Gin has seen a serious resurgence in the past couple of years, with new craft gins and distilleries launching almost weekly. But no one in the city quite does gin like the experts over at Covent Garden. The leafy two-storey oasis located in the West End houses over 100 juniper-led spirits that are served with creative syrups and native botanicals — so you can expand beyond the usual G&T. It has an exciting selection of Mediterranean eats and a fancy high tea, too. The palatial bar is one of the restaurants featured in our New in Town series, where we uncover the newest and most anticipated restaurant openings around Brisbane in partnership with Zantac. To celebrate its launch, we threw a gin-fuelled soirée. And we want you and three of your closest to come along. It featured a gin cocktail on arrival, Aperol spritz and Pimms on tap, all matched with a feast of salty, sweet and spicy snacks. It got rowdy. Here are the photos. Images: Atlanta Bell. Keen to check out more newbies? Have a sift through the newest crop of Brisbane openings. To find out more about Zantac, visit the website. Zantac relieves heartburn. Always read the label. Use only as directed. If symptoms persist consult your health professional.
Nowhere does summer quite like subtropical Brissie. It's the steady sunshine you can rely on day-in and day-out and the warm, fragrant nights. Apart from an afternoon storm here or there, you're basically guaranteed a good few months of heat, humidity and glorious blue skies, making it the perfect city for spontaneous adventures all summer long. The only problem is figuring out what you and your gang want to do with all those days of splendid weather. Luckily, this town is full to the brim with last-minute activities. Whether you and your mates are the outdoorsy types, adventurous daytrippers, picnickers or lovers of low-key, low-stress suburban sport, in partnership with Jacob's Creek, we're making sure you all have a summer to remember. So throw on your finest tropical shirt, gather the crew and get ready to make the most of every golden hour. [caption id="attachment_784308" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brisbane Marketing[/caption] TRY BIRDSPOTTING AT ROMA STREET PARKLANDS Love nature, but don't have time to head to the bush? Jump on the urban birdwatching bandwagon with the Big City Birds app. Researchers are calling on 'citizen scientists' to track sightings of key species, including the infamous white ibis. Gather your fellow bird-nerds and head into Roma Street Parklands for a bit of twitching in this 16-hectare city oasis. If your crew has a competitive streak, you could even make it a contest — the loser pays for the wine. When you're twitched out, set up camp (aka a picnic) on the Celebration Lawn. Kick back sundowner-safari-style and toast a glass of Jacob's Creek Better by Half Sparkling to a job well done. [caption id="attachment_796727" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] RIDE THE FERRY TO NEW FARM PARK If you ask us, ferries are always the most fun way to get around town, and a city view from the water never gets old. Top up your Go Card and bounce around the Citycat route before jumping off at New Farm Park Ferry Terminal. Tucked away from the city, New Farm Park is the perfect spot to take in the sunshine and river breeze with a BYO picnic. You don't even have to pack the food yourself — just pop a bottle of vino in your bag, then nip to nearby New Farm Deli for some supplies. Just picture it: a bottle of Jacob's Creek Le Petit Rosé, a loaf of bread, fancy charcuterie and your best mates. And, no dramas if you miss the ferry. Just take the scenic Riverwalk back to town. [caption id="attachment_614807" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Boo[/caption] ENJOY A GAME OF GOOD OL' FASHIONED BAREFOOT BOWLS Day for it? You bet. If by it, you mean barefoot bowls, the ultimate last-minute plan for a summer afternoon. Leave hipster irony at the door: this pensioner's pastime is pure ol' fashioned fun. We're talking cold beer, your mates and a low-stakes sport so casual you don't even need footwear. The rules are simple enough to pick up on the fly, making this less stressful than your average board game night. Best of all, you can find a local venue pretty much anywhere in Brissie — some of our favourites can be found here. Some have barbecues or full club bistro feeds on offer, too, and booking a session is easy peasy. Matching white uniforms are optional, but don't forget to bring along sunscreen, a hat and sunnies. RIDE THE MORETON BAY CYCLEWAY AND FINISH AT THIS SEASIDE PUB Keen to fit as much seaside into one day as possible? Bike it. Running from Clontarf Beach to Scarborough via Redcliffe, this cycle trail will give your crew a coastline tour of northern Moreton Bay. It's a long ride, but there's no rush. Cruise along by the sea, hop off when a sandy beach or local market calls and check out the odd curio that is Bee Gees Way. This 70-metre openair museum commemorates the proud local history of these disco bros — complete with life-size bronze statues. Make your cycle journey into a round trip finishing up at The Belvedere for a cocktail and bite to eat. Bookings are recommended for groups of seven or more. Reconnect with your friends and family this summer with a bottle of Jacob's Creek. Discover the Jacob's Creek range and purchase a bottle today from all good liquor retailers. Top image: Norman Park Bowls Club Please drink responsibly.
Do you live in a dog-friendly house? Do you have some spare time on your hands? Do you fantasise about hanging around at dog parks with an actual dog? The good folk at Seeing Eye Dogs Dogs Australia need you. They have 50 puppies running around the place at the moment, and they're in need of volunteers to raise them. In other words, they're giving away puppies — but you will need to give them back. If you put up your hand to become a puppy carer, you'll get a puppy for about a year — from around its eight-week birthday to when it turns turns between 12–15 months old. During that time, you'll be responsible for introducing the sights, sounds and smells it'll meet when it starts working as a seeing eye dog (and giving your new friend heaps of cuddles). Of course, it's not all just fun, games and cuteness. You'll have to be responsible enough to take care of regular grooming, house training and exercise, and be available for regular visits. A fenced-in backyard is mandatory, too. In return, the organisation provides a strong support network, and all food, training equipment and vet care. You'll also need to be home most of the time — so you won't be leaving the puppy alone for more than three hours a day — and to be able to put effort into training and socialising the pup. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Seeing Eye Dogs Australia (@seeingeyedogsaustralia) Seeing Eye Dogs Australia is looking for people in several Melbourne areas: in Kensington, Flemington, North Melbourne, Ascot Vale and West Melbourne; in the east to the Yarra Ranges (anywhere south of the eastern freeway); and southeast to Portsea (anywhere south of the eastern freeway). They're also looking in the Bendigo region and surrounding suburbs, too. In Queensland, the Sunshine Coast and north Brisbane are the priority areas. Once the pups reach 12-15 months old, they'll return to Seeing Eye Dogs Australia — and complete their journey to become four-legged companions for people who are blind or have low vision. Keen? You can apply online — and, at 10.30am on Friday, April 23, you can also virtually peek behind the scenes at one of Seeing Eye Dogs Australia's puppy centres. For more information about Seeing Eye Dogs Australia's puppy carers, and to apply for the volunteer roles, head to the organisation's website.
Being a film and television fan in 2018 means two things. Firstly, your viewing choices are seemingly endless, as anyone with a hefty streaming queue knows. Secondly, many of those viewing choices involve remakes of, sequels or prequels to, or other continuations of already existing hits. Just this year, we've learned that Veronica Mars and Daria are coming back to the small screen, The Lord of the Rings is being turned into a TV show and Game of Thrones is definitely getting a spin-off once the original series ends. Now, we can add Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Deadwood films to the ever-growing list of properties that just keep on keepin' on. This week, news hit about all three popular series and their new feature-length additions. All three are being turned into movies in some shape or form, but it's a safe bet that those films are all still headed to a TV screen. Prepare to exclaim "yeah, science!" like Jesse Pinkman thanks to the return of Breaking Bad — which, as Better Call Saul diehards are well aware, has never completely gone away since the OG show wrapped up in 2013. As reported by Variety, creator Vince Gilligan is working on a two-hour film with the working title of Greenbriar, which will begin shooting this month. Bryan Cranston has confirmed the news, but just whether he's in it or what it's about is still the subject of rumour. Slashfilm advises that the movie will focus on Jesse, showing what came next for Walter White's former student and protege after Breaking Bad's finale. As for The Walking Dead, the long-running (and still-running) show is set to release a number of films about Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes, who led the series from its 2010 debut through to the fifth episode of the show's ninth season. Deadline reports that the movies will form part of The Walking Dead Universe, alongside other films, specials and series, plus digital content and more. The Walking Dead already has its own small-screen spin-off, Fear The Walking Dead — and the first Rick Grimes flick is expected to go into production in 2019. Finally, in news that'll make lovers of Deadwood want to down a celebratory shot of whisky, the three-season western series is coming back as a movie. Ever since the show was cancelled back in 2006, a film has been rumoured, but The Hollywood Reporter notes that it started filming this week. It'll be set ten years after the final season, with the story exploring a reunion of the show's characters. Original stars Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, Molly Parker, Paula Malcomson, John Hawkes, Anna Gunn, W. Earl Brown, Dayton Callie, Brad Dourif, Robin Weigert, William Sanderson, Kim Dickens and Gerald McRaney are all reuniting for the series. Via Variety /Deadline / The Hollywood Reporter.
Welcome to the Crush City Exhibition, a one-night-only celebration featuring a wide array of artists with one key passion. John Lupo Avanti, an illustrationist by many trades, works for business and pleasure. He does brightly-coloured, semi-traditional tattoos, as well as hyper-real acrylic illustrations of dreamscapes brought to intriguing reality. Eric Bruckner’s realistic tattoos are comic book look-a-likes to the point of unreal. Pop culture is his game, which he plays with finesse and imagination; from Halo to Marilyn Monroe, there is no sphere he won’t cross with great ease. Street art talents meets tattoo refinery with Sam Hillcoat. His bold, colourful works have graced the walls of buildings around Brisbane, as his designs grace the skin of fans throughout the city. This is not the first exhibition for Hillcoat; his works have been widely praised for some time now in art circles as well as business frontiers. Other Crush City artists you’ll find at this exhibition include JB Diz, Sam Hillcoat, Mechso, NITE, Reals, Blex and Jay Christensen. Get in early!
When you're standing in a room filled with butterflies with your special someone — a cavernous white space with its bright walls covered in tiny, intricate, black-hued paper critters swarming all around you — it's a truly wondrous feeling. That's one of the highlights of the Gallery of Modern Art's Air exhibition, alongside volcanic mounds, floating spheres, glowing red lights and smoky darkened spaces. And, it's the perfect place to visit come Valentine's Day. Taking advantage of the ideal name for a romantic event, GOMA is putting on a one-night-only Love Is in the Air session from 5.30–8.30pm on Tuesday, February 14. Usually, hitting up the South Brisbane gallery's exhibitions after hours is limited to its Up Late parties, and they're coming for this stunning showcase — but you can get swooning with your significant other first. Attendees will get the run of all things Air, wandering through pipes, seeing plants, marvelling at giant sculptures and staring at hanging pieces — and more — across the three-hour session. You'll also receive a Valentine's Day gift upon arrival: a conversation prompt card printed on plantable seed paper. [caption id="attachment_888732" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dora Budor / Croatia b.1984 / Origin I (A Stag Drinking) (installation view) 2019 / Custom environmental chamber (reactive electronic system, compressor, valves, 3D-printed elements, aluminium, acrylic, LED light, glass, wood, paint), organic and synthetic pigments, diatomaceous earth, FX dust, felt, ed. 3/3 / Purchased 2021. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: QAGOMA / © Dora Budor / Photograph: Claudia Baxter © QAGOMA.[/caption] There'll be workshops and pop-up talks as well, plus immersive art experiences. And would it be a date-night gallery visit without a pop-up bar doing drinks and bites to eat? Of course it wouldn't. Fancy a memento of the night, other than all the pictures that you and your plus one will take yourselves? The Love Snap photobooth has you covered, with local artist Clo Love coming up with a photoset described as "pop art meets an Italian pizzeria in the sky". Prefer to head along with one of your mate instead of a date? That's heartily encouraged as well. [caption id="attachment_888731" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Patrick Pound / New Zealand / Australia b.1962 / The air lock 2022 (installation view) / Photographs and objects from the artist's collection and the QAGOMA Collection / Courtesy: The artist, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, and STATION, Melbourne / © Patrick Pound / Photograph: Claudia Baxter © QAGOMA.[/caption] Top image: Carlos Amorales / Mexico b.1970 / Black Cloud (installation view) 2007/2018 / 30 000 black laser-cut and handfolded paper butterflies (30 different butterfly and moth species in five sizes with a wave wing pattern), ed. 1/3 (+ 1 A.P.) / Purchased 2022 with funds from Tim Fairfax AC through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: QAGOMA / © Carlos Amorales / Photograph: Claudia Baxter © QAGOMA.
Slipping, sliding, splashing and slurping up ice cream — it was a great way to spend a summery day when you were a kid, and the same is true now that you're an adult. It's also exactly what's on the agenda at the Burpengary Big Splash, which'll let you get more than your toes wet at the Burpengary Regional Aquatic Leisure Centre on Saturday, December 7. From 10am–1pm, the northside spot will be filled with giant inflatables, plenty of in-pool activities and a mini ice cream festival. The forecast for the day 34 degrees and mostly sunny, so even just thinking about the heat probably has you dreaming of a body of water. [caption id="attachment_753331" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Burpengary Regional Aquatic Leisure Centre[/caption] To help you cool off on what's bound to be a toasty day, entry is via gold coin donation. And yes, this is a family friendly event, so it will be filled with littlies — but that's all part of a summery trip to the pool Top image: Moreton Bay Regional Council
Wesley Enoch directs Black Diggers, a new play written by Tom Wright that uncovers the contribution of Aboriginal Diggers to Australia’s First World War effort. Featuring an all-male, all-Indigenous cast, the play draws upon extensive consultation and recent research to bring to light some truly exceptional stories of heroism forged out on the battlefields of Gallipoli, Palestine and Flanders. Marking the eve of the centenary of WWI, the piece aims to share an overlooked moment in Australian history. Following its acclaimed world premiere at the Sydney Festival, Black Diggers is presented here by the Brisbane Festival and Queensland Theatre Company, of which Enoch is the artistic director. It's a powerful piece of theatre that was nominated in the recent Helpmann Awards for Best New Australian Work.
Each month, Netflix adds a whole heap of new movies, shows and specials to its lineup. It's impossible to watch all of them, and if you tend to gravitate towards its big series and films — Stranger Things and The Witcher, plus features such as Marriage Story and The Trial of the Chicago 7 , for instance — that's understandable. But don't scroll your way past the service's comedy offerings. As with everything on every streaming platform, the selection can be a bit hit and miss; however, Netflix was responsible for one of the best sketch comedies of 2019, aka the sidesplitting I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. In 2020, Netflix is hoping that its latest addition to the genre will also strike a chord, this time with Aussie comedians Aunty Donna at its centre. The troupe's absurdist gags, satire and wordplay is heading to the streamer via the six-part Aunty Donna's Big House of Fun, which'll be available to watch from Wednesday, November 11. As the just-released first trailer shows, viewers are in for silliness galore, as led by Aunty Donna's Mark Samual Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane. The Office star Ed Helms also pops up, and executive produces the series — with Comedy Bang! Bang!'s Scott Aukerman and David Jargowsky also falling into the latter category. Since forming in 2011, Aunty Donna just keeps expanding its resume. It has played gigs everywhere from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival to Edinburgh Festival Fringe, toured the country several times, made a number of web series and released an album. In a year where we could all use a genuine reason to laugh, Aunty Donna's Big House of Fun adds to that list. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BVoYKwTc4E Aunty Donna's Big House of Fun will be available via Netflix from Wednesday, November 11.
It’s not super hard to be cool – all you’ve got to do is grow a beard, get heaps of cryptic, messy tattoos and cuff your jeans like the floods are coming. Or you could get Beats by Dre's and sport expeno nikes, drink beer out of brown paperbags, or sit on milk crates instead of real, life chairs. Your options are endless, but if you’re a after a quick fix to being cool then free up this Friday night – Alhambra Lounge is getting ice cold. As an unofficial element next to the BIGSOUND showcases, they’ll be having a bit of a ‘cool’ party that showcases some pretty ‘cool’ musicians, and some pretty ‘cool’ DJs and some pretty ‘cool’ attendees (you could be one). Anthony Fantano DJ Set (aka The Needle Drop), Oscar Key Sung, Oisima, Tincture and Fossils are just a few of the bands/DJs that will be creating dance music to do your cool moves to. We suggest you split the dance floor, get all eyes on you, and attempt the Elaine – that would be very very cool. There’s free entry for Bigsound delegates, and tickets are $5 for passholders and $10 for the general public – that’s dirt cheap for the talent on show. Go be cool.
Earlier this year, Brisbane scored a new riverside market — and it wasn't a once-off. Yes, the Portside Local Markets are returning. Everyone likes shopping and hanging out by the water, after all, especially when festive season is approaching. If you really like browsing and buying, taking in the riverside air, and having a reason to stop for a bite and a drink, you'll want to head to Hamilton on Saturday, November 20. From 12–4pm, you can shop, stroll, sip and purchase gifts, which sounds like a mighty fine weekend itinerary. More than 35 stalls will be offering up everything from art and plants to ceramics and accessories — and more. If you've been to markets at the Gasworks, or in Fish Lane, Coorparoo and Gabba South City, you'll have a firm idea of what you're in for, because The Market Folk is behind all of the above and is running this Portside event as well. To give your shopping a soundtrack, live piano tunes will echo through the Hamilton precinct. And, if those hunger pangs strike — or you're just keen on having a drink — everywhere from Pineapple Express Cafe, Bamboo Basket, Burrito Bar and Ginga Sushi to Mr & Mrs Jones, Belvedere Bar 'n' Grill, Byblos Bar and Restaurant, Gusto da Gianni and Sono will be open. Images: Claudia Baxter.
Valentine's Day is coming up, and despite mounting partner pressure, serious self-doubt and a blank canvas, you've got this — but only if you take our help. Whether you want to keep it cheap yet classy or blow the budget and go all-out blockbuster style, Brisbane’s got a fair few options that can easily have the ladies swooning and lads doing just the same. RITZ AND ROMANCE Watt is love? I sure don’t know, but The Powerhouse’s Watt Restaurant are cupids at this stuff. They’re offering a two-course dinner, a river view and a glass of sparkling wine at the not so ridiculous price of $59 for the special day. Bacchus is presenting a Valentines Day degustation with an exceptional menu that will have your stomach falling in love with food all over again– check it. Spring have just done just about the same, in their own fresh and free reigned style, with a four-course menu that boasts gnocchi, chocolate, kingfish, chocolate, eye fillet, quail and chocolate. Foxy Bean can transform your day into a vintage affair, with their three-course dinner and live cabaret show. Don’t ruin the day - and probably the rest of your love life - by not booking – that’s far too textbook. DRUNK IN LOVE If you’ve got the type of partner who is unbearable without a little chemical stimulant, then why not add some alcohol to the Valentine's picture and drink the night away. Jetty Southbank is so excited for the big V they’ve gone ahead and whipped up a special cocktail for it - The Scarlett Darling, a vibrant red cocktail with a mix of gin, fresh watermelon, Chambord, cucumber, mint and lime. Canvas Club in Wooloongabba is forever courteous and classy, and ready at hand with fine drinks in a finer atmosphere. If you want to head West, venture to The End and share a cocktail jug – and if you’re not at the sharing stage yet, just stick to a jug each. CHEAP AND CHIPPER Just because it's “Valentine's Day” it doesn’t mean you have to break the bank to show your partner how to have a good time. Dollars and Cents have some great $2 Valentines cards, produced by the hands of this world's finest photoshoppers. Food and entertainment wise, nothing beats fish and chips by the river. Swampdog’s meal for two is more than enough food for the most romanced of couples - fish and chips for him, calamari and prawns for her. The one thing better than being in love is haloumi, and Little Greek know how to fry it up just right. And if all that’s a tad too pricey, Milton Maccas is pretty nice as well. LOVE ON THE LAWN Grass is great, especially when you have someone to share it with. So why not pack a basket with exotic cheeses, discount crackers, and a couple of bottles of apple cider and waste away Valentine's Day fending off green ants. Highgate Hill Park on Dornoch Terrace has a fantastic gradient for sitting and rolling down, and has a better view of the city than Stefan’s tower. New Farm park is a safe space, that offers views of everything from the river, flowers to that strange pink Barbie mansion in East Brisbane. Or better still, have a picnic in your back yard – cute, convenient and your mum can come. ADRENALINE APHRODISIAC Nothing says “I love you”, quite like “I’m willing to die for you”. So why not face death in the face with these not too unsafe activities right here in Brisbane. Hot air ballooning comes at a pretty steep price, but is sure to be a winner, or why not a helicopter flight over the city, all the while pretending you’re in Top Gun – Maverick and Goose were quite the star studded couple after all. Sky diving is a wonderful, fun, safe, cool and by not means not cliche option – a couple that sky dive tandem, grow old tandem. PAINT HER LIKE YOUR FRENCH GIRLS Girls love to be painted. Rose loved it, Napoleon Dynamite’s crush loved it, and the Girl with The Pearl Earing went CRAZY for it. So why not pull a Leo and paint her/be painted for Valentines Day. Cork and Chroma are hosting an evening of wine, Picasso flare, and intense staring, and at the end of the evening you’ll have a 40cmx50cm canvas of your significant other. You'll also be fed - yum, and get to meet other couples, who you can then talk to about The Mentalist. Because that's what couples do. ALL BY YOURSELF If you've conquered this whole article, in hope this Valentines Day will be different - no Tim Tams, no The Notebook and no Celine, then good for you. But that's probably wishful thinking, so you'd best prepare to tackle this day solo - why not do it in 21st century tech-style. Limes Hotel is hosting a Tinder Rooftop Party, and chances are your Joaquin Phoenix will be perched at the bar, waiting for Her (you) to just swipe right. Valentines Day will be a Friday night, so head to the Fortitude Valley after, with a trail of Tinderers at toe and dance the rest of this joy filled holiday away to the sounds of Bromance Records at Oh Hello. Alternatively, most Cold Rocks are open till 10.30pm, and the brownie mix-in can replace the warmth of any man. Roses and romance aside, don’t forget that Saint Valentine himself went through life a lone soldier. And that’s okay. Sometimes you don’t need a partner, or friends or even people to remember your name to be happy. Because it's you who gets to venture through Valentine's Day, and life, and if you want do it alone, then good on you. Call me, Molly Glassey: 0418 660 783.
In its physical digs in Fortitude Valley, Outer Space already does plenty to support Brisbane's creative community. Head in on Brunswick Street to check out exhibitions showcasing local independent artists, hear talks by the city's talents and more. Now, the not-for-profit organisation is lending its assistance in the online realm, too, via a new art shop — but it's staying IRL for the launch party. The digital-only OS Art Shop sells wares such as paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, jewellery and ceramics, with its lineup highly curated and its picks set to be refreshed twice a year. The OS Art Shop Offline Launch is the shindig officially kicking off the new endeavour. To attend, you'll need to head across the city to South Brisbane's Fish Lane Precinct from 2–5pm on Sunday, July 28. Consider this a sneak peek as well, letting you preview and purchase pieces from OS Art Shop's inaugural range in Fish Lane's town square. The lineup of 60-plus works and objects hails from 23 Queensland artists — including Amy-Jean Mitchell, Bella Deary, Humaira Aboo, Jack Hardy, Odessa Mahony-de Vries, Petalia Humphreys, Raphael Atkins, Yo Murray and Zartisha Davis. At the launch, Fish Lane's KiKi will on refreshments duties, while tunes from Twin Sister will provide the soundtrack to a creativity-fuelled Sunday afternoon.
In Nosedive, the first episode of the third season of Black Mirror, life's ups and downs are dictated by social media. Everything Lacie (Bryce Dallas Howard) does is rated by those around her, and she rates them in turn. Those rankings contribute to an overall score, out of five, which influences where she can live, hang out, travel, shop and more. Being Black Mirror, it's both a bleak and creepy vision of the future, and an idea that's not all that far removed from reality. If you watched the episode and thought "wouldn't that make a great game?", then you're not the only one. Five stars to you and to American game publisher Asmodee Group, we guess. The latter has turned Nosedive into a game that requires players to "create a 'perfect' life by collecting Lifestyle cards, while avoiding any dings to your Social Score that could cause everything you've worked for to come crashing down," according to its sale listing on the US version of Target's website. The strategy game is designed to be played by three to six people, and also has an app component. Each person's Social Score is based on how much other players like the experiences you give them via the app, with more than 1000 available. Nosedive will cost US$19.99, and whether it'll make the jump to Australia is yet to be seen. It's not the first off-screen chance that Black Mirror fans have had to feel like they're in one of the anthology series' episodes, thanks to an immersive London exhibition dedicated to the show last year. Via The Wrap.
Mortality is a topic most people would rather not face, but Margi Brown Ash has turned the transience of existence into theatre. In He Dreamed a Train, a writer and her entrepreneur brother face his premature death, their reactions informing an emotional roller-coaster ride. Brisbane stalwart Brown Ash takes inspiration from the book of same name by her brother, David A. Brown, and performs alongside her son, Travis Ash. The compelling and beautiful show is as much a family affair as it is a look at life’s joy’s and challenges, conveyed through a combination of digital projection and old-fashioned storytelling under the direction of Circa’s Ben Knapton. He Dreamed a Train is the first performance to be presented as part of Brisbane Powerhouse’s inaugural SWEET creative development program. Flaunt by Claire Marshall will premiere in November, followed by De Profundis by David Fenton and Brian Lucas in April 2015.
After a fire destroyed its premises in early July, New Farm Deli has understandably had to temporarily shut up shop; however, while the local institution is in rebuild mode, it's moving into the Merthyr Village Shopping Centre carpark. The relocation is a one-day event, ahead of a pop-up cart in the near future — and, it also doubles as a picnic. Running from 11am–5pm on Wednesday, August 14, the New Farm Deli Pop-Up Picnic will satisfy your hankering for Italian food and drinks this Ekka public holiday. Grab a bite at the pop-up kitchen, sip on spritzes from the bar, get caffeinated at the coffee cart and tap your toes to live music. If the weather is right, you'll also be able to enjoy all of the above while soaking up the midweek sun. Heading along will count as a good deed, too, with New Farm Deli donating all of the profits from the picnic to the Children's Hospital Foundation. It's the store's way of giving something back after receiving such immense support from the community over the last month — and you can help.
Much of Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) involves stunning archival footage, as recorded more than five decades ago, capturing live performances by an astonishing lineup of musicians. At the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a free series of gigs that rolled out across six weekend and saw around 300,000 people head along, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, BB King, Sly and the Family Stone, the Staples Singers, Mahalia Jackson and Gladys Knight & the Pips all took to the stage — among others — and the newly unearthed reels that immortalised their efforts are truly the stuff that music documentary dreams are made of. For his filmmaking debut, Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson could've simply stitched together different songs from various sets across the festival, and let those music superstars lead the show. He could've taken the immersive, observational approach as Amazing Grace did with Aretha Franklin and her famed gospel gigs, and jettisoned context. But The Roots frontman and drummer doesn't make that choice, and he ensures that two words echo strongly throughout the film as a result: "Black Woodstock". Also in New York — upstate in the town of Bethel, 100 miles north of Harlem — Woodstock itself took place in the summer of 1969 as well. The Harlem Cultural Festival kicked off before and kept playing after its better-known counterpart ended, but comparing the two events makes quite the statement. Why has one endured in public consciousness and proven pervasive in popular culture, but not the other? Why did footage of one quickly get turned into a film, with the Woodstock documentary first reaching cinemas in 1970, but recordings of the other largely sat in a basement for half a century? Why did television veteran Hal Tulchin, who shot the entire Harlem Cultural Festival from start to finish on four cameras loaded up with two-inch videotape, get told that there was little interest in releasing much from a "Black Woodstock"? (One New York TV station aired two hour-long specials at the time, but that's all that eventuated until now.) These questions and the US' historical treatment of people in colour go hand in hand, and whenever the words "Black Woodstock" are uttered, that truth flutters through Summer of Soul. Here's another query that belongs with the others: why was such an important event left to fade in memories, and in broader awareness, to the point that many watching Questlove's exceptional doco won't have heard of it until now? Consider Summer of Soul an act of unearthing, reclamation and celebration, then. It's a gift, too. The archival materials that are so critical to the film are glorious, whether a 19-year-old Wonder is tickling the ivories; a young Staples is singing with Jackson, her idol; The 5th Dimension are breaking out matching outfits while crooning their 'Aquarius' and 'Let the Sunshine In' medley; or Simone is delivering her anthem 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' with fierce passion. Powerful moments featuring immense talents like these keep popping up, including The Temptations' David Ruffin singing 'My Girl', and Reverend Jesse Jackson introducing Jackson and Staples' rendition of 'Precious Lord, Take My Hand' by giving a eulogy for Martin Luther King Jr. These are slices in time that everyone — every music lover, every fan of every single artist featured and everyone in general — needs to see, and now can. Savvily, Questlove also weaves through an exploration of the whys and hows not just behind the Harlem Cultural Festival, but also surrounding its lack of attention since. Where he can, he chats to the musicians, canvassing their recollections and reactions. Just as crucial: his interviews with attendees, many of whom were kids that were taken along by their parents. These festival-goers reflect upon how strong the event remains in their childhood memories; how it shaped them, their music tastes and their personalities afterwards; and the sense of togetherness that floated through the shows with the summer breeze. Their reminiscences tie into the broader discussion into New York City at the time, America's political climate — MLK was assassinated a year earlier, and Black Panthers acted as the festival's security — and the determination within the Black community to champion itself at every turn. Journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault even shares her fight to get The New York Times to print the term 'Black' as pride around it grew. Also covered: the moon landing, and the conflicting sentiment about whether it was a giant leap for humankind or a wasteful step that spent money that could've been better put to use on earth (and specifically in Harlem). Indeed, this is a portrait of an era, a neighbourhood and its people as much as it's a window into one essential and historic festival. As its subtitle notes, it's also a snapshot of a revolutionary mood. If there's one misstep here, and it's just one, it comes from a few contemporary snippets of commentary that don't add anything beyond the obvious. Most movies can be improved by getting Lin-Manuel Miranda involved, but the Hamilton and In the Heights visionary's insights into the potency of music aren't needed here — because the footage, and the tales from the people who went to the Harlem Cultural Festival, say it all anyway. Questlove finds plenty of time for shots of the crowd, showing their response to the sets playing onstage, and all those jubilant faces and swaying bodies paint the strongest picture there is. Unsurprisingly, Summer of Soul captures their joy with an impassioned rhythm. Its director is also a DJ and music director, after all (including at the 2021 Oscars), and he knows where to bob in and out of tracks, vibes and refrains. When the film ends with one festival attendee watching footage from the event and exclaiming "I'm not crazy!" because he now has proof that this oft-overlooked "Black Woodstock" was real, it's the ultimate mic drop. Wanting to devour every second of material that Tulchin shot all those years ago is a clear side effect, though. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) screens in Brisbane cinemas from Thursday, September 2, and also streams via Disney+ from Wednesday, September 29.
Forget watching your way through the Step Up franchise — if you want to see top-notch street dancing, you just need to make your way to the Mad Dance Festival. For ten days between Wednesday, June 8–Saturday, June 18, it's bringing a feast of fancy footwork to Metro Arts in West End, complete with performances, talks and classes. If you're keen on checking out a heap of talented performers and their smooth moves, you have options. In fact, there's over 35 events on offer across the whole fest. That includes Betwixt by Pink Matter and Sam Evans' This Time It's Personal, plus Rhythmology — which focuses on urban music and the creatives behind it. Also on the bill: dance battles and DJ sets aplenty, as well as a vogueing night. And, from Monday, June 13–Friday, June 17, there's a free daily dusk dancing session that wants to get everyone cutting shapes around the West Village precinct. Or, you ca drop into a range of community dance classes, also for free, across the entire fest. Images: Betwixt by Moonstrikken/Sinead O'Brien.
To celebrate the latest drop in its Bonded series, Triple Mash, Jack Daniel's is hosting a series of immersive whiskey tastings dubbed Triple Mash Medley. It promises to be a sensory session like no other, featuring whiskey (of course), country music compositions crafted for the tasting, cocktails and canapes. It's landing in Brisbane at the luxe underground bar Boom Boom Room on October 9. The Bonded Series is named for The Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, which stipulates that the whiskey must be from a single distillery, a blend of whiskies from a single distilling season, aged in a federally bonded warehouse for at least four years and bottled at 100 proof (American parlance for 50 percent ABV). The Triple Mash meets these requirements as a blend of three straight bottled-in-bond whiskies made in Lynchburg, Tennessee. It is 60 percent Jack Daniel's Straight Rye Whiskey, 20 percent Jack Daniel's American Malt Whiskey and 20 percent Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey. Triple Mash is a bold whiskey ideal for sipping. Its dried fruit aromas, warm, rounded mouthfeel, and honeyed sweetness are balanced by subtle grain spice and a spicy finish. It also serves as a rich base for complex whiskey cocktails. Triple Mash is best enjoyed with soothing country music, which is exactly why the Jack Daniel's crew is curating a series of sonically immersive tastings in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. The Brisbane event will be held at the Boom Boom Room, a luxe underground bar and restaurant in a heritage-listed art deco building. The former bank is now decked out in deep reds, blues and blacks with old-school furniture, recess lighting and private rooms in what were once bank vaults. Music is big game here with 80s tunes and disco beats dominating the DJ nights. Now, Jack Daniel's is bringing a country element. At the tasting, guests will be invited to put on headphones — but rest assured, this isn't a silent disco. They'll be guided through a one-of-a-kind sensory journey, listening to tracks created by Professor Charles Spence, a leading sensory expert from the University of Oxford, alongside award-winning musicians from String Musicians Australia. These tracks pair classic country sounds — acoustic guitar, fiddle and double bass — with the whiskey tasting and experience how the music can bring out tasting notes like grassy herbs, peppery spice, rich toasted oak and deep caramel to enhance the whiskey's flavours. If you're a whiskey lover, get yourself to the Boom Boom Room. Book your spot via the link. Please drink responsibly.
With a young man immersed in underworld dealings and learning life lessons along the way, there's no mistaking Son of a Gun's fondness for standard crime caper cliches. The film begins with prison hierarchies, navigates a jailbreak and daring heist, and dallies with ruthless Russian mobsters. It also traverses romance and a complicated mentor-protegee relationship, just in case its adherence to formula wasn't apparent. And yet, in wholeheartedly embracing genre basics, complete with the accompanying twists, Julius Avery's debut focuses on execution and performance over plot and story to exceed the sum of its obvious parts. That's not to say that the movie's narrative isn't engaging; however, it is in its eye for action and its finessed portrayals that Son of a Gun best impresses. Nineteen-year-old JR (Brenton Thwaites) enters his six-month stay in a maximum-security facility with a warning to keep out of trouble, though the resident bullies have other plans. Veteran inmate Brendan (Ewan McGregor) becomes his saviour, but his help has consequences: JR must return the favour upon his release. Extricating Brendan and his right-hand man (Matt Nable) from prison is the first step. Next, assisting the convicted armed robber in doing what he does best. Writer/director Avery came to fame courtesy of his 2008 short Jerrycan, a Cannes Film Festival award winner. His first feature has been eagerly awaited since, and in its bright lensing of the Western Australian landscape, moody score from Snowtown and The Babadook's Jed Kurzel, and sustaining of tension, it proves worthy of such anticipation. Avery shows a knack for set pieces and a mastery of pace and tone that keeps Son of a Gun moving, patching over its lack of surprises and extended length. From the sombre drama of its jail-set opening to the cat-and-mouse chases that follow in helicopter hijackings, car chases, boat rides and stand-offs, the filmmaker crafts a competent, compelling thriller. Otherwise, casting is the film's biggest strength, from Thwaites' second role in succession as a naive pawn awakening into a position of influence after The Giver, to A Royal Affair's Alicia Vikander as his potential love interest. Of course, it is the star power of McGregor, complementing his usual cheeky grin with a menacing glint in his eye, that rightfully commands attention. Although appearing to play against type, his charming wrongdoer isn't that far removed from his morally dubious breakout role in Trainspotting, complete with his natural accent. Indeed, McGregor's fate mirrors that of the film, never straying far from the familiar, but doing so with energy and aplomb. Son of a Gun may be another gritty Australian crime offering, but it is also an enthusiastic, expressive and engrossing example of its genre. https://youtube.com/watch?v=eTOBcelRo9M
No shade on regular escape rooms but the lack of prizes after all that hard work is a little disappointing. Sure, you gain a sense of camaraderie with your fellow escapees but what if you could also walk out with the domestic holiday of your dreams? That's what's on offer at The Wotif Great Summer Escape, which is popping up in King George Square between Wednesday, March 26 and Friday, March 28. In this free immersive experience, guests are invited inside the multi-sensory escape room and virtually transported to some of Australia's most iconic holiday destinations to complete a series of puzzles. You've got just three minutes to solve as many puzzles as you can to unlock the views of stunning Australian locations, from lush tropical rainforests and dazzling coral reefs to pristine beaches and luxury hotels. Each door you open earns you a token to enter the draw to win a Wotif Domestic Travel credit worth $5000. There are also spot prizes up for grabs, too, including hotel coupons worth between $250-500. The escape room will be open daily from 8am to 6pm but if you can't make it in person, the competition can also be entered online. The Wotif Great Summer Escape is running from Wednesday, March 26 to Friday, March 28 between 8am-6pm. For more information or to enter the competition online, head to the website. AU residents 18+ only. Runs 26-28 March '25 Entry method 1: during promo period, go to game room activation at King George Square, Bne (8am – 6pm) & solve puzzles (in 3 mins) to unlock doors to find tokens - each token = 1 entry into draw (must fill in entry form via Rep's iPad onsite). Max 1 turn in game p/person p/day. Play as individual or as a team (max. 6 ppl). For teams, each person in team (18+) gets same # of entry/ies into draw as any token/s collected by team. Entry method 2: during promo dates (between 12.01am – 11.59pm AEST) visit www.wotif.com/vc/blog/summerescape & solve puzzle on screen to fill out entry form to get 1 entry into draw. Max 1 entry p/person for this entry method. Entries from both entry methods combined for draw, held at 12pm AEST 01/04/25, L13, 447 Collins St, Melb Vic. 3 prizes: 1st drawn wins $5000AUD Wotif.com Travel credit, 2nd drawn wins $500 Wotif hotel coupon, 3rd drawn wins $250AUD Wotif hotel coupon (use coupons to make booking by 31/08/25. Max 1 prize p/person (except in SA). Winners told by email & published on website 28/04/25. See website for full conditions incl. privacy statement. Promoter: Expedia Australia Pty Limited (ABN 12 101 694 946). SA Permit: T25/306 ACT Permit: TP25/00409
Playing fictional movie star Vincent Chase in eight seasons of Entourage — and in the forgettable Entourage movie, too — Adrian Grenier got pretty comfortable playing someone who was constantly in front of the camera. That trait remains in his latest project, twisty new Netflix thriller series Clickbait. This time, Grenier steps into the shoes of a man who disappears suddenly, leaving his loved ones distraught. Then, when he pops up afterwards, it's in an online video that makes a shocking claim. In the clip, Nick Brewer (Grenier, Stage Mother) holds a card that says "I abuse women. At 5 million views, I die." His sister (Zoe Kazan, The Big Sick) and wife (Betty Gabriel, Get Out) are already distressed, but their nightmare only worsens once the video starts doing the rounds — unsurprisingly. Across eight episodes, the show then follows their efforts to find and save him, as well as the information they uncover along the way about the man they thought they knew. Swapping between different perspectives throughout its run, and stepping up the stakes in the process as well, Clickbait ponders the big, broad, important and constantly relevant intersection between our identities and our increasing use of social media. Just how our online and real-life selves can differ — and what types of behaviours we might indulge virtually that we wouldn't IRL — is only going to continue to garner the world's attention, which this Melbourne-shot series clearly attempts to tap into. Yes, if you spot any familiar sights while you're binging Clickbait from Wednesday, August 25 — or while you're watching the suitably tense just-dropped first trailer for the series — that's because it was filmed in the Victorian capital. It's a big month for high-profile shows that were made in Australia and are now hitting streaming, actually, with Amazon Prime Video dropping the Byron Bay-shot, Nicole Kidman-starring Nine Perfect Strangers as well. Check out the trailer below: Clickbait will be available to stream via Netflix from Wednesday, August 25. Top image: Ben King/Netflix.
Think bright sights in Brisbane, and Riverfire probably springs to mind. Or, if you're fond of all things festive, any one of the city's Christmas displays might, too. But the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens plays host to another must-see luminous attraction each year: Botanica: Contemporary Art Outside, which turns the riverside CBD spot into a dazzling outdoor art gallery — after dark as well. The 2022 event has just been locked in, so mark Friday, May 20–Sunday, May 29 in your diary. For ten days, from 5–10pm daily, the gardens will come alive with artworks, installations and projections, with nine pieces set to liven up the already-scenic inner-city spot. The full artist lineup hasn't yet been unveiled, but Leila Honari, Julie Monro-Allison and Tim Gruchy will all have works on display. And if previous years' pieces are anything to go by, expect everything from the gardens' plant life to its furniture and buildings to get quite the vibrant makeover. "Each artwork has been carefully selected to create an experience that melds art, science, and technology to reflect the history of our city and explore contemporary themes of sustainability and innovation," explains Botanica producer Bella Ford. Plus, all those shimmering sights will be paired with twilight walks, interactive workshops and talks, as well as a discovery trail for children. You'll be able to watch artworks created live, too — and contribute to them — and also hit up food trucks and an outdoor bar from Friday–Sunday. [caption id="attachment_812086" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Museum of our lost world' (2021) by Simone Eisler[/caption] Of course, the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens has always been more than just that patch of grass and trees at the edge of the CBD thanks to its gorgeous greenery, ponds filled with cute turtles, free exercise classes and more — but it's never more alluring than during this fest. And if you missed the first three events in 2018, 2019 and 2021 — or if you went along and loved it — 2022's event promises a whole heap of new garden wonders. Either way, prepare to roam through the centre of Brisbane and see its natural splendour in a whole new way. Botanica: Contemporary Art Outside will display at the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens from Friday, May 20–Sunday, May 29. For more information, head to the Brisbane City Council website.
Film fans — pack your picnics, pillows and insect repellent, and prepare to spend your summer evenings watching the big screen under the stars. From December 7, Moonlight Cinema returns to Brisbane for another season of great viewing, great weather (hopefully) and great food. Yep — here, all three go hand-in-hand. The first part of this year's program — covering December and January — features advanced screenings of movies yet to hit cinemas, new releases and a heap of old favourites. The February and March lineup will be revealed early next year, but rest assured, there's something for all tastes on the current bill. If you're after an early glimpse at an exciting upcoming flick, then Guillermo del Toro's gorgeous monster romance The Shape of Water, the Greta Gerwig-directed Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the latest movie by In Bruges filmmaker Martin McDonagh, should all do nicely. Those who'd like to catch an openair session of efforts already screening in cinemas can pick from the likes of Justice League, Murder on the Orient Express, Detroit, Thor: Ragnarok, The Mountain Between Us and Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi (once it's released on December 14). And, if you've got the urge for something retro, make a date with Love Actually, Dirty Dancing, The Breakfast Club or Back to the Future. Also featured are sneak peeks of everything from Pitch Perfect 3, to new Pixar animation Coco, to Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg's The Post. Or, if you're a fan of Australian cinema, check out Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce reuniting post-Neighbours for Swinging Safari; the absolutely stunning new outback western Sweet Country; and what sounds like an Aussie-as comedy, The BBQ. Pairing your movie choice with something to eat and drink is all part of the fun, so BYO supplies (although bringing your own booze isn't allowed in Brisbane) or grab something tasty onsite.
New music festivals aren't the first thing that springs to mind when anyone thinks about the pandemic, but Brisbane did indeed score one back in 2021. To encourage River City residents to get out and support the city's live music scene, which needed the love during a tough period, Brisbane Winter Sessions was born — and it's now back for 2023. During its first run, the fest ran for six days, held 30-plus gigs and took over 16 venues. The numbers are a bit different in 2023; however, the same aim and spirit remains. So, Brisbanites will have ten days between Friday, July 28–Sunday, August 6 to hit the dance floor around Fortitude Valley, Newstead and Woolloongabba, including at both free and ticketed events. The highlights start with two days of blues, roots and soul tunes at The Triffid, where the Newstead Roots Weekender will take over with two stages, more than 25 musicians getting behind the microphone, DJs spinning tunes till late and the venue's kitchen pumping out snacks. Or, over at The Princess Theatre, a pair of big ticketed events will make the most of the revamped 130-plus-year-old space: Ngaiire teaming up with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, which also falls under this year's Open Season program; and Set Roulette, another Open Season inclusion, this time featuring Kwame, Hatchie, Jesswar, RVG, BIG WETT, Andy Golledge, Party Dozen and Safety Club. At the latter, a giant wheel will be spun onstage to decide who plays when. Brisbane Winter Sessions will also include a street party-inspired DJ night at Hey Chica!, Dizzy Days at Finn McCool's and Fluffy All Stars at Cloudland. The Tyrone Noonan Trio is headed to Black Bear Lodge, as is Some Folk Event feauturing Alivan Blu, Myki Jay and Milk Buttons. [caption id="attachment_870966" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mitch Lowe[/caption] Top image: katexjean.
In February, Brisbane Powerhouse launched a brand-new festival dedicated to boundary-pushing performances. In March, the New Farm site hosted its first-ever Night Feast food market. Across April and May, the venue let laughter echo in every space it could thanks to its annual Brisbane Comedy Festival. And, now that winter is upon the River City, it's launching into June with some else just as impressive: a killer music lineup. Where can you dance to a French disco king, and also check out a supremely talented Icelandic singer-songwriter? At the Lamington Street spot, which is welcoming in Cerrone and Ásgeir. The former is a legend, selling over 30-million records worldwide; being sampled by everyone from Public Enemy, Jamie XX and Daft Punk to Run DMC and Paul McCartney; and known for 70s tracks 'Love in C Minor', 'Supernature' and 'Give Me Love'. The latter is a folk-pop star that's up there with Iceland's best-known talents, and will be playing through his decade-long discography. If that sounds like an eclectic duo, hitting Powerhouse's stage one night after the other, that's because it is. Pinballing between vastly different sounds, vibes and shows has always been a driving force behind the venue's lineups, and this wintry music season is no different. Here's two more cases in point: Cash Savage and The Last Drinks, who'll kick off the program, plus Desire Marea. The Melbourne-based Savage and her band head north fresh from releasing their new album So This Is Love, as well as singles Keep Working At Your Job' and '$600 Short On The Rent'. As for Marea, the South African-based artist also arrives with a recent release, On the Romance of Being, a blend of post-gospel, spiritual jazz, and the ancient music of the Nguni and Ndau peoples which was recorded live with a 13-musician ensemble. WINTER SOUNDS AT BRISBANE POWERHOUSE: Thursday, June 1 — Cash Savage and The Last Drinks Friday, June 2 — Cerrone by Cerrone Saturday, June 3 — Ásgeir Thursday, June 15 — Desire Marea Brisbane Powerhouse's winter music program kicks off on Thursday, June 1 — for more information, head to the venue's website.
Birds chirp, rainbows form and the sun shines a little brighter over Brisbane when the Dog Lovers Show comes around. And it's returning to the Brisbane Showgrounds for a second year of pats, licks and parades on the weekend of November 3 and 4. Yes, the dedicated puppy cuddle zone is returning — and in 2018, the first Brisbane Common Woof Games will also join the program. The Brisbane Dog Lovers Show will see thousands of dedicated pooch fans celebrating the noble four-legged monarch of human companionship. There'll be dozens of furry friends available for adoption from dozens rescue groups across Queensland in the adoption zone, where you can learn up on what's actually involved with the process. But hold up, you came here to cuddle pooches. We're getting there. Punters can make their way to the Pat-a-Pooch zone, where you can cuddle up to a wide range of Australia's most loveable and popular breeds from puppy to adult dogs — we're talking uppity dachshunds to fluffball samoyeds, all up in your grill. This was undeniably the main attraction of last year's event, and gives kitten cafes a run for their money. There's plenty more happening over the two days of furry friended fun. Not sure which type of schnoochie is perfect for you? Sign up for a Perfect Match session where you'll be paired with your ultimate dog breed. Already found your tail-waggin' soulmate? Get some expert tips on training, behaviour, first-aid and nutrition in seminars by some of Australia's big name vets. And if you're interested in watching doggos be adorable in events such as 'dog socca', mini-dog hurdles, barrel racing and javelin weave — plus canine versions of basketball, vault and discus as well — then make a date with the Common Woof Games . There'll also be aquatic events, with plenty of pooches making a splash. Tickets are $20. Everything is free (including cuddles) once you have purchased your ticket, obviously excepting food and drink. Updated September 21.
Think of all the best things in life: the beach, beats and booze. They're all essential to a pre-game beach party (and, coincidentally, all start with B for some reason). So last weekend we teamed up with Sonos and got a pretty little beach house in Byron, loaded up on Stone & Wood beers, set up Banoffee on the balcony and got her to sing out towards the bay. It was Concrete Playground's own Beach Break. Duo-to-watch Kllo were there too, and we got to listen to their sweet electronic tunes with the Saturday arvo sun sky-high over Byron Bay. While Banoffee played 'Let's Go to the Beach' — and we basked in the glory of the fact that we were indeed already at the beach — we sipped on wines from Jacob's Creek and Stoneleigh Wild Valley and G&Tea cocktails made with Four Pillars gin, Earl Grey tea and Fever Tree soda. Also being shaken and stirred was Baron Samedi spiced rum punch and an Aperol and watermelon concoction that made it feel like summer all over again. Here's some snaps we took of the festivities. We're keeping these on-hand for gloomy days stuck in the office. Video: Andy Fraser.
Being an adult Disney fan in southeast Queensland is easy right now. The Mouse House's movies can be watched and rewatched (then rewatched again) thanks to the company's very own streaming service, and there's no shortage of other events — outdoor cinemas, musicals, exhibitions and more — around the place. But if you're looking for something special to celebrate a whole century of the company's wares, and you're particularly fond of all the earworm songs its flicks have gotten stuck in your head over the years, then a big 100th-anniversary Disney concert is just the ticket. Disney 100: The Concert hops on a trend that's been popular for a few years now, pairing beloved movies with a live orchestra playing the soundtrack as you watch. This time, though, you'll be seeing clips of the Mouse House's musical hits rather than watching an entire feature. There's just that much to get through, given the company's massive film catalogue. Making its Queensland stopover at HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast over two shows across Friday, March 31–Saturday, April 1, 2023, the concert will bust out tracks from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Moana and Encanto, as well as Pocahontas, Aladdin, Tangled, Hercules and Frozen. At the venue's outdoor stage, an orchestra will be in charge of the tunes, with exact details to be revealed — and a yet-to-be-announced a lineup of Australian musical theatre stars will be lending their voices to the production, which focuses on Disney's animated favourites. Also featuring: performers Genevieve McCarthy (Mythic, Les Misérables) and Amy Manford (The Phantom of the Opera) from MM Creative Productions, which is behind the production. If Disney's music soundtracked your childhood — and still does your adulthood — being this show's guest is a delightfully easy decision. Disney 100: The Concert will play HOTA, Home of the Arts on Friday, March 31–Saturday, April 1, 2023. Pre-sale tickets are available now, with general public tickets on sale from 9am AEST on Thursday, October 20. Images: Jarrad Seng.
If you know Brisbane fashion, you've definitely stumbled across Frock Paper Scissors at some point. This annual fashion and lifestyle publication from QUT features the best content from its creative industry students. Every year, the magazine becomes a fashionista bookshelf staple, and their 2014 edition is proving no different. Frock Paper Scissors 2014 Launch Party kicks off on November 20 at The Glasshouse at QUT. Join in celebrating the dedicated work of the creative minds who've been slaving tireless for four months to show off Brisbane’s most inspiring and innovative happenings in the fashion world. Tickets are $25, and that include drinks, food, entertainment, and of course, the star of the evening — a copy of the ninth edition of Frock Paper Scissors. Meet and mingle with some of Brisbane's most promising up and comers, with a glass of champagne in one hand and one of Brisbane's hottest mags in the other.
They started as an opening act for the Beastie Boys. They've been fighting the power for almost four decades. They're no strangers to big hats and giant clocks, or for fighting for a worthy cause. They've been in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2013. They'll forever come to mind whenever Def Jam and Long Island come up. They're Public Enemy, of course, and they're about to get Australia believing the hype when they bring the noise — and their latest tour — Down Under in October 2024. Chuck D, Flavor Flav and company are playing Eatons Hill in Brisbane on Saturday, October 12. Audiences, you're gonna get yours when the icons take to the stage to play through 37 years of tunes that began with 1987 singles 'Public Enemy No 1' and, yes, 'You're Gonna Get Yours', all from their debut studio album Yo! Bum Rush the Show. Expect tracks from 1988's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and 1990's Fear of a Black Planet — two of the most-influential records of the period, and home to 'Bring the Noise', 'Don't Believe the Hype', 'Rebel Without a Pause', '911 Is a Joke' and 'Fight the Power' — as well, through to songs from 2020's What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?, their most-recent album. For company, Public Enemy have AB Original in support, pairing one classic duo with another in Briggs and Trials — and matching the US group's commitment to social rights activism with an Australian act just as devoted to standing up against injustice. Public Enemy last played in Australia a decade ago, on a 2014 tour that included Golden Plains, plus gigs in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Launceston.
If one man's trash is another man's treasure, then a trunk full of junk may as well be a treasure chest. Suitcase Rummage gets that when it comes to shopping, second-hand reaps the best bang for your buck. For years they've been hosting regular events at Brisbane Square, but now they're upgrading and upsizing to the Powerhouse and adding a craft workshop to the mix. The Suitcase Rummage and Crafternoon takes place from 11am to 4pm, and will feature a crowd of open suitcases filled with the type of clothes, knick-knacks and craft you probably don't need but definitely deserve. Plus, join Naomi Huntsman for a workshop on rag rugs, where you'll learn the basics of making floor and wall coverings from upcycled bed linen, old clothing and pieces of fabric you have hanging around. You can have your own shot at crafting something beautiful, and if you really know how to take advantage of a situation, pop it in an open suitcase and smack a $20 pricetag on it. Entry for Suitcase Rummage and Crafternoon is free, and if you're interested in running a stall, register here.
Under normal circumstances, when a new-release movie starts playing in cinemas, audiences can't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the pandemic forcing film industry to make quite a few changes over the past year — widespread movie theatre closures will do that — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you're in lockdown. Perhaps you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Given the hefty amount of films now releasing each week, maybe you missed something. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here's nine you can watch right now at home. THE SPARKS BROTHERS "All I do now is dick around" is an exquisite song lyric and, in Sparks' 2006 single 'Dick Around', it's sung with the operatic enthusiasm it demands. It's also a line that resounds with both humour and truth when uttered by Russell Mael, who, with elder brother Ron, has been crafting art-pop ditties as irreverent and melodic as this wonderful track since 1969. Sparks haven't been dicking around over that lengthy period. They currently have 25 albums to their name, and they've taken on almost every genre of music there is in their highly acerbic fashion. That said, their tunes are clearly the biggest labour of love possible, especially as the enigmatic duo has always lingered outside the mainstream. They've had some chart success, including mid-70s hit 'This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us', Giorgio Moroder collaboration and disco standout 'The Number One Song in Heaven', and the supremely 80s 'Cool Places'. They're beloved by everyone from Beck and 'Weird Al' Yankovic to Jason Schwartzman and Mike Myers, too. They're the band that all your favourite bands, actors and comedians can't get enough of, but they're hardly a household name — and yet, decade after decade, the Maels have kept playing around to make the smart, hilarious and offbeat songs they obviously personally adore. Everyone else should love Sparks' idiosyncratic earworms as well — and, even for those who've never heard of the band before, that's the outcome after watching The Sparks Brothers. Edgar Wright, one of the group's unabashed super fans, has turned his overflowing affection into an exceptional documentary. It's the Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Baby Driver's first factual effort, and it's even more charming and delightful than the films he's best known for. That said, it'd be hard to mess up a movie about Sparks, purely given how much material there is to work with. Russell and Ron, the former sporting shaggier hair and the latter donning a pencil-thin moustache rather than the Charlie Chaplin-style top lip he's brandished for much of his career, are also heavenly interviewees. That's the thing about these now-septuagenarian siblings, every Sparks tune they've ever blasted out into the world, and this comprehensive yet always accessible film that's instantly one of 2021's best: they're all joyously, fabulously, eccentrically fun to an infectious and buoyant degree. The world has always needed more Sparks on a bigger stage; now, to the benefit of everyone that's ever loved them and anyone just discovering them, it's stopped dicking around and is finally delivering The Sparks Brothers is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Read our full review. LITTLE JOE Pipes blow gently. The camera swirls. Rows of plants fill the screen. Some are leafy and flowery as they reach for the sky; others are mere stems topped with closed buds. Both types of vegetation are lined up in boxes in an austere-looking laboratory greenhouse — and soon another shoot of green appears among them. Plant breeder Alice (Cruella's Emily Beecham, who won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress award for her work here) is cloaked in a lab coat far paler than any plant, but the symbolism is immediately evident. Audiences don't know it yet, but her shock of cropped red hair resembles the crimson flowers that'll blossom in her genetically engineered new type of flora, too. "The aim has been to create a plant with a scent that makes its owner happy," she tells a small audience. She explains that most research in her field, and in this lab, has revolved around cultivating greenery that requires less human interaction; however, her new breed does the opposite. This species needs more watering and more protection from the elements, and responds to touch and talk. In return, it emits a scent that kickstarts the human hormone oxytocin when inhaled. Linked to parenting and bonding, that response will make everyone "love this plant like your own child," beams Alice like a proud parent. So starts Little Joe, which shares its name with the vegetation in question — a "mood-lifting, anti-depressant, happy plant," Alice's boss (David Wilmot, Calm with Horses) boasts. She's borrowed her own teenage son's (Kit Connor, Rocketman) moniker for her new baby, although she gives it more attention than her flesh-and-blood offspring, especially with the push to get it to market speeding up. The clinical gaze favoured by Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner (Amour fou) is telling, though. The eerie tone to the feature's Japanese-style, flute- and percussion-heavy score sets an uneasy mood as well. And, there's something not quite right in the overt eagerness of Alice's lab colleague Chris (Ben Whishaw, Fargo), and in the way that Planthouse Biotechnologies' other employees all instantly dismiss the concerns of the one naysayer, Bella (Kerry Fox, Top End Wedding), who has just returned to work after a mental health-induced sabbatical. Making her first English-language feature, Hausner helms a disquieting and anxious sci-fi/horror masterwork. Like many movies in the genre, this is a film about possibilities and consequences, creation and its costs, and happiness and its sacrifices — and about both daring to challenge and dutifully abiding by conformity — and yet it's always its own beast. There are aspects of Frankenstein at play, and The Day of the Triffids, and even Side Effects also. But as anyone familiar with Mary Shelley's iconic work knows, combining familiar elements can result in an intriguing new entity that's much more than just the sum of its parts. Little Joe is available to stream via Google Play and YouTube Movies. Read our full review. STREAMLINE Chasing a dream can feel like swimming through cool water on a hot summer's day — gliding, splashing and laidback paddling all included — with each refreshing stroke propelling you closer towards your own personal finish line. That's when everything is going well, of course, and when whatever your heart and mind desires seems as if it's waiting at the end of the pool. Otherwise, when you're bogged down by everyday minutiae and nothing seems to inch forward, working towards a set goal can also resemble treading water. It can mirror repetitively doing laps, too, when your destination seems out of sight despite all the hard work you're putting in. And, if you're tired and fed up with all the effort needed to even keep afloat — and when your heart is no longer in it — it can feel like floundering and drowning. In Streamline, all of these sensations and emotions bubble up for 15-year-old Benjamin Lane (Levi Miller, A Wrinkle in Time), as he pursues a professional swimming career, a spot in a prestigious squad in Brisbane and, ideally, an Olympics berth and all the glory that goes with it. Indeed, one of the delights of this Australian movie, which boasts Ian Thorpe as one of its executive producers, is how evocatively it sprinkles these swashes of feelings across the screen. Written and directed by feature first-timer Tyson Wade Johnston, Streamline is a sports drama as well as a small town-set family drama — and it's also a portrait of that time when you're expected to dive headfirst into adulthood, and into knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life, but you're also inescapably wracked with uncertainty and apprehension. Teenage awkwardness and angst aren't simple states to capture on-screen, although enough coming-of-age movies have been buoyed by both; however, Streamline opts to plunge deep into the existential stress that goes beyond feeling out of place with your peers or being annoyed at your parents. Its protagonist, who everyone just calls Boy, only really connects with his girlfriend and best friend Patti (Tasia Zalar, Mystery Road) at school. And, he's definitely mad at his mother and father. He resents his single mum Kim's (Laura Gordon, Undertow) efforts to keep him focused, which he sees as controlling rather than nurturing. He's doing tumble turns internally over his dad Rob (Jason Isaacs, Creation Stories), who's just been released from prison and has never been a positive influence in his life. Boy is also furious at his surrogate father figure, Coach Clarke (Robert Morgan, The Secrets She Keeps), for all the cajoling that coaches tend to give. But, mostly the swimming prodigy is unsure — about what he wants, what he's been told he wants and what to do next. Streamline is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. THE SUICIDE SQUAD New decade, new director, new word in the title — and a mostly new cast, too. That's The Suicide Squad, the DC Extended Universe's new effort to keep viewers immersed in its sprawling superhero franchise, which keeps coming second in hearts, minds and box-office success to Marvel's counterpart. Revisiting a concept last seen in 2016's Suicide Squad, the new flick also tries to blast its unloved precursor's memory from everyone's brains. That three-letter addition to the title? It doesn't just ignore The Social Network's quote about the English language's most-used term, but also attempts to establish this film as the definitive vision of its ragtag supervillain crew. To help, Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker James Gunn joins the fold, his Troma-honed penchant for horror, comedy and gore is let loose, and a devil-may-care attitude is thrust to the fore. But when your main aim is to one-up the derided last feature with basically the same name, hitting your target is easy — and fulfilling that mission, even with irreverence and flair, isn't the same as making a great or especially memorable movie. Indeed, a film can be funny and lively, use its main faces well, have a few nice moments with its supporting cast and improve on its predecessor, and yet still fall into a routine, unsuccessfully wade into murky politics, never capitalise upon its premise or promise, keep rehashing the same things, and just be average, too — and right now, that film is The Suicide Squad. Mischief abounds from the outset — mood-wise, at least — including when no-nonsense black-ops agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) teams up Suicide Squad's Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, The Secrets We Keep), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney, Honest Thief) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, Dreamland) with a few new felons for a trip to the fictional Corto Maltese. Because this movie has that extra word in its title, it soon switches to another troupe reluctantly led by mercenary Bloodsport (Idris Elba, Concrete Cowboy), with fellow trained killer Peacemaker (John Cena, Fast and Furious 9) and the aforementioned Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian, Bird Box), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior, Valor da Vida) and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone, Rambo: Last Blood) also present. Their task: to sneak into a tower on the South American island. Under the guidance of The Thinker (Peter Capaldi, The Personal History of David Copperfield), alien experiment Project Starfish has been underway there for decades (and yes, Gunn makes time for a butthole joke). In this movie about cartoonish incarcerated killers doing the US government's dirty work, Waller has charged her recruits to destroy the secret test, all to ensure it isn't used by the violent faction that's just taken over Corto Maltese via a bloody coup. The end result is silly and goofy, fittingly — and yet, even when a supersized space starfish gets stompy (think: SpongeBob SquarePants' best bud Patrick if he grew up and got power-hungry), this sequel-slash-do-over is never as gleefully absurd as it should be. Again and again, even when Gunn's gambit works in the moment, that's how The Suicide Squad keeps playing out. The Suicide Squad is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Read our full review. REMINISCENCE The look is all Blade Runner. The idea owes a few debts in that direction, too. In Reminiscence's vision of the future, androids don't dream of electric sheep; however, humans do escape into memories while they slumber in a tank of water, reliving and interacting with cherished moments from their past as if they're happening again right that instant. The mood takes a bit of the aforementioned sci-fi classic's tone, and Blade Runner 2049's as well, but then doubles down on the noir, and on some of the plot twists. Playing a veteran of a post-flood war that's seen Florida split into the haves and the have-nots, and also a man in possession of the technology and know-how to let paying customers reminisce, Hugh Jackman (Bad Education) isn't ever told "forget it Nick Bannister, it's Miami". Given that Reminiscence often feels like it wants to be a futuristic take on Chinatown, that wouldn't phrase feel out of place in the slightest, though. This is a film that lets its influences flicker to the surface that forcefully. It trades in memories, too, conjuring up a long list of smarter fare. And while it gives Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy a new outlet for many of the themes that've always hovered through the hit HBO show — primarily humanity's increasing disconnection with each other, and the growing yearning to find solace in either artificial or nostalgic settings, or both — she gleefully treads in her own footsteps. Or, the writer/director gives the ideas she's clearly fascinated with a different appearance and atmosphere than she's been working with on TV, but still largely enjoys the same toys. Perhaps Joy just gets comfort from the familiar, just like Bannister's clients. That might ring with more truth if Reminiscence didn't primarily use its intriguing underlying concept — a notion with plenty of promise, even as it nods to sci-fi gems gone by — to wrap up a romance in a mystery in a flimsy fashion. The hard-boiled Bannister has settled into his routine guiding people through their personal histories, with assistance with his ex-military colleague Watts (Westworld's Thandiwe Newton), until the film's femme fatale walks through the door asking for help. Singer Mae (Rebecca Ferguson, Doctor Sleep) has lost her keys, wants to use Bannister's tech to find them and ends up earning his besotted affection in the process. Then bliss turns to heartache when she disappears suddenly. Bannister is as obsessed with tracking her down as he is with her in general when they're together, but secrets about the woman he realises he never really knew keep being pushed to the fore as he searches. Also prominent: dialogue that feels like it's parodying all the movies that Reminiscence is copying, which drags the feature down word by word. Thankfully, Jackman, Newton and Ferguson's performances exceed the trite phrases that they're repeatedly forced to utter. The film's look and feel gleam and haunt by design, even though they also shine with and are haunted by the greats of a genre Joy clearly loves; however, this ends up being a movie about revelling in the past that happily plays it safe instead of striding into the future. Reminiscence is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. SOME KIND OF HEAVEN If you didn't know that Some Kind of Heaven was a documentary, you might think that it was a skit from I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. The same kind of social awkwardness that makes the Netflix sketch comedy such an equally savage and hilarious watch is present in this factual look at the retirement community also dubbed "god's waiting room": The Villages, Florida, the world's largest master-planned, age-restricted locale of its kind, and home to more than 120,000 people. This is a place for folks aged over 55 to live in multiple senses of the world. Couples tend to move there, then sign up for some of the thousands of activities and clubs that get them out dancing, kayaking, cheerleading, swimming and more. If a resident happens to be on their own — usually after their partner's passing — they can get involved in the local singles club, too. Around since the early 80s, and also described as "Disney World for retirees", this community is meant to be a dream. It was specifically designed to resemble the kinds of small towns its inhabitants likely grew up in, right down to the shop-filled main street and the large town square, and locals aren't ever meant to want to leave. But as Some Kind of Heaven follows four folks who've made The Villages their home — including one ex-Californian import that's just squatting — it demonstrates the reality that lingers behind the busy facade and glossy sales pitch. Requiem for a Dream's Darren Aronofsky is one of the doco's producers and, while Mother!-style horrors never quite pop up, this isn't a portrait of bliss by any means. Many of The Villages' residents are clearly happy. In his first feature-lengthy documentary, filmmaker Lance Oppenheim trains his gaze at people who aren't likely to appear in any of the community's brochures, however. Every shot lensed by cinematographer David Bolen (1BR) and boxed into the film's square frame is scenic and striking — Some Kind of Heaven sports an exquisite eye for visual composition — but much of what the movie depicts feels like stepping into a surreal alternative realm. (In one sequence, the camera meets a room filled with women called Elaine, all of whom introduce themselves one after one — and it's a scene that could've come straight out of any one of David Lynch's visions of suburban horror.) Approaching their 47-year wedding anniversary, Reggie and Anne think they've found the place for them. That's what they're both saying, at least, but The Villages means different things for each of them. Reggie has used the move to embrace his love of drugs and doing whatever he wants, and Anne has once again been forced to stand by his side, including when he's sent to court and admonished for his rudeness while representing himself. Then there's Barbara, a widow from Boston who didn't ever plan to live in Florida alone. She still works full-time, a rarity among her fellow residents, and she yearns for the company she thinks a margarita-loving golf cart salesman might bring. Rounding out the interviewees is the sleazy Dennis, an 81-year-old living in his van until he can find an attractive and rich woman to marry. Some Kind of Heaven doesn't judge him, or anyone else in its frames, but it lets these stories speak volumes about a place positioned as a fantasy land and yet really just bringing out the chaotic teenager inside everyone. Some Kind of Heaven is available to stream via Docplay. WEREWOLVES WITHIN The last time that filmmaker Josh Ruben trekked to a snowy mountainous locale and tracked the characters stranded in its midst, Scare Me was the end result, with the entertaining horror-comedy combining cabin fever chaos with creepy tales. Accordingly, it's easy to see how he's jumped from that Sundance hit to Werewolves Within, which shares the same kind of setting and setup — but with lycanthropes and a whodunnit twist. Forest ranger Finn (Sam Richardson, Promising Young Woman) has just arrived in the remote town of Beaverfield as the weather turns and the strange attacks start. He's barely been given a tour by fellow outsider Cecily (Milana Vayntrub, This Is Us), the local mail carrier, when the village's generators are found destroyed and the bodies start piling up. Finn has already established that he's surrounded by eccentric characters, including an oilman (Wayne Duvall, The Trial of the Chicago 7) trying to build a pipeline through the foliage, a store owner (Michaela Watkins, Search Party) obsessed with her dog, a constantly arguing couple (No Activity's George Basil and Barry's Sarah Burns) with a fondness for skirting the law, and a pair of ex-city slickers (What We Do in the Shadows' Harvey Guillén and Saved by the Bell's Cheyenne Jackson); however, he's soon forced into close quarters with his new neighbours as they all try to work out who's transforming into a ravenous creature and indulging their hunger. If it all sounds a bit like Cluedo but with werewolves, there's a reason for that; the 2016 virtual reality game that Werewolves Within is based on also matches that description. Adapted into a movie, the narrative aims for Knives Out with claws — but, while overflowing with one-liners, sight gags and a healthy sense of humour to a not just jam-packed but overstuffed degree, the end result is never as funny as it should be. It's never quite as fun, either, even though the concept is a winner on paper. Comedian-turned-screenwriter Mishna Wolff spends far too much time trading in the glaringly apparent, not to mention the predictable. Hell is other people here, and the fact that a seemingly quaint and friendly small town can be filled with deceit, duplicity and disaster is hardly a new observation (and neither is the musing that the sniping within the community just might be worse than the supernatural threat they're now facing). That almost every character remains purely one-note doesn't help, and nor do the over-amped performances given by all of the film's supporting players. Richardson is a delight, though, as he has been in everything from Detroiters to Veep. Indeed, he makes the case not just for more work, but for more leading roles. Vayntrub sinks her teeth into her part, too, and her rapport with Richardson is one of the movie's highlights. Also engaging: the off-kilter tone that Ruben adopts throughout, again aping his previous — and better — feature. Werewolves Within is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. THE ICE ROAD They're called ice road truckers and, between 2007–17, they earned their own reality TV series on the History Channel. They're the folks who don't just drive while it's frosty, but steer big rigs onto frozen lakes and rivers in Alaska and Canada — using routes obviously only available in winter to haul freight from one point to another. And, they're the focus of The Ice Road. In his latest stock-standard action flick following Honest Thief and The Marksman in the past year alone, Liam Neeson joins the ice road trucking fraternity, although his character only does so as a last resort. A seasoned long-haul driver, Mike McCann has had trouble holding down a job ever since he started caring for his Iraq War veteran brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas, The Forger), who came home with PTSD and aphasia, and is also a gifted mechanic. The pair have just been fired from their latest gig, in fact, when they see Jim Goldenrod's (Laurence Fishburne, Where'd You Go, Bernadette) callout for help driving gas wellheads to a remote Manitoba site where 26 miners have been trapped by an explosion. It's a dangerous task, and one that calls for three trucks making the distance as quickly and carefully as possible. Mike and Gurty set out in one vehicle, Jim in another, and Native American driver Tantoo (Amber Midthunder, Roswell, New Mexico) and mining company insurance agent Tom Varnay (Benjamin Walker, The Underground Railroad) hop into the third rig, but transporting their cargo and saving the buried workers is a tense and treacherous mission. Much about The Ice Road will sound familiar to anyone who's seen Sorcerer, William Friedkin's stellar 1977 thriller about trucking volatile dynamite along a rocky South American road — which adapted 1950 French novel The Salary of Fear, a book that first reached cinemas via 1953's Cannes Palme d'Or-winning The Wages of Fear. This isn't an acknowledged remake, but icy, however. It'd be far better if it was, because the tension that ripples from simply driving along the titular route is The Ice Road's strongest element. In the feature's first half, after setting the scene for both the McCanns and the miners, writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh (Kill the Irishman) stresses the perils of trucking down frozen rivers. Bobbleheads placed on dashboards wobble whenever the ice threatens to become unstable, pressure waves shimmer and action-movie stress bubbles within the film's gleaming white images. That'd be enough to sustain the movie, but Hensleigh believes otherwise, which is where predictable double-crossing on the ice, among the stranded miners and back at company headquarters comes in. Even Neeson can't make the long list of cliches that fill The Ice Road's script entertaining, not that he seems to be trying all that hard. He's gruff and grizzled, and he yells, punches and fights for what's right, but he also just makes viewers wish they were watching him confront wolves in excellent survival thriller The Grey, or drive a snowplough in the average Cold Pursuit. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the cast fare just as badly, including the thoroughly wasted Fishburne and Midthunder, and Mindhunter's Holt McCallany as one of the miners. The Ice Road is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS More than once in Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, a supporting performance stands out — and not for the right reasons. Overdone and obvious, these portrayals leave audiences with no doubt that the corresponding characters are part of the game that this franchise has been playing for two movies now. The overall premise of this series sees ordinary folks receive invites that lead them into a maze of escape rooms. These are literal life-and-death spaces, and the body count grows room by room. This time around, Zoey (Taylor Russell, Words on Bathroom Walls) and Ben (Logan Miller, Love, Simon), the sole survivors of 2019's series starter, are trying to track down the villains responsible for the death traps. Of course, they're soon stuck in another one, alongside four fellow winners (In Like Flynn's Thomas Cocquerel, Follow Me's Holland Roden, Queen & Slim's Indya Moore and Step Up: High Water's Carlito Olivero) from other games. There's supposed to be a sense of anxiousness about where the escape rooms begin and the outside world ends, and vice versa, but that's completely stripped out of this second effort. Throughly unsubtle bit-part performances, even for a movie this blatant at every turn, will do that. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is still tense when Zoe, Ben and their fellow pawns are trying to sleuth their way to safety, thankfully, but that's largely a result of giving them twisty puzzles to solve at an urgent pace. Watching people trying to problem-solve quickly comes with innate tension. Will they succeed? Won't they? The seesawing between those two extremes is inherently suspenseful. That, and the rooms themselves, are two of Escape Room: Tournament of Champions' three highlights. The third: Russell, who is capable of so much more — as seen in Waves, for example — and gives her part here more depth than is written on the page. But, as much as returning director Adam Robitel (Insidious: The Last Key) tries to spin something memorable out of the nervous tone, elaborate spaces and Russell's presence, the repetition and overtness gets tiring fast. While individual scenes may be tense, the overall film never is. It's always apparent where the narrative is headed, even when the six credited writers (Mortal Kombat's Oren Uziel, Hand of God's Daniel Tuch, Counterpart's Maria Melnik, The Hive's Will Honley, Invincible's Christine Lavaf and Wildling's Fritz Böhm) think they're serving up surprises; thought has clearly gone into the minutiae of each escape room, and yet little seems to have been afforded the bigger picture. Visually, and in its soundtrack, every stylistic touch paints by the numbers, too. Also much too predictable: that the film is a setup for yet more to follow. The Final Destination franchise has ratcheted up five instalments so far, so the Escape Room series, the closest thing it has to a successor, can obviously keep milking its setup for several more formulaic movies to come. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. THE MISFITS Imagine Robin Hood meets Ocean's Eleven meets the Fast and Furious franchise, but helmed by the filmmaker behind Deep Blue Sea, and somehow starring the unlikely combination of Pierce Brosnan (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga), Tim Roth (Luce) and rapper/comedian/TV presenter Nick Cannon (Chi-Raq). Then, picture a film set in the fictional Jeziristan, because appropriating a particular culture and applying it to a made-up place is apparently okay by this flick's powers-that-be — and also envision a movie so blatant with its Islamophobia at every turn that Cannon's character is almost constantly making fun of Middle Eastern accents and Arabic names, citizens of this part of the globe are largely depicted as terrorists or psychopaths, a group of villains is called the Muslim Brotherhood, but all the gloss and glitz of Abu Dhabi, where the movie is shot, is leered at (as are the scantily clad women seen in its hotels, too). No one wants to visualise this flick, but unfortunately it exists. And yes, The Misfits is as atrocious as it sounds. Director Renny Harlin (who also has Cliffhanger and The Long Kiss Goodnight to his name) seems like he's simply trying to recreate shots, looks and scenes he likes from far better films, but badly. And, the fact that co-screenwriter Kurt Wimmer also has the atrocious 2015 remake of Point Break on his resume makes a huge amount of sense, because this bag of tripe just stitches together plot points from almost every other heist feature there is (as exacerbated by dialogue as bland and cliched as every aspect of the narrative). A big contender for the worst movie to reach Australian cinemas this year, and a film that surely wouldn't have ever gotten the chance if the pandemic hadn't upended the theatrical release slate, The Misfits brings together a ragtag gang of well-meaning criminals. They anoint themselves with the movie's moniker after ruling out 'motley crew' for obvious reasons, if you're wondering how stupid and inane this feature gets — and quickly. Bank robber Ringo (Cannon) usually flexes his light-fingered skills to rip off the wealthy and give back to the poor, so obviously he's keen to form a makeshift family with martial arts expert Violet (Jamie Chung, Lovecraft Country), who likes punishing terrible men; explosives-obsessed Wick (Thai popstar Mike Angelo), who blows up nasty businesses; and 'the Prince' (Rami Jaber, Tough Love), who may or may not be royalty in another made-up country. Their next target: a vault of gold hidden inside a maximum-security Jeziristan jail overseen by nefarious businessman Warner Schultz (Roth). Their latest recruits: UN-employed humanitarian Hope (Hermione Corfield, Sea Fever) and, if she can convince him, her conman dad Richard Pace (Brosnan), who of course has a history with their mark. Much that happens is nonsensical, which also applies to the messily staged and shot action scenes. The movie's sexism goes hand in hand with its blatant racism, too. Daddy issues, second chances, car chases, slow-motion explosions, pointless visual tricks — that's all part of this hideous package as well, alongside absolutely zero subtlety or enjoyment. The Misfits is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Looking for more at-home viewing options? Check out our lists of movies fast-tracked from cinemas to streaming back in May, June, July and August. You can also take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows.
Culinary puns, food-themed songs, and the delightful adventures of a burger-slinging family: on the small screen, that's what Bob's Burgers has been serving up since 2011. Just like the dish that's right there in the title, there's more than one way to enjoy this animated gem, however, with The Bob's Burgers Movie set to hit cinemas in May this year. The film has been a long time coming — and not just because the series it springs from has been on the air for a whopping 12 seasons now. The Bob's Burgers Movie was originally due to reach the big screen back in mid-2020, but the pandemic got in the way. Think of it as the movie version of IRL supermarket shortages. Thankfully, 2022 is here with the promise that The Bob's Burgers Movie will be a real thing that we'll all get to feast our eyeballs on — and soon. And if your appetite for a movie-length musical comedy-mystery-adventure flick about Bob Belcher (H Jon Benjamin, Archer) and his nearest and dearest isn't already ravenous, the film's just-dropped trailer is here to help. Sexy burgers, a big summer for Tina and trying to keep Bob's Burgers afloat after a ruptured water main causes a huge sinkhole right in front of the store: they're all on the movie's menu, as is a mystery that only Belcher kids Tina (Dan Mintz, Veep), Gene (Eugene Mirman, Archer) and Louise (Kristen Schaal, What We Do in the Shadows) can solve. And yes, The Bob's Burgers Movie does offer a solution to the feeling that every Bob's Burgers' fan has felt more than once: not wanting this colourful, hilarious and engaging animated meal to end when you're binging through it in 20-minute episode blocks. Check out the trailer for The Bob's Burgers Movie below: The Bob's Burgers Movie will open in cinemas Down Under on May 26, 2022. Images: Courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
When Patina set up shop on the river-facing side of Customs House back in 2018, the waterside CBD spot gave diners stellar views to accompany their meals and drinks. Launching its sibling site in the city's inner west, it's doing the same — but this time, it's gone green with its vistas. Patina at Alumni Court is the newest addition to the University of Queensland's St Lucia campus, which accounts for the tree-lined surroundings and grassy stretch sprawling out in front of the eatery's outdoor area. The vibe: bringing the outside in, while also nodding to the chain's OG venue. Hefty windows peer out over the lawn, while brass and copper-coloured finishes take their cues from Customs House's iconic copper dome, all in a space that also incorporates Alumni Court's heritage-listed former Radon Laboratory. Open since Monday, February 21, the 90-seater — indoors and out — boasts chef Nick Murtas (ex-Palazzo Versace and Emporium Hotels) in the kitchen, as overseen by Patina's Executive Chef John Offenhauser (ex-Chef de Cuisine and Marco Polo at the Treasury Hotel). On their menu, which doesn't just mimic its sister eatery's offerings: a seafood-heavy range that also heroes seasonal produce. Highlights from the a la carte selection include ora king salmon tartare with Tasmanian wasabi, smoked soy, avocado, nashi, finger lime and coriander, plus South Burnett pork belly with smoked parsnip, Mooloolaba king prawn, witlof and pickled white grape. Yuzu oysters, octopus with smoked potatoes, steamed duck buns, mushroom tarte tatin and chicken with a shawarma marinade also feature — and the dessert range spans espresso martini souffles with vanilla vodka cream, panna cotta with chamomile jelly, creme brulee with almond biscotti and caramelised banana tarte tatin. Operating Monday–Friday, Patina at Alumni Court also does breakfast — think: brioche with smoked salmon, maple-glazed bacon or scrambled eggs, plus pork sausage rolls, cheesy vegetable frittatas and Neighbourhood Roasters coffee — and hosts sparkling-fuelled high teas from Tuesday–Friday. On the general drinks menu, craft spirits are a feature among the cocktail selection, which covers eight boozy choices — and four non-boozy options. Sip a negroni with or sans alcohol, for instance. The wine list goes heavy on riesling, rosé and champagne; a small spirits lineup covers all the usual bases; and the 12-option beer range also features a non-boozy brew. Patina at Alumni Court is also home to a private dining room and catering service, and is hosting seasonal pop-ups in its openair space. First up at the latter: a Bombay Sapphire setup that pairs G&Ts with crispy barramundi tacos, among other snacks, while patrons kick back on deck chairs.
Ever been to New York? Well now you never have to, because earlier this year 24 students from QCA jetted over, and now they’re showing off this great city at The Hold Artspace. West 35th and 8th is a multimedia exhibition that showcases the individual projects that articulate the students' experiences as the discovered the city that never sleeps. The group were based on West 35th and 8th, though their experiences spill into all gaps and crevices of this vast and exciting city. The group itself is a diverse one, with the students coming from creative advertising, social documentary and art practices.
Brisbane Festival is back for 2023 throughout September, and it's returning with a bang — with Riverfire's fireworks, in fact. After moving the sky celebration to the beginning of its annual run in 2022, the citywide arts event is brightening up the heavens to start off spring again this year. Get ready to look up on Saturday, September 2. The fireworks display has now settled into its new slot after a chaotic few years, which saw it scaled back in 2019, then replaced with a light and laser show in 2020 due to the pandemic, and finally returning in 2021. Initially, Riverfire moved dates to shift out of school holidays. No matter when it's held, more than 500,000 people usually attend. If you've been to South Brisbane when it's on — even hours earlier — you will have seen the masses of people to prove how popular it is. Head anywhere with a decent vantage over the river and crowds await. Need a few recommendations? River Terrace at Kangaroo Point is the number-one spot to hit up for the best panoramic view. There's also South Bank, of course, as well as the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, Captain Burke Park and Wilson's Lookout — plus the Riverside Centre and the City Botanic Gardens, too. Even if fireworks aren't usually your thing, you might still be interested in the Riverfire shindigs that always pop up on the night, with bars around town usually throwing plenty of parties with quite the lit-up backdrop. This Brisbane tradition will start its entertainment at 5pm this year, with the fireworks blasting from 7.05pm from 15 locations, which includes five barges, two bridges and eight city rooftops. The display fling up the most fireworks that the event has ever featured, weighing in at an 11-tone gross.
You answer a knock at the door, thinking you’ll find a familiar face only to be met with an impromptu party. Sure, that doesn’t sound too bad — but when your expected visitor is a teenager you met in a train station the day before, arriving with his hustler friends in tow, it doesn’t sound too good, either. This is where mild-mannered, middle-aged Daniel (Olivier Rabourdin) finds himself in Eastern Boys — and where cinema finds one of its most striking scenes in years. Shy-looking Ukrainian immigrant Marek (Kirill Emelyanov) arrives at Daniel’s apartment after accepting money for sex, his pals barging in, stealing stuff and trashing the place. Unravelling against an electronic soundtrack, it’s a sight that’s both unsettling and unforgettable. The movie takes its time in showing every detail of the home invasion, not only forcing Daniel to linger, but making the audience do the same. Prepare to feel stunned and awkward. Prepare to keep watching, too, and not just taking in the visuals and following the storyline. Eastern Boys is a film of observation, making you look close and then closer, and then even closer again. You’d best be scrutinising everything you can see, from the long shots of Paris's crowded Gare du Nord and the dialogue-free glances that fill the feature’s first frames. The movie demands that you gaze from afar while trying to delve beneath the surface, which is also what it offers in its complicated character studies. Never going where anyone might predict, this isn’t a tale about trouble and revenge, but a film that’s part love story, part thriller — and neither of those sticks with convention or worries about leaps in logic. Chapters signal shifts in the story, involving Daniel, Marek and Boss (Daniil Vorobyov), the volatile but charming Russian leader of the pack, as well. Power, survival, identity, affection and belonging are all wrapped up in a movie equally personal and topical. It manages to combine the attempts of men trying to carve out a different life however they can with a broader contemplation of class and immigration, and it does so with moments of horror, hope and heartbreak. Anyone familiar with French TV series The Returned will know the kind of style writer/director/editor Robin Campillo’s favours in only his second effort as a filmmaker: slow-moving, atmospheric, precise and always showing rather than telling. Here, it’s an ideal fit for a narrative that doesn’t try to justify what is going on but instead wants viewers to witness the actions, reactions, interactions and transactions that make up its reality and draw their own conclusions. Kudos also must go to his excellent cast for their naturalistic performances, specifically veteran Rabourdin and relative newcomers Emelyanov and Vorobyov. Making a movie feel intense, involving and intimate at the same time isn’t easy, but they ensure we’re always watching. Not that you have a choice — with a tale this simultaneously tense and tender, just try to look away.
Strewth isn't just the most Aussie thing you can exclaim when you're surprised, although is certainly that. At The Elephant, it's also an annual pre-Australia Day party. As the Fortitude Valley pub clearly knows, the nation's big public holiday deserves a shindig boasting some local slang, after all. That's not all the free event boasts in its second year, with an array of tunes the real drawcard. Brisbane favourites Velociraptor top the bill, alongside Babaganouj, Waax, Deluso and Deeds. If you hadn't already guessed, an afternoon of rock 'n' roll is on the menu. If the music lineup isn't enough (or you just know that you'll be sporting a sizeable thirst and a hefty appetite), The Elephant's usual combination of beer and barbecued food will certainly hit the spot. Basically, you can pretend you're in your own backyard — but no one has to cook, and your soundtrack is being played live.
If pastel wasn't already part of your gig-going wardrobe, it will be at Client Liaison's Expo Liaison, which will be touring the country in August. Announced back in May, the seven-hour event will hit Victoria Park on across August 26, and the headlining duo will have quite the company. Alongside a roster of eight other acts, the duo's own set will also feature The Voice himself, John Farnham. Alice Ivy, Ken Davis, Kon, Luke Million featuring KLP, No Zu, Rainbow Chan and Total Giovanni are all on the bill, plus John Howard doing a DJ set. Whether that's John Howard the former prime minister, John Howard the Aussie actor or just some other guy called John Howard, well, your guess is as good as ours — but Triple J is entertaining the fact that it could be the former. As for the kind of vibe that's in store, the curated event has fest badged "a multimedia, multi-city, multiversal experience" in its promotional material, as well as a "once-in-a-lifetime event". They're the kind of descriptions that plenty of gigs and fests throw around, but, even though the band's being overly hyperbolic, Client Liaison has a track record of delivering more than just the usual shows — or fashion lines or music videos, for that matter.
Put down your So Fresh CD. Crack open your teenage piggy bank. Keep practising your Janet Jackson shimmy. Because a full-blown R&B frenzy is set to sweep the nation this November as live party tour RNB Fridays returns for five mammoth shows. Descending on Brisbane Showgrounds on Friday, November 15, the event has managed to pull a pretty serious lineup of international music legends straight from the 90s and early 2000s. Last year, the event saw tens of thousands of people snap up tickets to see Usher, Salt-N-Pepa and T-Pain. Heading the bill this time around is none other than singing, songwriting, dancing royalty Janet Jackson, in what will be the 30th anniversary of her award-winning album Rhythm Nation. Expect to hear bangers such as 'That's The Way Love Goes' and 'Got 'Til It's Gone'. She'll be joined by Brandy, who will be belting out 90s and 00s hits such as 'Never Say Never', 'Wanna Be Down' and, of course, 'The Boy Is Mine'. Then there's Grammy Award-winning group The Black Eyed Peas, 'In da Club' rapper 50 Cent, plus Jason Derulo, Keri Hilson, J-Kwon, Fatman Scoop and Sisqo — who will be performing his 90s smash hit 'Thong Song'. All of them. Together. In one show. RNB FRIDAYS 2019 LINEUP Janet Jackson Brandy The Black Eyes Peas 50 Cent Jason Derulo Keri Hilson Sisqo J-Kwon Hosted by Fatman Scoop Image: Mushroom Creative House.
If you can recall a time when going on holiday meant sending postcards rather than uploading photos, then you've probably seen quite a few weird and wonderful images stuck to your fridge. Keep those memories in your mind when you peruse Gerwyn Davies' exhibition Subtropics. We guarantee you'll be thinking about fastening them to your biggest kitchen appliance with a magnet in no time. In fact, the specific sights and scenery that adorn Aussie postcards are meant to pop into your brain while you look at Davies' photographs, because they were part of his inspiration. Expect bright colours, familiar scenery and an overall mood of camp — and a narrative about our country in the process. They're the kind of images that obviously aren't real, particularly given that they use a combination of costumes and photos to fabricate elaborate constructions out of everyday materials. Still, with their vivid tones and eye-catching content — and their obvious attempt to toy with cultural cringe — you'll be drawn to them all the same.
If someone was to ask you to imagine a dinosaur, and to picture one type only, it's likely that the Tyrannosaurus rex would come to mind. The towering ancient creature is just that fascinating to kids and adults alike, and not solely because it's rarely far from screens. Head to any museum with a T. rex fossil on display and you'll be surrounded by crowds, whether or not they've seen King Kong, a Jurassic Park movie or Night at the Museum. Head to Melbourne Museum from Friday, June 28–Sunday, October 20, 2024 in particular and expect to have plenty of company, then. Thanks to the Victoria the T. rex exhibition, that's when the fossil of Tyrannosaurus rex Victoria will make its Australian debut in the state with the absolute best name for the occasion. The specimen dates back 66 million years, and is one of the world's largest and most complete T. rex skeletons. Showing exclusively at Melbourne Museum, it's also marks the first time that a real T. rex has ever been on display in Victoria. How big is big? Found in South Dakota in 2013, Victoria is comprised of 199 bones, including a skull that weighs 139 kilograms. The fossil reaches 12 metres in length and 3.6 metres in height. And, because the skull is so heavy, it has to be displayed separately as it can't be mounted upon Victoria's body. Victoria the T. rex will also feature interactive elements, such as multi-sensory installations that'll let you experience how the Tyrannosaurus rex saw and smelled, plus dioramas and a section where you can make your own customised 3D T. rex. Welcome to... the cretaceous period, then. The informative side of the showcase will step through recent palaeontological findings, so that you'll get an idea of what Victoria's life was like all that time ago — and also find out what brought about her end. If that's not enough dino action to make you feel like David Attenborough — or his brother Richard in Jurassic Park and The Lost World — Victoria the T. rex will display alongside Triceratops: Fate of the Dinosaurs, which has been open at Melbourne Museum since 2022. The latter permanently features Horridus, the world's most complete Triceratops fossil, and entry to both exhibitions is included in one ticket. At IMAX Melbourne, 45-minute documentary T.REX 3D will also be showing — complete with footage of Horridus — from Friday, June 21. "Victoria the T. rex will see visitors from near and far enthralled by this real-life wonder alongside another marvel from the cretaceous: the world's most complete Triceratops fossil Horridus, whose permanent home is right here at Melbourne Museum," said CEO and Director of Museums Victoria Lynley Crosswell. "'Melbourne Museum will be the only place on Earth where, for a limited time, visitors can come face-to-face with two of the biggest and best real dinosaurs who once walked the planet." Victoria the T. rex will be on display from Friday, June 28–Sunday, October 20, 2024 at Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton. Head to the museum's website for tickets from Wednesday, April 10, as well as further information. Images: Neon Global.
Call it the SNL effect: in two of their past three films, Julie Cohen and Betsy West have celebrated pioneering women who've been parodied on Saturday Night Live. They've referenced those famous skits in RBG and now Julia, in fact, including their subjects' reactions; Ruth Bader Ginsburg was seen howling with laughter when she first saw Kate McKinnon slip into her robes, and Julia Child reportedly played Dan Aykroyd's blood-soaked 1978 impersonation to friends at parties. Cohen and West clearly aren't basing their documentaries on their own sketch-comedy viewing, though. Instead, they've been eagerly unpacking exactly why a US Supreme Court Justice and a French cuisine-loving TV chef made such a strong impact, and not only in their own fields. Julia makes an exceptional companion piece with the Oscar-nominated RBG, unsurprisingly; call it a great doco double helping. Julia arrives nearly two decades after its namesake's passing, and 12 years since Meryl Streep earned an Oscar nomination for mimicking Julia in Julie & Julia. If you've seen the latter but still wondered why Julie Powell (played by The Woman in the Window's Amy Adams) was so determined to work her way through Julia's most famous cookbook — first published in 1961, Mastering the Art of French Cooking completely changed America's perception of printed recipe collections — let this easy-to-consume doco fill in the gaps when it comes to the culinary wiz's mastery and achievements. Let it spark two instinctual, inescapable and overwhelming reactions, too: hunger, due to all the clips of Julia cooking and other lingering shots of food; and inspiration, because wanting to whip up the same dishes afterwards is equally understandable. In their second film of 2021 — after My Name Is Pauli Murray, another portrait of a woman thoroughly deserving the spotlight — Cohen and West take a chronological approach to Julia's life. The two filmmakers like borrowing cues from their subjects, so here they go with a classic recipe that's been given slight tweaks, but always appreciates that magic can be made if you pair a tried-and-tested formula with outstanding technique. Julia's entire cooking career, including her leap to television in her 50s, stirred up the same idea. Her take on French dining was all about making delectable meals by sticking to the right steps, even while using supermarket-variety ingredients, after all. Julia boasts a delightful serving of archival footage, as well as lingering new food porn-esque sequences that double as how-tos (as deliciously lensed by cinematographer and fellow RBG alum Claudia Raschke), but it still embodies the same ethos. Born to a well-off Pasadena family in 1912, Julia's early relationship with food is painted as functional: the household's cooks prepared the meals, and wanting to step into the kitchen herself was hardly a dream. In pre-World War II America, the expectation was that she'd simply marry and become a housewife, however, but a hunger for more out of life first took her to the Office of Strategic Services — the US organisation that gave way to the CIA — and overseas postings. While stationed in the Far East, she met State Department official Paul Child. After a berth in China, he was sent to France, where the acclaimed Cordon Bleu culinary school eventually beckoned for Julia. From there, she started her own cooking classes in Paris, co-penned the book that made her famous, turned a TV interview into a pitch for her own show and became an icon. There's more to each ingredient in Julia, of course, and to the dish that is its towering central figure (alongside her two siblings, Julia measured over six feet tall, causing their mother to joke that she'd given birth to 18 feet of children). This is an affectionate film that's as light and fluffy in tone as a souffle, but it still packs its menu with the bio-doc equivalent of a full meal. The use of text from Julia and Paul's letters — both to and about each other — seasons its collage of photographs and cooking show snippets with personality. Weaving in sensual shots of cooking in action speaks to the depth of the Childs' marriage, too; in Paris, she'd fashion him up a lavish lunch followed by a sojourn to the bedroom, the movie informs. That said, many of Julia's highlights come from simply watching Julia on TV, including when things didn't always go as planned. Talking head interviews from colleagues, friends, relatives, and other big cooking names such as José Andrés, Ina Garten, and Marcus Samuelsson help flesh out all the necessary biographical minutiae, but viewing Julia in action is the film's version of a main course and dessert all in one. She's unflappable, earthy, humorous and informative, her distinctive voice booming away as she talks through making everything from boeuf bourguignon to roast chicken — and it's easy to glean why America warmed to her as much as the butter-fuelled French fare she taught them to make. Why she sparked an entire genre of cuisine-focused television is just as plain to see, as is her trailblazing status as a female in the industry and a harbinger of better American dinners. The leap from jell-o salads to French omelettes and bouillabaisse was sizeable — and necessary. Julia does come with one spot at the table that's missing a dish. When it trifles with thornier topics than its eponymous cook's career, upbringing, marriage and influence, such as her contentment with being a homemaker pre-TV stardom, her tricky relationship with feminism despite her pro-choice views, and her early homophobia before becoming an AIDS activist, it can feel like it's snacking quickly and moving on. The film savours the good, the great and the extraordinary, but these brief notes still leave a taste. In general, though, it's still the kind of appetising movie that'd have Julia herself exclaiming "bon appétit!". Top image: Photo by Fairchild Archive/Penske Media/Shutterstock (6906383b) Julia Child on the set of her cooking show, 'The French Chef Julia Child, Boston.
When you see a tiger standing on a New York City street corner, it stands out. Of course, that's the point. What better way to force audiences to reassess nature and everything it entails than to thrust a wild animal out of its comfort zone, into an urban environment, and into a crowd astonished onlookers? At Joel Rea's latest exhibition, Outsider, attendees will share the same experience depicted in the Australian artist's painting, witnessing the natural world in a different light. In surreal works, horses weather the surf, skeletons and towering waves combine, and Mick Fanning pops up. We said it was surreal. Displaying at Mitchell Fine Art from September 27 to October 21, the showcase marks the Gold Coast-based Rea's first in Brisbane in five years. The official opening night takes place on October 6, with Rea in attendance — and he'll be on hand at 2pm on October 7 for an artist talk as well. Image: Crossroads, Joel Rea.
If you're a part of Brisbane's art scene there is no doubt you would have heard about a talented artist by the name of Anastasia Booth. Her current exhibition, Means are the Ends: The Command Issue, is as thought-provoking as her long list of other showcases. In her latest exhibition Booth focuses on the relationship between feminine desire and divergent sexual practice. Booth has researched into rituals, materials and iconographies related to particular subcultures and has has developed sculptures and video works to explore to explore this area of interest. If you are interested in this topic you are more than welcome to get involved in the exhibition. Why not attend the group poetry-reading event which Booth is hosting? The session will explore the sensuality of text and the process of personal interpretation. The concept of sexuality is a particularly personal one and is open to interpretation. Be immersed in Booth's perspective and take the opportunity to broaden your own definitions.
Landlocked surfers of Melbourne, rejoice — Australia's first surf park is finally filled with water and almost ready to start makin' waves. And it's a lot closer to the city than Torquay or the Peninsula. Urbnsurf Melbourne will open in Tullamarine, near the airport, just 16-kilometres north of the CBD. Plans for the park first surfaced way back in 2016 and, while the team was initially hoping for a spring opening, Urbnsurf has today revealed that the park is now filled with water, will start pumping out surf in the coming weeks and is set to open its doors to the public by summer this year. At the moment, the site is a very still lagoon — but when it opens, the two-hectare space will power up to 1000 waves per hour, day and night. And you'll get a choice of waves. Want to ride nothing but perfectly-formed right-handers for an hour? Or would you prefer a random selection, like what you'd experience in the ocean? You'll be able to take your pick. According to Urbnsurf founder Andrew Ross, "every wave has six different take-off spots", which equates to 3600 surfable positions every hour. [caption id="attachment_744979" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Courtesy Urbnsurf and Ed Sloane[/caption] So how does it work? Basically, the waves come from an 85-metre pier that runs down the centre of the lagoon. A series of pistons located on the pier then push the water to the left, then to the right, to create the waves. Ross likens the movement to "moving your hand back and forward like a shark's tail". The ability to create waves means that the park will be built for both pros who are looking for steep, barrelling waves and novices looking for a safe place to get their start in the surf. At Urbnsurf, Ross predicts, most novices will stand on their board within an hour and ride across the green face within two. And not only will you get guaranteed waves — you won't be fighting for them. The park holds 84 riders per hour. And, should you get seriously hooked, you'll be able to enter amateur competitions, maybe with (or against) your mates. If you need a break between sessions on the water, Urbnsurf will also be home to hot tubs, beach cabanas and a new two-storey restaurant by the owners of Sydney's Three Blue Ducks. And it's hoping to host a heap of live gigs, art shows and cultural experiences, too — we'll let you know when any are announced. If you're not in Melbourne, you'll be happy to know that a second Urbnsurf is set to open at Sydney Olympic Park in 2021. Urbnsurf is due to open in this summer near Melbourne Airport. You can sign up to test out the surf park before it opens on the website. Images: Courtesy Urbnsurf and Ed Sloane
Whether you know Highgate Hill as the best viewing point for Stefan's tower, or couldn't point it out on a map, Stephen Nothling's paintings can resonate with any Brisbane local. His latest exhibition showcases an artist's view of his endearing, colourful, South Brisbane neighbourhood in a series that documents Louisa Street, where the artist has lived for 14 years. In The last street in Highgate Hill, Nothling captures 38 Australian dreams, as housed in each of the homes that line his street. His paintings contain a cheery appreciation of the locale, all incorporated with lashings of humour, collage and some really great birds. Beyond capturing their tropical colours, tripartite levels and verandah after verandah, Nothling imagines the life behind the Queenslander's facades, showcasing the incremental and drastic changes he's witnessed on his daily walks. The last street in Highgate Hill exhibits at the Clem Jones Gallery in the Museum of Brisbane until January 31.
Choreographed by Brisbane-based Lisa Wilson, Lake is visually stunning dance theatre, partnered with elemental effects and a free-flowing storyline. Through a powerful combination of dance and water Lake delves into the murky depths of stage production to provide something quite chilling but mostly fascinating. A usually static stage juxtaposes the free-flowing, near-magical droplets of water with strong and smooth choreography performed by Timothy Ohl and Kristina Chan. The story begins with the couple, lakeside, bickering and splashing, before becoming enveloped in spectacular wrestles, careening each other through both air and water. From the beginning, the vision of Lake is brilliantly bold, and with time develops into something executed with near-perfect precision. Lake debuted at the Judith Wright Centre in 2012 and will be returning for three must see shows this week. Let this stage show flood you with fascination, drown you in a fluid of modern dance technique, and surprise you through sautees and splashes.
If the last 12 months hadn't been affected by COVID-19, the Australian Museum in Sydney would currently be playing host to Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, a blockbuster exhibition of more than 150 objects from the ancient boy king's tomb. That isn't the case due to the pandemic — and, in bad news for anyone interested in history or eager to find out more about one of its most famous figures, the huge showcase will now no longer be displaying at the venue at all. Today, Thursday, March 18, the Australian Museum announced the exhibition's cancellation, advising that it has been informed by IMG, the company responsible for staging the exhibition, that Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh would no longer be coming to the venue. Originally, the tour had just been postponed; however, now it has been completely shuttered. If it had gone ahead — with an original launch date of February 2021 — the hefty showcase would've been on display for six months, and featured golden jewellery, elaborate carvings, sculptures and ritual antiquities from King Tut's treasure-laden resting place. And, it would've been available for Australians to see just shy of a century after the tomb was first discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter back in 1922. Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh was also set to include 60 pieces that had never previously left Egypt. Revealing the cancellation, Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay said that "the Australian Museum is saddened that the Tutankhamun exhibition has been cancelled due to the pandemic", but noted that the venue is working on a replacement. "We are already negotiating for a new touring Egyptian exhibition and hope to announce details soon. We know our visitors are fascinated by ancient Egypt and in the next three years, the Australian Museum will open its first-ever permanent Egypt Gallery to display our remarkable collection of historical artefacts," McKay said. Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh's was set to display in the Australian Museum's newly revamped space, with the venue reopening in November 2020 after a $57.5 million makeover. As part of its renovations, the site added more than 3000 square metres of public space to its layout, to provide more room to host blockbuster exhibitions. Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh is no longer set to display at the Australian Museum. To see the venue's current exhibitions, head to the Australian Museum website. Images: AP Images / King Tut: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh at the California Science Centre.
