Digital nomad visas and remote working have never been more attainable, so if you've ever toyed with the idea of taking your skills abroad, Tourism Authority of Thailand is giving you the chance to try before you fly (away forever) with its Live Your Best Digital Nomad Life competition. Up for grabs is a Concrete Playground Trips voucher valued at $3000 (covering return flights to any major airport in Thailand and accommodation for any hotel in Thailand hosted on the CP Trips website), a $500 Klook voucher to spend on top experiences, activities and travel essentials such as transport and SIM cards, as well as $1500 worth of Visa travel vouchers which should cover you for long-tail boat rides along Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, trekking in Chiang Mai's Doi Inthanon National Park, hopping on island escapades in Phuket or Krabi and all the Tom Kha Kai you can consume in a week. That's a total prize value of $5000. And who knows — at worst you can enjoy a change of WFH scenery. Or after a week you might love the Thai hospitality, your digital nomad life (and affordable living) so much, that you'll decide never to come back. Want to find out more about remote working in this incredible part of the world? Here's what you need to know to get yourself set up for a working holiday in Thailand. [competition]885290[/competition]
So much to see, so little time. If hitting the couch is one of your favourite ways to unwind, that'll be a familiar refrain. Now that there are far more streaming services to choose from than we each have fingers and toes, finding something to watch is never a problem — and in 2022, there's been a lengthy list of excellent shows worthy of your attention. Some have tapped into our struggles with work-life balance in chilling and thrilling ways. Others have made hearts soar and swoon several times over. Also on this year's must-see list: multiple shows that dance with exceptional movies, a behind-the-scenes television great doing what he does best, porn for women, spectacularly lifelike dinosaurs and murder-mysteries. And, they're just some of 2022's standouts. Haven't been able to watch all of the year's ace new arrivals thanks to life getting in the way? Not quite sure where to start? With 2022 now at its midway point, here are our picks of the year's 15 best new television and streaming shows — consider it your catch-up list over the next six months. SEVERANCE It's the ultimate in work-life balance, an antidote to non-stop after-hours emails and Slack messages, and a guaranteed way to ensure what happens at work stays at work. In mind-bending thriller series Severance — which plays like Black Mirror meets the Charlie Kaufman-penned Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, with Wes Anderson's aesthetic if he designed soulless office complexes, plus sprinklings of everything from George Orwell to also-excellent 2020 TV effort Devs — switching off when clocking off at Lumon Industries is easy. There's a brain implant for exactly that, and it's a condition of employment on "severed" floors. Accordingly, when quittin' time comes for Macrodata Refinement division employee Mark (Adam Scott, Big Little Lies), he physically steps into a tiny, shiny elevator to re-enter his after-hours life; however, the version of him that works for Lumon won't recall anything beyond the company's walls. The instant that the lift starts moving, it goes back to the office for Mark's "innie", as his work-bound consciousness is dubbed. Voila, it's clocking-on time once more. Severance's attention-grabbing premise springs from creator Dan Erickson, a TV first-timer, and understands how most folks feel about the nine-to-five grind. The show is knowing in its lead casting, too, given that Scott is best recognised for two workplace comedies: the joyous hug that is Parks and Recreation, as well as the acerbic, astute and soon-to-return Party Down. But as savvily and evocatively directed by Ben Stiller in its first three season-one episodes (and again in its last three, with Kissing Candice filmmaker Aoife McArdle helming three in the middle), Scott's new series dwells in 'be careful what you wish for' territory. For the part of Mark's brain that blanks out work, Severance initially seems like heaven. For the half that only knows the office, it's hell. For everyone watching, soaking in its twisty mysteries — and enjoying Patricia Arquette (The Act), Christopher Walken (Percy vs Goliath) and John Turturro (The Plot Against America) as fellow Lumon employees — it's a surreal and riveting must-see. Severance is available to stream via Apple TV+. Read our full review. IRMA VEP One of 2022's most magnificent new shows, and a cinephile's dream of a series, Irma Vep requires some unpacking. The term 'layered' has rarely ever applied to a TV program quite as it does here. French filmmaker Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper) retraces his own footsteps, turning his cult-favourite 1996 movie of the same name into an Alicia Vikander-starring HBO miniseries. And, in this series itself, a director is also remaking one of his own past flicks as a television project. In all versions of Irma Vep, the movies and shows being made are also remakes of 1915–16 French crime effort Les Vampires. It was a ten-episode, seven-hour cinema serial, and it's supremely real. Indeed, by first helming a feature about remaking Les Vampires, and now a series about remaking a movie that remakes Les Vampires (which, IRL, is also a remake of a movie that remakes Les Vampires), Assayas keeps remaking Les Vampires in his own way. It all sounds exactly as complicated as it is — and Assayas loves it. Viewers should, too. The nested dolls that are Irma Vep's meta setup just keep stacking, actually. The 1996 Irma Vep starred Maggie Cheung, who'd later become Assayas' wife, then ex-wife — and the 2022 Irma Vep haunts its on-screen filmmaker René Vidal (Vincent Macaigne, Non-Fiction) with visions of his ex-wife Jade Lee (Vivian Wu, Dead Pigs), who, yes, led his movie. If you're a fan of word puzzles, you might've also noticed that Irma Vep is an anagram of vampire; that said, Les Vampires isn't actually about bloodsuckers, and nor is any iteration of Irma Vep. To add to the list, while Cheung played a version of herself, Vikander (Blue Bayou, The Green Knight) plays fictional American star Mira — a name that's an anagram of Irma. You can also take that moniker literally, because mirroring is patently a pivotal aspect of the brilliant Irma Vep in every guise. Irma Vep is available to stream via Binge. Read our full review. WE OWN THIS CITY For the past 20 years, we've all fallen into two categories: people who've seen, loved and haven't been able to stop raving about HBO's Baltimore-set masterpiece The Wire; and folks who don't tick any of those boxes but have been told by everyone who does that they really need to watch it ASAP. We Own This City deserves to spark the same response — and shares many of its predecessor's key pieces. It too takes place in Maryland's most populous city. It also follows a law-and-order battle, complete with time spent within the Baltimore Police Department. It springs from former Baltimore Sun police reporter-turned-author, journalist and TV writer/producer David Simon as well, and sees him reteam with writer George Pelecanos, a veteran of not only The Wire but also Simon's Treme and The Deuce. Oh, and as it tells a compulsive crime tale, it's packed with phenomenal performances. One of those astonishing portrayals is among the first thing that viewers see, in fact, with We Own This City opening with Sergeant Wayne Jenkins lecturing new recruits on the BPD Gun Trace Task Force. Chatting through how to legally do the job — how to get away with what he deems necessary, that is — Jon Bernthal (The Many Saints of Newark) is hypnotically unsettling as Jenkins, who'll become the focus of a corruption investigation for his methods. He isn't the only "prime example of what's gone wrong in Baltimore," as viewers are told. So is Daniel Hersl (Josh Charles, The Loudest Voice), who is initially glimpsed pulling over and terrorising a Black driver for no other reason than that he can. Department of Justice Civil Rights Department attorney Nicole Steele (Wunmi Mosaku, Lovecraft Country) is charged with tracking the force's bad eggs, and that's just one of this complex, revealing and arresting six-part miniseries' layers. And if it feels so detailed that it could only be true, that's because it's based on a non-fiction book by Justin Fenton another ex-Baltimore Sun reporter. We Own This City is available to stream via Binge. MINX When home video, the internet and mobile phones with inbuilt cameras each arrived, six words could've been uttered: get ready to look at dicks. HBO comedy Minx is set the early 70s, so before all three, but the same phrase also applies here. It's true of the show itself, which isn't shy about displaying the male member in various shapes and sizes. It also stands tall in the world that Minx depicts. When you're making the first porn magazine for women — and, when you're making an ambitious, entertaining and impeccably cast The Deuce meets Mrs America-style series about it, but lighter, sweeter and funnier (and all purely fictional) — penises are inescapable. Also impossible to avoid in Minx: questions like "are erections consistent with our philosophy?", as asked by Vassar graduate and country club regular Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond, Trying). Idolising the magazine industry and unhappily working for the dispiritingly traditional Teen Queen, she has long dreamed of starting her own feminist publication — even penning a bundle of articles and making her own issues — but centrefolds splashed with male genitalia don't fit her ideal pitch. No one's buying what Joyce is selling, though; The Matriarchy Awakens, her dream mag, gets rejected repeatedly by the industry's gatekeepers. Only one is interested: Bottom Dollar Publications' Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson, Ride the Eagle), but he's in the pornography business. Minx is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. OUR FLAG FLAG MEANS DEATH In the on-screen sea that is the never-ending list of films and television shows constantly vying for eyeballs, Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby have frequently proven gem-dappled treasure islands. When the immensely funny New Zealand talents have collided, their resumes have spanned four of the most endearing comic hits of the big and small screens in the 21st century so far, aka Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows, Wellington Paranormal and Hunt for the Wilderpeople — and now, with pirate parody Our Flag Means Death, they've given viewers another gleaming jewel. This show was always going to swashbuckle its way into streaming must-see lists — and into comedy-lovers' hearts — based on its concept alone, but it more than lives up to its winning idea and winsome casting. Come for the buccaneering banter and seafaring satire, stay for a thoughtful and sincere comic caper that's also a rom-com. The inimitable Darby stars as Stede Bonnet, a self-styled 'gentleman pirate' and a great approximation of Flight of the Conchords' Murray if he'd existed centuries earlier. Meanwhile, Waititi dons leather, dark hues aplenty, an air of bloodthirsty melancholy and an eye-catching head of greying hair as Edward Teach, the marauder better known to the world as Blackbeard. The two real-life figures eventually cross paths after Bonnet leaves his life of wealth, privilege and comfort to rove the oceans, captains a ship staffed by a motley crew to end all motley crews, and initially gets captured by Blackbeard — or Ed, as he calls him. As these two opposites bond, riding the waves from adversaries to co-captains to potentially something more, Our Flag Means Death truly and gloriously opens up its warm heart. Our Flag Means Death is available to stream via Binge. Read our full review. THE AFTERPARTY Only Murders in the Building isn't the only new comic murder-mystery series worth streaming from the past year or so. Joining it is The Afterparty, which also sports a killer cast — this time Sam Richardson (Detroiters), Ben Schwartz (Space Force), Zoe Chao (Love Life), Ilana Glazer (Broad City), Ike Barinholtz (The Mindy Project), Dave Franco (If Beale Street Could Talk) and Tiffany Haddish (The Card Counter) — and a savvy spin on an oft-used gimmick. Rather than skewering true-crime podcasting, this quickly addictive comedy from writer/director Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie) toys with the reality that every tale differs depending on the perspective. Whodunnits always hinge upon that fact, and Miller has also clearly seen iconic Japanese film Rashomon. And, considering that its big murder takes place after a school function, there's a touch of Big Little Lies at play, too. With his directing partner Phil Lord, Miller has made a career out of getting smart and funny with familiar parts, however, and that doesn't change here. The setup: at the afterparty following his 15-year high-school reunion, obnoxious autotune-abusing pop star Xavier (Franco) winds up dead on the rocks beneath his lavish mansion. Enter the determined Detective Danner (Haddish), who starts grilling his former classmates one by one to find out who's responsible. Her interrogations start with the sensible Aniq (the always-great Richardson), who was hoping to finally make a move on his schoolyard crush Zoe (Chao) — and after his version of events, Danner hears from Zoe's macho ex Brett (Barinholtz) in The Afterparty's second episode, then from Aniq's best bud Yasper (Schwartz, riffing on Parks and Recreation's Jean-Ralphio without being quite as ridiculous), and so on. The cast is top-notch, the writing is clever, there's much fun to be had with its genre- and perspective-bending premise, and the throwaway gags are simply glorious. The Afterparty is available to stream via Apple TV+. Read our full review. HEARTSTOPPER It only takes minutes for British newcomer Heartstopper to explain its title — showing rather than telling, as all great shows should. A year ten student at Truham Grammar School for Boys, Charlie Spring (first-timer Joe Locke) finds himself seated in his form class next to year 11 rugby player Nick Nelson (Kit Connor, Little Joe). Sparks fly on the former's part, swiftly and overwhelmingly, with the eight-part series' graphic-novel origins inspiring a flurry of fluttering animated hearts on-screen. But Charlie has a secret boyfriend, Ben (Sebastian Croft, Doom Patrol), who won't even acknowledge him in public. He also hardly thinks of himself as sporty, even after Nick asks him to join the school team. And, while a friendship quickly solidifies between the two, Charlie is initially unsure whether anything more can happen — and anxiety-riddled in general. As well as writing Heartstopper's source material — which initially started as a webcomic — Alice Oseman pens every episode of this perceptive teenage-focused gem. From the outset, it bubbles with heartwarming charm, while its coming-of-age story and central love story alike prove wholly relatable, aptly awkward but also wonderfully sweet and sensitive. In short, it's a series that plunges so convincingly and inclusively into its characters' experiences that it feels like its heart is constantly beating with affection for Charlie, Nick, and their fellow high-schoolers Tao (fellow debutant William Gao), Elle (Yasmin Finney), Isaac (Tobie Donovan), Tara (Corinna Brown, Daphne) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell). First crushes, young love, the swirling swell of emotions that comes with both and also figuring out who you are: all of this dances through Heartstopper's frames. Also, when Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter) pops up, she's glorious as always. Heartstopper is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. PREHISTORIC PLANET Five episodes, one comforting voice, and a time-travelling trip back 66 million years: that's the setup behind Prehistoric Planet, an utterly remarkable feels-like-you're-there dive into natural history. Having none other than David Attenborough narrate the daily activities of dinosaurs seems like it should've happened already, of course; however, now that it finally is occurring, it's always both wonderful and stunning. Filled with astonishing footage on par with the visuals that usually accompany Attenborough's nature docos, all thanks to the special effects team behind The Jungle Book and The Lion King, it truly is a wonder to look at. It needs to be: if the Cretaceous-era dinosaurs rampaging across the screen didn't appear like they genuinely could be walking and stalking — and fighting, foraging for food, hunting, flying, swimming and running as well — the magic that typically comes with watching an Attenborough-narrated doco would instantly and disappointingly vanish. Welcome to... your new insight into Tyrannosaurus rex foreplay, your latest reminder that velociraptors really don't look like they do in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World flicks, an entertaining time spent with al kinds of animals, and your next favourite dinosaur project with an Attenborough attached. Each of Prehistoric Planet's five instalments focuses on a different type of terrain — coasts, deserts, freshwater, ice and forests — and chats through the creatures that call it home. Set to a spirited original score by Hans Zimmer, fresh from winning his latest Oscar for Dune, there's a formula at work. That said, it's no more blatant than in any David Attenborough-hosted show. Viewers watch as some dinos look after their young, others try to find a mate, plenty search for something to eat and others attempt not to be eaten. The same kinds of activities are covered in each episode, but the locations and dinosaurs involved all change. Prehistoric Planet is available to stream via Apple TV+. Read our full review. LOOT Aptly given its title, new Apple TV+ sitcom Loot doesn't look cheap — or sound it. It's partly filmed in one of America's biggest private homes, an enormous mansion with 21 bedrooms, five pools, a bowling alley and a cinema. It's filled with well-known needle drops that come quickly and often, with one episode featuring three Daft Punk tracks alone. It couldn't scream louder or drip harder with excess; the series is about a mega-rich tech whiz's wife who gets $87 billion in their public and messy breakup, after all. And, it is inescapably made by a company that's a big technology behemoth itself, and has been splashing stacks of cash to build its streaming roster (see: The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, Severance, Physical, Prehistoric Planet, Foundation, The Shrink Next Door, Shining Girls, Slow Horses, Lisey's Story and more). Loot is also clearly a satire, however, and a canny, warm and funny one at that. The premise: amid being gifted a mega yacht for her birthday, then jumping to a party in that aforementioned sprawling home, Molly Novak (Maya Rudolph, Big Mouth) discovers that her husband John (Adam Scott, Severance) is cheating on her. Post-divorce, after that huge settlement and a stint of partying around the globe with her assistant Nicholas (Joel Kim Booster, Fire Island), she gets a call from Sofia Salinas (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Pose), the head of the foundation she's forgotten bears her name (and even exists). With Molly's drunken decadence all over the news, the charity is finding it difficult to do its work. So, the organisation's namesake decides to ditch the revelry — and her married moniker, becoming Molly Wells — and put all that dough to better use. She also commits to playing an active role in how her funds can truly help people. Loot is available to stream via Apple TV+. Read our full review. TOKYO VICE Seven years after making his most recent movie, aka 2015's Chris Hemsworth-starring Blackhat, one of America's best directors is finally back behind the lens. Thief, Heat, The Insider and Collateral filmmaker Michael Mann only helms Tokyo Vice's pilot, but what a tone-setting debut episode it is — as stylish and gritty a piece of television as you're likely to stream any time soon, in fact. Mann also serves as the eight-part book-to-screen series' executive producer, which explains why its slice of neon-lit Japanese-set noir always feels like it bears his fingerprints. Of course, the show isn't shy about its links to the director, who also executive produced the original 1980s TV series Miami Vice, and wrote and directed the 2006 big-screen remake. That said, Tokyo Vice's moniker actually stems from Jake Adelstein's memoir Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, about his years writing for Yomiuri Shimbun as a non-Japanese journalist. Nonetheless, everything about the HBO-backed program feels as if it was always fated to end up in Mann's hands. Adelstein was Yomiuri Shimbun's first foreign staff writer, with Tokyo Vice exploring his quest to cement himself inside the publication from the bottom up. As played by West Side Story's Ansel Elgort, Adelstein always stands out, as does his dogged determination to chase the stories he's explicitly instructed to ignore. Murders don't happen in Japan, he's told. What he's witnessing screams otherwise, though. So, he starts spending his own time investigating, befriending Tokyo organised crime division detective Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) for guidance, and also getting close to club hostess and fellow American-in-Tokyo Samantha Porter (Rachel Keller, Legion), plus jaded Yakuza enforcer Sato (Shô Kasamatsu, Love You as the World Ends). Elgort is the weakest part of the series, but that also suits the overall narrative and its focus on the city's underworld — and everything around him, including Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim: Uprising) and Hideaki Itô (Memoirs of a Murderer), is stellar. Tokyo Vice is available to stream via Paramount+. Read our full review. PACHINKO When novels are turned into movies, there's usually a sense that's something is missing, no matter how fantastic the film proves. That's understandable; when you compare the time it takes to unfurl a story on the page with the usual running time of a feature — even a lengthy one — not everything can make the leap from book to screen. Named for the gambling machines that fill Japanese arcades, Pachinko turns author and journalist Min Jin Lee's award-winning text into an eight-part series instead, and it's a canny and clever move. So too is getting filmmakers Kogonada and Justin Chon to direct four instalments apiece, both coming off fantastic work via After Yang and Blue Bayou respectively. And, adding to the smart and savvy choices made by this immediately engrossing series, which unfurls a sweeping, 20th century-set, multi-generational tale about struggle, resilience and endurance: casting always-wonderful Minari Oscar-winner Youn Yuh-jung — as well as newcomer Kim Min-ha as the younger version of her character. Youn and Kim play Sunja (and, as a child, first-timer Yuna does as well), who anchors a story that's both impressively sprawling and devastatingly intimate. As a girl, she grows up in Japanese-occupied Korea, a fact that shapes every part of her young life. When she's older, she moves to Japan — and by the time that she's a grandmother, that's where the bulk of her existence has unfolded. Jumping between different periods, Pachinko charts how the shadow of colonial rule has lingered over not just Sunja but the family she's brought into the world, including in the 80s where her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha, Devs) works in finance in New York and her son Mozasu (Soji Arai, Cobra Kai) has made his way thanks to the titular game. Splashing an epic story told with emotion, resonance, insight and elegance across the screen, this is at the pinnacle of novel-to-screen adaptations. Pachinko is available to stream via Apple TV+. SLOW HORSES One of several espionage-themed efforts hitting streaming this year — see also: the returning The Flight Attendant and movie All the Old Knives — Slow Horses gives the genre a pivotal switch and entertaining shake up. It's still a tense thriller, kicking off with an airport incident and then following a kidnapping, but it's also about the kind of spies that don't usually populate the on-screen world of covert operatives. Stationed away from the main MI5 base at a rundown, clandestine office called Slough House, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard) and his team are the agency's rejects. They haven't been fired for a multitude of reasons, however, including boasting ties to influential past employees, being great at their jobs but also a drunk and having impressive hacking skills yet proving impossible to get along with. Given the nickname that gives the show its moniker, usually they do little more than push paper, too, until they get caught up in a high-profile case. Oldman goes big and broad as Lamb, and he's also ceaselessly absorbing to watch, but Slow Horses isn't short on stars. In a six-episode first season adapted from Mick Herron's 2010 novel of the same name, Kristin Scott Thomas (Rebecca) plays MI5 Deputy Director-General Diana Taverner, Lamb's supremely competent head-office counterpart — although it's Jack Lowden (Fighting with My Family) and Olivia Cooke (Pixie) as young operatives River Cartwright and Sid Baker, and their efforts to chase down a lead they're not meant to, that's at the forefront. Behind the scenes, executive producer and writer Will Smith (not that one) brings a sly and witty way with dialogue from his past work on The Thick of It and Veep, making Slow Horses both crackingly suspenseful and tartly amusing. The slinky theme tune by Mick Jagger also helps set the mood — and season two is already in development. Slow Horses is available to stream via Apple TV+. THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH Who'd want to try to step into the one and only David Bowie's shoes? Only the brave and the bold. Two people earn that description in The Man Who Fell to Earth, the new TV sequel to the iconic 1976 movie that starred the music legend in the role he was clearly born to play: an alien who descends upon earth and ch-ch-changes history. Bill Nighy (Buckley's Chance) is charged with taking over the character of Thomas Jerome Newton and, thankfully and with style, he's up to the task. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) slides into the same kind of part that Bowie owned in the original, however, as fellow extra-terrestrial interloper Faraday. He's this follow-up's newcomer to the planet, and he's just as destined to do big things. That's not a spoiler — early in the first episode, Faraday addresses a massive crowd like he's Steve Jobs announcing Apple's latest product, and The Man Who Fell to Earth's tech success uses the occasion to spin his origin story. Who'd want to try to pick up where one of the best sci-fi films ever made left off? That'd also be the brave and the bold, aka Clarice creators Jenny Lumet and Alex Kurtzman. Drawing inspiration from silver screen gems is obviously the pair's niche of late, but it's worth remembering with this new effort — which takes its cues from Walter Tevis' 1963 novel of the same name, too — that Kurtzman was also behind exceptional 2008–13 sci-fi series Fringe. Indeed, The Man Who Fell to Earth 2.0 feels like the perfect use of his talents, with the series thinking big and brimming with urgency in its vision of a world that might only be able to be saved by a spaceboy who truly cares about stopping climate change's damage. To follow through with his mission, though, Faraday also needs the help of former MIT physics whiz Justin Falls (Naomie Harris, No Time to Die). The Man Who Fell to Earth is available to stream via Paramount+. OUTER RANGE Some shows commence with a dead girl wrapped in plastic. Others begin with a plane crash on a spooky island. With Outer Range, it all kicks off with a void. On the Abbott family ranch in Wyoming, in the western reach that gives the show its name, a chasm suddenly appears. A perfect circle swirling with otherworldly mist and resembling an oversized golf hole, it's just one of several troubles plaguing patriarch Royal (Josh Brolin, Dune), however. There is indeed a touch of Twin Peaks and Lost to Outer Range. A dash of Yellowstone, The Twilight Zone, The X-Files and whichever family-focused prime-time soap opera takes your fancy, too. As a result, while Royal is visibly disconcerted by the unexpected opening staring at him in an otherwise ordinary field in this intriguing, quickly entrancing and supremely well-acted eight-part series — a show that makes ideal use of Brolin especially — he has other worries. His rich, ostentatious and increasingly madcap neighbour Wayne Tillerson (Will Patton, Halloween Kills) suddenly wants a parcel of the Abbotts' turf, claiming mapping inaccuracies. One of Tillerson's mouthy and entitled sons, Trevor (Matt Lauria, CSI: Vegas), ends up in a bar spat with Royal's sons Rhett (Lewis Pullman, Top Gun: Maverick) and Perry (Tom Pelphrey, Mank). And there's also the matter of Perry's missing wife, who disappeared nine months back, leaving both her husband and their young daughter Amy (Olive Abercrombie, The Haunting of Hill House) searching since. Plus, into this sea of faith-testing chaos amid such serene and dreamlike scenery, a stranger arrives as well: "hippie chick" backpacker Autumn Rivers (Imogen Poots, The Father). She just wants to camp for a few days on the Abbotts' stunning and sprawling land, she says, but she's a key part in a show that's a ranch-dwelling western, an offbeat enigma, an eerie sci-fi, a detective quest and a thriller all at once. Outer Range is available to stream via Prime Video. Read our full review. THE DROPOUT Dramatising the Theranos scandal, eight-part miniseries The Dropout is one of several high-profile releases this year to relive a wild true-crime tale — including the Anna Delvey-focused Inventing Anna, about the fake German heiress who conned her way through New York City's elite, and also documentary The Tinder Swindler, which steps through defrauding via dating app at the hands of Israeli imposter Simon Leviev. It also dives into the horror-inducing Dr Death-esque realm, because when a grift doesn't just mess with money and hearts, but with health and lives, it's pure nightmare fuel. And, it's the most gripping of the bunch, even though we're clearly living in peak scandal-to-screen times. Scam culture might be here to stay as Inventing Anna told us in a telling line of dialogue, but it isn't enough to just gawk its way — and The Dropout and its powerful take truly understands this. To tell the story of Theranos, The Dropout has to tell the story of Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley biotech outfit's founder and CEO from the age of 19. Played by a captivating, career-best Amanda Seyfried — on par with her Oscar-nominated work in Mank, but clearly in a vastly dissimilar role — the Steve Jobs-worshipping Holmes is seen explaining her company's name early in its first episode. It's derived from the words "therapy" and "diagnosis", she stresses, although history already dictates that it offered little of either. Spawned from Holmes' idea to make taking blood simpler and easier, using just one drop from a small finger prick, it failed to deliver, lied about it copiously and still launched to everyday consumers, putting important medical test results in jeopardy. The Dropout is available to stream via Disney+. Read our full review. Looking for more viewing highlights? Check out our list of film and TV streaming recommendations, which is updated monthly. We also keep a running list of must-stream TV from across the year so far, complete with full reviews.
If a cinema date was on your agenda in the later months of 2024 or has been since 2025 began, then you might've seen an Oscar-nominee. When it comes to accolade-worthy flicks hitting screens, the films celebrated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences usually release closer to awards season and during it — and, in Australia, even once the year's official Oscar contenders have been named. Dune: Part Two, the first of duelling Timothée Chalamet movies vying for glory, is an exception among 2025's Academy-anointed picks, as audiences have had over a year to catch up with the spicy sci-fi sequel. A Complete Unknown, with Timmy as Bob Dylan, demonstrates the normal trend perfectly, though — and you'll need to get cosy in your local cinema right now to enjoy it. They're just two of 2025's Oscar-contending features and documentaries that Australians can enjoy this very instant. In total, if you're eager to give nominated flicks the Pokémon catch-them-all approach — whether they will, could or should win — there's 33 currently available in the lead up to Hollywood's night of nights. Ahead of the recipients being revealed on Monday, March 3, here's where to see them. Watching epic dramas on big screen, diving into powerful and haunting docos at home, deciding whether to defy gravity in a crowd or on your own couch: they're all options. On the Big Screen: A Complete Unknown Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (James Mangold), Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet), Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton), Best Supporting Actress (Monica Barbaro), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design Our thoughts: This Timothée Chalamet (Dune: Part Two) passion project took more than half a decade to come to fruition. With its 60s setting, focusing on the period from Bob Dylan's arrival in New York City to going electric at the Newport Folk Festival, a sense of time is always visible A Complete Unknown; however, that also applies to the years that its star has had to perfect his lead part. Benefiting from such a hefty preparation block, this is as committed a performance as Chalamet has given — and one that director James Mangold (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) always lets shine as the film explores an icon's talents, ambitions and quest to remain himself. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas. Read our interviews with Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, James Mangold and Boyd Holbrook. The Brutalist Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Brady Corbet), Best Actor (Adrien Brody), Best Supporting Actor (Guy Pearce), Best Supporting Actress (Felicity Jones), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Production Design Our thoughts: Since switching from acting to writing and directing, Brady Corbet hasn't lacked in ambition for a second — but as excellent as both Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux are, his third feature towers above them. With Adrien Brody (Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty) as Hungarian Jewish architect László Toth, The Brutalist is as epic as a three-and-a-half-hour drama about trying to escape life's horrors, including those of the Holocaust, by chasing the American dream can be. The buildings designed by its protagonist aren't the only things that are monumental here, career-best turns by Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones among them. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas. Read our interview with Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones and Brady Corbet. Emilia Pérez Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Jacques Audiard), Best Actress (Karla Sofía Gascón), Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña), Best International Feature Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Original Song — 'Mi Camino' by Camille and Clément Ducol, Best Original Song — 'El Mal' by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard Our thoughts: As it follows its namesake character's (Karla Sofía Gascón, Harina) journey from cartel leader to trying to live her authentic life, Emilia Pérez isn't just a musical and a crime drama rolled into one. It's also a melodrama — and French filmmaker Jacques Audiard (Paris, 13th District) goes bold in leaning in, and in embracing the juxtapositions of the movie's three main genres as they jostle against each other. That audacity, that willingness to be both spectacular and messy, and the feature's three key performances, including from Zoe Saldaña (Special Ops: Lioness) and Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building): they all assist in making this vivid viewing. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas. I'm Still Here Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (Fernanda Torres), Best International Feature Film Our thoughts: It came as no surprise when Fernanda Torres (Fim) won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Eunice Paiva in Walter Salles' (On the Road) deeply moving political and personal drama. Her understated yet also expressive performance as the real-life wife of Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello, Bury Your Dead), who was taken away by Brazil's military dictatorship in 1971 and never seen again, is that powerful. I'm Still Here poignantly charts the task of trying to endure under such heartbreaking circumstances — under oppressive rule, when your existence crumbles, when your family is fraying courtesy of the trauma and when fighting back is the only choice, too. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas. Maria Nominations: Best Cinematography Our thoughts: Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín (El Conde). Pivotal women from the 20th century. Phenomenal actors giving their utmost to their parts. That's proven a winning combination three times now, with Maria following Jackie and Spencer. Unlike Natalie Portman (Lady in the Lake) as Jacqueline Kennedy and Kristen Stewart (Love Lies Bleeding) as Princess Diana, Angelina Jolie (Eternals) mightn't have earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination, but she's captivating in every second — in diva mode, but also both soulful and yearning — as opera singer Maria Callas, as the exquisitely shot film (by El Conde's Edward Lachman) charts the week before her death in 1977. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas. The Seed of the Sacred Fig Nominations: Best International Feature Film Our thoughts: Making movies isn't easy; however, there's regular challenges and there's the situation that Mohammad Rasoulof faces. For his art, for documenting the reality of life in Iran today and for showing it to the world, prison sentences and filmmaking bans have come his way. The Seed of the Sacred Fig isn't pivotal viewing just because of what it took to create — in secret, with Rasoulof directing remotely — and how its guiding force is treated by the Iranian regime, though. Observing how a family unravels when an investigating judge's wife and daughters push back amid the country's 2022–23 protests, this is another statement of film from the There Is No Evil helmer. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas. Read our interview with Mohammad Rasoulof. September 5 Nominations: Best Original Screenplay Our thoughts: Before First Cow, Past Lives, The Agency and plenty more, among John Magaro's first on-screen jobs was playing an extra in Munich. Two decades later, he turns in one of September 5's many compelling performances (see also: Presumed Innocent's Peter Sarsgaard, Mrs Davis' Ben Chaplin and The Teachers' Lounge's Leonie Benesch) in another potent drama about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics. Filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum (The Colony) views this chapter of history through the efforts of the ABC Sports crew, whose coverage pivoted and made history — and his tense procedural journalism thriller is both stirring and gripping. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas. Sing Sing Nominations: Best Actor (Colman Domingo), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song — 'Like a Bird' by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada Our thoughts: In the maximum-security prison that gives Greg Kwedar's (Transpecos) affecting and inspiring second feature its title, the aim of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program is right there in its own moniker. For the real-life scheme to inspire a new cinema masterpiece, an on-screen masterclass in empathy and a tribute to being moved by art, surely wasn't an initial goal. As Divine G, one of the incarcerated man finding purpose through staging theatre productions with his fellow inmates, Colman Domingo (The Madness) is astonishing — as is Clarence Maclin, a former detainee at the NYC facility who plays himself as the movie mixes actors with amateurs. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas. In Cinemas or at Home: Anora Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Sean Baker), Best Actress (Mikey Madison), Best Supporting Actor (Yura Borisov), Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing Our thoughts: Along with playfulness, empathy, and an eagerness to look beyond the usual characters and pockets of America that tend to grace narrative cinema, tenderness is one Sean Baker's special skills, as splashed across his filmography. It's in Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket, and now Anora. Spotting Cinderella elements and riffs on Pretty Woman aren't hard with this movie about a Brooklyn erotic dancer (Mikey Madison, Lady in the Lake) who liaises with and is soon wed to the son (Mark Eydelshteyn, Zhar-ptitsa) of a Russian oligarch (Aleksey Serebryakov, Lotereya) — but just as Ani is always her own person, the magnificent Anora is always a Baker film. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas, and via Apple TV and Prime Video. A Real Pain Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Kieran Culkin), Best Original Screenplay Our thoughts: He didn't feature on-screen in his first film as a writer/director, but 2022's When You Finish Saving the World couldn't have sprung from anyone but Jesse Eisenberg. Neither could've 2024's A Real Pain. Both explore the fact that experiencing our own pain, big or small, world-shattering or seemingly trivial, or personal or existential, is never a minor matter. In the latter, the Fleishman Is in Trouble actor plays the anxious part, and literally. His character is a bundle of nerves about and during his pilgrimage to Poland with his cousin (Kieran Culkin, Succession) to honour of their grandmother, who survived the Second World War, then started a new life in the US. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas, and via Disney+, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review and our interview with Jesse Eisenberg. Better Man Nominations: Best Visual Effects Our thoughts: Most music biopics want the figure in its spotlight to remain front and centre. Better Man doesn't stray from the formula there. The bulk of films in the genre also want audiences to always recognise the star in focus, which is where this Australian-made look at Robbie Williams' career makes a huge departure. It's the spirit of the former Take That member that shines through in Jonno Davies' motion-capture performance, as Williams is rendered on-screen as a chimpanzee. For The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey, it works, so much so that it's now impossible to imagine a feature about the singer done any other way. Let me entertain you indeed. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas, and via Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our interview with Jonno Davies and Michael Gracey. Conclave Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Ralph Fiennes), Best Supporting Actress (Isabella Rossellini), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Production Design Our thoughts: Cardinals, they're just like everyone else seeking power — bickering, gossiping, scheming, fighting and trying to find their way to the top by any means possible, that is. Aided by a stellar cast (including The Return's Ralph Fiennes, Citadel's Stanley Tucci, The Old Man's John Lithgow and Spaceman's Isabella Rossellini) answering viewers' prayers, filmmaker Edward Berger swaps World War I's horrors in All Quiet on the Western Front for a pulpy and twisty but smart page-to-screen papal thriller about electing a new pope. He hasn't completely switched thematically, though: how tradition and modernity butt against each other also remains the director's focus. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas, and via Apple TV and Prime Video. Gladiator II Nominations: Best Costume Design Our thoughts: Swords, sandals, spectacle, scale, sharks in more ways than one — including literally — and Denzel Washington (The Equalizer 3) having a scenery-chewing ball: welcome to Ridley Scott's 24-years-later follow-up to Gladiator. Helming his fourth feature of the 2020s after The Last Duel, House of Gucci and Napoleon, the veteran filmmaker has taken the sequel-as-remake approach with Gladiator II, but sports the style and stars to largely pull it off, with Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers), Pedro Pascal (The Wild Robot), Connie Nielsen (Origin), Fred Hechinger (Kraven the Hunter) and Joseph Quinn (A Quiet Place: Day One) also great among the latter. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas, and via Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our interview with Paul Mescal, Connie Nielsen and Fred Hechinger. Nosferatu Nominations: Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design Our thoughts: The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman filmmaker Robert Eggers turned Nosferatu into a play as a teen. Consider his big-screen remake of FW Murnau's 1922 classic a second bite, then. His fastidious fixation with detail and recreating past eras with painstaking precision is on full and glorious display, as is his way with unnerving eerieness. As Count Orlok in a tale that began as an unauthorised Dracula adaptation a century ago, Bill Skarsgård (Boy Kills World) is commanding, while Renfield's Nicholas Hoult and Shadow of the Vampire's Willem Dafoe make welcome bloodsucker returns, but it's Lily-Rose Depp (The Idol) who truly haunts. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas, and via Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our interview with Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Robert Eggers. Wicked Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (Cynthia Erivo), Best Supporting Actress (Ariana Grande), Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects Our thoughts: As a theatre-kid obsession for decades, it was long likely that the big-screen adaptation of Wicked — a movie based on a musical springing from a book that offered a prequel to a film that walked the celluloid road 85 years prior, itself jumping from the page to the screen — would have big theatre-kid energy as it attempted to ensure that its magic enchants across mediums. No one would ever want a muted version, after all. It was true of his take on In the Heights and it's accurate again here: Jon M Chu has a knack as a filmmaker of stage hits reaching cinemas, matching the vibe of the show that he's taking on expertly. Where to watch: In Australian cinemas, and via Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review and our interview with Nathan Crowley. Via Streaming: A Different Man Nominations: Best Makeup and Hairstyling Our thoughts: 2024 was the year that Sebastian Stan (Dumb Money) played men chasing a dream that turns out to be a nightmare — and that musing on what it takes to accept yourself and ignore the world's feedback, and whether external change can bring about an internal transformation, was gripping movie viewing more than once. Hailing from writer/director Aaron Schimberg (Chained for Life), A Different Man is an exceptional example of both. When Stan's Edward Lemuel undertakes an experimental treatment for neurofibromatosis, his disfigurement disappears; however, his hopes for stardom and love can't be grasped that easily. Where to watch: Via Binge, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. Alien: Romulus Nominations: Best Visual Effects Our thoughts: Don't trust your employer. While that isn't the sole takeaway message from 45 years of Alien movies, it's a biting aspect of the sci-fi/horror saga nonetheless. In space, Weylan-Yutani Corp workers keep screaming and the company doesn't simply refuse to hear them; in the battle between killer extra-terrestrial creatures and the outfit's employees, it puts the former first. Under Fede Álvarez's (The Girl in the Spider's Web) direction, watching how that plays out in Alien: Romulus for Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny, Civil War), the latest to glean that she doesn't mean anything beyond labour to the source of her paycheque, isn't quite the perfect organism — but it's engaging. Where to watch: Via Disney+, Apple TV and Prime Video. The Apprentice Nominations: Best Actor (Sebastian Stan), Best Supporting Actor (Jeremy Strong) Our thoughts: The Apprentice was always going to be a horror movie. The world already knows its subject, and is familiar with where his path has taken him since the 70s- and 80s-era chapters of his life that are covered by Ali Abbasi's (Holy Spider) compelling film. Sebastian Stan (Dumb Money) and Jeremy Strong (in his first post-Succession role) proving phenomenal in a movie that's unshakeable: that too feels inevitable. The fact that this is a Frankenstein's monster story, too, was perhaps less expected — but by focusing on Donald Trump's (Stan) mentorship by New York City attorney and political fixer Roy Cohn (Strong) when the former was an aspiring real-estate tycoon, it fits. Where to watch: Via Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our interview with Ali Abbasi. Black Box Diaries Nominations: Best Documentary Feature Our thoughts: It's easy to wish for a world where Black Box Diaries didn't need to exist — where its director and subject, journalist Shiori Itō, wasn't sexually assaulted, then forced to investigate the attack herself because the Japanese police declined to pursue the high-profile culprit. The reality, though, is that in a country where only four percent of sexual assaults end up going through the justice system, many women are in the same situation, even if they can't and/or don't pick up a camera. Itō knows that fact as she courageously shares her story, and attempts to ensure that what she went through isn't buried. Filled with vulnerability and determination, this is devastating viewing. Where to watch: Via DocPlay. Dune: Part Two Nominations: Best Picture, Best, Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects Our thoughts: Revenge is a dish best served sandy in Dune: Part Two. On the desert planet of Arrakis, where golden hills as far as the eye can see are shaped from the most-coveted and -psychedelic substance in author Frank Herbert's estimation, there's no other way. Vengeance is just one course on Paul Atreides' (Timothée Chalamet, Wonka) menu, however. Pop culture's supreme spice boy, heir to the stewardship of his adopted realm, has a prophecy to fulfil whether he likes it or not; propaganda to navigate, especially about him being the messiah; and an Indigenous population, the Fremen, to prove himself to. So mines Denis Villeneuve's soaring sequel to 2021's Dune. Where to watch: Via Netflix, Binge, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review and our interview with Greig Fraser. Elton John: Never Too Late Nominations: Best Original Song — 'Never Too Late' by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin Our thoughts: It started in 2018. It finished in 2023. Across that five-year period, it came to Australia twice. Elton John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, his final string of live shows around the world, saw him say goodbye to hitting the stage after five decades — a decision that documentary Elton John: Never Too Late digs into. This is a celebratory film rather than a deep dive, and somehow not as intimate as viewers should expect of a movie co-directed by the music icon's husband David Furnish (who also helmed 1997's Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras, and works with Martha and Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry filmmaker RJ Cutler hear), but the music is still a treat. Where to watch: Via Disney+. Inside Out 2 Nominations: Best Animated Feature Film Our thoughts: They're basic: joy, sadness, fear, disgust and anger, that is, the five emotions that swirled inside human heads in Pixar's 2015 hit Inside Out. In Inside Out 2, that quintet of feelings isn't enough to cope with being a teenager, which is where anxiety, envy, ennui and embarrassment come in. The newcomers arrive with the onset of puberty. They have no time for simple happiness; they've levelled up some of the emotions adjacent to sorrow, fright, dismay and fury, too. Inside Out was always an all-ages ode to mindfulness, as is its sequel — and discovering how to accept and acknowledge apprehension, unease and nerves is here, like in life, a complicated balancing act. Where to watch: Via Disney+, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Nominations: Best Visual Effects Our thoughts: Since day one, every Planet of the Apes tale has been a mirror. Gazing into the sci-fi series means seeing the power structures and societal struggles of our reality staring back — discrimination, authoritarianism and even the impact of a world-ravaging virus should ring a bell — but with humans no longer atop the pecking order. These are allegorical stories and, at their best, thoughtful ones, probing the responsibilities of being the planet's dominant force and the ramifications of taking that mantle for granted. Not every instalment has handled the task as well as it should've, but those, that do like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, leave a paw print. Where to watch: Via Disney+, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. Memoir of a Snail Nominations: Best Animated Feature Film Our thoughts: Fifteen years is a long time between features. Films by Australian stop-motion animator Adam Elliot — movies that he calls "clayographies" — also aren't quick to make. But Memoir of a Snail rewards the wait, with the Mary and Max writer/director again using his preferred medium to process life's heartbreaks, struggles, joys and delights in stunning fashion. Sarah Snook (Succession) voices Grace Pudel, twin to Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee, Disclaimer) and later friend to the elderly Pinky (Jacki Weaver, Hello Tomorrow!). Grace reflects upon her existence from childhood onwards, and her journey towards living for herself, to share this immensely affecting story. Where to watch: Via Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our interview with Adam Elliot. Nickel Boys Nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay Our thoughts: Cinema's function as an empathy machine places viewers into someone else's shoes for 90 or so minutes at a time. Adapting Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, director RaMell Ross (Hale County This Morning, This Evening) doesn't leave that sensation to chance in this impressionistic standout. As shot by Jomo Fray (All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt), Nickel Boys' extraordinary cinematography adopts a first-person perspective, ensuring that the audience sees and hears the world as Elwood (Ethan Herisse, The American Society of Magical Negroes) and Turner (Brandon Wilson, Murmur) do when they're sent to an abusive reform school. Where to watch: Via Prime Video. No Other Land Nominations: Best Documentary Feature Our thoughts: In No Other Land, Basel Adra films what he knows but wishes that he doesn't — and what he knows that the world needs to see. Co-directing with Israeli investigative journalist Yuval Abraham, plus farmer and photographer Hamdan Ballal and cinematographer Rachel Szor, the Palestinian activist chronicles the takeover of the West Bank region of Masafer Yatta for an Israeli military base. As a result, families with centuries of ties to the land are forced to live in caves, battle soldiers and fight to survive. Making this documentary is an act of bravery of the highest order. Watching it, and bearing witness as Adra demands, couldn't be more essential. Where to watch: Via DocPlay. Porcelain War Nominations: Best Documentary Feature Our thoughts: Art can be a radical act — a fight, a show of defiance, a countering to oppression and devastation — and this truth can be baked into a documentary's very existence (see: Black Box Diaries and No Other Land for just two recent examples). The moving and powerful Porcelain War also shows this idea in action in Ukraine, against the backdrop of its devastated landscape under the current Russian occupation. In this Sundance 2024 US Documentary Grand Jury Prize-winner, filmmakers Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev capture the latter's efforts with Anya Stasenko to craft porcelain figurines while they're part of the Ukrainian defense. Where to watch: Via DocPlay. The Six Triple Eight Nominations: Best Original Song — 'The Journey' by Diane Warren Our thoughts: The ever-prolific Tyler Perry directed not one, not two, but three films in 2024: thrillers Mea Culpa and Divorce in the Black, plus the World War II-set The Six Triple Eight. The last of the otherwise-unrelated trio brings the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion to the screen — the only all-Black US Women's Army Corps dispatched overseas during the conflict. In the lead, Kerry Washington (Unprisoned) is a highlight. Perry helms with great intentions, honouring women who history shouldn't be permitted to forget. But none of that translates to an impressive feature, even with Oprah Winfrey (A Wrinkle in Time) adding to her acting resume. Where to watch: Via Netflix. Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat Nominations: Best Documentary Feature Our thoughts: The Cold War. Jazz greats, including Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Melba Liston. America's operations through the CIA in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when it was newly independent from Belgium. Across two-and-a-half hours in essay style, Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez's (Blue Orchids) inventive and engaging — and thorough and dense — documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat explains how they're all connected, plus the 1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba and much more as well. It has the soundtrack, of course, as well as smarts, pace, thrills and a probing look both backwards and forward. Where to watch: Via DocPlay. The Substance Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Coralie Fargeat), Best Actress (Demi Moore), Best Original Screenplay, Best Makeup and Hairstyling Our thoughts: If you suddenly looked like society's ideal, how would it change your life? The Substance asks this. With Revenge's Coralie Fargeat leading the charge on her long-awaited sophomore feature and earning Cannes' Best Screenplay Award for her troubles, the result is a new body-horror masterpiece. Pump it up: the sci-fi concept; the stunning command of sound, vision and tone; the savagery and smarts; the gonzo willingness to keep pushing and parodying; the gore (and there's gore); and the career-reviving performance from Demi Moore (Landman), who'll now always be remembered as newly 50-year-old actor and TV host Elisabeth Sparkle. Where to watch: Via Stan, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. Sugarcane Nominations: Best Documentary Feature Our thoughts: In 1981, more than a century after it was founded, the Catholic Church-run St Joseph's Mission residential school in British Columbia, Canada closed its doors. Reports of abuse swirled long before its shuttering, in some cases backed up by investigations and trials. Four decades afterwards, unmarked graves were discovered — and more distressing stories emerged, including of pregnancies resulting from sexual assaults and covered up. This is personal for Julian Brave NoiseCat, who co-directs the sensitively, potently, astutely and movingly told Sugarcane with fellow feature-length first-timer Emily Kassie: his father and grandmother are both part of this tale. Where to watch: Via Disney+. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Nominations: Best Animated Feature Film Our thoughts: Break out the Wensleydale cheese: Wallace & Gromit is back. The first film, short or feature-length, about the kind-hearted inventor (Ben Whitehead) and his beagle since 2008's A Matter of Loaf and Death — TV's Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention did pop up for six episodes in 2010, though — sees its namesakes targeted by penguin Feather McGraw on a quest for revenge. Despite the long break between screen outings, Aardman Animation's main duo have lost none of their charm. A delight of an all-ages flick, it's both humorous and heartfelt, nails its slapstick silliness, and even makes clever use of a robotic garden gnome. Where to watch: Via Netflix. The Wild Robot Nominations: Best Animated Feature Film, Best Original Score, Best Sound Our thoughts: A favourite on the page first, The Wild Robot is now an all-time gem on the screen. Boasting extraordinarily emotive voicework from Lupita Nyong'o (A Quiet Place: Day One), beautiful hand-painted forest imagery inspired by Studio Ghibli, assured direction from How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods' Chris Sanders, and a rousing score by Kris Bowers (Bridgerton) will do that. Story-wise, it spends time with Roz, aka ROZZUM unit 7134, after the android ends up on an animal-filled island and learns that there's more to existence than following your programming — and, in the process, The Wild Robot proves tender, warm and enchanting. Where to watch: Via Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our interview with Lupita Nyong'o and Chris Sanders. The winners of the 2025 Oscars will be announced on Monday, March 3, Australian time. For further details, head to the awards' website. Wondering what will, should and could win? Check out our predictions in 11 key categories.
Walking through a cathedral made of 100,000-plus lights, moseying beneath a canopy of glowing multi-coloured trees, wandering between ribbons of flashing beams — you'll be able to do all of this when Lightscape heads to Australia for the first time in 2022. Originally meant to debut Down Under in 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic, the after-dark light festival will be taking over the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria — Melbourne from Friday, June 24–Sunday, August 7, beaming away from 5.15pm Wednesday–Sunday. While the leafy Birdwood Avenue spot is already extremely scenic, to say that Lightscape will be brightening up the place is quite the understatement. Prepare to see the garden illuminated by immersive and large-scale installations scattered along a 1.8-kilometre route, including sparkling trees, luminous walkways and bursts of colour that look like fireworks. A big highlight: large-scale works like Winter Cathedral, the aforementioned installation that'll feature more than 100,000 globes and make you feel like you're being bathed in radiance. Lightscape comes to Australia after taking over gardens across the United Kingdom and the United States. Developed by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK, it's understandably proven a huge success — and more than two-million people wandered along its glowing trails last season. In Melbourne, Lightscape will also commission local artists to create works that'll celebrate the city's culture and nature — giving the after-dark light festival a local touch. Fingers crossed for pop-up food and drink stalls scattered throughout — selling, we hope, mulled wine to keep hands warm during the chilly winter nights. Lightscape will light up Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne, from Friday, June 24–Sunday, August 7. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the event's website.
Here's a problem that absolutely no one will ever complain about: needing to fill not one, not two, but three long weekends all in a row. That's what Brisbanites are experiencing right now, and we're right smack bang in the middle of it — and that's all the excuse that W Brisbane needs to throw a party. The opulent hotel's fourth-level rooftop pool and wet deck area frequently gets a workout — whenever it can find a reason to throw a shindig, really. The excuse now: lapping up the cruisy long-weekend vibes, drinking cocktails and Hard Fizz, and dancing to DJs. That's all on the agenda from 2–4pm on Sunday, April 24, with DJ Chunky and DJ Carter on the decks. Entry is free, but you'll be paying for whatever you drink — and eat, with the venue's regular snack range on offer, including lobster chipotle tacos, smoked trout bruschetta and chocolate ANZAC cookie ice cream sandwiches.
If you've always thought that Brisbane could use a twice-yearly food market that doubles as a pop-up arts and culture festival, rejoice — you're in luck. Taking place at Brisbane Powerhouse, Night Feast is that event, debuting from Wednesday, March 1–Sunday, March 26 with a neon-lit riverside setup. First, the food. Longrain's Martin Boetz, e'cco Bistro's Philip Johnson, Lyndon Tyers at Donna Chang and Tuan Nguyen at Ngon, plus Lek Senee from Lek's Thai and Patricio Sarno from Mary Mae's Kitchen & Bar are all on the bill — and City Winery's vino thanks to winemaker Dave Cush. You can also look forward to dishes from Taro's Ramen and Ham on Rye, as well as from Saison Salumi and Wine & Dine Em. Plus, chef Anchalee Kasurin is whipping up poffertjes pancakes. Operating 4.30–9.30pm from Wednesday–Sunday in its first two weeks — then starting at 2pm on Saturdays and Sundays from Saturday, March 18 — all at the Powerhouse forecourt and its surrounding parks, Night Feast's first-ever run will survey Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Italian, Greek, modern Australian cuisine and more across 20-plus gourmet food stalls. Communal feasting is one of Night Feast's big focuses — and getting the restaurants taking part in Night Feast to dish up the absolute top thing on their menus is another. That means tucking into their signature dishes, but by the river in New Farm. Night Feast will also feature an open fire pit for roasting and a dedicated dessert bar, plus cocktails and a top-notch wine list to wash it all down with. But, the food side of the program is just one of the highlights. The arts and music program looks just as ace, giant illuminated humanoids and laser beams that look like intergalactic events included. Those towering glowing figures come courtesy of Amanda Parer's Fantastic Planet, which has been to Brisbane before alongside other the artist's past works such as Intrude, What's That and Lost. And those lasers are the product of Australian audiovisual artist Robin Fox. His site-specific Brisbane Constellation is all sound and light, as aided by a matrix of crystal refractors. The aim: to make you hear what you see and feel. Attendees will also enjoy Zimoun's symphony made with everyday materials; Rising Lotus, a series of large triangular sculptures that'll loom over the venue; the refracted sunlight-focused Tower; Theatre of Thunder's Succulenticca, aka costumed creatures roving around; and an old-school gaming den courtesy of Netherworld. Or, via Swiss site-performance designer and fog artist Tom Mùller, Steam Works will deploy four large industrial fog generators to pump out steam twice a day, in a piece that responds to Brisbane Powerhouse's industrial past. The music roster features Akala Newman, GLVES, Lucy Francesca Dron, Mark Crotti and Nicole McKinney on different dates, plus Paris Irwin, Paulina and the QUIVR DJS. Images: Markus Ravik / Lachlan Douglas.
UPDATE, October 29, 2020: Halloween is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. The boogeyman is back, and his warped face mask, stolen mechanic's overalls and gleaming kitchen knife too. But Michael Myers' return isn't the entire point of the latest (and second greatest) Halloween. While the creepy convicted killer stalks the streets of Haddonfield, Illinois as if he's never left, Jamie Lee Curtis' resourceful and determined Laurie Strode is back as well — and in the current version of events, she's spent four decades preparing for this very moment. Once a 17-year-old babysitter targeted by an escaped criminal asylum patient on October 31, Laurie is now a silver-haired, gun-toting grandmother. Living in a compound-like property in her hometown, she's so intent on facing her attacker that she has dedicated years to this very purpose. Laurie's now-adult daughter Karen (Judy Greer) resents her for the impact that it had on her childhood, while teenage granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) is caring but concerned. Regardless, Laurie knows that Michael will come for her — and when he again breaks free en route to a new psychiatric facility, she's proven accurate. Carnage ensues, just as it did in John Carpenter's original slasher classic. As Haddonfield trick-or-treats like it's any other Halloween in any other place, Michael adds more notches to his body count, Laurie lies in wait and Allyson follows in her grandmother's footsteps like it's 40 years earlier. Directed by David Gordon Green (Stronger) and co-written with frequent collaborator Danny McBride, 2018's Halloween knows how to incite bumps, jumps and screams, many of which will be gloriously familiar to seasoned Halloween buffs. But, with Carpenter's blessing and a new musical score from the horror maestro and composer, this take on the franchise also knows how to carve its own path. Now reaching its 11th instalment, Halloween unleashes the series' fourth different timeline, ignoring everything else except the initial 1978 flick. Black Mirror just announced that it's making a choose-your-own-adventure episode, but this franchise has been doing it for decades. Viewers can pick the cultish thread that eventually connects the first five sequels (including the Michael-free Halloween III: Season of the Witch), Laurie's first big return in Halloween: H20 and its terrible follow-up Halloween: Resurrection, or Rob Zombie's two remakes, however the series' next chapter is the most thrilling, perceptive and satisfying. Green and McBride are clearly fond of Carpenter's seminal work, stripping the saga's underlying suburban nightmare back to its terrifying basics, while contemplating the consequences of terrible trauma. Their film recognises the scariest fact of life: that truly awful things happen for absolutely no reason, and that they cast a dark shadow. That makes 2018's Halloween a powerful account of the ways that horrific acts shape the lives of survivors, as well as a celebration of women rallying to reclaim their own story. Nothing robs inexplicable terror of its potency quite like its intended victims refusing to be defined by fear. Thankfully, this Halloween isn't just thoughtful — it's thoroughly entertaining, even when it's hitting recognisable notes. Balancing the old and the new is a game that this sequel plays as well as Michael plays cat-and-mouse, from subverting genre tropes initially established by the series, to lovingly nodding to its many predecessors. When the true crime podcasters (played by Jefferson Hall and Rhian Rees) who kickstart the film's narrative visit Haddonfield's cemetery, and when Laurie calls new doctor Sartain (Haluk Bilginer) the "new Loomis", franchise devotees will want to cheer. When the movie turns Laurie into Michael's boogeyman, rather than vice versa, everyone will want to applaud. Of course, as plenty of horror shockers have demonstrated over the last 40 years — including a few Halloween follow-ups — it's not enough to simply work through the Halloween checklist. While 2018's Halloween does that with finesse and fondness that goes beyond mere fan service,it also feels the part thanks to its unsettling atmosphere and ample blood splatter. There's lingering menace in Michael Simmonds' (Nerve) cinematography, both when it's mirroring old shots from the original and bringing its own flourishes. Collaborating with his son Cody and godson Daniel Davies, Carpenter's score reworks the iconic synth and piano-heavy music that has served the series so well, but with a suitably bleaker tone. They both contribute to the sequel that Carpenter's seminal picture has deserved for all of these years. That said, 2018's Halloween does present a conundrum. It's the perfect culmination to the long-running franchise but, more than any other chapter, it leaves the audience pumped for more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL_I2vNwkXQ
Humans spend roughly a third of their life sleeping. Aside from the occasional drunken night or camping trip, most of this sleeping is done in a bed. So why, then, are such important objects in our lives often so commonplace and dull? Beds can be used to express our inner self, to represent our deepest loves or simply help us wake up and get going in the morning. Here are 20 of the most creative and eccentric designs that are sure to put a smile on your face. 1. The Stand Up Bed Thanks to this novel bed, which resembles a large vertical bean bag, sleeping while standing is apparently very possible. 2. The Floating Bed This magnetically charged floating bed by Janjaap Ruijssenaars not only looks incredibly chic and contemporary, but also would make it very hard for any monsters to hide underneath it. 3. The Rocking Bed The 'Private Cloud' is a a patented rocking frame designed by Manuel Kloker, which will be sure to lull you into a serene sleep every night. 4. The Sonic Bed Kaffe Matthew's Sonic bed probably isn't exactly designed to provide a good night's sleep, created with 12-channel surround sound speakers encased around the edges to cover every cell of your body with musical beats. 5. The Forest Bed For those who want to have a sense of being out in the wild whilst remaining in the comfort of their own bed, this exotic wooden bed would be the one for you. 6. The Safe Bed This 'Quantum Sleeper' is the ultimate in protection for those paranoid about the threat of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, kidnappers or any variation therein. 7. The Starfish Bed Known as the 'Hold Me Bed', this structure will ensure that you overcome those restless nights of tossing and turning because, well, you won't be able to move a muscle. 8. The Hay Bed Some people have such an affinity for hay they simply want to be surrounded by it when awake and asleep. 9. The Yin and Yang Bed If you believe you've found your absolute soulmate but can't handle sleeping next to them for whatever reason, perhaps this next bed will provide the solution to your problems. 10. The Sandwich Bed You are what you eat, right? 11. The Hammock Bed Everybody loves the tranquil and relaxing sensation induced by the gentle swinging and folding of a hammock. 12. The Pull-Down Bed If you are crammed for space due to a small apartment or want another handy spare bed that doesn't waste the space of a whole room, then this innovative and nifty pull-down bed is the way to go. 13. The Molecular Bed Scientists, sportspeople or ball-lovers will be sure to enjoy this bed made of 120 soft and pleasant balls. 14. The Cinderella Bed Perfectly suited to little princesses with large imaginations and a love for fairytales. 15. The Foetal Position Bed This bed doesn't leave much margin for movement - that is unless you want to end up snuggling up with the floorboards. 16. The Bird Nest Bed This large pit of soft pillows encased in a brown, nest-like structure is a novel way to help kids nod off to sleep. 17. The Geometric Bed If you want to keep the brain cells flowing even when getting some shut-eye, perhaps this bed with a modern geometric structure attached to it is the perfect way to achieve just that. 18. The Brush Bed This bed looks like it would be jabbing uncomfortable protrusions from every angle. 19. The Book Bed Let imaginations soar with this creative life-sized book that also doubles as a bed. 20. The Napping Pod Cure that threethirtyitis by grabbing a quick nap in one of these high-tech napping pods.
They like jumpsuits, one name and living in the same suburb. That's The Kates' quick description of themselves, and of their fame as The Kates, as they've been known ever since The Katering Show proved the funniest thing on the small screen in 2015. Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney didn't start their careers together, but they've become Australia's comedy queens by proving a razor-sharp, whip-smart duo — first while satirising cooking shows in a webseries that was picked up by the ABC for its second season; then by taking on morning television with fellow pitch-perfect two-season parody Get Krack!n; and now with Prime Video's Deadloch, which started streaming its Tasmania-set comedic murder-mystery on Friday, June 2. "There were so many Kates in the show," McCartney notes of their latest project, which The Kates originally gave the working title Funny Broadchurch. One such Kate: Wentworth and Rake's Kate Box, who plays one half of reluctant detective duo in Deadloch's titular small town opposite The Breaker Upperers' Madeleine Sami. "Kate Anderson was our special makeup effects artist. Katie Robertson, Katie Milwright — Katie Robertson is on the show, Kate Milwright was one of the cinematographers — and we had another Kate, Kate Fox, doing locations," McCartney continues. "It was basically if your name was Kate…" adds McLennan, "then you got a job," finishes McCartney. Sami "is in the process of getting her name changed to Kate," McCartney keeps joking. "She hasn't started the paperwork yet," pipes in McLennan. No matter how many other Kates had a hand in Deadloch, the series is instantly recognisable as the work of The Kates. Within seconds of a man being found dead on a beach in the first episode's opening moments, the corpse's penis is on fire. When Box's small-town sergeant Dulcie Collins informs the next of kin, he bellows that he loved him like a brother — but has to be reminded that, yes, the deceased was his actual brother. And when Sami's Eddie Redcliffe blows in like a whirlwind of swearing and Hawaiian shirts, she's the stereotypical arrogant outsider cop, but satirically so. Indeed, with their male victim and female investigators, The Kates gleefully riff on the cop-genre status quo, flip the script to focus on the characters usually robbed of a voice and, although it wasn't originally their aim, balance sidesplitting laughs with making an excellent crime procedural. Deadloch is also an inescapably Australian murder-mystery series in its Tasmanian gothic look, its excavation of the nation's treatment of its First Peoples and, as frequently dropping from Sami's mouth, its love of cursing. The latter gave rise to The Cunt Essay, The Kates explain, to justify why its use of language couldn't be more ordinary on an Aussie-set show. From responding to the standard treatment of women in dead-girl crime thrillers to getting that homegrown vernacular over the line — and scrapping their own filmed cameo in the series, too — we chatted with McLennan and McCartney about all things Deadloch. ON THE NUMBER OF DEAD-WOMAN CRIME SHOWS SOMEONE NEEDS TO WATCH BEFORE THEY DECIDE TO RESPOND McCartney: "Roughly 800, I reckon. I just don't know if there is a single crime show that — if it's not in the first two minutes of a murder show, then you will still eventually see a dead woman." McLennan: "And once you're aware of it as well, you'd watch them and, sure, they're showing you the body of a dead woman, but they would always show a gratuitous shot of her boob. You would always see a nipple. You've got these very serious detectives standing over a body, and you just don't need to see a blue nipple. You don't need to see it." McCartney: "There's always that one at the crime scene. But then you go to the morgue and they have another conversation with the forensic pathologist, and rather than putting a sheet up, they're always completely nude on the slab as well." McLennan: "So we just thought what would be really interesting is if you actually gave those victims a voice. To us, we wanted to know about the backstories of these people that would normally be portrayed as victims in these types of shows. Also, we're just terrible at writing men, so it was easier just to have a dead one instead of writing dialogue for him." ON DEADLOCH'S STARTING POINT AS "FUNNY BROADCHURCH" McCartney: "We thought of the idea in about 2015, when we had just had kids, and the kids were newborns. So we were at home at 3am, in that witching hour of not quite knowing if you exist — and sort of knowing, 'well, I think I do exist because I have a Twitter profile, but I think that's the only thing that tethers me to this realm now because it's so late and I have spent so much time by myself as a tit machine with the baby'. During that time, we both, for whatever reason — and I don't really know what this says about our mental health at the time — but we just gravitated towards crime shows. There was a lot at that point as well, there was a bit of an explosion of Scandi noir. You know, like.. I can't think of a single one. What's that one with jumpers? What's the jumpers? You know, jumpers?" McLennan: "The jumpers?" McCartney: "Jumpers. The Scandi jumpers one." McLennan: "Do you mean The Bridge?" McCartney: "No, The Killing." McLennan: "The Killing." McCartney: "And then The Bridge, and then there was…" In unison: "The Return." McCartney: "And then there was…" In unison: "The Fall." McCartney: "The Fall. Yeah, silk shirts. Gillian Anderson. Silk shirts." McLennan: "And you told me to watch Broadchurch, and I thought it was a comedy because Olivia Colman was in it and I knew her from comedy. So I'm like 'oh, it's a comedy'. So I strapped myself in to watch this funny comedy show. And I'm like 'yeah, this is not a comedy'. But we thought 'what if we did take a show that had that small town, lots of secrets, lots of characters, and you just nudge the comedy". You just nudge the needle up a little bit. We had the idea just after we made The Katering Show. We were pitching Get Krack!n overseas, and we would do the spiel about Get Krack!n and then people would sometimes say 'do you have any other ideas?'. We'd just throw in the Deadloch idea as this last-minute 'we've also got this other show with the working title Funny Broadchurch'. And people just really grabbed onto it. McCartney: "Like, they got it." McLennan: "So we knew that it had legs. We made Get Krack!n and then we thought we'd pitch this other show, and luckily Amazon Prime were ready to jump on board with this." ON MAKING A COMEDIC MURDER-MYSTERY THAT ALSO WORKS AS A MURDER-MYSTERY McCartney: "It wasn't actually [the initial plan]. When we first conceived of it, this was at The Katering Show, that's where we were at in terms of what we were working on. And we did originally conceive of it as being a 30-minute show. And then, we just grew in confidence and ambition as we got into Get Krack!n — and then by the final season of Get Krack!n, we started to really experiment with using that interplay of something dark, then something funny. I think that informed us and bolstered us — that may not be a word — in our confidence and our ability to to be able to pull off something like this. And also having that experience. We'd done a few series. And the things we're trying to emulate, they are a lot longer because of the moodiness and the cinematic quality of it — and you just need more time. And because we're not in it — personally, I'm a terrible actor, so there's only so much I can do — but if you get someone like Kate Box or Madeleine Sami or Alicia Gardner, or anyone like that in your show, you can ask them to do a lot more with the characters. You can actually have proper characters." McLennan: "We wanted the space to tell the story and to do it justice, and to do in a way that felt like it was a rich, rewarding experience for the audience. I think around the time that we going through this creative process with it, Killing Eve had just come out — and I don't know if it did necessarily break the mould, but it made it pretty clear to us that you could tell a story that was longer than half an hour and there was an appetite for that from the streaming services as well." McCartney: "It was the appetite, really. Because we'd already thought about it, we'd already gone 'oh, I think I think this is how it needs to be, this is the kind of show we're looking at, I think we want it to be a proper show'. But the fact that people were watching it and responding to it, there was a precedent that we could go 'people will hang in there'." McLennan: "It certainly made us — when we knew that we had the hour up our sleeve, it's like 'well, we'd better made this crime story really good'." McCartney: "It's a lot. It has to be interesting. Because people aren't going to watch something for an hour if they don't care about the characters, if there aren't actual stakes. You can't just do cop jokes. You can't sit above it and laugh, going 'aren't we clever'." McLennan: "You've got to be invested in it. And play the stakes of the crime." ON DECIDING NOT TO APPEAR ON-SCREEN McCartney: "With Get Krack!n, by the end it was a challenge to have the kind of control over what we were doing that that we like to have, and to make sure that our voice is all-encompassing, and also be on screen. It's a very different brain, and you necessarily have to kind of let things go by the wayside if you're in that role — if you're trying to do those two roles together." McLennan: "I remember being on the couch when we were filming Get Krack!n, and I had my phone and I was answering emails, and then we'd have to go for a take and I'd shove the phone under…" McCartney: "Always shoving it under our legs." McLennan: "And it just felt like the acting was getting in the way of the other job." McCartney: "And we wanted to do the other other job more, because we were pretty done with being on camera as it was." McLennan: "I think audiences were pretty…" McCartney: "They were probably pretty done with us as well." McLennan: "But we did cast ourselves in a cameo in the show. And we filmed that cameo." McCartney: "Probably about half a day, I'd say. So not only did we spend half a day on it, like the production spent half a day filming our cameo, but we also took time out of our personal, very busy showrunner schedule, to do it. So it was like a loss in two ways." McLennan: "Because we were watching rushes, and assembly edits were happening as we're going, we got to see that scene pretty quickly in the edit — and we were so bad that we cut ourselves and recast." McCartney: "So it does exist, but it's in the vault. It's in the Amazon vault. It's in one of those seed things that are in Antartica." ON CASTING KATE BOX AND MADELEINE SAMI McCartney: "Mads was actually a writer on the show. We knew her from quite a way back. We knew she's an extremely funny physical comedian and we've been fans of hers for ages, and obviously we've been massive fans of Kate Box as well." McLennan: "The whole casting process was done over Zoom. I mean, interestingly, we were working with Mads writing scripts with her when the audition process was happening, but we pretended that we didn't know that we were getting her into this." McCartney: "We were secretly in love with her and really hoped that she would play this part." McLennan: "We wanted to keep things very separate, because obviously if we didn't cast her, then that would maybe be a little bit awkward. So we're like 'let's just keep this as two separate streams'. She's like 'guys, did you know I've got an audition?', 'And we're like 'great!'. And the more we worked with Mads, the more that we could see that she was a pretty good fit." McCartney: "In fairness, she was a perfect fit. Setting down a self tape at the best of times is the pits, and really one of the key reasons why I stopped being a performer — but, but, doing it via Zoom, auditioning over zoom…" McLennan: "So Mads and Boxy had both done their separate reads of their characters, and then we got them to do a chemistry test — which again, you can imagine how we that is over Zoom." McCartney: " Zoom chemistry, just you can feel it pinging off the screen, can't you?" McLennan: "But you kind of could with those two." McCartney: "You could, yeah." McLennan: "I remember that day of getting them to do the callback, and to do these scenes together. It was like this immediate calm came over us, like 'this is going to be okay'." McCartney: "Yeah, this is going to be really good." McLennan: "Yeah, they're really good." McCartney: "Boxy is so fucking smart — not the Mads isn't — but Boxy is so smart, and so good at her job. On the page, you don't necessarily see that Dulcie is as funny as she is. And she just got it. So it was the moment she started saying those words, we were like 'not only is this what we hoped the character would be, but it's so much more'. She can do anything, so it seems a bit cheeky to be like 'hey, in this comedy, can you be the straight woman?'. But we needed someone that good at comedy and drama to play that part because everyone else can be a bit silly, but we needed someone to have the stakes all the time, because the audience needs that person." ON KEEPING DEADLOCH'S DIALOGUE UNIQUELY AUSTRALIAN McLennan: "To be honest, we wrote all of the scripts and we did not receive a note on the language in the scripts. And then, just as we're going through the process of getting the show happening — you go through this process where people look over everything, just to make sure that everything's okay — there was just a question on the the volume of swearing. And there is a lot. It opened up a conversation, so we responded to that with what's now known as The Cunt Essay. Our setup director Ben Chessell wrote a thesis essentially on Australians' relationship to the word cunt and other swearing." McCartney: "The local usage of it, and how that differs from overseas usage of it. And how, within this context, it's actually not really even a swear word — in fact, it can be a very nice term. And it's used in advertising campaigns! So we just talked about it in its context in the Australian vernacular, and its cultural context. And also, I think he talked about how it speaks to Australianness as well, that we've taken this word — there's no hierarchy, there aren't bad words, we're not as puritanical because we don't have that secretly underpinning our constitution and our heads of government. He also then tied it into something else, he was talking about reclaiming it — which was a bit more of a stretch, I would say, if we're honest about it, and I think he knew it was a bit of a stretch. But it was very wordy. It was about seven or eight pages." ON MAKING MORE SEASONS OF DEADLOCH McCartney: "You always think about things being more than one series, but we'd always thought of it as being an anthology series. So, retaining some of the characters and moving them to a different location, probably — it was always going to be set around Australia. So, that's the hope. That's the plan. That's the secret mutterings between us." Deadloch streams via Prime Video. Read our full review of season one.
Tamborine Mountain is Queensland's proud emerald escape, offering a hinterland experience rich in subtropical rainforests, reflective swimming holes and plunging gorges. Now this lush destination has an elemental bathhouse to match, with the long-awaited arrival of SOL Elements launching as the first floating relaxation experience of its kind in Australia. Four years in the making, the spa's uncompromising vision has made the wait more than worth it. Inspired by earth, air, fire and water, the spa's lean into the elemental isn't lighthearted. Centred around a contemporary circular structure, the bathhouse rests on a tranquil lake's edge immersed in nature. Think turtles in the water and native birds in the trees. Then, hidden within the structure's external form, a 16-sided hexadecagon design offers a sacred bridge between the earth and the divine, ensuring your relaxation experience is even more transcendent. Stepping inside, a spiritual encounter takes shape. At the botanical scrub bar, 111 hand-carved bowls allow guests to prepare their bodies for the bathing experience ahead. That includes three outdoor communal magnesium thermal pools heated to 38 degrees, two cold plunges at a refreshing 12 degrees and two bookable magnesium float caves infused with 39% salt. Meanwhile, a cedar wood sauna features a glass-fronted perch to admire the lake, as well as a steam room and a Himalayan salt cave. With the communal space limited to 30 guests at a time, soaking up Tamborine Mountain's blissful natural beauty is never an issue. To help you dry off, there's also an outdoor firepit, set just below water level as part of the bathing experience. Listen to the gentle crackling of the fire while you connect with yourself or other guests. Just know, this sanctuary is completely distraction-free, so leave your devices behind. "No element of SOL has gone without conscious creation and planning. The location and design are just the beginning — the real magic happens when you experience the SOL ethos and philosophy — driven by community, connection and the immersion of all senses," says SOL Elements co-founder Russell Raven, who guided the project alongside his wife, Shae. Soaking in this sensory experience is made even better from one of SOL Element's two refined suites. Designed for couples or small groups seeking secluded relaxation, both feature thermal mineral baths on private balconies, alongside indoor infrared saunas, ice baths and panoramic views of the glistening lake. Guest stays are also elevated through access to exclusive botanical scrubs and wellness-inspired mini bars stocked with 'spatinis' and ceremonial teas. While you're welcome to self-guide your relaxation journey, SOL Elements also offers alchemy spa rituals, designed for extra indulgent encounters. Lasting up to 2 hours, each treatment blends energetic, alternative, and traditional healing techniques, using advanced wellness methods. Says Russell: "This has been four years in the making — a journey filled with challenges, breakthroughs, tears and laughter. Every detail has been considered, every element crafted with intention, to create something we believe hasn't been seen before in the Australian wellness space." SOL Elements is now open at Cedar Creek Falls Rd & and Tamborine Mountain Rd, Tamborine Mountain. Head to the website for more information.
When Valley Hops Brewing was first announced a few months back, we noted that it combined two of Brisbane's favourite current hospitality trends. When this city loves something, it really loves it — and, now that rooftop bars seem to soar over street corner and craft breweries have popped up all around town, it's clear that Brisbanites adore sipping their beverages with a sky-high view and getting our beers straight from the source. Fortitude Valley's new rooftop brewery, Valley Hops sits atop Cloudland — and yes, it was only a matter of time until a venue like this graced Brisbane's skyline. Now open, the leafy brewpub looks like a garden in the sky, towers over Ann Street below and makes its own beers in a two-vessel 15BBL brewing setup. It's also designed to be the Valley's new lofty neighbourhood hangout, complete with brews named after people, places and moments in the the suburb's history. Here, you'll drink those beers that nod to the location — as Valley Hops' name makes plain, that's a big influence — while peering out over the inner-city spot. So, get ready to knock back a light-bodied lager called Diehards, which references the local rugby league team, as well as Exhibitionist tropical ale, Fiesta Mango and Passionfruit sour, Herbalist IPA, Interloper Hazy IPA and 21 Pubs pale ale. Those beers benefit from Josh Warren's (ex-Green Beacon) touch, too, with Valley Hops' Head Brewer adding another local venue to his list. "The Valley's awesome and I'm excited to see people from the community coming up to the rooftop. It feels great to be open, to see people trying new varietals and enjoying the beers," says Warren. "I can't wait to try some new recipes out and see what people like." This might be a brewery, but those yeasty beverages are clearly only part of the attraction. The decor does plenty of heavy lifting, thanks to its blend of metalwork, stone, brick and plants. Vines creep over the metal arbour; wooden picnic-style, booth and high bar seating is peppered around the place; and there's also a large fire pit with built-in benches — not that that'll need much of a workout for a few months. Launching just in time for sunlight summer sessions, Valley Hops also features a bespoke multi-coloured glass leadlight sat behind the entire length of the bar itself — because, from the decor to the view, there's plenty here that catches the eye. Patrons can get up to the brewery via lift, and pair all those beers with woodfired pizzas, skewers from the charcoal grill and cheeseboards, as well as salt and vinegar chicken wings, chicken and spiced cabbage spring rolls and pineapple fritter. The culinary focus is on bite-sized options, with the entire menu designed to be eaten without cutlery. Valley Hops Brewing is now open on Cloudland's rooftop at 641 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley — operating from 4pm–12am Monday–Tuesday, 11am–12am Wednesday and 11am–late Thursday–Sunday.
A new, family-run distillery in Byron Bay is committed to two important missions. The first is to bring you an outstanding gin, made with native rainforest botanicals under the watchful eye of master distiller Jim McEwan. The second is to regenerate the rainforest that provides these very ingredients. For you, this is a win-win situation. You get to sit back and linger over a world-class drop, while doing your bit for the environment. And, even more exciting is that the distillery's first release was made possible thanks to crowdfunding dollars raised via Pozible. Cape Byron Distillery's home is a family property in Byron Bay's hinterland. It's where co-founder Eddie Brook grew up and where his parents, Pam and Martin, have been regenerating rainforest for years. "[The land] used to be part of a giant rainforest that stretched from Lismore in the south, past Byron Bay, up to the Nightcap Ranges. Today there is less than one percent of that rainforest left," Martin says. A few years ago, Eddie, who's worked in alcohol and hospitality all his life, ran a sold-out Australian whisky tour starring Jim McEwan. The two got chatting about the Brook's passion for rainforest and came up with the idea of creating a rainforest-infused gin. "I'd idolised Jim McEwan. I learned about whisky, watching his YouTube videos," Eddie says. "It was amazing to develop a friendship with him." Fast forward to 2016. McEwan and Eddie have a built a distillery and – after numerous trials and tastings – put their first bottle on the market. It's a signature gin called Brookie's Byron Dry Gin. "We're passionate about creating products that really represent our area," Eddie says. "We used 18 native botanicals, including Davidson plum, aniseed myrtle and cinnamon myrtle. They're not just native to Australia, but to the Northern Rivers region." A percentage of profits from every sale goes to rainforest regeneration efforts, as well as to Big Scrub Landcare. Eddie describes it as a "great foundation", which is "protecting remnants of rainforest ... bringing corridors back to life". Brookie's Byron Dry Gin is currently available in and around Byron Bay. For online orders, go mybottleshop.com. UPDATE 25 JULY 2017: Cape Byron Distillery has just opened up its doors for public tours every Friday and Saturday. It includes a gin tasting of Brookie's two gins, a G&T and a tour of the surrounding rainforest. Tours cost $35 and can be booked here.
SBS2 has poached Vive Cool City from the clutches of its internet following to give them a stab at a late-night TV viewership. The show takes a look at some of humanity's beautiful freaks through the winning presence of judgement-free, committed reporters. If you are suspicious about the 'committed' bit of that sentence, let me refer you to Ryder Susman's brush with a golden shower, and by brush I mean this. "(Our) aim is to embed, to understand, to attempt to get an uncensored take on the story," explains host and former Hungry Beast reporter Kirk Docker. "What we want our audience to do is see the topics we deal with, with new eyes — get them thinking, talking, questioning. What people get up to in real life is so much more compelling than what you can make up." Tonight at 11.30pm, Kirk, along with Ryder Susman, will announce the arrival of Vive Cool City to SBS2 by dropping into the Collingwood housing projects to interview heroin users, taking an in-depth look at a nudist Melbourne gym and introducing us to homemade tunnels, equine psychotherapy and Swedish bridge jumpers. Not to mention the You Report segment, where some UK viewers will show us the intricacies of turning breast milk into ice cream. The show claimed 10 million views on YouTube and has some serious TV pedigree behind it in producer Andy Nehl (Hungry Beast and The Chaser), so Vive Cool City could well be your next 30 (uncomfortable) minutes of choice. Check out some of their online stuff at their website.
A Queenslander on Main Street is Kangaroo Point's new fish 'n' chip destination, whether you're keen for some paper-wrapped takeaways or a serving of the ocean's finest to eat in. Run by owners Daniel and Amelia Miletic — with the former bringing plenty of seafood expertise from his time at Burleigh Heads' The Fish House — One Fish Two Fish serves up familiar dishes, new takes on old favourites and plenty of booze. Think oysters, crumbed calamari rings, battered cod and baby whiting, all fish 'n' chippery staples — soft-shell crab sliders, cajun fish taco nachos, Thai green curry with prawn dumplings, and a seafood risotto packed with fish, shellfish and crustaceans. Or, in the traditional camp, the trusty fish burger has been dubbed the 'Quarter Flounder' and comes with panko-crumbed flounder goujons, lettuce, cheese, house-made tartare and fries. Also a highlight is the whole salt-baked fish of the day, as well as a potato-centric range of fries, chips, scallops and potato bake with your pick of sea salt, chicken salt, vinegar salt or cajun powder seasoning. Or, if you're stopping by on a Sunday, you'll find a $69 seafood and bottomless rosé package on offer. Tuck into a 'seacuterie' platter and your choice of a main, and sip endless pink drinks for two hours. As for the rest of the beverage list, the full range includes 30 wines, five beers and ciders on tap — and seven by the bottle or can — plus espresso martinis, peach spritzes and Pimm's. And the aforementioned 'seacuterie' platter is also available for $35 every day of the week, which includes two glasses of wine.
Beach culture is such an integral part of Australian life, but so many of our nation's most iconic and celebrated coastal areas aren't really at their best during the cooler months. Luckily, Brisbane doesn't suffer such issues, particularly the suburb of Manly, located just half an hour from the CBD. Here, there are plenty of attractions to keep you entertained, from The Manly Hotel (fresh off a multimillion renovation) to the group of performers making a song and dance on a tiny island. Intrigued? Keep reading to find out the best Manly has to offer. Where To Eat: The Manly Hotel, Frankie's Coffee Bar, The Arsonist Just a stone's throw from the Royal Esplanade and Manly Boat Harbour, The Manly Hotel has everything you could want from a modern pub, dishing out elevated classics and local produce by the plate. The Brisbane institution has been serving schooners and schnitties since 1960 and has three areas that each offer a slightly different vibe, all recently refreshed with a $7 million renovation to elevate the offering to any diner. The restaurant has all the trappings of a sit-down meal — think chilled Moreton Bay bugs, Coffin Bay oysters and prawn spring rolls to start and pub classics for mains. The courtyard is filled with light and atmosphere to soak up as you sip local brews (like a glass of Green Beacon) and specialty cocktails — take the Lavender Collins; made with Bombay Sapphire gin, Husk Ink gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup and lavender syrup garnished with lavender sticks. For a third option, the inner terrace has three giant screens playing a live sport, ideal for cheering on the Maroons during State of Origin season. You'll probably want to start your day with a coffee, though, and a short hop north of Manly is the suburb of Wynnum, where you'll find Frankie's Coffee Bar. This cosy oasis offers single-origin pours, cold brew on tap, and beetroot, turmeric or matcha lattes alongside the more traditional offerings you'd expect. There's also a range of pastries, toasties and muffins if you're feeling peckish. Who is Frankie, you might wonder? Well, Frankie is the cafe dog — an American staffy cross rescued from the pound by cafe owners Ross and Sarah. Unsurprisingly, your own four-legged friend is also more than welcome. Caffeine in the morning and casual beers in the late arvo are pretty much the cornerstones of Aussie culture, but if you want to take it up a notch, then Manly has you covered. Slightly intimidatingly named, The Arsonist is a fine-dining experience unlike anything you've experienced before. All food is cooked over a custom-made fire pit (hence the restaurant name), meaning you're hit with the comforting aroma of smoky flames as soon as you walk into the restaurant. There's a smoke-themed cocktail menu where you can sample delights such as a short rib old fashioned with smoked honey, and the food options are just as inventive. Even the most cursory glance at the menu reveals mouth-watering treats like rye sourdough with smoked brisket butter, coal-roasted lamb rump with smoked eggplant, and suckling pig with fig relish and celeriac rémoulade. As you'd expect, bookings are essential. [caption id="attachment_957691" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] SaintM Photos via iStock[/caption] What To Do: Markets by the Sea Aside from the formidable sand and surf, where Manly really excels is its markets and there are two must-sees on the beachfront: the Jan Powers Farmers Markets and the Manly Creative Markets. Queensland food icon Jan Powers founded Brisbane's first farmers markets at the tail-end of the 20th century, and they can now be found in three separate locations across Brisbane. The Manly iteration takes place year-round on the first and third Saturday morning of the month and fulfils Powers' passion for connecting local people to local produce. Manly Creative Markets has called Manly's Esplanade home since it first opened in the 90s. Running every Sunday morning, the markets offer you the chance to browse art, fashion, and artisanal products locally made by talented creators. There's also live music and kids' attractions to add to the feel-good ambience, as well as a range of pop-up food stalls to ensure you're well-fed. [caption id="attachment_957692" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Saint Helena Island — Kgbo via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] What To See: Wynnum Manly Yacht Club, St Helena Island At Wynnum Manly Yacht Club, there's far more on offer than just sailing. Yes, as the name suggests, you can certainly engage in yacht racing on the big blue if that's your bag, and there's arguably nowhere better to do it in Brisbane. But for the more casual day-tripper who might not know their starboard from their port, there are activities with a slightly lower barrier to entry. Fishing, kayaking and dragon boats are all possible from the marina and that's before you even mention the purest and best form of recreation there is: a good, old-fashioned dip in the ocean. If you're feeling ambitious on your visit and want to venture slightly further afield, then St Helena Island is the place for you. Just a 30-minute ferry ride from Manly, St Helena Island has a museum on the site of the former 19th-century penal colony and Queensland's first passenger tramcar service. There are also beautiful areas to relax, picnic and enjoy the sea views. There are guided tours to give you the full and fascinating history of the island, but what's not quite so expected is the theatre troupe that provides a dramatic retelling of island history for a truly unique and immersive experience. The Manly Hotel is open for dining every day from 11.30am. Accommodation is currently undergoing renovations but will reopen for bookings in late 2024. For more information, visit the website. Top image: The Manly Hotel
Some voices could utter anything and make it sound interesting, and David Attenborough's is one of them. That said, that's not why the iconic British broadcaster has become such a trusted and beloved figure in the nature documentary world. His involvement in any project that roves over, probes and ponders the planet we all live on is the ultimate stamp of approval. Whether he's narrating Planet Earth, The Blue Planet, their sequels, a stampede of other series or film David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet, his participation always means more than merely his vocal tones echoing across exceptional imagery — it means astute science-backed insights paired with a first-rate spectacle. When it initially arrived in 2022, becoming one of the year's best new shows and giving nature doco fans the five-episode series they didn't know they'd always wanted — and simultaneously couldn't believe hadn't been made until now — Prehistoric Planet followed that formula perfectly. And it is a formula. In a genre that's frequently spying the wealth of patterns at the heart of the animal realm, documentaries such as The Living Planet, State of the Planet, Frozen Planet, Our Planet, Seven Worlds, One Planet, A Perfect Planet, Green Planet and the like all build from the same basic elements. Jumping back 66 million years, capitalising upon advancements in special effects but committing to making a program just like anything that peers at the earth today was never going to feel like the easy product of a template, though. Indeed, Prehistoric Planet's first season was stunning, and its second is just as staggering. Again, Prehistoric Planet 2 streams via Apple TV+. Again, it's also dropping its five instalments over five nights, this time screening across Monday, May 22–Friday, May 26. And, each chapter again heroes a different environment and the ancient creatures that called it home. This second go-around starts with the inhabitants of earth's islands during the Cretaceous age, then moves to the badlands, primarily focusing on areas with volcanic activity. Next, hopping between continents, the show gets swampy. After that comes a dive into the oceans, followed by a journey to one particular patch of terrain: North America. The catch, in both season one and this return trip backwards: while breathtaking landscape footage brings the planet's terrain to the Prehistoric Planet series, the critters stalking, swimming, flying and tumbling across it are purely pixels. Filmmaker Jon Favreau remains among the show's executive producers, and the technology that brought his photorealistic versions of The Jungle Book and The Lion King to cinemas couldn't be more pivotal. Seeing needs to be believing while watching, because the big-screen gloss of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World sagas, the puppets of 90s sitcom Dinosaurs, and the animatronics of Walking with Dinosaurs — or anything in-between — were never going to suit a program with Attenborough as a guide. Accordingly, to sit down to Prehistoric Planet is to experience cognitive dissonance: viewers are well-aware that what they're seeing isn't real because the animals seen no longer exist, but it truly looks that authentic. Still set to a rousing score by acclaimed composer Hans Zimmer (now fresh from Top Gun: Maverick) with Bleeding Fingers Music's Anže Rozman and Kara Talve, Prehistoric Planet 2 also expands its focus beyond season one's creatures, aka all the regular dinos that everyone grew up knowing. Familiar beasts still walk through the series' frames, accompanied by new titbits about their lives and behaviour — feathered raptor babies prove both cute and clever, for instance — but honing in on new animals feels as revelatory as it's meant to. One such critter earns episode two's attention, with the Indian sauropod isisaurus first observed as mothers-to-be trekking through gas and avoiding lava to lay eggs in volcanic ash, then seen as hatchlings navigating the treacherous spot to return to the herd. Visually, with painterly backdrops that look otherworldly because fiery mountains always do (see also: Oscar-nominated documentary Fire of Love), the time spent with these plant-eating, long-necked dinos is as beautiful as anything the show has ever delivered. The isisaurus boasts ample company, each making their moments and episodes gleam in different ways. When the island-centric first season-two episode shows the dance-like mating ritual of the hatzegopteryx — the heaviest animal to ever fly — against pristine white sands and an ocean backdrop, it too stands out. So do the towering pterosaurs anyway with their 12-metre wingspans, of course. Also on the list: the pachycephalosaurus with their colourful dome-shaped skulls, as often seen butting against each other, and the displays of combat between clashing triceratops. Dinosaurs, they're just like people: always trying to leave an impression, claim their turf and find companionship. During the chapter dedicated to swamps, prehistoric frog beelzebufo — also known as devil toad — croaks to find love, too. As its presence demonstrates, and the hatzegopteryx as well, dinos aren't the only creatures in Prehistoric Planet's jam-packed return. The ocean instalment is especially fond of ammonites, devoting much of its running time to the molluscs' life cycle and graceful movements through the underwater deep, while mammals, bony fish, flightless seabirds, primitive ducks, million-strong swarms of flies and vegetarian crocodiles all make an appearance. Surveying a broader range of the animals calling earth home before the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction event doesn't just help prolong the program and ideally open the doors for even more seasons to follow; it's an aptly thoughtful touch. Every episode may begin with Attenborough surrounded by fossils, but there's far more to prehistoric life and to scientific learnings about the period than the familiar — artefacts and critters alike. In season two, context isn't only relegated to each chapter's introduction. Moving season one's post-show forays into the facts behind the imagery into the show itself, every nightly segment now ends with expert talking heads — from Prehistoric Planet's consultants, London's Natural History Museum and beyond — chatting through the data and discoveries backing up everything viewers have just seen. That too is an intelligent move, because the longer anyone watches this series, takes in its Attenborough-voiced insights and becomes immersed in life oh-so-far back, the more they want to learn. Move over Jurassic Park — this is the best dino franchise now. Check out the trailer for Prehistoric Planet's second season below: Prehistoric Planet season two premieres via Apple TV+ across Monday, May 22–Friday, May 26, with a new episode available to stream each day. Read our full review of Prehistoric Planet season one, and read our interview with executive producer Mike Gunton and series producer Tim Walker about season two.
There's no time like the present to explore your own backyard, and if you're feeling like getting off the mainland Tasmania's mountain ranges, white sand beaches, lush wineries and fresh farmer's markets are all ripe for exploring. We've done the hard work for you and pulled together 20 of the most stunning stays scattered around the island. Find your ideal getaway nestled among the trees or backing onto a beach, pack the car and head down for a blissful retreat from your day-to-day routine. Recommended reads: Seven Unexpected Things You Can Do and See in Tasmania Your Essential Guide to Hobart The Best Places to Go Glamping in Australia Blackwood Park Cottage, Mole Creek This beautifully restored 1800s farm cottage provides cosy comfort among the Tasmanian mountain ranges. Relax in a super-scenic countryside setting and stare out at the rolling hills — including while enjoying your complimentary breakfast. From $170 a night, sleeps two. The Ocean Retreat, Falmouth Travelling in a bigger group? Don't shy away from a hefty price tag? This four-bedroom oceanfront retreat is fitted with a heated pool, an outdoor fire pit and floor-to-ceiling windows providing stunning uninterrupted ocean views. If you're lucky, you may even catch sight of a whale or dolphin from your living room. From $850 a night, sleeps eight. Aplite House, Friendly Beaches Run on solar energy and built from Tasmanian materials, Aplite House is an eco-friendly stay on the far east coast of Tasmania, just north of Swansea. Decorated with pieces from local artists and sitting on a 200-acre property within the Freycinet National Park, this is a uniquely Tasmanian stay. From $663 a night, sleeps six. Evandale Cottage, Evandale This recently renovated cottage is full of homely charm. It sits 20 minutes from Launceston, so holidaymakers can bask in the rural country feel of the town while still being a stone's throw from one of Tassie's most exciting cities. From $150 a night, sleeps four. Cressy House Estate, Longford Dating back to the 1800s, this history-rich estate is situated within the town of Longford. Find yourself among farm animals, far-reaching greenery and uninterrupted views of the Great Western Tiers. Make sure to pack your racquets as the estate comes equipped with a tennis court. From $310 a night, sleeps four. Captain's Rest, Strahan Sip coffee or mulled wine on the pier at this ultra-quaint waterfront property. Its remote location and minimalist aesthetic pairs well with the misty Tasmania atmosphere — and makes it perfect for a secluded getaway. From $575 a night, sleeps two. The Stable Lofts, Launceston Find the best of everything Tassie has to offer at this Launceston lodge. You'll be surrounded by a lush garden, and also just a short drive from some of the island's best rivers and reserves while still central to the city. Picnic along the River Tamar, hit up the Queen Victoria Museum and relax beside the property's sequoias — all in one day. From $293 a night, sleeps two. The Trig Studio, Lilydale This one-bedroom eco-friendly lodge on the slopes of Mount Arthur comes with everything you need to unwind and enjoy your holiday. It comes fit with an outdoor bathtub, organic breakfast items, Tassie wines, a wood fireplace, a library and a record player with records, so you may find yourself too comfortable to take on the scenic hikes and bushwalks surrounding the property. From $320 a night, sleeps two. Clock Cottage, New Town Inject some history into your trip to Hobart by staying in the former base of the Tasmanian Watch and Clock Company. This refurbished 1832 building sits across from a bakery, and is also a short distance from both MONA and the River Derwent. From $140 a night, sleeps two. Beehives on Denison, Douglas River This rustic cabin combines the best of the beach and the bush. Listen to the sound of the waves from the deck while surrounded by native Australian trees. From $180 a night, sleeps five. Coldwater Cabin, Miena You'll be hard-pressed to find a better-located stay in all of Australia than this cabin, which is hidden among the trees, looks out onto The Great Lake and is surrounded by superb wineries. Pack for the cold, though, as it's known to snow down here. From $283 a night, sleeps two. Black Wattle Coastal Retreat, Four Miles Creek This three-bedroom bushland property is an ideal stay for bigger groups looking to get away. It comes with stunning water views, a fire pit and an affordable price tag. From $460 a night, sleeps eight. Oceanfront Villa, Falmouth Situated just 50 metres from the ocean, this villa is perfect for a romantic couples retreat. Breathe in the sea air as you enjoy breakfast from the property's bench, then relax in the deep bathtub or take a leisurely stroll along the beach. From $313 a night, sleeps two. Whale Song Oceanfront Escape, Falmouth Originally built by a local fisherman in the 80s, this oceanfront house has been transformed into a comfort-first stay in Tasmania's northeast. It's all here: panoramic ocean views, indoor and outdoor fireplaces, an outdoor bathtub, and a range of beautiful local beaches and hikes. From $458 a night, sleeps four. Sea Stone, Swansea This newly built modern cottage provides panoramic views of Tasmania's east coast, as well as a perfect home base for exploring the beachfront or relaxing from the comfort of the private patio. From $825 a night, sleeps six. Candlebark Ridge, Saint Marys Craving a Tasmanian tiny home experience? Look no further than this off-grid, compact dwelling nestled on 18 acres of bushland. Enjoy the panoramic view of the Tasman Sea from the comfort of the luxurious king bed - uninterrupted by the bustle of civilisation. From $295 a night, sleeps two. At the Bay, Coles Bays At this sleek east Tassie stay, you can gaze upon the mountains surrounding Coles Bay from the comfort of your bed each morning — then hit the water via the local kayak hire. From $780 a night, sleeps four. Hazards Rim, Coles Bay Find this architectural beauty hidden amongst Freycinet National Park, just a short walk from Wineglass Bay. Escape the city to live among the trees with all the comforts of home. From $480 a night, sleeps four. Hobart Hideaway Pod, Kingston This environmentally friendly one-bedroom pod sits at the foothills of Mount Wellington, just 20 minutes drive from Hobart. Its simplicity — and its spot among nature — make it an ideal place to relax on a trip to the island's capital. From $198 a night, sleeps two. The Barn, Hobart This charming converted barn will find you smack-bang in the middle of the Hobart CBD, within walking distance from some of its best cafes, restaurants and bars. Here, you can experience the city without compromising the quaint cottage experience of the Tasmanian countryside. From $353 a night, sleeps two. All images courtesy of Airbnb. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
With his first feature, Samoa-born, New Zealand-based writer/director Miki Magasiva is living the filmmaking dream, all by championing what's important in his culture. Tinā, about a grieving mother who takes a job at a private school after the Christchurch earthquakes change her life forever, premiered at the Hawai'i International Film Festival late in 2024. Just over six months later, it's a homegrown hit that's earned so much affection from audiences in Aotearoa that the picture is now one of the most-successful NZ films in history. Sitting in sixth place as at mid-April 2025, Tinā is behind only Taika Waititi's Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Boy, then The World's Fastest Indian, Once Were Warriors and Whale Rider. For the year so far overall, it's second to A Minecraft Movie at the New Zealand box office. Taking on her first lead role after decades as an actor — on-screen, see: The Market, One Thousand Ropes, The Changeover, Filthy Rich, The Breaker Upperers, The Justice of Bunny King, Our Flag Means Death, The Rule of Jenny Pen and more — Anapela Polataivao wasn't envisaging this reaction, after she initially came onboard Tinā to help with the movie's development process without knowing that Magasiva had plans for to star. "Let's just say I did not anticipate this kind of response," she tells Concrete Playground. "You do the work and then you walk away and hope for the best, but this has been a continual — the response has been incredible, and mainly from our people, who are so appreciative of the work. And also a lot of the comments also are about their pride in the work, and visibility and for them being seen in our stories. So that's a great compliment." Did Magasiva foresee that Tinā, which takes its title from "mother" in Samoan, would strike such a chord? "Yes and no," he advises. "We were confident we had an initial script that people would enjoy watching. And then once we did the first round of edits, we knew we were onto something good that people would want to go and watch. However, having said that, the eventual response that we've gotten so far has been far beyond what we expected." "Touching on what Bels has just said before, you make these films and then you think 'that's it, my job's done. I'll just send it off — and if people go watch it, great. And if people don't go watch it, well, that's fine, too. We can't help that.' But having people come up to us and talk about their experiences, transformational experiences with family members and themselves, having gone through watching the film, is just way beyond what we ever expected. And so it's just been this really massive surprise for us that we're just so overwhelmed by and thankful for." Screening in Australian cinemas since Thursday, May 1, following its NZ release on Thursday, February 27, Tinā's origins mirror plenty of other movies in one regard: art imitating life. That said, Magasiva combined inspiration from IRL choir contest The Big Sing, the New Zealand choral festival for high schools that's been running for over 30 years, with not only tapping into Samoan culture but paying tribute to both the importance of connection and the leadership role of mothers. Mareta Percival, the heartwarming film's fictional protagonist, dotes on her daughter when the feature begins, encouraging her to make the most of her singing talents. Then tragedy strikes. While grappling with her loss, substitute teaching at a wealthy school becomes a necessity — and starting a choir that croons Samoan tunes proves a much-needed move for Mareta and her new pupils alike, even if some in the privileged community that's barely letting her in are vocal in their opposition. Tinā sits on Magasiva's resume after decades in the business as well, including earning acclaim for his shorts — Rites of Courage arrived in 2005, then Uso in 2006 — and working in television. The Panthers, of which he helmed two episodes, was the first-ever New Zealand TV drama series to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival. On We Are Still Here, an anthology feature directed by Indigenous filmmakers from New Zealand and Australia that opened the 2022 Sydney Film Festival, he was one of the behind-the-camera talents. His success with Tinā is far from overnight, then, but it might not have happened if he hadn't been so moved by online The Big Sing footage. With Magasiva and Polataivao, we also explored the journey from Tinā's first sparks to the tale that viewers are now being so touched by in cinemas — a story that puts the importance of moving forward collectively at its core; that is shaped by grief, and understands how mourning is so personal yet universal; and that also centres navigating cultural differences as a warm, hopeful film, while not shying away from the impact of attitudes of prejudice. And, we unpacked how Polataivo came to be its lead, what that achievement means to her, how Magasiva built Tinā's cast around its star and more. On Finding Inspiration for the Film in Online Footage of High School Choirs Miki: "It was hearing the choir performing. We grew up in churches, Samoan churches, listening to choirs, so we know it well. We have this sort nostalgic memory anytime we hear all of our old church choir songs. And so when I saw that, I was just so emotionally moved. I almost cried watching that video or that YouTube clip. I just thought that would make a great premise. I thought 'if I can just recreate some of the emotion that I'm feeling at the moment, I think we're on to something really special here' — and so I think luckily we've done a little bit of that." On the Path From Watching New Zealand's The Big Sing Competition to a Story About a Grieving Samoan Mother Getting a Job in a Private School in Post-Earthquake Christchurch Miki: "Well, it's a story process, much like you go through when you when you create stories. And what's always good is we had the end in mind, and so we wanted just to build towards that moment, that end. We were always working our way towards the end. So it's about 'who's the main character?'. And it's a drama, and so we try to create situations and journeys for her to get to that end — and put her into situations that challenge her, and put her into situations where she has relationships with others that really drives her towards the end there. And then when you're piercing these things together, you source techniques that you like yourself. There's a lot of comedy in the film, and so I wanted to infuse the storyline with a bit of comedy. And it seemed to work well, because it has this sort of mother-teacher relationship that I always find funny, and I think that that can be a really rich ground for comedy. Add into that a bit of emotion, add into that music, and then just drive the story towards the end — it's a really fun part of the process." On Polataivo's Initial Response to the Project — and Being Asked to Help Develop the Film Without Knowing That Magasiva Wanted Her to Play the Lead Anapela: "Yes, this guy — let's not go there." Miki: "I tricked her." Anapela: "He did. Because these things, I'm just so used to working as part of the team, being the assistant or coach or stuff like that. So when I come in to help, I don't have any other thoughts or any other preconceived anything. It's just like 'I'm going to help my friends'. So when these guys got the green light, and then I get the call saying 'hey, we had you in mind for it' — gosh, I was just like 'you little ...', all of the things. And then, of course, I think we did our first read — I had said yes after that, and then we did our first read where everyone was a mess and we were all in tears. And that's just when you know it's a family affair and it's going to work." On Polataivo Scoring Her First Lead Film Role After Decades as an Actor Anapela: "I think this is different. This was a different one, because it was more personal — so it wasn't like 'oh my goodness'; it was really like 'okay'. I didn't even think about being in the lead, either. I just felt like I was just part of the fabric of the story. There's so many moving parts. Yes, you may be driving the thing, but you understand, well I understand, you'll be able to play that — and to be helpful and to assist in the purpose of it. So it was not an 'oh my goodness' moment. It was an 'oh my gosh', because it's personal, it's family, and you just know. My partner would always say to me 'Bels, it's one shot, one shot for Miki, let's go' — with that tone. And I get it. It is. Any shot we get, it is a shot. And we don't take those things lightly, either. So we go and you pour all of yourself in there. And we do have a big sense of responsibility, as well, to continue." On the Importance of This Being a Movie About Community and About Moving Forward Collectively Miki: "It's everything. It is what we are to be Samoan or Pacific. It's just how we see the world. So right from the way we run our sets to the way we run our production, to the themes of our story, that's how we communicate — and that's how we see the world, and that's how we work. So it is everything to us. And so to have a film reflect those themes, it's really important and allows us to highlight our culture in a way to the world that communicates what it is like to be Samoan and what it is like to be a Pacific Islander, what it's like to live in New Zealand and Aotearoa. And I think a lot of communities around the world can resonate with that, can see something in that, that they connect with as well. So I think it's a very human condition." On Making the Specific and Personal Universal Through the Film's Story of Grief and Connection Anapela: "It's not a thing — it just is. It's only when we talk about these things and analyse, but they are just a way of being. It's like with Miki talking about in Samoan, we're talking at very young age about sharing, and also that you're not the most-important person in the line. If anything, you're the last, you're supposed to help. It's never ever about you. There's this quote that says 'I is we always in a Samoan village'. So it's that mentality. That's how we're born. We're born into religion. We're born into all these things that make us Samoan. That goes more into the nitty gritty of what it's like. But when you try to find all those nuances in her, to not only explore but to allow those things about her being Samoan to breathe on-screen, to bring life and to evoke — let's just say, some of the comments that I've read, and I know it's from non-Samoan viewers, are 'we get a window, we kind of understand now what that means to be a Samoan just through that story'." Miki: "And it is things that we think about when we're piercing it together as well, so that will be the heart of it. But we've tried to create a story that does feel universal, that everybody can connect with. So we're telling a story from a Pacific perspective, but we're telling a story that's a universal story. Those who go and watch the film will see that it's not all about just being a Pacific Islander. And we've had great success back home in New Zealand because the entire country has found something to connect with. And we've tried to build that into the story, when we pieced it all together — that it is about community and coming together, and cultural acceptance. A large part of our European community back home have connected with the film because it has those things in it, and it does deal with things that they can connect with and they find funny, and they can find some sort of connectivity back to how they grew up as well. So hopefully it is a universal story for everyone." On the Movie's Approach to Navigating Cultural Differences Miki: "I tried to put it this way: we're not trying to hide from our past, and we are saying that these things did happen — and actually continue to happen, let's face it. And we've dealt with a lot of that stuff both on the nose, both directly and a little bit more subtly in the film, too. But you have to have that backdrop to it. You have to have some sort of setup for the entire film to end up in a place that we hope everybody ends up, which is inclusiveness and working together and coming together despite our differences — that we can celebrate a culture and the richness of it, we can say that we have been through this and some of us continue to go through these, but we can work our way through it through cultural acceptance and working together as a community." On Building the Cast and the Choir Around Polataivo Miki: "It's an exciting part of it. So, all of our students had to sing in their auditions. They all sung songs to audition for it. We went through the natural casting process. But we got really lucky when we came across Antonia [Robinson, Mystic], who has a musical background herself. She's a great singer anyway. She sings in her real life. But she's also a wonderful actress. We absolutely love Antonia. She's very hard-working, she's super talented. We know she's going to go on to great stuff after this. And then we managed to also find and create students next to her, in Zac [O'Meagher, Uproar] and Talia [Pua, Happiness Is the Path] and Tania [Nolan, The Convert] who had their own unique traits that they could bring to the group as a whole. Outside of that, we also have lots of wonderful New Zealand actors in there. Beulah Koale [Next Goal Wins] is in there, and Nicole Whippy [Shortland Street] is in there. Jamie Irvine [Literally Dead] is in there." Anapela: "Alison Bruce [The Gone]." Miki: "Alison Bruce as well. So we've got all of these well-known and really experienced New Zealand actors that not only are around Bels, but also help support and stand next to Bels." Anapela: "And our guy from Perth." Miki: "And Dalip Sondhi [Better Man] as well, who I think is a wonderful Australian actor — from England originally as well, the UK. So it was just special to be able to build a cast to support that. And they were all just so wonderful and embracing the community spirit of what we were trying to create. They're all amazing in the film, so it's quite lucky — super lucky and grateful." Tinā opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, May 1, 2025, and in New Zealand cinemas on Thursday, February 27, 2025.
How much Korean BBQ can you devour in 90 minutes, plus hotpot dishes, other hot and cold bites, salads and desserts as well? Visit Sunnybank's latest addition and you'll find out. Queensland's largest Korean BBQ and hotpot venue has opened its doors at Market Square, serving up buffets seven days a week. Here, you'll get cooking, scooping, slurping and feasting. Summer always sizzles in Brisbane, as do most other seasons, but the temperature is no longer the only reason on trips to the city's south. As first announced earlier in December, Seoul Garden started firing up its grills on Wednesday, December 11 on Market Square's second floor, taking over the entire level — or, to be more accurate, customers at the first Sunshine venue from the Victorian-born chain are doing the searing. This is a big addition to the River City in a range of ways. The 300-person-capacity restaurant sprawls across 800 square metres, which is why the brand advises that it's the Sunshine State's biggest Korean BBQ and hotpot venue. It is also dishing up more than 50 hotpot choices, with 30-plus meat options, as part of its the all-you-can-eat experience. Amid neon lights that take inspiration from the eatery's namesake, customers sit at tables with grills, pairing their chosen ingredients with house-made sauces and side dishes. Or, opt for the hotpot buffet or dedicated raw bar — or make a date with all three. Either way, no one should be leaving feeling hungry. This stomach-filling meal will set patrons back $49.90 per person, unless you're taking advantage of the launch lunch buffet special for $19.90. Go with the latter and you'll tuck into the hot food buffet, plus gimbap, salads and sides — so, no BBQ. In Victoria, where the chain operates in Docklands, Highpoint, Northland and Glen Waverley Century City, Seoul Garden's setup has unsurprisingly proven popular — but its move to Brisbane is its first venture out of the state that it has always called home until now. "We're so excited to bring Seoul Garden to Queensland, and share the authentic flavours and social dining experience that have made our Victorian venues such a success," said co-founder David Loh. Find Seoul Garden at Market Square Sunnybank, 341 Mains Road, Sunnybank — open 12–3pm Monday–Friday and 11.30am–5pm Saturday–Sunday for lunch, plus 5–9.30pm daily for dinner. Head to the chain's website for further details. Images: Vanguard Events Entertainment.
Only one movie about a Griswold family getaway has ever hit the screen without Lindsay Buckingham's 'Holiday Road' echoing. What does the Nobody 2 trailer boast that National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation doesn't, then? That earworm of a tune, plus plenty more. The sequel to 2021's Nobody, aka the film that enlisted Mr Show with Bob and David, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul great Bob Odenkirk in a John Wick-esque part — its screenwriter Derek Kolstad created the Keanu Reeves (Sonic the Hedgehog 3)-played character, in fact — this is still a movie about a seemingly mild-mannered family man who had a previous life as an assassin. It's another chapter in a tale that acknowledges that those skills aren't just in the past, too. But it also takes Odenkirk's Hutch Mansell on holiday. "Let's just say the first film was a moody winter — this one will be a colourful summer," Timo Tjahjanto tells Concrete Playground. The Indonesian filmmaker is in the director's chair on Nobody 2, which is still an action-thriller. That said, it adapts to its protagonist and his loved ones — including his wife Becca (Connie Nielsen, Gladiator II), children (Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent's Gage Munroe and Harland Manor's Paisley Cadorath) and father (Christopher Lloyd, Hacks) — going on a getaway, as the just-dropped sneak peek demonstrates. The resort setting, the tropical attire, arcades, pool noodles and boat rides: they're all part of it, as is Hutch trying not to let discovering that the Mansells' destination is an old bootlegging route ruin their break. "I love moody winter. My films have always been very moody and very often depressive," Tjahjanto advises. "But I think a good challenge for me right now is 'how do we make this violent world of Hutch Mansell collide with this burst of summer vacation — like this burst of 'the family wants to have fun in this water park'?". He continues: "that's our approach to it, visually and tonally". Again, that comes through in the picture's debut glimpse, which features a number of sights that could've sprung from a Vacation or any other holiday-set movie, except for the frenetic fights everywhere from elevators to those aforementioned arcades and boats. The first time around, Nobody also operated as a character study. When you have multiple Emmy-nominee Odenkirk in the lead — and partly riffing on events that happened to him, with the franchise coming to fruition after his own home was broken into — that's the ideal approach. In Nobody 2, set four years after his altercation with the Russian mob, now the story broadens its focus to Hutch's nearest and dearest as well. The setup: the Mansells head away because Hutch begins to realise that his children are growing up and he's barely spending any time with them, so making the kind of memories that only family time can conjure up is in order. Nobody 2 is Tjahjanto's first full Hollywood picture. He's no debutant, though. For more than a decade and a half, Tjahjanto has been adding features to his resume, both solo and as part of the Mo Brothers with fellow Indonesian filmmaker Kimo Stamboel (Dancing Village: The Curse Begins). Together, they're behind 2009's Macabre, 2014's Killers and 2016's Headshot. Tjahjanto on his lonesome also contributed segments to American horror anthology flicks The ABCs of Death, V/H/S/2 (co-helming with The Raid, The Raid 2 and Havoc's Gareth Evans) and V/H/S/94. Plus, he's directed Indonesian pictures May the Devil Take You and its sequel May the Devil Take You Too, alongside The Night Comes for Us, The Big 4 and The Shadow Strays. He's also been attached to Train to Busan remake The Last Train to New York, and is helming The Beekeeper 2. How has that charting that path assisted Tjahjanto with hopping onboard Nobody 2? How did being able to ask Odenkirk's advice along the way — and co-star Sharon Stone's (The Flight Attendant) as well — help, too? And, like audiences watching, was seeing his lead in action-hero mode part of the appeal of the job? Tjahjanto spoke with us about all the above, plus his approach to stepping into a world already established by the initial Nobody, the action setpiece he's particularly keen on viewers to enjoy on a big screen, the theme of duality flowing through the feature, balancing tone and more. On Whether Seeing Bob Odenkirk as an Action Hero Was Part of the Appeal of Directing Nobody 2 "Yes — and also, in a way, we even try to dig deeper than that. So basically, look, we know by now, in the first film, that Bob can do action, right? But I think what's appealing to me is also that when Bob becomes an action man, he doesn't specifically transform himself into this one-dimensional action hero. He's not the all-knowing, the guy who thought about ten steps ahead — or like 'this is what I'm going to do'. He's not a fully in-control hero. And that's what I like about this character, Hutch Mansell. It's really, yes, he was on top of his game at some point. But now that he is a father of two kids, he's a husband, how does he juggle all these things? And often the greatest moment comes from the time in the film — especially in the second film, you'll see — when things are becoming out of control. And I love that. I never have any interest to make a protagonist who doesn't have any flaws. As a matter of fact, the more the protagonists have all these cracks, and sitting on a ship that is slowly sinking and he's trying to throw away all the water with a little cup, that's when it appeals to me. And that's pretty much what happens to the character here in this film." On How Tjahjanto Approached Taking on a World That Was Already Established in the First Film "The easy answer will be to sit very closely with Bob. Not a lot of people know that the first film is also sort of based on what happened to Bob in real life — the whole idea that he was confronting this thing that happened in his house, when somebody broke into his house. So he exorcised that sort of, I guess, trauma, by writing a script or writing a story. And in this one, he knows Hutch Mansell more than anybody else. And I think it's always good to sit with him and just really be like 'Bob, I don't want to overstep you, but how do we evolutionise Hutch Mansell as a character?'. And we found the fine line between 'well, in order for us to make him grow, we also need to make the family grow — we also need to sort of put the family at the centre of it all'. So that's what we did with this second film. We no longer tell a story about just Hutch Mansell. We also tell a story about Becca Mansell and Brady and Sammy, his kids. And then there's also grandpa and the brother Harry [RZA, Problemista]. So it's really a family affair in the end. " On the One Particular Nobody 2 Action Scene That Tjahjanto Is Most Excited for Audiences to See on a Big Screen "I think they definitely will have a smorgasbord, a buffet, a buffet table of different action setpieces in this film. But I'm definitely proud of the boat fight, just because how technical it is to achieve. We really shot that fight scene inside that boat, in a real location. When we read it in the script, we all had the unison sort of talk, like 'yeah, we're going to do it in the studio with the green screen'. But by the end of it, we decided that 'you know what? Let's torture ourselves further, let's really shoot it in a boat by down by the river'. So that's what we did. And sometimes we'll watch it on post, we'll watch it and Bob will say 'can you imagine this Timo, like we really did this?'. So it's great. I'm proud of that scene and I hope people will enjoy it, too." On the Kind of Direction You Give an Actor Like Bob Odenkirk When They're So Linked to a Film — Not Just Starring, But Writing and Producing as Well "I think the beauty is, I think I always think 'you know what, I'm a much darker person than Bob, I feel'. So I think sometimes there will be times when 'Bob, can I make you do this?'. And then he'll ask me 'aren't we being a bit too much, Timo?'. And then it's like 'you know what, Bob, let's do your take first, and after that, let's do a couple steps darker, you know?'. And that's always fun, just because we'll find the balance of like 'aaah all right, there you go'. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And it's fine. I think the beauty will come when we both realise why I want things to be in a certain way — because, especially a lot of this film, it's about duality. So there's the doting father and husband who's trying so hard to please his family; to have this beautiful, magnificent memory; to be on a vacation. Because he realised his son's getting older, his daughter as well. Soon they'll be going to college and all that stuff. So there is that real-life issue that he's facing. But at the same time, we've got to remember this is also a man capable of violence. So I think the whole Jekyll-and-Hyde sort of play, it's really something that we both were kind of like 'okay, let's see where's the fine line between the father and the seasoned killer'. On How Tjahjanto's Decade and a Half-Plus of Directing, Both Solo and as Part of the Mo Brothers, Has Led Him to Nobody 2 "I would say I always approach every new project as if I haven't done anything before. I think that's my best preparation, just because that way I'll be very prepared. It's like a kid who's going to a chemistry test for the first time — you better bring the whole table and all that stuff. Because that's the only approach that I feel will prepare you for being from a small pool, suddenly jumping into this Olympic-size, ocean-size pool that is the Hollywood industry. And I always say it's always good to be very prepared. And when I talk to somebody who's in such a different calibre, such as Bob Odenkirk or Sharon Stone, it's always good to realise being a director, yes, you have to know a lot of things, but you should never be afraid to be sort of like 'hey Sharon, what do you think about this? Do you think there's a take that you think is interesting?'. Or even to Bob. These people have been around for decades, and sometimes it's also a situation where, as a director, I'm learning from them." Nobody 2 releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, August 14, 2025.
Utes are as ubiquitously Australian as Vegemite, meat pies and nicknames abbreviated to capitulate in the letter O. This is what makes a trip to the legendary Deni Ute Muster a perfect excursion for those keen to experience a classic Australian road trip. The annual event held in the NSW Riverina town of Deniliquin (a 3.5-hour drive from Melbourne) is a celebration of the iconic vehicle. But you don't need to be a rev-head or even own your own ute to get amongst this uniquely Australian shindig. Parked between the Commodores and Falcons, Rangers and Hiluxes, will be a lineup of some of the country's biggest names in music, tasty food pop-ups and the opportunity to do two nights of camping on Friday, 29 and Saturday, 30 September. Expect to spot Jess Mauboy, John Williamson, Missy Higgins and Lee Kernaghan belting out hits over the weekend. Off-stage, entertainment will be provided courtesy of activities like an ice skating rink, Bogan Bingo, camel rides, monster truck rides and a muster sandpit. Tickets start at $310 which also covers camping, so you can bring your own tent or caravan — or simply roll out a swag in the back of your ute. Deni Ute Muster is on from Friday, September 29 to Saturday, September 30 2023. For further details, head to the website.
CONCRETE PLAYGROUND: In The Guest Edit, we hand the reins over to some of the most interesting, tasteful and (or) entertaining people in Australia and New Zealand. For this instalment, we've enlisted help from Sheet Society founder and interior design extraordinaire Hayley Worley. The Melbourne-based owner and creative has put pen to (digital) paper, outlining the biggest colour and pattern trends of the year, as well as tips on how to incorporate them around your home. HAYLEY WORLEY: The best part of my job is that I get to surround myself with inspirational fashion, interiors and design. While I'm a big fan of staple colours that will never go out of style, I'm equally excited by new, fresh and fashionable prints. It's really important to me and for my creative and design process, that I love and find joy in the things I surround myself with. There's nothing quite like putting on your favourite dress or jumping into a new bed of fresh sheets as a moment of pleasure. My picks for Concrete Playground are all things that have recently made me happy — including making my kids happy too! CHECKERBOARD PRINT This is a huge trend that we don't see going anywhere, anytime soon. If you're looking for an easy place to start, the Sheet Society Margot print is the perfect fashionable update to your bed in a really easy-to-style Camel colour. I've got lots of Sheet Society colours (as you can imagine!) and Margot pairs with pretty much anything. I've currently got it on my bed with Sage and Blush. HAND-PAINTED MOTIFS Sheet Society collaborated with Annie Everingham last year on a beautiful bedding collection, and her latest collaboration with Alemais is such a goodie. Her hand-painted motifs have been used across a wide range of fashion styles and I wore this pink one to my birthday a few weeks ago. It's currently out of stock on Alemais, but is available on Selfridges & Co here. Sheet Society also releases a limited edition collaboration each year and this year we partnered with local artist Lahni Barass, on a collection called Sleep Patterns. It's available here. BLUSH We have a one- and a three-year-old and it's often hard to find kids clothes that are bright or have loud prints. I adore the Aussie brand ByBillie, they've got a really great palette to choose from and a strong range of styles. I recently bought both kids matching Joey Jackets in blush and they are just so adorable. SAGE I've currently got our Sage blanket on, which not only looks great, but it's the extra cosiness I need (and grab for) in the middle of the night. Right in the middle of Melbourne winter, I definitely need to add a few extra layers. It has two layers of our French Flax Eve Linen with a plump quilted wadding inside and feels super lush. Pictured here with a divine Ella Reweti vase. OFF-WHITE I had an absolute blast picking out furniture for our new store in Armadale. Our interior designers, Golden, worked really well and collaborated closely with us to develop a soft furnishing plan that spoke to the Armadale customer, while staying true to Sheet Society. This Gatto lamp, designed by Floss, was one of our 'splurge' items. We also used it in our latest winter campaign, styled with our new-season teal colour. Perfection!
Maybe you lived through the 90s rave scene. Perhaps you spent every weekend enjoying club life in the 00s. Or, you might just wish you were old enough to have ticked both boxes. Ministry of Sound was around to see both, and now it's revisiting the experience — bringing back its massive Testament parties for another year, this time touring them around Australia over two weekends. If cutting loose like you've travelled back in time is your ideal way to mark absolutely anything, then you'll want to make a date with Testament when it hits up six Australian cities. For two nights each in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, plus one-day-only stops in Adelaide and the Gold Coast, the event will have you making shapes to 90s and 00s bangers. [caption id="attachment_799510" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ben Jones[/caption] More than 90 DJs will be hitting the decks between Friday, August 4–Sunday, August 13 across the tour. It's a choose-your-own-adventure type of affair, so fans of old-school tunes can hit up the session dedicated to 90s house, rave, trance and garage tracks, and lovers of 00s electro and breaks get their own shindig. Leading the bill at the 90s parties are Barbara Tucker, Inner City, Phil Hartnoll and Tall Paul, while The Bloody Beetroots, Digitalism, Freq Nasty and Stanton Warriors are their 00s counterparts. The roster of local DJs varies per show and per city, too, including everyone from Alan Thompson, Jason Digby, Barking Boy, Mark Dynamix and Jen E on the 90s bill, plus Groove Terminator, Goodwill, Kid Kenobi, Bang Gang Deejays and Andee Van Damage on the 00s lineup. MINISTRY OF SOUND: TESTAMENT 2023 DATES: Saturday, August 5 — 90s session at Overseas Passenger Terminal, Sydney Sunday, August 6 — 00s session at Overseas Passenger Terminal, Sydney Saturday, August 12 — 00s session at The Timber Yard, Melbourne Sunday, August 13 — 90s session at The Timber Yard, Melbourne Friday, August 4 — 00s session at Warner Laneway, Brisbane Saturday, August 12 — 90s session at Warner Laneway, Brisbane Saturday, August 5 — 00s session at Metro City, Perth Sunday, August 6 — 90s session at Metro City, Perth Friday, August 4 — 00s session at Unibar Adelaide, Adelaide Sunday, August 13 — 00s session at Miami Marketta, Gold Coast MINISTRY OF SOUND: TESTAMENT 2023 LINEUP: Barbara Tucker Inner City Phil Hartnoll [Orbital] Tall Paul The Bloody Beetroots Digitalism FreQ Nasty Stanton Warriors + 85 local DJs around the country Ministry of Sound: Testament 2023 will tour Australia in August. For further details, and to buy tickets — with pre-sale registrations until midnight on Monday, May 29, pre-sales from 8am on Tuesday, May 30 and general sales from 8am on Wednesday, May 31 — head to the event's website.
Taylor Swift is inviting fans around the world to step inside her new era with Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, an 89-minute cinematic event celebrating the launch of her 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl. The feature offers a mix of firsts — including the debut of the 'The Fate of Ophelia' music video, new lyric videos, behind-the-scenes footage and personal reflections from Swift herself. The global release kicks off at 3pm US time on Friday, October 3, which translates to early morning on Saturday, October 4 in Australia. Screenings will run nationwide across the long weekend, from Saturday through Monday, October 6. Australian Swifties can catch the film at Event Cinemas, Hoyts, Dendy, Village Cinemas and Palace Cinemas, with both city and regional locations taking part. Demand has been so high that Event Cinemas has already added extra sessions. "We've got our Swifties covered with screenings of Taylor Swift: The Life of a Showgirl across our Event Cinemas in both Australia and New Zealand this coming weekend," a spokesperson said. "Tickets are flying faster than a Reputation track drop, with presale numbers already at number one for the upcoming long weekend." It follows the blockbuster success of The Eras Tour film, which became the highest-grossing concert film of all time after earning more than £260 million globally. Find your nearest screening and tickets to Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl Images: Getty Images
Just two hours by car from Sydney, Kangaroo Valley has become one of New South Wales' most enthralling micro-escapes for the city slicker needing a stint in nature. Showcasing some of the best drawcards of Australian travel (think country charm, verdant hills, gushing waterfalls and rugged landscapes), the region sits between the Southern Highlands and South Coast. The tiny township is enveloped by rainforest, farmland and the dramatic escarpments of Morton National Park, a destination best explored slowly. If you're after an interlude from monotony (in a place vast enough to make you feel something), this could be your very next getaway. And despite its growing popularity, the region still retains that quintessentially charming country-town feel. Tractors roll down the main street, bakeries serve fresh pastries, and wildlife is regularly spotted through the looking glass of secluded cabins. For full outdoor immersion, Fitzroy Falls is close by. The waterfall offers a network of scenic walks just 12 minutes from town, while the winding Kangaroo River presents endless opportunities for kayaking and swimming. From mesmerising wineries to the best local vistas and off-grid cabins worth securing in advance, we've compiled a blueprint for your next Kangaroo Valley jaunt. Whether it's the first visit or a nostalgic return, these are the spots you shouldn't sleep on. Where To Stay Arabella Eco Cabin This award-winning tiny house is plonked on 140 acres of land, right on the cusp of the Cambewarra Ranges. The site is actually a former dairy farm named Cloudbreaker Falls and is located two hours' drive south of Sydney and Canberra, and 15 minutes outside the township of Kangaroo Valley. Its owners describe the famed stay as "an idyllic experience for lovers of the natural world", and former guests have marvelled at the proximity to wildlife (think wombats crawling past your windows while you sip coffee in bed). Arabella sleeps up to three people, with an operational kitchen featuring a two-burner stovetop and a bar fridge. There is also an outdoor fire pit and gas barbecue, prompting nights spent twirling toasted marshmallows under the stars. But the standout feature here is the separate glass-box bathroom. This mirrored capsule is 10 metres from the main cabin, offering unparalleled submersion in the lush surroundings. For those wanting a thoughtfully designed and 100 percent sustainable off-grid cabin with quirky appeal, may all signs point to Arabella. Just note that there is no reception here, so your emails and content sharing will have to wait. You can test your travel dates here. Willow at Barranca This opulent farmstay offers four thoughtfully designed villas to choose from, suiting couples, families, and friends alike. With dramatic views of undulating farmland, Willow at Barranca accommodates up to eight guests, primed for relaxing rest in an eco-luxe environment. This luxurious accommodation is set on 1000 acres in a rural paradise, enclosed in a lush river valley, and boasts an architecturally designed four-bedroom, two-bathroom residence. On top of the sweeping floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows, there is an outdoor shower for complete wilderness integration. Additional amenities include a wood-burning fireplace and outdoor fire pit, air conditioning and Wi-Fi, and provisions on arrival (fresh eggs, bread, and milk to get you settled in for the first morning's breakfast). Barranca is defined by a sense of ease that comes from clever design rather than excess. Willow sits at its centre, positioned to take in the natural world while holding a strong sense of privacy. Book your stay here. Rea Rea Lodge For the Kangaroo Valley expedition that balances seclusion with the height of extravagance, we've found a year-round wonderland for the discerning traveller. Two fully self-contained pavilions comprise Rea Rea, accommodating up to 10 visitors for special-occasion trips that call for a decadent home away from home. With copious spots for coming together and separate zones dedicated to solo time, Rea Rea brings private luxury to Kangaroo Valley. Inside, the home is organised around connection. Communal spaces are generous and central, while bedrooms sit quietly around them. It allows different rhythms to exist at once without disruption. Step outside and you'll be admiring the never-ending green mountaintops, as well as the 12-metre swimming pool and hydrotherapy jacuzzi in the foreground. There's even a Nordic-style outdoor cabin sauna, a Giotto wood-fired pizza oven, a trampoline, a kids' treehouse, and a covered patio with an in-built fire pit. Many will also rejoice at this being a pet-friendly stay, so nobody gets left behind on the next adventure. An entertainer's reverie set against the most striking regional backdrop, Rea Rea is the extravagant group-booking spot you've been trying to pin down. Find out more here. Where to Eat The Friendly Inn This rustic (yet grand) pub is known for its inviting atmosphere and laid-back outdoor area, claiming the jewel in the crown of the low-key hospitality scene in town. Drawing a mix of locals and nomads, the Friendly Inn serves classic Australian pub-style dining in spades, with a focus on familiar, hearty dishes and local pours. An easy drop-in spot that delivers cosy appeal in the winter and golden hour bliss in the summertime, the Friendly Inn is your cult neighbourhood pub of the region. Fitting seamlessly into any itinerary for a day in Kangaroo Valley, this could be your pitstop between hiking trails, the kick-on locale after a winery lunch, or the place for a refuel before hitting the kayaks. Bendooley Estate Imagine a hospitality-retail-events hybrid venue that did it all: bookstore, cellar door, wedding venue and accommodation. Well, that's what you'll find on offer at Bendooley Estate. This multipurpose pin on the map is located in Berrima, poised on a working vineyard. Dining is underpinned by seasonal, produce-led menus with a penchant for locally sourced ingredients. The restaurant offers à la carte and set menu options, depending on the vibe of your visit, with a strong emphasis on wine pairings from the estate's cellar. Meanwhile, the 'Book Barn' operates as an additional zone for casual browsing and coffee, adjacent to the main dining arena. Bendooley Estate is one for leisurely, longer visits and the 'nice outfit' you stashed in the suitcase. The setting is so multifaceted that it delivers a layered visitor experience, somewhere you could spend the bulk of a day on holiday with friends. From wine tasting to elevated dining and exploration of a curated selection of novels, this unique spot works best for a slow lunch experience with an undefined end time. Ramox Cafe Situated at Bundanon Trust on the scenic Shoalhaven River, Ramox Cafe features seasonal menus with top-notch produce from the local region. This relaxed but sophisticated venue operates alongside an arts and cultural precinct, plotted on 1000 hectares of surrounding land. The space itself shifts between eatery and exhibition, with interiors that reference its gallery function. The menu, spearheaded by Executive Chef Douglas Innis-Will, is shaped by the changing seasons, including a lineup of share-style small plates, sandwiches and an 'artist's picnic for two'. Ramox is a calming lunch spot in Bundanon, making it a no-brainer on your visit that's less than an hour out of Kangaroo Valley's township. What To Do Canoeing with Valley Outdoors Perhaps one of the best ways to experience the Southern Highlands landscape is from the water. Canoeing with Valley Outdoors offers travellers a slower, more pensive perspective on the region, where movement is guided by the current (rather than by a track or trail). There are expert-led and self-directed options available, pending your expertise in the canoe department. Routes vary in length and difficulty, ranging from beginner-friendly routes to longer stretches of flow for the more confident explorers. The experience focuses on immersion rather than pace, bridging the gap between nature and tourists in a way that feels accessible to adventure novices. Expect uninterrupted views of surrounding bushland and waterway edges, with nature's sounds defining the score. For more information and bookings, head here. Explore Waterfalls The waterfall circuit in the Kangaroo Valley vicinity is one of the defining natural highlights of the Southern Highlands, with Fitzroy Falls, Carrington Falls and Belmore Falls forming the most popular trifecta. Each is accessible via walking tracks and lookout points that span all levels of outdoorsiness. Fitzroy Falls is the most established and visitor-friendly pick of the bunch, with a robust visitor centre and multiple viewpoints overlooking a magnificent drop into the valley. This spot remains the primary reference point and the most-visited site in the area, but multiple falls could be combined as part of a waterfall-hopping day in the car. Yarrawa Estate After all your rigorous exercise, sightseeing and moseying around town, a tranquil moment among the vines could be top of your must-do list. Yarrawa Estate is a boutique winery that offers cellar-door sips in a relaxed, rural setting. It's a smaller-scale estate compared to larger commercial wineries dotted along the region, perfect for an intimate afternoon with a lover or a friend. The tasting journey hinges on estate-grown wines, with flights available across seasonal selections. Visitors can look forward to a guided but informal approach, with staff-led tastings held against captivating views of the great outdoors. This is a low-pressure stop for a pre-lunch tasting or an afternoon surrender to the senses. Yarrawa offers a direct connection to Kangaroo Valley's local wine story without pretension. Presenting endless opportunities for adventure, good food and boutique accommodation against backdrops of staggering greenery, Kangaroo Valley is an unassuming but unforgettable spot to factor into your next national hiatus. When you're teetering on the edge of burnout, or simply need to switch off with a brief intermission from city life, it delivers the kind of weekend reset that feels worlds away without requiring a mammoth journey. From winery escapades to waterfall visits, this is your sign to stay in the 'small town' with big promises of bewilderment. For more information on the region, head to Visit NSW. Image Credit: Supplied Written By Genevieve Phelan
Sky-high dining could be on the menu in George Street, with a new rooftop restaurant planned in the Brisbane CBD. Sitting atop a five-storey podium, the proposed eatery forms part of a development application lodged for The Great Southern Hotel, located down near the Treasury Casino. You'd best start planning a staycation, however, as the lofty dining establishment will be open to hotel guests only. As well as featuring exactly what everyone wants from a rooftop space — that is, a large alfresco area filled with seats and sunshine — the layout includes plenty of greenery, all thanks to an atrium. Designed by Brisbane architecture firm Argo, the entire structure has been mooted as part of an extension to the hotel, with the atrium providing natural light and air (and plant-filled views) to an additional 77 hotel rooms that'll sit within the podium. A ground-floor cafe on George Street, which'll be open to the public, has also been proposed — and, in addition to boasting five green walls, the towering podium is set to be covered in street art. The street-level additions will link in with a potential two-level retail strip connecting Mary and Charlotte streets that has been proposed by the owners of the adjacent buildings. Image: Jorge Láscar via Flickr.
When most folks scream, they're not powering up their life force, or ki, in battle. Most folks aren't Dragon Ball Z's Goku, however. If you're a fan of the anime, you've probably wished you were at least once or twice, and bunch of gatherings at Australian public spaces will let you scream out your non earth-saving frustrations. Yes, 'Scream like Goku' sessions are a real thing, and they're exactly what they sound like — which, we're certain will be loud. Starting in New York last week, Dragon Ball Z aficionados have been amassing around famous landmarks and letting their voices be heard. We'll let you decide whether they're endeavouring to fend off Frieza, trying to become a Super Saiyan, or just yelling their love (or all of the above). A host of other US sites are slated to follow, as well as Singapore — and Australian Dragon Ball Z fans have been quick to jump into the mix. The first local session is scheduled at 4pm tomorrow, Saturday, September 9, at none other than the Sydney Opera House — because if you're doing to scream in public, you'd better make it count. Over 3000 people have said they're attending in the Facebook event, with another 10,000 'interested'. More gatherings are planned for Sydney's Hyde Park on September 23, and Newcastle's Nobbys Beach on September 24, while Melbourne's Federation Square joins the fun on September 10 — almost 5000 people are planning to rock up to that one. Someone has started a campaign to get screamers to the Wheel of Brisbane on October 7, but so far there's not many potential attendees. Dressing up is encouraged, even if you just throw on something orange. If you're not sure how you should be screaming, let this build up some inspiration. Even if you're not a Dragon Ball Z fan, screaming at the top of your lungs with hundreds of other people is bound to be cathartic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRsjCWNXtRE Image: Leticia Almeida.
Why have a drink at ground level when you can sip cocktails with a sky-high view? Why indeed. Thanks to Brisbane's love of rooftop bars, grabbing a beverage at great heights has become one of the city's favourite pastimes — and there's always room for one more lofty watering hole, isn't there? In news so fresh, the bar in question doesn't even have a name yet, 200 Adelaide Street is the latest address to flirt with turning its roof over to tipples. Developers have lodged an application to transform the heritage-listed building's top floor. Sure, it's only seven storeys up, but, given that the site sits on the corner of Adelaide and Edward Streets next door to Anzac Square, it'll boast quite the scenic vantage point. As well as the obvious boozy offerings, the proposed 323-square-metre venue will also a kitchen, plus a variety of eating and drinking spaces spanning high bar tables, lounge seating and casual dining. Landscaping-wise, a hanging garden is planned to give the place a suitably sub-tropical atmosphere, as well as plenty of other greenery around the site's edge and on trellises. Yep, when Brissie embraces a trend, we sure do go all in, with the Adelaide Street bar slated to join other recent high-rise additions such Sixteen Antlers, Sazerac, Eleven and Eagles Nest. We can only assume that someone's cooking up a rooftop burger and doughnut bar somewhere around town. Now that'd be the ultimate combination of everything that this city loves. Via BrisbaneDevelopment.com.
If you're a Brisbanite who prefers a vegan diet, then you might want to stop by Vintaged Bar and Grill. We're well aware that the inner-city restaurant is best known for its steak and burger-heavy selections, but they're now offering up something special for non-carnivorous diners too. Yes, much to the delight of herbivores looking for a fancy meal, the Hilton's signature eatery has expanded their remit. Animal product-free entrees, mains and desserts are now available — and three of each, in fact — from their just-released dedicated vegan menu. First up, you can feast on beef tomato filled with tomato concasse, truffled white polenta and exotic mushrooms, or miso roasted eggplant with toasted sushi rice. Follow that up with chana masala, brick pastry vegetable roulade, or 12-grain and pulse cauliflower risotto, and then top it all off with a chocolate berry whip with berry snow, apple and rhubarb crumble with cinnamon sorbet, or coconut rice pudding with mango and minted tapioca salsa. And here we were thinking that meat-focused restaurants and vegans didn't mix. Whether you make a three-course dinner out of it, or just stop by for one dish, the new offerings help solve a problem all vegans will be all too familiar with. Getting dragged to a place that specialises in big slabs of flesh and finding the meat-free offerings a wasteland of 'sad salad' is now a thing of the past. About time, really. Find Vintaged Bar and Grill at the Hilton, 190 Elizabeth Street, Brisbane, or check out their website.
Every sweet treat needs a matching beverage to go with it — and if doughnuts that are actually good for you are your idea of the former, then a cold-pressed juice probably takes care of the latter. Nodo Donuts and Pressed Juices are certainly hoping that's the case. The two brands have just banded together to open their own one-stop healthy snack shop on Elizabeth Street, after all. It's news sure to delight CBD workers in search of a tasty afternoon tea alternative, as well as anyone with a hankering for something nutritious while they're passing through the city. Yes, your 3pm attack of the munchies can now involve naturally gluten-free, artisanal, baked or raw orbs of goodness in flavours such as pumpkin maple and 'Cha Cha Chai', and sips of liquid fruitiness of the zesty and earthy variety. And, you only have to go to one place to get them. The joint venture continues an exciting year for Nodo, who've already evolved from selling their wares at cafes and markets to opening their own Newstead bakery. And yes, their banana, maple cream cheese and caramelised pecan breakfast doughnuts are on the menu at their inner-city digs. Yes, stopping by multiple times a day is completely acceptable. Find Nodo Donuts and Pressed Juices at 300 Elizabeth Street, Brisbane. Check out the Nodo Donuts and Pressed Juices websites for more information.
In a continuation of the Brisbane Festival arts showcases, Metro Arts presents Mould. The solo exhibition by local visual artist Richard Stride is one which displays his interests in opposing forces and tensions he observes within the built environment. Stride’s works seek to question the role of geometry and structure in the contemporary human experience, particularly surrounding our conception of simplicity and complexity, order and disorder. Mould furthers this notion, and considers the relationships within construction formwork. He does so with mixed mediums to look at notions of control, investigating the double meaning of the exhibition title. It is just one of many immersive and intriguing art pieces on display for the Festival, and is sure to ask all the right questions.
Everyone is familiar with the warm and fuzzy feeling experienced when returning to your own home. Whether it be after a long day at work or a holiday, there is something special about being in the comfort of your cosy abode. The new homeware label Cubbylove fosters this special connection and aims to make your house feel as homely as possible through their charming handcrafted textiles and decor. Magdalene Bufalino is the creative genius behind this sweet label. She has put her heart and soul into making cushions, wall hangings, bunting and a huge array of cute and colourful creations. If you thought cuddly Cubbylove couldn't get any more delightful, the brand strives to please Mother Earth through the use of environmentally friendly materials. Celebrate the launch of this unique label with Cubbylove's launch night at West End's The Box. Enjoy a drink and some yummy goodies at this intimate event and pick up a little treat for your cherished home.
I often listen to things that our Lord Mayor Campbell Newman says. I also use his campaign slogan 'Can do Campbell' in everyday life. That's why I feel I must implore you to do as he says and explore your creative, right brain at one of Brisbane City Council's free Art Bites programs. Tailored especially for the beginner, each workshop is different, encouraging aspiring artistic types to try their hand at a variety of different art forms throughout March and April. Like most things Campbell-related, this one was a winner, and 11 of the 15 workshops have already been booked out. Do not fret though, there is still time to find your true calling, whether it be tap dancing in Musgrave Park (make sure you bring hard soled shoes!), or hip hop street dancing in Calamvale with the crew from Elements Collective. Just make sure you book ahead, as places are limited. Try something new, it's what Campbell would have wanted. To book your place call (07) 3403 8473. Tap Dance When: 10am - 12pm, Saturday, 2 April Where: Jagera Arts Centre at Musgrave Park, 121 Cordelia Street, South Brisbane Hip Hop Street Dance When: 6.30pm - 8.30pm, Wednesday, 13 April Where: Salvation Army Centre, Cnr Beaudesert Road and Kameruka Street, Calamvale
The West End Film Festival was founded in 2009 and is back for another year. It brings an array of short films to the fore and recognises the efforts of the talented filmmakers through various awards. This year, 15-20 of the best short film entries will be screened in a large warehouse space behind the eclectic Rumpus Room bar. The films range from an animation about two young Indigenous boys entitled Jack and Jones to a short film, Bat Eyes, which is about struggling to deal with our former selves. Tales of heartbreak, war, friendship and forgiveness will be shown as well. Awards up for grabs include Best Film judged by Industry, Best Film Judged by Community and Indigenous Filmmaking Award. Support the immensely talented filmmakers and actors of Brisbane in this exciting event. The competition is strong and the event is always jam-packed with eager film buffs, so secure your tickets here.
Lost Movements, a not-for-profit, artist-run initiative is coming together for the fourth time to present an eclectic mix of artists, spoken word, performers and musicians. These events are varied and inclusive: they involve not only varied types of expressive art, but those who attend are encouraged to participate. Lost Movements aspire to rekindle the free-spirited and playful experimentation of music and art and how they interrelate. The various disciplines, including burlesque dancing, slam poetry, body art, live art and music are purposed to create a space where artisans may feed off the passions and energy of others. Grab your tickets on the door to see the bands, live art, theatre, acrobatics, projection art and more for what’s shaping up to be a regularly inspiring showcase.
While self-determination, hope, and ear-to-ear smile, might, but probably can’t make your dreams come true, there’s one technological innovation that very much can. Whether it’s a world of elephants wearing True Religions, or the heartfelt story of a widowed father’s plight to find his only son in an ocean of doubt brought to life on screen, animation is essentially what dreams are made of. It would fair to assume then, that this year’s International Animation Festival is going to have audiences dreaming like they've never been to sleep before. From 12pm to 5pm, the State Library of Queensland will be screening a selection of films - some beautiful, some dark, a few deeply depressing, and even more that’ll have you spinning like a kid dizzy on lemonade – in a showcase of local and international talent. There’ll also be some talks of animation thrown in to the schedule, as well as discussions, and an early segment dedicated to all things local. 12noon–1.40pm: Enjoy locally grown Australian animations 2.15pm–2.45pm: On-stage discussion looking at the past, present and future of animation 2.45pm–5pm: Discover animation from across the globe Have a sneak peak of a few films on show here: The Holidays Exposed, Herman Blue: The Pumpkin Comic, Aldar and the Gray Wolf and Buckethead.
Thurston Moore of critically acclaimed art-rock band Sonic Youth is touring nationally during October, playing tracks from his latest record Demolished Thoughts, as well as some of his solo back catalogue. He’s been recognised as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and formed Sonic Youth with Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon in 1981. Based in New York, the band released sixteen studio albums, garnering praise for such groundbreaking records as Daydream Nation and Goo, which impressed even the musically elite. Now travelling solo, Thurston has spent recent times touring his latest album, an intensely personal record, which has been dubbed a work of art as much as it is a musical treasure. Australian fans rejoice: in addition to his performance at the Melbourne Festival, Thurston will be appearing in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, as well as Brisbane.
The talented minds of women in Brisbane are to be celebrated by a new and exciting event. Welcome to Vulvapalooza! We are woman, let us entertain you. Head along to the revved-up performance spaces within the New Globe Theatre for a smattering of live entertainment choices. Kristy Apps, Switchblade Suzie, Love Like Hate and Nikolaine Martin will have your live music cravings satisfied. Joy French is the name behind the live art exhibition. Cabaret by Tricky Boombang and Animalinda will leave you a little hot under the collar, while Litea Barbara Fuata as DJ SUMA will have you spinning all night long. This is sure to be a unique and memorable evening; be sure to take advantage of the discounted offer for pre-bought tickets. Buy online or by ringing 1300 762 344.
The fourteenth instalment of the free Mono series is coming to Brisbane from March 21, presented by Room40 and IMA. It combines the talents of Montreal’s transportive dronescaper Tim Hecker alongside Germany’s own Pole, who’s "bowel-shaking dub bass lines" and "crispy glitch-ridden riddims" is the fabric of legends. These two visionaries of electronic music are coming together for the first time on Australian shores since the Open Frame Festival of 2007, and between them have since seen their own music releases and critical praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Uncut Magazine and a Juno award for 2011’s best Canadian Electronic Music Album (Pole) and a long string of evocative live performances (Hecker). Don’t miss a rare (and free) appearance by the lads who are paving the way of electro, in a setting not often used for musical performances.
Metro Arts is showcasing Melbourne based artist Timothy Kendall Edser's performance based installations in his exhibition, Tension 17. His artwork uses the available gallery space to push his body to the limits and to explore the ideas that are aligned with masculinity. Edser's thought provoking exhibition will leave you questioning the societal formation of masculine identity and its implications. This exhibition is part of the Tension series, which sees the artist challenging the physicality of his body and using the gallery space in an intimate way to best portray his installations. Tension has been exhibited in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Malaysia, Italy and Berlin. This accomplished artist completed his Bachelor Fine Arts (Visual Arts) with Honours at QUT in 2002 and has since worked in the arts within the areas of performance, installation, sculpture and new media. Be inspired by this unique exhibition by the immensely talented Timothy Kendall Edser.
Put down your croquet mallet, plaster on your best game show host smile and grab a slushie: it's Heathers' dance party time, again. As part of Valley Fiesta, the fun-loving folks at Black Bear Lodge are celebrating one of the most very films of the 80s once more, and the whole decade in general of course. Big hair, blazers with shoulder pads and giant red scrunchies are a must. Complaining about everyone you know called Heather — that's optional. Whether you channel your inner Veronica or JD, or broaden your remit to other cult flicks of the era, you certainly won't lack in fashion inspiration in what will definitely be a night of big fun. The party's DJs won't lack in ace retro tracks to spin, either. Whatever will be, will be, after all. So, what's the regular event's damage? It's free, it starts at 11pm on Friday, August 31, and drinking blue beverages isn't recommended. Be there, or be a pillowcase — or be jealous much.
Green thumbs, your season is here — and so is your market. Each year, the folks at Native Plants Queensland put on a get-together that showcases, celebrates and sells the splendour of Australia's native flora. When it comes to the latter, we mean that literally. For the two days of September 16 and 17, the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha become even more of a greenery-filled wonderland than they already are, with speakers, stalls and plenty of plants for the buying. From acacias to banksias, eucalyptus to ficus, and syzygium to zoysia, if it's an Aussie wildflower or native growth, you'll likely find it at the Spring Wildflower Show and Native Plants Market. For those looking to spruce up their garden with some local colour, there's no better place to look. And for those just after a glimpse of some eye-catching nature, it's the perfect reason to head to the bottom of the mountain. Both seedling tubes and mature plants are on offer, including specimens you won't find at your usual nurseries, plus advice from the experts. Entry costs $3, and yes, shopping prices are ultra-low as well. Image: CSIRO.
Winn Lane is the little laneway that could – while some of our beautiful city laneways disappear, Winn goes from strength to strength, taking part in a huge rejuvenation and now home to some of Brisbane’s best – Flamingo Café, Little Jane St, Sunday Social, Tym’s Guitars, The Outpost and last, but certainly not least of all, Nine Lives Gallery. The new Nine Lives has been busy since moving into their new nook in January and have sincehosted exhibitions for Westside Tattoo, Simon DeGroot, Max Doyle, Alex Kopps and Alex Knost. Next on the Nine Lives agenda is Nine Wives – an exhibition that borrows its name from the old riddle, I Went To St. Ives. The husband in the riddle originally had nine wives, but as time went on, it was changed to seven. Nine Wives explores this idea of domestic folklore and tradition transforming through generations, with each of the nine artists creating artworks that respond to each of the nine rooms that make up a home. Nine Wives will exhibit sculptures and installations by Rebecca Ross, Carolyn V Watson, Simone Eisler, Dord Burrough, Zoe Porter, Sue-Ching Lascelles, Kristy Morgan, Lucinda Wolber and Dhana Merritt, and is curated by Mariam Arcilla and Megan Cope.
Above a modest store in a crumbling seaside suburb of Naples, a neon-lit sign bears the word 'Dogman'. In a place that's unshakeably grey in both its look and its mood, it's the shiniest thing in sight. The term refers to Marcello (Marcello Fonte), who makes a living grooming neighbourhood pooches, but it's fitting for reasons beyond those instantly apparent. Spending his days doting over dogs, the small-statured, mild-mannered Italian is the leader of the pack, although only among his faithful four-legged friends. Whenever hulking thug Simone (Edoardo Pesce) barges through his door — usually sniffing out cocaine, and never willing to leave until he's found his fix — Marcello dutifully acquiesces to the human equivalent of a growling pit bull. Returning to the lives of crime that have served much of his filmography so well — acclaimed 2008 mob movie Gomorrah, most notably — writer-director Matteo Garrone leans into the obvious in Dogman. This isn't a blatant or overstated film, however it doesn't shy away from comparing the behaviour of men with that of dogs. One kindly and subservient, the other snarling and vicious, Marcello and Simone adhere as much to the animal kingdom's laws as they do to man's. In Simone's case, the ex-boxer's primal need for instant gratification trumps everything else, be it loyalty, camaraderie, or an awareness of right or wrong. Of course, this is Marcello's story, and so it becomes a tale about aiming to please, bouncing back from mistreatment and learning when to bare one's teeth. The pint-sized underdog has clearly learnt more than a thing or two from his constant canine companions. Garrone starts charting Marcello's plight when his life couldn't be more routine. He works, sharing many a smile with many a mutt. He relishes the time he's given with his adoring daughter (Alida Baldari Calabria), dreaming of taking her far away for a fantasy getaway. And, as well as supplying Simone with drugs, he follows him through bars and on smash-and-grab jobs. While Marcello doesn't have much and he's visibly lonely, he's content to make do with the status quo — he's a good lapdog to his hefty pal, and he's proud about being well-liked by the community. Then, in unrelenting alpha mode, Simone keeps upping the ante. When Marcello isn't defending his bullying buddy from fed-up local shop-owners or saving him from revenge hits, he's sneaking back into the site of one of their burglaries to rescue a chihuahua that the callous behemoth shoves in a freezer. But as Simone keeps imposing his might, even the inexplicably devoted Marcello has his limits. It's a dog-eat-dog world in this grim, gritty drama, which takes the broad thrust of its narrative from a 31-year-old true tale. Both the film's insights and its real-life basis may seem standard on paper, and yet that's never the case on-screen, with Dogman as driven by the current state of Italian society — and of the global community — as it is by a headline-grabbing crime. Blending tense thrills with neo-realist observations, Garrone ponders not only the choices of his protagonist, but the world that's placed him in such a position. Indeed, in its own way, this is a movie about nature versus nurture. Anchored by a devastatingly powerful character study, Dogman examines how Marcello's inherent, overtly affable personality is battered and tested by his bleak, trying situation. Winning the 2018 Cannes Film Festival Best Actor prize for his efforts, Fonte is a whirlwind as the initially perky, increasingly put-upon, eventually perceptive Marcello. He sports the perfect hangdog face for the job, but it's his ability to simultaneously plumb poignant depths, express unfettered earnestness and evoke a sense of lightness that marks his performance as something truly special. Whether Marcello is bathing a huge, howling dog or facing his brutish supposed friend, he's never a one-note character. Dogman is never a one-note movie, either. It offers up a straightforward, even fable-like message, yet it never takes the expected path or lets its bark outshout its bite. Ever the detail-oriented director (and keenly scrutinising every inch of his rundown Neapolitan setting to prove it), Garrone builds a potently layered portrait around two simple truths: even the most well-meaning yap can fall on deaf ears, and a friendly pup is eager to please until it isn't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd77T20zjHw
In The Post, journalists strive to source, confirm and publish reports about a government cover-up spanning several decades. In America's highest office, and among the connected and influential, the powers-that-be attempt to silence the story. It's a true tale, and one that couldn't be more relevant today. At the moment, if the media tried to reveal something as significant as the Pentagon Papers — which detailed the lies four consecutive US administrations told the public about the country's involvement in the Vietnam war — we all know what would happen. Tweets would fly, thick, fast, and probably misspelled. "Fake news!" they'd scream, over and over again. If you're not familiar with the real-life scandal that rocked Washington in the early 1970s, it all starts with marine turned military analyst Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) and a treasure trove of leaked classified documents. Once The Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) begins to suspect that their rivals at The New York Times have a big scoop in the works, the two newspapers battle it out to piece together the story. The Nixon administration pushes back, placing publisher Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) under considerable pressure to kill their investigation. While the government accuses the press of violating espionage laws and causing irreparable damage to American security, the journalists stand by their belief in the First Amendment as well as the importance of speaking truth to power. Complicating matters further is the paper's impending stock offering, with the board and investors nervous about possible controversy. There's perhaps never been a better time to make a movie about an attack on the freedom of the press, or the need for the media to scrutinise the workings of the country's leaders. That feeling is inescapable while watching The Post, to the point that many of its rousing speeches could easily be uttered today. That said, director Steven Spielberg dedicates the bulk of the film's time to the procedural business of reporters doing what they do: chasing leads, combing through documents, butting up against deadlines, and more. Tracking their hard work, as well as the difficult decisions and fierce opposition that comes with it, the drama is solid, smart and polished. Working together for the first time in their long and illustrious careers, the same can be said of the movie's two stars. The Post is an ensemble effort, with Bob Odenkirk, Carrie Coon, Tracy Letts and Sarah Paulson all fantastic in pivotal parts. But the central performances of Hanks and Streep are particularly instrumental in the film's hard-earned thrills. Hanks ensures Bradlee's hard-nosed determination shines through, while Streep brings quiet courage to a trickier and ultimately more resonant role. Among The Post's many timely subjects, the dismissive treatment Graham endured as the first female publisher of a major American paper does not escape attention. Nor does her fortitude in fighting back. With Spielberg in the director's chair, working with a script by first-timer Liz Hannah and Spotlight Oscar-winner Josh Singer, none of the above should be surprising. Increasingly at home making serious-minded dramas as the decades go by — see Lincoln and Bridge of Spies in recent years — the filmmaker's handling of tone and pace suits the story and subject matter perfectly. With frames filled with period detail and steely hues (the picture was shot by his now 16-time cinematographer Janusz Kaminski), Spielberg favours an old-fashioned, no-nonsense approach that nonetheless proves thoroughly rousing. And really, how better to handle a movie like this. This tale might be history, but these days it feels like anything but. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1VcCv9JOPQ
There is never a bad time to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But if the urge strikes while you're actually sitting through a movie — and that sudden desire is sparked by glimpsing scenes from the beloved late 90s and early 00s TV show playing in said movie — that's not a great sign. It's a reality with The New Mutants, however, with the latest entry in the X-Men series letting its audience see Buffy clips on more than one occasion. Never subtly deployed, the snippets link in with the film in a number of ways, because this too is about a ragtag group of teens with supernatural abilities fighting off a range of baddies. In fact, one of the many villains in The New Mutants closely resembles the demons in Buffy's famed dialogue-free episode. In case you don't spot that yourself, the movie serves up scenes from the show that overtly stress the similarities. That's the level this long-delayed franchise flick is operating on: happily derivative, happy to call attention to how derivative it is, and seemingly unconcerned if it leaves its viewers desperately wishing they were watching a television program from more than 20 years ago instead. The 13th film in the X-Men saga, The New Mutants kicks off with a traumatic incident involving Native American 16-year-old Dani Moonstar (Another Life's Blu Hunt). She survives the chaos that destroys her reservation but, when she awakens in a hospital run by Dr Cecilia Reyes (Kill Me Three Times' Alice Braga), she can't remember any of the details. She also isn't permitted to leave. Dani is told she's in a facility for kids just like her and, given the franchise and the film's name, the meaning is clear. Her fellow patients (Emma's Anya Taylor-Joy, Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams, Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton and Trinkets' Henry Zaga) are all well-aware of their extra-special skills, though. Dani doesn't even know what she's capable of — but the fact that her arrival coincides with a series of unsettling altercations that target her new pals gives everyone a few clues. By trapping five teenagers in an eerie, inescapable facility, trying to placate them by promising that they'll soon be able to venture to greener pastures if they just dutifully stomach what they're being subjected to for now, but taunting them with pain and terror while they wait, The New Mutants' entire premise explains exactly where the X-Men franchise currently sits — unintentionally, yet rather astutely. Logan aside, things haven't been great for the series of late. Actually, that's an understatement. Fans have sat through average and awful chapters in the hope that something better will come in the future, only to be met by more of the same (or worse). Yes, Deadpool and its sequel were hits, but squarely of the one-note, overdone, easily tiring variety. And the less remembered about the overblown and underwhelming X-Men: Apocalypse and the instantly forgettable Dark Phoenix, the better. A routine mashup of teen, horror and superhero tropes, The New Mutants doesn't improve the saga's fortunes. To be accurate, though, it doesn't really try to. As directed and co-written by The Fault in our Stars filmmaker Josh Boone with co-scribe Knate Lee, it takes a concept that's equal parts The Breakfast Club and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, adds in angsty adolescents just coming to terms with their hormones and superpowers, and serves up a thoroughly flat and by-the-numbers affair. The film's troubled history is well-documented, with the movie first announced five years ago, cast four years ago and shot three years ago, then pushed back release-wise several times over a period of almost two and a half years — but, now that The New Mutants has finally reached screens after surviving cast member changes, script rewrites, reshoots, the Disney acquisition of Fox and the pandemic, that messy journey to cinemas proves the most interesting thing about it. Endeavouring to mutate the familiar superhero formula in even the slightest way is a worthy aim, of course, which is one of the reasons that the very idea of this film has always stood out. The Marvel characters that The New Mutants is based on date back to the early 80s on the page, and giving them a horror-driven spin has seemed an inspired choice since the movie was first announced. Alas, combining one genre's cliches with another's, as the end result does, hardly makes for entertaining viewing. Indeed, although it's suitably moody in the stock-standard way seen in every creepy psychiatric facility-set flick, The New Mutants is generic to an oppressive extent. Filled with up-and-comers circa 2016, the movie's cast can't particularly help either. Williams tries, and the sensitivity she brings to shapeshifter Rahne Sinclair is noticeable. With Moonstar, she also navigates a romantic subplot that touches upon the film's most thoughtful (albeit still glaringly obvious) point — that the persecution of mutants because they're different mirrors plenty in our reality, including the treatment of queer teens. But, with Taylor-Joy in cartoonish territory as Russian sorceress Illyana Rasputin, and Heaton and Zaga simply hitting their respective characters' one note over and over again, any slivers of depth, substance or just plain interest that The New Mutants does manage to rustle up are short-lived. Also fading fast: any hopes that, 20 years since the first X-Men movie released, this franchise has much life left in it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_vJhUAOFpI
'ZomRomComs'. That's what you get when you add zombies to romantic comedies. First came Shaun of the Dead, then Zombieland and now Warm Bodies, a delightful Romeo and Juliet meets Frankenstein tale, in that two star-crossed lovers must overcome deep-seeded family prejudices, and that Romeo is a monstrous zombie. The undead are, of course, very much the flavour of the month right now. The Walking Dead is a consistent ratings winner on TV, Sam Raimi's Evil Dead is about to receive a huge Hollywood remake and video games like Dead Rising, Dead Island and Resident Evil continue to dominate the market. Even crazy drug addicts dropping 'bath salts' are opting for some face eating instead of the hoary old break-and-enter routine. For the first time, though, Warm Bodies presents us with a story told from the perspective of the zombie. That zombie is 'R' (Nicholas Hoult), and his Juliet is 'Julie' (played by Australian actress Teresa Palmer). R is just your everyday teenage boy, grappling with your everyday teenage problems: a changing body, crippling social isolation and a tendency to grunt instead of speak. He's also a zombie, but instead of being scary that's mostly just a source of embarrassment. R's charming and self-deprecating narration throughout the film provides a constant source of laughter, particularly with self-aware lines like: "……God we walk slowly!" It's a sublime mix of dark comedy and tender romance, centred on a familiar yet infinitely more appealing relationship than Twilight's Bella and Edward. Warm Bodies also features a killer soundtrack, including classics from Guns N' Roses, Bruce Springsteen, John Waite, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan. More often than not, the tunes are set against flesh-tearingly gory scenes and the juxtaposition is terrific. The film also features a wonderful supporting cast of John Malkovich, Dave Franco and Rob Corddry, whose performance as a frustrated zombie businessman attracts most of the remaining laughs. Ultimately, Warm Bodies is a clever, unexpected and undeniably entertaining film. The simple plot satisfies on most fronts and Hoult is perfectly cast as the awkward zombie lover, managing to imbue his soulless corpse with an extraordinary amount of heart and compassion. For an adaptation that openly acknowledges its Shakespearean underpinnings, this has somehow still emerged as one of the most original stories of the year. https://youtube.com/watch?v=07s-cNFffDM
The original Assassin's Creed video game was a sublime blend of world design, innovative mechanics and thrilling gameplay. While high-octane action was available, stealth was definitely favoured as the most useful mode of play, and almost always proved the most gripping. The game's story centred upon a technological breakthrough that allowed direct descendants of an ancient assassin's guild to revisit the memories of their ancestors, essentially re-living their darkest and most dangerous endeavours in order to ascertain the location of a long-lost relic. While some time was spent in the modern world, the lion's share was spent inside the machine, allowing the gamer to experience all the exhilaration of exploring and causing chaos in the age of Renaissance Europe. The film adaptation, by contrast, makes the same ill-conceived decision that doomed the third instalment of the Matrix trilogy, in that it spends far too much time in the real world at the expense of everything that made its source material so innovative and engaging. Worse, when inside the 'Animus', the focus is almost entirely on action, meaning there's almost none of the signature stealth assassination that made the gameplay so tense. Overly-coreographed and devoid of tension, these periodic action scenes depict the assassins as mostly ineffective killers who spend most of their time running away from far superior fighters. Perhaps the greatest disappointment, however, is that Assassin's Creed boasts an outstanding cast whose talents are almost entirely wasted. Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson and Charlotte Rampling are all tasked with delivering exposition-heavy drivel and/or cringeworthy clangers like "Welcome…to the Spanish Inquisition". Truly, the only line that earns a non-ironic laugh and feels genuine to both the film and the actor who delivers it comes about halfway through the film, when Fassbender looks around, laughs to himself and mutters: "What the fuck is going on?" You'd be hard-pressed to find a more fitting tagline to slap on the posters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfJVoF5ko1Y
On any given Saturday morning across Brisbane, plenty of pooches can be found descending upon the city's markets. Come 6am–12pm on Saturday, October 19 in Carseldine, dog lovers and their BFFs will be doing what they usually do — with the added bonus of attending the northside spot's returning Barktoberfest. What do cute canines have to do with celebrating this time of year? Nothing, but don't let that get in the way of a dapper doggo-friendly morning out. As well as the usual food and fresh produce, an array of pet-related stalls will ramp up the fun to bark-tastic levels — plus a puppy parade and a pawparazzi photo contest to determine just which four-legged friend is the most adorable. And, if you don't have your own pupper nipping at your heels, and you'd like to, the Animal Welfare League Queensland will also be hosting a dog adoption zone onsite. Yes, you can take your pets to this market or come home with one. Or, if you're looking to add to your furry brood, you could even do both. UPDATE, OCTOBER 16: Due to Brisbane's stormy weather on Saturday, October 12, Barktoberfest was delayed by one week, with the event now taking place on Saturday, October 19. This event listing has been updated to reflect that change.
