Scarf down ribs by the pound with tunes and whisky cocktails to match as a Brunswick East institution serves up the perfect Saturday night. Punters can pick from four different kinds of ribs, which the team in The B.East kitchen will be slinging from bang on midday. Memphis barbecue beef, lamb with maple and thyme, pork with pineapple and a dark rum glaze, and buttermilk fried chicken: no matter your preference, you won't be left feeling hungry (unless you're vegetarian, in which case you can order a mock chicken burger or some vego poutine from their regular menu). As for the bartenders, they'll be working overtime mixing drinks, including whisky-infused mint juleps, rye Negronis and honey sours. On the entertainment front, DJs will be on the deck from 7pm, while the bluesy Devil Electric and noise rockers Sleeper Service will hit the stage at 10pm.
A ten-minute dance session for ten people at a time, held in a caravan. A future-focused art party featuring live performance, projection, visual art and music. A photo exhibition exploring the transformation of Australia's premier drag performers. Now that's how you mark three decades of celebrating Melbourne's LGBTIQA+ community and showering the city in queer arts and culture — and it's only the beginning of Midsumma Festival's 2017 lineup. Hitting the big three-oh is a spectacular affair and then some for the annual fest, complete with more than 130 events in the program. Keeping the impressive numbers going — and growing, as they have since Midsumma first kicked off in 1988 — the forthcoming iteration will also feature the work of over 1200 artists and culture creators in more than 70 venues and outdoor space, including hubs at Arts Centre Melbourne, Gasworks and The Hare Hole at Hares & Hyenas. As always, the annual Pride March through St Kilda proves one of the festival's must-attend highlights, alongside the fellow returning flagship event that is the Midsumma Carnival and T Dance. At the former, everyone will dance, strut, sing, catwalk, vogue, placard, drag and move together in a display of difference, acceptance and equality. At the latter, prepare to party all day and night, watch queer sports and even see a dog show, all at Alexandra Gardens. Other standouts include a showcase of portraits of LBTI women by photographer Lisa White, a new take on Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince by the folks behind Psycho Beach Party, a reimagined version of Fringe favourite dance piece HardQueer DeathPony, and UK drag stars Jonny Woo and Le Gateau Chocolat working their way through musical theatre hits such as Les Mis, The Lion King, Cabaret and Annie. Or, hear marriage equality activist and Queen of Ireland star Panti Bliss share her experiences, catch a comedy cabaret about how to be a wingman, enjoy the Cuddle Puddle (yes, it's exactly what it sounds like), pay tribute to Elizabeth Taylor, show off your interpretative dance skills and participate in the Muddy Gras obstacle course. It's going to be a fun and busy three weeks, that's for sure. Midsumma 2017 runs from January 15 to February 5. For more information about the festival, including the full program guide and ticket sales, visit midsumma.org.au Image: Coal Photography.
Start your week in style — no matter what your budget — with Tokosan's revamped weekly oyster special. Following the success of the $1 oyster frenzy it used to run once a month, Greville Street's lively mod-Jap joint is now dishing up the same mollusc madness every single week. Head in on a Monday and chow down on the morsels for just one buck each, from 5pm until they're all gone. You can choose to have yours natural, with a simple squeeze of lemon, teamed with a fiery kick of Tabasco, or, for something a little more adventurous, with a serve of the house-made tozazu dressing. And if Monday's left you thirsty, you'll find plenty to like about Tokosan's drinks list, featuring a solid lineup of sake, Aussie wines and funky, Asian-inspired cocktails.
Belles Hot Chicken has flirted with all sorts of chook-centric creations over the years, but, this time round, it's teaming up with Shin Ramyun for a spicy limited-edition take home pack. And, yes, it includes fried chicken ramen. For the collab with the Korean instant noodle brand, Belles Head Chef and Co-Founder Morgan McGlone has created an easy-to-finish-at-home fried chicken ramen that you can pick up from the Fitzroy and Elizabeth Street stores in Melbourne Available to order for $14 via Bopple, the limited-edition pack comes with Nongshim Shin Red Ramyun, an ultimate chicken thigh fillet (pre-cooked), braised greens with Spam, fried garlic and nori powder. McGlone has also posted a video (below) on how you can easily create the ramen at home. If you have an egg at home, he suggests you add one of those, too, but it's not essential. Melburnians can only venture up to five kilometres from their phone to pick up takeaway food, so if you're not near Fitzroy or Elizabeth Street, you may need to try and recreate your own twist on the fried chicken ramen at home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-8-UxELMJQ&fbclid=IwAR0jf6mckKVZbtII8_1iQS7McP3OSbTFP2DhZAU60MrI4UXh6P7k0un-c4E Belles x Shin Ramyun take home packs are available to order via Bopple and pick up from the Fitzroy and Elizabeth Street stores.
Mike Meyer has long been a legendary name in the sign business. But it was after his appearance on internationally acclaimed film Sign Painters that he started to receive stacks of calls asking for lessons, tips and advice. Given that there's only a few schools in the whole world teaching the traditional art of hand-painted lettering, he decided to set up a travelling workshop. After a round of successful workshops last year, Meyer is once again set to leave his home in Mazeppa, Minnesota to visit us here down under. He'll be hosting workshops in Melbourne and Sydney, but unfortunately the Melbourne one is all sold out. But you can still hear what the man has got to say in this one-off talk at Work-Shop. Engage in a night of discussion, see a Mike Meyer demonstration IRL and have a drink with him afterwards. Tickets are $30.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the alternative music scene that came before is unquestionably better than the scene right now. It's something we've all grown up crowing (no matter if we said the same thing a decade ago). So we know that the tendency towards nostalgia and a willingness to make heroes out of drunken twenty-year-olds who only released two records is damn near irresistible. For the semi-autobiographical film Lucky Them, this kind of nostalgia is both the target and the appeal. Loosely based on the experiences of screenwriter Emily Wachtel in the New York music scene, the film is set in Seattle, the birthplace of grunge, and spends equal time exposing nostalgia and falling right into its trap. Lucky Them tells the story of an aimless music journalist, Ellie Klug (Toni Collette), as she searches for an acclaimed Seattle musician, who supposedly died years earlier. Ellie is initially reluctant to uncover the whereabouts of her former lover and music idol, and she struggles to find closure, while her ex-boyfriend Charlie (Thomas Haden Church) films an amateur documentary about her efforts. While the film supposedly runs close to Wachtel's own personal experiences, in taking on the mythology behind Seattle's music history (where director Megan Griffiths lived for many years), the film manages to feel like a broader story of music nostalgia. The character of the lost musician, Matthew Smith, makes references to the early deaths of Pacific Northwest music idols Kurt Cobain and Elliott Smith, and the whole film is layered with Seattle alt-rock nostalgia. The soundtrack that plays over the sweeping shots of the wet, dreary landscape hints at riffs from Nirvana's 'All Apologies', and memorabilia lent to the film by the iconic local record label Sub Pop line the walls of almost every scene, from original Mudhoney posters to gold records from the Shins and Postal Service. These pleasant hometown references make Seattle feel like an extra character in the film. Alongside this, Church gives an excellent comic performance as the eloquent but music-illiterate Charlie and the fantastic Oliver Platt appears as Ellie's editor Giles, the surprisingly patient, ageing pot-smoker forced to deal with shareholder demands that he boost circulation in a fading print music journalism industry. All this makes it easier to stick with Ellie, whose relentlessly immature decisions, alongside the uncomfortably petulant tone Collette uses, make it difficult to connect with her. Although there's a surprise cameo that manages to be charming rather than distracting from the story, it's a shame that Lucky Them finishes in almost rom-com cliche terrain. It's enough to make you wish you were watching Charlie's fictional documentary instead, like the real nostalgia junkie that you are.
Usually when a festival dedicated to espresso martinis pops up, it takes over one place. Such boozy fests only tend to run for a day or so, or a weekend, too. But one of Australia's big hospitality chains is ditching both of those norms, because this drink needs a whole week and more than 200 pubs countrywide to truly get buzzing. Who needs sleep when there's caffeinated cocktails to sip and celebrate? The event: ALH Hotels' Espresso Martini Festival, which'll take over venues in a heap of states including Victoria from Monday, March 13–Sunday, March 19. If you're wondering why, the reason is the same that most food- or drink-themed fests pop up. Yes, there's an occasion dedicated to the beverage in question, with World Espresso Martini Day upon us on Wednesday, March 15. For the week around the espresso martini-fuelled date, ALH Hotels will pour $14 Grey Goose espresso martinis no matter what time you drop by. Fancy a pick-me-up over lunch? After-work bevvies with your colleagues? A cruisy weekend session giving you some extra perk? They're all options — just don't expect to be tired afterwards. Among the venues taking part in Victoria, Melburnians can hit up Young and Jacksons, Moreland Hotel, Elsternwick Hotel, The Croxton and Balaclava Hotel.
UPDATE, December 16, 2020: Richard Jewell is available to stream via Netflix, Binge, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. All it took was a concert and a backpack for Richard Jewell's (Paul Walter Hauser) life to change forever. It's the summer of 1996, and the aspiring cop is thrilled to be working as a security guard at a gig during the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. But as songs like the Staple Singers' 'I'll Take You There' fill the city's Centennial Park, Jewell spots an unattended bag under a bench. He swiftly informs the police on duty, who figure he's overreacting but evacuate the area anyway. As the crowd begins to disperse, the bomb explodes. While one person is killed, another suffers a fatal heart attack and 111 others are wounded, the toll would've been much higher if Jewell hadn't sounded the alarm. That's the real-life story that monopolised news headlines 24 years ago. It's also the tale that Jewell, with his desperate desire to work in law enforcement, was overjoyed to have attached to his name. And, it's the narrative that Richard Jewell tells, although Clint Eastwood's involvement should make it obvious that it doesn't end there. As demonstrated with gusto in the latter years of his five-decade directorial career, Eastwood is drawn to heroes. He's not just fascinated by people acting bravely, but by true tales of fortitude in the face of pressure, scrutiny, admonishment and even contempt by society, authorities and bureaucracy. American Sniper's flag-waving tribute to the deadliest marksman in US military history, Sully's recreation of the Miracle on the Hudson and subsequent investigation, and The Mule's account of an octogenarian forced to become a drug courier to make ends meet — they all fit the profile, as does Jewell's swift slide from saviour to suspect. Played with equal parts zealousness, assertiveness, awkwardness and friendliness by I, Tonya and BlacKkKlansman's Hauser, Jewell fit the FBI's profile, too. With no other real leads to chase, agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm) becomes certain that the security guard's demeanour, portly physique and obsession with cops makes him the culprit. That Jewell lives with his mother (Oscar-nominee Kathy Bates) doesn't help. Nor does the arsenal of guns in his bedroom ("it's Georgia," Jewell notes). So when Shaw slips his theory to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) — a woman happy to trade sex for tips and just as dubious in her ethics in general, the movie intimates, a perspective that's been refuted by those who knew her — Jewell's transformation from hero to accused perpetrator becomes official. With Jewell, his devoted mum and no-nonsense attorney Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell) on one side and Shaw, Scruggs and the institutions they represent on the other, Richard Jewell becomes an us-versus-them battle — between an ordinary guy vilified instead of celebrated for doing an extraordinary thing, and the forces conspiring against him. With his threshold for subtlety waning over his past few films, Eastwood's feature is that blunt, as is the worldview that comes with it. His conservative politics are well-known, so lambasting the over-reaching government and decrying fake news should come as no surprise. Still, the lack of nuance with which Eastwood tells this tale — working with a script by Billy Ray (The Hunger Games, Captain Phillips and Gemini Man), and adapting a 1997 Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner — casts a shadow over the movie. Jewell went through something that no one should have to endure. Eastwood doesn't downplay that ordeal, including the fact that Jewell's status as a suspect was widely publicised — even though he was never charged — but the clearing of his name wasn't. And yet, when it comes to portraying the FBI and media, Eastwood does exactly what they both did to his protagonist. Law enforcement and the press are treated so simplistically in Richard Jewell, especially Scruggs, that Eastwood slants the film in one direction and doesn't care to look elsewhere. You could read the filmmaker's version of Scruggs as another of his celebrated working-class characters doing whatever it takes to get by. Wilde's brash, committed portrayal of the now-deceased journalist certainly aims for that interpretation. But there's just not enough depth, balance and empathy on Eastwood's part to support it. Scruggs is a clear villain here — so much so that Eric Rudolph, the actual perpetrator of the attack, barely rates a mention. If Richard Jewell proved bombastic across the board, then its treatment of Scruggs mightn't stand out as much as it does. But Eastwood takes great care to show the complexity of Jewell's situation, laying out the details in a manner befitting any weighty police procedural or 'wrong man' thriller. His staging of the bombing is as tense, gripping and superbly crafted as anything in his 38 films behind the lens — and he smartly anchors the movie around Hauser's multifaceted performance as a man teeming with contrasts. What lingers, though, is the glaring contradiction at the heart of the feature. Richard Jewell advocates against one-note judgements while flaunting its own. It champions the truth about someone unfairly pilloried by the media, yet spins its own questionable story about a real-life figure. Yes, this is a film about a hero, but it didn't need to be a movie about a cartoonish villain as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpbKh4FqR2g
UPDATE, November 20, 2020: Cargo is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. The ravenous undead have been chomping their way across screens for decades. Still, if it seems like their appetite has kicked into higher gear in recent years, that's because it has. Or, perhaps more accurately, the viewing public's hunger for zombie fare has ramped up considerably. Undead thrillers, zombie comedies, long-running TV shows about the brain-eating hordes — we just can't get enough. It's a zombie feast, not a zombie famine, although don't go thinking that you've seen it all before. Australian film Cargo sinks its teeth into the undead basics, and yet still manages to carve out its own territory rather than mindlessly following the masses. With people scarce and zombies shuffling, the movie begins in a standard-enough fashion, plunging into an outbreak that transforms the living into the living dead in 48 hours. Andy (Martin Freeman) and Kay's (Susie Porter) solution is to stick to their houseboat and float down an outback river, which is the best thing they can do to keep their infant Rosie safe. Unfortunately, their sense of security is short-lived, leaving Andy scrambling across the dusty landscape to protect his baby. Also trying to cope with the new dystopian status quo is young Indigenous girl Thoomi (Simone Landers), with Cargo examining more than one fraught father-daughter relationship. Updating their 2013 Tropfest short of the same name to feature length, co-directors Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke know that less is more. A good zombie film doesn't need complicated scenarios or elaborate explanations, so the duo keep things simple. A great example of the genre puts more focus on the humans than the undead, so that's how the filmmakers approach their movie. You won't find heaving throngs of walking corpses here — but you will find a variety of folks handling the life-or-death crisis in different ways. Andy desperately searches for someone to look after Rosie. Ex-fracking worker Vic (Anthony Hayes) plans for the future in a far more insidious manner. And while Thoomi has managed to keep her zombified dad (Bruce R. Carter) around, her elders, lead by their cleverman Daku (David Gulpilil), have their own methods — and their own ideas about the source of the pandemic. If it's rare for a zombie flick to dive so deeply and thoughtfully into its characters, then it is rarer still for such a film to also ponder various kinds of death and destruction. Writing as well as co-helming, Ramke weaves both humanity's impact upon the environment and white settlers' treatment of Australia's aboriginal people into the narrative — and Cargo is all the better for it. While there's plenty that's familiar, especially if you're an undead connoisseur, the movie smartly and astutely plays up the many real-life parallels that come with its premise. These days, contemplating the end of existence as we know it goes hand-in-hand with contemplating our ecological footprint. Similarly, exploring a world where one part of the population terrorises another provides a timely exploration of race relations. Previous zombie stories have also drawn comparable conclusions, but where George A. Romero highlighted racism in Night of the Living Dead half a century ago, Cargo reclaims a space for Indigenous culture in the fight for survival. Amongst all of the above, and amidst the gorgeously shot South Australian backdrop, Freeman and Landers stand front and centre. The former might be a veteran and the latter a newcomer, but the movie wouldn't work quite as well without either. Freeman's recognisable everyman persona comes in handy, even if it makes you remember his trek across greener terrain in The Hobbit trilogy. Landers' naturalism couldn't be more buoyant, even in such a bleak film. One gets more screen time than the other, but together they embody Cargo's distinctive take on its well-worn genre. This involving, moving zombie drama initially ambles along a reliable path, yet isn't afraid to find its own direction — and isn't shy about blending the expected and the fresh in the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_SiHPtwQ7s
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS Somewhere in the multiverse, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is terrific. In a different realm, it's terrible. Here in our dimension, the 28th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe teeters and twirls in the middle. The second movie to focus on surgeon-turned-sorcerer Dr Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog), it's at its best when it embraces everything its director is known for. That said, it's also at its worst when it seems that harnessing Sam Raimi's trademarks — his visual style, bombast, comic tone and Evil Dead background, for instance — is merely another Marvel ploy. Multiverse of Madness is trippy, dark, sports a bleak sense of humour and is as close as the MCU has gotten to horror, all immensely appreciated traits in this sprawling, box office-courting, never-ending franchise. But it stands out for the wrong reasons, too, especially how brazenly it tries to appear as if it's twisting and fracturing the typical MCU template when it definitely isn't. Welcomely weirder than the average superhero flick (although not by too much), but also bluntly calculating: that's Multiverse of Madness, and that's a messy combination. It's apt given its eponymous caped crusader has always hailed from Marvel's looser, goofier and, yes, stranger side since his MCU debut in 2016's plainly titled Doctor Strange; however, it's hard to believe that such formulaic chaos was truly the plan for this follow-up. Similarly, making viewers who've long loved Raimi's work feel like their strings are so obviously being pulled, all for something that hardly takes creative risks, can't have been intentional. It's wonderful that Multiverse of Madness is clearly directed by the filmmaker who gave the world Army of Darkness and its predecessors, the Tobey Maguire-starring Spider-Man movies and Drag Me to Hell. It's fantastic that Raimi is helming his first feature since 2013's Oz the Great and Powerful, of course. But it's also deeply dispiriting to see the filmmaker's flourishes used like attention-grabbing packaging over the same familiar franchise skeleton. Multiverse mayhem also underscored Multiverse of Madness' immediate predecessor, for instance — aka 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. That's the last time that audiences saw Stephen Strange, when he reluctantly tinkered with things he shouldn't to help Peter Parker, those actions had consequences and recalling Raimi's time with Spidey came with the territory. Strange's reality-bending trickery has repercussions here as well, because Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen, Sorry for Your Loss) isn't thrilled about her fellow super-powered pal's exploits. Yes, Multiverse of Madness assumes viewers have not only watched all 27 past MCU movies, but also its small-screen offshoots — or WandaVision at least, where the enchantress that's also Scarlet Witch broke rules herself and wasn't still deemed a hero. Multiverse of Madness begins before its namesake and Wanda cross paths after their not-so-smooth moves, actually. Strange's latest escapade kicks off with monsters, moving platforms, a shimmering book, and a girl he doesn't know and yet wants to save. It's a dream, but said teen — America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez, The Babysitters Club) — is soon part of his waking life. Hailing from another dimension and possessing the ability to hop through the multiverse, she's still being chased. Interrupting Strange's brooding at his ex-girlfriend Christine's (Rachel McAdams, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga) wedding, rampaging critters reappear as well, while a sinister tome called The Dark Hold also factors in. The mission: save the girl and all possible worlds, aided by Strange's old friend and now-Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong, Nine Days), and via a run-in with nemesis Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Locked Down). Read our full review. PETITE MAMAN Forget the "find someone who looks at you like…" meme. That's great advice in general, and absolutely mandatory if you've ever seen a Céline Sciamma film. No one peers at on-screen characters with as much affection, attention, emotion and empathy as the French director. Few filmmakers even come close, and most don't ever even try. That's been bewitchingly on display in her past features Water Lillies, Tomboy, Girlhood and Portrait of a Lady on Fire, any of which another helmer would kill to have on their resume. It's just as apparent in Petite Maman, her entrancing latest release, as well. Now 15 years into her directorial career, Sciamma's talent for truly seeing into hearts and minds is unshakeable, unparalleled and such a lovely wonder to watch — especially when it shines as sublimely and touchingly as it does here. In Sciamma's new delicate and exquisite masterpiece, the filmmaker follows eight-year-old Nelly (debutant Joséphine Sanz) on a trip to her mother's (Nina Meurisse, Camille) childhood home. The girl's maternal grandmother (Margot Abascal, The Sower) has died, the house needs packing up, and the trip is loaded with feelings on all sides. Her mum wades between sorrow and attending to the task. With melancholy, she pushes back against her daughter's attempts to help, too. Nelly's laidback father (Stéphane Varupenne, Monsieur Chocolat) assists as well, but with a sense of distance; going through the lifelong belongings of someone else's mother, even your spouse's, isn't the same as sifting through your own mum's items for the last time. While her parents work, the curious Nelly roves around the surrounding woods — picture-perfect and oh-so-enticing as they are — and discovers Marion (fellow newcomer Gabrielle Sanz), a girl who could be her twin. The Sanz sisters are identical twins IRL, and why they've been cast is right there in Petite Maman's name. Spelling out anything further would be saying more than is needed going in; flitting through the story's intricacies alongside Nelly is one of its many marvels. Like all kids, she's naturally inquisitive about her parents' upbringings. "You never tell me about when you were children," she complains to her dad, who counters that, actually, he and her mother do. Like all kids, she's also keenly aware of the special alchemy that comes with following in your mother and father's youthful footsteps, all just by being in the house and roaming around the woods where her mum grew up. There's nothing as immersive in helping to understand why one of the people that brought you into the world became who they are. Indeed, it's no surprise that Sciamma and her cinematographer Claire Mathon (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Spencer) shoot the film in golden and glowing autumnal hues. Nelly has questions for Marion, too, and vice versa; however, spending time in each other's company, watching the connection that springs and embracing every emotion it evokes is Sciamma's plan for the quickly thick-as-thieves pair. Explanations about what's happening are unnecessary; only the experience itself, the mood and the resonance it all holds are what matters. So, the girls do what kids do, whether amid all that ethereal greenery or inside Marion's home, decked out in vintage decor as it is, where Nelly meets her new pal's mother. The two girls play, including in a teepee-like hut made out of branches. They write and perform their own play, costumes and all. They share secrets, talk about their dreams for the future, make pancakes, bust out boardgames, and also float through their new friendship as if they're the only people who matter — in that intimate, serious and earnest way that children do with their friends. Read our full review. THE DROVER'S WIFE THE LEGEND OF MOLLY JOHNSON Leah Purcell's resume isn't short on highlights — think: Black Comedy, Wentworth and Redfern Now, plus Lantana, Somersault and Last Cab to Darwin (to name just a few projects) — but the Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri actor, director and writer clearly has a passion project. In 2016, she adapted Henry Lawson's short story The Drover's Wife for the stage. In 2019, she moved it back to the page. Now, she brings it to the big screen via The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson. Only minutes into her searing feature filmmaking debut, why Purcell keeps needing to tell this 19th century-set tale is patently apparent. In her hands, it's a story of anger, power, prejudice and revenge, and also a portrait of a history that's treated both women and Indigenous Australians abhorrently. Aussie cinema hasn't shied away from the nation's problematic past in recent times (see also: Sweet Country, The Nightingale, The Furnace and High Ground); however, this is an unforgettably potent and piercing movie. In a fiery performance that bristles with steeliness, Purcell plays the eponymous, gun-toting and heavily pregnant Molly. In the process, she gives flesh, blood and a name to a character who wasn't allowed the latter in Lawson's version. In this reimagining, Molly is a 19th-century Indigenous Australian woman left alone with her four children (and one on the way) on a remote Snowy Mountains property for lengthy stretches while her husband works — and that situation, including the reasons behind it and the ramifications from it, causes ripples that shape the course of the film. Two of the key questions that The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson asks couldn't be more obvious, but something doesn't have to be subtle to be potent and perceptive. Those queries: what impact does being marginalised twice over, as both a woman and a First Nations Australian, leave on the feature's protagonist? How has it forged her personality, shaped what she cares about and cemented what she's capable of? It's during her spouse's latest absence that the film unfurls its story, not with a snake but rather strangers trotting Molly and her children's way. New sergeant Nate Clintoff (Sam Reid, The Newsreader) and his wife Louisa (Jessica De Gouw, Operation Buffalo) decamp from England — both well-meaning, and the latter a journalist who even protests against domestic violence, but neither truly understands Molly's experience. Also darkening her door: her husband's pals (Dead Lucky's Anthony Cogin and Wakefield's Harry Greenwood), who make the male entitlement and privilege of the time brutally apparent. And, there's no shortage of other locals determined and downright eager to throw their might, morals and opinions around, be it the resident judge (Nicholas Hope, Moon Rock for Monday), the minister (Bruce Spence, The Dry) or his unwed sister (Maggie Dence, Frayed). As Purcell impresses in her stare and stance first and foremost, Molly doesn't let her guard down around anyone. The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson has the parade of supporting characters to show why, and to illustrate the attitudes its namesake has been forced to stomach silently her entire life. She sports physical markers, too; from the outset of this moody and brooding film, there's no doubting that violence is a familiar and frequent part of Molly's existence. But Aboriginal fugitive Yadaka (Rob Collins, Firebite) is one of the few figures to venture in her direction and earn more than her ferocious gaze. He's on the run from murder charges, although he states his real crime bluntly: "existing while Black". Around the Johnson property, he strikes up a warm camaraderie with Molly's eldest boy, 12-year-old Danny (newcomer Malachi Dower-Roberts) — and, in another of the script's point-blank strokes, he's soon the closest thing to an ally his wary host has ever had beyond her children. Read our full review. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on February 3, February 10, February 17 and February 24; and March 3, March 10, March 17, March 24 and March 31; and April 7, April 14, April 21 and April 28. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Belfast, Here Out West, Jackass Forever, Benedetta, Drive My Car, Death on the Nile, C'mon C'mon, Flee, Uncharted, Quo Vadis, Aida?, Cyrano, Hive, Studio 666, The Batman, Blind Ambition, Bergman Island, Wash My Soul in the River's Flow, The Souvenir: Part II, Dog, Anonymous Club, X, River, Nowhere Special, RRR, Morbius, The Duke and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Fantastic Beasts and the Secrets of Dumbledore, Ambulance, Memoria, The Lost City, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Happening, The Good Boss, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, The Northman, Ithaka, After Yang, Downton Abbey: A New Era and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.
UPDATE: June 10, 2020: Honey Boy is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. A Vietnam veteran and ex-rodeo clown who treats his pre-teen son more like a buddy than a child, James Lort is the role that Shia LaBeouf was born to play. He has certainly studied it more closely and carefully than any other part — more than his time befriending shape-shifting aliens in Transformers, undoubtedly — because he spent his whole childhood watching it in action. That's what kids do with their fathers. They don't usually write screenplays about the experience, then step into their own dad's shoes themselves, but that's the situation that LaBeouf is in. Basing Honey Boy on his years as a child actor, and on his father's involvement, the result is an astonishingly personal and revelatory film that continues the American Honey and The Peanut Butter Falcon star's recent stellar streak. The names have been changed — LaBeouf's real-life father is called Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf, and the actor's 12-year-old on-screen surrogate (A Quiet Place's Noah Jupe) goes by Otis — but Honey Boy smacks of emotional authenticity. Even if LaBeouf and first-time feature director Alma Har'el didn't show an older Otis (Ben is Back's Lucas Hedges) being coaxed by his counsellor (Laura San Giacomo) to talk about his dad, the whole film would resemble a therapy session. Honey Boy is that introspective, but it isn't indulgent or needlessly navel-gazing. Rather, this piece of catharsis delves into one rather famous figure's demons while recognising that his experiences have universal resonance. Although we haven't all become Disney TV stars before puberty, we've all had our lives shaped by complicated influences. 'Complicated' may be an easy catch-all term for anything that isn't straightforward; however it definitely applies to Otis and James. As the latter constantly reminds the former, he's the hands-on parent that takes Otis to work, helps him learn his lines and oversees his career. But he's also erratic, haunted by his regrets and struggling with his four years of sobriety. One day, James is regaling everyone with his stories and gags on the set of Otis' TV series. The next, he forgets to pick him up once shooting is done. He also frequently leaves Otis alone in the Los Angeles motel room they call home, argues over just who's the boss — Otis' earnings support the family and he pays James to be his manager, so that's a thorny question — or gets envious over the volunteer mentor (Clifton Collins Jr) who wants to take Otis to a baseball game. LaBeouf frames these incidents as memories, flickering in and out after 22-year-old Otis crashes his car, causes a scene, gets sent to rehab in lieu of prison and is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. In the process, LaBeouf drenches the whole film in the confused emotional state of someone who's scarred by his upbringing (hence the PTSD), yet also appreciates his dad's own problems and just loves his father like every kid does. This isn't an idealised, nostalgic look backwards, or a work of unfettered anger. Honey Boy, like LaBeouf himself, pinballs between multiple extremes. It should come as no surprise that this frank and sincere movie was written while LaBeouf was in rehab himself, and that it always feels like he's confronting issues he knows will never completely be resolved. That's LaBeouf's recent career in a nutshell, both on and off the screen. Growing up in the spotlight, he has acted out his pain in reckless, risky and very public ways — and also channelled it into his art. When he wore a paper bag over his head, declaring "I am not famous anymore", he told the world he was more than just a celebrity. When he live-streamed himself watching a marathon of all of his own movies, he signalled his need to interrogate his history. Both received countless headlines, many dismissing LaBeouf as attention-seeking and vain; however they each exist on the same ruminative and purgative continuum as playing his own dad in a film about his childhood. It's no wonder that LaBeouf's raw performance as James feels so lived-in, whether the character is manic or melancholy, testing his son's love or baring his secrets at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. It's a portrayal based not just on fact, but on a lifetime of feelings — and it's the centrepiece of an emotionally heavy, unwaveringly honest and touchingly heartfelt feature that welcomes viewers into LaBeouf's traumas. That intensity isn't just his alone, though. Jupe and Hedges, two of the best actors in their respective age groups, potently capture Otis' conflict and turmoil. In bit parts, Collins, San Giacomo and FKA Twigs (as a "shy girl" who befriends the young Otis when James is out) also flesh out his volatile world. And, at every turn, Har'el finds an evocative and kinetic way to bring Otis' experiences to the screen, including by giving the whole film a dreamlike, hyperreal look and feel. The movie's first transition between the older and younger versions of the character, blasting each backwards while they're shooting — and while Jupe and Hedges both stare directly into the camera — immediately sets Honey Boy's reflective and expressive tone, and this intimate wander through LeBeouf's heart and soul doesn't let up from there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hroo3-sKc0w
When Skyfall initially hit cinemas back in 2012, it did so in a big way. The 23rd film in the Bond franchise — and handily releasing on the 50th anniversary of the series' first movie — the flick not only became the first in the saga to make more than a billion dollars at the box office, but ranked as the second highest-grossing title of the year after The Avengers. It also picked up two Oscars, two BAFTAs, a Golden Globe, two Grammys and a wealth of critical acclaim. The response was understandable. As well as the usual espionage antics, shaken-not-stirred martinis, suits and new standout theme song — all Bond trademarks — Skyfall ranked among the long-running franchise's best films so far. And if you've been hankering to revisit it again on the silver screen, it's returning to Sydney and Melbourne with a live score. Following in the footsteps of the Star Wars and Harry Potter films, as well as Bond's own Casino Royale, Skyfall will grace the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne's Hamer Hall, with help from both the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Audiences will relive Daniel Craig's third stint as 007, as well as Javier Bardem's memorable turn as the resident villain, all while hearing the music behind the movie as they've never heard it before. For those in need of a bigger refresher on the flick, it steps into Bond's backstory as he battles Bardem's ex-MI6 operative-turned-cyberterrorist. After the disappointing Quantum of Solace, the film welcomed director Sam Mendes to the series, who would also helm Spectre. And, given its billion-dollar-plus haul, it became the biggest Bond film, box office-wise, ever released. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozgZvg3cggE Both the SSO and MSO will perform composer Thomas Newman's award-winning score — the former across two shows this November, and the latter in a duo of screenings in April 2020. Obviously, the classic theme track that's served the franchise so well for more than half a century now also features. And, for folks in Melbourne, the timing couldn't be better, with the latest Bond flick due to hit regular cinemas in early April as well. Skyfall in Concert plays the Sydney Opera House on Friday, November 22 and Saturday, November 23 in 2019, then heads to Melbourne's Hamer Hall on Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 4 in 2020. Tickets for the Sydney shows go on sale on Monday, July 29, with pre-sales from Monday, July 22, with further details available via the SSO website. Tickets for Melbourne are on sale now via the MSO website.
Experience the fusion of music, dance and circus as Velvet Rewired hits Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre for a strictly limited season of just 15 shows from Wednesday, April 26. First launched at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2015, this sparkling production features an international lineup of circus performers, dancers and vocalists led by the talented Marcia Hines in the aptly named role of 'The Diva', Joe Accaria as 'The DJ', plus the dazzling dancer and choreographer Marc 'FullOut' Royale. With a fresh new vision from director Craig Ilott, whose credits include B-Girl, L-Hotel and Amadeus, Velvet Rewired is a fantastical journey into a world of dreams, life and fulfilment. Be enthralled by the non-stop disco hits and flawless glamour of this big, bold and beautiful production. Don't miss your chance to experience Velvet Rewired in Melbourne, with just 15 shows to catch this resplendent spectacle. Book your tickets now and get ready to be transported to a world of sequins, glitter, and non-stop entertainment. Velvet Rewired is showing in the Athenaeum Theatre for 15 shows only from Wednesday, April 26—Sunday, May 7. Book tickets online at velvetrewired.com.au
The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival is currently in full swing, with a program packed with stellar documentaries about issues of global importance. We've already weighed in with our picks of the litter, highlighting films about everything from poverty to political corruption. But if you'll indulge us, we'd like to submit one more entry for you to consider: a critically acclaimed portrait of the European refugee crisis that is being presented at the festival with live musical accompaniment. Nominated for Best Documentary at this year's Academy Awards, Fire at Sea takes place on a small island off the coast of Italy, one that has become a refuge for thousands of displaced people attempting to reach mainland Europe. The film will screen at ACMI on Thursday, May 11 complete with a live score performed by Evelyn Morris. She'll be joined by the band Music Yared, whose members will perform on traditional instruments from Ethiopia.
The next time you go out dining and drinking and get that warm, fuzzy feeling, it might not be because you've had one too many. Hopefully, it'll be because the money you spent on your meal and beverage is being used to support an extremely important cause. That's one of the aims of Scarf's regular dinners, with the proceeds used to provide migrants with training, mentoring and employment in the hospitality industry. The social enterprise works to help refugees, asylum seekers and recent migrants find work by raising awareness and funding barriers to employment. To date, 182 young people have been supported through this program. Running on Tuesdays between March 20 and May 15, the series kicks off in line with Cultural Diversity Week, and it's Stomping Ground Beer Hall's turn to play host. Each dinner features a two-course set menu for $45 a head, complete with meals such as grilled Cone Bay barramundi with spinach, fennel and burnt butter, and Black Angus short rib with pearl onions and black cabbage. A dinner that is sure to inspire the community to do some good, this campaign by Scarf will leave you with a full stomach and heart.
There's something special about escaping to the country for the weekend. We're talking fresh air, a slow pace and loads of delicious local produce to sample. This year, however, it's been a bit trickier to achieve the booze and food-fuelled weekend of our dreams. So if you, like us, are craving a weekend getaway, we've got just the thing to fill the mini break-shaped hole in your heart. This spring, the high country is coming to your home thanks to our pals at Reed & Co Distillery — a family-owned gin distillery based in the Victorian Alpine region town of Bright. Across two Thursdays in September, you and your mates could experience the interactive at-home gin tasting class High Spirits with head distiller and owner of Reed & Co Distillery, Hamish Nugent. Throughout the class, Nugent will guide you through a gin tasting session, teach you how to make the perfect gin and tonic and even take you on a virtual tour of where the magic happens in the distillery. Sound like something you want to sign up to? You can. Just make sure you register at least a week before the session date so the tasting kit will get to you in time. There's nothing sadder than a gin tasting session without gin. Inside the kit you'll find five 100ml spirits, 200ml of Fever-Tree tonic water, a gorgeous garnish pack, creative recipe cards and helpful tasting notes. High Spirits by Reed & Co Distillery will kick off at 7pm on Thursday, September 9 and Thursday, September 16. To get yourself all set for a big night in sampling gin and to book, visit the website.
UPDATE, November 19, 2021: Tick, Tick… Boom! screens in select Melbourne cinemas from Thursday, November 11, and streams via Netflix from Friday, November 19. "Try writing what you know." That's age-old advice, dispensed to many a scribe who hasn't earned the success or even the reaction they'd hoped, and it's given to aspiring theatre composer Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield, Under the Silver Lake) in Tick, Tick… Boom!. The real-life figure would go on to write Rent but here, in New York City in January 1990, he's working on his debut musical Superbia. It's a futuristic satire inspired by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and it's making him anxious about three things. Firstly, he hasn't yet come up with a pivotal second-act song that he keeps being told he needs. Next, he's staging a workshop for his debut production to gauge interest before the week is out — and this just has to be his big break. Finally, he's also turning 30 in days, and his idol Stephen Sondheim made his Broadway debut in his 20s. Tick, Tick… Boom! charts the path to those well-worn words of wisdom about drawing from the familiar, including Larson's path to the autobiographical one-man-show of the same name before Rent. And, it manages to achieve that feat while showing why such a sentiment isn't merely a cliche in this situation. That said, the key statement about mining your own experience also echoes throughout this affectionate movie musical in another unmissable way. Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't write Tick, Tick… Boom!'s screenplay; however, he does turn it into his filmmaking directorial debut — and what could be more fitting for that task from the acclaimed In the Heights and Hamilton talent than a loving ode (albeit an inescapably overexcited one) to the hard work put in by a game-changing theatre wunderkind? If this was a case of telling viewers that this is Miranda's movie without telling them, the concept would obviously do the trick. So would a few notable cameos in a standout song-and-dance number that's best discovered by watching. There's plenty in Tick, Tick… Boom! that was already layered with musical theatre history before it became a film, too; in the source material, Larson even wrote in a homage to Sondheim's own musical Sunday in the Park with George. That's the level of insider knowledge that's a foundation here, and the film frequently reverberates in an insular, theatre-obsessive, spot-the-references register. As great as it is if you stan the same productions and people, it also makes Tick, Tick… Boom! less accessible and resonant. It's as if Miranda can't choose between indulging his own adoration or truly sharing that love with his audience. (Tick, Tick… Boom! also became a three-person stage musical in 2001, and Miranda played its lead in a 2014 revival opposite Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr and In the Heights' Karen Olivo.) Garfield's sing-to-the-rafters version of Larson is first seen in faux home-video footage, performing the rock monologue iteration of Tick, Tick… Boom!, his bouncy hair waving about as he croons and plays piano. Miranda and screenwriter Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen) then segue between the lively presentation and the tale it also tells about Superbia, the looming workshop and the impending birthday. In the latter scenes, Larson can't come up with the missing song, earn enough as a composer to keep the power on, or juggle his pursuit of his dream with the complexities of his personal life. The alternative: opting for a safe career, which his ex-actor ex-roommate Michael (Robin de Jesus, The Boys in the Band) has done in advertising, and his dancer girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp, X-Men: Dark Phoenix) is contemplating with teaching. Selling out is the villain here, but while there might've been bite to that idea in 1990, when Tick, Tick… Boom! debuted off-off-Broadway, there's far less in a film that's also an origin story for a famous theatre name. Recognising this, Miranda and Levenson start the feature not just with nods to Rent's success — the reason that Larson's dilemma is absent tension in the first place — but also with the tragic news that their subject died on the morning of Rent's first off-Broadway preview performance in January 1996. The passage of time indicated by the movie's moniker takes on an added dimension as a result, as does all the on-screen frenzy about making it before it's too late. Wanting to succeed now, and to savour every moment, also gets another refrain in a HIV subplot, albeit in a more cursory and gratuitous fashion than Larson must've originally intended. Still, when Tick, Tick… Boom! works, it's largely due to its energy — more so than its attempts to hit huge emotional beats. There's no mistaking the two wellsprings of experience that are so crucial to the film, with both Larson and Miranda working with what they knew or know, but that echoes loudest is the frantic and urgent atmosphere. The movie plays like something that desperately had to come to fruition, both in Miranda's quest to pay tribute, and in Larson's initial efforts to turn his Superbia experience into something creatively meaningful. The feature's seemingly non-stop musical numbers bound across the screen with that type of attitude, and Miranda unsurprisingly has the eye and timing to stage them with flair. Perhaps Garfield's on-screen fortunes sum up Tick, Tick… Boom! best, though; he's always on, eager and singing with his fullest voice, and also always putting on a forceful performance. He impresses with his commitment and gusto, yet is less convincing at finding nuance in Larson's frustrations, the daily grind of trying to start his career, and in his relationships. Trying to do too much and swing too big isn't the worst thing that a film and a lead portrayal can do, especially in a stage-to-screen musical that also doubles as an exuberant eulogy — and weaves in a Rent origin story of sorts via its protagonist's everyday life, too — but it's still noticeable. It's clearly a case of art imitating life, with Larson's enthusiasm for the art form he cherished so feverishly coming through strong; however, it also always feels like a show. Top image: Macall Polay/Netflix.
The seventh season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine is currently dropping new episodes weekly via SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand — which means you're either eagerly catching each fresh instalment every Friday, or you've got some catch-up binging to do. Either way, if you've been watching and rewatching the hit cop sitcom since it first premiered back in 2013, then you also have something else to pop in your calendar: Isolation Trivia's upcoming B99-themed online quiz evening. How long did Charles Boyle spend dreaming of Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago's wedding? What did Rosa Diaz do before she was a cop? Who keeps swooping in and taking the Nine-Nine crew's cases? Which one is Scully and which is Hitchcock? And which one of the latter duo has a twin? If you can answer all of the above — and name Captain Holt's dog, Terry's kids, Gina's dance troupe and Jake's favourite movie — then you're set for this trivia night. And, because these fictional TV cops wouldn't want you breaking Australia's current social-distancing guidelines, it's all taking place virtually. Live-streaming from 6.30pm AEST (7.30pm AEDT) on Thursday, April 2, this online trivia contest is completely devoted to the show that was cancelled and then resurrected in the space of 36 hours, then was renewed for an eighth season before its seventh one even aired, and features more Die Hard references than you'd think possible in one sitcom. We'd keep asking Brooklyn Nine-Nine questions and dropping tidbits, but we'll save some for the big night. If you're as keen to take part as Terry is about a tub of yoghurt, you just need to head to the Isolation Trivia Facebook page, click 'get reminder' and clear out your Thursday night. That'll be your time to shine (and that can also be the title of your sex tape if you'd like). Images: SBS
When The Simpsons first found its way into viewers' hearts, it also made its way to the top of the charts. Yes, back in 1991, 'Do the Bartman' hit number one in Australia. Both before and since, the hit animated sitcom hasn't shied away from crooning a tune or two — and if you've now got "Dr Zaius, Dr Zaius, ohhhhh Dr Zaius" or "Who holds back the electric car? Who made Steve Guttenburg a star?" stuck in your head, then you know what we're talking about. The show has sung many a song, and also released many an album — and it's 1997's Songs in The Key of Springfield that's in the spotlight at this Melbourne show of the same name. One night. One huge record. So many catchy songs. That's what's on the agenda from 8pm on Thursday, April 9. Sing along to everything from 'Can I Borrow a Feeling?' to 'See My Vest' to 'We Put The Spring in Springfield' as they're performed live by Boadz. Tickets cost $15 online, with the tunes going down at The Toff in Town. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtde89Ro5Cc
UPDATE, Friday, June 21, 2024: Anatomy of a Fall is available to stream via Stan, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. The calypso instrumental cover of 'P.I.M.P.' isn't the only thing that Anatomy of a Fall's audience can't dislodge from their heads after watching 2023's deserving Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winner and 2024's five-time Oscar-nominee. A film that's thorny, knotty and defiantly unwilling to give any easy answers, this legal, psychological and emotional thriller about a woman on trial for her husband's death is unshakeable in as many ways as someone can have doubts about another person: so, a myriad. This is a movie about truth that's really a feature about trust and perception. Indeed, delivering a definitive solution and explanation isn't filmmaker Justine Triet's focus. Helming her fourth full-length picture and becoming an Academy Award contender for Best Director in the process, the French talent doesn't serve up neat true crime-style closure, either, but she unflinchingly knows that the world has been conditioned to want every query and mystery — every uncertainty as well — wrapped up conclusively and categorically. The scenario conjured up by Age of Panic, Victoria and Sibyl's Triet is deeply haunting, asking not only if her protagonist Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller, Sisi & I) committed murder, as the on-screen investigation and courtroom proceedings interrogate, but digging into what it means to be forced to choose between whether someone did the worst or is innocent — or if either matters. While the Gallic legal system and its specifics provide the backdrop for much of the Anatomy of a Fall, the real person doing the real picking isn't there in a professional capacity, or on a jury. Rather, it's 11-year-old Daniel (Milo Machado Graner, Alex Hugo), who has a visual impairment, finds his dad Samuel (Samuel Theis, Softie) in the snow with a head injury outside their French Alps home on an otherwise ordinary day, then becomes the key witness in his mum's case. Returning from a walk with his dog Snoop, the boy didn't see what happened, but he's the closest thing that detectives have to an onlooker. Novelist and translator Sandra is introduced with that clanging version of one of 50 Cent's best-known songs echoing, a graduate student (Camille Rutherford, The Night of the 12th) interviewing her about her work and successful career in the family's remote chalet and, as he undertakes renovations upstairs, teacher Samuel turning up the soundtrack to distracting levels. Within an hour in the film's timeline and mere minutes for viewers, the latter will be dead via a fall from the home's topmost floor. When the inquiries start, Sandra says that she was asleep post-chat. Already, a wealth of details give rise to questions. Was Samuel blasting tunes to sabotage his wife's discussion? Also, why that particular track? Sipping wine as she talked, was the bisexual Sandra flirting? Did that raise her husband's ire? Do his and her actions alike that day scream volumes about the state of their marriage? Did she really not hear the incident? Was it an accident, suicide or was she responsible? Anatomy of a Fall is always a film about questions, too — and the reality that, in life-and-death situations and everyday circumstances, they never stop springing in any relationship. The police can't make a clearcut decision either way based on the available evidence, hence the presumption of murder, Sandra as the prime suspect and the shift to court. Fittingly co-writing the script with her IRL partner Arthur Harari (Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle), Triet's poising of Anatomy of a Fall's opening moments as fuel for scrutinising Sandra and Samuel's union is savvy is another way: it sets up an entire feature where their wedded bliss — or lack thereof, as quickly becomes apparent — is probed, audited and analysed. The stakes are immense, but pondering how any long-term romance can hold up to such a dissection is one of the film's many takeaways. The questions swirl again, sifting through infidelities, guilt over the accident that caused Daniel to lose his sight, the division of household tasks, gender roles, mental health, professional rivalries, at-any-cost moves, past fights and how the couple's son was caught in the middle long before he's now asked to say whether his father, who homeschooled him, was killed by his mother. A picture as intelligent and exacting as this — and as taut, tense and tenacious — isn't short of unforgettable elements. Again, the whole feature earns that description, as does its unpacking of intimate connections. Also high on the list: the performances that are so crucial in telling this tale of marital and parental bonds, especially from one of Germany's current best actors. Although her similarly astonishing portrayal in The Zone of Interest is following Anatomy of a Fall to screens Down Under, arriving in February 2024, Toni Erdmann and I'm Your Man's Hüller is two for two in movies that initially debuted globally in 2023, collected awards at Cannes (The Zone of Interest picked up the Grand Prix, aka second place in the festival's official competition), rightly received Oscar attention and are anchored by her complex portrayals of women who refuse to meet anyone's expectations but their own. Here, she steps into an icy and complicated figure's shoes with the same surgical precision that Triet applies to rifling through the character's home life (that Sandra would rather speak English with her spouse despite him being French and them living in France isn't just a minor tidbit). In flashbacks to disagreements with Samuel and with her freedom on the line, Anatomy of a Fall's accused is unwaveringly unapologetic in her insistence to put herself first — as it's plain that both the prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz, Irma Vep) and defence attorney (Swann Arlaud, About Joan) on the case can see — and Hüller at her steeliest best, always devastatingly naturalistically so, is formidable in the part. She's the one with the Academy Award nod for acting; however, the up-and-coming French talent playing her son is also exceptional. In fact, as Daniel, who couldn't be more conflicted about the nightmare situation that he's been thrust into, Graner is a revelation, frequently via his expressive face and posture alone. If Scenes From a Marriage met Kramer vs Kramer, plus 1959's Anatomy of a Murder that patently influences Anatomy of a Fall's name, this would be the gripping end result. Tearing into a relationship — and tearing it apart — feels nothing less than brutal in Triet's hands; every realisation about human nature in love and life that resounds along the way feels decidedly accurate, though. There's an aspect of Gone Girl to her masterful feature, too. While this isn't a film with a "cool girl" monologue, the societal expectations placed upon women, and on mothers, are firmly pushed to the fore. Take note of the fact that cinematographer Simon Beaufils (Antoinette in the Cévennes) is often looking up at Hüller as well: whatever Sandra did or didn't do, whatever Daniel does or doesn't choose to believe, and wherever audiences land — again, there's no simple resolution here — being a victim, or allowing herself to be seen that way, isn't part of the character's anatomy.
Melbourne is back in lockdown, so Melbourne's Sea Life Aquarium is back live-streaming playtime and feeding time with some of its cutest and scariest sea critters. At 5pm AEST on Friday, June 4, you can get up close and personal with the gentoo and king penguins as they slide around their icy home and gobble many fish. From there, the streams will return daily at the same time, running until Friday, June 11. Also on the bill: sneaking a peek at the aquarium's swarms of jellyfish, so you can learn the ins and outs of their luminous lives. As for which other critters will turn up, being surprised each day is part of the fun. To tune in, head head to Sea Life Melbourne's Facebook page. And, because this isn't the aquarium's only dive into digital content, you can also check out soothing watery sights aplenty via its mindfulness and slow TV hub.
UPDATE, November 18, 2022: See How They Run is still screening in Australian cinemas, and is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. As every murder-mystery does, See How They Run asks a specific question: whodunnit? This 1950s-set flick also solves another query, one that's lingered over Hollywood for seven decades now thanks to Agatha Christie. If this movie's moniker has you thinking about mouse-focused nursery rhymes, that's by design — and characters do scurry around chaotically — however, it could also have you pondering the famed author's play The Mousetrap. The latter first hit theatres in London's West End in 1952 and has stayed there ever since, other than an enforced pandemic-era shutdown in COVID-19's early days. The show operates under a set stipulation regarding the big-screen rights, too, meaning that it can't be turned into a film until the original production has stopped treading the boards for at least six months. As that's never happened, how do you get it into cinemas anyway? Make a movie about trying to make The Mousetrap into a movie, aka See How They Run. There's a clever-clever air to See How They Run's reason for existing. The same proves true of its narrative, the on-screen explanation about how The Mousetrap sits at the centre of this film's story, and the way it details those rules around adapting the play for cinema. Voiced by in-movie director Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody, Blonde), that winking attitude resembles the Scream franchise's take on the horror genre, but with murder-mysteries — and it also smarts in its knowing rundown about how whodunnits work, who's who among the main players-slash-suspects and what leads to the central homicide. First-time feature filmmaker Tom George (This Country) and screenwriter Mark Chappell (Flaked) still craft a film that's enjoyable-enough, though, albeit somehow both satirical and by the numbers. Keeping audiences guessing isn't the picture's strong suit. Matching its own comparison to Christie isn't either. But the leads and snappy sense of fun make this a mostly entertaining game of on-screen Cluedo. Was it actor Richard Attenborough (Harris Dickinson, Where the Crawdads Sing), his fellow-thespian wife Sheila Sim (Pearl Chanda, War of the Worlds), big-time movie producer John Woolf (Reece Shearsmith, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) or his spouse Edana Romney (Sian Clifford, The Duke) getting murderous in the costume shop at the backstage party celebrating The Mousetrap's 100th show? (And yes, they're all real-life figures.) Or, was it the play's producer Petula Spencer (Ruth Wilson, His Dark Materials), the proposed feature adaptation's screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo, Chaos Walking) or his Italian lover Gio (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, The Queen's Gambit)? They're among See How They Run's other enquiries, which Scotland Yard's Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell, Richard Jewell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan, The French Dispatch) try to answer. After the death that kicks off the film, the two cops are on the case, working through their odd-couple vibe as they sleuth. Naturally, everyone that was in the theatre on the night in question is a suspect. Just as expectedly, convolutions and complications abound. Plus, possible motives keep stacking up — and there's plenty of in-fighting among the stage and screen in-crowd who might've done the deed. In other words, even with equally parodying and paying homage to all things murder-mystery chief among See How They Run's aims (alongside showing off that it thinks it knows the basics as well as Christie), it isn't blind to following the standard formula. The guiding narration, which notes that it's always the most unlikeable character that gets bumped off, takes a ribbing approach; "seen one, you've seen 'em all" it advises, because Köpernick was charged with helming The Mousetrap's leap into movies, wasn't so impressed with the source material, then advocated for violence and explosions to spice up the whole thing. Yes, viewers are meant to see parallels between what he's saying and what they're watching. Yes, being that self-aware and meta truly is a feature-long commitment. The Mousetrap mightn't actually ring a bell for everyone going into See How They Run, however. That's not overly astonishing — Christie not only put her demands regarding a movie version into a contract, thinking it'd only be onstage for a handful of months, but also decreed that each show finishes with the cast getting the audience to promise that they won't give away the play's secrets. As a result, it hasn't enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile's broader recognition, and this flick mightn't make you want to seek it out. A rousing advertisement for The Mousetrap, See How They Run definitely isn't. There's an odd feeling to Chappell's gags at the play's expense, which are as thudding as they are superfluous. Thankfully, there's nothing surplus about the central double-act that is Rockwell and Ronan, two consistently stellar actors proving just that again here. While their co-stars do exactly what they need to and no more, he plays fraying and shambling with an attention-grabbing sense of physicality — he doesn't dance, sorry, but movement is still pivotal to building Stoppard as a character — and she sports a keen-as-mustard vibe that could've carried over from her Wes Anderson film appearances. The strongest feeling emanating from See How They Run when it's all over and solved: teaming up Rockwell and Ronan again, and ASAP. If there's room on-screen for multiple middling-at-best recent Hercule Poirot pictures, there's room for movies about a cracking pair inspired by the moustachioed Belgian and the English scribe behind him. That lead casting is pivotal to helping See How They Run weather its excess of nudging — and those ill-thought-out The Mousetrap digs — but the film is still never quite the three things it blatantly wants to be. It isn't up there with Christie's page-turner best, and nor is it as sharp as the smart and slick Knives Out, or what'd happen if Wes Anderson was indeed directing Ronan and his fellow frequent star Brody in an immaculately styled whoddunnit. Looking the part isn't a problem; the delightful aesthetic, with its symmetry, rich hues and ornate detail, shines bright. Just as lively and enticing: the gleaming cinematography by Jamie Ramsay (Mothering Sunday) and the jazzy score by Daniel Pemberton (Slow Horses). But if See How They Run was one of its own characters, it'd be the know-it-all who thinks they've fulfilled their role perfectly, yet doesn't quite. Every murder-mystery has one; this film, while largely engaging to play along with, is one.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. FIRE OF LOVE Spewing fire is so hot right now, and literally always — and dragons aren't the only ones doing it. House of the Dragon and Blaze can have their flame-breathing creatures, and Fire of Love can have something that also seems fantastical but is one of the earth's raging wonders. The mix of awe, astonishment, adoration, fear, fascination and unflinching existential terror that volcanoes inspire is this documentary's playground. It was Katia and Maurice Krafft's daily mood, including before they met, became red beanie-wearing volcanologists, built a life chasing eruptions — The Life Volcanic, you could dub it — and devoted themselves to studying lava-spurting ruptures in the planet's crust. Any great doco on a topic such as this, and with subjects like these, should make viewers experience the same thrills, spills, joys and worries, and that's a radiant feat this Sundance award-winner easily achieves. What a delight it would be to trawl through the Kraffts' archives, sift through every video featuring the French duo and their work, and witness them doing their highly risky jobs against spectacular surroundings for hours, days and more. That's the task filmmaker Sara Dosa (The Seer and the Unseen) took up to make this superb film. This isn't the only such doco — legendary German director Werner Herzog has made his own, called The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft, after featuring the couple in 2016's Into the Inferno — but Fire of Love is a glorious, sensitive, entrancing and affecting ode to two remarkable people and their love, passion and impact. While history already dictates how the pair's tale ends, together and exactly as it seemed fated to, retracing their steps and celebrating their importance will never stop sparking new pleasures. For newcomers to the Kraffts, their lives comprised quite the adventure — one with two volcano-obsessed souls who instantly felt like they were destined to meet, bonded over a mutual love of Mount Etna, then dedicated their days afterwards to understanding the natural geological formations that filled their dreams. Early in their time together, the couple gravitated to what they called 'red volcanoes', with their enticing scarlet-hued lava flows. What a phenomenon to explore when romance beats in the air, and when geochemist Katia and geologist Maurice are beginning their life together. From there, however, they moved to analysing what they named 'grey volcanoes'. Those don't visually encapsulate the pair's relationship; they're the craggy peaks that produce masses of ash when they erupt — Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull, for instance — and often a body count. As narrated by actor and Kajillionaire filmmaker Miranda July, Fire of Love starts with blazing infatuation and devotion — between the Kraffts for each other, and for their field of interest — then establishes their legacy. Both aspects could fuel their own movies, and both linger and haunt in their own ways. And, as magnificent as this incredibly thoughtful, informative and stirring documentary is, it makes you wonder what a sci-fi flick made from the same footage would look like. The 16-millimetre imagery captured during the Kraffts' research trips around the globe, whittled down here from 200 hours to fill just 98 minutes, puts even the most state-of-the-art special effects in a different realm. Pixels can be used to paint gorgeous sights, and cinema has no shortage of movies that shimmer with that exact truth, but there really is no substitute for reality. Read our full review. BEAST Idris Elba fights a lion. That's it, that's Beast, as far as film pitches go at least. This South Africa-set thriller's one-sentence summary is up there with 'Jason Statham battles a giant shark' and 'Liam Neeson stares down wolves' — straightforward and irresistible, obviously, in enticing audiences into cinemas. That said, the latest addition to the animals-attack genre isn't as ridiculous as The Meg, and isn't a resonant existential musing like The Grey. What this creature feature wants to be, and is, is a lean, edge-of-your-seat, humanity-versus-nature nerve-shredder. Director Baltasar Kormákur (Adrift) knows that a famous face, a relentless critter as a foe, and life-or-death terror aplenty can be the stuff that cinema dreams and hits are made of. His movie isn't completely the former, but it does do exactly what it promises. If it proves a box office success, it'll be because it dangles an easy drawcard and delivers it. There is slightly more to Beast than Idris Elba brawling with the king of the jungle, of course — or running from it, trying to hide from it in a jeep, attempting to outsmart it and praying it'll tire of seeing him as prey. But this tussle with an apex predator is firmly at its best when it really is that simple, that primal and, with no qualms about gore and jump scares, that visceral. Elba (The Harder They Fall) plays recently widowed American doctor Nate Samuels, who is meant to be relaxing, reconnecting with his teenage daughters Mare (Iyana Halley, Licorice Pizza) and Norah (Leah Jeffries, Rel), and finding solace in a pilgrimage to his wife's homeland. But Beast wouldn't be called Beast if the Samuels crew's time with old family friend Martin (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll), a wildlife biologist who oversees the nature reserve, was all placid safaris and sunsets. Kormákur doesn't even pretend that bliss is an option, or that the stalking, scares and big man/big cat showdown aren't coming. Ramping up the tension from the outset, his feature begins with the reason that its main maned (and unnamed) creature wants to slash his way through Nate and company: poachers hunting, with the culprits sneaking in at night to elude human eyes and snuff the light out of every feline in a targeted pride, which leaves one particularly large animal, the patriarch, angry and vengeful. Arriving unknowingly in the aftermath, the Samuels family have just chosen the wrong time to visit. Their first encounter with another pride, which Martin helped raise, leaves them awestruck instead of frightened; then they spy Beast's killer beast's handiwork at a nearby village, and surviving becomes their only aim. Swap out Elba from the 'Idris Elba fights a lion' equation and Kormákur would've had a far lesser film on his hands. His premise, wonderfully concise as it is, wouldn't work with any old actor. His entire movie wouldn't, and Beast works on the level it's prowling on — mostly. Screenwriter Ryan Engle (Rampage), using a story by Jaime Primak Sullivan (Breaking In), gives Nate grief and guilt over his past mistakes to grapple with as well as that persistent lion. Yes, the script is that cliched, because action heroes almost always seem to be wooing, worrying about or mourning a woman while they're endeavouring to save something, be it the world, their families or themselves. Elba dances the bereaved absent father dance well, though, with the Beast's depths springing from him rather than the material and its deceased spouse/regretful dad/seize-the-day tropes. Read our full review. BLAZE In the name of its protagonist, and the pain and fury that threatens to parch her 12-year-old existence, Del Kathryn Barton's first feature scorches and sears. It burns in its own moniker, too, and in the blistering alarm it sounds against an appalling status quo: that experiencing, witnessing and living with the aftermath of violence against women is all too common, heartbreakingly so, including in Australia where one woman a week on average is killed by her current or former partner. Blaze has a perfect title, with the two-time Archibald Prize-winning artist behind it crafting a movie that's alight with anger, that flares with sorrow, and that's so astutely and empathetically observed, styled and acted that it chars. Indeed, it's frequently hard to pick which aspect of the film singes more: the story about surviving what should be unknown horrors for a girl who isn't even yet a teen, the wondrously tactile and immersive way in which Blaze brings its namesake's inner world to the screen, or the stunning performance by young actor Julia Savage (Mr Inbetween) in its central part. Savage also has a fitting moniker, impeccably capturing how ferociously she takes on her starring role. Blaze, the Sydney schoolgirl that she plays, isn't always fierce. She's curious and imaginative, happy dwelling in her own dreamy universe long before she flees there after witnessing a rape and murder, and then frightened and fraying while also fuming. In how she's portrayed by Savage, and penned by Barton with co-screenwriter Huna Amweero (also a feature first-timer), she's intricately fleshed out, too, with every reaction she has to the assault proving instantly relatable — especially to anyone whose life has been touched by trauma. We don't all see dragons made out of fabric, felt, feathers, papier-mâché and glitter, helping us through times good and bad, but everyone can understand the feelings behind that dragon, which swelter like the creature's fiery breath. Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, Blaze isn't — although Jake (Josh Lawson, Mortal Kombat), who Blaze spots in an alleyway with Hannah (Yael Stone, Blacklight), has his lawyer (Heather Mitchell, Bosch & Rockit) claim that his accuser knows nothing. With the attack occurring mere minutes into the movie, Barton dedicates the feature's bulk to how her lead character copes, or doesn't. Being questioned about what she saw in court is just one way that the world tries to reduce her to ashes, but the embers of her hurt and determination don't and won't die. Blaze's father Luke (Simon Baker, High Ground), a single parent, understandably worries about the impact of everything blasting his daughter's way. As she retreats then acts out, cycling between both and bobbing in-between, those fears are well-founded. Blaze is a coming-age-film — a robbing-of-innocence movie as well — but it's also a firm message that there's no easy or ideal response to something as awful as its titular figure observes. The pivotal sequence, lensed by cinematographer Jeremy Rouse (The Turning) and spliced together by editor Dany Cooper (The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) to be as jarring and unflinching for Blaze's audience as it is for Blaze, is nightmarish. Avoiding agony and anguish isn't Barton's way — and it can't be with this subject matter. While never as harrowing in the same manner again, Blaze is styled by its artist-turned-writer/director in the same expressive, impressionistic way from start to finish, so that watching its frames flicker feels like diving inside its lead character's heart and mind. That internal realm is a place where a pre-trial proceeding erupts into flames spat from Blaze herself, via a tiny white dragon figurine she places between her teeth. Unsurprisingly, that's a spectacular and gloriously cathartic sight. Barton isn't afraid of symbolism, but she's also allergic to emptiness; not a single image in her kaleidoscopic trip through her protagonist's imaginings is ever wasted. Read our full review. HIT THE ROAD How fitting it is that a film about family — about the ties that bind, and when those links are threatened not by choice but via unwanted circumstances — hails from an impressive lineage itself. How apt it is that Hit the Road explores the extent that ordinary Iranians find themselves going to escape the nation's oppressive authorities, too, and doesn't shy away from its political subtext. The reason that both feel ideal stems from the feature's filmmaker Panah Panahi. This isn't a wonderful movie solely due to its many echoes, resonating through the bonds of blood, and also via what's conveyed on-screen and reality around it, though. It's a gorgeously shot, superbly acted, astutely written and deeply felt feature all in its own right, and it cements its director — who debuts as both a helmer and a screenwriter — as an emerging talent to watch. But it's also a film that's inseparable from its context, because it simply wouldn't exist without the man behind it and his well-known background. Panah's surname will be familiar because he's the son of acclaimed auteur Jafar Panahi, one of Iranian cinema's best-known figures for more than two decades now. And Jafar's run-ins with the country's regime will be familiar as well, because the heat he's felt at home for his social commentary-laden work has been well-documented for just as long. The elder Panahi, director of This Is Not a Film, Closed Curtain and more, has been both imprisoned and banned from making movies over the years. In July 2022, he was detained again merely for enquiring about the legal situation surrounding There Is No Evil helmer Mohammad Rasoulof and Poosteh director Mostafa Aleahmad. None of the above directly comes through in Hit the Road's story, not for a moment, but the younger Panahi's characteristically defiant movie is firmly made with a clear shadow lingering over it. When filmmaking becomes a family business, the spectre of the parent can loom over the child, of course — by choice sometimes, and also purely thanks to their shared name. In the first category, Jason Reitman picked up his father Ivan's franchise with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, for instance; Gorō Miyazaki has helmed animated movies for his dad Hayao's Studio Ghibli, such as Tales From Earthsea, From Up on Poppy Hill and Earwig and the Witch; and Brandon Cronenberg's Antiviral and Possessor are chips off The Fly and Videodrome great David Cronenberg's body-horror block. Panahi's Hit the Road also feels like it has been handed down, including in the way it spends the bulk of its time in a car as Jafar's Tehran Taxi and 3 Faces did. That said, it feels as much like the intuitive Panah is taking up the same mission as Jafar as someone purely taking after his dad. Hit the Road's narrative is simple and also devastatingly layered; in its frames, two starkly different views of life in Iran are apparent. A mother (Pantea Panahiha, Rhino), a father (Mohammad Hassan Madjooni, Pig), their adult son (first-timer Amin Simiar) and their six-year-old boy (scene-stealer Rayan Sarlak, Gol be khodi), all unnamed, have indeed done as the movie's moniker suggests — and in a borrowed car. When the film opens, there's no doubting that the kid among them sees the world, and everything in general, as only a kid can. The mood with the child's mum, dad and sibling is far more grim, however, even though they say they're en route to take the brood's eldest to get married. Their time on the road is tense and uncertain, and also tinged with the tenor of not-so-fond farewells — and with nary a glimmer of a celebratory vibe about impending nuptials. Read our full review. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on May 5, May 12, May 19 and May 26; June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23 and June 30; and July 7, July 14, July 21 and July 28; and August 4, August 11 and August 18. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Petite Maman, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Firestarter, Operation Mincemeat, To Chiara, This Much I Know to Be True, The Innocents, Top Gun: Maverick, The Bob's Burgers Movie, Ablaze, Hatching, Mothering Sunday, Jurassic World Dominion, A Hero, Benediction, Lightyear, Men, Elvis, Lost Illusions, Nude Tuesday, Ali & Ava, Thor: Love and Thunder, Compartment No. 6, Sundown, The Gray Man, The Phantom of the Open, The Black Phone, Where the Crawdads Sing, Official Competition, The Forgiven, Full Time, Murder Party, Bullet Train, Nope, The Princess, 6 Festivals, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Crimes of the Future and Bosch & Rockit.
A spaceship glides through the solar system while Johann Strauss' 'The Blue Danube' plays. One of 2001: A Space Odyssey's standout moments, it's also one of the absolute best scenes in cinema history. More than five decades later, Stanley Kubrick's crucial sequence still remains both a sight to behold and a treat to listen to — so imagine how great it'll look and sound when it returns to the big screen with a live orchestra performing its music. It's a hefty job; however, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, as conducted by Benjamin Northey and featuring the MSO Chorus, is more than up to the task. Indeed, given how often they seem to be playing film scores live these days (taking on everything from Star Wars to Harry Potter and The Little Mermaid), these musicians are clearly big movie buffs. As earth's early ape population throws bones into the air, futuristic astronauts fly far beyond this planet of ours and HAL refuses to open the pod bay doors, MSO will relive each of 2001's musical highlights. Richard Strauss' 'Also sprach Zarathustra', Gyorgy Ligeti's 'Lux aeterna', 'Aventures' and 'Atmosphères' and Aram Khachaturian's music for the ballet Gayane will echo with orchestral fervour, too — and Kubrick's cinematic masterpiece, as co-written with sci-fi author Arthur C Clarke, will continue to ponder humanity's place in this sprawling universe. A Live Presentation of 2001: A Space Odyssey with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra plays at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre at 7pm on Saturday, January 25, 2020.
Whether you're currently teetotaling your way through Ocsober, or you're simply in the mood for a party that doesn't revolve around booze, here's a pub sesh to pop on your radar. On Saturday, October 29, Footscray's Victoria Hotel is throwing an alcohol-free fiesta, both in the spirit of inclusivity and in a bid to shake up the image of the classic Aussie pub. From 2pm, the venue will be reborn as Pub with No Booze, complete with a tasting market pouring non-alcoholic sips from the likes of Heaps Normal, NON, Mondays Distillery, Lyres, Clear Mind and Etch Sparkling. There'll be close to 100 different products to sample, with all tastings included in your $45 ticket. One of those will also score you a complimentary Heaps Normal beer or a Lyre's cocktail from the bar. And since no pub visit is complete without a solid feed, you'll catch Josh Murphy — chef and co-owner of nearby Harley and Rose — cooking up a storm on the barbecue all afternoon. Feeling inspired? Head to Brunswick East, where you'll find Australia's first non-alcoholic and hangover-free bar, Brunswick Aces.
If you're the kind of market-goer who beelines immediately for the ceramics stall at your local makers market — and dreams of Patrick Swayze's ghost every time your hands hit the potter's wheel — then do we have just the ticket for you. After launching in 2017, Melbourne's ceramics-only market is back, holding a two-day event in Collingwood this summer. Taking place over the weekend of Saturday, November 16 and Sunday, November 17, Melbourne Ceramics Market, or MCM, costs a gold coin to enter, and showcases handcrafted creations from over 45 different ceramicists. And, if you're big into the clay world, you may have already heard of the two founders, who are ceramic artists themselves. Daisy Cooper of Daisy Cooper Ceramics and Tina Thorburn of Clay by Tina are running the market to create a retail space for other artists to sell their pieces directly to the public. Some of the other names selling their wars on the day include Room23, Penelope Duke, And O Design, Katerina Wheeler and RaRa. You can check out the full lineup over here. You'll also find coffee courtesy of Pokie May's and baked goods from Candied Bakery to help fuel your ceramics-buying rampage. Melbourne Ceramics Market is open from 10am–5pm on Saturday and 10am–4pm on Sunday.
No one celebrates the nostalgic, old-school cool of regional Australia quite like the crew at OK Motels. The group not only captures the essence of Victoria's classic motels through its dreamy Instagram shots, it's also known for transforming these oft-forgotten spaces into unlikely party destinations. And you'll catch the next of these when OK Motels returns to the Charlton Motel — about a three-hour drive northwest of Melbourne's CBD — on Saturday, November 23. The rural town, which usually has a population of around 1000, will again play host to a lively night of tunes and dancing, as the likes of Amyl and the Sniffers, Batpiss, Moaning Lisa, Moody Beaches, Pinch Points and DJ Hot Wheels descend on the Charlton's 70s-era function room. Don your finest op-shop threads, nab a primo spot beneath the disco ball and get ready to tear the town's roof off. If you're quick, you can score a stay on-site in one of the Charlton's own rooms; otherwise, there'll be a handy shuttle bus servicing nearby camping, caravan park, hotel and motel options.
If you're missing the long-lost days of restaurant dining and you've maxed out your home-cooking repertoire three times over, you're not alone. Victoria feels like it's crawling ever-so-slowly through stage four lockdowns and that kitchen fatigue is real. But, if it's time for a little culinary reboot, there's a new subscription meal kit company in town that might just help level-up your dinner game with some real chef expertise. Launching Monday, August 31, Melbourne-born Make-Out Meals delivers easy-to-assemble dinners featuring recipes by some of the city's best-loved eateries and chefs. Tackle La Tortilleria's fish tacos, try recreating the charred broccoli dish from Carlton North's Babajan, or even have a crack at making Tipico's rich pumpkin, gorgonzola and walnut risotto. Each kit comes packed with all the pre-portioned ingredients required to whip up your two, three or four weekly meals, in two- or four-person serves, as ordered. There might be some special house-prepared sauces or spice blends in there as well, plus you'll find instructional recipe cards to help bring those feasts to life. You'll also score access to exclusive video tips and tricks, a weekly virtual cook-along session, an online chat platform to guide you through any sticky kitchen issues, and for select recipes, a chef-guided video tutorial. [caption id="attachment_781628" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tipico risotto by Sammy Green[/caption] Make-Out Meals gives locals another way to support Melbourne's restaurant industry during lockdown, without dropping too much on nightly takeaway dinners. Every time a venue's recipe is selected for a meal kit, the venue gets a cut of the revenue. The group's already rallied favourites like Bomba Tapas Bar & Rooftop, Fancy Hank's, Simply Spanish and Fitzroy's ISH to share their recipes, and there are more to come. Depending on the number of serves and dishes you sign up for, Make-Out Meals starts from a reasonable $10.56 per serve. Deliveries are made each Wednesday via cold freight, with a $10 flat-rate delivery fee for addresses in metropolitan Melbourne, and $15 for those in Geelong and the Mornington Peninsula. Make-Out Meals launches from August 31, with orders made online. One-off kits are available for a limited time, or you can stick with a tailored subscription. See the website for more details. Top image: Happy Lion Films
When Timothy Conigrave wrote Holding the Man, it was clearly a work of great personal significance. The year was 1994, he was 34, and his memory was fading as a result of HIV-related complications. The narrative he committed to paper wasn't just his own memoir, but his way of recalling his life-long lover, John Caleo. Alas, Conigrave would succumb to his condition before his book was published, but his words, their romance and their plight have persevered to touch the hearts of many. In fact, after more than two decades of reader devotion plus several stagings of theatre productions based on the text, Holding the Man comes to cinemas with the weight of considerable history. Others, including Walking on Water director and Conigrave's friend Tony Ayres, have previously tried and failed to bring the tale to the screen. That filmmaker Neil Armfield and writer Tommy Murphy — who also wrote the play — succeed is no mean feat. That they do the story and their subjects justice in a tender and touching film isn't, either. Conigrave (Ryan Corr) and Caleo (Craig Stott) first met as Melbourne schoolboys in the late '70s, the former an aspiring actor treading the boards in a class version of Romeo and Juliet, the latter running around football fields as an emerging Aussie Rules star, and both raising more than a few eyebrows for pursuing their relationship. Weathering the many storms wrought by the disapproval of their respective parents (played by Guy Pearce and Kerry Fox, and Anthony LaPaglia and Camilla Ah Kin), Australian society's intolerant attitudes, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic, theirs was not an easy romance, but until health issues cut short their time together, it was an enduring one. Making his first film since 2006's Candy, Armfield doesn't take the linear approach to Conigrave and Caleo's love as he flits from their early to later years. He jumps between important moments with the affectionate recollection of someone assembling their thoughts — which is how Conigrave's experience is framed. Sometimes the feature is clumsy and clunky as a result, particularly in trying to relate teenage antics and in spouting dialogue that sounds a little too theatrical. Sometimes, it hits the mark perfectly; just witness the hospital-set scenes, and try to keep your eyes from misting over. Of course, much of the emotion springs not from the warm colours the movie is painted in or from the period-appropriate rock soundtrack — both often overdone — but from the two lead performances. Even though they struggle with selling the characters' younger guises, Corr and Stott shine in conveying their opposites-attract pairing, as well as in showing the necessary growth and change as they traverse the trials, tribulations and troubles of being gay men in the 1980s. Indeed, the central duo's efforts in embodying the real-life figures they play with authenticity and intimacy is what makes the film linger long after viewing. Holding the Man's outcome might be known, but its lasting impact in telling one of Australia's great tragedies still offers many a surprise, perhaps none more so than its heartbreaking combination of the sweet and the sorrowful.
Forget about the five-star stay; OK Motels is bringing people together for a different kind of festival experience on Saturday, October 18. Rooted in small-town community spirit, these lovers of local live music and art have just announced one of their biggest lineups to date, with Rochester in Central Victoria this new-breed festival's next port of call. Live sets will roll out across Rochester's three local pubs throughout the afternoon, transforming the town into a musical pub crawl. Then, once the sun dips beneath the horizon, festival-goers and probably a large chunk of Rochy's 3154 population will gather in the central car park for the evening's headline performances. Taking to the stage is a stacked selection of local and international acts. New Zealand's Marlon Williams brings his velvet vocals and cinematic ballads, while Canadian duo, Kacy & Clayton, blend British folk rock, classic country, traditional songs and faded psychedelia. Alongside their solo performances, fans are in for a special treat as Williams and Kacy & Clayton also come together to perform their collaborative album, Plastic Bouquet, in full. Also on the lineup, Sylvie, hailing from the USA, will perform decades-old barn recordings, and Drifting Clouds, the solo project of Terry Guyula, will journey from the remote community of Gapuwiyak to perform his brand of synthpop, rock and Yolŋu storytelling — check out his recent single 'Bawuypawuy' for a taste. Besides the incredible musical talent, OK Motels is taken to the next level with fun-loving community encounters, from the chance to marry your friends (without the annoying legalities) to disco rodeo boot scooting. As for the accommodation, there's no shortage of options. There's comfy river camping alongside the picturesque Campaspe, or you can book a cabin in the Rochester Caravan Park. Meanwhile, the nearby hub of Echuca has plenty of motels ripe for a good night's rest. Yet if making it back to the big smoke without delay is on your agenda, the OK Sleeper is departing from Southern Cross Station on Friday night. Bound for Rochester, this party train will have you safely returned to the city once the festivities have come to a close. Images: Kyle Dobie.
Two of our favourite things — good food and fantastic film — are coming together at Caulfield Racecourse this March. After a sold-out debut season last year, Gourmet Cinema will return for two weeks starting on Thursday, March 2 to pair menus from some of Melbourne's top restaurants with a critically-acclaimed film. So bring your picnic blankets, but leave the baskets at home. Each film on the program has been matched to a corresponding restaurant. Lost in Translation should go quite nicely with Japanese nosh from Tokyo Tina, while Slumdog Millionaire seems better paired with Horn Please's much-loved Indian food. Alternatively, you can 'find yourself' in a big bowl of pasta from Baby during Eat Pray Love, watch Frida with a feast from Fonda, or revisit Amélie with a French picnic from L'Hotel Gitan. Other vendors on the list include Kong, Saigon Sally, Meatmaiden and The Atlantic. While each restaurant will present a specific screening, you don't have to worry about picking your favourite, as each night a rotating roster of five restaurants will be slinging film-friendly foods. You won't have to line up for it either — you can just have it delivered to your picnic blanket via Deliveroo. Gourmet Cinema will run for 11 consecutive days, and will this year include two matinee screenings. For all the others, gates open at 6pm with the film set to commence around 8pm. Tickets are $17.60 (plus booking fee) for adults, or you can shell out $35 for a reserved deck chair. For more information and to book tickets, visit gourmetcinema.com.au.
The team behind St Kilda East's perennially popular Hank Marvin Market is adding to the family, opening a second permanent market site at Dendy Park next month. Running weekly from October 14, Hank Marvin 2.0 is destined to become one of the Bayside's new go-to Sunday sessions, dishing up a smorgasbord of eats, drinks, shopping and entertainment for all the family. Here, punters young, old and canine can expect the same sort of winning weekend formula that's earned the original Saturday market such a cult following. Living up to its name — Hank Marvin is a play on British Cockney slang for 'starving' — there'll be a globe-trotting lineup of culinary delights, both from familiar food truck favourites like Toasta, Connie's Pizza and Sparrow's Philly Cheesesteaks, and from exciting newcomers like Bao x Waffle and The Gozleme Station. Artisanal food stalls, slinging everything from sourdough to sorbet, will sit alongside those selling homewares and gifts. There'll be coffee from the likes of Hallelujah Coffee to fuel your day, plus fresh-pressed juices and a pop-up bar stocked with craft beers and ciders. And while the littlies get stuck into some face-painting, grown-ups can kick back with a burger, a brew and some tunes served up by the day's selection of local DJs. Hank Marvin Market Dendy Park kicks off on Sunday, October 14, at 306 Dendy Street, Brighton East. Catch it from 9am-3pm each Sunday, or the original at Alma Park East, St Kilda East, from 9am–3pm each Saturday. Images: Shara Henderson
This summer, Melbourne Zoo's animals will share the spotlight with a handful of local and international artists. Outdoor music event, Zoo Twilights, will return with a line-up that tops previous years — and they've previously been pretty solid line-ups. This time around there will be sunset performances from Cut Copy, The Preatures, Grizzly Bear, Kate Miller-Heidke, Neil and Liam Finn, Jet and more, so we recommend booking a place soon to ensure you get a place at this summer must-do event — shows are already selling out. And there's more fantastic news: it's all for a good cause. All ticket proceeds go to Zoos Victoria and their programs which help fight the extinction of 21 of Victoria's most at-risk animal species, including the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, which once thrived in Victoria and Tasmania, but is now extinct on Australia's mainland. Along with performances, there will also be food trucks and a bar set up at each event. MELBOURNE ZOO TWILIGHTS 2018 LINE-UP THE TESKEY BROTHERS - Friday, January 26 CUT COPY - Saturday, January 27 SUNNYBOYS - Friday, February 2 THE CAT EMPIRE - Saturday, February 3 THE CAT EMPIRE - Sunday, February 4 THE PREATURES - Friday, February 9 ROCKWIZ LIVE! - Saturday, February 10 BEN FOLDS - Friday, February 16 BEN FOLDS - Saturday, February 17 NEIL & LIAM FINN - Friday, February 23 NEIL & LIAM FINN - Saturday, February 24 LIAM & NEIL FINN - Sunday, February 25 HIATUS KAIYOTE and HARVEY SUTHERLAND - Friday, March 2 JET - Saturday, March 3 GRIZZLY BEAR - Friday, March 9 KATE MILLER-HEIDKE with STRING QUARTET - Saturday, March 10
Hail, Caesar! takes place on a Hollywood lot during the early nineteen fifties. As such, viewer are given a glimpse at a number of films in production, including a folksy Western, a toe-tapping musical, a lavish costume drama and a sweeping biblical epic. It's fitting that these pictures cover such an array of genres, since the film in which they're found is itself a bit of a jumble. Hail, Caesar! is a mystery, a farce, a treatise on religion and a sly interrogation of cinemas so-called golden age masquerading as the ultimate Hollywood love letter. In lesser hands, such a mishmash of ideas and influences could have been a disaster. In the hands of writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen, it's one of the funniest, most thought-provoking films to hit cinemas in quite some time. It's also got Channing Tatum tap-dancing in a sailor suit, which quite frankly is worth the price of admission alone. The film follows a day in the life of Eddie Mannix, played by Josh Brolin on top of his game. Head of Physical Production at the fictional Capitol Pictures, Mannix is charged with ensuring everything runs smoothly behind the scenes, from keeping movie shoots on schedule to diffusing potential scandals before they hit the press. But our protagonist is thrown a curveball when the studio's biggest star, Baird Whitlock, is kidnapped by a communist syndicate known only as 'The Future' who want $100,000 for the actor's safe return. Whitlock is played by George Clooney, who brings to the role the same boneheaded swagger he did to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Burn After Reading. Hail, Caesar! is not the first time the Coens have turned their lens on Hollywood, although compared to the anxious existential drama of 1991's Barton Fink, their latest feels much more playful. Whether it's a director (Ralph Fiennes at his urbane best) growing increasingly frustrated with his ill-suited leading man (the absolutely adorable Alden Ehrenreich), or Mannix dodging the inquiries of rival gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton in dual roles and increasingly ridiculous hats), the film's absurdist sense of humour fits right in with the Coen canon. At the same time, the mean streak of movies like Fargo or A Serious Man is nowhere to be found. Perhaps it's for this reason that some critics have described the film as lightweight or inconsequential. Respectfully, we think they're missing the point. Hail, Caesar! may seem like one of the Coen's more frivolous efforts, but there's still plenty of subversive stuff going on beneath its glossy surface. For all the affection with which the pair recreate and pay tribute to the films of the era, these moments are undercut by repeated reminders that everything Capitol creates is fundamentally fake. Gossamer fantasies both on screen and off belie a far less glamorous reality, one in which starlets carry on affairs with married directors and underpaid screenwriters fill their scripts with communist propaganda. And while these thinly-veiled references to actual LA scandals are mostly played for laughs, they also suggest that the Coen's see Hollywood as deeply, spiritually hollow. The film's wicked masterstroke is the way it equates the film biz with religion, presented here as the glossiest fantasy of them all. Whitlock's communist captors decry the studio as part of a capitalist machine designed to exploit "the little guy", a description that brings to mind the famous quote by Karl Marx about religion being the opiate of the masses. Mannix himself is depicted as deeply Catholic, visiting the confessional with comical regularity. Yet his true place of worship is Capitol Pictures, where God is conspicuously absent. Half-completed footage from Whitlock's forthcoming biblical epic features not a chorus of angels, but instead a placeholder card with the words "divine presence to be shot." Later, while shooting the film's climactic finale, Whitlock delivers a rousing speech about the power of Christ, only to flub his final line. The word he forgets? Faith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMqeoW3XRa0
Been meaning to plan a Sydney jaunt? Time your visit to coincide with Vivid Sydney and thank us later. Not only will you get to see those classic Sydney structures, the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, you'll get to see them up in lights. And they're not the only icons getting a bedazzle during the festival. Also set for a makeover is the legendary Luna Park face, as Samsung joins in the fun with an epic light and sound experience dubbed The Night. Reimagined. Running throughout Vivid Sydney, from Friday, May 25, until June 16, the immersive installation will pop-up on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. The impressive two-storey, 90-metre labyrinth, with two kilometres of LED lighting, will be split into two pathways — and two very different journeys. Take the first path and you'll become the new face of Luna Park. You'll be able to create an augmented reality selfie using the AR Emoji function on Samsung's new Galaxy S9 and S9+ phone, which will then be projected via live feed onto the Luna Park entrance. There'll also be a viewing platform, where you can watch your animated face from across the Harbour. You'll need to get in early, though, as there are limited spots for the AR projection and, naturally, high demand is expected. On the first path, you'll also experience slow motion at its best in the Super Slow-Mo booth. Here, you can capture mesmerising shots of yourself frolicking among a bunch of chrome-plated balls. Or, you can take the second path, and you'll be taken on an immersive audio light and soundscape experience, transporting you through the night and beyond. Samsung's The Night. Reimagined. will pop-up on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt from May 25–June 16. To learn more, head to the website.
Who said gelato is just for summer? Certainly not the team at Brunswick Street's new Sicilian gelateria, Compá, which opened its doors last week. From Carl Foderá and Marco Enea, the guys behind Northcote's popular Il Melograno, this bright little spot specialises in artisan gelato and sorbetto. It's made traditionally using long-held family recipes, with a splash of new-school flair — all of it a nod to the colourful Italian province of Sicily. "Compá is a celebration of our shared Sicilian heritage," says Foderá. "It's about sharing these old family traditions, respecting the old ways and giving them a contemporary spin. It's really a reflection of what we love and what excites us." A third-generation gelato chef trained in Sicily, Enea's knocked up a top-notch range of flavours for Compá's starting lineup. Il Melograno favourites like Iranian pistachio and chocolate rosemary will make an appearance, alongside seasonal creations and a new range of vegan gelato. It's all got zero preservatives, artificial flavourings or commercial essences, and, rather than using one gelato base across the whole range, each flavour is crafted separately from scratch, with recipes adapted seasonally. Try them in a to-go cup or cone, or get really traditional with a gelato-filled cannoli, or a 'gelato con brioche' — a fresh brioche roll stuffed with your pick of flavours. The boys are also slinging woodroasted Ricci Method coffee, to be enjoyed the Italian way, at the stand-up espresso bar. Compá is open daily from 11am to 10.30pm at 381 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.
Melburnians, when it comes to burgers, puppies and glamping, you absolutely can't get enough. Now that spring has sprung, another opportunity to disappear into a bell tent has arisen. This time, you'll be heading to Terindah Estate, a winery on the Bellarine Peninsula, 20 minutes' drive east of Geelong and 80 minutes' southwest of Melbourne. Terindah has partnered with Twilight Glamping to bring you Glamping Amongst The Vines, a pop of up 15 luxury bell tents. Perched near a private beach, this temporary village overlooks epic views of Port Phillip Bay, backdropped by the Melbourne skyline. The scene is particularly dramatic, come sunrise and sunset. In between soaking up nature, kick back on a queen-sized bed (or a twin, if you're travelling with a mate), draped in luxurious linen and plenty of cosy blankets. Every tent also comes with a jute rug, chairs, side table, mirror, towels and USB-powered lantern. Shower facilities are also located on site. There's no need to cook – nor go anywhere – if you're not in the mood. For $25 per person, Terindah will deliver a French breakfast basket, packed with fresh pastries, chocolate bread, orange juice and coffee ($25 per person). To keep you going through the day, you can add a picnic hamper ($100 for two), crowded with terrines, smoked and cured meats, fresh sourdough bread, Manzanillo olives, cornichons and pickles. You can choose to devour this on the beach, or eat it amongst the wines. Another culinary option is The Shed, Terindah's onsite restaurant, which is open for brekkie on weekends and dinner on Saturday nights. If you don't have a car, you also have the option of catching a ferry to the new beachside glamping site. Jump on the Port Phillip Ferry at the Docklands and you'll be picked up when it docks at Bellarine's Portarlington Glamping Amongst The Vines opens on November 1, 2018. Tents are $200 per night. Images: Ferne Millen
When Harvest Rock announced that it was making a comeback for 2025, it locked in a big return for a music festival that's boasted killer lineups on its two past spins: for its debut in 2022 and its second spin in 2023. This year's roster of acts for the two-day Adelaide music festival is again a list to get excited about. There's no "someday" about when The Strokes will next be in Australia: headlining Harvest Rock and doing an Aussie-exclusive show, they're the main event on Saturday, October 25. Also taking to the stage on the fest's first 2025 day are The War on Drugs, also doing an Australian-exclusive gig. Vance Joy, M.I.A., Lime Cordiale and Genesis Owusu will be wowing Saturday crowds as well, as will The Presets, The Jungle Giants, Cloud Control, Bag Raiders and more. If you're a fan of Wolfmother's self-titled debut album, you're also in luck: the Australian band will play it in full. Harvest Rock's Sunday, October 26 lineup boasts Jelly Roll as its headliner, followed by Royel Otis, Groove Armada doing a DJ set, Shaboozey, PNAU, Lauren Spencer Smith, Ruel and Sneaky Sound System — and others. The fest's second day is also scoring the Ministry of Sound Classical treatment, aka dance music hits played live by an orchestra. The venue: Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka and King Rodney Park / Ityamai-itpina. When the event was first born, hailing from the Secret Sounds crew — who were also behind Splendour in the Grass — it not only aimed to get everyone dancing in a park in Adelaide each spring, but also delivered a weekend-long blend of music, food and wine. That's once more the setup. Accordingly, the festival also spans Adelaide's top restaurants and eateries serving up dishes, a culinary-focused stage and wine tastings. In 2025, the Amuse-Bouche Stage is part of the lineup, for instance, bringing together culinary figures, podcasters and comedians — with Ben Harvey and Belle Jackson, Nat's What I Reckon, the Marmalade trio and folks from the music bill also featuring. For a bite and a sip, Wildwoods & Cellar Door by Duncan Welgemoed & Nick Stock, Denny Bradden's Dirty Doris Diner, Regent Thai, Africola Canteen, Anchovy Bandit and Gang Gang are among your options. And, label-wise from the vino selection, so are Ochota Barrels, Yangarra, Basket Range Wines, Murdoch Hill, Grant Nash, Sherrah, S.C.Pannell / Protero, Shaw + Smith / Other Wine Co, Henschke, Les Fruits / Parley, Bloomfield, Stoke Wines, Worlds Apart, Koerner, First Drop, Torbreck, Adelina and Champagne Taittinger. Harvest Rock 2025 Lineup Saturday, October 25: The Strokes The War on Drugs Vance Joy M.I.A. Lime Cordiale Wolfmother The Presets Skream & Benga Genesis Owusu The Jungle Giants Cloud Control Vacations Bag Raiders (live) Teenage Joans Divebar Youth Sunsick Daisy Oscar The Wild Any Young Mechanic
When Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi invited the world to experience the vampire sharehouse mockumentary genre, one of the best comedies of the decade wasn't the only result. Every film seems to spawn sequels, remakes, spinoffs and the like these days, but no one's complaining about spending more time in the What We Do in the Shadows universe. A follow-up, We're Wolves, is in the works, focusing on the undead bloodsuckers' Rhys Darby-led lycanthrope enemies. And six-episode television spinoff Wellington Paranormal, following the movie's cops (Mike Minogue and Karen O'Leary) as they keep investigating the supernatural, is now streaming on SBS On Demand. Add a US TV remake of the original flick to the pile as well, but withhold any "do we really need a remake?" judgement. First revealed by Waititi last year, given a pilot order earlier in 2018 and now officially moving ahead with a ten-episode first season, the American version will be written by Clement and directed by Waititi, The Hollywood Reporter notes — and will see a documentary crew follow three vampire flatmates living in New York City, according to Variety. The series will star Toast of London's Matt Berry, Four Lions' Kayvan Novak, British stand-up comedian Natasia Demetriou and The Magicians' Harvey Guillen. It's unknown whether Clement and Waititi will reprise their on-screen roles in a guest capacity, but you can watch the first two (very brief) teasers here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLdeHQ_0nts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0idSAp9HRk With What We Do in the Shadows actually starting its life as a short back in 2005, the concept of flatting members of the undead arguing about bloody dishes has taken quite the journey since those early beginnings. If any idea was going to come back in multiple guises, it's this one. Of course, so have Clement and Waititi. Clement has a new Flight of the Conchords TV special airing on HBO this month, while Waititi two post-Thor: Ragnarok flicks in the works — a stop-motion animated effort called Bubbles, about Michael Jackson's chimp, and another by the name of Jojo Rabbit, set during World War II and starring Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell. The US remake isn't set to air in America until early-to-mid 2019. Via The Hollywood Reporter / Variety. Image: Kane Skennar.
If you're going to burn a few kilometres on a fun run or marathon, it probably helps to have some stunning scenery to enjoy along the way. And, knowing you'll be in the company of some cute feathered friends surely doesn't hurt either. Happily enough, you can expect both of these from the inaugural Phillip Island Running Festival, running across Saturday, September 14, and Sunday, September 15. The weekend's schedule of running events ranges from a five-kilometre fun run through to an Ultra Marathon that clocks in at 50 kilometres, with distances inspired by the daily efforts of the Island's famed resident Little Penguin colony. While sweating it out in the 42.2 kilometre event (the full marathon), you could be running about the same speed that penguins swim (around 12 kilometres an hour), while the five kilometre version will likely have you appreciating the two kilometres those tiny feet waddle to and from their nests each day. Whichever you choose, you'll find yourself running through idyllic woodland and along breathtaking coastline, getting a close-up peek at some natural penguin habitat and maybe even spying a few local creatures on the move. The races start and finish at the new-look multimillion-dollar Penguin Parade Visitor Centre, too.
A collective of female-led brands are joining forces to host a curated Mother's Day pop-up in support of cancer research. The heart of this event is Bravery Co., founded by three-time cancer survivor Emily Somers. Offering empowerment through colour and pattern for cancer warriors, this pop-up aims to break the mould of traditional fundraisers with a beautiful space. Alongside Bravery Co. are Co.Bake with Miss Trixie Drinks Tea (Alice Bennett) and Sweet Bakes (Alisha Henderson), who will serve delightful treats on the day of the event. Other brands will make an appearance and showcase their special products, including Golden Groves' organic olive oil, Bon Lux's aromatic pampering products, Ode Studio's hand-poured candles, Maude Studios' stylish sunglasses, Pinchy Products' colourful chopping boards, My Breast Friend's luxe moisturiser, and Fabric Drawer's vibrant makeup pouches and tea towels. Each sale will contribute $2 to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. The pop-up will run from May 3 to 5 at The Co.Bake Space in Richmond.
For a city that's so obsessed with coffee, it's only fair that its major airport serves up a great brew, too. And while this hasn't been the case for a long time, Melbourne Airport is looking to fix this by bringing in Richmond coffee roaster Veneziano to the newly refurbed Terminal 1 — that 9.2 million travellers pass through each year. Veneziano has been on the Melbourne coffee scene for 21 years, roasting and brewing up a storm in Richmond. It's also expanded across Australia in recent years, setting up cafes in Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra. Those who know the brand can expect to find much of the same food and bev options in the new Melbourne Airport venue, but with a greater focus on takeaway service. Its house blend Elevate will be used in milky brews, while specialty beans will feature in the filter and black coffees. The team has also come up with a few travel coffee options. First off, the cold brew coffee in a can is up for grabs alongside its canned espresso martinis — for those wanting to BYO booze on their next long-haul flight out of Melbourne. Veneziano will even be selling small jars of its instant coffee, so you can brew it yourself when flying — simply ask for boiling water from the flight crew. This means no more rubbish coffee while you're in the air either. A few meals will also be available at the Melbourne Airport store located on the airside of Terminal 1. That means travellers who are departing can stop by after going through security. And those arriving will need to hit it up before getting to baggage claim. Veneziano is now open at Terminal 1 at Melbourne Airport. For more info, head to the venue's website.
The just-dropped program for this year's Melbourne Writers Festival has a distinct musical edge, as it sets out to pay homage to that intersection between songwriting and literature. For its 2018 edition, with Marieke Hardy making her debut as artistic director, the festival celebrates the theme 'A Matter of Life and Death', pulling together a swag of iconic Aussie musicians to share their take on their art. In news to thrill music fiends and wordsmiths alike, Jimmy Barnes trips back in time for 'Musical Memory', getting nostalgic with a collection of seven-inch records, while rock legend Paul Kelly sets poetry to music in his event, 'Other People's Words'. You'll catch Steve Kilbey, frontman of The Church, as he performs hits from across his impressive 43-year career, US singer-songwriter Neko Case in a discussion titled 'The Book That Made Me a Feminist', and a chat with our own Sally Seltmann about women who make art. Then, there's Duets — a series of live performances and discussions curated by SLAM and Bakehouse founder Helen Marcou. Each session matches up an emerging artist with an established one, pairing the likes of Sarah Blasko with indie-folk act Ryan Downey, Jen Cloher with Brisbane rapper Miss Blanks, and Kate Ceberano with young soul artist Kaiit. Meanwhile, kicking off the fun as part of MWF18's 'You Are Here' gala, you'll find American artist Andrew W.K throwing down good vibes with a positivity coaching session, child soldier turned rap icon Fablice Manirakiza throwing down some live tunes, and legendary author Andy Griffiths turning his talents to a DJ set. A slew of authors, writers and activists who aren't musical (well, publicly) will also be talking and holding workshops, including Marwa al-Sabouni a Syrian architect and author, The New Yorker's television critic Emily Nussbaum, veteran investigative journalist David Neiwart and engineer and author Yassmin Abdel-Magied. MWF18 runs from August 24 to September 2, at various locations across the city. Head to the MWF website to catch the full program, and to buy tickets from 9am on Friday, July 20.
It turns out the minds behind That's Amore aren't just cheese experts — they also make a mean cannolo. And you can try one of these sweet Sicilian delights for free, next Friday, October 11. Last year, That's Amore cheesemaker Giorgio Linguanti and chef Dario Di Clerico launched Cannoleria. Since then, the stall has popped up at various markets around the city, selling the classic ricotta cannoli, as well as a slew of crafty seasonal versions like pistachio, tiramisu, orange and fennel, panettone and even peanut butter. Now, the duo is gearing up to open Cannoleria's second permanent stall at Preston Market (the first launched in South Melbourne Market in August). And to celebrate the new digs, the crew will be handing out a stack of freebies. Simply roll in between 10am and noon on August 30 and you'll score a free mini cannolo for your efforts.
Why drink at just one watering hole, when you can head to two, three, six or 11? That's always been the motivation behind everyone's favourite boozy journey, aka a pub crawl. And, it's exactly the same type of thinking behind the long-running Urban Wine Walk. Back for its next Melbourne wander this autumn, it's the bar-hopping excuse every vino-lover needs — if you need an excuse, that is. From midday until 4pm on Saturday, May 13, you can saunter around St Kilda — jumping between the likes of Captain Baxter, Hotel Esplanade, Little Prince Wine, LOTI, Lona and more — sampling wines and having a mighty fine time. [caption id="attachment_858700" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: LOTI, St Kilda[/caption] As for the tipples offered at each of the nine venues, they'll be curated by a heap of top local wineries such as Rob Dolan, Tokar Estate, Mitchelton and Gonzo Vino, so prepare to get sipping. Tickets will set you back $75 and you'll get to choose which venue you kick off from, though spots are limited. Guests will enjoy a stack of wine tastings, a tasting glass to keep and a $10 voucher to spend on food, plus $25 redeemable for take-home wine purchases on the day.
While some bars are slowly opening in Sydney and Brisbane, many of us are still stirring and shaking our cocktails at home. To help brighten up our time inside — and our DIY cocktails — Adelaide Hills gin distillery Applewood has just released a new pink gin. Dubbed Coral, its name pulls inspiration from two sources. Firstly, the colour — the gin itself is pink, but the bottles have also been hand-sealed with one-of-a-kind pearlescent pink wax. Secondly, the gin has been inspired by the Great Barrier Reef and a portion of sales from the pretty-in-pink drink will go to a charity dedicated to the reef's restoration. The world's largest coral reef system has suffered regular mass coral bleaching, a phenomenon caused by climate change, which kills the reef's algae and starves the coral — but, thankfully, there are charities out there working to regrow and regenerate the damaged coral. Coral gin is made, in true Applewood fashion, using native Australian botanicals: salty karkalla (a succulent found on many Aussie beaches), spicy riberries and sweet strawberry gum. You can serve it as a G&T — garnished with pink peppercorns, if that's something you can get your hands on — or, you can whip up a Coral gin fizz. You'll find that recipe down the bottom. For now, only 800 bottles are available, but the gin is expected to stick around as part of the company's core range in the long term. Coral gin is on sale now for $70 via the Applewood Distillery website, with Australia-wide shipping available. [caption id="attachment_771056" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Coral gin fizz[/caption] CORAL GIN FIZZ 60 millilitres Coral gin 30 millilitres pineapple juice 30 millilitres cream Barspoon of molasses (about 1/2 a teaspoon) Three drops vanilla extract Three drops of Wonderfoam Soda Add all ingredients except soda with ice in a cocktail shaker and shake, then remove ice and shake again (called a dry shake). Double strain into a tall glass and let settle. Top with soda and ice.
Attend classes, join in storytelling events and get the low-down from some of the best writers around, all without leaving the comfort of your couch. Streaming live from February 11, this year’s Digital Writers' Festival will feature more than 30 online events hosted by a bevy of talented writers from all across Australia and the world. Now in its second year, the 2015 festival will cover a huge array of topics, from coding to video game writing and data journalism to freedom of speech and good sex writing. The Twenty Minute Cities program will let you interact with emerging writers from places like Dublin, Iowa City and Reykjavik, while a special event on White Night will see a group of desperate publishers scrambling to complete a magazine before dawn. Speakers include Lisa Dempster (Melbourne Writers’ Festival), Adam Brereton (Guardian Australia), Paul Verhoeven (ABC3’s Steam Punks) and Michelle Law (Shit Asian Mothers Say). So, whether you’re an aspiring journo, a wannabe novelist or just looking for tips on how to spice up your erotic fan-fiction, visit the DWF website and check out what’s on offer. We Twitter-interviewed festival director Connor Tomas O'Brien about the first DWF in 2014. Read it here.
After proving a hit with its mix of tunes, performances, installations, talks and more in its inaugural 2023 edition, Now or Never is back to fill Melbourne with creativity again this August. For the 2024 run, you'll find over 100 events and sessions taking place around town from Thursday, August 22–Saturday, August 31 — each evening from 6pm from Thursday–Sunday in the first week, then Thursday–Saturday in the second. The program spotlights over 250 local and international talents, each putting on an experience that responds to this year's theme of 'look through the image'. Whether you're hitting up a party, exploring an art installation or taking in a live performance, the program will prompt you to peer beyond the surface and dig a little deeper. This all sounds well and good, but where do you begin when there's so much going on? To help you get started, we sifted through the program to bring you this guide to some of the festival's best bits. Just be sure to get booking before tickets sell out. Constellations Those wanting to experience some of the best parts of Now or Never 2024 don't have spend a heap of money. In fact, they can see plenty of public art installations for free, including those at Melbourne Town Hall and the T&G Building. But the one we're most excited about is Constellations on the Southbank Promenade. This digital art installation is beamed onto water particles on the Yarra to form shapes and intangible structures in the air, resulting in 3D-like visuals. The show runs for 15 minutes every night of the festival, accompanied an ominous, electronic soundscape. When: Thursday, August 22–Saturday, August 31. The Royal Exhibition Building Music Program The Royal Exhibition Building is one of the main hubs for Now or Never 2024, hosting a series of huge parties. Local and international DJs will descend on the historic venue to play mostly techno, electronic and experimental pop music, which is paired with digital art installations and live performances — one artist will even perform a daring aerial installation work suspended from the cathedral ceiling. Spend the night dancing and drinking in one of Melbourne's most iconic venues — it'll also feature separate entrances, viewing platforms and other amenities for accessibility, so that everyone can enjoy these shows. When: Thursday, August 22–Sunday, August 25. Queer Powerpoint For one night only, you can head to Fed Square for a free experimental series of talks run by queer folks. Each speaker is there to explore and share an idea, current compulsion, or ongoing fascination using that most humble of programming tools – PowerPoint. PowerPoint used to be fairly fun and camp, as we'd share ideas with dissolving text, colourful animations and star wipes. The heteronormative corporate world has sadly beiged the entire experience, but Queer Powerpoint seeks to reclaim and an re-queer the corporate presentation. It sounds like a whole lot of fun. And who knows, you might learn some new tricks to use for your nex work presentation. When: Thursday, August 29. [caption id="attachment_753886" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Patrick Rodriguez[/caption] SOFT CENTRE — SUPERMODEL Across three days, Eora arts collective SOFT CENTRE will take over State Library Victoria with a series of performances, talks, screenings and workshops. Japanese performance artist and sound poet Tomomi Adachi is teaching AI generated music composition, DeForrest Brown Jr is giving a talk on Afrofuturism, and Palestinian filmmaker Firas Shehadeh will be screening one of his films. This all culminates in one massive late-night performance spectacle that take place throughout the library — in the heritage book-lined halls, domed reading rooms and stairwells. Spend the night running around the library, stumbling across live gigs, site-specific soundscapes, multimedia installations and dramatic performances. When: Thursday, August 29–Saturday, August 31. DESASTRES One of the many Aussie premieres at this year's Now or Never is DESASTRES from Marco Fusinato, which heads Down Under after first appearing at the Venice Biennale 2022. For just two days, Melburnians can peer at the world's largest LED volume screen at Docklands cinema studio NantStudios for this experimental noise performance project, which synchronises its guitar sounds with imagery. It's both a solo performance and an installation that runs across a whopping 6000 panels of LED screens measuring 12 metres high and 88 metres across. When: Friday, August 30–Saturday, August 31. Roxane Gay: Opinions This year marks a decade since writer and social commentator Roxane Gay released her groundbreaking book Bad Feminist. Since then, Gay's gone on to write countless other books, including her most recent, Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business. With this, the American author and academic gave readers a tome that stepped through ten years of her non-fiction efforts. And on Tuesday, August 27, Gay will talk through this decade of opinions with Jan Fran at Melbourne Town Hall. Body image, civil rights, feminism, popular culture and social etiquette are all on the table for this talk, as Gay reflects on the fundamental importance of holding complicated views in our complicated times. When: Tuesday, August 27. [caption id="attachment_965428" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jacquie Manning[/caption] kajoo yannaga Making its world premiere at ACMI — and also presented by the Melbourne International Film Festival — kajoo yannaga (come on let's walk together) is a free experience that will take participants on an interactive virtual and gamified walk on Country that puts First Nations knowledge at the fore, all thanks to Wiradjuri-Scottish artist April Phillips. Real-time motion tracking will map your body movement, helping you connect to this virtual spirit realm sprinkled with signs and signals for those who look to see. The experience explores the First Nations futurism movement and intergenerational healing through digital experimentation. When: Thursday, August 22–Saturday, August 31. Plagiary Plagiary is another certain highlight at Now or Never 2024, with dance technologist and choreographer Alisdair Macindoe joining forces with media artist Sam Mcgilp to create a new dance performance each night. Ten dancers will improvise together, but it's an AI computer presence that'll tell them what to respond to. The computer will voice out instructions to the dancers, making for an eerie but entertaining evening that explores the dynamic between man and machine. When: Wednesday, August 28–Saturday, August 31. Friday Night Social For just one evening, The University of Melbourne's Science Gallery is staying open late for a free party. Friday Night Social will see you take in live music from Sui Zhen, Blood Lotus, Xiaole Zhan and Morgan May while wandering through the gallery's SCI-FI: Mythologies Transformed exhibition. Beyond the live tunes, you can also expect roaming performance art, DJ sets and a colourful food-themed installation from visual artist Pey Chi. It's free to attend, while food and drinks will be available for purchase throughout the night. When: Friday, August 30. Now or Never 2024 is running across Melbourne from Thursday, August 22–Saturday, August 31. For more details on the ten-day program and to book tickets, visit the festival's website.
