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.
Forget about dinner and a show, this Next Wave work from transmedia performance collective Counterpilot is both rolled up into one. Hosted at the Darebin Arts Centre, Crunch Time is a performative dinner party that embraces the spirit of democracy. Dinners sit around a projector-mapped table and vote on which ingredients they'd like included in their meal. From there, public leaders will be thrown into the kitchen, where they'll show off their culinary chops while being viewed via live-feed video. Sounds like a hell of a dinning experience... although we can't speak to the quality of the food. Photo credit: Dave D'Arcy
If there's one thing that Breath just had to perfect, it's something that everyone can relate to: the experience of truly appreciating the ocean's wonders for the first time. No matter when it strikes, the feeling hits with the power of a wave — whether it inspires you to jump into the sea, bake by the shore or just stare at the water in awe. Adapting Tim Winton's award-winning Australian novel for the screen, Breath conveys this moment in a simple but potent fashion, through the twinkle in two teenagers' eyes and an excited exclamation. "I'll surf that one day. You dare me? I dare you to dare me!" 14-year-old Loonie (Ben Spence) tells his 13-year-old best mate Pikelet (Samson Coulter). They've just hitched a ride from their inland home town to the coast nearby and, from the look on their faces, they've found their calling. In narration provided by Winton himself, Breath also describes the sea's allure in more poetic terms. "Never had I seen something so beautiful, so pointless and elegant, as if dancing on water was the best thing a man could do," says the author as the voice of an adult Pikelet. But the movie doesn't just saddle its characters with relaying this perspective. Thanks to the expert assistance of water cinematographer Rick Rifici (Storm Surfers 3D, Drift), Breath boasts jaw-dropping surf footage that captures the full majesty of the ocean. Grey might come in 50 shades (or so we're told), but there are just as many hues of blue in Simon Baker's first film as a director, most of them found in Western Australia's stunning waters. After locking their sights on the enticing waves in all of their crashing, thrashing glory, Pikelet and Loonie are keen to pursue their newfound passion. It's the 1970s and, while the duo are largely left to do what they please by their parents (played by Richard Roxburgh and Rachael Blake as Mr and Mrs Pike, and Jacek Koman as Mr Loon), surfing represents the kind of freedom and danger these eager teens equate with finally growing up. When they're not rustling up the cash to buy boards, they're convincing reluctant, reclusive ex-professional surfer Sando (Baker) to show them the ropes. Soon, however, Pikelet's attention is split — between catching bigger and bigger breaks with Loonie and his new idol, and spending time with Sando's injured aerial skier wife Eva (Elizabeth Debicki). Throwing its youthful protagonists into complex waters both figuratively and literally, Breath makes the most of its obvious metaphor. The movie's textured, detailed ocean imagery speaks to the sea's threats as much as its thrills, and really couldn't better encapsulate Pikelet's seething inner turmoil. In each meticulous, expressive shot, the character's restless energy, his desire to transcend his otherwise ordinary life, and his need to prove himself, all come to the fore. And while the parallels between the water's ebbs and flows and the film's exploration of one of Winton's favourite topics — blossoming masculinity — aren't particularly subtle, pairing them together is still effective on a visual, emotional and thematic level. If Breath's images swell with feeling, then so too does its cast, with Baker coaxing fine-tuned performances out of his small ensemble. While The Mentalist star himself is quiet and contemplative in his return to Australia's film industry after nearly two decades, and Debicki finds the line between no-nonsense and vulnerable, Coulter and Spence bring the film to life with the same force as the curling sea seen so often throughout the movie. The young talents are actually surfers who learned to act, rather than vice versa, and their portrayals always remain genuine and naturalistic. Whether Pikelet and Loonie are splashing around, testing the boundaries of their friendship, or grappling with what it means to become a man, the teenage newcomers ensure this soulful, lyrical picture never merely wallows in familiar coming-of-age waters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY8KFlOm7qo
Young Magic's silken, psychedelic sounds originated in New York as the sonic brainchild of Indonesian vocalist Melati Malay and Australian producer Isaac Emmanuel. They recorded their two albums, 2012's Melt and this year's Breathing Statues, while traipsing through Morocco, France, the Czech Republic and Iceland, and have performed at Austin Psych Fest, The Brooklyn Museum, and Berghain — the Berlin club capital of cool techno decadence. All of that, of course, meaning they're making good progress on their self-proclaimed status as "aspiring planet wanderers." Now, Malay and Emmanuel are bringing their sometimes lush and dreamy, sometimes explosive beats to our little corner of the planet. Take a listen to 'Fall In' or 'Holographic' to get in the heavenly, space-age mood, and pick out your most mysterious and ethereal-looking outfit. This'll be a night full of floaty dancing and wanderlust.
Flickering across a cinema screen, even the greatest of movies only inherently activate two senses: sight and hearing. Audiences can feel the seats they nestle into in their favourite picture palaces, and savour both the scent and flavour of popcorn while they watch, but no one can touch, taste or smell films themselves as they're playing — even if adding scratch-and-sniff aromas to the experience has become a cult-favourite gimmick. British director Peter Strickland knows all of the above. And, he hasn't ever released a feature in Smell-o-Vision, Smell-O-Rama or Odorama. But his work still conjures up sensations that viewers know they can't genuinely be having, such as running your fingers over an alluring dress with In Fabric, detecting the flutter of insect wings against your skin via The Duke of Burgundy and, courtesy of his latest movie Flux Gourmet, relishing the fragrances and tastes whipped up by a culinary collective that turns cooking and eating into performance art. If you've seen his features before, Flux Gourmet instantly sounds like something that only Strickland could make — and from its first frame till its last, it proves that with every moment. While spinning this innately sensory tale, which he both helmed and penned, it does indeed literally sound like something that only Strickland could've come up with, in fact. As the acoustics-focused Berberian Sound Studio demonstrated, the filmmaker's audioscapes are always a thing of wonder, too. His movies may manage to magically engage senses that cinema's sound-and-vision combination intrinsically shouldn't, but they also make the utmost use of every echo. The same applies to each image; unsurprisingly due to his strong and distinctive sense of style and mood, everything about Flux Gourmet looks and feels like pure Strickland. His films can't actually be injected into anyone's veins, but the director's devotees will instantly want this delirious farce pumping through their system. The setting: The Sonic Catering Institute, a conservatory specialising in blending sound and cuisine, as its name makes plain. The "institute devoted to culinary and alimentary performance" is overseen by the couture-coveting Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie, Game of Thrones), and regularly welcomes in different groups to undertake residencies. Those visiting artists collaborate, percolate and come up with eye-catching blends of food, bodies and creativity. Hosting OTT dinners, role-playing a trip to the supermarket, getting scatalogical and turning a live colonoscopy into a show: they're just some of the menu items that Jan's latest guests cook up. In Elle di Elle (Strickland regular Fatma Mohamed), Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed, The Souvenir: Part II) and Billy Rubin's (Asa Butterfield, Sex Education) case, however, that unique kind of kitchen virtuosity only springs when they're not broiling in messy bickering. Chaos bubbles through and troubles the trio's troupe, who stir up mayhem among themselves as heartily as any chef stirs their dishes. But Elle, Lamina and Billy aren't the Institute's only current visitors. Watching and chronicling is journalist Stones (Makis Papadimitriou, Beckett), who is also suffering from gastrointestinal struggles that he worries might be something more. As his subjects keep riffing on the human digestive system, or trying to, he can't control his own. Endeavouring to withhold his flatulence 24/7 is his constant struggle. Somehow, keeping a straight face as everything gets absurd around him is a far easier task, but Flux Gourmet's viewers shouldn't want to share that achievement with him; this purposefully strange, silly and surreal film is far too deliciously hilarious. Let Stones' struggle sink in again: to fart or not to fart, that is his question. Yes, one of Flux Gourmet's key plot points revolves around letting it rip. Yes, Strickland masterfully finds empathy in that toilet humour, understanding that we all break wind as a normal bodily function, and pairs it with a savvy takedown of art-world and showbusiness pretension. As a satire, his film dips its spoons into smug attitudes, exclusionary conventions, and all the pompousness and ceremony that's stereotypically ascribed to every art form's upper echelons, then delights in gobbling down biting parody after biting parody. Thanks to Stones and his questions, Flux Gourmet is a spin on This Is Spinal Tap, too, complete with The Sonic Catering Institute's version of rockstar behaviour. Elle, Lamina and Billy play instruments, after all, even if they're often egg whisks, blenders and saucepans. They have post-show orgies. Tempers boil, even before Billy ends up in bed with Jan, their residency version of a manager — and an argument about a flanger threatens to tear everything apart. That heated disagreement, and the key scene that sees Jan and Elle face off about the amusingly named audio-effects equipment — and say the word "flanger" again and again — screams everything about Flux Gourmet. It's ridiculous and riotous, never stops simmering, and proves entertaining as a piece of farce and a statement on the domain and personalities that Strickland is skewering. Crucially, it also owes as much to its leads as it does to its director. Strickland has Billy and Jan's relationship, Elle and Lamina's tension, and vengeful attacks by a rival sonic catering group called The Mangrove Snacks (who applied for the same stint but missed out) among the plot's courses, but his film not only gleams brightest but bounces around at its liveliest when neither the magnetic Mohamed nor Christie at her uproariously domineering best hold back. Every recipe hinges upon its ingredients and Flux Gourmet is no exception. Its cast is committed, all playing characters attempting to control something, everything or both, and each peppering in their own seasoning — including the affable Papadimitriou as the seemingly sanest of the lot. Cinematographer Tim Sidell (I Hate Suzie) lenses the raucousness with verve and pop, and also like he's peering at a dream that's as intimate and visceral as a medical procedure, and yet as out-there as our brain's nocturnal imaginings come. Strickland's own hyper-stylised flair naturally flavours the whole meal, and saying that Flux Gourmet stands out even among his inimitable work is saying something. Wild, warm, witty, weird, wonderfully its own curious concoction: that's this delectable affair, which only falters in its slightly overindulgent pacing. That said, when a cinematic feast is this nourishing in so many ways — and to so many senses — who doesn't want it to go on?
When a festival announces its program, numbers go flying, detailing how many shows, artists, sessions, days, premieres and the like are on offer. RISING 2024 hasn't gotten to that stage yet. So far, it has only revealed two parts of its lineup for this year. Thanks to the second, however, there's plenty of figures to note already — including the fact that 19 cast members from six countries will play 50 characters when Counting and Cracking arrives in Melbourne, and that the stage hit charts four generations over five decades. Theatre fans in Victoria's capital can be forgiven for thinking "finally!" about Counting and Cracking's just-confirmed premiere Melbourne season, which will take place from Friday, May 31–Sunday, June 23 at Union Theatre, University of Melbourne. RISING is clearly expecting a big response to the Sri Lankan-Australian saga, with the production arriving before the broader fest kicks off on Saturday, June 1 and running after it finishes for 2024 on Sunday, June 16. First staged in 2019 in Sydney, the play from S Shakthidharan has proven a hit overseas, too, before its RISING berth. After debuting at Sydney Festival, it's also wowed audiences at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, and collected a heap of accolades such as the Victorian Premier's Prize for Literature, the NSW Premier's Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting, and Helpmann Awards for Best Production and Best Direction. A return to Sydney and a stint in New York are in its future as well. As co-produced by Belvoir St Theatre and Kurinji, with the former's Artistic Director Eamon Flack directing, Shakthidharan's stage favourite spans three acts, with the first starting at Sydney's Georges River. That's where ashes are being scattered by Radha and her son Siddartha, but their ties with Sri Lanka's complicated history aren't severed yet thanks to a call from Colombo. "The stories we choose to believe in underline all our actions, thoughts and feelings. In Counting and Cracking, I hope to provide audiences with a new story to believe in: about Australia, about Sri Lanka. It's a story in which migrants are not asked to discard parts of themselves to fit in, but instead are asked to present their full selves, to expand our idea of what this country can be," explains Shakthidhidharan. "It's a story of how the politics of division can win the battle, but never the war, around how power is gained in this world. It's a story in which love may not triumph over adversity, but through sheer persistence and resilience can eventually overcome it. And finally it's a story about reconciliation: between parents and children, between your new home and your old home, between society and its institutions." Counting and Cracking joins Communitas on the 2024 RISING program so far, with the two events demonstrating the fest's embrace of variety. 'Love Tonight' talents SHOUSE are behind the previously announced music party that'll fill Melbourne's St Paul's Cathedral. Ed Service and Jack Madin are set to oversees hundreds of people making tunes as part of a choir, which will use not just voices but dancing and making sound vibrations. Afterwards, a single will be released. The remainder of the RISING 2024 lineup is set to be unveiled in March — and based on past years, its pair of highlights so far are just the beginning. RISING 2024 runs from Saturday, June 1–Sunday, June 16 across Melbourne, with Counting and Cracking's season running from Friday, May 31–Sunday, June 23 at Union Theatre, University of Melbourne (and tickets on sale from Friday, March 1). Head to the festival's website for further information — and check back here in March for the full RISING 2024 program. Images: Brett Boardman.
Melbourne's newly minted hawker-style market is just about to rotate its eateries-in-residence. From May 2, Gelato Messina will make its CBD debut alongside bun aficionados Wonderbao for three months. This savoury-sweet combo will replace the Koi and Monkey's Corner pop-up from the first round of tenancies. This partnership is not the duo's first, having also teamed up in Sydney back in 2016. For HWKR, patrons can expect a special collab dessert called duck a l'orange — a decadent duck fat and caramel-filled bao doughnut, served with orange gelato. Plus, Messina will do away with the simple scoop model for this pop-up and serve a plated menu of five of its gelato cake creations in single-serve miniature form. This includes the magic mushroom, cocoa nib and coconut and cherry cakes, along with the macaron gelato sandwiches and hazelnut and coffee tarts. On the Wonderbao side of things, the eatery's famed steamed buns will of course be front-and-centre in a menu exclusive to HWKR. It focuses on three DIY bao kits, including crackling pork belly, crispy roast duck with XO sauce and spicy green chicken curry. Cured salmon with pickled goji berries and seared beef salads are also up for grabs, alongside craft brews. The collab kitchen will join street-food stall Chanteen by Diana Chan (Masterchef) and Rice Paper Scissors' Asian fusion pop-up, Khao — whose original tenancies have been extended — alongside permanent tenant Manymore Cafe and Bar, which is run by local not-for-profit group the MAI Foundation.
For Sydney-based lamington-lovers, there's one true king of the local dessert game, and that's Min Chai and Eddie Stewart's Tokyo Lamington. After starting life overseas, introducing places like Singapore and Tokyo to some innovative riffs on the humble lamington, the brand settled in Newtown and has been impressing Sydneysiders with its creative desserts ever since. And now, for the first time ever, it's coming to Melbourne. From Friday, June 17–Sunday, June 19, Tokyo Lamington will join mates at North Melbourne's Le Bajo Milkbar for a pop-up dedicated to their glorious mash-up of Aussie dessert and classic Japanese flavours. Inspired by both venues' greatest hits list, the limited-edition collaboration menu will feature three wild and wonderful lamington creations: cream-filled melon pan, yuzu meringue, and earl grey and mango. The trio is available as a $26 set pack, for takeaway only. And, since there are no pre-orders, you'll want to get in quick to score yours before they're all sold out.
The number of phrases you can add the word 'game' to without causing any serious commotion is almost boundless. For brevity's sake, we haven't listed them here. But Underground Railroad — i.e. the 19th century movement which smuggled slaves out of America — is one dazzling exception. This message appears not to have reached American theatremakers Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard, whose masochistically unflinching take on race relations in the United States is headed to the Malthouse Theatre. In Underground Railroad Game, the audience play high school students in a history lesson about the American slave trade. But this isn't one you can sit up the back and snooze through. Kidwell and Sheppard catalogue the ongoing history of racial intolerance in America, then hit it point blank with an R-rated satire bat. They may not be able to change history, but they're going to get an uncomfortable amount of it on you before you're allowed to leave. Underground Railroad Game is the type of theatre that leaves scorch marks on the walls. See it before they turn the Malthouse into a smoking (albeit enlightened) ruin. Image: Ben Arons.
These days, the west has got some serious swagger. The Doggies showed us when they took out last year's premiership flag, and now a group of proud locals is driving the message home, with their West is Best street party for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Join American-style BBQ joint Up In Smoke in celebrating some of the finest eats and drinks from this side of town, across an all-inclusive afternoon of local beers, wines, and food in the beer garden. On the bill, rising brew stars Hop Nation and West City, wineries like Witchmount and Mt Macedon, and foodie faves 8Bit and Andrew's Choice.
The Finders Keepers Markets have become a staple in Melbourne for those who are into design, creativity and supporting local artists. Treat yourself to a stroll around the market – it has over 200 stalls featuring fashion, ceramics, jewellery and food – while drinking wine or sipping specialty coffee. Returning home to Carlton's Royal Exhibition Building for three days for the second time this year, you'll be able to nab some marvellous treats that are difficult to find anywhere else. The designer-centric, come-one-come-all mini-festival has managed to bridge the gap between local market and exclusive exhibition, creating a space for independent designers to engage with the wider community. This time around, keep an eye out for Nzuri and their organic body butter, body balms and cleansers, Kingston Jewellery for colourful accessories, Vege Threads for ethical clothes (there's a new yoga range), and Coral & Herb or Mr Fancy Plants for beautiful handcrafted homewares. As usual, there will be live music, a cafe, a bar and thousands of other people celebrating independent art and design. Food-wise, you've got three different brands of specialty coffee to try (including Seven Seeds), as well as delicious pastries from Ned's Pies and schnitzels from Von Crumb (we recommend). Finders Keepers will run over three days, from Friday, October 14 to Sunday, October 16. It will be open from 6 - 10pm on the Friday, 10am - 6pm on the Saturday, and 10am - 5pm on the Sunday. For more information and a full list of designers, visit their website.
UPDATE: October 9, 2020: Just Mercy is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube, iTunes and Amazon Video. When Walter McMillian was arrested in 1987 for the murder of a white teenager Ronda Morrison, the African American man was immediately sent to Alabama's death row. Before his was convicted and sentenced — before his trial even started — he spent 15 months among men condemned to die for their crimes. This move, orchestrated by the Monroeville sheriff's office, was extraordinary. It also speaks volumes about the way McMillian was treated from the moment he was cuffed. It's a minor detail in Just Mercy, the legal drama that tells his story, and McMillian is by no means the only person the tactic was used on — but if a suspect is saddled with such a fate before their day in court, how can justice ever truly prevail? That's one of the questions that lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) both ponders and seeks to redress in Just Mercy, with the movie exploring his tale as much as McMillian's (Jamie Foxx). Another issue the crusading attorney tackles: why black defendants are instantly assumed guilty, but the same rarely applies to white culprits. This is a film filled with fervour, charting the Stevenson's efforts to save a man facing execution. It's also an indictment of the inequities of America's legal system, and of US society as a whole. Those two aims are intertwined, of course. The minutiae of McMillian's case remains heartbreakingly familiar, as does Stevenson's accompanying battle for fairness — because in situations like this, the names may change but the details usually stay much the same. When the feature introduces Stevenson, he's an idealistic Harvard student meeting his first death row prisoner. Realising how much he has in common with the incarcerated young man — and seeing the difference lending a kindly ear makes — he commits to fighting against unjust death sentences when he graduates from college. After securing federal funding, crossing paths with the similarly passionate Eva Ansley (Brie Larson) and starting an organisation called the Equal Justice Initiative, he moves to Alabama in 1989 to do exactly that. McMillian's case is still the talk of Monroeville and, although it takes time to convince the imprisoned man himself, it's soon Stevenson's priority. Even audiences with zero prior knowledge of McMillian's plight can guess what comes next. A plethora of evidence proves his innocence, while just as much illustrates how little the folks that put him behind bars cared about his legal rights — or about true justice. Confronted with these facts, everyone involved in the local legal system sports an uncaring attitude, including the new prosecutor (Rafe Spall) who refuses to reopen the case. Adapted from Stevenson's own memoir by writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton with his The Glass Castle co-scribe Andrew Lanham, each of Just Mercy's revelations, speeches and courtroom showdowns plays out as expected; however, that's actually part of what makes this earnest movie pack a punch. Just Mercy boasts much that other films would envy, such as an emotive true tale, serious subject matter that's sadly still relevant today and a top-notch cast. Eyes blazing, his voice calm yet commanding, and compassion driving his every move, Jordan is especially fantastic as Stevenson — and he's matched by a restrained but no less resonant Foxx as a man resigned to the lie of the land in the deep south. But the feeling that this has all been seen before is used to particularly compelling effect here. It's something that Cretton is clearly cognisant of, as he was when he focused on troubled teens living in a group home in the excellent Short Term 12. Layering in other cases, such as that of fellow death row prisoner Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan), the filmmaker draws attention to the unending spate of real-life stories such as these. That's not a new revelation, but it bears heavily on a movie that's already weighty anyway. Indeed, in the feature's most powerful scenes, Cretton makes viewers face the ultimate consequences of a legal system predicated upon prejudice rather than justice. His is a measured and polished film both visually and tonally, but it purposefully lingers as one character inches towards their state-sanctioned end — lurking over every step and staring at the pain in the condemned man's expression, all to evoke a concerted sense of discomfort. This approach is far from understated, although neither is Just Mercy in general. Sincerity and deliberation don't have to go hand-in-hand with subtlety, after all. These types of tales might've reached pages and screens so often that they've become standard (McMillian's hometown of Monroeville was also the place where To Kill a Mockingbird's Harper Lee grew up, as the feature points out repeatedly), but this one firmly demonstrates why the fact they've become so routine also remains undeniably rousing, moving and devastating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78k9Mhgzy74
Heads up, Mother's Day is just around the corner. (It's happening on Sunday, May 9, in case you temporarily forgot.) You can frantically message your siblings later, because there's pressie planning afoot — and we've found a showstopper for your dear ol' mumsie this year thanks to Gelato Messina. Never one to miss an opportunity to experiment with new ways to inhale sweets, Messina has been cooking up quite the delicate novelty dessert for Mum since 2015: an Italian-inspired box of chocolates. These brownie point-winners have been selling out every year since, and they're sure to bring it home again in 2021. An important note, though: while these chocolate bon bons were filled with gelato to begin with, Messina went for an all-chocolate version in 2020. And, that's what's on offer again this Mother's Day. They're made from single origin Ecuadorian chocolate, no less — and, with Messina recently stepping up its in-house chocolate-making capabilities, you'll be tasting some of the gelato chain's new varieties. Each box comes with nine handmade chocolate bon bons in nine different flavours — Davidson plum, earl grey, alfajores, lamington, mandarin white choc, Messina Rocher, strawberry pate de fruit, 80-percent dark chocolate and yuzu white chocolate. So, your mum will have quite the variety to feast on. And hey, if she doesn't like one of the flavours, maybe she'll share it with you. The Mother's Day boxes are going for $49 a pop, and will be available to order from 9am, Thursday, April 22. This year, you'll need to pick them up, too, with the bon bons available for collection between Friday, May 7–Sunday, May 9. Gelato Messina's Mother's Day Bon Bons will be available to order from 9am, Thursday, April 22 for pick up between Friday, May 7–Sunday, May 9.
Flick through the pages of any issue of National Geographic and the planet comes to life in all of its natural glory, particularly the colour, movement and all-round splendour of the animal world. Indeed, the magazine has been taking eye-catching wildlife photographs since 1888, and first featured one such image — a snap of a reindeer — on its cover back in 1903. From that huge 130-year history, the publication has picked out the absolute best photos in its archive for a brand new exhibition, which will make its world premiere at the Melbourne Zoo from September 8 to November 30. 50 Greatest Wildlife Photographs will showcase exactly what it sounds like: 50 breathtaking snaps of the earth's animal inhabitants, as curated by famous nature picture editor Kathy Moran, and featuring the work of iconic National Geographic photographers such as Michael 'Nick' Nichols, Steve Winter, Paul Nicklen, Beverly Joubert and David Doubilet. If last year's Photo Ark exhibition has you staring in wonder, then this promises that and more as patrons not only view the stunning sights captured, but the way that photography has evolved over the course of more than a century. Displaying as an outdoor gallery in Melbourne Zoo's Carousel Park, 50 Greatest Wildlife Photographs will be accompanied by augmented reality experience Air, Land & Sea. The interactive installation transports viewers to a watering hole where animals — hailing from Africa, the Arctic and more — graze, drink and interact with the environment around them. As well as giving patrons a glimpse at wildlife photography at its finest, Melbourne Zoo hopes the exhibition will bring attention to the plight of animals around the world. To see the exhibition, you'll need to pay for entry into the zoo, which is $37 for adults. Image: Gray Whale Hands by Thomas P. Peschak, San Ignacio Lagoon, Mexico, April 2015.
Melburnians, when spring rolls around this year, you can expect to welcome in the warm weather with yakitori. Just when you thought the CBD couldn't fit in any more deliciousness, chef Adam Liston has announced he'll be building and opening a two-storey eatery in collaboration with The Hotel Windsor, combining Japanese, Korean and Chinese influences. Named Honcho, the eatery will squeeze into the now-vacant block of land between Rosa's Kitchen and Longrain on Punch Lane. Liston hinted at this plan back in February, when he closed his Smith Street yakitori bar, Northern Light. But it's only just now that he's let spill some of the details. Honcho's menu will have two main focuses. The first is yakitori (a moreish Japanese dish, involving chicken being placed on a skewer and then grilled to mouthwatering perfection), which will be cooked on an epic, custom-made grill. The second is seafood, to be served at a dedicated bar. According to Good Food, we can look forward to ocean trout sashimi with pickled ginger and saltbush, among other delicacies. Served up with such creations will be a handpicked selection of Japanese beers, sake and shochu. Mercifully, for those already set up in the area, drilling and hammering over winter will be kept to a minimum. The new building, designed by architect Kerstin Thompson, will be creating the building elsewhere, and then slid into place at 18 Punch Lane. Honcho is set to open in September. If you can't wait to get your Adam Liston fix, swing by The Windsor, where he'll be heading up a pop-up noodle bar from the beginning of June till the end of August. Keep an eye on the hotel's website for more details on that one. Via Good Food.
UPDATE, April 1, 2021: The Personal History of David Copperfield is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and YouTube Movies. He's skewered British, American and Russian politics in The Thick of It, In the Loop, Veep and The Death of Stalin. This year, in the eerily prescient Avenue 5, he pondered what would happen if a group of people were confined on a cruise of sorts — a luxury space voyage — for an extended stretch of time. But, made in period comedy mode, The Personal History of David Copperfield might just be Armando Iannucci's most delightful affair yet. Indeed, playfully trifling with a Charles Dickens classic suits the writer/director. It should; he's a huge fan of the 19th-century author, and a staunch believer that Dickens' body of work "isn't just quality entertainment for a long-dead audience" (as he told viewers in his 2012 BBC special Armando's Tale of Charles Dickens). And so, taking on the acclaimed scribe's semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, Iannucci tinkers, massages and re-envisages David Copperfield with ample love for the literary source material. In the process, he also crafts a still Victorian era-set yet unmistakably modern — and fresh, very funny and sharp-witted — big-screen adaptation. The eponymous character's tale begins in the film as it does on the page: with Copperfield determined to discover whether he shall turn out to be the hero of his own life "or whether that station will be held by anybody else". On-screen, the hopeful aspiring writer (Dev Patel) delivers that statement from a stage while speaking to a crowd. Then, in one of the many inventive visual flourishes that mark Iannucci's lively retelling, Copperfield strolls through the background to revisit his experiences from the moment of his birth. Though he enters the world to a doting mother, Clara (Morfydd Clark), his isn't a childhood filled with unfettered happiness. The joy he feels in his earliest days (as played by Ranveer Jaiswal and Jairaj Varsani) — and when his beloved nanny Peggoty (Daisy May Cooper) takes him to visit her family, who live in an upturned boat that doubles as a beach house — subsides quickly when Clara remarries. Not only is his new stepfather (Darren Boyd) stern, cruel, violent and accompanied by an equally unpleasant sister (Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie), but he sends the boy off to London to work in his factory. As episodic on the screen as it is in the book, Copperfield's life then navigates a rollercoaster of ups and downs — starting with the drudgery of child labour, as well as time spent lodging with the poverty-stricken, law-skirting but always kindly Mr Micawber (Peter Capaldi) and his family. After tragedy strikes, Copperfield moves in with his donkey-hating great-aunt Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton) and her equally eccentric houseguest Mr Dick (Hugh Laurie); however, though his situation appears to improve, the cycle from wealth to poverty and back again just keeps turning. As Dickens was, Iannucci and his frequent co-scribe Simon Blackwell (Peep Show, Breeders) are well aware of class chasms, the tough plights endured by the masses to benefit the better-off, the dog-eat-dog nature of capitalism in general and humanity's selfish, self-serving nature. The Personal History of David Copperfield may be largely upbeat in tone, visibly bright and dynamic, and take a few shrewd liberties with the story, but the darker elements of the narrative never escape view. Nor, as is to be expected given Iannucci's political satire prowess, do The Personal History of David Copperfield's contemporary parallels and relevance evade attention. Watching the twists and turns of Copperfield's life, it's easy to see how little some things have changed (attitudes towards everyone who isn't rich, white, powerful and male, especially, particularly in Brexit-era Britain) even 170 years after David Copperfield was first published. Heightening this perception is the movie's colour-blind casting, which not only extends to Patel's leading role, but to Doctor Strange's Benedict Wong, Harlots' Rosalind Eleazar and Avenue 5's Nikki Amuka-Bird in key parts (among other on-screen performers). No one mentions race; however, as also seen in the other recent and exceptional example of purposefully inclusive casting — musical sensation Hamilton — reframing this story to include and champion diverse backgrounds leaves a firm imprint. That makes The Personal History of David Copperfield as perceptive as it is jovial, jaunty, hilarious and spirited. In other words, it makes it a classic addition to Iannucci's resume. He's never shown as much visual creativity as he does here — deploying split-screen imagery, rear-projecting memories on giant tarpaulins, brandishing colourful costumes, favouring theatrical wide-angle lensing and even harking back to 1920s silent cinema — but he's astute as he's always been across his career. As always, that extends to his choice of actors in general, with the perfectly cast Patel as charming and thoughtful as he's ever been; Swinton, Capaldi and Laurie all put to stellar comic use; and Ben Whishaw suitably shady as the conniving Uriah Heep. With this gem of a sharp, savvy and supremely entertaining film, Iannucci doesn't just update Dickens for a modern audience or show that the author's work is still pertinent, but creates one of the great page-to-screen adaptations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqO25i-XNEU
Peer through a portal and experience a whole new perspective with this immersive exhibition at NGV Australia. Located in the gallery's Federation Square foyer, this unique piece consists of five distinct works ranging from film to hand-blown glass sculpture, all housed in an intriguing architectural creation of timber and steel. Visitors make their way around the structure, peering at each work through one of five seperate portals. Each portal shaping the visitor's experience in entirely new ways, as the act of viewing becomes warped and reflected by everything from mirrors to a long timber cantilever reminiscent of a Venetian mask. A collaboration between John Wardle Architects, filmmakers Coco and Maximilian and New York based Australian artist Natasha Johns-Messenger, Somewhere Other was first shown at the 16th International Architecture Biennale of Venice, and now makes its way to Melbourne as part of the third annual Melbourne Design Week. Image: Tom Ross.
UPDATE, October 29, 2020: Halloween is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. The boogeyman is back, and his warped face mask, stolen mechanic's overalls and gleaming kitchen knife too. But Michael Myers' return isn't the entire point of the latest (and second greatest) Halloween. While the creepy convicted killer stalks the streets of Haddonfield, Illinois as if he's never left, Jamie Lee Curtis' resourceful and determined Laurie Strode is back as well — and in the current version of events, she's spent four decades preparing for this very moment. Once a 17-year-old babysitter targeted by an escaped criminal asylum patient on October 31, Laurie is now a silver-haired, gun-toting grandmother. Living in a compound-like property in her hometown, she's so intent on facing her attacker that she has dedicated years to this very purpose. Laurie's now-adult daughter Karen (Judy Greer) resents her for the impact that it had on her childhood, while teenage granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) is caring but concerned. Regardless, Laurie knows that Michael will come for her — and when he again breaks free en route to a new psychiatric facility, she's proven accurate. Carnage ensues, just as it did in John Carpenter's original slasher classic. As Haddonfield trick-or-treats like it's any other Halloween in any other place, Michael adds more notches to his body count, Laurie lies in wait and Allyson follows in her grandmother's footsteps like it's 40 years earlier. Directed by David Gordon Green (Stronger) and co-written with frequent collaborator Danny McBride, 2018's Halloween knows how to incite bumps, jumps and screams, many of which will be gloriously familiar to seasoned Halloween buffs. But, with Carpenter's blessing and a new musical score from the horror maestro and composer, this take on the franchise also knows how to carve its own path. Now reaching its 11th instalment, Halloween unleashes the series' fourth different timeline, ignoring everything else except the initial 1978 flick. Black Mirror just announced that it's making a choose-your-own-adventure episode, but this franchise has been doing it for decades. Viewers can pick the cultish thread that eventually connects the first five sequels (including the Michael-free Halloween III: Season of the Witch), Laurie's first big return in Halloween: H20 and its terrible follow-up Halloween: Resurrection, or Rob Zombie's two remakes, however the series' next chapter is the most thrilling, perceptive and satisfying. Green and McBride are clearly fond of Carpenter's seminal work, stripping the saga's underlying suburban nightmare back to its terrifying basics, while contemplating the consequences of terrible trauma. Their film recognises the scariest fact of life: that truly awful things happen for absolutely no reason, and that they cast a dark shadow. That makes 2018's Halloween a powerful account of the ways that horrific acts shape the lives of survivors, as well as a celebration of women rallying to reclaim their own story. Nothing robs inexplicable terror of its potency quite like its intended victims refusing to be defined by fear. Thankfully, this Halloween isn't just thoughtful — it's thoroughly entertaining, even when it's hitting recognisable notes. Balancing the old and the new is a game that this sequel plays as well as Michael plays cat-and-mouse, from subverting genre tropes initially established by the series, to lovingly nodding to its many predecessors. When the true crime podcasters (played by Jefferson Hall and Rhian Rees) who kickstart the film's narrative visit Haddonfield's cemetery, and when Laurie calls new doctor Sartain (Haluk Bilginer) the "new Loomis", franchise devotees will want to cheer. When the movie turns Laurie into Michael's boogeyman, rather than vice versa, everyone will want to applaud. Of course, as plenty of horror shockers have demonstrated over the last 40 years — including a few Halloween follow-ups — it's not enough to simply work through the Halloween checklist. While 2018's Halloween does that with finesse and fondness that goes beyond mere fan service,it also feels the part thanks to its unsettling atmosphere and ample blood splatter. There's lingering menace in Michael Simmonds' (Nerve) cinematography, both when it's mirroring old shots from the original and bringing its own flourishes. Collaborating with his son Cody and godson Daniel Davies, Carpenter's score reworks the iconic synth and piano-heavy music that has served the series so well, but with a suitably bleaker tone. They both contribute to the sequel that Carpenter's seminal picture has deserved for all of these years. That said, 2018's Halloween does present a conundrum. It's the perfect culmination to the long-running franchise but, more than any other chapter, it leaves the audience pumped for more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL_I2vNwkXQ
Hosting pre-drinks can be a lot of pressure. The playlist has got to be on point and create the right vibe. The snacks need to be that perfect mix between 'line your stomach' and 'small enough to eat with one hand while straightening hair'. And the drinks have to be knockouts because they're kind of like the marker for the night ahead; pick a great drink, you're in for an even greater night. And you can't go past prosecco; The dramatic 'pop' will immediately liven up the crowd, and the versatile Italian bubbly can be enjoyed on its own or heroed in a bunch of tasty cocktails. (And no, not just in a spritz.) To make sure you serve up some real humdingers, we've partnered with the prosecco masters at Dal Zotto Wines and crafted five prosecco cocktail recipes to try before your next night out. Bottoms up, bubble lovers. PASSION PIT Let this be our little secret... This cocktail is like a fancy, adults-only version of Passiona. It tastes just like an Aussie summer (read: pavlova and bubbly). — 70g castor sugar — 70ml lemon juice — 70ml triple sec — pulp from 4 passionfruits — 1 bottle of Dal Zotto prosecco, chilled (serves four to six) Mix together the lemon juice and sugar, dissolving it as best you can. Next add the triple sec and passionfruit pulp. Pour the mixture over a couple of ice-filled glasses, then top up with chilled prosecco. Garnish with passionfruit, mint and pineapple. You'll be feeling higher and higher in no time. EL LOCO Forget frozen margaritas — it's all about sparkling margaritas, amigos. This fizzy twist on the classic will send your mates loco in all the right ways. Cocktail: — 90ml blanco tequila — 90ml triple sec — 120ml chilled simple syrup (recipe below) — 240ml lime juice — 1 bottle of Dal Zotto prosecco, chilled — coarse salt — lime wedges Simple syrup: — 250 ml water — 250 ml castor sugar (serves six to eight) First, you need to make the simple syrup which is, well, super simple to make. Grab a medium saucepan and over medium-high heat stir together the sugar and water until all the granules have dissolved. Allow to cool to room temperature and then chill in the fridge. Next, add the tequila, chilled simple syrup, triple sec and lime juice into a cocktail shaker along with a good handful of ice, then give it a good shake. Grab your tumblers — or margarita glasses, if you've got 'em — and run a lime wedge around the rim of each glass before dipping them into a small plate of course salt. Add a handful of ice to each glass and divide the tequila mixture among the glasses. Finally, top with a wedge of lime and a splash of prosecco for that all-important fizz. PRINCESS PEACH Just like everybody's favourite crown-wearing Mario Kart character, this tipple is sweet yet punchy and will always score first place. — 2 ripe peaches, seeded and diced — 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice — 1 teaspoon sugar — 1 bottle of Dal Zotto prosecco, chilled (serves six) Chuck the peaches, lemon juice and sugar into your trusty food processor, and blend until smooth. Pass the mixture through a sieve and get rid of all the chunky peach bits. Place 2 tablespoons of the puree into each champagne glass and top with well-chilled prosecco. Yeah, Peach has got it! LEMON DROP This cocktail is a riff on those zingy, sherbert-filled lollies you probably ate as a kid. And it's got two Italian heavy-hitters, limoncello and prosecco, so you know it's going to be good. — 1 bottle of Dal Zotto prosecco, chilled — 250ml limoncello, chilled — blueberries — thyme — lemon slices (serves four) Pour the prosecco and limoncello into a jug and stir together. Next, press your lemon slices into the bottom of a large highball glass (a hurricane or sling will work equally well), top with ice and fill with the prosecco mixture. For added pizzazz, garnish with thyme and blueberries. PURPLE RAIN Just like Prince, this tipple is kinda strange but, also, utter genius. If it were to change its name to a symbol it would be an exclamation mark, because it's that delicious. Cocktail: — 1/4 cup blackberries — 90ml blackberry syrup (recipe below) — juice from one lime — mint — 120ml light rum — 1 bottle of Dal Zotto prosecco, chilled Blackberry syrup: — 2 tablespoons water — 1 cup blackberries — 1/3 cup granulated sugar (serves two) First, you'll need to whip up the blackberry syrup. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, mash together the sugar, blackberries and water. Once the mixture is thick and the sugar dissolved, pass it through a fine mesh strainer and let it chill. Add the blackberry syrup, blackberries, lime and a handful of mint to a cocktail shaker and muddle well. Next, chuck in the rum and a few ice cubes and shake it like you mean it. Strain the mixture into martini glasses and top with chilled prosecco and fresh blueberries or blackberries. Then, get ready to party like it's 1999. Keen for more fizz? Visit The Osborne, Auburn Hotel, The Cove, Captain Melville, Jimmy Watsons, La Manna or Parkhill Cellars for a glass of bubbly perfection. Plus, as part of Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2019, Dal Zotto winery is hosting an Italian lunch feast on Saturday, March 16. For more information and to book tickets, head this way.
For the second year in a row, movie buffs will need to get their Melbourne International Film Festival fix purely from their couches. After the 2020 fest jumped online due to the pandemic, the 2021 event was meant to go ahead as a hybrid of both in-cinema and digital sessions. But then not one but two lockdowns hit, venue restrictions were put in place when the city wasn't under stay-at-home conditions, and the COVID-19 situation in Melbourne in general has kept complicating plans, leading MIFF organisers to scrap its in-cinema screenings. Initially, in-person sessions were set to span the festival's first week or so, before the event closed up online; however, just days before this year's MIFF kicked off on Thursday, August 5, the fest flipped that order and expanded its virtual component. It was due to then add in-person sessions from Thursday, August 12, but that'll no longer be happening. "MIFF's heart was in a return to cinemas this year, and this is a goal that we have pursued with determination to this point," said Artistic Director Al Cossar. "It is with deep sadness and profound frustration that we must take the step of cancelling our Melbourne cinema-based screenings for 2021." This year's MIFF was designed to be able to adapt to changing conditions, given that it was always likely that the pandemic would continue to impact the festival's plans — and so it is well-positioned for the move online. "Despite the duress of this moment, we are proud that elements of our program can still continue," said Cossar. "Through our XR platform, global audiences anywhere can continue their season of MIFF's exciting range of immersive experiences; and, centrally, through MIFF Play we can continue to deliver the very best Australian and international films to audiences not just in Melbourne but right around the country, at a time that it's most needed." Via MIFF Play, the festival is screening more than 90 features, with its catalogue of titles growing in recent days. Exisiting highlights include college-set rom-com Freshman Year, Spanish influencer satire La Verónica, New Zealand thriller Coming Home in the Dark and Norwegian comedy Ninjababy, while the Mads Mikkelsen-starring Riders of Justice and psycho-thriller music mockumentary The Nowhere Inn — featuring Carrie Brownstein and St Vincent — sit among the just-added newcomers. More films are set to become available on Saturday, August 14, too, such as documentary Hopper/Welles, which sees Dennis Hopper and Orson Welles meet and chat back in 1970; Night of the Kings, a prison thriller set on the outskirts of Abidjan; and Stray, a doco about the 100,000-plus stray dogs that rove freely around Istanbul. And, other titles will drop later in the fest, like Australian drama Little Tornadoes, which is co-written by The Slap's Christos Tsiolkas; Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, a documentary exploring the folk horror genre; and closing night's Language Lessons, which takes place via video calls. MIFF's digital platform is available Australia-wide, ensuring that cinephiles around the country — including those in lockdown elsewhere, like in Greater Sydney — can enjoy its lineup as well. That facet of the online program proved popular last year, unsurprisingly, with 2020's virtual festival resulting in MIFF's biggest fest yet, audience-wise. The 2021 Melbourne International Film Festival runs via MIFF's online platform MIFF Play until Sunday, August 22. For further details, visit the MIFF website.
Recently blacklisted in its director’s native China, the new film from Jia Zhangke is a grim, unflinching ode to the disenfranchised masses. An anthology driven by fleeting acts of violence, A Touch of Sin marks something of a stylistic departure for the filmmaker, whose previous films, including Still Life and The World, were more naturalistic. Yet Zhangke’s concern for the exploitation of his country’s working class remains very much front and centre. It’s this compassion for those without options that ensures this film strikes a chord. An unsettling prologue sets the movie's tone: three men with hatchets ambush a motorcyclist (Wang Baoqiang) on a deserted road, only to be mercilessly gunned down by their would-be victim. Afterwards, we’re introduced to Dahai (Jiang Wu), a righteously indignant coal miner in the impoverished province of Shanxi, who becomes increasingly obsessed with bringing corrupt local officials to justice. Dressed in his long green overcoat, Dahai sees himself as a hero for the common man. For a time, so do we. But with every bureaucratic setback, his crusade becomes more frenzied, before finally erupting into bloody vigilantism. From there, Zhangke abruptly shifts direction, leaving Shanxi behind and picking up with the motorcyclist — a worldweary criminal whose name we learn is Zhou San. After a bittersweet evening with his family followed by a daring and violent robbery, the film switches protagonists again, peering in on the life of Xiaoyu (Zhao Tao, the director's wife), a lowly sauna receptionist who’s forced to defend herself against an overly aggressive customer. Finally, the film settles on Xiaohui, a kind young man whose job as a concierge at a high-end brothel sends him gradually into despair. This fractured narrative proves somewhat problematic. While each of the characters are inherently sympathetic, that we don’t spend more than half an hour with any of them makes it hard to become fully invested. Dahai’s vignette — part absurd black comedy, part Death Wish-style revenge fantasy — is easily the most engaging, whereas the subsequent chapters grow increasingly slow-moving and introspective. Truthfully, A Touch of Sin is less about its four leads, and more about the millions of others, both in China and around the globe, whose desperation has driven them to criminal activity and violence. Simple, lingering shots capture many scenes of privilege against a backdrop of poverty, none of which are more pointed than the sequence in which Xiaoyu’s wealthy attacker whips her with a thick wad of cash after she refuses to accept it for sex. What a perfect allegory for the relationship between the rich and poor: either concede to be screwed, or be beaten without mercy. While Zhangke’s structural approach can at times be emotionally distancing, his themes thankfully keep the movie feeling personal.
There's a big, white container sitting in Federation Square. It looks innocent enough at first, but, like most shipping containers in the city, it's not being used to transport furniture. And the fact that the word 'séance' is written on the side in black makes it seem kind of ominous. But Séance is actually a new installation where participants take a seat inside the tiny space, put on a headset and place their hands flat on the table in front of them. The lights go out and the container enters complete darkness. For the next 15 minutes, participants are fed 'suggestible information' through their headsets. You're probably thinking that there's something dark or supernatural about the whole thing — and going by the name, we don't blame you. But the installation's organiser assures us that 'séance' is simply a French word meaning 'session' or 'sitting'. And so Séance is a sensory experience that looks at the psychology of a group sitting together. Despite not being a horror or supernatural-themed piece, it's a scary indicator of how easy it is for confusion, information overload and the people siting right next to us to affect our judgment. Artists David Rosenberg and Glen Neath (who have collaborated in other sensory deprivation projects before) are the creative masterminds behind the project, which has been described as 'disorienting' and 'deeply unsettling'. It's not recommended for the claustrophobic or the easily frightened. After its Melbourne residence, the installation will head to Sydney (November 22 to December 10) and Brisbane (dates to be confirmed) so they, too, can experience this madness. Séance is open daily, three times an hour between 12pm and 10pm until November 12. Tickets cost $20 each and you can purchase them through the website.
There are plenty of ways to describe something that's fun while it lasts, but finishes up prematurely. And yes, many of them could be followed by "title of your sex tape". So, with US TV network NBC announcing that beloved sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine will come to an end after its next season, we're sure you're going to be thinking about Jake Peralta's favourite retort for a while. We're sure the phrase will be uttered at least once in the show's final batch of episodes, too, with Brooklyn Nine-Nine due to wrap up with a ten-episode eighth season. Those final instalments won't air until either the second half of 2021 or the first half of 2022, so you have some time to come to terms with the news — and to prepare to say goodbye to Peralta (Andy Samberg), Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz), Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio), Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) and Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher). And yes, even to farewell Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) and Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller) as well. In response to the announcement, showrunner Dan Goor said that "ending the show was a difficult decision, but ultimately, we felt it was the best way to honour the characters, the story and our viewers". This definitely isn't a noice development, but if you've been following news headlines over the past year, ending B99 shouldn't come as much of a surprise. In response to 2020's Black Lives Matter protests — and their efforts to raise awareness about police brutality after the death of George Floyd — the first four scripts for the show's eighth season were scrapped. Several cast members, including Samberg, also spoke publicly about rethinking B99's approach in light of the events. https://twitter.com/nbcbrooklyn99/status/1359958366433341440 When the series ends, it'll do so after 153 episodes of Brooklyn-set antics, all based around the fictional 99th precinct — with quite a few Halloween heists thrown in. And, it'll cap off a tumultuous run for the show off-screen, because B99 was threatened with being axed for its entire first five seasons, and was even cancelled in May 2018. That move was made by Fox, its original American network; however, after an outcry followed, rival US channel NBC picked up the series just 31 hours later. It first committed to a sixth season of cop comedy, then picked it up for a seventh, and later renewed it for an eighth before that seventh season even aired. Whenever any B99 news hits — happy or sad — there are plenty of appropriate ways to mark this development. You could break out a sorrowful yoghurt, Terry Jeffords-style. If you're more like Captain Raymond Holt, perhaps you'd like to treat yourself to a trip to a barrel museum. You could also channel your inner Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) and dance about your distressed feelings, you could organise your entire house as you know Santiago would, or you say cheers to Peralta by watching Die Hard over and over. Brooklyn Nine-Nine will come to an end after its next — and eighth — season. The show's final ten episodes will air sometime either in the second half of 2021 or the first half of 2022 — we'll update you when more details are announced.
So if you're lonely, Franz Ferdinand will be here waiting for you in Melbourne before 2025 is out. Fresh from releasing their sixth album in January, the Scottish band are touring Down Under to help cap off the year, including on Friday, November 28 at Live at the Gardens in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. It's been more than two decades since the Alex Kapranos-led group made a helluva splash with the catchy second single from their self-titled debuted album. Even just reading the name 'Take Me Out' is enough to get the number-one tune in Triple J's 2004 Hottest 100 stuck in your head. The song was also nominated for two Grammys, while the record that it springs from won the Mercury Prize. Since the huge success of 'Take Me Out' and their 2004 Franz Ferdinand album, the band have dropped records in 2005 (You Could Have It So Much Better), 2009 (Tonight: Franz Ferdinand), 2013 (Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action), 2018 (Always Ascending) and this year (The Human Fear). Touring-wise, their past Aussie trips have included sets at Big Day Out, Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival. Franz Ferdinand's 2025 Aussie visit comes just a few months after Bloc Party, who benefited from Kapranos' approval when they were starting out, do the same in August. Select images: Raph PH via Flickr.
An author who paid others to pen his books. A flagrant womaniser and gambler. Someone who'd lose his last franc rather than live within his means. Obsessed with keeping up appearances in Parisian artistic circles, Henry Gauthier-Villars (Dominic West) — or Willy, as he preferred to be called — was many things. He's certainly the least interesting part of a story that shouldn't be about him, but the real-life figure's actions guaranteed otherwise. Marrying Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) when she was 20, and putting her to work when he was desperate for ghostwriters, he claimed her autobiographical Claudine novels as his own. He also refused to give her any credit despite years of success — and even went as far as locking Colette in a room for hours when he wanted her to increase her literary output. While it might seem awkward to start a review of Colette's biopic by thrusting her first husband to the fore, that was her married life with Willy in a nutshell. There's no doubting that they loved each other, at least initially, however his sense of importance cast a long shadow. The conventions of the era didn't help; it was difficult for women to be taken seriously in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and impossible for Colette to get her books published under her own name. But hers isn't a tale of a talent simply finding her calling against the odds. Rather, as handsomely directed by Wash Westmoreland, it's one of a woman breaking free of a man's control, society's expectations and gender-based constraints. More than that, it's still devastatingly timely. Co-scripted by Westmoreland along with his Still Alice co-director Richard Glatzer and Disobedience screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz, there's a wily air about Colette from the outset. It's evident when Colette is glimpsed rushing through her family's modest Burgundy estate for a secret, lusty rendezvous with Willy. It's apparent, too, when she discovers her husband's philandering ways, and demands that she's no longer ignored and overlooked. Indeed, every time that Colette is pushed aside, she fights back. Whether she's dismissed for her country upbringing, left stranded at home while Willy goes out on the town, or threatened with scandal when she enjoys relationships with women, she rallies against the limitations placed upon her. Earning recognition for her own work might be her toughest hurdle — even more so than the response to her move into acting — but Colette was adept at bursting through boundaries. Often considered restrained or aloof in period dramas such as The Duchess and A Dangerous Method, Knightley frequently uses those traits to her advantage in Colette. Her protagonist isn't distant, but she does boast a sense of steeliness — one that, in another tale, might've been mistaken for detachment. That said, it's when the actor subverts expectations that she turns in some of her most memorable work in recent years, selling her character's full wit, charm and impact. Though never lacking in self-assurance, Colette proves as spontaneous and spirited as she does determined and resolute. She's someone who's always comfortable in her own skin, even when she's told that she shouldn't be, as is continually made plain in Knightley's lively and lived-in central performance. In a movie about a woman blazing brightly, it should come as no surprise that its star is the cast's standout. West's take on Willy is purposefully and convincingly grating, while Eleanor Tomlinson (Jack the Giant Slayer) and Denise Gough (Juliet, Naked), playing Colette's lovers, are barely given room to flesh out their parts. Still, they each add detail to a film that's never just celebratory. In chronicling the formative years of one of the greatest female literary figures of her time (and of all time), Westmoreland's biographical picture compellingly delves into the world that made its subject who she was. Domineering men, gossipy parties, the superficial pleasures of ornate wallpaper and costuming — to understand why Colette was most at home in her family garden, or pouring her life onto the page, or breaking fashion taboos by wearing a suit, is to first understand everything that the iconic author was told to be, yet chose to ignore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnTNgZz4Sm0
Playwright Joanna Murray-Smith and singer Bernadette Robinson, having teamed up in 2010 on the successful cabaret Songs for Nobodies, return with this collaboration for MTC. Again written specifically for Robinson as a showcase for her remarkable vocal talents, Pennsylvania Avenue makes the White House the setting for a nostalgia-fuelled journey through the music of the late 20th century. Robinson stars as Harper Clemence, a staffer in the White House's Social Office, responsible for liaison with entertainers performing at presidential functions. Framed as a memoir of a 40-year career, from the Kennedy era to the end of Clinton' presidency, it acts essentially as a prop for Robinson to perform impressions of a wide array of celebrities, both musical and political. So we hear her whisper 'Happy Birthday' like Marilyn and boom out 'Respect' like Aretha and deliver impressive musical impressions of the likes of Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan and Eartha Kitt. The slick production is worthy of a show about presidents and pop stars — it even boasts a series of digital screens that transform from a White House portrait gallery into images from old concerts and historical events, some with the fictional Harper photoshopped into them. There is nostalgia galore, especially for Kennedy and to a lesser extent Clinton, and musically it stays mostly in the '60s and '70s. If that's your era, this show is playing squarely to your court. As a showcase for Robinson's talent, Pennsylavania Avenue is fantastic. Both as an actor and as a singer, she has tremendous range and power. Her ability to recreate the vocal stylings of such a diverse spread of singers brings a great deal of joy and wonder to the audience. However, the premise of having a fictional character interact with a who's who of American pop music and politics, kind of like a musical Forrest Gump, is hard to do without feeling contrived. This is especially the case when the script tries to incorporate Harper as an active protagonist. At times it achieves the right balance of humour and pathos, at others — such as having Harper first utter words made famous by a president for instance — it takes the theatrical conceit that step too far. Harper doesn't really have enough depth as a character in her own right to be believable, at the same time as the show demands a high level of emotional investment in her personal journey. As a nostalgia trip, Pennsylvania Avenue is inevitably highly sentimental but at times the raw emotion from Harper doesn't gel with the tone of a piece that rides mainly on the strength of celebrity impressions. While the show could have been better served by a script that was either more grounded in reality than whimsy or else more committed to simply being fun, when Robinson sings all else is forgiven. She knocks it out of the park with every song and leaves her audience in awe.
Twin gynaecologists at the top of their game. Blood-red costuming and bodily fluids. The kind of perturbing mood that seeing flesh as a source of horror does and must bring. A stunning eye for stylish yet unsettling imagery. Utterly impeccable lead casting. When 1988's Dead Ringers hit cinemas, it was with this exact combination, all in the hands of David Cronenberg following Shivers, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly. Attempting to stitch together those parts again, this time without the Crimes of the Future filmmaker at the helm — and as a Prime Video miniseries, which streams from Friday, April 21, too — on paper seems as wild a feat as some of modern medicine's biggest advancements. This time starring a phenomenal Rachel Weisz as both Beverly and Elliot Mantle, and birthed by Lady Macbeth and The Wonder screenwriter Alice Birch, Dead Ringers 2.0 is indeed an achievement. It's also another masterpiece. Playing the gender-swapped roles that Jeremy Irons (House of Gucci) inhabited so commandingly 35 years back, Weisz (Black Widow) is quiet, calm, dutiful, sensible and yearning as Beverly, then volatile, outspoken, blunt, reckless and rebellious as Elliot. Her performance as each is that distinct — that fleshed-out as well — that it leaves viewers thinking they're seeing double. Of course, technical trickery is also behind the duplicate portrayals, with directors Sean Durkin (The Nest), Karena Evans (Snowfall), Lauren Wolkstein (The Strange Ones) and Karyn Kusama's (Destroyer) behind the show's lens; however, Weisz is devastatingly convincing. Beverly is also the patient-facing doctor of the two, helping usher women into motherhood, while Elliot prefers tinkering in a state-of-the-art lab trying to push the boundaries of fertility. Still, the pair are forever together or, with unwitting patients and dates alike, swapping places and pretending to be each other. "It's impossible to explain this relationship to anyone outside of it. We don't need anyone else. We never have." That's Beverly's summary of their codependent lives — or is it Elliot's? When they're side by side, the Mantle twins are patently two halves of the same self-sufficient whole, as a brilliant, biting and blistering opening scene where they reprimand a guy who interrupts their post-work drinks makes plain. The fellow bar patron barely knows what hits him as they sling their displeasure fast and furiously, and nor do most folks in their company afterwards. As the six-episode series progresses, that includes actor Genevieve (Britne Oldford, The Umbrella Academy), who segues from a patient to Beverly's girlfriend; Elliot's researcher offsider Tom (Michael Chernus, Severance); and big-pharma billionaire Rebecca (Jennifer Ehle, She Said), who Dead Ringers' weird sisters court to fund their dream birthing centre. As Beverly is fond of saying, pregnancy isn't a disease — and with Elliot, she wants to move everything about it out of the hospital. There are millions of New Yorkers to help, and a vast amount more Americans, such is the British siblings' ambition with backing worthy of a sequel to Oscar-nominated documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. Dead Ringers is focused on its main two women, however, aka a pair that's hardly doting about their individual wellbeing. They function instinctively as a duo, and Elliot as is committed as she is to playing god because she wants to help the frequently miscarrying Beverly fulfil her own wish to become a mother. But disrupting that status quo, as Genevieve's arrival and Rebecca's money does, sees mayhem flow. In its sleek and cold look, as well as its equally chilly and severe tone, Dead Ringers isn't concerned with being naturalistic. That doesn't apply to the show's approach to bodies and babies, though, or to what the former go through to lead to the latter. In Cronenberg's picture, which was somewhat subtle about its body horror compared to most of the director's work, one of its twins experienced drug-addled delusions about mutated female forms. Birch's version instead plunges its hands deep into the blood and gore of bringing about life. Here, the body horror feels all the more visceral because it's steeped in reality, unflinchingly depicting the crimson rivers, primal screams, distended abdomens, sliced-open wombs, stirrup-strapped legs and invasive procedures that are an everyday fact of maternity and womanhood. Often in horror, the power of suggestion is queen. It can be far more potent to let viewers fill in the gaps in their mind and imagine up their own worst nightmares when something malevolent is haunting a scary movie's characters, for instance. In Dead Ringers, staring wide-eyed at "the best that we have come up with" in medicine surrounding pregnancy, as Beverly decries — also noting that "this is how every single one of us enters the world" while lambasting the state of the field, plus the pain and humiliation expected to be endured by women — is as intense and distressing as it's meant to be. As the Mantles advocate for something better, the show they're in lays bare the truth. This is a series about autonomy within a sororal connection that couldn't be closer, but it's also always about the bodily autonomy that's constantly stripped away from people with female reproductive systems. Birch delivers a piece of television that flawlessly does two things: charts intertwined lives and their combined chaos, including musing on bonds thicker than mere blood, the inherent loneliness of being alive and the solace we all seek in a kindred spirit; and takes a scalpel to everything surrounding women's healthcare. Thanks to the Mantles' patients, it touches upon the way that class and race still dictates treatment and outcomes, the trauma of stillbirths and miscarriages, the control dynamics around surrogacy, how female pain is so easily dismissed and life-changing medical conditions in the process. That's a hefty, have-it-all juggling act, but Dead Ringers' guiding force makes it look effortless. In addition to her big-screen scripts, which also spans Mothering Sunday, Birch co-penned the TV adaptations of Sally Rooney's Normal People and Conversations with Friends — and she just keeps propagating her stacked resume. Now twinned itself, Dead Ringers didn't take its first breaths with the movie that Birch uses as source material, complete with mirroring some of its most striking visual flourishes. Truth has to be especially odd to be stranger than a Cronenberg film, and in 1975 it was when gynaecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus were found dead in the Big Apple. Their existence and passing sparked a New York magazine article, followed by the fictionalised 1977 novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland. Here, that history provides a reminder that the past always leaves an imprint on new lives. That said, with the ever-excellent Weisz lapping up her delicious dual roles, the writing as clever and astute as it is twisted and funny, and the entire show gleaming eerily from its first meticulous frame to its last, the latest Dead Ringers has no trouble making its own mark. Check out the trailer for Dead Ringers below: Dead Ringers streams via Prime Video from Friday, April 21.
Zombies are invading this year's Japanese Film Festival. They're hitting Melbourne courtesy of horror-comedy One Cut of the Dead, but this isn't your average undead flick. It might be about a film crew trying to make their own zombie movie, as routine as that sounds; however the gleefully low-budget effort offers up plenty of surprises. Come for the found footage-style, one-take opening and stay as it veers into unexpected territory — and for the opening night celebrations that the fest is serving up with it, too! That's just one of the movies on JFF's 2018 lineup, which also features two things that everyone loves: cats and ramen. The former comes in the form of The Travelling Cat Chronicles, about a cute feline hopping around the country. The latter is a part of foodie drama Ramen Shop, about a blogger sifting through his family's history, as well as absolute classic Tampopo, the iconic noodle western which has been given a 4K restoration. Other standouts hitting up the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Hoyts Melbourne Central include crime flicks The Blood of Wolves and My Friend 'A', as well as The Third Murder — aka the other movie from Shoplifters Palme d'Or-winning filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda this year. Bowie fans will also want to catch Sukita, about rock photographer Masayoshi Sukita, who was a favourite of the star musician. All up, Melbourne's leg of the fest boasts 31 films, screening across Thursday, November 22 to Sunday, December 2. And, JFF also has a free classics program, which runs for the duration of the main fest.
Fly down the Princes Highway all the way to the moon with this expansive exhibition at the Geelong Gallery. Exploring our endless fascination with the brightest light in the night sky, the exhibition runs from mid-June until the end of winter — and coincides with the 50 year anniversary of the moon landing. It combines visual art with film, literature, music and science in order to fully transport visitors to the lunar surface. Incorporating works from galleries around the country, as well as a number of private collections, the exhibition features historical and modern works that demonstrate how the celestial body has shaped human art, mythology and our understanding of the universe for aeons. Look at photos of NASA trips to the moon and research centres, paintings by famed Japanese artists or sit back and watch the revolutionary 1902 French adventure flick, A Trip to the Moon. Stargazers will also be happy to know that the gallery will also transform into a pop-up planetarium on Saturday, July 20 to mark half a century since Neil Armstrong's famous trip across the Sea of Tranquillity. One our sessions in the planetarium will include a short film and a tour of the night sky's moons, planets, constellations and stars. Tickets for this will set you back $11. The Moon is open from 10am–5pm daily. Images: George Méliès, A Trip to the Moon (1902), courtesy of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image; Rosemary Laing, NASA — Dryden Flight Research Center #1 1998, courtesy of Tolarno Galleries and the artist.
UPDATE, December 22, 2022: Jackass Forever is available to stream via Binge, Paramount+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Older men, same ol' tricks and dicks: that's Jackass Forever. The fifth film in the prank-fuelled TV-to-movie franchise isn't afraid of letting it show, either, just as it's never been afraid of flashing around male genitalia. No one in Jackass' crew of comic daredevils is scared of that much — or, if they are, they're more frightened of not challenging themselves alongside their buddies — so the proud and purposeful attitude flaunted in the flick's title and usual formula is thoroughly unsurprising. Twenty-two years have passed since Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave Englund, Wee Man, Danger Ehren and Preston Lacy first turned outlandish stunts and practical jokes into an MTV hit, but age hasn't wearied their passion or camaraderie. It also hasn't dampened the gang's fondness for showing their junk, but there's something sweet here among all the penises: the fact that time inescapably passes but doing stupid shit with your mates sparks immortal joy. Jackass Forever is stupid, because the kinds of gags that Knoxville and company love are profoundly idiotic — including the film's opening gambit, where a green Godzilla-esque creature tramples a city but it's really Pontius' package painted like a monster. Also inherently silly: using the cast's bodies to prop up skateboarding ramps, a Knoxville-hosted game show that penalises wrong answers with a whack to the sack, exploding a port-a-potty while Steve-O is using it and a contraption made of harnesses that simultaneously gives three people wedgies. The ridiculous bits go on, including lighting farts underwater and drinking milk on a moving carousel to the point of vomiting. Another reason that Jackass is forever for this troupe: they're still as juvenile now, even though they're all over or approaching 50, as they ever were. Describing Jackass' risky skits and scenes never comes close to watching them, but how funny anyone finds this franchise depends on individual senses of humour and, sometimes, upon your mood on any given day. Regardless, there's always been an art to its follies, as captured on camera by Jeff Tremaine, the series' longstanding director, and also its co-creator with Knoxville and Her filmmaker Spike Jonze. Jackass' slapstick credentials carry on the traditions of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and The Three Stooges, but lewder and grosser, obviously. The saga's commitment to documenting not just the stunts and pranks themselves, but the setups, attitudes in advance and reactions afterwards — the key interplay between its perpetrators, victims and spectators, too — also sees it deconstruct the brand of comedy it sports as it goes. These sense-defying jesters show their working, in other words, and share the thrills it inspires. No wonder they don't ever want it to stop. Mortality does hang over Jackass Forever, however, as seen in a number of ways — starting with Knoxville's grey hair. It isn't always so strikingly silvery, and he's also shown talking about not wanting to show his bald spot, which Jonze then rushes in to cover with black spray paint. But when the crew's ringleader does let his wintry-hued tresses show, it's the best visual representation possible of how these guys will be adoring all things Jackass till they die. Well that, and the plethora of injuries suffered, including Knoxville's concussion, brain haemorrhage and bone fractures from a bull stunt. Jackass' ridiculous men can't escape the passing years and its impact upon their bodies if they wanted to, but it clearly makes them savour what they're doing. Indeed, also prominent this time around is the sense of gratefulness that they're all still able to give Jackass another whirl, a feeling deepened by the film's dedication to former co-star Ryan Dunn, who was killed in a car crash a decade back. It's been 12 years since Jackass 3D, although we all know that pop-culture hits never die — and, in this case, the brand even manages to survive 2013's hidden-camera comedy Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa — but making this movie with so much of the OG cast definitely isn't being taken for granted by anyone involved. Plus, that aforementioned sweetness also filters through in the kindness and support the gang show in the moment here, even while devising the feature's torturous scenes, egging each other on and clearly enjoying seeing their pals squirm. They're all in it together, even if Ehren does seem to take the bulk of the movie's physical punishment. A new roster of talent joins in as well, but bringing in Sean 'Poopies' McInnerney, Zach Holmes, Jasper Dolphin, Eric Manaka and Rachel Wolfson — Jackass' first female member — isn't about passing the torch. It's about sharing, as the regulars also do with celebrity guests such as Eric Andre, Tyler the Creator and Machine Gun Kelly. Jackass has always had a hangout vibe and a more-the-merrier attitude to its dangerous displays, after all. Dispiritingly, the latter also applies to too many Jackass Forever bits that rely upon animals, including Wolfson's lone solo segment, which are the kinds of jokes that not just this comedy brand and its pranksters but the world in general should've outgrown by now. Perhaps Jackass sticks to its critter-centric jokes for the same reasons it keeps giving cinema as much male nudity as it can: its ageing daredevils just aren't interested in new tricks. Instead, they want to have the same stupid and needless fun they've always had — because no one needs to either participate in or observe any of Jackass' pranks — purely for the sake of it. You can read in plenty of meaning along the way, including the ultimate manchild schtick, performative toxic masculinity and bromance (and, here, mid-life crises as well). Also, laughing along with every setpiece, simple and elaborate alike, is far from a given. But Jackass Forever still makes its audience appreciate its lust for life and rage against the dying of the light, and its cast's undying affection for their always-immature gambit, as well as their willingness to be jackasses purely to get each other and the world chuckling.
The annual French Film Festival is touring the country next month and is set to be an entertaining delight for film lovers of all tastes and ages. The festival is a wing of the Alliance Française, an independent, not-for-profit organisation devoted to promoting the spread of French language and culture worldwide. With a presence in over 146 nations and over 30 Alliance Françaises in Australia alone, it is safe to say the organisation has done well in achieving these goals. The Alliance Françaises of Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, and Sydney have joined forces to develop the Film Festival, now in its 24th year. And the 43 films set to screen at this year's festival will certainly not disappoint. The festival has a huge array of productions on offer, sure to sate the appetites of the soppy romantics, the arty, youngsters, those simply looking for a bit of a laugh, nostalgia-sufferers, and even thrillseekers. These films are some of most acclaimed productions to have come out of France over the last 12 months and will have you adoring both the language and the artistic creativity of the French by the time the credits roll. Opening the festival is Haute Cuisine, light fare about a successful chef who is appointed to head the President's kitchen in the Elysee Palace. During the festival you can see Renoir (pictured), a sumptuous film about the feuds of great painters; the erotic tableaux of FEU by Christian Louboutin; the Cannes closer and Audrey Tautou vehicle Therese Desqueyroux; and the pre-Freudian Augustine. The French Film Festival will tour to major capital cities during March and April. Visit their website to see the full program.
This North Melbourne corner shop is quickly becoming a community hub of love for Australian makers, crafters, artists and artisans. Boasting handcrafted contemporary ceramics and textiles that will put your IKEA homewares the shame, Guild of Objects sells one-offs perfect for the homemaker — or just for anyone who likes nice things.
If either St Kilda Road or Parkville's Grattan Street feature on your standard commute, you're probably going to want to scout out an alternative route — fast. Hefty sections of both roads are about to be closed for a good, long time, as major construction begins on the $11 billion Metro Tunnel project, connecting the Parkville and Domain precincts to the city's rail system. Once wrapped up, the project's expected to cut Melbourne's traffic numbers by up to 50,000 cars per day, though drivers look set to face a few big headaches in the meantime. Most significantly, around 800 metres of St Kilda Road (the part connecting Dorcas Street and Toorak Road West) will be reduced to just one lane from February 14 for up to four years. Up on Grattan Street, a 300-metre stretch between Royal Parade and Leicester Street will be closed to cars from February 19 for up to five years, though there'll still be pedestrian access and diversions for cyclists. To cope with the fallout, the Victorian Government says it's delivering more than $25 million of upgrades elsewhere on Melbourne roads and public transport routes, including increased traffic lanes and the widening of roads. They've suggested alternative routes for the St Kilda Road stretch, such as Queens Road, Kings Way, Ferrars Street and Beaconsfield Parade, and for Grattan Street, including Alexandra Parade, Queensberry Street and Cemetery Road. Acting Minister for Public Transport Luke Donnellan explained that while the works would be disruptive, they're also "absolutely necessary to build the badly-needed Metro Tunnel as safely and quickly as possible". Just to catch you up, the Metro Tunnel will see two new nine-kilometre twin tunnels and five underground train stations added to Melbourne's inner city. These new stations will be located in Parkville, North Melbourne, CBD North, CBD South and the Domain, and create a new path into the city that doesn't rely on (but connects to) the City Loop. The idea is that it will ease congestion in the City Loop and allow more trains to be getting in and out of the city.
If you're looking to escape Melbourne's grisly winter weather, even for a weekend, Ballarat might be just the place to do it. The regional town is dialling up the heat with a road trip-worthy winter program, stuffed full of cosy eats, activities and entertainment. The Ballarat Winter Festival descends on the region from Saturday, June 29, till Sunday, July 21, promising to pull you right out of hibernation mode. Kids big and little will be able to throw down moves on the pop-up ice-skating rink, which lands beside Ballarat Town Hall for the festival's duration. All skill levels are allowed to hit the ice, with bookable one-hour skate sessions. On June 29 and 30 and July 13 and 14, jump into the future at the Winteractive Arcade augmented reality exhibition. As well as checking out the latest and greatest tech gadgets, you'll have the chance to battle mates in a massive multiplayer game of Snake, a virtual reality drone racing game, or some old-school arcade favourites. The inaugural Ballarat Activated ArtWalk will transform the city into an immersive gallery, navigated via your smartphone, while on July 6–7, The Design Exchange pulls together an independent marketplace of artisan wares, woodfire pizzas and pop-up bars. And Sovereign Hill comes alive in the spirit of Christmas in July for its annual Winter Wonderlights program, featuring dazzling light projections, Euro-style winter markets and live entertainment.
"Think of a powerful memory. Make it the happiest you can remember." They're Daniel Radcliffe's words, uttered in the opening moments of the trailer for Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts — and, just like the title for this HBO reunion special, they say it all. First announced in November, and headed to Binge in Australia on Saturday, January 1 and TVNZ On Demand in New Zealand on Sunday, January 2 — to start 2022 off with some magic, obviously — this nostalgic special will celebrate 20 years since the Harry Potter franchise first hit cinemas screens. 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 will reteam all of Harry Potter's famous on-screen faces — Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson among them, because it wouldn't be worth going ahead if they weren't involved. Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts won't feature anyone in-character; however, they do indeed head back to everyone's favourite wizarding school, as the just-dropped full trailer for the special also shows. Also taking part is filmmaker Chris Columbus, who directed the franchise's first two movies. Plus, you can expect to spot a huge list of other actors from across the series, 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 notice 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 in Australia — and 7pm NZST on Sunday, January 2 in your calendar in New Zealand — as that's when the special will hit locally. In the interim, you can check out the full trailer for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special below: 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 — and in New Zealand via TVNZ from 7pm NZST on Sunday, January 2. Top image: Binge / Warner Bros Entertainment Inc.
A boy scampers through the woods, happy in his natural surroundings. He runs, jumps, climbs and scurries, far away from the human world, with a very unusual creature for a companion. Such tales keep popping up in cinemas this year, particularly as far as modern-day, CGI-enhanced remakes of decades-old family fare are concerned. If The Jungle Book wowed you with not only its impressive visuals, but also its tender heart, then prepare for Pete's Dragon to do the same. Just don't expect a scary presence in this gentle effort – regardless of what the title seems to promise. Instead, the eponymous critter, named Elliott by the orphaned Pete (Oakes Fegley), is more like friendly, flying family. For five years after a car accident that leaves the boy stranded in the forest, the pair are inseparable. But when loggers venture into their turf, Pete is spotted by local girl Natalie (Oona Laurence), and taken in by park ranger Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard). Neither Pete nor Elliott cope well with their separation, especially when the townsfolk, led by sawmill owner Gavin (Karl Urban), start trying to track the dragon down. Be it a dragon, a giant robot or an extraterrestrial hoping to phone home, there's a reason that movies about kids connecting with unlikely buddies keep capturing hearts and minds. As demonstrated here by bookend narration offered by Grace's father (Robert Redford), the childlike need to find a kindred spirit doesn't fade with age. With that idea firmly in writer-director David Lowery's mind, his take on Pete's Dragon has more in common, tone-wise, with E.T. and The Iron Giant than it does the 1977 musical film it's based on. His movie is big on sentiment, belief and awe — though it's purposefully small and straightforward in its story. With his regular producer turned co-scribe Toby Halbrooks, the filmmaker best known for the lyrical western Ain't Them Bodies Saints once again opts to evoke emotion and wonder above all else. Accordingly, as much as the earnest feature explores yearning desires, it's also simply about letting audiences experience a world in which a boy can pal around with a dragon that looks like a giant, green, winged puppy. That's an inherently magical concept, made all the more so by Elliott's ability to turn invisible. So it is that for 103 patient, precisely paced minutes, the film invites viewers to not only dare to see the dragon, but to believe that he's actually real. The charming Fegley certainly goes along for the ride, as do his adult costars. But the most crucial figure is the digitally rendered Elliott, who Lowery, his team of Weta animators, and cinematographer Bojan Bazelli bring to the screen with a glow that matches the movie's warm heart. Just be warned: if you're prone to being moved by such sweet stories, you'd best bring a whole heap of tissues.
In the pandemic's early days, Disney skipped cinema releases for three films — Soul, Luca and Turning Red — due to lockdowns, restrictions, and picture palaces either temporarily closing or having capacity limits. Instead, all three movies went straight to streaming platform Disney+. Wish you'd gotten a silver-screen experience while viewing this trio — or any one of them? Enter the new Pixar Film Fest to give you that chance. From Thursday, February 22–Wednesday, March 13, for a week apiece at various locations around Melbourne, it's debuting Soul, Luca and Turning Red in cinemas for the first time Down Under. Oscar-winner Soul sports a premise that resembles Inside Out, which has a sequel arriving on the big screen in 2024. Instead of emotions having emotions, souls do. Rather than Amy Poehler (Moxie) doing voice work, Tina Fey (Mean Girls) does. And director Peter Docter (Up) helmed them both. But Soul is definitely its own feature — and takes quite the existential trip as it follows aspiring jazz musician-turned-music teacher Joe (Jamie Foxx, The Burial) after an accident where his soul leaves his body.It's releasing in cinemas from Thursday, February 22–Wednesday, February 28. Next up is Turning Red, which'll get projectors whirring from Thursday, February 29–Wednesday, March 6. The setup: what'd happen if the Hulk was a teenage girl, but became a super-cute red panda? Or, finding a different riff on the ol' werewolf situation, what if emotions rather than full moons inspired a case of not-quite-lycanthropy? Rounding out the lineup is Luca, which is similarly about transformation. This one takes place in Italy over a gorgeous summer, also spins a coming-of-age tale and nods to Frankenstein as well. Here, teenage sea monsters Luca (Jacob Tremblay, Orion and the Dark) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer, Shazam! Fury of the Gods) just want to fit in, but know that the village they decide to call home wouldn't accept them if they don't take on human form. Cinemagoers can catch it from Thursday, March 7–Wednesday, March 13.
UPDATE: June 5, 2020: Judy & Punch is available to stream via Stan, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Sometimes, a film lives and thrives thanks to its casting, benefiting from stellar actors who melt into their roles. That's the case with Judy & Punch, with Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herriman breathing life, depth and a roguish attitude into characters best known as wood, string and fabric. As the title makes plain, they're playing Punch and Judy, the puppet-show figures that date back more than three centuries. Still, while writer/director Mirrah Foulkes tasks her stars with fleshing out the marionettes' wholly fictional origin story, she doesn't rely on the duo to do all of the movie's heavy lifting. Her interpretation of the tale — the bold, subversive directions she takes it in, and the feisty, cheeky vibe the film adopts in the process — makes as much of an impact. Jumping behind the camera after acting in Animal Kingdom, Top of the Lake, The Crown and Harrow, Foulkes ensures that her filmmaking debut isn't the kind of feature that lights up screens often. The movie starts with two versions of Punch and his other half: one cavorting on stage, the other pulling the strings behind the curtain. The crowd roars as the perpetually drunken Punch (Herriman) and the long-suffering Judy (Wasikowska) manoeuvre and manipulate their inanimate counterparts, with the pair packing in shows in Judy's insular (and curiously inland) hometown of Seaside. Judy is actually the more dexterous and talented of the two, but Punch gets all the fame and acclaim — partly, reflecting his brutish personality, by making their puppet show literally "punchier". He makes their daily life punchier as well, and thinks nothing of treating Judy and their infant daughter with contempt, whether he's seeing another woman, complaining whenever Judy says a word or showing that he's the world's worst father. With the real-life Punch and Judy famously based on the former's slapstick violence towards the latter, you can be forgiven for feeling cautious about how a live-action version will play out. It sounds strange and inappropriate, but Foulkes is keenly aware of the material she's working with. In her hands, Judy & Punch takes puppet-show savagery and lets it loose in live-action, then rightfully questions why it's considered entertainment. And to really hammer home her point, she needs to unleash a flurry of physical and metaphorical blows. The filmmaker isn't subtle, but neither is a guy bashing his wife and child, which has happened in P&J since the 1600s. So, when Judy is the only person in the town to speak out against the communal stoning of women deemed witches — and, later, when a tragic turn of fate sees her seek solace among the local female outcasts, then plot her revenge — it's thoroughly designed to make a statement. Kudos to Foulkes for not only reclaiming P&J's problematic narrative for Judy, calling out Punch's boorishness and asking why women have so often been treated so poorly — by their partners, by complicit communities and by mobbish societies as a whole — but for clearly having fun while she's doing so. Where this year's thematically comparable and similarly excellent fellow Australian film, The Nightingale, leaned into bleakness and pain, Judy & Punch veers the other way. The movie is styled like a gothic fairytale, with its crumbling castle, sprawling woods and Elizabethan-era costuming, and it takes that look and feel to heart. Dark, fanciful, perceptive, often comic — this mix of elements mightn't sound like a natural fit on paper, but it works. Judy & Punch's tone definitely wavers, although that's on purpose too. And when François Tétaz's percussion-heavy score keeps echoing, it constantly reminds viewers of the thuds, shoves and worse that have long been baked into Judy and Punch's abusive romance, while also proving audibly playful. Given all of the above, you can excuse Judy & Punch for including a big speech at its climax; again, Foulkes isn't doing anything by halves. Nor is her cast, including the likes of Benedict Hardie (Upgrade), Tom Budge (Bloom) and Gillian Jones (Mad Max: Fury Road), who all help populate Seaside's chaotic masses. Wasikowska and Herriman are dream leads, though. She draws upon an ever-growing resume filled with fascinating and formidable women (Jane Eyre, Stoker, Tracks, Madame Bovary, Piercing… the list goes on), while he's having quite the malevolence-dripping year after stepping into Charles Manson's shoes in both Mindhunter and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Judy & Punch firmly tells Judy's story, so this is Wasikowska's film, but it highlights both of its main characters for a good reason. This thoroughly feminist hero doesn't just give a historic narrative a much-needed update and champion a timely cause — with their dynamic back-and-forth, she endeavours to cut Herriman's misogynistic weasel down to size, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63NAagrKOcc
If action-packed yet artful heist films are your thing — and why wouldn't they be? — Julius Avery's debut feature, Son of a Gun, is bound to tickle your armchair thrill-seeking side. Newcomer Brenton Thwaites is JR, a 19-year-old locked up for a minor offence. While inside, he is taken under the calculating wing of crime boss Brendan Lynch (Ewan McGregor). In an inevitably no-don't-you've-got-so-much-going-for-you! move, JR helps Lynch's crew orchestrate a daring prison escape — and is then invited to join in on the high-stakes heist they're planning next. Things, of course, turn progressively more dangerous. The film is all Aussie — written and directed by Avery (whose short film Jerrycan was a Jury Prize winner at Cannes), and shot in the disparate and desolate landscapes of Melbourne, Perth and Kalgoorlie. It's a nail-biting, chill-inducing thriller you'll need to psychologically prepare for. We warned you. We're offering competition winners the chance to see Son of a Gun with a friend at an exclusive preview screening on Monday, October 13, 8.30pm at Palace Como (Cnr Toorak Road and Chapel Street, South Yarra). To enter, click here. Son of a Gun officially releases in cinemas from October 16. See the film in style at Palace Cinemas. https://youtube.com/watch?v=eTOBcelRo9M
Time flies when you're watching films and pretending you're on the other side of the world, which is exactly the kind of fun that Palace Cinemas' annual Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival serves up. It has been six years since the arthouse chain started giving winter-loving movie buffs a smorgasbord of films from frosty Nordic climes — timed for the Australian winter, naturally — and the cinema showcase is still going strong. Touring the country from July 9 to August 7, this year's event doesn't hold back when it comes to its strengths. If you're a fan of twisty mysteries and thrillers, brooding dramas set against a stunning snowy backdrop, and smart leaps in genres, you're in luck. Spanning the latest and greatest titles from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland, plus old favourites that you'll want to revisit on a big screen, this year's Scandinavian Film Festival is lineup is stellar. Here are our five must-see picks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MIlE9R00ik ANIARA The savviest sci-fi films don't simply ponder a future that may not come, they follow today's big troubles to their possible end. If environmental issues are big on your radar, add Aniara to the watch list. In this Swedish imagining of the apocalypse, earth is uninhabitable, humanity is in the process of fleeing for Mars and there's no way to repair the damage of the past. When a spaceship headed to our nearest celestial neighbour is pushed off course, there's no way to return either. It should come as little surprise that this ambitious movie contemplates our ability to ignore what we're doing to the planet, as well as our need to soothe our existential ills with nostalgia and materialism. Directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja found inspiration for the film in a poem by Swedish Nobel Prize winner Harry Martinson, and the end result is quite the trip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8bzar3Nrjk THE PURITY OF VENGEANCE Across the Department Q movie series to date, crime buffs have watched eccentric homicide detective Morck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) reluctantly team up with fellow cop Assad (Fares Fares). From there, fans have followed the duo's efforts to solve difficult and dead-end cases, including a political death that was initially ruled a suicide, a scandal at an elite boarding school, and a series of child disappearances, too. To wrap up the page-to-screen series, The Purity of Vengeance tasks the intrepid investigators with a particularly murky case and a ticking clock, after they discover three mummified bodies — plus space for a fourth. When this franchise is at its best, it offers up a compelling odd couple, gripping mysteries and plenty of twists and turns, which this huge last chapter promises to continue. At home, it absolutely smashed the local box office, achieving the biggest opening ever for a Danish movie. A WHITE, WHITE DAY One of the big hits of this year's jam-packed Cannes Film Festival — where it took out the best actor prize in the event's Critics' Week sidebar — A White, White Day marks the second Scandinavian Film Festival title in two years for Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason. After the writer/director's stellar Winter Brothers last year, his sophomore feature is immediately worth a look. Given the remote location, striking icy scenery and exquisite cinematography on offer, there's clearly plenty to literally peer at, with Pálmason proving an accomplished visual storyteller. And, narrative-wise, this acclaimed drama charts a suitably thorny tale, following a grief-stricken ex-top cop (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson) who is trying to get over the loss of his wife, only to discover that their marriage might not have been as blissful as he thought it was. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue91wuHsLIY AURORA In one of Finland's standout contributions to the program, the hard-partying Aurora (Mimosa Willamo) meets Iranian refugee Darian (Amir Escandari). Equally outcast in their Lapland surroundings, they're both at their lowest points; however, Aurora is a romantic comedy, so (naturally) their chance encounter changes both of their lives. That said, writer/director Miia Tervo doesn't stick to the usual script from there, making a movie that's passionate, lively, topical and subversive — and not only examining the plight of immigrants across Europe but unpacking the expectations placed upon Finnish women. This charming debut also proved a hit at this year's SXSW Film Festival. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlF-hk3IJQE THE MILLENNIUM TRILOGY Before Rooney Mara and Claire Foy stepped into Lisbeth Salander's shoes, Noomi Rapace got there first. She'll always be the original and best incarnation of everyone's favourite tattooed computer hacker. A decade after the Swedish adaptations of Stieg Larsson's best-selling novels first hit screens, it's easy to forget just how fantastic Rapace is in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest. While the trio of Millennium movies follows the same trajectory as the books they're based on (starting off with quite a bang, then losing their impact a little as they go along), it's also easy to forget just how involving the entire series is as a whole. As directed by Daniel Alfredson and Niels Arden Oplev, and also starring the late Michael Nyqvist (John Wick) as a journalist who makes Lisbeth's acquaintance, this franchise kicked off the world's obsession with Nordic noir for a reason. Plus, if you can't get enough of Larsson's twisted fictional world, the festival will also be screening a documentary on the late author's life. The Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival tours Australia from July 9, screening at Sydney's Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona and Palace Central from July 9 to July 31; Melbourne's Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, Palace Brighton Bay and Palace Balwyn from July 11 to July 31; Brisbane's Palace Barracks and Palace James Street from July 18 to August 7; and Perth's Palace Cinema Paradiso from July 17 to August 7. For more information, visit the festival website.
For almost four decades, Hans Zimmer has given cinema a distinctive sound. The German composer helped put the bounce in The Lion King's score and the droning in Inception's memorable tunes, and has loaned his talents to everything from Thelma & Louise to Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy to Blade Runner 2049. It's an impressive list that just keeps going — and it'll sound even more impressive played live and accompanied by an orchestra. As well as working his music magic on a wealth of movies — Hidden Figures, The Boss Baby, Dunkirk, Widows, X-Men: Dark Phoenix and the upcoming Lion King remake are just some of his recent credits — Zimmer has been taking his show on the road over the past few years. After touring his Hans Zimmer Revealed concert series in 2017, including to Australia, he's returning to our shores with Hans Zimmer Live, which'll echo through arenas in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne this October. While the Oscar, Golden Globe, Grammy and Tony-winner obviously isn't going to play every single one of his iconic film scores, expect to hear plenty of your favourites from a lineup that also includes Wonder Woman, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, 12 Years a Slave, Sherlock Holmes, Mission Impossible II and Pearl Harbour — plus the small screen's The Crown and Blue Planet II as well. Zimmer will be joined not only by a massive orchestra, but a full band and a huge stage production, complete with a luminous light show and other eye-catching visuals. [caption id="attachment_724806" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hans Zimmer, Los Angeles, LA, Tour, Concert, Performance, April 14 2017, EVI[/caption] Hans Zimmer Live will hit the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Thursday, October 3, Sydney's Qudos Arena on Saturday, October 5 and Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena on Monday, October 7. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Monday, June 17 — for further details, visit the promoter's website. Top image: The World of Hans Zimmer Berlin by Frank Embacher Photography.
What’s better than one schlocky late night cult movies? Two schlocky late night cult movies. That’s what the folks at Cinema Nova think anyway, doubling down on their Friday night cultastrophe stream with a kick-ass new program of double features tailored to hot Melbourne evenings. The summer selection begins this Friday, December 6, with a Whovian double bill of Dr. Who & The Daleks and Dalek’s Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. That’ll be washed down the following week with a Christmas themed screening of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. How festive. Things take a break for the New Year before returning in full force on January 17, with the blood-soaked pairing of Cannibal Apocalypse and Evil Dead 2. Continuing through January all the way until the end of summer, other highlights of the program include a Queen-scored '80s throwback that combines Flash Gordon with Highlander, and a John Carpenter double feature of Prince of Darkness and Escape from New York. For more information, visit the Cinema Nova website. Tickets for the January - February program will be on sale soon.
The streets of Sydney are about to transform into a kaleidoscope of colour, charisma and character for the 46th annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and we've got two exclusive packages to make sure you're in the thick of it. Whether you're a Mardi Gras veteran or a first-timer, these deals will set you up to have the ultimate Mardi Gras experience. First up, for those looking to add a touch of luxe to their Mardi Gras, we present the Diamond Club Viewing & Boutique City Stay. Priced at AU$1,599 for two people, this deal not only puts you in a premium viewing area for the Parade on Saturday, March 2, but also gives you access to exclusive bars, gourmet food and amenities at Diamond Club — one of the hottest tickets on the festival calendar. And when the day is done, you'll retreat to your luxury room at the Ovolo Woolloomooloo for two nights (March 1–3). This isn't just a place to crash — it's a five-star retreat complete with daily breakfast, unlimited Wi-Fi, self-laundry (because glitter gets everywhere), daily afternoon cocktails, free minibar, gym, pool and in-room Alexa and Apple TV. Alternatively, the Sideshow Viewing & Boutique City Stay starts from AU$1,299 for two people and offers front-row seats to the parade from the Sideshow area. Your accommodation? Take your pick between The Woolstore 1888 by Ovolo or the Kimpton Margot Sydney. Both options are an easy stroll to the parade route and come with all the perks you'd expect from top-tier hotels. So go on, treat yourself. You're not just booking a room; you're securing a front-row seat to one of the most vibrant events on the Sydney calendar. See you there.
Whether you're spending a night far from home or you're staycationing in your own neck of the woods, enjoying a drink at the hotel bar is one of life's small joys. There's just something about being able to duck downstairs for a cocktail — or dropping in on your way back up to your room, too — that simply screams vacation. If you're looking for a reason to spend a night away from your own bed — or if you're simply fond of sipping drinks in hotel bars and pretending you're on holidays — Four Pillars' newest limited-edition gin wants to tempt you out of the house. The spirits brand has teamed up with QT Hotels and Resorts on a new tipple it's calling Ordered Chaos Gin, and it includes an inventive array of flavours. Although this gin is clear — unlike Four Pillars' pink-hued last collaboration earlier this year — you'll taste more than just juniper, spice and citrus. Also featured, flavour-wise, are fresh coconut milk, raw almonds and bamboo leaves. So yes, this isn't the type of tipple even the most dedicated gin fans are used to knocking back. You'll only find Ordered Chaos Gin served at QT Hotels' bars, where it's being poured in three kinds of cocktails: the 'Room Service Rickey', which features bitter and bubbly tastes; the 'QT Colada Fizz', which is designed to be creamy; and the 'Bamboo', a stirred-down variation on the martini that heroes coconut. If your gin shrine needs a new edition, Ordered Chaos Gin is also being sold by QT for $89 a bottle, but only while stocks last. Four Pillars x QT Hotels Ordered Chaos Gin is available at the hotel chain's bars, and to buy by the bottle via the brand's website.
