With international travel unlikely to return for some time yet, your 2021 holiday plans probably include vacationing somewhere within Australia. If heading to the country's southern-most state is on your list, and you're keen to do so via car, then you'll welcome the Federal Government's temporary expansion of the Bass Strait Passenger Vehicle Equalisation Scheme — because it's letting travellers take their wheels to Tassie via ferry for a four month period without paying extra. Announced on Thursday, January 7 by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack, the move sees an existing rebate — which dates back to 1996, and is designed to "reduce the cost of seagoing travel between the mainland and Tasmania" — extended via $6 million in funding from the Australian Government. As part of the scheme, it'll be free for passengers on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry to take their vehicles on the journey with them. That also applies to motorcycles and bicycles, if they're your preferred methods of transport. The scheme's expansion covers travel between March 1–June 30, 2021, and can be booked from January 14 — with tickets available until sold out. When you book the journey between Melbourne and Davenport (or vice versa), the rebate will be applied automatically, so you won't need to do anything else. Travellers taking their cars to Tassie with them will save an average of $240 for a return trip. If you're taking a caravan or motorhome with you, you'll still save the same amount — but, unlike with a car, you'll still need to pay an amount on top as the rebate won't cover the full price of the caravan or motorhome fee. There is still a passenger fee, which varies depending on whether you're travelling by day or night, and if it's high or low season. [caption id="attachment_796424" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Mattinbgn via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Like plenty of schemes announced by various governments this year — such as Victoria's and South Australia's tourism vouchers — the aim is to get more folks going on local holidays, and spending money to support Australia's tourism industry. Tasmania does currently have border restrictions in place as at the time of writing, affecting those who've been in parts of Victoria and New South Wales. Accordingly, in advice we're all used to by now, it's worth checking the requirements and taking them into consideration when making your booking. For more information about the temporary expansion of the Bass Strait Passenger Vehicle Equalisation Scheme — or to make a booking with Spirit of Tasmania — visit the latter company's website. Top image: Steve Penton via Wikimedia Commons.
Director Terry Gilliam goes back to the future in the third and final chapter of his so-called Orwellian triptych. An existential tragedy in the guise of a sci-fi black comedy, The Zero Theorem explores many of the same dystopian concepts seen in Brazil in 1985 and 12 Monkeys a decade later. This is unmistakably the weakest of the trio, although in fairness the other two are amongst the best science fiction films of each of their respective decades. It's a messy and sometimes frustrating film, full of big ideas that don't always get the treatment they deserve. You certainly can't fault Gilliam's ambition though, nor the quality of the pieces with which he's working. Christoph Waltz, minus his eyebrows, plays an agoraphobic computer programmer by the name of Qohen Leth. Employed by the omnipresent ManCom Corporation, Leth's sole duty is crunching the numbers on the Zero Theorem, an intricate mathematical equation that, if solved, will prove that life in inherently meaningless. For the shut-in Leth, whose nightmares are already dominated by a terrifying black hole, the task soon transforms into an obsession. Theorem sees Gilliam, a satirist at heart, aim his guns squarely at the commercial establishment. Bucharest masquerades as futuristic London, a city in which advertisements will literally chase you down the street. Visually, the director draws on everything from Metropolis to Lewis Carroll, not to mention, of course, a healthy dose of Nineteen Eight-Four. The world he creates is full of absurd whimsy, yet a lingering sense of oppression always remains. It an environment we only see in glimpses, however. The bulk of the film takes place in Leth's home, a dank, rat-infested, fire-damaged church. It's here that he toils, the Quasimodo of the future, observed via surveillance camera perched atop a headless statue of Christ. It's not what you'd call a subtle visual, but then again, no one ever accused Gilliam of being subtle. Nor would you call him a particularly focused filmmaker. At times there's a sense he's throwing everything at wall in the hope that some of it will stick. Questions of faith, purpose and reality are interesting in their own right, but never quite coalesce into an entirely satisfying whole. In his first true starring role, Christoph Waltz gives a fantastic performance that's quite different to what we've seen in his collaborations with Tarantino. French actress Melanie Thierry, meanwhile, seems likely to break out as Leth's potential love interest, a mysterious cyber-seductress named Bainsley. Their dynamic gives the film some much-needed emotional stakes. Yet the plot that surrounds the relationship remains oddly lacking in momentum. The Zero Theorem is nowhere near Gilliam's best. At the same time, in a lot of ways it feels like his most definitive film, in that it represents all of his good and bad tendencies simultaneously. It's as bold and intriguing as it is cluttered and confused. In the end, it contains just enough interesting elements to justify the cost of a ticket. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rae7_O_6EtU
Some kinds of movie magic never get old, and Studio Ghibli's films are exactly that type. Understandably, a whole heap of Brisbane cinemas have agreed with that idea over the years, hosting their own events dedicated to the Japanese animation house. The Elizabeth Picture Theatre is one of them, and the venue just keeps bringing back its Ghibli film festival again and again. We understand — who doesn't want to watch these animated delights over and over? Returning for 2022 this August and September, and screening twice a week from Thursday, August 4–Saturday, September 29 — at 2pm and 7pm on Thursdays and Sundays, to be specific — this year's fest gives fans yet another chance to catch Studio Ghibli's gorgeous features on the big screen. Yes, you should make like a moving castle to see Howl's Moving Castle this time. And yes, you'll be palling around with My Neighbour Totoro once again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM1fzCdPHSU Other highlights include Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke — which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2022 — and Porco Rosso. From the studio's more recent flicks, there's also From Up on Poppy Hill and The Wind Rises. If you've missed these films in their limited cinema runs or fest appearances in the past, consider this your chance to catch up. Sure, you might've seen everything that Studio Ghibli has made before — but these movies really are something extra special when they're flickering across the silver screen.
He was the subject of the world's first narrative feature film, has been played by everyone from Mick Jagger to Heath Ledger and Down Under director Abe Forsythe, and has long been considered Australia's version of Robin Hood. A folk hero to some and a ruthless outlaw to others, Ned Kelly is firmly entrenched in the nation's history. But, while every Australian knows his name and his supposed final words, no one has seen a version of Ned Kelly quite like the one cooked up by director Justin Kurzel, screenwriter Shaun Grant and author Peter Carey in True History of the Kelly Gang. With the Macbeth filmmaker in the director's chair, and his Snowtown scribe Grant adapting Carey's eponymous Booker Prize-winning novel, True History of the Kelly Gang doesn't just tell the usual bushranger tale. It steps through Kelly's story, naturally, but it also makes plain that it's playing fast and loose with reality — and interrogating the myth that's surrounded the notorious figure since his hanging at Melbourne Gaol in 1880 in the process. The result is an astonishing Australian film that's set to be one of 2020's finest and, as its just-dropped first trailer shows, an energetic, propulsive and visually stunning movie as well. True History of the Kelly Gang also boasts a killer cast, with rising British star George MacKay (Ophelia, 11.22.63, Captain Fantastic) playing Kelly as an adult, stellar first-timer Orlando Schwerdt exploring his boyhood, The Babadook's Essie Davis stepping into his mother Ellen's shoes and Russell Crowe playing fellow bushranger Harry Power, who initiates the young Kelly into his lawless way of life. Charlie Hunnam and Nicholas Hoult also pop up as cops, Leave No Trace's excellent Thomasin McKenzie features as the fictional love of Kelly's life, and Earl Cave — son of Nick Cave — plays Kelly's brother and accomplice. Already one of the most anticipated Australian films of recent years, True History of the Kelly Gang proved a hit at this year's Toronto International Film Festival — and, following a trend made popular by Netflix and Amazon of late (see: The Irishman, Marriage Story, Brittany Runs a Marathon and The Report), will hit both cinemas and Aussie streaming platform Stan in January 2020. Check out the trailer bellow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE7YVZA5YVc&feature=youtu.be True History of the Kelly Gang releases in Australian cinemas on Thursday, January 9, 2020, then drops on Stan on Sunday, January 26.
Dive into a box of Lego, drink a few beers — it's the kidulting dream. Really, it's the best of both worlds, because getting older doesn't mean farewelling fun. While a dedicated brick bar popped up in Brisbane last year, that's not your only chance to build whatever your heart desires while knocking back tipples. Semi-Pro Brewing is also getting in on the action, hosting regular Bricks and Beers nights on the last Thursday of each month. From 6pm, you'll spend an hour working to a theme — and competing to construct the best Lego creation you possibly can. Three rounds will take place, each spanning around 30 minutes. If you've always wanted to make your mark in tiny plastic blocks, then go forth and do so. The next one takes place on Thursday, February 27. Prizes will be awarded for creativity in both categories, and drinks will be flowing. Entry is free, all Lego is supplied, so no need to raid anyone's toy box. But bring your wallet for beverages — and your doggo for company. Updated February 27.
Inner city north dwellers rejoice! Sol Breads West End has a younger (and slightly sleeker) sister: Sol Natural Foods in Fortitude Valley. Of course you can expect Sol's iconic artisan breads, wholesome loaves, muffins, raw foods and breakfast delights (think acai bowl, house toasted granola or smashed avocado on freshly baked rye) to be on the menu, but it's the vegetarian, olive oil base pizzas (gluten free available of course) and craft beers that people go cray cray for. Oh and spelt cookies. Don't forget the spelt cookies. The rather cavernous space located on Ann Street oozes hipster mod and is decked out with yellow steel chairs, mini cacti and painted black brick walls. Whether you choose to sit inside or outside the vibes have you pining for your Birkenstocks, loose tee and denim. But the key feature of the whole cafe really is their display cabinet. Freshly baked banana bread, carrot cake with swirls of cream cheese icing or raw cakes with multi-tiered layers will have you drooling like a St. Bernard. Brownies, bliss balls and chia puddings also make the mouth water while the savoury tarts, quiches, rolls and fresh salads make you start thinking about lunch before you've sat down for breakfast. The coffee here is pretty darn good too. Just make sure you ask for a double shot if you don't want a mug. It's also an excuse to order a spelt cookie... Photo credit: Sol Natural Foods Facebook
By the time that 2022 is out, lovers of Studio Ghibli's films (aka everyone) will have two places to visit if they'd like to get as close as humanly possible to walking into the animation house's gorgeous frames. Already, you can head to the Studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka, a city on the western outskirts Tokyo — and you really should; it's as magical as it sounds, giant catbus and all — but now Ghibli's very own theme park has officially set a November launch date. Come November 1, the new location in Nagoya's Aichi Prefecture — which is around a three-hour train trip from Tokyo — will start spiriting away Ghibli fans across its 200-hectare expanse. The studio initially announced that it was creating its own theme park back in 2017, and originally planned to open in 2020. Then, in 2018, it pushed back its launch timeline to 2022; however, this is the first time it's set a specific date that everyone can mark in the calendars. The opening day of the Ghibli Park was announced today. pic.twitter.com/01vhPGuJgq — スタジオジブリ STUDIO GHIBLI (@JP_GHIBLI) January 27, 2022 The Aichi Prefecture Expo Park spot is already home to a replica of Satsuki and Mei's house from My Neighbour Totoro, and it's gaining plenty of other attractions as it becomes a fully fledged Studio Ghibli thee park. Totoro features heavily, understandably, with the site even initially described as having a My Neighbour Totoro focus. However, you'll also be able to check out a life-sized version of Howl's Moving Castle, the antique shop from Whisper of the Heart, Kiki's home from Kiki's Delivery Service and a village area that pays tribute to Princess Mononoke. Also slated to feature: nods to the cat from Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns, buildings with design elements that take their cues from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and a super-sized garden that'll make you feel like you're one of the tiny characters in Arrietty. There'll also be a permanent exhibition room, a special exhibition room, a video exhibition room, a playground, and a shop and cafe, so you'll have plenty of places to explore, eat and browse. Expect more nods to Ghibli's various features to follow, recreating other aspects from its three-decade-old body of work — and possibly its most recent movie, Earwig and the Witch, too. And if the end result is even half as wondrous as the studio's aforementioned museum, then fans are in for a treat. There, you can also climb up to the building's rooftop garden to see one of the robots from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and watch exclusive shorts (including a sequel to My Neighbour Totoro) in a cute little cinema. Indeed, the museum is such a tourist attraction, you have to buy tickets over a month in advance — and experiencing the rush of folks in the merchandise-packed gift shop will make you feel like a susuwatari (Totoro's gorgeous little balls of floating soot). [caption id="attachment_799539" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Studio Ghibli[/caption] Incorporated into the existing parklands, the Studio Ghibli theme park will be heavy on greenery and the natural surroundings, which matches the environmental messaging that plays a prominent part in Ghibli's movies. The site will also encourage "enjoying walking", according to the draft concept outline, while aiming to offer "a one-of-a-kind park loved by more people". We don't think either will be difficult. If you're now planning a Ghibli-centric holiday, you'll need to cross your fingers that Japan's border rules change before November to allow foreign nationals to enter the country — something that's currently suspended until at least the end of February 2021. And if you won't stop dreaming about the Studio Ghibli theme park anyway, the Aichi Tourism Bureau has released a trailer — which is largely an ad for the surrounding area, but also features Satsuki and Mei's house prominently. Check it out below: The Studio Ghibli theme park is slated to open on November 1, 2022. For more information, keep an eye on the animation company's website.
In attempting to engage the lucrative teenage market, a film could do worse than conclude its opening monologue with the line, "Everybody knows where they belong... except me". "Oh my god," say those teenagers, "that's basically what I think! I need to get all my friends and see this movie eighteen more times!" There's a reason more than 17 million copies of the novel by Veronica Roth are in print worldwide with no signs of slowing down. Sure, there's the plot about a post-apocalyptic, dystopian world in need of courageous teenagers to save humanity, but at its heart, Divergent remains a simple story about teenage isolation and the possibility that a cute boy might actually like you. Set 'after the war' (that's as much detail as we're given), the survivors of this Chicago 2.0 have instituted a new form of social order to ensure the sustained peace. The community is divided into five factions: carers, pacifists, protectors, thinkers and truth-speakers. When the teenagers come of age, they're subjected to a series of tests to determine their factional predisposition, and while 99 percent of them fall clearly into one group or another, every so often a 'divergent' individual comes along whose skills and feelings cross into multiple factions. A simple but boring version of this idea would be: In a world of left-handers and right-handers, some people are ambidextrous. And then those ambidextrous people are hunted down and murdered. The problem with divergents, you see, is that they can't be controlled. They're a threat to the system because they don't play by the rules. So now, in addition to cute boys and isolation, there's a heady dose of 'screw you mum — you can't tell me what to do!' The divergent in this instance is 15-year-old Beatrice (Shailene Woodley), a daughter of two 'Abnegation' parents who dreams of being one of the 'Dauntless' caste, the fearless (if also reckless) group charged with maintaining order in the city. But some, like Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet), believe the system is broken, and as the balance of power begins to shift with dictatorial-like qualities, 'Tris' finds herself having to choose between faction and family. Woodley is the standout in Divergent; an undeniably talented young actress whose performances since The Descendants have shown both range and maturity beyond her years. She commands attention in every scene and convinces as the conflicted heroine who prefers not to pull the trigger but can and will without hesitation if necessary. Around her is a substantial supporting cast, including Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney and Zoe Kravitz, with Theo James as her sufficiently attractive and brooding love interest, Four. In the end it's all very Hunger Games Lite, mixed in with a bit of Brave New World for good measure. With much of the film centred around Tris's training instead of any actual conflict, it suffers from a lag that struggles to shake free until well into the second hour, by which time what action there is feels rushed and unsubstantiated. Fans of the books will be happy, especially given the film's fidelity to the material; however, newcomers may struggle to get on board. https://youtube.com/watch?v=336qJITnDi0
If you watched Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's vampire sharehouse mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows back in 2014, then instantly found yourself yearning for more, that's understandable. Smart, silly and hilarious, the undead flick is one of the past decade's best comedies. Thanks to two TV spinoffs, that dream has come true, letting viewers keep spending time in the movie's supernatural world — and that's not going to end any time soon. In 2018, the New Zealand-made Wellington Paranormal premiered, following the movie's cops (Mike Minogue and Karen O'Leary) as they keep investigating the supernatural. It proved a hit, and has already returned for both a second and third season. In 2019, an American TV version of What We Do in the Shadows also debuted, focusing on vampire flatmates living in Staten Island. Featuring Toast of London's Matt Berry, Four Lions' Kayvan Novak, British stand-up comedian Natasia Demetriou, The Magicians' Harvey Guillen and The Office's Mark Proksch, it sticks to the same basic concept as the original movie, just with memorable new characters. And yes, it too has already aired its second season, and is about to come back for its third. The US take on What We Do in the Shadows was first hinted at back in 2017, and then confirmed in May 2018. While Clement and Waititi don't star in the new-look series, Berry, Novak and company have been doing them proud as the next batch of ravenous — and comic — vamps. Novak plays the gang's self-appointed leader, 'Nandor The Relentless', who dates back to the Ottoman Empire days and is somewhat stuck in his ways. As for Berry's mischievous British dandy Laszlo and Demetriou's seductive Nadja, they're like a blood-sucking Bonnie and Clyde (but much funnier). Guillén plays Nandor's familiar, who'd do anything to join the undead, while Proksch's Colin is an 'energy vampire'. You know that colleague that sucks all the fun out of the room? That's the kind of vibe Colin has. Plus, this vampire gang has been joined by plenty of familiar faces over the two seasons to-date, including some fellow undead favourites from across popular culture. Can't wait to sink your fangs into more? Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja and Colin will return this year — and, as the just-dropped first season three teaser shows, they'll experience 'vampire reality', the undead's version of VR. The show's new season is due to start airing in the US from September 2 and, if past seasons are any guide, will hopefully show up Down Under not long afterwards. An airdate in Australia and New Zealand hasn't been announced yet, but here's hoping we'll be watch the hilarious small-screen spinoff's latest season sooner rather than later. Check out the first season three teaser below: https://twitter.com/theshadowsfx/status/1415400811346202628 What We Do in the Shadows' third season starts airing on September 2 in the US. Expect it to hit Foxtel in Australia sometime this year, too — we'll update you when exact local airdates are announced.
Can a fourth wall be smashed if it's barely even a gauze curtain? For audiences, Deadpool & Wolverine plays out on sturdy IRL surfaces that can be shattered — cinema screens first, then home entertainment's TVs and computers and phones forever afterward — but the film's to-camera asides, self-reflective jabs, in-gags, sarcasm, meta references upon meta references and all-round superhero satire aren't breaking, busting through or saying bye, bye, bye to anything. There's nothing to destroy when the idea that movies are their own worlds separate to the reality that they're viewed in simply doesn't exist in the third picture with Deadpool in its title, 11th X-Men feature and 34th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is still a flick spinning make-believe as it makes fun, but one that acknowledges how everyone interacts with pop culture: by knowing personal and industry goings-on tangential to the in-film action, such as that Ryan Reynolds (IF) is married to Gossip Girl's Blake Lively, Hugh Jackman (Faraway Downs) is Australian and newly divorced, Disney bought Fox in the battle of Hollywood studios and the MCU hasn't had the strongest of times of late. Deadpool & Wolverine may spend a fair portion of its duration in a wasteland-like place called The Void; however, viewers don't watch anything in a vacuum. This isn't the only feature to recognise that truth, nor the lone Deadpool movie to do so. That said, there's leaning into the fact that no one can completely split any art from their contextual awareness around it, and then there's this level of commitment. Comparing one of its major settings to the Mad Max realm within seconds of arriving there — and within months of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga releasing — is merely one further example. Nods, shoutouts and wisecracks go everywhere, including deep into the Marvel comics, their prior leaps to the screen, gripes about the latter, Tinseltown manoeuvrings, box-office fortunes, abandoned projects, stalled future flicks and actors' romantic lives. Reteaming after Free Guy and The Adam Project, Reynolds and director Shawn Levy co-penned the screenplay with Zeb Wells (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), plus Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (who return from 2016's Deadpool and 2018's Deadpool 2), but the internet may as well have earned a scripting credit. For those less head over heels with Deadpool's merc-with-a-mouth schtick than Reynolds visibly has been for the eight years and running, consider this the only-way-out-is-through approach: there's more stacked on top of more, then huge piles of more again, then more and more sprinklings as well, especially when it comes to jokes that can't occur without referring to details well beyond Deadpool & Wolverine's frames. Reynolds, Levy and company own the onslaught with the transparency of the film's absent barrier — and while that isn't the same as ensuring that the bit always works or avoids getting repetitive (on both, it doesn't), it firmly helps establish part of the feature's vibe. This probably should be named Deadpool with Wolverine, but adding James 'Logan' Howlett to Wade Winston Wilson isn't just about superheroes teaming up, then the bickering banter and frenemy frays that result. Deadpool & Wolverine also gains energy from the scowling, growling, unhappy-to-be there mutant with the adamantium skeleton, giving it what past Deadpool jaunts have deeply missed: some tonal balance. Spirit first, story second: that's also Deadpool & Wolverine's gambit. As it cracks the boundaries between Disney and Fox's respective Marvel domains, and endeavours to win over the naysaying Wolverine — two tasks with glaring parallels between what's happening in its narrative and for viewers — it spins a straightforward tale given stock-standard sprawling franchise complications. The world is in peril. Masses will die. Multiple villains have schemes. The ill-fated sphere needs a hero, and that hero needs aid from another. Or: told by the Time Variance Authority's Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen, Succession) that his timeline needs pruning following the events of 2017's Logan, Deadpool can only save everyone that he loves from being snuffed out by finding a new Wolverine from across the multiverse. But, they'll also have to flee The Void where unwanted intellectual property is dumped, and where Charles Xavier's maniacal twin Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin, A Murder at the End of the World) controls and manipulates everything. Although the plot doesn't lack specifics, be it Wade's eagerness to join the Avengers to impress his ex-fiancee Vanessa (Morena Baccarin, The Flash), Logan grappling with trauma and mistakes, Paradox's machine that's due to eradicate Earth-10005 or Cassandra messing with minds, the tale itself never feels like the point. While the minutiae is engaging enough, when Deadpool mentions more than once that he's now Marvel Jesus, believe the intent behind those words. After Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was a flop, with the MCU's route towards the fifth and sixth Avengers flicks requiring reworking after off-screen developments, and as 2024's only film in the series, there's some world-saving needed for this saga, too. Deadpool & Wolverine's method of going about it is crashing well-known pieces together for fun — not just its titular characters, but also via more surprises than at a Kinder factory, with one reveal particularly wittily done. There's that favouring atmosphere above all else again; refreshingly, despite teasing several times that Jackman will likely keep playing his role till he's 90, no one can accuse this movie of solely or mainly trying to lay groundwork for the franchise's 35th entries onwards. There's no missing where Deadpool & Wolverine's strengths reside, though: in Jackman, Corrin and Macfadyen. That Reynolds can irreverently and acerbically snark the hell out of Deadpool and sell the meta-ness of it all has been plain for almost a decade now, and he rides Wade's emotional journey here effectively as well, yet his co-stars couldn't be more pivotal. Sometimes slicing and stabbing at each other's regenerative flesh in a Honda Odyssey, sometimes trading barbs for glares, sometimes dispensing with foes in a side-scrolling frenzy, the odd-couple act with Jackman gleams and wipes the dull clash that 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine flatly served up from memories. In addition to donning his character's yellow suit, Jackman himself wears weariness, anger, disappointment and regret like it too is fused to his framework, getting more and more moving the longer that he dons the claws. It's been 24 years now since the debut X-Men and if there's a potential Marvel messiah here for his Real Steel helmer, it's him. Also, memorable bad-guy alert not once but twice: Corrin is an unnerving delight as Cassandra gets into peoples' heads — not just figuratively — and Macfadyen hams it up superbly. Layered within the nudging and parodying, stream of inside-baseball shots, shiny display of Disney's new IP wares, OTT violence and retro-leaning tunes — Goo Goo Dolls, Avril Lavigne, the Grease soundtrack and Madonna all echo prominently — is a takeaway that life isn't a mystery, but rather is all about acceptance. It's worth fighting for. It deserves you giving a shit, not coasting. Nonetheless, learning to come to terms with missteps and mourning, and faded dreams and paths not taken, is inescapable no matter if you have adversaries to vanquish, universes to rescue, lost loves to woo, identities to reconfigure, reputations to salvage and caped-crusader squads to wow. Cue another instance of mirroring. Levy mightn't be actively aiming to tell viewers that looking past Deadpool & Wolverine's tussles with itself is also part of this package, yet it still sticks when some of the film's scenes struggle with blandness visually and in their effects, the corporate-synergy angle is laid on thick and, regardless of what Reynolds quips, there's also a sense of holding back now that Disney is pulling the strings. Looking for a devilishly self-aware Deadpool and Wolverine romp, though? Just like a prayer, this'll take you there.
Fancy grabbing a banh mi in a carpark at South Bank? Well, now you can. Hello Please has set up shop in Fish Lane, though they're not letting the increasingly busy and crowded nature of the popular area get in their way. Instead, they've plonked down a container, carved out their own space adjacent to Maker, Gauge and Julius Pizzeria, and started serving up crowd-pleasing Vietnamese dishes. You could say that makes Hello Please a bit of a hidden gem, though it won't stay that way for long. The new venture from The Stables Craft Bar and Kitchen owner Daniel Ward and seasoned hospitality professional Maris Cook brings the casual, quaint, high-quality style of Melbourne's street-focused haunts Saigon Sally and Kong BBQ to Brisbane. Food-wise, that means quick, consistent, fresh and affordable options like bao, dumplings and rice-paper rolls from an evolving but flavour-filled menu, with dinner selections designed with matching cocktails in mind. If you're dining by day, expect it to be a speedy affair. If you're eating in the evening, two sittings will be available. A focus on swiftness and structure in getting everyone in and out reflects the small size of the restaurant, which accommodates 30 people at the bar and another 60 in the outdoor eating area. Murals by local artist Drapl give the place the requisite laidback feel — and, let's face it, who doesn't want to relax over a bite to eat and a few beverages in a space that just would've remained empty and unused otherwise?
UPDATE: July 13, 2020: Animals is available to stream via Binge, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. In the space between ignored dreams and shirked responsibilities, that's where Animals' Laura (Holliday Grainger) and Tyler (Alia Shawkat) largely live. Devoted friends to the point of codependency, and just as dedicated to their Dublin routine of drinking, debauchery and doing the bare minimum at their barista gigs, they've seen no reason to change their ways for the past decade. But, as Laura suddenly realises, they're not getting any younger. The pair's thirties are here. The book that Laura has supposedly been penning since the two first met remains little more than an idea. And, her younger sister (Amy Molloy) has traded partying for pregnancy on purpose. Tyler is near-aggressively happy with the status quo, however Laura's epiphany hits like the wine and MDMA the duo are so fond of — and leaves an unshakeable hangover. Directed by Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays), and scripted by British writer Emma Jane Unsworth based on her own book, Animals finds its joined-at-the-hip protagonists at a crossroads. Glued together by choice for so long, they're now coming unstuck. Forget romantic turmoil; this is a tale of platonic heartbreak and existential malaise spiralling into an inescapable whirlpool. Animals isn't the first film to understand that drifting away from a friend is just as painful as ending a love affair, but it joins a relatively sparse dramatic subgenre. Indeed, there's a refreshing forthrightness to the story, taking Laura and Tyler's pseudo-couple status as a given. While jokes are made about wives, marriages and separations, particularly once Laura starts seeing more of her new musician boyfriend Jim (Fra Fee) and spending less time with her increasingly petulant bestie, they're hardly necessary — just how crucial the pair have been to each other for a third of their lives is constantly written across their faces. Girl meets girl, sparks fly, they live wildly and become each other's ride-or-dies — that's not a scenario that often gets such thoughtful big-screen attention. The importance of depth and detail in this situation, especially in leapfrogging any and all female friendship cliches, really can't be underestimated. Whether or not Hyde and Unsworth have overtly drawn upon their own respective experiences, the end result resonates with a lived-in air. Authenticity isn't just something their characters are searching for; it seeps from the movie. Frolicking or fighting, embracing firmly or steadfastly ignoring each other, the dynamic between Laura and Tyler feels like it could've moseyed out of any shared flat filled with retro furniture, piles of clothes and too many empty bottles (and, thanks to stellar production design and costuming work, it looks that way too). That said, Animals does come with a caveat, or a strength that could initially be seen as a flaw. Played to perfection by the two leads, the movie's main characters seem as genuine as the circumstances they're navigating, as well as the relatable emotions they're displaying. Unsurprisingly, that means they're not always wholly pleasant to spend time with. They needn't be, of course. They shouldn't be, in fact. No mere mortal is bearable every second of every day. Again, this warts-and-all approach is refreshing, not to mention teeming with meaning. Shawkat's Tyler can come across as abrasive and performative, and Grainger's Laura as uncertain and unfocused, with the picture calling out, sifting through and challenging common millennial stereotypes through these traits. There's no judgement here, but rather a commitment to seeing things like they are — even if the film styles its frames in a somewhat dreamlike way at the same time. As steeped in truth as Animals proves, bleak, stark reality isn't the name of its game — visually, at least. When you're caught in the hustle and bustle of life, it can be surreal. When you're reflecting on past choices, agonising over future paths and wondering if your most important relationship to date will survive the present, the right answer rarely stares you plainly in the face. With all of that in mind, Hyde gives her movie a flavour of hectic exuberance, with ample assistance from editor and cinematographer Bryan Mason. That mood couldn't be more influential, including when Animals leans into its more obvious developments and sentiments. In the easy, hard, routine and thorny moments alike, questioning everything you know and navigating a quarter-life crisis should feel energetic, jittery and a little uncanny, after all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FN_zr4rQzY
Bill Murray. Zombies. As movie-goers learned ten years ago, it's a winning combination. But Zombieland is no longer the only way to see the beloved film star enter the realm of the shuffling undead. Thanks to upcoming comedy The Dead Don't Die, Murray dwells in a world of re-animated corpses once more — and it's now his job to fight them. The latest flick from filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, this zom-com spends time with a trio of small-town cops (Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny), who discover that their new case has quite the twist. As the movie's first trailer tells us, "in this peaceful town, on these quiet streets, something terrifying, something horrifying is coming". Yes, that something is zombies, the undead or ghouls, as Driver's character explains. Cue plenty of comic battles against brain-munching foes, as well as plenty of appearances by famous folks — including Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Sara Driver, Selena Gomez and Carol Kane, plus Iggy Pop, RZA and Tom Waits. Murray (Coffee and Cigarettes, Broken Flowers), Driver (Paterson), Swinton (Only Lovers Left Alive) and Buscemi (Mystery Train) have all worked with Jarmusch before, as has the movie's trio of musicians, but don't go expecting something familiar here. As all of the above flicks have shown, and Night on Earth, Dead Man, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and documentary Gimme Danger too, the writer/director has never been fond of making the same film twice. The Dead Don't Die will hit Aussie cinemas on October 24. But if you're in Sydney, you can catch it at this year's Sydney Film Festival, where it will screen over three sessions on June 14, 15 and 16. There are still tickets available to them, so we recommend booking them in now. In the interim, prepare for a wacky yet deadpan addition to the zombie fold, complete with Murray hanging out in a cemetery and Swinton playing a sword-wielding mortician. Check out the deadly trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs5ZOcU6Bnw The Dead Don't Die will hit Australian cinemas on October 24, 2019. It will also screen at Sydney Film Festival on June 14, 15 and 16. You can get those tickets here. Updated: May 20, 2019.
For two nights in March, your plans can include checking out more than 100 motorbikes, drinking, tapping your toes to DJs and listening to live music. That's all on the agenda at The Motorcycle Up Late, because the Gallery of Modern Art is doing what it usually does whenever it hosts a major exhibition — that is, throwing a couple of huge after-hours parties. Until the end of April, The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire is on display across GOMA's floors and walls. You can see the results everyday over the next few months, in fact. Or, you can head along from 6pm on Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20, wander the gallery, get revved up, watch performances, grab a bite and enjoy a few beverages. There'll various bars around the place, so a drink won't be hard to find. On Friday evening, you'll also be able to listen to tunes by The Hi-Boys, Tia Gostelow and WAAX, with Black Amex, Lori Lee and Sweaty Baby on DJ duty. If Saturday better suits your diary, prepare for JK-47, Tex Perkins and Friends, and VOIID, plus Eamon Sandwith, Paolo and Patience Hodgson on the decks. Tickets cost $34–38 for one night and $57–64 if you're keen on going to both. If you'd like to wear a leather jacket, that's up to you. Images: Installation view The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire. Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Photograph: Chloë Callistemon, QAGOMA
Take Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and add it to the rare list of sequels that transcend their predecessors. Picking up the story around ten years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the opening titles paint a bleak picture of a world brought to the brink of extinction via the so-called 'Simian Flu'. Brink of extinction for humanity, that is, because the apes, by contrast, have flourished. Under the strict yet compassionate leadership of Caesar (once again made inconceivably lifelike thanks to Andy Serkis's performance and the remarkable team at WETA), the apes have now adopted a number of human traits and habits: communication through sign language, horse riding, spear wielding and even the establishment of some rudimentary written rules — chief amongst which is: APE NOT KILL APE. Given the descent into murderous anarchy by the scattered human survivors of the virus, that proclamation is intended as a critical point of difference for Caesar, a mark of pride and proof of primate primacy. It's also, unfortunately, delusory, and it is in that realm of 'innocence lost' that Dawn spends most of its time. With rivalries and jealousies brewing between both father and son and leader and lieutenant, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is something of a modern-day Richard III. What makes it so compelling is that none of the villains — ape or human — are without their justifiable reservations and prejudices. Koba, for example, is Caesar's unfailingly loyal friend and bodyguard, yet he bares the scars of cruel human testing and holds no affection for the survivors. On the human side, the leader of the survivors' colony (Gary Oldman) sees only the faces of his dead wife and children whenever confronted by apes, and his determination to restore power to the city has no room for the kind of simian compassion shown by his lieutenant (Jason Clarke). Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is smaller in both scale and ambition than Rise yet feels so much bigger and more satisfying. It's an 'us and them' tale, a prelude to war where neither side is as unified as they might think. The direction by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) is technical and delicate, aided by sumptuous cinematography and special effects that are nothing short of exquisite, with even the most intense closeup failing to betray even the tiniest flaw in design. If anything, the CGI apes outperform the humans in almost every scene in which screen time is shared. Tender, tense, intelligent and morally complex, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an outstanding film and a genuine contender for blockbuster of the year. https://youtube.com/watch?v=3sHMCRaS3ao
It has been almost two years since a Marvel movie hit the big screen. If you're a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you've probably been feeling their absence. But, since the beginning of 2021, you've likely also been heading to Disney+ to check out a few new small-screen adventures. First came WandaVision, which focused on Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision's (Paul Bettany) story after Avengers: Endgame. It added something different to the MCU, overtly aping classic sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, Family Ties and Malcolm in the Middle as it puzzled its way through Wanda and Vision's small-town life — and had everyone wondering why Vision was even walking and talking post-Endgame at all. Now, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is also telling a story set after the last Avengers flick, this time with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan's eponymous characters. Based on its first episode so far, it's much more conventional than WandaVision. It doesn't boast a fabulous performance by Parks and Recreation's Kathryn Hahn, either. But, it does explore the everyday existence of both Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, who'll team up over the rest of the show's six-episode season. It seems that plenty of people were keen to see what happened next for Wilson and Barnes, and to keep adding a new Marvel episode to their weekends after WandaVision wrapped up. Debuting last week, on Friday, March 19, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's first episode has become Disney+'s most watched premiere ever. Although the streaming platform hasn't given any actual numbers — which tends to be the case when such services boast about their viewership, as Netflix has also demonstrated — it has announced that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier earned the feat between Friday and Sunday, and was also the most-watched title overall globally over the three days. That means that more folks took a look than when WandaVision premiered, and when Star Wars series The Mandalorian did too, although those shows sit second and third on Disney+'s list of biggest opening weekends. Over The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's remaining five episodes, the series will bring back Daniel Brühl as Baron Zemo and Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter. As seen already, Wyatt Russell (The Good Lord Bird) is also joining the MCU as John Walker. And yes, the MCU's fourth phase will include more TV shows after this — such as Loki, which hits in June; Secret Invasion, starring Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury; and a series set in Wakanda. For now, if you haven't viewed the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier already, you can check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWBsDaFWyTE The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is available to stream now on Disney+, with new episodes added each Friday for the next five weeks. Top image: Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Turning the State Library of Queensland into a reading, writing and chatting haven, this year's Brisbane Writers' Festival has pulled out all of the stops when it comes to its chosen art form. Expect everything from enlightening discussions about world views other than your own, to accounts of reporting from the thick of conflict, to an ode to gossip — as well as our five must-see sessions.
Heading to the casino when you turn 18 is one of those coming-of-age bucket list items many a Queenslander experiences. Dropping by for a meal anytime after that, not so much. Whether you're a Goldie local or just an occasional visitor to the coast, Jupiters Casino is attempting to change that. Been recently in the vicinity of that massive structure on Broadbeach Island? You would've noticed that change is a-coming to the Gold Coast casino physically, and within the $345 million transformation, their dining options are actually looking pretty noteworthy. Three new restaurants have opened their doors, and two more will join them, as the casino attempts to become more than a high roller hotspot and more of a 'dining destination'. We'll see. In the already-trading camp sits Kiyomi, Cucina Vino and Garden Bar and Kitchen, offering up a range of tasty Japanese, Italian and modern Australian meals, respectively. If it's sashimi, sushi, sake and shochu you're after, you'll find it at Kiyomi, which was just awarded a Chef's Hat at the 2017 Brisbane Times Good Food Guide Awards. Overlooking the venue's pool, Cucina Vino is Jupiter's first outdoor dining establishment, serving up antipasto, wood-fired pizza, traditional pasta dishes and more. And then there's the newest of the bunch so far, Garden Bar and Kitchen, an all-day eatery doing breakfast bruschetta, southern fried chicken and colourful cocktails. Slated to join them are Mei Wei Dumplings and M&G Café and Bar, the former serving up just what you'd expect (plus noodles, with everything also available to take away), and the latter a cafe-style spot. Add a revamped Atrium bar to the mix, which is due to open over summer, plus the existing Zen Chinese restaurant, and Jupiters might just be worth a culinary-inspired visit. Find Jupiters Casino at Broadbeach Island, Broadbeach. Check out their website for further details.
UPDATE: May 24, 2020: Child's Play is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Black Mirror, meet 80s cinema's favourite flame-haired, knife-wielding plaything. That's Child's Play circa 2019 straight out of its gleaming box. Chucky has never gone away, with the last flick in the initial seven-film franchise hitting home entertainment just two years ago. An eight-part series called Chucky is headed to TV screens next year, too, from the original movie's Don Mancini. But updating the carnage-inflicting toy for today's incessantly-online, internet-of-things environment was always going to happen, jettisoning the notion of a doll possessed by a serial killer for something considerably more high-tech. It's a premise rich with possibilities — dissecting humanity's growing subservience to technology, our fear of artificial intelligence, the reality that all-powerful companies may not have customers' best interests at heart, and showing how increasingly aggressive times can create a dangerous and deadly loop of vicious behaviour. Sadly, although the new Child's Play doesn't shy away from its many timely ideas, it doesn't do anything more than push them through a horror assembly line. A standard slasher flick made from well-worn parts remains just that, even when it has been given a famous name, plenty of topical talking points and a slick visual makeover. In fact, the fact that this do-over tries so hard to pair its murderous robotic figurine with timely observations, while also happily sticking to a bland, broad, surprise-free playbook, is its most grating trait. Perhaps it's simply peddling another piece of social commentary: that movie studios, like toy corporations, can release whatever generic fare they like as long as they make it appear shiny enough, and consumers just have to stomach the resulting havoc and dreck. Whether you're buying the latest gadget or heading to the cinema, that's the cost of making a purchase today. Single mother Karen Barclay (Aubrey Plaza) doesn't actually hand over any hard-earned cash for a walking, talking Buddi doll (which speaks with the voice of Mark Hamill). Instead, the department store employee convinces her boss to let her take one of the returned, malfunctioning toys home as a gift for her hearing-impaired son Andy's (Gabriel Bateman) birthday. Almost a teenager, the boy is hardly overjoyed about his present. Still, he's lonely and in a new city, the computerised plaything clearly adores him like it is programmed to, and it also helps him befriend a couple of neighbourhood kids (Ty Consiglio and Beatrice Kitsos). That said, that something is astray is clear from the moment that Andy's plastic buddy decides its own name is Chucky. As the movie's opening scene shows, a disgruntled sweatshop worker has removed the figurine's appropriate language and anti-violence filters in an act of employee-level corporate vengeance. So while Chucky might seem like little more than an eccentric and clingy android BFF to Andy, the smart doll is willing to do whatever it takes to keep their friendship alive — including slaughter anyone who gets in the way. If first-time feature director Lars Klevberg and debut screenwriter Tyler Burton Smith are trying to pre-empt criticism by having their mechanical villain love something so much that it turns into a toxic fan, slaying everything in its path irrationally and indiscriminately, that's one of their big swings and misses. It's better reading into their other big theme, and one that Chucky demonstrates again and again in trying to resolve Andy's woes with a knife: being careful what you wish for. For material so rife with potential, Child's Play remains content to make the easiest and most apparent statements in routine and uninspired ways. It's also happy to follow cookie-cutter characters, throw in the expected deaths and just generally follow the operating manual. And while there's undeniable pleasure in hearing Parks and Recreation alumni Plaza say the name 'Andy' repeatedly, she headlines an entirely wasted cast. Playing a cop whose mother lives in the same building as Karen and Andy, Atlanta's Brian Tyree Henry falls into the same category. So do Hamill's creepy but never overly menacing vocals. When Chucky keeps killing over and over again with a single-minded focus, Child's Play begins to resemble another tech-heavy, needlessly rebooted, never-say-die franchise: the Terminator. It's not that these sagas don't know when to end; rather, they keep kicking on without justifying why. The same can be said for recent instalments in other long-running series, such as X-Men and Men in Black. But, simultaneously glossy and formulaic where its predecessors were gleefully makeshift and off-kilter, Child's Play couldn't try harder to stress that it's a new beginning. It is, and yet starting over again isn't always a good thing. Credit where credit is due, however. Who dies, and when, never comes as a shock, but this horror flick does value a great bit of gore. While the bloodshed takes time to splatter across the screen, when it comes, it's memorable. If only Klevberg and Smith had expended the same energy and inventiveness on the rest of the film as they do on Chucky's growing pile of bodies. Their one other playful attempt arrives via the movie's blackly comic tone, endeavouring to ape The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and even using clips of the 80s slasher sequel to teach the picture's homicidal robot how to stab, slice and snatch people's faces off. If you're thinking the obvious, though, you're right — whether it's reimagining its source material, adhering to topical and filmmaking trends, or nodding to other genre fare, Child's Play follows poorly in everyone's footsteps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeHNLikDiVw
UPDATE, July 24, 2020: Vox Lux is available to stream via Binge, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Fame's sharp edges have punctured the cinema screen several times of late. They cut deep in A Star Is Born's moving pop star epic, which tracked the ups and downs of celebrity with wrenching emotion and heightened drama. And they sliced superficially in Bohemian Rhapsody, as it neatly and cleanly explored Freddie Mercury's quest to remain true to himself as he stepped into the spotlight. In Vox Lux, the difficulties and complexities of success slash savagely and hack furiously, with Brady Corbet writing and directing a blunt yet brilliant onslaught of a movie. As he did in The Childhood of a Leader, the actor-turned-filmmaker relentlessly charts the ascension of an influential fictional figure who owes their rise to struggle and trauma. Perhaps unexpectedly, the difference between a troubled kid becoming a fascist ringleader in the former film and a shooting victim becoming a superstar singer in the latter is paper-thin. Celeste is that singer and, as Willem Dafoe's all-knowing, somewhat ominous narration explains, her story is significant. Initially just an ordinary American girl, she grows up to be a victim, then a symbol — and then a star and a pariah. As a teenager (Raffey Cassidy) in 1999, she escapes a Staten Island school shooting with a bullet lodged in her spine and disturbing memories embedded in her brain. Savvy even in her darkest hours, the 13-year-old parlays her distress into a heartfelt ballad with her sister Ellie (Stacy Martin), sparking global attention and a prosperous music career under the guidance of an opportunistic manager (Jude Law). As a long-established public figure (Natalie Portman) in 2017, Celeste has since endured the rollercoaster ride that is fame, and is worse for wear for the experience. She's now a largely absent mother to her own teen (also played by Cassidy), and a target for the tabloids, especially after a terrorist attack is carried out by perpetrators wearing costumes from one of her early music videos. Three acts of violence punctuate Vox Lux: the two mentioned above as well as 9/11. A classroom erupts with gunfire, ending Celeste's childhood. A plane hits the World Trade Centre, just as the rising star is farewelling her adolescence. A beach resort becomes the site of the world's latest massacre, all on the eve of Celeste's big comeback tour. Each incident proves the narrative equivalent to the sparing bursts of silence deployed by composer Scott Walker, punctuating his booming, needling orchestral score. They find further parallels in the soulful instances when cinematographer Lol Crawley peers closely at Celeste, lingers and truly sees her, rather than presenting the character as a product of her surroundings via mid and long shots. They're the moments when everything stops and changes, however Vox Lux is primarily concerned with the exact opposite. Tragedy strikes, and people are lost again and again, but life, pop music and celebrity worship all adapt, evolve and continue. A tale of multiple chapters, periods and sources of pain, all operatically building to a huge pop concert finale, Vox Lux knows that the show will go on. It also knows that everything comes at a cost, especially the type of whirlwind that transforms Celeste from a mousy slip of a girl to a strutting, spiky, leotard-clad adult with a chip on her shoulder as broad as her newly adopted accent. Penetrating insight is baked into the movie's frames, as its protagonist turns trauma into success, then sees her success defined by, reactive to and almost reliant upon the world's seemingly never-ending cycle of trauma. When tragedy and popular culture have become irreversibly intertwined, there's no alternative. There's no reprieve, either. As a result, when Portman's version of Celeste sings "I'm a private girl in a public world" during Vox Lux's third act (crooning bangers composed by Sia, who's responsible for all of the film's original pop tracks), it's the movie's most obvious observation. Still, it's also a powerful statement, recognising how hurt, despair, and humanity's darkest moments have become grist for the entertainment and escapism-driven mill that is our 21st-century existence. Corbet eschews subtlety for force, but he's smartly mirroring his subject matter. Everything that his film says about fame, celebrity, success, myth-making, trauma and public spectacle shouldn't come as a surprise. Yet there's knowing something, and then there's revelling in the crash, rush and mess that arises when a movie dissects its topic in such a provocative and piercing way. For a filmmaker whose visuals demonstrate a love of control — with every inch of Vox Lux proving as slick and stylish as a music clip, and as enamoured with its own style as well — Corbet also clearly loves chaos. He loves making a splash, engineering a reaction, then waiting for the fallout he knows will eventuate. When bullets intrude upon a classroom and later a beach resort, it's jarring. When the film flits from near-stilted scenes of violence to glossy concerts — and from staring up at New York City buildings to watching the younger Celeste grapple with her injury — it bathes in the evident contrasts. And when Cassidy's shy portrayal of Celeste gives way to Portman's larger-than-life vision, it's similarly grating by design. Indeed, the movie's two versions of its fractured protagonist, as played to perfection by its lead actors, couldn't better encapsulate Corbet's overall approach. For better and for worse, Celeste shines in the space where the fragile meets the gleefully in-your-face, and so does everything else about the exceptional, memorable Vox Lux. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMCYE9hKP68
Food is usually the gift you give when you can't think of anything else. Come on, you know it's true. That said, anyone getting their dad Gelato Messina's latest special Father's Day creation can't be accused of that. If you're giving someone something that you're fighting the urge to just order for yourself, you're definitely giving a thoughtful present — and who doesn't want to tuck into three of the gelato chain's favourite desserts in chocolate bar form? Chocolates are Messina's Mother's Day go-to — and this year they're on the brand's Father's Day menu as well. The new three-pack marks the first time that Messina has ever made chocolate bars and blocks itself, however, with the team at its Rosebery headquarters doing the honours. Each kit actually contains nine items, but of three different types of chocolate. Loved Messina's recent cone-ception cookie pies? It has turned the concept into mini 105-gram chocolate bars, which combine sable biscuit, waffle cone spread and cone crunch, then cover it all in caramelised white chocolate. Your dad will get four of those, plus four mini milk chocolate Messinatella hazelnut bars featuring sable biscuit, Messinatella choc hazelnut spread and roasted hazelnuts. And, taking the final spot in the kit is the neapolitan chocolate block — and yes, it's made with milk chocolate, white chocolate that features Heilala vanilla, and strawberry chocolate infused with freeze dried strawberries. This gift will set you back $45, and it's being shipped, which is handy for folks in lockdown. Also, delivery won't cost you extra. Like most Messina specials, it's going on sale on a Monday morning — at 9am on Monday, August 23, to be exact. Then, it'll get brought to your door, with orders shipping on or before Friday, August 27. Gelato Messina's Father's Day chocolate three-packs will be available to order from 9am, Monday, August 23.
UPDATE, Friday, January 12, 2024: Killers of the Flower Moon streams via Apple TV+ from Friday, January 12, and via Google Play, YouTube Movies and Prime Video. Death comes to Killers of the Flower Moon quickly. Death comes to Killers of the Flower Moon often. While Martin Scorsese will later briefly fill the film's frames with a fiery orange vision — with what almost appears to be a lake of flames deep in oil country, as dotted with silhouettes of men — death blazes through his 26th feature from the moment that the picture starts rolling. Adapted from journalist David Grann's 2017 non-fiction novel Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, with the filmmaker himself and Dune's Eric Roth penning the screenplay, this is a masterpiece of a movie about a heartbreakingly horrible spate of deaths sparked by pure and unapologetic greed and persecution a century back. Scorsese's two favourite actors in Leonardo DiCaprio (Don't Look Up) and Robert De Niro (Amsterdam) are its stars, alongside hopefully his next go-to in Lily Gladstone (Reservation Dogs), but murder and genocide are as much at its centre — all in a tale that's devastatingly true. As Mollie Kyle, a member of the Osage Nation in Grey Horse, Oklahoma, incomparable Certain Women standout Gladstone talks through some of the movie's homicides early. Before her character meets DiCaprio's World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart — nephew to De Niro's cattle rancher and self-proclaimed 'king of the Osage' William King Hale — she notes that several Indigenous Americans that have been killed, with Mollie mentioning a mere few to meet untimely ends. There's nothing easy about this list, nor is there meant to be. Some are found dead, others seen laid out for their eternal rest, and each one delivers a difficult image. But a gun fired at a young mother pushing a pram inspires a shock befitting a horror film. The genre fits here, in its way, as do many others: American crime saga, aka the realm that Scorsese has virtually made his own, as well as romance, relationship drama, western, true crime and crime procedural. Although this chapter of history has hardly been splashed across the screen with frequency, its new place among the iconic director's filmography helps him to continue making a statement that he's been beaming at audiences for most of his filmmaking life. The specifics differ from flick to flick, but Scorsese keeps surveying the appallingly corrupt and violent deeds done in the pursuit of power, wealth and influence. He constantly peers into humanity's souls, seeing some of its worst impulses staring back. Indeed, there's no doubting that Killers of the Flower Moon hails from the same person as Goodfellas, Casino and Gangs of New York, or The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman, too. It also easily belongs on a filmography with entries as varied as Raging Bull, The Age of Innocence, Kundun, The Departed and Shutter Island. Between them, DiCaprio and De Niro have starred in most of those movies. Now, they combine for the first time in a Scorsese feature to basically rekindle their This Boy's Life dynamic from three decades back, all while plumbing the depths of money-coveting men chasing land rights, aka Osage headrights, through a cruel, brutal and disarmingly patient plan. "The finest, the wealthiest and the most beautiful people on god's earth" is how Hale describes the Osage Nation to Ernest when the latter is freshly back on US soil, off the train in Fairfax and getting reacquainted with his uncle. Those riches stem from being pushed out of Kansas, resettled, then striking black gold in a stroke of good fortune that brings more misfortune. Hale wants a piece and more, and gets seemingly every other white man in Oklahoma joining his pursuit. In an extraordinary performance, De Niro gives Hale quietly formidable potency — the kind that doesn't need raised voices or a weapon to command a room, evoke unease and enforce his might. Scorsese lets the outwardly supportive, not-so-privately manipulative town anchor become the open villain almost instantly. Killers of the Flower Moon isn't a whodunnit, but rather a living-with-knowing-who's-doing-it film. It tells its atrocity-filled tale about evil in plain sight carefully, exactingly and unhurriedly — earning each and every one of its 206 minutes — with narrative inevitably breeding suspense and emotional tension. Sporting an injured gut from combat, Ernest turns to chauffeuring to make a living under Hale's wing. When he begins driving the graceful and stately Mollie, his uncle has already laid out his scheme to get Osage property and wealth gushing their family's way. Still, everything about Ernest and Mollie's romance is genuine. DiCaprio and Gladstone are exquisite, including when their characters are flirting over cab rides and storm-backdropped sips of whiskey, resting their foreheads together in a gesture that gets them saying everything without saying anything, and stealing other silently happy moments. But the bodies keep mounting, with many of Mollie's nearest and dearest — such as her sisters Minnie (Jillian Dion, Alaska Daily), Anna (Cara Jade Myers, Rutherford Falls) and Reta (Janae Collins, Reservation Dogs), plus their mother Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal, Three Pines) — in Hale's way. While the gangster-film label mightn't fit Killers of the Flower Moon as neatly as Mean Streets and company, this is still a gangster film. Scorsese is in his element, not that he's ever been out of it on any feature that isn't a gangster flick — but that's never the only place that he wants to be. As cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Barbie) lenses both the eye-catching landscape and dark interiors, editor Thelma Schoonmaker (who has done his splicing since Raging Bull) gives the movie its meticulous pacing and the now-late Robbie Robertson (who starred in Scorsese music documentary The Last Waltz as part of The Band) imparts a slinkily propulsive beat amid a pitch-perfectly anxious score, this is also a movie of blistering anger and interrogation. As the saga of Ernest, Mollie, Hale and pervasive death always thrums at its core, so does a reckoning. Killers of the Flower Moon carves into the injustices of America's past, plus their impact upon the present, to stress the blood and bones that the US was built upon. It sees how much about today ties back to its tragedy of oppression and slaughter, how distressingly familiar this situation is around the world and, in a stunner of a coda, how such realities are regularly exploited rather than addressed. Bold and brilliant, epic yet intimate, ambitious and absorbing, as meaningful as it is monumental, a quintessential Martin Scorsese movie: every single one applies to Killers of the Flower Moon. It's also rich and riveting in each touch and instant, from building its lived-in portrait of the 1920s midwest to the magnificent cast that also spans Jesse Plemons (Love & Death) as a federal investigator — even if the Birth of the FBI part of the feature's source material is scaled down — and both John Lithgow (Sharper) and Brendan Fraser (The Whale) as lawyers. Three and a half hours almost doesn't seem long enough to spend revelling in this superbly complicated film, or to confront the many difficult truths explored. It definitely isn't long enough with its three outstanding key players, who each turn in shattering portrayals whether playing it slick, nervy or soulful. Killers of the Flower Moon is steeped in so much heartwrenching death, and unforgettably so, yet it could't have been better brought to on-screen life.
Gone are the days when travellers checked into hotels with the sole purpose of sleeping. It seems everyone wants a bit extra with their holiday, be it a gardening course, an onsite brewery or a window onto the underwater world. And while those types of overnight experiences are all well and good, if you're a pop culture fan, you might want to set your sights on Walt Disney World's 360 vacation concept in Orlando. The latest addition to the globe's accommodation wonders, it'll let you live, breathe and sleep Stars Wars — staying not only in a themed hotel, but onboard a spaceship. To answer the obvious question: no, you won't actually be going into space (although that idea isn't as out-of-this-world as it may sound). You will have a blast pretending that you're headed to a galaxy far, far, away, though. We're happy to report that the resort is taking the immersive part very seriously, with the new hotel — called Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser — allowing patrons to embark upon a two-night adventure on the starcruiser Halycon. Disney first announced this addition to its growing theme park realm back in 2017; however the huge entertainment company has just dropped specific details for all those wannabe Jedis clamouring for a unique holiday. First step: leave your real life at the door. Upon check-in, guests become a citizen of the galaxy — which means that, every minute of every day of your stay, you're a part of the Star Wars story happening around you. You'll hang out in the Atrium, where crew and passengers gather; operate the Halycon's navigation and defence systems, with plenty of guidance; and learn how to use a lightsaber, because an immersive Star Wars-themed stay wouldn't be complete without wielding a glowing weapon. You'll also sleep in spaceship cabins, drink in the passenger lounge and try to sneak into the crew-only engineering rooms. Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will form part of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, Walt Disney World's new sprawling zone dedicated to the space-set franchise — which, after opening at Disneyland in California earlier this year, is now open in Orlando as well. For now, the hotel doesn't have an opening date, although you can sign up to register your interest. If you're keen, you'll have to be committed to the experience, as the "every minute of every day" comment may well include sleeping hours — the dark side never sleeps, after all. Image: Disney/Lucasfilm via Disney Parks Blog.
The Australia Day debate has again erupted, with a Melbourne council voting to drop all references to Australia Day and to ditch its annual citizenship ceremony in favour of a culturally sensitive event that acknowledges the loss of Indigenous culture. Yarra Council made the call at last night's town hall meeting after ongoing discussions with local Indigenous representatives. "The overwhelming sentiment from our Aboriginal community is that January 26 is a date of sadness, trauma and distress. They have told us that this is not a day of celebration, but a day of mourning," said Yarra Mayor, Cr Amanda Stone in a statement. The council had also commissioned a survey of nearly 300 non-Indigenous people in Yarra, which showed that 78.6 percent of respondents supported the concept of a January 26 event to acknowledge Aboriginal experiences. "In the last 12 months there has been a groundswell of community support for change from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people across the country. The community is looking for leadership on this issue," said Cr Stone. "People can still have their barbecues and parties on the January 26 public holiday, but I hope our stance encourages people to stop and think about what this date really means in the history of our nation. "A celebration of national identity should be inclusive of all Australians. 26 January is not an appropriate date because it marks the beginning of British colonisation and the loss of culture, language and land for Australia's First Peoples." However, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has voiced his disapproval, criticising Yarra Council. "An attack on Australia Day is a repudiation of the values the day celebrates: freedom, a fair go, mateship and diversity," the PM said in a statement, reported by the ABC. "I recognise Australia Day, and its history, is complex for many Indigenous Australians but the overwhelming majority of Australians believe the 26th of January is the day and should remain our national day." The council vote has seen a swag of recommendations approved, including adopting a communications plan to better educate people on the Indigenous experience surrounding January 26, and referring to the day as January 26 until there's a nationally adopted term to use in its place. Yarra Council's also moved to use their publications and social media channels to officially support the #changethedate campaign, and will explore ways to lobby the Federal Government on the issue. The controversial decision follows on from Fremantle Council's move to hold its official 2017 Australia Day celebrations two days later than normal, on January 28, though it looks as though these changes by the Yarra Council will be the most extensive we've seen yet. Image: City of Yarra.
There are few pleasures more simple or satisfying in this life than a great meal with great company. It's with that fact in mind that we again find comedians Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan bouncing from one tantalising meal to the next in the third installment of Michael Winterbottom's gastro-comedy series The Trip. Beginning in 2010, the original Trip was a 'best of' that drew from Winterbottom's six-part series for the BBC in which Brydon and Coogan travelled the UK's Lake District 'reviewing' restaurants for their respective publishers. It featured a threadbare fictional storyline that served only to place these two astoundingly witty and sardonic impressionists opposite one another – verbal sparring partners forever determined to fell the other with a devastating barb. The result was a delightful laugh-out-loud comedy that never once threatened to veer towards the gross-out or foul-mouthed gags so common in contemporary Hollywood comedies. The first film's success spawned a sequel, The Trip to Italy, four years later. Now we're greeted with the third course in The Trip to Spain. It's all very much business as usual, with close-ups of mouth-watering food porn breaking up the otherwise largely static shots of Coogan and Brydon facing off against one another, backed by breathtaking scenery and captivating architecture. There's a little history thrown in throughout the film, as well as the occasional food review, but at its heart The Trip to Spain knows where the gold lies and it rarely strays far from the path. Some of you may already be familiar with the common personality quiz question that asks what two people you'd most like to have over for a dinner party. If nothing else, you'd be hard pressed to find a better return on investment than Brydon and Coogan, given how effortlessly the two become 20. Many of the same impersonations from the first two movies return here, including Al Pacino, Michael Caine and Roger Moore. But it's the new entries – David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Sir Anthony Hopkins – that earn the biggest laughs. That these impressions are so often inspired by real life encounters or precious personal moments with their subjects gives what might otherwise feel like a tired parlour trick a critical grounding in tenderness – especially in the case of the Bowie exchange. If there's a complaint to be made this time round, it's that the fictional storyline brings the film to a close on a note that's both abrupt and rather bizarre. The likelihood of another follow-up seems assured given the left-field cliffhanger, but it's so at odds with the class and character of the series that one almost wishes the fictional narrative could be dispensed with entirely. Either that, or shift away from the episodic format of television and become an out-and-out film series. We'll just have to wait and see. For now, at least, we've got some more sumptuous comedy to enjoy, along with course after course of delicious food to match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTvy8ab1NSo
When June rolls around this year, Sydney's State Theatre won't be filled with cinephiles. Event Cinemas George Street won't welcome eager movie buffs either, and nor will other picture palaces around the city. Usually, they'd be teeming with Sydney Film Festival attendees; however the fest cancelled its 2020 physical event back in March, when COVID-19 restrictions started coming in. To the delight of film fans, however, SFF is moving online instead. After announcing the digital festival earlier this month, SFF has now revealed its first-ever all-online lineup, in what promises to be a once-off pandemic-only affair. If you're fond of film fests and you live somewhere other than Sydney, you'll be pleased to know that the 67th Sydney Film Festival: Virtual Edition is also streaming nationally, too. While SFF won't be showing hundreds of movies like it normally does, it has still compiled an interesting and engaging roster of flicks — specifically focusing on features by female filmmakers from Europe, Australian documentaries and an array of short films. Moving SFF's regular Europe! Voices of Women in Film program strand online, the digital fest will screen ten new movies by women directors from countries such as Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland and Ireland. Highlights include Sea Fever, a tense and rather fitting sci-fi thriller that tracks a contagion on a fishing trawler; Force of Habit, an anthology film exploring women's everyday experiences; and Charter, following a mother's actions during a fraught custody battle — as well as documentary A Year Full of Drama, which charts a small-town competition winner who is enlisted to review every theatre production in Estonia in 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFJxW46F0YQ From the Aussie doco selection, ten films will compete for Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Best Australian Documentary, with the annual SFF prize being presented via a virtual awards ceremony this year. Among the contenders, Morgana follows a middle-aged housewife's decision to start starring in her own sex- and age-positive erotic films, while Descent focuses on one of the world's only professional ice free-divers. There's also The Weather Diaries, which sees filmmaker Kathy Drayton charts the effects of climate change on her daughter, musician Lupa J, as she grows up over six years, plus A Hundred Years of Happiness, about a young Vietnamese woman forced to choose between staying in her rural home to care for her parents and moving to South Korea to get married. SFF's shorts range spans another 13 titles, including ten vying for the Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films. Three others specifically hail from screen practitioners with disability as part of the fest's returning Screenability strand. Available to watch for the fest's entire duration, all of the above films are ticketed, starting at $5 for the Screenability shorts package, then costing $14 for a single movie. You can watch everything in either the Documentary Australia Foundation or Europe! Voices of Women in Film package for $99, too, or view the entire lineup — shorts and feature-length flicks — for $199. SFF's virtual program also includes two free components, should you be interested in looking back on previous fest highlights. The festival is one of 20 worldwide events taking part in We Are One: A Global Film Festival, which screens on YouTube from Friday, May 29–Sunday, June 7. As part of the online fest, it's showing Aussie films Mystery Road and Mabo, which you can view at set times without paying a cent. Or, Aussie movie lovers can binge their way through the 40-film Sydney Film Festival Selects collection on SBS On Demand, available from Wednesday, June 10–Friday, July 10. It's a best-of lineup featuring plenty of top titles from previous SFFs, so get ready to revisit Studio Ghibli co-production The Red Turtle, Taika Waititi's Boy, the Greta Gerwig-starring Frances Ha, Aussie comedy That's Not Me and New Zealand's The Breaker Upperers. You can also feast your eyes on Palme d'Or winner The Square, Scandi thriller The Guilty, Turkish drama Mustang and Xavier Dolan's Heartbeats, among other films. The 67th Sydney Film Festival: Virtual Edition runs from Wednesday, June 10–Sunday, June 21. For further details — or to purchase tickets and view the festival's programmed films during the above dates — visit the SFF website. Top image: Sea Fever.
Christmas, jingling bells and gingerbread tempting the tastebuds all go hand in hand. At Riverbar & Kitchen, so does festive season and sipping gin — in 2024, at least. In the lead up to the jolliest day of all, the Eagle Street watering hole is getting merry with a seasonal pop-up. There's gin to drink, plus dishes using gin to tuck into. Gin and limoncello soft serve, anyone? Across Saturday, November 30–Tuesday, December 24, the Gin-gle Bar is in full swing — and expect the $15 meringue soft serve to be one of its most-popular dishes. It features Bombay Sapphire gin, limoncello, passionfruit and meringue. Need something to knock back with it? Try the Gingerbread Fizz for $21, which features gin, gingerbread, passionfruit, vanilla and bubbles. Also on the menu: the $18 Elfed-Up Sour (aka gin, mango wine, matcha, citrus and egg whites); to share, $39 jugs of Gin-gle Juice Jug (Bombay Bramble, pomegranate, cranberry, peach and bubbles); and gin-cured salmon bruschetta with crème fraiche, capers and dill for $17. Gin-gle Bar is a collaboration with Bombay Sapphire, hence the brand's tipples featuring heavily. Riverbar is also looking the part with festive decorations — yes, it's decking its halls appropriately. Entry is free, but booking a table in advance is recommended. Images: Markus Ravik.
For decades, the XXXX brewery has been a Brisbane landmark, towering over the inner west and lighting up the night sky with its neon sign. The Milton Road mainstay is no longer Brissie's sole beer haven, however. Thanks to the city's thriving, ever-growing craft brewery scene, it has plenty of company. From passionate outfits just a stone's throw away from the brewery behemoth to the bustling area that's popped up around Newstead and booze-makers slinging their wares in the 'burbs, Brisbane is now a beer-lover's playground. That not only means more ales, lagers and pilsners to sip and savour, but more places to enjoy them — including these: our picks for the best breweries around town.
It's hard to pick which is more horrifying in Happening: the graphic scenes where 23-year-old literature student Anne Duchesne (Anamaria Vartolomei, How to Be a Good Wife) takes the only steps she can to try to regain control of her life, or the times she's repeatedly told by others, typically men, to accept a fate that only ever awaits her gender. Both hit like a punch, by design. Both are wrenching, heart and gut alike, and neither are surprising for a second. Also leaving a mark: that few care that Anne's future is now threatened in this 2021 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion-winner, because that's simply a consequence of having sex for women in France in 1963, the movie's setting. There's another truth that lingers over this adaptation of author Annie Ernaux's 2001 memoir of the same name, which uses her own experiences at the same age, time and in the same situation: that in parts of the world where pro-life perspectives are entrenched in law or regaining prominence, Happening's scenario isn't a relic of the past. Late in the movie, Anne describes her circumstances as "that illness that turns French women into housewives". It's a blunt turn of phrase, but it's accurate. It also speaks to how writer/director Audrey Diwan (Losing It) and co-scribe Marcia Romano (Bye Bye Morons) approach the film with the clearest of eyes, declining to indulge the idea that forcing unwanted motherhood upon young women is a gift or simply a duty, and likewise refusing to flinch from showing the reality when the personal freedom to choose is stripped away. This is a feature made with the fullest of hearts, too, compassion evident in every boxed-in Academy ratio frame that rarely leaves Anne's face. It spies the appalling options before her, and sees the society that's okay with stealing her choices. And, it stares deeply at both the pain and determination that've understandably taken up residence in Anne's gaze. The second of Ernaux's works to hit screens of late after the also candid and moving Simple Passion, Happening begins with hope, with Anne and her Angoulême college dormmates Hélène (Luàna Bajrami, The Hill Where Lionesses Roar) and Brigitte (Louise Orry-Diquéro, Occidental) getting ready for a dance. They're filled with the excitement that comes with believing anything could happen — there's fun to be had, men to meet and lives to be changed — but, once there, it's obvious that these kinds of nights always follow the same pattern. Their university's resident mean girls glare on in judgement when Anne even talks to a guy, but she doesn't let that stop her. She isn't one to weather their bullying, gossip and slut-shaming, including once she discovers she's expecting three weeks after a casual fling. The only thing that terrifies the ambitious and bright working-class student: losing the ability to live the life that she's been working towards. The alternative is highly illegal, so much so that securing help from medical professionals, friends and family is overwhelmingly difficult. Delivering the surprising pregnancy news, Anne's family doctor (Fabrizio Rongione, Azor) is sympathetic to the stark scenario facing his patient, knowing the stigma that'll come her way for being an unwed single mother, and that her dreams of teaching will be derailed. Still, given that prison is the punishment for illicit terminations, he shuts down any notion of lending a hand. Even chatting about abortion hypothetically with Hélène and Brigitte before they know she's with child earns the same dismissive response. The baby's father (Julien Frison, Lover for a Day), a visiting student, just wants the situation handled, and asking a flirtatious classmate (Kacey Mottet Klein, Farewell to the Night) for assistance just ends with him hitting on Anne; she's already pregnant so he figures she'll be up for it and there'll be no consequences. Diwan's film is patient and precise as it marks the passing time with text on-screen, each successive week making Anne's situation more precarious and her hopes of avoiding parenthood less likely. It's a straightforward touch, but such overt tracking helps achieve Happening's key aim: immersing viewers in Anne's distressing emotional, physical and psychological rollercoaster ride. She knows what she wants, and what she definitely doesn't. As weeks flit by, though, and every potential avenue for support either crumbles or deepens her struggle, the ordeal takes its toll. Anne persists, searching for acquaintances of friends of friends who can guide her in the right direction in whispers, and Happening is committed to depicting the loneliness, hurt and despair that follows. Whether involving injections, knitting needles, secret procedures and stifled anguished cries, or just the grim tenor of her words and posture, the result is harrowing and unsettling. Vartolomei's on-screen credits date back more than a decade, but this is a career-catapulting performance — and film-defining. She's saddled with a mammoth task, with cinematographer Laurent Tangy (OSS 117: From Africa with Love) rarely peering elsewhere, and she ensures that every feeling coursing through Anne's veins reverberates through the lens. Vartolomei is furious, agitated and panicked all at once. She's resolute and resourceful as well, and also frightened and exhausted. Her inner state gets its own echo in the mood-setting score by Evgueni and Sacha Galperine, who also made 2021 TV miniseries Scenes From a Marriage sting with tension, but she'd leave the same heartbreaking impression if Happening didn't feature a note of music. And while her portrayal is all her own, it's as instinctual as the last exceptional performance in the last phenomenal award-winning drama about abortion, aka Sidney Flanigan's in 2020's Never Rarely Sometimes Always. It doesn't escape attention that Diwan almost plays it coy with period details; if you didn't know going in that Happening is set in the 60s, it isn't quick to point it out. The fashion nods that way — in having Anne frequently seen in the same dusty red top, the film also uses costuming to convey her modest background and urgent focus on much more important things than clothing — and there's a clear lack of phones, of course. Expressing that this type of tale still rings true today is another of the movie's objectives, however, and it's as compelling a move as Diwan makes. Happening is haunting and shattering, immaculately crafted, unwavering in its honesty, and as confronting as it needs to be, and it wields all of the above with passion and purpose. And yes, picking what's more horrendous — Anne's many physical traumas, or the contempt that women are held in for having uteruses, liking sex and seeking agency over their futures — is impossible.
Have you ever, ever had the theme tune from a 90s Australian television show lodged in your brain for decades? For anyone who watched the first two seasons of Round the Twist when they originally aired — or anytime afterwards, or the third and fourth seasons in the early 2000s as well — the answer is always yes. Audiences have author Paul Jennings to thank for the series, which initially adapted stories from his novels Unreal!, Unbelievable!, Uncanny and more. Musician Andrew Duffield also deserves gratitude, given that he composed the earworm of a main song. In 2024, Paul Hodge and Simon Phillips join the list, too, but for Round the Twist as no one has ever seen it before: as a stage musical. Hodge understands the power of that catchy theme. It's one of the influences, unsurprisingly, for the sound of the stage production from Queensland Theatre and Queensland Performing Arts Centre that's enjoying its world-premiere season at QPAC in Brisbane until Sunday, December 8, 2024. He also knows how deeply that the tune has burrowed into an entire generation of 90s kids' minds. "I said to Andrew Duffield, who wrote it, I said to him just before the rehearsal period 'how do you feel to know that you can just penetrate people's minds simply by them hearing 'have you ever…' and then it's stuck in their head for the rest of the day?" he tells Concrete Playground. "He was like 'oh yeah, it's fun. It's great'." Before he had musical-comedies Clinton the Musical and Joh for PM on his resume — and opera Riot as well — Hodge grew up as a fan of the lighthouse-dwelling Twist family and their supernatural-tinged adventures. If he hadn't, the idea to pen the musical of Round the Twist wouldn't have sprung for the writer and composer, who was inspired by randomly recalling a line from season-two episode 'Smelly Feet'. Phillips describes himself as too old to have known anything about the television series at the time, but helms yet another 90s Aussie classic making the leap from the screen to the stage. Previously, he's directed stage versions of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Muriel's Wedding. "I'm churlish that I missed out on Strictly Ballroom," he jokes. Fans have had since 2021 to look forward to the result of Hodge and Phillips' efforts with Round the Twist, when the musical was initially announced. This wasn't the first time that someone had approached Jennings and the Australian Children's Television Foundation, which produced the TV series, about bringing the Twists to the stage with tunes — but it was the first time that they gave the tick of approval. Hodges credits Jennings' stories first and foremost, including for having fun making the musical, and for a production that he hopes will be both entertaining and moving for theatregoers. "I think what Paul is really good at is that, as well as obviously his stories are fun and silly and bizarre, he understands what it's like to be a kid," Hodges advises. "There's this story of this kid coming to him at one of his book signings saying 'how do you know what it's like to be me?'. And I think that he understands also the not-so-fun parts of being a kid — what it feels like when you're embarrassed or you're scared, and things like first kisses and those kind of things. He looks at those moments and milestones of growing up, and portrays them in a very fun and silly and bizarre way. Because he has that understanding, his stories have a lot of heart in them, and that's what I've tried to maintain in the musical." How did Hodge approach his task as a fan of both Round the Twist and Jennings? "As a kid, I read Paul's short stories and then I watched the TV show, and it's fun going back and doing that again as an adult. The musical is based on the first two seasons, which were the ones that Paul wrote, and so I have now watched those — rewatched them — so many times now," he shares. "If there was any kind of Round the Twist trivia, I'm sure I could win them for the first two seasons." For Phillips, he looked at his perspective as bringing fresh eyes to something so adored by so many. "Initially, it was a long time before I watched the TV programs. I tried to read the script as if it was a fresh new work that no one had ever seen before, which indeed of course it was, but that didn't have the references. And then at a certain point you go 'I'm not quite sure why this is there', and the answer is 'because it's one of the most-beloved moments in the TV program' — and that's a good enough reason," he says. "But it also went through the process of gradually having a few of the favourite moments from the TV program getting lost in the storytelling. Because we realised that for this story to feel coherent, it just couldn't have everyone's favourite bit from the TV program, or it would have been a) four hours long and b) have no individual plot of its own." There were essentials that Hodge absolutely had to include, however. "I think I always knew that the 'Smelly Feet' episode, "up the pong!", would have to be in there, because that was the origin of it. It's interesting that for each of the Twist kids, I knew there was an episode that I felt had to be in there. For Bronson, it was 'Smelly Feet'. For Pete, it was 'Without My Pants'. And for Linda, it was 'Nails'. Those were the ones that had really stood out for me as a kid for each of the Twist kids." Hodge and Phillips also chatted with us about the musical's origin story, getting the green light from Jennings, the adaptation process, whether taking on something with decades of affection behind it was daunting, why Round the Twist endures and introducing it to a new generation — and more. On How Round the Twist The Musical Finally Came About Paul: "Apparently I wasn't the first to have the idea, but the Children's Television Foundation has said no previously. But the way it came about was that I had been trying to think of something that I could write for my whole family to come to, because I have a lot of nieces and nephews, and I wanted something that all the generations of the family could come to — my parents and my siblings and nieces and nephews. There's an episode of Round the Twist where Bronson, the youngest Twist kid, he's trying to save up the smell of his feet, basically, for six months, to then try to use it as a weapon. And when whenever he uses this power — he's using it for a good purpose — then he says 'up the pong!'. About eight years ago, my mum was changing my nephew's nappy one day, and she said 'ohh, that's a pongy nappy'. And my brain immediately went 'up the pong!'. Which, I think, also shows the enduring power of Paul Jennings' stories, for something from my childhood to come back to me in adulthood like that. When happened, then I went 'oh, Round the Twist, that's the thing that I should do'. And so then I then approached the Children's Television Foundation and Paul Jennings about adapting it, and the Children's Television Foundation said 'we've been approached before and said no, but we're going to say yes to you'. I feel very privileged and humbled that Paul and Jenny Buckland of the ACTF and Andrew Duffield, who wrote theme song, have placed their trust in me to tell these stories." Simon: "My analysis would be that it took someone, i.e. Paul Hodge, who had been the right age to watch the show to grow up and sufficiently develop the skillsets to write the musical. Because it was so of its time and of its audience. The 90s was its heyday, and so I feel that both in the writing of it and in the audience space for it, it's great that there's something that is there for the mid-30s to mid-40s generation who grew up on Round the Twist. But I, of course, didn't really know anything about the TV series, because I'm too old. And I think that's another reason why it took a while for the show to find producers — because the people who were in a position to support it financially probably also slightly missed the show, and didn't view it with the same affection as the generation who had really grown up on it. And so I started merely talking to Paul during COVID, who I'd met a couple of times before, when everyone was locked down — and I started really talking to him about the shape of the show and reading it for him and giving him some feedback. Then it started to find its feet after COVID. And indeed, with some fantastic assistance from the RISE funding, which got its workshopping process, that's what managed to get it up from the page to something that we could start really rehearsing on the stage proper." On Getting the Green Light From Paul Jennings and the Australian Children's Television Foundation Paul: "I think it was partly grasping why Paul's stories are so great. I think it was also that I could give a reason of why it should be a musical — not just coming in and going 'ohh, anything can be a musical'. Because I think with any story, the first question you have to ask if you're adapting something into a musical is 'why does this story sing?'. Lots of stories can sing — it's just people need to find the way to make that happen. To me, why I said this story sang was because in the way that Round the Twist works, all the episodes are kind of unrelated, because they're all each based on a Paul Jennings short story. But, over the course of a season, generally there's a thin thread that goes through the season and then pays off in the final episode of the season. In the first season, that thread is that they are hearing mysterious music that's coming from the top of the lighthouse, and then that pays off in the final episode. And in that final episode, they end up singing to resolve the plot. So I said that to me, already this story sang. Music was already a part of it, and singing was an incredibly important part of that finale of the first season. I think that was one of the reasons of why, to me, this story sang — and was one of the reasons that they gave it the green light." On Starting the Adaptation Process — By Watching Round the Twist, Of Course Paul: "I watched and continued to rewatch the show many times. And then, because there's 26 episodes in the first two seasons, it was a decision of going 'okay, what episodes am I going to include in the musical?'. So that was a process of partly going ' well, the finale episodes of the first two seasons are the ones that have an overarching arc to them, and the first episode of the series is obviously important in setting everyone up', so I assumed that I would be incorporating those. The I worked out my own thing of going 'what were my favourite episodes as a kid?'. Also, I trawled the internet to see if my episodes checked out as the same as other people's, what their favourites were. Then it was then trying to work out how to put all those together. And the thing that is holding the other important part of the music side of the musical —also of the TV show — is the theme song. So in the musical, the nursery-rhyme lyrics to the theme song are riddles that the Twist kids are trying to solve — and they are related to the different plots. So that's the thing that's holding these different episodes together as they're trying to work out this mystery. Over the process of writing, it's been a process of pulling all these disparate episodes together and shaving away each of the episode stories to its core element, and then merging different things together. When I sent the first treatment to Paul, then we had a conversation where I was saying 'well, in this episode there's a ghost that haunts a toilet, which is the first episode, Skeleton on the Dunny', and then there's this episode also where there's a ghost that haunts the toilet — and I've merged those two into one, and I've merged them also with this other idea'. And Paul was saying to me, 'well, that's the exact same type of thing that I was doing when I was adapting the books into the TV show'. So it was good to know that we were following the same process." On How to Tackle Directing a Musical with Such Adored Source Material Simon: "You essentially have to approach it in its own terms, based on its own musculature. You have to say 'what is this that we're making?', but you also fly in the face of certain elements from the original show at your peril. And this is that weird combo, because it's been books and a TV show, but the way that people relate to it, the characters have been semi-formed in people's minds via the TV show. Sometimes, I think when you're doing an adaptation of a film or something that has originated in celluloid, and you're putting it on stage, the ghosts of the people who originally played it is very strong in your audience's minds. I guess we have the advantage from the TV show that people also read it in book form and got their own individual images. And the casting changed inside the TV series anyway, so there's no single person where you could say 'that actor is in our minds Pete Twist' because he was a few different actors. So that helps us." On Not Being Daunted by Round the Twist's Page-to-Screen-to-Stage Path — and Huge Fandom Paul: "I think I'm more excited about it. I approach it from the point of view of a fan. Like, I am a huge fan of Round the Twist and that's how I've been writing it. It's as a fan and going 'if I was seeing a Round the Twist musical, what would I want to see on stage as a fan?'. So it's more been a process of going like 'ohh, people are going to love this bit'. It's been fun. And it's been important to me that it maintains the spirit of the original TV show. That's why I wanted to make sure that Paul and the ACTF and Andrew Duffield have been involved in the process as we've gone along." Simon: "It's more a great wave to surf — that you actually feel supported by the energy that its origins give you. And indeed, this is why so very many musicals that are made are adaptations of existing work: it gives the musical a launching pad, it gets it off the starting blocks with a little bit of an advantage, I think." On the Inspiration for the Musical's Songs Beyond the Iconic Theme Paul: "The theme song was the touchstone for the sound of the show in general. I wanted it to feel like it was all one whole and the theme song didn't feel separate from the rest of the score. So I used the feeling of the music in the TV show also a touchstone. And I wanted it to be definitively Australian, so I was listening to a lot of Australian pop and rock music, and I was listening to a lot of Triple J. I remember going back through the Hottest 100 one year, and going 'okay, these songs feel like they're the vibe of what I'm looking for'. I would just be listening to a lot of Australian music to try to make sure that the music in the show felt Australian." On Taking the Audience on a Tonal Rollercoaster Ride, as the TV Show Did Simon: "Part of the challenge, actually an interesting challenge of it, is that its tones are multifarious. So that's a balance, although music always helps with getting those maybe slightly illogical or over-sudden mood shifts that are required in a piece like this. Music is a fantastic tool in terms of immediately changing the audience's emotional sensibility depending on how the music's telling them to feel. In the end, the story is really quite moving, I think. It ends up having a big message about healing and restoring and mending the past. It's kind of a madcap farce in its first half in many ways, and then it becomes quite strong with heartfelt family elements to it in the second half of the show." On Why Round the Twist Struck Such a Chord with Audiences When It First Aired — and Since Simon: "I did have an opinion about that. I've been trying to articulate it a bit. I think there are, as always, many reasons, but I feel like it's very strongly to do with Paul Jennings' particular genius for identifying the inner hopes, fears and ambitions of children and teenagers, and speaking to those things in a way which was uncensored on behalf of saying the right thing for their parents. And so really quite often, the episodes of Round the Twist the TV series are dealing with really quite, in a way, risque or what would now be quite inappropriate ideas. But they're exactly the things that are going through teenagers' heads. And whatever you say, you can't stop teenagers having those anxieties and wishes and hopes, because they're teenagers, and their lives are changing, their bodies are changing. That was part of the real secret of the success, that it dared to be irresponsible about a whole number of different, quite erratic things. And then the other side is the imaginative — you can't help feeling that in another time and another place someone would have said 'but this doesn't make sense'. That was never an issue for Paul Jennings or the people who put his stories into TV. They were perfectly happy for it to have its own sense, its own illogical sense of logic, and stand or fall on that. I feel that was its secret ingredient in a way." On Conveying the Idea That Strange Things Do Happen — and It's Okay for Life to Be Strange, and for You to Be Strange Paul: "That's very important. And that was one of the things that I said to Paul when I was first approaching him and the ACTF about adapting the TV series, I said like that I feel like his stories are all 'weird things happen and it's okay to be weird. It's okay to be different'. One of the other main parts of the musical is, because sometimes it was quite scary in the TV show, there's this idea that I think is quite important that as well as it's okay to be weird, it's okay to be scared. Everyone gets scared. Even adults get scared." On Introducing Round the Twist to a New Generation Paul: "I am very excited by it. I always designed it as something that the whole family could come to, and that's why I think what is exciting to me is that the generation that grew up watching it will now be able to bring their kids and introduce their kids to the musical. So it's very, very exciting to me to have it for a new generation. And I think it shows the importance of telling Australian stories, and that they are good and they are worthwhile, and they should be supported and told — because these stories started out as books, and then they've become a TV show and now a musical. It shows the enduring power of those stories and how they were each passed down into different generations. Now I'm very excited that the new generation's going to get to experience these stories." Simon: "It pains one to say it, but you never really know what you've got as a show until you put it in front of that audience, however much your fingers may be crossed. You've honed it. This is the frustration of anyone who's worked on making a new musical, including the people whose musicals we see coming in from Broadway, fully honed and perfectly resolved — behind every one of those great musicals are three failed musicals and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I think that you put a musical up there and our hope is that, this coming back to what we're talking about before, my job of trying to think about it as something that people who know nothing about Round the Twist might be coming to see — it has to have an energy and its own compelling narrative that takes them on a new and exciting, and hopefully equally eccentric, ride, as the TV series originally did." Round the Twist The Musical plays the QPAC Playhouse, Cultural Precinct, corner of Grey and Melbourne streets, South Bank, Brisbane until Sunday, December 8, 2024. Head to the Queensland Theatre and QPAC websites for tickets and further details.
Whatever art form inspires and excites you or just generally takes your fancy, a festival dedicated to your preferred type of creativity always feels like Christmas. From September 2 to 6, that most joyous time of the year comes around for fans of all things written, spoken and otherwise letter related. Yes, it’s Brisbane Writers Festival time, aka the five days each annual calendar where indulging in your inner word nerd isn’t just acceptable — it is expected. While the program is overflowing with literary goodness, including many a session mining the brilliant minds behind many a book favourite, here’s our five picks of the must-attend events of BWF 2015.
Because you're reading this, we know you're not someone who received a pet for Christmas, only to decide it wasn't for you. We know you're one of the good folks. You're probably wishing that you did receive a loveable animal as a gift, even if you already have one — or several — that you adore. We understand your yearning, and so does RSPCA Queensland. In trying to find permanent homes for dogs, cats, puppies and kittens surrendered into their care from all over the state, they're bringing all those cuddly creatures to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday 13 January for their fourth annual pop-up adoption event. Entry is free, and includes demonstrations, entertainment, food, and activities, as well as RSPCA stalls and information. And then there's the hundreds of animals waiting for your affection — and for you to take them home with you. 485 critters found homes last year, in case you're wondering. Although you can't put a price on the happiness a new four-legged friend will bring — and although this year's rates haven't yet been announced — in previous years, those wanting to adopt an older cat or dog have been offered a cheaper price. Kittens and puppies aged under four months will also be looking for someone to love them. There's more to pet adoption than overdosing on cuteness, of course, with making the commitment to care for an animal serious business. For further information, read RSPCA Queensland's FAQs. And, while you can take a pet home with you, you can't bring your existing furry pal.
Living through bushfires, drought, a pandemic and economic depression — sounds familiar, right? Australian impressionist painter Arthur Streeton might have lived a hundred years ago, but his worldview was impacted by all-too-familiar cycles of environmental, economic and political upheaval. If you don't know much about Streeton, you'll have the opportunity to get to know one of Australia's most loved landscape painters through 150 of his works — including some that haven't been shown since the 1920s — in a new retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Head curator of Australian art Wayne Tunnicliffe took a deep dive into the Gallery's collection to uncover not only the beloved paintings hanging on the Gallery's walls, but also works within the collection that have been stored away for over 100 years. Born in 1867, Streeton's art practice evolved over six decades. Within the exhibition, you'll see that evolution and an enduring passion for Australia's natural beauty; there are his sun-drenched landscapes from the 1880s, bright, joyful depictions of Sydney Harbour from the 1890s and his bucolic paintings of the 1920s and 30s. [caption id="attachment_784956" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Arthur Streeton, 'From McMahon's Point — fare one penny' (1890), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra[/caption] He painted familiar, and often beautiful, locations in New South Wales, from Coogee and Manly beaches to the Blue Mountains and upper Hawkesbury River. His skill at capturing light, land and sea contributed to Australia's take on impressionism. His peers — artists Tom Roberts and Charles Conder — were part of a new art movement, the Heidelberg School, that was a distinctly Australian take on the global art movement. The exhibition, which runs from November 7–February 14, will feature 150 works from both public and private collections — including paintings, drawings and watercolours. It's the most significant retrospective of Streeton's art ever presented, and includes works from the artist's time in Egypt, England, Italy and in France during the second world war. As well as his final works, which show Streeton's increasing focus on environmental concerns — on his return to Australia, Streeton became more vocal about conservation and exhibiting works showing our destruction to the natural world. Tickets to 'Streeton' cost $22 and you can buy timed-entry tickets online now. If you have already purchased untimed and undated tickets for 'Streeton', your tickets will be honoured for any date and time until February 14, 2021, excluding opening weekend. For $35, you can upgrade to a Gallery Pass, which gives you access to 'Streeton' and the 'Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2020'. Top images: 1. Arthur Streeton, 'Early summer – gorse in bloom' (1888), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Gift of Mrs Andrew Tennant through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 1982. 2. Arthur Streeton, 'The Land of the Golden Fleece' (1926). Private collection, Sydney. Photo: Jenni Carter, AGNSW.
It's the most frightening time of the year — and one of the most fun. Whether Halloween means scares, silliness or both is up to you. Yep, you can choose your own spooky adventure. That certainly rings true this year, with Brisbane offering up plenty of options. Basically, however you choose to celebrate, somewhere around the city has you covered. From werewolf-themed parties to cult movie screenings to markets focused on cute black cats, here's the six best Halloween events that'll get you into the spirit of the occasion.
Gelato Messina first introduced its cookie pies to the world in 2020, and tastebuds across Australia thanked them. Then, it kept bringing the OTT dessert back when we all needed an extra dose of sweetness across the year. In fact, the dessert fiends have been serving them up for exactly 12 months now. That's a milestone worth celebrating, which Messina is doing by releasing a new birthday cake cookie pie. Chocolate chips are involved, as they usually are, but this dessert also includes a layer of vanilla custard, plus birthday cake crumbled on top. Yes, sprinkles feature as well. Of course they are. Hang on, a cookie pie? It's a pie, obviously, but it's made of cookie dough. And it serves two–six people — or just you. You bake it yourself, too, so you get to enjoy that oh-so-amazing smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through your kitchen. This time, you'll enjoy the scent of vanilla and birthday cake as well. The new pies will be available for preorder from 9am on Monday, April 12 — which is your chance to get yourself a piece of the pie. On its own, the indulgent birthday cake cookie pie will cost $25. But to sweeten the deal, the cult ice creamery has created a few bundle options, should you want some of its famed gelato atop it. For $35, you'll get the pie and a 500-millilitre tub, while with a one-litre tub or a 1.5-litre tub, it'll cost $41 and $45 respectively. The catch? You'll have to peel yourself off the couch and head to your local Messina store to pick up your order. They'll be available for collection between Friday, April 16–Sunday, April 18. You can preorder a Messina birthday cake cookie pie pie from Monday, April 12, to pick up from April 16–18.
How do you know when an event has well and truly become a part of a city's cultural landscape? When you can't remember a time before it graced the annual calendar, that's when. MELT, Brisbane Powerhouse's celebration of queer arts and culture, has only been doing its thing since 2015 — but based on the program on offer in the festival's third year, you wouldn't know it. Over the course of 12 days from January 25 to February 5, MELT will be living up to its name by melting hearts with its celebratory, inclusive and diverse lineup. Think LGBTI+ art, theatre, cabaret, comedy, music and ideas, all in one huge package. Yes, it's Brisbane's answer to Mardi Gras and Midsumma — and yes, you should snap up tickets to these six must-see eventsas soon as you can.
Not quite certain what to get your loved ones for Christmas this year? Then you clearly haven't spent enough time at a festive market. It's virtually impossible to browse your way through hundreds of stalls and come up empty-handed — in fact, that'd take more effort than picking gifts for your nearest and dearest. Your next place to put the above theory to the test: the Nundah Christmas Twilight Markets, which take place from 4–10pm on Saturday, December 4. Yes, there really will be quite the lineup of places to grab handmade presents, including clothes, jewellery, art, homewares, soap, candles and all things edible. You'll find both gourmet foods and festive treats on offer as well (including bites to eat while you're there). For your $2 entry fee, you can enjoy a stint of shopping under the site's fairy lights at Nundah Markets' usual spot on Station Street. And, you can stop in at the North Pole-themed bar, too. Decorations will be decking the walls with more than boughs of holly, and live music is also on the agenda.
New year, new summer sandwiches. That's the vibe at much-loved Japanese chain Motto Motto, as the crew has revealed its new Sando Sets made for the warm weather and on-court tennis action. Available for the special price of $15 from Saturday, January 10–Sunday, January 11, smash an elevated milk-bread creation, paired with signature Japanese seaweed-salt fries. Three exclusive options make up the Sando Sets, including a new-and-improved version of Motto Motto's chicken katsu order. Expect golden panko-crumbed chicken breast topped with creamy kale slaw and tonkatsu sauce. Plus, the orange-yuzu crispy fish is a sweet-and-sour delight, served with heaps of kale slaw and a slice of lemon. Finally, sando lovers can wrap their hands around the curry prawn sandwich. Here, five juicy prawns are smothered in rich Japanese curry and kale slaw, offering a comforting combination of spice and crunch bound to ace your next summer lunch. Yet the new menu also features two more stars ready to win over your taste buds. Those are Motto Motto's existing summer exclusives, giving you five tasty options to munch on. Get stuck into the tuna avo, a fan-favourite featuring creamy tuna, Japanese mayo, cucumber salad and sliced avo. Meanwhile, the double egg sando tops a silky egg salad with a soft-boiled number, ensuring harmonious flavour and texture.
Everyone should have a go-to wine bar within a stone's throw of their house — the kind of spot that's compact but inviting, sports a highly curated vino list and boasts plenty of folks who know what they're talking about while you're getting sipping. Ardo's is that type of place, and it's seemingly on a mission to give every wine lover in Brisbane their own local outpost. Now open in Hawthorne, the chain is up to three sites in 2023 — and it's only August. Hailing from the City Winery crew, Ardo's first arrived in Carl's Bar and Bistro's old Newstead digs to start off 2023. Then, it hit Graceville midyear. When that second venue launched, the brand had already announced that that Hawthorne would be next — and that's exactly where you can now grab a glass of vino. The experience at each Ardo's is the same, just in different areas of Brisbane. So, wine fans in Brisbane's inner east now have easy access to the plonk-slinging chain's carefully selected range of vino, including over pintxos, cheese and charcuterie, on Lindsay Street just off Hawthorne Road. Like its sibling sites, Ardo's Hawthorne is welcoming in patrons in for a glass and a bite, and will also let folks pick up their favourite tipples — or a new discovery — to take home. Offering a selection that you wouldn't just find at any bottle-o is a big source of pride, with Ardo's staff on-hand to chat you through its drops, help you make a choice and impart their expert knowledge. Here, customers can enjoy wines by the glass and the bottle. The lineup rotates, but everything you see on the shelf is able to be drunk on the premises or taken away. As you're getting cosy, you'll also be surrounded by vino all across the walls, plus a wine tap that looks like an altar. And, you'll be tucking into seasonal snacks. There are a couple of new inclusions for Hawthorne, too: gourmet seafood preserves from Conservas, which you can eat into bread and butter, or as a part of a pintxos platter; and Woombye Cheese's dairy goods. Brisbane has embraced more than its fair share of trends in the past — doughnuts, burgers and rooftop bars, to name just a few — and a spate of neighbourhood wine bars is up there with the best of them. Find Ardo's Wine Bar at 7 Lindsay Street, Hawthorne. Keep an eye on the venue's website for more details.
If you listen carefully, you might just hear the sound of a light- to medium-bodied red wine sloshing around a glass. That's because the world's favourite celebration of pinot noir is finally returning, with the news Pinot Palooza will make its comeback in just a few short months. In its 10 years of life, the Melbourne-born wine tasting festival has become a global affair, with an estimated 65,000 tickets sold, worldwide. But once COVID hit in 2020, it saw the popular event shelved for two-and-a-half years. Now, that hiatus is finally over, with a huge tenth-anniversary edition of Pinot Palooza set to hit Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland in 2022. The comeback tour kicks off this autumn, returning to the festival's homeland of Melbourne with a couple of wine-filled days at Port Melbourne's Timber Yard from May 6–7. Brisbane Showgrounds are up next, hosting Pinot Palooza from May 20–21, before Sydney gets its shot on June 17 and 18. The festival then crosses the ditch for its Auckland edition from October 15–16. While the wine-sipping fun will play out similarly to before, across three sessions at each event, there is one big new addition in store — a dedicated Tasmanian hub set to showcase a curation of wine, spirits, cider and cheese from over 20 top Tassie producers. As always, you'll spend your event session swirling and sampling a huge array of pinot noir from across Australia, New Zealand and the world. Word is, over 70 winemakers are coming to the party. Also like before, there'll be pop-up bars and food stalls to keep you busy in between sips, with favourites Burn City Smokers, Taco Truck and Nama already confirmed for the Melbourne edition. Pinot Palooza 2022 will hit Melbourne on May 6–7, Brisbane on May 20–21, Sydney on June 17–18 and Auckland on October 15–16. To nab tickets or find out more, jump over to the website.
When Portside Wharf announced that big changes were in the works back in late 2022, complete with exciting new eateries on the way, the riverside precinct wasn't kidding around. Also last year, the restaurateur behind Opa Bar + Mezze, Massimo Restaurant, Yamas Greek + Drink and George's Paragon revealed plans to open a seafood venue, Fosh, at the Hamilton spot this coming March. And, from April, the waterside space will now welcome the Gold Coast's Rise Bakery as well. Rise Bakery first launched at Sanctuary Cove back in 2022, with its French-style pastries quickly proving a hit on the coast. So, French-born chef pâtissier Adrien Marcinowski and fellow chef Maxime Bournazel are doing what plenty of popular eateries on the Glitter Strip have in the past: capitalising upon that success by expanding up to Brisbane. This will be the first Brissie outpost for the company, which means bringing its croissants and other pastries to the River City. Customers can expect pains au chocolat and artisan bread as well, all served up in a space that'll span across 75 square meters indoors and an extra 80 square metres over an al fresco terrace — to make the most of the waterfront location. Even better: Rise Bakery's Portside venue will feature a champagne bar for sips over croissants and cakes. "Enjoying a freshly made pâtisserie with champagne is something everyone should experience," said Bournazel, announcing the bakery's Brisbane move. "Rise Bakery was born out of our desire to recreate an authentic experience of visiting pâtisseries and boulangeries with loved ones, just like we did growing up in France, from design and atmosphere to taste," Bournazel continued. "We have been fortunate to be able to do this with Rise Bakery on the Gold Coast and look forward to offering the same experience to Brisbane customers at Portside Wharf." Marcinowski and Bournazel were drawn to Portside because it reminded them of the French Riviera, and Rise's new location will feature design nods in the same direction. The interior will go big on white and soft pink hues, plus gold accents — both indoors and out. Drinks-wise, as well as champagne, Portside visitors will be able to sip Tavalon's tea, as well as locally roasted caffeinated brews from Bear Bones Coffee. Find Rise Bakery at Portside Wharf, 39 Hercules Street, Hamilton, from sometime in April 2023 — we'll update you with an exact launch date when one is announced.
Winter's almost done with its chilly bullshit, but before you can pack away your woolies just yet, Brisbane's cooking up some serious comfort food that's much better enjoyed in the crisp, colder weather. There's a handful of deliciously food-focused events happening this week, so we thought we'd put them all on one table for you. Pick one course, or make a degustation of them all. Or you could just go and inhale some popcorn watching Sausage Party. Your choice.
When Ralph Fiennes first trundles across the screen in The Dig, then starts speaking in a thick Suffolk accent, he's in suitably surly mode, as he needs to be. But, playing forthright, hardworking and under-appreciated excavator Basil Brown, the adaptable Official Secrets, Hail, Caesar!, Spectre and A Bigger Splash star also flirts with overstatement in his initial scenes. Thankfully, Fiennes settles into his role quickly. What starts out threatening to dissolve into caricature — not a charge aimed at the actor very often across his long career — soon becomes a measured, layered and earthy performance that's quietly weighty and moving. The self-taught Basil has spent a lifetime being judged by his voice, demeanour and appearance, and not on his talents and intellect, which Fiennes conveys with a firm but also delicate touch. As he finds his groove, not only while his character shovels dirt but in his conversations with those around him, this 1939-set drama about a real-life archaeological discovery also finds its rhythm with him. Hired by Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman) to burrow into what appear to be centuries-old burial mounds on her sprawling estate, Basil doesn't unearth any old junk. His kindly employer has always had a feeling about the small hills on her property, as she tells him in one of their friendly, leisurely chats, and her instincts prove more than accurate when they're found to contain Anglo-Saxon relics dating back to the sixth or seventh century. Basil initially dismisses Edith's suggestion about one particular mound; however, he swiftly realises that she too has spent her years being cast aside — due to her gender, not her class — by others. Their discovery on the site now known as Sutton Hoo is immense. It sparks national attention, including from museum head honchos who were barely interested when Edith first went asking for help excavating her property. Indeed, they cared so little about assisting Edith, and what her land might contain, that they fobbed off the job to Basil. The latter was well-recommended, and rightly so, but the way in which he came to be in Edith's employment smacks of men of authority, wealth or both who think they inherently know better than everyone, especially those they consider beneath them. Telling this tale, The Dig adapts the 2007 novel of the same name by John Preston — exploring Basil's work, Edith's fight to retain both recognition and the items buried deep in her soil, her increasing health woes, and the keen excitement of her primary school-aged son Robert (Archie Barnes, Patrick) as the excavation continues. It also follows the circus that arises when the British Museum's Charles Phillips (Ken Stott, The Mercy) insists on taking over once objects of value are found, and the love triangle that forms between his married employees Stuart (Ben Chaplin, The Children Act) and Peggy Piggott (Lily James, Rebecca) and Edith's airforce-bound cousin Rory Lomax (Johnny Flynn, Emma). The latter is the film's least convincing and least necessary element, smacking of pointlessly adding a romantic subplot to ramp up the drama. Still, whether you already know Sutton Hoo's story or you're learning the details for the first time, The Dig nonetheless relays an astonishing chapter of history. The first half of the 20th century was a staggering time for unearthing the past in general, as the movie nods to when Edith and Basil mention the exhumation of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt just the decade prior. That said, spending time at an archaeological site mightn't sound like rich and riveting viewing — but this fascinating feature proves that notion wrong. While The Dig doesn't hone in on the scooping, shovelling and scraping too often, every shot that does leave an imprint. Such images also reinforce the film's broader contemplation of longevity, mortality and legacies, too. This is a movie that steps back into the past, chronicles an extraordinary historical discovery, and ponders the reality that time comes for all things and people. We all hope to leave a mark, to ensure that generations to come know that we once walked this earth, and to live on in the minds of those who follow after us, but the reality is that not everyone gets to. We can't all have our treasures dug up more than a thousand years after our deaths, or have our names etched in the history books for finding someone else's. We can all hope to be remembered by those nearest to us, those dearest to them and so on, though. As well as its true tale and its ruminative, melancholy undercurrent, The Dig benefits from two important decisions: the casting of Mulligan and Fiennes, and the involvement of Australian theatre director-turned-filmmaker Simon Stone. After the anger and raw energy of Promising Young Woman, Mulligan finds power in restraint here. Arriving back to back, her two recent performances are almost whiplash-inducing; that's how extensively they survey her range. Once Fiennes finds his knack as Basil, he's a source of stoic potency as well. Indeed, Mulligan and Fiennes' scenes together rank among the movie's best, although, making his first feature since 2015's The Daughter, Stone ensures that even the most routine of moments is never dull. The Dig abounds with sun-dappled imagery of Suffolk fields, their green and yellow expanse being carved into one spade at a time, but it's a gorgeously lensed picture in every frame. Stone and cinematographer Mike Eley (who also worked on The White Crow, which was directed by Fiennes) rarely shoot anything within view in the expected manner, resulting in a film that appears the handsome period part, yet also looks and feels fluid and lively. It has a sense of movement, of living, of truly engaging with everything within its view, rather than just peering on. And, while gouging into the land sometimes disinters valuables and sometimes just offers more dirt, this graceful movie proves a consistent gem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZQz0rkNajo The Dig is currently screening in Brisbane cinemas, and will also stream via Netflix from Friday, January 29. Image: Larry Horricks/Netflix.
Fresh from making two of his last four films in Australia — Lion and Hotel Mumbai — Dev Patel is heading somewhere completely different. Stepping back to medieval times, he's jumping into the fantasy genre, messing with Arthurian legend and swinging around a mighty sword, all thanks to the dark and ominous The Green Knight. Based on the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Green Knight casts Patel as Sir Gawain. Nephew to King Arthur (Sean Harris), he's a knight of the Round Table and fearsome warrior. The character has popped up in plenty of tales, but here, he's forced to confront the green-skinned titular figure in an eerie showdown. As the poem explains, the Green Knight dares any other knight to strike him with an axe, but only if they'll then receive a return blow exactly one year and one day later. Just how closely this film adaptation will stick to that story is yet to be seen — however the just-dropped first teaser certainly looks more than a little moody, brooding and creepy. Patel is in great company, with The Green Knight also starring Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton and Dunkirk's Barry Keoghan. Games of Thrones' Kate Dickie pops up as Guinevere, while her co-star Ralph Ineson — whose also known from the Harry Potter flicks, The Witch and the UK version of The Office — plays the Green Knight. And, it's the latest film by an impressive — and always eclectic — writer/director, with David Lowery's filmography spanning everything from Ain't Them Bodies Saints and Pete's Dragon to A Ghost Story and The Old Man and the Gun. Check out the teaser below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoJc2tH3WBw The Green Knight will release in the US sometime over America's summer, but it doesn't yet have a release date Down Under — we'll update you when it does.
Alongside its huge Japan Supernatural: 1700s to now exhibition, the Art Gallery of NSW is hosting another exceptional show this summer — and this one's free. From Saturday, November 9 until February next year, the gallery is dedicating an entire exhibition to celebrated contemporary Australian artist Ben Quilty and his work over the past 15 years. Simply entitled Quilty, more than 70 pieces will showcase his work from the early 2000s onwards — including his intimate looks at his own reflection, his time spent as an official war artist in Afghanistan, poetic visions of the Australian landscape and his response to other topical events, including the last American election. Quilty's expressive portraits, both of himself and of others — such as executed Bali Nine drug smuggler Myuran Sukumaran — are quite a striking sight. His Rorschach paintings are too, unsurprisingly. And, they're designed not just to catch the eye, but to explore the dark undercurrent of violence and themes of displacement. Including paintings inspired by his visits to Lebanon, Syria and Greece, the exhibition marks the first major survey of Quilty's artistic output in a decade. On Wednesday, November 13, Quilty will be in conversation with ABC Radio presenter Robbie Buck in a special edition of Art After Hours. After the talk, you can catch some live tunes, too. Image 1: Photograph: Daniel Boud. Image 2: Ben Quilty. Rorschach after von Guérard. 2009. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on linen (12 panels) / 230.0 x 804.0 cm (overall). Acquired 2009, TarraWarra Museum of Art. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Jeremy Dillon.
It's time for another madcap, star-studded, pastel-hued adventure with Wes Anderson. Hooray! The follow-up to Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel follows Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), a manager at the swanky eponymous establishment and his devoted lobby boy, Zero Moustafa. The suave Gustave is a hit with the mature lady guests, and when one of them dies, he is suspected of murder and theft. So he and his precious sidekick make a run for it, and the story unfolds into the whirlwind of adventure, mystery, romance and, of course, comedy that captivate us with Anderson's films. It looks like Anderson won't be abandoning his colourful, dreamy sets; dry, poker-faced humour; and eccentric characters anytime soon. The usual suspects in the cast include Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman. Tilda Swinton, Jude Law and Saoirse Ronan are also thrown in, making The Grand Budapest Hotel one Anderson's most dynamically cast films yet. The Grand Budapest Hotel is is in cinemas on Thursday, April 10, and thanks to Twentieth Century Fox, we have ten double in-season passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=1Fg5iWmQjwk
Igloo season has hit southeast Queensland, with winter's arrival seeing plastic domes popping up at bars around the region. Some pitch their see-through spaces on a rooftop. Others welcome folks in by the river. On the Gold Coast, you can hang out in a beach-themed bar that's given itself a winter lodge makeover. Or, there's Bribie Island Hotel's version: garden pods. No one is pretending to be in icy climes at this northside pub, but it is only unleashing its newest addition for the frosty season. The garden pods are residing in the venue's fairy light-lit beer garden from June till the end of August, and they're exactly what they sound like. These domes come decked out in greenery and florals, furniture and cushions to look the part, and even feature a few plastic flamingos. There's six pods in total, each catering for up to eight guests for two-hour sessions. If you're keen, you'll need to book in a package, which starts at $60 per person and covers a share-style menu, plus a drink on arrival. You'll tuck into an antipasto platter filled with meats, cheeses, olives, arancini, chargrilled vegetables, dips and toasted sourdough — as well as grilled teriyaki beef skewers, buffalo chicken wings and barbecue pork ribs with roasted potatoes, parsnip, and salads as sides — with seafood available for an extra $35, and chocolate lava cake for $10. The pods give Brisbanites their latest excuse to hit up the waterside pub, which scored a makeover at the end of 2021. As part Australian Venue Co's current renovation spree across Queensland — see also: Riverland, The Wickham, Cleveland Sands Hotel, Salisbury Hotel, Koala Hotel and the Crown Hotel in Lutwyche, with Nundah's The Royal also getting the same treatment — it spent $2.2 million to give the venue a facelift. Courtesy of the revamp, Bribie Island Hotel is now home to a hefty outdoor space decked out with grass, white picnic tables and shady umbrellas, as well as a a new-look bistro that serves up pub classics. So, you can grab a beer, tuck into a chicken schnitzel, play lawn games and sit under a brolly — and, for a few months, now hang out in a leafy garden dome. Find Bribie Island Hotel at 29 Sylvan Beach Esplanade, Bellara, open daily from 10am–3.30am — with the hotel's garden pods popping up until the end of August. For further information, head to the hotel's website.
After 2009's piss-poor X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this latest instalment (now the sixth for Hugh Jackman's indestructible mutant) really didn't have a whole lot to live up to. That meant director James Mangold (Walk the Line) could take the story wherever he wanted, and it turns out, he wanted Tokyo. The Wolverine hence takes its plot from one of the character's better known comic book series, 'Wolverine', written by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller all the way back in 1982. It opens with a surprisingly unsettling scene just minutes before the bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, with Logan (Jackman) trapped nearby inside a Japanese POW camp. As the blast-wave spreads, he manages to save his captor's life and sets in motion a chain of events that will see the pair reunited decades later. That surviving soldier — now an elderly billionaire obsessed with his legacy — summons Logan to his deathbed in Tokyo. He craves Logan's healing powers whilst promising in return the one thing Logan can never have: death. "This is my gift, my curse" said Tobey Maguire's Spiderman back in 2002, enunciating the most compelling theme that underscores all good superhero stories. For Logan, immortality is now his torment, but he is not alone in his suffering. His Harajuku-girl escort, Yukio (Rila Fukushima), possesses the ability to foretell a person's death; a mutation that imbues her with a truly haunted existence and makes her character both tragic and engaging. Sadly, she's under-utilised by Mangold, and the only other mutant of note in the film is a statuesque blond known as Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), whose reptilian mutation is as forgettable as her scenes. Perhaps it's Mangold's background in drama, but the action in The Wolverine was remarkably dull, save for one entertaining sequence on the roof of a bullet train. The problem is, so long as Logan is invincible, the stakes sit at zero, yet when he's vulnerable, he loses the one thing that makes him interesting. By contrast, the quiet, intimate scenes in The Wolverine were much more enjoyable, effectively taking the Wolverine out of the movie and focusing on the man, Logan. And that's what it all boils down to: the Wolverine is a classic loner, a gruff recluse favouring the company of his own haunted memories to that of any other humans, mutant or otherwise. Throughout this franchise he has actively rejected the 'team' and only ever begrudgingly formed unions when circumstances required it. And yet, he is almost certainly that franchise's most popular character. His charmlessness is, in effect, his charm; however, the problem with movies focusing just on him is that his loner persona plays best as part of a wider ensemble. He is never more appealing than when sparring with other X-Men because it gives his isolation context. The promotional material for The Wolverine describes it as "The Wolverine movie fans have been waiting for", and certainly that is factually accurate, since it is the only Wolverine movie currently in cinemas, and until it came out, fans had to wait for it. But was it the one they'd been hoping for? Doubtful; however, if they stay beyond the credits, they'll find good cause to be excited about the next one: X-Men: Days of Future Past. https://youtube.com/watch?v=WEbzZP-_Ssc
