UPDATE, December 14, 2020:Marriage Story is available to stream via Netflix. Talk about a bait-and-switch. Marriage Story opens with Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) penning tender, generous prose about each other, explaining why they fell in love and built a life together. As they speak, writer/director Noah Baumbauch pairs their praise with glimpses of the New York-based couple's romantic highlights. But these aren't love letters. Rather, as viewers disconcertingly discover, they're part of a pre-divorce therapy exercise. And while Marriage Story does indeed tell the tale of the pair's marriage, this devastatingly astute and empathetic drama does so within a portrait of their relationship's dying days and its rocky aftermath, particularly focusing on the custody battle over their young son Henry (Azhy Robertson). 'Talk' is a keyword here. It's not by accident that Baumbach starts his 12th film with two hearty, revelatory monologues — the first of many. Chatter has often played a large part in the acclaimed filmmaker's movies, with his characters exposing their woes and shortcomings with a sea of words — and his actors, including the astonishing Johansson and Driver here, benefit from meaty, multifaceted roles as a result. Greenberg's titular grump, Frances Ha's buoyant but directionless twenty-something and The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)'s feuding family members all fit the above description. Everyone in While We're Young and Mistress America, too. In his ever-perceptive way, Baumbach hones in on figures whose lives are a shambles, then watches as they natter their way forward — revealing their fragile core while revelling in the minutiae of their existence. Nicole moves back to Los Angeles and tells her new lawyer (Laura Dern) about frustrations she hasn't dared voice in years: about being a rising Hollywood commodity who married an experimental theatre wunderkind, putting her wants and needs on hold, and feeling like Charlie was always directing their lives. And, as she does so, we don't just hear her story — we also learn about who she is, what she holds dear and where her path might lead, all while we listen and watch. When Charlie tries to juggle making the leap to Broadway for the first time and jetting back-and-forth to LA to see Henry, we go through the same process with him as gets annoyed with Nicole's decisions, pinballs around town, yet hardly makes the most of his time with his son. Marriage Story overflows with these kinds of scenes. The movie's duelling monologues basically continue from the outset, even when Nicole and Charlie are talking to others, or singing (which they both do) — and even when they're not saying a word. Taking the audience through these moments, and through the couple's clearly tumultuous times, Johansson and Driver are exceptional. It's through their achingly realistic work, and their way with Baumbach's witty and incisive script (and, yes, its words) that Marriage Story comes alive. Between this, his excellent performance in The Report, and standout turns in The Dead Don't Die and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Driver is having a fantastic year (and Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker isn't even out yet). Meanwhile, demonstrating that she's acting's successor to the great Annette Bening, Johansson makes her biggest on-screen impact since the trio of Lucy, Her and Under the Skin. The two aren't just impressive — they make you feel Nicole and Charlie's ups and downs and, especially, the raw uncertainty about their new futures. And, they'll likely earn a string of well-deserved nominations and awards for their efforts, as should Dern as one of the uncompromising figures caught in the middle. (Ray Liotta and Alan Alda are also memorable as the legal eagles in Charlie's corner.) These are all sharp, layered performances that fill a big screen — perhaps a contentious point given that Marriage Story was funded by Netflix, and plays in cinemas before hitting the streaming platform in a few weeks. It might seem counterintuitive, but Baumbach's intimate, dialogue-heavy films and their accompanying portrayals soak up the light and room that a larger canvas provides, as if the director is putting his scenarios and characters under a magnifying glass. (He is, of course; that's what movies do.) His naturalistic imagery, lensed here by the visually talented Robbie Ryan (I, Daniel Blake, American Honey, The Favourite), also relishes the heftier format, laying bare the everyday interiors that fill the feature's frames, as well as the space that frequently blankets its protagonists. Indeed, in the movie's biggest confrontation, to watch Driver and Johansson go head-to-head against the beige walls of the west coast apartment Charlie doesn't even want to be renting is to witness the heart and soul of Marriage Story. Two people, ordinary surroundings, relatable circumstances, a whole lot of talk and a mess of whirling emotions — that's this shattering but phenomenal drama in a nutshell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHi-a1n8t7M
From its opening scene, Terminator: Dark Fate succeeds in its most important mission: to go back in time and kill off every Terminator movie that came out after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It's not that the subsequent films were awful (well, maybe Genysis), but their heart-pumping action scenes and lore-developing stories couldn't capture the complexity of the 1984 original and its 1991 sequel. They also lacked two other key components: writer/director James Cameron, as well as Linda Hamilton's version of kick-ass hero Sarah Connor. In Terminator: Dark Fate, they both return, with Cameron producing and helping come up with the story, and Hamilton raising hell as the gun-blazing terminator of terminators. We just wish that the latter had been more of a surprise. Blame the trailer — which not revealed the film's two biggest and best character reprisals, but also almost every one of its key action moments. That's Dark Fate's biggest mistake, because none of these parts of the movie needed to be teased. Terminator is one of those rare and fortunate franchises in the enviable position of owning its audience's heart and soul. Like Star Wars, Die Hard and Harry Potter, fans of the originals can't stop seeing these films, even if their love keeps waning with each increasingly disappointing sequel. As a result, what would've rated as genuine "no... fucking... way!?!" scenes in Dark Fate are rendered entirely anti-climactic, sucking the oxygen out of every prior moment as soon as you realise "oh, this is when Sarah rocks up". And yet, while Dark Fate's best moments fail to hit home as they might otherwise have done, the sixth instalment in the Terminator series still has a lot going for it. First and foremost, director Tim Miller (Deadpool) keeps the cast noticeably small, with just five main characters and only a few minor supporting roles. The first three are all franchise newbies, each holding their own against the veterans. Dani (Natalia Reyes) is a young Mexican girl who finds herself the target of a whole different kind of terminator called the Rev-9 (a terrific Gabriel Luna). Standing in its way is an augmented human named Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a soldier sent back from 2042 to protect Dani — just as Michael Biehn's character was in the first film. Indeed, much of Dark Fate plays out in familiar territory. Like the first two Terminator pictures, it's primarily a chase movie, with some scenes feeling almost too samey (the freeway pursuit sequence, for example, except this time it features a bulldozer instead of a semi-trailer). Where the film shines, though, is in its returning stars: Hamilton's Sarah Connor and Arnie's iconic T-800 'Model 101' terminator. Hamilton, in particular, reminds us how effortlessly she can be a total badass without it ever feeling forced or exaggerated — and even leaves you annoyed that more films haven't capitalised on this fact over the last 30 years. In contrast, Arnie's return is entirely different to his previous turns in the role. The trailers haven't spoiled that side of things, at least. So we'll say no more, except to note that all the CGI in the world still can't match the menacing simplicity of an exposed metallic eyeball or finger, and it's great to have him — and them — back. For those wondering how this story can even exist given the events of previous instalments, Dark Fate does a nice job of answering its own temporal conundrums. On that front, there's a genuinely unsettling edge to the idea of an inevitable apocalypse caused by human hubris and irresponsibility. Whether research companies, the military or tech startups play an influential part, the suggestion that our actions always eventually culminate in the creation of a mechanical monster seems to echo louder in the mind every time news arrives of another breakthrough in automation and artificial intelligence. "Skynet is coming" used to be an easy punchline, but these days it feels more like a warning — and Dark Fate neatly plays around in that space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdivOFoF8-g
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. ZOLA It wasn't just a Twitter thread — it was the Twitter thread. Whether you read Aziah 'Zola' King's viral 148-post stripper saga live as it happened back in October 2015, stumbled across the details afterwards as the internet lost its mind or only heard about it via Zola's buzzy trailer, calling this stranger-than-fiction tale a wild ride will always be an understatement. Its instantly gripping opening words, as also used in Janicza Bravo's (Lemon) savvy, sharp, candy-hued tweet-to-screen adaptation, happen to capture the whole OMG, WTF and OTT vibe perfectly: "you wanna hear a story about how me and this bitch fell out? It's kind of long, but it's full of suspense." In the film, that phrase is uttered aloud by Zola's eponymous Detroit waitress (Taylour Paige, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom). Still, the movie firmly embraces its origins. For those wondering how a filmmaker turns a series of tweets into a feature, Bravo handles the task with flair, energy, enthusiasm and a clear understanding of social media's role in our lives. Much of the phrasing that the real-life Zola used has made its way into the conversational script, which was co-written by playwright Jeremy O Harris. Each time that occurs, the film echoes with tell-tale swooshes, whistles and dings. But those words and alerts are just the starting point; as Zola's chaotic narrative unfurls, it comes to life with a mix of the hyperreal, the loose and the dreamy. It doesn't merely tell a tale taken from the tweetstorm to end all tweetstorms, but also uses every aesthetic choice it can to mirror the always-on, always-posing, always-sharing online realm. The other person that Zola refers to in her initial statement is the cornrow-wearing, blaccent-sporting Stefani (Riley Keough, The Lodge), who she serves at work, then joins on a jaunt to Florida. They immediately hit it off, which is what inspires the invite to head south — a "hoe trip" is how Zola describes it — however, what's meant to be a girls' getaway for a stint of lucrative exotic dancing in Tampa soon gets messy. The drive is long, and Stefani's boyfriend Derreck (Nicholas Braun, Succession) quickly dampens the mood with his awkward, try-hard schtick. Then there's X (Colman Domingo, Candyman), who, while introduced as Stefani's roommate, is actually her pimp. Trafficking Zola into sex work is the real plan of this working holiday, she discovers, but she's ferociously adamant that she won't be "poppin' pussy for pennies". As the woman both relaying and riding Zola's rollercoaster of a story, Paige is fierce and finessed. It's a tricky part; making the dialogue sound authentic, and also like it could've just been rattled off on social media with a mix of emojis and all caps, requires a precise tonal balance, for starters. So does ensuring that Zola always feels like a real person, especially given the tale's ups and downs. That said, Paige is guided by Bravo at every turn, with recognising how things play online and how they pan out in reality — and the frequent disconnection between the two — one of the filmmaker's biggest masterstrokes. That's exactly what a flick that's based on a Twitter thread should offer, rather than just mining posts for punchy content that's already proven popular. Using the platform as source material definitely doesn't equal an endorsement here. Instead, it sparks a brash and bouncy feature that interrogates its inspiration and the mechanism that turned it into a whirlwind, rather than serves up a cinematic retweet. Read our full review. LAST NIGHT IN SOHO Edgar Wright must own a killer record collection. Weaving the perfect playlists into his films has ranked high among the British writer/director's trademarks ever since he made such a horror-comedy splash with Shaun of the Dead, and his own love of music is frequently mirrored by his protagonists, too. This is the filmmaker who set a zombie-killing scene to Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now', and had characters wield vinyl as weapons. He made zoning out the world via iPod — and teeing up exactly the right track for the right moment — a key trait of Baby Driver's eponymous getaway driver. Earlier in 2021, Wright also turned his avid fandom for Sparks into his delightful first documentary The Sparks Brothers, because wearing his love for his favourite songs on his sleeves infiltrates everything he makes. So, the fact that his second film of this year is about a giddy devotee of 60s tunes really doesn't come as the slightest surprise. Last Night in Soho takes its name from an era-appropriate song that gets a spin in the film, naturally. It boasts a cleverly compiled soundtrack teeming with hits from the period, and has one of its central figures — called Sandie, like singer Sandie Shaw, who croons '(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me' on that very soundtrack — seek chanteuse stardom. As Wright is known to do, his latest movie also sports sequences that could double as music videos, and possesses a supple sense of rhythm that makes his picture virtually dance across the screen. It's a feature shaped by music, made better by music, and that recognises that music can make anyone feel like they can do anything. A partly swinging 60s-set thriller that adores the giallo films of the time with equal passion, it also flits between a cinematic banger on par with the glorious tracks it peppers throughout and the movie equivalent of a routine needle drop. Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield: these are the kind of talents that Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie, The Power of the Dog) can't get enough of, even though she's a Gen Z aspiring fashion designer; they're also the type of stars that aforementioned blonde bombshell Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen's Gambit) wants to follow onto London's stages. Last Night in Soho starts with its wannabe fashionista, who's first seen donning her own 60s-inspired designs in her Cornwall bedroom that's plastered with posters and pictures from the period, and also dancing to 'Peter & Gordon's 1964 track 'A World Without Love'. Soon, Eloise is off to college in the big and, hopefully, working towards the fashion world. Then she meets Sandie, but only in her dreams. Actually, as she slumbers, she becomes Sandie — and navigates her chiffon-adorned quest for stardom, her breathy 'Downtown' covers and her thorny relationship with slippery bar manager Jack (Matt Smith, Official Secrets). Some of Last Night in Soho's most dazzling scenes play with these doppelgänger characters, and with the time-travelling dreamscape where they both exist, as if Wright is helming a musical. The choreography — both by McKenzie and Taylor-Joy, playing chalk-and-cheese roles, and by the film's lithe and glossy cinematography — is stunning. The effect is mesmerising, as well as whip-smart in tapping into the feature's ongoing musing on identity. This is also a horror movie and a mystery, however, so exploring what's behind these nocturnal visions is the primary focus. As a mousy girl bullied by her roommate (Synnøve Karlsen, Medici) to the point of leaping into the too-good-to-be-true Soho attic studio leased by the cranky but obliging Ms Collins (Diana Rigg, Game of Thrones), it's easy to see why Eloise flees into her dreams. But the who, what, why and how of it all — when and were clearly being answered already — isn't as simple as pure retro escapism. Read our full review. BLUE BAYOU Blue Bayou isn't Justin Chon's first film as an actor, writer, director or producer, but it's a fantastic showcase for his many talents nonetheless. It's also a deeply moving feature about a topical subject: America's immigration laws, which are complicated at best and draconian at worst. Worlds away from his time in all five Twilight flicks — because Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Anna Kendrick aren't the franchise's only breakout stars — Chon plays Antonio LeBlanc. While the Korean American tattoo artist has lived in Louisiana since being adopted as child, the name he was given upon his arrival in the US still sparks cognitive dissonance, as the job interview that opens the movie illustrates. It also doesn't stop both the casual and overt racism frequently directed his way, or the deportation proceedings that spring after he's accosted in a supermarket by New Orleans police officers. Helming and scripting as well as starring, Chon layers Antonio's situation with complexity from the outset. He's getting by, just, but his criminal record makes it difficult to secure more work — which he needs given his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander, The Green Knight) is pregnant. He's a doting stepdad to her daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske, Doom Patrol), but her birth father Ace (Mark O'Brien, Marriage Story) is one of those aforementioned cops. Also, Ace has a bigoted partner, Denny (Emory Cohen, Flashback), who makes antagonising Antonio his daily mission. And, after that grocery store run-in, the latter discovers that his adoptive parents didn't ever complete the paperwork required to naturalise him as a US citizen. His life, his wife, his kids, that he has no ties to Korea: sadly, it all means nothing to the immigration system. Based on the plot description, it'd be simple to accuse Blue Bayou of throwing too much at its protagonist, dialling up his hardships and wallowing in his misery, all to tug at heartstrings. The film inspires a strong emotional reaction; however, this isn't just a case of calculating narrative machinations manipulating viewers to feel everything — or even something. There's a sense of inevitability to Chon's feature, his fourth after Man Up, Gook and Ms Purple, and it's all by design. The path that Antonio's life is forced down isn't surprising, complete with tough truths and heartbreaking realities, but it's filled with authenticity. Piling on misfortune after misfortune isn't merely a ploy when all of Blue Bayou's dramas can easily accumulate as they do here, and when no one's struggles are ever limited to just one or two troubles. There's no contrivance in sight, but rather a firm understanding of snowballing sorrows and their overwhelming impact. Still, Chon walks a delicate tightrope. He could've veered into tear-wringing movie of the week-style melodrama, clogged it up with cliches and failed to evoke even a single genuine feeling — or, alternatively, he could've deployed too much restraint and crafted a clinical, procedural film that saw Antonio as a mere cog in a system. The space he's carved out in-between is both masterful and organically messy; finding the right balance is a mammoth task, and embracing the whirlwind that sweeps along Antonio, Kathy and Jessie is inherently chaotic. The result is a stirring and empathetic film that's also precise and intricate, especially when it comes to the emotional deluge weathered by its central trio. At every moment, Blue Bayou plunges viewers into their turbulent existence, sees their plight with clear eyes and acknowledges all that that encompasses. Read our full review. THE RESCUE It isn't the first movie about the Tham Luang Nang Non cave incident to reach screens, thanks to the underwhelming The Cave. It won't be the last project to focus on the 12 Thai schoolboys and their soccer coach who were trapped in the Chiang Rai Province spot for 18 days back in 2018, either. Ron Howard (Hillbilly Elegy)-directed dramatisation Thirteen Lives hits cinemas next year, a Netflix limited series executive produced by In the Heights filmmaker John M Chu is also set to debut in 2022 and, to the surprise of no one, more are bound to follow. Still, The Rescue earns another worthy honour. The documentary isn't just an inspirational recounting of a miraculous effort that thwarted a potential tragedy, as told by the brave people who pulled off the feat, although it's certainly that. In addition, this gripping film falls into a genre that always needs more entries: celebrations of skilled people doing difficult things with precision, passion, persistence and prowess. If documentarians Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have a niche, it's this. As co-directors, the married couple has now made three films, all valuing hard work, expertise and when the former leads not only to the latter, but to extraordinary achievements. With 2015 Sundance award-winner Meru, they documented Chin's efforts with two other climbers to scale Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas. Then came Oscar-winner Free Solo, the exceptional doco about Alex Honnold's quest to free-climb Yosemite National Park's El Capitan. The Rescue swaps clambering up for diving deep, and hones in on an event that captured international headlines as it happened, but still belongs in the same company as the duo's past two releases. Here, viewers start the film with an understanding of what happened thanks to all that non-stop news coverage, but finish it in profound awe of the talent, smarts, dedication and unflinching competence involved. Vasarhelyi and Chin spotlight the divers who extricated Tham Luang's 13 unwilling inhabitants, aka the Wild Boars soccer team — and did so as the world watched, as hours became days and then weeks, and as monsoonal waters flooded the cave despite a desperate pumping initiative. Thai Navy SEALs initially attempted the task, yet struggled in the ten kilometres of sprawling and narrow tunnels. In fact, due to the murky water and the constant deluge from the fast-falling rain, they weren't able to get far. To assist, civilian hobbyists including Brits Rick Stanton and John Volanthen were brought in — experts in their field, and volunteers for the biggest diving quest of their lives. When their crew found the boys and their coach almost four kilometres from the mouth of the cave, they then faced another dilemma: how to get them back out alive. With its ending already well-known, The Rescue starts at the beginning, letting those who were there talk through each step, and also weaving in footage from the rescue mission itself. No re-enactments — not the small amount The Rescue uses, as noted in its credits; not The Cave's awful docodrama approach; and not all the future dramatisations set to flow from Hollywood — can ever be as nerve-wracking as seeing this remarkable feat actually happen. That said, the film's interviews are also significant. While the on-the-ground and in-the-water clips show the immense level of skill at work and the enormous dangers faced, the accompanying discussions offer keen insights into the thought processes involved. And, they draw out Stanton, Volanthen and their team's distinctive personalities, ensuring that these heroes are always flesh and blood. Read our full review. PHIL LYNOTT: SONGS FOR WHILE I'M AWAY One of the most astute things that a music documentary can do is lead with its subject, whether they're a household name the world over, deserving of more fame and acclaim, or fall somewhere in the middle. With Phil Lynott: Songs for While I'm Away, that's a tricky task, as it is of any film that looks back at a figure who is no longer around — and who didn't leave a treasure trove of candid and personal materials behind, as docos such as Amy, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck and Zappa all benefited from. Accordingly, editor-turned-director Emer Reynolds (The Farthest) undertakes a careful juggling act, pushing Thin Lizzy singer Lynott to the fore whenever and however she can. Songs for While I'm Away is still filled with talking heads that aren't Ireland's Black, working-class rockstar — his family members, friends, colleagues and peers alike — but it's at its best when it lets its namesake's songs echo and his on-stage presence take centre stage. "You'll never see a bad photo of Phil Lynott," Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham offers in a to-camera chat, a sentiment that the film bakes into its frames. Bearing witness to a great talent always casts a spell that merely listening to other people talk about them can never match, no matter how insightful and affectionate those discussions prove. Early in Songs for While I'm Away, Reynolds lingers on footage of Lynott singing and strumming, his piercing eyes instantly demanding attention — and that clip is the doco's hook, even for first-timers to his story. The soulfulness of his lyrics, many of which are placed into context by the film's interviewees, is just as entrancing. Sometimes the documentary resembles a listening party, pairing snippets of songs with stock visuals, then dissecting the tunes; however, in diving well beyond 'The Boys Are Back in Town' and 'Jailbreak' — the two songs that Thin Lizzy, and therefore Lynott, will always be best known for — it's a canny move. Still, Songs for While I'm Away has much to unpack: Lynott's upbringing, after being born in England to a mother from Ireland and a father from Guyana, then spending his childhood with his grandparents in Dublin; his path to music stardom, with Thin Lizzy's rock cover of 'Whiskey in the Jar' giving the group their first top-ten hit; and everything that sprang from that success personally and professionally. Early in the doco, Lynott's daughters Sarah and Cathleen stress how they wish people didn't focus so much on their father's death — in 1986, at the age of 36, from pneumonia and heart failure due to septicaemia after a struggle with heroin — and Reynolds takes their words to heart, too. This is a movie that's eager to soak up as much of Lynott, and what made him the star he was, as it possibly can. Indeed, with his addiction, it's positively shy; don't expect to even hear the word 'heroin'. That's another balancing act, and one that Reynolds doesn't quite perfect, opting for skirting around the obvious instead. A film can enjoy triumphs and recognise flaws at the same time — including when it comes to someone as pivotal in the history of Irish rock 'n' roll as Lynott — but Songs for While I'm Away eventually feels a tad safe and sanitised. It's celebratory from its first moment till its last, including when its smattering of equally famous faces, such as U2's Adam Clayton, Metallica's James Hetfield, Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News, and singer Suzi Quatro — who supported Thin Lizzy when they supported Slade on a 1972 UK tour — deliver anecdotes and admiration. This is a heartfelt ode, undoubtedly, and both an entertaining and engaging one, but it also dons rose-coloured glasses that feel at odds with Lynott himself. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on July 1, July 8, July 15, July 22 and July 29; August 5, August 12, August 19 and August 26; September 2, September 9, September 16, September 23 and September 30; October 7, October 14, October 21 and October 28; and November 4 and November 11. For Sydney specifically, you can take a look at out our rundown of new films that released in Sydney cinemas when they reopened on October 11, and what opened on October 14, October 21 and October 28 as well. And for Melbourne, you can check out our top picks from when outdoor cinemas reopened on October 22 — and from when indoor cinemas did the same on October 29. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Herself, Little Joe, Black Widow, The Sparks Brothers, Nine Days, Gunpowder Milkshake, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Old, Jungle Cruise, The Suicide Squad, Free Guy, Respect, The Night House, Candyman, Annette, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Streamline, Coming Home in the Dark, Pig, Big Deal, The Killing of Two Lovers, Nitram, Riders of Justice, The Alpinist, A Fire Inside, Lamb, The Last Duel, Malignant, The Harder They Fall, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, Halloween Kills, Passing, Eternals, The Many Saints of Newark, Julia, No Time to Die, The Power of the Dog and Tick, Tick... Boom!.
From French, Greek, Italian and Japanese to Jewish, British, Turkish and Russian, Australian cinemas have welcomed a vast array of cultural film festivals throughout 2017 — but they're not done just yet. Now in its second year, the Cine Latino Film Festival might be the last touring film fest of this year; however, it's here to help end the movie-going calendar with plenty of Central and South American cinema gems. This year's lineup includes Mexican rom-coms, Argentinian escape thrillers, Peruvian musicals and Chilean road movies, plus more from the festival's 26 film journey through everywhere from Uruguay to Cuba to Colombia to Ecuador. With the fest currently doing the rounds of Aussie capitals until November 29, we've picked five must-see movies from the jam-packed program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECe0jfpNLKc YOU'RE KILLING ME SUSANA Is it possible to put on a Latin American film festival without Gael García Bernal showing up somewhere? Based on Cine Latino's two outings so far, clearly not. After turning in one of the finest performances of his career in last year's Neruda, the Mexican star returns for You're Killing Me Susana. Swapping poetry, police and politics for marital dramas, he plays the suddenly solo Eligio, who wakes up to find his wife has left him and then follows her to the US — as based on the novel Ciudades Desiertas by Mexican writer José Agustín. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnIE6y5KBwY WINTER Winter may roam across an icy landscape but it's every inch the western, its frosty sights playing home to a classic tale of survival in an unforgiving location. Winning a special jury prize for its cinematography at last year's San Sebastian International Film Festival, the debut feature from writer/director Emiliano Torres follows an older worker forced to face his future when a younger counterpart starts taking over much of his foreman role. Like many a traditional oater, it values sparse dialogue and stunning sights to help thrust the story forward https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGBVKLIbDqk WOODPECKERS Set in a Dominican Republic prison, stemming from reality and shot on location, Woodpeckers genuinely tells a tale you don't hear every day. In fact, you likely haven't heard this tale before. While the idea of love trying to conquer the odds is far from new, the story of petty thief Julián (Jean Jean) and female inmate Yanelly (Judith Rodriguez) is immersed in a location-specific sliver of jailhouse culture. Here, in a moving and immersive effort, detainees communicate via their own form of forbidden sign language — also known as woodpecking — from their respective men's and women's facilities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hi2FH_afxs EL INCA Add El Inca to the pile of big-screen boxing efforts, and add it to the list of controversial films as well. In its homeland, the Venezuelan feature was taken out of cinemas as a result of a court order; however, that hasn't stopped it from becoming the country's submission for this year's foreign-language film category at the Academy Awards. Based on the plight of real-life two-weight world champion Edwin 'El Inca' Valero, the movie not only steps through his professional bouts, but also his personal troubles — including his relationship with his wife, and the tragedies that result. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdA1c1ujTs8 GABRIEL AND THE MOUNTAIN Gabriel and the Mountain might initially seem like a Brazilian version of Into the Wild, but this Cannes Critics Week standout delves deeper as it tells its own true tale. With spectacular visuals providing quite the backdrop, this blend of recreation and reality charts traveller Gabriel Buchmann's quest to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. He's played by an actor, João Pedro Zappa; however the film pairs him with the people the actual Buchmann crossed paths with, in an involving, insightful and all-round stirring feature that's part travelogue, part character study, part untraditonal documentary. The 2017 Cine Latino Film Festival will screen at Sydney's Palace Norton Street and Palace Verona from November 14 to 29, Melbourne's Palace Cinema Como and Palace Westgarth from November 16 to 29, and Brisbane's Palace Centro from November 16 to 29. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
What starts with a progress pride flag-raising ceremony, officially opens with Kylie Minogue and Charli XCX, features Kelly Rowland leading a Domain Dance Party, and ends with MUNA and G Flip? What features the long-awaited return of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade to Oxford Street (with new viewing areas), more than 45 rainbow artworks all around town and a monumental pride march with 50,000-plus people walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, too? In other words, what'll make Sydney the centre of the queer universe from Friday, February 17–Sunday, March 5, and make history in the process? Sydney WorldPride, the first WorldPride ever held in the southern hemisphere, and basically a mega Mardi Gras — and your unmissable reason to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community in the New South Wales capital. The above events are just a taste of this massive event's vivid lineup. In total, more than 300 shows, gigs, exhibitions, parties and more are taking over Sydney over 17 days, making Sydney WorldPride the largest-ever LGBTQIA+ festival ever held in the region. Still on numbers, that hefty total includes 19 official major events, 68 WorldPride Arts experiences, 17 WorldPride Sports events and 192 Pride Amplified community events. That's quite the lineup to sift through, so here's the short version: wherever you are in Sydney during WorldPride, expect the festival to be in the vicinity. Other standouts include the Bondi Beach Party, which will turn the famed stretch of sand into an openair club for a casual 12,000 people, complete with dancing to Nicole Scherzinger by the water from dusk; the return of Queer Art After Hours at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and its new building; the Mardi Gras Film Festival hosting its 30th fest, including an online program; and the Queer Formal. There's also the gigs at Sydney WorldPride's at Marri Madung Butbut (Many Brave Hearts): the First Nations Gathering Space — such as the Klub Village party and performance, the Miss First Nation drag contest, and exhibition Bloodlines, which honours artists lost to HIV/AIDS. And, addd lesbian divorce comedy Blessed Union, the Australian premiere of Choir Boy by Moonlight co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney, and installation Eulogy for the Dyke Bar — which will indeed operate as a bar — to your list as well. Throw in a 24-hour dance piece, a comedy night hosted by Ru Paul's Drag Race Down Under's Coco Jumbo, and Powerhouse Museum's showcase of Sydney's leading LGBTQIA+ artists, designers, makers and performers as well, and there's just one word for it: stunning.
The year of the rabbit is almost upon us (goodbye year of the tiger, go sleep it off), and the festivities are starting to pick up. And what's the best way to partake in the celebration? We've got it right here — and it'll make you happier than a cute hungry bunny. From Wednesday, January 18–Sunday, February 5, dumpling master Din Tai Fung is offering new limited edition chocolate and Biscoff rabbit buns and, like the chain's usual annual Lunar New Year special, they're ridiculously cute. They're buns with little rabbit faces, and they're even eating carrots — how could they be anything other than adorable? Din Tai Fung is famous for its dumplings, and is known to release eye-catching novelty varieties for special occasions (check out these adorable little monkey buns from 2016, pig bao from 2019, masked ox buns from 2021 and tiger buns from 2022). The new rabbit buns are stuffed with a sweet filling of chocolate and Biscoff crumbs, which oozes out when you squeeze them. The tiger buns are available for $9.80 for two at Din Tai Fung restaurants and food court outlets in Sydney, so you'll want to hit up its World Square, Westfield Chatswood, Westfield Miranda, Westfield Sydney, Broadway Shopping Centre, Gateway Sydney, The Star, Greenwood Plaza, Martin Place and Marrickville venues. In Melbourne, you have one spot to head to, with the buns on offer at Emporium Melbourne. They're also available frozen for delivery both separately (for $13.50 for three) — also from Wednesday, January 18. The only problem we can foresee with the cute Din Tai Fung dish? Eating those sweet little rabbit faces may be hard… but we're sure you'll manage it. Chocolate and Biscoff rabbit buns are available from Din Tai Fung's stores in Sydney and Melbourne, and also via delivery, from Wednesday, January 18–Sunday, February 5. Head to the chain's website for further details or to order.
A shadowy old house. A strange little boy. An unexplained object that won't go away. There's nothing particularly revolutionary about The Babadook; it's simply a matter of execution. Taking time-honoured plot points that in lesser hands would seem cliched, Queensland director Jennifer Kent has managed to craft a film that feels both entirely original and utterly terrifying. Featuring both a gripping lead performance by Essie Davis and one of the most creepifying monsters to ever stalk your dreams, The Babadook sets a bar by which future local horror films will be measured. Davis plays Amelia, the overwhelmed, widowed mother of a seven-year-old problem child named Samuel (newcomer Noah Wiseman). A maladjusted and volatile lad with a penchant for producing homemade weapons, Sammy is quite the handful for his mum, who's still haunted by the trauma of losing her husband in a car-wreck while driving to the hospital on the night of her Samuel's birth. One evening, while putting Samuel to bed, Amelia finds a mysterious new book on the boy's bookshelf. Written in Dr Seuss-style rhymes, the story it tells is of a strange, spindly-fingered creature named Mr Babadook. Although innocent at first, the stanzas grow steadily more menacing. Of course, by the time Amelia clues on to the fact that this might not be suitable bedtime reading, the damage has already been done. In an age when 'scary' is so often mistaken for 'bloody', Kent gives us a reminder of the power of anticipation. With next to zero onscreen violence, The Babadook is the kind of slow-burn horror movie that gets under your skin and raises the hairs on your neck; the kind of horror movie that has you bracing yourself for the next scare yet still catches you off guard when the monster finally rears its ugly head. A stop-frame creation that lurks in the shadows, the eponymous Babadook moves with a slithering unreality that seems to freeze the blood vessels in your brain. You know he can't exist. And yet he does. The terror comes also from our empathy with Amelia and Sam. Present in just about every scene, Davis is phenomenally good as Amelia, a worn-down figure who becomes increasingly erratic, and then monstrous herself, as the Babadook's presence grows stronger. More than once, the film implies that the creature may just be a product of Amelia's frazzled mind, pushed to the brink by the death of her husband and the constant demands of her son. In truth, that might be the most frightening suggestion of all. Kent doesn't quite stick the landing, unfortunately. Ambiguity is one thing, but the ending here is just plain unclear. Even so, an unsatisfying coda doesn't undo what came before. To anyone who can handle their heart in their throat, consider The Babadook highly recommended. To anyone who can handle their heart in their throat, consider The Babadook highly recommended. https://youtube.com/watch?v=IuQELNFtr-g
In the scene that gives Never Rarely Sometimes Always its name, 17-year-old Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) sits with a counsellor at Planned Parenthood in Brooklyn. The teen hails from Pennsylvania, but has taken the bus east with her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) upon discovering that she's pregnant and realising she only really has one option — knowing that her family is unlikely to help, and after her local women's clinic has advised that she should just have the baby. Before she can obtain the New York facility's assistance, however, she is asked questions about her history. The queries broach tough and intimate subjects, but Autumn only needs to answer with one of the words from the movie's moniker. While they're simple and common, those four terms explain much about why a small-town high-schooler is engaging in a practice that's been dubbed 'abortion tourism'. So too does the silence that punctuates her responses and the heartbreaking expression on her face that goes with them. From its opening frames, which sketch out Autumn's everyday life — the taunting peers, the awkward dynamic at home, the attentions of her boss at her after-school supermarket job, and the efforts to be seen by performing at her class concert — Never Rarely Sometimes Always is an intricately observed and stunningly detailed film. Accordingly, when the aforementioned scene arrives, it's the latest potent, compassionate and revealing moment in a movie filled with them. But filmmaker Eliza Hittman refuses to give viewers even the tiniest reprieve here. Autumn can't escape these difficult questions or the entire experience she's dealing with, and the audience is forced into the same situation. Maintaining the feature's unobtrusive, naturalistic, almost documentary-esque style, cinematographer Hélène Louvart (Happy as Lazzaro) doesn't look away, while first-time actor Flanigan pours out an entire lifetime's worth of feeling under the film's unrelenting gaze. When Never Rarely Sometimes Always premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival back in January, it deservedly won a special jury prize. The next month, it took home Berlinale's Silver Bear, the festival's second most prestigious award. It now reaches screens Down Under as the year approaches its end, and releases less than a week after another movie delivered another immensely uncomfortable moment in a women's clinic. By almost all other metrics and measures, Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm share little in common. And yet, both understand how reproductive rights, or the lack thereof in many cases and places, say much about America today. Both make viewers stare unflinchingly at that reality, the way that it disadvantages half of the population, and the life-changing effect it can have on teenage girls and their futures. Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a movie about the politicisation of a deeply personal subject, how that has far-reaching repercussions, and what that means on a daily and practical basis. Making clear exactly what Autumn has to go through to even get to that distressing clinic chat, it's a gut-punch of a film on the topic, in fact. Anchored by Flanigan's instinctual, unaffected performance — one of the year's best, in one of its best films — Hittman's feature surveys the vacant storefronts and empty-hearted locals in Autumn's home town, and the way her mother (Sharon Van Etten) is also trapped in her own way. It watches as Skylar steals the cash needed to finance their trip from the register at work, and shows how the more outgoing teen is unwavering in supporting her reserved cousin. It takes the bus to NYC with its characters, stares out the window at a haze of brown landscape, then rides the subway all night when the pair can't afford a place to sleep in the city. The film meets the men, both overt and in the background, who try to grab the girls' attention, and follows the many choices that need to be made to just get to Autumn's appointment. 'Immersive' is an overused descriptor, but in a movie this meticulous, it fits. As should be evident from all of the above, Never Rarely Sometimes Always is something else as well: a tale of struggling youth. And as anyone who has seen 2013's It Felt Like Love and 2017's Beach Rats will know, there are few filmmakers better at spinning such stories than Hittman. When it comes to the teen experience, the American writer/director possesses a near-uncanny ability to navigate tense rivers of emotion through highly specific yet also highly relatable scenarios. Rather than focusing on sexual awakenings like its predecessors, Never Rarely Sometimes Always explores the aftermath of a tryst that's never seen or mentioned, but it still firmly belongs in their company. Why Autumn is pregnant is far less important than how she feels, what she's forced to endure and how the world constantly tries to make her choices for her — including by placing her in a parade of fraught situations that will only ever apply to women. It takes a vast amount of skill to tell this tale in not only a resonant manner, but also a sensitive one. It requires the same talent to ensure that every ebb and flow in Never Rarely Sometimes Always' seemingly straightforward narrative echoes across the screen, illustrating how thematically and emotionally complicated Autumn's plight is — and, by extension, those of the many other teens just like her as well. Doing just that in a movie that lets actions and images speak far louder than its sparse dialogue obviously falls into the same category. Hittman boasts all that skill and talent, and no second or detail is wasted under her guidance. As intimated by its protagonist's name, as taken from the season when the leaves fall, warmth fades and the weather's frostiest period approaches, this is a film about decay, loss and change in multiple ways — and it's as grim and gripping as it is outraged, empathetic and affecting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsWV2qTX21k
Bendigo? More like why haven't you Bendigone yet? We're sorry for the bad joke, but not sorry to point you in the direction of this not-so-little gem. Located 150 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, Bendigo has long been a destination for art, fashion and design (the huge Bendigo Art Gallery), pottery (the town is famous for its ceramics) and fine dining (including one with a chef hat). But even if you don't like to see art, potter or eat (who are you kidding with that last one?), there is more to see than just all that. Bendigo is also ready to roll this autumn with a lineup of events that'll have you begging your friends to make the two-hour drive with you. We've partnered with Bendigo Tourism to bring you the best of 'em — get your calendar open in another tab and start planning.
UPDATE, April 26, 2021: Sorry to Bother You is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, Amazon Video and iTunes. How do you make a movie about the perils of apathy and complacency? A film that holds a mirror up to today's gleefully consumerist, corporation-driven society? A portrait of a world where money means power, and where both mean exploiting the many to enrich the few? If you're The Coup frontman turned first-time filmmaker Boots Riley, you also make a satirical comedy set in an alternate version of present-day Oakland, and a science-fiction fantasy that combines surreal images and scenarios with a savage message. You expose and skewer the status quo when it comes to race, class and wealth — and you tap into the anxiety that's become the prevailing mood of the 21st century. In short, you make Sorry to Bother You. Discussing the state of the world with with pals Salvador (Jermaine Fowler) and Squeeze (Steven Yeun), Cassius 'Cash' Green (Lakeith Stanfield) is offered a nugget of wisdom about the reason that nothing ever changes. "If you get shown a problem, and you have no idea how to control it, then you just decide to get used to the problem," he's told. Consider Sorry to Bother You the counterpoint — an audacious, absurd, amusing and highly entertaining rebuttal of simply accepting, assimilating, trying to conform and aiming to please. Riley takes Cash down a path that he can't merely grin and bear, in a picture that recalls Get Out and BlacKkKlansman in a vital way: it refuses to be shrugged off, ignored or overlooked. Get comfortable, because it's a wild ride. That said, being comfortable and content is a thorny notion in a film that paints the masses as workhorses for the rich, has everyone loving a reality show called I Got the S#*@ Kicked Out of Me!, and makes its protagonist rap for the braying approval of a largely white party. When viewers first meet Cash, he's anything but comfortable. In fact, he's waving about a fake 'employee of the month' plaque at a job interview, living in his uncle's (Terry Crews) garage with his artist girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson) and barely managing to get by. He still gets the telemarketer gig, because they happily admit they'll hire anyone, but hawking encyclopaedias by phone is as soulless and soul-destroying as it sounds. Then a colleague (Danny Glover) gives Cash a tip: "use your 'white' voice". Taking his advice, he starts smooth-talking customers with tones that resemble Arrested Development's David Cross. Success follows, with Cash skyrocketing through the ranks to join the company's elite employees on the luxuriously appointed top floor. While his basement-dwelling ex-coworkers strike for better conditions, Cash is earning more cash than he's ever dreamed of, as well as the attention of hard-partying frat-boy CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer). He's also making multi-million dollar sales spruiking Lift's WorkFree concept, which promises ordinary folks a roof over their head and three meals a day if they sign a lifetime labour contract. Corporatised slavery is just the beginning of Cash's trip down the rabbit hole, and Stanfield is the perfect guide. On a resume that boasts Get Out, Atlanta and being one of the most memorable things about The Girl in the Spider's Web, Sorry to Bother You stands alongside Short Term 12 as the actor's best work. Here, he's everyone, including the marginalised and overlooked, and the minority communities forced to adjust to the prevailing world order. He's the everyday man unwillingly thrust into the spotlight, or laying awake worrying about existence, or just attempting to do what's right. For a while, he's also someone who gets shot from the bottom to the top and is willing to stomach his Faustian bargain. He's in great company, with Thompson, Yeun and Hammer all standouts. But Stanfield is Riley's anchor in a sea of chaos. And what chaos there is. Energy, zeal and fury, too, with the movie jam-packed with ideas, anger, insights and off-the-wall inclusions. Indeed, when a Michel Gondry-esque claymation sequence pops up, it's just one of the picture's stunning sights. Within such busy frames, there's little about modern society that Riley doesn't dissect and lambast, because, unlike the masses, he's not willing to look the other way. His lead character might adopt a white voice to survive and thrive, but the writer-director's voice is all his own (it's also literally heard on the soundtrack, which is partly supplied by The Coup). Like Cash, who's visually dropped into the lives of the people he calls, Sorry to Bother You's audience is submerged in the impassioned mindset of the film's creator. And Riley's not sorry to bother anyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQKiRpiVRQM
Chinese New Year is coming up on February 8 and in 2016 we’ll be ringing in the year of the monkey (goodbye year of the sheep, go sleep it off). And what’s the best way to partake of the celebration? We’ve got it right here and it’s more fun than a barrelful of monkeys. Well, actually it is a barrelful of monkeys. Dumpling masters Din Tai Fung are offering new limited edition ‘Monkey Buns’ for the month of February and they are literally the cutest food we’ve ever seen. Just look at them. Din Tai Fung are famous for their dumplings and are known to release beautiful and novelty dumplings for special occasions (check out these adorable little lamb buns from last year). The monkey bao buns are steamed-to-order and stuffed with a sweet filling of chocolate and banana. They’re part of a series of new dishes being added to the menu from February 1 including crispy golden seafood roll, braised Szechuan sliced beef noodle and vegetarian egg fried rice with mushroom and truffle oil. Unfortunately the monkey buns are only available in the Din Tai Fung restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne (not the food court outlets) so you’ll have to make an proper sit-down event of it. The only problem we can foresee is that eating those sweet little monkey faces may be hard… but we’ll probably manage it. Monkey Buns are available for $4.80 per piece from Din Tai Fung restaurants from February 1 – February 29.
Last time Spike Lee stepped behind the camera, he took on American race relations in the 1970s, with the equally scathing, impassioned and amusing BlacKkKlansman winning him the Cannes Grand Prix and an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his troubles. Two years later, the acclaimed filmmaker is back with his latest feature, which once again tackles inequality and its consequences — this time in Vietnam War heist flick Da 5 Bloods. Dropping on Netflix on June 12 — and just dropping its first trailer, too — Da 5 Bloods follows four African American veterans who head back to Saigon decades after the conflict. They're looking for the remains of their squad leader, who was killed in action, but they also have another mission: searching for the buried gold they stashed away all those years ago. As the trailer makes clear, Lee was never going to explore the controversial war without also examining the role played by African American soldiers at the time. That just wouldn't be a Spike Lee joint. So, as well as charting the exploits of his characters both now and during the conflict, Da 5 Bloods interrogates the political and social reality behind their military service — including the fact that they were fighting for a country that didn't treat them equally, let alone care whether they lost their lives in combat. Lee's latest flick also assembles a mighty impressive cast, including Black Panther's Chadwick Boseman as the unit's fallen commander — plus, as the older versions of the surviving squad members, The Good Fight's Delroy Lindo, Broadway veteran Norm Lewis, and The Wire duo Clarke Peters and Isiah Whitlock Jr. Whether the latter will exclaim "sheeeeeeeee-it" is yet to be seen, although Lee is clearly a fan. https://twitter.com/SpikeLeeJoint/status/1262194706416455680 Da 5 Bloods also features French actors Jean Reno and Mélanie Thierry, When We Rise's Jonathan Majors and Richard Jewell's Paul Walter Hauser, as well as Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul's Giancarlo Esposito — who reteams with Lee after starring in the director's School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and Malcolm X in the late 80s and early 90s. Check out the Da 5 Bloods trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5RDTPfsLAI Da 5 Bloods hits Netflix on June 12.
Fancy an art experience that extends beyond looking at works on a wall? Then prepare to be impressed by Melbourne's new 3000-square-metre, 11-metre-high immersive digital art gallery. Originally set to open in late 2020, then in autumn this year, and then in September, The Lume will finally open its doors on Monday, November 1. The big drawcard: projections of some of the world's most celebrated artworks, which will be splashed across various surfaces at the site's permanent home at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC). Those luminous displays will be backed by powerful musical soundtracks, too, and even complemented by aromas. So yes, the idea is to engage multiple senses — and build the kind of art experience that surrounds you in multiple ways. When it opens its doors, The Lume's inaugural exhibition at will celebrate the works and life of Vincent van Gogh — so, you'll be able to walk through artworks like The Starry Night and Sunflowers while listening to a classical music score. For the latter, there'll be a dedicated mirror infinity room filled with sunflowers. Elsewhere, expect a reimagined Café Terrace 1888, and a life-size recreation of Van Gogh's Bedroom. If you were lucky enough to make it up to Sydney last year for Van Gogh Alive, you'll know what you're in for. The project is the brainchild of Melbourne-based Grande Experiences, which, for the past 15 years, has hosted immersive exhibitions and gallery experiences in over 130 cities across the world — and is taking Van Gogh Alive around Australia this year, too. The company also owns and operates Rome's Museo Leonardo da Vinci. Abiding by Victoria's reopening roadmap, The Lume will only be welcoming in double-vaccinated patrons upon opening. The Lume will open at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Monday, November 1 — operating Monday–Thursday from 10am–9pm, Friday from 10am–10pm, Saturday from 9am–10pm and Sunday from 9am–9pm. For more information, or to buy tickets, head to the venue's website.
Italian eats and Aussie craft beers are set to prove a match made in heaven, when WA-born Colonial Brewing Co drops by laneway diner Marameo for a special Good Beer Week feasting party. On Thursday, May 20, the duo's teaming up to host a shared degustation dinner, with each dreamy dish either paired or infused with a different Colonial brew. Get excited for the likes of slow-cooked sher wagyu brisket sliders and gnocco fritto with the labels' pale ale; truffle-topped spaghetti cacio e pepe with the South West Sour; and a dessert of chocolate and hazelnut bigné (Italian cream puffs) teamed with a limited-edition 2020 brown ale from Colonial's Barrel Projects series. Plus, plenty more culinary and beery delights. You'll even enjoy a spot of live entertainment while you're feasting. Tickets to this one clock in at $99, which includes your four-course feed, snacks on arrival and five matched beers. [caption id="attachment_747585" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Marameo, by Kristoffer Paulsen[/caption]
Death & Co, founded in New York City in 2006, is a modern craft cocktail bar that has been instrumental in shaping the industry. Now, the brand has chosen Australia for its first major move outside the United States. Death & Co is set to open in Melbourne in November at 87 Flinders Lane. The brand will also establish a venue in Brisbane beneath the Regatta Hotel, with a launch date to be announced soon. When Death & Co emerged in the New York bar scene two decades ago, it quickly became a major player in reviving interest in the art of cocktail making. With growing popularity, outposts were established in Los Angeles, Denver and Washington DC. The bars are a must-visit destination for those who take their drinks seriously, and have won many industry awards, including America's Best Cocktail Bar and World's Best Cocktail Menu at the Tales of the Cocktail Convention. Perhaps they heard Aussies take their drinks rather seriously, too, because they chose Melbourne as the brand's first international location. However, because they are so committed to their craft and ensuring the proper Death & Co experience is translated across borders, the Australian venue and bar managers have undergone extensive training in the United States. Death & Co will launch in Melbourne with several of its classic cocktails, including the Naked and Famous, with Del Maguey Vida Mezcal, Chartreuse, Aperol and lime, and the Oaxacan Old Fashioned, which blends El Jimador Reposado, mezcal, agave syrup, and bitters. Images: Shelby Moore. Death & Co is slated to open on Flinders Lane in November. If you're looking for some great cocktails in the meantime, check out the best bars in Melbourne.
UPDATE, January 12, 2022: Eternals is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. It's the only Marvel movie by an Oscar-winning director. Focusing on a superhero squad isn't new, even if everyone here is a Marvel Cinematic Universe newcomer, but it's the lone instalment in the franchise that's about a team led by women of colour. It's home to the MCU's only caped crusader who is deaf, and its first openly gay superhero — and it doesn't just mention his sexuality, but also shows his relationship. It happens to be the first Marvel flick with a sex scene, too. Eternals is also the only film in the hefty saga with a title describing how long the series will probably continue. And, it's the sole MCU entry that features two ex-Game of Thrones stars — Kit Harington and Richard Madden, two of the show's Winterfell-dwelling brothers — and tasks them both with loving a woman called Sersi. (The name isn't spelled the same way, but it'll still recalls Westeros.) When you're 26 movies into a franchise, as the MCU now is, each new film is a case of spotting differences. All the above traits aid Eternals in standing out, especially the empathetic, naturalistic touch that Chloé Zhao brings to her first blockbuster (and first film since Nomadland and its historic Academy Award wins). There's a sense of beauty and weight rippling through almost every frame, as well as an appreciation for life's struggles. Its namesakes are immortal aliens sent to earth 7000 years ago to battle intergalactic beasts, and yet Eternals shows more affinity for everyday folks who don't don spandex or have superpowers than any Marvel flick yet. It's also largely gorgeous, due to its use of location shoots rather than constantly stacking CGI on CGI. But everything that sets the film apart from the rest of Marvel's saga remains perched atop a familiar formula. Perhaps that's fitting; thematically, Eternals spends much of its lengthy 157 minutes contemplating set roles and expectations, and whether anyone can ever truly break free of either. Spying an overt statement in these parallels — between the movie's general adherence to the MCU template and the ideas bubbling within it — might be a little generous, though. Of late, Marvel likes giving its new instalments their own packaging, while keeping many of the same gears whirring inside. That's part of the comic book company-turned-filmmaking behemoth's current pattern, in fact. Still, even after Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals finds its own niche. It both intrigues and entertains, and it's ambitious — and it's often more than the sum of all those MCU firsts and onlys it's claimed. As a necessary slab of opening on-screen text explains, Eternals' sprawling central group were dispatched by a Celestial — a space god, really — called Arishem. With the monstrous Deviants, another animalistic alien race, wreaking havoc across the planet, the Eternals were tasked with fighting the good fight. That was their sole mission; they were forbidden to interfere otherwise, which is why they were absent whenever the world was threatened in the last 25 movies. But now, in the present day, a new Deviant attacks Sersi (Gemma Chan, Raya and the Last Dragon), her human boyfriend Dane Whitman (Harington) and fellow Eternal Sprite (Lia McHugh, The Lodge) in London. That gets the gang back together swiftly, unsurprisingly. In a script by Zhao with Patrick Burleigh (Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway) and feature first-timers Ryan and Kaz Firpo, each Eternal gets more than a few moments to shine — and more than a few defining traits. But Sersi, her love of humanity and her ability to change inanimate materials attracts most of the focus. She's soon grappling with the squad's purpose, after reuniting with the flying, laser-eyed Ikaris (Madden) to reteam their pals. That includes the maternal Ajak (Salma Hayek, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard), wisecracking Bollywood star Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani, The Lovebirds), the super-strong Gilgamesh (Don Lee, Ashfall), warrior Thena (Angelia Jolie, Those Who Wish Me Dead), the super-speedy Makkari (Lauren Ridloff, Sound of Metal), tech wiz Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry, Godzilla vs Kong) and the mind-manipulating Druig (Barry Keoghan, The Green Knight). If these character names sound familiar, that's because Eternals plays with the past as it broadens the MCU's on-screen history. This is franchise's ultimate origin story, even with the lack of recognisable Marvel figures. And, toying with myths and legends told for millennia, it sports a firmly classic air. Those picturesque visuals that Zhao and cinematographer Ben Davis (a Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel veteran) splash across the screen help immensely. Absent the usual plasticky gloss that's now as standard as jokey banter in Marvel fare — and dialling down the latter as well — Eternals anchors its looming end-of-the-world setup with sunset-lit landscapes that feel more grounded than everything that's come before. Zhao has named fellow filmmaker Terrence Malick (A Hidden Life, Song to Song, The Tree of Life) as one of her influences before, and even in this $200-million flick, it shows. That said, plenty of words that can be used to describe Eternals cut two ways. It's still a movie about ageless cosmic beings-turned-superheroes with heightened abilities, so its naturalism and grounding only go so far. The film's huge budget still spans the usual special effects and reliance upon pixels, too, and that can be as visually dull as ever when it takes over. But when it's a philosophically minded picture about tussling with responsibility and insignificance on an existential scale (and, notably, not just about having powers while trying to be a normal person, a Marvel go-to), Eternals is earthy and resonant. Being exceptionally cast assists as well, as it did in fellow recent Marvel movies Black Widow and Shang-Chi. When Eternals highlights Chan's sincerity, Hayek's calm command, Keoghan's moody vulnerability, Lee's hulking sensitivity, and Henry's passion and resilience — and lets Nanjiani mix swagger and care, and Jolie play fierce but fraying — it's equally graceful and compelling. Top image: Sophie Mutevelian ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
It was one of the last camping festivals that Victorians got to enjoy pre-pandemic, squeezing in just under the wire with its last edition in March 2020. And now, the much-loved Pitch Music & Arts is set to be one of the state's first camping festivals to make its glorious post-lockdown comeback, returning to the Grampians from Friday, March 11–Tuesday, March 15. It's a fittingly huge comeback, too, with a tasty lineup of 54 local and international acts delivering the goods across a five-day fiesta, served up by the minds behind Beyond the Valley. On the bill, you'll catch overseas heavyweights including Glasgow-based DJ and producer Denis Sulta, British electronic star Floating Points, Detroit's Inner City, Canadian DJ Jayda G, and German house icons Fjaak and Ben Böhmer. Joining them will be a diverse cast of homegrown legends, such as internationally-loved techno-house act Skin On Skin, dance floor favourite CC:Disco, producer Tornado Wallace and disco fiends Wax'o Paradiso. Fellow Aussie names including Fantastic Man, Jennifer Loveless, Claire Morgan, Sleep D, jamesjamesjames and Cassettes For Kids will also be making an appearance. As always, the dance-friendly house, techno and disco tunes will be backed by a smorgasbord of visual delights, to help energise your sweet return to festival life. It's all happening on a sprawling rural property in Moyston, around a two-and-a-half-hour drive northwest of Melbourne. Here's the full lineup to look forward to: PITCH MUSIC & ARTS 2022 LINEUP: 30/70 (LIVE) Anastasia Kristensen Ben Böhmer (LIVE) C.Frim Cassettes For Kids CC:Disco! Cinthie Claire Morgan COLLAR (LIVE) Crescendoll Cromby dameeeela Denis Sulta DJ Holographic DJ Jnett DJ pgz DJ Seinfeld - Mirrors (LIVE) Elli Acula Eris Drew b2b Octo Octa Fantastic Man Fjaak Floating Points (DJ) Fred P Haai Inner City (LIVE) jamesjamesjames Jayda G Jennifer Loveless Job Jobse Jordan Brando Juno Mamba (LIVE) Kee'ahn (LIVE) Laura King LCY Loods Maceo Plex Made In Paris Matrixxman Mella Dee Memphis LK (LIVE) Moopie Omrann & Ali (LIVE) PARTIBOI69 Peach Pink Matter (LIVE) Sally C Sherelle Skin On Skin Sleep D The Illustrious Blacks Tornado Wallace Tred Wax'o Paradiso X Club Pitch Music & Arts will take place in Moyston, from Friday, March 11–Tuesday, March 15, 2022. Register online for presale access before 4pm on Tuesday, December 7. Presale tickets are on sale from 6pm on Tuesday, December 7, with general public tickets available from 12pm on Wednesday, December 8.
When the eighth season of Game of Thrones finished its run a few months back, and the highly popular show along with it, everyone knew that it wasn't really the end. The world created by George RR Martin will live on in his books, whenever the author finally publishes the long-awaited next instalment of his A Song of Ice and Fire series. And, it'll keep going in multiple GoT TV prequels. Like residents of Westeros hoping that summer (or at least autumn) will last for ever, HBO isn't ready to let go of its highly successful commodity. In 2017, the US network announced that it was considering five different prequel ideas, green-lighting one to pilot stage in 2018. Now, it looks poised to give another series the go-ahead. Details about the first spinoff show are still relatively thin on the ground. Co-created by A Song of Ice and Fire author George RR Martin with British screenwriter Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and the two Kingsman movies), it'll be set thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, with Naomi Watts, Miranda Richardson and John Simm among the cast. But, as The Hollywood Reporter reveals, the second potential series has a firm basis. Adapted from Martin's book Fire & Blood, it'll focus on House Targaryen. We all know what happened to GoT's last surviving Targaryens, aka Daenerys, her brother Viserys and her boyfriend/nephew Jon Snow. Fire & Blood jumps back before all that, to 300 years prior — with the first 738-page volume of the text, which was published in November 2018, starting with Aegon I Targaryen's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms and working through the family's history from there. [caption id="attachment_721122" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] HBO.[/caption] Given Daenerys' affinity for dragons, and her relatives' fondness for using the fire-breathing beasts to wage wars and claim power (sound familiar?), they also play a part in the tale. Plus, Aegon I created the Iron Throne, which means that this is an origin story in more ways than one. Whether the Fire & Blood adaption will progress from a concept to a show is yet to be seen, but you don't have to be the Three-Eyed Raven to know that some of these prequel ideas will hit screens. Apparently two other ideas are also still under consideration — because, like winter, more GoT shenanigans are definitely coming. Via The Hollywood Reporter. Top image: Helen Sloan/HBO.
Before Blue Gables was a vineyard, it was part of a dairy farm. If you're also fond of eschewing milk for wine, Alistair and Catherine Hicks clearly know how you feel. The pair named the seven-acre East Gippsland site after a farmhouse, harking back to its beginnings — and, since 2004, it has grown seven varieties of grapes. If you're a pinot noir fan, you'll be pleased to hear that's one of them. When anyone drinks the popular red, they want to know that they're drinking it — they want the taste to linger, and the scent too — and Blue Gables' mid-weight variety ticks all those boxes. Expect notes of cherry and strawberry, as well as a rich, spicy flavour. The winery's cellar door is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11am–5pm, and pairs its wines with an Italian-influenced menu of wood-fired pizzas, lasagne and antipasto. In winter, you'll also find a fire roaring — and in summer, you can sit outside and soak in the view.
A warehouse wilderness awaits those who want to fill their night with surfing flicks. Don't forget to grab a Stone & Wood beer from Clyde (the star of the films) before plunking in front of the projector. Live music will be playing during intermissions and a food truck parked nearby, ready to refuel bellies. All together, that sure sounds like one swell evening. This event is part of Good Beer Week's 2015 program, running from May 16-24. For more festival picks, click here.
When you're leaving the office at 6.45pm with a head swimming with unread emails and a tummy rumbling like the number 109 on Collins, you really are in no state to make dinner plans. In that moment, it feels like you've eaten everywhere of note in the CBD — but that's likely not true. In the last few months, even more new restaurants have popped up within the grid, filling out the laneways with more delights than ever before. You can down bone marrow (and drink whisky from the bone when you're done) in a basement, eat top Korean nosh in a laneway and barbecue on a Bourke Street rooftop. Work through this post-work dinner list — but the time you're done, we'll no doubt have some more new CBD restaurants to add to it.
Maybe you remember Miami Horror from your playlist for blissed-out summer parties circa 2010, when their hit single 'Sometimes' did the club circuit and went on solid rotation in backyards nationwide. We haven't heard much from them since those days, but the Melbourne electronic-pop four-piece haven't been laying low. Instead, they've taken up residence in Los Angeles, where they've been busy working on album number two (or as busy as you can get in a land of perpetual sunshine, palm trees and too many dreams). The result is the sometimes-funky, sometimes-dreamy, almost 'too happy' All Possible Futures, released earlier this year. They’re bringing their fresh new LA-inspired sound back home, with a five-date east coast tour this August. Reacquaint yourself with these guys by giving 'Love Like Mine' and 'Real Slow' a listen, then grab yourself a ticket. How sweet is rediscovery? [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRhVsVT3mPM[/embed]
Take a trip down memory lane with the upcoming EziStreat x 91 Vintage Mini Night Market 3.0, as North Melbourne's food and drink hall will be turned into a vintage paradise on Saturday, May 18. Over 20 vintage and food stalls will provide a carefully curated assortment of pre-loved clothes, accessories and shoes, as well as delectable snacks. Vibes will be high thanks to live DJ sets, while drink specials like hot chocolate rum and house beer will also be available. Tickets are priced at $5, which you can now purchase via the ticketing website.
It's a risky and even cheeky move, packaging a film with a song that could be used to describe it. Thankfully, in the case of 2014's The Lego Movie and its instant earworm track, everything was indeed awesome. The animated flick's long-awaited sequel offers another self-assessment in closing credits tune 'Super Cool', however the description doesn't fit this time around. Nor do the words unbelievable, outrageous, amazing, phenomenal, fantastic and incredible, further praise sung by Beck, the Lonely Island and Robyn in the catchy and amusing song. Instead, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is fine, standard, okay and average. Of course, those words don't have the same ring to them, even if they were set to a thumping beat. The Lego Movie left its successors with big shoes to fill — or big bricks to emulate, to be more accurate — and this direct follow-up does so in an entertaining enough but never especially inventive or enthralling fashion. Call it a case of trying to build the same thing with different pieces. Call it constructing a masterpiece and then falling short with the next attempt. Call it a case of sticking too closely to the instructions again and again. Whichever one you choose, they all fit like rectangular plastic pieces stacked neatly on top of each other. You could also call it a case of following Emmet Brickowski's (Chris Pratt) lead, with the mini-figure's fondness for routine already well established in the first movie. He's so comfortable doing the same thing day in, day out that he's even happy to keep doing so in the new dystopian version of his hometown, Bricksburg. He knows that much has changed since alien invaders made from bigger blocks descended from the heavens. His brooding best friend Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) also reminds him all the time. But it isn't until General Sweet Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) arrives, bearing an invite from the Systar system's Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi (Tiffany Haddish) and sweeping Lucy, Batman (Will Arnett), Benny (Charlie Day), MetalBeard (Nick Offerman) and Unikitty (Alison Brie) away, that Emmet abandons his blissful monotony and springs into action. Viewers of the initial flick, The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie will remember two important aspects of the Lego Movie Universe. Firstly, mile-a-minute jokes and pop culture references are as much a part of the franchise as multicoloured bricks. Secondly, more often than not, the series' animated tales tie into a real-world scenario. While original directors Chris Lord and Phil Miller have handed over the reigns to Trolls filmmaker Mike Mitchell, their humour still bounces through in the movie's fast-paced script. And while The Lego Movie's big twist — that the whole story stemmed from kids simply playing with the titular toys — is old news now, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part builds upon this idea. Once again, the film spends time with now-teenager Finn (Jadon Sand), who's still far from pleased that his younger sister Bianca (Brooklynn Prince) likes Lego as well. Cue The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part's troubles. Lightning rarely strikes twice, after all. The film serves up enough funny gags to keep audiences chuckling, throws in more than a few ace cameos and has the same infectious, anarchic vibe, but it was never going to feel as fresh. It also benefits from a fantastic overall message, but doesn't give it enough emphasis until late in the show. After pondering the divide between rules and creativity in the first picture, the franchise now contemplates collaboration, sharing and the gendering applied to playthings, roles and fandom. That's both smart and relevant, yet here feels underdone. Basically, anything new comes second to everything that's been done before, resulting in the most superfluous kind of sequel. This follow-up is happier rehashing its predecessor's glory days than channelling the ingenuity that made the original so charming. Of course, if The Lego Movie hadn't been such a vibrant, witty delight, then The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part wouldn't feel so familiar. An adequate addition to the series, it still contains plenty to distinguish it from other all-ages animated fare — including an eye-catching and distinctive animation style, enjoyable skewering of Pratt's many non-Lego characters, and Noel Fielding as a sparkly Twilight-esque vampire. But, five years on, viewers are now in the same situation as Lucy: ready to embrace a challenge, rather than falling back on comfortable old habits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvHSlHhh1gk
"From little things, big things grow". If ever there were a film saga to take up Paul Kelly's mantra, the Fast and Furious juggernaut would surely be it. Beginning all the way back in 2001 with a Point Break knockoff about street racers moonlighting as crims, the franchise now boasts eight movies and a combined box office of close to $4 billion. The latest installment, The Fate of the Furious, could not be further from the film that began it all. The cast is bigger, the locations more exotic, the cars more expensive, and the explosions much, much more frequent. Far from a story about living life a quarter mile of a time, the plot is now about saving the entire planet from nuclear devastation. The rules of franchise cinema are well established. Each subsequent film must honour those that preceded it by including any signature shots, iconic lines or beloved characters that haven't yet been killed off. To that end, The Fate of the Furious knows its history well. The opening shot, in fact, tracks a barely-clothed female derriere as it snakes its way through a collection of vintage Cuban cars. Moments later, series stalwarts Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) come to the aid of family and challenge a local to an illegal street race for pink slips, all to the tunes of a thumping trap, electro and hip hop soundtrack. This, more than anything else, is the lifeblood of these films. But long gone are the days where such scenes receive anything more than lip service, replaced by action set-pieces so ridiculous that you can't help but go along for the ride. The Fate of the Furious kicks into gear via the sudden emergence of a computer hacker named Cipher (played by series newcomer Charlize Theron). From there, all it takes is a little bit of blackmail to convince Dom to turn on his extended family, betraying everyone in his life as he helps Cipher carry out a series of increasingly brazen attacks around the world. The rest of the movie tracks the efforts of Dom's crew to hunt him down and stop him. Naturally, a few hundred cars get obliterated along the way. The returning cast members – including Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel and Kurt Russell – give the intensely silly material everything they've got, though this time there's only a brief reference to the late Paul Walker. Director F. Gary Gray also lands the mother of all cameos, which we won't reveal here, other than to say damn. The vehicular cast is similarly impressive, and includes a 1971 Plymouth GTX, a 2017 Subaru BRZ, a Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640, and a Russian Akula Class Attack Submarine. Ultimately, and despite the major departure from its origins, The Fate of the Furious still delivers in spades when it comes to entertainment. If anything, the film actually rises above other brainless blockbusters by being, almost paradoxically, extremely clever in its stupidity. For example: any movie can crash dozens of cars into one another, but it takes a special kind of inventiveness to have a hacker assume control of their onboard computers, essentially turning them into zombies on wheels. The action sequence that follows proves utterly exhilarating, and makes clear that the folks behind this franchise still have a few tricks up their sleeve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwMKRevYa_M
The combination of Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos is one of 21st-century cinema's best, and long may it continue beyond The Favourite, Poor Things and now Kinds of Kindness. The mix of the two-time Oscar-winner, the Greek filmmaker, plus Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley in the last two of those movies has also been working out swimmingly. There's another winning blend in Kinds of Kindness, though, and one deserving of earning the third Lanthimos lead in as many features an Oscar: the writer/director and Jesse Plemons, who has already collected the 2024 Cannes Best Actor award for his trio of roles in this black-comedy triptych. He gives not one, not two, but three exceptional performances. First he plays an employee who loses his boss' faith, then a husband whose wife is lost, then a disciple trying to find a woman with an extraordinary ability. Sweet dreams are made of this, as the Eurythmics' thumping 1983 hit tells Kinds of Kindness' viewers when it blasts through the movie at full blare from the get-go. There's little that's delectable for the film's characters, or kind for that matter, but Lanthimos back at his darkest, spikiest, and most sinister and cynical — back among the vibes of Dogtooth, Alps, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer — is indeed a delicious reverie. As Annie Lennox sings about anthemically, this is a picture about desire. It's equally about everyone looking for something that fulfils those yearnings and stirrings. Using and abusing, wanting to be used and abused, holding and keeping your head up in this cycle of pleasure and pain: so also goes the words of one of the best dance-floor fillers of the past four decades, and now so goes the feature that makes its sentiments a filmic reality as well. Plemons (Civil War), Stone (Cruella), Qualley (Drive-Away Dolls), Dafoe (Asteroid City), Hong Chau (The Menu), Joe Alwyn (Stars at Noon), Mamoudou Athie (The Burial): they're Lanthimos' troupe in the three tales of his ninth movie. Joining them is Poor Things' Yorgos Stefanakos as RMF, who is driving the car pumping out "who am I to disagree?" and "I travel the world and the seven seas" when the anthology's opening chapter commences. The repertory cast is stunning, on paper and on the screen. So is the filmmaker's knowing playfulness in enlisting them, with some of the most-famous faces who routinely represent humanity — that's acting, after all — toying with being humane's utter absence. Sometimes they're demanding that each other commits murder. Sometimes they're getting cannibalistic. Sometimes they're lopping off their own body parts. Often they're fixated to the point of delusion. La Chimera is already taken as the name of an excellent and unique auteur-helmed 2024 cinema release in Australia, skewing figurative, but the three-headed creature of Greek myth that originated a term for illusions feels like the spirit animal for Kinds of Kindness in more ways than one. Among actual critters, dogs and cats feature here, more reminders of domesticity taken down startling paths. Neither are crucial to the debut chapter, but that's still the narrative's route, as Plemons' Robert, a salaryman with a spacious home, doting wife (Chau) and slick business job, has the facade of his comfortable existence shattered. His employer and sometimes-lover Raymond (Dafoe) dictates his every move, plotting out instructions on daily handwritten cards. Wardrobe choices, what to eat, who he married, when to have sex: everything is covered. After ten years of willing and eager compliance, Robert then refuses a task, then suspects that optician's assistant Rita (Stone) also has the same control-and-subjugation arrangement. Making Plemons and Stone competitors will pop up again, but next they're husband and wife in the movie's second instalment. He's police officer Daniel, she's marine researcher Liz, and he's distraught about her going missing at sea until she's rescued against everyone else's expectations. Is the woman now sharing his home really his spouse, though? And what lengths will he push her to to test his fears? In the last of Kinds of Kindness' trilogy of tales, Dafoe's Omi and Chau's Aka steer a cult that's looking for a healer who fits an exacting list of criteria. Doing the searching on their behalf, and being rewarded with sex, plus drinking water purified with their gurus' tears, are Plemons' Andrew and Stone's Emily. In this section as in each before it — and across Lanthimos' entire filmography — how brutal, domineering, selfish and cruel people can be is firmly in focus, as are the beliefs that we cling to to pretend that's not the case. These notions were all a part of The Favourite and Poor Things, of course, as scripted by The Great's Tony McNamara, yet the mood gets stormier when Lanthimos works with his Dogtooth, Alps, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer screenwriter Efthimis Filippou. Gone are the whimsy and empowerment that also colours Poor Things, for instance. Still, his work with Filippou remains grounded in heightening everyday traits and patterns, however dystopian or nightmarish they get. Watching this duo's collaborations always means recognising the impulses that spring from the mix of water and flesh that comprise humans, as well as witnessing those relatable urges and compulsions being gleefully and cannily taken to extremes. Adding to a resume that continues the opposite trajectory to people en masse in Lanthimos and Filippou's view — that'd be getting better and better — Plemons is impossible to peer away from as Robert, Daniel and Andrew alike. Each is an everyman plagued by a need for purpose and belonging, and quickly willing to get vicious to grasp it. But amid the meticulous imagery that always characterises a Lanthimos film, with cinematographer Robbie Ryan (The Old Oak) a master in emphasising new views and angles on what'd be typical sights in other hands, Plemons isn't playing the same character over and over again. As his hair gets shorter chapter by chapter, the Killers of the Flower Moon, Love & Death and The Power of the Dog actor does far more than make his lost, lonely, searching, awkward and angry Kinds of Kindness figures thematic clones or even siblings. That said, there's a three-sides-of-the-same-coin statement to the picture overall: people are unkind, then people are unkind, then people are unkind once more. The specifics of their personalities and circumstances change. What they're desiring shifts as well. Kinds of unkindness remains the end fresult. As Hunter Schafer (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) rounds out the ensemble, just in one segment, Stone has the same gig as Plemons, and is equally committed. She's in terrain, aka unpacking the savagery that flows through humans like blood, that she's also tapped into in her recent small-screen appearances in The Curse and Fantasmas, 2023's best new TV show and 2024's best in the same field so far. She's on message for Lanthimos, then, even when he's not her director. With him, Stone summed up the Greek Weird Wave great's prevailing perspective on life best when she was earning her second Best Actress Oscar for Poor Things as Bella Baxter: "I have adventured it and found nothing but sugar and violence".
After more than a month of cycling in and out of stay-at-home conditions, the bulk of regional Victoria will come out of lockdown at 11.59pm on Thursday, September 9. While nothing will ease in Greater Melbourne until 70 percent of the state has had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Premier Daniel Andrews floated last week that changes might be possible in regional parts of the state before that milestone is reached — and now that's exactly what's happening. At Victoria's daily COVID-19 press conference today, Wednesday, September 8, the Premier announced that "the five reasons to leave the home will be removed in regional Victoria, except for Greater Shepparton." Lockdown will remain in place in Greater Shepparton for the time being; however, the Premier said that "we would hope to have Shepparton catch up to the rest of regional Victoria some time next week, and we'll make those announcements as soon as we have tidied up the last bits of the outbreak there." Regional Victoria has been in lockdown again since mid-August, after initially joining the entire state under stay-at-home conditions at the beginning of the month, then being released from lockdown a few days later. So, it has been a seesawing month or so of changing conditions — and now folks in regional parts of the state are getting another early mark. On the advice of the Chief Health Officer, Regional Victoria's lockdown will be lifted. There remains a significant risk of cases seeding, so we all have to continue to work hard to keep regional Victoria, and all of us safe. pic.twitter.com/0vqNEhQfng — Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) September 8, 2021 Just like back in your school days, if you live anywhere in regional Victoria other than Greater Shepparton, you'll be allowed out of the house for whatever reason you like from Friday, September 10. As always happens after a lockdown, however, a number of other restrictions will be put in place. These restrictions will largely mirror the rules in effect before this lockdown — so yes, they'll sound familiar. The five-kilometre rule is being scrapped, so you can roam far and wide without worrying about the distance. Of course, the state's border rules, and those of other parts of Australia, may hamper your trip if you're planning on heading interstate. And, if you're planning to head to Melbourne, you can only do so for a permitted reason, and you'll still have to follow Melbourne's lockdown restrictions while you're there. Obviously, that travel rule doesn't work both ways. People in Melbourne still can't venture more than five kilometres from home, and therefore can't leave their house to visit regional parts of the state. Also permitted in regional Victoria when lockdown lifts: catching up with your nearest and dearest, but you'll have to gather outdoors in public, and only in groups of up to ten people. You still won't be able to have anyone come over to your house, so nothing is changing there. Masks will still remain mandatory both indoors and out, too — so the rules there aren't changing there, either. Also, food and hospitality businesses will be able to open for seated service only, with a cap of 20 people outdoors and 10 people inside. Retail stores, gyms, hairdressers and beauty salons can reopen as well, with a density quota of one person per four-square metres. Entertainment venues can welcome in up to 300 people per outdoor space, or 25-percent capacity, whichever is smaller, while indoor spaces can have 20 people. That said, businesses that are permitted to reopen in regional Victoria but must remain closed in Melbourne — so places like restaurants offering dine-in meals, beauty services and venues — will be required to check the IDs of everyone they serve. [caption id="attachment_823288" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Mattinbgn via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The lockdown changes come as Victoria now has 1920 active COVID-19 cases, including 221 new cases identified in the 24 hours to midnight last night. All of the current stay-at-home rules remain in effect in Melbourne until that 70-percent single jab threshold has been met. So, that means that Melburnians can still only leave home for five reasons: shopping for what you need, when you need it; caregiving and compassionate reasons; essential work or permitted education that can't be done from home; exercise; and getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Lockdown in Regional Victoria, other than in Greater Shepparton, will end at 11.59pm on Thursday, September 9. For more information about the rules that'll be in place from that time, head to the Victorian Department of Health website. Top image: Robert Blackburn via Visit Victoria.
UPDATE, October 22, 2021: The Suicide Squad is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video, and is also screening in Melbourne's outdoor cinemas when they reopen on Friday, October 22. New decade, new director, new word in the title — and a mostly new cast, too. That's The Suicide Squad, the DC Extended Universe's new effort to keep viewers immersed in its sprawling superhero franchise, which keeps coming second in hearts, minds and box-office success to Marvel's counterpart. Revisiting a concept last seen in 2016's Suicide Squad, the new flick also tries to blast its unloved precursor's memory from everyone's brains. That three-letter addition to the title? It doesn't just ignore The Social Network's quote about the English language's most-used term, but also attempts to establish this film as the definitive vision of its ragtag supervillain crew. To help, Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker James Gunn joins the fold, his Troma-honed penchant for horror, comedy and gore is let loose, and a devil-may-care attitude is thrust to the fore. But when your main aim is to one-up the derided last feature with basically the same name, hitting your target is easy — and fulfilling that mission, even with irreverence and flair, isn't the same as making a great or especially memorable movie. A film about cartoonish incarcerated killers doing the US government's dirty work — one throws polka dots, one controls rats and one is a giant shark — The Suicide Squad is silly and goofy. Welcomely, that comes with the territory this time. In another OTT touch, if these fiends disobey orders, no-nonsense black-ops agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) explodes their heads. And yet, even when a supersized space starfish gets stompy (think: SpongeBob SquarePants' best bud Patrick if he grew up and got power-hungry), this sequel-slash-do-over is never as gleefully absurd as it should be. Again and again, that's how The Suicide Squad plays out. It's funny, but also so enamoured with its juvenile humour that it tickles the same beats and spits out the same profanities with repetition. It sports an anarchic vibe, yet sticks to a tried-and-tested narrative formula. It ruthlessly slaughters recognisable characters, while also leaving no surprises about who'll always remain its stars. Visually, it's flashy and punchy, and never messy or overblown, but it splashes similar flourishes across the screen like a pattern. The Suicide Squad screams "hey, I'm not that other movie!!!!!!!!!". It's right, thankfully. But simply not being that other film earns far too much of its focus. Mischief abounds from the outset — mood-wise, at least — including when Waller teams up Suicide Squad's Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, The Secrets We Keep), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney, Honest Thief) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, Dreamland) with a few new felons for a trip to the fictional Corto Maltese. Because this movie has that extra word in its title, it soon switches to another troupe reluctantly led by mercenary Bloodsport (Idris Elba, Concrete Cowboy), with fellow trained killer Peacemaker (John Cena, Fast and Furious 9) and the aforementioned Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian, Bird Box), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior, Valor da Vida) and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone, Rambo: Last Blood) also present. Their task: to sneak into a tower on the South American island. Under the guidance of The Thinker (Peter Capaldi, The Personal History of David Copperfield), alien experiment Project Starfish has been underway there for decades (and yes, Gunn makes time for a butthole joke). Waller has charged her recruits to destroy the secret test, all to ensure it isn't used by the violent faction that's just taken over Corto Maltese via a bloody coup. Jumping to DC in-between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — a move sparked when Disney temporarily fired him from the Marvel realm after tasteless old tweets resurfaced — Gunn pens The Suicide Squad's screenplay, too. Plot isn't the film's big drawcard, with the writer/director sketching out a threadbare setup that lets his main players bust out their key traits and lets him display his playful action-filmmaking skills. Cue scant backstories to give Bloodsport and company some depth, just as cursory nods to western intervention in other countries, plenty of frays littered with viscera and peppered with gross-out sight gags, and a movie that's all about surface pleasures. Whenever a character strikes a chord emotionally, Gunn is happy to tap that note briefly but repeatedly, for instance. Viewers keep being reminded of the same basic attributes and themes over and over, but wrapped in spirited and eye-catching visual slickness. Some touches are pitch-perfect, like the floral aesthetic evident during one of Quinn's killing sprees. Others are stylish padding, as seen in her dalliance with Corto Maltese's new dictator Luna (Juan Diego Botto, The European). The pervasive sensation: that witnessing these characters crack wise and spill guts in a showy, anything-goes fashion is meant to be something inherently special. Sometimes, Gunn's gambit works in the moment. Overall, however, The Suicide Squad's charms are fleeting. It's the better movie of its moniker, it never manages to match Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) for fun, and it isn't ever as enjoyably ridiculous as fellow DCEU flick Aquaman, either. Of course, superhero stories are always about polarised extremes, even now they're Hollywood's favourite big-screen format. They pit the very best against the absolute worst, with names on both sides standing apart from regular ol' humanity due to supernatural forces, genetic enhancement, experiments gone right or wrong, or otherworldly sources. These figures tussle over the fate of the world to save it for normal folks in movie after movie, but little attention is paid to anyone that's just ordinary. Being standard and average is something to fight for and then sweep past, even though that's where so many superhero and supervillain movies ultimately land themselves. Indeed, a film can be funny and lively, use its main faces (that'd be Elba and Robbie) well, have a few nice moments with its supporting cast (Dastmalchian, Melchior and Stallone, particularly) and improve on its predecessor, and yet still fall into a routine, unsuccessfully wade into murky politics, never capitalise upon its premise or promise, keep rehashing the same things, and just be average, too — and right now, that film is The Suicide Squad.
Much-loved Fitzroy pub The Rochester is throwing its support behind Australia's bushfire victims with a whole, jam-packed long weekend of fundraising activities. From Thursday, January 23, until Monday, January 27, it's hosting a swag of events to raise funds for the Australian Red Cross and Wildlife Victoria via a huge raffle and the donation of all staff tips. Thursday, January 23 will feature a special edition of Rochey Comedy, January 24 promises a big night of tunes from DJ Amiee Lotus, and on January 25, DJ Obliveus will be dropping by to grace the decks while a sausage sizzle goes down. Then, on Monday's public holiday, you can help drum up even more donations, with $2 oysters and free pool up for grabs all day. From 7pm, boozy bingo starts and $10 cocktails hit the bar. The Rochey has also put the call out for artists that would like to donate pieces to an art show slated for Friday night. Updated: January 9, 2020.
One of 2023's most-anticipated films may not play in many Australian cinemas, but it will enjoy its Aussie premiere at Sydney's biggest moviegoing occasion of the year. That flick: Strange Way of Life, the latest work by inimitable Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Parallel Mothers). It's a 30-minute short, hence the fact that it may not show on too many big screens Down Under — and it's also a queer western starring Ethan Hawke (Moon Knight) and Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us). Almodóvar? Hawke? Pascal? Queer western? Yes, that's Strange Way of Life, which is why it's such a must-see. It'll make its Australian debut at this year's Sydney Film Festival, heading to our shores straight from premiering at Cannes, and joining the fest's already stacked lineup and hefty array of titles that first bowed at the prestigious French event. In this bite-sized film, Sheriff Jake (Hawke) and rancher Silva (Pascal) share a history, working together as hired gunmen a quarter-century ago. Then, circumstances bring them back together; however, a reunion isn't the only reason they've crossed paths again. "The strange way of life referred in the title alludes to the famous fado by Amalia Rodrigues, whose lyrics suggest that there is no stranger existence than the one that is lived by turning your back on your own desires," explains Almodóvar. [caption id="attachment_904684" align="alignnone" width="1920"] HyperFocal: 0[/caption] Strange Way of Life will play for one session only, on the festival's closing day of Sunday, June 18 — the same date that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which also initially premiered at Cannes, will take the official closing-night slot. "Sydney Film Festival is delighted to offer our audiences this exclusive Australian-premiere screening of Strange Way of Life. We wanted to offer something truly special to help close out our 70th anniversary Festival, and what could beat the closing lineup of the 2023 Palm d'Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, master auteur Pedro Almodóvar's much hyped western short and then finally the Australian Premiere of Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny?" said Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley. Tickets to Strange Way of Life cost just $10, and are bound to sellout fast. Check out the trailer for Strange Way of Life below: Sydney Film Festival 2023 runs from Wednesday, June 7–Sunday, June 18 at various Sydney cinemas — head to the festival website for further information and tickets.
Move over wheat flour. Get outta here self-raising. And almond meal, coconut flour, rice flour, besan and all the rest. There's a new flour in town, and it's infinitely better than the rest of you finely-ground baking ingredients. And that's because it's got the greatest of special features: caffeine. Yes, it's coffee flour. Some smart cookie — Daniel Perlman, a biophysicist at Boston's Brandeis University — has devised a technique for milling green coffee beans to create a flour fit for baking. According to Eater, the process is different to roasting coffee beans, as it involves parbaking them at a lower temperature for a short period of time. The beans can then be turned into a finely milled flour, which is just the stuff needed for baking. The possibilities! While coffee flour sounds like a dream ingredient and one we would add to absolutely everything and anything, it looks like it will actually be good for you as well. Perlman's parbaking process allows the coffee beans to retain their chlorogenic acid (an antioxidant), which is usually lost in the regular coffee brewing process. About four grams of the flour will be equivalent to a cup of coffee. And while we're really happy about the whole antioxidant thing, the prospect of caffeinated baked goods is the part we're really into. Just wait until cafes get their hot little hands on this. Via Eater.
When blissed out, soon-to-be-married American couple Nica (Hani Furstenberg) and Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal), set off on a hiking adventure in Georgia's remote Caucasus Mountains, they have little idea that their seemingly idealistic world is about to be profoundly challenged. To all appearances, the two share an unshakeable connection — spiritually at ease yet sexually charged. Nica is spirited and independent, and Alex adores her. They toy with language games, compete playfully over who is fastest or strongest, and are in free pursuit of their mutual wanderlust. Local guide Dato (Georgian actor and real-life expert mountaineer Bidzina Gujabidze) leads them through one breathtaking scene after another. Then, halfway through the film, a single event (not to be delineated here, for fear of giving too much away), corrupts the couple's bond, raising questions of trust, betrayal, and guilt. Russian-born, American-raised director Julia Loktev's intention is to carry us into the film's mental and physical world, one in which time seems to stretch on forever and all conviction has been thrown into doubt. Thanks to Palace Films, we have 10 double passes to give away to see The Loneliest Planet. To be in the running, subscribe to Concrete Playground (if you haven't already) then email us with your name and postal address at hello@concreteplayground.com.au. Read our full review here. https://youtube.com/watch?v=SIIMFHcC1Fc
We could all use a holiday right about now. That's proven true for the past 18 months or so, and the urge to head off on a getaway is only rising. Exactly when Australians will be able to travel between every state without navigating strict border restrictions isn't yet known, and neither is when the vaccine rate will hit 80-percent nationwide, allowing international travel again — but, in preparation for both of those things happening, the Marriott hotel chain is running a giveaway that'll get you away from home for almost a whole month. The first catch: obviously, you won't be travelling until that's permitted again. The second caveat: this competition is only open to folks who've had both COVID-19 jabs. It's Marriott's way of helping encouraging vaccination, given that so much about Australia's plan to move forward during the pandemic — and to open up the travel and hospitality industries again — is based how many people have been fully vaxxed. If you've rolled up your sleeves twice already — or when you do — you can enter Marriott's 'Ultimate Marriott Bonvoy Package' contest to score one night's free accommodation at each of the 28 participating Marriott Bonvoy Hotels and Resorts sites in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and New Caledonia. Yes, winning this will get you zipping beyond our own shores. And, in terms of bunking down, you'll be staying at spots under a range of different Marriott brands. That includes The Ritz Carlton, W Hotels and JW Marriott — and the Sheraton, Marriott and Westin hotels, too. Also covered: some Courtyard by Marriott and Four Points spots; Signature boutique properties such as AC Hotels and Aloft; and Australia's first Luxury Collection property, The Tasman, which is set to open in Hobart this December. [caption id="attachment_815560" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Melbourne Marriott Docklands, Dianna Snape[/caption] Five winners will be selected, with each able to use their prize once borders reopen. To go in the running, you need to head to the competition website, fill in your details and explain what travelling means to you in 25 words — and also upload a pdf of your vaccine certificate, which'll then be destroyed on Marriott's end once the company has verified that you're fully vaccinated. You'll need to be a member of Marriott Bonvoy as well, but you can sign up for free while you're on the site. Unsurprisingly, this is a one-entry-per-person deal, and you'll be able to travel — subject to border and travel restrictions — between January 1, 2022–June 1, 2023. It does only cover accommodation, too, so getting there and anything you spend while you're away is on your own dime. And if you're wondering when you can start getting serious about packing your bags, winners will be notified by December 6, 2021. For more information about Marriott's 'Ultimate Marriott Bonvoy Package' competition, or to enter, head to the hotel chain's website.
Lock up your bowler hats and crack pipes, Babyshambles are coming to town! Already announced as part of a whopping Splendour in the Grass lineup, Pete Doherty and co have added a run of sideshows to take place in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Originally a side project for Doherty when he took some time off from his first band, The Libertines, Babyshambles have had a tumultuous existence, releasing two occasionally brilliant albums while on a rollercoaster of substance abuse, no shows and lineup changes. But when they are at the top of their game, there are few better writers of Britpop than Pete Doherty — just listen to 'Fuck Forever' or 'Albion' for proof. Who even knows if they'll be able to keep it together throughout the tour, but with a new album planned and Doherty seemingly in good health (maybe living with Macaulay Culkin helps?), these sideshows could be something special. Thurs 25 July – Palace Theatre – Melbourne Fri 26 July – Splendour In The Grass – Byron Bay - SOLD OUT Sun 28 July – Enmore - Sydney Mon 29 July – HQ - Adelaide Wed 31 July – Metro City – Perth https://youtube.com/watch?v=IpeJFVvwz6A
Video art can be isolating, often presenting disjointed, non-linear images and sounds that lack obvious narrative or aesthetic meaning. The viewer, raised on a steady diet of numbing Hollywood blockbusters and sitcoms peppered with canned laughter designed to remind us how and when to feel, may balk. What is the story? Who are the characters? Where is the plot? Although filmmaker and artist Warwick Thornton's recently parked (yes, parked) film installation at ACMI raises such questions, the immersive, inclusive nature of the piece ensures the audience is not lost to utter confusion. The viewer's introduction to Thornton's protagonists, Aboriginal matriarch Mother Courage (Grace Rubuntja), for whom the installation is named, and her grandson (Elijah Button) is informal — they have grown so accustomed to visitors circling the dusty Toyota campervan they call home that they probably won't even look up. Nanna is busy lovelessly churning out the Aboriginal dot paintings she sells to whitefellas to support herself and her grandson, who intermittently sips a can of Coke while listening to the local radio. Although it is logically apparent that the figures are merely projections, they are so vivid in their actions that one can almost smell the heady scent of paints, dust and sweat hanging in the air. The van is caked in red earth and adorned with scribbles, trinkets, and paraphernalia that initially suggest your average frenetically decorated travelling wagon. On second glance a number of dual tensions emerge. Do the tiny Aboriginal figures on butcher's paper plastered to one side of the van resemble ants to suggest their homogeneity in the eyes of colonisers, or are they merely the innocent stick figures of a child? Is the red handprint smeared atop the hood a celebration of a tradition of hand painting, or a reminder of the gore of invasion? What of the newspaper article placed on the windshield that tells of “at risk youths” removed by the Department of Human Services? A sense of uncertainty recurs as the audience struggles to place the resourceful Mother Courage character as either a victim or a hero. Forced out of the very homeland she now re-creates in conditions akin to a third world sweatshop, this poor old lady bears the strain of a grandchild one may uncomfortably assume has been forgotten by absent parents. On the flip side, she gets the last laugh; possibly charging thousands to guilt-riddled white, rich people who clear their colonial consciences by hanging dot paintings atop Victorian fireplaces, missing the irony. It is interesting to note that Thornton, predominantly a director, has described his foray into the art world as “entertainment, but without financial gain”, in that it allows him an outlet not bound by the pressure and drawn out processes involved in the production of a film. In doing so he intrinsically links the validity of his own practice to the creative freedom it gives him, something that an artist limited to creating work that exists to feed a specific economic market, like Mother Courage, may never enjoy. Due to his economic, social and cultural position, Thornton has the flexibility to subvert traditional notions of what it means to be an Aboriginal working in a creative field. In Mother Courage, he does so by drawing attention to another Indigenous artist who is not in a position to do the same. The point is not necessarily to find answers to the questions presented in Mother Courage surrounding the plight of Thornton's non-nuclear family and their real-life counterparts. Instead, all viewers need take away is that such conversations are worth having in the first place.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. BERGMAN ISLAND Each filmmaker sits in the shadows of all who came before them — and as cinema's history lengthens, so will those penumbras. With Bergman Island, French writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve doesn't merely ponder that idea; she makes it the foundation of her narrative, as well a launching pad for a playful and resonant look at love, work and the creative wonders our minds conjure up. Her central duo, two filmmakers who share a daughter, literally tread where the great Ingmar Bergman did. Visiting Fårö, the island off Sweden's southeastern coast that he called home and made his base, Chris (Vicky Krieps, Old) and Tony Sanders (Tim Roth, The Misfits) couldn't escape his imprint if they wanted to. They don't dream of trying, as they're each searching for as much inspiration as they can find; however, the idea of being haunted by people and their creations soon spills over to Chris' work. Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage has already been remade, albeit in a miniseries that arrived on the small screen a couple of months after Bergman Island premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival — but across one half of Hansen-Løve's feature, that title would fit here as well. Her resume has long been filled with intimate looks at complicated relationships, including in 2009's Father of My Children and 2011's Goodbye First Love, with her movies both peering deeply and cutting deep as they unfurl the thorny intricacies of romance. Accordingly, when Chris and Tony find themselves sleeping in the bedroom where Bergman shot the original Scenes From a Marriage, it's a loaded and layered moment several times over. That said, the thing about willingly walking in someone else's footsteps is that you're not bound to taking the exact same path — as Bergman Island's characters learn, and as the filmmaker that's brought them to the screen clearly already knows. Turning in finessed and thoughtful performances, Krieps and Roth bring a lived-in dynamic to the film's first key couple, with the chaos that swirls from being in the same line of work but chasing disparate aims not just flowing but bubbling in their paired scenes. He's the kind of Bergman fan that's adamant about going on the Bergman safari, a real-life thing that all visitors can do, for instance, while she prefers being shown around informally by young film student Hampus (acting debutant Hampus Nordenson). But their Fårö escapades only fill half of Bergman Island, because the movie also brings Chris' budding script to life. She tells Tony the tale, seeking his assistance in working out an ending, but he's too immersed in Bergman worship to truly pay attention. The feature itself, Hansen-Løve and the audience all savour the details, though — eagerly so. There, in this film-within-a-film, 28-year-old director Amy (Mia Wasikowska, Blackbird) visits an island, too — "a place like this," Chris advises, and one that visibly resembles Fårö. She dances to ABBA to cement the Swedish ties, and also spends her time on the locale's shores wading through matters of art and the heart. The catalyst for the latter: her ex Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie, The Worst Person in the World). They're both attending a wedding of mutual friends, and their lengthy, passionate and volatile history quickly pushes to the fore. While they've each moved on, they're also forever connected, especially when placed in such close quarters. Accordingly, that tumultuous relationship is as bedevilled by other creative endeavours, and also by the thrall of history, as Chris' quest to put pen to paper. And, via the movie-inside-a-movie concept, there's an evocative sense of mirroring that couldn't spring any firmer from Bergman himself. Read our full review. WASH MY SOUL IN THE RIVER'S FLOW A silent hero and a rowdy troublemaker. That's what Ruby Hunter calls Archie Roach, her partner in life and sometimes music, then characterises herself. She offers those words casually, as if she's merely breathing, with an accompanying smile and a glint in her eyes as she talks. They aren't the only thoughts uttered in Wash My Soul in the River's Flow, which intersperses concert and rehearsal clips with chats with Hunter and Roach, plus snippets of biographical details from and recollections about their lives as intertitles, and then majestic footage of the winding Murray River in Ngarrindjeri Country, where Hunter was born, too. Still, even before those two-word descriptions are mentioned, the film shows how they resonate within couple's relationship. Watching their dynamic, which had ebbed and flowed over three-plus decades when the movie's footage was shot in 2004, it's plain to see how these two icons of Australian music are dissimilar in personality and yet intertwine harmoniously. Every relationship is perched upon interlocking personalities: how well they complement each other, where their differences blend seamlessly and how their opposing traits spark challenges in the best possible ways. Every song, too, is a balance of disparate but coordinated pieces. And, every ecosystem on the planet also fits the bill. With Hunter and Roach as its focus, Wash My Soul in the River's Flow contemplates all three — love, music and Country — all through 2004 concert Kura Tungar — Songs from the River. Recorded for the documentary at Melbourne's Hamer Hall, that gig series interlaced additional parts, thanks to a collaboration with Paul Grabowsky's 22-piece Australian Art Orchestra — and the movie that producer-turned-writer/director Philippa Bateman makes of it, and about two Indigenous stars, their experience as members of Australia's Stolen Generations, their ties to Country and their love, is equally, gloriously and mesmerisingly multifaceted. When is a concert film more than a concert film? When it's Wash My Soul in the River's Flow, clearly, which is named for one of Kura Tungar's tracks. Bateman could've just used her recordings of the legendary show, which won the 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Australian Contemporary Concert, and given everyone who wasn't there the chance to enjoy an historic event — and to bask in the now-late Hunter's on-stage glories more than a decade after her 2010 passing — but that was clearly just the starting point for her movie. With Roach as a producer, the documentary presents each of its songs as a combination of five key elements, all weaved together like the feather flower-dotted, brightly coloured headpiece that Hunter wears during the performance. With each tune, the film repeats the pattern but the emotion that comes with it inherently evolves, with the result akin to cycling through the earth's four seasons. First, a title appears on-screen, overlaid across breathtakingly beautiful images of the Murray and its surroundings, and instantly steeping every song in a spectacular place. From there, the Kura Tungar rendition of each tune segues into practice sessions with Grabowsky and the AAO of the same track, plus both text and on-the-couch chatter between Hunter and Roach that speaks to the context of, meaning behind and memories tied to each piece. Hunter's 'Daisy Chains, String Games and Knuckle Bones', which springs from her childhood, gets that treatment. Roach's unforgettable 'Took the Children Away' does, too. 'Down City Streets', as written by Hunter and recorded by Roach, also joins the lineup. The list goes on, and the power that each song possesses alone — which, given the talent and topics involved, is immense — only grows when packaged in such a layered manner. Read our full review. THE SOUVENIR: PART II In showbusiness, nepotism is as inescapable as movies about movies. Both are accounted for in The Souvenir: Part II. But when talents as transcendent as Honor Swinton Byrne, her mother Tilda Swinton and writer/director Joanna Hogg are involved — with the latter working with the elder Swinton since her first short, her graduation piece Caprice, back in 1986 before Honor was even born — neither family ties nor filmmaking navel-gazing feel like something routine. Why this isn't a surprise with this trio is right there in the movie's name, after the initial The Souvenir proved such a devastatingly astute gem in 2019. It was also simply devastating, following an aspiring director's romance with a charismatic older man through to its traumatic end. Both in its masterful narrative and its profound impact, Part II firmly picks up where its predecessor left off. In just her third film role — first working with her mum in 2009's I Am Love before The Souvenir and now this — Swinton Byrne again plays 80s-era filmmaking student Julie Harte. But there's now a numbness to the wannabe helmer after her boyfriend Anthony's (Tom Burke, Mank) death, plus soul-wearying shock after discovering the double life he'd been living that her comfortable and cosy worldview hadn't conditioned her to ever expect. Decamping to the Norfolk countryside, to her family home and to the warm but entirely upper-middle-class, stiff-upper-lip embrace of her well-to-do parents Rosalind (Swinton, The French Dispatch) and William (James Spencer Ashworth) is only a short-term solution, however. Julie's thesis film still needs to be made — yearns to pour onto celluloid, in fact — but that's hardly a straightforward task. As the initial movie was, The Souvenir: Part II is another semi-autobiographical affair from Hogg, with Swinton Byrne slipping back into her on-screen shoes. This time, the director doesn't just dive into her formative years four decades back, but also excavates what it means to mine your own life for cinematic inspiration — aka the very thing she's been doing with this superb duo of features. That's what Julie does as well as she works on the film's film-within-a-film, sections of which play out during The Souvenir: Part II's running time and are basically The Souvenir. Accordingly, viewers have now spent two pictures watching Hogg's protagonist lives the experiences she'll then find a way to face through her art, all while Hogg moulds her two exceptional — and exceptionally intimate and thoughtful — movies out of that exact process. Julie's graduation project is also an escape, given it's patently obvious that the kindly, well-meaning but somehow both doting and reserved Rosalind and William have been pushed out of their comfort zone by her current crisis. Helping their daughter cope with her heroin-addicted lover's passing isn't something either would've considered might occur, so they natter away about Rosalind's new penchant for crafting Etruscan-style pottery instead — using small talk to connect without addressing the obvious, as all families lean on at some point or another. They provide financing for Julie's film, too, in what proves the easiest part of her concerted efforts to hop back behind the lens and lose herself in her work. Elsewhere, an array of doubt and questions spring from her all-male film-school professors, and the assistance she receives from her classmates is quickly steeped in rivalries, envy and second-guessing. Read our full review. FACING MONSTERS "If you want the ultimate, you've got to be willing to pay the ultimate price." Uttered by Patrick Swayze in 90s surfing action flick Point Break, that statement isn't directly quoted in Facing Monsters. Still, when it comes to the underlying idea behind those words — that anything at its absolute pinnacle comes at a cost, especially seeking bliss hanging ten on giant swells — this new Australian documentary unquestionably rides the same wave. Directed by Bentley Dean, and marking his first movie in cinemas since 2015 Oscar-nominee Tanna, the film focuses on Kerby Brown, the Aussie slab surfer who is at his happiest atop the biggest breakers possible. He's turned hunting them into his life's mission — think Point Break's 50-year storm, also set in Australia, but every time that Kerby hops on a board — and Facing Monsters commits that pursuit to celluloid. Helming solo unlike on Tanna — which he co-directed with Martin Butler, as he did on prior documentaries Contact, First Footprints and A Sense of Self as well — Dean understands three key aspects to Kerby's story. The thrills, the spectacle and the calm: they're all accounted for here, including simply in the astonishing imagery that fills the film. There's no shortage of talk in Facing Monsters; Kerby himself, his brother and frequent partner-in-surf Cortney, his partner Nicole Jardine, and his parents Glenn and Nola all chat happily. But this movie makes much of its impact, and captures plenty that's pivotal, all via its visuals alone. Cinematographer Rick Rifici has long shot the sea as if it's an otherworldly space, including while working as a camera operator on Storm Surfers, as a water cinematographer on Breath, and as the underwater camera operator on Dirt Music, and he's as as crucial here as Kerby. The long, wide, lingering image that begins the film is one such unforgettable moment — essential and exceptional, too. Kerby floats in a sea of lush but rippling pink, face to the sky, his board strapped to his leg. It's a near-supernatural sight, and a transcendent one, but amid the unshakeably striking beauty of the shot, uncertainty also loiters. An unspoken query, too: is this a picture of bliss or bleakness? Next comes a quick cut, letting Kerby's bloody face and bandaged head fill the the screen instead, and making it instantly clear that his love of riding big waves has physical and severe consequences. The gorgeous visions return from there, and the intimacy as well — the latter largely flowing from talk from this point forward — but Facing Monsters' first frames truly do say it all. Indeed, it's noticeable that the remainder of the movie feels like it's paddling after this opening sensation and atmosphere. Facing Monsters is a documentary about chasing, of course — waves, obsessions, addictions, demons, solace and happiness alike. The dangerous nature of slab surfing plays out like a quest as much as an adventure, driving Kerby ever since he and Cortney got bored with the swells at Kalbarri in Western Australia, where they grew up, then starting seeking out bigger and bigger possibilities. That's there in the chatter as well as the imagery, in a film that aims to convey the what and why behind its subject's choices through immersion first and foremost. It's fitting, then, that watching Facing Monsters sometimes resembles riding high — when its visuals express everything they need to — and sometimes floats in shallower waters. Ensuring that audiences share the awe and wonder that Kerby experiences on his board is easy with Rifici's astounding help; diving deeper into exactly what else makes its point of focus tick, and has through swirls of drugs and booze, life-threatening incidents in the surf, and becoming a father, is a far more evasive task. BOOK OF LOVE In 2018's The Nightingale, Sam Claflin gave the performance of his career so far while playing thoroughly against type. As a British lieutenant in colonial-era Tasmania, he terrorised the film's female protagonist to a nerve-rattlingly distressing degree — and his work, just like the phenomenal feature he's in, isn't easy to watch. Book of Love, his latest movie, couldn't be more different; however, Claflin's portrayal could use even a sliver of the commitment he demonstrated four years back. The film around him could, too. Here, he plays a floundering novelist who doesn't want to do a very long list of things, so it makes sense that he takes to the part with a dissatisfied attitude that drips with not only unhappiness, but pouting petulance. He's meant to be one of this dire rom-com's romantic leads, however, and he constantly looks like he'd rather be doing anything else. Author of The Sensible Heart, Claflin's Henry Copper is instantly as dour as his book sounds. It too is a romance, but he's proud of its sexlessness — to the point of boasting about it to bored would-be readers who definitely don't make a purchase afterwards. He's also seen using his novel as a pick-up line early in the movie, and that goes just as badly. In fact, his whole career seems to be a shambles, and the prim-and-proper Brit can't understand why. But he's also surprised when he's told that his latest has become a bestseller in Mexico, and he's hardly thrilled about the whirlwind promotional tour his brassy agent (Lucy Punch, The Prince) swiftly books him on. Upon arrival, where his local translator Maria Rodríguez (My Heart Goes Boom!) doubles as his minder, he's visibly displeased about everything he's asked to do — more so when he discovers that she's taken the liberty to spice up his work. Of course, Maria's revisions — a wholesale rewrite that plunges The Sensible Heart into erotic page-turner territory — are the sole reason that Mexican women are lining up at Henry's events to throw themselves at him. And with both his British-based and Mexican agents adamant that his publicity tour must go on, he's forced to grin and bear that truth as they take a road trip across the country. Henry and Maria are a chalk-and-cheese pair in a host of other ways, naturally, but apparently sparks can't help igniting in this contrived scenario. It's telling that BuzzFeed Studios is behind the film, the site earns a mention in the movie and its plot feels like a gif-heavy listicle from the outset. Indeed, based on how slight and stereotypical every aspect of Book of Love proves, writer/director Analeine Cal y Mayor (La Voz de un Sueño) and co-writer David Quantick (Veep) don't appear to have spent much time fleshing anything out beyond that potential starting point. Tired, not wired: that's the end result, including Book of Love's place in the current literary-focused subgenre of romantic flicks that's also spawned the 50 Shades movies, the After films and fellow forgettable 2022 release The Hating Game. Claflin's patent disinterest is the least of the feature's troubles given that its storyline is nonsensical, there's no sign of chemistry between its leads, the dialogue couldn't be flatter and the travelogue setup has already been overdone. The charismatic Rodríguez certainly deserves better, even if no one else involved inspires the same description solely based on their efforts here. She's stuck playing a character that's been given as much depth and texture as a full stop — the archetype: feisty put-upon single mother with big dreams but crushing responsibilities — but she's also the only part of the movie that feels remotely real. OFF THE RAILS In need of a bland and derivative friends-on-holidays flick that's painted with the broadest of strokes? Keen to dive once more into the pool of movies about pals heading abroad to scatter ashes and simultaneously reflect upon their current lot in life? Fancy yet another supposedly feel-good film that endeavours to wring humour out of culture clashes between English-speaking protagonists and the places they visit? Yearning for more glimpses of thinly written women getting their grooves back and realising what's important on a wild Eurotrip? Call Off the Rails, not that anyone should. Coloured with every cliche that all of the above scenarios always throw up, and also covered from start to finish in schmaltz, it's a travel-themed slog that no one could want to remember. A grab bag of overdone tropes and treacly sentiment, it also doubles as an ode to the songs of Blondie, which fill its soundtrack — but even the vocal stylings of the great Debbie Harry can't breathe vibrancy into this trainwreck. Alongside its woeful been-there-done-that plot, its lack of personality, its yearning to be the next Mamma Mia! and all those Blondie tracks — the prominence of which makes zero sense given how briefly and haphazardly each song, hits and deeper cuts alike from a lengthy list, are deployed — Off the Rails does have another claim to fame to its name. The British film also marks the last on-screen appearance of Kelly Preston, who passed away in mid-2020; however, it isn't the swansong that any actor would want. Her involvement does give the movie's messages about making the most of one's time, embracing what you love and keeping in touch with the people who matter while you can a bittersweet tone, but not enough to wash away its mix of dullness and overdone mawkishness. Or, to invest depth into what's largely 94 minutes of middle-aged travellers arguing about anything and everything. Once close, Kate (Jenny Seagrove, Peripheral), Liz (Sally Phillips, Blinded by the Light) and Cassie (Preston, Gotti) now just call on big occasions — and even then, they're barely there for each other. But when fellow pal Anna dies, they reunite at her funeral, and are asked to carry out her final wish by her mother (Belfast's Judi Dench, in a thankless cameo). The task: catching a train across Europe, through Paris to Girona, Barcelona and Palma in Spain, to recreate a backpacking jaunt the four took decades earlier. Specifically, they're headed to La Seu, a cathedral with stained-glass windows that look particularly spectacular when the sun hits at the right time (the film calls it "god's disco ball"). Anna already bought their Interrail passes, and her 18-year-old daughter Maddie (Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips, Fortitude) decides she'll join the voyage, too. Amid the bickering, which fills most of debut feature director Jules Williamson's scenes and screenwriter Jordan Waller's dialogue, the usual antics all roll out. Old feuds are unearthed, transport often goes awry every which way it can and the main middle-aged trio cause middle-aged women problems (getting drunk, getting lost, causing a scene in a boutique, delivering a baby and the like). Menopause earns some discussion, romance also springs — which is where the always-welcome but underused Franco Nero, aka cinema's original Django, comes in — and life lessons are ultimately learned. If that sounds tediously stock-standard on paper, it certainly plays out that way in a sunnily shot but always plodding ostensible comedy. Few performances could improve this plight, and Off the Rails' happily one-note efforts can't either, especially when its most interesting character and corresponding portrayal — courtesy of Dormer-Phillips as Maddie — keeps being pushed aside. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on November 4, November 11, November 18 and November 25; December 2, December 9, December 16 and December 26; January 1, January 6, January 13, January 20 and January 27; February 3, February 10, February 17 and February 24; and March 3. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Eternals, The Many Saints of Newark, Julia, No Time to Die, The Power of the Dog, Tick, Tick... Boom!, Zola, Last Night in Soho, Blue Bayou, The Rescue, Titane, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Dune, Encanto, The Card Counter, The Lost Leonardo, The French Dispatch, Don't Look Up, Dear Evan Hansen, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Lost Daughter, The Scary of Sixty-First, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, The Matrix Resurrections, The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Worst Person in the World, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, House of Gucci, The King's Man, Red Rocket, Scream, The 355, Gold, King Richard, Limbo, Spencer, Nightmare Alley, Belle, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Belfast, Here Out West, Jackass Forever, Benedetta, Drive My Car, Death on the Nile, C'mon C'mon, Flee, Uncharted, Quo Vadis, Aida?, Cyrano, Hive, Studio 666, The Batman and Blind Ambition.
UPDATE: The Ron Burgundy Bar been cancelled due to licensing restrictions from Paramount Studios. The organisers of the event have regretfully informed us that they have cancelled the event, but will openg the pop-up with a different theme. If Ron Burgundy — the man, the legend — was to open a bar, we're pretty sure he'd open one in Melbourne. It's probably one of the only cities to accept a concept so ridiculous it includes a rich mahogany scent machine. Hot on the heels of other themed drinking establishments — George Costanza bar, we're looking at you — a bunch of bartenders have decided to make the Anchorman character's imagined bar dreams a reality, announcing they'll open a Ron Burgundy-themed bar in Melbourne next week. Naturally, they'll be theming the bar around the '70s world that Burgundy and his associates inhabit — and dropping as many movie references as possible. Staff will be wearing those iconic colourful suits, there'll be a Channel 4 News setup and even a scent machine to make the place smell like rich mahogany (the only respectable smell). Undoubtedly there'll be some sort of scotch selection as well — because we all know Ron Burgundy likes a little scotchy scotch scotch. Bartender collective Bottoms Up are the organisers behind the pop-up. They'll be taking over Carlton's Porcelain Tea Rooms Thursday to Saturday for two weeks, starting next Thursday, October 13. How has no one thought to do this before? The Ron Burgundy Rich Mahogany Bar will pop-up for two weeks from October 13-15 and October 20-22 at Porcelain Tea Rooms, 149 Elgin Street, Carlton in Melbourne. For more info, see the Facebook event.
Market Week is back for its fourth year, ready to fill your quota of good old crafty, musical, educational and edible fun. They've gone for a global theme this year, celebrating the cultural and sensory diversity of a bunch of Melbourne institutions: the Queen Victoria, Prahran, Dandenong and South Melbourne markets. The schedule is bursting out of its hand-stitched seams with workshops, tastings, demonstrations, tours, masterclasses and performances. Revel in the festivities of the full moon and end of the harvest at the Mooncake Festival, take a dumpling masterclass, get your fromage on at a lunch composed solely of cheese and wine or treat your pooch to a goat's milk puppycino (yep) and an organic peanut butter dog biscuit at the Dogs of the World Morning Tea. For the two-legged among us looking for a teatime sweet fix, or a (literal) slice of Australiana, there's a daily CWA tribute stall. Think mini pavs, lemon meringue pies and lamingtons. We're not sure about their definition of week, considering it actually spans two weekends. But who's complaining? Foodies, DIY aficionados and general good-times-havers, take note. Market Week is on from September 6-14, 2014. Thanks to Markets of Melbourne, we have one Market Passport valued at $200 (that's $50 to spend at each market) 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.
It's mid-August, so you should probably start getting your New Year's Eve plans in order. Victorian NYE festival Beyond the Valley has just announced the lineup for their celebrated four-day festival in Lardner, Victoria and it's pretty bloody good, so could be a solid option. Just four festivals old, the Victorian festival is still pretty fresh on the New Year's circuit, starting out in 2014. Despite this, they've managed to secure a rather colossal lineup, featuring charismatic rap headliner Schoolboy Q, Sydney electro legends The Presets, falsetto-flaunting folk favourite Matt Corby, UK grime gem Stormzy, East London 'wonky funk' singer Nao and 21-year-old Channel Islands-born producer Mura Masa. Beyond the Valley takes over Lardner Park, Warragul, Victoria from December 28 to January 1. Anyway, here's what you came for. BEYOND THE VALLEY 2017 LINEUP: Schoolboy Q The Presets Matt Corby Stormzy Mura Masa Stephan Bodzin (live) Little Dragon 2MNANY DJs (DJ Set) Adana Twins Âme (live) Amy Shark Andhim The Belligerents B.Traits Crooked Colours Cub Sport Cut Copy Dean Lewis DMAs Dom Dolla FKJ GL George Maple Harvey Sutherland & Bermuda Hayden James Hot Dub Time Machine Ivan Ooze Jack River Lastlings Late Nite Tuff Guy Marek Hemmann Meg Mac NAO Patrick Topping Pleasurekraft The Preatures Princess Nokia Ruby Fields Sampa The Great San Cisco Skegss
Since its launch back in 2017, Pontoon has become Melbourne's answer to those epic beach clubs that populate European coastlines. Maintaining that solid rep, this summer, the bar has partnered with top seltzer brand White Claw for an epic live gig so you can have tunes served up with your view over St Kilda Beach. On Sunday, February 13, you can extend those weekend vibes with one of the hottest emerging music acts in the country: Close Counters. From 5pm, the Melbourne-based duo will perform a DJ set, spinning up soulful, genre-traversing tunes to have a boogie to. Yep, Sunday sessions and live music are well and truly back and we're here for it. To top it off, you'll be sipping refreshing White Claws while you listen. And best of all? This gig is completely free to attend. For more information on White Claw Weekend at Pontoon, head to the White Claw website.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. PARALLEL MOTHERS Whatever Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz happen to be selling — and whenever, and in whichever films — audiences should always be buying. It isn't quite right to liken the acclaimed filmmaker's long-running collaboration with one of his favourite leading ladies to commerce, though, so another comparison fits better: whatever this duo birth into the world, viewers should embrace as a parent does a child. Across four decades now, the Spanish pair has gorgeously and soul-stirringly made cinematic art with the utmost understanding of how to make people feel. They know how people feel, too, and have the combined resumes best exemplified by Live Flesh, All About My Mother, Volver, Broken Embraces, Pain and Glory and now Parallel Mothers to prove it. Their shared filmography also constantly demonstrates another essential insight into human existence: that life is emotion, whether facing its beginning, end or both. Now helming his 22nd feature, Almodóvar has long filled his works with other recurrent inclusions and fascinations, many of which also burst onto the screen again here. When he initially united with Cruz on 1997's Live Flesh, she gave birth on a bus; in their second pairing, the Oscar-winning All About My Mother, she played a pregnant nun; with their most recent collaboration before this, Pain and Glory, she was mum to the writer/director's fictionalised surrogate — so that she's one of his titular matriarchs now is vintage Almodóvar. He brings back another of his veteran stars in Rossy de Palma (Julieta), paints with the vibrant-toned costume and set design that make his movies such a blissful sight for colour-seeking eyes, and focuses on mothers of all shades navigating life's many difficulties as well. Yes, Parallel Mothers is classic Almodóvar, but nothing about that description ever simply unfurls as expected. As the movie's moniker indicates, Janis, the almost-40 photographer that Cruz (The 355) inhabits with the quiet force and fragility that's second nature whenever she's directed by Almodóvar, is just one of Parallel Mothers' mums. Teenager Ana (Milena Smit, Cross the Line) is the other and, despite the feature's title, their stories keep converging. The two first meet in a Madrid hospital, where they share a room, give birth simultaneously, chat about how they're each going it alone with no father in the picture and quickly form a bond — as different as they otherwise appear, down to contrasting sources of support (Janis' brightly attired magazine-editor best friend Elena, which is where de Palma pops up, versus Ana's self-obsessed and distant actress mother Teresa, played by Estoy vivo's Aitana Sánchez-Gijón). Janis and Ana descend separately into motherhood afterwards, but twists of fate keep bringing them back together. Soapiness, aka the kinds of narrative developments characteristic of daytime TV, is another of Almodóvar's touches. But while his career has spanned films light and camp, dark and serious, and almost everything in-between, he inherently recognises that the line between what's dismissed as melodramatic contrivance and what people do truly experience is thinner than a blue slash on a positive pregnancy test. He unravels Parallel Mothers' story with that notion beaming underneath, and while also tackling a real and grim chapter of his country's history that he's never overtly confronted in his work. Before Janis and Ana can meet again and again, their lives and those of their infant daughters' forever intertwined, Janis gets in the family way to anthropologist Arturo (Israel Elejalde, 45 rpm) — who she snaps at a job, then asks to unearth the mass grave in her village that she suspects has housed her great-grandfather's body since he went missing in the Spanish Civil War. Read our full review. THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE Not for the first time, the eyes have it, but then they always have with Tammy Faye Bakker. Not one but two films called The Eyes of Tammy Faye have told the 70s and 80s televangelist's tale — first a 2000 documentary and now this new Jessica Chastain-starring dramatisation — and both take their monikers from one of the real-life American figure's best-known attributes. In the opening to the latest movie, the spidery eyelashes that adorn Tammy Faye's peepers are dubbed her trademark by the woman herself. They're given ample focus in this biopic, as OTT and instantly eye-grabbing as they they are, but their prominence isn't just about aesthetics and recognition. This version of The Eyes of Tammy Faye hones in on perspective, resolutely sticking to its namesake's, even when it'd be a better film if it pondered what she truly saw, or didn't. In the path leading to her celebrity heyday and the time she was a TV mainstay, Tammy Faye's life saw plenty. It began with an unhappy childhood stained by her stern mother Rachel's (Cherry Jones, Succession) refusal to be linked to her at church, lest it remind their god-fearing Minnesotan townsfolk about the latter's sinful divorce. But young Tammy Faye (Chandler Head, The Right Stuff) still finds solace in religion, the attention that speaking in tongues mid-service brings and also the puppets she starts using as a girl. Come 1960, at bible college, her fervour and quirkiness attract fellow student Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick… Boom!), with the pair soon married even though it gets them kicked out of school. Unperturbed, she keeps seeing their calling to the lord as their way forward, first with a travelling ministry — puppets included — and then with television shows and their own Praise the Lord network. From her mid 20s through until her late 40s, when multiple scandals spelled their downfall — involving Jim's alleged sexual assaults, as well as the misuse of funds donated to Praise the Lord by its loyal viewers — much of Tammy Faye's life was lived in the public eye, too. That gives both Chastain (The 355) and director Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) copious materials to draw upon beyond the original The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and also turns their film into a glossy recreation. There's no shortage of details to convey, but that's primarily what Abe Sylvia's (Dead to Me) script is content with. Depiction doesn't equal interrogation here, and does skew closer to endorsement; Tammy Faye's outsized appearance, her makeup and outfits getting gaudier as the Bakkers' fame keeps growing, can border on parody — it's camp at the very least — but that isn't the same as asking probing questions about the movie's central figure. Chastain serves up a performance that seems primed to delve deeper. With the exceptional Scenes From a Marriage star leading the show, the eyes don't just have it, or the hair that just keeps getting bigger, or the ostentatious clothing. In the twice Oscar-nominated actor's hands — with a third nod likely for this very portrayal — there's heart and soul behind Tammy Faye's larger-than-life persona, thoughtfully and sympathetically so. As she was with The 355, Chastain is also one of The Eyes of Tammy Faye's producers, and her investment in the part is apparent in every aspect of her portrayal. The film was clearly built around her work, which is excellent, but the picture plays like that's its whole point. Indeed, when it comes to seeing past the blatant, already-known and openly endorsed about its subject, and to genuinely unpacking her role in the prosperity gospel her husband promoted, the movie conspicuously stops short. Read our full review. THE HATING GAME Misery loves company in the world of publishing industry-set toxic romance novels, which just keep coming — as do film adaptations of such books. After the Fifty Shades franchise fittingly came After movies, doubling down on idealising unhealthy relationships cast against a literary background. Now, as based on Sally Thorne's tome of the same name, The Hating Game follows the same broad concept as well as the same path from page to screen. For anyone who loves words, there's a sense of romance about the business of immortalising them in print, so perhaps that's why these tales keep plunging into the publishing realm. Or, if you're turning destructive ideas about love into fiction, maybe using the industry responsible as a backdrop just feels apt? As more keep arriving, it could simply be the easiest and laziest choice. Charting a professional rivalry that eventually (and thoroughly unsurprisingly) sparks a-fluttering hearts — capitalising upon the schoolyard notion that teasing and torment is actually a sign of affection, and legitimising it as an acceptable form of human behaviour as eons of parental advice to children mistakenly has, too — The Hating Game doesn't pretend to stretch its chosen genre. The thin line between love and loathing here is ridden by two duelling assistants at a recently merged publishing house, and the fact that they'll end up together isn't meant to cause any astonishment. Instead, like with all formulaic rom-coms, viewers are supposed to enjoy the journey towards the happy ending. But that's a difficult feat when everything about that voyage proves noxious, from the underlying notion that workplace acrimony will lead to a fairytale romance through to the glaring lack of chemistry between its stars — and, of course, the overstuffed bag of obligatory tropes and cliches. Narrating the movie, Lucy Hutton (Lucy Hale, Son of the South) is upfront about her disdain for Joshua Templeman (Austin Stowell, Swallow) from the outset. She hails from Gamin Publishing, home to weighty works that exemplify literature as an art form, while he comes from Bexley Books, purveyor of ghost-written sports autobiographies. Creativity meets commerce in this business marriage of convenience; however, since the two organisations joined forces, The Hating Game's chalk-and-cheese central pair have dedicated as much time to annoying each other as they have to their jobs. The dangling carrot that is a big promotion not only ups the stakes but sees Lucy and Josh ramp up their animosity, but then their bickering begets an unexpected kiss. Afterwards, she struggles with lusting after the enemy while still trying to beat him out for her dream position. After co-starring in 2020's Fantasy Island, Hale and Stowell experience a case of history repeating with The Hating Game. Both movies value predictability over personality, to bland results — and neither film adds a highlight to either actor's resumes. Director Peter Hutchings (Then Came You) and screenwriter Christina Mengert (the filmmaker's co-scribe on The Last Keepers) also endeavour to have things both ways whenever the feature flirts with getting saucier, as the tale does on the page. Although Lucy is candid about sex and, when she realises it, her attraction to Josh, the picture she's in makes the Fifty Shades and After flicks seem far steamier than they are. The Hating Game misses every mark when it tries to be comedic, too, including in its key duo's games of one-upmanship and their exploits at Josh's brother's wedding. The film does take place in a world where the protagonists share a ridiculously spacious office while the company they work for cries budgetary issues, so it's all pure fantasy, but this rom-com's idea of escapism springs from nothing more than riding an already-overdone publishing trend's dispiriting coattails. QUEEN BEES Squandering veteran acting talent in insulting comedies about being senior citizens has to be one of cinema's most infuriating moves. It's a fate that's claimed too many stars — Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Diane Keaton and Pam Grier included in just the past few years — and, following the likes of Poms, Dirty Grandpa and The War with Grandpa, Queen Bees is the latest film to jump on the bandwagon. Where the also female-focused Poms endeavoured to bring Bring It On to older age, this Ellen Burstyn (Pieces of a Woman)-led effort does the same with Mean Girls. It knows it, too, with Donald Martin's (Christmas Town) script saddling Burstyn's Pine Grove Senior Community newcomer Helen Wilson with describing her cliquish fellow residents as "like mean girls, but with medical alert bracelets". That line alone is the extent of Queen Bees' self-awareness, however. Widowed for three years and dwelling in the memories that her marital home still holds, Helen is fiercely independent, but also increasingly forgetful. Her doting grandson Peter (Matthew Barnes, Little Fires Everywhere) helps her laugh off the repeated times she locks herself out of the house, but when she accidentally starts a fire one night, it leads to her interfering daughter Laura (Elizabeth Mitchell, The Expanse) convincing Helen to spend the month it'll take to fix the place seeing what Pine Grove is like. The word 'temporary' gets bandied about constantly upon her arrival, and she's just as adamant about steering clear of the retirement community's locals. And the fact that the group of women who've gleefully adopted the movie's moniker — led by the sniping and stern Janet (Jane Curtin, The Good Fight), with Margot (Ann-Margret, Going in Style) and Sally (Loretta Devine, The Starling) always by her side — are instantly unwelcoming only solidifies Helen's resolve. Flatly directed by Michael Lembeck (A Nutcracker Christmas), Queen Bees does bring something closer to its target audience than Mean Girls to mind, but trying to follow in The Golden Girls' footsteps is a fool's errand. There isn't a laugh to be found here regardless of what the film is aping at any given moment, but Martin's screenplay does take the sitcom approach to its attempts at both comedy and drama, wisecracking one-liners and big narrative developments included. It also leans heavily on its cast to make its thin, formulaic writing spark, but no one can improve such rote material. Burstyn has tackled many horrors on-screen, including in The Exorcist and Requiem for a Dream — both of which earned her Oscar nominations — but seeing her stuck attempting to do her best with something this contrived, condescending and insincere is a true horror show. In the narrative, contrivance abounds, including to shoehorn more acting greats into the movie's on-screen roster. James Caan (Out of Blue) plays a kindly love interest for Helen — one of the reasons she might change her tune about Pine Grove, which'd be a lucrative result for the facility's manager (Curtain's Third Rock From the Sun co-star French Stewart) — while Christopher Lloyd (Nobody) gets the movie's most thankless role as another new arrival. The only charms that Queen Bees boasts spring from watching its overqualified talents share scenes, but again, that isn't enough to salvage everything around them. Retirement home comedies should be retired after the excellent 2020 documentary Some Kind of Heaven anyway, which showed that reality truly is wilder than anything these bland fictional flicks will ever conjure up. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on September 2, September 9, September 16, September 23 and September 30; October 7, October 14, October 21 and October 28; November 4, November 11, November 18 and November 25; December 2, December 9, December 16 and December 26; and January 1, January 6, January 13 and January 20. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Streamline, Coming Home in the Dark, Pig, Big Deal, The Killing of Two Lovers, Nitram, Riders of Justice, The Alpinist, A Fire Inside, Lamb, The Last Duel, Malignant, The Harder They Fall, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, Halloween Kills, Passing, Eternals, The Many Saints of Newark, Julia, No Time to Die, The Power of the Dog, Tick, Tick... Boom!, Zola, Last Night in Soho, Blue Bayou, The Rescue, Titane, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Dune, Encanto, The Card Counter, The Lost Leonardo, The French Dispatch, Don't Look Up, Dear Evan Hansen, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Lost Daughter, The Scary of Sixty-First, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, The Matrix Resurrections, The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Worst Person in the World, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, House of Gucci, The King's Man, Red Rocket, Scream, The 355, Gold, King Richard, Limbo, Spencer, Nightmare Alley and Belle.
Melbourne's craft brewing scene has been getting hotter by the day, between the big-name venue launches and all those planned beer projects set to drop in the coming months. And now, South Australia is bringing some heat to the game, with the news Adelaide-based brewery Pirate Life is gearing up to launch its first Victorian outpost next year. The renowned label has revealed it's setting up shop in a former mechanics garage in South Melbourne, with founders Michael Cameron, Jack Cameron and Jared Proudfoot hoping to open the doors by mid-2023. [caption id="attachment_881349" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pirate Life founders: Michael, Jared and Jack[/caption] We don't know much about the space just yet, but that it'll be rocking a fitout courtesy of a fellow South Australian crew and long-time collaborator — award-winning architecture and design firm Studio Gram. Word is, it'll boast a healthy dose of grunge, with plenty of murals, foliage and bold accents nodding to the site's industrial past. Founded in 2014 and now with four breweries under its belt, Pirate Life unsurprisingly has some very grand, very beery plans for its new Melbourne site. That'll involve the full core range of brews showcased on tap alongside a tidy rotation of special releases, from fruity sours to nitro-charged goodies. Fresh kegs are set to be shipped in directly from Pirate Life's Port Adelaide brewery. [caption id="attachment_881352" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pirate Life SA[/caption] The venue's proximity to South Melbourne Market will help guide the food offering and, while there's no menu as yet, Jack explains: "we love cooking over fire, so anticipate charred goodness." In between the regular programming, Pirate Life Melbourne will also play host to a calendar of live music and art, exhibitions and guest chef dinners. "As a brand, we've been long-time admirers of Melbourne's hospitality scene and Pirate Life's new venue in South Melbourne finally gives us a chance to be part of it," says Jack. "We can't wait to get amongst it and show locals what Pirate Life is all about." [caption id="attachment_881351" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pirate Life SA[/caption] Pirate Life is set to open at an unknown South Melbourne location in mid-2023. Stay tuned and we'll share more details as they drop.
A standout on the program at this year's Next Wave Festival, Under My Skin is the latest work from The Delta Project, a Melbourne-based dance company comprised of both deaf and hearing dancers. Choreographed by Jo Dunbar and Lina Limosani, the show will combine movement, new media and sound as dancers Anna Seymour, Elvin Lam, Amanda Lever and Luigi Vescio explore what it means to listen and be heard. With just six performances set for the first weekend of the festival, tickets are already going fast.
Welcome to... your latest excuse to imagine what Australia looked like back in prehistoric times, and to picture which creatures roamed the land and flew through the sky all those years ago. After the nation's largest ever dinosaur, Australotitan cooperensis, was identified back in June, the country's largest flying reptile has just been named as well. Meet Thapunngaka shawi, a creature that researchers have described as "the closest thing we have to a real-life dragon." Making that statement: University of Queensland PhD candidate Tim Richards, from the Dinosaur Lab in UQ's School of Biological Sciences. He led a research team that analysed a fossil of the creature's jaw, which was found on Wanamara Country, near Richmond in northwest Queensland. "It was essentially just a skull with a long neck, bolted on a pair of long wings," said Richards. "This thing would have been quite savage. It would have cast a great shadow over some quivering little dinosaurs who wouldn't have heard them coming until it was too late." If your mind has jumped to depictions of dragons in pop culture — Game of Thrones, obviously — that's not quite how artists' impressions of Thapunngaka shawi look. But this creature does appear immensely imposing. And, obviously, quite big. Researchers believe that its skull would've measured one metre in length — and contained around 40 teeth — and its wingspan would've hit seven metres. The pterosaur — a class of flying reptiles that existed around 228–66 million years ago — would've flown over the inland sea that once took up much of outback Queensland, too. And although it has just been given a name now, this specific fossil was actually found back in June 2011 by Richmond local Len Shaw, who located the specimen just northwest of the town. [caption id="attachment_822354" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Tim Richards with the skull of an anhanguerian pterosaur. Credit Tim Richards[/caption] Thapunngaka shawi also belongs to a particular group of pterosaurs known as anhanguerians, and is just the third species of anhanguerian pterosaurs ever found in Australia — all three in western Queensland. It has been named for the Wanamara words for 'spear' and 'mouth', as well as for Shaw — with its full name meaning 'Shaw's spear mouth'. Like Australotitan cooperensis, Thapunngaka shawi's fossil is on display to the public, this time at Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond. And yes, if Jurassic Park or Jurassic World ever happened to become a reality in Queensland, recreating local dinos in the process, we'd all come face to face with quite the mammoth creatures — and stand beneath them while they swooped through the air, clearly. Also in the state, in Winton, Queensland is already home to a dinosaur-focused museum — because that's where other dinosaur fossils were found back in 1999. So yes, your next road trip can involve trekking across the outback to check out these fascinating remnants of the earth's past. Life keeps finding a way, obviously. Find the Kronosaurus Korner at 91-93 Goldring Street, Richmond — open from 8.30am–4pm daily from April–October, and 8.30am–4pm Monday–Friday and 8.30am–3pm Saturday–Sunday between November–March. For further information, head to the University of Queensland website. Top image: Artist's impression of the fearsome Thapunngaka shawi.
After the great Marvel drought of 2020, when the blockbuster franchise pushed back all of its cinema releases due to the pandemic, 2021 hasn't been short on superheroes. So far, WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Loki have all hit streaming, Black Widow debuted in cinemas and online at the same time, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings unleashed its Sydney-shot action on the big screen — and Eternals, Spider-Man: Now Way Home and Hawkeye are all still to come. Indeed, by the time the year is out, no fewer than eight new movies and TV shows will have brought the Marvel Cinematic Universe's crime-fighting, world-saving figures back to our screens in 2021. And, one of them is getting festive, because obviously Disney+ thinks that we could all use some streaming superhero antics combined with holiday hijinks (or that Marvel's sprawling film and TV realm could take some cues from Home Alone and Die Hard). That show: Hawkeye. Like the rest of Marvel's Disney+ shows, it has gone with the obvious, title-wise. And, when it hits Disney+ in late November, it'll start streaming just as everyone's starting to feel merry. So, the eight-part mini-series is leaning into that idea — twinkling lights, appropriate tunes and all — as the just-dropped first trailer for Marvel's fourth TV series of the year demonstrates. Yes, viewers will see how Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner, Avengers: Endgame) is doing in his post-blip life. They'll also watch him team up with hotshot archer and aspiring hero Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld, Bumblebee), who slings arrows just as well as the Avenger she admires. And, they'll see the pair try to get Barton back to his family for Christmas — and try to escape a presence from Barton's past. As well as Renner and Steinfeld, Hawkeye stars Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It), Fra Fee (Pixie), Tony Dalton (Better Call Saul), Zahn McClarnon (Reservation Dogs), Brian d'Arcy James (Devs) and debutant Alaqua Cox. Obviously, exactly who else from the MCU will turn up is the kind of detail that'll be best discovered by watching. Check out the Hawkeye trailer below: Hawkeye will start streaming via Disney+ on Wednesday, November 24. Images: Chuck Zlotnick/Mary Cybulski. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
The dulcet, knowledgeable voice embodying the soundtrack to a generation of nature docos is returning to our fair shores, with Sir David Attenborough set to roll through town in February. He'll be taking the stage for Sir David Attenborough – A Quest For Life, a series of live talks hosted by our own Ray Martin. The esteemed writer, filmmaker, producer, and host will give audiences a unique glimpse into his jam-packed, six-decade career. Sir David will give some insight into the changes he's witnessed along the way, as well as delving into some of the world's current environmental challenges — all delivered in that charming, distinguished voice we know and love so well. The tour kicks off in Auckland on February 2, followed by shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH – A QUEST FOR LIFE DATES AUCKLAND 8pm Thursday, February 2 — The Civic BRISBANE 7.30pm Saturday February 4, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre SYDNEY 7.30pm Wednesday, February 8 and Thursday, February 9, State Theatre MELBOURNE 7.30pm Saturday, February 11, and (new date) Monday, February 13, Plenary, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre ADELAIDE 7.30pm Tuesday February 14, Festival Theatre PERTH 7.30pm Thursday, February 16, Riverside Theatre, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre
There seems to exist this strange notion that things that are good for you can't be delicious. An extreme extension of this notion is the idea that vegan food is equally as unsatisfying and unfulfilling. Alexandra Pyke, however, disagrees with the perception that food being vegan and delicious are mutually exclusive, showing the greatest skills in culinary diplomacy since Mia asked why we can't have both soft and hard shell tacos in one packet. Pyke, fresh home in Melbourne after a lengthy stint in the US, has partnered in legendary eateries like The Fat Radish, Leadbelly and vego joint The Butcher's Daughter, and is chomping at the bit to bring her expertise to her hometown. The Alley, which is now open on St Kilda Road, provides clean, wholesome food made from sustainable and local ingredients that also punches you in the face with bold flavours. The idea is to cross the divide between vegans who won't even look at a picture of a cow and the everyday consumer who can't look at a picture of a cow without finding themselves drawn to a steak restaurant. The menu features playful dishes like the maple bacon burger with smoky paprika, and the gluten free Mac 'n' Cheese with coconut bacon and crispy kale, plus sides such as air-baked sweet potato fries, of course. It goes without saying that a vegan cafe has salads but, much like meatloaf, it's what you do with them – The Alley, for example, boasts a 'fiery' kelp noodle salad, which sounds both extremely dangerous and extremely tempting, like sky diving or downloading all the original Doctor Who serials. Cold craft beers and biodynamic raw wines are also on offer in abundance. Or, opt for a caffeinated brew courtesy of iced coffee with a choice of almond, soy or coconut milk, or an almond latte. Dessert-wise, The Alley has whipped up some plant-based soft-serve to satisfy those with a sweet tooth, as well as vegan chocolate brownies. Open 8am to 7pm Monday to Friday, The Alley caters for 35 bums on seats at any time, but also maintains a healthy focus on takeaway, given the demand for food on the go in the area. Find The Alley at 417 St Kilda Road, St Kilda. Visit their website and Facebook page for further information. By James Whitton and Sarah Ward.
The Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), curated by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, are annual awards for First Nations artists from across the country. This year, NATSIAA award winners will be announced online — and all Australians can get to know the nominees via a virtual gallery — as well as vote for their favourites in the Telstra People's Choice Award. Each year, the awards celebrates contemporary artworks across a broad range of disciplines. Think paintings, craftsmanship, photography and textile works. There are 65 finalists from across the country, and what makes the awards so special is the diversity in storytelling; there are perspectives from coastal regions, desert towns, cities and everywhere between. [caption id="attachment_776094" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Telstra Bark Painting Award Winner 2019, Noŋgirrŋa Marawili. Photo: Fiona Morrison[/caption] For 37 years, Telstra NATSIAA has represented the art of the nation — culturally, geographically and historically, as well as looking to our future. And long-standing partner Telstra has been part of the awards for almost three decades. For those who plan to visit the Northern Territory, you can also experience the artworks in person at the Telstra NATSIAA Exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory from Saturday, August 8. And it's good news for those of us who'd usually miss out on the awards ceremony, as this year's presentation (usually held on the grounds of the museum) will be broadcast online. You can join host Brooke Boney on Friday, August 7 to find out which artists have won by visiting the Telstra NATSIAA website from 6pm. While you're there, check out the fully interactive, virtual gallery and chuck a vote in for your favourites.
Summer is in the air, and with it the smell of fresh popcorn, as starlight screenings return to Lido's Rooftop Cinema in Hawthorn. Perched atop the eight-screen picture house overlooking Glenferrie Road, the outdoor screen will light up from this week with a selection of classic and new release movies in the open air. The Lido on the Roof season kicks off on Friday, October 19 with A Star Is Born. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's team up is one of a number of hotly anticipated summer movies on the program, with other highlights including Disney's Mary Poppins Returns, Luca Guadagnino's remake of Italian 1977 horror flick Suspiria and Bohemian Rhapsody — a biographical drama following Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. Oh, and they're also screening a little wizarding film called Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. They're also bringing back their 'cult calendar' selection, with iconic retro titles including Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, Matilda, The Lion King and Kindergarten Cop, plus a screening of Labyrinth. For the full program, hit the Lido Cinemas website.
