As far as boozy beverages go, nothing beats the espresso martini. It gives you a buzz, it's a crowd-pleaser and most venues have one on their menu. In fact, they're so beloved, Brisbane is getting a whole new festival dedicated to them. A separate event from Melbourne and Sydney's own fests, the Espresso Martini Festival will take over Fish Lane between 6pm and 10pm on Tuesday, August 15. In a stroke of savvy planning, that's the night before the Ekka public holiday, meaning that you can get your caffeinated cocktail fix without worrying about the alarm going off the next morning. Of course, there's no prizes for guessing what's on offer — but don't just expect the usual 'tinis combos of coffee and alcohol. With the team from Brooklyn Standard on drinks duty, they'll be whipping up at least five different varieties. Tequila, whisky and vodka will feature, plus some other spirited surprises. If that sounds like enough to make you bounce off of South Brisbane's walls, then that's the point; however crispy chicken ribs, pork belly bao, grilled pork meatballs and chicken coconut salad slaw from Fish Lane Vietnamese eatery Hello Please will help bring you back to street level. Tickets cost $35, and include a free espresso martini and a selection of food on entry — and a lack of sleep that night, obviously. UPDATE 25 JULY 2017: Brisbane, you love an espresso martini — so much so that the first day of the Espresso Martini Festival has already sold out. So the organisers have added a second day on Wednesday, August 16. It's the Ekka public holiday, so it will run from 1–5pm. Brisbane's Espresso Martini Festival takes place from 6–10pm on August 15 and 1–5pm on August 16 at Fish Lane, South Brisbane. Head to the event website for further details and tickets. Image: Steven Woodburn.
When Hercule Poirot returned to cinema screens in 2017's Murder on the Orient Express, the infamous Agatha Christie-penned sleuth was always going to hang around. Hollywood loves a franchise and, on the page, the fictional Belgian detective has featured in more than 80 tales. Accordingly, a sequel to the Kenneth Branagh-starring and directed movie was always inevitable. Death on the Nile is that follow-up, as once again based on the book of the same name. It's due to hit cinemas sometime in the future — in this COVID-19 world, movie release dates aren't really set in stone anymore, as anyone who has been hanging out for months to see Tenet or Mulan knows — and, as the just-dropped first trailer shows, it trots out the familiar Poirot formula. In the current film series, that means bringing a whole heap of famous faces together in a confined location, dressing them up in luxe threads, interrupting their trip with a murder, then watching the moustachioed detective put his skills to the test. Obviously, here, everyone is on a boat in Egypt. In fact, Poirot is on vacation on a glamorous river steamer when duty calls — in the form of a couple's idyllic honeymoon that's been cut short by tragedy. Branagh is back both on-screen and behind the lens, while this time around he's joined by Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, and even comedy legends Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Also popping up: Murder on the Orient Express' Tom Bateman, Game of Thrones' Rose Leslie, Black Panther's Letitia Wright, Wild Rose's Sophie Okonedo, Sex Education's Emma Mackey and Victoria and Abdul's Ali Fazal. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRP57Bz842A&feature=youtu.be Death on the Nile is slated to release in Australian cinemas at a yet-to-be-revealed date — we'll provide exact details when they come to hand. Top images: © 2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Each year, the team behind Vivid Sydney clearly asks itself a question: where else can we dazzle with lights next? Ranging from gardens and tunnels to buildings and bridges, the answers brighten up not only the festival's annual program, but the Harbour City. Letting a train lit up with an immersive glow and pumping techno tunes loose on the New South Wales capital's rails is a new answer for 2024, however. Meet Tekno Train. This isn't your ordinary, everyday, average commute — this is a 60-minute trip filled with lighting and music that changes to match the train's speed and the landscape outside. And the tunes? Like the event itself, they hail from Paul Mac. The result is a 23-night-only railway experience that's an Australian first, with its music newly composed specifically for what promises to be a helluva ride. Here's how it works: between Friday, May 24–Saturday, June 15, you'll hop onboard a K-set train at Central Station, either opting for a scenic route to North Sydney and then Lavender Bay via a secret spur line (the slower, more family-friendly trip), or hitting up City Circle and South Sydney (which'll be the livelier and faster-paced journey). Whether you pick The Scenic Route or Tech Express, as the two choices have been named, you'll see Tekno Train's custom lighting beam and hear its electronic dance music soundtrack pulse through all of the locomotive's carriages. If you're wondering how it links in with this year's Vivid theme of 'humanity', Tekno Train puts the power of music to unite — even when people are doing something that they don't normally think twice about — in the spotlight. It also celebrates public transport, mass transit and community. And, of course, it'll get you seeing riding the rails in a whole new light, literally.
Two years after closing to the public back in early 2019 — and three years after first announcing it was undergoing a big makeover — Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image is set to reopen its doors on Thursday, February 11. And, when film and television lovers step back inside its Federation Square building, they'll notice plenty of changes. If you're going to shut down to undertake extensive $40 million renovations, you want people to see it, after all. Details have been announced over the past couple of years; however, that doesn't make the revamp any less impressive. So, visitors can expect revamped exhibition spaces, new immersive experiences and added interactive activations, including a permanent ode to Mad Max. And, the venue definitely looks different, all thanks to Melbourne architects BKK and experience design firm Publicis Sapient/Second Story. Also part of the makeover: the Lens, a handheld device made out of compressed cardboard that you use while physically moseying through ACMI's galleries, and tap at around 200 different touchpoints to collect objects of interest as you wander. You then take it home with you, and whip it out again to check out all the items you've collected — even after you've left the museum. One of the things you'll want to use the Lens on is ACMI's huge — and free, and permanent — The Story of the Moving Image exhibition, which has an online component and also physically sprawls across 1600 square metres. It's all about the past, present and future of screen culture in all of its forms, including optical illusions, the first projected images, and the ways in which cinema, TV and games have evolved over the past century. ACMI has also spent big on commissioning new work — to the tune of $880,000, which has gone towards 15 projects. Seventy percent are by First Nations artists, and 60 percent feature women in a lead creative role. Visitors will be able to see one, from Gabriella Hirst, during the venue's first solo exhibition after reopening. Called Darling Darling, the video work finds commonalities between the efforts to preserve colonial paintings of the Australian landscape and the real-world preservation of the Murray Darling Basin. The site's two cinemas are also restarting their screening program, beginning with Love & Neon: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai, a season dedicated to the acclaimed director. And, its curated streaming service, which launched in 2020, is still up and running as well. Other big new ACMI highlights include the Blackmagic Design Media Preservation Lab, which is dedicated to preserving Australia's analogue past and also ensuring that the country's digital present remains accessible — and the high-tech Gandel Digital Future Labs, which are aimed at fostering young creatives. There's also a retail space that boasts decor as vivid as the film and TV-focused items on sale, plus a new dining space called Hero. The latter is a collaboration with Melbourne chef Karen Martini and new venture HospitalityM, takes inspiration from Jacques Tati's 1967 film PlayTime, and serves bites to eat and casual drinks all day. HospitalityM will also run a coffee cart on Flinders Street, and sell cinema snacks. The Australian Centre for the Moving Image reopens its doors on Thursday, February 11, at Federation Square, Flinders Street, Melbourne. Images: Shannon McGrath.
If a film has the title Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, you could safely assume an alien is going to yell "It's alive!" at some point. All you need to do is watch to find out. In fact, as this flick unfolds, you can witness the action live in front of you. Making cheesy movie magic without an actual camera is what B-Movies Live! is all about, after all. Cult movie guru Kristian Fletcher gets a cast of actors to do their best with props, costumes, sound effects and music as they recreate a real-life feature. And you thought it sounded too glorious to be true, didn't you?
Over the past few years, the Victoria Park Putt Putt Course has given itself a themed revamp on several occasions: Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day and Easter all included. Whatever the excuse to get tap, tap, tapping, this Herston spot'll find it — and mini golf-loving Brisbanites are thankful. Fancy getting into the Easter spirit by hitting a few balls around a candy-themed course? That's on offer again now that it's almost that time of year, all thanks to Victoria Park's returning Candyland putt putt setup. From Friday, April 1–Sunday, May 8, the site will sport greens with names like 'Fairy Floss Fairway', 'Ice Cream Court', 'Sugar Shack' and 'Bunny's Hop'. Yes, we're expecting rabbits to feature heavily — plus giant ice creams, Easter eggs, lollipops and other sweet treats. Bookings are essential, with the course open from 6am–10pm daily. Fancy a few holes before work? Want to add some fun to your lunch break? Need something to look forward to come quitting time? They're all options. It's a family-friendly affair, so you'll likely have plenty of company. Tickets cost $22 per adult. Images: Pandora Photography.
Stampeding wildlife, giant apes swinging through the trees, ancient mummies brought back from the dead: these are some of the wonders that cinema can deliver. The list goes on, and not only includes the kind of sights you don't usually see in everyday life, but places that mightn't be on your travel itinerary. And if the latter is true now, imagine how accurate it was when the medium of movies was in its infancy. Nearly a century ago, a trip to the cinema took audiences on adventures they could only dream of otherwise — and filmmakers capitalised upon the possibilities their chosen art form provided. It's evident when King Kong unleashes his mighty roar, as first seen in the 1933 classic, and in the likes of romance Morocco, the Singapore-set film noir The Letter and the colonial cautionary tale White Shadows in the South Seas, as the Gallery of Modern Art's Exotic Hollywood program explores. Catch all of the above, plus The Mummy long before Tom Cruise was involved, Tabu: Story of the South Seas featuring a cast of non-professional French Polynesian actors and more, all screening at the Australian Cinematheque from February 4 to 24. The main lineup is free, including a chat about the escapist narratives on offer by associate curator Amanda Slack-Smith, as well as a screening of desert fantasy The Sheik with a live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment. Or, head along to see Tarzan and His Mate with a glass of champagne in hand, in a session that's free for members and $10 otherwise.
When any and every film festival rolls around, plenty of numbers get mentioned. With the 2022 Sydney Film Festival now fast approaching, the Harbour City's annual cinema showcase is no different. This year will mark the fest's whopping 69th event, as well Festival Director Nashen Moodley's 11th time bringing the latest and greatest flicks to the glorious State Theatre and other Sydney picture palaces — and, if its first 22 movies are anything to go by, it's set to be another winner. There's no such thing as a bad SFF, of course, because its program always spans so far and wide — and how you watch your way through it is always dictated by personal choice. But 2022's event already has a new Aussie horror standout that proved a hit at SXSW, the latest from freshly minted Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain, multiple Sundance award recipients, and the new comedy from inimitable Berberian Sound Studio, The Duke of Burgundy and In Fabric filmmaker Peter Strickland. Yes, we're already spoiled for choice. Taking place between Wednesday, June 8–Sunday, June 19 — back in its usual timeslot after moving to November in 2021 due to lockdowns and restrictions — SFF 2022 will show some local love to Sissy, the aforementioned Australian horror film. Starring The Bold Type's Aisha Dee, it follows a successful social media influencer who gets stuck in a remote cabin with her old high-school bully. Also in the homegrown camp: street dancing documentary Keep Stepping, car-bound docudrama The Plains and the music fest-focused 6 Festivals, with the latter about three friends who decide to hit up as many live gigs as possible after one is diagnosed with brain cancer, and also featuring cameos by the likes of Bliss n Eso and Peking Duk. Hailing from further afield are the Chastain-starring The Forgiven, which also marks the latest movie by Calvary and War on Everyone's John Michael McDonagh; Strickland's Flux Gourmet, which sees the director reteam with Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie; 80s-set, Charlotte Gainsbourg-led Parisian drama The Passengers of the Night; and genderqueer musical Please Baby Please, which follows a 50s couple in Manhattan who witness a violent incident and undergo a sexual awakening. Or, there's also Sundance Film Festival-winning doco The Territory, which follows an Indigenous fightback over rainforest land seized for farming; Yuni, the latest coming-of-age tale by Indonesian The Seen and Unseen filmmaker Kamila Andini; We Met in Virtual Reality, a documentary filmed entirely inside the world of VR; and Incredible But True, a time-travel caper from Deerskin and Rubber's Quentin Dupieux. Other titles of interest include Bootlegger, which stars Reservation Dogs' Devery Jacobs; doco A House Made of Splinters, another Sundance winner that was filmed in pre-invasion Ukraine; Sirens, about the Middle East's first all-female, queer death metal band; and Gentle, which stars real-life bodybuilder Eszter Csonka. As for what'll join them — among a lineup that usually spans hundreds of films — that'll be revealed on Wednesday, May 11. You can already start getting ready to spend most of June in a cinema, though, obviously. The 2022 Sydney Film Festival will run between Wednesday, June 8–Sunday, June 19. Check out the event's just-announced titles by heading to the festival website. The full program will be released on Wednesday, May 11 — head back here then for the rundown.
What's the best part about making the most expensive film ever produced in a country of over one billion people? One word: 'extras'. All the computer wizardry in the world can't compete with the visual feast that is thousands of actual humans teeming across a screen with balletic precision, especially when they're dressed like Terracotta Warriors after a Taubmans Colour Chart treatment. Red archers, purple foot soldiers and blue 'crane spear wielders' form the basis of China's secret Great Wall defence, and they're an absolute delight to behold throughout famed director Zhang Yimou's first English language epic of the same name. The concept of a giant wall built to keep out illegal aliens receives more of a literal rendering in this supernatural saga that sees China's army pitted against waves of other-worldly beasts. Spawning from a distant, meteorite-affected mountain, these grotesque monsters inexplicably only attack the wall once every sixty years. Just as curious is China's determination to keep the threat a secret from the rest of the world. Thrust into the mix are western mercenaries William Garoi (Matt Damon) and Pero Tovar (Game of Thrones' Pedro Pascal), whose perilous search for the fabled 'black powder' of the Chinese alchemists sees them stumble unwittingly into the middle of this centuries-old conflict. Fears of another Hollywood 'white-washing' are, however, quickly dispensed with, for it's the Chinese who consistently prove to be the smarter, braver and more honourable participants in both life and in battle. It's refreshing, certainly, but hardly a surprise, for in addition to 'extras' there's another critical, one-word answer to the original question posed: 'audience'. Hollywood's increasing flirtation with a US-Chinese cinematic co-op stems in no small part from the desire to access one of the largest movie-going markets in the world. At a cost of $135 million, The Great Wall represents the first out-and-out attempt to make that union a reality. Damon might be a big deal in the West, but in The Great Wall he's surrounded by some of the biggest names in Chinese entertainment, including Zhang Hanyu, Eddie Peng, Kenny Lin Gengxin, Jing Tian and K-Pop star Lu Han. The problem with a film (and cast) of this size, however, is that it comes at the expense of character. None of the principals receive anything more than a cursory backstory and even less of an arc moving forward. The Chinese generals are unflinching archetypes, while the westerners are, for the most part, untrustworthy slaves to greed. The consequence is a lack of emotional investment on the part of audiences, who'll respond to each new death with pronounced apathy. Given The Great Wall's style and setting, comparisons with Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers are both fair and inevitable, and – at least visually – Zhang's film more than meets the challenge. Its costuming, in particular, sets it amongst the finest we've seen in a long time, yet its threadbare characters and generic plot leave much to be desired. Whether such an expensive gamble ultimately pays off for the movie's producers, only time will tell. Still, as the first major step in cinema's US-China alliance, there's at least enough here to offer reserved optimism for the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avF6GHyyk5c
In a year that has already seen Australians spend plenty of time on their couches, Netflix is serving up a new reason to stay seated, get cosy and start your next binge. From Thursday, September 17, beloved US sitcom Friends will land on the streaming service — so if your sofa happens to be a Central Perk-style shade of orange, you'll have an extra reason to celebrate. All ten seasons of the show will hit at once, which means you'll have 236 episodes to work your way through. Obviously, that's a whole heap of time in the company of New York's most famous posse of pals. Whether you once had your hair cut like Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), spout catchphrases like Joey (Matt LeBlanc) or are known to sing about cats like Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) — or have spent way too much time thinking about Monica (Courteney Cox) and Chandler's (Matthew Perry) relationship, or about Ross' (David Schwimmer) pet monkey, too — you'll be in your element. In fact, you could even say your favourite TV mates will be there for you. https://twitter.com/NetflixANZ/status/1295843163123245057 Of course, Friends fans will already know that the show's entire run is currently available in Australia via fellow streaming service Stan, and has been for some time. If that continues to be the case, you'll now have two places to get your 90s and early 00s sitcom fix. The past few years have been eventful for Friends aficionados. An orange couch toured around Australia, anniversary marathons have screened in cinemas, boozy brunch parties have showered the show with love and trivia nights are still held regularly. A musical parody of the series is about to liven up Aussie theatres as well. And, at some point in the near future, the whole gang will even reunite for a TV reunion special — which was originally due to surface earlier this year, but has been delayed due to the pandemic. All ten seasons of Friends will hit Netflix on Thursday, September 17.
Fancy teeing off at mini golf over a few drinks — while playing your way through over-the-top, pop culture-themed holes — but don't feel like venturing from the Brisbane CBD to Fortitude Valley? Come November, you can grab a club and start swinging at the city's second Holey Moley, which is opening in the Wintergarden shopping centre. The location is hardly surprising, as it's where Strike Bowling — which is also run by the same company as Holey Moley — has been operating for well over a decade. Lucky for us, Funlab has decided to double the Queen Street Mall fun, meaning that you'll be able to knock down a few pins and then get tap, tap, tapping (or vice versa, if you'd prefer). From Friday, November 29, inner-city dwellers can work their way around a nine-hole course that'll feature a Ferris Bueller's Day Off-inspired hole, a replica of Vincent van Gogh's bedroom and a room filled with flying cash. Among the other themed holes, there's one paying tribute to Steve Irwin, another featuring King Kong and yet another ramping up the wizarding antics — it's called Hole 9 & 3/4, naturally. Booze and food are also part of Holey Moley's usual lineup, including plenty of cocktails. When you're not downing drinks with names like Austin Sours and The Sugar Caddy, you can sip an alcoholic concoction from a tiny bath tub that even has rubber ducks floating in it — or opt for wine, beer, spirits or a mocktail. As for snacks, you'll be able to choose between pizzas, hot dogs and extravagant burgers (such as The Dirty Birdie, which combines southern fried chicken, lettuce, bacon, slaw, guacamole and chilli mayo). Or, enjoy chicken wings, mac 'n' cheese bites, and five types of potato dishes (spanning normal fries, loaded fries, waffle fries, tater tots and sweet potato fries). If you're vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free, you'll find something on Holey Moley's menu, too. Find Holey Moley Wintergarden on Level 1 in the Wintergarden shopping centre, 171–209 Queen Street, Brisbane from Friday, November 29.
Most days of the year, there ain't no party like a Brightside party, and that proves true on Halloween as well. They don't call their annual shindig the Frightside Horrorfest without good reason, after all. Demonstrating the enthusiastic flair regulars know and love, the Brighty folks will be transforming the entire venue into a haunted heaven (or hell, if you prefer), the carpark included. Indulging in the scarier side of things while dancing around on the concrete usually populated by automobiles might not sound like something exciting, but it should — more room equals an increased capacity for more revellers. That extra space will be filled to the brim, of course, starting with Kissperience and Silkacid offering up creepy tunes. As for the rest of the evening's agenda, prepare to jump. We mean that in both the tapping your toes and getting more than a few surprises kinds of way, so don't say we didn't warn you.
There's something very fitting about a circus performance that ponders identity. Both the art form and the subject are often described as fluid, and Vulcana Women's Circus have called their MELT Festival show that for a good reason. In their hands, Fluid is a cabaret of queer artists and friends, as well as a combination of costumes, contemplation and comedy. It's also a journey between extremes — be they she and he, diva and dancer, or any others in the LGBTI realm — and back again. Yes, this production is fluid by name and fluid by nature.
One of the country's premier film events, the Melbourne International Film Festival, has released a sneak peak of 2013's programming. Artistic director Michelle Carey admits that she is "especially excited about the MIFF 2013", and after a glance we can see why. Three years ago Wentworth Miller's Stoker was voted one of 2010's best unproduced screenplays, and now the rest of us finally have a chance to see what all the fuss is about. The unnerving tale is centered on 18-year-old India, who, fresh from burying her father, meets the mysterious uncle her mother has invited into the family home to fill their void. The cast includes a trifecta of Australian talent, with Nicole Kidman, Jacki Weaver and Mia Wasikowska breathing life into the Stoker family. To add to the hype, it is also the English language debut of celebrated South Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy). Other movies on the radar include Tim Winton's The Turning (starring Cate Blanchett); festival patron Geoffrey Rush's turn as an eccentric art auctioneer in Italian box-office smash The Best Offer; Shane Carruth's highly anticipated follow-up to cult time-travel puzzler Primer, titled Upstream Color; and US gore-fest of a horror flick You're Next. The documentary contingent looks set to more than hold its own this year as Australia's almost-rock legend Jeremy Oxley's battle with schizophrenia and alcoholism takes centrestage in The Sunnyboy, and UK director Ken Loach looks to the England of old in The Spirit of '45. Loach's exploration of British domestic policy pre- and post-Thatcher is a rallying call to UK politicians to reject austerity and remember that great 20th-century experiment, the welfare state. What would a film festival be without something to call the next Woody Allen? MIFF fills that category with the black-and-white comedy Frances Ha. Star Greta Gerwig (To Rome with Love) co-wrote the film with director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale). It contains dialogue like this: Guy: What do you do? Frances: It's kind of hard to explain. Guy: Why, is what you do really complicated? Frances: Because, I don't really do it. So it looks like they are onto a good thing. An annual event, the MIFF runs from July 25 to August 11. For more information, head to the website and keep an eye out for the full program, which will be released on July 2. Image: Festival patron Geoffrey Rush as Virgil Oldman in The Best Offer
Not all that long ago, the idea of getting cosy on your couch, clicking a few buttons, and having thousands of films and television shows at your fingertips seemed like something out of science fiction. Now, it's just an ordinary night — whether you're virtually gathering the gang to text along, cuddling up to your significant other or shutting the world out for some much needed me-time. Of course, given the wealth of options to choose from, there's nothing ordinary about making a date with your chosen streaming platform. The question isn't "should I watch something?" — it's "what on earth should I choose?". Hundreds of titles are added to Australia's online viewing services each and every month, all vying for a spot on your must-see list. And, so you don't spend 45 minutes scrolling and then being too tired to actually commit to anything, we're here to help. We've spent plenty of couch time watching our way through this month's latest batch — and, from the latest and greatest through to old and recent favourites, here are our picks for your streaming queue from April's haul. Brand-New Stuff You Can Watch From Start to Finish Now Ripley Boasting The Night Of's Steven Zaillian as its sole writer and director — joining a list of credits that includes penning Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and The Irishman, and also winning an Oscar for Schindler's List — the latest exquisite jump into the Ripley realm doesn't splash around black-and-white hues as a mere stylistic preference. In this new adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1955 book, the setting is still coastal Italy at its most picturesque, and therefore a place that most would want to revel in visually; Anthony Minghella, The Talented Mr Ripley's director a quarter-century back, did so with an intoxicating glow. For Zaillian, however, stripping away the warm rays and beaches and hair, blue seas and skies, and tanned skin as well, ensures that all that glitters is never gold or even just golden in tone as he spends time with Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers). There's never even a glint of a hint of a travelogue aesthetic, with viewers confronted with the starkness of Tom's choices and actions — he is a conman and worse, after all — plus the shadows that he persists in lurking in and the impossibility of ever grasping everything that he desires in full colour. On the page and on the screen both before and now, the overarching story remains the same, though, in this new definitive take on the character. It's the early 60s rather than the late 50s in Ripley, but Tom is in New York, running fake debt-collection schemes and clinging to the edges of high-society circles, when he's made a proposal that he was never going to refuse. Herbert Greenleaf (filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan, who has also acted in his own three features You Can Count on Me, Margaret and Manchester by the Sea) enlists him to sail to Europe to reunite with a friend, the shipping magnate's son Dickie (Johnny Flynn, One Life). As a paid gig, Tom is to convince the business heir to finally return home. But Dickie has no intention of giving up his Mediterranean leisure as he lackadaisically pursues painting — and more passionately spends his time with girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning, The Equalizer 3) — to join the family business. Ripley streams via Netflix. Read our full review. Fallout A young woman sheltered in the most literal sense there is, living her entire life in one of the subterranean facilities where humanity endeavours to start anew. A TV and movie star famed for his roles in westerns, then entertaining kids, then still alive but irradiated 219 years after the nuclear destruction of Los Angeles. An aspiring soldier who has never known anything but a devastated world, clinging to hopes of progression through the military. All three walk into the wasteland in Fallout, the live-action adaptation of the gaming series that first arrived in 1997. All three cross paths in an attempt to do all that anyone can in a post-apocalyptic hellscape: survive. So goes this leap into a world that's had millions mashing buttons through not only the OG game, but also three released sequels — a fourth is on the way — plus seven spinoffs. Even with Westworld' Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy as executive producers, giving Fallout the flesh-and-blood treatment is a massive and ambitious task. But where 2023 had The Last of Us, 2024 now has this; both are big-name dystopian titles that earned legions of devotees through gaming, and both are excellent in gripping and immersive fashion at making the move to television. Fallout's vision of one of the bleakest potential futures splits its focus between Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell, Yellowjackets), who has no concept of how humanity can exist on the surface when the show kicks off; Cooper Howard aka bounty hunter The Ghoul (Walton Goggins, I'm a Virgo), the screen gunslinger who saw the bombs fall and now wields weapons IRL; and Maximus (Aaron Moten, Emancipation), a trainee for the Brotherhood of Steel, which is committed to restoring order by throwing around its might (and using robotic armour). The show's lead casting is gleaming, to the point that imagining anyone but this trio of actors as Lucy, Howard-slash-The Ghoul and Maximus is impossible. Where else has Walton's resume, with its jumps between law-and-order efforts, westerns traditional and neo, and comedy — see: The Shield, Justified, Sons of Anarchy, The Hateful Eight, Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones, as a mere few examples — been leading than here? (And, next, also season three of The White Lotus.) Fallout streams via Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Walton Goggins, Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten. Heartbreak High When Heartbreak High returned in 2022, the Sydney-set series benefited from a pivotal fact: years pass, trends come and go, but teen awkwardness and chaos is eternal. In its second season, Netflix's revival of the 1994–99 Australian favourite embraces the same idea. It's a new term at Hartley High, one that'll culminate in the Year 11 formal. Amerie (Ayesha Madon, Love Me) might be certain that she can change — doing so is her entire platform for running for school captain — but waiting for adulthood to start never stops being a whirlwind. Proving as easy to binge as its predecessor, Heartbreak High's eight new episodes reassemble the bulk of the gang that audiences were initially introduced to two years ago. Moving forward is everyone's planned path — en route to that dance, which gives the new batch of instalments its flashforward opening. The evening brings fire, literally. Among the regular crew, a few faces are missing in the aftermath. The show then rewinds to two months earlier, to old worries resurfacing, new faces making an appearance and, giving the season a whodunnit spin as well, to a mystery figure taunting and publicly shaming Amerie. The latter begins their reign of terror with a dead animal; Bird Psycho is soon the unknown culprit's nickname. Leaders, creepers, slipping between the sheets: that's Heartbreak High's second streaming go-around in a nutshell. The battle to rule the school is a three-person race, pitting Amerie against Sasha (Gemma Chua-Tran, Mustangs FC) and Spider (Bryn Chapman Parish, Mr Inbetween) — one as progressive as Hartley, which already earns that label heartily, can get; the other season one's poster boy for jerkiness, toxicity and entitlement. Heightening the electoral showdown is a curriculum clash, with the SLT class introduced by Jojo Obah (Chika Ikogwe, The Tourist) last term as a mandatory response to the grade's behaviour questioned by Head of PE Timothy Voss (Angus Sampson, Bump). A new faculty member for the show, he's anti-everything that he deems a threat to traditional notions of masculinity. In Spider, Ant (Brodie Townsend, Significant Others) and others, he quickly has followers. Their name, even adorning t-shirts: CUMLORDS. Heartbreak High streams via Netflix. Read our full review. Such Brave Girls If Such Brave Girls seems close to reality, that's because it is. In the A24 co-produced series — which joins the cult-favourite entertainment company's TV slate alongside other standouts such as Beef, Irma Vep, Mo and The Curse over the past two years — sisters Kat Sadler and Lizzie Davidson both star and take inspiration from their lives and personalities. Making their TV acting debuts together, the pair also play siblings. Josie (Sadler) and Billie (Davidson), their on-screen surrogates, are navigating life's lows not only when the show's six-part first season begins, but as it goes on. The entire setup was sparked by a phone conversation between the duo IRL, when one had attempted to take her life twice and the other was £20,000 in debt. For most, a sitcom wouldn't come next; however, laughing at and lampooning themselves, and seeing the absurdity as well, is part of Such Brave Girls' cathartic purpose for its driving forces. If you've ever thought "what else can you do?" when finding yourself inexplicably chuckling at your own misfortune, that's this series — this sharp, unsparing, candid, complex and darkly comedic series — from start to finish. Creating the three-time BAFTA-nominated show, writing it and leading, Sadler plays Josie as a bundle of nerves and uncertainty. The character is in her twenties, struggling with her mental health and aspiring to be an artist, but is largely working her way through a never-ending gap year. Davidson's Billie is the eternally optimistic opposite — albeit really only about the fact that Nicky (Sam Buchanan, Back to Black), the guy that she's hooking up with, will eventually stop cheating on her, fall in love and whisk her away to Manchester to open a vodka bar bearing her name. Both girls live at home with their mother Deb (Louise Brealey, Lockwood & Co), who also sees a relationship as the solution to her problems, setting her sights on the iPad-addicted Dev (Paul Bazely, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves) a decade after Josie and Billie's father went out for teabags and never came home. With actor-slash-director Simon Bird behind the lens — alongside first-timer Marco Alessi on one episode — if Such Brave Girls seems like it belongs in the same acerbically comedic realm as The Inbetweeners and Everyone Else Burns, there's a reason for that, too. Such Brave Girls streams via Stan. Read our full review. Baby Reindeer A person walking into a bar. The words "sent from my iPhone". A comedian pouring their experiences into a one-performer play. A twisty true-crime tale making the leap to the screen. All four either feature in, inspired or describe Baby Reindeer. All four are inescapably familiar, too, but the same can't be said about this seven-part Netflix series. Written by and starring Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, and also based on his real-life experiences, this is a bleak, brave, revelatory, devastating and unforgettable psychological thriller. It does indeed begin with someone stepping inside a pub — and while Gadd plays a comedian on-screen as well, don't go waiting for a punchline. When Martha (Jessica Gunning, The Outlaws) enters The Heart in Camden, London in 2015, Donny Dunn (Gadd, Wedding Season) is behind the counter. "I felt sorry for her. That's the first feeling I felt," the latter explains via voiceover. Perched awkwardly on a stool at the bar, Martha is whimpering to herself. She says that she can't afford to buy a drink, even a cup of tea. Donny takes pity, offering her one for free — and her face instantly lights up. That's the fateful moment, one of sorrow met with kindness, that ignites Baby Reindeer's narrative and changes Donny's life. After that warm beverage, The Heart instantly has a new regular. Sipping Diet Cokes from then on (still on the house), Martha is full of stories about all of the high-profile people that she knows and her high-flying lawyer job. But despite insisting that she's constantly busy, she's also always at the bar when Donny is at work, sticking around for his whole shifts. She chats incessantly about herself, folks that he doesn't know and while directing compliments Donny's way. He's in his twenties, she's in her early forties — and he can see that she's smitten, letting her flirt. He notices her laugh. He likes the attention, not to mention getting his ego stroked. While he doesn't reciprocate her feelings, he's friendly. She isn't just an infatuated fantasist, however; she's chillingly obsessed to an unstable degree. She finds his email address, then starts messaging him non-stop when she's not nattering at his workplace. (IRL, Gadd received more than 40,000 emails.) Baby Reindeer streams via Netflix. Read our full review. Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV One of the most difficult episodes of documentary television to watch in 2024 hails from five-part series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. It's also essential to see. In its third chapter, this dive into the reality behind Nickelodeon's live-action children's TV success from the late-90s onwards gives the microphone to Drake Bell, who unravels his experiences while first working on The Amanda Show (led by Amanda Bynes, Easy A) and then on Drake & Josh (co-starring Josh Peck, Oppenheimer) — specifically his interactions with dialogue coach Brian Peck, who became immersed in Bell's life to a disturbing degree and was convicted in 2004 of sexually assaulting him. The case wasn't a major scandal at the time, incredulously. Even with Bell's name withheld because he was a minor, it was the second instance of a Nickelodeon staff member being arrested for such horrendous crimes in mere months, and yet widespread media coverage and public awareness didn't follow. Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV marks the first time that Bell talks about it publicly. Witnessing him speak through the details is as harrowing as it is heartbreaking. Originally releasing as four episodes, then adding a fifth hosted by journalist Soledad O'Brien to reflect upon the revelations covered, this docuseries has much that's distressing in its sights — much of it under television producer Dan Schneider. From sketch series All That onwards, he was a Nickelodeon bigwig; Kenan & Kel, Zoey 101, iCarly and Sam & Cat are also among the shows on his resume. Former child actors such as Giovonnie Samuels, Bryan Hearne, Alexa Nikolas, Katrina Johnson, Kyle Sullivan, Raquel Lee and Leon Frierson talk about the pressures on set, and the inappropriate jokes that they didn't realise were inappropriate jokes worked into their material. Ex-The Amanda Show writers Christy Stratton (Freeridge) and Jenny Kilgen step through the misogynistic environment among the creatives; that they were forced to split a salary between them but do the same amount of work as their male colleagues is only the beginning. Parents, including Bell's father Joe, share their unsurprisingly upset perspectives. Bynes' post-Nickelodeon fortunes also get the spotlight. Clips and behind-the-scenes footage are weaved in throughout, too, and looking at any of the network's shows from the era the same way again is impossible. Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV streams via Binge. Scoop What did it take to get one of the most important interviews with a member of the royal family that has ever aired on British television (and most important interviews in general)? That's Scoop's question — and not only do director Philip Martin (The Crown) and screenwriters Peter Moffat (61st Street) and Geoff Bussetil (The English Game) ask it while adapting Sam McAlister's 2022 book Scoops, but their compelling journalism thriller answers it in detail. The bulk of the feature is set in 2019, spending its time among the BBC staff at news and current affairs show Newsnight as they first try to lock in and then attempt to execute a chat with Prince Andrew. The end result, aka the program's 'Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal' episode, will go down in history; even if you didn't see it then or haven't since, everyone knows of that discussion and its ramifications. Getting it to the screen was the result of hard work, dedication and smarts on the parts of booker and producer McAllister, host Emily Maitlis and editor Esme Wren — and a tale that deserves to be just as well known. Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie) plays McAllister as whip-smart, fiercely determined and indefatigable when she's chasing a story, but undervalued at her job, so much so that her colleagues regularly accuse her of wasting time following up the wrong guests instead of simply complying with their requests. She's certain that a class clash isn't helping — and just as confident that she knows what she's doing, including when she begins corresponding with the Duke of York's (Rufus Sewell, Kaleidoscope) private secretary Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes, Orphan Black: Echoes) about getting him on-camera to discuss his connection to Jeffrey Epstein. She needs backup from both Maitlis (Gillian Anderson, Sex Education) and Wren (Romola Garai, One Life), as well as the entire team's support, in bringing the chat to fruition. Just like the IRL interview itself, this polished how-it-happened procedural is riveting viewing as it slides into its genre alongside Spotlight and She Said. Scoop streams via Netflix. New and Returning Shows to Check Out Week by Week Sugar Colin Farrell's recent hot streak continues. After a busy few years that've seen him earn Oscar and BAFTA nominations for The Banshees of Inisherin, collect a Gotham Awards nod for After Yang, steal scenes so heartily in The Batman that TV spinoff The Penguin is on the way and pick up the Satellite Awards' attention for The North Water, Sugar now joins his resume. The Irish actor's television credits are still few — and, until his True Detective stint in 2015, far between — but it's easy to see what appealed to him about leading this mystery series. From the moment that the Los Angeles-set noir effort begins — in Tokyo, in fact — it drips with intrigue. Farrell's John Sugar, the show's namesake, is a suave private detective who takes a big Hollywood case against his handler Ruby's (Kirby, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) recommendation. He's soon plunged into shadowy City of Angels chaos, bringing The Big Sleep, Chinatown, LA Confidential and Under the Silver Lake to mind, and loving movie history beyond sharing the same genre as said flicks. Softly spoken, always crispy dressed, understandably cynical and frequently behind the wheel of a blue vintage convertible, Sugar, the PI, is a film fan. The series bakes that love and its own links to cinema history into its very being through spliced-in clips and references elsewhere — and also foregrounds the idea that illusions, aka what Tinseltown so eagerly sells via its celluloid dreams, are inescapable in its narrative in the process. Twists come, not just including a brilliant move that reframes everything that comes before, but as Sugar endeavours to track down Olivia Siegel (Sydney Chandler, Don't Worry Darling). She's the granddaughter of worried legendary film producer Jonathan (James Cromwell, Succession); daughter of less-concerned (and less-renowned) fellow producer Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris, Better Call Saul); half-sister of former child star David (Nate Corddry, Barry), who is on the comeback trail; and ex-step daughter of pioneering rocker Melanie (Amy Ryan, Beau Is Afraid). Trying to find her inspires heated opposition. Also sparked: an excellently cast series that splashes its affection of film noir and LA movies gone by across its frames, but is never afraid to be its own thing. Sugar streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. The Sympathizer Fresh from winning an Oscar for getting antagonistic in times gone by as United States Atomic Energy Commission chair Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr gets antagonistic in times gone by again in The Sympathizer — as a CIA handler, a university professor, a politician and a Francis Ford Coppola-esque filmmaker on an Apocalypse Now-style movie, for starters. In another addition to his post-Marvel resume that emphasises how great it is to see him stepping into the shoes of someone other than Tony Stark, he takes on multiple roles in this espionage-meets-Vietnam War drama, which adapts Viet Thanh Nguyen's 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. But Downey Jr is never the show's lead, which instead goes to Australian Hoa Xuande (Last King of the Cross). The latter plays the Captain, who works for South Vietnamese secret police in Saigon before the city's fall, and is also a spy for the North Vietnamese communist forces. It's his memories, as typed out at a reeducation camp, that guide the seven-part miniseries' narrative — jumping back and forth in time, as recollections do, including to his escape to America. As the Captain relays the details of his mission and attempts to work both sides, The Sympathizer isn't just flitting between flashbacks as a structural tactic. The act of remembering is as much a focus as the varied contents of the Captain's memories — to the point that rewinding to add more context to a scene that's just been shown, or noting that he didn't specifically witness something but feels as if he can fill in the gap, also forms the storytelling approach. Perspective and influence are high among the show's concerns, too, as the Captain navigates the sway of many colonial faces (making Downey Jr's multiple roles a powerful and revealing touch) both in Vietnam and in the US. Behind it all off-screen is a filmmaker with a history of probing the tales that we tell ourselves and get others believing, as seen in stone-cold revenge-thriller classic Oldboy, 2022's best film Decision to Leave and 2018 miniseries The Little Drummer Girl: the inimitable Park Chan-wook. He co-created The Sympathizer for the screen with Don McKellar (Blindness) and it always bears is imprint, whether or not he's directing episodes — he helms three — with his piercing style, or getting help from Fernando Meirelles (who has been busy with this and Sugar) and Marc Munden (The Third Day). The Sympathizer streams via Binge. Loot Across ten extremely amusing initial episodes in 2022, Loot had a message: billionaires shouldn't exist. So declared the show's resident cashed-up character, with Molly Wells (Maya Rudolph, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem) receiving $87 billion in her divorce from tech guru John Novak (Adam Scott, Madame Web), then spending most of the sitcom's first season working out what to do with it (and also how to handle her newly single life in general). That she had a foundation to her name was virtually news to her. So was much about everything beyond the ultra-rich. And, she was hardly equipped for being on her own. But Loot's debut run came to an entertaining end with the big statement that it was always uttering not so quietly anyway. So what happens next, after one of the richest people in the world decides to give away all of her money? Cue season two of this ace workplace-set comedy. Created by former Parks and Recreation writers Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard, in their second Rudolph-starring delight — 2018's Forever was the first — Loot splices together three popular on-screen realms as it loosely draws parallels with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his philanthropist ex-wife MacKenzie Scott. At her charity, as Molly's staff become the kind of friends that feel like family while doing their jobs, shows such as 30 Rock and Superstore (which Hubbard also has on his resume) score an obvious sibling. As its protagonist endeavours to do good, be better and discover what makes a meaningful life, The Good Place (which Yang also wrote for) and Forever get company. And in enjoying its eat-the-rich mode as well, it sits alongside Succession and The White Lotus, albeit while being far sillier. Loot streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. The Big Door Prize If there was a Morpho machine IRL rather than just in The Big Door Prize, and it dispensed cards that described the potential of TV shows instead of people, this is what it might spit out about the series that it's in: "comforting". For a mystery-tinged dramedy filled with people trying to work out who they are and truly want to be after an arcade game-esque console appears in their small town, this page-to-screen show has always proven both cathartic and relatable viewing. Its timing, dropping season one in 2023 as the pandemic-inspired great reset was well and truly in full swing, is a key factor. Last year as well as now — with season two currently upon us — this is a series that speaks to the yearning to face existential questions that couldn't be more familiar in a world where COVID-19 sparked a wave of similar "who am I?" musings on a global scale. The difference for the residents of Deerfield in this second spin: their journey no longer simply involves pieces of cardboard that claim to know where the bearer should be expending their energy, but also spans new animated videos that transform their inner thoughts and hopes into 32-bit clips. When the Morpho first made its presence known, high-school teacher Dusty (Chris O'Dowd, Slumberland) was cynical. Now he's taking the same route as everyone else in his community — including his wife Cass (Gabrielle Dennis, The Upshaws) and daughter Trina (Djouliet Amara, Fitting In) — by letting it steer his decisions. But whether he's making moves that'll impact his marriage, or his restaurant-owning best friend Giorgio (Josh Segarra, The Other Two) is leaping into a new relationship with Cass' best friend Nat (Mary Holland, The Afterparty), or other townsfolk are holding the Morpho up as a source of wisdom, easy happiness rarely follows. Season two of this David West Read (Schitt's Creek)-developed series still treats its magical machine as a puzzle for characters and viewers to attempt to solve, but it also digs deeper into the quest for answers that we all undertake while knowing deep down that there's no such thing as a straightforward meaning of life. As well as being extremely well-cast and thoughtful, it's no wonder that The Big Door Prize keeps feeling like staring in a mirror — and constantly intriguing as well. The Big Door Prize streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. An Excellent Recent Film You Might've Missed Showing Up Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams are one of cinema's all-time great pairings. After 2008's Wendy and Lucy, 2010's Meek's Cutoff and 2016's Certain Women, all divine, add Showing Up to the reasons that their collaborations are an event. Again, writer/director Reichardt hones in on characters who wouldn't grace the screen otherwise, and on lives that rarely do the same. With her trademark empathy, patience and space, she spends time with people and problems that couldn't be more relatable as well. Her first picture since 2019's stunning First Cow, which didn't feature Williams, also feels drawn from the filmmaker's reality. She isn't a sculptor in Portland working an administration job at an arts and crafts college while struggling to find the time to create intricate ceramic figurines, but she is one of America's finest auteurs in an industry that so scarcely values the intricacy and artistry of her work. No one needs to have stood exactly in Showing Up's protagonist's shoes, or in Reichardt's, to understand that tussle — or the fight for the always-elusive right balance between passion and a paycheque, all while everyday chaos, family drama and the minutiae of just existing also throws up roadblocks. Showing Up couldn't have a better title. For Lizzy (Wiliams, The Fabelmans), who spends the nine-to-five grind at her alma mater with her mother (Maryann Plunkett, Manifest) as her boss, everything she does — or needs or wants to — is about doing exactly what the movie's moniker says. That doesn't mean that she's thrilled about it. She definitely isn't happy about her frenemy, neighobour and landlord Jo (Hong Chau, Asteroid City), who won't fix her hot water, couldn't be more oblivious to anyone else's problems and soon has her helping play nurse to an injured pidgeon. Reichardt spins the film's narrative around Lizzy's preparations for a one-night-only exhibition, including trying to carve out the hours needed to finish her clay pieces amid her job, the bird, advocating for a liveable home, professional envy and concerns for her alienated brother (John Magaro, Past Lives). The care and detail that goes into Lizzy's figurines is mirrored in Reichardt's own efforts, in another thoughtful and resonant masterpiece that does what all of the filmmaker's masterpieces do: says everything even when nothing is being uttered, proves a wonder of observation, boasts a pitch-perfect cast and isn't easily forgotten. Showing Up streams via Netflix. Need a few more streaming recommendations? Check out our picks from January, February and March this year, and also from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December 2023. You can also check out our running list of standout must-stream shows from last year as well — and our best 15 new shows of 2023, 15 newcomers you might've missed, top 15 returning shows of the year, 15 best films, 15 top movies you likely didn't see, 15 best straight-to-streaming flicks and 30 movies worth catching up on over the summer.
UPDATE, April 9, 2021: The Gentlemen is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and YouTube Movies. When in doubt, they say to go back to your roots. Given that Guy Ritchie's last two films were Aladdin and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, it's fair to assume that doubt had squarely reared its head. As a director whose name alone evokes the sound of cockney rhyming slang and the image of grimy London back alleys, dancing bedazzled elephants were about as off-brand as it gets. So he goes back to his roots with The Gentlemen — and it's a warm and welcome return. Boasting an enviable cast, The Gentlemen is a Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch-style crime caper centred upon Mickey Pearson — a marijuana kingpin looking to exit the UK's drug trade at the height of his career. Played by Matthew McConaughey, Mickey is a charming but ruthless American expat whose fondness for the London lifestyle sees him decked out in tweed, cavorting with the aristocracy and taking tea whenever the opportunity calls for it. When word of his impending retirement begins to spread, however, its sets off a series of secret alliances and double-crosses that puts the entire deal at risk, as well as a number of lives. There's a lot to like about The Gentlemen, but the highlight is surely its unofficial narrator, Fletcher (a delightful turn by Hugh Grant). Fletcher is a seedy private detective who digs up dirt for the tabloids. Rather than dish said dirt on Mickey, he decides it would be more profitable to offer to lose it in exchange for a healthy payout. The film structures its story around Fletcher as he makes his case to Mickey's bodyguard and consigliere, Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) — which he does by laying out the details as if he's writing a screenplay. The meta nature of it all could've been right on the nose, but Ritchie pulls it off thanks in no small way to Grant's giddying and likeable performance. Where Ritchie rediscovers his mojo by returning to his roots, Grant does so by ditching, the foppish hair and awkward humility, and replacing it with homoerotic innuendo and sleazy hubris. He goes completely against form — it's a joy to behold. So too is Michelle Dockery as Mickey' wife, Rosalind. Every shred of her time on Downton Abbey is abandoned as she struts and swears her way through The Gentlemen like an Essex-based Lady Macbeth. By contrast, Colin Farrell plays one of the most understated characters of his career, but the result is just as compelling. Known simply as Coach, he trains local youths in boxing to help rehabilitate them from a life of crime. Sporting his real-life Irish accent and a selection of remarkable tracksuits, Farrell lights up his scenes with equal parts controlled menace and lyrical wordplay. Against such terrific supporting roles (Succession's Jeremy Strong also deserves mention for his amusing, albeit also cartoonish turn), the film's two leading men are far less memorable. That's not to say they don't deliver the goods — it's just that their goods are less sparkly. Hunnam doesn't quite nail the reserved tough guy routine, although he does land the film's best line. As for McConaughey, he forever feels like the odd man out, with his southern drawl at odds with the abundant cockney. Overall, The Gentlemen is fun, to put it in the simplest of terms. It's certainly not without its faults — the patchwork of styles, from action film to hip hop music video and everything in between is constantly jarring — but the general experience is an agreeable one. Like the scotch enthusiastically consumed by Fletcher throughout, The Gentlemen is a little rough at first, but smoother with every sip until you're silly drunk and smiling like a fool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je22_P3Qm7U
Maleficent has a perception problem. Traditionally blamed for Sleeping Beauty's snoozing state, the evil fairy gained an on-screen backstory in 2014, which softened out her edges (but not her razor-sharp cheekbones, naturally). That leaves inevitable sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil in a tricky predicament. The movie's title dials up the character's supposedly unsociable ways; however, if Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) is now happily playing godmother to Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning), how nefarious can she really be? And if she's facing off against a seemingly kindly queen (Michelle Pfeiffer) who actually wants to start a genocidal war against all magical folk, well, she's hardly the most wicked creature in this film. You could say that Disney just chose the wrong name for this follow-up, but the movie's moniker is symptomatic of its generally muddled state of affairs. It's easy to see why this sequel exists — the first film made a quarter-billion dollars at the box office, and Jolie's casting as Maleficent is a dark fairytale dream — yet that doesn't explain why such little thought appears to have gone into it otherwise. Perhaps the powers-that-be assumed that audiences just want Maleficent to be somewhat evil, so they'll overlook the fact that the last flick (and the beginning of this one) establishes otherwise. Or, perhaps it was a case of trying to use the same formula by giving it the slightest of twists. Where Maleficent proved that its eponymous antiheroine wasn't really bad because she has a soft spot for Aurora, Mistress of Evil does the same by saying "hey, someone else is worse!" That someone, Pfeiffer's Queen Ingrith, comes into Maleficent's life when Aurora accepts Prince Phillip's (Harris Dickinson) marriage proposal. While Maleficent is wary at first, she's heatedly flapping her wings with disapproval after an awkward meet-the-in-laws dinner, where she's accused of working her wicked magic on King John (Robert Lindsay). Although Aurora is left distraught and confused, original screenwriter Linda Woolverton and newcomers Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue (TV's Transparent) ensure that viewers don't feel the same, spelling out exactly who's responsible for the sinister turn of events. After a run-in with a colony of fellow dark fairies (led by a wasted Chiwetel Ejiofor), the scene is set for Maleficent to do her worst against Ingrith — for the absolute best possible reasons. With its feuding royals, controversial nuptials and ill-motivated blonde queen, Mistress of Evil takes a leaf or several out of Game of Thrones' book — all while tasking its antagonist with trying to wipe out an entire race. Throwing homicidal xenophobia into the mix is designed to reflect today's times, rebuke toxic political structures and promote a message of harmony, but it's both bluntly and clumsily handled. This is a family-friendly flick, after all, so Disney doesn't seem to want to delve too deeply into such tricky terrain. It's still happy to use holocaust parallels to up the dramatic stakes, though. Under the direction of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' co-helmer Joachim Rønning, the movie's visuals also prove dull and lumbering, unless you like overblown CGI onslaughts. Of course, Mistress of Evil isn't the first big fantasy blockbuster that's forgone subtlety and ramped up its battle scenes, but it never escapes attention that the film didn't need to turn out this way. Jolie is once again a commanding delight as Maleficent, a role she relishes even if it barely stretches her Oscar-winning acting skills. Pfeiffer is equally as mesmerising as her increasingly deranged adversary — and, as she did the first time around, Fanning wears innocence well. After fleshing out its titular figure's tragic past in the initial movie, this sequel could've just let its three main talents go head-to-head. Indeed, Mistress of Evil is at its strongest when Jolie and Pfeiffer are trading withering barbs and glares, or when Jolie and Fanning are exploring their characters' complex mother-daughter dynamic. Cast-wise, it helps that they're in fine company, with Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple returning as pithy pixies devoted to Aurora, and Sam Riley popping up again as Maleficent's shape-shifting offsider; however the film's three main ladies steal the show when they're just talking to each other. But, then the screensaver-like special effects start screaming for attention. The movie's swooping cinematography keeps repetitively flying over forests and castles, too. And, especially from its mid-point, Rønning repeatedly hits audiences over the head with the film's clunky themes. Instead of enchanting, it all just makes for average-at-best fairytale drama. Mistress of Evil is hardly cursed, but it won't send anyone leaping from their slumber. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU9zRfcTI-k
UPDATE, December 23, 2021: Pig is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Nicolas Cage plays a truffle hunter. That's it, that's the pitch. When securing funding, those six words should've been enough to ensure that Pig made it to cinemas. Or, perhaps another high-concept summary helped. Maybe debut feature writer/director Michael Sarnoski went with these seven words: Nicolas Cage tracks down his stolen pet. Here's a final possibility that could've done the trick, too: Nicolas Cage does a moodier John Wick with a pig. Whichever logline hit the spot, or even if none did, Pig isn't merely the movie these descriptions intimate. It's better. It's weightier. It's exceptional. It always snuffles out its own trail, it takes joy in subverting almost every expectation and savouring the moment, and it constantly unearths surprises. Cage has spent much of his recent on-screen time fighting things — ninja aliens in the terrible Jiu Jitsu and possessed animatronics in the average Willy's Wonderland, for example — in movies that were clearly only made because that was the case. But, when he's at his absolute best, he plays characters whose biggest demons are internal. Here, he broods and soul-searches as a man willing to do whatever it takes to find his beloved porcine pal, punish everyone involved in her kidnapping and come to terms with his longstanding, spirit-crushing woes. Sarnoski keeps things sparse when Pig begins; for the film and its protagonist, less is more. Rob Feld (Cage) lives a stripped-back existence in a cabin in the woods, with just his cherished truffle pig for company — plus occasional visits from Amir (Alex Wolff, Hereditary), the restaurant supplier who buys the highly sought-after wares Rob and his swine forage for on their walks through the trees. He's taken this life by choice, after the kind of heartbreak that stops him from listening to tapes of the woman he loved. He's found the solace he can in the quiet, the isolation and the unconditional bond with the animal he dotes on. (He's tampered down the full strength of his pain in the process, obviously.) But then, because bad things can happen in cabins in the woods even beyond horror flicks, Rob's pig is abducted in the dark of the night. Now, he's a man on a mission. He has a glare and a stare, too. As the swine's distressed squeals echo in his head, Rob stalks towards Portland to get her back. He needs Amir to chauffeur him around the city, but he has an idea of where to look and who to chase. When the big pig kidnapping comes, and early, Pig initially resembles not only John Wick but Mandy. That 2018 film cast Cage as a lumberjack seeking his abducted girlfriend — also taken by intruders in the deep of night — and it proved his best movie in at least 15 years. Thankfully, Sarnoski and co-scribe/producer Vanessa Block haven't just taken Mandy and made a blatant swap. They haven't done the same with John Wick, either. And, performance-wise, Pig doesn't ask Cage to revisit a recent standout or follow in someone else's career-refreshing footsteps. The actor does soulful and yearning heartbreakingly well, as Bringing Out the Dead so potently established over two decades ago. Even in his most cartoonish fare (the type that isn't actually animated, because he's dabbled in voice work, too), he's masterful at conveying anger. Both longing and fury filter through here, because every Cage performance tugs and pulls at his past portrayals; however, this particular role calls for tenderness, despair and resolve all at once, and also contemplation, mystery, being wearied by too much grief and appreciating the little things and kindnesses. One of the delights of his efforts in Pig is how he keeps breaking down layer after layer, then piling on more, then stewing and simmering in them as well. Cage's over-the-top turns are entertaining to watch, but this is a measured gem of a portrayal, and a versatile, touching, deeply empathetic and haunting one that's up there with his finest ever. Compassion bubbles through Pig from the outset, in fact, and isn't just directed at Rob. As viewers discover more about him, his past life, why he knows about Portland's underground network of chefs and other hospitality industry figures, and how he can whip up a meal that brings someone to tears, we also learn about Amir. Pig isn't a star vehicle, but a double act. It knows how to deploy Cage at the height of his caged-in skills, and how well he can bounce off the right co-star. So, the film also dives into everything that's made Amir who he is — aka a truffle seller who is trying to get a jump in the food business, caught in a bigger shadow, hasn't matched his own or anyone else's expectations, but keeps bustling and hustling forward. He's self-aware about his struggles, and also trying to do something about them. He's wily and resourceful, and neurotic and jumpy at the same time. Wolff is just as brilliant as getting under his character's skin as Cage is, and just as compelling to watch as well. They're at their finest when they're together, unpacking what it means to navigate tragedy, fear, loss, regret, uncertainty, an uncaring world and a complicated industry, all in Rob and Amir's own ways — and attempting to free themselves of their own histories, embrace their own niches, and seek meaning and value. In scene after scene, Cage and Wolff captivate, drawing viewers into their meaty performances. Sarnoski's directorial choices achieve the same feat, managing to favour simplicity and complexity in tandem — like cooking a dish with a variety of easy ingredients, then unlocking a world of flavours as they're combined. As lensed by Patrick Scola (Monsters and Men), Pig finds beauty in the everyday, including when Rob and the titular animal could've trotted straight out of documentary The Truffle Hunters. It lingers on walking, talking, kneading, sipping and eating, and sometimes on people overtly appreciating those things. Filling its frames with detail, including in streams of sunlight or the act of preparing a meal, it also acknowledges that nothing that comes with existing is ever straightforward — and that hurt, cruelty and darkness are inescapable. To let these notions swirl and sink in, editor Brett W Bachman (Werewolves Within, and also a Mandy alum) finds a stately, thoughtful rhythm. As set to a stirring score, too, the film muses, meditates and steeps. It's unmistakably a movie where Cage plays a truffle hunter on a quest for revenge after his adored pet pig is stolen, but this moving and humanistic picture is also welcomely and entrancingly so much more than that.
Everyone's favourite melancholic hitmaker Post Malone is returning to Australia for a second time in 2023. The global superstar was in the country in January and February supporting Red Hot Chili Peppers, but he must've enjoyed his time Down Under, because he's doing a run of headline Australian shows as part of his If Y'all Weren't Here I'd Be Crying world tour. Diamond-certified multiple times over, Posty will be hitting Brisbane Showgrounds on Thursday, November 23 — and also playing Spilt Milk, including on the Gold Coast, the same month. This tour is in support of Post Malone's fifth studio album Austin, which dropped in July featuring recent singles 'Mourning' and 'Chemical'. You can expect a career-spanning performance dipping into his most recent album, 2022's Twelve Carat Toothache, and his catalogue of global smashes like 'Congratulations', 'Rockstar', 'Sunflower' and 'Circles'.
Switch its modern-day Texas setting for the American frontier of several centuries ago, and its noble thieving heroes for gunslingers roaming the range, and there's no mistaking it: Hell or High Water is a western through and through. These days, every second film or thereabouts is deemed a contemporary take on the genre, from Mad Max: Fury Road to The Dressmaker. Director David Mackenzie doesn't take on the Old West lightly, however, and his sun-scorched drama proves to be the genuine article. Bullets fly, law and order collides, and the distinctively dusty US landscape looms large over morally murky exploits. It all harks back to times (and films) gone by, while also proving ever-so-relevant to today. Sons of Anarchy actor turned Sicario writer Taylor Sheridan cleverly steeps every recognisable western element in timely commentary on our have-versus-have not society. Brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) fall into the latter category — but as the movie's title intimates, they're determined to make a change. Their primary opponent: the banking system. Specifically, a local financial establishment that happily gave their mother a reverse mortgage on the family farm, and now wants to swoop in and take it all away. So the siblings react Robin Hood-style, holding up the bank's various branches to raise the funds needed to retain control of the property. Of course, rangers Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham) are soon on the brothers' trail, one trying to hold on to the past by staving off retirement, the other grinning and bearing his colleague's old-school ways. In a film built dirt-up from the tiniest of details — a parade of sepia-tinted small towns here, a slow drawl masking unspoken pain there — paying close attention to the furrowed brows of Pine and Bridges is highly recommended. Like the film they inhabit, their characters are broken men moulded from familiar pieces. And yet the actors still manage to convey depths that trump the feeling that you've seen it all before. Watching them weather their respective battles — against systems trying to keep them in their places, against their internal demons, and against each other — is quietly revelatory. Though tasked with the least nuanced role of the three main players, Foster also ensures his ex-con character is more than simply a unhinged comic foil to his morally conflicted brother. To put it simply, it's stellar work from most involved. That applies to Mackenzie as well, who provides not only an evocative sense of the genre he's happily playing with, but balances Hell or High Water's solemn tone with his lightness of touch. The journeyman filmmaker continues to serve up new highlights such as his previous prison effort Starred Up, and now this. He's ably assisted by the fine work of cinematographer Giles Nuttgens, as well as by a soulful score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.
Back in 1940, when Alfred Hitchcock brought gothic mystery novel Rebecca to the screen, he nabbed an Oscar for Best Picture for his troubles. While the story has popped up in both film and TV form over the eight decades since, it's now returning with another exciting British filmmaker at the helm: Ben Wheatley, the director behind High-Rise and Free Fire. Wheatley's work is always cause for excitement, and has been since his 2009 debut Down Terrace. Also on his resume: 2011's particularly sinister Kill List, 2012 dark comedy Sightseers, 2013's trippy A Field in England and 2018's Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. But, starring Lily James, Armie Hammer and Kristin Scott Thomas — and looking rather luxe, as the just-released first trailer shows — Rebecca might just be his biggest project yet. In his version of Daphne du Maurier's 1938 tale, Wheatley steps into a new marriage between widower Maxim de Winter (Hammer) and his fresh-faced bride (James). Once they've tied the knot, the couple endeavour to settle into the de Winter family's coastal estate, Manderley; however, the resident housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Scott Thomas) is hardly welcoming, and the memory of Maxim's first wife Rebecca lingers noticeably. When Rebecca hits Netflix on October 21, viewers can expect a gothic mystery filled with psychological thrills, as well as plenty of gorgeous sets, costumes and imagery in general — befitting the classic tale. Case-wise, Rebecca also features The Handmaid's Tale's Ann Dowd, and reunites Wheatley with High-Rise's Keeley Hawes and Free Fire and Happy New Year, Colin Burstead's Sam Riley. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFVhB54UqvQ Rebecca hits Netflix on Wednesday, October 21. Top image: Kerry Brown/Netflix.
Why should humans get to have all the beer-drinking, bar-attending fun? If you have a pet pooch, you've probably spied the look in its eyes when you head out for a beverage, or the curiosity when you're sipping something at home. This March, booze hounds on all fronts unite for Brewsvegas. From 2pm on March 11, Atticus Finch is throwing open their doors to drinkers of the two- and four-legged kind, with brews on offer for both. At Hair of the Dogs, you and I can enjoy a frosty Brewdog, Parrot Dog, Moon Dog and more (yes, there's a theme), while puppers can lap up a BeerDog Bitter beef flavoured 'beer' (yes, it's a non-alcoholic beer made for dogs). Cheers to that.
There's something for everyone to get around when it comes to Halloween, whether it's eating nauseating amounts of lollies, flexing your arts and crafts skills and fashioning yourself a costume, or pulling that five-piece (mask included) Batman get-up out of storage and donning it to feel like the superhero you really are. Trick or treating isn't as big here as it is in the US, but we'll be damned if we won't use the occasion as an excuse for a spooky time. And, thankfully, there are plenty of eerie events and horror-themed nights happening around town for you to dive into. Here's a list of some of the best things going on in and around Brisbane for Halloween this year, ranging from the not-so scary (night markets and a spooky-themed game of mini golf) to the truly unsettling (an old favourite: eerie movies) — and including the wild (rave bingo) and wonderful (Halloween music gigs), too.
When Black Widow reaches both cinemas and streaming this July, it'll mark only the second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that solely focuses on a female protagonist. Yes, really. Come September, when the franchise's next flick hits, it too will make history — because Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is the MCU's first movie with an Asian lead. Hitting that milestone is obviously long overdue; Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings will be the 25th MCU flick, after all. Simu Liu is doing the honours, playing the titular martial artist and trained assassin, who has spent ten years living a normal life but is suddenly drawn back into the shady Ten Rings organisation. As the just-dropped first trailer for the new superhero feature shows, Kim's Convenience star Liu will have plenty of chances to show off his character's skills. He'll have impressive company, too. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings's cast includes Awkwafina, following on from her voice work in fellow Disney release Raya and the Last Dragon; the great Michelle Yeoh, who was last seen on the big screen in Last Christmas and Boss Level; and the just-as-iconic Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, a mainstay of Wong Kar-Wai's films such as In the Mood for Love, 2046 and The Grandmaster. Fala Chen (The Undoing), Florian Munteanu (Creed II), Ronny Chieng (Godzilla vs Kong) and debutant Meng'er Zhang also feature, while Short Term 12 and Just Mercy's Destin Daniel Cretton is on directing duties. And, while watching the initial teaser, you can be forgiven for looking out for familiar sights amid the heavy martial arts action, with the movie shot in Sydney. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings will be the second of three new Marvel flicks to reach cinemas this year, sandwiched between the aforementioned Black Widow and the Angelina Jolie-starring Eternals. The MCU is making up for lost time, after 2020 passed by without a new cinema release due to the pandemic — although the franchise has been busy on the small screen in 2021's first half, thanks to WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the upcoming Loki. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzQbZjeBzHQ&feature=youtu.be Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings releases in cinemas Down Under on September 2, 2021.
Prepare to forget everything that's traditionally creepy and awkward about beauty pageants, and embrace the sequin-studded, sashaying side of things instead. That's the aim at the MELT Festival Beauty Pageant — which is about as close as Brisbane is ever going to get to having its own version of RuPaul's Drag Race. In a show of diversity and a celebration of drag queens, kings and trans beauties, ten competitors will battle it out to be crowned the city's most fashionable figure. Expect wigs, glitter and many a jaw-dropping outfit, courtesy of categories such as Graceful Glamourzons, Tremendous Talent and Condom Costume.
Short film festival Flickerfest is coming to Brisbane's Judith Wright Centre in late February. Across three glorious evenings, film fans can see the best shorts plucked from over 2200 entries sent in by international and local filmmakers. From German drama to Finnish comedy to English animation, there are a huge variety of stories to soak up each night. Thursday's opening night party will feature the Best of Australian Shorts, including Nick Waterman's Vote Yes starring Miranda Tapsell (The Sapphires), a film exploring the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal rights via its impact on the lives of two women. Anyone who's backpacked through South America will probably appreciate Tango Underpants (pictured), a short following an Australian woman (Emma Booth) journeying through Buenos Aires and falling in love with tango. Friday and Saturday nights will be a round-up of the best international shorts, including The Phone Call starring Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine, Happy Go Lucky) and Shubhashish Bhutiani's Kush, set in 1984 during a period of anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Danny DeVito fans will definitely want to see him star in Today's the Day, directed by Daniel 'Cloud' Campos. If there's one Australian short film festival that has aspiring filmmakers waiting by the letterbox, biting their nails in anticipation of a 'YES!', it's this one. Having started life as a small-time shindig at Balmain High 23 years ago, the annual event is now an audiovisual extravaganza with tons of prestige, a home on Bondi Beach and a pathway to the Academy Awards for its winners. The annual tour gives people in towns across Australia a chance to see some of the best shorts around. You can buy tickets for individual nights or buy a season ticket, which gets you into all three nights plus the afterparty. https://youtube.com/watch?v=oDZF2VzX12M
It's that time of year, Brisbanites: time for every patch of this city to play host to festive-themed markets. No matter where you're moseying, you won't be far from a collection of stalls selling plenty of gifts — including Woolloongabba's South City Square from 9am–1pm on Sunday, December 5. That's when The Market Folk is taking over the place, putting on a Christmas Pop-Up Market that'll be filled with stocking-stuffers. We hope that your loved ones like clothes, jewellery, ceramics, plants, pots, homewares and art, because you'll find it all here. These markets will have a big focus on design, too, so you won't be browsing and buying just any old wares. As well as the shopping, there'll be live music and food trucks — because every gift-purchasing expedition needs a soundtrack, and also makes you work up an appetite. Plus, it all tales place in a brick-lined, industrial-style space, which'll make you feel like you're wandering around a European-style market.
One lavish estate. A reunion filled with dysfunctional relatives. The sudden death of the family patriarch. Combine them all together, and you have a good ol' fashioned murder mystery — as well as the plot for Rian Johnson's latest star-studded film, Knives Out. The fifth feature from the writer/director, as well as his first since 2017's Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi, Knives Out steps into quite the chaotic situation. Just after his 85th birthday, crime novelist Harlan Thrombin (Christopher Plummer) is found dead, all while his manor happens to be filled with both family members and staff. Eager to discover just what's behind the old man's demise, Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is soon on the case. Yes, Agatha Christie would be proud. And, like all of her famous whodunnits, Knives Out's sleuth has plenty of suspects. Indeed, the list of potential culprits is jam-packed with familiar faces, including Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon and LaKeith Stanfield, as well as 13 Reasons Why's Katherine Langford, IT: Chapter Two's Jaeden Martell and Blade Runner 2049's Ana de Armas. Basically, think Cluedo come to life, filled with high-profile talent, and packaged with both twists and laughs. Johnson's love of on-screen puzzles was well-established in both Brick and Looper, so the filmmaker seems like he's in his element. Check out the latest trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw6L1mu-Nss Knives Out releases in Australian cinemas on November 28.
A grim historical drama that recreates France's final instance of trial by combat, The Last Duel can't be described as fun. It hinges upon the rape of Marguerite (Jodie Comer, Free Guy), wife of knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon, Ford v Ferrari), by his ex-friend Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver, Annette) — aka the event that sparked the joust — so that term will obviously never apply. Instead, the movie is exquisite in its 14th-century period staging. After a slightly slow start, it's as involving and affecting as it is weighty and savage, too. When the titular battle takes place, it's ferocious and vivid. And with a #MeToo spirit, the film heartbreakingly hammers home how poorly women were regarded — the rape is considered a crime against Carrouges' property rather than against Marguerite herself — making it an expectedly sombre affair from start to finish. The Last Duel must've been fun to make from a creative standpoint, however. Damon sports a shocking mullet, and Ben Affleck (The Way Back) dons a ridiculous blonde mop while hamming up every scene he's in (and demanding that Driver drop his pants), although that isn't why. Again, the brutal events seen don't earn that term, but teasing out Marguerite, Carrouges and Le Gris' varying perspectives is fascinating. Director Ridley Scott (All the Money in the World) and his screenwriters — Good Will Hunting Oscar-winners Damon and Affleck, plus acclaimed filmmaker Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said) — have clearly seen Rashomon, the on-screen benchmark in using clashing viewpoints. In their "he said, he said, she said" tale, journeying in the iconic Japanese film's footsteps proves captivating. It must've been an enjoyable challenge for its cast, too, terrible hairstyles and all; as moments repeat, so much of the movie's potency stems from minuscule differences in tone, angle, emphasis and physicality. "The truth according to Jean de Carrouges" proclaims The Last Duel's first chapter, adapting Eric Jager's 2004 book of the same name in the process. (Le Gris and Marguerite's segments, following in that order, receive the same introduction.) Even in his own instalment, Damon plays Carrouges as a scowling and serious soldier, and as petulant and entitled. He's also a victim in his own head. That attitude only grows as Le Gris finds favour with Count Pierre d'Alençon (Affleck), cousin to teenage King Charles VI (Alex Lawther, The Translators), and starts collecting his debts — including Carrouges' own. And when the knight marries the beautiful and well-educated Marguerite, it's purely a transaction. It also deepens his acrimony towards Le Gris long before the rape, after land promised in the dowry ends up in his former pal's hands via the smarmy Pierre. Still, Carrouges is instantly willing to fight when he hears about the sexual assault. That said, it's also just another battle against Le Gris and the Count, after taking them to court and the King over their property squabble. In Le Gris' chapter, where Driver broods with an intensity that's fierce even for him, Carrouges' joylessness and pettiness is given even more flesh. Also explored here: the Count's hedonism, the ambition and greed driving the opportunistic Le Gris, and the fixation he develops with Marguerite. Scott ensures that the rape lands like the horror it is, too, leaving no doubt of its force and coercion despite Le Gris' claims otherwise. When Marguerite's turn comes, the words "the truth" linger for a few seconds longer; what follows is the most nuanced and best third of the film, with immense thanks to Holofcener and Comer. The Last Duel is often blunt movie, but there's a wealth of subtlety to this chapter — and a world of nuance in Marguerite's struggles in general and after her attack at Le Gris' hands. Holofcener doesn't rely upon big speeches, and Comer doesn't trade in big feelings. In fact, they're both economical and poignant, conveying exactly what they need to in as precise a way as possible. Both recognise that the situation, and all that Marguerite endures, is inherently abhorrent and distressing, and let those emotions radiate organically rather than with overstressed compulsion. The film's structure helps enormously, of course. After showing Carrouges glower and pout, and Le Gris pair charm with manipulation, The Last Duel makes its allegiance to Marguerite plain. That happens from the outset, actually, with the film knowingly arriving in a world where gender equality is still far from the status quo. That's why all those tiny tweaks over the three chapters couldn't be savvier or more engaging. Everyone is always the hero of their own story, but The Last Duel commits that idea to film by showing what it means in such horrendous circumstances — a life-and-death matter for Marguerite, Carrouges and Le Gris alike. This is a movie about power that examines how it manifests in broad, societal and overarching ways as well as on an everyday and intimate basis, all through its trio of perspectives. The Last Duel releases 44 years after Scott debuted with 1977's The Duellists. That nice bit of lexical symmetry is also a reminder that history and conflict have long been in his wheelhouse. As his second movie illustrated — that'd be Alien — he's similarly no stranger to tales of female survival in unforgiving conditions. Plus in Blade Runner, his third film, Scott showed his talent for getting contemplative via spectacular imagery. Both opening and closing The Last Duel, the eponymous joust is firmly a spectacle here. Visceral, exciting, tense and thrilling, it's shot and staged with rhythm, flair, grit, gore and an edge-of-your-seat level of anxiety. But this Gladiator-topping scene would ring empty if almost everything around it — not just within it — wasn't so piercing. Come for vain and selfish men brawling on horseback, stay for a compelling interrogation of the kind of world that sees them as its leaders while constantly casting women aside. Image: Patrick Redmond. © 2021 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
As state and international borders have been closed for much of the year, many of us are taking the opportunity to explore our own backyards. We were all spoilt for choice when the borders were open and often forgot to appreciate what was in our own cities or states. Now, Ovolo Hotels is helping you level up your staycation with its new range of activity add-ons that'll have you enjoying your city from atop the Harbour Bridge, in a boat or from the comfort of a massage table. Ovolo has two hotels in Sydney (Woolloomooloo and Darling Harbour) and Brisbane (Inchcolm and The Valley), one in Melbourne (Laneways) and one in Canberra (Nishi), with each one offering different staycay option. In Sydney, you can choose between a Tesla hire with a chauffeur, a Harbour Bridgeclimb, boat and walking tours, eight-course degustations and in-room massages. Canberra is offering electric scooters and picnic hampers, Brisbanites can experience a wine blending workshop and, as restrictions lift, Melburnians will be able to go on a tour of the cities secret bars (with cocktails included). [caption id="attachment_787765" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bridge Climb[/caption] You can build the staycay packages as you like, picking the room — Ovolo Nishi's Meandering Atrium with a giant bathtub, perhaps, or a Rockstar Suite at the Ovolo The Valley with a cocktail bar and king-sized bed — and adding on the activities that interest you most. Ovolo hotels are also pet friendly, so you can bring your fur-baby with you on your staycation. After all, your dog could use a break just as much as you — they live a busy life. Each hotel also comes with complimentary breakfast, sundowner drinks, in-room mini bar and 24-hour gym access. Ovolo Hotels is now offering Staycay Your Way packages at all its Australian hotels. A two-night minimum stay is requires and you can book over here. Top image: Ovolo Nishi
If there's a trend everyone can get behind, it's books about kick-ass ladies doing kick-ass things. Harry Potter's Hermione Granger and The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen have been leading the charge of late — but they're in good company. From Jane Eyre and Hester Prynn to the modern-day characters getting our feisty hearts a-pumping, the heroine is an enduring part of literature for a reason. Discover more as Sarah Waters, Jane Caro, Kate Grenville and Sophie Hannah discuss the hows and whys about the women readers have grown to love, laud, obsess over and idolise — as well as address the ways in which characters and writers can help us be the heroines of our own existence.
Already home to the annual Midsumma Festival and Pride March, and soon to welcome Australia's First Pride Centre, Melbourne could also host a huge one-off pride celebration in 2021. If Victoria's Labor government is re-elected next weekend, it has pledged to host an event on par with pride celebrations in London, New York and Berlin. Dubbed Melbourne Pride 2021, the festival would take place on and around Fitzroy's Smith Street and Gertrude Street — with the area's pubs, bars and restaurants all involved in a street party held both indoors and outdoors. To be organised by tourism body Visit Victoria in consultation with LGBTQIA+ community leaders, just what else the festival will entail is yet to be revealed — although the timing is designed to mark 40 years since Victoria's state parliament decriminalised homosexuality. "By backing Melbourne's very own pride event, we're sending a clear message: here in Victoria, equality is not negotiable," said Victorian Premiere Daniel Andrews. Regional Victoria could also be set to host more LGBTQIA+ festivities, with $200,000 in funding also promised for rural pride events. Image: Midsumma Carnival, Jackson Grant.
It's Australia's annual slice of Italian cinema, and it's back for 2018 in its usual jam-packed fashion. That'd be the Italian Film Festival, which not only returns for its 19th year, but does so with a hefty touring lineup of 37 features and two short films, including 33 Australian premieres. Bookending the festival are two movies that couldn't be more timely, one delving into a media tycoon who becomes a world leader (no, not that one), and the other a stone cold horror classic that has just been remade by one of today's best Italian filmmakers. Exploring the scandals surrounding former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Loro kicks off this year's fest with an epic, nearly two-and-a-half hour drama from The Great Beauty and The Young Pope's Paolo Sorrentino. Then, at the other end of the event comes Dario Argento's original 1977 giallo masterpiece Suspiria — just weeks before the new Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson-starring version from Call Me By Your Name's Luca Guadagnino hits cinemas. Elsewhere, IFF also boasts three of the biggest Italian flicks doing the rounds of this year's international festival circuit, courtesy of Dogman, Happy as Lazzaro and Daughter of Mine. A diverse trio from a diverse range of Italian talents, the first sees Gomorrah's Matteo Garrone spin a story about a criminal who loves dogs (winning this year's Palm Dog Award at Cannes for its canine cast), the second unravels a time-bending fable from The Wonders' Alice Rohrwacher, and the third offers a devastating look at two mothers and the daughter they share courtesy of Sworn Virgin's Laura Bispuri. Other highlights range across the entire spectrum of Italian offerings — think comedies based on off-Broadway plays, such as My Big Gay Italian Wedding; underworld dramas like Boys Cry; and an amusing mystery about an inspector investigating the death of a local prosecco wine maker, as aptly called The Last Prosecco. Or, there's also detective thriller The Girl in the Fog, based on the best-selling novel and starring Italian veteran (and Loro actor) Toni Servillo; plus Italian box-office hit Couples Therapy for Cheaters, which focuses on exactly the narrative you think it does. And, looking back at cinema history as film festivals crucially do, this year's IFF retrospective will showcase the work of Italian-Turkish filmmaker Ferzan Özpetek. If his name sounds familiar, that's because he had a hand in movies such as Naples in Veils, Facing Windows and Ignorant Fairies — and if his name doesn't ring any bells, here's your chance to discover his celebrated filmography. The 2018 Italian Film Festival tours Australia between September 11 and October 24, screening at Sydney's Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinemas from September 11 to October 7; Melbourne's Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Kino Cinemas and The Astor Theatre from September 13 to October 7; and Brisbane's Palace Barracks and Palace Centro from September 19 to October 14. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
With her song and record titles — her lyrics as well — Courtney Barnett has long found the words to express how many people feel. It's a knack, talent and gift, and it's helped her rocket to Australian fame and global success within a decade of releasing her debut EP in 2012. As thoughtful and captivating documentary Anonymous Club shows, it's also something she's frequently asked about in interviews. But expressing those lines and the emotions behind them with a guitar and microphone as weapons, plus a riotous melody as armour, is different to sharing them quietly one on one. Directed by her long-time collaborator Danny Cohen, who has helmed a number of her music videos, Anonymous Club begins with this reality. Barnett can pour her heart, soul and observations about life's chaos into the tunes that've made her a household name, achieving something that few others can; when she's on the spot, however, she's as uncertain and awkward as the rest of us. Barnett's way with words and wordplay in her work, and her lack thereof elsewhere, thrums through Anonymous Club like a catchy riff. The subject doesn't fade, burrowing into the film as an earworm of a song inside a listener's head does, and feature first-timer Cohen doesn't want it to. His movie was shot over three years, starting in 2018, which places it between Barnett's second studio album and her third — and knowing that makes the phrases from their titles, and from her debut record also, echo with resonance throughout the doco. Anonymous Club could've been called Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, like its subject's first album in 2015. Tell Me How You Really Feel from 2018 would've worked as well. And, yes, Things Take Time, Take Time would've been apt, too, concluding a line of thinking that the film invites anyway — ultimately finding its moniker in a Barnett track from 2014, before all those releases. Across two tours spanning Europe, the US and Asia, plus stints in Melbourne, Anonymous Club watches Barnett sit and think, and sometimes just sit. It tasks the singer/songwriter with telling how she really feels, and shows her realising the truth that things take time. All of the above is captured on glorious 16-millimetre film and, even within a mere 83 minutes, the backstage documentary is overwhelming comprised of these ruminative, reflective moments — of snatches of Barnett's life caught as she hops between rooms that aren't her own, be it stages or green rooms or hotels or homes she's housesitting. Her thoughts and feelings come via brief chatter in front of the lens (or, more accurately, with the unseen Cohen behind it, shooting with a camera customised to record synchronised sound), and from overlaid snippets of the audio diary he asked her to keep. That's a job she tussles with — more words, more on-the-spot candour rather than deliberated-over lyrics, more struggles — but she still stuck at it for the project's duration. Frank, earnest and honest, so much of what's uttered is as revelatory as everything that Barnett has sung over the years. She confides in the fly-on-the-wall film via her Dictaphone recordings; as a result, a highly poised, posed, image-conscious portrait, this isn't. "I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about anymore. I just feel like I'm going around in circles and digging myself a deeper hole," she says at one point, and many other statements have the same tone. Jumping from America to Japan to Germany and elsewhere, life on the road gets to her. Back in Australia, life without a fixed space to call her own after spending so long touring has a similar impact. "My heart is empty, my head is empty, the page is empty," she offers, another telling statement. "It feels like I'm being part of this scripted performance of what we think we're supposed to see on stage, and it just feels really pointless," she also advises. There's raw feeling behind these words, and Cohen wouldn't have it any other way; Barnett uses her work to wittily and astutely contemplate everyday life, and he does the same with her rockstar existence in his doco. Of course, one of its insights, blatant as it proves, is how anti-rockstar the indie musician's day-to-day reality is. She gets excited about gold in her Berlin lodgings, her unassuming vibe has crowds mesmerised during her shows, and she needs prompting about lyrics when one fan asks her to sign his t-shirt with her own — but much of her days, as seen here, are a quiet, busy shuffle from place to place with swathes of downtime and alone time. Cohen and editor Ben Hall (another veteran of Barnett's videos) convey this in the movie's structure, too. The big-ticket parts of the tours — the gigs, travelling, and interviews with Jimmy Fallon and Ellen DeGeneres — whiz by, while the gap around them lingers. Anonymous Club is a music documentary, but it isn't a concert movie. It knows where Barnett's career is at, the path she took to get there and how she's regarded, but it isn't a career overview or talking head-filled tribute. It features gig footage, but largely spliced into montages instead of as whole songs played on-stage. It thoroughly avoids other chattering figures — be it fellow musicians offering their praise, experts and commentators, or friends and family — in favour of its intimate, personal, in-the-room, inner monologue-driven approach. It's a road movie, but it's about the experience of being on tour over the tour itself or the places visited. Anonymous Club is about spending time and hanging out with Barnett, and about what it's like to be Barnett; melancholy, anxiousness, claustrophobia, doubt, fears, malaise and imposter syndrome come with the territory, relatably so. Cohen isn't advising viewers that stars are people too, though. Again, this isn't that kind of message-pushing, persona-redefining doco. He makes it plain that this one figure is a person first and a famous musician second — and chronicles the process of constantly juggling and balancing the two, and the impact upon her mental health. His chosen aesthetic suits the job perfectly, playing like warm, soft, unprocessed memories, and also relishing blue shades in both pensive and hopeful moments. As its revealing journey is wrapping up, Barnett finds herself more in the second category, and has the words to explain it. "My albums won't be with me on my deathbed holding my hand," she notes. "This film will not be with us as we lie dying — but I'd like to think in the bigger scheme of things, it will live on and help other people, or inspire other people, or create some sort of conversation."
For the next three months, the Sydney Opera House will not be home to any operas, Vivid Live performances, thought-provoking talks or podcast recordings, with all public performances suspended until at least June 17. But you will be able to relive many of the highlights from its 47-year history on the Sydney icon's new digital program, 'From our House to yours'. The program will see full-length performances, talks, long-form articles, podcasts and behind-the-scenes content brought to your screens. As well as a heap of footage that's never been seen by the public before. You'll also be able to access a bunch of free content on demand, plus new videos, recordings and articles will be released daily every Wednesday through Sunday, with each week's schedule announced on Tuesday. Kicking things off was award-winning Aussie musician Missy Higgins, followed by a conversation from this year's All About Women with writer Chanel Miller about her new memoir Know My Name on Thursday; footage of last year's Dance Rites; Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9; and a recording of The Writers Room with Celia Pacqoula (Rosehaven), Josh Thomas (Please Like Me), Luke McGregor (Rosehaven) and Dan Harmon (Rick and Morty, Community). Other highlights include the premiere screening of All About Women's panel discussion with fierce journalist Clementine Ford and DJ Flex Mami; world-renowned philosopher and author Alain De Botton discussing love; culinary legend Nigella Lawson talking about the joys of home cooking;Bangarra Dance Theatre's Bennelong; and Yotam Ottolenghi discussing simple cooking with Adam Liaw. For its fifth weekly season, the Opera House is streaming a recording of WikiLeaks whistleblower and trans activist Chelsea Manning at 8pm AEST on Thursday, April 30. Part of ANTIDOTE 2018, the recording features Manning in conversation with award-winning journalist Peter Greste via satellite, direct from LA. [caption id="attachment_768842" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Prudence Upton[/caption] Then, you can catch a recording of Bach's Golberg Variations on Friday, May 1 at 8pm AEST; a never-before-seen edit featuring musicians Glen Hansard, José González, Poliç, Conor Oberst and Nai Palm at 8pm AEST on Saturday, May 2; and celebrated author Fran Lebowitz on cultural nostalgia and leading a panel on women in the age of Trump, and Tarana Burke, the US-based founder of the #MeToo movement at 3pm AEST on Sunday, May 3. Its on demand content includes an interview with British comedian, actor and musician Noel Fielding, a video on first-wave feminism, a podcast featuring intimate interviews with First Nations artists and leaders, and an article on the Opera House staff's most memorable moments. From our House to yours will run from Wednesday, April 1 till at least mid-June, 2020. Each week's schedule will be announced on Tuesday.
After introducing its cookie pies to the world earlier this year, followed by serving up an OTT red velvet one, Gelato Messina is bringing the decadent dessert back again. This time, though, it's filled with a peanut butter and jelly. Yes, it's peanut butter jelly time. Hang on, a cookie pie? Yes, it's a pie, but a pie made of cookie dough. And it serves two-to-six people — or just you. You bake it yourself, too, so you get to enjoy that oh-so-amazing smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through your kitchen. On its own, the indulgent PB&J pie will cost $20. But to sweeten the deal, the cult ice creamery has created a few bundle options, should you want some of its famed gelato atop it. You can add on a 500-millilitre tub for $28, a one-litre tub for $36 or a 1.5-litre tub for $39. If you're in NSW or Queensland, these pies are available to preorder from today, Monday, July 13 — so if you missed out last time, here's your chance to get yourself a piece of the pie — with pick up between Friday, July 17 and Sunday, July 19 from your chosen Messina store. Victorians can get their pie from Messina's Fitzroy store (no preordering necessary) or via Deliveroo right now (while stocks last). The same bundle packs are also available. Once you've got the pie safely home, you just need to whack it in the oven for 20 minutes at 170 degrees and voila. Messina's peanut butter and jelly cookie pies are available to pick up from now from the Fitzroy store (or via Deliveroo). NSW and Queensland can preorder now with pick up available from July 17–19.
In Her's almost certainly near future, Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly — a gentle, retiring man who works at BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com penning heartfelt correspondence between people he's never met. In his personal life, his wife (Rooney Mara) has left him and now communicates exclusively via their lawyers. In short, nobody really talks anymore. Then one day he buys and installs a new operating system called 'OS1' — an artificially intelligent construct that names herself, or rather itself, 'Samantha' (voiced to perfection by Scarlett Johansson). At first Samantha simply streamlines Theodore's life, triaging his emails and encouraging him to get out more, but gradually, as she evolves and learns more from their interactions, they begin to fall in love. It seems ridiculous, yes, but thanks to Spike Jonze's masterful script and direction, it never really feels it, and that's what makes HER the first must-see film of 2014. it is a beautiful, imaginative and provocative offering by Jonze that asks some fascinating questions about the direction love is taking in the technological age. Her is in cinemas on January 16, and thanks to Sony Pictures, we have ten double in-season passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email us with your name and address. Read our full review here. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=1awGTPsEmiU
It's a tradition well-known to many Australians: wake up on the weekend, make a beeline for your closest Bunnings, down a snag in bread. It's also a tradition that's been around since the 90s, and one we've been missing for four very, very long months since Bunnings postponed its sausage sizzles back in mid-March because of rising concerns around COVID-19. In good news for many (except for Victorians, sorry Victoria), the weekend ritual is about to make its long-awaited return this month. First relaunching in Tasmania and the NT this weekend, Saturday, July 11, at select stores, the charity sizzles are then set to roll out across Queensland, NSW, the ACT, SA and WA towards the end of this month. In a statement released by the Australian hardware chain, the company confirmed the sausage sizzles' return and acknowledged their importance as a fundraising tool for many Aussie charities. "We know our customers have missed being able to show their support for local community groups by stopping by the sausage sizzle and we know the important fundraising role they play for thousands of community groups across Australia," Bunnings' Chief Operating Office Deb Poole said in a statement. "So, we're really excited to be starting the process of bringing them back in places where restrictions have eased." Each year around 40,000 sausage sizzles are hosted at Bunnings stores, help raising much-needed funds for local charity groups and sporting teams. When the sausage sizzles do return, there will be social distancing and hygiene measures in place — measures we're all very used to at this point — including spaced queues, increased cleaning and separate ordering and pick-up points. Bunnings sausage sizzles are set to return in NSW, Queensland, SA, WA and the ACT later this month. We'll let you know when exact dates are announced.
Would Australians flock to Bunnings each weekend if barbecued sausages weren't there for the munching? Hopefully we'll never need to learn the answer to this very important question. Shopping for hardware, garden products and everything else the chain sells, then hitting up the onsite sausage sizzle, has long been an Aussie weekend tradition — and, from Saturday, October 16, getting the COVID-19 vaccination will also be part of the ritual at some Brisbane and Queensland stores. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced that 33 Bunnings sites will host pop-up vax clinics from this coming weekend. Getting jabbed, eating snags — if you haven't been vaccinated yet, that's now on your agenda. It's the latest move in the government's effort to get Queenslanders vaxxed, and comes just a day after Palaszczuk also announced that the state had hit the 70-percent single-dose mark. Those jabs and sausages will be on offer at the Mt Gravatt, Stafford, North Lakes, Morayfield, Brendale, Browns Plains, Underwood, Victoria Point and Bethania Bunnings stores in and around Brisbane, if you're wondering where to head from Saturday. Elsewhere across Queensland, vax clinics will set up at the brand's Oxenford, Pimpama, Nerang, Robina, Arundel and Burleigh Waters sites on the Gold Coast, and at its Maryborough, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Dalby, Airlie Beach, Kingaroy, Gladstone, Yeppoon, Rockhampton, Gympie and Plainland stores. And, Smithfield and Atherton in Cairns, three stores in Townsville and two locations in Mackay will also get vaccination pop-ups. You can get vaccinated at 33 @Bunnings Warehouse stores across Queensland this weekend 👇 pic.twitter.com/57qcuulCt4 — Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) October 12, 2021 Getting vaxxed is free, but nabbing a snag afterwards will still cost you — with Bunnings using its sausage sizzles to raise much-needed funds for local charity groups and sporting teams. Pop-up vaccination clinics will set up at 33 Bunnings stores across Brisbane and Queensland from Saturday, October 16. For further information about Australia's COVID-19 vaccine rollout, head to the Australian Government Department of Health website. For more details specific to Queensland, visit the Queensland Health website.
In the film festival space, it's one of 2020 big trends: forgoing a physical event this year and hosting online screenings instead. It's also a move that comes with an added benefit, opening up local events to a broader national audience. Sydney Film Festival has already done all of the above, and the Melbourne International Film Festival will do so come August —and, in the middle, it's Revelation Perth International Film Festival's turn. Without investing in a plane ticket and taking a trip across the country, east coast dwellers don't normally get to enjoy the west coast festival's distinctive lineup and vibe; however, thanks to its new Couched Online Film Festival, that's changing this year. Running virtually until Sunday, July 19, Couched is jam-packed with the types of titles that always make Revelation, in its in-person guise, stand out — aka the types of movies that don't often pop up elsewhere. Featuring more than 25 features, documentaries and shorts collections, the online fest's program is streaming on demand, on a pay-per-view basis, so you can pick and choose what you'd like to catch. You can also nab a pass and watch your way through everything. On the bill: Willem Dafoe grappling with existence at a the snowy bar in the out-there (and divisive at Berlinale) Siberia, the VHS-shot 80s-set throwback comedy VHYes, and magical-realist adventure Precarious. If you like films about films, look out for documentaries about Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, Czech filmmaker Milos Forman and the camp status held by 1985 horror sequel Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. Or you can watch a housewife step into making her own erotic movies in Aussie doco Morgana, explore the wild true tale of Cold Case Hammarskjöld, revel in the sounds of The Rise of the Synths, check out a few new local features and work your way through a four-film 'Black Voices that Matter' retrospective. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCYAjkwZcd0 And, if you like what Couched serves up and you're eager for a WA holiday (and the border situation around the country changes in the next few months), Revelation is actually still planning to run as normal later in the year, from December 2–13. Couched Online Film Festival runs until Sunday, July 19, with films available to view online.
When HBO managed to get the cast of Friends back on the same couch and chatting to camera about their time on the hit sitcom, the US cable network clearly found itself a new niche. That'd be big reunion specials that reteam the stars of beloved pop culture favourites to talk about their experiences — so it's going down the same route with the Harry Potter franchise. If you've been chanting "accio more Harry Potter" to yourself for the past decade since the eight-film series wrapped up, it seems that your wishes have finally come true. Like the Friends special, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts won't feature anyone in-character — but, if you're a fan, spending more time with the movies' stars still promises to be magical. There'd be no point going ahead if Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson weren't all involved, so they're definitely on the lineup. So is filmmaker Chris Columbus, who directed the franchise's first two movies. Joining them is a huge list of other actors from across the movie series' history, including Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman and Tom Felton, plus James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright, Alfred Enoch, Matthew Lewis, Evanna Lynch and Ian Hart. You'll spot some missing names — Maggie Smith and Robert Pattinson, for instance, to name just two — but clearly there'll be a whole lot of HP cast members reminiscing about their time in the wizarding world. As the special's name makes plain, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is popping up to celebrate 20 years since Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone first reached cinemas back in 2001. That said, whether you're a muggle, a wannabe wizard and witch, or someone who spent far too much of their childhood reading the books and watching the flicks, you'll actually be checking out the new special in 2022. In the US, it'll stream on January 1 on HBO Max. Viewing options Down Under haven't yet been revealed, so there's something to start trying to summon sooner rather than later. Check out the teaser trailer for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special below: HBO's Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special will be available to stream in the US on January 1, 2022 — we'll update you with viewing details Down Under when they're announced.
When A Quiet Place hit cinemas in 2018, did stellar things with its mostly dialogue-free premise and gave alien invasion films a creative spin, it quickly proved a big box office hit. That's hardly surprising; Emily Blunt (Wild Mountain Thyme) added another formidable role to her resume, John Krasinski (Detroit) did great work both in front of and behind the camera, both Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) and Noah Jupe (The Undoing) turned in excellent performances, and the entire movie made the absolute most of its silence-heavy approach and its niche in the horror genre. So, a sequel was always likely. That follow up was delayed by more than a year due to the pandemic, but A Quiet Place Part II is now finally screening in cinemas. Don't think that the story will end there, though, because a third flick is now coming. At the moment, the next film in the series doesn't have a title — but it does have a release date. Come March 30, 2023, you'll be spending more time in the franchise's eerie dystopian world, and also learning more about the folks who've been learning to survive by keeping their lips zipped as tightly as possible. And, make no mistake, this is definitely a franchise now. The next movie is a spinoff rather than a direct sequel, although exactly what its story will tell is yet to be announced. Still, our time with the Abbott family could very well be up, and the flick could find another corner of its post-apocalyptic realm to explore. One big change is definitely locked in: instead of Krasinski sitting in the director's chair, fellow filmmaker Jeff Nichols will be doing the honours. That's a great fit, at least based on much of his work to date. With 2011's Take Shelter, he followed a father struggling with apocalyptic visions and uncertain of what to do to protect his family. In 2012's Mud, he told a coming-of-age tale about two young boys and a fugitive, while 2016's Midnight Special spent time with a dad and his son as they tried to evade a cult and the government. All three are excellent, and it's easy to see how Nichols can jump from that trio — via 2016 drama Loving — to the next A Quiet Place movie. Casting details haven't yet been revealed; however, Nichols has reportedly just handed in the script for the new film. And yes, everything seems to be a franchise these days, with The Conjuring movies up to their eighth flick, Marvel still doing its thing, and everything from Bond and Fast and Furious to Star Wars and Harry Potter still unfurling new chapters — but given how well both A Quiet Place features have done at the box office so far, more films in the series were always likely to follow. Until further details about the upcoming third A Quiet Place movie are announced, check out the trailer for A Quiet Place Part II below: The currently untitled third A Quiet Place film is set to release in movie theatres Down Under on March 30, 2023. A Quiet Place Part II is screening in cinemas now — read our full review. Via Variety.
The festive season is upon us, again, which means that Christmas shopping is about to become everyone's favourite pastime. Thankfully, trawling the mall isn't your only option when it comes to finding a gift, either for your loved ones or yourself — or grabbing ingredients for a delicious meal. Returning for another year from 4–9pm on Saturday, November 20, the Carseldine Markets is hosting a twilight event brimming with the spirit of the season. Get your list ready, because all the art, craft and fresh produce stalls you know and love will be on site, just waiting to help you out of a festive fix — there's usually more than 180 of them, in fact. Prepare to tuck into festive treats, too (because you'll need to eat while you browse), as well as ample entertainment. Yes, it's a Christmas wonderland, with the decorations and carols to prove it. Warning: if you're more of a Grinch than one of Santa's elves, you'd best prepare yourself for an overdose of holiday cheer. Entry costs $2, and there's free parking onsite.
Come Monday, February 25, Australian and New Zealand time, Hollywood will crown this year's Academy Award winners; however they're not the only gongs being handed out at this time of year. On the weekend before the Oscars, it's always time for cinema's worst and dullest to earn some recognition, all thanks to the Golden Raspberry Awards. Now in their 39th year, the Razzies have unveiled their latest slate of recipients — aka the films from 2018 that you've hopefully avoided. On the list: a comic take on a couple of literary greats, an actor who's also in contention for the best actress Oscar and the current US President. Taking out worst picture is Holmes & Watson, the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly-starring supposed comedy based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous sleuthing pair. Reilly also nabbed the awards' worst supporting actor prize for his troubles, while the movie earned Etan Cohen the worst director trophy, too. And, it was further recognised as the worst remake, rip-off or sequel of 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLuFxzUC5UI In the worst actor field, Ferrell lost out to Donald Trump, who was recognised for his work, as himself, in documentaries Death of a Nation and Fahrenheit 11/9. The American leader also took out the worst screen combo category for the same two flicks, with the award noting his pairing with "his self-perpetuating pettiness". While Melissa McCarthy won worst actress for her two low points of 2018, aka The Happytime Murders and Life of the Party, she also received the Razzies' redeemer award for going "from a multi-Razzie darling to a critically acclaimed Oscar Nominee for her out-of-caricature role in Can You Ever Forgive Me?". And, bringing the franchise's Razzie total to eight trophies across three movies, Fifty Shades Freed was anointed the worst screenplay of the last 12 months. GOLDEN RASPBERRY NOMINEES AND WINNERS 2019 WORST PICTURE Holmes & Watson Gotti The Happytime Murders Robin Hood Winchester WORST ACTOR Donald J. Trump (as himself) in Death of a Nation and Fahrenheit 11/9 Johnny Depp (voice only) in Sherlock Gnomes Will Ferrell in Holmes & Watson John Travolta in Gotti Bruce Willis in Death Wish WORST ACTRESS Melissa McCarthy in The Happytime Murders and Life of the Party Jennifer Garner in Peppermint Amber Heard in London Fields Helen Mirren in Winchester Amanda Seyfried in The Clapper WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR John C. Reilly in Holmes & Watson Jamie Foxx in Robin Hood Ludacris (voice only) in Show Dogs Joel McHale in The Happytime Murders Justice Smith in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Kellyanne Conway (as herself) in Fahrenheit 11/9 Marcia Gay Harden in Fifty Shades Freed Kelly Preston in Gotti Jaz Sinclair in Slender Man Melania Trump (as herself) in Fahrenheit 11/9 WORST SCREEN COMBO Donald J. Trump and his self-perpetuating pettiness in Death of a Nation and Fahrenheit 11/9 Any two actors or puppets (especially in those creepy sex scenes) in The Happytime Murders Johnny Depp and his fast-fading film career (he's doing voices for cartoons, fer kripesakes!) in Sherlock Gnomes Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly (trashing two of literature's most beloved characters) in Holmes & Watson Kelly Preston and John Travolta (getting Battlefield Earth-type reviews) in Gotti WORST DIRECTOR Etan Cohen for Holmes & Watson Kevin Connolly for Gotti James Foley for Fifty Shades Freed Brian Henson for The Happytime Murders The Spierig Brothers (Michael and Peter) for Winchester WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL Holmes & Watson Death of a Nation (remake of Hillary's America...) Death Wish The Meg (rip-off of Jaws) Robin Hood WORST SCREENPLAY Fifty Shades Freed, screenplay by Niall Leonard, from the novel by E.L. James Death of a Nation, written by Dinesh D'Souza and Bruce Schooley Gotti, screenplay by Leo Rossi and Lem Dobbs The Happytime Murders, screenplay by Todd Berger, story by Berger and Dee Austin Robinson Winchester, written by Tom Vaughan and The Spierig Brothers RAZZIE REDEEMER AWARD Actress: Melissa McCarthy, who went from a multi-Razzie darling to a critically acclaimed Oscar Nominee for her out-of-caricature role in Can You Ever Forgive Me?. Actor: Tyler Perry, from a multi-Razzie nominee and winner for his self-imposed Madea trap to his role as Colin Powell in the Oscar and Golden Globe favourite Vice. Director: Peter Farrelly from Razzie Winner for Movie 43 and more shallow choices like Dumb and Dumber 2 etc… to director/co-writer of the deeply heartfelt Green Book. Franchise: From the Razzie-targeted heap of metal Transformers to the more innocent and endearing three-dimensional approach taken with Bumblebee. Sony Animation Studio from crass multi-Razzie winner Emoji Movie to the highly acclaimed Spider Man Into The Spider-Verse, which was loved by critics and audiences alike.
A great bar isn't just about the tap count, but that figure can be a sign of a more-the-merrier situation for beer lovers. When the number is hefty, usually so are your drinks choices, including trying tipples that you mightn't have had a chance to otherwise. So when a 120-tap bar awaits, it really is a case of imagining the possibilities. The Great Australasian Beer Spectapular, aka GABS, loves getting creative with beers — and loves letting attendees at its annual festivals sip and sample over 100 different varieties each year. In 2025, when the fest returns to Brisbane in May, it'll set up that 120-tap bar, all in a straight line. Exactly 100 of those taps will pour beers, and the weirder and wilder the flavours, the better. The other 20 will feature spirits, cocktails and other beverages. For many of the brews on offer at GABS, this is either the first time or the only place that you can taste them. Think: sushi beer, cookie stouts and lollipop sours, which have featured in the past. Think of a foodstuff — peanut butter, coffee, earl grey tea, chicken salt, pizza, fairy floss, bubblegum, doughnuts, red frogs and sour gummy bears, for instance — and there's likely been a brew made to taste exactly the same at GABS. This year, GABS is hosting two-day fests, including at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from Friday, May 23–Saturday, May 24. If you're a newcomer to GABS, it started off as a Melbourne-only celebration of ales, lagers, ciders and more. Then it began spreading along Australia's east coast capitals, as well as to New Zealand. The event surveys both Australian and New Zealand breweries, plus sometimes some guests from further afield — Schlenkerla and Weihenstephan, both from Germany, are the first names on the list in 2025 — with more than 60 normally showcasing their wares annually. Also on the bill: other tipples, including non-alcoholic beers, seltzers, whiskey, gin, cocktails and wines. GABS is known for dishing up a hefty lineup of activities to accompanying all that sipping, too, which usually spans a silent disco, roaming bands, circus and sideshow performers, games and panels with industry leaders, plus local food trucks and vendors to line your stomach. And you might just find a ferris wheel or a mullet bar — yes, dispensing the haircuts — as well, as they've popped up in the past.
When Midnight Special starts, TV news reports splash Roy Tomlin's (Michael Shannon) face across the screen. He's wanted for kidnapping eight-year-old Alton Meyer (Jaeden Lieberher), with the film swiftly showing him and his accomplice Lucas (Joel Edgerton) holed up in a motel with the kid. They're about to leave, but when Roy picks up the goggle-wearing Alton to carry him outside, the boy clings to him lovingly. That's not typical abductor-captive behaviour — and this isn't your typical film. A host of questions spring up, as audiences find themselves asking who, why and what's really going on. A cult leader (Sam Shepard) gives two men four days to find Alton shortly before FBI agents interrupt his evening sermon. By the time beams of light shine from Alton's eyes, and a storm of fiery space debris showers down upon him, it's clear we're in entirely uncharted territory. That's by design. Midnight Special asks its characters and viewers alike to wonder, but refuses to flesh out too many details or offer up easy solutions. Indeed, as filmmaker Jeff Nichols tells Roy and Alton's tale — tracking their drive through America's south, picking up Alton's mother (Kirsten Dunst) along the way, and attracting the attention of NSA officer Paul Sevier (Adam Driver) — he seems to have stolen Fox Mulder's catchphrase. He wants to believe, or, more accurately, he wants to tell tales about people who place their faith in something, in the hope that audiences will too. His three previous features may appear a diverse bunch; however 2007's Shotgun Stories, 2011's Take Shelter and 2012's Mud all focused on figures who chose to trust in a force other than themselves, be it vengeance, apocalyptic dreams or the power of love. Now, with Midnight Special, he veers into science-fiction to explore the conviction that comes from a parent's bond with their child. It's an ambitious task, but if anyone is up to it, it's Nichols. With a command of visual and emotional storytelling, he crafts a film that's a road movie, chase thriller, intimate drama and otherworldly adventure all in one, yet remains united in tone and mood. Everything from the cinematography to the evocative score feels heartfelt and mysterious. And then there's the pitch-perfect performances, particularly from the filmmaker's continued main man Shannon, who provides yet another quietly haunting portrayal. Of course, Nichols' latest offering doesn't just follow in his own footsteps, even though he's clearly carving out his own niche. Courtesy of its supernatural narrative, it also conjures up thoughts of '70s and '80s sci-fi fare. Think John Carpenter's Starman and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. A lingering sense of awe emanates from not only the writer-director's material, but from the genre greats that inspire him. It's no surprise that the movie that results proves as enigmatic as it is enchanting, delivering Nichols' fourth knockout in a row.
If seeing one waterfall in a day isn't enough, head to the highlands to experience the beauty of the Atherton Tablelands waterfall circuit. With a bunch of tumbling waterfalls and vast crater lakes to explore, the trip up the mountain range to these rainforest delights is essential Tropical North Queensland travel. Take the Gillies Highway from Cairns to Crater Lakes National Park to dive into Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham. Unlike their explosive origins, these water-filled volcanic craters are ideal for a serene morning float. Next, drive to the nearby town of Millaa Millaa to find out why its eponymously named falls are one of the most photographed cascades in the country. Have a soak in the swimming hole at the base of Millaa Millaa Falls or get underneath its 18-metre drop to have your very own rainforest shower. And, if more waterfall action is what your heart desires, visit nearby Zillie Falls and Ellinjaa Falls to round out the circuit.
If you've ever wanted to enjoy a beverage in a speakeasy, pretend you're drinking bootlegged liquor, or get glammed up 1920s style, you're about to get your chance. Welcome to Prohibition Brisbane, the venue that brings the fun of almost a century ago to Fortitude Valley's nightlife district. It's a theme the underground haunt takes seriously, as its grand arrival space, complete with moving ceiling, makes clear. Inside the 1100 square metre warehouse, three separate basement spaces — the main hall, a speakeasy-style bar and an exclusive VIP lounge — evoke times gone by via earthy tones and aged finishes. Need proof beyond the fancy decor? It's all in the drinks list. The hard stuff reigns supreme, of course, as Prohibition's packed bar shelves prove. For those fond of shaken or stirred concoctions, the extensive cocktail range mixes time-honoured tipples that date back to the '20s with brand new house originals. Twists on classics are a highlight, including 'The Peach and Passionfruit Rickey' and the 'Du Pont Daiquiri'. Once the place starts pumping over the next few months, expect it to feature a lineup of international DJs and play host to a variety of other events and concert afterparties. For now, you can share in Prohibition's grand opening on July 3 and 4, or grab a sneak peek in advance by keeping an eye on their Facebook page. Find Prohibition at 206 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley from July 3, or visit their website. View all Brisbane Bars.
Some movies sport monikers so out of sync with their contents that someone really should've had a rethink before they reached screens. Uncharted is one of them, but it was never going to switch its name. The action-adventure flick comes to cinemas following a decade and a half of trying, after the first Uncharted video game reached consoles in 2007 and the journey to turning it into a movie began the year after. Accordingly, this Tom Holland (Spider-Man: No Way Home)- and Mark Wahlberg (Joe Bell)-starring film was fated to keep its franchise's title, which references its globe-trotting, treasure hunting, dark passageway-crawling, dusty map-coveting storyline. But unexplored, unfamiliar and undiscovered, this terrain definitely isn't — as four Indiana Jones films to-date, two National Treasure flicks, three Tomb Raider movies, 80s duo Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile, and theme park ride-to-screen adaptation Jungle Cruise have already demonstrated. Uncharted mightn't live up to its label, but it is something perhaps unanticipated given its lengthy production history — a past that's seen six other filmmakers set to direct it before the Zombieland movies' Ruben Fleischer actually did the honours, plenty of screenwriters come and go, and Wahlberg once floated to play the saga's hero Nathan Drake rather than the mentor role of Victor Sullivan he has now. That surprise? Uncharted is fine enough, which might be the best likely possible outcome that anyone involved could've hoped for. It's almost ridiculously generic, and it sails in the Pirates of the Caribbean flicks' slipstream as well, while also cribbing from The Mummy, Jumanji and even the Ocean's films. Indeed, it borrows from other movies as liberally as most of its characters pilfer in their daily lives, even nodding towards all things Fast and Furious. It's no worse than the most generic of its predecessors, though — which isn't the same as striking big-screen gold, but is still passable. The reasons that Uncharted just hits the barest of marks it needs to are simple and straightforward: it benefits from Holland's charms, its climax is a glorious action-film spectacle, and it doesn't ever attempt to be anything it's not (although reading a statement of intent into the latter would be being too generous). It also zips through its 116-minute running time, knowing that lingering too long in any one spot wouldn't serve it well — and it's as good as it was going to be given the evident lack of effort to be something more. While you can't make a great movie out of these very minor wins, they're all still noticeable pointers in an okay-enough direction. Getting audiences puzzling along with it, delivering narrative surprises even to viewers wholly unfamiliar with the games, asking Wahlberg to do anything more than his familiar tough-guy schtick, making the most of the bulk of its setpieces, providing the product of more than just-competent direction: alas, none of these turn out. In a film that acts as a prequel to its button-mashing counterparts, Holland plays Drake as a 20-something with brother issues, a vast knowledge of cocktail histories that's handy for his bartending gig, an obsession with 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and the gold he might've hidden, and very light fingers. Nate's elder sibling dipped out of his life after the pair were caught trying to steal a Magellan map as orphanage-dwelling kids, in fact, which Sully uses to his advantage when he first crosses his path in a New York bar — and, after some convincing, Nate has soon signed up to finish the quest he's been dreaming about since childhood. Naturally, this newly formed duo aren't the only ones on the Magellan treasure's trail. The wealthy Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard) is descended from the explorer's original financiers and boasts a hefty sense of entitlement, while knife-wielding mercenary Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle, You) and enterprising fortune-hunter Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali, India Sweets and Spices) are each chasing a windfall. It's telling — and farcically blatant — that Uncharted begins with Nate hanging upside down. He's suspended from a train of freight trailing out of a plane, but the visual message is instant and obvious: yes, Holland also plays Spider-Man. Actually, the film doesn't ever ask him to stretch his talents beyond everything he's already immensely famous for, going for a 'Peter Parker, but make him a thief with a heart of gold' setup. Still, he's as entertaining and charismatic as the part demands, and lifts the routine script by The Wheel of Time's Rafe Lee Judkins and Men in Black: International duo Art Marcum and Matt Holloway purely by his presence. Holland hasn't had a great time of late beyond the Marvel web, with the also long-troubled Chaos Walking proving flat-out awful, and Cherry failing to set streaming alight; however, if Uncharted leaves a lasting imprint, it's wondering how much better its star could fare with if he had more than a by-the-numbers screenplay to work with. A worthy lead, underperforming material, a general unwillingness to take any risks: that's a problem that's plagued too many movies about too many connect-the-dots treasure hunts well before now. Thankfully, Uncharted's eagerness to just get on with its story helps significantly — breezing by rather than loitering on its chest of illogical twists and turns, and, Wahlberg aside, never giving its one-note supporting characters too much of the spotlight. Also, when that aforementioned eye-catching finale arrives and puts the whole archaeology-meets-swashbuckling idea to nice use, the picture almost justifies its existence. X doesn't ever quite mark the spot with Uncharted, and the history of bringing video games to the movies still sinks more often than it swims, but there's just enough that gleams here to be watchable. It's a film with a few shiny coins in its bag, rather than a whole bar, cavern or ship of riches.
