Cult favourite Aussie basics label Bassike is hosting a big warehouse sale in Melbourne this month, selling its organic cotton jersey, Japanese denim and mainline collections at up to 70 percent off the regular price. Both men's and women's fashion will be up for grabs for three days from July 18–20 — the sale starts at 9am each day and stock will be replenished each morning. Expect to find everything from swimwear and footwear to accessories, denim and lots of quality basics. If you're struggling with the winter cold, you'll (thankfully) be able to find jackets and coats here, too. While exact prices have not yet been announced, previously warehouse sales have seen denim from $90, tees from $30 and jackets for $120 — no, these aren't basement bargains but they are reasonable prices for these fine organic pieces. The pop-up is also running a recycle program throughout the weekend. As part of the boutique's zero waste goal, customers are encouraged to bring any pre-worn Bassike jersey pieces to be recycled into fabric offcuts, rags and cleaning supplies. Those who partake get to skip the queue and gain express access to the sale. Bassike Melbourne Warehouse Sale will run from 9am–7pm on Thursday and Friday and 9am–3pm on Saturday.
As its eponymous heroine (Daisy Ridley) lays prone in a pond, eyes closed, her hands clutching a wilting bouquet of flowers, Ophelia opens with a potential mic-drop moment. "You may think you know my story; many have told it," the film's narration accurately advises, which usually signals that a swift change of style, approach or pace will soon follow. Thankfully, while slick, over-amped, action-packed modernisations of classic tales have become common on cinema screens of late, this take on Hamlet instead opts to switch its perspective. Exploring the tragedies surrounding the famed, fictional, medieval-era Danish prince (George McKay), the movie doesn't ponder whether to be or not to be. Rather, it views its narrative through his paramour's eyes — with the gorgeously staged and shot feature brandishing noticeable differences as a result, but still looking and feeling as if William Shakespeare wouldn't be rolling in his grave. One of the playwright's most acclaimed and influential works (Star Wars, The Lion King and TV's Sons of Anarchy have all taken their cues from it), Hamlet has always proven a fascinating account of power, politics, love, lust, loyalty and vengeance. In Australian filmmaker Claire McCarthy's (The Waiting City) hands, that's also true, however its new feminist thrust is as intriguing as it is welcome. Adapting the novel by Lisa Klein, screenwriter Semi Chellas (Mad Men) contemplates not only the fate of feuding men, but of women forced to live with the consequences of male-dominated decisions. A delicate balancing act is at play; befitting today's times, Ophelia emerges from Hamlet's sidelines, tries to steer her own course and doesn't simply descend into jilted madness — although, as the Bard intended, her path remains forever tied to her beloved. Uttered firmly and passionately by Ridley, whose Star Wars pedigree ensures she knows a few things about those traits, Ophelia's scene-setting introductory narration characterises its protagonist as "a wilful girl". They're her own words, worn as a badge of honour, which the film then spends its time unpacking. As a slip of a pre-teen (Mia Quiney) who's a little too wily for her widower father Polonius (Dominic Mafham), yet isn't allowed to receive the same education as her brother Laertes (Tom Felton), Ophelia attracts the attention of Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts). While Hamlet (played as a child by Jack Cunningham-Nuttall) is schooled abroad, Ophelia joins the court's ladies-in-waiting. When the prince returns home as a man, finding Ophelia similarly all grown up, sparks fly — but so does betrayal, death and something rotten in the state of Denmark, especially after the king is slain, leaving his brother Claudius (Clive Owen) to claim Hamlet's throne as well as his mother. McCarthy may buck the current stylistic trend when it comes to re-envisaging well-known, period-set stories (Robin Hood or King Arthur, this isn't, thankfully), but her interpretation still bears signs of its influences. With a focus on star-cross'd lovers, elements of Shakespeare's own Romeo and Juliet sneak in. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern earn a mention in the movie's dialogue, naturally, with the duo's own reimagined filmic excursion — comedy Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead — casting a small shadow. So too do a few of the Bard's recurrent motifs from his broader canon, including potions, twins and plays-within-plays. And yet, Ophelia is steadfastly its own piece, thanks to its evocative mood, sumptuous staging and intricate costuming in no small part. The tale's Elsinore castle setting appears both earthy and ethereal, continuing the lush aesthetics heralded in the movie's opening shot, which nods to Sir John Everett Millais's famed 1850s painting that's also named Ophelia. One particularly horrendous wig aside — a long, drab, floppy mess that does the otherwise adequate Owen no favours — this version of Ophelia also makes the most of many of its stars, as any iteration of this narrative by any name needs to. Playfulness permeates Chellas' reworked prose, alongside the source material's trademark wit, which rolls off of the actors' respective tongues. A sense of inner steeliness reverberates through the film's performances too, not only guiding Ridley's work, but evident in Watts' efforts in multiple roles. Indeed, when a new take on Shakespeare inspires the audience to luxuriate in its characters, their dialogue and the emotions they're conveying, it's nobly doing its job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmelYOAFv20
UPDATE, February 5, 2021: Apollo 11 is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. For those born after humanity initially visited the moon, it's easy to take the amazing achievement for granted. It has been 47 years since anyone has strolled across the earth's only natural satellite, but our ability to soar into space and tread on the lunar surface if we wanted to still seems like a given. With 2019 marking five decades since Neil Armstrong took one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind, the timing couldn't be better to consider the historic Apollo 11 mission in detail. Naming his documentary after the pioneering spaceflight, director, editor and producer Todd Douglas Miller knows that anyone can run through the ins and outs of the preparation, voyage and on-the-ground hoopla. Only by assembling an astounding array of archival audio and video footage, however, can a documentary dare to dream about capturing not just the expedition, but the complete experience. How does it feel to place one foot in front of the other on a celestial body located nearly 400,000 kilometres above the earth, as Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did? What was it like to be back at Cape Canaveral viewing the rocket launch? Or to be in NASA's mission control centre during the eight days that the vessel's three-man crew were in the air? They're questions that Apollo 11 endeavours to answer. While space-based films have tracked nearly every other possible aspect of venturing into the heavens, especially in science fiction, relaying the one thing that humanity has actually accomplished has always proven trickier until this exceptional doco. In the inky darkness above us, no one can hear you scream, according to Ridley Scott's Alien — and yet, if you're Armstrong, an entire planet can hang on your every word while you're taking the first-ever walk across the moon. Last year, Damien Chazelle's First Man went to great lengths to show that iconic incident from the late astronaut's perspective, but there's simply nothing like watching the real thing. As an editor, Miller's task is immense, trawling through more primary materials than any filmmaker tackling the moon landing could hope to have at their disposal. The Dinosaur 13 director not only received access to a wealth of newly discovered, previously unprocessed 65mm visuals, but to more than 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings featuring 60 key personnel. Delving into such a treasure trove, he follows a linear timeline. Although that may sound straightforward, the end result is by no means standard. Apollo 11 flies meticulously through the intricacies of its eponymous mission, specifically highlighting the launch of the Columbia spacecraft, the Eagle lunar module's descent to the moon, the process of reconnecting the two vessels together afterwards and the re-entry into the planet's atmosphere. More than that, it makes viewers feel as if they're there as well — waving flags in Florida, muttering into headsets in Houston, careening through space and stepping onto the moon's powdery white surface. There's a basic principle at work here, and one that Apollo 11 puts into action in the best possible way: show don't tell. For the last 50 years, the world has deployed countless words to discuss the mission's feat — perhaps that's why we've lost our sense of wonder about it — so Miller doesn't waste time recapping, recounting or analysing. Although Aldrin and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins are still alive, he doesn't ask them to chat about the space venture either. Rather, he lets the materials from the period offer a portal back to the past. Eschewing narration and interviews, the filmmaker relies upon his stunning archive to relay this monumental story. Nothing else is necessary; vivid and teeming with life, Apollo 11's footage and audio truly goes above and beyond, especially when seen on the big or IMAX screen. It gives the big, weighty moments their time to shine, including Armstrong's famous words. It features astonishing off-the-planet sights, such as the view of Earth from such great heights. It also turns seemingly routine minutiae, of which there's plenty, into a jaw-dropping spectacle. Indeed, much of the documentary's power stems from its vibrancy, not just in observing the nuts and bolts of the spaceflight, but in making this immersive portrait of five decades ago appear virtually futuristic. The movie's images are that comprehensive, even with the obvious 60s-era clothing, furniture and technology, that they feel almost unreal. The open and engaged looks on everyone's faces evoke the same sensation, as do their relaxed and respectful conversations, because such collective camaraderie and widespread earnestness aren't overly common in the 21st-century. Of course, it should feel extraordinary to ponder something as significant as sending people to the moon, let alone to bear witness to it. Continuing that sentiment, Apollo 11 doesn't simply transport the audience back in time, or immortalise one of humanity's greatest achievements in never-before-seen detail — it also provides a glaring snapshot of who we were, what we once valued and how much we've changed in such a short period. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKWKjKtkwxk
We hope you're thirsty, Melbourne. The city's newest craft beer festival kicks into gear next month and it runs for a whole five weeks. Descending on The General Assembly from August 26 to September 29, the inaugural HopsFest celebrates a different Aussie brewery each week, dishing up a froth-tastic program of brewer sessions, bottomless beer feasts, tap takeovers and daily 'hoppy hours'. A series of educational Beer Banter Thursdays sessions will feature brewer chats, masterclasses, trivia, giveaways and snack-matched beer tastings, clocking in at a very reasonable $30 a head. Meanwhile, HopsFest's Boozy Bash Saturdays will deliver a series of free weekly afternoon parties, complete with beer tastings and live tunes from 4–7pm. Then on Sundays, the $49 Bottomless Brew sessions will see you sitting down to the best kind of boozy lunch, where a food menu is matched with two hours of free-flowing tap beer from that week's showcase brewery. Adelaide Hills' Prancing Pony kicks things off the first week, with plates like burnt honey- and bush spice-glazed lamb ribs, and popcorn chicken with smoked chilli aioli. Abbotsford's Moon Dog takes the reins for week two, followed by 4 Pines, Pirate Life and Colonial Brewing Co. What's more, all throughout HopsFest you'll score $10 'brewer's choice' pints all day, along with weekly changing beer-matched lunch specials (such as a pint and pie for $25). And from 4-6pm each day, 'hoppy hour' sees all the brewery's tap beers slashed to just $10 a pint.
Trivia comps mean gathering your mates around, enjoying a few beverages and trying to convert your respective stores of knowledge into glory. At this particular trivia afternoon, you'll do all that, but there'll be a particular emphasis on your pals. Given that the topic of the session is a certain sitcom about a band of best buddies, celebrating your chums is the thing to do. Yes, Friends is in the spotlight at Welcome to Thornbury's next battle of pop culture tidbits. If you think you know everything there is to know about the show that caused viewers to agonise over whether Ross and Rachel would get together, wish that Joey and Chandler lived next door and get their hair cut like Jennifer Aniston, here's your chance to prove it. Bar tabs are on offer, and if you wanted an excuse to break out those 90s and early 00s fashions, this is it. Remember, though, it has been 15 years since Friends was on TV, making the contest not just a test of trivia, but a workout for everyone's memories. No one told you that watching endless television reruns could turn out this way. Friends Trivia takes place from 2pm on Sunday, August 4. Participation is free, but you'll need to book a table. And, to help boost your brain, there'll be $5 mulled wines and $15 jugs of beer on offer.
Timing is everything in Where the Crawdads Sing, the murder-mystery melodrama set in America's Deep South that raced up bestseller lists in 2018, and now reaches cinemas a mere four years later. Its entire narrative hinges upon a simple question: did North Carolina outcast and recluse Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Fresh), cruelly nicknamed "the marsh girl" by locals, have time to speed home from an out-of-town stay to push star quarterback Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson, The King's Man) from a fire tower, then resume her trip without anyone noticing? On the page, that query helped propel Delia Owens' literary sensation to success, to Reese Witherspoon's book club — she's a producer here — and to a swift film adaptation. But no timing would likely have ever been right for the movie's release, given that Owens and her husband are wanted for questioning in a real-life murder case in Zambia. Unlike the film, those off-screen details aren't new, but they were always bound to attract attention again as soon as this feature arrived. One of the reasons they're inescapable: the purposeful parallels between Owens' debut novel and her existence. Like Kya, Owens is a naturalist. The also southern-born author spent years preferring the company of plants and animals, crusading for conservation causes in Africa. Where the Crawdads Sing is timed to coincide with Owens' own life as well; it's set in the 50s and 60s and, as a child (played by Jojo Regina, The Chosen) and a teenager, Kya is around the same age that Owens would've been then. Another reason that the ways that art might link with reality can't be shaken, lingering like a sultry, squelchy day: what ends up on-screen is as poised, pristine and polished as a swampy southern gothic tale can be, and anyone in one. There's still a scandal, but forget dirt, sweat and anything but lush, vivid wilderness, plus a rustic hut that wouldn't look out of place on Airbnb. That Instagram-friendly aesthetic comes courtesy of filmmaker Olivia Newman (First Match), who helms a visually enticing movie — again, incongruously so given the story it unfurls and the location it dwells in — that's as typical as a murder-mystery meets coming-of-age tale meets southern romance can be. The film starts with Chase's body, the investigation that springs and the certainty around the insular small town of Barkley Cove that the supposedly feral and uncivilised marsh girl is responsible. Evidence is thin, but bigotry runs deep against someone who grew up with an abusive father (Garret Dillahunt, Ambulance), was left behind by her other family members and spent the bulk of her years fending for herself in poverty. That said, as in Owens' source material, that's just the framework. On the screen, though, Where the Crawdads Sing's dive into Kya's life feels like it's also been adapted from Nicholas Sparks' pages. Most of Barkley Cove has always shunned Kya, other than generous store owners Jumpin' (Sterling Macer Jr, House of Lies) and Mabel (Michael Hyatt, The Little Things), who she sells mussels to — the feature's only Black characters, who are woefully only used to stress how callous the rest of the town proves, rather than to even dream of digging into matters of race in America's south as the civil rights movement started to gather steam. Also kindly, taking on her defence, is her Atticus Finch-esque local lawyer Tom Milton (David Strathairn, Nightmare Alley). But romance still blossoms not once but twice for Kya, first with the doting, poetry-reading Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith, Blacklight), and then with arrogant rich kid Chase. That's where Newman's film prefers to reside, charting the ups and downs of Kya's affairs of the heart. That's why the movie appears so immaculate that it shimmers with a marsh-chic gleam as well. Smooching in the swamp replaces The Notebook-style kissing in the rain here. Skimming the surface replaces fleshing out what makes Kya tick, what her surroundings truly mean to her, and humanity's complex ties to nature. Kya is the strongest part of Where the Crawdads Sing, but the film makes everything about and around her so by the numbers. Taken from the book, sometimes-evocative turns of phrase litter Lucy Alibar's (Beasts of the Southern Wild) script, endeavouring to conjure up a rich atmosphere and bring Kya's inner feelings to life, including her love for the bayou. They're always far too neat, however, like everything within view. And as impressive as Edgar-Jones is as an actor (see also: fellow page-to-screen hit Normal People), it's impossible to reconcile Where the Crawdads Sing's careful words and dreamy vision of marsh life — such as the way its star is styled — with what the film tells rather than shows about its central character. Kya's kinship with the wetlands is stressed over and over, of course. Where the Crawdads Sing rarely misses an opportunity to mention it. The audience is informed that it's where she feels safe and at home, and learns to be herself — and also provides the inspiration behind her career as an illustrator, cataloguing the creatures that only live in the kind of thick bushland described in the movie's title. But viewers are still stuck doing exactly what the picture rallies against in its narrative: believing their eyes and taking appearances at face value. The only alternative is sketching in minutiae and texture that just isn't in the film — that is, bringing what's present in the book to this version of the story, including what Newman and Alibar left out, then combining the two in your head. That's not how turning novels into movies should work; they're standalone pieces of art, not visual companions. It doesn't fit the tale being told — one that includes child abandonment, sexual assault, domestic violence, and both societal and legal prejudices — but the movie's backdrop does always look stunning, as lensed with the golden glow of a tourism commercial by cinematographer Polly Morgan (A Quiet Place Part II). That's Where the Crawdads Sing, though: pretty rather than profound, meaningfully complicated or substantial. Dickinson and Smith's plights also sum up the film perfectly. While the always-welcome and ever-reliable Strathairn puts in a fine performance that's largely defined by rousing speeches, both Dickinson and Smith do exactly what's asked of them without being given much room to play anything but stock roles. That's Where the Crawdads Sing at its very best, too: always utterly standard. That said, although never visibly or emotionally, it's usually far muddier than that.
Three friends, a huge music festival worth making a mega mission to get to and an essential bag of goon: if you didn't experience that exact combination growing up in Australia, did you really grow up in Australia? That's the mix that starts 6 Festivals, too, with the Aussie feature throwing in a few other instantly familiar inclusions to set the scene. Powderfinger sing-alongs, scenic surroundings and sun-dappled moments have all filled plenty of teenage fest trips, and so has an anything-it-takes mentality — and for the film's central trio of Maxie (Rasmus King, Barons), Summer (Yasmin Honeychurch, Back of the Net) and James (Rory Potter, Ruby's Choice), they're part of their trip to Utopia Valley. But amid dancing to Lime Cordiale and Running Touch, then missing out on Peking Duk's stroke-of-midnight New Year's Eve set after a run-in with security, a shattering piece of news drops. Suddenly these festival-loving friends have a new quest: catching as much live music as they can to help James cope with cancer. The first narrative feature by Bra Boys and Fighting Fear director Macario De Souza, 6 Festivals follows Maxie, Summer and James' efforts to tour their way along the east coast festival circuit. No, there are no prizes for guessing how many gigs are on their list, with the Big Pineapple Music Festival, Yours and Owls and Lunar Electric among the events on their itinerary. Largely road-tripping between real fests, and also showcasing real sets by artists spanning Dune Rats, Bliss n Eso, G Flip, B Wise, Ruby Fields, Dope Lemon, Stace Cadet and more, 6 Festivals dances into the mud, sweat and buzz — the crowds, cheeky beers and dalliances with other substances that help form this coming-of-age rite-of-passage, aka cramming in as many festivals as you possibly can from the moment your parents will let you, as well. This is also a cancer drama, however, which makes for an unsurprisingly tricky balancing act, especially after fellow Aussie movie Babyteeth tackled the latter so devastatingly well so recently. Take that deservedly award-winning film, throw in whichever music festival documentary takes your fancy, then add The Bucket List but with teens — that's 6 Festivals. There's a touch of the concert-set 9 Songs as well, obviously sans sex scenes. Spotting the dots connected by De Souza and Sean Nash's (a Home and Away and Neighbours alum) script isn't difficult. That said, neither is spying the movie's well-intentioned aim. Riding the ecstatically bustling festival vibe, and surveying everything from the anticipation-laden pre-fest excitement through to the back-to-reality crash afterwards, 6 Festivals is an attempt to capture and celebrate the fest experience, as well as a concerted effort to face a crucial fact: that, as much as a day in the mosh pit feels like an escape and is always worth cherishing, it only sweeps away life's stark truths momentarily. The film's core threesome have their fair share of stresses; pivotally, 6 Festivals sticks with believable dramas. James faces his diagnosis, treatment and his mother's (Briony Williams, Total Control) worries, all while trying to recruit the feature's array of musical acts for his own dream event. Scoring backstage access comes courtesy of up-and-coming Indigenous muso Marley (debutant Guyala Bayles), who graces most of the lineups and shared a childhood with Summer, united by their respective mothers' struggles with addiction — and, now they've crossed paths again, offers to mentor her pal's own singing career. As for Maxie, his drug-dealing older brother Kane (Kyuss King, also from Barons) is usually at the same fests pressuring him into carrying his stash. They're the only family each other has, so saying no doesn't seem an option. Cemented friendships, last hurrahs, big dreams, substance-addled chaos: all festivals boast these tales, whichever one, six or 1000 anyone happens to pick. Again, it's easy to see how De Souza and Nash have chosen not only their overall plot, but its narrative beats — and it's just as easy to understand why, what they're striving for and how it's hoped that viewers will respond. 6 Festivals' live footage is vivid and authentic in its look, texture and tone, and the story sticks to the same relatable terrain. Of course, the line between clichéd and being predictable because that's simply how life is can be incredibly thin, not to mention subjective. Sometimes, 6 Festivals falls on the raw and immersive side of the been-there-done-that equation, and sometimes on the forced and well-worn — like a well-known song either given a definitive new live spin, or sounding exactly as it does whenever and wherever it's played. Always fresh and lived-in, and never just doing what's done, is the film's impressive young cast — even when the dialogue they're uttering is more than a little clunky. It isn't merely Potter who gets saddled with awkward lines, thankfully, as the worst pictures about ailing characters tend to do. 6 Festivals doesn't push its cancer-stricken character to the side and, with all five of its key figures wading through woes, it smartly doesn't use his deteriorating health solely to gift his pals with life-changing lessons, either. Still, whenever the movie gleans an opportunity to spell out its weighty emotions as overtly as it can, it takes it. It needn't; Potter sells James' plight in his yearning eyes and anxious energy, including when getting drunk feels like the only thing to do, while Honeychurch, Bayles and the IRL King brothers all leave their own imprints. Every festival thrives or falters based on its lineup, and this film that flits between six of them is no different — including via the real-life bands and artists that fill its frames. Some get worked into the narrative in those aforementioned behind-the-action chats, others solely bust out their onstage best, but the full roster provides a stelar snapshot of Australia's music and fest scenes. With the live performances, as well as the general on-the-ground atmosphere, cinematographer Hugh Miller (June Again) and editor Ahmad Halimi (The Bureau of Magical Things) achieve the most vital task 6 Festivals has: making feeling like you're there the easiest feeling in the world. The movie overall is a mixed bag, but wanting to rush out of the cinema — or hop up from your couch, with the film hitting streaming on August 25, a fortnight after its big-screen debut — and into the first festival near you is an instant reaction.
As it turns out, the shelter pups and cats from Melbourne's Second Chance Animal Rescue (SCAR) are much more than just adorable furry faces — some of them are also harbouring some pretty enviable artistic skills. And it's these creative talents that'll be showcased this month at the shelter's inaugural Paws & Tails Winter Art Gallery. The one-night exhibition is set to take over the West Melbourne Baptist Church & Community Centre on Friday, August 19, raising much needed funds for SCAR's important work rescuing and rehoming animals. [caption id="attachment_864514" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Doggy artist Stirling.[/caption] A group of Picasso-esque pooches — and a couple of creative cats — have put paw to canvas, for local human artists to then develop into collaborative masterpieces. Creatives including Indigenous artist Ande Kempnich Terare, and children's book author and illustrator Kathryn Steel have donated their time and talent to the cause. The finished artworks will all be displayed on the night and available to buy via a silent auction. Nab a $20 ticket to head along and see these paw-some masterpieces in person, while enjoying bubbly and snacks, and browsing SCAR's merch stalls. $100 VIP tickets are also on offer — these include a wine voucher, a signed program and a meet-and-greet with one of the talented four-legged artists. [caption id="attachment_864515" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kitty artist Squeak[/caption] Top Images: Shelter pups and part-time doggy artists, Soda and Sir Bowington.
UPDATE, October 19, 2022: The Stranger released in Australian cinemas on October 6, then streams via Netflix from October 19. No emotion or sensation ripples through two or more people in the exact same way, and never will. The Stranger has much to convey, but it expresses that truth with piercing precision. The crime-thriller is the sophomore feature from actor-turned-filmmaker Thomas M Wright — following 2018's stunning Adam Cullen biopic Acute Misfortune, another movie that shook everyone who watched it and proved hard to shake — and it's as deep, disquieting and resonant a dance with intensity as its genre can deliver. To look into Joel Edgerton's (Thirteen Lives) eyes as Mark, an undercover cop with a traumatic but pivotal assignment, is to spy torment and duty colliding. To peer at Sean Harris (Spencer) as the slippery Henry Teague is to see a cold, chilling and complex brand of shiftiness. Sitting behind these two performances in screentime but not impact is Jada Alberts' (Mystery Road) efforts as dedicated, determined and drained detective Kate Rylett — and it may be the portrayal that sums up The Stranger best. Writing as well as directing, Wright has made a film that is indeed dedicated, determined and draining. At every moment, including in sweeping yet shadowy imagery and an on-edge score, those feelings radiate from the screen as they do from Alberts. Sharing the latter's emotional exhaustion comes with the territory; sharing their sense of purpose does as well. In the quest to capture a man who abducted and murdered a child, Rylett can't escape the case's horrors — and, although the specific details aren't used, there's been no evading the reality driving this feature. The Stranger doesn't depict the crime that sparked Kate Kyriacou's non-fiction book The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe's Killer, or any violence. It doesn't use the Queensland schoolboy's name, or have actors portray him or his family. This was always going to be an inherently discomforting and distressing movie, though, but it's also an unwaveringly intelligent and impressive examination of trauma. There's no other word to describe what Mark and Rylett experience — and, especially as it delves into Mark's psychological state as he juggles his job with being a single father, The Stranger is a film about tolls. What echoes do investigating and seeking justice for an atrocious act leave? Here, the portrait is understandably bleak and anguished. What imprint do such incidences have upon society more broadly? That also falls into the movie's examination. Mark, along with a sizeable group of fellow officers, is trying to get a confession and make an arrest. Back east, Rylett is one of the police who won't and can't let the situation go. Doling out its narrative in a structurally ambitious way, The Stranger doesn't directly address the human need for resolution, or to restore a semblance of order and security after something so heinously shocking, but that's always baked into its frames anyway. Travelling across the country, Henry first meets a stranger on a bus, getting chatting to Paul (Steve Mouzakis, Clickbait) en route. It's the possibility of work that hooks the ex-con and drifter — perhaps more so knowing that his potential new gig will be highly illicit, and that evading the authorities is implicit. Soon he meets Mark, then seizes the opportunity to reinvent himself in a criminal organisation, not knowing that he's actually palling around with the cops. It's an immense sting, fictionalised but drawn from actuality, with The Stranger also playing as a procedural. The connecting the dots-style moves remain with Rylett, but Wright's decision to hone in on the police operation still means detailing how to catch a killer, astutely laying out the minutiae via action rather than chatting through the bulk of the ins and outs. When Wright made his initial leap behind the camera after almost two decades on-screen — an acting resume that spans a range of weighty fare, such as Van Diemen's Land, Balibo, Top of the Lake, The Bridge and Sweet Country — he spun a tale of two men connecting, entangling and grappling with hard truths. Acute Misfortune and The Stranger are immensely different movies in a plethora of ways, even if both do find their basis in IRL situations, but there's no missing their common central dynamic. While The Stranger wouldn't be the film it is without its time with Rylett, and with the phenomenal Alberts in that key role, the interplay between Mark and Henry retains its core focus. To be accurate, Mark sits squarest in its spotlight — including surveying the anxiety he feels as a single father tasked with such a case, which plays out in striking domestic and dream sequences — but it isn't a coincidence that Edgerton and Harris are styled to visibly resemble each other. Also never an accident: that The Stranger's male leads turn in transfixing performances, whether guiding the film's viewers through Mark's waking ordeal and literal nightmares, or showing their cause. This is Edgerton and Harris' third project together in mere years, after The King and The Green Knight — but if it wasn't, it'd be clear why both Wright and Edgerton (who produces and optioned the rights to The Sting to begin with) opted for the pairing. The Stranger sears not just with intensity but tension, so much of which jitters whenever the two men share the frame. A blazing car fire aside, the largely muted colours lensed by cinematographer Sam Chiplin (Penguin Bloom) add to the brooding, primal, dread-filled mood. The nervy soundscape by composer and cellist Oliver Coates (Aftersun, and also a Radiohead collaborator) does the same. But The Stranger's faces and bodies, as haunted and unbalanced as they always are, say — and silently scream — everything. Wright wants his audience to observe carefully, and to listen. The feature's sound design toys with this very idea; when a drive with Mark and Henry switches its dialogue to surveillance audio, it's such a straightforward choice, and yet its execution is layered, smart and immensely powerful. There's no such thing as passively and easily viewing The Stranger, it tells us, as does describing calming breathing techniques in its opening moments. Engaging with this movie has to be an active and complicated feat because engaging with the darkness it explores always is. Who retells grim chapters of history, and why and how, aren't questions isolated to Australian cinema, especially with true crime a perennially popular genre on screens large and small — and pages and podcasts, and wherever and however else such tales are told — and with The Stranger, they've surfaced again just a year after bubbling up around Justin Kurzel's Nitram. Like that, this equally exceptional and unsettling film makes plain that interrogating events like these is crucial. Here, it's also transformative for those doing the probing, the world they inhabit and those watching.
There is never a bad time to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But if the urge strikes while you're actually sitting through a movie — and that sudden desire is sparked by glimpsing scenes from the beloved late 90s and early 00s TV show playing in said movie — that's not a great sign. It's a reality with The New Mutants, however, with the latest entry in the X-Men series letting its audience see Buffy clips on more than one occasion. Never subtly deployed, the snippets link in with the film in a number of ways, because this too is about a ragtag group of teens with supernatural abilities fighting off a range of baddies. In fact, one of the many villains in The New Mutants closely resembles the demons in Buffy's famed dialogue-free episode. In case you don't spot that yourself, the movie serves up scenes from the show that overtly stress the similarities. That's the level this long-delayed franchise flick is operating on: happily derivative, happy to call attention to how derivative it is, and seemingly unconcerned if it leaves its viewers desperately wishing they were watching a television program from more than 20 years ago instead. The 13th film in the X-Men saga, The New Mutants kicks off with a traumatic incident involving Native American 16-year-old Dani Moonstar (Another Life's Blu Hunt). She survives the chaos that destroys her reservation but, when she awakens in a hospital run by Dr Cecilia Reyes (Kill Me Three Times' Alice Braga), she can't remember any of the details. She also isn't permitted to leave. Dani is told she's in a facility for kids just like her and, given the franchise and the film's name, the meaning is clear. Her fellow patients (Emma's Anya Taylor-Joy, Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams, Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton and Trinkets' Henry Zaga) are all well-aware of their extra-special skills, though. Dani doesn't even know what she's capable of — but the fact that her arrival coincides with a series of unsettling altercations that target her new pals gives everyone a few clues. By trapping five teenagers in an eerie, inescapable facility, trying to placate them by promising that they'll soon be able to venture to greener pastures if they just dutifully stomach what they're being subjected to for now, but taunting them with pain and terror while they wait, The New Mutants' entire premise explains exactly where the X-Men franchise currently sits — unintentionally, yet rather astutely. Logan aside, things haven't been great for the series of late. Actually, that's an understatement. Fans have sat through average and awful chapters in the hope that something better will come in the future, only to be met by more of the same (or worse). Yes, Deadpool and its sequel were hits, but squarely of the one-note, overdone, easily tiring variety. And the less remembered about the overblown and underwhelming X-Men: Apocalypse and the instantly forgettable Dark Phoenix, the better. A routine mashup of teen, horror and superhero tropes, The New Mutants doesn't improve the saga's fortunes. To be accurate, though, it doesn't really try to. As directed and co-written by The Fault in our Stars filmmaker Josh Boone with co-scribe Knate Lee, it takes a concept that's equal parts The Breakfast Club and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, adds in angsty adolescents just coming to terms with their hormones and superpowers, and serves up a thoroughly flat and by-the-numbers affair. The film's troubled history is well-documented, with the movie first announced five years ago, cast four years ago and shot three years ago, then pushed back release-wise several times over a period of almost two and a half years — but, now that The New Mutants has finally reached screens after surviving cast member changes, script rewrites, reshoots, the Disney acquisition of Fox and the pandemic, that messy journey to cinemas proves the most interesting thing about it. Endeavouring to mutate the familiar superhero formula in even the slightest way is a worthy aim, of course, which is one of the reasons that the very idea of this film has always stood out. The Marvel characters that The New Mutants is based on date back to the early 80s on the page, and giving them a horror-driven spin has seemed an inspired choice since the movie was first announced. Alas, combining one genre's cliches with another's, as the end result does, hardly makes for entertaining viewing. Indeed, although it's suitably moody in the stock-standard way seen in every creepy psychiatric facility-set flick, The New Mutants is generic to an oppressive extent. Filled with up-and-comers circa 2016, the movie's cast can't particularly help either. Williams tries, and the sensitivity she brings to shapeshifter Rahne Sinclair is noticeable. With Moonstar, she also navigates a romantic subplot that touches upon the film's most thoughtful (albeit still glaringly obvious) point — that the persecution of mutants because they're different mirrors plenty in our reality, including the treatment of queer teens. But, with Taylor-Joy in cartoonish territory as Russian sorceress Illyana Rasputin, and Heaton and Zaga simply hitting their respective characters' one note over and over again, any slivers of depth, substance or just plain interest that The New Mutants does manage to rustle up are short-lived. Also fading fast: any hopes that, 20 years since the first X-Men movie released, this franchise has much life left in it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_vJhUAOFpI
The global pandemic has turned things upside down, but one thing that hasn't changed much is Aussies' love for local, small-batch gin. And, now that the warm weather has arrived, it's well and truly G&T time. For those wanting to become true gin aficionados, though, you'll have to look beyond mixing the stuff with Schweppes. Enter Archie Rose's Virtual Experiences, which is bringing the distillery to your living room. The Sydney-based distillery makes some of the best gin in the country, so expect these online, booze-fuelled adventures to level up your next at-home happy hour. First up, you can partake in a virtual gin and whisky tasting ($80), with a flight of five Archie Rose spirits, as well as some tonic and a tasting mat, all delivered to your door. Or, you can go for its cocktail sessions, where you'll be shaking up two tasty gin-based cocktails. The at-home pack that comes with recipe cards and a prep sheet for $85 and you can tune into a live-stream class, too. There's also the blend-your-own gin workshop for $119, which includes everything you'll need to make your own signature gin, plus delivery and a 45-minute live-stream masterclass with an Archie Rose expert. You can select the infusions that match your gin style and choose from flavours like native river mint or juniper, cassia bark and coriander seed. Archie Rose You can also book in private classes for large groups and parties, just send them an email. If you'd rather skip the work and get straight to sipping, the Aussie spirits label is delivering its four bottled cocktails, too, from its twist on the negroni and espresso martini to its specialty concoctions the Tall Poppy and the Golden Gimlet. Check out Archie Rose's Virtual Experiences program and order yourself some top-notch gin over here.
Somehow, entirely inexplicably, we're already thinking about Christmas. And, we suggest rather than schlepping to the typical department stores or your go-to online shops to get your friends, family or yourself a well-deserved gift, instead you could pick out unique goodies at The Big Design Market. The independent designer extravaganza has moved online this year, so you can nab all the top-quality, handmade, ethical and sustainable wares from your couch. With such a wide range of products, you're sure to find something for even the pickiest people on your list. As it's all virtual in 2020, The Big Design Market is combining its (usually) separate Sydney and Melbourne fairs into one epic 12-day event, featuring more than 200 makers, designers and small creative businesses. Acting as a gateway to each maker's store, the online edition will ensure 100 percent of profits go back to the designer, too, so you can support local while crossing off your Christmas list. It's win-win. Running from Wednesday, November 18 till Sunday, November 29, The Big Design Market Online's interactive catalogue will feature everything from locally made threads to jewellery, furniture, art, textiles, homewares, puzzles, festive food and drink packs, stationery, leather goods and much more. There'll also be a bunch of virtual activities and experiences, plus daily showbag giveaways (valued $300-800), filled to the brim with gorgeous goodies. Just head here for details. The Big Design Market has moved online this year and will take place from November 18–29. Check out all the designers involved — and get a head start on your Christmas shopping — via the website. Lead image: Amelia Stanwix
UPDATE, December 23, 2020: The Midnight Sky is screening in select cinemas in Melbourne, and will also be available to stream via Netflix from Wednesday, December 23. It has been four years since George Clooney last appeared in a movie, dating back to 2016's Hail, Caesar! and Money Monster. Accordingly, while The Midnight Sky definitely isn't a documentary, the fact that it features the actor at his most bearded and reclusive instantly feels fitting. Also noteworthy: that this sci-fi drama joins the small but significant list of films that combine the star and space, following Solaris and Gravity. Clooney has everything from TV medical dramas and sitcoms to heist flicks, action fare, rom-coms and a stint as Batman on his resume, of course. He's a versatile actor, and an Oscar-winning one, too (for 2005's Syriana). But there's something particularly alluring and absorbing about seeing Clooney get existential, as all movies that reach beyond earth's surface tend to. He clearly agrees, because he not only leads The Midnight Sky but also directs it as well. Clooney plays workaholic research scientist Dr Augustine Lofthouse and, although The Midnight Sky rockets into space, it doesn't send its protagonist there. Instead, in 2049, after an environmental disaster has made the planet uninhabitable, he chooses to remain in the Arctic as his colleagues evacuate. He's dying anyway, and frequently hooks himself up to machines for treatment — in between downing whiskey, watching old movies, eating cereal and talking to himself. Then, interrupting his lonely decline, two things change his status quo. Firstly, a young girl (debutant Caoilinn Springall) mysteriously pops up out of nowhere, refusing to speak but obviously needing an adult's care. Secondly, Augustine realises that he'll have to trek across the oppressively icy terrain outside to connect via radio to a crew on the spaceship Aether, who've been on a two-year mission to ascertain whether newly discovered Jupiter moon K-23 can support life, and are now making their return unaware of what's been happening at home The space movie genre is as busy as the sky above is vast. Consequently, films about folks marooned in the great black expanse, dealing with the fallout of a pioneering journey and/or trying to make contact — whether those in space's depths are attempting to chat to earth, trying to find others lost in the same situation, or being sought by the people left on terra firma — reach screens every year. The Midnight Sky proves familiar as a result; if you've watched Clooney's other space-set features, or Interstellar, The Martian, Ad Astra, Contact or 2001: A Space Odyssey, you'll spy elements you've seen before. Although adapted from Lily Brooks-Dalton's 2016 novel Good Morning, Midnight, that screenwriter Mark L Smith is on scripting duties also adds a number of recognisable components. He penned the screenplay for The Revenant, another tale of survival against an unwelcoming terrain. Here, he has graduated from the wilds of 19th-century America to one of the globe's frostiest and most isolated spots, as well as all that lingers outside of the planet's atmosphere. The Midnight Sky isn't merely an exercise in flinging derivative parts out into the beyond and seeing what comes back, however. The key, both on-and off-screen, is Clooney. When the film spends time with the Aether's astronauts, including the pregnant Sully (Felicity Jones, On the Basis of Sex), ship commander Adewole (David Oyelowo, Gringo), veteran pilot Mitchell (Kyle Chandler, Godzilla: King of the Monsters), and other crew members Sanchez (Demián Bichir, The Grudge) and Maya (Tiffany Boone, Hunters), it's at its most generic. Indeed, when it ventures to space, The Midnight Sky almost screams for either Augustine to head there as well, or for the feature to plummet back down to earth to join him once more. As the movie's focal point, Clooney is as soulful and grizzled as he's ever been. As a filmmaker, he certainly gifts himself the feature's best moments. But in the latter guise, he's also aware that films about space are films about connection, including to routines and everyday moments — so the fact that Sully and company's exploits feel well-worn, including a climactic sequence involving an action-packed space walk, cleverly reinforces that idea. Unmistakably, this is a big-thinking and big-feeling feature. Its characters grapple with life, love and loss — aka what it means to be human, and to have lived — while also confronting the reality that the world they know is changing forever. It's purely coincidental, but The Midnight Sky overflows with 2020-esque inclusions, too. Having your sense of normality ripped away, spending time alone trying to reach out to others, and endeavouring to find a route back to the existence we once knew but may never again in quite the same way couldn't be more relatable (and that's just from the pandemic; parallels with climate change are also unsurprisingly rife). Amidst the obligatory outer space sing-alongs, as well as the smattering of life-and-death incidents, these concepts land as thoughtfully as intended. It helps that, spanning not only himself but also Jones, Oyelowo, Chandler, Bichir and Boone, Clooney has amassed an impressive cast. His co-stars mightn't be playing the most fleshed-out figures, script-wise, and may not match the actor/director in terms of screen presence, but the same uncertainty and yearning lingers in their portrayals. The script's use of flashbacks to Augustine's past are less convincing, as is their importance to The Midnight Sky's third act via a plot development that's easy to predict. Alexandre Desplat's (Little Women) score also falls on the heavy-handed side, stressing the mood and tone in an unnecessarily forceful way — especially given that Martin Ruhe's (Catch-22) cinematography is aptly pensive and probing, particularly in its earth-bound visuals. Still, Clooney is a skilled filmmaker. He has demonstrated that again and again since he first jumped behind the lens with 2002's excellent Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and 2005's masterful Good Night, and Good Luck, and it's clear here as well. The Midnight Sky isn't his greatest achievement as a director in general or as an actor in a space flick, but it's an involving, engaging and poignant addition to his resume on both counts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb8ZbP6qAzE&feature=youtu.be
After shuffling through cinemas for decades, the zombie genre has begun to resemble its flesh-eating undead antagonists. It seems that almost every new film takes a chunky bite out of its predecessors, whether nodding to George A Romero's seminal Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and the rest of the Dead saga — as virtually everything does — or opting for more recent references like 28 Days Later. South Korea's Train to Busan franchise is no different, but it is willing to look far and wide for influences. Indeed, when the series first hit the big screen, it took a Snakes on a Plane-esque idea and changed it to zombies on a train, because who doesn't want to watch a speeding locomotive full of living, breathing humans battle brain-munching foes? Train to Busan not only made a top-notch action/horror-thriller flick in the process, too, but spawned an animated prequel in Seoul Station, which detailed the start of the zombie epidemic in another city. Now, series director Yeon Sang-ho expands upon his universe yet again with four-years-later sequel Peninsula. This time, via a bloody boat ride to Hong Kong and a glimpse of ex-pat life for South Koreans now stranded abroad — spoiler: parallels to COVID-19-era racism abound — Incheon is the franchise's new setting. And, in terms of taking his cues from a variety of sources, Yeon clearly adores another genre as well. Peninsula opts for decidedly dystopian Mad Max-meets-Fast and Furious-meets-World War Z heist flick setup, with a big heap of Escape from New York also thrown in. As with Train to Busan, it works. Peninsula doesn't quite reach its predecessor's heights or add anything new to the heaving undead genre. In fact, it also cribs liberally from the storyline that served the saga's first film so well, just with new characters and a different locale. Nonetheless, Yeon twists his familiar zombie and action elements into a frenetic thriller that's rarely less than thoroughly entertaining. If, prior to 2016, you'd ever wondered what might happen should zombies infest South Korea, this series has already provided a few answers. Now, if you've been pondering what could possibly occur next, Peninsula has plenty more thoughts. The less time spent thinking about the film's terrible English-language talk show clips, which spew exposition at viewers in a cringe-inducing fashion, the better — but they do provide some narrative context. Unsurprisingly, zombies have wholly overrun Peninsula's titular land mass, turning it into a wasteland. That said, they've curiously decided to respect the demilitarised zone and not venture into North Korea, a briefly mentioned development that seems designed to set up the next sequel. Initially lucky enough to flee, army Captain Jung-seok (Gang Dong-won) and his brother-in-law Chul-min (Kim Do-yoon) now get by however they can, with the former wracked with guilt for failing to help others on his way out of the country and the latter festering with grief over his own losses. They're subsequently prime targets for a mob of Hong Kong heavies who want to send them back to the abandoned and quarantined Incheon, where a truck filled with cash awaits. Zombies don't care about money, of course, so the city's valuables are there for the taking. But Incheon isn't completely empty. Min-jung (Lee Jung-hyun), her daughters Joon (Lee Re) and Yu-jin (Lee Ye-won), and her father (Kwon Hae-hyo) were never able to escape, so they've spent years evading the undead. Also roaming the streets is a brutal rogue militia group that calls itself Unit 631 and pits survivors against zombies Fight Club-style for sport. As co-scripted by Yeon and Train to Busan's Park Joo-Suk, Peninsula isn't a film about plot surprises — rather, it's a movie predicated upon setpieces and suspense. Splashing an ample array of eye-catching, unnervingly tense action scenes across the screen is the name of the game here, as well as keeping viewers on the edge of their seats while they're watching. The special effects don't always hold up, but Yeon otherwise achieves his aim with rip-roaring flair. Fresh from scoring an Oscar nomination for Parasite, editor Yang Jin-mo gets to show off his hefty skills, too, especially in the feature's big and small car chases (including the inventive use of lit-up remote-controlled cars to distract and shepherd Incheon's hordes). Predictable as it is, Peninsula's narrative still does what it needs to, providing the scaffolding for the movie's action onslaught. Even better, thanks to the film's engaging cast — especially the trio of Lee Jung-hyun, Lee Re and Lee Ye-won — it benefits from grounded performances that ensure that the audience is invested in the feature's characters. But the part of Peninsula that Yeon truly perfects is also its most obvious aspect: its commentary on humanity's savage nature when faced with anything beyond the status quo. Many a movie has sunk its teeth into the same subject before, including several of the aforementioned flicks that Peninsula owes an overt debt to, but this oh-so-timely exploration of barbarity, carnage and an every-person-for-themselves mindset during a life-changing contagious outbreak repeatedly chomps down hard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRvHl1dThlg
It's with a wink and a nod that Ladj Ly names his Cannes prize-winning, Oscar-nominated crime-thriller after one of the most famous French works there is: Les Misérables. And it's with the same irreverent spirit that the first-time feature director lets audiences literally hear the people sing in the movie's opening moments, even though this definitely isn't a musical. Set in 2018, the film's early crowds are belting out 'La Marseillaise'. France has just won the FIFA World Cup, Avenue des Champs-Élysées is alive with soccer fans waving flags and celebrating, and everyone is chanting the national anthem with beaming pride. Shot documentary-style, the city's residents couldn't be more joyous, including when the movie's moniker — literal translation: the miserables — is humorously splashed across the screen. But, despite the ecstatic scenes that kickstart Ly's feature, this is still a rousing cinematic song of angry Parisians. Nearing 160 years since Victor Hugo immortalised the Montfermeil commune, using the Paris district as a key setting in his well-known work, this Les Misérables heads there to tell a different story. Or, to be exact, to explore comparable themes in contemporary France — and to interrogate the reality of life in Les Bosquets housing estates in one of the capital's banlieues. The latter and their communities have featured in the likes of 1995's La Haine and 2014's Girlhood before, two hands-down French movie masterpieces, but the approach here is especially inspired. Drawing parallels with a globally known, much-adapted, long-popular classic to shine a spotlight on modern-day class and cultural clashes is smart and savvy and, in the hands of a filmmaker from the area who is already known for making documentaries about the area, results in a particularly compelling and confronting piece of cinema. Every neighbourhood bubbles with stories. So, focusing on Les Bosquets, Ly relays as many tales as he can. With propulsive and fittingly restless energy, his film flits between the locale's cops, kids and gangs — with struggles between all three groups reaching boiling point over the course of two summery and eventful days. The catalysts: familiar prejudices, long-held beefs, a stolen lion, a wrongful shooting and some controversial drone footage. Anti-crime brigade officers Chris (The Eddy's Alexis Manenti), Gwada (C'est tout pour moi's Djebril Zonga) and the newly transferred Stéphane (Dunkirk's Damien Bonnard) are never far from the trouble, sometimes causing it, sometimes trying to stop it. But two local adolescents also play pivotal parts, with young Issa (debutant Issa Perica) responsible for the jungle cat missing from a visiting circus troupe and shy teen Buzz (fellow newcomer Al-Hassan Ly) the owner of the highly sought-after drone. While Les Misérables takes place just two years ago, Ly, actor and scribe Manenti, and their co-screenwriter Giordano Gederlini (Mother's Instinct) use events from a decade earlier as their basis, with Montfermeil one of the sites of the 2005 French riots. Ly's documentary short 365 Days in Montfermeil chronicled the chaos and the police brutality from the inside, as shot at the time — but here, he dramatises it. It's no wonder, then, that Les Misérables proves unrelentingly terse and always on edge, as well vehemently unafraid to filter real-world unrest through every frame. It's just as unsurprising that it isn't always subtle, but given the complicated terrain that it traverses, it needn't be. As a portrait of social tensions drawn from real-life situations, this is a film of explosive emotional and visceral power even when it's clearly lacking in nuance. Les Misérables makes a range of statements, including pondering the powder-keg banlieue environment, as well as the similarities between the film's cops, children and thugs — all of whom, in their own ways, are trying to get by. Ly contemplates how one event can escalate, detonate and spark a chain of chaos, and, Hugo-style, how insurrectionary acts come about. There's a message in the simple act of calling upon the riots the filmmaker lived through for a movie set years later, too, and it's one of Les Misérables' most potent. The idea that Ly's fictionalised story doesn't just lift details from reality, but that its ins and outs have never stopped being relevant to or reflective of life in Les Bosquets, purposefully hits hard. Also having an impact, and by design: the jittery on-the-ground camerawork that conveys tension, terror and heartbreak in equal measures; and the sky-high, bird's-eye drone footage that reminds viewers visually about perspective and the bigger picture. Indeed, Ly and his cinematographer Julien Poupard (Divines) ensure audiences feel like they're traversing Montfermeil's streets, and that they've seen every corner of the area from every angle as well. The urgent electronic score by Pink Noise does a cracking job of setting the mood, as does the brisk pace set by editor Flora Volpeliere (The Hookup Plan). And, cast-wise, Les Misérables' experienced actors and fresh faces alike all impart a sense of authenticity. By the time all of the above has worked its magic, no one is singing 'La Marseillaise' exuberantly, of course, but viewers have witnessed a stunning film with revolution at its heart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIsEZ2tTavU&t=6s
Home may mean different things to different people but, in Monsoon, Vietnam doesn't mean home to Kit (Henry Golding). He was born there, in the aftermath of the war. He spent his earliest years in the Asian nation, with his parents caught up in the aftermath of the conflict. But when he was still a child, his family left for a refugee camp in Hong Kong and then moved permanently to London. Now, as an adult who has lived the bulk of his existence far away, he returns for the first time to bring back his mother's and father's ashes. He's instantly thrown off balance upon his arrival, whether he's driving through moped-filled streets or walking around crowded markets. Little of what he remembers is the same — his old house and his neighbourhood stomping grounds, particularly — and he doesn't recall as much as his childhood best friend Lee (David Tran), who stayed behind, would clearly like. Of what he does recollect, some crucial details clash with Lee's versions, too. As Kit roves around Saigon and then Hanoi — his place of birth and his parents' original home, respectively — he's searching for a connection. He'll make one, but not in the way he expects. Monsoon tells a noticeably slight tale, but Cambodian-born Chinese British writer/director Hong Khaou (Lilting) is keenly and overwhelmingly aware that a sense of belonging doesn't simply come with one's birth certificate. Kit wants to feel like he's where he's supposed to be. He wants to appreciate his homeland, and its significance to his mum and dad, as effortlessly as he appreciates his online dates. But it takes time, immersion and a true willingness to feel an affinity to the place he's supposed to call home. It takes falling in love with one of those online dates, American ex-pat Lewis (Parker Sawyers), too, and hearing about the object of his affection's complicated relationship with Vietnam as the son of a soldier who fought for the US during the war. Khaou is a minimalistic filmmaker, in a sense. He delves into straightforward scenarios, and knows that he needn't layer them with too many external complicating factors. In other words, he's cognisant that merely examining how a person copes — even in a very commonplace situation — can deliver several lifetimes worth of complexity without a wealth of other narrative roadblocks or setbacks. Here, that means tagging along as Kit flits around Saigon, sorts through his awkward baggage with Lee, and makes a pilgrimage to Hanoi in search of the perfect resting place for his parents. It also means watching as he befriends local art curator Linh (Molly Harris) and follows her home to join her relatives as they make lotus tea, and soaking in the neon-lit bar hues and misty seaside cafe views on Kit's dates with Lewis. Monsoon revels in these moments, and in what they reveal about its protagonist, all while showing how Kit himself recognises that he's changing and connecting with each experience and realisation. As a result, both Khaou and Monsoon ask a significant amount of Golding — more than his previous charisma-driven roles in Crazy Rich Asians, A Simple Favour and Last Christmas have combined. Viewers of those three films already know that he can radiate charm like few other actors currently appearing on-screen. Indeed, because he served up such a magnetic presence in that trio of flicks, it's easy to forget that he only has seven movies to his name to-date (six of which hail from the past three years, in fact). But Monsoon requires Golding's soulful best; at every moment, he's tasked with conveying the potent thoughts and jumbled emotions swelling inside Kit, and with doing so largely without dialogue. It's a quietly powerful performance, and it's one that the movie steadfastly needs. Actually, it's one that Monsoon depends upon. All of the film's key players are superb — including second-time actor Tran (Farewell, Berlin Wall), the also charismatic Sawyers (who played a young Barack Obama in Southside with You) and Harris (Artemis Fowl) as the pragmatic Linh — but Golding is its emotionally saturating core. While it might be light on talk, making its chatter count whenever it flows either freely or nervously, Monsoon is big on atmosphere. Alongside Khaou's delicately pared-back approach and Golding's tenderly gripping performance, that's one of the film's strongest assets. Even if you've never roamed far beyond the spot where you entered this world, everyone can relate to feeling like an outsider somewhere where they think they shouldn't — and Monsoon nails and expresses that sensation again and again. That's how Khaou and cinematographer Benjamin Kracun (Beats) approach the movie in their naturalistic visuals, too. Whether staring down at the daily hustle and bustle, or dwarfing Golding via his surroundings, it views Vietnam as someone might view a childhood memory that's slipping from their mind. Accordingly, Monsoon feels comfortable and intimate and eye-opening and new all at once, like it's seeing a familiar sight properly for the first time. Of course, that's Kit's journey, as it is for anyone embarking upon a homecoming that feels foreign — and it proves immensely affecting viewing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETK0fOKwJNQ
If a fresh bun, an expertly grilled patty and a slice of melted cheese is your idea of a perfect meal, then you might just have to permanent marker October 29 in your diary. Why? There are going to be a whole heap of cheap burgers to snatch up. Melbourne chain Burger Project is turning five and celebrating by grilling $5 cheeseburgers at all three of its local stores all day on Tuesday, October 29. Head to St Collins Place, Chadstone or Bourke Street, and grab a bargain (or, depending on how hungry you are, several). For those new to Burger Project's take on an old fave, Neil Perry's eatery whips up a hand-pressed slab of Cape Grim beef, layers it with pickles, onion, mustard and cheese, then squirts on some secret sauce. Next, it's all placed between a soft milk bun. And it tastes even better when it's less than half the regular price.
Twelve months is a long time to wait between film festivals. Don't worry — the folks behind Melbourne's annual queer cinema showcase feel your pain. While the Melbourne Queer Film Festival usually only runs in March, this year it's giving LGBTQIA movie buffs a little something extra, thanks to a three-day feast of flicks between Friday, October 4 and Sunday, October 6. Called Melbourne Queer Film Festival Extra, and designed to become an annual end-of-year highlight, this bonus mini-festival will serve up ten features and two shorts programs for its inaugural run. And, while it's definitely a bite-sized affair, it's all about quality rather than quantity. Screening at Cinema Nova, MQFF Extra kicks off with Pedro Almodovar's sublime Pain and Glory, starring Antonio Banderas in his Cannes Film Festival Best Actor-winning role. You can also swoon over Celine Sciamma's glorious Portrait of a Lady on Fire, see comedian Simon Amstell turn filmmaker with Benjamin, and explore the story of a British transgender man's quest to deliver his own child in Seahorse. Or, step back into the past via two movies with high-profile stars: Vita and Virginia, featuring Elizabeth Debicki as Virginia Woolf and Gemma Arterton as Vita Sackville-West; and Lizzie, with Chloë Sevigny playing accused murderer Lizzie Borden opposite Kristen Stewart.
Australia's touring celebration of genre cinema, Monster Fest loves all things weird and wonderful on the big screen. From outback-set horror flicks to eye-popping remakes to strange Lovecraftian tales, this festival fills its program with horror, sci-fi, and anything else that's dark and twisted — and likely destined for a cult following. Starting in Melbourne back in 2011 and still unleashing its biggest lineup in the city, this excuse to spend plenty of time in a darkened room has quite the 2019 program, too. From opening night's 3 From Hell, aka Rob Zombie's latest ultra-gory crime effort, to closing night's Ready or Not and its story of a wedding night turned bloody, you'd best prepare for plenty offbeat treats. Other standouts include Rabid, which sees the Soska sisters fashion their own version of David Cronenberg's classic; Color Out of Space, complete with Nicholas Cage going crazy; and a restoration of 2000 Australian slasher flick Cut, which stars Kylie Minogue. A word of warning: if you like your movies happy and chirpy, this isn't your kind of festival. If you're eager for the exact opposite, Monster Fest takes over Cinema Nova from Thursday, October 10 to Friday, October 18.
Did you turn green with envy when Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger played the ultimate scavenger hunt, aka hunting down horcruxes? Have you always felt that you could use your magical skills in the same way? The City of Melbourne understands and — given that it's already in the grip of wizard fever thanks to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — it's giving Potter fans quite the Christmas present. On Sunday, December 15, the Magical Christmas Quest will take over the CBD. At 9am, the first clue will be revealed on the quest website — and at 10am, it's time to start 'accio'-ing your heart out. You'll search your way around the city, heading to six Melbourne locations, solving riddles and completing missions at each stop. And as you've probably guessed, you'll be getting into the Harry Potter and the Christmas spirit all at once. [caption id="attachment_674451" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by Manuel Harlan[/caption] Expect to be rewarded for your efforts, too. Sorry, you won't win a trip to Hogwarts — but the major prize-winner will nab a hefty haul. On offer is a VIP Harry Potter and the Cursed Child experience, which includes a pair of tickets to the both parts of the show, backstage access, a night's accommodation and a pre-show dinner for two at Sofitel Melbourne, plus a $500 Myer gift voucher (which you can use at the magical new Harry Potter store). We can't all be the Boy Who Lived — or the Person Who Wins the Quest, more accurately — but ten runners up will score a $100 Gift Finder voucher. You can play as a team or individually and dressing up as your favourite HP character is, of course, encouraged. Everyone who participates will go in the draw to win. The first clue revealed at 9am on the quest website. Image: Harry Potter & The Cursed Child at the Princess Theatre.
2019 is shaping up to be a mighty big year for Elton John. Biopic Rocketman launches into cinemas in May, starring Kingsman's Taron Egerton as the singer and covering his wild 70s antics. The live-action version of The Lion King hits screens come July, featuring the musician's iconic tunes from the original, as well as new songs. And to cap it all off, the star himself is headed our way for a huge farewell tour. Bringing his 300-stop Farewell Yellow Brick Road shows to Australia and New Zealand between November 2019 and February 2020, John will be doing over 40 concerts across more than two months — including gigs in capital cities, a number of regional dates, and shows at A Day on the Green. There are still a limited number of tickets available for his four Melbourne shows at Rod Laver Arena. He kicked off the extensive tour last September, embarking on a three-year global goodbye trip. When it comes to an end, he'll retire from touring after five decades on the road. If that all sounds rather massive, that's John's career in a nutshell. He's played more than 4000 shows across his career, has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and holds the record for the biggest-selling single of all time thanks to the 1997 version of 'Candle in the Wind'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtVBCG6ThDk Fans can expect to feel the love through all of his hits, including 'Rocket Man', 'Tiny Dancer' 'Bennie and the Jets', 'Crocodile Rock', 'I'm Still Standing' and 'Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting' — especially the latter, you'd expect, on his six Saturday shows. The concerts will also feature never-before-seen images and videos show from John's 50-year career, which'll be displayed throughout the show, as well as a new tour wardrobe designed by Gucci. Image: Ben Gibson.
UPDATE, November 20, 2020: Maiden is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. "Her name is Tracy Edwards, and her dream is to compete in the world's toughest yacht race with the world's first all-women crew." They're the words of a British television presenter in the mid-80s and, as seen in documentary Maiden, they're dripping with condescension. Edwards decided to enter an entirely female team into the prestigious Whitbread Round the World yachting race after first taking part in 1985–86, when she was the cook to an all-male group. During that initial voyage, she was treated poorly — unsurprisingly given the era and the sport's male bias at the time. But those patronising, dismissive, chauvinistic attitudes and insults were like a red rag to a bull, motivating the passionate lover of the open sea to compete again on her own terms. The only way for Edwards to truly sail the 33,000 nautical miles from Southampton, England, and back — via Uruguay, Western Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay again and then America — was to recruit 11 other women to make the journey with her. The 27-year-old knew she'd be instantly mocked, and mocked she was. She assembled a committed crew of women for the 1989–90 contest, and found a boat called Maiden, but no one would sponsor them, support them or even take them seriously. In the media, they were mercilessly made fun of ("tin full of tarts," one journalist called them). In the yachting realm, their male peers bet that they wouldn't finish the race's first leg, let alone all six over its eight-month duration. At every turn, they were belittled, underestimated and considered a sideshow (and when they dared to be seen in swimsuits at one point on their watery trek, they were also shamelessly objectified). With this chapter of sporting history now sailing across the cinema screen 30 years later, one thing should be obvious: Maiden's voyage through the Whitbread race is a story worth telling. It's the ultimate underdog tale, as well as a rallying cry against sexism that's no less relevant today than when the fearless skipper and her dedicated crew hit the seas. As chronicled via archival clips and contemporary interviews by filmmaker Alex Holmes, his doco makes all of the above plain, giving this plucky story and the gutsy gals who made it happen the treatment and respect that both deserve. Holmes' task is a relatively easy one, admittedly; with real-life events this gripping, this tale almost tells itself. Recognising this fact, the director steps through the specifics in a linear, unfussy but deftly edited fashion, deploying the formidable Edwards as his anchor. He starts with her backstory, explores how teenage rebellion led her to the freedom of venturing across the world's oceans, and then follows her Whitbread efforts — from her initial inspiration to the white-knuckle on-the-boat reality in the team's secondhand vessel once the race began. Even when the film leans heavily on talking heads, the details are riveting; however the documentary steps up a gear once it weaves grainy home-video footage from Maiden's journey into the mix. Candid and unfettered as it captures women doing battle with the water ("the ocean is always trying to kill you; it doesn't take a break," Edwards notes, looking back), it puts viewers right there on the yacht with the all-female crew. The fist-pumping, cheer-worthy highs and tense, dangerous lows of Maiden's trek are best discovered by watching, with the yacht's trip serving up the kinds of thrills usually penned by Hollywood. Indeed, it's incredibly surprising that a dramatisation hasn't hit the big screen already. Never forgetting or downplaying just how appallingly Edwards and company were treated three decades ago, Holmes' doco does more than simply relive or revel in their tale. Crucially, it also gives the film's subjects a voice, letting them relay the nitty gritty of their experiences in their own way. Back in the 80s, they were asked about squabbles, surviving without makeup and whether a round-the-world yacht race was the best place for the fairer sex, all while the men were were asked about strategies, tactics, skills and accomplishments. Redressing that egregious wrong — and showing the determined sparks still gleaming in these women's eyes — this rousing and exhilarating documentary proves a stellar snapshot of an inspiring feat, a rebuke against gender stereotypes and misogynistic attitudes, and a fierce portrait of persistent ladies telling the world that they'll do whatever they damn well like wherever they damn well like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjFXdXSmGZ8
If you're the kind of market-goer who beelines immediately for the ceramics stall at your local makers market — and dreams of Patrick Swayze's ghost every time your hands hit the potter's wheel — then do we have just the ticket for you. After launching in 2017, Melbourne's ceramics-only market is back, holding a two-day event in Collingwood this summer. Taking place over the weekend of Saturday, November 16 and Sunday, November 17, Melbourne Ceramics Market, or MCM, costs a gold coin to enter, and showcases handcrafted creations from over 45 different ceramicists. And, if you're big into the clay world, you may have already heard of the two founders, who are ceramic artists themselves. Daisy Cooper of Daisy Cooper Ceramics and Tina Thorburn of Clay by Tina are running the market to create a retail space for other artists to sell their pieces directly to the public. Some of the other names selling their wars on the day include Room23, Penelope Duke, And O Design, Katerina Wheeler and RaRa. You can check out the full lineup over here. You'll also find coffee courtesy of Pokie May's and baked goods from Candied Bakery to help fuel your ceramics-buying rampage. Melbourne Ceramics Market is open from 10am–5pm on Saturday and 10am–4pm on Sunday.
The Coburg Night Market will return for its tenth year and, for the first time, will take place over four consecutive days from Friday, November 28 to Sunday, December 1. Pop over for an al fresco meal — perhaps homestyle Iraqi food from Nohadra's Kitchen, foot-long German sausages from Brat n Roll, Polish dumplings from Pierogi Pierogi, vegan shawarma from Hamsa Hummus Bar or Japanese soufflé pancakes from Kumokumo — and visit one of the two bars for cocktails, wine and beer. Once you've had your dinner, you'll find live music running every day and night. The music has been curated by a different group each day, with College of Knowledge, Stoic Records, Baked Goods and PS Music Group all looking after the tunes for an evening. Some of the artists on the lineup include Danika Smith, Tekwani, Francesca Gonzalez and Sex on Toast DJs. Before you leave, don't forget to peruse the 50 local artisan stalls selling food, homewares, jewellery and more — it's only a few weeks till Christmas, after all. The Coburg Night Market runs from Thursday–Friday 4–9pm and Saturday–Sunday midday–9pm.
It can be hard to wrangle a little peace and calm in amongst the hustle and bustle of the city, but CBD food and retail precinct St Collins Lane has just the fix. It's teamed up with boutique gym Ashley Faithfull Training Studios to launch its very own wellness hub, offering a breather from that fast-paced city life. Located up on Level 1, it's a calming, serene destination that's now offering daily 45-minute meditation and yoga sessions — for just the cost of a gold coin donation. Yep, you can enjoy a little escape, get bendy and de-stress, then head back to the office feeling ultra refreshed, while all spending less than the cost of a coffee. There are classes at 7.30am and 12.15pm each weekday, offering mostly hatha, ashtanga and vinyasa yoga styles, with meditation sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Even better? All proceeds go to The Big Issue, supporting its work helping homeless, marginalised and disadvantaged people. Knock over five classes and you'll also be in with a shot at winning a 12-month Ashley Faithfull membership. We're heading into the busy season, so class spots are sure to be snapped up fast. You'll need to book your mat online to secure a session.
With awards season approaching, the end-of-year flicks are coming in thick and fast. Your to-watch list is getting long, but your wallet doesn't want to play ball. Call Village Cinemas' latest special a case of great timing, then, with the chain offering up discount tickets that'll solve your problem. From Thursday, November 21 until Wednesday, November 27, you'll only pay just $10 for your movie of choice at any of Village's cinemas around Melbourne. Or movies. With everything from Charlie's Angels and Judy to Doctor Sleep and Ready or Not currently screening, there's plenty to watch if you're keen to spend as much time in a darkened room as possible. You'll find Village at Crown, the Jam Factory on Chapel Street, the Rivoli, Sunshine or Century City in Glen Waverley. Tickets for the Coburg Drive-In are also included in the deal. To get the ten-buck tix, you'll have to sign up to Village's Vrewards membership program (it's free). The special isn't available for special events, Gold Class or preview screenings, but you're certain to find something to watch regardless. And you can book online — there's just a $1.40 fee.
There's still time to nab tickets to this year's Broken Heel Festival, which takes over the historic mining town of Broken Hill for a weekend of drag, divas and disco from September 13–15. Visitors are encouraged to immerse themselves in this annual tribute to the iconic Australian film Priscilla Queen of the Desert by celebrating the movie's anniversary with a blowout party — that rocks for three days straight. Drag queens and kings from around the country will come together for a lineup of cabaret performances, comedy, opera and live music. Highlights include an opening night party featuring a Michael Griffiths' Kylie tribute band, plus a Priscilla-inspired party on Saturday. You can also join the locals along the main strip for the annual Drag Street Parade. An openair, interactive screening of the film will take place on the Sunday night, too.
UPDATE: May 18, 2020: Good Boys is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Before the high-schoolers who populate every teen movie start worrying about heading off to college and having sex for the first time, they're tweens with not-too-dissimilar problems. That's the premise behind the familiar but very funny Good Boys, which leans so far into its Superbad-lite status that it has even enlisted Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as producers. Instead of two horny 17-year-olds, this scaled-down coming-of-age comedy focuses on a trio of sixth graders. Instead of finding its characters on the cusp of graduation, it meets them as they start middle school. And instead of turning up to a lively shindig on a quest to lose their virginity, Good Boys' pre-teen protagonists navigate the age-appropriate equivalent: their first kissing party. The comparisons keep coming, although writer/director Gene Stupnitsky and his co-scribe Lee Eisenberg (the screenwriting duo behind Bad Teacher and Year One) don't just tread in Superbad's footsteps. Good Boys' predecessor boasted more than a little in common with Can't Hardly Wait, which in turn took Dazed and Confused's lead — and they all nodded to American Graffiti before that. Just a couple of months back, Booksmart did something similar too, using a firmly female-focused viewpoint to its advantage. There's not as obvious a point of difference here, with tween and teen boys getting mixed up in almost the same types of situations. But what Good Boys lacks in originality or perspective, it makes up for in charm, sincerity and a stellar cast of young talent. In a few years, Max (Jacob Tremblay), Thor (Brady Noon) and Lucas (Keith L. Williams) could relive these kinds of hijinks at the end of their high-school days — a thought that's probably crossed Stupnitsky, Eisenberg, Rogen and Goldberg's minds — but for now, they just want to be liked by the cool kids in their grade. And that seems possible after the lifelong buddies score a coveted invite to Soren's (Izaac Wang) pashing party. Alas, while Max is driven by his all-consuming crush on classmate Brixlee (Millie Davis), his friends have their own troubles. Thor is desperate to nab a role in the school production of Rock of Ages, but also desperate to seem like he doesn't care, while the gleefully dorky Lucas is struggling with news of his parents' (Retta and Lil Rel Howery) impending divorce. Plus, when the pals aren't trying to brush up on puckering up, they're unwittingly getting involved in drug deals with Max's older neighbour Hannah (Molly Gordon) and her bestie Lily (Midori Francis). Much of Good Boys' humour hits instantly and flows easily, as kids say the darnedest things in highly inappropriate circumstances — searching for "porb" and mistaking sex toys for weapons, for example. As the film's marketing campaign made a point of stressing, this may be a picture about children, but it definitely isn't for them in any shape or form. There's a more resonant layer to the gags, too — which, in a movie that spends plenty of time giggling as its central tweens swear, might not immediately seem the case. To see Max, Thor and Lucas not just face the reality that they're growing up, but explore an adult world that feels so strange and different to their pre-teen grasp on reality, is to remember the confusing ups and downs of going through the same process yourself. That said, this isn't a mere exercise in raucousness and nostalgia shaped around episodic antics, such as skipping school, sipping beers and running away from cops. Like Booksmart before it, Good Boys grounds its jokes, narrative and outlook in today's cultural and societal standards. In other words: goodbye lazy stereotypes and outdated views, and hello inclusiveness, emotional intelligence, and seeing these boys learn to respect women, themselves and each other. Stupnitsky and Eisenberg are still guilty of padding out the picture with a few too many recognisable scenarios, even with its brief 90-minute running time. But their film glows with authenticity nonetheless — because, for all the outlandishness they encounter, these kids always react in realistic ways. As much as Good Boys has an affable, genuine vibe on its side, it wouldn't work quite as well without its three child stars. Room's Tremblay, Boardwalk Empire's Noon and The Last Man on Earth's Williams not only sell their rapport, but play their parts with honesty and earnestness — and without a hint of precociousness. The bike-riding trio also shrugs off a Stranger Things insult, in a line that speaks beyond pop culture's current obsession with plucky children (see also: IT and IT: Chapter Two). Swap Good Boys' crudeness for a dash of the supernatural, after all, and this sweet, breezy and amusing film would fit nicely among all those classic 80s adventures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeeyM8cRinI
It turns out the minds behind That's Amore aren't just cheese experts — they also make a mean cannolo. And you can try one of these sweet Sicilian delights for free, next Friday, October 11. Last year, That's Amore cheesemaker Giorgio Linguanti and chef Dario Di Clerico launched Cannoleria. Since then, the stall has popped up at various markets around the city, selling the classic ricotta cannoli, as well as a slew of crafty seasonal versions like pistachio, tiramisu, orange and fennel, panettone and even peanut butter. Now, the duo is gearing up to open Cannoleria's second permanent stall at Preston Market (the first launched in South Melbourne Market in August). And to celebrate the new digs, the crew will be handing out a stack of freebies. Simply roll in between 10am and noon on August 30 and you'll score a free mini cannolo for your efforts.
Another boozy outing makes its way onto the Melbourne scene as the revamped CBD haunt State of Grace launches a lavish afternoon tea party — starting this Saturday, December 1 and proceeding every Saturday and Sunday thereafter. The Mad Hatter-themed tea party is on offer from 1–3pm each day, and instead of tea, there'll be bottomless punch bowls and prosecco up for grabs. The punch comes in three rotating (and brightly coloured) flavours, all served in antique-style goblets. It's a decadent affair on the food menu, too. Of the six bite-sized dishes on offer, you'll find caviar and crème fraîche on a blini; mini duck parfait toasties with a gin and juice jam; and Yarra Valley crudité served with Four Pillars gin and herb cream. Dessert is a eton mess with meringue and lemon curd pots. All in, it'll cost you $55 per person for the two hours. Bookings are necessary and you can see the full menu here. State of Grace's Afternoon Tea Party runs from 1–3pm every Saturday and Sunday.
If you, like us, are a big fan of cheese, you'll know the tasty hobby can get a bit pricey. From stocking up on wheels of brie to splashing out on truffled gouda, going out for a night of oozy raclette and buying legit Parmigiano-Reggiano, things start to add up. Luckily, the dairy-loving folks at Meredith Dairy want to help. They're bringing back their super-popular Bucket Bonanza Sale just in time for the holidays — so your Christmas, and New Year, can be cheesier than ever. At the sale, two-kilogram buckets of the brand's award-winning goat's cheese will be going for only $50 a pop. The smooth, salty, spreadable cubes come marinated in a blend of olive oil, garlic and herbs. To put that price into perspective, the 550-gram jars at Woolies go for a whopping $20 each. The only catch is that the sale is located a little out of the city, at Meredith's distribution centre in Truganina (about a 40-minute drive from the city). But we think it's worth it — this is one tasty sale you won't want to miss. Meredith Dairy's Bucket Bonanza Sale will run from 11am–2pm.
Dogs. Pups. Pooches. Floofs. Pupparoos. Whatever you call them, you probably love 'em. And this Saturday you can hang out with a whole heap of them for free at the RACV Pawtrait Pup-Up. From 10am–2pm, Fitzroy's Edinburgh Gardens will be transformed into a dog-filled paradise, complete with agility courses for dogs, animal treats (and a barbecue for humans), giveaways and a pop-up portrait studio for your furry friend. Yep, you can finally get your pup a headshot. Dog Photog Studios will be on hand to snap a pic of your pooch in one of many colourful outfits — for free. And while the photography session is complimentary, spots are limited, so we suggest you head in earlier rather than later. RACV Pawtrait Pup-Up will run from 10am–2pm in the off-leash area of Edinburgh Gardens. Images: Courtesy of Dog Photog.
Following the announcement of its upcoming relocation to an even bigger location, Mukka has decided to give back to its loyal diners. To celebrate Mukka's Fitzroy soft relaunch on Friday, November 24, ahead of its official grand opening on Saturday, December 2, the popular eatery will be slinging a huge discount to dine-in customers. Head into Mukka's brand-new location for dinner from Wednesday, November 29 to score 50 percent off your bill. This exciting offer will allow diners – both new and old — to enjoy all of the much-loved street eats, flavour-filled dosas, hearty curries and incredibly cheesy naan that Mukka is known for. You'll get to enjoy all of its beloved familiar favourites alongside some enticing additions to the menu, including new punchy specials hot off the sleek new charcoal grill. Plus, when you opt to dine in, you'll be one of the first to experience the vibrant decor sourced directly from India and handpicked by co-owner Kabir Singh. There's also a five-metre-long feasting table and Melbourne's first-ever Bollywood-themed bar, which boasts a gorgeous mural dedicated to the iconic Bollywood film, Sholay. This exclusive offer is only available for one week and will be running until Friday, November 24, so head over to Mukka's reservations page to book your spot.
Australia's touring all-inclusive music and arts festival Summer Camp is returning in December with a lineup of over 100 artists. Following Summer Camp's inaugural run in 2022 which combined great tunes and LGBTQIA+ pride, the blockbuster event will be back in Melbourne at St Kilda Marina on Saturday, December 2. Leading the lineup are headliners Jessie Ware and Trixie Mattel. Ware teased that she was playing the festival back in May, advising that she'd be appearing on an episode of her podcast Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware before confirming her place on the lineup in July. It's been a long time between Australian visits for the UK disco-pop queen. The last time she graced our shores was for Laneway Festival all the way back in 2013. In the period since, she's released four albums, including the immensely critically acclaimed What's You Pleasure in 2020 and its equally vibrant recent follow-up That! Feels Good!. But now Ware's drought of Aussie appearances is officially coming to an end. [caption id="attachment_919632" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Matto Lucas[/caption] Also on the bill: viral sensation Rebecca Black, who has had a major career revival since 2021, releasing a slate of acclaimed pop projects ten years after achieving global infamy for her so-bad-it's-good track 'Friday'. Similarly gracing the stage are Brooke Candy, Kito, Meg10, The Illustrious Blacks and Tom Aspaul, alongside a stacked program of local musicians, DJs, dancers and performance artists. The BEAT stage will be dedicated to thumping house, disco and techno tunes. Melbourne's Summer Camp will host a cutting-edge Rave Cave. The St Kilda edition takes place as part of the huge 17-day ALWAYS LIVE program that's hitting the state throughout November and December. The massive program also includes performances from Christina Aguilera, Jai Paul and Eric Prydz. [caption id="attachment_919633" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Matto Lucas[/caption] SUMMER CAMP FESTIVAL 2023 LINEUP: Jessie Ware Trixie Mattel Brooke Candy Kito Meg10 Rebecca Black The Illustrious Blacks Tom Aspaul Ultra Naté Alex Morris Ballroom Australia Bathesba Crescendoll Daws Dilonce' Disco Daddies DJ Gay Dad Ecterera Ecterrea x Art Simone Fragile Future House of Buffet Jesse Boyd Kat Zowthabag Kween Kong Mz Risk Nick Spurway Saint Eve Sal Simple Sovblkpssy Stone Motherless Cold Sullivan The Huxleys Tilly Capulet Tyoow Vb Unicorns Yo Mafia Top image: Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons.
When is a Ridley Scott-directed, Joaquin Phoenix-starring trip to the past more than just a historical drama? Always, at least so far. Twice now, the filmmaker and actor have teamed up to explore Europe centuries ago, initially with Gladiator and now 23 years later with Napoleon — and where the Rome-set first was an action film as well, the second fancies its chances as a sometimes comedy. This biopic of the eponymous French military star-turned-emperor can be funny. In the lead, Phoenix (Beau Is Afraid) repeatedly boasts the line delivery, facial expressions and physical presence of someone actively courting laughs. When he declares "destiny has brought me this lamb chop!", all three coalesce. Scott (House of Gucci) not only lets the humour land, but fashions this muskets-and-cannons epic as a satire of men with authority and dominance, their egos, and the fact that ruling a country and defeating other nations doesn't cancel out their pettiness and insecurities. As it's off with Marie Antoinette's (Catherine Walker, My Sailor, My Love) head, it's in with Napoleon's revolutionary stirrings in Scott and screenwriter David Scarpa's take (with the scribe returning to cut the powerful down to size after the director's All the Money in the World, just as Walker apes another famous figure after playing Anna Wintour in House of Gucci). Also in: Napoleon's tinkering with facts, which'll later see its namesake and his troops fire at the pyramids. Devotion to historical accuracy isn't the movie's aim. Like The Castle of blasts from the French past, it's more interested in the vibe of the thing — said 'thing' being how Napoleon Bonaparte, later Napoleon I, follows his yearning for glory and adoration above all else. Scott stitches together a selection of his own recurrent obsessions, too, such as Phoenix sulking, savaging the quest for command and influence, Gallic days of yore as seen in his debut The Duellists and the unrelated The Last Duel, and unfettered ambition's consequences as per The Martian and Prometheus, then tops it with the requisite bicorn hat. My my, in Waterloo Napoleon will eventually surrender in this 158-minute flick — which is the short version; a four-hour director's cut is on its way to Apple TV+ once the film's cinema release is done — but he has considerable battles on three fronts to wage first. The movie's 18th- and 19th-century military frays span everywhere from Toloun to Austerlitz and Borodino. The tussling that his sizeable sense of importance sparks is as inescapable as his shadow. And attempting to repair his fragility through his romance with Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One) and desperation for a son is a conflict-filled affair again and again. When those encounters are sexual, they're filled with short, sweaty thrusts and Basic Instinct moments, as well as clashes of wills and desires. In this tumultuous marriage, food fights also feature. So hops Napoleon from vignette to vignette, war to war, one end of the continent to the other, rise to fall, Napoleonic politics to tabloid fodder, and constant conquests to multiple exiles. So jumps Napoleon from Corsican soldier to Paul Barras (Tahar Rahim, Extrapolations)-backed force, Robespierre's (Sam Troughton, The Lazarus Project) demise to the Bonaparte brothers' coup (House of the Dragon's Matthew Needham plays Lucien), capitalising upon anti-royalist feelings to donning a crown, and triumph to capitulation. With detours for dramatic flair — and comic — here and there, the broad biographical strokes are covered, plus minutiae that paints Scott's chosen picture (including Transatlantic's Sam Crane as Jacques-Louis David painting the famed The Coronation of Napoleon picture). Bringing Wikipedia to life, petulant scowling, ample buffoonery, pining for Joséphine, sumptuous cinematography by Dariusz Wolski (continuing his Scott run since Prometheus), gorgeous production design from Arthur Max (a Scott regular since GI Jane): that's the mix. Scott slips in an early scene that sums up his approach fittingly, popping up while Napoleon is in Egypt. After a mummy is presented to the general standing upright in its propped-up sarcophagus, he hops up on a stool to stare closely at its desiccated form, expecting to divine more about it just by peering in his specific manner. Napoleon isn't shy about dehydrating its titular figure's pomp, or about its guiding force's angle. No one asks "are you not entertained?", but anticipating both Napoleon and Scott thinking that of their onlookers is easy. Seesawing between impressively staged epic spectacle and marital and regal farce, Napoleon is indeed entertaining — "you think you're so great because you have boats!" is another instantly memorable piece of dialogue, as uttered thusly — and also sprawling, grandly handsome, frequently not all-conquering enough and as on the surface as an exploded horses's insides. As more than ABBA has immortalised, plus Succession's reference to Napoleon's severed collector's-item penis as well, Scott's subject is better-known than he ever craved, let alone could've dreamed. Depicting him as a little bit of everything in this character study is apt, then, with so much information about him existing that a definite take feels elusive. Perhaps that's why Napoleon isn't short on cinema stints but has hardly proven a mainstay, even if Louis Lumière first brought him to celluloid with 1897's Entrevue de Napoléon et du Pape and 1927's silent Napoléon has been revered for almost a century. Stanley Kubrick's iteration didn't eventuate, but is now being revived by Steven Spielberg. Charlie Chaplin's attempted project became The Great Dictator instead. The Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure version might be the take of record for many until now; Phoenix acts here like he's definitely seen it. Napoleon's ever-committed lead is compelling to watch, but the film is best when he's part of a duo. Although the emperor ultimately divorced Joséphine when she didn't deliver him the heir that he demanded, his famous lovesickness — as letters document — makes it plain that he felt that way, too. Kirby is magnetic, as the role calls for, yet also pragmatic. Her Joséphine sees him as no one else does except the movie itself, and he is spellbound in her presence. The double-act setup also works when Napoleon is paired one-on-one with friends or foes, such as Austria's Francis I (Miles Jupp, The Full Monty) and England's Duke of Wellington (Funny Woman's Rupert Everett, also sneering and having a ball). This is a picture about a man clamouring not just for a legacy but for company, after all, and Scott never forgets it.
Odd Culture is joining forces with Skinny's Eatery to bring you a tropical-themed feast on Sunday, November 26. Jamal Nicoll (Leonardo's Pizza Palace and Etta), along with his wife Genevieve, are the heart and soul of Skinny's, and they're bringing along a menu that's perfect for a chill Sunday afternoon in the sun. And if you've been to Odd Culture before, you'll know that beer garden is simply one of the best for relaxing the day away with good drinks and terrific snacks. Speaking of, the menu will feature Sydney rock oysters and po' boys (a type of sandwich made famous in Louisiana) that are just begging to be eaten – we're talking corn breaded prawns, thousand island sauce and prawn oil, all nestled in a French roll and accompanied by house-made old bay potato crisps. There's more — the bar team at Odd Culture will be putting a twist on the classic Pina Colada and shaking up their much-adored Tepache Spritz. So grab your mates, head to Brunswick Street, and let Odd Culture and Skinny's take care of the rest. Sunday sorted.
It's about time for her arrival: Christina Aguilera's, that is, with the 'Dirrty', 'Genie in a Bottle', 'What a Girl Wants', 'Lady Marmalade' and 'Beautiful' singer heading Down Under in November for a one-night-only gig. Hitting Australia for the first time since 2007, the singer headlines Victoria's statewide music celebration Always Live, which is returning in 2023 for its second year after a successful debut run in 2022. Aguilera plays Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse on Saturday, November 25, in a show that'll also mark 20 years since her album Stripped. Not in Melbourne? This is a getaway-worthy show, given that it's the only concert she's playing on this Aussie trip. One of pop music's former Mouseketeers, the six-time Grammy-winner leads a bill that spans more than 165 artists at 60-plus events — all in Victoria. In other words, she spearheads a lineup that's designed to get the state's residents hitting up live gigs, and to entice tourists from the rest of the country to make music-filled holiday plans.
If Christmas has snuck up on you as it has us, you're in luck, because Melbourne Quarter has you covered with a lineup of fun events this season to take some of the pressure off. That's right, Season's Eatings is here to add that extra sprinkle of joy to your December days, running from Monday, December 4 to Thursday, December 15. And guess what? It's all free, though some events are ticketed with limited spots — so get your RSVP in quick. Kick off the festivities on Monday, December 4, by popping in to see Melbourne Quarter's festive decorations, crafted by local artist Justine McAllister. Then, on Tuesday, December 5, start your morning the right way by heading to Peddler Espresso and nabbing yourself a free coffee and mini danish. As the week progresses, your tastebuds are in for a treat with Royal Stacks' slider-tasting lunch on Wednesday, December 6, featuring mini versions of its most popular burgers plus fries and live DJ tunes. And if you're craving a bit of Italian flair, Saluministi's pop-up on Thursday, December 7, offers the perfect opportunity to chat with founders Peter Mastro and Frank Bressi while munching on their famous panini and cannoli. There's more. Fishbowl's latest 'Street Food' menu offerings await you on Wednesday, December 13, in the form of a VIP lunch. And to wrap up, Sergy Boy is hosting a pretty damn sweet happy hour deal on Thursday, December 14, from 4.30pm to 6.30pm, with a free drink on arrival, and all drinks half-price thereafter. So, gather your mates, or make some new ones, and enjoy the festivities at one of Melbourne's newest hang-out spots. See you at Melbourne Quarter. To RSVP to events and see the full program, head to the Melbourne Quarter website.
UPDATE, Friday, June 21, 2024: Anatomy of a Fall is available to stream via Stan, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. The calypso instrumental cover of 'P.I.M.P.' isn't the only thing that Anatomy of a Fall's audience can't dislodge from their heads after watching 2023's deserving Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winner and 2024's five-time Oscar-nominee. A film that's thorny, knotty and defiantly unwilling to give any easy answers, this legal, psychological and emotional thriller about a woman on trial for her husband's death is unshakeable in as many ways as someone can have doubts about another person: so, a myriad. This is a movie about truth that's really a feature about trust and perception. Indeed, delivering a definitive solution and explanation isn't filmmaker Justine Triet's focus. Helming her fourth full-length picture and becoming an Academy Award contender for Best Director in the process, the French talent doesn't serve up neat true crime-style closure, either, but she unflinchingly knows that the world has been conditioned to want every query and mystery — every uncertainty as well — wrapped up conclusively and categorically. The scenario conjured up by Age of Panic, Victoria and Sibyl's Triet is deeply haunting, asking not only if her protagonist Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller, Sisi & I) committed murder, as the on-screen investigation and courtroom proceedings interrogate, but digging into what it means to be forced to choose between whether someone did the worst or is innocent — or if either matters. While the Gallic legal system and its specifics provide the backdrop for much of the Anatomy of a Fall, the real person doing the real picking isn't there in a professional capacity, or on a jury. Rather, it's 11-year-old Daniel (Milo Machado Graner, Alex Hugo), who has a visual impairment, finds his dad Samuel (Samuel Theis, Softie) in the snow with a head injury outside their French Alps home on an otherwise ordinary day, then becomes the key witness in his mum's case. Returning from a walk with his dog Snoop, the boy didn't see what happened, but he's the closest thing that detectives have to an onlooker. Novelist and translator Sandra is introduced with that clanging version of one of 50 Cent's best-known songs echoing, a graduate student (Camille Rutherford, The Night of the 12th) interviewing her about her work and successful career in the family's remote chalet and, as he undertakes renovations upstairs, teacher Samuel turning up the soundtrack to distracting levels. Within an hour in the film's timeline and mere minutes for viewers, the latter will be dead via a fall from the home's topmost floor. When the inquiries start, Sandra says that she was asleep post-chat. Already, a wealth of details give rise to questions. Was Samuel blasting tunes to sabotage his wife's discussion? Also, why that particular track? Sipping wine as she talked, was the bisexual Sandra flirting? Did that raise her husband's ire? Do his and her actions alike that day scream volumes about the state of their marriage? Did she really not hear the incident? Was it an accident, suicide or was she responsible? Anatomy of a Fall is always a film about questions, too — and the reality that, in life-and-death situations and everyday circumstances, they never stop springing in any relationship. The police can't make a clearcut decision either way based on the available evidence, hence the presumption of murder, Sandra as the prime suspect and the shift to court. Fittingly co-writing the script with her IRL partner Arthur Harari (Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle), Triet's poising of Anatomy of a Fall's opening moments as fuel for scrutinising Sandra and Samuel's union is savvy is another way: it sets up an entire feature where their wedded bliss — or lack thereof, as quickly becomes apparent — is probed, audited and analysed. The stakes are immense, but pondering how any long-term romance can hold up to such a dissection is one of the film's many takeaways. The questions swirl again, sifting through infidelities, guilt over the accident that caused Daniel to lose his sight, the division of household tasks, gender roles, mental health, professional rivalries, at-any-cost moves, past fights and how the couple's son was caught in the middle long before he's now asked to say whether his father, who homeschooled him, was killed by his mother. A picture as intelligent and exacting as this — and as taut, tense and tenacious — isn't short of unforgettable elements. Again, the whole feature earns that description, as does its unpacking of intimate connections. Also high on the list: the performances that are so crucial in telling this tale of marital and parental bonds, especially from one of Germany's current best actors. Although her similarly astonishing portrayal in The Zone of Interest is following Anatomy of a Fall to screens Down Under, arriving in February 2024, Toni Erdmann and I'm Your Man's Hüller is two for two in movies that initially debuted globally in 2023, collected awards at Cannes (The Zone of Interest picked up the Grand Prix, aka second place in the festival's official competition), rightly received Oscar attention and are anchored by her complex portrayals of women who refuse to meet anyone's expectations but their own. Here, she steps into an icy and complicated figure's shoes with the same surgical precision that Triet applies to rifling through the character's home life (that Sandra would rather speak English with her spouse despite him being French and them living in France isn't just a minor tidbit). In flashbacks to disagreements with Samuel and with her freedom on the line, Anatomy of a Fall's accused is unwaveringly unapologetic in her insistence to put herself first — as it's plain that both the prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz, Irma Vep) and defence attorney (Swann Arlaud, About Joan) on the case can see — and Hüller at her steeliest best, always devastatingly naturalistically so, is formidable in the part. She's the one with the Academy Award nod for acting; however, the up-and-coming French talent playing her son is also exceptional. In fact, as Daniel, who couldn't be more conflicted about the nightmare situation that he's been thrust into, Graner is a revelation, frequently via his expressive face and posture alone. If Scenes From a Marriage met Kramer vs Kramer, plus 1959's Anatomy of a Murder that patently influences Anatomy of a Fall's name, this would be the gripping end result. Tearing into a relationship — and tearing it apart — feels nothing less than brutal in Triet's hands; every realisation about human nature in love and life that resounds along the way feels decidedly accurate, though. There's an aspect of Gone Girl to her masterful feature, too. While this isn't a film with a "cool girl" monologue, the societal expectations placed upon women, and on mothers, are firmly pushed to the fore. Take note of the fact that cinematographer Simon Beaufils (Antoinette in the Cévennes) is often looking up at Hüller as well: whatever Sandra did or didn't do, whatever Daniel does or doesn't choose to believe, and wherever audiences land — again, there's no simple resolution here — being a victim, or allowing herself to be seen that way, isn't part of the character's anatomy.
If you were to see a fridge standing in the middle of Queensbridge Square, what would you do? And, perhaps more importantly, what would you hope to find inside? On Saturday, January 20, you can put this situation to the test IRL — and we can tell you now that gelato awaits, plus flavoured milks. Gelato Messina and Westinghouse are teaming up on a giveaway, so one of the latter's refrigerators will indeed be onsite. You'll need to head in front of the red steps between 10am–4.30pm, but getting in quick is recommended as the freebies are only available while stocks last (and any chance to grab some Messina for nothing is bound to be popular). On the menu: mini ice cream pops in choc jersey milk and coconut passionfruit varieties, as well as choc malt, dulce de leche and strawberry flavoured milks. One person will also win the fridge itself, so you might end up treating your kitchen as well as your tastebuds.
Odd Culture Fitzroy is teaming up with yakitori specialists Nama to throw a barbecue party in the beer garden on Sunday, November 12. From 3pm chefs will be slinging a heap of yakitori fresh off the grill and dishes like white anchovy and corn tostadas. These will only be available until sold out so you best get in early. And, because this is Odd Culture we're talking about, the drinks are as much of a drawcard as the food. The bar will change things up a bit for the party with a few specialty cocktails made just for the day. Try some old-school Japanese slippers or opt for whisky highballs and umeshu sours either at the bar or out in the sun-soaked beer garden where Japanese disco tunes will be spinning. Odd Culture's usual happy hour will also run from 3–6pm, with schooners for the price of pots, $12 sour negronis and $8 glasses of orange wine and pét-nat — boozy bargains! Sakes and classic cocktails will also be up for grabs throughout the day and night.
UPDATE, Tuesday, June 18, 2024: Priscilla is available to stream via Stan, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Yearning to be one of the women in Sofia Coppola's films is futile, but for a single reason only: whether she's telling of teenage sisters, a wife left to her own devices in Tokyo, France's most-famous queen, the daughter of a Hollywood actor, Los Angeles high schoolers who want to rob, the staff and students at a girls school in the American Civil War, a Manhattanite worried that her husband is being unfaithful or Priscilla Presley, as the writer/director has across eight movies to-date, no one better plunges viewers into her female characters' hearts and heads. To watch the filmmaker's span of features from The Virgin Suicides to Priscilla is to feel as its figures do, and deeply. The second-generation helmer is an impressionistic great, colouring her flicks as much with emotions and mood as actual hues — not that there's any shortage of lush and dreamy shades, as intricately tied to her on-screen women's inner states, swirling through her meticulous frames. Call it the "can't help falling" effect, then: as a quarter-century of Coppola's films have graced screens, audiences can't help falling into them like they're in the middle of each themselves. That's still accurate with Priscilla, which arrives so soon after Elvis that no one could've forgotten that the lives of the king of rock 'n' roll and his bride have flickered through cinemas recently. Baz Luhrmann made his Presley movie in Australia with an American (Austin Butler, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as Elvis and an Aussie (Olivia DeJonge, The Staircase) as Priscilla. Coppola crafted hers in North America with a Brisbanite (Jacob Elordi, Saltburn) in blue-suede shoes and a Tennessee-born talent (Cailee Spaeny, Mare of Easttown) adopting the Presley surname. The two features are mirror images in a hunk of burning ways, including their his-and-hers titles; whose viewpoint they align with; and conveying what it was like to adore Elvis among the masses, plus why he sparked that fervour, compared to expressing the experience of being the girl that he fell for, married, sincerely loved but kept in a gilded cage into she strove to fly free. For the leads playing their titular parts, the two Presley portraits of the 2020s far are also star-making pictures. If Spaeny becomes her director's new muse, it's much-deserved based on her turn as an excited and longing teen, then the isolated high-school senior and stuck-at-home girlfriend who's so controlled that she's instructed to dye her hair the same black that Elvis sports (by him), then the wife and mother virtually living a separate life. In fact, she was recommended by Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog), Coppola's muse since her debut feature, aka Spaeny's co-star in 2024's upcoming Civil War. Although finding someone who could take the role across a decade and a half, and be as genuine as a smitten teen, a fed-up woman deciding to claim her own life and everything in-between wouldn't have been easy, Priscilla's Venice International Film Festival Volpi Cup for Best Actress-winning choice is sublime. Priscilla Beaulieu is just 14 when she's invited to a party at Elvis' home in West Germany, where she's an army brat with a strict dad (Ari Cohen, Fargo) in the service and he's a 24-year-old donning the uniform solely because he's been drafted. Asked if she likes Elvis by one of his pals, her response is: "of course, who doesn't?". She subsequently can't help falling, as is to be expected of a girl being paid attention by one of the biggest stars on the planet. In the giddy aftermath of their first meetings, during their early courtship and when Elvis heads back home, Coppola gets her The Beguiled and On the Rocks cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd roving over fabrics and handwriting, two staple details in her work, to assist in showing the heady passion that pulsates through Priscilla. As her films keep demonstrating, you can glean much about someone by the textures that they surround themselves with, the way they communicate via the written word, and the care they take with each. Here, you can tell how Priscilla's namesake initially feels like she's living in a fantasy come true. As witnessed through Priscilla Presley's eyes — as adapted by Coppola from Priscilla's 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, and boasting an also-brilliant Elordi as the brooding and volatile Elvis — this romance is never a fairy tale, however. She swoons. She pines. She begs her parents (with Succession's Dagmara Dominczyk as her mother) to let her visit Graceland, and then to move there. She does what Elvis says, and shapes herself by his wishes and whims. She acts in the 50s-trained mould, with its firmly defined gender roles, as he also does. Priscilla spies the period, its expectations and demands, but it also spots the imbalance in power that goes beyond social norms. Leaving Elvis' music off the Phoenix-supervised soundtrack wasn't the original plan, after Coppola sought permission from his estate and was denied, yet it has a potent effect: as tunes other than his echo, and not only from the time — a Ramones cover of 'Baby, I Love You' and Dan Deacon's 2007 track 'The Crystal Cat', for instance — the film divorces itself from his perspective, and from what was accepted in the era. From the moment that it starts with red toenails upon shag carpeting, then, until it closes with swinging gates and one of the greatest songs that Dolly Parton has ever written (and a sentiment that never rings false), Priscilla is what many Coppola flicks are: an account of a woman trying to discover herself in restrictive circumstances where her existence is defined by a man. The picture's protagonist is The Virgin Suicides' siblings cooped up in their home, and Lost in Translation's left-behind spouse. She's Marie Antoinette's partner to royalty, complete with an unhappy bedroom life — the Presleys' romance is chaste when Priscilla is younger, then Elvis remains largely uninterested when she's older — and Somewhere's adoring youth in a star's shadow as well. Coppola sees the limits placed upon the women before her camera, the abodes they're trapped in and how they pass the time. In a revelatory fashion, she's well-aware that so much of Priscilla's life with Elvis was filled with just that as he went on tour, made movies in Los Angeles, and had gossip all aflutter about affairs with Speedway's Nancy Sinatra and Viva Las Vegas' Ann-Margret: Priscilla on her lonesome passing the time. While Coppola has never made a feature that's less than excellent, Priscilla is among her most-accomplished. Every inch always means something in the director's oeuvre, and proves immaculate and intimate. Such truths from her filmography resound again here to perfection, with exquisitely ravishing aesthetics — also thanks to costume designer Stacey Battat, who has worked on every one of the helmer's pictures since Somewhere, as well as Nightmare Alley production designer Tamara Deverell — helping to amplify the picture's emotional intensity. Coppola's little-less-conversation approach finds its action in glances and stares, and in being all shook up by what's not uttered. It's absorbing and mesmerising, heartbreaks, hardships and all. Priscilla herself wouldn't want anyone aching for her experience, but she'd surely hope for the crucial feat that Priscilla overwhelmingly achieves: ensuring that viewers feel as if they've lived it.
When you're a film festival that's all about the best cinema from Spain and Latin America, and you've been showcasing flicks from the two regions for a quarter century, how do you mark the occasion? If you're Australia's annual Spanish Film Festival, you put together a hefty 25th-birthday festival filled with 32 movies. That's the just-announced plan for 2023's event, which will take over the screens at The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Palace Balwyn and Pentridge Cinema in Melbourne from Thursday, June 15–Wednesday, July 5 — complete with Spanish box-office hits, stars from beloved series, a focus on female directors and plenty more. Kicking off the fest is the Australian premiere of culinary comedy Two Many Chefs, which follows a father-and-son pair reuniting in the high-cuisine scene in Bilbao. Also a high-profile must-see is the festival's centrepiece selection Alcarràs, the winner of the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear in 2022. It popped up at a few local fests last year, and is now finally being made available to a wider Aussie audience. Other highlights include five-time Goya Award-winner Prison 77, a smash in its homeland starring Miguel Herrán from Netflix's Money Heist; The Kings of the World, which focuses on five Medellín teenagers; and Four's a Crowd, the latest from The Bar, Witching and Bitching and As Luck Would Have It filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia. Plus, there's thriller A Singular Crime, about a wealthy businessman's disappearance in Argentina in the 80s — and Staring at Strangers, where The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent's Paco León spies on a family from inside a closet (and yes, sounds like it takes its cues from Parasite). Film lovers can also look forward to rom-com My Father's Mexican Wedding, about two Spanish siblings travelling abroad for the titular nuptials; Mighty Victoria, which sees residents of a small town try to build their own steam train in 1930s Mexico; black-and-white horror film History of the Occult; and feminist Argentinian western The Broken Land. The 2022 fest boasts an Australian link as well via Greg Mortimer, about the passengers and crew on the Australian cruise ship that left for Antarctica just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic being declared. And, the Spanish Film Festival's survey of prominent Spanish and Latin American women directors includes seven movies, while its five-title 2023 retrospective is dedicated to iconic Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, who passed away earlier in 2023.
When Good Beer Week returns to send Melbourne craft beer fiends into a frothy tailspin each May, it also coincides with the globe-trotting flavour fest that is Pint of Origin. Every year, this fan-favourite event sees bars and pubs across the city turn over their taps to spotlight top-notch beers from different corners of the world. 2023's instalment runs from Friday, May 12–Sunday, May 21, to shake up taplists at much-loved venues like Carwyn Cellars, the Local Taphouse, Beermash and Westside Ale Works. Each one will spend the ten days heroing brews from a different regional, interstate or international destination, giving punters the chance to broaden their horizons while scoping out some stellar new sips. [caption id="attachment_900291" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mr West[/caption] Each tap takeover will span a range of beer styles from a stack of different breweries — many of which aren't readily found in Melbourne. You can hit The Catfish for a taste of New Zealand's beer scene, explore a rotation of UK brews at Whitehart and raise a few pints to the beers of South Australia with a visit to the Palace Hotel. Also in the 20-strong lineup, Mr West is showcasing Canadian brews, The Lincoln is spotlighting Tassie drops, and Fitzroy's Near & Far is diving into some full-blown appreciation for Brisbane-born beers. Many of the venues are also doing guided tastings and meet-the-brewer sessions throughout the duration. Plus, if you keep track of your wanderings with a Pint of Origin digital passport, you'll be in with a shot at some great prizes. [caption id="attachment_761608" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Carwyn Cellars[/caption] Top images: The Lincoln, Beermash
You could celebrate International Tea Day (Sunday, May 21) the obvious way, by downing a nice hot cuppa. Or, you could sate your sweet tooth instead and mark the occasion with a tea-inspired treat. Or hey, why not double down and do both at once? This year, the innovative dessert masters at Tokyo Lamington are teaming up with iconic tea brand Lipton to deliver a limited-edition collaboration that's sweet as can be. From Friday, May 19–Friday, May 26, it's serving up a specialty (or special-TEA) lamington creation inspired by the go-to hot drink that is Lipton's Quality Black Tea. The new dessert features a base of black tea sponge, with boba-spiked tea custard and a biscuit crumb to finish. If that sounds like something you'd like to get your mitts on, simply head into Tokyo Lamington's Carlton store and nab a limited-edition pack for $15. Each one contains one of the Lipton-inspired treats, as well as an OG signature lamington and 15 Lipton tea bags — so you can really make a great afternoon of it.
Screenlife films such as Missing should be the last thing that moviegoers want. When we're hitting a cinema or escaping into our streaming queues, we're seeking a reprieve from the texts, chats, pics, reels, searches, and work- and study-related tasks that we all stare at on our phones and computers seemingly 24/7. (Well, we should be, unless we're monsters who can't turn off our devices while we watch.) There's a nifty dose of empathy behind thrillers like this, its excellent predecessor Searching, and the similar likes of Unfriended and Profile, however, that relies upon the very fact that everyone spends far too much time living through technology. When an on-screen character such as Missing's June (Storm Reid, The Last of Us) is glued to the gadget on their desk or lap, or in their hand — when they're using the devices that've virtually become our new limbs non-stop to try to solve their problems and fix their messy existence, too — it couldn't be more relatable. As Missing fills its frames with window upon window of June's digital activities, cycling and cascading through FaceTime calls, Gmail messages, WhatsApp downloads, Google Maps tracking, TikTok videos, TaskRabbit bookings, plain-old websites and more, it witnesses its protagonist do plenty that we've all done. And, everything she's undertaking feels exactly that familiar — like the film could be staring back at each member of its audience rather than at an 18-year-old who starts the movie unhappy that her mother Grace (Nia Long, You People) is jetting off to Colombia with her new boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung, Old). That sensation remains true even though Missing's viewers have likely never had their mum disappear in another country, and their life forever turned upside down as a result. We've all experienced the mechanics behind what writer/directors Will Merrick and Nick Johnson (who make their feature debut in both roles after editing Searching) are depicting in our own ways, with only the vast power of the internet able to help. As an opening video set 12 years earlier explains, plus folders of medical info and farewells over a move from Texas to California, June is far from thrilled about Grace and Kevin's getaway due to its timing. She isn't fussed about her mum's rules for while they're away and repetitive reminders to empty her voice messages, either, but they'll be gone over the weekend of Father's Day, a difficult occasion given that June's father James (Tim Griffin, True Detective) passed away when she was a kid. To fill her time home alone, she makes sure that she's not really home alone, throwing parties she's not supposed to, avoiding tipping off her mum's lawyer pal Heather (Amy Landecker, Your Honor) — who's on check-up duties — and hanging out with her bestie Veena (Megan Suri, Never Have I Ever). But when June heads to Los Angeles airport to collect Grace and Kevin upon their return, her situation gets worse. She waits. She holds up a playful sign. She films the whole thing as well. But no one shows. Five years have passed since Searching became one of the best screenlife movies yet while making stellar use of John Cho (Cowboy Bebop) as a dad desperate to find his absent daughter. With that flick's writer/director Aneesh Chaganty and co-scribe Sev Ohanian getting a story credit, Missing flips the setup, having a kid looking as far and wide as technology currently allows for a parent instead. With some assistance from FBI Agent Park (Daniel Henney, Criminal Minds), but not enough — plus on-the-ground sleuthing by Cartagena local Javi (Joaquim de Almeida, Warrior Nun), thanks to an outsourcing service — June gets investigating, and also increasingly frantic about what's happened, why, where Grace might be and how to get her home. The film also gets pacier than Searching, reflecting not just half a decade's worth of tech advancements, but a teenager's innate, always-on comfort with the online landscape as a digital native. June doesn't just hop from app to app, program to program, chat to chat and call to call quickly — and, conveniently for the film, keep her webcam running in-between so viewers see the stress expand across her face as she does so. As she scours and worries, worries and sours, she's as creative as she is determined with her detective skills. Indeed, Missing doubles as both stalker 101 and a cybersecurity warning. If you're already concerned about the surveillance-heavy times that we live in, expect your Black Mirror-style anxieties to only expand while watching. Missing is so relatable in what it's showing, rather than the tale it's using all those computer windows to show, that it's also a double-edged sword: we've all been June, inseparable from our MacBooks and the like; can our online lives be so easily picked through, as Grace does to Kevin as her suspicions heighten, as well? As Searching did, Missing has its audience playing gumshoe along with its characters. As Unfriended and Profile did — all four movies share Russian Kazakh filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov as a producer, and he also directed Profile — it keeps everyone on high alert via a tense, propulsive and immersive affair. Viewing screenlife flicks, which also includes the unconnected Host and We're All Going to the World's Fair (and the less-convincing Spree, and downright grating Dash Cam), means constantly seeking clues as to where the next twist, revelation or crucial detail will spring from. They're an involving experience, especially when there are people to find and crimes to solve, and Missing is as on-edge, nail-biting and as attention-demanding as they come. Amid the sea of clips, conversations and text on-screen — and some wild leaps in logic — the nerves and vigilance here aren't June's alone. Missing knows how folks watching will engage, even if it obviously isn't interactive in the way that film-meets-game Isklander — screenlife IRL, basically — is. It knows that it exists in a world obsessed with true-crime, smartly commenting on the pervasive and persistent fascination with other's misdeeds — and overtly linking back to Searching in the process — while asking how much anyone can ever truly know their nearest and dearest. That's another relatable source of the thriller's distress. It's where Reid proves devastatingly effective, compellingly shifting from a teen annoyed at her mum's overprotectiveness to the point of virtually ignoring her, to a concerned daughter willing to do whatever it takes, to questioning everything that she's ever been told. Long also plays her panicky matriarch part with potency, but the riveting Missing is right on target at grounding its nerves and thrills alike in all that can be uncovered, endured and experienced with your fingers on a keyboard and your eyes staring at your chosen rectangle.
Easter in Sydney doesn't just mean chocolate, hot cross buns and whatever other sweet treats the city's eateries happen to come up with at this time of year — it also means the Sydney Royal Easter Show. And, while you won't find the latter at El Camino Cantina's Tex-Mex joint in Melbourne, of course, the chain is getting into the spirit of the event nationwide with its returning limited-edition margarita menu, which it has dubbed 'the Royal Rita Show'. For its latest batch of creative flavours, El Camino Cantina is serving up Jelly Belly, Warhead, Chupa Chup and Rainbow Nerd margs. There are Trolli Lolli and fairy floss versions, too. Basically, it's the candy and booze combination you obviously didn't know you'd someday want when you were a kid. These lolly-flavoured ritas are on offer from Monday, April 3–Sunday, April 30, in both 15-oz and 24-oz glasses. And if you'd like to pair them with tacos, you'll find a Royal Rita Show food menu on offer as well; think tacos with popcorn chicken, chorizo and potato hash, slow-cooked barbecue brisket, and prawns with bacon. In Melbourne, you'll find both the margs and tacos tempting your tastebuds at El Camino in Fitzroy.
When that sweet tooth of yours starts hankering for treats this weekend, we know just where to take it. Sate those sugar cravings by heading down to Tarts Anon's Collingwood digs for an irresistibly sweet food pop-up. From Saturday, April 1–Sunday, April 2, the legendary dessert pit-stop is teaming up with your mates at ice cream brand Connoisseur to serve up some limited edition goodies — and to give away a stack of freebies. Head along from 11am each day to try two new creations made using the new line of Connoisseur Laneway Sweets ice cream tubs. The two new flavours, Crunchy Peanut Butter and Baked Choc Chip Cookie, are being scooped into bespoke Tarts Anon bases then sprinkled with a house-made dessert crumb to finish. You'll get to try the collaboration treats for free, though there's only a limited number up for grabs each day. There'll also be a range of chocolate-coated ice cream sticks to sample and live tunes keeping the festive vibes flowing all day long.
It's usually where you head to for a culture fix, but this autumn the Immigration Museum is doubling as a wellness destination, too. It's launching a new series of Wednesday offerings aimed at rejuvenating your body and mind. Running from Wednesday, April 5–May 31, Wellbeing Within is set to serve up a weekly program of wellness activities, spanning everything from mindfulness to movement. You might fancy a hump day reset in the form of a guided morning meditation led by experts in areas like First Peoples wellness practices and forest therapy. You can train in tai chi under the renowned Professor Lily Sun, who's got more than four decades of teaching experience under her belt, or experience the anxiety-releasing wonders of a meditative sound bath, guided by an expert lineup of practitioners. There's also a series of 45-minute lunchtime yoga sessions, plus movement workshops hosted by Wala Connections, drawing on Indigenous culture and traditions. The best part? All classes and sessions come in at either $10 or $15, with museum members able to book for free. Online bookings are required. Images: Eugene Hyland
Westsiders really hit the jackpot with the arrival of Grazeland, a culinary hub crammed full of permanent food stalls slinging a smorgasbord of international eats. And now they're hitting it again, as the precinct serves up a huge weekend of specials, discounts and entertainment for its second-birthday celebrations. Head along from Friday, March 24–Sunday, March 26 to join in the feasting and festivities. Each of the 50-plus food vendors will be cooking up a storm and showcasing their best-loved dishes — whether you're craving wood-fired slices from 48h Pizza Bar, Claw & Tail's loaded lobster rolls, barbecue fare by Smokeworks, Lebanese street eats courtesy of Mr Toum, or something else from the hefty lineup. Keep an eye out for some exclusive specials, too. Taking care of the all important birthday drinks will be Cloud Cuckoo Cocktails, with $12 classics pouring right across the weekend, including mojitos, margs and espresso martinis. As you sip and graze your way through the lineup, you'll also enjoy a stack of roving entertainment, while acts like Cassidy La Crème, Tanya George and James Franklin will be serving up live tunes from not one but two stages. [caption id="attachment_845962" align="alignnone" width="1920"] I in the Sky Productions[/caption]
