This Sunday night in Los Angeles, Hollywood's top tier will come together, pat each other on the back, and go home with little gold men and $150,000 gift baskets. That’s right, the Oscars are finally upon us, set to launch their 87th ceremony on Sunday, February 22 at the Dolby Theatre (or Monday, February 23 for us). Get ready for red carpet specials, awkward presenter gaffes and all the bitter celebrity reaction shots your heart could possibly desire. This year, we’ll be rooting for underdogs like Whiplash and Wes Anderson, while keeping our fingers crossed that American Sniper wins absolutely nothing at all. We’ll also be partaking in our annual Oscars drinking game, ensuring that when our favourite film inevitably gets snubbed for Best Picture, we won’t actually remember it happened. Here are our predictions for who’ll take home the gold, as well as our own winner picks — who really should win. BEST PICTURE This year’s main list featured eight nominees, because apparently they just couldn’t get to ten. In reality, it just comes down to two: Richard Linklater’s 12-year indie epic Boyhood and Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu’s one-take showbiz satire Birdman. Both films are formally ambitious and have won their fair share of industry gongs already. We’re leaning towards Birdman based on subject matter — two of the past three Best Picture winners (The Artist and Argo) have been about the film business, so why buck the trend now? WHAT WILL WIN: Birdman WHAT WE'D LIKE TO WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel BEST DIRECTOR Take what we wrote about the Best Picture contest and copy-paste it here. This comes down to two very different directing styles, both of which push technical boundaries in a way we rarely get to see. Again, we’re giving Innaritu a slight edge, although don’t be surprised if there’s a split between Picture and Director. WHO WILL WIN: Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Birdman WHO WE'D LIKE TO WIN: Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel BEST ACTRESS Of all the awards, this one’s probably the easiest to pick. It’s been quite a good year for female performances, and we’re particularly fond of Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl and Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night. That being said, Julianne Moore looks to have it all locked up, for her brilliant performance as an Alzheimer’s patient in indie drama Still Alice. WHO WILL WIN: Julianne Moore, Still Alice WHO WE'D LIKE TO WIN: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night BEST ACTOR While the Best Actress race appears to have already been run, the men’s competition is still wide open. Birdman’s Michael Keaton appeared to be an early favourite, but has been losing steam to Eddie Redmayne as Steven Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Then there’s the matter of Bradley Cooper in controversial dark horse American Sniper. In the end, we suspect it’ll go to Redmayne. The Academy loves inspiring true stories, especially when they involve disability. WHO WILL WIN: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything WHO WE'D LIKE TO WIN: Michael Keaton, Birdman BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Whether or not Boyhood takes home the top prize, they can take some consolation in Patricia Arquette’s likely win for Best Supporting Actress. This category is a relatively weak one, particularly when you take away the obligatory Meryl Streep nomination — although admittedly she’s one of the few good things about Into the Woods. WHO WILL WIN: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood WHO WE'D LIKE TO WIN: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR This is another easy pick, and one that’s hard to argue with. 60-year-old J.K. Simmons has been a jobbing character actor for decades, popping up everywhere from Spiderman to Juno to HBO’s Oz. It’s always great when someone like Simmons gets the mainstream attention they deserve. His performance as a dictatorial jazz conductor in Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is undoubtedly one of the best performances of the year. WHO WILL WIN: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash WHO WE'D LIKE TO WIN: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Birdman and Boyhood will both make a decent showing here, but we’re predicting this is the category where Wes Anderson gets some well deserved love. The American indie darling has previously scored writing nominations for The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom, and seems like a decent chance to finally take home a win with The Grand Budapest Hotel. Note that if either Birdman or Boyhood do manage to nab it, it’ll bode very well for their chances later in the night. WHAT WILL WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel WHAT WE'D LIKE TO WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Maybe the hardest of the major categories to pick, the only certainly is that Paul Thomas Anderson’s baffling stoner detective film Inherent Vice has zero chance of winning (even though it’s awesome). Whiplash ended up in this category because it’s technically based on a short film by the same director, and it may have a slight edge over other nominees The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything and American Sniper. When it doubt, we say give it to the indie movie. WHAT WILL WIN: Whiplash WHAT WE'D LIKE TO WIN: Inherent Vice or Whiplash. Watch the 87th Academy Awards this Monday, February 23. The live broadcast itself begins at 12.30pm and will be replayed in primetime at 8.30pm on GEM.
If a fresh bread roll, an expertly grilled patty and a slice of melted cheese is your idea of a perfect meal, then you might just have September 18 permanently marked in your diary. Each and every year, that's when the world's most dedicated cheeseburger lovers celebrate their favourite food. We're not saying that burgs will taste better on that date — or that it's really a legitimate day of celebration — but if you just can't get enough of the them, it's definitely worth your attention. Especially if there are cheap burgers involved. Which, this year, there are. Burger Project will be slinging $5 cheeseburgers at all three of its Melbourne stores all day on Wednesday, September 18. Head to 555 Bourke Street, St Collins Lane or Chadstone, and grab a bargain (or, depending on how hungry you are, several). For those new to Burger Project's take on an old fave, Neil Perry's eatery whips up a hand-pressed slab of Cape Grim beef, layers it with pickles, onion, mustard and cheese, then squirts on some secret sauce. Next, it's all placed between a soft milk bun. And it tastes even better when it's less than half the regular price.
Shelanous, which describes itself as a multi-sensory restaurant, takes everything you know about fine dining and degustation menus and flips it on its head. Its theatrical ways have proven so charming that there is a two-month waitlist at the Port Melbourne restaurant. So the owners have decided to expand their whimsical endeavours, announcing plans to set up their second outpost, Shelly, in Caulfield this November. Shelanous offers a 10-course degustation menu with matching beverages based around the four seasons, which plays into the five senses, plus a sixth, which they like to call fun. Customers are seated at a long communal table and taken on a multisensory adventure with bold flavours, fragrant scents, stimulating visuals, and high-energy sounds. It's about as opposite to a serious and formal white-tablecloth dining experience as you can get, which is refreshing and reinvigorating, proving that dining can be lighthearted and invoke childlike joy and excitement just for the sake of it. As you move through the four seasons at Shelanous, expect the likes of flashing clouds suspended above the table, drinks served in movie popcorn containers, waiters dressed in Hawaiian shirts shooting bubbles across the table, tiny shovels used to dig for your food, dessert dramatically splattered straight onto the table, blindfolds, headphones, pumping music and dance breaks — and thats just the start of it. Co-owner Rony Parienty says, "The demand for Shelanous since opening has been overwhelming. We're constantly booked out two months in advance, and we love seeing people enjoy the experience we deliver alongside the great food and drinks. But, with a waiting list this long, we knew it was time to open another location. Opening Shelly in Caulfield will not only allow us to meet demand but also create a whole new high-energy experience for our guests. We can't wait to welcome people when we start this new chapter." Shelly will follow a similar format to its older sibling venue, offering a 10-course degustation menu (that will be both halal-friendly and kosher certified) that is flamboyant, dramatic, and at its heart, just a lot of fun. With the consistent demand for seats at the table, Shelly will offer a 30-seat dining room, a Sense Bar, and limited walk-in availability, all under a starlight ceiling. Images: Supplied. Shelly is set to open on November 5, at 809 Glenhuntly Road, Caulfield. In the meantime, try your luck at getting a reservation at Shelanous, or check out the best set menus in Melbourne.
After years selling their delicious delights at Night Noodle Markets all over the country, the geniuses behind Hoy Pinoy’s much-loved Filipino BBQ are setting up a permanent restaurant and bar. It's called Frankie Says and you'll find it tucked behind an apartment building complex in an obscure part of Richmond. The hidden-away location has some cracking advantages. First up, it's right on the Yarra River, so you get serene water views and bush vibes with your feast. Secondly, it's just over the road from IKEA. And it's way less crowded and frenetic than most other spots in the city — at least for now. Founders Megan Phillis and James Meehan designed the eatery to make diners feel like they're walking into a private kitchen. "Opening Frankie Says is like inviting people into our home," Megan says. "This is how we love to eat, with flavour, sharing and laughter turned up high." "We want Frankie Says to be somewhere people can feel totally relaxed as they enjoy a champagne brunch, catch up with friends over an afternoon antipasto, or simply take a moment to themselves in the leafy surrounds with a cup of coffee." The cheery, light-filled, high-ceilinged venue features solid timber pillars and glass walls, which open onto a vast, sunny, outdoor area overlooking the river. Inside, the feel is chic but informal, with hardwood floors, rendered concrete walls, mosaic tiles and pendant lighting. Meanwhile, the menu is designed to encourage repeat visits. Its ever-changing selection of yumminess include antipasto boards, house-made stone-oven pizzas and tasty breakfasts, like a deep dish pancake and truffle eggs with artichoke paste. They also have their own table wines: a 2013 sauvignon blanc and a 2012 cab sav, both from South Australia. You'll find Frankie Says at 15 Acacia Place, Abbotsford. It’s open seven days a week for breakfast and lunch, from 7am - 4pm on weekdays and 8am - 5pm on weekends. Keep an eye out for dinner, which is set to happen soon.
Our Flag Means Death might be no more, after the pirate rom-com was cancelled after two seasons, but getting giggling at Rhys Darby is still on the agenda. The New Zealand comedian has hardly been away from the screen for more than 15 years, ever since Flight of the Conchords became one of HBO's best-ever sitcoms, so he's been inspiring laughs for years. For the first time in nearly a decade, however, he's returning to the stand-up stage — and he's just locked in an Australian tour. At the beginning of each year, Aussies enjoy a chuckle when comedy festival season sweeps the nation's east coast. Darby is on the Brisbane Comedy Festival and Sydney Comedy Festival lineups, and will also play Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Hobart and Newcastle. In fact, he's making nine stops around the country throughout April 2025. [caption id="attachment_915747" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Our Flag Means Death, Nicola Dove[/caption] "I'm so excited to return to the stage, a bit older, a bit wiser but mostly a bit sillier than ever before!" said Darby, announcing the tour, which kicks off from Tuesday, April 8–Sunday, April 13 at Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre and ends on Wednesday, April 30 at the Princess Theatre in Brisbane. Fans can expect gags about AI, robots, dads wearing tight jeans and more — and the mix of absurdity and insights that have always marked Darby's brand of comedy. [caption id="attachment_980410" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gage Skidmore via Flickr[/caption] Between calling band meetings on Flight of the Conchords and finding love while swashbuckling on Our Flag Means Death, his career has spanned everything from The X-Files, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Wellington Paranormal to Sweet Tooth, SpongeBob SquarePants and Monsters at Work on the small screen. On the big screen, Darby has also been a frequent presence, thanks to The Boat That Rocked, What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level, Uproar, Next Goal Wins and plenty more. Rhys Darby The Legend Returns 2025 Tour Dates Tuesday, April 8–Sunday, April 13 — Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne Tuesday, April 15 — Norwood Concert Hall, Adelaide Thursday, April 17 — Odeon Theatre, Hobart Saturday, April 19 — Canberra Theatre, Canberra Tuesday, April 22 — Newcastle City Hall, Newcastle Wednesday, April 23 — Anita's Theatre, Thirroul Thursday, April 24 — Enmore Theatre, Sydney Sunday, April 27 — Regal Theatre, Perth Wednesday, April 30 — Princess Theatre, Brisbane Rhys Darby is touring Australia in April 2025, with pre-sale tickets from 10am on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 and general tickets on sale from 10am on Friday, November 22, 2024. Head to the tour website for more details.
Sure, it's the middle of winter and Melbourne's temperatures aren't stretching much beyond a dreary 15 degrees. But hey, free ice cream is free ice cream — and that's something we can get around in rain, hail or shine. Indeed, on Sunday, July 18, Southgate's long-standing ice cream parlour Cups n Cones is giving away hundreds of complimentary scoops. All you need to do is be one of the first 500 customers through the door from 10am and you'll score your choice of signature ice cream or gelato, on the house. Why, you ask? Well, overseas travel might be on hold right now, but Cups n Cones is offering your tastebuds the next best thing, having dreamt up 14 new internationally-inspired ice cream flavours to add to its regular lineup. There's a Greek-style baklava, a Frenchy-chic crème brûlée, a cinnamon bun creation that nods to Sweden, a Thai-accented coconut lime flavour and even a crunchy doughnut ice cream inspired by the USA. No passport required.
Forget Instagram — when it comes to peering at famous faces, portrait galleries have been serving up the goods since long before social media ever existed. Think of a well-known name not just in recent times, but going back decades, centuries and longer, and it's likely that someone somewhere once painted their likeness. The Beatles, David Bowie, Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai: they've all been given the portrait treatment, and the results — or one painting bearing their faces, at least — are now on display at Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery, London. Showing at Canberra's National Portrait Gallery, this is the type of exhibition that arises when one portrait gallery teams up with another; think of it as the Inception of portrait showcases. There's a heavy British skew, naturally, covering people who have shaped UK history, identity and culture over the past 500 years. Accordingly, other famous folks gracing the NPG's walls include both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II, Kate Moss, Mick Jagger and Princess Diana, as well as Lord Nelson, Sir Isaac Newton and Ed Sheeran, Darcey Bussell. As mentioned in the exhibition's name, both the Bard and Amy Winehouse obviously also feature, in an exhibition that's sorted by theme rather than year. And, by grouping portraits around fame, power, love and loss, identity, innovation and self, Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery, London also examines how portraiture has evolved over the years — all across a season that runs from Saturday, March 12–Sunday, July 17.
Patience isn't a virtue in The Bear, including in its sandwich-diner setting. It can't be — no one has that luxury. Everything needs preparing and cooking now, and ideally before that, with the eatery operating on the tightest of timelines as professional kitchens tend to. Everything in Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto's (Jeremy Allen White, Shameless) life needs solving and smoothing out ASAP, too, and he has more than his fair share of troubles and struggles on the boil. But for viewers Down Under, being patient comes with a hefty reward — because, more than two months after it dropped its first season in the US, The Bear has finally made its way to Disney+ in Australia and New Zealand since Wednesday, August 31. This brilliant small-screen feast proves worth the wait, although don't expect to relief to swell now it's finally here. Tension and chaos are The Bear's base flavours, seeping into everything that's thrown into its debut eight-episode run. It joins the lengthy list of shows set in a workplace, but it also simmers up what few TV programs about the daily grind manage. While the genre is filled with all-timers, from Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock through to Mad Men and The White Lotus just to name four recent and obvious examples, feeling like you truly know exactly what it'd genuinely be like to work in the industries depicted is rare. Watch The Bear, however, and you'll broil in a restaurant kitchen's ceaseless intensity. First, an important piece of advice: eating either before or while viewing is highly recommended, and near close to essential. If you've ever found yourself ravenous while checking out a cooking show, watching The Trip films or just seeing someone on-screen tuck into a tasty-looking dish, prepare for that sensation to get blasted like it's a crème brûlée under a blowtorch. Now, two more crucial slices of wisdom: prepare to feel stressed throughout every second of this riveting, always-taut, and exceptionally written and acted culinary series (yes, it's worth emphasising again), and also to want to enjoy one of The Original Beef of Chicagoland's famous sandwiches immediately. Although the eatery is purely fictional, its signature dish looks phenomenal. Most of what's cooked up in Carmy's kitchen earns the same description, whether he's sticking to the tried-and-tested menu or experimenting with new options. The chef's resume includes Noma and The French Laundry, as well as awards and acclaim, such as being named one of the best young chefs there is. But he has taken over the family business following his brother's suicide, arriving back home after wowing the world and excelling in fine dining — and nothing is easy. Well, coveting The Bear's edible wares is. Deciding to try to recreate them yourself is as well. But whipping them up within the series, keeping The Original Beef afloat, coping with grief and ensuring that the diner's staff work harmoniously is a pressure cooker of mayhem. That anxious mood is inescapable from the outset; the best way to start any meal is just to bite right in, and The Bear's creator Christopher Storer (who also directs five episodes, and has Ramy, Dickinson and Bo Burnham: Make Happy on his resume) takes the same approach. He also throws all of his ingredients together with precision — the balance of drama and comedy (and food porn), the relentlessness that marks every second in the eatery's kitchen, and the non-stop mouthing off by Richie, aka Cousin, aka Carmy's brother's best friend (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Dropout), all included. The Bear isn't a two-hander by any means, but it excels in complicated one-on-one dynamics, with Carmy and Richie's bickering, bantering, sniping and flat-out fighting repeatedly floating to the top. The two men have spent their entire lives with Mikey (Jon Bernthal, We Own This City) in-between them, and his absence isn't easily filled. As well as mourning Mikey and processing his issues with Richie, Carmy has bills to pay, debts to settle, and eerie dreams and sleepwalking episodes to navigate. He hires new sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, Dickinson) on the day she walks in, too, mixing up the place with an aim to implement some of her forward-thinking ideas — none of which Richie is thrilled about. And, amid this non-stop bombardment, there's long-standing employees such as Marcus (Lionel Boyce, Hap and Leonard), Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas, In Treatment) and Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson, Fargo) to keep happy. Carmy's sister Natalie, aka Sugar (Abby Elliott, Indebted), is also financially tied up in The Original Beef, and obviously emotionally affected by Mikey's death. And when their uncle Cicero (Oliver Platt, Chicago Med) comes calling, it's also because of cash. The above relationships, details, backstories, monetary issues, past glories, present concerns and uncertain futures are all peppered throughout The Bear as each episode goes on; the series doesn't have time to lay out exposition from the get-go, write down its dramatic recipe, or step its audience through the ins and outs. As an experience for viewers, it mimics Carmy being thrust into the restaurant his brother would never allow him to work in — and Sydney showing up to apply for a job, then being pushed into the kitchen immediately. In one particularly feverish episode, life in the kitchen zips by on a single take, but the show is always operating at that level of pressure with hurtling cinematography and rapid-fire editing. If it isn't, it's usually because Carmy is asleep, his stresses infiltrating his dreams and sending him wandering as he slumbers, with the cycle repeating anyway. "Yes, chef," "thank you, chef": The Original Beef's pleasantries are spat out at pace, too, and by a fantastic cast that's operating just as fast and furiously. The irrepressibly watchable White is precise, restrained but wearied amid the mania, with Carmy trying to keep his calm on the outside but wilting on the inside; this is one of the performances of the year in one of the best new shows of the year. Moss-Bachrach plays abrasive, mouthy but vulnerable just as commandingly; Edebiri brings confidence and ambition to the passionate but no-nonsense Syd; and the charismatic Boyce makes Marcus' quest to make the perfect doughnut The Bear's sensual respite among the onslaught. Every glimpse at their hustle and bustle, and the show's at every moment, is as gripping as it is appetising — and yes, binging is inevitable. Once you're done, leave room for season two — although the quickly renewed series likely won't serve out its second helping until 2023. Check out the trailer for The Bear below: The Bear streams via Disney+.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas across the country. After months spent empty, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, Australian picture palaces are back in business — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, comedies, music documentaries, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL-G4oCoDF0&feature=youtu.be HIGH GROUND Violence is never splashed across a cinema screen unthinkingly. Depicting physical force is always a choice, even in by-the-numbers action films where fists and bullets fly far more frequently than meaningful moments. Accordingly, when brutality and bloodshed arrives in a drama that peers back at Australia's colonial past, there's no doubting that the filmmakers responsible have thought about what they're including, why, the message it conveys and the impact it'll have on the audience. High Ground is one such Aussie feature. Its main forceful encounter occurs early, motivating everything that follows and proving impossible to forget. In 1919, ex-World War I sniper-turned-police officer Travis (Simon Baker, Breath) sets out across the area now known as Kakadu National Park, leading a law enforcement team on a routine expedition; however, it doesn't take much — namely, the decisions of his less fair-minded colleagues — for the journey to end with the slaughter of Indigenous Australians. Twelve years later, in the 30s, Travis is still haunted by the incident. In one of High Ground's most important choices, it doesn't require any effort at all to understand why he feels the way he does, or why his eyes have taken on a sorrowful glint. The movie's viewers have witnessed the same awful events, with Aboriginal men, women and children who were enjoying a peaceful waterside gathering all suddenly and savagely killed, and a boy called Gutjuk (played by as a child Guruwuk Mununggurr and Jacob Junior Nayinggul as an adult) only managing to leave the scene alive thanks to Travis' intervention. Even when untainted by blood, the country's landscape has blazed with red, orange and ochre hues since long before European settlement — since the sun first started beating down upon it, undoubtedly — with those colours helping many an Aussie film bake heated feelings of fury and torment into their frames. Indeed, simmering anguish goes with the territory in High Ground. That's true of every movie that recognises that Australia was far from terra nullius when the First Fleet arrived, but there's no escaping the scorching mood that radiates here, as director Stephen Maxwell Johnson (Yolngu Boy) intends. Working with cinematographer Andrew Commis (Babyteeth) to bring screenwriter Chris Anastassiades' (The Kings of Mykonos) script to the screen, the filmmaker fills his first feature in two decades with picturesque yet also pulsating scenery. Peering down at eye-catching swathes of the Northern Territory, the nation's earthy beauty is striking and stunning, and so is the knowledge that it was walked upon by Indigenous Australians for tens of thousands of years. And one goes with the other, as the movie's soundtrack also helps reinforce, layering the noises of birds and wildlife with songs by Yolngu singers such as Yothu Yindi's Witiyana Marika — who also appears in the film as Gutjuk's grandfather Dharrpa — and his son Yirrmal Marika. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG_EVA58P-g NEWS OF THE WORLD A year after his exquisite and rightly Oscar-nominated performance in A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, Tom Hanks returns to the big screen with his latest great film. In News of the World, he plays a Civil War veteran-turned-travelling newsman who becomes saddled with escorting a child back to her family — and he's as gripping and compelling to watch as he's ever been. Hanks' character, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, is a travelling newsman in the very literal and era-appropriate sense. He journeys from town to town to read newspapers to amassed crowds for ten cents a person, all so folks across America can discover what's going on — not just locally, but around the country and the world. Then, on one otherwise routine trip in 1870, he passes an overturned wagon. Only a blonde-haired ten-year-old girl, Johanna (Helena Zengel, System Crasher), remains alive. Kidd soon discovers that she had been abducted by the Kiowa people years earlier during a raid that saw her entire family slaughtered, and was then raised as one of their own, but she has now been left homeless after more violence. The wagon was transporting Johanna to her last remaining relatives and, in the absence of any officials willing to take over — or ensure her safety until they get around to setting off — Kidd reluctantly agrees to the task. Reading the news is still part of their trek, but so is avoiding the many dangers that plague their ride across Texas' golden-hued landscape. If the sight of a wearied Hanks donning a wide-brimmed hat, sitting atop a horse and galloping across scrubby plains feels unfamiliar, that's because it hasn't happened before — with News of the World marking his first-ever western more than four decades after he made his acting debut. (No, his time voicing cowboy plaything Woody in the Toy Story movies doesn't count.) Hanks is a natural fit, unsurprisingly. The grounded presence he has brought to everything from Apollo 13 to The Post couldn't pair better with a genre that trots so openly across the earth, and ties its characters' fortunes so tightly to the desolate and wild conditions that surround them, after all. As a result, the fact that News of the World eagerly recalls previous western highlights such as The Searchers and True Grit doesn't ever become a drawback. Instead, this adaptation of Paulette Jiles' 2016 novel makes a purposeful effort to put its star in the same company as the many on-screen talents who've shone in — and strutted and scowled through — the genre. Hanks takes to the saddle like he's been perched upon one his entire career, of course, and takes to Kidd's lone-rider status with the same naturalistic air as well. But, in a movie directed with less frenetic and jittery flair but the right amount of pulsating emotion by Captain Phillips filmmaker Paul Greengrass, he isn't the only standout. His young co-star is just as phenomenal, in fact, although that won't come as even the slightest surprise to anyone who saw Zengel's performance in 2019's System Crasher, which won the pre-teen the German Film Prize for Best Actress. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGZmwsK58M8 MALCOLM & MARIE Shot in quarantine in mid-2020, Malcolm & Marie meets its eponymous couple on a momentous night, with filmmaker Malcolm (John David Washington, Tenet) all abuzz after the premiere of his latest feature. The critics gushed to him in-person so, arriving back at the flashy house that's been rented for him, he's drunk on praise and eager to celebrate with his girlfriend and aspiring actress Marie (Zendaya, Spider-Man: Far From Home). As she cooks him mac 'n' cheese, he pours drinks and relives the evening's events. But Marie isn't as enthusiastic, or as willing to cast everything about the premiere in a rosy glow. The catalyst for her simmering discontent, other than just the state of their relationship: as Malcolm & Marie writer/director Sam Levinson admits he did himself at the premiere of his 2017 movie Assassination Nation, Malcolm forgot to thank Marie. Levinson's wife only brought it up once, he has said; however, the moment the subject comes up on-screen, Marie isn't willing to accept Malcolm's claim that he simply forgot. Cue oh-so-much arguing, mixed in with cosier banter, broader chats about art and politics, Marie's frequent escapes outside to smoke and Malcolm's impatient waiting for the first reviews of his film to drop. Again and again, their discussion circles back to their history. Malcolm's movie is about a 20-year-old addict, and Marie once was that woman. So, she feels as if her real and painful experiences have hoovered up by him, without any appreciation or recognition — without casting her in the role, too. Where everything from Blue Valentine and the Before trilogy to Marriage Story have previously gone, Malcolm & Marie follows: into the fiery heat and knotty struggles of a complicated relationship. Like Blue Valentine, it charts ecstatic highs and agonising lows. As Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight did, it relies upon dialogue swapped frequently and passionately. And stepping in Marriage Story's territory, it follows a director and an actor as their career choices highlight issues they've plastered over for far too long. Still, while assembled from familiar pieces, Malcolm & Marie slinks into its niche. It's devastatingly stylish thanks to its black-and-white colour palette, elegant costuming and luxurious single-location setting. It glides by almost entirely on the strength of its ferocious performances, with Zendaya and Washington both exceptional. But it's also indulgent and obvious, as well as clumsy in its handling of many of its conversation topics. The film is at its best when its characters fight specifically about their relationship, and at its worst when it forgets that it's about people rather than about ideas. Like most relationships, it soars at times and sinks at others — and, in a very 2020–1 outcome, it easily leaves viewers wondering what might've eventuated if it hadn't been cooked up in a pandemic, designed to work within COVID-19 restrictions and scripted in just six days. Malcolm & Marie is screening in select Sydney and Melbourne cinemas. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZLKevPsC6M PIXIE 2021 is barely a month old, but only one film reaching cinemas this year will feature beloved comedian Dylan Moran as a drug kingpin working out of a fish factory — and remaining as acerbic as ever in the process, of course — as well as Alec Baldwin as a gangster priest who uses his collar and church as a cover. That'd be Irish caper comedy Pixie, which takes its name from the woman, Pixie O'Brien (Olivia Cooke, Sound of Metal), at the centre of a heist, more than a few instances of double-crossing and a long-running feud between two groups of mobsters. Her stepfather Dermot (Colm Meaney, Gangs of London) leads one faction. Her still-yearning ex-boyfriend Colin (Rory Fleck Byrne, Zomboat!) is in his employ, but is willing to put his job and life at risk by ripping off a huge haul of MDMA. That said, most of Pixie's quest to cash in on the big score and flee to art school in San Francisco sees her spending time with best mates Frank (Ben Hardy, Bohemian Rhapsody) and Harland (Daryl McCormack, Peaky Blinders). The former has always had a crush on the titular character, while the latter sports his own feelings — and the fact that they're told "she won't just break you, she'll take a Kalashnikov to your heart" doesn't phase them in the slightest when they think they have a chance to earn her attention and affection. Directed by St Trinian's and St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold helmer (and Wayne's World and Spice World producer) Barnaby Thompson using a script penned by his son Preston (Kids in Love), Pixie finds enough charm in two key places: its engaging lead actor and its energy. Cooke is fantastic, running rings around every single one of her almost-exclusively male co-stars with her smart, spirited attitude and mesmerising presence. And, tonally, the film sports a distinct mid-90s/early-00s vibe; if you found it on a streaming platform rather than showing on the big screen, you could easily think that it had been sitting in an online catalogue for quite some time and you just hadn't ever heard of it. Still, Pixie is never anything more than watchable. The younger Thompson's screenplay doesn't quite perfect its attempts to make its protagonist her own person, leaning too heavily on male fantasies even despite Cooke's impressive efforts. Also, almost every aspect of the plot seems like the product of someone who spent their formative years worshipping Quentin Tarantino, Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) and John McDonagh (The Guard). In fact, the elder Thompson's stylistic approach actually does the latter, too, which is evident no matter how quickly the whole movies zips along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8tofjqqrV8 OCCUPATION: RAINFALL Every science fiction film that has reached cinemas since 1977 has sat in the shadows of Star Wars, the best-known big-screen franchise there in the genre. But few movies have splashed around their desire to resemble the George Lucas-created saga and its success as blatantly as the Gold Coast-shot Occupation: Rainfall, the second entry in Australia's Occupation series. Narrative-wise, it follows an alien invasion, which its 2018 predecessor first detailed. That might sound more like Independence Day than Star Wars; however, humanity's survivors are cast as rebels fighting back against ruthless extraterrestrial forces with planet-eradicating weapons, which should ring more than a few bells from a tale set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It's also impossible not to notice the red beams of light adorning sword-like weapons, especially when they're swung around in one-on-one face-offs; the frequent front-on shots of solo pilots sitting in their aircrafts as sky battles rage around them; the way that everything from towering military technologies to bobbing, weaving and crashing aerial conflicts are framed; and the sound effects so familiar you'd be forgiven for thinking they've just been lifted wholesale. There's also a comic green-skinned critter as a sidekick, this time quoting lines from other films rather than saying "ooh, mooey mooey, I love you!" (and, interestingly, voiced by Harry Potter's Jason Isaacs). That Occupation: Rainfall proves so derivative sits at odds with its ambition. Writer/director Luke Sparke is clearly dreaming big, which is to be admired and applauded — as any attempt to remedy Australia's lack of a big homegrown sci-fi franchise should be. Alas, just as Occupation's aping of Red Dawn and Tomorrow, When the War Began was always evident, the debt that Rainfall owes its high-profile influences is obvious to the point of being distracting. The thin storyline doesn't help, with Rainfall starting with the decimation of Sydney, then splitting its focus between resistance fighter Matt Simmons (Dan Ewing, Home and Away) and his reluctant alliance with alien Gary (Lawrence Makoare, The Dead Lands), and the ideological differences between his colleagues Amelia Chambers (Jet Tranter, Tidelands) and Wing Commander Hayes (Daniel Gillies, The Originals). Matt and Gary head to Pine Gap to track down an item of value to the extraterrestrials, which puts them in odd-couple road-movie territory, while Amelia disagrees with Hayes' willingness to conduct experiments on and torture their otherworldly foes. The clunky dialogue everyone is forced to utter doesn't assist either, and neither does the return of Star Wars alumnus Temuera Morrison or the appearance of Community's Ken Jeong — or the always-apparent reality that keeping the franchise going and laying the groundwork for a third film is the main aim above all else. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on July 2, July 9, July 16, July 23 and July 30; August 6, August 13, August 20 and August 27; September 3, September 10, September 17 and September 24; October 1, October 8, October 15, October 22 and October 29; and November 5, November 12, November 19 and November 26; and December 3, December 10, December 17, December 26; and January 1, January 7, January 14 and January 21. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as The Craft: Legacy, Radioactive, Brazen Hussies, Freaky, Mank, Monsoon, Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie's Dead Aunt), American Utopia, Possessor, Misbehaviour, Happiest Season, The Prom, Sound of Metal, The Witches, The Midnight Sky, The Furnace, Wonder Woman 1984, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles, Nomadland, Pieces of a Woman, The Dry, Promising Young Woman, Summerland, Ammonite, The Dig, The White Tiger and Only the Animals. Top images: News of the World, Bruce W Talamon/Universal Pictures/Netflix; Malcolm & Marie, Dominic Miller, Netflix.
When the 2020 Emmy Awards handed out its gongs, a big upset hit the Lead Actress in a Drama category. Zendaya got the nod, and became its youngest-ever winner in the process. Of course, anyone who has watched Euphoria wasn't shocked at all. Playing Rue Bennett, a high schooler who has long tried to self-medicate her way out of her struggles, she's fantastic. She's also a major reason that the show's eight-episode first season quickly proved such a hit — and that the series will not only return for a second season, but is also dropping two specials in the interim. A sex-, drug-, lust- and love-fuelled teen drama mightn't sound like HBO's usual wheelhouse; however, fans of the US network already know one key truth: that it rarely puts a foot wrong. Not only is Euphoria vivid, energetic and dazzling to look at, but it's unflinchingly honest, raw and authentic as it follows Rue and her friends as they navigate their turbulence of being teenagers.
From Tex-Mex eateries to underground mezcal bars, Melbourne has no shortage of Mexican spots. The city's newest temple of tacos and tequila, however, has opened in an historically Italian area: Carlton. Setting up shop on Drummond Street, Taquito is small. But small is the name of the game here — literally. "Taquita means little taco, but in an affectionate way," says owner and manager Alex Villareal. "It's a term of endearment." While Taquito's name and space are small, its food is big on flavour. Out the back of the quaint restaurant, you'll find an outdoor area filled with chilli plants and other spices — which, naturally, feature throughout their menu. "We have habanero and cayenne chillies that have been used in our drinks and salsas," says Villereal. "And the big nopal cactus in the dining room is looking like it will have a couple of prickly pears soon, too, which we'll use in our menu". Most menu elements are also prepared in-house, including the tortillas, which is a bit of a rarity in Australia. "Back home in Mexico you could always tell if a taqueria or a restaurant was good because its tortillas were fresh and handmade," says Villereal. "But it is one of the things we miss most about Mexico." According to Villereal, handmade tortillas help elevate the flavour and texture of the fillings. At Taquita, the corn flatbreads are hand-pressed and cooked on a custom charcoal grill, then topped with the likes of fire-roasted, peppery pumpkin matched with velvety avocado and tri-tip steak with fiery salsa and a heaping of rich cheese. You can match them with corn chips (also made in-house) drizzled in hot cheddar, chilli and peppers and radish, sorrel and whipped tofu dip. [caption id="attachment_723345" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Julia Sansone[/caption] Still hungry? Look to the bar's cinnamon churros. They arrive with hot chocolate atole (a maize-based drink or dipping sauce), which will (most likely) be downed as quickly as a shot of tequila — another thing that Taquito brings to the table. Alongside a selection of wines and craft beers, Taquito has a lengthy lineup of tequila and mezcal, which feature in all five of its signature cocktails. Order the High Ball — with Trombo tequila, ginger, lemon and plum — if you're looking for something refreshing, or the charred jalapeño-spiked tommy's margarita if you want something with more of a kick. The bar itself has a homely feel — you'll be eating and drinking surrounded by cacti and Mexican trinkets — a vibe Villareal wanted to capture not just in the design, but also in the home-style food and drinks. "I'm originally from Mexico City and have been living in Melbourne for over twelve years," says Villareal. "I have always wanted to find a place that represented Mexican cuisine with food that reminded me of home." Villereal also has big plans for the future of Taquito, too — he's hoping to add on a small brewery, a bottle shop full of Mexican specialities and a margarita on tap. Find Taquito at 350 Drummond Street, Carlton. It's open from Monday–Thursday 4–11pm and Friday and Saturday 4pm–1am. Images: Julia Sansone.
Poirot goes horror in A Haunting in Venice. As unsettling as it was in its pointlessness and indulgence, Death on the Nile's moustache origin story doesn't quite count as doing the same. With Kenneth Branagh (Belfast) back directing, producing and starring as the hirsute Belgian sleuth for the third time — 2017's Murder on the Orient Express came first — Agatha Christie's famous detective now gets steeped in gothic touches and also scores the best outing yet under his guidance. The source material: the acclaimed mystery writer's 1969 novel Hallowe'en Party. Returning screenwriter Michael Green (Jungle Cruise) has given the book more than a few twists, the canal-lined Italian setting being one. Venice makes an atmospheric locale, especially on October 31, in the post-World War II era and amid a dark storm. But perhaps the most important move that A Haunting in Venice makes is Branagh reining in the showboating that became so grating in his first two Poirot movies. Even if you've never read Christie's work or seen Poirot on the screen before, three details have become as widely known as the figure's existence: he's a detective, he's eccentric and, to the benefit of solving cases upon cases, he's obsessive. Thankfully, three also seems to be the magic number in letting the investigator's quirks feel lived in during his current cinema run, rather than constantly overemphasising every idiosyncrasy. Both A Haunting in Venice and Branagh's performance are all the better for that choice. When not just puzzling but also spooking is on offer, such a shift is essential, allowing bumps, jumps and eeriness to set the mood and style over an overdone central portrayal. Branagh is helming a haunted-house story this time around, after all — and while ghost tales need people to torment, overblown identities shouldn't be the most disquieting thing about them. He's also made a picture about grief and trauma, two experiences that change personalities. In relocating to the sinking island city and withdrawing from the whodunnit game, his new status quo when the film begins, A Haunting in Venice's Poirot has already done his own toning down. It's 1947, a decade after the events seen in A Death on the Nile, and bodyguard Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio, The Translators) helps keep life quiet by sending away everyone who seeks the sleuth's help. The exception: Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey, Only Murders in the Building), a Christie surrogate who is not only also a celebrated author, but writes crime fiction based on Poirot (with Fey slipping into her shoes, she's a playful source of humour, too). When the scribe comes a-knocking, it's with an invite to a séance, where she's hoping that her pal will help her to discredit the medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once), who has the town talking. The supernatural isn't Poirot's thing, unsurprisingly. Usually, that applies to the stories that he's in and his perspective. But Ariadne herself is starting to be convinced that Joyce might be the real deal, as she explains while persuading her friend into assisting. In A Haunting in Venice, belief isn't much Poirot's thing either — although unnerving visions do begin lingering in his view. As much as Branagh, cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos (another veteran of the first two pictures), composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (an Oscar-winner for Joker) and editor Lucy Donaldson (The Midnight Club) have fun diving into horror, and they do, embracing the occult was never going to be on the cards for movie's main character. Instead, getting his mystery-solving mojo back is part of the predictable plot; more than in Branagh's past two Poirot flicks, A Haunting in Venice feels comfortable rather than inert in its formula. From that setup, the film unfurls over one night and in a sole spot: a grand yet crumbling palazzo. The building was previously an orphanage where many kids met their death and has seen other folks follow them since, with local legend chalking up the abode's misfortunes to "the children's vendetta". Ex-opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly, Yellowstone) now owns the structure — and it's her daughter Alicia's (feature debutant Rowan Robinson) passing that's inspired her to enlist Reynolds' services. Count her among the suspects when a body shows up, alongside Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan, The Tourist), Drake's family doctor; Leopold (Jude Hill, Branagh's Belfast breakout), his precocious son; Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin, Call My Agent!), the mansion's housemaid; Desdemona and Nicholas Holland (The Crowded Room's Emma Laird and Everyone Else Burns' Ali Khan), brother-and-sister war refugees; and Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen, West Side Story), Alicia's American former fiancé. The expected Poirot template still dictates A Haunting in Venice's basics; few deductive skills are needed to see why Hallowe'en Party's name and city were changed to fit the franchise's mould, for instance. So, murders occur, fingers are pointed, everyone has a motive and the movie's main man gives his brain a workout. Also, getting the pool of accused jostling — and the actors playing them, of course — remains as baked into the feature as in its predecessors. This rogues' gallery makes a finer job of it than the past talents in the same position with Branagh. They're more cohesive as a group, and even as well. Fey sparkles with acerbic wit, Yeoh is confidently serene, Cottin frays nervily, Laird is a picture of unease, and having Dornan and Hill play father and son again after Belfast is a nice touch. With Branagh bringing more nuance to his role than ever, his co-stars never feel like they're being thrust into the shadows by their director and lead. There's zero subtlety in the filmmaking, though, nor should there be in a gleeful gothic-horror spin on Poirot. Cue a wealth of visual flourishes that convey a murder-mystery with purposefully disorientating excess — and shine. Thanks to Venice, the horror genre's fans will already be thinking about 70s great Don't Look Now, which arrived in cinemas before that decade's Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. Spotting odes to Italian giallo master Dario Argento are easy to find, too. Close ups, tilted angles, wide-angle shots, leaping from high to low perspectives, tight focus, making the utmost of the Venetian architecture: they all add to the macabre-and-loving-it air. They also boost a much-needed point of difference in these whodunnit-heavy times. Branagh's flicks have been outshone comically by everything from Knives Out and its sequel to the small screen's Only Murders in the Building and The Afterparty, so getting creepy proves a successful way of fending off their spirits; fittingly, it's a canny trick and enough of a treat.
On the hunt for some new CBD coffee destinations to add to your rotation? Handily enough, we've just scored two welcome additions, as specialty spots Peddler Espresso and Sergy Boy both move into One Melbourne Quarter. Making their home within the building's striking lobby, the duo sits beneath the new Collins Street Sky Park, bringing a new double-whammy coffee offering to that oft-forgotten pocket near Southern Cross Station. Rocking an impressive Woods Baggot fit-out, complete with punchy red Levanto Italian marble countertops, Peddler is the latest creation from Abbotsford's designer caffeine haven Kitty Burns. The newcomer has a European lean to both its food and espresso offering, the menu crafted almost entirely on produce from South Melbourne's Emerald Hill Deli. Expect crafty grab-and-go options, such as toasted sandwiches stuffed with bacon, gruyère, blackberry jam and jalapeño, classic baguette combinations, and croissants filled with sopressa and provolone. [caption id="attachment_709019" align="alignnone" width="1919"] Piers Fitton[/caption] Meanwhile, new neighbour Sergy Boy comes from the minds behind fellow CBD spots Sargon House of Coffee and Urban Deli, featuring Christina Kotsiris design work and a boutique coffee offering. There's a whole lot more to come, too, with around 40 food, beverage and lifestyle retailers set to call this precinct home once complete. Find Peddler Espresso and Sergy Boy at One Melbourne Quarter, 699 Collins Street, Melbourne. Images: Peddler Espresso by Piers Fitton.
Dromana's industrial estate is one step closer to becoming more of a drinking destination than anything else, as it adds yet another small-batch booze outlet to its ever-growing collection. Jimmy Rum has opened the doors to its huge distilling operations and tasting bar. Launching to the public about 18 months after the first bottle of Jimmy Rum was distilled, the new digs are roomy and impressive, set across 500 square metres. It's the latest labour of love from founder and head distiller James McPhearson, who jumped into making craft rum after a decades-long career as a marine engineer. As the only distillery in Victoria dedicated to rum, it's currently whipping up four different types of booze: the Barbados, the Silver, the Oaked and the super strength Navy. They're being crafted in a 4.5-tonne, 1500-litre copper still named Matilda, though still have a way to go before they can technically be called rum — Australian classifications require the base spirit to be aged in wooden barrels for at least two years before it's allowed to be technically called as such. With its new coastal home up and running, Jimmy Rum is out to spread some serious rum knowledge and shift a few perceptions in the process. This is a spirit worth taking as seriously as the local gins and whiskies Australia's currently obsessed with and McPhearson is more than happy to show you why. You can take an educational tour of the distillery, let the experts guide you through a tasting and nab some take-home rum from the cellar door. At the bar, just metres from the still where they were made, you can sample the full range of Jimmy Rum spirits while nibbling on toasties or charcuterie. Staff will take you through the different ways to taste run — like sipping neat, with a few drops of water or over hand-cut ice — and you can try out your newfound appreciation on the two distiller's specials available. There's also a tidy range of rum-fuelled classic cocktails, like the Espresso Rumtini and a riff on the old fashioned, while on Saturdays the place comes alive with food trucks and a lineup of live tunes. Jimmy Rum joins a host of drink-slinging neighbours within the Dromana industrial estate, including gluten-free brewery Twøbays, gin distillery Bass and Flinders, and Jetty Road Brewery. That totals four reasons to get in the car and road trip to Dromana this weekend (with a designated driver, of course). Find Jimmy Rum at 6 Brasser Avenue, Dromana. The bar is open 11am–9pm Thursday to Sunday, while the cellar door is open for sales every day from 9am–5pm. Images: C. McConville.
Situated in St Kilda's shopping village on Barkly Street, Elwood 101 is undoubtedly one of the most eclectic shopping boutiques in the area, stocking both evening clothes and streetwear from some of Australia's best-known designers. Established in 2009, Elwood 101 is where you'll find trendy fashion for men, women and children, as visitors are welcome to flick through much sought after brands such as Neuw, One Teaspoon, Res Denim, Rolla's, Status Anxiety, and John Lennon by English Laundry. This is where to go if you want to look the St Kilda part. Images: Tracey Ah-kee.
Tonight, tonight, there's only Steven Spielberg's lavish and dynamic version of West Side Story tonight — not to detract from or forget the 1961 movie of the same name. Six decades ago, an all-singing, all-dancing, New York City-set, gang war-focused spin on Romeo and Juliet leapt from stage to screen, becoming one of cinema's all-time classic musicals; however, remaking that hit is a task that Spielberg dazzlingly proves up to. It's his first sashay into the genre, despite making his initial amateur feature just three years after the original West Side Story debuted. It's also his first film since 2018's obnoxiously awful Ready Player One, which doubled as a how-to guide to crafting one of the worst, flimsiest and most bloated pieces of soulless pop-culture worship possible. But with this swooning, socially aware story of star-crossed lovers, Spielberg pirouettes back from his atrocious last flick by embracing something he clearly adores, and being unafraid to give it rhythmic swirls and thematic twirls. Shakespeare's own tale of tempestuous romance still looms large over West Side Story, as it always has — in fair NYC and its rubble-strewn titular neighbourhood where it lays its 1950s-era scene. The Jets and the Sharks aren't quite two households both alike in dignity, though. Led by the swaggering and dogged Riff (Mike Faist, a Tony-nominee for the Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen), the Jets are young, scrappy, angry and full of resentment for anyone they fear is encroaching on their terrain (anyone who isn't white especially). Meanwhile, with boxer Bernardo (David Alvarez, a Tony-winner for Billy Elliot) at the helm, the Sharks have tried to establish new lives outside of their native Puerto Rico through study, jobs and their own businesses. Both gangs refuse to coexist peacefully in the only part of New York where either feels at home — even with the threat of gentrification looming large in every torn-down building, signs for shiny new amenities such as Lincoln Centre popping up around the place and, when either local cops Officer Krupke (Brian d'Arcy James, Hawkeye) or Lieutenant Schrank (Corey Stoll, The Many Saints of Newark) interrupt their feuding, after they're overtly warned as well. But it's a night at a dance, and the love-at-first-sight connection that blooms between Riff's best friend Tony (Ansel Elgort, The Goldfinch) and Bernardo's younger sister María (feature debutant Rachel Zegler), that sparks a showdown. This rumble will decide westside supremacy once and for all, the two sides agree. The OG West Side Story was many things: gifted with a glorious cast, including Rita Moreno in her Academy Award-winning role as Bernardo's girlfriend Anita, plus future Twin Peaks co-stars Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beymer as Riff and Tony; unashamedly showy, like it had just snapped its fingers and flung itself off the stage; and punchy with its editing, embracing the move from the boards to the frame. It still often resembled a filmed musical rather than a film more than it should've, however. Spielberg's reimagining, which boasts a script by his Munich and Lincoln scribe Tony Kushner, tweaks plenty while also always remaining West Side Story — and, via his regular cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (The Post) and a whirl of leaping and plunging camerawork, it looks as exuberant as the vibrant choreography that the New York City Ballet's Justin Peck splashes across the screen, nodding to Jerome Robbins' work for the original movie lovingly but never slavishly. From the famous first whistle that's always opened the tale, West Side Story feels like it's dancing through the narrative instead of merely telling it. The savvy realisation that gang struts and brawls suit balletic movements — a notion from when the idea first hit the stage — pairs marvellously with the peppier visuals, too. Spielberg's fluid and kinetic stylistic approach springs from the same source as many of his other touches, with the director aiming not just to finally make a musical, bring the playfulness of his action scenes to the genre, or to give a work he loves his own stamp, but to ground the story in notions that are pressingly relevant today. Viewers here see more of the west side, get a bigger sense of the place, tap into its energy, and glean a more grounded view of the poverty, racism, factionalism and violence that's always sat at West Side Story's core. Switching some of the film's Leonard Bernstein-composed, Stephen Sondheim-penned songs between characters and locations makes this a more thoughtful and textured movie as well. See: the on-the-street version of earworm 'America' led by Hamilton veteran Ariana DeBose as the new Anita, and transforming 'Somewhere' into a community-focused ballad sung by the returning Moreno as a new figure. Both are magnificent. Still, as delightful as almost everything about Spielberg's film is — its inspired changes and passionate tribute to the first feature alike — it has an Ansel Elgort problem. He's a bland island in a sea of spectacle, and the lack of chemistry between him and the radiant Zegler would be a killer if examining the place, time and struggles that give rise to Tony and María's love didn't take precedence over the romance itself. Make it a 1950s NYC R+J, but about why its tragedy unfolds: that's another of Spielberg and Kushner's clever choices. And, while it takes a lifetime of unfortunate moves to strand the Jets and Sharks in their bloody turf war, thankfully one bad casting decision can't taint everything that glimmers about their latest big-screen outing. Indeed, enough praise can't be slung Faist, Zegler, Alvarez or DeBose's way, in what deserves to be a movie star-making effort for all four. Faist's turn as Riff is sinewy, smooth and vulnerable all at once — the film is electric every time he's on-screen — and Zegler's woozy and hopeful performance as a woman in the throes of first love is equally revelatory. Bringing EGOT-recipient and all-round entertainment icon Moreno back is touching, as well as exactly the right kind of nostalgic; looking both backwards and forwards is another of this sublime achievement of a feature's many successes, after all.
They say change is as good as a holiday, and a holiday with some leftover change? Sign us up. The little-known island of Bali is the perfect destination that feels worlds away without having to travel around the world. Flights are cheap, the people are a delight, the food is exceptional, and the beaches are breathtaking. It's no wonder it's an Aussie traveller's favourite. From lush tropical rainforests to terraced rice paddies to multiple surfers' paradises — sometimes even just a couple of nights away is all you need. To help you lock away a quick (or longer) getaway, our editorial team has curated some top travel packages for four distinct Bali locations. Find your preferred option and book it through Concrete Playground Trips now. EXTREME RELAXATION IN NUSA DUA For laidback luxury in between extreme watersports adventures, Sadara Resort on the gorgeous beachfront of Tanjung Benoa has your name on it. Tanjung Benoa is Bali's number one water sports playground, with activities from jet skiing to parasailing, banana boat rides and sea-walking adventures. But fear not, if your holiday is for relaxing and relaxing only, then our Nusa Dua travel deal has everything you need. Sink into your included one-hour Balinese massage before or after you sink into the ocean-facing pool, where you can sink cocktails at the swim-up bar. You'll also enjoy the inclusion of daily breakfast and afternoon tea plus a set menu lunch or dinner. LEGENDARY VIBES AT LEGIAN BEACHFRONT In among the action of iconic Kuta, enjoy a beachside break at AlamKulKul Boutique Resort. This is a prime location for exploring Kuta's beaches along the boardwalk and checking out character-filled laneways before heading back to watch a sunset and sip a Bintang on the beach. Check out our resort package, where you can enjoy true Balinese interiors and architecture, a thriving tropical garden and the on-site spa in between ocean adventures. Your daily breakfast at the restaurant will be an ideal start to the day before you make the most of everything the resort and surroundings have to offer. A GREAT RATE VILLA ESCAPE IN SEMINYAK Let's face it: we all want to be the people who have a Balinese villa and floating breakfast for ourselves — and with this deal, it can be you. The Bali Dream Villa is the ideal location for a getaway, with speedy access from the airport that gets you right into the buzz of Seminyak and its plethora of award-winning restaurants. Inclusions abound with return airport transfers, welcome drinks and daily breakfast and afternoon tea for two. It has everything you need for a private vacay away, with your own pool and kitchenette facilities to make yourself feel truly at home. LUXURY VILLA STAY IN ULUWATU Escape everyday life at beautiful Prasana by Arjani Resort – an all-villa resort perfectly positioned in Bali's beautiful southernmost tip, Uluwatu. This stop is a tad pricier, but it is worth it for what you get included in our exclusive travel package. Whether surfing or spa trips are more your speed, you'll have ample opportunities for both. Explore the famous beach club-lined Melasti Beach or surfer favourite, Padang-Padang, or stay in and enjoy the ocean view from your private villa, take a dip in your private pool or get a relaxing treatment at the Menaka Spa. It's a getaway for all to enjoy the best of Bali, and sometimes, that's just the thing you need to refresh, reset and recharge. Feeling inspired to book a truly unique getaway? Head to Concrete Playground Trips to explore a range of holidays curated by our editorial team. We've teamed up with all the best providers of flights, stays and experiences to bring you a series of unforgettable trips to destinations all over the world.
For six years and four seasons on Westworld so far, viewers have been asked to ponder humanity's potential future with robots and simulations. A key question driving the hit film-to-TV HBO series: how might the years to come unfurl if people use mechanics, artificial intelligence and elaborately fabricated worlds as playthings and playgrounds? In new streaming series The Peripheral, a similar query arises, also musing and hypothesising on what lies ahead — and how flesh, machines, the real and the digital might coexist. The latest question, in another twisty series, as fronted by Chloë Grace Moretz (Mother/Android)? What happens if robots and virtual reality become humanity's conduit through time? (Apologies, DeLoreans and phone booths.) Bringing Westworld to the small screen and now executive producing The Peripheral, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy clearly have a niche. If you didn't know that the latter series comes to Prime Video via the same minds as the former — adapting a 2014 book of the same name by cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson, and with Scott B Smith (The Burnt Orange Heresy, A Simple Plan) as its showrunner — you'd easily guess. The pair don't just share comparable concepts, but also a near-matching look and feel. The two play like tech-, robot-, avatar- and dystopia-obsessed siblings prophesising about humanity's possible decisions and their repercussions, plus everything that the world of tomorrow might herald and mean, all in sleek, shiny, chilly and moody episodic packaging. (Staying in this terrain isn't new for the husband-and-wife duo either, with 2021 film Reminiscence also on their resumes. Joy wrote, directed and produced the Hugh Jackman-starring feature, while Nolan also did the latter. Its focus: reliving memories, and reuniting with the people in them, in another gadgetry-enhanced but devastated future.) When storytellers speculate on what the upcoming years might hold, they theorise about choices and ramifications. The Peripheral has many to ruminate upon. When it begins, 3D print shop worker Flynne Fisher (Moretz) simply decides to assist her military-veteran brother Burton (Jack Reynor, Midsommar) by slipping into his avatar to make cash in a VR game — which she's better at than him, but sexism in the industry still reigns supreme. Then, when he's tasked by a Colombian company with testing a new virtual-reality headset that looks lower-tech, doesn't come with a glasses-like screen but exceeds the competition in its realism, she does the honours again. Flynne hasn't just plugged into a better simulation, though. Via data transfer, her consciousness is time-travelling to the future and inhabiting a robot body (which is what gives the series its title). Get ready for two visions of the future for the price of one, both riffing on aspects of life circa 2022 that could easily evolve as predicted. In Flynne's daily reality, the year is 2032, the place is small-town North Carolina and almost everyone is struggling, so much so that cash bank withdrawals earn Homeland Security's attention. The vibe is straight out of Winter's Bone, complete with a shady figure, aka local drug kingpin Corbell Pickett (Louis Herthum, Hacks), throwing his weight around. Flynne and Burton's mother (Melinda Page Hamilton, Dirty John) has lost her sight and suffers from constant pain, while Burton has his own (and PTSD) courtesy of his stint in uniform. Accordingly, sourcing funds to buy meds is a daily worry — and a problem that donning a headset is meant to fix. But The Peripheral asks another question, unpacking class divides and the technology gaps they bring: is hurtling into the future really a choice when it's a matter of financial survival? The Peripheral contemplates such existential and societal queries — sometimes overtly, sometimes as subtext — as all science fiction should. That said, it also revels in as much sci-fi detail as it can, especially regarding Flynne's leaps onwards. There, it's 2099, in a London littered with new towering sculptures that double as buildings and yet also home to far emptier on the streets. The no-nonsense Aelita West (Charlotte Riley, Swimming with Men) is initially Flynne's guide, until the furtive, James Bond-esque industrial-espionage quest they're on ends badly, and with Flynne seeing something she shouldn't. Next, Wilf Netherton (Gary Carr, The Deuce) runs point, as funded by the wealthy Lev Zubov (JJ Feild, Lost in Space) — and finding the now-missing Aelita and remaining alive in both timelines are the new aims. There's no shortage of plot: as well as time travel, VR, simulations, robots and secret quests, The Peripheral spans apocalyptic conditions, invisible cars, woodland shootouts, contract killers, conspiracies defying the bounds of time, medical chaos, unrequited romance, lottery wins and multiple turf wars. At its heart, it's also still a tale of a family trying to survive in a world crumbling around them, no matter what the future does or doesn't hold. And, the series is a puzzle and a maze, traits it eagerly relishes across its first six episodes. The questions and twists keep dropping, alongside revelations that inspire more enquiries rather than provide answers. Getting lured in happens quickly, although Prime Video is doling out the pieces patiently — starting with two episodes, then releasing future instalments weekly. The more that The Peripheral goes on, the more its Westworld comparisons gain company, with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Tron, The Matrix franchise and Netflix's German-language gem Dark also proving influential. The series also unravels a noir-ish action detective story, asking not only whodunnit several times, but wondering when in time they hailed from like a period-hopping version of Cluedo. The layers of mystery helps keep viewers hooked — albeit with overt and forceful cliffhangers to end each episode — but The Peripheral doesn't slouch elsewhere. That includes its scheming villain, with Years and Years and The Haunting of Bly Manor's T'Nia Miller a devilish delight as the string-pulling Cherise Nuland, the head of the sinister Research Institute and a gloriously scenery-chewing nemesis for Flynne and company. 2022 marks 27 years since another Gibson adaptation spun a story about virtual data, the commodification of humans to service it, the power and control that comes with it, and the people and companies that'd kill for it all. Unlike Westworld and the rest of the aforementioned obvious touchpoints, bland Keanu Reeves movie Johnny Mnemonic mightn't come to mind while watching The Peripheral, though, apart from the shared overuse of tech jargon. What should stick here instead is a series filled with intrigue and ambition, vivid world-building and engaging performances, including from a particularly stellar Moretz. Plugging in is easy — as is staying connected. Check out the trailer for The Peripheral below: The Peripheral streams via Prime Video.
For a couple of months between mid-May and early August, around Melbourne's multiple lockdowns, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image became one of the happiest places in Australia. Hosting a huge Disney exhibition will do that, with the venue unleashing Disney: The Magic of Animation — complete with more than 500 original artworks, including paintings, sketches, drawings and concept art from the Mouse House's beloved catalogue of movies. In great news for Melburnians, and for Australians still keen to immerse themselves in a big dose of animated magic, Disney: The Magic of Animation will reopen again on Saturday, October 30. In even better news, it's hanging around for an extended season, and will now run until Sunday, January 23. So, whether you've always been a fan of Mickey Mouse, you can remember how it felt when you first watched Bambi, you're able to sing all of Genie's lyrics in Aladdin or you fell head over heels for Moana more recently, you'll find plenty worth looking at among ACMI's halls and walls. And in its doors, too, actually — because walking beneath mouse ear-shaped openings to move from one area to the next is all part of the experience. Of course it is. Disney: The Magic of Animation also explores everything from 1928's Steamboat Willie — the first talkie to feature Mickey Mouse — through to this year's Raya and the Last Dragon. Obviously, a wealth of other titles get the nod between those two bookending flicks. Fantasia, Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book and The Lion King also feature, as do Mulan, Frozen, Big Hero 6 and Zootopia. And yes, many of these movies have been remade in live-action or photo-realistic CGI; however, ACMI's showcase is only about the animated films. The big drawcard: art from the Mouse House's hefty back catalogue of titles, and heaps of it. The entire lineup has been specially selected by the Walt Disney Animation Research Library, and will let you get a glimpse at just how the movie magic comes to life, how some of Disney's famous stories were developed, and which animation techniques brought them to the big screen. Get ready to peer at hand-drawn dalmatians (which is timely, given that Cruella released this year), stare closely at Mickey Mouse's evolution, examine Wreck-It Ralph models and pose next to Snow White. Wall-sized artworks pay tribute to a number of movies, too — The Little Mermaid piece is particularly eye-catching — and feeling like you're stepping into a Disney movie is an unsurprising side effect. The extended season will also feature screenings, including sing-along sessions of The Little Mermaid, Moana, Frozen and Frozen 2 — plus a viewing of Disney's upcoming release Encanto. Disney: The Magic of Animation is actually ACMI's first big exhibition since it originally reopened back in February this year following its $40 million transformation. It's also an Aussie exclusive, so you won't be able to be its guest or ponder its tales as old as time anywhere else. Given that Melbourne just came out of lockdown mere days ago, these kind of announcements are popping up with frequency at the moment, after Patricia Piccinini's latest exhibition just extended its run — and Moulin Rouge! The Musical locked in its delayed dates as well. So, Melburnians and Melbourne visitors alike, you're about to have quite jam-packed calendar. Disney: The Magic of Animation will reopen on Saturday, October 30 at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, Melbourne — and will now display until Sunday, January 23. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the ACMI website. Images: Phoebe Powell.
Located at the very northern tip of New Zealand's South Island, Marlborough has something for everyone. The region is famously home to the Marlborough Sounds, a winding and picture-perfect network of sea-drowned valleys which encompasses one-fifth of New Zealand's coastline. It also happens to be the oldest winemaking region in the country with more than 35 cellar doors, so there's no question that one of your main objectives should be sampling local varietals. And now, we have it on good authority that locals will be breaking out the good china next time you pay a visit — the region has just been named as one of the ten most welcoming regions on earth for travellers. Known predominantly for its epic sav blanc and stunning walking and hiking trails, Marlborough is also the only spot in the southern hemisphere to make the list from international travel site Booking.com, coming in at number six. It was beaten by fellow friendly spots La Rioja in Spain and Epirus in Greece — but came in front of Ninh Binh in Vietnam and Limon, Costa Rica. The votes were tallied from a pool of over 240 million customer reviews – and yes, only customers that have actually stayed at an accommodation, rented a car or rode in a taxi can leave a review of their experience on the website. This award is coming straight from the road well-travelled. If you're the type of traveller that books holidays based on word of mouth, you'll probably want to start putting together that itinerary ASAP — check out our Weekender's Guide for more inspiration. And while you're travel planning, head to Concrete Playground Trips to snap up some epic international travel deals. Booking.com's Top 10 Most Welcoming Regions on Earth for 2023 1. La Rioja, Spain 2. Epirus, Greece 3. Oberosterreich, Austria 4. County Down, UK 5. Mures, Romania 6. Marlborough, New Zealand 7. Ninh Binh, Vietnam 8. Limon, Costa Rica 9. Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada 10. North Dakota, US Marlborough has come in at number six on Booking.com's list of the top ten most welcoming regions in the world — the only destination in the southern hemisphere to do so. For more information on the famous wine region, head to Marlborough NZ.
Unlike the often slow-moving Skybus, plans for Melbourne's long-awaited airport rail link seem to be speeding ahead. Last year, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that construction would start within ten years; however that timeline has been updated. Work is now set to get underway within the next four years if the state's current Labor government is re-elected. As revealed today by the Premier, 2022 is the new commencement date for the rail link — and the service also now has a proposed route. The government's preferred plan is to connect the CBD to Tullamarine via an expanded transport hub at Sunshine station, as well as using the existing Albion East rail reserve plus sections of tunnel to connect from there to the airport. Facilitating links to regional and metro train lines including the Melbourne Metro, it's known as the Sunshine alignment, and it's the frontrunner among the four routes under consideration. https://twitter.com/DanielAndrewsMP/status/1020813444327485440?s=19 The news comes as part of a broader funding announcement, with the government set to pledge $5 billion to the project. That sum matches the amount committed by the Federal Government back in April, with a total cost of up to $13 billion anticipated. The rest of the funds will be raised from private sector contributions. "This project has been talked about for too long, it's time to get on and build it and that's exactly what we'll do," said Premier Andrews in a statement. The proposed rail line is expected to help ease congestion, speed up travel times and create a stack of new jobs in the process — and finally give Melbourne a services that plenty of other state capitals already have, with Sydney and Brisbane's airport rail links long-established, and Perth currently in the process of building its own. Melbourne's airport rail link will commence construction as the state's other major train infrastructure project nears completion, with the $11 billion Melbourne Metro slated to be up and running through stations in Parkville, North Melbourne, CBD North, CBD South and the Domain by 2025. Image: Global Panorama via Flickr.
When Super Mario Kart first rolled onto Super Nintendo consoles back in 1992, it came with 20 inventive courses and endless hours of fun. Nearly three decades later, the game has become a beloved phenomenon — not just speeding through desert tracks and rainbow roads, but onto Google Maps and mobile phones, and also into reality. The hugely popular game's next stop? Theme parks. In the works since 2019, delayed due to the pandemic (like everything else), but finally opening its doors on March 18, Super Nintendo World is now a place that genuinely exists. And yes, you can enjoy a real-life Mario Kart experience as part of the first-ever Nintendo-themed theme park zone, which has joined Universal Studios in Osaka. There's no mistaking this space for anywhere else. Given that it features life-sized recreations of both Bowser's Castle — complete with spiked fences and heavy iron doors — and Peach's Castle, fans of the gaming brand will know exactly where they are. You also enter via a warp pipe, because of course you do. No other entryway would've done the park justice. For those keen to hop on Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge, you'll be racing through familiar Mario Kart courses that've been brought to life. And yes, as you steer your way along the track, you're surrounded by characters such as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach. You can also throw shells to take out your opponents — because it wouldn't be Mario Kart without them. If you're wondering how it all works, it's a blend of physical sets, augmented reality, projection mapping and screen projection, all designed to make you feel like you're really in the game. As for Yoshi's Adventure, that lets you climb on Yoshi's back — and, as it sounds, it's very family-friendly. So, you hop on, then set off on an adventure. Specifically, you follow Captain Toad to find three coloured eggs, plus a golden egg as well. View this post on Instagram A post shared by ユニバーサル・スタジオ・ジャパン USJ (@universal_studios_japan) Across its multiple levels — fitting for a gaming-themed space — Osaka's Super Nintendo World also includes restaurants and shops. A certain highlight: the world's first Mario cafe, which launched ahead of the rest of the site. Here, patrons are surrounded by oversized Mario and Luigi hat sculptures, the whole space is kitted out with a red and green colour scheme, and Mario Kart-style checkered floors are a feature. As for snacks, there are Mario pancake sandwiches and cream sodas, plus other drinks available in 'super mushroom' souvenir bottles. The theme park also has wearable wrist bands, called Power Up Bands — which connect to a special app and allow patrons to interact with the site using their arms, hands and bodies. That mightn't sound all that exciting, but the bands enable you to collect coins just like Mario does in the Super Mario games. Like the red-capped plumber, you can also hit question blocks to reveal more coins. There are collectible items to gather, too, such as keys and character stamps, which you can only find after achieving various goals. The stamps also earn you even more coins, so you really will be basically playing Super Mario in real life. You do have to buy a Power Up Band separate to your entry ticket to enjoy that element of the park, though. While no one is venturing far at present — and Japan has just shut out international travellers from the Tokyo Olympics, so you're unlikely to be able to head to the country anytime soon — you can add Osaka's Super Nintendo World to your must-visit list once overseas travel does start returning to normal. You might also want to add ziplining into a life-sized version of Godzilla to the same list while you're dreaming about Japanese holidays. Universal Studios is also planning Super Nintendo Worlds for its other parks in Hollywood, Orlando and in Singapore, if you need to add more places to look forward to visiting sometime in the future. The latter was just announced last year, and is set to open by 2025. Super Nintendo World is now open at Universal Studios Osaka, 2 Chome-1-33 Sakurajima, Konohana Ward, Osaka, 554-0031, Japan. Top image: Nintendo and Universal Studios.
April Fools Day. It's been a week now and still there are stories circulating the internet which are, in actual fact, hoaxes and jokeses. Have the amazing leaps forward in technology of late turned us all into gullible fools? Personally, I think it's nice there are so many people out there who still believe that almost anything is possible. Here's Concrete Playground's top 3 picks of "technological innovation" suspiciously released on April 1: The Typescreen Oh, but the author in me wishes this was true! It's a typewriting mechanism that integrates with Apple's iPad and it's ever so trendy. Perfect for those who live for the clacking of keys when composing prose. But it's easy to see through it all when you read the fine print of the press release: "Every generation creates a few items that change the way we live forever and help us reinterpret who we are as a society. We are proud of the new Spinning Hat Typescreen™ and are excited to watch its trajectory towards greatness. You're welcome world!" Digital Film Cartridge for Analog Cameras If you're a lover of Leica but craving to go digital, these fake film canisters released by design company Rogge & Pott could be the solution. Purporting to incorporate a pull-out sensor that records images in the cartridge's built-in memory, it connects to your computer via USB to allow for image transfer and charging. The site where you'll find all the details now features an April Fools disclaimer. Turns out heaps of peeps believed the gimmick and are now disappointed that the product doesn't actually exist. The company did discover, however, that with such a widespread interest in the product it might be worth researching the possibility of actually developing it. Henny Rogge says "...there is a gigantic community of photographers with analog equipment out there that is desperately waiting for a product like this to come along." https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bu927_ul_X0 Gmail Motion Try to keep a straight face when watching the model demonstrate gmailing by body movements. In Gmail Motion, the equivalent of pressing "Send" is to make a movement inspired by licking a stamp and whacking it on your knee. It claims easy to learn, simple and intuitive gestures. Plus the opinions of seemingly knowledgeable persons are added into the video for good measure. Amazingly, though, development of technology similar to Gmail Motion is underway at the University of Southern California. Using some of the gestures suggested by Gmail Motion, one of the students demonstrates how it works. In my mind, April Fools Day isn't just for a bit of a laugh. Like science fiction, it inspires inventors to get cracking on the next big thing, which could very well "reinterpret who we are as a society."
One of 2023's new small-screen hits was a book first — and if you're keen to hear more about Lessons in Chemistry, author Bonnie Garmus is coming to Australia to chat about it. She's one of the headliners at 2024's Sydney Writers' Festival, which has unveiled a characteristically jam-packed lineup. Garmus is one of 35 international guests, too, and among nearly 300 speakers on a program that features 223 free and ticketed events. Harbour City literary fans, rejoice. If your favourite way to spend your time is leafing through pages, this is an annual highlight on your calendar anyway regardless of the lineup — but 2024's SWF has plenty to get excited about. Book obsessives elsewhere, this fest is also still for you, because it's streaming some of its events live across four of its seven days. [caption id="attachment_944967" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Serena Bolton[/caption] The fest will run in-person from Monday, May 20–Sunday, May 26, with sessions at Carriageworks livestreamed between Thursday–Sunday. Whichever best suits you, you can check out playwright Suzie Miller chatting about her hit play Prima Facie, Nobel Prize-winner Abdulrazak Gurnah discussing Afterlives, Washington-based The Guardian World Affairs Editor Julian Borger stepping into his father's past and the Holocaust, and The Roots of Chaos' Samantha Shannon chatting fantasy. The livestreamed talks also include Celeste Ng on Little Fires Everywhere follow-up Our Missing Hearts, journalist Alisa Sopova and photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind diving into their 5km From the Frontline project in Ukraine, a celebration of women in sport, and the closing address on the future of misogyny by philosopher Kate Manne. Also, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen — whose book The Sympathizer has been turned into a TV series, too, and arrives in 2024 — will dig into his memoir A Man of Two Faces. [caption id="attachment_944970" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kieran Kesner[/caption] Folks heading along physically have a whole heap more to look forward to. Prophet Song's 2023 Booker Prize-winner Paul Lynch, Tom Lake's Ann Patchett, Resurrection Walk author and all-round crime-fiction bigwig Michael Connelly, The Bee Sting's Paul Murray and Old God's Time's Sebastian Barry are also on the bill, as is Nobel Prize-winning scientist and A Crack in Creation: The New Power to Control Evolution scribe Jennifer Doudna. Add in American National Poetry Slam Champion Elizabeth Acevedo, who has penned novel Family Lore; Jake Adelstein, whose Tokyo Noir is about Japan's underworld; translator Jennifer Croft, with her novel The Extinction of Irena Ray also about translators; and Lullaby and Watch Us Dance's Leïla Slimani — and the list still goes on. [caption id="attachment_944968" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Henry Nicholls[/caption] Among the Australian talents, Boy Swallows Universe fans will want to check out sessions with both author Trent Dalton and actor Bryan Brown — the first talking about his latest book Lola in the Mirror; the second about his own tome The Drowning, as interviewed by fellow actor Sam Neill (The Twelve), in a reversal of a similar chat in 2023. And The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart devotees should be keen to hear from Holly Ringland, who has The House That Joy Built to discuss. Safe Haven's Shankari Chandran, Edenglassie's Melissa Lucashenko and Wifedom's Anna Funder, all Miles Franklin-winners, will also take to the stage. So will Julia Baird about Bright Shining and Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan to chat Question 7. [caption id="attachment_944976" align="alignnone" width="1920"] David Kelly[/caption] For fireside First Nations storytelling, exploring Blak criticism and more, six Indigenous-focused events also join the lineup thanks to two guest curators: Wiradjuri Nation poet and artist Jazz Money, plus Gomeroi writer Amy Thunig. Free sessions are always a significant part of the program, too, with 2024's festival including more than 70. And, also in the same category, the spread of venues is hefty — including Carriageworks, Town Hall, City Recital Hall, State Library of New South Wales and suburban libraries across Sydney. [caption id="attachment_944977" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sarah Hadley[/caption] [caption id="attachment_944971" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Daniel Boud[/caption] [caption id="attachment_944973" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kat Westerman[/caption] Sydney Writers' Festival runs at various venues across Sydney, and streams online, from Monday, May 20–Sunday, May 26. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Saturday, March 9 via the festival's website. Sydney Writers' Festival images: Jacquie Manning.
Ever since cartography was first used in Ancient Babylonia in 2300BC, humans have relied on cartography to navigate, utilise, conceptualise and define geographical space. Modern digital technology allows us to produce and manipulate visual representations of geography in astounding ways, no longer limited to just geography. Benjamin Hennig at the University of Sheffield has created a series of innovative cartograms which illustrate new ways of seeing the planet, transforming our preconceptions of space and human impact. The population distribution of the globe, with the more densely populated areas such as Central Asia appearing much larger in comparison to the insignificant size of Australia. The world's major nuclear forces. The world's poorest health systems. The world's biodiversity hotspots. Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) and Cluster Submunition Casualties in 2010. Immigration to countries around the world (which really puts the debate in Australia into perspective).
On Monday, July 19, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews delivered obvious but still concerning news, advising that the state's current lockdown wouldn't end after five days as originally planned. Today, Tuesday, July 20, he has provided further details at the state's daily COVID-19 press conference, confirming that Victoria will remain under stay-at-home conditions until midnight on Tuesday, July 27. "We need more time," said the Premier. "This extension is not what we wanted to have to do, but it is the only option." "We wish we could bring this in earlier, but we can't run the risk that there are cases out there that we don't know about," Andrews continued. "There are chains of transmission that are not yet contained that we don't know about, and if we did open up we would see how quickly this runs, we would see how challenging this can become in a very short space of time. We need to avoid what is going on in Sydney at the moment. We are determined to do that." Accordingly, the state will remain under the same rules that've been in place now since Thursday, July 15, with Victorian residents only permitted to leave home for five reasons: shopping for what you need, when you need it; caregiving and compassionate reasons; essential work or permitted eduction that can't be done from home; exercise; and getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Exercise must be limited to two hours a day with your household members, your intimate partner or one other person who is not from your household or your partner. Victorians must also stay within five kilometres of their homes, unless you're leaving for permitted work or shopping for essentials if there are no shops in your radius. Masks are mandatory everywhere outside of your home — and private gatherings are banned, as are public gatherings. While you can't have any visitors enter your home in general, there are single bubbles, and intimate partner visits are allowed. So, if you live alone, you can form a bubble with another person or see your other half. Weddings are not permitted, unless on compassionate grounds, while funerals are limited to ten. Hairdressing and beauty services, indoor physical recreation and sport venues, swimming pools, community facilities including libraries, entertainment venues and non-essential retail venues remain closed — and hospitality venues have reverted back to takeaway-only. Supermarkets, bottle shops and pharmacies are still open, however. While the stay-at-home rules aren't changing for the next week, Victoria is updating its handling of red zone permits — the permits that allow folks who've been in areas deemed red zones under the state's traffic light-style COVID-19 classification system to enter Victoria. After 11.59pm tonight, Tuesday, July 20, Victorian residents returning home won't automatically be granted permits. Those passes will be paused for a fortnight, and you'll only be able to come back from a red zone if you are an authorised worker or you're eligible for a compassionate exemption to the new rules. "There will be no further 'as of right' red zone travel for the next two weeks," the Premier said. "What I cannot have happen is hundreds and hundreds of people who were warned weeks ago to get back here who have not done that. I can't cope having hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Victorians coming back to Victoria while the situation further deteriorates and we see more and more cases, hundreds of cases in Sydney. We'd get this outbreak under control and then with finish up with another incursion brewing. I don't want that to happen. So those rules will apply for the next two weeks." https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1417261584687144964 Victoria currently has 96 active COVID-19 cases, including 13 new locally acquired cases identified in the 24 hours to midnight last night. The state also presently has 320 exposure sites, with that list growing quickly in the past few days. As always, Melburnians can keep an eye on the local list of exposure sites at the Department of Health website — it will keep being updated if and when more sites are identified. For those looking to get tested, you can find a list of testing sites including regularly updated waiting times also on the Department of Health website. And, has remained the case throughout the pandemic, Melburnians should be looking out for coughs, fever, sore or scratchy throat, shortness of breath, or loss of smell or taste, symptoms-wise. Victoria will remain in lockdown until midnight on Tuesday, July 27. For more information about the rules in place at the moment, head to the Victorian Department of Health website.
A strange thing happens when you're an Australian visiting Japan: at least a couple of times during your trip, whether you're in a shop, izakaya or ramen joint — or walking across Shibuya's scramble crossing, scoping out the Studio Ghibli museum, wandering through a kaleidoscopic maze of digital art or singing karaoke in a ferris wheel — you'll hear a familiar accent echoing nearby. Before the pandemic, Japan had cemented itself as a favourite holiday destination for Aussies, making it highly likely that you'd encounter a fellow Australian or several in your travels. But making the journey has been impossible for the past few years, thanks to both local and Japanese border restrictions. If a Tokyo trip has been at the top of your post-restrictions bucket list, good news has finally arrived: Japan has announced that Australian tourists can again visit, kicking off sometime later in May. That said, if you're already packing your suitcase, there's one huge caveat, with the country only allowing in tourists travelling as part of strictly controlled package tours. The Japanese Tourism Agency advised that it'll begin letting small group tours to enter the country from later this month, to test reopening the border in full sometime in the future. To make the trip, you'll need to be triple-vaccinated, and be visiting as part of a planned tour in conjunction with travel agencies that's accompanied at all times by a tour conductor, and has a fixed itinerary. As well as Aussie tourists, triple-vaccinated travellers from the US, Thailand and Singapore will also be able to head to Japan as part of the trial. Designed to help the Japanese government assess health and safety protocols, and work how to manage any COVID-19 cases among visitors, the test was initially slated to take place earlier; however, due to the Omicron variant and its impact in Japan, it was pushed back. Exactly how long the testing phase will last for, and when Japan might completely reopen its borders to international holidaymakers, hasn't yet been revealed. Earlier this month, though, in a speech given in London, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that the next phase of reopening might occur in June — albeit without any further specifics. "At the end of last year, Japan strengthened its border control measures in response to the global spread of the Omicron variant. It was an essential public health step to delay the variant's entry into the country. This allowed us to fortify our healthcare system and promote vaccinations. I hope it is not too boastful to say that Japan's response to COVID-19 has been one of the most successful in the world," the Prime Minister advised. "We have now eased border control measures significantly, with the next easing taking place in June, when Japan will introduce a smoother entry process similar to that of other G7 members." For further details about visiting Japan and its border restrictions, head to the Japan Tourism Agency website. Via Reuters.
This article is sponsored by our partner lastminute.com.au. You've seen the big ball drop in Times Square on the telly every New Year's Eve. Cue the snow, earmuffs and shots of rosy-nosed couples pashing as the clock strikes midnight, a stark contrast to our summery celebrations. If you and your mate/significant other have ever dreamt of experiencing NYE in NYC style but can't seem to scrape up enough cash to make it a reality, this could be your chance. lastminute.com.au is giving away an awesome prize package to two lucky people for an adventure in the Concrete Jungle this December. The package includes two return tickets to New York City, four nights' accommodation in midtown Manhattan's Affinia 50 hotel, two tickets to an NYE celebration in Times Square, and an elite styling session and $1000 wardrobe, courtesy of THE ICONIC. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to us. So enter now to win NYE in NYC and share the hell out of it on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, because every friend referral earns you another entry to boost your chances of winning. Now is the time to be that annoying friend who is incessantly posting about competitions. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rxO05nQXFY8
When Sally Rooney's Normal People first hit bookshelves in 2018, it thrust readers into a disarmingly relatable love story, following the amorous ups and downs of an on-again, off-again couple from Sligo, Ireland. Teenagers Marianne and Connell have known each other for years, as tends to happen in small towns. And although she's aloof, intense and considered an acerbic loner, while he's outgoing and popular, a torrid and tumultuous secret romance blooms. That's just the beginning of the Irish author's novel, which then heads to Dublin's Trinity College with its two protagonists — where, free from the shackles, expectations and gossip of their hometown, their roles have been reversed. Marianne is now the self-assured and well-liked toast of the campus, while Connell, although excelling academically, struggles to feel comfortable in his new surroundings. Still, when the two cross paths again, old emotions reignite. Unravelling the pair's ebbs and flows from their final year of high school, then all through their university years, Normal People won plenty of fans on the page — and plenty of awards, too. As well as becoming a bestseller, Rooney's second book was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and nabbed 2019's Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. The next step: bringing this tale to the small screen, all courtesy of an excellent and involving new 12-part drama of the same name that has just hit Stan in its entirety, and will soon be available on TVNZ OnDemand. As anyone who has devoured Rooney's novel will anticipate, Normal People, the TV series, proves both tender and perceptive as it dives deep into a complex chronicle of first love. One of the show's triumphs: its commitment not only to charting Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Cold Feet) and Connell's (newcomer Paul Mescal) feelings for each other, but to detailing the recognisable and realistic minutiae of being a high schooler and then a uni student. This is first and foremost a romance, and a passionate and intimate one at that; however the series can't tell this complicated couple's story without touching upon everything else that pops up along the way. That includes thorny family situations, different social circles, everyday bullying and painful tragedies, as well as the possibilities and anxieties that moving away from home brings, and the pair's ever-growing pile of emotional baggage. In making the supremely confident leap from the page to the screen, it helps that Normal People boasts an array of talent. Rooney herself helped pen the TV adaptation, alongside fellow screenwriters Alice Birch (Succession) and Mark O'Rowe (Boy A). And, in the director's chair sits both Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson (Room) and BAFTA winner Hettie Macdonald (White Girl, Howard's End), who share helming duties. That said, as smartly written and intelligently directed as the series is — and as beautifully shot, too — it's impossible to imagine it striking such a chord without Edgar-Jones and Mescal. They're in great company on-screen, with Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful) also a standout as Connell's mother. But when you're watching a sensitive and chaotic whirlwind of a romance, and unpacking all of its intricacies, you want textured, layered, convincing and heartbreaking performances to match — which these certain rising stars well and truly deliver. Check out the full trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODYjA9H4qcw All 12 episodes of Normal People are available to stream via Stan. It will be available in New Zealand via TVNZ OnDemand from May 3.
Twist the bones and bend the back, the Hocus Pocus franchise is returning for another horror-comedy attack — again. In 2022, the Sanderson sisters made their long-awaited comeback in a 29-years-later sequel to 1993's beloved witch flick Hocus Pocus, and Disney isn't done casting that spell. No, no one needed any magic to pick that Hocus Pocus 2 would be a Disney+ hit. And no, no crystal balls were necessary to foresee that the Mouse House would keep the series going afterwards. The Hocus Pocus 3 news comes courtesy of an interview by Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, with The New York Times. There are no other details as yet, however, including when it might arrive, if it'll head straight to streaming again or whether it'll enchant the big screen, what story it'll tell and who'll be in — but Disney is definitely saying "abracadabra" to another Hocus Pocus movie all the same. [caption id="attachment_859412" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kathy Najimy as Mary Sanderson, Bette Midler as Winifred Sanderson, and Sarah Jessica Parker as Sarah Sanderson in Disney's live-action HOCUS POCUS 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Matt Kennedy. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] Lock up your children, obviously. Fingers crossed that the third feature in the franchise will include more Bette Midler (The Addams Family 2), Sarah Jessica Parker (And Just Like That...) and Kathy Najimy (Music) getting spooky as Winnie, Sarah and Mary Sanderson — and getting unleashed in modern-day Salem again. In the last movie, the magical siblings made a reappearance thanks to 16-year-old Becca (Whitney Peak, Gossip Girl), her best friend Izzy (Belissa Escobedo, Sex Appeal) and magic shop owner Gilbert (Sam Richardson, The Afterparty), and the expected hijinks ensued. Obviously, a black flame candle was lit, resurrecting the 17th-century sisters in the movie's world. And just as unsurprisingly, the Sandersons attempted to recommence their child-eating ways. Hocus Pocus 2 also featured Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddingham, plus Doug Jones (The Shape of Water), Lilia Buckingham (Dirt), Froyan Gutierrez (Teen Wolf) and Tony Hale (Veep). While the original film was directed by Kenny Ortega — before the filmmaker gave the world the High School Musical movies — the sequel had Dumplin', Hot Pursuit and The Proposal's Anne Fletcher behind the lens. There's obviously no sneak peek at Hocus Pocus 3 yet, but you can check out the trailers for Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2 below: Hocus Pocus 3 doesn't yet have a release date — we'll update you when one is announced. Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2 are to stream via Disney+. Images: Matt Kennedy. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
When your friends start talking furiously about how The Wire is the best TV show ever made, do you go quiet, trying not to let them know that you haven't watched it? The moment that the final season of Game of Thrones ended, did you instantly feel the urge to start all over again, because you just weren't ready to say goodbye yet? Whether there's a big gap in your pop culture knowledge or you're eager to revisit one of your favourite shows, that's where binging comes in. Serious binging — not just sitting on the couch and watching whatever your streaming platform of choice's algorithm happens to suggest. Serious binging involves committing time and effort to a show, working your way through it from start to finish and finding yourself obsessed with every last detail. It also means that you become that person who tells all their friends to watch or rewatch something. Yes, we've all been there. Finding time to hop into serious binging mode hasn't really been a problem in recent months, but if you're wondering what to watch next, we're here to help. Australia now has more streaming platforms than ever, and one of them is probably playing a TV series you desperately want to devote a big chunk of time to. Here are ten television standouts that you can currently watch from their very first seconds until they ultimately fade to black. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faRl5Bea-Go THE SOPRANOS The gangster genre has been part of popular culture since cinema's early days, but on TV, nothing is an essential and influential as The Sopranos. If you've watched any mob-related show or movie since 1999, it'll owe as much of a debt to David Chase's New Jersey-set crime drama as it does to the filmography of Martin Scorsese. Across six exquisitely written seasons, James Gandolfini and Edie Falco led the way — with Tony Soprano's work life, leading a local branch of the mob, intertwined with his home life with his wife Carmela and their kids Meadow (Jamie Lynn-Sigler) and AJ (Robert Iller). In fact, when the show starts, all of the above is giving Tony panic attacks, inspiring a visit to psychiatrist Dr Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). Also featuring everyone from Steve Buscemi and Joe Pantoliano to Janeane Garofalo and Ben Kingsley, The Sopranos was simply the best thing on TV until it wrapped up in 2007. All six seasons of The Sopranos are available to stream via Binge and Foxtel Now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9rKY8MLWTU THE KNICK Over the past few months, almost everyone has rewatched Contagion, with Steven Soderbergh's prophetic outbreak thriller hitting rather close to home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2011 film is just one of the highlights on his busy resume, though — and if you're eager to watch the best thing he's ever made, then hit up medical series The Knick. Set at the turn of the 20th century, it follows the staff of a New York hospital as they endeavour to navigate everyday illnesses without the aid of modern advancements, pioneer experimental (and dangerous) surgical techniques, and try to stop their patients from dying. Also in career-best form is Clive Owen, who plays opium-addicted chief surgeon Dr John Thackery, while Moonlight's Andre Holland is similarly excellent as his new assistant chief surgeon. And, because that's the way he approaches most things he works on, Soderbergh directed, shot and edited every tense and thrilling episode. All of The Knick's two-season run is available to stream via Binge and Foxtel Now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIhUsfhXBJM GREAT NEWS You've seen 30 Rock, the brilliantly funny Tina Fey-created sitcom set within the TV industry. But if you haven't watched Great News, which she executive produced, then you're missing out on one of the other ace television-focused comedies of the past decade. This time around, it all takes place within a TV news program. Katie Wendelson (Briga Heelan) works on The Breakdown as a segment producer, but she wishes her boss Greg (Adam Campbell) would let her handle the show's top stories. There's plenty of workplace hijinks stemming from that premise alone, as well as from the overinflated ego of newsman and host Chuck Pierce (John Michael Higgins), and the celebrity antics of his co-anchor Portia Scott-Griffith (Nicole Richie). Complicating matters, though, is the arrival of Katie's overprotective mother Carol (Andrea Martin) as the show's new intern — and the results are equally smart and silly, as well as highly topical. All of Great News' two-season run is available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNHsA4WIFvc TWIN PEAKS It's the mind-bending small-town mystery-drama that comes with its own menu — and with plenty of thrills, laughs and weirdness. Whether you're watching Twin Peaks for the first or 31st time, you'll want to do so with plenty of damn fine coffee, fresh-made cherry pie and cinnamon-covered doughnuts to fuel your journey to this place most wonderful and strange. And, of course, David Lynch and Mark Frost's seminal TV series doesn't just serve up 90s-era oddness centred around the tragic murder of popular high-schooler Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), but returned for a mesmerising third season back in 2017 as well. There's simply never been anything on television like Twin Peaks, because no one can make movies and TV shows like Lynch. No one can play a kind and quirky FBI boss like Lynch either, or a dedicated agent like Kyle MacLachlan as Dale Cooper. All three seasons of Twin Peaks are available to stream via Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUeOCo0HeJo THE WIRE There are many things that are phenomenal about The Wire, from the complexity that seethes through every episode and season, to the fantastic cast centred around Dominic West, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Sonja Sohn, Michael K Williams and Andre Royo. It's the show that helped make stars out of Idris Elba and a very young Michael B Jordan, and it's absolutely unflinching in its exploration of law and order — and cops versus crime — in Baltimore. That said, as based loosely on the experiences of former homicide detective Ed Burns, and created and primarily written by ex-police reporter David Simon, the best thing about The Wire is how far and wide it ranges in exploring the Maryland city's relationship to law enforcement across its five seasons. Drugs, ports, the government, the school system and the media all fall into the series' remit, contributing to a show that feels as urgent now as when it first aired between 2002–08. All five seasons of The Wire are available to stream via Binge and Foxtel Now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1v_q6TWAL4 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Back in 1992, big-screen horror-comedy Buffy the Vampire Slayer introduced the world to a plucky California cheerleader who just happened to be fated to slay the undead. That's not the version of Buffy that everyone adores, obsesses over and has watched and rewatched for decades, however, with that honour belonging to Sarah Michelle Gellar in Joss Whedon's 1997–2003 TV series. And, from the show's witty sense of humour to its willingness to put its viewers through the emotional wringer, it's easy to see why television's Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the Buffy of record. A new slayer might be born into every generation, as the series taught us, but only one will always have our hearts — while grappling with trying to be a normal person, killing vamps and sometimes even falling for them, of course. All seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are available to stream via Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjuXTD0m9Lc ROUND THE TWIST Sometimes, you want to spend your time binging your way through serious dramas or clever comedies. And sometimes, feeling nostalgic by revisiting the local TV show every Aussie kid watched is on the agenda. For two seasons between 1990–93, then another two from 2000–01, Round the Twist adapted Paul Jennings' popular books into an offbeat fantasy series — and, if you were the right age, it was must-see TV. It's the source of plenty of lighthouse obsessions, given that's where the Twist family lived, and it's also a show that knew how to balance humour, strangeness and scares. And yes, the latter two seasons aren't as great, but we're betting they're still baked into your childhood memories anyway. All four seasons of Round the Twist are available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUHlMgJxF30 MAD MEN If The Sopranos was the show that defined the 2000s, and it definitely was, then Mad Men did the same in the 2010s. Matthew Weiner's 60s-set advertising agency drama made a splash from the moment it started in 2007, but Mad Men is the epitome of a slow burn — with the series' charms apparent at the outset, but its full power accumulating and growing over time. That applies to the complicated Don Draper (Jon Hamm), Sterling Cooper's creative director and the show's point of focus, and to everyone in his orbit. Indeed, while Mad Men always tells Don's story, the depth and richness afforded not just fellow major characters such as Roger Sterling (John Slattery), Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) and Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks), but the series' huge range of supporting players, is one of the show's biggest strengths. That, and its meticulous period look, obviously. All seven seasons of Mad Men are available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4zBo6El-ok ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS Forget Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, the 2016 film that really isn't funny and definitely didn't need to be made. Completely erase it from your memory, and just focus on the British comedy's five TV seasons and numerous television specials instead. No one plays booze-swilling, trend-chasing, self-obsessed pals like Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley — and on the small screen, at least, their performances as PR agent Edina Monsoon and her magazine fashion editor bestie Patsy Stone are never less than hilarious. There's no scenario too outlandish for this pair, as Eddie's long-suffering mother (June Whitfield), daughter (Julia Sawalha) and assistant (Jane Horrocks) all endure in every episode. And, amidst all the laughs, over-the-top antics and satire, few shows have so astutely explored what it means to be growing older while refusing to let go of your younger years. All five seasons of Absolutely Fabulous are available to stream via Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlR4PJn8b8I GAME OF THRONES Maybe you adored every second of Game of Thrones, including how it ended. Perhaps you'd rather pretend that the last season didn't happen. Or, you could be looking for something to pass the time until George RR Martin finally releases a new book in his A Song of Fire and Ice series — aka the novels that HBO's big fantasy blockbuster is based on. Whichever category you fall into, the eight-season TV show unravels quite the story. Even if you're just in it for the dragons, the endless (and often literal) backstabbing, the soap opera-like relationships, Peter Dinklage's wonderful performance, the inevitable fate that awaits Sean Bean and the chance to say "you know nothing, Jon Snow" a few more times, that's completely understandable as well. All eight seasons of Game of Thrones are available to stream via Binge and Foxtel Now.
Hey, remember Pokémon Go? That insanely popular augmented reality mobile game that seemingly everyone was playing until suddenly they weren't? Well, it turns out the developers behind said game are branching out into another beloved fictional universe: the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Niantic, which developed Pokémon Go as well as Ingress, will team up with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. According to a Niantic announcement, "players will learn spells, explore their real world neighbourhoods and cities to discover and fight legendary beasts and team up with others to take down powerful enemies." It also said the game "will leverage the full stack of the Niantic Platform while also providing an opportunity to pioneer all new technology and gameplay mechanics." That's about all we know for now – although it does sound as though players may encounter a few familiar faces, with the game's website promising appearances by "iconic characters". Please let it be Dobby (#neverforget). If you're interested, you can sign up for more information about the game via www.harrypotterwizardsunite.com.
Would you like some creepy with your coffee? David Lynch takes advertising to dark places with this disturbing film promoting his signature coffee line. I'm curious as to exactly what David Lynch Signature Cup would taste like. Obviously it would depend on whether you choose the espresso blend, house roast or decaf. My intuition tells me Lynch likes his coffee strong, dark and somewhat syrupy – much like his genius mind. All the blends are all organic and fairly traded, as we learn from a bizarre dialogue between Lynch and the decapitated Barbie doll head he cradles in his hand. [Via Lost At E-Minor]
First dropping anchor with its debut season in 2022, Our Flag Means Death didn't wash up on streaming's shores like an unexpected message in a bottle. With a treasure chest of impressive talents involved, it arrived with definite fanfare, as expected of a Rhys Darby (Uproar)-led and Taika Waititi-executive produced series that also features the Thor: Love and Thunder filmmaker as a key co-star — and the director of its premiere episode. But the feeling of watching, especially as Our Flag Means Death cruised through later chapters in its initial ten-episode run, resembled discovering a new world. What started out as a kindhearted and satirical 18th century-set pirate comedy also became a sweet and earnest queer rom-com. Folks on-screen waiting to walk the plank weren't the only ones all a-quiver. Our Flag Means Death's ensemble runs deep, with Samson Kayo (Bloods), Ewen Bremner (Creation Stories), Joel Fry (Bank of Dave), Kristian Nairn (Game of Thrones), Matthew Maher (Hello Tomorrow!) and Nat Faxon (Loot) adding to the familiar faces, plus Vico Ortiz (The Sex Lives of College Girls), Con O'Neill (The Batman), David Fane (The Messenger) and Samba Schutte (Forspoken) also among the regulars. As guest stars in season one, Leslie Jones (BMF), Fred Armisen (I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson), Will Arnett (The Morning Show), Tim Heidecker (Miracle Workers), Kristen Johnston (The Righteous Gemstones), Nick Kroll (Big Mouth), Kristen Schaal (What We Do in the Shadows), Claudia O'Doherty (Killing It), Angus Sampson (Bump) and Rory Kinnear (Men) made their presence known. Under creator David Jenkins (People of Earth), this group of actors helped the show find a mooring among the best new series that the year had to offer, and a renewal for a keenly anticipated second season. Now back from Thursday, October 5 via Binge in Australia and Friday, October 6 via Neon in New Zealand, Our Flag Means Death's return go-around is still a refreshing breeze and gleaming trove of gold. The premise has always glinted brightly itself, following Darby as self-styled 'gentleman pirate' Stede Bonnet. Born to a life of privilege, he felt that seafaring and swashbuckling was his calling, leaving his life on land behind to hop on a ship — details that all spring from reality. Jenkins isn't interested in telling the exact IRL tale, however. Consider those basics merely Our Flag Means Death's departure point. On-screen, Stede gets caught up in both a workplace comedy and a boatmance. The first springs from his certainty that there has to be a nicer way to glide through a pirate existence, and the second from his blossoming feelings for feared marauder Edward Teach (Waititi), aka Blackbeard. When season one wrapped up, Stede and Ed had found love in a buccaneering place, but also felt splashes of uncertainty about what their relationship means, leading to heartbreak and a breakup. Season two picks up with the show's motley crew of characters torn in two, with Stede and his loyal faction marooned on the island tourist destination that is The Republic of Pirates — fantasy is as much a part of Our Flag Means Death as comedy and romance — and Blackbeard back to his robbing and murdering ways on The Revenge. The series' attracted opposites will find their way onto the same deck again, but choppy waters are in store for their emotions. Similarly floating their way: rivalries, curses, old pals, new foes, betrayals, forgiveness, glorious silliness, trauma, lopped limbs and a merman. Before Our Flag Means Death, Darby and Waititi had teamed up on everything from Flight of the Conchords and the What We Do in the Shadows film to Wellington Paranormal and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. In what continues to be a dream pairing, the upcoming Next Goal Wins comes next. As Stede and Ed here, they're cutlass-crossed lovers learning how to genuinely be themselves, including going beyond easy archetypes. And, they're navigating complicated terrain in season two. Although joy still beams through Our Flag Means Death's second swim, warmth in its heart to hearts and laughs in general, darkness also lingers. If the first go-around was all about taking exuberant plunges, this follow-up is a season of yearning, coping, and directing hard gazes in Bonnet and Blackbeard's own directions in the always-complex pursuit of sincere happiness. That journey is shared around in Our Flag Means Death, as each member of Stede and Ed's crews — plus everyone that they cross paths with along the way — endeavours to carve out a space where only freedom swells. See also: the other romances that shimmer throughout the series like the waves, such as the Blackbeard-worshipping Black Pete (Maher) with Stede's offsider Lucius (Foad); and the nonbinary Jim (Ortiz) with their best friend Oluwande (Kayo) in season one, then with new crew member Archie (Madeleine Sami, Deadloch) in season two. Working out where everyone can belong beats at the heart of the show's workplace storylines, too. Whether fighting for better conditions or simply to avoid the worst of plundering the sea, the quest to truly feel at ease and at home keeps bobbing up. When Minnie Driver (Starstruck) and Rachel House (Heartbreak High) join the series as ex-pirates now selling antiques and poisoning each other to retain their amorous spark, the same notion sways through as well. It proves accurate again in the storyline surrounding Ruibo Qian's (Servant) Zhang Yi Sao, a soup seller who is more than what she seems — and takes a liking to Olu. While Our Flag Means Death constantly charts a course back to Stede and Ed, its exploration of identity, freedom and comfort spreads across its entire map. In season two, the series also dives deeper into not just subverting ideas of masculinity within the pirate realm, but into the experiences of women wanting to claim their own authentic lives. Parodying pirates with Darby and Waititi was reason enough to tune in when Our Flag Means Death first appeared, with a rewarding voyage resulting. Now that the show has locked in its ideal route, the delights keep coming. Waititi continues to demonstrate his knack for TV comedies, and for shows that fly like the wind in their own distinctive grooves. Reservation Dogs may've wrapped up perfectly with its sublime just-aired third season, but here's hoping that Our Flag Means Death joins What We Do in the Shadows in enjoying a hearty future. Check out the trailer for Our Flag Means Death season two below: Our Flag Means Death season two streams from Thursday, October 5 via Binge in Australia and Friday, October 6 via Neon in New Zealand. Read our review of season one. Images: Nicola Dove/ HBO Max.
Since July last year, every Stranger Things fan has been troubled by one question: what happened to Hawkins' beloved police chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour)? The show's third season didn't seem to end too well for the character, all thanks to the mind flayer, the Russian lab below Starcourt Mall and that pesky gate to the Upside Down. But then, in season's final moments, a Russian-set post-script — and a mention of "the American" — left everyone with a sliver of hope. When Netflix renewed Stranger Things for a fourth season last October, it didn't give any further details away about Hopper's fate. But when it comes to dropping the first teaser for that very season, the streaming platform isn't keeping anywhere near as quiet. The just-released sneak peek is called 'From Russia with Love', which should tell you enough — and while the clip only runs for 50 seconds, it does reveal exactly what you're hoping. Resolving the show's big cliffhanger in a teaser is certainly an interesting move. Of course, the trailer doesn't unfurl any specifics — and this is Stranger Things, so, well, strange things are definitely still be at play. In a statement reported by Deadline, series creators the Duffer Brothers noted that "it's not all good news for our 'American'", while explaining that "back in the States, a new horror is beginning to surface, something long-buried, something that connects everything". While season four of Stranger Things doesn't have a release date as yet — and might not even hit Netflix until 2021 — the teaser coincides with the beginning of production on the new episodes. It's worth remembering that, when the platform did announce the show's renewal for a fourth season, it did so with the catchphrase "we're not in Hawkins anymore". Given that the third season ended with Joyce (Winona Ryder), Will (Noah Schnapp), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) leaving town, that statement doesn't just apply to Hopper. We'll have to wait to see what it means for Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Max (Sadie Sink), Steve (Joe Keery) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer), though. Check out the teaser below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB2GYwbIAlM Stranger Things season four doesn't currently have a release date — we'll update you when Netflix announces its plans.
It was true when Seinfeld made a series about a real-life standup comedian playing a fictionalised version of himself one of the world's biggest sitcoms in the 90s. It remained accurate when Larry David started riffing on his own existence in Curb Your Enthusiasm, which will end in 2024 after 12 seasons over a quarter-century — and also when Pete Davidson leapt from making his life movie fodder in The King of Staten Island to turning it into TV in Bupkis. Donald Glover wasn't directly referencing his own career in Atlanta, and neither The Other Two nor Girls5eva bring exact replicas of real-life figures to the screen, but the same idea pumps through them as well: fame or proximity to it doesn't stop anyone from grappling with life's frustrating minutiae. Add The Vince Staples Show to the list, too, with the five-part Netflix limited series arriving on Thursday, February 15 and featuring its namesake as a take on himself. Whether or not you know who he is is part of the show's joke. On- and off- screen, he's a rapper and actor. Staples' very real single 'Norf Norf' gets quoted to him in the TV comedy. The fact that he's been in Abbott Elementary is referenced in the debut episode. But just attempting to have an ordinary day doing everyday things in an average way — driving home, heading to the bank, attending a family reunion, visiting an amusement park and returning to his old school — is as impossible for him as it is for us all. Sometimes, Staples' celebrity complicates matters in The Vince Staples Show. It also never helps. Usually, he's stuck navigating Murphy's law, so asking for a loan ends up with him caught up in a robbery, while endeavouring to source something decent to eat at a theme park takes him on an absurdist odyssey that winks at David Lynch and the Coen brothers. Having an entertainment career doesn't stop him from being confused for someone else by the police (Killing It's Scott MacArthur, You People's Bryan Greenberg and The Menu's Arturo Castro) — the same cops who ask for free tickets to his shows while they're locking him up — or ensure that cashiers treat him politely. If it assists with anything, it's with giving Staples a deadpan acceptance that anything and everything might come his way. Twice asked if something interesting happened during his day by his girlfriend Deja (Andrea Ellsworth, Truth Be Told), his reply is "not really", even though viewers have just witnessed the exact opposite in both instances. Detailing his real resume isn't the series' style, but the IRL Staples has one. Hailing from Long Beach, California, where The Vince Staples Show is also set — well, in a dreamlike version of it — his association with hip hop collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All helped bring him to attention. (Frank Ocean, Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt have also been members.) 'Big Fish' and 'Magic' are among his singles. He's enjoyed support slots on Childish Gambino's This Is America tour, several times for Tyler, the Creator and even for Flume in Australia in 2016. Dope and the 2023 White Men Can't Jump remake are on Staples' filmography, plus Insecure and voicing Lazor Wulf's eponymous animated wolf on the small screen. Knowing this isn't crucial to watching The Vince Staples Show, however. That said, it does demonstrate how keenly he's tearing down the idea that pop-culture success means a life of ease in this sharp satire. Each of the series' quintet of instalments largely takes place in one setting. Each shares a naming convention: 'Pink House', 'Black Business', 'Brown Family', 'Red Door' and 'White Boy'. And, each charts events that both are and aren't the norm, all while questioning what's really ordinary anyway. As every episode gets pondering, it does so in layers, skewing surreal but also dissecting race and class in the process (Atlanta comes to mind frequently). In the opening chapter, where Staples spends a night in jail after being arrested on an outstanding warrant, the rapper-with-a-criminal-record stereotype is unpacked and mass incarceration becoming its own industry is called out, for instance. Also, a cellmate keeps singing, hoping to score a collaboration. Someone in a neighbouring cell threatens violence against Staples on sight. Then, when he's given something to eat, his sandwich comes with a draw-two Uno card inside. There's no weak episodes in The Vince Staples Show's five-part run (and no weak performances, either). In the second chapter, which nods to 1995 film Dead Presidents, holding up a bank has rarely been this bizarre. Staples is only onsite to get funding for his dream of starting a healthy cereal brand, which the manager scoffs at. Then, it turns out that one of the robbers (Myles Bullock, Black Mafia Family) is a childhood pal. When the series sends Vince, Deja and his mother Anita (Vanessa Bell Calloway, This Is Us) to a family barbecue next, mac 'n' cheese proves a source of pride and the reason to hold a grudge. Hell hath no fury like someone instructed to bring a prize dish, only to discover that a cousin (Staci Lynn Fletcher, The Neighbourhood) got there first. Staples also navigates his relatives' reactions to his success — wanting to be involved, but thinking that his celebrity represents more than it does. As Staples and Deja take her younger brother and his friends to a beach-themed attraction, the artificiality of all amusement parks and the concept of packaged happiness is thrust into view. Announcements over the loudspeaker are particularly biting, and falling afoul of the costumed mascots sparks repercussions. In the final episode, the show's protagonist is asked back to his childhood school to chat to the students. The kids don't care but a classmate (Patrick Walker, Lessons in Chemistry) he knew back in the day does. Cue a showdown with nods to Quentin Tarantino — both Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction — alongside Barry, another Californian-set comedy that's as perceptive as it is hilarious, as well as exceptionally well-shot. Staples writes, stars and executive produces The Vince Staples Show, with help: Ian Edelman (How to Make It in America) and Maurice Williams (Entergalactic) co-created it with him, while Kenya Barris (Black-ish) also executive produces. As the series gets gleefully but pointedly offbeat — proving uncanny while making more than a few statements — he also leaves viewers wanting more. Its five episodes are so easy to binge in one sitting (and timed accordingly, with each chapter between 19–26 minutes in length) that initially pressing play means settling in for the full experience. Anything interesting happen? Yes, immensely, unpredictably, hilariously and brilliantly. Check out the trailer for The Vince Staples Show below: The Vince Staples Show streams via Netflix from Thursday, February 15, 2024.
After Melbourne's Mana Bar (the world's first ever video game cocktail bar) folded in August last year, it seemed the market for geek bars — not Timezones with bars attached, real D&D-encouraging nerd hubs — just wasn't there. Unlike successful models in Japan and the US, even the Aussie gaming community wasn't biting. But according to Gizmodo, Australian nerds are crying out for a space — and are about to get three new video game bars. "Lets face it... Most bars suck for people like us," says Melbourne's Power Up geek bar developer Edmund Mundlay. "We sit there with loud obnoxious music blaring in our ears while keeping a watchful eye on the bogans at the next table just hoping they don't start a fight. We want a bar for us. We want to build the hub of Melbourne's geek community." A motley crew of former Hobart EB employees and Melbourne hospitality workers have launched a Pozible campaign to raise $10,000 toward their dream bar, Power Up, “an open-source bar for geeks”. The group saw the closure of Melbourne's Mana Bar (and the alternate success of the Brisbane branch) as having more impact than people originally thought, seeing a hole in the market left by the venue's departure. Making a furious push to providing a safe, fun hub for geeks to socialise, the Power Up team realised gamers just wanted the main thing they're often accused of rejecting: a social life. "So many people would come and just hang out with us at EB, they just wanted to talk to like minded people," says Mundlay. "I wanted to build that home, a place where geeks and nerds citywide could just come and hangout, talk about games or anime, sci-fi or technology... With such a huge community of geeks, nerds, gamers and pop-culture fanatics doesn't it just make sense that there should be a centre for this community?" Punters will be encouraged to bring their weekly D&D meetings to the bar, participate in cosplay competitions and e-sports tournaments and make a whole bunch of buddies over beers and movie screenings. So what of the Mana Bar crew? The Melbourne alumni are currently working on a CBD geek bar to called BetaBar. This new space will hope to function as Melbourne's top spot for the indie game developer community to test out their newest adventures on the target market. Sydney geeks aren't left out either, Spawn Point Small Bar is currently getting ready to open on Clarence Street in the CBD. Choosing to set their sights a little wider than the hardcore gaming community, Spawn Point are hooking up retro consoles for Sydney nostalgics — we're talking NES, SNES, N64, PS1, PS2, MegaDrive and MasterSystem consoles. Furious Mario Kart and GoldenEye tournaments will inevitably ensue. The three bars will (hopefully) all open within the coming months, with one proviso to rule them all: No jocks, douchebags or teasing jerks. There's enough to deal with in Skyrim without dragons constantly roasting your backside. Via Gizmodo. Top image by Ben Andrews.
Like all true-crime series, an air of inevitability hovers over The Clearing. With an eerie Australian sect at its centre, plus a rare female cult leader, a brood of blonde-haired children and a penchant for LSD, this story was always going to get the drama treatment eventually. Based on The Family, the notorious real-life group that formed in the 60s and operated out of regional Victoria, the eight-part Disney+ series arrives after Rosie Jones' 2016 documentary that shares the group's name and 2019 series The Cult of the Family. That said, The Clearing actually takes its basis from fiction, although there's no doubting where JP Pomare's novel In the Clearing found its inspiration. While history's sinister and sordid chapters frequently reach screens, including Australia's own long-running Underbelly franchise, The Clearing isn't the type of project that arrives every day. Playing The Kindred guru Adrienne Beaufort and one of her chief acolytes Aunty Tamsin, Aussie actors Miranda Otto and Kate Mulvany knew that from the moment that they received the show's scripts — but playing such complex roles was both intriguing and complicated. Constantly seeking new challenges as thespians, both have built up formidable resumes — Otto's spans everything from 90s standouts Love Serenade and The Well, The Lord of the Rings films, Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, and small-screen efforts Rake, Homeland and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina; Mulvany's includes The Great Gatsby, Secret City, Lambs of God, Elvis, The Twelve and Hunters — and they're both excellent in The Clearing. Still, for each, approaching the material required actively avoiding taking their cues from reality. Despite a fascination with cults, Otto steered clear of The Family's story. "I really couldn't get into any of that for myself. I couldn't even really go into the book, because there's so many layers in this script and so much that I had to do, that I couldn't really confuse myself with anything that might be different in a book," she tells Concrete Playground. "Sometimes on other projects, I will read the book as it's great source material. But when you start getting into 'did this happen?' or 'did that not happen?', I just thought that I'm just going to get so confused if I do that." Mulvany had the same reaction. "So much my character's journey is jigsawing along with [Otto's] journey, and so it was really, really important that we didn't have too much noise around our performances," she explains. "And that we really did go pretty much purely from the script, and our own knowledge of what a cult was, or what it is. I didn't even get a chance to read the book, so I had to really mould Aunty Tamsin on what I was given by the writers and the script." Joining the pair in The Clearing is a spectacular cast of fellow homegrown talents — Teresa Palmer (Ride Like a Girl), Guy Pearce (Mare of Easttown), Julia Savage (Blaze), Claudia Karvan (Bump), Mark Coles-Smith (Mystery Road: Origin), Hazem Shammas (The Twelve) and more — in a series that is unsurprisingly haunting and riveting from its first moments. With The Clearing streaming on Disney+ from Wednesday, May 24, we chatted to Otto and Mulvany about their initial responses to the show, researching cults, playing emotional vampires and seeking out female-led stories. ON THEIR FIRST RESPONSES TO THE CLEARING Miranda: "It was sent to my agent. I was told that it was about a female cult leader, which intrigued me automatically, because I'm very fascinated by cults and everything that goes with them. Then I received the scripts, and it was one of those nice things with a limited series where you get all the scripts together, and you're able to see the whole story unfold and the whole layered nature of it. Then I was just totally hooked. I love thrillers and puzzles." Kate: "I was a bit the same. I received the e-mail from the agent saying this has been offered to you, this Aunty Tamsin — and, of course, I read the first couple of scripts and went 'why am I the logical choice for this character?'. But then, as I read, there were a lot more pathways to her and from her that were really fascinating. It was a really great jigsaw to put together as an actor and as a character, so I was hooked from the start." ON PREPARING TO PLAY A CULT LEADER AND ONE OF HER ACOLYTES Miranda: "I've done a lot of research on cults generally. I was very fascinated by the Rajneesh Bhagwan cult — my aunty was in it in the 80s. I read Jane Stork's book [Break the Spell] about them, and watched Wild Wild Country, which was an amazing doc. And then I watched a lot of docs about other cults. But the the process for this, I don't know, we just sort of began. It's a funny thing, we had the scripts and we had everyone there and we just started — and it just kind of took on its own life in in some way." Kate: "Yeah. It did." Miranda: "I don't really feel like I sat down and intellectualised it and worked out exactly what I was going to do. I could make a plan, but then I'd have to throw the plan out because it didn't seem to work on the day. So in the end, it was really just working off the other actors and just finding it on-screen." Kate: "So much it was in the script as well, that it was popping off the page. But there was something so extraordinary about — I know my first day working with Miranda was, I think, your first day as Adrienne?" Miranda: "Yeah, that's right. Yes." Kate: "It was sort of a huge moment to have that — the first time we see her, the sun is behind her and she's approaching to to greet the children for the first time, and so that was a pretty good starting point." Miranda: "Yeah." Kate: "And a deep dive straight away, wasn't it?" Miranda: "I have to say, that day I totally started forgetting my lines. I was thrown in the moment — 'oh my gosh, this is such a lot'." Kate: "I don't remember that." Miranda: "You know, to suddenly be there and be in it — it was like 'oh wow'." Kate: "I don't remember that at all. I just remember you being extraordinary." Miranda: "I kept getting the names mixed when I was talking about the kids." ON FINDING WHAT DRIVES ADRIENNE AND TAMSIN Miranda: "That was a hard thing to find, actually. At first, they talk about 'are you driven by money, ego, power?'. And at first, I thought it was very much power — the power over people. But I found it really empty to play. It didn't really help me much. I couldn't get much from it. Then I had this particular scene with someone, and I realised in the moment that it was more about feeling so emotionally vacant or not able to feel things that that I was actually living vicariously in the moment of forcing these dramatic situations with people and seeing them in this emotional state, and then somehow by osmosis feeling that myself. It was like some enforced kind of feeling. I guess I described it as like an emotional vampire in some way — like not having that myself, then needing to force it in other people." Kate: "Yeah, it's pretty weird. But it was so strong. It was so powerful. And it means that the rest of us follow. Because, for Aunty Tamsin, Adrienne is constantly spoon-feeding these teaspoons of sugar — sweetness and delight, in terms of affection, or even a compliment, or even a touch. And then, of course, it's completely taken away. So for Tamsin, the powerlessness that she feels in her real life, she makes up for with her authoritarian rule over the children. It's still a vast emptiness behind that, but she's constantly given fuel by these spoonfuls of sugar that Adrienne feeds her — metaphorically." ON WHAT OTTO AND MULVANY LOOK FOR IN A ROLE Miranda: "For me, usually finding something that I haven't done before. I don't really want to repeat myself or play a similar character, so I'm usually often drawn to something that's quite different from the from the piece I immediately did before it. I work in antithesis to myself." Kate: "Same here, especially when they're female-led stories. There's something so delicious about diving into a world of a very female narrative — and we have so many strong female characters in this show, both as protagonists and antagonists. And that for me is something that I haven't had a chance to do enough of in my career. So that was a big thumbs up for me, that made me just go 'I would kill to play to play this role'." The Clearing streams via Disney+ from Wednesday, May 24. Read our full review.
After only one Australian bar earned a spot in The World's 50 Best Bars extended 51–100 longlist for 2023, two Aussie watering holes have now made the ranking's actual top 50. In the latest chapter in the Sydney–Melbourne rivalry, both cities are represented, including a perennial favourite in the Harbour City and a fast-rising spot in the Victorian capital. The regular placeholder? The nation's highest-ranking spot to get sipping in 2023 is Sydney's Maybe Sammy, which sits on the list for the fifth year in a row. The innovative bar in The Rocks has improved its ranking from 2022, too, moving up to 15th place from 29th. It came in 22nd in 2021 after placing 11th in 2020 and 43rd in 2019. In Melbourne, Caretaker's Cottage is the other Aussie venue in the top 50, coming in at 23rd. The Little Lonsdale Street only entered the longlist in 2022, when it placed 60th, so enjoys a significant rise up the rankings in its second year. [caption id="attachment_744474" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Maybe Sammy[/caption] For those yet to get acquainted with Maybe Sammy in The Rocks, its luxurious styling nods to old-school Vegas glamour, all blush pink velvet banquettes and lush indoor greenery, while the list of theatrical signature drinks pays homage to the classics. The World's 50 Best Bars has praised it for being "the Sydney cocktail bar where great stories begin", all "thanks to the emphasis on guest experience" — and calls out its latest beverage menu, which it calls the venue's "best selection of drinks yet". Maybe Sammy's 15th placing also makes it not only the best bar in Australia, but also the list's official best bar in Australasia. Hailing from bartenders and owners Rob Libecans, Ryan Nordics and Matt Stirling, Caretaker's Cottage earned some love for being "a subtle temple to great drinks". The World's Best 50 Bars called out "the lighting, the sound, the natural timber adorning much of the room" while noting that "everything conveys warmth and understated elegance". And as for the sips, "Melbourne's best Guinness" and "what is probably Australia's coldest Martini" scored a specific mention. Maybe Sammy and Caretaker's Cottage's top-50 placings give Australia three spots in the ranking's best 100, with the Victorian capital's Byrdi sitting at 61st. And Maybe Sammy doesn't just notch up five years on the list, but five times being named the best bar on the continent. Announced in Singapore on Tuesday, October 17, the 2023 list named Sips in Barcelona as the top spot for a tipple worldwide, as part of a best 50 that spans watering holes from 28 cities. It takes over from 2022's Paradiso, which makes it two years in a row that the most applauded bar has been found in Barcelona. Sitting between Sips in first place and Maybe Sammy in 15th: New York's Double Chicken Please in second, Mexico City's Handshake Speakeasy in third, Paradiso dropping to fourth, London's Connaught Bar sitting fifth after winning in 2020 and 2021, Little Red Door in Paris at sixth, and Mexico City's Licorería Limantour in seventh spot — as well as Tayēr + Elementary in London at eighth, Cartagena's Alquímico in ninth position, Himkok in Oslo sitting tenth, Tres Monos in Buenos Aires placing 11th, Athens' Line coming in 12th, BKK Social Club in Bangkok at 13th and Jigger & Pony in Singapore at 14th. Wondering who's making the calls? The annual World's 50 Best Bars awards are voted on by bar industry experts from around the world, including bartenders, consultants, drinks writers and cocktail specialists. [caption id="attachment_860284" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Maybe Sammy[/caption] [caption id="attachment_871415" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Caretaker's Cottage[/caption] [caption id="attachment_743915" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Maybe Sammy, Trent van der Jagt[/caption] For the full list of the World's 50 Best Bars for 2023 (and past years' lists), head to the ranking's website. Top image: Maybe Sammy, Oficina.
Little has been normal about the past 12 months, and that includes heading to the movies to watch the latest blockbusters. When the pandemic first started causing lockdowns in 2020, the year's biggest flicks all started delaying their releases. So, plenty of the films you were looking forward to seeing last year didn't reach the silver screen — and, all this time later, many still haven't yet. Australian cinemas are open and running as normal, of course, and have been for some time. That said, apart from the likes of Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984, they've been light on high-profile titles. Instead, they've been showing everything else they can get their hands on, and giving local titles and smaller movies some love. But, fingers crossed, those projectors should be pumping out some of those big-name films you've been waiting for before 2021 is out. Hollywood isn't done delaying its high-profile releases just yet; however, there are still a number of notable releases slated to hit the silver screen this year. Whether you're keen on action, scares, sci-fi or a bit of singing and dancing, we've rounded up ten to put back on your radar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybji16u608U BLACK WIDOW When it comes to pushing women to the front, Marvel's track record isn't great. Captain Marvel, the Disney-owned company's first movie solely focused on a female character, only came out in 2019 — but now it's following that up with a film that really should've happened years ago. That'd be Black Widow, focusing on Natasha Romanoff, the highly trained ex-KGB assassin known played by Scarlett Johansson. The character debuted on-screen in 2010's Iron Man 2, and is now getting her own flick via a prequel. Also starring Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Fighting with My Family), Rachel Weisz and Stranger Things' favourite David Harbour, Black Widow jumps back a few years, setting the bulk of its story just after the events of 2016's Captain America: Civil War. On the run, Romanoff is forced to face her complicated (and violent) past, as well as a new masked opponent. We're sure a few familiar faces will also show up in the MCU's return to the big-screen, which is directed by Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome, Lore, Somersault). Black Widow opens in Australian cinemas on April 29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSiDu3Ywi8E&feature=emb_logo FAST AND FURIOUS 9 Given the Fast and Furious franchise's title, you'd think driving speedily and passionately is what this big-budget film series is all about. Over-the-top car antics play a hefty part, as the 2001 original, its seven sequels to-date and its 2019 spin-off have all shown via a constant onslaught of hectic stunts. But, if there's one thing that this Vin Diesel-starring and -produced saga loves just as much as vehicular mayhem, it's family. Over the years, Diesel's Dominic Toretto has extended the term 'family' to include not only his girlfriend-turned wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), her husband Brian (the late Paul Walker) and their various offspring, but their extended motley crew of fast-driving pals as well. So, when it comes to Fast and Furious 9 — or F9 as it's being called — it's unsurprising that the franchise is leaning heavily on one of its favourite concepts. Somehow, the saga hasn't expended all family-related options just yet, with John Cena joining the series as Dom's younger brother Jakob. Don't expect a happy sibling reunion, however, with the ex-wrestler playing the film's villain. Fast and Furious 9 opens in Australian cinemas on May 27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CL-ZSuCrQ IN THE HEIGHTS Over the past seven years, Hamilton has become a cultural phenomenon — and, thanks to its fame and acclaim, so has the hip hop musical's creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. But that's not the only stellar stage show to the multi-talented composer, actor, singer and playwright's name. Before he took on US history (and before he helped bring Bring It On to the theatre, too), Miranda turned life in Manhattan's Washington Heights into four-time Tony-winner In the Heights. It's making the leap to the big screen — with a stacked cast that includes Hamilton's Anthony Ramos and Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Stephanie Beatriz, with Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M Chu behind the lens, and via a film primarily shot on location in its titular spot. Quiara Alegría Hudes, who wrote the text for the stage version, has also written the feature's screenplay. And Lin-Manuel Miranda is involved, naturally, producing the movie, overseeing the music and popping up on-screen as well. In the Heights opens in Australian cinemas on August 26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlwzuZ9kOQU CANDYMAN For nearly three decades, horror movie lovers have fallen into two categories: those who've dared to say the word 'candyman' five times while staring into a mirror, and those who haven't. If you fall into the first group, then you'll be making a date with this unnerving sequel, which revives the Candyman franchise and boasts a few tricks up its sleeves. Firstly, Candyman circa 2o21 is produced and co-written by Jordan Peele, who adds another frightfest to his resume alongside Get Out and Us. Secondly, it's directed by Nia DaCosta, whose Tessa Thompson-starring 2018 film Little Woods deserved more attention. And last but by no means least, it features the OG Candyman, Tony Todd, among its cast. Plot-wise, the new flick focuses on artist Anthony McCoy (Aquaman and Watchmen's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who decides to start exploring the Candyman legend through his art. His girlfriend Brianna (If Beale Street Could Talk's Teyonah Parris) thinks the story is just that, but then the bee-covered figure starts wreaking havoc again. That's what happens when folks say his name while looking at their own reflection, after all. Candyman opens in Australian cinemas on August 26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7qxYOpy9Ms A QUIET PLACE PART II In 2018, A Quiet Place tasked a young family with staying soundless, lest they be heard and then killed by giant spider-like monsters. As a result, audiences keenly listened out for any noise that could put Lee (John Krasinski), Evelyn (Emily Blunt), Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe) Abbott in jeopardy, with the film serving up a mighty tense — and noise-free — time at the cinemas. Now, three years later, the frightful aliens and the hushed tones are back. So is Blunt in kick-ass mode, too. Like the first film, A Quiet Place Part II is directed and written by Krasinski, with this follow-up picking up where its predecessor left off. Certain to serve up plenty of bumps, jumps and — naturally — silence, the sequel also welcomes franchise newcomers Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders) and Djimon Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy). A Quiet Place Part II opens in Australian cinemas on September 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9xhJrPXop4 DUNE David Lynch's Dune is one of the most unfairly maligned sci-fi films ever made. It's not the version that Alejandro Jodorowsky would've whipped up — as explored in excellent documentary Jodorowsky's Dune — but the 1984 movie still has its surreal delights. Just how Denis Villeneuve's new adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel will fare is still yet to be seen, but the French Canadian director has already revived another 80s sci-fi property to stunning effect with Blade Runner 2049. Once again, he has amassed a stellar cast, including Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem and Doctor Sleep's Rebecca Ferguson. They'll all fight over 'the spice', the most valuable substance in the universe. Dune releases in Australian cinemas on September 16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBMY2rTz_VM NO TIME TO DIE Shaken (not stirred) martinis are back on the menu, and so are suave secret agents, sinister plots to destroy the world and espionage thrills. Yes, it's James Bond time again, with No Time to Die marking the British spy's 25th official big-screen outing. Daniel Craig returns as 007, which'll be his fifth stint as the spy since 2006's Casino Royale as well as his last. He'll be facing off against an unhinged, mask-wearing new adversary called Safin (Bohemian Rhapsody Oscar-winner Rami Malek), plus imprisoned ex-opponent Blofeld (Christoph Waltz); however, he has company in the 00 stakes, too. Following the events of 2015's Spectre, Bond has left active service and started a new life in Jamaica, causing MI6 to recruit someone else to cover his turf. That'd be new agent Nomi (Captain Marvel's Lashana Lynch), and you can obviously expect the pair to cross paths. Bond being Bond, he was never going to be able to escape his line of work easily, after all. Here, he's brought back in by CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) to help with a mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist. No Time to Die opens in Australian cinemas on October 7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHhZDYVoV7w HALLOWEEN KILLS For 43 years, the Halloween franchise has been delivering stone-cold horror masterpieces, weird and wonderful detours, and entries that deserve to be locked away for all eternity with Michael Myers. The difference between the series' John Carpenter-directed best and its trashy worst is enormous, but when David Gordon Green (Prince Avalanche, Pineapple Express) took the reins for 2018's Halloween — a direct sequel to the 1978 original that ignores the seven other follow-ups and two remakes in-between — he served up one of the saga's best chapters. It helped that Jamie Lee Curtis was back, of course. Also beneficial: a meaty story that grapples with trauma, a skill for slasher thrills, a new score by Carpenter himself, and producer Jason Blum's support. So it was great news when two more movies were announced, including 2021's Halloween Kills, which brings the whole gang back to Haddonfield for another encounter with the town's masked menace. Halloween Kills releases in Australian cinemas on October 14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahZFCF--uRY GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE There's something strange in the town of Summerville and a group of kids are calling upon themselves to bust it. That's the premise of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which swaps New York for Oklahoma and grown men (and women) for children — and jumps firmly on the Stranger Things-led 80s nostalgia bandwagon. Whether siblings Phoebe (Annabelle Comes Home's McKenna Grace) and Trevor (Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard) are seeing things runnin' through their heads or they'll catch an invisible man sleepin' in their beds is yet to be seen, of course. They've moved to the isolated locale with their mother (Widows' Carrie Coon), and into a rundown old house they've inherited from their grandfather. It's filled with ghost traps, containers of spores, mould and fungus, beige jumpsuits emblazoned with the name 'Spengler' and a very familiar car — which might come in handy when the ground starts shaking for no reason and a mysterious green light starts glowing. Also, Paul Rudd pops ups as teacher Mr Grooberson, who schools the kids in Ghostbusters lore, because this is a direct sequel to the original 1984 Ghostbusters and its 1989 follow-up Ghostbusters II. Ghostbusters: Afterlife opens in Australian cinemas on November 25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcPk2p0Zaw4 THE FRENCH DISPATCH An offbeat storyline. Mesmerisingly symmetrical frames. A cast that includes Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson, Saoirse Ronan, Willem Dafoe, Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban and Anjelica Houston. Yep, it must be a new Wes Anderson film — and The French Dispatch looks like Wes Anderson at his most Wes Anderson-esque yet. The premise: in the fictional French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé sometime in the mid-20th century, Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Murray) has turned a series of travelogue columns into a weekly American magazine. A supplement to the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, The French Dispatch resembles The New Yorker, is staffed by top expatriate journalists, and covers life in France, world politics, high and low art, and diverse stories of human interest. As for the film that shares its name, it focuses on three tales printed in the publication's pages. The French Dispatch doesn't currently have an Australian release date.
If you can't remember a time before IKEA, that's understandable. In 2023, the Swedish giant celebrates 80 years of operation. The chain started by Ingvar Kamprad, aka the IK in IKEA's moniker, began in 1943 and moved into furniture in 1948. It then opened its first store in Sweden a decade later — and came to Australia in the 70s. Now, a task: imagine all of the different items that the brand has made and sold over the years. Also, think of the huge array of pieces that it has had customers make at home themselves. The list is lengthy, as anyone that's ever walked several kilometres through IKEA's warehouse-style shops knows — but some pieces stand out. To celebrate both the 80-year milestone and the retailer's top products over that period, IKEA is launching a new range that riffs on its past highlights. Available both in store and online from Thursday, June 29, the Nytillverkad collection showers love on everything from 50s side tables to 60s plant stands, and 70s stools and 80s quilt covers, too. Retro alert, clearly. "We know Australians love to mix vintage pieces in their homes, so it is exciting to be able to offer this retro take on Scandinavian modern, defined by bold and playful graphic expressions that celebrate some of our most famous designs from the past 80 years," said Christine Gough, Interior Design Expert at IKEA Australia, announcing the new pieces. "In new bright colours, timeless design and trademark simplicity, the Nytillverkad range is an array of carefully selected, reimagined IKEA classics ready to take on a new life in homes." IKEA is dropping its Nytillverkad pieces in stages, starting with the LÖVBACKEN side table that was first known as LOVET back in 1956, the KULTURSKOG plant stand that initially launched as BALJA in 1962, and the BONDSKÄRET hat and coat stand that was called SMED in the 1978 — and more. Items in the first release range start at $2, which covers two 30-piece paper napkin sets (HAVSKATT, using the ILEX print from 1983; and ROSTVINGE, from 1980's BLADHULT print). Also on offer: candle holders, cushion covers, trays and rugs. IKEA's Nytillverkad collection goes on sale across Australia, in store and online, from Thursday, June 29 — until stocks last. Head to the IKEA website from 9am on launch day for further details.
Ever wanted to nom on Louis XIV? Feast on Emperor Jing Zong? Connoisseur ice cream have taken some royal cues with their brand new dessert line: the Connoisseur 'Empire Collection'. An epic thematic stretch (but a tasty-sounding one we can raise a spoon to), the collection is inspired by historical figures or 'tastemakers' who supposedly "had a connection to the very origins of ice cream," according to the Connoisseur team. Though the historic heavyweights' connection to ice cream is somewhat vague (and annoyingly they're all dudes), we're not ones to say nay to academic dessert. Kicking off the all-star historic lineup is Emperor Nero, embodied in coffee-flavoured ice cream (because Italy) littered with chocolate-coated hazelnuts and hazelnut liqueur. In between all that tyrannic ruling, fire-starting and attempting to assassinate his own mother, the Roman Emperor apparently used to have ice brought from the mountains and top it with fruit. What a decadent ass. Next up, King Louis XIV trots in with a French vanilla ice cream (der) with chocolate flakes and armagnac sauce worthy of Versailles. Iced desserts were served at the court of the 'Sun King', so he makes the cut. The origins of ice cream are sometimes credited to the Chinese Song Dynasty, leading to our next ice cream inspirer Emperor Jing Zong — realised as red bean and toasted coconut. Finally, King Cyrus of Persia gets his own iced confection, with pistachio ice cream swirled with cinnamon, honey and date sauce. The Persians have a strong connection to the history of ice cream; they'd apparently pour grape juice over snow, making a kind of ancient snow cone. Royally-inspired ice cream needs some pretty packaging, so Connoisseur have enlisted the help of Melbourne street artist Steve Cross. "It’s a tale of four men, connected by ice cream and I really wanted to bring them to life through the packaging and design to create something truly unique,” says Cross. "I was inspired both by the ingredients used and the historic figures with their rich back stories. It’s a great acknowledgment to history, bringing these legends alive today — a beautiful demonstration of the blending of two eras.” You can check out the four flavours in the freezer section at Coles and Woolies for your less-than-Ben and Jerry's price of $7.99. The Connoisseur team are also pushing the collection further, with a one-week exhibition at Blank Space in Surry Hills: The Empire Collection Pop-Up Gallery (September 17 - 22). Couldn't have thrown in one female figure, guys? Queens dig ice cream too.
The Newmarket Hotel is known for many things — unique architecture, a fairy-light speckled beer garden, great pub meals — but brunch is not one of them. Until now. The loved St Kilda pub has decided to open up a tad earlier for the first time this February. Its inaugural brunch menu, served from 10am on Sundays, features a host of classics, such as eggs benedict, buttermilk pancakes (topped with candied bacon and ice cream), mushrooms on toast and, of course, smashed avo. There are a couple of inventive dishes, too — pork belly served with grilled black pudding and a super-healthy breakfast salad. Launching alongside the new brunch menu is a bottomless martini offering. For two hours you get access to endless espresso martinis, mimosas, bellinis and a selection of house beer and wine for just $35. Endless espresso martinis? Talk about ending the weekend on a high. To ensure your stomach is well-lined for the ensuing martinis, the pub is also offering a brekkie special. When you order the bottomless drinks package, you can purchase any item off the brunch menu for only $15. The bottomless martini package is served during three two-hour periods — between 10am–12pm, 11am–1pm and 12–2pm. It's kicking off on February 18, so grab all your mates and head on over for what's bound to be a spectacular Sunday. To book yourself a table at the Bottomless Martini Brunch, head to the pub's website newmarketstkilda.com.au.
It's the end of an era for a St Kilda beachside favourite, though its next phase of existence is already looking very promising, indeed. After it was announced last month that Pontoon, the downstairs beach club component of the Stokehouse precinct, would be reborn with a fresh look and a new name, that next incarnation has officially opened its doors. Introducing, Stokehouse Pasta & Bar — the suburb's new laidback, all-day spot for Mediterranean eats and beachside sips. Hugh and Pete van Haandel, sons of Stokehouse precinct owner Frank van Haandel, are steering the venue's latest guise, built around a pasta-heavy food offering that fuses European flavours with Aussie flair. The space is showing off a fresh makeover, now with breezier coastal-inspired interiors and timber finishes played against the backdrop of sand and sea. There's been a strong focus on sustainability, too, in keeping with the precinct's 5-Star 'Australian Excellence' Green Star Design & As Built Rating, as awarded earlier this year. Food is led by Stokehouse Executive Chef Jason Staudt and Stokehouse Pasta & Bar's newly appointed Head Chef Brendan Anderson, bearing similar DNA to the restaurant above, yet with a much more casual lean. It's primed for seaside snacking sessions, with the likes of white anchovy and olive gildas, king prawns with nduja, cod croquettes, and a mixed salumi plate kicking off the menu. Move into pasta territory for plates like cacio e pepe gnocchi, a crab and chilli spaghetti, and orecchiette spiked with anchovy and broccoli; or dive into mains like the classic fish and chips, or a veal schnitty. Groups are sorted with a couple of hefty shared options, too — think, a 600-gram whole Murray cod with peperonata, or a giant rib-eye paired with gremolata. And star Group Pastry Chef Ash Smith is putting on a show for dessert, with the likes of lemon and coconut panna cotta, and a tiramisu reimagined as a bombe alaska. Weekly specials are set to encourage many a return visit, from the $30 weekday express lunch menu, to $24 seafood dishes for Fish Night Tuesdays. Also out to save you some coin is Stokehouse Pasta & Bar's wine list, where all bottles clock in at $79 a pop. The lineup trips from Australia to Europe, with pours to suit palates both simple and adventurous; while a tidy list of cocktails spans from the classics to signature offerings like the Stokehouse Spritz — a delicate blend of Amaro, orange, white peach and jasmine soda. Find Stokehouse Pasta & Bar at 30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda. It's open daily from 12pm till late. Images: Interiors by Tom Blachford, Food and Drink by Arianna Leggiero.
Everyone should know where their local florist is. And if you're a bayside resident, Elwood Flowers is it. The expert team behind this cute Elwood shop (FKA The Leaf Florist) can put together gorgeous arrangements and installations for any occasion, or help you pick out a fresh, seasonal bunch for your dining table centrepiece. The store also sells a number of flower-adjacent products ideal for gifts and Treat Yourself Days, including indoor plants, terrariums, ceramics, vases, candles and indoor plant care products from the Plant Runner. It does have an easy online store and delivery service, but stopping to smell the roses is half the fun of it. Images: Tracey Ah-kee.
Melbourne has scored a major new outdoor performance space, playing host to theatre, comedy, live music and just about everything in between. The courtyard of the iconic Malthouse Theatre — which is also shared by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and dance company Chunky Move — has been transformed into an al fresco cultural hub, known as Malthouse Outdoor Stage. Making its debut on Thursday, January 21, precinct aims to offer a new way to help Melbourne's arts scene embrace the post-COVID-19 era, responding to increased demand for outdoor performance venues. Featuring cabaret-style seating for up to 312 guests, Malthouse Outdoor Stage is being brought to life with support from both the Sidney Myer Fund and the Victorian Government. And it's premiering with a huge bang, kicking off its debut season with a jam-packed calendar of live tunes and performances for all palates. Indie music touring company Penny Drop has jumped on board for a series of gigs, ranging from the soulful jazz sounds of ARIA Award-winner Kaiit, to the critically acclaimed smooth rhythms of Emma Donovan & The Putbacks. Melbourne-based comedy producers Token Events will be delivering the laughs, with a lineup of shows from the likes of Eddie Perfect, stand-up star Anne Edmonds and legendary duo Lano & Woodley. Deeper into the year, expect loads more events held in conjunction with the likes of Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Midsumma and First Nations festival Yirramboi. There'll be regular workshops, talks and other events from organisations like the Wheeler Centre, Chunky Move and ACCA, plus, get set for a program of happenings as part of 2021's inaugural winter arts festival Rising — an expanded hybrid event replacing Melbourne International Arts Festival and White Night.
It's that time again, Melburnians: time to rug up, rush from the Forum to the Comedy Theatre to Melbourne Central (and back again), and spend 18 days sitting in a cinema. For its 67th year, the Melbourne International Film Festival is back with its usual feast of features, documentaries, shorts, talks, experiments and more — although, given the enormous variety evident in each and every program, there's really no such thing as a 'usual' MIFF. Running from August 2 to 19, the lineup includes 254 feature films, 120 shorts and 19 virtual reality experiences; however, the numbers don't quite do it justice. Amidst the wealth of movies and events on offer, you'll find an all-night Nicolas Cage movie marathon, a screening of Drive with a live soundtrack and an in-conversation session with Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat. And that's just the beginning. Dreamy coming-of-age skateboarding flicks, searing explorations of sexual assault and perhaps the world's most loveable film star — they're all on the bill, plus a heartbreaking tale of a teen and his horse, Mads Mikkelsen getting frosty and an origin story of the Colombian drug trade, too. In fact, they all earned a spot in our must-see picks of the festival. Happy viewing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe-8HtrXVew ANGELS WEAR WHITE Underneath a giant beachside statue of Marilyn Monroe, the residents of China's Hainan Island etch out a living serving the tourist trade. It's one that teenage maid Mia (Wen Qi) has fought for, and it's the only option that she has — but when she witnesses an incident involving two 12-year-old girls and a middle-aged man, more than her livelihood is placed in jeopardy. Producer-turned-director Vivian Qu (Black Coal, Thin Ice) may helm a poised and perceptive crime drama, but she doesn't hold back in layering Angels Wear White with anger, passion and a distinctively female perspective on corruption, power and sexual assault. Every frame leaves an imprint, both visually and emotionally, while actors Qi and Zhou Meijun (as one of the schoolgirls) play their parts to heart-wrenching perfection. Pro tip: we highly recommending watching Angels Wear White in close proximity to You Were Never Really Here, but prepare to feel absolutely shattered afterwards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT1izrIxoos SKATE KITCHEN Three years ago, Crystal Moselle's The Wolfpack was the talk of the film festival circuit, courtesy of its true tale of home-schooled teenage boys brought up by cinema and remaking their favourites every chance they got. Skate Kitchen proves a fitting follow-up, this time stepping into a skateboarding sisterhood on the streets of New York — a world Long Island 18-year-old Camille (real-life skater Rachelle Vinberg) yearns to belong to as an escape from her otherwise lonely existence. Drawing upon the talented members of the skate collective that gives the movie its name, Moselle turns her street-set coming-of-age effort into a dreamy portrait of kick flips, kicking around skate parks and carving out a place in a male-dominated realm. The struggle to fit in, find yourself and fight back against gendered expectations has rarely rolled by with such empowering energy, or with such an ethereal air either. And as an added bonus, Skate Kitchen also features the best performance of Jaden Smith's acting career. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgiIfyU1O9M PROTOTYPE Almost seven decades since the first 3D film was screened to an audience, the format isn't going away. Forget the red-and-blue lenses needed to see the three-dimensional images of old, and forget items and arms reaching out of the screen towards viewers — that's not what Blake Williams' Prototype trades in. Rather, depth, experimentation, immersive spectacle and one hell of a head trip drives this stereoscopic effort, which starts with the Galveston hurricane of 1900 and then rides an astonishingly realised wall of water into its aftermath. A disaster becomes a sci-fi dreamscape when a glowing TV-like object starts projecting images, and the rest is best experienced by letting it wash over you. An example of 3D at its most inventive, artistic and adventurous, it's an audio-visual assault of the mesmerising type (but if the format gives you a headache, or you're sensitive to strobe lighting, consider yourself warned). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5FLCjaQtnY LEAN ON PETE When 15-year-old Charley (Charlie Plummer) first meets Lean On Pete, it's friendship at first sight — the kind of unconditional, unspoken bond that can only spring up between a person and their favourite animal. In his third exquisitely tender and affecting effort this decade alone, writer/director Andrew Haigh charts the boy and steed's path as the former graduates from grappling with isolation to coping with tragedy, and the latter disappoints his owner (Steve Buscemi) at the racetrack. As he did in Weekend and 45 Years, Haigh's eye for internalised performances shines through once again, with Plummer rightfully earning awards for his sensitive portrayal. Indeed, the empathy the film shows not only for its protagonist and the titular animal, but for life in the margins in America's midwest, lingers long after Lean on Pete stops rolling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4lCTHvSCaA STRANGE COLOURS "You're not just bouncing around the country like a tennis ball, are you?" the ailing, cantankerous Max (Daniel P. Jones) asks his estranged daughter Milena (Kate Cheel) when she makes the 18-hour trip to visit him in hospital. She says she's en route to Alice Springs, but there's a mesmerising air about Lightning Ridge — as alluring as the opals Max and the community's other male inhabitants mine in the locale's peaceful bush surroundings, and as inimitable as the unmistakable sound of the Australian vernacular dripping off Max and his buddies' tongues. The same can be said about this debut feature from Australian writer/director Alena Lodkina, which premiered at last year's Venice Film Festival. Shot with striking poetic naturalism worthy of its title, Strange Colours is as much about the mood of its characters and of the distinctive Australian landscape as it is about its slight but rewarding and revealing narrative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=YNtkUqss8BM BISBEE '17 After combining fact with fiction in Kate Plays Christine, filmmaker Robert Greene tells another true tale in an untraditional way. It's another account of darkness, dating back to 1917 when the townsfolk of Bisbee, Arizona held guns at nearly 2000 striking workers, rounded up the mostly Mexican and European group, and forcing them out into the desert. Interrogating the obvious horrors of the incident, as well as recognising its parallels with some of the behaviour and rhetoric present in American society today, Greene works with Bisbee locals to restage the event. The results are as powerful to watch as they clearly are for those taking part, in a multi-layered documentary that uses everything it can to excavate the past — music, re-enactment and a probing approach included. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgE8e6QBtt0 BIRDS OF PASSAGE Forget Narcos, Sicario and every other vision of the South American drug trade — with Birds of Passage, Colombian-born filmmakers Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego explore the origins of the country's illicit industry. If they bring even half the detail and artistry to this as they did to Embrace of the Serpent (which the former directed and the latter produced), then audiences are in for a stunning tumble into territory that might sound familiar on paper, but is certain to prove otherwise on-screen. Narrative-wise, the film tells the tale the Wayúu family. It's the 1970s, marijuana is a booming business, but their traditional ways start to crumble in the face of their pot-plying success. Guerra's work is usually something to experience, rather than a movie to merely see, and his latest promises just that once again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNUP3HkUe-Y&feature=youtu.be&rel=0&autoplay=1 FIRST REFORMED Ethan Hawke is all over this year's MIFF. No, we're not complaining. He stars in Nick Hornby adaptation Juliet, Naked. He directed music biopic Blaze. And he's also at the centre of First Reformed, in what's being called the best performance of his career — or one of them, at least. In the latest film by writer/director Paul Schrader (screenwriter of Taxi Driver and director of Light Sleeper, among others), Hawke plays a pastor asked to help a parishioner, only to become haunted by his own past. Crises of faith might be a surprisingly common topic on-screen, but this contemplation of spirituality's many soul-shattering complexities has been earning rave reviews on the festival circuit for almost a year now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LskNXn2LQoU ARCTIC The survivalist film genre gets another entry with none other than Mads Mikkelsen leading the charge. As Overgård, the Danish star crashes his own plane, watches the helicopter sent to save him also plummet to the ground, and is then tasked with not only trudging his way out of the ice to save his own life, but taking a wounded woman with him. It's the first film by Joe Penna, the man behind YouTube channel MysteryGuitarMan, and Arctic comes complete with Mikkelsen at his finest, a gripping mood of tension and a jaw-dropping frosty setting. And if there's one thing that all of these survivalist movies keep proving, it's that there's a reason the powers-that-be keep bringing compelling tales of human endurance and perseverance to the screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bmKxahpEpE THE FUGUE Ravenous singing mermaids might've filled Agnieszka Smoczyńska's last feature, The Lure, but The Fugue jumps into another pool completely. Still, it's the sheer ambition and unhinged nature of her first film that makes anything this Polish filmmaker dreams up worth watching. This time around, she spins a story of an amnesiac woman trying to remember her identity, and trying to work out her feelings about the person that she discovers. Written by star Gabriela Muskała, it's actually inspired by a true story, which also promises to ensure this suspenseful take on the psychological thriller genre transcends its ostensibly seen-before set-up. THE BILL MURRAY STORIES: LIFE LESSONS LEARNED FROM A MYTHICAL MAN Admit it, this film just jumped to the top of your must-see list for a very obvious reason. Who doesn't want to watch a documentary about Bill Murray — the man, the myth, the master — after all? When he's not voicing animated dogs and preparing to hit Australia's stage, the actor has amassed quite the collection of tales about his activities, with accounts of his everyday antics with everyday folks popping up frequently. It's these urban legends that director Tommy Avallone examines as he follows in the star's supposed footsteps. And if you're wondering what's true, what isn't, and how much Bill Murray is too much (if that's even possible), then let The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned From a Mythical Man answer that for you. Still need to fill a few spots on your mini pass or passport? We've already cast our eye over plenty of other films from this year's MIFF program. 1% and Undertow made our list of Australian highlights for the year, while Damsel, The Tale, Kusama - Infinity, Pity and Mandy ranked among the films we were most looking forward to from Sundance. From the Berlinale, we recommended The Green Fog, Profile, An Elephant Sitting Still, Transit, Museum and Aga, and Happy as Lazzaro sparked excitement in our Cannes rundown. Before the Sydney Film Festival, we eagerly anticipated [CENSORED], Mirai, Juliet, Naked, Jirga, Rafiki and I Used to Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story. During the fest, we loved Cold War, The Miseducation of Cameron Post and Piercing. And afterwards, Leave No Trace, The Rider, Burning, Shoplifters, The Guilty, Climax and Tyrel ranked among our highlights. Plus, there's also Let the Corpses Tan, You Were Never Really Here, Caniba, Zama and Diamantino, which were all among our Queensland Film Festival picks. The Melbourne International Film Festival runs from August 2 to 19. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the MIFF website.
Human beings are relentless in the search for extraterrestrial life, even though we've been conditioned to fear alien invasion since H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Nevertheless the search continues, and advances in technology could make it possible to explore every nook and cranny of the universe. NASA's exploration of Mars has lead to incredible discoveries, most important of which has been of the traces of methane in the atmosphere that suggest either geological or biological activity going on beneath the seemingly dead surface. Of particular interest are the Seven Sisters, seven large gaping holes in the surface which could be havens for past or present life forms. Unfortunately, the rovers sent to the surface couldn't enter them. Aron Kisdi, an engineer at the University of Southampton in the U.K., has thought of a solution to that problem. Kisdi has proposed the use of miniature swarming robots programmed to maneuver like honeybees, which could explore the Seven Sisters, recording temperatures and co-ordinates of sites where life might be lurking. Insect-inspired robots have already been tested closer to home: Swarming Micro Air Vehicle Network (SMAVNET), is a swarm of flying robots developed in Switzerland to aid rescuers in disaster areas, whose behaviour is modelled on army ants. It will be a while before human-built insect-robots are crawling all over Mars though, according to Kisdi the availability of enough energy to power them on long missions is a major challenge.
By this point, everyone knows buying cage eggs is a first-world form of pure evil. Hens are crammed into tiny metal boxes and left to descend into madness. The eggs they produce are understandably sub-par, and their quality of life is next to nil. You don't need to have seen a Jamie Oliver doco or Four Corners special to get the gist of it. But these days, even avid free-range buyers can get duped. Happy chickens are printed on every egg carton in your local supermarket, and dodgy phrasing like 'cage-free' and 'barn-laid' can trick you into buying something that falls way out of whack with your morals. Now something's finally being done about it. This week, state and territory governments have been tasked with creating a set of national guidelines to determine what exactly counts as 'free-range' and what these producers can legally lay a claim to on their cartons. Surprisingly, this will be the first national legal definition of the term 'free-range'. At present, the ACT and Queensland are the only states where restrictions apply to the term, and they differ wildly. In the ACT, farmers can have a maximum of 1,500 birds per hectare to qualify for the term, but in Queensland this number instead sits at 10,000. The latter is also the standard employed by Coles free-range brand. Though there is a voluntary industry code that allows up to 20,000 hens per hectare under the term, an investigation carried out by New South Wales Fair Trading concluded that consumers really have no idea what they're getting. It's estimated that around 40 percent of people now buy free-range, but they have an extremely limited understanding of what the term really means. The investigation was in fact instigated by a super complaint from consumer rights organisation Choice last year. "At the moment, consumers have no confidence they’re not being ripped off and that’s a ridiculous situation," campaign manager Matt Levey told SMH. "People want to make ethical decisions but can’t." Though any decided national standard will not take effect 'til 2015, it's understandably a step in the right direction. We should start openly talking about what's on our plate and put up a solid framework for the ethical treatment of animals. Next up: getting those happy rainbow hens off the cartons of cage eggs. If that's not false advertising, we don't know what is. PS. We'd like to sincerely thank you for clicking on this article despite the title's awful pun. Via ABC and The Sydney Morning Herald. Photo credits: madelinetosh and p1ndar0 via photopin cc.
