"It's a shock to the system. It's a change to the everyday, regular routine. It's where the unhappy gene comes out — and it's a sign of the times today." That's the gloriously candid and empathetic Sandra Pankhurst on trauma, a topic she has literally made her business. Later in Clean, the documentary that tells her tale, she describes herself as a "busy nose and a voyeur"; however, that's not what saw her set up Melbourne's Specialised Trauma Cleaning. For three decades now, her company has assisted with "all the shitty jobs that no one really wants to do," as she characterises it: crime-scene cleanups, including after homicides, suicides and overdoses; deceased estates, such as bodies found some time after their passing; and homes in squalor, to name a few examples. As she explains in the film, Pankhurst is eager to provide such cleaning services because everyone deserves that help — and because we're all just a couple of unfortunate turns away from needing it. The 2008 movie Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams (Dear Evan Hansen) and Emily Blunt (Jungle Cruise) fictionalised the trauma-cleaning realm; if that's your touchstone at the outset of Clean, prepare for far less gloss, for starters. Prepare for much more than a look at a fascinating but largely ignored industry, too, because filmmaker Lachlan Mcleod (Big in Japan) is as rightly interested in Pankhurst as he is in her line of work. Everything she says hangs in the air with meaning, even as it all bounces lightly from her lips ("life can be very fragile", "every dog has its day, and a mongrel has two" and "life dishes you out a good story and then life dishes you out a shit one" are some such utterances). Everything feels matter of fact and yet also immensely caring through her eyes, regardless of the situation that her Frankston-headquartered employees are attending to. Sometimes, STC does confront harrowing and grimy messes that could be ripped straight out of a crime drama, but ensuring that the families don't have to swab up themselves after a gory incident is a point of pride. Sometimes, it aids people with disability or illness by playing housekeeper when they can't, or sorts through a lifetime of possessions when someone has turned to hoarding. There's no judgement directed anyone's way, not by Pankhurst or the crew of committed cleaners who've formed a family-like bond under her watch. It takes a particular sort of person to do this gig, everyone notes, and the group is as sensitive and considerate as their boss because most have experienced their own hardships. They can also see what she sees: "everyone's got trauma; it's not the demographic, it's the circumstance". Pankhurst's company and tale isn't new to the public eye, thanks to Sarah Krasnostein's award-winning 2018 book The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay and Disaster — and both there and here, the role she has played and the fortitude she has displayed while sifting through her own personal traumas earns merited attention. Mcleod keeps his focus on STC for the film's first third, aided by Pankhurst's frank insights, but the many layers to the business, its workers and its clients are paralleled in her own multifaceted story. Clean takes her lead, though; never within its frames does Pankhurst offer up a simple assessment of herself, other than saying she'd liked to be remembered "as a kind human being — nothing more, nothing less". As a transgender woman who was adopted at birth, grew up in an abusive household, married and had a family, performed as a drag queen, undertook sex work, survived rape and drugs, transitioned, and became one of Australia's first female funeral directors, nothing about her can be deduced to a few mere words. The raw honesty, quick wit and spirited sense of humour continues as Pankhurst mentions many of these details, largely in passing or onstage when she becomes a motivational speaker after health woes stop her from cleaning. It's due to her medical conditions that she's vigilant about staff wearing PPE on the job — Clean's naturalistic, on-the-ground shoot, with cinematographer Louis Dai (Hakamada: The Longest Held Death Row Inmate in the World) behind the lens, began in 2019 well before the pandemic. There it is again: that unfaltering, highly moving, deeply inspirational compassion for others, whether they're the vulnerable struggling or employees lending the former a hand day in, day out. Clean looks upon Pankhurst with as much industrial-strength humanity as she sees in the world around her, even one where "people die in horrific ways every day", but never smoothes away her faults, doubts, rough experiences or tough edges. Mclean and Dai both double as the doco's editors and, as they begin splicing Pankhurst's time away from the business together with her team's everyday duties across the feature's second two acts, a touch of movie magic does filter in. To provide a wider array of imagery for the film's two strands, Mclean adds a number of brief recreations of Pankhurst's childhood and younger years, and of reconstructed crime scenes. They're unnecessary, and also don't suit the already affecting and absorbing tone that springs from Pankhurst and her employees telling it plain but with brimming understanding. There's a tender tenor in Patrick Grigg's (Australiana) score, too, that finds a better balance. Those dramatisations don't jumble the film by any means; they're just superfluous. Another reason that Clean's reenactments don't sit well: the feature has such a wealth of narratives to follow anyway, including time spent with specific members of the STC crew such as Brian Gaciabu, Rod Wyatt and others. Pankhurst gets the chance to search for her birth mother, her health gets pushed further to the fore, and some of the clients that the company helps also get a glimpse of the spotlight. Mcleod could've made several documentaries or a series about the overall situation, and even simply about the no-nonsense but endlessly entertaining Pankhurst; that COVID-19 impacted his timeline is apparent. This energetic but thoughtful tribute still cleans up, though — and that it has its imperfections fits every tale that it unfurls.
UPDATE, December 16, 2022: Top Gun: Maverick will be available to stream via Paramount+ from Thursday, December 22. As dripping with jingoism, machismo, militarism and sweat as cinema gets — and there really was oh-so-much sweat — 1986's Top Gun was a dream of a recruitment ad. The US Navy's aviation program couldn't have whipped up a stronger enlistment campaign in its wildest fantasies. Even if it had, getting Hollywood's gloss, a star who'd still be box-office catnip four decades later and Kenny Loggins' second-best movie tune (slipping in behind Footloose, of course) probably would've felt like a one-in-a-billion longshot. But all of the above, plus a lurid sheen and homoerotic gaze, didn't make Top Gun a good film. Loggins' 'Danger Zone' remains an earworm of a delight, but the feature it's synonymous with took a highway to the cheesy, cringey, puffed up, perpetually moist and aggressively toxic zone. The one exception: whenever Tony Scott's camera was focused on all that flying, rather than a smirking, reckless and arrogant Tom Cruise as a portrait of 80s bluster and vanity. Gliding into cinemas 36 years after its predecessor, Top Gun: Maverick is still at its best when its jets are soaring. The initial flick had the perfect song to describe exactly what these phenomenally well-executed and -choreographed action scenes feel like to view; yes, they'll take your breath away. Peppered throughout the movie, actually shot in real US Navy aircraft without a trace of digital effects, and as tense and spectacular as filmmaking can be in the feature's climactic sequences, they truly do make it seem as if you're watchin' in slow motion. Thankfully, this time that adrenaline kick is accompanied by a smarter and far more self-aware film, as directed by TRON: Legacy and Oblivion's Joseph Kosinski. Top Gun in the 80s was exactly what Top Gun in the 80s was always going to be — but Top Gun in the 2020s doesn't dare believe that nothing has changed, that Cruise's still-smug Maverick can't evolve, and that the world the movie releases into hasn't either. Early in the film — after Harold Faltermeyer's famous Top Gun anthem plays, text on-screen explains what the titular elite pilot training program is all about, a montage of fighter planes kicks in and then 'Danger Zone' sets an upbeat tone; that is, after the flick begins exactly as the first did — Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell (Cruise, Mission: Impossible — Fallout) is given a dressing-down. Still as rebellious as his call sign makes plain, he's just wantonly disobeyed orders, flown a ridiculously expensive hypersonic test plane when he's not supposed to and caused quite the fallout. "The future is coming and you're not in it," he's told, and Top Gun: Maverick doesn't shy away from that notion. As its opening moments show, along with a touch too many other nostalgia-steeped touches elsewhere this sequel hasn't wholly flown on from the past; however, it actively reckons with it as well. Still hardly the navy's favourite despite his swagger, megawatt smile, gleaming aviators and unfailing self-confidence — well, really despite his need for speed and exceptional dogfighting skills in the air — Maverick is given one last assignment. His destination: Fightertown USA, the California-based Top Gun program he strutted his way through all those years ago. There's an enemy nation with a secret weapons base that needs destroying, and his talents are crucial. But, to his dismay, Maverick is only asked to teach. Given a squad lorded over by the brash Hangman (Glen Powell, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood), and also including Coyote (Greg Tarzan Davis, Grey's Anatomy), Payback (Jay Ellis, Insecure), Fanboy (Danny Ramirez, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Phoenix (Monica Barbaro, Stumptown), Bob (Lewis Pullman, Outer Range) and the frosty Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw (Miles Teller, The Offer), he's tasked with training them to fly like he does, navigate a Star Wars-style impossible path that zips speedily at perilously low altitudes and, ideally, still survive the supremely dangerous mission. Yes, Bradley Bradshaw is a real name this franchise has given one of its characters. And, he's the son of Goose (Anthony Edwards, Inventing Anna), Maverick's beloved wingman in the original movie, whose death he hasn't come to terms with. Also, stressing that chip-off-the-ol'-block link via Hawaiian shirts, a moustache and a barroom 'Great Balls of Fire' singalong is among Top Gun: Maverick's clumsiest and most needlessly wistful moves — second only to its shirtless team-building beach football scene. Luckily, it's easy to excuse some such blatant nods backwards when interrogating why Maverick is like he is, what cost that's extracted from him and those in his orbit, and how he might climb beyond it is one of the film's main concerns. Plus, one of the feature's other blasts from the past, Maverick's reunion with his ex-adversary Iceman (Val Kilmer, The Snowman), couldn't be more movingly handled. Again, recognising that Maverick's heyday, and everything it instilled in him, has long been and gone proves as crucial in this sequel as those sensationally balletic jets swooping and spiralling above. Cruise's heyday as a mega movie superstar isn't yet behind him, though, and Top Gun: Maverick is also better for knowing that his hyper-committed showmanship is now rare. So, Kosinkski leans heavily on the Tom Cruise of it all — aka the spectacle that's a given when he's in action mode — while unpacking the Maverick of it all. That's how the film zooms deeper than the initial flick, especially into its protagonist, with screenwriters Ehren Kruger (Dumbo), Eric Warren Singer (American Hustle) and Christopher McQuarrie (the last two and upcoming two Mission: Impossible movies) imparting a convincing sense of human drama. Top Gun: Maverick still sports patriotism and militarism so thick it'd show up on radar. It's still sweaty, albeit not as much as the Fast and Furious franchise these days. And it still has a thin but charismatic romance, this time with Jennifer Connelly (who gets a winning music moment if you know what she was starring in back in 1986). And yet, it also faces the fact that flag-waving patriotism and testosterone-fuelled bravado are relics. Even better: while Top Gun: Maverick's exploration of loyalty, duty, camaraderie, bromance and facing your mistakes to be a better person comes second to its stunning aerial scenes, none of those themes completely fade from mind when the movie hits the sky. They're meant to up the stakes, and genuinely do. Indeed, Gun: Maverick's underlying emotions feel as authentic as the astonishing visuals that repeatedly defy gravity. With the latter, it comes as no surprise that Kosinkski's TRON: Legacy cinematographer Claudio Miranda does the honours, again delivering an astounding sight. Similarly, that such edge-of-your-seat sequences are stitched together by McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible editor Eddie Hamilton won't raise an eyebrow. Action cinema rarely gets more thrilling than this — and an action movie that's this visibly wondrous and entertaining, knows it's walking in familiar footsteps but puts in a bold effort to make this return trip mean something is electrifying and, yes, breathtaking.
When David Bowie starred in 1976's The Man Who Fell to Earth, playing an alien being who crash lands on our planet, it became one of the musician's iconic on-screen roles. It's also one that he returned to nearly four decades later, in a fashion — co-writing the musical Lazarus, as inspired by the Walter Tevis novel that the sci-fi film was based on. Written with playwright Enda Walsh, and one of Bowie's final projects before his passing in January 2016, Lazarus opened off-Broadway in December 2015. The production made the jump to London in 2017 and, in 2019, it'll bring its otherworldly story — and its soundtrack of 18 Bowie tracks — to Australia. The first show announced for The Production Company's 2019 season, Lazarus will make its Aussie debut between May 18 and June 9, hitting the stage at Arts Centre Melbourne. While local cast details won't be revealed until February 19, when ticketing details will also be unveiled, the original production was a suitably star-studded affair. Dexter's Michael C. Hall followed in Bowie's footsteps in the part of Thomas Jerome Newton, while Fargo's Cristin Milioti played the alien's assistant. Those eager for a date with this starman — and to start loving the alien, again — can expect a sequel of sorts to The Man Who Fell to Earth. The enigmatic Newton remains on earth, unable to die; however the arrival of another lost soul might offer the solution that he's been looking for. As for the familiar songs that this story plays out to, it's basically a best-of catalogue of Bowie's greatest hits. 'Heroes', 'Changes', 'Life on Mars?', 'The Man Who Sold the World' and 'Sound and Vision' all feature — as do four of the star's final recordings, including the title track 'Lazarus'. Lazarus will hit the Arts Centre Melbourne stage from May 18 to June 9, 2019. Ticketing details will be available from February 19, 2019 — to sign up for the wait list, visit lazarusthemusical.com.au.
There are plenty of ways to spend the first day of the new year, including nursing the remnants of the previous night's celebrations and getting a head start on all your resolutions. When 2021 farewells us all forever and 2022 kicks into gear, US cable network HBO and Australian streaming platform Binge have another option to keep you occupied: watching the new Harry Potter reunion special. The show was announced earlier in November, and will reteam Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson — because it wouldn't be worth going ahead if they weren't involved. The reason? To celebrate 20 years of the beloved pop culture franchise on the big screen. The special's name, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, says it all. Yes, HBO is doing with all things wizarding what it did with the cast of Friends earlier this year, in great news for everyone that's been chanting "accio more Harry Potter" for the past decade since the eight-film series wrapped up. Like the Friends special, this one won't feature anyone in-character — but, if you're a Potter devotee, spending more time with the movies' stars still promises to be magical. Also taking part is filmmaker Chris Columbus, who directed the franchise's first two movies. Plus, a huge list of other actors from across the series are also involved, including Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman and Tom Felton, plus James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright, Alfred Enoch, Matthew Lewis, Evanna Lynch and Ian Hart. You'll spot some missing names — Maggie Smith and Robert Pattinson, for instance, to name just two — but clearly there'll be a whole lot of HP cast members reminiscing about their time in the wizarding world. Whether you're a muggle, a wannabe witch, or someone who spent far too much of their childhood reading the books and watching the flicks, you'll want to mark 7.01pm AEDT / 6.01pm AEST on Saturday, January 1 in your diary — as that's when the special will hit Binge. In the interim, you can check out the teaser trailer for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special below — or stream all eight HP flicks on the Aussie streaming service: HBO's Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special will be available to stream in Australia via Binge from 7.01pm AEDT / 6.01pm AEST on Saturday, January 1, 2022.
We all like ice cream, but sometimes, the occasion calls for something other than everyone's favourite sweet treat. Maybe it's too cold? Maybe you already have an ice cream headache? Maybe Gelato Messina is closed, or just not in the immediate vicinity? Enter the food mashup that had to happen, really — and a concoction straight out of every gelato and biscuit lover's dreams. If you're a fan of Tim Tams smashed, crushed or placed atop scoops of creamy goodness, then you're sure to be fond of their exact opposite: those iconic chocolate rectangles in Gelato Messina flavours. Due in stores around the country from February 6, the Gelato Messina Tim Tam range will come in four styles: choc mint, salted caramel and vanilla, coconut and lychee, and black forest. The collaboration came about after Arnotts, the folks behind the bikkies, got in touch with the ice cream makers. ""It was a new challenge for us — making a gelato is one thing — and making a biscuit that tastes like that gelato is another," said Gelato Messina co-founder Declan Lee. Making this tastebud-tempting news even better is the fact that, like all Tim Tams, they'll be sold in supermarkets everywhere. Yes, that means more Messina goodness more often. The biscuits are expected to set hungry shoppers back $3.65 per packed. Come on, you know you're going to buy more than one.
With yet another Monday looming large, Sunday afternoons can sometimes feel like a bit of a bummer — but not for much longer. We've found a surefire mood-booster to help you end your weekend on a high note, involving free (and delicious) cheese. From Sunday, April 11, Richmond's Ugly Duckling is kicking off the latest round of its ever-popular Wine and Cheese Sundays sessions, and inviting you to squash those inevitable Sunday blues with a good old-fashioned grazing session. Pop in between 3–7pm each weekend, and you'll also score a complimentary cheese plate when you purchase any bottle of wine. Cheese-wise, you can choose between quality creations like a Spanish manchego, Le Delice des Cremier, the Colston Bassett stilton blue or Castel Regio taleggio — each served with classic accompaniments including fig paste, lavosh biscuits and fresh apple slices. Of course, if you fancy amping up the indulgence factor, there's always the option to add on extra serves of cheese. Plus, there's a cracking cocktail list for those who'd like to linger even longer.
Wine — a four-letter word that can open up a whole world of possibilities. Yep, learning about wine (and, of course, drinking it) brings up fun facts about travel, food, agriculture, history, science and more. But, if your eyes glaze over when you peruse the shelves at your local bottle-o — or you think carbonic maceration is the name of a heavy metal band — we've got five easy (and not boring) ways for you to up your vino knowledge. To do so, we've teamed up with online wine retailer Vinomofo. If you've ever felt out-of-place when your uncle talks about terroirs and tannins, you'll soon be sneaking "did you know that the pressure in a bottle of champagne is about the same as in a semi-trailer tyre?" into everyday conversation. [caption id="attachment_787704" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Klook[/caption] GO ON A GUIDED TOUR IN AN AWARD-WINNING WINE REGION Let's start with a fun one: wine tours. In Australia, we have over 100 different grape varieties grown across 65 distinct regions. So if you prefer hands-on learning, there are plenty of incredible and award-winning vineyards right on your back doorstep. Klook's big red bus tour of the Hunter Valley in NSW and Daylesford Wine Tours, which runs day tours of Victoria's wine regions, are both great ways to experience wine with the winemakers in an up-close setting. Not to mention they're a good excuse to get out of the city for a weekend getaway. GET SCHOOLED BY THE EXPERTS Thanks to last year's unprecedented times, there are now many options available to people who want to learn about wine, either online or in person. Sydney Wine Academy (TAFE) hosts online wine courses that are accessible nationwide, including wine sensory evaluation bootcamps and courses on mastering wine from Australia and New Zealand. Or, you can opt for a 25-minute private virtual wine tasting with Handpicked, where you'll be guided through three to six of its drops in the comfort of your own home. Otherwise, join in a Wine School event with legendary Sydney sommelier and owner of Fix Wine Bar, Stuart Knox. [caption id="attachment_768003" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bibo[/caption] HEAD TO A WINE-THEMED EVENT Even when the source material seems a little dense, learning about wine should be fun. Enter Grapes of Mirth by way of comedian and radio personality Merrick Watts and event manager Jason Nikolas. The comedy and wine festival travels around the country and is designed to bring conversation, laughter and fun into wine regions. We also recommend keeping an eye on what's happening in your local area for specialised wine events, such as like Sydney restaurant Bibo's wine trivia nights, The Ugly Duckling's Wine and Cheese Sundays in Melbourne and a bubbles and oyster pop-up at Brisbane's Cloudland. READ, READ AND READ SOME MORE Even professional wine lovers need help sometimes. Thankfully, there's no shortage of fantastic resources you can turn to when you want to know what's going on in the world of wine. Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz is considered a staple for any wine nerd, while Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack's Wine Folly is a fantastic book for beginners wanting to understand the ins and outs of where, when and how wine is made (the infographics are second to none). More recent titles like Wine All the Time by Marissa A. Ross and Which Wine When by Bert Blaze and Claire Strickett are excellent resources to have on hand when you want to know what wines work with burgers or when to use a decanter. GET YOURSELF A PERSONALISED WINE SERVICE For those who have no idea where to start, Vinomofo has your back thanks to its curated selection of wines. The in-house buying team carefully chooses the wine to guarantee quality and exciting vino across the website. The online wine slinger also has a superb selection of mixed cases to help you go on an adventure to find out what wine styles you might like. For those wanting a little extra hand-holding, you can jump online or on the phone to have a one-on-one chat with Vinomofo's wine dealers, who'll guide you to your next drop. And, not that you need anymore convincing, but right now Vinomofo is celebrating its tenth lap around the sun with its biggest giveaway ever. From Monday, April 12 through to Tuesday, April 20, you can buy any wine online and go in the running to win $1000 wine credit, with one winner drawn every day over the course of the promotion. That's a lot of dollars to put towards your wine knowledge journey. Vinomofo's Birthday Week runs from Monday April 12–Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Head to the website and buy any wine and you'll go in the running to win a $1000 wine credit. See terms and conditions here. New to Vinomofo? Enter code VINO to get $30 off your first order plus free shipping.
See Cate Blanchett take on 13 roles in one, in a brand new exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Co-commissioned by ACMI in partnership with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin and the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Manifesto is a bold new multichannel work from celebrated German artist Julian Rosefeldt, with the Oscar-winning screen star at its centre. Housed at ACMI from December until March, Rosefeldt's installation will question the role of the artist today, drawing on the philosophies of numerous pre-eminent artists, including writer Andre Breton, sculptor Claes Oldenberg and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. From these sources, Rosefeldt has crafted a collage of artistic manifestos, which Blanchett will then articulate through the guise of various characters, including a school teacher, a newsreader, a homeless man and a puppeteer.
Get ready to toss a coin to your witcher, again. Two years after Netflix aired the first season of The Witcher — and got that song stuck in everyone's heads in the process — the fantasy series is finally returning. It was always going to, given that it was renewed for a second season before the initial one even aired, but thanks to the current state of the world, the next batch of episodes has taken some time to turn up. Come Friday, December 17, you'll be able to settle in for a weekend binge to see what happens next in the Henry Cavill (Zack Snyder's Justice League)-starring series — and to check out how his icy locks look this time around. You can nab a sneak peek at both right now, actually, with Netflix also dropping the first trailer for the show's second season to help tide fans over until the end of the year. Need a refresher? Haven't watched the first season yet? If the series' name sounds familiar, that's because The Witcher is based on the short stories and novels of writer Andrzej Sapkowski — and, as well as being turned into comics, it was adapted the video game series of the same name. A Polish film and TV show also reached screens in the early 2000s, although they were poorly received. In the Netflix show, Cavill plays the witcher of the title: Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter who prefers to work — aka slay beasts — alone in a realm called The Continent. But life has other plans for the lone wolf, forcing him to cross paths with powerful sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra, Netflix's Wanderlust) and young princess Ciri (newcomer Freya Allan). In the first season, the latter harbours a secret, because of course she does, with the series blending plenty of fantasy staples such as magic, royalty, fighting factions, battling hordes, fearsome creatures, a heap of sword-swinging and many a scenic location. After stepping into Superman's shoes and facing off against Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible — Fallout, The Witcher marked Cavill's return to TV a decade after starring in regal period drama The Tudors. As well as Chalotra and Allan, the first season also featured Jodhi May (Game of Thrones), MyAnna Buring (Kill List), Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards) and Australian actor Eamon Farren (Twin Peaks). Based on the just-dropped trailer for the season season, viewers can expect a homecoming, more all-round eeriness, and more time spent with both Geralt and Ciri. He's bringing her to his childhood home of Kaer Morhen, where he'll need to keep protecting her — from her powers, and from The Continent's kings, elves, humans and demons, who are battling for supremacy. Check out the trailer for The Witcher's second season below: The Witcher's second season will hit Netflix on Friday, December 17. The show's first season is currently available to stream. Top image: Susie Allnut.
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. FIRESTARTER Would the latest big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's Firestarter have been better or worse if it had included The Prodigy's hit of the same name, aka the most obvious needle-drop that could've been chosen? Although we'll never know, it's hard to imagine a film with less personality than this page-to-screen remake. Using the 1996 dance-floor filler would've been a choice and a vibe — and a cliched one, whether gleefully or lazily — but it might've been preferable to the dull ashes of by-the-numbers genre filmmaking that's hit screens instead. Zac Efron looking so bored that blood drips from his eyes, dressing up King's 1980 story as a superhero tale (because of course) and having its pyrokinetic protagonist say "liar liar, pants on fire" when she's torching someone aren't a recipe for igniting movie magic, or for even occasionally just lighting a spark. That said, the best thing about Firestarter circa 2022 is actually its 'Firestarter'-free score, and with good reason. It hails from legendary original Halloween director John Carpenter, plus his son Cody Carpenter and regular collaborators Daniel A Davies (all fresh from 2018's Halloween and its follow-up Halloween Kills). It's a savvy touch not merely for the kind of atmospheric, eerie, mood-defining electro-synth sounds that only the elder Carpenter can deliver, but because he was originally slated to direct the first version of Firestarter in 1984, only to be ditched because The Thing — now a stone-cold sci-fi/horror classic — didn't do well enough at the box office. While both features could've desperately used Carpenter behind the lens, at least the initial flick didn't feel like all it was burning was the audience's time and patience. Then, now and in King's book, Firestarter follows the McGee family, whose lives would blaze brighter if they didn't have abilities most folks don't. After volunteering for a clinical trial in college, Andy (Efron, Gold) and his wife Vicky (Sydney Lemmon, Fear the Walking Dead) have telepathic and telekinetic powers; being experimented on with mind-altering chemical compounds will do that. And, from birth, their now 11-year-old daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong, It: Chapter Two) has been able to start fires with her mind. How director Keith Thomas (The Vigil) establishes this backstory says more than it should about the movie, how blandly it turns out and what it might've been with more flair. A flashback to Charlie getting fiery as a baby is laughable, and kindles exactly zero thrills, scares or unease. But, flickering over the opening credits as old video footage, Andy and Vicky's time as test subjects ripples with tension and creepiness — that's swiftly extinguished and never felt again. Unsurprisingly, the McGees have spent years attempting to blend in, hiding their powers and fleeing the shady government department, The Shop, that's responsible for their situation — and now sports a keen interest in using Charlie as a weapon. Alas, as the girl grows, holding her abilities back is becoming harder. Andy and Vicky argue about what's better: training her to suppress the flames or teaching her how to harness them. Then she literally explodes at school, The Shop head honcho Captain Hollister (Gloria Reuben, City on a Hill) puts bounty hunter John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes, Rutherford Falls) on their trail and the heat is on. (No, that track from Beverly Hills Cop, which reached cinemas the same year that the OG Firestarter did, doesn't feature here either.) Read our full review. OPERATION MINCEMEAT A twisty tale of high-stakes British espionage — one that spans secret identities, torrid affairs, country-hopping missions and a world-in-peril situation, too — Operation Mincemeat desperately wants its audience to know about its 007 ties. When it introduces a man by the name of Ian Fleming (Johnny Flynn, The Dig), it lets the moment linger. It drops more than a few mentions of his fondness for writing about spy intrigue as well. And, when he refers to his boss Admiral John Godfrey (Jason Isaacs, Streamline) as M, the film even has him explain why. Fleming is also the movie's narrator, literally spinning a cloak-and-dagger story from the get-go. Plus, seeing him tapping away at a typewriter is a common image. Every single touch forms part of the feature's warm, well-meaning nod to the Bond, James Bond author's early years; however, it's also a tad distracting and unnecessary. Fleming is immersed in the IRL covert mission that Operation Mincemeat explores, and removing him would've been inaccurate, but the details themselves are fascinating enough without getting viewers thinking about tuxedos and shaken-not-stirred martinis. Operation Mincemeat is a war film, set in the darkening days of 1943. It's also just as much a heist film. Whether you've only ever seen one Ocean's flick, have memorised every single word of Reservoir Dogs, or loved Baby Driver or Widows in recent years, if you've seen one caper movie you know the setup: gather a gang together, work out the nitty gritty of a bold but tricky plan, endeavour to put the scheme into action, then weather whatever comes (be it success, failure or a bit of both). Adapting Ben Macintyre's book, which also spawned a 2010 documentary, screenwriter Michelle Ashford (Masters of Sex) is well aware of this formula. With director John Madden (Miss Sloane) behind the lens, Operation Mincemeat doesn't shy away from all of the heist basics for a second. But as with all the gratuitous Bond nods, a cracking real-life tale remains a cracking real-life tale — the kind that no one, not even Fleming, could convincingly make up. The titular gambit came about as much of the Allies' efforts in World War II did: as an effort to do whatever was needed to defeat Hitler. Britain needed to make its way into occupied Europe, but everyone involved knew it — including the Germans — ensuring that any standard move would've been oh-so-easy for the Nazis to predict. Enter the operation that might've been codenamed 'Trojan Horse', except that that label would've been much too obvious. The plan: getting documents about the Allies' purported and wholly fictional scheme to invade Greece to their enemies, misdirecting them, so that the invasion of Sicily could proceed with little resistance. The crucial detail: drifting those papers into Spain, where they could be reasonably expected to end up in German hands, by placing them with a corpse dressed up to look like a British military officer. Making that ruse stick — ensuring that the Nazis didn't smell a plant, specifically — was never going to be a straightforward move. It's one thing to nail the logistics of transporting the cadaver and its faux materials to the right place, and another completely to find a body that works, forge all the necessary documentation and build up a backstory so believable that it'd stand up to enemy scrutiny. As a result, Godfrey isn't keen on the operation, which was reportedly conjured up by Fleming, but it still gets the go-ahead anyway. Tasked with both fleshing and carrying it out are Naval Intelligence officers Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth, Supernova) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen, Succession), who amass a team of helpers including Fleming, Montagu's trusty chief secretary Hester Leggett (Penelope Wilton, Downton Abbey: A New Era), plus MI5 clerk Jean Leslie (Kelly Macdonald, Line of Duty). Read our full review. TO CHIARA Lurking behind every 18th birthday, beyond the alcohol legally drunk and nightclubs gleefully danced through, is an unspoken truth: life only gets more chaotic from here. That realisation doesn't usually spring during the celebrations, toasts and happy speeches of the big day itself — or necessarily within weeks, months or even a few years afterwards, either — however, it's inescapable nonetheless. In To Chiara, it blazes brightly for the movie's eponymous teenager (Swamy Rotolo). It shatters her sense of normality, too. But she isn't the one hitting the milestone that every adolescent yearns for. Instead, the party that helps start this Italian drama is actually for the 15-year-old's elder sister Giulia (Grecia Rotolo), with the pair's friends and relatives alike marking the occasion as countless other families have: with dinner, festivities and delighted emotions. As captured with a raw, fluid and naturalistic style like everything that both precedes it and follows, Giulia's birthday is a portrait of exuberance — until, for Chiara, it isn't. She plays up a garden-variety case of sibling rivalry, including during a performative dance contest. She revels in still being her doting dad Claudio's (Claudio Rotolo) favourite. And she thinks nothing of sneaking outside to have a smoke, only slightly worrying if her father will find out. But it's there, cigarette in hand, that Chiara watches her uncles get into a verbal scuffle outside. Then, in the aftermath, she spies her doting dad rushing off to deal with the fallout. Also, later that evening, perturbed by the feeling that something isn't quite right, it's Chiara who witnesses the family car explode outside their home, and spots Claudio fleeing under the cloak of darkness. The newest neo-realist film by Italian American writer/director Jonas Carpignano, To Chiara is also his third set in the Calabrian region, in the small coastal town of Gioia Tauro. It's the latest entry in a series that explores the area's mix of residents, segueing from refugees from North Africa in 2015's Mediterranea to the Romani community in 2017's A Ciambra, and now to the 'Ndrangheta. Call the latter the mafia, call them an organised crime syndicate, call them just part of living Southern Italy — whichever you pick, Chiara has always just considered them her loved ones without knowing it. Learning how her dad pays the bills and why he's now a fugitive, gleaning that her mother (Carmela Fumo) must be aware, trying to uncover where Giulia stands, attempting to cope with everything she thought she knew crumbling in an instant: that's what this gripping and moving film has in store for its young, headstrong, understandably destabilised protagonist from here. From the moment that Chiara begins to make her big discovery — piecing together the details stubbornly, despite being warned that her questions won't have welcome answers — it's easy to recognise why such a tale fascinates Carpignano. It's the story that sits in the shadows of other gangster flicks and shows, because so many are also about the bonds of blood; in decades gone by, it could've been Mary Corleone facing the same situation in The Godfather franchise or Meadow Soprano doing the same in The Sopranos. To Chiara also unfurls the ultimate tale of innocence lost, forever fracturing the bubble of an idyll that Chiara has spent her life inhabiting without ever realising, and causing her to now see the parent she has always adored in a completely different light. Nothing signals leaving childhood behind, no matter your age, more than having the entire foundation for your existence shift, after all. As gleams fiercely in its phenomenal lead's eyes, nothing is more devastating, either. Read our full review. THIS MUCH I KNOW TO BE TRUE How do you make a concert film when no concerts can be held to film? Australian director Andrew Dominik (Chopper, Killing Them Softly) and his now two-time subjects Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have the answer. How do you create a personal documentary that cuts to the heart of these Aussie music icons when, whether stated or implied in their vibe, both are hardly enamoured with having their lives recorded? Again, see: Dominik's new Cave and Ellis-focused This Much I Know to Be True. Performances in cavernous empty British spaces fill the movie's frames but, via stunning lighting, staging and lensing, they're as dazzling as any IRL gig. The interludes between tunes are brief, and also intimate and revealing. The result: a phenomenal doco that's a portrait of expression, a musing on an exceptional collaboration and a rumination upon existence, as well as a piece of haunting cinematic heaven whether you're an existing Cave and Ellis devotee, a newcomer or something in-between. Dominik, Cave and Ellis initially teamed up when the latter duo scored the former's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Later this year, when upcoming Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde hits screens, the same arrangement will provide its soundtrack. But in the middle sits 2016 doco One More Time with Feeling and now This Much I Know to Be True, as entrancing a pair as the music documentary genre has gifted viewers. The first factual flick found Cave and Ellis recording the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Skeleton Tree, as Cave also grappled with the death of one of his sons. Here, its follow-up is shaped by the first performances of Cave and Ellis' latest albums — the Bad Seeds 2019 release Ghosteen, and Cave and Ellis' 2021 record Carnage — plus the pandemic and the lingering effects of grief. Chatter precedes tunes to begin This Much I Know to Be True — talk, a revelation and a mini art exhibition, in fact. To the camera, Cave quips that he's "retrained as a ceramicist, because it's no longer viable to be a musician, a touring artist". He's joking about giving up music, of course, but serious about his foray into porcelain. Donning a white lab coat, he walks the audience through his workshop, sharing a series he's dubbed The Story of the Devil in 18 Figurines. That'd make a phenomenal title for one of his tracks, but it isn't. One piece's individual moniker, The Devil's Last Dance, also sounds like a song title. Unsurprisingly, Cave unfurls the same kinds of tales while explaining his ceramics — about a figure he's clearly long been fascinated with, and about choices, family, loss, redemption and mourning — as he always has behind the microphone. This attention-grabbing introduction serves several purposes, from pointing out the English government's patently ridiculous advice to artists during COVID-19 to setting the film's tone. There's always been a bewitching blend of the ethereal, mysterious and dark to Cave's music, and a sense of poetic preaching to his lyrics; his early musings here about the devil at various moments in his life earn the same description, and establish the movie as a type of spiritual experience. Fans of any star are guilty of seeing their hero's work in that light. It's especially true of musicians, who innately turn concert venues into altars for their disciples to worship their output. Still, when This Much I Know to Be True hones in on Cave at his piano, or behind the mic, spotlights casting him in a hypnotic glow while bathing his surroundings in blackness, that feeling couldn't be more blatant — and earned. Read our full review. FATHER STU The last time that Mark Wahlberg played a real-life boxer, The Fighter was the end result. The last time that Mel Gibson played the burger-chain owner's father, the world was forced to suffer through Daddy's Home 2. Combine this mismatched pair and you don't quite get Father Stu, the former Marky Mark's first step into faith-based films — but even watching the latter, the second instalment in his woeful comedy franchise with Will Ferrell, is preferable to this mawkish true tale. Drawn from the IRL Stuart Long's life, it's meant to be an inspirational affair, covering the familiar religious-favourite beats about sinners being redeemed, wayward souls seizing second chances and learning to accept physical suffering as a chance to get closer to the divine. First-time feature writer/director Rosalind Ross is earnest about those messages, and her film visibly looks more competent than most sermon-delivering recent cinema releases, but what preaching-to-the-choir sentiments they are. How ableist they are as well. When Wahlberg (Uncharted) first graces the screen as Long, he could've stepped in from plenty of his other movies. In his younger days, the titular future priest is a foul-mouthed amateur boxer from Montana, but he has big dreams — and when he hits Los Angeles with acting stars in his eyes, viewers can be forgiven for thinking of Boogie Nights. Porn isn't Long's calling, of course, although salacious propositions do come his way in the City of Angels, in one of the film's hardly subtle efforts to equate the secular and the sordid. It's actually lust that pushes the feature's protagonist on the path to the priesthood, however, after he spies volunteer Sunday school teacher Carmen (Teresa Ruiz, The Marksman) while he's working in a grocery store. To have a chance with her, he even gets baptised. Then, a drink-driving accident brings a vision of the Virgin Mary, sparking Long's determination to make Catholicism his calling. Next, a shock health diagnosis both tests and cements his faith. Father Stu is filled details that instantly seem too neat, contrived and poised to make the movie's point, even knowing that this is a biopic. Perhaps they wouldn't feel so calculating if Ross did more than simply connect the dots between events that push her central figure towards his spiritual awakening with big "and then this happened" energy. If exactly why the church appealed to Long so strongly was meant to be conveyed via Wahlberg's performance, that's lost in an always-superficial portrayal. The actor gained the necessary weight needed in Long's later years, and is happy to show off his brawn in his younger boxing and wannabe actor days, but that isn't the same as fleshing a character out. Here, Long is merely a symbol; Father Stu may recreate the real counterpart's experiences, but on-screen, the leap from swearing, drinking and abhorring religion, to putting on a show of devotion (and a spate of stalking) to get laid, to accepting his health woes in the name of the Lord, is quick, easy and unconvincing. Indeed, there's a big "Poochie died on the way back to his home planet" vibe to Father Stu's storytelling again and again, as the film favours the bland and broad over the detailed and textured. That includes the entire roster of performances, with Wahlberg basically typecasting himself — he's one of the movie's producers, driven by his own deep and well-publicised Catholic faith — as the wise-cracking tough-guy pugilist, thespian and holy man, and Jacki Weaver (Back to the Outback) stuck in a thankless part as Long's mother. Gibson's involvement is hardly surprising given he has The Passion of the Christ on his resume, and filmmaker Ross is his current real-life partner, but his work here is still as stereotypical as can be. That all still pales in comparison to the idea that serious health woes are "a gift from God", an atrocious notion that isn't the testament to accepting one's lot in life that Father Stu thinks it is. 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; April 7, April 14, April 21 and April 28; and May 5. 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, 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, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Petite Maman, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
It's one of the world's biggest sporting goods retail brands, found in over 30 countries and dubbed by many as 'the ALDI of activewear'. And now, France's famed Decathlon — which launched an online store here in 2016, its first Sydney store in December last year and its second just last week — has physically hit Melbourne, with two stores opening in late 2018. The stores are located in Melbourne's east, on Ferntree Gully Road in Knoxfield and on Middleborough Road in Box Hill South. The new spaces rival Bunnings in size and are stocked with an impressive 7000 products across 70 sports and activities, like running, yoga, cycling, camping and dance. If you've got a sports nut or fitness fiend in your life, best put this one at the very top of your Christmas shopping hit-list. When the first Sydney store opened last year, CEO of Decathlon Australia Mr Olivier Robinet said that the company wants to make sport accessible to all locals. "Australians are some of the most active people in the world, the whole country is like a playground," he explained. "Until now many Australians have had to spend hundreds of dollars to get a quality product. Decathlon has now changed this." So how cheap is it? Well, a pair of yoga pants range will set you back between $12 and $40, while a two-person tent is $30. More than just a standard store, Decathlon also has dedicated active zones, where customers can roadtest certain products, and its own community sporting areas, where local sports clubs can host sign-up days, barbecues and fundraising events.de Decathlon is open at 1464 Ferntree Gully Road, Knoxfield and at 249 Middleborough Road, Box Hill South. For more info, visit decathlon.com.au. Updated: December 23, 2018.
St Kilda institution The Espy is going all out this negroni week — the venue is offering 1.5-litre magnums to the negroni loving masses. The special batched cocktail was made in American oak barrels, then treated with Tawny port for two months, aged for an additional four weeks and bottled onsite. As this negroni is very large (and very strong), the magnum bottles will only be served to a tables of eight or more — a great excuse to grab seven of your best mates and make a night of it. As to be expected, the novelty doesn't come cheap, and will set you back $280, though $60 of the cost will go to Sacred Heart Mission (a leading charity for the homeless). Individual serves of the stuff will also be available for $19, and five bucks of that will go to the same charity. It'll be available all week long at the venue's Cantonese restaurant Mya Tiger. Negroni Week at The Epsy runs from June 24–30 — head to their website to book a table.
Pack your bags, book a flight, grab your winter woolies, and get ready to head to Hobart. For yet another year running, the Museum of Old and New Art is making Tasmania the place to be with events more weird and more wonderful than ever before. Yep, they've unveiled their stellar Dark Mofo 2016 lineup. From June 10 to 21, the museum every mainlander wishes was in their home city is unleashing its unique brand of large-scale art, food, film, music and just general light, noise and mayhem upon the apple isle. It's the kind of cultural pandemonium that has inspired more than 130,000 people to make the trek to Tassie in previous years. Now that's how you celebrate the winter solstice. One-off installation Asylum, set inside a historic mental institution, includes a 72-hour, non-stop performance by artist Mike Parr — and it only accepts mirrors (yes, those shiny things you can see your own reflection in) as an entry fee. It's the type of event most festivals can only dream of, so, naturally, it's on the Dark Mofo program. So is Ryoji Ikeda's supersymmetry [experience], which springs from his 2014-15 residence at the European Council for Nuclear Research, the home of the Large Hadron Collider, and will become the latest addition to the MONA collection. With the Juliana Engberg-curated exhibition Tempest bringing a blend of piracy and wild weather to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery at the same time, that's part of the Dark Mofo shenanigans as well. And it includes Event for a Stage: the Australian premiere of a new stage-to-film exploration of the acting and the creative process made by Turner Prize-winning Young British Artist Tacita Dean OBE, starring Game of Thrones' Stephen Dillane, and shot live during the nineteenth Biennale of Sydney. If that's not enough to inspire a mid-year pilgrimage, then perhaps a public art playground filled everything from swinging pendulums to LED light drawings that transcribe the patterns of the wind will be. Yep, the dockside Dark Park is the place to find Divination, Nancy Mauro-Flude's thirties-era cabaret crossed with a cypherpunk internet cafe; A Galaxy of Suns, where Michaela Gleave and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Chorus turn constellations into scores; and the disorienting chamber of kaleidoscopic reflections that is Christian Wagstaff and Keith Courtney's House of Mirrors, too. We're noticing a theme here. [caption id="attachment_567185" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] The Bacchae. Image: Pia Johnson.[/caption] And really, that's just the beginning. Performance-wise, pop-up space Block Box will play host to a whole heap of pieces — although it depends if Lustmord's dark ambient tunes or hallucinatory theatrical event The Bacchae, a dream-like invocation of excess and violence as told through the eyes of teenage girls, is your kind of thing. Music fans will want to flock to Hymns to the Dead, where death metal gets its due, or to Rivers and Streams, the only Aussie show by Ukrainian maestro Lubomyr Melnyk, aka the fastest concert pianist in the world. Anyone fond of costume balls can don their best gothic threads for The Funeral Party — and given that it's set at Turnbull Family Funerals, it's certain to be as dark as it sounds. Plus, film buffs should expect another fright-inducing feast of sinister cinematic delights, such as heavy metal horror effort The Devil's Candy. Dark Mofo isn't just about all things new and exciting, though, with a couple of old favourites also returning. Late-night event Blacklist will turn both weekends into an art party, and the Winter Feast will serve up another communal banquet. Don't forget to purge your fears with the annual burning ritual of the ogoh-ogohs, and take part in the Nude Solstice Swim after the longest night of the year. Basically, whatever type of activity floats your boat, you'd best get on one — or another type of landmass-hopping transport — to take part. With a lineup this killer, you know you're going to kick yourself if you miss it. Dark Mofo runs June 10 to 21 in various locations across Hobart, Tasmania. Tickets are on sale from 10am on Monday, April 20 from the festival website.
Sometimes, the spirit of a movie can stem from something as simple as sole stroke of casting. Sometimes, the right actor in the right role so perfectly encapsulates the material to come that everything else hangs off of that one performance — even if everything else is finely done but also familiar, as well as quite slight. In People Places Things, that one actor and portrayal springs from Jemaine Clement, otherwise known as one half of musical comedy duo — and star of the TV series of the same name — Flight of the Conchords. If his turn as vampire lothario Vladislav in 2014's uproarious What We Do in the Shadows demonstrated a more heightened version of his antics, then writer/director James C. Strouse's (Grace Is Gone) latest feature celebrates him at his most deadpan and understated. Clement plays Will Henry, a New Zealand-born, New York-based graphic artist happily married to Charlie (Stephanie Allynne), and just as happily helping raise twin daughters Clio (Aundrea Gadsby) and Colette (Gia Gadsby) — or so he thinks. That upbeat emotion fades at his offspring's fifth birthday party amid revelations that Charlie wants to leave him for the man, Gary (Michael Chernus), she has been having an affair with. Fast-forward to a year later, with the newly single Will struggling with part-time parenting, not to mention full-time estrangement from the now-engaged and pregnant woman he thought he'd share his life with, and teaching at an art school to make ends meet. One of his more eager students, Kat (Jessica Williams), tries to set him up with her mother, Diane (Regina Hall). Alas, his considerable baggage threatens to derail any chance they have at forging a relationship. People Places Things may read like a typical mid-life malaise rom-com, and even initially threatens to follow such a path, but Strouse remains more concerned with Will's state of mind than his romantic endeavours. Love features prominently, as do laughs, but this is an effort steeped in finding internal contentment rather external companionship. The strong focus on Will's search to reclaim his sense of self — aka an adult coming-of-age — helps salvage his traversing of the usual plot points. That too has a been-there, seen-that quality, though in the filmmaker's hands it is thoughtfully written and elegantly executed, and in Clement's portrayal it feels real. Always awkward and dry, albeit authentically so, as well as enjoying impeccable timing, he's an ideal fit to deliver straight-faced puns about pain and embarrassment that sparkle with both truth and wit. He's also in good company when it comes to the commanding Williams and Hall, who each beg for more screen time, even if the narrative doesn't deliver. Other than the cast, the hand-drawn images by Gray Williams draw the eye, all passed off as Will's work and proving as charming as the actor who plays him. They're small sketches that map out big things, as the lead performance is as well. If only all such sincere and sweet yet still slender and recognisable efforts could possess such gifts.
Melbourne artist Sonia Payes' new exhibition Interzone draws on a theme that has inspired artists ever since one first hopped on a steam engine train: industrialisation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution was viewed by artists such as Monet (in his portraits of railways) and Maximilien Luce as a new enlightenment, with works that celebrated the innovation and majesty of man. Payes, during a recent residency in Beijing, watched on as China went through its own Industrial Revolution. Her resulting collection of photographs paint a far more sombre and haunting portrait of how vast areas of farmland have been torn down to make way for a world of quarries, steam factories and concrete. Payes' painfully beautiful photographs demonstrate not only how industrialisation has effected the Chinese landscape but how it has transformed the lives of the Chinese people and their centuries old relationship with the land. The exhibition officially opens on Saturday May 4, from 3pm to 5pm. Image Sonia Payes
Therese Desqueyroux plays out in 1920s provincial France, where unconventional protagonist Therese (Tautou as an anti-Amelie) weds a wealthy business owner, choosing pragmatism over love. She realises the marriage is a trap lying in wait, a fact highlighted by her stubborn sister-in-law's rash, passionate love affair with a poor, Jewish neighbour. Weighted with an unwanted pregnancy, Therese longs for an out and when she discovers that too much of her husband's medicine makes him ill, she makes an irreversible mistake. There are two portraits painted here: one of a woman's slow dawning that she has no control over her life and one of the society that corners women and strips them of their choices. The challenge for the highly respected director Claude Miller is to bring freshness to a theme so thoroughly mined by other adapted novels like Anna Karenina and Portrait of a Lady. Perhaps something has been lost in the translation from novel to film. Perhaps Miller should have kept the book's original structure. Commencing with Therese's crime then stepping back to reveal the lead-up would have introduced some much-needed momentum and suspense. Whatever the misstep, the character of Therese, not unlike the film itself, remains a little out of reach. Where Miller aims for restraint he more often hits something closer to dour, with the outcome an austere, sombre character study. The film momentarily lifts off in a handful of beautifully shot dream sequences where Therese privately acts out her inner violence, but these respites are not quite enough to shake the fog.
Australia is getting its first Pride Centre. About time. After announcing the idea as part of the 2016/17 budget, the Victorian Government has revealed the centre's location: St Kilda. 79-81 Fitzroy Street will become a community hub dedicated to highlighting queer art and history; bringing together advisory, health and support services; providing community spaces and offering a safe environment. It'll be modelled after San Francisco's LGBTI Community Centre, though that's just a starting point. In fact, the government is thinking bigger than its US predecessor when it comes to size. The St Kilda spot was chosen after extensive consultation with the LGBTI community to find the right site, although, given that the suburb has played host to the annual Pride March since 1996, it shouldn't come as a surprise. Currently vacant, it has been secured for at least the next 20 years. The government has pledged $15 million towards what'll be called the Victorian Pride Centre, with work expected to begin in the next 12 months. "We will own this site in perpetuity — and march by it every Pride March knowing it is ours," offered Victorian Pride Centre Board Jude Munro AO. "The Pride Centre is long overdue — it is exciting news for the LGBTI community and yet another welcome addition to St Kilda," said Victorian Minister for Equality Martin Foley. "Our LGBTI community has a lot to be proud of, I congratulate everyone involved and we looking forward to see the site come to life."
If you were looking to seriously impress a special someone this winter, here's a little giveaway just for you. Three seriously dramatic acts are joining forces for French Baroque, a show that promises to turn your preconceived notions of circus and baroque music inside-out, upside-down and back-to-front. The first is acclaimed acrobatic troupe Circa, who have been travelling the world with their take on circus as stunning, mobile contemporary art. The second is French soprano Claire Lefilliâtre, who has been starring on stages all over Europe. And the third is the five-time ARIA Award-winning Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, home to some of our nation’s best interpreters of 16th- and 17th-century music. With the music of French composers Rameau, Lully and Marais as inspiration, Circa’s artistic director, Yaron Lifschitz, describes the pasticcio of selected music as combining “the longing of the night with the playful side of French baroque”. He's choreographed a performance to meet this mood. “I have responded by creating a river of moonlight that divides the stage, reflecting singer and acrobat, musician and vocalist,” he says. “In the interplay between delight and desire, between pleasure and abandonment, we see a world created where bodies seamlessly meld into song, where lives and loves intermingle and where the simple magic of singing speaks clearly to the heart.” French Baroque will be performed at Sydney’s City Recital Hall from July 22 to August 8, and at Melbourne Recital Centre from July 25 to 26. Tickets range from $20 -166, but thanks to the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, we have two A-reserve double passes for to give away to both the Sydney and Melbourne opening nights, on July 22 and July 25 respectively. If you can't make the opening night (which you really should), you can pick your date. To be in the running, subscribe to our mailing list and then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au
It's hard to pick which is more horrifying in Happening: the graphic scenes where 23-year-old literature student Anne Duchesne (Anamaria Vartolomei, How to Be a Good Wife) takes the only steps she can to try to regain control of her life, or the times she's repeatedly told by others, typically men, to accept a fate that only ever awaits her gender. Both hit like a punch, by design. Both are wrenching, heart and gut alike, and neither are surprising for a second. Also leaving a mark: that few care that Anne's future is now threatened in this 2021 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion-winner, because that's simply a consequence of having sex for women in France in 1963, the movie's setting. There's another truth that lingers over this adaptation of author Annie Ernaux's 2001 memoir of the same name, which uses her own experiences at the same age, time and in the same situation: that in parts of the world where pro-life perspectives are entrenched in law or regaining prominence, Happening's scenario isn't a relic of the past. Late in the movie, Anne describes her circumstances as "that illness that turns French women into housewives". It's a blunt turn of phrase, but it's accurate. It also speaks to how writer/director Audrey Diwan (Losing It) and co-scribe Marcia Romano (Bye Bye Morons) approach the film with the clearest of eyes, declining to indulge the idea that forcing unwanted motherhood upon young women is a gift or simply a duty, and likewise refusing to flinch from showing the reality when the personal freedom to choose is stripped away. This is a feature made with the fullest of hearts, too, compassion evident in every boxed-in Academy ratio frame that rarely leaves Anne's face. It spies the appalling options before her, and sees the society that's okay with stealing her choices. And, it stares deeply at both the pain and determination that've understandably taken up residence in Anne's gaze. The second of Ernaux's works to hit screens of late after the also candid and moving Simple Passion, Happening begins with hope, with Anne and her Angoulême college dormmates Hélène (Luàna Bajrami, The Hill Where Lionesses Roar) and Brigitte (Louise Orry-Diquéro, Occidental) getting ready for a dance. They're filled with the excitement that comes with believing anything could happen — there's fun to be had, men to meet and lives to be changed — but, once there, it's obvious that these kinds of nights always follow the same pattern. Their university's resident mean girls glare on in judgement when Anne even talks to a guy, but she doesn't let that stop her. She isn't one to weather their bullying, gossip and slut-shaming, including once she discovers she's expecting three weeks after a casual fling. The only thing that terrifies the ambitious and bright working-class student: losing the ability to live the life that she's been working towards. The alternative is highly illegal, so much so that securing help from medical professionals, friends and family is overwhelmingly difficult. Delivering the surprising pregnancy news, Anne's family doctor (Fabrizio Rongione, Azor) is sympathetic to the stark scenario facing his patient, knowing the stigma that'll come her way for being an unwed single mother, and that her dreams of teaching will be derailed. Still, given that prison is the punishment for illicit terminations, he shuts down any notion of lending a hand. Even chatting about abortion hypothetically with Hélène and Brigitte before they know she's with child earns the same dismissive response. The baby's father (Julien Frison, Lover for a Day), a visiting student, just wants the situation handled, and asking a flirtatious classmate (Kacey Mottet Klein, Farewell to the Night) for assistance just ends with him hitting on Anne; she's already pregnant so he figures she'll be up for it and there'll be no consequences. Diwan's film is patient and precise as it marks the passing time with text on-screen, each successive week making Anne's situation more precarious and her hopes of avoiding parenthood less likely. It's a straightforward touch, but such overt tracking helps achieve Happening's key aim: immersing viewers in Anne's distressing emotional, physical and psychological rollercoaster ride. She knows what she wants, and what she definitely doesn't. As weeks flit by, though, and every potential avenue for support either crumbles or deepens her struggle, the ordeal takes its toll. Anne persists, searching for acquaintances of friends of friends who can guide her in the right direction in whispers, and Happening is committed to depicting the loneliness, hurt and despair that follows. Whether involving injections, knitting needles, secret procedures and stifled anguished cries, or just the grim tenor of her words and posture, the result is harrowing and unsettling. Vartolomei's on-screen credits date back more than a decade, but this is a career-catapulting performance — and film-defining. She's saddled with a mammoth task, with cinematographer Laurent Tangy (OSS 117: From Africa with Love) rarely peering elsewhere, and she ensures that every feeling coursing through Anne's veins reverberates through the lens. Vartolomei is furious, agitated and panicked all at once. She's resolute and resourceful as well, and also frightened and exhausted. Her inner state gets its own echo in the mood-setting score by Evgueni and Sacha Galperine, who also made 2021 TV miniseries Scenes From a Marriage sting with tension, but she'd leave the same heartbreaking impression if Happening didn't feature a note of music. And while her portrayal is all her own, it's as instinctual as the last exceptional performance in the last phenomenal award-winning drama about abortion, aka Sidney Flanigan's in 2020's Never Rarely Sometimes Always. It doesn't escape attention that Diwan almost plays it coy with period details; if you didn't know going in that Happening is set in the 60s, it isn't quick to point it out. The fashion nods that way — in having Anne frequently seen in the same dusty red top, the film also uses costuming to convey her modest background and urgent focus on much more important things than clothing — and there's a clear lack of phones, of course. Expressing that this type of tale still rings true today is another of the movie's objectives, however, and it's as compelling a move as Diwan makes. Happening is haunting and shattering, immaculately crafted, unwavering in its honesty, and as confronting as it needs to be, and it wields all of the above with passion and purpose. And yes, picking what's more horrendous — Anne's many physical traumas, or the contempt that women are held in for having uteruses, liking sex and seeking agency over their futures — is impossible.
Another month, another great selection of contemporary art exhibition to check out. And October has spoiled us, with major arts and cultural events kicking off with some of the finest artists from our lands and beyond. Melbourne Festival 2017 is open for another year with an eclectic range of events, while Australia's best portrait painters see their work on display at Geelong Gallery for the 2017 Archibald Prize. If you prefer your portraits by photograph, the National Photographic Portrait Prize is also on this month at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. With so many great events — featuring many local and international creative geniuses — there's art, design, music, film and more to see.
Gelato Messina, nostalgia and limited-edition desserts: that's the sweet-treat holy trinity. The cult-favourite ice creamery not only loves making one-off specials in general — it adores whipping up delights based on the dishes you loved as a kid. The latest: a honey joy version of its bake-at-home sticky scroll. Scrolls — or snails, as Messina calls them — are no strangers to the brand's range. Neither are honey joy treats, after it made a honey joy cookie pie in 2022. But combining the two is indeed a new development. Yes, it'll take you all the way back to your tuckshop days, and ensure that you can skip your next cereal breakfast. So, what exactly is a honey joy sticky snail? It's a scroll-like dish that's made to feed several people — four-to-six is Messina's recommendation — as filled with vanilla crème pâtissière. On top, you'll find honey joy clusters and honey caramel. And to go with it, because Messina is all about frosty desserts, is cereal milk gelato. Yes, this is another of the chain's Frankenstein's monster-style indulgences — and the entire pack includes the snail and a one-litre tub of gelato. If you're keen to get yourself a piece, they're available to preorder online on Tuesday, September 19. And, because Messina's specials always prove popular, the brand staggers its on-sale times. Accordingly, folks in Queensland and the ACT are able to purchase at 9am, Victorians at 9.15am, and New South Wales customers are split across three times (between 9.30–10am) depending on the store. You'll then need to head to your local Messina store to collect your order between Friday, September 22–Sunday, September 24. You can preorder Gelato Messina's honey joy sticky snail pack from Tuesday, September 19, to pick up from all stores in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland between Friday, September 22–Sunday, September 24.
Is this low-budget, low-key production Joss Whedon's post-Avengers campaign for cred as a Legit Indie Filmmaker? Much Ado About Nothing is Shakespeare's 1598 version of a rom-com, hauled mercilessly into 2013 with cocktails, cupcakes and a sensibility that's both verbose and slapstick. Our two lovers, Beatrice (Amy Acker) and Benedick (Alexis Denisof), are cluelessly star-crossed, blinded by their own pride and ego. Whether you find what plays out a tedious, self-financed pet project or an endearing contemporary translation will depend on your familiarity with the almost untouched original text and your appreciation/tolerance of Whedon universe in-jokes (like the Dollhouse set prop). The project was shot in 12 days at the end of Avengers production with a cast of usual Whedon suspects. It's a somewhat grinding change of gears from the Marvel machine, but in an age of relentless threequels, 3D fantasies and franchisable remakes, it's admirable to see a big-shot director get back to basics. Whedon does everything from writing the slightly cheesy score to staging the entire production in his LA mansion. It's shot in black and white, which seems to be an easy shorthand for self-declared serious independent directors lately, but Whedon makes it work. Just. Across all his various projects, this director's trademark is self-assuredness, and every frame of Much Ado About Nothing bounces with energy. It's as slick as you'd expect, if not a little forgettable, and definitely not daring. Then again, it's not meant to be: it's for Whedon's maniacal audience and for himself. The Elizabethan speech rarely totally flows, the modern setting jars and not all the actors convince. But the director's fondness for the typical Shakespearean preoccupations of hidden identity, destined love and thwarted revenge can't help but seep through. A frothy labour of love. https://youtube.com/watch?v=NZB5EBdKaMw
Looking for a unique spot to dance your way into 2023? We've found it. Once again, Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium invites you to party with the fish as you send out the old year in style at its Dancing in the Deep NYE party. You'll score a cocktail on arrival to enjoy while you explore Sea Life's current exhibitions — getting up close and personal to jellyfish, giant rays, sharks, seahorses and a colourful array of tropical fish — with more drinks available to purchase from the bar throughout the night. The dance floor is set to make quite a splash, too, as you move to sounds by DJ Eliza while sea creatures float all around you. Chefs will be whipping up a range of bites to enjoy along the way, from sliders to hot doughnut balls. And then, as the big moment draws closer, you'll be whisked up to the balcony for a front-row seat to watch the city's fireworks display explode over the city skyline. Tickets are $95, which gets you entry, your first cocktail and food.
There's only one thing wrong with the third season of Reservation Dogs: it's the show's last. After three years and 28 episodes spent with Muscogee Nation residents in Oklahoma — and also on a journey to California and back — this coming-of-age dramedy says farewell as sublimely and soulfully as it's said everything else since 2021. When Reservation Dogs initially arrived, including on Binge in Australia, its debut season delivered one of the best new TV shows of that year. Next, its second spin served up one of the best returning shows of 2022. The show's swansong achieves the same for 2023, and in a ten-episode run that takes many of the series' own messages to heart. There's a skill in recognising when something's time has come, as Reservation Dogs knows. As co-created, executive produced and written by Sterlin Harjo (Mekko) and Taika Waititi (Thor: Love and Thunder), this series is also well-aware that little lasts in life, but anything that's truly great always leaves an imprint and makes an impact. And, the show lives and breathes the idea that doing the best that you can with the time that you have is one of the noblest of purposes. Accordingly, while the teen-centric comedy about restless Indigenous North American adolescents feels like it could (and should) keep telling its stories forever, it wraps up with a season that's a rich and resonant goodbye — and continues to expand its slice-of-life tales, hero its distinctive perspectives and sink into minutiae that's seen nowhere else on television. Waititi gave Reservation Dogs its biggest name when it began with four Okern residents, aka the titular Rez Dogs, stealing a Flaming Flamers delivery truck to try to sell it to raise cash for their dream escape to the west coast. On the filmmaker's resume, it's one of a trio of brilliant half-hour comedies, premiering after the What We Do in the Shadows television spinoff was already a couple of seasons in and preceding pirate rom-com Our Flag Means Death. It's Harjo who is Reservation Dogs' guiding force, however, steering a series that couldn't be more original — and perfect. The casting, the cinematography, the equal parts dry and offbeat humour, the mix of clear-eyed reality and deeply felt spirituality, the thoughtfulness that swells through every touch: episode by episode, including in its masterful last season, these elements combine to make outstanding television. From its first-ever instalment, Reservation Dogs has hung out with its characters as they chase dreams and face truths, and realise that life is all about flitting between the two. So, it has enjoyed Bear (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Fitting In), Elora (Devery Jacobs, Rutherford Falls), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) and Cheese's (Lane Factor, The Fabelmans) company as they learn about the transience of existence at every moment, whether they're striving to see more than the place that they've always called home, grappling with loss or pondering what the future means. Of course moving on was always going to come for this show, then. Of course it's finishing on its own terms, too. And of course its final season is more moving, ruminative and mesmerising than ever. When viewers last saw the Rez Dogs at the end of season two, the OG quartet plus Jackie (Elva Guerra, Dark Winds), their once-rival and now somewhat-reluctant newcomer to the group, had finally made the trip to California that they'd been working towards their entire lives — but with added urgency after the death of their friend Daniel. Season three picks up with the gang still far away from home, and still journeying even when they do return. Elora considers both her past and her future, complete with an excellent guest appearance by Ethan Hawke (Moon Knight) in an episode that Jacobs directed. Bear goes wandering on his own, including through several revelatory encounters (and with the spirit of The Battle of Little Big Horn warrior William Knifeman, as played by another Rutherford Falls alum in Dallas Goldtooth, still popping up). Both Cheese and Willie Jack keep discovering new learnings within their community. All continue to utter and inspire the term "shitass", all while navigating everything from grief to hope. Harjo remains unafraid to depart from his leads along the way, whether sliding into history to explore myths, traditions or horrors inflicted upon Indigenous children; hanging with the Rez Dogs' parents and elders now as well as in their younger days; and taking the revenge-fuelled Deer Lady (Kaniehtiio Horn, Alice, Darling) out of folklore and into a denim jumpsuit. A true portrait of community — and, of it teens embracing what it means to be a part of it — Reservation Dogs finds a story, be it big or small, for everyone within its frames. In season three, Bear's mother Rita (Sarah Podemski, Resident Alien) contemplates a big promotion that'll take her away from Okern, Elora's forever-20 mum Cookie (Janae Collins, Killers of the Flower Moon) still has messages to send as a spirit, and Jackie's aunt Bev (Rutherford Falls lead Jana Schmieding) has a spark with Officer Big (Zahn McClarnon, No Hard Feelings). Indeed, Reservation Dogs floats between characters as skilfully as it jumps between genres, in a series that can be anything in any given episode. During this last stretch, it's a road-trip awakening and an adventurous magical-realist odyssey. Then it dives into horror akin to Jordan Peele's work (see: Get Out, Us and Nope), as well as workplace comedy. Reservation Dogs flirts with 70s-set Dazed and Confused territory after that, plus an Ocean's-esque heist and sincere family drama as well. Harjo and his creative team nail each and every one — and ensure that every turn reinforces the show's survey of Native American life. This is a series that revels in the daily specifics, including the triumphs and joys; honours cultural conventions and how they're passed down; parodies cliches; and never forgets for a moment the plight that First Nations Americans have endured since colonial times. Everyday facts, ghostly visitors, decrying the worst of history, watching the next generation find its own way while balancing tradition and modernity, championing Indigenous talents emerging and experienced (including Killers of the Flower Moon's Lily Gladstone, Dead Man's Gary Farmer, The Last of the Mohicans' Wes Studi and Dances with Wolves' Graham Greene in the latter category): that's the juggling act that Reservation Dogs couldn't handle better. As Atlanta also achieved while similarly musing on race in the US, serving up surprises in every single episode and proving a creative masterpiece, it sees the moment-by-moment scene and the broader view. That both pictures take in the Oklahoma landscape also helps Reservation Dogs look like little else, as well as feel it. The show's legacy is equally pivotal; Bear, Elora, Willie Jack and Cheese especially will be deeply missed, but Woon-A-Tai, Jacobs, Alexis and Factor shouldn't ever be far from screens after this exceptional breakthrough. Check out the trailer for Reservation Dogs season three below: Reservation Dogs streams via Binge. Read our review of season two, too. Images: Shane Brown/FX.
If you're citybound and missing out on New Year's Eve festivals like Falls and Beyond The Valley this year, don't fret. Let Them Eat Cake is your inner city solution to satisfy those festival urges. Held for one day only at Werribee Park, LTEC is not only great for the music, but also plays host to installation art, openair exhibitions and some killer foodie offerings. But back to the music, this year's lineup includes the likes of Hudson Mohawke, Todd Terje, Cashmere Cat, Carl Craig and many others. Have your cake and eat it too guys, you've earned it this year.
Since 2016, the cinema-loving world has had a Studio Ghibli-shaped hole in its heart. That's when the acclaimed Japanese animation house released its most recent film, the gorgeous French co-production The Red Turtle. Its last solo production actually came two years earlier, courtesy of 2014's When Marnie Was There. Still, much has happened in Studio Ghibli's world over the past decade. Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement, then changed his mind. In 2018, fellow co-founder and acclaimed director Isao Takahata sadly passed away. And, over the past few years, the company has been busying itself with its very own theme park. The latter is due to open in 2022 and become quite the tourist attraction — but that doesn't mean that fans aren't keen for more Ghibli movies. Thankfully, the studio revealed earlier this year that it's working on just that, with two new films on its slate for 2020. One of those movies will be helmed by My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle icon Miyazaki, with How Do You Live? actually first announced a few years back. As for the second film, information have been scarce to date; however the company has just provided more than a few details. Called Aya and the Witch — and also known as Earwig and the Witch in English — the movie will mark the first Studio Ghibli completely made using computer-generated animation. Director-wise, it's helmed by Hayao Miyazaki's son Goro Miyazaki, who previously directed Tales from Earthsea and From Up On Poppy Hill. It's also based on a novel written by British author Diana Wynne Jones, who penned the book that Howl's Moving Castle was adapted from, too. And, it'll head straight to Japanese television, with the film airing on local broadcaster NHK TV sometime during Japan's winter. Just when audiences elsewhere will get to see Aya and the Witch is yet to be revealed; however it was announced this week that it would've screened at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival if the event had gone ahead this year. In lieu of holding a physical fest, the prestigious event announced a lineup of 56 movies it would've shown, giving them the 'Cannes 2020 Official Selection' label — and Ghibli's latest is one of them. In terms of story, Aya and the Witch focuses on a girl at an orphanage. She enjoys living there, but her world changes when she's chosen to live with a couple — including, as the title makes plain, a witch. Fingers crossed that Aya and the Witch will head to screens Down Under sooner rather than later. In the interim, you can get your Ghibli fix by checking out the company's online tours of its museum on the outskirts of Tokyo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccgm1Pp5Whw Via Studio Ghibli. Top image: Howl's Moving Castle.
Another week, another Gelato Messina special. That's been the dessert chain's contribution to making lockdown a little more bearable over the past year and a half, and it isn't changing that tactic now. So, if you're under stay-at-home conditions in Sydney and Melbourne, you now have another indulgent sweet treat to look forward to. And for folks in southeast Queensland, you've got an excuse to treat yo'self to a decadent dessert anyway. On the menu this time: the return of the brand's Basque cheesecake gelato, but without the sticky Cinnabon-style scrolls it came paired with when it made its debut back in August. You'll be able to buy a one-litre tub of the stuff, which comes filled with exactly what it says on the label — that'd be Basque cheesecake gelato — and is topped with a slice of toasted Basque cheesecake. The special can only be ordered online on Monday, September 27. It will set you back $35 — and, because Messina's specials always prove popular, the brand is staggering the on-sale times. Accordingly, folks in Queensland and the ACT are able to purchase at 9am, Victorians at 9.30am, and New South Wales customers split across three times depending on the store (with pies from Circular Quay, Surry Hills, Bondi, Randwick and Miranda on sale at 10am; Brighton Le Sands, Tramsheds, Parramatta and Darlinghurst at 10.30am; and Darling Square, Newtown, Rosebery and Penrith at 11am). The catch? You'll have to peel yourself off the couch and head to your local Messina store to pick up your order. They'll be available for collection between Friday, October 1–Sunday, October 3. Sydneysiders, remember to abide by lockdown restrictions when it comes to picking up your bavarian — which means sticking to your Local Government Area, or within five-kilometres from home. Melburnians, under new eased lockdown rules that come into effect in mid-September, you're permitted to travel within a ten-kilometre radius to pick up food. You can preorder a Messina Basque cheesecake gelato tub from Monday, September 27, to pick up from Friday, October 1–Sunday, October 3.
Films for grown-ups. They're regretfully rare (and I bemoaned this rarity just last week), but we have one in Performance. What could be construed merely as a music film is in fact a tightly wound, deliberate and sensitive depiction of creative, platonic and romantic relationships on the edge of destruction. Affairs, betrayals, sacrifice — together this list appears as standard soap opera material. But in the assured hands of former documentary-maker Yaron Zilberman, they are so much more. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken and Mark Ivanir give astonishing performances as members of an esteemed Manhattan string quartet. As a creative family, the quartet's future is thrown into doubt when Walken's character develops Parkinson's — a particularly devastating diagnosis for a musician whose profession hinges on the dexterity of his hands. Here is a film that presents the complexities of regret, the price of compromise and the undoable consequences of the decisions you only realise in retrospect were, in fact, decisions. All these themes find their mirror in the intimacy and sacrifice of the quartet's musical collaboration and the intensity of their tenuous creative bonds. Performance is finely tuned and deeply moving. Its precise, dynamic dialogue gives the impression of being written by a master playwright. Its score rates a special mention — composer Angelo Badalamenti also wrote Twin Peaks''unforgettable theme. Its characters are fully fledged vessels of hurt, resentment and miscommunication, but they're not monsters — they're just actually human. And for a real, grown-up, mainstream film, that's not just unusual, that's something to treasure. https://youtube.com/watch?v=yaFTheo2v-E
Thrills, mystery, eeriness, feeling unsettled while sat inside a shipping container: that's all on the agenda in Melbourne again when Darkfield returns to the Victorian capital with two of its popular — and unnerving — installations. The Arts Centre Melbourne forecourt is welcoming the atmospheric Séance and Flight, which have earned a cult following on previous visits here, around the countries and overseas — and regularly sell out, with more than 300,000 Australians stepping inside to-date. Entering these metal boxes is one way to escape the summer sunshine, or whatever Melbourne's weather has in store for three months from mid-December 2024 onwards. Séance and Flight open on Friday, December 13, aka the perfect date for it — and consider them the perfect way to get a break from festive cheer, too. Séance plays on the concept of sensory deprivation, thrusting audiences on a journey into the supernatural realm as they join a medium in trying to contact the spirit world. Accordingly, unlike most shipping containers around the place, this one definitely isn't being used to transport furniture. Given that the word 'séance' is written on the side in black, it's more than a little ominous from before you even walk through the door. Participants will be able to take a seat inside, and then put on a headset. You'll next be told to put both hands on the table. The lights go out, leaving the place in absolute darkness — and, for 20 uneasy minutes, you'll be taken on an immersive journey led only by touch and sounds. Expect to feel confused, repulsed and struck with temporary claustrophobia. According to organisers, numerous participants have bailed halfway through sittings in the past. As the name suggests, Flight takes place on board an imagined plane, sending passengers tripping through dual worlds as they're forced to ponder the many possible outcomes if the cabin suddenly happened to lose pressure. This is a nerve-jangler, for sure, even for those who aren't afraid of flying. You won't actually be jetting anywhere, of course; however you will be strapping yourself into a section of a real commercial airliner. Created by Glen Neath and David Rosenberg, Flight draws upon the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics while taking attendees on a multi-sensory journey. "We didn't think a return to Melbourne would be on the cards, but while Darkfield has been on tour, Melbournians have been all over our socials asking when it's their turn again. So we knew we had to bring fan-favourites Séance and Flight back to our home city for another season," said Realscape Productions Producer Amy Johnson. "The productions are ideal for anyone who loves the thrill of multi-sensory entertainment, and immersing themselves in the unknown. They are playing in the heart of Melbourne's entertainment precinct at the city's most lively time of the year, so they're the perfect option for a fun date night, pre-dinner experience or post-tennis thrill." Find Séance and Flight at the Arts Centre Melbourne forecourt, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, from Friday, December 13, 2024. For further information and to buy tickets, head to the Darkfield website. Images: Realscape Productions, Axis Productions, Mihaela Bodlovic and Jack Rintoul.
Sydneysiders, you won't be getting your fix of bright lights this June. You won't be spending a couple of weeks holed up in a cinema, either. But, while both Vivid and Sydney Film Festival have postponed their 2021 events to August, the first month of winter definitely won't be quiet. Clearly seeing an empty slot on the city's social calendar, New South Wales Government's tourism and events agency Destination NSW is putting together a new festival that'll start the chillier season in style. Sydney Solstice is slated to take place from Tuesday, June 8–Sunday, June 20, with a big focus on dining, drinking, entertainment, arts and culture. The fest will take up residence at four Sydney precincts across the 13-day period, delivering a program filled with live music, performances, comedy, workshops, food and drink, exhibitions and installations. So, expect to spend plenty of time in the CBD and surrounding areas (including The Rocks, Circular Quay, Walsh Bay and Chinatown), over at Darling Harbour and its adjacent spots (such as Barangaroo, Glebe, Ultimo and Pyrmont), around the Oxford Street area (including Paddington, Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Rushcutters Bay, Woolloomooloo, Elizabeth Bay, Kings Cross, Potts Point and Entertainment Quarter) and in the vicinity of Newtown (plus Enmore, Erskineville, Alexandria, Chippendale, Darlington and Redfern). As with most big events announced at the moment, Sydney Solstice is driven by a desire to get more folks out and about around town — and spending money supporting the economy. Destination NSW is particularly focusing on boosting the city's arts and culture, music and entertainment, and food and beverage industries, and also placing a big emphasis on NSW talent. Exactly what's on the lineup hasn't yet been revealed, with Destination NSW currently calling for expressions of interest from businesses interested in taking part — including restaurants and bars, entertainment venues, promoters, and arts and cultural organisations — until early April. The agency is specifically eager for big drawcards that are either completely new, or substantially reimagine or enhance existing activities, as well as other relevant events that can fall under the festival's umbrella. For now, until the program hits, you might want to block out your diary in advance. Sydney joins Melbourne in getting a new winter festival this year — although the Victorian capital's new event, Rising, was originally slated to launch in 2020, but was delayed due to the pandemic. Sydney Solstice will take place from Tuesday, June 8–Sunday, June 20. We'll update you with further details when they're announced — and you can keep an eye on the festival's website, too.
A moscato made with beer hops. Chenin blanc infused with pine resin. Queensland's only wine fermented in terracotta. They're some of the wildly delicious drops made by Australia's just-announced Top 50 winemakers for 2020, as chosen by Young Gun of Wine (YGOW). Running since 2007, the annual award showcases the up-and-coming wine labels and winemakers pushing the boundaries and making some damn-fine wine. The Top 50 were chosen by the industry's leading chefs, winemakers and sommeliers, including Louella Mathews of Sydney's Bibo Wine Bar, Mona sommelier Pip Anderson, Charlotte Hardy of Charlotte Dalton Wines and wine critic Nick Stock. And, full disclosure, I was also a judge — so I can personally vouch for these wines. If you're currently self-isolating, working from home or are just wanting to spend a little more time indoors at the moment, this list has arrived at a helpful time — you now have 50 wine labels to drink your way through, from the comfort of your apartment. On said list, you'll find 17 winemakers from Victoria, 14 from SA, six from NSW/ACT, WA and Tasmania, and one from Queensland. Dirty Candy Wine's Daniel Payne, Con-Greg Grigoriou from SA's Delinquente Wine Co, Frederick Stevenson's Steve Crawford, Alexander Byrne from Noisy Ritual in Victoria, Le Petite Mort's Andrew Scott from Queensland are some of the makers whose wines you'll be wanting to 'add to cart' right now. You'll have a chance to chat to some of these winemakers while you taste their wines, too — and for free. Because of current health concerns surrounding COVID-19, YGOW has cancelled its usual in-person tasting events, but, instead, it'll be hosting a series of virtual events in May. The free online series will see you chatting to winemakers and industry experts from your bed, couch or even bath while sipping on vino. You can sign up for those over here. Once you've tasted some of the wines from the list and chatted to some of the winemakers, you can vote in the People's Choice Award, which is open until June 1. Everyone that votes will get a $50 Langton's voucher — so, yes, you can purchase even more wine. The winners, including the People's Choice, Best New Act, Winemaker's Choice, Danger Zone and Young Gun of Wine, will then be announced on Monday, June 1. You can check out all the winners below: [caption id="attachment_765181" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Some of the 250 wines that were tasted and judged for YGOW. Photo by James Morgan[/caption] YOUNG GUN OF WINE 2020 TOP 50 NSW/ACT Daniel Payne from Dirt Candy Wine, Hunter Valley Angus Vinden from The Vinden Headcase, Hunter Valley Steve Mobbs from Dreaded Friend/Wallington Wines, Central Ranges Will Gilbert from Gilbert, Orange/Mudgee Tom Ward from Swinging Bridge, Orange Samuel Leyshon from Mallaluka, Canberra District QLD Andrew Scott from Le Petite Mort, Granite Belt SA Sholto Broderick & Louis Broderick from Basket Range Wine, Adelaide Hills Dylan Lee from Bird in Hand, Adelaide Hills James Hamilton from Golden Child, Adelaide Hills Michael Sexton from Main & Cherry, Adelaide Hills Sarah Adamson from Scout Wines, Adelaide Hills/New Zealand Tarrant Hansen from Spider Bill Wines, Adelaide Hills Alyson Tannenbaum from Vinteloper, Adelaide Hills Andre Bondar from Bondar Wines, McLaren Vale/Adelaide Hills Charles Seppelt & Skye Salter from Paralian Wines, McLaren Vale Mauricio Ruiz Cantu & Benjamin Caldwell from Somos, McLaren Vale Con-Greg Grigoriou from Delinquente Wine Co, Riverland Ansel Ashby from Gatch Wine, Riverland/Adelaide Hills/Clare Valley Steve Crawford from Frederick Stevenson, Barossa Valley Eden Valley/Adelaide Hills Nick Dugmore from The Stoke Wines, Kangaroo Island TAS Jonathan Hughes from Mewstone Wines, Tasmania Greer Carland from Quiet Mutiny, Tasmania Gilli & Paul Lipscombe from Sailor Seeks Horse, Tasmania James Broinowski from Small Island Wines, Tasmania Ricky Evans from Two Tonne Tasmania, Tasmania Hugh McCullough from Wellington & Wolfe, Tasmania VIC Chris Catlow from Sentio, Beechworth Raquel Jones from Weathercraft, Beechworth Natasha Webster from Empire of Dirt Wines, Geelong Ben Mullen from Mulline, Geelong Justin Purser from Dhiaga, Mornington Peninsula Glen Hayley from Kooyong/Port Phillip Estate, Mornington Peninsula Tara & Matthew Campbell from Mattara Wines, Mornington Peninsula/Grampians Alexander Byrne from Noisy Ritual, Victoria Chris Bendle from DCB Wine, Yarra Valley Tim Perrin from from Oakridge Wines, Yarra Valley Hadyn Black from Black & Ginger, Great Western/Grampians/Henty/Pyrenees Leighton Joy from Pyren Vineyard, Pyrenees Chris Dilworth & Loique Allain from Dilworth & Allain, Macedon Ranges Renata Morello from Lyons Will Estate, Macedon Ranges Ben Ranken from Wilimee, Macedon Ranges Bart Van Olphen from Chalmers, Heathcote/Mildura Jonathan Ross from Micro Wines, Geelong/Barossa Valley WA Alexi Christidis from Chalari Wines, Perth Hills, Swan Valley Garth Cliff from Vino Volta, Swan Valley/Swan District/Geographe/Perth Hills Natasha Arthur from Arthur Wines, Margaret River Dylan Arvidson from LS Merchants, Margaret River/Frankland River Remi Guise from tripe.Iscariot, Margaret River Kim Tyrer from Galafrey Wines, Mount Barker You can sign up for Young Gun of Wine's Top 50 virtual events here and vote in the People's Choice Award before June 1 here. To purchase the above wines, head to the individual wine label's website or order from online bottle shops such as Drnks, P&V, Vinomofo and Blackhearts & Sparrows.
Got your New Year's Eve plans sorted? How about New Year's Day, then? Every year, on the first day of January, party-goers with stamina flock to Coburg Velodrome for Freedom Time, a one-day multi-stage festival filled with acts from both home and away. The organisers have teamed up with Wax'o Paradiso and Skylab Radio to curate a variety of genres, from progressive funk and '80s-influenced pop to ambient and future soul. Among the artists travelling from abroad to usher in 2019 are DJ Donna Leake (UK), who's done quite a bit of time at London's renowned sushi-meets-electronica venue Brilliant Corners; Dam-FUNK (US), whose devotion to progressive funk has been total since the 1990s; and DJ duo Alex Rita and Errol (UK), whose mixing visits jazz, soul and broken beat. From here in Australia, look out for future soul band Hiatus Kaiyote, who've scored two Grammy nominations; Sydney-based ambient duo Angophora; and, also hailing from Sydney, 80s pop god Donny Benet. Image: Duncographic.
Melburnians will have two outdoor electronica festivals to choose from come January 1, 2019. This year, joining Werribee Park's Let Them Eat Cake is Sidney Myer Music Bowl's The First — a multi-stage music festival dedicated to live electronic, hip hop, house and techno that'll take over the Kings Domain this New Year's Day. Run by Montreal-based festival host Piknic Électronik and Australia's electronic music guru Hardware Group, the festival is a hangover party you don't need to travel out of town for. Among the festival's stages is one dedicated to Piknic Électronic and it'll kick off the brand's fifth season of weekly-mini festivals in Melbourne (the dates of which have not yet been released). The headliners for the inaugural NYD festival include heavy-hitting rap queen M.I.A, Australian dance royalty The Presets and New York hip-hop artist Action Bronson, along with Banoffee, Bloody Mary, Bob Moses, KiNK, Krystal Klear, Max Cooper, Nastia and SG Lewis. The full lineup of local and international acts hasn't been announced just yet, so stay tuned for more. While you're there, visual art, food trucks and booze-a-plenty will be on the docket, too.
Earlier in 2020, when social distancing and public gathering rules were in place across the country, KFC did everyone a solid by offering up free home delivery for the first time ever Down Under. Life is slowly returning to normal now, but the fried chicken chain is bringing back the deal anyway — so you can round up your housemates again and tuck into those 11 secret herbs and spices. The reason this time: State of Origin. KFC's free delivery will be available across the next three Wednesdays to coincide with this year's postponed games — so on November 4, November 11 and November 18. The great news is that you don't have to care about the matches, or watch them, to get that chicken brought to your door without paying extra. The free delivery is simply available all day on each of those three days, from open till close at your local store. The limited-time offer is available nationwide, too — and there is no minimum spend required. To get your hands on some finger lickin' good chook with no added cost, you'll just need to head to Menulog's website or use the Menulog app. And while your food is on its way, you can meditate with KFChill, a wellness website that lets you unwind to the sound of chicken frying, gravy simmering or bacon sizzling away in a pan. Yes, it'll make you hungry. KFC is offering free delivery across Australia on all orders via Menulog, with the special available on Wednesday, November 4, Wednesday, November 11 and Wednesday, November 18. To order, head to the Menulog website and or use the Menulog app.
It's usually impossible to upstage Tilda Swinton. But in The Souvenir, Honor Swinton Byrne manages that elusive feat. Adding another acting powerhouse to the family, it's a case of like mother, like daughter — although, even when they're sharing the same scene in Joanna Hogg's deeply moving drama, the younger Swinton never feels like she's just following in her famous mum's footsteps. Tilda always seems to calmly float above the rest of us, whether she's playing an ageless nobleman, a vampire or a witchy dance instructor. By contrast, Honor has a weighty, grounded but nervous presence. She's not only firmly of this world; here, as 80s-era film student Julie, she's increasingly bogged down by it. At first, everything seems simple for The Souvenir's polite protagonist. Julie lives in a well-appointed flat in an upscale area of London, comes from a moneyed family and, like all aspiring filmmakers, has an idea for her first big project. Eager to make a movie about a working-class boy and his mother, she's also aware of her favourable station in life — in a general sense. She tells her friends that she's determined to broaden her horizons, but she's always able to rely on her mother (Tilda Swinton) when things threaten to get tough. And, when she falls hopelessly for someone who's not quite who he appears, she's instantly smitten and beguiled, albeit heartbreakingly unprepared for their relationship's darker twists and turns. A girl, a guy, and all the ups and downs that such a pairing inevitably sparks — at the most basic level, that's The Souvenir. But if ever a movie was more than its most simplistic plot description, it's this perceptive affair. Julie's relationship with the arrogantly refined and charismatic Anthony (Tom Burke) feels like a turning point from the moment they meet, as the young woman is obviously intrigued by the older civil servant. As their lives entwine, however, their romance evolves from exciting to shattering as his secrets slowly spill out. Along the way, Hogg takes her main character on an adult coming-of-age journey, all while barely venturing beyond Julie's apartment. The acclaimed British writer/director also takes viewers through her own formative years, with the film inspired by her own memories. Once again, The Souvenir's star isn't merely walking in someone else's shoes by playing Hogg's on-screen avatar. As Julie endures a traumatic but inevitable awakening — the distressing revelation that life always has an inescapable rough side — Swinton Byrne proves the movie's crucial anchor. She's clearly playing a highly personal part, with her role so intricate and specific that it can only be drawn from reality. In a film overtly placed among society's upper rungs, she's also the wide-eyed bridge that opens Julie's particular plight to the rest of the world. Realising that love and ambition can cut both ways is a universal sensation, after all — and, by peering deep into a precisely defined scenario, Hogg always relays this life-changing sentiment. Gazing back at her own experiences, fracturing the rosy facade of hindsight and not only facing the pain, but laying it open for everyone to see — that's a brave task. Even fictionalised, as The Souvenir is, it makes for stunning viewing. As she's done since her 2007 debut Unrelated, Hogg is unafraid to take aim at all that seems safe, easy and cosy. Committed to unpacking the woes of Britain's well-heeled, she's similarly unafraid to show the hurt that's always lingering beneath the surface, too. Here, she unravels the heady swirls of first romance, the hopeful outlook of a young woman finding her place in the world, and middle-class comfort, watching as they all become toxic. That she does so in long, distanced, cool-hued shots that survey Julie's blinkered realm makes The Souvenir all the more powerful, conveying its alluring beauty and its empty flipside in tandem. Insightfully scripted, lensed and performed — not only by Swinton Byrne, her always-exceptional mother and a pitch-perfect Burke, but by Richard Ayoade in a small but pivotal role — The Souvenir ultimately acts as its own memento. Meticulous, intense and devastatingly astute, the film leaves an imprint that lingers long after its frames have stopped flickering. Thankfully, this quiet but powerful tale won't stop for too long. As the movie announces in its closing moments via text on-screen, The Souvenir's story will continue in a second part, due in 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Al2nC0vzY
If you fancy channeling a blissed-out European summer, without spending a cent on airfares, you're in luck. From its primo spot overlooking the Yarra, mod-Italian haunt Fatto Bar and Cantina is embracing those sunny season feels with a brand new series of bottomless rosé lunches, happening every Sunday throughout October. Fatto's riverside terrace will play host to these chic Italian feasts, running across two sessions each week (12-2pm and 2.30-4.30pm) for groups of four or more, and starring a new sharing menu by Head Chef James Kummrow. You'll get your Sunday kicks enjoying DJ tunes along with a parade of spring-appropriate dishes, such as citrus-cured king salmon tartare with basil cream and Yarra Valley caviar, an indulgent spanner crab spaghettini and Cone Bay barramundi teamed with asparagus and smoked yoghurt. Clocking in at $75 per person, each Sunday lunch features a shared feast of entrees, a pasta and a main, and two sides, plus unlimited rosé. Choose from Fairbank, made by Sutton Grange's Melanie Chester (Young Gun of Wine 2018 People's Choice Winner) or opt for an overseas jaunt, with the Coup de Genie from Saint Tropez in Provence, France. Images: Simon Shiff
No longer will ravenous souls roam the mean streets of Melbourne on a wild-eyed search for their favourite food truck. Now open on High Street, Thornbury, Welcome to Thornbury is Melbourne’s first permanent food truck trailer park, featuring some of the tastiest names in mobile food vending that the city has to offer. Dreamed up by the legends at Mr Burger, Welcome to Thornbury is located at 520 High Street, just a hop, skip and a jump from Croxton Train Station and the 86 tram line. Once a used car yard, the newly-renovated, 4000-square metre venue features both indoor and outdoor seating, and will host as many as six different food vendors and 700 hungry patrons a night. The Welcome to Thornbury calendar, which you can find on their Facebook page, promises 43 trucks in August alone, including Mr Burger, Ramen on Wheels, Caliko BBQ, Gorilla Grill, Senor Churo, White Guys Cook Thai and Sliders on Tyres. They’ve also got their own in-built 200-seater bar, where you can grab cocktails, wine and beer by the bottle or on tap. Welcome to Thornbury is open between 5pm – 9pm Monday – Thursday, 12pm – 10pm Friday – Saturday, and 12pm – 9pm Sunday. For more information check them out on Facebook.
After blockbuster exhibitions in 2017 and 2019, The National: New Australian Art — an epic contemporary Australian art exhibition held across three major Sydney galleries — is back. Due to open on Friday, March 26, the program will feature works from 39 emerging, mid-career and established artists at the Art Gallery of NSW, the MCA and Carriageworks. At the helm for this edition of the biennial set of exhibitions are Matt Cox and Erin Vink (AGNSW), Abigail Moncrieff (Carriageworks) and Rachel Kent (MCA). Each gallery will exhibit a unique and distinct collection of new Australian art from artists such as Abdullah MI Syed and Lauren Berkowitz, plus artistic collective such as A Constructed World and the Karrabing Film Collective. The exhibitions will run simultaneously across the three galleries, all kicking off on the same date but finishing at various times until Sunday, September 5. Find out more at The National's website — and find out which artists are being exhibited at which galleries via the MCA, AGNSW and Carriageworks. [caption id="attachment_804284" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bilirubin Bezoarn, 2019, installation view, photographer: Christo Crocker[/caption] Top image: Zan Wimberley
Maybe you loved her on Saturday Night Live. Perhaps you adore Parks and Recreation like it's a member of your family. Or, you could've watched and rewatched Baby Mama and Sisters over and over again — or binged your way through Making It, her competitive crafting show. However you became an Amy Poehler fan, 2021 is shaping up to be a great year. The talented comedian and actor is co-hosting the Golden Globes again with Tina Fey, Parks and Recreation has just hit Netflix and, come early March, Poehler's latest movie will also make its way to the streaming platform. That flick is called Moxie, and it both co-stars Poehler and marks her second stint as a feature filmmaker. It also heads back to high school — because popping up in Mean Girls, which Tina Fey wrote the screenplay for, clearly wasn't enough of a blast from the past. Poehler obviously isn't packing her school bag. Instead, she plays the mother to a teenager, Vivian (Hadley Robinson, I'm Thinking of Ending Things). The 16-year-old has always been quiet and studious, and tried to to avoid attracting any unwanted attention from her classmates. But, after finally realising that she's had enough of the toxic behaviour that runs rampant at her school, she takes a few cues from her mum's past, starts an underground zine and starts fighting for change. From the just-dropped first trailer, Moxie slides easily into the high-school genre; however, it also gives it a riot grrrl spin. Plus, as well as Poehler and Robinson, the film's cast includes Alycia Pascual-Peña (Saved By the Bell), Lauren Tsai (Legion), Patrick Schwarzenegger (Daniel Isn't Real), Josephine Langford (After We Collided), Clark Gregg (Agents of SHIELD), Ike Barinholtz (The Hunt) and Marcia Gay Harden (The Morning Show) — and it's based on the he novel by Jennifer Mathieu. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf34qI1hjKU Moxie will be available to stream via Netflix from Wednesday, March 3. Top image: Colleen Hayes/Netflix © 2020
It's time to get the word "Jellicle" stuck in your head once more: to mark 40 years since it first hit the stage in Australia, Cats is prowling through theatres again in 2025. Back in July 1985, Aussie audiences initially experienced Andrew Lloyd Webber's acclaimed production, which turned a tale inspired by poems from T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats into an award-winning theatre hit. In Melbourne, your next chance to see Cats starts from Sunday, December 21. Four decades ago, the show pranced through Theatre Royal Sydney to begin with — and after a stop there, the new season is scampering across the boards at Hamer Hall in the Victorian capital, too, to help you make some new Cats memories. If you're new to Cats, it spends its time with the Jellicle cat tribe on the night of the Jellicle Ball. That's the evening each year when their leader Old Deuteronomy picks who'll be reborn into a new Jellicle life by making the Jellicle choice. And yes, "Jellicle" is uttered frequently. Of late, audiences might be more familiar with Cats as a movie. In 2019, the musical made the leap from stage to screen with a star-studded cast including Idris Elba (Hijack), Taylor Swift (Amsterdam), Judi Dench (Belfast), Ian McKellen, (The Critic) James Corden, (Mammals) Jennifer Hudson (Respect), Jason Derulo (Lethal Weapon), Ray Winstone (Damsel) and Rebel Wilson (The Almond and the Seahorse) playing singing, scurrying street mousers. If you ever wanted to see Swift pouring cat nip on a crowd of cats from a suspended gold moon, or were keen to soothe your disappointment over the fact that Elba hasn't yet been James Bond by spotting him with whiskers, fur and a tail, this was your chance. For its efforts, the Tom Hooper (The Danish Girl)-directed film picked up six Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture. But while the movie clearly didn't hit the mark, you can see why this feline-fancying musical has been such a huge theatre hit thanks to its Aussie stage comeback. Images: Alessandro Pinna.
If you haven't yet had a chance to check out Gelato Messina's Creative Department, then this July is the perfect time to do so. The gelato fiends are adding truffles to all their dishes for a series of special, seasonal dinners. In conjunction with Parkesbourne Produce, Messina is crafting a special eight-course gelato-meets-gourmet mushrooms degustation running for just ten days, held in a private room behind the Messina Windsor store. So what kind of truffle-gelato goodness have the masterminds come up with this time around? Expect brioche and foie gras gelato with black truffle sauce; pistachio and black truffle gelato with matcha and white chocolate fudge; and grilled kumquat sorbet with koji cream, wattleseed and black truffle. You'll also be trying an equally creative range of non-alcoholic drinks, including the likes of a lemon myrtle and macadamia bubble tea and the pineapple, white soy and shiitake sparkling. Tickets are $160 per person and, based off how quick these things sell out around the country, you'll want to grab your tickets ASAP.
The end of the world is happening in Hollywood. This North American summer has already seen Tom Cruise meet Oblivion, Seth Rogen and co scream This Is the End and all of us embrace our wildest apocalyptic fears in our terrible movie heavens. Now with Elysium, the director of District 9, Neill Blomkamp, turns his sights from apartheid South Africa to the interplanetary concern of undocumented immigrants. In the 22nd century, Earth is overpopulated, polluted and diseased. The Third World is now the world, and the rich have fled and founded a new off-planet habitat, Elysium, a floating disc of palm trees and daiquiris where the idyll sun-bake in oblivion and 'medbays' cure all sickness in seconds. The ruined Earth is just in sight over the horizon, where Matt Damon toils away making the terrifying robot policemen that oppress him and the other proles. A cruelly unnecessary industrial accident exposes him to lethal radiation, and now he's the classic John Connor-style everyman hero with nothing to lose. He needs a medbay, and the only solution is to wage an all-out war on Elysium, opening it up to all Earthly "illegals". His war armour transforms him into a man-robot fighting machine — if Aldous Huxley rather than Marvel designed Ironman. Let's face it, Matt Damon is a boss. Not only is he the most bankable actor in Hollywood, he has not given one dud performance, ever. Think about it. The day he does will be the day I weep and quit movie reviewing with a heavy heart and wistful glance in Brad Pitt's direction. Jodie Foster is our steel eyed, fluorescent-toothed and impeccably tailored Bad Ass Neo-Con, Delacourt. Foster is in full-tilt Nicholas Cage mode here, dispensing with naturalism to give a presentation-style performance as a heartless Hawk whose sole job is to keep those pesky illegals at bay and the squeaky clean wealth of Elysium safe. Her henchman Kruger (Sharlto Copley) is a no less than a demented sadist, screeching outrageously abusive one-liners in a full-blooded South African accent. While his boss is the ostensibly civilised policymaker pushing the sleek buttons of war from afar, Kruger is the brutal, gloves-off and knives-out psycho, and together they form both sides of the conservative coin. This gleeful bastard must surely be one of the best baddies in recent movie history, and a hysterical one at that. He injects the film with a blood-red jab of dark humour, and that sense of humour is something that is sorely lacking from the surging majority of Hollywood blockbusters. His one-liners are wonderfully gruesome, real Old Testament stuff. Best of all, it's this Hannibal-style character that allows Blomkamp to really reach beyond the formulaic sameness that characterises most films of this hi-tech genre and deliver some proper twists in the final act. If you've wondered why recent big-shot Hollywood flicks like the $200 million-plus World War Z have been oddly bloodless, in a way that doesn't gel with their ADHD violence, it's because rocketing production budgets ensure that these films need to be rated PG to attract the largest possible spectrum of paying cinema-goers, and that has to mean high school-aged boys and their parents. Elysium has no such qualms — with an MA15+ stamp, it has gross blood to spare and it's all the more satisfying as a result. If there ever was going to be a contemporary director to hijack Hollywood, it's Blomkamp. He delivers blockbusters based in empathy and political smarts that actually aspire to be more than insulting filmic pollution. The state of Elysium suffers from a serious "political sickness, a moral tumour that must be removed". It's an especially crucial message in the weeks leading up to this country's joke of an election and the more open-ended atmosphere of unhooked xenophobic psychosis. Increasingly, being Australian is like having a totally obnoxious and embarrassing mother who's vocally and publicly racist. And homophobic. And sexist. And completely without social skills. The towering blockbusters of the literary realm have often been piercingly thoughtful and critical (here I'm thinking of Brave New World and The Road. It's more than time for movie blockbusters to be the same, to linger in an afterburn of ideas. Elysium is the blockbuster for me. And these mad times. https://youtube.com/watch?v=oIBtePb-dGY
If you're sticking around the city for Easter and are keen to hunt down some treats, you'll find a treasure-trove of goodies awaiting you at QT Melbourne. It's teamed up with local artisan chocolate brand CACAO to deliver a hotel-wide takeover your sweet tooth's gonna love. The chocolate-based festivities are happening from Friday, April 7–Sunday, April 9, kicking off each morning with fresh choc-chip hot cross buns served at Pascale Bar & Grill. You can get your fix during breakfast, from 6.30am–12pm each day. Meanwhile, up on the 11th floor, the Rooftop at QT is shaking up limited-edition Boozy Bunny Espresso Martinis right through the weekend. This exclusive Easter concoction features a rich blend of coffee, Diplomatico rum, Chambord and CACAO dark chocolate, coming in at $25 a pop. What's more, visitors and guests will be able to live out their Willy Wonka dreams, when the hotel hosts a huge golden ticket hunt throughout the building on Sunday, April 9. Prizes up for grabs include loaded CACAO chocolate hampers and QT gift cards.
Melbourne's legendary hospitality scene is once again proving it can really hustle for a cause, as a lineup of standout local bars and famed chefs come together to do what they do best — but, this time, they'll be raising money for bushfire relief. Hosted by hospitality group Made In The Shade at its acclaimed cocktail bar The Everleigh, the Bar Bushfire Shake-Up will deliver the ultimate bartender showdown on Monday, January 13. Alongside the group's other bars Heartbreaker and Bar Margaux, 13 well-known venues including Eau de Vie, Capitano, Black Pearl, Byrdi and Above Board will jump behind the Fitzroy bar, going head-to-head, two at a time as they each shake up a signature cocktail for $15 a pop. Backing up the boozy treats, you'll find the Connie's Pizza food truck stationed out front, dishing up hefty slices for $10 each. Renowned chefs including Attica's Ben Shewry, Pete Gunn (Ides) and Andrew McConnell (Cutler & Co, Cumulus Inc) will each design their own signature pizza for the occasion. The night's also set to feature a live auction, offering up an assortment of covetable experiences with funds going to support Aussie bushfire victims. You could nab yourself a five-course feed for two at Byrdi (valued at $250), or even a secret staff party at Fancy Free, valued at $3000. Entry to The Everleigh on the night is $20, with all proceeds from cover charge and drinks going to the Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery. Just remember the bar will be taking card payments only. Image: Gareth Sobey.
As little children we are fed the dream of happily ever after, beginning with the arrival of a white knight in shining armour or the electrifying meeting of eyes across a crowded room, followed closely by a textbook whirlwind romance, destined to end with a white wedding and an ensuing eternity of conjugal bliss. Freidrich Durrenmatt’s adaptation of Strinderg’s Dance of Death, translated by Tom Holloway and performed by the Malthouse Theatre, presents a one part hilarious, one part harrowing parallel reality of what happens when the aforementioned fairy tale does not. Think less Cinderella story, more Survivor meets the revenge of OJ Simpson and you’re halfway to the kind of domestic hades re-imagined by director Matthew Lutton. Alice (Belinda McClory) and Edgar (Jacek Koman) have been together for 25 unhappy years and judging from their terse, spiteful interactions, hated each other for about the same. Literally stranded on an island with nothing but their mutual disgust to keep them company, their relationship is typified by the constant re-hashing of past mistakes, the exchange of venomous and cutting abuse and even plain roll up your sleeves fisty-cuffs. The kind of circular communication that looks destined to go the way of the never-ending story is disrupted by the arrival of Kurt (David Paterson), Alice’s cousin and ex-flame, creating an absurdist love triangle that sees the couple’s marriage reach new lows. Exchanges between Alice and Edgar are commendably inventive and crude — “I wouldn’t touch you with his dick”, quips Alice in a moment of particular vitriol — the kind of unbelievable domestics you secretly enjoy eavesdropping on in public places. While this makes Dance of Death perhaps primarily an albeit very dark comedy, it’s impossible not to feel saddened by the heartbreakingly relatable pitfalls of the couple’s marriage, as played put superbly by McClory as the tragic thwarted actress and Koman as the self proclaimed world famous military author, each on their own parallel paths to emotional and physical decline. Multiple dramatic devices are employed in Dance of Death that act to emphasise the dynamics of the performance. Separated from the audience by actual walls of glass, the performers appear increasingly isolated within their marital unit as they stare out in desperation from within a stage that resembles a fish bowl. Further heightening the sense of spectacle, the piece is structured like a boxing match, with the end of each round signalled by the ringing of a piercing bell and a flash of colour as the seemingly tireless fighters retreat to their separate corners to take stock. While these elements can feel somewhat overstated at times, they provide a welcome respite from the kind of fighting that is exhausting even to watch as an outsider. Likened to a “funny stab in the neck or hilarious kick in the crotch” by the cast themselves, Dance of Death will leave you somewhere between amused and horrified, sure of only one thing — you get less punishment for manslaughter than marriage. Image via Malthouse Theatre
This week, Melbourne Design Week presents Design on Film, a unique program of documentaries exploring the world of design and architecture. Curated by veteran programmer Richard Sowada with screenings at ACMI in Federation Square as well as The Lido in Hawthorn and The Classic in Belgrave, this festival within a festival will showcase 13 flicks — including one screening in Australia for the very first time — about everything from sustainability in design to a historic mission to build a city from scratch. Among the highlights on the Design on Film program are Watermark, an experimental essay film about humanity's relationship with water; In Between the Mountains and the Oceans, which tells the story of the once in a generation rebuilding of Japan's holiest Shinto shrine; and Homo Sapiens, a 'sci-fi documentary' that imagines a world without humans in which our built environments are slowly reclaimed by nature. Image: Architecture of Infinity.
If you're a fan of all things garlic, you'll find yourself in excellent company with a visit out to Meeniyan, next Saturday, February 16. That's when the famed annual Meeniyan Garlic Festival sees over 8000 punters descend on the Gippsland town for a jam-packed day of garlic-infused fun. This year's food program is as big as ever, with a sprawling lineup of chef appearances, markets, talks and events to tempt just about every palate. Catch garlic-driven cooking demonstrations from the likes of Tamsin Carvan (Tamsin's Table), Hogget's Kitchen's Trevor Perkins and Gippsland Food Ambassador Alejandro Saravia (Pastuso), and browse garlic-infused products from milkshakes to beer at the dedicated garlic marketplace. The town's Main Street eateries will be getting into the spirit, too, with a slew of special festival offerings — including garlic ice cream at The Meeniyan Store. What's more, you can load up on all sorts of knowledge with a series of talks and presentations led by the team at The Garlic Institute. They'll cover everything from garlic's many health benefits through to how to get started as a commercial grower.
When Normal People became the streaming sensation of the pandemic's early days, it made stars out of leads Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones, and swiftly sparked another Sally Rooney adaptation from much of the same behind-the-scenes team. It wouldn't have been the hit it was if it hadn't proven an exercise in peering deeply, thoughtfully, lovingly and carefully, though, with that sensation stemming as much from its look as its emotion-swelling story. It should come as no surprise, then, that cinematographer Kate McCullough works the same magic on The Quiet Girl, a Gaelic-language coming-of-age film that sees the world as only a lonely, innocent, often-ignored child can. This devastatingly moving and beautiful movie also spies the pain and hardship that shapes its titular figure's world — and yes, it does so softly and with restraint, just like its titular figure, but that doesn't make the feelings it swirls up any less immense. McCullough is just one of The Quiet Girl's key names; filmmaker Colm Bairéad, a feature first-timer who directs and adapts Claire Keegan's novella Foster, is another. His movie wouldn't be the deeply affecting affair it is without its vivid and painterly imagery — but it also wouldn't be the same without the helmer and scribe's delicate touch, which the 1981-set tale he's telling not only needs but demands. His focus: that soft-spoken nine-year-old, Cáit (newcomer Catherine Clinch), who has spent her life so far as no one's priority. With her mother (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh, Shadow Dancer) pregnant again, her father (Michael Patric, Smother) happiest drinking, gambling and womanising, and her siblings boisterously bouncing around their rural Irish home, she's accustomed to blending in and even hiding out. Then, for the summer, she's sent to her mum's older cousin Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley, Extra Ordinary) and her dairy farmer husband Seán (Andrew Bennett, Dating Amber). Now the only child among doting guardians, she's no less hushed, but she's also loved and cared for as she's never been before. Clinch is another of The Quiet Girl's crucial figures, courtesy of a downright exceptional and star-making performance. If you were to discover that she was a quiet girl off-screen, too, you'd instantly believe it — that's how profoundly naturalistic she is. Finding a young talent to convey so much internalised, engrained sorrow, then to slowly blossom when fondness comes her way, isn't just a case of finding a well-behaved child who welcomes the camera's presence. Clinch makes Cáit's isolation and sadness feel palpable, and largely does so without words: again, this is The Quiet Girl in name and nature alike. She makes the comfort and acceptance that her character enjoys with the instantly tender Eibhlín feel just as real, and kicks into another still-composed but also visibly appreciative gear as a bond forms with the tight-lipped Seán. Pivotally, Clinch plays Cáit like she's the only lonely girl in Ireland, but also like she's every lonely and mostly silent girl that's ever called that or any country home. That astonishing performance, and the empathetic and absorbed gaze that beams it into the film's frames, tap into the lingering truth at the heart of this soulful picture: that overlooked and disregarded girls such as Cáit rarely receive this kind of notice on- or off-screen. The warm way that the movie surveys her life, and is truly willing to see it, is never anything less than an act of redress — and, even with dialogue sparse, The Quiet Girl screams that fact loudly. It gives the same treatment to loss, which is an unshakeable force in Eibhlín and Seán's home despite remaining unspoken. "There are no secrets in this house," Eibhlín tells Cáit, but that doesn't mean that the type of pain that defies speech doesn't haunt the place, as it does the lives lived in it. Grief, too, is usually pushed aside, but The Quiet Girl sees how it persists, dwells and gnaws even when — especially when — no one is talking about it. The Quiet Girl, and Bairéad and McCullough with it, sees everything with attentive eyes: chaos at home, bullying at school, and uncertainty mixed with relief when Cáit cottons onto why she's taking such a long drive with her dad, for starters. It watches as the girl's summer getaway teems with promise and wonder — on the farm, in its woods, in the gleaming rainwater well, simply watching Eibhlín in the house or shadowing Seán outside — and as her relationship with her surrogate parents has the same fantastical allure. It spots the tentative curiosity that Cáit has about the train wallpaper in her new bedroom, as well as the boy's clothes she's given to wear. And, it can't avoid the gleeful gossiping-slash-interrogating by neighbour Úna (Joan Sheehy, End of Sentence), when she gets her chance to spill Eibhlín and Seán's past, and also grill their new charge about their present. Viewers peer on intently as well; using the Academy ratio, the almost-square frame that was once the cinematic standard, has that effect. That stylistic choice can say more than words when a character feels boxed in or trapped — see Happening and The Tragedy of Macbeth — which The Quiet Girl uses to its advantage in its earliest scenes. The tighter canvas also hones focus, which is this film's entire purpose anyway. Thanks to the straightforward but nonetheless riveting narrative, and the emotional journeys that it charts, Bairéad didn't need to restrict the movie's visuals so blatantly. The Quiet Girl would've captured its audience's undying attention anyway. But a closer look begets a closer look, both at otherwise-shunned children and at the minutiae they only start to spy themselves when their lives get cosier and kinder, yet also bigger and more assured. When it premiered at the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, The Quiet Girl made history as the first Gaelic-language film to compete at the prestigious event, and also won an award in the process. When it reached Irish cinemas midyear, along with those elsewhere in the UK, it broke box office records for Gaelic-language movies, too. Small things, big impact: that's this wonderfully heartrending, deeply resonant, exquisitely fleshed out feature over and over, within its poetic images and beyond.
