Entering an Australian supermarket at the moment, you can be forgiven for thinking that you're walking into the set of a post-apocalyptic film. People are everywhere but shelves are bare, with shoppers panic-buying everything from toilet paper and hand sanitiser to pasta and milk. As the COVID-19 situation has evolved over the past few weeks, local supermarket chains have been implementing item limits. They've also set aside dedicated shopping times for the elderly and people with disability as well. But the hoarding keeps happening and everyday staples keep selling out, leading Coles and Woolworths to roll out further caps. Announced today, Wednesday, March 18, both big chains have mandated restrictions on a number of items — in addition to previously revealed limits. At Coles, there's now a two-pack-per-person cap on eggs, sugar, frozen vegetables, frozen desserts, canned tomatoes, pasta, all dry rice regardless of size and liquid soap. And additional limits may be placed on other items on a store-by-store basis, too, so it's best to pay attention to the signage while you're shopping. Over at Woolies, it's limiting such a wide variety of items that it has actually listed what isn't restricted. There are no caps on fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh milk, yoghurts, deli items, seafood, bakery items, canned fish and meat other than mince — or on drinks, baby food, wet dog food, wet cat food, and Easter confectionery and merchandise. If you're after anything else, however, a two-pack-per-person limit applies in general, with some items down to one-pack-per limit. Already in the restricted category at both chains — as anyone who has tried to buy groceries recently well knows — are toilet paper, serviettes, baby wipes, antibacterial wipes and bulk rice over two kilograms, which are down to one pack per person. Tissues, hand sanitiser, dry pasta and flour have all been limited to two packs per person at both companies for days now. And paper towels vary, restricted to one per person at Woolies but two at Coles. Aldi and IGA haven't announced any new limits as yet, although Aldi already has caps on toilet paper (one pack), dry pasta, dry rice, flour, paper towels, tissues and sanitiser (two packs). At IGA, it's a store-by-store decision. "Each store has placed purchase limits on items that are critically low in stock. These limits are being managed on a store by store basis and are increasing day by day," the chain advised in a statement. All four brands have also released a collective plea for consideration, stressing the need to stick to product limits — and reminding shoppers something that should just be a given, aka that hardworking supermarket staff should be treated with courtesy and respect. For more details on Australian supermarket item limits, keep an eye on Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA's websites. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website.
When Twin Peaks wrapped up its original two-season run back in 1991, it left audiences with a damn huge cliffhanger. David Lynch revisited the series' distinctive world on the big screen the following year; however Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was a prequel rather than a sequel, so the show's mysteries remained just that for more than a quarter-century. Then, in 2017, came Twin Peaks: The Return. The long-awaited 18-episode third season of the show continued the tale of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and murdered Twin Peaks homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) — but, with Lynch directing every episode and co-writing the whole thing with fellow series creator Mark Frost, it did so in a very Lynchian way. In the words of Coop himself, it took you to a place both wonderful and strange, exceeding what even the most feverish Peaks fans expected. Eighteen hours of Lynch and Frost's unfiltered weirdness will do that. Indeed, Twin Peaks: The Return felt like stepping straight into Lynch's brain. That said, the next Twin Peaks project just might have that beat. While it's unlikely to deliver anything as mind-blowing as the third season's acclaimed eighth episode, Twin Peaks VR will let you wander around the show's famous settings — and solve puzzles while you're there. Created by Collider Games and Showtime, and available now — via Steam and Oculus for Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift-S, HTC Vive and HTC Vive Cosmos, with versions for Oculus Quest and PlayStationVR coming at a yet-to-be-revealed date — Twin Peaks VR takes players on a first-person journey through everywhere from the Red Room and Glastonbury Grove to the Sheriff's Department and the Glass Box Observation. Yes, that means that you can virtually walk past the iconic crimson curtains and along the zigzagging floors, rifle through Sheriff Truman's desk and watch out for Bob. Based on the trailer, you can also see the kettle-like machine that David Bowie's Fire Walk With Me character became in The Return as well. While escape room-type puzzles keep the game moving forward, it's really an excuse to hang out in the Twin Peaks realm in the most immersive way yet. And, if you've watched and rewatched the show's 48 episodes (and the movie) more times than you can count — and read the various books related to it, too — it's your next chance to scratch your Twin Peaks itch. Best grab yourself some coffee, cherry pie and doughnuts to enjoy while you're playing, obviously. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHRXHvPRrJY Twin Peaks VR is now available via Steam and Oculus. For further information, visit the game's website.
"Why can't you enjoy life?": when that line arrives in Hard Truths, it's not only a haunting moment within the latest film from British writer/director Mike Leigh, but the same from any movie in the past few years. First, the perennially depressed, angry and disillusioned — and also agoraphobic, paranoid, confrontational and hypochondriac — Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Surface) utters it, giving voice to the accusations that she felt were directed her way by her late mother. Pansy's sister Chantelle (Michele Austin, Boat Story) then repeats it back, but as her own question, asking someone so clearly always in pain why such hurt, unhappiness and fury is her default status. "It was the combination of a lot of improvisations and preparation. It just came out of the blue," Jean-Baptiste tells Concrete Playground about that piece of dialogue. "It was obviously months of rehearsing and developing the characters that led up to it." She continues: "it just summed up the frustration that Chantelle has with her sister Pansy, but also I think something releases for Pansy when she actually answers truthfully." Leigh sees it as "part of the investigation of the relationship", he advises. "The moment, like all the moments — and all the action and all the dialogue and everything else — came out of the whole exploratory process of making the film by finding out what the film is on the journey of making it." As all projects by the iconic filmmaker are — across an on-screen resume that started with 1971's Bleak Moments; saw Jean-Baptiste nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Leigh's Secrets & Lies in 1996; and also covers Life Is Sweet, Naked, Career Girls, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year, Mr Turner, Peterloo and more — the London-set Hard Truths was built from the ground up with his collaborators. His famed method of working involves casting first, constructing characters one on one with his actors sans script, tasking them with improvising the dialogue and, along the way, finding the storyline while only telling the members of his ensemble what they each need to know to play their parts. Here, the result is a two-time BAFTA nominee, including for Best Actress for its lead, who won the same category at the British Independent Film Awards. Alongside standing out as a portrait of the daily lives of a Black British family, a rarity in cinemas, Hard Truths is also a stunning study of a character who holds onto her agony, fears, rage and exasperation so tightly inside, and unleashes it so frequently at anyone and everyone in her vicinity. Pansy's contented salon-owner sister — a single mother with two daughters, one training to be a lawyer (Sophia Brown, Dead Shot) and the other in cosmetics (Ani Nelson, One Day) — isn't the only target of her distress. Hard Truths' protagnist's husband Curtley (David Webber, My Lady Jane) and adult son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett, Back to Black) are as visibly weary from attempting to cope as Pansy clearly is. Jean-Baptiste describes the character as "somebody who is in a lot of pain, but doesn't quite know where it's coming from. There's a lot of fear as well. It's 'attack before I'm attacked'. She's petrified of life and it manifests itself in a very aggressive way". If her performance hardly feels like one — not that she's Pansy IRL for a second — that's again a result of Leigh's process. "Michele Austin and I, obviously we've worked together before with Mike, but we would get into a room and Mike would talk to us about the girls. And so we had to build their parallel history," she explains, offering one example of how such fully realised characters came about. "Their parents, their grandparents, where they lived in London, what schools they went to, the bus route to their schools. How did they get there? Did they walk? Did they have to go past the park? And then we go and find that in London. So located it, so there's a visual memory of what that would have looked like, and that continues and continues until we get to a point — we do birthdays, parties, holidays, all that information. So imagine when you're in an improvisation a month and a half later, you've got all this stuff, all this wonderful history, all these experiences, that you can pull on at any given point within the improvs. So that's how that works." And yes, across a resume that also spans The Cell, City of Ember, the RoboCop remake, In Fabric, seven seasons of Without a Trace, Broadchurch, Blindspot, Homecoming and much more, Jean-Baptiste advises that she's benefited from Leigh's approach even when he's not her director. What appeals to Leigh, one of cinema's great excavators of life's complexities — struggles, joys and everything in-between — about investigating humanity through his work, and collaborating with his cast to create characters that feel like they could've walked off the street and into his movies? And what has driven him to do so for more than half a century? "It comes naturally to me. As a little kid, I was drawing caricatures of the grown-ups," he notes. "I don't make movies about movies. I love watching movies, but that's separate from the films that I make. I am not interested in received notions of plot and structure or anything else. For me, film — and indeed theatre, when I do stage plays, including in Australia — it's about a way to look at real life. People say to me 'where do your ideas come from?'. Well, I've only got to walk down the street and there are ten, 12, 20, 50, 100 films, because it's people, and that's really what it's about for me, basically." With Leigh and Jean-Baptiste reuniting for Hard Truths not only after Secrets & Lies and collaborating for the stage, but after Jean-Baptiste composed the score for Leigh's Career Girls, too, we also chatted with the pair about their working relationship, Leigh's starting point with each project, getting into and out of character, and the challenges and freedoms of his process, among other topics. What continues to inspire them and what they make of their respective careers: we spoke with the two about that as well. On Building Pansy as a Character Over Months and Months Marianne: "Mike asks you to come to the first session, where he works with you one on one, and to have a list of people from real life, real-life people that you know. And you start talking about all of these people and a list is formed, and the list gets smaller and smaller and smaller. So it's important to ground the characters in reality. And from that point, it's a stepping off point, because the character changes. For example, if you have three people, you've taken characteristics from those three people and you've merged them, what you would then do is start from scratch and build a new character — from their first memory to the age they're going to play when you actually see them in the film. In that process, you start to, with Mike always — he takes the position of god, he makes the decisions that none of us can make for ourselves — so with Mike, there's a collaboration whereby he asks lots of questions and you start filling in answers to who this person is. And then things that you wouldn't be able to decide, he makes those decisions. And in doing so, the disappointments, the heartbreaks and things like that, start to build in that person's life. So on a simplistic level, you could say that she is a combination of all of the bad experiences she's had — some real, some imaginary." Mike: "It's a difficult question to answer, really. Because obviously at one level, such people resonate for me — just as for everybody else, no doubt, including you — with experiences that you've had. What we do on my films, and this film is absolutely no exception, is I collaborate with each actor to give birth to a character. And drawing on various things, including some people that Marianne Jean-Baptiste actually knows, we evolved the basis of the character, which then grew." Marianne: "My experience in life. Observation. Being fascinated by human beings. That's the sort of thing that I generally draw on. And just knowing that — it's like being a kid again, almost — knowing that I'm absolutely free to imagine and create. One of my first jobs out of drama school, actually, was doing a Mike Leigh play — and it's exactly the same process, but it was early enough in my career to influence the way that I approached my work and almost approach life in that sort of people-watching way, and just being fascinated. So I think that just being in a safe environment where that was okay to make stuff up, and to pull stuff from my imagination is acceptable. I think you're just in-character in this process. We warm up into character and we snap out of it quite quickly. But as I said, it really is the culmination of months and months of working. We rehearsed for three and a half months — and that's a short rehearsal process for Mike. So if you can imagine, that's months of building layers and layers and layers. So there's every disappointment she's had. There's everything that she hoped for but didn't achieve. There's every slight or perceived slight that she's had. There's that idea that nobody listens to her, nobody values her, nobody likes her. So that's going on for three and a half bloody months. So by the time you get to those sort of scenes, it's like it's all there — it's all there already." On Reteaming Not Only After Secrets & Lies, But After Stage Collaborations and Jean-Baptiste Composing the Score for Leigh's Career Girls Mike: "We did work together 30 years, 31 years ago, in a stage play. And then of course, she was famously in Secrets & Lies, in which, incidentally, in both of those projects she paired with Michele Austin, who plays her sister in this film. It's a long time since Secrets and Lies, and I wanted to work with her — and she with me — for a long time. Often it's the case that you want to work with an actor and they're actually very busy doing other things. Finally we said 'well, let's go for it. Let's do it'. We were going to make the film sooner, but the pandemic put paid to that." Marianne: "I think he's very bold. He's a bold storyteller. He loves people and he loves actors. And I think, as an actor you have more agency working with him than you do with most other types of work. It's truly collaborative — and collaborative all round with production design, with hair and makeup. Everybody works together and everybody's on the same page about the way that they're going to approach the work. I think we've got a very similar sense of humour, so that really helps as well." On Leigh's Starting Point with His Actors on Each Film Mike: "I work individually, separately and privately with each actor. And part of the deal with these films is that the actors take part, agree to take part, and the deal is you'll never know anything about the rest of it, except what your character knows. So they're all working, as it were, in isolation from each other. And I sit down at some length, with quite a lot of sessions, with each actor, and we talk about real people and gradually we talk into existence the basis of the character. So that's the starting point. Then it's about putting them together and exploring relationships, and building up the world and doing any research that needs to be done — into activities or work or whatever it is. To arrive at something that is completely organic and three-dimensional, and is also thus the basis of a film, which then, during the shooting period, we construct as we go along scene by scene, sequence by sequence, location by location, arriving at the end." On Ensuring That Leigh's Cast Can Step Out of Their Characters, Especially Someone as Complicated as Pansy, When Each Scene and Day Ends Marianne: "It's hard to shake in that you still keep, it's still there in your head working. Mike's very, very strict about coming out of character. So there's a whole protocol on-set about warming up into character and warming down. But with Pansy, because of the intrusive thoughts that the character had, obviously you have to create that thought process for yourself in order to play it. So it took a while for me to shut her up." Mike: "As soon as we start to get the characters on the go, I'm very strict, right from the beginning. But actors should warm up and get into character, be absolutely in-character when they're in-character, but as soon as we stop — which is to say not at the end of the day, but each improvisation or whatever it is — to come out of character. So the actor is then able to be objective about what happened in the improvisation or about the character. I'm also very strict that the actor, when talking about the character, refers to the character as 'him' or 'her, not 'I' — which a lot of actors, as you know, do, they talk about 'I' and there's a crossing of wires. So that's really a discipline. And that's what you're talking about, to be sure the actor can be totally in it when in it, but totally comfortable and not screwed up when not in it." On the Challenges and Freedoms of Leigh's Approach Marianne: "It's exhilarating, terrifying and freeing — all those wonderful things. There's nothing else like it, being able to work in this way. There were times when you feel like crying, because you're like 'what on earth am I doing? What is this?'. And then you see it, you see the result and you go 'oh my god'. Because obviously, because everybody's working individually on their characters, you don't know what's happening. The first time I saw the film, I was able to see what happened in the beauty salon, and what Curtley did at work and where Moses went, and what the nieces were like. So it's like, for us, it's like discovering the film for the first time. It's wonderful is all I can say." Mike: "It's totally a combination of the two. It's certainly challenging. Here's the thing: if they say 'okay, here's five or six million pounds and you've got to deliver a film', that is quite a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, of course. It's challenging, but it's highly stimulating. And the freedom of there being no preconceptions or interference or prescriptions from the streamers or the producers or anybody — the backers or the whoever — it's very liberating. Frightening, yes, but then the creative process is dangerous in any context. But liberating. It's wonderful. If I were to ever — many times over the years, the opportunity has come to make a film with certain provisos. 'You have to have a Hollywood star in it.' 'We have to be able to monitor it.' 'You can't have final cut.' All that stuff. Well, I'll just walk away. It just doesn't happen, basically. Which then liberates the freedom to do what artists should do." On How Leigh Works with His Cast to Ensure That Whether or Not the Audience Has Lived a Character's Life, They Feel Recognisable Mike: "You can't underestimate the contribution of the actor. The actor's intelligence, sensitivity, perception, talent. I only work with character actors, which is to say people that don't just play themselves in a narcissistic way, but actually are up for and want to detect, depict and portray real people out on the street. And so my job is to facilitate and to contribute in terms of the narrative ideas — but in the end, what you're asking about relies primarily on her ability to to act, create, empathise, project, distill and investigate all those aspects of the character. There are actors who are, on the whole, good actors, but are not very intelligent. There are actors who are fine actors that have no sense of humour. There are actors who, as I've already said, are not character actors. Marianne Jean-Baptiste, like all the actors in this film, has all of those qualities, not least a sense of character and a sense of humour, and therefore has the ability to get inside different sorts of people and really, really bring it to life." On How Cognisant That Jean-Baptiste and Leigh Were About Hard Truths Standing Out as a Portrait of the Daily Lives of a Black British Family Marianne: "No, we were not aware of it while we were making it. We were aware that there's a predominantly all-black cast, but you obviously don't know what the story is. So you know it's going to be something to do with family and stuff, but yeah, it's a bonus that it's something that people can be proud of and say 'yeah, great, so refreshing'." Mike: "That was a deliberate decision. It wasn't, in no way, a difficult decision, because I just approached the characters and the world and the issues and the emotions and the relationships in this film just as I have every other film I've made, including the period films — which is to say these are people and we're looking at them as people in a real way. However, I was very definitely consciously aware that we were not going to deal in all those cliche tropes that films about Black people on the whole deal with, because that's not what it's about as far as I'm concerned. For me, I would say — and you're no doubt familiar with other films of mine — across all of my films, it's a collection of different aspects of society, but all looking at people as individual, real people. And this film is, if you like, the mere continuation of that ongoing investigation." On Reflecting the Reality of Life by Making a Film That's Both Deeply Moving and Has a Sense of Humour Mike: "It's not a balancing act at all. Life is comic and tragic. Whatever you do, whether you like it or not — how many times have you not laughed at a funeral? Life just comes out of the soil, ready-made comic and tragic. So for me, I don't sit around thinking 'oh, maybe there should be a comic moment' or 'maybe this should be a tragic moment'. That looks after itself, and it certainly looks after itself in this film. It's a barrel of laughs, hopefully, for a good section, a good chunk of the film. And then — and we've had quite a number of public screenings of the film, and you could absolutely chart precisely where the laughter dies away, and it's obvious why that is. It's not a question of balance. It's a question of the truth of what you're depicting and what you're investigating, what you're sharing with the audience and what the audience experiences." On What Inspires Jean-Baptiste and Leigh About a New Project Marianne: "At this point in my life, I'm looking for challenges. I'm looking for something that I can transform myself — something that's going to be fun. For me, that's it. Are they good people? Will it be fun? Will it be challenging in a good way, you know?" Mike: "To me, it's always exciting. It's partly, to be honest, because I don't know what we're going to do and therefore there are all sorts of possibilities. And my head is buzzing with all sorts of possibilities and ideas — 'maybe we'll get him', 'maybe we'll get her to the party'. Then, of course, it's the anticipation and the enjoyment of actually working with people, and making it and making the thing happen. And shooting and working with the actors, all that's just, to me, a joy. Here's the thing that's important: the way I make films is the same way but is parallel to people writing novels, painting pictures, making music, making sculpture, writing poetry, et cetera — which is to say that the artist embarks on a journey of investigation, and discovers what the piece is on the journey of making it. They interact with the material. How many novelists have you heard say 'well, I didn't know what was going to happen, and then somehow the character told me what needed to happen next'? That's really what I do. The privilege I feel I have that painters and novelists, et cetera, don't have, is that I'm not stuck in a room by myself. It's a collaborative, socially pleasurable activity." [caption id="attachment_782569" align="alignnone" width="1920"] In Fabric[/caption] On What Jean-Baptiste and Leigh Each Make of Their Careers So Far Marianne: "I think it's interesting. I think I've had quite an interesting career. I've forgotten some stuff that I've done — it's gotten to that stage where people go 'oh that film' and I go 'oh yeah'. Yes, I think it's been a bit of an interesting one, mine, that's taken me to a few different places. I've been able to be quite selective in the last say five or ten years, which is good." [caption id="attachment_722535" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Peterloo[/caption] Mike: "Well, on the whole, if I was to sum it all up, I think I've been very lucky, actually, really. There've been breaks at times, which made it possible to do the crazy thing I do, which is to say to backers or theatre managers: 'I have no idea what we're going to do. I will not discuss casting. And please don't interfere with it while we're doing it at any stage'. And one could be forgiven for imagining that on that basis, I might never have done anything. So I've been lucky in that sense, and I guess the honest answer to your question is that, really — that I've found it remarkable that I've kind of got away with it." Hard Truths opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, March 6, 2025 and New Zealand cinemas on Thursday, March 13, 2025.
When international art collective teamLab launched Borderless, its Tokyo-based permanent digital-only art museum, the dazzling space became the most-visited single-artist site in the world in just its first year of operation. Wherever the outfit pops up — be it in Shanghai oil tanks, Japanese hot springs or Melbourne — its installations are always hugely popular. So it's no wonder that the group is expanding its footprint by opening more permanent locations. Late in 2019, teamLab launched a new venue in Shanghai, which is also called Borderless. Come this March, it's also opening a museum called SuperNature in Macao. Located at The Venetian Macao, the latter site will sprawl over 5000 square metres, filling the space with the kind of immersive, interactive installations that have gathered the collective of artists, programmers, engineers, animators, mathematicians and architects such a devoted following. [caption id="attachment_758086" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] teamLab. Expanding Three-Dimensional Existence in Transforming Space - Flattening 3 Colors and 9 Blurred Colors, Free Floating, 2018, Interactive Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi © teamLab[/caption] In good news for anyone who has visited a teamLab venue or installation previously, SuperNature will also include a selection of brand new works — although, even if you're a seasoned teamLab visitor, these are the types of pieces that you can visit over and over and never get bored. Much will look familiar, playing with concepts and designs that the collective is clearly drawn to, such as floating balls, projected flowers and animals, and other kaleidoscopic imagery Chief among the highlights is The Infinite Crystal Universe, which uses light points, pointillism-style, to create three-dimensional objects. While you're interacting with the piece, you can use your phone to select the elements that make up the universe. The artwork will also response to the presence of people, as most of teamLab's installations do. [caption id="attachment_758090" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] teamLab. The Clouds that Self-Organize, 2019, experimental photo of the new artwork © teamLab[/caption] Then there's Massless Clouds Between Sculpture and Life, which plays out just as its title suggests. In this installation, giant clouds will float between the floor and the ceiling — and even when you walk through them, breaking them up, they'll form back into shape. Also on the bill: Mountain of Flowers and People: Lost, Immersed and Reborn, which'll let digital flowers bloom and change with the seasons, and Expanding Three-Dimensional Existence in Transforming Space — Flattening 3 Colors and 9 Blurred Colors, Free Floating, where bouncing spheres float above visitors, changing colour when they're touched. Like Borderless, SuperNature will also feature an Athletics Park, where you'll really get physical traversing graffiti-covered valleys, climbing a ropes course, scaling a light forest, jumping or playing hopscotch, as well as an educational, kid-focused Future Park. Located in the resort hotel's Cotai Expo Hall F, and set up like a labyrinth — making you wander around and around to find all of its nooks and crannies — SuperNature will welcome visitors through the doors from January 21 for previews ahead of its official opening date. Find teamLab SuperNature at Cotai Expo Hall F, The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, Estrada da Baía de N. Senhora da Esperança, s/n, Taipa, Macao SAR, P.R. China from a yet-to-be-revealed date in March. It'll be open from 10am–10pm daily. Images: teamLab. teamLab is represented by Pace Gallery.
When a TV show or movie franchise returns years and years after its last instalment, there's no longer any point being surprised. It happens that often these days, with Veronica Mars, Twin Peaks, Star Wars and Jurassic Park just a few recent examples. The latest past pop culture hit set to make a comeback: Sex and the City. Thankfully, as anyone who sat through the terrible 2008 and 2010 movies of the same name will be hoping, the Sarah Jessica Parker-starring series is returning to the small screen this time around. Parker is back, as are her co-stars Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon, all starring in a new HBO show called And Just Like That.... The new ten-episode series is a spinoff, rather than an additional season of the existing 1998–2004 program — and there's one big difference. As revealed in the official announcement, the show will follow Carrie (Parker), Miranda (Nixon) and Charlotte (Davis). That means that the character of Samantha isn't part of the revival, and neither is actor Kim Cattrall, who played her. Parker, Davis and Nixon are also named as producers on And Just Like That..., alongside Michael Patrick King, who worked as a writer, director and executive producer on the original (and on the two movies). HBO hasn't released too many other details; however the US network has advised that the series will follow its three main characters "as they navigate the journey from the complicated reality of life and friendship in their 30s to the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s". In America, And Just Like That... is headed to HBO Max, the network's streaming platform. Just when the program will hit and where it'll be available elsewhere (including Down Under) haven't yet been revealed. While you're waiting for the new series, you can check out a clip from the original below — or, in Australia, you can stream Sex and the City's six seasons via Binge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fFNOGU_QRU And Just Like That... doesn't currently have an airdate, either in the US or Down Under, but we'll update you when one is announced.
Wishing that you were spending chocolate season not merely feasting on sweet treats in Brisbane, but pairing Easter with a trip to Japan? Aren't we all. Thankfully, Indigo Isuta Soirée: A High Tea Affair is here to provide consolation for everyone still in the River City, and also to get you celebrating the occasion in a delicious fashion. Here, Easter gets a Japanese spin, complete with yuzu custard bunny teacups, green tea yuzu tiramisu and matcha macarons, plus a glass of sparkling. The high-tea menu also includes green apple mousse flourless tartlets that come flecked with gold flakes, tamago sandos, mini wagyu burgers and, of course, both hot cross buns and Easter eggs. You'll pay $99 per person, with a minimum of two people needed, to get feasting from 11am–3pm daily across the entire month of April — right through till Wednesday, April 30, 2025 — at Bar 1603 inside Hotel Indigo on Turbot Street. Plus, for $15 extra, you can also sip a cherry- and chilli chocolate-infused umeshu cocktail.
A good musical should have a lasting impact on the industry and its audiences for years to come. So the fact that Miss Saigon has been hitting stages and receiving awards since its debut in 1989 is a clear indication of quality. The show takes inspiration from the even older (but just as popular) Madama Butterfly — they're both tales of women in Asia falling in love with men from America only to have their hearts broken. The key difference between the two is the setting. Madama Butterfly is set in Japan, while Miss Saigon (as you might be able to guess from the title) is set in Vietnam, specifically during the end and lasting aftermath of the devastating Vietnam War. This production of the musical is from Cameron Mackintosh, who was also behind on other world-famous musicals like Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Mary Poppins. Coming to the Sydney Opera House on Thursday, August 17 and running until Friday, October 13 — the Australian cast includes the debut of Abigail Adriano as Kim alongside Nigel Huckle (Les Misérables, West Side Story) as Chris, Sean Miley Moore (The Voice) as The Engineer, Kerrie Anne Greenland (Les Misérables) as Ellen, Nick Afoa (The Lion King) as John and the Australian debut of Laurence Mossman as Thuy. Miss Saigon runs from Thursday, August 17 to Friday, October 13 at the Sydney Opera House, for more information and to book tickets, visit the website. Images: Johan Persson
If you thought Africa's first underwater hotel room was impressive, how about an upgrade? For an additional US$283,500, you can stay in your very own submarine hotel. Titled 'Lovers Deep', it's the latest offering from luxury travel company Oliver's Travels, whose motto is 'Why Do Ordinary?' Indeed. Why put up with terrestrial limitations, when you could be floating 650 feet deep off a Caribbean island of your choice? Making demands on a dedicated butler? Performing ablutions in company in a dual shower? Watching schools of fish swim by while eating their aphrodisiac friends? You can ask Oliver’s to customise an overnight package according to your desires. Options include sunset beach walks, a petal-scattering service, champagne breakfasts-in-bed and fine dining feasts involving caviar, oysters and chocolate fondant. "All of our hand-picked, luxury properties have something unique and quirky about them," says Oliver Bell, the company's co-founder. "But Lovers Deep really stands out as one of our quirkiest yet." Oliver’s, a UK-based company, specialises in highly unusual, once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences. Their stable includes remote, romantic lighthouses, abandoned windmills-turned-hotels, French chateaus and British country mansions surrounded by rolling hills. Via PSFK.
Four decades back, concert film history was made. In December 1983, David Byrne walked out onto a Hollywood stage with a tape deck, pressed play and, while standing there solo, began to sing 'Psycho Killer'. Then-future The Silence of the Lambs Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme directed cameras towards the legendary Talking Heads' frontman, recording the results for Stop Making Sense. The best way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the event behind the greatest concert film ever made arrived in 2024, and in cinemas. That'd be watching it on the big screen, of course, with cult-favourite independent film and TV company A24 — and Madman Down Under — releasing a complete restoration of Stop Making Sense. What's the second-best way to celebrate the occasion and the movie? Catching that new 4K version at home now that it's on Madman's documentary streaming service DocPlay from Thursday, June 13. Wearing big suits is optional. Now able to burn down your house — not literally, naturally — the 4K restoration premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, and also had a date with SXSW Sydney's Screen Festival in 2023. So, no it isn't the same as it ever was: Stop Making Sense is now even better. The film isn't just iconic for how it starts, which definitely isn't how concerts usually kick off. From there, as captured at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre in December 1983, David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison put on one helluva show in support of their previous year's album Speaking in Tongues. Expect a lineup of hits, a playful approach, Byrne's famous oversized attire and even heftier stage presence, and the feeling that you're virtually in the room. Indeed, everything about this energetic and precisely executed documentary, which records the set from start to finish, couldn't be further from the standard concert flick. As 'Once in a Lifetime', 'Heaven', 'Burning Down the House', Life During Wartime', 'This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)', 'Genius of Love' and more get a whirl, each element of the movie is that fine-tuned, and every aspect of the band's performance, too. And if it feels like Byrne was on-screen not that long ago, that's because his Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods)-directed solo concert flick American Utopia did the rounds of Aussie cinemas back in 2020 — and proved one of that year's absolute best films. Check out the trailer for Stop Making Sense's 4K restoration below: Stop Making Sense is available to stream via DocPlay from Thursday, June 13, 2024. Images: Jordan Cronenweth, Courtesy of A24.
When it first launched in New South Wales back 2022, Slim's Quality Burger combined two trends in one: Australia's undying love of burgers and the current affection for all things nostalgic. Started by a trio with knowledge of the burg business, with Michael Tripp, Nik Rollison and David Hales all boasting past ties to the Noosa-born Betty's Burgers and Concrete Co, this chain adores kicking it old school. Think: 50s- and 60s-inspired decor, a throwback vibe like it's operating in America seven decades back, plus classic meat-and-bread combos paired with ice cream sundaes. While Queensland isn't short on places to enjoy burgers, this Aussie brand was always planning on going national — and now it's Brisbane's turn. Head to Kippa-Ring since mid-September and you'll find the chain's Sunshine State debut, with another River City store also on its way. Slim's arrival in the River City has seen the brand notch up a few firsts, too: its first drive-in and drive-thru diner, and its first to offer a breakfast menu. Adding a meals-on-wheels component is the latest step in Slim's ode to Americana, as already splashed through its vintage-leaning aesthetic, with features banquettes in cherry read, neon signage, chequerboard flooring and classic light fixtures. At the now-open Kippa-Ring outpost on Elizabeth Avenue and the soon-to-come Slacks Creek venue, customers will find nose-in parking surrounding the eateries — and views into the open kitchen from your vehicle, too. You can also order from behind the wheel via QR code. Hanging out in the carpark afterwards like this is Grease? That's up to you. This chain is all about a lean menu of options made with simple but quality ingredients. Burger-wise, customers can choose between original, cheeseburger, a double and a triple, plus 'the works' burgs, all made with angus beef — and variations of the above with bacon. There's also four different chicken varieties, including with crispy fried or grilled chook, and a veggie option using a plant-based patty. Sides focus on fries either with sea salt, loaded with cheese and grilled onion, or also featuring maple-smoked bacon. As for those sundaes, they come in hot fudge, salted caramel and strawberry flavours. And to wash it all down, there are spiders — because plonking a scoop of ice cream in some soft drink never gets old — plus post-mix soda from the fountain, and chocolate, vanilla and strawberry thickshakes. For those keen on an early-morning Slim's fix, the breakfast offering spans bacon and sausage burgs, steak and egg burgs, fried chicken burgs, works burgs, veggie egg and cheese burgs, hash browns, chia pudding with strawberries and nut-free granola, a full coffee lineup, freshly squeezed orange juice and more. "Our breakfast menu is designed to offer a great start to the day the Slim's way. We believe Queenslanders will love our unique take on these classics," says Slim's chef Greg Engelhardt. Find Slim's Quality Burger at 2/407 Elizabeth Avenue, Kippa-Ring, operating from 7am–10pm daily. The chain is also opening in Slacks Creek — we'll update you with more details when they're announced.
Since hitting Broadway five years ago, notching up 11 Tony Awards, nabbing the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and just becoming an all-round pop culture phenomenon, Hamilton was always going to make the leap to cinemas. So, it's no wonder Disney leapt at the opportunity. The Mouse House was originally meant to bring Lin-Manuel Miranda's historical hip hop musical to cinemas in October 2021 — via a filmed version of the stage production, rather than a traditional stage-to-screen adaptation — but it's doing us all a solid in these rough times and fast tracking it to streaming. And it lands this winter. Hamilton fans around the world will be able to watch the filmed version of the original Broadway production on Disney+ from July 3 (the day before Independence Day in the US). That's a whole 15 months ahead of schedule. Shot at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway back in 2016, this cinematic screening of Hamilton is still a big deal. Actually, given the fact that it features the original Broadway cast — including Miranda in the eponymous role — it's a huge deal. Everyone who missed out on the opportunity to see tale of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton live as it toured the US or on London's West End will be able to do the next best thing, with Hamilton jumping on the popular trend of screening filmed versions of plays and musicals in cinemas. In addition to Miranda — who stars, and wrote the musical's music, lyrics and book — this filmed version of the production features Daveed Diggs (Velvet Buzzsaw) as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, Leslie Odom Jr. (Murder on the Orient Express) as Aaron Burr, Christopher Jackson (When They See Us) as George Washington, Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter) as King George, Renee Elise Goldsberry (The House with a Clock in Its Walls) as Angelica Schuyler and Phillipa Soo (the Broadway version of Amelie) as Eliza Hamilton. Once you've watched the small-screen version, you can get excited about seeing the stage production, too, as it's finally set to arrive in Australia in March 2021. Under the circumstances — and with international travel still banned for the foreseeable future — it's possible that this could be delayed, though. Hamilton is just the latest film to be fast-tracked to streaming, with other big-name flicks, such as Birds of Prey, The Invisible Man and Disney's Onward, also hitting small screens ahead of schedule. You can check out 12 of our favourites over here. While you're eagerly awaiting Hamilton to hit Disney+, you can watch (and rewatch) the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSCKfXpAGHc Hamilton will hit Disney+ globally on July 3, 2020. Updated June 22, 2020.
Uniting Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio on the same feature-length film for the first time ever, Killers of the Flower Moon felt like a culmination before a frame had been shot, let alone seen. Scorsese and De Niro have worked together for five decades, with a wealth of highlights such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Casino to their names. Scorsese and DiCaprio have done the same for two, starting with Gangs of New York. Marty and Bob have known each other since they were 16, too, and it was the latter who told the former about Leo 20-plus years back after De Niro and DiCaprio made This Boy's Life together. Finally, then, one of cinema's golden triangles has connected all of its sides, apart from De Niro and DiCaprio playing themselves in Scorsese's 2015 comedy short The Audition. Doing the linking: a tale of murder, greed and betrayal that tells of the atrocities committed against the Osage Nation a century ago, relaying a chapter of US history that's conveyed on-screen with all the gutwrenching horror and heartbreak that it demands. And, as this story unfurls, watching Killers of the Flower Moon feels like joining the dots in another way as well. Even if Scorsese hadn't enlisted his two favourite actors, plus phenomenal Certain Women star Lily Gladstone as the film's heart, soul and spirit — and also continued his frequent collaborations with editor Thelma Schoonmaker, now-late composer Robbie Robertson and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto — the 26th feature on his resume ties together much that's recurred throughout his filmography for more than half a century. Killers of the Flower Moon is a kind of gangster movie, as Goodfellas, Casino and The Irishman also are. It's unshakeably a crime flick, boxes that Mean Streets and The Departed also tick. Viewers can see the threads to the iconic filmmaker's past works about faith and spirituality, including The Last Temptation of Christ, Kundun and Silence. Greed and corruption have long featured across Scorsese's work, as seen in everything from Gangs of New York to The Wolf of Wall Street. This is a relationship drama as well, which brings The Age of Innocence to mind. As the movie makes plain almost immediately, and then repeatedly across its 206-minute running time, it's also more unsettling than Shutter Island. Ask Scorsese if Killers of the Flower Moon feels the same way to him, as Concrete Playground did, and he explains that piecing together threads that've been weaved throughout his career wasn't what overtly appealed to him. "I never thought of it that way," he notes. Instead, he advises that it was both the real-life stories and journalist David Grann's 2017 non-fiction novel Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI that steps through them that caught the filmmaker's interest. [caption id="attachment_923847" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Marion Curtis / StarPix for Apple[/caption] In Scorsese's instantly engrossing and deeply haunting film, those accounts of Indigenous Americans slain by white men chasing oil-fuelled wealth — and power and control, too — filter through the romance of World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio, Don't Look Up) and Osage Nation member Mollie Kyle (Gladstone, Reservation Dogs). The pair meet when he seeks a job from his cattle rancher uncle William King Hale (De Niro, Amsterdam) upon returning from combat. Sparks fly immediately and their love is real, but Hale's pushing of Ernest in Mollie's direction isn't driven by wanting his nephew to be happy and follow his feelings. And, as too much surrounding the self-proclaimed 'king of the Osage' Hale does, it has consequences with a body count. Scorsese shared his thoughts on making his latest masterpiece with Concrete Playground during an international press conference for Killers of the Flower Moon, where he also answered questions about the biggest challenge in bringing the film to the screen, casting Gladstone, teaming up De Niro and DiCaprio, and how he approaches faith in his work. Not covered: the Oscar-winning director's new Letterboxd account, but you can check that out for yourself, then watch your way through his movie picks — such as what he recommends pairs well with his features. ON HOW KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON CONNECTS WITH SCORSESE'S PAST WORK "I just was attracted to the material, but then really became attracted to it because when we were doing research and meeting all the Osage people out in Oklahoma, the Osage Nation, in Gray Horse. They gave us a big dinner, and people got up and spoke about their ancestors, their great-grandfathers and grandmothers, and uncles and aunts, and that sort of thing, who were affected by this, who were killed during that period — and the fact that they never said anything about it, the generation of today and their parents, they kept it quiet. And now this book came out by David Grann, and now a film's being made. So naturally they had some caution as to me directing the film because of the nature of the films I've made in the past, like the violence in Goodfellas, etcetera. But it took a few meetings, and it took some conversation, and just basically being open-hearted with each other and trusting each other, with Chief Standing Bear and myself, and some of the other members of the Osage community. When I discovered that most of it really hinged on this love story between Mollie and Ernest, that's when I locked in on the project for real, in a sense. I was going another way at first. But in going the other way, meaning from the outside in, from Bureau Investigation in, I found that it was too reminiscent of films that I'd made in the past. It would've been good, I think, but I'd already been there — but what really got me was that what if this trust is betrayed through love? That has to do in the marriage, has to do with these two people who really love each other, and the husband is very weak. I thought that was interesting. And I have a feeling that relates more to The Age of Innocence than to some of my other films." ON THE CHALLENGES OF MAKING KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON "I think the biggest challenge was balancing the narrative parts of the story with the emotional aspects. I think what I mean by 'the narrative parts', there are some plot points that had to be connected — and that is with the Bureau of Investigation coming in and trying to figure out who was doing what, and what Bill Hale eventually did, and what he eventually accomplished, and what he tried to accomplish, and how he tried to clean up his steps, clean up everyone around him by getting them killed or whatever. But the real core of the picture was between Mollie and Ernest. And so, the emotional core of the film really had to revolve around them because all the plot points could be easily, easily absorbed as long as they connected. If it was just done on a narrative plot, it would be good, I think. But in my mind it would've been more like films that I've seen like police procedurals, which I enjoy watching, but I don't know if I could make. So, the biggest challenge was balancing the emotional complexity of the relationship between Mollie and Ernest, knowing that the two of them were in love, basing this on information we got from the Osage people themselves, who were descendants of them. They pointed out to us: "don't forget — this isn't a matter of straight villains and victims; these people were all either best friends or in love, and yet all this happened." And so that was the biggest challenge: to keep balancing that." ON CASTING LILY GLADSTONE "Ellen Lewis, who does my casting, had worked with Rene Haynes. They had worked on a television series that had a lot of Native American actors in it [2017's Godless]. And so she put out the feelers there, Ellen, and ultimately saw Kelly Reichardt's film Certain Women. In that film, Lily has quite, quite a sequence in it. Before the COVID pandemic hit, we were really concerned about could we get somebody who could play Mollie effectively. And Ellen, whom I've worked with since Goodfellas, since 1989, she said to me, 'I think we might be okay'. And she showed me Certain Women, the film. I thought that Lily was marvellous in it. Then we got to meet, but we could only meet on Zoom because the pandemic was beginning. And from that one Zoom call, we had to wait another almost year before we could come back together again on another Zoom, get Leo on the Zoom, discuss Mollie, discuss all of that. But during that year we worked on Mollie's character. And the whole point being, of course, that their story, Mollie and Ernest, is sort of a metaphor for the entire picture, the entire world that we're depicting and this horrendous situation that occurred at that time. So what I found from Lily was perfect cinema face. I mean, she could be saying nothing, but you feel everything going on behind her eyes, and in the positioning of her face, the way she moves. But there's so much going on inside of her, and it's reflected in a very still way. She doesn't have to provoke it. She also is very strong on Native American views and activism, and helped us steer the project as best we could in the proper direction in terms of Native Americans and European Americans." ON FINALLY GETTING ROBERT DE NIRO AND LEONARDO DICAPRIO TO SHARE THE SCREEN IN A SCORSESE FEATURE "With them, the thing is that I've known Robert De Niro since we were 16 years old. So he knows where I come from, and he knows my old friends, and I know his. And we found that when we started working together on Mean Streets and particularly Taxi Driver, we found that we shared the same sensibilities, or similar interests — and also that he was a fearless kind of actor. And the key element, aside from being a genius actor, was that we trusted each other. I trusted him for many different reasons, beyond the creative issues because there were a lot of political issues, too, at that time: making films for studios, studios would take the film away from you, actors would come in and re-cut them. He would never do that. He would never insist on something if I didn't feel it was right. We had an understanding that all he needed from me was to really listen to him and sometimes show me what he wanted to try. And we got to trust each other very strongly on that. Years go by, we wound up making Raging Bull and The King of Comedy. And then it took a while again before we got to make another picture: Goodfellas. But then, we hadn't worked for 19 years before we worked on this film — before we worked on The Irishman, I should say. And he had introduced me to Leo DiCaprio 20 years ago. He said 'he's a very young actor, and he's very, very good'. And I got to know Leo, and we did Gangs of New York together. But on The Aviator, a film we did after, I found similarities, in a way. I don't say same style — a very different style — but he had the openness, and he had the trust. And he had a crazy fearlessness in the same way as De Niro. Despite the fact that we're 30 years difference, there is that trust and enjoyment working together. Really, there's a love there between the three of us. So, it also happened that suddenly they came together on this movie." ON SCORSESE'S APPROACH TO FAITH IN HIS FILMS "I think, first of all, it's not an immediate dismissal of other faiths. As much as my roots are in Roman Catholicism of the mid-20th century here in New York, I have my differences with that. But I also, in supporting my own faith, or trying to support my faith, I found it interesting to learn about other religions, other faiths, philosophy as much as possible, taking it seriously. I don't mean superstition. And yet, even in superstition, the very act of the ritual itself reflects faith. For example, if you take Roberto Rossellini's film Stromboli, there's a great sequence in it where they fish for the tuna — and before they fish for the tuna, they all say a prayer, and then there's the slaughter of the tuna. It reflects something that is a need for spirituality in having to survive as a human being. The lack of spirituality. They need spirituality going deep down into the roots, primeval roots, before you can even find the sustenance to continue to live, you see? And so, somehow that is a gift: to find the food. That's a gift from god. And so for me, that's always something that is to be respected. People feel that way about the world around them, and to be respectful of the world around them. It's more like a blessing of being alive despite all the problems. I find that with many different groups of people, and many different ways of thinking. For me, it comes down to respect and dignity for what other people believe. You may not believe that, but it comes down to that. I think a world that's like in this film, it's a world of corruption that has no roots in morality or spirituality. They [Hale and company] think they do. You can say 'well, they have religion', but that's not spirituality, you see, and so anything goes. The most important thing is winning. The most important this is getting as much money as you can, especially if some civilisation is on its way out anyway. 'As much as I love them,' Bill Hale says. 'I love them. They're great people, but they're gonna die off.' So, this is something that fascinates me and makes me think 'is that part of me, too?'. In other words, am I capable of that kind of behaviour? I'm not saying killing. I'm talking about complicity in it, by being quiet about it. So that's where all of it comes together. I think maybe that's why I was attracted to it." Killers of the Flower Moon opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, October 19. Read our review.
Catching a blockbuster or indie flick beneath the stars is already pretty special. Yet part of the reason so many people love Moonlight Cinema is that you can bring your dog along for the ride. Good luck finding a conventional cinema with that perk — unless Yarraville's Sun Theatre and their doggy day sessions are within reach. Now the experience for your pooch is getting even better, as Moonlight Cinemas across the country (except Perth) are adding exclusive Lyka doggie bag meals to the menu for the first time. So, when it's time to hit up the kitchen and bar for your movie night snacks, pet parents can also grab some dog-friendly goodies to keep their pup occupied. While you get stuck into the popcorn and perhaps a wine or two, your dog could be munching on a tasty kangaroo meal. Served as part of a goodie bag for $17, it comes with a handy DOG by Dr Lisa Lick Mat and a Turkey Dental Jerky Treat, perfect for times when your dog grows a little restless. And with everything handed over inside a convenient Lyka cooler bag, it's easy to keep the doggy snacks chilled on a warm evening. Ready for a night out with the fam — pets and all? Moonlight Cinema's 30th season kicks off on Friday, November 21, in Sydney, with Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne soon to follow.
Not all that long ago, the idea of getting cosy on your couch, clicking a few buttons, and having thousands of films and television shows at your fingertips seemed like something out of science fiction. Now, it's just an ordinary night — whether you're virtually gathering the gang to text along, cuddling up to your significant other or shutting the world out for some much needed me-time. Of course, given the wealth of options to choose from, there's nothing ordinary about making a date with your chosen streaming platform. The question isn't "should I watch something?" — it's "what on earth should I choose?". Hundreds of titles are added to Australia's online viewing services each and every month, all vying for a spot on your must-see list. And, so you don't spend 45 minutes scrolling and then being too tired to actually commit to watching anything, we're here to help. We've spent plenty of couch time watching our way through this month's latest batch — and, from the latest and greatest to old favourites, here are our picks for your streaming queue from January's haul of newbies. BRAND NEW STUFF YOU CAN WATCH IN FULL RIGHT NOW ARCHIVE 81 Australian Malignant, The Conjuring and Saw filmmaker James Wan doesn't direct any episodes of Netflix's new sci-fi/horror series Archive 81, but he does lend his executive producing skills to the podcast-to-screen show — and it's easy to see why. The immediately creepy found-footage effort slots in seamlessly among the fright-inducing fare that's helped make his career, all while taking its time to dole out its scares, shocks and eeriness. It's also plain to see why Resolution, The Endless and Synchronic directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead helm two episodes, too, thanks to their already-demonstrated affection for mind-bending, genre-twisting tales that play with space and time. That pedigree alone makes Archive 81 a must-see for movie buffs, and so does the fact that the series also doubles a love letter to everything strange and out-there that's ever been captured on celluloid. Usually devoting his time to unearthing lost gems or just trawling through old video tapes looking for recorded treasure, film archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie, Black Box) gets an unexpectedly lucrative job offer: restoring Hi8 footage shot by college student Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi, Altered Carbon) back in 1994. He has to agree to live in a remote compound, under video surveillance, to take the gig — and he'll be sifting through material that Melody filmed in the Visser, an odd New York apartment building where she was looking for her mother but started to notice otherworldly things afoot. Much of the thrill of the impeccably made Archive 81 stems from its multi-layered mysteries, including what's actually happening back in the 90s, the real motives behind Dan's well-paying position and why the two time periods seem to start bleeding together. Developed, produced and mostly penned by The Boys alum Rebecca Sonnenshine, it makes for tense, trippy and often daring viewing, even when things get a tad silly in the supernatural department. The first season of Archive 81 is available to stream via Netflix. THE TOURIST If making TV shows and movies bubbles down to a formula, it doesn't take much to glean how The Tourist came about. Starring Jamie Dornan as a man caught up in a mystery in Australia's sprawling outback, this six-part series jumps on several popular trends — saddling a famous face with battling the Aussie elements chief among them (see also: the film Gold, which plonks Zac Efron amid the nation's dusty, yellow-hued expanse). Dornan's trip Down Under also plunges into a familiar thriller setup, with memory loss playing a key role. Memento famously did it. The Flight Attendant did as well. Combine the two, throw in all that striking scenery that constantly defines Australia on-screen, and that's the template beneath this well-greased, cleverly plotted, easy-to-binge newcomer. Adding another TV role to his resume alongside The Fall, Death and Nightingales, New Worlds and Once Upon a Time — and another part to his eclectic filmography, given that he's been in the vastly dissimilar Synchronic and Wild Mountain Thyme in the past year, and looks set to get an Oscar nomination for Belfast — Dornan plays an Irish traveller in Australia. The character's name doesn't matter at first, when he's using the bathroom at a petrol station in the middle of nowhere. But after he's run off the road by a steamrolling long-haul truck, he desperately wishes he could remember his own moniker, plus everything else about his past. Local Constable Helen Chalmers (Danielle Macdonald, French Exit) takes a shine to him anyway; however, piecing together his history is far from straightforward. His other immediate questions: why is he in the middle of Australia, why does a bomb go off in his vicinity and why is he getting calls from a man trapped in an underground barrel? The Tourist is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. THE HOUSE Not to be confused with well-cast but decidedly unfunny Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler-starring comedy of the same name, The House dedicates its weird and wonderful stop-motion animated frames to three tales all set in the same abode. In the anthology film's first chapter, a poverty-stricken family mocked by richer relatives luck into a deal with an architect, which results in the movie's central dwelling being built — and its new inhabitants getting more than they bargained for. In the second part, a developer, who also happens to be a rat, finalises his renovations and readies the place for sale; however, two odd prospective buyers won't leave after the first viewing. And in the third section, the home towers above an apocalyptic future flooded with water, with its owner, a cat, struggling with her fellow feline tenants. Each of The House's films-within-a-film hail from a different creative team, boast different voice casts and splash around their own aesthetics — and they're all a delight. The constants: the titular structure, the fabric-style look to the animation (even as each director comes up with their own take) that makes you want to reach out and touch it, and mix of creativity and emotion in its dark-skewing stories. This is a movie that questions the comfortable mindset that bricks and mortar are expected to bring, and where where just trying to get by is recognised as the struggle it is in a variety of wild and inventive ways. And as for that vocal talent, Matthew Goode (The King's Man), Mia Goth (Emma.), Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown), Susan Wokoma (Truth Seekers) and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker all do ace work. The House is available to stream via Netflix. THE TENDER BAR Playing Batman has rarely been about smiles and laughs, but spending time in the cape and the cowl was particularly grim for Ben Affleck. He wasn't the best Bruce Wayne or Dark Knight, and he couldn't have looked more miserable. He hasn't seemed to have had a great time on-screen for a while, in fact, other than his OTT recent performance in The Last Duel. He's a charismatic dream in The Tender Bar, though, with coming-of-age drama enlisting him as the supportive uncle and surrogate dad to the film's lead character and still giving him top billing. With the Sad Affleck memes and the chaos frequently surrounding his personal life, it can be easy to forget how charming an actor the elder Affleck brother can be — and this is also his best performance since 2014's Gone Girl, and by far. That uncle, Charlie, tends bar and helps his sister (Lily Rabe, The Undoing) bring up her son JR (debutant Daniel Ranieri) given that the boy's radio DJ dad (Max Martini, The Purge) is happily and drunkenly mostly absent from their lives. It's the self-taught Charlie that sparks JR's desire to become a writer, too, with The Tender Bar based on real-life novelist and journalist JR Moehringer's memoir. There's much that's familiar about the overall narrative, but George Clooney — in filmmaker mode, but without also appearing on-screen as he did with The Midnight Sky — recognises that a comfortable story told well, and with warmth, affection and thoughtfulness, can still strike a chord. The performances he gets out of Affleck, the engaging young Ranieri, plus Tye Sheridan (The Card Counter) as the college-aged JR, also help considerably, as do the moments between the former and his two main co-stars that firmly fit the film's title: tender. The Tender Bar is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. NEW AND RETURNING SHOWS TO CHECK OUT WEEK BY WEEK THE AFTERPARTY Only Murders in the Building isn't the only new comic murder-mystery series worth streaming from the past few months. Joining it is The Afterparty, which also sports a killer cast — this time Sam Richardson (Detroiters), Ben Schwartz (Space Force), Zoe Chao (Love Life), Ilana Glazer (Broad City), Ike Barinholtz (The Mindy Project), Dave Franco (If Beale Street Could Talk) and Tiffany Haddish (The Card Counter) — and a savvy spin on an oft-used gimmick. Rather than skewering true-crime podcasting, this quickly addictive comedy from writer/director Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie) toys with the reality that every tale differs depending on the perspective. Whodunnits always hinge upon that fact, and Miller has also clearly seen iconic Japanese film Rashomon. And, considering that its big murder takes place after a school function, there's a touch of Big Little Lies at play, too. With his directing partner Phil Lord, Miller has made a career out of getting smart and funny with familiar parts, however, and that doesn't change here. The setup: at the afterparty following his 15-year high-school reunion, obnoxious autotune-abusing pop star Xavier (Franco) winds up dead on the rocks beneath his lavish mansion. Enter the determined Detective Danner (Haddish), who starts grilling his former classmates one by one to find out who's responsible. Her interrogations start with the sensible Aniq (the always-great Richardson), who was hoping to finally make a move on his schoolyard crush Zoe (Chao) — and after his version of events, Danner hears from Zoe's macho ex Brett (Barinholtz) in The Afterparty's second episode, then from Aniq's best bud Yasper (Schwartz, riffing on Parks and Recreation's Jean-Ralphio without being quite as ridiculous). The cast is top-notch, the writing is clever, there's much fun to be had with its genre- and perspective-bending premise, and the throwaway gags are simply glorious. The first three episodes of The Afterparty are available to stream via Apple TV+, with new instalments dropping weekly. PEACEMAKER Simply being better than its terrible predecessor couldn't make The Suicide Squad a great movie; however, the DC Extended Universe is still betting big on James Gunn's over-the-top vision for its supervillains. Yes, just like Marvel, the comic-book company has its own sprawling big-screen franchise filled with interconnected films — and now, thanks to spinoff streaming series Peacemaker, that caped crusader-focused world also extends to the small screen, too. John Cena (Fast and Furious 9) returns as the titular character, and feels more comfortable in the role this time around. Gunn is back as the show's creator, writer and main director, helming all but three of the first season's eight episodes. And the tone is still devil-may-care with irreverence and flair, aka the filmmaker's usual mode, complete with rampant helpings of raunch and gore. If you loved The Suicide Squad, this is all clearly great news. Even better: if you weren't fussed overly or at all about Gunn's sequel-slash-do-over and now understandably approach the idea of a TV offshoot with caution, Peacemaker still proves plenty of fun. It follows its central figure after the events of the film, where he's spared from going back to prison by being dragged into another black-ops government squad on a super-secret mission — and while Gunn isn't doing anything new here, he's found a better balance for his brash and raucous approach in this entertaining series than in the flick that preceded it. Casting the radiant Danielle Brooks (Orange Is the New Black) as one of the agents overseeing the egotistical, frequently dancing, often half-naked, always-comic Peacemaker is also a masterstroke. The first five episodes of Peacemaker's first season are available to stream via Binge, with new instalments dropping weekly. SERVANT Ted Lasso is the Apple TV+ series that's been scoring all the praise and love for the past few years, and rightfully so — but the platform's M Night Shyamalan-produced Servant is also one of its winners. Perched at the complete opposite end of the spectrum to the warm-hearted soccer comedy, this eerie horror effort spends the bulk of its time in a well-appointed Philadelphia brownstone where TV news reporter Dorothy Turner (Lauren Ambrose, The X-Files) and her chef husband Sean (Toby Kebbell, Bloodshot) appear the picture of wealthy happiness, complete with a newborn son, Jericho, to fulfil their perfect family portrait. But as 18-year-old nanny Leanne Grayson (Nell Tiger Free, Too Old to Die Young) quickly learned in Servant's first season, there's nothing normal about their baby — which, after the tot's death, has been replaced by a lookalike doll to calm the otherwise-catatonic Dorothy's grief. That's how the series began back in 2019, with its second season deepening its mysteries — and Leanne's place with the Turners, even as her own unconventional background with cult ties keeps bringing up questions. With the just-started third season, the household is once again attempting to pretend that everything is normal and to also keep Dorothy unaware of the real Jericho's fate, even with a flesh-and-blood infant now back in her arms. But in a slowly paced series that's perfected its unsettling and insidious tone from episode one, serves up a clever blend of atmospheric and claustrophobic thrills mixed with gripping performances, makes exceptional use of its setting and also features Rupert Grint in his best post-Harry Potter role yet, there's always more engrossing twists to rock the status quo. The first two episodes of Servant's third season are available to stream via Apple TV+, with new instalments dropping weekly. EXCELLENT FILMS FROM THE PAST FEW YEARS TO CATCH UP ON BLACK BEAR Aubrey Plaza's resume isn't short on highlights, but Black Bear sits right at the top alongside her instantly iconic turn as Parks and Recreation's April Ludgate and her also-excellent performance in Ingrid Goes West. She does deadpan like few other actors currently working, and can convey more with her eyes and otherwise expressionless face than most of her colleagues can with their entire bodies — but she's asked to use every acting tool in her arsenal in this two-part affair. She always plays a woman called Allison, but her character is initially introduced as a former actress-turned-filmmaker decamping to a scenic lake house in upstate New York's Adirondack Mountains, with getting some writing done (and finding the inspiration to do so) her aim. She's easily distracted by her hosts, though, with Gabe (Christopher Abbott, Possessor) showing Allison a little too much attention amid his bickering with his pregnant partner Blair (Sarah Gadon, True Detective). In the movie's second half, everything changes, including all that the audience knows about the characters, their jobs and their relationships with each other. Now the film takes place in the same spot, but in the middle of a movie shoot that's proving as chaotic as the initial Allison's attempt at a relaxing stay. Helming his third feature, writer/director Lawrence Michael Levine (Wild Canaries) leans heavily upon his cast — especially Plaza; Allison is told she's hard to read, and that's a key part to the twisty narrative — but he's also trusted himself with an astute, insightful and playful deconstruction of art and authenticity. There are no weak links at any moment, including in the feature's seesawing between dark comedy and dramatic thrills, and the distinctive aesthetic he applies to the film's two parts. Plaza is astonishing, unsurprisingly, but Abbott and Gadon are similarly impressive in a movie that isn't easily forgotten. Black Bear is available to stream via Netflix. THE RIDER The past two years have been nothing short of spectacular for filmmaker Chloé Zhao. She directed the best feature of 2020, aka Nomadland, then became only the second woman ever — and first woman of colour — to win the Best Director Oscar. And, mere months after achieving that historic feat, she gave the Marvel Cinematic Universe its most ambitious movie yet (and its most gorgeously and naturalistically shot) courtesy of Eternals. But the writer/director's career didn't start here, and also didn't start being phenomenal with Nomadland. A hit on the festival circuit in 2017 and 2018 (the latter in Australia), The Rider wasn't her first excellent film either (that'd be 2015's Songs My Brothers Taught Me), but the empathetic modern-day take on the western genre instantly cemented her as a talent to watch In this rodeo drama, Brady Blackburn (real-life cowboy Brady Jandreau, playing a version of himself) just wants to hop back onto a horse. He's also a gifted trainer, and this line of work is what he's compelled to do. Watching him struggle with life without his only passion makes for soulful and heart-wrenching viewing, as Brady wades through the aftermath of an in-ring incident that almost killed him. Shot with lyrical images that find tenderness in the story, suffering and situation, The Rider proves a case of art imitating life after Jandreau went through the same scenario himself after meeting Zhao back in 2015 — and she turns the results into a feature that's partly a specific character study and partly a universal tale of chasing and losing a dream, then trying to come out of the other side. Also starring members of Jandreau's family, and told with devastating intimacy, the end result boasts a heart as big as America's sweeping plains. The Rider is available to stream via SBS On Demand. A BELOVED SITCOM TO BINGE — AND CHECK OUT ITS NEW SEASON IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA Since 2005, one sitcom has devoted 162 episodes to the world's worst bar owners, spanning their attempts to run a watering hole, their constant bickering with each other and everything else that life has thrown their way. That show is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, of course. As well as now being the longest-running live-action sitcom ever made, it's a gem filled with the devious, darkly amusing and downright odd antics of the Paddy's Pub gang. Those pals — as played by Charlie Day (Pacific Rim: Uprising), Glenn Howerton (AP Bio), Rob McElhenney (Mythic Quest), Kaitlin Olson (Hacks) and Danny DeVito (Jumanji: The Next Level) — usually fail at everything they attempt, and the show never pretends otherwise. Indeed, with a nihilistic and irreverent sense of humour that's all its own, it's one of the least sensible yet also savagely smart shows currently airing. Season 15, which is now on Disney+ alongside the 14 seasons before it — bringing its eight-episode run our way quite swiftly after it aired in America in December last year — sees Charlie, Dennis, Mac, Dee and Frank keep doing what they've always done, and keep pouring out comedy gold in the process. It's the show's first season since COVID-19, so it finds ways to work the pandemic into its always-outrageous setups. Given the American political landscape since 2019, when the previous season aired, It's Always Sunny has much to mine there as well. And, a trip to Ireland, aka hallowed ground for the longterm owners of an Irish pub, also fills half of its episodes. Even this far in, the show never stops surprising, pushing every boundary it can and being sidesplittingly hilarious — and long may it continue, with another three seasons already greenlit. All 15 seasons to-date of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are available to stream via Disney+. Need a few more streaming recommendations? Check out our picks from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December last year — and our top new TV shows of 2021, best new television series from this year that you might've missed and top straight-to-streaming films and specials as well. Top image: Quantrell D Colbert/Netflix.
We're living in unprecedented times and, thanks to Pantone's colour experts, we now have the hue to match. Every year, the Pantone Colour Institute selects a shade that it thinks will both set the trend for and sum up the 12 months ahead — and for 2022, it's even created a new colour to take the honours for the first time ever. 2022's Colour of the Year: Very Peri, aka Pantone 17-3938, a brand-new shade that's been described as "a dynamic periwinkle blue hue with a vivifying violet red undertone". Pantone is never short on words for its picks of the year, and has also dubbed this purplish blue as "inquisitive and intriguing" and "displaying a carefree confidence and a daring curiosity that animates our creative spirit". Very Peri is meant to represent transformation, too, as well as the fusion of the physical world and the digital space — all concepts very relevant to forging onwards during the pandemic. Pantone Colour Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman also called it "a spritely, joyous attitude and dynamic presence that encourages courageous creativity and imaginative expression." Introducing the Pantone Color of the Year 2022, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri, a dynamic periwinkle blue hue with a vivifying violet red undertone blends the faithfulness and constancy of blue with the energy and excitement of red. Learn more: https://t.co/eNIwkTq2K8 pic.twitter.com/hBfiDusFKU — PANTONE (@pantone) December 9, 2021 Explaining the decision to come up with a new colour, rather than hone in on an existing one, Pantone Colour Institute Vice President Laurie Pressman said that "the Pantone Colour of the Year reflects what is taking place in our global culture, expressing what people are looking for that colour can hope to answer." She continued: "creating a new colour for the first time in the history of our Pantone Colour of the Year educational colour program reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place. As society continues to recognise colour as a critical form of communication, and a way to express and affect ideas and emotions and engage and connect, the complexity of this new red violet infused blue hue highlights the expansive possibilities that lay before us." Expect to see all things Very Peri popping up around the place when the new year hits, with Pantone suggesting how they can be used in fashion and accessories, home decor, design and beauty, too. The new shade takes over from 2021's two colours of the year, Ultimate Gray (Pantone 17-5104) and the vibrant yellow Illuminating (13-0647). The year before, Pantone went with Classic Blue, while 2019's colour was Living Coral, 2018's was Ultra Violet and 2017's was Greenery. To find out more about Very Peri — and to check out all the previous Colours of the Year — head to the Pantone website.
Good weather and good vibes are on the way, which means the adventure lovers are gearing up for sunshine escapades. If your gear is in dire need of a revamp, iconic sustainable lifestyle brand frank green is here with the solution of three prize packs now up for grabs. frank green aims to end single-use plastic waste by crafting stylish and functional solutions that are built to last. Each of the lucky winners will score two Ceramic Reusable Bottles (grip finish) with Grip Lids, two 3-in-1 Insulated Drink Holders and two Stainless Steel Bowls with Glass Lids. The one-litre Ceramic Reusable Bottle is made for adventures — in the wild and in the city — and for this prize pack, it comes with the newly launched easy-to-grab Grip Lid, which is compatible with all frank green cups and bottles. The bottles also have a durable powder coat for added grip — so no bottles slipping from sweaty hands here. If you want your cold drinks to stay cool or hot drinks to stay hot, the bottles are triple wall vacuum insulated to retain temperature. Plus, because the bottles have a ceramic lining inside, they don't take on any of the flavours of your beverages, whether it's tea, coffee, infused water or anything else. The 3-in-1 Insulated Drink Holder keeps your bevvy ice-cold for longer. You can use it as a stubby holder or a tumbler, or add the included splash-proof lid and stainless steel straw to use it as a next-level cold-brew cup while you are road-tripping to your next adventure. Keep yourself nourished on your adventures, and pack snacks or meals in plastic-free, reusable Stainless Steel Bowls with Glass Lid. They are airtight with a soft-touch silicone seal and lightweight enough to pack in your day pack or to use as your daily lunchbox — to the envy of the office. So, if you and a mate or your partner are keen on adventuring this summer, fill out the form below to be in with a shot of upgrading your gear. [competition]917837[/competition]
In the US, The Bear releases each summer. When winter comes Down Under, however, so does another chance to feast on one of TV's best current series. The above was true in 2022, when the Jeremy Allen White (The Iron Claw)-, Ayo Edebiri (Inside Out 2)- and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Hold Your Breath)-led show premiered. It remained the case in 2023 and 2024 as well. 2025 is continuing the trend, with The Bear locked in for a June release. The date in America: Wednesday, June 25, 2025, which makes it Thursday, June 26, 2025 in Australia and New Zealand. As in past years, The Bear will be available for binge-viewing ASAP, dropping its entire season — ten episodes this time — in one hefty helping to continue streaming's tastiest southern-hemisphere winter tradition. Season four of the series has been in locked in since before season three even aired, and will continue to chart what happens when a sandwich diner levels up in a big way, becoming a fine-diner that's angling for a spot among Chicago's very best restaurants. So far in the show's narrative, White's Carmy, Edebiri's Sydney, Moss-Bachrach's Richie and their friends and colleagues initially focused on getting their beef-slinging eatery (where season one's action took place) running smoothly, then switched their attention to transforming the site into an upscale fine-diner (with that process fuelling season two) and ensuring that, too, worked as it should (as seen in season three). If you need more details about The Bear to date, its debut season jumped into the mayhem when Carmy took over the diner after his brother's (Jon Bernthal, The Accountant 2) death. Before returning home, the chef's resume featured Noma and The French Laundry, as well as awards and acclaim. Then, in season two and three, Carmy worked to turn the space into an upmarket addition to his hometown's dining scene, with help from the restaurant's trusty team — including a roster of talent also spans Abby Elliott (Cheaper by the Dozen) as Carmy's sister Natalie, aka Sugar, plus Lionel Boyce (Shell), Liza Colón-Zayas (Cat Person), Edwin Lee Gibson (Unprisoned) and IRL chef Matty Matheson among the other staff. Season four will throw new challenges at The Bear crew, continuing to raise that perennial question along the way: what should you cling to when you're chasing greatness, and in life in general? Also popping up in the series so far: everyone from Jamie Lee Curtis (The Last Showgirl), Molly Gordon (Theatre Camp), Will Poulter (Warfare), Olivia Colman (Paddington in Peru) and Bob Odenkirk (Lucky Hank) to John Mulaney (Poker Face), Joel McHale (Yellowjackets), John Cena (Jackpot!), Josh Hartnett (Trap) and Noma's René Redzepi. There's no trailer yet for The Bear season four, but check out the trailers for seasons one, two and three below: The Bear season four will stream via Disney+ in Australia from Thursday, June 26, 2025. Read our reviews of seasons one, two and three. Via Variety. Images: FX / Disney+.
It's no secret that most new year's resolutions fall by the wayside by mid-January. But there's one goal that's worthy of a year-round effort — and that's to cut back on meat. It's well documented that eating less meat is good for the environment, so that should probably be reason enough for most of us to introduce more plant-based meals into our lives. But the truth is that most of us need a couple of selfish incentives to really get the ball rolling — thankfully, vegetarian options have plenty of those, too. Firstly, plant-based meals are just as tasty as their meat-laden siblings (we promise), but they're also often a bit cheaper and, anecdotally speaking, fill you up without giving you that too-full bloat we know all too well. To get the creative juices flowing, we've teamed up with Yumi's to put together a list of cracking plant-based dinner ideas that you can easily whip up mid-week, or as a weekend feast with friends. [caption id="attachment_817040" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Melanie Dompierre (Pexels)[/caption] EGGPLANT PARM Heading to the pub for a parmi or parma (depending on where you are, of course) is one of life's little joys, but did you know you can make an eggplant version at home that pretty well involves the same ingredients you know and love in the pub staple (minus the chicken) but stays true to its Italian roots? Essentially a layered Italian bake (picture a lasagne without the heavy lifting), an eggplant parm sees slices of grilled eggplant sandwich a fresh tomato pasta sauce and finely-grated parmesan, and is topped with mozzarella and pangrattato to add some crispiness. Alternatively, you could even try this fun mushroom-based parm for something a little different. Of course, if you want to go vegan then you simply need to switch to a dairy-free cheese alternative — vegan parmesan definitely stacks up against the real deal. [caption id="attachment_817045" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alesia Kozik (Pexels)[/caption] SOUTHERN-STYLE CAULIFLOWER Cauliflower is a perfect gateway for any person considering a plant-based lifestyle. Its ability to soak up flavours and maintain its structural integrity during the cooking process makes it a no-brainer when making vegetarian versions of fan favourites, including Southern-style wings. You have a couple of options when making cauliflower 'wings' and your decision will largely depend on how much effort you're willing to put in. If you've got some time or are cooking up a feast for your mates, then whipping up a sweet and smoky marinade to mimic a buffalo wing is a great shout. For a simpler take, these sriracha-spiced spiced cauliflower bites are ideal, and can be eaten for lunch the next day on a sandwich, salad or even as a taco. [caption id="attachment_817052" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ketut Subiyanto (Pexels)[/caption] MUSHROOM BOLOGNESE Did you grow up with a weekly spag bol night? We all love mum's (mom's?) spaghetti, but just because you're going meat-free you don't need to miss out. Adapting your bolognese to be vegetarian every once in a while is perhaps one of the easiest and most satisfying meat-to-vegetable swaps you could make. The combination of the meaty mushrooms and fragrant herbs sitting pretty on a pile of comforting spaghetti will always be a thing of pure joy. Of course, it's going to taste a little bit different when you swap meat for lentils and mushrooms (so you can't trick your mates into thinking they're eating meat) but at its heart, this version is just as delicious and warming a dinner. FALAFEL BOWL Gone are the days of having to hunt down falafels from a specialty store (or even making your own) — Yumi's are serving up a great range of ready-to-eat falafels, which you can find in all major supermarkets. Falafel bowls are the probably simplest plant-based meal to prepare, and a great jumping-off point if you're new to the meat-free world. Simply fill a bowl with all of your favourite salad ingredients (fresh herbs, tomato, cucumber and olives, for example) and top with falafels, which are best enjoyed after a 30-second zap in the microwave. We also highly suggest you mix through a generous dollop of Yumi's Classic Hommus or flavoured dip to amp up your dressing. After something a little more indulgent? Trade the HSP for an FSP — a smashed falafel snack pack that will satisfy at any time of the day. [caption id="attachment_817058" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Alesia Kozik (Pexels)[/caption] CHICKPEA AND TEMPEH CURRY A curry is perhaps the quintessential winter dinner. Not only are they often nice and spicy, but they're also loaded with flavour and warm you from the inside out. Choosing a curry that combines filling vegetarian ingredients like protein-rich chickpeas and tempeh with a flavoursome sauce is the key to creating a satisfying dinner you'll want to make again and again. For the uninitiated, tempeh is similar to tofu in the sense that it's made from soybeans, but unlike tofu, it's much firmer and is made from fermented soybeans. The firmness and nuttier flavour are what makes tempeh ideal for curries because it won't disintegrate into mush when you cook it in the sauce, and. You can grab it at your local supermarket and simply cut it into cubes before adding it to your favourite curry recipe. JACKFRUIT TACOS The best gotcha in the vegan world is making jackfruit tacos for a friend who vehemently believes a meal isn't a meal unless there's a truck-tonne of meat. From the same family as the fig tree, jackfruit is native to the Western Ghats of southern India, Sri Lanka and the rainforests of Malaysia, so it's fairly common in these nations' cuisines. Arguably the best way to trick your friends into thinking they're eating pulled pork, though, is to whip up a batch of jackfruit tacos. You'll struggle to come by a jackfruit in the produce section of your supermarket, but you'll definitely find canned unripe, green or young jackfruit in the canned vegetable section, and it works best for this recipe anyway. The main difference between preparing jackfruit (versus pork) is that you drain the can and shred it prior to cooking it in your sauce. If you find any large, woody chunks, simply chop these up before cooking. For more meat-free dinner inspiration, check out the full range of Yumi's falafels, veggie bites and dips.
Good news hasn't been easy to find among Australia's music festival scene in 2024, but Strawberry Fields is bucking the trend. The annual fest on the banks of the Murray River is only just dropping its lineup now, on Monday, July 8, but it's already almost at ticketing capacity. Some events are all about who's taking to the stage. Some boast a setup and setting worth spending a weekend in no matter which acts are on the bill. Strawberry Fields doesn't skimp on talent, of course, but its location is a hefty drawcard all by itself. That spot: Tocumwal in New South Wales, where the regional weekend-long party sports not just multiple stages pumping out tunes in leafy surroundings, but also a bush spa. Having a soak between sets is worth entry alone. So far, 95 percent of Strawberry Fields' tickets have been snapped up — a huge feat that was achieved in a mere three hours — but more are going on sale from 9am on Tuesday, July 9. If you're lucky enough to secure your attendance from now, you won't be locking in a music-fuelled getaway across Friday, November 15–Sunday, November 17 sans lineup. The just-unveiled roster of acts is massive, including DJ EZ, KiNK, Daddy G from Massive Attack and Seun Keuti & Egypt 80 just for starters. Some will make the Wildlands stage their temporary home, such as Sam Alfred, SWIM, DJ Theo Parrish and DJ TSHA among the other names. Others, like Jaubi, KOKOKO! and Soichi Terada, will hit up The Grove stage. The Deep Jungle stage will welcome Circle of Live's Australian debut, plus DJ Paula Tape, Sébastien Léger and Township Rebellion. And over at expanded The Beach stage for 2024, which will indeed get you making shapes while in the river, Physical Therapy leads the charge. Also, a showcase from Japan's underground scene is sure to be a highlight. Beyond the tunes, a new amphitheatre is part of this year's fest, focusing on performance art, lifestyle and chilling out; the bush spa now boasts a sauna; and a special projection art installation will pay tribute to Nick Azidis. Also, the Moroccan Bedouin lounges and tea ceremonies will be running in the festival's Mirage Motel space again, plus the glamping options are back to make your weekend as lavish and as low-maintenance as possible. For another year, if you happen to be born on this year's festival dates, you can register to score a free ticket. Happy birthday to you indeed. Tickets for locals come at a discount, too, costing half the regular price if your postcode is in the Berrigan Shire. In addition to all of the above, Strawberry Fields lays claim to being one of the country's most-sustainable festivals, doing the environment a solid while unfurling its fun. It is powered by biodiesel fuel as well as solar power, its rewash revolution system has diverted over 200,000 single-use plastics from landfill, composting toilets are provided and all transport is carbon offset via Treecreds. Strawberry Fields 2024 Lineup: DJ Afrodisiac Aldonna Babycino Bertie Byron Yeates College of Knowledge DJs Daddy G (Massive Attack) x Don Letts Dameeeela DJ EZ DJ Pgz featuring Ecstatic Mob Dr Banana Ed Kent Emmyk & Tilly Hiroko Yamamura Jordan Brando B2B Luke Alessi Kia Kim Ann Foxmann Laura King Livwutang Lovefoxy Marie Montexier Mikalah Watego Minyerra Mothafunk Naycab Niks Nooriyah Paula Tape Physical Therapy Pnny Poli Pearl Rainbow Disco Club featuring Kikiorix, Sisi, Kuniyuki (live) Rona. B2B Dima Sam Alfred Sébastien Léger Simona Castricum Sky High Trio Soul Clap Stev Zar Suze Ijó SWIM Theo Parrish Township Rebellion TSHA U.R.Trax Vanna Zjoso Live Alisa Mitchell Cinta Circle of Live featuring Kuniyuki, Sebastian Mullaert and Sleep D Evening News Harvey Sutherland Immy Owusu Jaubi Jupita Kaiit Karo X Kee'ahn KiNK Kobie Dee Kokoko! Mandeng Groove Mildlife Miss Kaninna Pataphysics Sachém Sarita Mcharg Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 Sinj Clarke Soichi Terada Tarabeat x Mz Rizk Versace Boys Viken Armen Wulumbarra Xmunashe Zfex & Ausecuma Beats Zourouna [caption id="attachment_887378" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Will Hamilton-Coates[/caption] [caption id="attachment_887377" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Will Hamilton-Coates[/caption] Strawberry Fields 2024 will take place at Tocumwal, New South Wales, from Friday, November 15–Sunday, November 17. The final release of tickets go on sale at 9am on Tuesday, July 9. Head to the festival website for further details. Strawberry Fields images: Duncographic.
The zombie apocalypse has evolved. When just 28 days had passed, survivors faced a nightmare. Little had improved when 28 weeks had gone by. Now, following 28 years of chaos, Jodie Comer (The Bikeriders), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (The Fall Guy), Ralph Fiennes (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar), Jack O'Connell (Back to Black) and Alfie Williams (His Dark Materials) are dealing with the aftermath of a society ravaged by a horrific infection for decades. Yes, the trailer for the aptly named 28 Years Later is here. Although 2030 will mark 28 years since viewers were treated to one of the best zombie movies ever, aka 28 Days Later from filmmaker Danny Boyle (Yesterday), you'll be watching a new flick from Boyle in the same franchise in 2025. First confirmed at the beginning of 2024, the movie has dropped its first full sneak peek to help close out the year — complete with Teletubbies, towers of skulls and bones, a possibly familiar-looking zombie, and the grim reality after days became weeks and then years of coping with the new status quo. 28 Days Later has already spawned one follow-up thanks to 2007's 28 Weeks Later, but Boyle didn't direct it. Screenwriter Alex Garland, who also penned Sunshine for Boyle, then hopped behind the camera himself with Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men, Civil War and TV series Devs, wasn't involved with 28 Weeks Later, either. But they're both onboard for the third film in the series, which is the start of a new trilogy. The saga's fourth feature 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple has already been shot, in fact, with Candyman and The Marvels' Nia DaCosta directing. The setup this time around: almost three decades after the rage virus initially seeped through humanity after escaping from a biological weapons laboratory, some survivors have etched out a life on a small island. Elsewhere, quarantine remains a key way of tackling the infection. With that starting point — and with unease dripping through the first trailer, complete with stunning imagery — expect Boyle and Garland to dig into the terrors that linger when two of the island's residents venture over to the mainland. With 28 Days Later among the movies that helped bring Oppenheimer Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy to fame, the actor is an executive producer on 28 Years Later. That mightn't be all that's in store for him, though, if you pay close attention to the trailer. In the original film, he played Jim, a bicycle courier who wakes up from a coma in a deserted hospital 28 days after an outbreak changed the world forever. Marking Boyle and Garland's first proper collaboration after Boyle adapted Garland's best-selling novel The Beach for the big screen two years prior, 28 Days Later still ranks among the best work on either's resume — and on Murphy's as well, even if it didn't win him any of Hollywood's top shiny trophies. Set in the aftermath of the accidental release of a highly contagious virus, the film's images of a desolated London instantly became iconic, but this is a top-notch movie on every level. That includes its performances, with then-unknowns Murphy and Naomie Harris (the Bond franchise's current Moneypenny) finding the balance between demonstrating their characters' fierce survival instincts and their inherent vulnerability. If you wondering why 28 Months Later wasn't made, it was talked about for years, but the time has now passed unless the new trilogy includes a flick set between 28 Weeks Later and 28 Years Later. Check out the first trailer for 28 Years Later below: 28 Years Later releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, June 19, 2025.
What does Brisbane have in common with music superstars Beyoncé, Björk, Lady Gaga and Rihanna, and also Oscar-winners Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton? An appreciation for fashion designer Iris van Herpen. The avant-garde Dutch talent has dressed them all, including creating the breathtaking Heliosphere dress that proved a showstopper on Beyoncé's Renaissance tour. The latter gigs haven't made it Down Under, but the Australian-exclusive Sculpting the Senses exhibition at the Queensland capital's Gallery of Modern Art will take you into the world of the haute couture figure who played a part in it. Fashion lovers have until Monday, October 7, 2024 to explore one of GOMA's big showcases for 2024, which continues to plunge the South Brisbane site into an enchanting and ethereal realm after Fairy Tales, its huge summer exhibition, did the same. Pieces by van Herpen can't be mistaken for designs by anyone else, sitting at the intersection of couture, art and design, while also exploring technological advancements such as 3D printing. In that field, she's widely considered the first to make a garment this way. [caption id="attachment_966401" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' including Fractal Flows dress, from the 'Sensory Seas' collection 2020 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Perry Hall; and Cosmica gown, from the 'Shift Souls' collection 2019 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Kim Keever / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.[/caption] From gowns to accessories, a massive 130 of van Herpen's pieces are now on display in the River City. Across nine chapters — some nodding to the dreamlike sheen that accompanies the designer's pieces, others focusing on skeletal structures, inspirations, and how the sea and the cosmos are an influence — Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses steps through the work of a creative who boasts stints alongside Alexander McQueen and Claudy Jongstra on her resume. It was almost two decades back, in 2007, that the Maison Iris van Herpen came to life in Amsterdam. Evoking her studio, complete with a cabinet of curiosities, is also part of GOMA's celebration. In this section of the exhibition, attendees will also see a space dedicated to fashion shows and unpack the various development stages of a dress. Hitting Brisbane after a run in Paris, co-organised by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and boasting the organisation's Dr Cloé Pitiot and Louise Curtis on curatorial duties alongside QAGOMA's Nina Miall and Jacinta Giles, Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses takes its name seriously. This is a feast for the eyes, clearly, but also comes paired with a soundscape by Dutch sound artist Salvador Breed — not just a collaborator of van Herpen's, but her partner — to enhance the experience. [caption id="attachment_966406" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA[/caption] Among the specific fashion gems featured, the exhibition draws from 2010's water-themed 'Crystallization' collection, which took its cues from water being splashed at models; 2020's 'Sensory Seas', with hydrozoa such as the bluebottle an influence; and 2012's 'Micro' and 'Hybrid Holism', each teeming with microscopic detail that mimics the natural world — just for starters. Elsewhere, van Herpen's designs use X-rays, MRIs, neuroscience, mythology, alchemy, biotech, NASA's James Webb space telescope and more as guides. In one clear highlight, 2019's cape-slash-dress Hypnosis, she deploys a kaleidoscopic pattern in inky black to touch upon the mind's movement between the conscious and unconscious — and, in the process, also fashions up an optical illusion. [caption id="attachment_966399" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' including Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Philip Beesely (Collaborator) / Canada b.1956. Hypnosis cape-dress, from the 'Hypnosis' collection 2019 / Laser-cut duchesse satin, mylar, tulle. Radiography dress, from the 'Magnetic Motion' collection 2014 / Laser-cut and thermally expanded PETG, silicone, microfibre. Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Shift Souls dress, from the 'Shift Souls' collection 2019 / Laser-cut Komon Koubou, silk organza, mylar. Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA[/caption] Visitors will equally spy a range of complementary pieces surrounding van Herpen's designs, weaving in Yayoi Kusama, Cai Guo-Qiang, Japanese art collective Mé and Kohei Nawa, for instance. Megan Cope, Philip Beesley, Anne Noble, Damien Jalet, Casey Curran, Rogan Brown, Ren Ri and Courtney Mattison also have works in Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, as does the Living Architecture Systems Group. Natural history objects add yet another layer. The dramatic staging, especially when van Herpen's work is set against a black background, achieves the same. Similarly featuring: installations, videos and photographs. Designs by van Herpen are unsurprisingly no stranger to galleries and museums, with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paris' Palais Galliera and Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria among the institutions to include her work in their collections. [caption id="attachment_966414" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses'. (l) Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Shelee Carruthers (Collaborator) / Australia b.1977 / Hydrozoa dress, from the 'Sensory Seas' collection 2020 / PETG, glass organza. (r) Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Hydromedusa dress, from the 'Sensory Seas' collection 2020 / Printed organza, laser-cut Komon Koubou, mylar, tulle. Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966412" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of the Cabinet of Curiosities in 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses', Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: J Ruckli © QAGOMA.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966409" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' including: Tim Walker (Photographer) / United Kingdom b.1970 / Iris van Herpen (Designer) / Netherlands b.1984 / David Altmejd (Sculptor) / Canada b.1974 / Duckie Thot (Model) / Australia b.1995 / Kiki Willems (Model) / Netherlands b.1996 / Fashion: Iris van Herpen 2018 / Exhibition print / Courtesy: Tim Walker Studio. Kohei Nawa / Japan b.197 / PixCell-Double Deer #4 2010 / Mixed media / Purchased 2010 with funds from the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Diversity Foundation through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation. Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Airborne dress, from the 'Aeriform' collection 2017 / Laser-cut crepe, mylar, tulle / Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier. © The artists / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966411" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Iris van Herpen: Runway films 2017-23 (installation view, 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses') / Video, colour, sound, 57:51 minutes (total, looped) / Editor: Simona Gol / Music selection: Salvador Breed / Courtesy: Iris van Herpen Atelier / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966407" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses'. (l) Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Water dress, special project 2010 / Heat-moulded PETG / Collection: Groninger Museum, Netherlands / © Iris van Herpen. (r) David Spriggs / Canada b.1978 / Origins 2018 / PET film, acrylic Plexiglas, LED, acrylic paint, metal / Collection: Dr Pierre Miron / © David Spriggs. Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966405" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Haruka Kojin / Japan b.1983 / Contact Lens (installation view, 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses') 2023 / Acrylic lenses, wire / Courtesy: The artist and SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo / © Haruka Kojin / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966400" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' including: Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Kim Keever (Collaborator) / United States b. 1955 / Cosmica gown, from the 'Shift Souls' collection 2019 / Organza, tulle / Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Azari dress, from the 'Carte Blanche' collection 2023 / Laser-cut crepe de Chine, silk organza, tulle. Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966396" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' including (l-r) Foliage dress, from the 'Ludi Naturae' collection 2018 by Iris van Herpen with collaborators Delft University of Technology and Stratasys Ltd.; Gaia gown, from the 'Roots of Rebirth' collection 2021 and Ammonite dress, from the 'Seijaku' collection 2016 both by Iris van Herpen; and Explosion Process Drawing for Dragon or Rainbow Serpent: A Myth Glorified of Feared: Project for Extraterrestrials No.28 1996 by Cai Guo-Qiang / © The artists / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966410" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' including (front) Cosmica gown, from the 'Shift Souls' collection 2019 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Kim Keever / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966397" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses'. (l) Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Entangled Life gown, from the 'Roots of Rebirth' collection 2021 / Hand-pleated silk organza, embroider thread, tulle, wire / Worn by singer-songwriter Lorde performing at Radio City Music Hall, New York, 2022 / Courtesy: Iris van Herpen Atelier / © Iris van Herpen. (r) Yann Arthus-Bertrand (Director and photographer) / France b.1946 / Michael Pitiot (Director) / France b.1970 / Wim van Egmond (Photographer) / Netherlands b.1966 / Terra 2015 / Video, colour, Dolby Digital, 98 minutes, France, French, English subtitles / Music: Armand Amar / Voice: Vanessa Paradis / Production: Hope Production / Courtesy: Hope Production. Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA[/caption] [caption id="attachment_966408" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' including (l-r) Contact 2023 by 目[mé]; Hydrozoa dress, from the 'Sensory Seas' collection 2020 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Shelee Carruthers; Mirror of the Mind dress, from the 'Micro' collection 2012 and Hydromedusa dress, from the 'Sensory Seas' collection 2020 both by Iris van Herpen / © The artists / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.[/caption]Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses displays at the Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place, South Brisbane, from Saturday, June 29–Monday, October 7, 2024 — for more information, head to the venue's website. Top images: Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Daniel Widrig (Collaborator) / United Kingdom b.1977 / Materialise (Collaborator) / Belguim est.1990 / Crystallization top and skirt, from the 'Capriole' collection 2011 / 3D-printed polyamide using selective laser sintering, eco-leather, cotton, nylon thread / Purchased thanks to the patronage of Doctor and Madam Léon Crivain, 2018 / Collection: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. // Courtney Mattison / United States b.1985 / Malum Geminos 2019 / Glazed stoneware and porcelain / Courtesy: The artist. // Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Nicholas Koscinski (Collaborator)/ United States b.1992 / Futurama gown, from the 'Meta Morphism' collection 2022 / 3D-printed Bluesint (upcycled polyamide) using selective laser sintering, silver, silk, organza, tulle / Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier. // © The artists / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' including (front l-r) Symbiotic asymmetric dress, from the 'Shift Souls' collection 2019 by Iris van Herpen; Fractal Flows dress, from the 'Sensory Seas' collection 2020 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Perry Hall; and Cosmica gown, from the 'Shift Souls' collection 2019 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Kim Keever / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA. Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses'. (l) Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Holozoic dress, from the 'Hybrid Holism' collection 2012 / Eco-leather, Swarovski crystals / Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier / © Iris van Herpen. (r) Tim Walker (Photographer) / United Kingdom b.1970 / Iris van Herpen (Designer) / Netherlands b.1984 / David Altmejd (Sculptor) / Canada b.1974 / Duckie Thot (Model) / Australia b.1995 / Kiki Willems (Model) / Netherlands b.1996 / Fashion: Iris van Herpen 2018 / Exhibition print / Courtesy: Tim Walker Studio / © Tim Walker. Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA. Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses'. (l)目[mé] / Japan est.2012 / Contact 2023 / Mixed media / Courtesy: The artists. (r) Iris van Herpen / Netherlands b.1984 / Shelee Carruthers (Collaborator) / Australia b.1977 / Hydrozoa dress, from the 'Sensory Seas' collection 2020 / PETG, glass organza / Courtesy: Iris van Herpen atelier. Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA. Installation view of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' including (front) Cosmica gown, from the 'Shift Souls' collection 2019 by Iris van Herpen with collaborator Kim Keever / © Iris van Herpen / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.
For everyone who has ever had a cringeworthy boss, annoying co-worker or soul-crushing office job, one sitcom franchise has understood for more than two decades now. It was back in 2001 that the original UK version of The Office arrived, introducing the world to the literally paper-pushing David Brent. And, in 2005, an American series featuring the also-awkward Michael Scott hit the small screen as well. More international takes on the show have followed, including an in-the-works Australian series that'll mark the 13th iteration beyond Britain to-date. Next, so might a big return, with the US version reportedly set to score a reboot. Might, could, apparently, rumoured, possibly, hopefully: they all fit this news, which Puck dropped in the wake of Hollywood's current writers' strike looking like it is nearing its end. "Greg Daniels is set to do a reboot of The Office," the publication noted in its wrap-up of where things stand now that the Writers Guild of America has reached a provisional deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. That sentence, naming the US version of The Office's creator (who has also been behind Space Force and Upload), is all there is to go on for now; however, it hails from an outlet that's all about insider conversation in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington. As for how a restocked take on the Dunder Mifflin-set The Office might work, who'd star, if any of the OG cast will return, if it'll still feature Scranton in Pennsylvania, how many desk supplies might get put in jelly and all the other burning questions that everyone has right now, there's no answers as yet. On its first go-around, the American The Office proved one of the rare instances where a TV remake is better than the original. It was also immensely easy to just keep rewatching, as fans have known since the 2005–13 show finished its run. Of course, that's what you get when you round up Steve Carell (Asteroid City), John Krasinski (Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan), Jenna Fischer (Splitting Up Together), Rainn Wilson (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story), Mindy Kaling (Velma), Ed Helms (Rutherford Falls), Ellie Kemper (Happiness for Beginners), Craig Robinson (Killing It) and more in the same show, and let all of them break out their comedic best. As for The Office Australia — which comes after everywhere from Canada, France and Germany to Israel, India and Poland have similarly given the idea a go — it's on its way in 2024 thanks to Prime Video. In the Aussie series, it will be Hannah Howard's turn to become the manager that no one wants but everyone has worked for. Played by actor and comedian Felicity Ward (Wakefield), she'll oversee a packaging company called Flinley Craddick. And, when she receives news that head office is shutting down her branch — with everyone working from home instead — she's determined to keep her team together. Obviously that won't go smoothly, or there'd be no sitcom antics to be had in The Office Australia. Joining Ward is a hefty cast spanning Edith Poor (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), Steen Raskopoulos (The Duchess), Shari Sebbens (Preppers), Josh Thomson (Young Rock), Jonny Brugh (What We Do in the Shadows), Pallavi Sharda (The Twelve), Susan Ling Young (Barons), Raj Labade (Back of the Net), Lucy Schmit and Firass Dirani (House Husbands). There's no sneak peek yet at whatever the US reboot of The Office pans out to be, and no trailer yet for The Office Australia, either. But, in the interim, you can check out a couple clips from the US version below: The rumoured reboot of the US version of The Office doesn't have a release date yet — we'll update you with more information when it is announced. The Office Australia will stream via Prime Video sometime in 2024 — we'll update you with an exact launch date when one is announced.
It happened with The Nutcracker, Mary Poppins Returns, Aladdin, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Frozen II, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, just to name a few past Disney movies, and it's occurring again for Snow White: to immerse everyone in the world of the Mouse House's new film beyond cinemas, The Grounds of Alexandria in Sydney has given itself a temporary makeover. Expect social media feeds to be filled with snaps of this enchanted garden, plus the themed dishes now on the menu for the next couple of months — and expect Harbour City locals and visitors alike to flock in. How have all things Snow White taken over? With scenery that looks like it's been transported out of the film — greenery aplenty, plus woodland creatures as well — and everything from red apple mocktails to sweet treats inspired by the movie on offer. Yes, there's a magic mirror on the wall. And also yes, you'll spot more than a few apples. You've got until Sunday, May 25, 2025 to head by, and to sip that Evil to the Core drink (made with red apple, raspberry and citrus) at The Cafe, The Garden and The Potting Shed at The Grounds of Alexandria. Food-wise, Waiting on a Wish (a toasted almond sponge with pear cream and blackberry compote) is on the menu in The Cafe and the Poison Apple for two (spiced caramelised apple, dulcey crèmeux and mascarpone cream) is available in The Potting Shed over the same period. The film in the spotlight releases in cinemas on Thursday, March 20, starring Rachel Zegler (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) as Snow White and Gal Gadot (Heart of Stone) as her evil stepmother. Marc Webb (The Only Living Boy in New York, Gifted, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro) is behind the lens. Remaking Disney's 1937 animated hit, Snow White joins list of the company's cartoon classics given a live-action or photorealistic do-over. See also: The Jungle Book, Maleficent and its sequel, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King, Lady and the Tramp, Mulan, Pinocchio, Peter Pan & Wendy and The Little Mermaid so far, with Lilo & Stitch and Moana also to come. It's been a great time to be a pop-culture fan in Down Under of late, and to take that love beyond the screen, following multiple Squid Game pop-ups, plus a Stranger Things experience on the way. Snow White at The Grounds runs at The Grounds of Alexandria, Building 7A, 2 Huntley Street, Alexandria, Sydney until Sunday, May 25, 2025 — head to The Grounds of Alexandria's website for further details. Images: Scott & Co.
Can a pair of glasses really help a world-renowned superhero become unrecognisable? If you've always queried that detail in Superman's story, rest assured that James Gunn has thoughts, too — as the full trailer for the writer/director and DC Studios co-CEO and co-Chairman's Superman makes plain. The latest sneak peek, following an initial teaser late in 2024 and an almost five-minute glimpse earlier in 2025, begins with an interrogation. Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel) is doing the questioning, and a normally close-kept secret is clearly not a factor in this take on the Kryptonian. As Lois and the Man of Steel (David Corenswet, Lady in the Lake) dig into what makes a hero — and how accountable they need to be — the just-dropped trailer also offers looks at Superman's other battles. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, Nosferatu) features, naturally. So do Superman's efforts to stop wars and save everyday folks, and take on other villains. The new sneak peek has arrived just two months before the film hits cinemas, racing onto the big screen Down Under on Thursday, July 10, 2025. Gunn has penned, helmed and produced Superman. In his DC roles, he's also overseeing the new DC Universe. His picture will be followed by Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in 2026, as directed by Dumb Money's Craig Gillespie and starring Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) — after she also plays the part in Superman. Clayface will release in the same year as well, working with a script from Doctor Sleep and The Fall of the House of Usher's Mike Flanagan. Alongside Corenswet, Brosnahan, Hoult and Alcock, Superman features Gunn regular Nathan Fillion (Deadpool & Wolverine) as Green Lantern and Anthony Carrigan (Barry) as Metamorpho, plus Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Frank Grillo (Tulsa King), Skyler Gisondo (The Righteous Gemstones) and Wendell Pierce (Elsbeth). As always in the Super, The Suicide Squad, and three-time Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker's work, Gunn's brother Sean (Creature Commandos) is among the ensemble. An angle for this Superman: Gunn's take on the character is a superhero who believes in humanity's goodness — even if presumably Lex Luthor tests that idea, and even if he draws queries about why he does what he does. If it feels like Superman has been missing for cinemas for a while — well, in these superhero movie-heavy days, that is — that's because it's been eight years, since Justice League. That's when Zack Snyder's film initially arrived in its theatrical version (Zack Snyder's Justice League, aka the Snyder Cut, debuted on streaming in 2021). Check out the new Superman trailer below: Superman releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, July 10, 2025. Read James Gunn's thoughts on the initial trailer.
Introducing Sketch Chair, a project from London and Lisbon's design studio Diatom. Sketch Chair is a software program allowing anyone and everyone to design their own chairs, regardless of how design-savvy they may be. The program uses a 2-D drawing interface that incorporates a physics engine which automatically tests the stability of a creator's design. Users can even simulate sitting in the chair with a customised virtual version of themselves to guarantee the highest level of comfort. Once a chair design is completed, a cutting pattern for the pieces of the chair is sent to the digital fabrication machine. The parts of the chair are then created and delivered so users can assemble their designs on their own as well. All custom designs come in lightweight but sturdy pieces that are easy to assemble - no glue required. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q36rJMjM1OU
Laneway Festival has revealed its full 2026 lineup, marking a milestone 21st anniversary edition of the beloved summer series. Returning next February, the festival will expand its route across Australia and New Zealand, adding three new venues to the circuit. Fans can expect another year of sold-out crowds after the 2025 festival drew over 200,000 attendees across main dates and a further 40,000 at sideshows. "It's incredible to be celebrating 21 years of Laneway. What began as a little street party in a Melbourne laneway has grown into a summer ritual across Australia and New Zealand," festival co-founders Danny Rogers and Jerome Borazio said. "Every year we're blown away by the response from the artists, fans, and community that make Laneway so special — 2026 is about honouring that history while looking to the future." See the full lineup below. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laneway Festival (@lanewayfest) Laneway 2026 will run from February 5–15, with shows confirmed for Auckland, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Tickets and more information are available now from the Laneway Festival website.
In 2019, just one Australian bar made it into the World's 50 Best Bars list: Maybe Sammy. This year, not only has the innovative bar in The Rocks made the list again, it has jumped 32 places to number 11 — and it's joined by two more Sydney spots. Laneway mezcal bar — and one of Concrete Playground's favourite openings of 2019 — Cantina OK! came in at number 28, while Bulletin Place, which has made the list many times during its eight-year life, came in 39. If you've been looking for an excuse to spend a night drinking cocktails in the city, this is it. With many Sydneysiders WFH during the pandemic, CBD bars have done it tough, with some venues reporting drops in revenue of 40 percent and more. Now, it's more important than ever to go out and support them (in a COVID-safe way, of course). For those yet to be acquainted with Maybe Sammy, its luxurious styling nods to old-school Vegas glamour, all blush pink velvet banquettes and lush indoor greenery, while the list of theatrical signature drinks pays homage to the classics. Cocktails are served with the likes of scent-filled pillows, hand cream and rosemary bubbles. The latter, comes atop the much-Instagrammed Dunes cocktail, pictured below, which is a delicate balance of gin, fino sherry, watermelon and agave. [caption id="attachment_788842" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dunes cocktail at Maybe Sammy by DS Oficina[/caption] While Sydney cleaned up in the top 50, only Melbourne venues (from Australia) featured in the 51–100 list, which was announced late last week. Fitzroy bar The Everleigh snagged the 73 spot, while newer CBD haunt Byrdi came in at 80. Petite Collingwood bar Above Board followed not too far behind at number 84 and the long-running Black Pearl — which has scooped a spot in the Top 50 list numerous times throughout the award's 12-year history — was voted in at 98. The annual World's 50 Best Bars awards are voted on by over 540 bar industry experts from around the world, including bartenders, consultants, drinks writers and cocktail specialists. You can check out the full lineup of the World's 50 Best Bars 2020 here, and see 51–100 here. Top image: Cantina OK! by Kimberley Low
In any given month in Brisbane, finding an excuse to eat, drink, dance, listen to live tunes and party on a rooftop isn't hard. But only February — and, in 2023, a few select dates in January — heralds the annual BrisAsia Festival, where all of those events focus on celebrating the city's ties with Asia, the many cultures that originated from the continent and Lunar New Year. Running from Wednesday, February 1–Sunday, February 19 — with events also on January 13, 14 and 22 — the 2023 program boasts old favourites, new additions, and the fest's trademark mix of traditional and contemporary Asian arts. In fact, it includes 27 events across 12 suburbs, and 400-plus artists. It all begins with those festivities before the official kickoff, with the TET Festival marking Vietnam's Hội chợ Tết across two days, then Fortitude Valley going all in for Lunar New Year on Sunday, January 22. From there, last year's laneway tea festival is back, this time in Burnett Lane in the CBD, and so is the Southside by Night event that combines street food with a car meet (yes, think Fast and Furious vibes). Pre-pandemic, the Lunar New Year Rooftop Party at Sunnybank Plaza was always a highlight, complete with traditional lanterns and fireworks — and the 2023 lineup builds from there. Fortitude Music Hall will host the launch party, which'll feature lion dancers, martial arts displays, Sydney-based DJ Nick Kim and local drag star Crimson Coco; Soul Gazing: A Journey through the Cosmic Skydome will take over the Mt Coot-tha Observatory; the BrisAsia Beats sessions return as well; and a big summer party will pop up at the South Bank Piazza. Elsewhere, you can check out an intercultural creative residency at Brisbane Powerhouse, dance in the Queen Street Mall for BrisAsia Dance Day, break out your K-pop moves and listen to stories about Brisbane's cultural evolution. Plus, Brissie's Asian Australian comedians will also take to the stage for a night of standup comedy, and the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens will host a night of love songs from around the globe in the lead up to Valentine's Day. After debuting in 2022, digital storytelling initiative Mother's Table is also back to showcase another round of local restaurant owners, all chatting about their eateries and signature dishes.
South Bank is alive and buzzing with the beat of Brisbane Festival. The month-long event has brought the area alive after dark with Wunder Bar and the Garden Bar keeping Brisbane up-late. Right now these pop-up bars are a bit of fun, but come October they'll be shut down and those looking for a drink post-dinner are caught between a cab ride elsewhere and a jug of sangria. It's safe to say South Bank is the restaurant hub - certainly not known for its bars - and so when you go looking, where are they? Sometimes the thirsty have to get creative, and it pays to look inside. With views that could kill and a relaxed coastal vibe, The Jetty's bar sits within the heart of the busy restaurant. For those who like it long - the Pining Lilli takes vodka, ginger liqueur and lillet, throwing in tropical flavours of lime and mint, topped with pineapple juice. Served martini style, the Semi Royal goes down a treat. Vodka is aided by the sweetness of peach and apple liqueur and cut by sour fresh grapefruit and lime. Served with a lime sugar rim, 'The Don' mixes tequila and pomegranate liqueur against the sharp tastes of pink grapefruit and passionfruit. Most interesting was the 'Jack Sparrow' - a mix of rum, ginger wine, frangelico and mandarin topped with iced tea. Think hazelnut meets citrus in a strange twist on jaffa. The Jetty also serve steins on Asahi on tap, and offer a range of craft beers, and of course wine. Serving up modern Australian cuisine with an Indonesian influence, The Jetty has won a place in the hearts of many for its open and warm atmosphere and tasty Australiasian dishes. Bar snacks don't disappoint, and the piping hot tempura prawns ($6) top our list. Also on offer are the classic sourdough and oil combo, warmed olive, oysters, edamame and almonds all given a Jetty twist. For something more substantial, fresh rice paper rolls, fish cakes and calamari round out a very coastal list.
The kids are all right: in Future Council, the third feature-length documentary directed by Australian actor-turned-filmmaker Damon Gameau after That Sugar Film and 2040, children are brimming with enthusiasm to act to solve the inescapable problem facing every single person on earth right now. There's no avoiding the fact that the earth is in the midst of an eco-crisis, and that challenges to fix it linger at every turn. The young environmentalists in front of Gameau's lens know this deeply. They're distressed and angry about it. They're also driven to act, to bring about change and to do whatever they can to stop the planet's plight from continuing to worsen. When That Sugar Film became a sensation in 2014 — it's in the top five Australian documentaries of all time at the local box office, and sparked many among its audience to rethink the role of the movie's titular substance in their lives — it did so through a particular approach. Gameau, then best-known as an actor in the likes of The Tracker, Thunderstruck, Love My Way, Razzle Dazzle, Underbelly, Balibo, Patrick, Charlie's Country and Puberty Blues (he also played an Australian backpacker on an episode of How I Met Your Mother), put himself and his eating habits at the centre of the film. Think: Super Size Me, but Aussie and about the sweet stuff. Accordingly, Gameau physically charted the consequences of a high-sugar diet. The viewer response, as the cinema takings show, was phenomenal. Gameau wasn't thinking at the time that he'd discovered the blueprint for his approach as a filmmaker, aka documentaries with both a personal and an activist angle. "Upon reflection, I didn't know it at the time," he tells Concrete Playground. "I certainly just wanted to tell stories and thought that there weren't enough stories that, I guess, could enlighten or educate and inspire people. And so I thought that was the goal of making that. And then obviously seeing the impact that had, even in influencing policy in some countries — that kind of lit the fuse, I guess, of like 'oh, there's something really potent about storytelling'." "So much of our storytelling has been used for distraction and other means, and they're perpetuating values that maybe we don't need in this moment," Gameau continues. "So, how could we tell better stories that actually give people a bit more hope and show that there's a different part of humanity, rather than just conflict and competition and really base values around things — you think of those reality shows. So I just got inspired, I think, to tell more stories and try to encourage other storytellers, artists, whatever, to use their platform to maybe highlight the best of us as opposed to other values." Next on his behind-the-camera filmography — after more on-screen stints in Secrets & Lies, Gallipoli, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Barracuda and The Kettering Incident — came 2019's 2040. In a film that world-premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, follows in An Inconvenient Truth's footsteps and is in the top ten Aussie docos of all time at the box office, Gameau retained the same documentary style but changed subjects. His topic: climate change and ways to combat it. The personal element came via packaging his plea to the world to act as a letter to his then-four-year-old daughter, then travelling the globe to delve into potential solutions. Again, it was a massive success. Just as That Sugar Film helped put Gameau on the path to 2040, the latter did the same with Future Council. The environment is again the focus and the writer/director appears on-camera once more, but eight kids — Australian Ruby Rodgers, Joseph Wijaya from Bali, Norfolk Islander Hiva Tuki Grube, Karla Albjerg from Uganda, The Netherlands' Joaquin Minana, Clemence "CC" Currie from Scotland, Wales' Skye Neville and Aurvi Jain from Singapore — are the true stars of the show. Each was selected after a callout for children to accompany Gameau across Europe on a biofuel-powered school bus to both examine options for tackling the planet's predicament and speak with the leaders of companies contributing to the issue. The film's name doesn't just apply to their actions in the doco, either, with the kids making the child-led Future Council a real and ongoing organisation that's advocating for genuine action to save the earth. Gameau isn't merely giving voice to the frustration of the next generation about humanity's current handling of the climate crisis, then, but is helping them in their efforts. One result so far, almost a year before the film reached Australian cinemas in general release on Thursday, August 7, 2025 (but after world-premiering at the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival): Ruby, Joseph, Hiva, Karla, Joaquin, CC, Skye and Aurvi appearing at, screening the feature for and meeting with world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024. Their deeds, plus Future Council as an off-screen initiative, are inspiring both fellow children and adults — as also chronicled in a movie that's well aware of adult-washing but never earns that description itself, even while ensuring the film is accessible, and also balancing the seriousness of the environmental situation with a sense of joy, play and empowerment. Future Council, the film, is as much a celebration of unique personalities and children following their passions, too — and proves as heartening in that element as well. With Gameau, we also explored that key aspect of the documentary, his show-don't-tell approach to factual filmmaking in general, the path from 2040 to Future Council and the difficult task of getting CEOs to speak with the movie's eight kids, plus his own journey from when he was starting out as an actor and more. On the Show-Don't-Tell Approach Resonating Across Gameau's Documentaries "I think particularly, in this film, I think it could have failed really, really dramatically if it had felt preachy, if the kids were too precocious or pretentious, if it felt like I was steering them in any way and it was a sort of manipulation. That's a careful dance to do and it does take some crafting. I guess I don't think about it too overtly, but I think I know what I don't want it to be. And I see films where it does feel preachy and I think that's really off-putting, and people don't want that. They're craving authenticity in the current state of the world. They want people to be real. And I think that's what the children bring in spades." On How 2040 Put Gameau on the Path to Making Future Council "I took 2040 around the world and a lot of the releases did school visits, and I did lots of classrooms — and the questions were often better than any adult would ask in the Q&As. The kids really knew their stuff. And I just realised that I've projected my own childhood onto these children sometimes and forgotten that they just have access to so much information now. And the ones that are passionate about sustainability just go super-deep on these subjects — and they can online now. So they often know far more than most adults do. So it really felt like 'well, this is their moment. They deserve a platform. How do we connect them together so they don't feel like their only avenue is to protest on the streets? What if they could actually come together meaningfully, collaborate with organisations, businesses, their schools, and actually actively shape and design their own future?'. And I think we've got the opportunity with our tech now, their knowledge, their awareness, to do that, and so that just felt like a good fit for the Future Council." On Whether Gameau Expected the Huge Response That 2040 Received Around the World "I don't think so. I mean, you probably know it yourself, but I think there's a default in any artist that is self-sabotaging and doesn't think we're much good at anything, really. So it's always a little bit of a surprise when something does well. And I guess I was a bit spoilt with Sugar in that that was just such a bizarre, extraordinary takeoff that I didn't expect. That was always going to be hard to match. So I just, yeah, I was surprised. But I think 2040 came at a time when people were looking for solutions and, strangely, that narrative hadn't been told very much — which was a real surprise to me, that we weren't focusing all the great things that people were doing. And so I can see now why it resonated, but of course, yeah, anytime you make something and put it out in the world, you kind of assume that no one is going see it. And it means something to you, but might not connect. So it's always a lovely bonus when people do support it." On Gameau Not Worrying About Falling Into the Adult-Washing Trap By Making Optimistic and Empowering Environmental Documentaries for All Ages "No, I think it's the very thing we need. I think this whole particular movement has got bogged down in so much graphs and analysis and data that what it needs is humanity. It needs a burst of heart. And there's a great quote by an English academic, Louisa Ziane, and she says that 'if you want to change the world, you've got to throw a better party'. And I think that that's what these children bring. Even though, as you saw in the film, they're really processing deep grief, they still find a way to be children, and to play and have fun and find the best moments in in their life. And I think there's great lessons in that for all of us that, yeah, times are incredibly tough right now — we need to be honest about — but when we are honest about it and we give ourselves a good cry like the kids do, you do free up some space to also find the joy and be grateful for the things that are still happening in our lives. And that's the thing that's going to sustain us. If we all get too bogged down in the way of the world, we're no good to anyone, and I can relate to that. I know the state I get in when I'm too serious. So the children really taught me and inspire me to make sure I stay in my heart, and to make sure I still find the moments of joy and the slices of light among these dark times. They do still exist. There are people doing extraordinary things in the face of this adversity, trying to come up with new solutions right now, find the best and be the best humans they can be. So we need to focus on that just as much as we're focusing on the things we don't want." On Whether the Children Setting Up a Real-Life Future Council Was Always the Aim for the Film "It was always in the back of the mind there was a potential that could happen. But again, I was so careful to not steer this or lead the kids on in any way. And that sort of started to happen midway through the film. That's when the children went 'oh, we can see that we've got something to say here. We can see we're valuable and we are having an impact in these boardrooms — what if we did actually start extending this out?'. So it was an idea we talked about halfway through filming. And then subsequently, we've developed that together. We've run every decision through them — 'okay, from everything from branding, what would this look like? How would you want it to run? What don't you want it to be?'. And so now we have a functioning Future Council entity with a COO and board members, and it's all kicking off. And there's now an invitation to children right around the world — which is what this film will do as we take it around the world, is recruit children that want to sign up and join. And then it'll be child-led. So all the decisions go through the children. But we've got the adults that want to support the children with the more-complex stuff and the logistics and the governance, all those sort of things. But the idea is to really make sure that the children feel like they're making the decisions and it is coming from them. They're not being told by their teachers or someone else. Because they do know their stuff, and they do have a chance to really make change — and let's let them drive it." On How Future Council's Children Are Inspiring Adults "Every screening, something magical happens. Like, someone from somewhere reaches out. Some adult wants to join up some organisation. We've got people who just — one woman just gave every child $10,000 to support their initiatives. They are doing something. There's a magic that they have together, and I think it is that humanity. There's a lot of emotion in the screenings. There's people being very, very — it's sort of unlocking parts of them they haven't confronted for a while. So there's just — I don't know, it's hard to describe. There's a magic that's coming out of the tailpipe of this bus as it cruises around, and I'm just sitting back, watching it all, I'm observing, and I'm incredibly excited by what's forming and the people from right around the world that are coming in to support this. I think it's just one of those stories that's come at the right time. The children are taking this conversation to a deeper level that it needed to go to." On Getting Representatives From Large Corporations to Meet with the Children "Yeah, that was a challenge. And I guess the framing was that we wanted to make sure that we — it wasn't about just telling them they're wrong, that it was an invitation to some of these groups to say 'these kids have some really good ideas, and I think you'd be crazy not to access some of their creativity'. I think the children learned that as it went along, that, as you saw, when we started with Nestle, they did go in with quite an activist bent — and it was a much more aggressive take. Then they reflected on that and thought 'you know what, I don't know that that worked entirely'. So they tried and pivoted to a slightly different approach with ING — and by the time we got to Decathlon, which is the world's biggest sporting goods retailer, they were so collaborative. 'Right, how can we work?'. And that, I think, is when they discovered their superpower, and that's why they then wanted to turn this into something much bigger. So it was a really interesting journey. But as I said, to their credit, these companies did say yes. A lot said no. And it was a very, very difficult challenge to get the children in there, to be honest, and I was very lucky that I had some people that were supportive of my previous work in 2040 and were able to open the doors there. But yeah, full credit to those CEOs that did front up and listen to, as you saw, what were some pretty awkward questions and difficult conversations for them. But they were willing to lean in, not shut the film down, not try to edit or cancel — which they could have done. So in the end, we're grateful for the conversations we were able to have." On How Pivotal It Is for Future Council to Celebrate the Unique Personalities of the Kids in the Film — and to Make Children Feel Included for Whatever It Is That They're Passionate About "I obviously really love these kids and they do have their own uniqueness — and that's what's beautiful about it. And Ruby said it on a Q&A — what she learned was that some people feel like they can't do enough or 'who am I to do anything?' or 'I'm not doing enough?', but we all have our own unique way to contribute to this problem right now. And that's, I think, what the kids brought. Ruby found herself that she didn't think she was of any value, and then realised that her art is the thing that people need. And now she's got a record deal and now she's singing live, and all this stuff is happening because she's expressing her grief through her music Whereas Hiva, for example, is just obsessed with birds. And I've watched him give a TED talk now and bring a whole room to its knees because he channels these birds and tells people how important they are to our ecosystem. So they've all got their different superpower. And then they came together as this incredible force. And I think that's the metaphor, isn't it? That's the great example of what we need to do as humans, as a whole, is that no matter what field we're working in, no matter what area of interest we have or our passions, when we actually come together and reknit that fabric that's been torn apart from us by this system, that we can achieve extraordinary things. And I think that's the best takeaway — and my favourite scene in the film is that last scene where the kids are all coming together, they're all acknowledging what they learned from each other and the best that they see in each other. Whoa — what a what a lesson that is for adults right now and how we're going to fix some of these problems we're facing." On Whether Making Inspiring Documentaries Was Gameau's Aim Back When He Was Starting Out as an Actor "No. God no. No, I was way too self-obsessed back then. That was very much sort of, I guess, trying to forge my own path. 'What am I doing in life?'. I hadn't really understood — I always never felt quite happy. I was lucky enough, obviously, to do a film like The Tracker or Balibo, and those felt very, very rich and deep, and felt really fulfilling. But other than that, I always felt a little bit frustrated and not comfortable. And I was lucky enough, obviously, to work with people like Rolf [de Heer, who directed Gameau on The Tracker and Charlie's Country] and Rob Connolly [Balibo's filmmaker], and they showed me how powerful storytelling can be. And I decided that I wanted to start telling my own stories. I thought I had something to say and I wanted to find the courage to be able to say that. And that took a long time to find that courage. I had a lot self-doubt that so many people do, and I was really my worst enemy in that sense. So it's taken me a long time, and I'm still on that journey of really believing this. But I see it now. I can see the impact of what these stories have done and I'm just so grateful. It's been a magical experience. And this one even more so. I feel like it's less about me, this one — the others were quite focused with me at centre, but this again is a shifting in my own journey, to give a platform to these eight kids and then these other kids around the world. So yeah, it's just I've seen it. I just think storytelling is our most-potent tool for change and it is so underutilised and undervalued. And I think it's the only way we're going to get through. I really want to call out to all artists, whether they're musicians or artists or storytellers, whatever it might be, that this is our moment. This is our time. Terence McKenna had this great quote, he said that 'the role of the artist is to save the soul of mankind and anything else is a dithering while Rome burns. If the artist can't find the way, then the way cannot be found'. And I just think whoa, what a moment right now, given everything we're facing — let's unite as artists and tell a new story." Future Council opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, August 7, 2025.
Returning to Australia with all the flair of a growling octogenarian swirling a glass of wine in one hand, the brilliantly manic Dylan Moran has announced his brand new comedy tour Off the Hook will be stopping at 12 locations across the country this July to August. The Irish comedian, who won our hearts as the creator and star of Black Books, is celebrated across the globe for his brilliant brand of rambling, brutally sharp stand-up comedy. Though you may hear Moran most frequently described as "curmudgeonly", the charm and intelligence of his manic comedy are hypnotic as he bombards audiences with his thoughts on everything from ageing and politics to kids, love and misery. Moran is coming to Australia straight off the back of a stint touring around the less likely locales of Kiev, Moscow and Kazakhstan — as well as becoming the first Western comic to perform in St Petersburg — with his surly ways winning him acclaim along the way. Bringing an always entrancing stage presence of slurring insights and bizarrely poetic complaints, broken by hysterical cackling and sips of wine, Moran's tour promises you comedy of the highest, most unpredictable kind. DYLAN MORAN'S OFF THE HOOK AUSTRALIAN TOUR Tickets on sale 10 March 10am Friday 10 July Riverside Theatre, Perth, WA Tuesday 14 July Civic Theatre, Newcastle, NSW Saturday 18 July Sydney Theatre, Sydney, NSW Thursday 23 July West Point Entertainment Centre, Hobart, TAS Saturday 25 July Princess Theatre, Launceston, TAS Monday 27 July State Theatre, Melbourne, VIC Tuesday 4 August QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, QLD Saturday 8 August Convention Centre, Cairns, QLD Tuesday 11 August Entertainment Centre, Darwin, NT Saturday 15 August Royal Theatre, Canberra, NSW
Maybe you love swimming laps. Perhaps a leisurely soak is your favourite way to cool down. Or, nothing could say summer to you quite like hanging out poolside. Whichever category fits, you might've lived the pool life at one of Brisbane's City Council's public venues, especially if you don't have your own backyard spot to splash in. This summer, for $2 a pop, you really should. From Sunday, December 1, 2024–Friday, February 28, 2025, Brisbane's City Council is slashing the entry fee to all 22 of its public pools around the River City — as it also did last year. For the entire three months of summer, having a splash will only cost you $2. The program is named $2 Summer Dips for obvious reasons, and that discounted price applies to everyone — adults and kids alike. If you haven't hit up a public pool for a while, it's a considerable saving, dropping the adult entry price from $6.40 to $2. The reduced rate also covers every single day across the period, too, which includes all of the Christmas and New Year public holidays. [caption id="attachment_904761" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brisbane City Council via Flickr[/caption] There's no other catches or caveats — including no limit on how many times you can take advantage of the deal. Fancy going for a swim at your local every day during summer? Working your way around Brisbane's public pools, diving into a different one daily? Both are options. The 22 pools include Centenary Pool, Spring Hill Baths and the Valley Pool, plus Musgrave Park Swimming Centre, the Colmslie Aquatic Centre in Morningside, Ithaca Pool in Paddington, Dunlop Park Memorial Swimming Pool in Corinda and Hibiscus Sports Complex Pool in Upper Mount Gravatt. Newmarket Olympic Swimming Pool, Chermside Pool, Bellbowrie Pool, Jindalee Pool and Manly Pool are all covered as well, as are Yeronga Park Memorial Swimming Pool, Mt Gravatt East Swimming Pool and Sandgate Aquatic Centre — and more. [caption id="attachment_741063" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cieran Murphy[/caption] Top image: Brisbane City Council via Flickr.
More than two decades ago, Australian coffee roastery Single O took its first steps right here at home. Soon, the Sydney-based brand will boast more locations to its name in Japan than Down Under. A decade since heading overseas, four years after opening its first international cafe in the country's capital back in 2021 and just a year since its last Tokyo expansion, Single O is launching a new concept in the must-visit city: its first-ever day-to-night venue. Located near Akihabara, the neighbourhood of Kanda Awajicho is your next destination for one of the chain's cuppas in Tokyo — and for cocktails, wine and beers as well. Opening on Thursday, April 24, 2025, this will be Single O's largest venue in the city, as well as its new Japanese flagship. "We're excited to open our newest Single O location in Kanda. We've been in Japan for over ten years now, and it's unreal to be part of specialty coffee's growth here and support a thriving independent cafe scene," said Single O CEO Mike Brabant. "It's a sister to our Surry Hills site in Sydney, seating a community of coffee lovers, locals and travellers alike," he continued. "We're calling it the mothership and we hope people will come in, discover something new and feel at home — whether they're here for our signature Reservoir St flat white, [to] experience the latest single origin on tap from our producer partners around the world or grab an after-work drink." For the new 50-seater venue's look, Single O have gone with a space-age theme. "Mixing futuristic, industrial aesthetics found us celebrating the brand's DNA, Australian roots and celebrating Japan's vibrant culture," advised Stuart Krelle, with Sydney-based design firm Luchetti Krelle behind the aesthetic. The brand's commitment to sustainability remains in place, however, including in the Kanda cafe's recycled plastic countertops, upcycled plywood chairs and reused central communal table. Among the sips, coffee on tap is a feature, of course, with six free-pour options available. The lineup of drinks running through them will rotate between origins, blends and seasonal choices. Or, order something else caffeinated and get the cafe's staff to put the espresso machine to good use. When it comes time to say cheers to a boozy beverage, expect coffee cocktails, naturally. Single O has even whipped up its own piña colada featuring a pineapple and coconut coffee clarification that's created with spent coffee grounds, plus washed coconut rum and soda water. Australian craft beers and wines are also on offer. Yes, the banana bread with espresso butter is on the food menu. So is The Avo Show, aka rye, achiote cashew cheese, pickled fennel, seasoned crumb, chilli oil and sweet lemon aspen. You can also tuck into the Mothership Bowl (made with brown rice, caramelised mushrooms, seasonal vegetables, pickles and a soft boiled egg) and the Yuzu Benny (which features a poached egg, sourdough, smoked salmon, yuzu hollandaise, cucumber, mint, coriander, pickled apple, lemongrass sate, chilli oil, crispy rice and shallot crumb). In another first for Single O, the Kanda outpost also sports its debut range of pastries baked onsite thanks to Head Chef Yoko Kobayashi (an alum of Bills in Australia) and Pastry Chef Johnny Pisanelli. Single O's Kanda location joins its Hamacho spot, plus Ryogoku Roastworks — which initially started as a roastery and tasting bar before its initial Japanese cafe, then moved into bigger digs and added its second space for aficionados to grab a brew — and its Shibuya coffee bar. In Australia, the chain has venues in Surry Hills and at Carriageworks in Sydney, and in Newstead in Brisbane. Find Single O's new Kanda cafe at at 〒101-0063 3F Waterras Tower 101, 2-chome Kanda Awajicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, from Thursday, April 24, 2025 — open from 8am–9pm weekdays and 9am–6pm on weekends. Head to the brand's website for more details.
Been spending the first few months of 2021 pondering the future? Given how the past year has panned out, that's only natural. But come Wednesday, May 26, you might want to look to the skies as well — and feast your eyes on a luminous lunar sight. For folks located Down Under, this is when you'll see this year's 'blood' supermoon. While super full moons aren't particularly rare — two usually happen each year, and one occurred just last month — there are plenty of reasons to peer upwards this time around. It's the last supermoon of 2021, for starters. It's also a total lunar eclipse. If you're wondering what else you need to know, we've run through the details below. WHAT IS IT? If you're more familiar with The Mighty Boosh's take on the moon than actual lunar terms, here's what you need to know. As we all learned back in November 2016, a supermoon is a new moon or full moon that occurs when the moon reaches the closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, making it particularly bright. They're not all that uncommon — and because May 2021's supermoon is a full moon (and not a new moon), it's called a super full moon. It's also a flower moon, too, which doesn't refer to its shape — obviously — but to the time of year. In the northern hemisphere, the May full moon usually arrives as spring wildflowers are blooming. Of course, it's currently autumn in the southern hemisphere, but the name still sticks. This May's supermoon also happens to coincide with a total lunar eclipse, which is why it's also called a blood moon. When the astronomical body passes directly into the earth's actual shadow, it turns a blood-red shade thanks to sunlight that's filtered and refracted by the earth's atmosphere. WHEN CAN I SEE IT? If you're keen to catch a glimpse — and you didn't nab a ticket for Qantas' flight above Sydney just for the occasion — you'll want to peek outside on Wednesday, May 26. In the New South Wales capital, and in Melbourne and Brisbane, the lunar eclipse is due to begin at 6.47pm, reach its maximum at 9.18pm and end at 11.49pm, according to Timeanddate.com. In Adelaide, all of those times move forward half an hour — so it'll begin at 6.17pm, reach its maximum at 8.48pm and end at 11.19pm. And in Perth, it'll start at 5.16pm, reach its maximum at 7.18pm and end at 9.49pm. You'll want to have your cameras at the ready, of course — and see if you can outdo previous big batches of supermoon snaps and super blue blood moon pics. WHERE CAN I SEE IT? According to NASA, folks in the Pacific Rim will be best placed to see the supermoon total eclipse — which includes in Australia. Naturally, you'll be hoping for clear skies that evening. You can take a gander from your backyard or balcony, but the standard advice regarding looking into the night sky always applies. So, city-dwellers will want to get as far away from light pollution as possible to get the absolute best view. If you can't get a clear vantage, The Virtual Telescope Project will be live-streaming from the skyline above Rome from 5am AEST. And Timeanddate.com will be hosting its own livestream, too, starting at 7.30pm AEST. The 'blood' supermoon and total lunar eclipse will take place from 6.47pm AEST on Wednesday, May 26. For further information, including about timing, head to either NASA or Timeanddate.com.
Charlotte Smith has a wardrobe most can only wish for. Inherited from her godmother, Doris Darnell, Smith’s collection is valued at over a million dollars, containing thousands of pieces dated from 1790 through to 1995, with originals from Dior and Chanel. The vast collection inspired Smith to author two books, Dreaming of Dior and Dreaming of Chanel, sharing the stories of the women who wore the clothes before they came into her possession. But words are not enough – reading about a Chanel suit is not the same as being able to see a Chanel suit in the flesh. And so the QUT Art Museum is bringing these stories to life with the Dreaming of Chanel exhibition. Curated by Nadia Buick, Dreaming of Chanel showcases 40 pieces from the Darnell collection, bringing Smith’s stories to life and giving lovers of fashion a glimpse into the collection that most can only dream of. The exhibition runs every day from August 26 to October 16, giving you 51 chances to ogle and dream about a Chanel collection of your very own.
For the past couple of years, Woolloongabba's South City Square has played host to a sprawling market setup every now and then — and it's back. Get ready to browse your way around a collection of stalls selling plenty of items from 10am–2pm on Sunday, October 23. That's when The Market Folk will once again take over the place, putting on a spring pop-up. We hope you like clothes, jewellery, ceramics, plants, pots, homewares and art, because you'll find it all here. Expect a big focus on design — so you won't be browsing and buying just any old wares. More than 45 local boutiques will be selling items, and it all tales place in a brick-lined, industrial-style space — which'll make you feel like you're wandering around a European-style market. As well as the shopping, live music and creative workshops are also on the bill. There'll be bites to eat as well, thanks to a range of food trucks.
When the middle-of-the-week blues hit, there are two solutions. Hitting a bar for a midweek drink is a tried-and-tested pick-me-up, while listening to someone else sing away their troubles also remains an old favourite. Acoustic Wednesdays, The Triffid's Wednesday night acoustic session, combines both — and the free music series is livening up your hump day almost every week. The music lineup changes each time, but that just means that you've got multiple excuses to head along. The Triff usually announces its artists in monthly batches — and if you make a music date for Wednesday, February 23, you'll be seeing Meg Ripps take the mic, as well as Karlou. In March, Zander Rhodes and Georgie Taylor are on the bill on March 2, Zoe Quinn and Cryss Coleman on March 9, Harry Kidd and Nick Marks on March 23, and Ryan Nak and Nathan MT on March 30 These talented performers will do their unamplified thing and make your midweek brighter, with the laidback festivities taking over the Newstead hangout at 6.30pm. The venue's relaxed beer garden proves the perfect place for it, and an ideal spot for grabbing a few beverages — and even a bite to eat.
It won six Oscars, was nominated for four more, and made a mint at the box office — and now Mad Max: Fury Road has been named the best Australian movie of the 21st century so far by the country's film critics. George Miller's high-octane post-apocalyptic effort — the fourth in his Mad Max franchise, which came 30 years after the series' third instalment — was picked as the top recent local effort in the biggest survey of Aussie critics ever conducted. And it's in great company, with the top 25 spanning plenty of highlights from the industry's last 18 years. Crime drama Animal Kingdom nabbed second place, while Samson & Delilah, Chopper and Lantana rounded out the top five — and everything from The Babadook to Sweet Country to Snowtown also ranked highly. It's a list big on drama, though musical Moulin Rouge! was 11th, comedies The Dish and Kenny came in at 16th and 20th respectively, documentary Sherpa took 21st position and the animated effort Mary and Max secured 22nd spot. The survey was conducted by Australian film website Flicks.com.au, with 51 critics — 26 male, 25 female — taking part. David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz were among the participants, unsurprisingly, with other critics hailing from a wide range of major news outlets, trade publications, magazines, commercial and community radio, websites, podcasts, TV and blogs. Disclaimer: Sarah Ward participated in Flicks.com.au's Australian film poll, and contributes to the site. She is also one of Concrete Playground's senior film writers and weekend editor.
UPDATE, December 20, 2022: Everything Everywhere All At Once is available to stream via Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Imagine living in a universe where Michelle Yeoh isn't the wuxia superstar she is. No, no one should want to dwell in that reality. Now, envisage a world where everyone has hot dogs for fingers, including the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon icon. Next, picture another where Ratatouille is real, but with raccoons. Then, conjure up a sparse realm where life only exists in sentient rocks. An alternative to this onslaught of pondering: watching Everything Everywhere All At Once, which throws all of the above at the screen and a helluva lot more. Yes, its title is marvellously appropriate. Written and directed by the Daniels, aka Swiss Army Man's Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, this multiverse-hopping wonder is a funhouse of a film that just keeps spinning through wild and wacky ideas. Instead of asking "what if Daniel Radcliffe was a farting corpse that could be used as a jet ski?" as their also-surreal debut flick did, the pair now muses on Yeoh, her place in the universe, and everyone else's along with her. Although Yeoh doesn't play herself in Everything Everywhere All At Once, she is seen as herself; keep an eye out for red-carpet footage from her Crazy Rich Asians days. Such glitz and glamour isn't the norm for middle-aged Chinese American woman Evelyn Wang, her laundromat-owning character in the movie's main timeline, but it might've been if life had turned out differently. That's such a familiar train of thought — a resigned sigh we've all emitted, even if only when alone — and the Daniels use it as their foundation. This isn't a movie that stays static, however, or wants to. Both dizzying and dazzling in its ambitions, the way it brings those bold aims to fruition, the tender emotions it plays with and the sheer spectacle it flings around, Everything Everywhere All At Once is a magnificent dildo-slinging, glitter cannon-shooting, endlessly bobbing and weaving whirlwind. Everything Everywhere All At Once is the movie version of a matryoshka set, too. While Russian Doll nods that way as well, the possibilities are clearly endless when exploring stacked worlds. Multiverses are Hollywood's current big thing — the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Extended Universe, the Sony Spider-Man Universe and Star Trek have them, and Rick and Morty adores them — but the concept here is equally chaotic and clever. It starts with Evelyn, her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom's Short Round and The Goonies' Data) and a hectic time. Evelyn's dad (James Hong, Turning Red) is visiting from China, the Wangs' daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) brings her girlfriend Becky (Tallie Medel, The Carnivores) home, and IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Jamie Lee Curtis, Halloween Kills) is conducting a punishing audit. Then Evelyn learns she's the only one who can save, well, everything, everywhere and everyone. There's a great gag in that revelation, playing smartly yet savagely with perspective — because Everything Everywhere All At Once is all about how we choose to see things. Imagine trudging over to your local tax department, trolley full of receipts in hand and possible financial ruin in front of you, only to be told mid soul-crushing bureaucratic babble that it all means nothing since the very fate of the universe is at stake. But, at the same time, imagine realising that it's the simplest things that mean the most when space, time, existence and every emotion possible is all on the line. Although that isn't how a different version of Waymond puts it to Evelyn, it's what sparkles through as she's swiftly initiated into a battle against dimension-jumping villain Jobu Tapaki, discovers that she can access multiple other iterations of herself by eating chapsticks and purposefully slicing herself with paper cuts, and gets sucked into a reality-warping kaleidoscope. For Evelyn 1.0, everything the film throws her way is overwhelming, unsurprisingly. The Daniels have done a stellar job of ensuring viewers feel the same. Everything Everywhere All At Once splashes around more gleefully overstuffed absurdity than even a 139-minute-long movie can usually handle, but relentlessness is part of the point. When you're making Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse meets Inception meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets The Matrix meets Hong Kong marital-arts cinema, a notion few folks in any multiverse could dream up, havoc comes with the territory. As shot by Larkin Seiple (Swiss Army Man) and edited by Paul Rogers (Scheinert's solo flick The Death of Dick Long) with unfaltering flair that's 100-percent designed to overload the senses, that on-screen anarchy is what makes the movie so immersive and Evelyn's plight so relatable. And, it's essential to anchoring the feature's 'nothing matters, everything is fleeting, revel in the small stuff' mantra. While it was penned for Jackie Chan, Yeoh is the movie's chosen one well beyond the script. Her casting lets the Daniels see acting stardom in one of Evelyn's other lives, but it's her flexibility and grounding that's crucial. Everything Everywhere All At Once walks such a thin tightrope between the raucous and the ridiculous that plenty could've faltered. In another universe, it did. But always beating away at the centre of this film in this reality, amid the countless costume changes, hairstyles and all (with enormous credit due to the inventive behind-the-scenes teams), is Yeoh. She deploys the quiet ferocity that's marked her performances for four decades, and twists through everything from existential malaise and intergenerational trauma to the everyday struggle that is living a life, including as a mother and wife, that's worlds away from your hopes and dreams. Yeoh is a joy to watch in whatever is lucky to have her — including Last Christmas, Boss Level, Gunpowder Milkshake and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings recently — and her work here shakes her entire career to-date together, then lets the best, boldest and most bizarre possibilities shine. Everything Everywhere All At Once is a tribute to its lead as much as anything else, but it's also so much else: a marvellous calling card for Hsu, a glorious return for the exceptional Quan, and a movie that makes weird and wonderful use of Curtis, too. It's an anything-goes free-fall through interdimensional mania where everything does and can happen — as brilliantly choreographed — and a clear-eyed examination of the ties and troubles of family, of uprooting your existence to strive for a future that mightn't come, and of weathering the mundane and the sublime in tandem. It's a whirl, a swirl, a trip, a blast and a juggle as well and, in this universe, the Daniels wouldn't have it any other way.
There are lots of ways you can throw your support behind native wildlife conservation, but there's no doubt which one is the tastiest. That would be the new Koala Choc Caramel ice cream the team at Paddle Pop has created in collaboration with wildlife rescue organisation WIRES. Hitting shelves today, Monday, September 7, the koala-shaped frozen treat marks the start of an ongoing partnership between the two groups, which aims to help raise awareness for koala conservation projects across the country. The themed ice cream features a blend of chocolate and caramel, made with all-Aussie dairy products. It's debuting at convenience and petrol stores from this week, scheduled to hit Coles and IGA stores later this month. If you're in NSW, you can pick one up from Sydney Zoo, which, throughout September and October, is also donating ten percent of all Koala Paddle Pop sales to WIRES. It's fitting timing for both the ice cream launch and the announcement of the new joint venture, as Australia today celebrates National Threatened Species Day. Paddle Pop's two-year partnership with WIRES also launches at an important time, with a report released by the NSW government estimating that 5000 koalas — a third of the state's population — were wiped up by last summer's devastating bushfires. The Streets ice cream brand will help support three of WIRES' key initiatives, including the Water Drinkers Project — which aims to install 800 animal water drinkers in drought- and bushfire-impacted areas — and the Koala Rehabilitation Facilities program, planning new facilities to help a variety of native species. It'll also support the Koala Health Hub at the University of Sydney, backing its research, management and education efforts. Find the new Koala Choc Caramel Paddle Pop at convenience and petrol stores, as well as at Sydney Zoo, from September 7. It'll hit shelves at your local Coles and IGA stores later this month.
Take a historical figure, but someone from several centuries back who isn't a worldwide household name. Use them as the basis for a new comedy series which doesn't promise to stick to the facts for a second. And, enlist famous hilarity-inspiring folks to tell the tale. The above description sums up Our Flag Means Death, which has sadly departed the streaming seas after being cancelled following a two-season run. It also fits Apple TV+'s upcoming six-part effort The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, with The Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding in the titular role. Where Our Flag Means Death's Stede Bonnet was an 18th-century pirate, The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin's namesake stuck to land in the same era as a highwayman. You can look up how his story turned out, or you can see how the series gives it the comic treatment from Friday, March 1, as it follows Turpin and his gang of fellow outlaws. As the just-dropped trailer demonstrates, working in plenty of dick jokes — well, it is the show's main character's moniker — is high on The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin's agenda. So is Fielding in his usual comic mode, as seen on The Great British Bake Off and Never Mind the Buzzcocks as well. Turpin's quest: to evade the corrupt Jonathan Wilde (Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey: A New Era), who fancies himself as a thief-taker, and just generally stay alive. And if you're wondering what kind of antics are in store, Fielding is also one of the series' writers, so anything could happen. Wild costume changes are a given. So is Fielding playing charming but chaotic. "I know what you're thinking: who is this guy with the incredible cheek bones? Where does he get his hair done? One day, I'll be the most-famous highway man in all of England," Turpin tells a crowd to start of the show's sneak peek — only for it to be revealed that he's standing on a gallows, about to be hanged. Joining Fielding in the cast: Ellie White (Wonka), Marc Wootton (High & Dry), Duayne Boachie (You Don't Know Me), Tamsin Greig (Sexy Beast), Asim Chaudhry (Barbie), Dolly Wells (The Outlaws) and Joe Wilkinson (Sex Education) — and also Noel's brother Michael (also The Mighty Boosh) and his Never Mind the Buzzcocks host Greg Davies (The Cleaner). Check out the trailer for The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin below: The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin streams via Apple TV+ from Friday, March 1, 2024.
Stare at The False Mirror at Magritte, one of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' just-announced big summer exhibitions, and the masterpiece of a painting from 1929 will peer right back. One of Belgian surrealist René Magritte's most-famous creations, the piece features a giant eye looking at the viewer, while also filled with a cloudy blue sky. It's an unforgettable work, and it's one of the stars of the 2024–25 Sydney International Art Series. Another striking painting that's hitting the Harbour City from Saturday, October 26, 2024–Sunday, February 9, 2025: Golconda, Magritte's 1953 work that brings two other pieces of popular culture to mind. Just try not to think about Mary Poppins and The Weather Girls' song 'It's Raining Men' while you feast your eyes on the sight of bowler hat-wearing men streaming down from the heavens. [caption id="attachment_959955" align="alignnone" width="1920"] René Magritte 'Golconda (Golconde)' 1953, oil on canvas, 80 x 100.3 cm, The Menil Collection, Houston, V 414 © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo: Paul Hester.[/caption] At Magritte, which is exclusive to Sydney, The False Mirror, Golconda and 1952's The Listening Room (La Chambre d'Écoute) — which shows an oversized apple — will have ample company at AGNSW's south building Naala Nura. In total, 100-plus works are set to display. This will not only be a huge retrospective dedicated to the artist, but also Australia's first retrospective dedicated to the artist. More than 80 of the pieces will be paintings, demonstrating why he's considered one of the most-influential figures in 20th-century surrealism; however, archival materials, photographs and films will also feature. Sydney International Art Series isn't just about one major exclusive showcase, of course. From Saturday, November 30, 2024–Sunday, April 13, 2025, AGNSW will also host Cao Fei: My City. Over at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia from Friday, November 29, 2024–Sunday, April 27, 2025, Julie Mehretu will be on display as well. [caption id="attachment_959956" align="alignnone" width="1920"] René Magritte 'The listening room (La chambre d'écoute)' 1952, oil on canvas, 45.2 x 55.2 cm, The Menil Collection, Houston, gift of Fariha Friedrich, 1991-53 DJ © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo: Adam Baker.[/caption] Cao Fei: My City is also an Australian-first retrospective and the largest showcase of its namesake's pieces Down Under, putting the Guangzhou-born, Beijing-based artist in the spotlight. Expect cyber futurism to grace AGNSW's walls in a 1300-square-metre space in Naala Badu, the gallery's south building, as part of an exhibition designed by Cao Fei with Hong Kong's Beau Architects. Your entry point: a replica of a Beijing cinema from the 60s. And your exit point isn't a gift shop, but a Sydney yum cha restaurant. As for Julie Mehretu, it will be the southern hemisphere's first major survey of the Ethiopia-born, New York-raised artist's output, spanning over 80 paintings and works. Some will date back as far as 1995. Others have been created just for the exhibition. Mehretu herself will also be in Sydney for the showcase's opening. [caption id="attachment_959957" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cao Fei 'Nova' 2019, single-channel HD video, colour, 5.1 sound, 97:13 min, 2.35:1 © Cao Fei, Vitamin Creative. Courtesy Sprüth Magers.[/caption] "Magritte and Cao Fei are giants of their respective times and leading figures in both the modern and contemporary art worlds. Magritte will consider the Belgian artist's groundbreaking contribution to surrealism in an exhibition that highlights the uniqueness and independence of his artistic vision. This Art Gallery-exclusive exhibition will give Australian audiences the chance to experience Magritte's practice in deeper and more profound ways than ever before, providing a real glimpse into the evolution of his practice," said Art Gallery of New South Wales Director Michael Brand. "Naala Badu, our new SANAA-designed building, allows us to stage inventive kinds of exhibitions as never before, and the imaginative format of Cao Fei: My City is Yours befits the playfulness of one of the world's most prominent and innovative living artists. This exhibition builds upon the Art Gallery's proud history of staging exhibitions of Chinese art since the 1940s, and with this show we celebrate the pioneering creativity of this globally acclaimed artist, as well as the boundless possibilities that art offers for deeper understanding and connection. With both Cao Fei and Magritte on show this summer, we have an unmissable offering for visitors to Sydney and local art lovers alike," Brand continued. [caption id="attachment_959961" align="alignnone" width="1920"] TRANSpaintings (green ecstatic), 2023–24, courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery; TRANSpaintings (emergence), 2023–24, courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery; TRANSpaintings (recurrence), 2023, Pinault Collection; TRANSpaintings (skull), 2023, courtesy the artist and White Cube; TRANSpaintings (mask), 2023, courtesy the artist and White Cube; Your Eyes are two blind eagles, That Kill what they can't see, 2022–23, private collection. Installation view, Julie Mehretu. Ensemble, 2024, Palazzo Grassi, Venezia. Ph. Marco Cappelletti © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection.[/caption] "The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is delighted to be presenting to audiences in Australia this remarkable exhibition by an artist who is undoubtedly one of today's most exciting living painters, and whose dynamic language of abstraction speaks so powerfully to the contemporary world in which we live," added MCA Australia Director Suzanne Cotter about the Julie Mehretu exhibition. "The experience of Mehretu's paintings is nothing short of a visual and physical event. We are proud to present this year's Sydney International Art Series with Julie Mehretu to build upon the MCA's history of introducing to the public in Australia the work of today's most influential artists." [caption id="attachment_959954" align="alignnone" width="1920"] René Magritte 'The false mirror (Le faux miroir)' 1929, oil on canvas, 54 x 80.9 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 133.1936 © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo © The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence 2024.[/caption] Sydney International Art Series 2024–25: Saturday, October 26, 2024–Sunday, February 9, 2025 — Magritte, Art Gallery of NSW Friday, November 29, 2024–Sunday, April 27, 2025 — Julie Mehretu, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia Saturday, November 30, 2024–Sunday, April 13, 2025 — Cao Fei: My City, Art Gallery of NSW [caption id="attachment_959963" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cao Fei 'Nova' 2019, single-channel HD video, colour, 5.1 sound, 97:13 min, 2.35:1 © Cao Fei, Vitamin Creative. Courtesy Sprüth Magers.[/caption] Sydney International Art Series 2024–25 runs from October 2024 — head to the AGNSW and MCA websites for further details. Top image: excerpt of René Magritte 'The false mirror (Le faux miroir)' 1929, oil on canvas, 54 x 80.9 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 133.1936 © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo © The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence 2024.
UPDATE, Friday, June 21, 2024: Anatomy of a Fall is available to stream via Stan, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. The calypso instrumental cover of 'P.I.M.P.' isn't the only thing that Anatomy of a Fall's audience can't dislodge from their heads after watching 2023's deserving Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winner and 2024's five-time Oscar-nominee. A film that's thorny, knotty and defiantly unwilling to give any easy answers, this legal, psychological and emotional thriller about a woman on trial for her husband's death is unshakeable in as many ways as someone can have doubts about another person: so, a myriad. This is a movie about truth that's really a feature about trust and perception. Indeed, delivering a definitive solution and explanation isn't filmmaker Justine Triet's focus. Helming her fourth full-length picture and becoming an Academy Award contender for Best Director in the process, the French talent doesn't serve up neat true crime-style closure, either, but she unflinchingly knows that the world has been conditioned to want every query and mystery — every uncertainty as well — wrapped up conclusively and categorically. The scenario conjured up by Age of Panic, Victoria and Sibyl's Triet is deeply haunting, asking not only if her protagonist Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller, Sisi & I) committed murder, as the on-screen investigation and courtroom proceedings interrogate, but digging into what it means to be forced to choose between whether someone did the worst or is innocent — or if either matters. While the Gallic legal system and its specifics provide the backdrop for much of the Anatomy of a Fall, the real person doing the real picking isn't there in a professional capacity, or on a jury. Rather, it's 11-year-old Daniel (Milo Machado Graner, Alex Hugo), who has a visual impairment, finds his dad Samuel (Samuel Theis, Softie) in the snow with a head injury outside their French Alps home on an otherwise ordinary day, then becomes the key witness in his mum's case. Returning from a walk with his dog Snoop, the boy didn't see what happened, but he's the closest thing that detectives have to an onlooker. Novelist and translator Sandra is introduced with that clanging version of one of 50 Cent's best-known songs echoing, a graduate student (Camille Rutherford, The Night of the 12th) interviewing her about her work and successful career in the family's remote chalet and, as he undertakes renovations upstairs, teacher Samuel turning up the soundtrack to distracting levels. Within an hour in the film's timeline and mere minutes for viewers, the latter will be dead via a fall from the home's topmost floor. When the inquiries start, Sandra says that she was asleep post-chat. Already, a wealth of details give rise to questions. Was Samuel blasting tunes to sabotage his wife's discussion? Also, why that particular track? Sipping wine as she talked, was the bisexual Sandra flirting? Did that raise her husband's ire? Do his and her actions alike that day scream volumes about the state of their marriage? Did she really not hear the incident? Was it an accident, suicide or was she responsible? Anatomy of a Fall is always a film about questions, too — and the reality that, in life-and-death situations and everyday circumstances, they never stop springing in any relationship. The police can't make a clearcut decision either way based on the available evidence, hence the presumption of murder, Sandra as the prime suspect and the shift to court. Fittingly co-writing the script with her IRL partner Arthur Harari (Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle), Triet's poising of Anatomy of a Fall's opening moments as fuel for scrutinising Sandra and Samuel's union is savvy is another way: it sets up an entire feature where their wedded bliss — or lack thereof, as quickly becomes apparent — is probed, audited and analysed. The stakes are immense, but pondering how any long-term romance can hold up to such a dissection is one of the film's many takeaways. The questions swirl again, sifting through infidelities, guilt over the accident that caused Daniel to lose his sight, the division of household tasks, gender roles, mental health, professional rivalries, at-any-cost moves, past fights and how the couple's son was caught in the middle long before he's now asked to say whether his father, who homeschooled him, was killed by his mother. A picture as intelligent and exacting as this — and as taut, tense and tenacious — isn't short of unforgettable elements. Again, the whole feature earns that description, as does its unpacking of intimate connections. Also high on the list: the performances that are so crucial in telling this tale of marital and parental bonds, especially from one of Germany's current best actors. Although her similarly astonishing portrayal in The Zone of Interest is following Anatomy of a Fall to screens Down Under, arriving in February 2024, Toni Erdmann and I'm Your Man's Hüller is two for two in movies that initially debuted globally in 2023, collected awards at Cannes (The Zone of Interest picked up the Grand Prix, aka second place in the festival's official competition), rightly received Oscar attention and are anchored by her complex portrayals of women who refuse to meet anyone's expectations but their own. Here, she steps into an icy and complicated figure's shoes with the same surgical precision that Triet applies to rifling through the character's home life (that Sandra would rather speak English with her spouse despite him being French and them living in France isn't just a minor tidbit). In flashbacks to disagreements with Samuel and with her freedom on the line, Anatomy of a Fall's accused is unwaveringly unapologetic in her insistence to put herself first — as it's plain that both the prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz, Irma Vep) and defence attorney (Swann Arlaud, About Joan) on the case can see — and Hüller at her steeliest best, always devastatingly naturalistically so, is formidable in the part. She's the one with the Academy Award nod for acting; however, the up-and-coming French talent playing her son is also exceptional. In fact, as Daniel, who couldn't be more conflicted about the nightmare situation that he's been thrust into, Graner is a revelation, frequently via his expressive face and posture alone. If Scenes From a Marriage met Kramer vs Kramer, plus 1959's Anatomy of a Murder that patently influences Anatomy of a Fall's name, this would be the gripping end result. Tearing into a relationship — and tearing it apart — feels nothing less than brutal in Triet's hands; every realisation about human nature in love and life that resounds along the way feels decidedly accurate, though. There's an aspect of Gone Girl to her masterful feature, too. While this isn't a film with a "cool girl" monologue, the societal expectations placed upon women, and on mothers, are firmly pushed to the fore. Take note of the fact that cinematographer Simon Beaufils (Antoinette in the Cévennes) is often looking up at Hüller as well: whatever Sandra did or didn't do, whatever Daniel does or doesn't choose to believe, and wherever audiences land — again, there's no simple resolution here — being a victim, or allowing herself to be seen that way, isn't part of the character's anatomy.
Another one down: in a year that keeps bringing bad news for music lovers and festivalgoers, Spilt Milk has joined the long list of events that aren't going ahead in 2024. In 2023, the touring event announced its lineup in July. As the month draws to a close this year, it has revealed that there'll be no Spilt Milk again until 2025 rolls around. The festival advised of its 2024 cancellation via social media, in a brief and informal post on Friday, July 26. "Sorry pookies, we couldn't get you the Spilt Milk you deserve this year," the announcement begins. "Sooo imma dip for a bit and come back when I can make all ur dreams come true. i miss u xx," it continues. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Spilt Milk (@spiltmilk_au) Last year, Post Malone, Dom Dolla, Latto, Tkay Maidza and Aitch led the Spilt Milk lineup, hitting up a fest that plays Canberra, Gold Coast, Ballarat and Perth. Talent details hadn't yet been advised for this year, unlike two other big festivals that also haven't taken place as normal. Both Groovin the Moo and Splendour in the Grass dropped lineups, then scrapped this year's fests mere weeks later. Australia's music festival scene has been suffering of late, with Summergrounds Music Festival, which was meant to debut at Sydney Festival 2024, also ditching its plans. As announced in 2023, Dark Mofo took a breather this year — and Mona Foma, the summer fest also held by Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art, advised that its 2024 event was its last ever. Yours and Owls has postponed its next fest until 2025, too, but is hosting a pre-party in October this year. [caption id="attachment_851187" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jordan Munns[/caption] Originally only popping up in Canberra, then expanding to Ballarat, then the Gold Coast and finally also to Perth, multi-city one-dayer Spilt Milk had cemented its spot as a must-attend event on the annual Aussie calendar, including for its lineups — and for its food offering as well, which spanned bites to eat from Chebbo's Burgers, 400 Gradi, Chicken Treat, and the BBQ and Beer Roadshow in 2023. Flume, Stormzy and The Wombats were named as headliners in 2022 — the first Spilt Milk since the pandemic began — although Stormzy subsequently dropped out and cancelled his Australian tour. Khalid and Chvrches topped the bill in 2019, and Childish Gambino did the honours in 2018. [caption id="attachment_851188" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jordan Munns[/caption] [caption id="attachment_674160" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cole Bennetts[/caption] [caption id="attachment_674158" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pat Stevenson[/caption] Spilt Milk isn't taking place in 2024, and instead plans to return to Canberra, Ballarat, the Gold Coast and Perth in 2025. Head to the festival website for more information. Top image: Billy Zammit.
UPDATE, December 17, 2022: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery screened in cinemas from Wednesday, November 23–Tuesday, November 29, then streams via Netflix from Friday, December 23. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery opens with a puzzle box inside a puzzle box. The former is a wooden cube delivered out of the blue, the latter the followup to 2019 murder-mystery hit Knives Out, and both are as tightly, meticulously, cleverly and cannily orchestrated as each other. The physical version has siblings, all sent to summon a motley crew of characters to the same place, as these types of flicks need to boast. The film clearly has its own brethren, and slots in beside its predecessor as one of the genre's gleaming standouts. More Knives Out movies will follow as well, which the two so far deserve to keep spawning as long as writer/director Rian Johnson (Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi) and Benoit Blanc-playing star Daniel Craig (No Time to Die) will make them. Long may they keep the franchise's key detective and audience alike sleuthing. Long may they have everyone revelling in every twist, trick and revelation, as the breezy blast that is Glass Onion itself starts with. What do Connecticut Governor and US Senate candidate Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn, WandaVision), model-slash-designer-slash-entrepreneur Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon), scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr, The Many Saints of Newark) and gun-toting, YouTube-posting men's rights activist Duke Cody (Dave Bautista, Thor: Love and Thunder) all have in common when this smart and savvy sequel kicks off? They each receive those literal puzzle boxes, of course, and they visibly enjoy their time working out what they're about. The cartons are the key to their getaway to Greece — their invites, in fact — and also perfectly emblematic of this entire feature. It's noteworthy that this quartet carefully but playfully piece together clues to unveil the contents inside, aka Glass Onion's exact modus operandi. That said, it's also significant that a fifth recipient of these elaborate squares simply decides to smash their way inside with a hammer. As Brick and Looper also showed, Johnson knows when to attentively dole out exactly what he needs to; however, he also knows when to let everything spill out. Claire, Birdie, Lionel and Duke share something else: they're all considered "disruptors" by tech mogul Miles Bron (Edward Norton, The French Dispatch), form part of his inner circle and get together annually for one-percenter vacations on his dime. He's behind their unexpected packages and their latest lavish getaway, which takes them not only to a picturesque private island, but also to a sprawling mansion decked out with a glimmering dome he actually calls a glass onion. Also in attendance is Miles' former business partner Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe, Antebellum), with whom nothing ended well, which gives the trip a skin of tension. And, there's the cravat-wearing Blanc, who couldn't be a better addition to the guest list — Miles has corralled this distinctive cohort for a weekend-long whodunnit party, after all. Blanc doesn't quote Sherlock Holmes and proclaim "the game is afoot" in Glass Onion, as he did the first time around, but it is. Several are. Miles wants his visitors to solve his own faux murder, but soon there's a real death slicing into what's meant to be a fun jaunt. Everyone is a suspect, because that's how this setup works. The Southern-drawled Blanc's presence proves mighty handy, swiftly segueing into "world's greatest detective" mode. No one needs him to glean the murder-mystery fundamentals, though. As told with an initially more linear narrative, little is what it seems on this swanky, intricately crafted vacation, including among the mostly high-achieving but secretly spatting group. And yes, as the bickering and backstabbing gets bloody — and the fast-paced story keeps unfurling — everyone has a motive. The Knives Out films can be enjoyed as pure on-screen rounds of Cluedo of the most entertaining kind, and as self-aware, affectionate and intelligent detective puzzles in the Agatha Christie mould. With their sharpness, mischievousness and effervescence, they easily show up the author's most recent page-to-screen adaptations, aka the clunky latest Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. Johnson also has the keenest of eyes for ensuring that every inch of every frame and every detail in every set entices and teases, with impressive help from his now six-time cinematographer Steve Yedlin, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power production designer Rick Heinrichs and returning costumer Jenny Eagan. His whodunnit flicks get viewers gleefully playing along, lapping up surprises and thrills. And yet at the same time, they have audiences happily sitting back for the ride as both Johnson and the never-more-delightful Craig do their best. Everyone's doing stellar work in Glass Onion, especially the killer cast. This is the latest of many, many starry crews with a murderer in their midst —see also: fellow 2022 releases Bodies Bodies Bodies and See How They Run — and it's superbly compiled, including Jessica Henwick (The Gray Man) as Birdie's exasperated assistant, Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks) as Duke's girlfriend and a heap of genre-adoring cameos. As a sweep-you-long feature, the film serves up the sheer pleasure of watching its actors play their parts with such aplomb, and also benefits from fleshing out its characters before there's a body count. There needs to be such meat on this movie's bones, and more than merely one-note pawns on its board, because getting biting and blistering — and also being timely and topical — is another of the series' ongoing highlights. A more-cash-than-sense billionaire making a mess? The entitled, privileged set doing anything for money, and to uphold their status and lifestyles? Yes, the Knives Out franchise is eating the rich again, this time on a The White Lotus-esque holiday. Accusations zip around Glass Onion with frequency, potency and a sting, but no one can accuse Johnson of just repeating himself. As an early reference to Bach's 'Fugue in G minor' nods at, this is an onion of a flick that stacks its layers atop each other to create something new, and shines in a different way with each one. Also, where plenty of sequels to successful pictures rinse and repeat, this instead builds a fresh game out of similar but never identical pieces. A case in point: the decision to set the movie in May 2020, when the pandemic is all that most people were thinking about, and lockdown life was far, far removed from international travel, pool dips and cocktails with a view. That choice brings more sight gags, like Birdie's pointless mesh mask, but more importantly it lets the film dice up its targets with more force. They're squabbling and slaying in luxury while everyone else was staring at their own four walls for months on end, and doesn't this new gem cut them up for it.
A drug kingpin disappearing into a new life, clashing cousins, voting popes, a veteran actor trying to reclaim her career with the help of a mysterious liquid, Adrien Brody surviving history's horrors again, fierce tennis competitors: films about all of the above have earned Golden Globes in 2025. Stressed-out chefs, stand-up comedy greats, Japanese warriors, Gotham villains, determined detectives: TV shows about them are all also in the same category. And, they each have a heap of company. Held on Monday, January 6 Australian and New Zealand time, this year's Golden Globes ceremony started with host Nikki Glaser cracking gags about everything from Dune: Part Two's running time to Nicole Kidman making awards-nominated work to get away from Keith Urban's strumming and Adam Sandler pronouncing Timothée Chalamet's name. It then threw in excited shouts and enthusiastic speeches aplenty among the winners. Picking up the first award of the night — but not the only award for Emilia Pérez — Zoe Saldaña (Special Ops: Lioness) delivered both alone. Other highlights from the hijinks: Catherine O'Hara (The Wild Robot) and Seth Rogen (Mufasa: The Lion King), co-stars in upcoming streaming series The Studio, making up a whole lot of accolades for fake Canadian projects; The White Lotus favourite Jennifer Coolidge being Jennifer Coolidge; Emilia Pérez songwriter Camille calling the whole shebang "such an American experience"; and Vin Diesel (Fast X) starting his presenting stint with "hey Dwayne". And more standouts among the awards: gorgeous Latvian independent animation Flow taking out its category, in the first time that a movie from the nation has been at the Golden Globes; Kieran Culkin winning the supporting actor Succession battle for A Real Pain over Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice; Shogun's well-deserved swag of gongs; Demi Moore's touching sentiments about believing in your own value; A Different Man winner Sebastian Stan demanding that tough films still get made; and also Feranda Torres emerging victorious for I'm Still Here over Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl), Angelina Jolie (Maria), Tilda Swinton (The Room Next Door) and Kate Winslet (Lee). Not every ace nominee could snag a statuette, of course. Not every worthy movie and TV series even made the roster of contenders. They're truths that everyone should remember at every awards ceremony. Still, the rundown of newly minted 2025 Golden Globe winners spans an array of deserving folks and projects — and comes in less than a fortnight before the Oscars joins in, announcing its nominees on Saturday, January 17 Down Under time. Will the Academy Awards follow in these footsteps? And the Emmys later in the year, too? What else received some love? Here's the full list of 2025's Golden Globe winners and nominees (and you can also check out our rundown of victorious films and TV shows to watch right now): 2025 Golden Globe Winners and Nominees Best Motion Picture — Drama The Brutalist — WINNER A Complete Unknown Conclave Dune: Part Two Nickel Boys September 5 Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy Anora Challengers Emilia Pérez — WINNER A Real Pain The Substance Wicked Best Motion Picture — Animated Flow — WINNER Inside Out 2 Memoir of a Snail Moana 2 Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl The Wild Robot Cinematic and Box Office Achievement Alien: Romulus Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Deadpool & Wolverine Gladiator II Inside Out 2 Twisters Wicked — WINNER The Wild Robot Best Motion Picture — Non-English Language All We Imagine as Light Emilia Pérez — WINNER The Girl with the Needle I'm Still Here The Seed of the Sacred Fig Vermiglio Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl Angelina Jolie, Maria Nicole Kidman, Babygirl Tilda Swinton, The Room Next Door Fernanda Torres, I'm Still Here — WINNER Kate Winslet, Lee Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama Adrien Brody, The Brutalist — WINNER Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown Daniel Craig, Queer Colman Domingo, Sing Sing Ralph Fiennes, Conclave Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy Amy Adams, Nightbitch Cynthia Erivo, Wicked Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez Mikey Madison, Anora Demi Moore, The Substance — WINNER Zendaya, Challengers Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain Hugh Grant, Heretic Gabriel Labelle, Saturday Night Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness Glen Powell, Hit Man Sebastian Stan, A Different Man — WINNER Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture Selena Gomez, Emilia Pérez Ariana Grande, Wicked Felicity Jones, The Brutalist Margaret Qualley, The Substance Isabella Rossellini, Conclave Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez — WINNER Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture Yura Borisov, Anora Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain — WINNER Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown Guy Pearce, The Brutalist Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice Denzel Washington, Gladiator II Best Director — Motion Picture Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez Sean Baker, Anora Edward Berger, Conclave Brady Corbet, The Brutalist — WINNER Coralie Fargeat, The Substance Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine as Light Best Screenplay — Motion Picture Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez Sean Baker, Anora Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain Coralie Fargeat, The Substance Peter Straughan, Conclave — WINNER Best Original Score — Motion Picture Volker Bertelmann, Conclave Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist Kris Bowers, The Wild Robot Clément Ducol, Camille, Emilia Pérez Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Challengers — WINNER Hans Zimmer, Dune: Part Two Best Original Song — Motion Picture 'Beautiful That Way', Andrew Wyatt, Miley Cyrus, Lykke Zachrisson, The Last Showgirl 'Compress / Repress', Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Luca Guadagnino, Challengers 'El Mal', Clément Ducol, Camille, Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez — WINNER 'Forbidden Road', Robbie Williams, Freddy Wexler, Sacha Skarbek, Better Man 'Kiss The Sky', Delacey, Jordan K. Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Maren Morris, Michael Pollack, Ali Tamposi, The Wild Robot 'Mi Camino', Clément Ducol, Camille, Emilia Pérez Best Television Series — Drama The Day of the Jackal The Diplomat Mr & Mrs Smith Shogun — WINNER Slow Horses Squid Game Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy Abbott Elementary The Bear The Gentlemen Hacks — WINNER Nobody Wants This Only Murders in the Building Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Baby Reindeer — WINNER Disclaimer Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story The Penguin Ripley True Detective: Night Country Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series — Drama Kathy Bates, Matlock Emma D'arcy, House of the Dragon Maya Erskine, Mr & Mrs Smith Keira Knightley, Black Doves Keri Russell, The Diplomat Anna Sawai, Shogun — WINNER Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series — Drama Donald Glover, Mr & Mrs Smith Jake Gyllenhaal, Presumed Innocent Gary Oldman, Slow Horses Eddie Redmayne, The Day of the Jackal Hiroyuki Sanada, Shogun — WINNER Billy Bob Thornton, Landman Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Ayo Edebiri, The Bear Selena Gomez, Only Murders in the Building Kathryn Hahn, Agatha All Along Jean Smart, Hacks — WINNER Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This Ted Danson, A Man on the Inside Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building Jason Segel, Shrinking Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building Jeremy Allen White, The Bear — WINNER Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country — WINNER Cristin Milioti, The Penguin Sofía Vergara, Griselda Naomi Watts, Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans Kate Winslet, The Regime Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television Colin Farrell, The Penguin — WINNER Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer Kevin Kline, Disclaimer Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Ewan McGregor, A Gentleman in Moscow Andrew Scott, Ripley Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role on Television Liza Colón-Zayas, The Bear Hannah Einbinder, Hacks Dakota Fanning, Ripley Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Allison Janney, The Diplomat Kali Reis, True Detective: Night Country Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role on Television Tadanobu Asano, Shogun — WINNER Javier Bardem, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Harrison Ford, Shrinking Jack Lowden, Slow Horses Diego Luna, La Máquina Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television Jamie Foxx, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was Nikki Glaser, Nikki Glaser: Someday You'll Die Seth Meyers, Seth Meyers: Dad Man Walking Adam Sandler, Adam Sandler: Love You Ali Wong, Ali Wong: Single Lady — WINNER Ramy Youssef, Ramy Youssef: More Feelings The 2025 Golden Globes were announced on Monday, January 6, Australian and New Zealand time. For further details, head to the awards' website.
UPDATE, January 14, 2022: A Quiet Place Part II is available to stream via Paramount+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. When every noise you make could send savage aliens stalking, slashing and slaughtering your way, it's the waiting that gets you. When you're watching a nerve-rattling horror film about that exact scenario, the same sentiment remains relevant. In A Quiet Place, the Abbott family went into survival mode after vicious creatures invaded, hunted down every sound and dispensed with anyone that crossed their path. For the characters in and viewers of the 2018 hit alike, the experience couldn't have screamed louder with anxiety and anticipation. Evelyn and Lee (Wild Mountain Thyme's Emily Blunt and Detroit's John Krasinski) and their children Regan (Millicent Simmonds, Wonderstruck), Marcus (Noah Jupe, The Undoing) and Beau (Cade Woodward, Avengers: Endgame) all silently bided their time simply trying to stay safe and alive, but their continued existence lingered under a gut-wrenching shadow. The critters were still out there, listening for even a whisper. It was a matter of when, not if, they'd discern the slightest of noises and strike again. That type of waiting drips with tension and suspense, and also with the kind of inevitability that hovers over everyone alive. A certain bleak end awaits us all, a truth we routinely attempt to ignore; however, neither the Abbotts nor A Quiet Place's audience were allowed to forget that grim fact for even a moment. Initially slated to arrive in cinemas two years later, then delayed by the pandemic for 14 months, sequel A Quiet Place Part II isn't done with waiting. The film doesn't shy away from the stress and existential distress that marking time can bring, but it also tasks its characters with actively confronting life's inevitabilities. After an intense and impressive tone-setting opening flashback to the first day of the alien attack, when the Abbotts' sleepy hometown learns of humanity's new threat in the cruellest fashion, the storyline picks up where its predecessor left off. It's day 474 — the earlier film spent most of its duration around day 472 — and Evelyn, Regan, Marcus and the family's newborn are grappling with their losses. That said, they're also keenly aware that they can't stay in their Appalachian farmhouse any longer. After spotting smoke on the horizon and setting off in that direction, they reconnect with Emmett (Cillian Murphy, Peaky Blinders), an old friend who has been through his own traumas. Evelyn sees safety in numbers, but he's reluctant to help. Then Regan hears a looping radio transmission playing 'Beyond the Sea' and decides to track down its source. The plan: find other survivors, and also find a way to get the upper hand over their aggressors, all to stop spending their time simply waiting. A Quiet Place Part II isn't about making do, closing ranks and merely enduring, but about making a concerted choice to try to conquer an immensely difficult situation even when the odds seem insurmountable. No one can ultimately escape death, of course. Still, when it lurks in the form of extra-terrestrials who seem to have borrowed their resourcefulness and reflexes from Jurassic Park's raptors (and their ability to withstand most threats from Terminator 2: Judgment Day's killing machines), you can plan, prepare, fight and outsmart. The first film also used its alien attack story to explore the parental urge to protect children from life's harms, but here, writer/director/co-star Krasinski ponders the realisation that dawns upon all mums and dads eventually: that, despite their best efforts, their kids will always have to face the world's woes on their own terms. Both formidable and maternal — because the 'strong female lead' trope shouldn't exclusively favour the former — Blunt is once again a force to be reckoned with as the doting, wearied but determined Evelyn. But, while she's given top billing, this isn't the Looper, Edge of Tomorrow and Sicario star's film. Krasinski doesn't just broaden out the movie's mindset, themes and slice of dystopian life, but also expands his focus. The feature's second half masterfully intertwines Evelyn's efforts to get supplies, Marcus' struggles while babysitting and Regan's perilous quest, and it's the latter that's given pride of place. And, once more, rising talent Simmonds is exceptional. With her character proving bold, poised and resolved to do her best for her family, the young actor radiates confidence, commitment and fortitude. Indeed, while she could've been left to play sidekick to Murphy in a surrogate father-daughter relationship, there's no doubting that Simmonds is the film's hero — whether or not her character, who is deaf, is using her hearing aid as a weapon. Pushing Regan to the fore, and Simmonds with her, is a smart, savvy, engaging and rewarding move on Krasinski's part — and it's not the only choice he's made that earns that description. The film's aforementioned opening, including a particularly stunning shot set in the thick of the chaos, provides the type of spectacle that most movies can only dream of. (If the actor-turned-filmmaker wanted to dive headfirst into the action genre next, he'd have zero troubles settling in.) A Quiet Place Part II may spend more time squaring off against its aliens, rather than dwelling in a world where they'e an ever-present but often-unseen threat, but it never overplays its hand. In its fast-paced narrative, intimate visuals and pitch-perfect audio, it never simply rehashes its predecessor and hopes that the same successes will spring, either. The Abbotts' mission has evolved, as has the vivid cinematography (by Legion's Polly Morgan) that sees this post-apocalyptic world with a bittersweet eye, and the meticulous, characteristically silence-heavy soundscape as well. While the feature's potency and skill doesn't come as a surprise this time around, and neither does the unsettling unease that comes with all that waiting and those pervasive hushed tones, every second of this stellar sequel is no less thrilling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku4yAbIu6ao A Quiet Place Part II opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday, May 27, with advance screenings over the weekend of Friday, May 21–Sunday, May 23.
"Would you rather wear a hat made of spiders, or have penises for fingers?" It's not just an intriguing question. It's also one of the most memorable lines in modern Australian literature, as anyone who has read Jasper Jones will no doubt agree. Now, thanks to the film adaptation of the best-selling Aussie novel, it's one of the most interesting pieces of dialogue uttered on screen too. That said, pondering such an obviously important topic isn't the only highlight of the beloved book or its new big screen version. For the record though, author Craig Silvey — who wrote the shooting script for movie as well — would choose the first option. Contemplating arachnophobia versus added appendages is one of the lighter moments in a film that starts with a dead teenager, follows the efforts of an outsider to clear his name, and dives into the murky waters of discrimination in a small rural town. At the same time, the seemingly silly question provides an excellent example of exactly the kind of movie that Jasper Jones is. When you're 14 years old, life is filled with mysteries and surprises, both humorous and scary. One moment you're having a laugh with your friend. In the next, you're coming to terms with tragedy, prejudices and the fraught nature of race relations in Australia. After the eponymous Jasper Jones (Aaron McGrath) comes knocking on his bedroom window one summer evening, Charlie Bucktin (Levi Miller) experiences both. By day, he pals around with his best friend (Kevin Long) talking about superheroes and exaggerated dilemmas. By night, he helps Jasper cope with the suspicious death of his girlfriend, for which Jasper fears he will be blamed. That Charlie has a crush on the dearly departed girl's sister (Angourie Rice) complicates matters. That the mixed-race Jasper is viewed with suspicion by most folks in the fictional Western Australian town of Corrigan does too. Australian filmmakers have been keen on coming-of-age tales lately, with Paper Planes and Red Dog: True Blue (which also starred Miller) both gracing cinema screens over the past few years. Still, there's always room for a smart, thoughtful and engaging take on a well-worn premise, and Bran Nue Day director Rachel Perkins delivers just that. The book has earned comparisons to To Kill A Mockingbird, while Perkins has cited Stand By Me as an influence — and blending the two together perfectly sums up Jasper Jones' charms. Of course, a great text and a fine director are only part of the equation. Jasper Jones wins big on both fronts, but it also benefits from a stellar cast. There's a reason that Miller keeps getting work, and if the gifted Rice seems familiar, that's because she stole the show opposite Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in last year's The Nice Guys. The pair, along with the soulful McGrath and the amusing Long, offer an impressive snapshot into the future of Australian acting talent, which is no easy feat given some of the veterans they're playing against. Toni Collette pops up as Charlie's unhappy mum, and it just wouldn't be a local film without Hugo Weaving doing wearied and grizzled like only he can.
Even in 2020, the most unpredictable of years, the end of November marks two things: the shift to warm summer weather and an influx of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. While we may not celebrate Thanksgiving here in Australia that doesn't mean we can't enjoy some outrageous deals in the lead-up to the holiday season. To help you sort through all the emails and Facebook ads you're being served up right now, we've collected a few of this year's biggest sales in one place for you — so you can pick up between 20 and 70 percent off a new gym outfit, mattress or reusable cup.
