When Flash Camp brought pop-up glamping to Stradbroke Island in 2016, southeast Queenslanders took note. Among them were the folks at Straddie Camping, who've now set up a permanent glamping retreat at the north island's Adder Rock, bringing luxury beachside camping to this idyllic patch of land all year round. Launching just as the weather heads into prime glamp-friendly territory, and just in time for whale migration season, Straddie Camping's Adder Rock setup features a mini-village of ten tents by the beachfront. Blending the novelty of sleeping under the stars with the comforts of home, each comes equipped with cotton sheets, fresh towels, two bamboo chairs and power. Visitors also have access to the camping ground's communal kitchen, barbecue and picnic facilities. And, in addition to the sound of lapping waves, views aplenty and shelter from native tea tree and pandanus forests, the site is also within close proximity to the more touristy part of the island. That means that following up your beachside bliss with a wander up to Point Lookout's shops, restaurant and all-important pub is on the agenda. For those keen to head to every Brisbanite's favourite island for a leisurely stay by the sea, tents are available for the very affordable rate of $99 per night for two people. Getting in quick is recommended, with the retreat certain to prove popular as Queensland's seemingly endless summer sets in. For more information about Straddie Camping, visit their website.
UPDATE, January 25, 2022 — Top End Wedding is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. If Top End Wedding turns Miranda Tapsell into a huge movie star, then the Australian romantic comedy will have done its job. A shining light on local screens since first appearing in The Sapphires in 2012, she's not only the lead in this likeable film, but a co-writer with Joshua Tyler — and she's glowing across both roles. In fact, Tapsell is one of the key elements keeping the amiable movie bubbling, even when it favours well-worn rom-com cliches and tropes. Earlier this year, she was fierce and frank with Nakkiah Lui in their one-episode takeover of Get Krack!n. Now, she's a delight as an overworked Adelaide lawyer who's not only heading home to Darwin to get hitched, but trying to find her runaway mother before the ceremony. It's a familiar setup, in general terms: nuptials beckon, and so does both personal and professional chaos. Lauren (Tapsell) has been at her demanding boss' (Kerry Fox) beck and call for years, striving to secure a promotion. Then her boyfriend Ned (Gwilym Lee) asks for her hand in marriage on the same day that her work wish comes true. Complicating factors include Ned's newly unemployed status, although he doesn't tell Lauren, and the fact that she's only been given ten days to throw the wedding and return to the grind. Landing in the Northern Territory only adds to the couple's woes, especially with Lauren's mum Daffy (Ursula Yovich) gone AWOL, and her dad Trevor (Huw Higginson) spending his time bawling and listening to love ballads in a cupboard. Although there's no shortage of pals (Shari Sebbens, Elaine Crombie and Dalara Williams) on hand to help with the lightning-fast preparations, Lauren won't tie the knot without her mother present. Tracking Daffy down is a task that's easier said than done, sending Top End Wedding's lovebirds on a tour of the NT. While Australian cinema is guilty of using the country's landscape as an additional character to the point of overkill, director Wayne Blair (The Sapphires) and cinematographer Eric Murray Lui (TV's Rosehaven and Black Comedy) make vibrant use of their locations — indeed, their film is as much of a love letter to the region as it is to its leading lady. Of course, one influences the other. Tapsell is a local, and whether wandering through Kakadu National Park or journeying over to the Tiwi Islands, the movie always feels authentic. Crucially, Top End Wedding also overflows with warmth, which assists the film's template-like narrative considerably. It's glaringly easy to see where the story is heading, and more than a few developments strain the bounds of logic. But two details stand out amongst the hen's night shenanigans, anarchic road trips, convenient miscommunications and multiple layers of family mess. Firstly, there's a difference between lazily adhering to genre conventions and deploying them affectionately, with Tapsell and Tyler's script largely falling into the second category. Secondly, the power and tenderness that emanates from the movie's Tiwi Islands-set third act can't be underestimated. A big-screen sight that's even more rare than an Indigenous Aussie rom-com, the film gives the area a huge hug — embracing and including the local community, highlighting the importance of place to Australia's first peoples and culture, and showcasing this underseen part of the country. The feel-good vibe extends to the movie's performances, with Blair's cast all bouncing along. Like the other rom-com reaching cinemas this week, Long Shot, Top End Wedding also owes a debt to the chemistry between its main couple. When contrivance creeps in (such as detouring for a romantic break when it's already been established that everyone is racing against the clock), Tapsell and Lee surge through. Lee has been having just as a great a year as Tapsell, thanks to his bewigged role as Brian May in multiple Oscar-winner Bohemian Rhapsody, and the two actors make an engaging pair. In Top End Wedding, they help charisma, energy and a fond atmosphere mostly overcome familiarity. When the film finds its broad, joyous sweet spot, especially in its back half, it works a charm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoDBvGF9pPU
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 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 through to old and recent favourites, here are our picks for your streaming queue from June's haul. Brand-New Stuff You Can Watch From Start to Finish Now The Bear Serving up another sitting with acclaimed chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White, The Iron Claw), his second-in-charge Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, Inside Out 2) and their team after dishing up one of the best new shows of 2022 and best returning shows of 2023, the third season of The Bear is a season haunted. Creator and writer Christopher Storer (Dickinson, Ramy) — often the culinary dramedy's director as well — wouldn't have it any other way. Every series that proves as swift a success as this, after delivering as exceptional a first and second season as any show could wish for, has the tang of its prior glory left on its lips, so this one tackles the idea head on. How can anyone shake the past at all, good or bad, the latest ten episodes ruminate on as Carmy faces a dream that's come true but hasn't and can't eradicate the lifetime of internalised uncertainty that arises from having an erratic mother, absent father, elder brother he idolised but had his own demons, and a career spent striving to be the best and put his talents to the test in an industry that's so merciless and unforgiving even before you factor in dealing with cruel mentors. Haunting is talked about often in this third The Bear course, but not actually in the sense flavouring every bite that the show's return plates up. In the season's heartiest reminder that it's comic as well as tense and dramatic — its nine Emmy wins for season one, plus four Golden Globes across season one and two, are all in comedy categories — the Faks get to Fak aplenty. While charming Neil (IRL chef Matty Matheson) is loving his role as a besuited server beneath Richie aka Cousin (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, No Hard Feelings), onboard with the latter's commitment to upholding a Michelin star-chasing fine-diner's front-of-house standards and as devoted to being Carmy's best friend as ever, he's also always palling around with his handyman brother Theodore (Ricky Staffieri, Read the Room). They're not the season's only Faks, and so emerges a family game. When one Fak wrongs another, they get haunted, which is largely being taunted and unsettled by someone from basically The Bear equivalent of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Boyles. For it to stop, you need to agree to give in. In Storer's hands, in a series this expertly layered as it picks up in the aftermath of sandwich diner The Original Beef of Chicagoland relaunching as fine-diner The Bear, this isn't just an amusing character-building aside. The Bear streams via Disney+. Read our full review. Hit Man The feeling that Glen Powell should star in everything didn't start with Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You. Writer/director Richard Linklater (Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood) has helped the notion bubble up before as early back as 2006's Fast Food Nation, then with 2016's Everybody Wants Some!! — and now he riffs on it with Hit Man. When viewers want an actor to feature everywhere, they want to see them step into all sorts of shoes but bring their innate talents and charm each time. So, Linklater enlists Powell as Gary Johnson, a real-life University of New Orleans professor who wouldn't be earning the movie treatment if he didn't also moonlight as a undercover police operative with a specific remit: playing hitmen with folks looking to pay someone to commit murder, sting-style. Johnson doesn't just give the gig the one-size-fits-all approach, though. Once he gets confidence in the job, he's dedicated to affording every target their own personal vision of their dream assassin. So, Powell gets to be a polo shirt-wearing nice guy, a long-haired master criminal, a besuited all-business type and more, including the suave smooth-talker Ron, the persona he adopts when Madison Figueroa Masters (Adria Arjona, Andor) thinks about offing her odious husband. Hit Man is as a screwball rom-com-meets-sunlit film noir, and an excellent one, as well as a feature based on a situation so wild that it can only stem from fact. Alongside charting Gary's exploits in the position and the murkiness of falling for Madison as Ron, it's also an acceptance that the kind of darkness and desperation needed for a person to want to hire a stranger to kill to make their life better isn't a rarity — if it was, Gary's services wouldn't have been needed. Linklater has been in comparably blackly comic but also clear-eyed territory before with Bernie, the past entry on his resume that Hit Man best resembles. The also-ace 2011 Jack Black (Kung Fu Panda 4)-led picture similarly told a true tale, and also sprang from an article by journalist Skip Hollandsworth. This time, Linklater penned the script with Powell instead of Hollandsworth, but the result is another black-comedy delight brimming with insight. Hit Man is a movie about finding one's identity, too, and Powell keeps showing that he's found his: a charismatic lead who anchors one of the most-entertaining flicks of the year. Hit Man streams via Netflix. Fancy Dance Lily Gladstone might've won the Golden Globe but not the Oscar for Killers of the Flower Moon, but her exceptional resume shows every sign of more awards coming her way. Fancy Dance, the other movie to join her filmography in 2023 — it premiered at Sundance that year, but only makes its way to streaming worldwide now — is yet another example of how the Certain Women and First Cow star is one of the very-best actors working right now. Where Gladstone's time in front of Martin Scorsese's lens showcased her mastery of restraint, playing an aunt trying to do what's best for her niece and a sister searching for her absent sibling benefits from her equal command of looseness. Jax, her character, is a pinball. When she bounces in any direction, it's with force and purpose as well as liveliness and determination, but the choice of where she's heading is rarely her own. All she wants is to find Tawi (debutant Hauli Sioux Gray) and protect 13-year-old Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson, Three Pines), but set against the reality that law enforcement mightn't look as enthusiastically for a missing Indigenous woman — or treat one with a record attempting to do right be her family with consideration — that's far from an easy task. Writer/director Erica Tremblay hails from the Seneca–Cayuga Nation, where much of Fancy Dance is set. As Gladstone is, she's also an alum of Reservation Dogs — including helming two episodes — and so is experienced at depicting everyday reservation life with authenticity. Accordingly, her first fictional feature after documentaries Heartland: A Portrait of Survival and In the Turn takes a social-realistic approach in its details, especially when it's simply surveying the space and empathy that First Nations versus white Americans aren't given. Because Jax has a criminal history, child services deems her unfit to look after Roki, or even to take the teen to the powwow where the girl is certain her mum will attend to again steal the show in the mother-daughter dance competition; instead, Jax's white father (Shea Whigham, Lawmen: Bass Reeves) and stepmother (Audrey Wasilewski, Ted) are their choice of guardians. Fancy Dance's protagonist isn't one to simply acquiesce to that decision, and Gladstone makes both her fire and her pain palpable — and her tenderness for Roki, who is weightily portrayed by her Under the Bridge co-star Deroy-Olson, as well. Fancy Dance streams via Apple TV+. Exposure When the words "DO NOT MESSAGE" greet someone that's looking through their friend's phone, curiosity kicks in. When that mysterious contact is spied, plus a list of deleted texts and apologies for unintended hurt, immediately after your best mate has taken her own life and left you to find their body, uncovering the person on the other end of the thread becomes an obsession. Twenty-seven-year-old photographer Jacs (Alice Englert, Bad Behaviour) is all impulse and immediate gratification when Exposure begins, when she's at a rave hooking up with a stranger and dancing with her lifelong BFF Kel (Mia Artemis, Anyone But You). The next morning, everything changes forever, except a haunting truth that no one likes realising when tragedy strikes: our worst moments alter us forever, but they can't fix our worst traits or paper over our other traumas. So Jacs keeps being Jacs as she heads home from Sydney to Port Kembla, where she'll barely let her mother Kathy (Essie Davis, One Day) and Kel's ex Angus (Thomas Weatherall, Heartbreak High) lend their support, and where her self-sabotaging spiral only gains momentum as she attempts to turn amateur, fixated, dogged detective. Pain ran in the family in the aforementioned Bad Behaviour, the 2023 New Zealand film — not to be confused with the 2023 Australian miniseries that streamed via Stan, as Exposure also does — that Englert made her feature directorial debut with, plus penned and co-starred in. The movie told of a former child actor (Jennifer Connolly, Dark Matter) and her stunt-performer daughter working through their baggage around the former's attendance at a new-age retreat. Filmmaking talent also ran in the family, given that Englert is the offspring of Oscar-winner Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog). While she's solely on-screen this time, with Lucy Coleman (Hot Mess) scripting and Bonnie Moir (Love Me) helming, Englert is superb again, including at excavating life's agonies once more. Exposure's moniker applies in multiple ways, spanning the controversial contents of an award-winning snap, facing past distresses, playing sleuth and confronting your own chaos — and it equally fits the raw and rich performance at the centre of this six-parter, which also showcases Davis and Weatherall's typically excellent work. Exposure streams via Stan. Under Paris Creature features are often humanity-did-wrong features. Under Paris doesn't have Godzilla stomping around as a scaly, fire-breathing, Tokyo-destroying embodiment of nuclear devastation's reach and impact, but it does set a giant shark on the loose beneath the French capital due to pollution, specifically the Great Pacific garbage patch, making its natural saltwater terrain uninhabitable. This genre of film doesn't restrict its badly behaving people to merely causing the source of their misery, either, often surveying a range of terrible reactions that exacerbate the issue as well. Underestimating the situation is one such response, which has a well-known history in flicks about killer sharp-toothed fish. The mayor of New England's Amity Island in Jaws wasn't great, and now the the City of Light's equivalent (Anne Marivin, Rebecca) is just as uncaring when she refuses to shut down the city's waterways — despite the pleas of marine researcher Sophia Assalas (Bérénice Bejo, The Movie Teller), police chief Angèle (Aurélia Petit, Saint Omer) and law-enforcement diver Adil (Nassim Lyes, All-Time High) — because it'll disrupt a billion-dollar triathlon with its swimming leg in the River Seine. The chomping shadow of Steven Spielberg's (The Fabelmans) summer blockbuster lingers over Under Paris heavily, as it has over all shark movies for almost five decades now. Rare is the film that lives up to the Hollywood great as well as this, however, even though oh-so-much of the story plays out as expected. As Sophia first witnesses calamity when her research crew falls victim to Lilith, the shark they've been tracking, and then is forced to help save Paris three years later when environmental activist Mika (Léa Léviant, Mortel) advises that the creature has made its way to the city, it helps immensely that this shark-in-the-Seine picture isn't a Snakes on a Plane-esque comedy. Fresh from directing episodes of Lupin, Farang and Budapest director Xavier Gens is firmly making a thriller, not playing the scenario for laughs. The setpieces, many in the Parisian catacombs, are both efficient and effective. The film's visuals overall earn the same description. And while nodding to Free Willy as well is a touch clunky, The Artist Oscar-nominee Bejo is never anything less than committed. Under Paris streams via Netflix. Am I OK? The question in Am I OK?'s title is indeed existential: is Lucy (Dakota Johnson, Madame Web) coping with being a thirtysomething in Los Angeles treading water emotionally, romantically and professionally? From there, more queries spring. Can she — or, more accurately, will she — shoot for more than not quite dating the smitten Ben (Whitmer Thomas, Big Mouth), right down to shaking his hand at the end of their evenings out together, and also for something beyond working as a day-spa receptionist while putting her passion and talent for art on the back burner? Is she capable of breaking free of a comfort zone padded out with spending all of her spare time with her best friend Jane (Sonoya Mizuno, House of the Dragon), including being so predictable that she always orders the same thing at their brunches at their favourite diner? Regarding the latter, she gets a push when Jane agrees to a lucrative transfer to London, splitting the pair for the first time since they were teenagers. Am I OK? is an arrested-development coming-of-age movie, then, and a film about being honest about who you are and want to be. Change comes for us all, even when we've built a cocoon to protect our happy status quo — and, at the heart of this romantic drama, change clearly comes for Lucy. She's forced to consider a path forward that doesn't involve solely being defined as half of a platonic duo. She also confronts the feelings for her coworker Brittany (Kiersey Clemons, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) and the truth about her sexuality that she's never previously admitted. Am I OK? is a coming-out tale, too, but it treats Lucy's stuck-in-a-rut existence and at-first-tentative attempts to embrace how she truly feels holistically, seeing how life's passage inevitably shifts how we see ourselves. If the movie feels more honest than it might've been, that's because screenwriter Lauren Pomerantz (Strange Planet) spins a semi-autobiographical story. Also, the directing team of real-life couple Tig Notaro (2 Dope Queens) and Stephanie Allynne (who helmed Notaro's 2024 special Hello Again) — who met making 2015's In a World… — demonstrate the ideal light-but-delicate touch. Plus, Johnson and Mizuno exude genuine BFF chemistry, with the former again showing why fare such as this, Cha Cha Real Smooth, How to Be Single, The Peanut Butter Falcon, A Bigger Splash, Suspiria and The Lost Daughter, a diverse group of pictures, is a better fit than the Fifty Shades trilogy or a Spider-Man spinoff. Am I OK? streams via Binge. Lumberjack the Monster Spanning big-screen releases, TV and straight-to-video fare, Takashi Miike has notched up 115 directorial credits in the 33 years since making his helming debut. Lumberjack the Monster isn't even the latest — it premiered at film festivals in 2023, which means that miniseries Onimusha and short Midnight have popped up since — but it is Miike back in horror mode, where 1999's Audition and 2001's Ichi the Killer famously dwelled. Here, the inimitable Japanese filmmaker and screenwriter Hiroyoshi Koiwai (Way to Find the Best Life) adapt the eponymous 2019 Mayusuke Kurai novel. Its namesake character also exists on the page in the movie itself, in a picture book. This is a serial-killer picture, though, and with more than one person taking multiple lives. A mass murderer wearing a bag over their head and swinging an axe is on a rampage, and lawyer Akira (Kazuya Kamenashi, Destiny) and surgeon Sugitani (Shôta Sometani, Sanctuary) aren't averse to dispensing death themselves. A clash is inevitable, not that the slick Akira expects it, or that his costumed attacker anticipates that their current target will survive his blade, sparking a cat-and-mouse game. Lumberjack the Monster doesn't just weave in fantasy boogeyman stories, offings upon offings, and characters with dark impulses going head to head. The police are on the case, giving the film a procedural layer, as well as Akira motivation to hunt down his assailant first. Science fiction also washes through, with brain-implanted chips and modifying human behaviour both for worse and for better part of the narrative. There's also a moral-redemption element weaved in. Consequently, it's no wonder that this tale is Miike joint. As well as being prolific, Miike loves making his resume the ultimate mashup. To name just a few examples, see: the yakuza action of Dead or Alive, superhero comedy Zebraman, titular genre of Sukiyaki Western Django, samurai efforts 13 Assassins and Blade of the Immortal, period drama Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, video-game adaptation Ace Attorney, romance For Love's Sake, thriller Lesson of the Evil, vampire movie Yakuza Apocalypse and the crime-driven First Love. Unsurprisingly, Lumberjack the Monster is specifically the engrossing — and bloodily violent — Frankenstein's monster of a flick that Miike was always going to relish making when splicing together such an array of elements came his way. Lumberjack the Monster streams via Netflix. New and Returning Shows to Check Out Week by Week Fantasmas With Fantasmas, creator, writer, director and star Julio Torres welcomes viewers into a world that couldn't have been conjured up by anyone else but the former Saturday Night Live scribe, who then became the co-guiding force behind Los Espookys and filmmaker responsible for Problemista. Torres also leaves his audience grateful that they exist in this particular world, where HBO has given him the means and support to make a comedy series so singular, so clearly the work of a visionary and so gloriously surreal. Fantasmas has no peers beyond Torres' work, other than the patron saint of spilling the contents of your mind and heart onto the screen with zero willingness to compromise or hold back: David Lynch. That said, even that comparison — and the utmost of praise that comes with it — can't prepare viewers for a show where clear crayons are one idea whipped up by the on-screen Julio, another sees Steve Buscemi (Curb Your Enthusiasm) playing the letter Q as an avant-garde outsider, Santa Claus is taken to court by elves (including SNL's Bowen Yang), and series-within-a-series MELF riffs on 80s and 90s hit sitcom ALF but starring Paul Dano (Spaceman) and featuring quite the twist on its alien-adopting premise. As the sets appear like exactly sets but with a DIY spin, star-studded cameos stack up, and absurdist vignettes pop in and out to flesh out Julio's mindscape as much as the futuristic realm imagined by the IRL Torres, there is an overarching narrative at the core of Fantasmas. The series' take on Julio trades in concepts, plus in being unflinchingly himself, but doing anything is impossible without a Proof of Existence ID card in this dystopia. He's on a quest to secure one, which isn't straightforward. In the process, he's also searching for a tiny gold oyster earring, and pondering whether to upload his consciousness and jettison his body. By his side: robot companion Bibo (Joe Rumrill, The Calling) and agent Vanesja (Martine Gutierrez, returning from Los Espookys and Problemista), who is really just a performance artist playing an agent. As phantasmagorical as everything that the show flings at the screen can get, which is very, it also tears into relatable issues such as societal status, class clashes, housing, capitalism's many woes and inequities, and the treatment of immigrants. As purposefully eager as it is to show its crafting and creativity, too, it does so to stress the fact that it's being made by people chasing a dream rather than corporations bowing to an algorithm. Fantasmas streams via Binge. Presumed Innocent When Presumed Innocent begins, Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal, Road House) has devoted his career to putting away Chicago's criminals. He isn't expecting to be soon treated the same way. Audiences with an awareness of both film and literary history know what's coming, though, with the eight-part Apple TV+ series the latest page-to-screen show from David E Kelley — and also another program with a story that already made the leap from bookshelves to the big screen before getting the television treatment. In recent years, Kelley has ushered A Man in Full, Anatomy of a Scandal, Nine Perfect Strangers, The Undoing and Big Little Lies down the first route. He's taken The Lincoln Lawyer down the second as well. His pedigree spinning legal narratives dates back to LA Law, The Practice, Ally McBeal and Boston Legal, too. Now, he's adapting author Scott Turow's debut 1987 novel, which initially became a hit 1990 Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny)-starring feature. Turning the tale into a series and the passage of more than three decades are a gift to Presumed Innocent's complexity; there's more time, obviously, to fill out the intricacies of a scenario where a hotshot prosecutor is now a suspected murderer, and to ensure that the misogyny of the 80s and 90s doesn't still shine through. At a time when being chief deputy under District Attorney Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp, who also appeared in A Man in Full) is already a fraught scenario — aka an election year — Sabich's life is turned upside down when his colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve, 2021's Cannes Best Actress-winner for The Worst Person in the World) is found dead. The circumstances closely resemble a case that the two had previously worked on, so Rusty takes the lead. What only his supportive wife Barbara (Ruth Negga, Good Grief) knows is that the pair had an affair, which almost tore apart the Sabichs' marriage. A secret like that doesn't stay quiet for long, though, especially with Horgan's adversary Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle, Loot) and Rusty's ambitious counterpart Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard, Memory) looking to appease the electorate, and quickly. Presumed Innocent hasn't skimped on casting, to its benefit — in a show that isn't painting its protagonist as a hero or anything as clearcut, Gyllenhaal is at his slippery best, while both Reinsve and Negga flesh out the women caught up in his mess, and Sarsgaard eats up the screen, especially when Rusty and Molto face off in court. Presumed Innocent streams via Apple TV+. The Boys "Superheroes, they're just like us" has been an unspoken refrain humming beneath on-screen caped-crusader tales in recent decades. Possessing great powers doesn't mean knowing how to wield power, or greatness, or how to navigate the daily elements of life that don't revolve around possessing great powers, as movies and TV shows in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Extended Universe and beyond have kept stressing. Even as it dispenses a much-needed antidote to superhero worship's saturation of big- and small-screen entertainment — even as it has made distrusting the spandex-clad and preternaturally gifted its baseline — The Boys has also told this story. Across the entire extent of human history, what's more recognisable than power and dominance bringing out the worst in people? As adapted from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's comics series of the same name by showrunner Eric Kripke (Supernatural) since 2019, this series has stared at the grimmest vision of a world with tights-adorned supposed saviours. It's a show where murder at the hands of supes, which is then covered up by the company profiting from elevating them above the masses, is an everyday reality. It's a dark satire. It's gleeful in its onslaught of OTT violence and sightings of genitals. What it means to grapple with the struggle to hold onto humanity has firmly been at The Boys' core since its first episode, however, making it a mirror. It has never been hard to see where art imitates life in this account of its namesake rag-tag crew (Thor: Ragnarok,'s Karl Urban, Oppenheimer's Jack Quaid, Wrath of Man's Laz Alonso, One on One's Tomer Capone and Bullet Train's Karen Fukuhara) saying "enough is enough" to the US' downward spiral. With flying, laser-eyed, super-strong, supernaturally speedy and otherwise-enhanced beings commercialised by a behemoth of a company called Vought International, The Boys has never been subtle at pointing its fingers at the many ways in which pop culture and the corporations behind it hold sway. The show's parallels with American politics in its portrait of a factionalised nation torn apart over a polarising leader who considers himself above the law are equally overt. Of course, the series is just as blatant in unpacking the consequences of letting the pursuit of power run riot. In its narrative, in chasing supremacy above all else, humans and supes really are just like each other — a truth season four doesn't ever let slip from view. The Boys streams via Prime Video. Read our full review. House of the Dragon It's a chair made out of swords. So notes Daemon Targaryen's (Matt Smith, Morbius) description of the Iron Throne. Not one but two hit HBO shows have put squabbles about the sought-after seat at their centre so far, and the second keeps proving a chip off the old block in a fantasy franchise where almost everyone meets that description. If the family trees sprawling throughout Game of Thrones for eight seasons across 2011–19 and now House of the Dragon for two since 2022 (with a third on the way) weren't so closely intertwined in all of their limbs, would feuding over everything, especially the line of succession, be such a birthright? Set within the Targaryens 172 years before Daenerys is born, House of the Dragon keeps the black-versus-green factionalism going in season two, to civil war-esque extremes over which two offspring of the late King Viserys the Peaceful (Paddy Considine, The Third Day) should wear the crown and plonk themselves in the blade-lined chair. The monarch long ago named Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy, Mothering Sunday) as his heir. But with his last breaths, his wife Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke, Slow Horses) claims that he picked their eldest son Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney, Rogue Heroes) instead. In King's Landing, the response was speedy, with Rhaenyra supplanted before she'd even heard over at Dragonstone that her father had passed away. Based on George RR Martin's Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon has also long painted Rhaenyra as the preferred type of chip off the old block. She too wants peace, not war. She also seeks stability for the realm over personal glory. If Viserys spotted that in her as a girl (Milly Alcock, Upright) when he chose her over Daemon, his brother who is now Rhaenyra's husband, he might've also predicted the dedication that she sports towards doing his legacy, and those before him, proud. Conversely, Aegon, also the grandson of Viserys' hand Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans, The King's Man), sees only entitlement above all else. Martin's tales of dynasties trade in the cycles that course through the bonds of blood, especially in House of the Dragon. Everyone watching knows what's to come for the Targaryens in Daenerys' time, right down to an aunt-nephew romance as the counterpart to Daemon and Rhaenyra's uncle-niece relationship. (No one watching has started this prequel series, the first spinoff of likely many to Game of Thrones, without being familiar with its predecessor). Ice-blonde hair, ambition that soars as high as the dragons they raise and fly, said flame-roaring beasts of the sky, the inability to host happy reunions: these are traits passed down through generations. Some are a matter of genes. Martin continues to explore why the others persist. House of the Dragon streams via Binge. Read our full review. The Acolyte When you've just made two seasons of a time-loop TV show about reckoning with the past, what comes next? For Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland, another jump backwards beckons. The Star Wars franchise has been telling tales set not just in a galaxy far, far away but also a long time ago for almost five decades; however, across its 11 movies and five live-action Disney+ TV shows until now, it hasn't ever explored the events of as long a time ago as Headland's The Acolyte brings to the screen. Welcome to the High Republic era a century before Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace — and into a thrilling new angle into one of pop culture's behemoths. Stepping through the events before the events that it has already relayed to audiences isn't new for Star Wars, as went the prequels, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Andor, but so now goes The Acolyte as well. The key aspect of the latter isn't just that this eight-instalment series gains the space to jettison familiar faces and spin its narrative anew — it's also that it's traversing more of the world that George Lucas first envisaged in the 70s, and what the force means to more than the usual faces and those tied to them. And, it isn't afraid to question the heroes-versus-villains divide that's as engrained in all things Star Wars as lightsabers, having a bad feeling and droids. Taking place in a period of peace and prosperity — well, for some — The Acolyte is still home to heroes. Villains are part of the tale, too. But the idea that the Jedi always fall into the first camp and their enemies can only sit in the second is probed. Similarly queried is the notion that anything in the Star Wars realm, let alone everything, is that binary. The premise: Jedi are being eliminated by a mysterious warrior, a setup that is pushed to the fore immediately and initially aligns its emotional response as audiences since 1977 know to expect. But as gets uttered three episodes in, "this is not about good or bad — it's about power and who gets to wield it". The Acolyte's opening showdown unfolds in the type of cantina that's hardly new to the saga, but the battle itself is. From beneath a mask, a warrior (Amandla Stenberg, Bodies Bodies Bodies) isn't afraid to throw down, throw knives and throw around her ability to use the force, with a Jedi her target. In the aftermath, the robe-adorned head honchos have ex-padawan Osha in their sights. Now working as a meknik, which entails undertaking dangerous spaceship maintenance tasks that robots are legally only supposed to do, she fits the description. Her old Jedi mentor Sol (Lee Jung-jae, Squid Game) isn't so sure, though, especially knowing her past. The Acolyte streams via Disney+. Read our full review. Need a few more streaming recommendations? Check out our picks from January, February, March, April and May this year, and also from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December 2023. You can also check out our running list of standout must-stream shows from last year as well — and our best 15 new shows of 2023, 15 newcomers you might've missed, top 15 returning shows of the year, 15 best films, 15 top movies you likely didn't see, 15 best straight-to-streaming flicks and 30 movies worth catching up on over the summer. Top images: FX, Brian Roedel/Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO and Stan.
If you're a fan of iconic late-90s/early-00s high school-set dramedies, big-name Hollywood comedies, entertainingly twisty mysteries and TV shows about teenage witches, then SXSW Sydney 2025 is doing you a simple favour: Paul Feig, the director, writer, producer and actor who created Freaks and Geeks, helmed Bridesmaids and A Simple Favour, and co-starred in the OG Sabrina the Teenage Witch, is heading Down Under for this year's event. Not only is Feig the 2025 SXSW Sydney Screen Festival keynote speaker and also the filmmaker in the spotlight at the fest's big-screen retrospective, but he's also being celebrated with a brand-new accolade. When the event runs between Monday, October 13–Sunday, October 19, 2025, it'll debut the SXSW Sydney Screen Pioneer Award, and Feig is its inaugural recipient. If you're a fan of The Heat, Spy, Last Christmas and this year's Another Simple Favour, too — and also Feig's excellent 2018 Ghostbusters with an all-female spirit-hunting team — then this keeps proving great news. Exactly which titles among those flicks will be among SXSW Sydney's screenings is yet to be revealed, however. The same is the case with whether the Feig-helmed Unaccompanied Minors, The School for Good and Evil and Jackpot! might pop up. Here's something to cross your fingers for, though: The Housemaid, Feig's latest movie, is due to make its way to cinemas at the end of 2025. So, while there's absolutely no word yet that it'll be playing SXSW Sydney before its general release, you can start hoping that the Sydney Sweeney (Echo Valley)-, Amanda Seyfried (Long Bright River) and Brandon Sklenar (Drop)-starring film might score a spin when Feig makes the trip Down Under to get chatting. "I'm so honoured to receive the first-ever Screen Pioneer Award from SXSW Sydney. SXSW is my favourite festival in the world because they are committed to entertaining audiences. They've been supporters of mine for so many years and to have my work celebrated in this way, and to be able to share it with Australian audiences through this retrospective, is incredibly special. I look forward to the conversations, the Q&As, and the Tim Tams come October!" said Feig. Added Fenella Kernebone, Head of Conference Program, "Paul Feig's films have reached huge audiences — from Bridesmaids, The Heat and Spy to Ghostbusters and A Simple Favour, his career has been defined by genre-shaping stories that put powerful, complex and hilarious women front and centre. Paul has spent his career breaking moulds, challenging industry norms, and proving that female-led films can be both critically acclaimed and wildly successful. We're thrilled to welcome him to SXSW Sydney and can't wait to hear his insights from a career built on visionary storytelling, sharp comedy and a deep commitment to elevating others." Also big: SXSW Sydney's Screen Festival has announced its first six features beyond the Feig retrospective, so get excited about seeing By Design, $POSITIONS, Dead Lover, Zodiac Killer Project, The Last Sacrifice and Bokshi. Among that group, body-swap effort By Design features Juliette Lewis (The Thicket), Mamoudou Athie (Kinds of Kindness) and Robin Tunney (Dear Edward); horror-comedy Dead Lover is a SXSW Austin award-winner; Charlie Shackleton (The Afterlight) digs into a famed serial killer; and everything from comedy to folk horror features. Shorts Stomach Bug and Chasing the Party have a date with the fest as well, among other titles, with the former a BAFTA-nominee and the latter boasting Sam Rockwell (The White Lotus) as a producer. The new round of SXSW Sydney announcements for 2025 — following its dates, that its free programming is expanding, plus a few batches of speakers and music artists — also span Slo Mo podcast host and former Google X Chief Business Officer Mo Gawdat, Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen, Passes founder Lucy Guo and MIT Technology Review Executive Editor Niall Firth as fellow speakers across the rest of the technology, music, film and gaming event. Signal President Meredith Whittaker is already on the keynote list from past program drops. The initial 50 Conference Program sessions and the first 40 titles at the Games Festival Showcase have been revealed, too, which is ace if you're keen to learn more about exploring space, sustainable design, the creator economy, people living in the ocean, writing true stories for TV, indie game marketing, cutscenes, cyber intelligence, digital sovereignty and AI ethics — or to mash a whole heap of buttons. SXSW Sydney 2025 runs from Monday, October 13–Sunday, October 19 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details. Top image: Frank Micelotta.
When a big tour is announced, it's always worth paying attention to the dates around the shows in your city. Has whoever is taking to the stage spread out their gigs? Is there room to add more concerts? If you're worried about a huge demand for tickets, that's handy information to notice. When Drake announced his next trip Down Under for early 2025, for instance, the gaps between his visits to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane stood out — handily so, it proves, with more shows now added to the tour. Here's the latest headlines: Drake has added an extra gig in each of the New South Wales, Victorian and Queensland capitals, and before general ticket sales even kick off. It'll be his first trip this way since 2017 — and yes, you're still going to have 'Hotline Bling', 'Too Good', 'Passionfruit', 'Nice for What', 'In My Feelings', 'One Dance' and 'Laugh Now Cry Later' stuck in your head, as you have since the tour was first revealed. The Canadian artist is bringing his Anita Max Win tour Down Under, and is now playing ten shows in four cities across Australia and New Zealand. Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland, this is what's next. The five-time Grammy-winner will head this way in February and March, kicking off at Rod Laver Arena in the Victorian capital for three nights. The following week, it's the Harbour City's turn at Qudos Bank Arena, again for a trio of gigs. After that, Drake will play two nights at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, then another two at Spark Arena in Auckland. The Degrassi: The Next Generation star last hit the stage in this neck of the woods on his Boy Meets World tour, and eight years will have passed between those shows and his 2025 visit. The platinum-selling singer is fresh off his 2023–24 It's All A Blur Tour, which saw him chalk up over 80 soldout shows in North America. On that last visit, Drake had four studio albums to his name: 2010's Thank Me Later, 2011's Take Care, 2013's Nothing Was the Same and 2016's Views. He's doubled that since, so expect tunes from 2018's Scorpion, 2021's Certified Lover Boy, 2022's Honestly, Nevermind and 2023's For All the Dogs, too. The Anita Max Win tour's announcement wasn't new news if you've been paying attention to Drake's social media, where he's been teasing details — but now consider it all officially locked in and even bigger. Drake's 'Anita Max Win' Tour 2025 Australian and New Zealand Dates Sunday, February 9–Monday, February 10 + Wednesday, February 12 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Sunday, February 16–Monday, February 17 + Wednesday, February 19 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Monday, February 24–Tuesday, February 25 — Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane Friday, February 28–Saturday, March 1 — Spark Arena, Auckland Drake is touring Australia and New Zealand in February 2025, with various ticket presales from Tuesday, December 2, 2024 at various times — and general sales from 12pm local time on Friday, December 6, 2024. Head to the tour website for more details. Images: The Come Up Show via Flickr.
If there's a speed record for greenlighting a new television series, the ABC's decision to make A Dog's World with Tony Armstrong a reality must be right up there. Saying no couldn't have even been an option, because it's just such an innately winning formula. Former AFL player turned ABC News Breakfast sports presenter Armstrong has proven an enormous hit for the national broadcaster since joining in mid-2020 — including when he's accidentally talking about bulging dicks — and everyone loves watching cute canines. Now streaming on ABC iView, as well as airing on ABC, the show that results is exactly what viewers expect — Armstrong fans and dog lovers alike. The former chats through exactly why the four-legged creatures have become humanity's best friend, and how and when, and is occasionally seen on-screen with an array of adorable puppers. Experts on all things pooch lend their commentary, research and general thoughts, too, and barking critters are rarely far from the screen. Across its three parts, the series isn't lacking in informative bite. The first episode bounds through the affinity that humans have found with dogs, and vice versa — including contemplating how dogs evolved, what separates them from wolves now, and how they react to human emotions. Then, in the second instalment, A Dog's World with Tony Armstrong focuses on how canines sense their way through the world, and what type of perspective that gives them. Finally, in part three, pooch happiness and wellbeing is in the spotlight. If you've ever wondered why your pet pupper does what it does — and how it gets you to do what it wants, too — prepare to find out. That wide-eyed look that every dog gives when it's after something, knowing that we're all defenceless against it: yes, the science behind that, including the muscles that make it happen, earn the show's attention. Providing more than just endearing canine footage was always the program's aim, as Armstrong explained when the ABC dropped the first trailer. "When I was approached about the possibility of being involved in A Dog's World, I don't even think I got to the end of the email before I was agreeing to take part," he said. "It was amazing being involved in the project, I learned a lot and I hope everyone who watches enjoys it as much as we enjoyed making it!" It's been a great couple of years for getting your dog fix via a screen, whether you're living vicariously through your viewing because you don't have a barking bestie of your own or you simply (and understandably) believe that there's no such thing as too many dogs. Netflix already gave us two seasons of the docuseries Dogs, recent big-screen release Stray spent time with puppers in Istanbul, Channing Tatum is currently in cinemas road-tripping across the US with a dog and there's even a whole streaming platform made for woofers — because as every pooch owner knows, they like to watch TV, too. Only A Dog's World enlists Armstrong to explore the world of canines, though. Check out the trailer for A Dog's World with Tony Armstrong below: A Dog's World with Tony Armstrong is now available to watch via ABC iView.
From a 140-year-old watering hole on Lutwyche Road to a spot to sip brews on Bribie Island — and including a Bald Hills mainstay, too — plenty of Brisbane pubs have been getting big makeovers over the past few years. Actually, be precise, a heap of Brissie pubs owned by Australian Venue Co have been undergoing facelifts. The latest: the Salisbury Hotel in the city's south. This Toohey Road spot reopened its doors on Tuesday, April 19 after a hefty revamp to the tune of $1.6 million. The big change: a huge new beer garden, so you've now got somewhere leafy to sit while you're knocking back beverages. Filled with picnic-style tables topped with striped umbrellas, and sprawling out over a scenic stretch of grass, the beer garden caters to 108 people in two sections, with one for the bistro and the other for the sports bar. Accordingly, whether you're heading by just for a drink or for a meal, sunshine awaits — or, at night, hanging out beneath the strung-up fairy lights. Both the bistro and sports bar have also undergone a refresh, with the former offering up a family-friendly space for bites to eat and the latter decked out with big screens. Menu-wise, the bistro is going heavy on pub classics; think: parmigianas, schnitzels, burgers and pizza, plus pork belly, cob loaf, fried pickles and loaded wedges. Other highlights include prawn linguine, mushroom gnocchi and spiced pumpkin fritters, plus steaks from the grill, a Thai-inspired beef salad, and sticky date pudding, rocky road and baked cheesecake for dessert. If you're looking for a reason to drop in on a particular night, the Salisbury is dedicating Tuesdays to $16 parmigianas and schnitties, doing trivia nights on Wednesdays, and hosting live music on Fridays and Sundays. And, if you make the trip between Friday, April 29–Sunday, May 1, the pub is putting on a number of reopening specials, including an hour of free chicken wings from 5–6pm on the Friday and all-day pizza deals on the Sunday. For those eager to spend the night, the Salisbury also does accommodation — and its 16 rooms, both internal and external, have been refurbished as well. Find The Salisbury Hotel at 668 Toohey Road, Salisbury — open 10am–3am Sunday–Tuesday and 10am–4am Wednesday–Saturday.
There are few things in this world more disappointing than turning 11 and not receiving your letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. JK Rowling promised us more than that. There were supposed to be magic feasts, potions and robes we could splay out like bats. Learning the fact that this world was forever out of our reach was worse than our grief for Santa, the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny combined. Now — though it may be several years too late — the creation of a new Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) promises a little restitution. Hogwarts is Here operates in exactly the same way as online universities (meaning it's the closest thing to legit we're ever going to get). The course offers nine-week classes that reportedly allow you to "progress through all seven years of schooling and be assigned a professor, homework assignments, quizzes and more". HiH has all your basics covered: after setting up an account at Gringotts and getting your textbooks from a virtual Diagon Alley, you can study everything from Transfiguration, Charms and Herbology to the all-important Defence Against the Dark Arts. Assignments are graded and, according to this student at Slate, it's harder to get Hermoine-level grades than you might first think. Of course, this isn't the first attempt to connect us to the wizarding world via virtual means. The official (read: copyright protected) Harry Potter online experience, Pottermore, has been around since 2009. However, with its primary focus on online roleplay, it's had mixed reviews. HiH allows users to stop with that fantasy crap and get down to some serious study. Sure, there are house dormitories and common rooms, but now that your childhood dreams have finally come true it's ultimately time to knuckle down and work. You owe it to your 11-year-old self.
Playing ice hockey isn't a regular part of growing up Down Under, but watching a ragtag team of underdogs try their best on the ice has been a childhood staple since the 90s. The reason: the Mighty Ducks franchise. The three Emilio Estevez and Joshua Jackson-starring films hit screens between 1992–6, and have remained nostalgic favourites ever since. The trio of movies also spanned an animated show back in 1996; however, that's not the franchise's only leap into television. Because everything old is new again — including making that observation, because it just keeps proving relevant — Disney+ is bringing Mighty Ducks back courtesy of new series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. If Karate Kid can live on via the small screen, then so can this other beloved sports-focused saga, it seems. And like Cobra Kai, Game Changers is bringing back a familiar face when it debuts its ten-episode first season on Friday, March 26. That'd be Estevez, who reprises his role as Coach Gordon Bombay. Sadly, Jackson isn't involved this time around — but Gilmore Girls star Lauren Graham will feature as the mother of a hockey-loving boy who helps him create his own team. Aimed at all ages — so at kids just discovering Mighty Ducks for the first time, and adults with fond memories — the show looks set to follow the underdog formula established in the films, as the first teaser trailer illustrates. It's set in Minnesota, where the Mighty Ducks are now a big deal, 12-year-old Evan Morrow (Brady Noon) gets cut from the team, and he and his mom (Graham) bring together their own crew in response — with the help of Bombay, of course. Check out the teaser trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zryz5mHXtw&feature=youtu.be The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers starts airing on Disney+ from Friday, March 26. Top image: Disney+.
In the ultimate food-meets-fashion fusion, Ralph Lauren has opened his first New York City restaurant next door to the brand's flagship store on Fifth Avenue. Polo Bar is Lauren's third restaurant, following his original RL Bar and Grill in Chicago and Ralph's in Paris. Inspired by the brand's signature Polo range, the lamp-lit New England style design takes luxury to new and heady heights. Caramel tones dominate the interior, with parquet floors underfoot and wood panelling extending onto the ceiling, while equestrian-themed art and an exclusive Henry Koelher polo match mural adorn the walls. If you're popping in for oysters and cocktails, then the brass-topped bar is where you'll head, with its rows of gleaming bottles and oversized silver champagne coolers. For those power lunches (and dinners-to-impress), sink into the tan banquettes of the restaurant itself. Polo Bar's menu features American classics, served on the restaurant's own tableware. There's a meat-heavy bent to the homestyle fare, with steaks and burgers the apparent focus of the kitchen, and beef sourced periodically from Lauren's own ranch in Colorado. We like the sound of the New York strip steak with brown butter, or the famous Polo Bar Burger with cheddar and crispy bacon. Alternatively, go for the roast chicken or the Loch Duart wild salmon, and succumb to outfit-envy as the Ralph Lauren models — or rather, waitstaff — serve you in their leather wingtips and silk ties. While there's apple pie and five-layer chocolate cake for dessert, you can’t go past Ralph's Coffee Ice Cream with dark chocolate shortbread cookies, made with the brand's own custom blend coffee. So while you're saving for that airfare, scrounge up a little more for a luncheon or two at this pretty establishment. Polo shirts welcome, of course. Via Grub Street. Images: Polo Bar.
When Super Mario Kart first rolled onto Super Nintendo consoles back in 1992, it came with 20 inventive courses and endless hours of fun. Nearly three decades later, the game has become a beloved phenomenon — not just speeding through desert tracks and rainbow roads, but onto Google Maps and mobile phones, and also into reality. The hugely popular game's next stop? Theme parks. Come Thursday, February 4, 2021, you'll be able to enjoy a real-life Mario Kart experience as part of the first-ever Super Nintendo World. Initially announced back in 2017, the new site is joining Universal Studios in Osaka. Its launch was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic but, after revealing back in October that it'd open early in the new year, the fresh addition to the theme park has an official date. Actually, Universal Studios Japan has done more than lock in an exact date. It has dropped a heap of new details — and a couple of sneak peeks, too. The fact that there'd be Mario Kart and Yoshi-themed rides isn't new news; however, until now, only a few clues about what they'd entail had been released. For those keen to hop on Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge, prepare to race through familiar Mario Kart courses that've been recreated in real life. And yes, as you're steering your way along the track, you'll be surrounded by characters such as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach. You'll also be able to throw shells to take out your opponents — because it wouldn't be Mario Kart without them. If you're wondering how it all works, expect physical sets, plus augmented reality, projection mapping and screen projection, all designed to make you feel like you're really in the game. As for Yoshi's Adventure, it'll see you climb on Yoshi's back — and it's designed to be family-friendly. So, you'll hop on, then set off on an adventure. You'll follow Captain Toad to find three coloured eggs, plus a golden egg as well. Taking over multiple levels — fitting for a gaming-themed space — Osaka's Super Nintendo World will also feature Bowser's Castle, complete with spiked fences and heavy iron doors. Peach's Castle is part of the park, too, as are other rides, restaurants and shops. A certain highlight: the world's first Mario cafe, which has already launched ahead of the rest of the site. Here, patrons are surrounded by oversized Mario and Luigi hat sculptures, the whole space is kitted out with a red and green colour scheme, and Mario Kart-style checkered floors are a feature. As for snacks, there are Mario pancake sandwiches and cream sodas, plus other drinks available in 'super mushroom' souvenir bottles. The theme park is also introducing wearable wrist bands, called Power Up Bands — which connect to a special app and allow patrons to interact with the site using their arms, hands and bodies. That mightn't sound all that exciting, but the bands will enable you to collect coins just like Mario does in the Super Mario games. Like the red-capped plumber, you'll also be able to hit question blocks to do reveal more coins. And there'll be collectible items to gather, such as keys and character stamps, which you'll find after achieving various goals. The stamps will also earn you even more coins — so you really will be basically playing Super Mario in real life. You will have to buy a Power Up Band separate to your entry ticket to enjoy that element of the park, though. If you're keen to take a look, Nintendo has released two videos that take you through Super Nintendo World — one brief, and the other running for 15 minutes. The latter is hosted by 'Mario's dad', aka Shigeru Miyamoto, the video game designer who created Super Mario Bros all those years ago. It provides a detailed walkthrough, so you'll spy everything from huge piranha plants to giant bob-ombs, all with Miyamoto's commentary . You can check out both videos below — and yes, the music will sound very familiar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Nc9au7FjY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQaRBOI-9kg Nods to other Nintendo games are expected to pop up around the park but, for now, all other specifics remain sparse. Given that Nintendo's game stable includes everything from Donkey Kong to Tetris and The Legend of Zelda, there's plenty more to play with. Our suggestions: real-life Tetris, where you move bricks around in person, or a Donkey Kong water ride that uses the game's iconic aquatic music. While no one is travelling far at present, Universal Studios is also planning Super Nintendo Worlds for its other parks in Hollywood, Orlando and in Singapore — if you need to add more places to your must-visit list when international tourism starts returning to normal. The latter was just announced last year, and is set to open by 2025. Super Nintendo World is slated to open at Universal Studios Osaka on Thursday, February 4.
Beloved by budget-conscious shoppers, German-born discount supermarket chain Aldi has been slinging its groceries across Australia for over two decades. But for its next big Aussie move, it's setting up shop for just two nights — which'll be filled with ridiculously affordable gin, wine and cheese. As Aldi's devoted customers well and truly know, you can get plenty of things at the company's stores for cheap — not only food, but everything from beds and kettles to games and snow gear as well. On the culinary side of things, that includes dairy products and, in some states, vino, too. So to show them off, Aldi is launching a two-evening-only Sydney bar. Called The Trophy Room, it'll nestle into 111 Elizabeth Street and host just four seatings, with sessions from 5–6.30pm and 7.30–9pm on both Friday, July 15–Saturday, July 16. You'll need to nab a ticket to get in, with bookings opening at 9am on Friday, July 8. Expect plenty of competition for a spot, though — the fact that your entire visit will only cost you $4.41 is certain to attract a crowd. Yes, you read that price correctly. No, there's no missing numeral, and the decimal point isn't in the wrong place either. For less than a fiver per person, you'll get a gin cocktail upon arrival, then a tasting selection from Aldi's wine range, plus a cheese platter featuring Aldi cheeses to line your stomach. The reason for the pop-up, and the super-cheap price? To showcase Aldi's affordable and acclaimed wines, and its just-as-reasonably priced award-winning cheeses, all at a time when inflation is seeing supermarket prices rocket. The Trophy Bar is also designed to be replicated at home — the menu, that is — given that Aldi's vinos would start from $0.83 a glass if they were priced individually, and max out at $2.49 a glass. As for its cheeses, the chain advises that its triple-cream brie would cost $0.56 for a single serve, while a smooth blue cheese would be priced at $0.62. Aldi's Trophy Room will pop up at 111 Elizabeth Street, Sydney from Friday, July 15–Saturday, July 16. Bookings are limited, and open at 9am on Friday, July 8.
That blank space in your calendar that you were hoping to fill with Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour? It's now taken care of. Australian Swifties, yes, your wildest dreams have finally come true. It definitely won't be a cruel summer for fans of the global music star Down Under, after the singer-songwriter announced five Aussie shows for February — although you'll have to be in Melbourne or Sydney to head along. Swift will play two gigs at the MCG in Melbourne across Friday, February 16–Saturday, February 17, then head north to hit the stage across three dates at Sydney's Accor Stadium from Friday, February 23–Sunday, February 25. At all shows, she'll also have company: Sabrina Carpenter in support. [caption id="attachment_906253" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ronald Woan via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The Eras Tour kicked off in March in the US, where it's still playing. As well as revealing Aussie dates, Swift locked in international stops in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil in 2023 — and in Japan, Singapore, France, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Australia until August 2024. The tour sees the Swift work through her entire career so far, playing tracks from each of her studio albums in a three-hour, 44-song, ten-act spectacular. 'Fearless', 'Enchanted', 'We Are Never Getting Back Together', 'Shake It Off', 'Bad Blood', 'Look What You Made Me Do', 'You Need to Calm Down' — expect them all to get a run, plus tunes from albums Folklore, Evermore and Midnights as well. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) This'll be Swift's first tour Down Under since 2018, when she brought her Reputation shows to not only Sydney and Melbourne, but Brisbane and Perth, too. In the US, it's been breaking ticketing and venue records — expect tickets to get snapped up quickly Down Under as well. [caption id="attachment_906254" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ronald Woan via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR AUSTRALIAN DATES 2024: Friday, February 16–Saturday, February 17 — Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Friday, February 23–Sunday, February 25 — Accor Stadium, Sydney Taylor Swift will bring The Eras Tour to Australia in February 2024. Tickets for the Melbourne shows go on sale at 10am AEST on Friday, June 30, with the Sydney shows on sale at 2pm AEST on Friday, June 30. The American Express VIP Package pre-sale runs for 48 hours from Monday, June 26 — from 10am in Sydney and 2pm in Melbourne — and the Frontier Members pre-sale runs 24 hours from Wednesday, June 28, again from 10am in Sydney and 2pm in Melbourne, or until all pre-sale tickets have been snapped up in both instances. Head to the tour website for further details. Top image: Ronald Woan via Wikimedia Commons.
When a culinary figure branches out to a new city, one of two things tend to happen. They might take a concept and a name that's worked for them elsewhere, then expand it to another location. Or, they could conjure up something that's completely fresh that they haven't done before. If Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann pondered which path to take in Brisbane, "why not do both?" must've been the answer. Ahead of well-established Melbourne favourite Supernormal opening in the Queensland capital, newcomer Bar Miette has arrived first. An 86-seater terrace cafe and a wine bar all in one, catering to 16 at the curved bar and 70 on its terrace, this addition to Queen Street is perched between the Queen Street Mall and Howard Smith Wharves. A brand-new commodity, Bar Miette is a as-you-wish type of venue, whether you're keen on "coffee and breakfast, lunch (early or late), snacks and dinner, a cocktail or a glass of wine", McConnell explains. Letting customers enter via the riverside boardwalk as well as Queen Street, the location itself is a drawcard, hence the hospitality figure making the most of it by operating not one but two venues. Folks stopping by can enjoy views of the Brisbane River and the Story Bridge, with Bar Miette taking them in from street level. On the menu seven days a week, from a range of dishes designed to hero local produce, are breakfast options such as tahini and cinnamon toasted granola, house-made spelt crumpets, croque monsieurs, a crispy bacon bap with gentleman's relish, and house-cured and -smoked trout to start off the morning. To wash all of the above down with, you can sip coffees, teas, tisanes, juices and sodas. Come lunch and dinner, anchovy gildas, raw Hervey Bay scallops, oysters and three types of caviar will start tempting your tastebuds. Or, dig into the marinated octopus with potato and aioli, wagyu bresaola, duck liver parfait, a mortadella stack on a milk bun, the charcuterie selection and crab mayonnaise on toast. And for dessert, créme caramel, affogatos, gelato and the cake of the day sit alongside four cheeses. If it's a cocktail that you're after, they join the lineup from 10am, starting with a bloody mary and milano fizz. The full range includes a signature martini, margarita frappé and tropical old fashioned among the highlights, as well as a number of aperitif picks, non-boozy concoctions, and five pages of wines from around Europe and Australia. Images: Josh Robenstone.
Some shows should always be on TV, and The X-Files is one of them. Across nine initial seasons between 1993–2002, an additional two seasons that aired in 2016 and 2018, and two big-screen movies as well, this sci-fi favourite investigated all manner of weird and wonderful cases — usually with FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny, You People) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson, Sex Education) doing the sleuthing. Anything could happen in The X-Files. Almost everything did, in fact. If it involved the paranormal, supernatural and conspiracies, spanning aliens, psychic abilities, sewer-dwelling man-worm creatures, teenagers who could channel lightning and more, it helped make the series a smash while it was airing, and also a science-fiction classic ever since — as well as a show that might just be making another comeback. Fittingly, there's almost always a rumour about The X-Files popping up again. A few years back, an animated series was floated, going the comedic route to cover investigations considered too ridiculous for Mulder and Scully. Now, the word is that a new live-action TV show could be on its way from filmmaker Ryan Coogler, who has Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on his resume. The Hollywood Reporter and Variety report that the aim is to reboot the series with a diverse cast. The news came from The X-Files' creator Chris Carter during a radio interview to celebrate 30 years since the show launched, made Duchovny and Anderson into huge stars, and had plenty of folks wanting to be FBI Agents just like Mulder and Scully, There's no word on when The X-Files latest go-around will reach screens, who'll star, if Anderson nor Duchovny will be involved in any way, or any other specifics. If the truth is out there on this, all hasn't been revealed as yet. The X-Files does like to keep on keeping on, though, including the OG show itself's hefty run, its big-screen adventures, the revival, and two spinoffs: 1996–9's Lance Henriksen-starring Millennium, which was set in the same universe; and 2001's The Lone Gunmen, about the three conspiracy-obsessed characters initially seen helping Mulder and Scully. The X-Files' existing 11 seasons are currently available to stream via Disney+ and SBS On Demand. We'll update you with news regarding the reboot if and when more details are announced. Via The Hollywood Reporter / Variety.
In The Accountant 2, Christian Wolff is back, as is Ben Affleck (Air) in the role. Jon Bernthal (Daredevil: Born Again) returns as the numbers-whiz character's killer-for-hire brother Braxton, too. The first film's Cynthia Addai-Robinson (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) and JK Simmons (Juror No 2) also reprise their parts. Behind the camera, director Gavin O'Connor not only helms the follow-up to his own 2016 release, but makes his third movie in a row — including The Way Back, which isn't part of the franchise — with Affleck starring. Screenwriter Bill Dubuque (Ozark) is among the familiar folks backing up for another The Accountant flick as well. With so many tried-and-tested talents onboard, this thriller sequel's return to the world of its titular figure — a forensic accountant with autism who started the initial picture fixing the books for criminal organisations — could've just taken rinse-and-repeat approach. That wouldn't have meant making a movie that's as much an odd-couple buddy comedy, however, by playing up the chalk-and-cheese relationship between Affleck and Bernthal's characters. Balancing intense action scenes with line dancing likely wouldn't have been in the mix, either. Also, Addai-Robinson's Marybeth Medina, who is now a Deputy Director in the Treasury Department, may not have been so central — indeed, Affleck calls her "the lead in the movie". No one involved in The Accountant 2 was interested in making a comeback just to do what they've already done. That's particularly true for Affleck, who so rarely steps into a character's shoes twice — except as Batman and Bruce Wayne in the now-defunct DC Extended Universe, and also as Holden McNeil in the View Askewniverse. Boot scootin' to 'Copperhead Road' as a way of flirting is also a brand-new development for him, and one that not everyone was convinced would make the final cut. "I was like 'this scene will never work'," advises Bernthal. "I was like 'there's no way that's going to work. Like, why is he? Like, what? How is this — what does this scene have to do with anything?'. And as soon as I saw him go out there, I was singing that song. I love that song. I love that. It was so good." "If you asked Jon before we shot that scene, he was saying 'this is going to get cut from the movie'," adds O'Connor. "There's no way. I was like 'why are we even here?'," responds Bernthal. The moment does hit its mark, and also perfects what The Accountant 2 is shooting for character-wise with Christian and Brax. One is trying to connect with others, including romantically — this isn't the only sequence in the film about Christian's love life — and finds that his penchant for numbers and patterns is an unexpectedly ideal fit for line dancing. The other is attempting to assist his brother to embrace more than just his routine. Together, the siblings are also endeavouring to repair their long-fractured relationship. [caption id="attachment_1001142" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Eric Charbonneau/Amazon MGM Studios via Getty Images[/caption] When The Accountant 2's team get together to chat about it at a press conference for the movie — returnees Affleck, Bernthal, O'Connor and Addai-Robinson, plus franchise newcomer Daniella Pineda (Cowboy Bebop) — they're animated and enthusiastic. The film benefits from their passion, even as it combines its comic turns, dancing and brotherly bonding with the fact that it's still an action-thriller that plunges into dark territory. This time, Christian's skills are needed, as are Brax's, after an acquaintance's murder. In a narrative that involves human trafficking, Marybeth is on the case, enlisting the brothers' assistance as she searches for the culprit, and also investigating how the situation connects to a family from El Salvador. Why was Affleck keen to return? When did O'Connor start thinking about which elements of the first film he wanted to pick up in a second flick, and where things would be different? How did humour work its way in — and what was Bernthal's response to the buddy-comedy aspect? The group answered these questions, too, while also digging into why Affleck sees Addai-Robinson's Cynthia as the movie's protagonist, the movie's action scenes and emotional arcs, and, yes, the line dancing. On Why Affleck Was Keen to Add a Very Rare Sequel to His Resume Ben: "This is a movie where, after the first one, it was successful and I was really proud of it, but it had a longer life in terms of the just real-life feedback that I get from people, what movies they would mention when they come up to me. And so I definitely was aware 'oh wow, that movie seems to still be being watched'. I think it's also a function of the fact that streaming really started to take off after this movie, so people had the opportunity to pick what movie they're going to watch, that sort of thing. And also I just love this character. I really enjoyed playing it. Gavin and I both very much were drawn to the idea of bringing Jon back and expanding on that, because we both really were like 'this guy's fabulous and we love it' — and I think we both felt like there was a lot more to do. And the only thing that I think, that I would rephrase from your question, is they really brought me back. Bill and Gavin spent a lot of time in the intervening years developing and putting together, in a quite typical-of-Gavin, meticulous, patient, detail-oriented, character-driven way, what it could be. Because both were quite mindful of not wanting to repeat it, not wanting to just 'oh hey, they like the first one, let's just figure something out and do another one'. So everything about it was appealing to me." On When O'Connor Started Thinking About Which Aspects of The Accountant He Wanted to Bring Back for a Sequel — and What to Change Up Gavin: "Just a lot of conversations with Bill in regard to — there's certain DNA that it was important to preserve. And then after that, it was a lot of left turns and just try to refill the tank in a very different way. And I in no way wanted to recycle the same thing that we did in the first film, so it was it was just a matter of 'how do we just start recreating the character in a way that is putting them on a different journey, integrating Brax, wanting to bring Cynthia back?'. We knew the key in the ignition was to kill Ray, because I wanted it to be personal for both of these guys. And most importantly, and we had these conversations, I just want to make a movie that was fun and entertaining — and put people in the seats, and go to a movie theatre and the lights come down, and have a communal experience where they can walk out of the theatre and go 'man, that was a fucking ball. That was just a great. That was a great time at the movies'. And that's really what we were going for." On Playing Up the Odd-Couple Buddy Comedy — and When Bernthal Found Out That That Would Be the Case Jon: "I don't know that I was ever really told that. I don't know that." Ben: "It was bait and switch." Jon: "Look it was — it was, yeah, little bit, a little bit. I was like 'what?'. But Bill's writing is so unbelievably strong. And Gavin and I, we're very close. And you work with Gavin, he's always going to whittle it down and try to get to the truth of the character, and there's no stone left unturned. It was a real thrill for me to get back. And I think with Ben, it just kind of happened that way. I mean it's there, it was very much supported by Gavin to let moments linger and let it exist naturally, and play the moments in between the beats. He's unbelievably funny and he has such a — it sounds corny, he's just mastered this character in such a way that there's just so many little moments of truth that are going on that you love, but can also drive you crazy from the right point of view. And I feel like we were really — I was really — let off the leash to have a real opinion about that." [caption id="attachment_1001143" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Eric Charbonneau/Amazon MGM Studios via Getty Images[/caption] Gavin: "I don't think we ever said like 'oh, it has to be funny', when I say I wanted the movie to be fun and entertaining. Jon and I had so many sitdowns were we would just be dissecting the character, and 'what's the intention of this scene?' — but once you just put these guys together, they both have specific wants. And if you're not getting your wants — and both these guys are slightly, the characters are slightly bonkers, right, in certain ways, so if they're not getting their wants, if you just let them do their thing, it was such a fertile environment for them just in the scenes that it just created. They weren't trying — the reason I think it works is because they weren't trying to be funny. No one was trying to be funny. They were so engrained in their characters and they had very specific wants. And if you're not getting that, it's like banging your head against the wall." Ben: "And also Jon took pleasure in torturing me. So that was really just funny." On What Addai-Robinson Was Able to Explore in Her Role the Second Time Around Cynthia: "I think I always viewed Marybeth as the entry point for the audience, because she's observing and seeing all these things unfold around her and reacting in kind. And myself as an actor, same thing. I think back to working on the first movie: I was nervous and I was kind of out of my depth in a way, just trying to present as if I wasn't, which I think, for Marybeth, it was a similar type of situation. And here we are, eight years later, when we started on the sequel — and Marybeth has evolved, grown. She's in this elevated position within the Treasury Department. And for myself as a person and an actor, I felt like I had also grown, and it was like 'all right, I'm going to be returning to a situation that's familiar. I feel a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more confident'. And so that was really nice for me to feel like 'okay, I'm feeling like I can handle what I'm now getting thrown at me' — which is, again, this dynamic with Ben and Jon's characters. And just again being, for the audience, that point of entry. So all of their shenanigans, I also got to just bear witness to and be like 'all right, these guys are kind of crazy and they're also kind of challenging my view of how to serve justice', really." [caption id="attachment_1001144" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Eric Charbonneau/Amazon MGM Studios via Getty Images[/caption] Ben: "The secret of this movie is that Cynthia is the protagonist, really. She's the lead in the movie — she's the entree for the audience, which means we get to play character parts. And there is a kind of relief from not having to carry a certain — there a whole bunch of expectations and stuff that go with being the lead in the movie, because as Cynthia says, the audience is really projecting themselves onto you. And so we're like a dual aggravant in some ways to her. And if you look at the math of the story, it's about her being brought into this, seeing this person be killed, trying to find out what it was and what she has to go through to get there, and the resolution of her story. And that's something that I find very artful and interesting, where this person is the lead of the movie and you have these dual character actors in there. So that affords Jon and I the luxury of doing this two-hander odd couple. " On Bringing a Heightened Level of Female Action to the Film Daniella: "I would say this is definitely next-level. I mean, it's not necessarily a character you see all the time. I feel like it's kind of changing a bit. I saw a video the other day of these two American eagle chicks in a nest, and one of the siblings just takes out the littler one, takes out the nest, and I was like 'oh hey, I know that girl. That's all nice'. But at the same time, you want to see that eagle hunt and you want to see that eagle fly — and there is something really compelling about watching a predator do their thing. At the same time, I felt like there's more to her. There's more layers there. So she's not just a stone-cold killer. It's the type of role that I would like to see more women get to play. They're certainly here in the real world. And I love to beat the shit out of Cynthia — but we were hugging, we were hugging in-between takes, and it was nice. I got really lucky. I had a good partner. It was fun, it was fun — but as she'll tell you, it was brutal." Cynthia: "It is pretty good — and what's very satisfying is we've now had opportunities to see the movie with audiences, and when you hear an audience audibly gasp, then you know you're doing something right. Because it means that the stakes and how invested people are in these characters, they are literally leaning forward, and with each blow, each hit, it's like 'aaaahhh'. So I think that's a nice vote of confidence to hear those gasps." On How The Accountant 2's Action Stands Apart From Affleck and O'Connor's Past Projects Ben: "To me, what makes it interesting, and what made me think that we could do something that would actually connect with an audience in the sense that they feel something for what's happening, is because Gavin's approach is not about 'this is a shot where visually it looks cool because of XY and Z elements, and we're going to construct it in such a way', and then you have to reverse-engineer why in the world you would be doing something that would lead you to that place. It's always driven from 'what does each character want? Why are they doing this?'. There's a grounded reason for it. And then his gift is to take that and make that visually compelling." Gavin: "Yeah, and not try to make it feel stunt-y — or some of these, we can cite action movies that are great, but it just feels like the action is in front of the characters. And for us, and the same with the girls, we were always coming from character. So what we were always tracking when we got to the third act was like 'how were these guys working together? How are they now united?'. We knew what the stakes were. We knew what they wanted. So inside of the action and the choreography, really, it was about the emotional line between the two brothers and how are they going to try to accomplish this together? And that was really what the conversations were about. The action is like dance, right? It's just doing it in beats. But action isn't emotional — and disposable violence, who cares about it, right? So it was really evoking emotion because you care about the characters." On How Bernthal Approached His Character's Emotional Arc — and Balanced It with the Demanding Action Sequences Jon: "You can't lie in a fight. You just can't lie — it's all, what you want is right there. And so if you're going for it, you've just got to know what you're going for and why you're going for it. I think more than any director I've ever worked with, Gavin has an appetite and an availability, and a hunger, to go back and to really get into what makes these guys tick. He'll talk to you as long as you want to talk to him about where these guys came from. And what's so beautiful about this being a second film — I think for me with Braxton, he's really shrouded in mystery in the first one. There was a point, you really don't know too much about him, but you have these amazing flashbacks to see how these two boys were raised and what their relationship was with their dad. And it really is the crux of what is really bothering both of them, and what's really bothering Brax: the roles that we've always filled for each other, getting each other's back, having to be there for each other, the lack of being there for each other. So then for it to culminate — it just doesn't culminate just in a gunfight, it culminates in 'hey, I'm there for you. I'm getting your back. You're getting mine. We're joined forever'. And it's a way, for lack of a better word, of showing how much you love somebody — and violence can actually be that sometimes." On Affleck's Line-Dancing Scene Ben: "That was one of the fun things about this thing, was the idea that here's a guy who's trying to figure out — he wants to have a relationship with a woman, he's trying to figure out how to do that, how to put yourself out there. He's not comfortable extending himself. He doesn't really know how to flirt exactly. He's not comfortable, like so many of us — it's not easy for anyone figuring out relationships, particularly the very early part where you're trying to gauge 'what does this signal mean? Is this person looking at me? Do they like me? Am I going to humiliate myself if I go over there?'. And what he does is kind of a lovely thing, which is he uses something that he's comfortable with — which in that case is the ability to recognise and identify the pattern of line dancing, because it is so structured and patterned — to participate in this. And it's the perfect way that he's comfortable to stand next to this woman who he's attracted to and wants to connect with, because it's kind of like parallel play with little kids. You don't have to look at somebody and engage them, but you get to be with them and do something next to them, and he finds a way that he's comfortable doing that. And it required, yeah, a lot of me. I probably am not going to get a lot more demands for my line-dancing work. I don't know. The phone hasn't rung yet. But it was really fun to — I think what's charming about it is when somebody puts himself out there to do something, at least I hope, that they're not necessarily great at, but they're trying. And I mean, really at the end of the day, that's sort of all any of us can do. Some of us are great at things — like Jon, the fighting comes easy to him. The action scenes with him are like playing in a basketball movie and this guy, you're like 'oh, you played professional basketball — okay, great'. And whereas these women of action, like you said then Danielle, they trained like crazy and brought incredible aptitude. Those fight scenes are a function of tremendous commitment and dedication and emotional perseverance that was astonishing. And for me, I'm coming at this line dancing thing like 'I don't really have the natural gifts but I'm willing to try.' I would say they did a hell of a lot better with the action I did with the line dancing. Luckily for me, it wasn't supposed to be good." Gavin: "The other thing about the scene that we were trying to accomplish, that was really important, is obviously there was that happening but we just left the plot of the movie. It was like 'we're going to leave the plot for a while', because that whole scene is really about the brothers. They've been in all this conflict driving up to that scene, and then at the end of the scene on the Airstream he says 'let's go get drunk'. And then that scene became 'they're still kind of in conflict trying to figure it out' — but once he goes to dance, Brax is like, that started to unite the two brothers, and it was just baby steps to get these guys there. So that was the other thing." Ben: "And it anchors the audience, having him celebrate for his brother, like that's who you're connecting to." Gavin: "Totally. Totally, yes. 'Yeah, 'that's my big brother up there'. It's beautiful." The Accountant 2 opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, April 24, 2025. Film stills: courtesy of Warrick Page, Amazon MGM Studios / Prime Video © Amazon Content Services LLC.
Since he first hit the big screen in two wildly different 1995 movies, Clueless and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, the seemingly ageless Paul Rudd has spent time in plenty of imaginations. Who hasn't filled seconds, minutes or hours thinking about how Baz Luhrmann chose him as the unwanted romantic alternative in Romeo + Juliet, or how nothing Wet Hot American Summer-related would be the same without him? Who hasn't pondered how Rudd was ideally cast as Ant-Man, and also in both Parks and Recreation and Only Murders in the Building, too? Given how far the actor's resume stretches on around all of those projects, there's always a reason to have Rudd on the brain. Writer/director Alex Scharfman initially met him after penning a screenplay called The Cats of Baxley, then had a Rudd-centric idea pop into his head: the extremely likeable actor killing a unicorn. Getting one of the most-beloved actors currently working to slay one of the most-cherished mythical creatures there is: now that's quite the concept for anyone's mind to conjure up, and also quite the unique way to start a film. That movie is Death of a Unicorn, the A24-backed genre mashup that kicks off with a widowed father and his college-aged daughter — Elliot and Ridley Kintner, played by Rudd (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) and Jenna Ortega (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) — stunned that they've accidentally hit one of the titular creatures. They're also in shock that such a critter is real. The pair are meant to be on a business trip to the Canadian Rockies, to the estate owned by Elliot's boss, who is in pharmaceuticals and loaded as a result. Elliot sees the getaway as way to boost his career; Ridley would rather be anywhere else. A unicorn encounter isn't something that can just be shaken, though — especially if a billionaire can monetise it, and if nature isn't fond of being messed with. Scharfman's debut feature is a monster movie about unicorns, so a film firmly in the horror-comedy mould. It's an eat-the-rich satire, too. Death of a Unicorn plays with viewer expectations of a picture with Rudd at its core, getting someone so adored for so long portraying a man who constantly makes terrible decisions. Equally, it tasks Ortega with being the film's emotional and empathetic centre as the person instantly attuned to the unicorns, and to the fact that every choice being made around her is wrong (and driven by chasing cash and power). With a killer cast that also spans Richard E Grant (The Franchise) as pharma company head Odell Leopold, Téa Leoni (Madam Secretary) as his wife Belinda and Will Poulter (Black Mirror) as their son Shepard — as well as Anthony Carrigan (Barry) and Jessica Hynes (Am I Being Unreasonable?) among the clan's hired help, plus Sunita Mani (Fantasmas) and Steve Park (Mickey 17) as scientists — it's also a playful creature feature that digs into unicorn lore alongside class structures and hierarchies, commodifying nature, plus capitalism, colonialism and imperialism. That all sprang from the flick's first scene materialising in Scharfman's imagination, then from the filmmaker's deep dive into the mythology surrounding the fabled one-horned animals — and realising what those stories say about society, not merely centuries back but also now. The picture works The Unicorn Tapestries from the Middle Ages into the plot prominently, courtesy of Ridley studying art history; however, as the Leopolds, especially the dying Odell, focus on potential miracle cures and the big bucks that their wealthy peers would pay for them, that's just one of the director's touchpoints. As always evident to Death of a Unicorn's audience, Scharfman has followed the path that his unicorn research has taken him down— through tales typically "about a lord, it's about a king, a nobleman, sending out their court, all their servants, the people who have no choice in the matter, the people who have to do it, and sending them out into nature to capture the uncapturable, so that this this object of purity, this resource, can be owned and possessed and commodified", he tells Concrete Playground — and found modern-day parallels in the pharmaceutical realm. He's interrogating commodification not just of nature and animals, but resources, knowledge, medicine, health and life-saving treatment, and tearing into the imbalance in access that comes with it. That said, never forgetting the type of movie that he's crafting, Scharfman has equally gleaned inspiration from a wealth of films and TV shows, resulting in a mix of Jaws, Jurassic Park, Succession, ET the Extra-Terrestrial, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Evil Dead, The Rules of the Game, John Carpenter flicks, Korean cinema and more as clear influences. Before dreaming of Rudd dispensing with unicorns, and before turning that idea into a cinematic reality in a SXSW-premiering picture, Scharfman started solidifying his filmmaking voice by writing and directing his own shorts — and also producing features. Keep the Lights On, Selah and the Spades, Resurrection, House of Spoils: they're just some of the projects that he's been involved in. How did that background assist with Death of a Unicorn? Did Scharfman ever imagine a version of his directorial debut without Rudd? How crucial is Ortega in grounding the feature's chaos, and how pivotal is the scene-stealing Poulter in helping set the comedic tone? We chatted to Death of a Unicorn's guiding force about all of that, coming up with the initial concept, his research, that huge lineup of inspirations and more. On Conjuring Up the Concept for the Film — and for Starting It with Paul Rudd Killing a Unicorn "The first thing I thought of in the movie is the opening sequence. A family kills a unicorn, and a father and daughter specifically, then need to put it out of its misery — for lack of a better turn of phrase. So that was always the initial intention, and that was where the movie started for me. Then it grew out of that seed and that premise and that idea, not knowing where it was going to go, and it took the shape that it did hopefully organically. And I also wrote that role for Paul. So they were both always the plan. Paul is incredibly likeable. And Paul is, frustratingly — he's likeable as a performer, and he's frustratingly likeable as a person, too, because you want to find something wrong with him and he doesn't have it. He's just an incredibly at-peace, generous, kind person. And there was something that I thought was interesting on a narrative level of making him unlikeable, because I think he has this inherent likeability, and that we could tolerate a lot of bad behaviour from him and wait until he comes around, or hope that he comes around, to become the Paul Rudd who we love. So I think there was something that was interesting to me about veiling that Paul Rudd we know and love, and shrouding him in anxiety and stress at the beginning of the movie — and telling you 'he's going to become the Paul Rudd we love by the end of the movie, but he's not going to be that guy at the beginning of the movie', and to give him an arc to become that. And I think that came through, I hope, in this sense of this character who's had some misfortunes — the universe has thrown him some curveballs, and he's gotten some bad luck along the way — and what that might do to someone to start ratcheting up their anxiety with financial, personal, otherwise, in a way where they're always trying to look ahead at what might go wrong. The real Paul Rudd has had an incredibly blessed life and is a really sweet person, and is totally present and in the moment and wonderful. And the thought was 'well, how we get the opposite of that to that place?'. And so, yeah, I thought it was an interesting challenge to weaponise Paul Rudd's likeability." On Always Imagining Rudd in the Lead — and the Journey That That Key Piece of Casting Takes Audiences On "The hope was to understand why he's making bad decisions, and to understand his moral compromise and the perspective of moral relativism that he's had to adopt as a means of coping with the world, navigating his way through the world, and also providing for his daughter — who I think he's taken a very literal approach to 'how do I be a good parent?'. It's 'I provide for her and that's what I'm supposed to do, and as long as I have amassed enough financial security, then anything that comes our way, we'll be able to tackle and address as best we can'. Because they've had, as I said before, he's been kicked in the teeth from the universe before. Things have happened to him that were no one's fault that just sort of happened, and that happens to people. And I think that that gave him a certain kind of limp, that's an invisible limp that he walks with for the rest of his life until the events of this movie — and he hopefully shakes that limp. But in terms of 'was it ever anyone else?', no. I always liked the idea of it being this morally compromised lawyer, because I think something interesting about lawyers is that's a skillset that could be applied in any direction. And there's something interesting about the nature of the legal system and that everyone's entitled to representation, even guilty people. There's a certain moral vacuum. That's literally what they refer to it as, lawyers: the moral vacuum, a place where you don't make a moral judgment. And I thought that was always an interesting perspective to have for a protagonist. And usually I feel like the lawyer in Jurassic Park was killed quite unceremoniously, and I thought it would be interesting to say 'what if that guy was the hero?'. Or I thought a lot about the actress who's married to Kenneth Lonergan [Manchester by the Sea], who played Gerri in Succession, who's so great: J Smith-Cameron [Hacks]. I was like 'oh, what if she was the lead of a movie, that character?'. And so was it ever not that? I always hoped it would be Paul. I certainly entertained 'well, what if Paul says no'. And I thought about other people in the role if I had to, but thankfully he said yes and I never had to." On the Wide Range of Influences, From Succession and Jurassic Park to ET and Korean Cinema, That Helped Inspire Death of a Unicorn "I wish I could say that the tone was something I thought about and meditated on for a long time. It always felt like that was just the expression of the movie to me. I think unicorns are, in our consciousness, magical, in a way that they're not just monsters. You can't treat a unicorn like a xenopmorh, because I don't think then you're treating a unicorn — you can make a horror movie that features unicorns that isn't a unicorn horror movie, if that makes sense. You want to be true to the emotional associations that we all have with unicorns, to make sure that you're doing justice to that for all the unicorn lovers out there and for everyone who has a passive understanding of a unicorn that has a certain magical association. And so that sort of conjured, in my mind, a certain Amblin kind of magic — you know, that ET kind of way. And The Abyss also has that in spades, certainly. But then I also thought about subverting that, and that led me down a road of the Alien and Aliens and Evil Deads of the world. And An American Werewolf in London, certainly, too. So there was a lot of that hybridisation. But then at the end of the day, I was also thinking 'well, I don't think you could do a unicorn movie with a total straight face, as a unicorn horror movie. You have to be funny'. I think there has to be some awareness of the absurdity in that. I think if you just did that with a straight face, it would get real boring real fast. And so it kind of presented itself in this way, that it was like 'well, it's a monster movie' so it has to have these things like Jaws and Alien and Aliens, and those sort of movies — and Creature From the Black Lagoon and so forth. But then we have all this warmth associated with them. And so that brings in the ETs of the world. And there's a great Val Guest movie, The Abominable Snowman, which is wonderful and has these benevolent yeti monsters that are really interesting. And The Abyss, also again, to go back to that one, has these benevolent monsters, that it's on us not to fuck with them, you know? Like, they will decimate us if they decide to, but it's our prerogative to make sure they don't want to. So anyhow, these influences all coalesced, and I think it became clarified through a certain Korean sensibility — thinking about The Host or Train to Busan, or Thirst, which is a very different movie. But there's something about those movies, and I think a general Korean sensibility, is that they aren't afraid to combine influences and to swing, and to say 'we're going to be funny here and absurd, and then we're going to be scary over here, and then this emotionality is going to be building underneath all of that'. The Host is such a favourite movie of mine. It opens with Song Kang-ho [Cobweb] doing these brilliant pratfalls and physical comedy, and then it ends with this tragic loss at the end of the movie that's really heartbreaking. And then through the middle, it's almost like The Royal Tenenbaums on a monster hunt. It's this dysfunctional family of adult estranged siblings. And you're going 'wait, what? This movie does all of these things?'. And it has this anti-American, -colonial, -capitalist satire threaded through all that. And yet somehow I watch that movie and I'm like 'what a perfect movie'. My hope was when you watch those kind of movies — and Train to Busan is another one that contained zombies, action and high-concept, but also is a commentary about selfishness and self-interest, and then also this father-daughter story that makes me cry every time I watch it. There's something about that that's like, I don't know, somehow that has a spine that allows it move through all these zones. And I think if you commit to it, hopefully that's okay. So that's sort of what I was aspiring to do, I suppose." On Connecting Unicorn Lore and Mythology to Class Structures, Commodifying Nature, Colonialism and Capitalism "I outline a lot, so I try to accrue a lot of information and thoughts and research and material. John Houston has this great quote where he said 'don't start writing till you can't stop', and so I try to do that. So what I end up doing is, I end up thinking about things a lot. I very early on got to unicorn mythology, and I zeroed in on the Middle Ages — because I think the tapestries are brilliant, and I love them, beautiful pieces of art, but that's sort of when unicorn narratives became really cohesive and codified, in a way. Before that, there were unicorns, but they weren't in a traditional structure. And then in the Middle Ages, the hunt narratives became quite, not formulaic per se, but that was the archetypical unicorn story, it was about a unicorn hunt. And when I realised that, I was like 'oh, well this provides a basis for a parallel to a creature-feature structure', in the sense of those kind of James Cameron-y or Spielberg-y monster movies where very often they're on a hunt. That's what most of that second act of Alien is about. And same with almost the entirety of Aliens, that is about a monster hunt. And so that made a lot of sense to me. And again, that Val Guest Abominable Snowman, that's a monster-hunt movie. The Creature From the Black Lagoon: monster-hunt movie. There's a very traditional structure. But then when I started thinking about medieval unicorn mythology in a contemporary context, it also invites a lot of thought about class structure, and those are very much stories about social hierarchy. It's about a lord, it's about a king, a nobleman, sending out their court, all their servants, the people who have no choice in the matter, the people who have to do it, and sending them out into nature to capture the uncapturable, so that this this object of purity, this resource, can be owned and possessed and commodified. And so when I was like 'okay, well I'm updating unicorn mythology, unicorn myth', that's what the lore is. It's like, well, how could it not be about those things? And when you realise that unicorns were prized for their curative properties, it naturally invites a conversation with healthcare and pharmaceuticals. And so it's funny. How I like to write is just to find a string and start pulling and see where it leads me, and it seems like the story presented itself as being about class, about the social structures that we live in today and also about pharmaceuticals. And so it naturally provided this context to consider an oligarchic, industrialist family as if it was a former nobleman or noble lord's family with their fiefdom, but their fiefdom is an industry." On Enlisting Jenna Ortega to Be the Film's Emotional Centre, Audience Surrogate and Voice of Wisdom "I wrote the role and figured out the characters based on what the story was asking for and what their dynamics were, and then I got to the end of that process and we were like, with the studio, with A24, they're like 'let's start casting the movie'. And I realised, I was like 'holy shit, what have I done? Who can play this role?'. Ridley is such a challenging role because, yeah, she's the vehicle of exposition. She's the character who the audience identifies with. She's the most — I try not to write anyone as like a straight man, I think comedies are most fun when everyone has their own weird game that they're playing, but she's certainly among the most-grounded, probably. I think her and Anthony's character are the most grounded in terms of their perspective. And so, yeah, it's a really hard role to figure out. And I'm so fortunate, we only offered the role to one person and she said yes, and that person is Jenna Ortega. She's an absolutely just knockout performer. Every take is great. So I don't know, what did I have to do? I had to get lucky. I wrote Jenna a letter and I asked her to please be in my movie and save it. And she did. And so I just showed up every day and we'd talk about things a lot, but the truth is Jenna's just an incredible performer. She's so good. She's just one of those actors that you just point the camera at her, she's going to do it." On the Importance of Will Poulter's Comic Timing, and Ability to Lean Into His Character's Privilege and Obliviousness, to Help Set the Comedic Tone "Shep's voice was one that came off the page pretty early in the writing process, where it was hard not to keep writing for his voice. He's one of those characters that — and Will figured it out so beautifully — it's just a character that you just want to keep giving him stuff to say. You just want him to react. He's in a great position, too, as far as comic structure, in that he gets to react to a lot of things. He doesn't have to drive a lot of things. The scenes, he gets to just be present in them and be arrogant and lack any self-awareness. But Will totally landed it and nailed, I think, the tone. And did this amazing feat — that's a very heightened character that he somehow found an emotional centre for, and he grounded that character in a sense of, I think, inadequacy, and bravado around that inadequacy. And wanting to be told that he's enough as a person, trying to earn his parents' love and respect. And I think he, in doing so, built a character that's both heightened and yet grounded, and so both villainous and yet I kind of sympathise with him. I look at that character and I'm like 'oh, man, you've got into a bad situation where psychologically you've been put in this position that your parents have really done a number on you, and there's nothing you can do about it because it's all it's too late now, it's all locked in'. The dark humour of the movie and the pace of the jokes and dialogue all lives in the performance, and the Leopold family really gets to let that rip. They get to be unmoored. And Will totally got it. And Téa and Richard are also comic geniuses, I think, and totally understood the commitment to the bit. And I'm just so lucky they all chose to be in the movie." On How Scharfman's Experience as a Producer for Over a Decade Helped Him Make the Leap to Directing His First Feature "It was invaluable. I've worked as a producer for a long time. And it built up a comfort level on set. To be honest, when I started working in film, I wanted to be a writer and a producer, and I was a little bit scared of directing. It's a really daunting task, and I had, I hope, a respect for it, a reverence for it, that I don't think I could have — I didn't want to go out and be directing at the outset of my career, and I think I only gained that perspective over time, and the desire to do it as well, as I got more comfortable on set. So I would say producing the features that I have just built up my comfort level with the apparatus, of the machine, of a film set, which is such a specific working environment — and understanding how to problem-solve in that kind of context, how to be creative in that context, how to create the right environment. And that trickles into the writing in invisible ways, just the choices you make. I've seen filmmakers make great choices and I've seen filmmakers make choices they regret later. And not that any of those films that I made were dry runs or anything like that, those are films that I'm all proud of, but you just gain experience by being around an apparatus like that, by making movies and by being part of it. And I think I've gained a lot of experience. I've worked as a professional screenwriter for several years as well, not quite as long as I've been a professional producer, but you learn a tremendous amount by working in development on other scripts and by developing your own scripts simultaneously. So I like to think that it's just a holistic perspective. It's hard to isolate an experience that like 'this experience taught me that' — it's just all cumulative to become who you are and the lens through which you see the world. So I don't know exactly how, but I know it's helped me. I know I felt more comfortable on a set, and I know I've been around enough practical effects and stunts and things like that that I felt it was within my capacity to execute an execution-dependent film like this as my first feature. There's a lot to bite off in the film, but I don't think I would have been capable of doing that if I hadn't been building towards this over the course of over a decade of just learning about the filmmaking process." Death of a Unicorn opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, April 10, 2025.
Call it a cost-of-living-crisis miracle: Australia has a new streaming platform vying for your eyeballs, but this one won't cost you anything to watch. There's no sign-up fee, no monthly or annual subscription, and no pay-per-view purchases with Brollie. Instead, there's ads — but also 300-plus films and TV shows to enjoy for free. First announced earlier in November and now streaming as at Thursday, November 23, Brollie hails from independent Australian and New Zealand distributor Umbrella Entertainment. Accordingly, its focus is on homegrown fare. Whether you're after an early Nicole Kidman (Special Ops: Lioness)-starring movie such as BMX Bandits or Bush Christmas, the scares of The Babadook, Kylie Minogue in Cut, or documentaries such as Servant or Slave and Ablaze, you'll find them here. Other Aussie highlights include Rose Byrne (Physical) featuring opposite Heath Ledger in Two Hands, Hugh Jackman (The Son) in Erskineville Kings, and the David Gulpilil-starring like Walkabout and Storm Boy. Or, there's also a young Claudia Karvan (The Clearing) and Ben Mendelsohn (Secret Invasion) in The Big Steal — and Karvan and Jackman in Dating the Enemy. The Furnace, Girl Asleep, Head On, the Daniel Radcliffe (Miracle Workers)-led Jungle, The Last Wave, Mad Dog Morgan, Love Serenade, Puberty Blues, Sirens, Tanna, The Tracker: add them to your queue as well. An Angel at My Table, one of Oscar-winner Jane Campion's (The Power of the Dog) early films, is also available. So is fellow New Zealand effort Coming Home in the Dark. Brollie's lineup clearly isn't just about Aussie efforts, then. So, get excited about Nicolas Cage milking an alpaca in Color Out of Space, Joaquin Phoenix (Beau Is Afraid)-led masterpiece You Were Never Really Here, the live-action OG Super Mario Bros, 80s favourite Heathers, and mind-bender Vivarium with Jesse Eisenberg (Fleishman Is in Trouble) and Imogen Poots (Outer Range) among the international titles. Even 2023's Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is there. You can say cheers to Mads Mikkelsen (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) in both Another Round and Arctic, too, or give fantasy space western After Blue (Dirty Paradise) a whirl. Takashi Miike's (First Love) Audition, the Brian Cox (Succession)-starring The Autopsy of Jane Doe, South Korean standout A Bittersweet Life, George A Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead, and absurdist comedy Deerskin also pop up. So do sci-fi mind-bender The Endless, LA noir Under the Silver Lake, supernatural comedy Extra Ordinary, several Re-Animator and Hellraiser flicks, and the original Suspiria. And, for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans, the three live-action 90s movies are all on offer. The list goes on, complete with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale) in Her Smell, Japanese animation In This Corner of the World, a number of Bruce Lee titles, and Harry Dean Stanton (Twin Peaks) turning in one of his best performances in Lucky with David Lynch also acting by his side. Speaking of exceptional on-screen efforts, the David Bowie-led Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence also falls into that category. Everyone needs to have seen once-forgotten film Miami Connection once, but because it's an out-there martial arts movie that really has to be seen to be believed — and definitely not due to its acting. From the docos, You Don't Nomi pairs perfectly with Showgirls, which is also on the platform; We Were Once Kids explores the making of Kids, which again is similarly available to watch; and Zappa, The Go-Betweens: Right Here and Buena Vista Social Club all put their subjects in their names. Not Quite Hollywood's dive through Ozploitation history is obviously a perfect fit for the streamer, while the vastly dissimilar Honeyland was nominated for two Academy Awards. The television selection is currently small, with 15 titles. More Ledger in TV series Sweat, a small-screen version of Dune, the first season of Skippy and sitcom All Together Now all feature. Viewers can watch along via Apple TV, Google TV, Android TV, Chromecast with Google TV and on your browser. Whichever you pick, just don't forget that ads will appear while you're viewing — aka the tradeoff for Brollie not bothering your bank account. To help viewers sort through the Brollie collection, the service's team is highlighting its best-of picks twice monthly, and also heroing Aussie horror via an Australian Nightmares collection. At present, the latter includes The Babadook (of course), as well as Lake Mungo, The Tunnel, Razorback, Dark Age, the original Patrick and 1989 must-see Celia, among others. Brollie launched on Thursday, November 23 — head to the streaming platform's website to subscribe and for further details.
Look, it was only a matter of time before this happened. Following on from the success of similar places in New York and Amsterdam, Australia's first avocado pop-up cafe is coming to Sydney. And it'll be avocado everything, seven days a week. Don't act surprised — we created this monster. The pop-up — named Good Fat, because everyone knows that's the best health benefit/justification for eating copious amounts of avo smash — will opens its doors on November 2 in Surry Hills with about 20 items on the menu that incorporate avocado. Sydneysiders will be able to indulge in creations such as the avocado breakfast skin (an avocado smoothie bowl served in its own skin) and a Cornetto-inspired avo ice cream cone. If you haven't already twigged, the whole thing is a promo for Australian Avocados, a non-profit representative body for the Australian avocado industry. But even so, avocados are a brand we're happy to support with our love and money. If you feel the same, the pop-up will be open will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner until November 30 and all dishes will be under $20. Good Fat will be open from November 2–30, from 7am to 9pm on Monday through Saturday and 8pm to 5pm on Sundays, at 355 Crown Street, Surry Hills.
FBi Social, the Sydney radio station's first ever pop-up live music venue, opened its doors last week. Housed on the second level of the refurbished Kings Cross Hotel, in stumbling distance of the Coca Cola sign, FBi is hoping to use the space to further their ever evolving mission of helping emerging local bands break through to larger audiences. With a 200-person capacity and a 24/7 license, and the aim of taking Kings Cross back to it's live music/dive bar roots, it's sure to be a very exciting couple of months. Rarely can you make me go to Kings Cross. The place evokes memories of dangerously high heels, bogan's blaring bad music from their souped up cars and being hit on by drug dealers. But FBi Social will be enough to get me, and many like me, to venture to the end of William Street. And perhaps the biggest perk is that no longer will you have to catch two buses and a train to a shoddy warehouse at the back of Marrickville to see emerging live music. It all kicks off this weekend, with Friday night's Socially Acceptable bringing you FBi's favourite emerging DJ's to assist you in all manner of hand-clapping, toe-tapping and hip-thrusting. The lineup of bands kick off on Saturday night with Dance To The Radio, featuring The Preachers, Underlights and Sister Jane. Gigs over the next two months include Ernest Ellis, Pikelet and Guineafowl, and will sit side by side with nights devoted to genres such as folk, hip hip and experimental music.
Bliss comes in many forms. One such dose of happiness: waking up to glistening water right at your doorstep, after sleeping in a cabin perched over a lake and with your very own heated plunge pool on hand for a dip. Normally that scenic vision would have you thinking of overseas holidays — planning them, too — but it'll soon be available at Pumicestone Passage. Sandstone Point Holiday Resort, aka the Bribie Island-adjacent resort that's on the mainland side of the waterway, is adding overwater villas to its accommodation offerings. Holidaymakers will have six cabins to choose from, all on stilts in the resort's new natural — and swimmable — lake, and ideally before 2023 is out. There's no better time than summer to launch a new place to stay that's all about swims and watery views, with Sandstone Point Holiday Resort's overwater villas expected to be finished before the school holidays kick in. If you're keen to check them out as soon as they open, expect to have plenty of company. There might only be six of them, but the cabins each boast three bedrooms, making them family-friendly spots to slumber. And, so far more than 23,000 people have signed up for the waitlist to be notified when bookings launch. Also included in each cabin: two bathrooms, an open-plan kitchen, and a dining and living space that opens out onto a deck. Inside, there's a fireplace for the cooler months. Outside, patrons will find an outdoor space to eat, a barbecue, a ladder going into the swimming hole and the 5000-litre private plunge pool per villa. [caption id="attachment_927444" align="alignnone" width="1920"] default[/caption] At present, the lake beneath the cabins has just been filled, with the fish and natural plant life still to come. The villas themselves are being furnished, while outdoor showers are being finalised as well — plus privacy screens for each villa, and fencing to keep the place safe. Sandstone Point Holiday Resort already includes a swim-up bar and three heated pools, so you won't be lacking in splashing options if you spend your summers pretending you're Aquaman or Ariel. The natural lake will be chemical-free, with filtration and pumps making the water flow so that people can share a swim with the fish. If you don't manage to nab a villa stay once they're welcoming in travellers but you're still keen for a swim, the lake will be open to all Sandstone Point Holiday Resort guests; however, there'll be certain times each day when it is exclusively available to folks in the cabins. Sandstone Point Holiday Resort's overwater villas are expected to open before the end of 2023 at 1820 Bribie Island Road, Sandstone Point. Head to the resort's website to join the waitlist for further information.
Discounted airfares have been quite the topic of conversation over the past year or so, as Australian airlines have endeavoured to encourage us all to explore this scenic country of ours. If we can't holiday overseas while the international border is closed, we should all make the most of our own backyards — or so the very sensible thinking goes. That said, with lockdowns and border restrictions still a regular part of pandemic-era life Down Under, holidaying within Australia isn't straightforward. But, if and when that becomes a bit easier in the coming months — with both New South Wales and Victoria set to start easing stay-at-home conditions when the two states each reach certain vaccination thresholds — enjoying an Aussie getaway will hopefully be back on the cards nationwide. And, in preparation for that becoming a reality, Virgin is hosting a five-day sale that's serving up cheap flights. Called 'Anywhere But Here', this sale has more than a million discounted fares up for grabs — but you'll need to get in quick. They went on sale today, Monday, September 6; however, they're only available until Friday, September 10 or sold out, whichever comes first. All one-way fares, the discounted economy flights cover 70 different routes. Some of the specials on offer include Sydney to Byron Bay for $49, Sydney to the Sunshine Coast for $69, Melbourne to Launceston from $49, Melbourne to the Whitsunday Coast from $139, Brisbane to Hamilton Island from $105, Brisbane to Darwin from $149, Adelaide to Melbourne from $79 and Perth to Broome from $179 (and vice versa in all cases, naturally). And, if you're wondering when you can travel — depending on lockdowns and border restrictions, of course — you can book flights for trips between October 6, 2021–June 23, 2022. Only some fares cover seat selection and checked baggage, however, with the airline announcing back in August that it is now splitting its economy flights into three types. Economy Lite doesn't include checking any baggage or picking your seat, but Economy Choice does — and Economy Flex gives you extra flexibility (hence the name) if you have to change your plans later. As we are still in the middle of a pandemic, flying is little different to normal. Virgin has introduced a range of safety measures, including hand sanitisation stations, contactless check-in and face masks provided to all passengers. Wearing masks on flights also became mandatory in Australia in January. Virgin's 'Anywhere But Here' sale runs from today, Monday, September 6–Friday, September 10 — or until sold out. Find out more about current interstate border restrictions via the Australian Government's Health Direct website.
Turning off your alarm at 6am is one of the easiest things in the world. But turning off a coffee machine half asleep? That's a little bit harder. Perhaps that's what designer Josh Renouf had in mind when creating a genius new coffee-brewing alarm clock. Well, that and the irresistible lure of a fresh cup of coffee waiting at your bedside. In the latest of things to be invented that really should have been invented already, comes The Barisieur. Unlike this ultimate tease of a breakfast-scented alarm clock — which wakes you up with smells of coffee and bacon — this designer device a is the real deal. Not only will it emit smells of coffee (or loose leaf tea, if you prefer) throughout the night as a natural relaxant, but it will wake you up at your desired time with "the sound of bubbling water and the smell of freshly brewed coffee". And just like magic, you'll have a cup of coffee waiting when you pry open your eyes. So how does it work? The water is boiled in the left vessel by an induction hob, forcing it to move up and over into the stainless steel filter on the right. The Water then moves through the coffee to create a super fresh (and convenient) cup of filter. There's also a cooled tray that can store milk and a drawer for sugar and whatever else you might like to pop in your coffee. Like all great devices of our time, The Barisieur is currently being funded on Kickstarter. So far 766 backers have raised almost £200,000 — over half of the £380,000 goal. UPDATE: OCTOBER 10, 2016 The Barisieur has been fully funded, with 1186 backers pledging £383,623 for the most amazing alarm clock of all time. You can pre-order one here.
A new name has joined Brisbane's ever-growing craft beer scene, but The Brew Baron Beer Co isn't exactly a new brewery. Instead, it's a fresh guise for West End's Parched Brewing. This is a case of new owners, new moniker and new fictional character to base the brand around, but the same brews and space on Montague Road. Brad Sayer, Rita Ferraro and Gibran Ferraro Firmo purchased Parched in June 2023, then set about giving it a revamp. That's where the changed title from September 2023 onwards comes in for this husband, wife and stepson trio, as well as the baron figure. Sayer and Ferraro have overseen the fresh direction — including new additions to the brewery's home — while Gibran has deployed his skills as a chef to spearhead a food menu makeover. First, the space: if you're keen on whiling away an evening with a cue in your hand, you'll want to head straight to the pool room. On the way is a brand-new deck, too, for cruisy drinking sessions. And if you're eager to watch sports as you knock back a few cold ones, big-screen TVs have joined the site, while leather chesterfield couches will be in place by the time that September is out. Live music is also making a comeback at The Brew Baron Beer Co, echoing from the Brew Stage from 2–5pm every second Sunday. Prefer trivia over a tipple instead? That's now a Thursday-night staple from 6.30pm, and is free to enter. As for the food, Gibran has taken inspiration from his South American heritage, which comes through in both flavours and dishes among a heap of pub classics. Think: pork tacos with chipotle mayo and chilli con carne nachos, for starters. The menu also includes karaage chicken tacos, tempura prawns, five types of burger, seven styles of pizza, fish 'n' chips, and both schnitzels and parmigianas. Or, there's the birramisu pie, which pairs ten-hour braised beef cheek with peas and mashed potato. Drinks-wise, The Brew Baron Beer Co's sips include pale ale, lager, IPA and a hazy IPA, plus a peach and raspberry sour. Matt Wolfe remains as Head Brewer, with developing new brews part of his remit.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas across the country. After months spent empty, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, Australian picture palaces are back in business — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, comedies, music documentaries, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngy7grwzFTw NOBODY As both a comedian and a dramatic actor, Bob Odenkirk has earned a lifetime's worth of well-deserved praise. Writing for Saturday Night Live and starring in Mr Show with Bob and David each sit on his resume, as does his pivotal part in Breaking Bad and lead role in the exceptional Better Call Saul. But in Nobody, Odenkirk highlights a facet of his work that's easy to overlook. Jumping into a new genre, he makes viewers realise a truth that cuts to the heart of his talents. Every actor wants to be the person that can't be replaced, and to turn in the type of performances that no one can emulate; however, only the very best, including Odenkirk, manage exactly that. A movie so forged from the John Wick mould that it's penned by the same screenwriter — and boasts the first film's co-director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde) as a producer, too — Nobody could've featured any existing action go-to. It could've been an easy knockoff of well-known hit, joining the swathe of direct-to-video and -streaming titles that use that very template. It could've given Bruce Willis his next role to sleepwalk through, added yet another Taken-style thriller to Liam Neeson's resume or proven one of Nicolas Cage's more straightforward vehicles of late. Thankfully, though, Nobody is all about the ever-watchable Odenkirk and his peerless and compelling ability to play slippery characters. When Nobody begins, Hutch Mansell's (Odenkirk) life has become such a routine that his weeks all unfurl in the same fashion. Plodding through a sexless marriage to real estate agent Becca (Connie Nielsen, Wonder Woman 1984), and barely paid any notice by his teenage son Blake (Gage Munroe, Guest of Honour) and younger daughter Abby (debutant Paisley Cadorath), he catches public transport to his manufacturing company job every weekday, always puts the bins out too late for the garbage truck on Tuesday mornings, and usually earns little more than polite smiles from his family while he's cooking them breakfast that they fail to eat. Then, the Mansells' suburban home is randomly burgled. Hutch confronts the thieves in the act, has a chance to swing a golf club their way, yet holds back. But when Abby notices that her beloved cat bracelet is missing in the aftermath, he decides to take action — a choice that leads him to an unrelated bus filled with obnoxious guys hassling a female passenger, and eventually sees unhinged Russian mobster Yulian Kuznetsov (Aleksey Serebryakov, Leviathan) threatening everything that Hutch holds dear. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0ox9ExOA1M&feature=youtu.be THE FATHER Forgetting, fixating, flailing, fraying: that's The Father. Anthony's (Anthony Hopkins, Westworld) life is unravelling, with his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman, The Crown) springing the sudden news that she's about to move to Paris, and now insistent that he needs a new carer to replace the last home helper he's just scared off. He also can't find his watch, and time seems to jump suddenly. On some days, he has just trundled out of bed to greet the morning when Anne advises that dinner, not breakfast, is being served. When he brings up her French relocation again, she frostily and dismissively denies any knowledge. Sometimes another man (Mark Gatiss, Dracula) stalks around Anthony's London apartment, calling himself Anne's husband. Sometimes the flat isn't his own at all and, on occasion, both Anne (Olivia Williams, Victoria and Abdul) and her partner (Rufus Sewell, Judy) look completely different. Intermittently, Anthony either charms or spits cruel words at Laura (Imogen Poots, Black Christmas), the latest aide hired to oversee his days. She reminds him of another daughter, one he's sure he had — and preferred — but hasn't heard from for years. When he mentions his other offspring, however, everyone else goes silent. More than once, Anthony suspects that someone has pilfered his beloved timepiece, which just keeps disappearing. Largely, The Father remains housebound. For the bulk of its 97 minutes, it focuses on the cardigan-wearing Anthony as he roams around the space he calls home. But this is a chaotic film, despite its visual polish, and that mess, confusion and upheaval is entirely by design. All the shifting and changing — big and small details alike, and faces and places, too — speak to the reason Anne keeps telling Anthony they need another set of hands around the house. His memory isn't what it used to be. In fact, it's getting much worse than that. Anthony knows that there's something funny going on, which is how he describes it when his sense of what's happening twists and morphs without warning, and The Father's audience are being immersed in that truth. Anthony has dementia, with conveying precisely how that feels for him the main aim of this six-time Oscar-nominated stage-to-screen adaptation. As overwhelming as The Father can be as it wades through Anthony and Anne's lives, its unflinching and unsparing approach is anchored in kindness and compassion, which novelist and playwright turned first-time director Florian Zeller has brought to the screen in a stunning fashion from Le Père, his own play. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bb2d6DVY28 THE COURIER In 1960, in the thick of the Cold War, British businessman Greville Wynne was recruited by MI6. Chosen because he frequently travelled to Eastern Europe for work — and also because he wouldn't stand out in general — he was asked to visit Moscow numerous times, then return with information about the Soviet nuclear program as supplied by a contact within the Russian government. That's the true tale that The Courier explores, and it's an intriguinng one. Working together until around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, Wynne and Oleg Penkovsky, his source, helped change the course of history. And yet, in a film that looks backwards not just for its content but also in its old-school style, director Dominic Cooke (On Chesil Beach) and screenwriter Tom O'Connor (The Hitman's Bodyguard) seem to have taken the wrong cue from the story they're telling. As everything from years of Bond flicks to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Bridge of Spies have shown, Cold War spy movies have comprised their own genre for decades. The Courier knows this, and remains happy to blend in among its peers. It's solid but straightforward, always proving just engaging and rousing enough. It also boasts an excellent performance from Benedict Cumberbatch in his latest historical drama (see also: The Imitation Game and The Current War), but this espionage thriller still has less of an impact than it should. Indeed, Cumberbatch's efforts as an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation rank among The Courier's biggest highlights, alongside the real-life details it delves into. He's calm, flattered and even a little perplexed in early scenes, as Wynne is asked by the CIA's Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan, I'm Your Woman) and MI6's Dickie Franks (Angus Wright, Official Secrets) to do his country and the world a favour. Soon, Cumberbatch is both confident and jumpy as Wynne travels back and forth, strikes up a genuine friendship with Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze, Homeland) and tries to keep the reality of his trips from his increasingly suspicious wife Sheila (Jessie Buckley, Misbehaviour). And, later, he's vulnerable but still determined. He takes the feature's biggest theme — loyalty — firmly to heart, and ensures that it seeps from his pores whether Wynne is in an easy, tricky or brutal scenario. It's still impossible not to notice how standard and risk-averse almost everything around Cumberbatch is, though; however, The Courier is never plodding. Still, there's a difference between skewing classic to do a narrative justice and boxing a true story into a template, with this film frequently leaning more towards the latter than the former. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP9TfCWaQT4 TOM & JERRY Before Itchy and Scratchy started terrorising each other well beyond the bounds of normal cat and mouse antagonism, another feline and rodent pair got there first. Of course, The Simpsons' adversarial four-legged critters were designed to parody the characters created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera more than 80 years ago, but they've long since supplanted Tom and Jerry as popular culture's go-to fighting animal duo. Perhaps the new Tom & Jerry movie is an attempt to push its titular creatures back to prominence. Perhaps it's just the latest effort to cash in on nostalgia while hoping that a new generation of children will be interested enough to warrant more big-screen outings, and therefore more chances to make some cash. Watching this all-ages-friendly hybrid of cartoon and live-action, it doesn't seem as if anyone involved knows quite why the film exists — not director Tom Story (Ride Along and Ride Along 2), who cares more about stressing the feature's hip hop soundtrack than paying much attention to its eponymous figures; not screenwriter Kevin Costello (Brigsby Bear), who pens a dull and derivative script about celebrity wedding chaos; and definitely not a cast that spans Chloë Grace Moretz (Shadow in the Cloud), Michael Peña (Fantasy Island), Rob Delaney (Catastrophe), Ken Jeong (Boss Level), Colin Jost (Saturday Night Live) and Pallavi Sharda (Retrograde), all of whom will forever have this misfire on their resumes. The animated animal action starts with Tom's latest vendetta against his long-time rival Jerry, after the latter destroys the former's keyboard and his music stardom dreams along with it. In his quest for revenge, the cat follows the house-hunting mouse to his newest abode at Manhattan's upmarket Royal Gate hotel, where the pair soon wreak havoc. Story and Costello prefer to focus on the resourceful and human Kayla (Moretz) at almost every turn, though. After talking her way into a job onsite, she's soon given two important tasks. The first: help ensure that the nuptials of two nondescript celebs (Jost and Sharda) go smoothly, which of course doesn't happen. The second: track down Jerry, which involves hiring Tom to assist. Somehow, Tom & Jerry is both lazy and overcomplicated. It does the bare minimum with its flesh-and-blood and pixel characters alike, all while completely forgetting that viewers have always loved Tom and Jerry for its fast, smart and entertaining slapstick antics (and definitely not because one day the duo might become bit-players in yet another flick about bland wedding dramas). When the film starts with pigeons rapping A Tribe Called Quest's 'Can I Kick It?' in its entirety, it begs an obvious question: who is this for? No one that's brought this movie to fruition seems to know the answer there, either — and they certainly haven't expended any energy on trying to make the feature funny, because laughs are absent from start to finish. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on January 1, January 7, January 14, January 21 and January 28; February 4, February 11, February 18 and February 25; and March 4, March 11, March 18 and March 25. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Nomadland, Pieces of a Woman, The Dry, Promising Young Woman, Summerland, Ammonite, The Dig, The White Tiger, Only the Animals, Malcolm & Marie, News of the World, High Ground, Earwig and the Witch, The Nest, Assassins, Synchronic, Another Round, Minari, Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra, The Truffle Hunters, The Little Things, Chaos Walking, Raya and the Last Dragon, Max Richter's Sleep, Judas and the Black Messiah, Girls Can't Surf, French Exit, Saint Maud, Godzilla vs Kong and The Painter and the Thief.
Parties, art, music, performances, food, stripping bare for a swim to celebrate the winter solstice: that's the Dark Mofo way, and so is weaving its anything-can-happen vibe, its beloved regular highlights, and its array of expectation-exploding shows and events into a ritual as much as a festival. The Tasmanian winter arts fest is a place to commune, with attendees and with its boundary-pushing program alike. Challenge, confrontation, evoking a strong response: Dark Mofo is a place for that, too. The festival sat out 2024, spending the time to regroup for the future ahead instead. Late that year, it announced its return for 2025, however. The full program will be unveiled at the beginning of April, but organisers have already announced the first new work. When attendees look at Nathan Maynard's We threw them down the rocks where they had thrown the sheep, they won't forget it. Set to premiere at Dark Mofo 2025 — which runs from Thursday, June 5–Sunday, June 15, 2025, except for the Nude Solstice Swim on Saturday, June 21 — the new commission by the multidisciplinary Trawlwoolway artist will take over a Hobart CBD basement. Inside, expect a commentary on cultural theft and erasure via Maynard's mass installation, using sheep heads to make a statement. "Languishing in museums and their storerooms are the remains of ancestors of First Nations people from all around our globe. They have been stripped of identity and, without consent, treated like specimens for study and scientific inquiry," explains the artist. "We threw them down the rocks where they had thrown the sheep speaks to the sadistic power white institutions flex when they deny First Nations people the humanity of putting our ancestor's remains to rest in the physical and the spiritual." When Dark Mofo's 2025 comeback was first revealed, so were the returns of a number of its beloved festivities: the aforementioned Nude Solstice Swim; Night Mass, which fills downtown Hobart with art and music; culinary highlight Winter Feast, which popped up in 2024 despite the festival around it taking a break; and the Ogoh-Ogoh. If you're wondering if the world missed Dark Mofo, the response to Night Mass alone so far says it all. When 6000 pre-release tickets were made available late in 2024, they were snapped up in less than four hours. "Taking the year off in 2024 was a difficult decision, but Dark Mofo is back with renewed energy and focus, ready to deliver an enormous program spanning two packed weeks this June," notes Dark Mofo's new Artistic Director Chris Twite. "It was encouraging to sell over 6000 Night Mass tickets in less than four hours during our pre-release late last year, indicating that demand for the festival remains strong. We are hoping for a similar response when we release the full program on the 4th April." Back in November, Twite gave a few more hints at what's in store this year. "Dark Mofo is back. For our 11th chapter, once more we'll bathe the city in red and deliver two weeks of inspiring art, music and ritual," he advised when announcing the event's 2025 dates. "Night Mass is a beast, and this year it will evolve once more — worming its way through the city with new spaces, performances and experiences to dance, explore or crawl your way through." Dark Mofo returns from Thursday, June 5–Sunday, June 15, 2025 and for the Nude Solstice Swim on Saturday, June 21. Head to the festival's website for further details — and check back here on Friday, April 4, 2025 for the full lineup. We threw them down the rocks where they had thrown the sheep images: Jesse Hunniford, 2025. Image courtesy of Dark Mofo 2025. Night Mass images: Jesse Hunniford and Andy Hatton, 2023, courtesy of Dark Mofo 2023. Winter Feast images: Jesse Hunniford, 2023, courtesy of Dark Mofo 2023. Nude Solstice Swim images: Rémi Chauvin, 2023, courtesy of Dark Mofo 2023.
Australia has hosted some seriously heavy-hitting theatre shows of late. This year, we put on productions of internationally acclaimed musicals Book of Mormon, Chicago, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Saturday Night Fever — and next year is shaping up to be even more impressive. We have five more award-winning productions landing on our shores in 2020 — including a childhood favourite reimagined and one on a floating stage — though not all of them will make the rounds through Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. So, if you can score tickets before they sell out, each and every one is worth travelling interstate for. HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD, PRINCESS THEATRE, MELBOURNE To say that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been a success so far would be an understatement. Everyone's scrambling for tickets to the show at Melbourne's Princess Theatre, which has resulted in the season being extended for a second time — right up until May 17, 2020. And, if you haven't yet seen it, another round of tickets will go on sale at 11am on Thursday, July 18 (yes, this week). So, with all this hype, what exactly is The Cursed Child about? Well, it picks up 19 years after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and that abominably cheery epilogue on Platform 9 3/4. Harry is now an overworked Ministry of Magic employee, and the play focuses on both him and his youngest son Albus Severus Potter as they grapple with the past and future. The production is presented in two parts, so you'll have to book into two performances — there's the option to do so either on the same day (matinee and evening) or on consecutive evenings. Each part runs for about two and a half hours. If you've waited this long, the next round of ticket sales could very well be the last, so head to the website and prep yourself to book — interstate flights can come later. When? Until March 2020 [caption id="attachment_729348" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Handa Opera's 2012 'La Traviata' by Lightbox Photography[/caption] LA TRAVIATA, HANDA OPERA ON SYDNEY HARBOUR, SYDNEY Opera on a regular stage is one thing, but opera performed on a floating openair theatre atop Sydney Harbour, under the stars? Well, that's some unforgettable stuff. Especially when it's Giuseppe Verdi's famed classic La Traviata that's being given the overwater treatment — it tells the famously heartbreaking tale of a free-spirited Parisian courtesan and her tragic love affair with a nobleman. The glamorous three-act show is the latest production announced as part of Opera Australia's Handa Opera series, set to return to this unique stage in March and April 2020. Handa Opera has pulled over 400,000 guests since debuting with La Traviata back in 2012 — and its mix of drinking and dining options, breathtaking views and nightly fireworks making it one of Sydney's must-try cultural offerings. It's also considered one of the world's best openair opera venues. Tickets go on sale from the Opera Australia Box Office this Tuesday, July 16, so grab a couple and start planning your trip to Sydney. When? March–April 2020 [caption id="attachment_726234" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shrek the Musical by Helen Maybanks[/caption] SHREK THE MUSICAL, THE LYRIC THEATRE, BRISBANE Fancy reliving your childhood film favourites on the stage? That seems to be the current trend. Next up, Shrek the Musical is bringing its all-singing, all-dancing version of the animated movie franchise to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Expect plenty of green when this Tony and Grammy award-nominated stage show finally makes its way to our shores, after first premiering on Broadway back in 2008. While Australian cast details haven't been revealed, Shrek lovers can expect a whopping 19 songs, an obvious colour scheme and plenty of other fairy tale references. The musical will first hit Sydney in January, but we're especially excited to see it round out its Aussie reign at Brisbane's Lyric Theatre. Those 2020 dates haven't been announced just yet, but you can join the waitlist here. We reckon its the perfect excuse for a Brisbane weekender. When? 2020 [caption id="attachment_672845" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Waitress by Joan Marcus[/caption] WAITRESS, SYDNEY LYRIC THEATRE, SYDNEY Perhaps in an effort to rival Melbourne's theatre scene — which nabbed the Australian 2019 premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — Sydney has clearly upped its commitment to theatre this year. Another we're especially excited about is Waitress. It first hit Broadway in 2016 and has gone on to gain stellar reviews, numerous Tony nominations and sold-out shows night after night. Based on the 2007 movie of the same name, Waitress tells the story of Jenna, a waitress and expert pie maker who dreams of a way out of her small town and loveless marriage. Waitress won't be here until 2020 and tickets are not yet on sale, but you can get on the waitlist over here. As of now it's only coming to Sydney, but interstate patrons won't regret flying in for this one. When? 2020 HAMILTON, SYDNEY LYRIC THEATRE, SYDNEY It's won 11 Tony Awards and is one of the Obamas' favourite musical, and now Lin-Manuel Miranda's game-changing musical Hamilton is finally coming to Australia. The critically acclaimed hip hop musical, for which Miranda wrote the music, lyrics and the book, is about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as well as inclusion and politics in current-day America. As well as its many Tony Awards, which include Best Musical, it has nabbed a Grammy Award and even a Pulitzer Prize. Hamilton will make its Australian premiere at the Sydney Lyric Theatre in March 2021. Which is a little further away than the others, but it's still worth planning for. You can sign-up for pre-sale tickets now. There's no word yet on whether it'll head to other Aussie cities later on — so, if you don't want to risk it, those located interstate should to start planning a trip ASAP — we think it'll be more than worth it. When? 2021 Top image: Handa Opera by Hamilton Lund; Hamilton by Joan Marcus.
Flight sales pop up all the time, which is excellent news for everyone that's obsessed with taking holidays. So, it's great for everyone. But Virgin Australia's latest batch of cheap fares is a once-in-four-years offering. It's doing big discounts for Leap Day, because February 29 is worth celebrating when it rolls around. For today, Thursday, February 29 only, then, more than 200,000 sale flights are up for grabs across a range of both domestic and international destinations. In other budget-friendly news, the cheapest starts at $35. As is always the case with these kinds of specials, that's the price from Sydney to Byron Bay — but Melbourne to Launceston will only cost you $39, too. Other options include Sydney to the Sunshine Coast from $55 and to the Gold Coast from $59, Melbourne to Uluru from $89 and to Hamilton Island from $99, and Brisbane to Cairns from $75 and to Hobart from $99. Folks in Adelaide can hit the Gold Coast from $85, while Perth residents can go to Cairns from $129. And they're just some of the one-way deals available. Internationally, the return deals start with Adelaide to Bail from $385, and also include Melbourne to Bali from $439, Sydney to Queenstown from $405 and Brisbane to Fiji from $479 — with more where they came from as well. If you're wondering when you'll need to travel, there's a range of dates from Monday, April 1–Sunday, June 30, 2024, all varying depending on the flights and prices. Getting in quickly is always recommended when it comes to flight sales — but when they only run for a day, finishing at 11.59pm AEST, you need to take that advice seriously. Virgin's 2024 Leap Day sale runs until midnight AEST on Thursday, February 29 — or until sold out. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Last chance, Swifties: just days away from Taylor Swift's first Eras gigs in Melbourne, more tickets to the entire Australia leg of the singer's tour are going on sale. If you missed out when her Aussie visit was first announced, then when extra shows were added and also when the first batch of new tickets were released, you'll be wishing on your friendship bracelets that your luck comes through now. The additional ticket drop comes as setting up Swifts shows is underway, meaning that exactly which seats are spare has been worked out. Some have restricted views, and will cost only $65.90. There's tickets available for all shows, going on sale on today, Tuesday, February 13. Folks eager to attend this weekend's shows at the MCG in Melbourne — which take place between Friday, February 16–Sunday, February 18 — will want to try to grab tickets at 2pm AEDT on Tuesday, February 13. In Sydney, for dates across Friday, February 23–Monday, February 26 at Accor Stadium, you'll be getting clicking at 4pm AEDT on Tuesday, February 13. [caption id="attachment_940473" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paolo Villanueva via Wikimedia Commons.[/caption] Perhaps it won't be a cruel summer after all for Swift fans who've haven't nabbed tickets so far. When Sydney and Melbourne stops for Swift's career-spanning showcase were announced in June 2023, it sparked a rush for seats. Indeed, before general sales even started, the 'We Are Never Getting Back Together', 'Shake It Off' and 'Bad Blood' musician had announced an extra gig in both cities. And, the Victorian Government even declared her Melbourne stint a major event so that anti-scalping legislation would apply to tickets. It's Swift's world and we're just living in it at the moment. She was a major feature of this year's Super Bowl. Melbourne is getting a pop-up offsite merch store ahead of her MCG concerts. Both Aussie stadiums hosting her tour are doing presales on merchandise in advance. And the Victorian capital is also extending its free tram zone to the MCG to help the 86,000 people expected each night to get to the shows. If you manage to snap up a ticket in the new drop and fill that blank space in your calendar, you'll see Swift working through her entire career so far, playing tracks from each of her studio albums in a three-hour, 44-song, ten-act spectacular. This is Swift's first tour Down Under since 2018, when she brought her Reputation shows to not only Sydney and Melbourne, but Brisbane and Perth, too. And if you're wondering what's in store, then you clearly haven't seen Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour as a movie, aka a concert film of her latest shows that hit cinemas Down Under last October, digital in December and is on its way to Disney+ in March. [caption id="attachment_906254" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ronald Woan via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Australian Dates 2024: Friday, February 16–Sunday, February 18 — Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Friday, February 23–Monday, February 26 — Accor Stadium, Sydney Taylor Swift is bringing The Eras Tour to Australia from Friday, February 16–Monday, February 26. Additional seats will go on sale on Tuesday, February 13 — at 2pm AEDT for Melbourne shows and 4pm AEDT for Sydney shows. Head to the tour website for further details. Top image: Ronald Woan via Wikimedia Commons.
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 March's haul of newbies. (Yes, we're assuming that you've already jumped on A Dog's World with Tony Armstrong already.) BRAND NEW STUFF YOU CAN WATCH IN FULL RIGHT NOW FRESH Finally, a film about dating in the 21st century with real bite — and that's unafraid to sink its teeth into the topic. In this hit Sundance horror-comedy, Normal People's Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Noa, and once again gets entangled in a romance that'll leave a mark; here, however, the scars aren't merely emotional. Swiping right hasn't been doing it for Fresh's protagonist, as a comically terrible date with the appropriately named Chad (Brett Dier, Jane the Virgin) demonstrates early. Then sparks fly the old-fashioned way, in-person at the supermarket, with the curiously offline doctor Steve (Sebastian Stan, Pam & Tommy). Soon, he's whisking her away to a secluded spot for the weekend — a little too swiftly for Noa's protective best friend Mollie's (Jojo T Gibbs, Twenties) liking, especially given that no one can virtually stalk his socials to scope him out — and that getaway takes a savage and nightmare-fuelling twist. If Raw met Ex Machina, then crossed paths with American Psycho and Hostel, and finally made the acquaintance of any old rom-com, Fresh still wouldn't be the end result — but its tone stems from those parts, as do some plot points and performances, and even a few scenes as well. First-time feature director Mimi Cave doesn't butcher these limbs, though, and screenwriter Lauryn Kahn (Ibiza) doesn't stitch them together like Frankenstein's monster. As anchored by the excellent Edgar-Jones and Stan, there's care, savvy, smarts and style in this splatter-filled, satirical, brutal, funny, empowered and sweet film. Its twists, and its cutting take on predatory dating, are best discovered by watching, but being turned off apps, men and meat in tandem is an instant gut reaction. Fresh is available to stream via Disney+. OUR FLAG FLAG MEANS DEATH In the on-screen sea that is the never-ending list of films and television shows constantly vying for eyeballs, Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby have frequently proven gem-dappled treasure islands. When the immensely funny New Zealand talents have collided, their resumes have spanned four of the most endearing comic hits of the big and small screens in the 21st century so far, aka Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows, Wellington Paranormal and Hunt for the Wilderpeople — and now, with pirate parody Our Flag Means Death, they've given viewers another gleaming jewel. This show was always going to swashbuckle its way into streaming must-see lists — and into comedy-lovers' hearts — based on its concept alone, but it more than lives up to its winning idea and winsome casting. Come for the buccaneering banter and seafaring satire, stay for a thoughtful and sincere comic caper that's also a rom-com. The inimitable Darby stars as Stede Bonnet, a self-styled 'gentleman pirate' and a great approximation of Flight of the Conchords' Murray if he'd existed centuries earlier. Meanwhile, Waititi dons leather, dark hues aplenty, an air of bloodthirsty melancholy and an eye-catching head of greying hair as Edward Teach, the marauder better known to the world as Blackbeard. The two real-life figures eventually cross paths after Bonnet leaves his life of wealth, privilege and comfort to rove the oceans, captains a ship staffed by a motley crew to end all motley crews, and initially gets captured by Blackbeard — or Ed, as he calls him. As these two opposites bond, riding the waves from adversaries to co-captains to potentially something more, Our Flag Means Death truly and gloriously opens up its warm heart. The first season of Our Flag Means Death is available to stream via Binge. Read our full review. ASCENSION Ascension may not be an Oscar-winner, losing out to Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), but it'll always be one of 2022's nominees. More than that, this two-time Tribeca Film Festival winner will forever remain one of the most arresting documentaries of the past year as well. Helming her first feature-length doco, filmmaker Jessica Kingdon turns her gaze to the Chinese dream — and what she sees, while situated in a very specific cultural context by design, is a clear and easy sibling to its American counterpart. That's part of the statement her film makes, all just by watching on patiently but meticulously as people go about their lives. Starting with factory recruitment on the streets, then stepping into mass production, then climbing the social hierarchy up to the rich and privileged, Ascension explores employment and consumerism — and what they mean in an everyday sense in modern-day and modernised China. It's a portrait of the needs that make working on assembly lines a necessity, and of the dreams that inspire every step up the societal ladder. Some folks build sex dolls, their uncanny valley-esque forms adding an eerie mood. Others take lessons on etiquette for service jobs, including about not letting your face betray your emotions, and the tone is also unsettling. Observational to a mesmerising degree, Kingdon's exceptional film lets its slices of life and the behaviour, attitudes and patterns they capture do the talking, and they all speak volumes. Indeed, what a clever, telling, incisive and surreal story they unfurl. Ascension is available to stream via Paramount+. TURNING RED What'd happen if the Hulk was a teenage girl, and turned into a giant, fuzzy, super-cute red panda instead of going green and getting ultra-muscular? Or, finding a different riff on the ol' werewolf situation, if emotions rather than full moons inspired a case of not-quite-lycanthropy? These aren't queries that most folks have thought of, but writer/director Domee Shi certainly has — and they're at the core of Pixar's Turning Red, her debut feature after winning an Oscar for 2018 short Bao. As many of the animation studio's movies do, the film takes its title literally. But, it also spins the usual Pixar question. Turning Red does indeed wonder what'd happen if red pandas sported human-style emotions; however, the Disney-owned company has been musing on people becoming other kinds of critters of late, with particularly astute and endearing results here. The movie's focus: 13-year-old Chinese Canadian Meilin Lee (Rosalie Chiang, also making her film debut). The year is 2002, and she loves meeting her strict but doting mum Ming's (Sandra Oh, The Chair) expectations, hanging out with her pals and obsessing over boy band 4*Town. And while her mother doesn't approve of her friends or her taste in music, Mei has become accustomed to juggling everything that's important to her. But then, after a boy-related mishap, the red panda appears. Mei goes to bed feeling normal, albeit angsty and upset, only to wake up looking like a cuddly creature. Like werewolf tales about teenage boys tend to be, Turning Red is all about puberty and doesn't hide it — and whether it's tackling that head-on, pondering generational trauma or showing its rampant love for boy bands, it sports sweetness, soul and smarts. Turning Red is available to stream via Disney+. Read our full review. UPLOAD In its first season in 2020, Upload gave The Office and Parks and Recreation writer/co-creator Greg Daniels his own existential-leaning comedy. Think: The Good Place meets virtual reality, which is basically the premise. After a car accident at the age of 27, computer programmer Nathan (Robbie Amell, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City) is uploaded to a luxurious digital afterlife called Lakeview, which takes more than a little adjusting. Following his troubles with his still-breathing girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards, Briarpatch), as well as his growing bond with the IT employee, Nora (Andy Allo, Pitch Perfect 3), who works as his virtual handler or "angel", the series found plenty of ways to interrogate its concept. Indeed, while clearly a satire of capitalism, technology and their combination, it also inched towards unnerving Black Mirror territory. In season two, Upload dives deeper — and those Black Mirror comparisons only grow, too. Just like with that dystopian hit, it's plain to see how this reality could come true in a not-so-distant future, which no one watching this could ever want. Nathan now knows that all isn't well in Lakeview, or with the profit-hungry tech company behind it. Nora is well aware also, starting off the new batch of episodes by immersing herself with the anti-tech anarchists the Ludds. And Ingrid has spotted that Nathan isn't as enamoured with their relationship or his new virtual abode, so she decides to join him. Upload is still a comedy, but it knows that getting dark and being smart couldn't be more crucial given its concept. This season cleverly dives deeper, and only disappoints by being just seven half-hour episodes long. Consider your appetite whetted for season three, though. Season two of Upload is is available to stream via Prime Video. LUCY AND DESI Icons celebrating icons: when Amy Poehler directs a documentary about Lucille Ball, as she does here, that's the end result. It's fitting that Lucy and Desi includes a letter read mere days after Desi Arnaz's death, about his ex-wife and longterm professional partner, that included a touching line: "I Love Lucy wasn't just the name of the show". Poehler loves Lucy, too, understandably. Watching the compilation of clips curated here — spanning Ball's movie career in the 30s and 40s, as well as her TV shows such as the pioneering I Love Lucy, follow-up The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, and later sitcoms The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy — it's impossible not to see Ball's influence upon the Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation star, and upon the generations of female comedians that've followed Ball. Lucy and Desi loves Arnaz as well, though, and truly adores the pair's tumultuous love story — one that changed the course of comedy history. Forget Being the Ricardos, the average-at-best Aaron Sorkin film that inexplicably earned Oscar nominations — including for its one-note performances — and doesn't even dream of being funny. A deeper, meatier, far more interesting dance through Ball and Arnaz's life comes from Lucy and Desi, which benefits not just from Poehler's affection and her eagerness to ensure that her subjects' personalities shine through, but also from previously unreleased audio tapes of the pair talking about their ups and downs. Recent interviews pepper the film as well, including with daughter Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, and both Bette Midler and Carol Burnett. Still, this doco's points of focus truly do speak best for themselves, whether chatting frankly or seen in all of those wonderful sitcom snippets. Lucy and Desi is is available to stream via Prime Video. WINDFALL Films can arrive at the perfect time, but usually they're actually products of their time. With Windfall, the former feels true, but this twisty thriller couldn't have been made at any other moment. It's an account of the haves and the have nots, and the widening gap between them — and it's told now, after years of that chasm growing visibly, the privileged largely lapping it up while hardening their disdain for anyone less fortunate, and the latter increasingly refusing to accept such inequality. The setting: a sprawling vacation home owned by a CEO worth billions and his wife. The setup: a break-in interrupted by said couple. The showdown: between two sides of the income divide (struggling versus obscenely comfortable), as brought to the screen by director Charlie McDowell (The One I Love, The Discovery). In a story credited to the filmmaker, star Jason Segel, McDowell's regular screenwriter Justin Lader and Seven scribe Andrew Kevin Walker — and also earning all the above either producer or executive producer billing, and fellow on-screen talents Lilly Collins and Jesse Plemons as well as — talk is largely the name of the game. Nobody (Segel, Dispatches From Elsewhere), as the movie's burglar is dubbed, argues with the CEO (Plemons, The Power of the Dog) and his other half (Collins, Emily in Paris) after taking them hostage at gunpoint, and their conversation is constantly revealing. He's initially bought off by the small stack of cash secreted away in the well-appointed abode but, after leaving then returning when he spies security cameras, he wants more money for his mercy. What follows is a perceptively shot and compellingly performed dissection of having it all (the CEO), grasping for some of it (Nobody) and realising that riches can't buy happiness (the wife). Windfall is available to stream via Netflix. NEW SHOWS TO CHECK OUT WEEK BY WEEK MOON KNIGHT Marvel's knack for casting is one of its superpowers, and it flexes those talents in Moon Knight. Enlisting Oscar Isaac fresh from the phenomenal 2021 trio that is Dune, Scenes From a Marriage and The Card Counter is as shrewd a casting move as the behemoth responsible for the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made, especially given that he plays two roles in one. The series starts with Isaac as Steven Grant, who works in the gift shop of a British museum, wishes he could lead tours instead, studies Egypt and sports a broad English accent. Oh, and chains himself to his bed every night, even though he has trouble sleeping. But as gaps in his days lead him to learn, Steven is also American mercenary Marc Spector — or, to be exact, vice versa. Complicating matters further, he's the on-earth conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu as well. Even within franchise confines, Isaac is mesmerising in Moon Knight, playing a man grappling with dissociative identity disorder — as complex a character as the MCU has delivered so far — who's also drawn into a continent-hopping mystery-adventure. Also complicating matters: shadowy cult-like figure Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke, The Good Lord Bird), who has unfinished business with Khonshu and big plans of his own. Welcomely, the Marvel formula feels fresher here. Also pivotal: that, because it branches off with a previously unseen protagonist rather than the sprawling saga's usual heroes, this is the first MCU Disney+ series that doesn't feel like homework. Having filmmakers Mohamed Diab (Clash) and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Synchronic) also leaves an impression, in what's easily the most intriguing small-screen Marvel effort so far. The first episode of Moon Knight is available to stream via Disney+, with new instalments dropping weekly. Read our full review. MINX When home video, the internet and mobile phones with inbuilt cameras each arrived, six words could've been uttered: get ready to look at dicks. New HBO comedy Minx is set the early 70s, so before all three, but the same phrase also applies here. It's true of the show itself, which isn't shy about displaying the male member in various shapes and sizes. It also stands tall in the world that Minx depicts. When you're making the first porn magazine for women — and, when you're making an ambitious, entertaining and impeccably cast The Deuce meets Mrs America-style series about it, but lighter, sweeter and funnier (and all purely fictional) — penises are inescapable. Also impossible to avoid in Minx: questions like "are erections consistent with our philosophy?", as asked by Vassar graduate and country club regular Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond, Trying). Idolising the magazine industry and unhappily working for the dispiritingly traditional Teen Queen, she has long dreamed of starting her own feminist publication — even penning a bundle of articles and making her own issues — but centrefolds splashed with male genitalia don't fit her ideal pitch. No one's buying what Joyce is selling, though; The Matriarchy Awakens, her dream mag, gets rejected repeatedly by the industry's gatekeepers. Only one is interested: Bottom Dollar Publications' Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson, Ride the Eagle), but he's in the pornography business. The first four episodes of Minx are available to stream via Stan, with new instalments dropping weekly. Read our full review. THE DROPOUT Dramatising the Theranos scandal, eight-part miniseries The Dropout is the third high-profile release in the past two months to relive a wild true-crime tale — following not only the Anna Delvey-focused Inventing Anna, about the fake German heiress who conned her way through New York City's elite, but also documentary The Tinder Swindler, which steps through defrauding via dating app at the hands of Israeli imposter Simon Leviev. It also dives into the horror-inducing Dr Death-esque realm, because when a grift doesn't just mess with money and hearts, but with health and lives, it's pure nightmare fuel. And, it's the most gripping of the bunch, even though we're clearly living in peak scandal-to-screen times. Scam culture might be here to stay as Inventing Anna told us in a telling line of dialogue, but it isn't enough to just gawk its way — and The Dropout and its powerful take truly understands this. To tell the story of Theranos, The Dropout has to tell the story of Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley biotech outfit's founder and CEO from the age of 19. Played by a captivating, career-best Amanda Seyfried — on par with her Oscar-nominated work in Mank, but clearly in a vastly dissimilar role — the Steve Jobs-worshipping Holmes is seen explaining her company's name early in its first episode. It's derived from the words "therapy" and "diagnosis", she stresses, although history already dictates that it offered little of either. Spawned from Holmes' idea to make taking blood simpler and easier, using just one drop from a small finger prick, it failed to deliver, lied about it copiously and still launched to everyday consumers, putting important medical test results in jeopardy. The first six episodes of The Dropout are available to stream via Disney+, with new instalments dropping weekly. Read our full review. Need a few more streaming recommendations? Check out our picks from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December 2021, and January and February 2022 — 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: Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.
"I will find you. No matter what it takes." So promises Squid Game protagonist Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae, Deliver Us From Evil) in the clip that fans of the Netflix sensation have been waiting for for years: the first proper glimpse at what's in store when the series finally returns for its second season. One of the best new TV programs of 2021, Squid Game was such a huge smash that Netflix confirmed at the beginning of 2022 that more was on the way, and also dropped a teaser trailer for it the same year — but, it didn't include any footage of what's to come. The platform then announced new cast members in 2023, which came with a video; however, again, it wasn't a real sneak peek. To help start 2024, the service has finally unveiled a scene from the show's upcoming return, which it has already confirmed will stream sometime this year. The snippet of Squid Game season two is brief, arriving in a broader trailer for Netflix's slate for the year — as it releases every 12 months. In the footage, Seong Gi-hun, aka player 456, answers a phone call while at the airport with his newly crimson locks. He's soon told "you're going to regret the choice you've made". Cue his statement of vengeance; Squid Game meets John Wick, anyone? There's no other new information on season two right now — including no exact release date — but Netflix has also dropped a few images from the forthcoming episodes, complete with neon hues, those pivotal red outfits and familiar symbols. As already revealed, Lee Byung-hun (The Magnificent Seven) is also back as the masked Front Man. With Lee Jung-jae, he's joined by Wi Ha-joon (Little Women) as detective Hwang Jun-ho, plus Gong Yoo (Train to Busan) as the man in the suit who got Gi-hun into the game in the first place. A show about a deadly competition that has folks battling for ridiculous riches comes with a hefty bodycount, which means that new faces were always going to be essential in Squid Game season two. Yim Si-wan (Emergency Declaration), Kang Ha-neul (Insider), Park Sung-hoon (The Glory) and Yang Dong-geun (Yaksha: Ruthless Operations) have all joined the series. New photos from Squid Game Season 2 -- coming this year. Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), Recruiter (Gong Yoo) and Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), and a new character played by Park Gyu-young. pic.twitter.com/8xRC1EvQPr — Netflix (@netflix) February 1, 2024 If you somehow missed all things Squid Game when it premiered, even after it became bigger than everything from Stranger Things to Bridgerton, the Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning series serves up a puzzle-like storyline and unflinching savagery, which unsurprisingly makes quite the combination. It also steps into societal divides within South Korea, a topic that wasn't invented by Parasite, Bong Joon-ho's excellent Oscar-winning 2019 thriller, but has been given a boost after that stellar flick's success. Accordingly, it's easy to see thematic and narrative parallels between Parasite and Squid Game, although Netflix's highly addictive series goes with a Battle Royale and Hunger Games-style setup. Here, 456 competitors are selected to work their way through six seemingly easy children's games. They're all given numbers and green tracksuits, they're competing for 45.6 billion won, and it turns out that they've also all made their way to the contest after being singled out for having enormous debts. Netflix turned the show's whole premise into an IRL competition series as well, which debuted in 2023 — without any murders, of course. Squid Game: The Challenge has already been picked up for a second season. Check out Netflix's teaser for Squid Game season below: Introducing the very first look at SQUID GAME SEASON 2. Coming this year. pic.twitter.com/fzRzdtHRDY — Netflix (@netflix) February 1, 2024 Squid Game season two will stream via Netflix sometime in 2024. We'll update you when an exact release date is announced. Images: Netflix.
New year, new list of huge events to look forward to — but only one will make LGBTQIA+ history. That'd be the first-ever WorldPride held in the Southern Hemisphere, which'll hit Sydney from Friday, February 17–Sunday, March 5. And, although Sydney WorldPride announced its massive 2023 lineup late in 2022, it's still adding big-name additions. Joining the program alongside everyone from Kylie Minogue and Charli XCX to Kelly Rowland and Nicole Scherzinger: German pop star Kim Petras. Fresh from nabbing a Grammy nomination for 'Unholy' with Sam Smith, the 'If Jesus Was a Rockstar', 'Heart to Break', 'Future Starts Now', 'Coconut' and 'Malibu' singer will headline Sydney WorldPride closing gig Rainbow Republic alongside the already-announced MUNA and G Flip. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sydney Mardi Gras (@sydneymardigras) "I'm so happy to be back in Sydney supporting WorldPride! Headlining Mardi Gras was a really inspiring moment back in 2019 and it was one of my favourite Pride events ever, so I'm really excited to see my Australian fans again and take everything to a whole new level," said Petras, announcing the news. She'll take to the stage in The Domain, where WorldPride is hosting both its opening and closing events, as part of a a seven-hour show filled with live music, DJs and dancing — a queer megamix, if you like. On hosting duties: Keiynan Lonsdale (Love, Simon, The Flash, Eden), who'll also perform. Peach PRC, Alter Boy, BVT and Vetta Borne have also been named on the bill. Sydney WorldPride has been announcing parts of its lineup since June last year, including the return of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade to Oxford Street after the 2021 and 2022 events were held at the Sydney Cricket Ground due to the pandemic. Among the other highlights: pride villages set up in sections of Crown Street and Riley Street, rainbows all around Greater Sydney, a Bondi beach party that'll turn the iconic sandy stretch into a club for 12,000 people, and a Blak & Deadly First Nations gala concert. RAINBOW REPUBLIC SYDNEY WORLDPRIDE CLOSING CONCERT LINEUP: Kim Petras MUNA G Flip Keiynan Lonsdale Peach PRC Alter Boy BVT Vetta Borne Sydney WorldPride will run from Friday, February 17–Sunday, March 5, 2023, with closing concert Rainbow Republic taking place at The Domain on Sunday, March 5. Tickets for Rainbow Republic are on sale now. For more information about Sydney WorldPride, or for general ticket sales, head to the event's website.
Despite what governmental and mainstream media outlets may have you believe, Australia isn't the only nation where people are desperately seeking asylum. Europe's currently in the middle of a very real refugee crisis, with the civil war in Syria leaving over four million Syrians displaced and looking for a new, safe home. That's an absolutely unfathomable amount of people. And while most of us have gawked and sat around wondering what we can do to help refugees, three Dutch twenty-somethings have actually gone and done something about it, creating a new non-profit accommodation platform for refugees. Refugee Hero essentially works like Airbnb. It looks a lot like it too. The website allows people to advertise their spare room to refugees looking for a place to stay when they arrive in a new country. It's geared around people putting up rooms available in their residential homes, but organisations are encouraged to open up their facilities, such as churches, mosques, schools and universities as well. And the best part is, the service 100 percent free. In that regard, it's more like Couchsurfing than Airbnb — but with hosts that are socially conscious legends with hearts of gold. The Netherlands-based startup was founded by Germaine Statia, Jamal Oulel, and Ayoub Aouragh, who are all aged 23-25. "We want to give back humanity to mankind," says Germaine Statia on their website. Since launching in September last year, Refugee Hero has rooms listed everywhere from Bulgaria to Johannesburg to Maryland in the States. And while there aren't any Australian listings yet, we can't see any reason why you can't get involved. Hop to it! Via PSFK.
Knowledgeable epicureans from around Australia know there's no better way to spend a weekend than hitting a wine region. Cellar doors offer a cornucopia of delights and their proximity to farmland means you're guaranteed the freshest produce to complement your tipple. South Australia's Clare Valley is one such destination, famous for wine, food and glorious scenery. The combination of rich red soil, an undulating valley of varying microclimates, and the cool, dry seasons create the perfect storm of red and white perfection. And, together with southaustralia.com, we've created this comprehensive guide to the famed wine region — from some of Australia's best riesling to excellent specimens of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz, you'll find something to suit every wine lover's palate here. And only a couple of hours out of Adelaide, the Clare Valley is so close you can almost taste it as soon as you step off the plane. If you have the time, immerse yourself in the Fleurieu Peninsula and the Limestone Coast, too. Or explore the Adelaide CBD — there are plenty of underground bars and fairy light-lit rooftops to uncover. [caption id="attachment_680370" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Skillogalee[/caption] EAT In the lead up to your Clare Valley weekend, we recommend training your stomach because you're going to want to eat — a lot. There's an award-winning venue around every bend in the road, but we recommend starting strong with a visit to Skillogalee and its winery restaurant. The lunch menu is packed with unexpected combinations (try the wallaby shank if you're feeling adventurous) or grab a picnic basket chock full of local produce and explore the grounds. Next on your list of must-eats is Seed, a modern wine bar and restaurant housed in a beautifully renovated old building on Main North Road. The venue, with exposed stone, wood and a roaring fire, is cosy and sophisticated, beckoning you to settle in with a buttered rum or a glass of the Valley's finest red. The menu is hearty and modern, with a dedicated vegetarian section, and all served with house-made ciabatta. If at this point you haven't melted into a hedonistic puddle of excess, head over to Terroir Auburn, a restaurant in, yes, Auburn that combines ethical produce with old-school service. The light interior of Terrior is offset by the warmth of its wooden décor and the friendly staff. Pick their brains to find your perfect food and wine match. The menu is tight, meat-heavy and the food is beautifully presented and generously served. Finally, Bush Devine in Polish Hill River, located in the Paulett Wines Cellar Door, is an unforgettable experience — and we don't use that term lightly. Bush Devine is an Indigenous Australian Bush Food restaurant with an associated bush food garden where they grow the food you'll eat. The garden is free to explore before you settle down to your meal. We recommend the wattleseed gnocchi with smoked kangaroo, fennel, green olives, peas and sage cream. The share platters are also a great way to get a taste of all the best bits. [caption id="attachment_680373" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sevenhill Cellars, Adam Bruzzone[/caption] DRINK If you thought figuring out where to eat was tough, just wait till you try to pick a winery. You would need a lifetime to explore all of the Clare Valley's amazing venues but seeing as we only have a weekend, let's explore the best of the best. Start your weekend off with a beer at the Clare Valley Brewing Co. You might say "I didn't come to a famous riesling wine region to drink beer!" but trust us, you'll kick yourself if you miss the CVBC. The brewery itself it beautiful, with insane views to take in as you sample their core range of award-winning beers. When you're ready to move onto the main event (i.e. wine) make your way across to Clare Valley's very first winery Sevenhill Cellars. After tasting plenty of wines in the cellar door, head on a tour of the stunning sandstone underground cellar which is where all the fortified wines are stored. Next on the agenda: Mr Mick Cellar Door. It's worth a trip to Mr Mick just to experience the grounds and the venue. And while you're there — oooh-ing at scenes straight out of Hobbiton and ahh-ing at the cosy cellar door decor — try a glass of the novo sangiovese. They've won awards for it. [caption id="attachment_680368" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mr Mick Cellar Door, Adam Bruzzone[/caption] Speaking of award-winning, Kilikanoon is next on the agenda — and it's won more awards than you can shake a stick at, including winery of the year and best shiraz. The vineyard is in a picturesque location, with lush green rolling hills and a cellar door nestled in a stone farmhouse surrounded by cottage gardens, fruit orchards and tall gums. We recommend adding a cheese or produce board to go with your tasting experience to really lean into the holiday mood. The final must-do is famed riesling producer Jim Barry. The Barry family own and operate the winery (only a five-minute drive from the town of Clare and easily accessible by the Riesling Trail) so you can get up close and personal with your winemakers. At the cellar door, you'll obviously want to try the riesling, but we also recommend exploring some reds, too — the shiraz will round out your trip perfectly. [caption id="attachment_680371" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Riesling Trail[/caption] DO If you have a few moments between wine tastings and feasts, the Clare Valley has many wholesome activities to offer. The most obvious (which ties neatly into the wine and food agenda) is cycling the Riesling Trail. It's an easy, 32-kilometre bike track that takes you past the best riesling vineyards between Auburn and Clare. If you do it right and stop at all the best wineries, the trail will take a few days to complete. You can either hire a bike and do the trail solo, or join an all-inclusive tour organised by Tour de Vines. [caption id="attachment_680372" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mintaro Maze[/caption] And, because we're still kids at heart, we can't go past the the Mintaro Maze. It takes 800 conifers to create one glorious maze that will have you wandering for, well, hopefully not hours — but at least a little while. Once you've conquered the maze, crack open a picnic and cruise around the grounds. Keep an eye out for the giant chess board too. [caption id="attachment_680306" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Neagles Retreat Villas[/caption] STAY After a day of eating, drinking, cycling, and getting lost in the maze shenanigans, you'll want a comfy bed to recuperate in. Thankfully, the valley is resplendent with cute accommodation options to suit any budget. If you want to stay in town, the Mill Apartments in Clare are modern, clean and central. But if you're looking for a more remote stay, Neagles Retreat Villas in Emu Flats are not to be missed. They're located right on the Riesling Trail and close to five big wineries, including Jim Barry — so it's easy to line up with your winery tours. And if you want to rough it, but not really, Bukirk Glamping in Stanley Flat can hook you up with a kitted-out tent (including all the mod-cons and a woodfire) that will still let you rise with the sun and say hello to the day in the middle of nature. To discover more of Adelaide and South Australia, head to SATC. Top image: Riesling Trail, Adam Bruzzone.
Going to a gig and getting something greasy go hand in hand. The Triffid knows this, and their beer garden — one of Brisbane's best hangout spots, whether you're seeing a band or just in the area — has the menu to match. With the folks at Howzat Burger no longer working the grills, the Triffid has come up with their own selection of everyone's favourite foods. Everyone should try the Triffid Burger's combination of three cuts of beef, but the haloumi option is hard to pass up. There's also a solution if you really can't decide — grab mini versions of both, plus a crispy chicken offering, in slider form.
Back in August, to encourage Australians to roll up their sleeves, Hawke's Brewing Co handed out free beers. If you got the jab, you could put your hand up to get a slab. Yes, it was that simple. Now, the Marrickville craft brewer has gone big with its latest show of support for Australia's COVID-19 vaccination campaign. When you deck out the exterior of your property with a ten-metre-tall mural of Bob Hawke holding a schooner, wearing a mask and donning a "race you to the pub" t-shirt, the message is loud and clear. The towering likeness of the former Australian Prime Minister, and the brewery's namesake, was painted by renowned mural artist Scott Marsh — who has previously given Sydney a large-scale portrait of AFL footballer Adam Goodes, and whipped up others of everyone from George Michael to Danny Lim. For Hawke's, he's painted Bob Hawke in the past, too. This time, though, Hawke has had the vax and he's standing beneath the words "every jab gets us closer to the pub". Look at the PM's arm and you'll actually see a telltale bandaid. It features a QR code as well — and if you scan it with your phone, you'll be directed to a website that'll tell you where you can find your nearest COVID-19 vaccination clinic. Also, that beer glass Hawke is holding? It features percentages on the side, and Marsh is going to top it up as the nation gets closer to the 80-percent fully vaccinated mark, aka the threshold that'll see a heap of restrictions loosen. "It's been encouraging to see jabs on the rise. And now, with more vaccines becoming readily available, it's time to find another gear", said Hawke's co-founder Nathan Lennon. "The sooner we hit 80 percent, the sooner vulnerable businesses can get back on their feet, and the sooner we can all get back to living our lives — less lockdowns, more freedoms and yes, freshly poured beers at our favourite venues. Hopefully just in time for summer." Hawke's is also using the mural to help another good cause, with folks who interact with the artwork via the brewery's social media unlocking $10,000 in donations to hospitality relief fund Tip Jar. If you leave a comment on Instagram, tag a mate you'd love to have your first post-lockdown brew with, tag the venue you'd like to go to and use the #raceyoutothepub hashtag, you'll unlock a $1 donation. If you tag Hawke's as well, that'll go up to $2. Or, you can buy a "race you to the pub" t-shirt via the beer company's website, and $5 from your purchase will go to Tip Jar as well. You can see Hawke's Brewing Co's Bob Hawke mural at 8-12 Sydney Street, Marrickville. To interact with Hawke's Brewing Co's Bob Hawke mural on social media to help unlock donations for hospitality relief fund Tip Jar, head to the brewery's Instagram page.
When Sally Rooney's first page-to-screen hit arrived in streaming queues in 2020, it made instant stars out of Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal. The pair's recent respective roles in Fresh and The Lost Daughter sit among plenty more to come, but part of what made Normal People work so devastating well was watching its disarmingly relatable romance play out with fresh faces that could've been anyone. That same idea sits at the heart of Conversations with Friends, too, Rooney's debut novel but second book to leap to television. The quietly magnetic Alison Oliver makes her debut at the 12-part Dublin-set series' centre, and it's a perfect stroke of casting. Available to stream in full via Prime Video from Monday, May 16 — dropping ready to binge, revel in and obsess over, as Normal People did — Conversations with Friends doesn't opt for newcomers across the board, though. That's another savvy move, placing Oliver amid well-known actors Sasha Lane (Loki, American Honey), Jemima Kirke (Sex Education, Girls) and Joe Alwyn (The Souvenir: Part II, The Favourite), who immediately exude engrained confidence. Oliver's character, pensive literature student Frances, is in the same situation. She's always on-edge and on the verge of withdrawing whenever the show's four key characters spend time together, like she feels overwhelmed by everyone else's company. Conversations with Friends didn't have Oliver go method and live Frances' life, of course, but compared to her co-stars, she's a blank slate ready for viewers to see themselves in. Peeking into intimate connections and feeling as though they've been lifted from your own life, or from emotions you've navigated and weathered, is one of Rooney's key skills as a writer. It's true of both Conversations with Friends and Normal People in print, and it's a knack that the same creative team — Rooney as an executive producer, co-screenwriter Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth) and co-director Lenny Abrahamson (Room, Frank) — have brought to both TV adaptations. In text and flickering across the screen, both tales step into complicated romances that simmer with intensity. They confront class clashes and the difficulties that spring from them as well. And, they force contemplative women to confront what they want, who they are, how they'll grow as people and the others they might give their hearts to. In Conversations with Friends, 21-year-old Frances is first poised as the other half in a couple that's not a couple, at least anymore; she went to school with and used to date the outspoken and outgoing Bobbi (Lane), but now the two university students are best friends and spoken-word poetry partners. It's during one of their performances that successful writer Melissa (Kirke) spots the duo's act, compliments them afterwards and invites them over for a swim, then back to her well-appointed house for a drink. Enter Nick (Alwyn), Melissa's actor husband, who holds himself like he'd rather be anywhere but there but is too polite to upset the status quo. He's as reserved and introverted as Frances — and they catch each other's eyes, while Bobbi and Melissa gravitate towards each other. Soon, Frances is part of another couple, one that's only secretly a couple: between the sheets, in stolen moments, and with much awkwardness while trying not to be discovered by either Bobbi or Melissa. As was also such an influential part of Normal People, she's caught in a relationship that's as filled with terse, tense yet deep discussions as it is with instances where saying nothing says everything there is. Despite its name, cut out Conversations with Friends' loaded silences and you could likely reduce its running time by half, but you'd also rip away much of its heart and soul. It's a show about what can't or won't be said; about the interiority that we all live within, some more than others; and about how, when and why we open ourselves up to and allow ourselves to truly become vulnerable with others. Conversations with Friends is catnip for Normal People fans, in other words — and rewardingly so. There's no escaping the similarities, including in the midseason trip abroad, and in the dreamy-yet-naturalistic approach that Abrahamson and fellow director Leanne Welham (His Dark Materials) use to anchor viewers in the show's dramas. Watching along feels like sliding into the series' love quadrangle, observing along even more quietly than Frances often does, but experiencing every emotion — blatant and unspoken — along the way. The mood: swooning melancholy. The look: the kind of cosiness and uncertainty that drips from Ireland's overcast skies and sweater-friendly climes. The sensation: sensitive, realistically messy and deeply lived-in. Hitting bookshelves in 2017, Rooney's novel was her first success, earning buzz after a seven-way auction for the publishing rights, and garnering award nominations. It's a portrait of entangled lives, and the intricate webs that love, lust, friendship and loyalty weave, but it's also a character study of one woman learning how to face and reveal her true self. Frances' affair with Nick, and the ripples it sends through her bond with Bobbi, Bobbi's infatuation with Melissa, and Melissa and Nick's marriage, fuels just one of its narrative threads. Frances' complex relationship with her divorced parents (Derry Girls' Justine Mitchell and Tommy Tiernan), her view of her health and her unwillingness to ask for help even when she needs it most leave just as big of an imprint. It's little wonder, then, that Oliver is Conversations with Friends' most pivotal player — but she's also in fantastic company. Wanting to spend more time watching Bobbi and Melissa's growing connection isn't just a result of Rooney's layered story, but of Lane and Kirke's textured performances and bubbling chemistry. The same proves true of Melissa and Nick's stressed relationship, with Kirke and Alywn compellingly ebbing and flowing through the couple's ups and downs. "Who knows what happens between two people when they're alone?" Frances comments early, chatting to Bobbi about Melissa and Nick — and Conversations with Friends makes its audience desperate to know the answer no matter which possible combination of its four main characters it happens to be focusing on at any given moment. Check out the trailer for Conversations with Friends below: All 12 episodes of Conversations with Friends are available to stream Down Under via Prime Video on Monday, May 16. Images: Enda Bowe/Hulu.
Just in case social media didn't already provide us with sufficient scope to project our mood at unwitting strangers, three German artists have provided another, even more public avenue through the 'Public Face'. Their interactive art installation reflects the mood of the city in which it stands with a giant electric emoticon. Hidden cameras at ground level capture the facial expressions of passers-by to measure the general vibe at any given time, and relay it back to the emoticon tower. So long as there are no manic-depressives in the crowd or cause for any emotion beyond happy, sad, or indifferent, the giant smiley will provide an accurate public vibe-o-meter, constantly updating itself to match the collective mood. There are unverified rumours that the Public Face will do the rounds in a variety of cities across the globe in 2012, but this may not be good news for everyone. The smiley's stint atop a lighthouse on Bavaria's Lindau Island last year revealed that the town could do with a little more cheer, where the giant face spent a lot of time being indifferent and was rather reluctant to flash any pearly whites. How to bring the mood of a city down even lower? Show the people how depressed they already are. The Public Face is a quirky piece of interactive art, taking a playful spin on the distillation of emotion that occurs when relationships go digital. [Via Archetizer]
Bringing the outdoors in, greening up tiny city apartments, eating farm-fresh food, growing your own edible morsels: noble aims, all of them, but they're not always easy to achieve. A lack of room and a need for ongoing effort can hinder even the best laid inside gardening plans; however O Garden aims to make cultivating your own indoor veggie garden as simple as buying a new — and eye-catching — piece of furniture. Designed and manufactured in Canada, O Garden is a round, rotating cylinder specially designed for growing organic goodies in small spaces, and with as little need for human intervention as possible. Seeds are planted in soil placed on top of coconut matting, then automatically fed with organic liquid fertiliser while the wheel slowly spins around a central light source. All you need to do is water them once a week, then wait 30 to 40 days until harvesting time. Overall, the O Garden can produce around 100 plants in about half a square metre of space, making it quite the compact indoor greenhouse. As for just what you can grow within its circular confines, expect to munch on herbs like basil, rosemary, mint and parsley; greens such as spinach, lettuce and chives; and even celery, cherry tomatoes and strawberries. Alas, homegrown fresh food fans, the O Garden doesn't come cheap — though its US$1397 price tag doesn't factor in what you'll save if you put it to good veggie-growing use. At present, it only currently ships to the US and Europe, but here's hoping that changes soon. Via inhabitat.
Are you the kind of person who just has to read the book before watching a TV show or movie? Perhaps you prefer the opposite, soaking in every minute of the series or film afresh with no knowledge of what's to come, then devouring the source material to spending more time in its world and fill in the details. Whichever best describes your style of page-to-screen fandom, you're welcome at a new Australian event that's all about streaming hits adapted from novels: Prime Book Club LIVE. You might've noticed that plenty of the streaming platform's recent fare began on the page. It's true of The Summer I Turned Pretty, and also of the Culpable trilogy and also We Were Liars, for instance. So, the service is celebrating that fact in Sydney, putting on Prime Book Club LIVE with a number of authors and actors connected to its lineup as guests. The third and final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, the platform's most-successful original series, is streaming from Wednesday, July 16 and releasing episodes through until Wednesday, September 17. Accordingly, author Jenny Han — who not only penned the books The Summer I Turned Pretty, It's Not Summer Without You and We'll Always Have Summer that the show is based on and is the series' showrunner, but also wrote the To All The Boys I've Loved Before trilogy — is on Prime Book Club LIVE's lineup. So are Lola Tung and Rain Spencer (Test Screening). Ahead of Culpa Nuestra (Our Fault), the third and final Culpable trilogy flick after films Culpa Mia (My Fault) and Culpa Tuya (Your Fault), reaching Prime Video in October, author Mercedes Ron is also getting chatting in the Harbour City. Taking place from 5pm on Thursday, July 31, 2025 at Machine Hall in Sydney, Prime Book Club LIVE boasts Lucinda 'Froomes' Price as its host, features a #BookTok panel, and sports an immersive setup spanning interactive experiences, giveaways and more. The event is also set to cover We Were Liars — which has an Australian connection thanks to Invisible Boys talent and future The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping star Joseph Zada — and others that fit the page-to-screen mould, including upcoming book-to-screen titles. Attendance is free, but you'll either need to register for a ticket in advance from 12pm AEST on Monday, July 14 or try your luck for one of the limited seats that'll be available on the day. The Summer I Turned Pretty images: Erika Doss © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC / Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Prime Video.
Airbnb are giving four lucky, brave people the chance to spend a night in luxury amidst the snow-capped crescents of the French Alps. Ascend the mountain on chauffeured snowmobiles, feast on mulled wine and cheese fondue, and be the first to hit the slopes the following morning. There’s just one catch: your four person apartment is actually an alpine cable car, suspended 9000 feet in the air. The precarious lodgings hang atop Sommet de la Saulire — the highest mountain in the Courchevel — approximately 2,700 metres above sea level. Specially modified, the gondola includes two double beds and 360 degree views, but no bathroom — which frankly, when your guests are spending all night in abject terror, seems like the type of amenity that might be worth including. Then again, I can see how plumbing might be somewhat impracticable at that height. I suppose you can always just open the door and relieve yourself over the edge? Obviously, this particular giveaway is not for anyone who struggles with heights. To me, it sounds a lot like the setup of one of those ghost stories, where you inherit a fortune from an eccentric old uncle, but have to spend a night in a haunted house before you can collect. Those of you braver than I can enter the competition by heading on over to the Airbnb website, and letting them know in less than 100 words why you deserve to win — look, you're probably someone who lives in a house like this, right? Entries close on Wednesday February 25 for a stay on the evening of Friday March 6. The prize also includes a return airfare, if you survive. Via Fast Company.
"Texting is tacky," proclaims filmmaker/artist/writer Miranda July. "Calling is awkward. Email is old." So she's come up with a brand new way to communicate in the 21st century: an app called Somebody. Here's how it works. You send your friend a message, but rather than going directly to their phone, it goes to the Somebody user in closest proximity. This individual delivers the message, in person. Hence, the app facilitates all the instantaneity of modern digital communication, as well as a dose of good, old-fashioned face-to-face contact. As the Somebody site quips, it's 'half-app/half-human'. It's also a public art project. July first came up with the concept in March 2014 and developed it with the help of designer Thea Lorentzen and a team from StinkDigital, along with support from Miu Miu. The app and an accompanying film — the eighth commission in Miu Miu's Women's Tales series — premiered on August 28. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iz13HMsvb6o "Somebody is a far-reaching public art project that incites performance and twists our love of avatars and outsourcing — every relationship becomes a three-way," states the official site. "The antithesis of the utilitarian efficiency that tech promises, here, finally, is an app that makes us nervous, giddy and alert to the people around us." Your messages don't have to be restricted to words — your messenger can also follow actions and directions (i.e. dance, hug, cry and so on) — as long as they're game. If the timing isn't right, the recipient can decline involvement. Plus, the sender can select from a variety of potential messengers by previewing photos and performance ratings. When there's a lack of users in the vicinity, the message can be floated until someone turns up. July will speak publicly about Somebody at New York City's New Museum on October 9, and the app will be progressively launched throughout the Northern Hemisphere over Spring. Right now, hotspots are in action at the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Museo Jumex, Mexico City. It's in these places that you're likely to find a high concentration of Somebody users. If you want get the trend happening here in Australia, get the ball rolling and download the app for free from the Apple store. Image: Miranda July and Miu Miu.
One of Brisbane's historic sites is enjoying a new life. Since 1889, the building at 271 Grey Street in South Brisbane has been a police station, a squatter's den and a Spaghetti House, as well as a Ship Inn and, most recently, Little Big House. In its latest guise, the two-level Queenslander remains a watering hole. It's still benefiting from the significant spruce up that the building received as Little Big House, in fact. But head by now for a drink, a bite or to while away an afternoon doing both and you'll be hitting up a London-inspired gastropub. Alex Derrick has taken over the heritage-listed spot, renamed it The Rose & Crown and gleaned inspiration from more than two decades spent in Britain — including working in pubs, and winning awards for doing so. Drop in for a drink and you can get a brew of cask beer, with The Rose & Crown the only place in Queensland pouring it straight from the cask. In digs decked out by the aforementioned Bella Derrick, an interior stylist — complete with nods to the UK, of course, and a new three-metre olive tree taking pride of place in the garden — you can also sip your way through the 40-selection wine list, which includes pudding wine. Or, there's the pub's house lager, a heap of other beers on tap and by the bottle, two types of spritzes, and classic cocktails such as margaritas and gimlets. The food menu owes a debt to Britain, naturally. Expect to tuck into scotch eggs, homemade steak and ale pies, pork scratchings, grilled sardine and tomato tarts, beer-battered fish with mushy peas, and Cumberland sausages with mashed potato and onion gravy. Every Sunday, roast dinners are available all day — in beef, chicken and nut varieties, complete with Yorkshire puddings — while dessert options span sticky date pudding and treacle tart. The Rose & Crown also hosts a weekly pub quiz. Prefer belting out a tune instead (whether or not it is by a British artist)? Make a date with the karaoke room. Screens around the place show sport, while live music is on the bill. Also, soaking in a London vibe here comes far cheaper than an airfare to the other side of the world. Images: Axis Productions.
Next time that you're looking for a cocktail spot, follow the pins. That's what The Pinnacle Guide, the new bar recognition system that's throwing some love at the top watering holes around the world, gives out. Michelin does stars, this ranking does pins — and on its just-announced first batch of picks, two Australian bars have made the cut. Scoring one pin apiece: El Primo Sanchez and Maybe Sammy, both in Sydney. The duo both hail from the same crew, in fact, and now have bragging rights over Australia's other cocktail havens. In total, 25 bars received one pin and 12 were given two pins. Nowhere has nabbed three pins so far. [caption id="attachment_889906" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steven Woodburn[/caption] Created by three folks behind London Cocktail Week — Hannah Sharman-Cox, Siobhan Payne and Dan Dove — The Pinnacle Guide doesn't just make its selections based on beverages and bar service. Also considered: an establishment's approach to sustainability, diversity and philanthropy. The idea is for the guide's pinned watering holes to reflect everything that's required to be a cocktail bar, and that The Pinnacle Guide is the kind of list that heroes versatility as well. Bars submit to be considered, which requires them to provide information on their drinks program, how they manage their staff, and both the venue's aesthetics and its vibes. From there, anonymous reviewers comprised of mixologists, industry experts and bar enthusiasts undertake in-person reviews to decide which places deserve a place in the guide. [caption id="attachment_941736" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steven Woodburn[/caption] To get a pin, a bar must be considered excellent, outstanding or exceptional both in front of and behind the bar. Securing three pins requires both the written application and the service during the reviewer's visit to be exceptional, and no venue has achieved that so far. Other overall considerations by The Pinnacle Guide include that commitment to sustainability, and ensuring that the drinks list expands beyond booze, with at least two curated non-alcoholic drinks required on the menu (so, thoughtful mocktails, not basic soft drinks). [caption id="attachment_889910" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steven Woodburn[/caption] "We've been overwhelmed by the incredible response to the first round of applications for The Pinnacle Guide. In revealing this first list, we have been able to realise our goal of celebrating the extraordinary range of cocktail bars the world has to offer — from tiny drinking dens to majestic hotel bars," said Dove. "We're proud of our unique submissions process, which has allowed these deserving bars to shine — and we're excited to shed light on many many more in the months and years to come." In the first picks made since The Pinnacle Guide's applications opened in November 2023, entries came from around the globe, including Australia, the UK, the US, Singapore, Spain, Mexico and Dubai. Maybe Sammy's inclusion adds another accolade to its lengthy collection, including being named the number-one bar in the data-driven Top 500 Bars list for 2023 and also coming in 15th on The World's 50 Best Bars list for last year. The Pinnacle Guide's Pinned Bars: Three-pin bars: None Two-pin bars: ATLAS, Singapore Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour, Phoenix, USA Nipperkin, London, UK Origin Bar, Shangri-La Singapore, Singapore Panda & Sons, Edinburgh, UK Paradiso, Barcelona, Spain Pretty Decent, Louisville, USA Selva, Oaxaca, Mexico The American Bar at Gleneagles, Auchterarder, UK The Spy Bar at Raffles London, UK Thunderbolt, Los Angeles, USA True Laurel, San Francisco, USA One-pin bars: Artesian, London, UK Ballroom by Barbary Coast, Singapore Blue Bar at The Berkeley, London, UK Couch, Birmingham, UK Cure, New Orleans, USA El Primo Sanchez, Sydney, Australia Kiki Lounge, Isle of Man, UK KOL Mezcaleria, London, UK Kwant Mayfair, London, UK Little Rituals, Phoenix, USA Magnus on Water, Maine, USA Maybe Sammy, Sydney, Australia Meteor, Minneapolis, USA Milady's, New York City, USA Nightjar Shoreditch, London, UK Passing Fancies, Birmingham, UK Rattlebag, Belfast, UK Roka Dubai, UAE Sexy Fish, London, UK Sexy Fish, Manchester UK Side Hustle, London, UK Swift Soho, London, UK The Dead Rabbit, New York City, USA The Guards Bar & Lounge at Raffles, London, UK Velvet by Salvatore Calabrese, London, UK For more information about The Pinnacle Guide and its pinned bars, head to its website. Find El Primo Sanchez at 27–33 Oxford Street, Paddington, Sydney. Find Maybe Sammy at 115 Harrington Street, The Rocks, Sydney. Top image: Steven Woodburn.
Look, some things are definitely better fresh. Things like like produce, sashimi and hot chips. But other things get better with age, things like you and, surprisingly, beer. There's an idea floating around that beer only belongs in the former category, but in celebration of Cooper's 2017 Vintage Ale release, we're shedding some light on the beers that age gracefully. If you're intimidated by the idea of a cellar, don't be. Modern cellaring doesn't require you to own a sprawling mansion with a decked-out cellar door. All you need is a dark, cool and consistent space to cellar beer and bring out its mature flavours. A basement or garage will do the trick, as long as the temperature stays between ten to 12 degrees celsius and doesn't fluctuate. Also, keep the space between 50 and 70 percent humidity if you can, but if you can't, an air humidifier will help control any mould issues. The other very important item you'll need is self control — don't go downing your cellared beers just because they're there and you can. Good beers come to those who wait. (And so do some pretty tasty food and beer pairings.) Once you've got the set-up, which beers should you choose? Which actually age well? Well, that's where we come in. Follow our lead, and look to these brews for your home beer cellar. In a year or so, you'll be thanking us. STOUT A good rule of thumb is that heavier beers with a higher alcohol content will cellar the best. Aim for beers that are heavy on malt and have an alcohol content of eight percent for good results. Stout is an excellent beginner's brew for cellaring. The word stout is even a synonym for heavy, determined and forceful, making it an ideal candidate to develop some extra depth. The rich, dark (but never heavy) texture of a stout starts off great, but is made even better with time. The roasted malt component, which is what gives the beer its depth, becomes even more complex. The consensus on how long to cellar a stout for is mixed, but the best approach for a DIY beer-ager is through experimentation. Buy the brew of your choice in bulk (like Cooper's Best Extra Stout) and drink a few fresh, making sure to take notes as you go. Age the rest and every six months, repeat the experiment, each time taking notes. Everyone has different tastes, but when you have your perfectly aged stout, pair it with a slow-cooked pork roast or oysters. DARK ALE Dark ale is one of the lesser known dark beers, but its reputation (or lack thereof) is undeserved; this beer warrants a place in your DIY cellar, especially if you're into chocolaty, coffee flavours. Think of dark ale as a dessert beer — heavy, creamy and rich. This strong flavour profile is what makes the beer excellent for cellaring, as it gets stronger, yet subtler, after a few years in the dark. For your home cellar, look for either barrel-aged or bottle-conditioned beer, like Cooper's Dark Ale. The active yeast contained in the bottle means they were designed to cellar well. Also note, thanks to their high alcohol content, dark ales can withstand a slightly higher temperature — between 12 and 14 degrees celsius — compared to their wheaty brethren, making this one a kinder brew for the home cellar novice. VINTAGE ALE From time to time, brewers will develop and release beers that are designed to age. Cooper's Vintage Ale is the perfect example and a must have for any DIY beer cellar — trust us, you'll be glad you added it in couple years. In its infancy, it has a bitter and punchy flavour with pineapple and pear undertones (unusual flavours for such a heavy beer, but somehow it works). During the production process, the introduction of live yeast as a conditioner gives this brew its longevity. So, if you're patient, you'll notice as the beer ages that the bitterness evolves into a sweet, caramel palette. Keep an eye out for these kinds of limited releases at your local as they're often designed — bottle and all — to be cellared, and may even become collector's items in years to come. SPARKLING ALE Now, we have just said that dark and heavy beers age well, so it may surprise you to see sparkling ale on this list. As a lighter brew, it may not be a go-to for most cellars, but sparkling ales do actually age beautifully and (if you do it right) you'll end up with a rich brew a lot faster than the heavier drops. The cellaring process takes the sparking ale's fruity, floral notes and smooths them out. Any acidity, over-the-top sweetness or rough edges age into honeyed undertones. But make sure you check these beers more regularly than their darker counterparts as they'll mature a little faster. Also, make sure to keep the temperature under control; these brews won't react well to any heat. Once you've nailed your desired aged flavours, pair them with bold tastes. Spicy food will match with the bubbles, and charcoal and rotisserie barbecue flavours will sit well with fruity tones. SOUR BEER If you like your beer a little bit tart, then turn your attention to sour beer. These acidic brews famously cellar well, but be warned, they're an unpredictable beer to begin with. Sour beers have always been brewed differently from other beers. Before modern brewing, beer was intentionally soured by introducing wild yeasts into the fermentation process — a method still used today. And although the modern brewing method is a little more controlled — brewers often use a Belgium yeast called brettanomyces to sour, instead of leaving the beer out to the elements — things can still go wrong. On the plus side, if the initial brew goes well, the beer will taste even better a few years down the track, since brettanomyces take months to develop a full flavour profile. Even if you don't traditionally like sour beer, we recommend you hop on down to your local and try an aged sour — you might be pleasantly surprised. (Beer pun intended.) A limited number of the 2017 Coopers Vintage Ale cartons have been released, so get to stocking your cellar with these brews quickly. Otherwise, you can find the vintage available on tap at a few key venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and beyond. Find your closest pub serving the brew here.
Chef Brooke Nazzari from Cooking 101 shares a recipe for warm beer and bacon cheese dip, blended with James Squire Hop Thief 7 American-style pale ale. This smoky, gently beer flavoured dip is heavenly. Filled with three cheeses, fried free range bacon pieces, zesty mustard, smoky paprika and a decent splash of Hop Thief 7 American-style pale ale, it has all the winning ingredients for the perfect warm dip. I serve it with corn chips and veggie sticks, but warm crusty bread would be just as delicious. Ingredients 200gm free range bacon (diced into small pieces) 250g cream cheese ½ cup parmesan ½ cup shredded mozzarella 1tbs wholegrain mustard 1tsp ground dried paprika ½ cup James Squire Hop Thief American Pale Ale 2 x spring onion (diced finely) Salt and pepper to taste Method 1) Gently fry off the bacon pieces until they are golden brown. Remove from the heat and put it on some paper towel to absorb the fat while it cools. 2) Meanwhile, in a food processor blitz the cream cheese, parmesan, mozzarella, mustard, paprika and beer until it's all well combined. Stir in the spring onion, ¾ of the bacon, salt and pepper, making sure it's all mixed through well. 3) Spoon the mixture into an oven proof ramekin/dish, top with the remaining bacon and bake for 20-25mins in a moderate oven, until it's warmed through and deliciously gooey. Top image: Dollar Photo Club.
2023 marks eight years since one of the greatest living American directors last released a film. While he did direct an episode of Tokyo Vice's first season in 2022, Michael Mann hasn't had a movie flicker across the big screen since 2015's Blackhat. Thankfully, that's changing with a picture that also gives the world Adam Driver as a race car driver-turned-sports car entrepreneur: Ferrari. Mann adds Ferrari to a resume that also includes 80s masterpiece Thief, The Last of the Mohicans and Heat in the 90s, plus Collateral, Miami Vice and more. For Driver, the film proves another case of living up to his name on-screen. He's played a bus driver in Paterson, and piloted a spaceship in the Star Wars sequel trilogy as well as 65. So, zipping through the Italian streets here fits easily. As both Ferrari's first teaser trailer and just-dropped new full sneak peek show, Driver is behind the wheel in a film that focuses on its namesake when he's an ex-racer. As adapted from Brock Yates' book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine, Mann's movie hones in on specific chapter of Enzo Ferrari's life: 1957, as potential bankruptcy looms over his factory, his marriage is struggling after a heartbreaking loss and his drivers approach the Mille Miglia race. Accordingly, Ferrari promises to peer behind the Formula 1 facade, into Enzo's relationship with his wife Laura (Penélope Cruz, Official Competition), the death of their boy Dino, and the son Piero with Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley, Robots) that he doesn't want to acknowledge. If you know your racing history, you'll also know that 1957's Mille Miglia — which spanned 1000 miles across Italy — was its last due to multiple deaths during the event. So, that race won't be an insignificant part of the film. Set to release at Christmas in the US and on January 4, 2024 Down Under, Ferrari also stars Patrick Dempsey (Disenchanted), Jack O'Connell (Lady Chatterley's Lover), Sarah Gadon (Black Bear) and Gabriel Leone (Dom). Check out the trailer for Ferrari below: Ferrari releases in cinemas Down Under on January 4, 2024. Images: Lorenzo Sisti / Eros Hoagland.
Screw self-lacing Nikes, everyone knows the real legacy of Back to the Future II was the hoverboard. Since the film's 1989 release, the race has been on to create one by 2015, and with the fateful date just one year away, everyone's obviously getting a little antsy. Cue cruelly convincing star-studded hoverboard announcement. The video, which surfaced just a matter of hours ago, is a "real-life" demonstration of a hoverboard from a supposed tech company called HUVr Tech. Featuring the likes of Moby, Tony Hawk and none other than Christopher Lloyd himself, the product gets a glowing endorsement from all including a 'heartwarming' moment when Doc almost cries. Now, the more important question: why would they mess with us like this? Nerds across the world have joined forces to fact check the video's claims, and as much as we all want it to be true, it just isn't. It's been discovered that the 'main technician' is actually an actor called Nelson Cheng, and in a huge faux pas, the costume designer Lauren Biedenharn listed the job on her resume as a commercial for Funny or Die. Add to this the fact that HuvrTech.com was only listed as a domain in November last year, and it has some fairly dubious legalese — “the inclusion of any products or services on this website at a particular time does not imply or warrant that these products or services will be available at any time” — and the outcome looks pretty bleak. Best case scenario: it's the start of a viral marketing campaign for Back to the Future IV. Worst case: it's an ingenious publicity stunt engineered by Moby in an effort to stay relevant. Either way, they have a lot to answer for. Now firmly into his middle age, Tony Hawk spends his days pulling sick ollies on fictional devices and breaking the hearts of everyone who once played Pro Skater on PS1. The modern Marty McFly? Moby being 'hip' and 'young' and 'with it'.
