of a ball as Colman with her part, in just-as-stellar a performance. The dynamic between Edith and Rose spells out the narrow-minded societal mindset about women at the time, including how such judgements and expectations were internalised, but neither Buckley nor Colman are stuck playing mere symbols or subversions of regressive attitudes. Also excellent is Vasan, in a role that's no less crucial, conveying a process that is never as easy to experience as it is to witness: realising how flawed the status quo is, how your existence has been shaped by it (female police officers weren't even permitted to marry or have children), then challenging it no matter the consequences. As shot with the warm hues typical of period-set English fare by cinematographer Ben Davis (The Banshees of Inisherin), this poison-pen story doesn't send much that's surprising to the screen — as a mystery, a satire, a bundle of character studies, a cop and courtroom drama, or a portrait of the era that it depicts. It also leans heavily on its strong language being entertaining. But Sharrock, comedian Sweet and their cast have such a handle on the scenario, its amusing potential, and everything that this true-crime tale says about the 1920s, 2020s and humanity's worst impulses regardless of the year, that it always works. When Colman and Buckley last appeared in the same movie, The Lost Daughter had them playing the same person; getting them sharing a frame, and swearing in it, is also worth watching.
UPDATE, December 23, 2022: The Batman is available to stream via Netflix, Binge, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. When The Batman begins (not to be confused with Batman Begins), it's with the slaying of a powerful Gotham figure. A shocking crime that scandalises the city, it leaves a traumatised boy behind, and couldn't be more influential in the detective-style tale of blood and vengeance that follows. But viewers haven't seen this story before, despite appearances. It isn't the start of pop culture's lonesome billionaire orphan's usual plight, although he's there, all dressed in black, and has an instant affinity for the sorrowful kid. Behold the first standout feat achieved by this excellent latest take on the Dark Knight (not to be confused with The Dark Knight): realising that no one needs to see Bruce Wayne's parents meet their end for what'd feel like the millionth time. The elder Waynes are still dead, and have been for two decades. Bruce (Robert Pattinson, Tenet) still festers with pain over their loss. And the prince of Gotham still turns vigilante by night, cleaning up the lawless streets one no-good punk at a time with only trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis, Long Shot) in on his secret. As directed by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes' Matt Reeves, and co-scripted with The Unforgivable's Peter Craig, The Batman clocks something crucial about its namesake and the audiences that watch him, however. The caped crusader's every move stems from his inescapable grief as always, but no one has to witness its origins yet again to glean why he's become the conflicted protector of his anarchic city. Instead, here he's overtly anguished, upset, broken, broiling with hurt and working his way through those feelings in each affray — a suave, smooth and slick one-percenter playboy in his downtime, he isn't — and it's a more absorbing version of the character than seen in many of the past Bat flicks that've fluttered through cinemas. Why so serious? That question is answered quickly. Also, badging Pattinson's turn in the cape and cowl 'emo Batman' is 100-percent accurate. It's meant to be, because violence isn't just about experiencing or inflicting pain, but also about processing the emotions stirred up. Apply the label to The Batman's unrelentingly dark and rainy aesthetic as well and, once again, it suits. Lensed with such an eye for the absence of light by Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser (a Dune Oscar-nominee) that he's painting with the shadowiest of shadows, this is a grimmer Batman than Christopher Nolan's trilogy, moodier than Ben Affleck's stint, and gloomier than the Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney-starring movies (not to mention the upbeat and campy 60s TV series that gave us the Batusi). Like teen shows, the tone of any given Batman entry reflects the surrounding times, and the tenor here is bleak, bruised and battered. Call the prevailing batmosphere cinema's own bat-signal and that's oh-so-fitting, too. Batman is bruised and battered himself in The Batman. He flinches when jumping from skyscrapers in his winged batsuit, grimaces upon impact and sports contusions beneath his mask before that. In spurts of Taxi Driver-style narration — where he could be one of screenwriter Paul Schrader's lonely men wrestling with the world (see also: The Card Counter) — he seethes about his self-appointed task, past and the state of Gotham, exposing his psychological scars as well. That doesn't change when a serial killer who dubs himself The Riddler (Paul Dano, Okja) and must love David Fincher movies (Seven and Zodiac especially) commits The Batman's opening murder, the first in a chain targeting the city's elite. This other angry mask-wearing vigilante is also waging a war on Gotham's corruption, and leaving puzzles to be solved along the way — with Batman assisting police lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright, The French Dispatch), and being aided by nightclub waiter-cum-cat burglar Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz, Kimi) in turn. What makes one man's angst-riddled quest noble but the other's deranged? As The Batman broods over that conundrum, the line between its titular figure and The Riddler is the finest it has perhaps ever been. Reeves isn't interested in another hero-with-a-sob-story spin on Batman, but in surveying the tragedy that seeps through his grimy and dank rendering of Gotham — yes, even dimmer than in Joker — and plotting the choices that spirit its abandoned residents towards either improving or destroying the city. The longer he chases The Riddler, via altercations with crime kingpin Carmine Falcone (John Turturro, Severance) and club-owner Oswald 'The Penguin' Cobblepot (Colin Farrell, The North Water), the more that Bruce/Batman flies parallel to his new foe. Selina slinks along a similar route, too, as coloured by her own history — plus the missing friend she's desperate to find, which is what connects her with Batman to start with. This many different Batman films and shows in, it isn't easy to make the Dark Knight an entrancing and surprising character again — Christian Bale did, Affleck didn't — but Pattinson's casting is exceptional. Since he stopped visibly sparkling in the Twilight saga, his role choices have been near-impeccable as Cosmopolis, The Rover, Maps to the Stars, The Lost City of Z, Good Time, High Life and The Lighthouse have shown, and The Batman slides seamlessly into his enviable recent resume. There's soulfulness and tension to his portrayal of the Gotham crusader's inner turmoil, not just matching the Nirvana's 'Something in the Way'-meets-'Ave Maria'-soundtracked mood of melancholy, but also rippling in every glance, glare, step, jump and thrown fist. There's also a deep-seated intensity; a willingness to play both Bruce and Batman as weird, awkward and unsettled; and a welcome lack of boundaries between his character's two personas. Reeves hasn't just scored a pitch-perfect lead, though. At just a batwing's flap shy of three hours, his film comes packed more convenient plot developments than necessary, but it has time to cement the savvy Kravitz among the most memorable versions of Catwoman — and to refreshingly play up her sexual tension with Batman. It also ensures that the quietly commanding Wright, hypnotically unhinged Dano and prosthetics-laden Farrell all have room to shine, though The Penguin is hardly a big player. It gives the latest Batmobile a helluva revved-up entrance and breathlessly thrilling car chase, and lets wide-framed, rhythmically choreographed action scenes roll long so that viewers feel the toll they wage on the movie's main man. Spotting everything that influenced The Batman isn't an enigma, of course, and The Riddler would be thoroughly disappointed. But the way that everything is spliced and shaken together, and the mood — and it's definitely a mood — makes this weighty, heavy, sublimely shot, excellently cast, always-engaging blockbuster feel new, and all things Batman with it.
There's a moment in Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened that no one will ever forget. While much of the film falls into that category — cataloguing an utter trainwreck of a festival will do that — one scene particularly stands out. When event producer Andy King reveals what he was asked to do to secure bottled water for the fest's stars and patrons (and the fact that he'd resigned himself to doing it), it instantly underlines the scope and shamelessness of Fyre's catastrophic mismanagement. Given that the doco not only became an instant must-watch, but that the similar, Hulu-funded film Fyre Fraud did too, it's safe to say that everyone wants to know more about this story. Australians will be able to get the full details at this year's BIGSOUND, with King himself joining the lineup as a late addition. He'll be heading to Brisbane as one of the four-day conference's keynote speakers, appearing an event called Fyreside Chat with Andy King on Wednesday, September 4. King will likely be offering his advice on what not to do in the music festival industry, and why being willing to go the extra mile for a gig isn't always a good thing. As Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened demonstrates, he isn't shy when it comes to taking about his experiences — and he has a sense of humour about it. He also has a considerable resume that ranges well above and beyond Fyre Festival, spanning more than 25 years in the event business. Expect to hear about that, too, which ranges from hosting the launch of the world's tallest ferris wheel in Las Vegas to running the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation's annual gala. Amusingly, King also oversees a zero-waste event company that focuses on environmental and social impacts, including when plastic bottles of water are involved. Until he makes his way Down Under, revisit King's must-see doco moment via the Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened trailer below. The film itself is available on Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ0KNVU2fV0 BIGSOUND 2019 runs from September 3–6 at various venues around Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. For further details or to buy tickets, visit bigsound.org.au. To discover what to do, see, eat and drink while visiting Brissie for the annual event, check out our weekender's guide to Brisbane during BIGSOUND.
As was the case with recent release The Walk, Lance Armstrong scandal pic The Program is a film burdened by having the documentary that preceded it set a near-impossible standard for anything better. Comprehensive, compelling and absolutely exasperating, Alex Gibney's The Armstrong Lie was an exceptional piece of honest and meticulous journalism in which Lance Armstrong’s own performance proved to be a breathtaking piece of dramatic fiction. What The Program does offer, however, is a peek inside the conversations and moments that not even Gibney could record – despite his unprecedented access. Why? Because even Armstrong knew better than to let his own videographer record all the actual doping sessions and illegal deals. How the steroids were obtained, how they were snuck into France, how the cyclists took possession, used and then disposed of them - all of this is covered in great detail in The Program, as are as the methods used to defeat the drug testing that followed. As Armstrong, Ben Foster is note perfect. Beyond his remarkable physical similarity to the disgraced cyclist, Foster absolutely nails the camera-ready smile and rehearsed laugh used by Armstrong to mask both his rage and unrestrained ego. Practising in front of a mirror, we see Foster repeating again and again that he “has never tested positive for steroids”, a technical truth amidst a monumental lie that perfectly demonstrates the semantic and psychological art behind what officially became “the most successful doping program the sport [had] ever seen”. Perhaps the only great disappointment with The Program is the lack of time given to the largely unheralded role played by David Walsh – the Sunday Times sports journalist who doggedly and almost single-handedly pursued the Armstrong deception amid unbelievable resistance from every imaginable corner. Played by Chris O’Dowd, Walsh endured manifold lawsuits, professional humiliation and even abandonment by his closest friends and colleagues for investigating a fairytale that was plainly too good to be true. But while O’Dowd receives far too little screen time, The Program still does a good job of explaining why few were eager to question Armstrong’s mythic success. Given his contribution to the global expansion of the sport and the inspiration he provided for cancer sufferers via the Live Strong foundation, it's not hard to understand why we were all so keen to believe the lie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXfp859pcM0
Punk rockers unite! One of Canada's most loved bands are finally hitting Australian shores after an absence that seems an eternity. Billy Talent, have been bursting the ear drums of their fellow country men for almost twenty years, and finally it's Australia's turn to share in the audible bombardment of the senses. They are set to hit the stage at the Hifi to showcase their latest album, as well as veritable smorgasbord of blistering, fretboard melting treats from their back catalogue. Four albums in to their expansive career, the band are still rocking like it's the nineties. With a stellar set comprised of anthemic rock tunes and stadium sing along choruses, Thursday's show at the Hifi promises to be a gig that that will leave you counting down the days until their next down under stopover, and quite possibly, a little hard of hearing.
Casual face-melter Courtney Barnett is finally about to have a debut album under her already trophy-laden belt. So naturally, the Melbourne-based shredder has announced her Australian debut album tour for May 2015. This one's going to sell fast. Marking the release of her first ever LP, Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit (out Friday, March 20 via Barnett's own Milk! Records and Remote Control), this tour follows Barnett's epic performances at Laneway festival around the country over the last few weeks. Having already proved herself one of Australia's brightest sparks over the last few years with her 2013 EP release The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, Barnett's spins one hell of a live show — having nailed sets at Lollapalooza, South by Southwest and New York City's CMJ. Supported by Teeth & Tongue, Barnett will cruise from Adelaide's The Gov on Friday, May 1 to Perth's Bakery on Saturday, May 2. Then it's over to Sydney's The Metro on Friday, May 8 and Brisbane's Hi-Fi on Saturday, May 9. In classic Australian artist form, Barnett will wrap things up in her hometown of Melbourne on Friday, May 15 at The Forum. COURTNEY BARNETT AUSTRALIAN ALBUM TOUR 2015 SUPPORTED BY TEETH & TONGUE FRIDAY MAY 1 The Gov, Adelaide, SA TICKETS SATURDAY MAY 2 The Bakery, Perth, WA TICKETS FRIDAY MAY 8 The Metro, Sydney, NSW TICKETS SATURDAY MAY 9 The Hifi, Brisbane, QLD TICKETS FRIDAY MAY 15 The Forum, Melbourne, VIC TICKETS
