You can never have too much greenery in your life, both inside and outside your house. And, whether you're decking out your interiors or setting up a luxe outdoor hangout zone, you can never have too many homewares either. At least that's what you'll keep telling yourself while you're browsing around The Home Collective's wares. At its next event, the northside market will be offering up an array of plants, pots, furniture, cushions, art, ceramics, candles and other items that belong in your house or garden. If you're keen for a sneak peek, or some design inspiration, check out the event's Instagram page. That'll motivate you to head along, we're certain. Taking place at the Wavell Heights Community Hall from 9am–1pm on Sunday, August 29, the market will kit out your abode with plenty of choices, with more than 55 stalls ready for you to peruse. Sure, there's an excuse to boost your garden and homewares cred every weekend in Brissie, or so it seems, but you just can't have to much of a good thing. Entry is via gold coin donation, which'll go to the folks at Animal Welfare Queensland. And there'll also be caffeinated beverages on offer to help perk up your Sunday morning — plus bites to eat from a range of food trucks.
After bringing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire back to the big screen with a live orchestra soundtrack in recent years, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra is giving the fifth film in the franchise the same movie-and-music showcase. Across two sessions on Saturday, March 5, 2022 (at 2pm and 7.30pm), the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre will come to life with the sights and sounds of the Ministry of Magic, 12 Grimmauld Place and the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, because JK Rowling's boy-who-lived and his pals are never far away from a theatre — or a concert hall. And tickets for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix live in concert are now on sale. If you've been to one of these events for the earlier Harry Potter movies, you can expect something a little different this time around. While the event will run as usual, it's the score itself that'll stand out. After doing the honours on the first three HP flicks, veteran composer John Williams stood aside, with two-time Oscar nominee Patrick Doyle (Hamlet, Sense and Sensibility) in charge of the fourth, and Nicholas Hooper whipping up wondrous wizarding soundtracks for the final three. And yes, if this particular session sounds familiar, that's because it was originally slated to happen in 2020; however, the pandemic changed those plans.
The last time that Amanda Parer took over Brisbane, she filled Eagle Street Pier with seven-metre-tall bunnies thanks to her eye-catching Intrude installation. Obviously, it was quite the big deal/ This time, she's turning West End's West Village into a blossoming wonderland. Well, she is unveiling her latest artworks for spring, after all — and yes, it's set to be just as dazzling. Parer's new larger-than-life exhibition is called Lost, and it first made its debut at Surfers Paradise's Beyond the Sand Festival earlier in 2021. It's now set to bloom in Brissie — and it's filled with billowing botanicals that'll make you feel like you've gotten lost inside a giant floral wonderland. While you're wandering through this lit-up pieces as part of this year's Brisbane Festival, you'll notice Parer's particular focus on extinct or endangered species. You'll see her inflatables pieces, obviously, and you'll notice the LEDs as part of the installation as well. Entry is free, with Lost on display from Friday, September 3–Saturday, September 25. Images: Beyond the Sand Festival.
Some folks like a bit of heat with their food. Others prefer not to blast their tastebuds with spicy flavours. At Hello Please's next Sunday session, only people in the first category need head along — because Sriracha features in every dish, and there'll even be Sriracha bloody marys. On Sunday, May 16, the Fish Lane eatery is hosting its next fun cha lunch session, complete with Sriracha mayonnaise prawn san choi bow, quail karaage with a Sriracha glaze, potato rosti with creme fraiche and sweet Sriracha, and Sriracha-spiced tuna tartare in a wonton cone. Rounding out the food offerings: barbecue pork ribs with Sriracha honey, plus lap cheong hot dogs with Sriracha mustard. You'll pay $60 for your session, with two sittings available. Add some zing to your lunch from 12–2.15pm, or get spicy a bit later between 2.30–5pm — with bookings essential. And yes, Hello Please is usually closed on Sundays, but it's opening especially for this zesty occasion.
Fortitude Valley arcade bar Netherworld has played host to comics and arts festivals before, but its upcoming Peculiar Pages market has a specific focus. From 12–2pm on Sunday, May 2, the venue's game-filled home on Brunswick Street will be paying tribute to Brisbane's DIY print media scene. As well as showcasing homegrown comics and literary zines — such as Maurice and The Metal, Floating Disc, Ink Blot Magazine, Freakenstein and Urinal Mag — it'll also host the folks behind them, who'll be on hand to talk about their work. So, you'll be able to replenish your pile of reading material, support local creatives and get some inside knowledge straight from the source. This market may only run for two hours, but you know how the old cliche goes — good things come in small packages, and all that. And, after you're done browsing, buying and chatting, you can mash buttons, grab a drink from the bar and even pull out a board game or several. [caption id="attachment_622335" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sarah Ward[/caption]
If there's one thing Brisbanites like, it's watching Studio Ghibli films. Understandably, a whole heap of cinemas around town have been happy to oblige, 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? Screening twice a week most weeks until mid-May— on Thursday evenings at 6.30pm and Sunday afternoons at 4pm, to be specific — fans will get 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. Other highlights include Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke and Laputa: Castle in the Sky. If you've missed these films in their limited cinema runs or fest appearances in the past, consider this your chance to catch up — and at only $12 per session. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM1fzCdPHSU
Heading north to Noosa to take advantage of the scenic spot's coastline is a tried-and-tested weekend activity, as every Brisbanite knows. Of course, there's much more to do in the Sunshine Coast locale, especially over the three days between Friday, March 12–Sunday, March 14 — which is when the Noosa Eat and Drink Festival is hosting its Autumn Fare event. Think of it as a miniature version of the regular fest, featuring a handful of options over the weekend that'll keep your tastebuds satisfied. So, you just need to pick what suits your mood, hunger and thirst — including learning how to make espresso martinis, tucking into a bottomless lunch and taking a culinary train tour of the region. Also on the agenda: duck, pinot noir and chocolate combos; meals that go big on Queensland's finest; waterfront lunches; and a big feast of paella, sangria and tapas. Prices vary, so you can select whatever suits your budget. Top image: Noosa via Daisy R, Flickr.
Exploring the gender imbalance in professional surfing, especially during the 80s and 90s as women in the sport were starting to attract the world's attention, Girls Can't Surf feels like a floodgates-bursting documentary. Watching female stars of the era talk about their experiences, including the vast disparity in prize money between men and women and how that affected their efforts to make a living, it's easy to see this candid and detailed film setting a template for a wealth of other movies. As fans of any type of women's sport well and truly know, differing treatment, pay, sponsorship and levels of respect aren't restricted to hitting the waves. Indeed, as the doco's high-profile parade of talking heads offer their thoughts and recollections — such as former world champions Frieda Zamba, Wendy Botha, Pam Burridge, Pauline Menczer, Lisa Andersen and Layne Beachley — many of their words could be uttered by any number of female athletes in a wide range of fields. That truth doesn't undercut the doco's power, or downplay what women surfers have been through. Rather, it underscores the importance of continually shining a light on the way the sporting arena has routinely sidelined, undermined and devalued anyone who isn't male. "If you can't see it, you can't be it" is one of Girls Can't Surf's resonant and universal sound bites, and it's easily applicable far beyond the film's specific stories and the sport in focus. Indeed, when Beachley talks about how she used to mill around surfing contests as a teen starting out in the field, and annoy the ladies she'd soon be competing against, you can see those words in action; if earlier generations of women hadn't already been hanging ten, Australia's seven-time champ wouldn't have had any footsteps to follow in. The film is filled with astute insights and telling connections such as these. It all leads to the well-publicised recent development, only back in 2018, of equal winnings for men and women being mandated by the World Surf League from 2019 onwards. That happy ending benefits today's stars, such as Stephanie Gilmore, Tyler Wright and Carissa Moore, but it came too late for Girls Can't Surf's interviewees. Once again, knowing that significant change has finally come to the sport doesn't diminish the potency of hearing about the horrors, struggles and rampant sexism that female surfers endured for decades. Smartly, two-time feature surf documentarian Christopher Nelius (Storm Surfers 3D) brings those tales to the fore, and the people sharing them. Girls Can't Surf positively overflows with frank, determined, inspiring and engaging women telling it like it is about their time in surfing's spotlight. From Jodie Cooper's memories of being the first openly gay woman on the world tour, to Jolene and Jorja Smith's recollections of discovering that the pivotal Huntington Beach OP Pro was dropping its women's competition but keeping the bikini contest, there is no shortage of anecdotes that paint a despondent picture for women who were simply trying to chase their dreams. Learning about how, even if the conditions were too flat for the men, the ladies were still forced to surf instantly demonstrates how little standing they received from the sport's powers-that-be. Seeing Menczer explain that she got by via a combination of sleeping in her van and relying on the kindness of people she met on the tour — which continued after she became world champion — is just as galling. So too is the behaviour of surf brands when they cottoned onto the obvious idea that women's board shorts would be a hit, flirted with sponsoring actual surfers to help promote them, then put their dollars towards models instead. Even clocking in at 108 minutes, Girls Can't Surf gives the impression that a plethora of other tales about surfing alone — and just from the women that it chats with — could easily have made the cut. It probably could've extended its running time with more 80s and 90s archival footage, too, spanning the fluoro outfits and big hair that particularly marked the former, as well as more shots of Zamba, Botha, Burridge and company putting the surf scenes in the likes of Point Break and Blue Crush to shame. Just like standing on a board and taking to the sea, however, this is a film with a keen sense of balance. Working with co-writer and editor Julie-Anne De Ruvo (Morgana, Bump, Why Are You Like This), Nelius helms a zippily paced doco that's dense with information, absolutely infuriating in the specifics it thrusts forward, but also fluid and savvily structured. Wanting to hear and see more is a hardly unexpected side effect when the pool of appalling incidents, and the women who weathered them, runs so deep. Every one of the feature's interviewees could fuel their own movies, in fact, so fingers crossed that eventually comes to fruition. Girls Can't Surf does sport an air of familiarity on several levels, but this is the rare film that doesn't suffer whenever it wades into overtly recognisable waters. Nelius definitely doesn't stir up a storm format-wise, but the material, themes and subjects all ride their own waves — so deviating from the fairly standard mix of talking heads and retro clips is hardly necessary. Bringing to mind similar female-focused works such as 2019's Maiden and 2020's Brazen Hussies, plus Australia's sizeable history of surf features and documentaries, never proves a distraction either. When it comes to rousing movies about women defying the odds and fighting for equality, and about taking to the ocean in general, more are always welcome. The same sentiment rings true with Girls Can't Surf's soundtrack, which makes ample use of Joan Jett's 'Bad Reputation' and Bikini Kill's 'Rebel Girl' as seemingly every second flick about spirited or pioneering ladies does. Hearing those ferocious tracks with frequency — this month's teen empowerment comedy Moxie uses the latter prominently as well — in on-screen accounts of women wiping out barriers is a nice problem to have, after all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBjcbZla2cA
We can only hope that one day, likely in a far distant future, documentaries will stop doubling as horror films. That time hasn't arrived yet — and as Collective demonstrates, cinema's factual genre can chill viewers to the bone more effectively than most jump- and bump-based fare. Nominated for Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature at the 2021 Academy Awards (only the second time that's ever happened, after last year's Honeyland), this gripping and gut-wrenching Romanian doco starts with a terrible tragedy. On October 30, 2015, a fire broke out at a metal gig in Bucharest, at a club called Colectiv. Twenty-seven people died in the blaze, and 180 people were injured as they tried to escape via the site's lone exit; however, that's just the beginning of the movie's tale. In the four months afterwards, as burn victims were treated in the country's public hospitals, 37 more passed away. When journalist Cătălin Tolontan and his team at The Sports Gazette started investigating the fire's aftermath and the mounting casualty list, they uncovered not only widespread failures throughout Romania's health system, but also engrained corruption as well. This truly is nightmare fuel; if people can't trust hospitals to act in their patients' best interest after such a sizeable disaster, one of the fundamental tenets of modern society completely collapses. Early in Collective, director, writer, cinematographer and editor Alexander Nanau (Toto and His Sisters) shows the flames, as seen from inside the club. When the blaze sparks from the show's pyrotechnics, hardcore band Goodbye to Gravity has just finished singing about corruption. "Fuck all your wicked corruption! It's been there since our inception but we couldn't see," the group's singer growls — and no, you can't make this up. It's a difficult moment to watch, but this is a film filled with unflinching sights, and with a viscerally unsettling story that demands attention. Nanau occasionally spends time with the bereaved and angry parents of victims of the fire, even bookending the documentary with one man's distress over the "communication error" that contributed to his son's death. The filmmaker charts a photo shoot with Tedy Ursuleanu, a survivor visibly scarred by her ordeal, too. And yet, taking an observational approach free from narration and interviews, and with only the scantest use of text on-screen, Collective's filmmaker lets much of what's said rustle up the majority of the movie's ghastliest inclusions. There's plenty for Nanau to cover, and to galvanise viewers in the way that Romanians have been since the Colective blaze. The club's lack of safety measures and the fact that it was permitted to run without fire exits were met by protests, which saw the nation's Prime Minister resign. Tolontan and his team enquired into a different matter, though. Their focus: the deaths after the tragedy, the hygiene standards in hospitals treating victims and exactly how the Romanian health system operates. First, they hear about diluted disinfectants — sold that way by a shady manufacturer, then watered down again onsite — that led to otherwise avoidable bacterial infections and then fatalities in burns patients while they were supposed to be receiving care. On that subject, the Gazette journalists discover bribes, profiteering, the government's awareness and its willingness to let the whole scheme proceed. Then, after a scandal erupts, Collective is given astonishing access to newly appointed Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu as he tackles the situation. A former patients' rights advocate and activist, he's rightly alarmed again and again as he learns how Romania's hospitals work from the inside, and vows to clean up the broken system. But the more he tries, the more corruption he uncovers, and the more resistance he's met with by folks within the bureaucracy who don't want anything to change. Collective is a dense, painstaking and information-heavy movie, and also a procedural one. Nanau follows the committed Tolontan and his often shocked colleagues as they chase leads, attend press conferences and receive information from whistleblowers. He captures their stakeouts, too, and their thorough conversations about the course and purpose of their investigations. And, when the film broadens its scope in its second half to shadow Voiculescu, it gives him the same treatment. Internal government discussions start to fill the screen, as do the Health Minister's speeches and meetings; when he admits to one group of survivors that "the way a state functions can crush people sometimes," it's an almost perturbingly candid moment. If almost any aspect of this tale was unfurled in a fictional feature, instead of in this tightly framed fly-on-the-wall style documentary, the audience would think that it's too much. A dramatisation is bound to happen, likely as a Spotlight-style Hollywood movie starring a well-known name, but it'll never be able to match the power of seeing and hearing these appalling real-life horrors. One particular shot — not of the fire, but of a patient in the months afterwards — is so potent that it's searing, in fact. Surprisingly given the strength of the Romanian New Wave, which has given rise to a spate of stellar fictional features — including The Death of Mr Lazarescu and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days on the subject of health care, too — Collective is the country's first to garner any Oscar nods, let alone a couple. Shiny trophies don't make a great movie, of course, but this equally rousing and harrowing documentary is worthy of breaking that ground. A chronicle of cascading scandals, it's also an ode to the type of journalism that truly speaks truth to power and doggedly works to expose the cracks in society's foundations. More than that, it's a testament to the need for public scrutiny over all forms of authority, as well as a portrait of what can happen when the few are left to oversee the many unchecked and with only their own best interests at heart. Every second, and every revelation that comes with it, only adds to Collective's traumatising status. There's hope in this film too, however, because thankfully this confronting documentary and its compelling record of those toiling against entrenched corruption exists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5kkZAKjkiw
From the shaken to the stirred and everything in-between — this May, the country's world-class mixology scene will be celebrated in a very big way at a brand-new month-long drinks festival. The inaugural Australian Cocktail Month is set to kick off Saturday, May 1, descending on venues across Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide with a diverse lineup of crafty collaborations and exclusive concoctions. Here in Brisbane, 18 venues will help the event make its grand debut, including local favourites Death and Taxes, The Gresham, Cielo and Blackbird. They'll spend the month whipping up creative-charged festival cocktails (and mocktails) using drops from both local brands — think: Mr Black, 2020 Distillery, Feels Botanical and Starward — and international labels like Patrón Tequila, Sailor Jerry Rum and Hendrick's Gin. To get among the best of it, grab a $20 Australian Cocktail Month ticket and enjoy full access to all of the participating venues' cocktail creations. Alcoholic drinks will be priced at $14 a pop, with low-alcohol and booze-free options clocking in at $10. [caption id="attachment_755166" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Death and Taxes[/caption] Top image: The Gresham, by Millie Tang
When The Market Folk first brought a heap of stalls to Newstead's Gasometer a couple of years back, it was clearly a smart move. Browsing and buying beneath one of inner-city Brisbane's most striking sights — what's not to love? Because some ideas are too great to stop, this winning combination has made a comeback for 2021. And, it's happening on a regular basis. Once a month — usually on Friday evenings, but sometimes on Saturdays instead — you'll be heading to Newstead and shopping for fashion, art, homewares, plants, pots and ceramics. Next taking place from 5–9pm on Friday, April 9 — and after that on Friday, May 14 and Saturday, June 12 — the Gasworks Markets will feature plenty of artisanal goodies to tempt your wallet. As always, Brisbane creatives will be in the spotlight, so you'll also be showing them some love as well. Top image: Andrew S via Flickr
When Welcome to Bowen Hills was first announced, the new permanent food truck hub promised to drive a truckload of deliciousness into Brisbane's food scene — not only courtesy of its regular meals-on-wheels lineup, but via its special events as well. It's safe to say that the space has delivered over the past few years. Case in point: its returning rosé and cheese festival. Pink vino lovers and gooey dairy fiends, prepare to head just north of the CBD from 12pm on Saturday, May 29 — postponed from its original April 10 date — for a whole day dedicated to quite the culinary pairing. You'll drink the tipple in question. You'll eat oh-so-much cheese. It's simple, really. The wine list will feature drops from Australia, New Zealand, France and Italy, so you won't go thirsty — and sparkling rosé and frosé will both be on offer. Food-wise, prepare for another feast of cheesy goodness. Fingers crossed that flaming cheese wheels, raclette burgers and deep-fried camembert all make a return, ready to be washed down with pink-hued tipples. This year, you'll need to buy a $15 ticket to attend, but that price includes your first glass. On the day, you can also book in for masterclasses, which'll cost $20 for the vino session, $17 for the cheese class and $30 for both. Updated May 8.
The single greatest cult film this side of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is coming back to Brisbane for a timely Friday night engagement. With The Disaster Artist taking audiences behind the scenes not that long ago, and Greg Sestero hitting up our fair town last year, The Room never gets old — and it's back once again. Described by critics as "the Citizen Kane of Bad Movies", with one critic comparing the film to "being stabbed in the head", Tommy Wiseau's The Room is an indescribable mess of plot holes, non-sequiturs, blurry camerawork and soft-core sex scenes, topped off by some of worst performances ever put to film. So naturally, we're recommending you go and see it. Of course, the truth is that no one really sees this movie. Rather, they experience it. Screenings of The Room are fully interactive, with audience members screaming lines of dialogue, dressing up like their favourite characters and hurling plastic spoons at the screen. This behaviour is actively encouraged by screening organiser Kristian Fletcher — in fact, he'll even be providing cutlery at the door. The cinema bar will be open ahead of the screening, something you should probably take full advantage of. The Room screens on Friday, August 30 at 8.15pm, with tickets costing $15.
UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 — Brisbane Festival's Fire Gardens installation has been cancelled due to the extension of Brisbane's total fire ban, with ticketholders due to receive refunds. You can read more about the bushfires and the festival's decision over here. Come September, one of the most peaceful patches of the CBD will become the most fiery. Don't worry, it's only temporary. Already a hit everywhere from Stonehenge to The Kremlin to Melbourne, French art collective Compagnie Carabosse is bringing its acclaimed Fire Gardens to town as part of this year's Brisbane Festival. While the full Brisbane Festival program features plenty of other fun, this sprawling — and suitably glowing — installation is worth getting hot and bothered about (in a good way, of course). For the four nights between Wednesday, September 18 and Saturday, September 21, Fire Gardens will take over the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens in Alice Street, filling the Gardens Point spot with thousands of fire pots, sculptures and terracotta urns. Pathways will be illuminated, burning pyres will sit in trees, huge spheres will roar and crackle with flames, and structures will be set alight in the middle of ponds. The installation will also take visitors through a blazing maze-like realm, and feature luminous animatronic sculptures. Given that the group has been starting fires professionally for more than 20 years, Compagnie Carabosse knows what it's doing — not only when it comes to safely cloaking a huge expanse of grass, plants and trees in flames, but in tapping into humanity's innate fondness for and primal attraction to fire. This isn't just about watching things burn, obviously, with a mysterious soundtrack boosting the mood and allure. Expect live musicians performing French music, adding to the radiant ambience. More than 40,000 people are expected to make their way through the huge work, so nabbing a ticket in advance is recommended sooner rather than later. Prices will rise from $25 to $33 the longer they're available, with the cheapest options put up first. Once you've nabbed your spot, blaze-loving Brisbanites can enter at five times each night — in half-hour blocks from 6–8.30pm — and once you're inside, you can stay until close at 9.30pm. Although Fire Gardens has popped up around the world, this iteration will be crafted specifically for the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. That means that you really won't see anything like it anywhere else. And, of course, you haven't seen the gardens set on fire before anyway. Images: Sylvie Monier, Regina Marcenkiene and Vincent Muteau.
Art galleries are places of creativity and tranquility. Twice a month at the Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art, they're places for yoga too. It makes sense — you're in a space known for its peace and quiet, and for contemplation and serenity. Breaking out your best downward dog pose just seems like a natural thing to do, really. We don't recommend showing off your flexibility just anywhere, of course. Instead, make a date with QAG and GOMA's Monthly Mindfulness Yoga sessions. The dates change each month, but there's always one session from 8.45–9.45am on a Sunday, and another from 6–7pm on a Wednesday, giving you the option of bending and stretching to start your day or winding down after work. Taught by Miriam Van Doorn, the classes combine flow-style yoga and meditation, and are open to all skill levels. Sometimes they're held at QAG, sometimes they're at GOMA — so you won't get tired of the scenery. Bookings are essential, and cost $12 for gallery members and $16 otherwise.
Feel like you've experienced every date option that Brisbane has to offer? Run out of new ways to spend an ace night with your mates? If glitz, glamour, drinks, dinner and feeling like you're in a speakeasy several decades ago amount to your idea of a good — and novel — time, then make a beeline to Cloudland's Big Band Cabaret. Taking place in the Valley venue's Rainbow Room, the decadent shindig will have you and your loved one dancing to the Swing Central Big Band and lapping up performances by Jacqueline Furey's Burlesque Ensemble, all while eating your way through a three-course meal and enjoying a three-hour package of beer, wine and sparkling. It was such a hit over the last couple of years, it's no wonder that Cloudland have brought it back — this time, on Friday, September 27. Tickets aren't cheap at $110 per person, but it's certain to liven up your Friday night with something more than a little different.
Spring is in the air at Darling & Co. Cherry blossoms are branching through the Paddington bar, and dumplings are being heaped on plates, too. To celebrate the end of the cold weather and arrival of warmer times, the Given Terrace venue has decked out the joint with blooming pink flowers, pink lanterns and hanging pink umbrellas — and it's pairing the decor with an unlimited feast of everyone's favourite bite-sized parcels. Wednesday nights are now your time to munch on all the dumplings you can handle in 90 minutes, with two sittings available each week. Whether you're eager for an early meal between 6–7.30pm, or would prefer to drop by later, between 8–9.30pm, you'll eat until you can't eat anymore. The midweek bottomless deal will set you back $30, which also includes a a Kirin or rosé on arrival. Bookings are essential — who doesn't want to tuck into all-you-can-eat dumplings?
Eager to add a new dog to your family? Keen to adopt a cute pooch in need? Fancy making your latest life-changing decision over a few beers? Then look no further than Puppies and Pints, which delivers exactly what it sounds like — including adorable fluffballs that you can take home afterwards. Returning for the second time this year from 10.30am on Sunday, October 6, the event sees Semi-Pro Brewing Co and the RSPCA join forces — bringing four-legged friends to the East Brisbane watering hole, welcoming local dog-centric businesses as well, and letting you meet your next barking bestie. For those who want to help a good cause but can't become a new pet parent for many reasons, you can also lend a hand just by drinking, with Semi-Pro putting on a karma keg and donating the proceeds to the RSPCA, too. And if you simply have a better time when you're sipping brews and looking at gorgeous little pups, that's catered for also.
UPDATE: May 29, 2021: Halston is available to stream via DocPlay, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Fabulous minimalist outfits that defined the 70s, famous faces clamouring to wear them and feverish Studio 54 parties — Roy Halston Frowick's life had it all. Starting as a milliner at Bergdorf Goodman, he rose to fame after designing the pillbox hat that Jacqueline Kennedy wore to JFK's inauguration. When the new First Lady's headwear became a phenomenon, widespread attention naturally came his way. From there, the man known as just Halston started his own eponymous label, creating one of the top American fashion brands of the era. Andy Warhol called him one of the two people he'd always want by his side (the other: Elizabeth Taylor), while Liza Minnelli not only became one of Halston's close friends, but a walking billboard for his work. After rocketing through the world of haute couture, Halston then decided to take his clothing to the masses, too, becoming the first designer to ever collaborate with a department store. In his latest meticulously researched movie, fashion documentarian Frédéric Tcheng explores Halston's story, with the above description just the beginning. After the Midwest-raised designer's success and acclaim came bad business decisions, corporate dramas and messy takeovers, as well as drugs, scandals and broken dreams. To some, Halston was a sartorial god. To others, he was a demanding diva. Indeed, although his career soared, it ultimately plunged just as sharply. When he died in 1990 due to AIDS-related illnesses, he'd become just a footnote in his still-ongoing label's history. It's a tale that Tcheng seems especially suited to tell, and tell it he does in Halston. As he proved with Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel and Dior and I, the French filmmaker has a nose for fascinating true fashion stories — and a knack for knowing how to cut to their core. Here, he inserts Tavi Gevinson into the film as a fictional narrator, which may appear an unusual choice. But, as she excavates Halston's past via an array of grainy VHS tapes of his old runway shows, promotional events, publicity chats and parties, the movie confronts a crucial fact: its subject is no longer a household name. As a result, Halston becomes not just a fashion doco about gorgeous gowns, the person who made them, and his ups and downs, but also a detective story. More than chronicling Halston's life and committing it to film for posterity, Tcheng tries to ascertain why this important tale has nearly been lost to the vagaries of time. In overseeing this task, Gevinson's unnamed archivist initially seems somewhat gimmicky and unnecessary. Once the story starts picking up steam, cutting back and forth can also feel disruptive. And yet Gevinson plays a pivotal part, not only guiding viewers as the movie pieces together Halston's tale, but letting the audience discover for themselves just why they should care — showing them instead of forcefully telling them. Of course, plenty of folks still pop up to sing Halston's praises, including staff, friends, family members and models. Among the parade of interviewees, Minnelli gives a particularly glowing tick of approval: "his clothes danced with you," she gushes. More than merely applauding what she loved about his outfits, the star combines compliments with insight, with her fellow talking heads taking the same lead. When others describe how his fluid, bias-cut creations often came about just by snipping across a piece of material, then draping it over the closest model, it paints a very vivid picture of his vision and artistry. "It was a dress just because of the way he cut the fabric," one of his former colleagues expands — with images of Halston's patterns, often based around just a single sheet of cloth, putting that idea in visual terms. Come for the dresses and drama, stay for the revelations, realisations and ravishing creativity — that's Halston in a nutshell. That said, while this illuminating documentary convincingly makes its case, it doesn't craft as vibrant a portrait of Halston outside the atelier or beyond the revelry. Viewers come to understand his importance and influence in fashion history, as well as why he deserves his enduring place in the spotlight, but glean little that's overly personal about the man himself. Halston isn't an absent figure at all, appearing constantly in archival materials; however he seems to be begging to step out of the documentary and into a biopic — a move that'll probably happen sooner or later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmK3_HnKkbc
UPDATE: May 18, 2020: Good Boys is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Before the high-schoolers who populate every teen movie start worrying about heading off to college and having sex for the first time, they're tweens with not-too-dissimilar problems. That's the premise behind the familiar but very funny Good Boys, which leans so far into its Superbad-lite status that it has even enlisted Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as producers. Instead of two horny 17-year-olds, this scaled-down coming-of-age comedy focuses on a trio of sixth graders. Instead of finding its characters on the cusp of graduation, it meets them as they start middle school. And instead of turning up to a lively shindig on a quest to lose their virginity, Good Boys' pre-teen protagonists navigate the age-appropriate equivalent: their first kissing party. The comparisons keep coming, although writer/director Gene Stupnitsky and his co-scribe Lee Eisenberg (the screenwriting duo behind Bad Teacher and Year One) don't just tread in Superbad's footsteps. Good Boys' predecessor boasted more than a little in common with Can't Hardly Wait, which in turn took Dazed and Confused's lead — and they all nodded to American Graffiti before that. Just a couple of months back, Booksmart did something similar too, using a firmly female-focused viewpoint to its advantage. There's not as obvious a point of difference here, with tween and teen boys getting mixed up in almost the same types of situations. But what Good Boys lacks in originality or perspective, it makes up for in charm, sincerity and a stellar cast of young talent. In a few years, Max (Jacob Tremblay), Thor (Brady Noon) and Lucas (Keith L. Williams) could relive these kinds of hijinks at the end of their high-school days — a thought that's probably crossed Stupnitsky, Eisenberg, Rogen and Goldberg's minds — but for now, they just want to be liked by the cool kids in their grade. And that seems possible after the lifelong buddies score a coveted invite to Soren's (Izaac Wang) pashing party. Alas, while Max is driven by his all-consuming crush on classmate Brixlee (Millie Davis), his friends have their own troubles. Thor is desperate to nab a role in the school production of Rock of Ages, but also desperate to seem like he doesn't care, while the gleefully dorky Lucas is struggling with news of his parents' (Retta and Lil Rel Howery) impending divorce. Plus, when the pals aren't trying to brush up on puckering up, they're unwittingly getting involved in drug deals with Max's older neighbour Hannah (Molly Gordon) and her bestie Lily (Midori Francis). Much of Good Boys' humour hits instantly and flows easily, as kids say the darnedest things in highly inappropriate circumstances — searching for "porb" and mistaking sex toys for weapons, for example. As the film's marketing campaign made a point of stressing, this may be a picture about children, but it definitely isn't for them in any shape or form. There's a more resonant layer to the gags, too — which, in a movie that spends plenty of time giggling as its central tweens swear, might not immediately seem the case. To see Max, Thor and Lucas not just face the reality that they're growing up, but explore an adult world that feels so strange and different to their pre-teen grasp on reality, is to remember the confusing ups and downs of going through the same process yourself. That said, this isn't a mere exercise in raucousness and nostalgia shaped around episodic antics, such as skipping school, sipping beers and running away from cops. Like Booksmart before it, Good Boys grounds its jokes, narrative and outlook in today's cultural and societal standards. In other words: goodbye lazy stereotypes and outdated views, and hello inclusiveness, emotional intelligence, and seeing these boys learn to respect women, themselves and each other. Stupnitsky and Eisenberg are still guilty of padding out the picture with a few too many recognisable scenarios, even with its brief 90-minute running time. But their film glows with authenticity nonetheless — because, for all the outlandishness they encounter, these kids always react in realistic ways. As much as Good Boys has an affable, genuine vibe on its side, it wouldn't work quite as well without its three child stars. Room's Tremblay, Boardwalk Empire's Noon and The Last Man on Earth's Williams not only sell their rapport, but play their parts with honesty and earnestness — and without a hint of precociousness. The bike-riding trio also shrugs off a Stranger Things insult, in a line that speaks beyond pop culture's current obsession with plucky children (see also: IT and IT: Chapter Two). Swap Good Boys' crudeness for a dash of the supernatural, after all, and this sweet, breezy and amusing film would fit nicely among all those classic 80s adventures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeeyM8cRinI
If you're a Brisbanite who was looking forward to the local debut of music festival Heaps Good, you won't find your dreams coming true this summer, sadly. After announcing that the event was heading to the River City and unveiling the lineup, the fest no longer mentions its Sandstone Point plans on its website, in its ticketing or via its social media. Still keen to see Foals and The Avalanches, plus Declan McKenna, SBTRKT and more, in Brissie? Secret Sounds, which is behind Heaps Good, has revealed that they'll all be playing Fortitude Music Hall in January instead as part of two big days of tunes at the Brunswick Street venue. These gigs don't have a special moniker, but will see a heap of musicians take to the stage on Tuesday, January 2 and Wednesday, January 3. If you'd like to get dancing on the second day of 2024, you'll have Foals, McKenna, Griff, Sycco and Felony providing the soundtrack. Prefer to liven up the first hump day of the new year? The Avalanches, SBTRKT, Holly Humberstone, MAY-A and Logan have you covered. [caption id="attachment_804365" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Grant Spanier[/caption] The big name missing from the bill from Heaps Good's lineup is Flume, who isn't part of these two new events. The Australian favourite was always only playing the fest with no sideshows — but so are Foals and The Avalanches down south. One of several Secret Sounds festivals alongside Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival, Spilt Milk and Harvest Rock, Heaps Good debuted in January 2023 in Adelaide, with Melbourne and Brisbane then locked in for its second year. While Queensland has dropped off the list, the fest is still hosting dates in the South Australian and Victorian capitals to see out 2023 and welcome in 2024. SECRET SOUNDS JANUARY 2024 FORTITUDE MUSIC HALL LINEUPS: TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2024: Foals Declan McKenna Griff Sycco Felony WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2024: The Avalanches SBTRKT Holly Humberstone MAY-A Logan Top image: Rashidi Noah.
Ladies and gentlemen, now the moment you've all been waiting for — and yes, it includes the world famous Jack Rabbit Slims twist contest. When Chuck Berry's 'You Never Can Tell' starts pumping through 2023's Wynnum Fringe, you know what kind of dance moves you're going to bust out. It's been almost 30 years since Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction first hit the big screen, and just as long since fans first caught its stellar soundtrack, which includes everything from surf rock to Dusty Springfield's 'Son of a Preacher Man'. If the record has been one of your go-to listening staples over the past three decades, then you'll want to celebrate it with Cheap Fakes. Even better — the band will be performing the album live as an eight-piece (while you dance like Uma Thurman to 'Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon', obviously). The smooth sounds of Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together', the funk of Kool & the Gang's 'Jungle Boogie' and the upbeat country twang of The Statler Brothers' 'Flowers on the Wall' will all get a whirl, too. To complete the experience, a big screen will be set up, playing themed visuals. It all goes down like a $5 shake on Friday, November 24 at the Wynnum Opera House that's part of the George Clayton Park hub for the fest — and because Tarantino's skill with soundtracks isn't just limited to one film, expect tunes from his other movies, too.
The Taika Waititi school of acting gave Julian Dennison one of his first-ever roles in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and James Rolleston his debut in Boy. Seven years after the former and 13 since the latter, the two play brothers in another coming-of-age effort: Uproar. That cheerworthy casting is joined by Our Flag Means Death co-stars Rhys Darby and Minnie Driver in a film that's not only warmhearted, but always feels as if it's practising one of the messages that it's preaching. Set amid 1981's infamous Springbok tour of New Zealand — with South Africa's rugby union team playing games across the nation, and inspiring protests against both apartheid and Aotearoa's treatment of its Māori population as it went — this is a movie about a cultural awakening, and about finding and embracing community. Behind the lens, Uproar's directors have teamed up, too, with Hamish Bennett helming his second feature after 2019's also-heartfelt Bellbird and Paul Middleditch back in the chair for the first time since 2013's Rapture-Palooza. When it told of a father and son struggling to connect, and just struggling, after the loss of the family matriarch who bound them together, Bellbird traded in the same kind of poignancy that seeps through in this engaging charmer. With its sports-meets-politics narrative, there may be few doubts about where Uproar is headed; however, Bennett and Sonia Whiteman's (The Disposables) script — as based on a concept by Middleditch and first-timer Mark Turnbull, a screenplay by Keith Aberdein (The Last Tattoo) before that, and boasting additional writing by Mario Gaoa (We Are Still Here) and actor Rachel House (Heartbreak High) — knows that reality and movies alike can follow a familiar path and be no less affecting and resonant. In another memorable addition to his resume that shows his emotional depth, especially in a potent late monologue, Dennison plays Josh Waaka, 17-year-old son to British-born widow Shirley (Driver). He's dutifully in St Gilberts School for Men's 2nd XV when the 1981 tour comes to Dunedin, but largely because much about his existence is dutiful. His father was a local rugby star. His older brother Jamie (Rolleston) was a former Junior All Black before his career was cut short by injury. To make ends meet, Shirley cleans at the school — and imposing Principal Slaine (Mark Mitchinson, Evil Dead Rise) ensures that the Waakas feel grateful. In fact, when Slane requests that Jamie help coach the 1st XV, he's hardly asking. And when Shirley says that he will, she gets the reluctant Josh a spot on the higher team as part of the arrangement, telling him that it'll set him up for life. Staying out of the public debate about the Springboks is also expected of the St Gilberts' cohort, in a place that's against taking a stand against discrimination yet fine with Josh spending his lunch break alone in the library to avoid his openly racist classmates. But that isn't the community that he wants as his own even before he crosses paths with the marching Samantha (Erana James, Bad Behaviour) while delivering catalogues with his best friend Grace (debutant Jada Fa'atui), and gets a reminder that her Māori heritage is his as well. And, being surrounded by books and silence soon isn't his only option between lessons. English teacher Brother Madigan (Darby) spies a potential actor in Josh, who needs encouraging to join the drama group, then wows his way into auditioning for NIDA in Sydney becoming an option. Outrage frequently makes its presence known in Uproar's crisply lensed frames: in Samantha decrying the country putting sports above equality in any way that she can, in the engrained prejudice that festers against NZ's Indigenous inhabitants daily, in clashes on the street and even within activist meetings, where saying that you're an ally isn't the same as truly understanding having one's land taken. The film's name also comes into play another way, though, as Josh's existence erupts in chaos. As tales about teens becoming adults often do, Bennett and Middleditch's movie tells of change rippling through almost everything that its protagonist thought that he knew. New causes to champion, new connections to his culture, new dreams to chase, new friends, new futures, a new purpose in life that echoes among his nearest and dearest: compared to the pre-tour status quo, this is indeed an impassioned uproar against just getting by, settling and never speaking up. Since his time as Ricky Baker, Dennison has enjoyed big-budget stints in Deadpool 2 and Godzilla vs Kong — and in the festive The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two — but this is his best role since getting stranded in the wilderness for Waititi. The likeable pluck and wit that endeared him to audiences then is layered with searing determination and angst here, while never forgetting humour as well. As Jamie is pushed to rediscover more than just his room and his disappointment at fate, Rolleston is also stellar, as he similarly was in The Dead Lands, The Rehearsal and The Breaker Upperers. The subtlety of Darby's kind and caring performance doesn't go unnoticed, either, and nor does the quiet fortitude of Driver's turn. At the heart of Uproar's key characters, which includes Samantha and Grace, is that other recognisable high-school feeling: being an outsider. That isn't purely an adolescent experience, of course. It hasn't avoided the star player now unable to take to the field, the woman whose marriage wasn't embraced by two families in two countries or the teacher who doesn't fit in — and it certainly hasn't evaded an entire culture that's been made to feel like its home wasn't its own for centuries thanks to the ongoing impact of colonisation, or other First Nations people with similar stories. As it sees and unpacks each of these layers, Uproar sees why living up to its moniker is so important, and also how. It spies the many methods of pushing back and sparking a ruckus. It knows the power of fighting for what's right, just and decent communally. And it wouldn't be as moving without its cast, but that's what coming together means.
Come on Barbie fans, let's go party — under the stars, in costume, while watching the biggest movie of 2023 and not thinking about dying. Moonlight Cinema is returning for 2023–24, with its November–December lineup celebrating Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie's pink-hued big-screen comedy. The openair cinema season is throwing Barbie-themed shindigs where wearing pink, rose or similar shades is encouraged while watching the film beneath the evening sky. That's just one of the highlights of this summer's (and late spring and early autumn's) date with Moonlight Cinema, which kicks off in Brisbane on Thursday, November 23, 2023 and runs till Sunday, February 18, 2024 in Roma Street Parklands. Also worth getting excited about: festive flicks ('tis the season), nostalgic sessions of Jurassic Park and The Mighty Ducks, The Hunger Games prequel Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Sydney-shot Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria)-starring rom-com Anyone But You. If nothing says Christmas to you like catching a festive film under the heavens, ideally while kicking back on bean beds and eating a picnic, then you're in luck as usual. When the beloved Australian outdoor movie-viewing setup returns, it'll again show some of the merriest pictures that it can find. On the list: Love Actually, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Die Hard, Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Elf — so, the usual selection, not that these jolly pictures ever get old. Movie lovers can also look forward to seeing preview screenings of Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins, plus the Natalie Portman- (Thor: Love and Thunder) and Julianne Moore (Sharper)-led May December. Throw in the animated Trolls Band Together, plus everything from The Little Mermaid, The Creator, Joy Ride and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One to No Hard Feelings, A Haunting in Venice, Dumb Money and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and there's already a heap of titles on the bill. If you're wondering what else Moonlight will screen across its full season, it now drops its program month by month. The films and the setting are just two parts of the Moonlight Cinema experience. Also on offer: an official Aperol spritz bar, which is new for 2023–24. Nosh-wise, the unorganised can enjoy a plethora of bites to eat onsite while reclining on bean beds. A beauty cart will be handing out samples, too. And, dogs are welcome — there's even special doggo bean beds, and a snack menu for pooches.
Any day of the week can be improved with pizza. Fridays don't really need any help if you hit the office for a standard work week, but a few slices can make a great day even better. Throw in the fact that Treasury Hotel is serving up this champion of dishes in its openair courtyard from 4.30pm each week and, yes, you have yourself a winning way to welcome the weekend. This is exactly what your Friday arvos need: $24 woodfired pizzas, with four varieties available. So, you'll be choosing between roast capsicum, olives, mushroom and onion, plus fresh tomato and basil — aka the two vegetarian options — as well as ham and pineapple, plus salami. If you're still hungry, you fancy something to go with your slices or you're in the mood for something snackier, there's also warm olives with sourdough, polenta bites with aioli, and a garlic and cheese pizza for $15 a pop. Also on offer: a pop-up bar slinging sips and live entertainment, all in the Treasury Hotel's heritage surroundings. You'll need to pay for your drinks on top, of course, but consider this a tasty way to line your stomach for those after-work tipples. Keep an eye on the weather, however, because Woodfired Fridays will only happen if it isn't rained out. And, when there's a public holiday — such as on Friday, January 26, for instance — the event isn't on.
Michael Mann makes movies like a man haunted. From his 1981 debut Thief to his latest release Ferrari, it's no wonder that his films linger with viewers. Mann's work whirrs with the pursuit of professional greatness, and with the pressures of balancing that relentlessly revving chase with personal ties and desires — quests and woes that aren't his own in his narratives, but always feel intimate. Heat, 1995's Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon)- and Al Pacino (Hunters)-led crime-thriller that the filmmaker will forever be known for, has proven a spectacular example for nearly three decades. While the skilled burglar and dogged detective caught in its cat-and-mouse game are both experts in their realms, that doesn't make juggling their on-the-job and at-home realities any easier, cleaner or less chaotic. Using that very notion as its road, Ferrari is clearly the product of the same director. Perhaps Mann is speeding down that exact path after all, then, navigating the complexities of getting a film onto screens — his last was 2015's underseen Blackhat — on a mission to master his favourite themes. Mann has helmed several model features already in Thief, Heat, The Insider and Collateral, with Ferrari a worthy addition to his resume. Wheels spin on and off the track in the elegantly and exquisitely crafted slice-of-life biopic, many literally but others via its namesake's personal life. Based on Brock Yates' book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine, as adapted by screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin (the OG The Italian Job) to cover events in the summer of 1957 only, Ferrari is always hurtling — even when it's as patient as cinema in Mann's hands has ever been. The collision between single-minded goals and the messiness of existing constantly gives his pictures urgency, no matter how steady the gaze and stoic the character. And make no mistake, Adam Driver's (65) gravitas-dripping portrayal of race car driver-turned-sports car entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari (and Italian-accented but speaking in English, just as he did in House of Gucci) is as serious and determined as Mann's protagonists get, too. Sometimes with editor Pietro Scalia (an Academy Award-winner for JFK and Black Hawk Down) crosscutting frenetically like the film is shifting gears up and down, sometimes going for a lengthy drive in Enzo's business exploits and his home affairs separately, Ferrari tracks its protagonist's mission to save his company through racing glory in tandem with steering into his relationships with two women. Duality, a regular Mann obsession, slicks the flick like engine grease; there's two purposes to his car manufacturing, those two loves and two sons, for starters. "Two objects cannot occupy the same point in space at the same moment in time," Enzo explains, but the clashes and contrasts that surround him are hardly as clearcut as physics. Take his approach to death, for instance: over the loss of his son and heir Dino by wife Laura (Penélope Cruz, Official Competition), he seeps heartbreak like he's losing brake fluid, but the idea of tragedy befalling his drivers garners a matter-of-fact reaction, plus a speech about the life-or-death and at-all-costs commitment that his chosen sport requires — and he demands. In the world of Ferrari as a car outfit, financial struggles have both Enzo and Laura — partners in the business as well as in marriage, albeit barely hanging on in the latter — assessing options to keep their Modena factory running. Royalty might covet their vehicles, but Enzo's passion for his racing fleet is as expensive as it is dangerous. "Jaguar races to sell cars. I sell cars in order to race," is his frank description of Ferrari's manufacturing split. Bringing in outside cash from Ford or Fiat is proposed, enabling the company to increase production on its retail vehicles. The picture's choice of year also puts the last Mille Miglia in front of its windscreen, with victory in the twisty race on Italy's public streets — ideally with one of Enzo's drivers (which include River of Desire's Gabriel Leone, Lady Chatterley's Lover's Jack O'Connell and Thanksgiving's Patrick Dempsey) triumphing over Maserati — likely to help Ferrari continue vrooming. 1957 is also when Enzo's second son Piero (Giuseppe Festinese, Santa Lucia) by his mistress Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley, Dumb Money) is to be confirmed. Installed in a house outside of town, his other family remains a secret from Laura; however, as Lina angles for Enzo to let Piero take his surname and Laura frays with mourning, already well-aware that her husband isn't faithful, there's as much tension there as whenever someone has a car zipping and zooming. As Ferrari flings together melodrama and racing thrills, neither gives the audience an emotional or psychological reprieve. Mann doesn't just want to put his viewers in the film's array of driver's seats, but in a state where there's no escape from the stress — to stay solvent, to win, to avoid tearing Enzo's romances apart and inflicting more pain, and to secure his legacy. Mann obviously didn't choose Ferrari's pair of biggest stars based on their appropriate names. And Driver wasn't picked for his penchant for living up to that moniker (see: his stint as a poetry-writing bus driver in Paterson, then his time commanding spaceships in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and 65), either. Still, they're sublimely cast. Not just thanks to his silver locks but due to the intensity of his presence, Driver easily passes for a man who's a year off 60 — so, almost 20 years past the actor's own age — while wearing Enzo's iciness like armour, yet still letting his charisma peek through with Lina and Piero. Despite having a supporting part, Cruz has rarely been better than as the achingly furious and piercingly grief-stricken woman who refuses to let her contributions to the Ferrari name and Enzo's fame, and everything their nuptials and son represented, be pushed into the backseat. Given the Spanish talent's career (her Oscar for Vicky Christina Barcelona, nominations that should've been wins for Parallel Mothers and Volver, and her exceptional work in Pain and Glory, All About My Mother and Jamón Jamón as well), that's no minor feat. Ferrari's immaculate central portrayals are just two of the movie's pistons; Mann's meticulous efforts behind the lens, and at the top of his game again, is merely a third. It'll come as zero surprise to anyone familiar with his filmography that everything is that finely tuned, from the light and shadows imparted by cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (The Killer, and Oscar-anointed for Mank) to Daniel Pemberton's (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) note-perfect score. And when Ferrari gets racing, especially in its centrepiece stretch that stuns and shatters, the heart pumps, nerves are shredded and little else in depicting racing in cinema compares. The only roadblock: the feeling that Mann could've told more of this tale, and about his latest unswerving but divided man, although wanting more of his work simply comes with watching it.
There's one thing that all wine festivals have in common: vino, and plenty of it. But this returning rosé fest hosted by Brisbane's inner-city winery adds something extra to the mix. When it hits up its home base on Sunday, February 4, 2024 after previously popping up at The Tivoli, on King Street and at Westoria, the event's attendees will be able to help make rosé between knocking back glasses of the pink stuff. At Rosé Festival by City Winery, stomping and pressing grapes is one of the big attractions. And, the results of all that jumping up and down are usually bottled for the company's rosé release for the year, too. So, down the track, you'll be able to grab one, add it to your wine rack and know that you had a hand — or two feet — in making it. If you'd rather just sip the rosés already on offer, that's obviously also part of the festival, which is taking a more intimate approach in 2024. So, instead of a sprawling event, this is a limited-edition affair. Tickets cost $150, which includes a drinks package, bites to eat and learning more than you ever thought you needed to know about rosé. City Winery winemaker Dave Cush will lead a blending workshop as well — and everyone gets to take home a bottle that you create in the class.
Pisco is already a staple on the menu at Casa Chow, Woolloongabba's Chinese Peruvian bar and restaurant, but ordering the South American spirit between Wednesday, January 31–Saturday, February 3 is particularly recommended. The latter date is World Pisco Sour Day, which is as good a reason as any to give the tipple a sip, and also the catalyst for four days celebrating the cocktail. The neon-lit South City Square venue is pouring five varieties heroing the grape brandy for $14 a pop, starting with the classic made with Barsol Quebranta, caster sugar, lime, egg whites and Amargo Chuncho bitters. Fans of vanilla and passionfruit in their drinks have that option, while a zesty lemongrass variety also features. And for beverages with pop culture-themed names, the Purple Rain (which features pineapple skin Barsol Quebranta) and Khaleesi (with dragonfruit, of course) are available. For $39 per person, and if you're heading along with a date or at least one mate, patrons can pair their pisco sour of choice with five courses of Chifa bites. On the menu: oysters with cucumber lime granita, duck bao buns, kingfish with leche de tigre, prawn and pork fried rice, and shiitake spring rolls. Pisco Sour Week at Casa Chow kicks off at 5pm on the Wednesday, perfect for midweek post-work drinks while enjoying a cocktail that was created in Lima in the early 20th century.
Been there, done that, repeating it all over again: in cinemas and among direct-to-home movies alike, that's sequel territory. Not all second efforts, or third or fourth or 15th, retread the first flick. Some expand the initial story instead. Others take the OG concept in completely different directions. If there's a way to jump back into a hit — or even just capitalise upon a well-known movie name — however, then someone has tried it. With a handful of such films, Monster Fest Weekender III Part 2: The Spawning is celebrating the art of the sequel. As the event's 2025 name makes plain, it's having fun with its chosen theme this time around, too. Monster Fest Weekender initially popped up a few years back, giving fans of genre cinema a second chance to enjoy Monster Fest each year — and yes, the film festival itself is a sequel as well. Monster Fest's main festival will still return later in 2025 — it took place in October in 2024 — but this'll help tide you over until then. From I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and Return to Oz to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Robocop 2, the three-day Monster Fest Weekender III Part 2: The Spawning is jam-packed with follow-up flicks, all playing at Event Cinemas Brisbane City from Friday, April 4–Sunday, April 6. You can also check out Return of the Living Dead Part II, Phantasm II, Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh and Re-Animator 2: Bride of Re-Animator.
Whisky fiends, here's an event to give a dram about, especially if you like sampling and tasting spirits from distilleries around the globe. Across three sessions from Friday, June 20–Saturday, June 21, Whisky Live Brisbane returns to the River City to celebrate fermented grain mash. New, inventive, classic, rare: they're all on the whisky menu. Hosting three-hour sessions — from 6–9pm on the Friday, and from 12–3pm and 5–8pm on the Saturday — this whisky fair groups its tipples by brand, and has experts onsite to chat you through each. You'll sip, you'll learn, and you'll also get a printed whisky guide to use as a roadmap. If upping your whisky knowledge has always been on your bucket list, Whisky Live includes classes about various aspects of whisky as well. You'll find out what's on offer on the day, and no bookings are required. Your $155 ticket to this whisky-sampling event covers tastings from distilleries around the world, bites to eat and access to the classes, with everything taking place at W Brisbane. And, if you'd like to try the rare and old sips, there'll be an entire bar dedicated to them, including releases from years and years back, and from now-closed distilleries. These tipples aren't included in your ticket, however, so you'll be paying for them as you go. [caption id="attachment_831071" align="alignnone" width="1920"] W Brisbane[/caption]
What do you get when you unite a rock 'n' roll Sydney brewery with one of the Gold Coast's go-to music venues? Well, you're about to find out. Young Henrys is descending upon Miami Marketta for a big gig to welcome in autumn. Hitting the Hillcrest Paradise venue from 2pm on Sunday, March 5, the Young Henrys Presents Best Served Loud event will see you wrapping up the weekend revelling in big, live sounds. On the bill: King Stingray — aka one of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's favourite bands for 2022 — plus The Terrys, Teenage Joans, Bella Amor and Chutney. [caption id="attachment_884407" align="alignnone" width="1920"] King Stingray[/caption] They'll be joined by the Volcom Australia skate team, which means appearances by Rob Pace, Aimee Massie, Jesse Noonan and more on the half pipe. And of course, the Young Henrys brews will be flowing just as easily, with beer specials running right through the day — and a pop-up tinnie bar. Entry to the gig costs $29.35 including booking fee, with tickets on sale now.
January 26 as been given many labels. On a difficult occasion, Survival Day is one of them. Commemorating and celebrating the endurance of Australia's Indigenous population, marking the date involves recognising and paying tribute to the nation's First Peoples in morning ceremonies. In Brisbane, the Benarrawa Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Solidarity Group and Benarrawa Community Development Association will lead a gathering along the banks of the Brisbane River and Benarrawa (Oxley Creek). Meeting at the bronze canoe near Simpsons Playground in Graceville, the event will pay tribute to the original inhabitants of the area, with all Australians welcome to participate. Attendees are asked to arrive at 7.15am for a 7.30am start, and to bring clap sticks, a hat and native flowers, with the posies cast into the river at the end of the ceremony. Also recommended: bringing a rug or chair to sit on. Following the official proceedings, everyone is also invited to stay for a bite and a drink, so don't forget your cold or hot beverage of choice and a plate to share. Top image: Kgbo via Wikimedia Commons.
Add satay skewers to the list of things that no one has ever eaten just one of. There's something about those meat pieces on a stick that screams "eat more now!" — and your tastebuds know it. Also well aware: South Bank's Ma Pa Me, which does bottomless satay evenings regularly. Your destination: Little Stanley Street. What you'll be eating: non-stop satay skewers for two hours. Those sticks will come filled with chicken, pork, squid and tofu, as finished over charcoal on a traditional hibachi grill — and they won't stop hitting your plate until your session is up. The full all-you-can-eat lineup spans chicken satay with peanut sauce, pork satay with spicy tamarind sauce, squid satay with sambal ulek and tofu satay with sweet chilli sauce, plus fried rice, acar, garlic crackers and stir-fried kailan as sides. The dates to lock into your diary for 2023: Tuesday, March 7, then Tuesday, June 6 and Tuesday, October 3. And all that satay will only cost you $35. If you're keen on drinks, too, that's extra — with yuzu sours, Thai-style margaritas and Asian craft beers on the menu.
Inspiration comes in many forms — and, as the folks at Cork & Chroma have already established, booze is definitely one of them. Always fancied yourself as an artist, but haven't had the courage to put brush to canvas? That's where alcohol-fuelled paint-and-sip sessions have come in over the past few years. Cork & Chroma's next class isn't any old excuse to knock back drinks and show your arty side, however. At Cork, Culinary and Colour, you'll be drinking and getting creative in the open air. Your destination: the Treasury Hotel's courtyard, where you'll spend an afternoon whipping up a masterpiece while downing rosé. Next taking place from 1.30–3.30pm on Sunday, February 12 — the first session for 2023, this leisurely session spans that impressive location and two glasses of pink. Your $80-per-person ticket also includes a cheese platter. Fancy more plonk? A cash bar will be open. And the theme for this session: love island. 'Tis the time of year for all things romance, and for wishing you were still on holiday. Images: Adam Shaw.
No one should spend their lunch break eating at their desk, but breaking that habit isn't always easy. From Wednesday, March 1–Friday, March 31, the Howard Smith Wharves precinct is giving you plenty of motivation to step away from the computer. Head to the riverside precinct from Monday–Friday for a middle-of-the-day meal, and your lunch will cost $25. Eight HSW venues are getting in on the deal, so you can pick between Stanley, Yoko, Greca, Mr Percival's, Felons Brewing Co, Felons Barrel Hall, Felons Fish 'n' Chipper (doing walk-ins only) and Ciao Papi. Or, you can work your way through them all (and stare at their slightly different views of the water) across the month-long period. You'll just need to keep an eye on each eatery's opening hours — and, while you can just rock up, bookings are recommended. As for what you'll be eating during the month-long Let's Lunch festivities, each place has its own special. A signature Cantonese lunch plate with roast duck, honey glazed char siu pork and more is on the menu at Stanley; Yoko is serving up a wagyu and scallop donburi special; and Greca is doing souvlaki, for instance. There are four different dishes on offer at Mr Percival's, Felons, Felons Barrel Hall and Ciao Papi, too — the latter including lobster spaghetti — giving you even more options. Unlike in previous years, you will need to buy any drinks on top this time around, however.
Whether beloved bands are reuniting, old lineups are reforming or still-touring groups who hit the charts decades ago are simply heading our way again, we're living in a golden age of musical blasts from the past. On a stage near you at any given time, one of your old-school favourites is likely taking to the microphone, spanning across a huge range of genres. Another joining the trend: Sugababes. The British girl group is hitting up Australia's east coast this summer, including a show at Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall on Monday, February 27. If you're a fan, you likely now have 'Push the Button' or 'Overload' stuck in your head — or a medley that includes 'Freak Like Me', 'Round Round', 'Hole in the Head', 'Walk This Way' and 'About You Now' as well. This isn't just any old throwback tour, however. It also sees Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy — aka Sugababes' OG members — bust out the group's hits. Each of the trio left individually in the 00s, with Heidi Range, Amelle Berrabah and Jade Ewen taking their places, but they've been back together with the initial lineup since 2012. This is the first time in more than two decades that Buena, Buchanan and Donaghy have hit Australia together, which is massive news for fans. And, given that Sugababes were one of the British girl groups of the early 21st century — and are one of the biggest-selling British girl groups of all time — there's plenty of those around.
Yeah, we're thinking he's back. John Wick, that is. In 2014, Keanu Reeves introduced everyone's favourite assassin (and dog owner) to the world, with the film quickly sparking an action-packed franchise. The first sequel followed two years later, and the third effort did the same in 2019. Next, a fourth movie drops in March — but before you check it out, you can revisit the first three John Wick flicks on the big screen at Event Cinemas' John Wick marathon. At this point you should know exactly what this excellent series offers up: John Wick first seeking revenge against those who've wronged him, then being hunted down by his fellow killers. And all of this has sprang because, in the first movie, he became the proud owner of an adorable pooch. As Wick notes, of course, "it wasn't just a puppy". On-screen, everyone from Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Common and Ruby Rose to Halle Berry, Jason Mantzoukas and Anjelica Huston also pop up. So too does Laurence Fishburne, so prepare for a Neo and Morpheus reunion. And behind the lens, former Keanu stunt double-turned-filmmaker Chad Stahelski directs. Revisit the exquisitely choreographed action trilogy at select Event Cinemas' locations around Brisbane on Saturday, March 4 — kicking off at 4.30pm, with tickets for $30.
Those hobbits will go on. In JRR Tolkien's pages, they went on perilous Middle-earth adventures. On screens big and small for decades so far (and into the future, with more movies on the way), they've trekked, ate second breakfasts and attempted to project precious jewellery. Onstage in Australia in 2025, they're also marking an eleventy-first birthday, receiving a gold ring, taking a quest to Mordor and attempting to fight evil, all in The Lord of the Rings — A Musical Tale. Dating back to 2006, just after the original live-action movie trilogy, this stage musical was revived in the UK in 2023, opened in the US in July 2024 and hit New Zealand in November 2024. After that, it's taking the hobbits to Australia, including to HOTA, Home of the Arts. The Gold Coast venue's season kicks off on Friday, July 4. Lord of the Rings fans, take note: you'll want to go there and back again to discover what happens when Middle-earth gets melodic. Your guides for the show are the hobbits, of course, as Frodo and company celebrate Bilbo Baggins, then depart The Shire upon a life-changing journey. Thanks to Tolkien, what occurs from there has enthralled audiences for 70 years now, with The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers initially hitting bookshelves in 1954. There's been no shortage of ways to indulge your Lord of the Rings love since Peter Jackson's features — including his Hobbit trilogy — helped fan the flames of pop culture's affection for Frodo, Samwise, Pippin, Merry and the franchise's many non-underground-dwelling characters. Cinema marathons, visiting the Hobbiton movie set, staying there overnight, hitting up pop-up hobbit houses, sipping hobbit-themed beer: they've all been on the agenda. Only The Lord of the Rings — A Musical Tale is combining all things LoTR with tunes and dancing, however, in a show that sports a book and lyrics by from Shaun McKenna (Maddie, La Cava) and Matthew Warchus (Matilda the Musical, Groundhog Day the Musical), plus original music by Slumdog Millionaire Oscar-winner AR Rahman, folk band Värttinä from Finland and Matilda the Musical alum Christopher Nightingale. Images: Liz Lauren.
If you didn't know it was there, you could easy spend time at the Regatta without ever venturing downstairs to its underground speakeasy-style bar. But, once you've become acquainted with The Walrus Club, you'll want to add it to your cocktail-slinging go-tos. Heading by from 6–8pm on Friday, March 8 is particularly recommended, because that's when the venue is celebrating International Women's Day. At the annual Women in Walrus event, an all-female bar takeover is on the cards, with the establishment's ladies mixing up the best beverages they can — in general, and also as part of a cocktail-making competition. Entry costs $5, with the proceeds going to Share the Dignity, which helps combat period poverty. After that, you'll pay for whatever you drink and eat as the evening rolls by. While women will be in the spotlight, anyone can attend this after-work drinks session to mark the occasion. Images: Markus Ravik.
No one might've thought of Joel and Ethan Coen as yin and yang if they hadn't started making movies separately. Since 2018's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, their latest feature together as sibling filmmakers, the elder of the Coen brothers went with Shakespearean intensity by directing 2021's The Tragedy of Macbeth on his lonesome — while Ethan now opts for goofy, loose and hilariously sidesplitting silliness with Drive-Away Dolls. The pair aren't done collaborating, with a horror flick reportedly in the works next. But their break from being an Oscar-winning team has gifted audiences two treats in completely different fashions. For the younger brother, he's swapped in his wife Tricia Cooke, editor of The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Man Who Wasn't There, on a picture that couldn't slide more smoothly onto his resume alongside the madcap antics that the Coens combined are known for. Indeed, spying shades of the first of those two features that Cooke spliced in Drive-Away Dolls, plus Raising Arizona, Fargo and Burn After Reading as well, is both easy and delightful. As a duo, the Coen brothers haven't ever followed two women through lesbian bars, makeout parties and plenty of horniness between the sheets, though, amid wall dildos and other nods to intimate appendages, even if plenty about the Ethan-directed, Cooke-edited Drive-Away Dolls — which both Ethan and Cooke co-wrote — is classic Coens. There's the road-trip angle, conspiracy mayhem, blundering criminals in hot pursuit of Jamie (Margaret Qualley, Poor Things) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan, Cat Person), dumb men (those crooks again) in cars and just quirky characters all round. There's the anarchic chases, witty yet philosophical banter and highly sought-after briefcase at the centre of the plot, too. And, there's the fact that this is a comedic caper, its love of slapstick and that a wealth of well-known faces pop up as the zany antics snowball. The Joel-and-Ethan team hasn't made a film as sapphic as this, either, however, or one that's a 90s-set nod to, riff on, and parody of 60s- and 70s-era sexploitation raucousness. Cooke, who identifies as queer, helps Drive-Away Dolls draw upon what she knows in its watering holes and three-decades-back timing; the movie was also originally conceived pre-Y2K, when it would've been a contemporary piece if it had made it to fruition. Centring on its paired queer ladies, there's a lived-in vibe among its gleeful chaos, then. Giving the film authenticity and having a freewheeling blast by going in any which way that it can — and swinging from sweet to eagerly cheesy at times (including in its editing) — aren't mutually exclusive for a moment. One of the best surprises of Drive-Away Dolls is how constantly surprising it is and entertainingly spontaneous it feels, no matter how many familiar Coenesque beats and bits viewers can pick out as the romp rolls on for 84 engaging minutes. Among the elbows in past Coen fare's direction is Sanctuary and Stars at Noon's Qualley as the self-assured and keenly talkative Jamie, who could be a relative of George Clooney (Ticket to Paradise) as O Brother, Where Art Thou?'s Ulysses Everett McGill (off-screen, of course, Qualley is her Maid co-star Andie MacDowell's daughter). But she's rarely in tight spot even when she is; letting anything pierce her good time isn't her vibe. Marian and then Jamie's police-officer girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein, American Crime Story) calling while she's in the throes of lust with someone else doesn't pierce her bubble. The subsequent end of that relationship barely does, in fact, other than sparking her desire for a new backdrop. Contrastingly, Marian always feels like everything is wrong — almost to Inside Llewyn Davis levels — whether she's being asked out by a colleague, annoyed by the word "anyhoo", keeping resolutely single years after her last breakup or deciding that ditching Philadelphia to visit an aunt in Tallahassee is her only option for change. Jamie doesn't just declare that she's tagging along when Marian hits the highway to Florida; she's the reason that the picture has the title it does (which was originally Drive-Away Dykes). If a car requires transporting from one place to the next, customers can put their hands up for discounted — or even free — vehicle hire to get it from A to B via a drive-away deal, which is handy for Jamie and Marian's finances. But after a visit to Curlie (Bill Camp, The Burial) for their temporary automobile, goons Arliss (Joey Slotnick, Plane) and Flint (CJ Wilson, The Blacklist) become their two-steps-behind shadows, working for an insistent fellow crim (Colman Domingo, The Color Purple). They're after a briefcase that's introduced in the movie's opening scene, where it's in the hands of a collector (Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us). Simply attempting to hightail it out of town, Jamie and Marian have no idea what they've inadvertently gotten mixed up in. This is Ethan's debut solo fictional feature without his sibling co-helming. That said, it's his and Cooke's second successive project where Ethan is credited as the director, Cooke edits, but it's clearly a joint effort (the first: 2022 documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind). This Coen brother knows how to make all kinds of double acts work, then — and, in this one, Drive-Away Dolls' guiding forces weave no shortage of hookups into the journey. A chihuahua named Alice B Toklas, Henry James novels, cameos by Matt Damon (Oppenheimer) and Miley Cyrus (Black Mirror), a game cast in lead and supporting parts, a wild goose chase, general giddiness, a heap of spice, bars and hotel rooms after bars and hotel rooms, artist Cynthia Plaster Caster: they're all along for this ride. There's ample daffy detours in the narrative, but zero stalling in this riotous affair. With chemistry to burn between them, Qualley and Viswanathan are as pivotal to Drive-Away Dolls as its main behind-the-scenes talents. The film was always going to need a duo who made viewers crave every second in their company regardless of what the script throws their way, including whether Jamie is splashing around her exhibitionist sex-positivity or Marian is yearning for a life less ordinary — and it found them. There's a particular depth to Australian Miracle Workers, The Broken Hearts Gallery and Blockers star Viswanathan's portrayal, despite plunging too deep never being one of Coen and Cooke's aims. Marian wants something beyond the rut that she's long been stuck in. She can't stop being herself, aka the movie's straight man, to get it. She's hardly welcoming of the mania that she's thrust into. Relatable also isn't what Drive-Away Dolls is chiefly going for, but it finds it as well and drives away with it.
Brisbane in the first month of autumn still means 30-degree temperatures, plus plenty of sultry motivation to while away an afternoon on a rooftop by the river with a drink in your hand. If you like espresso martinis, here's another reason to get sipping between Thursday, March 14–Sunday, March 17: Fiume at Howard Smith Wharves is celebrating Espresso Martini Weekend. The sky-high bar is saying cheers to Espresso Martini Day — which falls on Friday, March 15 in 2024 — by spreading the fun across four days and serving up martini specials. The limited-edition menu only spans three types of the tipple, but who doesn't want to try a wattle toffee version at least once? That cocktail includes vodka, wattle toffee liqueur, two types of coffee liqueur and sugar syrup. Opt for the salted caramel espresso martini instead and salted caramel syrup is subbed in. A classic take on the beverage is also on offer, should that be your version of choice. You'll pay $20 per drink or $35 for two. The bar's regular food menu will also be available. And the vibes? As cruisy as knocking back espresso martinis as you kick back overlooking the river with views of the CBD skyline can be — so, incredibly cruisy. Images: Markus Ravik.
Outdoor cinemas are a dog lover's dream, with plenty letting movie buffs head to the flicks with their furry best friend in tow. Taking your pooch to the pictures indoors isn't as common, but it's happening at Woolloongabba's Angelika Film Centre for one session only on Saturday, February 17. The movie: The Call of the Wild. If you share your life with a very good boy or girl who likes staring at the screen with you, this is their chance to enjoy the full cinema experience. You do need to keep your dog on a leash, however, and you're also asked to bring a blanket or pillow to put on the floor for your dog to sit on. The film starts playing at 10.30am, with arrivals from 10am — and both The Treatery and Hugo's Ice Creamery are setting up shop in the cinema lobby to sell dog-friendly movie treats. Tickets cost $15. As for the flick, it brings Jack London's novel about a domestic dog's Alaskan adventure to the screen with Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) as its human star.
They topped Triple J's Hottest 100 in 2002. They've featured Dave Grohl on drums. Their third studio album Songs for the Death is one of the all-time-great 00s records. They're Queens of the Stone Age, of course, and now they're bringing their latest tour Down Under in 2024, with the band heading our way for the first time in six years. The Josh Homme-fronted group's The End Is Nero tour is their first trip to Australasia since 2018, and comes after their eighth album In Times New Roman... released in June 2023. Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita and Jon Theodore are giving their latest shows an apocalyptic theme, which fans can look forward to seeing in Brisbane from Sunday, February 25–Monday, February 26. [caption id="attachment_923130" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andreas Neumann[/caption] Concertgoers can look forward to a setlist that steps through QOTSA's 27-year history, including their Hottest 100 winner 'No One Knows', plus everything from 'Go with the Flow' and 'Make It Wit Chu' to 'Emotion Sickness' and 'The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret'. In support at the Fortitude Music Hall: Pond and Gut Health. Queens of the Stone Age formed in Seattle in 1996 after Homme's prior band Kyuss split up, is linked to the Palm Desert music scene and have seven Grammy nominations to their name. Despite the long gap since their last trip Down Under, they're no strangers to playing Australia, including a joint tour with Nine Inch Nails back in 2014. Top image: Wünderbrot via Wikimedia Commons
Treating yo'self doesn't have to mean splurging. Adding caviar to your next stint of drinks doesn't need to involve breaking your budget, either. From Wednesday, April 3–Tuesday, April 30, head to Midtown and you'll be able to get indulgent from just $20 during the South Brisbane bar's caviar-focused month. The Manning Street venue is pairing its martinis — the watering hole's specialty — with the foodstuff that everyone thinks of when they think of luxury, all as part of its nod to New York. The cheapest option is available on Tuesdays, which is when a lobster (the money kind) will get you a bump of Polanco Oscietra Grand Reserve. But there's also specials on offer every day. Fancy a martini with your roe? You have two deals to choose from: one with a dry martini paired with green olives filled with caviar, which costs $39; another with a gold-leaf vodka martini and the same olives-and-caviar combo for $69. Crisps and caviar (aka sour cream and onion Pringles, plus crème fraîche and caviar) will set you back $49. Jacket potatoes and caviar (with the spuds filled with crème fraîche, then topped with caviar) is the same price. Tasmanian oysters topped with scampi caviar is $68, or $80 if you add a Laurent-Perrier sidecar. You can also just opt for the star ingredient, no matter what else you're eating or drinking, although it does get pricier. Polanco Oscietra Grand Reserve costs $70 for 10 grams and $130 for 30 grams. Wild Australian scampi caviar comes in at $80 for 10 grams and $130 for 25 grams. Both include a sourdough crostini and crème fraîche — and you can go with a champagne sidecar from an extra $12.
Being an adult means celebrating Easter however you damn well want to. Fancy setting up an Easter egg hunt around your house? Go for it. Keen on drinking cocktails out of chocolate? No one will stop you. Want to ditch the usual festivities and dance away the afternoon and evening at a disco party on the river? Hop to it for the third year running. Indeed, if that last option particularly takes your fancy, you'll want to make a date with 2024's Mr Percival's Easter Sunday River Disco. Kicking off at 3pm on Sunday, March 31, it's exactly what it sounds like — all at Howard Smith Wharves' resident overwater bar. MC Double D, who you might know from Sneaky Sound System, will be spinning tunes with other DJs for company — and they'll be on the decks right through until late. As for drinks, there'll be bubbles aplenty at Mr Percival's outdoor spritz bar, as well as Italian cocktails. And, the usual food menu will be on offer if you need a prawn cocktail, Moreton bay bug roll, bug-topped pizza or lemon curd parfait for sustenance.
Back in 2012, when Daniel Radcliffe was initially trying to shake a certain boy wizard from his system — before everything from Swiss Army Man and The Lost City to Miracle Workers and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story firmly helped — he stepped into a different kind of supernatural thrills. His first post-Harry Potter role saw him take on The Woman in Black, a gothic-horror tale that pitted him against a curse and a ghost. And yes, the latter did have quite the fondness for wearing dark clothing. The film adapted the 1983 novella of the same name for the second time. But before The Woman in Black made it to the screen, it spooked out the theatre courtesy of Stephen Mallatratt back in 1987. Because hauntings often keep coming back, this play is doing so again, this time in a new Australian production starring John Waters (Blaze) and Daniel MacPherson (Foundation). If you don't like scary tales about sinister spirits seeking revenge for past ills, then you might want to sit this one out. If you love them, then prepare to put your nerves to the test. We're betting that QPAC Playhouse will be at its unsettling best for the occasion — it's not every day that it hosts a show that ranks among West End's longest-running productions, second only to Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, after all. Brisbane's season will kick off on Tuesday, April 30, spanning till Saturday, May 11. The Woman in Black is set in Eel Marsh House in England's north, which sits at the heart of a story that Arthur Kipps recounts about his stint as a young solicitor overseeing Mrs Alice Drablow's funeral. The place isn't just filled with secrets, thanks to the titular figure. Waters plays the elder Kipps, with MacPherson plays an actor who agrees to perform the role of his younger guise. Images: James Reiser.
Casting a biopic can't be easy. The awards-courting label that hangs over the genre that's earned Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Will Smith (King Richard), Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), Renée Zellweger (Judy) and Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) lead actor and actress Oscars over the past decade alone can't make the task any less tricky, either. Then, when music bios get a spin — which is often — the weight of recognition and fandom is an especially heavy factor. Does the actor resemble the star that they're playing physically or in spirit? Can they? Will their attempt to slip into someone else's mega fame read like a triumphant ode or a faded facsimile? Will they try to inhabit rather than impersonate? Is doing the real-life person justice even possible? The questions go on. Even with those queries in mind, Back to Black has chosen its lead well. In Industry's Marisa Abela, who has just six prior acting credits on her resume before now — Barbie is the latest; Man in a Box, her first, came when she was only 11 — the Amy Winehouse-focused film has someone who looks the part beehive or not, and convincingly lives and breathes it behind a north London accent. She sings it, too, when the picture weaves in her own vocals atop Winehouse's music. But casting isn't the only key element for a biopic. The dance that a feature is taking through a well-known figure's life needs the material and the approach to support its central performance — the lyrics and tune to match with sheer talent, in music terms. If they fall flat, so does the flick. And unlike a bad song for an exceptional singer, there's no second chances in this realm. So echoes the big refrain of Back to Black: no matter her significant efforts, Abela as Winehouse is given as by-the-numbers a ditty to croon, and a beat to hit, as the music biopic genre has ever pumped out. It's impossible to know what the subject of the film would think of it, of course, but the movie from director Sam Taylor-Johnson (A Million Little Pieces) and screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh (Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool) portrays her as someone who hated formula, which the picture itself does not. At their most routine, biographical features boil people and their achievements down to standard plot points that could be swapped into any such flick about any such folk with a sliver of fame. The names change, and the eras, but the details are virtually interchangeable. Dispiritingly, that's on full display here in a tale about supreme potential, the worldwide success to go with it, haunting demons that can't be shaken and a premature death. As a result, everyone knows what'll happen in Back to Black even if you somehow don't know a thing about Winehouse going in. Here, she's an outwardly plucky but inwardly vulnerable teen with a killer set of pipes who has a rocky time of it in the spotlight, in love and with addiction through her twenties until she heartbreakingly joins the 27 Club. If that was the movie's one-sentence pitch to get the green light, it's also all that Taylor-Johnson and Greenhalgh — who worked together before on 2009's Nowhere Boy, which was about John Lennon's adolescence — have committed to. To flesh it out, they've also made the broadest strokes, drawn from the most-obvious details and spun a narrative that's one-note. In this telling, which holds itself up as a tribute, Winehouse's on-again, off-again romance with Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O'Connell, Ferrari) becomes her defining trait, not her voice. When they meet in a pub, bonding over drinks and pool, and bantering with enough woozy charm to get the entire bar drunk from proximity, Fielder-Civil introduces her to 60s girl group The Shangri-Las, one of her influences. Their first breakup is then the inspiration for the iconic album that gifts the movie its name. The end of their marriage during his incarceration, plus the news that he has started a family with someone else, are poised as developments that she can't get over. There's so little to Winehouse without him in this account — and so much that doesn't directly involve him, such as her early years and even recording Back to Black, is rushed through or relegated to a quick montage — that the movie might as well be called Amy & Blake (it's no Sid and Nancy, though, or even Pam & Tommy). Winehouse is "no Spice Girl", the film has her stress, but she is little more than Blake's girl in its eyes — and regardless of the strength of their love throughout their tumultuous romance, that's hardly the complete Winehouse story. Back to Black gives its protagonist a strong connection with the grandmother (Lesley Manville, The Crown) that she idolises and considers a style icon, and an unwavering sense of what she wants her career to be, but neither earns enough attention to overtake the picture's Blake-centric angle. When it comes to Winehouse's father Mitch (Eddie Marsan, Franklin), the main aim seems to be contrasting with his depiction in Senna and Diego Maradona director Asif Kapadia's Academy Award-winning 2015 documentary Amy. There's no depth there, or to much in Black to Black, as it also puts too much emphasis on its subject's maternal desires and not enough on the ugliness of becoming paparazzi-hounded tabloid fodder, or of addiction. The only place that you'll find complexity: Abela's performance and Winehouse's jazz-pop sound. It's no surprise, then, that the film is at its best when it's recreating gigs, or that they're the next most-prominent part of the movie after the Amy-Blake love story. But unlike in Bohemian Rhapsody or Elvis — or 2024's fellow music biopic Bob Marley: One Love — the concert scenes feel less designed to get audiences soaking in the sensation of watching a stunning talent, transporting them to those moments like they're there in-person, and more about adding a few easy highs to a tale told as an inescapable tragedy. Taylor-Johnson and Greenhalgh, the latter of which also penned the excellent Joy Division-focused Control, used Winehouse's lyrics and interviews as their guide to making the feature, but they've still filtered it through a view that sees the outcome of her life as inevitable. To that, to the well-worn bio template, to making her time with Blake its point of interest and to much more about Back to Black, there's only one response — and it's the same that Winehouse gave to going to rehab.
Last year, Brisbane scored a new riverside market. Also, it nabbed a new festive market, too. That wasn't just a 2021 highlight, however, with the Portside Local Markets returning several times in 2022 — and coming back this Christmas as well. Everyone likes shopping and hanging out by the water, after all, especially when festive season is approaching. If you really like browsing and buying, taking in the riverside air, and having a reason to stop for a bite and a drink, you'll want to head to Hamilton on Sunday, December 18 from 3pm, with these seasonal stalls popping up at twilight. Until 7pm, you can shop, stroll, sip and purchase gifts, which sounds like a mighty fine weekend itinerary. More than 50 stalls will be offering up everything from art and plants to ceramics and accessories — and more. If you've been to markets at the Gasworks, or in Fish Lane and Woolloongabba, you'll have a firm idea of what you're in for, because The Market Folk is behind all of the above and runs this Portside event as well. Festive decorations will deck the halls and walls with more than boughs of holly, grabbing gifts will be the main name of the game, and there'll be three Christmas ornament-painting workshops so you can make something unique for your tree at home. Plus, Portside's eateries will keep you fed if those hunger pangs strike — and quench your thirst if just keen on having a drink. In a bonus for this year's Christmas markets, the first-ever Northshore Christmas Boat Parade will run on the same day from 4–9pm, giving your shopping a shipping backdrop. Images: Claudia Baxter / Markus Ravik.
If summer screams ice cream to you, then there's only one way to start the season: indulging in your favourite frosty treat. That's great advice in general, but gelato chain Gelatissimo has an even better spin on it. Hit up one of its 43 stores around the country across a five-hour period and you'll nab $3 scoops. The date: Thursday, December 1. The time: between 4–9pm at all Brisbane shops. The offer: creamy gelato for just a couple of gold coins, all to celebrate the official start of the warm weather and indulge in a dessert staple. Thursday, December 1 also happens to be the day that Gelatissimo is releasing its latest limited-edition flavour, which is both summery and festive: smashed berry pavlova. So, you can add that to your list of cheap scoops — in a cone or cup, it's up to you — complete with vanilla bean gelato swirled with blueberry sauce, then topped with Aussie-made meringue pieces and strawberry puree. Fancy a year's worth of gelato afterwards? We all do. The chain is running a competition to make your dessert dreams come true for 12 months, as long as you tag @gelatissimogelato between December 1–13 and and add #gelatissimosummer to your post.
Tuesdays mean different things to different people. Another day closer to the weekend, almost hump day, the day you wish you could sleep through — they're all on the list. But, at The Bavarian each week, the day after Monday also means tucking into $9.95 schnitzels. It's one of the tastiest ways to celebrate any day, and to also save your pennies while doing so. There's no occasion, other than just because — but cheap schnitties for the sake of it is what any Schnitzel Tuesday should be about. For a bargain price, The Bavarian will serve you up a chicken schnitzel with fries and lemon, but you do have to also buy a full-priced drink to get the deal. Fancy another schnitty? That's completely fine — just get another drink. Available all day every Tuesday, this is some good schnitz. To get your fix, you can head to The Bavarian venues around Brisbane and southeast Queensland — you'll find the chain at Chermside, The Barracks, Robina, Broadbeach, Coomera, Sunshine Plaza and Toowoomba, so you've got options. You can also level-up your schnits for an extra $10, getting a 'Godfather' (a giant schnitzel, ham, cheese, kielbasa, napoli sauce and cheese) or a 'Matterhorn' (a schnitzel mountain, cheese spätzle, three layers of Alpen cheese and bacon).
