Prepare to say "accio remote!" and get comfier than Hermione Granger in a library. In the latest news that'll keep you glued to your couch this summer — and your latest fodder for an at-home movie marathon — everyone's favourite boy wizard will soon be working his magic on Netflix. You won't need the Marauder's Map to find these enchanting flicks. Come Tuesday, January 15, all eight movies in the Harry Potter series will hit the streaming platform, bringing their Hogwarts-set adventures to both Australian and New Zealand audiences. If you've watched your DVD copies from the 2000s so many times that they're showing a little wear and tear — or your laptop no longer has a disc drive — this is butterbeer-worthy news. Yes, everything from Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) first visit to Platform 9 and 3/4, the Yule Ball, the Triwizard Tournament, many a fluttering snitch and He Who Must Not Be Named will be at your fingertips. Prime viewing for wizards, witches and muggles alike — all 19 hours and 39 minutes of it. The Fantastic Beasts films won't be joining them, with this journey through JK Rowling's wizarding world keeping its focus on the original franchise. The news comes hot on the heels of Stan's announcement that it's now home to a hefty batch of Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and Disney movies and TV shows. If you're thinking that a time-turner might come in handy over the next few months, we completely understand. Find Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2 on Netflix from Tuesday, January 15.
Fast forward to the end of December and we all know we're going to be committing to staying fit come 2021 for our New Year's resolution. We may not follow through, but a fresh sportswear outfit can be some good motivation. If you're looking to get in early, LSKD is lending a helping hand by taking up to 70 percent off its sportswear in its huge Black Friday sale. Formed in 2007, LSKD (pronounced loose kid) is an Australian-owned and operated clothing company specialising in sportswear, streetwear and accessories. The company produces high-quality, stylish clothes for both men and women ready for a trip to the beach, gym or a night out. From 6pm Tuesday, November 24 until Thursday, December 3, LSKD will be offering a heap of its threads wildly low prices, from women's tights, tanks and sports bras to men's tees, hoodies and shorts. This is the brand's only sale of the year so check out the store and maybe save a few bucks. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Stories from one of the most volatile regions on earth will be in the spotlight at Australia's Palestinian Film Festival. Hosted at Kino Cinemas in the city, this year's program includes seven full length features and five shorts that showcase the experiences of Palestinians, from Gaza to the West Bank and beyond. The festival begins with animated documentary The Wanted 18, a tragicomic true tale about how a herd of Palestinian cows became the centrepiece of a protest against Israeli occupation. Degrade, meanwhile, takes place almost entirely within a Gaza beauty salon, where employees attempt to maintain some semblance of normalcy while violence rages just outside their door. But the most intriguing film in the program would have to be The Idol. Directed by two-time Oscar nominee Hany Abu-Assad, the movie tells the true story of a wedding singer from a Gaza refugee camp who became the second ever winner of Arab Idol. For the full festival program, visit palestinianfilmfestival.com.au
The distinctive blue glint of a Bombay Sapphire bottle can be spotted in most home drinks cabinets. It's a spirit so prolific that it's gained mononym status (it's just 'Bombay' — like Elvis or Adele). But the ubiquitous brand is zagging and going small scale with the release of a Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru — a hand-crafted, small-batch gin inspired by the Spanish region of Murcia. To celebrate its release in Australia, Bombay Sapphire is hosting a one-night-only affair at South Wharf's Cargo Hall: The Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru Experience. It'll include an innovative cocktail program featuring the Murcian-inspired gin paired with a four-course dining experience curated by chef Alejandro Saravia, the brilliant culinary mind behind Farmer's Daughters and Pastuso. Digital artworks by Yandell Walton and and soundscapes designed by Music director Will Pyett will make sure your other senses are kept just as pleased as your palate. Consider yourself a gin devotee? You'll want to secure your tickets swiftly. The event is hosting just two sessions on Thursday, April 28 (one from 5–7pm and the other from 8–10pm). For more information and to book, visit the website.
Mill Place Merchants wants to help you travel back in time this April. Every Thursday, you can pop down to the speakeasy for Peaches and Prints: a celebration of bellinis, polaroids and vintage glamour. From 6–9pm, the bar will be serving up classic bellinis for $15 a pop. Each is a perfect blend of prosecco, white peach puree and your choice of raspberry or cherry juice — made according to the recipe that made Harry's Bar in Venice famous. For a posher tipple, add champagne for an extra $17, or go non-alcoholic. With a bellini in hand, you'll be ready to don one of the venue's vintage hats and pose for a polaroid. Tag yourself and @milllacemerchants, and you'll go into a weekly draw to win an exclusive experience. Adding to the old-timey vibes will be a pianist, playing classic songs between 7–9:30pm. And, should you work up an appetite, the bar's charcuterie, cheese and snack menu will have you covered.
If you're looking for a way to get inspired by exceptional women and witness some live talent for International Women's Day this year, check out the happenings at Melbourne Quarter between Monday, March 7 and Friday, March 18. This year's International Women's Day theme is Break the Bias, encouraging us to imagine a world void of bias and discrimination to see how a gender-equal world can benefit communities everywhere. Melbourne Quarter will be home to a series of free events to commemorate all the inspirational women in our lives. From live music, guest speakers and art installations — there is so much to discover this March. If you are a fan of ARIA award-winning musician and author Clare Bowditch, check out her free International Women's Day address on Thursday, March 10 at 11am. Witness a convergence of story, song and science as Clare forms a playful and effective lesson on how to 'tame your inner critic'. You can register here. You can also check out the interactive video gallery that will feature six women sharing how they personally overcame bias. You'll be inspired by women like former AFLW star and advocate Moana Hope and author and cancer survivor Janet Parsons. The gallery will be shown at One Melbourne Quarter lobby on weekdays from 8am to 5pm. While exploring Melbourne Quarter you might come across the Empowerment Wall filled with empowering quotes. Or, the wonderful live art installation in Gunpowder Walk by muralist George Rose. You can also expect live music from an exciting lineup of local female artists from Tuesday, March 8 till Thursday March 10 between 12-2pm. Check out the full lineup for International Women's Day at Melbourne Quarter at the website.
Armadale's Little Grocer is exactly what you'd expect from the name. It's a small cosy space, lined with maximum Good Stuff for padding out your pantry in style. Adjoining the longstanding Coin Laundry cafe next door, The Little Grocer is like the walk-in pantry you always dreamed of. Open till 7pm most days, you can head by after work (especially if you're jumping off the train, as it's a stone's throw from Armadale Station) and make full use of the all-Australian produce it stocks. And, if you're looking for an edible gift, it also does a very nice hamper.
The most talked-about band Australia's seen in recent times since The Jezabels, The Preatures have unveiled their latest single 'Two-Tone Melody' and have announced their highly-anticipated upcoming debut album with accompanying national tour. Sounding more like Jefferson Airplane than their usual Fleetwood Mac association, the new single is a chilled out ballad of sorts — a departure from the band's explosive debut single, 'Is This How You Feel?'. With just two EPs and four singles under their belt, The Preatures have seen huge applause (and national airplay) from a fairly limited catalogue until now. The Preatures have been hanging out in the US of late, playing SxSW and Coachella and recording with the dudes from Spoon in Austin — in particular Britt Daniel and Jim Eno. The fivesome told triple j's Doctor they recorded in Eno's garage-conversion studio, finishing the album taping in three weeks. Signing to Mercury Records in 2012 with a whopping five album deal, the Sydney fivesome's success snowballed in 2013 after the release of their second EP and ultra-catchy single 'Is This How You Feel?', prompting international touring and national high-fivery. The easily replayable single nabbed an ARIA nomination for Best Pop Release, number nine in the triple j Hottest 100 and just today nabbed a top five nomination for APRA|AMCOS Song of The Year. But it's not just fans interested in The Preatures — when the quintet played at New York's 2013 CMJ showcase, almost the entire audience was made up of industry representatives. Often compared to Fleetwood Mac and the Bee Gees, The Preatures' Isabella Manfredi, Gideon Bensen, Jack Moffitt, Thomas Champion and Luke Davison have garnered a significantly loyal fanbase in just a few short years. The Preatures will tour the US and Canada during June, make their way over to festivals in Europe and the UK before venturing back home for an Australian tour, stopping by Splendour In The Grass this July alongside fellow Sydneysiders RÜFÜS, The Jezabels and Sticky Fingers. The Preatures will be supported on their Australian tour by Adelaide's Bad//Dreems and Perth's Gunns. https://youtube.com/watch?v=M8XmoroZ3zo
Forget about the Queen's birthday — come Sunday, June 10, Evie's Disco Diner will be celebrating a couple of true 'kweens' instead, namely the hilarious Abbi and Ilana of cult show Broad City. The Gertrude Street bar's teaming up with local drag legend Lazy Susan to host a one-off, interactive Broad City trivia session, helping you all cruise into the public holiday in style. Expect a gag-filled afternoon of questions, screenings and general Broad City banter, with $5 happy hour schooners and wines up for grabs while you play. A pretty sweet haul of prizes includes Lido Cinema passes, free bar tabs and the odd piece of show merchandise. And you'll get extra kudos if you dress up in homage to one of Broad City's iconic costumes — time to start digging through the wardrobe for that long-lost blue bodycon dress. If you're a diehard fan, it won't have escaped you that this little trivia session coincides with Ilana Glazer's debut Melbourne visit, happening the day after her live stand-up show at Hamer Hall. We're not making any promises, but the event organisers are angling hard for a cameo appearance and that's not something you want to miss.
Melbourne might be locked down (again), but at least this weekend's weather forecast promises a strong chance of Vitamin D. And, things are looking even sunnier for folks who live within five kilometres of Gertrude Street, thanks to a fancy little sausage sizzle that's popping up this Saturday, August 14. Inner-north favourites The Everleigh and Congress Wine are joining forces to deliver locals a special, one-off lockdown treat, descending on the Everleigh's Fitzroy takeaway window from 3pm. The crew from Collingwood wine bar Congress will be firing up the barbecue and dishing up a couple of tasty things in bread, to-go — namely, a mushroom snag with brussels sprout kraut and curry ketchup ($12), and a venison snag piled high with onion, artichoke jus and black garlic ketchup ($13). They're also whipping up an unmissable dessert special, in the form of a negroni doughnut. [caption id="attachment_701671" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gareth Sobey[/caption] Meanwhile, the drinks wizards at award-winning cocktail bar The Everleigh will be doing what they do best and slinging some fine boozy concoctions to match. You'll be able to take away batched sips from Everleigh Bottling Co.'s full Classic Cocktail range, including the negroni (a fitting pairing for that doughnut), the martini, a manhattan, an old fashioned and the caffeine-spiked blend known as Coffee House. Alternatively, if you're after a little fizz in your life, the bar will also be stocked with the brand's bottled spritzed cocktails — the Americano, French 75, Palomita and Fruit Cup. Of course, the pop-up will be a COVID-Safe affair, so you'll need to practice social distancing and wear a mask while you're visiting. Find the Congress Wine x The Everleigh pop-up sausage sizzle at The Everleigh, 150 Gertrude St, Fitzroy. It all kicks off at 3pm this Saturday, August 14.
Think the city ends at Spencer Street Station? Then it's high time you took a journey west. Returning to Footscray and the surrounding suburbs for the tenth time since 1997, Big West is a massive biennial community festival committed to music, performance and visual art. This year's lineup features more than 70 events, most of which you can experience for absolutely free. Turns out the Village People may have had the right idea after all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wc-AQJ2MYo Running from November 20-28, the focus at Big West 2015 is both multicultural and multidisciplinary. The Graceful Giraffe Cannot Become a Monkey explores the experience of African Australians through a mixture of music, dance, dialogue and audio visual collage, while a song suite performed by the No Excuses! Women's Chorus will tackle real stories of domestic violence and abuse. And for punters looking to get a little more active with their art, Neighbours will take you on a walking tour of Footscray's Nicholson Street, from public spaces to people's houses, while examining the manner in which the neighbourhood continues to change. For everything happening at Big West Festival, visit their website. Image: The Graceful Giraffe Cannot Become a Monkey
Immersive and Instagrammable art has been all the rage in Australia for a few years now. One of Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Rooms is heading to Adelaide this year, Sugar Republic's "dessert museum" keeps popping up, both multi-sensory playground Imaginaria and Van Gogh Alive toured the country in 2021, and Melbourne now has its own permanent digital art museum. And, after first hitting our shores in Sydney in 2020, Happy Place also jumped back on the must-photograph list. It made its way to Melbourne last year, too — and, after shutting temporarily due to COVID-19 concerns, it's now reopening for a second run. Dubbed the "world's most Instagrammable exhibit", the multi-room installation had already travelled across the US and Canada before its first Aussie stop, Happy Place will reopen at Crown Melbourne on Friday, February 11 — and is selling tickets until late March at present. Once inside the exhibition, you'll find many OTT rooms to explore, including a rubber ducky bathtub room, a cookie room that actually smells like freshly baked cookies, a room filled with 40,000 golden handmade flowers and a giant rainbow with a golden ball pit (no leprechauns though, sorry). If that doesn't have you reaching for your smartphone, there's also a mind-bending upside-down room and the "world's largest indoor confetti dome". A visit will cost adults $29.99, with the installation open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays — from 3–9pm on Fridays, 9am–6pm on Saturdays and 9am–6.30pm on Sundays. Updated: March 18
There's nothing like a flight sale to spark holiday plans, but the offer that Cathay Pacific is about to drop isn't your regular airfare special. Fancy a Hong Kong holiday without paying to get there and back? That's what's available for 6020 round-trip getaways. The caveat: the airline and the Airport Authority Hong Kong will cover the cost of your base fares, but you need to pay taxes and surcharges. The drastically discounted airfares form part of the Hello Hong Kong campaign, which was announced back in February with an aim to help the Asian destination kickstart its pandemic-era tourism industry. It was originally revealed as a massive flights giveaway, with the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Airport Authority Hong Kong joining forces with local airlines Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong Express and Hong Kong Airlines; however, it operates slightly differently in various parts of the world. In March, the focus was on tourists heading to Hong Kong from southeast Asia. Then, in April, attention shifted to travellers from mainland China in April. Now it's the rest of the globe's turn — and for Australians, that means this once-in-a-lifetime arrangement for trips out of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth to the busy city. From 12pm AEST on Monday, May 29, you'll be able to head over to Cathay Pacific's campaign website to score your fares. There are a few more rules, though, including the fact that you'll need to be a Cathay member — which you can sign up for online for free — and be logged in when the crucial time hits. There's also only one adult Economy Class fare per person for the 6020 lucky folks, offered on a first-come, first-served basis until they're all booked out. And, again, you do still need to pay those taxes and surcharges. Still on terms and conditions, you must be an Australian resident aged 18 or over to take up the deal. Once you've nabbed a ticket, they're non-transferable, non-reroutable and non-exchangeable. You'll be able to travel between Monday, May 29, 2023–Wednesday, February 28, 2024, staying for at least two days and at most a month. There are blackout periods, however, which'll limit your travel periods. Free flights are just one aspect of the overall Hello Hong Kong promotion. Another: free drink, dining, shopping and transport vouchers, with at least a million up for grabs from 16,000-plus outlets. Dubbed 'Hong Kong Goodies', these freebies will be available to folks visiting Hong Kong for 90 days or less — and you'll have to pick just one offer. So, you can choose between a welcome drink valued at more than HK$100 at one of more than 100 bars, restaurants and hotels; a HK$100 cash voucher to use at 140-plus restaurants, shops or attractions; or a gift worth more than HK$100 at a heap of Hong Kong attractions and museums. With the current exchange rate, whichever of these three goodies you pick equates to around AU$18 / NZ$20 — but it's still a freebie. [caption id="attachment_887783" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hong Kong Tourism Board[/caption] There are caveats for these vouchers, too. First, you have have to have a non-Hong Kong mobile number to obtain them. Also, there are rules about collecting and redeeming them. Visitors to Hong Kong have until December 31, 2023 to enjoy their goodies — and once you have chosen your coupon, you can't swap it. Cathay Pacific's discounted Hong Kong flights in conjunction with the Airport Authority Hong Kong are available from 12pm AEST on Monday, May 29 until sold out from Cathay Pacific's campaign website. Top image: Hong Kong Tourism Board. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
For so many, being self-employed is the dream. You don't have to answer to anybody, you can work from wherever you want, and if it's a beautiful 30 degree day, hey, maybe you can go to the beach instead. The only downside is that it's easy to get a bit lonely. All that time alone in your cramped home office would send even the best of us a bit nutty. This is where co-working spaces come in and, after a huge 18-month revamp, Nest is among the best of them. Housing industry professionals from fields as diverse as horticulture, software development and performance art, Nest is the ultimate collaborative environment for creative types. "The idea is to have the best of both worlds — the flexibility of working for yourself, but with the professional networks, resources, and a professional space away from noise, where you're proud to bring clients and collaborators," says founder Jay Chubb. No longer confined to dingy home studios, freelancers now have a space to work together, communicate and enjoy a clean and dynamic aesthetic to reignite those creative juices. In fact, design was a big motivator for the project. Melbourne architect Nicholas Eric Harding upcycled most of the materials from demolished local mansions, then installed acoustically designed raw wood panelling on the walls. Tables and light fittings are all handmade, and there is even a sound recording studio floor designed by Brent Punshon from Head Gap Studios. Of course, it's not all work and no play. Behind the office space lies a 40-people amphitheatre and microcinema that is soon to be used in partnership with the Shadow Electric. The space will also be used for pop-up exhibitions, BBQs, talks and screenings open for local enjoyment. Far from the world of bad air-conditioning and broken photocopiers, this is an office space we can get behind. Thanks to Nest Coworking, we have a month membership of 32 hours valued at $200 to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au with your name and address. For more information about membership and pricing, see the Nest website.
Do you remember the first time that you saw a pastel-hued facade, ornate interior detailing, or something gloriously symmetrical indoors or out, then thought "that looks like something out of a Wes Anderson film"? For almost three decades now, we've all done it. Since his feature debut Bottle Rocket, the Asteroid City and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar director has firmly established his stylistic trademarks, ensuring that a Wes Anderson movie is always immediately recognisable as a Wes Anderson movie no matter which of the filmmaker's regular actors is in front of the camera. Brooklyn-based husband and wife Wally and Amanda Koval shared this line of thinking to the point of creating an Instagram account around it in 2017. Accidentally Wes Anderson now has 1.9-million followers. The social media feed is a curated selection of images from real life that look like Anderson has staged, styled and shot them, but hasn't — and after taking films as inspiration for an online compilation of images, Accidentally Wes Anderson has taken the IRL route itself via an exhibition. At Accidentally Wes Anderson: The Exhibition, 200-plus images await — and they're all coming to Australia for the first time. Following past runs in Tokyo and Seoul, and present seasons in London and Los Angeles, the immersive art experience will make its Down Under debut in Melbourne from Wednesday, September 18, 2024, complete with ten rooms. Some of the exhibition's walls feature facades that Anderson must covet, others find landscape that'd make the perfect Anderson backdrop, and plenty highlight either vintage vehicles or enchanting hotels. Yes, pastel tones pop up frequently. So does symmetry, including in the exhibition's presentation. The idea is to make you feel like you're stepping into Anderson's flicks by showing how the world beyond his frames often conjures up that sensation anyway. To borrow from a different filmmaker, is this the Wes Anderson version of Inception? Attendees enter an exhibition of real-life pictures inspired by an Instagram account that's inspired by Anderson's moving pictures, particularly his aesthetic within them that takes cues from real life. Accidentally Wes Anderson has also been turned into a book, too, plus a website with a map spanning almost 2000 spots across the planet that fit the theme. At Accidentally Wes Anderson: The Exhibition, patrons arrive via the lobby, then explore a space dedicated to portals, then embrace an array of facades. Checking out sections devoted to coastal scenes, planes and trains (and automobiles, of course), sports, accommodation and nature is also on the agenda. There's a space that'll get you watching big-screen travel adventures, too — and, just for Australia, one about Aussie spots that evoke Anderson. For souvenirs, you'll exit through the Accidentally Wes Anderson shop.
The largest-ever showcase of living Australian artists has landed in the budding cultural hub that is Ballarat, with the inaugural Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA) in town until Tuesday, November 6. The epic exhibition includes 150 artists from all corners of Australia, making this a once-in-a-lifetime art extravaganza that's not to be missed. Lucky for you artsy folk, we've got your trip sorted. In partnership with Visit Ballarat, we're giving away the ultimate art lover's escape, which includes a double pass to BOAA plus a night's stay and dinner in Ballarat. Taking place in more than 14 different venues across Ballarat, with up to 65 solo exhibitions, BOAA's colour and culture will take over the town. The event will reflect on what it means to be Australian and tell stories of our country's past, present and future. It's also a celebration of Australia's heritage, with BOAA boasting a strong focus on Indigenous talent. In addition to the great art, the BOAA Band Wagon will be making the rounds and pumping great tunes. There'll also be a living sculpture fashion parade, an evening program called BOAA Dark — the Victorian version of a mini Dark Mofo — and a lake sculpture walk that will see Lake Wendouree transform into an outdoor gallery featuring 26 sculptures. Once you're tuckered out from all that art, enjoy a top-notch dinner and a glass of wine, or two, then spend the night in one of Ballarat's finest hotels — and don't worry, we'll pick up the bill. [competition]693738[/competition] Top image: Gerwyn Davies
A business card with Carly Rae Jepsen's immortal words "Call Me Maybe" has been doing the rounds on Facebook for the last few months. And while we had a little giggle at this one, it pales in comparison to some of the wacky and wonderful business cards out there. With designs that range from a balloon to a fortune cookie to a lego piece, here are some of our favourite creative business cards. Mais Pilates Studio's business cards The Bombay Bakery's Edible Business Card Charlotte Simonsen, Your Local Lego Expert Pfizer's Viagra Business Cards Freelance Photography Business Cards Divorce Lawyer James Mahon Design your Own Future with Daniel Butler Cut the Excess Weight with this Fitness Trainer Furniture specialists Tok & Stok Gengaivan Likes Everything Second-Hand Local Chest Physician Dr. Niphadkar's Card Reboot your Life with Psychologist Jack Napier Fly into Paperplane Graphics
"Fan art" comes in a bizarre array of forms. Couch-dwelling admirers of films and television series have brought us such timeless works of art as Elvis murals made from burnt toast, life-size stormtrooper costumes and the burgeoning industry of "fan fiction". While this sort of fandom, at times bordering on obsession, tends to be fairly laughable, Spanish artist Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde has transformed her TV fixation into something truly fascinating, creating hand-drawn, blueprints of some of television's most beloved apartments. With these intricate aerial views fans can now take a virtual tour through the apartments of Sex and the City, The Big Bang Theory and Friends, while forever wondering how a bunch of characters that seem to divide their time fairly evenly between coffee houses and trendy bars manage to afford these fab pads. Friends - Chandler & Joey and Monica & Rachel's Apartments The Big Bang Theory - Sheldon & Leonard and Penny's Apartments Frasier - Frasier Crane's Apartment Sex and the City - Carrie Bradshaw's Apartment Original Batman TV series - Wayne Manor
It's been 14 years since Iron Man first soared onto cinema screens, started a huge film and TV franchise, and sparked popular culture's biggest current behemoth — and, 29 movies, a heap of streaming shows and oh-so-much success later, is there any realm that the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn't conquered? It's the main reason that plenty of people go to the movies. It keeps pumping out new Disney+ shows every few months, too. All things Marvel were already a hit on the page, obviously, before the comic book company's wares became box-office catnip. And Marvel-themed events, including exhibitions, keep popping up as well. Back in Brisbane in 2017, the Gallery of Modern Art played host to a huge showcase of Marvel costumes and props, in fact — and while that was a one-city, once-off affair, Marvel fans can now take a gander at a new batch of MCU paraphernalia. Fancy getting a close look at mjolnir, stormbreaker, the necrosword, Zeus' lightning bolt, and Valkyrie's dagger and sword? Then you've clearly seen Thor: Love and Thunder, and you'll now want to make a date with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne. The Federation Square venue has welcomed in a selection of items from the fourth Thor flick, including all of the aforementioned weaponry — which plays a significant part in the Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit)-directed feature. Also on display: outfits by costume designer Mayes Rubeo (an Emmy-winner for WandaVision and Oscar-nominee for Jojo Rabbit), including those worn by Chris Hemsworth (Spiderhead) as Thor and Natalie Portman (Vox Lux) as Jane/The Mighty Thor. ACMI's new Thor: Love and Thunder showcase includes pieces donned by Christian Bale (Ford v Ferrari) as galactic killer Gorr the God Butcher as well, and by Tessa Thompson (Passing) as King Valkyrie. And yes, clothing that decked out Russell Crowe (Unhinged) as a tutu-wearing, lightning bolt-flinging Zeus is also now in the museum's range. The Marvel costumes and props have joined the centre's centrepiece exhibition, The Story of the Moving Image, which is free to view — but they'll only be on display until July 28, 2023. And no, there are no screaming goats on offer, sadly — but if you've seen the movie, you probably still have that sound stuck in your head. The Thor: Love and Thunder costumes and props are on display at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, Melbourne, as part of free centrepiece exhibition The Story of the Moving Image, until July 28, 2023. Read our full Thor: Love and Thunder review. Thor: Love and Thunder image: Jasin Boland. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved. Exhibition images: courtesy Marvel Studios, Peter Tarasiuk Photography.
No one likes receiving the same Christmas gift twice, but when it comes to festive-themed films and their sequels, that's typically what you get. Unfortunately, Bad Santa 2 doesn't escape that trap. Back in 2003, the original film prove a rude, crude blast of fresh air that flouted and took the piss out of yuletide clichés. By comparison, the long-awaited follow-up plays like a half-arsed version of the exact same thing. For Willie Soke (Billy Bob Thornton), that means drinking, brawling, swearing, screwing, stealing, scamming, cracking safes and soaking in his own urine, usually while dressed up as Father Christmas. He's reluctant to return to the red coat and wig, but he's also eager to pilfer whatever cash he can when Christmas rolls around — 'tis the season to be burgling, and all that. That's why he agrees to re-team with his duplicitous, diminutive former partner-in-crime Marcus (Tony Cox), trading an unsuccessful suicide attempt for a scheme to fleece a Chicago charity. That the third person in their thieving plans is his estranged ex-con mother (Kathy Bates) complicates matters considerably. Add a lustful love interest (Christina Hendricks), plus a well-meaning but dim-witted hanger-on (Brett Kelly), and the Bad Santa formula everybody knows and once loved is back in action. Alas, with original director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World) and writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love) nowhere in sight — replaced by Mean Girls' helmer Mark Waters, first-time feature screenwriter Johnny Rosenthal and What to Expect When You're Expecting scribe Shauna Cross — Bad Santa 2 rides its sleigh straight into tired territory. If there's a cinematic equivalent of asking for a pony and getting a photo of one instead, Bad Santa 2 is it. Everything looks the part, but this follow-up is no substitute for the real thing. Instead of humour steeped in the dark side of the season — be it the rampant consumerism, the gnawing loneliness or the manufactured cheer — this sloppy second effort just dials up the obscenity and anti-social behaviour, then tops the tree with familial drama. Indeed, in trying to coast by with little more than a predictable premise, easy gags, outrageous situations, unlikeable characters and a late splash of sentimentality, Bad Santa 2 could be mistaken for one of the poor imitators that the first movie inspired. At least Thornton is on hand to do what he does best. If nothing else, the been there, done that air and apparent lack of effort suits his bad protagonist to the wearied, wise-cracking bone. Accordingly, when a handful of the script's grossly inappropriate jokes land, Thornton is usually the reason.
"Does it always have to end up in a big giant dance battle?" asks the latest Step Up film, Step Up All In. Yes, that's an actual line of dialogue in a movie about trading fancy footwork for supremacy. The feature's Moose (Adam G. Sevani) poses the question to his ragtag gang of friends when yet another squabble sees them settling things on the dance floor. In doing so, he becomes the series' most self-aware expression, as well as the clearest enunciation of its purpose. Dance battles — plus contests, trials, tryouts, auditions, and any other competitive outlets — remain prominent not only to showcase performers' skills and add drama but to allow something to be dreamed about and aspired to, then achieved, attained and overcome. So if you've seen even one dance movie, whether from the Step Up franchise or any other (or even just Zoolander or Guardians of the Galaxy), then you know that yes, it does always have to end up in a big giant dance battle. Of course, there's more to be learned from the many efforts that have shuffled across screens since the days of Busby Berkley, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. What other important knowledge do dance films impart? We trawled through the best and worst to find out. Nobody should stay in the corner If there's one lesson the Step Up franchise preaches again and again, it's that playing by the rules doesn't offer a path to glory. If the first film's hero, played by Channing Tatum, hadn't vandalised a prestigious performing arts school and been burdened with helping clean up as punishment, the entire course of the series may have changed — and Tatum may not have become the cinema superstar he now is today. Indeed, he peddled the same message in the semi-autobiographical Magic Mike, where working a stripping job frowned upon by most offers the titular character his only hope of earning enough money to finance his dream business. Tatum is following in formidable footsteps, with ignoring instructions a dance movie staple across all possible extremes of the subgenre. In family-oriented effort Girls Just Want to Have Fun, a young Sarah Jessica Parker constantly falls afoul of her dad in her efforts to dance, while in Dario Argento's horror film Suspiria, an American ballet student in Munich finds out the truth about her new school when she flouts the rules and sneaks around. Perhaps the best-known instance comes from that perennial favourite, Dirty Dancing. Everyone remembers when Baby (Jennifer Grey) disregarded her father's decree that she stay away from bad boy dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze), and when she wouldn't stay in the corner. (No one remembers when Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights unsuccessfully tried to recreate the same scenario.) Stick it (or step up) to the man In the fourth Step Up film (known as Step Up Revolution and Step Up: Miami Heat in differing parts of the world) it's not just a competition the dance crew seeks to win, though that's obviously part of the equation. In an oft-used scenario, they also square off in an against-the-odds battle with a heartless property developer threatening to gentrify their neighbourhood. Filmed flashmob-style performances help them wage both wars, providing contest entries and disrupting their nemeses efforts, but it is the challenge to authority that resonates as the feature's strongest statement. Dancers just don't know how to lie down for the man, so it seems, with putting bodies on the line their favourite form of fight. Step Up 3D, Honey and Centre Stage: Turn It Up also offer variations on rallying against authority, while an attempt to stop a corporation destroying a Brazilian rainforest drives The Forbidden Dance (a barely recalled effort attempting to cash in on the lambada craze, but the one that isn't called Lambada). And if there's one thing Footloose cemented in the consciousness of multiple generations, first in 1984 and again in the 2011 remake, it's that anyone who dares bans dancing must be defied, confronted and trounced. Stop, collaborate and listen Part of the fun of the Step Up series as it has continued is its unashamed amalgam of styles and genres. Never afraid to try something new and different when it comes to the dance scenes, if nothing else, the films themselves offer an inventive array of settings and show a wide range of sources of inspiration. Step Up All In's first breakout sequence ramps up the horror in a striking mad professor's laboratory number, while its climax sees its characters see past their rivalries to embody the same maxim in the story as well as the aesthetic. The movie is in good company, with seminal 1980s feature Breakin' teaming breakdancing with jazz ballet, Save the Last Dance's entire conceit based around the pairing of classical and ballet, and even Australia's own Strictly Ballroom introducing a Spanish influence into the titular type of dancing. Other features have interpreted the concept a little differently, but still with the same result. In Black Swan, a shy but ambitious ballerina must channel her dark side and break free from her prim and proper facade to get the lead in a production. The Full Monty saw middle-aged men get their gear off to make money after becoming casualties of Sheffield's declining steel industry. Mad About Mambo found football skills in samba. Recent release Cuban Fury tasked Nick Frost's uncharacteristic romantic lead with overcoming a childhood fear of salsa dancing to earn respect and pursue love. https://youtube.com/watch?v=j8XGmZ8HDIU There'll never be a crisis you can't dance your way out of The catharsis of getting your groove on has become so embedded in the dance film genre that almost every movie has its own example. Diving into your passion as an escape from your problems is sound advice; if movies have taught us anything, you'll emerge with a clearer head at the very least. The quintessential angry dancing scene from Footloose has become so iconic that Kevin Bacon once again kicked off his Sunday shoes to recreate it — well, with the help of a double — on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to celebrate the film's 30th anniversary earlier this year. The High School Musical movies gave Zac Efron not one but two opportunities to express his ire, the third film's moving feast of fury far superior to the second film's weak wander around a golf course. Andrea Arnold's excellent social realist effort Fish Tank shows a more serious side as its teen protagonist copes with her ills — including a liaison with Michael Fassbender — through hip-hop dancing. The trope has also been parodied in Hot Rod, where Andy Samberg's wannabe daredevil punch-dances out some anger in the forest, as well as TV's Flight of the Conchords in a number called Bret's Angry Dance. Cult comedy hit The FP took dancing through a crisis to the other extreme, with its characters forced onto their feet — duelling in an arcade game called Beat-Beat Revelation — to survive. Just do it Working as a welder by day and an exotic dancer by night, but dreaming of a more traditional way to tap your toes? Moved to the big city with stars in your eyes, but not sure if you have what it takes to give it a go? Flashdance, Burlesque and the aptly titled Make it Happen each offer a fictional testament to trying instead of wondering, as does almost every film in the subgenre that culminates in a competition: think Battle of the Year, Streetdance, Stomp the Yard, How She Move and even Take the Lead's Antonio Banderas-led ballroom dancing-focused effort, all of which address self-doubt and champion taking a chance. Billy Elliott shows just what can eventuate if, struggling valiantly through all obstacles in your way, you make it to the top of your chosen field. In Silver Linings Playbook, the stakes and the outcome are much more modest, but even securing a sense of achievement is worth the effort.
Since 2010, the City of Stonnington has livened up their streets with ART-Town, two weekends a year where the south side is packed to the brim with live art. Over 130 artists will set up their stations to create pieces from the artistic domains of stencil art, murals, installations, photography, multimedia, digital, graphic art, illustration and painting. The artists are all Australian but not all Melbourne locals, which makes for some interesting interpretations of a city so many of us call home. Highlights for this year’s ART-Town include Anthony Sawney’s abstract designs being painted on the grass at Grattan Gardens, and fine art body painter Susanne Daoud will demonstrate her work as process by painting a live model. For those more interested in street art, Jessica Kease's multilayered, award-winning stencil art is a thing of beauty, and Buff Diss' freehand pieces constructed from tape are both unusual and impressive. Have a blast exploring the Chapel Street precinct and make some new artistic discoveries.
For some, friendly banter with whoever happens to be behind a car's wheel is a regular part of booking a ride. For others, the obligatory bout of awkward conversation with the driver is the most dreaded part of the trip. Or, maybe you're just having a bad day and don't feel like chatting. Perhaps you're usually happy to talk away, but you're stressed, have too much on your mind, and have emails to check while you're getting from point A to point B. Whether you like a good chinwag with your driver or prefer riding in silence, Uber has introduced a new feature that lets customers choose their level of conversation. It's called quiet mode, and it lets you choose if you want a chatty ride or a quiet one. The catch: it's only available for Uber Comfort trips, which are about 20 percent more expensive than regular UberX trips. But, according to the Uber website, the ridesharing service's Comfort offering also comes with a range of additional benefits, including requesting a specific temperature within the car (warm, hot, cool or cold) and giving passengers a bit of extra time to make their way to the vehicle (up to ten minutes). Drivers will also have a minimum rating of 4.85 and will have clocked at least 500 trips, and cars will be at least a 2013 model. It's certainly a sign of the times that ordering a conversation (or lack thereof) can now be done at the touch of a button, rather than in person. That said, pre-selecting quiet mode will stop the dreaded, always uncomfortable "I don't feel like chatting" convo before the uncomfortable silence, as well as awkward small talk. Uber Comfort is now available across Australia.
This week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the country could start relaxing some COVID-19 restrictions as early as mid-May, if certain conditions were met. But, according to one public health expert, festivals and big concerts could be off the cards until late 2021. In an interview with The New York Times Magazine in which five experts discussed what the reopening of America could look like, Dr Ezekiel Emanuel, vice provost for global initiatives and chair of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said he thinks larger gatherings "will be the last to return". "Larger gatherings — conferences, concerts, sporting events — when people say they're going to reschedule this conference or graduation event for October 2020, I have no idea how they think that's a plausible possibility," Emanuel said. "I think those things will be the last to return. Realistically we're talking fall 2021 at the earliest." This doesn't bode well for Californian festival Coachella, which has rescheduled for early October 2020. While the US has so far reported a total of 632,548 cases compared to Australia's 6468, it could still mean mass-gathering restrictions may not be lifted in time for the 2020 festival season Down Under. Australia's ban on non-essential mass gatherings of over 500 people was one of the first restrictions implemented — way back on March 13, 2020 — so could, if we're to work backwards, be one of the last lifted. [caption id="attachment_636279" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bec Taylor[/caption] Splendour in the Grass, which was meant to take place this July, is currently hoping to go ahead on October 23–25. Canberra's Spilt Milk, NSW's Lost Paradise, Vic's Meredith and Falls Festival all usually take place in November and December, too. And, even if Australia's mass-gatherings ban is lifted in time, festivals could be impacted by headliners not being able to enter the country, with Australia's borders currently closed. Splendour, for example, is set to host headliners The Strokes (US) and Tyler, The Creator (US). If festivals are impacted by COVID-19, it'll be the third year running in which the season has been marred. In early 2019, some NSW festivals were forced to cancel due to costs associated with the State Government's strict festival licensing regime, then, this summer, festivals — including Falls, Lost Paradise and Rainbow Serpent — were stopped by the country's devastating bushfires. Top image: Bluesfest by Andy Fraser
Introducing a must-do for dog owners who can't bear to be parted from their pooches: the Doggy Drive-In. The Village Cinemas in Coburg is welcoming all doggos for a chill night out at the movies on Sunday, June 9. Alright, so we can almost guarantee it won't be relaxing — no doubt the pups will run everywhere, sniff, snuffle, make friends, leave presents — and you won't have much time to sit and watch the movie. But dammit, there'll be so many pats to deliver. So for those of you who love dogs and movies and solid date ideas, this could be your perfect outing. They'll be showing an advance screening of The Secret Life of Pets 2 for extra cute points and there'll also be a photobooth (for dogs and their humans), doggy stalls, a pet farm (for more patting) and a heap of food trucks. The Canine Wellness Kitchen will also be there so even your pooch can enjoy some tasty snacks. Doors will open at 4.30pm — for plenty of pats and snacks — with the film commencing at 6.30pm.
Melbourne's west doesn't get as much love as it deserves. Too often we focus on the CBD and our inner northern, southern and eastern suburbs. But the crew behind Inner-West Sessions, a new monthly event series, is doing its bit to change that. On the first Thursday night of every month, a curated lineup of local DJs is spinning a broad range of beats at Footscray's new bar and performance space Misfits. Sometimes, Inner-West Sessions teams up with food and drink vendors and brings in artists working across different mediums, but music is at the core of every party. And it's not just about championing the big names. On both Thursday, July 4 and Thursday, August 1, the team is hosting a Freshman Roll Call session, which sees budding DJs play in front of a crowd for the first time and alongside seasoned veterans. It's a great opportunity for young DJs to get their names out there and for us punters to discover some new talent. Inclusivity, creativity and community are at the heart of each event. For the team that runs it, "[Inner-West Sessions is] a warm embrace by a collective of kindred spirits united by a love of the arts and a desire to connect". As of writing, the only Inner-West Sessions are happening at Misfits on the first Thursday night of every month, but there are plans to run events at other western suburbs venues throughout the year.
Singapore's Changi Airport is going all out this holiday season and giving travellers a rare reason to get to the airport early. In collaboration with Warner Bros, the airport has created a full-scale Harry Potter world, now open from November 16 through mid-February. The Wizarding World Holiday exhibition is spread across all three of the airport's terminals and brings to life some of the most iconic backdrops in the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films — think Hogsmeade Village, Diagon Alley, the Whomping Willow and Newt Scamander's Menagerie (which is depicted in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald). Wander through a snowy Hogsmeade Village where you'll catch sight of Zonko's Joke Shop, Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, the Owl Post and the Honeydukes sweets store. Or head to Diagon Alley, where visitors can dress up in Hogwart's school uniforms from Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and create a GIF in front of a 'magical' mirror. There are also spell-casting lessons and Quaffle toss competitions — which let you 'ride' a broomstick and practise your Quidditch skills. Limited-edition Harry Potter-themed travel merch will be on sale in duty free, too. Plus, a snow and lights show will take place in terminal three each day. We reckon this is your best excuse to book a trip to Singapore (or organise a layover through Changi) these holidays. Wizarding World Holiday is located in Terminal 1-3 at Changi Airport until mid-February, 2019.
With a buongiorno from the white-coat-clad waitstaff and a whirlwind of lunchtime customers, it feels as though you could be on the wide streets of Rome. Don’t be mistaken, however. Found at the top end of Bourke Street, Grossi Florentino Cellar Bar is a Melbourne institution. Nestled in next to the Grill and underneath Grossi Florentino Upstairs, Cellar Bar is the younger, more relaxed Grossi sibling. When you walk in, you'll find yourself in a busy, long dining room, with tables squeezed in together to make the most of the lunchtime rush. Bar stools and outdoor seating help to relieve the demand, but if you want a table, do your best to come early. The menu speaks fluent Italian, and it does it so well. The antipasto ($18) or sardine fillets with cauliflower caponata ($3.50) are perfect starters — but the real drawcard here is the pasta. With about nine on offer, flavours are varied. For something classic try the lasagne ($17.50), or the spaghetti vongole with clams, garlic, chilli and olive oil ($18). If you're looking for something sans meat try the tortellini with roasted pumpkin and fried sage leaves ($18) or the short pasta with ricotta, zucchini, pepper and parmesan ($18). Whichever way you decide to go, the pasta is cooked to perfection, and served simply and beautifully. The wine list, in true Italian style, is extensive and enticing. Start with something bubbly like the Mumm Champagne from France ($310 bottle). If white takes your fancy, sip a 2011 Peter Lauer Riesling from Germany ($85 bottle), or, if you’re in the mood for red, try the 2009 Poderi Colla Nebbiolo d'Alba from Piedmont Italy ($105 bottle). While the European influence is heavy, there is also a section dedicated to Italian varieties made here in Australia. These include Chrismont Prosecco from King Valley ($45 bottle), Sensa Cera Pinot Grigio from the Clare Valley ($40 a bottle) and Pizzini Nebbiolo from King Valley ($300 bottle). For early morning risers, Cellar Bar is open from 7.30am for breakfast. Keep things simple with porridge and honey ($10) and toasted sandwiches of ham, mozzarella and tomato ($10). If you’re looking for something more substantial, try the cipollata sausages with home-cooked baked beans and a fried egg ($16) or the venere rice pudding with poached peaches and mascarpone ($16). A little place full of warmth and charm, Grossi Cellar Bar will make you long for a trip to Italy.
With SPECTRE marking the now twenty-fourth film in the iconic James Bond franchise, it’s remarkable to think that not a single scene has ever been filmed in Australia. Now’s your chance, however, to show Bond’s producers what they’re missing out on by spending an amazing day living out the exhilarating, adventurous and exclusive lifestyle of its hero right here in your own home town. Bond’s long-term partner Heineken has teamed up with the boutique experience cultivators over at MrAristotle for a brand new project, The Catch. Throughout November and December, Heineken will be hosting exclusive SPECTRE 007 events that are so mysterious participants won’t know what’s in store until they’re suddenly whisked away and thrown right into the middle of the action right as it happens — like this one, where you and three friends will go into the running for a day that will earn you eternal bragging rights, give you a taste of the ultra-high life and make after-work drinks never quite feel the same again. Firstly, you’ll be picked up by your own private luxury helicopter and taken for an aerial tour of some of the city’s most famous landmarks. Next, your pilot will shuttle you and your team north along the coastline and over some of our most magnificent beaches until you arrive in a secret destination deep within the gorgeous countryside. Once down, a car will be waiting to ferry you to one of the region’s oldest pubs where you’ll enjoy a gourmet light lunch and a sampling of the local beers (and of course, ol' expat Heineken) while taking in the stunning surroundings. Then, your personal helicopter will be right there to take you and your friends back to town via the Olympic Village and over the glistening Harbour. To be in the running, sign up via the Heineken's The Catch website and have your mates locked, loaded and ready to move at a moment’s notice, because as any spy will tell you — you’ll never know when they’re coming for you, so you just have to be ready.
The Arab Film Festival in Australia is back for another year of features, docos and award-winning shorts from across the Arab world. It will first hit the Riverside Theatres in Sydney from August 17 through 20, then Cinema Nova in Melbourne from August 25 through 27. The festival will kick off in both cities with an opening night screening of Mahbas, a Lebanese culture clash comedy from first time filmmaker Sophie Boutros. Other standouts across the 11-film repertoire include Gaza Surf Club, a documentary from Palestine about surfers on the beaches in Gaza, and Ali, The Goat and Ibrahim, an Egyptian road movie about two friends (and a goat). Audiences in Sydney will also get the chance to catch a screening of Ali's Wedding, the critically acclaimed comedy from writer/star Osamah Sami, ahead of its nationwide release on August 31. After Melbourne, the festival will head to Canberra from September 1 through 2, then wrap up at Perth on September 9. To see the full program and schedule, head over here.
Whether you watched along from 2009–15 when it was in production or you discovered its joys via an obsessive binge-watching marathon afterwards, Parks and Recreation is one of the 21st century's TV gifts — and the beloved sitcom cemented its stars, from its lead roles through to its supporting parts, as audience favourites. Plenty of those talents also share something else in common: a fondness for touring Down Under. Nick Offerman has done it, taking to Australia's stages. Amy Poehler has made multiple promotional Aussie trips for Inside Out and Inside Out 2. Henry Winkler even headed this way to chat through his lengthy career. Now, add the latter's on-screen son to the list. Ben Schwartz, aka Parks and Recreation's Jean-Ralphio Saperstein, has a date with Melbourne in 2025. Don't be suspicious: Schwartz will be performing his Ben Schwartz & Friends live improv show, which begins with just a couple of chairs onstage. Where it goes from there, you'll only discover at Hamer Hall on Sunday, May 4, because that's the joy of improv. Schwartz isn't just known for Parks and Recreation, although that's the first thing on his resume that'll always come to mind for Parks fans. Since his time in Pawnee wrapped up — since he stopped being one of the woooooooorst people in the fictional Indiana town, that is — he's also starred in murder-mystery comedy The Afterparty, voiced a certain spiny blue mammal in Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, loaned his vocal tones to Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Invincible, and featured in Space Force and Renfield. Top image: Disney/Image Group LA.
In Martin Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life, 17 scenes encircle the play’s central character, Anne, a woman who is everyone; a child, a terrorist, an artist. It’s an unstable narrative that forms a seamless backdrop to the work’s meditations on 20th-century obsessions. Dennis Kelly’s The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas shares some aspects of this focus, but where the “attempts” of Crimp’s title are efforts at capturing the impossibility of fully knowing a person, here the ritual at the core of Kelly’s play is a systematic process of dread certainty, building up and destroying every atom of a man’s soul. Ritual Slaughter opens with the ambiguous voices of a sustained, direct-address prologue, one that maps out the early life of Gorge Mastromas with painstaking clarity; each sentence another pin in a butterfly’s wings. Even here at the beginning, Kelly’s writing makes organic, dizzying leaps between clinical detachment and stylised poetry. Somehow, the scope of his vision is exhaustive enough to enfold both microscopic detail and grand epic. While actor Dion Mills’ obvious relish for the text helps to keep this first, long section dynamic, the writer slyly introduces the play’s vein of jet-black humour and the uncertainties that begin to infect its narrators’ voices; the patches of time that “history does not record”. The twists and turns of Gorge’s deceit would spoil any retelling of the plot beyond this point, as the play enters a more conventional series of scenes between the central figure and other characters which hinge upon his constructed persona. The initial restraint in the production’s AV design pays off in the wrenching impact of the play’s first real revelation, with Mills and Olga Makeeva’s faces projected onto the stage itself, throwing up the collision between the play’s increasingly contradictory worlds of narration and action in stark, simultaneous relief. Here and throughout this Australian premiere at Red Stitch, director Mark Wilson and his actors embrace the ebbs and flows of the text’s slow-burning build to devastating effect. All of the ensemble cast are excellent, with Mills, Makeeva, Elizabeth Nabben and Richard Cawthorne joined by the company’s new graduate Jordan Fraser-Trumble. As Gorge, Cawthorne manages to wrap utter pathos in a magnetic physical presence, a combination that makes his character’s degradation hypnotising to watch. It’s all too tempting to explain away a play where the ravages of mindless financial expansionism are intertwined with literal and abstracted violence as overt, didactic commentary. Nietzsche wrote that “whoever thinks that Shakespeare’s theatre has a moral effect, and that the sight of Macbeth irresistibly repels one from the evil of ambition, is in error … He who is really possessed of ambition beholds this its image with joy; and if the hero perishes by his passion this precisely is the sharpest spice in the hot draught of his joy.” In this way, Ritual Slaughter is much more than a stern parable about the morass of unknowable forces that govern the flow of power and wealth worldwide. Kelly puts that darkness inside a man, and he squeezes. This is an intoxicating show, and bitterly rare among Melbourne theatre for a willingness to treat an audience as its equal. Pictured: Richard Cawthorne and Elizabeth Nabben. Image by Jodie Hutchinson.
For nearly a century, the Capitol Theatre has stood on Melbourne's Swanston Street — initially playing host to silent films that were preceded by live theatre productions before each screening, and also accompanied by Australia's first large Wurlitzer organ. First opening in 1924, it's a crucial part of the city's entertainment history; however since 2014, the space has remained closed. Owner RMIT is eager to change that, launching a crowdfunding campaign to restore the theatre and put it back into use. With $20 million in restoration and improvement works mooted, the university is seeking to supplement the Victorian Government's pledged $2.5 million with $2 million in public funding — with every dollar donated to be matched by RMIT. And, for folks who give $250 or more, their name will be featured on the building's wall. Running since late 2017, the campaign aims to "give Melbourne a spectacular and world famous space to house festivals, film premieres and screenings, concerts and conferences" — according to the appeal's website — plus learning spaces for RMIT students. It's the latest chapter in the theatre's eventful lifespan, which has seen it closed in the 60s, renovated to turn its stalls-level seating into the Capitol Arcade, and then remodelled again when RMIT took over in 1999. If you've ever stepped inside the space — which was used as a venue for the Melbourne International Film Festival as recently as 2014 — you will have noticed the decor. Designed by architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, who also designed the city of Canberra, its striking, geometric-shaped, light-filled ceiling attracts as much attention as anything on the venue's stage or screen. The entire structure, aka Capitol House, has been on the Victorian Heritage Register since 1989 — with the Capitol Theatre pre-dating both the nearby Forum and Regent Theatre. For more information, visit the Capitol Theatre campaign website. For images of the site, visit the campaign blog. Images: Michelleyesf / Stephen Bain / Adam Carr.
Adelaide's highly anticipated Harvest Rock Festival is fast approaching and music lovers around the country are starting to gear up for the jam-packed weekend event ahead. Set to take place at Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka and King Rodney Park / Ityamai-itpina, the festival will feature a seasoned lineup of international and local artists including headliner Jack White, The Black Crowes, Khruangbin, The Lumineers and more. While these live acts are what out-of-town fans will be travelling to Adelaide for, the City of Churches is also an excellent starting point for a number of incredible day trips. To help you out, we've gathered a list of spots for you to check out before or after the festival. From the scenic landscapes of Limestone Coast to the incredible wildlife of Kangaroo Island, these incredible locations will make you think twice about heading straight back home. [caption id="attachment_869635" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Louis Hoang (Unsplash)[/caption] ADELAIDE HILLS Less than a 20-minute drive from the city, Adelaide Hills is the perfect place to plan a boozy afternoon with friends. With more than 60 wineries calling the Hills home, you definitely won't run out of options during your time there. If you happen to be a foodie as well, a number of restaurants that serve quality produce await your arrival. Consider booking a table at the three-hatted Hardy's Verandah Restaurant, which features a refined four- or seven-course menu, as well as a multi-award-winning wine list, impressive sake collection and innovative cocktails. Or, you could opt to stop into Golding Wines and indulge in its excellent wood-fired pizza paired with a rich glass of local pinot noir. Adelaide Hills is a 15- to 20-minute drive from the city. [caption id="attachment_869645" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Luisa Denu (Unsplash)[/caption] FLEURIEU PENINSULA Whether you're looking to escape the city or immerse yourself in a one-of-a-kind culinary experience, the Fleurieu Peninsula has it all. Wine and dine in a cave nestled behind Maxwell Wines, or take it to the next level and embark on a Helivista helicopter tour for epic scenes of Fleurieu Peninsula's vineyards, beaches and coastline. Don't forget to take a dip in the strikingly blue waters of Gulf St Vincent — and if you're feeling adventurous, head into the caves of Second Valley by kayak. Fleurieu Peninsula is around a one-hour drive from Adelaide. [caption id="attachment_869648" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Sue Tucker (Unsplash)[/caption] KANGAROO ISLAND As November starts to warm up, bask in the South Australian sun while enjoying the white sandy beaches Kangaroo Island has to offer. Be sure to add Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park to your itinerary and say hello to some wildlife like koalas and kangaroos. Or, explore the underwater world with Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari and witness dolphins, seals, ospreys, sea eagles, wedge-tail eagles and more in their natural habitats. Another must-visit is Flinders Chase National Park, where you'll get to witness other-worldly landmarks like Admiral's Arch and Remarkable Rocks up close. Kangaroo Island is a 90-minute drive and 45-minute ferry ride — or a 30-minute flight — from Adelaide. [caption id="attachment_869652" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Mick Orlick (Unsplash)[/caption] BAROSSA VALLEY Barossa Valley is your one-stop destination for all things food and wine. Prior to sipping on 100-year-old Para Vintage Tawny at the historic Seppeltsfield Estate, we recommend stopping by Vasse Virgin Barossa – a brand that specialises in natural skin and body care products – and signing up for a DIY lip balm workshop, 60-minute natural perfumery workshop or olive oil masterclass. Get the full Barossa experience and make your way to the Barossa Farmers Market, which is teeming with local delicacies and produce you might not be able to find elsewhere. Barossa Valley is a 50-minute drive from Adelaide. [caption id="attachment_869655" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Mark Smith (Flickr)[/caption] CLARE VALLEY Besides its Instagram-famous pink lake (Lake Bumbunga), the historic Clare Valley is also known for its sublime riesling and diverse culinary scene. Take your wine obsession to the next level and sign up for a 45-minute interactive winemaking class at Knappstein Wines — the activity includes a welcome glass of riesling on top of a full tasting of the Knappstein range from the cellar door. Before driving back into the city, fill your stomach with bruschetta, a toastie or pizza from The Olive Bus, a quaint café and cellar door situated in an upcycled 1969 British Leyland bus. Clare Valley is around a two-hour drive from Adelaide. [caption id="attachment_869660" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Charles G (Unsplash)[/caption] LIMESTONE COAST If you're in need of a short break, unplug and unwind surrounded by Limestone Coast's natural wonders. Dive into the renowned Blue Lake — a once-active volcano that measures 72 metres deep into the ground — or appreciate the beauty of Mount Gambier's picturesque Umpherston Sinkhole. Conclude your day by treating yourself to a glass of red at Brand's Laira or a delectable paddock-to-plate experience at Mayura Station's Tasting Room. Limestone Coast is around a three-hour drive from Adelaide. Make the most of your time in Adelaide by ticking these destinations off the bucket list, as well as enjoying the festivities at Harvest Rock, which can be found at Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka and King Rodney Park / Ityamai-itpina, Adelaide, on Saturday, November 19–Sunday, November 20. Tickets are on sale now. For more details and to purchase tickets, head to the Harvest Rock website.
It can get pretty chilly in the depths of a Berlin winter. Just the thought of it makes me want to wrap up in woolly jumpers and cozy down with a cup of tea. Berlin commuters need brightening up on those grey days, and it's no wonder that art projects like this spring up. The video below documents how a group of guerilla knitters (disguised appropriately in hilarious knitted beards) installed a kaleidoscope of knitting in the carriage of one of Berlin's metro trains. The guerilla art practice is known as 'yarn-bombing' and is considered an easily-removed alternative to your garden variety spray can graffiti. The knitting in the Berlin U-Bahn carriage remained in tact for a day's circulation, after which it was removed by security. Three months of knitting, one hour of installation, a day's worth of cozy, woolly, technicolour joy – all gone. One of the artists said, however, that "I think we cheered up a fair amount of weary travellers on a gloomy January day!" https://youtube.com/watch?v=1XbdGkPCz8E [Via Wooster Collective]
When it comes to books, not everyone wants to completely embrace the digital age. The texture and smell of a book is something that no iPad or Kindle can copy. To help you embrace your love of books without breaking the bank this year, the Queen Victoria Market is bringing back its huge regular book market. If you ever visited Fed Square's packed book market, you'll know what to expect: this one's run by the same people. More than 5000 pre-loved and new books on every topic under the sun — from history to gardening, travel to art and literature — and a heap of secondhand vinyls will fill the market every Saturday and Sunday. This should make for some very happy browsing and even happier reading later on. Melbourne Book Market will make its home at the Queen Victoria Market again until the end of March. That means that you can head by from 10am–4pm every Saturday and Sunday until March 28 — other than March 13, because there's no market on that date.
Actual rain might be a bit of a drag, but this new immersive rainfall-inspired installation is anything but. Random International's famed captivating artwork Rain Room first made the trip Down Under in 2019, hitting St Kilda — and, after a COVID-19-inspired delay, it's returning again for the summer of 2020–21. It's a downright impressive piece of interactive art, too. Imagine the magical feeling of walking through a 100-square-metre field of continuous rainfall, without getting the slightest bit wet. Rain Room's water droplets are guided by responsive technology, ceasing to fall wherever they sense movement. It's a physical, multi-sensory experience that sets out to explore ways in which technology transforms relationships between humans and nature. Off the back of recent stints at Shanghai's YUZ Foundation, the LACMA in Los Angeles and at the Sharjah Art Foundation, Rain Room has hit Australia as a permanent part of the Jackalope Art Collection, presented in collaboration with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). The internationally acclaimed work has made its home in the Jackalope Pavilion, a pop-up purpose-built space on Acland Street designed by March Studio. A ticket will allow you to spend 20 minutes in the Rain Room. When it reopens on Saturday, December 5, you'll be able to head byWednesday–Sunday, with bookings required in advance. Only 12 people will be allowed inside at once, so you'll be socially distancing. You can also book a private session for you and 11 of your mates. First three images: Sharyn Cairns. Updated November 15, 2020.
The 2019 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade is fast approaching, with Darlinghurst's Oxford Street set to erupt in a colourful celebration of LGBTQI+ culture and communities, as it has for more than four decades. But Australia is home to more than one Oxford Street — and, this year, seven other roadways with the same moniker are getting into the Mardi Gras spirit, all thanks to a series of glorious rainbow sculptures. In the New South Wales town of Mittagong, Deep Lead in Victoria, Rockhampton in Queensland, East Bunbury in Western Australia, Port Pirie in South Australia, Berry Springs in the Northern Territory and East Launceston in Tasmania, eye-catching new Oxford Street signs have popped up. Each bears the street's name, of course; however the designs vary otherwise. A rainbow branching out of a puddle, a giant heart pierced by an arrow, a pink-frosted cupcake, twin flamingos, a unicorn and a giant stiletto all feature across the bespoke signs, as does a cockatoo and akubra-adorned clothes line named 'I'm Spinning Around' after the Kylie Minogue song you now have stuck in your head. The overall exhibition has been dubbed Signs of Love, and it's spearheaded by ANZ as part of their ongoing association with Mardi Gras. For those who'd like to take a gander at the installations but won't find themselves in their vicinity, they'll also be available to view on Google Street View from Wednesday, February 27. While only seven Oxford Streets around the country have had a makeover, an eighth sculpture is also on display at Bondi Beach in Sydney. And while it isn't as brightly coloured as its counterparts, it points to 123 Oxford Streets across the nation. Oxford Street sign titles and locations: New South Wales – 'Signs of Love', Bondi Park, Campbell Parade, Bondi. New South Wales – 'Eternal Flame', Oxford Street (corner Bourne Close), Mittagong. Victoria – 'Coming Out', Oxford Street (corner Battery Rd), Deep Lead. Queensland – 'Pink FlaminGo-Go', Oxford Street (corner Talford Street), Rockhampton. Tasmania – 'Love is Love', Oxford Street (corner Abbott Street), East Launceston. Western Australia – 'I'm Spinning Around', Oxford Street (Austral Parade), East Bunbury. South Australia – 'Turn the Party', Port Pirie Regional Tourism and Arts Centre. Northern Territory – 'We're Not in Sydney Toto', Oxford Road (corner Cox Peninsula Road), Berry Springs. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade takes place on Saturday, March 2 in Oxford Street and surrounding areas, Darlinghurst.
If your music tastes are a little more James Brown than James Blunt, Northside is the place to go. Carving out their musical niche in the genres of hip hop, soul and funk, this is the perfect spot to hunt down that old record you were after, or stop in while waiting for Trippy Taco to make your nachos. With a big focus on new and second-hand vinyl, Northside is a big hangout for DJs and industry types; owner Chris Gill even runs his own local record label. Head over with a group of friends for the free in-store gigs or chill out by yourself while spinning some old funk at the listening station.
Victoria's strict rules around social distancing and public gathering could be wound back in two weeks, Premier Daniel Andrews revealed in a press conference this morning, Monday, April 27. In the meantime, though, the state wants to test 100,000 Victorians for COVID-19, which would be the "biggest ever testing program in the state's history". While the number of new COVID-19 cases has dropped in Victoria and the country — with only one new case reported locally and ten nationwide in the past 24 hours — the Premier has said "we will not be easing any restrictions before May 11", which is when the second four-week state of emergency ends. Before they look at easing restrictions, the Premier says the the government wants data from the testing blitz to "double check" and "absolutely make sure" it has a handle on COVID-19. "With that data, with those test results, we'll have options to ease some of the restrictions that I know are frustrating and challenging and difficult, but restrictions that are working," the Premier said this morning. Exactly what restrictions could be relaxed come May 11 is still unknown, but the Premier has confirmed they'll be proceeding "carefully and cautiously". "It won't be a situation where we wind all the way back to before stage 1 [restrictions], but there will be options," the Premier said. The Premier and Victoria's Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton both urged any one with symptoms — even mild symptoms, such as a runny nose or scratchy throat — to come forward and get tested over the next two weeks. If you have symptoms and want to get tested, you can call the 24-hour hotline on 1800 675 398 or see what testing clinics are closest to you via the Victorian Government's website. There are currently 43 specialist testing sites across Victoria, but the government will also be launching new drive-through and walk-up clinics in the coming week, as well as new mobile screening clinics, which will head to homes and workplaces. https://twitter.com/VicGovtNews/status/1254576086957977606 Increased testing is one of the conditions outlined by Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier this month under which COVID-19 restrictions could be eased. Another one was a contact tracing app, which launched last night. With restrictions looking to remain in place until at least May 11, the Premier is telling Victorians in the meantime to "keep following the rules" and "get tested". To find out more about COVID-19 testing and find you local clinic, head to the Victoria Government's website. To find out more about the status of COVID–19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. Top image: Kate Shanasy
Melbourne is in the grips of a rotisserie renaissance and it's really no wonder — that stuff is delicious. Sure, Belleville and Henrietta's have been flyers of the chook flag in recent times, but the man who started it all original rotisserie chicken pioneer Philippe Mouchel. And yesterday he opened a brand new restaurant on Collins Street with — you guessed it — rotisserie chicken on the menu. There's been a void in the city since Mouchel's much-loved French restaurant PM24 (and his revered rotisserie chicken) ceased to disappeared in 2014. Now he's back and throwing the doors on his new venture Philippe (you gotta be your brand, right?). Philippe is designed to be a little traditional and a little modern, with a menu chock-full of decadent French staples such as foie gras, escargot and brioche — but the real star of the menu is still the chicken. The spit method used to cook rotisserie chickens locks in juice and wraps it in a crunchy, charcoal coat. Mouchel's rotisserie consists of breast and thigh cooked two ways and served with natural jus, potatoes and mushrooms. The venue has been tszujed by Crosier Scott Architects and the reno includes a chic zinc bar with black steel shelving, leather bench seating and a lush green wall overlooking the venue. Tres chic and the perfect environment to sip some champers and slam down a hefty serve of juicy rotisserie chook. Philippe opens today, June 23 at 115/117 Collins Street, Melbourne. It will be open for lunch Monday to Friday, and and dinner Monday to Saturday. FOr more info, visit philipperestaurant.com.au.
The term 'live art' has always been a bit deliberately vague. Popping up on festival programs for years now, you never quite know what to expect going in. Some kind of experimental theatre? Will you have to participate? It could just be some kind of installation piece — something seemingly innocuous that takes on a new meaning when you stand alongside it. But as of March next year, this wild card of a genre will be stepping into the spotlight. Australia's first dedicated Festival of Live Art has been announced. It will be no small affair either. Brought to us by the talented people at Arts House, Theatre Works and Footscray Community Arts Centre, FoLA will encompass over 35 events over nearly two weeks in four suburbs around our diverse city. According to the first festival announcement there will be performances in the street, on the website, and even over the phone. An audience for each event will vary from a crowd of 200 to an intimate audience of one. Angharad Wynne-Jones of Arts House says the festival will also be a perfect opportunity to explore the direction of contemporary art as a whole. "[It's] a great way to cast a light on the art form breakers, the risk takers, the mavericks, the socially engaged and the determinedly experimental," she says. This is understandably a pretty large task, and the three organisers will be divvying up the work in curation. Opening weekend will be run by the Footscray folk and will kick off with an international keynote yet to be announced and a new annual symposium by artists Amy Spiers and James Oliver. The following weekend will be on northern turf at Arts House, and the final week will take audiences to the seaside St Kilda home of Theatre Works. Though the full program has not yet been announced, we do have some exciting work to look forward to. Performance artist Tristan Meecham will be bringing us a very special game show where 50 people with no performance experience compete on stage to win the host's own possessions. Edinburgh Fringe Festival Award winner Bryony Kimmings will be presenting a scathing satire of tween pop stars with her nine-year-old niece in Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model. Yana Alana will bring us a show from her bed (in the least dirty way possible), there will be art floating by the Yarra on your way home, and even an hourly performance event that features 24 live works over one long-haul day. Your favourites from this year's Sydney or Melbourne Festival may be popping up too. Tawdry Heartburn's Manic Cures (pictured) is already confirmed. In a 20-minute act that resembles a live-action Post Secret, performance artist James Berlyn takes audience members in one by one, paints their fingernails and exposes any secret they're keeping. Live art really is diverse. We're excited to see what else makes the cut. The full program for the first Festival of Live Art will be released on February 3.
Something delightful is happening at Melbourne's outdoor cinemas. After months spent empty, with projectors silent and the smell of popcorn fading, outside picture palaces have been given the green light to reopen — including the Coburg Drive-In, and the Lido, Classic and Cameo outdoor cinemas. 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 this year, 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 under the stars and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting outdoor cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer from this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gnTuWEKSXw BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC When it comes to goofy and sweet movie concepts handled with sincerity, the Bill & Ted franchise has always proven most triumphant. In 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, the big-screen comedy series introduced the world to Californian high schoolers Bill S Preston, Esq (Alex Winter) and Ted 'Theodore' Logan (Keanu Reeves), who are apparently destined to write the rock song that unites the universe — if they can first pass their history exam by travelling back in time in a phone booth to recruit famed past figures like Beethoven and Socrates to help, that is. The idea that Bill & Ted's affable, air guitar-playing slackers would become the world's salvation was a joke that the film itself was in on, and the movie struck the right balance of silliness, earnestness and affection as a result. So, the end product was joyous. And, it inspired two follow-ups: 1991's even loopier but still entertaining Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, and now Bill & Ted Face the Music's affectionate dose of warm-hearted lunacy almost three decades later. Bill (Winter) and Ted (Reeves) are back, obviously. They're older, definitely not wiser, and yet again take a few leaps through time. The fate of life as everyone knows it is still at stake. And, as always, the loveable pair's motto — "be excellent to each other" — is pivotal. Combine all of the above with marital malaise, chip-off-the-old-block daughters Theadora (Ready or Not's Samara Weaving) and Wilhelmina (Atypical's Brigette Lundy-Paine), multiple Bills and Teds, and a 77-minute deadline to write the tune the changes the future, and Face the Music saunters casually forward with a purposeful sense of familiarity. Thankfully, though, this film isn't merely trying to relive past glories. In fact, the very notion that some dreams don't come true sits at the core of this tender and loving movie. Naturally, it's a delight to see Winter and Reeves reprise their roles. They step back into Bill and Ted's shoes with ease, expertly conveying the characters' lingering immaturity, middle-aged malaise and ever-present kindness. They're also clearly having a blast as different versions of the duo, and their enthusiasm is infectious. But when Face the Music finds a plethora of ways to illustrate the merits of their characters' optimistic and warm mindset, it's at its best. Far from bogus, the heartfelt happiness it brings is 100-percent excellent. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC2dsAGvGy0 AN AMERICAN PICKLE If an early 20th-century Jewish immigrant found himself walking around in 2019, what would he think of the world? That question comes with a flipside, of course, because it's equally valid to wonder how today's folks would react in response. With Seth Rogen starring as a ditch-digging, rat-catching new arrival from Eastern Europe to Brooklyn, these are a couple of the queries pondered by An American Pickle. It's the latest in a long line of comedies that trifle with time while doubling as time capsules, and it falls firmly from a familiar mould. Indeed, seeing, examining and giggling at the contrast between century-old ways and contemporary ideas is a considerable part of the film. Not only that, but this Simon Rich-penned adaptation of his own short story Sell Out does all of the above broadly and blatantly — pointing out that big, bushy beards have become hipster beacons, for example, and that much has progressed since the 1900s. Consequently, there's no avoiding just how slight An American Pickle is. Its protagonist might fall into a vat of brine, get sealed in, then emerge in a new millennium, but this movie isn't diving deep. Thankfully, mixed up with all the obvious jokes are two thoughtful performances, both by Rogen, that help the film interrogate the push and pull between the past and the present in a moving fashion. He plays Herschel Greenbaum, a new arrival to US with his wife Sarah (Succession's Sarah Snook), after the pair leave their home of Schlupsk to escape Russian Cossacks and chase a better life — and he also steps into the shoes of app developer Ben Greenbaum, Herschel's great-grandson and only living descendant when he awakens in his preserved (and presumably extra salty) state. The two men are the same age, and look alike, but they sport differences beyond Herschel's facial hair and Ben's technological know-how. It's the usual generational divide, as instantly recognisable to everyone watching. But when An American Pickle lets its star shine, rather than gets weighed down with over-the-top clashes in the service of clearcut gags and satirical observations, this affable but also mostly forgettable film boasts heart and sweetness. It's oh-so predictable, but it also shows an understanding of how the past always leaves an imprint, the future needn't fastidiously be chained to tradition, and that everything old and all things new have a symbiotic relationship. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxZ774gziwU THE CRAFT: LEGACY Written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Zoe Lister-Jones (Band Aid), The Craft: Legacy is clearly the product of someone who knows and appreciates its 1996 cult-favourite predecessor. It's also the work of someone keen to pay tribute to the original — a horror-thriller about teen witches using and abusing magic to cope with high school's troubles — and embrace what she sees as its strengths, as well as redress its wrongs, update it for a new time and a new generation of teens, and verbally and visibly champion inclusivity at every turn. But it's possible for a 24-years-later follow-up to show affection, make some smart changes, move with the times and still feel like the remnants left in a cauldron. Or, for it to recall one of The Craft's famed moments — one that The Craft: Legacy recreates, briefly — in an unintended fashion. When this feature's coven play with levitation, the words "light as a feather, stiff as a board" aren't heard; however, by the end of the movie, they best describe everything that's just happened. Starting as its inspiration did, The Craft: Legacy begins with Lily (Cailee Spaeny, Devs) and her mother Helen (Michelle Monaghan, Saint Judy) arriving in a new town, to move in with the latter's self-help author boyfriend (David Duchovny, playing a character who has penned a book called 'The Hallowed Masculine') and his three sons. Navigating school, Lily soon finds herself taunted by resident jock and bully (Nicholas Galitzine, Share) — but she's also found by witchy trio Lourdes (Zoey Luna, Pose), Frankie (Gideon Adlon, Blockers) and Tabby (Lovie Simone, Selah and the Spades), who are looking for the west to their north, south and east. Rather than seeing these young women become consumed by their blossoming power, and also punishing those who refuse to conform, it's a welcome shift that The Craft: Legacy calls out the patriarchal norms and attitudes that routinely put teenage girls in that situation. And yet the film just seems happy enough to have made that switch, instead of giving it any true weight or substantial depth. It's light thematically, visually, tonally and emotionally, and it also sports a stiffness — as though it's trying so hard to be loose, open, breezy and upbeat that it actually proves bland, strained and wooden instead. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg4zGf3_F1Q RAMS It's easy to see how Australian filmmakers watched Rams, the 2015 Icelandic movie about duelling sheep-farmer brothers, and realised that they could bring its story Down Under. In fact, it's easy because director Jeremy Sims (Last Cab to Darwin) and screenwriter Jules Duncan (a feature first-timer) make certain that that's the case — ensuring that viewers can see every choice they've taken in giving the story the Aussie treatment. It's all to be expected, of course, but it feels not only overt but also calculating. Indeed, Rams often seems like a remake that only exists because someone gleaned just how simple it'd be to make it happen (and noticed that the Cannes prize-winning initial flick had picked up quite a following, too). It swaps the original movie's frosty blizzard for drought, heat and bushfires, and its Nordic scenery for Western Australian tourism brochure-style shots. It brings in a cast of familiar faces, spanning both beloved local talents (such as Michael Caton and Asher Keddie) and actors we've virtually claimed as our own (Sam Neill). It leans into Aussie dialogue, scenes in pubs, small-town stereotypes and larrikin behaviour, localising every element possible, while also sticking steadfastly to the bulk of its predecessor's main narrative details (as anyone who has seen the latter will swiftly spot). For decades, brothers Colin (Neill) and Les (Caton) haven't spoken. They lovingly tend to their flocks on adjoining properties, send messages to each other via sheepdog when absolutely necessary and cross paths at local livestock competitions, but a lingering grudge has long since soured their familial bond. Then Les wins the latest contest, Colin notices that the applauded ram might be plagued by a contagious disease, and the duo are forced to band together or face the complete decimation of the only lives they've ever known. Instead of thoughtfully unpacking a plethora of contrasts — between the central siblings, by juxtaposing their close proximity with their strained relationship, in both prosperous and struggling times, and in trying to control nature in various ways — this version of Rams struggles with balance. That includes its efforts to juggle quirky comedy with its more serious dramatic sections, and in offering thoughtful commentary on men coping with their emotions and rural communities battling tough times. Cast-wise, Neill fares best thanks to a lived-in performance, with Caton in stock-standard cantankerous mode, and British actor Miranda Richardson (Churchill, the Harry Potter franchise) wasted in a thankless supporting part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nf--afqelY ANTEBELLUM Watching the sprawling, roving and weaving single-take shot that opens Antebellum, it helps to know what the movie's title actually means. The term refers to a time before a war, and is typically used in relation to the American Civil War — but in the film's eye-catching introduction, it certainly seems as if that historical conflict is raging away. On a southern plantation, Confederate soldiers under the leadership of Captain Jasper (Jack Huston) terrorise the property's enslaved Black workers with brutality and cruelty. Attempted runaway Eden (Janelle Monáe) is one of them, and subject not just to beatings, brandings and forced labour, but also raped regularly by the general (Eric Lange) who has claimed her as his own. She's planning another escape; however, thoroughly unexpectedly given the surroundings, a mobile phone suddenly rings. Now Monáe's character is called Veronica Henley, she's a well-known activist and author, and everything about her life (including the conference in New Orleans she attends) is firmly set in the 21st century. Obviously, how Monáe's dual roles intertwine is best discovered by watching — as is the involvement of Jena Malone's (Too Old to Die Young) Elizabeth, the plantation's resident belle as well as a modern-day caller for Veronica — but Antebellum proves far less powerful and clever than it thinks it is. While first-time writer-directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz blatantly try to follow in Jordan Peele's footsteps, using horror to explore race relations in America both in the present day and in the country's history, their efforts rely so heavily on one big twist that the movie resembles M Night Shyamalan's lesser works more than Get Out, Us or TV series Lovecraft Country. In endeavouring to unpack systemic racism, there's a smart idea at the heart the feature. Visually, Antebellum's always-lurid, often-violent imagery isn't easily forgotten, and the film also boasts a masterly performance by Moonlight and Hidden Figures star Monáe. And yet, connecting all those pieces together feels more like an exercise in making a provocative genre film than actually saying something meaningful about engrained prejudice in the US — a topic that, sadly, continues to remain timely, but is treated here as stock-standard horror fodder. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYQzdhjHeIE&feature=emb_logo&mc_cid=ccf652e7a2&mc_eid=1628bbb5f5 HONEST THIEF Another Liam Neeson-starring movie, another bland action film with little else going for it beyond its main attraction. The genre must pay well, but it has sadly been years since the Irish actor's particular set of skills anchored a fist-flinging, chase-filled feature worthy of his talents. In Honest Thief, Neeson plays elusive bank robber Tom, who is also known as the 'in-and-out bandit'. A year after unexpectedly falling in love with psychology graduate student Annie (Kate Walsh) — and a year after he last indulged his pilfering urges, too — he decides to turn himself in to the FBI in exchange for a lesser sentence and the chance to make a real future. Answering his call, agents Baker (Robert Patrick) and Meyers (Jeffrey Donavan) are skeptical that he's actual the culprit. When their colleagues Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Hall (Anthony Ramos) are given the case, however, they take another approach that sees Neeson rushing around Boston and fighting for his life against corrupt, trigger-happy law enforcement officials. There's only one real surprise in store in Honest Thief, a movie that writer/director Mark Williams (A Family Man) and his co-scribe Steve Ullrich (The Timber) could've almost cobbled together using scenes from other Neeson action vehicles. No one is astonished that, despite being a bank robber, Neeson's character is the movie's hero. No one should expect anything unusual in its workman-like action choreography or by-the-numbers plot, either. But the fact that the movie also features a heap of well-known names and faces alongside Neeson — including The Umbrella Academy's Walsh, The X-Files' Patrick, Fargo's Donovan, Aussie Stateless star Courtney and Hamilton's Ramos — is a little startling. They're all wasted, because Honest Thief only tasks its other actors with giving Neeson someone to talk to, kiss, hunt down or flee. That's how generic this addition to his resume proves. Indeed, 2020 hasn't been great for Neeson fans, even with Made in Italy (see below) eschewing action for father-son bonding. His most recent great roles might've only been back in 2016 and 2018, courtesy of Silence, Widows and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, but they currently seem like a distant memory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2RqzDC6gF4 MADE IN ITALY In Made in Italy, Liam Neeson and his real-life son Micheál Richardson (Vox Lux, Cold Pursuit) recreate their relationship on-screen. In another case of art imitating life, they also play a parent-offspring pair still struggling to cope with the loss of the former's wife and the latter's mother after a tragic accident — with Neeson's partner and Richardson's mum, aka actor Natasha Richardson, passing away following a skiing incident in 2009. But, while this romantic drama's stars might've enjoyed a leisurely trip abroad to relive a situation that's close to their hearts in an immensely scenic location, and get paid for it, Made in Italy isn't a personal or even a sensitive and moving film. If only it was. The feature directorial debut of actor-turned-filmmaker James D'Arcy (Dunkirk, The Snowman), if only it offered anything other than a bland, by-the-numbers tale about two men blighted by grief, forced to confront their issues and pain, and eventually learning how to move on. Neeson plays Robert, a famous artist who is barely a part of his curator son Jack's (Richardson) life. They're brought together out of necessity, after Jack's soon-to-be ex-wife threatens to sell the gallery he has devoted his career to, leaving him in need of cash — and fast. His solution: to fix up and sell the Italian villa that he inherited from his mum, although his dad also owns half of the property. Cue family dysfunction unfurling in gorgeous surroundings, a stock-standard romance between Jack and a local chef (Valeria Bilello), and a very forgettable appearance by the great Lindsay Duncan (The Leftovers, Sherlock, Le Week-End) as a matter-of-fact real estate agent. As nice as it is to see Neeson in something other than a routine action flicks (see above), here he's in bland and limp as well as unengagingly generic territory. The Italian countryside does look mighty spectacular, naturally, but that really shouldn't be the movie's main and most substantial drawcard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy32-KCnexo THE SECRET GARDEN When The Secret Garden first reached the page as a serialised story in 1910, author Frances Hodgson Burnett couldn't have known how relevant her tale would feel 110 years later. Obviously she'll never know, as she passed away in 1924 — but if there was ever a time for a new big-screen version of this beloved children's favourite about escaping life's woes by banding together, making the most of things and enjoying the pockets of nature at hand, it's 2020. Indeed, while this new cinematic iteration was actually due to hit screens earlier this year, which means that it was made pre-pandemic, it firmly strikes a chord in these strange times. Whether you loved the book when you were much smaller, you can barely remember it, or you're more familiar with the narrative from the 1993 movie, a lavishly shot fantasy about a unhappy girl plagued by tragedy yet finding solace in the titular space couldn't be more fitting right now. The narrative, for those who need a refresher, focuses on the pre-teen Mary (Dixie Egerickx, The Little Stranger) — who swiftly segues from from living in India under British rule to being sent to the Yorkshire moors to stay with her reclusive uncle (Colin Firth) when her parents are killed. She's bratty, spoiled and far from content about the new arrangement, but wandering the estate's sizeable grounds soon brings her to a hidden patch of greenery. Under the direction of TV veteran Marc Munden (Black Sails, National Treasure), this version of the tale takes place after the Second World War, but that's not the only change. It relays the same overall details, but it also leans into the darkness and gothic drama of the material in a firm and noticeable way. Perhaps that's another reason why it also feels apt for viewers young and young-at-heart — because overcoming loss, misery and struggle always comes with a sense of weight and, amidst its expected leafy sights and general childhood wonder, this take on The Secret Garden never forgets that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bovE44LgBv0 AFTER WE COLLIDED The worst movie of 2019 now has a sequel, and it's on track to claim that exact same title in 2020. Originally penned as Harry Styles fan fiction, the After series takes a leaf out of Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey's books by holding up a thoroughly toxic relationship as the ultimate in epic romances — this time focusing on the on-again, off-again exploits of two college students. In After, Tessa Young (Josephine Langford, the Wolf Creek TV series) and Hardin Scott (Hero Tiffin Fiennes, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) met, opposites attracted and a hot-and-heavy affair kicked off, although the rebellious Hardin sought after the virginal Tessa with shady intentions. Accordingly, when After We Collided meets back up with the duo, they're no longer seeing each other. But the brooding Hardin is still unhealthily obsessed, and the supposedly smart and conscientious but actually overtly insecure Tessa can't help but make reigniting their bond the latest entry on her lengthy (and expanding) list of bad decisions. This time around, the plot uses Tessa's new internship as its reason for a fresh spate of terrible dialogue, as well as its source of drama. It's in publishing, in case 50 Shades didn't already spring to mind, and it's one of those fantasy jobs where the lowest person in the company's hierarchy gets their own office to sit around and read manuscripts in all day. Shameless and steamy wish fulfilment is exactly this franchise's aim, of course — but the big dream that author and After We Collided co-screenwriter Anna Todd pushes is constantly insulting, with the series repeatedly telling its audience that being loved by a moody, erratic bad boy, and taking the breakups, fights and stalking with the gifts and shower sex, is the ultimate fate. This sequel also throws a romantic rival into the mix, courtesy of Tessa's straight-laced colleague Trevor Matthews (Dylan Sprouse, twin brother of Riverdale's Cole Sprouse), and where that narrative strand goes proves as predictable as everything else in the film. Although he has Cruel Intentions on his resume, director Roger Kumble only adds superficial gloss and no signs of interest or excitement; however given that two more After books exist — After We Fell and After Ever Happy — it's highly likely two more movies will, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoCkWJGCG5c&feature=youtu.be UNHINGED When Russell Crowe was cast in Unhinged, more than a few folks must've had a giggle — including the actor himself. The New Zealand-born Oscar-winner was famously arrested back in 2005 for throwing a mobile phone, after all, so enlisting him to veer off the deep end while clutching onto a phone was surely done with some winking and nodding in mind. Unhinged isn't a comedy, however. Given its premise, narrative and tone, it really couldn't be. A predictable and pulpy road-rage thriller, this grimly generic, thematically questionable film by director Derrick Borte (The Joneses) and writer Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye, Disturbia) tasks a puffed-up, scowling, growling Rusty with chasing terrified single mother Rachel (Caren Pistorius) around an unnamed US city purely because his entitled, just-divorced psychopath character is unhappy about her lack of driving courtesy. Her supposed crime: beeping her horn after he doesn't move his giant 4WD when the traffic light turns green on a busy weekday morning. In terms of story, that's largely all there is to this flimsy B-movie-style film. Both main characters have relationship struggles in their recent past, and Rachel has a pre-teen son (Gabriel Bateman) and other loved ones to worry about, but Unhinged is more interested in a mood of menace than any real detail — although the fact that its relentless car chase and carnage scenes are all shot and edited in the same way, and therefore mostly look the same, hardly imparts any tension. Also firmly on the movie's agenda: trying to explain away its villain's homicidal behaviour with broad generalisations about the world being an angry place right now. Oh, and even suggesting that Rachel has a hand in causing the traumatic ordeal. Yes, really. Crowe flings everything he has into his one-note part, although his forceful portrayal was never going to patch over the feature's silly plotting, its murky and infuriating message, or the reality that this is a movie about a toxic middle-aged man terrorising a woman because he's certain the world owes him respect. He's memorable, undoubtedly, but Crowe is also nowhere near as impressive as he has been in the recent True History of the Kelly Gang and The Loudest Voice, either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvXgXQ6iro4 TROLLS WORLD TOUR Fuzzy-haired playthings turned into animated heroes, glitter fart clouds and cupcakes poop, and a lengthy list of earworm-style songs: that's what 2016's Trolls served up. It was loud, shiny and sickly sweet, but it also featured lively voicework from Anna Kendrick and standout handmade-looking visuals, which made the film's CGI look as if it had been made from felt and other crafting products. Naturally, the all-ages movie was a hit, like most flicks based on toys and simultaneously designed to sell more toys. So, it's to the surprise of absolutely no one that sequel Trolls World Tour now exists, and that it's once again using bright and bouncy visuals and a jukebox-musical style format to appeal to viewers young and old, and to spread a positive message — again, as efforts like this are known to. With Kendrick back as the perky Queen Poppy and Justin Timberlake once again voicing her best friend Branch, this follow-up returns to the first film's trolls as they learn that other creatures like them exist. They're not exactly the same, though, with different troll groups favouring varying styles of music — making Poppy's community the 'pop trolls'. Clearly, as the villainous Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) of the hard rock trolls tries to make the separate tribes assimilate under her preferred style of music, there's an overt message about acceptance on offer. It isn't subtle, and it's actually undercut by the fact that the different troll crews (including techno trolls, funk trolls, classical trolls and country trolls) are all given such blatantly stereotypical traits. But, once more, the film is lifted by its cast (complete with Sam Rockwell and Ozzy Osbourne), it's textile appearance and the fact that it actually works its ongoing medley of well-known songs into the story, rather than merely uses them as an easy distraction technique as many fellow Hollywood-made animated movies do.
An upcoming exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria will bring together the realms of high fashion and high art. Celebrating the extraordinary work of Dutch designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Artists will showcase some of the luxury fashion house's most iconic haute couture pieces, as it celebrates one of the most remarkable partnerships in the world of modern fashion. Running from October 21 through to February 26, 2017, the world-first exhibition has been developed by the NGV in partnership with Viktor&Rolf, under the curatorship of international guest curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot. In addition to the more than 35 original items, the exhibition will also feature the duo's upcoming work Dolls, a collection of antique dolls dressed in some of the pair's most memorable designs. "We are extremely excited to be working in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria on this exhibition and highlighting the craftsmanship involved in creating our wearable art," said Horsting and Snoeren in a joint statement. "It is an honour for us to bring our designs to the Southern Hemisphere." Collaborating for the first time in 1992, Horsting and Snoeren have long been renowned for their boundary pushing designs and experimental runway shows. Perhaps their most memorable showing was in 2003, when they teamed up with actress Tilda Swinton (of course) along with an army of Tilda lookalikes for their One Woman Show autumn/winter collection.
It's time you set your sights on the east coast because Aperol is coming to town in style with its Kombi Tour. The vintage, retrofitted 1976 Volkswagen van is back, chasing the sun with a road trip through some of Queensland's idyllic coastal towns — from Cairns to the perpetually stunning Whitsundays. The Kombi has been cruising around the southeastern corner of the state for the last month but is heading north for the rest of its tour, racing the winter chill and bringing the red-hot vibes along, too. There are five more stops on its journey before Aperol has to hang up its spritzes for winter. If you're in the area, chase the summer feeling and grab a delectable spritz while you still can. NORTHERLIES, AIRLIE BEACH The Kombi's next stop is Northerlies Beach Bar & Grill, just outside Airlie Beach. Aperol is stopping in for four weekends at the mellow beachside resort. Enjoy ice-cold Aperol Spritzes and exclusive specials — like the rosemary-infused Rosy Cheeks spritz — while taking in the gorgeous views of the salty waves crashing into the white sandy beaches. June 16–July 11, Northerlies Beach Bar & Grill, Airlie Beach. More information here. SALT HOUSE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL Get a taste of the tropics at Salt House in Cairns when the Kombi rolls in this winter. The iconic waterfront venue is also hosting a Food & Wine Festival on Saturday, August 5, which will see winemakers, distillers, brewers and producers descend on the locale and share their wares with attendees. Enjoy local produce while sipping on a refreshing Aperol Spritz — direct from the Kombi. Not able to make it on the festival weekend? Well, you're in luck because it will be at Salt House for four weekends. July 28–August 7, Salt House Food & Wine Festival, Cairns. Book tickets here. CAIRNS ITALIAN FESTIVAL The inaugural ten-day Cairns Italian Festival is the next stop for the brightly-hued vehicle — although it won't actually be moving from Salt House. The waterfront spot is one of the many venues taking part in the festival, so the Kombi will sit tight at the venue for the festival's weekend in July. You'll be snacking on traditional Italian plates, woodfired pizzas, gelato and more — all while sipping deliciously bitter Aperol Spritzes. Saturday, July 29, Salt House, Cairns. More information here. TASTE PORT DOUGLAS The next stop on the 2023 Aperol Kombi Tour is the Taste Port Douglas Food and Wine Festival, held at the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort. Experience (and then taste) the rich food culture of Tropical North Queensland as top chefs arrive to dazzle you with their inspiring creations. You know the drill: wash it all down with a perfectly chilled spritz from the Kombi. August 10–13, Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas. More information here. SHERATON, PORT DOUGLAS If five-star luxury eco-certified stays are on your to-go-to list in 2023, take yourself to the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort. This August and September, you'll be on the doorstep of two staggeringly beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites (the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest), plus you'll be perfectly placed for the freshest of spritzes when the Kombi hits the digs from Tuesday, August 8 till Monday, September 11. It'll be the ideal way to toast the end of winter and celebrate the coming of spring. August 14–September 5, Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas. More information here. For more information on the Aperol Kombi Tour, and to plan your road trip to one of its pit stops, head to the website.
Usually, Australia's own Four Pillars is busy filling our gin shrines — or gin shelves, gin sections of the liquor cabinet or wherever else you store your juniper-based spirits. But with its latest release, it wants you to pop a bottle in your freezer. Next time you want a gin martini, you'll be thankful that you did. Forget shaking or stirring — sorry Bond, James Bond — because with Four Pillars' new bottled cocktail, all you need to do is pour. It's made with gin, but it isn't just gin. Instead, it's a ready-to-pour Double Gin Martini. You simply add the olives (well, you'll want a glass to pour it into, too, obviously). This new bottled favourite features two Four Pillars gins: the savoury Olive Leaf Gin and the citrus-heavy Fresh Yuzu Gin. There's no vermouth, however, with the distillery opting for aromatic Lillet Blanc and Toji Daiginjo Saké, as well as yuzu bitters. The serving suggestion? Drink it cold — hence the use of your freezer — and in a glass that's just as frosty. Yes, that's your fuss-free spring and summer cocktails taken care of. If you're now hankering for a beverage, understandably, the new Double Gin Martini is available from the distillery's website for $60 per bottle, and also from Four Pillars' gin shops at its distillery door in Healesville and its Sydney Laboratory in Surry Hills. For more information about Four Pillars' Double Gin Martini, or to buy it from Saturday, October 1, head to the distillery's website.
Whatever kind of workout gets your blood pumping and pulse racing, it does your own health and wellness a big favour. Exercise: it's a wonder, and it's always recommended by doctors and health experts for a good reason. Your next stint of getting sweaty could assist others in need, too, however — and you can drop in to bend and stretch all day and night. 24-Hour Pilates for Mental Health makes its case right there in its name. Accordingly, KX in Richmond is hosting pilates classes for 24 hours to raise money for Lifeline's 24/7 support services. The sessions kick off at 7am on Saturday, July 22, and run in 50-minute blocks — with ten-minute breaks between each — all the way through to the next morning. Whether you're keen on the initial class, eager to join in on a Saturday night, wondering about 2am pilates or curious what the last session at 6am on Sunday, July 23 will be like, you've got options. Also, you don't need to be a pilates expert — all sessions are set at the beginner level, and cater to first-timers, casual attendees and seasoned pros alike. You'll pay $39 to head along, 100-percent of which will go to Lifeline. And why that fee? Because that's the average cost to fund one call to the organisation's support lines.
If you haven't got along to see Melbourne Now yet, you've been missing out. As the largest exhibition in the NGV's history, it's not only doing huge things for contemporary art, but also for the city of Melbourne at large. Now, from February 28 onwards, Melbourne Now will be supporting Australian music too with the inclusion of a late-night program featuring some amazing local indie bands. The initiative, Friday Nights at Melbourne Now, follows on from last year's successful Friday Nights at Monet's Garden and features a stellar line-up of bands you would usually be paying $20 entry for at The Corner. For four consecutive Fridays, the NGV will be graced with the good vibes of World's End Press, Big Scary, Brighter Later, and Hiatus Kaiyote on a pop-up stage in the Great Hall of the NGV International. There will also be pop-up talks from artists, late-night access to the exhibition, and a range of food and drink offerings to tide you over for the evening. Better yet — the shows will be completely free. Get down to the NGV on February 28 for World's End Press, March 7 for Big Scary, March 14 for Brighter Later or March 21 for Hiatus Kaiyote. The full exhibition, Melbourne Now, will be on display at both the Ian Potter Centre and the NGV International until March 23. Image credit: McLean Stephenson
Standing in front of a wavy ocean, watching rain fall and just staring at a body of water are some of life's most calming experiences. That said, simply soaking in their beauty is difficult to do when you start thinking about the fragile environment that's responsible for all three. In digital installation Shifting Surrounds, Yandell Walton combines nature's majesty and the eco-reality — with her display contemplating the planet's shifting environments, as caused by climate change Launching as part of the ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2019 festival, presented with the Centre for Projection Art and on show at The Substation until Saturday, July 20, Shifting Surrounds also aims to shine a light on humanity's connection with ecological and physical systems, the current technological climate and just what is rapidly altering our world. It also examines the idea of earth entering a new geological age, called the Anthropocene. Basically, consider it eye-catching food for thought. Developed by Walton across a series of onsite residencies over 2017–18, Shifting Surrounds also lives up to its name in another way, too. The installation responds to the architecture of the building, so prepare for quite the immersive sight. Image: Matthew Stanton.
