Isabella Rossellini is coming to Australia, dressing as a praying mantis and talking about sex. Set to perform her critically acclaimed, one-woman show Green Porno, Rossellini will hit Australian shores in March with her hilarious take on the fascinating sexual habits of land and marine animals. The playful stage show, based upon Rossellini's short film series and subsequent book of the same name kookily exploring mating in the natural world, will first premier in Los Angeles this November. The screen icon — who is currently studying animal behaviour at Hunter College in New York — says that she's always been interested in animal behaviour: "...and I certainly know a lot of people that are interested I sex. So here you have the three elements that make the core concept of Green Porn." The show first originated in 2008, when Robert Redford asked the Italian actress to create short, environmental films for his Sundance TV Channel. Rossellini then wrote the stage production, alongside Jean-Claude Carrier —well-known author, actor, opera librettist and director. Expect a mix of live performance along with some of Rossellini's short films. The actress dresses up in a variety of ridiculous insect and sea-creature costumes, while providing a storyline that is completely scientifically accurate. Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno is on Monday, March 24, at the Brisbane Concert Hall, and we have two double passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au with your name and address. https://youtube.com/watch?v=BckqviVaWl0
As one big HBO series came to an end, another signalled its return, with the US cable network dropping the first trailer for Westworld's third season during the Game of Thrones finale. Say goodbye to dragons, fighting over a fancy chair and living in a medieval-looking fantasy realm, and hello to robots, flying cars and stepping outside of everyone's favourite futuristic amusement park. Say hello to Aaron Paul, too, with the Breaking Bad actor not only joining Westworld for the next batch of episodes, but also starring in the initial trailer. His new character was promised a better world, but this dream hasn't come true, so he's now searching for something real. Given how Blade Runner-esque everything is around him, he's probably channelling Jesse Pinkman and exclaiming "yeah, science!" more than once, too (at least internally). As the teaser makes plain, this season steps beyond the confines of the titular amusement park and into the world around it. That's as far as it goes, plot-wise, for the moment, but it's still revealing. While the show has always been futuristic, with its Old West-themed attraction featuring robots who are virtually indistinguishable from normal people, the third season appears to be dialling the sci-fi — and accompanying technology — up a few notches. Here, robots actually look like robots, except when Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores pops up. Now, the bad news: although Westworld's second season aired in 2018, the third season won't hit until 2020. HBO hasn't announced an exact airdate as yet, so watch this space. If a year seems like a long time between android dramas, remember that the first season of the show arrived 43 years after the Michael Crichton-directed movie that it's based on, and 40 years after the film's sequel Futureworld. If you haven't done so already, both are worth viewing while you're waiting for the TV series to return. Check out the first trailer for Westworld's third season below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deSUQ7mZfWk Westworld's third season will air in 2020. We'll keep you updated with an exact airdate when it comes to hand.
It's been a tough few weeks for Brisbane in general — and for Windsor's Sunny Side Sandwiches in particular. When floods swept through parts of the city at the end of February and beginning of March, the sandwich spot was inundated, with water levels reaching 1.2 metres inside its Newmarket Road store. Sunny Side only opened back in November 2021, and saw its new shopfit, equipment and thousands of dollars worth of stock washed away. As a result, it's in need of sando-loving Brisbanites' help. Forget your usual at-home brekkie or brunch go-to for the next two weeks, because you can assist Sunny Side with getting back on its feet one breakfast sandwich, egg salad sandwich, and bacon and egg roll at a time. From Friday, March 11–Sunday, March 27, Sunny Side will be popping up at Broken Hearts Burger Club Ashgrove — at 161 Waterworks Road — to keep trading while its store is being rebuilt. Stop by from 7–11am daily (with last orders at 10.50am) to start your day with something tasty and a great deed. And, to make things easier, you can also order from its pop-up menu — which includes beef and picks, plus orange juice, too — online at Sunny Side's website. Plus, it's doing delivery via Uber Eats, DoorDash and Menulog.
UPDATE, March 4, 2022: Crimson Peak is available to stream via Netflix, Stan, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. "Beware of Crimson Peak," an eerie voice warns Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska). Thankfully, audiences need not heed the same warning. The gothic offering that shares its name with a crumbling mansion atop clay-filled heights is a dark delight that haunts with its unsettling mood and enchants with exquisite imagery. Coming from the mind of Guillermo del Toro, that shouldn't be surprising. In the writer/director's ninth and latest feature, as co-written with Don't Be Afraid of the Dark's Matthew Robbins, he dives further into all things scary and sublimely staged than he perhaps has before — and that's with the likes of vampire fare Cronos, ghost tale The Devil's Backbone and spellbinding fantasy Pan's Labyrinth on his resume. His protagonist, Edith, finds her way to the titular locale courtesy of tragedy and romance. In late 19th-century New York, British baronet Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) sweeps the aspiring author off her feet, much to the disapproval of her wealthy industrialist father, Carter (Jim Beaver). Kindly childhood pal, the smitten Dr Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam), also looks on in dismay, with neither the charming Thomas nor his terse sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) warmly welcomed. When Edith accompanies the siblings to their dilapidated home, only to be met by sinister happenings, their secrets start to be revealed. Crimson Peak is the type of slow-building, richly evocative effort that feels torn from the pages of literature, as it is designed to. That the dialogue namechecks Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and Arthur Conan Doyle gives a firm indication of the balance of elements del Toro aims for, combining romance, horror and mystery. Make no mistake, though, the movie is more than just the sum of his influences. From the atmospheric unease to the heaving themes of love and loss to the overt sensation of yearning, there's never any doubt that is del Toro's film through and through. He inspires an unrelenting sense of tension that bursts forward whenever something untoward graces the feature's frames, but never subsides even in quieter moments. He also conjures the type of devastating detail that demands to be seen on a big screen. Whether transitioning between scenes with iris wipes, looking down on snowy ground laced with scarlet footsteps, watching colour-coded ghostly entities peer around corners or enjoying a fast-paced waltz with a flickering candle in hand, the movie is a sight to behold. With Crimson Peak such an effective exercise in tone, texture and aesthetics, it certainly proves a relief that the story does more simply justify its look and feel, and that the cast do more than wander through sumptuous surroundings. The deep red hue of the film's name references both the blood that flies freely as well as the focus on the luminous Wasikowska and the enjoyably unnerving Chastain, resulting in an effort where jump scares are modest, surprises few and the characters' inner workings made apparent from the outset, yet emotions run as deep as narrative intrigue, and attention never wavers. Pacific Rim this ain't. Del Toro is at home once again making sensually charged, period-set, haunted house fare. Intimate and intricate in the best possible ways, Crimson Peak is something sumptuous, spooky and gorgeously gothic to savour — as is superbly complex leading man Hiddleston, who almost anyone would follow into such creepy surroundings.
Not content with opening its first-ever Down Under venue in Brisbane back in 2019, which also doubles as its Australian base, Scottish craft beer behemoth BrewDog is now going one better. Come 12pm on Friday, November 11, the booze-loving company will also launch its second Aussie spot in the Sunshine State capital — courtesy of a three-level beer bar in Fortitude Valley. The brand's OG Murarrie location in Brisbane's east was always meant to be its debut step on the path to more Aussie outposts; however, we all know what's gotten in the way since then. Now, BrewDog is going full steam ahead on its expansion plans, including teaming up with Australian Venue Co to set up bars around the country, with sites on the way in Melbourne and Sydney. But welcoming beer lovers into its second Brissie venue is happening first. As initially revealed midyear, Brisbanites keen on a BrewDog beer in a BrewDog bar will now be able to pick between two locations. That said, BrewDog's Head of Australian Operations Calvin McDonald doesn't expect that it'll be a difficult choice. He loves the OG Brissie venue and is excited about the new Valley watering hole — but he also thinks that the Murarrie spot will continue to draw in eastsiders, while the new Brunswick Street digs will appeal to everyone else. Folks keen on checking on BrewDog's Valley home will find it in the heritage-listed Tranberg House building across the road from the Valley Metro complex, nestling into all three levels, all with their own bars pouring brews from 20 taps each. On the entry level — from Brunswick Street — beer lovers will find a space that caters to 115–120 people, while the big drawcard is the beer hall-style lower-ground floor that'll fit around 120 folks as well. Then, up on the top storey, patrons will find two six-metre-long shuffleboard tables, as well as a space that'll be able to be used for functions. Brews and food-wise, BrewDog will keep doing what its doing — pouring its own beers, celebrating other local brewers, and sticking with a pub grub-heavy menu that spans pizzas, burgers, vegan eats and the like. That includes serving up a 50-percent plant-based culinary lineup, complete with two-four-one vegan meals on Mondays, and doing $25 all-you-can-eat wings on Wednesdays. Also, to mark the Fortitude Valley bar's opening, BrewDog is also giving the first 200 customers through the doors from 12pm on launch day the chance to win a year's worth of beer. If a new bar wasn't reason enough to say cheers, surely that is. Find BrewDog Fortitude Valley at Tranberg House, 235 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, from 12pm on Friday, November 11 — open afterwards from 11am–12am Thursday–Saturday and 11am–10pm Sunday–Wednesday. Images: Markus Ravik.
Streaming platforms and superheroes are modern life's new certainties, with instances of both continuing to pop up all over the place. When Disney launches its own next big venture, the two will combine, giving a number of Marvel's big-screen characters their own small-screen series. As reported by Variety, Marvel is apparently planning a number of limited-run shows based on its popular Marvel Cinematic Universe figures, with Tom Hiddleston's Loki and Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch named as the likely first candidates. Each series is expected to run for six to eight episodes, and the strategy will focus on characters that haven't yet received their own standalone movies — and don't have any in the works. That means that we won't be seeing any dedicated shows about Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Captain Marvel or Black Widow; however there are plenty of others that fit the bill. While no other names have been floated, War Machine, Hawkeye, Falcon, Quicksilver, Bucky Barnes, Valkyrie and Killmonger all meet the criteria, for starters — and, if you forget about the Edward Norton-starring The Incredible Hulk (which is easily done) before Mark Ruffalo took over the part, then the Hulk could also fit at a stretch. Taking a figure from one of its films and spinning a series around them is an approach that Marvel took with Agent Carter, based on Hayley Atwell's character from Captain America: The First Avenger, so it's hardly new or surprising. Like that two-series program, the plan seems to be for actors from Marvel's movies to reprise their roles for the streaming service. Disney hasn't even announced a specific launch date for its streaming platform — although it's expected to become available late next year — so this really is a watch-this-space kind of situation. Still, between the long-running Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the company's six different Netflix series and a few other TV titles, the company has shown that it likes putting the MCU on the small screen as much as the big. Disney's streaming platform will also boast a $100 million Star Wars series from The Jungle Book, Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau, a High School Musical TV series, another show based on Monsters, Inc. and a live-action Lady and the Tramp movie. Via Variety. Image: Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War. Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Photo: Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2018.
The transfixing terrain of Mads Mikkelsen's face has been cast against formidably frosty and inhospitable climes before, weathering mirroring weathering. Sporting a piercing and determined glint in his eye, the Danish acting great has previously surveyed the Scandinavian landscape, too, seeing possibility where others spot peril. It was true in Arctic, in Valhalla Rising and now in The Promised Land: there's no stare as mesmerisingly resolute as his. When Ludvig Kahlen, Mikkelsen's latest character, insists that he can do what no one else has done — to begin with: settling the heath on the heather-covered Jutland moorland and building a colony for the king, a feat considered virtually impossible in the mid-18th century — doubting him isn't a possibility for anyone in the movie's audience. The BAFTA-nominated Another Round star has danced in historical drama territory for his countryman director Nikolaj Arcel in the past as well, with the pair reteaming after 2012's Oscar-nominated A Royal Affair. A different king sits on the throne in this film, Frederick V instead of Christian VII; however, the regal shadow remains inescapable. This time, Mikkelsen and Arcel tell not of a doctor influencing a monarch and a country, but of a soldier aligning his quest for a better future with a sovereign's wish, and learning what it means to chase a dream only to realise that you need something less tangible. Kahlen's attempt to farm land considered barren is equally a battle against entitlement and arrogance thanks to his clash with Frederik de Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg, Borgen), a cruel local magistrate who contends that the king's land is his own — and feels far enough away from Copenhagen for there not to be any consequences for his claim. A survivalist story, an underdog tale, an eat-the-rich narrative, a fierce repudiation of ill-earned senses of superiority, a journey of discovery: they all fertilise this potent Nordic picture, as do all of the hallmarks of a western. Jutland provides the plains. Kahlen and de Schinkel tussle over their conquering — one with what's best for the community in mind, the other only seeking their own power and glory. Based on Ida Jessen's 2020 book The Captain and Ann Barbara, The Promised Land isn't so simplistic as to make Kahlen the portrait of selflessness. Indeed, this isn't a naive film for a second. Instead, even with renown also on the line for its protagonist, it spies the vast chasm between the illegitimate son of a landowner and a servant who toiled in the military for 25 years to receive the title of captain and is now willing to keep scrapping to secure his lot in life, and the born-to-money and -means pomposity lorded over everyone in reach by someone that knows nothing of hard work, struggle and duty, and only of selfishly getting their own way. (Bastarden aka The Bastard is the movie's original Danish-language moniker.) The year is 1755 when Kahlen petitions Frederick V for the right to make what he can of the moors, a request only granted by the royal underlings because they think that the task is unattainable but it'll appease the king that an effort is being made. On the land itself, doubt also reigns supreme. Only the resident clergyman (Gustav Lindh, The Northman) shows any faith in Kahlen's mission. Finding workers to assist is also virtually impossible due to de Schinkel, who has the county cloaked in fear and its peasants indentured on his own turf. It's illegal for anyone to take on those who have fled the tyrant, but in the married Johannes (Morten Hee Andersen, Carmen Curlers) and Ann Barbara (Amanda Collin, Raised by Wolves), Kahlen takes a chance anyway. While it's also forbidden to enlist the Romani people, who first send the young Anmai Mus (debutant Melina Hagberg) to get pilfering on Kahlen's patch, that's another gambit soon made. Arcel has much to dig through in Anders Thomas Jensen's latest screenplay to star Mikkelsen — see also: Flickering Lights, Adam's Apples, After the Wedding, The Salvation, Men & Chicken and Riders of Justice — especially as de Schinkel keeps throwing his weight around as egotistical manchildren do, and as the ways in which exploitation, classism and racism shape the societal status quo push to the fore. With Kahlen, including as he gets caught between his new nemesis and the latter's Norwegian cousin Edel Helene (Kristine Kujath Thorp, Sick of Myself), the filmmaker makes a crucial storytelling choice, though: rarely peering far away from either Mikkelsen or the Danish scenery. Westerns fix their eyes on faces and frontiers because they're each sights that can unfurl an entire history in a mere look; in this feature's majestic imagery, which spans sweeping vistas and soulful close-ups alike, nothing says more than intently scrutinising its star and his surroundings. As classical as The Promised Land feels in an old-school, they-don't-often-make-them-like-this-anymore fashion — and with the route there proving more of a surprise than the destination as well — there's a slipperiness to Mikkelsen's involvement, too, thanks to a career spent playing everything from Bond antagonists and Hannibal Lecter to The Hunt's persecuted teacher. Even in a film with a clear villain that isn't his character, he isn't in the business of painting solely in black and white. In fact, nor should he when Kahlen can be stubborn, stern, beyond stoic, and quick to cast others aside in the name of settling the hearth and taking potato farming nearly as seriously as in The Martian at almost any cost. Absolutely nothing is formulaic about the feeling and complexity that Mikkelsen brings to a role, including this, one of his best performances — and again and again, he gives the screen the epitome of what a layered and complicated portrayal should be. With Collin and scene-stealing first-timer Hagberg especially, The Promised Land's lead has excellent on-screen company. In smaller but no less pivotal parts, each conveys perseverance and strength to match Kahlen's, as tinted with the added weight of being women, peasants and Romani in a time and place with no care for any of the above. This film's main trio, its makeshift family, inhabit an existence where little sprouts for those beyond the one percent that isn't tended to fastidiously, furiously and like their very being depended upon it. Among its many highlights, stepping reflecting the present bears plenty of fruit for this grand and gripping picture.
A Star Is Born has already graced the titles of four different films, and Licorice Pizza isn't one of them. Paul Thomas Anderson's ninth feature, and his loosest since Boogie Nights — his lightest since ever, too — does boast a memorable Bradley Cooper performance, though. That said, this 70s- and San Fernando Valley-set delight isn't quite about seeking fame, then navigating its joys and pitfalls, although child actors and Hollywood's ebbs and flows all figure into the narrative. Licorice Pizza definitely births two new on-screen talents, however, both putting in two of 2021's best performances and two of the finest-ever movie debuts. That's evident from the film's very first sublimely grainy 35-millimetre-shot moments, as Alana Haim of Haim (who PTA has directed several music videos for) and Cooper Hoffman (son of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, a PTA regular) do little more than chat, stroll and charm. The radiant Haim plays Alana Kane, a Valley dweller of 25 or 28 (her story changes) working as a photographer's assistant, which brings her to a Tarzana high school on yearbook picture day. Enter the smoothly assured Hoffman as 15-year-old Gary Valentine, who is instantly smitten and tries to wrangle a date. Alana is dismissive with a spikiness that speaks volumes about how she handles herself (a later scene, where she yells "fuck off, teenagers!" to kids in her way, is similarly revealing). But Gary keeps persisting, inviting her to the real-life Tail o' the Cock, a fine diner he claims to visit regularly. In a gliding ride of a walk-and-talk sequence that's shot like a dream, Alana says no, yet she's also still intrigued. As a smile at the end of their first encounter betrays, Alana was always going to show up, even against her better judgement (and even as she firmly establishes that they aren't a couple). Her demeanour doesn't soften as Gary interrogates her like he's a dad greeting a daughter's beau — a gag Anderson mirrors later when Alana takes another ex-child actor, Lance (Skyler Gisondo, Santa Clarita Diet), home to meet her mother, father and two sisters (all played by the rest of the Haims, parents included) and he's questioned in the same manner. That family dinner arises after Gary enlists the new object of his affection to chaperone him on a trip to New York, where he's featuring with Lance in a live reunion for one of their flicks. Upon returning to Los Angeles, Gary is heartbroken to see Alana with Lance, but all roads keep leading her back to him anyway. Charting Alana and Gary's friendship as it circles and swirls, and they often sprint towards each other — and chronicling everything else going on in the San Fernando Valley, where PTA himself grew up — Licorice Pizza is a shaggy slice-of-life film in multiple ways. Spinning a narrative that Anderson penned partly based on stories shared by Gary Goetzman, an ex-child talent turned frequent producer of Tom Hanks movies, it saunters along leisurely like it's just stepped out of the 70s itself, and also sports that anything-can-happen vibe that comes with youth. It's a portrait of a time, before mobile phones and the internet, when you had to either talk on a landline or meet up in person to make plans, and when just following where the day took you was the status quo. It captures a canny mix of adolescence and arrested development, too; teen exuberance springs from the always-hustling Gary, while treading water is both an apt description of Alana's connection with her would-be paramour and a state she's acutely aware of. Set to a soundtrack that bounces between Paul McCartney and Wings, Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman, and David Bowie ('Life on Mars' is put to transcendent use), it all breezes about like a relaxed 1973 summer, but plenty fills Alana and Gary's time and PTA's glorious feature. Gary auditions for TV ads, runs a PR firm with his mum (Mary Elizabeth Ellis, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and opens a waterbed business. Alana becomes his partner in the latter, meets with his agent (Harriet Sansom Harris, Atlantic Crossing), catches the attention of a Hollywood veteran modelled on William Holden (Sean Penn, The First) and volunteers for Joel Wachs' (Benny Safdie, Pieces of a Woman) mayoral campaign. As a backdrop to the pair's exploits, Richard Nixon implores Americans to use less petrol, and as the gas crisis kicks in. And when Cooper pops up, it's as Barbra Streisand's fiery then-boyfriend Jon Peters, who isn't impressed with his waterbed delivery. Cue one of Haim's most stunning moments, driving a truck after the drop-off, where she conveys more with her face and posture than words could ever express. As the film's two starriest vignettes make plain — plus another incident involving a not-quite-Lucille Ball (aka Lucy Doolittle, played by Search Party's Christine Ebersole) — Anderson is happy to both nod to and toy with reality. Licorice Pizza is firmly fiction, despite riffing on Goetzman's experiences, but it's also gleefully cognisant of how nostalgia for one's teenage and twenty-something adventures can feel slippery, starry-eyed and surreal. It'd make a great double with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for exactly that atmosphere, although it'd also pair well with PTA's Boogie Nights, his woozily romantic Punch-Drunk Love and his daylight noir Inherent Vice. Alas, it does also include pointless scenes with a restaurant owner (John Michael Higgins, Saved by the Bell) who speaks to his Japanese wives (New Bear Tours' Yumi Mizui and Good Girls' Megumi Anjo), plural, in a caricature of an accent — calling out what passed for acceptable in the 70s, but also landing flatly and clunkily. Nothing else in Licorice Pizza could be described as gawky — not even Gary's posse of pals, who are rarely far from his side — or as anything less than effervescent. This marvellous coming-of-age comedy is as masterfully made as all of Anderson's work, and yet also far roomier than the likes of There Will Be Blood, The Master and Phantom Thread; as he showed with Inherent Vice, he can be meticulous and freewheeling at once. Licorice Pizza wouldn't be the film it is without either Haim or Hoffman, though, who PTA peers at devotedly, including in closeups, as frequently as he can (he's also one of the movie's two cinematographers). With Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood providing the score once again, he adores nothing more than seeing them run towards each other — figuratively and literally, blue daylight skies blazing and purple twilight hues twinkling behind them — and he makes everyone watching savour every slice.
"And now you want to be my friend on Facebook? Are you fucking kidding me?" The gal who brought us the anthem to sing at exes attempting to Facebook stalk us is releasing her latest album (album number four) on March 14 and heading on tour. She'll be singing 'Lose my shit', 'Ghost' (featuring Megan Washington) and other new tunes and hitting notes that most of us could only ever dream of. O Vertigo is Kate Miller-Heidke's first independently released album. And how did she make it happen? Crowdfunding. That's one way of getting around it. She hit her target three days after launching the campaign, and some of the lucky donators will be getting a Happy Birthday phone call from Ms Triple-Octave Pipes. The rest of us will attempt to suppress our jealousy. This is one worth heading to. https://youtube.com/watch?v=X0FdR7dEAYU
Anything people can do, pets can do too, right? Some doggos and kitties certainly think so. The folks behind Brisbane's newest weekly market clearly do as well, given that they're gifting the city with its first regular shopping gathering for pets. Okay, so two-legged attendees will still have to do all of the buying at Pets at the Gabba, but their four-legged friends will be the ones benefiting from their purchases. Whatever kind of pet you have, there'll be food, clothing, bedding, toys, treats and trinkets galore on offer — even for the lazy person's pet, otherwise known as the goldfish. Does your pupper need a birthday cake? Want to play sport? Yearn to wear a bowtie? You can take care of all that at 73 Logan Road, Woolloongabba when the markets kick off at 3pm on March 25. And yes, you can bring your pet with you. In case you're wondering, there'll also be food and drinks available for humans, plus live entertainment.
"Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad," said Salvadore Dali. Most visual artists would agree, there is no escaping with a drawing, no blending and bright colours to distract the viewer; it is complete honesty on a page. Jugglers’ Art Space is paying homage to the art of drawing with the Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing. Open to artists from around Australia, this prize invites entrants to test the boundaries of drawing, moving beyond the conventions of illustration and sketching to unleash their passion on the page. The artist who does this most effectively will be solidly rewarded with a $4000 prize for their efforts. The Marie Ellis OAM was established to recognise the contribution of Marie Ellis, a long-term resident and dressmaker in Fortitude Valley, located in the exact spot where Jugglers now sits. Marie contributed to the arts, craft and design scene in Brisbane and worked with disabled children through the Girl Guide movement in Australia. For her service she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal, and Jugglers’ continue to keep her memory alive through this prize for drawing each year.
When David Bowie starred in 1976's The Man Who Fell to Earth, playing an alien being who crash lands on our planet, it became one of the musician's iconic on-screen roles. It's also one that he returned to nearly four decades later, in a fashion — co-writing the musical Lazarus, as inspired by the Walter Tevis novel that the sci-fi film was based on. Written with playwright Enda Walsh, and one of Bowie's final projects before his passing in January 2016, Lazarus opened off-Broadway in December 2015. The production made the jump to London in 2017 and, in 2019, it'll bring its otherworldly story — and its soundtrack of 18 Bowie tracks — to Australia. The first show announced for The Production Company's 2019 season, Lazarus will make its Aussie debut between May 18 and June 9, hitting the stage at Arts Centre Melbourne. While local cast details won't be revealed until February 19, when ticketing details will also be unveiled, the original production was a suitably star-studded affair. Dexter's Michael C. Hall followed in Bowie's footsteps in the part of Thomas Jerome Newton, while Fargo's Cristin Milioti played the alien's assistant. Those eager for a date with this starman — and to start loving the alien, again — can expect a sequel of sorts to The Man Who Fell to Earth. The enigmatic Newton remains on earth, unable to die; however the arrival of another lost soul might offer the solution that he's been looking for. As for the familiar songs that this story plays out to, it's basically a best-of catalogue of Bowie's greatest hits. 'Heroes', 'Changes', 'Life on Mars?', 'The Man Who Sold the World' and 'Sound and Vision' all feature — as do four of the star's final recordings, including the title track 'Lazarus'. Lazarus will hit the Arts Centre Melbourne stage from May 18 to June 9, 2019. Ticketing details will be available from February 19, 2019 — to sign up for the wait list, visit lazarusthemusical.com.au.
We all like ice cream, but sometimes, the occasion calls for something other than everyone's favourite sweet treat. Maybe it's too cold? Maybe you already have an ice cream headache? Maybe Gelato Messina is closed, or just not in the immediate vicinity? Enter the food mashup that had to happen, really — and a concoction straight out of every gelato and biscuit lover's dreams. If you're a fan of Tim Tams smashed, crushed or placed atop scoops of creamy goodness, then you're sure to be fond of their exact opposite: those iconic chocolate rectangles in Gelato Messina flavours. Due in stores around the country from February 6, the Gelato Messina Tim Tam range will come in four styles: choc mint, salted caramel and vanilla, coconut and lychee, and black forest. The collaboration came about after Arnotts, the folks behind the bikkies, got in touch with the ice cream makers. ""It was a new challenge for us — making a gelato is one thing — and making a biscuit that tastes like that gelato is another," said Gelato Messina co-founder Declan Lee. Making this tastebud-tempting news even better is the fact that, like all Tim Tams, they'll be sold in supermarkets everywhere. Yes, that means more Messina goodness more often. The biscuits are expected to set hungry shoppers back $3.65 per packed. Come on, you know you're going to buy more than one.
For one month each year, Brisbane becomes a giant picnic blanket. No matter where you head, look or choose to hang out, there's food to be devoured, beverages to be sipped, and people thoroughly indulging their appetite for a good time. Welcome to Good Food Month. From street parties to chefs cooking up a storm, if it's a culinary-centric event, it's happening across the city from July 1 to July 31. In a smaller but still food-stuffed 2017 program, prepare to visit a heap of eateries, consume as many cuisines as you can, and feel like life is one big buffet. And if that sounds like too much to choose from, perhaps our top six picks of the festival can help you out.
Wine — a four-letter word that can open up a whole world of possibilities. Yep, learning about wine (and, of course, drinking it) brings up fun facts about travel, food, agriculture, history, science and more. But, if your eyes glaze over when you peruse the shelves at your local bottle-o — or you think carbonic maceration is the name of a heavy metal band — we've got five easy (and not boring) ways for you to up your vino knowledge. To do so, we've teamed up with online wine retailer Vinomofo. If you've ever felt out-of-place when your uncle talks about terroirs and tannins, you'll soon be sneaking "did you know that the pressure in a bottle of champagne is about the same as in a semi-trailer tyre?" into everyday conversation. [caption id="attachment_787704" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Klook[/caption] GO ON A GUIDED TOUR IN AN AWARD-WINNING WINE REGION Let's start with a fun one: wine tours. In Australia, we have over 100 different grape varieties grown across 65 distinct regions. So if you prefer hands-on learning, there are plenty of incredible and award-winning vineyards right on your back doorstep. Klook's big red bus tour of the Hunter Valley in NSW and Daylesford Wine Tours, which runs day tours of Victoria's wine regions, are both great ways to experience wine with the winemakers in an up-close setting. Not to mention they're a good excuse to get out of the city for a weekend getaway. GET SCHOOLED BY THE EXPERTS Thanks to last year's unprecedented times, there are now many options available to people who want to learn about wine, either online or in person. Sydney Wine Academy (TAFE) hosts online wine courses that are accessible nationwide, including wine sensory evaluation bootcamps and courses on mastering wine from Australia and New Zealand. Or, you can opt for a 25-minute private virtual wine tasting with Handpicked, where you'll be guided through three to six of its drops in the comfort of your own home. Otherwise, join in a Wine School event with legendary Sydney sommelier and owner of Fix Wine Bar, Stuart Knox. [caption id="attachment_768003" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bibo[/caption] HEAD TO A WINE-THEMED EVENT Even when the source material seems a little dense, learning about wine should be fun. Enter Grapes of Mirth by way of comedian and radio personality Merrick Watts and event manager Jason Nikolas. The comedy and wine festival travels around the country and is designed to bring conversation, laughter and fun into wine regions. We also recommend keeping an eye on what's happening in your local area for specialised wine events, such as like Sydney restaurant Bibo's wine trivia nights, The Ugly Duckling's Wine and Cheese Sundays in Melbourne and a bubbles and oyster pop-up at Brisbane's Cloudland. READ, READ AND READ SOME MORE Even professional wine lovers need help sometimes. Thankfully, there's no shortage of fantastic resources you can turn to when you want to know what's going on in the world of wine. Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz is considered a staple for any wine nerd, while Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack's Wine Folly is a fantastic book for beginners wanting to understand the ins and outs of where, when and how wine is made (the infographics are second to none). More recent titles like Wine All the Time by Marissa A. Ross and Which Wine When by Bert Blaze and Claire Strickett are excellent resources to have on hand when you want to know what wines work with burgers or when to use a decanter. GET YOURSELF A PERSONALISED WINE SERVICE For those who have no idea where to start, Vinomofo has your back thanks to its curated selection of wines. The in-house buying team carefully chooses the wine to guarantee quality and exciting vino across the website. The online wine slinger also has a superb selection of mixed cases to help you go on an adventure to find out what wine styles you might like. For those wanting a little extra hand-holding, you can jump online or on the phone to have a one-on-one chat with Vinomofo's wine dealers, who'll guide you to your next drop. And, not that you need anymore convincing, but right now Vinomofo is celebrating its tenth lap around the sun with its biggest giveaway ever. From Monday, April 12 through to Tuesday, April 20, you can buy any wine online and go in the running to win $1000 wine credit, with one winner drawn every day over the course of the promotion. That's a lot of dollars to put towards your wine knowledge journey. Vinomofo's Birthday Week runs from Monday April 12–Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Head to the website and buy any wine and you'll go in the running to win a $1000 wine credit. See terms and conditions here. New to Vinomofo? Enter code VINO to get $30 off your first order plus free shipping.
Get ready to toss a coin to your witcher, again. Two years after Netflix aired the first season of The Witcher — and got that song stuck in everyone's heads in the process — the fantasy series is finally returning. It was always going to, given that it was renewed for a second season before the initial one even aired, but thanks to the current state of the world, the next batch of episodes has taken some time to turn up. Come Friday, December 17, you'll be able to settle in for a weekend binge to see what happens next in the Henry Cavill (Zack Snyder's Justice League)-starring series — and to check out how his icy locks look this time around. You can nab a sneak peek at both right now, actually, with Netflix also dropping the first trailer for the show's second season to help tide fans over until the end of the year. Need a refresher? Haven't watched the first season yet? If the series' name sounds familiar, that's because The Witcher is based on the short stories and novels of writer Andrzej Sapkowski — and, as well as being turned into comics, it was adapted the video game series of the same name. A Polish film and TV show also reached screens in the early 2000s, although they were poorly received. In the Netflix show, Cavill plays the witcher of the title: Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter who prefers to work — aka slay beasts — alone in a realm called The Continent. But life has other plans for the lone wolf, forcing him to cross paths with powerful sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra, Netflix's Wanderlust) and young princess Ciri (newcomer Freya Allan). In the first season, the latter harbours a secret, because of course she does, with the series blending plenty of fantasy staples such as magic, royalty, fighting factions, battling hordes, fearsome creatures, a heap of sword-swinging and many a scenic location. After stepping into Superman's shoes and facing off against Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible — Fallout, The Witcher marked Cavill's return to TV a decade after starring in regal period drama The Tudors. As well as Chalotra and Allan, the first season also featured Jodhi May (Game of Thrones), MyAnna Buring (Kill List), Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards) and Australian actor Eamon Farren (Twin Peaks). Based on the just-dropped trailer for the season season, viewers can expect a homecoming, more all-round eeriness, and more time spent with both Geralt and Ciri. He's bringing her to his childhood home of Kaer Morhen, where he'll need to keep protecting her — from her powers, and from The Continent's kings, elves, humans and demons, who are battling for supremacy. Check out the trailer for The Witcher's second season below: The Witcher's second season will hit Netflix on Friday, December 17. The show's first season is currently available to stream. Top image: Susie Allnut.
Add another impressive name to the long list of shows, plays and musicals alike, that've been treading the boards across Australia in recent years. That roster has spanned everything from The Book of Mormon, Hamilton and Moulin Rouge! The Musical through to Come From Away, SIX the Musical and The Mousetrap — but only Choir Boy hails from the Oscar-winning writer of the famously not-La La Land drama Moonlight. Tarell Alvin McCraney's other queer coming-of-age play premiered in London in 2012, then did the rounds of the US before opening on Broadway in 2018. It might've taken more than a decade since its stage debut for the show to make its way Down Under, but fans of Moonlight are in for a tale about sexuality, race, hope and gospel music, all focused around a young gay man finding his voice, that's certain to prove worth the wait. Story-wise, Choir Boy follows Pharus Young, who is determined to be the best choir leader that the Charles R Drew Prep School for Boys has ever seen in its 50-year history. That's easier said than done, though, given the rituals that've long been a part of the school, and the masculine expectations as well. Filled with a cappella gospel tunes, Choir Boy scored four Tony Award nominations back in 2019, including for Best Play and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play — and won Best Sound Design of a Play, while also nabbing music director Jason Michael Webb a Special Tony Award. After playing as part of Sydney WorldPride, it hits Brisbane from Wednesday, March 15–Saturday, March 18 at QPAC's Cremorne Theatre. Leading the cast is international musical theatre performer Darron Hayes, joined by Tony Sheldon (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), Robert Harrell (The Shield), Zarif (Lonesome), Quinton Rofail Rich (Godspell), Theo Williams (Passing Strange), and debutants Gareth Dutlow, Abu Kebe and Tawanda Muzenda, while Dino Dimitriadis (Overflow, Cleansed) and Zindzi Okenyo (seven methods of killing kylie jenner, Orange Thrower) direct.
"Do you remember the first time you saw a dinosaur?" asks Bryce Dallas Howard in the latest instalment of the Jurassic Park franchise. We do. It was 25 years ago, as John Williams' iconic score built to its majestic climax and the cast of Steven Spielberg's iconic blockbuster rose from the seats of their jeep, tore off their glasses and stared wide-eyed at a beautiful, towering Brachiosaurus. It's been a quarter of a century since the first Jurassic Park captured the imagination of moviegoers the world over and ushered in the brave new world of CGI-enhanced filmmaking. The whole thing was classic Spielberg: a rollicking, family-friendly adventure that pushed the boundaries of innovation whilst remaining grounded in entirely relatable human stories. Its extraordinary success made sequels inevitable, but unfortunately none except perhaps 1997's The Lost World have come even close to recapturing the magic and wonder of the original. In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom we have a film significantly better than its immediate predecessor, yet one that still falls well short of the bar set back in 1993. Much of the problem with this instalment lies with the franchise's so-called villains. In Jurassic Park the combination was perfect: flawed human antagonists in Dennis Nedry and John Hammond, existential menace in the form of technological hubris, and, of course, those dinosaurs. Between the thuggery of the T-Rex, the cunning of the raptors and the toxic spit of the Dilophosaurus, every step through the failing park held unbearable peril for its characters, instilling a dread that overflowed into the audience. Since then, however, the Jurassic movies have relied largely on a generic recurring villain: InGen, the unscrupulous genetics corporation behind all that Dino-DNA splicing. Even worse, the raptors and T-Rex have become, thanks to their broad popularity, inadvertent heroes, leaving the Dino-threat to come from species that never even existed. Here again in Fallen Kingdom it's that same formula at play: InGen is secretly cooking up some new dinosaurs to sell as weapons (still as ridiculous a concept as it was in Jurassic World), and the big scary dinosaur is a genetically-engineered ultra raptor. Around them are cookie-cutter human bad-guys in the form of mercenaries, big game hunters and money-hungry suits, as well as franchise regular Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), the original Jurassic Park geneticist who continues to learn precisely zero from all his past mistakes. There is still a lot of fun to be had here, and even a few unexpected feels as director J.A Bayona (A Monster Calls) reminds us that monsters of choice are always worse than monsters of instinct. The film's central conceit, too, is a compelling one: a volcano on the island upon which the dinosaurs currently reside is poised to erupt, meaning they will again become extinct without human intervention. To rescue or not to rescue becomes the burning question for Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Dallas Howard) and returning fan favourite Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). InGen, predictably, wants the animals saved for far less noble reasons than preservation. The scenes set on the island are the strongest in the movie, and include perhaps the most affecting moment in the entire franchise in the form of a heart-wrenching callback to that iconic Brachiosaurus shot from all those years ago. Thereafter, Fallen Kingdom transforms into a semi Gothic horror film as the action shifts to an isolated mansion in which the characters are stalked by Wu's latest creation. Toby Jones and James Cromwell give spirited performances during this phase, but the weaknesses of the script refuse to be covered up. The bad get eaten whilst the good survive, and it honestly never feels like our heroes are in any genuine peril. As part two of a planned trilogy, the end-point of Fallen Kingdom certainly offers some interesting possibilities for the final instalment. That said, absent a more nuanced and, dare we say, sympathetic villain, this franchise, like Dr. Wu, seems destined to repeat the mistakes of its past. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn9mMeWcgoM
I like a beard as much as the next person. And Star Wars even more. But there’s one thing that trumps both, and that’s beer. Combine the three, add some nana style seating, and you’ve got for yourself Cartel – the only bar on Caxton Street that delivers in hops, Han Solo and hair. Propped just across from Lefty’s, a dozen steps from Barracks, and equal distance between Casablanca and Oz Kebab (convenient) Cartel isn’t as hidden as it sounds, but is a gem none-the-less. Predating the recent Caxton facelift that saw Brewski, Statler and Waldorf and Lefty's set up shop, this homely bar sells itself on more than just comfy couches and craft beer – it’s got service as well. Brace yourself. On ordering you’ll probably get asked how you are? If you like the beer? What’s in store for the evening? And it won’t sound forced either. The guys here have legitimate, non-snobbish sincerity about them which is often lost in the new, boutique, prim-proper-and-proud bar scene. Relish this. Notably, Cartel has a finely curated collection of all the best craft beer behind the bar, and crisply refrigerated like a good beer should be. They stock a healthy range of Little Creatures, Holgates, Mountains Goats, Brooklyn Breweries and the palest of ales. If you haven’t had a Whale Ale before – here’s the place to have it. Or if you’d rather something less… beery? opt for a Twisted Tea or Lick Pier. In absence of food service at Cartel, comes freedom – if you want food, you go get it, bring it back and politely share (this isn’t a Cartel rule, but didn’t your mum teach you manners?). There’s Caxton Thai down the road, a Crust that will deliver and a Coles at Barracks that has a pretty great dip selection - even the ones with two dips in one container. Whether you’re craving the comfort that comes in having a ‘local’, need a quiet joint to predrink, or haven’t watched Back to the Future for a while, Cartel is your more-than-one-stop shop. Hike on over, give them a hey, grab a beer and sit back, and relax in the grog loving geek’s Mecca.
The history of cinema is haunted by oh-so-many movies about oh-so-many ghost-riddled abodes, and the often-troubled and bereaved folks dwelling within them. The first clever move The Night House makes is recognising it's floating into busy spectral waters, then ensuring its tension stems from its living, breathing protagonist as much as the frights and fears she's forced to face. The film's second stellar step: casting Rebecca Hall (Godzilla vs Kong) as that central figure. An always-welcome addition to anything she's in — see also: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Christine and Tales From the Loop in just the past few years — she plays her tormented part here with brooding sorrow, reluctant vulnerability and a sharp, smart edge. She knows that grappling with loss involves being jolted in many different directions, and being subjected to bumps and jumps of the emotional kind, and that it's never easy to surrender to. Indeed, many of The Night House's surprises come from Hall as Beth, a schoolteacher whose life has been turned upside down by her husband Owen's (Evan Jonigkeit, The Empty Man) unexpected suicide. Clearly normally a no-nonsense type whether she's guiding pupils, dealing with their parents or navigating her personal life, she probes and questions everything that comes her way. As a result, her reactions — including just to herself — are constantly complex, thorny and compelling. Since Owen's passing — using a gun she didn't know he had, and tainting a rowboat usually tethered to the lake house he built for them himself — Beth has cycled through the familiar stages of mourning. When she returns to work to her colleagues' astonishment, including her close friend Claire's (Sarah Goldberg, Barry), she's blunt with the oblivious mother of one of her students. At drinks, she also shocks her co-workers by discussing Owen's suicide note, admitting her home now seems different and obsessing over how much she really knew her husband. That last written missive ties back into one of Beth's past traumas, and her own dealings with the end that awaits us all. When she's alone at night, she's not sure that she can trust what she sees and hears, or tell whether she's awake or dreaming. Filling her time by sorting through Owen's things, she's also unsure what to make of the eerie sketches and books about the occult that sit among his possessions. And, she's thrown even further askew when she finds photos of brunette women that could be her doppelgängers; plans for a home just like hers, but mirrored; and a cascade of tidbits that cast her memories of her marriage into disarray. Also among The Night House's savvy moves: understanding that grief really does change everything. Not only has Beth's life lost one of its brightest lights, but everything Owen once illuminated now keeps being cloaked in shadows he's not there to extinguish. She can't ask him about what she's uncovering, or feeling, or what it's digging up inside. She can't rely upon him, either, or keep trusting what she thought she'd already learned about him during their marriage. And, as being touched by death tends to evoke, she's spiralling down an a well of existential malaise. All ghost and haunted house movies are about confronting mortality, as are a long list of horror staples — zombies, vampires, serial killers, monsters and the like — and The Night House has a strong sense of terror about the the fact that life doesn't extended forever. Director David Bruckner (The Ritual) and screenwriting duo Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski (Super Dark Times) infuse their film with foreboding, with Beth's demons, and also with a heightened state of anxiety. Cultivating an unsettling atmosphere via creepy sights, just as unnerving sounds and music cues, and Hall's showcase performance, they fill 108 minutes with the unease that lingers in us all, but that we spend the majority of our days burying deep inside. That horror craftsmanship — the bristling, needling score by Ben Lovett (The Wolf of Snow Hollow); the exactingly timed sonic assaults that litter the sound design; the sinuous and disorienting cinematography by Elisha Christian (Max Richter's Sleep) — is expertly calibrated. The Night House is a movie made with horror style as well as smarts, and it's meticulously engineered to coax the desired response out of its audience. Looking for what's not there, and also what loiters when in spaces defined by their emptiness, is one of the movie's visual charms. Bruckner enjoys teasing, too, knowing that viewers will always want more time studying Hall's face and winding through Beth's labyrinthine home, and yet never falling too in love with one or the other. And, while there's never any guessing who the camera and the film adore, he populates The Night House with well-weighted portrayals all over. There are no cartoonish bit-parts and supporting performances, with Vondie Curtis-Hall (Harriet) bringing concern and sincerity as Beth's neighbour, Stacy Martin (Vox Lux) giving a source of mystery flesh and blood, and Goldberg as nuanced as Barry fans will recognise. So many of his choices are nicely judged; however, when it comes to The Night House's plot twists, Bruckner is less careful about becoming prey to indulgence. Even though they're grounded in relatable, palpable sentiments, stirrings and musings, some of the movie's developments feel muddled, and also threaten to undercut the fine-tuned work going on elsewhere. Some of the repeated nightmarish symbols get splashed across the screen one or two too many times as well, although a love of all things hellishness is next leading Bruckner, Collins and Piotrowski to remaking Hellraiser. Here, when The Night House ruminates over psychological, existential and atmospheric horrors, it's as gripping as Hall always is. When it's less focused on being haunted by absence, and by death, it's a sillier, less shrewd and involving movie. While set in a house by a lake, it never stoops to Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock sending each other love letters, thankfully — but it also steps back from being as bleak at the last minute as it needed to be.
After cruising around the Brisbane river in 2017 and 2018, Sydney's permanent floating venue, Seadeck, is once again heading north. From Friday, September 27 until Sunday, October 20, the glamorous vessel will be cruising through Brissie waters for another season of luxe parties and hangouts. Seadeck's vessel spans 42 metres, can accommodate 410 passengers and is the epitome of handcrafted luxury — from the handmade tiles and custom-designed brass bar to the bespoke furniture from every corner of the glove, everything you see was tailored for floating. Even the palm trees, standing four metres tall, took a dozen specialists to make to the right specifications. Each of the three decks is connected by sweeping staircases and cast iron lace railings, an homage to Hollywood's golden age of the 20s, 30s and 40s. Yes, the word 'swank' should come to mind. Seadeck's latest Brisbane visit will kick off with Friday night cruise, then hit the water on Saturdays and Sundays afterwards. Tickets, available from the Seadeck website, start from $30 on the first Friday night, then range from $50 on Saturdays and $35 on Sundays — other than the Riverfire cruise on Saturday, September 28, which starts at $125 and includes a two-hour canape package. Of course, if you're feeling the need to blow some serious dosh while you're on the river, VIP packages are also available. By Marissa Ciampi, Lauren Vadnjal and Sarah Ward.
Australia is getting its first Pride Centre. About time. After announcing the idea as part of the 2016/17 budget, the Victorian Government has revealed the centre's location: St Kilda. 79-81 Fitzroy Street will become a community hub dedicated to highlighting queer art and history; bringing together advisory, health and support services; providing community spaces and offering a safe environment. It'll be modelled after San Francisco's LGBTI Community Centre, though that's just a starting point. In fact, the government is thinking bigger than its US predecessor when it comes to size. The St Kilda spot was chosen after extensive consultation with the LGBTI community to find the right site, although, given that the suburb has played host to the annual Pride March since 1996, it shouldn't come as a surprise. Currently vacant, it has been secured for at least the next 20 years. The government has pledged $15 million towards what'll be called the Victorian Pride Centre, with work expected to begin in the next 12 months. "We will own this site in perpetuity — and march by it every Pride March knowing it is ours," offered Victorian Pride Centre Board Jude Munro AO. "The Pride Centre is long overdue — it is exciting news for the LGBTI community and yet another welcome addition to St Kilda," said Victorian Minister for Equality Martin Foley. "Our LGBTI community has a lot to be proud of, I congratulate everyone involved and we looking forward to see the site come to life."
Stuart Ringholt is an artist that specialises in a few bizarre forms of creation. In addition to his ‘conventional’ work (sculpture, video, collages), Ringholt also enjoys interactive performance art, where the line between artist and audience blurs. His participatory approach to art sets him apart from many artists of his generation. Utilising guided tours of his own work, Ringholt engages his audience in workshops and performances aimed at evoking emotion. His latest exhibition, Kraft, includes two ambitious works, 'Untitled (Clock)' and 'Club Purple'. Each work reportedly is shown with a selection of recent videos and drawings to provide context. The works were made to hopefully elicit emotional responses such as embarrassment and fear while prodding thoughtfully at insecurities. Members of the public are welcome to attend the opening night preview of the exhibition at 5pm on Saturday, August 9. Stuart Ringholt will be on hand to conduct one of his famous Anger Workshops. Kraft will be running until September 20. Be sure to check it out while you can.
Sydney’s Mere Women are an emotive and powerful musical force. Their recent album, Your Town, has earned rave reviews Australia wide and rightly so. Your Town is saturated with taught and wiry guitars, layered vocal work and impressive lyricism. Keep your eye on the 'Best Of' lists at the end of the year; this album is sure to feature on many of them. The trio are finally making their way up to Brisbane to play at local haunt, Trainspotters. Expect a whirlwind of noise, an emotive and passionate performance that will stick in your memory for ages. Be sure to get in early to see the local supports also on the bill. Industrial electro-punks, Multiple Man, irreverent and eccentric Cured Pink and ethereal and delicate Perfume Garden will also be playing. Prepare yourself for a night of amazing and diverse sounds.
Gelato Messina, nostalgia and limited-edition desserts: that's the sweet-treat holy trinity. The cult-favourite ice creamery not only loves making one-off specials in general — it adores whipping up delights based on the dishes you loved as a kid. The latest: a honey joy version of its bake-at-home sticky scroll. Scrolls — or snails, as Messina calls them — are no strangers to the brand's range. Neither are honey joy treats, after it made a honey joy cookie pie in 2022. But combining the two is indeed a new development. Yes, it'll take you all the way back to your tuckshop days, and ensure that you can skip your next cereal breakfast. So, what exactly is a honey joy sticky snail? It's a scroll-like dish that's made to feed several people — four-to-six is Messina's recommendation — as filled with vanilla crème pâtissière. On top, you'll find honey joy clusters and honey caramel. And to go with it, because Messina is all about frosty desserts, is cereal milk gelato. Yes, this is another of the chain's Frankenstein's monster-style indulgences — and the entire pack includes the snail and a one-litre tub of gelato. If you're keen to get yourself a piece, they're available to preorder online on Tuesday, September 19. And, because Messina's specials always prove popular, the brand staggers its on-sale times. Accordingly, folks in Queensland and the ACT are able to purchase at 9am, Victorians at 9.15am, and New South Wales customers are split across three times (between 9.30–10am) depending on the store. You'll then need to head to your local Messina store to collect your order between Friday, September 22–Sunday, September 24. You can preorder Gelato Messina's honey joy sticky snail pack from Tuesday, September 19, to pick up from all stores in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland between Friday, September 22–Sunday, September 24.
Nothing says winter in Brisbane like the Royal Queensland Show taking over the RNA Showgrounds each August. Get ready for rides, show bags, giant vegetables, cute animals and Brissie's favourite dessert: those coveted strawberry sundaes. There's always plenty to see, do and eat — and a reason that the event comes with its own midweek public holiday. Brisbanites get set free from work to rush along, fill themselves up with fried and sugary goodness, then brave the rides and gaze at the fireworks. While this year's day off falls on Wednesday, August 16, the Ekka still runs for its usual nine days between Saturday, August 12–Sunday, August 20. That means plenty of time to enjoy sideshows, animal competitions, cooking demonstrations, live music and more — patting pigs, crashing dodgems, throwing balls in a clown's mouth for a prize and taking home all the Bertie Beetles you can eat all included. More than 400 different types of show bags will be up for grabs, ranging in price from $2–125 each. Among the 77 new bags in 2023: Barbie, Pink Floyd and Milo offerings. For the evening Ekka Nites lineup's return, live performances will shine when the sun goes down. As well as lighting up the heavens, expect everything from galloping horses to circus performers, plus fire and pyrotechnics. [caption id="attachment_861552" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rommel Carlos Photography[/caption]
Hoping for something cold, creamy and scrumptious this Christmas? Well, you're in luck. While Gelato Messina's bricks-and-mortar Brisbane store is now slated to open in early 2017 rather than late this year, they do have a gift for the city's ice cream lovers: a two-day festive pop-up. Messina is coming to town as part of the Milton Markets' yuletide shindig, aka Christmas on Cribb. On December 15 and 16, they'll be dishing out scoops of salted caramel and white chocolate, milk chocolate peanut fudge, and salted coconut and mango frosty goodness, plus a few other yet-to-be-confirmed flavours. We've got our fingers crossed they'll roll out their Mincing Tart (brandy custard gelato with Messina fruit mince tarts), Hansel He's So Hot Right Now (gingerbread gelato smashed with gingerbread cake) and their pavlova concoction. Christmas on Cribb will also feature pop-up bars, other guest stalls, all the seasonal foods you can dream of, artisan gifts and two stages of live entertainment, in case you need something to keep you occupied between servings of ice cream. A tip: don't forget that Messina also sell take-home packs. If you can manage to stop yourself from eating a whole tub full of their chilly deliciousness for ten days, you'll go down in Christmas dessert history. Find Gelato Messina at Christmas on Cribb, Cribb Street, Milton on December 15 and 16. Visit the event's Facebook page for more information.
A dimly light basement with walls covered in skate boards may look a little grungy for an Italian restaurant, but in the case of Verve Cafe, looks can be deceiving. Playing vertical neighbour to the Metro Arts, Verve Cafe is an ideal hideaway to grab a coffee, enjoy a boozy lunch, or settle in for a hearty dinner. I say hearty because the meals here are rich, particularly the pasta, and the surrounds are just as warm and cosy. Though it may not be noticeable from the street, most locals and city workers are well aware of Verve and the cafe is usually packed out during the weekends. Booking is a must if you're wanting to get a table on a Friday or Saturday night, and be prepared for the place to be buzzing too. The enclosed space can get a bit rowdy during the busy hours, but the noise just helps create a friendly, down to earth and infectious atmosphere. Considering the location and noise levels of Verve, its little wonder the cafe's food is the main draw card for patrons. The food is wonderfully fresh and simple – the way Italian food should be. Of particular praise is the pasta. The Brandy Tortellini and the Goats Cheese & Chicken Gnocchi are a stand out. Also on the menu are a selection of risottos and traditional Italian pizzas, which are all very well priced. Verve offers plenty of options for vegetarians and run Happy Hour drink specials from 5pm – 7pm at the bar every night, making Verve an ideal venue for a birthday or celebration dinner. Probably another reason why the venue can get a little rowdy.
2015 documentary Gayby Baby tried to teach audiences that love, not gender, is the most important thing about family — and became one of the most talked about films of the year as a result. Needless controversy aside, the movie's statement remains crucial. Gaybies clearly agrees, spreading the same message from the stage. Once again, real-life accounts of children from same-sex parents, surrogate mums, donor dads, co-parents and guardians are the drawcard, with their tales not only political and personal, but honest and heartwarming. They're brought to life by a cast of local performers and community members, and overseen by Brisbane Powerhouse's Kris Stewart, who not only continues to guide the venue's artistic direction, but directs this production as part of MELT Festival.
When the city floods, there aren't many bright spots to be found — but seeing Brisbane band together to support each other and raise cash for those that need is definitely one of them. At The Brightside from 5.30pm on Saturday, March 5, a heap of bands will be doing just that, too, all as part of a huge 11-plus act, two-stage gig that the venue has dubbed Flood Relief. Taking to the decks: Spacey Jane, Shag Rock, Sweater Curse, VOIID and Great Sage, all doing DJ sets, while Hope D, Melaleuca, Flamingo Blonde, Dopamine, Lucy Francesca Dron and Pure Milk will be performing live as well. The lineup is also set to keep growing, given that this show has been put together mighty quickly to mobilise music fans after such a chaotic week of devastating weather. Tickets cost $34.70, all of which is being donated to GIVIT — which is using all funds to support folks affected by the floods. You can throw some more love towards the cause at the venue, too, with karma kegs and cases courtesy of Philter and Jameson — and all proceeds also going straight to GIVIT — plus donation tins onsite as well. [caption id="attachment_801821" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Spacey Jane by Daniel Hilderbrand[/caption]
It's the event that was always bound to happen. Even decade-long music polls have their detractors, or those who'd just rather listen to something else — and they're the folks The New Globe is catering for. Their "F!#* The Hottest 100" Australia Day Party offers an alternative to the triple j countdown, including a lineup of bands you're not likely to hear on national radio. Here, you can listen to Love Hate Rebellion, Lunar Seasons, Deadbeat Society, FriendlyFire, Dr Peppernickle's Orphanarium of Obese Aristocrats, Buttermilk, The Moongrinders, The MontalRoys, Thirteen Seventy and more to be announced, and think about your new favourite acts instead of last year's hits.
Another week, another Gelato Messina special. That's been the dessert chain's contribution to making lockdown a little more bearable over the past year and a half, and it isn't changing that tactic now. So, if you're under stay-at-home conditions in Sydney and Melbourne, you now have another indulgent sweet treat to look forward to. And for folks in southeast Queensland, you've got an excuse to treat yo'self to a decadent dessert anyway. On the menu this time: the return of the brand's Basque cheesecake gelato, but without the sticky Cinnabon-style scrolls it came paired with when it made its debut back in August. You'll be able to buy a one-litre tub of the stuff, which comes filled with exactly what it says on the label — that'd be Basque cheesecake gelato — and is topped with a slice of toasted Basque cheesecake. The special can only be ordered online on Monday, September 27. It will set you back $35 — and, because Messina's specials always prove popular, the brand is staggering the on-sale times. Accordingly, folks in Queensland and the ACT are able to purchase at 9am, Victorians at 9.30am, and New South Wales customers split across three times depending on the store (with pies from Circular Quay, Surry Hills, Bondi, Randwick and Miranda on sale at 10am; Brighton Le Sands, Tramsheds, Parramatta and Darlinghurst at 10.30am; and Darling Square, Newtown, Rosebery and Penrith at 11am). The catch? You'll have to peel yourself off the couch and head to your local Messina store to pick up your order. They'll be available for collection between Friday, October 1–Sunday, October 3. Sydneysiders, remember to abide by lockdown restrictions when it comes to picking up your bavarian — which means sticking to your Local Government Area, or within five-kilometres from home. Melburnians, under new eased lockdown rules that come into effect in mid-September, you're permitted to travel within a ten-kilometre radius to pick up food. You can preorder a Messina Basque cheesecake gelato tub from Monday, September 27, to pick up from Friday, October 1–Sunday, October 3.
About an hour south of Brisbane, you'll find Tamborine National Park. Part of the Gold Coast hinterland, this eight-kilometre mountain plateau is home to countless waterfalls, gorges, heritage-listed sites and a botanical garden — plus, plenty of native wildlife. The best way to experience it is on foot, with a number of tracks between one and five kilometres available, which you can find here. If, however, you're looking for all the reward without the effort, there are a couple of lookouts that you can directly to and marvel at the epic views across the Scenic Rim and Great Dividing Ranges. Images: Tourism and Events Queensland
My yoga studio has a basketball court below it. During a calming session of yoga, it is not uncommon to hear the piercing screech of a whistle, frequent cheering and the intermittent shrieks of "Great shot Mike!". One time, I kid you not, there was a marching band procession going down, and the instructor had to calmly try and talk over the incessant drumming. Quite un-zen. Flow Silent Disco Yoga seeks to give yoga enthusiasts the exact opposite experience. How exactly does one silent disco yoga? Quite easily with the introduction of wireless headphones. These bad boys give participants a one-on-one with instructor, Flow Athletic co-founder Kate Kendall, while simultaneously pumping out beats from Sydney DJ James Mack. Also, they're neon. This one-off, 90-minute Vinyasa yoga session will see yogis come together at W Brisbane. It's probably your best (possibly only) chance to show off your best warrior pose while simultaneously jiving to some seriously smooth music. Silently. Also on offer: healthy bites and drinks as part of your $55 ticket price, plus a few other treats.
Sydneysiders, you won't be getting your fix of bright lights this June. You won't be spending a couple of weeks holed up in a cinema, either. But, while both Vivid and Sydney Film Festival have postponed their 2021 events to August, the first month of winter definitely won't be quiet. Clearly seeing an empty slot on the city's social calendar, New South Wales Government's tourism and events agency Destination NSW is putting together a new festival that'll start the chillier season in style. Sydney Solstice is slated to take place from Tuesday, June 8–Sunday, June 20, with a big focus on dining, drinking, entertainment, arts and culture. The fest will take up residence at four Sydney precincts across the 13-day period, delivering a program filled with live music, performances, comedy, workshops, food and drink, exhibitions and installations. So, expect to spend plenty of time in the CBD and surrounding areas (including The Rocks, Circular Quay, Walsh Bay and Chinatown), over at Darling Harbour and its adjacent spots (such as Barangaroo, Glebe, Ultimo and Pyrmont), around the Oxford Street area (including Paddington, Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Rushcutters Bay, Woolloomooloo, Elizabeth Bay, Kings Cross, Potts Point and Entertainment Quarter) and in the vicinity of Newtown (plus Enmore, Erskineville, Alexandria, Chippendale, Darlington and Redfern). As with most big events announced at the moment, Sydney Solstice is driven by a desire to get more folks out and about around town — and spending money supporting the economy. Destination NSW is particularly focusing on boosting the city's arts and culture, music and entertainment, and food and beverage industries, and also placing a big emphasis on NSW talent. Exactly what's on the lineup hasn't yet been revealed, with Destination NSW currently calling for expressions of interest from businesses interested in taking part — including restaurants and bars, entertainment venues, promoters, and arts and cultural organisations — until early April. The agency is specifically eager for big drawcards that are either completely new, or substantially reimagine or enhance existing activities, as well as other relevant events that can fall under the festival's umbrella. For now, until the program hits, you might want to block out your diary in advance. Sydney joins Melbourne in getting a new winter festival this year — although the Victorian capital's new event, Rising, was originally slated to launch in 2020, but was delayed due to the pandemic. Sydney Solstice will take place from Tuesday, June 8–Sunday, June 20. We'll update you with further details when they're announced — and you can keep an eye on the festival's website, too.
Earlier in 2020, when social distancing and public gathering rules were in place across the country, KFC did everyone a solid by offering up free home delivery for the first time ever Down Under. Life is slowly returning to normal now, but the fried chicken chain is bringing back the deal anyway — so you can round up your housemates again and tuck into those 11 secret herbs and spices. The reason this time: State of Origin. KFC's free delivery will be available across the next three Wednesdays to coincide with this year's postponed games — so on November 4, November 11 and November 18. The great news is that you don't have to care about the matches, or watch them, to get that chicken brought to your door without paying extra. The free delivery is simply available all day on each of those three days, from open till close at your local store. The limited-time offer is available nationwide, too — and there is no minimum spend required. To get your hands on some finger lickin' good chook with no added cost, you'll just need to head to Menulog's website or use the Menulog app. And while your food is on its way, you can meditate with KFChill, a wellness website that lets you unwind to the sound of chicken frying, gravy simmering or bacon sizzling away in a pan. Yes, it'll make you hungry. KFC is offering free delivery across Australia on all orders via Menulog, with the special available on Wednesday, November 4, Wednesday, November 11 and Wednesday, November 18. To order, head to the Menulog website and or use the Menulog app.
Wandering around a market while the sun shines is all well and good, but there's something extra appealing about the nighttime variety. Happening every Friday and Saturday night in Brisbane's north BITE Markets fits the bill. And, it serves up plenty of food, because that's what every night market attendee really wants. A trip to Nolan Drive in Morayfield comes with a little something extra on Friday, November 26 and Saturday, November 27, however — because that's when the BITE Christmas Markets is adding some seasonal cheer to the place. This is a family-friendly affair complete with carols, Santa and entertainment for kids, but if you were thinking about hitting up a market anyway and you love Christmas, consider it a two-for-one kind of event. Expect the usual array of food, and likely some festive-themed treats. Opting for the sweets lineup — cakes, doughnuts, churros and poffertjes and the like — is perfect for this time of year, of course. A shipping container setup like Hamilton's Eat Street — complete with landscaping and a dining precinct — BITE Markets showcases local talents, so prepare to feast on meals whipped up by the best producers, food creators and artisans in the area, too. Entry costs $3 for adults — and for those driving north, there's more than 600 car parks onsite.
It's not every day that you can help your fellow Brisbanites by having a couple of brews, but come Saturday, March 5 at Oche in Fortitude Valley, that's exactly what's on the agenda. After a tough week of wild weather and flooding, the Constance Street spot is putting on a karma keg, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross Flood Disaster Appeal If you grab a brew any time on Saturday, 100-percent of your money will be donated to this very worthy cause. Buy several — whether you're shouting your mates or settling in for the long haul — and you'll be putting even more of your cash in the hands of those who need it. Oche is teaming up with Stone and Wood on the karma keg, so that's the beer you'll be drinking. And, as comes with the concept, it's a pay-what-you-like setup — but the more you splash out, the more cash will be raised. Oche opens from 12pm–12am on Saturdays, if you're wondering when to pop in.
It's lucky that Chris Pine is so likeable in Wonder Woman 1984, or the scene where his character wanders around in the titular year and marvels slack-jawed at the advancements of the period would be unbearably cheesy. It's still cheesy, and inescapably so. He's wearing a bumbag, so it has to be. But, it's also engagingly performed. The look on his face: wonder. The A Wrinkle In Time star once again plays American pilot Steve Trevor, who was last seen in 1918 in Wonder Woman. He's now a man thrust far beyond his own time, and he has much to marvel at. But this sequence also acts as a stark reminder, sending a message to the audience about the film they're watching. No matter how much returning director Patty Jenkins and the powers-that-be behind the DC Extended Universe hope that Wonder Woman 1984's viewers share the same expression — and how much they believe that simply making a sequel to their 2017 blockbuster is enough to cause it — the movie doesn't earn much more than a resigned sigh. When it hit cinemas three years ago, the first movie about Princess Diana of Themyscira — also known as Diana Prince — stood out. Even though the DCEU started five years after the Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC bested its rival by focusing on a female character in its fourth film (for Marvel, it took 21 pictures, only achieving the feat with 2019's Captain Marvel). DC didn't waste its opportunity, either. Wonder Woman isn't a mere cookie-cutter superhero flick, just focusing on a character of a different gender. It champions understanding and emotional intelligence, handles its engaging origin story with sincerity and warmth, and unfurls an adventure where both strength and vulnerability exist in tandem. It also relays a fulfilling tale; a sequel was inevitable, but the initial feature didn't just whet the audience's appetite for the next, plus all the other caped crusader films certain to follow. In other words, Wonder Woman bakes the traits that make its eponymous figure something special into its story and approach, and is all the better for it. In contrast, Wonder Woman 1984 has Diana (Gal Gadot, Justice League) tell everyone again and again that being truthful is far more important than anything else — after an opening scene set among her matriarchal society of Amazons, where she learns the lesson as a girl (Lilly Aspell, Holmes & Watson) during a high-stakes competition against older women. And, with the brightly hued film arriving after a year almost starved of franchise-related comic book tales (other than the pre-pandemic opening of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and the long-delayed release of The New Mutants), this sequel has also decided that more is more in the easiest of fashions. Wonder Woman 1984 doesn't spin the most complicated story, but it's so repetitive and meandering across its 151-minute running time that it's needlessly bulky, muddled and weighed down. A few notable scenes aside, its glossily shot action sequences share the same dragged-out, overblown sensation. Jumping forward almost seven decades within the Wonder Woman films' timeline, Diana has taken up an anthropologist job at the Smithsonian, and turned swinging through malls on her Lasso of Truth to fight crime into her side hustle. But then insecure archaeologist Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig, Where'd You Go, Bernadette) starts working beside her, gets tasked with assessing a mysterious gem, and lets Donald Trump-esque infomercial salesman Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal, The Mandalorian) take the strange object home with him. It's no ordinary rock, however. It grants wishes, so Maxwell wants to take advantage of that power — and, unknowingly, both Diana and Barbara have already uttered their dreams aloud while holding the stone. These fantasies come at a cost, of course, even before Maxwell uses his to try to take over the world. Yes, in the script penned by Jenkins, Geoff Johns (Aquaman) and Dave Callaham (Zombieland: Double Tap), a magic rock drives the plot — and the aforementioned, overstressed idea that truth triumphs over all, too. Accordingly, it's no wonder (pun intended) that Wonder Woman 1984 feels padded out. And, with Steve's return, Maxwell's hunger for domination and Barbara's transformation into comic book character Cheetah all demanding attention, it's little surprise that Wonder Woman herself is rarely the main attraction. The film misses her, even though she's supposed to be its protagonist. Perhaps that's why the movie opts for spouting the same maxim over and over, instead of sharing her characteristics. It's harder to make a feature that reflects its chief figure when that ostensible point of focus is so often pushed aside. It's far easier to stick to a broad template, stretch it out and assume everyone will just be pleased that Wonder Woman is back in a movie that bears her name. Wonder Woman 1984 also shares Captain Marvel's struggle, because it's so generic that it doesn't ever do its central character justice — or do much more than deliver a paint-by-numbers tale set in a decades-ago era with a woman as its primary superhero. Perhaps serving up lacklustre, formulaic flicks about male and female caped crusaders alike is Hollywood's idea of equality? Viewers are always left wanting more here, because Gadot demands it. She's immensely charming and graceful as the warrior queen — radiating empathy and decency with an earthiness that should clash with Wonder Woman's shining armour and golden tiara, but doesn't — and navigates tightly choreographed stunts as deftly as big emotional moments. She's nicely paired with both Pine and Wiig, the latter first as a friend and later an adversary, but Gadot sparks her own wonder. Wonder Woman 1984 certainly knows how to trot out well-worn beats packaged as part-upbeat heroism, part-social satire, but it just doesn't realise where its true strengths reside often enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW2E2Fnh52w
After blockbuster exhibitions in 2017 and 2019, The National: New Australian Art — an epic contemporary Australian art exhibition held across three major Sydney galleries — is back. Due to open on Friday, March 26, the program will feature works from 39 emerging, mid-career and established artists at the Art Gallery of NSW, the MCA and Carriageworks. At the helm for this edition of the biennial set of exhibitions are Matt Cox and Erin Vink (AGNSW), Abigail Moncrieff (Carriageworks) and Rachel Kent (MCA). Each gallery will exhibit a unique and distinct collection of new Australian art from artists such as Abdullah MI Syed and Lauren Berkowitz, plus artistic collective such as A Constructed World and the Karrabing Film Collective. The exhibitions will run simultaneously across the three galleries, all kicking off on the same date but finishing at various times until Sunday, September 5. Find out more at The National's website — and find out which artists are being exhibited at which galleries via the MCA, AGNSW and Carriageworks. [caption id="attachment_804284" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bilirubin Bezoarn, 2019, installation view, photographer: Christo Crocker[/caption] Top image: Zan Wimberley
Maybe you loved her on Saturday Night Live. Perhaps you adore Parks and Recreation like it's a member of your family. Or, you could've watched and rewatched Baby Mama and Sisters over and over again — or binged your way through Making It, her competitive crafting show. However you became an Amy Poehler fan, 2021 is shaping up to be a great year. The talented comedian and actor is co-hosting the Golden Globes again with Tina Fey, Parks and Recreation has just hit Netflix and, come early March, Poehler's latest movie will also make its way to the streaming platform. That flick is called Moxie, and it both co-stars Poehler and marks her second stint as a feature filmmaker. It also heads back to high school — because popping up in Mean Girls, which Tina Fey wrote the screenplay for, clearly wasn't enough of a blast from the past. Poehler obviously isn't packing her school bag. Instead, she plays the mother to a teenager, Vivian (Hadley Robinson, I'm Thinking of Ending Things). The 16-year-old has always been quiet and studious, and tried to to avoid attracting any unwanted attention from her classmates. But, after finally realising that she's had enough of the toxic behaviour that runs rampant at her school, she takes a few cues from her mum's past, starts an underground zine and starts fighting for change. From the just-dropped first trailer, Moxie slides easily into the high-school genre; however, it also gives it a riot grrrl spin. Plus, as well as Poehler and Robinson, the film's cast includes Alycia Pascual-Peña (Saved By the Bell), Lauren Tsai (Legion), Patrick Schwarzenegger (Daniel Isn't Real), Josephine Langford (After We Collided), Clark Gregg (Agents of SHIELD), Ike Barinholtz (The Hunt) and Marcia Gay Harden (The Morning Show) — and it's based on the he novel by Jennifer Mathieu. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf34qI1hjKU Moxie will be available to stream via Netflix from Wednesday, March 3. Top image: Colleen Hayes/Netflix © 2020
UPDATE, August 18, 2023: Bound Festival will no longer be going ahead for 2023. Next time that you hit the beach, Ash Grunwald and Phil Jamieson could provide the soundtrack, wine-fuelled picnics might be on the agenda and brews in a beer hall could await. When you're not tapping your toes, eating and drinking, yoga and meditation sessions might be ensuring that you're as relaxed as possible — all amid the sand, surf and sun of Burleigh Heads. There's no coulds or mights about any of the above actually accuring at Bound Festival, which will take place from Friday, September 22–Sunday, September 24. The only question? If you're set to soak them in. This three-day event will combine food, wine, music and wellness on the Gold Coast, returning for a second year but under a new name. If the general concept sounds familiar, that's because it happened in 2022 as Burleigh Festival. The destination again: Justins Park on the Burleigh Heads Foreshore. And, yes, all those bites, sips, tunes and relaxation sessions are setting up shop right by the water once more. Ash Grunwald, Phil Jamieson, Felivand, Apricot Ink and Golding are all locked in behind the microphone, with additional music acts to be announced, including a headliner to close the main stage's lineup on the Sunday. If it's the culinary part of the program that has you most excited — other than the setting, which is always a drawcard — Bound Festival hasn't unveiled its vendors as yet; however, the focus is firmly local. Standout Burleigh and Gold Coast eateries will serve up dishes, covering meals considered local specialties and international cuisines. And, the picnic precinct will revolve around cellar doors and serve ample cheese, brews aplenty will be on offer in the beer hall, and non-alcoholic options will get their time to shine as well. Games and a barbecue spread are also on the agenda — and, as for the wellness activities, they'll score their own dedicated zone. Also featuring: HIIT sessions, plus discussions about finding your bliss. There, too, the full lineup is still to come. BOUND FESTIVAL 2023 LINEUP: Ash Grunwald Phil Jamieson Felivand Apricot Ink Golding more to come Bound Festival runs from Friday, September 22–Sunday, September 24 at Justins Park on the Burleigh Heads Foreshore, Burleigh Heads. For further information, head to the event's website.
Get ready to chow down on mouthwatering Neil Perry hamburgers. Since opening in Sydney's World Square in October 2014, the celebrity chef's high-end fast food joint Burger Project has become a favourite with Sydney foodies, serving up a variation of his iconic Rockpool beef burger at a fraction of the price. The burger joint has since expanded to Melbourne and, after announcing back in May last year that Burger Project will be coming to Brisbane, Perry has finally opened the doors. You can find the new store on ground level at the new Southport precinct in South Bank. The venue, which boasts big floor-to-ceiling windows, has room for 60 burger fiends inside and another 30 outside. So, what exactly do they serve at The Burger Project, anyway? Well, Perry is sticking closely to the winning World Square formula, so you can expect a variety of tried-and-tested tasty burgers including the Magic Mushroom, the spicy fried chicken katsu and of course the classic American cheeseburger. For dessert, dive into one of their decadent ice cream creations such as the Blueberry Pie or The Bounty Hunter with vanilla bean ice cream with chocolate sauce, toasted coconut and crushed meringue. The Brisbane Burger Project will also be the first outlet to offer breakfast. They'll switch out their regular menu for bacon and egg (and mushroom and egg) burgers, BLTs, potato gems and coffee from Melbourne's Market Lane from 8–11am daily. The South Bank store is the eighth Burger Project to open around the country, and the first in Brisbane. Neil Perry's Rockpool Group was acquired by the Urban Purveyor Group last year, and, as the newly formed Rockpool Dining Group, they plan to open more stores here this year. By Tom Clift and Lauren Vadnjal.
Since the beginning of time, humans have always matched food with wine. Jesus broke bread with vino, the Vikings had their salted fish and mead, the French have cheese and champagne and the Italians cicchetti and aperitivo — a pairing we've all enjoyed more than a few times this summer. If you've spent the last few months like we did, cured meats, olives, vegetables in oil, cheese and the like have become a diet staple, especially when paired with a spritz or even simpler, a crisp glass of prosecco. As we move into autumn, there's no need to lose this little evening, pre-going out ritual — even if that summer sun starts to slip away. To help you take the magic of this molto buono pairing from the bar terrace and into your home, we've partnered with the wine aficionados at Dal Zotto and crafted five cicchetti to serve with the new Dal Zotto prosecco. Before your next night out, grab a few friends, a bottle of bubbles and kick back at your own at-home aperitivo hour. Red and white gingham tablecloths are entirely optional. CURED MEAT AND CHEESE TOASTS The zesty flavour of the prosecco cuts through the rich flavours of the meats and cheese. Plus, making it DIY limits prep time so you can easily plate, serve, eat and go. — preferred cured meats (spicy salami, salumi, prosciutto, bresaola, etc.) — preferred cheeses (provolone, parmesan, mozzarella, gorgonzola, etc.) — baguette, sliced about 2 centimetres wide and toasted Plate the meats, cheeses and bread together for everyone to construct themselves to their preference. Just make sure to keep the bubbles flowing. PANCETTA WRAPPED PRAWNS This upscale version of shrimp on the barbie is crunchy and rich and contrasts beautifully with the ripe fruit flavours and crisp acidity of prosecco. — 16 raw prawns, deveined — 8 pancetta rashers — aioli (serves four) Preheat the oven to 200°C and cut the rashers in half lengthwise. Wrap each prawn in a pancetta slice and place on a baking tray and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until fully cooked. Serve with aioli and well-chilled prosecco. BRUSCHETTA This classic is an oldy but a goody — and requires minimal effort. All you'll need is a toaster, chopping board and well-sharpened knife. Oh, and a glass of prosecco for while you're constructing. — 4 large slices of ciabatta — 4 tomatoes, roughly chopped — 2 garlic cloves, crushed — 2 red onions, diced — 3 cloves garlic, minced — 1/2 cup of basil, chopped — pepper and salt, to taste — balsamic and olive oil, to drizzle (serves four) Toast the ciabatta until almost burnt, then oil the bread. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl, then divide the mixture evenly onto each piece toasted slice. Top with a drizzle of olive oil and garnish with basil leaves. Serve alongside a glass of prosecco immediately. PESTO ESCARGOT No, we're not eating snails. It's just a tasty pastry which has a cute snail-like (spiral) appearance, and the bitey parmesan and pesto counter the bubbly prosecco perfectly. — 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, defrosted — 3 tablespoons basil pesto — 1 cups parmesan cheese, grated (makes about 12 pieces) Preheat the oven to 180°C, then line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside. Roll out the dough and spread the pesto and cheese evenly over the pastry. Then, roll the sheet tightly into a long scroll and slice evenly into 12 pieces. Lay each piece on the tray leaving 2 centimetres between each roll, and bake for 10–15 minutes. Enjoy at a snail's pace over the afternoon with a bottle of bubbly, of course. ANTIPASTI SKEWERS Prosecco and antipasto are like old-timey best mates; they're always better together. The acidity of the prosecco counterbalances the saltiness of the olives and the creaminess of the mozzarella. — prosciutto — bocconcini — pitted olives — grape tomatoes — marinated artichoke hearts, drained and halved — basil leaves — skewers Add each ingredient onto a skewer, alternating colour and taste as you go. Arrange all the skewers on a serving platter, drizzle with olive oil and serve with a glass of prosecco. Keen for more fizz? Plan a mini city break up north and visit Noosa Boathouse, Noosa Surf Club or Black Bird for a glass of bubbly perfection — or head to Sofitel in Noosa between April 16–28, where Dal Zotto has an Easter activation planned. Exact details are still TBC, so keep an eye on the Dal Zotto Instagram account for announcements.
I'm no kidnapper. I've never tried and, unless this film critic thing really falls through, I hopefully never will. That said, were I to give it a crack, I can't help but think the overarching guideline for a successful 'grab' must be that my victim isn't dead by the time I get him. But look, I'm getting ahead of myself here. To the movie... In 2013 the world found itself subject to a ridiculous 'White House Being Taken Over By Terrorists Only To Be Saved By One Gritty Muscled Dude' genre battle between Olympus Has Fallen and the far superior White House Down. Now, three years later, we get London Has Fallen – the sequel to the former nobody was calling for. Starring Gerard Butler as Secret Service agent Mike Banning, London Has Fallen chronicles a devastating series of attacks throughout London on the morning of a state funeral, with the goal of assassinating world leaders and kidnapping the US President (Aaron Eckhart). Ah. There we are again. Kidnapping. I guess I'm just saying I'd be reluctant to use explosives near my target because of the potential for hurting him. I probably wouldn't, for example, instruct one of my generic 'international terrorist' henchmen to spend several minutes simply lobbing rocket-propelled grenades directly at the President's car. Or his hiding spot. Or his face. Anyway, minor side point. London Has Fallen boasts arguably the most outstanding supporting cast of Academy Award winners and nominees asked to do nothing but stare at a screen. Morgan Freeman, Jackie Earle Haley, Melissa Leo and Angela Bassett all shine for the several seconds that they're given in the White House Situation Room, and... Sorry. Not to get sidetracked again, it's just – they shoot his helicopter down. The President's helicopter. While he's in it. From an aviation safety standpoint alone, statistically that's a huge risk to take when you want to capture him alive. It's like using a nuke to get the toy out of a Kinder Surprise. As for the script, the terrorists speak in advertising slogans like "Vengeance must always be profound, and absolute", while Butler's hero Banning consistently spouts racist gems like "why don't you go back to Fuckheadistan or wherever it is you came from?" In fact, London Has Fallen is so astoundingly jingoistic and overtly xenophobic, you half-expect the credits to conclude with "Paid for by Trump 4 President". Plus...they just shoot at the President all the time. Especially when he's in cars. And then they ram those cars with garbage trucks, even before they know whether or not he's wearing a seatbelt. And it's not as though seatbelts are a guarantee of survival in a major collision... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AsOdX7NcJs
4ZZZ are pulling out all the stops for their Radiothon this year. Not only do we have HappyFest to look forward to, but we also have a massive session of fierce, live music on Sunday. Taking over The Underdog will be dozens of bands including Stone Chimp, Sons of the Soil, The 52 Pickups, Weezal. Eat City, Sabrina Lawrie & the Hunting Party (pictured), Flangipanis, Dirty Liars, Le Murd and heaps more. Also, there will be a 4ZZZ themed menu for those of you who like something tasty to go with their live music. Entry is cheap ($12), and even cheaper ($10) if you have subscribed to 4ZZZ (the perks are real) so get in early and stay for a massive night of music. Make sure you head to the 4ZZZ website to check out the event details or to become a subscriber. 4ZZZ is an institution and a massive provider of entertaining events in Brisbane – let’s keep it around.
What happens when two cousins played by Kieran Culkin (Succession) and Jesse Eisenberg (Fleishman Is in Trouble) honour their grandmother and explore their family's past by heading to Poland? Eisenberg himself asked that question, then turned the answer into the Sundance-premiering and now Jewish International Film Festival-bound A Real Pain. The actor not only co-stars but writes and directs the dramedy, his second feature behind the lens — and Australian audiences can see the results when JIFF returns for 2024. This year's festival is back to finish out the year, screening in seven cities, including across Thursday, November 7–Sunday, November 17 at New Farm Cinema in Brisbane. Just like its fellow major cultural film fests, such as its French, Spanish, Italian, Scandinavian and Japanese counterparts, JIFF's 2024 slate is jam-packed. Movie lovers can choose between 41 features, two TV shows and a showcase of short films, with the festival's titles hailing from 17 countries. Eisenberg and Culkin aren't the only big names on the lineup. Closing night's Berlin-set The Performance, which is adapted from an Arthur Miller short story and tells of a Jewish American tap dancer, stars Jeremy Piven (Sweetwater). The fest's centrepiece pick Between the Temples features Jason Schwartzman (Megalopolis) as a cantor and Carol Kane (Dinner with Parents) as his former elementary school music teacher. And in White Bird, which hails from a book by the author of fellow page-to-screen effort Wonder, Helen Mirren (Barbie) and Gillian Anderson (Scoop) pop up. Well-known folks are also in the spotlight in documentaries Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, Diane Warren: Relentless and How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer — and acclaimed director Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, The Trip movies) is on the lineup via British Mandatory Palestine-set historical thriller Shoshana. Then, there's TV series Kafka, arriving a century after the death of its namesake. Highlights across the rest of the program include documentary The Commandant's Shadow, about The Zone of Interest-featured Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss' son Hans Jürgen Höss meeting with survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch; Tatami, following a female Iranian judo athlete played by Arienne Mandi (The L Word: Generation Q), with Guy Nattiv (Golda) and Zar Amir Ebrahimi (last seen on-screen in Shayda, and also co-starring here) co-directing; television's Auckland-set Kid Sister; and Aussie doco Pita with Vegemite: An Israeli Australian Story.
What happens outside an upstate New York strip club at 10am on an ordinary weekday? Nothing — nothing good, or that anyone pays attention to, at least — deduces the unhappy Val (Jerrod Carmichael, Rothaniel) in On the Count of Three. So, he's hatched a plan: with his lifelong best friend Kevin (Christopher Abbott, The Forgiven), they'll carry out a suicide pact, with that empty car park as their final earthly destination. Under the harsh morning light and against a drably grey sky, Carmichael's feature directorial debut initially meets its central duo standing in that exact spot, guns pointed at each other's heads and pulling the trigger mere moments away. Yes, they start counting. Yes, exhaustion and desperation beam from their eyes. No, this thorny yet soulful film isn't over and done with then and there. There are many ways to experience weariness, frustration, malaise and despair, and to convey them — and On the Count of Three surveys plenty, as an unflinchingly black comedy about two lifelong best friends deciding to end it all should. Those dispiriting feelings can weigh you down, making every second of every day an effort. They can fester, agitate, linger and percolate, simmering behind every word and deed before spewing out as fury. They can spark drastic actions, including the type that Val and Kevin have picked as their only option after the latter breaks the former out of a mental health hospital mere days after his last self-harming incident. Or, they can inspire a wholesale rejection of the milestones, such as the promotion that Val is offered hours earlier, that everyone is told they're supposed to covet, embrace and celebrate. On the Count of Three covers all of the above, not just with purpose but with confidence, as well as a much-needed willingness to get messy. It knows it's traversing tricky terrain, and is also well-aware of the obvious: that nothing about considering taking one's own life is simple or easy, let alone a laughing matter. Working with a script by Ramy co-creators Ari Katcher (also a co-creator of The Carmichael Show) and Ryan Welch, Carmichael doesn't make a movie that salutes, excuses or justifies Val and Kevin's exit plan. His film doesn't abhor the emotions and pain behind their choices either, though. Instead, this is a complicated portrait of coping, and not, with the necessities, vagaries and inevitabilities of life — and a raw and thoughtful piece of recognition that the biggest standoff we all have is with ourselves. Rocking a shock of dishevelled bleached-blonde hair, and looking like he hasn't even dreamed of changing his wardrobe since the early 00s, Abbott could've wandered out of Good Time as Kevin — he and Robert Pattinson could/should play brothers some day — including when he's staring down Val with a gun. First, On the Count of Three jumps from there to the events leading up to it, including an earlier attempt by landscaping supply store worker Val in the work bathrooms, his response to hearing about that aforementioned climb up the corporate ladder. In hospital, Kevin is angry; "if any of you knew how to help me by now, you would have fucking done it!" he shouts. But when the time to shoot comes, it's him who suggests a reprieve to take care of a few last items — revenge being his. Calling On the Count of Three a bucket-list movie isn't quite right, because there's a difference between checking off your wildest dreams and working through the essentials that gnaw at you. Accordingly, and in its nervy, restless, go-go-go energy, too, the film is in day-in-the-life territory — focusing on Kevin's score to settle with a child psychologist, Dr Brenner (Henry Winkler, Barry), from his past, and Val getting his issues with his slippery dad Lyndell (JB Smoove, Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Natasha, the woman he thought he was going to marry (Tiffany Haddish, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent), off his chest. In-between, its main twosome relive minor past glories, whether it's breakfast at a favourite diner or returning to the dirt-bike park job they loved as teens. Those guns have to go off in one way or another, though; Chekov demands it. If On the Count of Three wasn't so deeply felt — so bitterly, unapologetically dark as well — and anchored by such compelling performances, it could've easily gone astray. Tragicomedy isn't straightforward, or simple to pull off. But Carmichael shows his skills as a director (he has TV documentary Sermon on the Mount and a Lil Rel Howery comedy special among his past helming credits otherwise) by skewing both intimate and wide. The film's one-on-one exchanges are candid and revelatory, while pivoting to tensely staged car chases and shootouts still feels natural. The crime-thriller sheen of Marshall Adams' cinematography helps, as does Owen Pallett's evocative score (especially during a climactic pursuit). And, that bickering, bantering, ride-or-die dynamic between the exceptional Abbott and the devastatingly understated Carmichael is captivating to watch. It's a great time for seeing two well-paired actors bouncing off of each other and wanting more — see also: Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan in the vastly dissimilar See How They Run — but On the Count of Three's on-screen chemistry is hardly surprising. Abbott keeps going from strength to strength in complex parts, such as James White, Black Bear and Possessor, while Carmichael knows how to match vulnerability with truth, as his comedy special Rothaniel made plain. Such a key factor here is balance, the elusive concept that Val and Kevin are searching for even if they don't necessarily know it. It bubbles through in the movie's comic moments, too; when On the Count of Three chuckles, it directs is humour at Val cathartically screaming along to Papa Roach's 'Last Resort' in such on-the-nose circumstances, Papa Roach in general, the way that minutiae always gets in everyone's way — whether they're planning to see another day or not — and only starting to live when you want to die.
In 1947, one country became two and the world was forever altered. Following centuries of governance by the British, India was divided into distinct, independent territories along religious lines. One would still be known as India. The other would become Pakistan (and later, Bangladesh as well). Unsurprisingly, it was a massive task requiring significant contemplation and causing considerable repercussions, both for the officials charged with overseeing the partition, and for the locals who would be forced to live with the change. Such a chapter of history seems an obvious candidate for a dramatic film treatment — and that's just what Bend It Like Beckham's Gurinder Chadha delivers, stepping through the upheaval and exploring just how the two groups coped in such a turbulent period. But while she focuses firmly on the emotional toll of the partition, it's hard not to think that the director has actually missed the best story. Viceroy's House concludes on a rather touching personal note, explaining that Chadha's own grandmother lived through the events depicted on screen. Frankly, you could be forgiven for wishing she'd told that tale instead. Instead it's the last British head of India and his staff that drive the narrative of Viceroy's House. Accompanied by his wife Edwina (Gillian Anderson) and daughter Pamela (Lily Travers), Lord Louis Mountbatten (Hugh Bonneville) tries to negotiate an arrangement for the future of the sub-continent that keeps the various conflicting parties and his English superiors happy. Meanwhile, within Mountbatten's luxurious Delhi mansion, servant Jeet (Manish Dayal) yearns for his childhood sweetheart Aalia (Huma Qureshi), a situation complicated by the fact that he's a Hindu and she's a Muslim. Accordingly, a quest to determine the shape of two nations and a Romeo and Juliet-style affair combine, albeit somewhat awkwardly at times. Jumping between bureaucratic manoeuvring and matters of the heart isn't always packaged with the smoothest transitions, and doesn't give either side of the story much depth. Nevertheless, Chadha's main aim, of examining the ramifications for the country as well as its people, is successfully achieved. The film wrings most of its feeling from its many contrasts, be they ideological, political, religious or romantic. Standard as it all might be, Viceroy's House still proves a handsome effort. Think lush visuals and a rich score, plus fine performances. Downtown Abbey's Bonneville stays nicely in familiar territory, while Anderson couldn't be more enjoyable to watch. She mightn't be the movie's main star, but she's given the job of embodying its chief message of rising above prejudice and finding the right path in times of turmoil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ZnofZJCD8
