Summer might be over for another year, but chasing endless sunny days, sandy spots and crashing waves is a rather easy pastime in Australia. The country is girt by sea, after all, and boasts thousands of beaches — including Western Australia's Cable Beach, which has just been named one of the best coastal spots in the world for 2023, plus the absolute top beach in the South Pacific for this year as well. The scenic Broome locale nabbed those honours thanks to Tripadvisor, which unveils a lineup of top beaches each year. Among the international plaudits, Cable Beach came in third behind Baia do Sancho in Fernando de Noronha in Brazil and Eagle Beach in Aruba in The Caribbean. It also ranked higher than spots in Iceland, Turks and Caicos, Portugal, India, Sicily, Cuba and Hawaii. Yes, that's mighty fine company to keep. [caption id="attachment_891596" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cable Beach[/caption] In the South Pacific rundown, Cable Beach beat six other Aussie locations and one from New Zealand. Also getting some love locally: Sydney's Manly Beach in second place, Emily Bay on Norfolk Island in third and Mooloolaba Beach in fourth spot. Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas and Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island adding two more Queensland locations to the list at sixth and seventh place, while Turquoise Bay in Exmouth in WA came in ninth after topping the South Pacific spots in 2022. Across the ditch, Tahunanui Beach in Nelson sits at eighth place, too. The two beaches deemed the best in the South Pacific that aren't from Down Under? Matira Beach on Society Island in Bora Bora, French Polynesia, which sits fifth and Natadola Beach in Sigatoka, Fiji, at tenth. If it's an overseas beach holiday you're after this year, you now know where to head. [caption id="attachment_891589" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Manly Beach[/caption] Back to the worldwide list, it spans 25 places, with Manly coming in 13th there ahead of locations in Grand Cayman, San Sebastian, Bali, Costa Rica, Rio de Janeiro and more. Across both the worldwide and South Pacific rankings, winners were chosen as part of Tripadvisor's Traveller's Choice awards, which is based on millions of reviews and ratings left on the online platform across 2022. [caption id="attachment_891592" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Whitehaven Beach[/caption] TOP TEN BEACHES IN THE WORLD FOR 2023: Baia do Sancho, Fernando de Noronha, Brazil Eagle Beach, Aruba, The Caribbean Cable Beach, Broome, Australia Reynisfjara Beach, Vik, Iceland Grace Bay Beach, Turks and Caicos, The Caribbean Praia da Falésia, Algarve, Portugal Radhanagar Beach, Havelock Island, India Spiaggia dei Conigli, Sicily, Italy Varadero Beach, Cuba, The Caribbean Ka'anapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii TOP TEN BEACHES IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC FOR 2023: Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia, Australia Manly Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Emily Bay, Norfolk Island, Australia Mooloolaba Beach, Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia Matira Beach, Society Island, Bora Bora, French Polynesia Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia Tahunanui Beach, Nelson, New Zealand Turquoise Bay, Exmouth, Western Australia, Australia Natadola Beach, Sigatoka, Fiji [caption id="attachment_891590" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Matira Beach[/caption] To check out the full list of top beaches for 2023, head to Tripadvisor. Images: Getty Images / Tripadvisor. 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.
It's one of Australia's iconic novels. It has won a swag of awards, sold a heap of copies and been turned into a play. It's a Brisbane-set story that trod those boards in Brissie, and now it's a Netflix series that was shot in the River City, too. Boy Swallows Universe has been on its way to the small screen for some time, complete with behind-the-scenes glimpses of the production to prove it — and you can check out the TV adaptation's just-dropped first teaser trailer. Harper Collins sold the television rights to the novel back in 2019, with Aussie actor and filmmaker Joel Edgerton (The Stranger) set to produce the resulting series since then. Netflix announced its involvement in 2022. After originally stating that the show would arrive in 2023, the streaming platform hasn't attached a date to its debut sneak peek at Boy Swallows Universe — but it's firmly on its way. Written by Trent Dalton, the novel won the Book of the Year, Literary Book of the Year and Audio Book of the Year at the 2019 Australian Book Industry Awards — and was longlisted for Australia's most prestigious literature prize, the Miles Franklin Award when it hit the page — for spinning a story about a young boy, his prophetic brother and his jailbreaking best friend as they navigate the heroin-filled underworld of 80s Queensland. Also included: Eli Bell's (Felix Cameron, Penguin Bloom) attempt to understand how to be a good person, with his plight spanning a lost father, a criminal for a babysitter, a mum recovering from addiction, a mute brother and a stepfather who deals. Netflix's adaptation span eight episodes, running as a self-contained limited series, as it tells a coming-of-age tale caught between childhood's magic and adulthood's reality. Travis Fimmel (Black Snow) also stars as Lyle Orlik, while the cast includes Simon Baker (Limbo) as Robert Bell and Phoebe Tonkin (Babylon) as Frances Bell — plus Lee Tiger Halley (The Heights) as Gus Bell. Also featuring: Bryan Brown (Hungry Ghosts) as Slim Halliday, Anthony LaPaglia (Nitram) as Tytus Broz, and Sophie Wilde (Talk to Me) as Caitlyn Spies, plus Christopher James Baker (Ozark) as Ivan Kroll, HaiHa Le (Spooky Files) as Bich Dang and Deborah Mailman (The New Boy) as Poppy Birkbeck. And, you'll see Ben O'Toole (Barons) as Teddy, Zachary Wan (Never Too Late) as Darren Dang, and Millie Donaldson (Jack Irish) and Eloise Rothfield as Shelley Huffman (aged 17 and 13, respectively). Boy Swallows Universe is directed by Bharat Nalluri (The Man Who Invented Christmas), Jocelyn Moorhouse (The Dressmaker) and Kim Mordaunt (The Rocket), and scripted by screenwriter John Collee (Master and Commander, Happy Feet, Hotel Mumbai). The impressive names involved extend to the show's executive producers, too, which include Troy Lum (The Water Diviner, Saving Mr Banks, Mao's Last Dancer), Andrew Mason (The Matrix, The Water Diviner), Sophie Gardiner (Howard's End, Chimerica), Kerry Roberts (Foe, Boy Erased), and Edgerton. Check out the trailer for Boy Swallows Universe below: Boy Swallows Universe will stream via Netflix, but doesn't yet have a release date — we'll update you when it's announced.
Perhaps you're keen to check out Studio Ghibli's upcoming theme park. Maybe you're desperate to hit up a Super Nintendo theme park, too. You could've always wanted to walk across Shibuya's famous scramble crossing — or you might be eager to sing karaoke in a ferris wheel. Fancy simply eating and drinking your way around all the ramen joints and izakayas possible? That's perfectly understandable as well. Whichever reason (or reasons) are motivating your dream Japanese holiday, they're all achievable again — including hitting up that Studio Ghibli park when it starts spiriting fans away at the beginning of November. Today, Tuesday, October 11, for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan has reopened its borders to individual international tourists. And no, you no longer need to book a package through a travel agency, or abide by the country's pandemic-era visa restrictions, to enjoy your getaway. Suitcases at the ready, eager travellers. The move comes after two-and-a-half years of border restrictions, and came into effect at 12am on Tuesday, October 11 Japanese time. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the news back in September, advising that the country has previously "flourished through the free flow of people, goods and capital," as per Reuters. "COVID-19, of course, interrupted all of these benefits, but from October 11 Japan will relax border control measures to be on par with the US, as well as resume visa-free travel and individual travel," he continued. That means that visitors to Japan can now make their own travel arrangements — a huge change to the most recent rules. Until May, the country was closed to international tourists. Then, the Japanese government started trialling in letting strictly controlled package tours, including with Australian tourists. Next, in early June, it broadened those entry requirements to allow in visitors from a heap of nations under the same rules. And, from early September until now, it permitted travellers, including from Down Under, to make the journey even when they aren't on guided tours, as long as they have organised their flights and accommodation through a travel agency. Also now in effect: dropping the visa requirement, which applies to visitors from nations that weren't required to obtain tourist visas before the pandemic — including from Australia and New Zealand. So, in several ways, heading to Japan has returned to the pre-COVID-19 status quo. Japan has also ditched its daily cap on international arrivals, which was most recently set at 50,000. There are a few caveats, though. You do need to provide one of two forms of proof regarding the pandemic to enter. You'll either need you will need to have a valid COVID-19 vaccination certificate with at least three doses noted, or show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours prior to departure (and that test has to be a PCR, not a rapid antigen test). And, there's also a COVID-19 questionnaire to fill out. Wondering what to do in Japan? Check out this Concrete Playground Trips package, which'll take you on a cultural tour from Kyoto to Tokyo. Japan's new border rules came into effect on Tuesday, October 11. For further details about visiting Japan and its border restrictions, head to the Government of Japan website. 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.
When Sydney Theatre Company's version of The Picture of Dorian Gray premiered in 2020, it didn't just give Oscar Wilde's gothic-literature masterpiece a fresh spin; it turned it into a brand-new stage sensation. The show features just one performer playing all 26 characters. To make that happen, the production uses video to help. It's the work of writer/director Kip Williams, it's groundbreaking, and it's been understandably earning audiences raves and winning awards. Next stop: the big screen, possibly. Deadline reports that the film rights to the theatre smash have been picked up by none other than Cate Blanchett, via the Tár and Nightmare Alley star's production company Dirty Films. Now, playwright, screenwriter — and Dirty Films partner, plus Blanchett's partner — Andrew Upton is working with Williams on a treatment. When a movie version of The Picture of Dorian Gray might eventuate, who'll star, who'll direct the film: none of that has been announced so far. But behind the scenes, producers Rachel Gardner and Jo Porter from Curio Pictures are also involved. Dirty Films has the Blanchett-led The New Boy, plus fellow flicks such as Fingernails and Shayda, on its recent slate. Curio Pictures has TV productions High Country, The Artful Dodger and the upcoming The Narrow Road to the Deep North to its name of late. After it debuted in Sydney starring Eryn Jean Norvill, The Picture of Dorian Gray also hit theatres in Melbourne and Adelaide. From there, since earlier in 2024, it made the jump to London with Succession's Sarah Snook taking on every single onstage part, winning a 2024 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her efforts. On the page, The Picture of Dorian Gray is exceptional, as well as astute and unnerving, as it follows the selling of its namesake's soul in order to keep indulging every corporeal whim, urge and desire. There's a reason that it just keeps getting adapted for the screen and in theatres, after all. But there's never been a version like Sydney Theatre Company's, which filmgoers might now get to experience. Check out a trailer for the West End season of The Picture of Dorian Gray below: There's no word yet on when The Picture of Dorian Gray could reach screens — we'll update you when more details are announced. The Picture of Dorian Gray is playing The Theatre Royal Haymarket, 18 Suffolk Street, London until Saturday, May 11, 2024 — for more information and tickets, head to the play's website. Via Deadline. Images: Marc Brenner / Dan Boud.
Queenslanders, it's holiday time. After a year largely spent staring at your own four walls, you probably don't need much motivation to head out of town, but the State Government is giving you some anyway. In an effort to encourage everyone to take a getaway up north within the state, it's handing out $200 vouchers for travel to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. The idea has two obvious aims: enticing Queensland residents to go venturing throughout the state, and helping support tourism businesses in the highlighted area. The move was announced today, Sunday, March 7, by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, including the details of what you can spend the money on, when you can spend it and exactly how you can get your hands on the vouchers. From Monday, March 8–Thursday, March 11, 15,000 vouchers will be available — and you'll need to head to queensland.com to nab one. You'll register for a voucher code, as part of a scheme that's been dubbed 'Cairns Holiday Dollars'. Obviously, it's likely that there'll be more people keen on scoring the $200 discount than there will be vouchers, so they'll be handed out as part of a draw. Those who successfully receive a voucher will then be able to use it between March 15–June 25 on tourism experiences in the tropical north area, which also includes Port Douglas and the Atherton Tablelands. The vouchers can only be spent on tourism experiences and attractions, and will enable you to get up to 50 percent off your booking, maxing out at $200. https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1368288000619114497 While Victoria's similar scheme, which was announced in 2020, also covered accommodation, that isn't the case in Queensland. It's clearly hoped that most folks taking up the vouchers will need to pay for somewhere to stay anyway — and to eat and drink at cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars while they're there — which'll also inject more money into the region. If the vouchers are successful, Premier Palaszczuk said that they could be rolled out across the rest of the state. For now, though, the Premier advised that the government wants "to make sure that people across Queensland get to enjoy tropical far north Queensland". You can apply for one of the 15,000 $200 'Cairns Holiday Dollars' travel vouchers from Monday, March 8 at queensland.com.
Now that we all carry digital maps in our pockets, finding our way around is as simple as whipping out our smartphones, typing in a location and following the stated directions. And, with Google Maps featuring extensive real-life images of the globe's roads and spaces in its Street View mode, it couldn't be easier to double-check that the place in front of you is your intended destination. If the above describes your usual process when you're trying to navigate your way to somewhere new, then you'll also be keen on Google Maps' new Live View feature. Using augmented reality, it combines the service's directions with Street View, superimposing arrows, street names and directions over the actual view that's in front of you — rather than a map or photographic representation of it — literally pointing users in the right direction. Whether you've been distracted while walking around New York and ended up in the wrong place, or found Tokyo's busier districts a bit of a labyrinth, this'll help. The same applies if you're notorious for paying more attention to the sights and sounds around you instead of looking at where you're going, which, when travelling, is an experience we can all relate to. After testing Live View with its local guides and via Pixel phones over the past few months, Google is now expanding the feature — which is currently still in beta testing — to Android and iOS devices. To use it, your phone will need to support ARCore (the company's platform for building augmented reality experiences) and ARKit (Apple's equivalent). Then, after typing in a location into Google Maps, you'll just need to tap the directions button, select walking directions and look for the Live View option. The rollout comes part of the tech giant's broader suite of updates in the travel space. Users can now also use Google Maps to track hotel and flight bookings, find restaurants tailored to their tastes and use their Location History timeline to make notes on each place they visit. Google Maps' Live View is now available on Android and iOS devices. For more information, visit Google Maps.
Community sport, outdoor boot camps, and leisure activities such as bushwalking, fishing, golf and swimming might soon be back on the agenda nationwide, with the Australian Government releasing its National Principles for Sport and Recreational Activities. As referenced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday, May 1 in his press conference after the latest national cabinet meeting, the 15-point set of principles outline the pathway for resuming physical pastimes — focusing on a staged approach. Using the Australian Institute of Sport's Framework for Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment as a guide, the principles recommend that small-group, non-contact activities involving less than ten people be allowed to recommence first, with social distancing required for participants. Then, at the next stage, large group and full-contact pastimes could recommence, covering sports and activities with more than ten people involved. That means that anyone eager to go for a stroll, hit a few balls or do some laps in the pool will be able to do so in the first stage, with large team sports returning in the second stage. The government hasn't provided an exhaustive list of activities that fall into each category, or of the steps required at each stage — but for those eager to get outside and get active as soon as possible, it's still a positive sign. Guided by health concerns first and foremost, and noting that outdoor activities likely possess a lower risk for COVID-19 transmission than indoor activities, the principles also touch upon professional sport — aka football codes such as AFL and NRL. "For the foreseeable future, elite sports, if recommenced, should do so in a spectator-free environment with the minimum support staff available to support the competition," the principles state. And at the community level, "sport and recreation activities should limit those present to the minimum required to support the participants". Crucially, the principles don't include a timeline or timeframe for implementation. But with the Prime Minister announcing that the national cabinet will meet on Friday, May 8 to decide on how to relax some of Australia's social distancing and public gatherings restrictions — bringing the date forward from Monday, May 11, because "Australians have earned an early mark" — it's safe to assume that progressing with the National Principles for Sport and Recreational Activities will be on the agenda. Once actioned at a national level, it'll be up to the individual states and territories to implement in their own jurisdictions. As the nation's new daily cases of COVID-19 continue to drop — remaining below 20 per day nationwide since Wednesday, April 22 — governments at both the federal and state levels have been looking to relax limitations on daily life. Queensland and New South Wales eased some restrictions this week, while the Northern Territory outlined its roadmap to "the new normal". Learn more about the National Principles for Sport and Recreational Activities and the Australian Institute of Sport's Framework for Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website.
Brush up on your spells, Potterheads. Specifically, get ready to shout "accio iPhone". As first announced back in 2017, the wizarding world of Harry Potter is coming to your mobile — and the powers-that-be have revealed when as part of a new teaser trailer. Some time in 2019, Potter fans be joining the Ministry of Magic, wielding their wands and trying to contain traces of wizardry throughout the muggle world, all within Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. What else it involves is being kept in a chamber of secrets, although the game website does explain that players will enlist in the new Statute of Secrecy Task Force, where they'll be required to "hone lightning fast wand reflexes", "sniff out the faintest whiff of magical disorder from afar" and be proficient in the "advanced casting of multiple spells". Basically, it's a Pokemon Go-style step into the Harry Potter universe, giving everyone another augmented reality mobile game to get addicted to. And, it's from Niantic, the developers behind said game, who have teamed up here with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. When Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was first announced, Niantic noted that "players will learn spells, explore their real world neighbourhoods and cities to discover and fight legendary beasts and team up with others to take down powerful enemies" — in case you were wondering how it might emulate Pokemon Go. It also said the game "will leverage the full stack of the Niantic Platform while also providing an opportunity to pioneer all new technology and gameplay mechanics". That's about all we know for now — although you can check out the teaser below: It's up to you to protect the wizarding world. Enlist immediately for the Statute of Secrecy Task Force: https://t.co/b9UtoUA3gS #WizardsUnite pic.twitter.com/2NSlOpgj3W — Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (@HPWizardsUnite) November 14, 2018 For more information about the game, you can sign up for updates via www.harrypotterwizardsunite.com.
There's a real change in social codes when you go out for a fancy meal. You have to dress appropriately, your table talk gets kicked up a notch, and above all, you're expected to be respectful and open to new experiences. But this doesn't come naturally to all of us; least of all to children. To celebrate the launch of their latest food issue, The New York Times invited six primary schoolers to one of New York's best restaurants. The resulting video is intended as a playful little piece of comedy — and it really is cute — but boy, we definitely relate to what these kids are feeling. Embarking on a seven-course tasting menu from critically-acclaimed French restaurant Daniel, the six vest-clad, headband-wearing children were treated to US$225 worth of Smoked Paprika Cured Hamachi, Crispy Japanese Snapper, Wagyu Beef Rib-Eye and more. Straight from the kitchen of respected chef Daniel Boulud, this food is seriously fancy. But that didn't stop these kids from speaking their mind. "I didn't like any of that stuff," said one child while digesting approximately $150 of Michelin-starred cuisine. "I can't wait 'til we have dessert," said another. Another ornately plated course is placed in front of them and one boy declares, "It looks like a little forest". For the record, it totally does. Though they might outwardly seem crass or impolite, each of their statements is remarkably similar to thoughts we've also had while at fancy restaurants. While most people would just accept convention and shut their mouths, our favourite mini-critic dressed in hot pink lets all it all out. "Why do I have two knives?" she asks. "This looks like soap. It tastes like soap. Why am I eating soap right now?" Maybe this is what fine dining needs; a little honesty now and then could really deflate some of that trademark foodie pretension. Either that or we should just not bother giving kids nice things at all. I guarantee they'd be just as excited about a Happy Meal. Via The New York Times.
This time last year, we'd all spent far too much time in front of our TVs. Sadly, that hasn't changed all that much in 2021. That's life during a pandemic — which means that you've likely rewatched all your favourite television shows, and possibly more than once, while we've all been spending more time indoors of late. There's nothing like getting cosy with a TV series you truly love, whether for the second, fifth, 11th or 20th time. But if you're always eager to add some fresh standouts to your viewing list, 2021 has definitely delivered plenty so far. They're the new series that'll sit atop your rewatch pile in years to come, because they're all just that exceptional. Love powerful dramas that interrogate the past? This year has served up those. Fancy smart new comedies with local ties? Yep, 2021 has thrust those in front of eyeballs, too. Also debuting over the past six months: new gems from the teams behind old favourites, twisty thrillers and more than a couple of series with casts that knock it out of the park. Yes, the list goes on. With the year at its halfway point, here are our picks of 2021's best new TV and streaming series that you owe it to yourself to seek out now. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Two words: Barry Jenkins. Where the Oscar-nominated Moonlight director goes, viewers should always follow. That proved the case with 2018's If Beale Street Could Talk, and it's definitely accurate regarding The Underground Railroad, the phenomenal new ten-part series that features Jenkins behind the camera of each and every episode. As the name makes plain, the historical drama uses the real-life Underground Railroad — the routes and houses that helped enslaved Black Americans escape to freedom — as its basis. Here, though, drawing on the past isn't as straightforward as it initially sounds. Adapting Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same moniker, the series dives deeply into the experiences of people endeavouring to flee slavery, while also adopting magic-realism when it comes to taking a literal approach to its railroad concept. That combination couldn't work better in Jenkins' hands as he follows Cora (Thuso Mbedu, Shuga), a woman forced into servitude on a plantation overseen by Terrance Randall (Benjamin Walker, Jessica Jones). As always proves the case in the filmmaker's work, every frame is a thing of beauty, every second heaves with emotion, and every glance, stare, word and exchange is loaded with a thorough examination of race relations in America. If something else this affecting reaches streaming queues in 2021, it'll be a phenomenal year for audiences. The Underground Railroad is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS Named after a meme, and focusing on characters that can hardly be described likeable but are nonetheless instantly recognisable, Australian sitcom Why Are You Like This takes aim at 21st century life. Its three main figures are all twentysomethings endeavouring to navigate a never-ending onslaught of personal and professional problems, such as getting fired, battling with colleagues, money troubles, hiding boyfriends, losing moon cups and trying to spark a workplace revolution but ending up getting other people fired — so, yes, they're just like the rest of us. Penny (series co-creator Naomi Higgins, Utopia) wants to be an ally to everyone. Her bestie Mia (Olivia Junkeer, Neighbours) matches that determination with both self-assurance and a self-serving mindset; if she's sticking up for anyone, it's always herself. Rounding out the trio is Penny's housemate and aspiring drag queen Austin (Wil King), whose glittery outfits and super-sized personality can't always hide his internal crumbling. Across the show's six-episode first season, these three friends keep trying to stand out in their own ways. They also keep demonstrating both their best and worst traits. As satirical as it is candid and relatable, Why Are You Like This knows that everyone and everything is awful, and leans in. And, in terms of the series' style of comedy, the fact that Higgins created the show with lawyer and illustrator Humyara Mahbub and Aunty Donna's Mark Samual Bonanno says plenty. Why Are You Like This was available to stream earlier in 2021 via ABC iView — keep an eye on the platform in case it pops up again. Read our full review. IT'S A SIN More than two decades after creating Queer as Folk, Russell T Davies gives the television landscape another excellent queer drama. The screenwriter and television producer has been busy over the intervening period thanks to everything from Doctor Who to Years and Years — and he also has 2015's Cucumber to his name, too — but It's a Sin is one of the very best things on his lengthy resume. Stepping back to the AIDS crisis of the 80s and early 90s, the five-part miniseries follows a group of friends chasing their dreams in London. Ritchie (Olly Alexander, Penny Dreadful) heads to the city to become an actor, and to avoid telling his stern parents that he's gay. Roscoe (Omari Douglas) flees his parents' home when they keep threatening to take him back to Nigeria. Colin (Callum Scott Howells) arrives for an apprenticeship at a high-end tailor shop, but soon finds himself seeking an escape from his lecherous boss. Given the era, there's no doubting where the story will head. It's a Sin is as joyous and vibrant as it is soulful and heartbreaking, though. Ritchie, Roscoe and Colin not only cross paths, but form a makeshift family in their modest flat, with the former's college friends Jill (Lydia West, Dracula) and Ash (Nathaniel Curtis) rounding out the quintet. Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Fry also feature, but they're never It's a Sin's stars — because, in series that looks and sounds the period part at every moment, the show's five main players are simply phenomenal. It's a Sin is available to stream via Stan. STARSTRUCK When Rose Matafeo last graced our screens, she took on pregnancy-centric rom-coms in 2020's Baby Done. Now, in Starstruck, she's still pairing the romantic and the comedic. In another thoughtful, plucky and relatable performance, she plays Jessie, a 28-year-old New Zealander in London who splits her time between working in a cinema and nannying, and isn't expecting much when her best friend and roommate Kate (Emma Sidi, Pls Like) drags her out to a bar on New Year's Eve. For most of the evening, her lack of enthusiasm proves astute. Then she meets Tom (Nikesh Patel, Four Weddings and a Funeral). He overhears her rambling drunkenly to herself in the men's bathroom, they chat at the bar and, when sparks fly, she ends up back at his sprawling flat. It isn't until the next morning, however — when she sees a poster adorned with his face leaning against his living room wall — that she realises that he's actually one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Yes, Starstruck takes Notting Hill's premise and gives it a 22-years-later update, and delivers a smart, sidesplittingly funny and all-round charming rom-com sitcom in the process. When a film or TV show is crafted with a deep-seated love for its chosen genre, it shows. When it wants to do more than just nod and wink at greats gone by like a big on-screen super fan — when its creators passionately hope that it might become a classic in its own right, rather than a mere imitation of better titles — that comes through, too. And that's definitely the case with this ridiculously easy-to-binge charmer. Starstruck is available to stream via ABC iView. Read our full review. WAKEFIELD Scroll through the list of Wakefield's cast members, and many a famous Australian name pops up. Ryan Corr (High Ground), Wayne Blair (Rams), Kim Gyngell (Brothers' Nest), Harriet Dyer (The Invisible Man), and comedians Felicity Ward and Sam Simmons are just some of them, but this ABC series belongs to phenomenal British talent Rudi Dharmalingam (The Split). With an Aussie accent so flawless that all other actors attempting the feat should study it in the future, he plays nurse Nik Katira. His workplace: the eponymous Wakefield, a mental health hospital in the Blue Mountains. Nik's days involve caring for his patients, navigating the usual workplace politics and grappling with his personal life, with all three often overlapping. That might sound like the usual medical drama, but Wakefield isn't ever as straightforward as it might appear. From its very first episode — one of five directed by The Dressmaker filmmaker Jocelyn Moorhouse, with the other three helmed by The Rocket's Kim Mordaunt — the series purposefully throws its viewers off-kilter. With roving cinematography and looping stories, it keeps everyone watching guessing, just as the figures within its frames are doing about their daily existence (including and sometimes especially Nik). Already set to be one of Australian TV's most impressive new series of the year — and likely the best of the year, too — Wakefield is gripping, twisty, powerful and almost devastatingly empathetic about a topic that is rarely handled with as much care and understanding. In other words, it's a knockout. Wakefield is available to stream via ABC iView. MARE OF EASTTOWN Kate Winslet doesn't make the leap to the small screen often, but when she does, it's a must-see event. 2011's Mildred Pierce was simply astonishing, a description that both Winslet and her co-star Guy Pearce also earned — alongside an Emmy each, plus three more for the HBO limited series itself. The two actors and the acclaimed US cable network all reteam for Mare of Easttown, and it too is excellent. Set on the outskirts of Philadelphia, it follows detective Mare Sheehan. As the 25th anniversary of her high-school basketball championship arrives, and after a year of trying to solve a missing person's case linked to one of her former teammates, a new murder upends her existence. Mare's life overflows with complications anyway, with her ex-husband (David Denman, Brightburn) getting remarried, and her mother (Jean Smart, Watchmen), teenage daughter (Angourie Rice, Spider-Man: Far From Home) and four-year-old grandson all under her roof. With town newcomer Richard Ryan (Pearce, The Last Vermeer), she snatches what boozy and physical solace she can. As compelling and textured as she always is, including in this year's Ammonite, Winslet turns Mare of Easttown into a commanding character study. That said, it's firmly an engrossing crime drama as well. Although yet again pondering the adult life of an ex-school sports star, The Way Back's Brad Ingelsby isn't just repeating himself by creating and writing this seven-part series, while The Leftovers and The Hunt's Craig Zobel takes to his directing gig with a probing eye. Mare of Easttown is available to stream via Binge. GIRLS5EVA First, a word of warning: the hit song that brought fictional late 90s/early 00s girl group Girls5eva to fame is such an earworm, you'll be singing it to yourself for weeks after you binge through the sitcom that bears their name. That's to be expected given that Jeff Richmond, the composer behind 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's equally catchy and comedic tunes, is one of the talents behind it. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock produce the series, too, so you what type of humour you're in for. Starring Sara Bareilles (Broadway's Waitress), Busy Philipps (I Feel Pretty), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton) and the great Paula Pell (AP Bio), Girls5eva follows four members of the eponymous band two decades after their heyday. Their initial success didn't last, and life has left the now-fortysomething women at different junctures. Then a rapper samples their hit, they're asked to reunite for a one-night backing spot on The Tonight Show, and they contemplate getting back together to give music another shot. As well as being exceptionally well-cast and immensely funny, the series is also bitingly perceptive about stardom, the entertainment industry and the way that women beyond their twenties are treated. Also, when Fey inevitably pops up, she does so as a dream version of Dolly Parton — and it's as glorious as it sounds. Girls5eva is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. CALLS Everyone has heard about the response that The War of the Worlds reportedly sparked back in 1938. That's when Orson Welles adapted HG Wells' novel into a radio play, and the result was so convincing that it reportedly incited panic among listeners. Watching Calls, it's easy to understand how. 'Watching' isn't exactly the right term for this mystery series, though. Like all those folks glued to their radios 83 years ago, Calls' audience is forced to listen intently. Indeed, in terms of visuals, the series only provides two types: words transcribing the conversations heard, and abstract visuals that move and shift with each sentence uttered and every suspenseful pause left lingering. Accordingly, focusing on the snippets of phone chats that tell the program's stories is what Calls is all about. Remaking the French show of the same name, and directed by Evil Dead and Don't Breathe's Fede Álvarez, something much more than a small-screen version of a story-fuelled podcast eventuates. A starry cast voices the chats — including everyone from Parks and Recreation duo Aubrey Plaza and Ben Schwartz to Wonder Woman 1984's Pedro Pascal and The Lodge's Riley Keough — but it's the tension and power of their words that leaves an impression. Each of the nine episodes tells a short story that eventually builds an overall picture, and getting caught up in them all is far easier than the underlying concept might initially make you think. Calls is available to stream via Apple TV+. MADE FOR LOVE When author Alissa Nutting penned Made for Love, no one needed to think too hard about her source of inspiration. Now bringing its tale to the small screen courtesy of the series of the same name, her story ponders one of the possible next steps in our technology-saturated lives. Hazel Green-Gogol (Cristin Milioti, Palm Springs) seems to live a lavishly and happily with her tech billionaire husband Byron (Billy Magnussen, Aladdin). They haven't left his company's desert campus in the entire ten years they've been married, in fact. The site is designed to cater for their every desire and whim, so they shouldn't need to go anywhere else — or that's how Byron views things, at least. Then his next big idea looks set to become a reality, and Hazel decides that she can't keep up the charade. She certainly doesn't want to be implanted with a chip that'll allow Byron to see through her eyes, access her feelings and always know where she is, and she's willing to take drastic actions to escape his hold over her life. Bringing the plot to the screen herself, Nutting favours a darkly comedic and sharply satirical vibe as she follows Hazel's quest for freedom, with Made for Love filled with blisteringly accurate insights into the tech-dependence that's become a regular part of 21st century existence. That said, the series wouldn't be the gem it is without Milioti, as well as Ray Romano (The Irishman) in a scene-stealing supporting part as Hazel's father. Made for Love is available to stream via Stan. LOS ESPOOKYS It has taken almost two years for the delight that is Los Espookys to reach Australian screens — and it'll take you less than three hours to binge its six-episode first season. This HBO comedy is both worth the wait and worth devouring as quickly as possible, though. The setup: horror aficionado Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco, Museo) wants to turn his obsession into his profession, so he starts staging eerie scenarios for paying customers, enlisting his best friend Andrés (Julio Torres, Shrill), pal Úrsula (Cassandra Ciangherotti, Ready to Mingle) and the latter's sister Tati (Ana Fabrega, At Home with Amy Sedaris) to help. Torres and Fabrega co-created the show with Portlandia and Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen, who also pops up as Renaldo's parking valet uncle. This mostly Spanish-language series only uses its biggest name sparingly, however, because its key cast members own every moment. Following the titular group's exploits as they attempt to ply their trade, and to weave it into their otherwise chaotic lives, Los Espookys always manages to be both sidesplittingly hilarious and so meticulous in its horror references that it's almost uncanny. There's nothing on-screen quite like it and, thankfully, it has already been renewed for a second season. Los Espookys is available to stream via Binge. RUTHERFORD FALLS He co-wrote and produced The Office. He did the same on Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which he co-created as well. And, he gave the world The Good Place — which makes Michael Schur one of the best in the business when it comes to kind-hearted, smart and savvy small-screen laughs. His new show, Rutherford Falls, continues the streak. Co-created with star Ed Helms and showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas (Superstore), it also boasts his usual charm and intelligence and, as with all of the above programs, it's exceptionally well-cast. Plus, it's immensely easy to binge in just one sitting, because each one of its ten first-season episodes leave you wanting more. The setup: in the place that gives the sitcom its name, Nathan Rutherford (Helms, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun) runs the local history museum. One of his descendants founded the town, and he couldn't be more proud of that fact. He's also very protective of the towering statue of said ancestor, even though it sits in the middle of a road and causes accidents. So, when the mayor (Dana L.Wilson, Perry Mason) decides to move the traffic hazard, Nathan and his overzealous intern Bobbie (Jesse Leigh, Heathers) spring into action. Nathan's best friend Reagan Wells (Jana Schmieding, Blast) helps; however, the Minishonka Nation woman begins to realise just how her pal's family have shaped the fate of her Native American community. Also featuring a scene-stealing Michael Greyeyes (I Know This Much Is True) as the enterprising head of the Minishonka Nation casino, Rutherford Falls pairs witty laughs with warmth and sincerity, especially when it comes to exploring the treatment of First Nations peoples in America today. Rutherford Falls is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. THE SERPENT One day, Tahar Rahim will likely win an Oscar. He's that phenomenal an actor, as he has shown in everything from A Prophet, The Past and Daguerreotype to The Eddy and The Mauritanian. In The Serpent, however, he's never been more unsettling — but given that he's playing Charles Sobhraj, that comes with the territory. If the real-life French serial killer's name doesn't ring a bell, then this eight-part series will make sure you'll never forget it. The instantly riveting drama tells a grim true tale, and an unnerving one. With his girlfriend Marie-Andrée Leclerc (Jenna Coleman, The Cry) and accomplice Ajay Chowdhury (TV first-timer Amesh Edireweera), Sobhraj targeted young travellers in Bangkok and south Asia in the 70s — usually luring them in with a scam first, or trying to flat-out steal their money, then drugging them, killing them and stealing their passports. Ripper Street writers Richard Warlow and Toby Finlay intertwine Sobhraj, Leclerc and Chowdhury's murderous exploits with the efforts of Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg (Billy Howle, Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker) to find two missing tourists. After being tipped off about two bodies by a loud-mouthed Australian in Thailand (Damon Herriman, Judy & Punch), Knippenberg begins to piece together the broader story. It's easy to feel just as he does while watching The Serpent, actually, because getting swept up in its distressing details is simply inevitable. The Serpent is available to stream via Netflix. Looking for more viewing highlights? Check out our list of film and TV streaming recommendations, which is updated monthly.
Tropical North Queensland is so rich in natural beauty that it's easy to forget that the region also boasts an impressive art scene. Local and international artists flock to the tropics, finding inspiration in the stunning scenery throughout the area. From local theatres and art galleries, to beachside markets and concert venues, there are plenty of ways to get your culture fix while in the tropics.
Every last trilby-wearing tween celebrity, former President's daughter and your smug, smug US-based friends will be rubbing their paws together after this afternoon's Coachella festival lineup announcement. Running over two weekends from April 12–21, the Californian festival has delivered their usual jaw-dropper of a lineup — including Australia's own Tame Impala headlining both Saturdays. Kevin Parker and his touring bandmates have big-name company, of course. Childish Gambino hasn't rescheduled his cancelled 2018 Australian dates yet, but he will be leading the charge on Coachella's two Fridays sessions. As for the Sunday shows, Ariana Grande doing the honours. Elsewhere, a bonafide metric fucktonne of squealworthy acts fill out the rest of the bill — Janelle Monae, Solange, Weezer, Aphex Twin, Khalid, Diplo, CHVRCHES, Jaden Smith, Idris Elba and Aussies Rüfüs Du Sol, to name a few. Anyway, let's be honest, you haven't truly read any of those words — you'll be wanting this: Coachella runs over two weekends, from April 12-14 and 19-21 in Indio, California. Tickets go on sale at 11am PST on Friday, January 4. For more info, visit coachella.com.
Having recently returned from a spot of European travel-on-a-shoestring, I think I can hyperbolically decree that the Sleepbox may well be one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Sleepbox, designed by the Arch Group, does essentially what it says on the tin: it's a pod wide enough for a bed and a drop-down desk. This means that the days of sleeping on rows of metal chairs while clutching your belongings for dear life or sitting slumped over coffee-flavoured hot water in an airport food court may well be behind us. The first Sleepbox has recently been installed in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, and can be rented out from half an hour to many hours. Kitted out with an LED reading light, WiFi and electrical outlets for you to charge your phone or get your ironing done or whatever it is you need to do, the pods also come with a mechanism which automatically changes the linen once each guest checks out. Which means there is less chance you will have to come into close contact with the bodily odours of others before you have to sit wedged beside them for fourteen hours in a flying tin can. Arch Group is proposing Sleepbox as a contemporary staple of urban life, with plans to set them up in other airports, railway stations. large shopping spaces, and even on the streets in warm climates. Genius. https://youtube.com/watch?v=3qxnqy37KPc [Via PSFK]
Among the many thoughts that Only Murders in the Building has caused viewers to ponder across 2021's season one, 2022's season two and 2023's season three, the misfortune that comes with living in its eponymous spot is right up there. Exactly why is in the show's name, too. Each season, a new murder has taken place in the Arconia, the New York apartment complex that its main sleuthing trio call home. Here's another takeaway from this hit mystery-comedy series so far: famous faces are rarely far from its halls. Only Murders in the Building stars Selena Gomez (The Dead Don't Die), Steve Martin (It's Complicated) and Martin Short (Schmigadoon!) as neighbours and podcasters Mabel Mora, Charles-Haden Savage and Oliver Putnam, and has enlisted a heap of other well-known talents. Sometimes they play themselves, as Sting (The Book of Solutions) and Amy Schumer (IF) have. Sometimes the show gets Meryl Streep (Don't Look Up), Paul Rudd (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), Tina Fey (Mean Girls) and more into character. In season four, which starts streaming via Disney+ Down Under from Tuesday, August 27, 2024, all of the above notes still prove true. There's another murder to investigate. There's more big-name cast members as well. Some of the latter appear as versions of themselves, while some play fictional parts. Being aware that there has again been a killing in the Arconia doesn't mean knowing what's in store in the show's return, though. Indeed, something different is afoot this time around, taking Only Murders in the Building to Hollywood. But as the just-dropped full trailer for the new season demonstrates, no one is completely saying goodbye to the series' main setting. Also, Los Angeles isn't the only fresh surroundings that beckon for Mabel, Charles and Oliver. The crew's latest investigation and the cinema business both beckon in Tinseltown. A studio wants to turn their podcast — which is also called Only Murders in the Building — into a film. Cue the arrival of Molly Shannon (The Other Two), Eugene Levy (Schitt's Creek), Eva Longoria (Tell It Like a Woman) and Zach Galifianakis (The Beanie Bubble), with season four's new cast members also including Melissa McCarthy (Unfrosted), Kumail Nanjiani (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) and Richard Kind (Girls5eva). Alongside Short, Gomez and Martin, fellow long-running Only Murders in the Building regulars Michael Cyril Creighton (American Fiction), Da'Vine Joy Randolph (a newly minted Oscar-winner for The Holdovers) and Jane Lynch (Velma) are also back. Check out the full trailer for Only Murders in the Building season four below: Only Murders in the Building streams Down Under via Star on Disney+, and will return for season four on Tuesday, August 27, 2024. Read our reviews of season one, season two and season three.
Blending the work of a modern-day superstar and some of Japan's most renowned historical artists, Japan Supernatural is the Art Gallery of New South Wales' latest blockbuster exhibition. The exhibition features 180 works drawn from collections around the world — an eclectic mix of paintings, traditional woodblock prints, animation work and sculptures — which each delve into the Japanese folktales that continue to influence pop-culture today. The exhibition's headline act is contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, a dazzling spectacle of an artist that shines almost as bright as his massive works of art. Famous for his paintings and sculptures that incorporate motifs from both traditional and popular Japanese culture, at Japan Supernatural, Murakami debuts an enormous ten-metre-wide mural that depicts folk stories, anime characters and a litter of other cultural references. Running until March 8, 2020, the exhibition features work by other modern-day legends, such as the late manga artist Mizuki Shigeru and contemporary artist Taro Yamamoto. Meanwhile, there are also works by seminal artists from a bygone age, including Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Kawanabe Kyosai. Presented as part of the 2019–20 Sydney International Art Series, Japan Supernatural also includes an array of public events. Just some of the special happenings on offer include a rare lecture by Murakami, a retrospective of global horror cinema, a festival showcasing beloved Studio Ghibli films and a Japanese summer art school. With so many ways to explore the AGNSW's newest exhibition, don't miss your chance to discover the stories and magical creatures behind Japan Supernatural. [caption id="attachment_749854" align="alignnone" width="1920"] An installation view of the exhibition Japan Supernatural at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photo: AGNSW/Jenni Carter.[/caption] TAKASHI MURAKAMI: JAPAN SUPERNATURAL The full title of Murakami's mural, Japan Supernatural: Vertiginous After Staring at the Empty World Too Intensely, I Found Myself Trapped in the Realm of Lurking Ghosts and Monsters, is quite the mouthful. But you'll likely find your mouth agape once you set your eyes upon this huge undertaking. Stretching ten-metres wide and three high, the colourful mural features an arrangement of various images drawn from ukiyo-e prints, which were reproduced by Murakami's 350 employees back at his bustling studio in Tokyo. Made from 502 silkscreens, Japan Supernatural is the largest single work to enter the gallery's international collection, which depicts demons from Japanese folklore battling it out with samurai beneath the spirit of a massive cat. KENTARO YOSHIDA: NIGHT PROCESSION OF THE HUNDRED DEMONS The first work you'll encounter as you arrive at Japan Supernatural is that of Sydney-based artist and illustrator, Kentaro Yoshida. Born in a small fishing village in Japan, Yoshida heard many of Japan's popular folk stories as a child, learning about a world of ghosts, spirits and demons. His mural takes inspiration from these tales, specifically the centuries-old legend Night procession of the hundred demons (Hyakki Yagyō). It was created in four sections and positioned at the gallery's entrance court — if you download the Artivive app (via Apple or Google Play), you can experience the stunning creation with an augmented reality twist. [caption id="attachment_749467" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Mitsukuni defies the skeleton spectre conjured up by Princess Takiyasha' 1845–46 by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, British Museum, donated by American Friends of the British Museum fromthe collection of Prof Arthur R Miller. Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum[/caption] UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI: MITSUKUNI DEFIES THE SKELETON SPECTRE CONJURED UP BY PRINCESS TAKIYASHA Considered one of the last masters of ukiyo-e printing and painting, Utagawa Kuniyoshi was also known for being incredibly prolific. Throughout his expansive career during the 19th-century, Kuniyoshi created some of the style's most popular prints featuring everything from warriors and ghosts to satire and erotica. Loaned from the British Museum, one of Kuniyoshi's celebrated works, Mitsukuni defies the skeleton spectre conjured up by Princess Takiyasha, is a striking triptych woodblock print telling a well-known tale about revenge. Kuniyoshi's art fell from relevance for many years until it was rediscovered in the 1920s, with his work going on to become some of the best known from the Edo period. TSUKIOKA YOSHITOSHI: NEW FORMS OF THIRTY-SIX GHOSTS Published between 1889 and 1892, New forms of thirty-six ghosts is perhaps Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's most acclaimed series. Highlighting numerous characters from ancient Japanese and Chinese folktales, it was also the final major woodblock collection he would ever produce. Having lived through many years of Japanese societal uncertainty, Yoshitoshi's work often focused on violence and conflict. But later in his career, his prints became much more reflective, capturing some of his own personal struggles. With this series drawn from the AGNSW's own collection of Japanese art, Yoshitoshi is often credited as the godfather of contemporary manga and anime. UTAGAWA YOSHITSUYA: SHUTEN-DOJI AT OEYAMA Utagawa Kuniyoshi was responsible for tutoring many of Japan's greatest woodblock artists, but few were as special as Utagawa Yoshitsuya. Emerging in the late Edo period, the political instability of the time led to artists being banned from illustrating performers in their work. Instead, Kuniyoshi focused on creating images of powerful warriors, as well as tattoo designs that he became famous for during the 1840s and 50s. This colour print highlights a well-known story where the popular hero Minamoto Yorimitsu slays the ogre Shuten-doji in his mountain lair at Oeyama, a part of modern-day Kyoto. Japan Supernatural is on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until March 8, 2020. Head to the website to grab your tickets. Top images: An installation view of the exhibition Japan Supernatural at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photo: AGNSW/Jenni Carter.
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. IN THE HEIGHTS Lin-Manuel Miranda isn't the first lyricist to pen tunes so catchy that they get stuck in your head for years (yes, years), but his rhythmic tracks and thoughtful lines always stand out. Miranda's songs are melodic and snappy, as anyone who has seen Hamilton onstage or via streaming definitely knows. The multi-talented songwriter's lyrics also pinball around your brain because they resonate with such feeling — and because they're usually about something substantial. The musical that made his name before his date with US history, In the Heights echoes with affection for its eponymous Latinx New York neighbourhood. Now that it's reverberating through cinemas, its sentiments about community, culture, facing change and fighting prejudice all seem stronger, too. To watch the film's characters sing about their daily lives and deepest dreams in Washington Heights is to understand what it's like to feel as if you truly belong in your patch of the city, to navigate your everyday routine with high hopes shining in your heart, and to weather every blow that tries to take that turf and those wishes away. That's what great show tunes do, whisking the audience off on both a narrative and an emotional journey. Miranda sets his words to hip hop beats, but make no mistake: he writes barnstorming songs that are just as rousing and moving, and that've earned their place among the very best stage and screen ditties as a result. Watching In the Heights, it's hard not to think about all those stirring tracks that've graced previous musicals. That isn't a sign of derivation here, though. Directing with dazzling flair and a joyous mood, Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker Jon M Chu nods to cinema's lengthy love affair with musicals in all the right ways. His song-and-dance numbers are clearly influenced by fellow filmic fare, and yet they recall their predecessors only because they slide in so seamlessly alongside them. Take his staging of the tune '96000', for instance. It's about winning the lottery, after word filters around that bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos, a Hamilton alum) has sold a lucky ticket. Due to the sweltering summer heat, the whole neighbourhood is at the public pool, which is where Chu captures a colourful sea of performers expressing their feelings through exuberantly shot, staged and choreographed music and movement — and it's as touching and glorious as anything that's ever graced celluloid. Of course, $96,000 won't set anyone up for life, but it'd make an enormous difference to Usnavi, In the Heights' protagonist and narrator. It'd also help absolutely everyone he loves. As he explains long before anyone even hears about the winning ticket, or buys it, every Heights local has their own sueñitos — little dreams they're chasing, such as his determination to relocate to the Dominican Republic. And that's what this intoxicating, invigorating, impassioned and infectious captures with vibrant aplomb. Read our full review. TALL POPPY — A SKATER'S STORY When skateboarding makes its debut as an Olympic sport in Tokyo this winter, it'll do so with Poppy Starr Olsen flying the flag for Australia. A world champion since her teens, she first hit the Bondi Skate Park at the age of eight, and proclaimed at the time that she'd like to spend her adult life carving, ollieing, flipping and grinding — one of those childhood wishes that, in this case, has proven more than just a kid's outlandish fantasy. Audiences know about this youthful exclamation because it was caught on camera. Yes, Tall Poppy — A Skater's Story belongs in the camp of documentaries that are inescapably blessed by the constant lens through which many of our lives have been captured since video cameras became a household gadget and then a standard mobile phone feature. Accordingly, making her first feature-length doco, filmmaker Justine Moyle has ample material to draw upon as she weaves together a portrait of Olsen's life from pint-sized bowl-rider to Australia's best female skater, the fourth best woman on a board in the world and an Olympian, all by the age of 21. This isn't just a film compiled from home videos, though, although the feature. In front of Dane Howell's (Without a Tracey) lens as she has grown up, Olsen is candid, open and relaxed as she literally comes of age before the camera, and her skateboarding skills are just as riveting to watch. You can tell much about Olsen by just seeing her in the bowl or on the park, no matter her age, wherever she happens to be at the time, or if she's competing, practicing or just skating for fun. It hardly comes as a surprise that she takes to the pastime because it feels so freeing; as she rolls up and down in Bondi after first giving skateboarding a try, she may as well be flying. Tall Poppy — A Skater's Story captures the rollercoaster ride from there, as she's eager and enthusiastic at both local and international competitions, visibly nervous at her first X Games, and also a little disillusioned once she's put on an Olympic path. She's a teenager, in other words, and her emotional ups and downs mirror those on the board. This is a film about resilience, perseverance and taking on the world on your own terms, however, as Olsen works out who she wants to be and how that ripples through in her skateboarding. She's already a role model, whether or not you want to follow in her footsteps. Here, she's doubly so for her personal ebbs and flows, including through COVID-19, as much as her professional achievements. Tall Poppy — A Skater's Story is an affectionate movie, of course. Its release is also impeccably timed, it's as deservedly loving towards female skaters as the fictional Skate Kitchen and its TV spinoff Betty, and it shows the beauty in every commonplace and exceptional skateboarding trick. But Olsen's presence, passion and prowess drive this rousing documentary above all else. THREE SUMMERS Not to be confused with the 2017 Ben Elton-directed Australian rom-com of the same name, Brazilian drama Three Summers takes its title literally: in writer/director Sandra Kogut's (Campo Grande) film, the action takes place across a trio of consecutive Decembers. In the first chapter, set in 2015, the lively Madá (Regina Casé, The Second Mother) flits around the opulent condominium that she oversees on behalf of the wealthy Edgar (Otávio Müller, Silence of the Rain) and his wife Marta (Gisele Fróes, Edge of Desire) — a space that's soon a hive of activity due to the family's Christmas party. She keeps her staff bustling as her employers, their relatives and their friends relax, all so that she can work towards her own dream of opening a roadside kiosk. For the latter, she needs Edgar, who agrees to buy her the land she needs. He's also more interested than anyone should be in her out-of-date pre-paid mobile phone, which ties into the changed state of play come summer 2016. By then, the family has fallen from grace. Only Edgar's elderly and kindly father Lira (Rogério Fróes, Magnífica 70) remains alongside Madá, her staff, and the police who show up to search the house in the wake of a corruption scandal. Next, in 2017, the housekeeper has adapted to the new normality, teaming up with Lira to rent out the condo on Airbnb. Largely confining the action to her chosen setting, Kogut hasn't quite made a savage eat the rich-style indictment of Brazil's class disparities — but she does have a probing eye for what the country's chasms between the haves and the have nots means for the latter. Madá goes from being reminded that she couldn't pay for the condo's decor in a lifetime to hustling to turn the space to her advantage; in a world where everyone is either striving to make more money or just enough, trying to make the most of every opportunity is as much the domain of the working class as the well-to-do. For those just attempting to get by, it's a necessity, though. For their bosses, it's all about greed, power and status. Three Summers saves its sympathies for Madá and her colleagues, and never for Edgar and his family, although it doesn't always have the bite the story, subject matter and real-life situations it parallels call for. Still, this is an involving character study of a woman continually placed at the mercy of others, and just as constantly battling to retain what control she can over her own destiny. And, as she was in The Second Mother, Casé is superb, this time playing a talkative, determined but haunted everywoman who is always trying to make the best of whatever she's saddled with. THE HITMAN'S WIFE'S BODYGUARD Someone involved with The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard must really love paperwork; that's the only reason anyone could've given its script the go-ahead. Perhaps Australian filmmaker Patrick Hughes, who also directed 2017's The Hitman's Bodyguard, likes nothing more than keeping his documents in order. Maybe returning screenwriter Tom O'Connor (The Courier) falls into that category, or his debuting co-scribes Phillip and Brandon Murphy — they all made the subject the focus of their screenplay, after all. Whoever fits the bill, their attempt to force audiences to care about bodyguard licensing falls flat. So does the misguided idea that the certification someone might need to unleash their inner Kevin Costner would ever fuel an entire movie. Instead, what was already a needless sequel to a terrible action-comedy becomes even more of a dull and pointless slog, with this by-the-numbers follow-up showing zero signs that anyone spent more than a few seconds contemplating the story. A significant plot point here: that Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds, The Croods: A New Age) has lost his official tick of approval. He's no longer triple A-rated after a mishap in the line of duty, and he isn't coping well. To be fair, no one watching The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard will handle that news swimmingly either, but only because they're made to hear about it over and over, all as Bryce rekindles his begrudging association with assassin Darius Kincaid (Samuel L Jackson, Spiral: From the Book of Saw) and the latter's con artist wife Sonia (Salma Hayek, Bliss). When Darius gets snatched up by nefarious folks during his belated honeymoon with Sonia, only Bryce can help — or so says the angry Mrs Kincaid. She interrupts the latter's vacation with swearing, shouting and shootouts, because that's the kind of feisty Mexican wife that Hayek plays. From there, Reynolds primarily complains, Hayek sticks with stereotypes and Jackson attempts to exude his usual brand of couldn't-care-less cool; however, even more than in Spiral: From the Book of Saw, he's on autopilot. As also seen in Jackson's last big-screen appearance, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard insists on reminding its audience about its stars' better movies. You don't cast both Hayek and Antonio Banderas (who plays a European tycoon plotting the world's demise) if you don't want to bring Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico to mind (and Frida and even Spy Kids 3, too). Thinking about the pair's shared past highlights is far more enjoyable than enduring their current collaboration, unsurprisingly. Making fun of accents is considered the height of comedy here, women can only be hot-headed nags and manchild daddy issues get almost as much love as paperwork. The jokes aren't just scattershot; they're non-existent. The messy, incoherent and over-edited action scenes fare just as badly. None of the above is likely to save us from a third movie, though, which'll probably be called The Hitman's Wife's Baby's Bodyguard's Lost Birth Certificate. BUCKLEY'S CHANCE When a film saddles Bill Nighy with an Aussie twang and has him threaten to throw someone into a billabong, it isn't a great sign. When the same movie makes a big deal about a kangaroo less than three minutes in and stresses the dangers of dingoes just as quickly, it's clear that it has only been made with overseas viewers in mind. The dingoes don't eat anyone's babies, but it must've taken quite the self-restraint on Canadian writer/ director Tim Brown (Treasure Hounds) and screenwriter Willem Wennekers' (From the Vine) parts to leave that plot development out. They definitely haven't held back on the hackneyed and banal inclusions otherwise, though. The pair seems to have seen the Crocodile Dundee movies, The Simpsons' much-mocked Australian episode and the Red Dog films, then decided that they had all the tools they needed to make a outback adventure-thriller in the mould of Wake in Fright, Razorback and every other flick about overseas arrivals confronting the Great Southern Land's vast expanse — but in family-friendly packaging. From that dubious starting point, Brown and Wennekers are only interested in trading in Aussie cliches. In other words, they're only making a Down Under-set flick for audiences anywhere but here. That's why Nighy is stuck struggling with an unconvincing accent and roaming around in the dust: he's a recognisable, big-name star known the world over who'll help entice eyeballs, and he's also an outsider who wouldn't instantly grimace at every overdone stereotype. Here, the title has it — because there really is Buckley's chance that local viewers, even children, will find much to enjoy. Relocating to the titular property with his recently widowed mother Gloria (Victoria Hill, The Secrets We Keep), 13-year-old New Yorker Ridley (feature first-timer Milan Burch) doesn't think he'll discover much to his liking either. He certainly doesn't warm to his grandfather Spencer (Nighy, Minamata), even before he's forced to accompany the no-nonsense station owner on an overnight wander through the surrounding outback. That camping trip does see the boy save and befriend a dingo, at least. And, when he's later lost in the desert after spying a couple of dimwitted locals (Top of the Lake's Ben Wood and Packed to the Rafters' Anthony Gooley) trying to burn down his grandpa's property over a land feud — and then hides in the back of their ute, gets caught and is forced to escape their bumbling clutches — said canine becomes Ridley's trusty offsider. Every turn that Buckley's Chance takes steers it into been-there, done-that territory. Every film this stale retread resembles did it better, too, including last year's crims-and-kids comedy A Sunburnt Christmas. The one shining light, in a movie with few high points and largely monotonous performances: Kelton Pell (The Heights). Playing Spencer's righthand man, he's the only actor who plays anything approximating an engaging character, even in his brief screentime. RHAPSODY OF LOVE Her best friend Ben (Benjamin Hanly, Janet King) is getting married, she's the best man, and she's running late — so much so that she's doing her hair and makeup while chatting on the phone with her sister Jade (Joy Hopwood, also the film's writer and director). She also finishes getting dressed in the car to the ceremony, too, while asking her driver to get her there as speedily as possible. That's how Rhapsody of Love introduces Sydneysider Jess Flowers (Kathy Luu, The Script of Life), in one of those pure rom-com scenes that aims to make all the chaos seem charming and whimsical rather than disorganised and messy. Indulging in romantic comedy tropes is this film's glue, and it pastes those well-worn cliches around everywhere it can. At the wedding, the stereotypically bubbly Jess meets photographer Justin (Damien Sato, At First Hello), and of course sparks fly over awkward then flirty banter. The PR whiz also finds a new friend and client in baker Victoria (Lily Stewart, Ascendant), who has whipped up the cake for Ben and his bride Natasha (Jessica Niven, Dirt Music), and is also instantly attracted to waiter Hugh (Tom Jackson, Bloom). Unbeknownst to Jess, though, Victoria happens to be Justin's long-term girlfriend — resulting in several waves of personal and professional pandemonium. In a tongue-in-cheek scene partway through the film, the Flowers sisters try to pick a rom-com to watch one evening. They're both fans, obviously. Among the DVDs scattered across Jade's floor: the wholly fictional Sleepless in Sydney and Crazy Middle Class Asians. Even from just their monikers, those two faux flicks say plenty about Rhapsody of Love — that's exactly how it pitches itself, after all, and with more enthusiasm than the over-the-top zeal oozing from Luu's performance. Adding an Asian Australian focus to the nation's small and hardly diverse collection of romantic comedies is a welcome and important feat. Leaning on all the genre's hallmarks, especially when sporting a tone that oscillates between winking and earnest, tempers the film's impact, though. Even when a formulaic new entry in an overpopulated genre splashes much-needed diversity across the screen, coats on its eagerness just as thick and is visibly warm to look at, there's no escaping the by-the-numbers air. Rhapsody of Love's wooden performances don't do it any favours, either, and neither does the rote dialogue, or the predictable complications that blight not only Jess and Justin's path to true love, but Ben and Natasha's, Victoria and Hugh's, and Jade and her new trainer Phil's (Khan Chittenden, Book Week) as well. 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; March 4, March 11, March 18 and March 25; and April 1, April 8, April 15, April 22 and April 29; May 6, May 13, May 20 and May 27; and June 3, June 10 and June 17. 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, The Painter and the Thief, Nobody, The Father, Willy's Wonderland, Collective, Voyagers, Gunda, Supernova, The Dissident, The United States vs Billie Holiday, First Cow, Wrath of Man, Locked Down, The Perfect Candidate, Those Who Wish Me Dead, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Ema, A Quiet Place Part II, Cruella, My Name Is Gulpilil, Lapsis, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Fast and Furious 9 and Valerie Taylor: Playing with Sharks.
If it's a big blockbuster franchise, it stars Harrison Ford, and it debuted in the 70s or 80s, then it's always coming back to the screen. In 2008, before Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens and its sequels, as well as Blade Runner 2049, that actually first proved true for the Indiana Jones series. Alas, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wasn't the adventure saga's best effort, but that isn't stopping it from coming back for another go. Cue the fifth Indy flick, aka Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — and yes, Ford is donning the famous hat once more. Hitting cinemas in late June 2023, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny heads back to the 60s, and uses the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union as a backdrop. And, it serves up two different looks at Ford, as the just-dropped first trailer shows: Indy in the film's present day and Indy in the past, with the movie using digital de-aging technology. Harrison Ford? Check. Dr Henry Walton 'Indiana' Jones Jr's famous headwear? Check again. That whip? Yep, check. A tale that includes Nazis? Just keep checking those boxes. And yes, the famous John Williams-composed theme tune gets a whirl in the first sneak peek, because it wouldn't be an Indy movie otherwise. Indeed, the icon takes care of the whole score again. The archaeologist's latest outing will bring in a few changes to the series, however. Firstly, Steven Spielberg isn't in the director's chair for the first time ever, handing over the reins to Logan and Ford v Ferrari's James Mangold. And, George Lucas doesn't have a part in the script, either with Mangold co-scripting with Ford v Ferrari's Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth. Cast-wise, expect the return of John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, as well as a heap of new faces. Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge looks set to keep Indy in step, playing his goddaughter, while Antonio Banderas (Official Competition), Mads Mikkelsen (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore), Thomas Kretschmann (Das Boot), Toby Jones (The English), Boyd Holbrook (The Sandman) also feature — alongside Shaunette Renee Wilson (Black Panther), Oliver Richters (The King's Man) and Ethann Isidore (Mortel) . When it crusades across the big screen, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will arrive a whopping 42 years after Raiders of the Lost Ark, 39 since Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and 34 since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Check out the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny below: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny releases in cinemas Down Under on June 29, 2023. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
When Disney revealed that it was moving into streaming, it also announced a slew of high-profile titles designed to keep everyone's eyes glued to the company's new platform. Naturally, that included Marvel, with a number of new Disney+ series commissioned to broaden out the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you loved Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Vision (Paul Bettany) and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) on the big screen, you'll now get to enjoy more of each in a variety of spinoff shows. So far, in typical Mouse House style, details have been kept close to Disney's chest. We know that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision are due to release later in 2020, with Loki set to follow in 2021. Thanks to their titles, we obviously also know who they're about. And, we know that they'll all star the familiar faces that brought the characters to big-screen fame — and that they'll each run for six episodes apiece. Broadly, we know the premise for each series, too. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will take place after the aforementioned huge blockbuster, following its eponymous characters as they team up in the aftermath. As for WandaVision, it's a sitcom-style series exploring the home lives of Wanda and Vision, although there's undoubtedly more to it. And when Loki hits next year, it'll see the God of Mischief return — and it'll be set after Endgame. Until now, however, we haven't seen any footage from any of the three shows — but, during this year's Super Bowl, Marvel dropped its first sneak peek. The company released a combined teaser for the trio of series, so there's still not much in the way of substantial detail. That said, if you've been hanging out to see what's in store post-Avengers: Endgame, a quick glimpse is better than nothing. Check out the teaser below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=62EB4JniuTc&feature=emb_logo The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision will hit Disney+ sometime later in 2020, with Loki due to premiere in 2021 — we'll update you with release dates when they're announced.
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=2wnmC7uLTNQ THE DISSIDENT If you know even the slightest thing about the circumstances surrounding Jamal Khashoggi's death, it's impossible to watch The Dissident without feeling angry. That's most viewers' starting mood, given that the Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist's assassination has garnered ample media attention — and Oscar-winning director Brian Fogel (Icarus) is well aware of how much coverage the subject has received, and of how the world feels about the situation. Indeed, his thorough and exacting documentary both feeds upon and fuels that shock and ire. The mood is tense, the commentary is pointed and the prevailing sentiment is savage. Both rage and outrage permeate each frame, unsurprisingly so, as the film lays bare the brutal facts surrounding Khashoggi's murder, its lead-up and its aftermath. No other tone would be acceptable. Nothing other than dismay, abhorrence and anger would be either. When you're making a movie about a man who entered his nation's embassy to obtain paperwork so that he could get married, then left it in dismembered pieces while his bride-to-be waited outside, how could anything other than fury, horror and alarm eventuate? Although the details have already been well-documented since October 2, 2018, they're still reassembled in The Dissident. Accordingly, the doco tells of Khashoggi's visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul just over a year after fleeing his country, after which he was never seen alive again. He wanted to marry academic Hatice Cengiz, his Turkish fiancée. To do so, he needed a document certifying that he was no longer wed to his prior wife. He'd first sought that necessary certification from the embassy just a few days earlier, so they knew that he'd be returning — and once he stepped inside once more, he was ambushed, attacked and killed by a newly arrived team of Saudi agents. Cengiz contacted the authorities when the man she thought she'd be spending the rest of her life with didn't surface, but the Saudi government claimed that the exiled reporter had left via a back entrance. It didn't take long to ascertain the truth, as was suspected from the moment he failed to reemerge. The official story changed several times, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman denied any knowledge of a premeditated plot, but the fact remains that Khashoggi was slaughtered by operatives from his homeland. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGLmTd8q3Ec&t=7s THE UNITED STATES VS BILLIE HOLIDAY More than 80 years after it was first sung and heard, Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' still isn't easily forgotten. Drawn from a poem penned to protest lynchings, it's meant to shock and haunt. It's designed to galvanise and mobilise, too, as drawing attention to the extrajudicial killings of Black Americans should. Indeed, so vivid is the song in its language — "Black bodies swingin' in the southern breeze" describes the third line — US authorities demanded that Holiday stop performing it. She refused repeatedly, so there were repercussions. Concerned that the track would spark change, inspire Holiday's fans to fight for civil rights and justice, and perhaps motivate riots against against oppression and discrimination as well, the US Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics went after the musician for her drug use. If it couldn't get her to cease crooning the controversial tune via other means, such as overt warnings and a prominent police presence at her shows, it'd do whatever it could to keep her from reaching the stage night after night. With Andra Day (Marshall) turning in an intense, impassioned, career-defining portrayal as its eponymous figure (and in her first lead film role, too), so tells The United States vs Billie Holiday, the latest Oscar-nominated biopic to step through its namesake's life. Back in 1972, Lady Sings the Blues loosely adapted Holiday's autobiography of the same name, enlisting Diana Ross to play the singer — but, in taking inspiration instead from Johann Hari's non-fiction book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, this latest big-screen vision of the music icon's story adopts its own angle. Holiday's troubled childhood and youth has its part in this tale, which is scripted for the screen by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. Her addiction, and the personal woes that she tried to blot out, clearly don't escape filmmaker Lee Daniels' (The Butler) attention, either. But The United States vs Billie Holiday also falls in alongside Seberg, MLK/FBI and Judas and the Black Messiah in interrogating bleak truths about mid-20th century America. In a film that manages to be both rousing and standard, that includes surveying the misplaced priorities of its government during multiple administrations, and the blatant determination shown by an array of agencies under various presidents to undermine, persecute and silence those considered a supposedly un-American threat to the status quo. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNE7ap2lOnU MORTAL KOMBAT No one enjoys watching someone else mash buttons. While it's a passable way to spend a few minutes, losing interest quickly simply comes with the territory. That's how viewing Mortal Kombat feels as well, except that watching your friends play any of the martial arts video game franchise's 22 different arcade and console titles since 1992 (or any game at all) would be far more entertaining. Shot in South Australia and marking the feature debut of filmmaker Simon McQuoid, the latest attempt to bring the popular series to the big screen — following a first try in 1995 and a sequel in 1997 — feels like watching cosplay, too. The movie's cast literally dresses up in the outfits needed to recreate the game's characters, of course, but the film shouldn't so overtly resemble fans donning costumes at a pop culture convention. And yet, Mortal Kombat evokes this situation from the moment its 17th century Japan-set prologue, which is also its best scene, comes to an end. After establishing a mythic and bloody backstory for the movie's narrative as a whole, the character that'll become an undead ninja ghost called Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada, Westworld) and his prophecised descendants, this B-grade flick is happy to, in fact. It's not just the violence that's cartoonish here; it's every glare exchanged and word uttered, with much of the script trading in cliches, dramatic pauses and catchphrases. Mortal Kombat's gaming fanbase may be eager to see their beloved characters given flesh and blood, face off against each other and spout lines that usually emanate from a much smaller screen, but that doesn't make a movie engaging. Nor can a flimsy screenplay by first-timer Greg Russo and Wonder Woman 1984's Dave Callaham, which follows the battle between Earthrealm and Outworld — one that'll be lost by the former if an MMA fighter named Cole Young (Lewis Tan, Wu Assassins), who bears a dragon birthmark, doesn't team up with the other figures with the same marking to stop humanity from losing for the tenth time. That's where the no-nonsense Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee, Black Water: Abyss) comes in, and also the grating, wisecracking Kano (Josh Lawson, Long Story Short). The villainous Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim, Warrior) might be threatening to freeze all of earth's champions so that Outworld's Shang Tsung (Chin Han, Skyscraper) can rig the tournament before it even happens, but Mortal Kombat still has time — and far too much of it — to spend pondering supernatural destinies and letting an over-acting, always grating Lawson mug for attempted laughs. The end result is intentionally ridiculous, and presumably unintentionally dull, all while setting up an unearned sequel. And although brutal enough amidst the silliness for an R rating, even the film's fight scenes merely go through the motions, especially given the heights that films like The Raid and John Wick have scaled in with their eye-popping action choreography over the past decade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YZuNQLSJlQ EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE In The Nightingale, Sam Claflin wasn't charming, kindly or gallant. He was worlds away from his roles in rom-com Love, Rosie, weepie drama Me Before You and the page-to-screen Hunger Games franchise — and, playing a supporting but still key part in the exceptional 2019 film, he was excellent. Alas, while he remains in darker territory with Every Breath You Take, this psychological thriller isn't a highlight on his or anyone's resume. The good news: it doesn't feature the 1983 single by The Police that shares the film's title. The not-so-great news: it is indeed about someone surveilling others, so it must've taken the production's entire reserves of restraint not to include that song. Little subtlety seems to be displayed elsewhere, including by Claflin, and little intelligence, either. In development for almost a decade, once set to be directed by Misery's Rob Reiner, and also slated to star Harrison Ford and Zac Efron over the years, the film focuses on the fallout from a psychologist's decision to talk to one of his patients about his own problems. Not long after gushing to a lecture hall filled with students about his successful new technique, however, he finds himself the target of a vindictive stalker who is intent on destroying his entire family's lives. Debut screenwriter David Murray has clearly seen Fatal Attraction, Unfaithful, Cape Fear and Fear, and The Silence of the Lambs as well, and he's not afraid to mash pieces of each together here. Looking pensive, grappling with family woes again but worlds away from his Oscar-winning performance in Manchester by the Sea, Casey Affleck (The Old Man and the Gun) plays Philip, the analyst in question. He crosses paths with James (Claflin, Enola Holmes) at the scene of a tragedy, then finds him knocking on his door — and soon his wife Grace (Michelle Monaghan, The Craft: Legacy) and teenage daughter Lucy (India Eisley, Dead Reckoning) are both bumping into the newcomer seemingly everywhere they go. In an already tense household thanks to an accident years earlier, James easily upsets the status quo. When Philip starts having professional problems as well, the trio's struggles only deepen. It's hard to guess what attracted this starry cast to such a routine film, but it definitely isn't the pulpy script or Vaughn Stein's (Inheritance) overboiled direction. Indeed, in a movie that somehow thinks that being as blatant as possible will ramp up the suspense — which, unsurprisingly, it doesn't — only the icy visuals by cinematographer Michael Merriman (another Inheritance alum) garner much attention. Well, that and the screechy score by Marlon Espino (also returning from Inheritance), although the latter does so with the same obviousness that characterises almost everything about the feature. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COLOJaM3k_M SISTER More than once during Sister, An Ran (Zhang Zifeng, Detective Chinatown 3) is reminded that her status as a sibling — and as a woman — is burdened with strong expectations in China. With her much-younger brother An Ziheng (Kim Darren Yowon) earning pride of place in her parents' hearts, and in Chinese society's patriarchal hierarchy in general, she's meant to defer her dreams and desires in favour of her family's male heir. That's just what's done, and always has been. And, after the pair's mother and father are killed in a car accident, no one can quite understand why An Ran is determined to buck convention. But, after weathering a childhood coloured by her dad's disappointment about her gender, she has spent years trying to break free from her past. A nurse hoping to gain acceptance into medical school so that she can become a doctor, and so distanced from her parents and brother that she doesn't even know the latter, she doesn't just vehemently disagree with the idea that she should now devote her life to An Ziheng; she refuses to abide by it. Instead, An Ran wants to sell the family apartment, find adoptive parents for her sibling and continue working towards her own future. Neither director Yin Ruoxin (Farewell, My Lad) nor screenwriter You Xiaoying (Love Education) shies away from the harsh reality facing their protagonist in Sister, or from the fact that her plight is emblematic of the nation's women in a much broader sense. And, for most of its duration, their sensitive but clear-eyed drama firmly and unflinchingly tackles the ramifications of simply being born female in China. The continued pressure directed An Ran's way and the treatment she receives for not toeing the line aren't the film's only sources of conflict, with class differences and the way that power structures play out both domestically and professionally also playing their part in the movie's layered narrative. They're aided by Zhang's weighty performance, too — a portrayal that segues seamlessly back and forth from defiant and committed to exhausted and exasperated, and shows both the will to eschew norms and the weariness from the constant battle on multiple levels. The film's boldness is eventually undercut, though. Budding within its naturalistically lit imagery and its often roving and restless frames is an awareness that the bonds of blood will eventually pull at An Ran. The script ensures that her growing bond with her brother feels genuine; however, it's also a far more sentimental turn of events than Sister indulges otherwise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SodO2VN0iYY SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT Eddie Izzard takes inspiration from her home town of Bexhill-on-Sea in Six Minutes to Midnight, using its pre-World War II history as the basis for an intriguing but also muddled thriller. Before the conflict broke out, the coastal spot was home to the Augusta Victoria College, where the daughters of high-ranking Germans were sent to finish their education. In Izzard's hands as the film's star, executive producer and co-writer — the latter with Celyn Jones (The Vanishing) and director Andy Goddard (A Kind of Murder) — this real-life scenario gives rise to espionage antics. She plays Thomas Miller, the school's new teacher, and also a spy sent to keep tabs on the students' whereabouts for British intelligence. Headmistress Miss Rocholl (Judi Dench, Blithe Spirit) dotes on the girls, and naively sees only camaraderie in the college's existence, but Miller and his superiors are concerned that the institution's pupils could be smuggled out in secret. It doesn't help that Ilse Keller (Carla Juri, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit), the school's only German employee, hardly seems trustworthy. The pro-Nazi ideology infused into her lessons is hardly a promising sign, but soon it's Miller that is the object of suspicion, despite his efforts to uncover just who in English society has been pledging their allegiance abroad. No one can fault Izzard's interest in Augusta Victoria College, or her eagerness to bring its little-known place in Britain's past to the screen. But Six Minutes to Midnight is so caught up in being a spy film — and one that takes its cues from Alfred Hitchcock at that — that it serves up a paper-thin story that's on the verge of blowing over in the East Sussex breeze. Twists, double crosses, wavering loyalty, murder, chases, interrogations and clandestine plots all ensue, but with few surprises, and with exactly why the students' possible return to Germany would be so catastrophic never fully fleshed out. Handsome seaside scenery does abound, though, and so does a committed performance from Izzard. She spends much of her screen-time running, as she often does in reality — completing 43 marathons in 51 days in 2009, 27 in 27 days in 2016 and 32 in 31 days earlier this year — but her wit and charisma are always evident. Saddled with a one-note role, Dench is less convincing, but supporting players Jim Broadbent (King of Thieves) and James D'Arcy (Avengers: Endgame) make the most of their small parts as a kindly bus driver and a wily detective respectively. As for the young women, the fact that they're primarily regarded as a group, rather than given the time and space to convey their personalities, speaks volumes about their function as the feature's MacGuffin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xXFm78O6P8 MOON ROCK FOR MONDAY Kurt Martin, the first-time feature writer/director behind Moon Rock for Monday, must owe much of his film education to Australian cinema of the 90s. His road-trip drama — which is also a coming-of-age tale and a crime thriller, and happens to be set in the 90s, too — takes clearcut cues from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Two Hands. Here, though, a 12-year-old girl and an older teen sit at the centre of the narrative. Thankfully, while the nods towards other prominent homegrown movies are obvious, these sources of inspiration don't cast an overbearing shadow. There isn't much about Moon Rock for Monday that proves overtly novel, but it doesn't simply trudge in other films' footsteps, either. The importance of the feature's canny casting can't be understated, with fellow debutant Ashlyn Louden-Gamble a winsome presence as the titular pre-teen and George Pullar (Playing for Keeps) infusing his wayward but well-meaning jewellery store thief-turned-fugitive with more depth than might be expected. Indeed, their rapport as their characters first evade the police on Sydney's streets, then take to the highway towards the Northern Territory, gives this warm-hearted movie enough charm to do more than simply coast by. Named for the day she was born, Monday's (Louden-Gamble) entire life has revolved around an illness that requires frequent medical treatment. But, despite the lived-in weariness and worry perennially plastered across the face of her dad Bob (Aaron Jeffrey, The Flood), she handles the situation with a sunny disposition, an eagerness to see the world and an obsession with Uluru — or Moon Rock, as she calls it. Then, this father-daughter duo stumble into Tyler's (Pullar) orbit. Soon Monday is by the latter's side, indulging her thirst for adventure and tagging along as he hightails it out of town. Bob isn't the only one desperate to find them, with Detective Lionell (David Field, Mortal Kombat) also on their trail in the aftermath of Tyler's light-fingered ways. From the outset, even before Monday and Tyler start heading west, there's an episodic feel to Moon Rock for Monday; however, flitting from one narrative incident to the next suits the road-trip premise. When nothing but landscape surrounds its central pair, that dusty red expanse does plenty of heavy lifting — a scene outside of Coober Pedy is particularly striking, both visually and emotionally — but this is still a promising big-screen start for its director and leads alike. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyopYXVJNmQ THIS LITTLE LOVE OF MINE Blatantly formulaic rom-coms are cinema's version of junk food, as Netflix has been trying to use to its advantage. Scroll through the platform's catalogue, especially around Christmas, and a wealth of straight-to-streaming movies that eagerly play up every trope and cliche await — but being easy to make and undemanding to consume isn't the same as being worth watching. This Little Love of Mine is debuting in cinemas; however, it'll feel at home when it does find its way into a streaming service's lineup. Its story is that predictable and its dialogue is that hoary. The setup: ambitious workaholic lawyer Laura (Saskia Hampele, The Heights) is certain that she'll finally make partner and be able to start doing worthwhile work helping small business owners if she convinces a building magnate's (Martin Portus, Home and Away) island-dwelling boat captain grandson Chip (Liam McIntyre, Them) to take over his billion-dollar development company. The catch: the island, Sapphire Cove, is where she grew up before she left for her high-powered, big-city life in San Francisco, and Chip is the childhood best friend she's thought of fondly over the years, but hasn't seen since she departed. Romantic comedies don't need to trade in surprises. When you're just aiming to bring two characters together so that they can presumably live happily ever after, twists aren't a necessary feature. But viewers should enjoy their time watching said central figures overcome the obligatory obstacles that come their way on the inevitable path to becoming a couple. They should get invested in their plights, be charmed by their personalities and care about their fates —and, even with the ultimate outcome remaining obvious to anyone and everyone, no one should feel as if they're just peering on as a movie works through a checklist. While Hampele and McIntyre do their best to liven up Georgia Harrison's (Rip Tide) rote script, they can't nudge This Little Love of Mine into engaging waters. The same applies to Lynn Gilmartin (How Do You Know Chris?) as Laura and Chip's fellow lifelong friend Gem, who proves the kind of dutiful sidekick-slash-trusty confidant character that could've strolled out of almost every rom-com ever made. Also unable to lift the material: the eye-catching Far North Queensland backdrop, which sets a suitably swoon-worthy scene; however, the repeated palm tree and beach shots peppered throughout the film by first-time director Christine Luby and cinematographer Simon Harding (Ruben Guthrie) begin to feel like filler quickly. 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; March 4, March 11, March 18 and March 25; and April 1 and April 8. 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, The Painter and the Thief, Nobody, The Father, Willy's Wonderland, Collective, Voyagers, Gunda and Supernova. Top image: Takashi Seida.
How does it feel to watch Timothée Chalamet play Bob Dylan belting out 'Like a Rolling Stone'? The second trailer for A Complete Unknown — a title that also stems from the same song featured in the new sneak peek — is here to help you find out. Set to hit cinemas Down Under in January 2025, the new biopic steps through the early days of the music icon's career, focusing on how Dylan became a sensation. A Complete Unknown's subject has been no stranger to the screen for decades. Martin Scorsese has made not one but two documentaries about him. I'm Not There had six actors, including Cate Blanchett (The New Boy), play him. The Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis couldn't take a fictional tour of the 60s folk scene without getting its protagonist watching him onstage. And docos about him date back to 1967's Don't Look Back and Festival. Only A Complete Unknown has Chalamet (Dune: Part Two) picking up a guitar, however, now that Dylan is getting the music biopic treatment again. With the curls and the gaze — and the early 60s-era wardrobe, too — the film's star looks the part in both the initial trailer (which dropped 59 years to the day that the 1965 Newport Folk Festival took place, where Dylan performed acoustic songs one day and went electric the next) and the just-released latest sneak peek. Chalamet also sings the part as the Wonka and Bones and All star transforms into the music icon at the start of his career, another reason for the movie's title. In a picture directed by Walk the Line helmer James Mangold — swapping Johnny Cash for another legend, clearly — A Complete Unknown charts Dylan's rise to stardom. The folk singer's early gigs, filling concert halls, going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival: they're all set to be covered, including his famous performance at the latter. "They just want me to be singing 'Blowin' in the Wind' for the rest of my goddamn life," notes Chalamet in the new look at the flick, as it digs into the impact of his fame and the expectations that it brings. As well as Chalamet as Dylan, Mangold (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) has enlisted Edward Norton (Asteroid City) as Pete Seegar, Monica Barbaro (Fubar) as Joan Baez and Scoot McNairy (Speak No Evil) as Woody Guthrie — and, because he isn't done with Cash yet, Boyd Holbrook (The Bikeriders) to step into Johnny's shoes. Elle Fanning (The Great), Dan Fogler (Eric) and Norbert Leo Butz (The Exorcist: Believer) also feature. Check out the full trailer for A Complete Unknown below: A Complete Unknown releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, January 23, 2025. Images: courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Is Black Mirror a sci-fi flight of fancy or a realistic window into the future? Does it take humanity's increasing reliance upon technology to the fictional extreme, or predict what's about to happen? Whichever train of thought you subscribe to, if you're a fan of the Charlie Brooker-created series, you've probably jumped at every possible chance to immerse yourself in the television series. First, there was the interactive Black Mirror exhibition that popped up in London. Then came a super bleak board game. Now there's a retro-style video game as well. Hot on the heels of the program's just-released choose-your-own-adventure movie, Bandersnatch, comes your chance to mash buttons while diving into Black Mirror's twisted realm. The video game is called Nohzdyve, and it's seen in the series' new flick. It's one of the hit titles created by Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), the programmer that Bandersnatch's 19-year-old protagonist Stefan (Fionn Whitehead) first idolises, then buddies up to. The two become colleagues at games development company Tuckersoft when Stefan tries to turn his own dream game into a reality. Avid Black Mirror fans will have spotted that Nohzdyve is a reference to the first episode of the show's third season, Nosedive, aka the Bryce Dallas Howard-starring tale about a world where social media controls life's ups and downs. It's also the episode that was turned into the aforementioned board game — and, clearly, it's one of the series' instalments with the most glaring real-world parallels. In Bandersnatch, the Nohzdyve video game was made in the 80s, which means that social media obviously doesn't rate a mention. Instead, the game involves falling through the sky while collecting eyeballs and avoiding buildings. If you're keen to play it, Nohzdyve can be downloaded from the Tuckersoft website; however there is a catch. It will only run on a downloadable emulator that recreates the ZX Spectrum home computer system from 1982 (aka a British equivalent to the Commodore 64). Still, if you've already worked your way through Bandersnatch's interactive story — deciding what path Stefan's tale takes, picking between branching narrative arcs, and looping back again and again to find all of the endings — you can trade one type of Black Mirror game for another.
They're taking the hobbits to Amazon — and, later this year, fans of Lord of the Rings will be able to see the end result. You should already have Friday, September 2, 2022 marked in your diary, as the premiere date for Amazon Prime Video's new LOTR show was announced last year. But if you've been wondering exactly what you'll be watching, the streaming platform has just provided a few new details. While the series has just been referred to as The Lord of the Rings since it was first announced it back in 2017 — including when it was given the official go-ahead in mid-2018 and confirmed that it wouldn't just remake Peter Jackson's movies, and also when a few other concrete details regarding what it's about were revealed, its full title is officially The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. And if you're wondering why, Amazon has dropped a title release video (yes, we now live in a world where there are trailers for announcing what a show will be called) which includes some of JRR Tolkien's most famous lines. If you're a big LOTR fan — on the page and thanks to the films — you should be familiar with Tolkien's Ring Verse, which outlines who was intended to receive the rings of power. Elven-kings, dwarf-lords, mortal men and the Dark Lord all get a mention, and you can hear the key lines in the video below: "This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to JRR Tolkien's other classics. The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men," said showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay, announcing the news. "Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring – but before there was one, there were many… and we're excited to share the epic story of them all." In a series that'll make ample use of New Zealand's scenic landscape in its first season — and so greenery abounds, naturally, as the first image from the show illustrates — The Rings of Power will spend time in Middle-earth's Second Age as Payne and McKay explained, bringing that era from the LOTR realm to the screen for the very first time. According to show's official synopsis, it'll follow "the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history," with the action set thousands of years before the novels and movies we've all read and watched. The series will also "take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien's pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness." If you're a little rusty on your LOTR lore, the Second Age lasted for 3441 years, and saw the initial rise and fall of Sauron, as well as a spate of wars over the coveted rings. Elves feature prominently, and there's plenty to cover, even if Tolkien's works didn't spend that much time on the period — largely outlining the main events in an appendix to the popular trilogy. Naturally, you can expect Sauron to feature in the new show, and to give its main figures some trouble. "Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth," the official synopsis continues. "From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone," it also advises. In terms of stars, The Rings of Power will feature an unsurprisingly large cast — and some impressive talent behind the scenes. Among the actors traversing Middle-earth are Tom Budge (Judy & Punch), Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud), Ismael Cruz Córdova (The Undoing), Joseph Mawle (Game of Thrones), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (The Accountant), Maxim Baldry (Years and Years), Peter Mullan (Westworld), Benjamin Walker (The Underground Railroad) and comedian Lenny Henry. And, the series is being overseen by showrunners and executive producers JD Payne and Patrick McKay, while filmmaker JA Bayona (A Monster Calls, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) directs the first two episodes. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will be available to stream via Amazon Prime Video from Friday, September 2, 2022.
Fifteen years ago this week, in two Los Angeles cinemas, The Room enjoyed its world premiere. Telling the tale of a banker, his adulterous fiancée, his conflicted best friend, a local teen caught up in a drug deal, a mother with cancer, a particularly awkward party, a bunch of guys playing football in tuxedos and the worst apartment decorating scheme you've ever seen, the film wasn't met with applause, acclaim or anything in the way of excitement. And yet, all this time later, it has an avid fan base, still sells out screenings around the world, and has inspired both a behind-the-scenes book and an Oscar-nominated movie. Of course, you've seen The Room, thrown spoons at it and marvelled at how Tommy Wiseau somehow managed to make a movie that's both terrible and enjoyable — but Wiseau and his co-star Greg Sestero aren't done yet. They both played a part in last year's The Disaster Artist, as based on Sestero's book of the same name, and now they're back in something completely unrelated to their big claim to fame. In Best F(r)iends, the pair return as a mortician and a drifter. Yes, you can guess which part the lank-locked Wiseau plays. Sestero's down-on-his-luck LA resident Jon is given the chance to work for Wiseau's morgue owner Harvey Lewis, but neither is being completely honest with each other. Scripted by Sestero but (thankfully) not directed by Wiseau, the black comedy is literally a film of two parts, with Best F(r)iends: Volume One currently touring the world ahead of Best F(r)iends: Volume Two later this year. With Sestero returning to Australia for Q&A screenings of the first film, we chatted to him about not only making another movie with Wiseau, but writing a part specifically for him, among other topics. These are the ten things we learned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTu9N40E_MI HE WANTED TO MAKE A MOVIE THAT SHOWCASED TOMMY WISEAU'S ACTING TALENTS "For so long, I didn't expect to work with Tommy again after The Room for many reasons. But once I decided to take him seriously, I realised that he really hasn't been utilised properly as an actor. And this is really a chance to really do him right and put him in a part that he could succeed in — while at the same time, I was really genuinely interested in working with again. I really believe that Tommy can be interesting as an actor, but he just hadn't been given the right part." HE NEVER CONSIDERED GETTING WISEAU TO DIRECT "I really wanted to see him focus on being an actor. I'd handle the producing, and put the right team together that would just be there to make a film, and we wouldn't make The Room 2. And I thought he really shines as an actor — and I thought giving him a chance to focus on that. And he really put in the work. We rehearsed a lot. You know, he memorised most of his lines. I wrote the part with him in mind, so the dialogue definitely catered to his strengths, but he put in the work and he showed up ready to do this best." BEST F[R]IENDS IS BASED ON THE TIME WISEAU THOUGHT SESTERO WANTED TO KILL HIM "I took a road trip with Tommy up the California coast back in 2003. I thought we were just going up to have a good time, but Tommy assumed that I was plotting this thing against him, and that I was going to try to kill him. I mean it was just really far out. So when he explained to me why he thought that, and what he was feeling, all these years later when I was sitting down to write this story, I explored that. And I thought 'what if I was, and how would it go down, and what would happen?'. And so it kind of gave me a jumpstart into writing this story." THE FILM ALSO INCORPORATES A VERY REAL BLACK MARKET "The other true event was that my brother is a dentist, and so he told me this very bizarre, underground business that is happening in dentistry, with human teeth. So we use all real teeth in the film. That's all kind of stuff that actually goes on." HE DIDN'T REFERENCE THE ROOM ON PURPOSE, BUT YOU'LL SPOT A FEW NODS "Any reference to The Room, to be honest with you, was accidental or worked its way in. When I wrote the script, there were no references. There was no basketball scene. We shot at a real morgue, so there are bodies that'd come in and out that would interrupt the shoot — and we decided to play basketball as a break, and that ended up being filmed and being turned into a scene. The spiral staircase that was in that office just happened to be there, you know. There wasn't any intention to reference The Room in any way, but the things that did, I feel like if they were organic and worked their way in, it was fine." HE CREDITS THE ROOM'S SUCCESS TO WISEAU "It's just something that is completely unique — because it was made by one man who had creative control, had the money to say 'this is the way we're going to do it', and just sees the world so differently. So people see it and they can't believe that it really exists, and it's just one of those things you want to share with people because it has no business succeeding or even existing. And there's just kind of this magic to it. Because there's nothing else that exists like it, it unites people in a way — they're craving something different — and it just delivers a flavour that you know you can't recreate it. It's just to the power of being original, I think, is what I've learned. Tommy hasn't tried to change himself for acceptance. He just is himself, and I think people like that." IT REALLY ISN'T EASY TO BREAK FREE FROM THE ROOM "I never thought anybody would see The Room — it was kind of something that I was backed into. But I love a challenge, and I think there is something fun and challenging about trying to rework what you're working on I think it started with The Disaster Artist book. When a lot of people thought I was going to write a book about the experience, I think they expected fan service and a quirky making-of, like 'lets look at all these wacky things that Tommy did'. But I really approached it in a way that I thought could tell a story that could become an Oscar-calibre film. At the time I think people thought that was a little far-fetched. It's definitely a challenge for any cult film, but especially with this one — where it's considered the worst movie, and people who see it throw spoons at the screen, and actually get involved in the performance or the film that you're making. You just need to be really aware of what you're trying to say to your audience. I believe your audience will follow you if you approach things properly." HE'D LIKE TO MAKE A BABADOOK-STYLE HORROR FILM NEXT "I want to make a horror film. I definitely have been influenced by The Babadook and these kind of new horror films — and I want to play on the psychological aspect of horror rather than the blood and guts, or to try to combine the two. But definitely horror is the genre that I'd love to go for." HE'S FINE WITH AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION — SO BRING TEETH "People have started showing up with bloody shirts and holding homeless signs, but I think throwing plastic gold teeth would be kind of cool. That could catch on — or maybe plastic lemons or serving lemonade? That could be pretty cool. The audiences that I've seen it with, there's definitely some interaction — but nothing being thrown yet. But I'm sure that people will come up with something." BEST F(R)IENDS: VOLUME TWO IS HIS FAVOURITE THING HE'S EVER DONE "It's completely different. It's insane. I like to think that if this film is Nightcrawler and Double Indemnity, then Volume Two is Psycho meets Breaking Bad. But it's totally different. I think Volume Two is my favourite, but I think it really compliments Volume One — and I can't wait for people to actually get to watch them back-to-back. I really hope they enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it." As well as touring Australia and New Zealand in Q&A screenings, 'Best F(r)iends: Volume One' will open at Melbourne's Cinema Nova on July 5.
Another day, another must-try food hybrid. That's the lamington vodka, Iced Vovo cruffin and lasagne pie-filled world we now live in. The latest such combo comes courtesy of two homegrown brands that likely had a hefty part in your childhood sugar highs: lolly company Allen's and soft drink purveyors Kirks. You can do the math from there — yes, Allen's is releasing a range of confectionery inspired by Kirks' classic drink flavours. The brand's Pasito, creaming soda and lemonade varieties are getting the lolly treatment, all via little bottle-shaped gummies, and all in the same pack. Kids birthday parties will never be the same again. Mark mid-August in your diary if you know what you'll be snacking on from now on — for nostalgic reasons, because Pasito and Kirk's creaming soda are still particularly delicious no matter how old you are, or just because these Frankenstein's monster-style culinary mashups always tempt your tastebuds. The lollies will hit major supermarkets and convenience stores, and retail at $3.60 for a 170-gram pack. Clearly, you already know what you need to wash them down with. Also, if you're more of a Kirks' lemon squash or ginger beer fan — or ginger ale in Queensland, or Sno Drop in South Australia — there's no sign of those tipples getting a lolly equivalent just yet. Cross your fingers, though. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kirks Originals (@kirksoriginals) Allen's new Kirks-inspired lollies will hit major supermarkets and convenience stores from mid-August, for RRP $3.60 for a 170-gram pack.
From Wednesday, July 25 to Sunday, August 4, there's one surefire way to work up an appetite — just head to South Bank's Cultural Forecourt, peruse the hawker-style array of stalls slinging all manner of food and listen to your stomach grumble. Yes, the Night Noodle Markets are back for a fifth annual round of culinary deliciousness, all as part of this year's Good Food Month. Yes, they're guaranteed to make you hungry. In 2019, there will be 25 stalls to choose from, plus heaps of pop-up bars and the kind of bustling vibe that comes with a massive food gathering. As for what you'll be feasting on, expect tasty treats from the likes of Chu the Phat, Hoy Pinoy, Waffleland, Puffle, Donburi Station, Bangkok Street Food, Bao Brothers, Little Kyoto, Okonomiyaking, Gelato Messina and more. While Messina is busting out a Filipino-inspired menu, other highlights across the board include Malaysian and Indian-style paella, Japanese octopus dumplings, Korean barbecue tacos, cheeseburger puffles, and waffle sticks with peanut butter, ice cream, bananas, pretzels and caramel. Make sure to work up an appetite beforehand and be prepared to roll yourself on home.
UPDATE: November 23, 2023 — We've arranged an exclusive package to help you make the most of Mona Foma 2024. Book with Concrete Playground Trips and you'll have accommodation, ferry transfers, festival tickets and more all sorted, from just AUD$600 per person. There is only a limited number of packages available, though, so secure your booking here ASAP. Dark Mofo might be taking a breather in 2024, except for a few beloved events, but Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) will still be embracing summer at Mona Foma. The sunny counterpart to the Apple Isle's moody winter fest has locked in its return from Thursday, February 15–Sunday, February 25, 2024 in Hobart, and from Thursday, February 29–Sunday, March 3, 2024 in Launceston. It has also dropped one helluva getaway-worthy lineup. Back in October, Queens of the Stone Age announced an Australia tour for 2024, and were also revealed as the first act on Mona Foma's program for the year. At the latter, they'll have no shortage of company. Also on the music bill: Courtney Barnett, TISM, Paul Kelly, Mogwai, Shonen Knife, and Cash Savage and The Last Drinks, for starters. [caption id="attachment_923480" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pooneh Ghana.[/caption] Making a Tassie stop on her latest tour, Barnett's show features two sets. To begin with, she'll work through album End of the Day — aka the score to the Barnett-focused documentary Anonymous Club — with Stella Mozgawa. After that, she'll dive into the rest of her catalogue of tunes. Now that TISM are back playing live together — something that only started happening again in 2022 after 19 years without gigs — the Australian legends will bust out 'Greg! The Stop Sign!', 'Whatareya' and 'Ol' Man River' at Cataract Gorge. The Ron Hitler-Barassi-led band are part of a free one-day event at the stunning site during Mona Foma's Launceston weekend, as are Cash Savage and The Last Drinks. Head along and you'll also enjoy morning meditations to start the day, and hear from Mulga Bore Hard Rock and FFLORA + Grace Chia. [caption id="attachment_926549" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Moshcam[/caption] Still on tunes, Kelly will be focusing on his 2022 compilation Time, while Mogwai and Shonen Knife are part of the returning lawn-set Mona Sessions — as are fellow overseas talents Holy Fuck, Wednesday, Michael Rother and Friends (playing Neu! songs), and Lonnie Holley with Moor Mother and Irreversible Entanglements. Clearly, there'll be no shortage of musicians to listen to. Darren Hanlon, Bree van Reyk and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra are teaming up; Isaac et Nora, the 14- and 11-year-old French-Korean siblings, will perform Latin-American songs they've learned by ear; and producer Filastine and singer Nova, one based in Barcelona and the other hailing from Indonesia, will provide live tunes on a 70-tonne sailing ship's deck to muse on the climate crisis as part of Arka Kinari. DJs will get spinning beneath James Turrell's Armana at Mona as well, and Mona Foma artists will be hitting up the Frying Pan Studios to jam and record. [caption id="attachment_926554" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Wei-Tsan Liu.[/caption] Emeka Ogboh's contribution to the program is also a big highlight, coming via exhibition Boats. Here, the Nigerian artist ponders migration as part of an experience that boasts its own gin — as made with native Tasmanian and West African botanicals — plus snacks, conversation and a sound installation. Also set to impress: Taiwanese artist Yahon Chang getting painting on a 20-metre-by-15-metre canvas at Princes Wharf 1, including using a brush that's human-sized, in a performance that'll blend calligraphy, art, meditation, kung fu and tai chi. [caption id="attachment_926552" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Amy Brown, image courtesy of Street Eats @ Franko Hobart and Mona Foma.[/caption] Other Mona Foma 2024 standouts include the world-premiere of Anito, a solo performance by Justin Shoulder that takes its cues from queer club culture, plus everything from theatre and dance to visual arts and installations; Dancenorth's latest production Wayfinder, which includes Hiromi Tango on design duties and music from Hiatus Kaiyote; party venue Faux Mo returning, but in a new home at The Granada Tavern; and a Street Eats night food and drink market pop-up. "Mona Foma wrangles over 500 performers and artists from places as far flung as Nigeria, Taiwan, Rajasthan and Launceston into a veritable orgy of creativity. If you can't find something to do, then you're dead — but then you wouldn't be reading this," said Mona Foma Artistic Director Brian Ritchie, announcing the 2024 lineup. "So, buy tickets, except for TISM, which is free. One of the most reclusive bands (only three gigs in twenty years) for free in amongst the most unique water feature of any urban environment, qualifies as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Carpe diem." [caption id="attachment_923130" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andreas Neumann[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926548" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ivan trigo Miras[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926545" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nick McKinlay[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926546" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Naomi Beveridge[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926547" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lisa Businovski[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926550" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Akira Shibata[/caption] Mona Foma will take place from Thursday, February 15–Sunday, February 25, 2024 in Hobart, and from Thursday, February 29–Sunday, March 3, 2024 in Launceston. Tickets go on sale at 10am AEDT on Tuesday, November 21 — head to the festival website for further details. Top image: Steve Cook. All images courtesy of the artist and Mona Foma. 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.
In 2012, Imogen Heap appeared on a Wired stage wearing what seemed to be magical gloves. Every time she moved, the music responded. One sweeping gesture would incite a dramatic crescendo; one wiggle of the index finger would provoke a shift from major to minor; one flick of the wrist would mute an entire string section. Liberated from laptops and mixing decks, Heap was transformed into a wizard/conductor/interpretive dancer who seemed to have every sound in the universe at her command. She liked it so much that she wants to pass her superpowers onto the world. She and a team of tech-experts have been hard at work creating a set of electronic gloves that anyone can use. Having come up with a prototype, they’re now looking for Kickstarter support to raise the £200,000 necessary to facilitating a first production run. The gloves, dubbed Mi.Mu, allow the user to interact with their computer through gestures. A series of sensors measure the hand’s position, direction and force of movement and this data is transported wirelessly, then transformed into musical elements. Heap has been developing the technology for four years, initially motivated by a desire to inject more expression into her live performances. "In order to free myself up on the stage from my various bits of technology and to bridge the gap between what’s going on on stage and the audience, I wanted to create something where I could manipulate my computer on the move wirelessly so that music becomes more like a dance rather than a robotic act like pressing a button or moving a fader," she told Dezeen. Early versions of the gloves were connected to a pack worn on the upper body and required elaborate set-up procedures. But the latest are much more accessible. The inclusion of an x-IMU board containing an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and wifi has rendered the pack unnecessary. "It's really simple," Heap explains. "It just sees this exoskeleton as a device and then it comes up on your computer as a wifi device and you're ready to go. It's super simple and it's great." It’s expected that Mi.Mu’s uses will expand beyond music, to include design, sign language and, um, driving a vehicle. "I suppose as long as you can access your computer inside your car, there's no reason why you couldn't just sit in the back of your car and indicate right or left," Heap muses. "It's a remote control. It feels like an expressive musical instrument sometimes but it's essentially a remote control and anything that you could potentially do with your hands, you could do with your gloves." With Heap at the wheel, that could be one interesting ride. [via Dezeen]
If you're going to open an arcade bar that nods to all things circus and sideshows in Brisbane — and gives away prizes — then Bowen Hills is the obvious place for it. That's where Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq now calls home, although that wasn't always the case. Opening on King Street on Wednesday, September 6, the venue makes the move from Toombul, where it launched back in 2019, then had to close due to the 2022 floods (the precinct is now officially being torn down). Fun and games in a suburb known for the Ekka, but all throughout the year? That's what's on offer at Archie Brothers' new 340-person space in Bowen Hills — aka arcade antics, drinks, bowling and more. The games span everything from Mario Kart to Dance Dance Revolution, the sips are of the OTT variety, and a six-lane ten-pin alley and karaoke rooms are also onsite. Archie Brothers Bowen Hills also features Hungry Hungry Hippos, Connect 4 Hoops, The QUBE virtual reality experiences and party rooms. Need more? Air hockey, basketball hoops and VR are all included, too, in a place that definitely doesn't want you to get bored. On the drinks list: alcoholic concoctions like the Pop Till you Drop (made with fireball, butterscotch, apple juice, maple popcorn, bitters and whipped cream) and the Candy Stand (a strawberry shake featuring white rum, Frangelico, a vanilla candy frosted rim and a giant lollipop, plus whipped cream and sprinkles). Archie Bros' food menu focuses on over-the-top novelty American diner grub, fitting right in with the circus decor. So, expect to tuck into dishes such as three-meat burgers, giant pretzels, and potato gems with garlic aioli that's served in a syringe. The kidulting venture is just one of many for Funlab, which also boasts boozy mini-golf chain Holey Moley, Strike Bowling, the also games-related B. Lucky & Sons and challenge-room venue Hijinx Hotel in its stable — and opened a new Holey Moley and Hijnx Hotel in Chermside in 2022. Archie Bros is officially launching its arrival in Bowen Hills with a shindig, taking place on Saturday, September 16 as part of Brisbane Festival. At the 80s-themed street party, expect games — obviously — plus dance competitions, DJs spinning old-school tracks and rollerskating all across King Street. Find Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq at 3/30 King Street in Bowen Hills from Wednesday, September 6, operating from 12–10pm Monday–Thursday, 12pm–12am Friday–Saturday and 10am–10pm Sunday. Images: Funlab.
Your home bar game is about to level up a few notches, regardless of wherever your own mixology skills are at. Maybe Sammy —aka the Sydney bar that took out 11th spot in last year's World's 50 Best Bars list — has just dropped a new line of premium signature bottled cocktails that'll basically turn your living room into a world-class drinking destination. Two years in the making, and created by Maybe Sammy's crack team of shakers and stirrers, each of the three new releases comes pre-batched, ready to chill and pour. There's the tequila-based eucalyptus gimlet jazzed up with grapefruit bitters and mango, and a chic take on the negroni that's infused with jasmine. Or, opt for the floral notes — and pepper and cedar, too — of the chamomile martini. Each comes with tailored serving instructions so you can enjoy the drink exactly as the experts intended, whether that's in a frozen martini glass garnished with a lemon twist, or tumbled into a rocks glass with a wedge of orange. The Maybe Sammy crew has taken care of all the hard work for you, experimenting with various plant infusions and testing and fine-tuning its way to some premium top-shelf cocktails. Which, as anyone with a kitchen cupboard full of random, almost-full spirits and liqueurs can agree, is a very handy thing. The new cocktails are all available as 100-millilitre solo serves, as well as by the 500-millilitre bottle. You can also snap up a gift pack featuring small serves of all three drinks. Maybe Sammy's new eucalyptus gimlet, jasmine negroni and chamomile martini cocktails are each available by the single-serve 100-millilitre bottle ($18) or the 500-millilitre share bottle ($69). Head over to the bar's website to order, with home delivery available Australia-wide.
In news that both sounds and feels familiar, Vivid Sydney has announced that this year's festival won't go ahead as currently planned due to Sydney's current COVID-19 outbreak and corresponding lockdown. Unlike 2020, however, the event isn't being cancelled. Instead, Vivid 2021 will now take place from mid-September. This year's fest had already been pushed from its usual June time slot, and was due to run from Friday, August 6–Saturday, August 28. After the news today, Wednesday, July 14, that Sydney's lockdown will continue until at least Friday, July 30, Vivid's move is hardly unexpected. In a statement, Vivid organisers advised it was rescheduling "in the interest of community health and safety". The event will now kick off on Friday, September 17 and run through until Saturday, October 9. New South Wales Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said that "the recent outbreak has presented a new challenge for everyone, and the health and safety of our citizens and entire event community involved in Vivid Sydney is our foremost concern." He continued: "Destination NSW will continue to work with NSW Health and other agencies to deliver a COVID-safe Vivid Sydney later this year, with support from our event partners, artists, sponsors, and suppliers." The minister did also comment that "Vivid Sydney will only proceed if it's safe to do so" — although, again, the event has been postponed at present, not cancelled. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Vivid Sydney (@vividsydney) This year's Vivid was slated to feature a hefty array of light installations, cultural events, pop-ups and activations, with the full program announced back in May. Just what impact the rescheduling will have on the lineup hasn't yet been revealed, with Vivid organisers noting that details of the revised program will be released in the coming weeks after venues and event owners finalise the necessary logistics. If you have a ticket to a Vivid event, you'll be able to transfer it to the new date, or ask for a refund via the relevant ticket agent. When it was last held back in 2019, Vivid attracted more than two million attendees, so its postponement in the current circumstances doesn't come as a surprise — and nor did its cancellation didn't last year. Heartbreaking, it's the second big NSW event that's been impacted by the pandemic two years running. The same thing happened with Bluesfest, which was cancelled in 2020, then scrapped a few days before it was meant to start in April this year, and then rescheduled until October. Vivid Sydney 2021 will no longer take place from Friday, August 6–Saturday, August 28, and has instead been moved to Friday, September 17 –Saturday, October 9. For more information, visit the event's website. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website. Top image: Destination NSW.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. BODIES BODIES BODIES The internet couldn't have stacked Bodies Bodies Bodies better if it tried, not that that's how the slasher-whodunnit-comedy came about. Pete Davidson (The Suicide Squad) waves a machete around, and his big dick energy, while literally boasting about how he looks like he fucks. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Oscar-nominee Maria Bakalova plays the cautious outsider among rich-kid college grads, who plan to ride out a big storm with drinks and drugs (and drama) in one of their parents' mansions. The Hunger Games and The Hate U Give alum Amandla Stenberg leads the show as the gang's black sheep, turning up unannounced to zero fanfare from her supposed besties, while the rest of the cast spans Shiva Baby's Rachel Sennott, Generation's Chase Sui Wonders and Industry's Myha'la Herrold, plus Pushing Daisies and The Hobbit favourite Lee Pace as a two-decades-older interloper. And the Agatha Christie-but-Gen Z screenplay? It's drawn from a spec script by Kristen Roupenian, the writer of 2017 viral New Yorker short story Cat Person. All of the above is a lot. Bodies Bodies Bodies is a lot — 100-percent on purpose. It's a puzzle about a party game, as savage a hangout film as they come, and a satire about Gen Z, for starters. It carves into toxic friendships, ignored class clashes, self-obsessed obliviousness, passive aggression and playing the victim. It skewers today's always-online world and the fact that everyone has a podcast — and lets psychological warfare and paranoia simmer, fester and explode. Want more? It serves up another reminder after The Resort, Palm Springs and co that kicking back isn't always cocktails and carefree days. It's an eat-the-rich affair alongside Squid Game and The White Lotus. Swirling that all together like its characters' self-medicating diets, this wildly entertaining horror flick is a phenomenal calling card for debut screenwriter Sarah DeLappe and Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn (Instinct), too — and it's hilarious, ridiculous, brutal and satisfying. Forgetting how it ends is also utterly impossible. The palatial compound where Bodies Bodies Bodies unfurls belongs to David's (Davidson) family, but it's hurricane-party central when the film begins. That said, no one — not David, his actor girlfriend Emma (Wonders), the no-nonsense Jordan (Herrold) or needy podcaster Alice (Sennott), and definitely not Greg (Pace), the latter's swipe-right older boyfriend of barely weeks — expects Sophie (Stenberg) to show as they're swigging tequila poolside. She hasn't responded to the group chat, despite claiming otherwise when she arrives. She certainly hasn't told them, not even her childhood ride-or-die David, that she's bringing her new girlfriend Bee (Bakalova) along. And Sophie hasn't prepared Bee for their attitudes, all entitlement, years of taken-for-granted comfort and just as much mouldering baggage, as conveyed in bickering that's barely disguised as banter. When the weather turns bad as forecast, a game is soon afoot inside the sprawling abode. Sharing the movie's title, the fake murder-mystery lark is this crew's go-to — but, even with a hefty supply of glow sticks (handy in the inevitable power outage), it doesn't mix too well with booze, coke and Xanax. The essentials: pieces of paper, one crossed with a X; everyone picking a scrap, with whoever gets the marked sliver deemed the perpetrator; and switching off the lights while said killer offs their victim, which happens just by touching them. Then, it's time to guess who the culprit is. That's when the mood plummets quickly, because accusing your friends of being faux murderers by publicly checking off all their shady traits will do that. It gets worse, of course, when those bodies bodies bodies soon become literal and everyone's a suspect. Read our full review. MOONAGE DAYDREAM Ground control to major masterpiece: Moonage Daydream, Brett Morgen's kaleidoscopic collage-style documentary about the one and only David Bowie, really makes the grade. Its protein pills? A dazzling dream of archival materials, each piece as essential and energising as the next, woven into an electrifying experience that eclipses the standard music doco format. Its helmet? The soothing-yet-mischievous tones of Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane/The Thin White Duke/Jareth the Goblin King himself, the only protective presence a film about Bowie could and should ever need and want. The songs that bop through viewers heads? An immense playlist covering the obvious — early hit 'Space Oddity', the hooky glam-rock titular track, Berlin-penned anthem 'Heroes', the seductive 80s sounds of 'Let's Dance' and the Pet Shop Boys-remixed 90s industrial gem 'Hallo Spaceboy', to name a few — as well as deeper cuts. The end result? Floating through a cinematic reverie in a most spectacular way. When Bowie came to fame in the 60s, then kept reinventing himself from the 70s until his gone-too-soon death in 2016, the stars did look very different — he did, constantly. How do you capture that persistent shapeshifting, gender-bending, personal and creative experimentation, and all-round boundary-pushing in a single feature? How do you distill a chameleonic icon and musical pioneer into any one piece of art, even a movie that cherishes each of its 135 minutes? In the first film officially sanctioned by Bowie's family and estate, Morgen knows what everyone that's fallen under the legend's spell knows: that the man born David Jones, who'd be 75 as this doco hits screens if he was still alive, can, must and always has spoken for himself. The task, then, is the same as the director had with the also-excellent Cobain: Montage of Heck and Jane Goodall-focused Jane: getting to the essence of his subject and conveying what made him such a wonder by using the figure himself as a template. Nothing about Bowie earns an easy description. Nothing about Bowie, other than his stardom, brilliance and impact, sat or even stood still for too long. Driven by themes and moods rather than a linear birth-to-death chronology, Moonage Daydream leaps forward with that same drive to ch-ch-change, the same yearning to keep playing and unpacking, and the same quest for artistry as well. Taking its aesthetic approach from its centre of attention means peppering in psychedelic pops, bursts of colour, neon hues, and mirrored and tiled images — because it really means making a movie that washes over all who behold its dance, magic, dance. That's the reaction that Bowie always sparked, enchanting and entrancing for more than half a century. In successfully aping that feat, Morgen's film is as immersive as an art installation. Exhibition David Bowie Is has already toured the world, including a 2015 stint Down Under in Melbourne; Moonage Daydream sits partway between that and a Bowie concert. This gift of sound and vision is as glorious as that gig-meets-art concept sounds — and yes, live footage beams and gleams throughout the documentary. Among the snippets of interviews, smattering of music videos, melange of clips from cinema touchstones that reverberate on Bowie's wavelength in one way or another, and scenes from his own acting career on-screen and onstage, how could it not? During his five years, fittingly, spent making Moonage Daydream, Morgen had access to the original concert masters, from which he spliced together his own mixes using alternative angles. Zooming back to the androgynous space-alien Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars tour is exhilarating, including when the feature's eponymous song explodes. Jumps to the 90s, to the Outside and Earthling tours, resonate with awe of a more grounded but no less vibrant kind. The Serious Moonlight segments, hailing from the 80s and all about pale suits and glistening blonde hair, see Bowie relaxing into entertainer mode — and, amid discussions about his wariness about making upbeat tunes, mastering that like everything else. Read our full review. TICKET TO PARADISE Here we go again indeed: with the George Clooney- and Julia Roberts-starring Ticket to Paradise, a heavy been-there-done-that air sweeps through, thick with the Queensland-standing-in-for-Bali breeze. The film's big-name stars have bounced off each other in Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve and Money Monster before now. Director Ol Parker has already sent multiple groups of famous faces to far-flung places — far-flung from the UK or the US, that is — as the writer of the Best Exotic Marigold flicks and helmer of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Enough destination wedding rom-coms exist that one of the undersung better ones, with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, is even called Destination Wedding. And, there's plenty of romantic comedies about trying to foil nuptials, too, with My Best Friend's Wedding and Runaway Bride on Roberts' resume since the 90s. Hurriedly throw all of the above into a suitcase — because your twentysomething daughter has suddenly announced she's marrying a seaweed farmer she just met in Indonesia, if you're Clooney and Roberts' long-divorced couple here — and that's firmly Ticket to Paradise. As The Lost City already was earlier in 2022, it too is a star-driven throwback, endeavouring to make the kind of easy, glossy, screwball banter-filled popcorn fare that doesn't reach screens with frequency lately. It isn't as entertaining as that flick, and it certainly isn't winking, nodding and having fun with its formula; sticking dispiritingly to the basics is all that's on Parker's itinerary with his first-timer co-scribe Daniel Pipski. But alongside picturesque vistas, Ticket to Paradise shares something crucial with The Lost City: it gets a whole lot of mileage out of its stars' charisma. A quarter-century back, David (Clooney, The Midnight Sky) and Georgia (Roberts, Gaslit) were the instantly besotted couple impulsively tying the knot (if Ticket to Paradise is successful enough to spawn more movies, a prequel about the pair's younger years will likely be on the list). Alas, when this film begins, they can't stand to be anywhere near each other — room, city or state — after splitting two decades back. With their only child Lily (Kaitlyn Dever, Dopesick) graduating from college, they're forced to play faux nice for a few hours, but squabble over the armrest, then get publicly competitive about who loves their daughter more. This wouldn't be a rom-com led by Clooney and Roberts if schoolyard teasing logic didn't apply, though: they fight because sparks still fly deep down. And they keep verbally sparring when Lily announces a month later that she's met Bali local Gede (Maxime Bouttier, Unknown) on a getaway before she's supposed to put her law degree to its intended use, and that she'll be hitched within days. If another template that Ticket to Paradise happily follows is to be believed, parents don't respond well to their kids plunging into matrimony, especially without notice. David and Georgia are no different, desperately wanting to stop Lily from repeating their own mistakes and willing to zip halfway around the world to do so — hence the feature's airfare moniker. They attempt to unite over sabotaging the wedding, but old habits die hard amid tussling with biting dolphins, stealing rings and putting up with Paul (Lucas Bravo, Emily in Paris), Georgia's younger, deeply infatuated boyfriend. Amid drunken beer pong matches and daggy dances to 90s tracks, plus getting stuck in the Balinese jungle overnight as well, older feelings die harder still, of course — and a ticket to surprises or fresh material, this clearly isn't. Read our full review. CLEAN "It's a shock to the system. It's a change to the everyday, regular routine. It's where the unhappy gene comes out — and it's a sign of the times today." That's the gloriously candid and empathetic Sandra Pankhurst on trauma, a topic she has literally made her business. Later in Clean, the documentary that tells her tale, she describes herself as a "busy nose and a voyeur"; however, that's not what saw her set up Melbourne's Specialised Trauma Cleaning. For three decades now, her company has assisted with "all the shitty jobs that no one really wants to do," as she characterises it: crime-scene cleanups, including after homicides, suicides and overdoses; deceased estates, such as bodies found some time after their passing; and homes in squalor, to name a few examples. As she explains in the film, Pankhurst is eager to provide such cleaning services because everyone deserves that help — and because we're all just a couple of unfortunate turns away from needing it. The 2008 movie Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams (Dear Evan Hansen) and Emily Blunt (Jungle Cruise) fictionalised the trauma-cleaning realm; if that's your touchstone at the outset of Clean, prepare for far less gloss, for starters. Prepare for much more than a look at a fascinating but largely ignored industry, too, because filmmaker Lachlan Mcleod (Big in Japan) is as rightly interested in Pankhurst as he is in her line of work. Everything she says hangs in the air with meaning, even as it all bounces lightly from her lips ("life can be very fragile", "every dog has its day, and a mongrel has two" and "life dishes you out a good story and then life dishes you out a shit one" are some such utterances). Everything feels matter of fact and yet also immensely caring through her eyes, regardless of the situation that her Frankston-headquartered employees are attending to. Sometimes, STC does confront harrowing and grimy messes that could be ripped straight out of a crime drama, but ensuring that the families don't have to swab up themselves after a gory incident is a point of pride. Sometimes, it aids people with disability or illness by playing housekeeper when they can't, or sorts through a lifetime of possessions when someone has turned to hoarding. There's no judgement directed anyone's way, not by Pankhurst or the crew of committed cleaners who've formed a family-like bond under her watch. It takes a particular sort of person to do this gig, everyone notes, and the group is as sensitive and considerate as their boss because most have experienced their own hardships. They can also see what she sees: "everyone's got trauma; it's not the demographic, it's the circumstance". Pankhurst's company and tale isn't new to the public eye, thanks to Sarah Krasnostein's award-winning 2018 book The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay and Disaster — and both there and here, the role she has played and the fortitude she has displayed while sifting through her own personal traumas earns merited attention. Mcleod keeps his focus on STC for the film's first third, aided by Pankhurst's frank insights, but the many layers to the business, its workers and its clients are paralleled in her own multifaceted story. Clean takes her lead, though; never within its frames does Pankhurst offer up a simple assessment of herself, other than saying she'd liked to be remembered "as a kind human being — nothing more, nothing less". As a transgender woman who was adopted at birth, grew up in an abusive household, married and had a family, performed as a drag queen, undertook sex work, survived rape and drugs, transitioned, and became one of Australia's first female funeral directors, nothing about her can be deduced to a few mere words. Read our full review. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23 and June 30; and July 7, July 14, July 21 and July 28; August 4, August 11, August 18 and August 25; and September 1 and September 8. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Mothering Sunday, Jurassic World Dominion, A Hero, Benediction, Lightyear, Men, Elvis, Lost Illusions, Nude Tuesday, Ali & Ava, Thor: Love and Thunder, Compartment No. 6, Sundown, The Gray Man, The Phantom of the Open, The Black Phone, Where the Crawdads Sing, Official Competition, The Forgiven, Full Time, Murder Party, Bullet Train, Nope, The Princess, 6 Festivals, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Crimes of the Future, Bosch & Rockit, Fire of Love, Beast, Blaze, Hit the Road, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Orphan: First Kill, The Quiet Girl and Flux Gourmet.
If sport is escapism in its simplest form — the 2020 Summer Olympics couldn't have come at a better time. For all of us following along from the pub or the couch (sorry Sydney), the ultimate demonstration of human accomplishment delivers a much-needed sense of belonging and shared experience. In between staggering feats of athleticism, competitors from every corner of the world have given us countless inspiring tales all delivered with neverending grace. So, our writers' have recapped eight of the most heartwarming, unmissable moments of the Tokyo Olympic Games so far. SUZ TUCKER: Editorial Director Moment: Oksana Chusovitina, representing Uzbekistan in gymnastics. I write this from an at-home standing desk — because I've somehow injured my back doing nothing. Meanwhile, Oksana Chusovitina is a 46 year old woman who, this week, competed in her EIGHTH consecutive Olympic Games (the first was Barcelona in '92) in a sport where the majority of participants are under the age of 20. This veritable sporting icon competed in vault before announcing her retirement from the sport. I pulled a hammy just watching her. A legend. MELANIE COLWELL: Branded Content Editor Moment: Jian Fang Lay, representing Australia in table tennis. If you've read or watched the news at all this past week, you'd be aware of the major Aussie success stories at the games so far. We're dominating in swimming and Jess Fox finally got her hands on the gold medal that had eluded her for many years. They're dubbed champions. Legends. Heroes. And rightly so — they've earned it. But there is another athlete that should be getting just as much praise and recognition: Jian Fang Lay. The 48-year-old table tennis player may not have won any medals (yet) but she is competing in her sixth consecutive Olympic Games — one of only two Australian women to do so. Talk about grit and determination. As someone whose experience with table tennis begins and ends with a few successful games of beer pong (the more you drink, the better you play and you can't convince me otherwise), Jian's speed, coordination and instinct is a marvel to witness. She is an underrated QUEEN. ELLEN SEAH: National News & Features Editor Moment: Thomas Daley, representing Great Britain in diving. Very occasionally, the democratic nature of sport fosters moments that stretch far beyond a league, a game, or a medal. Tom Daley's post-dive media interview was one such moment. Sporting a plain black mask, with adrenaline still pumping from his first Olympic gold medal win, Daley told media reporters about the struggle and pressures he's faced as an LGBTIQ+ athlete, with the grace and confidence that would put most to shame. "I came out in 2013 and when I was younger I always felt like the one that was alone and different and didn't fit in. There was something about me that was always never going to be as good as what society wanted me to be," Daley said, in response to a reporter's question about there being more openly out LGBTIQ+ athletes than any other Olympic Games before. "I hope that any young LGBTI person out there can see that no matter how alone you feel right now, you are not alone. You can achieve anything." Daley and his synchronised diving partner, Matty Lee, sat between silver medal Chinese athletes Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen and bronze medal Russian divers Alexander Bondar and Viktor Minibaev. Gay marriage is not legal in either Russia or China. LIBBY CURAN: Staff Writer Moment: Ariarne Titmus, representing Australia in 400m freestyle (and Dean Boxall's reaction). Life can start to feel a little light on excitement when you've been churning through lockdowns like it's an Olympic sport. Heck, some days, putting proper pants on seems deserving of a hearty pat on the back. So, imagine the pure motivation that would come from having a personal cheerleader that gets as wildly ecstatic about your triumphs as Ariarne Titmus' coach was following her women's 400m freestyle win. Dean Boxall's joyfully OTT reaction to his charge's gold medal moment has become an instant meme and for good reason — we're talking buckets of unbridled enthusiasm and some very passionate hip thrusts. Ok, so you might not be in the running to take home any gold medals for Australia yourself. But whatever little thing you need to muster up motivation for this week, chuck Boxhall's now-famous cheer routine a watch and I reckon you'll feel ready to take on the world. SARAH WARD: Associate Editor Moment: All the new sports. The only sport I'm obsessively passionate about will never reach the Olympics, even when Brisbane hosts them in 2032. Australia would obviously win gold if Aussie Rules did ever make the cut, though. If there was a way for us to win silver and bronze at the same time, we probably would as well. Still, there's something inherently joyous about new sports being introduced to the Olympics, even if it's not my beloved form of football. All those athletes who've just had their dreams come true merely by even being able to compete at that level, and all those kids who might now turn their childhood passions into a medal-winning profession — it's nothing short of inspiring. Surfing and skateboarding obviously fall into that category this year, and the fact that many of the winners so far have such moving stories behind them, or happen to be 13-year-old girls kick-flipping their way to glory, is flat-out excellent. Also a delight: seeing baseball join the fold in Tokyo. Having witnessed first-hand just how beloved baseball is in Japan — complete with the souvenirs to prove it — it's clear how meaningful an inclusion this is. CORDELIA WILLIAMSON: Branded Content Manager Moment: Bronte Campbell, Cate Campbell, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris, representing Australia in the 4 x 100-metre freestyle relay. Despite my current opinion of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and really feeling for Japan right now, I am (somewhat selfishly) loving watching the Olympics. I listened to journalist Kieran Pender on a recent 7am episode, 'Front row seats to the world's biggest experiment', and he describes the Tokyo Games as a paradox. On the one hand, it is "deeply problematic" that the IOC has forged ahead, and it is reasonable for us to say 'who cares' when we look at the broader context. But also, as Pender states: "Sport is powerful, sport is important…[and] these games will bring joy, particularly to those in lockdown". This pretty much sums up how I feel as a veg out on the couch watching these superhumans dive, sprint, jump and backflip on the screen. One moment where all my neg energy dissipated, however, was while watching Bronte Campbell, Cate Campbell, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris absolutely slay in the pool in the women's 4 x 100-metre freestyle relay final. Beating your own world record by three seconds is bloody great. But for me, someone who doesn't really watch sport nor have much (if any) national pride, it was seeing these incredible women celebrate the team's efforts, not just themselves, and present each other with their gold medals that got me like a punch in the guts. Heartwarming stuff right there. Seriously looking forward to catching more pool action, particularly diving and artistic swimming. And the pentathlon — it blows my mind that individuals can be skilled in so many (and some random) sports. BEN HANSEN: Staff Writer Moment: Hidilyn Diaz, representing the Philippines in weightlifting. While I've been yelling at my screen consistently over the last week as the Ollyroos upset Argentina, the Boomers continue their winning streak and we dominate in the pool. The moment that brought the biggest smile to my face was weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz winning the Philippines its first first-ever Olympic gold with an Olympic Record lift. Weightlifting is already a wildly impressive sport, but Diaz's face of relief when she lifts her first place-winning weight turning to overwhelming joy was so touching. NIK ADDAMS: Branded Content Manager Moment: Owen Wright, representing Australia in surfing. I know absolutely nothing about surfing. I don't even understand what one is supposed to do when one surfs. And while I was initially drawn in by the handsome Brazilian men (whatever gets you tuned in, right?) what I do know is that — after quickly Googling the rules to try and make some sense of what I was watching — I felt like I was riding every single wave with Owen Wright, Australia's first surfing medallist. The word 'inspirational' is thrown about quite a bit in sporting discourse, but his story is one that truly merits that term — having to relearn how to walk and surf after a horror brain injury just six years ago. The post-surf interview with his beautiful family showed just how much this one meant — and I hope his son Vali got an extra scoop of ice cream to celebrate, too. Top image: IOC, supplied.
What's better than one stunning glimpse well beyond this pale blue dot we all call home? Several, each as spectacular as the next. If you're a fan of space — and aren't we all? — then this week has been huge for peering past the earth, with NASA releasing a number of images from the James Webb Space Telescope. First came the snap dubbed Webb's First Deep Field, aka the deepest and sharpest view of the universe that's ever been captured. Yes, showing the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared a whopping 4.6 billion years ago, and covering thousands of galaxies, it's quite the sight. NASA then backed that up with more pictures from the space science observatory that's been charged with peering deeply into our solar system and far beyond, and taking images of what it spots. Prepare to be dazzled again. Cosmic cliffs & a sea of stars. @NASAWebb reveals baby stars in the Carina Nebula, where ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds shape colossal walls of dust and gas. https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/dXCokBAYGQ — NASA (@NASA) July 12, 2022 Perhaps the most astonishing has been called 'Cosmic Cliffs', and looks at a star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula — around 7600 light-years away. As captured in infrared light by the Webb telescope's near-infrared camera (NIRCam), it shows areas of star birth that have been obscured previously, and also proves the kind of sight that'll inspire a thousand big-screen space operas. Also phenomenal: two looks at the Southern Ring Nebula, a hot, dense white dwarf star, including one at its centre for the first time. One shows jagged rings of gas and dust, with light emanating from it — and, because perhaps the only reference point we have for looks at the heavens this stunning is everything that movies have thrown at us, it blows the best special effects you've ever seen out of the water. [caption id="attachment_861133" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Southern Ring Nebula[/caption] And, the Webb telescope has also captured Stephan's Quintet, a grouping of five galaxies. Again, there's a cinema tie — it's what the angel figures at the beginning of Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life are based on. Located in the Pegasus constellation, it features galaxies located between 40 million and 290 million light-years from Earth: galaxies NGC 7320, NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, and NGC 7319. With these jaw-dropping visuals, NASA now has images of a dying star's last hurrah thanks to the Southern Ring Nebula shots, and pictures that'll help scientists explore galactic mergers and interactions, as well as black holes. Indeed, showing the world staggering sights is really just the beginning when it comes to the telescope's output. [caption id="attachment_861135" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stephan's Quintet[/caption] "Today, we present humanity with a groundbreaking new view of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope — a view the world has never seen before," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "These images, including the deepest infrared view of our universe that has ever been taken, show us how Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don't even yet know to ask; questions that will help us better understand our universe and humanity's place within it." Yes, you're allowed to only want to stare at these pics for the next few minutes, hours and days. You're also allowed to summon your inner Keanu and exclaim the only thing that's appropriate right now: "whoa!". [caption id="attachment_861132" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Southern Ring Nebula[/caption] For more information about the James Webb Space Telescope, head to the NASA and James Web Space Telescope websites. Images: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.
Fatcow was a beef-eating favourite in its original digs at Eagle Street Pier — and the aim is to repeat the feat now that it has moved to Fortitude Valley. It was back in late 2023 that Tassis Group announced that Fatcow on James Street, which was known as Fatcow Steak & Lobster during its CBD days, would return in 2024. It lost its previous site, where it had operated since December 2020 in the spot that was formerly home to fellow upscale steak joint Cha Cha Char, when the Brisbane CBD precinct was torn down to make way for an upcoming new $2.1-billion waterfront precinct. Now, since May 2024, the new Fatcow is welcoming in patrons. The restaurant has relaunched in the Fortitude Valley spot that Space Furniture and David Jones each used to call home. The design led by Allo Creative and Clui Design harks back to steak-slinging eateries in the mid-20th century, complete with a bar made out of solid marble. Patrons can also peer through a window to the chef's grill to see where the culinary magic happens. Two private dining rooms are also on the premises at Fatcow 2.0, but just eating at a booth here means stepping into your own world. Each one comes with a floor-to-ceiling curtain that screens off the rest of the restaurant. That's another luxe touch at the steakhouse's new digs. Also on the list: wagyu tasting boards and a gold-wrapped 400-gram rib fillet on the menu. Neither comes cheap; the first costs $285 for three types of steak and three sides, and the second — aka the Golden Fatcow — is $190 for a 150-plus-day grain-fed black angus cut from the Riverina region that's wrapped in gold leaf. Under Head Chef Garry Newton, a Fatcow alum who also has Herve's and Rich & Rare on his resume, the new Fatcow's signature dishes also span a $199 steak-and-lobster combo and the butcher's choice, which varies in price. If it wasn't already apparant, this is a treat yo'self type of restaurant. All up, the menu features more than 16 steaks. You can also tuck into mains such as wagyu burgers, buckwheat risotto and lamb shoulder. Caviar is among the options, as are oysters fresh from Brisbane's only live oyster tank, raw scallops and beef tenderloin tartare as entrees, and tank-fresh lobster. The restaurant is taking a 24-hour approach to seafood — that's how long, maximum, the journey from the trawler to your plate will be. As for dessert, choices include a chocolate tart, lime sorbet and basque cheesecake, plus ten cheeses that come served in 50-gram pieces. To drink, a 300-strong wine list combines local and international drops, and cocktails are also among the beverages. Images: Markus Ravik.
Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman are Eric Lomax and Patti Lomax, lovers at the centre of a world torn apart by Eric's repressed memories as a prisoner of war in The Railway Man. Marcus Costello spoke with the film's Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky, who also made a big impression with 2011's Burning Man. The life of Eric Lomax, a quintessentially British man from another generation, set between Scotland and South-East Asia. How does an Australian director's perspective lend itself to this story? Going into this production, I thought the code of silence thing was a distinctly English POW character trait. I soon realised that it doesn't matter where you're from, if you were part of WWII, you come home with stories you will never share. Is that still the case for soldiers today? Yeah, sadly, I think it is. The irony is that we send young, impressionable people to war under morally dubious reasons, morally bankrupt, even, and we hold them to account for every moral decision they make when they're out there. If you think about how young these guys actually are, it's almost a 'Lord of the Flies' situation. No wonder they come home confused and reluctant to talk about it. I was talking with journalists at the Dubai Film Festival the other week and they were saying how important this film is for that part of the world as it struggles to deal with the warfare surrounding it. To that end, did you think about how your film would be received by present-day soldiers? Absolutely. In so many the face of warfare has changed beyond recognition since WWII, and yet, completely ineffective techniques like water-boarding are still used today. We live in a tell-all age of social media. Presented with an intensely private character, Eric Lomax, how do you expect/hope young people to respond? That's a really interesting question. The core audience we had front-of-mind when we were making the film was men above 35. In the test screenings we've noticed that younger people are genuinely interested in it. For all the negative press that the social media generation gets, I actually think it's a very inquisitive, socially aware group. The film looks beautiful. But war isn't beautiful. Can you talk me through your aesthetic choices? Sure. As a 20-year-old, going to War — to Thailand no less! — was a big adventure for Eric, so mixed up in fear and anxiety was a genuine sense of excitement. Of course we know the story of WWII — it was no exotic holiday — but to portray it like that wouldn't have been an accurate view of the world through his eyes. The heat, the incredible lushness of South-East Asia's forests was unlike anything this young Scot had ever experienced or really known about. To convey that wonder we heightened the contrasts between the countries: we sought out blues and greens when we where in Scotland, and hot colours when we where in Thailand, for example. I ask because there were a couple of moments during the film where I was in there with Eric then he'd see something like an explosion framed by silhouetted palm trees, and all of a sudden I was made aware that I'm looking at a representation. Did you ever feel a need to hold back because Thailand is just so photogenic? But I relish those moments! I try to do it as much as I can in the films I make! For me, the visual irony is key. It brings into question the absurdity of what's happening. Naturalism isn't always the only or the best way to give an authentic impression, as strange as that may sound. Given that taste for flourish, where there times when you felt constrained by having to tell a true-to-history story We were very lucky to have such a good relationship with Eric and Patti who were both so open but even still, I never felt obliged to tell something a certain way. I honestly never felt constrained. I can say that because I don't think getting every factual detail perfect is the aim of this kind of story. I think it's about capturing an essence and finding a way of expressing that. The Railway Man is in cinemas now. Read our review here.
After opening 90 bars over the past eight years, bringing its worldwide footprint to 94, Scottish brewery BrewDog has finally set up shop in Australia. And, sprawled across a hefty parcel of land by the banks of the Brisbane River, it has arrived with a splash. That said, while a brand new jetty has just been built right next to the company's Murarrie site — which has been dubbed DogTap Brisbane — don't go planning on pairing your brew with a dip in the ol' Brown Snake. Brisbanites, you really do know better than that. Still, Calvin McDonald, BrewDog's operations manager for Australia, isn't ruling out making the most of DogTap's impressive location. "There aren't many bars in the world that are totally accessible by jet ski," he notes, without giving away what fun activities the company might have in store down the line. If you've been following the brand, you'll know that it has engaged beer-lovers in many inventive ways over the years, including launching a craft beer hotel in the US, brewing up a Subwoofer IPA for pooches and taking to the skies in the world's first craft beer airline. [caption id="attachment_751722" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pandora Photography[/caption] In Brisbane, brew aficionados can look forward to the BrewDog basics when DogTap opens to the public on Thursday, November 21. Acting as the brand's Australian base, the brewery will pump out beer that'll get shipped around the country. It'll also have a huge taproom with food and plenty of opportunities to learn more about craft beer. There'll be tours of the facility, once the fully automated four-vessel 25-hectolitre brewing system and accompanying canning line is completely up and running in January, while eager drinkers can also enrol in Beer School — aka two-hour guided tasting sessions where one of BrewDog's Cicerone-certified staff will talk you through the BrewDog and craft beer basics. First announced in 2018, and only the company's fourth taproom directly attached to one of its breweries, BrewDog's $30-million street art-covered Brisbane site boasts a range of other reasons to drop by. Heading to the end of a Murarrie industrial estate hasn't ever been high on locals' to-do lists, but making the journey to sip freshly poured cold ones on a 485-square-metre riverside patio soon should be. The sizeable outdoor area comes with views towards Hamilton and the Gateway Bridge, as well as ample seating. There's also a selection of games, such as giant Jenga, giant chess and giant Connect Four. And, both the public and staff car parks are licensed too, so beer festivals and other events could be in DogTap's future. [caption id="attachment_751727" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pandora Photography[/caption] If you're coming by for the beer, BrewDog's headliners (including its famed Punk IPA) sit alongside a heap of small-batch brews. Nodding to the growing local craft beer scene — one of the reasons that BrewDog chose Brisbane as its Aussie base, McDonald advises — is a rotating range of guest tipples from other Queensland breweries, such as Range Brewing, Currumbin Valley Brewing, Balter, Aether, Brouhaha and Black Hops. All-Australian wines, an Aussie-heavy spirits list and local soft drinks are also on offer, should you want something other than beer. Of course, if you fall into that category, McDonald hopes that BrewDog will convert you. He's adamant that there's a craft beer for everyone, and that anyone who says they don't like beer just hasn't tried the right brew for them yet. Food-wise, it's a lineup of familiar bar favourites. Think 11 types of burgers and eight kinds of pizza — plus Korean-style chicken wings, crispy pork, baby squid and barramundi fritters. On weekends, a brunch menu will feature chicken and waffles, eggs benedict and other classic meals, while you can tuck into two-for-one vegan dishes on Mondays. In addition to 16 blue leather booths and high-top tables, DogTap's industrial indoor area also has arcade games, including Addams Family and The Munsters-themed pinball machines. [caption id="attachment_751728" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pandora Photography[/caption] Really love BrewDog? There's a merchandise stall that's already been selling items before DogTap even opens. Want a few brews to take home? Stop by the takeaway area on the way out the door. And if you're an interstate BrewDog fan hoping that it'll be coming your way soon, McDonald explains that the plan is to open five Aussie venues in the next five years (then, hopefully, another five before the brewery marks a decade in Australia). Find DogTap Brisbane at 77 Metroplex Avenue, Murarrie from Thursday, November 21. It's open from 12pm–midnight daily. Images: Pandora Photography
Nearly 100 years after the Titanic plunged into the freezing waters of the Atlantic, artist and inspirationalist Dodo Newman will commemorate the legendary journey and lives lost with the Titanic Project, a tribute that will combine the sorrowful history with the newest marvels of design. The project will erect a monument of the Titanic designed with luxury that the regal ship itself would not match. Newman's vision for the monument has a diamond and Swarovski crystal surface, 300 kg of jewelry and LED lighting all on a pyramid-shaped aquarium base structure. To add to the designer detail, over 50 luxury brands will be incorporated into the monument, the displays intertwined with sea life in the underwater enclosing. Newman has always been fascinated by the story of the Titanic, and has been hoping to finish the plan for the commemorative installation for the past several years. The project is intended to be finally completed by 2012, just in time to honour the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking in 1912. [via Extra Vaganzi]
If you're a fan of Pedro Pascal (Gladiator II), 2025 is a busy year. The Last of Us is back for its long-awaited second season. Thanks to Materialists, he's in a rom-com from Past Lives' Celine Song. With Eddington, he's battling Joaquin Phoenix for Beau Is Afraid director Ari Aster. Then there's Pascal's leap into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The latter film arrives Down Under on Thursday, July 24, 2025, and sees the MCU finally get fantastic as it speeds towards notching up two decades of superhero movies and TV shows. As both the initial teaser trailer and just-dropped full sneak peek show, First Steps explores Mister Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Thing and The Human Torch's beginnings in the 1960s — family dinners, big life changes, the worries that come with that, facing stresses together and world-threatening foes all included. Slipping into Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm's shoes in First Steps: Pascal as stretchy group leader Richards; Vanessa Kirby (Napoleon), who is bending light as one of the Storm siblings; Joseph Quinn (Gladiator II) proving fiery as the other; and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear), who is no one's cousin here, instead getting huge, rocky and super strong. Directed by WandaVision, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Succession's Matt Shakman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps pits Pascal, Kirby, Quinn and Moss-Bachrach against Ralph Ineson (Nosferatu) as space god Galactus and Julia Garner (Wolf Man) as the Silver Surfer — both of which pop up in the latest trailer. Also co-starring in the film: Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai), John Malkovich (Ripley), Natasha Lyonne (Fantasmas) and Sarah Niles (Fallen). Pascal, Kirby, Quinn and Moss-Bachrach's characters aren't new to cinemas. Before there was a MCU, there were Fantastic Four movies. The first two to earn a big-screen release arrived in 2005 and 2007, with the latter hitting the year before Iron Man kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As Deadpool and Wolverine did 2024's Deadpool and Wolverine, the Stan Lee- and Jack Kirby-created superhero quartet now join the list of characters who are being brought into the MCU fold, as has been on the cards ever since Disney bought 20th Century Fox. Pascal and company are taking over from two batches of past film takes on the superhero team. In the 2005 and 2007 flicks, Ioan Gruffudd (Bad Boys: Ride or Die), Jessica Alba (Trigger Warning), a pre-Captain America Chris Evans (Red One) and Michael Chiklis (Accused) starred. Then, in 2015, Chronicle filmmaker Josh Trank gave the group a spin — still outside of the MCU — with Miles Teller (Top Gun: Maverick), Kate Mara (Friendship), a pre-Black Panther Michael B Jordan (Sinners) and Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers). Check out the full trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps below: The Fantastic Four: First Steps releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, July 24, 2025. Images: courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios / © and 2025 MARVEL.
Each year, the team behind Vivid Sydney clearly asks itself a question: where else can we dazzle with lights next? Ranging from gardens and tunnels to buildings and bridges, the answers brighten up not only the festival's annual program, but the Harbour City. Letting a train lit up with an immersive glow and pumping techno tunes loose on the New South Wales capital's rails is a new answer for 2024, however. Meet Tekno Train. This isn't your ordinary, everyday, average commute — this is a 60-minute trip filled with lighting and music that changes to match the train's speed and the landscape outside. And the tunes? Like the event itself, they hail from Paul Mac. The result is a 23-night-only railway experience that's an Australian first, with its music newly composed specifically for what promises to be a helluva ride. Here's how it works: between Friday, May 24–Saturday, June 15, you'll hop onboard a K-set train at Central Station, either opting for a scenic route to North Sydney and then Lavender Bay via a secret spur line (the slower, more family-friendly trip), or hitting up City Circle and South Sydney (which'll be the livelier and faster-paced journey). Whether you pick The Scenic Route or Tech Express, as the two choices have been named, you'll see Tekno Train's custom lighting beam and hear its electronic dance music soundtrack pulse through all of the locomotive's carriages. If you're wondering how it links in with this year's Vivid theme of 'humanity', Tekno Train puts the power of music to unite — even when people are doing something that they don't normally think twice about — in the spotlight. It also celebrates public transport, mass transit and community. And, of course, it'll get you seeing riding the rails in a whole new light, literally.
The focus of yoga trends seems to be constantly changing — from beer yoga to hip hop yoga and rooftop yoga to farmside yoga, we thought we'd seen it all. Now, Dubai's Atlantis The Palm is bringing 'underwater' yoga onto the scene. Before you think about holding your breath while doing a submerged upward dog, the class isn't quite as complicated — or as cool — as it sounds. The yoga course is not held in the water, but instead it takes place inside a tank-like room called the Ambassador Lagoon. The Lagoon sits within the resort's Lost Chambers Aquarium, a 17-hectare openair marine habitat that boasts over 65,000 sea creatures within a massive maze of underwater corridors and passageways. The 250-plus salt and fresh water species include sharks, eels, rays and piranhas, as well as hundreds of exotic fish. That's a whole lot of marine life on call to sit audience to your meditation. The all-levels, 20-person class runs every Tuesday and Friday. Each ticket includes a yoga mat, bottle of water and valet parking, which we guess is what puts the price up at 120 Dirham (around $44 AUD). The lavishness of the course is no surprise coming from this 46-hectare luxury resort. Being in a darkened room surrounded by shimmering water and peacefully floating sea animals does sound quite relaxing, and, although there won't be any actual underwater feats involved, we don't think it would be quite as calming in practice anyway. Post-yoga, there's always the 18 million litres of fresh water which powers waterslides, river rides, tidal waves and pools to entertain yourself with. Underwater yoga is held at Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai. If you're heading there any time soon, visit their website for more information and bookings.
He may be best known as the frontman of Thirsty Merc (and writer of the Bondi Rescue theme song), but Rai Thistlethwayte is something of a musical polymath. He's been writing and performing tunes since the age of 15 and attended the prestigious Sydney Conservatorium of Music. As well as his songwriting and singing talents, he plays the piano and guitar. In his career he's performed as a solo artist, as part of numerous jazz combos, as a member of the session group on The Voice and as a keyboardist for American rock god Joe Satriani's touring band. That's not to mention his stints as a teacher and mentor at APRA's annual songwriting conference. It's fair to say Rai knows what he's doing — and anyone lucky enough to catch him this month is in for a tour de force of top-quality musicianship. On top of his Sydney gig, he's playing up the coast at The Kent Hotel in Newcastle on Friday, November, 13 and at The Seabreeze Hotel in Nelson Bay on Saturday, November 14. Or, head (very far) west and catch him at the Griffth Leagues Club on Friday, November 27. For the latest info on NSW border restrictions, head here. If travelling from Queensland or Victoria, check out Queensland Health and DHHS websites, respectively.
We've almost made it to the end of this chaotic year. Holidays are looming ever closer, and it's time to hang out with friends and fam, recharge and reflect — potentially doing so at beaches, in ocean pools, while hiking or chilling out in parks — and maybe logoff from social media for a bit. And Pantone is suggesting we do so surrounded by 'life-affirming' coral. Living Coral (PANTONE 16-1546) has just been named as Pantone's 2019 Colour of the Year. The energising — and appropriately summery — shade was chosen by Pantone's colour experts not only because it "provide[s] comfort and buoyancy in our continually shifting environment", but because it encourages lighthearted activity and pursuit of fun — exactly what we're all hoping to do over the next couple of months (and, ideally, throughout the New Year). Of course, coral is associated with nature, too, in animals (like flamingos) and in Australia's famous Great Barrier Reef. While we doubt it was on the minds of Pantone's colour experts, the colour is timely due to the recent, reinvigorated fight for emergency action on climate change in Australia. Hundreds of school students, just this Wednesday, descended on Canberra's Parliament House to demand action on climate change and to stop the Adani coal mine — a proposed Queensland mine, which, if it goes ahead, could have huge impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. Then there's Living Coral's reinvigorating nature — it's said to energise and enliven. So paint your room in it, cover your body in it or just buy some snazzy coral socks — it might help you get through this crazy messed up world in 2019.
Everything in its right place: when Thom Yorke takes to the stage Down Under in spring 2024 for his debut solo tour, performing songs from across his four-decade career, that's how Radiohead fans will feel. The English musician has announced a six-date trip to Australia and New Zealand, on his first jaunt this way since the band that he's synonymous with last made a visit in 2012. Yorke has four Aussie and Aotearoa cities on his agenda in October and November, and he's going big at each of them (no surprises there). The Everything tour will kick off at Wolfbrook Arena in Christchurch, then hop to Spark Arena in Auckland. When he makes the leap to Australia, Yorke will play two evenings each at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne and the Sydney Opera House Forecourt in Sydney. [caption id="attachment_959883" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Michael Avedon[/caption] Yorke aficionados elsewhere across Australia and NZ, this does indeed mean that the tour is leaving you high and dry for local shows — so we foresee a trip in your future. The singer whose voice echoed through Radiohead's 'Creep', 'The Bends', 'Just', 'Karma Police', 'Paranoid Android' and more will be busting out select tunes from the band's catalogue. He also has three studio albums as a solo artist, so expect tracks from them to also get a whirl. And, his film score and soundtrack work — see: Suspiria, Motherless Brooklyn, Peaky Blinders and Confidenza — will also pop up. [caption id="attachment_959885" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Before the Everything tour, Yorke has been hitting the stage with The Smile, which also features fellow Radiohead alum Jonny Greenwood plus Sons of Kermit's Tom Skinner. The Smile's second album Wall of Eyes dropped in April 2024. Of the Sydney Opera House shows, the venue's Head of Contemporary Music Ben Marshall said this "this is historic. I'm ecstatic to announce the long-awaited Opera House debut of one of the greatest musicians of our time". "A multi-award-winning artist, Thom Yorke rose to cultural and critical acclaim throughout the 90s with his boundary-pushing reimagination of contemporary rock, and has soared through recent years with a plethora of wildly innovative solo and collaborative creative projects. Yorke will bring his hauntingly existential lyrics, inimitable falsetto and rapturous arrangements to the Forecourt for two nights only," Marshall continued. [caption id="attachment_959886" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Glenn8881 via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Thom Yorke: Everything Australian and New Zealand Tour Dates 2024: Wednesday, October 23 — Wolfbrook Arena, Christchurch Friday, October 25 — Spark Arena, Auckland Tuesday, October 29–Wednesday, October 30 — Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne Friday, November 1–Saturday, November 2 — Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sydney [caption id="attachment_959887" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Popcornfud via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Thom Yorke is touring Australia and New Zealand in October and November 2024, with Australian tickets on sale from 10am AEST on Wednesday, June 5 and New Zealand tickets on sale from 11am NZST on Monday, June 10. Head to the tour website for more details. Top image:Raph_PH via Flickr.
Here's some news worth slathering whichever type of food you love in McDonald's coveted Szechuan sauce: in less than a month, Rick and Morty will return for its sixth season. Anything can happen in the animated show's next batch of episodes, because that's the kind of dimension-hopping sci-fi series it is. Don't just take our word for it, though — the just-dropped full trailer for the upcoming season drips with chaos, unsurprisingly, and also paranoia. Well, actually, the sneak peek is set to the sounds of 'Paranoid' by Black Sabbath, but it's also a rather apt theme tune for the show's titular duo. When you're zipping around the galaxy and sliding through time, changing multiple worlds, making a whole lot of enemies and just generally causing interstellar mayhem in the process, being suspicious and mistrustful is bound to come with the territory. As for what'll occur from there, the trailer teases lectures about Die Hard, killer robots, vanishing from reality, alien armies, Wolverine-style claws, using Jerry as a human shield, arcade shootouts and exploding cars. So, just your usual Rick and Morty shenanigans. As always, anyone keen to get schwifty with the episodes can probably expect that Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith (both voiced by show co-creator Justin Roiland, Solar Opposites) will keep wreaking havoc, and that the series will keep zooming between as many universes as it can. And, because that's the way the news goes, Rick and Morty's hijinks will keep drawing in Morty's mother Beth (Sarah Chalke, Firefly Lane), father Jerry (Chris Parnell, Archer) and sister Summer (Spencer Grammer, Tell Me a Story). Everywhere across earth where television is screened and streamed — interdimensional cable, too — Rick and Morty is set to return on Sunday, September 4 in America. That's on Monday, September 5 Down Under, where the series beams into your queue via Netflix. And if you're wondering what kinds of chaos are in store this time around, Adult Swim, the US channel behind the show, has advised that the new season will pick up with its titular pair "where we left them, worse for wear and down on their luck". "Will they manage to bounce back for more adventures? Or will they get swept up in an ocean of piss! Who knows?! Piss! Family! Intrigue! A bunch of dinosaurs! More piss!" the network also teased. Check out the trailer for Rick and Morty's sixth season below: Rick and Morty's sixth season will premiere globally on Monday, September 5 Down Under. It streams via Netflix in Australia and New Zealand.
Something delightful is 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 starting to reopen — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney and Brisbane (and, until the newly reinstated stay-at-home orders, Melbourne as well). 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 over the past three months, 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=Xn3sK4WiviA ON THE ROCKS Not once, not twice, but three times now, Sofia Coppola has given the Bill Murray-loving world exactly what it wants. One of the great comedic talents of the past half-century, the Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day star is also a greatly charismatic talent — and, understandably, viewers want to spend more time in his inimitable company. So, Lost in Translation and 2015 Netflix special A Very Murray Christmas made that happen. Now On the Rocks does as well. These are films and specials predicated upon the very idea of palling around with Murray or the character he's playing, and this one hits that mark as perfectly as its predecessors. Murray steps into the shoes of a debonair playboy art dealer who is determined to help his New York-dwelling adult daughter discover if her husband is being unfaithful, his pairing with Rashida Jones is both joyous and lived-in, and Coppola once again strips bare her own life experiences, fictionalises them, and creates something both thoughtful and moving. On the Rocks' premise really isn't far removed from Lost in Translation. The film's female protagonist is a decade older this time, her romantic troubles are complicated by both marriage and children, and another bustling city provides the backdrop, but the basic idea remains mostly the same. With Murray as the lively Felix and Jones as his overstressed offspring Laura, the movie takes them hopping around NYC as they endeavour to ascertain if the latter's workaholic other half, Dean (Marlon Wayans), is cosying up to his attractive young colleague (Jessica Henwick) while Laura is raising their two young daughters. In the process, Felix and Laura chat about anything and everything, covering topics both important and trivial. They eat and drink, and do so in luxe spaces while Felix naturally captivates everyone in his orbit and turns everything into an adventure. Over the course of their investigative escapade, Felix helps Laura work through her struggles, too — although here, their own complicated relationship is actually one of them. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVb6EdKDBfU THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Combine A Few Good Men's setting with The West Wing's faith in democratic ideals, and that's where The Trial of the Chicago 7 lands. Yes, they're all products of writer, TV series creator and director Aaron Sorkin — and while Sorkin's work can veer from exceptional (see: The Social Network) to frustrating (see: The Newsroom), his second stint as a filmmaker after 2017's Molly's Game makes the very most of his usual traits. Given the true tale he's telling — a story of vocal dissent against unpopular government actions and latter's retaliation, spanning protests and violence on the streets involving both activists and police — that's hardly surprising. That Sorkin has amassed a typically top-notch cast to sling his words helps considerably, including Bridge of Spies Oscar-winner Mark Rylance, The Theory of Everything Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and Watchmen Emmy-winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, plus everyone from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Keaton to Sacha Baron Cohen and Succession's Jeremy Strong. In the summer of 1968, as the Democratic Party assembled in Chicago for its national convention to confirm the party's nominee for the presidential election, several activist groups decided to make their displeasure known. There was much to rally against: the Vietnam War was raging and American soldiers were dying, both Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F Kennedy had been assassinated in separate incidents months earlier, and civil unrest was mounting across the country. The Trial of the Chicago 7 first introduces six figures making plans for the day, then cuts to the commencement of legal proceedings for eight defendants, all charged by the US federal government the next year. The complicated case that results is catnip for Sorkin, who unleashes his trademark flourishes on not only passionate speeches, but also infuriating courtroom incidents and the festering disagreement between codefendants, as well as in recreating the fateful protests. There's nothing unexpected about the way the filmmaker handles this story visually, narratively or thematically, but the end result proves an example of applying the right approach to the right tale. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nf--afqelY ANTEBELLUM Watching the sprawling, roving and weaving single-take shot that opens Antebellum, it helps to know what the movie's title actually means. The term refers to a time before a war, and is typically used in relation to the American Civil War — but in the film's eye-catching introduction, it certainly seems as if that historical conflict is raging away. On a southern plantation, Confederate soldiers under the leadership of Captain Jasper (Jack Huston) terrorise the property's enslaved Black workers with brutality and cruelty. Attempted runaway Eden (Janelle Monáe) is one of them, and subject not just to beatings, brandings and forced labour, but also raped regularly by the general (Eric Lange) who has claimed her as his own. She's planning another escape; however, thoroughly unexpectedly given the surroundings, a mobile phone suddenly rings. Now Monáe's character is called Veronica Henley, she's a well-known activist and author, and everything about her life (including the conference in New Orleans she attends) is firmly set in the 21st century. Obviously, how Monáe's dual roles intertwine is best discovered by watching — as is the involvement of Jena Malone's (Too Old to Die Young) Elizabeth, the plantation's resident belle as well as a modern-day caller for Veronica — but Antebellum proves far less powerful and clever than it thinks it is. While first-time writer-directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz blatantly try to follow in Jordan Peele's footsteps, using horror to explore race relations in America both in the present day and in the country's history, their efforts rely so heavily on one big twist that the movie resembles M Night Shyamalan's lesser works more than Get Out, Us or TV series Lovecraft Country. In endeavouring to unpack systemic racism, there's a smart idea at the heart the feature. Visually, Antebellum's always-lurid, often-violent imagery isn't easily forgotten, and the film also boasts a masterly performance by Moonlight and Hidden Figures star Monáe. And yet, connecting all those pieces together feels more like an exercise in making a provocative genre film than actually saying something meaningful about engrained prejudice in the US — a topic that, sadly, continues to remain timely, but is treated here as stock-standard horror fodder. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0FnJDhY9-0 THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO Watching Jimmie Fails in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, it never feels like you're viewing the work of a feature debutant. Played with the weight of the world not just carried on his shoulders, but oozing through in every quiet glance and gaze, his is a deeply nuanced and naturalistic performance — although given that the film is based on his own story, and he's starring as a fictionalised version of himself, perhaps that's to be expected. The on-screen Jimmie has been sleeping on his best friend Montgomery's (Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors) floor in the titular city's Bayview-Hunters Point neighbourhood. That's his latest stop, after years spent squatting with his dad (Rob Morgan), sleeping in cars and living in group homes. All Jimmie wants is his own house, and a specific one at that: a multi-storey abode in the Fillmore District that he grew up in, at least for a few years; that he contends his grandfather built in the 1940s; and that is now inhabited by an older white couple who aren't taking care of the property to Jimmie's standards. On paper, The Last Black Man in San Francisco's narrative sounds straightforward; however, as helmed by Fails' friend and Sundance-winning director Joe Talbot, this is an entrancing, almost fable-like film. It doesn't ever merely rally against gentrification in a simplistic manner, but paints a complex portrait of San Francisco as it now stands, of the city's scattered Black community and how they've been affected by its transformation, and of the shift away from artists and eccentrics in favour of bulldozers, technology and so-called progress. This is a movie about mourning for a past lost as well as reckoning with the future that's sprung in its place, and the evident love of details on display — in the house that Jimmie is so attached to, but also in his and Montgomery's daily bus trips, walks and skateboard rides throughout the hilly locale they call home — couldn't be more crucial in that regard. Sometimes, the film leans more on mood than story, but that approach fits when you're not only surveying and lamenting a place and a modern world that's losing its character, but turning that process into a piece of cinematic poetry. Indeed, there's a tender, heartfelt feel to The Last Black Man in San Francisco that, combined with its stellar cinematography, never feels less than authentic and moving in every frame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh-oOnZ2Di0 SPUTNIK When Ridley Scott's Alien let a chest-bursting extra-terrestrial loose among a spaceship's crew, and John Carpenter's The Thing remake set a violent critter loose amongst an Antarctic research station, they didn't just create two of the best science fiction films ever made — they also inspired a wealth of imitators. And, at first, it seems that Russian sci-fi thriller Sputnik is one of them. Here, two Cold War-era cosmonauts see something strange during an orbital mission. Then, upon returning to earth, it appears that sole survivor Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov, The Blackout) isn't the only creature inhabiting his body. It's 1983 and, as anyone who was watched the also 80s-set Chernobyl knows, the USSR isn't keen on big scandals. Accordingly, Colonel Semiradov (Fedor Bondarchuk, also one of the film's producers) is determined to keep Veshnyakov locked up in a secret south Kazakhstan facility until he can work out how to control the alien, enlisting boundary-pushing psychiatrist Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina, The Bourne Supremacy) to help. While watching Sputnik and thinking of similar flicks from years gone by go hand-in-hand, first-time feature director Egor Abramenko does more than simply nod to his influences. There's a grimness and a weightiness to this film that's all its own, even as it toys with familiar components — a specificity to the characters, and specifically to Veshnyakov and Klimova's efforts to navigate Soviet Russia's heavy-handed to control, too. And, when it comes to sustaining a mood of tension and suspense, evoking a forbidding sense of its time and place, and coming face to face with the slithering alien, Sputnik excels. Sparse in its look, firm in its tone and led by an impressive Akinshina, it never plays like a carbon-copy B-movie, either. There's an art to ensuring that even the most recognisable genre elements can feel fresh, entertaining and engaging — and suitably unnerving, which this narrative clearly calls for — and that ends up being the case here. Sputnik is screening in select cinemas in Sydney. 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 July 2, July 9, July 16, July 23 and July 30; August 6, August 13, August 20 and August 27; and September 3, September 10, September 17 and September 24. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as The Personal History of David Copperfield, Waves, The King of Staten Island, Babyteeth, Deerskin, Peninsula, Tenet, Les Misérables, The New Mutants, Bill & Ted Face the Music, The Translators, An American Pickle and The High Note. Top image: The Trial of the Chicago 7 via Niko Tavernise/Netflix © 2020
Sometimes Apple TV+ dives into real-life crimes, as miniseries Black Bird did. Sometimes it mines the whodunnit setup for laughs, which The Afterparty winningly achieved. The family feuds of Bad Sisters, Servant's domestic horrors, Hello Tomorrow!'s retrofuturistic dream, the titular take on work-life balance in Severance — they've all presented streaming audiences with puzzles, too, because this platform's original programming loves a mystery. So, of course The Big Door Prize, the service's new dramedy, is all about asking questions from the outset. Here, no one is wondering who killed who, why a baby has been resurrected or if a situation that sounds too good to be true unsurprisingly is. Rather, they're pondering a magical machine and what it tells them about themselves. That premise isn't merely a metaphor for existential musings, although everyone in The Big Door Prize does go down the "what does it all mean?" rabbit hole. When the Morpho pops up in the small town of Deerfield, it literally informs residents of their true potential — for $2, their palm prints and social security number. Adorned with a butterfly symbol and glowing with blue light, the contraption looks like an arcade game. There's nothing to play, though, unless it is playing everyone who sits in its booth. Participants receive an also-blue business card for their troubles, proclaiming what they're supposed to be doing with their life in bold white lettering. Is it a bit of fun? A modern-day clairvoyant game? A gag? Somehow spot-on? Also, where did the machine come from? Who brought it to the local grocery store? Can it be trusted? The longer that folks share their existence with the Morpho, the more queries arise. As seen in the first three episodes that dropped on Wednesday, March 29, with the story then continuing weekly for the show's ten-episode first season — a second has just been greenlit as well — not everyone in Deerfield is initially fascinated with the locale's new gadget. The series opens as high-school history teacher Dusty Hubbard (Chris O'Dowd, Slumberland) turns 40, marking the occasion with that many gifts from his wife Cass (Gabrielle Dennis, A Black Lady Sketch Show) and teenage daughter Trina (Djouliet Amara, Devil in Ohio). Some presents he likes, such as the scooter and helmet. Others he's perplexed by, including the theremin. He's also baffled by all the talk about the Morpho, the new reason to head to Mr Johnson's (Patrick Kerr, Search Party) store. As school principal Pat (Cocoa Brown, Never Have I Ever) embraces her inner biker because the machine said so, and charisma-dripping restaurateur Giorgio (Josh Segarra, Scream VI) revels in being told he's a superstar, Dusty claims he's happy not joining in. Lines sprawl down the street in a town that only really has a main street, and a high school, as Deerfield's inhabitants are drawn in by the Morpho's promise: "Discover Your Life Potential". For someone who keeps saying he's sitting it out, Dusty sure does love obsessing over why everyone else is upending their routines because 80s-esque technology spat out their destiny. His parents announce that they're splitting, for instance, with his dad (Jim Meskimen, American Auto) pursuing male modelling and his mother (Deirdre O'Connell, Outer Range) heading to Europe after the machine advised that she's a healer. When Dusty points that his mum is already a doctor, it falls on deaf ears. So goes the entire town, making snap decisions and grabbing the opportunity to reinvent themselves, mix up lives that didn't ever seem like they'd change and reassess what they truly want. The Big Door Prize itself hasn't appeared out of nowhere, adapting MO Walsh's book of the same name. On-screen, it boasts David West Read as its creator — a writer and producer who knows a thing or two about pursuing alternate storylines thanks to penning stage musical & Juliet, which gives Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet a revisionist twist and continuation, and is also well-versed in small-town hijinks after winning an Emmy for Schitt's Creek. He's in far less overtly comic territory than the latter here; The Big Door Prize is still amusing, but rarely laugh-a-minute, although The Other Two delight Segarra could walk straight out of this and into Read's past hit. Still, this is also about a family disrupted while navigating small-town life, the assorted people who populate such spots, the rituals and gathering points that communities congregate around, and the quest to find significance in the cards you've been dealt. Making the most of its strong ensemble cast, each of the show's first eight episodes focuses on a particular Deerfield citizen and their potential, while keeping Dusty, Cass and their marriage in view, plus Trina's grief over her boyfriend's recent death and his identical twin Jacob's (debutant Sammy Fourlas) efforts to cope. All four earn their own chapter, as does Cass' mother and town mayor Izzy (Crystal Fox, Big Little Lies), Jacob's western-loving dad Beau (Aaron Roman Weiner, Suspicion), aforementioned NHL star-turned-Italian eatery owner Giorgio and school chaplain Father Rueben (Damon Gupton, Your Honor). This approach helps The Big Door Prize get not just philosophical but universal, because the Morpho's fortune-telling means different things to different people, yet sparks ripples that flow over everyone. While only bartender Hana (Ally Maki, Hacks) genuinely opts out, there's a tale around that as well. From the get-go, the Morpho nabs viewers' intrigue — and so do the strange cobalt dots, matching the machine's chosen palette, that appear early on Dusty's rear. There's no shortage of small mysteries in Deerfield, just as there's no lack of quirks (see: the town's staycation spot, aka "the number one nautical-based hotel in Deerfield", plus the canal and gondola inside Giorgio's eponymous restaurant). But like The Twilight Zone-meets-The Box but lighter, with nods to Schitt's Creek and sharing Wes Anderson's love of visually magnifying the everyday, The Big Door Prize gets its audience ruminating over two main questions. The first, in classic Apple TV+ mystery-style: what's really going on? The second: if a machine could advise how to best spend your days, possibly shattering your long-held dreams but maybe confirming your deepest desires, what would you do? In lieu of physically slipping into Dusty and co's shoes, then facing The Big Door Prize's scenario themselves, viewers should watch. Wanting to solve the show's key mystery makes this addictive viewing — and if you start thinking about Lost, or even the theory that Schitt's Creek was happening in purgatory, that's understandable. As written so convincingly across O'Dowd's expressive face, though, The Big Door Prize isn't about delivering instant answers. The likeable The IT Crowd, Bridesmaids and Moone Boy star plays a man who has never actively sought any himself, but just complied with the done thing, a path that's beginning to unravel. Easy proclamations now surround him; however, alongside his fellow townsfolk, he's learning that life's mundanities and enigmas alike don't fit neatly and nicely into any one box — and nor does this engaging series. Check out the trailer for The Big Door Prize below: The Big Door Prize streams via Apple TV+.
If you've caught up with some of the highest-profile new movies in recent months, you might have noticed that looking up has been a big part of a few films. Top Gun: Maverick demanded it, while Don't Look Up grappled with the very idea of peering upwards — and the sky plays a significant role in fresh release Nope, too. Tonight, on the evening of Thursday, August 11 Down Under, looking up should be on your agenda as well. Stare at the heavens with your own two eyes and you'll see a stunning sight — and it'll also be visible tomorrow morning, on Friday, August 12, too. Another supermoon is upon us, and will officially be at its peak at 11.35 AEST on Friday — but if you train your peepers towards the sky this evening, you'll still be in for a glowing show. While super full moons aren't particularly rare — several usually happen each year, and one occurred just last month — there is a good reason to peer upwards this time around. If you're wondering why, we've run through the details below. WHAT IS IT? If you're more familiar with The Mighty Boosh's take on the moon than actual lunar terms, here's what you need to know. As we all learned back in November 2016, a supermoon is a new moon or full moon that occurs when the moon reaches the closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, making it particularly bright. They're not all that uncommon — and because August's 2022's supermoon is a full moon (and not a new moon), it's called a super full moon. It's also a sturgeon moon, too, which doesn't refer to its shape or any other physical characteristics, but to the time of year. In the northern hemisphere, August is around the time that sturgeon fish start to show up in big numbers in North America's lakes. Of course, that doesn't apply in the southern hemisphere, but the name still sticks. Also, this supermoon happens to the last one of 2022. WHEN CAN I SEE IT? As mentioned above, the sturgeon supermoon will officially be at its peak at 11.35am AEST tomorrow, Friday, August 12, Down Under — but thankfully it will be visible from Thursday night Australia and New Zealand time. The moon does usually appear full for a few days each month, so if you already thought that the night sky looked a little brighter this week, that's why. Still yet to catch a glimpse? You'll want to peek outside when it gets dark to feast your eyes on a luminous lunar sight. Head over to timeanddate.com for the relevant moonrise and moonset times for your area, with the moon rising at 4.22pm AEST on Thursday, August 11. WHERE CAN I SEE IT? You can take a gander from your backyard or balcony, but the standard advice regarding looking into the night sky always applies — so city-dwellers will want to get as far away from light pollution as possible to get the absolute best view. Weather-wise, the Bureau of Meteorology advises that Sydney and Perth will be cloudy, Melbourne is in for a few showers, and the wet will increase in Adelaide. In Brisbane, though, clear skies await. Over in NZ, Conditions are fine in Auckland, while Wellington can expect periods of rain. Fancy checking it out online? The Virtual Telescope Project is set to stream the view from Rome at 3pm on Friday, August 12, too. Top image: NASA/Joel Kowsky.
New season of True Detective, new cops, new case: since 2014, that's been the setup for this HBO hit, as viewers will enjoy again in January 2024. When True Detective: Night Country arrives, Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster, The Mauritanian) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis, Catch the Fair One) are in the spotlight, investigating an icy mystery in Alaska. Eight men on an arctic research station disappear without a trace — and it's up to the franchise's latest duo to discover what's going on. Whether or not you believe that time is a flat circle — and everything we've ever done or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over and over again, too — watching new episodes of this sleuthing series is indeed about to become a reality again. When True Detective returns for a six-episode fourth season after a five-year absence, it'll head to the town of Ennis, spend time with a pair that's hardly happy to be working together, and serve up plenty of chills and darkness. In both True Detective: Night Country's initial teasers and its just-dropped full trailer, Danvers and Navarro team up to discover why the Tsalal Arctic Research Station staff have gone missing. In the latest sneak peek, a potential supernatural angle is teased, too — ice zombies, anyone? When it hits Down Under on Monday, January 15 — via Binge in Australia and Neon in New Zealand — True Detective: Night Country will also feature Finn Bennett (Hope Gap), Fiona Shaw (Andor), Christopher Eccleston (Dodger), Isabella Star LaBlanc (Long Slow Exhale) and John Hawkes (Too Old to Die Young) in front of the camera. Behind the lens, every one of the series' episodes is written and directed by Tigers Are Not Afraid filmmaker Issa López, with Moonlight's Barry Jenkins an executive producer. Each season of True Detective tells its own tale, so there's no need to catch up on past chapters if you watched the Matthew McConaughey (The Gentlemen)- and Woody Harrelson (White House Plumbers)-led first season in 2014 — as everyone did — but didn't keep up from there. Taylor Kitsch (Painkiller), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Rachel McAdams (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret) starred in season two, while Mahershala Ali (Leave the World Behind) and Stephen Dorff (The Righteous Gemstones) took over in season three. Check out the full trailer for True Detective: Night Country below: True Detective: Night Country will stream in Australia Monday, January 15, 2024 via Binge in Australia and Neon in New Zealand.
Now in its eight year, the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards is looking to inspire passionate creatives across Australia by inviting them to submit their work for the chance to win the prize of a lifetime. In 2011, the SOYAs has expanded the categories of entry, with the roster now including fashion, interactive content and gaming, written word, visual design and communications, film and video, photography, visual arts, craft and object design, music, architecture and interior design, and animation. Australians under the age of 30 are encouraged to present their work in one of these categories, with the closing date of one category occurring each month until October 2012. Each winner will receive a handy $5000 cash prize. Furthermore, each category has a different one-year mentorship program which will allow the winner to work with some of the leading figures within their chosen industry. These include fashion icons Nicky and Simone Zimmermann, Legally Blonde director Robert Luketic, and music producer Lee Groves, whose portoflio includes the likes of Gwen Stefani, Marilyn Manson and Craig David. This will provide newcomers with invaluable experience from industry experts. If that wasn't enough, Qantas will also send the winners on a trip to an exclusive event within their field. These events are scattered all over the world, but are united by their prestige and widespread recognition. These include London Fashion Week, the Edinburgh Film Festival and Cannes Lions. Previous winners of the Spirit of Youth Awards have soared to new heights, such as fashion designers Romance Was Born (pictured), musicians Wolf & Cub and photographer Penny Lane. With the competition's expansion into unprecedented categories, there are now more opportunities for Australia's finest creative minds to showcase their work to the world. Furthermore, winners will be financially assisted and treated to experiences that will allow their talents to flourish.
A city break in Aotearoa New Zealand's biggest city, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, has never offered more. There's an itinerary to suit all timeframes and holiday personalities — from the city-slicker to beach-goer, the shopping-focused traveller to the foodie whose appetite leads the way. It's a city constantly evolving its offerings, with hospitality joints popping up left, right, and centre. So, we've scoped the best experiences and places to note with 100% Pure New Zealand to help you make the most of your Auckland break. Add an extra car ride out of the city or linger a little longer in the big smoke — it's over to you to indulge your whims. What we can promise is all roads lead to a memorable stay. One with world-class views, innovative foods or even dramatic black sand underfoot. [caption id="attachment_929906" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] The Hotel Britomart[/caption] Stay: The Hotel Britomart The Hotel Britomart pulls out every stop for a distinctly Aotearoa New Zealand stay in downtown Auckland. Exposed timbers and brick nod to the building's past life as a factory and Masonic house, while modern luxury oozes from local artisan-crafted furniture, recycled glass chandeliers and crockery. Inside the rooms, minibars are filled generously with local treats. The 99 sustainable rooms are categorised by their views. Generous windows offer direct glimpses of the Waitematā Harbour, the CBD's skyline, or the vibrant laneways. The Wairoa Suite, the largest of the five Landing Suites, offers sprawling rooftop views framed by architecturally designed wooden details. Downstairs, the all-day restaurant kingi focuses on elevated seafood, with a sommelier-curated wine library showcasing local terroirs. Tucked away in the on-site lane are a fleet of complimentary vintage bikes, ready for adventures. Stay: Mövenpick Hotel Auckland Auckland is a food-lovers paradise, and now you can stay at a hotel where food is the focus. Mövenpick Hotel Auckland's daily Chocolate Hour indulges guests with a complimentary daily buffet of truffles, cakes and fondue between 3.30–4.30pm. When it's time to break the sugar rush, on-site restaurant BODA offers panoramic harbour views, Korean-New Zealander cuisine and inventive cocktails. Or retreat to the sleek, monochromatic suites, knowing the 24-hour ice-cream sundae service means that your next sugar hit isn't far away. A central location makes Mövenpick Hotel Auckland the perfect base for urban adventures. Step out from the lobby to Auckland's main Queen Street or explore the local boutiques and eateries in the adjacent Commercial Bay. For adventures further afield, Auckland's main Britomart Train Station is on the same block to connect you to most mainland suburbs, while the main ferry terminal — the gateway to wine-mecca Waiheke Island and bird sanctuary Tiritiri Matangi — is just a few metres beyond. See: Ever-Changing Landscapes with GO Rentals As exhilarating as city life is, renting a car, even for a day, is your ticket to seeing Auckland in all its glory — and fast. After all, you're never more than 45 minutes away from a beach. Jump in a GO Rentals four-wheel-drive to venture through the bush, to wineries and eventually to the surf-ready black sand beaches of west Auckland. Closer to town, soak up all dimensions of Auckland through the skyroof of a climate-friendly GO Tesla. Cruise through the bustling beach strips of the eastern suburbs like Mission Bay and Kohimarama along Tamaki Drive. Drive up one of Auckland's many maunga (mountains) for quintessential Auckland views. Mt Eden and Mt Albert offer panoramic views, and the nearby townships are brimming with artisanal bakeries and cafes for picnic essentials. Round out your journey by offsetting emissions with CarbonClick, and you'll feel just as good as you did driving breezily behind the wheel. See: Explore the City's Seaside You can't come to Auckland without experiencing it from its most impressive vantage point: the glittering Viaduct and surrounding Hauraki Gulf. If you stay in Auckland's city centre, you'll be a short walk from Te Wero Island — a nook in the Viaduct that houses many of Auckland's bustling harbourside bars and restaurants like St Alice, Dr Rudi's and it-bistro, Soul Bar. It's an ideal spot to rug up and maximise your culinary experiences. Otherwise, the area's public transport and ample roads make it accessible from all directions. The nearby New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa runs harbour cruises on the beloved wooden boat, Breeze, for a different vantage point of the city too. [caption id="attachment_929939" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] ai_yoshi via iStock[/caption] See: Nature and Heritage Your Way at Auckland Domain Auckland's sprawling park is home to 150-year-plus trees as well as a stunning winter garden that's well worth the visit on any trip to Auckland. It's New Zealand's oldest public park, 200 acres in size and has four kilometres of walking tracks that can be used to explore the scenery and peaceful vibes above the city. It's serene surroundings can be enjoyed year-round, but if we're being honest, it's particularly magical when temperatures dip in the city. The gardens' sculpture walk takes on a new dimension when experienced with a bite in the air, with the cool metal of the sculptures in stark contrast to the grassy greens of the park. Taste: Exquisite Pacific Fusion at Metita At the newly opened Metita restaurant in SkyCity, explore the urban ritual that Aucklanders love most: indulging in new fusion cuisines. Offering contemporary Pasifika cuisine, Metita explores the intricate flavours of the many island cultures that call New Zealand home and chef Michael Meredith's Samoan roots. Dishes include inventively garnished meats, caviar and corned beef buns, and the signature oysters cooked in marrow. There's no shortage of things to do, see, drink, and eat here. Being Auckland's largest entertainment precinct, SkyCity houses 15 bars and eateries as well as the iconic Sky Tower and its 350 metre-high city views. There's also the award-winning East Day Spa (home to the nation's only marble lounger tepidarium) and two hotels. Taste: Authentically Loved Auckland Eats Aucklanders have solidified their love of eating into a collaborative list of must-try dishes: Auckland Iconic Eats. This list is updated yearly by public vote, and the quality is consistent. Favourites include the chicken parfait from Britomart's Mr Morris, succulent fish sliders from SkyCity's Depot and Gochu's pork and kimchi-stuffed milk buns. Consider it a starting point for your next sit-in menu, or treat it as a bar-crawl-like mission to tick off as many as possible and test the limits of your belt buckle. Taste: New-Wave Māori Flavours at Ada Adding to the list of cuisines that are hard to find outside of New Zealand is Ada, where Chef Kia Kanuta prepares elegant Māori comfort kai (cuisine). Rewarewa fried sourdough is topped with a bespoke mushroom grown only for Ada, paua (abalone) gets a vongole and chilli-infused twist, while snapper is battered whole and served with his iconic Marmite béchamel. Everything is harvested sustainably and served with the finesse of Chef Kanuta's French training. Ada is in The Convent Hotel, located in the trendy suburb of Grey Lynn, 15 minutes from downtown and easily accessible by bus or car. Lovers of interiors and architecture will appreciate the space's sleek transformation from a former 1922 Spanish-revival nunnery to a boutique hotel. Find your very own Aotearoa New Zealand here.
