They're just humble cucumbers left to ferment in vinegar, but pickles certainly get plenty of attention. We love them on sandwiches, and to munch on individually. We love drinking whiskey, then chasing it down with a shot of pickle brine. Sometimes, folks even make beer that showcases the zesty pickle flavour. If you're fond of all of the above, then get your pickle-loving self to Pickle Fest. Hosted by The Woods Bar — in collaboration with Picklehead Pickles and Soapbox Beer — the event celebrates its eponymous ingredient in a whole range of guises. In other words, it's an excuse to eat pickles, drink pickle brine and sip pickle-flavoured brews. And, to eat reuben sandwiches, aka the go-to food when anyone thinks of pickles (and a great way to line your stomach, too). Also on the menu: deep-fried pickled jalapeños, pickle pate and pickled onions, as well as a custom bloody mary selection — including a smokey whiskey version, and another made with tequila, lime and chilli. The one-day festival takes place on Sunday, December 1, with the Mitchelton watering hole getting into the pickled spirit from from 11am. Image: The Woods Bar.
If Christmas vibes and shopping for greenery inside a Coorparoo warehouse sounds like your perfect outing, then head along to the Jungle Collective's indoor plant sale on Saturday, December 7 and Sunday, December 8. It's the latest Brissie market from The Jungle Collective, a Melbourne nursery that stocks all kinds of weird and wonderful species. Yes, it is trucking its way up north again for another Queensland venture. Whether you're after a hanging pot plant, some palms for the garden or a giant Bird of Paradise, chances are you'll find it here. Have a reputation for killing your cacti? Overwatering your ferns? Don't worry — there'll be horticulturalists on site on the night to give you advice and chat through any questions you might have. Get inspired by greenery aplenty, learn to incorporate plants into your home and living spaces, and nab a few Christmas gifts —all while browsing and soaking up some tunes. Best get in quick though, as these markets are always popular, with more than 170 different species usually on offer. Due to expected demand, the sale will be held in four sessions on Saturday (8-10am, 10am-noon, 12-2pm and 2-4pm) and two on Sunday (10am-noon, 12-2pm), and attendees will need to register for free tickets in advance. Plus, if you dress up like 'Aussie Santa' complete with a Santa hat and beard (and, ideally, some boardies) — and spend at least $10 — you'll get $5 off your purchase.
If you're a dog person, being surrounded by wagging tails and beaming pooch faces is one of the happiest feelings in the world. Here's another: doing your part to assist animals in need. Each year — a pandemic hiatus aside — the RSPCA's Million Paws Walk combines the two, asking Brisbanites and their puppers to go for a stroll to help raise funds for an obviously extremely worth cause. Come Sunday, May 28, this endorphin-sparking mosey returns for 2023, taking over the Forgan Smith Lawn at the University of Queensland in St Lucia. Whether you're keen to dress up for the occasion — in a matching outfit to your four-legged bestie, of course — or just pop on your sneakers and usual workout attire, then join in from 10am (with registrations from 8.30am). Entry costs $35 for adults and $30 for concessions, with the money raised going towards RSPCA Queensland's work rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming animals. In addition to the exercise, you and Rover can browse a heap stalls afterwards, listen to live tunes and grab a bite to eat from food trucks. There's also dog competitions and games as well. Can't make it to UQ? Check out the full list of venues around Queensland. Top image: Call of the Wild Pet Photography.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. DECISION TO LEAVE When it's claimed that Decision to Leave's Detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il, Heaven: To the Land of Happiness) needs "murder and violence in order to be happy", it's easy to wonder if that statement similarly applies to Park Chan-wook, this stunning South Korean thriller's filmmaker. The director of Oldboy, Thirst, Stoker and The Handmaiden doesn't, surely. Still, his exceptional body of on-screen work glows when either fills its frames — which, in a career that also spans Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Lady Vengeance and English-language TV miniseries The Little Drummer Girl, among other titles, is often. To be more accurate, perhaps Park needs to survey the grey areas that loiter around death and brutality, and surround love, lust, loss, and all matters of the brain, body and heart that bind humans together, to find cinematic fulfilment. Certainly, audiences should be glad if/that he does. In Decision to Leave, exploring such obsessions, and the entire notions of longing and obsession, brings a staggering, sinuously layered and seductively gorgeous movie to fruition — a film to obsess over if ever there was one. In this year's deserved Cannes Film Festival Best Director-winner, reserved insomniac Hae-joon is fixated from the outset, too: with his police job in Busan, where he works Monday–Friday before returning to Ipo on weekends to his wife (Lee Jung-hyun, Peninsula). That all-consuming focus sees his weekday walls plastered with grim photos from cases, and haunts the time he's meant to be spending — and having sex — with said spouse. Nonetheless, the latest dead body thrust his way isn't supposed to amplify his obsession. A businessman and experienced climber is found at the base of a mountain, and to most other cops the answer would be simple. It is to his offsider Soo-wan (Go Kyung-Pyo, Private Lives), but Hae-joon's interest is piqued when the deceased's enigmatic Chinese widow, the cool, calm but also bruised and scratched Seo-rae (Tang Wei, The Whistleblower), is brought in for questioning amid apologising for her imperfect Korean-language skills. In the precinct interrogation room, the detective and his potential suspect share a sushi dinner — and, in the lingering looks gazed each other's way even at this early stage, this may as well be a twisted first date. Hae-joon then surveils Seo-rae, including at her work caring for the elderly, which also provides her alibi. He keeps watching her at home, where her evenings involve television and ice cream. In stirring scenes of bravura and beauty, he envisages himself with her in the process, longing for the illusion he's building in his sleep-deprived mind. As for Seo-rae, she keeps stoking their chemistry, especially when she's somehow being both direct and evasive with her responses to his queries. She knows how small gestures leave an imprint, and she also knows when she and Hae-joon are both desperately hooked on each other. Every intelligently written (by Park and frequent co-scribe Chung Seo-kyung), evocatively shot (by cinematographer Kim Ji-Yong, Ashfall) moment in Decision to Leave is crucial; the film is made so meticulously, with a precision its protagonist would instantly admire, that cutting out even a second is unthinkable. Equally, every scene speaks volumes about this spellbinding movie — but here's three that help convey its simmering potency. In one, Hae-joon ascends up the victim's last cliff by rope, tied to Soo-wan, Busan looming in the background. In another, detailed blue-green wallpaper filled with mountains surrounds Seo-rae. And in yet another, she reaches into Hae-joon's pocket to grab his lip balm, then applies it to his mouth. Perspective is everything in this feature, Park stresses. Minutiae is everything, too. Intimacy is more than everything, actually, in a picture that's also grippingly, electrifying sensual. Read our full review. BARBARIAN "Safe as houses" isn't a term that applies much in horror. It isn't difficult to glean why. Even if scary movies routinely followed folks worrying about their investments — one meaning of the phrase — it's always going to be tricky for the sentiment to stick when such flicks love plaguing homes, lodges and other dwellings with bumps, jumps and bone-chilling terror. Barbarian, however, could break out the expression and mean it, in a way. At its centre sits a spruced-up Detroit cottage listed on Airbnb and earning its owner a trusty income. In the film's setup, the house in question is actually doing double duty, with two guests booked for clashing stays over the same dates. It's hardly a spoiler to say that their time in the spot, the nicest-looking residence in a rundown neighbourhood, leaves them feeling anything but safe. Late on a gloomy, rainy, horror-movie-101 kind of night — an eerie and tense evening from the moment that writer/director Zach Cregger's first feature as a solo director begins — Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell, Suspicion) arrives at Barbarian's pivotal Michigan property. She's in town for a job interview, but discovers the lockbox empty, keys nowhere to be found. Also, the home already has an occupant in Keith Toshko (Bill Skarsgård, Eternals), who made his reservation via a different website. With a medical convention filling the city's hotels, sharing the cottage seems the only option, even if Tess is understandably cautious about cohabitating with a man she's literally just met. Ambiguity is part of Barbarian from the get-go, spanning whether Keith can be trusted, what's behind their double booking and, when things start moving overnight, what's going on in the abode. That's only the start of Barbarian's hellish story. Canny casting plays a considerable part in Barbarian's early unease; if you rocked up to a place that's meant to be yours alone for the evening only for Pennywise from the recent big-screen version of IT and its sequel lurking within — sans red balloon, luckily — you'd be creeped out. Skarsgård's involvement isn't the only reason that the movie's first act drips with dread and uncertainty, but it's a devastatingly clever use of him as a horror-film talent, and the Swedish star leans into the slippery and shifty possibilities. Still, after taking a photo of his ID and being wary of drinking beverages he's made, Tess warms to Keith over wine and conversation. He's having a loud nightmare on the couch, too, when her bedroom door opens mysteriously. When she gets stuck in the locked basement the next day, he's out at meetings. Then he returns, and they'll wish that a reservation mixup really was the worst of their troubles. Clearly made with affection for old-school horror, especially films by genre great Wes Craven, Barbarian feels like a well-crafted take on a familiar premise while it's laying its groundwork. Foolish is the viewer who thinks that they know where the movie is heading from there, though — or who ignores the instant bubblings of potential to zig and zag, plus the lingering inkling that something beyond the easily expected might stalk its frames. Indeed, watching Barbarian recalls watching scary flicks from four and five decades back for the first time, a rite of passage for every horror-loving teen no matter the generation, and being gripped by their surprises. Cregger bundles in twists, but he also establishes a vibe where almost anything can shift and change. Two cases in point: when Justin Long (Giri/Haji) shows up as a smug and obnoxious Hollywood player with #MeToo problems, and when the 80s isn't just an influence in scenes lensed in a tighter aspect ratio. Read our full review. BLACK ADAM "I kneel before no one," says Teth-Adam, aka Black Adam, aka the DC Comics character that dates back to 1945, and that Dwayne Johnson (Red Notice) has long wanted to play. That proclamation is made early in the film that bears the burly, flying, impervious-to-everything figure's name, echoing as a statement of might as well as mood: he doesn't need to bow down to anyone or anything, and if he did he wouldn't anyway. Yet the DC Extended Universe flick that Black Adam is in — the 11th in a saga that's rarely great — kneels frequently to almost everything. It bends the knee to the dispiritingly by-the-numbers template that keeps lurking behind this comic book-inspired series' most forgettable entries, and the whole franchise's efforts to emulate the rival (and more successful) Marvel Cinematic Universe, for starters. It also shows deference to the lack of spark and personality that makes the lesser DC-based features so routine at best, too. Even worse, Black Adam kneels to the idea that slipping Johnson into a sprawling superhero franchise means robbing the wrestler-turned-actor himself of any on-screen personality. Glowering and gloomy is a personality, for sure, but it's not what's made The Rock such a box office drawcard — and, rather than branching out, breaking the mould or suiting the character, he just appears to be pouting and coasting. He looks the physical part, of course, as he needs to playing a slave-turned-champion who now can't be killed or hurt. It's hard not to wish that the Fast and Furious franchise's humour seeped into his performance, however, or even the goofy corniness of Jungle Cruise, Johnson's last collaboration with filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra. The latter has template-esque action flicks Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night and The Commuter on his resume before that, and helms his current star here like he'd rather still directing Liam Neeson. That said, Black Adam, the character, has much to scowl about — and scowl he does. Black Adam, the film, has much backstory to lay out, with exposition slathered on thick during the opening ten minutes. As a mere human in 2600 BCE in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Kahndaq, its namesake was among an entire populace caught under a cruel ruler hungry for power, and for a powerful supernatural crown fashioned out a mineral called 'eternium' that said subjects were forced to mine. Now, 5000 years later, Black Adam is a just-awakened mortal-turned-god who isn't too thrilled about the modern world, or being in it. Bridging the gap: the fact that back in the day, one boy was anointed with magic by ancient wizards to defend Kahndaq's people (the word "shazam!" gets uttered, because Black Adam dwells in the same part of the DCEU as 2019's Shazam! and its upcoming sequel), but misusing those skills ended in entombment until modern-day resistance fighters interfere. The above really is just the preamble. Black Adam is freed by widowed professor Adrianna (Sarah Shahi, Sex/Life), who is trying to fight the Intergang, the mercenaries who've been Kahndaq's new oppressors for decades — and, yes, Black Adam gets caught up in that battle. But being out and about, instead of interred in a cave, gets the attention of the Justice Society. The DCEU already has the Justice League and the Suicide Squad, but it apparently still needs another super-powered crew. Indeed, Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad's Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, The First Lady) even shows up to help put this new gang together. That's how Hawkman (Aldis Hodge, One Night in Miami), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan, The Misfits), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell, Voyagers) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo, the To All the Boys movies) don their caped-crusader getup and try to stop Black Adam, or convince him to stop himself. Read our full review. THE GOOD NURSE It isn't called CULLEN — Monster: The Charles Cullen Story. It doesn't chart the murders of a serial killer who's already a household name. And, it doesn't unfurl over multiple episodes. Still, Netflix-distributed true-crime film The Good Nurse covers homicides, and the person behind them, that are every bit as grim and horrendous as the events dramatised in DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Such based-on-reality tales that face such evil are always nightmare fodder, but this Eddie Redmayne (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore)- and Jessica Chastain (The Forgiven)-starring one, as brought to the screen by Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm (A War, A Hijacking), taps into a particularly terrifying realm. The culprit clearly isn't the good nurse of the movie's moniker, but he is a nurse, working in intensive care units no less — and for anyone who has needed to put their trust in the health system or may in the future (aka all of us), his acts are gut-wrenchingly chilling. Hospitals are meant to be places that heal, even in America's cash-driven setup where free medical care for all isn't considered a basic right and a societal must. Hospitals are meant to care for the unwell and injured, as are the doctors, nurses and other staff who race through their halls. There is one such person in The Good Nurse, Amy Loughren, who Chastain plays based on a real person. In 2003, in New Jersey, she's weathering her own struggles: she's a single mother to two young girls, she suffers from cardiomyopathy to the point of needing a heart transplant, and she can't tell her job about her health condition because she needs to remain employed for four more months to qualify for insurance to treat it. Then enters Cullen (Redmayne), the newcomer on Loughren's night shifts, a veteran of nine past hospitals, an instant friend who offers to help her cope with her potentially lethal ailment and also the reason that their patients start dying suddenly. There's no spoiler alert needed about The Good Nurse's grisly deeds or the person responsible. Cullen's name hasn't been changed in Krysty Wilson-Cairns' (Last Night in Soho, 1917) script, which adapts Charles Graeber's 2013 non-fiction book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder, and Loughren's similarly remains the same. The Good Nurse also opens with the quietly disquieting Cullen retreating as someone in a different hospital years earlier goes into convulsions — standing back motionless, he tries to appear anxious but instead looks like a creepy blank canvas. Accordingly, that he's the cause of much of the movie's horrors is a given from the outset, but that's only one of Lindholm and Wilson-Cairns' angles. As aided by centring Loughren's plight, The Good Nurse is also a film about institutional failings and coverups with very real consequences. Indeed, as set to an eerie score by Biosphere (Burma Storybook), there's a procedural feel to Lindholm's first feature in America; that he helmed episodes of Mindhunter beforehand doesn't come as a surprise. There are cops, too, in the form of detectives Baldwin (Nnamdi Asomugha, Sylvie's Love) and Braun (Noah Emmerich, Dark Winds), who are brought in seven weeks after a patient's passing just after Cullen arrives. But nurse-turned-administrator Linda Garran (Fear the Walking Dead), who summons the police, is hardly forthcoming — about the almost-two-month delay or with information overall. It isn't in the hospital's interests to be upfront, which is why and how Cullen has kept moving from healthcare facility to healthcare facility, and notching up a body count at each by spiking IV bags with fatal doses of insulin and other medications. No hospital wants to be seen to be at fault, and won't warn fellow institutions, either. Read our full review. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on July 7, July 14, July 21 and July 28; August 4, August 11, August 18 and August 25; September 1, September 8, September 15, September 22 and September 29; and October 6 and October 13. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Thor: Love and Thunder, Compartment No. 6, Sundown, The Gray Man, The Phantom of the Open, The Black Phone, Where the Crawdads Sing, Official Competition, The Forgiven, Full Time, Murder Party, Bullet Train, Nope, The Princess, 6 Festivals, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Crimes of the Future, Bosch & Rockit, Fire of Love, Beast, Blaze, Hit the Road, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Orphan: First Kill, The Quiet Girl, Flux Gourmet, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Moonage Daydream, Ticket to Paradise, Clean, You Won't Be Alone, See How They Run, Smile, On the Count of Three, The Humans, Don't Worry Darling, Amsterdam, The Stranger, Halloween Ends, The Night of the 12th, Muru and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon.
Do you like scary movies? Do you think you know everything there is to know about them? If you answered yes to both questions, then consider your evening sorted from 6.30pm on Monday, October 28 — you'll be heading along to The Elizabeth Picture Theatre's Mega Horror Trivia. Prepare to test your knowledge of all the frightening films you can think of, and likely a heap more beyond that. Including remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, long-running franchises and movies that just won't die, there's no shortage of flicks to draw upon — and while these kinds of things usually remain mainstream-oriented, you can still expect the questions to range beyond the obvious (yes, we're talking about the Halloween franchise). Want to prepare? Honing up your knowledge on the genre in general — everything from teen-oriented '90s efforts I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream to unnerving classics Rosemary's Baby and Nosferatu, plus the likes of the family-friendly Casper and The Addams Family, the zombie-focused Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of The Dead, and recent hits IT and Hereditary, too — wouldn't go astray. Basically, expect to be grilled all the creepy stuff you grew up watching and keep watching now, with bragging rights and prizes on offer for putting all those hours spent in front of a screen to good use. Tickets cost $5 on the night, which can be used towards food and drink purchases, but you'll need to email theelizabeth@fivestarcinemas.com.au to reserve your spot.
2019 represents one giant milestone for humanity's space exploits, marking half a century since astronauts first walked on the moon. That's just one of the achievements that the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, aka NASA, is known for — and it's just one of the events that'll feature in a new exhibition chronicling the organisation's jaunts beyond the earth's surface, which heads to Australia this year NASA – A Human Adventure will display at the Queensland Museum in not only its first trip to our shores, but its only Aussie season. It's set to be huge in a number of ways. The exclusive showcase will bring more than 250 historically significant items to Brisbane, and it'll run for a whopping seven months. It'll also be the largest exhibition ever hosted by the newly refurbished South Bank spot, taking over two levels. Gracing QM's walls and halls between March 15 and October 9, NASA – A Human Adventure will feature everything from objects that actually have flown through space, to high-fidelity models, to both small-size and full-scale replicas. Think real rocket engines, space food, space suits, lunar cameras and moon boots, plus miniature versions of NASA's Space Shuttle, Lunar Rover, and Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space crafts. Touching on the Soviet contribution to space travel as well, it'll also display a replica of the robotic lunar rover Lunokhod. Australia is the latest stop in the exhibition's tour, which aims to showcase the story of space travel, as well as the history of rocket science and space flight. It comes to Brisbane after previously venturing to Milan, Singapore, Taipei, Seoul, Bangkok, Tokyo, Istanbul, Madrid, Utrecht, and both Stockholm and Norrkoping in Sweden.
Brisbanites, prepare to get hopelessly devoted — again — to Rydell High, summer lovers reuniting at school, leather jackets and Pink Ladies. Because giving Grease a prequel streaming series in 2023 wasn't enough, the 50s-set musical is returning to its original home, with Australia's brand-new multimillion-dollar theatre production of the five-decade-old show set to be the one that Brissie audiences want from Friday, January 3, 2025. Grease is shaping up to be the River City's big electrifying summer hit, zipping into the Queensland capital's QPAC like lightening. This is the fourth stop on the show's current Aussie tour, with the production playing Melbourne, Sydney and Perth before arriving in Brisbane. Everyone knows Grease's plot by now, given how popular the 1978 movie adaptation of the musical rom-com still is, especially Down Under. It is about an Australian transfer student, after all, who falls in love with an American high schooler in California. After it sped from the stage to become a silver-screen classic, it spawned a 1982 Michelle Pfeiffer (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania)-starring sequel, too, then 2023's Paramount+ show Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. Just as John Travolta (Paradise City) and the late, great Olivia Newton-John (The Very Excellent Mr Crocodile Dundee) once did as Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson, the Brisbane cast have leathers to slip into. Patti Newton plays Miss Lynch, Bobby Fox is Vince Fontaine and Marcia Hines will pop up as Teen Angel. The new batch of T-Birds and Pink Ladies in Brissie will obviously be belting out all the famous tunes — including the titular 'Grease' and fellow earworms 'Summer Nights', 'Sandy', 'Hopelessly Devoted to You', 'You're The One That I Want', 'Greased Lightnin' and 'Beauty School Dropout'. Images: Jeff Busby.
Given its name, BrewDog was always going to be a canine-friendly brewery — including at DogTap Brisbane, its Australian base. The Murarrie venue serves up craft beer for puppers as well as people, because doggos like to sip brews too. And, it's now turning your next visit with your four-legged friend into a celebratory shindig. Each Thursday from September 10, Brisbanites of both the human and barking variety can head on down to the riverside spot for a 'dog pawty' — aka an excuse to sink a few drinks while your pooch does the same. You'll need to reserve a pawty space first, although that's a reality we're all getting used to in general. Then, once you're there, both you and Fido can sit, stay and start drinking. For dogs, you'll pay $10 each, which nabs them a pup-safe Subwoofer IPA and a pupcake. For humans, you'll buy your beverages as you go along — while saying cheers to your canine companion plenty of times, obviously. BrewDog's dog pawties take place every Thursday at BrewDog DogTap.
There are no maybes about the Melbourne International Film Festival's major high-profile guest for 2018 — but, as fans of the Bluth and Fünke families will know, there is one Maeby. Best known for playing Arrested Development's resident teenage film industry executive, ignored daughter, slacker banana stand employee and alluring cousin, Alia Shawkat is headed to Australia as part of this year's fest, where she'll chat about her career and her life in general. Taking place on Saturday, August 18 as part of the 18-day film event, MIFF Talks: Alia Shawkat in Conversation will see the actor talk for an hour with writer and presenter Lorin Clarke — it will be her only Australian appearance. Considering she's officially attending the fest in support of her new film Blaze, a biopic about country and western songwriter Blaze Foley which Ethan Hawke directed, we're guessing there won't be any dancing like a chicken. Thanks to TV series Search Party and Transparent — plus movies such as Green Room, 20th Century Women, Nasty Baby, Night Moves and Whip It — Shawkat's resume spans much, much further than television's worst real estate family, and that's just on the screen. She's also a jazz singer, pianist, painter and illustrator, and recently starred in, co-wrote and executive produced the film Duck Butter. Plus, if Broad City has you wondering about Shawkat's doppelganger-like connection with Ilana Glazer, we have to point out that the latter was just in Melbourne this month too. MIFF Talks: Alia Shawkat in Conversation joins MIFF's growing 2018 program, which also includes an all-night Nicolas Cage marathon and a screening of Drive with an all-new live score. The fest has also announced its first 32 titles for this year, including Blaze, with the full program set to be revealed on July 10. MIFF Talks: Alia Shawkat in Conversation will take place at the Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition Street, Melbourne at 1.30pm on Saturday, August 18. Tickets cost $25, and are available online now.
Peter Alwast is a Brisbane artist who uses paintings, objects, sculptures and video portraits to explore ideas of community. His latest exhibition, Being Together, is a continuation of this recurring theme, as well as testing the limits and communion of seemingly disparate objects. Alwast completed his Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) in painting at QUT and was awarded the Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, which he used to complete his Masters at New York's Parsons School of Design. Since then he's exhibited in Australia and across the globe, including Experimenta Utopia Now at MONA and Selectively Revealed, which toured South Korea, Taipei and Thailand. His work is held in numerous corporate, university and private collections across Australia and the USA. In this exhibition, gold chain-making machines belonging to Alwast's father are presented with video portraits of others from Brisbane's artistic community. They sit alongside a series of site-responsive drawings inspired by Alwast's former mentor, Richard Tuttle. Here, the personal and mechanical combine to create a fragile sense of community based on finitude, relation and communication rather than any idealised principle. Being Together exhibits at The Block QUT from October 15 to 28.
Biting into a katsu sandwich and devouring a few pieces if nigiri is what going to the Night Noodle Markets is all about — but usually when you sink your teeth into either of the above, you're not chomping on something made of gelato. While plenty of hot fresh-cooked Asian street food bites will be on this year's menu as usual, Gelato Messina is setting up its regular stall and serving up dessert versions of two Japanese favourites. The Kamikaze Katsu Sandwich is made with sudachi lime gelato, which is then coated in red velvet cake and panko crumbs, deep-fried and finally sandwiched in fluffy white bread along with some yuzu sauce. And as for the O-No-Giri, it features green tea gelato and pistachio mousse that's dipped in rice bubbles and coated with white chocolate. That's just half of this year's custom-made Messina offerings at the Night Noodle Markets, with two sundae-style dishes also available. Opt for Aunty Tomsu's Cheesecake and you'll get Japanese cheesecake, strawberry and cherry blossom cream, and strawberry meringue, all with strawberries and strawberry gelato. For I Think I'm Turning Sesame, there's black sesame gelato (what else?) with condensed milk coffee jelly, miso crunch and banana miso bread, then topped with vanilla cream and coffee powder. While the gelato haven's sole Brisbane store is located just down the road, you'll only be able to pick up these four specials at its Japanese game show-style booth at South Bank's cultural forecourt between July 25 and August 25. While you're there, you'll also be able to give what they're calling the 'useless wheel of spinning happiness' a whirl — and win prizes that are also pretty useless, apparently. Still, it'll be fun, and one of them is a Hello Kitty tattoo. The Night Noodle Markets run from July 25 to August 5 at the South Bank Cultural Forecourt as part of Good Food Month.
Stones Corner's Shady Palms has just the activity for your Friday night, especially if you're always glued to your playlist. And if you guessed that it's giving a game your nan probably plays a musical twist, then that's a bingo. At Musical Bingo, you don't just wait for someone to tumble a sphere of balls, pick out a number and make a bad joke. Instead, you'll hear bits and pieces of songs, and then match them to the ones listed on your bingo card. Running from 7pm every fortnight — so on Friday, December 9 and Friday, December 23 to wrap up 2022 — it's as simple as it sounds. Keen to both face and match the music? You're more than catered for. Entry is free, with no registrations required and there are prizes up for grabs — two $50 Shady Pines vouchers, in fact. And yes, given the nature of the night, we're guessing there'll be sing-alongs. Top image: Shady Palms.
That soothing feeling that sweeps over you when you spy a cute canine, spend too much time watching internet cat videos or even just spot a picture of a newborn animal — that's the feeling at the heart of Karmably's wellness sessions. Sure, you've been to kitten yoga and puppy pilates, and they're both great. But we're guessing that you haven't tried meditating with baby goats or getting mindful with soft, cuddly lambs. Currently held in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, attendees at Karmably's classes attempt to find inner bliss while they're surrounded by rescued baby farm animals. In short, it's the best way to de-stress when life's got your goat. After all, who can remain overwhelmed, exhausted or annoyed when they're sharing their chill-out session with actual goats? The classes focus on relaxation techniques, like Breathe In & Bleat Out, which gives you an idea of just what's in store. Those heading along can expect three parts to the session: mindful stretching, meditation and snuggling the four-legged participants. If you're wondering where the concept came from, it was inspired by organiser Berenice Tan's own experiences trying to find something other than the usual mindfulness classes within Australia. Unimpressed with the options already available, she flew to Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco "and experienced every meditation class under the sun," she explains. "Funnily enough, I heard about goat yoga and laughed it off as something ridiculous I wasn't interested in trying." Upon returning to Brisbane, Tan began to research animal therapy and, after learning of the benefits (and realising that everyone loves cute critters), her sessions with goats, lambs and even piglets were born. The bliss goes both ways, too — with Karmably not only helping humans to relax in a fun manner, but also assisting animals in need. Tan works with sanctuaries, rescue centres, and organisations such as Harmony Hooves Healing Hearts, Brisbane Pony Parties and My Little Farm Friends. They're all outfits that raise baby creatures who have either been rejected by their mothers or lost their mums in other ways, and hand-rear them until they can be adopted out as pets to families who live on suitable properties. After setting up shop in 2018, classes frequently sell out in advance — but there's currently spaces for the latest Brissie session at 10.15am on Sunday, January 19. The calming cuteness takes place at 46 Evesham Street in Moorooka.
Over the past five years, Runcorn's Genkotsu Ramen has served up plenty of bowls of its eponymous dish — and Brisbanites have slurped them all up willingly and happily. But we're guessing that, come Wednesday, March 11, the southside eatery will prove even more popular than it usually does. Slinging $5 bowls of ramen will do that. To celebrate half a decade of being in the noodle soup business, Genkotsu Ramen is doing $5 ramen for one whole day. You'll need to order the original ramen; however you'll have a choice of shio, shoyu, miso and gyokai — so you just need to decide whether your tastebuds are feeling salty, or are hankering for soy, miso or fish. You'll also need to eat in, as this special isn't available for takeaway orders. It all kicks off at 11.30am, so you can head by for a cheap lunch or a cheap dinner. Expect to have plenty of company, of course. Images: Genkotsu Ramen.
A lot can happen in five years — in the world in general, in Brisbane as well, and at the patch of Brissie's inner city known as Welcome to Bowen Hills in particular. The permanent food truck hub opened back in 2017, flirted with a name change in 2021 and has returned to its old moniker now. It's also bringing back an old favourite from its events lineup: A Day of Rosé and Cheese. Sometimes, this excuse to drink pink and eat oh-so-much cheese has been called a party. Sometimes, it's been dubbed a festival. Both still fit, because a rosé and cheese event by any other name does indeed still taste (and smell) as sweet. Pink vino lovers and gooey dairy fiends, prepare to head just north of the CBD from 12pm on Saturday, March 12 for a whole day dedicated to quite the culinary pairing. You'll drink the tipple in question. You'll eat cheese. It's simple, really. The wine list will feature drops from Australia, New Zealand, France and Italy, so you won't go thirsty — and sparkling rosé and frosé will both be on offer. Food-wise, a feast of cheesy goodness is on the cards, starting with cheese platters paired with charcuterie, meats and seafood. There'll also be Moreton Bay bug mac 'n' cheese, reubens, steak with blue cheese pepper sauce, oysters with cheese and more, all ready to be washed down with pink-hued tipples. This year, entry is free but you can register your attendance in advance — and you'll pay as you eat and drink.
Many a bar, pub, club and watering hole line Fortitude Valley's streets; however, there's one thing that the suburb hasn't had until now. While craft breweries have been popping up nearby in Newstead, in the CBD under the Story Bridge and over the river at Kangaroo Point, the inner-city hotspot has remained quiet on the beer-making front — but that's where Soapbox Beer comes in. Taking over an old agricultural store on the corner of Gipps Street and Ranwell Lane, and open since December 2018, the newcomer both brews and serves up its hoppy beverages onsite. In a spacious venue filled with reclaimed timber and industrial fittings largely nabbed from demolition works, you'll find a 2000-litre steam brew system pumping out Soapbox's core brews, plus a 200-litre system for seasonal and smaller batch beers. [caption id="attachment_707149" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rachael Nixon[/caption] Always pouring through the taps are five particular beverages: a malt and citrus-heavy pale ale, a chocolatey and bitter dark ale, an IPA with orange notes, a slightly sweet kolsch and an American-style amber ale. To help line the stomach, Soapbox also slings a menu of share plates, snacks, steaks and burgers, many of which include beer as an ingredient. Between pints, you can tuck into potato curry croquettes with a pale ale vindaloo sauce or a grilled wagyu beer steak with a porter onion gravy — or a brisket burger with beer-pickled daikon, the obligatory beer-battered fish and chips, and even beer fudge brownies with hops salted caramel sauce. As for the folks responsible, Soapbox is the brainchild of craft beer aficionados Luke Nixon and Scott Robertson, who started home-brewing six years ago. They've now traded in their film industry and corporate jobs to jump from making tipples in their backyards to whipping up beverages in the centre of Brissie's nightlife scene, with help from Greg James as their new head brewer. Find Soapbox Beer at 89–101 Gipps Street, Fortitude Valley, open from 11am–midnight Wednesday–Sunday. Images: Rachael Nixon.
For almost a century and a half — 146 years in 2023, to be exact — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake has delighted ballet lovers. Premiering in 1877, it's one of the most famous works that's ever been performed on pointe shoes. A version has rarely been far from a stage somewhere, the music is as stunning and haunting as compositions get, and we wouldn't have Black Swan without it. Now, the classic gives rise to Duck Pond. Here, Swan Lake gets the circus treatment, plus new tunes and haute-couture costumes. The folks to thank: Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa ensemble, who've reimagined the iconic ballet in quite the inventive way, including with sequinned flippers instead of the usual attire. Pirouetting, waddling, leaping, all-around acrobatics: that's all part of this world-premiere show, which plays QPAC's Playhouse from Wednesday, July 5–Saturday, July 8. Audiences can also look forward to duets, humour, surrealism, aerials and feathers, plus a tale about a film crew, a duck army and a burlesque black swan. Libby McDonnell takes care of the outfits, Jethro Woodward reworks the tunes — while still nodding to Tchaikovsky, of course — and ten Circa performers will get quacking.
Since 2021, Queensland burger fans have been waiting for one thing: the launch of Mark Wahlberg's burger chain Wahlburgers in the Sunshine State. The brand first announced plans to open Down Under back in 2021, then opened its first Aussie store in Sydney at the beginning of 2022. Now, after locking in a local site a few months back, those burgs are available on the Gold Coast. Watch a Wahlberg-starring movie, tuck into a burg from Wahlberg's burger chain Wahlburgers, get the words 'burger' and 'Wahlberg' stuck in your head for days: that's now on the menu in Surfers Paradise. Yes, it's time to pair a burger with some Sunkist by the beach at the Paradise Centre, at least if you're taking advice from Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's 1991 single 'Good Vibrations' . View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wahlburgers Australia (@wahlburgersau) Because there's a reality TV show for everything, you probably heard of the chain before it made its way Down Under, all thanks to the 2014–9 series Wahlburgers — which turned its lens on the burger joints owned by the actor and his brothers. Wahlburgers has made its home in the Surfers Paradise spot's new beachfront dining precinct, which has just undergone a $40-million revamp — and the burg-slinging brand isn't short on company. Axe-throwing bar Maniax has already set up shop there, as has El Camino Cantina and Gelato Messina. Also at a yet-to-be-revealed date sometime soon, so will TGI Fridays. The chain's first-ever Queensland store serves up burgers, obviously, including a meat-free Impossible burg that's been dubbed 'Mark's choice', plus a barbecue bacon burger that bears his fellow actor brother (and ex-New Kids on the Block member) Donnie's tick of approval. There are 13 burg options to choose from in total, with two types of chicken schnitzel burger, a crispy fish option, and a truffle burger — which pairs a beef patty with truffle aioli — also available. Or, you can opt for salads, sides that span everything from French fries and sweet potato fries to onion rings and bacon mac 'n' cheese, and loaded versions of your favourite fries and potato gems. There's also a breakfast menu, complete with avocado on toast, granola, pancake stacks, breakfast burgers and French toast sticks. And, for dessert, get ready for fried dough — yes, that's what the menu says. Drinks-wise, alongside Sunkist, there's also other soft drinks, coffees, shakes and spiders in both boozy and booze-free varieties, 17 types of cocktails, a small wine list, and beers that include Wahlbrewskis, the chain's signature beer. If the Wahlberg name has you thinking about movies — with Mark starring in everything from Boogie Nights to Uncharted, and co-owner Donnie also featuring in The Sixth Sense and the Saw franchise — then that won't change with Wahlburgers' Aussie venture. In fact, the chain's entire move Down Under is a collaboration with United Cinemas, and some of the former's sites will be located within the latter's picture palaces. Wahlburgers' Aussie locations join more than 50 stores in the US, Canada and Germany. Folks around Australia can all look forward to munching on the brand's bites to eat, too — and in New Zealand as well — with the brand expected to launch 20 stores Down Under. Wahlburgers is also co-owned by chef Paul Wahlberg — another Wahlberg sibling — and, given its name, the chain unsurprisingly decks out its sites with photos and memorabilia from the brothers' lives. [caption id="attachment_796269" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Michael Rivera via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Find Wahlburgers in the Paradise Centre, 2 Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise, from 3pm on Thursday, October 13 — open from 7am–10pm Sunday–Wednesday, 7am–11pm Thursdays, and 7am–12am Friday–Saturday. Head to the chain's website and Facebook page for further information.
Remember when eating healthily and indulging your sweet tooth were mutually exclusive activities? Thankfully, that doesn't always have to be the case — or ever again, if Brisbane's newest vegan bakehouse has anything to do with it. Set to open in Everton Park in the coming weeks, Veganyumm is the answer to every nutrition-focused foodie's prayers (because even the most disciplined crave a delicious treat every now and then). And, as the moniker suggests, those who don't consume meat or animal products should be particularly excited. The new eatery won't just be dedicated to whipping up cakes, pastries and other tasty bites — it'll be Brisbane's first 100 percent vegan establishment of its type. If the name sounds somewhat familiar, that's probably because you've come across Cinnayumm at Charlie's Fruit Market. After making a big impression with her egg- and dairy-free artisan cinnamon buns, owner, recipe creator and head chef Shairie Bhim has decided to keep the collaboration going. The two will now dive head-first into all things vegan — as well as free from sugar and gluten — and add everything from decadent red velvet cupcakes to cookies to their repertoire. There's a reason that the word 'yum' is part of the new venture's title. Waffles, pancakes and more will also feature, with doughnuts on the list as well — because no Brisbane-based food business can overlook the city's doughy obsession. Drinks-wise, expect organic roasted coffees and mylkshakes (that's the vegan spelling of milkshakes) too. If you're not vegan already, Veganyumm's menu just might change that. Veganyumm is set to open at the end of April or beginning of May in Everton Park. Keep an eye on their Instagram for more information — and to start drooling in anticipation.
Believe it or not, it's been 14 years since Stephenie Meyer's vampire romance saga first hit the big screen — and since tweens across the globe collectively fell in love with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, too. The pair's careers have rocketed since, with KStew hopping between everything from Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper to Charlie's Angels and Spencer, and RPatz going from The Rover and Good Time to Tenet and The Batman. They'll always have that undead franchise on their resumes, though. Forgotten what the five vamp films are like? Love them and want to see them on a big screen again? Just adore movie marathons in general? Whatever reason you have, the Twilight Saga Movie Marathon wants you to sink your fans in. Stewart, Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and all-star supporting cast that spans Dakota Fanning, Anna Kendrick, Michael Sheen and Bryce Dallas Howard will all feature on Saturday, August 6 as the five blockbusters hit the silver screen once more at Brisbane's Palace Barracks cinema. Tickets cost $30, and the lengthy journey of glorious supernatural light-erotica will kick off at 6.30pm as Bella lands in Forks, Washington in the original Twilight film. From there, it's all love triangles, revengeful vampires, and half-human babies as New Moon, Eclipse and the two-part Breaking Dawn features run back-to-back.
After almost two years at Eagle Street Pier, Naga Thai has shut its doors, with the riverside precinct about to be torn down to make way for a new $2.1-billion development. But the team behind it can't get enough of that part of the CBD — or the waterfront — with Andrew and Jaimee Baturo, plus head chef Suwisa Phoonsang, moving over to Riparian Plaza for their latest venture. Set to open in early September, nestled into the mezzanine level between Madam Wu and River Bar, Tillerman will focus on seafood — and pair the ocean's finest, river views and a relaxed holiday-style vibe. "It's been designed for the warm Queensland climate and will make you want to stay all day," says Andrew Baturo, who also has Libertine, Walter's Steakhouse, Popolo and The Gresham on his resume. "Opportunities right on the river don't come along every day and we think Tillerman is one of the best locations in Australia for a seafood restaurant. We can't wait to serve up fabulous food, drinks and service complemented by Brisbane's riverfront as the stunning backdrop," he continued. Phoonsang will whip up a menu that's guided by fresh, premium seafood, rather than a particular cuisine or culture — but the culinary range will take inspiration from the best dishes found around the world. While the full lineup hasn't yet been unveiled, options will include salt cod croquettes, hand-picked Queensland mud crab with crab butter and chives, and salt-baked Murray cod. Among the non-seafood selection, wagyu flank, chicken roulade with mushroom duxelles and seasonal vegetable tarte tatin will feature, as well as salads and sides. And as for what you'll be sipping, the drinks menu will feature champagne and cocktails — which are suggested sips for taking in the view and the surrounding lights — plus other tipples. Design-wise, Brisbane's Hogg & Lamb are taking cues from travel, which'll shine through in the heavy use of spotted gum and botanical prints, as well as the sand-hued leather cushions. Wherever you're sat, you'll score a river vista, with both high and low tables, banquettes and mini booths on offer. Find Tillerman on the mezzanine level inside Riparian Plaza, 71 Eagle Street, Brisbane, from early September — open from 12–2.30pm Tuesday–Saturday for lunch, and 5–9pm Tuesday–Thursday and 5–10pm Friday–Saturday for dinner. We'll update you with an exact opening date when one is announced.
Tuck into a wagyu croquettes, sip fairy floss-topped cocktails, peer at street art: that's what's on the menu at the latest eatery to join Howard Smith Wharves. The Crystalbrook Vincent has given its ground-floor eatery a makeover, farewelling Polpetta and welcoming in Mews instead — and the revamped space takes inspiration from laneway culture. That means that you'll find art by local creatives gracing the restaurant and bar's walls, including pieces by artists such as Mr.Sor2, JORDACHE and James Ellis. Towering portraits, impressive floral murals, a couple of astronauts, tiny doors: that's all there for you to stare at while you eat and drink, with Mews officially opening on Thursday, August 11. The aim: to add another layer of art to the already art-focused hotel, which started its life as The Fantauzzo, then became Crystalbrook Vincent. With both monikers, the riverside place to stay pays tribute to photographer Vincent Fantauzzo, and features more than 180 of his works across over 500 prints (yes, some pieces pop up more than once). At Mews, while you're checking out the impressive walls, you'll be able to feast on either breakfast or dinner — or drinks. During its morning operating hours, the eatery dishes up eggs benedict made with Yatala ham hock; Montville forest mushrooms; and duck, fig and rosé cassoulet with Stanthorpe green apples and peas. Yes, serving a seasonal- and local-focused menu is a key driver behind Executive Chef Andrew McCrea's culinary lineup. Indeed, 80 percent of the produced used at Mews is sourced from local artisans, farmers and fisherman from within three hours of the restaurant. From the dinner range, that includes ingredients for its flower garden, which pairs Sunshine Coast zucchini flowers with Gatton goat's curd, baked marigold, Sunshine Coast figs and olive soil; the tuna tartare, which features Gold Coast yellowfin tuna and pennywort tartare, Byron Bay mustardale and smoked Gatton egg; and the Moreton Bay bug with spicy cornbread and myrtle, Everton Park honey jus, succulent pickle and citrus paint. Other standout dinner options span those aforementioned wagyu croquettes, a Wivenhoe mushroom garden with sheep's milk on black garlic soil, plus slow-roasted three-day truffle carrot. And, for dessert, highlights include chocolate frozen mousse paired with tangelo curd, sandpaper fig and macadamia fudge, sweet marigold dew, chocolate popping compost and lime glass — as well as a dish called 'The Jackson Pollock', which features passionfruit curd, fizzy maple honeycomb, white chocolate roast and lemonade fruit coconut ice. The drinks lineup features bloody marys and mimosas over breakfast, along with a focus on Aussie wines from both up-and-coming producers and well-known names, with Witches Falls and De Beaurepaire Wines given spotlight spots on the menu. If you're keen on a cocktail, classics such as mint juleps, sazeracs and gimlets sit alongside a small range of signature concoctions. Pick something from the latter and you can try 'The 777', which features vodka, chambord, apple, wonderfoam and fairly floss; 'Big Fat Pig', which is made with bacon-infused Makers Mark bourbon, apricot and mandarin marmalade, chocolate liquor, agave and pancetta; and the 'Salute The King' featuring Brookies Mac, Brookies dry gin, mint, and sweet and sour. Find Mews at the Crystalbrook Vincent, Howard Smith Wharves, 5 Boundary Street, Brisbane — open from 6.30–10.30am weekdays and 7–11am weekends for breakfast, 5–9pm Monday–Saturday for dinner, and from 9pm Friday–Saturday for nightcaps.
Yeerongpilly's Plant Empire sells greenery every day of the week, helping folks with green thumbs — and those who wish they had them, too — fill their homes with leafy babies. But on Sunday, September 6, it's doing something more than that. You can still browse the store's shelves for plants, of course; however you can also head round back to check out the pop-up spring market. As well as plants, you'll be able to peruse a range of pots. If you're going to buy some greenery, you'll want something to put it in, obviously. Also on offer: ceramics, jewellery and other handmade crafts. And if you happen to arrive hungry — Sunday mornings can do that to even the most satisfied stomach — there'll be food available as well. Just drop by the Station Road spot between 9am–1pm, when the morning-long market will be in full swing. The usual advice applies here, as it does to all plant markets: yes, more greenery is always a good thing. The Plant Empire Spring Market runs from 9am–1pm on Sunday, September 6. Images: Plant Empire.
For three days, South Bank Parklands is celebrating love, both of the platonic and romantic kind. Perhaps you're all about Galentine's Day with your besties. Maybe you and your other half adore February 14. Both can prove true, too. Whichever fits, River Quay Green has you covered. From Friday, February 14–Sunday, February 16, 2025, this inner-city stretch of the river will becoming a picnicking haven, complete with cushions and blankets — and entry is free, as is the live entertainment. You can keep things on a budget by showing up with your own basket packed with food, or you can bring your wallet to enjoy specials from nearby and pop-up eateries. If you go for the latter, The Jetty is setting up a bar with themed cocktails, such as peach and yuzu spritzes and pineapple spicy margaritas; craft brews, including from Slipstream; and oysters, charcuterie boards, cherry pies and chocolate-covered strawberries to snack on. It's also one of two venues letting you order a feast, with its $110 picnic for two including a bottle of wine. River Quay Fish is doing hampers, either for $45 for two or $80 for four. If you're keen on either, you'll want to book them in advance. On Friday–Saturday, when the festivities run from 6–9pm, personalised love lock engraving is also on offer. On Sunday from 12–6pm, live portrait illustrations are on the agenda instead. And yes, Galentine's Day is traditionally on February 13 — as per Parks and Recreation, which started the occasion — but presumably to make the most of the weekend, South Bank is devoting the Friday and Saturday to Valentine's Day, then the Sunday to gal pals.
After cooking up a storm on the Gold Coast, the team behind Burleigh Heads' Rick Shores is bringing its Asian-style fare to Brisbane with opening of neo-Chinese dining hall and beer garden Little Valley. There are no prizes for guessing which suburb the 70-seater seater eatery calls home, but you'll find Little Valley's kitchen pumping until late in Warner Street rather than Chinatown. Still, the menu by ex-Rick Shores head chef Jake Pregnell takes inspiration from Chinese cuisine, drawing upon his recent study tour of the country — and his general love of the area's tastes and flavours. That means that patrons can expect a feast of regionally inspired meals — think twice-cooked duck and roast pork neck with char siu glaze, plus kung pao mushrooms and duck egg noodles with something called 'strange flavour'. From the dim sum range, potato and truffle spring rolls, lobster and chive har gow, and chilli crab xiao long bao sit among a nine-dish selection, while desserts include red bean ice cream with pumpkin curd and a Hong Kong custard tart for dessert. Drinks-wise, a hefty wine, beer and spirits list is complemented by eight signature cocktails; the Waking Panda with vodka, elderflower, mandarin and citrus, and the Silk Palace with rum, orange blossom, coconut cream, vanilla and citrus are just two examples. And if you're looking for somewhere to enjoy a tipple or two, Little Valley also boasts an openair bar and beer garden, as well as an adjacent laneway that'll be home to a new lighting installation. The eatery will be open from Wednesday to Sunday, with bar service commencing at 4pm, meals from 5.30pm and a 2am closing time on Friday and Saturday nights — a welcome addition to Brisbane's late-night dining options. It'll also start offering lunch from Friday, July 6. You can find Little Valley at 6 Warner Street, Fortitude Valley. It's open from 4pm Wednesday to Sunday, and will open for lunch on Fridays and Saturdays from June 6.
If Brisbane's latest food event needs a theme song, it has plenty of options to choose from. Sure, most tracks that reference wings in their name come soaked in emotion (we're thinking about Jeffrey Osbourne's 'On the Wings of Love' and Bette Midler's 'Wind Beneath My Wings', for starters, because 80s tunes are just that impossible to forget). But hey, who isn't in love with crispy, deep-fried chicken wings? We're going on about potential anthems because the Australian Buffalo Wing Festival will make you want to sing an ode to its titular dish, we're betting. That's what showcasing all the great places in Brissie that sell these delectable sites of poultry does. Well, that and fill your stomach. Featuring everywhere from Aether and KaiKai Chicken to Fritzenberger and Shady Palms among its locations — and Wing Fury, Seoul Bistro and Newstead Brewing, too — the fest is a choose-your-own-adventure kind of affair. Basically, pick an eatery from one of the four regions highlighted on the four days from Wednesday, September 4 to Saturday, September 7, and start munching. Or, go on a buffalo-crawl in search of the many deals on offer. Each joint will be serving up their own flavours, so you really will want to taste them all.
When one of the biggest movie franchises to ever grace the silver screen is forced to flee cinemas for more than a year — due to the pandemic, obviously — what happens next? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe's case, it plans a big comeback by releasing not one, not two, but three new movies in less than six months. First up is Black Widow, which is heading to both cinemas and streaming in July. When it does so, it'll mark only the second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that solely focuses on a female protagonist. Yes, really. Next, come September, the franchise's next flick will also make history — because Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is the MCU's first movie with an Asian lead. Achieving that milestone is obviously long overdue; Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings will be the 25th MCU flick, after all. Simu Liu is doing the honours, playing the titular martial artist and trained assassin, who has spent ten years living a normal life but is suddenly drawn back into the shady Ten Rings organisation. As the first trailer and the just-dropped new trailer for the superhero feature both show, Kim's Convenience star Liu will have plenty of chances to show off his character's skills. He'll have impressive company, too. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings's cast includes Awkwafina, following on from her voice work in fellow Disney release Raya and the Last Dragon; the great Michelle Yeoh, who was last seen on the big screen in Last Christmas and Boss Level; and the just-as-iconic Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, a mainstay of Wong Kar-Wai's films such as In the Mood for Love, 2046 and The Grandmaster. Fala Chen (The Undoing), Florian Munteanu (Creed II), Ronny Chieng (Godzilla vs Kong) and debutant Meng'er Zhang also feature, while Short Term 12 and Just Mercy's Destin Daniel Cretton is on directing duties. And, you can be forgiven for looking out for familiar sights amid the heavy martial arts action when the movie hits theatres — because it was shot in Sydney. On the big screen, Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings will be followed by the Angelina Jolie-starring, Chloe Zhao-directed Eternals, which is due to release in November. Although the MCU has been absent from cinemas since 2019, the franchise has been busy on the small screen in 2021's first half thanks to WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki. Check out the latest Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings trailer below: Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings releases in cinemas Down Under on September 2, 2021. Top images: ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved
If there's one thing humans will always have over the rest of the animal kingdom, it's our sense of creativity. Sure, there are those sell-out, painting elephants and the ever-entertaining lyrebird, but it's humans alone who are graced with the ability to create abstract compositions of colour, shapes and textures. The proof lies right on our doorstep with local artist Simon Degroot. His bright and colourful paintings of bulky shapes and transulcent forms have cemented him as one of Brisbane's best. His latest exhibition, Titanium Anvil, is a display of abstract compositions of mechanical figures, painted in a graphic style that combines flat pinks and yellows with chrome coloured bends and twists. Degroot strips fragments of his pieces of their original context, evoking a meaning quite familiar but still very distant for the viewer. Degroot's production of aesthetically teasing, chrome paintings are the perfect meal for any creativity-starved human brain.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Brisbane at present. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. JOE BELL Led by Mark Wahlberg in one of his weightiest roles in some time — Entourage, the Ted films, Deepwater Horizon, the Daddy's Home movies, multiple Transformers flicks, Instant Family, Spenser Confidential and Infinite certainly haven't earned that description in recent years — Joe Bell is clearly a vehicle for its star. It tells a true story that more than deserves to hit the silver screen, but everything about it has been engineered to thrust its biggest-name talent to the fore. That move doesn't do this drama any favours. In fact, taking that course proves a significant misstep. Wahlberg turns in a passable performance, but the eponymous figure he plays should never have been the central focus here. In 2013, that real-life Oregon man decided to walk across the US to raise awareness about bullying. At the towns on his route, he'd pause to spread his message, all because his son Jadin had been tormented by his classmates for being gay. He was determined to stop the same thing happening to anyone else, and his mission and motivations were noble. His quest was vital and well-intentioned, obviously. It's glaringly apparent, though, that his efforts to teach tolerance to America's rural youth aren't the most crucial part of this tale — unless you want to make a movie starring Wahlberg, that is. And, unless you're happy to craft a film that takes all the wrong cues from weepies about illness and trauma that misguidedly and infuriatingly prefer the people adjacent to those who actually struggle and suffer, and a feature that largely pushes aside a queer teen's experiences in favour of his dad's reaction to them. That's exactly what Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men) directs, and that Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry (Brokeback Mountain) have scripted. While preaching the importance of not ignoring LGBTQIA+ teens, Joe Bell lets Jadin stand in its namesake's shadow. Since the film first premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, it has actually been re-edited before its theatrical release, but only slightly. Jadin gets more prominence now, although he still isn't the movie's core focus. Again and again, that choice clunks through the movie — not just because Reid Miller (A Girl Named Jo, Play by Play), who plays the pivotal teen, is so radiant and affecting, but because it's always plain which story the feature should be telling instead. While there's a reason that Joe Bell has chosen the route it has other than ramping up Wahlberg's screen time, it isn't enough to justify sidelining Jadin. Also impossible to excuse: the way that one essential aspect of the narrative is treated like a twist, which also requires using Jadin as a mere gimmick before that. Accordingly, not only is the taunted gay teen that's sparked this mission to stop the taunting of gay teens turned into a supporting player, but he's also used as a prop and a piece of pure cinematic manipulation. That decision can't be explained away by wanting to flesh out Joe's emotional journey. It cheapens everything in the film, as important as its underlying statement against bullying is. And while Connie Britton (The White Lotus) and Gary Sinise (13 Reasons Why) help broaden out the feature's perspective beyond the man that shares it moniker (as Joe's wife and a small-town sheriff, respectively), there's never any doubting where Joe Bell's loyalties reside. PERSIAN LESSONS Persian Lessons starts unfurling its dramas with a familiar statement: "inspired by true events". It isn't novel of World War II-set films to make such a claim. In fact, it's virtually expected. But the phrase seems to apply loosely here; this film tells a tale of survival during the Holocaust that smacks of cinematic neatness, and also credits a short story by Wolfgang Kohlhaase. Beginning the feature with tenuous words couldn't be more fitting, however. Indeed, this is a movie about language, its meaning, its function as a form of connection and its use as currency. It's a film about the lies that words can spread and cement, the truths they can hold on to or obscure, and the way that words are constantly twisted to different advantages — whether to pad out dreams that someone desperately wants to believe in, to provide hope in dire situations, to threaten, to hide, to persecute, to taunt, to condemn, to console, to record, to remember or to simply survive. Director Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog) and screenwriter Ilja Zofin (Yolki 1914) mightn't have intended Persian Lessons' standard preface to tie so firmly into its themes and storyline. They might've just wanted to flag that, somewhere in this narrative, kernels of truth do linger. But this handsomely shot and finely performed movie makes those opening four words count, albeit only in retrospect. It ensures that words matter and echo in its moving finale, too. It's considerably less successful at avoiding the tropes that come with Second World War features, but its musing on language, and also the complex and compelling work by Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (BPM (Beats Per Minute)) that comes with it, makes an unshakeable impact. The setup: after being captured by the Nazis during World War II, Gilles (Biscayart) comes into possession of a Persian book from a fellow prisoner. It's 1942, he's the son of a rabbi who has been caught trying to flee occupied France for Switzerland, and he soon uses that tome to save his life. SS officer Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger, Babylon Berlin) has tasked his transit camp underlings with keeping their eyes peeled for people of Persian descent, so when Gilles claims that he's not Jewish to avoid being shot, that lie proves not just convenient but fortuitous. He's not only spared a bullet, but is quickly put under Koch's watch in the camp's kitchen. By day, he cooks. By night, he teaches Farsi to his stern student. Gilles doesn't actually know the language, though, so he's constantly making up gibberish in order to stay alive and avoid suspicion. Word after word, he adds to his superior's vocabulary — because Koch dreams of leaving Germany and the Nazis after the war, following his estranged elder brother to Tehran and opening a German restaurant there. Other guards don't buy Gilles' story, and trust isn't strong between officers and their captives anyway, but Koch is infatuated with chasing his fantasy future. When he endeavours to test his new tutor's assertions, he opts for insultingly basic questions such as "what is the capital of Persia?" and "what language do they speak? (Again, much in Persian Lessons happens a little too easily to truly resound with authenticity.) And, as burdensome as remembering all these fake words is, Gilles strenuously wants to avoid the fate befalling everyone around him. DIANA'S WEDDING Forty years ago this past July, Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, the Prince of Wales. Their unhappy union has already fuelled the fourth season of The Crown, and will pop up again in the series' fifth batch of episodes in 2022. It's also at the core of the upcoming, Kristen Stewart-starring Spencer. The regal relationship is just one of the nuptials referred to in Diana's Wedding, however. This Norwegian comedy begins on Wednesday, July 29, 1981 with glimpses of that big British affair, but Liv (Marie Blokhus, Out Stealing Horses) and Terje (Pål Sverre Hagen, A Conspiracy of Faith) are also getting hitched. While the occasion is nowhere near as fancy as the royal ceremony happening at the same time, these newlyweds are happy. They've even named their daughter Diana. Arriving at their new home that night, they're spied by Unni (Jannike Kruse, Psychobitch) and Jan (Olav Waastad, ZombieLars) next door, who've just watched Diana and Charles walk down the aisle on TV — and who also have their own infant, Irene, too. Indeed, Unni wanted to name her baby Diana as well, but Jan's disapproval is just one marker of their dysfunctional relationship. From here, Diana, Irene, Liv, Terje, Unni and Jan's lives are intertwined, as those of small-town neighbours often are. Whatever the people's princess is up to provides a backdrop to their existence in 1990 and 1997 as well, with writer/director Charlotte Blom (Staying Alive) checking back in with her characters at different points. The culmination: this Diana's (Ine Marie Wilmann, Sonja: The White Swan) own wedding, although her views on love have been coloured by Liv and Terje's tempestuous marriage, as well as Unni and Jan's dispassionate relationship. The idea behind Diana's Wedding is simple, charting two families across four periods in time, with all things Princess Di providing a handy backdrop. That said, the core of the film resides not in its narrative structure but in its characters, and in the performances that bring them to life. The royal elements are gimmicky, but playful. The time jumps are as well. What truly resonates, though, is how the ins and outs of two very different couples leave an imprint that ripples through the years, and down to the next generation — because Diana sees everything, whether she's a baby in a basket, a nine-year-old constantly witnessing Liv and Terje fight and make up, a teenager who's had enough of all the tumultuousness, or getting ready to don a white gown herself. Blokhus and Hagen frequently steal the camera's attention, and layer their bickering couple with depth and texture. As the yearning Unni, who desperately wants Jan's affection despite how patently he'll never give it, Kruse serves up a portrayal filled with quiet pain. There's no big revelations in their character arcs — some marriages seesaw, others are blatantly miserable — but the film's strong performances give everything in the story a lived-in air. Blom finds a canny balance between darker moments and a breezy, comedic feeling overall, those laughs emanating from recognising just how relatable this tale proves. And, within the sunny hues and amid the spot-on period detail, Diana's Wedding also makes a savvy statement about what we gossip about, what the world remembers and what really shapes us. OASIS KNEBWORTH 1996 Not only jumping back to a time when Oasis was the biggest band in the world, but chronicling the largest gigs of their career, Oasis Knebworth 1996 was always going to be an exercise in nostalgia. For anyone who can remember the Manchester group's mid-90s heyday, it's a trip back to the past. For fans of brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher and their bandmates, it captures the British chart-toppers at their zenith. Director Jake Scott (American Woman) doesn't shy away from the documentary's wistfulness. While footage of the band on-stage fills much of the film's 110-minute running time — visuals featuring songs such as 'Live Forever', 'Champagne Supernova' and of course 'Wonderwall' — much of Oasis Knebworth 1996 is guided by the group's fans. That 25-year-old imagery dwells on their beaming faces in the crowd, and their ecstatic exclamations of love for the band, and is frequently overlaid with fond recollections from some concertgoers. They narrate the buzz leading up to the two 125,000-capacity gigs on the grounds of Knebworth House in Hertfordshire in England's south. They share tales of lining up for tickets, or finding ways to jump the telephone queue, and of their planning, early arrivals and uncontrollable excitement as the weekend of Saturday, August 10 and Sunday, August 11, 1996, approached. Liam, Noel, guitarist Paul Arthurs and bassist Paul McGuigan also offer their thoughts, which are similarly layered on top of material shot at the time by Dick Carruthers and his team rather than served up talking head-style, but this documentary wants to recreate the feeling of having been an ordinary Oasis fan at one of these gigs above all else. The shows were monumental; with only two albums to their name (1994's Definitely Maybe and 1995's (What's the Story) Morning Glory), Oasis sold out two gigs at a place where only bands of Queen, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin's ilk had done the same. Oasis weren't the only group on the bill, with Manic Street Preachers, Kula Shaker, The Charlatans, The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy among their supports; however, Oasis was the reason that more than two percent of the UK population tried to buy a ticket. Scott heads back to that weekend with euphoric affection. The performance clips and crowd shots emanate that vibe anyway — like the archival footage in fellow recent music doco Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), the material here paints a clear portrait of a time, place and mood that's instantly infectious. But Oasis Knebworth 1996 is also an indulgent film, needlessly so when it opines about going to concerts pre-internet and before mobile phones as if that's a historical curio anyone who wasn't at Knebworth wouldn't remember. That attitude springs from the fans, and proves repetitive. Their recollections otherwise lead to a few interesting tales, including one girl and her pal's luck at chancing upon tickets on the day, and one guy finding himself in a limousine with Kate Moss and Anna Friel in the chaos to get out of the car park afterwards. Also radiating here, though, is an added dose of warmth and fondness not for these particular gigs, but for shows of their type in general. Celebrating a quarter-century since Oasis played Knebworth comes at a time when such large-scale concerts have become memories for now — and this film has us all looking back in reverence. FLASHBACK Add Flashback to the roster of movies that are made with obvious affection for others before it, but mostly only succeed in making viewers want to watch all those well-known and better films they clearly took inspiration from. Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, Rian Johnson's Brick and Looper, and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's The Endless and Synchronic have all left an overt imprint on this sci-fi mystery-thriller. Indeed, writer/director Christopher MacBride (The Conspiracy) eagerly wants Flashback to follow in their footsteps — and to sit in the same realm as David Lynch's entire filmography as well. There's a bit of Christopher Nolan's Memento, Inception and Tenet-style puzzling, a dash of Denis Villeneuve's Enemy and a smidge of Joseph Kahn's Detention at play, too. The list goes on, and watching can feel a bit like a game of spotting the influences. MacBride's movie doesn't merely emulate its predecessors, however. It synthesises bits and pieces into a new narrative about unhappy twenty-something Fred (Dylan O'Brien, Infinite), his mundane existence, his murky past, and the fact that a drug called mercury might open the door to living in multiple timelines simultaneously. But as its protagonist starts experiencing flashes back to high school, remembers that Cindy (Maika Monroe, Honey Boy), the girl he had a crush on, went missing, and struggles to remain grounded in his adult life with his wife (Hannah Gross, Joker), dying mother (Liisa Repo-Martell, Anne with an E) and overbearing boss (Amanda Brugel, The Handmaid's Tale), it's impossible not to see Flashback's oh-so-recognisable elements. Two specific aspects of Flashback prove a double-edged sword, too: O'Brien and the film's visual approach. When it comes to the former, he plays melancholy, bewildered and haunted well, but he's also looks out of place when Fred's navigating the minutiae of his late 20s and when he's cast back to classes, teen parties and doing whatever it takes to keep him close to Cindy. Stylistically, Flashback also both shines and scrambles. MacBride favours a trippy look and feel, including brief glimpses of moments from other times, swift strobe-cut editing, and an overall vibe that wants to keep the audience guessing about what's real and what's a drug-induced hallucination. In small bursts, all of these touches work. Repeated again and again, they lose their effectiveness. It doesn't help that the film is so infatuated with its concept, labyrinthine tale and psychedelic flourishes that it's barely concerned with making anyone within its frames — Fred included — feel much like a real character. Indeed, all the movie's women are given thankless parts, and Emory Cohen (The OA) and Keir Gilchrist (Atypical) fare just as routinely as pals from Fred's mercury-ingesting school days. MacBride doesn't lack ambition, though. Flashback is pulpy, convoluted and familiar, and it also strives to make a splash with its twists, aesthetics, and tinkering with maybes, what ifs and what might've been. This isn't the universe where the film comes together as intended, but it's one where it makes a just watchable-enough effort. TIME IS UP If Netflix is now the go-to for cutesy teen rom-coms — as illustrated by To All the Boys I've Loved Before, The Kissing Booth, their respective franchises and the like — then cinemas have become home to their supposedly hotter-and-heavier, always terribly acted counterparts. There's nothing alluring about Fifty Shades of Grey wannabe After and its sequel After We Collided, however, or about the unrelated but still similar Time Is Up. (And, it's worth noting that third After film After We Fell is now skipping the big screen in Australia and heading straight to streaming.) All of these movies endeavour to normalise unhealthy relationships, and try to dress them up as star-crossed instances of true love put to the test. Worse, they attempt to push romances between apparently capable young women and brooding, often-jerkish young men as the pinnacle when it comes to affairs of the heart. Being treated badly, putting yourself through it willingly and pining for the person responsible despite all logic screaming otherwise is a key part of the template here, and it's both abhorrent and tiresome. In Time Is Up, hotshot physics student Vivian (Bella Thorne, The Babysitter) can't quite figure out why her swimmer boyfriend Steve (Sebastiano Pigazzi, We Are Who We Are) is distant and rarely around. She spends all her time studying for a big test, he's always at training — and when they are together, he couldn't be more disinterested. But he isn't the only moody teenage male in her vicinity, with aspiring swim-squad member Roy (musician Benjamin Mascolo) also catching her eye, but also playing the aloof card. During an argument with Steve, Vivian spits back one of the worst lines ever uttered in a movie: "I'm always busy with quantum physics, and I still have time for you." Dialogue isn't writer/director Elisa Amoruso (Sirley) and her first-time co-scribes Lorenzo Ura and Patrizia Fiorellini's strong point, and making it seem believable isn't Thorne's — or, when saddled with spouting similar by-the-numbers declarations, Pigazzi or Mascolo's either. Time Is Up is shot with the music video-esque gloss of a fantasy, as its fellow teen romantic dramas usually are. It isn't aiming for realism in its narrative, which sees Vivian follow Steve to Rome, then end up spending a day with Roy instead, and also weaves in her struggles to cope with her parents' possible divorce, exactly what Steve has been doing with his time, plus Roy's guilt over a family tragedy and his insecurity over the fact that he comes from the wrong side of town. But nothing that flickers across the screen genuinely sells either of the film's romances, anchors its trio of main characters in anything resembling believable emotions, or gets viewers invested in what's happening. Thorne plays Vivian as mopey and clueless, despite how many times the screenplay mentions quantum physics. Pigazzi and Mascolo mirror each other in the blankly broody stakes, just with one veering towards arrogance and the other pitched as more sensitive. Opening narration about particles colliding hits the sappy mark it's aiming for, frequently swirling camerawork bluntly stresses how love is like a whirlwind, and a dull tale about a supposedly smart teen and the two toxic men she's caught between sinks into formula every moment it can. And with needle drops that include Billie Eilish on the soundtrack, it repeatedly feels as that's where the feature's money and focus has been spent — funds and effort that would've been useful elsewhere. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on May 6, May 13, May 20 and May 27; June 3, June 10, June 17 and June 24; July 1, July 8, July 15, July 22 and July 29; August 5, August 12, August 19 and August 26; and September 2, September 9 and September 16. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Locked Down, The Perfect Candidate, Those Who Wish Me Dead, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Ema, A Quiet Place Part II, Cruella, My Name Is Gulpilil, Lapsis, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Fast and Furious 9, Valerie Taylor: Playing with Sharks, In the Heights, Herself, Little Joe, Black Widow, The Sparks Brothers, Nine Days, Gunpowder Milkshake, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Old, Jungle Cruise, The Suicide Squad, Free Guy, Respect, The Night House, Candyman, Annette, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Streamline, Coming Home in the Dark, Pig, Big Deal and The Killing of Two Lovers.
One otherwise normal day back in 2019, you probably sat down on the couch, switched on your TV, started scrolling through Netflix and came across a new show. That's a pretty regular occurrence for all of us, but we're guessing that you'll remember this particular instance. Discovering I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson isn't something that's easily forgotten. The best sketch comedy of 2019 — and one of the best TV shows in general, too — I Think You Should Leave's first season is ridiculously easily to binge. You don't even need two hours to get through all six episodes but, once you're done, you'll wish that it went for at least twice as long. Social awkwardness is satirised with absurd precision here, and the results are as offbeat and hilarious as a house completely filled with Garfield items and furniture (trust us). And, in great news, a second season is finally due to hit Netflix on Tuesday, July 6. The streaming platform hasn't dropped a trailer, but it has released an announcement video that's as awkward and amusing as fans have come to expect from the show. Exactly what Robinson will satirise this time is obviously yet to be seen, but the second season is already must-see viewing. And if he seems familiar — other than from I Think You Should Leave's — that's because Robinson was the star of Detroiters, and also spent a couple of seasons on Saturday Night Live. Haven't watched the first season yet, and not sure it's for you? Robinson had plenty of recognisable co-stars by his side over the initial batch of episodes, which he also wrote and produced — talents such as Will Forte (The Last Man on Earth), Steven Yeun (Minari), Tim Heidecker (Moonbase 8) and Vanessa Bayer (Saturday Night Live). And, the series also boasts some big names off-screen too, with The Lonely Island (aka Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Andy Samberg and his regular comedy partners Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) its executive producers. Check out the season two announcement video below: I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson's second season will be available to stream via Netflix from Tuesday, July 6. Top image: Netflix.
One of Australia's most beautiful strips of surf and sand, Rainbow Beach is as pristine a place as any to saddle up and go for a ride. Andrew and Kirsty McCarthy run Rainbow Beach Horse Rides, one of those picturesque little ventures that seems like never-ending fun and the dream of small businesses. With a team of certified trail guides and some of the prettiest and quietest horses this side of the equator, Rainbow Beach Horse Rides is the perfect little adventure for a warm spring Saturday.
January 26 as been given many labels. On a difficult occasion, Survival Day is one of them. Commemorating and celebrating the endurance of Australia's Indigenous population, marking the date involves recognising and paying tribute to the nation's First Peoples in morning ceremonies. In Brisbane, the Benarrawa Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Solidarity Group and Benarrawa Community Development Association will lead a gathering along the banks of the Brisbane River and Benarrawa (Oxley Creek). Meeting at the bronze canoe near Simpsons Playground in Graceville, the event will pay tribute to the original inhabitants of the area, with all Australians welcome to participate. Attendees are asked to arrive at 7.15am for a 7.30am start, and to bring clap sticks, a hat and native flowers, with the posies cast into the river at the end of the ceremony. Also recommended: bringing a rug or chair to sit on. Following the official proceedings, everyone is also invited to stay for a bite and a drink, so don't forget your cold or hot beverage of choice and a plate to share. Top image: Kgbo via Wikimedia Commons.
If there’s one thing Brisbane does better than bridges, it’s arts. We’ve got A-grade galleries, jam-packed libraries, street artists that won’t quit and that upside down elephant statue near GOMA. And even better, we are home a talented selection of comics, zine-makers and writers and for three days they’re all going to be hubbed in one place – The Zine and Indie Comic Symposium. ZICs will be held at The Edge in the Queensland State Library on August 30 and 31, with opening night the Friday before. If you’re up for the full package, trek along at 6.30pm for the launch and hear local bands My Fiction, Flangipanis, Tagline and Fox’n’Flirkin raise the roof. Plus, there will be a real life Scribble Slam a.k.a. extreme art-off between two painters, later in the evening. Tickets are $15 at the door, but if you don’t feel up to a healthy pre-symposium dance, head along at 12pm on either Saturday or Sunday with a wad of cash. You can expect to find some real treasures on show – from cult classic zine makers like Bad Teeth, Slubs, and Wasted Opportunities, to some fresh faces, you’ll be sure to find something to add to your zine library. Keep your eyes peeled for these names, cos we reckon they’re some of Brisbane's best prints. Clear your weekend, throw out all your trashy mags, and head to The Edge to get behind the local creative all about doin’ it for themselves.
We all know that feeling when you've spent most of your payslip in just one weekend and subsequently have to stretch those pennies till the next payday. Add savings goals into the mix and suddenly having a full and fun life seems tricky. But that doesn't mean you have to confine yourself to the house, cook every single meal and secretly use your boyfriend's mum's Netflix account. With the right know-how, you can treat yourself to life's little pleasures — and still make sure you're saving. That's why we've teamed up with Great Southern Bank. The bank offers a great range of clever tools that help you save, so you can keep chipping away at those long-term financial goals while still treating yourself to epic art exhibitions, indulgent spa days and leisurely afternoons on a boat. One of these handy tools is The Boost, which transfers a small amount of money (between $0.01 and $5) straight into your savings account each time you use your debit card. No matter the shape of your budget, though, you'll want to have a few fun activities up your sleeve. So, here are a few great Brisbane experiences that meet different spending criteria, so you can do the things you love without spending all your hard-earned dosh. [caption id="attachment_826332" align="alignnone" width="1920"] New Farm Park, Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] FREE A picnic should be your go-to for good times on a tight budget. Whether you're after somewhere by the water (hello, New Farm Park) or need a central location like the newly-revamped Riverside Green at South Bank, you can't go wrong with an al fresco feast. While it's no picnic without snacks, the amount you bring is up to you (and your budget). Better yet, round up your mates and organise everyone to bring a plate, so you can have your cake and eat it, too. [caption id="attachment_823925" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Springfinity, curated by Haline Ly and banner artwork by Katie Benn. Brisbane City Council.[/caption] If you're more of an art lover, a stroll through the city with your head up and your eyes off your phone (weird, I know) will help you take in the epic public art displays. Peep celebrated contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama's work outside on George Street, check out a spring-themed outdoor exhibition, follow the Expo '88 art trail or spot one of the many street art murals from Brisbane Street Art Festival. Wander through the city streets and explore these gems on your own for free, or, if you have a bit of cash to spend, join the Museum of Brisbane's public art walking tours ($30–35). [caption id="attachment_807856" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lean Timms[/caption] $20 AND UNDER Hiring your own private boat to cruise down the river with your mates sounds like a budget-breaking afternoon out — but it doesn't have to be. A GoBoat is an electric-powered, self-driving picnic boat that fits eight people and costs just $119 for one hour (or $189 for two hours). Divide that sum by eight and you're paying as little as $15 each. You can even settle in for the long haul with a three-hour float if you're game (and the wallet allows). Plus, you can bring your own food and drinks on board to keep you fuelled. Who said budgets couldn't be bougie? Keen to get bendy on a rooftop? Of course you are. Not only is the tranquility — and fitness — well worth it, but the views are what will keep you coming back. Fortitude Valley's Cielo Rooftop is taking wellness to new heights with its sky-high yoga sessions. For sunrise yoga, you'll need to block out a Wednesday or Saturday morning from 6–7am. Sunset classes take place on Mondays and Wednesdays between 5.45pm–6.45pm. The best part? There are no contracts or memberships requiring you to repeatedly dish out your dough. Just book your spot for $20, rock up with your mat and get flowing. $50 AND UNDER You don't have to go hot air ballooning or jet skiing to get your thrills. Throwing an axe at a target can be just as exhilarating, plus it's a great way to let off some steam at the end of the work week. At Maniax, there are heaps of options to suit your budget (and your need to hurl axes). You can get a full hour of unlimited axe throwing for $45 per person, or head in on a Monday and get two for the price of one. When you're on a budget or trying to save, all-inclusive packages are your secret weapon. Yep, we're talking boozy brunches. And at Covent Garden, it means bottomless gin brunches every Sunday from 11am–3pm, where you can settle in for two hours of gin cocktails and a stacked grazing board for $49 and not a penny more. So, you know what? For the sake of your home ownership goals, we say treat yourself to brunch. [caption id="attachment_701807" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nikki To[/caption] MAKE IT RAIN (WITHIN REASON) There are fewer simple pleasures in life than a good, hearty feed and a fine glass of vino. Does it mean you should blow hundreds of dollars on dinner every week? No — but you can still wine and dine without dipping into your savings on the reg. For a Greek feast with mates, head to riverside restaurant Greca and opt for its reasonable and oh-so-filling $60 Full Greek banquet. Keen for a lunchtime treat? Grab a table at the incredibly chic Bisou Bisou where two-course lunches are dished up for $48 every Monday to Friday. It's been a pretty wild ride these last 18 months. So, you deserve a spa day. We're not saying pamper yourself silly every time you feel like it, but sometimes a little self care is just what the doctor ordered. If you've squirrelled away some spare coin (that is not in your savings account), then book yourself in for a massage, facial, body scrub or manicure this season. We recommend a trip to Kailo Wellness Medispa in The Valley for maximum chill vibes, otherwise check out our list of luxe day spas in Brisbane for a well-deserved treatment. Great Southern Bank is empowering Aussies to get clever with their banking. Whether you want to stick to your savings goals with The Boost or hide your house deposit fund from yourself with The Vault, Great Southern Bank helps you get there. For more information on savings tools and home loan options, head to the Great Southern Bank website. Top image: GoBoat, Lean Timms
In 2017, Brisbane screamed for ice cream at our own dedicated ice cream festival — and then we screamed again in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Those frozen sweet treat-induced exclamations are set to continue in 2022, too, with the Brisbane Ice Cream Festival returning to West End's West Village precinct — home to the old Peter's Ice Cream factory — for a huge fifth event. Perhaps this sweet treat-loving city's most popular occasion, BICF is hanging around for longer this time as well. Brisbanites will be able to gorge on frosty, creamy food from Thursday, March 17–Saturday, April 9, with much of the dessert-themed fun concentrated on weekends between those dates. So, like choosing how high to pile ice cream on top of a cone or into a bowl, you have options, including tucking into dessert degustations and hitting up pop-up vendors. On the luxe side of things, Brisbane Ice Cream Festival is hosting indulgent multi-course dinners — all filled with dessert. Chefs Phillip Johnson (E'cco Bistro and Philip Johnson Catering), William Wallace (William Wallace Group) and Matt Golinski (Ready Steady Cook and Peppers Noosa Resort) will do the honours in the kitchen, and attendees will be treated to an experimental lineup of twists on sweet-treat favourites for $129 a ticket. Some dishes will even be savoury, but they'll all tie into the dessert theme. For young ice cream-lovers, the fest will also set up crafty activities for kids for $10 a pop. And, because there's no such thing as too much ice cream, the event will also dedicate a weekend to showcasing a heap of different ice cream joints — West Village's own newcomer Anita Gelato included, obviously, but also the likes of Ungermann Brothers and Roll It Ice Cream Co as well. And, if you head along for an ice cream fix during the week, you can expect a host of different specials right through the entire fest. Whichever part of the fest you attend — and how many times you go along — arrive hungry, obviously. Updated April 4.
In 2023, Brisbane scored a new place to watch movies under the stars all year round — not just in summer. Brisbane Powerhouse had played host to openair picture palaces before, but it permanently became home to Dendy Powerhouse Outdoor Cinema, which takes advantage of the fact that the weather is usually nice enough to catch a flick outside in the River City every month from January through to December. There's something about seeing a movie outdoors and the warmest part of the year, though — and, when the season hits, getting merry with your cinemagoing, too. So, across December, Dendy Powerhouse Outdoor Cinema is putting a few Christmas classics through its projector. Whether you've been nice or naughty this year, there's a film for you. Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas flick. Yes, it's on the lineup on Sunday, December 8, so that you can say "yippee-ki-yay" to the jolliest time of year. Nothing's quite as festive as Bruce Willis (Assassin) doing his thing in this late 80s slice of explosive excellence. After that, Elf will hit the screen on Saturday, December 14, followed by Love Actually on Friday, December 20. Can't choose between Will Ferrell (The Boys) at his silliest and sweetest or a British rom-com? You don't have to.
If you thought that Michael Jordan was the epitome of cool and Albert Einstein didn't know how to have a good time then prepare to have your perceptions shattered. A significant part of being a successful celebrity is the act of persuasion. This includes the constant act of generating and maintaining a public image that appeals to a wide audience. Kurt Cobain did dense and brooding, Bill Clinton did regal and commanding, and Stalin did intense and intimidating. Yet here are ten photos that prove that sometimes what the spin media show us about famous people is not exactly the whole story. Teenage Eminem adorned in Alf T-shirt Kurt Cobain eating pizza Hillary and Bill 'The Dude' Clinton at Yale Dean Martin and John Wayne cooking spaghetti Hitler looked ominous even when riding a sled Michael Jordan as a dorky College kid Stalin: Part time dictator, part time model Colonel Sanders with Alice Cooper Winston Churchill says 'Line up, ladies!' Albert Einstein: everyone's favourite drunk uncle
Everyone remembers studying ancient Egyptian history in school. Pyramids, pharaohs, boy kings, mummification: they aren't easily forgotten. Your next chance to explore this chapter of the past will get you walking through works from centuries ago, covering the time of Tutankhamun, Ramses II, Nefertari, Khufu and even Alexander the Great, all as part of an impressive exhibition at Melbourne's NGV International called Pharaoh. Meet the venue's midyear blockbuster for 2024, which will fall into Victoria's annual Melbourne Winter Masterpieces season. Following on from 2023's Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi, this middle-of-the-calendar spectacular will run from Friday, June 14–Sunday, October 6 and feature items from the British Museum. That loan is quite significant, too, with Pharaoh including the venue's biggest-ever borrowing of ancient Egyptian jewellery, as well as pieces that previously haven't been shown. In total, more than 500 works will be on display as the NGV peers back at Egypt from the 1st Dynasty to the Roman era — so, from around 3000 BCE to the 4th century CE. Expect to see plenty of gleaming artefacts given that focus on ancient Egyptian jewellery. The exhibition will also span coffins and other funerary items, as well as examples of architecture spanning tombs, temples, and also massive monuments and sculptures. [caption id="attachment_918945" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Plaque of Amenemhat IV, Probably Byblos, Lebanon, 12th Dynasty, reign of Amenemhat IV, about 1808- 1799 BC, Gold, H 2.9 cm, W 3.1 cm, D 0.1 cm, © The Trustees of the British Museum.[/caption] Among the specific highlights, a hefty wall from a 2.5-metre-high, three-metre-wide limestone wall from a mastaba tomb dating back to the Old Kingdom is one of them — complete with hieroglyphic texts carved into the surface. Also going big: a huge fist made of stone from a statue of Ramses II that hails from Memphis, in the temple of Ptah, and weighs in at almost 1.5 tonnes. Still on that particular ruler, Pharaoh will feature an enormous limestone statue of Ramses II that shows him as a high priest. Visitors will also be able to see a seated statue of Sety II, Ramses II's grandson, which is also notable for being one of the most complete sculptures that still exist from the time. Or, check out Pharaoh's oldest item, a five-centimetre-wide ivory label that shows the 1st Dynasty's King Den. Jumping forward, a green siltstone head of the 18th Dynasty's Tuthmose III wearing the cobra headdress will also feature. Among the gold, silver and gemstone-studded jewellery, everything from rings and necklaces to collars and girdles will be on display — and as sourced from tombs, so will amulets that were placed to protect the deceased, to examine the role that adorning bodies played in ancient Egyptians' beliefs about the afterlife. Pharaoh won't just focus on jewels used after death, however, with pieces from places such as Akhenaten's royal city Amarna also part of the exhibition as it examines everyday life. Still on royals, the showcase will boast objects from Deir el-Medina, where the craftspeople who were responsible for carving and decking out the Valley of the Kings' royal tombs resided. Here, attendees will see letters, notes, sketches and poems carved on limestone fragments. [caption id="attachment_918948" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Statue of Ramses II as a high-priest, Abydos, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, reign of Ramses II, about 1279-1213 BC, Limestone, H 171cm, W 71.5cm, D 98cm, © The Trustees of the British Museum.[/caption] Top image: Shabti of Pharaoh Sety I, Tomb of Sety I, Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, reign of Sety I, about 1294-1279 BC, Blue faience, H 22.8 cm, W 9.6 cm, D 9.6 cm, © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Handmade, eclectic and colourful jewellery and homewares are the namesake finds at Dinosaur Designs. As the brainchild of two Sydney designers, founded in 1985, the company continues to seek inspiration from nature and consciously takes responsibility for its environmental footprint during production. Many of the products are best thought of as wearable art rather than mere necklaces and bangles. Every design is made by hand using resin - making each piece unique.
Here are some things that have happened in the stories of American writer David Sedaris: A man goes in search of a stuffed owl to give to his boyfriend for Valentine's Day. Befriending a taxidermist who confirms his interest in formerly alive creatures is strictly non-professional, the man finds himself in a London basement gazing at the 400-year-old preserved head of a 14-year-old girl and the skeleton of a 19th-century Pygmy. They raise questions, uncomfortable ones. Like, 'how much are they?' A man takes a job at Macy's department store as a Christmas elf named Crumpet. He encounters fistfights, vomiting and magnificent tantrums, children with modelling contracts and children with adjectives instead of first names. He tells a child that Santa has changed his policy, and no longer brings coal if you misbehave. Instead he will break into your house, steal all your appliances, and leave you alone, in the dark, with nothing. A father imagines his children forming a jazz quartet. Hoping to make the fantasy reality, the father gifts the son 'that guitar you always wanted'. The son, while regularly petitioning for a brand-name vacuum cleaner, had never mentioned a guitar. He takes lessons from an artistically thwarted midget, until one evening the son admits to his teacher that what we really wants to do is perform a medley of television jingles in the voice of Billie Holiday. David Sedaris has developed a cult-like following for penning insightful, satirical, real-life stories like those above. His latest book is entitled Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls. You could read it, if that is a thing you would like to do. You could also read Naked, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day or any of his other fine collections available at your local bookshop. A regular contributor to This American Life, Sedaris will be touring Australia and New Zealand in January 2014. You can sign up for exclusive pre-sales at his website. SYDNEY Sydney Opera House Saturday 18 January MELBOURNE Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Tuesday 21 January CANBERRA Canberra Theatre Centre Wednesday 22 January BRISBANE Brisbane Powerhouse – Powerhouse Theatre Thursday 23 January PERTH Perth Concert Hall Friday 24 January AUCKLAND Civic Theatre, Auckland Sunday 26 January https://youtube.com/watch?v=1msZQjwlebU
Unsuspectingly tucked away in the industrial hub of East Brisbane, Pennisi Cuisine is a cheese lovers paradise – from fresh buffalo mozzarella to big wheels of Parmiggiano Reggiano. The family business offers huge selections of delicacies and traditional foods from South America, Italy, Spain, Greece, Lebanon and Morocco and more. You will also find a range of Kosha products. With so much choice, bring a basket and fill up before heading out to a nearby picnic spot. There's no doubt your loot will turn heads and bring all the boys to the yard.
Hosting a city-wide arts festival during a pandemic is no small feat, but that's exactly what Brisbane Festival is doing in 2020. Returning in its usual September slot to shower Brissie in culture for three weeks, this year's fest isn't ignoring the obvious, though. If you've been peering at the heavens during lockdown, playing tourist in your own town once restrictions started easing and just generally making the most of your own backyard over the past seven months, prepare to keep doing the same, Bris Fest-style. When the festival takes over Brissie from Friday, September 4–Saturday, September 26, it definitely wants the city's residents to look up — at super-sized installations. The first, designed by audiovisual artist Robin Fox, combines lasers, lights and sounds in a huge onslaught of brightness and colour called Night Sky. Able to be seen from hundreds of spots around the city, it'll dazzle on Friday and Saturday evenings. And, it appears to replace the fest's usual Riverfire fireworks display — which was the source of controversy in 2019, when the fest's Fire Gardens centrepiece was cancelled due to a bushfire-induced total fire ban. Then, there's Messengers of Brisbane. We hope you like giant Gouldian finches, because six of them will take up residence in the Brisbane CBD and South Bank, atop the Goodwill Bridge, and at QPAC, Queensland Museum and Brisbane Powerhouse. This is the latest large-scale art work by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, who is known for placing oversized animals in iconic spots. If you've seen footage of his massive inflatable Rubber Duck sculpture, then you'll know why you should be getting excited. Hofman's inclusion on the 2020 Bris Fest program stands out for another reason — his is one of the very few projects on the bill from an international creative. Usually when the festival rolls around, it does so with a hefty lineup of overseas shows and performers; however, this year's event will feature more than 700 homegrown artists across 490 shows and 91 events. It'll also include 28 new works that have been specifically commissioned for Brisbane Festival, so Brisbanites will be seeing brand new locally made productions. Plus, 73 of the fest's shows will be free to attend. From the first Bris Fest under new artistic director Louise Bezzina (ex-Bleach* Festival), highlights include kicking off with Jumoo, a city-wide smoking ceremony that pays respects to Brisbane's First Nations peoples; unveiling Circa's latest blend of acrobatics and dance, called Leviathan; and unleashing the powerful Silence, Karul Projects' dance work about the conversations that aren't being had with Indigenous Australians. The festival will also play host to Throttle, which turns a performance into a live-action drive-in horror movie — all while attendees remains seated in their cars. [caption id="attachment_777815" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Art-Work Agency[/caption] A considerable portion of the 2020 Bris Fest program is designed to spread the love far and wide audience-wise, too, with the festival having a presence in 190 Brisbane suburbs. That includes hosting 24 gigs in different Brissie spots as part of the Street Serenades series; flash mob-style dancing in the street with All You Need is Love; and puppets and cheer squads taking over local bikeways and walking paths at Exercise Surprises. Also on offer as part of this year's fest: Embassy, which pays tribute to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy first assembled in 1972; smartphone-based mass game and social experiment Avoidable Perils; a huge black-and-white fancy dress party for Megan Washington's latest album Batflowers; a gig by Brissie legends Custard; and a time-capsule artwork about life under lockdown called Snapshot. And, over at West Village, Hiromi Tango's installations Brainbow Magic and Rainbow Circles (Healing Circles) will provide a burst of fluorescence, as well as glowing rainbow arches. Brisbane Festival will run from Friday, September 4—Saturday, September 26 — for the full program, and to buy tickets, head to the festival's website.
Who doesn't like their meat or vegetables skewered, grilled and whipped up quickly? No one, that's who. With yakitori cementing itself as Brisbane's latest street food obsession, the proof is in the delicious arrangements of chicken, pork, salmon and beef (and onion, mushroom, zucchini and tomato, for non-carnivorous folks) at Tatsu Yakitori Bar, the city's newest food-on-a-stick haven. Making its home in the Chinatown mall, Tatsu is the latest venture from the folks behind Izakana-Ya Okuman, which immediately boosts its authentic cred. And if you thought that the West End has restaurant spoiled diners for choice since it opened in 2015, then wait until you try to pick something to eat at their just-opened Fortitude Valley sibling venue. That's the great thing about street food, though: bite-sized servings leave room for plenty of servings. In addition to yakitori, which are available in two-skewer servings of your choice as well as a five-skewer set, you'll also find salads, sashimi, bao, ramen, gyoza, the usual small bits and pieces (miso, edamame, takowasabi), and deep-fried dishes such as spicy chicken karaage, soft shell crab, chicken wings and calamari wings. Cosy up in an open booth-like table underneath a Japanese-style mural and wash it all down with Aussie and Japanese beers, plum wine, shochu, sake, whisky and a selection of colourful house-special cocktails. And the best part? They're open for lunch and dinner — keeping things cooking until midnight for a late night fix, too — every day of the week.
When a band is just starting out, with just one album to its name, you're treated to most — if not all — of it live in the early days. To get the full-record experience again, though, you normally have to wait for big anniversaries. Bloc Party are celebrating two on their 2025 tour of Australia: two decades of the group and the same since their debut album Silent Alarm. Hitting up Brisbane's Riverstage on Friday, August 8, Bloc Party will play Silent Alarm from start to finish. 'Banquet', 'Helicopter', 'This Modern Love', 'Like Eating Glass': yes, they'll all be on the setlist on this seven-city trip. The band aren't leaving their other tunes out, though, with the tour featuring not just Silent Alarm's tracks but the group's greatest hits. They do have five other albums to their name, after all: 2007's A Weekend in the City, 2008's Intimacy, 2012's Four, 2016's Hymns and 2022's Alpha Games. If you're a fan, you'll know that it has been more than 20 years since the band first formed, and since the British group scored some hefty approval in 2003 via Franz Ferdinand's lead singer Alex Kaprano — but 20 is a nice round number to commemorate. This makes two Aussie tours in a row now with a point of difference for Bloc Party, after 2023 trip with Interpol. Before that, they last rocked Aussie stages in 2018. Supporting Kele Okereke and company this time are Young The Giant, who'll be playing Australia for the first time in 14 years. Live images: Bruce Baker via Flickr.
Fast cars, pulse-pounding action and plot holes bigger than the veins in Dwayne Johnson’s biceps: the seventh entry in the Fast and/or Furious franchise delivers everything fans have come to expect. And yes, to be clear, we mean that as a compliment. In an age where most Hollywood blockbusters do everything they can to seem dark and gritty, this souped-up seven-part soap opera drives straight in the other direction, delivering delightfully silly, self-aware thrills at every possible turn. The most over-the-top film in the franchise so far, Fast & Furious 7 doesn’t just jump the shark; it sails over the shark’s head at 245mph, in a $3.5 million Lykan Hypersport, in slow motion, while half a dozen strippers dance to a Wiz Khalifa song playing in the background. The 'plot' of the film sees Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his hetero life partner Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) back on the streets of Los Angeles after earning a pardon for six movies’ worth of crimes. Unfortunately for them, their newfound tranquillity is short-lived, as Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham playing the same character he always does, only evil) shows up to avenge his brother Luke, aka the bad guy from Fast & Furious 6. Dom and Brian’s only option is to team up with Agent Frank Petty (franchise newbie Kurt Russell), who promises to help them deal with Shaw in exchange for rescuing a computer hacker (Nathalie Emmanuel) from a group of international terrorists. Of course, in order to manage such a mission, they’ll need their regular crew, including Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges). Think of them as being kind of like the Avengers, only more racially diverse, and marginally less bound by the laws of physics or common sense. If they’ve got time, they might even be able to solve the mystery of who keeps stealing the sleeves off Vin Diesel’s shirts. Australian director James Wan takes over from four-time franchise helmsman Justin Lin, and manages to capture the film’s many, many action scenes with similarly explosive aplomb. Silliness aside, one of the great things about this series is how it opts for actual stunt-work and stunt driving instead of just relying on digital effects. That said, we kind of suspect the scene in which a car is driven out the side of a skyscraper and through the side of another probably benefited from a little bit of computer-generated magic. To say that that sequence isn’t even the most ridiculous thing about Fast & Furious 7 should really drive home just how absurd this movie is. To their credit though, the cast still play it 100% straight, and in doing so have managed to get this franchise to that sweet spot where even its legitimately terrible moments — including maybe the most blatant moment of product placement in the history of modern cinema — still manage to be kind of entertaining. Well, almost. We’ve gotta say that Wan’s use of the Michael Bay ass-cam on any and all female extras gets creepy pretty fast. It doesn’t help that the once gender-balanced cast of heroes has basically been reduced to a bunch of bros plus Michelle Rodriguez. Definitely something they should correct in Fast & Furious 8. Apparently Helen Mirren has already put her hand up to play the villain. Now that would be amazing.
Every studio wants a Marvel Cinematic Universe to call its own, or an equivalent that similarly takes a big bite out of the box office — and that very quest explains why Morbius exists. On the page, the character also known as 'the Living Vampire' has been battling Spider-Man since 1971. On the screen, he's now the second of the web-slinger's foes after Venom to get his own feature. This long-delayed flick, which was originally due to release before Venom: Let There Be Carnage until the pandemic struck, is also the third film in what's been dubbed Sony's Spider-Man Universe. As that name makes plain, the company is spinning its own on-screen world around everyone's favourite friendly neighbourhood superhero, because that's what it owns the rights to, and has started out focusing on villainous folks. So far, the movie magic hasn't flowed. If that explanatory opening paragraph felt like something obligatory that you had to get through to set the scene, it's meant to. That's how Morbius feels as well. Actually, that's being kinder than this draining picture deserves given it only has one purpose: setting up more films to follow. Too many movies in too many comic book-inspired cinematic universes share the same fate, because this type of filmmaking has primarily become $20-per-ticket feature-length episodes on a big screen — but it's particularly blatant here. Before the MCU's success, the bulk of Morbius would've been a ten-minute introduction in a flick about supervillains, and its mid-credits teasers would've fuelled the first act. Now, flinging every bit of caped crusader-adjacent material into as large a number of cinematic outings as possible is the status quo, and this is one of the most bloodless examples yet. Jumping over to the SSU from the DCEU — that'd be the DC Extended Universe, the pictures based around Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad and the like (but not including Joker or The Batman) — Jared Leto plays Morbius' eponymous figure. A renowned scientist, Dr Michael Morbius has a keen interest in the red liquid pumping through humans' veins stemming from his own health issues. As seen in early scenes set during his childhood, young Michael (Charlie Shotwell, The Nest) was a sickly kid in a medical facility thanks to a rare disease that stops him from producing new blood. There, under the care of Dr Emil Nikols (Jared Harris, Foundation), he befriended another unwell boy (debutant Joseph Esson), showed his smarts and earned a prestigious scholarship. As an adult, he now refuses the Nobel Prize for creating artificial plasma, then tries to cure himself using genes from vampire bats. Morbius sports an awkward tone that filmmaker Daniel Espinosa (Life) can't overcome; its namesake may be a future big-screen baddie, but he's also meant to be this sympathetic flick's hero — and buying either is a stretch. In the overacting Leto's hands, he's too tedious to convince as a threat or someone to root for. He's too gleefully eccentric to resemble anything more than a skit at Leto's expense, too. Indeed, evoking any interest in Morbius' inner wrestling (because saving his own life with his experimental procedure comes at a bloodsucking cost) proves plodding. It does take a special set of skills to make such OTT displays so pedestrian at best, though, and that's a talent that Leto keeps showing to the misfortune of movie-goers. He offers more restraint here than in Suicide Squad (not to be confused with The Suicide Squad), The Little Things, House of Gucci or streaming series WeCrashed, but his post-Dallas Buyers Club Oscar-win resume remains dire — Blade Runner 2049 being the sole exception. It mightn't have revived the film, but the answer to one of Espinosa's troubles could've been Matt Smith, who cuts a far more compelling figure as the grown-up version of Morbius' ailing pal Milo. The lanky Last Night in Soho star is saddled with a role somehow more cartoonish than Leto's, and with a character who doses himself with the same bat-derived serum but loves it — and, even without a spot of remorse for the body count he swiftly causes, he's the the most fascinating thing on-screen. Alas, in the latest underwhelming script by Dracula Untold, The Last Witch Hunter, Gods of Egypt and Power Rangers screenwriters Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, Morbius and Milo are meant to be two sides of the same coin, but there's no depth or poignancy to their relationship. It just feels like a means to an end, giving Morbius another struggle to brood over. That shouldn't come as a surprise seeing that's the movie's whole gambit as well. It doesn't help that the entire idea behind Morbius and Milo's friendship, and their reason for seeking a solution in bat DNA, is abhorrently ableist. Positing that both men can only be happy if they're free of their genetic ailment could never be anything else. Folks with a health situation that causes suffering may wish to farewell it, but the image of throwing away crutches, becoming more mobile, gaining extra senses and floating in the air is thoroughly tasteless when presented as the only alternative to having a medical condition. Doing something different would've required thought, however, which Morbius lacks again and again. No one could be bothered to flesh out its protagonist, or wonder why its villain outshines him, or worry that Leto and Smith have zero chemistry together, after all. And clearly nobody was concerned that the film looks wearyingly dull to suit its story, that its CGI is laughably atrocious and overdone at every moment, or that it's a vampire flick that's afraid of blood and gore. Amid the murky cinematography by Oliver Wood (Holmes & Watson) and erratic editing from Pietro Scalia (Solo: A Star Wars Story), each compounding the movie's woes, Morbius also includes a weak attempt at a romance courtesy of fellow researcher Martine (Adria Arjona, 6 Underground), plus a crime angle via detectives Stroud (Tyrese Gibson, Fast and Furious 9) and Rodriguez (Al Madrigal, Physical) — all thankless. Its stab at giving the superhero/supervillain realm a mad scientist skew, a monster-movie chapter and a gothic horror spin proves dead on arrival as well, as does its evident pilfering from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. That this is the best version of Morbius after almost two years spent sitting on a shelf is as illogical as the film's many plot holes. This misfire only sinks its teeth into bland monotony; vampires aren't the only things that suck within its frames.
UPDATE, April 19, 20201 The Invisible Man is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Binge, Foxtel Now, Google Play and YouTube Movies. In the latest version of The Invisible Man, Universal unwraps the bandages from one of its iconic horror figures in an astute, unnerving and thrillingly contemporary fashion. But it almost didn't happen, with the studio originally pursuing completely different plans. Let's all take a moment to thank the cinema gods that Tom Cruise's stint as The Mummy didn't work out. If his time dallying with Egyptian spirits had been a success, we'd now be watching Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man instead. That's what Universal's 'dark universe' — aka the studio's modern-day remakes of its old 1930s monster movies — had in store. Then the 2017 version of The Mummy proved a flop, forcing the company to change course. Suddenly, Depp's slated film disappeared into thin air just like the imperceptible man he was supposed to play. So too did an Angelina Jolie and Javier Bardem-starring take on The Bride of Frankenstein. And that left Universal with a gap — which Australian writer/director and Saw co-creator Leigh Whannell fills grippingly and convincingly with his top-notch update of cinema's most famous see-through character. In the Upgrade filmmaker's hands, The Invisible Man has been through some significant changes since HG Wells' 1897 novel and James Whale's 1933 first film adaptation. In fact, this movie doesn't really tell the eponymous figure's story, but that of the woman terrorised by the unseen guy. After years of suffering through an abusive relationship with hotshot optics pioneer Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) works up the courage to leave him. Fleeing from his remote mansion in the middle of the night with the help of her sister (Harriet Dyer), she's petrified that he'll track her down and retaliate. But, as she hides out with a cop friend (Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter (Storm Reid), word arrives that Adrian has committed suicide — although when strange things start happening around Cecelia, she's convinced that he's still somehow messing with her. To not only make The Invisible Man today, but set it in today's world too, two areas needed to be addressed. The first is technology, recognising that turning a person invisible is far more plausible than it once was — and that being involved in someone's life without being physically present isn't just possible these days, but commonplace. The second is gender politics. Watching a man terrorise a woman sight unseen has very different connotations in the 21st century, as does the stalking and gaslighting that comes with it. Crucially, Whannell embraces the complexities of both areas in this thoroughly modern take on the tale, switching focus from villain to victim, and bolstering his narrative by pondering the underhanded capabilities of technology as well as the ongoing problem that is domestic violence. Accordingly, this slow-building version of The Invisible Man isn't an account of a scientist corrupted by his latest discovery, as seen in its predecessors. Rather, it's a portrait of a woman at the mercy of a man who'll do anything and use any means to get what he wants. The end result: psychological horror mixed with futuristic science-fiction and layered with a piercing societal statement, and it's as effective as it sounds. Of course, anyone who saw Upgrade will realise that this is the only interpretation of The Invisible Man that Whannell could've made. The Aussie filmmaker continues his fascination with body modification and tech-enabled surveillance, as well as his fondness for hyper-kinetic action, a pervasive mood of dread and tension, and a sparse, sleek look — plus his interrogation of the kind of society that, with not too many imaginative tweaks needed, we just might be headed for. Forgetting the terrible Insidious: Chapter 3, the only blip on his directorial resume to date, Whannell is swiftly establishing a reputation as a genre filmmaker with smarts, style and something to say — as well as the skill to combine all of the above into a thrilling, harrowing and engaging package. He also has canny casting instincts, with The Invisible Man as much Moss' movie as Whannell's. The Handmaid's Tale and Her Smell actor has had more than a little practice in this terrain of late — aka battling insidious enemies, navigating persecution, and devolving into distress, distrust and paranoia — and she draws upon that experience here. Indeed, watching someone face off against an unsighted foe can play as hokey or unintentionally comic, but not with Moss and her haunted yet determined stare taking centre stage. This definitely isn't the movie that Universal imagined when, high on dreams of building its own megastar-studded, monster-fuelled universe, the studio announced its now-defunct Depp-led project. That's something else to continue to thank the movie gods for — because no one needed Depp's usual daffy schtick wrapped in gauze, but cinema definitely does need Whannell's savvy, unsettling, spirited and refreshing The Invisible Man remake. Great horror movies have always reflected and responded to the times they're made in and, in the same vein as Jordan Peele's Get Out and Us, The Invisible Man helps lead the charge as the 21st century reaches its third decade. This is a socially conscious, savagely creepy, supremely clever reinterpretation of a classic scarefest that takes every part of that equation seriously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLAJyugYEiY
During much of Hotel Mumbai, petrified guests and staff are trapped inside the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, trying to flee the gunmen in their midst. Dramatising the real-life incident from 2008, first-time filmmaker Anthony Maras recreates the terror, tension and tragedy as attackers roam the hotel's halls, shooting everyone on sight — and as ordinary folks scramble to survive the violent onslaught. But in the movie's clumsiest scene, a group huddles in a locked area. Nerves and tempers fray, especially when an older woman voices racist worries about Taj Mahal Palace Hotel employees. It's a blatant learning moment, as viewers witness prejudice both lurking in and defeated by the most fraught of circumstances. It's also as heavy-handed as it sounds, and as unnecessary. Everyone is the same when their lives are under threat in such a horrific way. Everyone is the same anyway, but staring down the barrel of a gun helps hammer this realisation home among the closed-minded. While there's no doubting the validity of the film's message or the warm intentions behind it, Hotel Mumbai is so convincing when it's showing the truth of its central statement that it doesn't need to resort to shouting its sentiments in such a clumsy fashion. The details seen speak for themselves, from the senselessness of lives slain by those mercilessly seeking to incite fear, to the unwavering endurance, resilience, kindness and heroism demonstrated by the terrorists' intended victims. Thankfully, Maras and co-screenwriter John Collee (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Tanna) avoid simple life lessons for most of the movie's running time, letting the confronting on-the-ground specifics do the heavy lifting. Wednesday, November 26 seems like another ordinary day in the titular Indian city. Concierge Arjun (Dev Patel) arrives at work wearing just one shoe, much to head chef Hemant Oberoi's (Anupam Kher) dismay. Couple Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi) and David (Armie Hammer) are seeking a respite from their busy schedules, albeit with their newborn baby and Australian nanny Sally (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) by their sides. With a private party planned, demanding Russian businessman Vasili (Jason Isaacs) is hardly a model guest. But along with Aussie backpackers Eddie (Angus McLaren) and Bree (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), they're all soon caught in a nightmarish plight, with a group of young jihadists wreaking havoc on their way towards the luxurious hotel. For many, Hotel Mumbai's events will remain fresh in their memories, as the film's use of news footage only cements. The difference between reading the headlines and feeling like you're there is enormous, of course, and it's the latter that drives dramatic big-screen recreations. Drawing their narrative from interviews with survivors and witnesses, Maras and Collee aim to place viewers in the thick of the chaos. Primarily shot in Adelaide by cinematographer Nick Remy Matthews, it's a feat they achieve. From the second the film introduces the assailants, a sense of urgency pulsates through every frame — whether racing through darkened streets, seeing innocent people mown down by bullets, or watching as the decadent Taj Mahal Palace Hotel becomes a bloody battlefield. Indeed, Hotel Mumbai is so effective at putting the audience in the moment — and in the shoes of the desperate victims — that the film's straightforward nature largely escapes notice. Big questions aren't begging to be answered and explanations aren't offered, with Maras depicting the grim situation as he's been able to piece it together, rather than editorialising or analysing the particulars. Helped by a solid cast, it's a fitting approach. Such harrowing horrors call for a sober perspective, which is what makes the movie's rare instances of overt button-pushing feel so out of place. At its best, in bringing this bleak slice of reality to the screen, Hotel Mumbai stares into one of humanity's darkest ordeals and refuses to look away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz4jnixs8yA
