Australia's Wine List of the Year Awards has celebrated its 32nd anniversary in a prestigious award ceremony at NSW Parliament House, where 300 of the industry's top players came together to see who would take out top spot this year. It will come as no surprise to any lucky wine lovers who have visited Melbourne newcomer Circl to learn that the wine house on Punch Lane took out the prized trophy for Australia's Best Wine List for 2025. The venue, which has fostered a new culture of accessibility and inclusivity when it comes to trying rare wines, offers more than 150 drops by the glass and approximately 1,500 wines by the bottle. And while there were a few other notable winners this year, Circl dominated the awards across multiple categories for good reason. They picked up the awards for Best List of Wines by the Glass, Best Champagne List, Best Sparkling Wine List, Best Wine List Victoria, Best Wine List — City, and Best Listing of Victorian Wines. We can only imagine what exquisite champagne Xavier Vigier, Circl's sommelier, chose to pop to celebrate such an impressive collection of awards. And Vigier himself also took out top prize, winning the Sommelier's Choice Award, which is voted upon by Australian sommeliers, as well as the coveted Judy Hirst Award, which recognises the sommelier responsible for curating the winning list. Senior Judge Andrew Graham praised Circl's wine list for its accessibility and its expansiveness. Graham says, "So often, the great wines of the world seem almost mythical. They're things that drinkers dream about, but so rarely get to experience. Yet the astonishing list from Circl resets what is accessible. Led by a truly sublime offering of wines by the glass, which is gleefully heavy with famous 'unicorns', there is eye-watering depth throughout this list. You can start with the wonderfully well contextualised champagne offering, take a flight of rare rosé and end up with a dive into magnificent rare old Australian shiraz. What a journey!" Bennelong won the Best Wine List NSW, Fico took out the title in Tasmania, and Agnes in Queensland. Six venues were added to Australia's Wine List of the Year Hall of Fame, including Melbourne Supper Club, Stillwater in Hobart, and The Boat House in Canberra. Chris Lucas' Maison Bâtard was awarded the Tony Hitchin award for Australia's Best New Wine List, and Society succeeded with the Best Digestif List, Australia's Best Listing of Museum and Rare Wines, and Australia's Best Listing of French Wines. Rob Hirst OAM, who founded the awards with his late wife Judy in 1993, says, "We're grateful to receive such significant support from the industry and our award partners for yet another year of Australia's Wine List of the Year Awards, and the quality of wine lists across the country has never been better. There is a clear interest and intent by sommeliers, venue owners and beverage managers and directors to build harmony and synergy between the menu and drinks list, and this year's results are proof that the skill and dedication to this task is stronger than ever." Circl's extraordinary accomplishment makes it a back-to-back win for Victorian venues, with the award going to Gimlet at Cavendish House in 2024. The prestige and importance of the awards were summarised by the Chairman of Judges, Peter Forrestal. "The enthusiasm with which those involved in restaurants and, more generally, in serving the public is infectious. The imaginative quality of the food being brought to Australian restaurant tables and the wines that sommeliers have to offer their customers has never been more satisfying or stimulating. The education of sommeliers is at an all-time high. Documenting all this since 1994 is Australia's Wine List of the Year with another record number of entries to affirm the quality of individual restaurants and to record excellence at the table." Images: supplied, feature image, Arianna Leggiero. Has all this talk of wine made you thirsty? Check out the best wine bars in Melbourne today.
Way before The Wiggles were ever hopelessly convincing us to eat fruit salad, Peter Combe was telling us to throw caution to the wind and wash our faces with orange juice. His crazy lyrics and unforgettable tunes carried us Gen Yers through early childhood and evidently dominated Australian children’s music. That was, until Peter disappeared into oblivion, leaving us to clutch onto our Juicy Juicy Green Grass dreams, wondering if he'll ever come back (chorus: will you come ba-ack?). Each night of his pub and club tour, Peter has seen crowds of over 18s crowd-surfing and stage diving to childhood faves “Newspaper Mama” and “Mister Clinkety Cane”. For those still a bit foggy, I doubt you've forgotten the words to Spaghetti Bolognese if you can accurately remember every word to Britney Spear's Hit Me Baby One More Time. The point of the matter is that even though it may have been 20-odd years since you've heard these songs, there is every chance your brain has retained their sheer awesomeness and is ready and willing to crack them out at an opportune moment. Obviously no better than this Saturday night, where you can see Peter Combe make your young dreams come true at the Globe.
For artist Sarah McCloskey, there was never really a question whether or not she would pursue a career in art. "There's never been another thing that I've been interested in," she says. Growing up in Perth, McCloskey explains that she "always, always had a pencil in [her] hand". After graduating from high school, she completely immersed herself in that world. She worked part-time in an art gallery and started a university degree in fine art, all while steadily honing her craft. In February 2019, she moved to Sydney to pursue being an artist full-time. It was one of several choices that McCloskey has made over the last decade in a bid to shape her career and find her unique creative voice. This year, McCloskey joins a slew of visionary creatives collaborating with Miller Design Lab — the home of creativity and self-expression built by Australia's leading minds in design, art, technology and fashion. The platform is a celebration of our nightlife and its impact on culture to deliver exceptional moments to you and your home. Here, we speak to McCloskey about seeking new challenges that shape her creative voice and finding inspiration. There's something that's really clear when talking to McCloskey: she isn't afraid of facing a challenge. In fact, she welcomes it. "I think the things I feel most proud of come from throwing myself into something new and giving it my best shot," she says. Although the bulk of her current work is painting murals, it's a relatively new medium for her after concentrating on graphite illustrations for the first part of her career. Explaining how she fell into the medium, she says, "I just was lucky enough to be working in a space and surrounded by some people who had been painting walls for decades." Since then, McCloskey's painted murals for several arts festivals, including Wonderwalls Festival in Port Kembla. But there are plenty of tricky aspects of it. "They were some of my largest walls and had tight timeframes. I learned a lot and was super proud. I do love painting murals, but I definitely feel it afterwards. Especially if I'm painting something really big in a short amount of time in the sun or the rain.....It is pretty physically taxing." Acknowledging that she can't continue with murals long-term, she started "dipping her toe" into yet another new challenge last year: oil painting. And she began with what she describes as "a pretty vulnerable choice to paint a sad selfie". Now, rather than seeing the cancellation of much of her upcoming mural work at festival and events (due to COVID-19) as a setback, McCloskey's taking it as an opportunity to keep forging ahead in her career path. "I'm in the studio constantly and actually putting time into some oil paintings that I've had sitting here waiting for me to finish. I want to build up a body of work with a view to have an exhibition." One of the most recent oil paintings that McCloskey has produced was for Miller Design Lab, which she describes as "pretty true to my style... which is very much portrait-based. I do have an interest in strong colour palettes, so I chose neon to be my light source, which is something I hadn't done before." Delving further, McCloskey explains how customisation plays a role in her process. "Through the years, I would take a photo reference [from Pinterest or Instagram] and tweak it to make it my own... I like to keep the realistic aspects and the things that make it recognisable, especially if it's a face, but turn it into something that doesn't really exist in this world. Through painting, especially murals, that's something I do using colour and other botanical elements." It's no surprise then that McCloskey considers nature a huge source of inspiration. She mentions the Royal Botanic Garden and Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden as two of her favourite places in Sydney to visit. And, when the sun goes down, the inspiration keeps flowing. "The nightlife of the city is that perfect time at the end of the day when everybody gets to go out and connect with people. Whole creative industries exist in the night for our pleasure and entertainment, and being able to get out amongst that is an amazing way to recharge." For Sarah, that means tracking down live music. "I'm always that person who is trying to drag all my friends to some gig. That's the perfect place to see a bunch of other creative people in their element on a stage. I always feel pretty motivated by that — seeing people smash it in their own creative field. I'm not a musician at all but seeing one is like 'Fuck yeah, I'm going to go and be good at my thing now'." For more, check out Sarah McCloskey's collaboration with Miller Genuine Draft here. For more ways to celebrate your city's nightlife and recreate its energy in your own space, head this way. Images: Reuben Gibbes
If you like eating breakfast, brunch and lunch in leafy surroundings, then you're probably fond of parkside and al fresco dining. Step inside James Street's newest addition, however, and you'll still be be greeted by plants aplenty. You can browse through and buy some before or after your meal, too, now that nursery pop-up The Green has set up permanent digs — and also combined it with a Middle Eastern eatery. After selling potted greenery further along the busy Fortitude Valley street, and earning a following in the process, The Green has nestled into its long-term home in the same vicinity. You'll find it in a space that's been designed by Channon Architects to resemble an urban oasis, and boasts timber, raw concrete, marble and red-hued interiors by Borhan Ghorfran. You'll also spy cascading plants both indoors and in its outdoor dining pavilion and garden room. Offering a curated, design-driven range of plants and homewares, The Green stocks everything from eye-catching leafiness to items made by Relik Designs, by local artist Luke Mansini — if you're looking for something green for your home, and something to put it in. Handmade Japanese ceramics also sit on the shelves, and the store will soon feature its own flower bar. Need some advice? You can also pick up tips and information on plant styling and landscape design options, and get design consultations. When it comes to food, owners Christina Habchi and Angela Sclavos — the latter of whom is also behind fellow recent Valley newcomer Essa — have enlisted Executive Chef Warren Turnbull (Tetsuya, Assiette, Chur Burger) to oversee a Lebanese-inspired menu. The Green dials daytime dining up a few notches, combining fine-diner cooking techniques with Middle Eastern dishes. And, it also does takeaway and catering. To start the day, green shakshuka with smoked labneh, chilli and Turkish bread sits on the breakfast lineup alongside tahini granola with blood orange, cacao, coconut yoghurt and barberries. Or, for lunch, there's rainbow chard and montasio cheese brick rolls, grilled zhug marinated lamb cutlets with smoked onion puree and crispy shallots, and spiced cured ora king salmon with golden beetroot, horseradish and lemon seed lavosh. And if you're wondering how The Green came about, it was originally sparked by Habchi and Sclavos' aim to give the area a great place to buy plants — and somewhere that paired them with coffee, too. Find The Green at Shop 1/27 James Street, Fortitude Valley — open daily from 7am–5pm. Images: PHNX Digital.
Canadian artist Jon Rafman has presented viewers with a collection of the most bizzare, quirky and often disturbing images that are captured on Google's Street View. Named after the nine cameras that sit on top of the vehicles used to capture the images that form Google's mapping service, Rafman's work has again expanded notions of art and street photography. The collection includes four masked strangers on a highway in Mexico, a van engulfed in flames on the brink of explosion in Brazil, and a man revealing his bare bottom in Ireland. Rafman states that he collected the images through Street View blogs and his own use of the service, and has offered a lengthy essay detailing the purpose of the work and it's significance. Like the stunning images captured by Aaron Hobson, Rafman has shown us that the Internet is reaching a vastness that allows us to become virtual explorers of the world. With Google's mission to map the entire world and immortalise it online, there will be no shortage of images from fascinatingly random locations that we haven't even heard of. Next time you pass one of Google's vehicles you should quickly comb your hair and flash your best smile. After all, you might become part of an artwork. [via Buzzfeed]
Thanks to one of Milton's famous residents, Brisbane will always be known for XXXX beer. The River City is a thriving craft brewery hub, too. Spirits-wise, it has even scored its own Brisbane gin. But there might be no tipple that screams Brissie as much as BY.ARTISANS' signature drop. The West End distillery's gin isn't just made right here in the Sunshine State capital — it uses old eucalyptus leaves from a Brisbane icon, aka Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, to create the beverage. Lone Pine's koalas aren't missing out on their greenery; rather, BY.ARTISANS is using the leaves that don't get eaten by the herbivorous marsupials each day. The resulting creation is indeed called Signature Gin, and it can be bought at the distillery's new Jane Street flagship — or enjoyed onsite. Adding a new sip to everyone's must-drink list is one of motivation behind BY.ARTISANS, as proves the aim of every outfit that makes booze. Getting attention on Queensland-born artistry and Sunshine State-made products is another key reason for being. Teaming up with one of the city's best-known destinations fits that ethos, clearly. Tempting eyes towards the brand's just-opened base won't be hard — the slick, sleek, minimalist-leaning venue, which favours natural tones with pops of greenery and silver distilling equipment around the place, instantly stands out. It isn't just somewhere where spirits are made and drunk, either. Also part of the setup: a cafe serving a curated range of food and a creative haven, where tasting rooms and the bar sit beside an event space, a retail space and room for workshops. For those stopping by for a bite, the all-day dining menu includes marinated mixed olives, gildas, pickled vegetables and crackers with hummus, Portuguese custard tarts, and daily-changing toasties and crostones. For two, there's also a cheese and charcuterie platter. As for the Signature Gin, a small-batch drop that goes heavy on native botanicals, it's been crafted under the guidance of BY.ARTISANS's third Co-Founder Alexander Bell, who is also the resident Master Distiller — and a chemical engineer. Expect to taste not only eucalyptus, but also lemon myrtle, cinnamon myrtle, lavender and wattleseed, all in a tipple made in a still designed to be one of the country's most energy-efficient by Bell.
Perhaps you've spent some time this year building a Lego bouquet. Or, if you're a Melburnian, you might've made a trip to a Lego recreation of Jurassic World. Whatever interactions you've had with the plastic building blocks of late — including picking up some Lego and IKEA storage boxes, meditating to the sounds of jumbled bricks or signing up for a subscription service during lockdown — you may not have thought about one inescapable fact: that all that plastic is the stuff of environmental nightmares. Lego itself hasn't been ignoring the obvious. Back in 2018, it committed to using sustainable materials in all its core products and packaging by 2030 — and it started by producing a range of sustainable pieces made from plant-based plastic, called bio-polyethylene. The next step: making its bricks from recycled plastic. And while the company isn't quite ready to start selling sets made from recycled materials in stores, it has just unveiled its first prototype bricks. The new blocks are made with PET plastic from discarded bottles, and mark the first that've been made from a recycled material to meet the brand's quality and safety standards. It took some work to get to this point, though, with materials scientists and engineers spending the past three years testing more than 250 types of PET materials — and hundreds of other plastic formulations. One of the trickiest things to nail (and one of the most important): getting the bricks to clutch together. In a statement, Lego said that "it will be some time before bricks made from a recycled material appear in Lego product boxes". From here, it'll keep testing and developing the PET-made bricks, before deciding whether to move into the pilot production phase — with this process expected to take another year at least. And if you're wondering about the plastic used in the new blocks, it has been sourced from US suppliers, with a one-litre plastic bottle providing enough raw material for ten 2 x 4 Lego bricks. For further information about Lego's sustainability plans, head to the brand's website.
When March rolls around, Brisbane won't just have welcomed one major new night market for 2019. It'll also become home to another fresh addition. The second debutant for the year is heading to the city's north, will happen every Friday and Saturday night, and will serve up plenty of food. Created by caterer Tom Burke, BITE Markets has its sights set on your stomach — and it'll have 40 'flavour makers' on its lineup to keep your hunger in check. Fancy German street food? Sweet treats in the form of brownies, doughnuts, churros and poffertjes? Dumplings, momo, gozleme, paella and Japanese eats? They're all on the menu, with the likes of Mitte Berlin Street Food, Don Quijote Paella and Tapas, Tibetan Momo Café, Donut Kitchen, Mister Churros, Mr Bunz, Zoe's Brownies and Mocktail Madness coming to North Harbour to sling their wares. A shipping container setup like Hamilton's Eat Street — complete with landscaping and a dining precinct — BITE Markets will showcase local talents, so prepare to feast on meals whipped up by the best producers, food creators and artisans in the area. Kicking off across Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2 from 4–10pm each day, then returning every weekend, the huge foodie gathering will call a patch of Nolan Drive in Morayfield home. Entry will cost $3 for adults, and for those driving north, there's more than 600 car parks onsite.
Every great exhibition should make you feel like you're surrounded by the artist's work, whether or not it includes giant fairy tale forests or a towering spider. Melbourne-based outfit Grande Experiences takes that idea to heart, turning peering at masterpieces into an immersive 360-degree experience. Fancy seeing Italian Renaissance works, including the Mona Lisa, get the multi-sensory treatment? That's on the company's list in Australia next. When you've ushered the world into Vincent van Gogh's art — getting them not just peering at it but stepping through it — and Claude Monet's as well, what follows? Showcasing Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Titian, Veronese and their peers. Van Gogh Alive proved a smash hit when it toured the country, even hitting up some cities multiple times. Monet in Paris dazzled Brisbane in 2023. Now, come 2024, Italian Renaissance Alive will become everyone's new reason to visit HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast. The idea remains the same as Grande Experiences' other art must-sees, but the works being splashed across the walls, floors and ceilings will now hail from Italy from around the 15th and 16th centuries. And yes, that includes some of the big ones. The Sistine Chapel, The Last Supper, The Birth of Venus: they're all part of Italian Renaissance Alive in a huge way. Given the large-than-life manner in which they're presented, we really do mean huge, too. From Saturday, March 30–Sunday, August 4, 2024, you'll mosey around, spy iconic art surrounding you everywhere you look, and be part of not just a showcase but an experience. So, there'll be light and colour, obviously, but also sound and scents. Providing the soundtrack: Puccini, Verdi and other Italian operatic tunes. Images: Grande Experiences.
When something has been a part of the pop culture landscape for more than three decades, there really isn't much it won't have done. And The Simpsons has done plenty — over 700 TV episodes and counting, a 2007 movie, its own albums and singles, and video games, books and comics as well. Yes, the list goes on. Until recently, however, even the most diehard fans of television's favourite Springfield-dwellers mightn't have seen the titular family take to the stage in a burlesque and drag parody. But that's been happening for a couple of years now — and on Friday, November 24–Saturday, November 25 at the 2023 Wynnum Fringe, Brisbanites can choo-choo-choose to watch exactly that again. In case the show's name didn't make it plain, The Stripsons also claims to "put the strip in Springfield" — so, as iconic as Homer's blue pants and white shirt combo is, and Marge's green dress, too, you can expect to see them wearing much less. That's what happens when The Bad Collective takes on a childhood favourite and turns it into a firmly adults-only stage show of the highly satirical kind, as it has also previously done with Shreklesque. In a production that's also obviously in the same vein as The Empire Strips Back, The Stripsons doesn't just give Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie the comedic treatment, but also Millhouse, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, Mrs Krabappel, Mr Burns and Smithers as well — because The Simpsons has always been about more than its eponymous characters. The cast of burlesque, drag, musical theatre, dance and music talent donning yellow makeup includes Trigger Happy, Bebe Gunn, Lulu Lemans, Baron von Envy, Barbie Banks and Betty Lovecat, plus newcomers such as Indea Sekula, Kimi Young and Ella Nagel. The soundtrack for the two-hour show at George Clayton Park: all of the songs that you've had stuck in your head over the years thanks to The Simpsons, all accompanying a blend of dance, comedy, drag and striptease. (If "Dr Zaius, Dr Zaius, ohhhhh Dr Zaius" or "Who holds back the electric car? Who made Steve Guttenburg a star?" just popped into your brain right now, then you know what we're talking about.) And, that likely means everything from 'See My Vest' to 'Monorail' to 'We Put The Spring in Springfield' will get a whirl. Cross your fingers that 1991 hit 'Do the Bartman', which reached number one on the Australian charts, also shows up. [caption id="attachment_841043" align="alignnone" width="1920"] KTB[/caption]
On most weekends, somewhere in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane is hosting a beer festival. They might not happen every single weekend, but they definitely pop up with frequency. Only one is called the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular, however, and dedicates itself to weird, wild, wonderful and inventive varieties that are made exclusively for the booze-fuelled party. And that very fest has locked in its dates for 2023. If you're a newcomer to GABS, as the festival is known, it started off as a Melbourne-only celebration of ales, lagers, ciders and more. Then, it started spreading along Australia's east coast capitals, as well as to New Zealand. So far, its 2023 plans will see it return for its Aussie run to see out autumn and welcome in winter. While only dates and venues have been confirmed so far, and not brewers heading along or the beers they'll be whipping up, attendees can look forward to an event that's considered to be one of the best craft beer and cider festivals in the Asia Pacific region. One big reason: it'll pour at least 120 brews, which in past years have been inspired by breakfast foods, savoury snacks, desserts, cocktails and more. In 2022, peanut butter, coffee, earl grey tea, chicken salt, pizza, fairy floss, bubblegum and sour gummy bears all got a whirl. The event surveys both Australian and New Zealand breweries, with more than 60 set to be pouring their wares this year. Also on the bill: other types of tipples, including non-alcoholic beers, seltzers, whiskey, gin, cocktails and wines. GABS is known for dishing up a hefty lineup of activities to accompanying all that sipping, too, which'll span a silent disco, roaming bands, circus and sideshow performers, games and panels with industry leaders in 2023, as well as local food trucks and vendors to line your stomach. GREAT AUSTRALASIAN BEER SPECTAPULAR 2023 DATES: Friday, May 19–Sunday, May 21 — Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Friday, June 2–Saturday, June 3 — ICC Darling Harbour, Sydney Saturday, June 10 — Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane GABS will take place across Australia's east coast throughout May and June— head to the event's website for further details.
If chanteuses set your music-loving heart a-flutter, then Women in Voice is your kind of thing. You probably already know this. Over more than two decades, the celebration of female artists has become a Brisbane institution. Since starting out in a West End cafe back in 1993 and then journeying through a number of venues around the city and beyond, Women in Voice has become one of the nation's longest running performances. Showcasing talented lady vocalists in an up-front, uncomplicated manner, the show has featured the likes of Chrissie Amphlett, Deborah Conway, Jenny Morris, Katie Noonan and Kate Miller-Heidke on the bill at some point. As always, the latest iteration of Women in Voice boasts quite the lineup — newcomers and experienced veterans alike. From the former camp, prepare your ears for the award-winning Sahara Beck, Little Black Dress Creatives' Alicia Cush and emcee Judy Hainsworth from #FirstWorldWhiteGirls. And in the latter, Leah Cotterell and Alison St Ledger know the drill, and have your evening of fabulous cabaret well and truly covered. Image: Dane Beesley.
She's inked everyone from Miley Cyrus to Post Malone, and she could adorn your skin with art next — for free, at a three-day tattoo event taking over the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Celeb tatt artist Lauren Winzer is hitting the River City for the Brissie leg of the Australian Tattoo Expo, which runs from Friday, June 9–Sunday, June 11. And yes, free tattoos are 100-percent on the agenda. For the event, Winzer is teaming up with Bepanthen Tattoo aftercare ointment, which is where those tatts without spending a cent come in. She'll be busting out ink from a capsule collection — which includes sunrises, lavender, waves, ice cream cones and other options — and leaving you with a lasting memento. If you get one, you'll definitely always remember this event. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lauren Winzer (@laurenwinzer) Of course, Winzer has plenty of company: more than 250 fellow tattoo artists will be showcasing their skills, and live performances by Sideshow Cabaret will backdrop all of that body art. And if you're not up for getting a tatt yourself — for free or otherwise — you can chat to the country's top folks in the field, find out about different styles and genres, explore the world of body piercing and watch tatt competitions.
The Sunshine Coast may well be an area synonymous with stunning beaches, but you'll be pleasantly surprised to know it also boasts some beautiful inland waters as well. Enter Baroon Pocket Dam, a picturesque lake located between Montville and the nearby town of Maleny that offers beautiful picnic grounds, swimming and fishing, as well as plenty of local wildlife. We'd recommend renting a kayak for a few hours to explore the lake and its many surrounding tributaries. For more info, check out the website.
Across the last two months of 2023, most folks will celebrate festive season. Here's something else to mark this year: Godzilla season. New streaming series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters arrives in mid-November, combining kaiju with both Kurt (Fast and Furious 9) and Wyatt Russell (Under the Banner of Heaven). Then, the unrelated Godzilla Minus One will stomp onto the big screen Down Under to kick off December. This film marks a big return, and not just because Godzilla as a creature is huge in size (even though exactly how large the critter is varies between on-screen appearances). To the delight of fans of Zilly's rampages through its homeland's cinema, Godzilla Minus One is the first live-action Japanese Godzilla release about its namesake since 2016's excellent Shin Godzilla. When Godzilla first crawled out of the ocean and into cinemas, the famous movie monster made its debut appearance in the shadow of the Second World War. The link between the film's fears of nuclear holocaust and what Japan had just experienced wasn't an accident, in a picture that isn't just an excellent creature feature — the franchise-starting flick is stellar all round, including its glorious score. It was back in 1954 that Godzilla initially greeted the world. Now, almost seven decades later, 37 other movies have followed. The latest: Godzilla Minus One, which gives Zilly aficionados a long-awaited new Japanese Godzilla movie and takes its titular figure back to the country's postwar era. As seen in the both the first trailer for Godzilla Minus One and its just-dropped latest sneak peek, Japan is still coping with the aftermath of WWII's atomic bombings when the kaiju appears. The question: in a place that's already rebuilding, how will everyone both endure and battle against this towering critter? In a feature written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki (Lupin III: The First, Ghost Book), cue plenty of rampaging through the streets by Godzilla, plus fleeing by the film's humans. Cue buildings levelled, the ground both rumbling and crumbling, and explosions wreaking more havoc, too. Referencing going backwards from zero in its moniker, cue a film that follows people trying to survive and fight — all back in the time that gave birth to all things Godzilla. Already in cinemas in Japan since early November, Godzilla Minus One will hit the big screen Down Under from Friday, December 1. It follows three animated streaming efforts since Shin Godzilla: 2017's Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, and 2018's Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle and Godzilla: The Planet Eater. Of course, the broader franchise also includes America's take on Godzilla, starting with a low in 1998, then including another try in 2014, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and 2021's Godzilla vs Kong. After TV's Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, a sequel to Godzilla vs Kong, is due in 2024. Check out the latest trailer for Godzilla Minus One below: Godzilla Minus One will hit cinemas Down Under on Friday, December 1.
The crushing news that Fortitude Valley icon The Zoo is closing permanently isn't something that Brisbane's music scene will get over quickly, or necessarily at all. But the best way forward for fans of live tunes is to keep showing up to gigs around town, supporting the events filled with and venues hosting them. Brunswick Street Live is one such shindig. Since 1997, the Valley has put itself in the spotlight with a huge street party, with Valley Fiesta taking a variety of forms over its quarter-century-plus run so far. It's a celebration of hearing live tunes, checking out art and shopping your way around markets — and hitting up the inner-city suburb's bars and eateries, too — that turns the Valley's regular haunts and activities into a festival. But because it's only a once-a-year happening, Brunswick Street Live was born in 2023 to help tide everyone over between Fiestas. [caption id="attachment_902925" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brisbane City Council via Flickr[/caption] After a successful first year, the day-long Brunswick Street Live is making a comeback in 2024. The date for your diary: Saturday, May 11. At a time when it is definitely needed, Brisbane gets another excuse to revel in the Valley's live music scene. The name gives away the main place where it's occurring, and the lineup spans not just tunes but also street artists and performers. From midday, a roster of talents headlined by Eliza & The Delusionals will hit the stage in the middle of the Brunswick Street Mall stage. Also on the bill: Odarka, DJ Jaguar.B, Juno, Curbside Carnies, Neish, Dizzy Days, ixaras and Bean Magazine. John Smith Gumbula, Shaun Clarkson and Stewart Shuker will be roving around, as will the Curbside Carnies cohort with bubble art and aerial feats. And at The Royal George, Ric's Backyard, Retro's, Blute's Bar and California Lane, music will also echo. [caption id="attachment_902926" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brisbane City Council via Flickr[/caption] Top image: Kgbo via Wikimedia Commons.
In Stay of the Week, we explore some of the world's best and most unique accommodations — giving you a little inspiration for your next trip. In this instalment, we take you to the Woodland Cabin, one of three luxe lodgings at Logan Brae Retreats in the Blue Mountains. With room for only two, any one of the cabins is an ideal getaway for when you need space, solitude and something a little fancy. WHAT'S SO SPECIAL? The magical quality of this escape starts well before check in. If you're heading here from Sydney, you'll start your journey by winding your way through Hazelbrook, Wentworth Falls and Blackheath (stopping off for deli provisions and vino, so there's no need to interrupt your imminent immersion in nature) before you're welcomed by expansive views across Megalong Valley. Once you pull into the gravel driveway and make your way up to the Woodland Cabin, you'll immediately be consumed by calm. Warmly hued festoon lights, wildlife wandering freely, a round plunge pool perched alongside your deck, a vista to rival most: everything is special here. THE SPACE Although there's only room for a pair at the Woodland Cabin, the lofty open-plan design, towering windows and pared-back earthy palette delivers a space that's anything but small. You'll arrive to an already-built fire in the hearth with logs aplenty stacked alongside — all you need to do is strike the match. There's a deep stone tub to soak in, which when married with that view makes for a deliciously spent afternoon. And in the bathroom? A wide double shower, stone-topped vanity and gold fixtures, a lineup of lush products from Apotheke, plus style-heavy towels and robes adding a transportive touch of luxe. Outside, deck chairs beckon you for a morning coffee, as does a breakfast bar and outdoor dining set. While the deep plunge pool ensures you can beat any country heat. FOOD AND DRINK As a delightful touch to start your trip, a basket of snacks, vino, chocolate and light breakfast supplies waits on the dining table for you. Then, in the kitchen, you've got all the essentials. An oven, gas stove and nice wide sink join all the usual suspects (fridge, microwave, toaster, pots and pans); and you've covered for both olive oil and salt and pepper. Caffeine a pre-requisite? You've got a dedicated coffee bench, you lucky thing. Espresso machine? Tick. Plunger? Tick. Percolator? Tick. You can even make your own drip coffee. There's freshly ground beans, milk — cow only, so BYOM(ilk) if you're an almond or oat drinker — plus a 12-strong selection of teas. If you don't want to cook, you can get catering from Lavender Hill Graze. There's breakfast boxes, barbecue and salad packs and grazing platters ideal for by the pool. You can even have a picnic basket (complete with bubbles and rug) delivered to your doorstep. THE LOCAL AREA The Blue Mountains is a classic choice for a Sydneysider's weekender. And it's with good reason. There are hikes up to world-class views and secluded waterholes, buzzy breweries and cosy restaurants — all surrounded by that fresh clean country air. Nearby your lodging are farmers markets (in Blackheath on the second Sunday of the month), Euro-inspired saunas and the option to explore the area atop a horse. And if you want to stay close, stroll to the staggering cactus plant or stick to the private Woodlands Walk for a top-notch spot to take in the sunset. Got a book? Head to the tree hammock and while away your time suspended among the trees. THE EXTRAS Beyond the fact that this spot is clearly a winner, the family-run stay boasts delightfully personal touches too. Take the props adorning the walls: hats fit for seasoned bushmen and a whip. You two holidaymakers can stage a shoot, ensuring you have more than happy memories when you leave. There's a set of vintage binoculars for spotting faraway critters and all the deets for you to organise an in-room spa treatment. You can even organise flowers on arrival, from the locally loved micro flower farm Floral by Nature. It's just about time you booked a stay, dear reader. Feeling inspired to book a truly unique getaway? Head to Concrete Playground Trips to explore a range of holidays curated by our editorial team. We've teamed up with all the best providers of flights, stays and experiences to bring you a series of unforgettable trips in destinations all over the world.
Break out the Wensleydale! Following in the footsteps of the massively popular Pixar and DreamWorks Animation exhibitions, the latest show at Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image pays tribute to the studio behind stop motion's most iconic duo. Originally created for the Art Ludique – Le Musée in Paris, Wallace & Gromit and Friends: The Magic of Aardman is ACMI's contribution to this year's Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series. The delightful exhibition features more than 350 objects, including props, models, storyboards, concept art, photos, clips and behind-the-scenes interviews. It's a comprehensive survey of the history and creative process of the beloved animation studio, whose clay creations have charmed audiences for more than 40 years. Naturally, the exploits of Wallace and Gromit take centre stage. You can see the rocket the pair took to the moon in A Grand Day Out, admire the veggies growing in Gromit's carefully tended garden, and shake your fist at early character sketches for the dastardly Feathers McGraw. There's also an entire section dedicated to cracking contraptions that's sure to get your imagination working overtime. But there's much more to Aardman than what goes on at 62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan. From Creature Comforts to Chicken Run to the deeply unsettling Angry Kid, the exhibition leaves no stone unturned. You can even get a glimpse at a number of the studio's more memorable commercials and music videos, including their groundbreaking clip for Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer'. Frankly, we could have spent all day exploring the exhibition. But for those of you who might be short on time, here are five things on offer you absolutely have to see. THE ORIGINS OF WALLACE & GROMIT Early sketches reveal the secret history of Gromit and his eccentric owner, who it turns out was originally a postman named Jerry. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it? Reckon we can all agree creator Nick Park dodged a bullet there. THE CHICKEN RUN FLYING MACHINE A key model from Aardman's first feature-length film, the flying machine is a bizarre contraption born of hard work and a belief in the impossible. In that way, it is the item that best exemplifies the spirit of the studio itself. THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS PIRATE SHIP Admittedly, the flying machine is somewhat overshadowed by what is inarguably the piece-de-resistance of the ACMI exhibition: the five-metre-high ship from The Pirates! Band of Misfits. So impressive is the model that you could be forgiven for thinking it's about to sail off at any moment. MAKE YOUR OWN CLAYMATION Fancy yourself the next Nick Park? Then why not try making a short animation of your own. Visitors will get the chance to mould a colourful clay character, before bringing them to life frame-by-frame. They say it's meant for kids and families, but don't let that stop you. AN EARLY LOOK AT EARLY MAN Round off your visit with a behind-the-scenes look at what Aardman are up to next. Due for release in early 2018, the prehistoric Early Man features the voice talents of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston and Maisie Williams, and looks like an absolute blast. Wallace & Gromit and Friends: The Magic of Aardman is showing at at ACMI from June 29 until October 29. Images: Charlie Kinross.
For years it’s been rumoured that Brisbane’s music scene was getting better and better and now we have incontrovertible proof that it is. FOMO, a boutique festival set up by locals BBE and Steven Papas, just dropped their lineup and it’s killer. The brand new January 2016 festival has quite the eclectic electronic bunch teed up, headlined by RL Grime, Jamie xx and local lads Flight Facilities. Joining them are bigtime internationals like Boys Noize, Skepta , Keys N Krates and Mr. Carmack, balanced out by a solid local lineup including Tkay Maidza, Anna Lunoe and UV Boi. Like Jungle Love, the Sunshine Coast's BYO camping festival, FOMO has nailed the boutique festival vibe. Held over one day, the festival is happening on Saturday, January 9 at Riverstage, which Brissie locals know means one thing: one stage, no clashes. This is exactly what you want at a small festival to make the most of your ticket. FOMO 2016 LINEUP: RL Grime Flight Facilities Jamie XX Boys Noize Skepta Mr Carmack Keys N Krates Tkay Maidza Anna Lunoe Benson UV Boi
If your mental manilla folder marked 'Yoko Ono' only has that old Simpsons episode in it, read on. For a woman who once inspired so much hate, Yoko Ono has a lot of love to give. Today the 80-year-old is cherished as an artist, musician and peace activist with global influence, but she was, when most first heard of her, Beatles fan enemy number one. She spiked John Lennon's morning English Breakfast with her boho voodoo, they said, and changed the band forever. That's how she was portrayed in that Simpsons ep, too, as the kooky banshee who seduced Barney Rubble away from the barbershop quartet. It's a testament to Yoko's talent, energy and batshit crazy charisma that her legacy transcends that nonpareil historical record. An exhibition of her work is opening next month at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. She's an enigmatic figure, containing multitudes, so here are some facts and figures that might help order your Ono thoughts. She Survived World War II In 1933 Yoko was born into a prosperous family descended from a Japanese emperor. She shuttled between San Francisco and New York as her banker father was transferred, but lived mainly in Tokyo. She was 12 when the city was fired-bombed by the Americans. As many as 130,000 people were killed in two days. I suspect this might be why she doesn't like war so much. She Studied at Sarah Lawrence Like that other eminent feminist Kat from Ten Things I Hate About You, Yoko enrolled at the east coast liberal arts college Sarah Lawrence, studying music. She'd transferred from Tokyo's Gakushuin University, where she was the first woman to enter the philosophy department. It seems she didn't attend many classes though; she was busy writing radical poetry and lying on top of John Cage's piano during his performances in New York. Some of Her Early Artworks Sound Really Cool And some of it sounds crap, but who cares? It was New York in the '60s, what's not to like? John Lennon first met Yoko at a preview of her exhibition in London in 1966. He was taken in by one particular work, in which a ladder leads up to a black canvas on the ceiling; up there was a spyglass on a chain, which revealed the word 'yes' written on the roof, which is great. More recently, she's been installing Wish Trees around the world and inviting visitors to hang wishes, written on little cards, on the trees' branches. It's a bit naff, as evidenced by this note left by Pharrell on the New York installation: "Wishing 4 all who seek to experience the shift of widespread illumination will have the inner stillness to share in the most momentous aspect of the ether." What? Her Honeymoon Was Spent in Bed, Away from War That earnest positivity pulses through most of her pieces, and perhaps none more so than the infamous honeymoon 'Bed-In for Peace'. After they married in Gibraltar, Spain, in 1969, Yoko and Lennon curled up on white fluffy sheets in an airy Amsterdam hotel room and smiled for the cameras. The couple were protesting against the Vietnam War, they told the assembled media, and they thought they could change the world ("start a revolution from [their] bed," is how Oasis put it). The image probably had more artistic impact than political, but that, of course, counts for something. She's still campaigning for peace, on the macro and micro levels; at the MCA exhibition you're invited to write your most honest love letter to your mum. She's a Really, Really Nice Lady, It Seems Asked which artists inspired her today, Yoko gave a big shout out to, well, all artists working today. "I just love anybody that does anything in the art world and the artistic world," she said in an interview. "We just have to keep working and I want everyone in the field to know that we support them." That said, she does single out Lady Gaga for some love. "She has a very lovely bottom," Yoko said of Gaga, after it graced the stage with her. "I think she's wonderful. John would have loved her, because she's an artist, she's fearless and she pushes every limit, which we both always adored. She has played on John's white piano and I think that's wonderful. Life moves on and you embrace it." Yes She Did Design These Pants See you at the merch table at the MCA, boys. Bonus! Just this week Yoko released her hypnotically bizarre and instantly viral music video, 'Bad Dancer', starring her pals the Beastie Boys, Questlove, Ira Glass, Roberta Flack, Cibo Matto and more. One more life achievement down. https://youtube.com/watch?v=d3mvEfON2CI War Is Over! (If you want it), an exhibition of Yoko's work across multiple disciplines, will be on at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art Australia from November 15, 2013, to February 23, 2014. The artist herself will also be present.
Every tattoo tells a story, whether it's the sole piece of ink adorning a person's skin or one of many on someone whose body is a walking art gallery. That tale can span many things, including the design's meaning and significance, and also everything around making and creating it. Get a tatt while standing 268 metres above Sydney, however, and you'll have one helluva anecdote to tell. For one morning only, Sydney Tower Eye's SKYWALK is offering something more than stunning views high above the Harbour City: tattoos. Teaming up with reality TV favourites Bondi Ink, it's hosting the world's highest tattoo studio over a quarter of a kilometre above the ground, at a pop-up announced to mark World Tattoo Day. That occasion — because there's one for everything — falls on Tuesday, March 21 in 2023. But the sky-high inking will occur from 9–10.30am on Wednesday, April 5. And, to truly commemorate a pop-up tattoo parlour setting up shop at such lofty heights, the folks getting everlasting mementos will actually receive Sydney skyline-inspired tattoos. Given that Bondi Ink is only whipping out its machines for 90 minutes, only two people will be inked — and if you're keen, you'll need to hope that you're one of the lucky winners. To enter, hit up the Sydney Tower Eye website before 11.59pm AEDT on Monday, March 27, and explain both which part of your body you'd like your new tatt to decorate and why you're so eager. [caption id="attachment_782364" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sander Dalhuisen[/caption] "I've tattooed for some interesting events in my time but being invited to create a design for 'The World's Highest Tattoo Studio' on the Sydney Tower Eye is pretty unique; I'm looking forward to it," said Chris Molt, a Bondi Ink artist known for his airbrush, fine line and script skills. "We're already spoilt with our view at Bondi Ink, but the crew loved seeing the whole city from up high on the SKYWALK. No better view to feed into our Sydney skyline tattoo-designing," shared his colleague and visual artist Cristina Martinez, who has a penchant for fine line, traditional and colour tatts. Whoever Chris and Cristina end up inking, they'll get a semi-realistic design representing the Sydney vista, and then take a victory stride on the SKYWALK afterwards. Sydney locals, this might be the ultimate way to show your love for your home town. Interstate visitors, this is quite the souvenir. And new ink with a view — and of a view — isn't in your future, you can nab a ticket to head up to the Sydney Tower Eye Observation Deck on the day from 9am to watch. Bondi Ink's 'World's Highest Tattoo Studio' will pop up on Sydney Tower Eye's SKYWALK from 9–10.30am on Wednesday, April 5. To enter the competition to get inked, hit up the Sydney Tower Eye website before 11.59pm AEDT on Monday, March 27. For tickets to watch, head to the same place.
In yet another southward-bound international fashion expansion, Uniqlo has just announced that it'll be opening in Australia for the first time come autumn 2014. Melbourne's Emporium, located on Lonsdale Street in the CBD, will be home to a four-level, 2180 square metre megastore selling the Japanese brand's quality yet affordable apparel. Heattech underwear, bold collaborations with designers and Ultra Light Down are among their signature products. "We are very excited to be opening our first store in Melbourne, Australia," Uniqlo's Australian CEO Shoichi Miyasaka commented. "The city is a great centre of style and we hope to make Uniqlo an essential stop for for fashion-conscious Melbourne shoppers looking for high quality, affordable clothes. "Our goal is to build a loyal customer base by offering every visitor the outstanding level of customer service that Uniqlo is known for within Japan, in a comfortable and welcoming shopping environment." Owned by Japan's Fast Retailing Co. (the globe's fourth biggest clothing retail giant), Uniqlo first opened in 1984 and now runs 1200 stores across 14 different countries. It's been moving steadily south for four years, having set up in Singapore in 2009, Malaysia and Thailand in 2010, the Philippines in 2012 and Indonesia earlier this year. Fast owns six other major brands: Theory, Princess tam.tam, J Brand, Helmut Lang, GU and Comptoir des Cotonniers, and sold a whopping 928 billion Japanese Yen (AU$10 billion) worth of goods during the 2011-2012 financial year. Via Daily Life
Have you ever, ever had the theme tune from a 90s Australian television show lodged in your brain for decades? For anyone who watched the first two seasons of Round the Twist when they originally aired — or anytime afterwards, or the third and fourth seasons in the early 2000s as well — the answer is always yes. Audiences have author Paul Jennings to thank for the series, which initially adapted stories from his novels Unreal!, Unbelievable!, Uncanny and more. Musician Andrew Duffield also deserves gratitude, given that he composed the earworm of a main song. In 2024, Paul Hodge and Simon Phillips join the list, too, but for Round the Twist as no one has ever seen it before: as a stage musical. Hodge understands the power of that catchy theme. It's one of the influences, unsurprisingly, for the sound of the stage production from Queensland Theatre and Queensland Performing Arts Centre that's enjoying its world-premiere season at QPAC in Brisbane until Sunday, December 8, 2024. He also knows how deeply that the tune has burrowed into an entire generation of 90s kids' minds. "I said to Andrew Duffield, who wrote it, I said to him just before the rehearsal period 'how do you feel to know that you can just penetrate people's minds simply by them hearing 'have you ever…' and then it's stuck in their head for the rest of the day?" he tells Concrete Playground. "He was like 'oh yeah, it's fun. It's great'." Before he had musical-comedies Clinton the Musical and Joh for PM on his resume — and opera Riot as well — Hodge grew up as a fan of the lighthouse-dwelling Twist family and their supernatural-tinged adventures. If he hadn't, the idea to pen the musical of Round the Twist wouldn't have sprung for the writer and composer, who was inspired by randomly recalling a line from season-two episode 'Smelly Feet'. Phillips describes himself as too old to have known anything about the television series at the time, but helms yet another 90s Aussie classic making the leap from the screen to the stage. Previously, he's directed stage versions of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Muriel's Wedding. "I'm churlish that I missed out on Strictly Ballroom," he jokes. Fans have had since 2021 to look forward to the result of Hodge and Phillips' efforts with Round the Twist, when the musical was initially announced. This wasn't the first time that someone had approached Jennings and the Australian Children's Television Foundation, which produced the TV series, about bringing the Twists to the stage with tunes — but it was the first time that they gave the tick of approval. Hodges credits Jennings' stories first and foremost, including for having fun making the musical, and for a production that he hopes will be both entertaining and moving for theatregoers. "I think what Paul is really good at is that, as well as obviously his stories are fun and silly and bizarre, he understands what it's like to be a kid," Hodges advises. "There's this story of this kid coming to him at one of his book signings saying 'how do you know what it's like to be me?'. And I think that he understands also the not-so-fun parts of being a kid — what it feels like when you're embarrassed or you're scared, and things like first kisses and those kind of things. He looks at those moments and milestones of growing up, and portrays them in a very fun and silly and bizarre way. Because he has that understanding, his stories have a lot of heart in them, and that's what I've tried to maintain in the musical." How did Hodge approach his task as a fan of both Round the Twist and Jennings? "As a kid, I read Paul's short stories and then I watched the TV show, and it's fun going back and doing that again as an adult. The musical is based on the first two seasons, which were the ones that Paul wrote, and so I have now watched those — rewatched them — so many times now," he shares. "If there was any kind of Round the Twist trivia, I'm sure I could win them for the first two seasons." For Phillips, he looked at his perspective as bringing fresh eyes to something so adored by so many. "Initially, it was a long time before I watched the TV programs. I tried to read the script as if it was a fresh new work that no one had ever seen before, which indeed of course it was, but that didn't have the references. And then at a certain point you go 'I'm not quite sure why this is there', and the answer is 'because it's one of the most-beloved moments in the TV program' — and that's a good enough reason," he says. "But it also went through the process of gradually having a few of the favourite moments from the TV program getting lost in the storytelling. Because we realised that for this story to feel coherent, it just couldn't have everyone's favourite bit from the TV program, or it would have been a) four hours long and b) have no individual plot of its own." There were essentials that Hodge absolutely had to include, however. "I think I always knew that the 'Smelly Feet' episode, "up the pong!", would have to be in there, because that was the origin of it. It's interesting that for each of the Twist kids, I knew there was an episode that I felt had to be in there. For Bronson, it was 'Smelly Feet'. For Pete, it was 'Without My Pants'. And for Linda, it was 'Nails'. Those were the ones that had really stood out for me as a kid for each of the Twist kids." Hodge and Phillips also chatted with us about the musical's origin story, getting the green light from Jennings, the adaptation process, whether taking on something with decades of affection behind it was daunting, why Round the Twist endures and introducing it to a new generation — and more. On How Round the Twist The Musical Finally Came About Paul: "Apparently I wasn't the first to have the idea, but the Children's Television Foundation has said no previously. But the way it came about was that I had been trying to think of something that I could write for my whole family to come to, because I have a lot of nieces and nephews, and I wanted something that all the generations of the family could come to — my parents and my siblings and nieces and nephews. There's an episode of Round the Twist where Bronson, the youngest Twist kid, he's trying to save up the smell of his feet, basically, for six months, to then try to use it as a weapon. And when whenever he uses this power — he's using it for a good purpose — then he says 'up the pong!'. About eight years ago, my mum was changing my nephew's nappy one day, and she said 'ohh, that's a pongy nappy'. And my brain immediately went 'up the pong!'. Which, I think, also shows the enduring power of Paul Jennings' stories, for something from my childhood to come back to me in adulthood like that. When happened, then I went 'oh, Round the Twist, that's the thing that I should do'. And so then I then approached the Children's Television Foundation and Paul Jennings about adapting it, and the Children's Television Foundation said 'we've been approached before and said no, but we're going to say yes to you'. I feel very privileged and humbled that Paul and Jenny Buckland of the ACTF and Andrew Duffield, who wrote theme song, have placed their trust in me to tell these stories." Simon: "My analysis would be that it took someone, i.e. Paul Hodge, who had been the right age to watch the show to grow up and sufficiently develop the skillsets to write the musical. Because it was so of its time and of its audience. The 90s was its heyday, and so I feel that both in the writing of it and in the audience space for it, it's great that there's something that is there for the mid-30s to mid-40s generation who grew up on Round the Twist. But I, of course, didn't really know anything about the TV series, because I'm too old. And I think that's another reason why it took a while for the show to find producers — because the people who were in a position to support it financially probably also slightly missed the show, and didn't view it with the same affection as the generation who had really grown up on it. And so I started merely talking to Paul during COVID, who I'd met a couple of times before, when everyone was locked down — and I started really talking to him about the shape of the show and reading it for him and giving him some feedback. Then it started to find its feet after COVID. And indeed, with some fantastic assistance from the RISE funding, which got its workshopping process, that's what managed to get it up from the page to something that we could start really rehearsing on the stage proper." On Getting the Green Light From Paul Jennings and the Australian Children's Television Foundation Paul: "I think it was partly grasping why Paul's stories are so great. I think it was also that I could give a reason of why it should be a musical — not just coming in and going 'ohh, anything can be a musical'. Because I think with any story, the first question you have to ask if you're adapting something into a musical is 'why does this story sing?'. Lots of stories can sing — it's just people need to find the way to make that happen. To me, why I said this story sang was because in the way that Round the Twist works, all the episodes are kind of unrelated, because they're all each based on a Paul Jennings short story. But, over the course of a season, generally there's a thin thread that goes through the season and then pays off in the final episode of the season. In the first season, that thread is that they are hearing mysterious music that's coming from the top of the lighthouse, and then that pays off in the final episode. And in that final episode, they end up singing to resolve the plot. So I said that to me, already this story sang. Music was already a part of it, and singing was an incredibly important part of that finale of the first season. I think that was one of the reasons of why, to me, this story sang — and was one of the reasons that they gave it the green light." On Starting the Adaptation Process — By Watching Round the Twist, Of Course Paul: "I watched and continued to rewatch the show many times. And then, because there's 26 episodes in the first two seasons, it was a decision of going 'okay, what episodes am I going to include in the musical?'. So that was a process of partly going ' well, the finale episodes of the first two seasons are the ones that have an overarching arc to them, and the first episode of the series is obviously important in setting everyone up', so I assumed that I would be incorporating those. The I worked out my own thing of going 'what were my favourite episodes as a kid?'. Also, I trawled the internet to see if my episodes checked out as the same as other people's, what their favourites were. Then it was then trying to work out how to put all those together. And the thing that is holding the other important part of the music side of the musical —also of the TV show — is the theme song. So in the musical, the nursery-rhyme lyrics to the theme song are riddles that the Twist kids are trying to solve — and they are related to the different plots. So that's the thing that's holding these different episodes together as they're trying to work out this mystery. Over the process of writing, it's been a process of pulling all these disparate episodes together and shaving away each of the episode stories to its core element, and then merging different things together. When I sent the first treatment to Paul, then we had a conversation where I was saying 'well, in this episode there's a ghost that haunts a toilet, which is the first episode, Skeleton on the Dunny', and then there's this episode also where there's a ghost that haunts the toilet — and I've merged those two into one, and I've merged them also with this other idea'. And Paul was saying to me, 'well, that's the exact same type of thing that I was doing when I was adapting the books into the TV show'. So it was good to know that we were following the same process." On How to Tackle Directing a Musical with Such Adored Source Material Simon: "You essentially have to approach it in its own terms, based on its own musculature. You have to say 'what is this that we're making?', but you also fly in the face of certain elements from the original show at your peril. And this is that weird combo, because it's been books and a TV show, but the way that people relate to it, the characters have been semi-formed in people's minds via the TV show. Sometimes, I think when you're doing an adaptation of a film or something that has originated in celluloid, and you're putting it on stage, the ghosts of the people who originally played it is very strong in your audience's minds. I guess we have the advantage from the TV show that people also read it in book form and got their own individual images. And the casting changed inside the TV series anyway, so there's no single person where you could say 'that actor is in our minds Pete Twist' because he was a few different actors. So that helps us." On Not Being Daunted by Round the Twist's Page-to-Screen-to-Stage Path — and Huge Fandom Paul: "I think I'm more excited about it. I approach it from the point of view of a fan. Like, I am a huge fan of Round the Twist and that's how I've been writing it. It's as a fan and going 'if I was seeing a Round the Twist musical, what would I want to see on stage as a fan?'. So it's more been a process of going like 'ohh, people are going to love this bit'. It's been fun. And it's been important to me that it maintains the spirit of the original TV show. That's why I wanted to make sure that Paul and the ACTF and Andrew Duffield have been involved in the process as we've gone along." Simon: "It's more a great wave to surf — that you actually feel supported by the energy that its origins give you. And indeed, this is why so very many musicals that are made are adaptations of existing work: it gives the musical a launching pad, it gets it off the starting blocks with a little bit of an advantage, I think." On the Inspiration for the Musical's Songs Beyond the Iconic Theme Paul: "The theme song was the touchstone for the sound of the show in general. I wanted it to feel like it was all one whole and the theme song didn't feel separate from the rest of the score. So I used the feeling of the music in the TV show also a touchstone. And I wanted it to be definitively Australian, so I was listening to a lot of Australian pop and rock music, and I was listening to a lot of Triple J. I remember going back through the Hottest 100 one year, and going 'okay, these songs feel like they're the vibe of what I'm looking for'. I would just be listening to a lot of Australian music to try to make sure that the music in the show felt Australian." On Taking the Audience on a Tonal Rollercoaster Ride, as the TV Show Did Simon: "Part of the challenge, actually an interesting challenge of it, is that its tones are multifarious. So that's a balance, although music always helps with getting those maybe slightly illogical or over-sudden mood shifts that are required in a piece like this. Music is a fantastic tool in terms of immediately changing the audience's emotional sensibility depending on how the music's telling them to feel. In the end, the story is really quite moving, I think. It ends up having a big message about healing and restoring and mending the past. It's kind of a madcap farce in its first half in many ways, and then it becomes quite strong with heartfelt family elements to it in the second half of the show." On Why Round the Twist Struck Such a Chord with Audiences When It First Aired — and Since Simon: "I did have an opinion about that. I've been trying to articulate it a bit. I think there are, as always, many reasons, but I feel like it's very strongly to do with Paul Jennings' particular genius for identifying the inner hopes, fears and ambitions of children and teenagers, and speaking to those things in a way which was uncensored on behalf of saying the right thing for their parents. And so really quite often, the episodes of Round the Twist the TV series are dealing with really quite, in a way, risque or what would now be quite inappropriate ideas. But they're exactly the things that are going through teenagers' heads. And whatever you say, you can't stop teenagers having those anxieties and wishes and hopes, because they're teenagers, and their lives are changing, their bodies are changing. That was part of the real secret of the success, that it dared to be irresponsible about a whole number of different, quite erratic things. And then the other side is the imaginative — you can't help feeling that in another time and another place someone would have said 'but this doesn't make sense'. That was never an issue for Paul Jennings or the people who put his stories into TV. They were perfectly happy for it to have its own sense, its own illogical sense of logic, and stand or fall on that. I feel that was its secret ingredient in a way." On Conveying the Idea That Strange Things Do Happen — and It's Okay for Life to Be Strange, and for You to Be Strange Paul: "That's very important. And that was one of the things that I said to Paul when I was first approaching him and the ACTF about adapting the TV series, I said like that I feel like his stories are all 'weird things happen and it's okay to be weird. It's okay to be different'. One of the other main parts of the musical is, because sometimes it was quite scary in the TV show, there's this idea that I think is quite important that as well as it's okay to be weird, it's okay to be scared. Everyone gets scared. Even adults get scared." On Introducing Round the Twist to a New Generation Paul: "I am very excited by it. I always designed it as something that the whole family could come to, and that's why I think what is exciting to me is that the generation that grew up watching it will now be able to bring their kids and introduce their kids to the musical. So it's very, very exciting to me to have it for a new generation. And I think it shows the importance of telling Australian stories, and that they are good and they are worthwhile, and they should be supported and told — because these stories started out as books, and then they've become a TV show and now a musical. It shows the enduring power of those stories and how they were each passed down into different generations. Now I'm very excited that the new generation's going to get to experience these stories." Simon: "It pains one to say it, but you never really know what you've got as a show until you put it in front of that audience, however much your fingers may be crossed. You've honed it. This is the frustration of anyone who's worked on making a new musical, including the people whose musicals we see coming in from Broadway, fully honed and perfectly resolved — behind every one of those great musicals are three failed musicals and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I think that you put a musical up there and our hope is that, this coming back to what we're talking about before, my job of trying to think about it as something that people who know nothing about Round the Twist might be coming to see — it has to have an energy and its own compelling narrative that takes them on a new and exciting, and hopefully equally eccentric, ride, as the TV series originally did." Round the Twist The Musical plays the QPAC Playhouse, Cultural Precinct, corner of Grey and Melbourne streets, South Bank, Brisbane until Sunday, December 8, 2024. Head to the Queensland Theatre and QPAC websites for tickets and further details.
Wondering how to spend spring in southeast Queensland's great outdoors? If you like eye-catching outdoor displays, you have options. Up in Brisbane, giant moon sculptures, a boat decked out with glowing orbs and a tower of bubbles have popped up for Brisbane Festival. Head west to Toowoomba and Carnival of Flowers is back and blossoming. At Currumbin Beach, Swell Sculpture Festival is about to take over a one-kilometre stretch of sand again — and, still on the Gold Coast, HOTA, Home of the Arts' Wonder arts festival is back from Friday, September 16–Sunday, September 25. One big highlight: a glowing palace called Alcazar, which spans seven metres in height — and 13 metres in width. Mixing art and architecture, it looks like a series of stacked circles, reaching up three levels. It also offers a different experience during the day and at night, which gives you an excuse to head by multiple times. Alcazar hails from the artists at Sydney-based design studio Atelier Sisu, and will also be used for an early-morning yoga session — and for the Lux de da Luna dinner, which'll serve up a five-course meal with the installation as a backdrop. There's plenty more on the Wonder lineup, including Alternative Symphony taking on the music of Daft Punk, plus a candlelit Queen tribute concert. The big Friday-night lineup features an art battle between six artists on Friday, September 16, as hosted by Tom Thum, and then Flamenco House with Cameron De La Vaga providing a Spanish soundtrack on Friday, September 23.
The most magical place in Brisbane right now is the Gallery of Modern Art, where the venue's massive Fairy Tales exhibition is filling the walls and halls until late April. Fancy wandering through an indoor woodland? Saying "dance magic dance" to a costume that David Bowie wore in Labyrinth? Stepping inside huts, peeking into mirrors, spying otherworldly creatures and peering at gorgeous gowns, too? It's all on offer here all day, every day — and, on two dates only in March, for two nights. Falling down the rabbit hole that is GOMA's exhibitions usually means not only scoping out its pieces while the sun is shining, but getting a couple of chances to party inside the gallery — and surrounded by stunning art — after dark. That's the Up Late format, and it's back for Fairy Tales, taking place on Friday, March 15–Saturday, March 16. Accordingly, when you get a glimpse of chariots, glass slippers, pieces by Yayoi Kusama and Patricia Piccinini, and more — including wandering through the site-specific installation by Henrique Oliveira, with the Brazilian artist has transformed the exhibition's first room into a stunning gnarled and twisted forest that you won't want to leave — you can do so by evening and with a drink in your hand. Your ticket includes access to the exhibition, live tunes and other entertainment. You will need to pay extra for anything you're keen to eat or sip, however. On the Friday, ZZADE, Elizabeth, Maple Glider and DJ Hol Hibbo are on the bill. Come Saturday, attendees can enjoy Auslan-interpreted performances by Methyl Ethyl and Tjaka, as well as DJ Aunty Stan on the decks. Both nights will feature Once Upon a Chime, aka Patience Hodgson, Joel Woods and Lake Kelly, singing fairy tale-inspired tunes — plus A Villain's Tale, which is told by a misunderstood villain; a drop-in workshop where you'll create a self-portrait while giving yourself animal attributes; and a photobooth with whimsical props. In addition to all of the above, there'll be multiple spots to grab a bite and drink around the place, including at the GOMA Bistro and Bacchus Wine Room. Fairy Tales also includes a film program called Fairy Tales Cinema: Truth, Power and Enchantment, which is weaving its screening of Spanish silent film Blancanieves into the Up Late lineup as well. GOMA's Fairy Tales Up Late Lineup: Friday, March 15 — ZZADE, Elizabeth, Maple Glider, DJ Hol Hibbo Saturday, March 16 — Methyl Ethyl (Auslan interpreted), Tjaka (Auslan interpreted), DJ Aunty Stan Both nights: Once Upon a Chime and A Villain's Tale pop-up performances, drop-in workshop 'Animal Attributes', access to Fairy Tales GOMA's Fairy Tales Up Late takes place on Friday, March 15–Saturday, March 16, 2024 at the Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place, South Brisbane. For more information and tickets, head to the GOMA website. Fairy Tales displays at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place, South Brisbane until Sunday, April 28, 2024. For further details, visit its website. Images: Henrique Oliveira, Brazil b.1973 / Corupira 2023, commissioned for 'Fairy Tales', installation (detail), Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) Brisbane 2023 / Plywood, tapumes veneer and tree branches / Courtesy: Henrique Oliveira / © Henrique Oliveira / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA. Anish Kapoor, India/England b.1954 / Red and Black Mist Magenta 2018, installed in 'Fairy Tales', Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane 2023 / Stainless steel, lacquer / Collection: The artist / © Anish Kapoor. DACS/Copyright Agency, 2023 / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA. And installation images by Sarah Ward.
It's undeniably tough for a hotel to cater their rooms to every guest that will ever stay in them, but this problem can be far more real for the intrepid traveller with a disability. The latest design of hotel room from new collaboration AllGo, however, seeks to change this fact by creating an adaptable room that makes rooms more accessible than ever before, all while channelling the contemporary aesthetic guests have come to expect from upmarket hotel experiences. The AllGo project is the brainchild of international architecture studio Ryder and contemporary bathroom design firm Motionspot. The idea came from the need to "create a concept that redefines the design of hotel bedrooms and bathrooms so they deliver the individual access requirements of guests without compromising on the aesthetics of the environment," according to Motionspot founder Ed Warner. Each room, according to the design, will incorporate features like handrails with braille printed on them, retractable wall panels that can fold away and act as furniture, wheelchair-friendly flooring, and motorised tracks to assist in access and egress to the bed. The best part is, however, that these features can be easily added and removed before the guest even arrives. The AllGo concept took out the top gong at the lauded Celia Thomas Prize late last year. The prize awards £20,000 (nearly AU$34,000) to the design that best creates a hotel experience for people with disabilities, and that can best "challenge the perception of hotel facilities set aside for disabled people, which can often be viewed as joyless, poorly designed and over-medicalised," according to the Royal Institute of British Architects. Gold medal-winning Paralympian, member of British parliament and bad-ass Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson was one of the driving factors in having the Celia Thomas Prize created. "Great architecture is about spaces that make you feel better and which make you want to return," she said, and the AllGo design strives to achieve that goal for everyone. Motionspot and Ryder will use their winnings to have a pilot program for the design up and running within the year. Via PSFK.
A documentary that's deeply personal for one of its directors, intensely powerful in surveying Australia's treatment of its First Peoples and crucial in celebrating perhaps the country's first-ever Aboriginal filmmaker, Ablaze makes for astonishing viewing. But while watching, two ideas jostle for attention. Both remain unspoken, yet each is unshakeable. Firstly, if the history of Australia had been different, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta man William 'Bill' Onus would be a household name. If that was the case, not only his work behind the camera, but his activism for Indigenous Aussies at a time when voting and even being included in the census wasn't permitted — plus his devotion to ensuring that white Australians were aware of the nation's colonial violence — would be as well-known as Captain Cook. That said, if history had been better still, Bill wouldn't have needed to fight so vehemently, or at all. Alas, neither of those possibilities came to a fruition. Ablaze can't change the past, but it can and does document it with a hope to influencing how the world sees and appreciates Bill's part in it. Indeed, shining the spotlight on its subject, everything his life stood for, and all that he battled for and against is firmly and proudly the feature's aim. First-time filmmaker Tiriki Onus looks back on his own grandfather, narrating his story as well — and, as aided by co-helmer Alec Morgan (Hunt Angels, Lousy Little Sixpence), the result is a movie brimming with feeling, meaning and importance. While Aussie cinema keeps reckoning with the nation's history regarding race relations, as it should and absolutely must, Ablaze is as potent and essential as everything from Sweet Country, The Nightingale and The Australian Dream to The Furnace, High Ground and The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson. As the last filmic ode to a key Indigenous figure within cinema also did, aka My Name Is Gulpilil, Ablaze has a clear source of inspiration beyond the person at its centre. Appearing on-screen, Tiriki begins with two discoveries that put him on the path to making the movie: finding a suitcase filled with Bill's belongings, which included photographs of Indigenous boys in traditional paint peering at a film camera; and learning that the National Film & Sound Archive was in possession of footage of unknown origin that it believed to be linked to Bill. Accordingly, Ablaze is as much a detective story as it is a tribute, with Tiriki puzzling together the pieces of his grandfather's tale. Structuring the film in such a way is a savvy decision; even viewers coming to Bill with zero prior knowledge will want to sleuth along to solve the feature's multiple mysteries. Connecting the dots starts easily, after Tiriki spies the boys in Bill's photos in the NFSA's nine-minute reel — footage from which it's an enormous treat to see in Ablaze. From there, though, the what and why behind the material takes longer to tease out. So too does exactly why Reg Saunders and Doug Nicholls — the first Aboriginal officer in the Australian Army and the famed Aussie rules footballer-turned-pastor, respectively — appear in Bill's silent footage. Also an opera singer, Tiriki guides Ablaze's viewers through the answers, while delivering a biographical documentary-style exploration of Bill's existence along the way — from being born in 1906 at the Cummeragunja Aboriginal Reserve, on the Murray River in New South Wales, through to his passing in 1968 following the successful 1967 referendum on counting Indigenous Australians as part of the population, for which he spearheaded the campaign. As is any fascinating doco's curse, much in Ablaze could fuel several movies. Bill packed plenty into his time, although filmmaking, activism, and sharing his culture far and wide are recurring themes. Before shooting the reel that helps spark Ablaze sometime around 1946, Bill had gleaned how influential cinema could be to spread a message. And, from working on other productions — such as Charles Chauvel's Uncivilised in 1937 and Harry Watt's The Overlanders in 1946 — he was intent on using that power to tell the world about Indigenous Australians and their plight. In addition, with the same quest, he took to the stage. As Ablaze shows among its treasure trove of archival materials, white Aussies were flocking to a horrendously offensive-looking production called Corroboree, starring white performers in hand-stitched blackface bodysuits — which Bill set to counter. Even the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II was among Corroboree's audience, as seen in another of Ablaze's impressive compilation of clips from decades back. Contrasting that fact with glimpses of Bill's White Justice, his theatre piece inspired by the 1946 Pilbara strike by Indigenous workers — a show that was filmed and forms part of that unearthed reel — is just one instance of a trend that keeps popping up throughout the documentary. Each time that Tiriki unfurls a new strand to Bill's story, more infuriating horrors come with it. When Bill travelled overseas to attend a peace festival East Germany to draw global attention to the situation back home, he was reportedly surveilled by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. When he received an invite from Walt Disney to go to America, ASIO helped put a stop to it. The atrocities go on, and aren't always personal. As explained by actor and now-elder Jack Charles (Preppers), even the traditional act of making possum skin wraps that chronicled the wearer's life was banned by white Australia, with the animal fur commandeered for fashion instead. With its mix of archival footage, motion graphics made from old photographs, animation and interviews — plus Tiriki's travels — Ablaze has a wealth of other threads weaved through its frames. As they're all stitched together, another truth solidifies: this film, and its wide-ranging examination of how Indigenous Australians have been treated since colonisation, is exactly what Bill was dedicated to bringing to the screen. Its moniker also feels extra apt, even after being outlined early (we have a caravan fire to thank for its subject's prowess behind the camera, and what he shot, being so little-known). Scorchingly obvious in almost every second of Ablaze, Bill was aglow with fiery determination. There's little that's remarkable about the way this cinematic homage to his efforts is put together but, given who it focuses on and his tireless crusade for equality, this doco was always going to burn bright.
Caxton Street's go-to for whisky, southern-style food and Americana rock, Lefty's Old Time Music Hall left Brisbane's nightlife scene with a considerable gap when it closed last November. Thankfully, the Petrie Terrace venue didn't permanently shut up shop — with new management swooping in, slightly amending its name and reopening the joint. While the dive bar-style spot is now called Lefty's Music Hall and is run by Hallmark Group Australia — the folks behind Jamie's Italian, Jamie Oliver's Pizzeria, Finn McCool's and Retro's Cocktail Lounge — not much else has really changed. If you've been a fan of its honky-tonk saloon theme, famed whisky apples and live music lineup since it originally launched back in 2013, that's all sticking around in the new iteration, which just launched at the end of February. So are Lefty's vintage chandeliers, crimson walls and the sizeable mirrors splashed around the place. Also staying put: its black leather booths lit by candles, giant curved bar, smattering of moose heads, wall-mounted bear and peacock, and heavily used stage and dance floor. Basically, it's a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. That seems understandable given how popular the venue has always been, as well as the reaction when it was shuttered suddenly. Other than that popular blend of whisky and freshly juiced apples, the relaunched bar is serving plenty of boutique beers and, obviously, whisky. Food-wise, American-themed snacks are on offer — such as hotdogs, chicken wings, fried chicken burgers, and both cheeseburgers and cheeseburger spring rolls. As for its entertainment lineup, it's once again focusing on rockabilly and country music, showcasing local, Australian and international talent.
Hailing from Sydney, Johnny Wishbone, Pauly K, Nick London and Cougar Jones comprise the blues rock band, The Snowdroppers. Influenced by rock gods such as Midnight Oil and INXS, the boys have a unique sound charged with testosterone and featuring heavy classic rock beats and blusey guitar riffs. The Snowdroppers have organised a national tour to celebrate the release of their third single, 'So Much Better', from their second album, Moving out of Eden. 'So Much Better' tells the story of how it seems so much easier to hurt those closest to you. Despite the serious subject matter, the song is lively, upbeat and super infectious; it is guaranteed that this song will get stuck in your head. Head to Alhambra to catch these Sydneysiders as they bring their bluesy rock goodness across the border. Buy your tickets here!
Perhaps you've always been a fan of Mickey Mouse. Maybe you can remember how it felt when you first watched Bambi. Or, you might be able to sing all of Genie's lyrics in Aladdin. You could've fallen head over heels for Raya and the Last Dragon or Encanto more recently, too. Whichever category fits — and we're guessing that at least one does — Disney's animated movies have likely played a significant part in your life. We all have those childhood memories. We've all grown up with a lingering fondness for the Mouse House. Based on its just-announced big 2022 exhibition, the team at the Queensland Museum clearly knows the feeling as well. From Friday, June 24, the South Bank venue will become one of the happiest places in Australia (and on earth) by hosting a huge Disney exhibition: Disney: The Magic of Animation, the Mouse House showcase that already dazzled Melbourne during 2021 up until January this year. On display will be more than 500 original artworks, including paintings, sketches, drawings and concept art, all from Disney's beloved catalogue of animated movies. Disney: The Magic of Animation explores everything from 1928's Steamboat Willie — the first talkie to feature Mickey Mouse — through to other recent fare such as Moana. Obviously, a wealth of other titles get the nod between those two flicks. Fantasia, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King also feature, as do Mulan, Big Hero 6 and Zootopia. And yes, some of these movies have been remade in live-action or photo-realistic CGI; however, QM's showcase is only about the animated films. The big drawcard: art from the Mouse House's hefty back catalogue of titles, which almost dates back a century now — and heaps of it. The entire lineup has been specially selected by the Walt Disney Animation Research Library, and will let you get a glimpse at just how the movie magic comes to life, how some of Disney's famous stories were developed and which animation techniques brought them to the big screen. Get ready to peer at hand-drawn dalmatians (which is timely, given that Cruella released last year), marvel over Frozen and Frozen II's artwork (timely again, seeing that Frozen the Musical plays Brisbane this year), stare closely at Mickey Mouse's evolution, examine Wreck-It Ralph models and pose next to Snow White. If the Queensland Museum setup mimics Melbourne's, wall-sized artworks will pay tribute to a number of movies, too, such as The Little Mermaid — and feeling like you're stepping into a Disney movie will be an unsurprising side effect. Disney: The Magic of Animation's arrival in Brisbane is fantastic news for local Mouse House aficionados, especially after the exhibition's Melbourne run was initially billed as an Aussie exclusive. Announcing the Queensland season, which'll be QM's blockbuster showcase for the year, Queensland Museum Network CEO Dr Jim Thompson said that the venue is "delighted to welcome an iconic and well-known brand such as Disney to our museum this winter, and we believe Queensland residents will excitedly anticipate taking a step behind the scenes to see how their favourite animated characters have been brought to life in this exhibition". Disney: The Magic of Animation arrives in Queensland after past seasons in cities such as Paris, Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore, too, and is clearly designed to appeal to Mouse House fans of all ages. You, your parents, today's primary school kids — you've all grown up watching Disney flicks. So, while you're pondering tales as old as time, being QM's guest, contemplating the animated circle of life and definitely not letting your nostalgia go, prepare to be accompanied by aficionados both young and young at heart. Disney: The Magic of Animation will open on Friday, June 24 at the Queensland Museum, corner of Grey and Melbourne streets, South Bank, South Brisbane. For more information or to join the ticket waitlist, head to the Queensland Museum website. For more information about the exhibition, read through our run-through of Disney: The Magic of Animation's season. Images: Phoebe Powell, ACMI.
Two years after getting a makeover, changing its layout and adding three more screens, Palace Centro has undergone another revamp. In fact, it's no longer called Palace Centro. Now badged Palace James St, the 18-year-old cinema has built three more cinemas, bringing its New Farm total to ten. The new screens also mark the company's first premium offerings — Palace Platinum — in Brisbane. With the projectors firing up on Friday, November 16, cinephiles can get put their feat up in reclining leather seats, which is what everyone that goes to Gold Class-style sessions wants. You can also tuck into dine-in meals and snacks. And, if your stomach is rumbling mid-movie, just press the call button to get your beverage — or popcorn — topped up. Food and drink-wise, patrons can choose from bites that include $14 mini choc top flights (which feature five flavours), as well as cocktails, sparkling, wine and craft beers. Or, ordering in from along the street is an option. Local eateries such as Chow House and Jocelyn's Provisions will be serving up mini menus so that you can eat lunch or dinner while the film is rolling. But this is the best bit. To mark the relaunch, Palace James St is offering $10 platinum tickets, which means that A Star Is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Old Man and the Gun can dance in front of your eyes until Thursday, November 22 for the same price as a regular session. Pretty good considering standard Platinum tickets cost $32 Monday to Wednesday and $42 all other days. Bottomless popcorn and $5 (not bottomless) glasses of prosecco will also be available across the week. Unsurprisingly, sessions are selling out quickly. Find Palace James St at 39 James Street, Fortitude Valley, with Palace Platinum launching on Friday, November 16.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING No one should need to cleanse their palates between Mad Max movies — well, maybe after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, depending on your mileage with it — but if anyone does, George Miller shouldn't be one of them. The Australian auteur gifted the world the hit dystopian franchise, has helmed and penned each and every chapter, and made Mad Max: Fury Road an astonishing piece of cinema that's one of the very best in every filmic category that applies. Still, between that kinetic, frenetic, rightly Oscar-winning movie and upcoming prequel Furiosa, Miller has opted to swish around romantic fantasy Three Thousand Years of Longing. He does love heightened drama and also myths, including in the series he's synonymous with. He adores chronicling yearnings and hearts' desires, too, whether surveying vengeance and survival, the motivations behind farm animals gone a-wandering in Babe: Pig in the City, the dreams of dancing penguins in Happy Feet, or love, happiness and connection here. In other words, although adapted from AS Byatt's short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, Three Thousand Years of Longing is unshakeably and inescapably a Miller movie — and it's as alive with his flair for the fantastical as most of his resume. It's a wonder for a range of reasons, one of which is simple: the last time that the writer/director made a movie that didn't connect to the Mad Max, Babe or Happy Feet franchises was three decades back. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that this tale about a narratologist (Tilda Swinton, Memoria) and the Djinn (Idris Elba, Beast) she uncorks from a bottle, and the chats they have about their histories as the latter tries to ensure the former makes her three wishes to truly set him free, is told with playfulness, inventiveness, flamboyance and a deep heart. Much of Miller's filmography is, but there's a sense with Three Thousand Years of Longing that he's been released, too — even if he loves his usual confines, as audiences do as well. "My story is true," Swinton's Alithea Binnie announces at the get-go. "You're more likely to believe me, however, if I tell it as a fairy tale." Cue another Miller trademark, unpacking real emotions and woes within scenarios that are anything but standard — two people talking about their lives in a hotel is hardly fanciful, though. The tales that the Djinn relays, with debts clearly owed to One Thousand and One Nights, also dwell in the everyday; some just happened millennia ago. The Djinn loved the Queen of Sheba (model Aamito Lagum), but lost her to the envious King Solomon (Nicolas Mouawad, Mako). He then languished in the the Ottoman court, after young concubine Gulten (Ece Yüksel, Family Secrets) wished for the heart of Suleiman the Magnificent's (Lachy Hulme, Preacher) son Mustafa (singer Matteo Bocelli). And, in the 19th century, the Djinn fell for Zefir (Burcu Gölgedar, Between Two Dawns), the brilliantly smart but stifled wife of a Turkish merchant. What spirits the Djinn's time-hopping memories beyond the ordinary and into the metaphysical, and Alithea's narrative as well, is the figure first seen billowing out of blue-and-white glass, then filling an entire suite, then slipping into white towelling. Something magical happens when you pop on a hotel bathrobe — that space and that cosy clothing are instantly transporting — and while Alithea resists the very idea of making wishes, she gets swept along by her new companion anyway. As a scholar of stories and the meanings they hold, she knows the warnings surrounding uttering hopes and having them granted. She also says she's content with her intellectual, independent and isolated-by-choice life, travelling the world to conferences like the one that's brought her to Turkey and then to the Istanbul bazaar where she spies the Djinn's misshapen home, even if her own backstory speaks of pain and self-protective mechanisms. And yet, "I want our solitudes to be together", she eventually declares, and with exactly the titular emotion. Read our full review. ORPHAN: FIRST KILL What's more believable — and plot twists follow: a pre-teen playing a 33-year-old woman pretending to be a nine-year-old orphan, with a hormone disorder explaining the character's eerily youthful appearance; or an adult playing a 31-year-old woman pretending to be a lost child returned at age nine, again with that medical condition making everyone else oblivious? For viewers of 2009's Orphan and its 13-years-later follow-up Orphan: First Kill, which is a prequel, neither are particularly credible to witness. But the first film delivered its age trickery as an off-kilter final-act reveal, as paired with a phenomenal performance by then 12-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman in the pivotal role. Audiences bought the big shift — or remembered it, at least — because Fuhrman was so creepy and so committed to the bit, and because it suited the OTT horror-thriller. This time, that wild revelation is old news, but that doesn't stop Orphan: First Kill from leaning on the same two key pillars: an out-there turn of events and fervent portrayals. Fuhrman (The Novice) returns as Esther, the Estonian adult who posed as a parentless Russian girl in the initial feature. In Orphan: First Kill, she's introduced as Leena Klammer, the most dangerous resident at the Saarne Institute mental hospital. The prequel's first sighted kill comes early, as a means of escape. The second follows swiftly, because the film needs to get its central figure to the US. Fans of the previous picture will recall that Esther already had a troubled history when she was adopted and started wreaking the movie's main havoc, involving the family that brought her to America — and her time with that brood, aka wealthy Connecticut-based artist Allen Albright (Rossif Sutherland, Possessor), his gala-hosting wife Tricia (Julia Stiles, Hustlers) and their teen son Gunnar (Matthew Finlan, My Fake Boyfriend), is this flick's focus. Like their counterparts in Orphan, the Albrights have suffered a loss and are struggling to move on. When Leena poses as their missing daughter Esther, Allen especially seems like his old self again. As also happened in Orphan, however, the pigtail- and ribbon-wearing new addition to their home doesn't settle in smoothly. Orphan: First Kill repeats the original movie's greatest hits, including the arty doting dad, the wary brother, taunts labelling Esther a freak and a thorny relationship with her mum. Also covered: suspicious external parties, bathroom tantrums, swearing to get attention and spying on her parents having sex. And yes, anyone who has seen Orphan knows how this all turns out, and that it leads to the above again in Orphan, too. Thankfully, that's only part of Orphan: First Kill's narrative. Twists can be curious narrative tools; sometimes they're inspired, sometimes they're a crutch propping up a flimsy screenplay, and sometimes they seesaw between both. Orphan: First Kill tumbles gleefully into the latter category, thanks to a revelation midway that's patently ridiculous — although no more ridiculous than Orphan earning a follow-up in the first place — and also among the best things about the movie. It's a big risk, making a film that's initially so laughably formulaic that it just seems lazy, then letting a sudden switch completely change the game, the tone and the audience's perception of what's transpired so far. That proved a charm for the thoroughly unrelated Malignant in 2021, and it's a gamble that filmmaker William Brent Bell (The Boy and Brahms: The Boy II) and screenwriter David Coggeshall (Scream: The TV Series) take. Working with a story by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) and Alex Mace (who earned the same credit on the original), it's one of their savviest choices. Read our full review. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23 and June 30; and July 7, July 14, July 21 and July 28; and August 4, August 11, August 18 and August 25. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Mothering Sunday, Jurassic World Dominion, A Hero, Benediction, Lightyear, Men, Elvis, Lost Illusions, Nude Tuesday, Ali & Ava, Thor: Love and Thunder, Compartment No. 6, Sundown, The Gray Man, The Phantom of the Open, The Black Phone, Where the Crawdads Sing, Official Competition, The Forgiven, Full Time, Murder Party, Bullet Train, Nope, The Princess, 6 Festivals, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Crimes of the Future, Bosch & Rockit, Fire of Love, Beast, Blaze and Hit the Road.
Before the pandemic, when a new-release movie started playing in cinemas, audiences couldn't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the past few years forcing film industry to make quite a few changes — widespread movie theatre closures and plenty of people staying home in iso will do that — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you've been under the weather. Perhaps you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Given the hefty amount of films now releasing each week, maybe you simply missed something. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here are 13 that you can watch right now at home. AIR Bouncing across the screen with charm, energy and an 80s sheen, Air says one name often: Michael Jordan. This supremely crowd-pleasing and engaging film spins an origin story so closely linked to the NBA all-timer that the true tale simply wouldn't and couldn't have happened without him; however, it isn't actually the six-time championship-winning former Chicago Bulls player's own. Instead, Ben Affleck turns director again for the first time since 2016's Live By Night to recount how Jordan also became an icon in the footwear game. Think shoes, and everyone knows the word that usually follows this flick's title. Think Air Jordans, and Nike also springs to mind. Those sneakers are still being made almost four decades after first hitting stories — in fact, the brand is now notching up $5 billion in annual revenue, $150 million of which is going to its namesake — so Air answers the question no one knew they had until now: how did it initially happen? Affleck's feature heads back to the 80s, to 1984, when Jordan was a 21-year-old college standout newly in the NBA and facing a life-changing decision. Damian Young (Prom Night Flex) plays the basketball GOAT, but this is a movie about the making of a legend — so the pivotal character gets all the flick's admiration and praise while bounding into the boardroom wheeling and dealing. Crucially, Air doesn't block out Jordan. Rather, it pays tribute to his talent even without staging on-court scenes, and to the shrewd wrangling and negotiating that his no-nonsense mother Deloris (Viola Davis, The Woman King) did on his behalf with Nike's in-house basketball expert Sonny Vaccaro (Damon, The Last Duel) under CEO Phil Knight's (Affleck, Deep Water) watch. The ultimate outcome is clearly well-known, because if there was no agreement, there'd be no Air Jordans and therefore no movie (and the Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike would still be best known for jogging shoes). But the slam dunk this endorsement proved for giving athletes their financial dues when their talents make bank for sponsoring companies is no minor matter, and nor is it treated as such. Air is available to stream via Prime Video. Read our full review. AFTERSUN The simplest things in life can be the most revealing, whether it's a question asked of a father by a child, an exercise routine obeyed almost mindlessly or a man stopping to smoke someone else's old cigarette while wandering through a holiday town alone at night. The astonishing feature debut by Scottish writer/director Charlotte Wells, Aftersun is about the simple things. Following the about-to-turn-31 Calum (Paul Mescal, The Lost Daughter) and his daughter Sophie (debutant Frankie Corio) on vacation in Turkey in the late 90s, it includes all of the above simple things, plus more. It tracks, then, that this coming-of-age story on three levels — of an 11-year-old flirting with adolescence, a dad struggling with his place in the world, and an adult woman with her own wife and family grappling with a life-changing experience from her childhood — is always a movie of deep, devastating and revealing complexity. Earning the internet's Normal People-starring boyfriend a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and deservedly so, Aftersun is a reflective, ruminative portrait of heartbreak. It's a quest to find meaning in sorrow and pain, too, and in processing the past. Wells has crafted a chronicle of interrogating, contextualising, reframing and dwelling in memories; an examination of leaving and belonging; and an unpacking of the complicated truths that a kid can't see about a parent until they're old enough to be that parent. Breaking up Calum and Sophie's sun-dappled coastal holiday with the older Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall, Vox Lux) watching camcorder footage from the trip, sifting through her recollections and dancing it out under a nightclub's strobing lights in her imagination, this is also a stunning realisation that we'll always read everything we can into a loved one's actions with the benefit of hindsight, but all we ever truly have is the sensation that lingers in our hearts and heads. Aftersun is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. WOMEN TALKING Get Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand and more exceptional women in a room, point a camera their way, let the talk flow: Sarah Polley's Women Talking does just that, and this year's Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar-winner is phenomenal. The actor-turned-filmmaker's fourth effort behind the lens after 2006's Away From Her, 2011's Take This Waltz and 2012's Stories We Tell does plenty more, but its basic setup is as straightforward as its title states. Adapted from Miriam Toews' 2018 novel of the same name, this isn't a simple or easy film, however. That book and this feature draw on events in a Bolivian Mennonite colony from 2005–9, where a spate of mass druggings and rapes of women and girls were reported at the hands of some of the group's men. In a patriarchal faith and society, women talking about their experiences is a rebellious, revolutionary act anyway — and talking about what comes next is just as charged. "The elders told us that it was the work of ghosts, or Satan, or that we were lying to get attention, or that it was an act of wild female imagination." That's teenage narrator Autje's (debutant Kate Hallett) explanation for how such assaults could occur and continue, as offered in Women Talking's sombre opening voiceover. Writing and helming, Polley declares her feature "an act of female imagination" as well, as Toews did on the page, but the truth in the movie's words is both lingering and haunting. While the film anchors its dramas in a specific year, 2010, it's purposefully vague on any details that could ground it in one place. Set within a community where modern technology is banned and horse-drawn buggies are the only form of transport, it's a work of fiction inspired by reality, rather than a recreation. Whether you're aware of the true tale behind the book going in or not, this deeply powerful and affecting picture speaks to how women have long been treated in a male-dominated world at large — and what's so often left unsaid, too. Women Talking is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. SCREAM VI Going into Scream VI, viewers know who the killer definitely isn't: the horror franchise's OG final girl Sidney Prescott. Neve Campbell's (The Lincoln Lawyer) character has been a pivotal part of every Ghostface-stalked flick from 1996's initial Scream through to 2022's fifth entry Scream, but famously isn't in the stab-happy saga's latest chapter due to a pay dispute. That's one big change for returning filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett to grapple with in their second slice of the blood-splattering, scary movie-loving action. À la Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan — which gets an early nod, naturally — they also move said action to New York. But even if you take Ghostface and the murderer's targets out of Woodsboro, and shake up who the masked maniac swings a knife at, Scream is going to Scream in a screamingly familiar fashion. It has before in Ohio in Scream 2 and Hollywood in Scream 3, and the series knows it. New movie, new city, same setup, same gravelly Roger L Jackson voice, same 'Red Right Hand' needle drop, same overall formula: throw in the same winking, nodding, self-referential attitude, plus the same penchant for mentioning horror movies, their tropes and cliches, and general film theory, and that's Scream VI's easy cut. Once again, someone dons Ghostface's ghost face, of course, and uses whichever blade happens to be in the vicinity (and a shotgun) to terrorise teens and long-victimised targets. Murder Mystery's James Vanderbilt and Ready or Not's Guy Busick haven't taxed themselves with the screenplay — their second Scream effort, after the previous flick — but the franchise's pattern keeps making a comeback for a reason. While intrepid reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox, Shining Vale) notes the world's current "true-crime limited series" obsession, whodunnits and murder-mysteries date back further, and that's where every Scream instalment has also carved a niche since the late, great Wes Craven and Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson started things off. Scream VI is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. 65 If there's one thing that a film about Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs shouldn't be, it's average. Only ridiculously entertaining or ridiculously terrible will do, and those two outcomes needn't be mutually exclusive. The appeal of 65 is right there in that four-word premise, as it was always going to be, because getting the intense White Noise, House of Gucci, Annette and Star Wars actor (and BlacKkKlansman and Marriage Story Oscar-nominee) battling prehistoric creatures is that roaringly ace an idea. He should brood, and his dino foes should stalk, snap and snarl. That is indeed what happens thanks to writer/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who penned the first A Quiet Place, plus have horror movies Nightlight and Haunt on their past helming resumes. But for a flick that isn't required to offer anything else and knows it — well, other than laser guns to shoot at said dinosaurs, because not even the man who plays Kylo Ren can confront a Tyrannosaurus rex or pack of raptors barehanded — 65 doesn't possess enough B-movie energy. Beck and Woods have taken the very B-movie path story-wise, though. As 65's trailer made plain, this is a Frankenstein's monster of a film mashup, stitching together limbs from a stacked pile of other sources to fuel its narrative. The Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchise, the Predator series, the Alien and Prometheus saga, Logan, The Last of Us, The Man Who Fell to Earth and, yes, A Quiet Place: they each earn more than a few nods, and never with subtlety. So too does Planet of the Apes, but the fact that 65 is set on earth all along isn't a late-picture twist. What else would the title refer to? That said, Beck and Woods begin their movie elsewhere, taking time-travel 65 million years backward out of the equation. Instead, Driver's pilot Mills ends up on our pale blue dot from a civilisation out there in space, and one more advanced during earth's Cretaceous period than humankind is today. 65 is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. LIVING Turning in an Oscar-nominated performance, Bill Nighy (The Man Who Fell to Earth) comes to this sensitive portrayal of a dutiful company man facing life-changing news with a wealth of history; so too does the feature itself. Set in London in 1953, it's an adaptation several times over — of iconic Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film Ikiru, and of Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, which the former also takes inspiration from. That's quite the lineage for Living to live up to, but Nighy and director Oliver Hermanus (Moffie) are up to the task. The movie's second Oscar-nominee, Nobel Prize-winning screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro, unsurprisingly is as well. Also the author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, he's at home penning layered stories with a deep focus on complicated characters not being completely true to themselves. When those two novels were turned into impressive pictures, Ishiguro didn't script their screenplays, but he writes his way through Living's literary and cinematic pedigree like he was born to. A man of no more words than he has to utter — of no more of anything, including life's pleasures, frivolities, distractions and detours, in fact — Williams (Nighy, Emma.) is a born bureaucrat. Or, that's how he has always appeared to his staff in the Public Works Department in London County Hall, where he's been doing the same job day, week, month and year in and out. He's quiet and stoic as he pushes paper daily, overseeing a department that's newly welcoming in Peter Wakeling (Alex Sharp, The Trial of the Chicago 7). It's through this fresh face's eyes that Living's audience first spies its central figure, adopting his and the wider team's perspective of Williams as a compliant and wooden functionary: a view that the film and its sudden diagnosis then challenges, as Williams does of himself. Living is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. MISSING Screenlife films such as Missing should be the last thing that moviegoers want. When we're hitting a cinema or escaping into our streaming queues, we're seeking a reprieve from the texts, chats, pics, reels, searches, and work- and study-related tasks that we all stare at on our phones and computers seemingly 24/7. (Well, we should be, unless we're monsters who can't turn off our devices while we watch.) There's a nifty dose of empathy behind thrillers like this, its excellent predecessor Searching, and the similar likes of Unfriended and Profile, however, that relies upon the very fact that everyone spends far too much time living through technology. When an on-screen character such as Missing's June (Storm Reid, The Last of Us) is glued to the gadget on their desk or lap, or in their hand — when they're using the devices that've virtually become our new limbs non-stop to try to solve their problems and fix their messy existence, too — it couldn't be more relatable. As Missing fills its frames with window upon window of June's digital activities, cycling and cascading through FaceTime calls, Gmail messages, WhatsApp downloads, Google Maps tracking, TikTok videos, TaskRabbit bookings, plain-old websites and more, it witnesses its protagonist do plenty that we've all done. And, everything she's undertaking feels exactly that familiar — like the film could be staring back at each member of its audience rather than at an 18-year-old who starts the movie unhappy that her mother Grace (Nia Long, You People) is jetting off to Colombia with her new boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung, Old). That sensation remains true even though Missing's viewers have likely never had their mum disappear in another country, and their life forever turned upside down as a result. We've all experienced the mechanics behind what writer/directors Will Merrick and Nick Johnson (who make their feature debut in both roles after editing Searching) are depicting in our own ways, with only the vast power of the internet able to help. Missing is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. TO LESLIE A character drama about a West Texas woman who wins the lottery, but six years later has nothing to show for it except pain, alcoholism and burned bridges, To Leslie is all about English talent Andrea Riseborough's remarkable performance — famously so thanks to her Best Actress Oscar nomination for an indie film widely underseen until that nod of approval. Nothing can take away the power of the Mandy, Possessor and Amsterdam star's stunning portrayal. A spectacular performance is a spectacular performance regardless of what surrounds it. So, Riseborough's work in the debut feature from seasoned TV director Michael Morris (Better Call Saul, 13 Reasons Why, Brothers & Sisters) remains a gut-punch no matter the controversy around the campaign by high-profile names to help get her the Academy's recognition, with Kate Winslet, Edward Norton and Jennifer Aniston among those advocating for accolades. To Leslie remains Riseborough's movie despite comedian and actor Mark Maron uttering the words that sum it up best, too. In his latest compassionate performance — with a less-gruff edge than he sports in GLOW — he plays Sweeney, the co-proprietor of a roadside motel in Leslie's hometown. That's where she ends up again after the money runs out, plus her luck and everyone she knows' patience with it. As scripted by Ryan Binaco (3022), Sweeney is another of To Leslie's flawed characters. The movie teems with such folks because everyone of us is flawed, and it sees that truth with the clearest of eyes. In a sincere but awkward chat, Sweeney explains how his now ex-wife's drinking helped end his marriage; however, he catches himself afterwards, making a point to say that just because his story turned out like that, that doesn't mean Leslie's will as well, or that he thinks it that'll occur. To Leslie is available to stream via iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOUR AMONG THIEVES More than most games, Dungeons & Dragons thrives or dies based on the people rolling the dice, creating their own characters and casting spells. Whether Stranger Things' demogorgon-slaying teens are hunched over a table imagining up their fantasy dreams, or flesh-and-blood folks who aren't just part of a TV series find themselves pretending that they're fighters and clerics, an adventure or campaign is only as good as the party at its core. Writer/directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley understand this. The latter definitely should: the one-season TV great Freaks and Geeks, which gave him his start as an actor when he was just a kid, threw D&D some love, too. As filmmakers, Goldstein and Daley jump from Game Night to Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves with a clear mission: making the swords-and-sorcery flick's cast its biggest strength. This game-to-screen flick sports a stacked roster, starting with Chris Pine (Don't Worry Darling) as Edgin Darvis, a bard and former member of the Harpers who turned petty thief — complete with a Robin Hood-esque attitude — after his wife passed away. Since his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman, Avatar: The Way of Water) was a baby, he's been co-parenting with his gruff best friend Holga Kilgore, a stoic exiled barbarian, who is played with exactly the stern look that Michelle Rodriguez (Fast & Furious 9) was always going to bring to the part. They start the film in a dungeon, but Edgin and Holga are soon trying to reunite with Kira after rogue and con artist Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre), their former pal, turned nefarious while they were in prison. Cue help from Simon Aumar (Justice Smith, Sharper), a sorcerer with hefty confidence issues; tiefling druid Doric (Sophie Lillis, IT and IT: Chapter Two); and paladin Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page, The Gray Man). Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is available to stream via Prime Video. Read our full review. TILL There's no shortage of heartbreak in Till, a shattering drama about the abduction, torture and lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955. Clemency writer/director Chinonye Chukwu tells of a boy's tragic death, a mother's pain and anger, and a country's shame and trauma — and how all three pushed along America's 20th-century civil rights movement. Heartache lingers in the needless loss of life. Fury swells at the abhorrent racism on display, including in the justifications offered by the unrepentant perpetrators. Despair buzzes in the grief, personal and national alike, that hangs heavy from the second that Emmett is dragged away in the night. Fury seethes, too, because an atrocious murder like this demands justice and change, neither of which was ever going to be easy to secure given the time and place. Indeed, the US-wide Emmett Till Antilynching Act making lynching a federal hate crime only became law in March 2022. Heartbreak builds in and bursts through Till from the outset — and in sadly everyday situations. Emmett, nicknamed Bo by his family, is played as a lively and joyful teen by the impressive Jalyn Hall (Space Jam: A New Legacy). He's confident and cheery, as his mother Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler, Station Eleven) has lovingly raised him to be in Chicago. But even department-store shopping for a trip to the Deep South is coloured by the threat of discrimination. So, as his departure to see relatives gets nearer, Mamie utters a few words of advice. She's stern and urgent, trying to impart to him the importance of adhering to Mississippi's unspoken rules. She implores him not to do anything that could be construed as looking at white people the wrong way, to apologise profusely and instantly whenever he has to, and to heed the different set of norms. "Be small down there," she says — and it's one of the movie's many crushing moments. Till is available to stream via iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. EMPIRE OF LIGHT They don't call it movie magic for nothing, as plenty of Hollywood's leading lights have made it their mission to stress. A filmmaker's work should ideally make that statement anyway — seeing any picture and taking any trip to the pictures should, not that either always occurs — but overt odes to cinema still flicker with frequency. Across little more than 12 months, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast has featured a scene where his on-screen childhood alter ego basks in the silver screen's glow, and Damien Chazelle's Babylon made celebrating Hollywood and everything behind it one of its main functions. With The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg revisited his formative years, following the makings of a movie-obsessed kid who'd become a movie-making titan. Now 1917, Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty director Sam Mendes adds his own take with Empire of Light, as also steeped in his own youth. A teenager in the 70s and 80s, Mendes now jumps back to 1980 and 1981. His physical destination: the coastal town of Margate in Kent, where the Dreamland Cinema has stood for exactly 100 years in 2023. In Empire of Light, the gorgeous art deco structure has been rechristened The Empire. It's a place where celluloid dreams such as The Blues Brothers, Stir Crazy, Raging Bull and Being There entertain the masses, and where a small staff under the overbearing Donald Ellis (Colin Firth, Operation Mincemeat) all have different relationships with their own hopes and wishes. As projectionist Norman, Toby Jones (The Wonder) is Mendes' mouthpiece, waxing lyrical about the transporting effect of images running at 24 frames per second and treasuring his work sharing that experience. Empire of Light is that heavy handed, and in a multitude of ways. But duty manager Hilary (Olivia Colman, Heartstopper) and new employee Stephen's (Micheal Ward, Small Axe) stories are thankfully far more complicated than simply adoring cinema. Empire of Light is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA In the 31st Marvel Cinematic Universe film's opening beats — and the third Ant-Man movie, after directed OG flick and 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp — the titular shrinking hero (Paul Rudd, The Shrink Next Door) is indeed Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's star. As returning filmmaker Peyton Reed initially revels in, he's a celebrity basking in the fame of being among the Avengers and dealing with Thanos, and he's written a memoir about it — a book, Look Out for the Little Guy, that'll genuinely exist IRL come September. But the bliss of Scott's success gets cut down when he learns that his now 18-year-old daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton, Freaky) has been secretly tinkering with Hope and her ant-obsessed physicist father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method). The trio's project: sending signals down to the quantum realm. Hank's wife and Hope's mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer, French Exit) is also unimpressed, given that rescuing her from that microscopic place, where she spent 30 years, was no minor part of the plot of the last Ant-Man entry. Viewers should savour the precious time outside the quantum realm in Quantumania; there isn't much of it. No sooner are the Lang/van Dyne/Pym swarm talking about Cassie, Hope and Hank's experiments than they're all transported to said subatomic space, with working out how to get home far from their only worry. Janet had led the others to believe that all she found when she was gone was nothing upon nothing, but entire civilisations and species, akin to Star Wars' different planets, people and critters with a dash of Dune's and Mad Max: Fury Road's landscapes and themes, lurk below. So does the banished, trapped and genocidal Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors, The Harder They Fall), the time-hopping, world-destroying new adversary who likes annihilating things just because he can — and he desperately and nefariously wants out as well. Audiences will, too, thanks to a rote threequel that has a key series-building task — kicking off the MCU's phase five — first, foremost and at a giant cost. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. WINNIE-THE-POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY Never meet your heroes. Kill your darlings. A murderous rampage through the Hundred Acre Wood — a slasher take on a childhood favourite, too — Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey sticks its paws in both pots. Based on AA Milne's famed creation, which initially appeared in kids' poetry book When We Were Very Young in 1924, this schlockfest is exactly what a headline-courting low-budget horror flick about a homicidal Pooh and Piglet seemed sight unseen, and in its trailer. Blood and Honey is all about that high-concept idea, and splashing around as many instances of bloody bother as possible, to the point of repetition. It slathers on well-executed gore, but isn't anything approaching good or so-bad-it's-good. That said, it's also a reminder that everything changes, even a cute, cuddly stuffed animal revered by generations — and that carving away cosy notions about comforting things is a fact of life. Commenting on ditching one's safety blankets and inevitably being disappointed by one's idols is an unexpected — and perhaps unintended — bonus here. With so little plot and character development to writer/director/producer Rhys Frake-Waterfield's (The Killing Tree) script, making a statement is hardly Blood and Honey's main meal. This is a film of opportunity. Milne's loveable bear of very little brain entered the public domain at the beginning of 2022, which is what gave rise to this gruesome spin on figures seen on the page, in plenty of cartoons, and also examined in recent movies such as Goodbye Christopher Robin and Christopher Robin. As sure as the titular teddy's historical love for ditching pants and palling around with Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo, this Texas Chainsaw Massacre-style Pooh twist primarily exists because the premise was too irresistible thanks to copyright laws. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Looking for more at-home viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and fast-tracked highlights from January, February, March and April, too. You can also peruse our best new films, new TV shows, returning TV shows and straight-to-streaming movies, plus movies you might've missed and television standouts of 2022 you mightn't have gotten to.
Usually, for one week each September, Brisbane becomes Australia's live music capital — even if a Melbourne survey generally claims otherwise. When BIGSOUND hits the city, it typically seems like every venue in Fortitude Valley is packed to the rafters with bands, industry folks and music-loving punters, all enjoying the latest and greatest tunes and talent the country has to offer. There's nothing usual about 2020, though. And, yes, that applies to this beloved music-fuelled celebration. In fact, after announcing back in July that it would still forge ahead this year as a physical — but socially distanced, COVID-safe and scaled-down — event, BIGSOUND has just revealed today, Thursday, September 3, that it'll now proceed as a virtual-only affair. Rather than four days of conferences, live festival showcases, secret shows and official parties, music fans can look forward to keynote addresses, online workshops, panels, discussions and an Australian artist showcase called The BIGSOUND50, all across a condensed two-day online program. The lineup wont be revealed until the end of September, but the event will still happen next month — having already moved from its normal timeslot to Wednesday, October 21 and Thursday, October 22, the digital-only BIGSOUND is keeping the latter dates. Announcing the change in an emailed statement, BIGSOUND management advised that the shift in direction stems from "ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and domestic border closures"; however the festival will adjust. It'll also address the challenges of 2020 and what that means for the industry moving forward by focusing on three specific themes: community, survival and re-futuring. [caption id="attachment_636254" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Waax, BIGSOUND 2017. Image: Bec Taylor.[/caption] Overseeing the virtual program are Janne Scott, BIGSOUND's creative director (and Splendour In The Grass' senior creative manager); Alethea Beetson, the event's First Nations producer and programmer; and conference programmer Tom Larkin. Beetson, as well as festival co-programmers Dominic Miller and Ruby-Jean McCabe, will select the artists featured in The BIGSOUND50. Past BIGSOUNDs have showcased everyone from Gang of Youths, Flume, Tash Sultana and Courtney Barnett to San Cisco, Violent Soho, Methyl Ethel and The Jungle Giants, so its program is usually a very reliable bellwether of current and up-and-coming talent. BIGSOUND 2020 will run virtually on Wednesday, October 21 and Thursday, October 22, with further details set to be announced in late September. For more information — or to obtain a free online delegate pass — visit bigsound.org.au. Top image: Keynote speaker Mo'Ju at BIGSOUND in 2019
It’s a truly eye-popping spread of international art stars at the AGNSW’s summer blockbuster, Pop to Popism. Much of it will be familiar; you’ll see Warhol’s famous Marilyn series and Lichtenstein’s In the Car. But beyond the colourful brushstrokes of American artists picking apart consumer culture, you're bound to stumble across a few local and lesser known artists who were nowhere near the New York hotbed of creative activity. Though you might not find their works stamped on pencil cases and postcards in the gift shop, here’s a list of underrated artists you ought not to skip over. Alain Jacquet: Pop and the Dot Roy Lichtenstein spoke about breaking an image down into tiny abstract elements. But unlike his clean lines of handpainted dots, Alain Jacquet developed a more textured technique by allowing different coloured dots to bleed into each other. This French artist was part of a mini-movement at the tail-end of Pop Art. Like their American cousins, the European artists of the school of New Realism were interested in using the materials of everyday life and avoiding the traps of figurative painting. Jacquet’s reworking of Manet’s canonical Luncheon on the Grass deserves to be appreciated up close. Like a hazy summer dream, there is a real sense of warmth and vitality to his work. Annandale Imitation Realists: Pop and Protest In 1960s Sydney, the beginnings of a local Pop Art scene might be attributed to the Annandale Imitation Realists, a group describing themselves as a 'spoof art organisation'. Mike Brown, Colin Lancely and Tony Tuckson produced eclectic mixed media assemblages, drawing from a range of different sources. Breaking through the conservatism of public life, these edgy inner-westies were passionate crusaders for free expression. In fact, Brown was the only Australian artist to be successfully prosecuted for obscenity. While Warhol and Lichtenstein imitate the aesthetic of advertising, this group revelled in nonsensical statements, visceral messiness, and a disregard for authority. They represent an exotic and exuberant counterpoint to the Pop Art that was unfolding across the Pacific. Martha Rosler: Pop and Activism An overlooked figure in the male dominated world of pop art, Martha Rosler moves within the spectrum of social critique. Her incisive series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home fuses together militancy and materialism. Using photomontage, she reconstructs advertisements aimed at housewives with scenes from the Vietnam War. It's a bizarre juxtaposition; the models are all smiles while soldiers and child casualties peep through windows. Like Richard Hamilton’s earlier and more famous collage, this is a satire of the modern home. But Rosler’s series feels a lot more pressing. She simultaneously tackles the outdated ideal of femininity and the ethics of a media saturated war. Vivienne Binns: Pop and Feminism With second wave feminism in full swing, Vivienne Binns shocked her Sydney audience by exhibiting paintings of vaginas in 1967. Becoming one of the first female artists to address sexuality, her intricate and brightly coloured works drew strong backlash. An abbreviation of vagina dentata, Vag Dens is one of the most significant paintings of this period. In terms of her style, it is as if Abstract Expressionism has entered the realm of '70s psychedelia and become infused with sexual empowerment. Still active today, Binns has a reputation as one of the most radical women on the Australian art scene. Martin Sharp and Tim Lewis: Pop and Deconstruction While you’re sure to see Martin Sharp’s shiny psychedelic posters of Bob Dylan and other famous faces, his collaborative works with Tim Lewis represent the point at which Pop Art began to turn in on itself. During the dying days of this global phenomenon, the Aussie duo was preoccupied with appropriating the big personalities of the movement. It's interesting to see the cartoonish and the cult of celebrity paired with aesthetic purists, like Mondrian, and tortured geniuses, like Van Gogh. Imposing the new faces of postmodernism onto the masters of modernism, they created playful works that prematurely historicise Pop Art with the kind of wry humour it probably deserves. Edward Ruscha: Pop and Language A mighty artist in his own right, Edward Ruscha is more of an associate than a proponent of Pop Art. Of course, one of the rivers running through this art movement is text: whether it be the onomatopoeic sound effects of Roy Lichtenstein, the capitalist slogans of Barbara Kruger, or the self-aware ramblings of Mike Brown. Though Ruscha's training was similarly grounded in commercial art, his word paintings are more visceral and experimental than his colleagues. For instance, he has been known to use odd materials like gunpowder and red wine in his work. Fascinated by "the raw power of things that made no sense," he combines the spoken sounds of language with the written word to create a kind of visual noise. Gilbert and George: Pop and Performance Although these cheeky Londoners have long been part of the Kaldor collection, it's interesting to see Gilbert and George reframed as a part of Pop to Popism. Beginning their career with a series of performances, they insisted that art is everything the artist does. By repeating the same set of activities every day, they turned their lives into a perpetual performance. Their later photo-based works have a strong graphic quality. Full of "words and turds", these brightly coloured self-portraits are highly stylised reflections of modern life. At the tail-end of the exhibition, it's hard not to love this pair of conservative rebels with their mix of English propriety and bodily glee. They might be thought of as the contemporary caretakers of Pop Art. Images: Martin Sharp, Alain Jacquet, Mike Brown, Martha Rosler, Vivienne Binns, Martin Sharp and Tim Lewis, Edward Ruscha, and Gilbert and George.
The Crown has reached that part of its story: the details that everyone knows no matter how invested you are in Britain's royal family, headlines about them or Netflix's regal drama. With its sixth and final season, the series will step into the relationship between Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, including the tragic events of their trip to Paris — all of which will be the focus of its four-episode first half. As the just-dropped trailer for the opening part of the show's goodbye demonstrates, heartbreak is on its way. Australian Tenet, The Burnt Orange Heresy and Widows star Elizabeth Debicki earns the bulk of the spotlight as Diana, including the frenzied attention she received from the media. Also seen in the sneak peek: the news arriving of Diana and Dodi's car accident, and the Palace's reaction. Start practising your royal wave: it's time to bid farewell to the hit drama in two sittings, with both arriving before 2023 is out. The first four episodes will stream from Tuesday, November 16, and then the second from Saturday, December 16. As well as saying goodbye to the series overall, viewers will also be moving on from The Crown's time in the 20th century in this sixth and final season. After covering Diana's death and the aftermath, the hit show will embrace the 21st century in its latest run. Accordingly, The Crown will cover the early days of Prince William and Kate Middleton's relationship, and focus on the man currently second in line to the throne after Queen Elizabeth II's passing in 2022. Screen debutant Ed McVey takes on the role of Prince William, while newcomer Meg Bellamy is slipping into Middleton's shoes. The show's sixth season will follow the IRL pair's first meeting at university in St Andrew's, starting the story that's played out in plenty of headlines and a ridiculous amount of worldwide media coverage since 2001. This dramatised take on history's last season will also cover the Queen's (Imelda Staunton, Paddington) Golden Jubilee and Charles' (Dominic West, The Pursuit of Love) marriage to Camilla (Olivia Williams, The Father). When The Crown began, it kicked off with Queen Elizabeth II's life from her marriage to Prince Philip back in 1947. The first season made its way to the mid-50s, the second season leapt into the 60s, and season three spanned all the way up to the late 70s. In season four, the royal family hit the 80s, while season five hopped to the 90s. Just like in season five, Game of Thrones and Tales from the Loop's Jonathan Pryce wears Prince Philip's shoes — and Princess Margaret is played by Staunton's Maleficent co-star and Phantom Thread Oscar-nominee Lesley Manville. News around the show's fifth and sixth seasons has changed a few times over the past few years. At the beginning of 2020, Netflix announced that it would end the royal drama after its fifth season. Then, the streaming platform had a change of heart, revealing it would continue the series for a sixth season after all. Check out the trailer for the first part of The Crown season six below: The Crown's sixth season will hit Netflix in two parts, with the first four episodes streaming from Tuesday, November 16, and then the second from Saturday, December 16. Images: Daniel Escale, Netflix / Leftbank.
Nothing can cure mid-afternoon or mid-morning hunger quite like a cup of tea and a scone. The combo of a sweet pick-me-up and hot cuppa is somehow both homely and cosy, as well as a little fancy — especially when served with delicate, whimsical china. So, instead of reaching for the two-minute noodles when your tummy starts grumbling, get ready to raise your pinkie while enjoying the oh-so-fancy experience that is Devonshire tea. Passiontree Velvet Please your inner aristocrat with Passiontree Velvet's lovely Devonshire cream tea. Their home-baked scones are light and cake-like, served warm and accompanied with jam and cream (of course). The scones are made extra special when paired with Harney & Sons selective range of teas. Try Florence, a chocolate and hazelnut blend that tastes and smells delicious. Or take a quick trip to France with a cup of Paris, another lovely black tea choice which includes vanilla, caramel and currant notes. Carindale Westfield, 1151 Creek Road, Carindale Ormiston House Former home to Captain Louis Hope, this homestead dates back to 1862 and has become a perfect day-trip destination. The colonial house is open for members of the public to enjoy. What's more, Devonshire tea is served on the verandah overlooking lush azalea bushes each Sunday (noon - 4pm). After you've had your fill of jam, cream, scones and tea, mosey through the 14 acres of gorgeous gardens. Visitors are also welcome to bring a picnic and sit soaking in the views of Moreton Bay. 277 Wellington Street, Ormiston Room with Roses Room with Roses has become a bit of a Brisbane icon, and rightly so. At the top of the gorgeous Brisbane Arcade is a real treat for lovers of old-school elegance, making it a great choice for an inner city tea date. Room with Roses creates special scones — try the ginger scones with real chewy bits of delicious ginger served with cream and marmalade. Their scones are more of a cake consistency rather than the traditional style, and suitable for the coeliacs among us. Gallery Level Brisbane Arcade, 160 Queen Street, Brisbane Dandelion and Driftwood Hendra's Dandelion and Driftwood is a Northside favourite. Every detail in this cafe has been beautifully thought out in order to give diners a rememberable overall experience. From the staff's uniforms to the interesting information cards that accompany all teas and coffees, Dandelion and Driftwood receive a well-deserved A+ for effort. Their scones are served with raspberry jam and double cream and are made all the more tasty when enjoyed with their signature dandelion tea. For a relaxing morning tea, choose to sit in their back courtyard; we can guarantee the front of the cafe will be busy. Shop 1/45 Gehler Road, Hendra
The BrisStyle team is a rather busy bunch. A few times a year, it puts on twilight markets in King George Square, but that isn't its only regular event. If you're particularly after a treasure trove of handmade goodies — and who isn't? — it hosts another opportunity to browse and buy that's dedicated to exactly those kinds of objects. Fashion, art, jewellery, homewares — if someone's been using their nimble fingers to make it, then you can probably trade your hard-earned cash for their hard work. In fact, there'll be more than 60 artisans selling their wares. And, while you're shopping, you'll also be able to grab a bite at the onsite cafe and listen to live tunes from local musos. The Handmade Markets always take place on Saturdays, so mark August 28 and October 30 in your calendars now. Head along from 9am–3pm, with it all taking place in the Queensland Museum's whale mall. Image: BrisStyle.
First we got word of the Yoncé skyscraper, then the elevated park. Melbourne's CBD is on the receiving end of a wealth of weird and wonderful architectural riches recently — and there's more to come. Although this announcement leans more towards the embarrassment side of things. Introducing the 'pantscraper', which is indeed not a weird product brought to you by Danoz Direct, but the popular name of the recently approved 41-storey tower project of developers Cbus Property. The building is so named because of the bizarre double tower design and denim blue colour scheme that combine to look remarkably like a bland pair of baggy pants fit for a giant. The pantscraper design was knocked back a few times and not, as you would assume, for its slightly ridiculous aesthetic, but because the huge tower cast a shadow on both the north and south banks of the Yarra River. However, after negotiations with the Andrews government — which saw them agree to lop six storeys off the top — the new design has been approved. Construction will begin at the Collins Street site by September. Although it may seem like just another bloody skyscraper, this particular bloody skyscraper comes with a perk. They're closing off Market Street and will convert the extra space into a council-run public park — that's a new park right in the middle of the CBD. What could be more relaxing than kicking back in a lush, green park while a giant pair of pants looms over you, watching your every move? Nothing, that's what — and we, for one, welcome our new pant overlords. Via The Age.
When New Farm Cinemas, The Elizabeth Picture Theatre, Red Hill Cinemas, Dendy Coorparoo, Reading Newmarket and Reading Jindalee all opened their doors in Brisbane within a few of years, it was a movie buff's dream. If you love heading to the flicks, you can never have too many places to get your big-screen fix. Those sites, and the River City's other places to catch a film, are about to get company, however — and an Australian-premiere experience. Whether Angelika Film Centre will host any Australian premieres is yet to be revealed, but opening in Brisbane in mid-2023 marks the first Aussie site — and the first outside of the US — for the brand. If you're not familiar with the name, it started in Soho in New York City in September 1989, and has grown to nine American locations since. Next stop for its projectors: the Sunshine State's film-loving capital. Reading Cinemas Group is behind the fresh addition to Brisbane's cinema scene, which has been in the works since 2017, but now sports the Angelika ties. It will make its home across two storeys at Woolloongabba's South/City/SQ. Filmgoers can look forward to an eight-screen, 400-seat cinema complex, which will span 2500 square metres. For those pre-movie drinks — or post-picture chats — Angelika Film Centre will also feature an elevated alfresco bar area, as inspired by the chain's OG Big Apple site, with views over the precinct. Film-wise, the venue will screen arthouse, independent and international films, plus releases from major Hollywood studios — but more specialised movies rather than big guaranteed blockbusters. Think: newly minted Oscar-winner Everything Everywhere All At Once if the cinema had been open in 2022, for instance. Snacks-wise, as well as cocktails from the bar, the Angelika will serve up popcorn and boast a lolly station. Fancy something a bit more substantial during your movie? There'll also be a luxe in-theatre service that'll include light food and drink options brought to you as whatever you're watching plays. "We are very excited to launch our first International Angelika Film Centre location in the heart of the amazing South/City/SQ precinct," said Mark Douglas, Managing Director of the Reading Cinemas Group for Australia and New Zealand. "The Angelika at South/City/SQ will deliver a diverse slate of films, in a world-class cinema environment. With plush recliner seats in every screen, the very latest in digital projection and sound, along with our fantastic Highline Terrace Bar and Soho Lounge auditoriums, Woolloongabba is set to be the place to see a movie in Brisbane." South/City/SQ — or South City Square, if you prefer — just keeps expanding, filling over 12,000 square metres of retail, lifestyle, wellness and hospitality space (which sits alongside 5000 square metres of green space, too). Already, the precinct includes Italian bar and eatery Sasso, Chinese Peruvian joint Casa Chow, Palm Springs-inspired gin-pouring garden bar Purple Palm, and European-influenced wine bar and wine shop South City Wine. And, it's set to welcome two-level brewpub The Wright House , which also features a with a Mad Men-inspired chophouse, in September. [caption id="attachment_893537" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Markus Ravik[/caption] Angelika Film Centre will open at South/City/SQ, 148 Logan Road, Woolloongabba, sometime in mid-2023 — we'll update you with an exact launch date when one is announced.
There's a reason that the Ekka comes with its own public holiday. Brisbanites are set free from work to rush to the Royal Queensland Show, fill themselves up with fried and sugary goodness, then brave the rides and gaze at the fireworks. Of course, there's much more going on than that, with everything from animal competitions to cooking demonstrations on the bill. Where else are you going to see a giant pumpkin, pat a pig, eat a strawberry sundae, listen to live music, crash dodgems, throw a ball in a clown's mouth for a prize and take home all the Bertie Beetles you can eat, after all?
Brisbanites, cancel your lunch plans for Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Actually, maybe cancel your morning plans as well. Whatever you already had on your agenda for the day, it's being pushed back, because this is happening again: In-N-Out Burger is returning to Brisbane for one of its late-notice burg-slinging pop-ups. From 9am–3pm, the American chain will hit Fortitude Valley's The Sound Garden on Brunswick Street, serving up burgers within that six-hour window — or until sold out. The venue announced the news on its social media. And yes, these pop-ups always happen with very little notice, as you might remember from past In-N-Out frenzies before the pandemic. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Sound Garden (@thesoundgardenbne) On the menu: the chain's double-double, animal-style and protein-style burgs, all while stocks last — with limited quantities available. If you've been to one of In-N-Out's previous Australian pop-ups — in Brisbane or interstate — then you'll know these burgers sell like, well, cult-status burgers. So, you'll have to get there ASAP on Tuesday. Work can wait. Brisbane's latest In-N-Out burger pop-up will run from 9am–3pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at The Sound Garden, 312–318 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley. Keep an eye on the venue's Facebook and Instagram for more details. Images: Thank You (21 Millions+) views / Craig Lloyd via Wikimedia Commons.
With over 8 million people living in its five boroughs, New York is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. So, some of the city's wealthier residents have come up with an inventive way to squeeze into The Big Apple: by building buildings on top of other buildings. Think dens perched on top of apartment blocks, pods stored next to air-conditioning vents and rooftop 'cubes' overlooking the Hudson. These creative structures are not only fantastic to marvel at with their contrasting designs and modern styles, but are also a great solution to housing shortages in large cities. Here are ten of the most creative examples in NYC. Rooftop A-Frame Rooftop House and Terrace Three Story Rooftop House Icosa Village Pod in Williamsburg Loftcube by Werner Aisslinger Midtown Rooftop Garden House on Top of an Apartment Central Park West Rooftop Garden Rooftop House and Garden East Village Cape Cod House Soho House Rooftop
We've all wondered what goes on behind closed doors. It's the whole reason that gossip magazines and reality TV exist, after all. But, there's a difference between reading about it or watching it on television, and actually walking into someone's hotel room and seeing it with your own eyes — and QT Gold Coast is currently letting people do the latter. At the first Hotelling program in what is hoped will become a regular event, audiences explore the building from the penthouse down to the tennis court; however they're privy to more than fancy '80s-style baths in the former and somewhere to play sports at the latter. They also meet the inhabitants, from a hostess living right at the top, to a visiting IT exec fighting with his wife, to an otherworldly presence channelling a rock star. Okay, okay, so they're actually actors that are playing a part in a site-specific performance piece put together by Bleached Arts, QT Gold Coast and City of Gold Coast, but they're replicating the weird, wonderful, over-the-top and ordinary things that go on the mini society that is a hotel (and a hotel on the Gold Coast in particular). First cab off the rank is Slavka, partying on the highest level of the place that just last week hosted the Thor: Ragnarok wrap party. She greets attendees warmly, gets them dancing, and then sends them on their merry way. With the event called Down The Rabbit Hole, that's mostly the direction everyone is then headed, with multiple stops. At one of them, the aforementioned Larry from Perth lets you into his room, where you'll overhear his phone conversation, help sing happy birthday to his son Morgan, and watch his reaction as his marriage almost falls apart. Also on the itinerary: a homage to rock-gods like Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop and Patti Smith, which will make you feel like you're in their rooms. Plus, there's some more adventurous fun on the agenda when you enter the domain of a Gold Coast-based sex counselling service, Rhythm Stick, that has chosen QT Gold Coast as a venue to solicit new clients. Or, do what absolutely everyone does when they're somewhere with plenty of high-rises: try to look into a neighbouring tower. Here, international surveillance artist Joao Montessori customises his signature artwork, In-Focus, to Gold Coast's hotel landscape, inviting you to stare in at a neighbouring block. Yep, it's a little bit like Rear Window. Over the course of the three-hour event, attendees go up and down between different rooms and peering into different lives in four groups — and no group has the same experience, or sees the exact same performances. Don't think the hallways are safe, though. There, you just might spy a Russian wrestling his bear-hat; a tall, twitchy and somewhat creepy Donnie Darko-esque rabbit, a pyjama-clad woman looking for her best bunny buddy (yep, rabbits are a thing), a go-go dancer who doesn't dance and a lost Kiwi. There's more, including several interactive components — but, at something like Hotelling, much of the fun is about experiencing it for yourself. And, about getting into the swing of things; everyone's a voyeur and a performer down deep, after all. Just a word of warning, though: you'll be in close quarters with many, many people in a whole lot of elevators. And, even if you've never had vertigo before, the experience of continually getting into a lift just might cause your first bout (we're speaking from experience). Hotelling takes place at QT Gold Coast from November 4 to 5. For more information, visit the event website and Facebook page. Images: Matt Marny. Slavka, Penthouse, performed by Nadia Sunde; Like A Rolling Stone, Room 706, performed by Kate Harman; The Crying Man, Room 306 performed by Todd MacDonald; In-Focus, Room 1915 performed by Hayden Jones with Steph Pokoj, Reuben Witsenhuysen, Marco Sinigaglia and Tammy Zarb; The Otherworld, Hallways.
Formerly the Milton Tennis Centre and Milton Bowls Club, the Roy Emerson Tennis Centre is a rejuvenated sports complex, playground and parkland just a short train ride from the Brisbane CBD. As the home of tennis in Queensland since 1915, it has seen some of the greats play here — but you don't have to be a grand slam champ to have fun at these courts. The Tennis Centre is open seven days a week, offering coaching and private lessons with Tennis Australia-qualified coaches for players of all levels. You can hire a court with your mates and play your way for $20 during the day or $27 after 5pm. Don't have the gear? No need to sweat from the sidelines. You can hire or buy equipment on site and save your perspiration for the game. If you're looking for an extra challenge and want to lean into your competitive side, consider joining the club and Tennis Queensland for a whole year for just $20. The membership gives you access to a bunch of benefits, including cheaper court hire rates, making it that little bit easier to start serving aces. The Emerson Coffee Shop is open 8.30am-6pm for simple post-match refreshments of coffee and cake, savoury quiches, slushies, smoothies and milkshakes.
The end of winter means warming temperatures, blooming flowers and summer inching closer. In 2024, it also means looking up. To close out August, a blue supermoon will take to the sky — or a super blue moon, if you prefer. Both terms fit, because the Earth's only natural satellite will serve up both a supermoon and a blue moon. The date to point your eyes to the heavens: the morning of Tuesday, August 20. Stare upwards with your own two eyes at 4.25am AEST and you'll see a noteworthy sight at its peak. Of course, if you train your peepers towards the sky the evening before or afterwards, you'll still be in for a glowing show. While super full moons aren't particularly rare — several usually happen each year — blue moons only tend to occur every few years. Wondering why else you should check this one out? We've run through the details below. What Is It? If you're more familiar with The Mighty Boosh's take on the moon than actual lunar terms, here's what you need to know. As we all learned back in November 2016, a supermoon is a new moon or full moon that occurs when the moon reaches the closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, making it particularly bright. Again, they're not all that uncommon — and because the supermoon on Tuesday, August 20 is a full moon (and not a new moon), it's called a super full moon. A blue moon refers to either the second full moon occurring within a calendar month, or the third in an astronomical season with four full moons. August 2024's moon falls into the second category. Despite the name, it isn't blue in colour. Also, despite the saying, they happen more often than you might think, but still only ever few years. The last monthly blue moon occurred in August 2023, and the next blue moon of either type isn't set to happen until the end of May in 2026. The August moon is also a sturgeon moon. The name doesn't refer to its shape or any other physical characteristics, but to the time of year. In the northern hemisphere, August is around the time that sturgeon fish start to show up in big numbers in North America's lakes. Of course, that doesn't apply in the southern hemisphere, but the name still sticks. When Can I See It? As mentioned above, the blue supermoon will officially be at its peak at 4.25am AEST on Tuesday, August 20, Down Under — but thankfully it will be visible from Monday night Australian time. The moon does usually appear full for a few days each month, so you should find the night sky looking a little brighter this week anyway. That 4.25am AEST time applies in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with folks in Perth needing to look at 2.25am local time and people in Adelaide at 3.55am local time. Where Can I See It? You can take a gander from your backyard or balcony, but the standard advice regarding looking at glowing sights in the sky always applies — so city-dwellers will want to get as far away from light pollution as possible to get the absolute best view. Fancy checking it out online? The Virtual Telescope Project is set to stream the view from Rome at 5.30am AEST on Tuesday, August 20, too. For more information about the blue supermoon on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 in Australia, head to timeanddate.com. Top image: NASA/Joel Kowsky.
Enjoying live theatre, a gig or experimental art is never fun on an empty stomach, so with the annual Brisbane Festival kicking off this week we thought a pre-game feasting guide could help fill your tum right up. Brisbane Festival have teamed up with 19 restaurants to bring you specials that are sweet on the hip pocket but full on the taste buds. You’ve got no excuse. Get out there and enjoy the city this month, after all this is our festival. P.S We also have a sweet prize to give away, keep reading. Judith Wright Centre In the heart of the Valley, you’re spoilt for choices. The suburb is known for its Asian cuisine, and we recommend you check out new-comer Ho Chi Mama. They’re bringing Vietnamese street food to Brisbane in an eclectically-styled venue, and it is right across the road from the Judith Wright Centre. A win all round. For a post-show debriefing, spill out into Glass Bar, it’s in the Judith Wright Centre itself and boasts a huge cocktail list as well as snacks, tapas and pizza. Their friendly staff will make you feel right at home in the intimate setting. If you need an extra shot of culture, order a round of sake at Harijuku Gyoza. You know the deal. From here it’s just a hop, step and a jump to some of your favourite Valley bars. Ask Sean at The Press Club to whip you up an award-winning cocktail. He was crowned champion at the Angostura Cocktail Challenge Queensland final last week. QUT Theatre Republic Brisbane Festival’s newest venue is located in the university at Kelvin Grove. The creative precinct boasts a number of quick bites nearby including student favourites Burger Urge and Zambrero, or for those wanting something more romantic than burgers and fries, stop by the likes on Libertine or Iceworks in Paddington on the way. Just a few hundred metres from the La Boite Theatre is the very quaint Room 60, a late-night cultural space and bar. Pull a retro chair up on the astroturf and commence yours post-show debriefing over a beer. Just beware approaching hipsters. South Bank Brisbane Festival and South Bank are a match made in cultural heaven. On one hand, South Bank is the heart and soul of the festival, and on the other it’s Brisbane’s ‘go to’ suburb for restaurants. Dining here you’ll be spoilt for choice. Champ Kitchen + Bar is on the doorstep of where the Spiegeltent will be set up. Their Festival Flavours dish is a delicious seared Yellow Fin Tuna with watermelon, soy gel and wasabi. It looks more like art than food and is a bit like eating deconstructed sushi. Delish. For drinks, escape to Bacchus. Set above busy Grey St, this classy poolside bar surrounded by comfortable lounges. If you want to join the fiesta, head to Ole and order a jug of their finest sangria. There is of course the magical and splendid pop-up Garden Bar at the Spiegeltent, as well at the fabulous Euro-beat Wunderbar at QPAC. We hear both are set to be bigger and better this year and can’t wait to join in the festive fun. Last but not least, don’t forget to spend a night settled in at the Santos GLNG Lounge to view the light fantastic on at various times nightly throughout the festival. Brisbane Powerhouse It’s always a fun trip out to the Powerhouse, it’s close to everything yet feels like a world away. Set right on the river, the Powerhouse has always been a provider, heh, and for your convenience both Bar Alto and Watt restaurant are located within the centre. Watt have paired up with Brisbane Festival to offer a delicious chef’s tasting plate, it goes perfect paired with a Little Creatures, and we won’t judge if you order the same thing post-show. If the thrill of the journey is more your thing, we recommend a stop on your way down James St at Bucci, Gerard’s or Harvey’s, or Brisbane favourite Beccofino in Teneriffe. As the Powerhouse won’t be your final destination, trot back via At Sixes and Sevens to get the necessary fuel to make it home, or head on into the Valley. Metro Arts Pre-game feasting doesn’t get any easier than this, situated within the Metro Arts building is Verve Restaurant and Cider Bar serving up some Italian inspired fare. Though, if you prefer dining with a view, Eagle St Pier is just around the corner where the likes of Sake, Cha Cha Char and Riverbar may tickle your fancy. After the show, slip down Burnett Lane and head into Super Whatnot where the coolness of this laneway bar will seep into your veins and give you a taste for craft beer. Following your new found craving, give the Embassy a chance. Yes, the Embassy. No longer a trashy stale-beer-and-vom-smelling venue, its latest makeover has transformed this place into a boutique beer bar. For the interior think raw brick, honey wood and clean slicked floors not dim lights, sticky floors and the grimey club vibe. Hooray for renovations! Riverstage The Botanic Gardens are a bit of a stretch from it all and chances are your bus/train/car are a mile away so enjoy the walk. You’re spoilt for choice in the CBD, but many are hidden where only a local can find. For dinner we nominate Spring on the fringe of the gardens. From here it’s just a hop, step and a jump to Eagle St Pier’s plethora of eateries. And if Aria isn’t in your budget, there’s always Grill’d. The two large-scale events at Riverstage are free so there’s no excuse not to go drop a dollar at casino, or even better on a beverage (or three). Fat Noodle in the casino will be shaking up the official and specially designed festival cocktail - the Barcardi La Fiesta. It’s delicious, we’ve tried it, you know, in the name of research. Brisbane City Hall The city centre is not just flash for its shopping precinct. Tucked away in a couple of laneways, try Vapiano for a quick pizza or pasta fix with a difference, or share some plates and tipple at Brew. As part of Festival Flavours, Brew is offering, wait for it, slow braised beef cheeks on a bed of spiced pumpkin puree with a wine for $30. Gee, they had us at slow braised. Escape the rat race and soar six storeys up where you’ll find Vintaged Bar + Grill serving top quality fare in the Hilton hotel. Laze around drinking cocktails in the lobby bar for some interesting people watching. Besides the constant stream of perfect Emirates flight hostesses, you might find your future husband - be he a pilot or a millionaire. WIN TICKETS TO BRISBANE FESTIVAL Concrete Playground readers have the chance to win a special night out thanks to Brisbane Festival. One lucky reader will win two tickets to see URBAN on Saturday, September 14 at 9.30pm and two $30 Festival Flavours vouchers to use at 5ifth Element for a pre-show feast. Here after sell-out seasons from Columbia to Paris, URBAN is a high-energy circus show that tells a story of the streets. Through dance, music and acrobatics, Circolumbia reveal the real joys and violence the young artists grew up around. Brisbane Festival has paired up with 19 great restaurants to offer some mighty fine wine and dine deals for the duration of the festival. Audiences can tuck into a Festival Flavours dish and a beverage for just $30 from September 7 to 28. For your chance to win, be subscribed to the Brisbane Concrete Playground newsletter and email your name, address and phone number to daniela@concreteplayground.com.au with 'Brisbane Festival' in the headline by Tuesday, September 10. Winner will be drawn at random.
Here's your latest excuse to stop dreaming about a holiday and start booking: a flight sale by new Australian low-cost airline Bonza. Soaring through the local skies since January, the carrier is already all about cheap fares, but now it's doing 20-percent off all of its routes and destinations for a five-day start-of-spring frenzy. New to Bonza? The local outfit was initially announced in 2021, then secured regulatory approval this year, launching its first flights shortly afterwards. It boasts two bases so far: the Sunshine Coast, where it's been soaring out of since January; and Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport, which joined the list in March. From November, the Gold Coast will become its third home. [caption id="attachment_916931" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tennis Australia/ Fiona Hamilton[/caption] This fresh face in the Aussie aviation scene isn't just about more-affordable tickets all year round, but also opening up routes to more of the country's regional destinations. On its list so far: 18 destinations and 34 routes. They're all getting the 20-percent-off treatment — and you've got from 10am on Thursday, September 7 up to 11.59pm on Monday, September 11 to book. As for where you can travel, Bonza's coverage includes the Whitsunday Coast, Cairns, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Bundaberg, Gladstone and Toowoomba — and also Port Macquarie, Newcastle, Albury and Mildura. Prices start at $39.20. The caveats: you'll need to want to travel this year, specifically from Tuesday, October 10–Wednesday, December 6. Also, you'll need to use the promo code LETSGO when you book. And, that discount is only applicable to the actual fare. So, any costs for bags, seats and payment fees aren't getting cheaper. With the code, if you don't use it at the time of booking, you'll miss out — you can't go back and apply it later. To book during the Bonza sale, you'll need to download the airline's app or hit a registered local travel agent. App-only online reservations are one of the carrier's points of difference. Another: an all-Australian in-flight menu, spanning both food and craft beer. Bonza's flight sale runs from 10am on Thursday, September 7–11.59pm on Monday, September 11. For more information, and to buy fares — using the using the promo code LETSGO — head to the airline's website to download its app for Android and iOS. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
