A friend of mine works in an op shop. A proper one, not an overpriced 'vintage' one. A few months ago she showed up to the pub with a collection of books which had been donated, one of which was a colouring book for medical students, complete with every element of human anatomy you'd ever need to know. We sat tipsily entranced by the semi-coloured-in pictures of lungs and kidneys and feet, the outspread arms of nerve cells and the fragile spiderweb-like bone structure of the hand. Bodies are funny things. We're often quick to forget what's under the surface, what's holding us together and propelling us forward. Japanese illustrator Wataru Yoshida has recently captured this idea in a startlingly beautiful way, in a series of posters entitled Composition of Mammals. The images combine photographs of different mammals, including humans, overlaid with the ethereal shadows of their skeletons and vital organs. The series was created as part of an imaginary exhibition at the National Musuem of Nature and Science in Tokyo, aiming to show the mystery and fascination of how delicate even the strongest of bodies is when you peel back the skin. [Via Design Bloom]
UPDATE, MARCH 18: Due to concerns around COVID-19, Disney has announced that The Woman in the Window will no longer release on its initially scheduled date of Thursday, May 14, 2020. At present, a new release date has not been announced — we'll update you when one has been revealed. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. They start off in text, drawing in readers with their mysteries, twists and psychological thrills. They focus on women in murky situations, and make that fact known in their titles. Then, after literary success, they jump to the big screen. That's the path that Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train both took — for better in one case, for worse in the other — and now it's The Woman in the Window's turn. Based on the 2018 novel by AJ Finn, The Woman in the Window follows Dr Anna Fox (Amy Adams), a psychologist who also suffers from extreme agoraphobia. After befriending Jane Russell (Julianne Moore), the woman who lives across the street, she cries foul when her new pal disappears — but neither Jane's husband Alistair (Gary Oldman) nor the cops (including Widows and Child's Play's Brian Tyree Henry) are willing to listen. As well as firmly falling into clear genre — aka mystery-thrillers that reference women in their monikers — The Woman in the Window is obviously taking some cues from Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. And, in the just-released first trailer, director Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna, Darkest Hour) doesn't shy away from that comparison. Whether it's worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as one of Hitchcock's best films or suffers a fate closer to The Girl on the Train won't be discovered until the movie releases in May, of course. But, The Woman in the Window has amassed a wide-ranging cast, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Avengers' Anthony Mackie and Wyatt Russell (Overlord) all popping up. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0hTmzISOlQ The Woman in the Window was due to open in Australian cinemas on May 14, 2020; however it'll now release on a yet-to-be-revealed date — we'll update you when one is announced.
One of the best Vietnamese joints in Melbourne is getting in on the Good Beer Week action. On the evening of Tuesday, May 17, Uncle in St Kilda will team up with Boatrocker Brewing Co. for a five-course degustation. Each dish will be accompanied by a different Boatrocker beer, including a one-off beverage created specially for the occasion. Let's just hope the menu includes Uncle's epic lime-cured hapuka with coconut, pomegranate and chilli.
Not content with winning an Emmy, two Golden Globes and a pair of Screen Actors Guild Awards for playing Shiv Roy on Succession, Australian actor Sarah Snook has just added a 2024 Laurence Olivier Award to her mantle for her starring role in the West End season of stage sensation The Picture of Dorian Gray. Or roles, to be precise. The production, which hails from Sydney Theatre Company, tasks its lead with playing all 26 characters in the adaptation of Oscar Wilde's gothic-literature masterpiece. For her current stage date, which started earlier in 2024 and runs until May, Snook has stepped into a tale about a sinister portrait that lets its subject stay young and beautiful. This take on Wilde's work was first staged Down Under with Eryn Jean Norvill doing the honours, premiering in Sydney 2020, and also hitting theatres in Melbourne and Adelaide. "It's an incredible honour to be on the stage in the West End and this is not something that I thought would come along with that. It's billed as a one-woman show but it's not. It's the crew who are on stage with me all the time every night, and they are a vital and constant support and inspirational," said Snook when she received her award, with the ceremony taking place on Sunday, April 14 in the UK — so in the early hours of Monday, April 15 Down Under. "So thank you to the crew for being there in this show with me. A huge immeasurable thank you to Kip Williams and your very big brain, and your specificity and precision and your inspiration — and I just thank my lucky stars I get to play inside that mad world you've created every night," Snook continued. The Picture of Dorian Gray also won Marg Horwell an Olivier for Best Costume Design. Among the rest of the night's winners, Stranger Things: The First Shadow took home Best New Entertainment or Comedy Play, Sunset Boulevard nabbed Best Musical Revival, Dear England scored the award for Best New Play and Operation Mincemeat did the same for Best New Musical. On the page, The Picture of Dorian Gray is exceptional, as well as astute and unnerving, as it follows the selling of its namesake's soul in order to keep indulging every corporeal whim, urge and desire. There's a reason that it just keeps getting adapted for the screen and in theatres, after all. But there's never been a version like Sydney Theatre Company's, with the London run at The Theatre Royal Haymarket marking Snook's return to West End after debuting in the 2016 production of The Master Builder. This version of the story uses video and theatre to help its star play so may characters. Williams, who adapted Wilde's text into the phenomenal production and also directs, has travelled to the UK with the new season as well. Taking the show to London is part of a partnership between STC and Michael Cassel Group, which is all about sharing the former's works around the globe. A similar path — from Australia to the UK, but originating from the Griffin Theatre Company — worked out spectacularly for Prima Facie, too, with the British production starring Killing Eve's Jodie Comer winning Best New Play and Best Actress at the 2023 Laurence Olivier Awards. Check out a trailer for the West End season of The Picture of Dorian Gray below: The Picture of Dorian Gray is playing The Theatre Royal Haymarket, 18 Suffolk Street, London until Saturday, May 11, 2024 — for more information and tickets, head to the play's website. Images: Marc Brenner.
Two gigantic Australian billboards were hijacked this week, now sporting seriously gnarly tatts. Located in Sydney's George Street and Melbourne's St Kilda Junction, the 16m x 6m billboards have been emblazoned with giant tattooed lions by longtime team-up Aussie artists The Yok and Sheryo in collaboration with LYNX. The two artists were invited to use their own unique styles and expression to transform the men's brand's latest outdoor campaign. Marking phase one of LYNX's brand new 'Expression Series', the billboards were completed over four days; with a limited run of t-shirts and posters available through Facebook. This isn't the first time the pair have worked together; The Yok and Sheryo have exhibited and painted their fantastical creatures everywhere from Mexico to NY, Atlanta, LA, Miami, Africa, Belgium, London, Europe, Seoul, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and Cambodia. So why the massive lions? The Yok has seen his fair share of expression-fuelling travel, moving to Africa from Australia and finding an addictive freshness in his newfound environment (lions included). "I moved to Kenya when I was 25 and I lived there for a year and a half; I think that had a real dramatic effect, it was a really rewarding experience" says The Yok in the behind-the-scenes video. "I really value that feeling, so maybe I'm always trying to chase that feeling again. It's kind of like being a kid and everything's new. "I remember when I saw my first lion in Kenya. Such an amazing animal to see close up; they're just so powerful-looking. I can't really describe what it is to look at a lion in the face, but they're an amazing creature." https://youtube.com/watch?v=zNQyWPUqdF0 LYNX aren't stopping at two gigantic billboards; the next phase of the 'Expressions Series' will see typographer Luca Ionescu and a photographer collaborate on a mystery project to be announced later in the year. LYNX's project aims to help Australian guys express themselves authentically, supporting creators who stay true to their vision but might not always have the opportunity to do so. Check out LYNX's 'Expression Series' over here and stay tuned for the next project announcement later this year.
The legacy of the legendary blues musician Muddy Waters runs deep, from influences on Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love and ACDC's You Shook Me All Night Long, and even to Westmont Pickles—an Australian picklery named after the town where Muddy died. His deepest influence, however, can be seen in his son, Mud Morganfield, and his career that carries the blues-rock torch that Muddy held aloft for over three decades. Although Morganfield was raised away from his father, he's been following in his footsteps for his whole adult life. Morganfield started out in life hauling trucks across the USA, just like his old man did before he found his music. When his father passed in 1983, Morganfield picked up the old familiar instruments and took to creating his own soulful blues ballads, and has been at it ever since. Despite the soulful style and rich vocal timbre Morganfield shares with his father, Mud's sound contributes to the intersection of Chicago Blues and Delta Rock in his own right. With the benefit of intervening decades of musical progression since Muddy Waters left the blues, Mud's sound incorporates modern styles into his oeuvre, but never strays too far from the track his old man beat before him. Catch Morganfield at Bluesfest 2017 in Byron Bay, or at his Melbourne sideshow at Northcote Social Club on Monday April 10.
Over summer, plenty of folks spent their time getting reacquainted with their couches while watching gossip-fuelled, 19th-century-set antics. After launching on Netflix on Christmas Day, the first season of Bridgerton caught the attention of 82 million households around the globe in its first four weeks. Yes, that sounds like something Lady Whistledown would love to gossip about in her society papers. As a result — and to absolutely no one's surprise — more Bridgerton is coming. When you become Netflix's most-watched original show ever, beating out last year's favourites such as The Queen's Gambit and Tiger King and the debuts of older series like Stranger Things, that's bound to happen. But viewers can actually look forward to quite a few more episodes, with the streaming service just announcing that it has renewed the show for seasons three and four. No, the show's second season hasn't streamed as yet, and doesn't even have a release date at present. But Netflix is falling head over heels for its episodic adaptation of Julia Quinn's novels and committing to many scandal-filled instalments to come. That'll either give you even more chances to dive into Bridgerton's high-society hijinks, or give you a reason to see why everyone you know has been talking about the show this year. For the unacquainted, the first season follows the ins and outs of Daphne Bridgerton's (Phoebe Dynevor) quest to find a husband, her dalliances with the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), the controversy in the Featherington household and all the other dramas that come with Regency London's marriage market — plus whatever else inspires Lady Whistledown to put pen to paper. Check out the trailer for the show's first season below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpv7ayf_tyE The first season of Bridgerton is available to stream now via Netflix. The show's second, third and fourth seasons don't yet have release dates — we'll update you when details come to hand. Top image: Liam Daniel/Netflix.
The Polish Festival is making its return this weekend at Federation Square spotlighting Polish entertainment, hospitality and cuisine. Among the many vendors involved this year is Pierogi Pierogi, which you'll find nestled behind Transport Bar on Princes Walk. "Our whole year revolves around getting to Polish Festival, seeing all our friends and showing Melbourne how good our pierogi tastes. One year we had two security guards keeping the line in check because it was so crazy!" Pierogi Pierogi co-owner Dominika Sikorska says. Guests can choose from an array of delectable Polish dumplings at the food fest, including flavours like Ruskie (creamy potato and white cheese), Kapusta (mushroom and sauerkraut), Mieso (organic beef and vegetable), and the special-edition Kielbasa (smoked sausage, melted cheese and mustard). All variations are served with sour cream, crispy fried onion, bacon and onion jam, or dill. Vegan sour cream is available for the green-eaters among us. The Polish Festival will run from 11am—5pm on Saturday, November 12. Check out the official page for more information. [caption id="attachment_877175" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pierogi Pierogi - Supplied[/caption] Top image: Pierogi Pierogi — supplied
Art, wine and a sumptuous long lunch. It's a covetable trio — and one that's set to star at Mornington Peninsula winery Montalto plenty over the coming months, thanks to a new series of in-depth artist chats. The renowned winery has teamed up with the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (MPRG) to deliver the Contemplating Art lunchtime events, which each host a conversation with a different celebrated artist over a relaxed long lunch. They'll take place in Montalto's award-winning restaurant, fittingly overlooking the estate's Sculpture Trail. [caption id="attachment_845381" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Montalto[/caption] The series is set to dive right into the deep end, too, with acclaimed artist Patricia Piccinini as guest of honour at the first of these lunches, on Thursday, March 24. If that name feels particularly familiar right now, it's likely because of A Miracle Constantly Repeated, Piccinini's ongoing otherworldly exhibition in the Flinders Street Station Ballroom. Or perhaps you know her as the artist behind giant hot-air balloon sculptures Skywhalepapa and Skywhale, which are set to take to the skies above Melbourne this month as part of the MPavilion program. For the debut of Contemplating Art, Piccinini will appear in conversation with MPRG Gallery Director Danny Lacy, chatting about her background, inspiration, the techniques that drive her practice, and her existing and soon-to-be-completed works. All while you enjoy a two-course shared lunch feast courtesy of the Montalto kitchen. [caption id="attachment_845383" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Piccinini's 'No Fear of Depths' (2019), from exhibition 'A Miracle Constantly Repeated'[/caption] On Thursday, May 12, the second event in the series will shine a spotlight on interdisciplinary NSW-based artist Hiromi Tango and collaborator, neuroscientist Emma Burrows. The pair are behind newly launched Science Gallery Melbourne installation Wheel (for Mental: Head Inside) — an interactive 'hamster wheel' that explores the benefits of exercise on our brains and mental health. Contemplating Art marks a desire by Montalto to offer its guests more 'moments out of the ordinary', as the winery gears up to celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. Further events in the series are set to be announced soon — stay tuned via the Montalto newsletter and website. Contemplating Art kicks off on Thursday, March 24, with guest artist Patricia Piccinini, followed by a conversation with Hiromi Tango and Emma Burrows on Thursday, May 12. Events will take place at Montalto, 33 Shoreham Road, Red Hill South, Victoria. For more info and to grab tickets, see the website. Top Images: Patricia Piccinini with one of her works, captured by H.Walker. Montalto Estate.
Of all the ridiculous food trends to hit Melbourne in the last few years, this most recent one ranks... somewhere in the middle. Now open at 380 Victoria Street in Richmond, the menu at Crompton Coffee has a very particular focus. We’re talking toast. Lots of toast. Inspired by a toast-only cafe in San Francisco called The Mill, Crompton offers a slightly fancier alternative to the Wonder White and jam you’d otherwise be munching on at home. Inch-thick artisanal bread will come with an array of lavish toppings and condiments, including ricotta, fig and honey and pear, walnut and blue cheese, as well as a requisite avocado option with buffalo mozzarella. And yes, before you ask, they also have vegemite, with a grilled cheese Tiger Toast option too. While Crompton will be the first of its kind of Melbourne, the toast craze is already well-established in the U.S, with toast cafes and toast bars cropping up from Seattle to Minneapolis to New York. Although The Mill helped popularise the concept, it actually originated at another San Francisco cafe called The Trouble Coffee & Coconut Club, whose founder was recently the subject of an episode of This American Life. Whether Melburnians embrace toast with the same passion remains to be seen — although frankly, if a cereal cafe can be a hit then these guys shouldn’t have much trouble. Crompton Coffee is located at 380 Victoria Street, Richmond. For more information, check out their Facebook.
Stark lighting and shadow fall upon the stage, which is tilted at a crazed angle like a skate ramp or the deck of a listing ship. Four men, shirtless, leap onto it like hunting predators. They seem like werewolves or some other supernatural beast, human in form only. With this arresting image, Savages starts. Shortly after, the men will appear toting suitcases and garbed in holiday attire, exchanging merry greetings, but the image of them as monsters is stuck with you. While on the outside, this is a story about a group of 40-ish mates sharing a holiday, there is always a pulse of horror beating beneath the surface. The latest play from Patricia Cornelius (Do Not Go Gentle, 2011) is a story about a group-assisted descent into darkness. A gang of old friends go on a cruise together, a long-awaited boys' holiday, swearing to leave their troubles, responsibilities and concerns behind them. Once at sea, a tension starts to build within the group and the savagery we caught a glimpse of at the start begins to peep out through the cracks. From the beginning, there is a feeling of unreality. The dialogue frequently uses poetic devices, including frequent rhymed exchanges, and is often delivered in a declamatory style. While it feels unnatural, it is purposeful: the camaraderie among the men is depicted as a forced and not entirely convincing ritual that binds a group riven with tension, insecurity and unease. On the steeply angled stage, there is a constant sense of things askew. The men engage in a constant game of competitive hypermasculinity — sweaty chest beating fuelled by lust and anger. No other actors are ever seen, making the men seem shut off from the world, not just by the sea, but locked within their interactions with each other. The group dynamic overpowers them as individuals. Despite an overarching atmosphere of rising menace, the play employs a touch of humour and there are times when the men's antics are amusing, for instance when jostling in a boxy space that represents their cramped cabin, or struggling against their restless natures when trying to relax on deck chairs. In rare private conversations, you see hints of men on the cusp of middle age facing relatable issues — loneliness, career frustration, relationship breakdown, diminishing physical prowess. However there is always something a little bent in the way they process their problems. At first it feels troubling that you can never quite relate to the characters, but by the end you're glad of that. The play draws on real-life cases of foul behaviour on cruise ships — most notably the events surrounding the death of Dianne Brimble in 2002 — though it is not so much a dramatisation of any one set of events as it an evocation of a psychology. While highly stylised, the play's depiction of group dynamics is well observed. Savages is a darkly fascinating piece, a strong statement on the human capacity for inhumanity.
He was the subject of the world's first narrative feature film, has been played by everyone from Mick Jagger to Heath Ledger and Down Under director Abe Forsythe, and has long been considered Australia's version of Robin Hood. A folk hero to some and a ruthless outlaw to others, Ned Kelly is firmly entrenched in the nation's history. But, while every Australian knows his name and his supposed final words, no one has seen a version of Ned Kelly quite like the one cooked up by director Justin Kurzel, screenwriter Shaun Grant and author Peter Carey in True History of the Kelly Gang. With the Macbeth filmmaker in the director's chair, and his Snowtown scribe Grant adapting Carey's eponymous Booker Prize-winning novel, True History of the Kelly Gang doesn't just tell the usual bushranger tale. It steps through Kelly's story, naturally, but it also makes plain that it's playing fast and loose with reality — and interrogating the myth that's surrounded the notorious figure since his hanging at Melbourne Gaol in 1880 in the process. The result is an astonishing Australian film that's set to be one of 2020's finest and, as its just-dropped first trailer shows, an energetic, propulsive and visually stunning movie as well. True History of the Kelly Gang also boasts a killer cast, with rising British star George MacKay (Ophelia, 11.22.63, Captain Fantastic) playing Kelly as an adult, stellar first-timer Orlando Schwerdt exploring his boyhood, The Babadook's Essie Davis stepping into his mother Ellen's shoes and Russell Crowe playing fellow bushranger Harry Power, who initiates the young Kelly into his lawless way of life. Charlie Hunnam and Nicholas Hoult also pop up as cops, Leave No Trace's excellent Thomasin McKenzie features as the fictional love of Kelly's life, and Earl Cave — son of Nick Cave — plays Kelly's brother and accomplice. Already one of the most anticipated Australian films of recent years, True History of the Kelly Gang proved a hit at this year's Toronto International Film Festival — and, following a trend made popular by Netflix and Amazon of late (see: The Irishman, Marriage Story, Brittany Runs a Marathon and The Report), will hit both cinemas and Aussie streaming platform Stan in January 2020. Check out the trailer bellow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE7YVZA5YVc&feature=youtu.be True History of the Kelly Gang releases in Australian cinemas on Thursday, January 9, 2020, then drops on Stan on Sunday, January 26.
By the time that 2022 is out, lovers of Studio Ghibli's films (aka everyone) will have two places to visit if they'd like to get as close as humanly possible to walking into the animation house's gorgeous frames. Already, you can head to the Studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka, a city on the western outskirts Tokyo — and you really should; it's as magical as it sounds, giant catbus and all — but now Ghibli's very own theme park has officially set a November launch date. Come November 1, the new location in Nagoya's Aichi Prefecture — which is around a three-hour train trip from Tokyo — will start spiriting away Ghibli fans across its 200-hectare expanse. The studio initially announced that it was creating its own theme park back in 2017, and originally planned to open in 2020. Then, in 2018, it pushed back its launch timeline to 2022; however, this is the first time it's set a specific date that everyone can mark in the calendars. The opening day of the Ghibli Park was announced today. pic.twitter.com/01vhPGuJgq — スタジオジブリ STUDIO GHIBLI (@JP_GHIBLI) January 27, 2022 The Aichi Prefecture Expo Park spot is already home to a replica of Satsuki and Mei's house from My Neighbour Totoro, and it's gaining plenty of other attractions as it becomes a fully fledged Studio Ghibli thee park. Totoro features heavily, understandably, with the site even initially described as having a My Neighbour Totoro focus. However, you'll also be able to check out a life-sized version of Howl's Moving Castle, the antique shop from Whisper of the Heart, Kiki's home from Kiki's Delivery Service and a village area that pays tribute to Princess Mononoke. Also slated to feature: nods to the cat from Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns, buildings with design elements that take their cues from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and a super-sized garden that'll make you feel like you're one of the tiny characters in Arrietty. There'll also be a permanent exhibition room, a special exhibition room, a video exhibition room, a playground, and a shop and cafe, so you'll have plenty of places to explore, eat and browse. Expect more nods to Ghibli's various features to follow, recreating other aspects from its three-decade-old body of work — and possibly its most recent movie, Earwig and the Witch, too. And if the end result is even half as wondrous as the studio's aforementioned museum, then fans are in for a treat. There, you can also climb up to the building's rooftop garden to see one of the robots from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and watch exclusive shorts (including a sequel to My Neighbour Totoro) in a cute little cinema. Indeed, the museum is such a tourist attraction, you have to buy tickets over a month in advance — and experiencing the rush of folks in the merchandise-packed gift shop will make you feel like a susuwatari (Totoro's gorgeous little balls of floating soot). [caption id="attachment_799539" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Studio Ghibli[/caption] Incorporated into the existing parklands, the Studio Ghibli theme park will be heavy on greenery and the natural surroundings, which matches the environmental messaging that plays a prominent part in Ghibli's movies. The site will also encourage "enjoying walking", according to the draft concept outline, while aiming to offer "a one-of-a-kind park loved by more people". We don't think either will be difficult. If you're now planning a Ghibli-centric holiday, you'll need to cross your fingers that Japan's border rules change before November to allow foreign nationals to enter the country — something that's currently suspended until at least the end of February 2021. And if you won't stop dreaming about the Studio Ghibli theme park anyway, the Aichi Tourism Bureau has released a trailer — which is largely an ad for the surrounding area, but also features Satsuki and Mei's house prominently. Check it out below: The Studio Ghibli theme park is slated to open on November 1, 2022. For more information, keep an eye on the animation company's website.
The latest addition to the ‘rom-con’ genre by writer/director duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid Love), Focus is a surprisingly enjoyable film in spite of its flaws. With the audience guided early on by the Grifter’s Mantra — "Never break focus. Die with the lie." — it’s one where you’re persistently trying to anticipate the next twist and deconstruct every line to reveal its true meaning, only to find yourself constantly (and refreshingly) wrong. Fronting the film is Will Smith in a role that at last plays to his strengths of charm and wit rather than the physical kind (like so many of his recent, ill-conceived outings). Smith plays Nicky, a lifelong conman at the top of his game who one night finds himself the target of the aspiring but guileless gonif Jess (Margot Robbie). Sensing her potential, however, Nicky shows Jess the ropes and invites her to join his crew in New Orleans as they take on the unsuspecting hordes during Superbowl week. From then on, Focus buffets you with twists, deceptions and double-crosses with such marked regularity that you’re never quite sure where you stand. Key to its appeal is the chemistry between Smith and Robbie, simmering deliciously back and forth between master and apprentice, lover and temptress. Robbie’s sex appeal is undeniable, but here — unlike in The Wolf of Wall Street — it’s treated as a playful trait rather than her raison d’etre, even going so far as to make her character spectacularly bad at the art of seduction. It’s a refreshing angle and one that allows Robbie to showcase her genuine acting chops. Solid performances from Smith and Robbie notwithstanding, it’s the secondary characters, however, who ultimately prove the scene stealers (or should that be grifters?). Rodrigo Santoro (Love Actually) makes for a convincing billionaire playboy come Formula 1 team owner, BD Wong is almost unrecognisable as a cashed-up gambler with a near-sexual response to wagers, and Adrian Martinez delivers a laugh a line as Smith’s long-time accomplice ‘Farhad'. The highlight, though, is Gerald McRaney (House of Cards) in a role that very much channels his iconic Major Dad character from the early '90s. Playing Santoro's interminably suspicious bodyguard, he at one point delivers a sublime rant on today’s youth, covering off everything from lazy Sundays to panini and — best of all — “Sarcasm: another pillar of your generation. If you don’t like somebody’s jacket, don’t say ‘Hey nice jacket’, say ‘Fuck off’”. Overall, Focus might not match the sophistication of Ocean’s Eleven or the passion of The Thomas Crown Affair, but it’s an enjoyable enough distraction whose only real major letdown is an unnecessarily twisty ending.
If you watched Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's vampire sharehouse mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows back in 2014, then instantly found yourself yearning for more, that's understandable. Smart, silly and hilarious, the undead flick is one of the past decade's best comedies. Thanks to two TV spinoffs, that dream has come true, letting viewers keep spending time in the movie's supernatural world — and that's not going to end any time soon. In 2018, the New Zealand-made Wellington Paranormal premiered, following the movie's cops (Mike Minogue and Karen O'Leary) as they keep investigating the supernatural. It proved a hit, and has already returned for both a second and third season. In 2019, an American TV version of What We Do in the Shadows also debuted, focusing on vampire flatmates living in Staten Island. Featuring Toast of London's Matt Berry, Four Lions' Kayvan Novak, British stand-up comedian Natasia Demetriou, The Magicians' Harvey Guillen and The Office's Mark Proksch, it sticks to the same basic concept as the original movie, just with memorable new characters. And yes, it too has already aired its second season, and is about to come back for its third. The US take on What We Do in the Shadows was first hinted at back in 2017, and then confirmed in May 2018. While Clement and Waititi don't star in the new-look series, Berry, Novak and company have been doing them proud as the next batch of ravenous — and comic — vamps. Novak plays the gang's self-appointed leader, 'Nandor The Relentless', who dates back to the Ottoman Empire days and is somewhat stuck in his ways. As for Berry's mischievous British dandy Laszlo and Demetriou's seductive Nadja, they're like a blood-sucking Bonnie and Clyde (but much funnier). Guillén plays Nandor's familiar, who'd do anything to join the undead, while Proksch's Colin is an 'energy vampire'. You know that colleague that sucks all the fun out of the room? That's the kind of vibe Colin has. Plus, this vampire gang has been joined by plenty of familiar faces over the two seasons to-date, including some fellow undead favourites from across popular culture. Can't wait to sink your fangs into more? Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja and Colin will return this year — and, as the just-dropped first season three teaser shows, they'll experience 'vampire reality', the undead's version of VR. The show's new season is due to start airing in the US from September 2 and, if past seasons are any guide, will hopefully show up Down Under not long afterwards. An airdate in Australia and New Zealand hasn't been announced yet, but here's hoping we'll be watch the hilarious small-screen spinoff's latest season sooner rather than later. Check out the first season three teaser below: https://twitter.com/theshadowsfx/status/1415400811346202628 What We Do in the Shadows' third season starts airing on September 2 in the US. Expect it to hit Foxtel in Australia sometime this year, too — we'll update you when exact local airdates are announced.
Regional holidays aren't back on the cards in Victoria as yet, but if you're looking forward to leaving your house for an evening once that's permitted, you can still treat yourself to a fancy staycation. And, if you're in need of the kind of fun that only singing in public, mashing buttons, hanging out in an igloo and watching movies on a big screen can bring, Element Melbourne Richmond Hotel has just the prescription. From Monday, November 2, the eco-conscious Westin brand hotel will be offering up a new 'ultimate sleepover' experience, which will be available to everyone staying onsite. You'll spend the night in one of the hotel's rooms and, because you probably feel like you've already done everything you can within any four specific walls, you'll be able to make the most of the site's new entertainment options — with everything from karaoke and playing PacMan to catching a flick included in your room rate. Element Richmond isn't skimping on these extras, either. Available until early 2021, operating from 11am–10pm daily and able to be used as guests please — while adhering to social distancing requirements, of course — the roster of activities on offer is hefty. In fact, the entire top floor is set to be transformed, turning guest rooms and a meeting room into places for everyone to hang out. The hotel's public spaces will be taken over, too, including the lobby lounge, restaurant and outdoor laneway. For those eager to belt out a tune, you can book a two-hour slot in a karaoke room. Two additional rooms will be packed with classic arcade games such as Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Galaga and Star Wars. There's also a dedicated Super Mario room, which features a huge TV, Nintendo Switch, and all the relevant gaming accessories accessories so you can play Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Kart, Super Mario Party and more. For those who'd prefer a bit of sport — but indoors — you can also head to the air hockey and foosball rooms, as decked out with the relevant tables. And, if you're visiting the hotel with little ones in tow, there's a kids' room as well. Movie-wise, the pop-up cinema will screen classic flicks on rotation, in gold class-style digs, and serve up freshly made popcorn to go with it. Elsewhere around the hotel, guests will find a 3D car-racing simulator, pool and table tennis tables, and igloos — although you will need to purchase anything you'd like to eat or drink in the latter separately. And wine tastings, cocktail masterclass and cooking demonstration with hotel chef Paulson Xavier are also on the agenda. If you're wondering about that topic that's been at the top of everyone's mind for most of the year — cleaning and hygiene — all areas will be cleaned hourly. Guests will also be asked to sanitise all equipment before and after use with the wipes provided, and room capacity limits will apply. Element Richmond also has a hand sanitiser bar — with sannies from the likes of Mr Black, Archie Rose and Four Pillars — that you can peruse. Currently, the 'ultimate sleepover' experience is timed to kick off when COVID-19 restrictions next ease in the metro Melbourne area, which is presently slated for 11.59pm on Sunday, November 1. That's when the four reasons for leaving home will be scrapped, and the new 25-kilometre rule as well — but if that date moves, so will the start date for Element Richmond's plans. It's important to note that your four-legged friend can come along for this staycation, too, as Element is a pet-friendly hotel. Comfy dog beds are available for any four-legged guests, though there is a maximum of two dogs per room and they can't weigh more than 20 kilograms each — apologies to all those particularly leggy hounds and hefty pooches. If you are bringing along your canine mate, there's an $80 pet cleaning fee per room, per stay. Element Melbourne Richmond Hotel's 'ultimate sleepover' experience will be available from Monday, November 2 until early 2021. To book a room, visit the hotel's website.
What a difference fleshed-out characters and a committed cast can make. This shouldn't really be news, but plenty of movies seem happy to overlook both — especially in the popular sub-genre that is the big night out comedy. "Who needs more than stereotypes when everyone's drinking, partying and acting like a lunatic?" appears to be the usual line of thinking. "And why bother with good performances when the script is a bundle of cliches?" The answer to both questions is on display in Girls Trip, a genuine and largely entertaining film that'll help wipe Rough Night and the recent Hangover sequels from your brain. As certain as it's a fact that no good can come from drinking absinthe, Girls Trip follows a tried-and-tested path involving four friends, a raucous weekend away and a crazy amount of alcohol. It's not hard to predict what will happen as self-help guru Ryan (Regina Hall), gossip columnist Sasha (Queen Latifah), single mother Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) and wild child Dina (Tiffany Haddish) head to New Orleans for the annual Essence festival. Once close college pals dubbed the Flossy Posse, they've lost touch of late, becoming caught up in their own lives and troubles. A lavish vacation and a let-loose attitude might be just what they need. We're not going to reveal exactly what the gang gets up to, since that would spoil the fun. The point is, the details don't really matter. Viewers have seen most of it before and director Malcolm D. Lee knows it — although to their credit, writers Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver still find a few unique inclusions. Even so, Girls Trip is unmistakably the latest in the recent string of ladies-behaving-badly flick (think Bridesmaids, Bad Moms and Fun Mom Dinner), and it doesn't do much differently, plot-wise. If anything, one of the reasons that the movie stands out is because it isn't pretending to tell a new story. Rather, it's happy evoking laughs while also feeling authentic. And it's that authenticity that's key. Plenty of the gags swing and miss, and some are downright cringeworthy. How much you'll chuckle in certain parts of the film might depend on your threshold for gross-out humour, while other scenes definitely overstay their welcome. Yet there's an energy and intimacy to Girls Trip that's inescapable. As silly, crude and debauched as the antics get, the warmth and joy surrounding the four protagonists continually sets the movie apart from its predecessors. These gals are written and played like real women who are actually friends, instead of bland female figures being humiliated to prove they're just as unruly as men. Kudos, too, to Hall, Latifah, Pinkett Smith and Haddish. Depicting characters who not only seem like they want to hang out with each other, but that audiences want to spend time with, isn't as easy as it sounds. Doing it within a bawdy comedy is all the more difficult still. The quartet repeatedly hit the mark, with Pinkett Smith a particular delight as the tightly wound mum learning to be herself again, and Haddish not only stealing every scene she's in but putting her stamp all over the film. To say that her delivery of bedroom tips will stick with you is definitely an understatement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnqkPpSn94Y
Bill Murray. Zombies. As movie-goers learned ten years ago, it's a winning combination. But Zombieland is no longer the only way to see the beloved film star enter the realm of the shuffling undead. Thanks to upcoming comedy The Dead Don't Die, Murray dwells in a world of re-animated corpses once more — and it's now his job to fight them. The latest flick from filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, this zom-com spends time with a trio of small-town cops (Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny), who discover that their new case has quite the twist. As the movie's first trailer tells us, "in this peaceful town, on these quiet streets, something terrifying, something horrifying is coming". Yes, that something is zombies, the undead or ghouls, as Driver's character explains. Cue plenty of comic battles against brain-munching foes, as well as plenty of appearances by famous folks — including Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Sara Driver, Selena Gomez and Carol Kane, plus Iggy Pop, RZA and Tom Waits. Murray (Coffee and Cigarettes, Broken Flowers), Driver (Paterson), Swinton (Only Lovers Left Alive) and Buscemi (Mystery Train) have all worked with Jarmusch before, as has the movie's trio of musicians, but don't go expecting something familiar here. As all of the above flicks have shown, and Night on Earth, Dead Man, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and documentary Gimme Danger too, the writer/director has never been fond of making the same film twice. The Dead Don't Die will hit Aussie cinemas on October 24. But if you're in Sydney, you can catch it at this year's Sydney Film Festival, where it will screen over three sessions on June 14, 15 and 16. There are still tickets available to them, so we recommend booking them in now. In the interim, prepare for a wacky yet deadpan addition to the zombie fold, complete with Murray hanging out in a cemetery and Swinton playing a sword-wielding mortician. Check out the deadly trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs5ZOcU6Bnw The Dead Don't Die will hit Australian cinemas on October 24, 2019. It will also screen at Sydney Film Festival on June 14, 15 and 16. You can get those tickets here. Updated: May 20, 2019.
"My name is Jordan Belfort" explains Leonardo DiCaprio in the opening to Martin Scorsese's new film, The Wolf of Wall Street. "The year I turned 26, I made $49 million, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week." If you're a banker, that probably frames this film as something of a tragedy for you. For everyone else, it sets the tone for a semi-true story about a materialistic mercenary whose insatiable appetite for money and power saw him wreak havoc on both the stock market and his own family for two decades. Taking its name and story from Belfort's bestselling (and unsurprisingly self-aggrandising) biography, The Wolf of Wall Street largely confirms all the things you presumed you hated about unscrupulous investment bankers and even establishes a few new ones for you to despise. It is black comedy at its very darkest; a chronicle of depravity that at once amuses and nauseates. In his now award-winning turn as the eponymous 'wolf', DiCaprio holds nothing back — screaming, beaming and drooling his way through every scene with gleeful, passionate intensity. His best lines are often reserved for internal monologue, navigating by narration all the intricacies of drug consumption, prostitute procurement and, of course, stock market manipulation. Alongside him is Jonah Hill in a fantastically weird performance as Belfort's right-hand man Donnie Azoff. Grinning through hypnotically white teeth, Azoff is both Belfort's enabler and guardian — simultaneously safeguarding their friendship whilst steering it irreversibly down the road to inevitable ruin. Despite its cracking pace, The Wolf of Wall Street runs at just one minute short of three hours and definitely feels as long as it is. The cycle of sex, drugs and opulence admittedly entertains at first but soon becomes as unvarying and unremarkable as, presumably, it was in real life. That vapidity is then compounded by the lack of growth experienced by just about every character in the film. Belfort's transformation from wide-eyed newcomer to unapologetic sybaritic lasts precisely one (albeit probably the best) scene right at the start of the film, after which his character arc sits firmly on the 180. Lessons aren't learned, egos aren't checked and virtue never rears its head as the Wolf and his pack cruise, jet and blindly stumble from one orgiastic spectacle to the next. In that respect, The Wolf of Wall Street ultimately feels shallower and less arresting than, say, Oliver Stone's Wall Street or even Brian De Palma's Bonfire of the Vanities. All three unreservedly showcase the extraordinary grandiosity, greed and ruthlessness of men like Belfort, yet Wolf's predecessors prove that less is more when examining those for whom 'more' is the singular ambition. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iszwuX1AK6A
"Male chauvinist pig versus hairy-legged feminist" was the proposal. In a late-night phone call, Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) quickly tells Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) that her pins are smooth, but the sentiment — sexism vs. feminism — still stuck. She's the number one women's tennis player, riding high from a string of grand slam titles. He's a former champion well past his prime, with a fondness for gambling, talking and self-promotion. It should come as no surprise that King initially turned Riggs down. Why she changed her mind, what she was fighting for, and how their exhibition game made history informs Battle of the Sexes, a recreation of the match of the same name. Reuniting Stone and Carell after Crazy, Stupid, Love, and Carell with Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, King and Riggs' famous tussle inspires an engaging, entertaining effort — one that's as much about the showdown at its centre as it is the struggles it stood for. Pitting a boorish headline grabber against a woman striving for equality, and throwing in Australian tennis player Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee) as one of the villains, its contents are also incredibly relevant today. Battle of the Sexes introduces King doing the two things she'll become best known for: smashing it on the court and thrashing it out over prize money. Fresh from victory at Wimbledon, she demands the same amount of cash for women as is given to men. When US tennis association head Jack Kramer (Bill Pullman) declines, she starts her own competition with World Tennis magazine founder Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman). Enter Riggs, a locker room bet that he could beat any female player, and a public promise to put ladies back in the kitchen and the bedroom. At first King refuses to become part of the spectacle, but when Riggs plays Court and wins, the standing of women's sport is on the line. It's estimated that 90 million people watched the match worldwide. With its '70s-style visuals and upbeat attitude, a perfectly fine sports biopic could've easily resulted from simply pitting King's sympathetic protagonist against Riggs' over-the-top foil. But that's not quite what Battle of the Sexes sets out to do. With King also the first prominent female athlete to come out as a lesbian, her relationship with hairdresser Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough) forms part of the story, as scripted by Slumdog Millionaire Oscar-winner Simon Beaufoy. It's sensitively explored, evoking the excitement of falling for someone new as well as the confusion plaguing the married King. It also makes the parallels between her professional and personal troubles clear — and there's a reason that the prickly, naysaying Court makes such an apt inclusion. Fresh from her La La Land glory, Stone arrives ready to serve up a powerhouse performance. Swinging a racket rather than singing up a storm, she paints a compelling portrait of a woman driven by what's right and fair, even as she's wrestling with her own turmoil. Carell, meanwhile, has fun putting "the show back in chauvinist", although you'll never forget that you're watching Carell. Then again, perhaps that's fitting. King fought for all women to be treated equally, and later for LGBTIQ rights. Riggs, on the other hand, just wanted to get back to the spotlight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RwiDnmJC7w
Victorians, it's holiday time. After spending so much of 2020 staring at your own four walls, you probably don't need much motivation to head out of town, but the State Government is giving you some anyway. In an effort to encourage everyone to take a getaway within the state, it's handing out $200 vouchers for regional travel. The move was first announced back in mid-November — as part of a $465 million Victorian Tourism Recovery Package — and, in December, the exact details of what you can spend the money on, when you can spend it and exactly how you can get your hands on the vouchers were unveiled. Then, the first round of 40,000 vouchers was made available, and proved so popular that another 30,000 were released to meet demand (and make up for the fact that the Business Victoria voucher registration page had to go offline for extended periods because so many folks were trying to access it). The Victorian Government has revealed that the initial vouchers were primarily used for trips to Mornington Peninsula, Bass Coast, East Gippsland, the Surf Coast and High Country — but the scheme was always planned to be a multi-round affair. So, as previously announced, the next batch will become available today, Wednesday, January 20. You'll need to head online at 10am AEDT to nab one, with 40,000 available — covering travel between January 27–April 1. [caption id="attachment_794508" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Peninsula Hot Springs via Visit Victoria[/caption] There are two obvious aims to the scheme overall: enticing Victorian residents to go venturing throughout the state, and helping support regional pubs, hotels, wineries and small businesses. If you don't get one this time, the final round of vouchers will be handed out on Tuesday, March 30, for travel between April 6–May 31. The vouchers can be spent on accommodation, tourism attractions and tours in regional Victoria, the Yarra Ranges and the Mornington Peninsula. But, there's a hefty list of things you can't spend them on, including gaming, alcohol, fuel, food and drinks (unless it's part of a winery tour, for example), groceries, personal items (such as clothing) and transport (such as rental cars and public transport). So, you can't just use the voucher to road trip to a pub, but you can use it to book accommodation at the pub, then spend your own money on food and drinks — which will still make your trip away significantly cheaper. There are some additional caveats, too: the vouchers are limited to one per household (not per person) across the entire scheme; you must first provide evidence of spending $400 on accommodation, attractions or tours before getting your $200; and you must pay for a minimum of two nights accommodation in regional Victoria. Which means, at most, half of your expenses will be covered — but, that's $200 that you won't have to fork out yourself. Yes, it's a little complicated — but the Vic Government has broken it down in more detail over here. It has also given some more examples of what you can use the vouchers on, including holiday parks, camping sites, cottages, farm stays, private holiday rentals, houseboats (yes, houseboats), winery tours, adventure tours and entry fees to regional attractions, such as. museums, water parks and adventure parks. You can apply for the second round of 40,000 $200 travel vouchers from 10am on Wednesday, January 20 at business.vic.gov.au/travelvouchers. The final round will open on Tuesday, March 30. Top image: The Rail Trail, Visit Victoria/Josie Withers.
It has been almost two years since a Marvel movie hit the big screen. If you're a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you've probably been feeling their absence. But, since the beginning of 2021, you've likely also been heading to Disney+ to check out a few new small-screen adventures. First came WandaVision, which focused on Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision's (Paul Bettany) story after Avengers: Endgame. It added something different to the MCU, overtly aping classic sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, Family Ties and Malcolm in the Middle as it puzzled its way through Wanda and Vision's small-town life — and had everyone wondering why Vision was even walking and talking post-Endgame at all. Now, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is also telling a story set after the last Avengers flick, this time with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan's eponymous characters. Based on its first episode so far, it's much more conventional than WandaVision. It doesn't boast a fabulous performance by Parks and Recreation's Kathryn Hahn, either. But, it does explore the everyday existence of both Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, who'll team up over the rest of the show's six-episode season. It seems that plenty of people were keen to see what happened next for Wilson and Barnes, and to keep adding a new Marvel episode to their weekends after WandaVision wrapped up. Debuting last week, on Friday, March 19, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's first episode has become Disney+'s most watched premiere ever. Although the streaming platform hasn't given any actual numbers — which tends to be the case when such services boast about their viewership, as Netflix has also demonstrated — it has announced that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier earned the feat between Friday and Sunday, and was also the most-watched title overall globally over the three days. That means that more folks took a look than when WandaVision premiered, and when Star Wars series The Mandalorian did too, although those shows sit second and third on Disney+'s list of biggest opening weekends. Over The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's remaining five episodes, the series will bring back Daniel Brühl as Baron Zemo and Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter. As seen already, Wyatt Russell (The Good Lord Bird) is also joining the MCU as John Walker. And yes, the MCU's fourth phase will include more TV shows after this — such as Loki, which hits in June; Secret Invasion, starring Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury; and a series set in Wakanda. For now, if you haven't viewed the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier already, you can check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWBsDaFWyTE The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is available to stream now on Disney+, with new episodes added each Friday for the next five weeks. Top image: Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Going into Scream VI, viewers know who the killer definitely isn't: the horror franchise's OG final girl Sidney Prescott. Neve Campbell's (The Lincoln Lawyer) character has been a pivotal part of every Ghostface-stalked flick from 1996's initial Scream through to 2022's fifth entry Scream, but famously isn't in the stab-happy saga's latest chapter due to a pay dispute. That's one big change for returning filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett to grapple with in their second slice of the blood-splattering, scary movie-loving action. À la Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan — which gets an early nod, naturally — they also move said action to New York. But even if you take Ghostface and the murderer's targets out of Woodsboro, and shake up who the masked maniac swings a knife at, Scream is going to Scream in a screamingly familiar fashion. It has before in Ohio in Scream 2 and Hollywood in Scream 3, and the series knows it. New movie, new city, same setup, same gravelly Roger L Jackson voice, same 'Red Right Hand' needle drop, same overall formula: throw in the same winking, nodding, self-referential attitude, plus the same penchant for mentioning horror movies, their tropes and cliches, and general film theory, and that's Scream VI's easy cut. Once again, someone dons Ghostface's ghost face, of course, and uses whichever blade happens to be in the vicinity (and a shotgun) to terrorise teens and long-victimised targets. Murder Mystery's James Vanderbilt and Ready or Not's Guy Busick haven't taxed themselves with the screenplay — their second Scream effort, after the previous flick — but the franchise's pattern keeps making a comeback for a reason. While intrepid reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox, Shining Vale) notes the world's current "true-crime limited series" obsession, whodunnits and murder-mysteries date back further, and that's where every Scream instalment has also carved a niche since the late, great Wes Craven and Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson started things off. With Sidney happily explained away, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera, In the Heights) is Ghostface's present obsession. She was last time, too, which didn't end well for some of her friends and acquaintances. A year later, she's in the Big Apple because that's where younger sister Tara (Jenna Ortega, Wednesday) goes to college, and Sam isn't keen to let her out of her sight. Horror movie fanatic Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown, Yellowjackets) and her twin Chad (Mason Gooding, Love, Victor) are also new-ish ex-Woodsboro kids on campus. And, when bodies start piling up, starting with the saga's obligatory and engagingly effective cold open — with Samara Weaving (Babylon) reuniting with her Ready or Not directors to follow in Drew Barrymore (Santa Clarita Diet), Jada Pinkett Smith (The Matrix Resurrections) and the like's footsteps — Scream VI's core four have another date with a psychopath. Sam, Tara, Mindy and Chad also have fresh-faced NYC company, adding to the suspect pool. Sam and Tara are bunking with sex-positive roommate Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato, A Million Little Things), who has a police detective (Dermot Mulroney, Umma) for an overprotective father. Chad does the same with the studious Ethan Landry (Jack Champion, Avatar: The Way of Water), while Mindy is dating Anika Kayoko (Devyn Nekoda, Sneakerella). Plus, Sam is enjoying a secret fling with neighbour Danny Brackett (Josh Segarra, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law). Because they're all well and truly in a franchise — when Mindy gives her obligatory lecture about what movie conventions dictate should happen next, she expands beyond just horror films to ever-sprawling sagas — Gale hightails it to campus when murders start occurring, and Scream 4's Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere, Nashville) also finds reason to drop by. Sadly, when Mindy does get a-babbling about "the rules", she mentions a word that no one who saw 2022's Scream should ever want to hear again: requel. At least that term for do-overs that stick with an established timeline, bring back legacy characters, but pump in new blood to also give the original a remake doesn't then get splashed around as frenetically as Ghostface splashes gore in this followup. Scream VI doesn't get to insufferable levels of geeking out, either — that its predecessor did even for the most adoring horror-movie fans, aka the series' main audience, was an unwanted feat but a feat nonetheless — instead satirising itself by literally asking "who gives a fuck about movies?". Still, Mindy's whole speech, surveying her pals, assessing who is likely to kill or be killed, and waxing irreverent about scary film and franchise lore, shows how beholden Scream VI is to the saga's standard formula. Accordingly, don't believe Mindy when she says this isn't a requel sequel: it is. Also don't believe her when she states that old rules no longer apply: they patently do. Don't believe Mindy when she starts talking about subverting expectations as well, claiming that franchises will only keep on keeping on if they do just that. The horror genre gushes with ongoing series — some namechecked in Scream VI — that've proven the exact opposite because viewers showed up anyway, and little in this Scream entry upends the saga's basics. In fact, the big reveal is dispiritingly by-the-numbers, lacking the smart and savage commentary that helped improve the last Scream's choice of culprit in the process. Noting the wearing nature of living with trauma is a meaningful touch, but never deeply explored. The shoutout to franchise fatigue is also far more superficial than any Ghostface-caused gash. Plus, though focusing on Sam's inner turmoil has the potential to get the inevitable seventh flick to truly try something different, the callback that comes with the storyline is already clunky and played out. Scream VI is still fun enough as a slasher-comedy-slash-whodunnit; staging that slashing, plus the suspense and sleuthing around it, remains Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett's best Scream-relevant skill. That was never in doubt after Ready or Not, and their aforementioned cold open here is entertaining, playful and expertly executed. The New York setting sparks stabbings in alleyways, subways and bodegas, all impressively and tensely shot — although Montreal makes a particularly unconvincing Big Apple. And if you're going to stick with business as usual no matter what the sassy dialogue promises, Barrera, Savoy Brown, stalwart Cox, eagerly anticipated returnee Panettiere, and especially growing scream queen (see also: X and Studio 666) Ortega and always-welcome The Other Two star Segarra, are killer company.
The Northern Territory is gearing up to host its annual explosion of light and colour as Parrtjima — A Festival In Light returns to set Alice Springs aglow from Friday, April 7–Sunday, April 16. But first, it's bringing a taste of its luminous, immersive installations down south. For the first time ever, the blockbuster event is hosting a spinoff showcase outside of the Red Centre, with one of the fest's regular installations, Grounded, appearing at Melbourne's Federation Square from Friday, March 10–Saturday, March 11. Grounded features an animated sequence displayed via large-scale projections, blending Indigenous artworks and storytelling with enveloping soundscapes. Usually projected over red dirt at Alice Springs Desert Park when it features for Parrtjima, it's a captivating fusion of ancient culture and modern technology. Here in Melbourne, it'll bring the Parrtjima concept to life in a very different — and urban — space. Visitors will be able to step right through the interactive installation as it's splashed across Fed Square's sandstone surfaces, immersing themselves in the visuals and Dreamtime stories as they flow. You'll catch works from 12 artists showcased in Grounded, all of them previous Parrtjima participants. The bill includes names like Anne Dixon, Roseanna Larry, Marina Pumani Brown, Corban Clause Williams, Isaac Girrabul and Hannah Nungarrayi, with a range of art centres represented. And prepare to be equally swept away by the matching soundscapes, composed by artists including Sydney-based hip hop act Wicked Beat Sound System and Filipino Aboriginal rapper Rhyan Clapham, aka Dobby. Grounded will be free to experience, showing after dark each night. A free, public celebration of Aboriginal art, culture and storytelling, Parrtjima heroes First Nations people via a bumper program of music, film, talks and workshops each year. Alongside dazzling installations, its lineup of musical acts is worth making the trip to the NT for alone, including Docker River Band, Emily Wurramara, JK-47 and KAIIT. Grounded will appear at Federation Square from Friday, March 10–Saturday, March 11, showing from 8–11pm each night.
Victoria's strict rules surrounding social distancing and public gatherings have been extended until at least midnight on Sunday, August 16, with the government announcing the extension of its COVID-19 State of Emergency. First made in March and due to expire at midnight on Monday, April 13, the State of Emergency has already been extended until May 11, June 20 and July 19. With the new extension, the state's current restrictions — which include a new mandatory requirement to wear masks and facial coverings in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, areas that are also presently under stay-at-home requirements — will now be in place for four more weeks. The move comes after an ongoing rise in Victorian coronavirus case numbers over the past few weeks, with "the majority of our outbreaks are now coming from settings where people are working closely together," the government said. The State of Emergency declaration allows the state's authorised officers to "act to eliminate or reduce a serious risk to public health" as directed by Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. That means restricting movement, preventing entry to premises and venues, and detaining people — measures that have been in place over the past four months as the state responds to the coronavirus. https://twitter.com/VicGovDHHS/status/1284383562125410304 Announcing the extended State of Emergency in a press conference today, Sunday, July 19, Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos noted that it was necessary "given that we continue to see rising case numbers, increasing numbers of people being hospitalised and sadly also increasing fatalities". Fines continue to be handed out to folks who breach the restrictions, with the state's financial penalties spanning up to $1652 for individuals and up to $9913 for businesses. Under the State of Emergency, people who refuse to comply can also be taken to court, where the fine imposed could reach up to $20,000 for individuals and $100,000 for companies. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Victoria and how to protect yourself, head to the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services website.
Melbourne is doing everything it can to retain its label as world's most liveable city, with a pair of green spaces set to spring forth in the CBD. As outlined in the City of Melbourne's 2017-18 draft budget, both Elizabeth Street and Southbank Boulevard are facing significant redevelopment, in what Lord Mayor Robert Doyle has called "a once-in-a-generation project." The draft budget allocates $11 million to a three-year $35 million project that will see an entire lane of Southbank Boulevard, along with adjoining Dodd Street, transformed into an open space featuring greenery, public art spaces, 'green' tram tracks and 1.2 kilometres of bike lanes. "The new public space planned for the front of the ABC alone would be roughly the same size as the City Square," said Doyle. "Dodds Street will be remade into a public space that can cater for everything from street performances to farmers markets and medium scale music festivals at the doorstep of the Victorian College of the Arts." "Dodds Street will be redesigned into a public space that can cater for everything from street performances to medium scale music festivals at the doorstep of the Victorian College of the Arts," he added. Meanwhile, $1.5 million will be used to revitalise the southern end of Elizabeth Street between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane. The southbound traffic lane will be closed in order to make way for new paving, lighting, street trees and drainage works that will in turn improve pedestrian access to Flinders Street Station. "Elizabeth Street is one of Melbourne's most significant civic spines but it's fallen behind and it needs an upgrade," said Doyle. "It's crucial that we make this area more pedestrian-friendly to cater for Melbourne's booming population." Updated: July 13, 2017.
Food is usually the gift you give when you can't think of anything else. Come on, you know it's true. That said, anyone getting their dad Gelato Messina's latest special Father's Day creation can't be accused of that. If you're giving someone something that you're fighting the urge to just order for yourself, you're definitely giving a thoughtful present — and who doesn't want to tuck into three of the gelato chain's favourite desserts in chocolate bar form? Chocolates are Messina's Mother's Day go-to — and this year they're on the brand's Father's Day menu as well. The new three-pack marks the first time that Messina has ever made chocolate bars and blocks itself, however, with the team at its Rosebery headquarters doing the honours. Each kit actually contains nine items, but of three different types of chocolate. Loved Messina's recent cone-ception cookie pies? It has turned the concept into mini 105-gram chocolate bars, which combine sable biscuit, waffle cone spread and cone crunch, then cover it all in caramelised white chocolate. Your dad will get four of those, plus four mini milk chocolate Messinatella hazelnut bars featuring sable biscuit, Messinatella choc hazelnut spread and roasted hazelnuts. And, taking the final spot in the kit is the neapolitan chocolate block — and yes, it's made with milk chocolate, white chocolate that features Heilala vanilla, and strawberry chocolate infused with freeze dried strawberries. This gift will set you back $45, and it's being shipped, which is handy for folks in lockdown. Also, delivery won't cost you extra. Like most Messina specials, it's going on sale on a Monday morning — at 9am on Monday, August 23, to be exact. Then, it'll get brought to your door, with orders shipping on or before Friday, August 27. Gelato Messina's Father's Day chocolate three-packs will be available to order from 9am, Monday, August 23.
Gone are the days when travellers checked into hotels with the sole purpose of sleeping. It seems everyone wants a bit extra with their holiday, be it a gardening course, an onsite brewery or a window onto the underwater world. And while those types of overnight experiences are all well and good, if you're a pop culture fan, you might want to set your sights on Walt Disney World's 360 vacation concept in Orlando. The latest addition to the globe's accommodation wonders, it'll let you live, breathe and sleep Stars Wars — staying not only in a themed hotel, but onboard a spaceship. To answer the obvious question: no, you won't actually be going into space (although that idea isn't as out-of-this-world as it may sound). You will have a blast pretending that you're headed to a galaxy far, far, away, though. We're happy to report that the resort is taking the immersive part very seriously, with the new hotel — called Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser — allowing patrons to embark upon a two-night adventure on the starcruiser Halycon. Disney first announced this addition to its growing theme park realm back in 2017; however the huge entertainment company has just dropped specific details for all those wannabe Jedis clamouring for a unique holiday. First step: leave your real life at the door. Upon check-in, guests become a citizen of the galaxy — which means that, every minute of every day of your stay, you're a part of the Star Wars story happening around you. You'll hang out in the Atrium, where crew and passengers gather; operate the Halycon's navigation and defence systems, with plenty of guidance; and learn how to use a lightsaber, because an immersive Star Wars-themed stay wouldn't be complete without wielding a glowing weapon. You'll also sleep in spaceship cabins, drink in the passenger lounge and try to sneak into the crew-only engineering rooms. Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will form part of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, Walt Disney World's new sprawling zone dedicated to the space-set franchise — which, after opening at Disneyland in California earlier this year, is now open in Orlando as well. For now, the hotel doesn't have an opening date, although you can sign up to register your interest. If you're keen, you'll have to be committed to the experience, as the "every minute of every day" comment may well include sleeping hours — the dark side never sleeps, after all. Image: Disney/Lucasfilm via Disney Parks Blog.
The Australia Day debate has again erupted, with a Melbourne council voting to drop all references to Australia Day and to ditch its annual citizenship ceremony in favour of a culturally sensitive event that acknowledges the loss of Indigenous culture. Yarra Council made the call at last night's town hall meeting after ongoing discussions with local Indigenous representatives. "The overwhelming sentiment from our Aboriginal community is that January 26 is a date of sadness, trauma and distress. They have told us that this is not a day of celebration, but a day of mourning," said Yarra Mayor, Cr Amanda Stone in a statement. The council had also commissioned a survey of nearly 300 non-Indigenous people in Yarra, which showed that 78.6 percent of respondents supported the concept of a January 26 event to acknowledge Aboriginal experiences. "In the last 12 months there has been a groundswell of community support for change from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people across the country. The community is looking for leadership on this issue," said Cr Stone. "People can still have their barbecues and parties on the January 26 public holiday, but I hope our stance encourages people to stop and think about what this date really means in the history of our nation. "A celebration of national identity should be inclusive of all Australians. 26 January is not an appropriate date because it marks the beginning of British colonisation and the loss of culture, language and land for Australia's First Peoples." However, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has voiced his disapproval, criticising Yarra Council. "An attack on Australia Day is a repudiation of the values the day celebrates: freedom, a fair go, mateship and diversity," the PM said in a statement, reported by the ABC. "I recognise Australia Day, and its history, is complex for many Indigenous Australians but the overwhelming majority of Australians believe the 26th of January is the day and should remain our national day." The council vote has seen a swag of recommendations approved, including adopting a communications plan to better educate people on the Indigenous experience surrounding January 26, and referring to the day as January 26 until there's a nationally adopted term to use in its place. Yarra Council's also moved to use their publications and social media channels to officially support the #changethedate campaign, and will explore ways to lobby the Federal Government on the issue. The controversial decision follows on from Fremantle Council's move to hold its official 2017 Australia Day celebrations two days later than normal, on January 28, though it looks as though these changes by the Yarra Council will be the most extensive we've seen yet. Image: City of Yarra.
When you think of French composer Claude Debussy, you're more likely to arrive at the dreamy, mellifluous 'Clair de Lune' than the melodramatic stampede of opera. But at the turn of the 20th century, the French composer decided to dabble. Adapting Maurice Maeterlinck's play about a woman found wandering in the forest by a prince, Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande added to his already burgeoning reputation as an innovator. It was written in part as a response to the popular operatic traditions of the second half of the 19th century — and, more specifically, Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. In contrast to these dramatic works, Pelleas and Melisande favours subtlety. It is devoid of arias and has a libretto written in prose rather than verse, creating an ethereal atmosphere that is dark in its eeriness. It has made Pelleas and Melisande, Debussy's only opera, completely original and one that completely revolutionised the art form. To mark the 100th anniversary of Debussy's death, Victorian Opera is staging a two-night run of the opera at St. Kilda's Palais Theatre. Featuring Siobhan Stagg as Melisande, Angus Wood as Pelleas and the Australian National Academy of Music orchestra, this is a great chance to remember (or get to know) one of the seminal works of this symbolist composer. Tickets to Pelleas and Melisande start from $35. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Victorian Opera website.
If you’ve been teetering on the brink of comic book and superhero fatigue, meet the movie that just might push you over the edge. In the case of the latest version of Fantastic Four, it’s not just the fact that every month seems to see a new film in the genre reach cinemas (or the knowledge that this particular content was translated to the screen just last decade). It's also the feature's embrace of cliché, grim tone and a complete lack of energy that causes it to grate, and then some. Fantastic Four is yet another gritty reboot of a superhero origin story. In case you can’t remember the 2005 film of the same name and its 2007 sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (or in case you’ve willingly forgotten them), the series mythology concerns a quartet of friends who get genetically altered and gain superpowers — stretchy limbs, rock-like skin, bursting into flames and invisibility. The characters first created in 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are now brought back to the big screen by Chronicle writer/director Josh Trank. Reed Richards (Miles Teller), Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) and Johnny Storm (Michael B Jordan) travel to another dimension and come back changed, with the latter's sister Sue (Kate Mara) also caught up in the fallout. Their one-time friend Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) goes with them...but doesn’t fare quite so well. With X-Men: Days of Future Past writer Simon Kinberg and The Lazarus Effect's Jeremy Slater helping on the script, Trank’s take is as stern and serious as his cast are young and fresh-faced — think Fantastic Four filtered through the template of a teen drama, even if the actors are slightly older than that. Outcasts come together, trouble ensues, and everyone tries to come to terms with their trauma in a manner not unlike many after-school specials. Yes, life lessons are also learned, including the all-important “never drink and teleport” and “don’t touch the green, glowing goo”. It all makes for as low-key, downbeat affair as comic book adaptations have seen, with the cast the saving grace. The presence of the five key players — plus Reg E Cathey as Johnny and Sue's father — is a welcome one, although their performances hardly live up to the great work they've delivered in the past. Bell's version of the Thing is the feature's highlight, though we hear much more of the actor than we see. In his brooding brute of boulders, a glimpse of the emotion Trank is aiming for is apparent, albeit only briefly. That Teller and co. hardly shine could be a reflection of the stilted dialogue they’re spouting, (including a blatant one-line rip-off of Ghostbusters) as well as the unengaging series set-up they're immersed in. When all the lab scenes, messy action and cheap-looking special effects ultimately build up to the bestowing of the group’s name (aka the movie’s title), disappointment isn’t the only emotion you'll be feeling. As a concept, there’s plenty of interest in Fantastic Four — and yet filmmakers keep floundering in bringing it to the screen. A sequel is already slated, of course, and here's hoping that it tells a new tale with a smattering of enthusiasm, rather than blandly rehashing familiar territory.
Some actors possess voices that could narrate almost anything, and Willem Dafoe is one of them. Move over Morgan Freeman: when Dafoe speaks, his dulcet vocals echoing atop gorgeous imagery of the world's waterways as happens in River, being entranced by the sound is the only natural response. He's tasked with uttering quite the elegiac prose in this striking documentary, and he gives all that musing about tributaries and creeks — the planet's arteries, he calls them at one point — a particularly resonant and enthralling tone. Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom (Sherpa) knew he would, of course. She enlisted his talents on her last documentary, Mountain, as well. Both films pick one of the earth's crucial natural features, lens them in all their glory at multiple spots around the globe, and wax lyrical about their importance. Both make for quite the beguiling viewing experience. Thanks to writer Robert Macfarlane, Dafoe has been given much to opine in River — and what he's asked to say is obviously even more crucial than the fact that it's the Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Card Counter, The French Dispatch and Nightmare Alley star expressing it. The subject is right there in the title, but the film's aims are as big and broad as an ocean, covering the history of these snaking streams from the planet's creation up until today. "Humans have long loved rivers," Dafoe announces, which seems like a self-evident statement; however, not one to trade in generalisations without evidence, River then unpacks exactly what that means. It also uses that idea as a foundation, but paired with another, which Dafoe also gives voice to — this time as a question: "as we have learned to harness their power, have we also forgotten to revere them?". The answer is blatant, lapping away at the souls of everyone who lives in a river city and passes their central watercourse daily without giving it a second thought. Indeed, that plain-as-day response ripples with even more force to anyone who has been struck by the waterways' power when natural disasters strike, a fact that hits close to home after Australia's disastrously flooded summer across Queensland and New South Wales — timing that the movie isn't overtly trying to capitalise upon, given it first started doing the rounds of film festivals in 2021, and has had its March 2022 date with Aussie cinemas booked in for months. A documentary doesn't have to tell viewers something wholly new to evoke wonder, though. Conveying well-known truths in unforgettable and affecting ways has always been one of cinema's key skills, whether working in fact or fiction. River's sentiments won't come as a surprise, but it still feels like a fresh splash of water upon a parched face. Dafoe's narration and the film in general hone in on the importance of rivers to human civilisation since its very beginnings, starting with the unshakeable reality that rivers have made much in our evolution possible. Also just as pivotal: the devastation we've wrought in response since we learned to harness all that water for our own purposes, irrigate the land far and wide, and take an abundance of H2O for granted, which River doesn't ebb away from. The prose is flowery, but never overdone; its eager quest for potent poetry, or to be mentioned in the same breath as Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, always feels attuned to the awe it holds for its eponymous streams. It's also on par with Dafoe, Peedom and Macfarlane's work back in 2017 on Mountain, which was similarly hypnotic — and became the highest-grossing non-IMAX Australian documentary ever made, a claim to fame it still holds today. This time joined by co-director/co-scribe and feature debutant Joseph Nizeti, River's veteran trio don't simply paddle into familiar waters like they've easily charted this course — or climbed this peak — before, however. They repeat much of what they did last time, including pairing dazzling sights with a score by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, but it's fitting that there's a keen flow to this film that makes it an especially majestic and moving watch. It's there in the pace of the cinematography, as lensed by a five-strong team that includes Sherpa and Mountain's Renan Ozturk. It's evident in the rhythms of the feature's editing, too, with The Babadook, Spear, Martha: A Picture Story and The Nightingale's Simon Njoo doing the honours. As fast as a cascading waterfall at times, and as patient as a barely babbling brook at others, River couldn't take the job of honouring its subject in as many ways as it can more seriously. Thanks to those arresting visuals — spectacular footage that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible — and the accompanying score, River was always going to earn flowery terms slung its own way. The vision is that remarkable as it soars high and wide across 39 countries, and peers down with the utmost appreciation. The swirling orchestral music, which includes everything from Bach to Radiohead, adds amply to the journey as well (even if it does occasionally leave viewers yearning for sounds as natural the movie's sights). Here, a picture truly is worth a thousand of those Dafoe-uttered words, but the combination of both is something exceptionally special. It's interesting, then, that River is the achievement it is thanks to all of its moving parts coming together so fluidly, but its imagery is also always second to none. While the combination mesmerises, only the film's visuals could tell the same tale alone — and what a story they tell. There's a cohort of documentaries that have attempted the same observational feat without any sense of spoken narrative, an approach seen at its best in the Qatsi trilogy of Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi, also in Baraka and Samsara, and even in recent Oscar-nominee Ascension; River reaches the same immersive and insightful levels. What a joy it is to be the film that doesn't need Willem Dafoe's narration, but is all the better for it. Even better: what a joy it is to watch that movie. And, in just-as-fantastic news, Peedom sees River as the second part of a trilogy. Top image: Pete McBride.
Gelato Messina first introduced its cookie pies to the world in 2020, and tastebuds across Australia thanked them. Then, it kept bringing the OTT dessert back when we all needed an extra dose of sweetness across the year. In fact, the dessert fiends have been serving them up for exactly 12 months now. That's a milestone worth celebrating, which Messina is doing by releasing a new birthday cake cookie pie. Chocolate chips are involved, as they usually are, but this dessert also includes a layer of vanilla custard, plus birthday cake crumbled on top. Yes, sprinkles feature as well. Of course they are. Hang on, a cookie pie? It's a pie, obviously, but it's made of cookie dough. And it serves two–six people — or just you. You bake it yourself, too, so you get to enjoy that oh-so-amazing smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through your kitchen. This time, you'll enjoy the scent of vanilla and birthday cake as well. The new pies will be available for preorder from 9am on Monday, April 12 — which is your chance to get yourself a piece of the pie. On its own, the indulgent birthday cake cookie pie will cost $25. But to sweeten the deal, the cult ice creamery has created a few bundle options, should you want some of its famed gelato atop it. For $35, you'll get the pie and a 500-millilitre tub, while with a one-litre tub or a 1.5-litre tub, it'll cost $41 and $45 respectively. The catch? You'll have to peel yourself off the couch and head to your local Messina store to pick up your order. They'll be available for collection between Friday, April 16–Sunday, April 18. You can preorder a Messina birthday cake cookie pie pie from Monday, April 12, to pick up from April 16–18.
Melburnians, it's roadmap time — yes, again. It's also time to start getting ready to leave the house whenever you like. Today, Sunday, October 17, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that the state's current (and sixth) lockdown officially has an end date. So, come 11.59pm on Thursday, October 21, the city's sixth stint of stay-at-home conditions will finally lift. In a press conference, the Premier confirmed that the state will hit the 70-percent double-vaccinated mark among over 16s earlier than expected, which is why lockdown will lift earlier than initially outlined in the state's previously announced roadmap. And, that's why the state's roadmap has been given a few tweaks, too, loosening a couple of extra restrictions at that 70-percent double-jabbed mark. "Today I am very pleased to announce that from 11.59pm this Thursday, when we get to the 70-percent mark, the lockdown lifts, there will be no restrictions on leaving your home or curfew. The roadmap will be delivered in full and there are a number of things we are adding to the road map as of 11.59pm this Thursday. Things we can bring forward, additional things, extra things we can do because the Victorian community has done so well in getting vaccinated so fast and in such great numbers," said Andrews. Bring forward the haircut and tell Mum you'll be round for dinner. Lockdown will end at 11.59pm on Thursday. 5 million Victorians have had a first dose, and we're well ahead of where we thought we'd be - meaning we can make the changes we promised in the Roadmap, and go further pic.twitter.com/17qohsFX6A — Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) October 17, 2021 Accordingly, as already outlined in the original plan, the reasons to leave home and the nighttime curfew will be completely ditched. Plus, that'll now be paired with scrapping the travel radius, after the initial roadmap included a 25-kilometre limit. You won't quite be able to go wherever you like, however, with movement between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria only allowed for permitted reasons. Also, having visitors over to your house will now be allowed, with up to ten people (including dependents) per day able to visit homes in both regional and metropolitan Melbourne. This is a big change to the initial plan, which didn't permit visitors to homes at all at this stage — and the new roadmap highly recommends that these visitors are all double-jabbed. Plus, 15 double-vaxxed people will be allowed to gather outdoors (up from the proposed ten), and pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes can open to 20 double-jabbed folks indoors (up from zero) and 50 double-vaccinated patrons outdoors (which was in the original plan). Outdoors, that covers not just cafes and sports facilities such as pools, but also outdoor cinemas. Weddings and funerals will operate under the same 20-person and 50-person indoor and outdoor limits, and the five double-jabbed people cap at hairdressers will kick in as initially outlined. And, masks will still be required both indoors and outdoors at the 70-percent double-jabbed stage. With Victoria reaching the 70-percent double-jabbed threshold earlier than expected, it'll also hit 80-percent double-vaxxed among over 16s earlier than initially planned, too, which Andrews advised will happen sometime around Melbourne Cup day (Tuesday, November 2). Exactly when the next phase of eased restrictions will kick in around then hasn't been confirmed as yet, but everything already announced in the roadmap for that 80-percent mark is still earmarked to happen. So, that's when groups of 30 fully vaxxed people can gather outdoors. Dining indoors at hospitality venues will go up to 150 double-vaxxed folks, and the cap outside will go up to 500. Instrastate travel will be back with no limits, indoor community sport will return as well, there'll be no cap on hairdressing for the fully vaxxed, and all retail stores will reopen. Also, entertainment venues, plus weddings and funerals, will follow those 150 and 500 caps mentioned above. And, masks will only be required inside from this point. In the final phase of the roadmap — which is still expected sometime around Friday, November 19, when 80 percent of Victorians over 12 are double vaccinated — the state will align with the rules under Australia's new 'National Plan to transition Australia's National COVID Response' that was announced in July. That's when double-jabbed Victorians are expected to be able to travel overseas again without restrictions, when there's set to be no lockdowns, and when vaxxed Aussies will be free from domestic restrictions anyway. The Federal Government is still expected to fully flesh out these rules in the coming months. Also, Victoria remains committed to letting 30 people inside homes for Christmas, . Exactly when that'll kick in — obviously before December 25 — hasn't been revealed. Wondering where you can currently get vaccinated? There's a handy online map that helps you find your nearest clinic. Keen to keep an eye on vaccination rates? A heap of online resources will help you do that as well. Metropolitan Melbourne's lockdown will lift at 11.59pm on Thursday, October 21. For further information about Victoria's reopening roadmap, head to the Victorian Government website. For more information about the status of COVID-19 and the current restrictions, head over to the Department of Health website. Top image: Ponyfish Island, Julia Sansone.
UPDATE, August 26, 2020: Bumblebee is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. According to journalist and author Christopher Booker, there are seven basic story archetypes. According to the writers of the Michael Bay Transformers movies, there are none. Thank goodness, then, for screenwriter Christina Hodson, whose new film Bumblebee manages to be both a Transformers spinoff and a coherent story at the same time. This is, put simply, a franchise reborn. Rebooted. Resurrected. It dispenses with all the bombast of the Bay cacophony machine – the inexplicable explosions, one-dimensional characters and hyper-sexualised teenagers – in favour of a small scale story about a teen girl and her first car. Yes, a girl, and instead of miniature ripped shorts and extreme push-up bras, this one's prone to wearing grubby overalls, Smiths tour t-shirts and a spanner in her back pocket. Even better, her characterisation doesn't feel contrived: her late father was a grease monkey and fixing cars was their special father/daughter thing. Now that he's gone, it's all she has left. Played by Hailee Steinfeld, Charlie is an instantly appealing lead to get behind. She loves her family but feels detached and alone because of her reluctance to move on and accept the new man in her mother's life. She's independent, but not wealthy enough to forge a new life for herself. She's pretty, but not in the 'rich girl' way like the cruel queen bee from across town who torments her at every opportunity. When Charlie eventually finds Bumblebee, an injured alien robot hiding on earth disguised as an old yellow VW beetle, the instant bond they form is as touching as it is (strangely) believable. Together they will help each other find what they're looking for, with their bond far more integral to the story than the intergalatic robot war that provides the film its backdrop. Does that mean Transformers fans will feel shortchanged? Absolutely not. The opposite, in fact, because everything about Bumblebee treats its mechanical stars with the love and respect of someone who grew up watching the cartoons in the 80s (the film itself is set in 1987). The robot design and colour palette is admirably faithful to the source material, the voice work is spot on, and *that* sound effect (aka the transformation garble) is used with gleeful abandon. Even better, the action is entirely comprehensible, even at its most frenetic. Take nothing away from the Bay-era special effects – they were utterly groundbreaking. But there was just so much of it going on at all times that keeping track of who was fighting what became an exercise in nausea. In Bumblebee it's rare to see more than two transformers on screen at any one time, and the agile direction by Travis Knight allows you to enjoy every punch, blast and transformation. In the scenes involving the other human characters, principally John Cena's robot-hunting soldier Agent Burns, the story does tend to lose its momentum, flicking between goofy comedy and comic-book villainy without ever properly nailing either. Thankfully, though, the focus remains squarely on Charlie and 'Bee' for the majority of Bumblebee, and it's a better film for it. A delight in its own right, Bumblebee is also the perfect pivot point for a welcome franchise reset. On that front, the future looks bright. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcwmDAYt22k
Tea Tree Hill Beach Shack was created with all the important creature comforts in mind — it's by the beach, plus it has an indoor (and outdoor) fireplace and an outdoor bath. Set in stunning Venus Bay, this little spot is surrounded by stellar secluded beaches and coastal landscapes but also features luxurious amenities and top-quality furnishings to lounge on. It's perfect for those who want to ensconce themselves in the worlds of fishing, stand-up paddleboarding and staring at a fire contemplating life. Plus, Wilsons Prom is just an hour or so away, so you can easily head out for a day trip. And upon your return, you can get cosy beside the fire with a complimentary whisky or port in hand. [caption id="attachment_770395" align="alignnone" width="1920"] @danielgangur.photo[/caption] Top image: Riparide
If you listen carefully, you might just hear the sound of a light- to medium-bodied red wine sloshing around a glass. That's because the world's favourite celebration of pinot noir is finally returning, with the news Pinot Palooza will make its comeback in just a few short months. In its 10 years of life, the Melbourne-born wine tasting festival has become a global affair, with an estimated 65,000 tickets sold, worldwide. But once COVID hit in 2020, it saw the popular event shelved for two-and-a-half years. Now, that hiatus is finally over, with a huge tenth-anniversary edition of Pinot Palooza set to hit Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland in 2022. The comeback tour kicks off this autumn, returning to the festival's homeland of Melbourne with a couple of wine-filled days at Port Melbourne's Timber Yard from May 6–7. Brisbane Showgrounds are up next, hosting Pinot Palooza from May 20–21, before Sydney gets its shot on June 17 and 18. The festival then crosses the ditch for its Auckland edition from October 15–16. While the wine-sipping fun will play out similarly to before, across three sessions at each event, there is one big new addition in store — a dedicated Tasmanian hub set to showcase a curation of wine, spirits, cider and cheese from over 20 top Tassie producers. As always, you'll spend your event session swirling and sampling a huge array of pinot noir from across Australia, New Zealand and the world. Word is, over 70 winemakers are coming to the party. Also like before, there'll be pop-up bars and food stalls to keep you busy in between sips, with favourites Burn City Smokers, Taco Truck and Nama already confirmed for the Melbourne edition. Pinot Palooza 2022 will hit Melbourne on May 6–7, Brisbane on May 20–21, Sydney on June 17–18 and Auckland on October 15–16. To nab tickets or find out more, jump over to the website.
It's hard to believe it, but we've almost made it through another year. With the festive season looming, it's time to start stocking up on all the bits and bobs you'll need to bring that little bit of well-deserved magic into the end of the year. And, what better way to do so than by supporting some of the small businesses that have been doing it tough the past two years? We've teamed up with American Express to bring you this nifty list of spots where you can shop small and make a big difference this holiday season — whether you're on the hunt for great gifts or festive foodstuffs, we've got you covered.
The Abbotsford Anglers are a lousy, Saturday morning, suburban cricket team, led by Ted (Stephen Curry), a sweet but kinda hopeless guy who lives in a mate's garage and works at a sports store. When his best mate, Rick (Brendan Cowell), announces his plans to marry and have children (which, to the boyish Ted, amounts to no less than treason), Ted can see his beloved cricket team will be overtaken by nappies, wives and all the other dreadful trappings of manhood. Oblivious to the inevitable fact that the times and the nature of his friendships are a-changing, Ted leads his D-grade team into the depths of India for a tour of glorified park cricket. It’s here that tensions arise, friendships are frayed, life lessons are learned and Ted must finally man up, grow up and fondly leave his teenage dreams behind. Save Your Legs! is about as blokey and Strayne, and silly as you’d expect a cricket bromance penned by Brendan Cowell to be. There's alot of toilet humour and alot of Channel Nine's "Wide World of Sports" theme music going on. Admittedly, I’m not the film’s target audience member (in other words, I’m not a cricket-obsessed, "nice Aussie bloke"), but it’s lovely to see a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Until it does, when the cricket metaphors start coming thick and fast (“There’s only one innings in life. You only get once chance” and so forth). Underlying all the beer and bravado, Save Your Legs! is about mateship and coming of age, with an affectionate portrait of everyday Aussie battlers that puts it in the same cinematic bracket as The Castle and Kenny. If the idea of a crew of drink-addled guys swanning around stoking chaos sounds familiar, it's because the film is also a bit of an Australianisation of The Hangover. Cowell and Curry give endearing performances as man-boys who are forcefully and finally shoved out of adolescence and into adulthood at the ripe old age of thirty-five. As a lighthearted, nostalgia-drenched film, Save Your Legs! hits a six.
Is your wardrobe overflowing with clothes that you don't wear? We've all been there, and we've all been too busy to do anything about it. Through its op shops, Australian Red Cross finds a new home for your pre-loved outfits, shoes and accessories, with proceeds going towards its charity efforts — but we all know that wanting to donate your old threads is one thing and finding the time to do it is another. That's why Australian Red Cross has once again partnered with Uber for its annual Uber x Red Cross Clothing Drive. When it launched in 2018, it collected over 43,500 kilograms of clothing in that first year alone, which saw clothing items worth an estimated $800,000 donated. And you'd best take the drive part literally, as the ride-sharing service will actually drive to your house, pick up your unwanted clothes and accessories, and deliver them to Red Cross Shops. Even better: it's not only super easy to take part, but it's free as well. Melburnians, just make sure you're ready between 10am–4pm on Saturday, October 19, 2024. Once you've bagged up all of your old bits and pieces (items you'd happily give your best friend, and no toys, books, furniture or electrical objects) into a bundle that weighs no more than 20 kilograms, it's all incredibly simple. Open the Uber app during that six-hour window, then find the Red Cross Clothing Drive image. After that, you need to set Red Cross Clothing Drive as the drop-off spot — and it should come up with a $0 amount. An Uber driver will then stop outside your house, meaning that you just need to take your preloved goods out to their car. Voila, you've cleared out your closet and you've helped folks in need, all with the tap of a button.
With his 2002 debut Funny Ha Ha, Andrew Bujalski inadvertently gave birth to the mumblecore movement, a loose American subgenre of cheaply made indie films with a focus on naturalistic dialogue. Now his latest film, Computer Chess, might be the mumbliest of them all. Set in the early 1980s and filmed using only the most rudimentary video equipment that would have been available at the time, this fascinatingly esoteric, ultra-niche comedy feels almost like a response to the mainstream success of folks like Lynn Shelton (Your Sister's Sister) and Lena Dunham (Girls), contemporaries of Bujalski who’ve used their hipster-auteur cred to secure projects of greater gloss and star-power. One thing’s for sure: there’s nothing glossy about Computer Chess. Shot in black and white, using old analogue video cameras that haven’t been manufactured in decades, cinematographer Matthias Grunsky achieves an aesthetic of low-tech glitch and grain. It’s a look that meshes perfectly with Bujalski’s screenplay, in which competing teams of polyester-clad programmers descend on a cheap hotel to pit chess-playing computer software against each other. Indebted to the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest (This Is Spinal Tap, Best in Show), awkward exchanges and low-key absurdity are Bujalski’s comedic tools of choice. The stakes of the tournament are impossibly low, something that’s made all the more funny by how seriously the proto tech-geeks take it. In their off time, characters flirt clumsily with the comp’s sole female entrant, before retreating to their rooms to argue about the future of computing. One of many surreal subplots sees a contestant left without a place to sleep, his nocturnal odyssey eventually comes to a head after encountering the group of new-age self-helpers with whom the contest is sharing their event space. But beneath this cringe-inducing humour exists a sad and bitter heart. The ubiquity of computers nowadays has seen the geeks inherit the earth. But for the characters in Computer Chess, that is still the distant future. Outcasts, introverts and weird egomaniacs, these are men born before their time, with no way to assert their masculinity. No way, save for lines of computer code and those 64 black and white squares. As much as it is comedy, Computer Chess is also a treatise on isolation, social hierarchy and the crippling male fear of inadequacy. In a scene that exemplifies the movie as a whole, a virginal junior competitor is propositioned by a middle-aged couple. It’s hilarious, uncomfortable and tragic all at once.
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on. After months of anticipation, the highly acclaimed David Bowie is exhibition has arrived at ACMI. Created by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the exhibition is a Bowiephile’s dream — an unprecedented collection of over 50 stage costumes alongside handwritten set lists and lyric sheets, rare live and interview videos, musical scores and diary entries, photographs and album artwork. The exhibition comes to Australia under a furious amount of buzz — its world premiere last March in London became V&A’s fastest selling exhibition ever, recording record numbers of over 311,000 visitors. And as the exclusive venue for David Bowie is, ACMI have crafted a specially-curated program of talks, screenings, live performances and special events to pair with the Major Tom-a-thon. Basically, if you’re a Bowie fan, this is next level squealworthy material. For more information visit www.acmi.net.au/bowie
Fresh from making two of his last four films in Australia — Lion and Hotel Mumbai — Dev Patel is heading somewhere completely different. Stepping back to medieval times, he's jumping into the fantasy genre, messing with Arthurian legend and swinging around a mighty sword, all thanks to the dark and ominous The Green Knight. Based on the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Green Knight casts Patel as Sir Gawain. Nephew to King Arthur (Sean Harris), he's a knight of the Round Table and fearsome warrior. The character has popped up in plenty of tales, but here, he's forced to confront the green-skinned titular figure in an eerie showdown. As the poem explains, the Green Knight dares any other knight to strike him with an axe, but only if they'll then receive a return blow exactly one year and one day later. Just how closely this film adaptation will stick to that story is yet to be seen — however the just-dropped first teaser certainly looks more than a little moody, brooding and creepy. Patel is in great company, with The Green Knight also starring Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton and Dunkirk's Barry Keoghan. Games of Thrones' Kate Dickie pops up as Guinevere, while her co-star Ralph Ineson — whose also known from the Harry Potter flicks, The Witch and the UK version of The Office — plays the Green Knight. And, it's the latest film by an impressive — and always eclectic — writer/director, with David Lowery's filmography spanning everything from Ain't Them Bodies Saints and Pete's Dragon to A Ghost Story and The Old Man and the Gun. Check out the teaser below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoJc2tH3WBw The Green Knight will release in the US sometime over America's summer, but it doesn't yet have a release date Down Under — we'll update you when it does.
Alongside its huge Japan Supernatural: 1700s to now exhibition, the Art Gallery of NSW is hosting another exceptional show this summer — and this one's free. From Saturday, November 9 until February next year, the gallery is dedicating an entire exhibition to celebrated contemporary Australian artist Ben Quilty and his work over the past 15 years. Simply entitled Quilty, more than 70 pieces will showcase his work from the early 2000s onwards — including his intimate looks at his own reflection, his time spent as an official war artist in Afghanistan, poetic visions of the Australian landscape and his response to other topical events, including the last American election. Quilty's expressive portraits, both of himself and of others — such as executed Bali Nine drug smuggler Myuran Sukumaran — are quite a striking sight. His Rorschach paintings are too, unsurprisingly. And, they're designed not just to catch the eye, but to explore the dark undercurrent of violence and themes of displacement. Including paintings inspired by his visits to Lebanon, Syria and Greece, the exhibition marks the first major survey of Quilty's artistic output in a decade. On Wednesday, November 13, Quilty will be in conversation with ABC Radio presenter Robbie Buck in a special edition of Art After Hours. After the talk, you can catch some live tunes, too. Image 1: Photograph: Daniel Boud. Image 2: Ben Quilty. Rorschach after von Guérard. 2009. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on linen (12 panels) / 230.0 x 804.0 cm (overall). Acquired 2009, TarraWarra Museum of Art. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Jeremy Dillon.
A memoir in one's 20s — not an unprecedented move. But with a majority of Australians participating in the mass autobiography project known as social media, one that also might be written off as millennial brattiness. It's not that Natalie Yang doesn't have a good story to tell, it's just not the one rural Victoria was expecting…or particularly wants to hear. Natalie's book Banana Girl is kind of about her migrant experience. But it's mainly concerned with her many and varied sexual experiences. It's also not selling particularly well. After hearing her read an excerpt, the residents of the small town of Nagambie are scandalised, bemoaning her omission of the clichés of more famous migrant stories. Stricken with the myopia of the critically scorned, Natalie sets out to consolidate her position with a new book entitled 100 Cocks in 100 Nights. The process is unforgiving, the way marked by dissipating friendships and noses pushed out of joint. Originally conceived as a culturally diverse riff on Sex and the City, Going Down is also writer Michele Lee's attempt to deepen our understanding of what it's like to leave one country for another. "There is more to my story than what happened to my parents," she says. But the show is foremost a comedy in the vein of Girls or Broad City. If you're keen to see how conservative Victorians respond to being read a detailed description of a penis, The Malthouse is the place to be this month.
fortyfivedownstairs is one of the best performance venues in the city, and with a name like that, it's easy to find. It's hosted hundreds of exhibitions, music recitals, theatre performances and other exquisite events since 2002 and now the art of seduction is coming to this versatile and grungy space with The Burlesque Hour: The Glory Box. Oh my. Hold onto your knickers because Glory Box features jaw-dropping acts by Moira Finucane, Yumi Umiumare, Holly Durant and Ursula Martinez, the latter of whom performed at Salman Rushdie's stag night. Paul Capsis, Pamela Rabe and Rhonda Burchmore will also make appearances on select nights only. Within the unpainted brick walls of fortyfivedownstairs, a seductive spectacle will sweetly unfold. Produced by Finucane & Smith, the multi-award winning Australian company, Glory Box is going to present paradise like Pandora never knew it.
What's better than catching one of Broadway's biggest hits of the 21st century right here in Melbourne during its latest Australian run, and being whisked off to the Land of Oz in the process? Catching Wicked at the Regent Theatre for just $20. The production opens its next Victorian stint on Saturday, March 2, and it's dubbing that night a preview where folks lucky enough to click their ruby slippers together three times to get tickets can head along for cheap. No red-hued shoes are actually required among the audience, nor bumping of heels. But, because this is a one-night-only special price to start Wicked's 2024 Melbourne season, it does require nabbing your seat in person at the Regent Theatre box office. You can't hop online for this deal, and it's a first come-first served affair — so lining up early when tickets go on sale for the 7.30pm show is recommended. That date: Wednesday, February 7, with the $20 passes on offer from 8am. Each customer can only purchase two tickets, and you'll need to show valid ID while you're making the transaction (and dreaming about defying gravity, of course). After premiering in Sydney, Wicked is set to play the Victorian capital until at least Sunday, May 12, 2024 — the last date that tickets are available for at the time of writing. The overall production just marked its 20th anniversary, after composer Stephen Schwartz and playwright Winnie Holzman took a book inspired by The Wizard of Oz, put it to music and turned it into a smash. Indeed, even if you haven't seen the show before, including on its past Aussie run from 2008–11, then you've likely heard of it. Following the Land of Oz's witches — telling their untold true tale is the musical's whole angle, in fact — Wicked has notched up more awards than you can fit in a hefty cauldron over the years. That spans three Tonys from ten nominations, a Grammy, an Olivier Award and six Drama Desk Awards. Also huge: its worldwide footprint, playing in 16 countries around the globe since its 2003 debut. And, when it makes its way to the Regent Theatre for its second stop on its current Aussie run, it'll do so after enchanting itself into fourth place in the list of longest-running Broadway shows ever — even surpassing Cats. Story-wise, Wicked starts before The Wizard of Oz and continues its narrative after Dorothy Gale lands, adapting Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The text itself has sold 5.5 million copies, five million of those since the musical first opened. Here, before Dorothy blows in, two other women meet in the Land of Oz: Elphaba and Galinda. One will later be known as the Wicked Witch of the West, while the other will become Glinda the Good Witch. Exactly why that happens, and how, and the pair's relationship from rivals to unlikely friends to grappling with their new labels, fuels the show's tale. The production is taking to the stage again before the in-the-works two-part film adaptation starring Cynthia Erivo (Pinocchio) as Elphaba and Ariana Grande (Don't Look Up) as Galinda, and directed by Jon M Chu (In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians), is due to start reaching cinemas at the end of 2024. Wicked will play Melbourne's Regent Theatre from Saturday, March 2. For $20 tickets to the preview show that night, head to the Regent Theatre box office from 8am on Wednesday, February 7. For other tickets and further details, visit the production's website. Images: Jeff Busby.
Neil Perry and Rockpool have been inextricably linked since 1989, but they won't be for much longer, with the famed restaurateur announcing his sudden retirement from the Rockpool Dining Group earlier this week. Perry has stepped down from his role as culinary director for the hospitality group, which began as Rockpool Est. 1989 in Sydney's CBD. While the inaugural Rockpool restaurant closed its doors after 30 years in 2016, it spawned Rockpool Bar & Grills in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and grew into the Rockpool Dining Group, which currently has over 80 venues across the country under 16 different restaurant brands. The fast expansion of the group in recent years has been partially thanks to its merger with the Thomas Pash-led Urban Purveyor Group (UPG) in 2016. From 2017–2020, the group grew from 17 venues and $150 million in revenue to 85 and $400 million. Despite the group's success, Perry and Pash were set to part ways this year. Perry, with the help of financial backers, planned to reacquire the premium restaurants in the group's portfolio — Rockpool Bar & Grill, Rosetta, Spice Temple and R Bar, under the name Rockpool Group — while the remaining casual brands, including El Camino Cantina and The Bavarian, were maintained by UPG under the new name Pacific Concepts. [caption id="attachment_689482" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rockpool Bar & Grill in Sydney[/caption] That decision, however, was announced on March 2 — just weeks before the COVID-19 hit Australia, forcing the mass closure of restaurants across the country and crippling the hospitality industry. As a result, according to The Australian Financial Review, Perry's plan fell apart. While staying on as consultant and a major shareholder of the Rockpool Dining Group, Perry will no longer be an active part of the company, a statement on the chef's departure said. Instead, he'll be focusing on his charitable endeavours, including the recently launched Hope Delivery, which provides meals for those in need. "It will never be easy to move on from the restaurants I founded, and I do so with a heavy heart, but as the business and the sector set their sights on new beginnings, it is the right time for the next generation to have the opportunity afforded to me over 40 years ago," Perry said in a statement. For more information about Rockpool Dining Group and which restaurants have reopened, head to the group's website. Top image: Neil Perry and Tom Pash
After a horror run over the last three years, another major cancellation has hit the Australian festival scene. This time, The Grass Is Greener has been forced to cancel its new Canberra and Geelong gigs, and four of its acts won't be appearing at the remaining Gold Coast and Cairns dates. 2023 was slated to be a big year for the fest, which made its debut in Cairns back in 2016. This year, it was due to expand outside the Sunshine State, including heading to Canberra and Geelong as part of its planned four-date run — and, it had locked in multiple international headliners. The festival has sadly had to scale back last-minute, citing a range of reasons including weather forecasts, rising costs and the event industry post-COVID. "The reason for cancellation doesn't rest upon a single factor. Rather, it's related to the culmination of multiple elements that have affected not only us but our industry partners and siblings across the entire event industry in the COVID/post-lockdown period," a statement from The Grass Is Greener team reads. [caption id="attachment_856350" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Curdin Photo[/caption] The statement continues: "From an event standpoint, especially heading into these new markets, a festival team relies on certain milestones to enable us to run events successfully. What's more, the weather warnings we're receiving from Canberra and Geelong have also played a large role in this decision. While the shows were selling slower than predicted, we still had full intention of seeing them through — loss or otherwise. However, when coupled with the chance that sites might not even be built due to the impending weather, we knew we had to make a call as soon as possible." While this is sad news for those in the ACT and Victoria, it's not all doom and gloom. The festival will still be going ahead in the Gold Coast on Saturday, October 22 and Cairns on Saturday, October 29 with the likes of YG, PNAU, Alok, Wafia, Boo Seeka and Wongo. ONEFOUR, Ty Dollar $ign, Zhu and Maya Jane Coles have dropped off the bill, however, and won't be playing the Gold Coast or Cairns. [caption id="attachment_856349" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mitch Lowe[/caption] Refund information for folks with tickets for the two cancelled dates will be made available in the next 7–14 days, or Canberra and Geelong ticketholders can use their tickets to gain access to the Gold Coast and Cairns festivals. The festival's statement also mentions that tickets will be valid for YG's Melbourne sideshow on Monday, October 31. YG was billed to appear with Ty Dolla $ign at his Margaret Court Arena show on that date. Be sure to check the festival and YG's Instagram pages for up-to-date info on this sideshow. [caption id="attachment_812356" align="alignnone" width="1920"] PNAU. Image: Pat Stevenson[/caption] THE GRASS IS GREENER 2022 LINEUP: Alok Aluna Boo Seeka Brux Crush3ed Little Fritter Wongo Market Memories Mood Swing & Chevy Bass Pnau Sidepiece Sticky Fingers TDJ YG + more THE GRASS IS GREENER 2022 DATES: Saturday, October 22 — Doug Jennings Park, Gold Coast Saturday, October 29 — Cairns Showgrounds, Cairns The Grass Is Greener has cancelled its Geelong and Canberra dates. It will now hit the Gold Coast and Cairns with reduced lineups this month. Head to the festival website for more information. Top image: Mitch Lowe.
