Since 2021, Brisbanites have known that the Queensland capital will host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Where exactly around the city? How will the lead-up to the sporting event impact residents? What will Brisbane gain afterwards? That's all remained an ongoing debate. First, the Gabba was being completely demolished and rebuilt, for instance. Then it wasn't. A temporary stadium at the RNA Showgrounds was suggested as a plan for the AFL and cricket if the Gabba was torn down. Then it wasn't needed. Adding a brand-new permanent stadium to Victoria Park at Herston was floated, then rejected, too, before upgrading Suncorp Stadium and the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre was confirmed as the way forward in 2024. A year after the decision to use QSAC, following a change of government in the Sunshine State over that time, the situation has evolved again. Premier David Crisafulli has announced the new 2032 Delivery Plan, following a 100-day review of the proposed setup to stage the Olympics and Paralympics in Brisbane. The outcome: saying hello to a stadium at Victoria Park again, bidding farewell to Roma Street's proposed live arena and also getting ready to for eventual goodbyes to Woolloongabba's Brisbane Cricket Ground. [caption id="attachment_818960" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Victoria Park[/caption] Set to be carried out by the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority, the new $7.1-billion venue capital works program will see Victoria Park score that new stadium, despite community concerns about losing inner-city green space. What this means for the long-held plans to transform the patch of Herston into a 64-hectare parkland with a tree house lookout, water play gully, high-ropes course, mountain bike track, reinstated water holes and wetlands, and more is yet to be revealed. The new stadium will seat 63,000 people, and will become the future home of the Brisbane Lions, Brisbane Heat and Queensland Bulls, alongside being able to host major concerts. [caption id="attachment_904761" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brisbane City Council via Flickr[/caption] Also part of the 2032 Delivery Plan is a new National Aquatic Centre at what's now the Centenary Pool in Spring Hill, with capacity for 25,000 spectators during the games and 8000 afterwards. Nearby, the RNA Showgrounds will get an upgraded arena that can welcome in 20,000 patrons, as well as hosting the athlete village for 15,000 competitors — and the latter will become permanent housing following the games. Still in Brisbane, the Queensland Tennis Centre will be upgraded as well, gaining a new permanent 3000-spectator show court, plus 12 new match courts — and the Chandler Sporting Precinct will become a site dedicated to para-sports. Elsewhere around the state, the Premier also advised that the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast will host athlete villages, Toowoomba Showgrounds will become an Equestrian Centre of Excellence, and Rockhampton's Fitzroy River will be the location for rowing and canoe events. Parklands and beaches around Queensland will become live sites and temporary venues, too, adding to the games' footprint. [caption id="attachment_929048" align="alignnone" width="1920"] JRA_WestyQld2 via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] With the National Aquatic Centre, the future of Brisbane Arena — a new live music venue at Roma Street Parklands that was set to host a drop-in pool for the Olympics — has changed. Clearly swimming there is no longer needed. In the press conference announcing the new way forward for the games, the Premier revealed that Brisbane Arena isn't an aspect of the 2032 Delivery Plan, but the government will instead work with the private sector to make the venue a reality in Woolloongabba, opposite where the Gabba currently sits. The Gabba will also still get torn down, albeit not for the Olympics. So, expect the River City to start looking a whole lot different, not just at the central Olympics precinct across Spring Hill, Bowen Hills and Victoria Park, but beyond. The plans also span transport network improvements, as will be greatly needed, including new rail lines and stations, new bus corridors, faster rail between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and M1 upgrades. [caption id="attachment_782238" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Gabba, Your Next Kid via Wikipedia Commons[/caption] For more information about the plans for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, head to the Queensland Government website. Top image:.
This Fortitude Valley venue is the kingpin of entertainment that rarely receives the credit it's due. From intimate live gigs to DJs that will happily play Fleetwood Mac's Tusk in its entirety, you can't really get away with sitting still at this cosy (often rather crazy) upstairs joint. Occasionally, the venue plays host to those uppity gigs where everyone is a little 'too cool to function' — prompting little more than a gentle sway — but when the beats are high-flying, with lights so dim you can get away with anything, even those with most cuffed of jeans can find themselves lost to the rhythm of the night.
Brisbanites are gifted brag-worthy sunshine and clear skies almost all year around, which makes for perfect outdoor gig and picnic weather. So, as the site has since 2018, the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens is letting everyone make the most of Brissie's ace climate with a Gigs & Picnics series. Taking place on the last Saturday of most months when it's not too hot or cold — running from 12–4pm on April 27, May 25, August 31, September 28 and October 26, in fact — the event will rustle up some of the city's best food trucks, put on some free tunes and invite folks to get cosy on their own blanket all afternoon. Entering through the main gateway at the intersection of Alice and Albert Streets, attendees can expect everything from jazz and modern reggae to dub and gypsy, all in gorgeous greenery-filled surroundings. You can also order a picnic basket in advance, which'll be there for you on the day. Or, if you're bringing your own feast, just remember that the gardens aren't BYO. Images: Gigs & Picnics.
Would you like some creepy with your coffee? David Lynch takes advertising to dark places with this disturbing film promoting his signature coffee line. I'm curious as to exactly what David Lynch Signature Cup would taste like. Obviously it would depend on whether you choose the espresso blend, house roast or decaf. My intuition tells me Lynch likes his coffee strong, dark and somewhat syrupy – much like his genius mind. All the blends are all organic and fairly traded, as we learn from a bizarre dialogue between Lynch and the decapitated Barbie doll head he cradles in his hand. [Via Lost At E-Minor]
Dive into a box of Lego, drink a few beers — it's the kidulting dream. Really, it's the best of both worlds, because getting older doesn't mean farewelling fun. While a dedicated brick bar popped up in Brisbane at the beginning of the year, that's not your only chance to build whatever your heart desires while knocking back tipples. Semi-Pro Brewing is also getting in on the action, hosting regular Bricks and Beers nights on the last Thursday of each month. From 6pm, you'll spend an hour working to a theme — and competing to construct the best Lego creation you possibly can. Three rounds will take place, each spanning around 30 minutes. If you've always wanted to make your mark in tiny plastic blocks, then go forth and do so. Prizes will be awarded for creativity in both categories, and drinks will be flowing. Entry is free, all Lego is supplied, so no need to raid anyone's toy box. But bring your wallet for beverages — and your doggo for company. Updated June 25.
Think comics only tell tales of spandex-wearing supermen or dark and brooding caped crusaders? Think again. Firstly, the world of graphic art is much more extensive, despite what the majority of page-to-screen adaptations indicate. And, when it comes to LGBTI+ efforts, Australia boasts quite the growing catalogue. A selection of pieces pondering themes such as horror, fashion, narrative, identity, sex and sexuality form part of MELT Festival's Queer Comics, which graces the walls of Brisbane Powerhouse's Mosquito Foyer from January 25 to February 5. As curated by Brissie cartoonist Phoebe Ayscough, the exhibition steps through the diverse and downright trailblazing side of the popular artform.
Landlocked surfers of Melbourne, rejoice — Australia's first surf park has finally announced its opening date. And it's a whole lot closer to the city than Torquay or the Peninsula. Urbnsurf Melbourne will officially open in Tullamarine, near the airport, just 16-kilometres north of the CBD, on Monday, January 6. Plans for the park first surfaced way back in 2016 and, while the team was initially hoping for a spring opening, Urbnsurf is finally opening its doors this summer. The two-hectare space is powering up to 1000 waves per hour — day and night — with the waves coming from an 85-metre pier running down the centre of the lagoon. A series of pistons located on the pier push the water to the left, then to the right, to create the waves. Being ability to create waves means that the park is built for both pros who are looking for steep, barrelling waves and novices looking for a safe place to get their start in the surf. [caption id="attachment_756496" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Courtesy of Urbnsurf and Ed Sloane[/caption] The waves are split into three sections: The Bays (beginner) with gentle rolling waves; The Point (intermediate) with 1-1.5 metre, mid-range turn waves; and The Point (advanced) with steep, long, barrelling waves up to two-metres-high with high-octane turns. At Urbnsurf, founder Andrew Ross predicts most novices will stand on their board within an hour and ride across the green face within two. And not only will you get guaranteed waves — you won't be fighting for them. The park holds a maximum of 24 riders in The Bays and 18 on each side of The Point. [caption id="attachment_756495" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Courtesy Urbnsurf and Stu Gibson[/caption] You'll be able to experience all of these waves for a very reasonable price, too, with one-hour sessions starting at just $25 for adults and lessons from $69. If you see yourself becoming an Urbnsurf regular, you can also splash out on a discounted ten-pack of sessions ($620 for beginners, $700 for pros) and monthly memberships, which start at $100 a month. More of a watch-and-cheer than a tumble-around-in-the-water person? All-day spectator passes are also available for just $5 — and they get you access to the day beds, cabanas and hot tubs (when they open in autumn). If you need a break between sessions on the water, Urbnsurf will also be home to a new two-storey restaurant by the owners of Sydney's Three Blue Ducks, which is set to open in early autumn. Until then, pop-ups by a heap of Melbourne's favourite food trucks, bars and eateries will look after the food and drinks. If you're not in Melbourne, you'll be happy to know that a second Urbnsurf is set to open at Sydney Olympic Park in 2021. Find Urbnsurf from Monday, January 6, near Melbourne Airport. It's open from 6am–10pm in summer and 9am–6pm in winter. You can now book in for surf sessions, surf lessons and spectator passes on the website. Images: Courtesy Urbnsurf, Ed Sloane and Stu Gibson.
Two new platforms are about to join Australia and New Zealand's ever-growing streaming landscape: dedicated horror service Shudder and prestige film and TV outlet Sundance Now. Both are run by AMC Networks, the American company that's also responsible for producing and airing shows such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Mad Men and The Walking Dead. While Shudder focuses on all things suspenseful and spooky, Sundance Now — which, as you would've spotted, shares its name with a certain high-profile US film festival — focuses on award-winning movies, including documentaries and foreign-language flicks, plus drama, comedy and true crime television series. Exactly when they'll launch is yet to be announced, although both will be up and running in Australia and New Zealand by the end of this year. If you like paying for things upfront rather than monthly, you'll be happy to know that they're available in other countries, such as the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria, for an annual fee. Local pricing is yet to be revealed, but Shudder costs US$4.99 per month and $49.99 per year elsewhere, and Sundance Now costs US$6.99 per month and $59.99 per year. If you already have a Netflix or Stan subscription and you're wondering whether you really need to add another, perhaps the platforms' specific programming will tempt you — including new additions such as 80s-set horror Summer of 84, gory French effort Revenge and Indonesian supernatural thriller Satan's Slaves on Shudder, plus true crime docuseries Cold Blooded and Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle on Sundance Now. Shudder's classic horror game is also strong, should you like watching old scary movies, while Sundance Now boasts plenty of top international TV series. Given that some of the respective platforms' content already makes its way to our shores anyway — a selection of shows on Sundance Now air in Australia on SBS, for example — how existing rights deals might affect their Aussie and New Zealand lineup hasn't been revealed. For more information about the two platforms, and to keep an eye out for local launch dates, head to the Facebook pages for Shudder and Sundance Now. We'll keep you updated with news as it comes to hand.
Back in 2020, Lord Howe Island was picked as one of the best places to visit on the planet. The 11-kilometre-long, two-kilometre-wide expanse just a two-hour flight east of Sydney is also one of Australia's most incredible islands, clearly. Now, it's being recognised for boasting the best hotel in the South Pacific — beating out resorts in Fiji and Bora Bora, which is quite the feat. The latest acclaim being showered Lord Howe Island's way comes courtesy of Tripadvisor, which has surveyed its users' review data and unveiled its Best of the Best Hotels list as part of its 2023 Travellers' Choice Awards. Open since around 1895, Pinetrees Lodge earned the top spot in the South Pacific rankings, and also came in at number 25 on the best all-inclusive hotels list, which details the top spots where everything you need is all in one place. [caption id="attachment_901975" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pinetrees Lodge[/caption] Joining Pinetrees Lodge among the Aussie highlights in the South Pacific are six other accommodation destinations. The Reef House Adults Boutique Tropical Escapes in Palm Cove came in second, The Remington Muswellbrook ranked fourth, RACV Torquay Resort sits in fifth, Brisbane's Kingsford Smith Motel at sixth and Element on Coolum Beach at seventh, then Little National Hotel Sydney in tenth. Filling the gaps between them: Fiji's Tokoriki Island Resort in third spot, then Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort at eighth and The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort in ninth position. That's quite the handy rundown of local and local-ish places to spend a night or several on your next vacation or staycation — and all seven Aussie hotels obviously took the top seven berths in the Australia-only top 25 as well. That lengthier list spans everywhere from Sovereign Park Motor Inn in Ballarat and MACq 01 Hotel in Hobart to Laneways by Ovolo in Melbourne and the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney. [caption id="attachment_901976" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rambagh Palace[/caption] Sadly, there was no Aussie showing in Tripadvisor's top ten hotels in the world, with the number-one spot going to Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, India. As all these kinds of rankings offer, the rest of the placeholders comprise an impressive travel bucket list, pinballing from Ozen Reserve Bolifushi on Bolifushi Island in the Maldives to the Shangri-La The Shard in London, plus Ikos Dassia in Greece, Padma Resort Ubud in Puhu in Indonesia and more. In various subcategories, other hotels given some love include Dromoland Castle Hotel in Ireland, a 16th-century castle that's been named the best hotel for sleep; The Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong, aka the newly dubbed best hotel with a spa; and the yurts of Patagonia Camp in Chile, which were anointed the best out-of-the-ordinary hotel. Or, there's The Toulson Court in England as the best B&B or inn — a field that Yarra Gables in Victoria came in third in worldwide — and White House Hotel in Istanbul as the best small hotel. [caption id="attachment_901973" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ozen Reserve Bolifushi[/caption] TOP TEN HOTELS IN THE WORLD 2023: 1. Rambagh Palace — Jaipur, India 2. Ozen Reserve Bolifushi — Bolifushi Island, Maldives 3. Hotel Colline de France — Gramado, Brazil 4. Shangri-La The Shard, London — London, United Kingdom 5. The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong — Hong Kong, China 6. JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai — Dubai, United Arab Emirates 7. Romance Istanbul Hotel — Istanbul, Türkiye 8. Ikos Dassia — Dassia, Greece 9. Ikos Andalusia — Estepona, Spain 10. Padma Resort Ubud — Puhu, Indonesia [caption id="attachment_901978" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tokoriki Island Resort[/caption] TOP TEN HOTELS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC 2023: 1. Pinetrees Lodge — Lord Howe Island, Australia 2. The Reef House Adults Boutique Tropical Escapes — Palm Cove, Australia 3. Tokoriki Island Resort — Tokoriki Island, Fiji 4. The Remington Muswellbrook — Muswellbrook, Australia 5. RACV Torquay Resort — Torquay, Australia 6. Kingsford Smith Motel — Brisbane, Australia 7. Element on Coolum Beach — Coolum Beach, Australia 8. Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort — Sigatoka, Fiji 9. The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort — Bora Bora, French Polynesia 10. Little National Hotel Sydney — Sydney, Australia [caption id="attachment_901977" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Reef House Adults Boutique Tropical Escapes[/caption] TOP 25 HOTELS IN AUSTRALIA 2023: 1. Pinetrees Lodge — Lord Howe Island, NSW 2. The Reef House Adults Boutique Tropical Escapes — Palm Cove, Qld 3. The Remington Muswellbrook — Muswellbrook, NSW 4. RACV Torquay Resort — Torquay, Vic 5. Kingsford Smith Motel — Brisbane, Qld 6. Element on Coolum Beach — Coolum Beach, Qld 7. Little National Hotel Sydney — Sydney, NSW 8. Zagame's House — Melbourne, Vic 9. Sovereign Park Motor Inn — Ballarat, Vic 10. Mansi on Raymond — Sale, Vic 11. Quest South Perth Foreshore — South Perth, WA 12. Quest Orange — Orange, NSW 13. Emporium Hotel South Bank — Brisbane, Qld 14. MACq 01 Hotel —Hobart, Tas 15. Julie-Anna Inn — Bendigo, Vic 16. Majestic M Suites — Adelaide, SA 17. Alcyone Hotel Residences — Brisbane, Qld 18. Laneways by Ovolo — Melbourne, Vic 19. Quest Echuca — Echuca, Vic 20. Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat — Tallebudgera, Qld 21. Quest Warrnambool — Warrnambool, Vic 22. Korte's Resort — Rockhampton, Qld 23. Novotel Brisbane South Bank — Brisbane, Qld 24. Four Seasons Hotel Sydney — Sydney, NSW 25. Adina Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury — Adelaide, SA For more information about Tripadvisor's 2023 Travellers' Choice Awards, head to the service's website. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Escaping is the aim of every holiday. When you temporarily swap your own four walls for somewhere further afield, your daily worries should float away. Tokyo in general is great at evoking that sensation; however, the best place in the Japanese capital for forgetting that real life exists is digital-only art gallery teamLab Borderless, where being surrounded by and immersed in art is taken literally. After being closed for a year and a half to move to a new location, this must-visit spot on any Japan itinerary has finally reopened. As at Friday, February 9, teamLab Borderless now resides at Azabudai Hills with an array of stunning works — some brand-new, some familiar, all glorious. So, if your 2024 resolutions involve seeing spectacular art and travelling, this is one of the best ways to tick both boxes. Everything from bubbles and jelly to flowers and oceans now awaits, plus waterfalls and a tea house pouring cuppas adorned with blooming flowers as well. When it initially launched in 2018, teamLab Borderless instantly became a Tokyo favourite. It was also anointed the most-visited single-artist museum in the world during its first year of operation. Expect that to happen again in central Tokyo, where it has relocated to from its past Odaiba base. Sadly, you no longer need to cross over Tokyo's gorgeous Rainbow Bridge to get there — but your eyes will have much to feast on inside. If you were lucky enough to mosey around the OG spot before the pandemic, you'll know that the Borderless experience involves vibrant, constantly moving, always-changing interactive digital art keeps that keeps glowing and rearranging before your eyes. As the name makes plain, nothing is fixed or static here. Pieces move from one space to the next, and interact with other works. Sometimes, several different projections and installations mingle together. For attendees, peering at the end results isn't merely a passive experience, with the venue encouraging patrons to "wander, explore and discover". This is a place where terms like breathtaking, kaleidoscopic and delightful are all earned, and where the art is worth a trip to Tokyo to see all by itself. Borderless 2.0 spans both evolved and brand-new artworks. Accordingly, even if you've been before at its old digs, you won't just be seeing the same things (even though they're definitely worth enjoying more than once). Standout pieces include the jaw-dropping Light Sculpture series, which cycles through an array of light formations and colours, as well as an eye-catching mirrored infinity room-style space titled Microcosmoses — although, to be fair, everything is a standout here. Among the world-premiere installations, there's also Bubble Universe: Physical Light, Bubbles of Light, Wobbling Light, and Environmental Light, which is comprised of spheres that look like soap bubbles and jelly, and moves through various colours. With Flowers and People — Megalith Crystal Formation, you can spy florals bud and blossom, then wither and decay, repeating that pattern endlessly. And thanks to Black Waves — Megalith Crystal Formation, the sea gets a nod. Attendees can also enjoy Giant Solidified Spark, which is a sphere made from rays of light — plus Wall Without a Wall, which you'll see as a wall even though nothing physical exists. For younger visitors, plus those young at heart, Sketch Ocean turns drawings into art that swims before your eyes. And after proving a hit at the original site, the tea house ensures that every time that you sip a hot beverage in future will feel flatout average — blossoming projections on your cup while you drink will do that. teamLab might be best-known for its Tokyo site, but it doesn't only operate in Japan. A second teamLab Borderless has already been open in Shanghai since 2019, and others are slated for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Hamburg in Germany — the former without an exact opening date, the latter slated to launch in 2025. The organisation also operates a different museum in Macao, and has its first teamLab Phenomena on the way for the Saadiyat Cultural District in Abu Dhabi, again targeting a 2024 launch. The list goes on, with teamLab's works a drawcard wherever they pop up. teamLab Borderless Tokyo: MORI Building Digital Art Museum is now open at its new location at Azabudai Hills, Garden Plaza B B1F, 1-2-4 Azabudai, Minato-ku, Tokyo — for more information, visit the museum's website. Images: teamLab, Exhibition view of teamLab Borderless: MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM, 2024, Azabudai Hills, Tokyo © teamLab, courtesy Pace Gallery.
The Rave Cave of Psychotropic Nightmares is an immersive art installation, built to resemble somewhat of a do-it-yourself, post-apocalyptic environment, built by garden gnomes. A dreamlike world that will be brought to life for the Brisbane Festival. Melbourne's A.C.A.B Collective, Ben Johanson, Zinzi Kennedy, Gina Cuntstruct and Rowan Moyle, will be bringing the work to life "out the back" of the Metro Arts Complex. The work itself will grow and morph throughout the Festival, utilizing different media and found objects to "map the psychosis of a throwaway society". Viewers will be able to interact with the work, moving about the installation to discover zones of light and sound. It is a free event, and so will be worth your while to visit more often for alternative experiences. No matter your taste or perspective, there is sure to be something for everyone in the Rave Cave.
Peering at ancient pyramids isn't normally an Australian pastime, but it will be come spring without needing to leave the country. In 2024, the nation's fascination with Egypt thousands of years ago has already been fuelled by Sydney exhibition Ramses & the Gold of the Pharaohs, which wrapped up in May — and also by Pharaoh in Melbourne, which is on display until October. Next up is Horizon of Khufu, a virtual-reality experience rather than a showcase of treasures and trinkets. You won't get up close to historical items here, but you will become immersed in the past like it's all around you. Patrons will see the Great Pyramids of Giza, including flying over the Giza Necropolis. You'll climb to the top of the Pyramid of Khufu, in fact, and gaze out over Egypt with a 360-degree view. Getting a glimpse of burial chambers and embalming ceremonies, finding the queen's chamber, sailing down the Nile, attending Khufu's funeral: that's all also on the agenda, as is checking out the Great Sphinx of Giza and witnessing these ancient wonders by night. That's where your eyes will be heading, at least, via a VR headset that'll take you into a shared play space. Your peepers will also be checking out recreations of sights dating back 4500 years, to the time of Khufu, the second pharaoh of Egypt's fourth dynasty. He's the figure that's believed to have commissioned the largest of the pyramids, which was also his tomb. Your body will need to be in Sydney at the Harbour City's Fever Pavilion, where Horizon of Khufu is making its Australian debut from Thursday, September 5, 2024. There's no word yet whether the experience will then head to other Aussie cities, as some past events from entertainment platform Fever have, including its Banksy and NBA exhibitions recently. Once they've popped on their headsets, attendees will be led through Horizon of Khufu by a virtual guide, all while benefiting from design by Egyptologist and Harvard University professor Peter Der Manuelian. If you're with your date or mates, or family, the 45-minute experience also lets you visuals others in the VR space, so you won't all just be off on your own wander through bygone years. Australia joins France — where Horizon of Khufu debuted in 2022 — as well as the US, Canada and the UK in being able to enjoy this blast from the past. Unsurprisingly, it has proven popular around the globe, notching up more than one million visitors so far. If you've seen plenty of other Egypt obsessives at Ramses & the Gold of the Pharaohs and Pharaoh, you'll know that Aussies will help boost those numbers. Horizon of Khufu will open at Fever Pavilion, Olympic Boulevard, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney from Thursday, September 5, 2024 — with the waitlist open now and tickets on sale from Tuesday, July 23, 2024. Head to the exhibition website for more details.
Each year on January 26 triple j put a mortgage on Australia's airwaves, pumping out the best 100 tracks from the previous year as voted by their listeners in the world's largest annual music poll. The station is one of the only non-commercial national youth radio networks anywhere in the world, and places a real focus on uncovering and supporting the best Australian talent, providing a soundtrack to many a misspent youth in the process. So it was with great excitement that listeners awaited results in triple j's inaugural Hottest 100 Australian Records of All Time this past weekend. The results provided us with some interesting factoids, and after the 47,000 votes were counted, the top gong went to Powderfinger's Odyssey Number 5. At the time of its release in 2001, the album sold more than 500,000 copies and spent almost two years weeks on the ARIA Charts, winning six ARIAs in 2001, including Album of the Year and Single of the Year for 'My Happiness'. Our personal picks for the Top Ten at Concrete Playground HQ are: 1. Since I Left You – The Avalanches 2. Frogstomp – Silverchair 3. Crowded House – Crowded House 4. Back In Black – AC/DC 5. Kick – INXS 6. Unit – Regurgitator 7. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 – Midnight Oil 8. Lovers – The Sleepy Jackson 9. In Ghost Colours – Cut Copy 10. Human Frailty – Hunters & Collectors The full Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time list is as follows: 1. Odyssey Number 5 – Powderfinger 2. Frogstomp – Silverchair 3. Back In Black – AC/DC 4. The Living End – The Living End 5. Kick – INXS 6. Internationalist – Powderfinger 7. Apocalypso – The Presets 8. Wolfmother – Wolfmother 9. Since I Left You – The Avalanches 10. Unit – Regurgitator 11. Like Drawing Blood – Gotye 12. Guide to Better Living – Grinspoon 13. Crowded House – Crowded House 14. Vulture Street – Powderfinger 15. Slightly Odway – Jebediah 16. The Hard Road – Hilltop Hoods 17. Eternal Nightcap – The Whitlams 18. Woodface – Crowded House 19. Innerspeaker – Tame Impala 20. Conditions – The Temper Trap 21. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 – Midnight Oil 22. Diorama – Silverchair 23. The Calling – Hilltop Hoods 24. Sunrise Over Sea – The John Butler Trio 25. Get Born – Jet 26. Hourly, Daily – You Am I 27. Neon Ballroom – Silverchair 28. The Cat Empire – The Cat Empire 29. The Sound of White – Missy Higgins 30. Themata – Karnivool 31. Down the Way – Angus & Julia Stone 32. Universes – Birds of Tokyo 33. Diesel and Dust – Midnight Oil 34. Memories & Dust – Josh Pyke 35. Hi Fi Way – You Am I 36. In Ghost Colours – Cut Copy 37. Highly Evolved – The Vines 38. A Book Like This – Angus & Julia Stone 39. Birds of Tokyo – Birds of Tokyo 40. Echolalia – Something for Kate 41. Double Allergic – Powderfinger 42. East – Cold Chisel 43. Freak Show – Silverchair 44. Tu-Plang – Regurgitator 45. Sound Awake – Karnivool 46. Walking On A Dream – Empire Of The Sun 47. Black Fingernails, Red Wine – Eskimo Joe 48. Ivy and the Big Apples – Spiderbait 49. Whispering Jack – John Farnham 50. The New Normal – Cog 51. I Believe You Liar – Washington 52. Murder Ballads – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 53. Three – The John Butler Trio 54. Tea & Sympathy – Bernard Fanning 55. Blue Sky Mining – Midnight Oil 56. Bliss Release – Cloud Control 57. The Honeymoon Is Over – The Cruel Sea 58. New Detention – Grinspoon 59. As Day Follows Night – Sarah Blasko 60. We Are Born – Sia 61. Hold Your Colour – Pendulum 62. Cruel Guards – The Panics 63. Grand National – The John Butler Trio 64. Polyserena – George 65. Cold Chisel – Cold Chisel 66. Running on Air – Bliss N Eso 67. Flying Colours – Bliss N Eso 68. The Experiment – Art vs. Science 69. Gossip – Paul Kelly and The Coloured Girls 70. Young Modern – Silverchair 71. Beams – The Presets 72. Beautiful Sharks – Something For Kate 73. Highway To Hell – AC/DC 74. The Overture & The Underscore – Sarah Blasko 75. Living In The 70s – Skyhooks 76. Human Frailty – Hunters & Collectors 77. Immersion – Pendulum 78. Lovers – The Sleepy Jackson 79. Gravity Won't Get You High – The Grates 80. (I'm) Stranded – The Saints 81. Feeler – Pete Murray 82. Up All Night – The Waifs 83. Wonder – Lisa Mitchell 84. 16 Lovers Lane – The Go-Betweens 85. State Of The Art – Hilltop Hoods 86. This Is The Warning – Dead Letter Circus 87. A Song Is A City – Eskimo Joe 88. Imago – The Butterfly Effect 89. Pnau – Pnau 90. The Long Now – Children Collide 91. Gilgamesh – Gypsy & The Cat 92. A Man's Not A Camel – Frenzal Rhomb 93. Moo, You Bloody Choir – Augie March 94. Everything Is True – Paul Dempsey 95. Stoneage Romeos – Hoodoo Gurus 96. Paging Mr. Strike – Machine Gun Fellatio 97. Begins Here – The Butterfly Effect 98. The Boatman's Call – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 99. Thrills, Kills & Sunday Pills – Grinspoon 100. Two Shoes – The Cat Empire https://youtube.com/watch?v=8fBbKtq_Li8
What do Byron Bay, Busselton, Bali and Bangkok all have in common? Alongside everywhere from Launceston, Newcastle, Uluru, Cairns, Darwin, The Whitsundays, and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts through to Singapore and Phuket, you can nab a cheap flight there and back as part of Jetstar's latest sale. This time around, fares start at $33. The one catch: you'll need to be a Club Jetstar member (but you can sign up now to get in on the bargains). There always seems to be an airline sale popping up, but this one has a heap of discounts on a huge number of fares, with 100,000 flights on offer. You do need to get in quick, however, as it's running for just 48 hours. The cheapest domestic price, $33, gets you between Sydney and Ballina/Byron, but Launceston–Melbourne is only $43, Brisbane–Whitsunday Coast and Newcastle–Melbourne are both $49, Gold Coast–Sydney is $50, Sunshine Coast–Sydney starts at $52 and Hobart–Melbourne begins at $58. To get from Brisbane to Cairns, you'll pay $76 — and from Sydney to Uluru is $105, Melbourne–Busselton / Margaret River is $135 and Darwin–Sydney is $156. The list goes on, including for overseas jaunts, where the Perth–Singapore route starts at $139, Melbourne–Singapore begins at $189, Adelaide–Bali is $215, Sydney–Phuket kicks off at $279 and Brisbane–Bangkok starts at $285. If you're keen, the sale runs from 12pm AEDT on Wednesday, March 19–11.59am ADST on Friday, March 21, 2025 — or until sold out, if snapped up earlier. And yes, if you're eager for a holiday at reduced prices, you'll want to get in quick. Travel periods vary, but you should find dates betwen late-March 2025–early-February 2026 across the full spread of specials. You'll pay extra for checked baggage if you need it, however, or you'll want to travel super light. Club Jetstar membership costs $65 a year, which you can join online while making a flight booking, and also gives you 20-percent off checked bags and seat selection. [caption id="attachment_976497" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jesse Shaw Photography[/caption] The Club Jetstar March member-only sale runs from 12pm AEDT on Wednesday, March 19–11.59am ADST on Friday, March 21, 2025 — or until sold out, if snapped up earlier. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Stephen King's horror novels, and the movies based on them, have taught the world many things. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, hanging out in a pet cemetery isn't a great idea, toxic fandom exists and bullying is awful (although everyone already knew the last one). If one life lesson from the author's pages stands out above the rest, however, it's this: clowns can be creepy, chilling and downright terrifying. Fancy seeing how you cope with the eerie figures while you're on the mini golf course? Wondering if all that makeup put you off your short game? Brisbane is about to get a Halloween putt putt setup, so it's time to do the monster mash while you're tap, tap, tapping — and avoiding frightening jokers. At Christmas, the Victoria Park Putt Putt Course gives itself a festive revamp. Mini golf is more fun with reindeer, obviously. At Easter, a candy-themed course pops up — and over Valentine's Day, the venue went big on love. Next, from Friday, September 16–Monday, October 31, that's when the Halloween spirit kicks in. The venue's greens will be getting a spooky makeover and, no, missing a hole in one won't be the most terrifying thing about your next stint on the course. Zombies, witches, spiders, toxic waste barrels, bones, pumpkins — they're also among the petrifying things that'll be improving or scaring your short game. If a haunted house was to meet up with a mini golf course, this is what it'd look like. If you went along to last year's Halloween putt putt, you're in for an extra bonus — this year's will have a whole set of new and different decorations, so you won't just be hitting a ball around the same setup. Bookings are essential, with the course open from 6am–10pm Sunday–Thursday and 6am–11pm Friday–Saturday. Fancy a few holes before work? Want to add some fun to your lunch break? Need something to look forward to come quitting time? They're all options. Just remember that it's a family-friendly affair, so you'll likely have plenty of company — and tickets cost $23 per adult. Also, making a visit between Friday, October 28–Monday, October 31 is particularly recommended. That's when Victoria Park is hosting a Wicked Weekend, complete with Altos Tequila slushie margaritas or a non-alcoholic versions, plus added augmented-reality scares. Halloween Putt Putt takes over the Victoria Park Putt Putt Course at 309 Herston Road, Herston from Friday, September 16–Monday, October 31, open 6am–10pm Sunday–Thursday and 6am–11pm Friday–Saturday — with tickets costing $23 for adults. For more information, head to the venue's website. Images: Pandora Photography.
You could travel to the Murray and do nothing but eat, drink and be merry. And you should. The region is jam-packed with incredible producers, innovative makers and chefs, old-school artisans and new-wave cuisine. Having access to some of the country's best farmers and makers gives these venues the luxury of a hyper-local, hyper-seasonal approach to food and drink. From swanky bistros and rustic wineries to experimental distillers and fire-focused chefs, the Murray region is an unmissable foodie destination. If you're a flavour-chaser, prepare yourself to get amongst it all: swirl small-batch wines, discover ancient flavours and native ingredients, and experience new locavore dining experiences and European-inspired eateries. Whatever your taste, whenever you decide to visit, there's someone in the Murray region putting their heart and soul into something delicious. [caption id="attachment_662395" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Morrisons Riverview Winery and Restaurant[/caption] WINE AND DINE Trentham Estate Winery lies on the banks of the Murray, offering an award-winning cellar door experience. This much-lauded NSW Tourism Awards Hall-of-Famer boasts 45 sweeping hectares of vines producing French and Italian varietals. Officially established in 1988, it'd actually been in viticulture for decades beforehand, and it's still a family-run winery today. Snag a table at the restaurant to enjoy Modern European fare, or swing by the cellar door to just sit back and watch the boats slide by as you sip shiraz (also, unsurprisingly, award-winning). Morrisons Riverview Winery and Restaurant (pictured above) is more than just a darn gorgeous venue — this Moama winery also has a restaurant that should be on every foodie hitlist. The ever-changing menu is focused on local, seasonal produce with enough variety to suit all tastes. Sweetcorn bread with cashew sambal and burnt chilli butter sits alongside lamb backstrap with pickled cauli, greens, couscous and smoked eggplant puree, calamari caesar salad pimped with pork scratchings and garlic toast, and chips with kasundi, aioli and hop salt. The five-course 'Chef's Feed Me' option is the best way to sample the scope of these flavours. Enjoy it while sipping Morrisons' premium wine blends from its 15 hectares of vines — from chardonnay to moscato to shiraz. [caption id="attachment_893785" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Old School Winery and Meadery, Destination NSW[/caption] SIP SOMETHING SPECIAL For something different, take a drive out to Monak Wine Co. Its first vintage was released in 2020 making it a younger winery (albeit with 25 years of winemaking experience to draw on). Here's what else you need to know: it's family-owned, works with local growers and applies exquisite attention to detail to its small-batch, handmade drops. It's an eclectic mix of wines — some minimal intervention, all very special. The cellar door opens on Friday and Saturday to slake your curiosity. The Old School Winery and Meadery (pictured above) is more than a classic winery. Sure, it makes a few small-batch, handcrafted reds, but the main point of difference is mead — traditionally fermented honey alcohol. On the site of an old Womboota school, this rustic venue offers a taste of history in more ways than one. It has been making mead for over 20 years, spearheading the honey-wine industry growth in Australia. Mead was a drink beloved by Vikings, but the unique flavour of Australian bush honey makes this unlike any European mead. Here, the team crafts everything from sweet and fortified meads to drier styles. They also make medieval mead beakers in the on-site pottery workshop. Bring a picnic and settle into the cellar door garden for an afternoon. [caption id="attachment_893783" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Corowa Whisky and Chocolate, Destination NSW[/caption] GET SPIRITED AWAY Drink less, enjoy more: that's the ethos of Echuca Distillery, championing quality and character over quantity. Based in Echuca Moama, David De Vries and his wife Fiona have decades of experience in fragrance and flavour production science. Their fastidious research and passion for playing with gin botanicals lead to unique, expressive flavour profiles. Starting with a base of grain or grape spirit distilled in Lavender, their Italian copper still, they infuse classics like dry and navy strength gin as well as combos like yuzu and ginger, a five-citrus gin and a port barrel-aged gin. In addition to liqueurs, cocktail spirits, arak and agave, Echuca has now added a whisky to the lineup. Corowa Whisky and Chocolate (pictured above) began with an underdog story of three mates buying an abandoned flour mill for a dollar. With one of Australia's youngest head distillers, this business produces a true blue Aussie whisky. It uses local organic barley grains and Murray River water to make its signature dram, aided by the drastically fluctuating temperatures of the area which leads to faster maturation. The most popular whisky, Corowa Characters, honours the team behind it and is aged in American, French and Hungarian oak. There are other whisky styles that use ex-bourbon, ex-muscat and ex-sherry casks, as well as single barrel releases and a special collab with Bridge Road Brewers, distilled from unsold kegs of beer in 2020. For those with a sweet tooth, there are Belgian chocolates crafted in-house on offer that are the perfect complement to whisky. What more could you need? [caption id="attachment_894105" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yardbird[/caption] EAT ELITE Bistro Selle is a classic European bistro in the heart of a country city. There's a balance between comfortable familiarity, charming elegance and playful experiments. As well as freshly shucked oysters and smoked beef tartare, you'll find crispy tripe, goat ragu and a porcini-choc-fennel-malt dessert. Refined dishes are plated in an artistic, almost sculptural, way that's as pleasing to the eye as to the tastebuds. All are accompanied by an extensive wine list of Australian and European drops. The key focus of Yardbird (pictured above) is flame, from the Spanish Mibrasa woodfired oven in the kitchen to the roaring glass-fronted fire centrepiece of the dining room. It only opened in 2021, but it's been making a name for itself in the region. The decor is stylish yet warm and comforting: light-flooded, pale timber accents and post-industrial warehouse ceilings. The western European-inspired menu changes in line with the daily produce and opportunity, but can include whipped cod roe and flatbread; deep fried Crottin de Chavignol with figs, green beans and honey; bavette steak with bone marrow, persillade and green peppercorn; rosemary duck fat potatoes and mamasita-style fire-roasted corn; and poached cherry pavlova to finish. Now, imagine all that paired with a bright wine list of mineral-driven, minimal intervention vino. [caption id="attachment_893786" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The River Deck Cafe, Destination NSW[/caption] OR KEEP IT CASUAL The River Deck Cafe serves Modern Australian cuisine in Albury, overlooking the tree-lined banks of the Murray. Local and native ingredients take centre stage here, so you can really taste the region, with its creative flourish on a farm-to-table menu. It's very seasonal. So seasonal that the menu changes every two to four weeks in line with the availability of the best produce. At breakfast and lunch, it offers comforting country classics like sourdough crumpets alongside the smashed avo and house granola any city slicker expects of brekkie, followed by hearty mains like a porterhouse steak, barramundi and chips and pasta dishes. The Albury offshoot of a locally loved Lake Mulwala restaurant, Blacksmith Provedore, has distilled that same European aperitivo hour aesthetic of the original into a space within the famously top-notch Harris Farm market. With a white and grey marble bar, hanging charcuterie and rows of delicious wines, it brings more casual riviera elegance than you might expect. Plus, being in the market, it has access to the finest ingredients. As well as local produce, expect prosciutto from San Daniele, San Marzano tomatoes from Salerno and buffalo Mozzarella from Shaw River. You can start your day with luxurious pastries, a Reuben toastie or fruit-topped chia puddings. Stop by later to get in on those famous woodfired pizzas with a three-day slow-fermented base. Pair it with a spritz or cocktail special, or opt for a wine from the truly delicious list. Located at the rear of Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA), looking over the gardens, Canvas Eatery is a bright light-filled modern space offering a peaceful retreat in the heart of Albury. It's open 8am—3pm daily but also opens on Friday and Saturday evenings from 5pm till late. It serves some of the best coffee in town, according to the locals. Not to mention craft beer and excellent wines. Food-wise, it's a fun, fresh menu, with Coco Pops, crumpets with honeycomb butter and raspberry cheesecake waffles for breakfast. An open bagel smørrebrød with herb creme fraiche, smoked salmon, avo and salmon caviar features on the lunch menu. Then by night, expect an eclectic mix of share plates, including smoked river fish croquettes, prawn toast banh mi, duck parfait with rye wattleseed waffle, and pizzas. [caption id="attachment_893788" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paddle Streamer, Destination NSW[/caption] TAKE A TASTING TOUR Take a cruise down the river, capturing that old-timey charm on board an award-winning tour. Murray River Paddle Steamer's 'Wharf to Winery' premium cruise takes you along the Murray in an iconic, beautifully restored historic paddle steamer. The total tour is about three hours, accompanied by a captain's commentary on the history and culture of the area. Then it's time for a two-course lunch at Morrisons Winery and a guided tasting. On the way back, enjoy complimentary vino as you sail along the Murray in style. Nothing compares to meeting the folks behind the food, and The Eating, Drinking, Tasting tour with Albury Eating Travel allows you to do just that. A full-day tour of two to seven guests in a Mercedes van will take you around the region to chat with the experts themselves: small-scale, private farms, boutique wineries and distilleries. And each tour is unique and catered to your taste and the seasons. For more ways to enjoy the Murray region, check out our nature guide or history and culture guide. Or, to start planning your food pilgrimage to the Murray region, head to the website. Top images: Destination NSW (Corowa Distillery; Blacksmith Provedore, Albury).
Lobster has long been the fancy champagne of the seafood world. For most of us, it's the kind of dish that you can only justify having when you really feel like going all out and treating yo'self — but, this month, the indulgent crustacean-based meal is gracing Betty's Burgers' menu. Combining fresh lobster meat, the chain's special mayonnaise, shallots, chives, lemon and spice, Betty's new lobster roll will be on offer at all of its 22 Australian stores from Thursday, February 13. If your stomach is already rumbling, you can tuck into one for a reasonable $23 (which includes a side of fries). You'll need to get in quickly, though, as the lobster roll only available for a couple of weeks — or until sold out. It's worth noting that last time the roll was on the menu, it only lasted less than a week. So if you're particularly keen, it's best to go sooner, rather than later. Known for its Shake Shack-style burgs and frozen custard desserts (called concretes), Betty's is making a foray into lobster to celebrate its beachy roots. While you can now grab a Betty's burger at nine Sydney outlets, four Melbourne spots, five Brisbane outposts, one Toowoomba eatery and one location in Adelaide, the company first began in Noosa, and then expanded to the Gold Coast. Betty's Burgers' lobster roll is available at all 27 Australian stores from Thursday, February 13. For more information and to find your nearest store, visit Betty's Burgers' website.
Sydney's claim to fame as the home of the southern hemisphere's largest dedicated beauty store is set to be short-lived. Mecca opened its huge Australian flagship shop — its first flagship site in general, in fact — in the New South Wales capital in 2020; however, the retailer has just announced that it's going one better in Melbourne come 2023. The Victorian city's Bourke Street Mall will welcome a huge new 3000-square-metre flagship Mecca that'll sprawl across both the ground and first floors at 299 Bourke Street. That's more than 1000 square metres larger than the Sydney shop, and also five times bigger than the chain's current next largest store at Highpoint Shopping Centre. It'll also span over 35 times more space than its very first store on Toorak Road did two decades back. When it opens its doors in two years time, the beauty retailer huge site will obviously boast oh-so-much room for products, including a curated range from over 200 top brands — featuring everything from Nars and Charlotte Tilbury to Drunk Elephant and Diptyque, plus Mecca's own signature lines Mecca Cosmetica and Mecca Max. Exactly what else will fill its hefty floorplan hasn't yet been revealed but, if it takes a few cues from its Sydney counterpart, that could include a heap of beauty services; Mecca's dedicated labs for skin, makeup and brows; a Mecca gift-wrapping bar; and the Mecca concierge will help point you in the right direction as you're wandering around. The chain is calling its new store an "unprecedented beauty experience", so expect more than just a clone of Sydney's features. "After 24 years of opening stores across Australia and New Zealand, our flagships are the culmination of the past, present and future of Mecca as a business," said the brand's founder and co-CEO Jo Horgan. "We have a vision to create the world's most extraordinary, innovative and loved experiential retail destination where people can immerse themselves in the absolute best of global beauty." The new flagship announcement follows Mecca's recent move into the Northern Territory, opening its first store in Darwin — and reaching its 107th site across Australia and NZ. Mecca will open its new Melbourne flagship store at 299 Bourke Street, Melbourne, sometime in 2023 — we'll update you with further details when they're announced. Images: Mecca Sydney.
Over the past decade, streaming has become a firm part of every film and TV fan's life — providing more viewing choices, more places to find movies and television shows, and more excuses to spend hours and hours on the couch. But, it has also sparked a familiar dilemma. Too often, thanks to all of the options available, it's easy to while more time deciding what to check out next than actually watching something. Netflix is planning to release a solution to this problem in 2021, via a new feature. Due to rollout globally across the platform in the first half of the year, it's basically a shuffle function — and will automatically pick something for you to watch, rather than letting you keep scrolling and scrolling (and scrolling) trying to make a decision. The streaming platform revealed the news as part of its latest update to investors about its 2020 earnings, noting that the feature "gives members the ability to choose to instantly watch a title chosen just for them". Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer Greg Peters said that the function would allow Netflix subscribers to indicate "that they just want to skip browsing entirely, click one button and we'll pick a title for them just to instantly play". Obviously, it seems that Netflix will be drawing upon its algorithm — as aided by your past viewing choices — to take your viewing choices out of your hands. It won't be called "I'm feeling lucky", Peters also noted, but that's the approach it'll be asking subscribers to go with in terms of finding something to watch next. The company has been testing this type of functionality in various forms over the past few years — and the concept is hardly new, as users of music streaming services know. In France at the end of 2020, Netflix also trialled a linear channel, which just played films and shows one after the other in the way that broadcast television does; however, Peters said that it is currently "unclear how that's going to work out". The idea behind these new features — whether they're just being trialled, or they're due to become permanent — is to keep people watching and encourage more folks to join up as subscribers, of course. More and more new streaming services pop up all the time, all vying for your eyeballs, or so it feels at least. That's also the reason that Netflix introduced its Top Ten lists in 2020, if you've been wondering why the platform started telling you that everyone was watching Tiger King, The Queen's Gambit and The Midnight Sky. Netflix's new shuffle feature is due to launch sometime in the first half of 2021 — we'll update you when more details are announced.
Lorde is back — but she won't be back doing live gigs for a bit longer. After five years away from music, the New Zealand pop sensation returned this year with a third studio album, with Solar Power releasing back August. Back in June, she also announced a massive 2022 tour of Australia and New Zealand; however, those shows have now been delayed until 2023. The tour has been postponed due to New Zealand's current COVID-19 outbreak and the uncertainty surrounding what'll be permitted next February and March, which is when Lorde's gigs were originally set to take place. "I am beyond devastated to be postponing these shows. Starting the tour in New Zealand was always really important to me, and would have been a huge high," Lorde said in a statement. "I fought this decision for a long time, but the truth is that touring internationally through a COVID outbreak has a ton of unforeseen moving parts, and I'd much rather play for you when we're all confident it will go smoothly. I want to apologise wholeheartedly to the fans. I'm so gutted to let you down, but so grateful for your understanding." [caption id="attachment_816623" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Come Up Show[/caption] When it kicks off in 2023, the tour will now run from Tuesday, February 21 through till Saturday, March 18. Australians are scoring eight dates across Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, while New Zealanders can choose from seven shows. The Australian and New Zealand tour will begin at Days Bay at Lower Hutt on Tuesday, February 21 and Wednesday, February 22. From there the 'Royals' singer will make her way around New Zealand throughout late February and early March, and arrive in Australia on Tuesday, March 7 for two shows at the Brisbane Riverstage. Australia's east coast will be treated to two more shows each at Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl and the ICC's Aware Super Theatre in Sydney, before the tour wraps up with a couple of gigs at Perth's Belvoir Amphitheatre. The last time either country was treated to Lorde's live set was her headline set at Splendour in the Grass 2018, a full circle moment for the singer as she returned to the stage of one of her first ever performances as a last-minute replacement for Frank Ocean back in 2013. A year prior, in 2017, Lorde also toured some of Australia's largest and most iconic outdoor venues including the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. Existing tickets will remain valid for the new dates, while tickets to newly announced gigs in Lower Hutt, Brisbane and Perth start pre-sales on Wednesday, November 17 ahead of general ticket sales on Friday, November 19. LORDE 'SOLAR POWER' 2023 TOUR DATES Tuesday, February 21 – Days Bay, Lower Hutt Wednesday, February 22 – Days Bay, Lower Hutt — new show Saturday, February 25 – Electric Avenue, Christchurch Monday, February 27 – Neudorf Vineyards, Upper Moutere Wednesday, March 1 – Black Barn Vineyards, Havelock North Friday, March 3 – TSB Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth Saturday, March 4 – Outer Fields Western Springs, Auckland Tuesday, March 7 – Riverstage, Brisbane — new show Wednesday, March 8 – Riverstage, Brisbane Friday, March 10 – Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne Saturday, March 11 – Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne Monday, March 13 – Aware Super Theatre, Sydney Tuesday, March 14 – Aware Super Theatre, Sydney Friday, March 17 – Belvoir Amphitheatre, Perth — new show Saturday, March 18 – Belvoir Amphitheatre, Perth Lorde's Solar Power Tour will now take place between Tuesday, February 21–Saturday, March 18, 2023. Head to the Frontier website for all info on tickets. Top image: Liliane Callegari via Wikimedia Commons.
Some actors have a type. The films change, and the names of their characters as well, but it can feel as if they're always playing a variation of the same person. That sensation doesn't apply to Jackie van Beek's work. Many movie lovers discovered her on-screen as Jackie, the human familiar to a Wellington sharehouse-dwelling vampire in What We Do in the Shadows. In the decade since the hit comedy, she's helped end romances in The Breaker Upperers, which she also co-wrote and co-directed with Deadloch star Madeleine Sami — and then disrobed for Nude Tuesday, this time penning the script solo, alongside portraying a woman who attempts to reignite the spark in her marriage by heading to a couples' retreat where clothes are often optional. Now arrives Audrey, a delightfully dark Australian comedy from first-time feature director Natalie Bailey (Bay of Fires, Joe vs Carole, Run) and screenwriter Lou Sanz (The PM's Daughter, 6 Festivals) that enlists van Beek as a former star. Decades after her Logie-winning heyday, Ronnie Lipsick hasn't given up on her showbiz dreams. The world beckoned when she was at the top of the acting game, but then she had her first daughter and settled into married life; however, she still knows what she wants. Her focus after 18 years of being a mum: ensuring that the movie's eponymous figure (Josephine Blazier, Fires) makes it big as well, whether she likes it or not. Nothing is going to stop Ronnie in this quest — not even Audrey falling into a coma. There's regular second chances, and then there's Ronnie's path. When Audrey can't follow the route to fame and fortune that's been plotted out for her, Ronnie impersonates her instead. There's endeavouring to cope with tragedy, and then there's the Lipsick family's response to Audrey's plight as well — including on Ronnie's husband Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Force of Nature: The Dry 2) and younger daughter Norah's (Hannah Diviney, Latecomers) parts. As keeps proving the case across van Beek's filmography, no one will mistake Audrey for any other movie. After debuting at SXSW in Austin, the blackly and sharply hilarious feature now hits Australian cinemas in what's been a busy year for its lead. Off-camera in 2024, the New Zealand talent was one of the driving forces behind the Australian version of The Office, and also directed an episode of Time Bandits. Audrey appealed to van Beek's love of dark comedy, she tells Concrete Playground. Unsurprisingly, Ronnie stood out as the kind of character that isn't a standard fixture on-screen. When The Breaker Upperers released in 2018, she chatted with us, alongside Sami, about creating roles for the two that didn't exist otherwise. Now, van Beek advises that when she was reading Audrey's script, she thought "oh, she's delicious. She's so challenging to like. I thought as an actor, it'll be such a great kind of joy to try, and to try to pull her off with some degree of charm." "When I read Lou Sanz's script, Ronnie Lipsick is a morally ambiguous, very career-driven kind of obsessive mother, and I just thought 'what a delight'. Because you don't come across these characters — especially as a female — you just don't come across these characters very often. Well, I hadn't," van Beek notes. "I love dark comedy. I think I was probably told the premise, I imagine by Lou or the producer Michael Wrenn before I read the script. So as soon as I heard the premise, I was like 'ooh, this sounds perfectly dark for me'. I love comedy, but I do really like the edginess of this premise. I think someone who prioritises resurrecting her career over nursing her daughter back to health is a very interesting character to play." Also built into Audrey: recognition that being a mother shouldn't mean giving up on your own journey, an adult coming-of-age tale and a woman's quest, albeit by highly questionable means such as pretending to be her teenage offspring, to reclaim her own sense of self. We discussed all of the above with van Beek, too, alongside what she drew upon to play Ronnie, portraying such a tricky character in a heightened story, what gets her excited about a new project, what you learn making a movie like Audrey and more. On the Film's Ability Not Only to Rally Against Traditional Visions of Womanhood and Motherhood, But to Take That Idea to a Comedic Extreme "It was an interesting take, because I think we've seen a lot of films, dramas and comedies, about women who are struggling, as a lot of us do — women who are struggling with that work/life balance, being being pulled one way as a mother, being pulled another way by their career. And I think we're quite used to those stories. I think this film, obviously what I love, really pushes it to a comedic extreme. I mean, I find Ronnie kind of delusionally adorable, but also abhorrent. I hope that I'm a very different woman to her. But it was delightful to play, because pushing the idea that women aren't born simply to reproduce or mother, but are born to bring about your hopes and dreams, through a career or what have you, is fun. I did find Ronnie Lipsick to be quite mentally unhinged, and in need of some professional help, I would say. She's really spinning off the planet. She's such an egotist. She's so vain. And she's really lost sight of what's important in life. But I do love this idea, to the extreme in Lou's script, that she absolutely prioritises her career over her over her daughter's health." On Finding Inspiration to Play Ronnie — and Always Trying to Win the Audience Over "I'm a mother myself. I have three children, so obviously I was able to easily draw on my own life for the harried mum aspect of the character — organising the pickups, all the logistics with the husband, wanting them to do well. So I've drawn on a lot of that. In terms of her being dangerously delusional, I didn't have much to go on from my real life. So what I did was, I came up through theatre, I was in theatre for like 20 years before I got into TV and film, and a lot of my training was about trying to win the audience over. So whether or not you were a hero or a villain, you try to charm the audience so much that you can have them onside. I really thought that would be a fun game to play, just for myself, over the course of production, to see — by finding vulnerability or delusion or asking the audience to sympathise with me in any way — whether or not I could win the audience over to my side, so they would, I guess, forgive Ronnie for some of the choices she made." On Ensuring That Depth Shines Through When You're Playing Such a Tricky Character in a Heightened Story "It was hugely important for me to navigate a truth for the character throughout the story. And, in some scenes that was harder than harder than others, because it is a very heightened story, and a very heightened reality that we were playing within. Natalie Bailey, the director, was fantastic at helping me navigate that — as was Lou, the writer, who was on set the whole time, which was incredibly useful. But it was really important to me that I could feel truth in every single scene. And so some of the more heightened ones, I really had to lean into Ronnie's delusion, I guess — so that I thought if I, as Ronnie, can actually believe what I'm saying, even if it seems ridiculous to everybody else in the scene and in the audience, as long as I can believe it, it should feel like a real human being that's going on a journey. But some scenes are more tricky than others. That's a fun challenge. I love reading a role where I go 'ooh, this is going to be quite tricky'. And it was. It was such a fun challenge to take on that part." On Adult Coming-of-Age Stories Blossoming as a Genre — and Tales of Women Aiming to Reclaim Their Identities "I'm not sure why it's coming up more now. Maybe because more adults have access to therapy and so people are reflecting on these things? Definitely on my to-do list is to carve out time to go to see therapists. I haven't quite managed to do it yet. But I'm really enjoying the stories coming out at the moment, especially with female protagonists, about women around my age — I'm 48 — who have realised that they've lost a sense of self and they are really struggling to find a way to reclaim an identity. I think what interests me is a lot of people, they don't go deep enough, and try to just reclaim their youth through surgery or affairs or whatever. I'm really fascinated by that. I think all women that I know have just read Miranda July's All Fours, which I think is an incredible examination of that kind of reclaiming that sense of self. It's a fascinating subject." On Audrey, the Australian Version of The Office and Time Bandits All Reaching Screens Within Months of Each Other "The momentum of that is quite strange because, of course, these projects all happened at quite different times and it really is coincidence, I think, that everything lands in the same few months. It all depends on how long the post-production is or the distributor. But it's exciting to have things come out. I'm always someone who really itches to get a project in front of an audience to get that response. But I'm also someone who doesn't really dwell on the response, because I've always moved on to a million other things. But I love it — as I said before, I came up through theatre, so it was all about working as hard as you can and then opening night, the curtains open and you give the projects to an audience, you share that. So it's always a relief for me when something finally is out there and you're like 'oh good, okay, actually it's opening night, the curtains are parting, and people can actually now watch it and respond'. I think I do find it hard when you're in development for a number of things, and nothing's on-screen or you're not delivering anything to an audience. You just feel like you're working in this weird, insular bubble, and what's the point if nobody is able to see this thing you're working on and respond to it. And then, of course, with every response you learn so much about what we've created. And I then I take that onto my next projects. I'm very invested in learning, I guess." On What Gets van Beek Excited About a New Project at This Stage of Her Career "The most-exciting element for me with new projects is the team on it. There are so many people from all around the world, of all different levels of experience, that I'm just dying to work with. And so for my own projects, I of course seek these people out to collaborate with — actors, directors, writers. I think that is the driving force. Second to that, well, actually shooting location is quite important for me because I have three kids and my youngest is still only 12. So I am always trying to prioritise projects like Time Bandits that can be made here in New Zealand, so that I don't have to be away from the kids and my family for too long. And then, of course, the project itself — I'm very drawn, and always have been, to projects which will potentially polarise. I kind of find it thrilling to take on a project or be a part of a project that I think could go either way. The Office, for example, it did seem so silly to create the 13th version of The Office. But, of course, I leapt at the opportunity knowing it was going to be the first version with a female lead, and I knew that was quite high-risk because people are so besotted with the UK and the US versions. But it was that risk that really thrilled me. And the same with when I get involved in some local low-budget films here in New Zealand, sometimes it's the project that draws me, like it's something that I've never kind of seen before or they're taking a big risk on something. And I'm like 'ooh, I'd love to be a part of that because I like the thrill of it'. I'm not really drawn to something that feels quite kind of tried and true, I guess." On What van Beek Learned Starring in Audrey "It's interesting. I think when I'm acting in other people's films or projects, I learn a lot about writing and directing. And then I feel like when I'm writing and directing my own projects, I learn a lot about acting. I think I learn a lot from the other people that are surrounding me. And I really enjoy jumping between acting, writing and directing for that. So I'm constantly shifting roles and having these experiences from both sides. But I think with Audrey, I'm a real believer in 'if you say yes to a project, then you really are giving yourself over to that writer and especially to the director'. So once I say yes to something, I'm pretty much like 'what do you want me to do?' — like 'here I am, what do you want me to do? I'll do anything.'. I don't say yes to a project unless I unless I'm prepared to offer up everything." Audrey opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, November 7, 2024.
When it opened 88 years ago at Milsons Point, Luna Park Sydney wasn't the world's first Luna Park, or even Australia's. But Harbour City residents and tourists alike have enjoyed its presence around multiple closures, reopenings and revamps ever since. Come December, the amusement park will unveil its latest reason to stop by and enjoy its attractions: Dream Circus, an immersive experience that's revamping the site's big top. If you've ever wanted to feel like you've walked into a movie, this is the Luna Park Sydney feature for you. Dream Circus will be filled with 360-degree projections, holograms, motion-activated LED screens, surround sound and lighting to immerse you in a Hollywood-style experience. It'll become Sydney's first permanent immersive-experience attraction, the venue advises — and a world-first type of attraction as well. Attendees can expect to enter a narrative journey, where characters and a spectacle that engages the senses will combine. The experience will take over the 3000-square-metre big top, with its sights filling a surface area of over 3500 square metres — and with Artists in Motion, TDC and Auditoria, who have ABBA Voyage, King Kong on Broadway, works at Vivid and Walking with Dinosaurs to their names, behind it. Luna Park Sydney expects people to flock to see the results when Dream Circus opens on Friday, December 22, just in time for the Christmas holidays, anticipating that 50,000 people will check it out over summer. The new attraction will help the site embrace the future, while still loving its status as an art-deco amusement park that dates back almost a century. "We are proud to build for Sydney one of the most technically advanced environments in the country. The result will be a venue without equal — capable of featuring the best immersive experiences, never-before-seen immersive live music and special events" said Luna Park Sydney CEO John Hughes. "As a world-class amusement park, we need to be more than rides, and expanding our depth of offering through world-class immersive experiences will mean that Sydneysiders won't have to travel the globe to experience these incredible environments. We want to be a reliable, magical, and affordable destination for all generations of Sydneysiders and visitors to our city". Dream Circus launches at Luna Park Sydney, 1 Olympic Drive, Milsons Point, on Friday, December 22 — visit the park's website for more information and tickets.
There's no denying that Bar Pacino has an absolutely cracking view, but the Sicilian-style food menu is also worthy of a second look. These guys do it all — breakfast, lunch, dinner, share plates and pizzas. For the ultimate in fuss-free dining, climb the stairs to this Eagle Street hotspot for generous grazing platters and plenty of prosecco. After all – what self-respecting Brisbanite would turn down the opportunity to gaze at our beloved Story Bridge? Sydney Harbour be damned.
UPDATE, May 16, 20222: Due to Brisbane's wet weather, Paniyiri 2022 has been postponed from Saturday, May 21–Sunday, May 22 to Saturday, October 15–Sunday, October 16. This article has been updated to reflect that change. For two days each year, most of Brisbane heads to Musgrave Park to pretend that they're in the Mediterranean. Well, before the pandemic hit and upended our regular routines, that's what usually occurred — and in 2022, it'll finally be happening again. After two pandemic-interrupted years — with the 2020 event cancelled and the 2021 fest opting for a scaled-down and largely online format, plus a delay due to wet weather — Paniyiri is returning to its usual full range of celebrations in October 2022. Once again, the city's massive Greek festival will take over West End with quite the array of food, drink, partying and more. Yes, there's a reason that more than two million people have gone along over the years. In 2022, more than four decades since the fest first began back in 1976, the fun will take place across Saturday, October 15–Sunday, October 16. Brisbanites can expect the usual array of Greek revelry — aka grapes to stomp, coffee to sip, olives to consume and plates to smash, plus TV stars to rub shoulders with and cooking demonstrations to watch. Food-wise, more than 20 stalls will serve up bites from 11 Greek regions, including an abundance of loukoumades, souvlaki, haloumi and barbecued calamari. If devouring as much as you can is your idea of fun, the festival's regular food contests usually keep stomachs satisfied. Then, to wash all of that down, there'll be Greek wine, Greek beer and Greek-inspired cocktails as well. Of course, it wouldn't be Paniyiri without entertainment. While the full event program hasn't yet been revealed, dancing is always a big feature thanks to Greek Dancing with the Stars and the Hellenic dancers — so fingers crossed they return this year. In addition to celebrating all things Greek in Musgrave Park, Paniyiri also takes over The Greek Club — and given that it's marking its first regular fest in more than two years, expect both venues to host one massive shindig.
2017 was an action-packed couple of months for scripted storytelling. As we are wont to do, we made sure you knew what international and Australian films to watch before the end of the year, and we've just put together our list for the best films of 2017. But what about television? We may have gotten through the past 12 months on a steady diet of Stranger Things, the return of Twin Peaks, a dollop of BoJack Horseman, regular portions of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and late-night benders of Margaret Atwood-inspired dystopia. But how much Australian television do you remember watching? If none come to mind straight away, we're here to cure that case of pop cultural amnesia. So fire up your local streaming services, prepare your stash of Zooper Doopers, put your phone on Airplane Mode, get into your cosiest staying-in-for-the-summer outfit and settle in for some top-notch Australian-made series. Here's ten to get you started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oZaOr5v9So KIKI AND KITTY What if your new best friend was also the human embodiment of your vagina? For some, that's a rhetorical question. For Nakkiah Lui, it's the beginning of a brand new series. Written by and starring Lui (who plays the lead role of Kitty), and directed by Catriona McKenzie, Kiki and Kitty is modern-day absurdist comedy at its best. Launched as one of the new short-form series for ABC Comedy earlier this year, each episode explores what it's like to be "the good black girl in a bad white world". It's fierce, funny and unapologetically explores the politics of race and gender in a way that few Australian television shows would dare. Available on: ABC iView. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5HSsrjoedk RONNY CHIENG: INTERNATIONAL STUDENT You may recall Ronny Chieng from his day job as a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Based on his real-life experience of being a university student in Melbourne, Chieng plays a version of himself on the show. Cultural stereotypes are both exploited, and interrogated, for laughs but also for thoughtful reflections on what it means to be a young person who switches countries, and cultures, full of hope and expectation. This is perfect viewing for anyone who appreciates a story from an outsider's perspective with a sharp comedic edge. Available on: ABC iView. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1UXO2uLH-s ROSEHAVEN Daniel and Emma are fictional best mates. So are real-life comedians Luke McGregor and Celia Pacquola, who also happen to be the co-creators and writers of the show. Exploring what happens between moving back home to help out with the family business and a failed marriage, this Tasmanian-made series is deeply endearing. Both seasons play like a love letter to rural life, and what happens when we decide to give up on ambition. Daniel/McGregor and Emma/Pacquola are about propping each other up just as much as they're about mocking the hell out of each other. For those of us who prefer to find gentle humour through genuine friendships. Available on: ABC iView. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swTlbwspBaE GLITCH Set in the fictional country town of Yoorana, Glitch explores what happens when seven people rise from the dead with no memory of who they are, or how they died. Sitting somewhere between supernatural mystery and sci-fi, the series was created by Tony Ayres (producer of The Slap) and Louise Fox (previously a writer on Broadchurch). If you were previously a fan of the 2012 French series Les Revenants, the first two seasons of Glitch offers an Australian gothic take on small town urban legends and unfinished business. Available on: Netflix Australia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjuXTD0m9Lc ROUND THE TWIST Totalling four magical seasons, Round the Twist was definitive in making strange the new normal on 90s Australian television. Galore with monsters, werewolves, human ice cream machines and the haunted lighthouse that started it all, the series is the equivalent of audio visual comfort food for old fans. Also guaranteed to be a cornucopia of oddball amusement for the yet to be initiated. It's now all on Netflix. Available on: Netflix Australia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pSChPGBFD4 THE OTHER GUY If modern break-ups and heartache need to be key story ingredients for your summer viewing, consider The Other Guy. In the long tradition of male comics playing versions of themselves on screen, comedian and Triple J life member Matt Okine is AJ, an aimless breakfast radio host who has just split up with his longtime girlfriend (Valene Kane). The show deals less with the heroics of finally accepting adulthood, and more about the funny, sad and inane aspects of getting older anyway. Give it a go if you loved Master of None, Love or Please Like Me. Available on: Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAKZYp9-MoM NO ACTIVITY Two cops on a nighttime stake-out, a methamphetamine shipment that never arrives, and mindless conversations form the basis of the first season of this slapstick improvised comedy. And if you want more, there's a second season to devour as well. For fans of Mike Schur's American workplace comedies (The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Recreation), No Activity is Australia's equivalent of the nothing-ever-happens type of comedy. Expect some sincere moments among the sly laughs too. Available on: Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoH1z7JetiM THE FAMILY LAW Adapted from Benjamin Law's book-length series of personal essays on his family, The Family Law deals with the aftermath of a family's breakdown in the wake of a divorce, and what it's like to grow up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland as an Asian kid who dreams of starring on Home and Away (spoiler alert: it's no walk in the park). It's rare that a series can be awkward, hilarious and heartbreaking all at once, but The Family Law manages to fictionalise Ben's coming-of-age without forgetting to look at weighty issues too, like coming out as a Chinese-Australian teen, the deportation of extended family, and the unexpected death of grandparents with grace and warmth. Available on: SBS On Demand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsh_hVbkkcQ&t=25s OTHER PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS Boasting an all-female creative team (from the co-creators and writers to the starring roles), Other People's' Problems is a dramedy about reluctant copywriter Florence and the ever-enterprising Ann, who team up to ghostwrite letters for people in exchange for clothes. In a misguided attempt to prove they're both great at helping people, acting as agony aunts leads them to wondering if they're actually just rubbish at dealing with their own problems. As with all the best stories, this one is based on writers Penelope Chai and Jane Dickenson's experiences of starting a bartering project called Clothing for Correspondence (pen to paper in exchange for clothes from your wardrobe). A perfect snack of a series for the heartfelt snail mail letter writers and op-shop fiends among us. Available on: ABC iView. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bIpoZKt6Gs GET KRACK!N Kate and Kate, the co-creators of ABC's The Katering Show, are back to take on the world of Australian breakfast television. You can be guaranteed two things for every 30 minute episode in the series: these two do not know how to host a breakfast TV show, and it is too damn early in the morning (we're talking go-to-air-at-3am.-early) to have maintained one's A-game. For anyone who is resistant to the real thing, cosy up to this eye-wateringly hilarious time on the grey green couch of never-ending awkwardness. Available on: ABC iView.
If you're after an epicurean escape without the hassle of long flights or using up precious days of leave, look no further than the Orange region. Less than four hours by car from Sydney and two hours by air from Brisbane, the area boasts 40-plus cellar doors and wineries that produce everything from chardonnay to vermentino and pinot noir to tempranillo. While wine is obviously the star of the show, you should do more than just sip your way through the region on your next visit. That's why we've teamed up with Orange360 to spotlight six wineries that pair your tipples with tasty bites — whether it's fresh oysters, a long lunch with breathtaking views, or a decadent multi-course meal. Printhie Wines As a Halliday five-starred winery, you can expect the exceptional at Printhie Wines. Beyond its range of renowned wines, Printhie offers several bespoke experiences to take your tasting to the next level, including its hatted restaurant, Printhie Dining. Open for lunch from Friday–Sunday and dinner from Thursday–Saturday, Printhie Dining serves a four-course degustation featuring seasonal produce sourced from the estate and its surrounds. Expect delicate dishes like kingfish with sweet alyssum, celeriac and lemongrass tea; lamb with vadouvan and smoked bone marrow; and pepperberry tea custard with chocolate ganache, bottlebrush and fermented cherries — all served with paired wines. More modest offerings at Printhie Wine Bar include a curated cheese board, charcuterie and oysters shucked to order from a state-of-the-art oyster tank developed by a marine biologist and oyster farmer. If that's not enough, take it outside with a picnic on the grounds accompanied by a bottle of vino, or elevate your four-course meal with a sparkling masterclass, fly-fishing session or helicopter tour. Rowlee Wines Pull up a seat for elegant dining paired with single-vineyard wines and idyllic views at Rowlee. With floor-to-ceiling windows and al fresco tables, you'll feel like you're lounging on a farm in Tuscany as you drink in unobstructed views across the vineyard. If you have time to indulge in a leisurely lunch or dinner — you are on holiday after all — settle in at Rowlee Bar and Dining for communal-style, farm-to-table dishes. The seasonal menu focuses on innovation and sustainability, and includes plates like hay-fried chicken with pumpkin sauce and garden curry; coal-roasted fish with preserved lemon; roast pork collar with fermented rhubarb and honey; and sustainably sourced butter-poached lobster with shellfish sauce. Finish it off with an apple and strawberry gum ice cream sandwich or gelato topped with fennel and olive oil. You can also keep it casual at the Garden Bar, which offers snacks alongside more substantial fare, such as a pork and pecorino pancake, chilli of Black Angus beef with lettuce cups, and a lobster roll with bottarga mayo. Borrodell Estate With a restaurant, cellar door-slash-wine bar, and suites and cottages all on the property, you could easily while away a whole day at the expansive Borrodell Estate. Perched at the top of one of Australia's highest vineyards, Sister's Rock restaurant looks out onto rows of pinot noir vines and Towac Valley beyond. Accessible yet elevated, the set menu highlights local produce from Borrodell Estate and around Orange, and is available for lunch from Thursday–Monday and dinner on Friday–Saturday. Start with roast carrots and feta, grilled artichoke, and steamed mussels in tomato sauce, before choosing a main from the scotch fillet with Moroccan eggplant salad, pan-fried barramundi with green peas and zucchini sofrito, or vegetarian lasagne. Needless to say, you should enhance your meal with one of the recommended wine pairings alongside each dish. Ross Hill Wines Need to work up an appetite? At Ross Hill Wines, you can step into the kitchen and pick up some well-tried tips to whip up your own culinary creations at home. The carbon-neutral winery — proudly the first in Australia — boasts its own wine and food school, Barrel and Larder. Hosted by chef Michael Manners and other guest chefs from the region, the classes range from Spanish cooking to Swiss dishes and pie-making. Of course, the winery also caters to those who'd rather have their food prepared for them, with tasting plates of snacks and dip available at the cellar door. For something more special, book in advance for their Pinnacle long lunch series, where renowned local guest chefs prepare a three-course spread on select Saturdays of each month. Swinging Bridge Let's face it — all that wine tasting might not leave much room for a multi-course feast. Swinging Bridge has you covered with two dining experiences at its cellar door near Mount Canobolas. For something lighter during the day, the winery offers a tasting of seven wines complemented by a selection of canapés. These are designed by the chef and sommeliers to enhance the flavour and notes of the wine, without the risk of sending you into an afternoon slump. If you decide you are hungry after all, book in for an in-depth tasting and long lunch. The three-hour experience starts with a guided tour of the family-run estate, followed by a five-course lunch and accompanying wines. Indulge with Swinging Bridge is only available at 11am or 1pm on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Heifer Station Heifer Station might not have a restaurant, but it makes up for it with a range of picturesque grazing experiences. The setting varies seasonally — you'll either be sprawled out on the vineyard lawns with your own private picnic in summer or snuggled by the indoor fireplace in winter. Both packages include a glass of sparkling and a tasting flight of Heifer Station's esteemed, single-vineyard wines, along with a gourmet cheese and charcuterie platter. There's also an option that includes an interactive tasting tour before you settle in with your nibbles. Otherwise, you can go big before you go home by adding on a helicopter tour of the estate and Mount Canobolas, followed by a guided wine tasting and a picnic or fireside spread. Plan your trip now to the Orange Region at the Orange360 website. Images: courtesy of Destination NSW and Orange360.
Two decades ago, Bill Nighy won two BAFTAs in the same year for vastly dissimilar roles: for playing a rock 'n' roll singer belting out a cheesy Christmas tune in Love Actually, and also for his turn as a journalist investigating a political scandal in gripping miniseries State of Play. The beloved British actor has achieved plenty more across his career, including collecting an eclectic resume that spans an uncredited turn in Black Books, a pivotal part in Shaun of the Dead, and everything from Underworld and Pride to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (plus stepping into David Bowie's shoes in the TV version of The Man Who Fell to Earth). Somehow, though, Nighy made it all the way into his 70s before receiving a single Oscar nomination. He didn't emerge victorious at 2023's ceremony for Living, but his recognition for this textured drama isn't just a case of the Academy rewarding a stellar career — it's thoroughly earned by one of the veteran talent's best performances yet. Nighy comes to this sensitive portrayal of a dutiful company man facing life-changing news with history; so too does the feature itself. Set in London in 1953, it's an adaptation several times over — of iconic Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film Ikiru, and of Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, which the former also takes inspiration from. That's quite the lineage for Living to live up to, but Nighy and director Oliver Hermanus (Moffie) are up to the task. The movie's second Oscar-nominee, Nobel Prize-winning screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro, unsurprisingly is as well. Also the author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, he's at home penning layered stories with a deep focus on complicated characters not being completely true to themselves. When those two novels were turned into impressive pictures, Ishiguro didn't script their screenplays, but he writes his way through Living's literary and cinematic pedigree like he was born to. A man of no more words than he has to utter — of no more of anything, including life's pleasures, frivolities, distractions and detours, in fact — Williams (Nighy, Emma.) is a born bureaucrat. Or, that's how he has always appeared to his staff in the Public Works Department in London County Hall, where he's been doing the same job day, week, month and year in and out. He's quiet and stoic as he pushes paper daily, overseeing a department that's newly welcoming in Peter Wakeling (Alex Sharp, The Trial of the Chicago 7). It's through this fresh face's eyes that Living's audience first spies its central figure, adopting his and the wider team's perspective of Williams as a compliant and wooden functionary: a view that the film and its sudden diagnosis then challenges, as Williams does of himself. As Ikiru was as well, and as The Death of Ivan Ilyich's name made so apparent, this is a tale of a man dying — and, while confronting that fact, finally living. In Hermanus and Ishiguro's hands, sticking close to Kurosawa and his collaborators before them, this story gets part of its spark from a simple request by local parents for a playground. Before learning that he has terminal cancer, Williams behaves as he always has, with the women making their plea sent from department to department while he does only as much as he must. Afterwards, grappling with how to capitalise upon the time he has left, he wonders how to leave even the smallest mark on the world. Living isn't about a big, impulsive response to one of the worst developments that anyone can ever be saddled with during their time on this mortal coil, except that it is in Williams' own way; when your reaction to hearing that you have mere months left to live is "quite", any break from routine is radical. This isn't a cancer weepie, not for a second. It also isn't an illness-focused film where someone's health struggles come second to the feelings and changes experienced by those around them. Williams' colleagues notice his absence when he stops showing up to the office, of course. One, the young Margaret Harris (Aimee Lou Wood, Sex Education), accompanies him on unexpected away-from-work outings and advises that she'd nicknamed him 'Mr Zombie'. Living is about those instances — the fancy lunches that Williams treats himself to, the nights out drinking with new pals (Tom Burke, The Wonder) he never would've contemplated before, the flouting of his lifelong monotonous routine, and the efforts to go above and beyond that he's now willing to take — rather than about an ailing man's family and acquaintances facing loss. Indeed, given that Williams doesn't want to interrupt his son (Barney Fishwick, Call the Midwife) and daughter-in-law (Patsy Ferran, Mothering Sunday) with his condition, Living is firmly invested in someone navigating their swansong on their own terms. At the heart of this ruminative film, and Williams' post-diagnosis behaviour, sits one of the most fundamental existential questions there is. Knowing that death is looming so soon and so swiftly, what can possibly provide comfort? That's a query we all face daily, most of us just on a longer timeline — context that makes Williams' way of coping both resonant and highly relatable. Life is filling each moment with anything but reminders that our here and now is fleeting, albeit not in such a conscious and concerted manner. Living's boxed-in imagery, constrained within Academy-ratio frames and gifted a handsome, period-appropriate but almost-wistful sheen by Hermanus' Moffie and Beauty cinematographer Jamie Ramsay (also the director of photography on See How They Run), helps visually express a crucial feeling: of being anchored within a set amount of space and discovering how to make the most of it. When Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo and Ran great Kurosawa stepped through this terrain, he did so with one of his frequent players: Takashi Shimura. There's a particular sense of potency in telling this tale with a familiar figure, as Nighy also is, hammering home how truly universal this plight is no matter the specifics. Nighy's performance toys with what viewers have come to know and expect from him, however. He's in reserved rather than twinkling and instantly charming mode — still, muted and melancholy, too — a facade for his character that says oh-so-much about the dedicated life that Williams has weathered, the solace he's found in it, his handling of his current situation and also the film's post-World War II setting. Conveying the difference between being and relishing so effortlessly and also so heartbreakingly, Nighy is a marvel, and one that the movie around him lives for.
The World's 101 Best Steak Restaurants has handed down its list of the top spots in Australia ahead of its annual global awards in May. And this year, a Sydney favourite has taken out the top spot. The World's 101 Best Steak Restaurants, managed and published by Upper Cut Media House, headquartered in London, launched in 2019. It's Steak Ambassadors work tirelessly across each continent to discover the best quality steaks in the world. The criteria for evaluation include such categories as the selection and quality of meat offered (including the taste, terroir, marbling, preparation, aging process, and breeds), the service and expertise in the product, the description given on the menu, the ambiance of the restaurant, and a curated wine list. Before the global list is revealed, the Steak Ambassadors have unveiled the 30 Best Steak Restaurants in Australia. No surprise to anyone who has kept tabs on the many awards and accolades received in recent years, that Neil Perry's Margaret in Double Bay has taken out the top spot. In fact, Sydney took out the top three spots, with Firedoor coming in second, and Aalia in third. Next up on the list are Agnes in Brisbane, followed by Arkhé in Adelaide. At this point, you might be wondering if the ambassadors made it to Melbourne. But fear not, Steer Dining Room took out sixth place, Victor Churchill eighth, and Gimlet at Cavendish House came in at number 15. Images: Supplied. Feeling carnivorous? Check out the best steak restaurants in Melbourne and the best steak restaurants in Sydney.
Summer in Australia must've treated Kesha well at the beginning of 2025, because she has just confirmed a return visit in 2026. In January, the pop star ventured Down Under for two gigs, playing a House of Kesha show in Sydney and also the Australian Open's music lineup in Melbourne. Next year, she'll be taking to the stage at a series of headline concerts around the country, with stops in four cities confirmed so far. Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth are on the two-time Grammy-nominee's itinerary when she brings The Tits Out tour this way. The gigs are part of the biggest headline run of Kesha's career so far, which kicked off in July 2025 in the US and also has European shows locked in for March 2026. In Australia, Riverstage in the Queensland capital is the singer's first destination, hitting up the venue on Thursday, February 19. She'll also play Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne on Sunday, February 22; Adelaide's AEC Arena on Tuesday, February 24; and Perth HPC on Thursday, February 26. At the time of writing, there's no Sydney gig on the agenda to date — but if you want to start speculating about a Harbour City stop, it's worth noting that Kesha will be in the country during 2026's Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. It's taking place from Friday, February 13–Sunday, March 1, with the parade on Saturday, February 28. No lineup details have been announced as yet. [caption id="attachment_975223" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brendan Walter[/caption] With ten top-ten singles across her career so far, plus six albums under her belt — 2023's Gag Order and 2025's Period among them — Kesha has no shortage of tunes to draw upon live. 'JOYRIDE', 'TiK ToK', 'Only Love Can Save Us Now', 'Your Love Is My Drug', 'Take It Off' and 'We R Who We R' are among the tracks on her current setlist. Kesha is making the trip Down Under in what's already a big month for tours, with February 2026 also welcoming Lorde's Australian shows and seeing G Flip kick off their next national run of gigs. Kesha The Tits Out 2026 Australian Tour Dates Thursday, February 19 — Riverstage, Brisbane Sunday, February 22 — Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Tuesday, February 24 — AEC Arena, Adelaide Thursday, February 26 — Perth HPC, Perth Kesha is touring Australia in February 2026, with ticket presales from 10am on Tuesday, August 5, 2025 and general sales from 10am on Friday, August 8, 2025 — head to the tour website for more details. Top image: Ryan Bakerink/FilmMagic.
Come for the breakfast burrito stuffed with black beans, quinoa, egg and bacon. Stay for a loaded Bloody Mary as a morning pick-me-up. Return later for three-cheese croque monsieur, Chinese five-spice chicken wings, and a jug of raspberry and citrus sangria. That's what you'll find at 100 Wickham Street from Monday to Friday. Basically, Fortitude Valley's new eating and drinking spot has something on offer for every time of day. Don't worry, you won't need fortitude to make your way through their meals — even if that's the cafe's name. What you might need at Fortitude, however, is something to convince you to leave their modern decor. If getting a fresh cup of Campos coffee doesn't convince you that you need to spend more time there, then a special menu dedicated to G&Ts (think dry, citrusy, spicy and zesty) just might. There's more tempting options where that came from, too: six types of burgers for lunch, peanut butter and pulled pork (which is exactly what it sounds like, on sourdough), salmon poke bowls, and watermelon and white chocolate daiquiris included.
2025 marks once, not twice, but three times in a row now that winter in Melbourne is being bookended by major arts festivals. RISING kicks off the cooler weather, then Now or Never helps farewell the frostier temperatures. As the former was as well, the latter is back in a big way this year, whether you're keen to witness one of the city's key spaces undergo a spectacular transformation just for the fest, fill 11 days and nights with live tunes, hear more about astronauts and astronomy, see where the lines between cinema and real-time performances blur, or celebrate queer Black excellence. Now or Never packs its lineup with arts, ideas, sound and technology events. From Thursday, August 21–Sunday, August 31 around Melbourne, 2025's fest features more than 140 free and ticketed sessions, which are the products of 285-plus local and international artists. Whatever else you head to, making a date with the Royal Exhibition Building — the venue that hosted its first large-scale live music performances in over 20 years at 2023's debut Now or Never — is a must, however, if you want to step inside a pink bubble. Free, running for the first four days of 2025's festival, and both an Australian premiere and a Melbourne exclusive, MATRIA looks set to prove quite the stunner. The installation's aim: to turn the Royal Exhibition Building, its temporary home, into a womb-like space via a recycled pink inflatable. Courtesy of Barcelona-based collective Penique Productions, translucent membrane will wrap around the venue's wooden interior skeleton — and breathe. The accompanying soundtrack, complete with a solo vocalist, will get it vibrating. Dancers will also help the installation's skin move and stretch, and you can expect to see futuristic art feature as well. Inside MATRIA, you'll be cocooned — and you'll also engage with more of Now or Never's program, because the site is still hosting shows and gigs within the installation. Dancer and choreographer Amber McCartney is teaming up with DJ Shapednoise on one, composer Alex Zhang Hungtai is in the spotlight on another, and rRoxymore is also doing the honours one evening. Or, get inhaling and exhaling along with MATRIA thanks to The Breath Haus and its meditation and breathwork sessions. For more music, Melbourne Town Hall will feature four nights of acts spanning Marie Davidson, DJ Python, DJ Logic1000, Young Marco and Yarra — plus Japanese visual and sound artist Ryoji Ikeda bringing ultratronics and its blend of minimalistic light and sound to Australia for the first time. Also engaging multiple senses in the same venue is Einder, a 20-metre-long light and sound installation by Dutch artist and composer Boris Acket. For one evening only, you can also feast beneath it, with Julia Busuttil Nishimura in charge of the multi-course menu. For a memorable outdoor installation, Dr Christian Thompson is on the case at the Evan Walker Bridge. Burdi Burdi (Fire Fire) is all about quiet reflection, and will be the Bidjara/Chinese Australian artist's largest such work. Hit up State Library Victoria instead and you'll spy DELIRI from the Barcelona-based Hamill Industries, a large-scale projection musing on understanding and deconstructing reality that's taking over the building's facade. Thinking about the cosmos is on the bill when Aussie astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg and astronomer Dr Tania Hill team up, complete with a screening of a short film commissioned by the Australian Space Agency. For more folks chatting, former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery will contemplate facing the future as the climate changes. Plus, the Charting the Future: First Nations Knowledges and Artificial Intelligence session will examine Australian innovation, not just looking at machine learning now and beyond, but also at knowledge in First Nations cultures — and neuroscientist Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston is digging into potentially living forever. If you're all about the big screen, ACMI is presenting Rashaad Newsome's documentary Assembly, which steps behind the scenes of his installation at New York's Park Avenue Armory. With this year's Melbourne International Film Festival, it's also screening VR documentary The World Came Flooding In. Or, drop by for PARA.CINE's merging of where cinema and real-time virtual performances intersect. One world-premiere piece is giving picture palaces a zoological spin. The other boasts New York's Team Rolfes, with speeding jockeys at its centre.
If you're already thinking ahead to summer, here's three trends that'll be shining in Australia: spots, gourds and kaleidoscopic reflections. You'll see them all over your social feeds. You'll spy them in exhibition merchandise sported by anyone who visits NGV International. And, most excitingly, you'll be surrounded by the trio at the Melbourne art gallery, which will be hosting a huge Yayoi Kusama retrospective as its summer blockbuster. When we say that Yayoi Kusama, the exhibition, is big, we mean it. While the Japanese artist's work is no stranger to Aussie shores — and was the focus of a comprehensive showcase at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art back in 2017–18 — NGV International's ode to the iconic talent will be the largest that country has ever seen. When it displays from Sunday, December 15, 2024–Monday, April 21, 2025, more than 180 works will feature, the world-premiere showing of a brand-new infinity mirror room among them. It's a massive endeavour for the NGV, too. "It's the largest space that's been given a living contemporary artist, across the entire ground floor," Wayne Crothers, NGV's Senior Curator of Asian Art, tells Concrete Playground. [caption id="attachment_950475" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Installation view of Yayoi Kusama's Chandelier of grief 2016/18 at Tate Modern, London, © YAYOI KUSAMA[/caption] The NGV has curated Yayoi Kusama with input from Kusama, with the end result stepping through the 95-year-old artist's eight decades of making art via a thematic chronology. Some pieces hail from her childhood. Some are recent. Her output in her hometown of Matsumoto from the late 30s–50s; the results of relocating to America in 1957; archival materials covering her performances and activities in her studios, especially with a political charge, in the 60s and 70s: they'll all appear. Half of the exhibition will be devoted to the past four decades — so, pumpkins galore; giant paintings; and an impressive and expansive range of room installations, complete with her very first infinity room from 1965, plus creative interpretations since from the 80s onwards. Again, this is a hefty exhibition. It's one of the most-comprehensive Kusama retrospectives ever staged globally (and the closest that you'll get to experiencing her Tokyo museum without leaving Australia). "We've been wanting to do a major exhibition with this artist for a long time. We're very focused on contemporary art. We're very focused on Asian art. And Kusama hasn't had a big solo show in in Australia for some time — and she's still very active. So there's past works, but also some contemporary works being produced right at the moment," continues Crothers. [caption id="attachment_950477" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama, Pumpkin 1981, Collection of Daisuke Miyatsu © YAYOI KUSAMA[/caption] If you're keen to be one of the first people in the world to be wowed by Kusama's new infinity room, it'll be as immersive as such spaces always are when she's behind them. Even the NGV team don't know the full details of the piece that's being produced especially for the exhibition, so it'll be a surprise to everyone. It'll be complemented by the aforementioned array of rooms, which is "one of the largest displays, for our audience, of those immersive rooms that have ever been assembled globally," Crothers advises. Eager to see a five-metre-tall bronze sculpture of a pumpkin? 2020's Dancing Pumpkin, which has just been acquired by the NGV, will feature. And, for the first time in Australia, 2019's THE HOPE OF THE POLKA DOTS BURIED IN INFINITY WILL ETERNALLY COVER THE UNIVERSE will unleash its six-metre-high tentacles — as speckled with yellow-and-black polka dots, of course. Almost six decades since first debuting at 1966's Venice Biennale — unofficially — Narcissus Garden will be a part of Yayoi Kusama in a new version made of 1400 30-centimetre-diameter stainless silver balls. Now that's how you open an exhibition, as this will. NGV's Waterwall is also scoring a Kusama artwork specific to the space, while the Great Hall will be filled with the giant balloons of Dots Obsession floating overhead. [caption id="attachment_950474" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Installation view of Yayoi Kusama's Flower Obsession 2017 on display in NGV Triennial from 15 December 2017 – 15 April 2018 at NGV International Melbourne. Image courtesy of NGV[/caption] Basically, wherever you look across NGV International's ground level, Kusama works will be waiting, spanning paintings, installations, sketches, drawings, collages and sculptures, as well as videos and clothing. Dots will obviously be inescapable. One section of the gallery will replicate Kusama's New York studio. Over 20 experimental fashion designs by the artist will also demand attention. Infinity Net paintings from the 50s and 60s, Accumulation sculptures and textiles from the 60s and 70s, and a Kusama for Kids offshoot with all-ages interactivity (fingers crossed for an obliteration room) are also on their way. The must-see exhibition for Melbourne locals and travel-worthy event for art lovers located outside of the Victorian capital will benefit from pieces from the artist's own personal collection — and rarely seen photos, letters (including to and from fellow artist eorgia O'Keefe), posters, magazines, teen sketch books and films — while others will be sourced from Japanese and Australian institutions. [caption id="attachment_950473" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama. The obliteration room 2002–present. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art © YAYOI KUSAMA[/caption] "Kusama's imagery has become part of the general common visual vernacular of the society," notes Crothers. "And I think our role in the exhibition, or what I've really taken on, is to introduce how profound the journey has been that's led her to this point of global visual recognition, going right back to a very ambitious teenager in rural Japan, and then the letter correspondence and New York, and delving into a lot of archival material." "There are few artists working today with the global presence of Yayoi Kusama. This world-premiere NGV-exclusive exhibition allows local audiences and visitors alike the chance to experience Kusama's practice in deeper and more profound ways than ever before," said NGV Director Tony Ellwood AM in the summer showcase's official announcement. "We are indebted to Yayoi Kusama for her passion and collaboration on this special project. Without the artist's personal dedication to this exhibition — and excitement to share her worldview with Australian audiences — none of this would be possible." [caption id="attachment_950480" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama, 2022 © YAYOI KUSAMA[/caption] [caption id="attachment_950479" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Portrait of Yayoi Kusama c. 1939 © YAYOI KUSAMA[/caption] [caption id="attachment_950478" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Installation view of Yayoi Kusama's Infinity mirror room – Phall's Field 1965 at the Castellane Gallery, New York © YAYOI KUSAMA[/caption] Yayoi Kusama displays at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne from Sunday, December 15, 2024–Monday, April 21, 2025. Head to the NGV website for more details and tickets. Top image: excerpt of Yayoi Kusama, 2022 © YAYOI KUSAMA.
Fresh from starring in page-to-screen Australian series Invisible Boys, Aussie actor Joseph Zada is headed to the arena. Hunger Games fans, meet young Haymitch. When the franchise's latest book Sunrise on the Reaping becomes its next movie — with the latter due to hit cinemas in 2026 — Zada will be in its key role. Two crucial pieces of casting have been announced for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping: Zada following in Woody Harrelson's (Fly Me to the Moon) footsteps as Haymitch Abernathy, plus Whitney Peak (Gossip Girl) as the character's girlfriend Lenore Dove Baird. Together, they'll be helping take the saga back to 24 years before Abernathy met Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, No Hard Feelings) in the first The Hunger Games novel. The new film couldn't be in the works if Suzanne Collins hadn't entered the arena again, of course, stepping back into Panem and The Hunger Games' past — and into the tale of a well-known character from her initial three books in the dystopian franchise — with the saga's second prequel. After the author first went down that route with 2020's The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, her next jump backwards hit bookstores in March 2025. When the novel was announced, naturally a film was as well. It might've taken three years for The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes to become a movie, but Sunrise on the Reaping is hitting the big screen just a year after the book made its way shelves. This time, the focus is on the Second Quarter Quell, with Haymitch winning those games — and Sunrise on the Reaping's narrative kicking off on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games. Harrelson portrayed Haymitch in 2012–15 movies The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part II, with filmmaker Francis Lawrence helming every one of them since Catching Fire — and also doing the same on The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. He'll be back in the director's chair on Sunrise on the Reaping. For Zada, this isn't his only big post-Invisible Boys project. He's also treading where James Dean once did, playing the same character as the late, great icon in a new version of East of Eden opposite Florence Pugh (We Live in Time), Mike Faist (Challengers) and Christopher Abbott (Wolf Man) — and he has the page-to-screen adaptation of We Were Liars also on the way, hitting streaming in June 2025. There's obviously no trailer yet for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, but you can check out the trailer for all of the past Hunger Games movies below: The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will reach cinemas on Friday, November 20, 2026 in the US — which will likely mean Thursday, November 19, 2026 Down Under. We'll update you with more details when they're announced. Via Variety. Top image: David Dare Parker, Invisible Boys. Hunger Games images: Murray Close.
Real estate in Australia is a complex and pricey market, with prices in most cities steadily rising year on year. The median house price in Australia is now $883,000, and in capital cities, things are getting dire — dire enough that Sydney buyers are paying seven-figure sums for driveways, let alone houses. But hard as it may be to believe, some property is still cheap in Australia, as long as it's rural and small, according to a report from Realestate.com.au. In NSW, January's cheapest sale was a fraction of that media price at a mere $80,000 — the property in question being a sandstone Anglican church on 2000 square metres of land in Wilcannia, a town outside of Broken Hill with 735 permanent residents. According to Realestate.com.au, the property was put on the market because its Sydney-based owner failed to anticipate the logistical challenges of the renovation. [caption id="attachment_1074362" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Realestate.com.au[/caption] In Victoria, a low record for the month was set by a fixer-upper weatherboard cottage in Walpeup, which sold with an acre of land for $115,000. The decades-old, three-bedroom cottage had been abandoned for the last eight years but reportedly still attracted a lot of interest from cash buyers before it sold. Up in Queensland, Mt Isa saw the cheapest sale in the state, $105,000 for a three-bedroom home pitched as a 'renovator's delight'. With a plywood-covered exterior setting the scene for a bare, linoleum-floored interior. [caption id="attachment_1074361" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Realestate.com.au[/caption] It's not much of a step from Tasmania, where the cheapest deal was $110,000 for a two-bedroom lake shack set in a township of just 11 residents in the Central Highlands. Size didn't matter in South Australia either, where a partial ocean-view studio apartment sold for $165,000 in Victor Harbor. Prices were higher in the ACT and Northern Territory. In the former, the cheapest sale was a studio apartment for $235,000, while in the latter, an Alice Springs ground-floor apartment with 51 square metres of living space, a pool, a basketball court, and a barbecue area sold for $190,000. But the cheapest sale in the country occurred in Western Australia, where a rundown three-bedroom home with almost no images listed sold for just $60,000. Images: Realestate.com.au/sold
When you think of alpine luxury, you're probably picturing France, Switzerland or Colorado. Yet a reimagined five-star stay awaits that won't take the better part of 24 hours to reach on a plane. Enter New Zealand's newest indulgent stay — Coronet Ridge Resort — an intimate 41-room retreat perched above Queenstown's Shotover River. Previously known as the Nugget Point Hotel, an NZD $30-million renovation brings a new level of luxury to the edge of the Coronet Peak Ski Area. Meticulously crafted from top to bottom, guests can make the most of the Southern Alps' dramatic landscapes and rest in quiet luxury at the end of the day. Just a few minutes' drive from central Queestown, each room and suite features a private balcony or patio that invites spectacular mountain vistas. Meanwhile, the interiors emanate highland warmth through bespoke timber joinery, natural tones and thoughtfully curated objects. Dining is also a highlight, with the Elevation Bar & Restaurant offering a standout experience from its soaring vantage point. Set against panoramic views of the Wakatipu Basin and the Remarkables mountain range, Executive Chef Dominic Dsouza delivers a seasonally-inspired menu spanning gourmet breakfast to apres-ski bites. Start the day with buerre noisette pancakes, then round out with acclaimed Royalburn lamb. Whether you're dining en plein air or inside, the setting is suitably stylish with an open kitchen and bar offering a glimpse of the restaurant's culinary and cocktail theatrics. Plus, once winter arrives, the ultra-cosy Library Bar proves inviting with a roaring fireplace and a drinks menu brimming with single-malt whiskies alongside wines carefully selected from Central Otago's renowned vineyards. Contrasting with its rugged ridgeline, the hotel's amenities offer incredible relaxation, immersed in crisp mountain air and native flora. Guests can enjoy a Roman-inspired day spa with the signature treatment, The Ridge Journey, offering a three-hour experience featuring full-body exfoliation, a hydrating body wrap and a 75-minute massage and facial using luxe NZ-made skincare products from RAAIE and Corbin Rd. Plus, there are outdoor hot tubs, squash courts, a premium fitness centre and even a private cinema to heighten your time on the slopes. "We are delighted to welcome guests to experience a new era of luxury hospitality amid the secluded beauty of New Zealand's Southern Alps. Coronet Ridge Resort is a sanctuary where the peace and tranquillity of its location allow guests to enjoy a soul-soothing getaway yet still be minutes away from the excitement of central Queenstown," says Clare Davies, Founder and Managing Director of Capstone Hotel Management. Coronet Ridge Resort is now accepting bookings at 146 Arthurs Point Road, Queenstown, with special opening rates available from $650 per night. Head to the website for more information.
Clearing out your wardrobe, sifting through your old clothing and making a pile to give to a new home rank among life's necessary but often overlooked tasks. It's also an easy process to get just partway through — pulling unloved shirts off their hangers and bagging up a heap of your old outfits to donate to charity, but then letting said bag sit in your hallway for months and months. Sound familiar? If you have the enthusiasm to gift your pre-loved clothing to a new home, but never quite get around to dropping off your old pieces for whatever reason, then you might be interested in The Iconic's new donation scheme. Called Giving Made Easy, it's an extension of the online retailer's free returns mechanism. Just print out a pre-paid shipping label from the company's website, pop it on a box or satchel filled with clothes that you're never going to wear again, then take it to an Australia Post box or office. Obviously, it still involves you actually moving your pile of unwanted clothes out of your house — but even if you never manage to make it to a Salvation Army or St Vincent's store or bin, you're never too far away from a post box. Once posted, your old threads will be sent to the Salvos to sell in their 330 shops across the country, which raise money to assist folks dealing with homelessness, addiction, domestic violence and emergency situations. To nab a label, you will need to have an active account with The Iconic. Once you've done that and printed out the label, you can stick it on any box or satchel you choose. And if you're a customer with one of the company's delivery satchels in your possession after your last order, you can also use that to send in your pre-loved pieces. The initiative is part of The Iconic's efforts to help reduce textile waste, with around 6000 kilograms of fabric and clothing ending up in Aussie landfill every ten minutes. As always when you're donating pre-worn clothes, pieces will need to be in good condition. If you'd happily give it to a friend as it is, then it's okay to give it to the Salvos. The charity is accepting dresses, tops, t-shirts, singlets, skirts, pants, shorts, jeans, coats, jackets, jumpsuits, playsuits, sweats, hoodies, jumpers, cardigans, suits, blazers, shirts, polos and activewear, as well as footwear and shoes. Used underwear, socks and hosiery won't be taken, nor anything that's damaged. To find out more about The Iconic's Giving Made Easy scheme — or to download a pre-paid shipping label — visit the online retailer's website. Top image: The Iconic.
When Corbett & Claude opened their first eatery in Indooroopilly in August, a piece of the puzzle was missing. The restaurant is named for architect Claude Chambers, who designed the Corbett Chambers building on Elizabeth Street, so setting up shop in the western suburbs rather than the CBD didn't quite seem fitting. That was just step one in unleashing a new source of historically minded tastiness to Brisbane, with the newly launched city outlet step two. That means there's now double the places to grab a drink, listen to live music and enjoy the share plates, pizzas and antipasti that comprises their menu. Wine as well as beer on tap is a great way to start any Corbett & Claude meal, as is one of their three signature cocktails. From there, picking one of the ten types of pizza is a harder choice, though the C&C special with meatballs, caramelised onion, crispy prosciutto and barbecue sauce is a certain favourite. Those after a deli-style snack can mix and match from a selection of cheeses and meats to suit their preferences. And when it comes to something sweet, a dessert pizza with nutella, hazelnuts and strawberries sounds too good to pass up — but if you must, then the waffles with honey ice cream are just as great. Find Corbett & Claude at 283 Elizabeth Street, Brisbane. For more information, visit their website and Facebook page.
It takes 50 minutes to cook the 1.2-kilogram tomahawk cut of angus beef that's on the menu at Black Hide Steak and Seafood. When it's ready to serve, the $240 dish caters for up to three people. It's a big meal, with a big price, available in a big new location for The Gambaro Group's upmarket steak brand. Black Hide by Gambaro at the Treasury is no more, with the chain moving its Brisbane CBD restaurant into the Queen's Wharf precinct. This is a change of space by necessity, of course, and one that's impacted the other restaurants and bars in the Sunshine State capital's old casino as well. Fat Noodle has moved, too, as has LiveWire, with the latter changing its focus to late-night entertainment and live music. Black Hide announced back in May 2024 that it would have a new home in The Star Brisbane, then opened its doors on Wednesday, September 11 as part of The Terrace, on the same level as the landing for the new Neville Bonner Bridge. Black Hide is The Terrace's largest restaurant, catering to more than 250 guests. The Gambaro team has embraced the opportunity to scale up, as well as the chance to ensure that seafood is a key focus alongside steak. That menu shift seems fitting given the restaurant's prime waterside location, with river views while you eat as much as a highlight as the range of wagyu cuts and multiple lobster dishes — whether or not you're sat on the balcony. While the food remains a drawcard — oysters, caviar and caviar oysters are among the starters; tuna tartare and miso-glazed beef skewers are snack choices; Black Hide's signature meatballs and kingfish crudo feature on the entree lineup; mains include grilled Moreton Bay bugs and chargrilled squid; and dessert picks span sundaes, lemon meringue, and coconut tapioca, ginger and avocado sorbet — the new site is also a cocktail lounge. A shorter small-plate menu is available to pair with drinks, and the bar operates from open till close, even when the restaurant isn't serving lunch or dinner. It was back in 2018 that Black Hide set up shop at the Treasury, expanding from Caxton Street in Petrie Terrace, where Gambaros has long been synonymous. The eatery made the Queen Street side of the casino its home, delivering river views, a bar overlooking Reddacliff Place and a six-room setup that makes the most of the heritage building's features — including a ten-person private dining space filled with timber, brass and marble. At its new digs, the same team remains on staff, with new additions given that the restaurant is bigger. Meals are whipped up in the open kitchen, letting guests view the culinary magic as its taking place.
UPDATE: MARCH 23, 2020 — Due to restrictions surrounding COVID-19, Barbara has temporarily closed. We'll let you know as soon as it has reopened. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. Some nights — and some weeknights too — you just want to enjoy a hard-earned beverage and watch one day turn into the next. Brisbane doesn't have that many establishments that cater to late-night revellers outside of the weekend, but Barbara is trying to change that. Barbara is the name of the new venture from the Calypso Boys, although the five-man team would like you to think of her as more than just a venue; their motto is "she will take care of you", after all. The 100-person McWhirters-based spot is a small bar with an inviting attitude, including furniture, light fixtures and even a DJ booth designed by the group themselves and handmade in Brisbane, as well as a love of several types of alcohol. Of course, it's the drinks and the vibe that will lure you in — and neither disappoints. The former spans new and classic cocktails to drink solo or to share, craft beers, a signature brew on tap and a select wine list, plus spirits, apperitifs and liqueurs as well. The latter keeps things intimate and personal thanks to a delicately curated music lineup and a willingness to welcome everyone. If you're a night owl, you might've just found your new super-cool mid-week watering hole.
ANZAC Day is upon us for 2020; however with the usual parades and dawn services cancelled and downscaled due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year's commemorations are looking considerably different than usual. Given that pubs, bars and RSLs are closed across the country thanks to social-distancing requirements, the great Aussie tradition that is two-up has also been affected — but, like most aspects of normal life at the moment, the game has moved online. At 2up 2.0, you can yell "come in spinner" while you're playing along virtually (and while drinking brews and eating ANZAC biscuits, too, if that's part of your April 25 routine). As you're watching digital coins flip, you'll also be helping a very worthy cause, with 100-percent of the site's proceeds being donated to Wounded Warriors to help support Australian servicemen and women and their families. To play, all you need to do is head to the site — and, while purchasing virtual coins in order to make a donation to diggers is obviously encouraged, you'll receive 100 free virtual dollars just for signing up. Prizes are on offer from Rocks Brewing Co, while a leaderboard keeps track of how everyone is faring. And remember that you'll only be able to play along today, Saturday, April 25, as that's the only day each year that two-up is legal to play in most places in Australia. To play 2up 2.0 and donate to Wounded Warriors, visit the game's website.
Imagine a place where cheese reigns supreme, other than in your own kitchen. Imagine more than 100 different varieties on offer for the tasting. Imagine being able to sample whatever you liked from this dairy feast, too. And, picture just buying one ticket to devour all the cheddar, brie, camembert, raclette and whichever other cheeses take your fancy. Is this the real life? It isn't just a cheesy fantasy at Australian dairy festival Mould, which started making cheese-loving dreams come true in 2017. In 2024, it's not only returning — it's back for its biggest festivals yet, including for three days in Brisbane at the John Reid Pavilion at Brisbane Showgrounds across Friday, May 24–Sunday, May 26. If you're a cheese fiend, then you'll know that there's only one suitable way to tuck into the beloved dairy product: all the time, or at least as much as possible. As presented by Revel — who are also the organisers of Pinot Palooza — that's an idea that Mould not only understands but encourages, celebrating the mild, hard and soft bites made by Australia's best cheese wizards. There won't just be a few cheeses on the menu. More than 100 artisan cheeses from around the country will be ready and waiting, spanning dairy from around 27 producers. In past years, that lineup has included Bruny Island Cheese Co, Grandvewe, Milawa Cheese, Yarra Valley Dairy and Stone & Crow, as well as Section 28, Red Cow Organics, Nimbin Valley Cheese, Dreaming Goat, Long Paddock Cheese and Second Mouse Cheese. Alongside unlimited tastings of Australia's best cheeses — snacking on samples is included in your ticket, but you'll then pay extra to purchase slices and slabs to take home with you — the fest features cooking demonstrations, masterclasses and talks. Courtesy of 2024's The Grate Cheese Commission, a range of cheeses created solely for the fest will also tempt your tastebuds. This year's events will include more of the foodstuffs that pair extremely well with cheese, too, such as olives, crackers and conserves. It wouldn't be a cheese festival without beverages to wash it all down with, so expect a bar serving Aussie wines, whisky, vodka, gin, beer, cider, cocktails and sake, all of which match nicely to a bit of cheese. Archie Rose and Hartshorn will be among the tipples featured.
There's a new gin in town and it's pink. And when we say pink, we mean really pink — like, Grease girl gang pink. This delightful concoction will be in glasses for spring and its creators are the master distillers at Bass and Flinders, which you'll find on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Dubbed Cerise, the gin gets its pinkness from a blend of cherries and raspberries, which is layered with hibiscus and orange blossom aromas. These ingredients are sourced from farms at nearby Red Hill. All bottles are made in small batches, to keep the gin's high quality and delicate flavour profile. Apparently it will have a slight sweetness, similar to Turkish delight. As with all Bass and Flinders gins, the spirit is based on grapes. "Using grape spirit for gin provides another dimension to the gin's botanicals and adds to the viscosity, texture and flavour — this, combined with seasonal produce, produces extraordinary spirits," says head distiller Wayne Klintworth. The gin will go on sale on September 12. It'll be available for a limited time, only at the cellar door and via the distillery's website. Bass and Flinders have been making unusual gins and other spirits, including vodka, limoncello, grappa and a five-year-aged brandy called Ochre, since 2009.
If you've ever stopped by Doughcraft in Albion, where it slings pistachio praline croissants, truffle danishes, lemon meringue croissant tarts, chocolate and raspberry brioche, Vegemite sticks and more, and wished that you could add a cocktail over charcuterie to your visit, the bakery chain has you covered at its CBD outpost. Since early 2024, the European-style venture is indeed a chain now, with its second location open in Mary Street. Its second eatery is a panini-and-vino kind of place, too. Doughcraft initially opened its debut location in 2022, joining Craft'd Grounds' inner-north dining precinct. Because there's no such thing as too much of its pastries and bread, hitting Brisbane's inner city has followed. The menu is different. This venue isn't just a bakery and deli, but a wine bar as well. And while it only operates on weekdays, it stays open till 7pm from Thursday–Friday for after-work sips. Whether you sit by the window overlooking the street for a stint of people-watching, or you choose to get comfortable beneath the interior art — murals that take their cues from Keith Haring, plus a framed gallery that features pieces by Brisbane artists, with the work showcased set to rotate — you can feast your way through Doughcraft's French- and Italian-leaning bites. If you'll follow Doughcraft's croissants anywhere, the same delights made with Normandy butter remain one of the venue's pride and joys. Expect to be tempted, by the croissants and other pastries. A wall of baked goods accompanies the counter, for snacking while you're settling in and for taking some sourdough home with you alike. The all-day panini range features seven options, including a classic ham, cheese and mustard combination — and the vegetarian-friendly eggplant, artichoke, capsicum and feta. From the selection of boards, meat-only, cheese-only, a mix of of both, and olive and bread varieties are available, or you can make your own vegetarian or vegan styles. Beverage-wise, morning patrons can begin with coffee. If you're after a cocktail, they're only on offer from 3pm Thursday–Friday. Three types of sparkling, five rosés, seven whites and nine red wines are on the vino list — plus a port — with some by the glass and others by the bottle. And those cocktails include three types of negroni, a trio of spritzes, a margarita, a mojito and a cosmopolitan.
"Well, Kriv got talking to me, you see. At a certain point late in the filming of The Correspondent, he mentioned in passing that he wanted to talk to me about another thing. And when he told me about the idea, I had some initial reluctance, because I guess playing another important Australian political figure wasn't the first thing that would come to mind on my list of most-desired projects," Richard Roxburgh tells Concrete Playground. The Australian actor is chatting about director Kriv Stenders, who he worked with on 2019's Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, then on 2025 cinema release The Correspondent and now on Joh: Last King of Queensland as well. "And I guess the way that he talked about it, the way that he pitched it to me, I just thought it was such a kind of crazy, excellent idea that I thought I had to go for." In Roxburgh and Stenders' aforementioned movie collaborations so far, the former has continued a trend that's popped up repeatedly across his career: portraying real-life Australian figures. Danger Close tasked him with stepping into Brigadier David Jackson's shoes. In The Correspondent, he helped bring journalist Peter Greste's ordeal after being arrested in Egypt, then put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, to the screen. Now, however, Roxburgh is playing former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen — and doing so not in a drama, but in a documentary. Joh: Last King of Queensland initially premiered at the 2025 Sydney Film Festival, then made its way to streaming via Stan. While Stenders has compiled a wealth of archival footage to fill its frames, as well as contemporary interviews with the politician's family members and friends, plus journalists, historians and more, Roxburgh couldn't have a more pivotal part. In recreations of the final days that the conservative figure at the doco's centre spent in office in 1987 after years leading the Sunshine State — when he refused to leave, in fact — the acclaimed actor delivers Bjelke-Petersen's speeches. Stenders grew up in Queensland, and has crafted a cautionary portrait of Bjelke-Petersen's time in charge of the state. The prolific filmmaker, who has kept jumping between fiction and fact, and the big and small screens, via everything from The Illustrated Family Doctor, Lucky Country, Red Dog and its sequel, Kill Me Three Times, the Wake in Fright miniseries, Jack Irish, Bump and Last Days of the Space Age to The Go-Betweens: Right Here, Brock: Over the Top and Slim & I, has also made another timely film with Roxburgh after The Correspondent also proved exactly that. Watching Joh: Last King of Queensland's survey of one man's authoritarian-style power, a regime filled with corruption and the vast suppression of dissent, for instance, means seeing blatant parallels to global politics today. [caption id="attachment_1015675" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images[/caption] Despite his initial hesitation, Roxburgh felt that this was a unique opportunity. "It really did. It felt really quite odd, and I was still unreally unsure about it when we started shooting it — but Kriv was so determined about it and was loving what he was seeing so much, he kept reassuring me that it was just going to slot into what he was doing. So, I trusted him," he advises. He was aware of the type of material that would surround his performance in the documentary, too. "I picked Kriv's brains about a lot of it, so I did know quite a bit of what was going on. I knew the people he'd interviewed, what the general thrust of their interviews were. I was across quite a bit of that stuff." Portraying Bjelke-Petersen doesn't just follow Roxburgh's time as Greste and as Jackson for Stenders. He has played former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke twice, in both Hawke and The Crown. His performance as corrupt police office Roger Rogerson in Blue Murder won him his first Australian Film Institute Award — the accolades that are now the AACTAs — and Logie. Then there's Roxburgh's efforts as pianist Percy Grainger in Passion; as Ronald Ryan, the last person legally executed in Australia, in The Last of the Ryans; and in Bali 2002 as Graham Ashton, the Australian police's operational commander in the investigation into the bombings. That parts as real-life Australian figures keep coming his way, alongside interrogations of power and how it impacts those in prominent positions — streaming series Prosper and The Dry sequel Force of Nature equally fit the latter bill — were also topics of discussion in our second chat for 2025 with Roxburgh. Among other subjects, we spoke with him about putting in another performance for Stenders that places him in one space alone, as portraying Greste largely did; not growing up in Queensland under Bjelke-Petersen like Joh: Last King of Queensland's director; if there's a real-life Aussie that he's keen to take on next; and the diversity he's enjoyed beyond his stints inhabiting IRL names, with Thank God He Met Lizzie, Oscar and Lucinda, Mission: Impossible II, Moulin Rouge, Van Helsing, Rake, Sanctum, Looking for Grace, Go!, Elvis, Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe and Lesbian Space Princess just some of his other projects. On the Theatre Feel to Roxburgh's Solo Scenes in Joh: Last King of Queensland — and the Process of Stepping Into Bjelke-Petersen's Shoes "It was a weird little moment in time, obviously. Because it felt after a couple of days, I said to Kriv, like a stage production that no one would see about the life and times and great strangeness of this powerful Australian political presence. So it was odd. But I think the more I settled into it, into the rhythms of that character, and tried to burrow into what he was doing in those last three days when he was alone, the more settled I felt. I thought it was going to be easier than it ended up being — because I thought, the way that Kriv talked about it, we weren't going to do makeup, we weren't going to do any of the lookalike stuff, in particular. But there were some elements that were so key to his personality, and so key to the way that he crafted sentences — the way that he conveyed information. And then there were other things, like the fact that he had polio as a child. There were so many things that went into the physical and vocal life of the character that ended up being so important and, in a way, they were sine qua non. I had to at least find the song of it. I had to find that cadence, that particular gift for clouding argument, for obfuscation, for changing sentences midstream. And you couldn't do that in the end without actually doing it. So it ended up being quite a lot of work — a lot of pre-work." On Getting Into the Mindset of a Leader That Everyone Wants Out of Office But Is Refusing to Leave "There's quite a bit of really excellent footage of Joh strongly inhabiting his argument, whatever the argument is. And so that was really useful to see how he commanded the space in those times. There was a lot less of his cloudiness, his wooliness, his diversion, obfuscation, when he was speaking like that — and a lot more control and determination, incredible determination, that he was absolutely right. Joh was an absolutist. He believed in his authority, and the fact that it was a kind of gift to Queensland from god, as it were, because he felt like he was obeying divine instruction. He was always serving his version of his lord. And so there's, to my mind, a really salient warning in that as well." On Whether There's Anything That's Key to Roxburgh in Inhabiting, Rather Than Merely Impersonating, a Real-Life Figure "I guess it's not more than it is for any other character you do. It's just a different landscape, because it's a landscape that everybody's seen before. So the difference is that an audience is going to watch it with a precondition and pre-understanding of what that character is meant to look like or how they were. It's not really different in the sense that you always have to find yourself in the in the centre, in the makeup of — and I don't mean makeup as in hair and makeup, I mean in the cellular energy of that individual, which doesn't change whether the character is fictitious or was somebody who lived and was very much in the public eye. But the difference is that everybody knows that landscape. So the people watching this documentary, at least 90 percent of them will be enormously familiar with the personality and personage of Joh. And so they'll be coming in with a pre-understanding or a preconditioning to what that character is like. So that's the thing. The risk is to do the comedic version of the character, because there were so many great versions of that and I didn't want to fall into that." On If Having an Outsider's Eye, Not Growing Up in Queensland, Helped with Roxburgh's Task in Joh: Last King of Queensland "Interesting thought. I don't know the answer to that. I feel like probably my work would be the same no matter what. Because your work, when you're inhabiting that character, is going to be always the same — and in a sense, it's to not judge it. Because Joh, whatever we think of him, he had his own incredibly powerful reasons for doing what he did — and incredibly powerful self-justifications for doing them." On What Interests Roxburgh About Interrogating the Nature and Influence of Power On-Screen "I think it's definitely something that interests me, because it's so front and centre in the human experience — because we're either living it, aiming for it ourselves, or we're suffering at the hands of it. And so it's always there. And it's such a rich and compelling part of what it is to be a human being, as evidenced in everything that Shakespeare ever wrote. There's no drama, in a sense, without it, without the mechanics of it in one way or another." On Why Portraying Prominent Real-Life Australian Figures Keeps Coming His Way "No clue why I get offered these things because I obviously don't look a thing like Bob Hawke. I don't look at thing like Joh Bjelke-Petersen, either. I don't know why this happens. And as I said, I did have really strong tendrils of reluctance when Kriv was first talking to me about this. And he said 'look, I understand if you don't want to do this, having played Bob and various others — Peter Greste and other Australian famous figures'. But then I think I just really love the audacity of this project. I love the audacious way that Kriv was finding to tell this story. I just thought 'it's a great, really ballsy, wonderful piece of cinematic thinking that I loved I really'. I just really dug it. And I trust his opinion." On the Parallels That Joh: Last King of Queensland Draws Between Joh-Era Queensland and the US in 2025 — and If It Felt Like This Would Be a Timely Film While Making It "Yeah, it did. I think it's really fascinating because I have spoken to 30-year-olds in Australia who didn't know the name Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and I thought 'holy crap, come on, everybody should know that name'. These people need to be known about. As the famous saying goes about history repeating, I just think there's so many shots across the bow in that administration of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. There's so many warnings about untrammelled power and where it can lead — that one tiny rollback of something here then leads to a bigger rollback of democracy there, which just keeps leading democracy further and further afield, until you end up with, I think, a kind of deeply embedded, corrupt, pretty rotten administration where there is so much fear, so much resentment, so much anxiety. And where anybody with a slight sense of sitting outside the paradigm had to escape to safety. And I don't think that's a great place to be, and so I would love Australians to know about what happened under the administration of Joh Bjelke-Petersen." On How Roxburgh and Stenders' Working Relationship Has Evolved Over Multiple Films Now "A lot of trust in it. I really do. And a lot of the time, not having to say too much to each other. I'll still pick his brains and he'll obviously give me direction and talk about stuff. We will do that. But I think I just know what he's after. I can assess what he's after at any given moment, I think. And sometimes, we just scratch our heads after a scene and say 'I don't know if that? Did we get that right? Or do we — fuck it, let's do another one'. So there's a really great, very relaxed, trusting shorthand, I would say. And I think Kriv is an artist who is at his peak of his powers. I think he's doing such really, really interesting, strong work." On How Roxburgh Sees His Almost Four-Decade On-Screen Journey So Far "I think I've been really lucky because I've had a working life in the thing that I love. And I do still love it. I love the hell out of it. I love doing what I do so much. I love the various shapes of it. So I also like the idea of producing, of directing, of creating material, as well. I love being able to step between theatre and film and television. I like the gradation of difference that exists between film and television. I like all of it. I love all of it. So I feel really lucky and I feel privileged in the matter that I have had a life in it, and been able to make life in it. Because it's not always the case, and it can be a tough life at times. But I feel incredibly fortunate." On the Diversity That Roxburgh Has Enjoyed Across His Career — Even If Recurring Trends and Themes Pop Up "I love it. I love the kind of weird, wacky, family-photo-album madness of that particular curriculum vitae, I guess. I think, again, I'm lucky. I'm lucky to have experienced things that were ridiculous comedies. I love my time on Rake so much, because it was familial because I was deeply involved creatively — and it was so meaningful to me on lots of levels. But I think it's just a really madcap photo album that is kind of fascinating to thumb through, not that I ever do. But I guess one day in my dotage I'll be siting around, thumbing through: 'my god, I did this thing called Go!. I did this thing called — can anybody remember Lesbian Space Princess? I mean what did I do in that?'. I think it's fascinating. It's crazy." On Whether There's Any Other Key Australian Figure That Roxburgh Is Keen to Portray "No — I can say in all honesty there's not particularly. That person does not exist particularly at the moment. Generally what happens more is that you get offered something and your first thought is 'well, that's insane. That's ridiculous. Why would they? I don't. I'm not. I couldn't play that person'. And it goes from there so. No, I would say this — it's not like I would ever sit around thinking 'I'd love to have a crack at that character'." Joh: Last King of Queensland streams via Stan.
The '90s really are the decade that just keeps on giving. You lived through the outfits and the music, then looked back with astonishment after they passed. Now, enough time has elapsed that you can embrace them again with the affection you’ve always been secretly harbouring. You know it's true. That’s where the ‘90s Music Video Party comes in, celebrating the decade everyone once pretended to forget but now loves to remember. Nostalgia is unavoidable as three hours of your favourite tunes set a retro mood, accompanied by the corresponding music videos on the big screen. Yes, the bubblegum pop of Aqua and the grunge of Soundgarden will combine, and the MMMbop of Hanson and the room shaking of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince too. Hop on to the event’s Facebook page in advance to request your must-hear track, then make like The Spice Girls and say you’ll be there.
Along with delivering quintessential Southern hospitality, Memphis is the destination that allows you to walk the brick-lined streets that witnessed the astronomical talent — and unprecedented ascent to fame — of Elvis Presley. The birthplace of rock 'n' roll, and home of blues and soul, is all electrifying energy and originality. This June, Baz Luhrmann is bringing the bright lights, creative flair and distinct directorial prowess he's known for to the euphonious history of Memphis with Elvis. The energetic and emotionally charged film charts the rise (and rise) of Elvis Presley (Austin Butler), celebrating the inimitable musician's music and life against the backdrop of an evolving cultural climate in 1950s and 60s America. Using the lens of Presley's relationship with his enigmatic manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), the bold picture tells a story of musical self-expression and monumental stardom — and the coinciding loss of innocence that was broadcast on a global stage. As hips shook, money was made and a rock 'n' roll icon immortalised. https://youtu.be/xSbQ_ERfmFQ To celebrate the release of Elvis in cinemas Thursday, June 23, Memphis Tourism is giving you the chance to win two tickets to the Australian premiere on the Gold Coast — which is where the feature was shot — on Saturday, June 4. To be in the running to rock and roll your way to the red-carpet experience, enter below. [competition]851551[/competition] Top images: Hugh Stewart (first two); Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures (third) © 2022 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved.
You can never have too much greenery in your life, both inside and outside your house. And, whether you're decking out your interiors or setting up a luxe outdoor hangout zone, you can never have too many homewares either. At least that's what you'll keep telling yourself while you're browsing around The Home Collective's wares. At its next event, the northside market will be offering up an array of plants, pots, furniture, cushions, art, ceramics, candles and other items that belong in your house or garden. If you're keen for a sneak peek, or some design inspiration, check out the event's Instagram page. That'll motivate you to head along, we're certain. Taking place at the Wavell Heights Community Hall from 7–11am on Sunday, February 27, the market will kit out your abode with plenty of choices — usually, there's more than 55 stalls ready for you to peruse. Sure, there's an excuse to boost your garden and homewares cred every weekend in Brissie, or so it seems, but you just can't have to much of a good thing. Entry is via gold coin donation, which'll go to the folks at Animal Welfare Queensland. And there'll also be caffeinated beverages on offer to help perk up your Sunday morning — plus bites to eat from a range of food trucks.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. BERGMAN ISLAND Each filmmaker sits in the shadows of all who came before them — and as cinema's history lengthens, so will those penumbras. With Bergman Island, French writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve doesn't merely ponder that idea; she makes it the foundation of her narrative, as well a launching pad for a playful and resonant look at love, work and the creative wonders our minds conjure up. Her central duo, two filmmakers who share a daughter, literally tread where the great Ingmar Bergman did. Visiting Fårö, the island off Sweden's southeastern coast that he called home and made his base, Chris (Vicky Krieps, Old) and Tony Sanders (Tim Roth, The Misfits) couldn't escape his imprint if they wanted to. They don't dream of trying, as they're each searching for as much inspiration as they can find; however, the idea of being haunted by people and their creations soon spills over to Chris' work. Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage has already been remade, albeit in a miniseries that arrived on the small screen a couple of months after Bergman Island premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival — but across one half of Hansen-Løve's feature, that title would fit here as well. Her resume has long been filled with intimate looks at complicated relationships, including in 2009's Father of My Children and 2011's Goodbye First Love, with her movies both peering deeply and cutting deep as they unfurl the thorny intricacies of romance. Accordingly, when Chris and Tony find themselves sleeping in the bedroom where Bergman shot the original Scenes From a Marriage, it's a loaded and layered moment several times over. That said, the thing about willingly walking in someone else's footsteps is that you're not bound to taking the exact same path — as Bergman Island's characters learn, and as the filmmaker that's brought them to the screen clearly already knows. Turning in finessed and thoughtful performances, Krieps and Roth bring a lived-in dynamic to the film's first key couple, with the chaos that swirls from being in the same line of work but chasing disparate aims not just flowing but bubbling in their paired scenes. He's the kind of Bergman fan that's adamant about going on the Bergman safari, a real-life thing that all visitors can do, for instance, while she prefers being shown around informally by young film student Hampus (acting debutant Hampus Nordenson). But their Fårö escapades only fill half of Bergman Island, because the movie also brings Chris' budding script to life. She tells Tony the tale, seeking his assistance in working out an ending, but he's too immersed in Bergman worship to truly pay attention. The feature itself, Hansen-Løve and the audience all savour the details, though — eagerly so. There, in this film-within-a-film, 28-year-old director Amy (Mia Wasikowska, Blackbird) visits an island, too — "a place like this," Chris advises, and one that visibly resembles Fårö. She dances to ABBA to cement the Swedish ties, and also spends her time on the locale's shores wading through matters of art and the heart. The catalyst for the latter: her ex Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie, The Worst Person in the World). They're both attending a wedding of mutual friends, and their lengthy, passionate and volatile history quickly pushes to the fore. While they've each moved on, they're also forever connected, especially when placed in such close quarters. Accordingly, that tumultuous relationship is as bedevilled by other creative endeavours, and also by the thrall of history, as Chris' quest to put pen to paper. And, via the movie-inside-a-movie concept, there's an evocative sense of mirroring that couldn't spring any firmer from Bergman himself. Read our full review. WASH MY SOUL IN THE RIVER'S FLOW A silent hero and a rowdy troublemaker. That's what Ruby Hunter calls Archie Roach, her partner in life and sometimes music, then characterises herself. She offers those words casually, as if she's merely breathing, with an accompanying smile and a glint in her eyes as she talks. They aren't the only thoughts uttered in Wash My Soul in the River's Flow, which intersperses concert and rehearsal clips with chats with Hunter and Roach, plus snippets of biographical details from and recollections about their lives as intertitles, and then majestic footage of the winding Murray River in Ngarrindjeri Country, where Hunter was born, too. Still, even before those two-word descriptions are mentioned, the film shows how they resonate within couple's relationship. Watching their dynamic, which had ebbed and flowed over three-plus decades when the movie's footage was shot in 2004, it's plain to see how these two icons of Australian music are dissimilar in personality and yet intertwine harmoniously. Every relationship is perched upon interlocking personalities: how well they complement each other, where their differences blend seamlessly and how their opposing traits spark challenges in the best possible ways. Every song, too, is a balance of disparate but coordinated pieces. And, every ecosystem on the planet also fits the bill. With Hunter and Roach as its focus, Wash My Soul in the River's Flow contemplates all three — love, music and Country — all through 2004 concert Kura Tungar — Songs from the River. Recorded for the documentary at Melbourne's Hamer Hall, that gig series interlaced additional parts, thanks to a collaboration with Paul Grabowsky's 22-piece Australian Art Orchestra — and the movie that producer-turned-writer/director Philippa Bateman makes of it, and about two Indigenous stars, their experience as members of Australia's Stolen Generations, their ties to Country and their love, is equally, gloriously and mesmerisingly multifaceted. When is a concert film more than a concert film? When it's Wash My Soul in the River's Flow, clearly, which is named for one of Kura Tungar's tracks. Bateman could've just used her recordings of the legendary show, which won the 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Australian Contemporary Concert, and given everyone who wasn't there the chance to enjoy an historic event — and to bask in the now-late Hunter's on-stage glories more than a decade after her 2010 passing — but that was clearly just the starting point for her movie. With Roach as a producer, the documentary presents each of its songs as a combination of five key elements, all weaved together like the feather flower-dotted, brightly coloured headpiece that Hunter wears during the performance. With each tune, the film repeats the pattern but the emotion that comes with it inherently evolves, with the result akin to cycling through the earth's four seasons. First, a title appears on-screen, overlaid across breathtakingly beautiful images of the Murray and its surroundings, and instantly steeping every song in a spectacular place. From there, the Kura Tungar rendition of each tune segues into practice sessions with Grabowsky and the AAO of the same track, plus both text and on-the-couch chatter between Hunter and Roach that speaks to the context of, meaning behind and memories tied to each piece. Hunter's 'Daisy Chains, String Games and Knuckle Bones', which springs from her childhood, gets that treatment. Roach's unforgettable 'Took the Children Away' does, too. 'Down City Streets', as written by Hunter and recorded by Roach, also joins the lineup. The list goes on, and the power that each song possesses alone — which, given the talent and topics involved, is immense — only grows when packaged in such a layered manner. Read our full review. THE SOUVENIR: PART II In showbusiness, nepotism is as inescapable as movies about movies. Both are accounted for in The Souvenir: Part II. But when talents as transcendent as Honor Swinton Byrne, her mother Tilda Swinton and writer/director Joanna Hogg are involved — with the latter working with the elder Swinton since her first short, her graduation piece Caprice, back in 1986 before Honor was even born — neither family ties nor filmmaking navel-gazing feel like something routine. Why this isn't a surprise with this trio is right there in the movie's name, after the initial The Souvenir proved such a devastatingly astute gem in 2019. It was also simply devastating, following an aspiring director's romance with a charismatic older man through to its traumatic end. Both in its masterful narrative and its profound impact, Part II firmly picks up where its predecessor left off. In just her third film role — first working with her mum in 2009's I Am Love before The Souvenir and now this — Swinton Byrne again plays 80s-era filmmaking student Julie Harte. But there's now a numbness to the wannabe helmer after her boyfriend Anthony's (Tom Burke, Mank) death, plus soul-wearying shock after discovering the double life he'd been living that her comfortable and cosy worldview hadn't conditioned her to ever expect. Decamping to the Norfolk countryside, to her family home and to the warm but entirely upper-middle-class, stiff-upper-lip embrace of her well-to-do parents Rosalind (Swinton, The French Dispatch) and William (James Spencer Ashworth) is only a short-term solution, however. Julie's thesis film still needs to be made — yearns to pour onto celluloid, in fact — but that's hardly a straightforward task. As the initial movie was, The Souvenir: Part II is another semi-autobiographical affair from Hogg, with Swinton Byrne slipping back into her on-screen shoes. This time, the director doesn't just dive into her formative years four decades back, but also excavates what it means to mine your own life for cinematic inspiration — aka the very thing she's been doing with this superb duo of features. That's what Julie does as well as she works on the film's film-within-a-film, sections of which play out during The Souvenir: Part II's running time and are basically The Souvenir. Accordingly, viewers have now spent two pictures watching Hogg's protagonist lives the experiences she'll then find a way to face through her art, all while Hogg moulds her two exceptional — and exceptionally intimate and thoughtful — movies out of that exact process. Julie's graduation project is also an escape, given it's patently obvious that the kindly, well-meaning but somehow both doting and reserved Rosalind and William have been pushed out of their comfort zone by her current crisis. Helping their daughter cope with her heroin-addicted lover's passing isn't something either would've considered might occur, so they natter away about Rosalind's new penchant for crafting Etruscan-style pottery instead — using small talk to connect without addressing the obvious, as all families lean on at some point or another. They provide financing for Julie's film, too, in what proves the easiest part of her concerted efforts to hop back behind the lens and lose herself in her work. Elsewhere, an array of doubt and questions spring from her all-male film-school professors, and the assistance she receives from her classmates is quickly steeped in rivalries, envy and second-guessing. Read our full review. FACING MONSTERS "If you want the ultimate, you've got to be willing to pay the ultimate price." Uttered by Patrick Swayze in 90s surfing action flick Point Break, that statement isn't directly quoted in Facing Monsters. Still, when it comes to the underlying idea behind those words — that anything at its absolute pinnacle comes at a cost, especially seeking bliss hanging ten on giant swells — this new Australian documentary unquestionably rides the same wave. Directed by Bentley Dean, and marking his first movie in cinemas since 2015 Oscar-nominee Tanna, the film focuses on Kerby Brown, the Aussie slab surfer who is at his happiest atop the biggest breakers possible. He's turned hunting them into his life's mission — think Point Break's 50-year storm, also set in Australia, but every time that Kerby hops on a board — and Facing Monsters commits that pursuit to celluloid. Helming solo unlike on Tanna — which he co-directed with Martin Butler, as he did on prior documentaries Contact, First Footprints and A Sense of Self as well — Dean understands three key aspects to Kerby's story. The thrills, the spectacle and the calm: they're all accounted for here, including simply in the astonishing imagery that fills the film. There's no shortage of talk in Facing Monsters; Kerby himself, his brother and frequent partner-in-surf Cortney, his partner Nicole Jardine, and his parents Glenn and Nola all chat happily. But this movie makes much of its impact, and captures plenty that's pivotal, all via its visuals alone. Cinematographer Rick Rifici has long shot the sea as if it's an otherworldly space, including while working as a camera operator on Storm Surfers, as a water cinematographer on Breath, and as the underwater camera operator on Dirt Music, and he's as as crucial here as Kerby. The long, wide, lingering image that begins the film is one such unforgettable moment — essential and exceptional, too. Kerby floats in a sea of lush but rippling pink, face to the sky, his board strapped to his leg. It's a near-supernatural sight, and a transcendent one, but amid the unshakeably striking beauty of the shot, uncertainty also loiters. An unspoken query, too: is this a picture of bliss or bleakness? Next comes a quick cut, letting Kerby's bloody face and bandaged head fill the the screen instead, and making it instantly clear that his love of riding big waves has physical and severe consequences. The gorgeous visions return from there, and the intimacy as well — the latter largely flowing from talk from this point forward — but Facing Monsters' first frames truly do say it all. Indeed, it's noticeable that the remainder of the movie feels like it's paddling after this opening sensation and atmosphere. Facing Monsters is a documentary about chasing, of course — waves, obsessions, addictions, demons, solace and happiness alike. The dangerous nature of slab surfing plays out like a quest as much as an adventure, driving Kerby ever since he and Cortney got bored with the swells at Kalbarri in Western Australia, where they grew up, then starting seeking out bigger and bigger possibilities. That's there in the chatter as well as the imagery, in a film that aims to convey the what and why behind its subject's choices through immersion first and foremost. It's fitting, then, that watching Facing Monsters sometimes resembles riding high — when its visuals express everything they need to — and sometimes floats in shallower waters. Ensuring that audiences share the awe and wonder that Kerby experiences on his board is easy with Rifici's astounding help; diving deeper into exactly what else makes its point of focus tick, and has through swirls of drugs and booze, life-threatening incidents in the surf, and becoming a father, is a far more evasive task. BOOK OF LOVE In 2018's The Nightingale, Sam Claflin gave the performance of his career so far while playing thoroughly against type. As a British lieutenant in colonial-era Tasmania, he terrorised the film's female protagonist to a nerve-rattlingly distressing degree — and his work, just like the phenomenal feature he's in, isn't easy to watch. Book of Love, his latest movie, couldn't be more different; however, Claflin's portrayal could use even a sliver of the commitment he demonstrated four years back. The film around him could, too. Here, he plays a floundering novelist who doesn't want to do a very long list of things, so it makes sense that he takes to the part with a dissatisfied attitude that drips with not only unhappiness, but pouting petulance. He's meant to be one of this dire rom-com's romantic leads, however, and he constantly looks like he'd rather be doing anything else. Author of The Sensible Heart, Claflin's Henry Copper is instantly as dour as his book sounds. It too is a romance, but he's proud of its sexlessness — to the point of boasting about it to bored would-be readers who definitely don't make a purchase afterwards. He's also seen using his novel as a pick-up line early in the movie, and that goes just as badly. In fact, his whole career seems to be a shambles, and the prim-and-proper Brit can't understand why. But he's also surprised when he's told that his latest has become a bestseller in Mexico, and he's hardly thrilled about the whirlwind promotional tour his brassy agent (Lucy Punch, The Prince) swiftly books him on. Upon arrival, where his local translator Maria Rodríguez (My Heart Goes Boom!) doubles as his minder, he's visibly displeased about everything he's asked to do — more so when he discovers that she's taken the liberty to spice up his work. Of course, Maria's revisions — a wholesale rewrite that plunges The Sensible Heart into erotic page-turner territory — are the sole reason that Mexican women are lining up at Henry's events to throw themselves at him. And with both his British-based and Mexican agents adamant that his publicity tour must go on, he's forced to grin and bear that truth as they take a road trip across the country. Henry and Maria are a chalk-and-cheese pair in a host of other ways, naturally, but apparently sparks can't help igniting in this contrived scenario. It's telling that BuzzFeed Studios is behind the film, the site earns a mention in the movie and its plot feels like a gif-heavy listicle from the outset. Indeed, based on how slight and stereotypical every aspect of Book of Love proves, writer/director Analeine Cal y Mayor (La Voz de un Sueño) and co-writer David Quantick (Veep) don't appear to have spent much time fleshing anything out beyond that potential starting point. Tired, not wired: that's the end result, including Book of Love's place in the current literary-focused subgenre of romantic flicks that's also spawned the 50 Shades movies, the After films and fellow forgettable 2022 release The Hating Game. Claflin's patent disinterest is the least of the feature's troubles given that its storyline is nonsensical, there's no sign of chemistry between its leads, the dialogue couldn't be flatter and the travelogue setup has already been overdone. The charismatic Rodríguez certainly deserves better, even if no one else involved inspires the same description solely based on their efforts here. She's stuck playing a character that's been given as much depth and texture as a full stop — the archetype: feisty put-upon single mother with big dreams but crushing responsibilities — but she's also the only part of the movie that feels remotely real. OFF THE RAILS In need of a bland and derivative friends-on-holidays flick that's painted with the broadest of strokes? Keen to dive once more into the pool of movies about pals heading abroad to scatter ashes and simultaneously reflect upon their current lot in life? Fancy yet another supposedly feel-good film that endeavours to wring humour out of culture clashes between English-speaking protagonists and the places they visit? Yearning for more glimpses of thinly written women getting their grooves back and realising what's important on a wild Eurotrip? Call Off the Rails, not that anyone should. Coloured with every cliche that all of the above scenarios always throw up, and also covered from start to finish in schmaltz, it's a travel-themed slog that no one could want to remember. A grab bag of overdone tropes and treacly sentiment, it also doubles as an ode to the songs of Blondie, which fill its soundtrack — but even the vocal stylings of the great Debbie Harry can't breathe vibrancy into this trainwreck. Alongside its woeful been-there-done-that plot, its lack of personality, its yearning to be the next Mamma Mia! and all those Blondie tracks — the prominence of which makes zero sense given how briefly and haphazardly each song, hits and deeper cuts alike from a lengthy list, are deployed — Off the Rails does have another claim to fame to its name. The British film also marks the last on-screen appearance of Kelly Preston, who passed away in mid-2020; however, it isn't the swansong that any actor would want. Her involvement does give the movie's messages about making the most of one's time, embracing what you love and keeping in touch with the people who matter while you can a bittersweet tone, but not enough to wash away its mix of dullness and overdone mawkishness. Or, to invest depth into what's largely 94 minutes of middle-aged travellers arguing about anything and everything. Once close, Kate (Jenny Seagrove, Peripheral), Liz (Sally Phillips, Blinded by the Light) and Cassie (Preston, Gotti) now just call on big occasions — and even then, they're barely there for each other. But when fellow pal Anna dies, they reunite at her funeral, and are asked to carry out her final wish by her mother (Belfast's Judi Dench, in a thankless cameo). The task: catching a train across Europe, through Paris to Girona, Barcelona and Palma in Spain, to recreate a backpacking jaunt the four took decades earlier. Specifically, they're headed to La Seu, a cathedral with stained-glass windows that look particularly spectacular when the sun hits at the right time (the film calls it "god's disco ball"). Anna already bought their Interrail passes, and her 18-year-old daughter Maddie (Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips, Fortitude) decides she'll join the voyage, too. Amid the bickering, which fills most of debut feature director Jules Williamson's scenes and screenwriter Jordan Waller's dialogue, the usual antics all roll out. Old feuds are unearthed, transport often goes awry every which way it can and the main middle-aged trio cause middle-aged women problems (getting drunk, getting lost, causing a scene in a boutique, delivering a baby and the like). Menopause earns some discussion, romance also springs — which is where the always-welcome but underused Franco Nero, aka cinema's original Django, comes in — and life lessons are ultimately learned. If that sounds tediously stock-standard on paper, it certainly plays out that way in a sunnily shot but always plodding ostensible comedy. Few performances could improve this plight, and Off the Rails' happily one-note efforts can't either, especially when its most interesting character and corresponding portrayal — courtesy of Dormer-Phillips as Maddie — keeps being pushed aside. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on November 4, November 11, November 18 and November 25; December 2, December 9, December 16 and December 26; January 1, January 6, January 13, January 20 and January 27; February 3, February 10, February 17 and February 24; and March 3. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Eternals, The Many Saints of Newark, Julia, No Time to Die, The Power of the Dog, Tick, Tick... Boom!, Zola, Last Night in Soho, Blue Bayou, The Rescue, Titane, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Dune, Encanto, The Card Counter, The Lost Leonardo, The French Dispatch, Don't Look Up, Dear Evan Hansen, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Lost Daughter, The Scary of Sixty-First, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, The Matrix Resurrections, The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Worst Person in the World, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, House of Gucci, The King's Man, Red Rocket, Scream, The 355, Gold, King Richard, Limbo, Spencer, Nightmare Alley, Belle, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Belfast, Here Out West, Jackass Forever, Benedetta, Drive My Car, Death on the Nile, C'mon C'mon, Flee, Uncharted, Quo Vadis, Aida?, Cyrano, Hive, Studio 666, The Batman and Blind Ambition.
