Illuminated by pyramids and backdropped by an enormous chameleonic moon, the Opera House Concert Hall stage was transformed into some enigmatic extraterrestrial woodland last week. James Vincent McMorrow emerged from the shadows like a creature born of such a setting — bearded like a werewolf yet singing at a pitch to touch the lower rungs of heaven. The Irishman's stories of "harrow winds", "desolate love" and hearts like "unending tombs" are those of a man who’s spent long periods in cold, lonely places. Over the course of sixteen or so songs, McMorrow mixes up tunes from his folksy breakthough album Early in the Morning (2010) with those from recent release Post Tropical (2014). One minute he’s yearning his way though 'Glacier', filled out by mellifluous harmonies; the next McMorrow’s dropped an octave or two (as you do) and picked up the drum sticks to power through a rousing version of 'We Don’t Eat'. Although the sophomore album represented a significant departure from the first, the structural soundness of the songwriting on both makes for a seamless live show. McMorrow's band creates an even more intense dynamic than that captured on his albums, delivering mournful clarinet solos, drum beats that range from tribal to all-out rock and ethereal counter melodies. McMorrow doesn’t speak until he’s at least five songs in. Not because he’s deliberately reserved — but because he’s overwhelmed and nervous. "This is crazy, just crazy," he mutters, referring to the fact that he’s playing to a packed-out Opera House. Towards the end of the set, McMorrow introduces a song by explaining his last New Year’s Eve; when excited messages flooded his inbox informing him that he was sound-tracking Sydney’s midnight fireworks. What the organisers might not have known at the time is that they were inadvertently facilitating two of McMorrow’s teenage ambitions. "If I hadn’t become a musician," he confesses, "I would have loved to have worked with explosives." He then launches into his famously fragile, solo version of 'Higher Love'. Support came in the form of Airling, moniker of Brisbane-based artist Hannah Shepherd. Her gorgeous vocals glided over some ultra-smooth grooves and lush electronic arrangements. Images by Prudence Upton.
Back in May, when you were still desperately waiting for the almost three-year gap between Stranger Things season three and four to end, Kate Bush mightn't have been a big part of your life. She should've. You should've already had a date to dance to 'Wuthering Heights' dressed up as the iconic British singer, too. But when Netflix dropped the first seven episodes of Stranger Things' fourth season, Bush mania exploded. While you've been listening to 'Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)' on repeat for the past month or so — especially during the gap between the season's initial batch of episodes and the supersized final two — you might've been obsessing over something else in the process. Been wondering what song might save you from Vecna? Haven't we all. And, so has Spotify. Timed to coincide with those last couple of season four instalments — all four hours of them — the music streaming service is now creating personalised Stranger Things playlists that'll pick the tunes it thinks will keep you from falling prey to villainous forces. Each listener will get a different range of tracks, which'll include your recent and past favourites, as well as selections from the team behind the show. The theme: high-energy music that'll empower you to vanquish nefarious foes. Obviously, unlike Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink, Fear Street), you won't be pumping soul-saving tunes into your ears from a cassette. Also, you don't really have a big bad like Vecna to deal with. But you get the idea — and the excuse to keep indulging your Stranger Things love until the fifth and sadly final season of the hit sci-fi series arrives. Your own personalised Upside Down playlist will update every day, if you need another excuse to keep your headphones on you. Spotify is also streaming official Stranger Things soundtrack albums, plus a playlist filled with songs either from the show or picks inspired by it. Naturally, on the latter, tunes from the 80s are well represented. (And yes, Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' — aka the song you're likely to be obsessed with throughout July — is on there. Of course it is.) Check out the trailer for the second half of Stranger Things season four below: To access your personal Upside Down playlist, head to Spotify. Stranger Things is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review of Stranger Things season four volume one. Images: courtesy of Netflix.
No adult should actually want to head back in time to their schoolyard days, but sending your chocolate-loving tastebuds there is a different matter. Some flavours and snacks just transport you into your memories, offering up a blast from the past with every bite, and KitKat is making them its business — alongside releasing oh-so-many wild and delightful flavours in Japan, of course. (Cough drop KitKats, anyone?) In 2022, KitKat teamed up with Aussie favourite Milo on the chocolate bars of your childhood dreams. Now, it's giving that concept a second go — this time with Milkybars. Sure, you mightn't have had a Milkybar since you carried around a lunchbox in a backpack, but come April and May, you'll be able to get your fix via three options. The Milkybars are on this new range of KitKats, and literally — in a way that 90s TV ads never imagined. Leading the pack is a regular four-finger KitKat covered with Milkybar white chocolate, which'll hit 7-Elevens first from April. But, it has company. If you're keen to share — or save some for yourself for later — there's a big KitKat block also covered in white chocolate which arrives at other supermarkets and convenience stores from Wednesday, May 3. Or, there's a sharepack filled with small pieces which you'll only find at Coles from the same May date. No, you don't have to eat this collab with milk. Also, you don't have to enjoy them in a milk bar, if you can find one around the place. And no, you don't have to call yourself the Milkybar Kid, either — even if the character was a staple of Nestlé's Milkybar advertisements from the 60s onwards. To really ramp up the nostalgia, check out one of those old ads below: KitKat's Milkybar chocolates will hit store shelves from April and May, retailing at $2 per bar, $5 per share pack and $5.50 per block.
If you equate summertime with browsing, eating and drinking, then prepare to make the Old Museum your Friday evening hangout. From November 13 to January 22, heading over to Bowen Hills is a must if you're keen on checking out their brand new Summer Night Markets. In what might prove the city outskirts' answer to Hamilton's Eat Street, at least while the weather is at its warmest, a host of food trucks and stalls will descend upon the Old Museum's heritage gardens. Whether locally-grown produce, craft beer, Queensland wine, or just general artisan and maker goodies are on your shopping list, you'll find them here. The first list of stallholders certainly ensures the question you should be asking yourself isn't "why should I go?" but "how can I miss it?" Bella BBQ, Brat Haus, Divine Doughnuts, Koma Sliders, Fire N Dough and more will be taking care of the food, Stone & Wood and Ravenscroft wines will be stocking the bar, and Backwoods Original, Antler and Moss, Lola Body and Gypsy Designs are among those offering up purchasable trinkets. Plus, the Summer Night Markets aren't just about strolling and spending, with the event boasting wandering street performers as well as a stage dedicated to live music. On November 13, the entertainment lineup even includes a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the extra cost of $18. Given how popular it is likely to be, we suggest rushing there faster than you can say "Dammit, Janet". Head along to the Summer Night Markets at the Old Museum every Friday night — excluding Christmas day and New Year's Day — from November 13 to January 22. For more information, visit their website and Facebook page.
In recent years, Brisbane has turned crabby. Claw BBQ opened not one but two venues, first in Bowen Hills and then in Carindale. Also, Kickin' Inn has had locals donning bibs in Spring Hill. The next crustacean-loving spot that's marched into town is Krabby's Crab Boil, which has scuttled up north from Melbourne. If you're keen on Louisiana-style seafood boils, this is where you'll find them. Making its Brisbane and Queensland debut, Krabby's Crab Boil has set up shop in and on Petrie Terrace. In both the locality and on the street that shares the same name, the chain has settled into well-known digs, in fact. The corner venue that was once Hog's Breath Cafe and then The Bavarian The Barracks is the brand's Brissie home, with Krabby's giving the prime location a makeover. On the menu here since Monday, March 31, 2025: fresh seafood that's seasoned and boiled, whether you're keen on snow crab and king prawns or mussels and clams (or, if it suits your tastebuds, all of the above). At its two Melbourne digs, this is the kind of place that fills buckets with seafood, both to share and to tuck into on your own, including Moreton Bay bugs, lobster or yabbies — while also serving up crab, prawn, lobster and scallop rolls; salt and pepper squid; crab and clam chowder; and more. The vibe: lively, in a setting where gathering the gang is recommended and the atmosphere is as much of a drawcard as the menu. Given how close Brisbane's Krabby's outpost is to Suncorp Stadium, expect it to be particularly busy on game days and whenever there's a concert on down the road. If you've been to The Barracks in recent months, you might've noticed two things: firstly, that a heap of its eateries had said farewell, and then that some of those empty stores have been welcoming in new tenants. Krabby's Crab Boil is one fresh arrival. Also setting up shop lately: Lick! Ice Cream and Ichiban Sushi. Your new Petrie Terrace spot for a frosty treat — perhaps after a movie — launched in late 2024. Ichiban Sushi's latest venue, alongside its Queen Street Mall, West Village and Fairfield Gardens sites, opened on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. [caption id="attachment_997266" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Markus Ravik[/caption] Find Krabby's Crab Boil at 61 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane — head to the eatery's website for more details.
He's famous for a series about nothing. He's now heading Down Under to share something: Jerry Seinfeld, that is, with the comedian just announcing Australia and New Zealand dates for his latest stand-up show. Instead of rewatching old Seinfeld episodes for approximately the 75th time, you can catch the iconic talent on a seven-city trip that marks his first visit since 2017. Those gigs sold out faster than a Seinfeld character can say "what's the deal?", and expect tickets to his 2024 trip to get snapped up quickly as well. Mark June in your calendar, as that's when Seinfeld will be going all "yada yada yada" in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne in Australia, plus Auckland and Christchurch in Aotearoa. So far, every city scores one show except Melbourne, where Seinfeld will take to the stage for two nights. Back in 1998, he called the Victorian capital the "anus" of the world — but perhaps his feelings have now changed. In NZ, Seinfeld's Christchurch stop will mark his first ever in the city — with Auckland a return to the spot where he played his debut New Zealand gig in 2017. [caption id="attachment_925505" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] "I can't wait to bring the laughs Down Under once again," said Seinfeld about his next trip our way, which comes 43 years after he initially appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and 35 years since Seinfeld — which was co-created by its namesake and Larry David — premiered. His career also spans everything from web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, films such as Comedian and Bee Movie — with a new flick Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story on the way — and books Is this Anything? and Seinlanguage. And yes, we're assuming that he won't be stepping behind the microphone wearing a puffy shirt. JERRY SEINFELD AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND TOUR 2024 DATES: Saturday, June 15 — RAC Arena, Perth Sunday, June 16 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Wednesday, June 19 — Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane Thursday, June 20 — Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide Saturday, June 22–Sunday, June 23 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Monday, June 24 — Spark Arena, Auckland Wednesday, June 26 — Wolfbrook Arena, Christchurch Jerry Seinfeld is touring Australia and New Zealand in June 2024, with Telstra presales from 12pm local time on Tuesday, November 14 TEG Dainty presales from 1pm local time on Thursday, November 16 and general sales from 12pm local time on Friday, November 17 — head to the tour website for further details. Top image: Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons.
The late, great Jim Henson gave the world many things, including the Muppets in general, Sesame Street's loveable puppet characters, Kermit the Frog's memorable voice and all things Fraggle Rock. He also turned filmmaker three times, creating three of the great puppet movies of the 1980s — The Great Muppet Caper, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. While Labyrinth still earns plenty of attention for plenty of reasons — David Bowie being one of them, obviously — The Dark Crystal also deservedly holds a place in fans' hearts. Co-directed with his Muppets colleague Frank Oz, the fantasy-adventure flick follows a Gelfling called Jen, who is trying to bring back balance to his own world by finding and returning a broken shard from a powerful gem. Henson and Oz also worked their puppeting magic on the movie, of course. Over the years, a sequel has been mooted more than once, including one with Australian Daybreakers, Predestination and Winchester filmmakers Michael and Peter Spierig at the helm. No follow-ups have ever come to fruition, but Netflix is doing the next best thing: reviving the beloved film for a ten-part series. Releasing at the end of August, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is a prequel to the movie — and yes, it uses puppets for its protagonists, not CGI, as both the first teaser and the new full-length trailer both show in stunning detail. Set years before the events of the film, it steps into the world of Thra, which is home to The Crystal of Truth. Both are under threat by the evil Skeksis, with illness thwarting the land as a result. It's up to three Gelfings to reveal the truth, stage a rebellion and fight for the planet. Directed by Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk, Now You See Me), Age of Resistance also boasts quite the cast, with Rocketman's Taron Egerton, Glass' Anya Taylor-Joy and Game of Thrones' Nathalie Emmanuel voicing three elf-like Gelflings. They're joined by a hefty list of names, so prepare to hear the vocal tones of Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Dormer, Lena Headey, Eddie Izzard, Theo James, Toby Jones, Shazad Latif, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mark Strong, Alicia Vikander, Mark Hamill, Jason Isaacs, Keegan-Michael Key, Simon Pegg, Andy Samberg, Benedict Wong, Awkwafina and Sigourney Weaver as well. Check out the new trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3_owZfYVR8 The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance hits Netflix on August 30. Image: Kevin Baker.
Exclaiming "I'm already a star. You don't become a star: you either are one or you aren't. I am!" to get into the hottest party in Los Angeles, aspiring 1920s actor Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie, Amsterdam) has ambition. Gracing the same Golden Age soirée after ending his latest marriage with an overplayed joke that could've sprung from Inglourious Basterds, veteran leading man Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt, Bullet Train) wouldn't have gotten where he is without the same drive and determination. And, helping the shindig be the only place to be, including wrangling an elephant for the night's entertainment (a pachyderm that empties its bowels on everyone pushing it up a hill no less), Manny Torres (Diego Calva, Narcos: Mexico) has the eagerness to do something — anything — in show business. Meet Babylon's zeal-dripping on-screen threesome, a trio matched only in their quest to rocket sky-high as the man conjuring them up: jazz-loving, La La Land Oscar-winning, Tinseltown-adoring writer/director Damien Chazelle. As Babylon unfurls across its hefty 189-minute running time, it takes a colossal heap of ambition — perhaps as immense as the pile of cocaine that Nellie gravitates towards inside the party — to make it or even fake it in the film industry. For his fifth feature, and first since 2018's First Man, Chazelle waves around his own as enthusiastically as he possibly can. Even just considering his hefty list of conspicuous influences makes that clear, with the filmmaker unshackling his inner Baz Luhrmann, Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson and David Lynch, to name a mere few overt nods. The Great Gatsby, Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Mulholland Drive: swirl them together with Kenneth Anger's 1959 publication Hollywood Babylon, plus everything from Sunset Boulevard to Hail, Caesar!, and that's just the beginning of Chazelle's plans. The end result also makes for a relentless and ravenous movie that's always a lot, not just in length, but is dazzling (and also very funny) when it clicks. That elephant crap doesn't just make quite the opening, as splattered from a visible opening. Beneath the glitz and glamour, and aiding all things shiny and starry to appear that way, lurks something far less seductive — so Babylon posits from the outset, then keeps pulling back the curtain like it's The Wizard of Oz. Before the film's first 15 minutes are up, it has also sprayed urine, waded through orgies, thrown around furniture, thrust about drugs and danced frenzied dances (Robbie does an entrancing one, No Time to Die cinematographer Linus Sandgren does another with his soaring and swooping camerawork, and Chazelle's usual composer Justin Hurwitz sets the bouncy tone with his Golden Globe-winning score, then keeps doing so). Also, before the initial revelry recedes, Manny is smitten with Nellie, while she has an acting job the next day. Hollywood: it's where shit explodes and snakes are wrestled literally and metaphorically, and where enough wishes are granted on-screen and behind the scenes to keep everyone returning for more. In the rest of its first act, Babylon is a filmmaking western; to spend time on a silent-era set here is to gallop across cinema's frontier. Nellie is a natural, and feted for crying on cue (that she's getting her start when big gestures and performances are a necessity also assists). Manny nabs an opportunity as well, his efforts to secure a replacement camera for a pivotal epic shot before a moody director loses his light instantly one of the film's most hilarious stretches. While the preceding party was a vibe, Babylon's best bursts through this madcap on-the-lot day. Simply surveying the packed-together sets, movies made next to movies upon movies, is a delight — and the pacing, zippily juggling Nellie, Manny and Jack's exploits, is among the picture's tightest. With the feature kicking off in 1926, though, the noisy, frenzied chaos that buzzes in this sequence has a talkie-sparked expiration date. For the fools who dream, Chazelle worships stories of artists chasing lifelong fantasies and meeting stark realities, with Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, Whiplash, La La Land and streaming series The Eddy all leading to Babylon. He's equally fond of Tinseltown's favourite tales about Tinseltown: the path-crossing of new starlets and established players as change reshapes the business forever, as a couple of A Star Is Born versions, The Artist and the masterpiece that is Singin' in the Rain have all covered. It's the boldest of moves that any director can make to fashion a film as a copy or an origin story to the latter, or both, but that's where Chazelle's ambition brilliantly heads. So, with the advent of synchronised sound, and as Manny keeps working his way up, cue Jack striving to maintain his fame and Nellie struggling with her New Jersey voice. Babylon doesn't say anything new — when you're openly going where so many flicks and filmmakers have gone before, is there anything much new to say? — but it does pull off the Luhrmann-esque feat of making its style part of its substance. This has to be a flashy, energetic, excess-laden affair, selling the allure that draws Nellie, Jack and Manny in, plus the emptiness behind it. Babylon has to be slick but messy, decadent but corrosive, and affectionate but clear-eyed about Hollywood's ills, and a heady, hectic experience. It has to be jam-packed at the same time, but it could've been that and given Li Jun Li (Devils) and Jovan Adepo (The Stand) more to do. Their characters, Anna May Wong clone Lady Fay Zhu and talented trumpeter Sidney Palmer, traverse a rise-and-fall trajectory as well. They're exuberant, fascinating, and meant to demonstrate how Asian, Black and queer figures were pushed aside. To genuinely address that point, though, they're deserving of greater focus and a weightier part in Babylon's narrative. Among the trio receiving the bulk of Chazelle's attention, Robbie is exhilarating; understanding how Nellie demands the eyeballs of everyone in her orbit is easy. Nuanced layers of pain and sorrow also linger in her non-stop portrayal when she does slow down, or sometimes glistens in her eyes alone. Her Once Upon a Time in Hollywood co-star Pitt remains in that movie's mode, happily and fittingly so — and relative newcomer Calva is terrific as Manny. Add in a well-cast Jean Smart (Hacks) as a Louella Parsons- and Hedda Hopper-inspired gossip queen, plus Tobey Maguire getting villainous and channelling Alfred Molina, and Babylon keeps stacking in moving pieces as much as moving pictures. On that, this flick doesn't end subtly. But, ambition splashing heavily again, it also has its big finale work as an ode as much as a lament.
Not once, not twice, but nine times, Australia's most-dazzling Indigenous arts festival has lit up the Northern Territory. 2025 will make ten. Parrtjima — A Festival in Light has so firmly established itself as a highlight of Alice Springs, the Red Centre and Australia's cultural scene that it's hard to imagine a time before it. Expect luminous sights again this year, including the reliable star of the show: getting a 2.5-kilometre stretch of 300-million-year-old MacDonnell Ranges glowing every evening. The MacDonnell Ranges Light Show is one of two favourites returning to Parrtjima in 2025, again pairing its eye-catching display with classical music and Arrernte language. The other: Grounded, asking attendees to look down instead of up. A festival of lights in the NT was always going to incorporate the red earth, too, which is where large-scale projections turn the soil into a canvas. This year's version features six artworks. If Parrtjima only boasted those two pieces across Friday, April 4–Sunday, April 13, it'd still be worth heading to the Red Centre to enjoy — but there's far, far more in store across the event's ten days. Four other installations, all new and focusing on the 2025 festival theme 'timelessness', are among the standouts of a lineup that sports contributions from 20-plus First Nations artists, plus more than 100 performers and special guests. At The Gateway at Parrtjima's entrance, towering poles by artists from Antulye, Irlpme, and Mparntwe groups will greet guests. Also, Balanggarra and Yolŋu artist Molly Hunt's Three Generations of Station Women is making an animated comic strip that honours Aboriginal stockwomen, with actor Mark Coles Smith (Apple Cider Vinegar) on soundtrack duties. Then there's Bobby West Tjupurrula's Hypnotic Reverberations, creating a moving dreamscape out of beams of light, mist and reflections on a shallow pool. From Lyall Giles, Transforming Light & Country isn't just about sand dune patterns — it gets festivalgoers to play with them, using drums to create rings of light. Troy Cassar-Daley is headlining the festival's roster of nightly performances, putting on a free show on opening weekend. On the rest of the bill: the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, in what'll be Parrtjima's first-ever orchestral performance, plus gigs by Bumpy, Dem Mob, and Warren H Williams & Western Wind. This year will also feature the fest's debut comedy night, with Andy Saunders and Sean Choolburra sparking laughs. The Blak Markets are back, again showcasing First Nations paintings, jewellery, prints, baskets, sculptures and more — and Cassar-Daley, filmmaker Rachel Perkins (Jasper Jones), Michael Liddle, Armani Francois and Rudi Bremer are among the guests and speakers at the event's in-conversation sessions. If you're keen to learn by doing, the workshops itinerary spans art centre Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands getting participants doing watercolour paintings in the style of Albert Namatjira, Chef Mark Olive and Kungkas Can Cook's Rayleen Brown exploring bushfoods and traditional recipes, Parrtjima Curator Rhoda Roberts leading a weaving workshop, drumming with Dobby, and using native plants in Aboriginal healing with language holder and ecologist Veronica Perrule Dobson. Parrtjima – A Festival in Light will return from Friday, April 4–Sunday, April 13, 2025, at venues around Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. For more information, visit the festival website. Images: Parrtjima – A Festival in Light. 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.
In the early hours of July 18, 1969, a car veered off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. Ted Kennedy was driving, while Mary Jo Kopechne sat in the passenger's seat. He was a US senator, and a brother of slain American president John F. Kennedy. She was a former aide to Ted's other assassinated sibling, politician and aspiring presidential nominee Robert F. Kennedy. Along with Bobby's past campaign staff plus a few friends, they'd been partying in the lead up to the Apollo 11 moon landing, with Ted on the cusp of running for the country's highest office. But then he swerved into a tidal channel — and although he managed to swim to safety as the vehicle sank into the water, he left Kopechne drowning inside the car. More than that, he fled the scene and didn't report the accident until ten hours later. Featuring Jason Clarke as the youngest Kennedy son and Kate Mara as Kopechne, Chappaquiddick explores this controversial chapter in US political history — one that, due to the fallout, would ensure that Ted never followed JFK all the way to the White House. Directed by filmmaker John Curran (Tracks), the movie presents a sombre account of a man caught between complicated extremes on several levels. Teeming with insecurity about living in his brothers' shadows, he was already trapped between his own ambitions and the expectations of his stern father (Bruce Dern). After the incident, he's torn between doing what's right and doing what's best for his career and reputation. Or is he? With the bulk of the movie focusing on the aftermath of the accident, detailing the response to the situation as the hours and days pass, Chappaquiddick doesn't paint Ted in a favourable light. The film might pitch its protagonist as a conflicted man stuck in complex circumstances, but the script is also smart enough to realise that its underlying scenario is actually rather simple. Here, a guy does the wrong thing, but doesn't want to own up to it because it'll have considerable repercussions. It's as straightforward as Curran's efficient, unassuming directorial style, with the picture visually indistinguishable from plenty of other solemn takes on true political tales. Consequently, what ultimately eventuates is less a movie that unpacks a moral quandary, and more an incisive, quietly scathing portrait of power's corrupting influence – among other subjects. Indeed, it's to the credit of Curran and first-time screenwriters Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan that the movie sets quite a number of topics in its sights, all with pertinent parallels to today. Chappaquiddick depicts the calculating cover-up instigated by the Kennedys, leaving cousin Joe Gargan (an effective against-type Ed Helms) as the lone voice of reason. Thanks to the real-life fact that Ted kept his senatorial spot until his death in 2009, it also offers a reminder that even the most serious of scandals can't completely damage someone with enough privilege and authority. Further, the movie demonstrates the forgiving nature of the constant news cycle, where today's lead story becomes tomorrow's footnote when something else comes along. In Ted's case, a small step for man and a giant leap for mankind (something that JFK helped set in motion) couldn't have come at a better time. With a poised facade that can't completely mask his struggles, Ted remains an intriguing character, largely thanks to Clarke's strong performance. Tasked with playing a figure who's neither sympathetic nor the most ruthless person in the film (an honour reserved for Dern's grimacing patriarch, and a role that's slightly overplayed), the Australian actor is saddled with a delicate balancing act. Luckily, it's one that he handles well, with his stint as a troubled local representative on the excellent, underappreciated TV series Brotherhood proving a fantastic training ground. Chappaquiddick might work best as an indictment of everything from political dynasties to impropriety among elected officials to society's short attention span — not to mention the treatment of women by the rich and powerful — but the movie also serves up a solid character study. It's no Jackie, of course, but then again, few things are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snmc-Gc69Fk
Whether TLC is singing about chasing waterfalls, Backstreet Boys are reminding us that they're back, Elton John is saying farewell again or Billy Joel is saying that it's still rock 'n' roll to him, Australia and Aotearoa's music venues are frequently alive with the sounds of nostalgia. Going retro is big touring business of late, and it's hip hop and R&B festival Juicy Fest's whole angle — with T-Pain, Ashanti and The Game on the bill for its just-announced 2024 events. Expect to hear auto-tune aplenty when the 'Buy U a Drank', 'I'm Sprung' and 'Can't Believe It' rapper hits the stage, performing tracks from a career that's also included featured appearances on Flo-Rida's 'Low', Akon's 'I Can't Wait', The Lonely Island's 'I'm on a Boat' and Snoop Dogg's 'Boom'. If it seems like a while since he's been our way, it has: this will be his first time in Australia in more than a decade, too. When Juicy Fest kicks off its January 2024 season in Christchurch, Wellington, Tauranga and Auckland, then heads across the ditch to Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and the Gold Coast, it'll see Ashanti return Down Under after appearing on 2022's Fridayz Live tour in Australia and Friday Jams tour in New Zealand. As for The Game, who came to fame in the 00s in the West Coast scene, he was meant to tour Down Under in March 2023, but was replaced by AB Original. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony are also on the bill, as are T.I., Trey Songz, Fabolous, Mario and Keri Hilson. And, there's still one headliner to be announced down the line. Juicy Fest's 2024 run will mark its second, after debuting in January 2023 and attracting more than 100,000 attendees. The event has only announced a specific venue so far for the Gold Coast, hitting up Doug Jennings Park, with further details to come. JUICY FEST 2024 DATES: Wednesday, January 3 — Venue TBC, Christchurch Friday, January 5 — Venue TBC, Wellington Saturday, January 6 — Venue TBC, Tauranga Sunday, January 7 — Venue TBC, Auckland Friday, January 12 — Venue TBC, Melbourne Saturday, January 13 — Venue TBC, Sydney Sunday, January 14 — Venue TBC, Perth Friday, January 19 — Venue TBC, Adelaide Saturday, January 20 — Doug Jennings Park, Gold Coast JUICY FEST 2024 LINEUP: T-Pain T.I. Ashanti The Game Trey Songz Bone Thugs-n-Harmony Fabolous Mario Keri Hilson Juicy Fest will tour Australia and New Zealand in January 2024, with tickets on sale from Wednesday, April 26. Head to the festival's website to register for pre-sale access.
Brisbane's Night Feast is back, featuring a star-studded lineup of culinary icons paired with art interventions and live performances. In 2025, Layla — Shane Delia's first Queensland restaurant — is set to make an attention-grabbing debut at the event, serving a mix of signature Middle Eastern-inspired favourites and festival bites alongside a special Night Feast exclusive. Transporting some of the restaurant's most-loved dishes from its home at the Thomas Dixon Centre to the festival's month-long home at Brisbane Powerhouse, diners can expect Layla's Moroccan-spiced habibi butter chicken, and Turkish-style beef manti dumplings with yoghurt, burnt-butter mushroom XO and spiced sausage. Meanwhile, smaller options span butter chicken loaded fries, smoked hummus with chermoula and chickpeas, grilled flatbread, and baby cos lettuce salad with carrots, harissa and tomato slaw. On the drinks front, sip on curated cocktails like the Mango Spice Crush or the Moroccan Bubble Mojito, alongside by-the-glass local and international wines. Yet, if you're keen for something with a little more heat, Layla has a new creation that embodies the restaurant's culinary ethos and inspiration — gunpowder fried calamari with cashew and curry leaves. "We're excited to bring Layla to Brisbane's Night Feast for the first time and share bold, vibrant flavours of the exotic spice trail," says Delia.
On New Year's Eve, Brisbane comes alive with parties — however only one will take you out on the river. Okay, okay, so you can stand by the bank elsewhere. You can probably get on a boat somewhere. But at Riverlife, you can take an illuminated night kayaking tour, then enjoy a post-paddle BBQ. Sounds like the thing chill New Year's Eves are made of, right? If it sounds like your kind of thing, you're in luck. Plus, after your 90-minute watery jaunt, there'll be grilled meat, dessert and drinks — then a Champagne toast and fireworks to follow.
If your New Year's resolution for 2026 is to travel more, your ideal excuse to stop wishing, dreaming and romanticising and to start planning, booking and doing is right here. If you're hankering for an adventure in Asia or an oceanic paradise, or even a luxe staycation here in Australia, IHG Hotels is offering the discount you need to turn inspiration into action. The 'Your Year of Travel' sale, which is on now until Wednesday, February 4, is offering a 20% discount on bookings made directly on IHG channels (and 25% for IHG One Members) for stays at more than 270 participating hotels until Monday, August 31. Said participating hotels include Regent Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental, Vignette, Kimpton, Hotel Indigo, voco hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Garner hotels across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Micronesia, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and the Pacific Islands. So, by the time autumn rolls around and brings its typical cold and wetter weather to Australia, you could be jetting off to chase the warmth by the sea in Fiji, Koh Samui or The Maldives, getting a cultural fix in Osaka or Japan's tropical Okinawa Islands, travelling with your tastebuds in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore — or just enjoying a luxurious stay in your home city if you can't quite afford the flights just yet. If you're not already an IHG One Member, this might be the ideal time to sign up. New members receive 500 points on registration, add that to the 25% discount on bookings during the sale period, and the math checks out for maximising the value on a maximum-relaxation holiday. IHG Hotels 'Your Year of Travel' sale runs from now until Wednesday, February 4, on bookings for select hotels and stays up until Monday, August 31. T&Cs apply, visit the website for more information. Images courtesy of IHG Hotels.
There you were thinking that marbles, hopscotch and tug of war were just ordinary, innocent activities that everyone enjoyed when they were kids. Then Squid Game came along, instantly became one of the best new TV programs of 2021, and made everyone look at those childhood pasttimes in a whole new green and red light. The South Korean Netflix series also became a huge hit, so much so that Netflix confirmed at the beginning of 2022 that a second season was on the way, and also dropped a teaser trailer for it the same year — and announced that an IRL version, but without the murder, was in the works as well. The latest news worth breaking out the sugar honeycombs for? Finding out exactly who'll be playing Squid Game season two, and also getting a sneak peek at the reality competition show. Announced at 2023's Tudum: A Global Fan Event — aka Netflix's fan convention — the first spans familiar and new names, while the latter does indeed involve the notorious Red Light, Green Light doll. [caption id="attachment_905752" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Squid Game S1[/caption] First, the dramatised series. The second season of Squid Game doesn't yet boast a release date, but it does have a heap of cast members locked in. Lee Jung-jae (Deliver Us From Evil) returns as the show's protagonist Seong Gi-hun, while Lee Byung-hun (The Magnificent Seven) will be back as the masked Front Man as well. They'll be joined by Wi Ha-joon (Little Women) as detective Hwang Jun-ho, plus Gong Yoo (Train to Busan) as the man in the suit who got Gi-hun into the game in the first place. A show about a deadly competition that has folks competing for ridiculous riches comes with a hefty bodycount, which means that new faces were always going to be essential in Squid Game season two. Yim Si-wan (Emergency Declaration), Kang Ha-neul (Insider), Park Sung-hoon (The Glory) and Yang Dong-geun (Yaksha: Ruthless Operations) will all join the series, but Netflix is keeping quiet about their characters at the moment. As for the IRL take on Squid Game, called Squid Game: The Challenge, the streaming service revealed that it'll arrive sometime in November. Again, there's no death in the ten-episode show, but there's still 456 competitors playing games to win big, with $4.56 million on offer — the largest cash prize in reality television history. Yes, those challenges will be inspired by the South Korean thriller, plus a few new additions. There'll be no actors, just ordinary people. Also, competitors will be eliminated as the games go on, forming strategies and alliances will play a huge part, the sets offer spot-on recreations of the fictional version, the guards are all decked out in red and players in green, and it's all overseen by a Front Man. If you somehow missed all things Squid Game two years back, even after it became bigger than everything from Stranger Things to Bridgerton, the Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning series serves up a puzzle-like storyline and unflinching savagery, which unsurprisingly makes quite the combination. It also steps into societal divides within South Korea, a topic that wasn't invented by Parasite, Bong Joon-ho's excellent Oscar-winning 2019 thriller, but has been given a boost after that stellar flick's success. Accordingly, it's easy to see thematic and narrative parallels between Parasite and Squid Game, although Netflix's highly addictive series goes with a Battle Royale and Hunger Games-style setup. Here, 456 competitors are selected to work their way through six seemingly easy children's games. They're all given numbers and green tracksuits, they're competing for 45.6 billion won, and it turns out that they've also all made their way to the contest after being singled out for having enormous debts. Check out Netflix's Squid Game season two cast announcement video below, plus a teaser trailer for Squid Game: The Challenge: Squid Game's first season is available to stream via Netflix — we'll update you with a release date for season two when one is announced. Squid Game: The Challenge will hit Netflix in November 2023 — we'll update you with an exact release date when one is announced. Images: Netflix.
If there’s one thing the movies of Noah Baumbach tell us — including the college exploits of Kicking and Screaming, the teenage unhappiness of The Squid and the Whale and the midlife crisis of Greenberg — it’s this: growing up doesn’t come easily. Sure, we all get older as the days, months and years pass, but that doesn’t mean we feel our age. While We're Young lives and breathes this sentiment, and its characters as well. “For the first time in my life, I've stopped thinking of myself as a child imitating an adult,” says documentarian Josh Srebnick (Ben Stiller) to his producer wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts), to which she replies, "you feel that way too?" It's an easy way of expressing the feature's theme in dialogue — a little too easy, in fact — but it rings true. They're trapped by expectations they can't fulfil and ambitions they haven’t achieved, and they're not ready for that realisation. Two events start Josh and Cornelia thinking that maybe their mid-forties life isn't what they think it is. First, friends their own age (Maria Dizzia and the Beastie Boys' Adam Horovitz) have a baby and tell them constantly that they should do the same. Then they meet wannabe filmmaker Jamie (Adam Driver) and his wife, Darby (Amanda Seyfried), twenty-somethings they can nostalgically see decades-earlier versions of themselves in. Cue a whole heap of generational contrasts, of the young-folks-like-retro-trinkets versus older-people-prefer-technological-gadgets variety. Again, it's simple shorthand for a divide that looks obvious, but the film isn't just trying to show how things are different. Focused on a couple who don't feel in synch with their age group yet soon learn that they don't really fit in with younger friends and trends either, While We're Young is trying to understand why. That's a big challenge for a 97-minute comedy; however, it is one that the ever-perceptive Baumbach accepts. As he did with the delightful Frances Ha before this, the writer/director homes in on details so specific, they might as well be ripped from many of the audience's lives. And if his last film was his attempt at combining such wry observations with a French New Wave coming-of-age tale, this is him revelling in Woody Allen, comedy-of-manners territory. Though a Bowie song is again in the mix, While We're Young doesn't quite bounce along with the same zest as its predecessor, but it does roll with the punches of a story that morphs into a contemplation of authenticity. Thankfully, the film's bright frames boast that in spades, as it juxtaposes both sides of the age divide but, crucially, never judges. Everyone — Josh, Cornelia, Jamie and Darby alike — just wants to reconcile their dreams with their reality. Performance-wise, the good stuff keeps on coming, gifting Watts her best work in years, letting Stiller show a more chilled version of his Greenberg persona and playing with Driver's natural charm. That said, if there's one thing that doesn't sit right in the whole movie and its musings on getting older, it's one piece of casting. Seriously, who wouldn't want to hang out with Ad-Rock, baby or not, at any age?
Yayoi Kusama's list of achievements just keeps growing. At the age of 96, the Japanese talent has proven a pioneer and an icon many times over across her eight decades of making art, and now she has breaking an Australian record to her name as well. Thanks to the exhibition that shares her moniker, which has been on display at Melbourne's NGV International since December 2024, Kusama can now claim the nation's highest-attended ticketed exhibition ever. This news confirms what Aussies have long known: we're dotty for the creative genius who uses spots aplenty in her work, plus pumpkins, tentacles and flowers — and for an art figure who knows how to get audiences losing themselves in a gallery via her infinity rooms. Since Yayoi Kusama opened on Sunday, December 15, 2024, it has welcomed more than 480,000 people through the door. That number still has time to go up, too, given that the exhibition runs until Monday, April 21, 2025. That it's open from 8am–6pm till Wednesday, April 16, then will operate from 8am–midnight daily between Thursday, April 17–Monday, April 21, will assist. To put that huge attendance in context, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan compared it to one of Melbourne's best-known venues. "This record-breaking exhibition has brought five MCGs worth of visitors to the heart of Melbourne — that's great for local jobs, great for local businesses and great for families looking for something to do these holidays," Allan said. "We're truly overwhelmed by how enthusiastically Victorians and visitors alike have embraced this exhibition — and connected so strongly with Kusama's work and life story. This milestone is a testament to the enduring impact of Kusama's work and the growing appeal of contemporary art in Australia," added NGV Director Tony Ellwood AM. This celebration of Kusama was already in the history books for giving Australia its largest-ever retrospective dedicated to the artist. In terms of tickets sold, Yayoi Kusama takes the record from another Victorian exhibition, Van Gogh and the Seasons, which displayed in 2017 and saw 462,262 people head along. The National Gallery of Victoria's spectacular tribute to Kusama includes the Japanese icon's brand-new Infinity Mirrored Room–My Heart is Filled to the Brim with Sparkling Light among its ten immersive installations, breaking the world record for the number of such pieces by the artist assembled in one spot as well. In total, there's 200 pieces on display, taking over the St Kilda Road gallery's entire ground floor with a childhood-to-now survey of its subject's creative output. Kusama's five-metre-tall dot-covered Dancing Pumpkin sculpture in NGV International's Federation Court, a new version of Narcissus Garden, the yellow-and-black spheres of Dots Obsession, the all-ages-friendly The Obliteration Room, participatory floral piece Flower Obsession, the mirror-heavy Chandelier of Grief, gourds aplenty in The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens: they're all part of the exhibition. Across the eight decades of art on offer, some pieces have never been seen Down Under until now. Some are sourced from private collections, and others from Kusama's own personal stash. Overall, Yayoi Kusama steps through the artist's work via a thematic chronology. 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; plenty from the past four decades: they all appear. Yayoi Kusama displays at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne until Monday, April 21, 2025 — including from 8am–6pm between Saturday, April 5–Wednesday, April 16, and from 8am–midnight between Thursday, April 17–Monday, April 21. NGV Friday Nights: Yayoi Kusama runs each Friday until Friday, April 18, 2025. Head to the NGV website for more details and tickets. Images: Visitors and artworks in the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at NGV International, Melbourne until 21 April 2025. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photos: Danielle Castano, Sean Fennessy, Tobias Titz and Kate Shannassy.
Watching a Sir David Attenborough documentary means being left with two strong feelings: wanting to see the world exactly the way that the iconic broadcaster does, and wishing to always hear his narration as you walk across the planet. Consider the BBC Earth Experience the closest thing to making both happen. It takes footage from Attenborough's Seven Worlds, One Planet series, turns it into a 360-degree walk-through audiovisual event, and has the natural historian and living treasure echo while you wander. The BBC Earth Experience debuted in London in March 2023, which has been excellent news if a UK holiday was on your agenda. Here's a better development: the showcase's Down Under arrival. Melbourne is only the second city in the world to host this spectacular sight, running from Friday, October 27 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in an Australian-exclusive season. The experience uses cutting-edge digital-projection technology to surround attendees in visuals from the earth's seven continents, with everything from fireflies in North America to cassowary fathers and their chicks in Australia on display. In London, the attraction sprawls across more than 1600 square metres, featuring spaces dedicated to the planet seen at microscopic scale, via drone footage and on the ocean floor, too, as part of a self-guided tour that also heroes starfish, elephant seals, snub-nosed monkeys, hamsters and more. If you've already watched Seven Worlds, One Planet, you won't just be greeted by material you've already seen, but larger. The scale of the event's imagery is hefty — epic, even — but BBC Earth Experience also includes extended scenes from the show, plus bespoke narration by Attenborough. The mission is truly to make the audience feel like they've stepped right into the footage, all thanks to multi-angle screens. And, it's designed to cater to existing Seven Worlds, One Planet fans and newcomers alike. In Melbourne, offering up an educational experience for young patrons is also a big aim. There's a classroom space onsite, plus resources curated for teachers. Updated November 13, 2023.
Pineapple on pizza is something you either love or abhor. Sorry, there's no in-between. Some folks won't eat a slice without it, which clearly means they're big fans of Hawaiian pizzas. Others won't touch a piece that's been anywhere near pineapple, and can't stand the variety dedicated to it. Yes, it's a polarising topping. 2022 happens to mark 60 years since the first Hawaiian pizza was apparently served up in Canada, and since that sweet-and-savoury combination had tastebuds either rejoicing or hankering for absolutely anything else. And, to celebrate that milestone, Pizza Hut is giving out freebies — just free pizzas in general, though. If you love pizza — as we all do — but don't like pineapple on top of it, you can still take advantage of this giveaway. It's running all month, from Monday, August 1–Wednesday, August 31, with a huge 35,000 free pizzas up for grabs. Here's how it works: every day this month, the fast food chain is running the promotion via its website — and it's a first in, first served affair. If you're one of the first 1000 people to hop online before 4pm AEST each day, you'll be able to claim a free pizza voucher. That's dinner sorted then, clearly. You can use the vouchers for Hawaiian pizzas, unsurprisingly, but also for super supreme, barbecue meatlovers, pepperoni lovers and cheese lovers varieties. And if you've noticed that there's 31 days in August, and 1000 pizzas a day doesn't equal 35,000, an extra 4000 free pizzas will be on offer on International Hawaiian Pizza Day — which, yes, is a thing. That falls on Saturday, August 20, in case you wanted to mark your diary. If you don't manage to nab a free pizza on any given day, there's an online Hawaiian pizza-slicing game that you can play on the Pizza Hut website after you try, too — and if you rank in the top ten on any day, there are Pizza Hut Hawaiian shirts to be won. Also, just hitting the daily game target puts you in the draw to win a family trip to Hawaii, as does ordering a Hawaiian pizza throughout August. Pizza Hut is giving away 1000 free pizzas daily from Monday, August 1–Wednesday, August 31. For further information, or to nab a pizza, head to the chain's website.
Maybe viewing old episodes of Aerobics Oz Style helped you stay active during 2020's first long lockdown. Perhaps you've been obsessed with the now-iconic Key & Peele aerobics meltdown sketch for years, as everyone should be. Or, you might've watched the excellent Kirsten Dunst-starring On Becoming a God in Central Florida and got bitten by the water aerobics bug. Whichever fits — or even if none of the above applies to you — leotards, exercise and all things 80s haven't been far from our screens in recent years. And, they'll feature again in a big way in Apple TV+'s new ten-part dark comedy series Physical. Set in the decade that's always going to be synonymous with leg warmers, Physical sees Rose Byrne make the leap from hanging out with talking CGI rabbits in terrible book-to-screen adaptations to getting hooked on aerobics. She plays Sheila Rubin, a San Diego housewife with a husband that's running for California's state assembly. While playing her dutiful part as expected, she struggles with her self-image. Then, the only form of exercise that TV shows and movies seem to think that anyone did back in the 80s suddenly enters her life. Cue a journey that brings Sheila success, and turns her into a lifestyle guru. Obviously, she won't be posting about her daily life on social media — but this show is set in the peak VHS era, so expect videotapes to play a part in the story. Physical is set to start streaming on Friday, June 18, and will drop its first three episodes in one hit before releasing the rest weekly afterwards. Naturally, big hair and spandex abound in the just-dropped, supremely 80s trailer for the series. Alongside Byrne, the show stars Rory Scovel (I Feel Pretty), Dierdre Friel (Second Act), Della Saba (Ralph Breaks the Internet), Lou Taylor Pucci (American Horror Story), Paul Sparks (The Lovebirds) and Ashley Liao (Fuller House). Desperate Housewives and Suburgatory's Annie Weisman created, wrote and executive produced Physical, and serves as its showrunner, while I, Tonya's Craig Gillespie, Dead to Me's Liza Johnson and Love Life's Stephanie Laing all enjoy stints in the director's chair. Check out the teaser trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQaHAy7r660 Physical starts streaming via Apple TV+ on Friday, June 18.
On the list of things that no movie lover likely anticipated, Darren Aronofsky getting into fun crime-thriller mode is right up there. Consider the just-dropped trailer for Caught Stealing a surprise then. Here, the filmmaker behind Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan, Noah, Mother! and The Whale seems to be taking a leaf out of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels- and Snatch-filled book, all with Austin Butler (The Bikeriders) at the flick's centre. For Aronofsky, the Elvis Oscar-nominee plays Hank Thompson, who can no longer play baseball after proving a star in high school — but is fine with being a New York bartender, and with his relationship with Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz, The Studio). Then his punk neighbour Russ (Matt Smith, House of the Dragon) makes a simple request. Being asked to cat-sit shouldn't then spark chaos; however that's where this sneak peek at the film goes. Given the genre, there's soon gangsters after Hank. Avoiding them, trying to work out what's going on and, of course, remaining alive then all become his mission. Among those waving a gun his way: Benito A Martínez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny, giving the music superstar another acting credit (see also: Bullet Train, Cassandro) before he tours to Australia for the first time in 2026. Regina King (Shirley), Liev Schreiber (The Perfect Couple), Vincent D'Onofrio (Daredevil: Born Again), Griffin Dunne (Only Murders in the Building) and Carol Kane (Between the Temples) round out Caught Stealing's cast — as the trailer teases not to the tune of Jane's Addiction's 'Been Caught Stealing', but to The Clash's 'Should I Stay or Should I Go'. Aronofsky, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Black Swan, is working with a screenplay by Charlie Huston (Gotham) — and the latter literally wrote the book, too, that Caught Stealing adapts. Butler's run of collaborating with top filmmakers continues here, joining Ari Aster (Beau Is Afraid) on fellow upcoming 2025 release Eddington, Baz Luhrmann on Elvis, Jeff Nichols on The Bikeriders, Denis Villeneuve on Dune: Part Two, Quentin Tarantino on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Jim Jarmusch on The Dead Don't Die. Check out the trailer for Caught Stealing below: Caught Stealing opens in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, August 28, 2025. Images: Niko Tavernise.
UPDATE: June 4, 2020: IT: Chapter Two is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. It's possible to have too much of a good thing. An average thing as well. While Stephen King's horror maestro status is both undoubted and unparalleled, his books have frequently tested this idea, especially his 1138-page 1986 tome IT. A huge hit upon publication, the bestseller is the nerve-rattling cause of many clown phobias over the past three decades — but it's also as bloated as the bulging red balloons favoured by its flame-haired, make-up-clad antagonist. Bringing the novel's second timeline to the screen, IT: Chapter Two follows in its source material's meandering footsteps. Arriving hot on the heels of 2017's huge box office smash IT, yet proving painfully over-extended in its running time, this spooky sequel tasks audiences with pondering the same question as its characters: what if it never ends? Twenty-seven years after their first traumatic run-in with the malevolent evil that's known as IT, but usually takes the form of unhinged clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), the Losers Club are all grown up and back home. Sparked into action by the obsessed Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), who hasn't left the small Maine town of Derry since the gang's scary childhood encounters, Bill (James McAvoy), Richie (Bill Hader), Beverley (Jessica Chastain), Eddie (James Ransone) and Ben (Jay Ryan) return to vanquish the otherworldly monster once and for all. Although their memories are initially foggy, and getting everyone on board takes some convincing, the group has ample motivation. If they fail, IT will wreak havoc yet again in 27 more years. Given that their own lives were forever changed by the spine-chilling figure — and given that IT is doing a great job of creeping out and killing new kids this time around — that's a fate that no one wants. When Mama director Andy Muschietti first brought IT back to the screen two years ago, he traded upon nostalgia, jumped on a trend and knew that, when all else fails, unsettling imagery works a charm. Popular culture's Stranger Things-inspired love of retro thrills hasn't subsided since, and nor has its fascination with King's oeuvre. If anything, they've both increased in the wake of the first flick's blockbuster success. Still, IT: Chapter Two feels like a case of stretching a concept to breaking point. It never escapes attention that Pennywise can evolve into a host of different shapes, each more unnerving than the last, however the film he's in doesn't dare contemplate anything similar. Instead, the movie is eager to prolong its formula for as long as possible. When that's not enough, it indulgently nods to everything from The Shining to The Thing, and even opts for the ultimate in fan service by giving King himself some screen-time. Muschietti and screenwriter Gary Dauberman (Annabelle Comes Home) may have a hefty amount of text to sort through, but there's not actually that much to IT: Chapter Two's story. The Losers Club heads home, trudges through difficult memories and confronts IT, as well as the impact it's had on their adult lives, working their way through a series of escalating funhouse-style set-pieces in the process. Indeed, the film's elongated mid-section encapsulates its troubles perfectly. Spending time with each of the gang as they scour Derry for tokens from their youth, the movie switches between the teen and current versions of every character, lets them each encounter Pennywise and sorts through their respective demons — and, while each vignette has more than a few standout moments, the cycle quickly becomes repetitive. The approach also sucks much of the tension out of the picture. Audiences have seen the first film, are aware that 1989's Bill (Jaeden Martell), Richie (Finn Wolfhard), Beverley (Sophia Lillis) and company survive until the events of this movie, and know that a big group showdown pitting the 2017 gang against their nemesis is inevitable. As a result, as visually effective as these blasts from the past prove, they're the narrative equivalent of treading water. IT circa 2017 was always at its strongest when it was inciting coulrophobia, as aided by Skarsgård's exceptionally demented performance, plus a clown car full of well-crafted special effects. For all the added star power that IT: Chapter Two boasts, the same remains true here. Individual images lodge themselves in the mind — Pennywise' deranged grin, fortune cookies morphing into attacking critters and a mirror maze altercation that's as disturbed as the one featured in Us earlier this year — more than anything else in the movie. Indeed, despite the big names joining the cast, this isn't an actor or character-driven picture. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby co-stars McAvoy and Chastain aren't given much room to unleash their talents, though they fare better than their last dismal pairing in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. In Ransome, Mustafa and Neighbours alumni Ryan's case, they're all tasked with sticking to a single type (neurotic, paranoid and, with the latter, sensitive and unexpectedly attractive). And while the ever-likeable Hader fares best, it's primarily because Richie is now a stand-up comic, so the actor is firmly in familiar territory. Even when IT: Chapter Two overtly attempts to address its struggles and pre-empt any criticism, it can't convincingly hit the mark. Being stuck reliving history sits at the very core of the movie, yet the notion is undermined by Muschietti's willingness to let his adult actors largely ape their teen counterparts, rather than add flesh to their shared protagonists. With Bill specifically, the character is now a King surrogate who has a problem with endings, which'd be a solid joke if the film didn't tussle with wrapping things up just like the prolific author does. That misstep also points to something rather terrifying: in today's sequel and franchise-friendly world, this horror saga probably won't end here, even though it has expended its source material. Nightmares recur, of course, but they're rarely as routine as IT: Chapter Two whenever its unbalanced boogeyman is out of sight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBO1dO1a4ro
In a sunlit studio on Melbourne's northside, a nightclub-like room houses heavy basslines and the sound of gloved fists hitting boxing bags. In the adjacent room, reformer Pilates carriages, lit by yellow neon lights, move in sync. And in a third, heated space, a class is settling into dimly lit savasana — sweaty, centred, collective. This is Fitzroy, one of Upstate's now 17 locations that have come to redefine what modern movement looks like: less about aesthetics, more about community. For co-founder Gail Asbell, the philosophy that powers Upstate was shaped by something deeply human — loss. Seventeen years ago, Gail and her sister Charelle lost both their father and brother within a short time. Gail was working as a brand manager for Tourism Victoria, climbing a corporate ladder that, suddenly, didn't seem to matter much. "When you go through something like that, you can't help but question what you're doing with your life," she says. "It made me ask myself: what's my purpose?" [caption id="attachment_1074104" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Upstate co-founders, Gail and Charelle Asbell.[/caption] Both sisters turned to yoga to cope with their grief — separately, without knowing the other had done the same. "I'd never done yoga before," Gail recalls. "But it became this space where I could just breathe again." At the time, yoga in Australia was far from mainstream. "There wasn't a Lululemon in the country," she laughs. "You'd go to one studio and it was incense and chanting, then another would be super athletic. I loved how it made me feel — but I didn't want to be preached to. I just wanted to move my body and feel good." That experience became the seed of an idea. After training in the US, where yoga was gaining cultural momentum, Gail came home inspired. "I could see there was this gap — studios that were clean, consistent, and focused on how you felt, not how spiritual or flexible you were. I wanted to create a space for that." Together with her sister, she opened the first Upstate Studio in Geelong. "There was no grand plan," she says. "I was pregnant at the time. We thought we'd open one little studio while our kids were young. But it just took off." From that first space came 17 studios across Victoria and beyond — each an embodiment of the brand's mission: to help people find a positive state of mind through movement and connection. Accessibility and community have been part of the DNA since day one. "We grew up on a dairy farm," Gail says. "We didn't come from money. We wanted to make movement something everyone could access — fun, affordable and non-intimidating." That's the spirit behind Upstate's bright yellow branding — "all about positivity and energy," Gail explains — and its inclusive mix of class styles. Yoga and pilates anchor the offering, but boxing has become one of its most-loved modalities. "Boxing's been around forever, but we wanted to teach it in an Upstate way — high energy, fun and empowering," she says. "It's not about sparring or competition. It's about walking out of class feeling powerful." [caption id="attachment_1011773" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Upstate's Palm Beach studio.[/caption] Power, for Gail, has little to do with domination. It's about confidence — something she says is central to both movement and leadership. "Empowerment's a funny word," she reflects. "It gets thrown around a lot. For me, it's not about shouting it from the rooftops. It's about helping people build confidence to try new things, to fail and get back up again." That ethos runs through the business. Upstate now employs around 90 full-time and part-time staff, plus more than 250 instructors across Australia — and nearly all of its leadership team started as teachers. "Last year, 95 percent of our roles were filled internally," Gail says. "When someone comes in as an instructor and works their way up into marketing, operations or education, that's empowerment to me — giving women opportunities to back themselves." It's also why Upstate recently launched its own instructor training programs. "We saw a gap — people were graduating with the theory but didn't have the confidence to teach," she says. "We wanted to prepare people to stand in a room, use their voice and feel capable." The result has been more than just new recruits. "Our senior instructors have become educators," Gail says proudly. "It's created a whole new level of opportunity in the business." [caption id="attachment_1069777" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Instructors at Upstate's newest studio, Oakleigh.[/caption] Beyond the studios, Upstate has evolved into a lifestyle brand — hosting retreats, events and collaborations that extend its community beyond the mat. "There's such an appetite for movement paired with connection — whether that's a yoga and wine night, or a mindfulness event," she says. "We send the invite and it's booked within hours." That sense of connection remains deeply personal for Gail. "Movement can completely change how you think and feel," she says. "Even something as small as taking a breath at the start of class — it can shift your whole state of mind." Seventeen years on, the grief that first brought Gail to the mat has transformed into purpose — and a thriving community that continues to grow. "Sometimes we don't stop to reflect," she admits. "But when I see all our team together, or hear a member say a class changed their day, that's when it hits me. This is why we started." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Upstate Retreats (@upstate_retreats) The brand's next chapter includes continued instructor training, overseas retreats, a new Brisbane studio and a top-secret new class offering, but the mission hasn't changed: "It's still about helping people feel good and giving them the confidence to take up space — in the studio, at work, in life," Gail says. To mark International Women's Day this year, Upstate is putting that philosophy into action by launching a fully funded Pilates Instructor Training Scholarship for a lucky recipient, and on Sunday, March 8, members are also invited to bring a woman who inspires them to class for free. Find out more about Upstate — including studio locations, memberships, retreats and instructor training — via the website. Images: Supplied
This summer, Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria has brought together works from two of New York City's legendary 80s art figures. The world-first Crossing Lines exhibition showcases the art of Keith Haring alongside that of his good friend and creative rival Jean-Michel Basquiat. Emerging during the early 1980s, both artists found their start on the street before becoming hot properties in galleries around the world. Regarded as two of the most influential artists of the late 20th century, Crossing Lines draws parallels between the pair's differing and distinctive visual language of lines, signs and symbols. Both Haring and Basquiat commented heavily on society and politics in their practice; Haring was a champion of gay rights and sexual expression and, as an African-American artist, Basquiat explored race prominently in his work. Running until April 13, 2020, across painting, sculpture, objects and photographs, the NGV presents 200 artworks amassed from prominent galleries and private collections. Throughout the exhibition, visitors will be taken on a deep dive into each artist's personality and struggles, experiencing how they navigated their way from being relatively obscure street artists to global icons within only a short few years. As you make your way through Crossing Lines, you'll see some of the work Haring and Basquait created on New York City's streets and subway stations, as well creations from their early shows that propelled their careers onwards. Near the end of the exhibition, there's an array of important works created in the lead up to their deaths, which were both tragically premature. With so much to unpack, we've picked out six of the most impressive works you can find at Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. KEITH HARING: UNTITLED (1983) Featuring many of Haring's trademark characters, this untitled work explores one of Haring's most discussed topics: technology and mass media. From the rise of personal computers to video games and cable television, the 1980s was an era of technological innovation. While many hailed these developments, Haring often expressed his concerns about how computers would influence society and especially its relationship with art. In 1983, Haring wrote: "The human imagination cannot be programmed by a computer. Our imagination is our greatest hope for survival." KEITH HARING: PROPHETS OF RAGE (1988) Whether it was the AIDS epidemic, the anti-apartheid movement or children's health, Haring was renowned for using his art to bring attention to many of society's most important issues. Painted in 1988, Prophets of Rage is Haring's take on race relations in the United States during such a turbulent era. Diverging from Haring's more lighthearted creations, this work demonstrates how he used his art vocabulary to tackle major topics like injustice. KEITH HARING: A PILE OF CROWNS, FOR JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1988) Found towards the end of the exhibition, one of the key pieces presented at Crossing Lines is titled A Pile of Crowns, for Jean-Michel Basquiat. Following the death of Basquiat on August 12, 1988, Haring produced this touching tribute to his friend, combining Basquiat's iconic crown motif with his own distinct use of line and symbolism. Haring was deeply heartbroken by the death of his friend, journaling extensively about his life. Alongside this work, you can find a handwritten draft by Haring for Basquiat's obituary. JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: UNTITLED (1982) While Haring was known to carefully plan out his murals, Basquiat found it almost impossible to stop adding to his. Layered with endless references and metaphors, throughout his work you'll notice his iconic crowns, skulls and copyright symbols. This work from 1982 sees Basquiat at his best, producing a vivid yet chaotic artwork that can be examined through multiple lenses. With the lines, colour and layers coming together with great effect, this work alludes to the concept of American identity. JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: ISHTAR (1983) Basquiat was known to have a deep interest in ancient mythology. This massive triptych painting — named after the Egyptian goddess of war and fertility — is again layered like almost all of Basquiat's work, with the background created using photocopied drawings, which was a common practice in his work. Drawing from a host of influences and cultural materials, Basquiat would often recreate text from books he was reading. In the top left corner, you can make out a list from Harold Bayley's 1912 book The Lost Language of Symbolism. JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: CANTASSO (1982) As one of Basquiat's landmark paintings, Cantasso marks an important moment in his career where he went from a modest graffiti and street artist to an internationally celebrated star. Featuring bold lines and colours emblematic of Basquiat's work, Cantasso is an attention-grabbing piece that displays his admiration for artists ranging from Pablo Picasso to the frenetic work of Cy Twombly and Jean Dubuffet. Cantasso is also recognised as the first in a series of Basquiat's work that included exposed stretcher-bars, where he would fashion ad-hoc canvasses out of just about any material available to him. Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines is on display at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne until April 13, 2020. It's a ticketed exhibition — you can buy them in advance on the NGV website. All images: Installation view of Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines for NGV International. © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring Foundation. Shot by Tom Ross.
It's the country responsible for everything from A Trip to the Moon and The 400 Blows to Amelie and Portrait of a Lady on Fire — and, each year, Australia celebrates accordingly. The largest of the nation's annual cultural cinema showcases, the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival has been highlighting the latest and greatest in French flicks for 31 years now. And, after initially kicking off in March, then shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's returning in July — to charge forth in 2020 as it always has. For movie buffs around the country, that means a heap of new French flicks, all as part of the fest's revived season from Tuesday, July 14. Start with opening night's suitably movie-obsessed La Belle Epoque, then dive into Oscar-nominated dramas, the latest work from top directors and a stellar exploration of heading into space. If you're feeling a little spoiled for choice, that's where we come in. Grab a glass of wine and a cheese platter, then nab a ticket to one of our top ten picks of the fest — and say 'oui' to a very French night at the movies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDaZdj66Nls ZOMBI CHILD After making one of the best films of the past few years — 2016's mesmerising and provocative Nocturama — writer/director Bertrand Bonello is back with another instant standout. Don't be fooled by Zombi Child's name — this isn't your usual undead thriller. Instead, the film weaves together two tales. Firstly, in the 60s, Haitian man Clairvius Narcisse (Mackenson Bijou) is turned into a zombie through a vodou ritual. That part of Zombi Child is actually based on real-life details. Later, in the present day, Parisian boarding school student Fanny (Louise Labèque) befriends Haitian student Mélissa (Wislanda Louimat), with the latter's cultural background proving of particular interest. Bonello's ability to challenge, confront complex themes and topics, and create an atmospheric, ambiguous piece of art remains in this folklore-infused colonial critique, as does his winning ways with moody imagery, an ethereal vibe and pitch-perfect soundtrack choices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHMH-vrtnTM PROXIMA Even astronauts have to deal with work-life balance. Indeed, that seemingly elusive concept comes into sharp focus in Proxima; however Sarah's (Eva Green) situation is a little different to most folks'. A single mother to Stella (Zélie Boulant-Lemesle), she's in training for year-long space mission 'Proxima' — an already complicated task that's made all the more so by her guilt over what it means for her daughter. A space-related saga with a firmly female mindset, this is the latest film by Mustang co-writer Alice Winocour, who filmed the feature on location inside the European Space Agency. Co-starring Matt Dillon, Toni Erdmann's Sandra Hüller and real-life French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, Proxima benefits from its formidable leading lady, too. From Casino Royale to Penny Dreadful, Green makes an impact on-screen like few other actors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqs6KHAIfFw LES MISERABLES Ladj Ly's Oscar-nominated crime-thriller takes its name from a very obvious source, and its Montfermeil setting and exploration of class clashes as well. In the process, it openly invites comparisons to Victor Hugo's famous, much-adapted work, all while twisting its various components into its own compelling and confronting piece of cinema. Taking to the banlieues of Paris, Les Misérables spends its time flitting between cops, kids and gangs, as tensions between all three reach boiling point — over the usual prejudices, long-held beefs, stolen lions, a wrongful shooting and some highly sought-after drone footage. Unrelentingly terse, deftly choreographed and unafraid to filter real-world unrest through every frame, it's not always subtle; however, given the complicated terrain that it traverses, Ly's film needn't be. What it occasionally lacks in nuance, it feverishly makes up for both emotional and visceral power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1EtAq-34lA THE TRANSLATORS One book. Nine international language experts. A leak, a ransom and one big mystery. That's the nuts and bolts of The Translators, which twists the world's current crime fiction obsession in a clever direction. Assembled to work on the final novel in a best-selling French trilogy that's been compared to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — adapting it into English, Danish, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Greek, Portuguese and German — a team of translators is placed on lockdown. Alas, that doesn't stop the manuscript's first ten pages from somehow getting out. Whodunnits have been increasingly in big-screen popularity of late (see: Murder on the Orient Express and Knives Out, both of which proved such huge box office hits that they're getting sequels), with this film starring Olga Kurylenko (The Man Who Killed Don Quixote), Alex Lawther (The End of the F***ing World), Riccardo Scamarcio (John Wick: Chapter 2) and Sidse Babett Knudsen (Westworld) adding another to the fold thanks to Populaire writer/director Régis Roinsard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUlYAWVsgB4 OH MERCY! Towards the end of this year, when No Time to Die finally releases after its coronavirus-inspired delay, French actor Léa Seydoux will return to the Bond franchise. She's also part of another highly anticipated new 2020 movie, aka Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch — but first, she's dabbling with a murder-mystery in Oh Mercy! In fact, her character Claude is one of the main suspects after an elderly woman is killed. It's a brutal case in the northern French city of Roubaix, and police station captain Yakoub Daoud (this year's Cesar Award-winner Roschdy Zem) is determined to get to the bottom of it. Inspired by a 2008 television documentary, this true-crime drama boasts a stellar cast, and also marks the latest feature by Jimmy P, My Golden Days and Ismael's Ghosts filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DZF8OyN_7A THE EXTRAORDINARY Inspired by not only a real-life figure, but also the reality for many autistic youth and their families in France, it's easy to see why The Intouchables' Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano were moved to make The Extraordinary. Drawn from the story of Stéphane Benhamou — who is renamed Bruno here, and played by the great Vincent Cassel — it explores his efforts to run an unofficial Parisian shelter to care for kids that the state-run system won't take. In a sensitive and heartfelt drama that weaves between two specific cases, also charts the government's investigation into Bruno's informal facility and makes plain the general struggle to stay running, the passion that the directors have for this tale always shines through. Indeed, there's no missing the point that the film makes about the need for better treatment for those in need. That said, this situation earns its sometimes heavy-handed on-screen treatment, and both Cassel and his co-star Reda Kateb (as a colleague who runs a similar space) put in nuanced and affecting performances. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCKX-2QY2kM ROOM 212 It not only stars Chiara Mastroianni, daughter of The Truth and Farewell to the Night's Catherine Deneuve, but it earned her the Un Certain Regard Prize for Best Actress at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Like many a French comedy, it ponders infidelity and a midlife crisis. And, in news of particular interest to fans of 2018's sublimely melancholy Sorry Angel, it's the latest film by writer/director Christophe Honoré. Yes, all of the above apply to Room 212, and even one would make this movie worth watching. Story-wise, it follows the middle-aged Maria (Mastroianni) as she's forced to reassess her marriage, sift through her feelings about love and confront her many affairs — including via A Christmas Carol-style ghostly exchanges with all the men that have been in her life — while staying in the hotel suite that gives the feature its title. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACv7L-d3Is ONLY THE ANIMALS Stepping into the thriller realm, Only the Animals draws upon a familiar setup: a mysterious murder. But, even with its also well-worn small-town setting — an isolated, mountainous locale in the thick of winter, in fact — the latest film by veteran director Dominik Moll has more than a few compelling tricks up its sleeves. Disappearing during a snowstorm, the unhappy Évelyne Ducat (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) is the unfortunate victim. Also connected to her demise are Alice (Laure Calamy) and her husband Michel (Custody's Denis Ménochet), who run a farm near where she lives; fellow farmer Joseph (Damien Bonnard); and Évelyne's lover Marion (Nadia Tereszkiewicz). Cycling between their perspectives, and serving up suitably complex performances in the process, Only the Animals teases out its thorny, puzzle-like narrative with precision. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vinYBdOoK8 EDMOND Even if you don't think you know anything about Cyrano de Bergerac, you probably do. Penned back in 1897, the French play fictionalises the broad story of the eponymous real-life figure — and it has been brought to the screen many times in various shapes and guises, including as the 80s Steve Martin-starring comedy Roxanne, 90s rom-com The Truth About Cats and Dogs, and, in the past few years, Netflix flicks Sierra Burgess Is a Loser and The Half of It. Now, Edmond explores the tale behind the famous and immensely popular drama, focusing on playwright Edmond Rostand (Thomas Solivérès). It's a movie about a writer struggling to jot down words, desperate for a career-changing hit and finding inspiration a lot closer to home than he expected — that is, a film with a very familiar premise — but the end product proves imaginative and entertaining. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TiEqmHZ2UM FAREWELL TO THE NIGHT In Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Truth, Catherine Deneuve reminded audiences just why she's been such a star — and a titan of French filmmaking — for decades, not that anyone should need the nudge. She's similarly superb in Farewell to the Night, her latest collaboration with director André Téchiné, although she's in distinctively different thematic and narrative territory. Playing a grandmother who runs a cherry farm and horse-riding school, she's forced to reckon with an unexpected revelation. When Muriel's (Deneuve) beloved grandson Alex (Kacey Mottet Klein) comes to stay, it's his last stop before following his girlfriend Lila (Oulaya Amamra) to Syria, where the newly radicalised teen intends to join ISIS. Understandably, a weighty, intimate drama about personal ties and political turmoil results. The Alliance Française French Film Festival tours Australia from Tuesday, July 14–Tuesday, August 4, screening at Sydney's Chauvel Cinema, Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona, Palace Central and Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace; Brisbane's Palace Barracks and Palace James Street; and Perth's Palace Raine Square, Luna on SX and Windsor Cinema. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the AFFFF website.
Every great exhibition should make you feel like you're surrounded by the artist's work, whether or not it includes giant fairy tale forests or a towering spider. Melbourne-based outfit Grande Experiences takes that idea to heart, turning peering at masterpieces into an immersive 360-degree experience. Fancy seeing Italian Renaissance works, including the Mona Lisa, get the multi-sensory treatment? That's on the company's list in Australia next. When you've ushered the world into Vincent van Gogh's art — getting them not just peering at it but stepping through it — and Claude Monet's as well, what follows? Showcasing Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Titian, Veronese and their peers. Van Gogh Alive proved a smash hit when it toured the country, even hitting up some cities multiple times. Monet in Paris dazzled Brisbane in 2023. Now, come 2024, Italian Renaissance Alive will become everyone's new reason to visit HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast. The idea remains the same as Grande Experiences' other art must-sees, but the works being splashed across the walls, floors and ceilings will now hail from Italy from around the 15th and 16th centuries. And yes, that includes some of the big ones. The Sistine Chapel, The Last Supper, The Birth of Venus: they're all part of Italian Renaissance Alive in a huge way. Given the large-than-life manner in which they're presented, we really do mean huge, too. From Friday, March 29–Sunday, August 4, 2024, you'll mosey around, spy iconic art surrounding you everywhere you look, and be part of not just a showcase but an experience. So, there'll be light and colour, obviously, but also sound and scents. Providing the soundtrack: Puccini, Verdi and other Italian operatic tunes. This excuse to spend some time on the Gold Coast, whether that means taking a trip down the highway or flying up from down south (or west), is part of HOTA, Home of the Arts' just-announced 2024 program. Also on the bill: the currently showing Sneakers Unboxed: From Studio to Street, a southeast Queensland stint for Elvis: A Musical Revolution and the latest tour for Agatha Christie's stage whodunnit The Mousetrap. HOTA attendees will also be able to see catch Queensland Ballet's Coppélia, a stage version of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach for the young and young at heart, a one-night-only performance of New Zealand's Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, Stunt Double by The Farm and more. Italian Renaissance Alive will display at HOTA, Home of the Arts, 135 Bundall Road, Surfers Paradise Gold Coast from Friday, March 29–Sunday, August 4, 2024. For further details, head to the venue's website. Images: Grande Experiences.
Every year, the World's 50 Best Bars ranking outlines the innovative drinking spots and watering holes that should be on everyone's must-visit list, with three Sydney bars — Maybe Sammy, Cantina OK! and Bulletin Place — making the cut in 2020. That's one way of scoping out the top establishments and folks currently doing their thing in the hospitality industry; however, the organisation behind that rundown has just come up with another: the 50 Next, which picks the standout next-generation leaders currently shining bright in the food and drink world. The inaugural list has just dropped, and Australia is represented here, too — with four Aussies named as part of the class of 2021. Fish Butchery's Josh Niland, ex-Oakridge Wines pair Jo Barrett and Matt Stone, and agriculturalist and farmer Josh Gilbert have all been highlighted as part of a selection that includes people from 34 countries. The 50 folks were chosen from a pool of 700 candidates, as sourced via applications, nominations and by scouting done by the Basque Culinary Centre. Sydney's Niland — who is fresh off of winning the James Beard Book of the Year Award in 2020 for The Whole Fish Cookbook — has been showcasing his seafood prowess to Sydneysiders for more than half a decade. The chef first opened restaurant Saint Peter in 2016, then launched fishmonger Fish Butchery in 2018. Nose-to-tail seafood is his focus — so using not only the usual parts that end up in dishes, but the rest that's often disregarded as waste. Niland was named in the 50 Next's 'gamechanging producers' category. [caption id="attachment_771911" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Rob Palmer[/caption] Jo Barrett and Matt Stone scored nods in the 'hospitality pioneers' field, with the acclaimed chefs considered among the forefront of change in the industry. In their current project, Future Food System, they're working with artist, activist and zero-waste restaurant pioneer Joost Bakker to reconceptualise the way food is grown, all in an attempt to move away from the reliance upon large-scale agriculture. That's meant living together in a house in Melbourne's Federation Square, and serving a daily dish from ingredients grown on the property. Hailing from Gloucester in New South Wales, Worimi man Gilbert has been dubbed one of 50 Next's 'empowering educators' thanks to his focus on interweaving Indigenous knowledge and generational learning into farming practices. His work spans his senior consultant role with Pricewaterhouse Cooper's Indigenous Consulting program, and his efforts as an advocate for agricultural, environmental and Indigenous change — including busting stereotypes and demonstrating how the food industry can help battle climate change. 50 Next lists its fifty impressive next-gen leaders, but doesn't rank them, and aims to promote "positive, sustainable and visionary thinking". As well as the aforementioned categories, it recognises hospitality figures it deems 'tech disruptors', 'entrepreneurial creatives', 'science innovators' and 'trailblazing activists'. This year's selection features 24 women, 19 men and seven groups, with everyone included aged between 20–35. Check out the full 50 Next lineup via The World's 50 Best website.
In Stay of the Week, we explore some of the world's best and most unique accommodations — giving you a little inspiration for your text trip. In this instalment, we take you to Wollemi Wilderness Cabins in the Blue Mountains, where Lionel Buckett has constructed the Secret Treehouse overlooking two National Parks and a World Heritage listed rainforest. WHAT'S SO SPECIAL? You'll spend a few nights in your own uniquely designed treehouse looking out over 600 acres of Australian wilderness. It's escapism on stilts. THE ROOMS The private treetop cabin comes with the lot. You have a kitchenette, Queen bed, fireplace and floor to ceiling windows looking out over the Blue Mountains. But our favourite feature has to be the in-floor spa bath. It sits in the corner of the treehouse and has retractable doors all around it so you can decide to either let nature in, or just look out at it from the warmth of your room. We could spend the whole day getting pruney in here. But they only have one treehouse, which fits two guests – and it's pretty damn popular. If you can't book the treehouse, don't be scared off. These guys do have other accommodations on site. They have a few large wooden cabins (and a tipi accommodation) with impressive views over the surrounding area. They aren't adult-sized treehouses, but they are still great for nature lovers. FOOD AND DRINK The treehouse is set up with its own little kitchen so you can be fully self-sustained here. BYO groceries and booze, and cook up a storm. But, we get it, sometimes you just want to be taken care of by someone else when you're on holiday. That's when Caroline comes in. Caroline is a local who runs her own catering company called Come by Chance. All you need to do is ask the accommodation's hosts for some brekkie or dinner — and they'll get Caroline on the case and she'll cook and deliver great meals to your room. Expect a classic chicken parma, tea and scones, or a full English breakfast spread. THE LOCAL AREA Come here to marvel at some classic Aussie bush landscapes. All the cabins are located within Wollemi National Park, which is the largest wilderness area in NSW. Forming part of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area - Wollemi is made up of a consort of canyons, cliffs, watering holes and undisturbed forest. And it's only an hour drive from Sydney. Winner! THE EXTRAS But you don't have to spend your whole visit up in the treehouse. There are stacks of things to do around here. First off, there are hikes galore, of course. The hosts will direct you to the nearby trails where you can also go mountain biking, or to the nearby river for canoeing. Pampering is also big here — although it's done in true Aussie fashion. They have a few of their own hot mud baths available. Sit in an old tub, surrounded by bushlands, and let the in-house therapist guide you through a relaxing, muddy ritual. It's great for your skin, plus its loads of fun. You're already in a treehouse, so why not embrace your inner child even more with this experience? 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. Images by Jochen Spencer
The Harbour City doesn't lack art highlights all year, every year, but every two years the New South Wales capital plays host to the Biennale of Sydney. 2024 will be one such year, with a hefty lineup in store under the theme Ten Thousand Suns. Wondering where you'll be going, which artists will be providing works and what events you'll be hitting up? March might still be almost half a year away, but the Biennale has unveiled more 2024 details. Art fans had already learned that everything will revolve around Ten Thousand Suns next year. The first 39 artists that'll be reflecting on the topic had been named as well, and the fact that White Bay Power Station will open to the public for the first time in over a century for the Biennale had similarly been announced. Now comes more creatives, places and specific events, all taking over Sydney — and for free — from Saturday, March 9–Monday, June 10, 2024. [caption id="attachment_910495" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mr. Cuddles Under the Eave (2021). Trevor Yeung. Pachiras, straps, 7 x 8 x 8m. Photography: South Ho. Courtesy the artist and Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong.[/caption] Contributing pieces: 88 artists and collectives from 47 countries. Australia is represented, of course, as is everywhere from Aotearoa New Zealand, Indonesia, India and Japan to Ukraine, Brazil, Mexico, the UK and the US. International talents include Andrew Thomas Huang, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Pacific Sisters, Martin Wong, Frank Moore, Maru Yacco and Anne Samat. Among the Aussies: Gordon Hookey, Tracey Moffatt, Serwah Attafuah, William Yang, VNS Matrix, Kirtika Kain, Joel Sherwood Spring and Juan Davila. Also, 14 First Nations artists have been commissioned by Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, one of the Biennale's partners, to make new works just for the event: Mangala Bai Maravi, Doreen Chapman, Megan Cope, Cristina Flores Pescorán, Freddy Mamani and Dylan Mooney, as well as Orquideas Barrileteras, John Pule, Eric-Paul Riege, Darrell Sibosado, Kaylene Whiskey, Yangamini, and Nikau Hindin in collaboration with Ebonie Fifita-Laufilitoga-Maka, Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl, Hinatea Colombani, Kesaia Biuvanua and Rongomai Gbric-Hoskins. [caption id="attachment_924219" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ethics, 2021. Oil on canvas. Triptych: 244 x 183 cm; 120 x 120 cm; 244 x 183 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Meeanjin / Brisbane. Photography credit: Carl Warner.[/caption] Expect to enjoy Mooney's mural tribute to Malcolm Cole, the queer queer First Nations dancer and activist who created history by leading the first-ever Aboriginal float at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade in 1988 — and also Sibosado's riji (aka pearl shell) designs in neon. Both will feature at White Bay Power Station, as will VNS Matrix's exploration of women and technology via banners. Chau Chak Wing Museum joins the Biennale of Sydney footprint for the first time, which is where Mangala Bai Maravi and Wong will feature pieces — one continuing to preserve tattooing patterns used by her people, India's Baiga group; the other being celebrated posthumously with nine paintings that focus on queer sexuality, as well ethnic and racial identities. At White Bay Power Station and Artspace, Indigenous weaving and jewellery making will be in the spotlight via Riege. Also at the latter venue, Gbadebo will display new ceramic works that continue her interrogation of her family's past and America's history of slavery. And over at the Art Gallery of NSW, Hookey and Yacco will have works on offer. The lineup also spreads over to the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, which is where pieces by Moore and Kain will feature — and to UNSW Galleries, where Sherwood and Elyas Alavi will be found. Whoever is showcased where, they'll be pondering heat, power, light, summer, joy, strength, the changing climate and everything else that the sun brings to mind. And, they'll be part of a lineup that also includes artist talks, art tours, workshops and more. Kicking off the 2024 Biennale of Sydney: Lights On, a concert at White Bay Power Station on Friday, March 8, with the Phoenix Central Park team curating an outdoor stage headlined by Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul. Vv Pete, UTILITY & Friends and DJ HALFQUEEN also feature on the bill, while roving performers will do the rounds and there'll be an indoor dance floor that uses a traditional Colombian picó sound system called El Gran Mono. [caption id="attachment_910498" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cannot Be Broken and Won't Live Unspoken (2022) [installation view]. Anne Samat. Rattan sticks, kitchen and garden utensils, beads, ceramic, metal and plastic ornaments. Wall panel: 365.75 x 731.5 x 61 cm. Floor: 609.5 x 609.5 cm. Commissioned by the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Photographer: Anne Samat. Courtesy of the artist and Marc Straus, New York.[/caption]"Ten Thousand Suns departs from an acknowledgement of a multiplicity of perspectives, cosmologies and ways of life that have always woven together the world under the sun. A multiplicity of suns conveys ambiguous images. It evokes a scorching world, both in several cosmological visions and very much in our moment of climate emergency," said 2024 Biennale of Sydney Artistic Directors Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero about the program. "But it also conveys the joy of cultural multiplicities affirmed, of First Nations understandings of the cosmos brought to the fore, and of carnivals as forms of resistance in contexts that have surpassed colonial oppression." "The 24th Biennale of Sydney works with these different layers of meaning, acknowledging the deep ecological crises derived from colonial and capitalist exploitation while refusing to concede to an apocalyptic vision of the future. The 24th Biennale of Sydney proposes instead solar and radiant forms of resistance that affirm collective possibilities around a future that is not only possible, but necessary to be lived in joy and plenitude," Costinaș and Guerrero continued. BIENNALE OF SYDNEY 2024 — ARTIST LINEUP: Adebunmi Gbadebo (USA) Agnieszka Kurant (Poland / USA) Agnieszka Polska (Poland / Germany) Alberto Pitta (Brazil) Andrew Thomas Huang (USA) Anne Samat (Malaysia / USA) Barrileteros Almas del Viento (Guatemala) Bonita Ely (Australia) Breda Lynch (Ireland) Candice Lin (USA) Chitra Ganesh (USA) Choy Ka Fai (Singapore / Germany) Christopher Myers (USA) Christopher Pease (Minang/Wardandi/Bibbulmun, Australia) Citra Sasmita (Indonesia) Cristina Flores Pescorán (Perú / Netherlands / USA) Darrell Sibosado (Bard/Noongar, Australia) Destiny Deacon (KuKu (Cape York) & Erub/Mer (Torres Strait), Australia) Dhopiya Yunupiŋu (Gumatj/Yolŋu nation, Australia) Diane Burns (Anishinaabe/Chemehuevi, USA) Doreen Chapman (Manyjilyjarra, Australia) Dumb Type (Japan) Dylan Mooney (Yuwi/Meriam Mir/South Sea Islander, Australia) Eisa Jocson (Philippines) El Gran Mono (Colombia / Australia) Elyas Alavi (Hazara, Afghanistan / Australia) with Hussein Shirzad (Afghanistan / Australia); Jimmy Hintons (Australia); John Hintons (Australia) and Alibaba Awrang (Afghanistan / USA) Eric-Paul Riege (Diné/Navajo, USA) Felix de Rooy (Curaçao / Netherlands) Francisco Toledo (Mexico) Frank Bowling (UK / Guyana) Frank Moore (USA) Freddy Mamani (The Plurinational State of Bolivia) Gordon Hookey (Waanyi, Australia) Hayv Kahraman (Iraq / Sweden / USA) I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih (Murni) (Indonesia) Idas Losin (Truku/Atayal, Taiwan) Irene Chou (Hong Kong / Australia) James Eseli (Kala Lagaw Ya/Badhulaig, Torres Strait Islands, Australia) Li Jiun-Yang (Taiwan) Joel Sherwood Spring (Wiradjuri, Australia) John Pule (Niue / Aotearoa New Zealand) Josh Kline (USA) Juan Davila (Chile / Australia) Júlia Côta (Portugal) Kaylene Whiskey (Yankunytjatjara, Australia) Kirtika Kain (India / Australia) Köken Ergun (Turkey / Germany) Kubra Khademi (Afghanistan / France) Lawrence Lek (Malaysia / UK) Leila el Rayes (Australia) Mangala Bai Maravi (India) Mariana Castillo Deball (Mexico / Germany) Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien (France) Martin Wong (USA) Maru Yacco (Japan) Mauroof Jameel & Hamsha Hussain (Maldives) Megan Cope (Ngugi/Noonuccal, Quandamooka, Australia) Ming Wong (Singapore / Germany) Monira Al Qadiri (Kuwait / Germany) Nádia Taquary (Brazil) Nikau Hindin (Te Rarawa/Ngāpuhi, Aotearoa New Zealand), Ebonie Fifita-Laufilitoga-Maka (Fungamapitoa, Tonga, Aotearoa New Zealand), Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl (Kihalaupoe, Maui, Hawai'i), Hinatea Colombani (Arioi, Tahiti), Kesaia Biuvanua (Moce, Lau, Fiji), Rongomai Gbric-Hoskins (Te Rarawa/Ngāpuhi, Aotearoa New Zealand) Niño de Elche & Pedro G. Romero (Spain) Orquideas Barrileteras (Guatemala) Özgür Kar (Turkey / Netherlands) Pacific Sisters (Aotearoa New Zealand) Pauletta Kerinauia (Miyartuwi (Pandanus), Tiwi Islands, Australia) Petrit Halilaj (Kosovo / Germany) & Alvaro Urbano (Spain / Germany) Robert Campbell Jnr (Ngaku/Dunghutti, Australia) Rover Joolama Thomas (Kukatja/Wangkajunga, Australia) Sachiko Kazama (Japan) Sana Shahmuradova Tanska (Ukraine) Satch Hoyt (UK / Jamaica) Saule Dyussenbina (Kazakhstan) Segar Passi (Meriam Mir/Dauareb, Torres Strait Islands, Australia Sergey Parajanov (Armenia / Georgia) Serwah Attafuah (Ashanti, Australia) Simon Soon (Malaysia) Tarryn Gill (Australia) Te Whā a Huna (Tūwharetoa, Aotearoa New Zealand) Tracey Moffatt (Australia) Trevor Yeung (China / Hong Kong) Udeido Collective (West Papua) VNS Matrix (Australia) Weaver Hawkins (England / Australia) Wendy Hubert (Guruma/Yindjibarndi, Australia) William Strutt (UK) William Yang (Australia) Yangamini (Tiwi; Gulumirrgin; Warlpiri; Kunwinjku; Yolŋu; Wardaman; Karajarri; Gurindji; Burarra, Australia) The 24th Biennale of Sydney will run from Saturday, March 9–Monday, June 10, 2024. Entry will be free, as always. We'll keep you posted on the whole artist lineup and exhibition program when they're announced. Top image: Ngarrgidj Morr (the proper path to follow), 2022. Darrell Sibosado. Powder-coated steel, LED tubes, fittings, electrical component. 300 x 245 x 8 cm (each panel). Collection of The National Gallery of Australia. Photographer: TheNational Gallery of Australia. © Darrell Sibosado.
Maybe you just like hanging out in Byron Bay. Perhaps you can't get enough of every music festival there is. Or, you could love seeing music legends take to the stage. The experience that is Bluesfest ticks all of the above boxes — and more — and will notch up its 35th anniversary with a couple of stone-cold icons behind the microphone: Tom Jones and Elvis Costello. Jones is no stranger to the event, last playing in 2016. What's new pussycat? Not the Welsh 'It's Not Unusual', 'Delilah' and 'Sex Bomb' singer spending Easter performing to a crowd of thousands in Australia. Costello and his band The Imposters were on the fest's 2023 bill, but had to drop out. So, they'll make the trip in 2024 instead. If you're now making long weekend plans, Bluesfest will take over Byron Events Farm in Tyagarah from Thursday, March 28–Monday, April 1. So far, the festival has named 23 acts and events on its lineup, ranging from Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos through to RocKwiz Live. Among the big names, Jack Johnson will play an Australian-exclusive set, in what's set to be his only Aussie show in 2024. Johnson has a history with the fest as well, first taking to its stages in 2001 when his career was just starting — long before he was a household name. [caption id="attachment_913223" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kizzy O'Neal[/caption] Also heading to northern New South Wales as part of the five-day lineup: The Teskey Brothers, Matt Corby, L.A.B, Tommy Emmanuel, The Dead South and The Paper Kites. Although the list already goes on, this is just the first 2024 announcement. The last few years have been tumultuous for the Byron Bay mainstay. 2023's fest lost a number of acts, including King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Sampa the Great, after Sticky Fingers were added to the bill. The fest ultimately dropped the controversial band. And while the fest went ahead in 2022 after two years of pandemic cancellations (and a thwarted temporary move to October for the same reason), it showcased a primarily Australian and New Zealand lineup. BLUESFEST 2024 LINEUP — FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT: Jack Johnson Tom Jones The Teskey Brothers Matt Corby L.A.B Elvis Costello & The Imposters Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos Tommy Emmanuel The Dead South The Paper Kites Drive-by Truckers Newton Faulkner Steve Poltz 19-Twenty Taj Farrant Erja Lyytinen Harry Manx Here Come The Mummies Clayton Doley's Bayou Billabong Little Quirks Hussy Hicks Blues Arcadia RocKwiz Live Bluesfest 2024 will run from Thursday, March 28–Monday, April 1 at Byron Events Farm, Tyagarah. Season passes are on sale now — for further information, head to the Bluesfest website.
Three friends, a huge music festival worth making a mega mission to get to and an essential bag of goon: if you didn't experience that exact combination growing up in Australia, did you really grow up in Australia? That's the mix that starts 6 Festivals, too, with the Aussie feature throwing in a few other instantly familiar inclusions to set the scene. Powderfinger sing-alongs, scenic surroundings and sun-dappled moments have all filled plenty of teenage fest trips, and so has an anything-it-takes mentality — and for the film's central trio of Maxie (Rasmus King, Barons), Summer (Yasmin Honeychurch, Back of the Net) and James (Rory Potter, Ruby's Choice), they're part of their trip to Utopia Valley. But amid dancing to Lime Cordiale and Running Touch, then missing out on Peking Duk's stroke-of-midnight New Year's Eve set after a run-in with security, a shattering piece of news drops. Suddenly these festival-loving friends have a new quest: catching as much live music as they can to help James cope with cancer. The first narrative feature by Bra Boys and Fighting Fear director Macario De Souza, 6 Festivals follows Maxie, Summer and James' efforts to tour their way along the east coast festival circuit. No, there are no prizes for guessing how many gigs are on their list, with the Big Pineapple Music Festival, Yours and Owls and Lunar Electric among the events on their itinerary. Largely road-tripping between real fests, and also showcasing real sets by artists spanning Dune Rats, Bliss n Eso, G Flip, B Wise, Ruby Fields, Dope Lemon, Stace Cadet and more, 6 Festivals dances into the mud, sweat and buzz — the crowds, cheeky beers and dalliances with other substances that help form this coming-of-age rite-of-passage, aka cramming in as many festivals as you possibly can from the moment your parents will let you, as well. This is also a cancer drama, however, which makes for an unsurprisingly tricky balancing act, especially after fellow Aussie movie Babyteeth tackled the latter so devastatingly well so recently. Take that deservedly award-winning film, throw in whichever music festival documentary takes your fancy, then add The Bucket List but with teens — that's 6 Festivals. There's a touch of the concert-set 9 Songs as well, obviously sans sex scenes. Spotting the dots connected by De Souza and Sean Nash's (a Home and Away and Neighbours alum) script isn't difficult. That said, neither is spying the movie's well-intentioned aim. Riding the ecstatically bustling festival vibe, and surveying everything from the anticipation-laden pre-fest excitement through to the back-to-reality crash afterwards, 6 Festivals is an attempt to capture and celebrate the fest experience, as well as a concerted effort to face a crucial fact: that, as much as a day in the mosh pit feels like an escape and is always worth cherishing, it only sweeps away life's stark truths momentarily. The film's core threesome have their fair share of stresses; pivotally, 6 Festivals sticks with believable dramas. James faces his diagnosis, treatment and his mother's (Briony Williams, Total Control) worries, all while trying to recruit the feature's array of musical acts for his own dream event. Scoring backstage access comes courtesy of up-and-coming Indigenous muso Marley (debutant Guyala Bayles), who graces most of the lineups and shared a childhood with Summer, united by their respective mothers' struggles with addiction — and, now they've crossed paths again, offers to mentor her pal's own singing career. As for Maxie, his drug-dealing older brother Kane (Kyuss King, also from Barons) is usually at the same fests pressuring him into carrying his stash. They're the only family each other has, so saying no doesn't seem an option. Cemented friendships, last hurrahs, big dreams, substance-addled chaos: all festivals boast these tales, whichever one, six or 1000 anyone happens to pick. Again, it's easy to see how De Souza and Nash have chosen not only their overall plot, but its narrative beats — and it's just as easy to understand why, what they're striving for and how it's hoped that viewers will respond. 6 Festivals' live footage is vivid and authentic in its look, texture and tone, and the story sticks to the same relatable terrain. Of course, the line between clichéd and being predictable because that's simply how life is can be incredibly thin, not to mention subjective. Sometimes, 6 Festivals falls on the raw and immersive side of the been-there-done-that equation, and sometimes on the forced and well-worn — like a well-known song either given a definitive new live spin, or sounding exactly as it does whenever and wherever it's played. Always fresh and lived-in, and never just doing what's done, is the film's impressive young cast — even when the dialogue they're uttering is more than a little clunky. It isn't merely Potter who gets saddled with awkward lines, thankfully, as the worst pictures about ailing characters tend to do. 6 Festivals doesn't push its cancer-stricken character to the side and, with all five of its key figures wading through woes, it smartly doesn't use his deteriorating health solely to gift his pals with life-changing lessons, either. Still, whenever the movie gleans an opportunity to spell out its weighty emotions as overtly as it can, it takes it. It needn't; Potter sells James' plight in his yearning eyes and anxious energy, including when getting drunk feels like the only thing to do, while Honeychurch, Bayles and the IRL King brothers all leave their own imprints. Every festival thrives or falters based on its lineup, and this film that flits between six of them is no different — including via the real-life bands and artists that fill its frames. Some get worked into the narrative in those aforementioned behind-the-action chats, others solely bust out their onstage best, but the full roster provides a stelar snapshot of Australia's music and fest scenes. With the live performances, as well as the general on-the-ground atmosphere, cinematographer Hugh Miller (June Again) and editor Ahmad Halimi (The Bureau of Magical Things) achieve the most vital task 6 Festivals has: making feeling like you're there the easiest feeling in the world. The movie overall is a mixed bag, but wanting to rush out of the cinema — or hop up from your couch, with the film hitting streaming on August 25, a fortnight after its big-screen debut — and into the first festival near you is an instant reaction.
Eating something that's good for you and snacking on something delicious may not be mutually exclusive, but when you're trying to find somewhere to eat in the inner city, they can seem to be. Thankfully, a Sunshine Coast institution venturing down south wants to change that state of affairs. Health- and taste-conscious Brisbanites, meet Raw Energy. Originally setting up shop in Coolum back in 1998, Raw Energy is all about making mouth-watering meals out of unprocessed, local ingredients. That they've opened eight other cafes over the last two decades is a testament to their success — although their all day breakfast and lunch menus might have something to do with it, too. After some traditional early morning fare? Then their corn, zucchini and chive fritters are hard to beat, particularly when accompanied by grilled bacon, avocado, a poached egg and baby spinach. If the midday meal is more your style, prepare for salads, sandwiches and burgers, with the Mexican five-bean, sour cream and sweet chilli option a mouth-watering example of the latter. Whatever the time of day, you can wash it all down with a lengthy list of fresh juices and smoothies. In the near future, you'll even be able to do so by night, with dinner service coming soon.
It has been a big year for fans of The Crown, and the show hasn't even released any new episodes in 2020 so far. At the beginning of the year, Netflix announced that it would end the royal drama after its fifth season. Then, it had a change of heart, revealing it would continue the series for a sixth season. That's quite the drama — and all of this before the show's fourth season has even aired. If you prefer your royal intrigue on-screen, however, the streaming platform has now just dropped its first teaser trailer for the aforementioned fourth batch of episodes. The clip only runs for 46 seconds, so it doesn't give very much away at all; however Oscar-winner Olivia Colman is back as Queen Elizabeth II. Fans also get the tiniest of glimpses of The X-Files icon Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher and Pennyworth's Emma Corrin as Lady Diana Spencer, too. Also included is a rather pivotal tidbit for The Crown aficionados: just when the show will make a comeback this year. Block out Sunday, November 15 in your diaries, as that's when you can start binging. As Anderson's casting intimates, the fourth season is set to take place during Thatcher's time as Britain's prime minister — and as the sight of Diana in a wedding dress demonstrates, will feature the latter's wedding to Prince Charles (God's Own Country's Josh O'Connor). It'll also be the last chance for fans to enjoy seeing the current lineup on talent, with the series' fifth and sixth seasons — which are expected to follow the Queen in the 1990s and 2000s — switching out its cast again. The show already did exactly that after seasons one and two, of course. This time, after season four, Downton Abbey, Maleficent and Paddington star Imelda Staunton will don the titular headwear, and Princess Margaret will be played by Staunton's Maleficent co-star and Phantom Thread Oscar-nominee Lesley Manville. Also, Game of Thrones and Tales from the Loop's Jonathan Pryce will step into Prince Philip's shoes and Australian Tenet, The Burnt Orange Heresy and Widows star Elizabeth Debicki will play Princess Diana. Check out The Crown's first season four teaser below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TGInHPoufg The Crown's fourth season will hit Netflix on Sunday, November 15. Image: Sophie Mutevelian / Netflix
When One Fish Two Fish opened its doors in Kangaroo Point back in 2019, it gave the inner-city suburb a new neighbourhood fish and chip shop. It also levelled up eating seafood and slivers of potato, including via the joint's frequent events — which, if you like crab, crayfish, oysters, lobster, spritzes and more, you're probably already acquainted with. The latest special feast on the eatery's menu: Pasta Palooza. One Fish Two Fish isn't ditching the seafood, of course, but pairing it with carbs aplenty. Patrons will tuck into a four-course meal, with two sittings per day — from 12–2pm and 2.30–4.30pm between Friday, August 19–Sunday, August 21. First up, your $79 ticket covers a two-bite house-cured salmon pasta salad, as well as pan-seared prawn gnocchi and Fraser Isle spanner crab-filled pasta shells. They're actually the only three dishes with the ocean's finest in them, though — but you don't really want seafood for dessert, do you? Instead, your sweet tooth can look forward to dessert ravioli. Yes, that's how you make an already-ace style of pasta even better. This one features fried ravioli filled with ricotta, then topped with chocolate Jaffa sauce and candy floss. Bookings are recommended — and if you'd like to pair your meal with drinks, that'll cost you extra.
All fascinating true-crime tales double as mysteries, exploring murky cases, following thorny leads, and asking questions that don't have easy or obvious answers. With ten-episode Australian podcast Blood Territory, listeners are in for all of the above, with the new Audible release not only delving into the death of 24-year-old Northern Territory man Jimmy O'Connell, but also chronicling his parents' fight to prove his convicted killer's innocence. Back in 2006, it was a murder that sparked many a headline, as you'd expect when a body is found mummified, mutilated and missing clothes in a dry creek bed in the Northern Territory — all, apparently, because of a fight over an esky. After O'Connell's best friend and fishing companion, 33-year-old Philip Mather, was tried and convicted for his death, the case sparked even more attention. Mather insists that his confession was coerced, and that he only plead guilty to avoid spending his whole life in jail. Astonishingly, O'Connell's mother and father believe him. An examination of a grisly murder that also ponders potential police corruption, as well as possible judicial prejudice against the NT's Indigenous peoples (Mather is himself an Indigenous Australian), Blood Territory isn't short on twists — or material for journalist Mark Whittaker to draw upon. Following the O'Connells' desperate quest for the truth, his podcast chats with family members, witnesses and professionals involved in the original case, sifts through new evidence, and dives deep into the legal complications surrounding Mather's conviction. It also proposes its own theory about Jimmy's death. "The Top End of Australia is notorious for hiding people, and secrets that don't want to be found — it's the perfect backdrop for such a cryptic story," explains Whittaker. "As the sequences of events and unusual characters are revealed, it becomes clear this is one of the strangest Aussie mysteries I've ever encountered." Blood Territory marks Audible's second Aussie true-crime podcast, after exploring the tale of a ghost-hunting Sydney security guard in Ghosthunter. Blood Territory is available now on Audible — for free until November 20 with an Audible account.
The fashion industry is known for being notoriously tricky to break into. Hard work, long hours and personal connections are just some of the prerequisites needed to gain a foot in the door. Despite these unglamorous traits, more people than ever are signing up to join one of the world’s largest industries. Current dwellers of Brisbane are no different, but luckily for them they are following a generation of locals who have already “made it” and are have lived to tell the tale. Initiated by student group I.S, Alhambra Lounge will host a panel comprised of five successful fashion industry insiders willing to share their own experiences and discuss how to make a living in fashion. The night will feature speakers from various fields of expertise within the industry, providing an opportunity to hear a range of perspectives on the fashion world. Speakers will include designers Joshua Schaeri of Subfusco and Jono Cottee of Vanguard, Drobe boutique owner Lydia Woolcott, Andy Wilson of Bad Art Agencies, City Beach buyer Blake Jennings and public relations practitioner Jessie Larcombe from Jesselle PR. The night will also include a question and answer session, drinks and music by John St John and Pipes. Those wanting to ask questions should email them to ask@illiteratesociety.com in advance.
Tucked away from the busy and bustle of Milton Road, Cafe Auchenflower serves up simple but satisfying fare for brunch and lunch seven days a week. Whether you are grabbing a takeaway coffee on the run or stopping by to stay a while, the staff are as charming as the decor and will be more than pleased to oblige you. The winter brunch menu is full of humble but hearty options. From a simple serve of banana bread, toasted with sweet cinnamon butter and a walnut crumble ($9), to the more indulgent Belgian waffles with plum, blueberry and star anise compote ($14), the kitchen at Cafe Auchenflower is here to sweeten any chilly Brisbane morning. However, if it's savoury you crave, old favourites like smashed avo on rye ($12) and eggs Benedict ($13) make a well-received appearance. The BLEAT burger with bacon, lettuce, egg, avocado and tomato ($13) is possibly the best way to straddle morning-to-midday hunger, and the counter cabinet is always full of fresh daily specials, including salads and sandwiches for your lunchtime tasting. Gluten-free bread is available on request. BlackStar coffee is the bean of choice, and the printed takeaway cups are simply darling. All in all, Cafe Auchenflower is cute and cosy, and the perfect place to get your caffeine fix if you find yourself around the inner-city suburb.
"What do you say, Rick — we fly through space, come upon something, maybe I have a moral objection?" That's the second half of Rick and Morty's central pair in the just-dropped trailer for the show's seventh season, and he couldn't sum up the animated sci-fi comedy's premise better. As this sneak peek shows, that's exactly what's set to happen when the series returns in October. Get ready for more interdimensional chaos — and plenty of it. Also part of the trailer: Rick as a leg, Rick finding the version of himself that killed his wife, snowy climes, holograms, shooting the undead, trying to find someone that's sober, robot ghosts, collapsed societies, Rick's famous spaghetti and quiet apologies. Jerry (Chris Parnell, Archer) needs help with "a bit of a rake situation", too — and portals feature heavily. So, Rick and Morty looks set to get schwifty as it always has when it returns on Sunday, October 15 in America, which is Monday, October 16 Down Under — where it streams via Netflix. There is one big change, however, as fans can hear in the first footage from the new season: new voices. If you've been wondering how the show's titular chaotic scientist and his grandson will sound in the new episodes, here's the answer: much the same as before. But different talents are doing the speaking, after Adult Swim dropped Justin Roiland due to domestic violence charges earlier in 2023. While you can hear Rick and Morty's new stars in this, exactly who they are won't be revealed until the series' first season seven episode drops. Of course, anything can happen in Rick and Morty, with a change of vocal tones for Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith one of the least out-there developments within the show's narrative. As the trailer makes plain, audiences can still expect the show's eponymous pair to keep wreaking havoc, and the series to keep zipping between as many universes as it can. And, for Rick and Morty's hijinks to still draw in Morty's father Jerry, mother Beth (Sarah Chalke, Firefly Lane) and sister Summer (Spencer Grammer, Tell Me a Story) across season seven's ten-episode run. Check out the trailer for Rick and Morty's seventh season yet below: Rick and Morty's seventh season will premiere globally on Monday, October 16 Down Under — streaming via Netflix in Australia and New Zealand.
Update, Thursday, July 19: Due to overwhelming demand at pre-sale, the Opera House has just announced that Wu-Tang Clan will be performing two more shows this December. The extra shows will take place on Monday, December 10 and Tuesday, December 11. Tickets for all four shows go on sale to the general public at 9am, Thursday, July 19 — so now you have double the chance of snagging a ticket. If you're a hip hop buff, the phrase "Enter the 36 Chambers" probably gets you excited for a particular East Coast US rap group. After much speculation, caused by mysterious social media posts and posters plastered around the country, it has been confirmed that Wu-Tang Clan is coming Down Under. Time to prepare your dollar dollar bills — the group will be hitting Aussie soil this December, playing two exclusive shows at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday, December 8 and Sunday, December 9. The last time the group came to Australia was back in 2016, and this time they'll only be hitting up Sydney. The shows will coincide with the 25th anniversary of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chamber), which features hit tracks 'C.R.E.A.M.', 'Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit' and 'Protect Ya Neck'. All nine members — RZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, U-God, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck, GZA and Cappadonna — will perform the acclaimed album in full for the first time in Australia. Earlier this month it was announced that Kendrick Lamar was bringing his much-hyped 'DAMN.' pop-up to Australia, and we can only hope Wu-Tang Clan follows suit, bringing its 'Wu-Tang: The Saga Continues' Pop-Up Down Under, too. Wu-Tang Clan 'Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chamber)' 25th Anniversary shows will take place in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on Saturday, December 8 and Sunday, December 9. Tickets go on sale at 9am, Thursday, July 19. Pre-sale tickets go on sale at 9am, Wednesday, July 19 and to get access you'll need to sign up to the Opera House newsletter. Image: Danny Hastings
Going out to a nice breakfast on the weekend is one of the many pleasures Brisbane has to offer, but sometimes the same old eggs benny can get a bit tired. Not to mention the waiting times that are part and parcel of a Saturday morning visit to almost any inner suburban eatery. The people of Annerley are a lucky bunch, having a few good alternatives in their neck of the woods, including the bright and bubbly Cafe O-Mai. Their Vietnamese and Vietnamese-inspired dishes are a breath of fresh air to jaded (or perhaps just spoilt) Brisbane breakfast enthusiasts. Cafe O-Mai is also open for lunch, when you can get favourites like rice paper rolls and vermicelli noodle salad, but we think breakfast is where the action is. The baby pho (starting at $7) is the ideal morning meal: warm, restorative, laden with wholesome ingredients and starchy carbohydrates. It can also come with a bit of a chilli kick if you like it like that — and who here doesn't? The soup base is allowed to develop for two days, resulting in a very aromatic and flavoursome broth. Added extras include beef, chicken, beef balls, brisket, tripe, tendon and Asian greens. The banh mi is excellent, Cafe O-Mai having been a shameful omission from our recent Best Banh Mi in Brisbane list — an oversight that has now been corrected. Like the pho, the banh mi is quite customisable, with Cafe O-Mai offering possibly more variety than any other banh mi place in town. As well as the classic pork roll (with homemade chicken pate), you can choose from a dizzying lineup of fillings, including pork meatball and quail eggs. The baguettes (from Patisseries Bakery & De Francs in Sunnybank Hills) are chewy and satisfying, especially when chased with a cà phê phin (Vietnamese iced coffee). If you're the type who always goes for baked eggs, try Aunty Five's claypot baked eggs with Vietnamese lemongrass and chilli pork sausage, spring onion and tamarind sauce with sourdough ($15). The homemade sauce is tangy, sweet and sticky, and combines luxuriously with the soft egg yolks. You really shouldn't need more convincing to add Cafe O-Mai to your weekly breakfast rotation.
UPDATE, September 27, 2023: Nile Rodgers & Chic have now added a Melbourne headlining show on Sunday, October 29 at the Forum, with tickets on sale at 11am on Thursday, September 28. This article has been updated to reflect that change. Good times are coming to Australia and New Zealand in October, and disco-soul hit 'Good Times', too. After already locking in spots at 2023's Harvest Rock in Adelaide and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Nile Rodgers & Chic have announced their own headline tour. Ah, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Fremantle and Auckland, get ready to freak out. The disco greats will hit up all five cities with their own shows, on top of their already-announced festival dates. Fans in Adelaide, you'll need to make a plans to see Rodgers and his band in a fest environment, because they're not doing solo gigs in SA. [caption id="attachment_916215" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alex Marshall via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] "The pandemic had kept us away from our fans in Australia and New Zealand for too long but now we are coming back to kick off the summer with good times!" said Rodgers, announcing the tour. Not only 'Good Times' but also 'Le Freak' is certain to get a whirl when the one and only Rodgers takes to the stage with the group that he co-founded more than five decades ago. Also on their recent setlists: Chic tracks 'Everybody Dance', 'Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)' and 'I Want Your Love'. Mention Chic and Rodgers instantly springs to mind; however, as a guitarist, the latter is in a league of his own. You'll also know his work on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, including single 'Get Lucky'. And as a writer and producer, he's had a hand in everything from David Bowie's Let's Dance album to Madonna's 'Like a Virgin'. Accordingly, Nile Rodgers & Chic gigs are known to bust out tracks from across Rodgers' career beyond Chic. Cue 'Get Lucky' and its earworm of a guitar riff, both 'Let's Dance' and the always-delightful 'Modern Love' by Bowie, and also a Madonna double of 'Like a Virgin' and 'Material Girl'. Because Rodgers and late, great fellow Chic member Bernard Edwards were involved in writing, composing and/or producing them, Diana Ross' 'I'm Coming Out' and 'Upside Down' also get a spin, plus Sister Sledge's 'He's the Greatest Dancer' and 'We Are Family'. NILE RODGERS & CHIC AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND TOUR 2023: Wednesday, October 18 — Civic Theatre, Auckland Friday, October 20 — Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane Saturday, October 21 — Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Melbourne Monday, October 23–Wednesday, October 25 — Enmore Theatre, Sydney Friday, October 27 — Fremantle Prison, Fremantle Saturday, October 28 — Harvest Rock, Adelaide Sunday, October 29 — Forum, Melbourne Nile Rodgers & Chic are touring Australia and New Zealand in October 2023, with pre-sale tickets to their headline shows on sale from 10am local time on Wednesday, September 6 — and general sales from 11am local time on Thursday, September 7. Head to the tour website for further details.
If there was a Morpho machine IRL rather than just in The Big Door Prize, and it dispensed cards that described the potential of television shows instead of people, this is what it might spit out about the Apple TV+ program that it's in: "comforting". This mystery-tinged existential dramedy is filled with people trying to discover who they are and truly want to be after an arcade game-esque console appears in their small town out of nowhere, and the series is both thoughtful and charming. In making the leap from the page of MO Walsh's book to the screen not once but twice now, The Big Door Prize has always also proven both cathartic and relatable viewing. Timing, dropping season one in 2023 as the pandemic-inspired great reset was well and truly in full swing, is a key factor in why the show resonates. Last year as well as now — with season two debuting on Wednesday, April 24 — this is a series that speaks to the yearning to face questions that couldn't be more familiar in a world where COVID-19 sparked a wave of similar "who am I?" musings on a global scale. Everyone now knows the scenario, then, before even watching a minute of The Big Door Prize. Everyone has been living this concept for half a decade. For viewers, of course, it was the drastic change of life as we know it due to a deadly infectious disease that got the planet's inhabitants probing how we're each meant to spend our lives — and to pine for an easy response at a time that's been anything but. Nothing IRL is doling out "royalty", "superstar" and "liar" in white lettering atop a gorgeous shade of blue, though. Actually, the Morpho in The Big Door Prize isn't anymore, either. The difference for the residents of the US midwest locale of Deerfield in the show's second spin: their path no longer simply involves pieces of cardboard that claim to know where the bearer should be expending their energy, but also spans new animated videos that transform their inner thoughts and hopes into 32-bit clips. Some snippets link to memories dating back decades. Some present alternative futures. Each ushers in a new wave of contemplation — because the focus of The Big Door Prize is how high-school teacher Dusty (Chris O'Dowd, Slumberland) and his neighbours react to the clairvoyant contraption and the information that it imparts. When the machine first made its presence known, Irishman-in-America Dusty was cynical. Initially, he held back as everyone clamoured for their business card-sized fortune. When he finally relented, he was unimpressed with the results: "teacher/whistler", the gizmo decreed about his destiny. Now, in a place where the Morpho remains the number-one talking point, he's taking the same route as everyone else in his community. As his wife Cass (Gabrielle Dennis, The Upshaws) and daughter Trina (Djouliet Amara, Fitting In) both are, Dusty has given in to letting the Morpho steer his decisions. Another question that The Big Door Prize poses: if being guided in the right direction was as straightforward as putting a quarter into a console, could you resist? Whether Dusty is making moves that'll impact his marriage, or his restaurant-owning best friend Giorgio (Josh Segarra, The Other Two) is leaping into a new relationship with Cass' best friend Nat (Mary Holland, The Afterparty), uncomplicated happiness rarely follows in this astute show. So when Dusty and Cass deem the Morpho's visions, as the townsfolk dub them, a sign that they need some space to stop being stuck in a rut, it isn't the move they think it will be. As their friends and acquaintances also hold up the Morpho up as a source of wisdom, the same keeps proving true. Trina's relationship with Jacob (first-timer Sammy Fourlas), the twin brother of her deceased boyfriend; Jacob's own efforts to grapple with loss and being without his sibling; his widowed father Beau (Aaron Roman Weiner, Power Book III: Raising Kanan) exploring echoes from his childhood; Cass' mum and Deerfield mayor Izzy (Crystal Fox, The Haves and Have Nots) working through her relationships: they all chart the same course. The Big Door Prize's tech element could fuel a Black Mirror instalment. In fact, The Big Door Prize is as concerned with what humanity does with the inventions that we create to better our existence as Charlie Brooker is. But bleakness never swirls through the mood here. Rather, this is a curious and empathetic series. While season two of the David West Read (Schitt's Creek)-developed show still treats its magical machine as a puzzle for characters and viewers to attempt to solve — and, especially through bartender Hana (Ally Maki, Shortcomings) and local priest Father Reuben (Damon Gupton, Your Honor), still ponders why the Morpho exists, how it knows what it knows and where it comes from — it firmly digs deeper into the quest for answers that we all undertake while gleaning deep down that there's no such thing as a simple meaning of life. In season two as in season one, it's no wonder that The Big Door Prize keeps feeling like staring in a mirror, then — and that it keeps constantly intriguing as well. When Dusty and company each return to the apparatus that holds such sway, they're greeted by a message: "are you ready for the next stage?". The show's audience may as well be asked the same. After 2023's episodes established The Big Door Prize's characters — and with Mr Johnson (Patrick Kerr, Search Party), who owns the store where the Morpho materialises, also among the main figures, there's no shortage of them — 2024's revisit can examine why they respond to the promise of knowing their life's purpose as they do. Not in its style of humour, but in its portrait of a town's eclectic residents, there's a Parks and Recreation, The Simpsons and, yes, Schitt's Creek vibe as the show unlocks another level of potential. It also helps that The Big Door Prize is extremely well-cast, starting with being well-led by O'Dowd. He isn't new to portraying a state of arrested development — going back to The IT Crowd, his resume is built upon it — but he turns in as sincere a performance as he ever has as someone beginning to confront the term. Everyone in Deerfield was cocooned in their routines, sometimes contentedly and sometimes not, before the Morpho appeared. Now, whether sporting oversized personalities (Segarra still steals every scene he's in) or as naturalistic as characters come (Amara, Fourlas, Maki and Gupton fall into that category), they're all fluttering towards finding light in their lives. The Big Door Prize knows that the story is in the journey, crucially — and if it continues flying, viewers will want to stay along for the ride. The Big Door Prize streams via Apple TV+. Read our review of season one, and our interview with Chris O'Dowd and Josh Segarra about season two.
There's never a bad time to drink gin. If you're a fan of juniper spirits, any day ending in 'y' is a great day for your favourite tipple. But Brisbane's annual Ginuary Festival picks one date on the calendar, pours plenty of the beverage in the spotlight and turns it into a celebration. In 2023, all that gin sipping is happening on Sunday, January 22. We recommend that you arrive thirsty, as always — and that you prepare for plenty of company. Taking place for the fifth year, this shindig keeps going gin crazy and attracting a crowd, so this one is being held at Howard Smith Wharves' Rivershed and The Green House. Prepare to sip your way around ten gin degustation stations, too, which you'll find in a dedicated gin tasting hall. All samples are included in your ticket price, and there'll also be multiple gin bars — plus canapes to line your stomach. Also, you have options ticket-wise. A regular pass starts from $59 plus booking fee if you nab an early-bird ticket, or $69 afterwards, and gets you access to the gin stations — and their tastings — as well as those roaming bites to eat. Or, go VIP from $99/119 (plus booking fee) to get a festival bag, three 100-millilitre gin bottles and a few other take-home goodies. While any fest can say cheers to gin just because, Ginuary is also counting down 2022's Hottest 100 Gins, as it does every year. Accordingly, whichever ticket you go for, you'll still get to enjoy the best juniper-fuelled Australian and New Zealand tipples. You can vote online in advance, then revel in the results live on the day.
If you're a lover of a good, crisp cold one and spend your weekends rolling from one of Brisbane's best breweries to another, then do we have news for you. BWS has jumped on board the craft beer boat. Well, actually, plane, train and every other mode of transport you can think of (including donkey) to grab six of the world's rarest drops. Not only has it brought these tasty tipples back to Aussie shores, but also because beers are better when shared, BWS is giving them away for free. Yep, you can soon get your hands on a six-pack of world-class brews for less than your usual schooey at the arie during happy hour. Soon you'll be sinking a sour IPA from Poland, a German-style 'weizen' from Japan and a smoky Schlenkerla beer that tastes like liquid bacon from Bamberg, Germany. If you're into your lighter styles, then the Belgian blonde ale from Mexico's 100 percent Yucatan-owned Patito brewery may be more your speed. Like barrel-aged brews? The saison from Italy's CR/AK craft brewery has been aged for seven months in a combination of 60 percent scotch whisky barrels and 40 percent rum barrels. But, perhaps the rarest of all, is a beer from Bhutan: a country that only sees a small number of tourists every year. Namgay's red rice lager is made in the Himalayas at a casual 2195 metres above sea level. BWS did all the hard work. All you have to do to get yourself a six-pack of the world's rarest (and arguably greatest) beers is head down to BWS's Ashgrove store anytime after 10am this Friday, October 18. We recommend you get there quickly, too, as stocks are limited. To check out all of BWS's travel adventures along the way, head here.
Move over Babe, Piglet, Porky and Peppa. Thanks to monochrome-hued documentary Gunda, cinema has a brand new porcine star. Or several, to be exact; however, other than the eponymous sow, none of the attention-grabbing pigs in this movie are given names. If that feels jarring, that's because it breaks from film and television's usual treatment of animals. Typically on-screen, we see and understand the zoological beings we share this planet with as only humans can, filtering them through our own experience, perception and needs. We regard them as companions who become our trustiest and most reliable friends; as creatures who play important roles in our lives emotionally, physically and functionally; as anthropomorphised critters with feelings and traits so much like ours that it seems uncanny; and as worthy targets of deep observation or study. We almost never just let them be, though. Whether they're four-legged, furry, feathered or scaly, animals that grace screens big and small rarely allowed to exist free from our two-legged interference — or from our emotions, expectations or gaze. Gunda isn't like any other movie you've seen about all creatures great and small, but it can't ignore the shadow that humanity casts over its titular figure, her piglets, and the one-legged chicken and paired-off cows it also watches, either. It's shot on working farms, so it really doesn't have that luxury. It features animals destined to play their parts in the food chain, a fact that can't be avoided. But, surveying these critters and their lives without narration or explanation, this quickly involving, supremely moving and deeply haunting feature is happy to let the minutiae of these creatures' existence say everything that it needs to. The delights and devastation alike are in the details, and the entire movie is filled with both. Filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky (Aquarela) looks on as Gunda's namesake gives birth, and as her offspring crawl hungrily towards her before they've even properly realised that they're now breathing. His film keeps peering their way as they squeal, explore and grow, and as they display their inquisitive, curious and sometimes mischievous personalities, too. Sometimes, this little family rolls around in the mud. At other times, they simply sleep, or Gunda takes the opportunity to enjoy some shut-eye while her piglets play. Whatever they're doing, and whenever and where, these pigs just going about their business, which the feature takes in frame by frame. In one of the documentary's interludes away from its porcine points of focus, the aforementioned chook hops about. Whether logs or twigs are involved, it too is just navigating its ordinary days. In the second of the movie's glimpses elsewhere, cattle trot and stand, and their routine couldn't seem more commonplace as well. It doesn't take a particularly observant person to notice the tag through Gunda's ear, or the fencing surrounding her and her fellow cast of creatures. No one need listen intently, their own ears figuratively pricked, to discern the noise of the human world beyond the sounds of nature. Evidence of people — even without even the slightest glimpse of a single one — is always there for viewers to see and hear, with Kossakovsky's engrossing and meditative documentary presenting it as plainly as it does everything else throughout its duration. The audience knows that these stories won't end happily as a result. It's well aware that humankind's intended use for the film's animals will trump the critters' own urges, desires and clearly apparent emotions. Indeed, Gunda screams its abhorrence of eating flesh without saying a word; to the surprise of no one who saw his Golden Globes and Oscars speeches in 2020, Joaquin Phoenix is one of its executive producers. Everyone finds their own meaning in every movie, but patient, dialogue-free, near-hypnotic documentaries like Gunda enhance that sensation several times over. Staring at its intimate visuals — at the stunning, resonant and evocative sights it presents again and again — sparks a shower of thoughts, threads and questions, and, sans guiding words dictating what to focus on and why, each individual viewer will veer in their own direction. Some will be struck by the act of watching life come into the world, then shaken by knowing its ultimate purpose. Others might be shocked by the way that even the simplest trace of routine connects every living thing. Others still could come to think differently about their diet choices. All three and more are options here, because Gunda ensures that its audience isn't just seeing its pigs, chicken and cows in a strikingly realistic, authentic and compassionate fashion, but is also confronting and challenging their own personal choices around animals at the same time. Gunda is an immensely empathetic film — director/co-writer/co-editor/co-cinematographer Kossakovsky was inspired by his own childhood experience, when he had a pig for a best friend — and also a work of astonishing skill. So seamless are Kossakovsky and fellow writer/editor Ainara Vera's (Aquarela) efforts that it's impossible to guess that Gunda and her piglets' lives in Norway are interspliced with scenes from British and Spanish farms. Every shot seen on-screen is so gorgeously framed and lit by the filmmaker and his co-director of photography Egil Håskjold Larsen (When Man Remains), and so vivid and textured in its inky black-and-white colour scheme, that avoiding the lure of its imagery is unimaginable. It's no wonder that taking in the documentary's every second feels like an act of surrender — visually, intellectually and emotionally, and to its layered and immersive soundscape as well. This isn't just a nature doco; it's a poetic musing on what it means for every creature to be alive and an examination of humankind's display of force over the natural world, and it's as staggering as it is stirring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilNHPfOOeIs
Sundays may be considered the day of rest, but not in West End. After spending a good chunk of last year unveiling the many features of West Village — including a dining precinct, cooking school and arts and events centre — the folks behind this huge new development are using every opportunity they can to show them off. Case in point: the greenery-filled outdoor area, The Deck WV. The space is taking advantage of both the exceptional Brissie weather and our penchant for the old weekend wind-down with a series of fun-filled Sunday sessions. Across the first three Sundays in February, the space will host an afternoon of food, drinks and entertainment inspired by one of The Garden Pantry's (West Village's dining precinct) retailers. And it's all kicking off with a huge Lunar New Year celebration thanks to the bao-masters at Mr Bunz. Across two hours, the eatery will serve a three-course roaming feast of Asian-inspired eats — including its much-loved peanut butter and jelly buns — alongside a selection of beers and bubble tea cocktails. The area will also be decorated with Chinese dragons and draped lanterns plus baskets of fortune cookies (which means hunting until you get a fortune you like the sound of — that's how it works, right?). Lunar New Year at The Deck WV will run from 3–5pm on Sunday, February 3. Tickets cost $55 per person and can be purchased here.
There are plenty of great dates for the end of the world. Archbishop James Ussher's infamous count ended on October 23, 1997, at midday. The year 2000 was a focus of millenialism, and had the luck to have its Millennium Bug as a weightier side show. Today's so-called end of the world is a similar, numbers thing. The Mayans reach an interesting date today, with rumours going around that their version of December 21, 2012 could be a pretty bad day indeed. So many rumours that NASA has set up a page on why we'll all still be around this time tomorrow. They expect no surprise interplanetary collisions, worldwide blackouts or 180 degree polar shifts arriving in the earth's near future. What is coming is a turned page on the Mayan calendar. The Mayans numbered their years with a calendar system called the Long Count, which started on August 13, 3114BC. For them, that year was 13.0.0.0.0 — 13 baktun (400 years) 0 katun (20 years) 0 years 0 months 0 days. Their creation date started at 13 baktun, but tocked straight from 13.0.0.0.0 back to 1.0.0.0.0, 400 years later. Today the calendar has completed about 5,125 years and is up to 13.0.0.0.0 again, though the evidence seems to suggest that the Maya had no particular plans to start the count again. 400 years from now baktun 14 should arrive, right on schedule. There are probably very few modern Mayans who think the world is coming to an end. If anything, a Mayan world ended centuries ago: when sixteenth century Conquistadors put an end to much of the mesoamerica's way of life. What's happening today is that we're ticking over from 13.0.0.0.0 to tomorrow's 13.0.0.0.1. The numbers are nice, but tomorrow is bound to look a lot like today. Leading image of the Aztec calendar stone by El Commandante.
Where can you play a music game show, watch well-known folks do the same, and possibly spend the evening in the company of Spicks and Specks favourite Myf Warhurst or Murray Cook from The Wiggles — or Broden Kelly and Mark Samual Bonanno from Aunty Donna, Boy Swallows Universe author Trent Dalton, Agro, Ben Lee, Steven Bradbury, Kate Miller-Heidke, Robert Irwin, Ranger Stacey, Craig Lowndes, Tim Rogers, Will Anderson and Adam Hills, plus perhaps members of Powderfinger, Dune Rats, DZ Deathrays, Ruby Fields, Ball Park Music, The Jungle Giants and The Go-Betweens? In Brisbane, there's one answer: at Not on Your Rider. Taking some cues from Spicks and Specks and the UK's Never Mind the Buzzcocks, aka the show that the hit Australian TV series is based, Not On Your Rider gives the big name-filled music quiz panel show format the live treatment. Yes, the audience gets to play, too. And yes, the event is back for 2025. This year, there's a few changes in store — not to the format, but to how and when Brisbanites can head along. After the 2025 season kicks off on Thursday, March 20, it'll mostly return bimonthly. So, mark your calendar for Thursday, May 15, plus Thursday, July 10 and Thursday, September 11 as well. Not On Your Rider's Halloween Spooktacular will be back on Thursday, October 30, while the Christmas show will cap off the year on Thursday, December 18. Also, 2025's events are headed riverside, to the Felons Barrel Hall at Howard Smith Wharves in the Brisbane CBD. This might be a case of new year, new venue, but the setup remains the same otherwise. Attendees will be peering at a stage, rather than a screen — and answering questions themselves, of course. And if it has you thinking about pub trivia nights, they don't include The Creases' Aimon Clark (who is also behind Isolation Trivia) and Patience Hodgson from The Grates hosting, let alone a heap of entertainment-industry guests. Here's how it works: Not On Your Rider takes something that everyone loves — showing off their music trivia knowledge — and dials it up a few notches. While the two on-stage teams are always filled with musos, comedians, drag queens and other guests, anyone can buy a ticket, sit at a table and answer questions along with them. The quiz element is accompanied by chats about the music industry, plus other mini games involving attendees. Images: Darcy Goss Media / Dave Kan / Bianca Holderness.
Corpses and killings don't normally herald joy on-screen, even in pop culture's current murder-mystery comedy wave, but Only Murders in the Building isn't just another amusing whodunnit. With the two Knives Out films so far plus two seasons of The Afterparty, there's no shortage of excellent detective tales that pair crimes with laughs — and killer concepts with stellar casts, too — however there's a particular warmth to Disney+'s Selena Gomez (The Dead Don't Die)-, Martin Short (Schmigadoon!)- and Steve Martin (It's Complicated)-starring take. In each of its three seasons to-date, this New York-set series has unleashed a motley crew of amateur gumshoes upon a shock death, with its key trio sifting through clues and podcasting the details. Along the way, it has also kept telling a winning story about second chances and finding the folks who understand you. Streaming from Tuesday, August 8, Only Murders in the Building's ten-episode third season relays that tale again, expanding its portraits of artist Mabel Mora (Gomez), theatre director Oliver Putnam (Short) and veteran actor Charles-Haden Savage (Martin) — and of their friendship. Once more, it embraces the power of chemistry, both within its narrative and for audiences. That isn't new; when the show debuted its first season in 2021, instantly becoming one of the best new arrivals of that year, it felt like the murder-mystery comedy genre's version of a cosy embrace because its three leads were so perfectly cast and their odd-throuple characters so full of sparks. While Mabel, Oliver and Charles wouldn't be a trio if it wasn't for a building evacuation, a murder and a love of true-crime podcasts, their connection isn't merely fuelled by chatting about the murders in their building, with crossing each other's paths changing their respective lives. There's a death in season three's initial episode — it first occurred in season two's dying moments, to be precise — and, of course, ample sleuthing and talking about it follows. But Only Murders in the Building's latest run also opens with Mabel, Oliver and Charles in places that they wouldn't be if they were solo. Largely, that applies emotionally: Mabel is more grounded and open, and now thinking about the future more than the past; Oliver has faced his career fears, resurrecting his showbiz bug with a new show; and Charles is less misanthropic and more willing to take new chances. They're also frequently in a different location physically thanks to Oliver's comeback production Death Rattle. No, the series isn't now called Only Murders in the Building and on Broadway. The victim: actor Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), a silver-screen star best-known for playing a zoologist who fights crime by turning into a snake in the blockbuster CoBro franchise. (Yes, if those movies weren't just Only Murders in the Building's Ant-Man gag, existed IRL and starred Rudd, they'd be a hit.) Ben is Oliver's leading man and biggest name, but he's hardly lacking detractors within Death Rattle's cast and crew. Among the suspects that Mabel, Oliver and Charles swiftly look into is Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep, Don't Look Up), who has spent her whole life trying to make it on the stage. Also earning their interest: influencer Kimber (Ashley Park, Joy Ride), one of the play's other talents; filmmaker Tobert (Jesse Williams, Grey's Anatomy), who was helming a Ben-centric behind-the-scenes documentary; and Ben's dutiful assistant Dickie (Jeremy Shamos, Dead Ringers), who is also his put-upon brother. From both 2021's first season and 2022's similarly smart, bright, astute and funny second effort, viewers already know the always-engaging Only Murders in the Building template from here. Season three still links back to the Arconia, still has its core trio scouring for hints and answers while feeding their podcast, still savvily satirises true-crime obsessions, and still charts Mabel, Oliver and Charles' ups and downs both individually and as a team. Using a theatre as a fellow setting doesn't simply mix things up, however, or work in ghosts and superstitions, precariously placed sandbags, a heap of new faces, and ample nooks and crannies. And, it's not only an excuse to also unfurl the third season as a hustle- and bustle-filled backstage piece as Oliver endeavours to rescue Death Rattle (complete with earworm-level musical numbers and the fact that the play is about a potentially homicidal baby). All of these things are true, and wonderfully and entertainingly weaved into the show. But season three also uses its jumps to Broadway to get the series and its main players pondering roles, performances and what represents a showstopper in their daily lives. Indeed, Only Murders in the Building isn't just warm and joyous because it celebrates the camaraderie of three unlikely pals discovering that life is a bit easier to handle — not to mention other people's deaths — when they have each other to lean on. It's cosy and delightful because it keeps deepening Mabel, Oliver and Charles amid the hunches, evidence hunts, red herrings, pointed fingers, annoyed cops and eager recordings, as aided by pitch-perfect performances by one of streaming's great current collaborations. Gomez, Short and Martin make that ace a threesome; whenever they're together, Only Murders in the Building could have them bickering and bantering about absolutely anything and it'd gleam. That said, as creators and writers, Martin and colleague John Hoffman (Grace and Frankie) aren't afraid to separate their main trio to explore who they truly are on their own and why they find such solace in each other, either. In season three, Mabel feels left out with Oliver and Charles getting all wrapped up in Death Rattle, for instance, and relies upon different partners in sleuthing. Navigating this change in the show's core dynamic delivers some of its most revelatory character insights — and, as always, thoughtful comedy. You can take Only Murders in the Building away from its namesake setting, even if temporarily, and it remains a gem. You can get its chief investigators going out on their own, again only fleetingly, and it's still a spirited unpacking of their friendship. And, this new season also makes plain that you can welcome a couple more megastars to the cast — in more than guest parts, pivotally — and everything still runs like comic clockwork. Rudd and Streep are dream additions, unsurprisingly. The former has a visible and hilarious blast leaning into Ben's egotistical ways and conveying why so many figures could've been responsible for his demise. The latter shimmers with melancholy among the suspects as Loretta faces the costs of a life spent chasing a dream. There are only wonderful star turns in this series, clearly — and you don't need to be a detective to come to that conclusion. Check out the trailer for Only Murders in the Building season three below: Only Murders in the Building's third season streams via Star on Disney+ from Tuesday, August 8. Read our full review of season two — and of the show's first season, too. Images: Patrick Harbron/Hulu.
When Felons Brewing Co set up shop back in 2018, it became Brisbane's first riverside brewery — and the first by the water in the inner city, too. In the two years since, it has proved quite the busy and popular spot, unsurprisingly. So, in the kind of news that hasn't been common in 2020, it's now expanding. Lovers of beer and great views can rest assured that Felons is staying at Howard Smith Wharves, and in its current sprawling space. From today, Friday, October 9, however, you'll also be able to head to the new Felons Barrel Hall. Taking over the existing Howards Hall on the other side of the always-packed patch of grass known as Felons lawn, it's the brewery's version of a German-style beer hall. And, as the name suggests, the new spot beneath the building's eye-catching zig-zag roof focuses on one-of-a-kind barrel-aged beers made in wine barrels. Open from 11am–late from Thursday–Sunday each week, Felons Barrel Hall serves up brews aplenty, obviously, although its first range of barrel-aged beers made onsite — in four 6000-litre tanks that sit beside the main bar — won't be available to drink in 2021. For now, its usual selection of tipples are on offer in half-litre and one-litre steins, alongside a number of limited and special-release sips. And if you'd prefer a wine while surrounded by all those wine barrels — which feature prominently in the decor, with French and American oak barrels lining the walls — you can choose from a list of natural drops from Aussie winemakers, too. Food-wise, the menu includes everything from Moreton Bay bug-loaded fries to coral trout and crayfish — with both seafood and hot chips clearly featuring heavily. Vegetable and salad dishes are also on offer (because sometimes you need more than just fried potatoes), with Felons heroing Aussie produce. Felons Barrel Hall is also upping the brewery's entertainment game, not just spanning live tunes — including up-and-comers and big names — but arthouse film screenings and interactive performances. The stage has a giant disco ball, in case you think Felons isn't serious about making some noise, while there is also a kids' area for families. Come Christmas, Brisbanites will supposedly be able to catch a ferry from HSW to Straddie, too — so consider this your new pre- or post-trip watering hole. Find Felons Barrel Hall at Howard Smith Wharves, 5 Boundary Street, Brisbane from 11am–late Thursday–Sunday.
