It is a truth universally acknowledged that the alternative music scene that came before is unquestionably better than the scene right now. It's something we've all grown up crowing (no matter if we said the same thing a decade ago). So we know that the tendency towards nostalgia and a willingness to make heroes out of drunken twenty-year-olds who only released two records is damn near irresistible. For the semi-autobiographical film Lucky Them, this kind of nostalgia is both the target and the appeal. Loosely based on the experiences of screenwriter Emily Wachtel in the New York music scene, the film is set in Seattle, the birthplace of grunge, and spends equal time exposing nostalgia and falling right into its trap. Lucky Them tells the story of an aimless music journalist, Ellie Klug (Toni Collette), as she searches for an acclaimed Seattle musician, who supposedly died years earlier. Ellie is initially reluctant to uncover the whereabouts of her former lover and music idol, and she struggles to find closure, while her ex-boyfriend Charlie (Thomas Haden Church) films an amateur documentary about her efforts. While the film supposedly runs close to Wachtel's own personal experiences, in taking on the mythology behind Seattle's music history (where director Megan Griffiths lived for many years), the film manages to feel like a broader story of music nostalgia. The character of the lost musician, Matthew Smith, makes references to the early deaths of Pacific Northwest music idols Kurt Cobain and Elliott Smith, and the whole film is layered with Seattle alt-rock nostalgia. The soundtrack that plays over the sweeping shots of the wet, dreary landscape hints at riffs from Nirvana's 'All Apologies', and memorabilia lent to the film by the iconic local record label Sub Pop line the walls of almost every scene, from original Mudhoney posters to gold records from the Shins and Postal Service. These pleasant hometown references make Seattle feel like an extra character in the film. Alongside this, Church gives an excellent comic performance as the eloquent but music-illiterate Charlie and the fantastic Oliver Platt appears as Ellie's editor Giles, the surprisingly patient, ageing pot-smoker forced to deal with shareholder demands that he boost circulation in a fading print music journalism industry. All this makes it easier to stick with Ellie, whose relentlessly immature decisions, alongside the uncomfortably petulant tone Collette uses, make it difficult to connect with her. Although there's a surprise cameo that manages to be charming rather than distracting from the story, it's a shame that Lucky Them finishes in almost rom-com cliche terrain. It's enough to make you wish you were watching Charlie's fictional documentary instead, like the real nostalgia junkie that you are.
When we take that first sip of our barista-brewed coffee on a workday morning, we often say to ourselves, and our friends, "I can't imagine living without coffee." Well, what about living without a roof over your head or a guaranteed meal? Unfortunately, this is what many homeless people around Australia face each day, but on Friday, August 8, you can help out simply by purchasing a coffee as part of CafeSmart. CafeSmart is an annual event from StreetSmart that raises money and awareness for the homeless and is back for its fourth year running, aiming to build on the $83,950 raised last year. From every coffee purchased at a participating cafe, $1 will be donated towards local projects, so if your cafe is not participating, head to one that is, just for one day. You can also donate at the counter, so if you prefer a hot chocolate, then you can still help out. It's one day when the little things can definitely make a big difference.
The most memorable show we saw at this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival returns to the stage as part of Melbourne Fringe. In a hilarious and occasionally confronting mix of stand-up and performance art, local comedian Laura Davis sits blindfolded, in her bathers, on top of a ladder, where she ruminates on everything from maple syrup to sexual assault. Marco. Polo. feels extraordinarily, even uncomfortably personal, to the point that it's not always clear whether you're even meant to be laughing. But by the time it's all said and done, you'll know you've just experienced something special.
Supple Fox, the folks behind Dark Mofo's Ferris Wheel of Death, are hitting Melbourne for three weeks. And, thanks to riverside bar and eatery Arbory, they're bringing with them a living art installation. Titled The Ends, it'll be taking over the narrow slip of land between the Yarra and Flinders Street Station between October 5 and 23. Prepare for a steady stream of art, live performance and unexpected happenings on and around the river. Leading the project is the world premiere of artist Shaun Gladwell's latest work. Its star is Maddest Maximus, a new Aussie anti-hero who dresses in black, wears a helmet and floats high above the Tasman Sea. Gladwell's mixed media photographic pieces will be arranged around the site, in conversation with the landscape. Meanwhile, fellow Dark Mofo alumni The Huxleys have been commissioned to create a series of sculptures, which you'll find suspended in palm trees, growing out of roof tops and, every now and again, casually floating by on rowboats. And Melbourne-based performance artist Gabi Barton has choreographed a slew of unpredictable movements and happenings for the space. So, between riverside cocktails, keep an eye and ear out. "We very consciously looked to create something that felt human, breathing, absurd and curious," said Hannah Fox, who co-founded Supple Fox with Tom Supple. "And to directly reject the clean lines and endless triangles of the Melbourne design world." The Ends will happen at Abory Bar and Eatery every evening from 6.30pm till late between October 5 and 23.
If you've been hangin' out down the street again, getting a huge blast from the past from That '90s Show in two ways — as a sequel series to That '70s Show and as a jump back to its titular decade — then you've been enjoying one of 2023's most easy-to-binge new shows so far. And, you can now make a future date to do the same old thing you did over the past few weeks. This follow-up is keeping on keeping on itself, with Netflix renewing That '90s Show for season two. "Going to Point Place last season was a real treat for all of us. We're thrilled to return," said co-creator and executive producer Lindsey Turner to Netflix's Tudum website. "We here in Point Place are thrilled that we're doing a second season," added co-creators and executive producers Bonnie and Terry Turner, who were also behind That '70s Show (and, fitting the multigenerational theme of the ongoing franchise, are Lindsey Turner's parents). "We'd like to thank all of the fans old and new for tuning in. We're truly grateful," they continued. That '90s Show's first season hit Netflix in mid-January, arriving 17 years after its predecessor wrapped up after running from 1998–2006 — and bringing a new take on That '70s Show's Cheap Trick-sung opening theme tune along with it. This time, teenager Leia Forman (Callie Haverda, The Lost Husband) and her friends are the focus, after she decides to spend the summer of 1995 saying "hello Wisconsin!" at her grandparents Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp, WandaVision) and Red's (Kurtwood Smith, The Dropout) house. Accustomed to feeling like she doesn't fit in back in Chicago, Leia — the daughter of Eric Forman (Topher Grace, Home Economics) and Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon, Orange Is the New Black) — finds a much-needed connection during her Point Place stay. That's where the elder Formans' neighbours Gwen (Ashley Aufderheide, Four Kids and It) and Nate (Maxwell Acee Donovan, Gabby Duran & The Unsittables) come in, as well as Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher, Vengeance) and Jackie Burkhart's (Mila Kunis, Luckiest Girl Alive) son Jay (Mace Coronel, Colin in Black & White), plus the witty Ozzie (Reyn Doi, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) and Nate's super-smart girlfriend Nikki (Sam Morelos, Forgetting Nobody). While Rupp and Smith are main cast members again in That '90s Show, the bulk of the OG crew — including Wilmer Valderrama (NCIS) and Tommy Chong (Color Out of Space) — only make brief appearances. That '90s Show's overall formula is the same, but it's firmly devoted the new group of high schoolers making the most of the Forman family basement. Netflix hasn't announced when That '90s Show will return for season two but, when it does, the series will be set during the next summer. "We can't wait to return to Point Place for another summer of laughs and surprises. Hello, 1996!," said co-creator, executive producer and showrunner Gregg Mettler. Check out the trailer for That '90s Show below: That '90s Show streams via Netflix. Read our full review of season one. Images: Patrick Wymore/Netflix © 2022.
It's time for another summer of dancing, drinking and good times at Piknic Électronik. The electronic music party series returns for its sixth iteration, bringing openair revelry to Sidney Myer Music Bowl from 10am–10pm one Sunday a month — this is a change from the weekly parties of previous years, to a jam-packed monthly event. Detroit's record label owner, DJ and musician Moodymann will bring soulful sounds to the December event, getting punters moving with his signature blend of techno and house, alongside co-headliner and old-school dance music master Mr G. Also on the lineup is Nastia — one of the biggest names in modern techno, all the way from Ukraine — supported by Melbourne's own Laura King. Piknic has again teamed up with Thick as Thieves to co-present February's festivities, curating sets from Cologne super house duo Andhim, Melbourne's Boogs, Brian Fantana and BINI. The lineup for the final Sunday of the season, March 29, is still being kept under wraps, but you can expect something epic to finish up the summer. In between sets, you can get a drink at the bar, fill up on treats from local food trucks and take a moment to relax in a dedicated chill-out zone. Images: Wade Malligan.
This spring, Yo-Chi stores across Australia are transforming into a Fun House, filled with games, surprises, activities, and prizes to be won. Taking place from Friday, September 19, through to Sunday, October 12, the Fun House is targeted towards kids and teens on school holidays. At the centre of the festivities is the launch of Yo-Chi's new Bestie Testie card game. Packed with questions from your last Google search to your most regrettable social post, it's designed to spark conversation between Yo-Chi enjoyers. You can play in-store or take a pack home for $12. Each venue will also have its own Chi-E-O, who is responsible for running a rotating lineup of activities, including colouring in and Chi Pong. Then, at random points during the day, a secret song will play across every venue nationally, signalling the ultimate froyo treat: Yo-Chi on the house for whoever's inside at that moment. Yo-Chi is also rolling out a limited-edition strawberry and mango swirl, alongside new toppings like rainbow mochi, sour clouds, wafer discs and choc cone bits. So make sure to try the new flavour and toppings while you explore all that the Yo-Chi Fun House has to offer. The Yo-Chi Fun House runs nationwide from September 19 to October 12. Find out more via the Yo-Chi website.
When 2025 hits, 20 years will have passed since Oasis last toured Australia, but that's where the lengthy gap between the band's Down Under shows is ending. There's comeback tours and then there's Britain's most-famous feuding siblings reuniting to bring one of the country's iconic groups back together for a massive world tour — and when Liam and Noel Gallagher start taking to the stage together again, they'll do so at gigs in Sydney and Melbourne. Oasis' reunion tour has been huge news for months, ever since Liam and Noel announced in August that they would reform Oasis — and bury the hatchet — for a run of shows in the UK and Ireland. Since then, they've been expanding their tour dates, also locking in visits to Canada and the US. From London, Manchester and Dublin to Toronto, Los Angeles and Mexico City, the entire tour so far is sold out. [caption id="attachment_975205" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Oasis Knebworth 1996, Photo by Roberta Parkin/Redferns[/caption] That's the story, morning glory — and expect Australian tickets to get snapped up swiftly for Oasis' two announced concerts, one apiece in Sydney and Melbourne. The Manchester-born band is kicking off their Aussie visit on Halloween 2025 at Marvel Stadium in the Victorian capital, then heading to Accor Stadium in the Harbour City a week later. "People of the land down under. 'You better run — you better take cover ...'. We are coming. You are most welcome," said the group in a statement. [caption id="attachment_975206" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Oasis Knebworth 1996, Jill Furmanovsky[/caption] Oasis broke up in 2009, four years after their last Australian tour, and following seven albums from 1994's Definitely Maybe through to 2008's Dig Your Soul — and after drawing massive crowds to their live gigs along the way (see: documentary Oasis Knebworth 1996). If you're feeling supersonic about the group's reunion, you can likely expect to hear that track, plus everything from 'Live Forever', 'Cigarettes & Alcohol', 'Morning Glory' and 'Some Might Say' through to 'Wonderwall', 'Don't Look Back in Anger' and 'Champagne Supernova' when they hit Australia. Oasis Live '25 Australian Dates Friday, October 31 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne Friday, November 7 — Accor Stadium, Sydney Oasis are touring Australia in October and November 2025. Presale ticket registration runs until 8am AEDT on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, with Melbourne tickets on sale from 10am AEDT and Sydney tickets from 12pm AEDT on Tuesday, October 15. Head to the tour website for more details. Top image: Simon Emmett.
This month, Carlton nightclub Colour is switching things up and embracing the al fresco vibes, joining up with some fellow inner north mates to host another massive outdoor celebration of music and good times. Colour Openair Vol. 2 is set to take over Collingwood Yards on Saturday, February 26, held in collaboration with Hope St Radio and Runner Up Rooftop Bar. Across three stages, you'll catch a bumper lineup of local acts set on sending out summer with a bang. The likes of Ruby Savage, Mothafunk and jazz-funk outfit Surprise Chef will grace the main stage, while artists like Moopie and Rona hit the decks at Hope St Radio. And favourites including Milo Eastwood, Zepherin Saint and Midnight Tenderness take over the rooftop stage of Runner Up. Catch some rays, cut some shapes and farewell summer's final weekend in style.
Footscray's small bar scene might be booming, but its patrons have been faced with a little bit of a food conundrum. With most of these drinking dens operating sans kitchen, dinner options are largely limited to whatever nearby eateries are on the bars' delivery radars. Enter, Slice Shop Pizza, the latest offering from Burn City Smokers' Steve Kimonides and Raphael Guthrie. Slinging New York-style pizza by the slice, as well as 18-inch pies, it's the culinary accompaniment Footscray's drinking crowd has been waiting for. You'll find it perched on Nicholson Street, sporting just a few metres of standing room and four stools for those speedy dine-in sessions. Grab a slice to go, or order in from one of the nearby watering holes, including craft beer bar Mr West, which sits just across the street. The owners, both locals, have transformed a former discount supermarket into a laid-back lunch and dinner pit-stop, with a new home-spun fit-out thanks to the pair's own handiwork. Neon Slice Shop signage — in the AFL Western Bulldogs' signature red, white and blue — beckons from the window. The menu rotation runs to around seven core creations, with a daily special thrown in for good measure, and all slices kept to an easy $5. There might be a pork and fennel number — starring Italian sausage, mozzarella and roast peppers — a classic capricciosa or margherita, and maybe a mushroom, thyme and truffle concoction. Vegans will always find a plant-based pizza on offer, too. Glimpses of the duo's other life as barbecue masters shine through the menu every now and then, too, with the likes of Burn City's brisket or some slow-smoked pig's head making the odd cameo appearance. Regardless of toppings, expect chewy, foldable New York slices, crafted on tipo 00 flour and fired in an impressive Italian Moretti Forni oven. This beauty fits ten whole 18-inch pies at once and cooks them in about five minutes flat. Images: Parker Blain.
Since Wednesday, July 22, residents of metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire — which is currently in lockdown — have been required to wear face masks or face coverings whenever they leave their homes. From 11.59pm, on Sunday, August 2, the same rule will apply for all of regional Victoria. The announcement comes as Victoria today, Thursday, July 30, records 723 new COVID-19 cases — the state's highest-ever daily total. While most of the new cases are concentrated in the metropolitan and Mitchell Shire regions, regional Victoria currently has 255 active cases. To help keep these numbers relatively low, Premier Daniel Andrews is making face masks mandatory for all. "We have low numbers in regional Victoria, and we want to jealously guard that," said the Premier. "These are preventative steps, they're an abundance-of-caution approach, if you like. It will be inconvenient for some, but at the end of the day, keeping those numbers very, very low is about protecting public health, protecting vulnerable people, protecting every family, but also protecting the economic benefits that also come from having regional Victorian case numbers very low." Under the new rules, residents in regional Victoria will be required to wear a mask whenever they leave home. There are a small number of exemptions when face masks are not required — such as for children under 12, when doing strenuous exercise and when hosting a live broadcast — which we've broken down in detail over here. If you don't have a mask or covering on, you could be slapped with a $200 fine. https://twitter.com/DanielAndrewsMP/status/1288649745309696000 As well as masks, a second restriction is being introduced for six local government areas surrounding the 'Geelong corridor'. From 11.59pm tonight (Thursday, July 30), residents of Colac-Otway, Greater Geelong, Surf Coast, Moorabool, Golden Plains and the Borough of Queenscliffe will no longer be allowed any visitors in their homes, which is down from five. For the metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, the areas under lockdown, the Premier has reiterated that you must stay home if you have symptoms and you must stay home after you've been tested. "Too many people are still going to work when they have symptoms. Too many people are going to work, even some when they have a positive test result," the Premier said. "People that are between having the test taken and getting the results, they are still presenting to work. And for so long as that continues, then we will continue to see numbers go up." The Victorian Government is currently offering both $300 and $1500 hardship payments for workers isolating after a test who won't have any income while they do, and aren't entitled to paid sick leave, special pandemic leave or other income support. For more information about the status of COVID–19 in Victoria, head to the Department of Health and Human Services website.
Not much else compares to the sounds, smells and tastes barbecuing evokes. That sizzle, the smokey aroma wafting from the barbie, that burst of juicy, meaty flavour from the initial bite — good barbecue is something pretty glorious. And luckily, we have plenty of barbecue joints at our disposal. There's Japanese yakitori, Brazilian churrasco, Korean barbecue and, of course, down-home American B-B-Q hailing from the US's southern states. Down past the Mason-Dixon Line (the obsolete boundary that 'divides' the USA's northern states from the south), barbecue is king, and we've tracked down some grade-A American barbecue joints in Melbourne where you can head for some brisket, ribs, wings and more. Get your appetites ready — you're gonna need 'em.
Focusing on products that are recyclable and sustainably created, Post Industrial Design is the place to be when it comes to picking up an eclectic range of products from local designers and artists. Across furniture, jewellery and artwork, the venture has been responsible for brightening up more than a few nearby homes. If you head in-store, something else that'll brighten your day is the attached cafe, Pod. Serving up great coffee, plus breakfast, lunch and sweets, Pod provides a pick-me-up in a relaxed space, for after you've acquired your latest feature piece next door. Images: Parker Blain.
Saint Dreux, a Japanese-inspired coffee and katsu sando bar in Melbourne's CBD, exudes Japanese minimalism. With a concise menu of five sandwiches, castella cakes, pastries and Tokyo's Onibus coffee served in a modern monochromatic fit-out, it's the kind of place that could even spark joy for Marie Kondo. The sandos are cut with laser precision, as are the varying castella (Japanese sponge cakes), packaging is simple and even the ceramics are polished to perfection. Inspired by the vending machines and convenience stores of Japan, the Saint Dreux team, who is also behind Slater Street Bench and 580 Bench, wanted to make the humble katsu sandwich a hero here in Melbourne. "You could get them from vending machines, trains and restaurants. They're absolutely everywhere [and] we became obsessed…" said co-owner Joshua Crasti, who owns Saint Dreux and Bench along with Nick Chen, Frankie Tan and Claye Tobin. While, traditionally, katsu sandos are made with soft (crustless) white bread, cabbage, sweet tonkatsu sauce, kewpie mayo and panko-crumbed pork, the Saint Dreux team has widened the range to include wagyu beef, ebi (prawn), tori (chicken), tamago (egg) and the classic tonkatsu with Kurobuta Berkshire pork. Think white bread sandwiches must equal cheap? Think again. While most of the sandos sit around the $15 mark, the wagyu version will set you back a whole $28 — which might just make it Melbourne's most expensive sandwich. Despite this — or because of it — the sandwiches are selling out pretty early most days, so we suggest swinging by early if you want to snag House-made castella cakes are also available in original, black sesame, matcha and hōjicha (Japanese green tea) flavours, as well as croissants and an assortment of pastries by local Bakemono Bakers. Saint Dreux is the latest vendor to join St Collins Lane's contemporary food hub and sits neatly amongst a range of pan-Asian fare including Sushi Boto (where sushi is delivered to you via boat instead of train), Poke Workshop and Think Asia as well as a couple of espresso bars. Images: Bekon Media. Appears in: Where to Find the Best Sandwiches in Melbourne for 2023
Can we just take a moment to say we are loving the new wave of venues that only do one thing and do it super well? It's a delightful trend because, as it turns out, in this crazy modern world we all want less choices — not more. And if your first choice is a fat, juicy steak sandwich, Empire Steak should be your new go-to. After a short teasing period, the sandwich venue opened on Little Collins Street last week — and it's definitely been worth the wait. As you would expect from a joint that basically just does meat in bread, their menu is simple and features several variations on the steak sarnie. There are vego options too though — just as an FYI for the herbivores out there who want to hang out in a steak restaurant. Our pick is the Lazy Susan, a char siu-glazed steak between perfect steak-sized bread (white or mulitgrain) with slaw, sesame dressing, coriander and pickled cucumber that looks indecently juicy. We're also intrigued by the Fritz, a sandwich that features steak, shoestring fries, butter lettuce and house sauce. And just to clarify, yes, that's fries in the sandwich. What a world we live in. They've decked their CBD shop out in cheerful, retro signage emblazoned with a slogan we can really get on board with: "embrace the drip factor". Thanks for the tip. Empire Steak is open from 10.30am till 9pm Monday to Saturday at 61 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. FOr more info, visit empiresteak.com.au.
Laneway Festival has officially returned for another glorious year, hitting Brisbane and Sydney this weekend and Melbourne the next. Sure, there are some pretty big-name folks on the lineup — Grimes, CHVRCHES, Flume — but true to Laneway form, there's a whole host of artists you might not have wrapped your ears around yet. Laneway's triple j Unearthed lineup sees five new emerging artists hit the big stage. Each band/artist will be appearing in their hometown Laneway Festival in 2016. They're joining a damn good alumni bunch too — Client Liaison, Bad//Dreems, Ali Barter and more count themselves as Unearthed Laneway artists. Since they're playing in their hometown as shiny new discoveries, we thought we'd get each of them to give us a little hometown secret — their favourite hidden gem. Introduce yourself to Australia's new batch of music — you'll find them in these five local go-tos. ESESE (MELBOURNE): RAS DASHEN "Our favourite spot is my parent's Ethiopian restaurant Ras Dashen; not only because it's my rents and the band gets free food, but because you will never eat anything so hangover curing in this city. Since, 50 percent of us are DJing most weekends/weekdays and you know, getting lit goes hand in hand. So, whats better than some injera and Ethiopian coffee to get you back to life." 121 Nicholson Street, Footscray ADKOB (SYDNEY): TOWN BIKE PITSTOP "My local coffee house. I'm not that into the bikes but the food and vibe are both top notch. Try the Julio or the BLT — Swish. I'm a huge of that end of Abercrombie Street, it is still pretty residential but among the terraces are other cool things like the Eveleigh Hotel, the Commercial Gallery, this new organic tea bar and up the road the Redfern Night Markets." 156 Abercrombie Street, Redfern GOOD BOY (BRISBANE): BARBARA "Im not sure how 'hidden' Barbara is but this beautiful bar sits between the loans department and the sales department of the Fortitude Valley Cash Converters. The staff are top notch, the entire establishment is simple, wooden and handsome, and the house beer 'Babs' is incredible. Best nights are Wednesday when you can get a burger from our favourite chicken joint, Lucky Egg, and a Babs beer for 15 dollarydoos and listen to some classic hip hop." 105/38 Warner Street, Fortitude Valley FAIT (PERTH): THE OLD LAUNDRY "The Old Laundry is a favourite local haunt of mine. Gorgeous interiors, good food and friendly service. A great place to sit and watch the world go by." 22 Angove Street, North Perth THE HARD ACHES (ADELAIDE): TWO-BIT VILLAINS There are way too many favourite spots of ours in Adelaide, but let's settle with Two-Bit Villains. It's a kick arse American style diner with amazing food and handmade sodas, all of which are either veg or vegan. Run by great people in a sick location, Plus they do a mean poutine if you ask nicely." - BD. Shop 150 Balcony Level, Adelaide Arcade More about Laneway Festival over here.
It seems Melbourne's love affair with pretty pastries and supremely attractive café spaces still has plenty left in it. Opening last week, South Melbourne café and patisserie, The Crux & Co, is a shiny new neighbour for the ever-stylish Kettle Black, gracing the lower level of The Emerald apartment building across the road. It's the brainchild of Kevin Li (Lights in the Attic, 3Lives), who's teamed up with ex-Brunetti pastry maestro, Louise MK Lee, and kitchen gun Oggie Choi (also of Lights in the Attic) to create Melbourne's newest destination of culinary decadence. The chic space comes courtesy of EAT architects, its '60s-style curves, pastel hues and riot of textures reflected in the array of downright gorgeous cakes, pastries and macarons on display. No sweet tooth? No worries. The savoury offering here is equally as impressive and every bit as pretty; the modern Korean-accented menu runs from artful brunches to pure lunch break gold. Choi might be pushing a few breakfast boundaries — think squid ink garlic toast — though, generally, this is a menu for anyone who gets excited about good food. MK Lee's house-made croissants come filled with smoked salmon and ricotta, while a scotch quail egg, an arancini ball and a falafel team up for one of the most multicultural dishes going around. Some clever hands behind the coffee machine — Yutaro Mitsuyoshi (Addict Food and Coffee) and Ratchanon Theppabutra (Manchester Press) — will be working with Five Senses, offering a "wine by the glass" coffee concept (whatever that means) to round out the Crux & Co experience. This one promises to be nothing short of an all-round sensual feast, so get you sweet tooth — and your iPhone, of course — at the ready.
Isn't it lovely to see big companies doing their bit for the social good. In Google's case, it's not just about donating huge sums of money. Rather, they make essential communications technology accessible to those who promote positive change. Google's recent launch of Google for nonprofits brings together an extensive toolkit for non-profit organisations, including AdWords, special YouTube privileges, Apps and more. Currently, the tools are only available to Google Grant recipients who receive thousands in in-kind advertising from Google. The company realised that gifting the use of AdWords and the like wasn't enough: Goolge also needed to teach non-profits how to maximise the potential of such tools. Instructional videos and the Make-A-Change section will show users how to make the most of the tools to communicate their message; while the Marketplace will connect non-profits with service providers offering free or discounted rates. Google offers grants to approved non-profits in the US only, but the marketing manager of Google for nonprofits Kirsten Olsen Cahill hopes to expand to other nations soon. [Via Mashable]
UPDATE, April 24, 2021: Parasite is available to stream via Stan, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. When writer-director Bong Joon-ho lets two families roam around and unleash their best and worst in an opulent South Korean mansion, he couldn't have placed them in a better spot. The kind of house that anyone would dream of living in, Parasite's main setting is a multi-storey playground filled with wide-open spaces, gleaming surfaces and modernist decor, all opening out onto a grassy, leafy backyard. A real estate agent's fantasy as well, this not-so-humble abode is the bricks-and-mortar pinnacle of success and wealth. As created by production designer Lee Ha-jun to meet Bong's specific vision (a real house that matched the filmmaker's needs simply didn't exist), the labyrinthine structure is a puzzle box, too. Within its walls, mysteries linger. Here, anything and everything could happen. Parasite proves exceptional in every single frame and detail that it flicks onto the screen — but the way that this sprawling central home encapsulates the movie's very essence is a towering feat. Already lauded and applauded, not to mention awarded the top prizes at both the Cannes and Sydney film festivals, Parasite isn't short on achievements. Internationally renowned and beloved as the auteur behind The Host, Snowpiercer and Okja, Bong has crafted a bleak, twisty blend of black tragi-comedy, pulsating thrills and socially relevant horror — a movie that's such a phenomenal example of all that cinema can and should be that you'll want to high-five the filmmaker after watching it. Parasite possesses a pitch-perfect cast of both veteran and up-and-coming actors, all playing their parts with devastating precision. It's scripted, with Okja assistant director turned first-time co-writer Han Jin-won, to tease, mesmerise, infuriate, satirise and amuse in equal measures. And its look and pace, courtesy of the finessed work of cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo (Bong's Mother) and editor Yang Jin-mo (Bong's Okja), is as polished and probing as its all-important setting. When viewers first meet Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), his wife Chung-sook (Chang Hyae-jin), and their young but grown-up children Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) and Ki-jung (Park So-dam), they're dwelling in a damp, cockroach-infested basement apartment. They're also all out of work. Piggybacking whichever unlocked wi-fi network they can find keeps them going — and, when the streets outside are being fumigated, the family isn't opposed to keeping the windows open to take advantage of the free pest control (health consequences be damned). Combined, their only regular source of income comes from folding pizza boxes, with zero other prospects on the horizon. Then Ki-woo's former classmate Min (Park Seo-joon) asks if he'll fill in at a lucrative private tutoring gig. While Ki-woo doesn't have the requisite university degree such a position usually needs, it's easy to manufacture thanks to Ki-jung's impressive photoshop skills. Taking plenty of cues from this early bit of subterfuge, Parasite could be dubbed the ultimate 'fake it till you make it' movie. Stepping foot inside the film's main setting, Ki-Woo wows not only his new, quickly love-struck teenage pupil Da-hye (Jung Ziso), but her flighty mother Yeon-kyo (Cho Yeo-jeong) too. He's soon part of the household, which also includes tech entrepreneur patriarch Park (Lee Sun-kyun), pre-adolescent son Da-song (Jung Hyeon-jun) and their housekeeper (Lee Jeong-eun). With Ki-woo eager to bring his own family into this rich, luxurious orbit, an underhanded plan emerges. Without spoiling any specifics from this narrative juncture onwards, Bong was inspired to write Parasite after spotting a smudge on his pants. This intriguing tidbit gives very little away, although corrupting an otherwise pristine environment — and pondering whether a splatter of disarray makes supposed perfection and privilege better or worse — is the film's thematic stomping ground. The movie's lush locale draws viewers in, all so that it can shatter the allure. Slippery performances, with seemingly clear-cut characters becoming anything but, do the same. So too does Bong and his crew's exacting craftsmanship, which keeps audiences both immersed and guessing. Add shifting tones and changing genres to the fold as well, because evolution and elusiveness are among the movie's most crucial tools. Indeed, from sets and actors to framing and mood, every element of Parasite is weaponised. More than that, it's all calibrated and wielded for maximum impact. This isn't just a killer picture on all of the standard levels, however. Contemplating society's growing class collisions and inequities, Parasite also makes a killer statement. It shouldn't escape attention that three of the past year's absolute best and most astute works, all from South Korean or Japanese filmmakers, have taken aim at the increasing gap between the haves and the have nots. Or, looking to America as well, that one of 2019's great horror releases plays in the same terrain while also bringing race into the equation. Parasite shares its grifting, struggling family with Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters, its tonal flips and wiliness with Lee Chang-dong's Burning, and its malevolent tone with Jordan Peele's Us, adding to a blossoming field of urgent, intense and diverse cinema that interrogates the societal status quo with a rightfully scathing eye. That said, there's no mistaking Bong's dark, devious and delightful thriller for any other film — or for anything but a hands-down masterpiece. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_0KJAzyUJc
Spilling out from World Science Festival, Curiocity Brisbane (22 March–2 April, 2023) takes over the wider city of Brisbane. Art meets STEM in a landscape of experiences and installations designed to challenge and enlighten urban explorers. Use augmented reality to bring memory fragments to life, encounter kinetic art through an intense colour spectrum in a changing parabolic curve, interact with playful cybernetics and help teach AI in real time. Take a free curator tour to take a deeper dive into the meaning behind the artworks, which includes the interactive "sound sculptures" T.H.E.M (that's The Handmade Electric Machines, if you're curious — a collection of six sound and lighting mechanisms brought to life by musicians, artists and designers). The free Curious Conversations program offers discussions on topics such as the future of AI, our role in the natural world and First Nations artists' relationship with history, culture and traditional knowledge. [caption id="attachment_804118" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Curiocity 2021, Markus Ravik[/caption] But, Curiocity Brisbane isn't just for the daylight hours. Art installations will be scattered along the streets and South Bank, disrupting the reverie of the river city with thought-provoking displays and unexpected intrusions, both visual and auditory. Curiocity Brisbane pops up around Brisbane from Wednesday, March 22–Sunday, April 2, 2023.
Throughout much of Ms Marvel, the 2022 TV series' namesake (debutant Iman Vellani) and massive Marvel Cinematic Universe superfan was thrilled and surprised at everything happening to her. Loving the MCU, going to MCU fan conventions, obsessing over Captain Marvel (Brie Larson, Just Mercy), then learning that you have superpowers just like your heroes: that's enough to leave you perpetually astonished and overjoyed in tandem, an emotional state that Kamala Khan isn't done with in The Marvels. Ms Marvel was always leading up to this big-screen release, with Vellani returning as Kamala, and teaming up not only with Larson as Carol Danvers, but with WandaVision's Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau as well. The 33rd movie in the MCU, arriving in November following fellow 2023 cinema release Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in May, it's also a sequel to 2019's Captain Marvel — and, as the just-dropped first teaser trailer shows, it's making the most of having three caped crusaders in its frames. Meet the MCU's new superhero team, although this all-female trio have a bit of trickiness to overcome before they can work together. The first look starts with Captain Rambeau at Saber Space Station — well, outside it — while working with the upcoming Secret Invasion's Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey). Then she crosses through the space continuum, becomes Ms Marvel, and a whole lot of trading places keeps occurring. From there, when Ms Marvel uses her powers, too, Captain Marvel switches into her spot. The Marvels' first trailer leans into the chaos that causes — plus Kamala's ongoing exuberance about the whole situation. Importantly, Goose the Flerken also shows up. If you're wondering, Carol has her identity back from the Kree and she's taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence; however, that has consequences, and the universe has become destabilised. So, The Marvels need to team up to do the usual MCU thing: save everyone and everything. As well as Larson, Parris, Vellani and Jackson, The Marvels features Zawe Ashton (The Handmaid's Tale) and Park Seo-joon (Parasite). Behind the lens, Candyman's Nia DaCosta directs, and co-wrote the screenplay with Megan McDonnell (WandaVision), Elissa Karasik (Loki) and Zeb Wells (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law). Check out the first trailer for The Marvels below: The Marvels releases in cinemas Down Under on November 9, 2023. Images: Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.
A sunny afternoon spent hanging out in a historic garden, smashing bubbly and playing petanque — it sounds like something out of some European holiday, but it's a situation you can find under an hour away from Melbourne. Cleveland Winery's lush green grounds are located in Lancefield — and it has views of the vineyard and the Macedon Ranges. On warm days you can eat and drink out of on the deck, or head indoors to the restaurant, which doles out dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, and woodfired pizza on weekend afternoons. Make sure you head down to the winery's famous underground cellar door to smaple some of the winery's shiraz, chardonnay and sparkling pinot noir.
If you're currently working from home, your pet is either loving or hating your never-ending company. Dogs, typically, will be very excited about the possibility of more walks and pats. Cats, on the other hand, are most likely exasperated and wondering why you won't just let them sleep. Either way, if you're spending more time with your pet, you might be thinking it deserves a few new toys. A perch to hide on. A few new balls to chew. A new addition to the fish tank, perhaps. So you can get them more toys and food without having to leave the house, Petbarn has teamed up with Uber to offer same-day delivery across Melbourne. Which is good news for you and your animal. Available seven days a week for orders made before 4pm (and 3pm on Sunday), the delivery will set you back $9.95 and will arrive by 8pm. It's currently available for a heap of Melbourne suburbs, from Frankston in the south to Sunbury in the north, Mooroolbark in the east and Werribee in the west. You can check out the full map here. To help pet parents that are elderly and vulnerable, health care workers or people in mandatory self-isolation due to COVID-19, Petbarn is also giving away 20,000 same-day deliveries. To register, or help someone who needs it register, you can fill in this form over at the Petbarn website. Petbarn same-day delivering is available for $9.95 seven days a week when you order before 4pm (and 3pm on Sunday).
Someone somewhere has dressed up as one of IKEA's coveted blue bags for Halloween, or fashioned an outfit out of them for the eerie occasion. This year, in the lead up to spooky day, you can do that too if you like. Or, you can just wear whatever frightening threads you prefer, or even your normal getup, to the Swedish chain's three-course Halloween dining experience. Yes, two faves are joining forces: IKEA and Halloween. No, you won't just be eating those Swedish meatballs (take children along with you, however, and that is indeed what they'll be tucking into). Happening at the brand's Springvale store in Melbourne, the Halloween feast costs $30 for adults and $25 if you're an IKEA Family member. On the menu: mac 'n' cheese, crispy fried chicken and veggie burgers, as well as pancakes with berry compote and vanilla soft serve for dessert. You'll want to book tickets ASAP — IKEA's food events are always popular — for 6pm on Friday, October 27.
If you've got a penchant for a certain creamy choc-hazelnut spread, then the most fitting place for you to be this coming Tuesday morning, is at Brunetti. The beloved Melbourne institution will be celebrating all things Nutella to mark "World Nutella Day" (it's a thing, we're told), next Tuesday, February 5. From 10–11am, both Brunetti's Carlton and Flinders Lane locations will be doling out stacks of their finest Nutella-infused creations — for free. To take advantage of the offer, you'll need to purchase a coffee and then make the tough decision of which breakfast bite takes your fancy the most — will it be the Nutella bombe (Italian doughnut), the cannoli, or the croissant? The fun continues afterwards, too, with Brunetti's full lineup of choc-hazelnut treats available to buy, including crepes, macarons and an array of biscuits (all filled, topped or stuffed with Nutella, of course). The Nutella croissant, bombe and cannoli will be free with coffee or drink purchase between 10–11am at two Brunetti cafes: 250 Flinders Lane, Melbourne and 380 Lygon Street, Carlton.
Playing host to all-night, pizza-slinging sports bar Holy Moly, legendary party destination Untz Untz and a nifty 24-hour licence, the space at 660A Glenferrie Road is a hotbed of activity at the best of times. So just imagine the buzz it'll see when The Holy Weekender takes over on Saturday, November 18, delivering an all-day, all-night celebration of street art, fashion, food and tunes. A vibrant mingling of the local art and design communities, the free event will feature live art installations from a collection of local artists, a curation of market stalls, dance battles, and eats and drinks from the Holy Moly team. Plus, there will be an after-party where karaoke will be highly encouraged. As well as eating lots of pizza. The market will run from 10 till 5pm and the party from 5pm till late.
It turns out the National Gallery of Victoria's Melbourne Winter Masterpieces has inspired a whole lot more than just gallery hopping and art appreciation. First, there was a chocolate high tea with edible versions of historic Chinese sculptures; now, a one-off brunch set to a live Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) soundtrack inspired by the gallery's current Terracotta Warriors and Cai Guo-Qiang exhibitions. A true feast for the senses, this Brunch with the MSO session takes over Supernormal on Tuesday, July 30, dishing up modern Japanese bites alongside a couple of impressive live performances. Running from 9–11am, it'll see you tucking into plates like an assembly of pickled melon, wagyu bresaola and green chilli; a rice bowl with smoked trout, roe and celtuce (also known as Chinese lettuce) and that Andrew McConnell classic, the New England lobster roll. Meanwhile, MSO cellist Michelle Wood will perform a solo rendition of Pablo Casals' 'Song of the Birds' in response to Cai Guo-Qiang's 10,000 birds installation Murmuration (Landscape) and Australian composer Richard Meale's stunning 'Cantilena Pacifica' is set to be performed by a string quintet. Tickets clock in at $80 a head and include tunes, food and drinks: fresh yuzu soda, single origin filter coffee, Jasmine Dragon Pearls green tea and Champagne. To book your spot, call (03) 9650 8688 or email info@supernormal.net.au. Supernormal image by Nikki To.
UPDATE, November 18, 2022: See How They Run is still screening in Australian cinemas, and is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. As every murder-mystery does, See How They Run asks a specific question: whodunnit? This 1950s-set flick also solves another query, one that's lingered over Hollywood for seven decades now thanks to Agatha Christie. If this movie's moniker has you thinking about mouse-focused nursery rhymes, that's by design — and characters do scurry around chaotically — however, it could also have you pondering the famed author's play The Mousetrap. The latter first hit theatres in London's West End in 1952 and has stayed there ever since, other than an enforced pandemic-era shutdown in COVID-19's early days. The show operates under a set stipulation regarding the big-screen rights, too, meaning that it can't be turned into a film until the original production has stopped treading the boards for at least six months. As that's never happened, how do you get it into cinemas anyway? Make a movie about trying to make The Mousetrap into a movie, aka See How They Run. There's a clever-clever air to See How They Run's reason for existing. The same proves true of its narrative, the on-screen explanation about how The Mousetrap sits at the centre of this film's story, and the way it details those rules around adapting the play for cinema. Voiced by in-movie director Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody, Blonde), that winking attitude resembles the Scream franchise's take on the horror genre, but with murder-mysteries — and it also smarts in its knowing rundown about how whodunnits work, who's who among the main players-slash-suspects and what leads to the central homicide. First-time feature filmmaker Tom George (This Country) and screenwriter Mark Chappell (Flaked) still craft a film that's enjoyable-enough, though, albeit somehow both satirical and by the numbers. Keeping audiences guessing isn't the picture's strong suit. Matching its own comparison to Christie isn't either. But the leads and snappy sense of fun make this a mostly entertaining game of on-screen Cluedo. Was it actor Richard Attenborough (Harris Dickinson, Where the Crawdads Sing), his fellow-thespian wife Sheila Sim (Pearl Chanda, War of the Worlds), big-time movie producer John Woolf (Reece Shearsmith, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) or his spouse Edana Romney (Sian Clifford, The Duke) getting murderous in the costume shop at the backstage party celebrating The Mousetrap's 100th show? (And yes, they're all real-life figures.) Or, was it the play's producer Petula Spencer (Ruth Wilson, His Dark Materials), the proposed feature adaptation's screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo, Chaos Walking) or his Italian lover Gio (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, The Queen's Gambit)? They're among See How They Run's other enquiries, which Scotland Yard's Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell, Richard Jewell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan, The French Dispatch) try to answer. After the death that kicks off the film, the two cops are on the case, working through their odd-couple vibe as they sleuth. Naturally, everyone that was in the theatre on the night in question is a suspect. Just as expectedly, convolutions and complications abound. Plus, possible motives keep stacking up — and there's plenty of in-fighting among the stage and screen in-crowd who might've done the deed. In other words, even with equally parodying and paying homage to all things murder-mystery chief among See How They Run's aims (alongside showing off that it thinks it knows the basics as well as Christie), it isn't blind to following the standard formula. The guiding narration, which notes that it's always the most unlikeable character that gets bumped off, takes a ribbing approach; "seen one, you've seen 'em all" it advises, because Köpernick was charged with helming The Mousetrap's leap into movies, wasn't so impressed with the source material, then advocated for violence and explosions to spice up the whole thing. Yes, viewers are meant to see parallels between what he's saying and what they're watching. Yes, being that self-aware and meta truly is a feature-long commitment. The Mousetrap mightn't actually ring a bell for everyone going into See How They Run, however. That's not overly astonishing — Christie not only put her demands regarding a movie version into a contract, thinking it'd only be onstage for a handful of months, but also decreed that each show finishes with the cast getting the audience to promise that they won't give away the play's secrets. As a result, it hasn't enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile's broader recognition, and this flick mightn't make you want to seek it out. A rousing advertisement for The Mousetrap, See How They Run definitely isn't. There's an odd feeling to Chappell's gags at the play's expense, which are as thudding as they are superfluous. Thankfully, there's nothing surplus about the central double-act that is Rockwell and Ronan, two consistently stellar actors proving just that again here. While their co-stars do exactly what they need to and no more, he plays fraying and shambling with an attention-grabbing sense of physicality — he doesn't dance, sorry, but movement is still pivotal to building Stoppard as a character — and she sports a keen-as-mustard vibe that could've carried over from her Wes Anderson film appearances. The strongest feeling emanating from See How They Run when it's all over and solved: teaming up Rockwell and Ronan again, and ASAP. If there's room on-screen for multiple middling-at-best recent Hercule Poirot pictures, there's room for movies about a cracking pair inspired by the moustachioed Belgian and the English scribe behind him. That lead casting is pivotal to helping See How They Run weather its excess of nudging — and those ill-thought-out The Mousetrap digs — but the film is still never quite the three things it blatantly wants to be. It isn't up there with Christie's page-turner best, and nor is it as sharp as the smart and slick Knives Out, or what'd happen if Wes Anderson was indeed directing Ronan and his fellow frequent star Brody in an immaculately styled whoddunnit. Looking the part isn't a problem; the delightful aesthetic, with its symmetry, rich hues and ornate detail, shines bright. Just as lively and enticing: the gleaming cinematography by Jamie Ramsay (Mothering Sunday) and the jazzy score by Daniel Pemberton (Slow Horses). But if See How They Run was one of its own characters, it'd be the know-it-all who thinks they've fulfilled their role perfectly, yet doesn't quite. Every murder-mystery has one; this film, while largely engaging to play along with, is one.
Whether you're planning a non-alcohol stint for a cause this July or just looking to cut back on booze in general, you'll find a hefty range of boozeless tipples to shop this month at Preston Market. From Wednesday, June 29–Sunday, July 3, The Drink Swap is hitting the precinct to host its next booze-free pop-up, showcasing an array of non-alcoholic drinks sourced from across Australia and the world. From beer and wine, to spirits and mocktails, and even sangria, you'll have the chance to taste, learn about and buy a whole bunch of new favourites. Expect to find sips from both familiar and emerging labels, including Heaps Normal, Sobah, UpFlow, Plus & Minus Wines and Monday Distillery. The Drink Swap was born out of the pandemic after founder Rianna Chapman made the decision to curb her own booze habits. The business also donates a portion of profits to charities that help keep women safe from family violence, including the McAuley Community Services for Women.
Proving you're never too old for a makeover, the 167-year-old building at 127 Brunswick Street has enjoyed a swift shake-up and hit reset, entering a whole new phase of life. Vince Sofo and Paul Adamo's three-storey site has switched out some former tenants for a couple of brand-new residents and been reborn as the multi-faceted Hotel Fitzroy, featuring an Italian accent and a kitchen headed up by the renowned Maurizio Esposito. Ground floor Japanese restaurant Ichi Ni Nana Izakaya remains, though it'll soon share its street-level space with a public bar and outdoor dining area, slated to open by the middle of the year. As for the level above, it has this week reopened as Cappo Sociale — a 150-seat modern Italian diner, complete with a bar, terrace, lounge and private dining room. As executive chef, Esposito (Cecconi's, Il Bacaro, Esposito at Toofeys, Stokehouse) is steering the contemporary Euro food offering, revamping classic Italian flavours with some modern flair and plenty of local ingredients. [caption id="attachment_801379" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Juan Plazas[/caption] Up here, you'll find yourself snacking on top-quality salumi alongside your after-work vino, or settling in to feast on plates of handmade pasta. An antipasti selection runs to the likes of seared scallops with pumpkin purée, eggplant-stuffed zucchini flowers and grilled quail wrapped in pancetta and sage. Heartier plates might include the likes of a wagyu ragu pappardelle, seared cuttlefish linguine finished with a squid ink crumble or veal cotoletta with baby capers. And there's pizza aplenty, ranging from the margherita-style La Regina to the Roman Love, which is topped with pork and fennel sausage and rosemary potatoes. To match, expect a healthy mix of local and Italian vino, a wide range of brews, and cocktails, both classic and creative. Try and squeeze out a few final summer vibes with the Venetian Sunset, blending Ballantine's, Campari, Antica Formula, orange and orgeat. Also opening its doors this week is the newly reimagined rooftop bar, where you can kick back soaking up city views while enjoying eats and drinks from any of the levels below. And stay tuned for a program of live music, entertainment and local DJ sets, kicking things up a notch on various nights throughout each week. Find Hotel Fitzroy (Cappo Sociale, Ichi Ni Nana Izakaya and The Rooftop) at 127 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. The Hotel Fitzroy Public Bar is set to open by the middle of the year. Images: Juan Plazas
A former gold-mining town, the Victorian High Country town of Beechworth now draws in travellers seeking treasures of a different kind: award-winning wines, sausage rolls made from a family heirloom recipe, orchard-fresh apples and pears, and ethically produced honey. It's a place where you should spend time sampling wines at the cellar doors and dining at local restaurants, but also seek out the historic town's surprises — you can downward dog alongside a bleating baby goat, camp surrounded by gum trees near Lake Catani and venture down a walking track once frequented by the infamous Kelly Gang. Towns like Beechworth are recovering from a summer of bushfire devastation, so it's more important than ever to drop into the area's small businesses to fill up on goat's cheese, locally produced prosecco and Beesting pastries. Travelling from the city? It's an hour-long flight to Albury from Sydney, or it's 2.5 hours from Brisbane, and you can hire a car to drive through some of Victoria's scenic countryside and explore the area. Melburnians can grab their car keys for a three-hour one-way trip to fill up the car boot with produce from a food- and wine-filled wonderland. Here's where to stay and where to explore for the best food and drink. From pristine beaches and bountiful wine regions to alpine hideaways and bustling country towns, Australia has a wealth of places to explore at any time of year. We've partnered with Tourism Australia to help you plan your road trips, weekend detours and summer getaways so that when you're ready to hit the road you can Holiday Here This Year. While regional holidays within Victoria will be allowed from May 31, some of the places mentioned below may still be closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Please check websites before making any plans. [caption id="attachment_763033" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pizzini Winery via Visit Victoria[/caption] EAT AND DRINK For vinous lovers, most of the wineries and cellar doors in Beechworth are by appointment only so make sure you jump onto the vineyards' websites to book an appointment in advance. With 150 years of winegrowing history in the region, it's well worth planning a few visits into your itinerary. First up, the young guns Vignerons Schmölzer and Brown and Sentio Wines are crafting some of the most exciting new wines in the region (both winemakers are classically trained and they're putting a new spin on typical European varieties). Then, make your way to award-winning producers Castagna, which specialises in biodynamically grown fruit, and 36-year-old Sorrenberg (which is also certified biodynamic) has its gamay sell out in record speeds every year — definitely try your luck when you visit as it's worth picking up a couple of bottles to impress your friends with when you return home. With the fires almost decimating this year's crop of fruit (smoke taint means a lot of producers won't make a Beechworth 2020 vintage — but don't worry, things will be back on track for 2021), now's the time to restock your cellar to keep these wineries going until next year. Complete your journey along the King Valley's Prosecco Road (home of Australia's first prosecco vines, planted in 1999) by visiting Brown Brothers, Sam Miranda and Pizzini Wines. The Pizzini family vineyards are a mosaic of Italian varieties (like prosecco, nebbiolo and sangiovese) all of which can be enjoyed in its cellar door, and you can even try your hand at making some traditional Italian dishes — think gnocchi, risotto and pizza — to accompany the wine at Mama Pizzini's Cooking School. Also, make time to pick your own prosecco at Dal Zotto. The winery runs Yoga in the Vines and cycling tours, too. [caption id="attachment_709717" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dal Zotto Winery[/caption] For a fine dining occasion, look no further than The Terrace at All Saints Estate. It has been consistently awarded Good Food Guide hats since 2014 and is a great place to splurge during your northeast Victorian adventure — plus, the heritage-listed castle and shiraz vineyards make it a pretty special setting, too. For those who are all wined-out and in need of a classic country pub feed, head to the Empire Hotel, which also has accommodation available above the pub for that authentic countryside hospitality. Hangovers can be salved with a strong coffee at Beechworth Bakery with a side of its famous Beesting pastries. [caption id="attachment_763026" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Beechworth Honey by Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn[/caption] DO Following this summer's fires, Beechworth Honey has created a Bee Rebuild and Recovery Fund to support bees and beekeepers over the next decade as they recover from the bushfire crisis. The generations-old beekeeping company is always worth a visit to stock up on its award-winning honey, honey-based sodas and honeycomb chocolate bars, and to learn about the importance of bees to our agricultural system. It's open daily and, though unstaffed, the Bee School welcomes visitors for drop-in opportunities to learn more buzzy facts. Take a 20-minute drive from Beechworth to Tarrawingee, where you'll find family-run farm store Tolpuddle. It's here you can stock up on delicious chèvre that you can only buy from the estate, and — if you need to work off all the cheese — the farm hosts goat yoga session on the property throughout the year (keep an eye on its Facebook page for dates). If all the yoga made you thirsty, stop by Billson's on the way back into town. It's a one-stop-shop for everything liquid (beer, cider, cordials, spirits and sodas) — and, as you sip you can explore the brewery, historical museum, cafe and speakeasy bar. There's even a barbershop for those needing a quick trim before having a schooner. Come for the lime and coconut soda (made from a secret recipe) and stay to learn about the Billson family and their history in the region. When you're ready to stretch your legs, Beechworth Gorge Walk is a seven-kilometre circuit of the town, which was once a hideout for the infamous Kelly Gang. It's a low grade stroll that provides views over Beechworth and takes around two hours to complete. You'll come across waterfalls and wildflowers, depending on the season, and there are plenty of historical sites such as Rocky Mountain Tunnel, which dates back to the area's mining days. [caption id="attachment_763032" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lake Catani Mount Buffalo by Visit Victoria/David Kirkland[/caption] STAY Accommodation in the Victorian highlands is like a choose-your-own-adventure game. Depending on your budget, you can splurge on boutique accommodation in old castles or camp in luxury in a vineyard. When your top priority is maximising downtime with your road trip companions, book in at Mt Bellevue Lodge in the King Valley. Boasting affordable luxury at only $125 per person, the delightful three-bedroom alpine cottage overlooks the Lodge's high-altitude cool-climate vineyards, where you'll find Mt Bellevue's sauvignon blanc and pinot grigio vines. For those wanting something more off-the-beaten-track, camp at Mount Buffalo National Park. The campground is set alongside Lake Catani and has some of the most picturesque views of the region, which you can enjoy without having to leave your tent. Top image: Visit Victoria.
No matter where you stand on the Uber vs. taxi debate, there are hefty changes ahead for Victorians if proposed taxi industry legislation comes into effect. Of the back of August's law changes, which saw a $1 levy imposed on all Uber and taxi rides, this next swag of reforms was proposed by the Victorian Government in Parliament yesterday, to be put in place from next year, if passed. The proposed laws are aimed at deregulating the taxi industry and levelling the playing field in the competition between taxis and ride share companies. Here's what's on the table. Taxi service providers would be allowed to set their own fares, giving customers the option to shop around for the best price and to ask drivers for a fare estimate before they hop in a car. As Taxi Drivers Association president Michael Jools told The Age, while this law would certainly boost competition, it could also wreak havoc as taxi drivers fight to offer the cheapest fare and potentially cut into their own earnings. On the upside, taxis setting their own fares could mean better prices for loyal clients, as well as benefits like getting fixed fares to the airport. It'll also mean drivers won't be required to use a traditional meter. On the flip side, this could also mean that there would be no cap to fare prices. Under these proposed laws, taxis could have the freedom to implement surge pricing during busy times, just like Uber. This could see fares going through the roof on Friday nights or after big sporting events. According to The Age, the government will devise a plan to monitor surging fares for people with disabilities that rely on taxis and during a crisis. Taxis, hire cars and ride share companies would all operate under the same rules, with safety cameras installed at all ranks. This would mean more choice for you as a customer, which again boils down to more money in your pocket. It'll also go towards addressing some of the safety concerns you might currently have with taxis and ride share services. Failing to give an accurate estimate or fixed cost at the start of the trip would see drivers lumped with tough penalties, including loss of accreditation for repeat offenders. This one's a big win for anyone who's ever been burned with a massive charge at the end of a ride. Riders will know what they're in for before they hop in the car. The finer details of the legislation are yet to be announced, but are expected to go through parliament later this year. Via The Age. Image: Savio Sebastian via Flickr.
Mad Hatters looking for a spot to warm up this winter, you're invited to a bottomless G&Tea Party. Taking over State of Grace's new King Street venue every Saturday from midday, this festivity involves G&Ts served in dainty teapots and teacups. And there's an opportunity to get creative. Firstly, choose one of five gins — classic, marmalade, chamomile, peppercorn and coriander or strawberry and basil. Next up, take your pick of mixers — be it tonic, sparkling grapefruit, ginger beer, bitter lemon or spiced apple. Matching your tipple will be a selection of afternoon treats, both savoury and sweet. Begin with warm bellinis with Yarra Valley caviar, then tuck into old-school cucumber sandwiches with herb cream and dill. There's also french onion soup toasties with thyme and lemon myrtle, among other delights. On the dessert menu, you'll find mini doughnuts filled with gin and orange curd or rosemary and thyme sugar. There'll also be gin and sorbet pops with white chocolate, rosemary and bitters. For $55 a head, you'll be feasting on such delights and drinking bottomless booze — it's sure to be the most raucous tea party you've attended in a while. Doing Dry July? You can opt for some mocktails this month for $40 per person, too. State of Grace's G&Tea Parties are held every Saturday, from 12pm–2pm. Bookings are recommended and can be made here.
"Writing, at its best, is a lonely life," mused Ernest Hemingway. A Nobel Prize winner who hobnobbed with Picasso, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and Ezra Pound, the prodigal author and journalist had obviously never heard of the Emerging Writers' Festival. If Hemingway were around today, perhaps he would step away from his tattered manuscripts long enough to stop being so downright ungrateful and partake in 10 days of exciting workshops, conferences, performances, panels and collaborative events, designed to remind writers that they're all in this together…alone. The bookworm's answer to Woodstock turns 10 this year and to celebrate is hosting a real fiesta from May 23 to June 10, starting with the word party to end them all. From then it's a programme full of unexpected twists, outlandish characters and choose-your-own-adventure chapters — a real page-turner. Festival director Sam Twyford-Moore has enlisted the aid of five festival ambassadors — poet Khairani 'Okka' Barokka, literary critic Melinda Harvey, travel writer Walter Mason, fiction writer Jennifer Mills and screenwriter John Safran — to host a series of panels and Q&A's in which they will bestow their pearls of bookish wisdom on the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed next generation of upstarts. Reasons to step away from the comfortable glow of the laptop screen include the travelling independent pop-up market Page Parlour, Thousand Pound Bend's Festival Hub (go for black coffee, best accessorised with tattered paperback in hand), abook club with intimidatingly qualified members and workshops on everything from how learning to twerk might cure your writer's block to the relevance of poetry beyond Shakespeare's sonnets. See it all with the festival's equivalent to Charlie's golden ticket, see a lot at the weekend-long Writers' Conference or see a little by choosing your own individually ticketed (and free) standalone events. To quote another of the 21st century's great poets, no man is an island, not even a modern-day Hemingway.
One of the best films to hit cinemas in 2023 so far gets a song stuck in viewers' heads like it's been slung there with the stickiest of webs. Just try to watch a Spider-Man movie — any Spider-Man movie, but preferably the stunning Spider-Verse movies — and not get the cartoon theme song lodged in your brain. You can't. It's impossible. Tweak the earworm of a track's lyrics, though, and you have the perfect description of the first six months of this year at the pictures: the greatest features to flicker through projectors truly did whatever movies can. Among 2023's best films so far, one made the connection between a parent and child feel so aching new yet so deeply relatable that you might've convinced yourself that you lived this plot yourself. Another hung out with a Sardinian donkey to muse on the fragility of life, plus the way that all creatures great and small that aren't human are so often disregarded. Some rightly garnered awards for exploring close bonds and impassioned fights; others hopped all over Japan, or Korea, or wherever on the globe that John Wick has a battle to wage. One made the Australian outback look otherworldly — and another toyed with reality on multiple levels, and in a stunning fashion. They're some of the films that've shone brightly at picture palaces this year — some releasing last year elsewhere, but only debuting Down Under in 2023; some so shiny and brand-new that they've only just reached cinemas. More than 15 ace movies have graced the silver screen over the past six months, of course, but if you only have time to watch or rewatch the absolute best 15, we've picked them. Happy midyear viewing. AFTERSUN The simplest things in life can be the most revealing, whether it's a question asked of a father by a child, an exercise routine obeyed almost mindlessly or a man stopping to smoke someone else's old cigarette while wandering through a holiday town alone at night. The astonishing feature debut by Scottish writer/director Charlotte Wells, Aftersun is about the simple things. Following the about-to-turn-31 Calum (Paul Mescal, The Lost Daughter) and his daughter Sophie (debutant Frankie Corio) on vacation in Turkey in the late 90s, it includes all of the above simple things, plus more. It tracks, then, that this coming-of-age story on three levels — of an 11-year-old flirting with adolescence, a dad struggling with his place in the world, and an adult woman with her own wife and family grappling with a life-changing experience from her childhood — is always a movie of deep, devastating and revealing complexity. Earning the internet's Normal People-starring boyfriend a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and deservedly so, Aftersun is a reflective, ruminative portrait of heartbreak. It's a quest to find meaning in sorrow and pain, too, and in processing the past. Wells has crafted a chronicle of interrogating, contextualising, reframing and dwelling in memories; an examination of leaving and belonging; and an unpacking of the complicated truths that a kid can't see about a parent until they're old enough to be that parent. Breaking up Calum and Sophie's sun-dappled coastal holiday with the older Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall, Vox Lux) watching camcorder footage from the trip, sifting through her recollections and dancing it out under a nightclub's strobing lights in her imagination, this is also a stunning realisation that we'll always read everything we can into a loved one's actions with the benefit of hindsight, but all we ever truly have is the sensation that lingers in our hearts and heads. Read our full review. EO David Attenborough's nature documentaries are acclaimed and beloved viewing, including when they're recreating dinosaurs. Family-friendly fare adores cute critters, especially if they're talking as in The Lion King and Paddington movies. The horror genre also loves pushing animals to the front, with The Birds and Jaws among its unsettling masterpieces. Earth's creatures great and small are all around us on-screen, and also off — but in EO, a donkey drama by Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski (11 Minutes), humanity barely cares. The people in this Oscar-nominated mule musing might watch movies about pets and beasts. They may have actively shared parts of their own lives existence the animal kingdom; some, albeit only a rare few, do attempt exactly that with this flick's grey-haired, white-spotted, wide-eyed namesake. But one of the tragedies at the heart of this adventure is also just a plain fact of life on this pale blue dot while homo sapiens reign supreme: that animals are everywhere all the time but hardly anyone notices. EO notices. Making his first film in seven years, and co-writing with his wife and producer Ewa Piaskowska (Essential Killing), Skolimowski demands that his audience pays attention. This is both an episodic slice-of-life portrait of EO the donkey's days and a glimpse of the world from his perspective — sometimes, the glowing and gorgeous cinematography by Michal Dymek (Wolf) takes in the Sardinian creature in all his braying, trotting, carrot-eating glory; sometimes, it takes on 'donkey vision', which is just as mesmerising to look at. Skolimowski gets inspiration from Robert Bresson's 1966 feature Au Hasard Balthazar, too, a movie that also follows the life of a hoofed, long-eared mammal. Like that French great, EO sees hardship much too often for its titular creature; however, even at its most heartbreaking, it also spies an innate, immutable circle of life. Read our full review. CLOSE When Léo (debutant Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (fellow first-timer Gustav De Waele) dash the carefree dash of youth in Close's early moments, rushing from a dark bunker out into the sunshine — from rocks and forest to a bloom-filled field ablaze with colour, too — this immediately evocative Belgian drama runs joyously with them. Girl writer/director Lukas Dhont starts his sophomore feature with a tremendous moment, one that's arresting to look at and to experience. The petals pop; the camera tracks, rushes and flies; the two 13-year-olds are as exuberant and at ease as they're ever likely to be in their lives. They're sprinting because they're happy and playing, and because summer in their village — and on Léo's parents' flower farm — is theirs for the revelling in. They don't and can't realise it because no kid does, but they're also bolting from the bliss that is their visibly contented childhood to the tussles and emotions of being a teenager. Close's title does indeed apply to its two main figures; when it comes to adolescent friendships, they couldn't be tighter. As expressed in revelatory performances by Dambrine and De Waele, each of whom are genuine acting discoveries — Dhont spotted the former on a train from Antwerp to Ghent — these boys have an innocent intimate affinity closer than blood. They're euphoric with and in each other's company, and the feature plays like that's how it has always been between the two. They've also never queried or overthought what their connection means. Before high school commences, Close shows the slumber parties, and the shared hopes and dreams. It sits in on family dinners, demonstrating the ease with which each is a part of the other's broader lives amid both sets of mums and dads; Léo's are Nathalie (Léa Drucker, Custody) and Yves (Marc Weiss, Esprits de famille), Rémi's are Sophie (Émilie Dequenne, An Ordinary Man) and Peter (Kevin Janssens, Two Summers). The film adores their rapport like a summer day adores the breeze, and conveys it meticulously and movingly. Then, when girls in Léo and Rémi's grade ask if the two are a couple, it shows the heartache and heartbreak of a boyhood bond dissolving. Read our full review. ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED With photographer Nan Goldin at its centre, the latest documentary by Citizenfour Oscar-winner Laura Poitras is a film about many things, to deeply stunning and moving effect. In this Oscar-nominated movie's compilation of Goldin's acclaimed snaps, archival footage, current interviews, and past and present activism, a world of stories flicker — all linked to Goldin, but all also linking universally. The artist's bold work, especially chronicling LGBTQIA+ subcultures and the 80s HIV/AIDS crisis, frequently and naturally gets the spotlight. Her complicated family history, which spans heartbreaking loss, haunts the doco as it haunts its subject. The rollercoaster ride that Goldin's life has taken, including in forging her career, supporting her photos, understanding who she is and navigating an array of personal relationships, cascades through, too. And, so do her efforts to counter the opioid epidemic by bringing one of the forces behind it to public justice. Revealing state secrets doesn't sit at the core of the tale here, unlike Citizenfour and Poitras' 2016 film Risk — one about Edward Snowden, the other Julian Assange — but everything leads to the documentary's titular six words: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. They gain meaning in a report spied late about the mental health of Goldin's older sister Barbara, who committed suicide at the age of 18 when Goldin was 11, and who Goldin contends was just an "angry and sexual" young woman in the 60s with repressed parents. A psychiatrist uses the eponymous phrase to describe what Barbara sees and, tellingly, it could be used to do the same with anyone. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is, in part, a rebuke of the idea that a teenager with desires and emotions is a problem, and also a statement that that's who we all are, just to varying levels of societal acceptance. The film is also a testament that, for better and for worse, all the beauty and the bloodshed we all witness and endure is what shapes us. Read our full review. SAINT OMER In 2016, a French documentarian with Senegalese heritage attended the trial of a Senegalese French PhD student who confessed to killing her 15-month-old daughter, who was fathered by a white partner, by leaving her on the beach to the mercy of the waves at Berck-sur-Mer. The filmmaker was fixated. She describes it as an "unspeakable obsession". She was haunted by questions about motherhood, too — her mum's and her own, given that she was a young mother herself as she sat in the courtroom. That story is the story of how Saint Omer came to be, and also almost exactly the tale that the piercing drama tells. In her first narrative film after docos We and La Permanence, writer/director Alice Diop focuses on a French author and literature professor with a Senegalese background who bears witness to a trial with the same details, also of a Senegalese French woman, for the same crime. Saint Omer's protagonist shares other traits with Diop as she observes, too, and watches and listens to research a book. A director riffing on their own experience isn't novel, but Saint Omer is strikingly intimate and authentic because it's the embodiment of empathy in an innately difficult situation. It shows what it means to feel for someone else, including someone who has admitted to a shocking crime, and has been made because Diop went through that far-from-straightforward process and was galvanised to keep grappling with it. What a deeply emotional movie this 2022 Venice International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winning feature is, understandably and unsurprisingly. What a heartbreaking and harrowing work it proves as well. Saint Omer is also an astoundingly multilayered excavation of being in a country but never being seen as truly part it, and what that does to someone's sense of self, all through Fabienne Kabou's complicated reality and Laurence Coly's (Guslagie Malanda, My Friend Victoria) fictionalised scenario. Read our full review. WOMEN TALKING Get Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand and more exceptional women in a room, point a camera their way, let the talk flow: Sarah Polley's Women Talking does just that, and this year's Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar-winner is phenomenal. The actor-turned-filmmaker's fourth effort behind the lens after 2006's Away From Her, 2011's Take This Waltz and 2012's Stories We Tell does plenty more, but its basic setup is as straightforward as its title states. Adapted from Miriam Toews' 2018 novel of the same name, this isn't a simple or easy film, however. That book and this feature draw on events in a Bolivian Mennonite colony from 2005–9, where a spate of mass druggings and rapes of women and girls were reported at the hands of some of the group's men. In a patriarchal faith and society, women talking about their experiences is a rebellious, revolutionary act anyway — and talking about what comes next is just as charged. "The elders told us that it was the work of ghosts, or Satan, or that we were lying to get attention, or that it was an act of wild female imagination." That's teenage narrator Autje's (debutant Kate Hallett) explanation for how such assaults could occur and continue, as offered in Women Talking's sombre opening voiceover. Writing and helming, Polley declares her feature "an act of female imagination" as well, as Toews did on the page, but the truth in the movie's words is both lingering and haunting. While the film anchors its dramas in a specific year, 2010, it's purposefully vague on any details that could ground it in one place. Set within a community where modern technology is banned and horse-drawn buggies are the only form of transport, it's a work of fiction inspired by reality, rather than a recreation. Whether you're aware of the true tale behind the book going in or not, this deeply powerful and affecting picture speaks to how women have long been treated in a male-dominated world at large — and what's so often left unsaid, too. Read our full review. TÁR The least surprising aspect of Tár is also its most essential: Cate Blanchett being as phenomenal as she's ever been, plus more. The Australian Nightmare Alley, Thor: Ragnarok, Carol and The New Boy actor — "our Cate", of course — unsurprisingly scored an Oscar nomination as a result. Accolades have been showered her way since this drama about a cancelled conductor premiered at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival (the prestigious event's Best Actress gong was the first of them), deservedly so. Blanchett is that stunning in Tár, that much of a powerhouse, that adept at breathing life and complexity into a thorny figure, and that magnetic and mesmerising. Even when she hasn't been at her utmost on rare past occasions or something she's in hasn't been up to her standards — see: Don't Look Up for both — she's a force that a feature gravitates around. Tár is astonishing itself, too, but Blanchett at her finest is the movie's rock, core and reason for being. Blanchett is spectacular in Tár, and she also has to be spectacular in Tár — because Lydia Tár, the maestro she's playing, earns that term to start with in the film's on-screen world. At the feature's kickoff, the passionate and ferocious character is feted by a New Yorker Festival session led by staff writer Adam Gopnik as himself, with her achievements rattled off commandingly to an excited crowd; what a list it is. Inhabiting this part requires nothing less than utter perfection, then, aka what Tár demands herself, her latest assistant Francesca (Noémie Merlant, Jumbo), her wife Sharon (Nina Hoss, Shadowplay) and everyone else in her orbit constantly. Strong, seductive, severe, electrifying and downright exceptional, Blanchett nails it. That Lydia can't always do the same, no matter how hard, painstakingly and calculatingly she's worked to ensure that it appears otherwise, is one of the movie's main concerns. Read our full review. SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE All the money in the world can't make people in tights standing against green screens as visually spectacular and emotionally expressive as the Spider-Verse films. If it could, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and now Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse wouldn't be so exhilarating, look so stunning and feel so authentic. Spider-Man's eight stints in theatres with either Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland behind the mask — and all of the latter's pop-ups in other Marvel Cinematic Universe entries, too — have splattered around plenty of charm, but they'll now always swing far below their animated counterparts. Indeed, when Spider-Man: No Way Home tried to emulate the Spider-Verse by pointing its fingers into the multiverse, as Marvel's live-action world is now fixated upon, it paled in comparison. And, that isn't just because there was no Nicolas Cage-voiced 30s-era spider-vigilante Spider-Man Noir, or a spider-robot, spider-pig, spider-car or spider-saur; rather, it's because the Spider-Verse movies are that imaginative and agile. In Across the Spider-Verse, which will be followed by 2024's Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse plus a Spider-Women spinoff after that, being an inventive spider-flick initially entails hanging with Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld, Hawkeye). In most Spidey stories, Gwen Stacy is a love interest for Peter Parker, but the Spider-Verse Gwen from Earth 65 was bitten by a radioactive spider instead. Gwen also narrates backstory details, filling in what's occurred since the first feature while playfully parodying that overused approach. Then, when the movie slides into Miles Morales' (Shameik Moore, Wu-Tang: An American Saga) life, he takes her lead, but gives it his own spin. The first Black Latin American Spider-Man is now 15, and more confident in his spider-skills and -duties. In-between being Brooklyn's friendly neighbourhood Spidey and attending a private school that'll ideally help him chase his physics dreams, he's even guest-hosted Jeopardy!. But not telling his mum Rio (Luna Lauren Velez, Power Book II: Ghost) and police-officer dad Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway) about his extracurricular activities is weighing upon Miles, and he's still yearning for mentorship and friendship, especially knowing that Gwen, Peter B Parker (Jake Johnson, Minx) and an infinite number of other web-slingers are all out there catching thieves just like flies. Read our full review. SUZUME When the Godzilla franchise first started rampaging through Japanese cinemas almost 70 years ago, it was in response to World War II and the horrific display of nuclear might that it unleashed. That saga and its prehistoric reptilian monster have notched up 38 movies now, and long may it continue stomping out of its homeland (the American flicks, which are set to return in 2024, have been hit-and-miss). In such creature-feature company, the films of Makoto Shinkai may not seem like they belong. So far, the writer/director behind global hits Your Name and Weathering with You, plus The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimetres per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices and The Garden of Words before that, sadly hasn't applied his talents to good ol' Zilly, either. But Japan's animators have been musing on and reflecting upon destruction and devastation for decades, too — stunningly and heartbreakingly so, including in Shinkai's latest beautiful and heartfelt effort Suzume. This about a teenage girl, matters of the heart and the earth, supernatural forces and endeavouring to cancel the apocalypse firmly has its soul in the part of Honshu that forever changed in March 2011 due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting Fukushima nuclear disaster. Suzume meets its namesake (Nanoka Hara, Guilty Flag) on Kyushu, Japan's third-largest island, where she has lived with her aunt Tamaki (Eri Fukatsu, Survival Family) for 12 years. More than that, it meets its titular high schooler as she meets Souta (SixTONES singer Hokuto Matsumura), who catches her eye against the gleaming sea and sky as she's cycling to class. He's searching for ruins, and she knows just the local place — an abandoned onsen, which she beats him to. There, Suzume discovers a door standing mysteriously within a pool of water, then opens said entryway to see a shimmering sight on the other side. That's an ordinary act with extraordinary consequences, because Shinkai adores exactly that blend and clash. To him, that's where magic springs, although never while spiriting away life's troubles and sorrows. Every single door everywhere is a portal, of course, but this pivotal one takes the definition literally. Read our full review. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 Almost a quarter-century has passed since Keanu Reeves uttered four iconic words: "I know kung fu". The Matrix's famous phrase was also the entire movie-going world's gain, because watching Reeves unleash martial-arts mayhem is one of cinema's purest pleasures. Notching up their fourth instalment with the obviously titled John Wick: Chapter 4, the John Wick flicks understand this. They couldn't do so better, harder, or in a bloodier fashion, in fact. Directed by Keanu's former stunt double Chad Stahelski, who helped him look like he did indeed know wushu back in the 90s, this assassin saga is built around the thrill of its star doing his violent but stylish best. Of course, The Matrix's Neo didn't just know kung fu, but gun fu — and Jonathan, as The Continental proprietor Winston (Ian McShane, Deadwood: The Movie) still likes to call him, helps turn bullet ballet into one helluva delight again and again (and again and again). Picking up where 2019's John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum left off, and once again so expertly and inventively executed that it's mesmerising, John Wick: Chapter 4 saddles its namesake with a new adversary: the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård, Barbarian), emissary of the death-for-hire business' powers-that-be, aka the High Table. After Wick puts the assassin realm's head honchos on notice during an early trip to the Middle East, the series' newest nefarious figure wants rid of him forever, wasting no time laying waste to the few things left that John loves. The Marquis has company, too — seeking a big payday in the case of the mercenary known as Tracker (Shamier Anderson, Son of the South), who has his own devoted dog; and due to a familiar deal with Caine (Donnie Yen, Mulan), a martial-arts whiz who is blind, and an old friend of John. That said, Wick has pals in this clash between the hitman establishment and its workers, which doubles as an eat-the-rich skirmish, including Winston, the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne, All the Old Knives), and the Osaka Continental's Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada, Bullet Train) and Akira (Rina Sawayama, Turn Up Charlie). Read our full review. INFINITY POOL Making not just another body-horror spectacle but an eat-the-rich sci-fi satire as well, Brandon Cronenberg couldn't have given Infinity Pool a better title. Teardowns of the wealthy and entitled now seem to flow on forever, glistening endlessly against the film and television horizon; however, the characters in this particularly savage addition to the genre might wish they were in The White Lotus or Succession instead. In those two hits, having more money than sense doesn't mean witnessing your own bloody execution but still living to tell the tale. It doesn't see anyone caught up in cloning at its most vicious and macabre, either. And, it doesn't involve dipping into a purgatory that sports the Antiviral and Possessor filmmaker's penchant for futuristic corporeal terrors, as clearly influenced by his father David Cronenberg (see: Crimes of the Future, Videodrome and The Fly), while also creating a surreal hellscape that'd do Twin Peaks great David Lynch, Climax's Gaspar Noe and The Neon Demon's Nicolas Winding Refn proud. Succession veteran Alexander Skarsgård plunges into Infinity Pool's torments playing another member of the one percent, this time solely by marriage. "Where are we?", author James Foster asks his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman, Dopesick) while surveying the gleaming surfaces, palatial villas and scenic beaches on the fictional island nation of Li Tolqa — a question that keeps silently pulsating throughout the movie, and also comes tinged with the reality that James once knew a life far more routine than this cashed-up extravagance. Cronenberg lets his query linger from the get-go, with help from returning Possessor cinematographer Karim Hussain, who visually inverts its stroll through its lavish setting within minutes. No one in this film's frames is in Kansas anymore, especially when fellow guest Gabi (Mia Goth, Pearl) and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert, Beasts) invite the pair for an illicit drive and picnic beyond the gates the following day, which sparks a tragic accident, arrest, death sentence and wild get-out-of-jail-free situation. Read our full review. BROKER No matter how Hirokazu Kore-eda's on-screen families come to be, if there's any actual blood between them, whether they're grifting in some way or where in the world they're located, the Japanese writer/director and Shoplifters Palme d'Or winner's work has become so beloved — so magnificent, too — due to his care and sincerity. A Kore-eda film is a film of immense empathy and, like Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister, After the Storm and The Third Murder also in the prolific talent's past decade, Broker is no different. The setup here is one of the filmmaker's murkiest, with the feature's name referring to the baby trade. But showing compassion and humanity isn't up for debate in Kore-eda's approach. He judges the reality of modern-day life that leads his characters to their actions, but doesn't judge his central figures. In the process, he makes poignant melodramas that are also deep and thoughtful character studies, and that get to the heart of the globe's ills like the most cutting slices of social realism. It isn't just to make a buck that debt-ridden laundromat owner Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho, Parasite) and orphanage-raised Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won, Peninsula) take infants abandoned to the Busan Family Church's 'baby box' — a chute that's exactly what it sounds like, available to mothers who know they can't embrace that part for whatever reason — then find good families to sell them to. There's a cash component, of course, but they're convinced that their gambit is better than letting children languish in the state system. In Kore-eda's usual kindhearted manner, Broker sees them with sensitivity. Even if blue hues didn't wash through the film's frames, nothing is ever black and white in the director's movies. The same understanding and tenderness flows towards mothers like So-young (Lee Ji-eun, Hotel Del Luna, aka K-Pop star IU), whose decision to leave Woo-sung (debutant Park Ji-yong) isn't easily made but puts Broker on its course. Read our full review. BEAU IS AFRAID Beau is afraid. Beau is anxious. Beau is alone. Beau is alive. Any of these three-word sentences would make a fitting name for Ari Aster's third feature, which sees its titular middle-aged figure not just worry about anything and everything, but watch his fears come true, concerns amplify and alienation grow — and then some. And, in the Hereditary and Midsommar filmmaker's reliably dread-inducing hands, no matter whether Beau (Joaquin Phoenix, C'mon C'mon) is wallowing in his apartment solo, being welcomed into someone else's family or stumbling upon a travelling theatre troupe in the woods, he knows that he's truly on his own in this strange, sad, surreal and savage world, too. More than that, he's well-aware that this is what life is inescapably like for all of us, regardless of how routine, chaotic or grand our individual journeys from emerging out of our mother's womb to sinking into death's eternal waters happen to prove. Aster has opted for Beau Is Afraid as a moniker, with this horror-meets-tragicomedy mind-bender a filmic ode to existential alarm — and, more than that, a picture that turns catastrophising into a feature. Psychiatrists will have a field day; however, experiencing the latest in the writer/director's growing line of guilt-dripping celluloid nightmares, so should viewers in general. Even with Chilean The Wolf House helmers Cristóbal León and Joaquin Cosiña lending their help to the three-hour movie's midsection, where animation adds another dreamlike dimension to a picture book-style play within an already fantastical-leaning flick frequently running on dream logic, Aster embraces his favourite deranged terrain again. He makes bold choices, doesn't think twice about challenging himself and his audience, elicits a stunning lead performance and dances with retina-searing imagery, all while pondering inherited trauma, the emotional ties that bind and the malevolence that comes with dependence. Read our full review. LIMBO When Ivan Sen sent a police detective chasing a murdered girl and a missing woman in the Australian outback in 2013's Mystery Road and its 2016 sequel Goldstone, he saw the country's dusty, rust-hued expanse in sun-bleached and eye-scorching colour. In the process, the writer, director, co-producer, cinematographer, editor and composer used his first two Aussie noir films and their immaculately shot sights to call attention to how the nation treats people of colour — historically since its colonial days and still now well over two centuries later. Seven years after the last Jay Swan movie, following a period that's seen that character make the leap to the small screen in three television seasons, Sen is back with a disappearance, a cop, all that inimitable terrain and the crimes against its Indigenous inhabitants that nothing can hide. Amid evident similarities, there's a plethora of differences between the Mystery Road franchise and Limbo; however, one of its simplest is also one of its most glaring and powerful: shooting Australia's ochre-toned landscape in black and white. Limbo's setting: Coober Pedy, the globally famous "opal capital of the world" that's known for its underground dwellings beneath the blazing South Australian earth, but reimagined as the fictional locale that shares the film's name — a place unmistakably sporting an otherworldly topography dotted by dugouts to avoid the baking heat, and that hasn't been able to overcome the murder of a local Indigenous girl two decades earlier. The title is symbolic several times over, including to the visiting Travis Hurley (Simon Baker, Blaze), whose first task upon arrival is checking into his subterranean hotel, rolling up his sleeves and indulging his heroin addiction. Later, he'll be told that he looks more like a drug dealer than a police officer — but, long before then, it's obvious that his line of work and the sorrows he surveys along the way have kept him hovering in a void. While he'll also unburden a few biographical details about mistakes made and regrets held before the film comes to an end, such as while talking to the missing Charlotte Hayes' brother Charlie (Rob Collins, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) and sister Emma (Natasha Wanganeen, The Survival of Kindness), this tattooed cop with wings inked onto his back is already in limbo before he's literally in Limbo talking. Read our full review. REALITY Sydney Sweeney is ready for her closeup. Playwright-turned-filmmaker Tina Satter obliges. A household name of late due to her exceptional work in both Euphoria and The White Lotus, Sweeney has earned the camera's attention for over a decade; however, she's never been peered at with the unflinching intensity of Satter's debut feature Reality. For much of this short, sharp and stunning docudrama, the film's star lingers within the frame. Plenty of the movie's 83-minute running time devotes its focus to her face, staring intimately and scrutinising what it sees. Within Reality's stranger-than-fiction narrative, that imagery spies a US Air Force veteran and National Security Agency translator in her mid-twenties, on what she thought was an ordinary Saturday. It's June 3, 2017, with the picture's protagonist returning from buying groceries to find FBI agents awaiting at her rented Augusta, Georgia home, then accusing her of "the possible mishandling of classified information". Reality spots a woman facing grave charges, a suspect under interrogation and a whistleblower whose fate is already known to the world. It provides a thriller of a procedural with agents, questions, allegations and arrests; an informer saga that cuts to the heart of 21st-century American politics, and its specific chaos since 2016; and an impossible-to-shake tragedy about how authority savagely responds to being held to account. Bringing her stage production Is This a Room: Reality Winner Verbatim Transcription to the screen after it wowed off-Broadway and then Broadway, Satter dedicates Reality's bulk to that one day and those anxious minutes, unfurling in close to real time — but, pivotally, it kicks off three weeks earlier with its namesake at work while Fox News plays around her office. Why would someone leak to the media a restricted NSA report about Russian interference in getting Donald Trump elected? Before it recreates the words genuinely spoken between its eponymous figure and law enforcement, Reality sees the answer as well. Read our full review.
If you could travel back in time via a Delorean, phone booth, hot tub or some other nifty gadget, what would you do? Making the world a better place, rewriting dark chapters in history and solving global problems are great responses, but they’re also the replies people think they should give. Be honest: if you thought no one was watching or judging you, what would you really do? Many films about temporal trickery actually answer this question accurately, understanding that we’re all just pursuing our own happiness. That excellent adventure Bill and Ted took was a by-product of trying not to fail their history class, after all. The slackers wanted to hang out, chase girls and dream of rock 'n' roll stardom — without worrying about Ted being sent to a military academy. Project Almanac might start with science wiz David (Jonny Weston) attempting to impress his way into a college scholarship, but that doesn’t last. After building a time machine from a blueprint found in his basement, David, his friends (Sam Lerner and Allen Evangelista) and younger sister (Virginia Gardner) chase fun, success, popularity, money, revenge and romance. Sure, David would like to reunite with his father, who passed away a decade ago and shares links to his new toy, but he’s more interested in ensuring his schoolyard crush, Jessie (Sofia Black-D'Elia), falls in love with him. So far, so standard, including the butterfly-effect-style realisation that actions in the past have consequences in the present, and that selfish deeds always have repercussions. Also standard is the approach chosen, and not just in affectionate name-checking of — and offering homages to — all the other time travel films you know and love. Sci-fi meets party movie wasn’t enough in the familiar stakes, so Project Almanac throws found footage into the mix as well. Think Chronicle crossed with Project X, without the surprise of the former and with the excess of the latter. It’s a gimmick plastered over a gimmick, seemingly justified because everyone everywhere apparently films everything these days — or so the movies tell us. For the first-time filmmaking team, it’s an excuse to cover up obvious plot points and generic teen tropes with a frenetic, frenzied style. Sometimes it works, the handheld, hurried camerawork matching the energy of the characters, copying their largely carefree point of view, showcasing the likeable cast and allowing the feature to rush through numerous fun situations such as winning the lottery and going to Lollapalooza. There’s a hollowness that lingers in the selfie-esque imagery, though, like putting on a fake smile and pretending that you’re enjoying yourself. Michael Bay’s name has featured heavily in Project Almanac’s marketing, not because of any giant, intergalactic, transforming robots or a semi-clad Megan Fox, but because of his involvement as a producer. Perhaps it is fitting that his brand of always shiny, sometimes entertaining emptiness is being used to draw people in. Like the believable motivations of the teens within the film in jumping into the past to seek pleasure and act in self-interest, that’s certainly honest.
Jurassic World: The Exhibition is a thing, and it's coming to Melbourne. Based on the blockbuster film of the same name, the exhibition will have its world premiere at Melbourne Museum in March next year. And, according to Dr. Patrick Greene, Museum Victoria's CEO, it's sure to "wow audiences and inspire young minds". The exhibit will feature incredibly life-like animatronic dinosaurs created by Melbourne locals, Creature Technology Company — the same team who developed the dinos for the Walking With Dinosaurs arena spectacular. Did you see the announcement? Terrifying. So it's a good thing they're not real — because if you've seen at least one of the Jurassic Park films, you'd know that dinosaurs aren't always friendly. The exhibition instead gives you a chance to get up close and personal with the creatures in a unique and engaging way. "Visitors to [the exhibition] will get an unprecedented opportunity to be in close proximity to the most amazing creatures to have ever roamed the earth," says Sonny Tilders, creative director at the Creature Technology Company. Jack Horner, one of the film's paleontological advisors (or, Official Dinosaur Guy), is working with the exhibition to make sure that it's both educational and fun. Visitors both young and old will be able to learn more about these prehistoric creatures without having to pore over a dry textbook. Gone are the days of boring museum presentations. Now you can learn about dinosaurs from interactive and theatrical exhibits that might scare your pants off at the same time. This unique experience allows you to experience the events of the film, without having to travel to reception-less Isla Nublar with its dubious emergency protocol. Jurassic Park: The Exhibition features encounters will the realistic life-size dinosaurs, so we can only assume that there will be thousands of people taking pictures pretending to be velociraptor-whisperer, Owen Grady, doing some 'Prattkeeping'. Jurassic World: The Exhibition runs from March 19 to October 9, 2016 at the Melbourne Museum. Advance purchase of tickets is strongly recommended. Image: Universal Pictures
A spaceship glides through the solar system while Johann Strauss' 'The Blue Danube' plays. One of 2001: A Space Odyssey's standout moments, it's also one of the absolute best scenes in cinema history. More than five decades later, Stanley Kubrick's crucial sequence still remains both a sight to behold and a treat to listen to — so imagine how great it'll look and sound when it returns to the big screen with a live orchestra performing its music. It's a hefty job; however, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, as conducted by Benjamin Northey and featuring the MSO Chorus, is more than up to the task. Indeed, given how often they seem to be playing film scores live these days (taking on everything from Star Wars to Harry Potter and The Little Mermaid), these musicians are clearly big movie buffs. As earth's early ape population throws bones into the air, futuristic astronauts fly far beyond this planet of ours and HAL refuses to open the pod bay doors, MSO will relive each of 2001's musical highlights. Richard Strauss' 'Also sprach Zarathustra', Gyorgy Ligeti's 'Lux aeterna', 'Aventures' and 'Atmosphères' and Aram Khachaturian's music for the ballet Gayane will echo with orchestral fervour, too — and Kubrick's cinematic masterpiece, as co-written with sci-fi author Arthur C Clarke, will continue to ponder humanity's place in this sprawling universe. A Live Presentation of 2001: A Space Odyssey with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra plays at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre at 7pm on Saturday, January 25, 2020.
COVID-19 clusters keep popping up, lockdowns are still part of Australian life and whether Aussies can head to states other than their own — or to New Zealand — can change quickly. This is the reality of life during the pandemic. That said, if you have a trip to Queensland in your future, the Sunshine State has revealed one definite new part of your next visit. The state's government has advised that it is introducing online travel declarations for all visitors to Queensland. So, from 1am on Saturday, June 19, anyone travelling to the Sunshine State from another Aussie state or territory — or from NZ — will need to fill out the form. And yes, this should sound familiar, because similar online forms were implemented back when Queensland's borders were beginning to reopen post-lockdown in 2020. Queenslanders returning home from other Aussie states and territories, and from NZ, will also need to fill out the declaration. You're required to do so up to 72 hours before heading to Queensland, after which you'll be issued a 'green Queensland travel declaration' — as long as you haven't been to a hotspot or exposure site while you were outside of the state. The declarations will apply to everyone, unless you live in the Queensland or New South Wales border zone and have only been in that zone or in Queensland for the past fortnight — and then, only if you're entering the Sunshine State via road. Workers in emergency health services, emergency services, national defence, state security and police who are responding to an emergency in Queensland will be exempt, too, as will ambulance and aeromedical passengers, anyone heading to Queensland in an emergency situation, some maritime crew, folks assisting with or participating in a State or Commonwealth law enforcement investigations, and disaster management workers under their operational protocol. https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1405311966072037382 Announcing the news today, Thursday, June 17, Queensland Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Yvette D'Ath advised that the declarations were about contact tracing efforts. "It's vital that if an interstate exposure site or hotspot is declared, our health experts can quickly contact anyone who has travelled into Queensland from that area," the Minister said. Also coming into effect: a traffic light-style system like Victoria's, which will designate sections of Australia and New Zealand as green, amber and red areas. If somewhere is green, there are no travel restrictions. In the amber category, the area in question has interstate exposure venues — and if it's red, it's a hotspot. Queensland already requires anyone heading to the state who has been to an interstate exposure venue to either quarantine at your home or in other appropriate accommodation for 14 days if you're already in the state with the exposure venue is identified. Or, if you enter Queensland after an exposure site is named, you'll need to isolate in government arranged accommodation for a fortnight. Queensland's online travel declarations will come back into effect from 1am on Saturday, June 19. For further information, head to the Queensland Government website.
There's nothing quite like a Saturday spent quaffing top-notch wine and gorging on cheese. Throw the spotlight on local produce and you've got something even better. Melbourne's indulgent culinary event Wine & Cheese Fest is returning in March for its 11th iteration, transforming Port Melbourne's Timber Yard into a cheesy wine-fuelled paradise. Running across two sessions from 12–3.30pm and 4–7.30pm on Saturday, March 1, the event will celebrate some of the state's finest cheese, vino and other artisan goodies. Chat to producers as you sip, swirl and snack your way through a parade of complimentary tastings; sit in on a couple of free cheesemaking or wine masterclasses; or even test your squishing skills in the day's grape-stomping competition. The day's lineup is full of much-loved names and producers, from Witchmount Estate, Santolin Wines, Rob Dolan, Bellarine Estate Winery, Milawa Cheese Company, Boatshed Cheese, Frenchese, That's Amore, and L'Artisan Cheese. There'll also be DJ sets and live acts providing the soundtrack to your epicurean adventures. Plus, the kids will also be entertained with face-painting stations and interactive games. General tickets start from $60, which gets you 3.5 hours of tastings, masterclasses and a festival glass and tote bag to take home. The latter should come in handy, too, given there'll be lots of products available to purchase to stock up that pantry and wine fridge. Up for some extra indulgence? Splash out on a $160 VIP ticket that gives you all-day access to the festival, a spot in the VIP room and entry to a VIP wine-tasting masterclass.
Thanks to the success of Beef, the past year has been huge for Ali Wong. It was back in April 2023 that the hit series arrived, getting audiences obsessed and sparking plenty of accolades coming Wong's way. She won Best Actress Emmy, Golden Globe, Film Independent Spirt and Screen Actors Guild awards for playing Amy Lau, who has a carpark altercation with Danny Cho (Steven Yeun, Nope) that neither can let go of — and that changes both of their lives. The last 12 months have also been massive for the American actor and comedian onstage, all thanks to her Ali Wong: Live tour. Wong has been playing to full houses in the US, and also in Paris and London — and Melbourne audiences can see her this winter at four gigs from Thursday, July 11–Friday, July 12 and Sunday, July 14–Monday, July 15 at the Palais Theatre. [caption id="attachment_893741" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andrew Cooper/Netflix © 2023[/caption] Behind the microphone, Wong's comedy career dates back almost two decades, including three Netflix stand-up specials: 2016's Baby Cobra, 2018's Hard Knock Wife and 2022's Don Wong. And, as an author, Wong also has 2019's Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life to her name. On-screen, Wong doesn't let go of grudges easily, at least in Beef. In rom-com Always Be My Maybe, she's also been romanced by Keanu Reeves. Tuca & Bertie had her voice an anthropomorphic song thrush, while Big Mouth sent her back to middle school. Beef, on which Wong was also an executive producer, earned just as much love for the show overall — including the Emmy for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series; Golden Globe for Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television; Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series under 40 minutes; Film Independent Spirt Award for Best New Scripted Series; and PGA for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television. [caption id="attachment_946690" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andrew Cooper/Netflix © 2023[/caption]
If you were looking to seriously impress a special someone this winter, here's a little giveaway just for you. Three seriously dramatic acts are joining forces for French Baroque, a show that promises to turn your preconceived notions of circus and baroque music inside-out, upside-down and back-to-front. The first is acclaimed acrobatic troupe Circa, who have been travelling the world with their take on circus as stunning, mobile contemporary art. The second is French soprano Claire Lefilliâtre, who has been starring on stages all over Europe. And the third is the five-time ARIA Award-winning Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, home to some of our nation’s best interpreters of 16th- and 17th-century music. With the music of French composers Rameau, Lully and Marais as inspiration, Circa’s artistic director, Yaron Lifschitz, describes the pasticcio of selected music as combining “the longing of the night with the playful side of French baroque”. He's choreographed a performance to meet this mood. “I have responded by creating a river of moonlight that divides the stage, reflecting singer and acrobat, musician and vocalist,” he says. “In the interplay between delight and desire, between pleasure and abandonment, we see a world created where bodies seamlessly meld into song, where lives and loves intermingle and where the simple magic of singing speaks clearly to the heart.” French Baroque will be performed at Sydney’s City Recital Hall from July 22 to August 8, and at Melbourne Recital Centre from July 25 to 26. Tickets range from $20 -166, but thanks to the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, we have two A-reserve double passes for to give away to both the Sydney and Melbourne opening nights, on July 22 and July 25 respectively. If you can't make the opening night (which you really should), you can pick your date. To be in the running, subscribe to our mailing list and then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au
The nationwide domination of Betty's Burgers & Concrete Co. continues this week with the Queensland-born cult burger joint opening another restaurant in Windsor on Monday, November 26. This marks the second Melbourne outpost for the 1950s-inspired burger shack, after opening in the CBD in late-2016. To celebrate its brand new home in Melbourne's southeast, Betty's Burgers & Concrete Co. has teamed up with a local 'celebrity' to design an exclusive version of its popular dessert, the Concrete. Morgan Hipworth — the teenage doughnut entrepreneur at the helm of Prahran sensation Bistro Morgan — has lent his wildly creative mind to create a new flavour of the frozen custard, which will be available all week at the new Windsor store. This indulgent creation is a riff on the existing Cookie Butter Concrete, featuring vanilla custard, crumbled cookies, cookie butter and cinnamon sugar. Hipworth's version takes the decadence one step further by adding a cinnamon-coated doughnut ball filled with more cookie butter and topped with Nutella sauce. Drooling yet? And if you need an added incentive, all sales from this dessert will be donated directly to St Kilda Mums, a local charity that supports families in need. While you're there, be sure to check out the saucy competition going on in-store, too. Betty's has partnered with Chapel Street Precinct Association to give away a $2000 shopping spree and free Betty's Burgers for twelve months. To check out the rest of the Betty's Burgers menu, visit the website here.
If there's one thing we grew up hearing from our mothers, it's "don't follow strange men you've just met in Mexico into abandoned churches in the middle of nowhere". Or something like that. In any case, you'll be shaking your head just like your mum within the first half hour of Truth or Dare, as you follow the sordid activities of a group of teenagers on spring break as they become embroiled in a ~deadly~ game. Regardless of how your mother phrased her advice, we're sure it was much more sensible and well-intended than this waste of time of a film. Somehow earning the stripe of being from Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions team (who brought you Get Out, Insidious and Whiplash), we have a feeling this is one movie Blum deigns to forget pretty quickly – as will most people who watch it. The film follows a group of teenagers on spring break (ugh) who, after the standard montage of tequila and bars and hook-ups (uuugh), find themselves playing a game of truth or dare with a stranger who soon gets weird and jumps ship. That leaves Olivia (Lucy Hale) and a bunch of her friends to finish the game, only to realise that the game isn't finished with them. Yeah, that's right – another movie where pretty young people are killed off one by one. This time it would seem a demon curse is the culprit. Unsurprisingly, Truth or Dare is extraordinarily silly, from the setup all the way down to the ridiculous facial effects that look as though they're the result of too many pingers and one of those carnival fun mirrors. It's meant to be scary, and to indicate how dark and terrifying a demon it is we're dealing with here (spoiler alert: not very). More disturbing is how little the characters seem to care when their mates start kicking the bucket. Teens these days, huh? The only semi-interesting story element relates to one character's struggle with how to come out to his strict father. Unfortunately, most everyone is dead before it can really develop into anything worthwhile. Thin in plot, thick in bad acting and dialogue, we dare you to turn your back on this limp sponge of a film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgnk3MLw9TM
He's been hailed as the king of documentaries, known for his fearless deep dives into the boldest of subjects, from sex trafficking to religious extremists and just about everything in between. And now, Louis Theroux is stepping out from in front of the camera and onto the stage, venturing Down Under for his second Aussie speaking tour this summer. In January, the intrepid BBC filmmaker will hit Melbourne for his new show Louis Theroux Without Limits. In two days over one day, the fearless journalist will be joined by local media personality Julia Zemiro for a two-hour on-stage adventure, dropping insights into his extraordinary life and behind-the-scenes secrets from his impressive catalogue of work. With more than two decades of filmmaking experience and multiple awards under his belt, Theroux has a knack for digging deep and getting people to spill the beans, telling it exactly how it is. From the opioid epidemic and the San Fernando Valley porn industry to the Church of Scientology, his work has given him countless fascinating stories to dish up on this latest speaking tour. "Australians are obviously connoisseurs of the weird side of life," Theroux said in a statement. "I look forward to coming back to share even more memorable moments and extraordinary stories from the people I have encountered in my films." He was last here in 2016, when he took his (sell-out) speaking tour to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. While you wait for Louis to head Down Under, you can catch his new series of documentaries on BBC Knowledge from Thursday, June 27. You can check out a teaser for the new show Louis Theroux Without Limits here.
For the past 37 years, everyone that's wanted good neighbours to become good friends has wished they were living in one spot: Ramsay Street. Since 1985, the cul-de-sac in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough has been beamed into homes around Australia, and further abroad, unfurling the always melodramatic, often chaotic, sometimes downright wild antics of residents named Charlene, Harold and Madge and more. Some folks don't have to dream about living on the nation's most famous TV street, though. For a small portion of Aussies, feeling like you're on one of the country's big soap operas just comes with the address. Indeed, if you happen to reside on a Ramsay Street somewhere across the country, the shadow of Neighbours has been inescapable — and now that the long-running series has been cancelled after almost four decades, with its final episode set to air on Thursday, July 28, Ramsay Street inhabitants nationwide can celebrate with a free meal. To mark the last-ever instalment of Neighbours — which is set to see a hefty cast of well-known Aussie names return, including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie and more — Menulog is giving away free food to folks who really do live on a Ramsay Street somewhere in Australia. If you happen to be in love with someone called Scott, that's obviously a bonus. No, you don't need to have been through an amnesia spell or a shock return from the dead, or know someone who has. [caption id="attachment_844968" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Manon van Os[/caption] You don't need to have been held hostage, been through more than one tumultuous wedding, or managed a bikini store called Bounce — all things, among oh-so-many others, that happened to the one and only Jarrod 'Toadfish aka Toadie' Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney). And if you're wondering why we're bringing him up specifically, that's because he's the face of Menulog's Ramsay Street giveaway, fittingly. Here's how it works: if you have the right address — with or without the Toadie-style Hawaiian shirt — you can head to Menulog between Monday, July 25–Monday, August 1. That's where you'll find a $20 voucher code in the 'For You' section if you're eligible, which you need to redeem within those dates. Also, you have to spend more than $20 in your order. Hey #Neighbours fans 👋 We wanted to confirm when you'll be able to watch the finale in the UK & Australia. Both us here in Australia and our friends @NeighboursTV in the UK will be a spoiler free zone until everyone has had a chance to watch our incredible final episode. pic.twitter.com/fBQRmU10ST — Neighbours (@neighbours) July 4, 2022 Obviously, if you were wondering what to eat at 7.30pm on Thursday, when the final-ever Neighbours episode goes to air on 10 and 10 Peach, now you know. And if you need a dose of Neighbours nostalgia in the interim, you can also check out Toadie revisiting the famed roadway below: Menulog is giving away $20 vouchers between Monday, July 25–Monday, August 1 to folks who live on Ramsay Streets around Australia. If that's you, head to the Menulog app and the Menulog website.
Bluebonnet Barbecue is heading down the coast for one hell of a summertime cookout. The folks behind the much-loved smokehouse are teaming up with the Point Lonsdale Surf Life Saving Club for a beachside pop-up they're calling Beach Bonnet BBQ. Road trip, anyone? Launching on Boxing Day and running through to the end of January, Beach Bonnet will serve up slow-cooked American-style barbecue on the surf club lawn. Live music and daily drink specials will help sweeten the deal even further, as will the ice cream being sold by surf club volunteers. Money raised by the pop-up will go towards building a brand new clubhouse, due to be completed in 2018. Which is good, because this way you don't have to feel so guilty about stuffing your face full of meat.
