Yoga is good for us, we all know that. Yogis can live to be 400 and are known to look fresh as a daisy at 5am, and a daily or weekly regiment of yoga can seriously aid your mental health. But really, that pan-pipe music can be so annoying — not to mention that it's never loud enough to stifle the occasional fart. But all those troubles are behind you now because you can get limber among your people at Bey Yoga. Every Sunday from 3pm, you can channel your inner Beyonce while enjoying Bey and Bey-inspired music with nary a pan-pipe in sight. The class is designed to work your core strength and flexibility as well as mindfulness — and no doubt all this conditioning will help you nail the moves at your next Bey dance class. If this is your jam, make sure to book ahead as spots are limited and coveted.
Huddled around a fire, the apocalypse still fresh in their memories, a small band of survivors amuse themselves by acting out an episode of The Simpsons. Seven years later, the band are a travelling troupe, performing the episode for each outpost they pass through. A generation later, the episode has achieved almost mythical status, the story — a spoof of Cape Fear — a beacon, an example and a comfort to the people who have fashioned humanity's rubble into a primitive society. Back in the day, it was said that Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov contained the sum of all human experience. Come the 21st century, Matt Groening's pop culture behemoth is the proud usurper of that throne. Anne Washburn's play advances this argument one step further — elevating the show above the role of mass entertainer to that of a vital common language for humanity's devastated survivors. So, there's all that. But, to be honest, it also just sounds really freaking enjoyable. Premiering in Sydney back in early 2017, the play is now heading to fortyfivedownstairs to be performed by independent Melbourne theatre company Lightning Jar. Preview shows (for $30 a ticket) will be help from February 15–17 with the opening night ($40) on Wednesday, February 20.
Johnny Di Francesco's 400 Gradi chain might be best known for its world-class, award-winning pizza, but it has also won itself a spot in the hearts of local dessert-lovers with its sibling gelateria. After first setting up shop in Brunswick East back in 2015, Zero Gradi is adding another venue to the sweet-toothed arm of the business, opening the doors to a new Zero Gradi Gelateria and Dessert Bar in Southbank on Thursday, April 22. Located on Crown Riverwalk, this sugary oasis will be scooping 30 rotating flavours of Zero Gradi's house-made gelato, with options ranging from the classics to more inventive delights; think: white chocolate with sour cherry and the charcoal-infused Black Hawaii. The store's legendary Neapolitan-style gelato is the result of much careful honing and recipe tweaking, finessed during the years Di Francesco spent training in Naples. The flavours are pasteurised for at least 24 hours and churned daily, ready to be piled into a cone, a cup or even a take-home tub. And if dairy's not your thing, Zero Gradi's range of signature sorbets offers a vegan-friendly alternative that doesn't skimp on any of that creaminess factor. The Zero Gradi fun doesn't end in the freezer cabinet, either. At the new store, you'll also find yourself tempted by an Italian-leaning lineup of hand-crafted pastries and cakes, beckoning from their neat rows atop the front counter. There are freshly filled cannoli, chocolate and pear brownies, individual banoffee mousse bites and dainty meringue-topped citrus tarts, alongside an Italian take on a French croissant, dubbed the 'cornetti'. The store is even home to its own crepe station and a speciality frozen yoghurt machine. And, if you prefer your dessert fix in liquid form, the venue's indulgent shakes, espresso coffee and classic Italian-style crema di caffe (a whipped coffee dessert) should certainly hit the spot. Find Zero Gradi Gelateria and Dessert Bar at Shop 34, 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank from Thursday, April 22 — open 7am–12am Sunday–Thursday and 7am–1am Friday–Saturday. Images: Renee Oliver.
UPDATE, October 23, 2020: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is available to stream via Netflix, Binge, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube, iTunes and Amazon Video. The film that inspired DC Comics fans to ridiculously call for Rotten Tomatoes' closure, 2016's Suicide Squad was many things. Filled with nefarious characters forced to band together to save the world, it was supposed to be a Joker-led villainous team-up flick — and, while it ticked that box, it was also formulaic, bloated, unsubtle and overflowing with ugly CGI. As a result, it was mostly just dull and a slog to watch. And while the anti-hero onslaught is still getting a sequel in 2021, only one element truly stood out. That'd be Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, the Arkham Asylum psychiatrist who jumped into a life of crime when she became the jester of genocide's main squeeze. From the moment that Robbie stole the show in Suicide Squad, a Quinn-focused spinoff was always inevitable. So, knowing when they're onto a good thing — and witnessing their now Academy Award-nominated Australian star keep rising in fame via I, Tonya, Mary, Queen of Scots, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Bombshell — the folks behind the DC Extended Universe have gone and done the obvious. Thankfully, the powers-that-be learned a few lessons along the way, leaning into everything that first made the anarchic character attract so much big-screen attention. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is vividly stylised, irreverently upbeat, and both frenetic and fluid. To the benefit of every fight and chase scene, it's also more concerned with eye-popping action choreography than overblown special effects. The movie's riotous mood, lurid colour scheme and kookily comic sensibilities can't smooth out all of its bumps, though, but put it this way: Suicide Squad, this definitely isn't. After breaking up with the Joker (Jared Leto's awful green-haired version of the villain is nowhere to be seen, luckily), Quinn finds herself at a crossroads. Just like anyone who's newly single, she's not quite sure what to do with herself, other than drinking, downing comfort food, cutting her hair and getting a pet. Just when she's starting to reclaim her havoc-wreaking spark, she also discovers an unexpected consequence of changing her relationship status. Now that she's no longer the clown prince of crime's other half, every lowlife in town wants to settle the score for all the times she's done them wrong. One of them is psychopathic nightclub owner Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) — and, in trying to save her alabaster skin from her new number-one nemesis, Quinn gets caught up with a posse of other feisty Gotham gals. Enter: Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), a hard-nosed detective constantly overlooked by the brass; Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), a singer at Sionis' club with a helluva voice; and the crossbow-wielding, vengeance-seeking, leather-clad Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Light-fingered teen Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) actually brings them all together, with Sionis' goons chasing her, too. These ladies comprise a disparate bunch throughout much of the movie, but — because this flick is based on and named after a comic-book superhero team — becoming a girl gang is blatantly on the agenda. Yes, even with candy-coloured trickster Quinn leading the charge and grinning away as she's doing so, Birds of Prey brandishes a familiar caped crusader template. Besting Suicide Squad is an incredibly low and easy bar to conquer, which Birds of Prey does. Completely finding its own groove is a trickier task and, despite the best efforts of director Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs) and writer Christina Hodson (Bumblebee), it proves harder to master here. Sporting a punk-ish, perky, peppy attitude, Birds of Prey feels unique in the DC movie realm, even against other standout franchise entries like Wonder Woman and Aquaman. But its goofy, off-kilter vibe also feels just a few shades away from Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok on occasion. Quinn's cheeky, knowing, mile-a-minute narration, as well as the playful plot structure that comes with it, can also veer too close to Deadpool territory. That makes Birds of Prey fun, purposefully chaotic and mostly entertaining, but also sometimes struggling to keep it all together. That's Quinn herself in a nutshell, though — and while this isn't a case of a film perfectly aping its protagonist in every possible way, there's still some nice symmetry at play. And, there's always something enjoyable going on on-screen. Often, it's the kinetic fight scenes, with credit to second-unit director (and John Wick franchise director) Chad Stahelski. At other times, it's the dazzling, glittering production design, or a memorable dream sequence that casts Quinn as Marilyn Monroe. Usually, it's the cast, which firmly pushes a diverse array of girls to the front. An over-the-top McGregor relishes his rare cartoonish bad guy role, but Birds of Prey's motley crew of female stars soar highest. Robbie most of all, unsurprisingly — and just as Joaquin Phoenix's take on the Joker looks likely to nab him an Oscar, it's a delight to see Harley Quinn still stealing the spotlight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygzqL60kvwU
As one of the past year's most anticipated venue openings, multi-level party playground HER (from the Arbory and Arbory Afloat crew) got a serious workout in 2022. And if you figured those four storeys would be teaming up to host one giant New Year's Eve celebration — well, you'd be correct. In fact, guests at HER's upcoming NYE party will have free rein of the entire venue — as well as enjoying one-night-only access to a secret, never-before-seen fifth floor. The building's Lune Rouge NYE party promises to dish up an enchanting night of art, performance, glamour and debauchery, with ticket packages starting from $275. From 8pm–12am, guests are in for free-flowing champagne and cocktails, plus bottomless bites — from BKK's punchy Thai dishes to the caviar and French fare of HER Bar. [caption id="attachment_842092" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Parker Blain[/caption] You can groove to tunes from the likes of JNETT and Alton Miller, explore numerous art installations, drop by BKK for a sit-down feed and unleash your best dance moves immersed within HER Bar's sultry red glow. Meanwhile, the secret space on Level Two will be making a debut of sorts, with an avant-garde disco and cabaret party hosted by experimental artists and performance duo Discordia. Guests are encouraged to don their best red outfits for the festivities — and dancing shoes are definitely recommended. Images: Griffin Simm and Parker Blain
Falls Festival might be gearing up to celebrate a quarter-century, but, with the lineup it's just dropped, it feels a bit like we're the ones getting the birthday presents instead. Helping to ring in the art and music festival's 25th year is a pretty buzzworthy gang of musical mates, headlined by Australia's own wunderkind Flume, as he returns to the Falls stage for the first time since wooing the Lorne crowds in 2012. He's joined on the bill by international names like Seattle-based Grammy nominees Fleet Foxes (who were here earlier in the year for Sydney Festival), Oxford four-piece Glass Animals (who were also just here for Laneway), Californian indie-pop darlings Foster The People and The Kooks, who'll be celebrating a milestone of their own, having clocked up ten years since their debut album. If you've had your ear to the ground, you'll already know the part about Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher dropping in for his first-ever Aussie headline shows. True to form, the Falls 2017 local lineup is equally exciting, and every bit as broad. Homegrown acts hitting the stage include the party-ready Peking Duk, Brisbane rockers Dune Rats, Melbourne natives The Smith Street Band and Total Giovanni, and indie duo Angus & Julia Stone, off the back of their soon-to-launch album Snow. And it looks like you can start limbering up those vocal chords for a gutsy rendition of 'The Horses', with the legendary Daryl Braithwaite also slated for an appearance. As always, the tunes are backed by a colourful curation of art events, performances, pop-ups, markets, wellness sessions and gourmet eats. You can, however, say goodbye to the usual drink ticket situation, which has been ditched in favour of paywave and cash-enabled bars. It's all happening over New Years at the usual spots in Tassie's Marion Bay, Lorne in Victoria, and the North Byron Parklands, with WA's 2017 Falls Festival landing itself a new home within the Fremantle Oval precinct. But here's what you're here for — the full lineup. FALLS FESTIVAL 2017 LINEUP Flume (no sideshows) Fleet Foxes Run The Jewels The Kooks Glass Animals (no sideshows) Peking Duk Angus & Julia Stone Foster The People Liam Gallagher Vince Staples Jungle Dune Rats The Smith Street Band D.R.A.M Daryl Braithwaite Everything Everything Allday The Jungle Giants Thundamentals Methyl Ethel Slumberjack D.d Dumbo Anna Lunoe Dz Deathrays Confidence Man Julia Jacklin Bad//dreems Cosmo's Midnight Winston Surfshirt Luca Brasi Alex Lahey Camp Cope Flint Eastwood Ecca Vandal Dave Total Giovanni + More to be announced FALLS FESTIVAL 2017 DATES Lorne, VIC — December 28–31 Marion Bay, TAS — December 29–31 Byron Bay, NSW — December 31 - January 2 Fremantle, WA — January 6–7 Falls Festival 2017 will take place over New Years. Friends of Falls members pre-sale tickets are available from this Thursday, August 24, with General Sales kicking off next Tuesday, August 29. FOr mro einfo and to buy tickets, visit fallsfestival.com.
British and Mediterranean Easter traditions are well-known and celebrated all over Melbourne. You'll find hot cross buns at most supermarkets, bakeries and cafes. Greek Easter egg smashing is well-loved by many who aren't Greek Orthodox. And Italian Colomba is looking like it will soon be as famous as its sibling the panettone. But Brunswick East's Eat Pierogi Make Love is keen to teach Melburnians about Polish Easter festivities. And, of course, it's doing this through food. What better way is there to pique our curiosity than appealing to our appetite? Pop over to the Lygon Street restaurant on either Friday, March 29 or Saturday, March 30 to get a food-filled education. For $149, two people get a traditional Easter soup made with fermented rye flour, smoked meats, and marjoram; a sharing platter loaded with pickled herring, baked pork and beef pate; sausage and sauerkraut pierogis; plenty of bread for mopping up all the sauces and ferments; and a Polish cheesecake. Chef Ola Gladysz is known for her generous portions, but there's always the option to add more a la carte options during the night if you so wish. Our recommendation? As many pierogis as you can manage.
So there's a play called Mein Kampf. A comedy, in fact. Undoubtedly someone’s outraged already, just reading that. Adolf Hitler's notorious manifesto certainly seems like unusual fodder for comedy, but the play has been a perennial success since its first staging in Vienna in 1987. Written by Hungarian-born Jewish playwright George Tabori, who was himself an exile from the Third Reich, it casts the young Hitler in a farcical role as a penniless and pitiful wannabe artist. While staying in a seedy hostel, young Hitler strikes up a friendship with an old Jewish man, who becomes his inspiration for everything from the title of his book to his style of moustache. Both a fast-moving lampoon and an exploration of the origins of evil, Mein Kampf promises to be outrageous in every sense of the word. After a hit season in 2013, this production returns for an encore season in July 2014.
Restrictions on how many people can attend restaurants, entertainment sites and other venues have been a regular part of managing the COVID-19 pandemic, but they're about to become a thing of the past in Victoria. Limits on the amount of people that you can hang out with at home are going the same way, too. With the state set to reach the 90-percent double-vaccinated mark among over 12s in the coming days, these kinds of caps and density rules will no longer apply — effective from 11.59pm tonight, Thursday, November 18. So, once Friday, November 19 hits — unless you're venturing out just before the stroke of midnight this evening — double-vaccinated Victorians will be able to head to all hospitality, entertainment and nightlife venues without needing to abide by any other density or patron restrictions. That applies to places such as restaurants, bars, pubs, cafes, nightclubs, cinemas, zoos, stadiums, galleries, libraries and museums, and to all events, including everything from festivals to fun runs. The basic rule: if all venue patrons and staff are double-jabbed, there's no capacity limits. Events with fewer than 30,000 people won't need approval, either. That said, if you aren't double-vaxxed, you won't be able to go to most of these places or events at all. You can still go to hospitality venues that are only doing takeaway, but that's it. At 11.59pm tonight restrictions are lifting in Victoria. There will be no density limits. No capacity limits. No restrictions on how many people can visit you at home. No masks in most places. And if you want to celebrate - you can hit the dance floor too. pic.twitter.com/POq9jl61e2 — Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) November 17, 2021 The change means that dance floors are back, too, so Melbourne will no longer resemble the town from Footloose — again, only if you're double-vaxxed. In the retail space, the double-vaxxed requirement will apply to entering all non-essential stores, including beauty services and hairdressers. So, only places such as supermarkets and post offices will be accessible to unvaxxed patrons. All sporting and recreational facilities won't have capacity limits for double-jabbed folks either, but if you aren't vaxxed, you won't be able to enter — other than for community sport. There's also no limits on hanging out with friends and family either at home or in public — so while picnicking or at the beach — although it's strongly recommended that everyone is double-jabbed. Plus, for weddings and funerals, there's no limits at all if everyone is double-vaxxed. If not, or if vaccination status isn't being checked, there will be a 50-person cap — and the one person per four-square-metres rule will be in effect. And, regarding travel, there's no restrictions. The double-vaccination mandate to enter venues applies statewide; however, for accommodation premises such as hotels and Airbnbs, being double-jabbed is strongly recommended instead. The requirements around masks are changing as well, and will only be compulsory indoors in limited circumstances — such as retail, health care, aged care, justice facilities, public transport, taxis, ride shares, planes and for workers serving the public at hospitality venues. And, as long as hospitalisations don't jump significantly, the retail requirement will end on Wednesday, December 15. That said, it's still highly recommended that Victorians keep masking up anywhere that you can't physically distance from other people. The 90-percent double-jabbed threshold among over 12s was originally expected to be reached on or around Wednesday, November 24, so Victoria is ahead of schedule. At the press conference to announce the easing rules, Premier Daniel Andrews called it "quite an amazing achievement". When the new changes kick in at 11.59pm tonight, the requirements for anyone who comes into contact with a confirmed positive case outside their home will change, too. If that's you, you will no longer need to self-quarantine. Instead, you'll just have to get a standard (PCR) test and isolate till you receive a negative result. Also, exposure sites will no longer be published. Instead, you'll be notified via the new alert function in the Service Victoria app if you've been to a higher-risk venues where positive cases have been present — places such as restaurants, gyms and nightclubs. Today's announcement comes as 1007 new local COVID-19 cases were reported in Victoria. Victoria's COVID-19 restrictions will relax again at 11.59pm on Thursday, November 18. For further information about Victoria's reopening roadmap, head to the Victorian Government website. For more information about the status of COVID-19 and the current restrictions, head over to the Department of Health website. Top image: Visit Victoria.
If you're fond of exclaiming "whoa!" to mark huge news — and you've been conditioned to do just that by a certain Keanu Reeves-starring sci-fi franchise — then the past year or so has given you more than a few opportunities to break out that word in the best possible ways. First came the confirmation that a fourth live-action film in The Matrix series was 100-percent happening. Then came trailers for that very flick, giving us all a few sneak peeks before we could watch the full thing. And, when Boxing Day rolled around in 2021, the movie itself — aka The Matrix Resurrections — finally arrived on the big screen. Here's another reason for you to channel your inner Keanu Reeves right now: just a month after reaching cinemas, and while still actually showing in cinemas, you can stream The Matrix Resurrections via video on demand at home. Fast-tracking films to digital is a trend that's been gathering steam during the pandemic — and if you've been a bit cautious about going out during Australia's current Omicron wave, you can still fall down the dystopian franchise's rabbit hole sooner rather than later. A hit for more than two decades now, this is the science-fiction epic that smartly recognises that it's Keanu's world and we're all just living in it, after all — and now, we can plug into all four live-action movies from our couches. Get ready for Neo (Reeves, Bill and Ted Face the Music) to once again grapple with the Matrix and everything it means for humanity — and also for Carrie-Anne Moss (Jessica Jones) and Jada Pinkett Smith (Girls Trip) to return, too. They're joined by Matrix newcomers Neil Patrick Harris (It's a Sin), Jessica Henwick (On the Rocks), Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The White Tiger), Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Candyman). And yes, Reeves and Moss once again take centre stage this time around, because casting them in the first place — and showing unwavering belief in the duo — is the greatest move that filmmakers Lana and Lilly Wachowski ever made. It was a bold decision two-and-a-bit decades ago, with Reeves a few years past sublime early-90s action hits Point Break and Speed, and Moss then known for TV bit parts (including, in a coincidence that feels like the product of computer simulation, a 1993 series called Matrix). But, as well as giving cinema their much-emulated gunfire-avoidance technique and all those other aforementioned highlights, the Wachowskis bet big on viewers caring about their central pair — and hooking into their chemistry — as leather-clad heroes saving humanity. Indeed, amid the life-is-a-lie horrors, the subjugation of flesh to mechanical overlords and the battle for autonomy, the first three Matrix films always weaved Neo and Trinity's love story through their sci-fi action. In fact, the duo's connection remained the saga's beating heart. Like any robust computer program executed over and over, The Matrix Resurrections repeats the feat — with plenty of love for what's come before, but even more for its enduring love story. Lana goes solo on The Matrix Resurrections — helming her first-ever project without her sister in their entire career — but she still goes all in on Reeves and Moss. The fifth Matrix movie overall counting The Animatrix, this new instalment doesn't initially give its key figures their familiar character names, however. Rather, it casts them as famous video game designer Thomas Anderson and motorcycle-loving mother-of-two Tiffany. One of those monikers is familiar, thanks to a surname drawled by Agent Smith back in 1999, and again in 2003 sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. But this version of Thomas Anderson only knows the agent from his own hit gaming trilogy (called The Matrix, naturally). And he doesn't really know Tiffany at all, instead admiring her from afar at Simulatte, their local coffee shop. Check out the trailer for The Matrix Resurrections below: The Matrix Resurrections is currently screening in Australian cinemas, and is also available to stream online via video on demand — including via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Read our full review.
Always on the lookout for your next photo op? Wanting a fun way to escape your reality? Make sure to have your cameras at the ready because Honey House is about to hit Queensbridge Square (and have Melbourne feeling a little topsy-turvy — in a good way). Courtesy of Honey Insurance, the bold building is here to help you up your know-how on protecting that home of yours with seven interactive rooms (think mirrored illusions, misplaced furniture in candy-bright hues and photo spots aplenty). Want to know the best part? The part-photo-studio-part-art-installation is completely free for everyone to enjoy. Once you're in, you'll have plenty of time to explore, play and get the perfect shot — check out the Honey Instagram for a sneak peek. Running from Thursday, June 2 until Monday, June 6, this surreal experience is not one to miss. Reserve your tickets in advance, because it's sure to draw some serious crowds. Head to the website to reserve your spot. Top images: Scott Ehler
Glittery mirror balls, synth-heavy disco tunes and pizza — it's a Saturday night match made in heaven and it's the combo that's going to end your year right at Connie's Italian Diner. On December 31, the modern trattoria and much-loved party spot is combining its favourite things for a NYE party to remember. The venue's opening its leafy rooftop terrace, firing up its dance floor and inviting you to spend your final evening of 2022 getting down to a soundtrack of Italo-Disco tunes. Nab yourself a $125 ticket and you'll enjoy four hours of free-flowing drinks to match — including beer, vino, bubbles and a slew of aperitivo cocktails. Because what's a rooftop party without a few spritzes or Americanos? To fuel you up for all that dancing, they'll also be rolling out lots of Italian-style snacks; from mozzarella sticks, to arancini, to Connie's signature pizza varieties. And we reckon that terrace will offer a pretty good peek of the midnight fireworks, too.
As one of Melbourne's largest Chinese communities, Box Hill will celebrate the turn of the season with a marathon 12-hour festival that stretches from 1pm until well into the night. Local vendors will serve some of the city's tastiest Chinese cuisine, while traditional lion and dragon dancers entertain the masses. The highlight will be the Parade of Choi Sun, the Chinese God of Fortune.
A quarter-century since the world first met Monica, Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe, TV's most famous friends are never too far from anyone's thoughts. When the sitcom's catchy theme tune promised "I'll be there for you", it seems these New York pals really meant it — not just about each other, but for the legions of viewers who watched their antics between 1994–2004, then kept rewatching them afterwards. Over the years, you've probably caught reruns on television, binged your way through boxsets or let episode after episode play on Stan — but you probably haven't enjoyed a marathon of standout eps on the big screen. To celebrate the series' 25th anniversary, a heap of Melbourne cinemas are letting Friends fans do just that. There mightn't be an orange couch for you to sit on, but you'll want to gather the gang regardless. Prices and session times vary per cinema, but the lineup remains the same. On the bill are 12 of the show's classic episodes, including The One With The Black Out, The One With The Prom Video and The One Where No One's Ready — plus The One With Chandler In A Box, The One Where Everyone Finds Out and The One Where Ross Got High. Running for five hours, the screening will also feature new footage, interviews and bloopers — so you'll get an extra dose of Friends fun.
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
In this very galaxy, probably just a few short months away, lasers will fire up, wars will be waged, and Sydney and Melbourne's biggest Star Wars buffs will show up in force. They'll also try to use the force, obviously, at the latest pop culture-themed party heading our way. A series of wizarding brunches have been making their way around the country, and a Game of Thrones-style medieval banquet is already on Sydney's agenda — and now comes Battle Wars. If getting a new Star Wars movie every year isn't delivering enough intergalactic space opera fun for your liking, then prepare to get a very good feeling about gathering for a real-life lightsaber tournament. Or lightsaber-like weapon, more likely — but arguing about semantics would be a real C-3PO move. At yet-to-be-revealed dates and venues, groups of up to 12 people at a time will unleash their inner jedi (or rebel, or sith), with 32 groups in total competing in a knockout-style contest in each city. While everyone yells lines about being Luke Skywalker's father (we're guessing) and vies for an undisclosed grand prize, Star Wars-inspired music will play, and there'll also be 'immersive entertainment'. That sounds an awful lot like folks dressing up as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kylo Ren, Princess Leia, Rey, Darth Maul and more to us, but let's face it — if you're going along, you'll be doing that anyway. Unsurprisingly, it's a completely unofficial event, so don't expect any actual stars, tie-ins or merchandise. You can probably expect some ironic Star Wars Kid-esque moves, though — or George Michael Bluth-style antics, if you prefer. For more information — and to sign up to hear about Melbourne and Sydney dates and venues — visit thebattlewars.com.
Multicultural Melbourne is Melbourne at its best. There aren't too many cities where you can find authentic Vietnamese, exquisite Japanese, along with sweet Grecian delights and gutsy African within the space of a hundred or so metres — but Smith Street is one such location. Nestled in the heart of this inner-city high street is The Cutting Table. The cafe space of social enterprise The Social Studio, The Cutting Table brings together a variety of individuals from different cultures to learn, design and create as members of the one community. Serving an authentic selection of East and West African dishes, as well as ethically sourced and locally roasted coffee, The Cutting Table is known for its inclusive and welcoming environment. The cafe’s latest endeavour is Revolving Cuisine, held every Friday night at the Smith Street space. A celebration of diversity and culture, guests are welcomed to a banquet dinner from a different, exotic destination each week to learn and enjoy food in the company of others. We spoke to The Social Studio’s development and operations officer Susan Yengi, about the growth of the concept. Tell us a bit about The Social Studio. The Social Studio was established in 2009 and supports people from refugee and migrant backgrounds to gain qualifications and employment in the fashion, retail and hospitality industries. We came about in response to the difficulties that people from refugee and migrant communities have experienced in Australia's education system, and as a means of helping them get a 'foot in the door' into entry-level employment. We run three major training programs. Certificate III in clothing production is in partnership with RMIT TAFE, and Certificate I in vocational preparation and Certificate II in Hospitality are in partnership with William Angliss Institute. We have our cafe, The Cutting Room, as well as a retail shop and digital fabric printing studio that provides a seamless opportunity for The Social Studio to offer training and work placements to young people from refugee and migrant communities. At the completion of their certificate training we try to offer entry-level employment to students within our organisation, and if we are unable to, we help students securing meaningful permanent employment within other organisations that share similar values to ours. How did the concept for Revolving Cuisine come about? In our quest to create opportunities to facilitate cross-cultural exchange and build a more inclusive society, the concept for a 'revolving cuisine' came to fruition. We thought, what better way to share the rich cultures of the communities we work with than through food? Food is the one thing that can bring people from all walks of life together. So, Revolving Cuisine began, and it has now been running since May. How are the cuisines and guest chefs selected each week? The cuisines are come about in two ways. They are either nominated by a staff member or one of our students, and then discussed and agreed upon as a team, or one of our hospitality graduates offers to put on a dinner. We’ve been fortunate thus far to have had some incredible cooks wanting to be involved in the concept. Graduates of our hospitality program have enlisted their culinary expertise to work up some tantalising dishes for diners. How has the concept been received? What do you think people enjoy most about it? Our guests who have participated in Revolving Cuisine have walked away talking about how much they loved the food and the warm atmosphere. Our chefs have also been great in facilitating this — they often come out of the kitchen and interact with our guests as well, which I think many people enjoy. This feedback is important to us as we would love to make sure as many people know about the concept, and come in to experience the many cuisines and cultures on offer. What are your future plans for the concept? On the first Friday of every month we run 'African Night'. It’s a special night of African food and music, and there are normally a few performances. This has been quite successfully and normally results in a full house. We'd love to build up our revolving cuisines and cultivate them to be as popular as the African night. Doing this would mean we could potentially increase employment opportunities for young people and for other up and rising chefs from the communities we work with. Revolving Cuisine runs every Friday, with the first Friday of each month dedicated to a delicious celebration of African culture. For more information and bookings visit thesocialstudio.org
As a five-year-old in India in 1986, Saroo Brierley didn't expect to be whisked nearly 1,500 kilometres away from his family, and not be able to find his way back. Then, after being adopted by an Australian couple, he definitely didn't expect that he'd have a date with Google Earth as an adult, trying to locate the place that sparked so many memories. This stranger-than-fiction tale inspired a book, and now a movie too. And while a big screen adaptation of his life story might be the latest thing the real-life Saroo didn't anticipate, it's audiences that are in for the biggest surprise. If you didn't know that Lion was based on actual events, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was simply a feel-good fantasy. First-time film director Garth Davis (TV's Top of the Lake) and writer Luke Davies (Life) recount Saroo's story faithfully, including its well-publicised ending. Yet despite the twists and turns having played out in the media, the Australian duo still manage to deliver a thoughtful, sensitive and emotional viewing experience. Yes, you'll know that tears are coming. But they'll still feel well and truly earned. Aerial shots of the Indian landscape immediately set audiences on a journey, with a charming little boy (newcomer Sunny Pawar) their guide. Tagging along as his older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) seeks work to help their mother (Priyanka Bose) with the family finances, Saroo falls asleep on a train. By the time he awakens, events have been set in motion that will see him fending for himself on the streets of Calcutta, before eventually being adopted by Tasmanians Sue (Nicole Kidman) and John Brierley (David Wenham). It's two decades later, as an adult (now played by Dev Patel), that Saroo turns on his computer and begins his search for home. Sometimes, it's the simplest things that have the strongest impact: a child's warm, cheeky smile; the pain of a lost past lingering in a man's eyes; haunting visions of familiar places embedding themselves in the mind. Saroo's quest owes a lot to a certain search engine, but that's neither the most interesting thing to watch nor the most important part of the narrative. Crafting a highly personal story that conveys universal themes, Davis and Davies ensure that Lion doesn't forget this fact. Even as it balances several competing elements — the two countries Saroo calls his own throughout his life, his feelings for his two families, and the push and pull between old-fashioned human connection and the influence of modern technology — the film never loses its footing Indeed, the key to the movie is people. Or, to be specific, one person and two shining performances. Pawar and Patel each possess the naturalistic spark that keeps viewers along for the ride — one innocent and endearing, the other oozing inner conflict and yearning. As a result, Lion does exactly what it needs to make hearts soar and tears swell. It might do so in a standard fashion, but, boy does it do it well.
Thirteen years ago, Korea's cinema standouts scored their own showcase Down Under, with the inaugural Korean Film Festival in Australia debuting in 2010. Since then, the festival has kept returning — and expanding — to celebrate both the latest and greatest flicks that South Korea has to offer. It was playing Bong Joon-ho films before Parasite swept the Oscars. It was revelling in Korean thrillers prior to Squid Game becoming an international success, too. It loved Korean genre fare before Train to Busan as well. And, KOFFIA will keep the nation's must-see titles in Melbourne this spring. 2023's festival has a date with ACMI from Thursday, September 7–Monday, September 11. Across five days, it'll endeavour to give audiences a new Korean favourite, or several, from a selection that spans everything from murder-mysteries and detective dramas to revenge thrillers and musicals. There's no such thing as a standard Korean film, which is true of every country's movie output; however, this national cinema is mighty fond of twisty tales. Accordingly, it should come as no surprise that Confession and Gentleman are both on the 2023 bill. The first is a locked-room mystery with an IT company CEO suddenly finding himself the prime suspect, while the second involves a private detective agency's head honcho being falsely accused of a crime. Also on the lineup: The Devil's Deal, which sees a political candidate disqualified, then out for revenge; and The Night Owl, about an acupuncturist who is blind in daylight, can see clearly at night, and witnesses a tragic event one evening. The latter opens the festival, and the directors of both films — The Devil's Deal's Lee Won-tae and The Night Owl's An Tae-jin — are coming to Australia for KOFFIA. Elsewhere, comedy 6/45 hits the Korean Film Festival after proving a box-office smash at home, focusing on soldiers from both North and South Korea finding a windfall; Hero heads back to 1900s Korea to hone in on independence activist Ahn Jung-geun's plight battling Japanese colonial rule; musical drama Life Is Beautiful sees a husband trying to locate his wife's childhood sweetheart; and Next Sohee, which played Cannes 2022, is all about an exploitative work situation. Or, the standouts also include Switch, where a celebrity wakes up one morning to discover that he's living a completely different life — and romance Nothing Serious, about an aspiring novelist who writes a sex column.
Standing in front of a wavy ocean, watching rain fall and just staring at a body of water are some of life's most calming experiences. That said, simply soaking in their beauty is difficult to do when you start thinking about the fragile environment that's responsible for all three. In digital installation Shifting Surrounds, Yandell Walton combines nature's majesty and the eco-reality — with her display contemplating the planet's shifting environments, as caused by climate change Launching as part of the ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2019 festival, presented with the Centre for Projection Art and on show at The Substation until Saturday, July 20, Shifting Surrounds also aims to shine a light on humanity's connection with ecological and physical systems, the current technological climate and just what is rapidly altering our world. It also examines the idea of earth entering a new geological age, called the Anthropocene. Basically, consider it eye-catching food for thought. Developed by Walton across a series of onsite residencies over 2017–18, Shifting Surrounds also lives up to its name in another way, too. The installation responds to the architecture of the building, so prepare for quite the immersive sight. Image: Matthew Stanton.
It has been 12 years since RuPaul's Drag Race first premiered in the US, and its mission to unearth the next drag superstars shows no signs of stopping. Currently, the original series is reaching the pointy end of its thirteenth season, while international versions also exist in the UK — also hosted by RuPaul — plus Thailand, Holland, Chile and Canada. Next, it's finally making the leap to Australia and New Zealand. RuPaul's Drag Race already airs locally, but now it's being made here as well. The eight-part RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under will focus on Aussie and NZ drag queens battling for supremacy, and will air on Stan in Australia and TVNZ OnDemand in New Zealand. That was announced back in January; however, now you can mark your calendars for the show's debut on Saturday, May 1. While not all overseas iterations of Drag Race are hosted by RuPaul, RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under definitely is. RuPaul is also taking on judging duties, alongside show veteran Michelle Visage and Australian comedian Rhys Nicholson. If you're wondering just who'll be competing, too, that was unveiled back in March during the 2021 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Ten contenders will strut their stuff for drag supremacy, spanning seven Australians and three New Zealanders. So, prepare to see plenty of Art Simone from Geelong, Melbourne's Karen from Finance, and Sydney's Coco Jumbo, Etecetera Etcetera and Maxi Shield. Newcastle's Jojo Zaho and Perth's Scarlet Adams round out the Aussie queens, while Auckland's Kita Mean, Anita Wigl'it and Elektra Shock comprise the NZ contingent. Fans already know the format, which features fashion challenges, workroom dramas and lip sync battles aplenty. If you're a newcomer to all things Drag Race, you'll watch these Australian and NZ competitors work through a series of contests to emerge victorious, and join the likes of US contenders Jinkx Monsoon, Sasha Velour and Sharon Needles in being crowned the series' winner. Until next month hits, you can check about the RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under cast reveal video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSLPdMi0b8U&feature=youtu.be RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under will start streaming via Stan and TVNZ from Saturday, May 1, with new episodes airing weekly. Top image: RuPaul's Drag Race.
After a hefty two-year hiatus, one of the bright sparks of Melbourne's frosty winter has made its way back onto the social calendar. You'd best clear your hump day schedule for the foreseeable future, because Queen Victoria Market's beloved Winter Night Market is set to return next month, running from June 1 to August 31. From 5pm every Wednesday, the QVM will be transformed into the kind of winter wonderland worth getting excited about, tempting you off the couch with a cosy program of street food, pop-up bars, live entertainment and artisan market stalls. What's more, come the middle of the season, the Night Market will be sating all your Euro winter holiday cravings with a special run of Christmas in July-themed nights, complete with festive decorations and gently-falling snow. As always, the Winter Night Market is set to serve up a tantalising assortment of street eats each week, with a huge array of food vendors repping dishes from all corners of the world. You can get excited for bowls of cheesy pasta, piping-hot dumplings, barbecued meat dishes and things grilled on sticks, perfectly paired with warming sips like mulled wine, hot gin toddies and spiced cider. The full culinary lineup will be dropping soon, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, as you're filling your belly with tasty winter fare, you'll be kept entertained with a rotation of live gigs and roving performers. After all, what better way to warm your cockles and work off a big serve of caccio e pepe, than a cheeky dance floor session? If you're a longtime fan, you'll know market stalls are also a big part of the offering here. This year, expect as vast a lineup as ever, with vendors slinging everything from jewellery and art, to skincare, homewares and books. The Winter Night Market will return to the Queen Victoria Market, corner of Queen and Therry Streets, Melbourne, running Wednesday nights from June 1–August 31. We'll share the full lineup of entertainment and food vendors as it drops.
Gin has come a long way in the past few years. No longer confined to your gran's dusty antique liquor cabinet, this refreshing and versatile nectar has shaken off the cobwebs by quickly becoming a staple component of any summertime drinking sesh. G&Ts have officially replaced vodka sodas as your beachfront drink of choice, and now Bombay Sapphire are taking things one step further. This summer they'll be opening a dedicated gin bar in North Melbourne. From November 19 until December 6, Bombay are treating us to a world of ginny bliss in the form of Project Botanicals. Pioneering the alluring idea of 'ginstronomy', this idyllic little hideaway will be serving up a curated menu of 10 dishes from Masterchef's Gary Mehigan paired with 10 unique cocktails from brand ambassador and certified gin master Raj Nagra. Taking inspiration from the aromatic depth of Bombay Sapphire, each pairing will be inspired by a botanical extract from the gin itself. Lemon will be utilised in a citrusy twist of a classic Tom Collins paired with cured kingfish, and coriander will be replacing the usual mint in a gin-based version of the Moscow Mule, paired with Vietnamese rolls and yellowfin tuna. It's safe to say, it's time to venture beyond the classic G&T. Project Botanicals will be open every Wednesday-Sunday evening at 64 Sutton Street, North Melbourne. For just $35 per person, you'll be treated to two cocktails and matching tapas style dishes. Book your tickets here.
After bringing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban back to the big screen with a live orchestra soundtrack, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra is giving the fourth film in the franchise the same movie-and-music showcase. Across five sessions between August 15–18, the Sydney Opera House will come to life with the sights and sounds of the Yule Ball, the Triwizard Tournament and the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, because JK Rowling's boy-who-lived and his pals are never far away from a theatre — or a concert hall. This time around, viewers can expect something a little different. While the event will run as usual, it's the score itself that'll stand out. After doing the honours on the first three HP flicks, veteran composer John Williams stood aside for the fourth film, with two-time Oscar nominee Patrick Doyle (Hamlet, Sense and Sensibility) in charge of whipping up a wondrous wizarding soundtrack. Tickets for the Sydney shows are now on sale — and if you're a Melburnian or Brisbanite muggle keen to catch the next film in the series, watch this space (or, to be exact, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Symphony Orchestra websites) . Although screenings haven't been announced in Melbourne or Brisbane yet, they're bound to follow, complete with live scores by each city's symphony orchestra. In fact, that's exactly what has happened with the first three movies to date. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Concert teams up with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House from 15–18 August 2018. For more information, head to the SSO website.
Prepare to say "accio remote!" and get comfier than Hermione Granger in a library. In the latest news that'll keep you glued to your couch this summer — and your latest fodder for an at-home movie marathon — everyone's favourite boy wizard will soon be working his magic on Netflix. You won't need the Marauder's Map to find these enchanting flicks. Come Tuesday, January 15, all eight movies in the Harry Potter series will hit the streaming platform, bringing their Hogwarts-set adventures to both Australian and New Zealand audiences. If you've watched your DVD copies from the 2000s so many times that they're showing a little wear and tear — or your laptop no longer has a disc drive — this is butterbeer-worthy news. Yes, everything from Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) first visit to Platform 9 and 3/4, the Yule Ball, the Triwizard Tournament, many a fluttering snitch and He Who Must Not Be Named will be at your fingertips. Prime viewing for wizards, witches and muggles alike — all 19 hours and 39 minutes of it. The Fantastic Beasts films won't be joining them, with this journey through JK Rowling's wizarding world keeping its focus on the original franchise. The news comes hot on the heels of Stan's announcement that it's now home to a hefty batch of Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and Disney movies and TV shows. If you're thinking that a time-turner might come in handy over the next few months, we completely understand. Find Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2 on Netflix from Tuesday, January 15.
Remember Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 1988's mismatched buddy comedy about a washed-up private eye (Bob Hoskins) and an animated rabbit was (and remains) a remarkable piece of cinema: groundbreaking in its special effects, hilarious in its comedy and note-perfect as a noir pastiche. It set the standard for movies that seamlessly entertained both adults and children alike, almost as if there were two separate audio tracks where only those over a certain age could hear the gags about sex, drugs and violence. Watching the trailers for Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, it was hard not to get excited that we might be on the verge of another Roger Rabbit-esque classic. Sumptuous special effects, a murky detective story, mismatched buddies and, as the pièce de résistance, master of deadpan Ryan Reynolds providing the voice of the eponymous Pikachu. Whether as a newcomer or a die-hard fan of the Pokémon franchise (which began as a video game and collectable-card craze), it seemed there was ample room for everyone to get beside the wise-cracking chubby rodent with the eyes of an angel and the mouth of a pirate. Alas, no. A convoluted plot, countless first-draft jokes and constant exposition dumb down the film to a level that even kids will find silly. It's not without its merits, but the overwhelming feeling is one of frustration at what might have been had they either embraced the world of Pokémon in earnest, or gone all-in on the detective story. Instead, it's a bit of everything and not a whole lot of anything. And to think, it all started so well. Detective Pikachu kicks off dramatically with a secret laboratory meltdown of sorts, prompting a prisoner escape, a car chase and a spectacular crash. The action then pivots to a delightful sequence involving a young man in a field, Tim (Justice Smith), attempting to catch and bond with a grumpy little Pokémon named Cubone. If the dynamics of human/Pokémon relations mean nothing to you, however, you'll quickly find yourself floundering from this point onwards, as the film all but glances over the details of what, for the franchise, were its core principles, rules and objectives. In fact, the film almost dismisses them entirely, setting its main story in Ryme City where the traditional sport of Pokémon combat is outlawed and humans and Pokémon instead live, work and play alongside each other as equals. Tim is there to finalise the affairs of his late father, Harry, whose death from the crash at the beginning of the film raises numerous unanswered questions. It's here where he also encounters Pikachu, and, to their mutual surprise, they discover they can communicate with each other. Pikachu has amnesia, remembering nothing except that he was Harry's former partner, and that he's convinced the death was fabricated. The stage is hence set for some classic sleuthing — but instead of going down that road, or even just following the story of the video game from which the film is based, Detective Pikachu simply jumps from one half-explored plotline to the next in a narrative that feels increasingly disjointed and rushed. It's such a shame, too, because in addition to the stunning visuals, Detective Pikachu boasts a pretty solid cast. Alongside Reynolds and Smith, there's Bill Nighy, Ken Watanabe and Kathryn Newton, all of whom receive either far too little screen time, or not nearly enough character development. Being a kids movie doesn't mean its leads have to be basic or cliched (consider, for example, the complexities of some of Pixar's leading characters). Yet here only Pikachu and Smith get anything even close to resembling a back-story. From the audible gasps at various stages of the film, it's clear there's some joyous content for the true Pokémon fans out there, but for the uninitiated Detective Pikachu doesn't offer nearly enough to sink your teeth into. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1roy4o4tqQM
2018 was a great year for cinema. If you've been thinking otherwise, then maybe you just haven't had time to watch enough flicks or you haven't ventured out of your viewing comfort zone. Indeed, the past 12 months have served up a feast of films that show why we all love catching a movie, whether we're heading to our local picture palace or getting cosy on the couch. The very best films aren't just an artful, entertaining combination of sound and vision — they're a reminder that, even though this medium is more than a century old, it's still full of surprises. Don't worry — we have examples. There's Black Panther with its engaging embrace of its vivid on-screen world, all while carving out a new space in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's the combination of dance and horror that made both Suspiria and Climax two of this year's highlights, all while doing something completely different from each other. Widows boasted smart heist thrills, packaged with an all-star cast and a stunning statement, while A Simple Favour offered a delightfully twisty time at the cinema. There's also First Reformed's soulful and provocative contemplation of faith, The Favourite's wickedly funny royal hijinks and Can You Ever Forgive Me?'s involving account of literary forgery too. Each offered up something unexpected — and they're all unlucky to make our best-of list. Throughout 2018, Concrete Playground's film critics watched all of the above and more, and reviewed over 120 films. Now, they've whittled down their favourites to the below ten movies. Maybe you saw them. Maybe you didn't. But that's another great thing about cinema — you can always rewatch the flicks that you loved and seek out the ones that you missed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQyDaGWQ43w YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE In Lynne Ramsay's long-waited fourth feature, an ex-soldier and former FBI agent grapples with his own trauma while trying to save others from theirs. Joe rescues children abducted and abused by pedophile rings — and if that sounds like an astonishing story, just wait, because You Were Never Really Here isn't done yet. Indeed, it's hard to pick what's more stunning here: Ramsay's empathetic and expressive direction, which keeps making unexpected choices to immerse viewers in Joe's headspace, or Joaquin Phoenix's internalised performance as the movie's protagonist, which won him the best actor prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Call it a tie, and call this film an exceptional achievement that isn't easily forgotten after watching. — Sarah Ward Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSYHHLk12x8 COLD WAR After the Oscar-winning Ida, Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski plunges into a sweeping love story that's also a portrait of his post-war homeland. In fact, it's a personal tale inspired by his parents (and dedicated to them as well), with Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and Zula (Joanna Kulig) their on-screen surrogates. As Poland adjusts to the titular period, the ups and downs of the intertwined duo's lives spill across the screen. A film of deep yearning as well as a clear-eyed understanding of the way that the world works, especially in times of conflict, every aspect of Cold War borders on flawless, from its intimate performances to its moving soundtrack to its Academy ratio, black-and-white images. — SW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3__y-uPwbe8 HEREDITARY In a banner year for the horror genre, no film provided a more anxious or uncomfortable viewing experience than Hereditary. Director Ari Aster takes his time, immersing viewers in the unsettled life of the Graham family, which teeters on the brink of collapse long before demonic forces take hold. It's a smart move, one that makes the film's eventual descent into madness that much more disturbing. Toni Collette gives a career best performance as a mother consumed by grief, while the recurring dollhouse motif further emphasises the feeling that the characters — and the audience as well — are merely the playthings of a far more powerful force. — Tom Clift Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_i7cnOgbQ ROMA In a stellar year for excellent directors doing what they do best, Alfonso Cuarón sits at the top of the heap. And yes, Roma does showcase the Gravity filmmaker doing what he often does — that is, peering at someone who doesn't usually take pride of place on the screen. Taking inspiration from his own upbringing, the Mexican helmer tells the tale of housemaid Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), splicing together slices of her life working for a well-off family in the early 70s. Whether watching Cleo clean up after the family dog or delving into her problems beyond her job, every moment proves both emotionally intricate and visually sumptuous. Roma earned Cuarón the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival, and he's only going to keep picking up more trophies. — SW Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYKBG1znk4A SWEET COUNTRY When Sweet Country emerged victorious at this year's AACTA awards, it was truly a case of the best film winning. Warwick Thornton's Australian western is a sight to behold, with the Samson and Delilah filmmaker seeing every inch of the Northern Territory's outback landscape. The film also makes a firm statement, as becomes clear when an Indigenous stockman (Hamilton Morris) kills a white station owner in self-defence. He's forced to flee with his wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey-Furber), but a local posse is soon on their trail. As Sweet Country decisively confronts this all-too-real situation, it also confronts the country's history of racial prejudice. The movie might be set in the 1920s, but Thornton purposefully, convincingly and heartbreakingly holds a mirror up to Aussie attitudes today. — SW Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqy27Bk0Vw0 A QUIET PLACE The dreadful quiet before the scare has always been a crucial of horror moviemaking. But with A Quiet Place, actor-turned-director John Krasinski weaves the idea into the very DNA of his story. Silence is the key to survival in this gripping creature feature, which makes the most of its brilliant premise and benefits from standout (and largely dialogue-free) performances from Krasinski, Emily Blunt and young newcomer Millicent Simmonds. And while the film suffers somewhat from the Jaws effect in that the monsters are scarier before you see them, A Quiet Place is nevertheless a masterclass of tension. — TC Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8mJT7wEtkA CUSTODY A marriage crumbles. A woman leaves and takes her children with her. After a difficult ordeal in court, life should go on, except that Miriam's (Léa Drucker) husband Antoine (Denis Ménochet) won't accept the new status quo. In weekend visits, he resorts to bullying his pre-teen son Julien (Thomas Gioria), who is now forced to flit between his parents. Forget action blockbusters and spooky thrillers — the seemingly routine events of Custody provide this year's most suspenseful viewing experience. The extraordinary debut of French writer/director Xavier Legrand, this is a bleak, tough, raw, involving and unforgettable film from start to finish. — SW Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpxJIWz8MNQ BLACKKKLANSMAN Director Spike Lee fires on cylinders with this funny, compelling and uncomfortably timely story about a black cop's mission to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. Lee has never been an especially subtle filmmaker, and his allusions to contemporary American politics — and one politician in particular — are impossible to miss. But the approach works perfectly in this stranger-than-fiction true story, which delights in hammering home the overwhelming stupidity that drives so much prejudice and hate. With a perfect mix of outrageous comedy and sobering drama, BlacKkKlansman truly is the perfect film for these troubled times. — TC Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVkX1qAyMrY LEAVE NO TRACE In another world, it wouldn't have taken Debra Granik eight years to direct another feature after Winter's Bone. That's not the world that we're living in — but, thankfully, we do now have this affecting and sensitive portrait of a father and daughter trying to live their own way. Making an Oregon forest their home, military veteran Will (Ben Foster) and teenager Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) try to avoid attention so that they can continue to do as they please — but life has other plans. Watching them adjust, and watching the wise-beyond-her-years Tom realise that her own path might be different from her dad's, Leave No Trace steeps viewers in an empathetic exploration of America's increasingly fractured society. — SW Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOOcpb48Oyo SHOPLIFTERS Few filmmakers are as adept at crafting intimate family dramas than Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda. His latest effort, Shoplifters, won the prestigious Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and its hard to imagine a worthier recipient. Charting the highs and lows of an unconventional family unit living on the margins in Tokyo, the film shines a light on a side of Japanese society that's rarely seen, while tugging deftly at the heartstrings. There's no sense of emotional manipulation in Kore-eda's work, but audiences will invariably be in tears by the time all is said and done. — TC Read our full review. These are our favourite films of 2018, but we've also put together a list of the best films hardly anyone saw this year — y'know, the ones that sort of went in and out of cinemas without much fanfare but definitely deserve a watch.
If you're a fan of tasteful tunes and exuberant summer vibes that don't bruise the budget, the annual St Kilda Festival should be at the top of your summer bucket list. The nation's largest free music festival returns to St Kilda's foreshore for its 38th year, bringing seven stages of live music and a tonne of food stalls and interactive workshops. On the music front, pop-rock band The Jezabels, soul singer Dan Sultan, Melbourne locals Architecture in Helsinki (DJ Set) and electro duo Electric Fields are just some of the 60-plus artists that will be performing throughout the day. They'll jam on one of nine stages scattered along the beachfront — stretching from Catani Gardens to the south end of Acland Street. As well as bangin' tunes, the air will be filled with the scent of delicious eats emanating from more than 100 food vendors. There'll be everything from curry to burgers, ribs and sushi — providing plenty of sustenance for all that dancing. You'll also need energy if you plan on attending one of the festival's free workshops, which include bubble soccer, yoga hip hop and dance classes (and a less strenuous selfie station, if that's your thing). For more information on activities and to see the full lineup, visit their website. Images: Nathan Doran
It may be hot outside, but it's not quite 'our city in summer' until the Sydney Festival starts up on January 9, bringing with it a tidal wave of performance, music, art and other festivities. Tonight the Sydney Festival has launched its 2014 program, a massive conglomeration of 104 events, featuring 722 artists from 80 companies across 17 countries. Look out for a much bigger festival garden (so big, in fact, it's now the Festival Village) in Hyde Park, the return of music venue Paradiso at Town Hall and everyone's favourite duck, and a version of Stonehenge that you can bounce on. Yes, bounce on. But let's get the bad news out of the way first: crowd favourite Festival First Night has been shrunk down even further than last year's 'Day One', to the point where it's completely disappeared. This has been blamed on NSW state funding cuts, as the escalating event requires a large amount of dedicated resources. While the loss of Festival First Night is a little hard to swallow — especially when Parramatta gets one (the POP Parra Opening Party features public concerts and 'Boxwars', a street parade/brawl in cardboard costumes on January 10) — but you can understand the festival's insistence on there needing to be proper funding for such an undertaking. We say it's a unrivalled street party that for one day makes Sydney feel like a great, open, international city, and we hope it returns in the future. In the meantime, there are many free, public events to occupy ourselves with. Now, on with the show. Performance Sydney Festival is, above all, a means to get the most appealing, innovative and agenda-setting international performing arts works to visit our town. This year there's nothing topping the already-announced spectacle of Dido & Aeneas. This 'underwater opera' starts with a dance in a 7500L water tank and moves on to sumptuous feats of dance, costume, singing, music and stagecraft. But the one-woman La Voix Humaine promises to floor with conversely little. This Dutch production based on the monologue by poet and film director Jean Cocteau features actor Halina Reijn as a woman pleading with her lover down the phone line after a break-up. There are plenty of other acclaimed international theatre works with experimental, thrilling or just plain WTF twists. Bullet Catch (from the UK's The Arches and Rob Drummond), for instance, is about the notoriously dangerous magician's trick that took the life of William Wonder. We hear if you stay till the end, you may have a very direct part to play in the climax. Less unnerving is Othello: The Remix, a charming "ad-rap-tation" by Chicago hip hop outfit the Q Brothers that uses the words of Shakespeare and obliterates the memory of so many terrible modernisations. Also in the mix is Cadavre Exquis, a game of theatrical Exquisite Corpse played by some truly cool international artists; Tim Crouch's underdog tale I, Malvolio (we recommend going on the adults-only late show on January 18); and Pan Pan Theatre's All That Falls, a radio play you take in communally, while on rocking chairs. Of course, it's not festival time without a Spiegeltent somewhere, and this year's is grounded in some solid and frequently sexy circus. Strut & Fret are back with a follow-up to last year's Cantina, Limbo, which takes as its premise an otherworldly party between heaven and hell. There's also a second travelling tent, which belongs to Belgium's Circus Ronaldo, a genuine line of circus performers six generations long. Their La Cucina Dell'Arte is a more family-friendly brand of buffoonery set in a pizza parlour. They're sharing their tent with rowdier late-night act Scotch and Soda, which includes the stylings of the Crusty Suitcase Band. In the non-funny vein of circus arts, look out for Ockham's Razor, a unique blending of philosophy and acrobatics over three acts taking place at Carriageworks. There are also a few really exciting local productions that shouldn't be eclipsed: Black Diggers is a major new work by Tom Wright built on extensive research into the largely untold history of Aboriginal Diggers in WWI. Directed by Wesley Enoch, it's making its world premiere at the festival. Belvoir and post's Oedipus Schmoedipus will be an epic lark, Am I sees choreographer Shaun Parker and composer Nick Wales venture into a new civilisation, My Darling Patricia's The Piper is one to capture the imagination (and abduct some children), and Forklift required several dancers to get heavy machinery licences. Music This year’s Sydney Festival music lineup doesn’t quite have the ‘wow’ factor of former years, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find a tonne of events that underline why the festival makes Sydney such an exciting place to be in January. The headline event is undoubtedly Amanda Palmer, who will be playing 10 solo shows in the intimate surrounds of The Spiegeltent. Palmer has become an object of much debate after her incredible success at crowdfunding her latest album, but whatever you think of that whole deal you cannot deny she is a fascinating performer. Dating right back to The Dresden Dolls, her shows have always been fascinating amalgamations of pop, cabaret, punk, performance and songwriting, and even the Festival organisers can’t tell you exactly what to expect when Palmer plays solo. Big Star’s Third is an absolute cult classic, with bands as diverse as Belle & Sebastian, The Replacements, The Flaming Lips and R.E.M. citing it as an inspiration. Despite (or perhaps because of) the deteriorating mental health of frontman Alex Chilton, and the fact that the band had totally fallen apart between its recording and its release, it is regarded as one of the great records of all time. And you can hear the whole thing in all its broken, twisted beauty when an all-star band including original drummer and sole surviving member of the band, drummer Jody Stephens, Mike Mills (R.E.M.) and Ken Stringfellow (The Posies) take to The Enmore stage for one night only. Kurt Vile has quietly become a cult guitar hero in recent years, bringing together influences from psych to folk to garage to create beautiful, enchanting music. It might not seem like it sometimes – Vile is so laidback he’s almost horizontal – but the man is a virtuoso guitarist and a compelling performer. And he’s playing in two formats at this year’s festival: a solo “special midnight performance” in the Circus Ronaldo Tent, and again with his band, The Violators, at Paradiso and Town Hall. Not to be missed. And that’s not even mentioning Amadou & Mariam’s Eclipse (a “live, multi-sensory experience in pitch darkness telling the amazing story of the blind couple from Mali that includes scents inspired by Mali and their second home Paris pumped into the building”), performances from ex-Battles frontmant Tyondai Braxton, a collaborative performance with Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, etc), or dozens of other exciting acts. Even the classical music program is phenomenal. It might not seem like it at first glance, but Sydney Festival is once again putting on the best party of the year. Art Art-wise, the Sydney Festival offerings are incredibly choice. The focus is on large-scale, multimedia and installation-type pieces that pack an impressive visual punch. Christian Boltanski’s mega installation, Chance, on show at Carriageworks (10 January – 23 March), will prove to be a highlight of the program. It will be the first major work ever presented in Australia by the French artist, who is one of the more important figures of the international artworld. The piece will make full use of the architecture and size of Carriageworks and will chart births and deaths across the globe. The award for coolest festival event goes to 100 Million Nights, the collaboration between artist Daniel Boyd and electronic duet Canyons. The musicians have created an original score based on their interpretation of Boyd’s pieces. On 21 January, in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House, the performance will be staged in front of three large projections of Boyd’s artwork. The show will also include a sight and sound work by former Battles frontman Tyondai Braxton. Hive will blend modular synthesisers, sound design and percussion with custom built “architecturally designed” illuminated platforms. Billed as an “inter-faith minibus tour (with a sonic and visual dreamscape)”, The Calling will take you on a tour of religious architecture and sacred music in Western Sydney. Beginning at the crack of dawn with the Adhan (the Islamic call to prayer), you will explore selected mosques, temples and churches throughout Auburn, Granville and Parramatta. Also thrown into the mix is a delish traditional Lebanese breakfast. Slovakian artist Roman Ondák is teaming up with Kaldor Public Art Projects (the group that brought us 13 Rooms) to present a trio of performative works. The artworld superstar will present Project 28 at Parramatta Town Hall. Swap, explores process of exchange and barter with humour and audience participation. The second work, Measuring the Universe, at first glance looks like hundreds of thousands of black strokes on a white wall. Look closer and you’ll see it’s tiny records of various visitors’ heights and the dates the measurements were taken. The final work, Terrace, will be a brand new work created specially for the Parramatta event. And that bouncy Stonehenge? That's Sacrilege by Jeremy Deller, direct from the 2012 London Olympics cultural program. Frighten off the tiny children and get jumping. Multipacks are available from October 24 at 9am. General tickets are available on October 28 at 9am. For full details see the Sydney Festival website. This year, the festival is offering an interactive, walk-through version of their program before tickets go on sale. A careers-counsellor-like service will help you find the events you most want to see. Take a gander from October 24-27 at Lower Town Hall. By Rima Sabina Aouf, Hugh Robertson and Rebecca Speer.
Whisky lovers, you're going to want to sit down for this. Beloved, accolade-winning and straight-up cocktail monarchs Eau de Vie are opening a brand new bar in Melbourne's CBD — with 700 whiskies behind the bar. Seven hundy. Dubbed Boilermaker House, Eau de Vie's second Melbourne venue will take over 209-211 Lonsdale Street in the CBD. If the name didn't already clue you in, Boilermaker House will be home to those 700 whiskies, ten tap beers and 70 bottled beers — you'll be spoiled for choice to craft your perfect Boilermaker combo. With plans to open doors by early April, Eau de Vie are adding Boilermaker House to their existing EDV venues in Sydney and Melbourne, following the opening of Sydney's Eau de Vie Apothecary last year. Via Australian Bartender.
Running from May 4–20, the High Country Harvest explores innovative food, wine, craft beer and spirits in Victoria's spectacular north-east. With more than 50 outdoor and culinary adventures to experience during the festival, curated around seasonally specific produce, there's no better time than right now to visit the Victorian High Country. On Friday, May 4, Yackandandah Organics' Farm Ramble and Feast lets you feast on food dug up, picked and plundered from the earth under your feet. You'll explore the market garden and orchard before sitting down to a long-table lunch with produce provided by Yackandandah growers Gena and Steve Cavini and prepared by the plant-focused chefs from Saint Monday. Also on May 4, you have the opportunity to get to know Shiraz in a whole new way. At Shirazzle Dazzle the Senses, Valhalla Wines' Anton Therkildsen will blindfold you before guiding you through a wine tasting with your remaining senses, encouraging you to focus on its smell, feel and taste. For the meat lovers, on Saturday, May 5, Dal Zotto winery is hosting their annual Salami Sessions, where you get hands-on experience in making traditional Italian salami with James Mele of the Meat Room Bespoke Butchers. You might have to learn one-handed as you hold a Dal Zotto wine in the other. More of an outdoor adventurer? Explore the ever-changing landscape of the High Country in autumn on horseback during the To Lunch on Horseback adventure. The Baird family (and their horses) from Bogong Horseback Adventure will guide you through the Alpine National Forest on a half-day horse ride, discovering native flora and fauna, exploring caverns and plodding through fern-filled valleys. Then enjoy a campfire feast made from local and native ingredients (along with some hay and carrots for your trusty steeds). Get prepped for the array of autumn events in the High Country and explore more of what's on your doorstep at the Wander Victoria website.
One of the sharpest political satirists in the business, UK comedian Andy Zaltzman is best known as the host of The Bugle, a weekly podcast that specialised in fake news long before Donald Trump started tweeting about it. He was also the guy in last year's Great Debate wearing cricket gear arguing with a cauliflower. His latest show promises to tackle "the biggest questions facing our very naughty planet" — although, knowing Zaltzman, there'll also be a fair amount of nonsensical sporting trivia as well.
What do you get when you cross three fine dining heroes with decades of combined experience that spans pretty much the entire world? Although this sounds a lot like a punchline that would force you to unfollow a close friend, the real answer is Etta, the new home for Hayden McMillan, Hannah Green, and Dominique Fourie McMillan. The trio, who have an insane resume that includes Cutler & Co, The Roving Marrow (which won a hat under Hayden's charge), Attica and Neil Perry's Rosetta, will open up their new joint in March at the Brunswick East end of Lygon Street. With restaurants all over the place trending towards a more healthy-meets-delicious selection of dishes, it's no surprise to see the trio's newest venture taking up the mantle of the balanced yet tasty diet. When we met Hayden back in 2013, when he was killing it in the kitchen at Auckland's TriBeCa, he told us that his dish of choice at home was a "massive bowl of vegetables and sweetcorn with sliced almonds and butter". Whether or not that's still the case, this focus on fresh produce is key to the menu at Etta. It's not a case of a strictly vegetarian joint, but he says to expect "a heavy representation of produce over protein." While it's easy to give in to our inner child and assume that everything that is good for you tastes rubbish, Hayden is aiming to blast that notion back into the past — where it belongs. "It's the kind of eating that makes people feel good," he says, "and it's delicious." The 80-seat restaurant will be a 'contemporary neighbourhood bistro', and the drinks menu will share that focus on locality, too, championing small producers and family owned operations from both at home and abroad. The fit out has been crafted by IF Architecture (the folks responsible for Gertrude Street's Marion Wine Bar), and promises to be "playful, but polished", according to Hannah. As well as lending the bistro her name, blues legend Etta James once said that "the two things you can't fake are good food and good music." With a track record like the one belonging to the trio behind Etta, you'd best believe that they ain't faking. Etta opens in March at 60 Lygon Street, Brunswick East. Check out their website for further details.
Every summer evening at 8.30pm, 9pm, 9.30pm and 10pm something magical happens at the MPavilion. Settle in after work to enjoy a specially recorded composition of Philip Brophy's Stadium: A Neo-Tokyo Terrasound Cosmophony, as part of this year's Twilight Ritual. What do all those words mean? Well, it's a reimagined score based on themes from the classic 1998 anime Akira. To film buffs, it'll be familiar and new at the same time, and for everyone else, it'll just be damn cool. The score is accompanied by a light show, created by designers bluebottle and is completely free. We recommend watching Akira beforehand to get the most out of it, and also because, honestly, you can never watch that film too many times.
That most wonderful of foodstuffs is getting two nights to call its own, as the Melbourne Dumpling Festival returns for another year. Taking over the 206 Bourke Street development, this dumpling dine-in will feature dumps from some of Melbourne's best Chinese chefs, along with booze and other dumpling-related festivities. It all kicks off at 5pm on Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16 – meaning you'll have all Sunday to lounge around in a food coma. On the ground floor, more than 50 varieties of dumplings will be on offer across the weekend from Tim Ho Wan, China Red, China Chilli, House of Delight and Dragon Boat. And when you buy some, you'll score a free bubble tea or wine from the Riot Wine Co. pop-up laneway bar. Plus, there will be a silent disco, live music and a ball pit filled with prizes and the chance to win free dumplings for a year. But you'll want to also book yourself in for a dumpling and wine pairing 'experience' up on level one. For just $10, you'll be treated to five dumplings (one from each of the vendors) and three tastes of wine. Not bad. There'll be five sittings each night, and you can book in here.
Since Victoria's second COVID-19 lockdown began in July, dreaming of spending a night somewhere other than your own home has become a regular part of pandemic life. Thankfully, that dream looks set to become a reality early next month, with Premier Daniel Andrews revealing earlier this week that Victorians will be able to travel regionally — and stay overnight — from 11.59pm on Sunday, November 8. Premier Andrews made the announcement earlier on Monday, October 26, when he ran through the next phases of eased restrictions for the metropolitan Melbourne area. Understandably — given that they came into effect this week — the bulk of the focus has been on heading back out to bars and restaurants, and having folks over to your house. But prepare for more things to change at the end of next week, too. On the travel front, the hard border between metro Melbourne and regional Victoria will be scrapped. And, so will the 25-kilometre travel limit — so "the state will be one again" as the Premier said. Crucially, accommodation sites will be allowed to reopen; however, there are rules about bookings. You can only book with members of your household, with your intimate partner, or with your household and two adults and their kids from another household. https://twitter.com/VicGovDHHS/status/1320588908862803969 From this November date, a heap of other changes will also come into effect. In metro Melbourne, gyms and fitness studios will be allowed to reopen, with a maximum of 20 people per space. At hospitality venues, they'll move to 40 people indoors and 70 outside. Religious gatherings will move to 20 people indoors and 50 outdoors, and indoor pools will also be allowed to open. As with all of Victoria's plans for future changes to its COVID-19 limits, the easing of the above restrictions on November 8 is contingent on case numbers. At the time of writing, Melbourne has reported four cases in the past 24 hours, three the day prior, two on the day before that, and zero cases for two days in a row before that — a trend that'll hopefully continue. For more information about the status of COVID-19 and the current restrictions, head over to the Department of Health and Human Services website — and for further details about Victoria's steps for reopening, head to the roadmap itself. Top image: Nightingale Orchard by Emily Godfrey via Visit Victoria
In the 70s and 80s, it was Countdown. In the 90s and early 00s, it was Recovery. Now, the ABC is adding The Set to its roster of music-focused TV shows. Like its predecessor, the new television series will feature live music performances in front of a live studio audience — with triple j's Linda Marigliano and Dylan Alcott as the program's hosts. Kicking off on both ABC and iview at 9.30pm on Wednesday, October 31, The Set will feature a different main band each week, who'll then invite two guest acts to perform live as well. To end each show, the week's artists will all team up in a one-off musical collaboration. And with the whole thing taking place on a purpose-built share house set, which also includes a backyard, 250 folks will be there, in person, enjoying the gig. Headliners include Angus and Julia Stone, Vera Blue, Ball Park Music and The Presets, while the likes of Illy, Odette, Baker Boy, Wafia, Mallrat, Angie McMahon, Tia Gostelow, LANKS and Kult Kyss have been named among The Set's guests. The series will actually air twice each week — with a 30-minute episode running each Wednesday evening, and then an extended hour-long version screening on Saturdays at 10pm from November 3.
Wool Modern will open to the public this ANZAC Day, Wednesday, April 25, in a celebration of one of Australia's top industries. This year's exhibition aims to dissolve any preconceptions about the wool industry by demonstrating the new, fashionable 21st century platform for the natural fibre. Featuring the "modern, innovative, and avant garde" use of wool throughout today's creative industries, Wool Modern promises to upstage your thick winter socks. Prominent Australian fashion and interior designers (including Collette Dinnigan and Akira Isogawa) will display their creations among industry greats such as Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. The exhibition was the highlight of the 2011 Campaign for Wool, and was visited by the Prince of Wales himself last year. Wool Modern will be held on Pier 1 & 2 in Sydney from April 25 to Tuesday, May 1. From there, it will be transplanted to the nearby Queen Victoria Building on George Street, where it will remain through June. Josh Goot Emma Elizabeth Gorman https://youtube.com/watch?v=0-QpsFLpoB8
Before the pandemic, when a new-release movie started playing in cinemas, audiences couldn't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the past few years forcing film industry to make quite a few changes — widespread movie theatre closures will do that, and so will plenty of people staying home because they aren't well — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Perhaps you've been under the weather. Given the hefty amount of titles now releasing each week, maybe you simply missed something. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here are 12 that you can watch right now at home. ASTEROID CITY In 1954, one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest thrillers peeked through a rear window. In Wes Anderson's highly stylised, symmetrical and colour-saturated vision of 1955 in Asteroid City, a romance springs almost solely through two fellow holes in the wall. Sitting behind one is actor Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson, Black Widow), who visibly recalls Marilyn Monroe. Peering through the opposing space is newly widowed war photographer Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), who takes more than a few cues from James Dean. The time isn't just 1955 in the filmmaker's latest stellar masterpiece, but September that year, a month that would end with Dean's death in a car crash. Racing through the movie's eponymous setting — an 87-person slice of post-war midwest Americana with a landscape straight out of a western, the genre that was enjoying its golden age at the time — are cops and robbers speeding and careening in their vehicles. Meticulousness layered upon meticulousness has gleamed like the sun across Anderson's repertoire since 1996's Bottle Rocket launched the writer/director's distinctive aesthetic flair; "Anderson-esque" has long become a term. Helming his 11th feature with Asteroid City, he's as fastidious and methodical in his details upon details as ever — more so, given that each successive movie keeps feeling like Anderson at his most Anderson — but all of those 50s pop-culture shoutouts aren't merely film-loving, winking-and-nodding quirks. Within this picture's world, as based on a story conjured up with Roman Coppola (The French Dispatch), Asteroid City isn't actually a picture. "It is an imaginary drama created expressly for the purposes of this broadcast. The characters are fictional, the text hypothetical, the events an apocryphal fabrication," a Playhouse 90-style host (Bryan Cranston, Better Call Saul) informs. So, it's a fake play turned into a play for a TV presentation, behind-the-scenes glimpses and all. There Anderson is, being his usual ornate and intricate self, and finding multiple manners to explore art, authenticity, and the emotions found in and processed through works of creativity. Asteroid City is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — DEAD RECKONING PART ONE Pick your poison, action-franchise edition circa 2023: balletically choreographed carnage; cars, kin and Coronas; or Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick) constantly one-upping himself in the megastar stunts stakes. Hollywood loves them all. Screens keep welcoming them all. So, after John Wick: Chapter 4 and Fast X comes Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One to deliver the kind of movie spectacle that always looks best on the biggest and brightest of viewing formats. And, as its lead actor's gleaming teeth do, the seventh instalment in the TV-to-film spy series shines. Like Cruise himself, it's committed to giving audiences what they want to see, but never merely exactly what they've already seen. This saga hasn't always chosen to accept that mission, but it's been having a better time of it since 2011's Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, including when writer/director Christopher McQuarrie jumped behind the lens with 2015's Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Rubber masks so realistic that anyone on-screen could rip off their face to reveal Cruise's Ethan Hunt? Of course they're present and accounted for. Espionage antics that involve saving the world while traversing much of it? Tick that off ASAP. The saga's main Impossible Missions Force operative doing whatever it takes, including sprinting everywhere and relentlessly exasperating his higher-ups? Check. A trusty crew faithfully aiding the always-maverick Hunt, plus slippery adversaries to endeavour to outsmart? Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One gives them a hefty thumbs up as well. Shady forces with globe-destroying aims, being able to trust oh-so-few folks, wreaking slickly staged havoc, those jaw-dropping stunts, top-notch actors: Cruise and McQuarrie, the latter co-writing with Erik Jendresen (Ithaca), feel the need to feed it all into the flick, too. They're also rather fond of nodding to and reworking the franchise's greatest hits. Happily playing with recognisable pieces while eagerly, cleverly and satisfyingly building upon them isn't the easiest of skills, but it's firmly in this team's arsenal. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BLUE BEETLE Buzzing at the heart of Blue Beetle are two contrasting notions: fitting in and standing out. Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña, Cobra Kai) wants to feel at home not just in his own slice of El Paso-esque Texan spot Palmera City, but beyond his neighbourhood. When he assists his sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo, Hocus Pocus 2) working at the well-to-do's houses, he searches for opportunities, especially given that he's in need of a steady job to help his family save their home as gentrification swoops in. Thanks to a run-in with Kord Industries, its warmongering CEO Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon, Maybe I Do) and an ancient artefact known as the scarab, however, the recent Gotham Law University graduate will soon be his hometown's most distinctive resident. Getting covered in blue armour, being able to fly — wings and other bug appendages come with the suit — and hearing a robotic voice (Becky G, Power Rangers) chatting in your head will do that, as will having a multinational company try to swat you down because it wants to deploy the technology RoboCop-style. So scampers the latest entry in the DC Extended Universe — a movie that grapples with the same concepts as the ever-earnest Jaime beyond its storyline. It slots into its franchise while providing something new 14 entries in, before the DCEU comes to an end with the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (under fresh DC leadership, a different silver-screen saga is coming, which might still link in with Blue Beetle). Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto (Charm City Kings), this is the superhero genre's first live-action flick with a Latino lead, be it from DC or Marvel. It's a family drama as much a caped-crusader affair. It's a story about immigrants striving to thrive and retain their own culture. And, it revels in an 80s sheen and sound. Blue Beetle battles enthusiastically to claim its own space, then, as almost constantly seen and felt. Alas, that doesn't stop it from getting generic as well, as much save-the-world fare is. Blue Beetle is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BLACKBERRY There's rarely a still moment in BlackBerry. Someone is almost always moving, usually in a hurry and while trying to make their dreams come true everywhere and anywhere. Those folks include Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel, FUBAR) and Douglas Fregin (Matt Johnson, who also directs and writes as he did with The Dirties and Operation Avalanche). The pair created the game-changing smartphone that shares this movie's name. Also always frenetic: Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), the executive they pitch to, get knocked back by, then hire as co-CEO. That near non-stop go-go-go look and feel — cinematography that's constantly roving and zooming to match, too — isn't just a stylistic, screenwriting or performance choice. It's a case of art imitating the impact that the BlackBerry handsets and their tiny QWERTY keyboards had on late-90s and early-00s life. Before the iPhone and its fellow touchscreen competitors took over, it was the key device for anyone with a work mobile. The big selling point? Letting people do their jobs — well, receive and send emails — on the move, and everywhere and anywhere. Should you blame Research in Motion, the Canadian technology company that Lazaridis and Fregin founded, for shattering work-life balance? Dubbed "crackberries", their phones played a significant part in extending the office's reach. Is anyone being inundated with after-hours emails on a BlackBerry today? Unless they have an old handset in their button-pressing hands, it isn't likely — and BlackBerry the film explains why. Spinning on-screen product origin stories is one of 2023's favourites trend, as Tetris, Air and Flamin' Hot have demonstrated; however, history already dictates that the latest addition to that group doesn't have a happy ending. Instead, this immersive and gripping picture tells of two friends with big plans who achieved everything they ever wanted, but at a cost that saw the BlackBerry become everything, then nothing. Like its fellow object-to-screen flicks, it follows a big leap that went soaring; this one just crashed spectacularly afterwards. BlackBerry is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. CHEVALIER "He is the most accomplished man in Europe in riding, running, shooting, fencing, dancing, music." Writing in his diary in 1779 about Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, American Founding Father and future second US President John Adams didn't hold back with his praise. But the world has barely taken his cue in the nearly two-and-a-half centuries since, letting the tale of this gifted French Creole violinist, conductor and composer slip from wider attention. Within a sumptuous period drama that's charmingly, confidently and commandingly led by Kelvin Harrison Jr — with the Waves, The High Note, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Cyrano star full of mesmerising swagger, and also endlessly compelling as a talent forced to struggle as a person of colour in a white aristocratic world — Chevalier endeavours to redress this failing of history. Veteran television director Stephen Williams (Watchmen, Westworld, Lost) and screenwriter Stefani Robinson (Atlanta, What We Do in the Shadows) begin their Bologne biopic boldly, playfully and with a front-on confrontation of the "Black Mozart" label that's surrounded their subject when he has been remembered — even if they also commence Chevalier with likely fiction. In pre-revolution Paris in the late 18th century, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Joseph Prowen, Father Brown) has an enraptured crowd in his thrall as he both plays and conducts. He pauses, then prompts his audience for requests. The response comes as a surprise: Bologne striding down the aisle, asking if he too can pick up a violin, then getting duelling with the musical instrument against the acclaimed maestro. Williams and Robinson start their film with a statement, announcing that they're celebrating a life that's been left not only ignored and erased — especially in a realm that's so often considered old, stuffy and definitely not culturally diverse — but also been stuck lingering in someone else's shadow. Chevalier is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. SANCTUARY Succession with BDSM. A reminder that love can sear. A slinky two-hander that's sometimes about only having one free hand. Sanctuary is all of the above, plus a psychosexual battle and a romp of a twisty erotic thriller-meets-romantic comedy — and also a reminder that there's something about Christopher Abbott in chic hotel rooms being teased out of his comfort zone by blonde sex workers (see also: Piercing). There's something about the actor in confined settings in general (see there: Possessor, The Forgiven and Black Bear), but only this supremely confident affair about a significantly complicated affair pairs him with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood breakout Margaret Qualley. As they verbally tussle and sometimes physically tumble, unpacking class, control, chemistry, intimacy and authority along the way, they're a chamber-piece dream. Sanctuary's chamber: a sleekly appointed suite decked out in saturated colours and ornate patterns at one of the 112 hotels that share Hal Porterfield's (Abbott, The Crowded Room) surname. And the piece's point? The thorny, horny relationship between the born-to-privilege heir and Rebecca (Qualley, Stars at Noon), who enters his room with a sharp knock, a no-nonsense stare, business attire and a briefcase filled with paperwork. Hal's father has just passed away, and he's now Kendall Roy awaiting the anointing that he's been promised since birth. His companion runs through background-check questions, veering into the highly personal. Soon, after drinks, dismay and a snappy debate, he's on his hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom while she watches on. Now he's Roman Roy, complete with dirty-talk banter, but in a film directed by sophomore helmer Zachary Wigon (The Heart Machine) and penned by Micah Bloomberg (Homecoming). Sanctuary is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BIOSPHERE If an apocalypse ever brings humanity so close to extinction that there might only be two people left, one thing is certain: if that duo is together and can communicate, they'll spend most of their time nattering about nothing. They'll talk. They'll argue. They'll fill the days, months and years by talking and arguing. They'll still be human, in other words, doing what humans do. Biosphere sets up house within this very scenario, and in that exact truth. Here, lifelong pals Billy (Mark Duplass, Language Lessons) and Ray (Sterling K Brown, This Is Us) are the only folks left after the planet has met a catastrophic fate — one that, because he was the US President when things went dystopian, Billy likely had a hand in — and they're now confined to the movie's titular structure. So, they talk. Sometimes, they argue. When first-time feature-length filmmaker Mel Eslyn plunges the audience into this situation, her characters have been talking and arguing, then arguing and talking, for so long that it's just what they do. Working with a script that she co-penned with Duplass, Eslyn introduces Biosphere's viewers to a self-contained ecosystem of discussing and disagreeing. In the abode designed and built by Ray, a scientist and Billy's former advisor, this pair has no other choice. "Self-contained" perfectly sums up the sensation when the film begins flickering, too — as Ray and Billy go for their daily jog around the sphere, talking and arguing as they trot, their dynamic and their routine is conveyed with such efficiency that it feels like you've been watching for longer than you have. Biosphere doesn't drag, though. Rather, it's excellent at constructing a lived-in world with Billy and Ray as they live through what could be the end of the world. It's ace at storytelling as well, but the talking, the arguing, and the immersive and relatable air all smartly say plenty about a movie that recognises from the outset how adaptable people are. Biosphere is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. EGO: THE MICHAEL GUDINSKI STORY Post-viewing soundtrack, sorted: to watch Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story is to take a trip down memory lane with the Australian music industry and hear homegrown standouts from the past five decades along the way. Unsurprisingly, this documentary already has an album to go with it, a stacked release which'd instantly do its eponymous figure proud. His tick of approval wouldn't just stem from the artists surveyed, but because Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story's accompanying tunes comprise a three-disc number like Mushroom Records' first-ever drop, a 1973 Sunbury Festival live LP. To tell the tale of Gudinski, the record executive and promoter who became a household name, is to tell of Skyhooks, Split Enz, Hunters & Collectors, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly, Kylie Minogue, Archie Roach, Yothu Yindi, Bliss n Esso, The Temper Trap, Gordi and Vance Joy, too — and to listen to them. Need this on-screen tribute to give you some kind of sign that the Gudinski and Mushroom story spans a heap of genres? Both the film and the album alike include Peter Andre. Any journey through Michael Gudinski's life and career, from his childhood entrepreneurship selling car parks on his family's vacant lot to his years and years getting Aussie music to the masses — and, on the touring side, bringing massively popular overseas artists to Aussies — needs to also be an ode to the industry that he adored. The man and scene are inseparable. But perhaps Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story plays as such an overt love letter to Australian music because it's an unashamed hagiography of Gudinski. Although the movie doesn't deliver wall-to-wall praise, it comes close. When it begins to hint at any traces of arrogance, moodiness or ruthlessness, it quickly does the doco equivalent of skipping to the next track. Australian Rules and Suburban Mayhem director Paul Goldman, a seasoned hand at music videos as well, has called his feature Ego and there's no doubting his subject had one; however, the takeaway in this highly authorised biography is that anything that doesn't gleam was simply part of his natural mischievousness and eager push for success. Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. DRACULA: VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER In the Bram Stoker vampire novel that's inspired almost all other vampire novels, Dracula is undead. In popular culture since and forever, the fictional Transylvanian bloodsucker will never die. Regardless of his fate on the page back in 1897, the most-portrayed character in horror movies ever keeps baring his fangs on-screen, rising again and again like the sun that this creature of the night can never bask in. 2023 brings two new Dracula films, which isn't overly notable, but this crop of Stoker-influenced flicks doesn't simply retell the usual 126-year-old tale. Leaning into comedy and action, Renfield sunk its teeth in by giving the vampire's long-suffering familiar some love. Now the dread-dripping Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter hones in on one chapter of the book that started it all, detailing the captain's log from the neck-munching fiend's journey to London via ship. Starring for Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal: Corey Hawkins (In the Heights) as physician Clemens, Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale) as stowaway Anna and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) as Captain Eliot. The former hops onto the latter's ship in Eastern Europe, where a promised job falls through due to his race, forcing a pivot onto the Demeter's crew to return to England. Clemens isn't the only new boarding, with the vessel also welcoming 50 unmarked crates from the Carpathian Mountains. Given that the film is named Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter Down Under — elsewhere, it's known as just The Last Voyage of the Demeter — there's no surprises about what's among the cargo. So, as initially told in Dracula's seventh chapter, in the epistolary format of letters, journals and clippings that Stoker's tome deployed across the entire novel, the key contents of those mysterious wooden chests soon begins offing fellow seafarers. Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. GRAN TURISMO: BASED ON A TRUE STORY Speeding onto screens with instant brand awareness is 2023's big trend. Air, Tetris, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Flamin' Hot and Barbie: they've all been there and done that already. Now it's Gran Turismo's turn, albeit with a film that isn't quite based on the video game of the same name. Directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium, Chappie), and penned by Jason Hall (American Sniper) and Zach Baylin (King Richard), it also doesn't tell the racing simulator's origin story. Rather, this pedal-to-the-metal flick focuses on the real-life Nissan PlayStation GT Academy initiative from 2008–16, and the tale of British racer Jann Mardenborough specifically. The overall program endeavoured to turn the world's top Gran Turismo players into IRL motorsports drivers — and the Cardiff-raised Mardenborough is one of its big success stories. The ins and outs of GT Academy receives hefty attention in Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story, plus Mardenborough's (Archie Madekwe, Beau Is Afraid) life-changing experience along with it; however, much is also made of a massive marketing push. Here, Nissan executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom, Carnival Row) wants to attract new customers, ideally those leaping from mashing buttons to hitting the road. Accordingly, he conjures up the console-to-racetrack idea to help make that sales boost happen, even if racing veteran Jack Salter (David Harbour, Violent Night) is skeptical when asked to come onboard as a trainer. You don't see it in Gran Turismo the feature, but surely taking the whole situation into cinemas if the underlying concept proved a hit was part of that initial plan as well. Amid the ample product placement anywhere and everywhere that the film can slide it in, that certainty thrums constantly. Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. STRAYS Canines are so beloved in cinema that the Cannes Film Festival even gives them a gong: the Palm Dog, which has been awarded to a performing pooch (sometimes several) annually since 2001. Among the past winners sit pups in Marie Antoinette, Up, The Artist, Paterson, Dogman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — most real, one animated, some anointed posthumously and none scoring their prize for a quest to bite off someone's penis. That genitals-chomping journey belongs to the four-legged stars of Strays alone. They're played by actual animals, with CGI assisting with moving lips and particularly raucous turns, and they're unlikely to win any accolades for this raunchy lost-dog tale. The pooches impress. They're always cute. Also, they're capable of digging up laughs. But Strays is a one-bark idea that's tossed around as repetitively as throwing a tennis ball to your fluffy pal: take a flick about adorable dogs, and talking ones at that, then make it crude and rude. Games of fetch do pop up in Strays, but via a version that no loving pet owner would ever want to play. This one is called "fetch and fuck", with stoner and constant masturbator Doug (Will Forte, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson) doing the pitching. He isn't a kindly human companion to Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell, Barbie). He's cruel and resentful — and constantly drives Reggie to various distant spots, sends him running and ditches the pooch. With unwavering affection, plus the naivety to only see the good in his chosen person, Reggie thinks that it's all meant to be fun until he's abandoned in a city hours away. There, he meets Boston terrier Bug (Jamie Foxx, They Cloned Tyrone), Australian shepherd Maggie (Isla Fisher, Wolf Like Me) and great dane Hunter (Randall Park, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania). Realising the truth about his relationship with Doug, he's sent by Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar director Josh Greenbaum and American Vandal creator/writer Dan Perrault on a canines-gone-wild revenge mission with his new dog squad trotting along to help. Strays is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. HAUNTED MANSION There's almost nothing that's bold about Haunted Mansion, but making the Disney family-friendly horror-comedy about moving on from the past is downright audacious. What the film preaches, the company behind it isn't practising — with this specific movie or in general. This flick isn't the first that's based on the Mouse House's The Haunted Mansion theme-park attraction, thanks to a 2003 Eddie Murphy (You People)-starring feature. In 2021, the entertainment behemoth also combined the Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland highlight with The Muppets in streaming special Muppets Haunted Mansion. And, no matter how Haunted Mansion circa 2023 fares at the box office, there's no doubting that the idea will get another spin down the line. Nearly everything Disney does; this is the corporation that keeps remaking its animated hits as live-action pictures (see: The Little Mermaid), revelling in sequels even decades later (see: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), and getting franchises sprawling as films and TV shows alike (see: Marvel and Star Wars). When Dear White People and Bad Hair filmmaker Justin Simien begins his Haunted Mansion, it's with backstory that explains why astrophysicist Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield, Atlanta) is himself so unwilling to embrace the future. He meets Alyssa (Charity Jordan, They Cloned Tyrone), falls in love, then understandably falls apart when he's suddenly a widower — and, once he's consumed by mourning he's committed to staying that way. Then priest and exorcist Father Kent (Owen Wilson, Loki) ropes him into a gig at the movie's central abode, enlisting not just his help but the use of his specially developed camera that photographs dark matter and, ideally, spectres. The gadget was a labour of love for Alyssa, who worked as a ghost tour guide around New Orleans, a job that Ben has swapped science and the lab for after her passing. Now, he needs his invention to assist Gabbie (Rosario Dawson, Ahsoka), a doctor who has just relocated with her son Travis (Chase W Dillon, The Harder They Fall) — while calling in psychic Harriet (Tiffany Haddish, The Afterparty) and college historian Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) to also lend a hand. Haunted Mansion is available to stream via Disney+, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Looking for more at-home viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and fast-tracked highlights from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August and September, too. You can also peruse our best new films, new TV shows, returning TV shows and straight-to-streaming movies of 2023 so far
¡Viva el cine español! Australia's carnival of Spanish-language cinema is on the verge of adulthood and is celebrating the occasion in style. Commemorating its 17th birthday in 2014, the Spanish Film Festival will once again showcase the best of the Spanish and Latin American film industry, from twisting crime tales to slick ensemble love stories, heart-warming comedies and searing social dramas. This year's festivities will be bookended by two big favourites from Spain's prestigious Goya awards. Opening night features the sixties-set road-trip movie Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed, winner of six statues including Best Picture, Director and Actor. Two-a-half-weeks later, the macabre comic fantasy Witching and Bitching, featuring Best Supporting Actress Terele Pávez, will bring the festival to a close. Other highlights on the 30-film program include The Golden Cage, which won Best Cast at the Cannes Film Festival, and Scorpion in Love, a boxing drama in which Javier Bardem plays a neo-Nazi gang leader. (Not such a heartthrob now, is he ladies?) For the full Spanish Film Festival lineup, visit the festival website Image: Still from Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed. https://youtube.com/watch?v=xAPS2uPFNkY
For playwright David Greig, Norwegian Anders Breivik's shooting of 69 young people at a summer camp in 2011 stuck a chord too deep to ignore. Translating emotions into art certainly isn't a new notion, but his socially aware play The Events has really got us thinking about the aftermath of these tragic experiences. While gun-related violence is a huge global issue affecting countless lives, individual people turn to art to help them understand such heinous acts on a personal level. When it comes to The Events, we're focused on one woman and her story. Written with reference to the Anders Breivik case of 2011, the play won over crowds at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival for its delicate contemplation of community and compassion in the face of gun-related violence. Closer to home, director Clare Watson brings The Events to life for Australian audiences. Fresh from Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre, it will show at the Malthouse Theatre from June 21 until July 10. This powerful play explores theatre as a medium for social commentary and a means to personalise the events we see splashed across the headlines. Set in the halls of a fictional community centre, Catherine takes to the stage as Claire, a church minister responsible for leading the local community choir. After a young gunman tears the fabric of this group apart, Claire is forced to rebuild herself and her band of singers. We caught up with actress Catherine McClements, the lead in The Events.
It's always the way that on the one day you've got one bar of battery left, you forget your phone charger. A Universal Phone Charger is a clunky solution to such a problem, but here's something more elegant: a mobile which can recharge from ambient heat, even when it's sitting in your pocket! It's a clever concept from London-based designer Patrick Hyland. The Nokia E-Cu (E for environment, Cu for copper) creates a current from the smallest of energy sources like the heat from your pocket. The outer copper casing receives thermal energy and transforms it into battery power. It's still in concept-stage, with no plans from Nokia to develop it yet, but Hyland is keen to collaborate with anybody to get it off the ground. Hyland aims to create a charger-free cell phone future, noting that "annually, unwanted phone chargers produce 51,000 tons of waste in addition to the greenhouse gases created by the production of the electricity needed to charge them." [Via Good]
By this point, Archie Rose needs little introduction. One of Sydney's first distilleries in 160 years has reignited many an Aussie's appreciation of spirits since opening in 2014 thanks to its diverse range of premium whiskies, gins, vodkas and rums showcasing native ingredients. Along the way, it's become the nation's most awarded distillery, and it's also given us one-off collaborations, limited releases and interactive spirits experiences from masterclasses to fascinating distillery tours. If that weren't enough, now Archie Rose has only gone and created what it's calling its best-ever gin. Bone Dry Gin is a limited-edition run that's the brand's first from its new Banksmeadow distillery and its one-of-a-kind copper vacuum stills. The spirit extracts the diverse flavour profile of hand-foraged juniper berries from North Macedonia through hot and cold distillation, and it is lifted with notes of Australian coriander seed, Tahitian lime and lemon-scented gum. The result is a tipple with a supple start on the palate that gives way to bold citrus and herb notes that leads to a pine-accented, bone-dry finish. To celebrate the release of Bone Dry Gin, we've teamed up with Archie Rose to give two lucky readers the chance to win the ultimate Archie Rose prize pack. Enter below to go into the running to win a case of Bone Dry Gin (six bottles), a pack of Caperberry Martini cocktail bottles (two bottles) and a pair of tickets to an Archie Rose Blend Your Own Gin masterclass in Sydney (valid for three years). That's nearly $1000 worth of Archie Rose goods, on us, for you to enjoy the ultimate gin experience — including the chance to make your very own. [competition]828345[/competition]
UPDATE Thursday, June 3: In light of Melbourne's snap lockdown being extended, the Doughnut Festival has been pushed back to Sunday, July 4. But in the meantime, you can score yourself free doughnuts courtesy of the Market's iconic American Doughnut Kitchen. To celebrate National Doughnut Day this Friday, June 4, simply order a bag of hot jam doughnuts for delivery or click-and-collect via Queen Vic Market Online if it's within your ten kilometer radius, and you'll receive an additional bag of the treats on the house. If you go nuts for doughnuts, there's only one place to pop on your itinerary for Sunday, June 6: Queen Victoria Market is throwing a celebration dedicated to the world's favourite holey treat. The Doughnut Festival is set to showcase a diverse array of doughnuts and other closely-related sweet treats, from old-school dough balls oozing hot jam, to choc-centred bites and sugar-coated churros. There'll be plenty of vegan and gluten-free goodies among the lineup, which is set to star names like Bistro Morgan, St Gerry's and Shortstop. A matching drinks offering will feature coffee and hot choccy, alongside nostalgic 50s-style shakes. All to enjoy while feasting your ears on the day's live tunes. If your doughnut obsession is particularly strong and your appetite large, you can try your luck in the main event — a doughnut-eating competition hosted by renowned pastry chef Darren Purchese (Burch & Purchese). Competitors will have two minutes to down as many doughnuts as possible in an attempt to win a year's worth of hot jam doughnuts from QVM's iconic American Doughnut Kitchen. That, plus complete and utter glory, of course. [caption id="attachment_812578" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shortstop Doughnuts[/caption] Top image: American Doughnut Kitchen at the Queen Victoria Market.
Good Food Month is almost upon us. The month-long festival of food and drink has finally decided to travel south to our lovely city for November. If you're anything like us, the enormous program of events has left you feeling slightly overwhelmed. There are too many things to go to, too many dishes to eat, and choosing is difficult. But, don't let it deter you — we've sorted through the long list of happenings and picked out some of our favourites. Night Noodle Markets The Alexandra Gardens will be turned into a market place across November for the Night Noodle Markets. Food stalls from the likes of Longrain, Mamak and Wonderbao will serve up everything from roast pork bao to freshly made roti. And, dessert will be taken care of by none other than Gelato Messina, among others. There will also be live music, bars and an all-round market atmosphere. Melbourne, you're in charge of the weather. November 18-30, Mon-Tue 5pm - 9pm, Wed 5pm - 10pm, Thurs-Fri 5pm - 11pm, Sat 4pm - 10pm, Sun 4pm - 9pm, Alexandra Gardens, 1 Boathouse Drive, Melbourne, goodfoodmonth.com/nightnoodlemarkets Lunch Above the Rooftops at Union Dining As part of the Surprise Saturday Lunch section of the festival, Union Dining will be putting on a once-only three-course menu each Saturday throughout November that will be highlighting some of the state's best produce. One week may feature the Yarra region, while another may focus on the best the King Valley has to offer. November 2, 9, 16, 23 & 30 at 12-3pm, $45 includes a glass of wine and tea or coffee, Union Dining, 270 Swan Street, Richmond, bookings: (03) 9428 2988 Supper Club at Mamasita Taking full advantage of Melbourne's love of the night, Supper Club will see a range of Melbourne restaurants plate up a special dish for the late comers. This may be your chance to avoid the queues at Mamasita. And, for $14, after 10pm, you'll get three soft-shell crab tacos. Cheers to that. November 9, 11-16 & 18-23 at 10-11.30pm, $14, Mamasita, Level 1, 11 Collins Street, Melbourne, bookings: (03) 9650 3821 A Spice Trail at B’Stilla As part of the Good Food Month World Dinner series, B'Stilla, South Yarra's mighty fine Moroccan restaurant, will be dishing up an eight-course degustation menu that will highlight Moroccan cuisine and the Arab, Moorish and Mediterranean influences it draws upon. One word: flavour. November 3 & 17 at 6-10.30pm, $80 or $140 with matching drinks, B'Stilla, 30B Bray Street, South Yarra, bookings: (03) 98262370 Bar Hop at The Understudy Over 20 of Melbourne's best bars will be whipping up a cocktail with a matched bite for just $20 in the Good Food Month Bar Hop. The Understudy, below 1806 in the CBD, will be serving a molecular twist on a Classic Martinez — Tanqueray gin, Cinzano Rosso, maraschino and angostura sweet served with haloumi, mint, walnut and honey bites. They had us at gin. And haloumi. Available all month, $20, The Understudy, 169 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, bookings: (03) 9663 7722 Gelato Messina hits Melbourne Yes, we've all heard on the grapevine that Gelato Messina is coming to town. As part of the Talk & Taste sessions, Gelato pioneer Simone Panetta will take guests through a range of flavours as she teaches the ways of gelato at the new Gelato Messina store on Smith Street This might be a good way to avoid the lines that will no doubt start once the doors open. November 9, 16, 23 & 30 at 9.30-11am, $60, Gelato Messina, 237 Smith Street, Fitzroy, $60, bookings: (02) 8354 1223 The Nine Nights of Rekorderlig Forget matched wines, matching cider to your meal is the next big thing. Over nine night in November, Rekorderlig will collaborate with the Albert Park Hotel to bring the ciders distinctive flavours to life. Head chef Andrew Beddoes has created a bespoke menu with seasonal ingredients, which will include five courses, inspired by and paired with the nine different flavours in Rekorderlig's profile. One of the more interesting dinners on the Good Food Month program, this one has us doubled over with curiosity. November 15-24 at 7-10pm, $100 including cider and wine, Albert Park Hotel, cnr Montague Street & Dundas Place, Albert Park, eventbrite.com.au High Tea with a difference at Saigon Sally As part of the Ultimate High Tea, Windsor's favourite Vietnamese sister, Saigon Sally, will be serving up high tea with a little bit of a difference. Ditch the finger sandwiches and scones for grilled lobster and green papaya rice paper rolls, and Golden Gaytime lamingtons. We can only hope the Tira-mi-sally is on the menu. November 10 & 24 at 12-4pm, $45 includes a glass of sparkling, Saigon Sally, 2 Duke Street, Windsor, bookings: (03) 9939 5181 Rene Redzepi lands in Melbourne Across the festival, Melbourne will be a temporary home to some of the world's most celebrated chefs. Rene Redzepi from Noma in Copenhagen will present a rare evening where guests will get to hear Rene speak at The Wheeler Centre. Rene Redzepi: A Work in Progress will see him speak frankly about his career, his book A Work in Progress (Phaidon) and how he maintains his creativity. October 30 at 6.15 & 8.15pm, The Wheeler Centre, wheelercentre.com Enjoy an 'Everyday' Lunch with Karen Martini The Prahran Market will host Karen Martini as she celebrates her new cookbook Everyday. Guests will munch on some of her favorite dishes, aimed at everyday cooking, like the tuna nicoise and pork belly. November 19 at 1-3.30pm, $100 includes cider and wine, Prahran Market,163 Commercial Road, Prahran, bookings: (02) 9285 9155
And sell it. Mostly sell it. But you'll actually earn some money too. Despite original fears that digital music downloads would kill the industry and steal artists' royalties, the new distribution channel has been welcomed by many and often brings artists and their fans closer together. Some have even experimented with the medium and how to sell music online: Radiohead let fans pay what they want, and online concerts are now nothing out of the ordinary. Kaiser Chiefs have come up with an ingenious way of involving their fans in their new album The Future Is Medieval, asking them to create their own customised version of 10 tracks from the 20 on offer, and create the cover art. If you think your producing/artwork is pretty awesome, you can put your version up for sale on their Album H.Q. and if others buy it, you'll earn a portion of each sale. Gimmick? Perhaps. A clever way to get fans to pay for an album twice? Definitely. But the band could really be on to something here. Giving fans a role in the creation of the album, however token, gives them a sense of ownership and connection with the band/brand; the Album H.Q. provides a space for the community; and the cash reward means that fans get to share in the band's success. If the experiment proves a success, expect others to follow suit or push the envelope even further. The world of print media, whose death has often been falsely predicted, could perhaps take a leaf out of music's book when it comes to competing in a digital world. [Via PSFK]
If you live in Victoria and you're craving a doughnut right about now, there's a very good reason for those hunger pangs. Just weeks after Melbourne's latest COVID-19 cluster — the one that saw the city go into lockdown for a fortnight — the entire state has recorded zero new locally acquired cases for a whole seven days. Yes, it's been a week of doughnut days for Victorians, all while outbreaks have been popping up in much of the rest of the country — including in Sydney, which is currently in lockdown, and in Brisbane, which spent four days in lockdown last week. Twelve months or so ago, if you uttered that term, you were probably using it in the literal sense between mouthfuls. Thanks to the chaos of the past year, however, the phrase now refers to this welcome COVID-19 milestone. As reported today, Wednesday, July 7, the past 24-hour reporting period actually saw doughnuts on three fronts — with no locally acquired cases, no cases from interstate and none from overseas, either. Those numbers cover up until midnight last night, which is when Victoria's reporting cuts off each day. https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1412539944560730119 At the time of writing, Victoria does still have 24 active cases; however, so soon after lockdown, notching up an entire week without any local spread is definitely excellent news. Of course, this doesn't mean the war is over in the state, or around Australia, especially while the country's vaccination campaign is rolling out so slowly. Just yesterday, Melbourne's Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix was cancelled for 2021 — after also being scrapped in 2020 — because the pandemic isn't done impacting our daily lives just yet. For more information about COVID-19 in Victoria, head over to the Department of Health website.
James Bond might have no time to die in the espionage franchise's upcoming 25th instalment, but audiences now have plenty time to wait until they see the film. Originally slated to hit cinemas worldwide in early April, No Time to Die's release has been pushed back seven months, with 007's latest action-packed antics — and Daniel Craig's last stint as the suave spy — now reaching the big screen in November. In a Tweet, studios MGM and Universal, as well as Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, announced that the movie has been delayed "after careful consideration and thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace". The film will now drop seven months after its original release date, releasing in the UK and Australia on November 12, and the US on November 25. https://twitter.com/007/status/1235248760260874241 The brief statement doesn't mention the specifics behind the decision, but the move comes amid growing concerns about the impact of the coronavirus, COVID-19, on the film industry. With the virus continuing to spread around the world, cinemas in some countries have been temporarily shuttered in an attempt to stop mass gatherings and help contain the infection. While that's currently only the case in China, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Italy and France, it's a tactic that could be rolled out elsewhere. Just this week, two Bond fan sites wrote an open letter calling for No Time to Die's postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic — in the name of public safety. Of course, there's clearly a financial motive behind MGM and Universal's decision to follow suit. Cinema closures, especially in huge markets such as China, obviously affect a movie's box office earnings. Although nothing else has been announced as yet, don't be surprised if other big movies take No Time to Die's lead and shift their release dates for the same reason. Plenty of other huge titles, such as Black Widow, Fast and Furious 9, Wonder Woman 1984 and Top Gun: Maverick are all currently scheduled to release in the upcoming months — and therefore face the same public health and financial concerns. Revisit the No Time to Die trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rohdh1I3efY&t=13s No Time to Die was originally due to release in cinemas on April 8, but will now release in Australia on November 12. Top image: Nicola Dove © 2019 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Do you like doughnuts? Of course you do. And even though you think your love is peak right now, you're probably going to like them a whole lot more when you taste what Doughnut Time has to offer. That's right — one of Queensland's favourite sources of doughy deliciousness is heading down south. A Doughnut Time pop-up has just opened in Topshop in Sydney's Market Street, which is just the start of their interstate venture. New stores in Newtown, Bondi and Chippendale will soon be serving up the likes of the Cate Blanchett (with milk and dark chocolate glaze, Tim Tams and white chocolate curls) and the Wake Me Up Before You Vovo: a doughy with a light strawberry glaze, jam and coconut marshmallows. After that, a couple of Melbourne-based pop-ups and standalone shops in Fitzroy and Hawthorn will follow suit. So pretty. A photo posted by DOUGHNUT TIME (@doughnut_time) on Oct 29, 2015 at 4:01pm PDT Of course, the full rotating range of delectable iced, filled bites will be on offer, so prepare to devour the Melon Degeneres with watermelon and sour green glaze, the pretzel-topped George Costanza and the Fruit Loop-laden Cereal Killer, among others. Picking something based on its name alone is completely acceptable. Branching into New South Wales and Victoria caps off what has already been a massive year for Doughnut Time — they only started trading in Queensland earlier in 2015, after all. Since that first Fortitude Valley store opened its doors to lines down the street, three other Brisbane outlets have been added to the mix, plus two on the Gold Coast and a roving Doughnut Time van. Yes, it's a good time to love those damn fine orbs of pastry goodness. For the moment, you can find Doughnut Time's pop-up at Topshop at 45 Market Street, Sydney. For more information about their upcoming openings in Sydney and Melbourne, keep an eye on their website and Facebook page. Via Good Food.
UPDATE, January 29, 2021: Joker is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Lonely, isolated and struggling with a lifetime of trauma, a man exorcises his demons through violence. Plagued by troubling memories and mental health issues, but devoted to caring for his ailing mother, he finds catharsis in wreaking havoc on others. When Joaquin Phoenix played this part to perfection in Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here, he explored the burdens of a crusading hitman who rescued violated children — saving them from the pain he still suffered, and punishing the abusers who treat kids as carelessly as he once was himself. And while he steps into similar shoes in Joker, the exceptional actor is now on a completely different mission, crossing the threshold from noble vigilante to deranged villain. It's impossible to watch Joker without thinking about You Were Never Really Here; by casting Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, the man who becomes one of Batman's worst enemies, that's an intended effect. It's impossible to see director Todd Phillips' (The Hangover) take on Gotham's clown prince of crime without thinking of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy as well. Phillips cakes his influences on thick and, if the connection wasn't already apparent in the film's 70s look and feel, he also enlists Robert De Niro as Arthur's favourite television host. It's a purposeful move, filtering one of popular culture's most infamous antagonists through such blatant touchstones — and, it ensures that viewers won't be contemplating the character's past guises, be it Cesar Romero's TV version, Jack Nicholson's unhinged late-80s spin, Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning portrayal or Jared Leto's cartoonish work in Suicide Squad. Focusing audiences firmly on the Joker at hand, this origin story asks a probing question: if the world's ills were to shove a tormented man over the edge in a volatile socio-political climate, what would that look like? In other words, how would You Were Never Really Here play out if its assassin killed to avenge a cruel, uncaring city's failings, rather than protect its victims? Or, what shape would Taxi Driver take if its cabbie was a bullied clown-for-hire? Phillips stops short of lifting the latter movie's dialogue, but it's easy to imagine Arthur uttering one of Taxi Driver's well-known lines: "here is a man who would not take it anymore". First seen grinning into a mirror as he puts on his makeup (and signalling the film's allegiance with his fraying mindset in the process), Arthur doesn't have much to smile about. He's beaten by street punks on the job, loses his mental health care due to citywide budget cuts and watches his mother (Frances Conroy) fruitlessly try to contact her ex-employer turned mayoral candidate, aka billionaire Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen). An aspiring comedian, Arthur is also taunted and jeered whenever he steps onstage. Basically, his life is one huge kick in the face after another. But his mum has always told him that he was put on this earth to spread joy and happiness, which he takes to heart. As Gotham descends into riots and widespread violence, Arthur finds a drastic way to put this belief into action. When Joker isn't shoehorning in undoubtedly necessary but still distracting Batman references (including yet another re-do of a scene that's been done to death), it just keeps inspiring questions. Is Arthur an inevitable product of a crumbling city that's failed its citizens in general, and its most vulnerable in particular? Or, clinging to his downtrodden status, does he capitalise upon his powder-keg surroundings, using it to excuse his psychopathic behaviour and demand that he's finally paid the attention he's certain he deserves? Penning a deliberately thorny narrative, Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver (The Fighter) keep both of these perspectives in their sights. Alas, the pair sometime struggle to juggle the opposing notions, or to flesh them out beyond the obvious. Indeed, for all the controversy that Joker has sparked since it nabbed the top prize at this year's Venice Film Festival, it's mostly happy to stick to the murky middle ground. The movie paints a thoroughly nightmarish image of modern-day capitalism and its devastating imprint on the 99 percent — one that instantly rings true — but remains content to dance along its surface rather than burrow meaningfully into its dark heart. Specifically, it calls out the conditions that lead to the Joker's rise, yet never quite decides if it's condemning, celebrating or commiserating with him. Joker is unflinchingly bold and brilliant in one inescapable fashion, though, as it was bound to be when it cast its lead. All skin, bone and sinew as he cavorts, frolics and chortles, Phoenix is in stunning, mesmerising, awards-worthy form yet again. His raspy cackle isn't easily forgotten; neither is his off-kilter demeanour, whether Arthur is connecting with his neighbour (Zazie Beetz), taking a stand against the latest folks to push his buttons or leaning as far into his crazed impulses as possible. When, towards the end of the film, Lawrence Sher's (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) textured cinematography peers up at Phoenix as he struts down some stairs, its hypnotised gaze doesn't feel out of place. In fact, it feels natural. That said, that the scene is accompanied by 'Rock and Roll, Part 2' by convicted sex offender Gary Glitter says much about a movie that's often as thematically muddled as it is emotionally and visually striking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr-Lg-_KFHU
