His video collection is filled with 80s and 90s educational films. When we chat, he's staring at a Teddy Ruxpin doll. If anyone was destined to make Brigsby Bear, a delightful, insightful comedy about a fictional television show and its number one fan, it's Saturday Night Live star Kyle Mooney. With Mooney in the lead, his childhood pal Kevin Costello with him on co-screenwriting duties, and another of their friends, Dave McCary, in the directors chair, Brigsby Bear feels like it has been ripped not just from Mooney's mind, but from his heart. It's the most earnest and genuine film you could imagine about an adult discovering that his favourite show isn't quite what he thinks — one that isn't afraid to give nostalgia a hearty embrace while wading through dark terrain. It's also a perfect addition to a career that started with web sketches with his friends in comedy troupe Good Neighbour and segued into the most famous late night comedy show there is. Along the way, he's also racked up parts on Parks and Recreation, the US version of Wilfred and Hello Ladies. With Brigbsy Bear currently screening in Australian cinemas, we spoke with Mooney about turning his VHS obsession into a movie, getting the confidence to make the leap to film, and doing so with his best friends. ON FINDING INSPIRATION IN GREEK CINEMA AND 80s VHS TAPES "I don't know how it came to me — if I was just hanging around the house or in some sort of dream state or what, but I became really obsessed with this idea of a guy who watches a TV show that's being produced just for him," explains Mooney. "And I kept on thinking about that concept until eventually the story became not just that, but more about the world he explores after that, and outside of that." "There was a movie that came out a few years ago called Dogtooth. It has some similar qualities, with a family being raised in seclusion, so maybe that played a part. But generally I couldn't tell you where it came from, except from me being that obsessive myself, and watching these shows — I have a big VHS collection of kids shows, and I watch them over and over again." "It's mostly stuff that's made for kids, and mostly stuff from the 80s and 90s. I especially really like stuff that was released straight-to-video, and was produced regionally. And where there's maybe only 200 copies made. Educational films, religious videos, stuff like that. What I really like is when it has a low budget, and low production values, but you can tell that whoever's in charge of this thing is trying to do their best impression of Jim Henson or Walt Disney — and it's totally not working." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgs81IOU0m4 ON MAKING THE LEAP FROM SHORTS, TO SNL, TO HIS FIRST FEATURE FILM "I started working on videos with Dave, our director, in my early 20s — right out of college. And with every video you learn something. And then, after a few of them you start trying new things, and you add people to the crew, or maybe start to put a little more money into the production. So it was kind of a gradual build where the stakes rise a little more each time." "By the time we got SNL — I went there with Dave and with Beck Bennett, who's a cast member who is also in our movie — again, there is a little more pressure at it, but you get used to it. And now you're working with a huge celebrity host each week! And you do that for a few years, and it has been building so that, by the time we were on set last summer shooting the movie, I felt pretty prepared." ON MAKING A MOVIE WITH HIS CHILDHOOD BEST FRIENDS "We had all of these shared experiences. With Dave and I, like, there was this very specific kid who went to middle school with us. And I can just be like, 'Jim said this in science class in 1998', or whatever it is, and we can get a laugh out of it. And there's just a level of trust that's there, I think, when Dave is directing me. He knows what I'm capable of. We have the same sensibilities, pretty much." "So it's easy for me, and I think it relieves a lot of the pressure of working on something and not knowing how it is going to turn out. We're also all in it together — and we fail together and we succeed together. But yeah, certainly like having so much history and sharing a sensibility helped." "And I had enough fun on that set that I felt like, 'if this is all we get out of it, I feel pretty good'. Even if the movie didn't turn out well, I would've just considered it a rad summer where we got to work on something together. When we weren't shooting, we would hang out in our hotel rooms or get beers or sing karaoke. It was truly a wonderful crew and cast, and it's nice that what comes through on screen is true to what the experience was like." ON THE FILM'S EARNESTNESS AND OPTIMISM "We have so much genuine love for the things we were trying to recreate. The Brigsby show that's in the movie — I love children's entertainment, and we never wanted to poke fun. I think we always really wanted to pay tribute to it." "And also, the film's underlying theme of creativity, or storytelling, or finding something that you love — we never felt like we wanted to make fun of that. We just wanted to embrace it. We just really liked the idea of playing everything earnest and honest, and hoped the laughs would come along naturally along the way." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MdrGM27yQ8 Read our Brigbsy Bear review.
Nightclub toilets aren't just a place where people head when nature calls between drinks and dancefloor stints. Amid the women's bathroom cubicles, sinks and queues — there's always a queue — conversations erupt, heart-to-hearts spring and friendships are forged. So knows everyone who has ever needed to use a club's facilities, and also UK-born theatre show Overflow, which is one of the highlights of 2023's MELT Festival. Hitting Brisbane thanks to Darlinghurst Theatre Company, but hailing from British playwright and prominent trans voice Travis Alabanza, Overflow doesn't only dive into the camaraderie that can arise in its distinctive setting — it's also about someone trapped in a flooding stall. As it spends time with protagonist Rosie, it confronts the debate circling about who is and isn't allowed in these public spaces, in a powerful piece about trans and gender diverse experiences. Overflow sits on MELT Festival's lineup alongside an array of music, theatre and visual art, as Brisbane Powerhouse's annual celebration of queer culture always puts on. Since 2015, the event has celebrated all things LGBTQIA+, with 2023's fest from Saturday, November 11–Sunday, November 26 marking its eighth edition. Also leading the bill: Kah-Lo, Djanaba, Aluna and KUČKA. Kah-Lo hits MELT ready to bust out 'Rinse & Repeat', 'Fast', 'Fake' and 'Drag Me Out', with First Nations artist Djanaba with her. Aluna, formerly half of AlunaGeorge, has songs from her solo record MYCELiUM to play, with Flume, SOPHIE and Kendrick Lamar collaborator KUČKA sharing her stage. [caption id="attachment_914091" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Robert Catto.[/caption] MELT's 2023 lineup also includes TOPS and Matt Hsu's Obscure Orchestra on the music roster — the former getting Jane Penny's vocals echoing through Brisbane Powerhouse, and the latter featuring more than 20 BIPOC, First Nations, disabled, non-binary and trans artists. Plus, Alter Boy, June Jones, Keiynan Lonsdale and Keelan Mak are also help round out the bill. Theatre fans can check out Bunny, too, the rope-focused work by Luke George and Daniel that explores trust, consent and desire. And, Rhys Nicholson is on the roster on a book tour for Dish. Also, MELT will feature three free visual art exhibitions: Paul Yore's BECOME WHAT YOU ARE, The Huxleys' Places of Worship and Multitudes by Tin Nguyen & Edward. Contemplating consumerism, sexuality, pop culture, neo-liberalism and more, the first is textiles-heavy, including pieces from a collaboration with Romance Was Born. For the second, performance artists Will and Garrett Huxley play outsiders in their latest photographic series. And, with the third, Tin & Ed are setting up a series of outdoor installations about borderless spaces. If you'd like to be a part of art, artist Spencer Tunick is returning to Australia for MELT, too, staging a new nude photography work along the Brisbane River. [caption id="attachment_919587" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Spencer Tunick[/caption]
UPDATE, November 23, 2022: Festival X has announced that Megan Thee Stallion will no longer be headlining the festival. This article has been updated to reflect that lineip change. It's been three years since the Australian music festival scene welcomed Festival X, which debuted back in 2019 with Calvin Harris leading the bill. We all know why the event hasn't been able to return since, but it's remedying that absence on the Gold Coast on Sunday, November 27 with Harris as one of its headliners again. That's fantastic news if you're a fan of the Scottish DJ. Also topping the bill: Don Toliver. If you're keen for a hot girl summer, Festival X's 2022 comeback was due to feature Megan Thee Stallion as well, who was set to head to Australia for the first time ever; however, she's sadly no longer coming Down Under. Festival X will take over Metricon Stadium, with Boys Noize, Green Velvet, John Summit, Luude and MaRLo also doing their thing onstage — and, yes, the list goes on. Festival X hails from quite the list of industry big guns, with Onelove (Stereosonic), Live Nation (Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival) and Hardware (Piknic Electronik, Babylon) behind the touring event. FESTIVAL X 2022 LINEUP: Calvin Harris Megan Thee Stallion Don Toliver Boys Noize Green Velvet John Summit Luude MaRLo Nina Kraviz Sub Focus (DJ set and ID) Tchami Wilkinson (DJ set) Anna Lunoe Babyface Mal Badrapper Blastoyz Choomba Cosmic Gate Franky Rizardo Haliene Key4050 featuring John O'Callaghan and Bryan Kearney Laura King Len Faki Nifra Nora En Pure Prospa Sunset Bros Taglo Tyson O'Brien
The Witcher wasn't Freya Allan's first acting role. But within a mere two years of her debut on-screen credit, she was in a streaming smash. The Netflix series arrived just as Game of Thrones ended, falling into the big wave of fantasy efforts endeavouring to capitalise upon the genre's Westeros-fuelled renewed TV popularity. It did just that, sparking two more seasons that've already aired, a fourth in the works — to be co-led by Liam Hemsworth (Land of Bad), who takes over from Henry Cavill (Argylle) — and both animated and live-action spinoffs. The Witcher also thrust Allan, the show's Crown Princess Cirilla of Cintra and one of its three central characters, to fame in a huge way. The English actor isn't done with her time as Ciri yet, but she's now added a new first to her resume: her first lead film part. In fact, Baghead is only her second movie stint, after co-starring in 2021's Gunpowder Milkshake. One thing remains familiar, as it did when she appeared in miniseries The Third Day as well: Allan and the supernatural keep being linked. While that connection isn't purposeful on her part, the two-time Saturn Award-nominee — the accolades handed out by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, with Allan twice in contention for Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Television Series — can see why it keeps happening. "I think once you show a certain thing, people go 'oh, she's the girl that can do that'. And it's harder to break out of a certain box," Allan tells Concrete Playground. "But it's always a work in progress." [caption id="attachment_944097" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Susie Allnutt, Netflix[/caption] Baghead tasks her with getting otherworldly by talking to the dead in an eerie pub. Iris Lark, Allan's character, inherits the Berlin watering hole when her estranged father Owen (Peter Mullan, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) passes away. She didn't know about the bar's existence otherwise but, as encouraged by a disquieting solicitor (Ned Dennehy, The Peripheral), she's soon signing up to take it over. Inside, the run-down inn offers more than anyone could ever bargain for. In its basement exists an entity that can give patrons quite the deal: for two minutes, it will gift whoever sits in a chair opposite it the chance to spend time with a loved one that they've lost. It boasts Talk to Me vibes, but the premise initially fuelled Alberto Corredor's 2017 short that's also called Baghead. The full-length version is the director's feature debut. At the movie's centre sits two key elements: the "what would you do?" question, as part of its grappling with grief; plus Allan as the twentysomething woman tussling with that very query — which Iris only learns about after the mourning Neil (Jeremy Irvine, Benediction) arrives with cash for his own date with the pub's other inhabitant — and then experiencing the consequences. Taking the horror heroine route to the silver screen is a tried-and-tested path. After Baghead, however, Allan will next hit picture palaces in 2024 in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film in the latest Planet of the Apes franchise. "Apes for me is my proudest project I've done so far. I just think that everyone involved is just superb at what they do. All the actors, I watched most of the film the other day, and they just killed it. So I feel very proud of it and I'm just excited for people to see it, and I hope that they can appreciate everyone's hard work," Allan advises. We also chatted with Allan about her response to Baghead's setup, what she'd do in the same situation, how she chooses projects, her relationship with horror and taking on her first lead part — and The Witcher, of course. On How Allan Would React If She Was Given the Chance to Talk to the Dead for Two Minutes "I would. Well, I wouldn't in this film, because there's a lot of risk factors involved. But in general, if I could talk to my grandparents, I definitely would. It was two years ago we shot it, but I'm sure we must have had a conversation about it at some point while shooting. I feel like it's the inevitable question." On Allan's Initial Response to Baghead's Premise — and How She Prepared for the Part "My first response as Freya, I was drawn to that element. I think grief is such a topic that everyone can really associate to and has experienced. And so I think that's immediately something that's very easy to connect to, and is such a prevalent part of life. You can't really escape it. So I think that's profound. I just came up with a backstory and made sure I had all the details I needed, and all the questions answered that I needed. And in regards to when she lost her parents, and understanding a bit more about peoples' experience in the foster-care system where she's come from. And having just lots of conversations with people and their experiences around grief as well, even talking to my mum about it, and Alberto and the other cast as well — just having those constant conversations." On the Challenge of Taking on Her First Leading Film Role "It doesn't necessarily feel totally different to The Witcher in terms of the pressure. I think I have the same pressure on every job I do. It never really goes, whether you have a smaller part or a larger part. And also, it very much felt like I was a part of a team with Ruby [Barker, from Bridgerton] and Jeremy, who played Katie [Iris' best friend] and Neil. So, it felt like we were there to support each other." On What Appeals to Allan About New Projects — Including Baghead "It depends. I think I definitely was at a place of still wanting to learn. I mean, I want to learn on every job I do, obviously — it's just a natural part of leaving a job, you always feel like you've learned even more for the next job. I saw this as a great opportunity for that. It was my first lead in a feature and it was a great ground to learn in order to go into other projects with more experience. And I would say from here, I love to do some stuff which is completely stripped back and has no supernatural at all." On Starring in a Horror Movie But Not Being an Obsessive Horror Fan "I feel like it's an inevitability for every actor. You can't really be an actor and not have done a horror film — and actually it's, like I say, a great ground for learning a lot of things, because a lot of it actually does really revolve around physicality and building a heart rate. And you begin to realise how much physicality plays into being an actor. That really helped me for for other things. But no, I'm not immediately a horror fan — I don't know everything about horror films, but I definitely have had great experiences of watching certain horror movies. I really do think that they can be the perfect film for cinema, to go and have a have a real experience with your friends, and be scared and have a snack." [caption id="attachment_944098" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Susie Allnutt, Netflix[/caption] On Allan's Journey with The Witcher So Far "When I got that role, that was huge for me and it was so exciting. That character is always going to be hold a very dear place in my heart, and I feel very lucky to have specifically played her. I think she really gets to have such an arc throughout the whole show by the end. But obviously, you do begin to want to do new things as well. So I think when it comes to an end, it will be a bittersweet thing of saying goodbye to a character that I'm hugely grateful for, but also being excited to do new things." Baghead opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, February 22. Read our review.
In a perfect world, cinephiles from all around Australia would currently be converging upon Melbourne to attend the city's always jam-packed annual film festival. Going to MIFF is an experience. In its pre-pandemic form, the festival ran for 18 days every year, screened hundreds of movies, and had film buffs constantly hopping between the Forum, ACMI, Hoyts Central and whichever other venues happened to be in use at any given fest. It's an ordeal. It's glorious. It a movie-lover's dream. It's a way of life. It also now feels like a treasure from a completely different time. The Melbourne International Film Festival is still on the agenda for 2021, thankfully. It's quite a bit different to MIFFs gone by, though, and — at least according to current plans at the time of writing — to the fest's online-only version last year. Ideally, there'll still be an in-cinema experience after Melbourne's latest lockdown ends on Thursday, August 12; however, from Thursday, August 5, the fest is also playing more than 90 titles digitally (and nationally) via its new online platform MIFF Play. Accordingly, whether you're a locked-down Melbourne resident who's gearing up for the usual MIFF fun in a week's time, or you're a movie fan also in lockdown in Sydney or Brisbane, a heap of films from around the world are now available to stream. Some have done the rounds of prestigious international fests, and arrive with a reputation. Others you mightn't have heard of yet, and you definitely won't find streaming anywhere else. That's this year's MIFF, digital-style, and we've watched and reviewed ten standouts from the online program that you should pop on your must-see list. FRESHMAN YEAR A college-set rom-com about stumbling forward — literally and emotionally — Freshman Year sounds rather familiar on paper. Alex (Cooper Raiff, Madeline & Cooper) has moved to Los Angeles for school, has struggled through six months so far and is still finding it hard to fit in, especially with his constantly drunk roommate Sam (Logan Miller, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions). When he isn't eating alone, he's video-chatting with his mum (Amy Landecker, Bombshell) and younger sister (Olivia Scott Welch, Fear Street) in Dallas, and wishing he was there himself. Then, after a party at a frat house called "shit house" — which was also the movie's original title when it won the Grand Jury Prize for best narrative feature at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival — Alex connects with Maggie (Dylan Gelula, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) over a night spent drinking, walking, talking, burying a dead pet turtle, spilling secrets and more. Raiff, who writes and directs as well as stars, has clearly seen Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight, plus Dazed and Confused. He's seen all the flicks they've inspired over the past couple of decades, too. Thankfully, the talented young filmmaker and actor crafts a romance-meets-coming-of-age film that's both laden with Gen Z specifics and steeped in universal emotions, as aided by his dreamlike visual eye and stellar performances — yes, from Raiff himself, and also from the always-excellent Gelula. LA VERÓNICA When Mariana Di Girólamo starred in the astonishing Ema, filmmaker Pablo Larraín didn't want to look away from her fierce and unflinching performance, and rarely did. With La Verónica, fellow Chilean director Leonardo Medel (Harem) goes one better — because only once throughout the entire feature does he let someone other than his star linger in the centre of his frame. Di Girólamo plays the titular character here, too, and she's an influencer married to a famous soccer star (Ariel Mateluna, Amanda). Vero spends her life putting herself in the middle of every image, including the daily snaps she poses for her by her pool with her model pals. Yes, she's that determined to always be the centre of attention. Accordingly, Medel uses one big and bold stylistic flourish to constantly remind viewers about what's important to his protagonist, what she seeks and how she goes about it — and it's just one of the movie's pitch-perfect touches. Also outstanding: Di Girólamo, of course, with her portrayal effortlessly conveying Vero's carefully manufactured facade, the at-any-cost drive always lurking underneath, and the way that a life spent courting the spotlight can both hide and augment a person's struggles and flaws. The script bubbles with smarts and insights, too, as the eponymous figure finds it hard to balance motherhood, a secret from her past, her jealousy over her husband and the need to notch up two million Instagram followers to become the face of a lipstick brand. BALLAD OF A WHITE COW During its in-cinema program, MIFF will screen There Is No Evil, the exceptional 2020 Berlinale Golden Bear winner that ponders the costs and weight of the Iranian justice system — and its penchant for the death penalty specifically. Also on the bill: A Hero, the latest movie from acclaimed Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who is known for Oscar-winning domestic drama A Separation and other such thorny fare about the reality of life in his homeland. Helmed by filmmakers Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam (The Invincible Diplomacy of Mr Naderi), and starring the latter, Ballad of a White Cow slides in seamlessly alongside the fest's other Iranian titles. It too explores the impact of executions, and also the unfair disadvantage at which the Middle Eastern nation places its female citizens. It's also moving, insightful, compelling, potent and excellent all-round. In a determined, resilient, often-silently heartbreaking performance, Moghaddam plays Mina, a Tehran resident struggling with the stigma of being a widow after her husband was killed by the state for a crime that he's now been posthumously found innocent. That's a wrong she isn't just willing to stomach, even as simple things like finding somewhere to live and caring for her young daughter keep proving all the more difficult because she's seen as a single woman. THE WITCHES OF THE ORIENT Even if the tail end of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games didn't coincide with the beginning of MIFF, The Witches of the Orient would be must-see viewing. The story it covers is just that engaging, fascinating and important. Back in 1964, when the Japanese capital last hosted the event, the country's women's volleyball team were one of the games' sensations. They didn't just win gold, beating the USSR to claim glory — the team of former textile factory workers managed to nab that coveted medal as part of a 258-game winning streak that lasted from 1960–1966. Fresh from serving up another sports snapshot with John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, director Julien Faraut assembles the remaining living members of the squad to tell their tale. Starting with an anime sequence about enchanted women, and peppering in a large array of other animated clips that were actually inspired by the team's success (yes, volleyball anima is a thing), this is no ordinary sports documentary. With circling camerawork, Faraut turns roundtable chats over bento boxes into eye-catching clips. He weaves in archival footage with mesmerising and rhythmic flair, cuts to the heart of his interviewees' recollections while also surveying Japan today, and sets his footage and discussions to the likes of Portishead and K-Raw. One training montage is nothing short of hypnotic, and the big game itself is a masterclass in tension. COMING HOME IN THE DARK Peering across New Zealand's gorgeous landscape as far as the camera can see, Coming Home in the Dark starts with a recognisable setup. Hoaggie (Eric Thomson, The Furnace), Jill (Miriama McDowell, Waru), and their teenage sons Maika and Jordan (debutants Billy and Frankie Paratene) have hit the road from Wellington for a scenic trip — stops at quaint service stations, family photos with striking backdrops and cosy little picnics all included. It's during the latter that two men suddenly and unexpectedly cross their paths, and it's apparent immediately that the gun-toting Mandrake (Daniel Gillies, Occupation: Rainfall) and his offsider Tubs (Matthias Luafutu, Ghost in the Shell) aren't there to make friends. Adapting Owen Marshall's short story, first-time feature director James Ashcroft doesn't waste a second in jumping from an idyllic getaway to holiday horrors. He basks in NZ's vast natural splendours, then shows how isolating it can be when things go awry, too. And, he doesn't flinch at splashing bloodshed across the screen as his central family soon find their slice of happiness shattered forever. As a thriller, Coming Home in the Dark is tense, nerve-wracking and unrelenting; however, as masterfully handled by Ashcroft and his co-screenwriter Eli Kent (The Seagull), it finds an even deeper pool of terror in pondering the abuse of children in government-run facilities, the scars it leaves and, here, the retribution it inspires. An exacting genre piece and a weighty musing on trauma all in one — and a feature that's constantly shifting — this riveting film isn't easily forgotten. NINJABABY When Rakel (Kristine Kujath Thorp, Betrayed) learns that she's pregnant, it isn't exciting news. It's a shock that the aspiring artist isn't thrilled about, especially given that it'll require a drastic change to her usual drinking- and partying-heavy lifestyle. That's also how New Zealand comedy Baby Done started, but Norwegian gem Ninjababy boasts a particularly raucous sense of humour, an animated foetus — the titular infant — that talks to and slings plenty of savage comments at its mum-to-be, a guy with the unfortunate but also amusing nickname of Dick Jesus (Arthur Berning, Neste Sommer), and a look and feel that makes plain its graphic novel origins. As savvily adapted from Inga Sætre's Fallteknikk, its protagonist is fiercely her own person as well. Rakel completely refuses to fit anyone's idea of how a young expectant mother should act, or a woman in general for that matter, and steadfastly defies every expectation thrust her way at all steps along her maternal journey. Thorp turns in a raw, rich, resonant and relatable leading performance, all in a memorable movie that also earns those terms with gusto. And director Yngvild Sve Flikke (Women in Oversized Men's Shirts) doesn't so much find the right balance between crude and affecting as embrace the fact that those extremes, and everything in-between, should always be a part of any cinematic bundle that examines motherhood. SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS As her stellar 2015 documentary Heart of a Dog demonstrated, the great Laurie Anderson should really narrate everything. Clearly, director Lisa Rovner feels the same way. Making her feature-length doco debut with Sisters with Transistors, she enlists the visual artist to talk through a history that's essential but also barely known: the history of women in electronic music. This thorough and illuminating ode to the female pioneers that have helped make the field what it is — including when it didn't even exist, and was met with derision — explores and celebrates ladies like Clara Rockmore, who was handy with a Theremin; Delia Derbyshire, who helped create the distinctive theme tune for Doctor Who; and Suzanne Ciani, the first solo female composer of a Hollywood film score. Also earning attention: Daphne Oram, Laurie Spiegel, Eliane Radigue and Pauline Oliveros, all legends in the field — and with achievements that include creating a technique to draw electronic sound, making a famed piece of musical composition software, and pushing the arena forward in leaps and bounds. Anderson's voice and an unsurprisingly magnificent soundtrack are paired with must-know details about iconic women that each deserve several movies devoted to them. Of course, we shouldn't need films like this to fill in ignored and overlooked gaps, but this a glorious and informative tribute. CELTS Every 90s kid that ever wanted or attended a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-themed birthday party has an instant entry point into Serbian drama Celts. Everyone who has ever made their way to a friendly or family get-together, navigated heated conversations about the state of the world and felt a sense of malaise seething through the room is similarly well-primed for this striking film. In Belgrade in 1993, Minja (first-timer Katarina Dimic) is looking forward to celebrating turning eight by donning a homemade green costume and being showered in attention. It's an event that requires significant preparations on her unhappy mother Marijana (Dubravka Kovjanic, Underneath), doting taxi-driver father Otac (Stefan Trifunovic, The Living Man) and ever-present grandmother Saveta's (Olga Odanovic, Radio Mileva) parts, though. But the child-friendly festivities are just a backdrop for debut director Milica Tomović — because, as she charts the events of a single day in this bustling household, she explores not only the dynamics festering among the kids and the discontent infecting the adults, but also the effect that the political turmoil seeping through Yugoslavia at the time has upon everyone gathered. As a result, Celts delivers a relatable portrait of domestic chaos and a fictionalised snapshot of a particular moment in time, and in an engaging and textured fashion. WIFE OF A SPY As he's demonstrated in movies as varied as Journey to the Shore, Daguerreotype and Before We Vanish, Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa makes features with patience — and with a mood that hangs around like an unforgettable memory. He jumps into both marital dramas and period-set wartime espionage antics with Wife of a Spy, and therefore into new territory for him, but his precise approach and affecting tone remains very much intact here. In fact, he won the Best Director prize at the 2020 Venice Film Festival for this sumptuously handsome and emotionally complicated effort. As this film about a wealthy silk merchant and his wife in 1940s Japan unfurls, it's easy to see why. From the painterly imagery to the potent performances — and including the layered script, as co-written with Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (Asako I and II) and Tadashi Nohara (Happy Hour) — every element is brought to the screen with meticulous care and impact in Kurosawa's hands. When Yusaku (Takahashi Issey, Romance Doll) visits Manchuria, Satoko (Aoi Yu, They Say Nothing Stays the Same) thinks it's just an ordinary business trip. But then she's visited at home in Kobe by her childhood friend Taiji (Higashide Masahiro, Before We Vanish), who tells her that her husband's jaunt abroad mightn't have been as straightforward as it sounds. A woman has turned up dead, Taiji has his suspicions, government secrets are involved and, soon, everything surrounding Satoko and Yusaku is under several shadows. DRY WINTER For Australian directors, the country's distinctive landscape is the gift that keeps on giving. A sizeable portion of our national cinematic output puts its blazing ochre hues to great use, and its sprawling outback expanses as well (see: everything from Wake in Fright and Walkabout to Mystery Road, The Rover, The Dressmaker and High Ground). Dry Winter isn't one of those movies, however. It makes the most of its rural backdrop, of course, but by roving over it with the same probing and naturalistic eye that it affords its listless characters. As first-time filmmaker Kyle Davis follows twenty-something couple Jake (debutant Andrew Phillips) and Kelly (fellow first-timer Courtney Kelly) as they go about their ordinary lives on the Eyre Peninsula, he sees the shades of browns that remain evident in every patch of dirt around them. In their routine, he spies the many shades of grey that have infused everything from the odd jobs they work to get by to their nights spent finding mundane ways to pass the time, too. An observational feature that ticks by at a leisurely pace, Dry Winter hones in on detail. It sees the repetition, the minutiae, and the sights and sounds — and lets them build an immersive story. This is a sublime portrait of not knowing what the future holds that makes its audience feel like they're there in the frame with its yearning protagonists, even across its brief 62-minute running time. The 2021 Melbourne International Film Festival runs from Thursday, August 5–Sunday, August 22 — screening online for the festival's entire duration via its streaming platform MIFF Play. Depending on the current lockdown, the festival is also aiming to play at a variety of venues around Melbourne from Thursday, August 12–Sunday, August 22. For further details, visit the MIFF website.
Who hasn't wanted to care less about all the things that really don't matter? Since long before self-help was even a book genre — since before there were books — humanity has been desperate to devote less of its attention to matters that simply aren't worth it. That's easier said than done, though, which is why there's so many texts about living your best life and forgetting pointless strife, including Mark Manson's 2016 hit The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. If giving less fucks is your ultimate goal — and it should be everyone's — then you've probably read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Or, you've heard at it at least. It was absolutely everywhere back when it first hit bookshelves, with people glued to it on buses, everyone's mates spouting its advice and more than 15-million copes sold. In early 2023, it's also going to be hitting screens. The tome dedicated to living more contented and grounded lives has been turned into a doco, with Manson himself featuring to lead the way. As the just-dropped sneak peek at the movie shows, he's on-hand to chat viewers through his brutally honest and raw but refreshing philosophy — and help you learn, if you haven't already, that it's wise to choose where to direct our fucks, what to give a crap about and what genuinely bloody matters. Couldn't be arsed reading the book? Clearly, this is the quicker way to soak in its contents, as shot in New Zealand during the pandemic. When NZ-based producer Matthew Metcalfe (Dawn Raid) came across the text — drawn to its bright cover, like plenty of folks have been — he was fascinated by its anti-self-help-book vibe, as well as its take on life's difficulties. Manson had been approached about adapting The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck for the screen before, but Metcalfe got him interested in giving a fuck about his offer. If you're new to Manson's brand of advice, the book's chapter titles are as telling as its overall moniker, boasting names such as 'Don't Try', 'Happiness is a problem', 'You are not special', 'You are wrong about everything (But so am I)', 'The importance of saying no' and 'And then you die'. The appropriate mood comes through in the film version's trailer, with experienced commercials director Nathan Price behind the lens. No doubt timed for New Year's resolutions — especially if not giving a fuck is one of yours — the film debuts in Australia via digital and in New Zealand in cinemas on Wednesday, January 11, 2023. Check out the trailer for The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck below: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck will be available to watch via digital download from Wednesday, January 11, 2023 in Australia, and in NZ cinemas on the same date — head to the film's website for further details.
A luxurious, all-expenses-paid staycation awaits you in the penthouse suite at the top level of one Kokoda Property's homes. Kokoda has recently opened a new development in Newstead, two-kilometres from Brisbane's CBD, so it's giving you the chance to spend five nights in the building's penthouse to really live it up around the river city. Valued at over $8000, the prize also includes return flights to and from Brisbane for you and your guest, a private chef for your meals and a whopping $5000 spending money to ensure you can splurge on pretty much anything your heart desires during your stay in Brisbane. To top the whole thing off, you'll also score a $1000 furniture gift card to deck out your home with some new pieces of furniture that will remind you of your luxe trip to Brisbane. The competition comes just in time for a post-summer getaway for anyone who had their plans ruined due to the pandemic or La Nina. If you're looking for inspiration for where to head in the city, you can check out our neighbourhood guide to Brisbane. In order to enter, head to the Kokoda Property website and follow the property group on Instagram where you can stay up to date with all of Kokoda's giveaways. The comp closes on Monday, April 4. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Almost everyone has their own podcast these days, or so the joke goes — and that observation isn't new. Also tried and tested: the idea that every news headline is likely destined to get the true-crime treatment at some point in the future. When it comes to both of these statements, comedy-meets-mystery series Only Murders in the Building doesn't pretend otherwise. In fact, the latest addition to Disney+ firmly leans into these two notions. Here, three New York neighbours who don't think they have anything at all in common initially bond over their favourite true-crime podcast — and then, when someone in their building turns up dead, they start their own. The wannabe Sarah Koenigs? Actor Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin, It's Complicated), who used to play a detective on a long-running 90s television show; theatre producer Oliver Putnam (Martin Short, Schmigadoon!), who is better known for his big flops than his hits; and the much-younger Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez, The Dead Don't Die), who had a penchant for Hardy Boys books when she was a kid. They first cross paths during an elevator ride, where they hear banker Tim Kono (Julian Cihi, The Tick) berating someone over the phone. The same evening, the unlikely trio are forced out of their apartments by a fire alarm, reluctantly share a table at the downstairs restaurant, then realise they're all hooked on the same podcast (with Only Murders in the Building's true-crime podcasting guru called Cinda Canning, and played by Tina Fey). When Charles, Oliver and Mabel all return home that night, they then discover that Tim has been murdered. From there, these new pals are determined to do three things: find out who killed Tim, record their sleuthing and release the results in audio form. They all have different stakes in their quest; Charles is lonely, and likes having something to fill his days other than auditions, while Oliver is hoping it'll be a big financial success and Mabel secretly has personal connections to the case. They're new acquaintances, too, so they're investigating each other in a way — asking questions and getting to know one another, because that's how all friendships starts — as they're trying to track down the killer. And, plenty of that to-and-fro gets recorded. The name of their podcast: Only Murders in the Building, naturally. As created by Martin with actor-turned-screenwriter John Hoffman (Grace and Frankie), Only Murders in the Building keeps leaning in again and again — to its upbeat satire of true-crime obsessions, podcasting's pervasiveness and the intersection of the two, and also to everything else it fits within its frames. It lets its main trio all play exactly the kind of characters you think they will, especially in Short's case. It mines their mismatched vibe, particularly with Gomez, with hearty affection. It adores its single-setting Agatha Christie-lite setup, and also loves peppering in highly recognisable co-stars and guest stars such as Fey, Nathan Lane (Penny Dreadful: City of Angels), Amy Ryan (Late Night) and even Sting. With the latter, it isn't above making puns about not standing so close to him, or just serving up jokes on that level in general. On paper, so much about Only Murders in the Building hits all the expected notes — and yet, everything about the series is also joyously entertaining. Indeed, the show initially seems like it shouldn't work as well as it does, yet quickly proves immensely easy to keep binging (even if you only originally plan to watch just one episode). The fact that it's made with a breezy spirit, ample charm and an astute awareness of its many targets couldn't be more crucial. That it takes the time to flesh out its characters within its 30-minute episodes, and to keep its central whodunnit twisting and turning amidst the jokes, also helps. And, Only Murders in the Building also embraces two inescapable facts that long precede the true-crime podcast boom: that we all like knowing what's going on around us, and that we tend to love the sound of our own voices as well. Another key facet: spot-on casting. Again, it doesn't initially seem as though Martin, Short and Gomez will be stretched by their parts, as likeable as all three usually are on-screen. But settling into comfortable grooves also gives the trio room to play around with everything that makes Charles, Oliver and Mabel tick — and Only Murders in the Building does love getting playful. It makes gags about Charles' old TV show, Oliver's stage bombs (Splash! The Musical is one of them) and Mabel's secrets, and makes plenty of them. And yet, it's also written and acted with enough depth to pair relatable character insights with its bubbly, clownish fun. If Knives Out was a sitcom, and also a little goofier, it'd turn out like this — and that's a delight, obviously. Check out the trailer for Only Murders in the Building below: The first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building are available to stream now via Star on Disney+, with new episodes dropping weekly. Images: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu.
If you're drinking a cocktail named after The Flash, will you feel like sipping it quicker than usual? If you opt for an alcoholic Doctor Strange concoction, will it taste particularly magical? Alongside wondering if you'll start craving pizza while knocking back Ninja Turtle Negronis, these are the questions that California Lane's newest addition inspires. A comic book-inspired bar and eatery will do that. Meet 1st Edition, the intimate new Fortitude Valley spot that's embracing superheroes and other comic book characters in a big — and boozy — manner. If you thought your caped crusader worship was limited to the page and the screen, think again. Exactly the type of bar that was always bound to open in a world that sees new superhero flicks and series hit cinemas and streaming every month, or thereabouts, it even covers its central benchtop with comic art. Yes, sipping and reading is a thing here, as is sitting under a big Batman mural that peers down over the bar. A 22-seater that only takes online bookings — so you can't just drop in like Iron Man after saving the world — the venue hails from comic book devotee Marc Grey and chef Steve Maiden (Baja Cantina, Bam Bam Hayman Island). They've created the kind of bar and eatery that you need to actively seek out, thanks to its laneway perch, but that location obviously suits the theming. Batman's base is hidden from the world, after all. Here, as well as those aforementioned tipples — the Ninja Turtle Negroni includes salami Campari, fittingly — you can sip your way through the Harley Quinn (a dry gin number topped with Persian fairy floss and gold flakes), Spidey's Margs (complete with an agave spin) and the Mysterio (which features butter vodka, peach syrup and a passion smoke bubble). Or, there's the Black Adam Espresso Martini, the Storm's Old Fashioned and The Canary, with the full lineup nodding to names from both Marvel and DC Comics. Food-wise, as served up in three 90-minute seatings from 5.30pm between Wednesday–Saturday, the menu takes its cues from Asian, Mexican, American and French cuisine. Think: cheeseburger gyoza, spanner crab with burnt butter emulsion, red duck curry and wagyu with bacon bordelaise, with a big emphasis on shareable dishes. And, from 10pm on Friday and Saturday nights, DJs will hit the decks live in 1st Edition's upper level DJ loft. Presumably, superhero themes will get a spin at some point — so you can dance however a Spider-Man can.
Ever wanted to watch Simon Pegg recreate Eat Pray Love? Then you're in luck. It may head to China, Africa and Los Angeles in a quest for contentment, but there's little in Hector and the Search for Happiness that wasn't first seen in that well-known book turned film — other than numerous references to Tintin, that is. Pegg plays the titular therapist, living a seemingly satisfactory life with his devoted girlfriend, Clara (Rosamund Pike). He thinks he is happy, until a dream featuring Hergé's boy adventurer starts him wondering about the meaning of the word. His practice is flourishing and patients accept his guidance willingly, yet he's no longer certain his orderly existence qualifies him to dispense advice. Broadening his horizons becomes the obvious course of action, as Hector sets off around the world in the pursuit of exhilaration and enlightenment. Food, spirituality and romance ensue in the adaptation of psychiatrist-turned-author François Lelord's novel of the same name, in an effort comprised of episodic encounters with thinly drawn characters. A wealthy businessman (Stellan Skarsgård), ruthless drug lord (Jean Reno), former flame (Toni Collette) and distinguished professor (Christopher Plummer) cross Hector's path, each imparting life lessons. To ensure audiences are paying attention, every piece of wisdom Hector gleans is also emblazoned on the screen in scribbled handwriting. In a travelogue film brimming with platitudes, it feels fitting that what is seen in Hector and the Search for Happiness — scrawled statements of supposed knowledge aside — fares better than what is heard. The feature's central performances are amiable, with Pegg more earnest than usual, and Pike luminous, though barely used. From the UK to the US and everywhere in between, the far-flung settings are handsomely and brightly photographed. Alas, a likeable cast and lush images can't overcome trite and troubling material that shouts its sentiments as loudly as it can. Though poised as a warm comedy, there's little that's funny about a script sketchily espousing "be yourself" teachings likely to be found in fortune cookies and overdosing in schmaltz as Hector mingles with babies and the dying — and they're the less concerning elements. Insensitive cultural tourism reinforces stereotypical perceptions and highlights the film's privileged perspective, as does the handling of Hector and Clara's relationship, with marriage and parenthood posed as the real sources of happiness. Coming from the director of Hannah Montana: The Movie and Serendipity, Peter Chelsom, the feature plays out like a cartoonish fairytale, but the lack of serious intent and the overt adherence to formula doesn't excuse its offensiveness or laziness. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty did soul-searching globetrotting before, and better. Hector and the Search for Happiness merely wades along the shallow and sugary edges of the self-help pond. https://youtube.com/watch?v=JElca1Latos
If it feels like you've been seeing a lot of Benedict Cumberbatch lately, there's a reason for that. On screens big and small, the British actor has featured in no fewer than five movies in 2021. Thanks to The Power of the Dog, he even looks poised to collect an Oscar for the best of them — and, with Spider-Man: No Way Home, he's also a significant part of the flick that's certain to be crowned the biggest box office hit of the entire year. Cumberbatch popped his Doctor Strange cloak back on in the hit web-slinging movie and, as anyone with an interest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will know — anyone who watched No Way Home, too — he's set to reprise the role next May. That's when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will reach cinemas, in what's both a sequel to 2016's Doctor Strange and the 28th movie in the MCU. As the just-dropped first trailer shows, this new dive into the mystic arts promises to live up to its name. In No Way Home, Doctor Strange was asked to cast a spell to make the world forget it knew Spider-Man's true identity — and that had big repercussions in that film, exposing the MCU to the multiverse. Those consequences will flow over to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as will trippy Inception-style imagery, Strange's brooding demeanour and Marvel's usual world-in-peril shenanigans. Few MCU movies ever just feature one of the franchise's superheroes, so a post-WandaVision Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) also pops up — alongside Benedict Wong (Nine Days) as Wong, Rachel McAdams (Game Night) as Strange's ex Dr Christine Palmer and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Locked Down) as fellow Master of the Mystic Arts Mordo. In one of Marvel's nice pieces of symmetry, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness marks the MCU filmmaking debut of acclaimed Evil Dead franchise director Sam Raimi — the man who helmed the original three Spider-Man movies in the 00s, way back before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was even a glimmer in the comic book company's eye, and obviously long before Doctor Strange and Tom Holland's Spider-Man became pals. Check out the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness trailer below: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness releases in cinemas Down Under on May 5, 2022. Images: Photos courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Surfing and gig-going have always been two of Australia's best-loved pastimes, and last year we scored a festival celebrating the best of both worlds. And, now, it's back for its second round of autumnal beachside festivals. Returning this March and April, The Drop festival will cruise around the country as it follows the Aussie leg of the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour and it's bringing a banging little lineup of musical gold along for the ride. Surfing the festival wave for 2019 are brother-sister folk band Angus and Julia Stone, the perennially pastel indie pop duo Client Liaison and NSW surf rock band Hockey Dad, along with other local legends The Jungle Giants and Alex the Astronaut. Held on the first weekend of each area's surfing event, The Drop is set to grace some of the Australia's most iconic surf spots, each outing featuring a locally focused offering of food, drink and culture, to match the tunes. As well as heading to the official WSL events in Torquay, Margaret River and Coolangatta, this year, the festival will also kick off Surfest Newcastle and Vissla Sydney Surf Pro in Manly — both WSL Qualifying Series events. THE DROP FESTIVAL 2019 LINEUP Angus and Julia Stone Client Liaison Hockey Dad The Jungle Giants* Alex the Astronaut * Ball Park Music will replace The Jungle Giants in Newcastle THE DROP FESTIVAL 2019 DATES Newcastle, NSW — King Edward Park, Saturday, March 16 Manly, NSW — Keirle Park, Saturday, March 23 Coolangatta, Qld — Queen Elizabeth Park, Saturday, April 6 Torquay, Vic — Torquay Common, Saturday, April 20 Margaret River, WA — Barnard Park, Busselton, Saturday, June 1 The Drop tickets are currently on sale for $95. For more info, visit thedropfestival.com.au. Images: Miranda Stokkel.
DJ, gonna burn this goddamn beach right down — although not literally, of course. But 15,000 partygoers will be murdering the dance floor at an iconic coastal spot thanks to a headliner that's having a helluva moment right now: Sophie Ellis-Bextor. She's just been announced at the top of the bill for the 2024 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras' Bondi Beach Party. In 2023, when the first WorldPride ever held in the southern hemisphere took place in Sydney, it brought with it an openair club on the sand from afternoon till evening. A massive 12,000 folks went along to dance by the water, with Pussycat Dolls lead singer Nicole Scherzinger headlining. In 2024, on Saturday, February 24, Ellis-Bextor will do the honours while everyone is rediscovering their love for 2001's 'Murder on the Dancefloor' thanks to Saltburn. It's the first of two trips Down Under for the British singer this year, as she's supporting Take That on their Australian and New Zealand tour in October and November as well. Ellis-Bextor's discography also includes vocals on Spiller's 'Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)', plus her own 'Get Over You' and 'Hypnotised', all of which she gave a spin on her last visit to Australia in 2022. Then, she headlined Summer Camp in Sydney and Melbourne, and also played Brisbane's Melt Festival. At Mardi Gras 2024's Bondi Beach Party, Ellis-Bextor will be joined by the previously announced Slayyyter, Jay Jay Revlon, Lagoon Femshaymer, Corey Craig, Tyoow, Mama de Leche and Beth Yen. The waterside event sits on a jam-packed festival lineup that also spans Adam Lambert, CeCe Peniston and Ultra Naté at the ten-hour, 10,000-capacity Mardi Gras Party at Hordern Pavilion. Sydney WorldPride's Ultra Violet is returning for a second year of celebrating LGBTQIA+ women; gender-diverse celebration Hot Trans Summer will take place on floating venue Glass Island; the ivy Pool Bar is back; and, from there, the list goes on and on, across 17 days, 100-plus events, and with more than 150 performers helping put on a show. Something that's sadly no longer on the bill is Fair Day, which has been cancelled for 2024 due to bonded asbestos being found in the mulch at Victoria Park. [caption id="attachment_940887" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jake Davis[/caption] Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras' Bondi Beach Party 2024 Lineup Sophie Ellis-Bextor Slayyyter Jay Jay Revlon Lagoon Femshaymer Corey Craig Tyoow Mama de Leche Beth Yen [caption id="attachment_940884" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cain Cooper[/caption] [caption id="attachment_940885" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gabrielle Clement[/caption] Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2024 runs from Friday, February 16–Sunday, March 3, 2024. For more information, or for tickets, head to the event's website. The 2024 Bondi Beach Party is happening from 2pm on Saturday, February 24. For more information, head to the event's website.
Remember how it rained all last winter? Well get set for another rainy season, folks: as I write this I'm looking out on to a rain-sodden Oxford Street. What with Sydney being all about beaches and carousing in the sun, we seem to cope less well with the wet and the cold. But there's so much this city has to offer, and in particular when it's miserable out and the nights get too cold to venture outdoors, one of the nicest things to do is hang out with a book. Or better yet, hang out in one of Sydney's lovely independent bookshops, which we should all be supporting. With this in mind, we present to you our pick of Sydney's ten best bookstores. 1. Gertrude & Alice Where: 46 Hall St, Bondi Beach Wall to wall books. Books from ceiling to floor, interspersed with communal tables. Gertrude & Alice is what Shakespeare's is to Paris, and provides a welcome haven amongst the surfers and backpackers of Bondi Beach. The food served is fresh and universally excellent, and it's one of the best places to go if you're feeling a bit lonesome, because the welcoming communal tables ensure that you'll always feel at home. Named after Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, the famous expat American couple who encouraged the careers of Hemingway and Henry Miller, amongst others, there's a lot of heart to this place, as well as lovely velvet sofas and delicious chai. They also boast a Hemingway room, quieter and lined with reference books and the perfect place to woo another attractive bookworm. 2. Better Read Than Dead Where: 265 King Street, Newtown I have spent a lot of money in this place. I only realised how many times I was in there over the summer when one of the sales girls said to me "You're in here all the time, and I've always wanted to say I really like your dresses." Which was lovely to hear, because the rest of my scanty budget goes towards dresses. Better Read Than Dead have one of the best staff recommendation systems around, and they'll often hook you up with things you'll love forever which you'd never find on your own. Everyone working there is incredibly helpful and chatty if you engage with them, but they'll otherwise leave you to your own devices. Close to Camperdown Memorial Park, one of the nicest things to do when it's sunny is to get yourself a book and find a tree to lie under and read. 3. Berkelouw Books Where: 19 Oxford Street, Paddington, 8 O'Connell Street, Newtown, 70 Norton Street Leichhardt and 708 New South Head Road, Rose Bay Berkelouw are kind of everywhere right now - seriously, there's one adjacent to a carpark in Cronulla. But each of them feels individual, and each of them are awesome. The better branches of Berkelouw are the older ones: Paddington and Leichhardt, as well as the newer, but adorable, Newtown branch. Berkelouw comes with a cafe and comfy leather couches for you to squish up in and read for hours, and there's also a separate second hand section which is always worth a look. I would personally recommend the Newtown Berkelouw, if only because of its close proximity to T2 and Guzman y Gomez, it's welcome student discount, and the fact that the first time I went in they were playing The Smiths. 4. Gould's Book Arcade Where: 37 King St, Newtown You cannot argue with this place. It is the undisputed king of second-hand books in Sydney. You could disappear into this place and never come out again. I would wager you could find a gateway to Narnia in Gould's. With a liberally relaxed policy when it comes to organisation, you'll find Marxist histories of industrial labour sitting side by side with a 1996 travel guide to Slovakia. But stick around for a couple of hours (and you can, it's open until midnight, after all) you'll find treasure for a pittance. At the centre of the store was, until his death in May of 2011, Bob Gould himself, the silvery-bearded stalwart of Sydney's sixties counter-culture who was once arrested for his anti-Vietnam and anti-establishment activities. 5. Kinokuniya Where: Level 2 The Galleries, 500 George Street, Sydney Kinokniuya is the only big chainstore included on the list, but this list would be nothing without it. The Japanese bookstore giant believes in promoting art and culture, not just hocking the best-selling pulp-literary tat to people, and has been one of the most welcome additions to the city in the past few years. Kinokuniya is awesome - it has everything, the stuff you can't find anywhere else, ever. You can spend hours hanging out in the light-filled building which overlooks the criss-crossing pedestrian traffic of the George and Park Street intersection. It boasts an entire Japanese section, the best range of graphic novels and manga and an incredible range of art and design books, as well as every kind of fiction under the sun. Kinokuniya also features an in-store gallery to showcase emerging artists. 6. Gleebooks Where: 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, 536 Marrickville Rd, Dulwich Hill and 191 Glebe Point Road, Glebe (Antiquarian & Second-Hand) Gleebooks is a Sydney institution. The city's most reliable independent bookseller for many years, they stock an unbelievably vast range of books; fiction and non-fiction alike, and often play host to talks by international and national figures, including The Chaser boys. When they talk about independent booksellers being in peril, you know that Gleebooks will be the last to go. Its second-hand and children's sections are located further up Glebe Point Road, and are completely worth the walk up the hill. Also, a Dulwich Hill branch recently opened up which is a very welcome addition to an often neglected portion of the Inner West. 7. Ariel Books Where: 42 Oxford St, Paddington and 103 George Street, The Rocks Ariel have a fantastic selection of art, architecture and design books adorning their shelves. The shop's interior is open and clean, although there are some delightful lanterns which pretty up the place, and it has the benefit of being open until midnight. Mostly it's the awesome range of books and the atmosphere of the place which makes Ariel so nice, but you can also get yourself a Moleskine, some Mexican kitsch ornaments or some chocolate, if they take your fancy. A stone's throw away from the College of Fine Arts and on the edge of the city's hipster quarters, the place is filled with a mix of spaced-out locals, art school kids and some very attractive bookish types. 8. Sappho Books, Cafe & Wine Bar Where: 51 Glebe Point Road, Glebe Sappho's is a cafe and wine bar as well as a second-hand bookshop, and has the loyal custom of many of the local Sydney University students. The pokey little shop has a huge range of books on every subject matter and has been hosting regular poetry nights for the last couple of years. You're always certain to find what you're looking for, and often in really nice editions: some of the copies from the '50s and '60s you'll find are so nice you'll want to frame them. This is also the only place on this list where you can sit with a book and a glass of wine, or a jug of sangria, until the wee hours under the shade of the jasmine and banana trees. 9. Ampersand Cafe Bookstore Where: 78 Oxford St, Paddington So easy to miss amongst the tumultuous crowds on Oxford Street, Ampersand is bigger than it looks from the street and a haven away from the city and the crowds. With a good range of second-hand books tucked away across three floors and offering amazing, cheap first-edition copies of books like The Master & Margarita and The Human Stain, Ampersand also wins on the coffee front - it is truly excellent. Downstairs is a communal table if you feel like making some friends, or you're perfectly welcome to hang out on your own. 10. Journeys Bookstore & Cafe Where: 127 Trafalgar Street, Annandale Journeys is another very cute bookstore and cafe, housed in a converted terrace, where you're invited to flip through the pages of books while sipping some tea. The titles are all handpicked, and there'a seriously good travel section. Upstairs is the best bit, a bright airy room decked out with comfy couches, and surrounded by seven bookcases. Each case represents a region of the world, and you'll find travel guides, history, fiction and travel literature to match every country in that part of the world. If you wish you were elsewhere there's no better place to imagine it.
These days, it's hard to be wowed, or even mildly surprised by a shopping centre. But Melbourne's newest suburban retail precinct is a whole different story. Set to officially open its doors on Friday, December 6, Burwood Brickworks doesn't just have a strong sustainability focus — it's on track to being the most sustainable shopping centre on the planet. Sitting on Middleborough Road in Burwood East, it's been built with the aim of scoring certification under the Living Building Challenge, an international program for sustainable buildings. It requires the building to have a net zero carbon footprint, produce more electricity than it consumes and use non-toxic and recycled materials in its construction, among other things. If successful, Burwood Brickworks will be one of only 25 structures worldwide to stake this claim, and the first-ever retail building to do so. Clocking a total of 13,000 square metres, the precinct boasts a Reading Cinema complex, a new-concept Woolworths store, a large Dan Murphy's and a curation of smaller independent retailers, all within an airy, light-filled space. The crowning glory, however, is the sprawling rooftop space, sporting its own paddock-to-plate restaurant and 2000-square-metre urban farm designed and run by consulting firm Tully Heard. They're the same crew who operate Sydney's farm-to-table Acre Eatery, here joining forces with local eco-warrior Joost Bakker (Greenhouse by Joost, Brothl) in the role of the centre's Creative Consultant. Along with a rooftop greenhouse, the huge variety of fruit, herb and veggie patches will be used in the restaurant, with excess sold to the public. There's even a coop of quails laying eggs for the kitchen. Visitors will be able to wander through the gardens and attend workshops, talks and more hands-on green-thumb experiences to come. The rooftop farm's not big enough to handle all of the kitchen's food supply, though, so Head Chef Brad Simpson (Lamaros, The Smith) has been busy sourcing any remaining ingredients from a crop of top Victorian suppliers. Think Mt Zero for olive oil and grains, and Flinders & Co, Sher Wagyu and Western Plains Pork for meat. In total, 20 percent of the Burwood Brickworks site will be used for growing food, with fruiting trees even planted between each aisle of the centre's car park. But while these urban farm practices might be the obvious, big-ticket sustainability drivers – along with the rooftop solar panel system generating a hefty one megawatt of power – it's the finer details that really set this centre apart. PVC has been scrapped from the build entirely in favour of less toxic alternatives, a swag of reclaimed hardwood has been incorporated throughout the precinct, and the products used by each retailer have had to meet super strict standards. Natural light and air quality are also huge factors here, so expect an abundance of greenery, windows aplenty and in the central space, a soaring, ventilated sawtooth roof decked out with huge skylights. A far cry from most of those other shopping centres we've frequented in our time. Burwood Brickworks is set to open on Friday, December 6, at 78 Middleborough Road, Burwood East.
Don't let La Niña ruin your summer. Do you know where it rains all the time? England. And do you know what the Brits do well? Garden parties. We've teamed up with Whitley Neill Gin to help you transform your outdoor space into a charming, verdant oasis that, despite not featuring Keira Knightly in that green dress or Colin Firth emerging from a fountain, will have you living out your British country manor dreams in excellent taste and style. [caption id="attachment_839393" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paul Liddle[/caption] THE SET-UP No matter what space you're working with, you'll want to include plenty of beautiful blooms. Check out your local florist for English varieties such as peonies, lavender and delphiniums. Arrange them in rustic vases — these can be easily sourced from your neighbourhood op-shop. Next up, set up a long table — a tressell will do — and cover it with a crisp linen tablecloth. Have some fun practicing your calligraphy (and playing guest matchmaker) with some old-timey seating placeholders. When it comes to napkins and tableware, opt for softer pastel shades — try using the flowers for colour palette inspo. And, if you've got the space to hang them, add some decorative bunting, which can be found at most party stores. Or if you're up for a crafternoon, make your own. [caption id="attachment_839389" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paul Liddle[/caption] THE FOOD Start off with finger sandwiches. They're dead easy to make and can be adjusted to suit all dietary requirements — plus, they look super cute. We'd recommend keeping it simple and classic with chicken, curried egg, and, of course, cucumber. For something a little more substantial to complement the refreshing botanicals of Whitley Neill London Dry Gin, serve delicious barbecue pork buns with coleslaw or rare roast beef with horseradish potato salad. And for something sweet to finish, go old-school with a classic like eton mess, jam roly-poly or scones with jam and cream. Opted for the latter? Sit back and watch the all-important debate as to which goes first — the jam or cream — ensue. [caption id="attachment_839379" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paul Liddle[/caption] THE DRINKS With eight generations of gin distilling to its name, and a range of 15 100-percent grain-distilled gins with a wide spectrum of flavours, it should come as no surprise that Whitley Neill has some cracking recipes when it comes to booze. Give the Johnny's Ritual Gin and Tonic a whirl and dress it with a wedge of lime or orange and sprig of rosemary. Or, make use of one of the more out-there flavours and knock up a jug of the Queen's High Tea using the Whitley Neill Rhubarb and Ginger Gin, topped up with a dash of prosecco and ginger ale. The tartness of the rhubarb mixes beautifully with the warming ginger for a full-bodied, yet refreshing, summer cocktail. THE FUN It's time to ditch the beer pong (or Goon of Fortune) for more sophisticated games. If you've got the space, why not give badminton a try? Or go full Alice in Wonderland and opt for croquet — but please refrain from using actual flamingos. Chances are you or one of your mates will have a boules or quoits set knocking about, so make good use of it. You'll be surprised how much fun you'll have. For more information on Whitley Neill's innovative gin range, head to the website. Top image: Paul Liddle
How can we streamline our thoughts, ambitions and life away from the objects that tend to drive them? Is meditation the answer? Or pained focus? Or even street-grade Ritalin. Marnie Edmiston, a visual artist based in Melbourne, aims to explore this question the best she can in her exhibition Everything Is a Distraction. Her practice tends to include the overlap and envelopment of language, text and image, with this work including sculpture, video, photography and drawing to explore this theme in as many means as possible. Through appropriation and editing, refocusing and repetition of styles, genres, gestures and distortions, the pieces in this exhibition send out a mixed message of infinite meanings and tangents. This showcase opens at Metro Arts on March 19, with the artist talk on April 4. Make a focused goal of going.
Over the past year or so, we've heard a lot about self-driving cars being tested overseas — Uber's doing it in the US, as is ride-sharing service Lyft, there's driverless bus in Washington D.C. and a driverless delivery service in Japan. But save for a very adorable bus launched in Perth back in September, Australia is yet to foray into the sort of terrifying world of self-driving vehicles. Until now, that is, because the Victorian Government has just announced it will start to trial driverless cars on Melbourne roads from next year. The Andrews Labor Government yesterday announced they will partner with toll road management company Transurban to test driverless cars currently on the market to see how they interact with Melbourne's road infrastructure — that is lane signals, electronic speed signs, line markings and that pesky Montague Street Bridge. They'll be letting the cars loose on CityLink, including the Monash and Tullamarine Freeways, albeit with a real-life human driver in the car to take back control if needed. The news that the Victorian Government is committing to a trial of self-driving cars makes their insertion into our daily lives much more plausible for the near future. Indeed, it could mean great things for people who may not otherwise be able to drive, and has the potential to reduce the amount of accidents that occur from human error. "We want to work with the automotive and technology industries so Victoria can be at the forefront of automated vehicle technology and create jobs here in Victoria," said Minister for Roads and Road Safety Luke Donnellan in a statement. "Keeping people safe on our roads is our number one priority and that's why we're running these innovative trials in the safest possible way for all road users. By removing human error from the equation, autonomous vehicles will play a critical role in reducing deaths and serious injuries on Victorian roads." The trial is set to start early next year, so if you're in Melbourne, keep an eye out for any of this.
Melbourne comes alive in summer. Outdoor bars and restaurants fill up with people taking advantage of longer days, parks and gardens are gloriously green and the city's arts and culture venues host a huge range of events. Yes, you can certainly run away to beaches for spectacular nature-filled getaways. But summer is as good a time as any for a city break — and we've curated the ultimate way to do it in Melbourne, whether you're a first-time visitor or you know the Hoddle Grid like the back of your hand. [caption id="attachment_658995" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stano Murrin[/caption] FRIDAY Begin your Melbourne city break with a sundowner at Bar Triana. Located within the AC Hotel Melbourne Southbank, this sophisticated bar offers up views over the city alongside a truly impressive selection of gin. Melbourne is known for its world-class arts and culture institutions, but we recommend you dive a little deeper into the city's lesser-known haunts like The Butterfly Club. This cosy theatre, bar and welcoming space is hidden down a CBD laneway. Once you find the entrance, head inside for a smorgasbord of weird and wonderful theatre. Get tickets to whatever is on and go along for the ride — you won't regret it. For something a bit more orthodox (but just as intimate), head to Bird's Basement for an evening of live jazz. Like The Butterfly Club, you shouldn't worry yourself with what specific artist is performing — just book a table and let the music sweep over you with a cocktail in hand. SATURDAY If you're one of those mysterious morning people we've heard so much about, we suggest taking a stroll to The Shrine of Remembrance for spectacular sunrise views. Take your time wandering around this incredible space and look out over the city, watching it wake up and come alive. From here, head to the shops and grab your picnic essentials before nabbing what is arguably one of the best barbecue spots in all of Melbourne. On the edge of the Royal Botanic Gardens and right on the Yarra River, you'll find a host of free-to-use barbecues overlooking Melbourne's skyline, and is an ideal spot to soak up some sun. If you're looking escape the sun, you won't need to go far. This spot is conveniently located right by Melbourne's celebrated arts precinct where you'll find all kinds of brilliant things to do. See an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria or catch a matinee at the Arts Centre, Melbourne Theatre Company or Melbourne Recital Centre. For a pre-dinner drink, make a beeline to The Westin Melbourne's Lobby Lounge. Settle in to a plush club chair in this grand Collins Street space as you indulge in an aperitivo — and maybe a dozen oysters — before dinner. On the menu? Clever and creative Modern Australian at Lollo, a welcoming culinary space with a menu overseen by celebrated chef Adam D'Sylva. Lollo draws inspiration from Melbourne's multicultural heritage to serve up globally inspired dishes that showcase local and seasonal produce. [caption id="attachment_711646" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Josie Withers for Visit Victoria[/caption] SUNDAY Start your Sunday off by catching the tram to the South Melbourne Market. Grab a coffee from Pieno di Grazia and a freshly baked croissant from Agathé Pâtisserie before browsing the aisles featuring wares from local makers and producers who have made this bustling market a unique destination that highlights the city's diversity. Once you've eaten and shopped your way around the market, hire a bike from the AC Hotel to have one last Melbourne jaunt. Take to The Capital City Trail for a cycling journey that winds past Melbourne's most iconic landmarks. You can attempt the full 30 kilometres or just do a portion of the trail — whether that's Southbank to Burnley Gardens, Moonee Ponds Creek to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre or Abbotsford to Parkville. Whichever you choose, it's the perfect way to end your Melbourne city break. Looking to make the most of your next city break? Find your home away from home with Marriott Bonvoy. Book your stay not at the website. Top image: Dmitry Osipenko (Unsplash)
Each year Splendour in the Grass ups the ante. Combining the best in international and local acts, the music festival caters for all music tastes making it as inclusive as it is entertaining. Set at the picturesque Woodfordia site in Queensland, carloads of people from across the east coast plough up the highway, arriving at their destination to camp for the better part of the week in isolated companionship. But if you missed out on tickets never fear, Splendour sideshows have promised the best of the festival making its way to capital cities around Australia. Sporting some of the most illustrious names in today's music, the announcement of Sydney sideshows includes heroes of 90s Britpop Pulp, LA electo-pop lords Foster The People, post-dubstep poster boy James Blake, London indie kids The Vaccines, Swedish maestros The Hives and Bloc Party's Kele. Keep an eye out for more annoucements but in the meantime tickets for these excellent show go on sale this Friday, May 27. https://youtube.com/watch?v=MVgEaDemxjc
Like cocktails? Like devouring them at one of the Valley's favourite hangouts? No, they're not trick questions. If you answered yes to both — and we're certain that you did — then you're going to love Dutch Courage Officers' Mess returning boozy masterclasses. Not content with wowing thirsty folks with its drinks list, the Alfred Street hotspot wants to impart its beverage-shaking wisdom to its patrons. So, on select Saturdays each month, it enlists its bartenders to share the tricks of the trade in themed afternoon sessions. Each class covers everything from the tools you need to the basics of cocktail structure, as well as the history of alcoholic concoctions and tips for making your own recipes, too. The drinks change each time, with 2021 lineup so far showing you how to whip up a twisted spanish maids (on January 23), mojitos (January 30), breakfast martinis (February 13) and gin classics (February 27). Whatever the subject, we're betting that a certain clear spirit will feature among the ingredients; this is a bar that boasts more than 150 gins on site, after all. Times vary each session, too, but you'll generally be able to head along at 1.45pm and 3.30pm. Your ticket also includes two cocktails, plus a house wine, beer or spirit upon arrival.
Strolling through stunning lights as far as the eye can see, moseying beneath a canopy of glowing multi-coloured trees, wandering between ribbons of flashing beams, enjoying the most-luminous two-kilometre stroll through nature that you can imagine: you'll be able to do all of this again when Lightscape returns to Brisbane in 2024. If you went to the 2023 version, this second Lightscape stint in the Queensland capital will also take place as part of Brisbane Festival 2024. For two years in a row, one dazzling event hosts another, then, with this year's iteration running from Thursday, August 29 and staying around for a few weeks post-fest until Saturday, October 12. Once more, the after-dark light festival is taking over the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens, beaming away from 5.45pm each night. Prepare to see the garden illuminated by immersive and large-scale installations scattered along the lengthy route, including sparkling trees, lit-up walkways and bursts of colour that look like fireworks. A big highlight: large-scale works like giant flowers and glowing tunnels, both of which will make you feel like you're being bathed in radiance. But don't go thinking that you'll just be repeating what you saw last year, because 2024's Lightscape in Brisbane has a few new additions courtesy of works by Queensland First Nations artists Paul Bong (aka Bindur Bullin) and Michelle Yeatman. The whole experience has also been reimagined, in fact. Also, pop-up food and drink stalls will be scattered throughout the walk. Images: Markus Ravik.
Does your breakfast involve a slice of toast slathered with Vegemite, plus a serving of baked beans? Have you ever had a cheeky mouthful of both at the same time and found the combination to your liking? Is a tin of Vegemite-flavoured baked beans now your fantasy idea of brekkie heaven? If you've answered yes to these questions, prepare to have your tastebuds well and truly tempted. Because simply scraping Vegemite across bread is boring, it seems, the yeasty Australian staple has worked its way into plenty of other food items — such chocolate, milk shakes, icy poles, ice creams, burgers, popcorn, booze and pizza, just to name a few examples. So, SPC's decision to add Vegemite to baked beans isn't all that surprising. And, like all culinary mashups that call upon the famed spread, you'll either be ridiculously excited or so put off that you may never eat baked beans or Vegemite ever again. Inspired? Gross? Only you know the answer — because the response is different for all of us. And yes, you and your stomach are definitely allowed to feel confused about the whole concept. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SPC (@spcgloballtd) Wondering how it tastes? SPC's Baked Beans & Vegemite still has a cheesy tomato sauce, but with Vegemite added. So, the whole combo is Vegemite, cheese, tomato and baked beans. For some, that'll make it better. For others, it'll make it worse. If you're nonetheless keen, the new product is being sold in two ways — as single 425-gram tins of SPC Baked Beans & Vegemite in Rich Tomato (RRP$1.70) and in four-packs of 220-gram tins (RRP $5.00). Breakfast, brunch or whatever meal you feel like pairing baked beans and Vegemite for will never look the same. SPC's Baked Beans & Vegemite tins are available in supermarkets now.
This Friday is a very significant religious holiday for some, but for the non-Christians can be a nuisance for putting a stop to good times for the day. Thankfully, the folks at Alfred and Constance are saving the day and pleasing everybody with their Fish and Chip Pop Up this Friday. You can head in for lunch or dinner for a serving of rough-cut chips and fresh, local fish cooked in the wood-fired oven or alternatively, dine on seafood cooked in the Josper Oven. “We wanted to keep with tradition and serve up fish and seafood dishes alongside A&C favourites,” owner Damian Griffiths said. “It’s a popular choice this time of year and we’ve put together some beautifully simple accompaniments to go with the sweet flavours of our fresh fish.” “Plus there’s nothing much open around town and we know people are looking for somewhere to eat.” What: Fish & Chip Pop-Up – no bookings, walk-ins welcome When: Good Friday, Friday 29th March, Open from 12 noon-late Where: The Vanguard Beer Garden, Alfred & Constance, corner of Alfred and Constance Streets, Fortitude Valley
Next time you fly domestically, you might notice something missing during your time in the air. Virgin Australia has announced an overhaul of its menus, effective immediately, with one big change bound to hit economy passengers' stomachs: the scrapping of free snacks. Those small bites to eat that helped stop your hunger pangs while zipping around the country have been axed, in favour of a new lineup of snacks to purchase. The airline says that it "has found that travellers would prefer to choose their own food and beverage in a buy onboard model on domestic flights, instead of receiving a predetermined snack." It also advises that the price of the snack has been taken out of the company's economy ticket prices, making them slightly cheaper. So, unless you stock up on food in the airport, you'll be forking out some cash while you're in the air — on cheese and crackers, muffins, chips, chocolate, lollies and two types of noodles. The drinks list includes soft drinks, hot chocolates, wine, beer, spirits and premixed gin and sodas, but you will still get complimentary tea, coffee and water. Virgin plans to expand its economy menu down the line, too, once the demand for flights gets back to near pre-pandemic levels. For those travelling in business class, the airline has dropped a bigger range of hot meals and salads, including smashed avocado on sourdough for breakfast, haloumi and quinoa salad for lunch, and lamb and rosemary pie for dinner, all of which is being served on crockery and glassware — and with proper cutlery as well. For more information about Virgin Australia's menu changes — which are in effect now — head to the airline's website.
It’s date night. You’re probably planning to head to that little Italian joint you always go to, or if you’re too tired it’ll be Thai food again from down the road. Ah, routine. It’s a great thing sometimes: It makes us more efficient at our jobs and means we brush our teeth every day. But does routine ever spell romance? The answer is no. Love is meant to be exciting and fun, give you butterflies and make you do silly things you wouldn’t do otherwise. And while relationships are a marathon, it pays to tread the path less travelled once in a while. Go a different route, pass a different tree, climb a hill and be more spontaneous. It doesn’t mean never visit your favourite Italian again, but life is about adventure. Do something different for date night. Drinks at Watt Bar and free comedy at the Powerhouse The Brisbane Powerhouse is one of those places that no matter how many times you go back you can be struck in awe by the venue itself. If you (like everyone else) should be spending more time both in and around this urban beauty then head along for their Sundae Session at Watt Restaurant + Bar. DJs spin tunes from 3pm, so there is plenty of time to sit back and watch the sunset – drink in one hand, lady/man in the other – before catching Brisbane’s funniest up-and-coming talent alongside some notable names from 6.30pm. Dinner at Gerard’s and arthouse flick at Palace Every watched a film in another language? It’s some of the most exotic fun you have in this country. Foreign cinema gives you a good glimpse of a world you may not be a part of. Remember that time in Paris when the shop attendant came off as rude to you? Yeah, turns out the French are hilarious on the big screen. Stop by Gerard’s Bistro for a Middle Eastern-influenced feed beforehand and you’ve got yourself a round-the-world trip. On your bike – city loop via South Bank We were originally going to suggest a lazy Sunday cycle, stopping by Popolo for lunch and Riverbar for a drink, but as summer has hit early perhaps you’d best be hitting the road early too. For those who enjoy to sleep in, this is your wake up call and breakfast is down the road. Start at the Cliffs Cafe with a coffee at 7am – you’ll need it. Follow this map that does a short 8km loop across the Story Bridge, along the river in the CBD before heading over to South Bank. For breakfast try Merriweather Cafe’s green juice teamed with a bagel. Or try Hoo Ha Bar, open from 7am they serve up fine fair, ace coffee and salted caramel milkshakes. If you stay long enough they may even serve you a beer. Picnic at Mt Coot-tha lookout Views. They’re great to look at, but don’t do much otherwise – good thing you have your date with you. Mt Coot-tha is a great place for a picnic, and a picnic is a simple way to put in effort. And effort shows you care, and caring is romantic, and picnics are delicious. Need I say more? Probably. Grab a basket/green bag/cardboard box and throw in a bread board, knife, cheese, crackers, olives, prosciutto, two glasses and bubbly. Worst case, pick up a hamper from Picnic Cafe. Don’t forget a rug. Latin dancing at Cloudland Sometimes it takes another person’s encouragement to get yourself out of your comfort zone, and who better to make a fool of yourself with than your significant other. That’s right, let’s go dancing – and no, we don’t mean the two-step shuffle – time to find those Latin roots. There are plenty of options around, this blog post details where to dance seven nights of the week, but our recommendation lies with Thursday nights at Cloudland. If you’ve got two left feet at least you can purchase liquid confidence. Takeout, beers and boardgames at The Scratch If it’s time to switch away from your screens and go back to some old fashioned fun take your date, get takeout of your choice and take it along to The Scratch in Milton for a night of boardgames. This place is like hanging out in your lounge, expect the boys have better taste and knowledge in beer than you will ever have and it’s not your lounge room – an essential factor for ‘date night’. Go forth, let your true competitive side shine. On a side note, they serve cider spiders. Yes, you heard right – alcohol plus ice-cream. As you were... Visit farmers’ markets and cook up a storm at home Every weekend Jan Power is somewhere, and it’s worth following this lady and her travelling troupe of farmers’ markets for fresh local produce, good vibes and a breakfast treat. Take along a green bag and have a recipe or two in mind, or alternatively see what’s in season and plan as you go – the possibilities are endless. If you need further inspiration, find a recipe by local food bloggers such as Claire K Creations or Everyday Cook. A little further afield, Sydney’s Cook Republic is a favourite. Once your meal is ready, finishing hi-fiving in celebration, crack open some wine and light a candle. Watch the city light up from Kangaroo Point, walk to dinner South Bank If you haven’t taken yourself to the top of Kangaroo Point then get moving. I’d argue the view here is the best in Brisbane, and far more convenient than Mt Coot-tha. With a view looking directly across the river to the city, and further in the distance South Bank, standing at the top in the park is the perfect spot to watch the sun set and see the city light up before a) settling down for a picnic (we’ve already covered this – view + picnic = romance) or b) taking the 20 minute stroll into South Bank for dinner at number of establishments and a walk by the river. Grab a milkshake before a night at the pictures Couples have the chance to get intimate sharing a milkshake at new kid on the block, South Side Diner. With good ol’ fashioned service, here is the place to spin a tune on the (yet to arrive) jukebox and use some good ol’ fashioned charm on your date. Leave your feminist hat at the door, gents – it’s your shout today. With milkshake flavours such as Reese’s peanut butter, coconut, salted caramel and root beer float there’ll be something to tempt everyone’s sweet tooth, and remember two straws are better than one. Keeping with the era, head to the South Bank pictures to catch a flick at near 1950s prices. Okay, not quite that cheap, but you still you get change for a tenner – a miracle these days. Greek food, gig and a cosy chai bowl Attending a gig is often a very pre-planned event, especially if it’s at The Hi-Fi. Surely such a significant date deserves a worthy plan of attack to match? Being West End Greek is the go-to cuisine. Book a table at Little Greek Taverna for a cheap pre-gig feed to ensure you have the energy to mosh it out later. Post-gig you’ll surely need refueling or refreshing and, if you’re not too sweaty, Three Monkeys Cafe is the perfect late-night wind-down to get cosy with some chai.
Maybe your house needs the kind of colour and flair that only art can bring. Perhaps you're keen on supporting artists. If the first applies, the second should as well. Whichever fits, one event has you covered without requiring you to bust your budget to enjoy art on your walls. Even better: Affordable Art Fair is doing the rounds of Australia's east coast again in 2025, popping up for a four-day run in Brisbane in autumn, Melbourne in winter and Sydney in spring. Everyone should be able to fill their home with art no matter their bank balance. That's the idea behind this event, and has been since 1999. Back in the 20th century, Affordable Art Fair initially popped up in London to share eye-catching pieces with the world at manageable prices, and then started spreading its art-for-all ethos around the world. It only came to Brisbane a quarter-century later — in 2024 — but Australia is no stranger to this event, thanks to Sydney and Melbourne stops before that. Clearly Aussies are fans, given that it's returning again in 2025. Brisbanites will be heading to Brisbane Showgrounds from Thursday, May 8–Sunday, May 11. In Melbourne, Affordable Art Fair will take over the Royal Exhibition Building across Thursday, August 28–Sunday, August 31 — and in Sydney, Carriageworks is playing host from Thursday, November 6–Sunday, November 9. On offer at each venue will be original artworks by the thousands, with prices starting from $100. If you do happen to be flush with cash, however, costs will max out at $10,000 per piece. Alongside London and its three Down Under host cities, Affordable Art Fair has brought its budget-friendly wares to Brussels, Hamburg, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Berlin in Europe; Singapore and Hong Kong in Asia; and New York and Austin in the US. Unsurprisingly, democratising art has been proving the hit as Affordable Art Fair notches up the years. Up to 2024 across its stops worldwide since 1999, the event had sold 568,000 artworks at a value of over AU$820 million. In Brisbane, around 50 independent Australian galleries will have pieces up for sale this year — some new to the lineup in 2025, some back from 2024. Buying art isn't the only drawcard, though, with talks, tours, workshops, live tunes, bites to eat, drinks and live artist demonstrations all also on the agenda. "Affordable Art Fair is a fun and accessible way to view and buy art, whether you're a seasoned collector or considering buying your first piece," advises Australian Fair Director Stephanie Kelly. "The Fair offers a welcoming and relaxed space where art buyers can learn more about each piece, talk to gallerists, watch artists in action, hear from experts and immerse themselves in an array of styles, genres and mediums. Visitors also have incredible access to gallerists and experts who love to help them with every aspect of choosing art, from their budget and preferred style to selecting a space to hang it and how to frame it." "Every piece at Affordable Art Fair Brisbane is from a living artist, every artwork on display lists a sale price, and every piece can be bought, wrapped and taken home on the same day." Affordable Art Fair 2025 Australian Dates Thursday, May 8–Sunday, May 11 — Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane Thursday, August 28–Sunday, August 31 — Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Thursday, November 6–Sunday, November 9 — Carriageworks, Sydney Affordable Art Fair Brisbane will return to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney throughout 2025 — head to the event's website for tickets and more details.
It's almost time for River City cinephiles to spend 11 days viewing the latest and greatest movies, aka watching their way through 2024's Brisbane International Film Festival. The cinema celebration is returning to end October and kick off November, and it's already dropping lineup details to get movie lovers excited. After advising that backstage comedy Saturday Night will open the fest and documentary Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story will close it, organisers have now revealed the next five flicks on the event's program. One newly announced film will hit BIFF between Thursday, October 24–Sunday, November 3 with one of the best ticks of approval there is: Anora, the latest feature from Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket filmmaker Sean Baker, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. It tells of a sex worker from Brooklyn who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, a move that doesn't go down well with his family — and it gives Better Things and Lady in the Lake's Mikey Madison a silver-screen lead breakout role. Also boasting big names: Nightbitch and Sasquatch Sunset. The first premiered at this year's Toronto International Film Festival; hails from The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood filmmaker Marielle Heller; and stars Amy Adams (Dear Evan Hansen) as a stay-at-home mum who turns canine. The second is directed by the Zellner brothers (Damsel), and gets Riley Keough (Daisy Jones & the Six) and Jesse Eisenberg (Fleishman Is in Trouble) playing a sasquatch family. Adding a dose of Aussie horror to the lineup, The Red will have its world premiere at BIFF, setting a giant zombie kangaroo loose on the big screen — on Dendy Powerhouse's outdoor big screen, in fact. In the flick, the task of battling the creature named Rippy falls to The Terminator and Aliens alum Michael Biehn, Mystery Road and High Country's Aaron Pedersen and Last King of the Cross' Tess Haubrich. Rounding out the new additions is Tatami, following a female Iranian judo athlete played by Arienne Mandi (The L Word: Generation Q), with Guy Nattiv (Golda) and Zar Amir Ebrahimi (last seen on-screen in Shayda, and also co-starring here) co-directing. The full 2024 BIFF program will drop on Thursday, September 26, unveiling the complete lineup of titles that'll play at Palace Barracks, Dendy Coorparoo, Reading Newmarket, Five Star Cinemas New Farm and Angelika Film Centre, as well as the aforementioned Dendy Powerhouse. The 2o24 Brisbane International Film Festival runs between Thursday, October 24–Sunday, November 3 at Palace Barracks, Dendy Coorparoo, Dendy Powerhouse, Reading Newmarket, Five Star Cinemas New Farm and Angelika Film Centre. For further information, or to buy tickets, head to the festival website — and check back here on Thursday, September 26 for the full program.
In an art gallery next to a river in a nation girt by sea, Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art has water on its mind. That's hardly surprising — given the current impact of climate change in Australia, the recent lack of rain, and the widespread drought and bushfires, water should be a constant topic of contemplation for us all — but GOMA is pondering the subject in a distinctive and creative manner. As part of an exhibition simply entitled Water, the South Bank spot has filled its walls, halls and floors with pieces that examine the role of H20 in our lives. Water's importance to both humanity and the planet that we call home can't be underestimated, so this stunning showcase often goes big. It's impossible to ignore the eponymous substance when you're walking up and down a riverbed made out of 100 tonnes of rock, for example — or staring at animals of all shapes, sizes and species as they share a drink around a room-sized water hole. While art-lovers can't splash around in water itself, they can observe and interact with H20 in a variety of forms. A sculpture made out of foam from soapy water ebbs and flows thanks to natural forces, while a real-life snowman earns pride of place — in an industrial freezer to keep it safe from our sweltering climate, of course. Elsewhere, giant bubbles hang from the ceiling, ocean waves rush and crash on a screen, and an enormous blue tarpaulin represents the sea in a disarmingly serene fashion. Also on the bill: one of Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Nets. It's an exhibition designed to wash over you — and whether you live in Brisbane or are planning a trip there soon, it's one to soak in during its five-month run. There's much to see, so we've outlined five huge highlights that you won't want to miss. Let them sweep over you. [caption id="attachment_755179" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sarah Ward[/caption] RIVERBED — OLAFUR ELIASSON Exhibiting in the southern hemisphere for the first time — and for only the second time ever — Olafur Eliasson's Riverbed is an astonishing work. Recreating an Icelandic stream using more than 100 tonnes of rock seems so simple, but this piece is enormous in several senses of the word. Firstly, it fills a cavernous space at GOMA that has previously hosted entire exhibitions (the recent Quilty showcase, for example). Sloping upwards, and with an actual trickle of water snaking through its centre, it's also monumental in its impact. Treading over all those stones isn't easy, and requires ongoing thought and navigation. That means that you're constantly interacting, contemplating and engaging with the Berlin-based, Danish-Icelandic artist's creation — and its statement on the state of the natural world — both physically and mentally. Wearing flat, comfortable shoes is recommended, obviously. [caption id="attachment_755182" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Sarah Ward[/caption] THE FACT OF THE MATTER — WILLIAM FORSYTHE The second of Water's big interactive pieces (and the second to require sturdy shoes), The Fact of the Matter treats visitors to a workout. The gymnastic sculpture is made of suspended rings hung at different heights, and encourages patrons to jump on and climb through. A word of warning, though: you'll need considerable co-ordination and core body strength to do so. In fact, GOMA doesn't expect that many people will actually make it all the way across this eye-catching piece by William Forsythe — which is partly its point. When folks attempt the immensely active feat, they move through the artwork with a sense of flow, and are forced to think carefully about each step and pathway. It mightn't have been immediately apparent otherwise, but this installation boasts a plethora of parallels with water — including encouraging everyone to get creative about solutions, and to realise their place in a unified system. [caption id="attachment_755177" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Sarah Ward[/caption] HERITAGE — CAI GUO-QIANG Displaying at GOMA for the second time after its initial 2013 run, Cai Guo-Qiang's Heritage is another of Water's pieces that isn't done enough justice by a mere description. Inspired by the artist's trip to North Stradbroke Island in 2011, the artwork features animals lined up around a water hole, all sharing a drink, with zebras standing side by side with pandas — and other such unlikely combinations. Although smaller than its previous version, this new iteration still features 45 critters peering into a blue pond, and leaves a firm imprint. Visitors can walk around the perimeter, peer at it from different angles, sit and ruminate, and watch out for the drop of water that falls from the roof periodically, causing small but noticeable ripples in this otherwise peaceful utopian scene. [caption id="attachment_755192" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Peter Fischli. Switzerland, b.1952. David Weiss. Switzerland, 1946-2012. Snowman 1987/2019 (installation view, GOMA). © Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Zürich 2019. Courtesy: Sprüth Magers, Berlin/London/Los Angeles; Matthew Marks, New York/Los Angeles; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich. Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA.[/caption] SNOWMAN — PETER FISCHLI AND DAVID WEISS Like much in Water, Snowman takes a straightforward concept and turns it into a thoughtful and impactful piece of art. Great creative works have always done that — the Mona Lisa is just a portrait, and Andy Warhol's pop art thrives on repetition, for example — and this playful piece delights and intrigues in a powerful way. Yes, it looks adorable, no matter whether its smile is firm or drooping. When you're looking at a snowman that's clearly out of its element, however, you're made to think about how it's out of place and what it represents. There's no avoiding the fact that, as the planet warms, the humble snowman's habitat is decreasing. Staring at three balls of snow housed in an industrial freezer and set against Brisbane's warm climes — with trees, greenery, the river and plenty of sunlight all visible behind the artwork — will do that. [caption id="attachment_754792" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] David Medalla. Philippines / United Kingdom. b.1942. Cloud Canyons No.25 (installation view) 1963/ 2015. Plexiglass tubing, motor pumps, porous stones, wood, water, detergent / Six tubes: 300 x 20cm (diam.), 250 x 20cm (diam.), 200 x 20cm (diam.), 150 x 20cm (diam.), 100 x 20cm (diam.), 50 x 20cm (diam.); basin: 200cm (diam.). © David Medalla. Pictured: Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia. Purchased 2014. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation.Collection: QAGOMA. Photograph: Natasha Harth.[/caption] CLOUD CANYONS — DAVID MEDALLA There's a hypnotic rhythm to Cloud Canyons, the vibrant sculpture by David Medalla. Inspired by the weather in general and clouds specifically, it flexes and shuffles ever so slightly, but every breath-like movement is still noticeable. Given what the piece is made out of, its shifting form is to be expected. Piping detergent foam through plexiglass tubes will have that effect (and so will setting the white substance against a stark black background). Designed to represent a small part of a huge cycle, the soapy bubbles push up and down, twist around, then puddle and evaporate, with the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and gravity all influencing their behaviour. Getting entranced by it is only natural, really. Water is on display at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art, South Bank, until April 26, 2020. For further information, visit the gallery website. Top images: Water. Exhibition no.2019.26. Organisation: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Start date: 7 December 2019. End date: 26 April 2020. Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Level 1. Installation views.
If you're the type of staycationer who chooses their hotels for the perks and extra inclusions, then you'll be particularly excited about an upcoming new addition to Brisbane's accommodation offerings. Mövenpick Hotel Brisbane Spring Hill is set to launch in 2024, marking the Swiss brand's third site in Australia — after Mövenpick Hotel Hobart and Mövenpick Hotel Melbourne both opened earlier in 2021. If either the chain's name or its country of origin have you thinking of sweet treats, yes, they're part of the hotel's menu. For starters, Mövenpick Hotel Brisbane will celebrate chocolate hour every afternoon. Going on the Hobart setup, that's when you'll receive a free dessert — such as an eclair, brownie or truffle — when you purchase a chocolate-flavoured cocktail, mocktail or affogato. Mövenpick's hotels all serve the brand's line of food and beverages as well, which means that Mövenpick ice cream will also be available. Because Brisbane's own Mövenpick site is still a few years off, exactly what'll be on the menu hasn't been revealed quite yet. But the 15-storey, 96-room site will include restaurants and bars — as well as a 25-metre swimming pool, a fitness centre and conference facilities. [caption id="attachment_818960" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Victoria Park[/caption] Setting up shop at 447 Gregory Terrace, bordering Victoria Park — which has just closed its golf course and reopened as a huge 65-hectare public park — Mövenpick Hotel Brisbane will also sport an art deco look to suit its location. Spring Hill is one of Brisbane's oldest suburbs, after all. With MAS Architecture Studio working on the art deco-inspired design, international design firm Hirsch Bedner Associates doing interiors, and the project — and a neighbouring residential tower — being delivered by development group Keylin, the hotel will include a two-storey foyer featuring eight-metre ceilings, marble columns and terrazzo flooring and intricate details, too. Plus, there'll be elevated gardens across its façade to create a cascading greenery effect. And, each room will have city views as well — because chocolate hour won't be the only luxe feature here. Find Mövenpick Hotel Brisbane Spring Hill at 447 Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill from sometime in 2024. Head to the Accor website to keep an eye out for further information.
"Eventually, I've come to realise that there are bad guys," says Julia Louis-Dreyfus (You Hurt My Feelings) as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the just-dropped teaser trailer for Thunderbolts*. "And there are worse guys," she continues, "and nothing else". So goes the setup for one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's next big-screen releases — and it plays with a familiar template. Banding together a disparate group of characters is MCU 101. Teaming up antiheroes to take on worse folks as mandated by the government is also how Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad from DC have played out. The Thunderbolts* version hits cinemas in May 2025 Down Under, also starring Florence Pugh (Dune: Part Two), David Harbour (Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story), Sebastian Stan (Dumb Money), Wyatt Russell (Night Swim), Olga Kurylenko (Paradox Effect) and Hannah John-Kamen (Breaking Point) in their Marvel returns. Pugh is back as Yelena Belova after Black Widow and Hawkeye, while Harbour again plays Red Guardian, Stan returns as Bucky Barnes and his The Falcon and the Winter Soldier co-star Russell is back as John Walker. Kurylenko played Taskmaster in Black Widow, too, while John-Kamen's Ghost was part of Ant-Man and the Wasp. This is a flick with a bit of homework, then, if you're keen to know the ins and outs of every character before they get thrust together in Thunderbolts*'s storyline, becoming a band of misfits and going on missions. The film marks the 36th in the MCU, and will follow fellow 2025 release Captain America: Brave New World into picture palaces. Behind the lens on Thunderbolts*: director Jake Schreier, who has helmed episodes of Beef, Minx, the Russell-starring Lodge 49 and more, plus films Paper Towns and Robot & Frank. Marvel has had a light year on the silver screen in 2024, with just Deadpool & Wolverine releasing. That definitely won't be the case in 2025, however, with not only Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* slated to drop, but also The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Check out the first teaser trailer for Thunderbolts* below: Thunderbolts* releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Images: courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL.
A slightly larger version of the beer brand's original Newstead location, Newstead Brewing Co's Milton venue is a bustling brewery and craft-beer bar right across the road from the Suncorp Stadium. Pouring brews since early 2017, the venue is pre-match favourite — and with plenty of outdoor terrace space, a large main bar and a function area that is open to the public on event days, the space is prime for big groups and bigger nights. Also, the meals are huge. Kick things off with grilled squid with hummus and chipotle or charred lamb ribs, then back it up with a smoked brisket pizza or a smoky grilled beef burger. From the share menu, whole and half smoked cauliflowers, full free range chickens with grilled stone fruit and miso eggplant all await. The brewing team oversees a 50-hectolitre setup, heroing all things small batch, craft beer and seasonal. There are a total of 32 taps across three bars, offering the Newstead's core beer range and a cider, as well as the brewery's latest ale experimentations. Pop in and try them, any day of the week.
When you're a mask-wearing superhero, you've made an active choice. Everyone's favourite friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man wanted to keep his web-slinging identity a secret, for instance, which is why he started covering up his face long before the entire world began doing the same during the pandemic. But, in Spider-Man: Far From Home, that decision was taken out of Peter Parker's hands — leaving the Tom Holland (Chaos Walking)-starring, Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the character exposed to the world. Set to arrive two-and-a-half years after that big — and literal — revelation, Spider-Man: No Way Home will pick up with Parker struggling to deal with the fact that everyone now knows who he is, and that he can't now just be an ordinary high schooler when he's not acting the hero. So, as the just-dropped first trailer for the new film shows, he calls in some help. Cue Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, The Courier), a time- and space-twisting spell, and the beginnings of some multiverse chaos. Wong (Benedict Wong, Nine Days) is also on-hand to warn against messing with the status quo, but obviously if that advice was followed, the movie wouldn't have a plot. Two important things to remember: one, the MCU will keep spinning its interconnected web forever (or so it seems); and two, in March 2022, a little film called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is set to drop. It's the next movie in the franchise after No Way Home hits on Boxing Day Down Under, in fact, so expect the two to link closely together. Also popping up in the No Way Home trailer: Zendaya (Space Jam: A New Legacy), Marisa Tomei (The King of Staten Island) and Jacob Batalon (Let It Snow). Behind the lens, Jon Watts returns after previously helming both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home as well. And, there's another familiar face that'll make you think not just about this current iteration of Spidey, but also of past versions that've graced the big screen over the years — because that's what tinkering with the multiverse is all about. No Way Home isn't as likely to get as playful as the phenomenal animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, though, if that's what's just popped into your head. In a nice piece of symmetry, when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness does hit cinemas next year, it'll be directed by Sam Raimi — who also directed the Tobey Maguire-starring Spider-Man movies in 2002, 2003 and 2007. Check out the No Way Home trailer below: Spider-Man: No Way Home opens in Australian cinemas on December 26.
Around Christmas time, stories of goodwill and kind deeds seem to pop up more frequently, giving you that fuzzy feeling that humanity does indeed exist in our society. One of these stories came to Concrete Playground’s attention, and we thought we should spread the Christmas cheer. A bunch of Sydneysiders have got together and created the organisation The Philanthropic Foodie, a demiurgic thinktank that come up with ideas that marry Sydney’s love of fine food and worthwhile charities. These two elements suit each other better than Tim Tams and early gray on a rainy, summer day. Now you can indulge in your weakness for pricey jars of green olives or $9 bottles of San Pellegrino without getting that guilty twinge from thinking of the price of the equivalent product at Woolworths. Their first project is a gourmet hamper, with contributions from Simon Johnson, Campos coffee, Christine Manfield (Universal), Bourke Street Bakery and Gelato Messina, to name a few, as well as a Danks Street Depot cookbook and a Future Classics CD so you can get your groove on while you chop and stir. There are three different sized hampers at varying prices, with all profits going to charity Youth Off The Streets. Relax into a foodie coma knowing you’ve done a good deed - a pretty good deal if you ask me. Gourmet Hampers Sydney
Not that you need one, but you've now got a fresh excuse to bring your pup along on that next holiday or staycation. Already pet-friendly hotel group Ovolo is upping the ante this September, with a slew of extra goodies in store for its four-legged guests. In honour of International Dog Day (August 26), Ovolo is beefing up its usual V.I.Pooch packages for stays between Thursday, September 1–Friday, September 30, at all of its Aussie hotels. It's teamed up with pet treat subscription service Waggly Club to offer furry travellers additional goody packs, filled with edible treats and toys to really get that tail wagging. Waggly's signature boxes are usually packed with a range of all-natural, Australian-made dog snacks, plus a chew treat, and a new toy or two for the collection. The popular V.I.Pooch package already includes a comfy dog bed for premium holiday snoozing, a special food and drink mat to help keep in-room mess to a minimum, and access to Ovolo's expert team of doggy support staff. The offer has been a hit since the hotel group introduced it back in 2020, helping to kick off a new wave of dog-friendly luxury hotel experiences here in Australia. The elevated V.I.Pooch package is available this September at Ovolo hotels nationwide — you'll find them in Melbourne (Laneways and Ovolo South Yarra), Sydney (The Woolstore 1888 and Woolloomooloo), Brisbane (The Valley and The Inchcolm) and Canberra (Nishi). [caption id="attachment_867004" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ovolo South Yarra[/caption] The V.I.Pooch x Waggly Club package is available at all Aussie Ovolo hotels throughout September, clocking in at $80 per pet. Has your pooch got the travel bug? Check out these other great dog-friendly stays.
Unlike a certain lab coat-wearing grandfather and his nervous grandson, we can't all exclaim "wubba lubba dub dub" and zap our way to a different part of the multiverse when things aren't going our way. But, we can get schwifty, kick back and watch a couple of animated interdimensional adventurers unleash their specific style of chaos, with Rick and Morty set to return in 2021 for its fifth season. Once again, Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith (both voiced by show co-creator Justin Roiland) will do what they do best: not just aping a concept straight out of Back to the Future, but wreaking havoc in as many universes as they can stumble across. Also back are Morty's mother Beth (Sarah Chalke, Firefly Lane), father Jerry (Chris Parnell, Archer) and sister Summer (Spencer Grammer, Tell Me a Story) — and, as the just-released first trailer for season five shows, they're playing a big part in Rick and Morty's dimension-hopping antics this time around. Sneak peeks at Rick and Morty's upcoming episodes are more about the mood, look and feel than the storylines. The show's trailers tease glimpses of all of the out-there situations that its characters will find themselves in, and leave the specifics for the new season itself. That's the case here, naturally — with nods to everything from Voltron to Blade bundled into the trailer, because that's the way the news goes. As for when you'll be able to watch the next batch of Rick and Morty anarchy — and rejoin the smartest Rick and Morty-est Morty in the universe, of course — the fifth season will start airing week-to-week in the US from mid-June. Hopefully Netflix Down Under will follow suit shortly afterwards. That's what happened with season four, which released its long-awaited episodes in two batches in 2019 and 2020. Watch the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Zy_mLgSNQ Rick and Morty's fifth season will start airing weekly from June 20 in the US. Down Under, the show airs on Netflix — and we'll update you with a release date for the new season when one is announced.
Hanging out by the river in Brisbane isn't the same as hitting up Italy's coastline, but it'll still give you a tase of la dolce vita at Howard Smith Wharves' Festa Italiana. The waterfront CBD precinct debuted its first-ever Italian food market in 2023, and now it's bringing it back in 2024 for two big four-day weekends celebrating cuisine and beverages from the other side of the world. When it pops up from Thursday, May 23–Sunday, May 26 and Thursday, May 30–Sunday, June 2, the event will again boast a guest of honour: Naples-born and -raised, Sydney-based D'Elia chef Orazio D'Elia of Bondi Beach's Da Orazio. He isn't just making a second trip to Brisbane. The culinary figure with experience as Head Chef at Sydney's iconic Icebergs Dining Room and Bar alongside Maurice Terzini, who has then been keeping that collaboration going by opening Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta, is once more behind Festa Italiana alongside HSW. "The energy, people and sunshine in Brisbane reminded me of my hometown, evoking a sense of nostalgia. Brisbane's love for food only deepens the connection, adding to the familiar warmth I feel when I'm there," said Orazio about last year's fest and market, and 2024's return. This year, he'll be bringing back two dishes he's known for — vodka rigatoni (made with tomato and vodka sauce) and focaccia con porchetta (with the meat fresh from the rotisserie, and paired with chilli-marinated grilled eggplant, cos lettuce and mayonnaise on schiacciatina bread) — alongside a few new menu additions, some of which he's keeping a surprise until the event. "The other dishes I'll be cooking are inspired by my latest trip to Napoli," he advised. "Napoli is a city with a lot of energy and every Neapolitan loves food. The food in Napoli is tasty and has punchy flavours. Once you've tried them, you'll never forget." "At this year's Festa Italiana, expect to see dishes like caserecce alla genovese (Neapolitan-style veal ragù) and fusilli alla luciana (tomato-braised baby octopus, black olives and capers). I think the hero dish will be the caserecce alla genovese, famous for its simplicity — it's a 'must-try'." Timed to wrap up autumn and say hello to winter over its two weekends, as it was last year, Festa Italiana will take over HSW's main lawn with its Italian bites and sips — which will also span a live pasta station making fresh pasta onsite, a pop-up spritz bar, buffalo mozzarella, woodfired bread and fritto misto, all to live tunes providing a soundtrack. Entry is free, with everything you're keen to eat and drink purchased as you go. The event will run from 4pm–late Thursday–Friday and from 12pm–late Saturday–Sunday. Festa Italiana takes place at Howard Smith Wharves in the Brisbane CBD from Thursday, May 23–Sunday, May 26 and Thursday, May 30–Sunday, June 2. Head to the precinct's website for further details.
Love doughnuts but don't eat animal products? Krispy Kreme has now joined the plant-based fold, launching its vegan-friendly wares Down Under. From Wednesday, November 1, the chain will be slinging round desserts made without animal-derived ingredients in both Australia and New Zealand, with two flavours on offer — and one sticking around. Krispy Kreme is no stranger to specials, whether it's giving away doughnuts for dressing up in Halloween costumes, introducing the world to duffins — yes, doughnut muffins — or making a Maxibon doughnut. But vegan-friendly doughnuts should never just be a limited-time thing. That's why the new apple custard crumble variety is joining the brand's menu permanently, although the fudge brownie doughnut is only on offer until early December. So, from now until forever — after launching to celebrate World Vegan Day, in fact — you can tuck into a shell-shaped doughnut that boasts apple custard inside, and has then been dipped in spiced icing and vanilla biscuit crumb. Or, until Monday, December 4, the fudge brownie bliss doughnut will get you eating a shell-shaped doughnut filled with brownie batter, then dunked in chocolate icing and topped with chocolate biscuit crumbs. Everyone can find the two doughnuts in Australian and New Zealand stores, online, and at 7-Eleven in Australia and bp Connect in NZ, with the fudge brownie bliss doughnut on offer until Monday, December 4. If you're wondering what vegan-friendly means, the doughnuts don't use egg or milk ingredients at all. Krispy Kreme's facilities do still handle animal products, however, so the new vegan-friendly fare is made at sites where animal-derived ingredients are present. That said, measures are taken to ensure cross-contamination. [caption id="attachment_924392" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Samuel Wiki via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Krispy Kreme's vegan-friendly doughnut range is available in Australian and New Zealand stores, online, and at 7-Eleven in Australia and bp Connect in NZ, from Wednesday, November 1 — with the new apple custard crumble flavour here to stay and the limited-edition fudge brownie variety on offer until Monday, December 4.
The world said goodbye to Amy Winehouse in 2011, but that doesn't mean that the British singer isn't still taking to the stage. The 'Back to Black' and 'Rehab' songstress is the latest celebrity to get the hologram treatment, with a new technologically enhanced performance set to hit the road in 2019 — featuring the late talent crooning her hits accompanied by a live band and on-stage singers. Attendees can expect between 75–110 minutes of Winehouse's music, all thanks to the folks at Base Hologram, who are behind similar shows involving Roy Orbison and Maria Callas. Bringing back dearly departed music icons seems to be their new niche, in a trend that just keeps gathering steam since the Tupac hologram back at Coachella in 2012. Base Hologram states that the Winehouse show will utilise "new state-of-the-art proprietary technology" and feature "digitally remastered arrangements of her classics" as well as "theatrical stagecraft". Exactly where the production will be headed has yet to be revealed, although it's expected to launch towards the end of 2019. The Guardian also reports that the the tour will raise money and awareness for the Amy Winehouse Foundation. Via The Guardian. Image: Rama via Wikimedia Commons.
In one of the many audio clips that comprise One to One: John & Yoko's impressive array of 70s-era archival materials, the documentary's two namesakes are asked how they want to be remembered. John Lennon's answer: "just as two lovers". It's an apt description, and one that applies in multiple senses in the latest film by Kevin Macdonald — a doco that joins the likes of Oscar-winner One Day in September, plus Touching the Void, the crowdsourced Life in a Day, and the also music-focused Marley and Whitney on the Scottish director's resume, as well as features such as The Last King of Scotland, State of Play, How I Live Now and The Mauritanian. Standing out in the the well-populated realm of Beatles movies, factual and dramatised alike, One to One: John & Yoko steps through Lennon and Yoko Ono's love for each other and for music, and also for doing what they can to make the world a better place. As much as that "two lovers" quote resonates in the movie, that idea wasn't one of the lenses through which Macdonald, a lifelong Beatles fan and someone who considers Lennon his first pop-culture hero, approached the film. "Not specifically, actually, the kind of love affair between them," he tells Concrete Playground. "I think that comes across as between the cracks, in a way." Instead, in a film that explores a marriage, a milestone concert that also gives the doco its title, and a moment — that's as fascinated with the reality that greeted John and Yoko when they moved to the US from Britain in 1971, how the couple witnessed the era through American TV and their activist efforts to make a difference IRL — he was keen to show Lennon and Ono's romance as a union of equals. [caption id="attachment_1010512" align="alignnone" width="1920"] © Bob Gruen / www.bobgruen.com[/caption] "I was very interested, though, in trying to give Yoko a bit more of a voice and get her perspective on this period, and on the immediate aftermath of this breaking up of The Beatles and the influence she had on John. And for the audience to see, I think, what to me was very clear as I looked at all this material — is that this is a real marriage of true partners, love partners but also creative partners, and the respect that they have for each other comes across in the film," Macdonald continues. "I think it's a very mature kind of love, I suppose, as in it's not the kind of usual movie romantic, tweeting-birds kind of love. It feels like love that is part of a profound relationship of respect. I think that's what's so striking about it." "And I'm particularly struck always by, when I watch the film, by seeing John go to the International Feminist Conference at the end — and thinking in early 1973, which other massive rockstar of that period would do that, would be the only man in the room with a bunch of very hardcore feminists, and be open to that, those ideas and that experience, and giving the platform to their partner in such a way? I think that even today, that would be quite rare with a male star." Macdonald's latest documentary started its life with the One to One concert footage, which was John's last full-length gig — and also his only one after The Beatles. An interview that the filmmaker heard with John speaking about how all he did was watch TV when he arrived in the US, which is quoted at the beginning of the movie, was just as crucial. So began a project with a tricky task, given how frequently cinema's focus falls upon John and The Beatles still. The job: when Sam Mendes' (Empire of Light) four films starring Harris Dickinson (Babygirl), Paul Mescal (Gladiator II), Barry Keoghan (Bird) and Joseph Quinn (Warfare) are on the way — and the Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)-produced Beatles '64 arrived in 2024, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week from Ron Howard (Jim Henson Idea Man) came out in the last ten years and The Beatles: Get Back by Peter Jackson (The Shall Not Grow Old) isn't even half-a-decade old (and that's without thinking about Nowhere Boy and Backbeat and so much more) — how do you come up with something that feels new? The answer here: fleshing out One to One: John & Yoko not only around the Madison Square Garden benefit concert for children with intellectual disabilities at Staten Island's Willowbrook institution, and not even just through the pair's music, either, but also by using their television viewing to give context to what was happening in America at the time. Also, by giving the movie the vibe — with home movies, plus unheard tapes of John and Yoko's phone calls, too — of hanging out with the pair. Accordingly, Macdonald pairs restored 16mm footage of the pivotal gig with personal clips, archival news, TV snippets and commercials, and even a recreation of John and Yoko's Greenwich Village apartment from the era. The duo's presence in the political and social movements of the time is in focus as well, as is simply revelling in their presence together. Sean Ono Lennon has said that it's the first film that's truly captured who his mother was as an artist and a person, Macdonald has shared. That's one of many striking elements to the doco. How clearly it highlights the similarities between the 70s and now, how it embraces John and Yoko's fondness for creative experimentation in its approach, its collage-like structure that the director likens to TikTok: they're others. We chatted to Macdonald about the above, plus what it means to him to make One to One: John & Yoko as such a Beatles and Lennon fan, his career journey and more. On Sean Ono Lennon Saying That This Is the First Film He's Seen That Has Truly Captured His Mother as an Artist and a Person "I was really happy with that, obviously, because first of all, you make anything about The Beatles or about The Beatles solo and there's so many films and so many books, and so much has been said and written. So to try to do anything that's new, that was my starting point. I don't want to make a film like every other film that's been made. I want to show something different. But I'm not going to factually show you much that's new — there are probably some things up here that the real Beatles fans can go 'oh that, I didn't know this little fact, that little fact', but it's not really about that. To me, it's more about the experiential thing of being with these people in a very domestic, everyday setting for a lot of it. I mean, just hanging with them. And I wanted people to have the sense of hanging out on the bed with John and Yoko. So naturally, of course, that means that you, because you're seeing Yoko not always in her public persona, I think you feel closer to her. And I think there's something about the phone calls, the phone calls that she's on — particularly the one where she talks about how The Beatles treated her, and how people sent her dolls with pins in them and things, which I think give you a great deal of empathy for her, which then is redoubled when you hear the story of her daughter Kyoko. Which, by the way, I thought I knew quite a lot about The Beatles — I didn't even know about Kyoko. And I think that says an awful lot about how her perspective has not been taken in terms of telling the story in the past. Because John and Yoko went to New York largely because they were looking for Kyoko. They were escaping from what they perceived as the unwelcoming attitude in Britain for Yoko, but they were primarily there because they were trying to find Yoko's daughter. And that drove them through all of this period, and yet that's not something that's talked about. So I as soon as I started to learn about that story and learn about how that was really the emotional driver for the concert being put on in the first place — this sense that both of them had for the terrible conditions that these kids were being brought up in, which was particularly raw for them because they both undergoing this sense of loss of Kyoko — I think once I put all that together, that gave a perspective on Yoko emotionally, which I think changes the way you feel about her. Because when you empathise with someone, you tend to like them more." On the Importance of Giving One to One: John & Yoko a Tangible Element Through a Detailed Recreation of Lennon and Ono's Greenwich Village Apartment "When I got involved in the film, as I said, I was thinking first and foremost about 'how can I open up a different kind of window on them and give people a sense of getting to know them on a deeper, more immediate level?'. And I heard this comment that John made, very early on in my research, where he talked about how television was his window on the world, and how he spent most of his time when he first arrived in America watching TV and learning about the country through the TV. And I thought — that's a light-bulb moment, I thought 'well, that's how I should structure the whole film, is around that concept. And we should see them watching TV or feel like we're with them, feel like they just left the room and they left the TV on and the cigarettes still in the ashtray'. And so, as I said earlier, to have the feeling that we are on the bed with them, watching what's going on in America — and I like the idea that we're understanding history through shards, in the same ways we do in everyday life. We don't have a perfect knowledge or understanding of what's going on around us. We pick up little bits and pieces, and we create a narrative in our heads. And that's I wanted to reproduce, that experience, which is the experience of how human beings pass through the world. We don't have perfect narratives that are presented to us and everything coheres and makes sense. We are taking these imperfect little moments and giving them meaning and putting them together in narratives." On Whether Macdonald Anticipated the Parallels Between America in the 70s and Today That Are Evident inthe Documentary "No, I actually didn't. I didn't. We started this, I guess, in early 2023, and the legal situation, the political situation in the world, was very different. And it did feel at times — still does feel — like the world is copying our movie. Things keep happening that we're like 'oh my god, that's like the scene where such and such happens in the film'. And I did for a long time wonder about whether, is this kind of echoing, is this something? I've since read quite a lot about it, actually, and I'm not the only person to have noticed it — it is something which quite a lot of historians have commented upon. And I think even if you go back in time, there's even earlier periods in American history which have a similar rise of populism, demonstrations, economic turmoil. I think a lot of those things come back in some cyclical way in America every 50–60 years. And I think that they'll probably come back in different ways in other countries. I think it's something I'd be very curious to find out more about. But I was struck, as we were making the film, that all these echoes and similarities just arose around me. Because it really was — we didn't know that Donald Trump was going to have an attempted assassination. We didn't know that Kamala Harris was going to be the first Black woman to stand for presidency. And we had Shirley Chisholm, who was trying to get on to that ticket [in 1972]. All these many, many connections, they weren't there when we started cutting the film, even. So it was peculiar. But I think that why I find it comforting in a way, is that we all like to think that our period is a particularly catastrophic, apocalyptic period. It's a kind of vanity, I suppose, we all have as human beings — you think 'oh my god, we're living through the worst of times'. But actually, to see that things were pretty bad before, passions were very high, and then we had Jimmy Carter and things. We had sort of boring presidents and stabilisation in the world, and things did get a little better. I suppose I took some comfort from that. But I guess you can read it also the other way around. You can read it as 'oh my god, why don't we learn anything?'." On Making One to One as a Lifelong Beatles Fan and Someone Who Considered Lennon His First Pop-Culture Hero "I think I — maybe in common with other people, I don't know — the passions that you have when you are in your early teenage years, or between the ages of 11 and 16 or whatever, you never feel passion for anything quite as much again in the way that you did for those things. Whether they be movies or songs or artists, whatever it is, I think you're more open and raw, and everything is new to you and it's super exciting. And so to be able to go back to one of the people who really was my great hero of that [age]. I think I was aware of The Beatles in 1979 when I was 11 or 12, and then John was shot, and then that confluence of those two things is what made him such a focus of attention for me. But I think that to be able to revisit that period of your life is real pleasure — from an adult perspective, from a more cynical, seen it all, been-there-done-that perspective. Because it reminds you of who you are and the passion that you had. And you can see how right you were in some ways, to love those things. And it reawakens that love that maybe you were a bit cynical about it. So yeah, I think I find myself, interestingly, in a lot of films and documentaries I've done, going back to this period in the 70s — which is, I guess, the formative period for me. I had an American grandmother and I used to go to stay with her all my holidays in America and watch TV. I remember the Nixon hearings and things like that being on TV. And I remember my grandmother supporting Nixon. I remember her vividly saying 'oh, that poor man, Mr Nixon, why don't they leave him alone?'. So maybe we're all revisiting our childhood experiences." On Whether One to One Was Actively Aiming to Match Lennon and Ono's Creative Experimentation with Its Own Approach "No, not so much. I was looking at what remains of them and what it says. I thought it would be an interesting process to just say 'I'm not going to take any extraneous information, very little extraneous information, in the film, except that which exists in archive footage and audio and whatever. I'm going to see what I can make, how I can create an experience, but also somewhat of a story'. And it's always a balance in this sort of film. I wanted it to be something that when you experience narrative, you feel like things move forward and change, but for it to also feel moment to moment like it's chaos and anarchy, and you don't know where it's going to go. But actually, I want the audience to feel that, as they watch it, like 'oh, the filmmakers do have an idea — they are taking me somewhere. This is going somewhere. There is a progression. There is a narrative'. So it's trying to finely balance the chaotic and the structured. And there is a very thought-out structure to it. But it just seems to me like it's interesting to use the crumbs that have been left down the back of the sofa. You can put it like that. It's like you live your life and most of it vanishes with you when you're gone, and those times are gone, but certain crumbs are left down the back of the sofa, and a few coins that fell out of your pocket — and what do they say about you? And they're not the whole truth. They can't be. Because we can never reconstruct the whole truth of the past. And then, not to get too pretentious, so that's what different documentary forms which are about the past are trying — different ways to evoke and describe that which you know can't be fully brought back to life, can't fully be understood, in an hour and a half or two hours or whatever it is. And so there's a joy for me in the experimentation, and in the trying to find a different way to bring this period to life, to bring these characters to life, to mix their personal lives with the bigger political scene, and the bigger cultural scene, without trying to explain it all too much. I've had younger viewers watch the film and say 'this is like the TikTok experience'. This is basically how young people experience the world, watching TikTok, where you just see people, characters, situations appear, and you are very rapidly are making calculations in your head about 'who are they? Where they from? What's the purpose of this? Are they selling me something? Are they just trying to be funny?'. And I think that's the way I want be able to experience this film — that you're making all these connections. You're not being totally passive in it. You have to bring your own mind, bring your own sense of narrative to it." On Macdonald's Three-Decade Career So Far, Including Jumping Between Documentaries and Dramas "I feel, on one level, just really lucky to continue to be able to make films and continue to be able to make them in the way that I want to make them. And I have to give thanks to Mercury Studios, who let me make this film — sort of a mainstream experimental film, if we call it that. And to get the opportunity for people to give you money to be able to make a film is always a privilege. To get a make a film which is idiosyncratic and personal is really an exceptional thing. So after 30 years of making documentaries and films, yeah, first of all I just feel lucky to have been able to do that and to have supported myself and made a living out of doing it. And I love doing something which you can never perfect. You're always having to realise what did and didn't work in what you last did, and try to do something new — and I think that's maybe the defining feature of my work, which is that it's very varied and I'm always excited to try something different, try something new and go with my own passions for the most part. Although sometimes, obviously, we do things for money — but for the most part we do things for passion. And also, I'm very happy that I've continued to do both documentary and fiction — and the breathing space that each one gives me and renews in me, that gives me the time to renew my passion for the other one. So when I make a documentary, I'm at the end of it and I'm like 'oh my god, I really want to work with some actors who give me exactly what I asked them to so I don't have to find it in all this footage' and vice versa." One to One: John & Yoko opened in Australian cinemas on Friday, June 20, 2025 — and streams via DocPlay from Monday, July 21, 2025. Images: Magnolia Pictures.
The humble neighbourhood pub will always hold a soft spot in every Australian's heart. We all live near one. We've all spent time in one. They're the places that you can mosey to just because the feeling hits, and the venues where you can while away many an hour over several brews. And, perfect for the Aussie climate, they're usually home to sunny, breezy beer gardens. Over the past few years in Brisbane, neighbourhood pubs are just the kind of spots that Australian Venue Co has been revamping, because the nationwide hospitality company owns quite a few in the River City. In the last 12 months alone, the Cleveland Sands, Salisbury Hotel, the Crown Hotel in Lutwyche and Bribie Island Hotel have all unveiled facelifts. Now joining that list: Capalaba's Koala Tavern. Just in time for summer, this popular Redlands pub has reopened after a $3-million renovation, complete with plenty of features that'll come in handy for the warm weather. That includes a new fairy light-lit beer garden with seats, cushions, benches and umbrellas aplenty, giving patrons a whole heap of options for eating and drinking al fresco. And, for visitors with kids in tow, there's a new play area as well. The rest of the venue has also been given a makeover, as seen in the new-look bistro, as well as the sports bar that's been turned into an entertainment hub. The latter will now host local and touring bands, and is also decked out with screens showing sport. Head by on Tuesdays for trivia, too, and on Thursdays for 'Blues and Brews' evenings. As for the menu — another big drawcard at any neighbourhood pub — Koala Tavern's new culinary lineup heroes classic Australian pub grub. Yes, that means chicken schnitzels and parmas, beer-battered fish and chips (in XXXX, being Queensland), rumps and eye fillets, salt and pepper calamari, caesar salads and steak sandwiches. The garlic bread range includes a bacon and cheese version, bacon mac 'n' cheese croquettes are also on offer, and the house pie changes weekly but always comes stacked with onion rings on top. Another humble favourite, the rotisserie chicken, also gets some love here. You can order a serving of it with sourdough stuffing, slaw and chips, or grab a warm roast chicken roll. And for dessert? Warm bread and butter pudding, chocolate brownies and blueberry cheesecake. Cocktail fans will also find two kinds of spritzes on the menu — strawberry and river mint, and ginger and mango — plus classics like Long Island iced teas, margaritas, espresso martinis, sparkling raspberry negronis and creaming soda highballs. To celebrate its big relaunch, the venue is hosting a three-day 'welcome weekend' shindig across Friday, November 25–Sunday, November 27, and bringing in its namesake with a D'Aguilar Wildlife koala handler show. An important note: stopping by during the festivities could also score you a free hot chook roll. Find the Koala Tavern at 36-40 Moreton Bay Road, Capalaba — open 10am–late seven days a week. Images: Kirra Smith.
David Attenborough may have turned 94 in 2020; however the acclaimed broadcaster and natural historian isn't slowing down anytime soon. Fresh from narrating and presenting two new TV series last year — Our Planet and Seven Worlds, One Planet — and even appearing at Glastonbury to promote the latter, he's now bringing his latest movie-length documentary to cinemas. Called David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, the film sees Attenborough look back on his more than nine decades on earth, the sights he has seen and the changes he has witnessed. Specifically, he reflects upon humanity's enormous and damaging impact on the natural world. Produced by wildlife filmmakers Silverback Films and global environmental organisation WWF, the resulting doco us described as "a powerful message of hope for future generations". In the film's trailer, Attenborough doesn't hold back. "The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel, yet the way we humans live on earth is sending it into a decline," he comments — before further noting that "human beings have overrun the world". He calls the film his "witness statement" and his "vision for the future", exploring humankind's actions over its existence and how moves can be made to address the planet's current environmental state. Naturally, Attenborough's wise words are combined with striking footage — as you'd expect of anything that the broadcaster is involved in. Originally due to hit the silver screen for one night only, A Life On Our Planet was slated to show in cinemas Down Under in April — but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its release was postponed. It'll now premiere on Monday, September 28 and stick around for a longer cinema season, with the film paired with an exclusive cinema-only conversation between Attenborough and Sir Michael Palin. There's nothing quite like seeing stunning nature footage on a big screen; however if you miss out or can't make it along, the documentary will also head to Netflix before spring is out. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLVkqjHrAzw&feature=youtu.be David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet will screen in Australian and New Zealand cinemas from Monday, September 28, before hitting Netflix before spring is out. Top image: WWF; Joe Fereday, Silverback Films.
The Australian Open 2024 is set to serve up a lot more than world-class tennis, which is pretty ace if you ask us. Expect a food lover's dream, showcasing a smorgasbord of cuisines from across the planet and catering to every palate. One of the hottest seats will be Bar Atrium with its Yarra and city skyline views — the perfect backdrop to a three-course, Lebanese-inspired brunch curated by Melbourne's own Tom Sarafian. Then, as the sun sets, the venue transforms into an 'After Eight' experience, featuring bar snacks by Sarafian and cocktails from The Everleigh. Meanwhile, at John Cain Arena's Fusion Feast, you'll find dishes from beloved chefs like Ross Magnaye of Serai and Jessi Singh of Daughter-In-Law. But that's just the beginning. Enjoy tastes of Italia at Garden Square with Lygon Street Italian. Iconic Melbourne joints King & Godfree, D.O.C, and Brunetti Classico will serve up classic Italian dishes from pizza al taglio to delish porchetta rolls. Seafood lovers can head to the AO Courtside Bar, where Bondi's Fish Shop will be serving bar bites. Fishbowl will also make another appearance at Grand Slam Oval, serving items from its new Street Food concept menu. And for a taste of Spain, visit Abel Lusa's Cambio de Tercio for traditional and modern tapas. Not far away, the Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Bar offers a touch of fancy, perfect for sipping champagne while watching the matches. For those looking for salvation amid the Aussie summer heat, don't miss the signature Peach Melbourne soft serve at AO Ballpark. Or head to the returning Peroni Bar for ice-cold respite. Canadian Club's Cabana Bar, Terrazza Aperol and Squealing Pig Wine Terrace will also be on hand to provide tournament goers with some quality watering hole options. Rockpool Bar and Grill, Penfolds Restaurant and Stokehouse will be returning to next year's event, as will the much loved Rod Laver Arena Superboxes by Shane Delia's Maha and Nick and Nora's. So, with all that being said, our tip for next year's Australian Open? Wear loose pants. Catch the Australian Open from Sunday, January 14, 2024, to Sunday, January 28, 2024.
When it comes to one of the easiest pastimes there is — sitting on the couch and staring at a screen — the streaming era has brought about plenty of changes. We all now spend more time than anyone should deciding what to view next, for example, and we tend to know if and where you can watch Friends at any given moment. Another big shift: movies that bypass cinemas no longer arrive with an asterisk next to their name. That didn't ever quite happen literally, obviously, but skipping the big screen and heading straight to home entertainment wasn't really seen as a great sign. These days, however, streaming platforms are delivering top-notch flicks week in, week out — all ready to be viewed and enjoyed by your ravenous eyeballs while you're wearing your pyjamas. Across the first half of 2021, everything from potent Oscar-nominated dramas to caustic and twisty thrillers have made their way to audiences solely via streaming services. Also on the list: spirited coming-of-age flicks, engaging documentaries and a deliciously entertaining movie about a killer pair of jeans. From the year's straight-to-streaming haul so far, we've picked the films that deserve your attention — and one must-see comedy special that runs as long as a movie as well. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI Pondering the conversations that might've occurred between four pivotal historical figures on one very real evening they spent in each other's company, One Night in Miami boasts the kind of talk-heavy concept that'd clearly work well on the stage. That's where it first began back in 2013 — but adapting theatre pieces for the cinema doesn't always end in success, especially when they primarily involve large swathes of dialogue exchanged in one setting. If Beale Street Could Talk Oscar-winner and Watchmen Emmy-winner Regina King doesn't make a single wrong move here, however. The actor's feature directorial debut proves a film not only of exceptional power and feeling, but of abundant texture and detail as well. It's a movie about people and ideas, including the role the former can play in both bolstering and counteracting the latter, and the Florida-set picture takes as much care with its quartet of protagonists as it does with the matters of race, politics and oppression they talk about. Given the folks involved, there's much to discuss. The film takes place on February 25, 1964, which has become immortalised in history as the night that Cassius Clay (Eli Goree, Riverdale) won his first title fight. Before and after the bout, the future Muhammad Ali hangs out with his equally important pals — activist Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir, High Fidelity), footballer Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge, The Invisible Man) and musician Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr, Hamilton) — with this equally meticulous and moving Oscar-nominee ficitionalising their time together. One Night in Miami is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. I CARE A LOT She didn't end up with an Oscar for her efforts, but Rosamund Pike's Golden Globe win for I Care a Lot was thoroughly well-deserved. The Radioactive and Gone Girl star is stellar in a tricky part in a thorny film — because this dark comic-thriller isn't here to play nice. Pike plays Marla Grayson, a legal guardian to as many elderly Americans as she can convince the courts to send her way. She's more interested in the cash that comes with the job, however, rather than actually looking after her charges. Indeed, with her girlfriend and business partner Fran (Eiza González, Bloodshot), plus an unscrupulous doctor on her payroll, she specifically targets wealthy senior citizens with no family, gets them committed to her care, packs them off to retirement facilities and plunders their bank accounts. Then one such ploy catches the attention of gangster Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones), who dispatches his minions to nudge Marla in a different direction. She isn't willing to acquiesce, though, sparking both a game of cat and mouse and a showdown. Dinklage makes the most of his role, too, but I Care a Lot is always the icy Pike's movie. Well, hers and writer/director J Blakeson's (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), with the latter crafting a takedown of capitalism that's savagely blunt but also blisteringly entertaining. I Care a Lot is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. SLAXX Ask any style guru for their opinion on denim, and they'll all likely give the same answer. Everyone needs a pair of killer jeans, after all — the type that fit perfectly, flatter every inch of your lower half, and that you just don't want to ever take off. In Slaxx, CCC is the store aiming to make all of the above happen. Already priding itself on its eco-friendly, sustainable, sweatshop-free threads, the chain is set to launch a new range of denim that moulds to the wearer's body, with the company's buzzword-spouting CEO (Stephen Bogaert, IT: Chapter Two) certain that they'll change the fashion industry. On the night before the jeans hit the shelves, employees at one store are tasked with making sure everything goes smoothly; however, as new hire Libby (Romane Denis, My Salinger Year), apathetic veteran employee Shruti (Sehar Bhojani, Sex & Ethnicity) and their over-eager boss Craig (Brett Donahue, Private Eyes) soon learn, these are killer jeans in a very literal sense. Quickly, the ravenous pants start stalking and slaying their way through the store. It's a concept that'd do Rubber's Quentin Dupieux proud and, in the hands of Canadian filmmaker Elza Kephart (Go in the Wilderness), the results are highly entertaining. Slaxx wears its equally silly and savage attitude like a second skin, smartly skewers consumerism and retail trends, and possesses stellar special effects that bring its denim to life — and, although never subtle (including in its performances), it's exactly as fun as a film about killer jeans should be. Slaxx is available to stream via Shudder. AND TOMORROW THE ENTIRE WORLD Submitted as Germany's entry for Best International Feature at this year's Oscars, And Tomorrow the Entire World mightn't have ultimately earned a nomination or the prized gong itself, but it's still a compelling and confronting — and timely — film. And, an impassioned one as well, with filmmaker Julia von Heinz (I'm Off Then) leaving zero doubt about her feelings on the re-emergence of right-wing extremist views in general, and specifically in a country that'll never escape the shadow of the Holocaust. University law student Luisa (Mala Emde, Shadowplay) swiftly shares her director's horror and anger. Brought up in comfortable middle-class surroundings, and in a family where taking a weekend hunting trip is commonplace, she has her eyes opened at school when she joins an anti-fascist group. They're soon doing whatever it takes to combat hate-filled ideologies, including letting their actions speak louder than words; however, the stakes are raised when they endeavour to thwart an upcoming attack. Aesthetically, von Heinz opts for edge-of-your seat immersion. Feeling like you're in Luisa's shoes as she steps into a topical conflict is part of the experience, as is feeling her struggles as she grapples with the reality of counteracting abhorrent views by violent means. Emde is exceptional in the lead role, pulsating with urgency in even the quietest of scenes — as does everything in the film. And Tomorrow the Entire World is available to stream via Netflix. HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY: THE REN & STIMPY STORY When August 2021 rolls around, it'll mark 30 years since a psychotic chihuahua and a kindly cat first brought their chaos to the small screen and changed the way people think about Nickelodeon's animated shows. At the time, there was simply nothing like The Ren & Stimpy Show — and that applies to its dark humour, willingness to shock and often grotesquely detailed visuals, as well as its characters, storylines and jokes. The 52-episode show also proved immensely influential. Without it, SpongeBob SquarePants probably wouldn't exist, in fact. But the history of Ren & Stimpy is filled with both highs and lows, as documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story explores. More than just a nostalgic look back, this chronicle by first-time directors Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood covers the series' origins, evolution and success, as well as its behind-the-scenes struggles and eventual demise. It chats with the folks who made it happen to examine why it struck such a chord, and to also make plain the reality of making such a hit. And, it doesn't shy away from the accusations levelled at John Kricfalusi, Ren & Stimpy's creator and the voice of Ren, including not only the difficult working environment that sprang under his watch, but the allegations of sexual abuse and grooming that came to light in 2018. Indeed, the latter could fuel its documentary, but here it adds another layer to the tale of a TV show unlike anything else, and the ego that both made it happen and caused its downfall. Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story is available to stream via Docplay. VIOLATION The rape-revenge genre isn't new, but two of the most powerful films to reach Australian audiences this year step into it with unflinching confidence. They do more than that, though. They savagely dissect society's willingness to accept that sexual assault is part of our culture — and misogyny, too. They demand that their audience not only spend almost two hours thinking about a subject so many would rather avoid, but that they have a visceral reaction. The movies: Promising Young Woman and Violation. Both are the product of first-time feature directors. Both include women among their filmmakers, either solely or as half of a duo. Both are anchored by blistering lead performances as well, and neither fades quickly (or at all) from memory. They'd make a stellar double bill; however, tonally, they each march to their own beat. In Violation's case, co-writer and co-director Madeleine Sims-Fewer (Operation Avalanche) stars as Miriam. As she visits her sister Greta (Anna Maguire, The Hummingbird Project) and brother-in-law Dylan (Jesse LaVercombe, Murdoch Mysteries), it soon becomes obvious that more than just a happy reunion is on the cards. Playing a traumatised woman soon grappling the reality of vengeance in a primal and tangible way, Sims-Fewer puts in a performance that it's impossible to look away from, but that's just one of the savvy steps that the actor/filmmaker and her co-director Dusty Mancinelli take. Violation is available to stream via Shudder. MOXIE When Amy Poehler made her feature directorial debut with 2019's Wine Country, movie magic wasn't splashed across the small screen. But thankfully Moxie is now here to wipe that underwhelming comedy out of viewers' minds — and to demonstrate Poehler's knack at helming a high school-set tale of blossoming feminist activism. Adapted from the 2015 novel of the same name, the film follows 16-year-old Vivian (Hadley Robinson, I'm Thinking of Ending Things). Quiet, studious and happy hanging out with her similarly introverted best friend Claudia (Lauren Tsai, Legion), she has always known that her male classmates have an attitude problem, and that their teachers and the general status quo both enable it. But, until newcomer Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Pena, Saved by the Bell) arrives, she's never been willing to rock the boat and fight for change. Inspired by her mother's (Poehler) crusading teen years, she starts a zine that calls out the toxic behaviour around her. That's where the film gets its title, and her school is scandalised by the homemade publication's pages. Story-wise, Moxie isn't big on surprises, especially if you've seen more than a couple of teen flicks in your time, as everyone has. Nonetheless, it's always as impassioned about its tale and as angry about the way the world treats anyone who isn't a white male as it is engaging and hopeful. And, as it follows the quest for equality being passed from one generation to another, it boasts a stellar soundtrack — including Bikini KIll's 'Rebel Girl', of course. Moxie is available to stream via Netflix. OXYGEN When Elizabeth Hansen (Mélanie Laurent, 6 Underground) awakens in a cryogenic chamber, she doesn't know who she is, where she is or why she's there. She's strapped in via an array of invasive tubes and restrictive belts, the pod's oxygen levels are rapidly depleting and, in trying to work out what's going on and how to survive, she only has the unit's artificial intelligence program, called MILO (voiced by Sound of Metal's Mathieu Amalric), on hand. That's how Oxygen starts, taking cues from everything from Buried to Locke. But each engaging single-setting, talk-driven thriller lives or dies on the strength of its story, dialogue and cast, all of which hit their marks here. It helps having Laurent at the film's centre, as tends to happen when the French Inglourious Basterds star is pushed into the spotlight. Also pivotal: director Alexandre Aja's horror background, which includes the remake of The Hills Have Eyes and 2019's Crawl. As he demonstrated with the latter, he's particularly skilled at not merely working with familiar tropes and conventions, but at getting the most out of them. Accordingly, even as Oxygen nods to a wealth of one-location and survival flicks — and a hefty number of closed-in sci-fi movies as well — it still grippingly wrings every ounce of tension it can out of its nightmarish scenario. Oxygen is available to stream via Netflix. THE AMUSEMENT PARK In 1968, George A Romero changed cinema forever. Night of the Living Dead, his first film, was famously made on a tiny budget — but it swiftly became the zombie movie that's influenced every single other zombie movie that's ever followed. His resume from there is filled with other highlights, including further Dead films and the astonishing Martin, but one of his intriguing features didn't actually see the light of day until recently. It was also commissioned by the Lutheran Service Society of Western Pennsylvania to preach the evils of elder abuse, which isn't the type of thing that can be said about any other flick. The Amusement Park is incredibly effective in getting that message across, actually. As star Lincoln Maazel explains in the introduction, it aims to make its statement by putting the audience in its ageing characters' shoes, conveying their ill-treatment just for their advancing years and showing the chaos they feel as a result. That's the exact outcome as Maazel plays an older man who spends a day wandering around the titular setting, only to be constantly disregarded, denigrated, laughed at and pushed aside as hellishness greets him at every turn. Romero's film is grim, obvious and absurd all at once, and it's a powerful and winning combination in his hands. The Amusement Park is available to stream via Shudder. BO BURNHAM: INSIDE Watching Bo Burnham: Inside, a stunning fact becomes evident. A life-changing realisation, really. During a period when most people tried to make sourdough, pieced together jigsaws and spent too much time on Zoom, Bo Burnham created a comedy masterpiece. How does he ever top a special this raw, insightful, funny, clever and of the moment? How did he make it to begin with? How does anyone ever manage to capture every emotion that we've all felt about lockdowns — and about the world's general chaos, spending too much time on the internet, capitalism's exploitation and just the general hellscape that is our modern lives, too — in one 90-minute musical-comedy whirlwind? Filmed in one room of his house over several months (and with his hair and beard growth helping mark the time), Inside unfurls via songs about being stuck indoors, video chats, today's performative society, sexting, ageing and mental health. Burnham sings and acts, and also wrote, directed, shot, edited and produced the whole thing, and there's not a moment, image or line that goes to waste. Being trapped in that room with the Promising Young Woman star and Eighth Grade filmmaker, and therefore being stuck inside the closest thing he can find to manifesting his mind outside his skull, becomes the best kind of rollercoaster ride. Just try getting Burnham's tunes out of your head afterwards, too, because this is an oh-so-relatable and insightful special that lingers. It's also the best thing that's been made about this pandemic yet, hands down. Bo Burnham: Inside 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.
Two decades after Hae Min Lee's murder, the Baltimore high school student's horrific plight continues to dominate the true crime landscape. After featuring on the first season of Sarah Koenig's grimly addictive podcast Serial, it's now forming the basis for a new documentary series, The Case Against Adnan Syed. The four-part HBO series will pick up where everyone's 2014 obsession left off — the trailer below promises to reveal 'a new chapter' — not only exploring 18-year-old Lee's death in 1999 and her ex-boyfriend Syed's conviction in 2000, but the latter's ongoing quest to have the extremely complex legal matter reassessed in the years since he was found guilty. Everything from Lee and Syed's relationship, to the original police investigation and trial, to the developments up until now will feature, with the film gaining exclusive access to Syed, his family and his lawyers. The series couldn't come at a more crucial time for Syed, who was convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to life in prison, and continues to fight his case through the courts. While he was granted a new trial in 2016, that ruling was subsequently appealed by the State of Maryland — only for the Court of Special Appeals to agree to vacate Syed's conviction and finally give him that retrial last March. A date for the actual retrial hasn't yet been set, however. Splashed across the small screen, it's certain to make for compelling viewing — but if you think you've spent too much time mulling it all over across the past five years, filmmaker Amy Berg has you beat. Unsurprisingly given how complicated the matter is, the director has been working on the project since 2015. And, with her excellent doco background — with Berg helming 2006's Oscar-nominated 2006 Deliver Us from Evil, about molestation in the Catholic Church; examining the West Memphis Three's quest for freedom in 2012's West of Memphis; and tackling the sexual abuse of teenagers in the film industry in 2014's An Open Secret — her new venture is certain to be thorough. Weeks out from launching the series, which is expected to land this autumn, HBO has dropped a trailer. In it, it mentions the investigation of other suspects and new evidence — saying, "the closer you look the more you see". Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA1qzo2WEew As they did for West of Memphis, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis will provide the score. 'The Case Against Adnan Syed' will air on HBO this autumn, it is then hit Foxtel for Australian viewers later this year. It's not clear yet if the show will air or stream in New Zealand. We'll update you as soon as further release dates have been announced. Image: Adnan Syed via Syed Family / Courtesy of HBO.
UPDATE, October 21, 2020: Rebecca is available to stream via Netflix. Primarily set in a sprawling British estate that'd make Downton Abbey's characters envious, starring one of that show's cast members and telling a tale taken from the pages of an iconic gothic novel, the latest version of Rebecca arrives with a splash. A visible one, too; every frame is not only elegant and atmospheric, but often overtly gorgeous. Each second of this Netflix-funded film drips with extravagance. A parade of striking visuals saunters before viewers' eyes, surveying not only the movie's main location, but the luxe furnishings within it, the scenic coastal patch of land it sits on and the finely tailored attire donned by those walking its halls. At every turn, it appears as though no expense has been spared in bringing Rebecca to the screen, and in striving to sweep audiences up in its lavish imagery and 1930s-era story. Alas, while the first part of that equation is easily, almost instantly achieved, the latter portion proves a bigger struggle. Like its source material, Rebecca starts with an evocative line: "last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again". It's uttered in voiceover by a young woman who is never known as anything but Mrs de Winter (Lily James), and who viewers first meet before she takes that moniker, when she's working as a lady's companion to acid-tongued socialite Mrs Van Hopper (The Handmaids' Tale's Ann Dowd) on a trip to the French Riviera. During the picturesque getaway, the unnamed heroine crosses paths with wealthy widower Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer). Tasked by her boss to pay their hotel's staff to seat him at their table (for Van Hopper's benefit, not her own), her unassuming nature soon draws his attention. Romance quickly blooms — much to the shock of the well-heeled masses similarly summering by the sea — setting Maxim and his blushing new bride en route to the family mansion he vocally treasures. Back at Manderley, however, the second Mrs de Winter can't escape the lingering presence of the movie's titular figure. Everywhere she looks, she sees Rebecca's monogrammed belongings. Every conversation in the house seems to revolve around her as well, especially her tragic passing. With housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), all Manderley's newcomer feels is passive-aggressive and sometimes openly aggressive menace — and the fact that the stern employee was absolutely, utterly devoted to Rebecca. Maxim's mood changes drastically, too, and while those unacquainted with Rebecca's twists and turns should keep it that way going in, his second wife is increasingly troubled by the sensation that much is awry. In other words, the film's central young woman — the one that's still living and breathing, that is — is caught in the shadow of her new husband's late previous wife. In the pages of Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel, on the big and small screens several times since, and in this new iteration, that's a scenario laden with ample psychological thrills. Here, director Ben Wheatley patiently teases out the details, but it's noticeable (and perhaps fitting) that he also subjects his viewers to the same kind of experience endured by his protagonist. From the moment it was announced, Wheatley's film was forever destined to be compared to Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar Best Picture-winning 1940 version of the beloved book. That's what happens when you follow in Hitch's footsteps and, now that Rebecca circa 2020 has reached viewers, that won't change. Wheatley is a stellar filmmaker, and has a resume filled with everything from Down Terrace, Kill List and Sightseers to High-Rise, Free Fire and Happy New Year, Colin Burstead to prove it. But, in his most mainstream, least boundary-pushing effort to date, he has crafted a brooding movie that engages enough, yet never surprises and rarely has a strong lasting impact. That's the case even when it deviates from the famed changes that Hitchcock's version of the story was forced to implement under Hollywood's strict production code at the time (which didn't allow content and plot developments considered morally indecent to reach the screen). This iteration of Rebecca doesn't do du Maurier's adored text or the gothic genre it hails from a disservice. It's perfectly watchable, generally handles the narrative capably and proves near-overwhelmingly handsome, in fact. And still, even for audiences coming to it anew, with zero attachment to an 80-year-old previous adaptation, everything about it proves so expected. It must be terrifying, unsettling, dispiriting and downright soul-crushing to feel as if you're haunted by your predecessor, to have someone doing their utmost to ensure that impression never dissipates and to barely exist to those around you (that James' character isn't given a first name isn't an accident). Rebecca is as moody as it is visually lush, but it can't quite nail that crucial sensation. It tries, though. While the overall movie frequently seems content to serve up a standard period-set melodrama rather than leaning too far into taunting and lurching emotional horrors, Scott Thomas' turn as Mrs Danvers is supremely, disquietingly chilling — to the point that, if casting her in the part was the sole reason this film was made, that's understandable. Too much around her isn't willing to commit as heartily, however. James and Hammer always hit their marks, but do little more, for instance. All those opulent sights catch the eye, too, but as the feature's heroine herself learns, sumptuous packaging alone is rarely ever truly and completely satisfying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFVhB54UqvQ Top image: Kerry Brown, Netflix.
When it comes to cellaring alcohol, it's important to remember that wine isn't the only player in town. 'Aged like a fine beer' might not be a common expression, but it's a helluva true one, and with the 2017 edition of the Coopers Vintage Ale, you'd be hard pressed to find a finer, tastier or more exciting place to start. Coopers' iconic limited release ales are a unique and hotly anticipated annual fixture for beer enthusiasts, and this year (for the first time in a decade) they've revised their distinctive grist recipe to produce an extraordinary crimson-red ale with an enriched malt flavour. Even better, thanks to the seeding of live yeast, the longevity of this fine ale is not only assured, but recommended. The Coopers Vintage Ale 2017 is designed to mature with time and evolve with distinctly different flavours. This isn't about the creation of new tastes; it's about change — the gentle fade of the initially prominent flavours in favour of those that grow bolder over time. So when and how should you enjoy the many stages of the Coopers Vintage Ale 2017 journey? Let us count the ways... YEAR ZERO: BAR SNACKS We're always being told to live in the now, so the first rule of cellaring beer is that at least one bottle should be consumed immediately after purchase. Not only does this have the obvious benefit of enjoying a fresh brew, it also gives you a baseline against which all your future tastings can compare. For the Coopers Vintage Ale 2017, that initial taste is going to be a tantalising combination of the bitter, aromatic hop varieties Denali and Calypso, which deliver a delicate spectrum of fruity aromas in these early days. That's why the intensity of a bowl of hot chips, stacked nachos or, even better, a full plate of poutine with chips, cheese curd, bacon and the works are the perfect balancing points for the beer's initial strong and vibrant characteristics. Enjoy these in the comfort of home or head out to one of the pubs currently offering the vintage ale on tap. YEAR TWO: INDIAN FOOD Flavour isn't fixed; it's constantly evolving, which is why the cellaring experience is such a joy. Early in its life, the ale boasts distinct pineapple and pear characteristics, alongside pine and citrus notes that all finish with a respectable level of bitterness. But after two years in the vault, that bitterness will have eased off just enough to make an Indian dish the perfect meal with which to partner it. That's because hop flavours blend so seamlessly with Indian staple spices like tamarind and coriander, at first amplifying them, then helping to ease. YEAR FIVE: MEXICAN EATS Like a caterpillar in its chrysalis, by year five Coopers' 2017 vintage will be well and truly in a state of transformation. Its early, fruity, estery flavours and initial bitterness have at last begun to mellow, giving way to rich, sweet, caramel-like characters, and it's that very caramelisation of malts that works so perfectly with a hearty Mexican dish heavy on the meat. Why? Because Mexican dishes are basically the beer's food equivalent: they're a delicious blend of caramels and citrus that deliver light and dark flavours all at once. It's hard to go wrong with Mexican, but we'd suggest pairing your drink with pork or beef tacos with extra chilli, coriander and queso fresco, then drizzled with a little lime. YEAR EIGHT: CHOCOLATE AND CHEESE Sometimes pairing food with a drink is all about counterpoints and balance. Other times, it's about complimenting and amplifying. At the year eight stage of the vintage beer's maturation, there could be no better time to indulge in the rich malt, honey and dry nutty characteristics arising from its special blend of caramalt. From that blend, Coopers Vintage Ale 2017 not only gets its bold malty flavours, but also its fine and creamy head. Nothing could go better with flavours and feel like that than decadent desserts of toffee, chocolate and cheese. For starters, try pairing it with ginger-spiced chocolate truffles, allowing the malt to accentuate the caramel of the milk chocolate and the hops to intensify the spice. As for cheese, an aged Gouda will bring out the best of the beer's rich malt, dried dark fruit character and deep caramel flavours. YEAR TEN: RED, RED MEAT The time has come. The sands have emptied from the hourglass, and at long last the vintage ale you cellared in 2017 now celebrates its big tenth birthday. What began as a bitter, full-bodied hop profile now has a mature, enriched malt flavour running deep with notes of caramel and toffee. This is no time for snacks and finger food. The time has come for firing up the flames and getting your grill on, because now all that can match the glory of the ten-year-old Coopers Vintage Ale 2017 is a big, fat, juicy steak. The caramelised crust on the meat will accentuate the beer's matured taste, while the now diminished hop and bitterness will subtly complement the meal's savoury side. A limited number of the 2017 Coopers Vintage Ale cartons have been released, so get to stocking your cellar quickly. Otherwise, you can find the vintage available on tap at a few key venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and beyond. Find your closest pub serving the brew here.
If the best solutions solve problems you didn't even know you had, then the growing novelty delivery industry surely ranks among humanity's greatest feats. There we all were, living our lives without even contemplating sending eggplants, glitter or evil fortune cookies to someone — or nicer items, such as cacti, cocktail ingredients or personalised chocolate. Now, who isn't thinking about taking the easy route this Christmas, clicking a few buttons and organising amusing gifts for their friends, family and enemies? Handwritten greeting card service Felt is taking the concept a step further to celebrate the season, however. As the usual festive tradition goes, Christmas is a time for giving and receiving presents — and, if you've been behaving badly throughout the year, to find a lump of coal in your stocking instead. Sure, it's an easy (albeit materialistic) way to motivate kids to be nice. For the US-based app, it's also an amusing way to punish 2017's naughtiest person. Head to The Naughty List, and you can cast your vote for the unlucky recipient. Whatever the final winning count is, that's how many lumps of coal they'll receive. Voting closes on December 18, and the current leaders shouldn't come as a surprise. At the time of writing, the US president is leading the charge, followed by United States Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai — one of the figures behind the recent repeal of net neutrality — and Harvey Weinstein. US residents can also send a lump of coal to their not-so-loved ones, accompanied by a handwritten Felt greeting card. It's the latter — via an app that lets you scrawl your own words onto the screen, which are then printed onto the paper — that is Felt's main business. Alas, while international orders are usually accepted, they won't be shipping coal beyond the US. Via Mashable. Image: The Naughty List.
Merrick Watts has some charming words for cafe workers who want to be treated like human beings. Appearing on Channel Nine's Today program, where the discussion centred around a number of Melbourne cafes who refuse service to customers who order while talking on the phone, the radio host and alleged comedian let loose on "hipster" baristas, proclaiming that they should "just make me the coffee" and that "you're not doing real work." "I'm paying for it, so how about you just give it to me, as opposed to the hipster attitude with your beard and all your weird mermaid tattoos," said Watts, to the delighted chortles of his fellow panellists. "Are you a sailor, or are you making coffee?" "Just give me the coffee, let me talk on the phone, 'cause we can't have a conversation, I don't need to engage, because I don't speak pirate!" If you can stomach the rest of the rant, you can watch the 9 News video here. Presumably it's been a while since Watts has deigned to associate with anyone who works in the hospitality industry. Thing is, we actually know quite a few baristas — many of whom work 40+ hours each week. One former Melbourne barista described a typical shift as "8-9 hours without sitting, often 10+ orders deep, trying to juggle customer expectations of friendliness with prompt service". They added: "People on phones generally slowed down the whole process and would often be the first to return a coffee if you'd misinterpreted their wild arm waving." We're not saying you have to be best mates with your barista . And yes, we've all encountered a rude one from time to time — but maybe part of the reason for that are people like Watts, who think it's totally fine to treat lesser paid hospo workers like vending machines. At the end of the day, it's not that hard to take 15 seconds and actually engage with the person on the other side of the counter. Or, if you're really not feeling it, order from a skip-the-queue app and go on your way.
