Somewhere in the multiverse, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is terrific. In a different realm, it's terrible. Here in our dimension, the 28th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe teeters and twirls in the middle. The second movie to focus on surgeon-turned-sorcerer Dr Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog), it's at its best when it embraces everything its director is known for. That said, it's also at its worst when it seems that harnessing Sam Raimi's trademarks — his visual style, bombast, comic tone and Evil Dead background, for instance — is merely another Marvel ploy. Multiverse of Madness is trippy, dark, sports a bleak sense of humour and is as close as the MCU has gotten to horror, all immensely appreciated traits in this sprawling, box office-courting, never-ending franchise. But it stands out for the wrong reasons, too, especially how brazenly it tries to appear as if it's twisting and fracturing the typical MCU template when it definitely isn't. Welcomely weirder than the average superhero flick (although not by too much), but also bluntly calculating: that's Multiverse of Madness, and that's a messy combination. It's apt given its eponymous caped crusader has always hailed from Marvel's looser, goofier and, yes, stranger side since his MCU debut in 2016's plainly titled Doctor Strange; however, it's hard to believe that such formulaic chaos was truly the plan for this follow-up. Similarly, making viewers who've long loved Raimi's work feel like their strings are so obviously being pulled, all for something that hardly takes creative risks, can't have been intentional. It's wonderful that Multiverse of Madness is clearly directed by the filmmaker who gave the world Army of Darkness and its predecessors, the Tobey Maguire-starring Spider-Man movies and Drag Me to Hell. It's fantastic that Raimi is helming his first feature since 2013's Oz the Great and Powerful, of course. But it's also deeply dispiriting to see the filmmaker's flourishes used like attention-grabbing packaging over the same familiar franchise skeleton. Multiverse mayhem also underscored Multiverse of Madness' immediate predecessor, for instance — aka 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. That's the last time that audiences saw Stephen Strange, when he reluctantly tinkered with things he shouldn't to help Peter Parker, those actions had consequences and recalling Raimi's time with Spidey came with the territory. Strange's reality-bending trickery has repercussions here as well, because Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen, Sorry for Your Loss) isn't thrilled about her fellow super-powered pal's exploits. Yes, Multiverse of Madness assumes viewers have not only watched all 27 past MCU movies, but also its small-screen offshoots — or WandaVision at least, where the enchantress that's also Scarlet Witch broke rules herself and wasn't still deemed a hero. Multiverse of Madness begins before its namesake and Wanda cross paths after their not-so-smooth moves, actually. Strange's latest escapade kicks off with monsters, moving platforms, a shimmering book, and a girl he doesn't know and yet wants to save. It's a dream, but said teen — America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez, The Babysitters Club) — is soon part of his waking life. Hailing from another dimension and possessing the ability to hop through the multiverse, she's still being chased. Interrupting Strange's brooding at his ex-girlfriend Christine's (Rachel McAdams, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga) wedding, rampaging critters reappear as well, while a sinister tome called The Dark Hold also factors in. The mission: save the girl and all possible worlds, aided by Strange's old friend and now-Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong, Nine Days), and via a run-in with nemesis Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Locked Down). An evil book, basically being dragged to hell, reanimated corpses, a scrappy young adventurer, wisecracks, a leading man with the initials BC: they're all Raimi staples, and they're all accounted for in Multiverse of Madness. So is a signature casting move that's to be thoroughly expected, and remains as delightful as ever. Michael Waldron, the writer/producer behind Loki, has scripted the feature with its filmmaker firmly in mind — or tinkered with the screenplay after OG Doctor Strange helmer Scott Derrickson left the sequel — and Raimi has taken those nods and run with them. But magic isn't about conjuring up the easily apparent, as the flick's cloak-wearing protagonist has learned over his time. Off-screen, that's something Marvel rather than its creatives-for-hire need reminding of, and what makes Multiverse of Madness a strategic exercise above all else. (It doesn't help that an inventive, clever and bold blast of multiverse movie, unrelated to the MCU, has beaten the latest Doctor Strange to cinemas by mere weeks. Everything Everywhere All At Once is inescapably chaotic, but gloriously, entertainingly and revealingly so, and never in a checklist-marking way.) Marvel has a pattern, though. It hires directors with distinctive styles and vibes, uses them to differentiate any given MCU instalment from the last, and hopes that counteracts the formula at work. And, it can. Even this many pictures in, great films eventuate that don't completely feel squeezed through an assembly line in every frame; see: Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok, Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, Cate Shortland's Black Widow and Chloé Zhao's Eternals. If Multiverse of Madness wasn't also saddled with other well-used, patently recognisable Marvel tactics, that might've proven true here, too. If only it had. But when a new MCU entry leans on multiple versions of its main figure (again), plus wholly fan-servicing cameos (again) — going for more is more several times over (yes, again) — and then attempts to freshen itself up by splashing around a famed director's beloved touches (again), it's always going to struggle to be convincing. Gleefully pushing obvious buttons and trying to incite easy cheers was No Way Home's main aim as well; Multiverse of Madness fares better, thankfully. It's a lesser auteur-helmed MCU movie and a lesser Raimi-directed film, but it still benefits from the latter doing what he's able to within company-controlled confines. Danny Elfman's (The Woman in the Window) moody score always sets the right tone, and the kaleidoscopic imagery has its dazzling moments — albeit with too many pixels showing in the name of serving up a shiny spectacle. And, in all of its key roles, Multiverse of Madness is still extremely well-cast. Indeed, the scenes that linger are those shared by Cumberbatch with either Olsen, McAdams, Wong or Gomez that call for genuine emotion rather than dwelling on superhero schtick, nefarious villains, multiverse mechanics, incursions, surprise guests and the like. Alas, being gifted more of that, and more of anything that doesn't have to tick 75,000 of Marvel's usual boxes along the way, sadly and frustratingly isn't a reality for this film in our caped crusader-worshipping universe.
If you've been hangin' out down the street again, getting a huge blast from the past from That '90s Show in two ways — as a sequel series to That '70s Show and as a jump back to its titular decade — then you've been enjoying one of 2023's most easy-to-binge new shows so far. And, you can now make a future date to do the same old thing you did over the past few weeks. This follow-up is keeping on keeping on itself, with Netflix renewing That '90s Show for season two. "Going to Point Place last season was a real treat for all of us. We're thrilled to return," said co-creator and executive producer Lindsey Turner to Netflix's Tudum website. "We here in Point Place are thrilled that we're doing a second season," added co-creators and executive producers Bonnie and Terry Turner, who were also behind That '70s Show (and, fitting the multigenerational theme of the ongoing franchise, are Lindsey Turner's parents). "We'd like to thank all of the fans old and new for tuning in. We're truly grateful," they continued. That '90s Show's first season hit Netflix in mid-January, arriving 17 years after its predecessor wrapped up after running from 1998–2006 — and bringing a new take on That '70s Show's Cheap Trick-sung opening theme tune along with it. This time, teenager Leia Forman (Callie Haverda, The Lost Husband) and her friends are the focus, after she decides to spend the summer of 1995 saying "hello Wisconsin!" at her grandparents Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp, WandaVision) and Red's (Kurtwood Smith, The Dropout) house. Accustomed to feeling like she doesn't fit in back in Chicago, Leia — the daughter of Eric Forman (Topher Grace, Home Economics) and Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon, Orange Is the New Black) — finds a much-needed connection during her Point Place stay. That's where the elder Formans' neighbours Gwen (Ashley Aufderheide, Four Kids and It) and Nate (Maxwell Acee Donovan, Gabby Duran & The Unsittables) come in, as well as Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher, Vengeance) and Jackie Burkhart's (Mila Kunis, Luckiest Girl Alive) son Jay (Mace Coronel, Colin in Black & White), plus the witty Ozzie (Reyn Doi, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) and Nate's super-smart girlfriend Nikki (Sam Morelos, Forgetting Nobody). While Rupp and Smith are main cast members again in That '90s Show, the bulk of the OG crew — including Wilmer Valderrama (NCIS) and Tommy Chong (Color Out of Space) — only make brief appearances. That '90s Show's overall formula is the same, but it's firmly devoted the new group of high schoolers making the most of the Forman family basement. Netflix hasn't announced when That '90s Show will return for season two but, when it does, the series will be set during the next summer. "We can't wait to return to Point Place for another summer of laughs and surprises. Hello, 1996!," said co-creator, executive producer and showrunner Gregg Mettler. Check out the trailer for That '90s Show below: That '90s Show streams via Netflix. Read our full review of season one. Images: Patrick Wymore/Netflix © 2022.
2015 documentary Gayby Baby tried to teach audiences that love, not gender, is the most important thing about family — and became one of the most talked about films of the year as a result. Needless controversy aside, the movie's statement remains crucial. Gaybies clearly agrees, spreading the same message from the stage. Once again, real-life accounts of children from same-sex parents, surrogate mums, donor dads, co-parents and guardians are the drawcard, with their tales not only political and personal, but honest and heartwarming. They're brought to life by a cast of local performers and community members, and overseen by Brisbane Powerhouse's Kris Stewart, who not only continues to guide the venue's artistic direction, but directs this production as part of MELT Festival.
This spring, Yo-Chi stores across Australia are transforming into a Fun House, filled with games, surprises, activities, and prizes to be won. Taking place from Friday, September 19, through to Sunday, October 12, the Fun House is targeted towards kids and teens on school holidays. At the centre of the festivities is the launch of Yo-Chi's new Bestie Testie card game. Packed with questions from your last Google search to your most regrettable social post, it's designed to spark conversation between Yo-Chi enjoyers. You can play in-store or take a pack home for $12. Each venue will also have its own Chi-E-O, who is responsible for running a rotating lineup of activities, including colouring in and Chi Pong. Then, at random points during the day, a secret song will play across every venue nationally, signalling the ultimate froyo treat: Yo-Chi on the house for whoever's inside at that moment. Yo-Chi is also rolling out a limited-edition strawberry and mango swirl, alongside new toppings like rainbow mochi, sour clouds, wafer discs and choc cone bits. So make sure to try the new flavour and toppings while you explore all that the Yo-Chi Fun House has to offer. The Yo-Chi Fun House runs nationwide from September 19 to October 12. Find out more via the Yo-Chi website.
Over the past few years, the Victoria Park Putt Putt Course has given itself a themed makeover on several occasions. The best way to celebrate Christmas, Halloween and Valentine's Day here? Tap, tap, tapping through a temporary revamp to suit the date. Easter is no different, much to the delight of mini golf-loving Brisbanites — and in autumn 2023, the venue's Candyland setup is making its return. Fancy getting into the Easter spirit by hitting a few balls around a candy-themed course? That'll be on offer from Friday, March 24–Monday, May 1. The Herston site will sport greens with names like 'Candy Corner', 'Ice Cream Court', 'Bakery Bunker, 'Fairy Floss Fairway', 'Gumball Green' and 'Bunny Hop'. In past years, rabbits have featured heavily — plus giant ice creams, Easter eggs, lollipops and other sweet treats. This year's fun will also feature gummy bears, candy necklaces, lifesavers, cupcakes, doughnuts, gum balls and Easter eggs — and that Ice Cream Court is all about sundaes and their toppings. Basically, if it's sweet and can somehow be worked into a themed mini golf course, you'll find it here. Bookings are essential, with the course open from 6am–10pm Sunday–Thursday and public holidays — because there's more than a few of those during its run — and 6am–11pm Friday–Saturday. Fancy a few holes before work? Want to add some fun to your lunch break? Need something to look forward to come quitting time? They're all options. It's a family-friendly affair, so you'll likely have plenty of company. Tickets cost $23 per adult. Images: Stephanie Adams Photography.
When 2025 hits, 20 years will have passed since Oasis last toured Australia, but that's where the lengthy gap between the band's Down Under shows is ending. There's comeback tours and then there's Britain's most-famous feuding siblings reuniting to bring one of the country's iconic groups back together for a massive world tour — and when Liam and Noel Gallagher start taking to the stage together again, they'll do so at gigs in Sydney and Melbourne. Oasis' reunion tour has been huge news for months, ever since Liam and Noel announced in August that they would reform Oasis — and bury the hatchet — for a run of shows in the UK and Ireland. Since then, they've been expanding their tour dates, also locking in visits to Canada and the US. From London, Manchester and Dublin to Toronto, Los Angeles and Mexico City, the entire tour so far is sold out. [caption id="attachment_975205" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Oasis Knebworth 1996, Photo by Roberta Parkin/Redferns[/caption] That's the story, morning glory — and expect Australian tickets to get snapped up swiftly for Oasis' two announced concerts, one apiece in Sydney and Melbourne. The Manchester-born band is kicking off their Aussie visit on Halloween 2025 at Marvel Stadium in the Victorian capital, then heading to Accor Stadium in the Harbour City a week later. "People of the land down under. 'You better run — you better take cover ...'. We are coming. You are most welcome," said the group in a statement. [caption id="attachment_975206" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Oasis Knebworth 1996, Jill Furmanovsky[/caption] Oasis broke up in 2009, four years after their last Australian tour, and following seven albums from 1994's Definitely Maybe through to 2008's Dig Your Soul — and after drawing massive crowds to their live gigs along the way (see: documentary Oasis Knebworth 1996). If you're feeling supersonic about the group's reunion, you can likely expect to hear that track, plus everything from 'Live Forever', 'Cigarettes & Alcohol', 'Morning Glory' and 'Some Might Say' through to 'Wonderwall', 'Don't Look Back in Anger' and 'Champagne Supernova' when they hit Australia. Oasis Live '25 Australian Dates Friday, October 31 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne Friday, November 7 — Accor Stadium, Sydney Oasis are touring Australia in October and November 2025. Presale ticket registration runs until 8am AEDT on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, with Melbourne tickets on sale from 10am AEDT and Sydney tickets from 12pm AEDT on Tuesday, October 15. Head to the tour website for more details. Top image: Simon Emmett.
Any plans for Greek sojourns or food-filled treks across Mexico haven't quite come to fruition over the past two years, but that doesn't mean you can't indulge in a bit of escapism without leaving home. And, no, we're not just talking about daydreaming and spending hours scrolling through Pinterest. As it did last year, Australian Venue Co is helping to ease the wanderlust a touch by transforming six of its Brisbane pubs and restaurants into some of the world's most popular holiday destinations for summer. So, you'll be able to pretend you're in Santorini just by visiting Friday's, and do the same with Palm Springs at The Wickham. Both the Regatta and the Cleveland Sands Hotel are getting in on the fun, too, going with floral and summery theming. And over at Mihi Tavern and Fitzys Loganholme, they're taking their cues from Mexico. [caption id="attachment_832209" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Markus Ravik[/caption] Of course, the visual makeovers — which include flowers aplenty — come paired with appropriate food and drink menus. Think: bottomless mezze, Greek barbecue platters with sangria jugs, sips from a pop-up spritz cart complete with your choice of garnish, drag brunches with bottomless pancakes and beverages and a dedicated frozen margarita zone. At Friday's, The Wickham, the Regatta and Cleveland Sands, the theming is already in full swing, while Mihi Tavern will kick things off on Tuesday, November 23 and Fitzys will do the same on Thursday, November 25. For more information about Australian Venue Co's summer pop-ups, head to the Friday's, The Wickham, Regatta, Cleveland Sands, Mihi Tavern and Fitzys websites.
Sherwood Road’s Mariosarti Ristorante Italiano is a long established restaurant, having served local residents for almost 20 years. Though the area surrounding Toowong Tower is crammed with eateries, many of them are of the cafe or takeaway shop variety, so Mariosarti seems to fill what could otherwise be a bit of a gap in the neighbourhood's culinary makeup. The popularity is proven as the place overflows with patrons, even on weeknights. Mariosarti's atmosphere is warmer and comfier than you might expect if walking past on the street. Staff are professional, and they do a pretty good job of getting you in and out, without being too overt about the fact that they need your table cleared and ready for the next round of diners. By their own account, Mariosarti has changed tack somewhat since their inception in 1995, shifting from traditional regional style Italian to a more modern take on the cuisine. The food, however, remains fairly uncomplicated. Dishes look and taste more or less as you would expect from their descriptions on the menu. The pappardelle con anatra e funghi pocini (confit duck, shallots, portabello mushrooms and fresh herbs finished in a light mushroom stock with truffle pesto and reggiano, $31.9) is a prime example. Each separate ingredient is easily distinguishable, and no element overpowers the rest. The menu is quite lengthy, and fans of Italian food will easily be able to pick out a few dishes. The scarmorza (wood smoked white mozzarella lightly grilled and served with smoked sea salt and fresh lemon, $15) should whet the appetite, ready for Mariosarti’s signature dish – pancetta di Maiale arrostito con tartuffo e porcini funghi (crispy skin pork belly served with a pumpkin and sage puree, smashed green peas finished with a truffle infused porcini jus – $21.9 as an entrée, or $35.9 for a main course). The dessert list has just about all the best loved dolci, but the biscotti e crema pannacotta with blood orange curd holds the most intrigue. Though Mariosarti has its own wine list (with drops from Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand) BYO is available for tables of 8 or less. Be warned, however, that the corkage fee is very steep at $25 per bottle.
Britain's two Queen Elizabeths have enjoyed their fair share of film and TV depictions, aided by Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Margot Robbie, Helen Mirren, Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, Imelda Staunton and more — to name just a few — but they're not the only royals of that first name to grace the screen. While the spelling differs slightly and she's played as more of a Diana-style people's princess in her latest stint in cinemas, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (also Queen of Hungary) has received several celluloid and pixel resurrections of her own. Corsage ranks among the best of them, as famed as Austria's Sissi films from the 50s are and as recently as Netflix's The Empress hit streaming, in no small part due to two other outstanding women. One is Luxembourgish actor Vicky Krieps (Bergman Island), who is shrewd, wry and wily as the Bavarian-born wife to Emperor Franz Joseph I. The other is Austrian writer/director Marie Kreutzer (The Ground Beneath My Feet), whose handsomely staged and smartly anachronistic feature is no mere dutiful biopic. Corsage's lead casting is the dream it instantly seems on paper; if you're wondering why, see: Krieps' scene-stealing work opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in 2017's Phantom Thread. Here, she's been earning deserved awards — the Best Performance prize in the 2022 Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard section among them — for a portrayal that never feels like she's stepping into someone else's shoes or jumping back to the past for a part. Krieps is, naturally. Also, given that Sissi lived between 1837–1898, viewers have no way of knowing how close this characterisation is. But Krieps' fierce, dynamic and layered performance goes far further than easy impersonation, or providing a period-appropriate rendering of the Empress based on how history dictates that women of the era behaved (or what flicks set then or focusing on regal women back then have served up before). Corsage is a portrait of a lady, after all, and not of a time. There's nothing old-fashioned about Sissi in Krieps and Kreutzer's hands, although the predicament she's in when Corsage kicks off wouldn't have been new in her day: approaching a big midlife milestone birthday and feeling agitated about it. "At the age of 40, a person begins to disperse and fade," the Empress herself offers. It's 1877, her then 23-year marriage to Franz Josef (Florian Teichtmeister, Vienna Blood) is no longer lit by sparks, her young daughter Valerie (first-timer Rosa Hajjaj) disapproves of her every move, and much attention — her own and beyond — is upon her appearance. So, she flits restlessly. She can travel, circling around Europe. She can ride, exercise, pal around with friends and reconnect with old lovers. She can enjoy the company of men such as Louis Le Prince (Finnegan Oldfield, Final Cut), who directs his motion-picture camera her way, and horseman Bay Middleton (Colin Morgan, Belfast). She can play the starlet part, but also seethe with frustration about the largely decorative nature of her position. Some of the above genuinely happened. Some of it didn't. The same applies to other aspects of Kreutzer's narrative from start to finish. Fidelity to facts isn't Corsage's primary or even secondary concern, refreshingly so. Also, the film doesn't bother itself with the notorious end to her son's story, with Crown Prince Rudolf taking his own life in a suicide pact. He's still in the movie (as portrayed by Aaron Friesz, Freud), but his tale isn't his mother's. Endeavouring to set a historical figure free from their corset — which is what corsage means in French, not flowers for a formal occasion as the term refers to in English — this flick isn't bound by accuracy or the lives of others. Sissi was bound enough anyway and not just by bodices cinching in her waist down to 19.5-inches and less, as Corsage finds ample ways to make plain. In too many situations and for far too long, to be a woman is to be the subject of scrutiny — and doesn't Corsage know it. Sissi's roles as a wife, mother, Empress and representative of her countries are the source of constant fixation from all and sundry, with nothing ever pleasing everyone or even anyone much. Her exterior earns the same public obsession. The fact that she shares it is both an indictment of the ridiculous pressure she's subjected to and, in the complicated way of disordered eating, a bid for control. Corsage isn't here to simply spin woe, however. It's too playful and subversive for that. What it recognises again and again is how little agency Sissi had, how she was constantly defined by how she looked, and how one might process, cope with and rally against that truth. A haircut isn't just a haircut here, for instance, but an act of release and rebellion that also inspires tears among her attendants. Against restrained period fare and reverent on-screen biographies, Corsage is an act of rebellion, too. It isn't quite Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette nor Pablo Larraín's Spencer, but belongs in the middle of the pair. Accordingly, cue the flouting of 19th-century-only sights and sounds, plus a firm focus on conveying Sissi's inner state with every tool at the picture's disposal. Visually, Kreutzer and cinematographer Judith Kaufmann (The Audition) let modern details remain among the movie's settings — doors, lights, powerpoints, mops and more. On the soundtrack, French singer Camille of 'Ta Douleur' fame gets poppy, and covers of Kris Kristofferson's 'Help Me Make It Through the Night' and The Rolling Stones' 'As Tears Go By' get a workout. This tale is timeless, Kreutzer emphasises. The Empress' stresses, sadness, struggles and spirit are as well, her film continues. Corsage's point of interest is Kreutzer's familiar point of interest: women just wanting to be who they are but constrained by society's rules and expectations. 2019's The Ground Beneath My Feet and 2016's Krieps-starring We Used to Be Cool before that don't toy with real-life figures, but they unpack the same idea. That's an age-old reality, Corsage also reinforces, whether it's sticking close to its star's face, sometimes beneath striking face veils; surveying the punishing act of dressing as an Empress again and again; or stepping back to take in her lavish attire and surroundings, seeing what the world around her sees. Then, when this perceptive treasure comes to its inventive end, it's with an utterly unforgettable reimagining — which, yes, is this feature from the get-go.
When word first dropped in late 2020 that Surfers Paradise was about to nab a new sky-high beach club — a space that takes its cues from both California and Europe, sits right near the ocean, and features everything from pools and cabanas to restaurants and volleyball courts — the venue loomed as a must-visit summer destination. And, while it launched almost a year later than initially planned, that's still the case. Cali Beach is open on Surfers Paradise Boulevard. Here, you'll head up to a fourth-floor rooftop and get swimming and sipping — and enjoy lazing around on sun loungers and daybeds under both the sun and the stars. This new space inspires a few questions, too, the answers to which make quite the itinerary. Do you like hanging out by the beach? Splashing around in four pools, including three with beach edges? Enjoying a few games of volleyball on the sand? If you nodded heartily in agreement at all of these queries, then you'll want to add Cali Beach Club to your must-visit list. If you also like to spend your time kicking back in a cabana, hopping between multiple restaurants and bars, dancing to DJs and gathering the gang on a rooftop with a view, you will as well. The site features all of the aforementioned facilities and activities in the one spot, so it's more than a little jam-packed with things to do. Perched on the corner of Surfers Paradise Boulevard and Elkhorn Avenue, sprawling across more than 5000 square metres, and boasting vantages over both the ocean and the Surfers' skyline, it's billing itself as an "adults-only playground" — but you might prefer to think of it as the boozy adult alternative to the theme parks that the Gold Coast is best known for. Australian hospitality group Artesian Hospitality is leading the charge here, putting almost $10 million into the entertainment precinct. Those funds have been spent on all of the aforementioned features, plus exercise areas and sports facilities — including that beach volleyball court — and an openair cinema and dance floor as well. Food-wise, you have options, thanks to menu choices that include karaage chicken ($24), oysters ($5 each), braised pork belly skewers ($16) and bug sliders ($45), as well as fruit ($29), chips ($35) and sushi ($75) platters. The drinks menu spans three pages, complete with classic, signature and two-litre shared cocktails, boozy slushies, a range of wines and beers, and a champagne list that spans to 12-litre bottles (for $8550 — yes, you read that correctly). Or, there's alcoholic Cocowhip desserts ($21.50) in apple crumble, passionfruit, cherry ripe and strawberry shortcake varieties.
It's not the size of the menu that counts at Two Donkeys. Revamping and rebranding the cafe space attached to the Novotel Hotel in Spring Hill, the Astor Terrace eatery understands one of the fundamentals of both food and life. Yes, sometimes less really is more (and no, we're not just talking about their industrial-themed, minimalist décor). Let's be honest: when five types of breakfast bruschetta top the bill — featuring everything from honeycomb to caramelised pears to beetroot ricotta, with one even made pizza-style — who needs other options? And with kaarage chicken, BBQ pork, sesame-crusted tofu and soft-shell crab baos available for lunch, the lunchtime choices will leave you asking the same question. Of course, they're not all that Two Donkeys serves up, with four other early morning dishes on offer, and all brekkie meals available all day. A counter cabinet filled with fresh-baked items and takeaway sandwiches boosts the selections as well, as do Blackboard coffee and Newstead Brewing Co beers on tap. And, more will likely follow when the store expands beyond weekday, daytime trading in the near future.
If you've been making plans to revamp your style, but haven't been able to rustle up the coin or are sick of online shopping, here's your chance. Hugo Boss is hosting a mega sale at its outlet stores. You'll be able to score a further 30 percent off menswear, womenswear, footwear and accessories. Whether you're after a suit for a special occasion later in the year or looking to level up your work wardrobe stat, Hugo Boss's mid-season outlet sale will have you sorted for a fraction of the fashion label's usual prices. You'll have to get in quick to score though, with the sale running from Saturday, April 3 until Sunday, April 18 (or until stocks last). The only catch? You'll have to take a trip to the Gold Coast to bag yourself a bargain. Just head to the Boss Outlet at Harbour Town Premium Outlets to get these quality threads for such a steal. Current opening hours are 9am–5.30pm Monday–Wednesday, 9am–7pm on Thursdays, 9am–5.30pm Friday–Saturday and 10am–5pm on Sundays. Hugo Boss mid-season outlet sale will run from Saturday, April 3 till until Sunday, April 18 or until stocks last (excludes new season stock). To find your closest outlet, visit the website.
Remember the name Deniz Gamze Ergüven. The Turkish-French filmmaker may have only directed one feature to date, but it's a movie audiences won't forget in a hurry. In focusing on the troubled plight of five sisters confined to their home, Mustang might bring The Virgin Suicides to mind. Yet there's much more to the film than the comparison might indicate. Setting her film in a conservative seaside village in northern Turkey, Ergüven probes the complicated reality that siblings Lale (Günes Sensoy), Nur (Doga Zeynep Doguslu), Ece (Elit Iscan), Selma (Tugba Sunguroglu) and Sonay (Ilayda Akdogan) face on a daily basis. Stuck in a patriarchal society — and in a house overseen by a strict uncle (Ayberk Pekcan) and dutiful grandmother (Nihal G. Koldas) — their teenage lives are not their own. They're not allowed to just be girls who want to have fun; they're future wives, mothers and caregivers, destined to be defined by their husbands rather than themselves. Indeed, when Lale characterises their existence as "a wife factory", her choice of words couldn't be more fitting. As the youngest child as well as the film's narrator, it's through her eyes that viewers experience both the harsh limitations that dictate the sisters' days, and the need they feel to break free. It all starts when school winds up for the summer, with the quintet heading to the beach to splash around with a group of boys. By the time they get home, news of their apparently inappropriate behaviour has already reached their relatives' ears, inspiring a regime of virginity tests, locked doors, barred windows, cooking lessons and desperate attempts to marry them off. Being trapped in such a restrictive situation is as devastating as it sounds. And yet, thanks to the sisters' different personalities and Lale's undying defiant streak, the narrative is also laced with amusing moments and ample tenderness, as well as the spirit of female empowerment and camaraderie. As co-written by Ergüven with Augustine filmmaker Alice Winocour, the Academy Award-nominated effort proves as much a celebration of young women refusing to simply do what they're told as it is an indictment of the male-controlled status quo. It's also a film that's immersed in blossoming femininity from start to finish. While Sensoy steals every scene she's in with her naturalistic charm, her four main co-stars are no less effective. Cinematographers David Chizallet and Ersin Gok shoot the movie to stress intimacy even amidst rampant oppression, while the score by Warren Ellis evokes both tension and yearning. Accordingly, though Mustang is undoubtedly concerned with domination and escape, it's not a tale of victims, but rather a testament to resilience.
Think you've seen it all when it comes to wedding fairs? Think again — this one's a little less about the dress and a little more suited for, well, suits. Groom Fest will unite around 40 wedding vendors from all over Australia to concentrate on those who need a snappy three-piece suit and a pocket square to top it all off — the grooms of the world. There'll be much to see in the way of men's fashion, not to mention suiting, styling and grooming advice, with a barber setting up shop to do live hairstyling demonstrations. Model and rugby player Luke Casey will play MC for the day, while you wander through the stalls and get that special day sorted. To help you sail even closer to being your smoothest self, live panel sessions will cover everything from delivering a killer wedding speech to nailing that daunting first dance. There'll be plenty of food and drinks on offer, including gin tastings from Sydney-based distillery Archie Rose and live music performances from The White Tree Band (to help settle that band-versus-DJ argument once and for all). The event is open to all (not just grooms), so round up the troops for a two-hour wedding planning power session. All attendees will score a free goodie bag filled with items from Hunter Lab, a free Hello May magazine and the official Pocket Groom's Guide, written and produced exclusively for the event. Groom Fest will take place from 7.30–9.30pm on Sunday, March 31 at The Brooklyn Standard. Entry is free but RSVPs are essential — and you can add a donation to Movember at check-out if you wish. To reserve your ticket, head this way. Images: The White Tree.
Laneway Festival has officially returned for another glorious year, hitting Brisbane and Sydney this weekend and Melbourne the next. Sure, there are some pretty big-name folks on the lineup — Grimes, CHVRCHES, Flume — but true to Laneway form, there's a whole host of artists you might not have wrapped your ears around yet. Laneway's triple j Unearthed lineup sees five new emerging artists hit the big stage. Each band/artist will be appearing in their hometown Laneway Festival in 2016. They're joining a damn good alumni bunch too — Client Liaison, Bad//Dreems, Ali Barter and more count themselves as Unearthed Laneway artists. Since they're playing in their hometown as shiny new discoveries, we thought we'd get each of them to give us a little hometown secret — their favourite hidden gem. Introduce yourself to Australia's new batch of music — you'll find them in these five local go-tos. ESESE (MELBOURNE): RAS DASHEN "Our favourite spot is my parent's Ethiopian restaurant Ras Dashen; not only because it's my rents and the band gets free food, but because you will never eat anything so hangover curing in this city. Since, 50 percent of us are DJing most weekends/weekdays and you know, getting lit goes hand in hand. So, whats better than some injera and Ethiopian coffee to get you back to life." 121 Nicholson Street, Footscray ADKOB (SYDNEY): TOWN BIKE PITSTOP "My local coffee house. I'm not that into the bikes but the food and vibe are both top notch. Try the Julio or the BLT — Swish. I'm a huge of that end of Abercrombie Street, it is still pretty residential but among the terraces are other cool things like the Eveleigh Hotel, the Commercial Gallery, this new organic tea bar and up the road the Redfern Night Markets." 156 Abercrombie Street, Redfern GOOD BOY (BRISBANE): BARBARA "Im not sure how 'hidden' Barbara is but this beautiful bar sits between the loans department and the sales department of the Fortitude Valley Cash Converters. The staff are top notch, the entire establishment is simple, wooden and handsome, and the house beer 'Babs' is incredible. Best nights are Wednesday when you can get a burger from our favourite chicken joint, Lucky Egg, and a Babs beer for 15 dollarydoos and listen to some classic hip hop." 105/38 Warner Street, Fortitude Valley FAIT (PERTH): THE OLD LAUNDRY "The Old Laundry is a favourite local haunt of mine. Gorgeous interiors, good food and friendly service. A great place to sit and watch the world go by." 22 Angove Street, North Perth THE HARD ACHES (ADELAIDE): TWO-BIT VILLAINS There are way too many favourite spots of ours in Adelaide, but let's settle with Two-Bit Villains. It's a kick arse American style diner with amazing food and handmade sodas, all of which are either veg or vegan. Run by great people in a sick location, Plus they do a mean poutine if you ask nicely." - BD. Shop 150 Balcony Level, Adelaide Arcade More about Laneway Festival over here.
Spring is here, the sun is out, and everything is 500 times more whimsical. Now times that whimsy by infinity. Studio Ghibli is bringing a showcase to our shores in October and it's touring all over the nation's cinemas. Celebrating renowned filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, the Tale of Studio Ghibli showcase will feature four films and two documentaries that explore the intricacies and beauty of their craft. If you haven't had a chance to get acquainted with the work of these two cult favourites before, this will be the perfect opportunity to get up to date. Work your way through much-loved classics with screenings of both My Neighbour Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies. Then explore new terrain with The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and the critically acclaimed historical anime feature The Wind Rises. Though the Japanese animation studio has 20 feature films to its name, the Australian showcase will feature just these four — a refined look at the old versus the new. But this won't just be for the newbies. Seasoned anime pros can get an inside look into the craft with screenings of both Isao Takahta and His Tale of the Princess Kaguya and The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. Though the documentaries have had separate screenings at local film festivals this year, this will be their first standalone showing on Australian screens. Either way, whether you're a diehard anime fanatic or have never even seen Spirited Away, there's always room in your life for a little whimsy and wonder. Get lost in the cinema for a few hours and discover an exciting new world. https://youtube.com/watch?v=9lDrkokymLQ
Take a group of A-grade acrobats, add some bells, horns and sepia stage lighting, dowse it all in whiskey and you have Scotch and Soda. They’re a group of Australia’s finest performers and music-makers, who’ve graced stages as Cantina, Smoke and Mirrors, La Clique, Circa and Tom Tom Crew. But you’ll be forgiven if you can’t pick a familiar face under their swanky new beards, budgies and blazers as part of this new, exciting ensemble. Scotch and Soda are bringing their gypsy infused stylings and unruly showcase back to The Judith Wright Centre. Their riveting talents, paired with their raucous behaviours makes for a show that will viewers laughing as often as they cover their eyes in fear. With the driving beats of the Uncanny Carnival Band setting a musical backdrop to unsuspected activity, dangerous acts and a little nudity, brace yourself for the extreme. Tickets range between $33 and $42, and you can catch Scotch and Soda until November 28.
The grand folks over at A Love Supreme are diving into the festive season, and you’re invited along for their annual Wrap-Up Party. Skip to alfresco amazement that is Shady Palms in Stones Corner, for your double good deed: $10 on the door will allow you to celebrate the milestone of another year gone by, with all proceeds going to help the Typhoon Haiyan Relief, and those impacted by the disaster. Local talents will be hitting the decks for the evening’s entertainment; DJ Cryptic, Gavin Boyd, Jimmy Ellis and Kieron C. will be bringing the funk. 80s nostalgia, disco fever, soul, electro, house and future funk will be riding the groove train into your festive ears. All you need to bring is your yuletide spirit, your dancing shoes and persevering buddies. This one starts early, however it’s what you’ve been training all year for. You’ve got this. Get in early to claim an umbrella and let the good times flow.
Isn't it lovely to see big companies doing their bit for the social good. In Google's case, it's not just about donating huge sums of money. Rather, they make essential communications technology accessible to those who promote positive change. Google's recent launch of Google for nonprofits brings together an extensive toolkit for non-profit organisations, including AdWords, special YouTube privileges, Apps and more. Currently, the tools are only available to Google Grant recipients who receive thousands in in-kind advertising from Google. The company realised that gifting the use of AdWords and the like wasn't enough: Goolge also needed to teach non-profits how to maximise the potential of such tools. Instructional videos and the Make-A-Change section will show users how to make the most of the tools to communicate their message; while the Marketplace will connect non-profits with service providers offering free or discounted rates. Google offers grants to approved non-profits in the US only, but the marketing manager of Google for nonprofits Kirsten Olsen Cahill hopes to expand to other nations soon. [Via Mashable]
It's hard to come by actual hidden gems in your city these days. Chances are you've heard about the latest hidden/vegan/swimming/rooftop hotspot via social media — and so have the masses, and they've beaten you there. Most, save the truly intrepid city wanderers among us, often miss the boat on undiscovered goldmines. But hey, it's more than okay to jump on a bandwagon if something is truly good. But how about those little nuggets of gold in the city you've forgotten, or never got around to visiting in the first place? This summer just might be the perfect time to back-up a little bit, consult the notes app in your iPhone and see what you had scribbled down as a to-do. Not sure where to start? We've partnered with Henkell, purveyors of quality bubbly, to pull together a hit list of some (kinda) hidden gems to dig up around Brisbane on your summer break. They'll all bring a little sparkle to your day and remind you that Brisbane is pretty darn great. WANDER AN ARTISANAL FOOD AND DRINK MECCA This might be one of those places you've heard about but haven't managed to get to yet, or perhaps can't find? Well, this summer's your chance to discover (or re-discover) this old warehouse-turned-community culinary clubhouse on the cusp of West End. Wandering Cooks is an excellent spot for hangs with the group breakfast, lunch or dinner. It has 101 food vendors on rotation, so make sure you check out the website for who is serving up what and when. Oh, and still not sure where to find it? Simply walk all the way to the end of Fish Lane and there you'll find it. And if you're keen to catch some rays by the water, grab some artisanal treats to take away and head to Riverside Green down the road for a gourmet picnic — complete with a bottle of Henkell Blanc de Blancs. [caption id="attachment_551045" align="alignnone" width="960"] Pizzeria Violetta.[/caption] HEAD TO THE 'BURBS FOR SOME CULINARY GEMS Northwest Brisbane's barbecue belt, and home to some solid architectural splendour of the 70s, Kenmore has become more and more popular among the city's epicures. Move over Oxford and James streets — this is the place to head if you want to experience a 'suburban dining hub' at its best. Located just off Marshall Lane, Wongabel Street houses three fantastic restaurants owned by Brisbane restaurateur Renata Roberts: Stavros the Greek, Sichuan Bang Bang and Pizzeria Violetta. Plus, you'll find a pretty ace Thai restaurant and espresso bar at the top of the street. Not sure where to head first? Look to Sichuan Bang Bang for its spicy dishes of Sichuan bean curd with minced pork, classic Sichuan Ma La dry pot with beef or chicken or the sizzling Singapore chilli prawns. The eatery also welcomes BYO so you can take your meal up a notch with a nice bottle of bubbly. VENTURE TO A CITY OASIS Just a hop, skip and jump from inner-city Brisbane (about 25 minutes), you'll find this perfect oasis of a swimming spot. Enoggera Dam is a shady freshwater dam that offers something for the laziest and most active among us. Float the morning away alongside waterlilies or jump on a paddleboard or kayak, then head to the lush grassy lawn for a picnic and maybe a glass of Henkell Trocken in the sun. You'll also find bushwalking tracks along the perimeter of the dam. It can get busy, but a morning or afternoon dip here will make anyone's summer brighter. FIND A HIDDEN HUB OF CHEESE AND LIVE MUSIC Junk by name, but certainly not by nature; this trash is Brisbane's treasure. An oldie, but perpetually a goodie, Ashgrove's Junk Bar is a self-proclaimed 'hidden' bar that's half the fun to find. You'd be forgiven if you've walked straight past its un-signed and curtained entrance on Ashgrove Avenue. Step inside, out of the hot, hot sun and you've got a spot where you can catch local live music over a cheese board. It's pretty chill here — they don't even mind if you BYO your own food — so it really is one of the best spots to unwind and recalibrate after a hectic festive season. Summer is here and it's time to pop the bubbly. Pick up a bottle of Henkell Blanc de Blancs or Henkell Trocken for your next sparkling occasion.
Spilling out from World Science Festival, Curiocity Brisbane (22 March–2 April, 2023) takes over the wider city of Brisbane. Art meets STEM in a landscape of experiences and installations designed to challenge and enlighten urban explorers. Use augmented reality to bring memory fragments to life, encounter kinetic art through an intense colour spectrum in a changing parabolic curve, interact with playful cybernetics and help teach AI in real time. Take a free curator tour to take a deeper dive into the meaning behind the artworks, which includes the interactive "sound sculptures" T.H.E.M (that's The Handmade Electric Machines, if you're curious — a collection of six sound and lighting mechanisms brought to life by musicians, artists and designers). The free Curious Conversations program offers discussions on topics such as the future of AI, our role in the natural world and First Nations artists' relationship with history, culture and traditional knowledge. [caption id="attachment_804118" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Curiocity 2021, Markus Ravik[/caption] But, Curiocity Brisbane isn't just for the daylight hours. Art installations will be scattered along the streets and South Bank, disrupting the reverie of the river city with thought-provoking displays and unexpected intrusions, both visual and auditory. Curiocity Brisbane pops up around Brisbane from Wednesday, March 22–Sunday, April 2, 2023.
Throughout much of Ms Marvel, the 2022 TV series' namesake (debutant Iman Vellani) and massive Marvel Cinematic Universe superfan was thrilled and surprised at everything happening to her. Loving the MCU, going to MCU fan conventions, obsessing over Captain Marvel (Brie Larson, Just Mercy), then learning that you have superpowers just like your heroes: that's enough to leave you perpetually astonished and overjoyed in tandem, an emotional state that Kamala Khan isn't done with in The Marvels. Ms Marvel was always leading up to this big-screen release, with Vellani returning as Kamala, and teaming up not only with Larson as Carol Danvers, but with WandaVision's Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau as well. The 33rd movie in the MCU, arriving in November following fellow 2023 cinema release Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in May, it's also a sequel to 2019's Captain Marvel — and, as the just-dropped first teaser trailer shows, it's making the most of having three caped crusaders in its frames. Meet the MCU's new superhero team, although this all-female trio have a bit of trickiness to overcome before they can work together. The first look starts with Captain Rambeau at Saber Space Station — well, outside it — while working with the upcoming Secret Invasion's Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey). Then she crosses through the space continuum, becomes Ms Marvel, and a whole lot of trading places keeps occurring. From there, when Ms Marvel uses her powers, too, Captain Marvel switches into her spot. The Marvels' first trailer leans into the chaos that causes — plus Kamala's ongoing exuberance about the whole situation. Importantly, Goose the Flerken also shows up. If you're wondering, Carol has her identity back from the Kree and she's taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence; however, that has consequences, and the universe has become destabilised. So, The Marvels need to team up to do the usual MCU thing: save everyone and everything. As well as Larson, Parris, Vellani and Jackson, The Marvels features Zawe Ashton (The Handmaid's Tale) and Park Seo-joon (Parasite). Behind the lens, Candyman's Nia DaCosta directs, and co-wrote the screenplay with Megan McDonnell (WandaVision), Elissa Karasik (Loki) and Zeb Wells (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law). Check out the first trailer for The Marvels below: The Marvels releases in cinemas Down Under on November 9, 2023. Images: Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.
Record Store Day might only come once a year, but each month, Brisbane gets into the spirit of the occasion. A treasure trove of vinyl descends upon a specific spot in this fair city of ours, showering music fiends in the stuff collectors' dreams are made of. Brisbane Record Fair is the type of event that gives aficionados reason to salivate, deliberate, negotiate, and then spend, spend, spend — after rifling through crates and crates of rare material, obviously. And since 2020, it has been popping up in a brand new place, with the monthly event moving from West End to Aspley. Thousands of items are for sale, with Brisbane Record Fair taking over the Aspley Central Shopping Centre at 1368 Gympie Road. Expect a smorgasbord of sounds — offering up music of all types — when you head along to the next event from 8.30am–3pm on Saturday, March 13. Vinyl-wise, whether you're after a decades-old gem or something newer on an LP or a 45, chances are you'll find it here. Sellers come from far and wide to share their wares, including private collectors parting with their sonic pearls. And no matter the time of year, a selection from their stash would make a perfect present, whether for someone else, or for yourself. Updated March 12.
Pups and pints: it's a winning combination. And, in 2018, a weekly one as well. With Brisbanites going barking mad for downing beers with their doggo best mates during 2017, The Brightside is upping the ante on their regular Barks & Brews sessions. Folks of the two- and four-legged variety, make Sundays at midday your standing weekend beverage date. With its appropriate name, the pooch-centric afternoon doesn't really need to offer up anything more than just that — but, it wouldn't be a Brighty shindig without some extra fun. Those heading to Warner Street can also expect doggie photos for maximum cuteness, as well as regular competition to crown the city's best furry BFFs. Do you resemble your pupper, or vice versa? If so, that'll likely come in handy, as will dressing your fido up in adorable outfits. As always, there'll be prizes to be won. So grab your canine companion, flock to the beer garden and prepare to sink a few cold ones while enjoying some Brissie sun. And, expect to spend time in the company of plenty of other dog lovers and their pooches too. BYO frisbee.
The latest in the impressively long line of remarkable French-Canadian dramas, Louise Archambault's Gabrielle finds poignancy in an unexpected place. Produced by Luc Déry, who scored back-to-back Oscar nominations for Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar, the film follows the trials and tribulations of its titular character, a kind-hearted 22-year-old with significant developmental disabilities. Combining heartfelt storytelling with nuanced handling of issues rarely explored on screen, it's a tender, uplifting picture that marks another big win for the cinema of Quebec. The evanescent presence at the centre of the film is Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, a first-time actress who, like her character, suffers from a rare genetic disorder called Williams syndrome. It's a condition that manifests itself in the form of learning impairment, along with a high level of sociability. From the moment we see her, Gabrielle reminds us of a primary-schooler: cheeky, gregarious and eternally curious but also fragile and incapable of real independence. The film's naturalistic script focuses on two key relationships. The first is the connection Gabrielle shares with her elder sister, Sophie (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin), her protector and closest friend. The second is her romantic attachment to Martin (Alexandre Landry), a similarly challenged young man who sings with Gabrielle in a choir for the mentally disabled. They're an adorable couple, until things turn sexual, at which point Martin's protective mother abruptly pulls them apart. Archambault tackles potentially uncomfortable subject matter with both empathy and frankness. The extent to which people in Martin and Gabrielle's situation are capable of having an adult relationship is a difficult and thought-provoking question, one that most of us have probably never considered. The film's depiction of the pair's burgeoning physical intimacy is delicate and deeply moving; you want so desperately for them to be happy, but you also completely understand the desire of Martin's mother, to protect her son from consequences he cannot understand. Marion-Rivard seems utterly at ease in the front of the camera, bringing authenticity and charm to a truly wonderful character. Supporting her is Landry, a professional actor who is not learning disabled but never once falls into the traps that depictions of the mentally handicapped sometimes do. Perhaps the most heartbreaking performance is that of Désormeaux-Poulin as Gabrielle's sister. The love she feels for her sibling is palpable, yet with it comes a sense of responsibility. The question of how much personal happiness you can sacrifice for someone you care about is a difficult one. Yet it's something that almost everyone must at one time or another face. It's that emotional honesty that makes Gabrielle so powerful. Archambault never condescends to her characters, nor does she indulge in mawkishness or stifling political correctness. Everybody, be they disabled or not, has their limits. But they also have potential beyond what you might assume. https://youtube.com/watch?v=4l4cV6KjlxU
Go to the movies and feel good doing it. Now in its seventh year, The Human Rights Arts & Film Festival will once again shine a light on contemporary human rights issues through a carefully curated lineup of socially conscious films. Rich Hill takes place in the titular Missouri mining town and follows three young men struggling with poverty, mental illness and the turmoil of adolescence. Praised for its empathetic touch, the film won the Documentary Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year. Everyday Rebellion has a somewhat broader subject, highlighting nonviolent protests happening all around the world. From Occupy Wall Street to the Iranian democracy movement to topless activists in the Ukraine, it's a truly global story about people united by courage. Another standout, Light Fly, Fly High offers a unique tale of female empowerment. A member of India's 'untouchable' class, Thulasi dreams of becoming of a professional boxer, only to find many of her toughest bouts being fought outside the ring. For the full Human Rights Arts & Films Festival program, visit www.hraff.org.au.
Do you usually leave your gift purchasing until the last minute? Have you vowed to finally do better this year? Do you have a heap of friends and family members celebrating birthdays in the second half of 2025 — and zero idea of what you'll get them? Enter The Made Local Market, which is hitting Brisbane IRL this winter to lend a hand with your shopping — and give you an excuse to treat yo'self. Whichever fits, including if you're keen to get a jump on Christmas, you'll have plenty to browse and buy. The market will take place in the Exhibition Building at the Brisbane Showgrounds from 9am–4pm on Saturday, July 19 and 9am–3pm on Sunday, July 20, spreading across two days. Because it focuses on the best local talent, every market is filled with different stallholders and unique creations, but there'll be more than 120 makers, designers, artists and creators at this one. Supporting creative small businesses and scoring a killer gift for your loved ones is a win for everyone involved, so head along and get your shopping sorted. Entry costs $2 — and, the whole thing will be cashless, so don't forget your cards. There'll also be food trucks slinging bites to eat, gin tastings, and plenty of places to get caffeinated.
Summer is here, and so is Brisbane's rainy, stormy season. In fact, the arrival of wet weather with December has served up one of the only constants in this chaotic year. And today, Sunday, December 13, is definitely forecast to be wet — as is much of the week. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the city is expected to be hit with up to 80 millimetres of rain on Sunday, after receiving 18.6 millimetres in the past 24 hours. On a day where the top temperature is only expected to reach 24 degrees, BOM is predicting between 35–80 millimetres, to be exact, via a 95-percent chance of showers. And, it also notes that "heavy rain that may lead to flash flooding is forecast to develop". BOM is also forecasting a possible thunderstorm, plus southeasterly winds at 20–25 kilometres per hour that'll turn southerly and reach 25–40 kilometres per hour in the late afternoon. The warning comes after 313 millimetres of rain fell in the Upper Springbrook area surrounding the Gold Coast up until 1am this morning, with 279 millimetres of that coming within a six-hour period. Tomewin, in the Northern Rivers region, recorded 274 millimetres in the same six-hour block, while Currumbin Creek received 264 millimetres of rain — and rain and showers are expected to not only keep coming, but get more intense again in southeast Queensland south of Hervey Bay again this evening. https://twitter.com/BOM_Qld/status/1337876412083171329 Unsurprisingly, BOM has issued a warning for a huge swathe of the state's southeast, including not only Brisbane, Redcliffe, Caboolture and Cleveland, but also the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Moreton Island, North Stradbroke Island, Fraser Island, Jimboomba, Beaudesert and Springbrook. Along the coastline, "abnormally high tides exceeding the highest tide of the year are expected to develop" — leading to dangerous surf conditions. Brisbanites can expect wet weather through the week, as per the current forecasts, including between 25–60 millimetres on Monday. Across Tuesday–Thursday, there's a 60–80 percent chance of more rain, and temperatures aren't expected to exceed 29 degrees. If you need to head out, don't forget to pack your umbrellas and raincoats — and keep an eye on the warnings. To keep an eye on Brisbane's weather forecasts and warnings, head to the Bureau of Meteorology website.
When Darth Vader told Luke Skywalker that they're more than just mortal enemies, it became one of the most famous lines of dialogue in movie history (and one of the most mis-quoted). If you've seen Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back, you'll know that it's a powerful, memorable moment that changes the shape of the entire space saga. Even if you haven't, you know what we're talking about. Now, imagine just how epic it'll feel when you're watching the flick on a big screen and listening to John Williams' iconic score played by a live orchestra. Yes, The Force is strong in Brisbane once more, with Queensland Symphony Orchestra staging the next in their Star Wars screening and performance series on December 1 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Jedis, wookiees and droids alike can expect two sessions of tussles between the Rebels and the Empire, Luke learning his true parentage, Han flirting with Leia and getting frozen in carbon, Chewbacca being awesome, R2-D2 being adorable and C-3PO being annoying (well, he is). Plus, it's the flick that marks the first appearance of Lando Calrissian and the first time 'The Imperial March' is heard. If you're thinking that it's a great time to be a Brisbane fan of the George Lucas-created franchise, then you're right. The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story are still fresh in everyone's memories, and these types of special events keep on coming — we've got a good feeling that Return of the Jedi will eventually get the same treatment as well. Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back will screen at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on December 1, 2018. Grab tickets online.
One day. Oh-so-much pink — and oh-so-many flowers, too. For another year, Hendra's Poco Posy is dedicating a spring Saturday to the delicate flowers known as peonies. It'll be selling them, you can buy them and, both at the shop and when you get home, everything is going to look mighty rosy. Taking place on Saturday, November 9 in 2024, Peony Market Day will have bunches of bunches on offer. Entry is free and there's no tickets required to head along, unlike in some past years — so just drop by from 8am–12pm, when plenty of petals will await. Prices start at $35 for a bunch, with flowers in both pale pink and mid pink on offer. A note: getting in early is recommended, as the peonies do sell out every year — and there's no pre-purchasing. You'll also be helping to celebrate the store, in a way: 2024 marks a decade of operations for Poco Posy.
He won three Oscars and worked on 285 films. He created gowns for everything from 42nd Street to Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon to An American in Paris, and Oklahoma! to Some Like it Hot, and ranks among the most successful costume designers ever to ply his trade in Hollywood. He's also Australian, born Orry George Kelly but better known as just Orry-Kelly. And, as Women He's Undressed rightly assumes, most people have probably never heard of him. For those who haven't, Gillian Armstrong's latest documentary is here to shed light on a life of glamorous ups and heartbreaking downs during the Golden Age of cinema. For those who have, the movie will surely still fill in plenty of gaps, whether serving up interviews with Orry-Kelly's colleagues and those he inspired, or spilling the beans on his famous friendships and status as a confidant to many a leading lady. Either way, his journey from a small town to the big screen makes for quite the story, as do the exploits that followed. He didn't just dazzle with his prolific designs, but also with his defiance, proudly living as a gay man at a time – and in an industry – that was far from accommodating. In a factual effort that bears more than a little resemblance to Armstrong's Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst, Women He's Undressed doesn't only rely upon talking heads and archival footage, though what it boasts in these areas proves both engaging and illuminating. Instead, it addresses the issue that troubles many docos — not having enough existing content, but not wanting to fill its frames with wall-to-wall secondhand accounts and clips — through cheeky re-enactments. In some films, that's a tactic that doesn't work, but not in Armstrong's skilled hands. She tasks actor Darren Gilshenan (Rake) with both playing and recounting Orry-Kelly's life, with his version of the subject — who is rarely glimpsed in his real guise — speaking directly to the camera. The effect feels more conspiratorial than typical narration, like watching someone talk through their memoir and share all the juicy tidbits that were omitted. In fact, such scribblings are mentioned, as intermingled with an account of his special bond with Cary Grant. More well-known names keep coming up, of course — and with actress Jane Fonda, local designers Catherine Martin (The Great Gatsby) and Kym Barrett (The Matrix), and film critic Leonard Maltin among those offering their memories of and thoughts about Orry-Kelly, there's never any doubt that this is a tribute. If ever a film figure warranted such an adoring approach though, it's this under-sung hero and his brilliant career. Oh, and those ladies he helped in and out of his beautifully made costumes? They included Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Natalie Wood, Shirley MacLaine and Marilyn Monroe, just to name a few.
First in Sydney, then in Melbourne and now in Brisbane, the biggest show in musical theatre this century has finally been sharing its Tony-winning take on 18th-century American politics with Australian audiences. Since 2021, being in the room where it happens hasn't required a trip to the US — but you will need to be in Brisbane in March to be in the room where Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda himself will be in attendance in-person for a Hamilton fan event. For the first time during the blockbuster musical's Australian time — and likely the only time, given that the show will leave the country for a New Zealand run when it finishes its Sunshine State season at QPAC's Lyric Theatre on Sunday, April 23 — Miranda is heading Down Under. The exact date hasn't been revealed, but he'll hit the River City to meet the local company of the production, and also to take part in that event for Hamilton obsessives. [caption id="attachment_773737" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hamilton filmed version courtesy Disney+.[/caption] "I have been waiting such a long time to come to Australia and I can't wait to be with the company down under in-person for the first time," Miranda said, announcing his visit. "I have heard such great things from friends and fans in Australia, it is going to be fantastic to be able to meet them and watch them perform." Just like exactly when in March Miranda will be in Brisbane, where the fan event will happen and what it will entail — and how folks will be able to attend — is yet to be revealed, with further details to come. Still, Brisbanites and Australians keen on a trip to the Queensland capital won't want to throw away the shot to see the man who made the game-changing, award-winning, rightly raved-about Hamilton what it is "Australian fans have been so patient waiting for Lin-Manuel Miranda's visit to Australia and we have something very special in store for them when he gets here," added Australian Hamilton producer Michael Cassel AM. [caption id="attachment_774807" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hamilton filmed version courtesy Disney+.[/caption] The Broadway hit's Aussie production features a cast that currently includes Jason Arrow as Alexander Hamilton, Martha Berhane as Eliza Hamilton, Callan Purcell as Aaron Burr, Akina Edmonds as Angelica Schuyler, Matu Ngaropo as George Washington, and Victory Ndukwe as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. Sami Afuni plays Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, Wern Mak does double duty as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton, Elandrah Eramiha plays Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds, and Brent Hill steps into King George III's robes. Haven't become a Hamilton obsessive yet? Not quite sure why it has been the most-talked about theatre show of the past six years? The critically acclaimed hip hop musical, for which Miranda wrote the music, lyrics and the book, is about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as well as inclusion and politics in current-day America. In addition to its swag of Tony Awards — 11 in fact, which includes Best Musical — it has nabbed a Grammy Award and even a Pulitzer Prize. Until now, Brisbanites eager to see the show had to be content with trips south or watching the filmed version of its Broadway production, which started streaming via Disney+ in 2020 (and yes, it's as phenomenal as you've heard). And yes, the $10 ticket lottery has also hit the River City, offering Hamilton tickets for less than the cost of lunch. [caption id="attachment_870525" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Australian production of Hamilton by Daniel Boud[/caption] Hamilton's Brisbane season runs until Sunday, April 23 at QPAC's Lyric Theatre, South Bank, with tickets available via the musical's website. Details of Lin-Manuel Miranda's fan event are yet to be announced — we'll update you when more information comes to hand. Top image: Hamilton filmed version courtesy Disney+.
One of the best films to hit cinemas in 2023 so far gets a song stuck in viewers' heads like it's been slung there with the stickiest of webs. Just try to watch a Spider-Man movie — any Spider-Man movie, but preferably the stunning Spider-Verse movies — and not get the cartoon theme song lodged in your brain. You can't. It's impossible. Tweak the earworm of a track's lyrics, though, and you have the perfect description of the first six months of this year at the pictures: the greatest features to flicker through projectors truly did whatever movies can. Among 2023's best films so far, one made the connection between a parent and child feel so aching new yet so deeply relatable that you might've convinced yourself that you lived this plot yourself. Another hung out with a Sardinian donkey to muse on the fragility of life, plus the way that all creatures great and small that aren't human are so often disregarded. Some rightly garnered awards for exploring close bonds and impassioned fights; others hopped all over Japan, or Korea, or wherever on the globe that John Wick has a battle to wage. One made the Australian outback look otherworldly — and another toyed with reality on multiple levels, and in a stunning fashion. They're some of the films that've shone brightly at picture palaces this year — some releasing last year elsewhere, but only debuting Down Under in 2023; some so shiny and brand-new that they've only just reached cinemas. More than 15 ace movies have graced the silver screen over the past six months, of course, but if you only have time to watch or rewatch the absolute best 15, we've picked them. Happy midyear viewing. AFTERSUN The simplest things in life can be the most revealing, whether it's a question asked of a father by a child, an exercise routine obeyed almost mindlessly or a man stopping to smoke someone else's old cigarette while wandering through a holiday town alone at night. The astonishing feature debut by Scottish writer/director Charlotte Wells, Aftersun is about the simple things. Following the about-to-turn-31 Calum (Paul Mescal, The Lost Daughter) and his daughter Sophie (debutant Frankie Corio) on vacation in Turkey in the late 90s, it includes all of the above simple things, plus more. It tracks, then, that this coming-of-age story on three levels — of an 11-year-old flirting with adolescence, a dad struggling with his place in the world, and an adult woman with her own wife and family grappling with a life-changing experience from her childhood — is always a movie of deep, devastating and revealing complexity. Earning the internet's Normal People-starring boyfriend a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and deservedly so, Aftersun is a reflective, ruminative portrait of heartbreak. It's a quest to find meaning in sorrow and pain, too, and in processing the past. Wells has crafted a chronicle of interrogating, contextualising, reframing and dwelling in memories; an examination of leaving and belonging; and an unpacking of the complicated truths that a kid can't see about a parent until they're old enough to be that parent. Breaking up Calum and Sophie's sun-dappled coastal holiday with the older Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall, Vox Lux) watching camcorder footage from the trip, sifting through her recollections and dancing it out under a nightclub's strobing lights in her imagination, this is also a stunning realisation that we'll always read everything we can into a loved one's actions with the benefit of hindsight, but all we ever truly have is the sensation that lingers in our hearts and heads. Read our full review. EO David Attenborough's nature documentaries are acclaimed and beloved viewing, including when they're recreating dinosaurs. Family-friendly fare adores cute critters, especially if they're talking as in The Lion King and Paddington movies. The horror genre also loves pushing animals to the front, with The Birds and Jaws among its unsettling masterpieces. Earth's creatures great and small are all around us on-screen, and also off — but in EO, a donkey drama by Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski (11 Minutes), humanity barely cares. The people in this Oscar-nominated mule musing might watch movies about pets and beasts. They may have actively shared parts of their own lives existence the animal kingdom; some, albeit only a rare few, do attempt exactly that with this flick's grey-haired, white-spotted, wide-eyed namesake. But one of the tragedies at the heart of this adventure is also just a plain fact of life on this pale blue dot while homo sapiens reign supreme: that animals are everywhere all the time but hardly anyone notices. EO notices. Making his first film in seven years, and co-writing with his wife and producer Ewa Piaskowska (Essential Killing), Skolimowski demands that his audience pays attention. This is both an episodic slice-of-life portrait of EO the donkey's days and a glimpse of the world from his perspective — sometimes, the glowing and gorgeous cinematography by Michal Dymek (Wolf) takes in the Sardinian creature in all his braying, trotting, carrot-eating glory; sometimes, it takes on 'donkey vision', which is just as mesmerising to look at. Skolimowski gets inspiration from Robert Bresson's 1966 feature Au Hasard Balthazar, too, a movie that also follows the life of a hoofed, long-eared mammal. Like that French great, EO sees hardship much too often for its titular creature; however, even at its most heartbreaking, it also spies an innate, immutable circle of life. Read our full review. CLOSE When Léo (debutant Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (fellow first-timer Gustav De Waele) dash the carefree dash of youth in Close's early moments, rushing from a dark bunker out into the sunshine — from rocks and forest to a bloom-filled field ablaze with colour, too — this immediately evocative Belgian drama runs joyously with them. Girl writer/director Lukas Dhont starts his sophomore feature with a tremendous moment, one that's arresting to look at and to experience. The petals pop; the camera tracks, rushes and flies; the two 13-year-olds are as exuberant and at ease as they're ever likely to be in their lives. They're sprinting because they're happy and playing, and because summer in their village — and on Léo's parents' flower farm — is theirs for the revelling in. They don't and can't realise it because no kid does, but they're also bolting from the bliss that is their visibly contented childhood to the tussles and emotions of being a teenager. Close's title does indeed apply to its two main figures; when it comes to adolescent friendships, they couldn't be tighter. As expressed in revelatory performances by Dambrine and De Waele, each of whom are genuine acting discoveries — Dhont spotted the former on a train from Antwerp to Ghent — these boys have an innocent intimate affinity closer than blood. They're euphoric with and in each other's company, and the feature plays like that's how it has always been between the two. They've also never queried or overthought what their connection means. Before high school commences, Close shows the slumber parties, and the shared hopes and dreams. It sits in on family dinners, demonstrating the ease with which each is a part of the other's broader lives amid both sets of mums and dads; Léo's are Nathalie (Léa Drucker, Custody) and Yves (Marc Weiss, Esprits de famille), Rémi's are Sophie (Émilie Dequenne, An Ordinary Man) and Peter (Kevin Janssens, Two Summers). The film adores their rapport like a summer day adores the breeze, and conveys it meticulously and movingly. Then, when girls in Léo and Rémi's grade ask if the two are a couple, it shows the heartache and heartbreak of a boyhood bond dissolving. Read our full review. ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED With photographer Nan Goldin at its centre, the latest documentary by Citizenfour Oscar-winner Laura Poitras is a film about many things, to deeply stunning and moving effect. In this Oscar-nominated movie's compilation of Goldin's acclaimed snaps, archival footage, current interviews, and past and present activism, a world of stories flicker — all linked to Goldin, but all also linking universally. The artist's bold work, especially chronicling LGBTQIA+ subcultures and the 80s HIV/AIDS crisis, frequently and naturally gets the spotlight. Her complicated family history, which spans heartbreaking loss, haunts the doco as it haunts its subject. The rollercoaster ride that Goldin's life has taken, including in forging her career, supporting her photos, understanding who she is and navigating an array of personal relationships, cascades through, too. And, so do her efforts to counter the opioid epidemic by bringing one of the forces behind it to public justice. Revealing state secrets doesn't sit at the core of the tale here, unlike Citizenfour and Poitras' 2016 film Risk — one about Edward Snowden, the other Julian Assange — but everything leads to the documentary's titular six words: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. They gain meaning in a report spied late about the mental health of Goldin's older sister Barbara, who committed suicide at the age of 18 when Goldin was 11, and who Goldin contends was just an "angry and sexual" young woman in the 60s with repressed parents. A psychiatrist uses the eponymous phrase to describe what Barbara sees and, tellingly, it could be used to do the same with anyone. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is, in part, a rebuke of the idea that a teenager with desires and emotions is a problem, and also a statement that that's who we all are, just to varying levels of societal acceptance. The film is also a testament that, for better and for worse, all the beauty and the bloodshed we all witness and endure is what shapes us. Read our full review. SAINT OMER In 2016, a French documentarian with Senegalese heritage attended the trial of a Senegalese French PhD student who confessed to killing her 15-month-old daughter, who was fathered by a white partner, by leaving her on the beach to the mercy of the waves at Berck-sur-Mer. The filmmaker was fixated. She describes it as an "unspeakable obsession". She was haunted by questions about motherhood, too — her mum's and her own, given that she was a young mother herself as she sat in the courtroom. That story is the story of how Saint Omer came to be, and also almost exactly the tale that the piercing drama tells. In her first narrative film after docos We and La Permanence, writer/director Alice Diop focuses on a French author and literature professor with a Senegalese background who bears witness to a trial with the same details, also of a Senegalese French woman, for the same crime. Saint Omer's protagonist shares other traits with Diop as she observes, too, and watches and listens to research a book. A director riffing on their own experience isn't novel, but Saint Omer is strikingly intimate and authentic because it's the embodiment of empathy in an innately difficult situation. It shows what it means to feel for someone else, including someone who has admitted to a shocking crime, and has been made because Diop went through that far-from-straightforward process and was galvanised to keep grappling with it. What a deeply emotional movie this 2022 Venice International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winning feature is, understandably and unsurprisingly. What a heartbreaking and harrowing work it proves as well. Saint Omer is also an astoundingly multilayered excavation of being in a country but never being seen as truly part it, and what that does to someone's sense of self, all through Fabienne Kabou's complicated reality and Laurence Coly's (Guslagie Malanda, My Friend Victoria) fictionalised scenario. Read our full review. WOMEN TALKING Get Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand and more exceptional women in a room, point a camera their way, let the talk flow: Sarah Polley's Women Talking does just that, and this year's Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar-winner is phenomenal. The actor-turned-filmmaker's fourth effort behind the lens after 2006's Away From Her, 2011's Take This Waltz and 2012's Stories We Tell does plenty more, but its basic setup is as straightforward as its title states. Adapted from Miriam Toews' 2018 novel of the same name, this isn't a simple or easy film, however. That book and this feature draw on events in a Bolivian Mennonite colony from 2005–9, where a spate of mass druggings and rapes of women and girls were reported at the hands of some of the group's men. In a patriarchal faith and society, women talking about their experiences is a rebellious, revolutionary act anyway — and talking about what comes next is just as charged. "The elders told us that it was the work of ghosts, or Satan, or that we were lying to get attention, or that it was an act of wild female imagination." That's teenage narrator Autje's (debutant Kate Hallett) explanation for how such assaults could occur and continue, as offered in Women Talking's sombre opening voiceover. Writing and helming, Polley declares her feature "an act of female imagination" as well, as Toews did on the page, but the truth in the movie's words is both lingering and haunting. While the film anchors its dramas in a specific year, 2010, it's purposefully vague on any details that could ground it in one place. Set within a community where modern technology is banned and horse-drawn buggies are the only form of transport, it's a work of fiction inspired by reality, rather than a recreation. Whether you're aware of the true tale behind the book going in or not, this deeply powerful and affecting picture speaks to how women have long been treated in a male-dominated world at large — and what's so often left unsaid, too. Read our full review. TÁR The least surprising aspect of Tár is also its most essential: Cate Blanchett being as phenomenal as she's ever been, plus more. The Australian Nightmare Alley, Thor: Ragnarok, Carol and The New Boy actor — "our Cate", of course — unsurprisingly scored an Oscar nomination as a result. Accolades have been showered her way since this drama about a cancelled conductor premiered at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival (the prestigious event's Best Actress gong was the first of them), deservedly so. Blanchett is that stunning in Tár, that much of a powerhouse, that adept at breathing life and complexity into a thorny figure, and that magnetic and mesmerising. Even when she hasn't been at her utmost on rare past occasions or something she's in hasn't been up to her standards — see: Don't Look Up for both — she's a force that a feature gravitates around. Tár is astonishing itself, too, but Blanchett at her finest is the movie's rock, core and reason for being. Blanchett is spectacular in Tár, and she also has to be spectacular in Tár — because Lydia Tár, the maestro she's playing, earns that term to start with in the film's on-screen world. At the feature's kickoff, the passionate and ferocious character is feted by a New Yorker Festival session led by staff writer Adam Gopnik as himself, with her achievements rattled off commandingly to an excited crowd; what a list it is. Inhabiting this part requires nothing less than utter perfection, then, aka what Tár demands herself, her latest assistant Francesca (Noémie Merlant, Jumbo), her wife Sharon (Nina Hoss, Shadowplay) and everyone else in her orbit constantly. Strong, seductive, severe, electrifying and downright exceptional, Blanchett nails it. That Lydia can't always do the same, no matter how hard, painstakingly and calculatingly she's worked to ensure that it appears otherwise, is one of the movie's main concerns. Read our full review. SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE All the money in the world can't make people in tights standing against green screens as visually spectacular and emotionally expressive as the Spider-Verse films. If it could, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and now Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse wouldn't be so exhilarating, look so stunning and feel so authentic. Spider-Man's eight stints in theatres with either Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland behind the mask — and all of the latter's pop-ups in other Marvel Cinematic Universe entries, too — have splattered around plenty of charm, but they'll now always swing far below their animated counterparts. Indeed, when Spider-Man: No Way Home tried to emulate the Spider-Verse by pointing its fingers into the multiverse, as Marvel's live-action world is now fixated upon, it paled in comparison. And, that isn't just because there was no Nicolas Cage-voiced 30s-era spider-vigilante Spider-Man Noir, or a spider-robot, spider-pig, spider-car or spider-saur; rather, it's because the Spider-Verse movies are that imaginative and agile. In Across the Spider-Verse, which will be followed by 2024's Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse plus a Spider-Women spinoff after that, being an inventive spider-flick initially entails hanging with Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld, Hawkeye). In most Spidey stories, Gwen Stacy is a love interest for Peter Parker, but the Spider-Verse Gwen from Earth 65 was bitten by a radioactive spider instead. Gwen also narrates backstory details, filling in what's occurred since the first feature while playfully parodying that overused approach. Then, when the movie slides into Miles Morales' (Shameik Moore, Wu-Tang: An American Saga) life, he takes her lead, but gives it his own spin. The first Black Latin American Spider-Man is now 15, and more confident in his spider-skills and -duties. In-between being Brooklyn's friendly neighbourhood Spidey and attending a private school that'll ideally help him chase his physics dreams, he's even guest-hosted Jeopardy!. But not telling his mum Rio (Luna Lauren Velez, Power Book II: Ghost) and police-officer dad Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway) about his extracurricular activities is weighing upon Miles, and he's still yearning for mentorship and friendship, especially knowing that Gwen, Peter B Parker (Jake Johnson, Minx) and an infinite number of other web-slingers are all out there catching thieves just like flies. Read our full review. SUZUME When the Godzilla franchise first started rampaging through Japanese cinemas almost 70 years ago, it was in response to World War II and the horrific display of nuclear might that it unleashed. That saga and its prehistoric reptilian monster have notched up 38 movies now, and long may it continue stomping out of its homeland (the American flicks, which are set to return in 2024, have been hit-and-miss). In such creature-feature company, the films of Makoto Shinkai may not seem like they belong. So far, the writer/director behind global hits Your Name and Weathering with You, plus The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimetres per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices and The Garden of Words before that, sadly hasn't applied his talents to good ol' Zilly, either. But Japan's animators have been musing on and reflecting upon destruction and devastation for decades, too — stunningly and heartbreakingly so, including in Shinkai's latest beautiful and heartfelt effort Suzume. This about a teenage girl, matters of the heart and the earth, supernatural forces and endeavouring to cancel the apocalypse firmly has its soul in the part of Honshu that forever changed in March 2011 due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting Fukushima nuclear disaster. Suzume meets its namesake (Nanoka Hara, Guilty Flag) on Kyushu, Japan's third-largest island, where she has lived with her aunt Tamaki (Eri Fukatsu, Survival Family) for 12 years. More than that, it meets its titular high schooler as she meets Souta (SixTONES singer Hokuto Matsumura), who catches her eye against the gleaming sea and sky as she's cycling to class. He's searching for ruins, and she knows just the local place — an abandoned onsen, which she beats him to. There, Suzume discovers a door standing mysteriously within a pool of water, then opens said entryway to see a shimmering sight on the other side. That's an ordinary act with extraordinary consequences, because Shinkai adores exactly that blend and clash. To him, that's where magic springs, although never while spiriting away life's troubles and sorrows. Every single door everywhere is a portal, of course, but this pivotal one takes the definition literally. Read our full review. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 Almost a quarter-century has passed since Keanu Reeves uttered four iconic words: "I know kung fu". The Matrix's famous phrase was also the entire movie-going world's gain, because watching Reeves unleash martial-arts mayhem is one of cinema's purest pleasures. Notching up their fourth instalment with the obviously titled John Wick: Chapter 4, the John Wick flicks understand this. They couldn't do so better, harder, or in a bloodier fashion, in fact. Directed by Keanu's former stunt double Chad Stahelski, who helped him look like he did indeed know wushu back in the 90s, this assassin saga is built around the thrill of its star doing his violent but stylish best. Of course, The Matrix's Neo didn't just know kung fu, but gun fu — and Jonathan, as The Continental proprietor Winston (Ian McShane, Deadwood: The Movie) still likes to call him, helps turn bullet ballet into one helluva delight again and again (and again and again). Picking up where 2019's John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum left off, and once again so expertly and inventively executed that it's mesmerising, John Wick: Chapter 4 saddles its namesake with a new adversary: the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård, Barbarian), emissary of the death-for-hire business' powers-that-be, aka the High Table. After Wick puts the assassin realm's head honchos on notice during an early trip to the Middle East, the series' newest nefarious figure wants rid of him forever, wasting no time laying waste to the few things left that John loves. The Marquis has company, too — seeking a big payday in the case of the mercenary known as Tracker (Shamier Anderson, Son of the South), who has his own devoted dog; and due to a familiar deal with Caine (Donnie Yen, Mulan), a martial-arts whiz who is blind, and an old friend of John. That said, Wick has pals in this clash between the hitman establishment and its workers, which doubles as an eat-the-rich skirmish, including Winston, the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne, All the Old Knives), and the Osaka Continental's Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada, Bullet Train) and Akira (Rina Sawayama, Turn Up Charlie). Read our full review. INFINITY POOL Making not just another body-horror spectacle but an eat-the-rich sci-fi satire as well, Brandon Cronenberg couldn't have given Infinity Pool a better title. Teardowns of the wealthy and entitled now seem to flow on forever, glistening endlessly against the film and television horizon; however, the characters in this particularly savage addition to the genre might wish they were in The White Lotus or Succession instead. In those two hits, having more money than sense doesn't mean witnessing your own bloody execution but still living to tell the tale. It doesn't see anyone caught up in cloning at its most vicious and macabre, either. And, it doesn't involve dipping into a purgatory that sports the Antiviral and Possessor filmmaker's penchant for futuristic corporeal terrors, as clearly influenced by his father David Cronenberg (see: Crimes of the Future, Videodrome and The Fly), while also creating a surreal hellscape that'd do Twin Peaks great David Lynch, Climax's Gaspar Noe and The Neon Demon's Nicolas Winding Refn proud. Succession veteran Alexander Skarsgård plunges into Infinity Pool's torments playing another member of the one percent, this time solely by marriage. "Where are we?", author James Foster asks his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman, Dopesick) while surveying the gleaming surfaces, palatial villas and scenic beaches on the fictional island nation of Li Tolqa — a question that keeps silently pulsating throughout the movie, and also comes tinged with the reality that James once knew a life far more routine than this cashed-up extravagance. Cronenberg lets his query linger from the get-go, with help from returning Possessor cinematographer Karim Hussain, who visually inverts its stroll through its lavish setting within minutes. No one in this film's frames is in Kansas anymore, especially when fellow guest Gabi (Mia Goth, Pearl) and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert, Beasts) invite the pair for an illicit drive and picnic beyond the gates the following day, which sparks a tragic accident, arrest, death sentence and wild get-out-of-jail-free situation. Read our full review. BROKER No matter how Hirokazu Kore-eda's on-screen families come to be, if there's any actual blood between them, whether they're grifting in some way or where in the world they're located, the Japanese writer/director and Shoplifters Palme d'Or winner's work has become so beloved — so magnificent, too — due to his care and sincerity. A Kore-eda film is a film of immense empathy and, like Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister, After the Storm and The Third Murder also in the prolific talent's past decade, Broker is no different. The setup here is one of the filmmaker's murkiest, with the feature's name referring to the baby trade. But showing compassion and humanity isn't up for debate in Kore-eda's approach. He judges the reality of modern-day life that leads his characters to their actions, but doesn't judge his central figures. In the process, he makes poignant melodramas that are also deep and thoughtful character studies, and that get to the heart of the globe's ills like the most cutting slices of social realism. It isn't just to make a buck that debt-ridden laundromat owner Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho, Parasite) and orphanage-raised Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won, Peninsula) take infants abandoned to the Busan Family Church's 'baby box' — a chute that's exactly what it sounds like, available to mothers who know they can't embrace that part for whatever reason — then find good families to sell them to. There's a cash component, of course, but they're convinced that their gambit is better than letting children languish in the state system. In Kore-eda's usual kindhearted manner, Broker sees them with sensitivity. Even if blue hues didn't wash through the film's frames, nothing is ever black and white in the director's movies. The same understanding and tenderness flows towards mothers like So-young (Lee Ji-eun, Hotel Del Luna, aka K-Pop star IU), whose decision to leave Woo-sung (debutant Park Ji-yong) isn't easily made but puts Broker on its course. Read our full review. BEAU IS AFRAID Beau is afraid. Beau is anxious. Beau is alone. Beau is alive. Any of these three-word sentences would make a fitting name for Ari Aster's third feature, which sees its titular middle-aged figure not just worry about anything and everything, but watch his fears come true, concerns amplify and alienation grow — and then some. And, in the Hereditary and Midsommar filmmaker's reliably dread-inducing hands, no matter whether Beau (Joaquin Phoenix, C'mon C'mon) is wallowing in his apartment solo, being welcomed into someone else's family or stumbling upon a travelling theatre troupe in the woods, he knows that he's truly on his own in this strange, sad, surreal and savage world, too. More than that, he's well-aware that this is what life is inescapably like for all of us, regardless of how routine, chaotic or grand our individual journeys from emerging out of our mother's womb to sinking into death's eternal waters happen to prove. Aster has opted for Beau Is Afraid as a moniker, with this horror-meets-tragicomedy mind-bender a filmic ode to existential alarm — and, more than that, a picture that turns catastrophising into a feature. Psychiatrists will have a field day; however, experiencing the latest in the writer/director's growing line of guilt-dripping celluloid nightmares, so should viewers in general. Even with Chilean The Wolf House helmers Cristóbal León and Joaquin Cosiña lending their help to the three-hour movie's midsection, where animation adds another dreamlike dimension to a picture book-style play within an already fantastical-leaning flick frequently running on dream logic, Aster embraces his favourite deranged terrain again. He makes bold choices, doesn't think twice about challenging himself and his audience, elicits a stunning lead performance and dances with retina-searing imagery, all while pondering inherited trauma, the emotional ties that bind and the malevolence that comes with dependence. Read our full review. LIMBO When Ivan Sen sent a police detective chasing a murdered girl and a missing woman in the Australian outback in 2013's Mystery Road and its 2016 sequel Goldstone, he saw the country's dusty, rust-hued expanse in sun-bleached and eye-scorching colour. In the process, the writer, director, co-producer, cinematographer, editor and composer used his first two Aussie noir films and their immaculately shot sights to call attention to how the nation treats people of colour — historically since its colonial days and still now well over two centuries later. Seven years after the last Jay Swan movie, following a period that's seen that character make the leap to the small screen in three television seasons, Sen is back with a disappearance, a cop, all that inimitable terrain and the crimes against its Indigenous inhabitants that nothing can hide. Amid evident similarities, there's a plethora of differences between the Mystery Road franchise and Limbo; however, one of its simplest is also one of its most glaring and powerful: shooting Australia's ochre-toned landscape in black and white. Limbo's setting: Coober Pedy, the globally famous "opal capital of the world" that's known for its underground dwellings beneath the blazing South Australian earth, but reimagined as the fictional locale that shares the film's name — a place unmistakably sporting an otherworldly topography dotted by dugouts to avoid the baking heat, and that hasn't been able to overcome the murder of a local Indigenous girl two decades earlier. The title is symbolic several times over, including to the visiting Travis Hurley (Simon Baker, Blaze), whose first task upon arrival is checking into his subterranean hotel, rolling up his sleeves and indulging his heroin addiction. Later, he'll be told that he looks more like a drug dealer than a police officer — but, long before then, it's obvious that his line of work and the sorrows he surveys along the way have kept him hovering in a void. While he'll also unburden a few biographical details about mistakes made and regrets held before the film comes to an end, such as while talking to the missing Charlotte Hayes' brother Charlie (Rob Collins, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) and sister Emma (Natasha Wanganeen, The Survival of Kindness), this tattooed cop with wings inked onto his back is already in limbo before he's literally in Limbo talking. Read our full review. REALITY Sydney Sweeney is ready for her closeup. Playwright-turned-filmmaker Tina Satter obliges. A household name of late due to her exceptional work in both Euphoria and The White Lotus, Sweeney has earned the camera's attention for over a decade; however, she's never been peered at with the unflinching intensity of Satter's debut feature Reality. For much of this short, sharp and stunning docudrama, the film's star lingers within the frame. Plenty of the movie's 83-minute running time devotes its focus to her face, staring intimately and scrutinising what it sees. Within Reality's stranger-than-fiction narrative, that imagery spies a US Air Force veteran and National Security Agency translator in her mid-twenties, on what she thought was an ordinary Saturday. It's June 3, 2017, with the picture's protagonist returning from buying groceries to find FBI agents awaiting at her rented Augusta, Georgia home, then accusing her of "the possible mishandling of classified information". Reality spots a woman facing grave charges, a suspect under interrogation and a whistleblower whose fate is already known to the world. It provides a thriller of a procedural with agents, questions, allegations and arrests; an informer saga that cuts to the heart of 21st-century American politics, and its specific chaos since 2016; and an impossible-to-shake tragedy about how authority savagely responds to being held to account. Bringing her stage production Is This a Room: Reality Winner Verbatim Transcription to the screen after it wowed off-Broadway and then Broadway, Satter dedicates Reality's bulk to that one day and those anxious minutes, unfurling in close to real time — but, pivotally, it kicks off three weeks earlier with its namesake at work while Fox News plays around her office. Why would someone leak to the media a restricted NSA report about Russian interference in getting Donald Trump elected? Before it recreates the words genuinely spoken between its eponymous figure and law enforcement, Reality sees the answer as well. Read our full review.
Jurassic World: The Exhibition is a thing, and it's coming to Melbourne. Based on the blockbuster film of the same name, the exhibition will have its world premiere at Melbourne Museum in March next year. And, according to Dr. Patrick Greene, Museum Victoria's CEO, it's sure to "wow audiences and inspire young minds". The exhibit will feature incredibly life-like animatronic dinosaurs created by Melbourne locals, Creature Technology Company — the same team who developed the dinos for the Walking With Dinosaurs arena spectacular. Did you see the announcement? Terrifying. So it's a good thing they're not real — because if you've seen at least one of the Jurassic Park films, you'd know that dinosaurs aren't always friendly. The exhibition instead gives you a chance to get up close and personal with the creatures in a unique and engaging way. "Visitors to [the exhibition] will get an unprecedented opportunity to be in close proximity to the most amazing creatures to have ever roamed the earth," says Sonny Tilders, creative director at the Creature Technology Company. Jack Horner, one of the film's paleontological advisors (or, Official Dinosaur Guy), is working with the exhibition to make sure that it's both educational and fun. Visitors both young and old will be able to learn more about these prehistoric creatures without having to pore over a dry textbook. Gone are the days of boring museum presentations. Now you can learn about dinosaurs from interactive and theatrical exhibits that might scare your pants off at the same time. This unique experience allows you to experience the events of the film, without having to travel to reception-less Isla Nublar with its dubious emergency protocol. Jurassic Park: The Exhibition features encounters will the realistic life-size dinosaurs, so we can only assume that there will be thousands of people taking pictures pretending to be velociraptor-whisperer, Owen Grady, doing some 'Prattkeeping'. Jurassic World: The Exhibition runs from March 19 to October 9, 2016 at the Melbourne Museum. Advance purchase of tickets is strongly recommended. Image: Universal Pictures
If pink drinks are your favourite beverages to sip — and basking in stunning river views is your favourite way to spend an afternoon, too — then a waterside date filled with tipples by Brisbane's ol' brown snake should definitely be in your future. That's all on the agenda at Customs House, which is celebrating the warmer weather by turning its terrace into a Whispering Angel and Moet & Chandon-pouring pop-up rosé garden. It's the Queen Street venue's latest seasonal makeover, and it comes complete with domes boasting greenery and flowers aplenty (with pops of pink, of course) for you and your mates to hang out in — while peering at the river and knocking back a range of beverages. The drinks list heroes the rosé — sparkling, flat and in creative concoctions — but it isn't the only thing on the menu. You can also enjoy white and red wine, beer and peach seltzers. And those cocktails? One pairs sparkling rosé with elderflower liqueur, lemon, rhubarb bitters and strawberry; another goes with tequila, cointreau, elderflower liqueur again, blood orange, lime and orange bitters; and a third features vodka, lemon, blackberry and basil. Open throughout spring from Friday, September 6, 2024, with the bar operating from Thursday–Sunday, the pop-up is also serving up a selection of bites to line your stomach. Customs House's beloved Moreton Bay bug croissant is back, as it is every time these gardens return. Or, there's oysters, caviar with blinis, wagyu tartare, mac 'n' cheese croquettes, duck liver parfait and sweet potato empanadas — and, to match all the rosé, a heap of cheeses. The garden is also putting on high tea on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, catering to two–six people for $100 a head for 90-minute seatings in the domes.
Sometimes a movie makes a statement. Sometimes it just thinks it does. In Men, Women & Children, the impact of digital technologies on interpersonal exchanges is purportedly probed for all to see. We’re not only caught up in our daily minutiae, the film appears to posit, but our interactions are so often mediated and dictated by the online world that truly connecting with our loved ones is impossible. An interstellar framing device certainly labors this point, announced in the unseen Emma Thompson’s dulcet tones. Linking to Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, the sequence bookends the feature’s musing on modern relationships. The narration waxes lyrical about the juxtaposition of our supposed importance: we blast tokens of our species into space as if someone might care, yet given our tiny place in our universe, our daily realities can only be trivial and insignificant. Living life through the internet doesn’t matter; we’re best spending our time cultivating physical, tangible bonds with those we care about. Adapted by writer/director Jason Reitman from the novel of the same name, Men, Women & Children states its case through intertwined vignettes. Across an average American community, lives and loves are influenced by devices on desks and in hands. A married couple (Rosemarie DeWitt and Adam Sandler) seek sexual fulfilment not from each other but through an affair website and prostitution. Their son (Travis Tope) has a porn habit that means he can’t relate to his wannabe actress classmate (Olivia Crocicchia), who posts semi-clad modelling pictures online with the help of her mother (Judy Greer). Said single parent warms to an abandoned father (Dean Norris) concerned that his son (Ansel Elgort) prefers gaming to football. And so it continues, with the lapsed athlete falling for a melancholy teen (Kaitlyn Dever) constantly surveilled by her fear-mongering mother (Jennifer Garner). Then there’s the cheerleader (Elena Kampouris) with body issues and a crush on an older boy (Will Peltz) unnoticed by her father (JK Simmons). Everyone has names, but they need not; they’re symbols, a means to an end, faces placed upon narrative convenience. That the ensemble is rendered in such broad terms, with a clear lack of subtlety and satire from the maker of Juno and Young Adult, is what makes Men, Women & Children alarming to watch. Surprisingly, it’s not the messaging that grates, because the bland material constantly undermines its own aim. The characters aren’t cast adrift by their technological predilections, but by their self-involvement, both of the on- and off-line variety. The usual Reitman aesthetic polish is evident, and the performances from the largely high-profile cast are effective; however, it all amounts to a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. With the supposed rallying against digital living too easily dismissed by inconsistent plot machinations, all that results is a soapy dramedy on the struggles of sex and secrets that has been done before and better by the likes of American Beauty and Crazy, Stupid Love.
COVID-19 clusters keep popping up, lockdowns are still part of Australian life and whether Aussies can head to states other than their own — or to New Zealand — can change quickly. This is the reality of life during the pandemic. That said, if you have a trip to Queensland in your future, the Sunshine State has revealed one definite new part of your next visit. The state's government has advised that it is introducing online travel declarations for all visitors to Queensland. So, from 1am on Saturday, June 19, anyone travelling to the Sunshine State from another Aussie state or territory — or from NZ — will need to fill out the form. And yes, this should sound familiar, because similar online forms were implemented back when Queensland's borders were beginning to reopen post-lockdown in 2020. Queenslanders returning home from other Aussie states and territories, and from NZ, will also need to fill out the declaration. You're required to do so up to 72 hours before heading to Queensland, after which you'll be issued a 'green Queensland travel declaration' — as long as you haven't been to a hotspot or exposure site while you were outside of the state. The declarations will apply to everyone, unless you live in the Queensland or New South Wales border zone and have only been in that zone or in Queensland for the past fortnight — and then, only if you're entering the Sunshine State via road. Workers in emergency health services, emergency services, national defence, state security and police who are responding to an emergency in Queensland will be exempt, too, as will ambulance and aeromedical passengers, anyone heading to Queensland in an emergency situation, some maritime crew, folks assisting with or participating in a State or Commonwealth law enforcement investigations, and disaster management workers under their operational protocol. https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1405311966072037382 Announcing the news today, Thursday, June 17, Queensland Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Yvette D'Ath advised that the declarations were about contact tracing efforts. "It's vital that if an interstate exposure site or hotspot is declared, our health experts can quickly contact anyone who has travelled into Queensland from that area," the Minister said. Also coming into effect: a traffic light-style system like Victoria's, which will designate sections of Australia and New Zealand as green, amber and red areas. If somewhere is green, there are no travel restrictions. In the amber category, the area in question has interstate exposure venues — and if it's red, it's a hotspot. Queensland already requires anyone heading to the state who has been to an interstate exposure venue to either quarantine at your home or in other appropriate accommodation for 14 days if you're already in the state with the exposure venue is identified. Or, if you enter Queensland after an exposure site is named, you'll need to isolate in government arranged accommodation for a fortnight. Queensland's online travel declarations will come back into effect from 1am on Saturday, June 19. For further information, head to the Queensland Government website.
Here's a question we bet you're eager to know the answer to: how much pasta can you consume in a single sitting? No matter what type you happen to be devouring, the Italian dish is oh-so-easy to just keep eating. So at Salt Meats Cheese in Newstead from 5pm on Monday, October 25, that's exactly what's on offer. This all-you-can-eat pasta night is being held to celebrate World Pasta Day. Yes, it's a case of another food-focused date, another reason to fill your plate. With this one, we're betting your carb-loving tastebuds won't be complaining. Four types will be on the menu, so you can tuck into bottomless serves of lamb pappardelle and crab linguini, as well as SMC's beloved carbonara rigatoni — and a vegan zucchini and pesto tagliolini. The pasta free-for-all will set you back a highly affordable $25, although you'll have to also buy a drink. You'll need it, clearly, to wash down all those bowls.
It's worrying the way we deride films aimed at an older audiences as simply being a Best Exotic Marigold Hotel facsimile designed to snare seniors, given how we largely ignore the fact that the majority of mainstream cinema over the past 30 years has been made for 12-year-old boys. Philomena, with its poster depicting a smiling Judi Dench alongside a stoic Steve Coogan, will no doubt be dismissively lumped in with this crowd. It is, however, a million miles away from the likes of Best Exotic (which, for the record, was actually rather good). Based on a true story, Philomena follows ex-political spin doctor Martin Sixsmith (Coogan), who, in an attempt to revive his journalism career, chases the "human interest story" of Philomena (Dench) an elderly woman searching for her long-lost son. In flashbacks, we see the younger Philomena (Sophie Kennedy Clark) as she becomes pregnant out of wedlock, and is forcibly kept in servitude by nuns, who then sell her son to a wealthy couple. As the pair investigates, the truth behind the forced adoption becomes all the more shocking. Coogan, who not only portrays Sixsmith but also co-wrote the screenplay, strikes a perfect tone with such sensitive material. The revelations are powerful and honest without being gut-wrenching; the comedy is welcome and consistent without being inappropriate. It's a remarkable juggling act, directed beautifully by Stephen Frears, who atones for recent disasters Lay the Favorite and Tamara Drewe. Coogan's sardonic Northern charm makes Sixsmith a compelling lead, and his relationship with Dench's Philomena is wonderfully developed. It's Dench who is the real standout here. At this point in her career, she could easily get away with sleepwalking through roles, relying on her undeniable presence to carry her performances. But as in 2006's Notes on a Scandal, she creates a character unrecognisable from her previous roles. Philomena is pleasant, vague, forceful and compellingly well-rounded. Dench's energy and attention to detail elevates this film to something even more remarkable. The depiction of the Catholic structure both past and present is one of the most fascinating elements of Philomena. It's caused controversy, with many accusing the film of being anti-Catholic. To make such an accusation, however, fundamentally misses the point, and excuses the crimes committed in the name of the church. The film does not shy away from Philomena's piety or Sixsmith's atheism, and argues strongly in favour of both. Sixsmith is deeply compassionate without religion, whilst Philomena embodies the ideals of Christianity that the Church and its representatives so often and so demonstrably forget. Disinterested in a sanitised "I'm okay, you're okay" message, the film manages to extol the best elements of both atheism and Christianity whilst unrelentingly and unapologetically shining a light on the darker side of organised religion. It is truly impressive stuff. Be not fooled by the marketing materials, which make the film look like an aged-up version of The Trip with Judi Dench in place of Rob Brydon. (Although, thinking about it, that would be brilliant.) Philomena is a terrifically made, entertaining work that stands head and shoulders above many of the films being forced upon us this Christmas. See it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rD8f9kn7D2U
For the past 37 years, everyone that's wanted good neighbours to become good friends has wished they were living in one spot: Ramsay Street. Since 1985, the cul-de-sac in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough has been beamed into homes around Australia, and further abroad, unfurling the always melodramatic, often chaotic, sometimes downright wild antics of residents named Charlene, Harold and Madge and more. Some folks don't have to dream about living on the nation's most famous TV street, though. For a small portion of Aussies, feeling like you're on one of the country's big soap operas just comes with the address. Indeed, if you happen to reside on a Ramsay Street somewhere across the country, the shadow of Neighbours has been inescapable — and now that the long-running series has been cancelled after almost four decades, with its final episode set to air on Thursday, July 28, Ramsay Street inhabitants nationwide can celebrate with a free meal. To mark the last-ever instalment of Neighbours — which is set to see a hefty cast of well-known Aussie names return, including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie and more — Menulog is giving away free food to folks who really do live on a Ramsay Street somewhere in Australia. If you happen to be in love with someone called Scott, that's obviously a bonus. No, you don't need to have been through an amnesia spell or a shock return from the dead, or know someone who has. [caption id="attachment_844968" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Manon van Os[/caption] You don't need to have been held hostage, been through more than one tumultuous wedding, or managed a bikini store called Bounce — all things, among oh-so-many others, that happened to the one and only Jarrod 'Toadfish aka Toadie' Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney). And if you're wondering why we're bringing him up specifically, that's because he's the face of Menulog's Ramsay Street giveaway, fittingly. Here's how it works: if you have the right address — with or without the Toadie-style Hawaiian shirt — you can head to Menulog between Monday, July 25–Monday, August 1. That's where you'll find a $20 voucher code in the 'For You' section if you're eligible, which you need to redeem within those dates. Also, you have to spend more than $20 in your order. Hey #Neighbours fans 👋 We wanted to confirm when you'll be able to watch the finale in the UK & Australia. Both us here in Australia and our friends @NeighboursTV in the UK will be a spoiler free zone until everyone has had a chance to watch our incredible final episode. pic.twitter.com/fBQRmU10ST — Neighbours (@neighbours) July 4, 2022 Obviously, if you were wondering what to eat at 7.30pm on Thursday, when the final-ever Neighbours episode goes to air on 10 and 10 Peach, now you know. And if you need a dose of Neighbours nostalgia in the interim, you can also check out Toadie revisiting the famed roadway below: Menulog is giving away $20 vouchers between Monday, July 25–Monday, August 1 to folks who live on Ramsay Streets around Australia. If that's you, head to the Menulog app and the Menulog website.
Walking isn't the only form of exercise that's dog-friendly — and Kangaroo Point yoga studio myDrishti has the class to prove it. For one day only, to celebrate its reopening, the Linton Street spot is hosting a puppy yoga session. Even better: it doubles as an adoption day. So, next time you break out your best downward-facing dog, you could just have a posing pooch for company. Well, as long as you head along between 1–2pm on Sunday, February 5, that is. Raising money for the deserving cause that is the SMART Rescue SMART Animal Sanctuary and Rehoming Centre, this stint of bending and stretching gives every dog-loving yoga aficionado their day. Yes, the class really will pair adorable pooches with beginner yoga poses. You'd be barking mad not to head along. If you're looking for a four-legged friend to take home with you — a permanent tail-wagging yoga buddy, perhaps — all of the puppies will be up for adoption as well. And, if you're keen on adding a pooch to your family but not on the yoga, the dogs will be onsite from 1–4pm, with pop-ins just for the pups more than welcome. Back to that puppy yoga, bookings are required, with the session costing $40 per person. The full day's festivities also span meditation and sound healing classes, the latter with live music and both taking place for free.
Now that you can start inviting friends round for an overdue catch up, we'd like to help you out with a refresher on how to play host. Sure, maybe you want to show off all those loaves of sourdough you've been baking (and we won't stop you), but to truly rise to the occasion, why not pair it with some delicatessen quality cheeses and a celebratory round of passion fruit martinis? It's an unusual pairing, but these are unusual times. We've partnered with Pernod Ricard to bring you four indulgent food and drink pairings that'll bring you back to not-so socially distant times with classic matches like freshly shucked oysters and rosé to more surprising flavour matches, such as a massaman curry with sour cocktails. Bonus: each one can all be delivered to your doorstep, so you can keep the best of lockdown convenience next time you're having your mates over. [caption id="attachment_626153" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stinking Bishops[/caption] MATCH A PLATTER OF CHEESE WITH PORN STAR MARTINIS We know the classic pairing is white wine with mild cheese and red (or more tannin-heavy styles) with blues and mature cheeses, but we'd like to suggest a more playful match that adds a little fizz to the mix. The London-born cocktail porn star martini is sweet and celebratory — it's traditionally served with a shot glass of champagne — and pairs particularly well with blue cheese, comté and brie. The sweet concoction cuts through most creamy cheeses, as well as dense dried fruits and quince. What to order: Sydneysiders can order European and Australian farmhouse cheeses direct from Formaggi Ocello, or from Stinking Bishops via Doordash. In Melbourne, you can order hampers of 'all Victorian' or 'all soft' cheeses from Milk the Cow. Speciality cheese shop Harper and Blohm also delivers cloth-bound cheddars, gooey soft cheeses and stinky blues from its Brunswick store. And Brisbanites should head to Le Fromage Yard who is delivering a combo of three cheeses, quince and crackers for $55. Pair with: a round of porn star martinis made with Absolut Vanilla. [caption id="attachment_768195" align="alignnone" width="1920"] East 33[/caption] SHARE A DECADENT SEAFOOD FEAST WITH BONE-DRY ROSE You'll hardly be surprised to hear that a delicate, textural rosé sits well with a platter of grilled prawns. It's practically a national drink pairing come summer, so we're here to say make the most of those lingering warm days and fire up the barbie. There are nuances you can consider when matching your rosé to your ocean catch; light, dry styles (often pinot noir based) work well with raw and lightly cooked shellfish, and medium-dry or sweeter wines (such as zinfandel) work best with salads, dessert or foods with a bit of spice. What to order: In Sydney, sustainable seafood eatery Fish & Co delivers cold cooked king prawns and fresh oysters via Deliveroo. When you want to go all out, order from East 33 — supplier to the country's best restaurants. In Melbourne, there's been no better time to indulge in a delivery from fine diner Minamishima — order the box-pressed hakozushi, a specialty of chef Hide. And in Brisbane, Sushi Edo has nigiri and aburi nigiri available via Deliveroo. Pair with: a cold bottle of Jacob's Creek Le Petit Rosé. The blend of pinot noir, grenache and mataro is a perfect match for seafood. [caption id="attachment_696538" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Continental Deli by Kitti Gould[/caption] GRAZE ON CHARCUTERIE WITH A SUBTLE SPANISH RED It's a similar method for matching wine with cured meats — lighter styles of wine are better bedfellows for lighter flavoured meats. And while a charcuterie board is an assembly of cured meats, we also like to add cheese, fruit, cornichons and nuts to the mix, so look at the flavour balance as a whole. Generally speaking, saltier foods are best paired with acidic wines and those with bolder tannins complement smoky flavoured meats. What to order: In Sydney, Bel and Brio has ready-to-serve charcuterie platters (including white truffle honey, prosciutto, salame felino and mortadella) via Deliveroo. Or, order Continental Deli's cheese and charcuterie platter (with brie, comté, jamón and sopressa) via Bopple. Melburnians can pick up from Windsor's Tipico, which has salumi misti as well as pizza, pasta and dessert. And D.O.C. also has local delivery and takeaway of its salumi and cheese boards from $17. In Brisbane, there's a dedicated charcuterie delivery service called Say Cheese, which is packing boxes of platter-ready cheeses, cured meats, olives, dips and crackers to all suburbs, as well as Rosalie Gourmet Market which has a decadent charcuterie box for $84.99. Pair with: a bottle of Campo Viejo Tempranillo — expect woody and vanilla notes with ripe red fruits and spices. [caption id="attachment_686214" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chin Chin[/caption] PAIR A THAI FEAST WITH SOUR PINK COCKTAILS As Thai dishes balance sweet, sour, salt, spice, bitterness and aromatic flavours, you can pair them with almost any sweet–sour cocktail. If it's been a while since you've enjoyed a table full of share plates and chinked glasses with loved ones, perhaps you can take a step towards bringing the flavour party back home with a round of colourful cocktails. Whether you prefer whisky, gin or tequila as your base, go big or go home on theatrics. We suggest shaking up this pink concoction with strawberry-infused gin. What to order: In Sydney, you can get speciality dishes from award-winning restaurant Spice I Am, such as the pad prik pao pork belly. And in Melbourne and Sydney, Southeast Asian restaurant Chin Chin is offering a takeaway service direct from its website, including curries, roasts and barbecued dishes. In Brisbane, Phat Elephant has whole barramundi platters and mixed entree plates via Deliveroo, and Same Same in Fortitude Valley is running a daily delivery service of its curries and salads. Pair with: London dry gin Beefeater Pink. Right now, Pernod Ricard is offering a $10 Deliveroo voucher for every $50 spent on a select range of its wine and spirits — bought online or in-store at its partner liquor stores. Find out more, here. Top image: Continental Deli by Kimberley Low.
The Biscuit Factory has always been the staple on the Brisbane bass scene. Once a month they throw a beat-heavy party, jetting in some of the best international drum and bass acts to our sunny little city. Now, for their final 2014 throwdown, and first event at West End’s Hi-Fi, they’ll be bringing to the stage Belgium born D&B don Netsky, favourites ETC(!) ETC(!) and rising Canadian star Rene LaVice. On the back of his new single and first number-one, 'Running Low' (featuring Beth Ditto), Netsky is bound to blow Boundary Street away with his liquid funk stylings. He toured last year to sell-out crowds, and since then has been making waves on an international scale — he’s worked his magic on Pendulum, Rusko, Leftfield and Swedish House Mafia just to name a few. ETC(!) ETC(!) are LA-based, cookie-enthused Biscuit Factory favourites, and Rene LaVice is the next big thing to come out of Canada since the Avril Lavigne era. The remaining tickets for the Biscuit Factory are $45.50 with the night kicking off at 9pm, and likely to be a late one. Prepare yourself, and don't miss out.
The Intern is one of those films that’s not easily labelled. It absolutely feels like a romcom, especially with writer/director Nancy Meyers at the helm (responsible for the likes of Father of the Bride and It's Complicated), but there’s not really any romance in it to speak of. It’s also a funny film, though you’d fall short of calling it a comedy, and it consistently packs in the feels, only there are too many lighter moments for it to be an out-and-out drama. Ultimately, whether by chance or design, The Intern's indeterminate status actually offers us a neat reflection of the story within it, for this is a story about two individuals — the ‘retiree’ and the ‘working mum’ — both grappling with the expectations and misconceptions that accompany those characterisations. De Niro, the retiree, is a 70-something widower without a purpose. Intelligent, polite and openly uncomfortable with inaction, his character Ben Whittaker applies for (and secures) a place in a senior’s intern program at fashion tech startup About the Fit. Anne Hathaway, the ‘working mum’, is the company’s 30-something founder and CEO, Jules Ostin. Passionate and driven but overworked, Jules is fending off shareholder insistence that she hire a ‘proper’ CEO while simultaneously struggling to keep her family together on account of her relentless schedule and the restless ‘stay-at-home dad’ (another unhelpful label) waiting at home. When De Niro is assigned to be Hathaway’s personal intern, their initially uncomfortable partnership soon develops into an indispensable friendship: he the calming influence on her, and she his newfound sense of purpose. The early scenes in The Intern are enough to give serious pause. De Niro’s ‘old guy in a young person’s tech world’ shtick had the potential to be incredibly hammy, and moments like not knowing how to wake up his laptop or use a USB did not augur well for avoiding the tired ‘analog meets digital’ cliche. Hathaway’s character, too, was immediately unlikeable, wearing her wireless headset and riding her fixed-gear bicycle through the office from meeting to meeting. Thankfully, though, neither concern plays out for long. De Niro’s reserve — that trademark smile and gentle nod that has traditionally masked violent intent — works perfectly as a juxtaposition to the madness of the Gen Y workplace around him. His old-school approach to both work and life endears him to all, as he offers advice from fashion and accessories through to putting down the phone and actually talking to people. Similarly, as soon as Hathaway’s pristine veneer reveals its vulnerabilities, she becomes at once an entirely sympathetic character and a surprisingly cogent representation of the unresolved workplace gender debate. In many ways, The Intern plays out like an adaption of Annabel Crabb’s The Wife Drought or Unfinished Business by Anne-Marie Slaughter, the first female director of policy planning at the US State Department and author of the controversial ‘Why Women Still Can’t Have It All’ essay in the Atlantic. Both these texts highlight the difficulties and hypocrisies surrounding successful women in the workplace, including why we never hear the label ‘working dad’, and — at its heart — this is what The Intern ultimately concerns itself with. There are plenty of laughs along the way, as well as some admittedly saccharine scenes, but mostly this is a heartwarming tale of friendship and a constructive engagement with feminism and gender inequality.
This five-day, four-night outback expedition leaves from Cairns each Monday with guests returning on Friday afternoons with a palpable sense of peace. You can get there via a 4.5-hour drive from Cairns, with the option to splash on a helicopter ride if you feel like taking the express option. Aside from the optional flights, the Kinrara Expedition is all-inclusive with an impressive selection of tours and activities on the itinerary. Guests stay in safari-style tents with comfortable queen-sized beds and private timber balconies. The homestead sits on the edge of a sparkling volcanic lake which is home to more than 200 bird species. The O'Brien family have lived on this property for five generations and operate in partnership with the Traditional Custodians of the land — the Gugu Badhun people. Images: Tourism Tropical North Queensland
Cake sadly can't fix all the world's troubles, but it can provide a mighty fine temporary dose of sweetness. And if you like your baked treats by the jarful whenever the craving strikes — including when you're out and about — then The Mason Baker has just the thing for you throughout February. The Brisbane-based company is known for its mason jars filled with cakes, including salted caramel, strawberries and cream, blueberry and lemons, chocolate ganache and sticky date pudding varieties. From Friday, February 5, though, it isn't just selling them and delivering them to your door — it's vending them out of a pink-hued ATM that'll be stationed at 6 Warner Street in Fortitude Valley. You already know how vending machines work, of course, so you know how to get your hands on however many jarcakes your tastebuds demand. You'll just have to head by on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays, in February — and after 5pm — because that's when the ATM will be up and running throughout the month. Yes, that means that you can grab an after-work cake snack, some dessert post-dinner or something sweet while you're bar-hopping late at night. And, while the Valley ATM will only be around for a month, The Mason Baker is hoping to pop up at other locations throughout the rest of the year. When the company last brought its wares to Brissie's streets back in October last year, it did so via emergency boxes that folks had to spot around town, then break open — with the cakes inside available for free. This time, however, you will need to pay for your goodies. You'll still be tucking into a heap of cake in a jar, though, and making your inner dessert fiend rather happy. Find The Mason Baker's cupcake ATM at 6 Warner Street, Fortitude Valley, from Friday, February 5 — operating from 5pm each Thursday, Friday and Saturday in February.
If you thought the Suitcase Rummage markets couldn’t get any better then I have some news for you: the best market in town just got better! Hard to believe, but it’s all true. Suitcase Rummage is taking part in the new creative community event called Home Festival and is delivering a brand spankin’ new market appropriately named The Wardrobe Markets. The Wardrobe Markets will be just like the regular rummage markets were you can buy the best vintage, hand made and second hand goods Brisbane has to offer, but now instead of rummaging through suitcases the markets will be set up like a giant wardrobe. This means, tables, clothing racks, lamps, rugs and other homely displays to make your shopping experience just that little bit more unique. The Home Festival has created different 'rooms' for people to visit throughout the day, (a lounge room, kitchen, study, garage etc) and the Suitcase Rummage stall holders will be setting up the scene of the rooms with their wares. PLUS there will be other events happening including live bands, workshops, zine making and outdoor screenings. The Home Festival has it all!
With the GoMA’s recent Valentino, Retrospective: Past/Present/Future exhibition putting Brisbane on the cultural map and the Met’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty smashing attendance records for the prestigious gallery, it raises the question: is fashion art? It’s a question that beckons a myriad of varying responses, but most can and will get lost in a vortex of useless words and information. So who can we turn to for an answer? Valerie Steele. If you’re not familiar with the blonde historian, let me put it into perspective for you: with a Yale PhD under her belt, Steele’s currently working as Director and Chief-Curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, has curated more than 20 exhibitions and authored numerous books on fashion, including Gothic: Dark Glamour and the Encyclopedia of clothing and fashion. Constantly quoted in the media, lecturing frequently and making numerous television appearances, she’s earned her place in the New York Daily News’ “Fashion’s 50 Most Powerful.” So, if anyone was to answer the question of is fashion art? it’s definitely Valerie Steele. Head down to The Loft on Thursday and hear a bit of the brainier side of fashion from one of fashion’s brainiest women.
