Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor isn't just the domain of Robin Hood. In SBS's new six-part series, it's how a 13-year-old Northern Territory kid not only tries to get by, but endeavours to help his friends, family and others in his struggling community. The cheeky, big-hearted, hoodie-wearing teen's name: Robbie Hood. Giving a classic concept a uniquely Indigenous Australian spin, the idea behind Robbie Hood is both simple and ingenious, like many of the best are. Rather than following an adult outlaw attempting to correct the disparity between the wealthy and the less fortunate, the bite-sized show steps into the life of its eponymous hero (Pedrea Jackson) across its ten-minute-long episodes. In an area blighted by poverty, racism and systemic inequities at every turn — sky-high grocery prices that make meat unaffordable, and a foster-care system that does the bare minimum for kids in need, for example — when Robbie flouts the law, it's for a good reason. His light-fingered ways aren't a weapon in a folkloric class war, but a social-realist reflection of suboptimal conditions in Australia's Red Centre Forget Sherwood Forest, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Little John, Will Scarlett and Maid Marion, then. Instead, in Alice Springs' dusty surrounds, Robbie butts heads with kindly Shane the Copper (Dan Falzon), pals around with the always-hungry Little Johnny (Levi Thomas) and ever-sarcastic Georgia Blue (Jordan Johnson), and has a crush on checkout chick Mim (Tiara Doolan). He's always trying to make life easier for his Nana Mary (Audrey Martin), and, while he calls his boozing, guitar-playing dad (Andy Golledge) a dickhead, his love never falters. Robbie takes the same approach to his hometown — sure, he dubs it a shithole mere moments into the series' first episode, but it's still his home. Set in the lead up to Christmas, the show charts sweltering days, attempts to sneak into the local pool, quests to get enough pre-paid power cards to keep the electricity running and trips to the speedway, with writer/director Dylan River finding humour and heart in every scenario. Indeed, the show's ability to pair an upbeat spirit with an unflinching look at reality is one of its unwavering strengths. Robbie Hood's characters, including its irrepressible, irreverent protagonist, are well aware of their situation, and yet they're never defeated or defined by it. Perfecting that balance and happily dismantling stereotypes in the process, River is helped by his fantastic cast, especially the spirited Jackson — a first-time actor who oozes charisma as the titular thief. The series' expressive cinematography also assists, capturing the everyday minutiae of Alice Springs without a hint of sugarcoating, while also surveying its striking, sprawling desert landscape. River, however, is his own MVP. The young Aussie filmmaker crafts an entertaining and insightful exploration of life in the Red Centre, as partially inspired by his own life as well as the experiences of his friends and family. And, in making perhaps the best twist on Robin Hood yet, he also adds a stellar credit to his growing resume. The son of Samson and Delilah director Warwick Thornton, and grandson of pioneering Indigenous Australian figure Alfreda Glynn, River already has documentaries Buckskin and Finke: There and Back to his name, as well as cinematography credits on his father's Sweet Country and upcoming Adam Goodes doco The Australian Dream. All six episodes of Robbie Hood are available to stream now on SBS On Demand.
There's an astonishing story at the heart of I, Daniel Blake, the latest film from veteran director Ken Loach, and the winner of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. After suffering a heart attack while standing on scaffolding on a building site, the titular character (Dave Johns) seeks government assistance. Alas, despite his doctor's advice that he needs rest to recover, a series of bureaucrats deem him fit to work, and refuse to listen to his pleas about his health. His situation isn't unique; at the local benefits office, he meets a single mother, Katie (Hayley Squires), similarly battling an uncaring system. Exposing the punitive barriers those in need are forced to face when they're looking for help, the movie has been garnering a strong reaction as it travels around the world. However, there's another incredible tale driving I, Daniel Blake. Lead actor Johns is a stand-up comedian who has appeared on British panel TV shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8 Out of Ten Cats, and now makes the leap to film to star in his first feature at the age of 59. His is a devastatingly naturalistic performance in a heartbreaking piece of social realist cinema, and one that lingers long after viewing. With I, Daniel Blake releasing in Australian cinemas after playing at the British Film Festival, we chatted with Johns about making his first movie, receiving the script page-by-page as shooting progressed, and the responsibility of making a film that hits so close to home for so many people. ON MAKING THE JUMP FROM STAND-UP TO STARRING IN A KEN LOACH FILM "I was aware of Ken's work — and just to meet Ken, I said to people, friends of mine, 'If I could just get in and do the improv with him, that'd just be a great experience'. So I never dreamt that I would be offered the part. We shot it for ten weeks up in the northeast of England, around the area where I was brought up as a kid. And I remember the first day, I mean, I'd done plays and stuff like that, but I hadn't walked on set and seen the enormity of what I'd taken on. 'Oh my god, I'm the lead of this film,' I remember thinking. 'Oh, have I bitten off too much?' And now people say to me, 'You know, what's it like, your first film?' — and I go 'Well, if it's my first film and it's won the Palme d'Or, I think I've set my bar a little too high'. Now I'm up for best actor at the European Film Awards this year in Poland. I'm up for best actor and best newcomer and the British Independent Film Awards. Variety magazine in America have tipped me as number 20 to win an Oscar behind Jake Gyllenhaal and Colin Farrell, so it is pretty surreal. I think your career should be a bit of an adventure. And if you do one thing in your life that you can be proud of, to be in a Ken Loach film that has made such an impact and won the Palme d'Or, I'm very proud and very honoured to be in this position." ON DISCOVERING THE STORYLINE AS HE WENT "The thing with the way Ken works is he doesn't tell you much about the film. You don't get the full script, you only get a couple of pages each day — and he shoots chronologically, so basically you are thrown into this life where you're just living this life everyday. And you don't really know what's coming until you get the two or three pages of script in the evening that you go away and learn and bring in the next day. I think that's so you don't have that sort of [situation] where you and the other person you're doing the scene with, you can't look at page 26 of the script, and go, 'Oh look, this is our big scene'. Ken doesn't want you to pre-empt what's going to happen. He wants it all to be in the moment. A lot of people think there's a lot of improvisation in Ken's films — I mean all that script is all scripted, it's just that Paul Laverty [Loach's long-time screenwriter] and Ken, they give you the chance to own the words. That's how it comes across. And because he shoots chronologically, and because he has no closed sets — he puts you in real situations — it has that gritty, real feel about it." ON REACTING TRUTHFULLY RATHER THAN ACTING "I think you rely on truth. You rely on your true emotions, and you actually respond truthfully. You don't have any chance to pre-empt how you're going to feel. The first day, Ken said to me on set, 'When you're in scenes with Hayley, when you're in the scene together, if you just listen to each other and you find the truth, it will look like that on the screen'. So that's the notes I got, so I just took that on board. Just basically, like, he would say to me, 'You're getting a phone call today on set'. And I'd go, 'All right, who's it from?' And he'd go, 'You'll find out when you get the phone call'. It's a very fascinating process. It makes you rely more on your gut reaction rather than any technique you might have as an actor, I would imagine. In any of the scenes I had with the kids or the neighbours or with Hayley, I think I was reacting to and responding to how she was playing it to me, you know. I think it was just being honest if something touched you, and then you brought the honest emotion to it. I think that's the only way you can do it when it's like that." ON FORGETTING THAT HE'S MAKING A MOVIE "The way Ken shoots, he doesn't have loads of people on set. There's no makeup touching you up before the scene, there's no checking your costume before every take, it's basically, you leave the unit and that's it. And basically, if we were in my flat, it'd just be the camera in the corner of the room — he never tells you what lens he's got on the camera, so you don't know how close the shot is. And there were times when in scenes I forgot I was in a film, really. I was just reacting to what Katie, the character, was telling us. And that was a pretty amazing feeling, when there were times when you forgot you were making a film and you were just talking with this person." ON THE REALITY BEHIND THE FILM "The first thing Ken said to me when we did preparations — I had to learn how to carve the wooden fish, did a little woodwork course, just a couple of days — and then he said to me, 'Fill that 52 page assessment form in.' And I was like, 'What?' And I came back and went, 'I can't do this, this is insane'. And then it got me thinking, imagine if you were sick, and you had to fill that in, and if you filled it in wrong. And so it was revealed to me how unjust the system is. And I think it is because it is a system that is spread by this austerity which has been played around the world. I mean, every film festival — I took the summer off to go to film festivals with this — and at every film festival I went, at Locarno in Switzerland, in Spain, in Italy, in Slovakia, everywhere we went with this film, people came up afterwards and said 'This is happening in our country as well'. Because of the big banking crash and because of the finances, the way globalisation is going, you see the poorest and the less able are taking the biggest burden. And that's what's happening with the welfare system. I think they've lost sight of the person and they are just trying to save money, and it is bureaucracy, and it is outsourced to a company, and these questions are insane." ON THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PLAYING A PART THAT HITS SO CLOSE TO HOME FOR SO MANY PEOPLE "You can't just do this film and go, 'Well, that's it, I'm done.' You go on and you do other work, but you still come back to it because you do feel a responsibility to it. I mean, I spoke at the Labor party conference this year — I've never done that in my life before, you know. So I do feel a bit that we have to see this film through, you know, and I don't think it is the sort of film that is going to go away. I think it's going to change things, because people here are angry, and people in America. People have said it will speak to the working poor who're in America. And it has already been mentioned in the House of Commons here by the opposition to Theresa May, so it is having an effect. I'm very pleased for Ken and for Paul, who, you know, thank the heavens that we have people like Paul Laverty and Ken Loach who are still making films that give a voice to people who don't have one." I, Daniel Blake is now screening in Australian cinemas. You can read our review here.
When lockdowns started sweeping the globe at the beginning of the pandemic, the entertainment industry responded in different ways. With in-person events off the cards for a significant period, streamed gigs and performances kept creatives and audiences alike busy. New at-home audio experiences popped up, too — so, between making jigsaws and baking sourdough, you might've spent some time listening to eerie radio plays. For the team at immersive entertainment company Swamp Motel, the situation inspired a new three-part online project that turns a night at home — or three — into a sleuthing experience. That series: Isklander. It's proven such a hit in the UK and US that it has been optioned by Gaumont UK, the studio behind Lupin and Narcos, to be turned into a TV show. In its current playable digital and format, however, it'll be available in Australia and New Zealand from Thursday, September 23. Isklander is designed to be played in groups, but everyone can be in their respective houses. It also unfurls a different mystery in each of its different chapters. So, with Plymouth Point, you're tasked with searching for a missing person. In the titular locale, Ivy Isklander has disappeared, and you need to work through clues, solve puzzles and crack codes to get to the bottom of it. Then, in The Mermaid's Tongue, you're sent looking for the eponymous ancient artefact, which could bring about doom if the wrong person gets hold of it. Finally, there's The Kindling Hour, which is described as "a corporate espionage thriller". Accordingly, you'll need to work your way into a powerful organisation to bring it down from the inside. If you're wondering how it works, Swamp Motel is all about blurring the lines between theatre, film and gaming — and turning the results into a shared live experience. Isklander is never the same twice, and it features everything from live-action performances and newsreel footage to fourth-wall breaking research (that is, the kind you do yourself). And, while it'll have you and up to five pals using the internet to investigate as part of the game, it also resembles a film at times and an escape room at others. The fact that the cast includes Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings, Lost), Dino Fetscher (Years and Years) and theatre performer Bathsheba Pipe helps nudge Isklander in the direction of a movie, but you won't just be sitting and watching. No, this isn't like another night glued to your streaming queue. You'll be playing a part — including hacking into emails, scouring social media posts, making phone calls and looking at websites — which means that you'll be experiencing a series that's part puzzle game and part scavenger hunt as well. To keep things running, each session is also directed live by an in-character aid, with Swamp Motel's team of 30 stage managers guiding you through all three chapters of Isklander — whether you choose to play them all, or just pick one or two. And, the whole experience unfurls in real time, with a ticking clock, so you'll definitely feel a sense of urgency while you're puzzling. Check out the trailer below: Isklander will be available in Australia and New Zealand from Thursday, September 23. Images: Matt Hass.
A snowy camp, crosses, bad dreams, creepy houses, lurking shadows, ringing phones and an immensely unsettling mask: welcome to the world of Black Phone 2. Four years after writer/director Scott Derrickson (The Gorge) adapted a short story by Joe Hill — an author with a hefty horror pedigree as the son of Stephen King — into The Black Phone to box-office success, he's now helming his first sequel to his own work. Derrickson began his feature career on follow-up flicks courtesy of 2000's Urban Legends: Final Cut (which he co-penned) and Hellraiser: Inferno (which he directed), but was absent from the hot seat when his Sinister and Doctor Strange continued their stories. A second Black Phone film wasn't originally the plan, though. For fans of the first feature, 2025's return to the movie's world also raises a question within its narrative. In the just-dropped first trailer for Black Phone 2, however, Ethan Hawke's (Leave the World Behind) villainous The Grabber utters a pivotal line to Mason Thames' (Monster Summer) Finney Blake, who survived his clutches the first time around: "you of all people know that dead is just a word". How important is that sentiment to Black Phone 2? "Very essential and fundamental is my answer to that," Derrickson tells Concrete Playground. Audiences will find out how and why for themselves in the best horror-movie month on every annual calendar, with the film set to reach cinemas Down Under on Thursday, October 16, 2025. For now, though, the picture's initial trailer teases snowball fights, a stint at the Alpine Lake Youth Camp, photos of other kids and blood. Also featured: The Grabber asking "did you think our story was over?" before stating "vengeance is mine". In The Black Phone, The Grabber did what his name suggests: he snatched up children. Circa 1978, Finney, his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw, The Curse of the Necklace) and their friends were already scared of his insidious presence, too, before Finney became his next target. Back to things living up to their monikers: yes, there was a black phone, disconnected yet still ringing, offering a link to The Grabber's prior victims. It wasn't just Hawke getting nefarious that made the movie a hit and piqued viewer interest for more, but also its full impressive cast, immersive tale, and the expert sense of tension cultivated by The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Deliver Us From Evil alum Derrickson. With Black Phone 2, a few years have passed on-screen as well — which meant that Derrickson could find his ideal way into a Black Phone sequel. He wasn't interested in the kind of next effort that just repeats the first, so the fact that Thames and McGraw are now older was pivotal. Black Phone 2 is "a high-school coming-of-age movie instead of a middle-school coming-of-age movie", then, he explains. Now that he's focusing on teenage characters, that does indeed enable him to heighten some of the horror elements, including gore. "Absolutely. All true. That's very perceptive. And yeah, I think a high-school horror film requires a certain degree of intensity and violence that a middle-school horror film really doesn't want or need," Derrickson told us. Alongside Hawke, Thames and McGraw, Jeremy Davies (Adventures of the Naked Umbrella) and Miguel Mora (So Help Me Todd) are also back. Getting Hawke onboard in the beginning, even after Derrickson had directed him in Sinister, wasn't assured, but The Black Phone was all the better for his efforts. For Thames, Black Phone 2 arrives in what's already a huge year, given that he plays Hiccup in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon. We also chatted with Derrickson about the franchise's core casting, how the second movie came about, his essentials for the sequel, the approach when you're stepping back into a film's world and that oh-so-key skill of dripping unease through a horror flick. On Whether Making Sequel to The Black Phone Was Initially the Plan "After the first movie, I didn't feel obliged to make a sequel. The studio, as soon as the movie was a hit, was asking me 'will you please make a sequel?'. And I didn't feel necessarily that I wanted to do that. I didn't have any ideas at that point. And it started, the idea for Black Phone 2 started, with an email from Joe Hill — with my friend Joe, he sent me an email and he said 'hey, I have an idea for a sequel', and he wrote out this pitch. I didn't respond to all of it, but there was an idea, a central idea in it, that I thought was fantastic that I'd never thought of. So I began to sort of noodle on that idea — and then, as I was toying with the idea, I started to realise that if I went and made another movie first, then by the time I finished that film these kids that I've had loved so much, and did such a good job in the in the first movie, would be in high school. And so I thought 'I'm going to go do that'. So I told the studio I would do the sequel, but I'm going to go make another movie first — because I wanted to make a high-school coming-of-age movie instead of a middle-school coming-of-age movie. And so it's been a little bit of a wait, but that was intentional, because I wanted these kids to be older. Mason, when we shot this, was 17 — and Maddie was 15. And both are in high school, and that's a very different kind of film and a very different genre to work in." [caption id="attachment_861837" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Black Phone[/caption] On Casting Ethan Hawke as The Grabber — and Getting Him to Agree to Play a Villain "I wrote the first movie without him even knowing anything about it. And I sent him the script, and he told me before he read it, he said 'look, I don't really do villains. I don't play villains. I probably won't do this'. And then that night, he left me a voicemail saying one of the lines of The Grabber in The Grabber's voice. And I thought 'oh, that's all it was'. I knew that that was his way of saying he was going to do it. And I think he really loved the movie. So when it came to doing a sequel, I did the same thing. I sent him the script, and he told me he was very nervous to read it because he had never done a sequel. And I said 'what about the Before Sunrise movies? You made three of those'. He goes 'yeah, but I wrote those. That doesn't count'. But he read the script and was so excited afterwards. And it was just a very similar story — he read it, and called me immediately after and said 'I love this. I think it's great'. And we scheduled the movie right away." On the Importance of This Being a Sequel That Continues the Story with the Same Characters, Not One That Basically Remakes the First Film "I didn't want to make the same movie again. And I think that sequels that disappoint are sequels that try to do the same thing, only bigger — or the same thing, only more. I knew that I would want to make a very different kind of movie, but I also probably wouldn't have considered doing a sequel of any kind if it didn't involve those characters. Because I love those characters. I love those kids. They're all really good actors, and the idea of being able to make a movie with characters who are in a different stage of life and played by actors who were in a different stage of life — Mason was 17 when we shot this and Maddie McGraw was 15. And Miguel Mora comes back as well in this movie. And it was really a delight to be able to, again, tell a different kind of story about a different stage of life. And I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't with all those same characters." On How Mason Thames' Career Has Blossomed Since The Black Phone, Including Black Phone 2 and Playing Hiccup in the Live-Action How to Train Your Dragon "It's so wonderful to watch. And part of the reason that it's so wonderful is because Mason is a kid who really has his head on his shoulders. He's not seduced by the fame. He's not interested in celebrity. He told me, he said 'if I could get rid of all my social media, I would'. He said 'the only reason I keep it is because it's important to studios for the marketing of their movies'. He's just got such a solid perspective and grounded point of view for such a young man — for somebody who's, I think he's 18 now. It couldn't happen to a better kid is what I'm saying. So it's wonderful to know that I gave him, I just sort of discovered his raw talents and gave him the shot that I did. He did such a good job and he does an amazing job in this movie as well." On What Goes Into Cultivating Unease, Dread and Disquiet in a Horror Film for Derrickson "I think that's the essential thing about the horror genre. It's not gore. It's not acts of violence. Ultimately, what makes a horror film a horror film is tone. There are some horror films that are very, very scary without any violence. And there are some very violent movies that aren't very scary. And the difference is that dreadful tone. I think that I'm interested in that aspect of horror more than jump scares, more than gore. The horror films that I love are films that crawl under my skin and have a captivating tone. And the best ones stay with me after the movie. I remember when I saw The Witch — it took me three days to shake the feeling of that movie from me." [caption id="attachment_861838" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Black Phone[/caption] On the Approach When You're Stepping Back Into an Existing World with a Horror Sequel "I think that, including those early things that I did, the goal is to try to bring something fresh and original while maintaining the elements that our audience wants to see return. And that's always a tough thing to do as a director, but you have to be in tune with your audience and understand 'well, these are the things they definitely want to see. They want to see this. They want to see that. They want this to happen. They want these elements from the original film within their franchise picture'. [caption id="attachment_873778" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Black Phone[/caption] But at the same time, what they can't tell you is that they want most of it to be fresh. They want to be surprised. They don't want to watch the same movie again. And so as a director, it's about threading that balance. And in this movie, I think it was the characters that they wanted to see returning. And the fact that the movie has a kind of tonal shift, I think is something they're going to find satisfying." Black Phone 2 opens in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, October 16, 2025.
Located next to Geelong's popular Eastern Beach Reserve, the Geelong Botanic Gardens spans over seven hectares and is great for picnicking, walking, bird-spotting, and more. First opened in 1851, the gardens feature many heritage trees (and a handful of built heritage items, too), as well as special collections of geraniums, sage and heritage roses. Whether you want to have a self-guided tour, participate in an educational program or take a guided walk, pop into the charming on-site teahouse when you're done for a bite to eat and a cuppa.
UPDATE, January 7, 2021: Pieces of a Woman screens in Melbourne cinemas from Wednesday, December 30, and will be available to stream via Netflix from Thursday, January 7. Everyone has heard the claim that women forget the pain of childbirth, with hormones and maternal stirrings washing away the agony of labour once a mother meets their bundle of joy. How true that proves is the subject of debate, but if you've only seen life brought into the world via on-screen depictions, you can be forgiven for subscribing to such a school of thought. Childbirth, like sex, is usually sanitised for cinema. Courtesy of thrusts, groans, screams and part-exhilarated, part-exhausted smiles, films typically convey the gist, rather than the nitty gritty. The visceral reality rarely exists in a fictionalised world of convenient meet-cutes, perfect make-up adorned faces and zero signs of sweat; however, thanks to a tense and harrowing 23-minute delivery scene that plays out in one continuous take, Pieces of a Woman doesn't shy away from the mess and chaos. It doesn't evade the devastation when a planned home birth not only experiences hiccups, but leaves Boston-based expectant mother Martha (Vanessa Kirby, Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw) struggling to cope, either. Martha won't forget what occurred when her water broke, her husband Sean (Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy) remained by her side and midwife Eva (Molly Parker, Words on Bathroom Walls), a fill-in rather than the couple's first choice, delivered her baby. Neither will viewers of this daringly intimate drama from White God and Jupiter's Moon director-writer duo Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber. The unbroken birthing scene isn't the movie's first, but it does precede its title card — with the filmmakers making it plain that, after getting a front-row seat to Martha's trauma, the audience will now witness her attempts to stitch herself back together. That's Pieces of a Woman's storyline. Shattered instead of feeling ecstatic and complete, as she had anticipated, the feature's protagonist tries to work out how to go on. But her marriage has lost its lustre, her overbearing mother Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn, House of Cards) won't stop giving her two cents — and trying to throw around piles of money to help a problem that can't be fixed by cash — and, at Sean and Elizabeth's urging, there's also a court case to deal with. Pieces of a Woman doesn't lack narrative developments, involving both Martha and those in her bereaved orbit. Ex-alcoholic Sean also endeavours to process the situation, including falling back on old habits. His relationship with Elizabeth flips from bickering to conspiratorial, too; he's a construction worker, and his mother-in-law has always disapproved of his and Martha's class differences, but now they agree on what's best moving forward. Also having an impact: the involvement of Martha's lawyer cousin Suzanne (Sarah Snook, Succession), and the attention that comes from pursuing legal proceedings. Martha can't escape any of the above, but they're the film's scaffolding, rather than the main attraction. These external ups and downs will all pass, while Martha's maelstrom of despair and anger will remain. Accordingly, after stepping through her life-changing moment in realistic detail, the movie makes the bold choice to explore its protagonist's emotional and mental state. The Crown brought Kirby to broader fame and acclaim, earning her awards for her on-screen work after years of receiving them for her stage career — but, as stellar as she is in the regal drama, Pieces of a Woman is a career-best performance. She's tasked with weathering an ordeal rarely laid bare with such candour, and doing so via a dynamic and lived-in portrayal. She's asked to convey the torrential torment that Martha endures in every second after pushing through the contractions in Sean's embrace, holding their child in hers, and then suffering the worst type of absence. In the birth scene, she's primal and unfiltered in a way that's never seen on film. Afterwards, Kirby is glassy with and distant from those around Martha in a manner that rarely resonates as authentically as it does here. Pieces of a Woman is well-cast, and its star is ably matched — by Burstyn especially, particularly in one big monologue that rides a remarkable rollercoaster — but the intensity in Kirby as Martha crumples, yet remains resolute about her right to fracture and fray however she needs to, is near-overwhelming. Mundruczó and Wéber tackle an array of weighty notions through Martha, and through Kirby's performance, the ravenous monster that is grief being one. Pieces of a Woman is heartbreakingly unrestrained in showing how it feels to navigate loss, specifically the kind that isn't often addressed in society let alone in cinema. It does so with disarming potency, as if everything within its frames has been ripped from truth by the filmmakers. Just as effectively, the movie also unpacks how women are constantly expected to stick to set roles, even when tackling what might be the most distressing thing that'll ever happen to a mother. That's where all the struggles with Sean, Elizabeth and the court case really strike a chord — because, no matter what's going on, Martha is always supposed to fit a type dictated by long-held ideas about being a woman, and her husband, mum and anyone else with an opinion can't quite accept her refusal to adhere to convention. If Pieces of a Woman wasn't so deeply moving, some of its overt symbolism might've fallen flat, including repeated shots of a bridge being built by Sean, plus Martha's obsession with apples. And yet honesty reverberates from both, reflecting how easy it is to cling to anything and everything when life isn't progressing as planned. This excellent movie does spend its 126 minutes as intended, of course. From its attention-grabbing early sequence and intricate emotional landscape to its astonishing lead performance and its masterful direction — and its fittingly solemn score by Howard Shore (a two-time Oscar-winner for The Lord of the Rings) and roaming yet lingering visuals lensed by Benjamin Loeb (Mandy), too — it plunges viewers headfirst into Martha's experience. Nothing has been sanitised for anyone's comfort or protection here, either by the filmmakers or by their unforgettably real and raw central character. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zLKbMAZNGI Top image: Benjamin Loeb / Netflix.
It might seem like a lifetime ago, but it was only early 2020 that saw parts of regional Victoria devastated by record-breaking bushfires. As the local communities began to rebuild, we were encouraged to hit the road and support the small businesses that had been hit the hardest. But then, COVID-19 hit and any plans of a rural escape were immediately quashed. Which means it's been far too long since we've had the luxury of enjoying the incredible produce available in the Gippsland region. Travelling along the Great Alpine Road, you'll have the opportunity to indulge in old-fashioned country pies, hearty pub meals, freshly caught seafood and locally made beer and wine. After a long year mostly spent stuck inside, nothing has ever sounded so darn appealing. Here are eight spots you shouldn't miss. Some places mentioned may be operating differently due to restrictions related to COVID-19, so check websites before making any plans. [caption id="attachment_777962" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rob Blackburn, Visit Victoria[/caption] NORTHERN GROUND, BAIRNSDALE It might be a relative newcomer to the Bairnsdale food scene but, since opening in 2018, Northern Ground has garnered plenty of attention. Chef and owner Rob Turner has done a stellar job of highlighting the lush local produce, and recognition has followed. While primarily a daytime cafe, Northern Ground also hosts the occasional dinner event, and also acts as a function space. The menu features local stars such as monPortarlington mussels, Maffra cheddar and Lindenow broccolini. The drinks list is similarly sourced, studded with wine and beer from nearby makers. For dessert, the bakery has your favourite country classics, like lemonade scones and carrot cake. [caption id="attachment_777956" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rob Blackburn[/caption] LIGHTFOOT AND SONS WINES, CALULU As second-generation winemakers, the Lightfoot family has been active in the Gippsland Lakes District since 1995. This pristine wine region is known for producing excellent pinot noir and chardonnay varietals, and the Lightfoot cellar door is an unmissable opportunity to try the region's best. The winery has held five-star status in the Halliday Wine Companion for several years, so you're guaranteed a decent drop. The 45-minute wine tasting is just $9, and is available from Friday to Sunday, 11am–5pm. Alternatively, you can settle in for the Taste of Gippsland experience ($65 per person) to sample the Single Block wines alongside food from across the region. [caption id="attachment_795345" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nicky Cawood[/caption] BULLANT BREWERY, BRUTHEN Just a 15-minute drive from Bairnsdale, you'll find the beloved Bullant Brewery tucked away in Bruthen. Resident beer lovers Neil and Lois Triggs established the brewery in 2011, using local hardwood timber to create a warm, welcoming venue. Keeping with the rustic theme, the Bullant is accented with corrugated iron walls and features a fully functional copper brewhouse. More than a dozen beers are brewed on-site, with seasonal beers rotated through regularly. This extensive beer range is paired alongside a regional-focused food menu, offering lunch from Wednesday to Sunday, and an additional dinner service on Friday and Saturday. For any non-beer drinkers in your group, there is a neat wine list of Gippsland's best varietals, plus some local ciders. [caption id="attachment_777954" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Visit Victoria[/caption] ENSAY WINERY, ENSAY Sustainable agriculture might be a buzz term in 2020, but the team at Ensay Winery has been eco-conscious since 1992. The yearly 20-tonne crops of shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, chardonnay and merlot are all picked, processed and produced onsite at the East Gippsland winery. Careful mulching and soil management have meant that Ensay Winery is classified as a dry land vineyard, meaning it is self-sustaining — it hasn't been watered since 1998. Grab a bottle of wine at the cellar door, then relax at the provided picnic tables, overlooking the rolling hills of the Tambo River Valley. [caption id="attachment_795346" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination Gippsland[/caption] ALBION HOTEL, SWIFTS CREEK Located directly on the Great Alpine Road, in Swifts Creek, this quintessential country pub is utterly charming. The sweet, unassuming brick building, complete with wine barrel flower planters and red tin roof, is filled with local sporting trophies and quirky embellishments. The kitchen turns out excellent pub classics such as steaks, parmas, calamari and fish 'n' chips, with the gourmet pies coming highly recommended by the regulars. This is the perfect pub for a long lunch, with a pool table, separate dining room and a beer garden to keep everyone entertained. [caption id="attachment_794939" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination Gippsland[/caption] NULLAMUNJIE OLIVE OIL, TONGIO High-quality olive oil is the cornerstone of any well-stocked kitchen, but it's easy to get in the habit of buying whatever's on special at the supermarket. The extra virgin olive oil from Nullamunjie will have you quickly converted; the flavour is smooth and fruity, with a slightly peppery and herbaceous element. The olive groves are found along the banks of the Tambo River, surrounded by the slopes of Mount Stawell. This year's harvest is sold out, but you can still try the goods at the on-site eatery, The Pressing Shed Cafe & Restaurant, which will be open from January 2, 2021 till April 4, 2021. The seasonal, swiftly rotating menu is overseen by owner Annie Paterson, who makes sure to include the award-winning olive oil in every dish. [caption id="attachment_794940" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anne Morley[/caption] GOLDEN AGE HOTEL, OMEO After being rebuilt five times (and burning down twice) the current Golden Age Hotel has been serving locals since 1940. Omeo resident Hannah Richards proudly bought the pub in 2018, after previously working behind the bar as an employee for several years. Open daily for lunch and dinner, the Golden Age Hotel menu highlights wholesome country favourites like beef schnitzel and pumpkin soup. The upstairs accommodation features vintage styling such as painted iron bed frames and gathered curtains. After a peaceful night's sleep, wander across the road to the Crazy Cow Cafe & Bakery, where you will find handmade pies, cakes, sausage rolls and tarts. If you feel like you need to move after all that eating, mountain biking enthusiasts will have their pick of cycling tracks and bush trails to explore in and around Omeo. There's also a brand new pump and skills track to try out. [caption id="attachment_794941" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anne Morley[/caption] THE BLUE DUCK INN, ANGLERS REST This sweet country pub is perched on the banks of a mountain stream, with six self-contained cabins available for longer visits. Guests can enjoy nearby bush walks, horse riding trails, four-wheel driving tracks and white water rafting adventures. From Wednesday to Sunday, The Blue Duck Inn restaurant opens for lunch and dinner, with the scotch fillet steak and meatballs both being marked as local favourites. After such a hectic year, The Blue Duck Inn is the perfect place to get off the grid and reconnect with nature. Find more spots to visit in Gippsland and start planning your trip here. Top image: Lightfoot and Sons Winery, Rob Blackburn
Towards the end of Tokyo Vice's gripping eight-episode first-season run, its lanky American-in-Japan protagonist struts down an ordinary Tokyo street donning a suit and shades while smoking a cigarette. Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort, West Side Story) sports a post-coital glow, too, and looks as if he feels on top of the world. He also stands out awkwardly, no matter how cool he thinks he is, even before a high-school pal from home in Missouri spots him and bursts his bubble. This stride-of-pride scene sums up Tokyo Vice perfectly, because what's going on around Jake, and simply the complex city he's in, is always far more intriguing than he is. Don't go thinking that this HBO series doesn't know that, though. Available to stream in full in Australia via Paramount+ — and already renewed for a second season by HBO Max, the US network's streaming service — Tokyo Vice's first season uses an outsider as its entry point into the Japanese capital's neon-lit hustle, bustle and underworld. It uses two, in fact. Also making the city her base is fellow American expat Samantha Porter (Rachel Keller, Legion), a club hostess who spends her nights charming men who'll pay for her glamorous barside company, and also just generally being as far away from the USA as she can manage. But this series is about Tokyo happening around Jake and Sam, as it would regardless of whether they were there or not, as much as it's about the pair in Tokyo. It's a noir series about the bucket-list travel spot's shadows, and it knows that they'd linger no matter who was playing tourist. A smart and sleek crime-thriller? Tokyo Vice easily checks that box. A fish-out-of-water swim through yakuza territory? Yes, that one, too. A mostly after-dark trip through streets and spots that've largely been off limits to travellers for more than two years now? Naturally, the series ticks that one as well. It's also a 90s throwback, taking place in 1999 with Faithless and ATB bangers helping to rick gleaming nightclub dance floors, featuring references to The Matrix, and offering one of pop culture's great 'I Want It That Way' sing-alongs (and discussions about its true meaning). And, Tokyo Vice is the latest release from one of America's best directors, who is finally back behind the lens seven years after making his most recent movie. Indeed, this must-see series is many things — and the fact that it's Michael Mann project is among the reasons that it's essential. The filmmaker's last stint in the director's chair, the Chris Hemsworth (Thor: Love and Thunder)-starring 2015 film Blackhat, also followed a determined and ambitious American, and used every visual and audio trick it had to immerse its audiences in his mindset and his world. That's not the only parallel from the Thief, Heat, The Insider and Collateral helmer's resume that makes its presence known here, either. Mann only directs Tokyo Vice's pilot, but what a tone-setting debut episode it is — as stylish and gritty a piece of television as you're likely to stream any time soon, and one brimming with the filmmaker's usual look and mood. He also serves as the book-to-screen series' executive producer, which explains why its slice of Japanese-set thrills always feels like it bears his fingerprints. Of course, Tokyo Vice isn't shy about its links to Mann, who also executive produced the original 1980s TV series Miami Vice, and wrote and directed the 2006 big-screen remake. Attaching any other filmmaker's name would've simply felt incongruous. That said, the show's moniker actually stems from the IRL Jake Adelstein's memoir Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, about his years writing for Yomiuri Shimbun as a non-Japanese journalist. Adapted for the screen by playwright JT Rogers (Oslo), what a twisty, gritty, fast-paced narrative it spins, too. Still, everything about the HBO-backed program feels as if it was always fated to end up in Mann's hands. Adelstein was Yomiuri Shimbun's first foreign staff writer, with Tokyo Vice exploring his quest to cement himself inside the publication from the bottom up. Just like in that aforementioned stroll down the street, the on-screen version of Jake always sticks out, as does his dogged enthusiasm to chase the stories he's explicitly instructed to ignore. He aces the strict and gruelling Japanese-language test needed to even get his job. He makes history by earning his post. But murders don't happen in Japan, he's told. He's advised of plenty more, sometimes yelled at him insultingly by his boss Baku (Kosuke Toyohara, Deliver Us From Evil), sometimes offered as cautious words of wisdom by his immediate supervisor Emi Maruyama (Rinko Kikuchi, Pacific Rim: Uprising). The deaths he's witnessing on Tokyo's streets scream otherwise, though. So, Jake starts spending his own time investigating, befriending two Tokyo detectives for guidance and tips: the vice squad's Jin Miyamoto (Hideaki Itô, Memoirs of a Murderer), plus organised crime division veteran Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe, Godzilla: King of the Monsters). Both know that their new pal is desperate to make a name for himself, and that he's potentially playing a dangerous game; both are just as involved in charting the yakuza's actions, including the war between faction heads Hitoshi Ishida (Shun Sugata, Tomorrow's Dinner Table) and Shinzo Tozawa (Ayumi Tanida, Killing for the Prosecution), in their own ways. Jake's pursuit of the truth also involves getting close to Sam, who knows the lay of the land and has dreams of starting her own club. And, it sees him cross paths with jaded yakuza enforcer Sato (Shô Kasamatsu, Love You as the World Ends), an underling to Ishida and Sam's best-paying customer. Noting that Elgort is the weakest part of the series isn't quite the criticism it would be in any other show. The Baby Driver and The Goldfinch actor is well cast for precisely that reason, because making Jake the least interesting aspect of Tokyo Vice wholeheartedly suits the overall narrative, its focus on the city's underworld, and its embrace of the layers of complication that thrive and thrum beneath its must-visit exterior. Also, everything around Elgort, especially the performances by Watanabe, Kasamatsu, Kikuchi and Itô, proves stellar — both demanding and deserving attention. Getting drawn into this supremely well-made turn-of-the-millennium-set jaunt through Tokyo's underbelly is easy; instantly wanting more, especially from its exceptional Japanese talent, is as well. Check out the trailer for Tokyo Vice below: Tokyo Vice is available to stream via Paramount+.
Charles and Ray Eames had a bit of a backwards Lannister twins problem. Everyone thought they were siblings. Both were famous for their innovative design work, but people who hadn't met them would just go on ahead and assume they were brothers. They weren't. They were husband and wife. Nowadays they're often best remembered for designing chairs. They did, for sure, make some wonderful chairs. But it wasn't just furniture where they excelled. The Eames office designed almost everything. The Eameses' work was so either ahead of its time or so timeless that lots of its products are familiar objects today. The Eameses' grandson, Eames Demetrios, is about to make a brief visit to Sydney at both the Sydney Film Festival and for Vivid Ideas to talk about both his grandparents' work and his own. To help you get your head around the breadth of their combined output, we've assembled just a few examples of the family's pioneering work. Chairs The Eameses spent over a decade experimenting with shaping wood. They'd invented a surprisingly striking splint out of moulded plywood for the US army during the Second World War. When they'd moved into their new apartment in 1941, their idea of fun was to squeeze a plywood moulding machine into their spare bedroom. They'd made it themselves out of scrap wood and a bicycle-driven pump and called it 'Kazam!'. They took turns riding the bike. After the war they moved to a real studio at 901 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in LA and stayed there for the rest of their working lives, still working with plywood. One of the products of their iterative wood obsession, in 1956, was the Lounge Chair and Ottoman. The lounge was designed for furniture company Herman Miller. While the lounge chair still looks pretty space age, their Molded Plywood Chairs (below) are much more familiar. The Eameses' work in chairs went on to be so successful that today these pieces just seem, well, normal. The SFF Hub plans to have a bunch of these Herman Miller chairs on display over the duration of the festival. The Eames' Lounge Chair and Ottoman will be there, as will the Moulded Plywoods and a new version of the classic Shell Chair. You can place an order for a chair online, though, it should be noted that the price is usually where these chairs' similarity to school chairs suddenly ends. https://youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 The Long Zoom The beginning of Contact does it, as does the end of Men in Black: the almost-infinite, long zoom across the universe has been a movie staple since the '90s. The shot was pioneered by the Eameses in their 1977 film Powers of Ten, which ostensibly explored the geographic power of adding and subtracting a zero to long numbers. As the film whips out from the Chicago lakeside into the depths of space, and back again, its effortless play with scale and relentless zoom whip you into a exponential sense of pleasant disbelief. Charles Eames had done some film work, though Hollywood didn't end up being his thing. But, about the time George Lucas had the predecessor to ILM filming their Death Star in a parking lot — and well before computer-based special effects — the Eameses were polishing off a nine-minute tracking shot that traversed the known universe. Eames Demetrios will be presenting Powers of Ten alongside a selection of his grandparents' extensive corpus of short films at Eames on Eames, including Design Q&A ("known to specialists") and Music of the Fifties ("just never seen" and "fascinating because it is, in many ways, the beginning of the music video"), not to mention a restored version of the multiscreen Glimpses of the USA. Multiscreen In an age where lining up multiple screens is about as hard as putting two phones side by side, it's hard to imagine how big a deal it was to see a multiscreen image. During the cold war, the USA put on an American trade exhibition in a Moscow park, which would later become famous for the 1959 Kitchen Debate between then Vice-President Nixon and the Soviet leader, Premier Khrushchev. Not too far away from this culinary power centre, the Eameses had been commissioned to make "a major propaganda exercise designed to inject the elixir of consumerism into the heart of the Soviet empire". So they made a film. Glimpses of the USA was a massive array of seven screens designed to overwhelm Muscovites with the breadth of experience in American life. Seven landscapes, seven cityscapes or seven people popped across the screen, in quick succession. It was designed to dazzle: and it worked. Apparently, the final sequence was so powerful it brought tears to even Nikita Khrushchev's hardened eyes. Interactive Museum Exhibitions Interactivity doesn't give you bragging rights at museums these days. But in 1975, though computers had come a long way since the President of IBM ostensibly said "I think there is a world market for about five computers," they were still pretty much unheard of for the museum experience. Ray and Charles Eames put together a concept film for a makeover of New York's gargantuan Metropolitan Museum. They laid out a vision of a connected experience, where visitors could call up their favourite artwork on a computer and its display would automatically show them related items from the collection. Back then, this vision didn't wash. Reports from 1977 talk about electronic controversy: "concerns about an art museum weakening its raison d'etre by activities not concerned with the experience of original art but, instead, films, facsimiles and electronic gadgetry." The funding was withdrawn, and the touted makeover never happened. Nowadays, this 'electronic gadgetry' is just called the Metropolitan's 'website'. Innovator in the Centre Reviewing the recent documentary, Eames: The Architect and the Painter, New York Times film critic A.O. Scott compared the Eameses' influence to Steve Jobs' for the sheer breadth of the influence their design work on our everyday lives. Scott took this comparison further, saying they were also happy to be the centre of the credit: "Like Walt Disney — and like Steve Jobs — Charles Eames did not share credit. His name alone went on the studio's products." Eames Demetrios disagrees. His counterpoint to Scott easily works through the details of his grandparents' crediting history, with the opinion that a story like Charles' alleged surprise that Deborah Sussman wanted credit for Day of the Dead is "demonstrably untrue". But he adds, "I don't think it was told in malice, because it represents an emotional truth, which is that it is a very hard to feel you are getting your due when you are living/working inside someone else's worldview — especially a powerful one like the Eameses." In the absence of space for his full reply here, Demetrios points to the chapter '901 Culture' in his book An Eames Primer for more detail. A Virtual World Eames Demetrios' films started out relatively tame. Common Knowledge presaged the production method of local film 52 Tuesdays, by giving a documentary portrait of dozens of people every few weeks for a year in 1988, but he "kept thinking it would be really amazing to be able to visit a story physically. To create a parallel world that people could visit." Demetrios created the virtual world of Kcymaerxthaere, a story whose locations have leeched across out of fiction and into the physical world. "It is kind of like a novel with every page in a different place," he says. "Most of the installations are markers (in bronze or stone) that tell a piece of the story." Since 2003, the project has installed 99 sites across 22 countries. There are ten in Australia. He has aspirations to install one in the Red Centre but is open to suggestions from Sydneysiders about a site closer to home. "The key is that we need permission to install the marker permanently (or for at least 99 years)," he adds. Sydneysiders can take a turn at interpreting this world at Storytelling to Generate Fresh Perspectives at Vivid on Sunday, June 7. Eames will be telling some stories from Kcymaerxthaere, after which participants will be invited to make their own "disputed likenesses" (images based on the stories) on postcards to be sent off to previous participants. Local participants will get postcards from other workshops before too long. Melburnians can check out a Kcymaerxthaere exhibition opening at Pure and General from June 11. Good design is good hosting is good grandparenting Charles Eames saw the designer as a host, focused on getting the details right for the recipient of whatever thing he was designing. This need to design "to the need" is pervasive in the Eameses' work and its cultural spread is echoed in modern tech firms' ambitions to sweat the details. It's the same sort of obsession with details at the heart of the story of Steve Jobs anxiously calling Vic Gundotura to tweak the yellow in a Google logo. "Charles and Ray are far more famous today than they were in their lifetimes," says Demetrios. "The notion of a rockstar designer did not exist then." Their legacy is only now getting some of the mainstream attention it deserves, three years after the release of the documentary Eames: The Architect and the Painter. But it wasn't just their design skills that lasted. Their parenting and grandparenting skills kept two generations of children interested in working to preserve their legacy. Demetrios also sees time with his grandparents as the roots of his design education. "My theory is that we learned about design backwards when we were growing up — we learned all the lessons about life that we now realise were lessons about design too. Things like the fact that Charles and Ray were excellent hosts. Picnics were important; presentation was important; experience was important. "As we are older, we understand that they were teaching by example one of their key ideas: 'The role of the designer is essentially that of a good host, anticipating the needs of the guest.'" 'Interactive display' image, actually a multitouch sequencer, by Daniel Williams. The couple's grandson Eames Demetrios will be guiding audiences through a screening of some of his grandparents' short films during the Sydney Film Festival at Eames on Eames and getting a few thoughts off his chest at Vivid Ideas.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. THE BLACK PHONE The Black Phone didn't need to star Ethan Hawke. In a way, it doesn't really. Fresh from Moon Knight and The Northman, Hawke is definitely in this unsettling 1978-set horror film. He's also exceptional in it. But his top billing springs from his name recognition and acting-veteran status rather than his screen time. Instead, superb up-and-comer Mason Thames gets the bulk of the camera's attention in his first feature role. After him, equally outstanding young talent Madeleine McGraw (Ant-Man and The Wasp) comes next. They spend most of their time worrying about, hearing rumours of, hiding from, battling and/or trying to track down a mask-wearing, van-driving, child-snatching villain — the role that Hawke plays in a firmly supporting part, almost always beneath an eerie disguise. Visibly at least, anyone could've donned the same apparel and proven an on-screen source of menace. There's a difference between popping something creepy over your face and actually being creepy, though. Scary masks can do a lot of heavy lifting, but they're also just a made-to-frighten facade. Accordingly, when it comes to being truly petrifying, Hawke undoubtedly makes The Black Phone. He doesn't literally; his Sinister director Scott Derrickson helms, and also co-wrote the script with that fellow horror flick's C Robert Cargill, adapting a short story by Stephen King's son Joe Hill — and the five-decades-back look and feel, complete with amber and grey hues, plus a nerve-rattling score, are all suitably disquieting stylistic touches. But as the movie's nefarious attacker, Hawke is unnervingly excellent, and also almost preternaturally unnerving in every moment. Whenever he opens his mouth, his voice couldn't echo from anyone else; however, it's the nervy, ominous and bone-weary physicality that he brings to the character that couldn't be more pitch-perfect. Everyone is tired in The Black Phone, albeit in varying ways. At first, that comes as a surprise — it's a looser, more laidback time, and the film happily rides the vibe in its opening Little League game. Still, that relaxed air comes with its own sense of anxiety. What's better, an era when kids escape their homes during daylight, roaming the streets as they like but also instilled with a festering sense of stranger danger, or a period where such unsupervised freedom seems utterly unthinkable? This movie lurks in the former, obviously, and there is indeed a dangerous stranger prowling around north Denver's suburban streets. To 13-year-old Finney Blake (Thames), his younger sister Gwen (McGraw) and their schoolmates, that monstrous figure is known as The Grabber, and he's abducted several of their peers so far. Finney and Gwen are also exhausted at home, where their alcoholic father Terrence (Jeremy Davies, The House That Jack Built) is hardly hands-on — unless his hands are flying in anger their way. At school, Finney has a trio of bullies to deal with, too; luckily, if his pal Robin (first-timer Miguel Cazarez Mora) isn't around to save him, the plucky and sweary Gwen usually is. She's zapped as well, courtesy of dreams of events that haven't quite happened yet. The pair's mother had the same ability, which is why their dad is so sozzled, and also so hard on the two of them. Fatigue is well and truly in the air, thick yet invisible, although The Grabber's (Hawke) is the flimsiest. After taking Finney, he's drained by his need to kidnap and kill. That doesn't stop him from terrorising the neighbourhood, of course — but if his latest target has his way, aided by advice whispered down the disconnected basement telephone by past victims, the masked assailant might soon be far worse than simply weary. Read our full review. OFFICIAL COMPETITION Every actor has one, albeit in various shades, lengths and textures, but sometimes one single hairstyle says everything about a film. Wildly careening in whichever direction it seems to feel like at any point, yet also strikingly sculptural, the towering reddish stack of curly locks atop Penélope Cruz's head in Official Competition is one such statement-making coiffure. It's a stunning sight, with full credit to the movie's hairstylists. These tremendous tresses are both unruly and immaculate; they draw the eye in immediately, demanding the utmost attention. And, yes, Cruz's crowning glory shares those traits with this delightful Spanish Argentine farce about filmmaking — a picture directed and co-written by Mariano Cohn and Gastуn Duprat (The Distinguished Citizen), and also starring Antonio Banderas (Uncharted) and Oscar Martínez (Wild Tales), that it's simply impossible to look away from. Phenomenal hair is just the beginning for Cruz here. Playing filmmaker Lola Cuevas — a Palme d'Or-winning arthouse darling helming an ego-stroking prestige picture for rich octogenarian businessman Humberto Suárez (José Luis Gómez, Truman) — she's downright exceptional as well. Humberto decides to throw some cash into making a movie in the hope of leaving a legacy that lasts, and enlisting Lola to work her magic with a Nobel Prize-winning novel called Rivalry is quite the coup. So is securing the talents of flashy global star Félix Rivero (Banderas) and serious theatre actor Iván Torres (Martínez), a chalk-and-cheese pair who'll work together for the first time, stepping into the shoes of feuding brothers. But before the feature can cement its backer's name in history, its three key creatives have to survive an exacting rehearsal process. Lola believes in rigorous preparation, and in testing and stretching her leading men, with each technique she springs on them more outlandish and stressful than the last. As Lola, Cruz is a 'find yourself someone who can do both'-kind of marvel. She's clearly starring in a comedy, and her timing, rhythms and line delivery are as fine-tuned as any acting great who has ever tried to amuse an audience — and serve up a hefty reminder that viewers rarely get to see her in such a role — but she perfects the drama of the situation, too. The latter stems from Lola's male leads, who are caught up in a clash of egos, and from the director herself as she keeps eagerly but purposefully pulling their strings. Light, fluid, sharp, smart: they all fit this savvily portrayed character, and never for a second does Cruz feel like she's seesawing too easily, needlessly or temperamentally from comic to serious and back. Earlier in 2022, she was nominated for an Oscar for her sublime performance in Parallel Mothers — an award she deserved to win, but didn't — and although Official Competition couldn't be a more different film, she's just as much of a force to be reckoned with within its frames. Cohn and Duprat might have a little of Lola in them, as well as conjuring her up with fellow scribe Andrés Duprat (My Masterpiece). The Argentine filmmaking duo's rehearsal methods aren't part of the movie, obviously, and it's likely that they didn't wrap their cast in cling wrap as their protagonist hilariously does — but, whatever mechanisms they deployed, they obtain outstanding performances from their key players. This is Cruz's film, but Banderas revels in the chance to cleverly and cannily satirise his profession and industry as much as she does, with the two teaming up yet again after featuring side by side in plenty of Pedro Almodóvar's movies (see: Pain and Glory most recently). The playful teasing is ramped up a level, and there's a greater emphasis on his killer stare, which can flip from brooding to charming to pouting in an instant; however, the result remains remarkable. Martínez plays it relatively straight in-between his co-stars, but is no less compelling; Iván has his own ego battles. Read our full review. WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING Timing is everything in Where the Crawdads Sing, the murder-mystery melodrama set in America's Deep South that raced up bestseller lists in 2018, and now reaches cinemas a mere four years later. Its entire narrative hinges upon a simple question: did North Carolina outcast and recluse Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Fresh), cruelly nicknamed "the marsh girl" by locals, have time to speed home from an out-of-town stay to push star quarterback Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson, The King's Man) from a fire tower, then resume her trip without anyone noticing? On the page, that query helped propel Delia Owens' literary sensation to success, to Reese Witherspoon's book club — she's a producer here — and to a swift film adaptation. But no timing would likely have ever been right for the movie's release, given that Owens and her husband are wanted for questioning in a real-life murder case in Zambia. Unlike the film, those off-screen details aren't new, but they were always bound to attract attention again as soon as this feature arrived. One of the reasons they're inescapable: the purposeful parallels between Owens' debut novel and her existence. Like Kya, Owens is a naturalist. The also southern-born author spent years preferring the company of plants and animals, crusading for conservation causes in Africa. Where the Crawdads Sing is timed to coincide with Owens' own life as well; it's set in the 50s and 60s and, as a child (played by Jojo Regina, The Chosen) and a teenager, Kya is around the same age that Owens would've been then. Another reason that the ways that art might link with reality can't be shaken, lingering like a sultry, squelchy day: what ends up on-screen is as poised, pristine and polished as a swampy southern gothic tale can be, and anyone in one. There's still a scandal, but forget dirt, sweat and anything but lush, vivid wilderness, plus a rustic hut that wouldn't look out of place on Airbnb. That Instagram-friendly aesthetic comes courtesy of filmmaker Olivia Newman (First Match), who helms a visually enticing movie — again, incongruously so given the story it unfurls and the location it dwells in — that's as typical as a murder-mystery meets coming-of-age tale meets southern romance can be. The film starts with Chase's body, the investigation that springs and the certainty around the insular small town of Barkley Cove that the supposedly feral and uncivilised marsh girl is responsible. Evidence is thin, but bigotry runs deep against someone who grew up with an abusive father (Garret Dillahunt, Ambulance), was left behind by her other family members and spent the bulk of her years fending for herself in poverty. That said, as in Owens' source material, that's just the framework. On the screen, though, Where the Crawdads Sing's dive into Kya's life feels like it's also been adapted from Nicholas Sparks' pages. Most of Barkley Cove has always shunned Kya, other than generous store owners Jumpin' (Sterling Macer Jr, House of Lies) and Mabel (Michael Hyatt, The Little Things), who she sells mussels to — the feature's only Black characters, who are woefully only used to stress how callous the rest of the town proves, rather than to even dream of digging into matters of race in America's south as the civil rights movement started to gather steam. Also kindly, taking on her defence, is her Atticus Finch-esque local lawyer Tom Milton (David Strathairn, Nightmare Alley). But romance still blossoms not once but twice for Kya, first with the doting, poetry-reading Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith, Blacklight), and then with arrogant rich kid Chase. That's where Newman's film prefers to reside, charting the ups and downs of Kya's affairs of the heart. That's why the movie appears so immaculate that it shimmers with a marsh-chic gleam as well. Read our full review. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on April 7, April 14, April 21 and April 28; and May 5, May 12, May 19 and May 26; June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23 and June 30; and July 7 and July 14. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Fantastic Beasts and the Secrets of Dumbledore, Ambulance, Memoria, The Lost City, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Happening, The Good Boss, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, The Northman, Ithaka, After Yang, Downton Abbey: A New Era, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Petite Maman, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Firestarter, Operation Mincemeat, To Chiara, This Much I Know to Be True, The Innocents, Top Gun: Maverick, The Bob's Burgers Movie, Ablaze, Hatching, Mothering Sunday, Jurassic World Dominion, A Hero, Benediction, Lightyear, Men, Elvis, Lost Illusions, Nude Tuesday, Ali & Ava, Thor: Love and Thunder, Compartment No. 6, Sundown, The Gray Man and The Phantom of the Open.
Marty. De Niro. Leo. Enough said. That's the basic maths behind Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese's first film since 2019's The Irishman. Premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival before hitting cinemas Down Under in October and then Apple TV+ after that, it's also his first feature to star two of his long-serving collaborators: Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. De Niro and DiCaprio have been in so many of the legendary director's movies that it's rare for any of his titles to not include one or the other. The former's run gave viewers gangster masterpieces such as Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino; also spans the iconic Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The King of Comedy; and covers musical New York, New York and thriller remake Cape Fear, too — and, of course The Irishman. The latter began leading Scorsese's films in the early 2000s, kicking off with Gangs of New York, then starring in The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street. Yes, that's a helluva resume for both actors, and for their favourite helmer. Enter Killers of the Flower Moon — which is actually the second time that De Niro and DiCaprio have joined forces for Scorsese, but their debut together in one of his full-length features (they played themselves in the director's 2015 comedy short The Audition). The actors have a past on-screen beyond that, however, thanks to the non-Marty helmed This Boy's Life in 1993, back when DiCaprio was still a teen. That's the Scorsese–De Niro–DiCaprio history, with Killers of the Flower Moon also jumping backwards into the real-life of murders of oil-wealthy members of the Osage Nation in Osage County, Oklahoma a century back. Scorsese also co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth (Dune, and an Oscar-winner for Forest Gump), adapting David Gann's 2017 non-fiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. As the just-dropped first trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon shows, DiCaprio (Don't Look Up) and Certain Women standout Lily Gladstone play a couple caught up in the investigations surrounding the mounting killings. Also co-starring: not just De Niro (Amsterdam), but Jesse Plemons (Love & Death), John Lithgow (Sharper) and newly minted Best Actor Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale). Check out the trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon below: Killers of the Flower Moon will release in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, October 19, then stream via Apple TV+ at a later date — we'll update you with streaming details when they're announced.
Brothers-in-law Frank Bressi and Peter Mastro took out a place in the 2012 Melbourne Salami Festa — and the rest was history. They opened their first Saluministi salumi bar in North Melbourne in 2015, and a bit of expansion and many signature porchetta panino later, the pair now has two stores, in Docklands and the CBD. Paying homage to the duo's shared heritage, Saluministi is all about celebrating proper Italian flavours, renowned for its stand-out offering of made-to-order panino and tramezzino (an Italian white bread sandwich). Come breakfast, the fillings might run to pork and fennel sausage with scrambled egg and peperonata ($11), or tomato with a fried egg, asiago and Sicilian oregano ($9). That legendary porchetta number is a clear favourite for lunch breakers, loaded with free-range slow-roasted pork, artichoke paste, rocket and Pecorino Romano DOP ($14). Though there are plenty more tempting options among the rest of the panini crew — like one teaming mortadella with stracciatella and green olives ($11.50); another starring baked eggplant lasagne ($14); and the fried calamari with lemon tartare and salsa verde ($13.50). Stay on theme and match your pick with an espresso, an Italian soda or the 'caffe freddo' ice coffee ($5.50). Appears in: Where to Find the Best Sandwiches in Melbourne for 2023
With a soft spot for the greener things in life, Folia House is a much-loved destination for plant-aholics, stocked with a hefty range of seasonal and indoor varieties. Inside, you'll find a lush assortment of hanging plants, cacti, succulents, ferns and other potted greenery, as well as all the bits and pieces you'll need to knock together your own terrarium. There's also a neat collection of pots and planters to help keep those plant babies looking schmick. Keep an eye on the Folia House Facebook page to see when new goodies land in store — and to catch the store's regular indoor plant sales.
If you've ever worn a little black dress, then you owe Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel a big thank you. Depending on your choice of suit, bag and perfume, you might owe her some gratitude there as well. The French designer's influence upon 20th-century fashion extends far and wide — and, even though she passed away in 1971, her imprint can be felt in the 21st century as well. So, when the NGV International sends some love her way at its next blockbuster exhibition, it'll have plenty to cover. Displaying at the St Kilda Road gallery from Sunday, December 5, 2021–Monday, April 25, 2022, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto will arrive fresh from its current stint at Paris' Palais Galliera. Its stop in Melbourne is its first international jaunt, in fact. On show will be pieces from the French venue, as well as from the Patrimoine de Chanel, the fashion house's heritage department. More than 100 garments will grace the NGV's walls and halls, with the exhibition charting her career. You'll also be able to see what Chanel achieved with perfume, jewellery and accessory design, too. Some pieces will date back more than a century, given that the fashion icon opened her first boutique in Deauville in 1912, before making the leap to her own Parisian couture house in 1918. Expect to check out everything from black threads — obviously — to lace gowns, wool jersey and tailored tweed suits, and an array of beaded garments. As you peer at Chanel's designs, you'll see how womenswear developed, and both how and why she's left a mark that still lingers today. [caption id="attachment_819495" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Gabrielle Chanel (designer). Dress, spring–summer 1925, silk guipure lace, silk organza flower. Patrimoine de Chanel, Paris. Photo © Julien T. Hamon.[/caption] The NGV is also adding its own Chanel pieces to the exhibition, such as a white lace Evening dress that dates back to 1933, and a shirred red silk velvet and marabou-lined evening cape from around 1924–26. They'll form part of a showcase that's split into themed sections, with different parts devoted to her early work, the way her design language evolved in the 1920s and 1930s, the iconic scent that is Chanel No 5, and how the brand's pieces have favoured a look best described as "austere luxury". Also getting their own themed strands: suits, accessories and jewellery. To launch Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, which will be ticketed — and will be the first-ever exhibition in Australia that'll solely focus on Chanel's contributions to fashion and culture — the NGV is bringing back its black-tie NGV Gala, which'll take place on Saturday, December 4. If you decide to wear a little black dress while you're checking out all things Chanel this summer, you'll likely have plenty of company. Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto will display at the NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne from Sunday, December 5, 2021–Monday, April 25, 2022. For more information, or to buy tickets, head to the gallery's website. Top image: Anne Sainte-Marie in a Chanel suit, photograph by Henry Clarke, published in Vogue US, 1955, retouched by ARCP. ParisMusées. © Henry Clarke, ParisMusées /PalaisGalliera/ADAGP. Copyright Agency, 2021. Installation Images: Tom Ross and Sean Fennessy
Step into the light and embrace your own mortality at the unsettlingly-named Festival of Death and Dying. Curated by artist and scholar Peter Banki along with festival dramaturge Victoria Spence, this two-day event will feature a mixture of workshops, talks and performances in order to examine the western fear of death while celebrating all that life has to offer. Standout events on the program include Share My Coffin, a role-playing workshop in which participants will be cast in the role of both mourners and the deceased and End of Life Dreams, a discussion with palliative care physician Dr. Michael Barbato about the experiences of dying patients. Mortality Performance Night will see an evening of long and short performance works from artists including Alice Cummins, Alan Schacher and WeiZen Ho. The Festival of Death and Dying will be held at Dancehouse Studios in Melbourne on September 9-10. Image: 'Free falling No.1' from the series Death Suits Me Fine by Paula Mahoney.
How does Ryan Coogler do horror? With the supernatural, a blues soundtrack, and blood and gore, and also with evil honing in on twin brothers who are trying to create a new haven for their Black community to let loose in after dark, and to simply call their own, in the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s. Both portrayed by Michael B Jordan (Creed III) — because the only thing better than one version of the actor in the filmmaker's Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is two in Sinners — Elijah and Elias, aka Smoke and Stack, are back in their hometown from Chicago with cash to splash and a dream to bring to fruition. They secure an old saw mill, then set about turning it into a juke joint as speedily as they can. The siblings' young cousin Sammie (debutant Miles Caton), a talented guitarist, is enlisted to assist. So is everyone from other musicians (Unprisoned's Delroy Lindo and The Penguin's Jayme Lawson) and friends (Omar Benson Miller, True Lies) to loves from before the brothers left for the city (Loki's Wunmi Mosaku and The Marvels' Hailee Steinfeld) and the local Chinese American shopkeepers (Based on a True Story's Li Jun Li and The Last Bout's Yao). Not just anyone can enter — but when Irishman Remmick (Jack O'Connell, Back to Black) insists on an invite through the doors after being drawn the bar's way by Sammie's powerful tunes, and is refused, he gets persistent. Remmick also gets toothy. Chatting about the picture back when its second trailer released, Coogler described Sinners as "very genre-fluid". He continued: "it switches in and out of a lot of different genres. Yes, vampires are an element of the movie. But that's not the only element. It's not the only supernatural element". Seeing how that proves accurate in the finished film, and how the man behind the movie has written and directed the hell out of it, is already one of 2025's best cinematic experiences. While marking the first time that Coogler hasn't explored a true story, taken on an existing franchise or brought an already-known character to the screen, there's never any doubting that the flick that results couldn't have sprung from anyone else — and that it builds upon one of the best filmographies in the business over the past decade. Although Sinners is Coogler's debut official and overt entry in the horror realm, in a way he's been stepping into that terrain since 2013's Fruitvale Station. When that feature charted the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant in Oakland, it examined a real-life incident far more distressing than any movie that's predicated upon bumps and jumps. Now, 12 years later, Coogler's path from his first film to his fifth is clear: in both, terrors and traumas can lurk for no more reason than being Black in America. [caption id="attachment_1000420" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Marion Curtis / StarPix for Warner Bros.[/caption] Sinners also builds upon Coogler's tried, tested and terrific creative collaborations — with Jordan, yes, and also with cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw (The Last Showgirl), production designer Hannah Beachler (Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé), editor Michael P Shawver (Abigail), and two Oscar-winners in composer Ludwig Göransson (Oppenheimer) and costume designer Ruth E Carter (Coming 2 America), all back from either Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever or both. Their sense of connection, of support, of coming together to realise a vision, is evident in every frame. Sinners' cast also gush about it. Indeed, when Coogler, Jordan, Caton, O'Connell, Lindo, Li, Mosaku, Steinfeld, Miller and Lawson chat through their experience making the movie, they talk about the shorthand between the film's writer/director and its two-time lead; first-timer Caton enjoying a spectacular learning experience; the depth at every turn, including for the feature's villain; and the cultural richness and attention to detail. Also covered: the flick's impressive choreography behind its frays, cultivating a sense of place, wanting to be on set on days off and more. On the Shorthand That Coogler and Jordan Have Established Over Five Projects and More Than a Decade of Collaborating Michael: "The shorthand has done nothing but get stronger over the years, especially with this one being my first movies that I've done since I directed my first film — and just having a deeper sense of empathy of what Ryan goes through on a day-to-day basis, all the hats that he must wear, the amount of places that he has to be at the same time. Especially on this one, for me to be able to be an extra set of eyes for him and help where I can or anticipate his movements or needs allowed us to maybe get a little bit more done, especially when time is always an issue on set in general — but it's a just mutual understanding. I can't really explain the nonverbal communication that we have that's only gotten better over the years." On Whether Coogler and Jordan's Working Relationship Evolved After Jordan Directed a Film Himself Ryan: "I worked as his producer on Creed III. It was a lot of times where I would never rub it in his face like that, but he would say 'whoa, man, I see what you're dealing with' — but the reality is, man, our jobs are so different. Even what he did when he was directing Creed III, he was acting in that movie. He was having to go get punched in the face and then go look and check to see how he did, and then go back and get punched again. I'm not on-screen ever when I'm directing. I'm behind the camera. Mike is an empathetic guy. He grew up on film and television sets. What I like the most about working with him is he has an incredible work ethic, but he's also a very kind and family-oriented person. When you're number one on the call sheet — in this case, he was 1A and 1B — you have that culture. Oftentimes, it's going to come from there and it trickles down. People are watching how the lead actor communicates with the PA; with the assistant director, the AD; with the camera operator; with the sound. Do they like to let the sound person mic them, or do they want to complain? All of these things, man. He's such an incredible sport and just kindness is the default. That's just infectious on the set in terms of establishing the tone that everybody's going to work with. It's unacceptable to yell at a PA — Mike had never done that, Mike had never raised his voice." Michael: "That's right. That's right." Ryan: "In an industry where it can get very high stress, it can get very toxic, it's great to have somebody who understands the value of keeping it loving and respectful, so that's what I like about Mike the most. The other piece is, he wants to challenge himself constantly. What was great was I got that with every cast member. Everybody who went through the works and stepped on the set, they were trying to be better than they were on their last movie. I believe that they're going to be better than they were on this movie on their next one. That's the type of people that we hired and that culture starts with Mike, but I was fortunate enough that everybody came with that, and I was very happy with that." On Caton's Journey with His First Film Role Miles: "I started off when I was 16 years old, I got the opportunity to sing background for HER, and we began a tour all over the world. We opened up for Coldplay. Towards the end of that tour, I got a call one day saying, she called me and she said 'little bro, there was somebody in the crowd that heard you sing and they want you to audition for this role'. I took that and I ran with it. I sent a self-tape audition. After that, I got a callback. Then they sent a couple sides. It was a kid, a young kid just playing the guitar. I did that and I sent that off. The next thing I knew, I had went to LA to do an audition, and I got to meet Mike and I got to meet Ryan along with a couple other people. From there, I got to really talk with them about the role and just put my best foot forward. After that, I was able to really learn from them. Just being on this project, I got to grow so much. Every day was a learning experience. From the time I got on set to the end, I really did push myself every day to be better. Being around actors at this level, they all showed me so much love, man, so to be here in this moment, I feel super blessed." On O'Connell's Job Unpacking the Many Layers of Sinners' Unsetting Supernatural Force Jack: "I think villain is a fair description. There's probably an easier way of doing things, but in the film, we do it the hard way for Remmick. He's all about fellowship and love. All he wants is just to bite you on your neck, and then that's everlasting love, just a little bite. He's constantly saying 'I promise I won't hurt you'. It's the easy way, but we end up going the hard way. Listen, there's a real richness, a real depth, I think, to Ryan's writing. What we were striving towards was — it wasn't superficial. It was grounded in something that's rooted in history. That, to me, was the main thing I was loving to latch onto, was the cultural richness that our characters were representing in individual ways." On Lindo Being Tasked with Getting Physical and Fiery Delroy: "First of all, we have such a wonderful team who work on the fights. I had said earlier 'oh, Ryan has a wonderful team that he puts at all the actors' disposal'. I had talked earlier about the fact that when I was younger, I did dance class and fighting on film, and in the theatre — it's like choreography, right? It's choreographed. On some level, the more violent the fights are, the more critically important it is that it be choreographed to a tee. These fights were. I came to the project a little late, because I was working on something else, but when I arrived in New Orleans they were already in the thick of building the moves in the fight. The very first fight rehearsal that I went to, the fight captain showed me what they were working on and showed me very specifically 'okay, this is how you will slot in'. We just worked very methodically to achieve that, so by the time we got on camera to shoot those scenes, we all knew exactly what we were doing, what our responsibilities were. The other thing I would say really quickly, there was an openness which trickles down from Ryan and from Mike in terms of the generosity shown to all of the actors. If something was presented to me, there were a couple of things presented to me in the fight scenes where I said 'can I maybe try this?'. 'Absolutely.' There was always space to incorporate what felt more organic for me as an actor." On the Attention to Detail That Went Into Exploring the Chinese American Experience Li: "I was not aware of the Chinese American community in the Mississippi Delta at all. I had no idea about them. All I knew was that when I was presented with the sides during my audition process, I had no other information other than the fact that she was a Chinese American with a very thick, deep southern accent, which was what really piqued my interest — and also obviously because it was Ryan's project. When we dived into the research, it was fascinating. They were such a crucial part of the world at the time. They were the only people who were able to open up grocery stores specifically for the Black and white communities, but they also endured a lot of prejudice themselves. In a documentary made by a filmmaker named Dolly Li, there were a couple of people that she mentioned. One of the women's names was Frieda Quon, which is whom we used for our dialect inspiration. She always said that as long as we stayed in our lanes, we were fine, but trouble would start if we crossed over. I just love how fascinating it was, how deeply embedded they were in the culture and how you would never think that a person who looks like me would speak that way, and yet they did. They also made southern-style Chinese food and they built their own community. It was really a gift to learn about this." On Why a Sense of Place Was So Important, Especially to Smoke and Annie's Love Story Wunmi: "Annie's shop, her home, is in this picturesque environment with these massive shaded oaks — and what's the other tree, the one in Louisiana with the moss? It's so beautiful and romantic and really adds to the magic of their relationship, their love. It elevates it. I love how, in the scene when we see Annie and Smoke for the first time, is it dandelions you've got blowing behind Smoke?" Ryan: "Yeah, pussy willows." Wunmi: "You say willow?" Ryan: "Yeah, pussy willow." Wunmi: "It's so beautiful. The whole shop itself, I feel like I wish we could see the whole thing because Hannah Beachler, she did such an amazing job." Delroy: "She did." Wunmi: "There's smoke coming up through the floorboards and there were these little cards hanging from the ceiling. This candle's burning in the background. You can't see all of this. There were spiderwebs on these spell books. These are real spiders. It's not even set design. It just felt really magical. It felt like their home. When he comes into the store, he knows where to pick his pipe from. He knows that time has stood still for her and everything is as it was. I really loved their environment. It felt like it really added to the scene, it added to our intimacy, it added to our connection." On Navigating Mary's Journey, and the Night-Time Shoots That It Entailed Hailee: "I think the nights were crazy, and a lot of the nights took place inside the juke, too. We would go in and it would be light — and we'd come out, it'd be light again. What I loved, though, so much about the juke for Mary was that even though it was a new place to her, it was home. There were so many elements within that juke that were created, that were brought to life, that were home. The food; the people, most importantly; the music; just the way, the layout where you'd have Smoke and Stack up above, Annie in her corner, the stage and Mary just moving through and feeling this sense of familiarity having never been there before because of who was around her. I love that so much about this character and how she falls into this story, because she's in a place of not knowing whether or not she, to an outsider, not so much herself — an outsider may not believe that she belongs in that space, but she does, she knows that and she feels it. Being in that juke, being on that stage and even in our exterior location, looking at that structure that was built, it was like it became our home. It became Mary's home. It became her connection to her mother and her past that she'd been away from for so long, living a very, very different life that we didn't necessarily see, but we could only imagine how beautiful it might've been or looked, rather, or how different it might've looked. It wasn't what she wanted. This is home. I loved walking in there and hearing everyone's shoes creak on the wood and the chairs that we see a little bit in the movie of the juke coming together. It's just like you wonder where it all came from and how they got it all together. It was all these people that are in there that made it happen, that brought it together. We had just the most incredible team, some of who you mentioned, bring this to life and make this feel like a safe space that we could call home." On the Collaborative and Creative Vibe That Comes with Working on a Coogler Film Omar: "I've been doing this for a good amount of time now. I've been blessed to work for a long time. Ryan Coogler runs the most-egalitarian set I have ever been on, and I say that in the most-complimentary way. Once we got to set, once everybody came out of the trailers, everybody was equal. For somebody who's had an underdog element to his whole career, I value that so much. To me, that was something that I leave with — leaving that set and always being welcome to return to the set, and always being a part of it with looking forward to return to it, was that I know that we're all being treated equally. Ryan knows everybody's first name. It's 200-something people. Ryan's calling people out: 'Roger Stevenson, how was your weekend?'. It's stuff like that. It's very, very, very impressive." Jayme: "This is hands-down my favourite experience. I think the way Ryan really set the tone, that it felt like we could bring our stories with us as he shared his with us — it made for this collaboration where, I think I can speak for a lot of us, we found a level of freedom that oftentimes you don't get to tap into, because you're being led by somebody that has so much faith in you and trust in you with his brainchild. At no point did he ever feel so precious about it. It was a gift that he was willing to share — every day, like Omar said. I would show up when I didn't have to be at work. Now, I don't know anybody else that would want to do that, but to be able to watch Ryan work, I had to. I just wanted be in that room at all times, and I am forever grateful for that." Sinners releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, April 17, 2025. Film images: Warner Bros / Eli Ade.
UPDATE, August 9, 2020: Kusama: Infinity is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Early in Kusama: Infinity, a series of black-and-white drawings and paintings take pride of place. Unsurprisingly given the documentary's subject, they're filled with dots. The artworks rank among Yayoi Kusama's earliest creations, with the Japanese icon starting her love affair with the medium — and with the circles that she repeatedly wields as a motif — when she was ten years old. Nearly eight decades later, she's still following those passions in pieces littered with dots and pumpkins, and in infinity rooms filled with orbs too. Of course, now the entire world gets to share in the eye-catching results. The path from creatively curious child to international superstar hasn't been quick or smooth for Kusama, which is the crux of Heather Lenz's film. As a kid, Kusama's mother would snatch away her paper while she was still drawing — and even as a twenty-something, it was only writing to American artist Georgia O'Keeffe that gave her the confidence to move to the US. Virtually ignored in conservative post-war Japan, she was hardly the toast of New York when she arrived in the late 1950s. That's the reality of an artist considered a sensation in her eighties: all of that fame and acclaim only came after a lifetime of hard work. Directing, writing, producing and editing her first full-length documentary, Lenz explores the inescapable truth at the heart of Kusama's story. In the process, she also gives viewers a Kusama 101 lesson. The dots, dilemmas and dramas flicker across the screen, furnishing a tale that's as much about the doors that wouldn't open to the young artist as it is about the boundaries that she dared to push. In Japan, she was a woman who defied convention by refusing to become a dutiful housewife. In America, she was both a woman in a male-dominated realm and a foreigner in an unwelcoming land. Everything about Kusama's story is vital and essential — as important and affecting as staring into one of her mirrored cubes, or seeing her dots completely envelop a room. But while Kusama: Infinity clearly recognises that fact, the movie remains happy to chronicle its subject in the usual art doco manner. Experts impart explanatory narration, sometimes as talking heads. Clips showcase a feast of different pieces, spanning paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and even America's first queer wedding ceremonies. Kusama herself lends her thoughts, which are relayed as interviews as well as voiceover. There's gorgeous sights and biographical insights aplenty, but the film never quite breaks the mould in the same fashion as the artist at its core. Thankfully, Kusama: Infinity's array of artwork works its charms. How could it not? If Kusama's pieces feel more than a little otherworldly just as they are, seeing them blown up on a big screen makes them larger than life. Colour, shape, movement, an intoxicating sense of repetition — they all dance through her creations, and through the movie as a result. As they do, one of the picture's opening remarks lingers: "I convert the energy of life into dots of the universe," Kusama offers. "And that energy, along with love, flies into the sky." Kusama herself proves the film's other highlight, for devotees and newcomers alike. Her work may tell a thousand stories — tales that the doco's well-selected archival photographs of the artist only enhance — however there's nothing like hearing about Kusama's life, motivations and roadblocks in her own words. There's nothing like seeing her chat to the camera either, with her bobbed red hair a-blazing. First spied wearing a vibrant crimson dress peppered with white polka dots while standing in front of one of her monochrome circle-filled drawings, she provides an instant visual reminder of why her art strikes a chord. It might be impossible to capture the enigma that is Kusama in one 85-minute documentary, but her inimitable allure is evident every time the artist herself brightens up the screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRqxWNn3iQU
Remember when the Beast won Belle's heart with his impossibly beautiful personal library in Beauty and the Beast? How easy it is seduce a nerd. Now that animated library has a real-life rival in the spectacular Waanders in de Broeren, a converted 15th-century Dominican church in Zwolle, the Netherlands, that houses what must be one of the world's most gorgeous bookstores. Designed by architectural firm BK. Architecten, the development was carried out in exactly the right way. It was mandated that all the building's original features be preserved. This meant keeping the 547-year-old colossal pipe organ and huge stained glass windows just as they were. The firm took to the challenge with gusto: only three hues of building material were used, to reflect the pre-existing look of the church, and the three-level, 700-square metre retail space which frames its central nave is built so as to be easily removable in future, maintaining the church's essential structure beneath. The result is a distinctly light and airy bookstore, with shelves lining the walls and unobtrusive, contemporary stairways leading up to the upper reaches of the arches. If only all shopping venues could be so elegant. Sometimes opulent buildings are given over to unlikely retail tenants — for example New York's Chelsea has one of the most ridiculously fancy pharmacies ever, a CVS inside a grand old bank building on 8th Avenue. This makes buying condoms at 3am seem slightly more classy for locals. But books seem an extra worthy ware: picture yourself browsing in Waanders in de Broeren, imagination set aflame as soon as you enter the space with its lofty and ornately painted ceiling. There's also a wine bar and other shopping available, making this one of the loveliest spaces and best design ventures we've seen in ages — an attractive and respectful fusion of old and new. Via Colossal.
Every time you sing along to The Little Mermaid, you nod to Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. If you grew up reading The Little Match Girl, Thumbelina, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Princess and the Pea and The Ugly Duckling, you've been familiar with his work on the page, too. And, when Frozen became a huge cinema hit, it took inspiration from the writer's 1844 fairytale The Snow Queen. Basically, Andersen's stories have been a big part of everyone's childhoods — in recent decades and, in written form, for nearly two centuries. So, you've already spent plenty of time escaping into the author's narratives. Once the middle of 2021 rolls around (and once international travel starts returning to normal, of course), you can also wander through a brand new museum inspired by his fairytale world. Set to open in Odense in Denmark, which is where Anderson was born, HC Andersen's House has a hefty aim: to make visitors feel as if they've stepped right into his tales. That's the immersive dream at these types of venues, after all, as also seen in Disney's theme parks, the new Super Mario-themed amusement parks and Studio Ghibli's upcoming site as well. "We have to dive into the fairytales as the very first thing, because they are what everyone knows. The idea is not to retell the stories, but rather to communicate their familiarity and inspire further reading of Andersen," says Torben Grøngaard Jeppesen, the head of Odense City Museums. Accordingly, HC Andersen's House will reflect its inspiration however it can — in its architecture, in the imagery and sounds it puts on display, in the way it uses light throughout the venue, and in the experiences visitors can dive into while they're there. Across a 5600-square-metre site, that'll include a children's house and an underground museum, as well as a sprawling garden that, from the concept images, resembles a labyrinth. And, in a nod to The Little Mermaid, attendees will also be able to look up through a pool of water and peer at the people in the grounds above them. Japanese architect Kengo Kuma leads the design, fresh from his work on the Japan National Stadium for the Tokyo Olympics. For HC Andersen's House, "the idea behind the architectural design resembled Andersen's method, where a small world suddenly expands to a bigger universe," he explains. Odense is already home to a smaller site dedicated to Andersen, which'll be included in the new venue. When HC Andersen's House opens, it'll also incorporate the building where the author was born. HC Andersen's House will open at HC Andersen Haven 1, DK-5000, Odense sometime in the middle of 2021. For further details, head to the venue's website. Images: Kengo Kuma & Associates, Cornelius Vöge, MASU planning.
It's been just over 18 months since the crew behind Sydney restaurant NOMAD opened the doors to their first Melbourne spin-off in the former Ezard site on Flinders Lane. But it looks like their southern adventure is only just beginning, with news of another culinary venture heading our way before winter is out. NOMAD Group's Al and Rebecca Yazbek have revealed plans to open their next bar and restaurant, Reine and La Rue, within the historic Melbourne Stock Exchange digs. And this time around, they'll be treating diners to a taste of modern French cuisine. The neo-gothic building at the corner of Queen and Collins Streets has been resurrected as part of an extensive redevelopment project by GPT Property Group, with Reine and La Rue set to make their home within the impressive space known as The Cathedral Room. From August, the granite columns, lofty ceilings and glass floor tiles will become the backdrop for Reine's 150-seat dining room, which will also house a ten-metre-long marble bar devoted to cocktails and another slinging seafood. There'll be big banquettes in caramel-hued leather, and furniture by the likes of Grazia & Co and Volker Haug Studio. Adjacent to all that sits a 40-seat terrace, leading through to the tiny speakeasy-style cocoon of La Rue — a walk-in-only joint with its own wine vault and space for just eight punters at a time. Heritage Victoria have helped guide the rejuvenation of the historic Cathedral Room, which has laid derelict for the last couple of decades. Also behind the transformation are RBA Heritage Architects and Sydney-based design and architecture practice Akin Atelier. [caption id="attachment_899949" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Samantha Schultz[/caption] Both Reine and La Rue are set to showcase the same culinary offering, which'll be imagined by the group's Executive Chef Jacqui Challinor, alongside venue Head Chef (and NOMAD Melbourne alum) Brendan Katich. The offering will zero in on Victorian produce and celebrate contemporary takes on French flavours, while heroing the kitchen's wood-fired hearth. Look forward to the likes of steak frites with bordelaise sauce, charcoal-cooked local calamari paired with cafe de Paris butter, and a roving cheese trolley. As for the drinks, the owners are aiming to have "the largest and most exclusive American wine list in the country," along with a strong spread of French vino, of course. American-inspired drops will also rule the classic-leaning cocktail lineup. Reine and La Rue will open at 380 Collins St, Melbourne in early August. We'll share more details as they drop.
Gone are the days when watching a new television series meant sitting down at a set time to glue your eyes to the small screen, or programming your VCR to record said show for later. If you can remember back then, then you'll know that gone are the days where viewing everything you want to felt somewhat achievable, too. Thanks to the ever-growing array of streaming platforms, we're now utterly spoiled for choice, with new choices dropping all the time — and constantly demanding your attention. Sadly, we just can't watch every TV show ever made when they first arrive. Realistically, we can't all view every series ever anyway — but we can catch up with the greats. That's one of the handy things about summer holidays: the flow of newcomers does slow down, even if only for a few weeks, and plenty of the year's standouts beckon. When it comes to excellent episodic fare, 2022 was no slouch. Ace new shows hit with frequency over the past 12 months, so much so that you likely missed some. With that in mind, we've rounded up 15 stellar 2022 arrivals that mightn't have made their way to your streaming queues yet, but should as soon as you have the time — and, if you've already seen them, definitely deserve a rewatch. THE LAST MOVIE STARS Filmmakers adoring filmmakers is basically its own on-screen genre. Six-part documentary limited series The Last Movie Stars gives that idea a different spin: actors loving actors. Here, Ethan Hawke turns director, not for the first time — see: films Blaze, Seymour: An Introduction, The Hottest State and Chelsea Walls — to show his affection for the inimitable Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Unsurprisingly, he has a wealth of company, some chatting through their fondness for two Hollywood talents like no other and some contributing by giving voice to interview transcripts. For a memoir that didn't eventuate, Newman and Woodward compiled chats by a who's who of showbusiness during their careers; however, they also had the tapes destroyed. Cue George Clooney voicing Newman's chats, Laura Linney doing Woodward's, and everyone from Oscar Isaac, Sam Rockwell and Mark Ruffalo to Rose Byrne and Zoe Kazan also subbing in for other famous names. That's where The Last Movie Stars' audio comes from, echoing with insightful discussions given the emotion they deserve. Hawke also includes new zoom chats with his players, as well as with Martin Scorsese, his daughter and Stranger Things star Maya and more, but his engrossing and probing series is head over heels for pairing those recreated interviews with archival footage. Staring at Newman and Woodward is easy, as is celebrating them and their relationship. This isn't just a case of deserved worship, though, but shows its subjects as real people rather than just stars — all while exploring Hollywood at the time, stepping through their careers and contemporaries, and overflowing with clear-eyed warmth. Hawke doesn't avoid tricky traits or truths, and this in-depth doco is all the more enlightening and compassionate for it. Whether you already treasure Newman and Woodward or you've always wanted to know more about the two legends, this is a movie buff's pure and utter dream. The Last Movie Stars streams via Binge. THE AFTERPARTY Only Murders in the Building isn't the only new comic murder-mystery series worth streaming from the past year or so. Joining it is The Afterparty, which also sports a killer cast — this time Sam Richardson (Detroiters), Ben Schwartz (Space Force), Zoe Chao (Love Life), Ilana Glazer (Broad City), Ike Barinholtz (The Mindy Project), Dave Franco (If Beale Street Could Talk) and Tiffany Haddish (The Card Counter) — and a savvy spin on an oft-used gimmick. Rather than skewering true-crime podcasting, this quickly addictive comedy from writer/director Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie) toys with the reality that every tale differs depending on the perspective. Whodunnits always hinge upon that fact, and Miller has also clearly seen iconic Japanese film Rashomon. And, considering that its big murder takes place after a school function, there's a touch of Big Little Lies at play, too. With his directing partner Phil Lord, Miller has made a career out of getting smart and funny with familiar parts, however, and that doesn't change here. The setup: at the afterparty following his 15-year high-school reunion, obnoxious autotune-abusing pop star Xavier (Franco) winds up dead on the rocks beneath his lavish mansion. Enter the determined Detective Danner (Haddish), who starts grilling his former classmates one by one to find out who's responsible. Her interrogations start with the sensible Aniq (the always-great Richardson), who was hoping to finally make a move on his schoolyard crush Zoe (Chao) — and after his version of events, Danner hears from Zoe's macho ex Brett (Barinholtz) in The Afterparty's second episode, then from Aniq's best bud Yasper (Schwartz, riffing on Parks and Recreation's Jean-Ralphio without being quite as ridiculous), and so on. The cast is top-notch, the writing is clever, there's much fun to be had with its genre- and perspective-bending premise, and the throwaway gags are simply glorious. The Afterparty streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. MO For three seasons on Ramy, Mohammed Amer has played Mo, the diner-owning cousin to the show's namesake. For those three seasons, including 2022's batch of episodes, he's also been part of one of the best and most thoughtful shows currently streaming, especially when it comes to the immigrant experience and telling Muslim American stories. Instead of just co-starring in an art-imitates-life dramedy inspired by someone else's existence, however, Amer has taken a leaf out of Ramy Youssef's book with Mo — a show with the same underlying concept, as co-created by Amer and Youssef. This time, the pair draw upon Amer's background rather than Youssef's. So, Amer's on-screen alter-ego is a Palestinian living in America. He's a refugee, in fact, who fled the Middle East when he was a child and sought asylum with his family. His US home: Houston, Texas. IRL, every one of these points is drawn from Amer's existence, as fans of his Netflix standup specials Mo Amer: The Vagabond and Mo Amer: Mohammed in Texas will recognise. That's the history behind Mo, with the series' eight-episode first season honing in on its protagonist's attempts to gain US citizenship. Mo Najjar (Amer, Black Adam), his mother Yusra (Farah Bsieso, Daughters of Abdul) and brother Sameer (Omar Elba, Limetown) have been waiting two decades to have their cases heard — another detail ripped from reality — and trying to forge new lives while remaining in legal limbo has long since taken a toll. Spanning losing jobs, trying to find a new one as an undocumented American resident, the Najjars' family dynamic, pain from back home they haven't processed, the weight of cultural traditions and expectations, and Mo's relationship with Mexican and Catholic mechanic Maria (Teresa Ruiz, Father Stu), there's no shortage of detail and drama to Amer's passion project. Indeed, every second of the series feels as personal and authentic as it clearly is, and does far more than merely give Amer his own Ramy. Mo streams via Netflix. LOOT Aptly given its title, new Apple TV+ sitcom Loot doesn't look cheap — or sound it. It's partly filmed in one of America's biggest private homes, an enormous mansion with 21 bedrooms, five pools, a bowling alley and a cinema. It's filled with well-known needle drops that come quickly and often, with one episode featuring three Daft Punk tracks alone. It couldn't scream louder or drip harder with excess; the series is about a mega-rich tech whiz's wife who gets $87 billion in their public and messy breakup, after all. And, it is inescapably made by a company that's a big technology behemoth itself, and has been splashing stacks of cash to build its streaming roster (see: The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, Severance, Physical, Prehistoric Planet, Foundation, The Shrink Next Door, Shining Girls, Slow Horses, Lisey's Story and more). Loot is also clearly a satire, however, and a canny, warm and funny one at that. The premise: amid being gifted a mega yacht for her birthday, then jumping to a party in that aforementioned sprawling home, Molly Novak (Maya Rudolph, Big Mouth) discovers that her husband John (Adam Scott, Severance) is cheating on her. Post-divorce, after that huge settlement and a stint of partying around the globe with her assistant Nicholas (Joel Kim Booster, Fire Island), she gets a call from Sofia Salinas (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Pose), the head of the foundation she's forgotten bears her name (and even exists). With Molly's drunken decadence all over the news, the charity is finding it difficult to do its work. So, the organisation's namesake decides to ditch the revelry — and her married moniker, becoming Molly Wells — and put all that dough to better use. She also commits to playing an active role in how her funds can truly help people. Loot streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. TOKYO VICE Seven years after making his most recent movie, aka 2015's Chris Hemsworth-starring Blackhat, one of America's best directors is finally back behind the lens. Thief, Heat, The Insider and Collateral filmmaker Michael Mann only helms Tokyo Vice's pilot, but what a tone-setting debut episode it is — as stylish and gritty a piece of television as you're likely to stream any time soon, in fact. Mann also serves as the eight-part book-to-screen series' executive producer, which explains why its slice of neon-lit Japanese-set noir always feels like it bears his fingerprints. Of course, the show isn't shy about its links to the director, who also executive produced the original 1980s TV series Miami Vice, and wrote and directed the 2006 big-screen remake. That said, Tokyo Vice's moniker actually stems from Jake Adelstein's memoir Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, about his years writing for Yomiuri Shimbun as a non-Japanese journalist. Nonetheless, everything about the HBO-backed program feels as if it was always fated to end up in Mann's hands. Adelstein was Yomiuri Shimbun's first foreign staff writer, with Tokyo Vice exploring his quest to cement himself inside the publication from the bottom up. As played by West Side Story's Ansel Elgort, Adelstein always stands out, as does his dogged determination to chase the stories he's explicitly instructed to ignore. Murders don't happen in Japan, he's told. What he's witnessing screams otherwise, though. So, he starts spending his own time investigating, befriending Tokyo organised crime division detective Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) for guidance, and also getting close to club hostess and fellow American-in-Tokyo Samantha Porter (Rachel Keller, Legion), plus jaded Yakuza enforcer Sato (Shô Kasamatsu, Love You as the World Ends). Elgort is the weakest part of the series, but that also suits the overall narrative and its focus on the city's underworld — and everything around him, including Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim: Uprising) and Hideaki Itô (Memoirs of a Murderer), is stellar. Tokyo Vice streams Paramount+. Read our full review. PACHINKO When novels are turned into movies, there's usually a sense that's something is missing, no matter how fantastic the film proves. That's understandable; when you compare the time it takes to unfurl a story on the page with the usual running time of a feature — even a lengthy one — not everything can make the leap from book to screen. Named for the gambling machines that fill Japanese arcades, Pachinko turns author and journalist Min Jin Lee's award-winning text into an eight-part series instead, and it's a canny and clever move. So too is getting filmmakers Kogonada and Justin Chon to direct four instalments apiece, both coming off fantastic work via After Yang and Blue Bayou respectively. And, adding to the smart and savvy choices made by this immediately engrossing series, which unfurls a sweeping, 20th century-set, multi-generational tale about struggle, resilience and endurance: casting always-wonderful Minari Oscar-winner Youn Yuh-jung — as well as newcomer Kim Min-ha as the younger version of her character. Youn and Kim play Sunja (and, as a child, first-timer Yuna does as well), who anchors a story that's both impressively sprawling and devastatingly intimate. As a girl, she grows up in Japanese-occupied Korea, a fact that shapes every part of her young life. When she's older, she moves to Japan — and by the time that she's a grandmother, that's where the bulk of her existence has unfolded. Jumping between different periods, Pachinko charts how the shadow of colonial rule has lingered over not just Sunja but the family she's brought into the world, including in the 80s where her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha, Devs) works in finance in New York and her son Mozasu (Soji Arai, Cobra Kai) has made his way thanks to the titular game. Splashing an epic story told with emotion, resonance, insight and elegance across the screen, this is at the pinnacle of novel-to-screen adaptations. Pachinko streams via Apple TV+. BLACK BIRD 2022 marks a decade since Taron Egerton's first on-screen credit as a then-23 year old. Thanks to the Kingsman movies, Eddie the Eagle, Robin Hood and Rocketman, he's rarely been out of the cinematic spotlight since — but miniseries Black Bird feels like his most mature performance yet. The latest based-on-a-true-crime tale to get the twisty TV treatment, it adapts autobiographical novel In with the Devil: a Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption. It also has Dennis Lehane, author of Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River and Shutter Island, bringing it to streaming. The focus: Jimmy Keene, a former star high-school footballer turned drug dealer, who finds his narcotics-financed life crumbling when he's arrested in a sting, offered a plea bargain with the promise of a five-year sentence (four with parole), but ends up getting ten. Seven months afterwards, he's given the chance to go free, but only if he agrees to transfer to a different prison to befriend suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser, Cruella), and get him to reveal where he's buried his victims' bodies. Even with new shows based on various IRL crimes hitting queues every week, or thereabouts — 2022 has seen plenty, including Inventing Anna, The Dropout, The Girl From Plainville and The Staircase, to name a mere few — Black Bird boasts an immediately compelling premise. The first instalment in its six-episode run is instantly gripping, too, charting Keene's downfall, the out-of-ordinary situation posed by Agent Lauren McCauley (Sepideh Moafi, The Killing of Two Lovers), and the police investigation by Brian Miller (Greg Kinnear, Crisis) to net Hall. It keeps up the intrigue and tension from there; in fact, the wild and riveting details just keep on coming. Fantastic performances all round prove pivotal as well. Again, Egerton is excellent, while Hauser's menace-dripping efforts rank among the great on-screen serial killer portrayals. And, although bittersweet to watch after his sudden passing in May, Ray Liotta (The Many Saints of Newark) makes a firm imprint as Keene's father. Black Bird streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. I LOVE THAT FOR YOU It works for television networks greenlighting new comedies, and it works for viewers picking what to watch, too: take one of Saturday Night Live's extremely amusing ladies, give them their own show, see laughs and smarts follow, profit. I Love That For You actually boasts two such talented women, although they didn't crossover during their SNL stints: Molly Shannon and Vanessa Bayer. The latter plays Joanna Gold, who has always dreamed of being on SVN — Special Value Network, that is. When she was a kid (Sophie Pollono, Small Engine Repair), she was diagnosed with childhood leukaemia, and obsessing over her idol Jackie Stilton (Shannon, The Other Two) as she sold anything and everything helped as a distraction. Now an adult, Joanna still wants to do exactly the same, and leave her job alongside her dad (Matt Malloy, The Sex Lives of College Girls) at Costco behind. But when she gets the chance, she pulls an unimpressed face during her first on-air stint that kills sales, so she says her cancer has returned to avoid getting fired. On paper, that's an extremely tricky premise. In lesser hands, it'd be downright horrible. As well as being a comic gem here, in SNL, and in everything from I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson to Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Bayer had childhood leukaemia herself — and if she didn't, and wasn't also one of I Love That For You's creators and writers, it's highly likely that this series wouldn't work. Thankfully, instead, it takes the same approach that Bayer has clearly always taken since her teenage experience, using humour in clever, sensitive, sincere, amusing, savvy and sometimes surreal ways. The show keeps demonstrating why its setup is worth tackling, too, asking questions about trying to live a normal life and work out who you are after surviving such a diagnosis; how and when sympathy is genuine, earned and milked; and guilt on several levels. It's also an entertaining workplace comedy and a takedown of consumerism, greed and the fact that anything, including sob stories, are for sale if there's something to be sold. And, of course, Bayer and Shannon are dynamite in their shared scenes. I Love That For You streams via Paramount+. THE PATIENT In one of 2022's new streaming standouts, Bad Sisters, Brian Gleeson tries to get to the bottom of a suspicious death. In another, The Patient, Domhnall Gleeson plays a serial killer. The two shows have more differences than commonalities, but it's clearly a great time for the Frank of Ireland-co-starring Gleeson brothers and twisty tales about crime. For Run's Domhnall, he co-leads a show about a murderer who enlists a therapist to try to stop his homicidal urges. Sam Fortner does indeed sit in Alan Strauss' (Steve Carell, Minions: The Rise of Gru) office and seek his help, but as well as hiding his eyes and face behind sunglasses, he keeps his real name, the bulk of his personal details and bloody pastime to himself. It's only after Strauss wakes up chained in Fortner's house that the latter feels comfortable enough to come clean and truly ask for assistance, albeit under terrifying circumstances for his captive. Domhnall Gleeson's on-screen resume isn't short on highlights, including Ex Machina and Brooklyn. Carell's has blatantly boasted many, spanning both comedies (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and The Office, obviously) and dramas (including his Oscar-nominated work in Foxcatcher). Accordingly, it should astonish no one that they're both instantly gripping in The Patient, as their characters bounce off of each other in inherently grim circumstances; however, they're each also in career-best form. The psychological-thriller series works as two commanding, textured and high-stakes character studies as Fortner demands Strauss' professional best, and ensures he isn't capable of refusing — and works through their respective baggage cat-and-mouse-style from there. In fact, it hits its marks so well that the show's concise format (each episode clocks in at between 20–25 minutes) keeps viewers wanting more. The Patient streams via Disney+. KILLING IT Killing It starts with a pitch. It's the first of many because that's just life these days, the show posits. Adding another sitcom to his resume after The Office, Ghosted and his beloved Brooklyn Nine-Nine guest spots, Craig Robinson keeps his first name as a Miami bank security guard with big aspirations — if he can rustle up some startup funds. His vision: owning a saw palmetto farm and living the American dream, because he believed his dad back when he was told as a kid that hard work and perseverance always pay off in the USA. For $20,000, he plans to buy land in the Everglades, then sell the fruit to pharmaceutical companies, who'll use it in prostate medicines for the lucrative health market. But when his branch manager won't give him a loan, and his life spirals soon afterwards, he begins to realise how America really works for everyone who isn't ruthless, wealthy or both. Striving for a better life, styling yourself to meet society's expectations, getting brutally trampled down: that's Killing It, which hails from B99 co-creator Dan Goor and executive producer Luke Del Tredici. It's a perceptive and savvily funny series about aiming for a shiny future to escape the swampy present, but getting stuck slithering in a circle no matter what you try. And, it's also about literally killing snakes, a money-making scheme that Craig comes across via Uber driver Jillian (Claudia O'Doherty, Our Flag Means Death). She's a chatty Australian who swings hammers at pythons because it's a profitable business — and because there's a contest awarding $20,000 to whoever kills the most. If The Good Place was wholly set in Florida and followed down-on-their luck folks chasing glory by slaying pythons, and also made exceptional use of the well-paired Robinson and O'Doherty, this'd be the end result. Killing It streams via Stan. Read our full review. WELCOME TO CHIPPENDALES Scandals are to the true-crime genre like loose bills are to erotic dancers: virtually essential. On-screen stories about real life can exist without getting into ripped-from-the-headlines territory, of course, and performers who disrobe onstage can do their job without crumpled notes being thrust their way. Still, some synergies just work. In 2022, TV writer and producer Robert Siegel has happily mined sordid chapters of the past for two new streaming series, and how — first with the instantly watchable and engrossing Pam & Tommy, and now with the just-as-easy-to- Welcome to Chippendales. The second sees him survey the eponymous male stripping business, of course, showers of dollar notes and all. And for viewers who don't already know the details behind the world-famous touring dance troupe and its West Los Angeles bar origins, as started by Somen 'Steve' Banerjee back in the 70s and earning ample attention in the 80s, the full rundown has far more than scantily clad guys aplenty, lusty women, and bumping and grinding to an era-appropriate soundtrack. Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals) plays Steve, who rustles up the cash to start his own backgammon club by working in a service station for years. His dream place: cool, suave and sophisticated, and somewhere that Hugh Hefner might want to hang out. When a rush of patrons doesn't eventuate, the male dancer idea springs after a night at a gay bar with club promoter Paul Snider (Dan Stevens, Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities) and his playboy model wife Dorothy Stratten (Nicola Peltz Beckham, Holidate). But as business partners change, choreographer and Emmy-winning producer Nick De Noia (Murray Bartlett, Physical) gives the troupe its crowd-pleasing moves, Steve kinds a kindred spirit in accountant Irene (Annaleigh Ashford, American Crime Story) and costume designer Denise (Juliette Lewis, Yellowjackets) comes on board, this twists into a tale of money, envy, squabbles over power and ultimately murder. And yes, both Nanjiani and Bartlett are riveting to watch — as are the dance routines De Noia conjures up. Welcome to Chippendales streams via Disney+. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE When Louis de Pointe du Lac met Lestat de Lioncourt, his life forever changed. His death did, too. That's the story that Interview with the Vampire tells and, by committing it to the page in 1976, Anne Rice's existence was altered for eternity as well — although not quite in the same way, naturally. The author has been known for her Vampire Chronicles series ever since, and its debut entry was adapted into a Brad Pitt- and Tom Cruise-starring 1994 movie before getting a do-over now as a television series. Obviously, the late Rice doesn't share her characters' lust for blood, or their ability to thwart ageing and time. Still, her famed works keep enticing in both readers and viewers — and this latest novel-to-screen version is a gothic series worth sinking your teeth into, especially thanks to its willingness to take on race, to embrace queer themes, to get playful and humorous, and to splash a sweepingly rich iteration of its now well-known tale across streaming queues. If you've seen the film, you'll know Interview with the Vampire's basic gist, although there has been some tweaking. Nonetheless, Louis (Jacob Anderson, aka Game of Thrones' Grey Worm) and Lestat (Sam Reid, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) meet in New Orleans, where they're both drawn to each other — and soon the former joins the latter in sleeping in coffins, avoiding daylight and (reluctantly) feeding on people. The series has the titular chatting happen in today's times, however, as a continuation of the movie's first conversation. Yes, this version of Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian, Succession) has been there and done this before. That didn't turn out so well for him, so he's reluctant about a repeat discussion, this time in Dubai. But Louis still has quite the story to unfurl, including covering been a Black man trying to make his way in the bayou at the turn of the 20th century, what it's meant to join the undead, his complicated relationship with Lestat, and the arrival of Claudia (Bailey Bass, Psycho Sweet 16) as part of their bloodthirsty family. Interview with the Vampire streams via AMC+. THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH Who'd want to try to step into the one and only David Bowie's shoes? Only the brave and the bold. Two people earn that description in The Man Who Fell to Earth, the new TV sequel to the iconic 1976 movie that starred the music legend in the role he was clearly born to play: an alien who descends upon earth and ch-ch-changes history. Bill Nighy (Buckley's Chance) is charged with taking over the character of Thomas Jerome Newton and, thankfully and with style, he's up to the task. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) slides into the same kind of part that Bowie owned in the original, however, as fellow extra-terrestrial interloper Faraday. He's this follow-up's newcomer to the planet, and he's just as destined to do big things. That's not a spoiler — early in the first episode, Faraday addresses a massive crowd like he's Steve Jobs announcing Apple's latest product, and The Man Who Fell to Earth's tech success uses the occasion to spin his origin story. Who'd want to try to pick up where one of the best sci-fi films ever made left off? That'd also be the brave and the bold, aka Clarice creators Jenny Lumet and Alex Kurtzman. Drawing inspiration from silver screen gems is obviously the pair's niche of late, but it's worth remembering with this new effort — which takes its cues from Walter Tevis' 1963 novel of the same name, too — that Kurtzman was also behind exceptional 2008–13 sci-fi series Fringe. Indeed, The Man Who Fell to Earth 2.0 feels like the perfect use of his talents, with the series thinking big and brimming with urgency in its vision of a world that might only be able to be saved by a spaceboy who truly cares about stopping climate change's damage. To follow through with his mission, though, Faraday also needs the help of former MIT physics whiz Justin Falls (Naomie Harris, No Time to Die). The Man Who Fell to Earth streams via Paramount+. OUTER RANGE Some shows commence with a dead girl wrapped in plastic. Others begin with a plane crash on a spooky island. With Outer Range, it all kicks off with a void. On the Abbott family ranch in Wyoming, in the western reach that gives the show its name, a chasm suddenly appears. A perfect circle swirling with otherworldly mist and resembling an oversized golf hole, it's just one of several troubles plaguing patriarch Royal (Josh Brolin, Dune), however. There is indeed a touch of Twin Peaks and Lost to Outer Range. A dash of Yellowstone, The Twilight Zone, The X-Files and whichever family-focused prime-time soap opera takes your fancy, too. As a result, while Royal is visibly disconcerted by the unexpected opening staring at him in an otherwise ordinary field in this intriguing, quickly entrancing and supremely well-acted eight-part series — a show that makes ideal use of Brolin especially — he has other worries. His rich, ostentatious and increasingly madcap neighbour Wayne Tillerson (Will Patton, Halloween Kills) suddenly wants a parcel of the Abbotts' turf, claiming mapping inaccuracies. One of Tillerson's mouthy and entitled sons, Trevor (Matt Lauria, CSI: Vegas), ends up in a bar spat with Royal's sons Rhett (Lewis Pullman, Top Gun: Maverick) and Perry (Tom Pelphrey, Mank). And there's also the matter of Perry's missing wife, who disappeared nine months back, leaving both her husband and their young daughter Amy (Olive Abercrombie, The Haunting of Hill House) searching since. Plus, into this sea of faith-testing chaos amid such serene and dreamlike scenery, a stranger arrives as well: "hippie chick" backpacker Autumn Rivers (Imogen Poots, The Father). She just wants to camp for a few days on the Abbotts' stunning and sprawling land, she says, but she's a key part in a show that's a ranch-dwelling western, an offbeat enigma, an eerie sci-fi, a detective quest and a thriller all at once. Outer Range streams via Prime Video. Read our full review. THE GIRL FROM PLAINVILLE Whatever she's in, and whether she's the star of the show or a supporting player, Chloë Sevigny's face always tells a tale of its own. That's been true in everything from Kids and Boys Don't Cry through to Big Love and We Are Who We Are, and it remains that way in The Girl From Plainville — the new eight-part true-crime miniseries led by The Great's Elle Fanning that's based on the death of Massachusetts teenager Conrad Roy III in 2014. Here, Fanning plays Conrad's long-distance girlfriend Michelle Carter. It's due to the her actions that the situation has been known as "the texting suicide case" for almost a decade — garnering not just local but international attention, and earning a HBO documentary, I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs Michelle Carter, back in 2019. Fanning is fantastic in what proves an eerie character study, but the looks that Sevigny, as Conrad's mother Lynn, shoots her way scream rather than simply speak volumes. Inspired by Jesse Barron's Esquire article of the same name, The Girl From Plainville tells a tough tale, starting with Conrad's (Colton Ryan, Dear Evan Hansen) suicide in his truck in a Kmart parking lot. It was his second attempt to take his own life, although he'd promised Lynn that he wouldn't do it again — and when his death was investigated, police discovered text messages sent to him by Michelle, including a plethora of words encouraging him to follow through. In 2015, she was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter for "wantonly and recklessly" assisting the suicide. In 2017, her trial took place. The outcome is now a matter a history, which the complicated, captivating and gripping The Girl From Plainville builds up to while also unpacking Michelle and Conrad's relationship. The Girl From Plainville streams via Stan. Read our full review.
The trio behind Collingwood's 70s-themed wine bar Gum launched into the loaded deli sandwich game with The Continental in 2024. Located next door to the team's small bar on Johnston Street, this spot is loading up fresh focaccias with a heap of different Mediterranean flavours — the white anchovy number with whipped ricotta, capers, rocket, red onion and salsa verde is already a hot fave. The mortadella sanga with manchego, Sicilian olives and that verde sauce is another winner — especially when you add crisps inside for an extra $2. There are just seven sandwiches available, with none pricier than $19. They're not the cheapest, but these big lunchtime bites are full of top-quality Aussie and imported produce. And though the deli is mostly set up for takeaway trade, visitors are invited to stick around to play a spot of pool. There aren't any seats, but you can take a bite of your sanga while you're waiting for your turn. On the drinks side, $3.50 espressos are the only dine-in option. It's a lot like Europe's coffee culture where you quickly down an espresso at the bar before getting on with the day. All other food and drinks are served in takeaway containers, whether you're staying or leaving. The Continental has really charming European social club vibes, both in the style of service and its design. Old brown tiles — that'll remind you of your nonna's, yiayia's or abuela's kitchen — line the floors, and there's a smattering of kitsch artwork on the walls. Other than that, the space is pretty sparse – the focus here is on quality sandwiches and deli fillings that are given plenty of love. And if you want to sit down with your sanga, you can always take it next door to Gum (when it's open) and pair it with some natty wines. What's not to love about that?
Cards on the table: thanks to Russian Doll and the Knives Out franchise, Natasha Lyonne and Rian Johnson are both on a helluva streak. In their most recent projects before now, each has enjoyed a hot run not once but twice. Lyonne made time trickery one of the best new shows of 2019, plus a returning standout in 2022 as well, while Johnson's first Benoit Blanc whodunnit and followup Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery were gems of the exact same years. The latter also saw the pair team up briefly — Lyonne and Johnson, that is, although getting a Russian Doll-meets-Knives Out crossover from the universe, or just the Netflix algorithm, would be a dream. Until that wish comes true, there's Poker Face. It's no one's stopgap or consolation prize, however. This new mystery-of-the-week series is an all-out must-see in its own right, and one of 2023's gleaming streaming aces already. Given its components and concept, turning out otherwise would've been the biggest head-scratcher. Beneath aviator shades, a trucker cap and her instantly recognisable (albeit sun-bleached here) locks, Lyonne plays detective again, as she did in Russian Doll — because investigating why you're looping through the same day over and over, or jumping through time, is still investigating. Johnson gives the world another sleuth, too, after offering up his own spin on Agatha Christie-style gumshoes with the ongoing Knives Out saga. This time, he's dancing with 1968–2003 television series Columbo, right down to Poker Face's title font. Lyonne isn't one for playing conventional detectives — not that she couldn't, or wouldn't nail it hands down. Streaming on Stan in Australia and TVNZ On Demand in New Zealand, Poker Face casts her as Charlie Cale, who starts poking around in sudden deaths thanks to an unusual gift and a personal tragedy. As outlined in the show's ten-part first season, four episodes of which arrive on Friday, January 27 with new chapters dropping weekly afterwards, Charlie is a human lie detector. She can instantly tell if someone is being untruthful, a knack she first used in gambling before getting on the wrong side of the wrong people. Then, when a friend and colleague at the far-from-flashy Las Vegas casino where Charlie works winds up dead, that talent couldn't be handier. Poker Face's 1970s-inspired debut episode sets up three whys: why its charmingly wry and affably no-nonsense protagonist knows when anyone around her is fibbing, why the series itself follows her road-tripping across America in a rundown Plymouth Barracuda, and why an episodic array of murders in different places is in her future. Courtesy of her gift, she's soon fleeing casino boss Sterling Frost Sr (Ron Perlman, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio) and his enforcer Cliff Legrand (Benjamin Bratt, DMZ), then taking whichever odd jobs she can find from town to town. The show's second instalment sees her car break down, requiring a mechanic to patch it up — while its third takes her to a famed brisket barbecue business, and its fourth involves a hit 90s metal band attempting to reclaim past glories on tour. In Poker Face's fifth episode, an aged-care home is the scene of a crime. And in its sixth, two former TV co-stars bicker their way through a play until someone becomes a victim. "Why?" isn't just a question that Johnson — as Poker Face's creator, the writer and director of its first instalment, a helmer twice more, plus a scribe once again as well — has to establish, and fast. As Charlie notes about her preternatural ability, "the real trick of it is figuring out why: why somebody is lying". People spout fabrications and deceptions all day every single day, as she can't avoid everywhere she goes. Mostly, they're minor and have little impact on anyone else, Charlie advises. But it's the reasoning behind the bigger falsehoods that she's interested in. So, the show moves her from place to place, has her hear a lie just as a body shows up, then saddles her with puzzling out what's going on — and, yes, why. Poker Face doesn't hide its own formula, laying it bare from the outset. In its opening episode and all that follow, the focus initially sits with someone who isn't long for this world, their killer and the surrounding players. Viewers watch what happens to that chapter's fated person, scope out all the connected parties, then team up with Charlie — learning where she fits in and witnessing her getting to the bottom of the latest death. Poker Face's audience has the advantage of already seeing what occurred, of course. But, as it does for Charlie, the why still requires unravelling. Often she's putting together what viewers know, but adding further details or context, or seeing the various pieces from different angles. She's also openly calling bullshit frequently, with Lyonne uttering it as often and distinctively as she does "cockroaches" in Russian Doll. In the era of peak TV — peak streaming also — as populated by hook-heavy series demanding non-stop binges, Poker Face does something old-fashioned: it revels in its standalone chapters. Wanting to watch one after another after another is still the end result, but soaking in each mystery rather than constantly setting up the next twist is the show's main aim. Some elements bleed from one instalment to the next, as Charlie keeps trying to evade her pursuers. But for between 45–60 minutes per episode, there's a whodunnit to solve, a contained cast of players, and plenty of Lyonne being a sharp, droll and astute delight. Sometimes she's tasting pieces of wood, too, or calling a dog a fascist. In fact, in the same very episode that contains the timber chewing and canine altercations, she also introduces someone to Bong Joon-ho's Okja — because Poker Face's small joys are many. As comes with the case-of-the-week territory — see also: one of the all-timers in this genre, Law & Order — this series' sweet sleuthing baby is joined by a masterful cast of familiar guest stars. When Lyonne isn't squaring off against Adrien Brody (See How They Run), she's hanging out with The Menu's Hong Chau and Judith Light, or with Lil Rel Howery (Deep Water) and Danielle MacDonald (The Tourist). Her Russian Doll mother Chloë Sevigny (Bones and All) leads those aforementioned metal rockers, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Pinocchio), Ellen Barkin (Animal Kingdom), Nick Nolte (The Mandalorian), Cherry Jones (Succession), Jameela Jamil (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law) and newly minted Oscar-nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once) also feature. Throw in Johnson's own history with mysteries, hailing back to his stellar 2005 movie debut Brick and also including Looper, and Poker Face couldn't boast a better winning hand. Going all in for the series and its big bag of fun is the natural response. Check out the full trailer for Poker Face below: Poker Face streams from Friday, January 27 via Stan in Australia and TVNZ On Demand in New Zealand. Images: Peacock.
If you like your art medieval with a splash of mystery, you definitely need to see The Lady and the Unicorn exhibition at AGNSW this autumn. Since arriving (in separate planes at that) last month from the Musèe de Cluny — Musèe National du Moyen Âge in Paris, the six mind-blowingly exquisite wool and silk tapestries have been intriguing Sydney crowds. While art buffs know the wealthy Le Viste family commissioned them around 1500, no one knows exactly who designed them, or why, or for whom exactly. And although now widely interpreted as a meditation on courtly love and earthly pleasure through an allegory of the senses, the tapestries' potential to be read a variety of ways creates an enduring mystery that only adds to their charm. To help you get the most out of your visit, we spoke to Art Gallery of NSW curator and exhibition researcher Jackie Dunn about some of the symbols within the enchanting works, their varying interpretations and the pleasure of not ever being able to definitively solve the puzzle. [caption id="attachment_663309" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Sight' c1500 (detail) from 'The Lady and the Unicorn' series, Musée de Cluny — Musée National du Moyen Âge, Paris Photo © RMN-GP / M Urtado.[/caption] THE MIRROR The depiction of a beautiful woman holding a mirror could be interpreted as a symbol of vanity. However, within the Sight tapestry, things are a little unusual. The Lady holds the mirror up to the unicorn, who sits tamely with forelegs in her lap and seems very taken with his own reflection. Has she used the mirror to charm him into submission? Or does the mirror have, as Dunn terms it, "strong religious underpinnings"? Many engravings of the time feature a similar configuration involving the Virgin Mary holding a mirror up to Jesus, revealing his humanity. This, along with several other elements, has led certain scholars to argue that the entire tapestry suite is a religious metaphor. Dunn however, is unconvinced. "I don't think it means the tapestries are religious per say," she says, explaining that the artist who designed the tapestries (most likely the anonymous 'Master of Anne of Brittany') would have been unavoidably influenced by the religious art of the time. "Scenes like this are part of their image bank, what they would have been brought up on." Whether about vanity, seduction, religious metaphor or all three, the mirror is just one of the tapestry cycle's "rich, crazy, mixed-up bag of symbols". [caption id="attachment_663307" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Hearing' c1500 (detail) from 'The Lady and the Unicorn' series, Musée de Cluny — Musée National du Moyen Âge, Paris Photo © RMN-GP / M Urtado.[/caption] THE INSTRUMENT At the centre of the Hearing tapestry, we find the Lady standing up and serenely playing a portative organ. Framed by unicorn and lion, she's assisted by what is most likely her maidservant (and a none-too-thrilled one at that) who stands working the bellows. Looking to modern eyes like a strange hybrid between panpipes, a keyboard and a small harp, a portative organ was a commonly used instrument within secular music at the time. If we go with the allegory of the senses interpretation, then we could argue the instrument, creating music, simply symbolises the sense of hearing. However, according to Dunn the presence of the instrument also tells us something notable about the Lady's class status and the period's new expectations of women of her social standing. "It was seen as important that women were getting a broader education in the arts," explains Dunn, including music, dance, languages and poetry. In this light, the musical instrument might represent that the lady is well educated and highly moneyed, but also that she has the ability to create music, to make beautiful things. "The instrument is interesting because, in a way, it's showing her capacity to make art." [caption id="attachment_663310" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Taste' c1500 (detail) from 'The Lady and the Unicorn' series, Musée de Cluny — Musée National du Moyen Âge, Paris Photo © RMN-GP / M Orated.[/caption] THE RABBITS, THE DOG AND THE MONKEY Animals abound across all six tapestries, reflective of the era's fascination with the natural world. Aside from the lion and unicorn, within the Taste tapestry alone we can also see rabbits, a monkey, a bird, a sheep and several types of dog. Rabbits often symbolise fertility, but according to Dunn, here they could also be a warning about "the dangers of sex" and the likely consequences of breaching the chaste limits of the courtly love tradition, which dictated that "you could push the limits of seduction between a young man or woman to the point that they were completely filled with desire, but they never consummate it." What about the tiny pet dog seated on the train of the Lady's dress? Gazing up at her adoringly, it most obviously conveys ideas of loyalty and fidelity. However, Dunn adds that a collared or chained animal (occurring throughout the tapestries) might also symbolise the containment of animal desire in favour of moral self-control. On another, more worldly level, the pet dog — along with the monkey — again displays the Lady's wealth and fashionable status to viewers: "Only people with money can have pets like that rather than a working dog or a scrounging hound at the back door!" [caption id="attachment_663308" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'My Sole Desire' c1500 (detail) from 'The Lady and the Unicorn' series, Musée de Cluny — Musée National du Moyen Âge, Paris Photo © RMN-GP / M Urtado.[/caption] THE CHEST OF JEWELS When you stand in front of Mon Seul Desir, the sixth and final tapestry, ask yourself whether the Lady is lifting out the jewels or putting them away. Chances are you'll be undecided. "We're delighted that it's ambiguous," says Dunn. "For a long time it was thought that she was putting them on, but the way that it's now interpreted is that it's probably her renouncing the world of material things and returning the jewels to the box." Widely agreed to symbolise the Lady's purity and ability to control her earthly desires, the putting away of the jewels could also represent a more mature woman's rejection of the vanity of youth. There is a competing scholarly argument that the tapestry cycle depicts the various stages of a woman's life, with this tapestry portraying the Lady later in life. But while finding that reading "quite a beautiful one," Dunn isn't convinced it makes sense for the suite as a whole, preferring instead to embrace a multiplicity of not wholly resolved interpretations — an approach far more in keeping with the tapestries' romantic, multi-faceted and richly poetic medieval context. "It's a world of all these symbols overlaid. They love complexity, they love cleverness, not being able to fully resolve things but to bounce between different layers of meaning. There's nothing straightforward about the way they thought about the world. It's actually very rich." The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries are on display at the Art Gallery of NSW until June 24.
UPDATE, April 9, 2021: Ready or Not is available to stream via Disney+, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. "In-laws". It's such an ordinary, everyday term, and yet it's usually uttered with such exasperation. Embodying the flipside of deciding to spend your life with someone, it's a reminder that even the happiest of romances always come with considerable baggage. It also sums up Ready or Not perfectly. At its most basic, this twisty and gory horror flick rests on one simple idea: having in-laws is hell. Of course, there's the minor annoyance that arises when your parents-in-law have too many opinions, or your siblings-in-law are obnoxious, or your uncle-in-law gets embarrassingly drunk at Christmas — and then there's discovering that your new family is plotting to kill you on your wedding night. First seen dressed for her big day, smoking a cigarette and pondering taking the plunge, Grace (Samara Weaving) is initially worried that her soon-to-be husband's family won't accept her. Alex Le Domas (Mark O'Brien) been estranged from his parents for years, but the couple is getting married on their sprawling estate anyway — it's tradition — and unease lingers in the air. While matriarch Becky (Andie MacDowell) is welcoming, she's more concerned about bringing Alex back into the fold. Grace's new brother-in-law Daniel (Adam Brody) seems like he's joking when he says she doesn't belong; however his tone has a clear edge. Other relatives, such as Alex's dad Tony (Henry Czerny), are barely polite. As for eccentric Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni), her permanent scowl says everything. So far, so standard. That's how tales of regular folks marrying into obscenely rich dynasties often go. But, as an ex-foster kid who's never had much of a family, Grace is determined to win over the Le Domas brood. Accordingly, when she's told they all have to play a game at midnight, she goes along with it. The family made their money in board games, so it's another tradition. It's not what most couples do after they've just gotten hitched, but there are worse ways to spend an evening than playing hide and seek in a lavish mansion — unless weapons, murder and devilish secrets are involved. Arrows start flying, guns keep firing and avoiding the dumbwaiter is plain common sense, with Grace forced to battle for her life while still wearing her wedding dress. Working with a witty script by Guy Busick (Stan Against Evil) and Ryan Murphy, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Devil's Due) ramp up the chaos and layer in plenty of commentary — and, yes, Ready or Not has much to say. As steeped as the movie is in oh-so-relatable family stresses, it also finds a wealth of subversive and perceptive material in gender roles and class warfare. When Grace's willingness to please and desire to belong sees her treated like prey, the film revels in her transformation from eager and accommodating to plucky and fearsome. And while there's no missing the many digs at the well-off, privileged and entitled, they're no less astute or accurate just because they're obvious. The result: a horror-comedy with bumps, jumps, laughs and vicious satire all in one gleefully manic slash 'n' stalk package. The concept of hunting humans is hardly new (see: The Most Dangerous Game, Turkey Shoot, Series 7 and Bacurau), and neither are family dysfunction nor just-married jitters (see: too many pictures to mention), but it makes a smart and amusing combination. Ready or Not's setting helps immensely, with the film trading on the mystery and intrigue that bubbles in all whodunnits and horror flicks in a stately home — and making ample use of secret corridors and endless rooms as well. Also assisting nicely is the playful You're Next-style vibe and Heathers-esque attitude; if can't have some ferocious fun with this premise, when can you? While Ready or Not holds nearly a full deck of winning cards, two other elements stand out. As the cast flings axes and slings snappy dialogue, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett always ensure that Grace's actions and choices feel realistic, rather than convenient, exaggerated or implausible; she's trying to fight, flee and survive, after all, and the situation is over-the-top enough as it is. Led by Australian talent Weaving, the film's cast is also excellent in general. MacDowell rarely dallies with her dark side, and she's a delight to watch in villainous mode. Brody, when he toys with his usual nice-guy image, is in sparkling form too. Naturally, though, Ready or Not belongs to its fierce bride and the actor behind her. After working her way from Home and Away to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to this, Weaving is a formidable and engaging presence — and, as this savagely entertaining flick demands, she's also one hell of a horror movie hero. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtYTwUxhAoI
First, hobbits tuck into breakfast. Then, they enjoy second breakfast. In fact, in both JRR Tolkien's books and the movie adaptations that've brought them to the screen so far, they like their meals frequently and with the smallest of gaps between them. That seems to be an approach that Prime Video is taking to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, its upcoming Middle-earth series, too — at least when it comes to dropping sneak peeks at the long-awaited show. The Rings of Power seems like it has been in the works forever, because it's now been 21 years since the first of The Lord of the Rings movies had everyone rushing to cinemas, obsessing over hobbits and elves, and saying "precious" too many times — and, it's also been five years since it was initially revealed that a TV series was in the works. The show will drop in September, starting on Friday, September 2, but early glimpses have been as rare as a pacifist orc until this month. Now, in the space of just a fortnight, Prime Video has dropped not just one, not two, but three new trailers. The latest arrived during San Diego Comic-Con, aka the reason that other big fantasy titles such as Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon and game-to-screen adaptation Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves have also released trailers this week — and it's the longest look at The Rings of Power yet. It also provides the most complete overview of the show's storyline, which jumps back into Middle-earth's Second Age, bringing that era from the LOTR realm to the screen for the first time. In past trailers — including the initial sneak peek back in February — gorgeous settings, elves, dwarves, harfoots (aka hobbit ancestors), stormy seas, strange skies, cave trolls, raging fires and orc battles have all popped up. This new trailer pieces together more of the plot around them. The focus: the rise of Sauron, how that gave rise to the rings and the impact across Middle-earth. Also seen in the new sneak peek: more orcs, and even a balrog. The Rings of Power features a young Galadriel (Morfydd Clark, Saint Maud) and a young Elrond (Robert Aramayo, The King's Man), too — and, this time, New Zealand's natural splendours stand in for the Elven realms of Lindon and Eregion, the Dwarven realm Khazad-dûm, the Southlands, the Northernmost Wastes, the Sundering Seas and the island kingdom of Númenór. Amazon first announced the show back in 2017, gave it the official go-ahead in mid-2018 and set its premiere date back in 2021. In-between, it confirmed that it wouldn't just remake Peter Jackson's movies. Rather, as per the show's official synopsis, it follows "the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history," with the action set thousands of years before the novels and movies we've all read and watched. If you're a little rusty on your LOTR lore, the Second Age lasted for 3441 years, and saw the initial rise and fall of Sauron, as well as a spate of wars over the coveted rings. Elves feature prominently, and there's plenty to cover, even if Tolkien's works didn't spend that much time on the period — largely outlining the main events in an appendix to the popular trilogy. The series will "take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien's pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness," the synopsis continues. "Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone," it also advises. That's a hefty tale to tell, and The Rings of Power has amassed a hefty cast to tell it — and some impressive talent behind the scenes. Among the other actors traversing Middle-earth are Ismael Cruz Córdova (The Undoing) as Arondir, Nazanin Boniadi (Bombshell) as Bronwyn, Owain Arthur (A Confession) as Prince Durin IV, Charlie Vickers (Palm Beach) as Halbrand and Sophia Nomvete (The Tempest) as Princess Disa. There's also Tom Budge (Judy & Punch), Joseph Mawle (Game of Thrones), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (The Accountant), Maxim Baldry (Years and Years), Peter Mullan (Westworld), Benjamin Walker (The Underground Railroad) and comedian Lenny Henry. And, the series is being overseen by showrunners and executive producers JD Payne and Patrick McKay, while filmmaker JA Bayona (A Monster Calls, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) directs the first two episodes. Check out the latest The Rings of Power trailer below: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will be available to stream via Prime Video from Friday, September 2, 2022. Images: Matt Grace / Ben Rothstein.
Preston has been slowly but surely cementing its status as a primo booze destination of late. In late 2019, the suburb welcomed Moon Dog's mammoth new brewery and, a few months, it landed Melbourne's first fully functioning independent urban winery, courtesy of renowned label Jamsheed. The brand from winemaker Gary Mills has been operating out of the Yarra Valley since 2003, but it has never had a cellar door to call its own. At the end of 2019, inspired by similar venues he'd seen during time in Portland, USA, Mills moved operations entirely to Preston and his groundbreaking urban winery was born. "I figured if all the breweries and distilleries popping up in Melbourne at the moment can work, so would a winery," Mills said in a statement. Sitting on Albert Street — a handy stone's throw from both Moon Dog World and 3 Ravens Brewery — Jamsheed's new home takes the form of a two-level, 170-person warehouse space complete with a foliage-filled winery and tasting bar downstairs, and a separate spirits-focused dive bar above. [caption id="attachment_760170" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Julia Sansone[/caption] It's a relaxed, industrial-style hangout that invites you to pull up a seat and get acquainted with some top-notch local wines, as you experience the sights, sounds and smells of a proper working winery. The whole catalogue of Jamsheed drops is on offer at the bar, including the newest releases, plus you'll find a hefty retail selection of take-home bottles. "We've been specifically cellaring something of everything we've made back to 2003 in order to be able to offer the full library through the winery and the cellar door," said Mills. There's also an assortment of craft beers and ciders from local mates such as Hop Nation and 3 Ravens, alongside a tidy range of homegrown artisanal spirits. Venture upstairs and you'll discover an even cosier escape, complete with free-to-play pool table, vinyl tunes and squashy retro couches. To eat, there's a menu of regularly changing snacks and mains by Josh Nicholson Catering, including the likes of steak tartare ($18), LP's pig's head sausage with pipis and sourdough ($20) and curried baby chats ($12) Images: Julia Sansone
Dying to grow your own food but failed to take the agriculture elective in high school? Been green with envy, eyeing off new apartment blocks' vertical gardens, yet don't know where to start when it comes to greening up your own home? You've come to the right place. As increasing the flower, fruit and foliage content of our urban lives becomes more and more desirable, so too does the technology enabling it. Read on to discover five systems for apartment gardening that'll have your place biodiversify-ing like the Amazon in no time — even if you've never planted a seed or picked out a weed in your life. SproutsIO If you're handier with your smartphone than you are with a trowel, SproutsIO could well be for you. Consisting of a network of pods, each home to a separate plant, it functions according to the commands of a mobile app, which works through both Android and iOS devices. There's no soil involved. Instead, oxygen and nutrients are delivered via mist, with special censors ensuring that light, humidity and temperature remain at optimum levels. According to creator Jennifer Broutin Farah, SproutsIO's productivity levels are up to six times higher than those generated by traditional soil-based methods. Currently nearing production; on-sale date TBC. Windowfarm This vertical, bioponic solution does exactly what its name suggests — transforms your window into a farm that would do Old McDonald proud. A reservoir at the base of the Windowfarm pumps nutrient-filled water upwards, feeding each plant's roots, which are protected not by soil but by a 'nest' comprised of clay pellets, coconut hair and rice hulls. US$199 for a one-column starter bundle at store.windowfarms.com Aqualibrium This isn't just an apartment garden: it's a fish tank and farm, combined. Made possible by a successful Kickstarter campaign, Aqualibrium works according to the principles of aquaponics. The fish create nutrients, which are cycled upwards to feed the plants, while the plants soak up the nutrients and send fresh, clean water downwards. If fish aren't your thing, you can replace them with pre-bottled nutrients, thereby transforming Aqualibrium into a hydroponics system. From US$300 at shop.aqualibrium.com Bitponics Want home-grown vegetables but simply don't have time to attend to them? At all? Bitponics is a fully automated hydroponics system that can run an entire season of gardening via the Cloud. Everything — including pH, light, water, temperature and humidity — is measured and regulated by wi-fi responsive sensors. $9/month per garden. Sign-ups coming soon at bitponics.com. String gardens They might not be as productive or automated as some of the fancy systems already discussed, but they have plenty of other advantages. They're cheap; they look cool and you can make them with your own two hands — from scratch.
If you thought that Melbourne was anywhere close to smokehouse saturation point, you were wrong. The barbecue trend continues in all its meaty glory, with the latest addition drawing carnivorous punters even further west, to Footscray. Up in Smoke is the new venture from 8bit's Shayne McCallum. Having conquered the tastebuds of this burgeoning foodie suburb with drool-worthy burgers, he's now decked out a prominent industrial space on Hopkins Street, stuck in a huge Yoder Frontiersman smoker and is serving up the smoky spoils nightly, from 5pm until they run out. The asphalt beer garden fronting the 60-seat eatery is as big as the space within — an ideal spot for a drive-by ribs fix and craft beers with the crew. Inside, it's all black walls and booth seating, with that majestic smoker sitting behind glass and bathed in almost angelic light. It's responsible for the parade of meat sailing from the kitchen, nestled in tacos, wedged into hefty sandwiches and teamed simply with pickles, a milk bun and a duo of sauces on enamel trays. You can avoid too much decision-making and opt for The Big Tray, loaded with brisket, sausage, a mound of pulled pork and two sides ($42), or you can build your own meaty adventure. Pork ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender ($28) and brisket is handled just as well ($16). Match them with some of the punchy chilli mayo slaw ($5), or decadent, crunchy-topped mac 'n' cheese ($6) and you'll be in smokehouse heaven. If you've got any spare room in that belly, be sure to sample the smoked hot wings ($10), or one of the tacos ($5 each). The seafood number is a fiesta in its own right, filled with polenta-crumbed prawns, avocado, corn, black beans and a zesty lime crema. Alongside the meat, the other big drawcard here is a stellar booze offering. A sharp little wine list straddles the line between approachable and interesting, while craft beer fans will go nuts over both the tap selection and the bottles in the fridge. Right now, you can team your brisket with a Fixation IPA ($6.50 pot) or go a little left of centre with Bad Shepherd's raspberry wheat beer ($7/$14/$26). Come for the meat and stay for the stuff you wash it down with. Whether you live in the west, the north or the east, this is one Footscray gem worth checking out. Images: Renee Stamatis
It happened — it really, finally happened. After being forced to move online in 2020 due to COVID-19, then having to push back its 2021 dates not once but twice for the same reason, the Sydney Film Festival returned to cinemas around the city this month for a 12-day big-screen run. If you're seeing a movie in Sydney, there's nothing quite like seeing it at the glorious State Theatre — or spending almost a fortnight camped out there doing nothing but watching films. SFF hasn't forsaken the online realm, however. The pandemic turned attending film festivals into a virtual pursuit as well as a physical one, and Sydney's annual celebration of cinema is still keen to stream its wares. Enter SFF On Demand, the fest's digital offshoot for 2021, which is showing 56 feature-length films and 13 shorts between Friday, November 12–Sunday, November 21. It's the SFF you can keep enjoying after the IRL festival has packed up its projectors for the year. It's also the SFF you can head to no matter where you're located in Australia, all without worrying about border restrictions and plane fares. The SFF On Demand lineup is jam-packed with must-sees, too, including our ten picks of the online program. Yes, first we watched, reviewed and recommended ten excellent films showing during SFF's physical run, and now we've done the same for its virtual lineup to help liven up your at-home viewing. You can even stream SFF's two big award-winners — and they're definitely on our list. CRYPTOZOO Throw a fantastical menagerie worth of mythical beasts into a kaleidoscope, plus copious amounts of hallucinogens. Then, sprinkle in some savvy cynicism about capitalism, corporations, the military-industrial complex and the 21st century's consumerism-driven ethos, as well as a savaging of xenophobic attitudes and a keen awareness of how humanity has been impacting the natural world. Next, shake vigorously. That's not how you make a movie, even one that splashes hand-drawn animation across the screen and is happy to look like it has been sketched and coloured in while under the influence, but it's easy to imagine that this is how Cryptozoo came together in all its mind-bending glory. A wild ride of a movie — and one aimed purely at adults — it's outlandish, ambitious, irreverent and entertaining all at once. It's also as smart as it is silly, and it's just as willing to make more than a few statements in more than a few ways. In comic book artist-turned-writer/director Dash Shaw's (My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea) psychedelic alternative version of our own universe, and of the 1960s, unicorns, pegasi, krakens, gorgons and other critters of legend all exist. The titular locale is home to many thanks to cryptozoologist Lauren Gray (Lake Bell, Medical Police) and her mentor Joan (Grace Zabriskie, Twin Peaks), but it also doubles as a theme park for humans to gawk at its rare inhabitants. Lauren is devoted to trying to protect the creatures, called cryptids; however, that's easier said than done when shadowy mercenaries are trying to capture the same beings. Some critters take humanoid forms and it's one, Phoebe (Angeliki Papoulia, The Lobster), who encourages Lauren to challenge everything that she believes — and both wondrous and astute chaos ensues. HIVE In Hive, to peer at Kosovo-born actor Yllka Gashi is to look deep into a battler's eyes. She plays Fahrije Hoti, a woman who has never been allowed to stop fighting, although the men in her patriarchal village would prefer that she'd simply attend to her duties as a wife and mother, do what's expected and keep quiet. That's just another roadblock she's forced to rally against with every word, thought and breath. With her husband missing for years due to the Kosovo War, and her father-in-law eager to maintain the status quo, she's been trying to make ends meet in a town — and a male-dominated culture — that's unsympathetic to her plight. Fahrije isn't alone, however, with many of the village's other women also widowed due to the conflict and expected to somehow survive. So, with the beehives she dutifully attends to unable to keep paying her bills, she decides to start a female-run co-operative to make and sell ajvar, a pepper relish. A picture of blistering resilience, unflappable fortitude and baked-in sorrow, Gashi is phenomenal as Fahrije — and first-time feature writer/director Blerta Basholli puts in just as magnificent an effort behind the lens. They're both playing with reality, drawing upon the real-life Hoti's moving and inspiring story, but Hive could never be mistaken for a standard biopic. Lived-in fury and resolve buzzes through every exactingly staged and observed scene, and each facet of Gashi's performance as well, all as Fahrije weathers even more derision — and worse — for even dreaming of attempting to support herself. At this year's Sundance Film Festival, Hive became the first movie in history to win its World Cinema Dramatic Competition Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award and Best Director gong, and deservedly so. THERE IS NO EVIL The death penalty casts a dark and inescapable shadow over There Is No Evil, which is just as writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof intends. The Iranian filmmaker has spent his career examining the reality of his homeland, as previously seen in 2013's Manuscripts Don't Burn and 2017's A Man of Integrity — so much so that he's actually been banned from his craft, not that that's stopping him. With There Is No Evil, Rasoulof doesn't simply continue the trend that's guided his cinematic resume thus far. Rather, he interrogates the most severe form of punishment that any society can enact, and doesn't shy away from horrors both obvious and unplanned. To call the result powerful is an understatement, and it's won him Berlinale's prestigious Golden Bear in 2020, and now the 2021 Sydney Film Festival Prize as well. An anthology film that unfurls across four segments, There Is No Evil explores capital punishment, its impact and the ripples that executions have upon Iranian society. Even the mere concept of state-sanctioned killing rolls through the feature like waves, changing and reshaping much in its wake. It touches a stressed husband and father (feature first-timer Ehsan Mirhosseini), a conscript (Kaveh Ahangar, Don't Be Embarrassed) who can't fathom ending someone's life, a soldier (Mohammad Valizadegan, Lady of the City) whose compliance causes personal issues and a physician (Mohammad Seddighimehr, The Sad Widows of the Warlord) unable to practise his trade. While some sections hit their mark more firmly and decisively than others — There Is No Evil's introduction sets a high bar — this meticulously crafted movie, both visually and thematically, has a lingering cumulative effect as it ruminates on the threats and freedoms that come with life under an oppressive regime. THE JUSTICE OF BUNNY KING Essie Davis and Thomasin McKenzie have each enjoyed a busy few years. Since they co-starred in True History of the Kelly Gang, Davis has added Babyteeth, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears and Nitram to her filmography, while McKenzie has appeared in Old, The Power of the Dog and Last Night in Soho just this year alone. A drama about a mother desperate to reclaim custody of her children, The Justice of Bunny King slots in nicely on both actors' ever-growing resumes. It's Davis' movie — she plays the titular New Zealand mum, and inhabits the part like a force of nature — but McKenzie still leaves an imprint as Bunny's niece Tonyah. Both characters yearn for a life that doesn't constantly push them aside and ignore their struggles, and longing, determination and resourcefulness shines through in Davis and McKenzie's performances alike. When asked, Bunny describes herself as a "homeless squidgy bandit". She washes car windscreens in traffic for change, and runs her sister's household in exchange for a couch to crash on. And, as social services reminds her every chance they get, she doesn't have the requisite fixed address they require in order to release her kids (Black Hands' Angus Stevens and debutant Amelie Baynes) from foster care. Simply finding a house and being a family again is all that Bunny spends her days working towards, but needing to extricate Tonyah from a horrific situation soon becomes just as crucial. Making a memorable and heartfelt feature debut that pairs its standout performances with naturalistic imagery and a pulsating air of authenticity, filmmaker Gaysorn Thavat gives Bunny and Tonyah the one thing that the world around them won't: the space to have their stories heard, and to fly the flag for other women in similar circumstances. APPLES Add Apples to the list of films that owe a significant debt to The Lobster and The Favourite's Yorgos Lanthimos. Any Greek Weird Wave movie does, after the Greek filmmaker's 2009 feature Dogtooth made such a splash and helped ignite the cinema movement — but it's actually on that very title that Apples' writer/director Christos Nikou earned his first feature filmmaking credit. His time spent there as a second assistant director and script supervisor has served him well. Indeed, his own full-length debut sports the same deadpan tone, but Nikou doesn't merely try to emulate Lanthimos' success. Working with an accidentally timely topic — a pandemic, something he couldn't have foreseen before Apples' premiere more than a year ago — he finds his own way to tap into the ridiculousness at the heart of existence. There's much to poke, probe, ponder and parody, after all, especially when it comes to the difference between the genuine and the performative in daily life. There are no coughs or fevers fuelling Apples' sweeping illness. Instead, a widespread bout of amnesia has obliterated memories at random. For those who can't recall their past life or anyone in it, being cared for by the state awaits — followed by a step-by-step experimental process to learn to live in the world again. That's the new reality for Aris (Aris Servetalis, Alps), who is encouraged to take Polaroid photos to show how he's working towards normality, and also finds himself warming to fellow amnesiac Anna (Sofia Georgovassili, Thread). Apples finds the midpoint between playing it straight and seeing the absurdity in its setup, and it's a perceptive balance. Nikou also uses the film's fastidiously shot frames to muse on happiness, connection, and the latter's role in the former. EL PLANETA A film can be shaggy and precise at the same time — and both warm and melancholy, too. El Planeta is all of these things as it follows a struggling but resourceful mother-daughter duo. Leo (director/writer/producer/star Amalia Ulman) and María (Ulman's real-life mum Ale) have fallen on hard times, yet are desperate to cling to their middle-class existence in the Spanish coastal city of Gijón. María still slinks around in a fur coat and oversized sunglasses, trying to look the glamours part; frequently, she's lining her jacket's pockets during her shoplifting sprees. Leo is initially seen trying to set up her first job as a sex professional (Colossal filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo plays her potential client), but usually works as a stylist. As a video call with a fashion editor about a prospective New York gig with Christina Aguilera demonstrates, though, exposure is her usual form of payment. There's a witty sense of humour coursing through El Planeta's gorgeous greyscale frames — this isn't a social-realist post-financial crisis slice-of-life — but multidisciplinary artist Ulman still steeps her feature in all-too-real income inequalities. While she's taken loose inspiration from actual mother-and-daughter scammers who tried to fake it till they made it as socialites, she peppers Leo and María's days with markers of a society that cares little for anyone who isn't comfortable at worst and wealthy at best. Indeed, this is a movie teeming with devilish and revelatory details, from the frozen curses that María thinks will save them to Leo's dancing dress-ups, and including a clever Martin Scorsese fixation as well. The use of screen wipes and the whimsical score by Chicken suits its characters perfectly, though; they're not above embellishing their lives however they can, and neither is Ulman's playful and thoughtful delight of a film. NOWHERE SPECIAL If the way that cinema depicts cancer was plotted out on a scale, Babyteeth and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl could easily demonstrate its extremes. One sees its protagonist as a person first and a patient last; the other uses terminal illness as a catalyst for other people's emotions (the "dying girl" part of its moniker is oh-so-telling about how it regards someone with cancer as an afterthought). Nowhere Special thankfully sits at the Babyteeth end of the spectrum. Its premise screams weepie, given that it follows a 35-year-old single father, John (James Norton, Little Women), who needs to find an adoptive family for his four-year-old son Michael (first-timer Daniel Lamont); however, writer/director Uberto Pasolini opts for understatement and realism over wringing tears. His last film, 2013's Still Life, was also just as beautifully measured and tender, all without mawkishness — and he hasn't lost his touch during his sizeable gap between movies. Nowhere Special is bittersweet, too; as it charts John's quest to secure Michael the best future he possibly can without himself in it, it soaks in the ups and downs of their life together. Visually, it dwells on small touches in passing moments, such as the type of mirrored behaviour that a young son adopts from his dad, the sight of them walking around in matching baseball caps, and the joy Michael gets from washing his toy truck — because John works as a window cleaner. There's an unfussy, unsentimental but always empathetic feel to every second of the Northern Ireland-set movie, including with prospective new parents both doting and disastrous, and in John's efforts to make the most of the time that he has left with Michael. Both Norton and Lamont are both exceptional as well, in a movie that's firmly something special. NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN In Never Gonna Snow Again's opening moments, Ukrainian masseur Zhenia (Alec Utgoff, Stranger Things) walks out of a forest and into a gated community in eastern Poland. His destination is lined with lavish identical houses — the kind that the song 'Little Boxes' has satirised for almost six decades now — but he's about to be its most extraordinary visitor. His hands can help knead away physical troubles, and they can soothe minds as well. Trundling his massage table from well-appointed home to well-appointed home, he quickly builds up a devoted client list of well-to-do residents desperate for his touch. He steps into their worlds, spying their outward gloss — the similar wreaths on each door, the doorbells chiming with snippets of classic music — and palpating away their inner pain. There's a surreal, seductive and otherworldly atmosphere to Never Gonna Snow Again, which filmmakers Malgorzata Szumowska (Mug) and Michal Englert (also the movie's cinematographer) let float through their frames like a lingering breeze. There's also a devastatingly savvy interrogation of the type of rich lives that pine for Zhenia's presence, including their complete obliviousness to him as anything more than a salve for their ennui. Much festers in the feature's McMansions. As it contemplates the everyday malaise that dulls wealth's superficial glow, as well as the vast chasm between gleaming exteriors and empty insides, much haunts Never Gonna Snow Again, in fact. Plenty dazzles, too, including Szumowska and Englert's confident handling — the film could've easily crumbled in other hands — as well as Utgoff's magnetic performance. GAIA A vivid eco-horror set in South Africa's Tsitsikamma National Park, Gaia doesn't sport a subtle title. Referencing the Greek goddess who personifies the earth, it doesn't see its namesake as the warm and welcoming genesis of all life, however. Here, Mother Nature has a bone to pick with humanity and its wanton destruction of the planet. To be specific, she has bodies to overpower with serpentine tendrils and infect with the multi-hued fungal blooms that give Jaco Bouwer's (Balbesit: 'n Studie in Stemme) film its most spectacular images. That's a fate that forest ranger Gabi (Monique Rockman, Number 37) hopes to avoid after being separated from her boss Winston (Anthony Oseyemi, The Red Sea Diving Resort), then injured in a trap set by wilderness-dwelling survivalist Barend (Carel Nel, The Last Days of American Crime) and his teenage son Stefan (Alex van Dyk, The Harvesters). The mushrooms here aren't magic — they're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore. Gaia isn't nuanced about its environmental messaging, including when the mud-covered Barend starts preaching about the modern world's ruinous ills from his heated manifesto, but understatement and rallying against the ravaging of the planet really shouldn't go hand in hand anyway. And, leaning into that fury, as well as embracing nature's revenge, is what makes the movie so gripping. Bouwer hooks viewers from his first overhead shots of sprawling trees, keeps them enchanted with his hallucinogenic fungi and ramps up the tension with pitch-perfect sound design, but his vengeful jungle is the feature's most important inclusion. Too often, locations are deemed extra characters in films; Gaia actually earns that description. I'M WANITA In Amy, Whitney: Can I Be Me, Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry and similar documentaries, audiences nabbed behind-the-scenes glimpses at music superstars. Via personal and candid footage not initially intended for mass consumption, viewers peeked behind the facade of celebrity — but I'm Wanita evokes the same feelings of intimacy and revelation by pointing its lens at a singer who isn't yet a household name. The self-described 'Australian queen of honky tonk', Wanita Bahtiyar hasn't given filmmaker Matthew Walker a treasure trove of archival materials to weave through his feature debut. Rather, the Tamworth local opens up her daily existence to his observational gaze. Following his 2015 short film about Wanita, Heart of the Queen, Walker spent five years capturing her life — and the resulting doco is as wily as its subject is unpredictable. I'm Wanita mightn't spring from a dream archive of existing footage, but it does dedicate its frames to a dream point of focus; its namesake is the type of subject documentarians surely pray they stumble across. Since becoming obsessed with Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn as a child, Wanita has chased music stardom. Her voice earned her ample attention from her teen years onwards, and her first album received rave reviews that she giddily quotes now; however, she's spent her adult life drinking, partying, and supplementing occasional gigs with sex work. Today, she's a legend in her own head, and also an erratic whirlwind. I'm Wanita charts her trip to Nashville to finally make the record she's always wanted, and yet it never paints her tale as a simplistic portrait of talent unrealised. A Star Is Born, this isn't either — even with a glorious closing number that could easily cap off a Hollywood melodrama. Read our full review. Looking for more SFF On Demand recommendations? We've already taken a look at Strong Female Lead and A Fire Inside, too. SFF On Demand's 2021 program is available to stream between Friday, November 12–Sunday, November 21. For further information, head to the festival website.
"The thing about acting is that you're not on every day. It's not go, go, go. You get a lot of time off, especially because my very favourite thing to do is to play supporting roles. So I'm not in there every single day. I get a lot of downtime." If you've ever wondered how Rachel House manages to pop up in nearly every film and TV show out of New Zealand, and sometimes from Australia as well, that's her secret: she's spent more than a quarter of a century on-screen, including 22 years since Whale Rider marked her first movie credit, and she loves her supporting niche. House's resume as a performer has been exploding since the 2010s, but the 18 months since the beginning of 2023 have been particularly busy. Audiences have seen the Auckland-born talent in Creamerie, Bay of Fires, Foundation, Our Flag Means Death and Heartbreak High on TV and streaming. They've heard her voice echoing from Koala Man, What If…?, Pinecone & Pony and 100% Wolf: Book of Hath, too. The cinema side of her acting resume also hasn't been neglected thanks to The Portable Door, Next Goal Wins, The Moon Is Upside Down and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. But it's The Mountain, her debut feature as a director, that defines the past couple of years for House. "It felt like a really big year last year because it was all about The Mountain, to be honest," House also tells Concrete Playground. "When all these things come out and you go 'oh, wow, did Rachel have a break?' — yes, I had many breaks. But last year I didn't. Last year was all about The Mountain. The pre-pre-production was the year before, going all the way through Christmas. And then pre-production and then production, and then post-production. It just went on and on and on, and it was good, hard, solid work. And somewhere in there I got to do a few weeks here and there doing some acting." Although The Mountain is House's initial stint behind the lens of a full-length movie, she has helming 2010 short The Winter Boy to draw on, alongside a wealth of experience on film sets. The latter has spanned not only notching up more and more supporting parts, but also working as an acting coach on projects by compatriots Jane Campion and Taika Waititi. For the first of the two Oscar-winners, she loaned her skills beyond the camera to the second season of Top of the Lake and The Power of the Dog. For the second, she built upon her appearances in Waititi's Eagle vs Shark, Boy, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Thor: Ragnarok and Next Goal Wins. Combine decades carving out a screen career as an actor — something that House was actually told she'd never have, she explains — with helping guide performances out of other thespians, including kids, and the scene was always going to be set for an impressive first run as a feature director. With Taranaki Maunga on Aotearoa's North Island as its namesake, The Mountain tells of three children on a journey. In hospital undergoing treatment for cancer, Sam (newcomer Elizabeth Atkinson) hasn't grown up with her Māori heritage, but feels connected to it through the landmass that she's determined to climb: her mountain. Conversely, with ample time on his hands thanks to his busy dad, Bronco (fellow first-timer Terrence Daniel) considers himself a guardian of his culture. Mallory (Reuben Francis, another debutant) is the new kid initially tagging along, but appreciating more than just the chance to make friends along the way. Following its date with NZ's big screens in March, The Mountain enjoyed its Australian premiere during 2024's Sydney Film Festival, then hit Aussie cinemas in general release at the end of June. When House was showing her film to Sydney's audiences — "we got a really big crowd, and not only a big crowd, but a really receptive crowd who all really wanted to be there. So we were very, very grateful, and it was a lovely feeling in in the theatre," she shares — we spoke with her about it. Always wanting to direct a movie, what appealed about Tom Furniss' (7 Days) original script and how she reworked it, making the kind of picture out of New Zealand that she's always wanted to see, scaling mountains in multiple ways, giving Taranaki Maunga credit as a character and producer, learning from her past directors: House chatted us through all of the above and more. On Directing a Movie Always Being the Dream Back When House First Started Acting "Yes, yes — but I think it's interesting getting older. You do want to really pursue your dreams, and you want challenge yourself and all this. But, I suppose I feel — it's not less ambitious, but if I didn't direct a feature film, I would have been okay about it. I love storytelling, but I think it's because I'm in the the storytelling industry, and so I just feel very grateful to continue to tell stories in whatever way that means. I made a short film ages ago and it was a script given to me, and it was a really great lesson — because although I really loved the script and loved making the short film, it wasn't my a story that I was really connected to. And I think that was the lesson. So I've actually been sent scripts for maybe over ten years now to consider to direct, feature film scripts, and nothing appealed to me, nothing resonated to me in the same way that this this film did." On House's Initial Response to The Mountain's Original Script "Three young kids on a mission, and the possibility of the magic of that. I keep saying it but this was a real gift, actually, because the mountain, Tom [Furniss, the original screenwriter] hadn't named the mountain for whatever reason. I think his reasoning was he understands the process of filmmaking and didn't want anyone to feel locked into a location. But for me to read it, it was like 'but where are we? Where is the mountain?'. You name your mountain — you name the mountain because the mountain is going to be part of that story. It's really important. So it was a wonderful gift. And I got to talk about our Māori worldview because of being able to rework it." On the Starting Point When House Started Tinkering with the Story "To share with our country, in particular, the strength and beauty of our Indigenous knowledge. That was my intention. And to have a conversation with our country about how we see our mountains and how they shape and form us, and how they should be revered and protected." On Making the Kind of Movie That House Has Always Wanted to See Come Out of New Zealand "100%. And I think, as well, I'd love to inspire an Indigenous conversation all over the world. Mountains here in this country [Australia] all are all named and they all have beautiful, resonant, incredible stories. So let's start that conversation, let's share that Indigenous knowledge, because it's everywhere." On the Film Taking Audiences on a Journey of Finding Identity and Belonging — and Healing — in a Number of Ways "In Tom's original script, it was about three little boys and they wanted to conquer a mountain. I think that's something that seems to be so important universally, conquering — and it's gotten us all in a lot of trouble, conquering. So I wanted to really share with everybody the possibility of wanting to connect rather than conquer. It was all tied up in Sam not being raised in her culture but understanding that she was from that culture and, in the best way that she knew possible — which is Google, looking information up — she had this very, very strong belief that, even though she didn't have any evidence, that this mountain was one she belonged to. I wanted to show Bronco being from the absolute polar opposite, someone who was completely strong in in the world of Māori and really understood Sam's plight. Then I wanted to really embrace Mallory, who not only didn't understand it, but didn't believe it. I just wanted to somehow make that conversation between these three beautiful kids, and share it." On Climbing Not Only Literal But Internal Mountains in the Movie's Narrative "I was talking to somebody the other day and she described it as 'three kids who run away for different reasons but are all brought together by the power of Taranaki Maunga'. They've all got pretty clear mountainous arcs, so that was a definite intention. I suppose what I love — and maybe I would love it, I would say this — but I do love that it's Mallory who understands what's going on, that the mountain is saying 'go away. This is not good for you. This is too dangerous. I'm going to cover you in cloud. You've remembered the story of the two friends who stopped Taranaki from going into the sea and having an unhappy end.' So I love that it's Mallory who understands that it's the mountain communicating with them, and he's the one who says 'stop, we've got to stop'." On Crediting Taranaki Maunga as a Character and a Producer to Pay Tribute to Its Importance "Me and the producers and the team, we're quite a diverse bunch, the ones who make the decisions — and it just wasn't even a doubt. I don't think anyone thought that we wouldn't credit the mountain in the way that we've created the mountain. We also have made the mountain one of the producers as well, so if this film does well and we miraculously make some money, some of that money will go to the mountain, and the wellbeing and upkeep of our mountain. Otherwise, why would we make this film if we didn't believe it? But I will say that I'm so proud of our team, who, as I say, are very diverse — and it just wasn't even much of a conversation, it was just a decision that was made very easily." [caption id="attachment_965113" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Lisa Tomasetti, Netflix[/caption] On What House Makes of Her Career So Far Both On-Screen and Behind the Camera "I will say that back in the day, I'm really glad I didn't listen to some of the people who told me I couldn't do stuff, that I wouldn't be on screen. When I was at drama school, I was told I probably wouldn't do any screen work because of the way I looked. I was told by a director that directing was probably a bit beyond me. There is a kind of tall-poppy thing that we have, I think particularly with women. There is a fear of women taking up space and shining. I am of that generation that had all those beliefs — or disbeliefs, I suppose, is a better way of describing it. So I feel like my age group and up — women, I'm just talking about — I feel like we're late bloomers because of the conditioning that we had when we were younger, particularly in our country. So I suppose it's taking me a long time to enjoy it and not feel so overwhelmed by gratitude, that it puts me in a sort of constant thank you, scarcity sort of vibe. I guess I feel good about it, but I don't feel up myself about it. I just feel grateful and empowered that I didn't listen to any of those voices." On How Working with Other Filmmakers Across House's Career, Including as an Acting Coach, Helped Prepare Her for Directing Her First Feature "I've told the story a couple of times now, but I think it's a really fantastic story for anyone who's going to be working with kids, and in fact adults, all actors. Something that I learned working on Whale Rider — there's an iconic moment in Whale Rider where Keisha Castle-Hughes gets up on stage and and does this extraordinary speech to Koro, her granddad. And I was in that scene, I got to sit there in the audience and watch her over and over — and watching Niki [Caro, Whale Rider's director] and the way that Niki was going through exactly what Keisha was going through. I don't think Keisha ever felt alone. I feel like as a director, you've got to go through it with your actors emotionally. It's something that I definitely witnessed between those two. I'd see them in-between and they'd be talking, they'd be really close and talking to each other, and Niki would be crying and Keisha would be crying — and it was extraordinary to watch. And you could see that Keisha didn't feel alone. And I've seen that with Jane [Campion], with adult actors as well, actually. I just feel like she goes through it with her actors. So that was an extraordinary learning. With Taika [Waititi], he really creates a lot of fun on set, and that's incredibly important, too. I mean, you can have fun and when you need to have focus, you have focus. I feel like that's how we went about things as we were shooting The Mountain. Although, I do have to say, we were in such incredible and sometimes difficult terrain on the daily — and because we're an independent New Zealand film, we were on the move, man. So we had to go into these incredible places that took quite a lot to get there, and then we had to get out in three hours. But it was a wonderful family dynamic that we had. And that's something that I've learned throughout my whole career: the importance of family in regards to the people that you're working with." The Mountain opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, June 27, 2024 and in New Zealand cinemas on Thursday, March 28, 2024.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas across the country. After months spent empty, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, Australian picture palaces are back in business — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, comedies, music documentaries, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0UbkJD2KDY FRENCH EXIT "My plan was to die before the money ran out, but I kept and keep not dying — and here I am." When asked about her strategy as she faces financial ruin, that's Manhattan socialite Frances Price's (Michelle Pfeiffer, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) frank response. Her fortune has dwindled, the banks are about to repossess everything she owns and she doesn't know what her now-precarious future holds; however, she's most annoyed about having to answer her financial advisor's exasperated questions. Conveying Frances' reply with little else but spikiness otherwise, Pfeiffer turns this early French Exit scene into a deadpan masterclass. The character's candour, irritation and sharp edges are all personality traits, rather than specific reactions to her current predicament, and Pfeiffer makes it clear that she'd still be spitting out acerbic retorts with the same poker face if Frances had been queried about absolutely anything else. She frequently does just that afterwards, in fact, and she's a caustic delight in this wry exploration of a familiar topic: weathering life's many disappointments. Widowed for a decade, and happy to keep cultivating an eccentric reputation as the years go on, Frances hasn't dedicated even a second to tangibly preparing for her present lack of funds. That said, she soon has another plan. Surreptitiously selling off her belongings as her accountant advises — and viciously haggling over commission rates in the process — she rustles up what cash she can and absconds to Paris, where a friend's empty apartment awaits rent-free. There, she reverts to her old approach. Once her remaining money has been frittered away on wine, coffee, and oversized tips to anyone and everyone, she doesn't see the point of going on. But her dysfunctionally codependent relationship with her twentysomething son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges, Waves), his on-and-off romance with his secret fiancée Susan (Imogen Poots, Black Christmas), and a new friendship with the lonely and besotted Madame Reynard (Valerie Mahaffey, Dead to Me) all add unexpected chaos to Frances' scheme, as does a cruise ship fortune teller (Danielle Macdonald, Unbelievable) and a runaway cat who just might be her reincarnated husband. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP2MlPwflX4 SAINT MAUD If humanity ever managed to cure or circumvent death — or even just stop being despairingly afraid of our own mortality — the horror genre would immediately feel the difference. Lives are frequently in peril in films that are meant to spook and frighten. Fears of dying underscore everything from serial killer thrillers and body horror flicks to stories of zombies, ghosts and vampires, too. Indeed, if a scary movie isn't pondering the fact that our days are inescapably finite, it's often contemplating our easily damaged and destroyed anatomy. Or, it's recognising that our species' darkest urges can bring about brutal and fatal repercussions, or noting that the desperation to avoid our expiration dates can even spark our demise. Accordingly, Saint Maud's obsession with death isn't a rarity in an ever-growing genre that routinely serves it up, muses on it and makes audiences do the same whether they always realise it or not. In an immensely crowded realm, this striking, instantly unsettling feature debut by British writer/director Rose Glass definitely stands out, though. Bumps, jumps, shocks and scares come in all manner of shapes and sizes, as do worries and anxieties about the end that awaits us all. In Saint Maud, they're a matter of faith. The eponymous in-home nurse (Dracula and His Dark Materials' Morfydd Clark) has it. She has enough to share, actually, which she's keen to do daily. Maud is devoted to three things: Christianity, helping those in her care physically and saving them spiritually. Alas, her latest cancer-stricken patient doesn't hold the same convictions, or appreciate them. Amanda (Jennifer Ehle, Vox Lux) isn't fond of Maud's fixation on her salvation or her strict judgements about her lifestyle. She knows her time is waning, her body is failing and that she needs Maud's help, but the celebrated ex-dancer and choreographer does not want to go gently or faithfully in that good night. Instead, she'd much prefer the solace that sex and alcohol brings over her palliative care nurse's intensely devout zeal. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=794vlC_wKJQ WHITE RIOT In 2020, as the world faced a crisis unlike any other in living memory, Gal Gadot led a bunch of fellow celebrities in an Instagram sing-along to John Lennon's 'Imagine'. The aim: to inspire a planet full of people grappling with suddenly living under lockdown. As no one could avoid (especially when we all had so little else to do and spent so much time glued to the news), the result was actually awkward and cringe-inducing. Perhaps punk rockers should've been trying to lift our spirits instead. Or, they could've used their talents and instruments to draw attention to a plethora of worthy causes — as Rock Against Racism did in the mid-to-late 70s. When right-wing views began to spread across Britain, a group of music lovers including Red Saunders, Roger Huddle, Jo Wreford and Pete Bruno decided to take action, waging a campaign to battle prejudice and discrimination. They didn't just choose to fight back via their favourite art form as an excuse to host gigs, though. From Eric Clapton to Rod Stewart, many of the country's music megastars of the era had all offered support to extremist views, and publicly. So, corralling a lineup of bands to help counter anti-immigration rhetoric became RAR's number one task, with the aim of bringing music fans together and discouraging them from adopting racist attitudes. Combining contemporary interviews, archival chats, a lively soundtrack, and a wealth of footage and photographs of its efforts in action nearly half a century ago, documentary White Riot chronicles RAR from its formation through to its 100,000-attendee 1978 national carnival — where The Clash, Tom Robinson Band, X-Ray Spex and Steel Pulse all played. Despite the movement's name, everything from reggae and soul to jazz and funk was also welcome. Britain's music lovers responded in a big way, travelling across the country to attend its gatherings and show their support for RAR's inclusive anti-hate message. Fluidly directed by first-time feature helmer Rubika Shah, White Riot steps through the grim reality of life in Britain at the time, to provide context to RAR's emphatic response. The film shows the abhorrent viewpoints uttered by politicians and their proponents, and the way in which Nazi imagery was worked into the far-right National Front party. Dense with detail, it also demonstrates how standing up to fascism was an almost-revolutionary act. If the footage had allowed it, Shah and co-writer Ed Gibbs could've made an entire docuseries about RAR and would've kept viewers glued to every second. In just 80 minutes, however, White Riot delivers a vital history lesson on a crucial piece of activism — as well as a reminder that inflammatory rhetoric always demands a response. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQaIf-Erj94 CRISIS Crisis examines America's opioid epidemic by piecing together three individual, occasionally overlapping tales. It also hits cinemas two decades to the month that the film it strongly resembles took home four Oscars. At the turn of the 21st century, Steven Soderbergh's Traffic focused on illegal narcotics rather than prescription pills, but the similarities between it and this pensive thriller from Arbitrage director Nicholas Jarecki are both striking and inescapable. Here, undercover DEA agent Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer, Rebecca) has been working to bring down a fentanyl smuggling operation. His sister Emmie (Lily-Rose Depp, The King) is an addict, so yes, it's personal. Also struggling is architect Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly, Avengers: Endgame), who has been hooked on oxycodone since an accident, attends support meetings but finds herself tested when her teenage son goes missing. Then there's Dr Tyrone Brower (Gary Oldman, Mank), a university professor who funds his research by testing new products for pharmaceutical companies. After his colleagues let his lab's trial of a new, supposedly non-addictive painkiller run a few days longer than asked, they discover that it can be fatal in mice — which company employee Dr Bill Simons (Luke Evans, Angel of Mine) is eager to keep quiet. Michelle Rodriguez (She Dies Tomorrow) also plays Jake's boss, Greg Kinnear (Misbehaviour) gives Tyrone a hard time as his disapproving college dean and Kid Cudi (Bill & Ted Face the Music) pops up an FDA employee on the latter's side — with Crisis lacking in neither stars nor good intentions. Writer/director Jarecki can't shake the familiar feeling that lingers throughout the film, though. Viewers have seen everything peddled here before, and with far more surprises and subtlety. If you've paid any attention to news headlines over the past few decades, you'll already know how insidious opioid use has become, and how ruthless and destructive the industry behind it is, too. Still, as well as evoking a been-there, seen-that sensation, Crisis often hits its emotional marks. A movie can connect easy-to-spot dots, hit obvious points vehemently and repetitively, and follow a predictable narrative — or narratives, in this case — and still offer up stirring moments and engaging performances. No one will be mentioning Crisis in another 20 years if another crime-thriller attempts to follow in Traffic's footsteps, but as 2021's take on the topic, it's watchable albeit unshakeably generic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hfUomtqljs THE GRIZZLIES When newly graduated teacher Russ Shepherd (Ben Schnetzer, Saint Judy) is sent to Kugluktuk, in the frosty Nunavut in Canada's north, he has two self-serving aims. By working in a remote area as part of a program that rewards anyone willing to take such postings, he's able to to pay back his school tuition fees. He's also hoping to use his time to secure a permanent spot at a prestigious private school down south. But Russ is still unsettled when he realises how few of his students are eager to engage in his lessons. Principal Janace (Tantoo Cardinal, Stumptown) doesn't enforce attendance, in fact, knowing that the school's pupils have chores to complete at home, families to provide for and traditional ways to uphold. She doesn't like to push the teens out of their comfort zones either, with the town's youth suicide rate the highest in North America, and dealing with intergenerational trauma also part of life in the community. Already a lacrosse devotee, Russ decides to try to start a school club to get his students motivated — a task he's instantly told will fail. But while the popular Zach (Paul Nutarariaq, Iqaluit) is initially apprehensive, as is hunter Adam (feature first-timer Ricky Marty-Pahtaykan) and the reserved Kyle (Booboo Stewart, Let Him Go), their involvement in the sport has an impact. Directed by feature debutant Miranda de Pencier, and scripted by Moira Walley-Beckett (Anne with an E) and Graham Yost (Justified), The Grizzlies draws upon the the true story of the team that gives the film its name. While steeped in reality, it also leans heavily upon the inspirational sports underdog playbook — but this rousing movie is never weighed down by its tropes or predictability. Strong, complicated performances from Nutarariaq, Marty-Pahtaykanv, Stewart and Emerald MacDonald, who plays the school's most conscientious student, all help immensely. Their characters wade through familiar beats, but they're never one-note. Indeed, The Grizzlies doesn't shy away from complexity on multiple levels, including in depicting the lack of hope blighting Kugluktuk's teenagers, as well as the path their lacrosse journey takes. And, while the role of Russ could've played into white saviour cliches, the film stresses his naiveté, his mistakes and the fact that he has as much to learn, if not more, from his students and the broader community. Icily scenic cinematography that roves over the area's arresting but harsh terrain, and a sensitive yet never mawkish approach also add texture to feature that earns its heart, spirit and warmth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c85aXHth_uQ&feature=youtu.be UNSOUND In Unsound, Finn (feature first-timer Yiana Pandelis) and Noah (Reece Noi, When They See Us) meet by chance. When the latter wanders into the club for Sydneysiders with hearing impairments that the former runs in the city's northern beaches, a connection springs, although both enter the relationship with other things on their mind. Attendance at the neighbourhood centre has been waning, and the locals complain about Finn's weekly dance parties. Tucking his long hair up under a cap while he stands behind the DJ decks by night and helps children learn Auslan by day, Finn is also slowly taking steps to cement his identity as a transgender man. As for the British-accented Noah, he's just arrived in Australia after touring the UK with his pop singer mentor Moniqua (Christine Anu), and his mother Angela (Paula Duncan, Neighbours) has hardly given him a warm welcome. So, Unsound follows Finn and Noah's romance, but that's just one of the things the film is interested in. While both lead characters receive ample screen time, Finn's experiences as a person who is deaf and with his transition are frequently thrust to the fore. That's a welcome move — not because Noah's efforts to step out of his absent father's shadow, take his career seriously and cope with his often-dismissive mum don't deserve attention, but because inclusive movies about trans men and people who are hearing impaired are rarely this thoughtful (and rarely exist at all, really). Directed by TV veteran Ian Watson (Heartbreak High, Home and Away) and penned by Ally Burnham (Nice Package), Unsound might bring both 52 Tuesdays and Sound of Metal to mind, which are excellent movies to even remotely resemble; however, this small feature with big ambitions and a heartfelt impact is always its own film. Absent touristy Sydney shots that constantly remind you where it's set, and favouring a low-key, lived-in aesthetic instead, it dedicates its running time to plunging into Finn's life and portraying it authentically, a task that it doesn't lose sight of even for a minute. The texture and detail in Burnham's script, especially in fleshing out the movie's characters, isn't just admirable but essential. It's little wonder, then, that Pandelis always makes Finn feel as if he could walk off the screen — although the performer also deserves ample credit. Noi also more than does his part justice, in a well-cast film all-round (see also: scene-stealer Olivia Beasley as one of Finn's colleagues, and a grounded turn from The Boy From Oz star Todd McKenney as Finn's father). And, the use of sound to convey the joy that Finn and his friends feel at their Saturday night dance parties is one of the picture's many astutely calibrated touches. Unsound opened in Sydney and Brisbane cinemas on March 18, after screening in Melbourne from February 11. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on January 1, January 7, January 14, January 21 and January 28; February 4, February 11, February 18 and February 25; and March 4. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Nomadland, Pieces of a Woman, The Dry, Promising Young Woman, Summerland, Ammonite, The Dig, The White Tiger, Only the Animals, Malcolm & Marie, News of the World, High Ground, Earwig and the Witch, The Nest, Assassins, Synchronic, Another Round, Minari, Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra, The Truffle Hunters, The Little Things, Chaos Walking, Raya and the Last Dragon, Max Richter's Sleep, Judas and the Black Messiah and Girls Can't Surf.
As the director of Flickerfest for the past 15 years, Bronwyn Kidd has programmed thousands of short films — and seen many, many more. She's got such a strong eye, in fact, that one more category in the festival has become Academy® Accredited this year, giving its filmmakers a track to the Oscars. She shared with us her top six films to keep a particularly close eye on at Flickerfest. So no getting distracted by the Bondi stars or ducking out for a drink at the bar when you see these titles flash on the screen. 1. Oh Willy A quirky animation about Willy, who needs to go back to a naturist community after the death of his mother. 2. Zimmer 606 A brilliant blend of live action and animation by Peter Volkart, a master of the craft who has screened many other films at Flickerfest. 3. Life Vest Under Your Seat An hilarious short film about a nightmare passenger you hope you never have to sit next to on any flight from Spain. 4. The Captain A quirky film about a man who winds up in the wreckage of an airline crash having to piece together what happened. Directed by Nash Edgerton and Spencer Susser. 5. A Cautionary Tail A world-class animation with the voices of Cate Blanchett, Barry Otto, and David Wenham. 6. A Story for the Modlins An amazing documentary about the star of the film from Rosemary's Baby. They're all part of the packed Flickerfest 2013 program. Details and screening times are on their website.
UPDATE, July 20, 2020: The Lion King is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Picture this: as gorgeously detailed nature documentary footage plays, an exceptional cast of big-name actors lend their voices to prowling lions. In addition to vocalising the animals' thoughts and feelings, the human-uttered dialogue gives the majestic big cats an epic story, charting the ups and downs of a young cub born to the king and queen of the pride. The tale that follows combines parts of Hamlet, Star Wars and Kimba the White Lion, complete with love, loss, courage, threats, rebellion and father-son issues. It features witty one-liners and catchy songs, plus antics involving hyenas, meerkats, warthogs, hornbills and mandrills. But, even as the famous tones, engaging emotional beats, amusing gags, rousing music and lively array of critters all work their magic, something seems a little out of place — namely, the rendering of all of the above with such lifelike visuals. That's The Lion King circa 2019 in a nutshell. Using technology that has only improved since he turned The Jungle Book into a naturalistic spectacle three years ago, filmmaker Jon Favreau remakes another of Disney's cartoon hits with this different kind of animated wizardry. Here, unlike in his adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic text, there's no visible trace of humanity — and that just might make all the difference. Such an absence is true to The Lion King's source material, obviously, but without a character such as Mowgli scampering around, this special effects onslaught lacks an anchor. The film couldn't look more realistic, and yet it never feels real. While audiences have long become accustomed to getting swept away by Hollywood's trickery — especially since digital capabilities began bringing extraordinary sights to the screen — The Lion King can't quite manage the feat. Narrative-wise, anyone familiar with the 1994 movie knows what's in store. This version might credit a different writer, with Jeff Nathanson (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) adapting the original screenplay by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts and Linda Woolverton, but it has really just been given a new coat of CGI paint. As initially presented to the animal kingdom in an awe-inspiring ceremony, young Simba (JD McCrary) is fated to follow in his father Mufasa's (James Earl Jones) regal paw prints, much to the dismay of the latter's scowling, scheming brother Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor). And so, a plot is hatched. Instead of preparing for his destiny with help from his mother (Alfre Woodard) and best friend Nala (Shahadi Wright Joseph as a cub, Beyonce once she's grown), Simba is tricked into becoming an outcast. He runs free with pint-sized pals Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen), and adopts their carefree attitude. As an adult lion (now voiced by Donald Glover), he's eventually forced to reassess his choices, as well as his role and place in the Pridelands. The cynical might say that this return to The Lion King lacks humanity behind-the-scenes, too, given all that the surefire box office hit represents. Disney keeps turning its animated back-catalogue into live-action fare — or photorealistic ones in this case — with a clear plan in mind: tap into nostalgia, then profit. Still, even knowing where it stands in the huge entertainment behemoth's filmmaking assembly line, the movie doesn't lack feeling. It's clearly the result of great affection and attention to detail, ensuring that its animals really do look like they're simply strutting through the savannah. Astutely chosen cast members such as the returning Jones, the melodic Glover, and the hilarious Eichner and Rogen all invest their four-legged alter-egos with resounding emotion. Coming back to the material that originally won him an Oscar, composer Hans Zimmer gives the story another stirring score, while Elton John and Tim Rice's reused tunes all hit the same stirring marks as they once again muse about love and life. Indeed, you can almost see the human fingerprints on the film, including in its gently moving tufts of lion fur, sweeping plains and flowering greenery — or the genuine love and care that went into them, to be more accurate. That said, viewers also bear witness as one of the most beloved movies of the past quarter-century is transformed into a very expensive and true-to-life cat video. That's no knock on feline clips or nature docos. Cooing over a cute mouser is one of life's simplest pleasures, and marvelling at the splendour of the natural world is one of its great privileges. But, watching The Lion King, it's impossible to get completely lost in any of these joys. Or, for that matter, to surrender to the slavishly faithful story or undeniably impressive visuals, which work well separately and yet don't convincingly fit together. Perhaps it isn't by accident that Timon and Pumbaa steal the show as they frolic through the film's frames, with an ad-libbing Eichner and Rogen proving the picture's standouts (sorry, Beyonce fans). It isn't new, but the wisecracking comic duo do espouse a fitting motto, and one that Disney probably hopes viewers truly take to heart this time around. It's possible to say "hakuna matata" to The Lion King redux, and feel the love for its highlights without falling tail over paws for the end product. Alas, it's harder to shake the sensation that it doesn't convincingly take its place in the cinematic circle of life. That opening, though, as recreated nearly frame-by-frame in all of its electrifying glory — it's a complete and utter wonder, albeit one that the rest of the movie can't manage to match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TavVZMewpY
Staying in, getting cosy and inviting your friends over to watch a stack of TV shows has become a tried-and-tested winter pastime — but what if you've seen everything that's out there? Firstly, of course you haven't. But thanks to the huge range of content available, it can often feel that way. Perhaps you've just worked your way through all of the stuff that you know about and just can't bring yourself to keep scrolling through pages of options. Plus, we all know how picking a new show can go down when you're in a group and everyone has a different must-see priority. That's where we come in — we've teamed up with Aussie internet service provider MATE to take the stress out of choosing what to watch. If MATE can get you easily sorted with NBN access (with no contracts and locally based support teams), then we can make whiling away the hours with your pals and a TV screen much simpler. Gather the gang, microwave some popcorn, and put someone in charge of drinks and other snacks — you and your squad have a date with these seven ace shows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQaCxIJX0J0&feature=youtu.be GLOW Big hair, big drama, colourful costumes, strong women: that's the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (or GLOW). In the 80s, when putting anyone other than men in the ring was considered a mere novelty act, GLOW emerged to prove that notion wrong. Now, three decades later, Netflix's series of the same name charts the ups and downs on both sides of the ropes. Starring Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin as struggling actors who find their place among GLOW's formidable ladies, as well as Marc Maron as the director who helps turn the all-female concept into a TV series, the show finds the perfect balance between comedy, drama and OTT wrestling action. Even better — when the third season hits at the end of July, taking the gang to Las Vegas, Geena Davis joins the cast. Where to watch: Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpDUMdULVZg DETROITERS It has only been out for mere months, but Netflix's I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson has already proven one of the most bizarre and brilliant comedies in recent years. The sketch show isn't Robinson's first amusing outing, however. He also spent a couple of seasons on Saturday Night Live, and co-starred in (and co-created and co-produced) the hilarious sitcom Detroiters. Featuring opposite Veep's Sam Richardson, Robinson plays a Detroit advertising agency creative with more than a few out-there ideas — but that term describes his life working beside his best pal anyway. While it screened in the US in 2017, the show's ten-episode first season is a new arrival to Stan, includes guest stars such as Jason Sudeikis and Keegan-Michael Key, and is sidesplittingly funny. Where to watch: Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1UjEaO4qd8 COLONY Given the current state of the world, dystopian sci-fi can scratch a cathartic itch — at least aliens haven't landed and taken over the planet, right? That's the premise behind Colony, which follows a Los Angeles family of five as they try to navigate the new world order under extraterrestrial rule. The otherworldly visitors are happy to let a few chosen humans keep the rest in their place with force, which headstrong cop Will Bowman (Lost's Josh Holloway) and his wife Katie (The Walking Dead's Sarah Wayne Callies) are willing to risk their lives to fight against. As well as giving Holloway another chance to unleash his no-nonsense charms, the series is suspenseful, engaging and relevant. Two seasons are available on Netflix, and keep an eye out for the third. Where to watch: Netflix. YOUNG AND PROMISING It's been two years since Girls wrapped up and, if you're still feeling the show's absence, it's time to head to Norway. With four seasons available to stream on SBS On Demand, Young and Promising is the Scandinavian equivalent. It's not a remake, but given that it follows struggling millennials Nenne (Gine Cornelia Pedersen), Elise (Siri Seljeseth, who is also the show's writer) and Alex (Alexandra Gjerpen) as they chase their dreams, it tackles similar themes and dramas — especially since they're all trying to work in creative arenas. Norwegian TV isn't just about Nordic noir, after all, as the series' highly relatable central trio try to balance love, work and life in general. Where to watch: SBS On Demand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfe5xQ1M7Jw JEOPARDY! 2019 has been huge for Jeopardy!, the highly addictive American game show that gives contestants the answers and asks them to respond with the questions. The program hit its 35th year, and also welcomed a professional Las Vegas gambler as a contestant — who bet big, won big and made series history. But there's never a bad time to watch Jeopardy! — or is there a bad episode for that matter. Netflix keeps cycling through the show's past, so you can catch some retro 80s, 90s and 00s fashions while you're playing along at home and battling your mates. At the time of writing, the season premieres for the show's first 32 years are all available, as are the episodes from the time that host Alex Trebek asked two of Jeopardy!'s biggest-ever winners to test their skills against a supercomputer. Where to watch: Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfSUxKtgMDw YOU CAN'T ASK THAT The idea behind ABC's You Can't Ask That is so simple, it's almost surprising that someone hasn't thought of it before. In each episode, a range of traditionally marginalised Australians answer questions — and yes, as the title makes plain, they're the kind of queries people are usually afraid to ask. Basically, it's a Reddit AMA on TV. With each episode focused around a specific subset of the population, the thought-provoking series gives its subjects a chance to challenge stereotypes, counter discrimination and tell their own tales. Across four seasons so far, everyone from Indigenous Aussies, the short-statured, ex-prisoners, the terminally ill and refugees to ice users, former cult members, folks over 100, priests and carnival workers have featured. As well as opening your eyes, the show is certain to get you and your friends talking. Where to watch: ABC iview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzsy-haNy1E PEEP SHOW If you haven't seen this classic British sitcom by now, then it's time to address that gap in your viewing. Peep Show first aired back in 2003, but its view of share house life never gets old — or any less relevant. Comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb play south London friends Mark and Jeremy. One is awkward and uptight, the other free-spirited and irresponsible, and they both make terrible decisions about their lives. With nine seasons each spanning six episodes each, the pair's antics cover bad jobs, different girlfriends, huge fights, chaotic weddings, crazy parties, children — and just generally trying and failing to be adults. Oh, and before she won an Oscar for The Favourite, Olivia Colman also co-starred. Where to watch: Netflix. Make home internet usage hassle-free by signing up to MATE. For more information on packages, visit the website. Top Image: Detroiters.
Before the pandemic, when a new-release movie started playing in cinemas, audiences couldn't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the past few years forcing film industry to make quite a few changes — widespread movie theatre closures and plenty of people staying home in iso will do that — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you've been under the weather. Perhaps you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Given the hefty amount of films now releasing each week, maybe you simply missed something. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here are 13 that you can watch right now at home. AIR Bouncing across the screen with charm, energy and an 80s sheen, Air says one name often: Michael Jordan. This supremely crowd-pleasing and engaging film spins an origin story so closely linked to the NBA all-timer that the true tale simply wouldn't and couldn't have happened without him; however, it isn't actually the six-time championship-winning former Chicago Bulls player's own. Instead, Ben Affleck turns director again for the first time since 2016's Live By Night to recount how Jordan also became an icon in the footwear game. Think shoes, and everyone knows the word that usually follows this flick's title. Think Air Jordans, and Nike also springs to mind. Those sneakers are still being made almost four decades after first hitting stories — in fact, the brand is now notching up $5 billion in annual revenue, $150 million of which is going to its namesake — so Air answers the question no one knew they had until now: how did it initially happen? Affleck's feature heads back to the 80s, to 1984, when Jordan was a 21-year-old college standout newly in the NBA and facing a life-changing decision. Damian Young (Prom Night Flex) plays the basketball GOAT, but this is a movie about the making of a legend — so the pivotal character gets all the flick's admiration and praise while bounding into the boardroom wheeling and dealing. Crucially, Air doesn't block out Jordan. Rather, it pays tribute to his talent even without staging on-court scenes, and to the shrewd wrangling and negotiating that his no-nonsense mother Deloris (Viola Davis, The Woman King) did on his behalf with Nike's in-house basketball expert Sonny Vaccaro (Damon, The Last Duel) under CEO Phil Knight's (Affleck, Deep Water) watch. The ultimate outcome is clearly well-known, because if there was no agreement, there'd be no Air Jordans and therefore no movie (and the Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike would still be best known for jogging shoes). But the slam dunk this endorsement proved for giving athletes their financial dues when their talents make bank for sponsoring companies is no minor matter, and nor is it treated as such. Air is available to stream via Prime Video. Read our full review. AFTERSUN The simplest things in life can be the most revealing, whether it's a question asked of a father by a child, an exercise routine obeyed almost mindlessly or a man stopping to smoke someone else's old cigarette while wandering through a holiday town alone at night. The astonishing feature debut by Scottish writer/director Charlotte Wells, Aftersun is about the simple things. Following the about-to-turn-31 Calum (Paul Mescal, The Lost Daughter) and his daughter Sophie (debutant Frankie Corio) on vacation in Turkey in the late 90s, it includes all of the above simple things, plus more. It tracks, then, that this coming-of-age story on three levels — of an 11-year-old flirting with adolescence, a dad struggling with his place in the world, and an adult woman with her own wife and family grappling with a life-changing experience from her childhood — is always a movie of deep, devastating and revealing complexity. Earning the internet's Normal People-starring boyfriend a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and deservedly so, Aftersun is a reflective, ruminative portrait of heartbreak. It's a quest to find meaning in sorrow and pain, too, and in processing the past. Wells has crafted a chronicle of interrogating, contextualising, reframing and dwelling in memories; an examination of leaving and belonging; and an unpacking of the complicated truths that a kid can't see about a parent until they're old enough to be that parent. Breaking up Calum and Sophie's sun-dappled coastal holiday with the older Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall, Vox Lux) watching camcorder footage from the trip, sifting through her recollections and dancing it out under a nightclub's strobing lights in her imagination, this is also a stunning realisation that we'll always read everything we can into a loved one's actions with the benefit of hindsight, but all we ever truly have is the sensation that lingers in our hearts and heads. Aftersun is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. WOMEN TALKING Get Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand and more exceptional women in a room, point a camera their way, let the talk flow: Sarah Polley's Women Talking does just that, and this year's Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar-winner is phenomenal. The actor-turned-filmmaker's fourth effort behind the lens after 2006's Away From Her, 2011's Take This Waltz and 2012's Stories We Tell does plenty more, but its basic setup is as straightforward as its title states. Adapted from Miriam Toews' 2018 novel of the same name, this isn't a simple or easy film, however. That book and this feature draw on events in a Bolivian Mennonite colony from 2005–9, where a spate of mass druggings and rapes of women and girls were reported at the hands of some of the group's men. In a patriarchal faith and society, women talking about their experiences is a rebellious, revolutionary act anyway — and talking about what comes next is just as charged. "The elders told us that it was the work of ghosts, or Satan, or that we were lying to get attention, or that it was an act of wild female imagination." That's teenage narrator Autje's (debutant Kate Hallett) explanation for how such assaults could occur and continue, as offered in Women Talking's sombre opening voiceover. Writing and helming, Polley declares her feature "an act of female imagination" as well, as Toews did on the page, but the truth in the movie's words is both lingering and haunting. While the film anchors its dramas in a specific year, 2010, it's purposefully vague on any details that could ground it in one place. Set within a community where modern technology is banned and horse-drawn buggies are the only form of transport, it's a work of fiction inspired by reality, rather than a recreation. Whether you're aware of the true tale behind the book going in or not, this deeply powerful and affecting picture speaks to how women have long been treated in a male-dominated world at large — and what's so often left unsaid, too. Women Talking is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. SCREAM VI 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. Scream VI is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. 65 If there's one thing that a film about Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs shouldn't be, it's average. Only ridiculously entertaining or ridiculously terrible will do, and those two outcomes needn't be mutually exclusive. The appeal of 65 is right there in that four-word premise, as it was always going to be, because getting the intense White Noise, House of Gucci, Annette and Star Wars actor (and BlacKkKlansman and Marriage Story Oscar-nominee) battling prehistoric creatures is that roaringly ace an idea. He should brood, and his dino foes should stalk, snap and snarl. That is indeed what happens thanks to writer/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who penned the first A Quiet Place, plus have horror movies Nightlight and Haunt on their past helming resumes. But for a flick that isn't required to offer anything else and knows it — well, other than laser guns to shoot at said dinosaurs, because not even the man who plays Kylo Ren can confront a Tyrannosaurus rex or pack of raptors barehanded — 65 doesn't possess enough B-movie energy. Beck and Woods have taken the very B-movie path story-wise, though. As 65's trailer made plain, this is a Frankenstein's monster of a film mashup, stitching together limbs from a stacked pile of other sources to fuel its narrative. The Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchise, the Predator series, the Alien and Prometheus saga, Logan, The Last of Us, The Man Who Fell to Earth and, yes, A Quiet Place: they each earn more than a few nods, and never with subtlety. So too does Planet of the Apes, but the fact that 65 is set on earth all along isn't a late-picture twist. What else would the title refer to? That said, Beck and Woods begin their movie elsewhere, taking time-travel 65 million years backward out of the equation. Instead, Driver's pilot Mills ends up on our pale blue dot from a civilisation out there in space, and one more advanced during earth's Cretaceous period than humankind is today. 65 is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. LIVING Turning in an Oscar-nominated performance, Bill Nighy (The Man Who Fell to Earth) comes to this sensitive portrayal of a dutiful company man facing life-changing news with a wealth of history; so too does the feature itself. Set in London in 1953, it's an adaptation several times over — of iconic Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film Ikiru, and of Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, which the former also takes inspiration from. That's quite the lineage for Living to live up to, but Nighy and director Oliver Hermanus (Moffie) are up to the task. The movie's second Oscar-nominee, Nobel Prize-winning screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro, unsurprisingly is as well. Also the author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, he's at home penning layered stories with a deep focus on complicated characters not being completely true to themselves. When those two novels were turned into impressive pictures, Ishiguro didn't script their screenplays, but he writes his way through Living's literary and cinematic pedigree like he was born to. A man of no more words than he has to utter — of no more of anything, including life's pleasures, frivolities, distractions and detours, in fact — Williams (Nighy, Emma.) is a born bureaucrat. Or, that's how he has always appeared to his staff in the Public Works Department in London County Hall, where he's been doing the same job day, week, month and year in and out. He's quiet and stoic as he pushes paper daily, overseeing a department that's newly welcoming in Peter Wakeling (Alex Sharp, The Trial of the Chicago 7). It's through this fresh face's eyes that Living's audience first spies its central figure, adopting his and the wider team's perspective of Williams as a compliant and wooden functionary: a view that the film and its sudden diagnosis then challenges, as Williams does of himself. Living is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. MISSING Screenlife films such as Missing should be the last thing that moviegoers want. When we're hitting a cinema or escaping into our streaming queues, we're seeking a reprieve from the texts, chats, pics, reels, searches, and work- and study-related tasks that we all stare at on our phones and computers seemingly 24/7. (Well, we should be, unless we're monsters who can't turn off our devices while we watch.) There's a nifty dose of empathy behind thrillers like this, its excellent predecessor Searching, and the similar likes of Unfriended and Profile, however, that relies upon the very fact that everyone spends far too much time living through technology. When an on-screen character such as Missing's June (Storm Reid, The Last of Us) is glued to the gadget on their desk or lap, or in their hand — when they're using the devices that've virtually become our new limbs non-stop to try to solve their problems and fix their messy existence, too — it couldn't be more relatable. As Missing fills its frames with window upon window of June's digital activities, cycling and cascading through FaceTime calls, Gmail messages, WhatsApp downloads, Google Maps tracking, TikTok videos, TaskRabbit bookings, plain-old websites and more, it witnesses its protagonist do plenty that we've all done. And, everything she's undertaking feels exactly that familiar — like the film could be staring back at each member of its audience rather than at an 18-year-old who starts the movie unhappy that her mother Grace (Nia Long, You People) is jetting off to Colombia with her new boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung, Old). That sensation remains true even though Missing's viewers have likely never had their mum disappear in another country, and their life forever turned upside down as a result. We've all experienced the mechanics behind what writer/directors Will Merrick and Nick Johnson (who make their feature debut in both roles after editing Searching) are depicting in our own ways, with only the vast power of the internet able to help. Missing is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. TO LESLIE A character drama about a West Texas woman who wins the lottery, but six years later has nothing to show for it except pain, alcoholism and burned bridges, To Leslie is all about English talent Andrea Riseborough's remarkable performance — famously so thanks to her Best Actress Oscar nomination for an indie film widely underseen until that nod of approval. Nothing can take away the power of the Mandy, Possessor and Amsterdam star's stunning portrayal. A spectacular performance is a spectacular performance regardless of what surrounds it. So, Riseborough's work in the debut feature from seasoned TV director Michael Morris (Better Call Saul, 13 Reasons Why, Brothers & Sisters) remains a gut-punch no matter the controversy around the campaign by high-profile names to help get her the Academy's recognition, with Kate Winslet, Edward Norton and Jennifer Aniston among those advocating for accolades. To Leslie remains Riseborough's movie despite comedian and actor Mark Maron uttering the words that sum it up best, too. In his latest compassionate performance — with a less-gruff edge than he sports in GLOW — he plays Sweeney, the co-proprietor of a roadside motel in Leslie's hometown. That's where she ends up again after the money runs out, plus her luck and everyone she knows' patience with it. As scripted by Ryan Binaco (3022), Sweeney is another of To Leslie's flawed characters. The movie teems with such folks because everyone of us is flawed, and it sees that truth with the clearest of eyes. In a sincere but awkward chat, Sweeney explains how his now ex-wife's drinking helped end his marriage; however, he catches himself afterwards, making a point to say that just because his story turned out like that, that doesn't mean Leslie's will as well, or that he thinks it that'll occur. To Leslie is available to stream via iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOUR AMONG THIEVES More than most games, Dungeons & Dragons thrives or dies based on the people rolling the dice, creating their own characters and casting spells. Whether Stranger Things' demogorgon-slaying teens are hunched over a table imagining up their fantasy dreams, or flesh-and-blood folks who aren't just part of a TV series find themselves pretending that they're fighters and clerics, an adventure or campaign is only as good as the party at its core. Writer/directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley understand this. The latter definitely should: the one-season TV great Freaks and Geeks, which gave him his start as an actor when he was just a kid, threw D&D some love, too. As filmmakers, Goldstein and Daley jump from Game Night to Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves with a clear mission: making the swords-and-sorcery flick's cast its biggest strength. This game-to-screen flick sports a stacked roster, starting with Chris Pine (Don't Worry Darling) as Edgin Darvis, a bard and former member of the Harpers who turned petty thief — complete with a Robin Hood-esque attitude — after his wife passed away. Since his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman, Avatar: The Way of Water) was a baby, he's been co-parenting with his gruff best friend Holga Kilgore, a stoic exiled barbarian, who is played with exactly the stern look that Michelle Rodriguez (Fast & Furious 9) was always going to bring to the part. They start the film in a dungeon, but Edgin and Holga are soon trying to reunite with Kira after rogue and con artist Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre), their former pal, turned nefarious while they were in prison. Cue help from Simon Aumar (Justice Smith, Sharper), a sorcerer with hefty confidence issues; tiefling druid Doric (Sophie Lillis, IT and IT: Chapter Two); and paladin Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page, The Gray Man). Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is available to stream via Prime Video. Read our full review. TILL There's no shortage of heartbreak in Till, a shattering drama about the abduction, torture and lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955. Clemency writer/director Chinonye Chukwu tells of a boy's tragic death, a mother's pain and anger, and a country's shame and trauma — and how all three pushed along America's 20th-century civil rights movement. Heartache lingers in the needless loss of life. Fury swells at the abhorrent racism on display, including in the justifications offered by the unrepentant perpetrators. Despair buzzes in the grief, personal and national alike, that hangs heavy from the second that Emmett is dragged away in the night. Fury seethes, too, because an atrocious murder like this demands justice and change, neither of which was ever going to be easy to secure given the time and place. Indeed, the US-wide Emmett Till Antilynching Act making lynching a federal hate crime only became law in March 2022. Heartbreak builds in and bursts through Till from the outset — and in sadly everyday situations. Emmett, nicknamed Bo by his family, is played as a lively and joyful teen by the impressive Jalyn Hall (Space Jam: A New Legacy). He's confident and cheery, as his mother Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler, Station Eleven) has lovingly raised him to be in Chicago. But even department-store shopping for a trip to the Deep South is coloured by the threat of discrimination. So, as his departure to see relatives gets nearer, Mamie utters a few words of advice. She's stern and urgent, trying to impart to him the importance of adhering to Mississippi's unspoken rules. She implores him not to do anything that could be construed as looking at white people the wrong way, to apologise profusely and instantly whenever he has to, and to heed the different set of norms. "Be small down there," she says — and it's one of the movie's many crushing moments. Till is available to stream via iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. EMPIRE OF LIGHT They don't call it movie magic for nothing, as plenty of Hollywood's leading lights have made it their mission to stress. A filmmaker's work should ideally make that statement anyway — seeing any picture and taking any trip to the pictures should, not that either always occurs — but overt odes to cinema still flicker with frequency. Across little more than 12 months, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast has featured a scene where his on-screen childhood alter ego basks in the silver screen's glow, and Damien Chazelle's Babylon made celebrating Hollywood and everything behind it one of its main functions. With The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg revisited his formative years, following the makings of a movie-obsessed kid who'd become a movie-making titan. Now 1917, Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty director Sam Mendes adds his own take with Empire of Light, as also steeped in his own youth. A teenager in the 70s and 80s, Mendes now jumps back to 1980 and 1981. His physical destination: the coastal town of Margate in Kent, where the Dreamland Cinema has stood for exactly 100 years in 2023. In Empire of Light, the gorgeous art deco structure has been rechristened The Empire. It's a place where celluloid dreams such as The Blues Brothers, Stir Crazy, Raging Bull and Being There entertain the masses, and where a small staff under the overbearing Donald Ellis (Colin Firth, Operation Mincemeat) all have different relationships with their own hopes and wishes. As projectionist Norman, Toby Jones (The Wonder) is Mendes' mouthpiece, waxing lyrical about the transporting effect of images running at 24 frames per second and treasuring his work sharing that experience. Empire of Light is that heavy handed, and in a multitude of ways. But duty manager Hilary (Olivia Colman, Heartstopper) and new employee Stephen's (Micheal Ward, Small Axe) stories are thankfully far more complicated than simply adoring cinema. Empire of Light is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA In the 31st Marvel Cinematic Universe film's opening beats — and the third Ant-Man movie, after directed OG flick and 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp — the titular shrinking hero (Paul Rudd, The Shrink Next Door) is indeed Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's star. As returning filmmaker Peyton Reed initially revels in, he's a celebrity basking in the fame of being among the Avengers and dealing with Thanos, and he's written a memoir about it — a book, Look Out for the Little Guy, that'll genuinely exist IRL come September. But the bliss of Scott's success gets cut down when he learns that his now 18-year-old daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton, Freaky) has been secretly tinkering with Hope and her ant-obsessed physicist father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method). The trio's project: sending signals down to the quantum realm. Hank's wife and Hope's mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer, French Exit) is also unimpressed, given that rescuing her from that microscopic place, where she spent 30 years, was no minor part of the plot of the last Ant-Man entry. Viewers should savour the precious time outside the quantum realm in Quantumania; there isn't much of it. No sooner are the Lang/van Dyne/Pym swarm talking about Cassie, Hope and Hank's experiments than they're all transported to said subatomic space, with working out how to get home far from their only worry. Janet had led the others to believe that all she found when she was gone was nothing upon nothing, but entire civilisations and species, akin to Star Wars' different planets, people and critters with a dash of Dune's and Mad Max: Fury Road's landscapes and themes, lurk below. So does the banished, trapped and genocidal Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors, The Harder They Fall), the time-hopping, world-destroying new adversary who likes annihilating things just because he can — and he desperately and nefariously wants out as well. Audiences will, too, thanks to a rote threequel that has a key series-building task — kicking off the MCU's phase five — first, foremost and at a giant cost. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. WINNIE-THE-POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY Never meet your heroes. Kill your darlings. A murderous rampage through the Hundred Acre Wood — a slasher take on a childhood favourite, too — Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey sticks its paws in both pots. Based on AA Milne's famed creation, which initially appeared in kids' poetry book When We Were Very Young in 1924, this schlockfest is exactly what a headline-courting low-budget horror flick about a homicidal Pooh and Piglet seemed sight unseen, and in its trailer. Blood and Honey is all about that high-concept idea, and splashing around as many instances of bloody bother as possible, to the point of repetition. It slathers on well-executed gore, but isn't anything approaching good or so-bad-it's-good. That said, it's also a reminder that everything changes, even a cute, cuddly stuffed animal revered by generations — and that carving away cosy notions about comforting things is a fact of life. Commenting on ditching one's safety blankets and inevitably being disappointed by one's idols is an unexpected — and perhaps unintended — bonus here. With so little plot and character development to writer/director/producer Rhys Frake-Waterfield's (The Killing Tree) script, making a statement is hardly Blood and Honey's main meal. This is a film of opportunity. Milne's loveable bear of very little brain entered the public domain at the beginning of 2022, which is what gave rise to this gruesome spin on figures seen on the page, in plenty of cartoons, and also examined in recent movies such as Goodbye Christopher Robin and Christopher Robin. As sure as the titular teddy's historical love for ditching pants and palling around with Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo, this Texas Chainsaw Massacre-style Pooh twist primarily exists because the premise was too irresistible thanks to copyright laws. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Looking for more at-home viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and fast-tracked highlights from January, February, March and April, too. You can also peruse our best new films, new TV shows, returning TV shows and straight-to-streaming movies, plus movies you might've missed and television standouts of 2022 you mightn't have gotten to.
Watching I Hate Suzie Too isn't easy. Watching I Hate Suzie, the show's first season, wasn't either back in 2020. A warts-and-all dance through the chaotic life, emotions and mind of a celebrity, both instalments of this compelling British series have spun as far away from the glitz and glamour of being famous as possible. Capturing carefully constructed social-media content to sell the fiction of stardom's perfection is part of the story, as it has to be three decades into the 21st century; however, consider this Stan- and Neon-streaming show from Succession writer Lucy Prebble and actor/singer/co-creator Billie Piper, and its blood pressure-raising tension and stress, the anti-Instagram. I Hate Suzie's unfiltered focus: teen pop sensation-turned-actor Suzie Pickles, as played with a canny sense of knowing by Piper given that the 'Honey to the Bee' and Penny Dreadful talent has charted the same course. That said, the show's IRL star hasn't been the subject of a traumatic phone hack that exposed sensitive photos from an extramarital affair to the public, turning her existence and career upside down, as Suzie was in season one. In episodes named after emotions — shock, denial, fear, shame, bargaining, guilt, anger and acceptance — the eight-part initial go-around stepped through the fallout, as unsurprisingly frenzied as it was. Suzie's professor husband Cob (Daniel Ings, Sex Education) reacted with fury and selfishness; their young son Frank (debutant Matthew Jordan-Caws), who is deaf, got swept up in the tumult; and manager and lifelong friend Naomi (Leila Farzad, Avenue 5) endeavoured to save Suzie's career. As I Hate Suzie's name makes plain, sentiment didn't often flow Suzie's way — from Cob, the media, everyone pulling the strings behind her professional opportunities, and also the world at large. In I Hate Suzie Too, she has a new manager Sian (Anastasia Hille, A Spy Among Friends) and a new chance to win back fans, returning to reality TV after it helped thrust her into the spotlight as a child star to begin with. Dance Crazee Xmas is exactly what it sounds like, and sees Suzie compete against soccer heroes, musicians and more. But when I Hate Suzie Too kicks off with a ferocious, clearly cathartic solo dance in sad-clown getup, the viewers aren't charmed. In fact, instantly damaging her already fragile self-esteem, Suzie is the first celebrity voted off. Although arriving a couple of years later, season two takes place six months after the first, which ended with Suzie all over the papers — again — and facing another life-changing development. Spanning three episodes, I Hate Suzie Too is a chronicle of a comeback that isn't quite allowed to be, because that's the relentlessness of being in the public eye when you're a woman who's deemed to have erred. Suzie herself simply wants to work to be able to share custody of Frank, the fight over which is cruel and demanding at the hands of the still-vicious Cob. She wants to dance, too, because that was always her first love. What she gets is the unceasing pressure to be flawless, as dictated by everyone else around her, but with zero interest in what'd truly make her content, safe, secure and fulfilled. Fearless, audacious, honest, dripping with anxiety, staggering in its intensity, absolutely heart-wrenching, always unflinching: with Prebble and Piper reteaming not just after season one, but also 2007–11 series Secret Diary of a Call Girl, all of these terms fit. This is a head-in-your-hands dark dramedy, a reaction incited by everything that comes Suzie's way as well as the choices she makes in response. The demands and decisions don't stop. Everyone always needs something, and needs Suzie to make a call. In this season, that still includes her mother (Lorraine Ashbourne, Bridgerton), father (Phil Daniels, House of the Dragon) and younger sister (Elle Piper), who are now joined by Suzie's first ex-husband Bailey Quinn (Douglas Hodge, The Great), plus former footballer-turned-streamer Danny Carno (Blake Harrison, The Inbetweeners) — both fellow Dance Crazee Xmas contestants, and reasons that the press' attention hones in again and again. With its claustrophobic cinematography constantly staring Piper's way — and, more than that, usually getting closer than anyone would feel comfortable with — I Hate Suzie Too apes what Suzie's fans and detractors are always doing: surveilling intently. No one performs well under such meticulous examination, with the series pondering the exacting standards placed upon well-known figures and the hypocritical reactions when they don't handle the scrutiny faultlessly. Steely eyed but empathetic, it's an exploration of mental health as well, and the fraying space that takes over when the world's wants take precedence over your own. "The team are choosing between you looking needy and you looking miserable,' Suzie is told about Dance Crazee Xmas' behind-the-scenes footage, to which she replies "well, those are my two states". I Hate Suzie Too shows how untrue that comment is, and how deeply it has been internalised. When she starred in a 2016 UK stage production of Yerma, Piper won six Best Actress awards for her performance — all six that she could — but, on-screen, she's never been better than she is in I Hate Suzie's two seasons. All that up-close peering at Suzie's face is revelatory, conveying every twitch of thought and emotion as she navigates the persistent onslaught of everything everywhere all at once, and attempts to package and repackage herself to be all things to all people. The focus and adaptability required on Piper's part is stunning, especially given I Hate Suzie Too's fondness for long, unbroken shots onstage and careening through backstage corridors. She's equally phenomenal whenever Suzie does snatch a quiet moment to herself, usually brimming with uncertainty, and she's heartbreaking when she's just trying to be a mum to her son. Like Suzie, Piper benefits from her own popstar background in I Hate Suzie Too, with Dance Crazee Xmas' dance numbers — for an audience and in rehearsals alike — proving the powerhouse centre of the series' latest run. Spectacularly choreographed and performed, and incisively paired to Suzie's inner state like a musical, they almost tell this season's tale without anything else needed around them. And, they help emphasise that this story isn't Suzie's alone. Too many women in the spotlight, and in general, have been held to unrealistic ideals, then pilloried for not meeting them. Much lingers when I Hate Suzie Too comes to an end in a whirlwind of distress, that fact included. Check out the trailer for I Hate Suzie Too below: I Hate Suzie Too streams via Stan in Australia and Neon in New Zealand.
As Carmy in The Bear, Jeremy Allen White was born to cook up kitchen chaos. In Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, he's born to run, slipping into Bruce Springsteen's shoes in the next big music biopic that's on its way to cinemas. Less than 12 months after Bob Dylan scored the same treatment in the Oscar-nominated A Complete Unknown, another icon is getting their filmic time to shine. Deliver Me From Nowhere has a time-specific focus, too, with the making of the rockstar's 1982 Nebraska record in the spotlight. Does the just-dropped first trailer for the film deliver White singing, including belting out 'Born to Run' onstage? Does it also feature Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice) monologuing in the role of Springsteen's manager Jon Landau? Does it head into the Boss' New Jersey bedroom, where the acoustic album that joined his discography immediately before 1984's smash-hit Born in the USA was recorded? The answer to all three: yes. Also seen, alongside Allen swapping The Bear for another real-life tale after The Iron Claw: glimpses of Stephen Graham (Adolescence) plays as Springsteen's father Dutch Springsteen and Gaby Hoffmann (Poker Face) as his mother Adele. The movie's cast spans Odessa Young (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), Marc Maron (Stick), Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai) and David Krumholtz (The Studio) as well. Audiences will be able to check out their efforts Down Under from Thursday, October 23, 2025. Scott Cooper (The Pale Blue Eye) both directs and penned the script, adapting the latter from Warren Zanes' book Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. The last time that the filmmaker focused on a musician was in his 2009 debut Crazy Heart, fictionalising the story of Hank Thompson — and Jeff Bridges (The Old Man) won the Best Actor Oscar for his starring role. "Making Springsteen was deeply moving as it allowed me to step inside the soul of an artist I've long admired — and to witness, up close, the vulnerability and strength behind his music. The experience felt like a journey through memory, myth and truth. And more than anything, it was a privilege to translate that raw emotional honesty to the screen, and in doing so, it changed me. I cannot thank Bruce and Jon Landau enough for allowing me to tell their story," said Cooper about Deliver Me From Nowhere. Check out the first trailer for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere below: Deliver Me From Nowhere releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, October 23, 2025. Images: © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Two hundred years ago, New York City expected a flood about once a century. These days, however, it’s looking more like one every three to five years. That’s largely because a significant sea level rise has reduced lower Manhattan’s seawall to a height of just 1.75 metres. So a design team by the name of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has dreamed up a possible solution. Titled Big U, it’s a 16 kilometre-long frontier of parks that would wrap around Manhattan. Not only would it provide protection from flooding, it would also create more spaces for community interaction and art. “In the history of New York with the legacy of Robert Moses, most of the infrastructure — whether that’s highways or parks — have generally been imposed without a lot of regard for existing community fabric,” Big U head honcho Jeremy Siegel told Fast Co.Exist. “If you’re going to be investing so much money into an infrastructure for resiliency — that’s going to be sitting along one of the most spectacular coastlines in the world — there’s a huge opportunity there to also improve civic infrastructure, so it can protect the city, but also become a platform for civic life.” Beginning at West 57th Street and stretching as far as East 42nd street, Big U would create a series of independent flood protection zones. So the sections could be constructed one-by-one, in response to resource availability. It also means that, were flooding to occur in one area, it could be locally managed. “It’s a little bit like the hull of a ship,” Siegel explains, “where you’ve got different segments, and breaching one area doesn’t necessarily mean that the whole system fails.” The design would involve raising the land, which would then double-up as extra park space, and building ‘flippable walls’. If water were to rush in, they would flip down, creating a barrier; on the other hand, when flipped up, they would showcase murals. There’s also a possible plan to transform a Coast Guard admin building into a combo museum and school, including an educational “reverse aquarium”, which would protrude into New York Harbor, affording views of rising water levels. Big U is a finalist in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Rebuild by Design Competition, created in response to structural and environmental vulnerabilities exposed by Hurricane Sandy. Via Fast Company.
Enjoying dinner and a show is a time-honoured theatre-going tradition, but when winter arrives in the Harbour City in 2023, one menu item mightn't prove so popular. If you've seen Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street on the stage before, or caught the 2007 Tim Burton-directed movie adaptation, then you'll know which dish to avoid when it comes to the Sydney Opera House. In this Steven Sondheim-penned musical thriller, meat pies are packed with quite the unwanted ingredients. This murderous tale of slitting throats, then stuffing body parts into baked pastries will play the famed waterside venue from Saturday, July 22–Sunday, August 27, in a production by the Victorian Opera and New Zealand Opera. Sydneysiders have had to wait for their chance, with the show already unleashing its gothic story upon Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, as well as touring New Zealand. Whether you're a local keen to spend time with music theatre's iconic villain and his partner-in-crime Mrs Lovett, or you're an interstate resident eager to see it again, expect a killer show. [caption id="attachment_899819" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Daniel Boud[/caption] As part of an 18-person cast, Ben Mingay is taking up the razor and polishing people off as the titular Sweeney, while Antoinette Halloran will join him as Lovett. The production also includes a nine-piece orchestra helping to perform classic tracks such as 'No Place Like London', 'The Ballad Of Sweeney' and the always-fitting 'The Worst Pies in London'. Current State Opera South Australia Artistic Director Stuart Maunder, who is destined for the same role at the Victorian Opera from October 2023, will direct this season of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. "We've wanted to bring this musical thriller to Sydney for a very long time, so premiering it at the Sydney Opera House is an experience every bit as thrilling as the musical itself," he advises. "There's no doubt that Sydneysiders will embrace this most theatrical tale of horror, which for all its blood and gore, tells a universal human story; revenge, obsession and lust, yes, but also of pain, yearning, even love." Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street doesn't just date back to the late, great Sondheim's Tony-winning Broadway and West End smash. Before that, it was a play in 1973 — and it had hit stages, screens and pages, prior, too. The homicidal barber first appeared in the 19th century, in 1846–47 penny dreadful serial The String of Pearls: A Romance, and has just kept slashing his way through popular culture since, novels, ballets, radio plays, comics and TV shows included. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street plays Sydney Opera House's Drama Theatre from Saturday, July 22–Sunday, August 27. Head to the Sydney Opera House website for further details — and pre-sale tickets from 8am on Tuesday, May 9, then general sales from 9am on Friday, May 12. Production images: State Opera South Australia.
Not content with filling a Tokyo warehouse with some of the most dazzling and immersive art you're likely to feast your eyes on — not to mention play with — art collective teamLab is now turning an old oil tank into a digital waterfall. With the interdisciplinary outfit's Borderless Digital Art Museum open for less than a year and proving one of the Japanese city's hottest tickets, the group is set to bring a collection of eye-popping works to China. Coming to the new Tank Shanghai from March 23 to August 24, teamLab: Universe of Water Particles in the Tank features cascading waterfalls, blooming flowers, rushing waves and scattering cherry blossoms as part of an engaging series of digital, interactive and interacting pieces. There's no such thing as a dull artwork where teamLab is concerned, but the undisputed highlight of its next foray into China is Universe of Water Particles in the Tank, Transcending Boundaries. Spearheaded by art collector Qiao Zhibing, Tank Shanghai's 60,000-square-metre space is built out of five empty oil tanks, so there's nowhere better to project streams of falling water. teamLab's piece will take over one tank, running over the interior surface. And, when folks stand on the waterfall's floor or walk up to its wall of digital water, it'll react to their presence, with the flow changing direction just like it would if you were standing underneath the real thing. Living up to the 'transcending boundaries' part of its name, Universe of Water Particles in the Tank will also interact with other works. When its trickles hit floral piece Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together, Transcending Boundaries - A Whole Year per Hour, which represents 12 months' worth of blossoming and wilting as its moniker suggests, the digital stream will cause petals to scatter. Both pieces are reminiscent of works also on display in Tokyo, but that doesn't make them any less glorious. The same applies to Black Waves: Lost, Immersed and Reborn, which projects one continuous wave across multiple walls. teamLab: Universe of Water Particles in the Tank runs from March 23 to August 24 at Tank Shanghai,2380 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China, with tickets currently on sale from 199 renminbi. Images: teamLab.
This post is presented by the All New Toyota Corolla Sedan. There's plenty of fun to be had in this city each week, but there's only a small handful of truly fresh urban adventures to be had. We've partnered with Toyota to find the very best of these shiny-new experiences in Melbourne. Presented by the All New Toyota Corolla Sedan, these are our picks to put you on the road to a life of goodtimes. Now your only challenge is getting to them all. This week is all about the highest heights, the surreality of the animal kingdom, and the easiest, most delicious way to do good in the world. Eat: Feast of Merit When you find the coming together of good coffee and a good conscience, great things usually follow. Feast of Merit, the newest venture from youth social enterprise YGAP, proves this to be true. Not only does this place donate all their profits to youth education in Malawi, Ghana, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Australia, they also focus on seasonal produce, raw foods and locally sourced drinks. The breakfast menu caters to a range of tastes with the sweeter side of things looking like Bircher muesli, coconut water, apricot, pistachios, and hung yoghurt ($11.50) and the savoury path providing beetroot (pickled, raw and roasted) with wild rice, candied walnuts, salted ricotta and za'atar spice ($13.50). 117 Swan Street, Richmond Drink: Loop Roof Opening high above the city's favourite video bar, Loop, this new venue — officially named Loop Roof but affectionately dubbed Looptop (see what we did there) — is a new gem in Melbourne's rooftop crown. Looptop's drinks menu features a huge range of topnotch cocktails, but it's the hard iced tea selection that stands out. Our pick is the awkwardly named but delicious-tasting Sparkle Motion ($19), made with Wyborowa vodka, Pomme Verte, T2 Lychee Sunrise tea syrup, fresh lemon, grapefruit peel and an edible gold spray giving it the advertised sparkle. Each hand-crafted tea syrup is created in-house using tea from T2, and features a different ice cube full of delicious ingredients that are designed to melt and release more flavour into the drink as you go. Level 3, 23 Meyers Place, Melbourne See: Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno This playful stage show, based upon Isabella Rossellini's short film series and subsequent book of the same name, kookily explores mating in the natural world. The screen icon — who is currently studying animal behaviour at Hunter College in New York — says the show came naturally to her because she has always been interested in animal behaviour, and she "certainly knows a lot of people that are interested in sex". The actress dresses up in a variety of ridiculous insect and sea-creature costumes, while providing a storyline that is somehow both absurd and scientifically accurate. March 26; Arts Centre Playhouse, 100 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne Do: Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival The difficulty with VAMFF is always the same — where to begin? With countless runways that are set to dazzle, an exciting cultural program, and some serious networking opportunities for those in the business, there’s something for all who are fashionably inclined. If innovation is what you’re after, we recommend heading to either the National Graduate Showcase or Independent Runway. But if you're just heading along for a taste, get along to the Premium Runways. March 17-23; all around Melbourne
If peering at an artist's work is the same as peering into their soul, then staring at a self-portrait is like peeking through a wide-open window. Perhaps Rembrandt believed this? The 17th-century artist certainly loved putting his likeness on paper, whether he was picking up a brush or pencil, or getting etching. Perhaps you can ponder this very notion at Rembrandt — True to Life, which is bringing the Dutch Golden Age master's works to Melbourne's NGV International to brighten up Australia's winter. From Friday, June 2–Sunday, September 10, the St Kilda Road gallery will be home to a wide-ranging exploration of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's work — so expansive, in fact, that it's the most-comprehensive Rembrandt exhibition to display Down Under in 25 years. On loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, 1659's Self-Portrait is one of the star attractions, and one of around 80 images of himself he's thought to have made. Created when the artist was 53 (and three years after he'd declared bankruptcy), it sits alongside ten etched self-portraits. Combined, they let True to Life attendees chart how he saw himself, and conveyed his soul to the world, over three decades. Etchings comprise a significant portion of the NGV's ode to Rembrandt, with more than 100 from its own collection at the heart of the impressive retrospective. In addition to helping to detail his self-perception, they showcase his innovations as a printmaker and also illustrate how widely and deeply he splashed around his artistic talents. If you're heading to a Rembrandt exhibition, you want to see his paintings, of course, an instinct that the showcase capitalises upon. Thanks to pieces borrowed from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Louvre in Paris, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Teylers Museum in Haarlem as well, the artist's prints are placed in context with his paintings. You'll see how they're connected no matter the subject or theme as True to Life steps through not just his portraits, but also his landscapes, scenes of daily life, depictions of religious motifs and nudes. Among his scenery-focused works, his largest landscape etching The three trees, which dates back to 1643, is a drawcard. From his pieces that hone in on the human form — never idealising them — Diana at the bath, an etching from 1631, is another highlight. Taking its cues from passages from the Gospel of St Matthew, 1648's well-known piece The Hundred Guilder Print is also on display as part of the exhibition's survey of Rembrandt's fascination with faith. His two largest prints similarly fall into the same category: The three crosses from 1653 and Christ presented to the people from 1655. Because the artist transformed them both by making continuous adjustments, True to Life shows them in two different states — early and late side by side. "The NGV is home to the most important collection of works by Rembrandt in the southern hemisphere and this NGV-exclusive exhibition celebrates one of our major strengths: our outstanding print collection. Rembrandt was a master printmaker and his experimentation in the medium reveals his insatiable curiosity and sheer versatility as an artist," said Tony Ellwood AM, the NGV's Director. While taking in all of the above, art lovers will journey through Rembrandt's life from Leiden in the 1620s to his waning years in Amsterdam in the 1660s. On hand to assist: a recreation of his cabinet of curiosities, which featured everything from his own prints and drawings through to musical instruments, weapons, shells and natural objects. Rembrandt's version helped spark his creative impulses, and the NGV has taken its assortment of pieces from its collection, as well as the Melbourne Museum and the State Library of Victoria. Rembrandt — True to Life displays from Friday, June 2–Sunday, September 10 at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne. Head to the gallery's website for further details and tickets. Images: Installation view of Rembrandt: True to Life on display from 2 June-10 September at NGV International, Melbourne. Photos: Tom Ross.
Bibelot (pronounced bib-loh) translates from French as 'a small object of beauty, curiosity or desire', and perfectly explains what you will discover at this dainty dessert boutique. Shiny glass cabinets filled with silky glistening gateaux, plump macaroons, bonbons, chocolates and cakes resembling modern works of art stretch endlessly down the long room; a gelato counter with two taps pouring liquid chocolate (dark and milk) stand ready and waiting for warm summer days. In short, Bibelot is a dessert lovers dream. Opened by the Chez Dre team, the dessert bar/patisserie/chocolaterie/retail space is separate from the South Melbourne cafe, but still attached — just enter from the Coventry Street entrance, a stone's throw from the excellent South Melbourne Markets. The interior design is immediately eye catching and very European, reflecting the luxurious, intricate nature of the desserts with strong elements of glass, large mosaic tiled walls, timber and luxe emerald green velvet armchairs. Asking the staff to pick out their favorite sweets creates some fun banter — even the friendly team working here seems to find it hard to decide between so many delicious options. Some highlights include the hazelnut-praline crunch or the Lychee Dome: a photo-worthy dessert that resembles a beautiful alien egg ($9.50). If you are like us and simply refuse to choose between cakes then try the desert platter ($25). Featuring nine popular desserts in miniature form, this platter is perfect for sharing between two. Coffee is delicious, as are their carefully selected range of teas. Lavish high teas are available in the High Tea Salon, and a well-curated retail section stocks a neat range of coffee table books sit waiting for your perusal. The retail side of things sells quality dry tea, housemade blocks of chocolate, biscuits and artisanal food. Make no mistake, this is not somewhere you want to be if you are on a diet. Your only dilemma should be deciding which cake to eat first.
Twelve months is a long time to wait between film festivals. Don't worry — the folks behind Melbourne's annual queer cinema showcase feel your pain. With the Melbourne Queer Film Festival hopping around in terms of dates and formats over the past few years due to the pandemic, the event is giving LGBTQIA+ movie buffs a little something extra in 2022, thanks to a three-day feast of flicks between Friday, April 29–Sunday, May 1. Called Melbourne Queer Mini Film Festival, this bite-sized bonus festival will serve up 12 features and documentaries at Cinema Nova. And, while it's definitely a brief affair, it's all about quality rather than quantity. MQFF's program includes Tramps!, which heads back to Britain's New Romantic scene in the 80s; Shall I Compare You to a Summer's Day?, a must-see for its blend of Arab folktales and Egyptian pop music; Canadian flick Wildhood, about a rebellious teen who runs away with his half-brother; and Benediction, a moving exploration of First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon's life by filmmaker Terence Davies (Sunset Song). Also among the highlights: Taiwan's Fragrance of the First Flower, Hong Kong coming-of-age effort The First Girl I Loved, France's The Divide and Spanish docu-drama Sediments, with the latter about the lived experiences of six trans women who are actors.
UPDATE, December 23, 2021: Encanto is currently screening in Australian cinemas, and will be available to stream via Disney+ from December 25. Five years after Lin-Manuel Miranda and Disney first teamed up on an animated musical with the catchiest of tunes, aka Moana, they're back at it again with Encanto. To viewers eager for another colourful, thoughtful and engaging film — and another that embraces a particular culture with the heartiest of hugs, and is all the better for it — what can the past decade's most influential composer and biggest entertainment behemoth say except you're welcome? Both the Hamilton mastermind and the Mouse House do what they do best here. The songs are infectious, as well as diverse in style; the storyline follows a spirited heroine challenging the status quo; and the imagery sparkles. Miranda and Disney are both in comfortable territory, in fact — formulaic, sometimes — but Encanto never feels like they're monotonously beating the same old drum. Instruments are struck, shaken and otherwise played in the film's soundtrack, of course, which resounds with energetic earworms; the salsa beats of 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' are especially irresistible, and the Miranda-penned hip hop wordplay that peppers the movie's tunes is impossible to mentally let go. Spanning pop, ballads and more, all those songs help tell the tale of the Madrigals, a close-knit Colombian family who've turned generational trauma into magic. This is still an all-ages-friendly Disney flick, so there are limits to how dark it's willing to get; however, that Encanto fills its frames with a joyous celebration of Latin America and simultaneously recognises its setting's history of conflict is hugely significant. It also marks Walt Disney Animation Studios' 60th feature — dating back to 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — but its cultural specificity (depictions of Indigenous, Afro Latino and Colombian characters of other ethnicities included) is its bigger achievement. The focal point of their jungle-surrounded village, the Madrigals are the local version of superheroes. They live in an enchanted home, complete with a magical candle that's burned for three generations, and they each receive special powers when they come of age. The latter wasn't the case for Encanto's heroine Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), though, and that absence of exceptional abilities has left the bespectacled teen feeling like an outcast. Plus, with her young cousin Antonio (Ravi Cabot-Conyers, #BlackAF) now going through the ceremony, Mirabel's perceived failings linger afresh in everyone's minds. But then la casita, as their supernatural home is known, starts cracking — the flame begins to flicker as well, as everyone's powers waver with it — and it looks like only its most ordinary inhabitant can save the day. Encanto doesn't refer to the Madrigals by any term you'd hear in a Marvel movie, but the imprint of Disney's hit franchise remains evident. Thankfully, director Byron Howard (Tangled), and co-writers/co-helmers Charise Castro Smith (Sweetbitter) and Jared Bush (Zootopia) have sprinkled in a few fun abilities — because mixing up a template sits high among the feature's powers, even when those generic underlying pieces can still be gleaned. Accordingly, one of Mirabel's sisters, Luisa (Jessica Darrow, Feast of the Seven Fishes), is super strong, but the other, Isabela (Diane Guerrero, Doom Patrol), makes flowers blossom with her loveliness. Similarly, while their aunt Pepa (Carolina Gaitán, The Greatest Showman) controls the weather, their mother Julieta (Angie Cepeda, Jane the Virgin) heals through cooking. In one of the most surprising moves ever made by all-ages film, Encanto also nods to Gabriel García Márquez and his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (superheroes, Disney not-quite-princesses and Colombian magical realism, together at last!). It works because Encanto meaningfully ponders inherited woes and the weight of family expectations, and grounds them in past struggles and the cycles they kickstart. That's the Madrigals' story, as tied to Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero, Nurses). And, while delivered in bright and bouncy packaging, it includes noting how the pressure to excel and enchant has caused fissures. Indeed, due to her uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo, Playing with Fire) — who no one is supposed to discuss, as the aforementioned track trills — Mirabel isn't the only Madrigal wrongly deemed to have let the family down. Vibrant, rich, tender, sincere and lively (the songs, pace and lush computer-generated animation just keep earning the term): add in familiar, still, and that's Encanto. Perhaps it's an apt combination, considering that finding beauty in the seemingly standard is one of the movie's key messages. Or, maybe it's just what was always going to happen when the Mouse House mashed up such recognisable parts — there's plenty about Mirabel's tale that's pure Disney 101, too, and we've all enjoyed the childhood viewing to prove it — into a gorgeous and heartfelt love letter to Colombian culture. Either way, the movie remains a modest charmer and, with Beatriz's yearning yet resilient vocal performance worlds away from Rosa Diaz's growl, and her co-stars helping to make the picture melodic several times over, it's winningly cast as well. Encanto is also the fourth feature bearing Miranda's fingerprints in 2021, after In the Heights, fellow animated effort Vivo and his filmmaking directorial debut Tick, Tick… Boom!. Thanks to both his and Disney's involvement, it'll likely take the reverse route traversed by two of those titles and, The Lion King and Mary Poppins-style, end up on a stage sometime in the future. Such a production would inherently lack the creative cinematography that assists in making Encanto such a visual treat — especially in the imaginative journey that Mirabel takes in the movie's second half — but it'd dazzle as a live-action show anyway. One of the film's other joys is the fact that it's poised, fashioned, animated and sung like it's treading the boards already, and that why that's the case — why it exudes big musical energy, even when it feels like its threatening to overdo it at first — is cannily baked into its narrative.
Tim's Bookshop in Kew has been in business for nearly 40 years. The family-owned store is practically a cultural institution in Melbourne's east, particularly for literature lovers who still enjoy turning the pages of a physical book. Whether you're after a heart-stopping crime thriller by the likes of Michael Connelly or an award-winning page turner from Vicki Laveau-Harvie, you'll have no trouble finding something to capture your heart and mind amid the store's shelves. Although, if you do need a little help the staff are always keen to lend a hand. Children's books are a specialty at Tim's, so it's perfect if you need something for the little readers in your life. Images: Tracey Ah-kee.
Hotel Indigo Melbourne Little Collins stitches past and present — four restored frontages on a storied corner outside, bold colour and layered storytelling within. The mood lands somewhere between gallery and hideaway: Mondrian blues nod to the city's street signs, while monkey motifs wink at E.W. Cole's legendary Book Arcade. A sculptural spiral staircase coils up through a cathedral-like atrium, where a circular bar offers front-row seats to a three-storey "cabinet of curiosities" by artist Lisa King. The palette swings from polished brass and jewel tones to exposed heritage bones, with intimate lobby nooks, a light-filled internal courtyard and a quietly social buzz that suits both staycays and work trips. Rooms and suites keep the narrative going without skimping on comfort. Expect free Wi-Fi and Chromecast-enabled TVs, mini bars stocked with Little Lon Gin and graphic maps that mark your exact laneway location. Design touches layer history with play — terrazzo tables made from recycled Skyy Vodka bottles, brass accents and gem-like stools — and a handful of balcony rooms overlook Little Collins for golden-hour people-watching. At Hotel Indigo, you're well and truly in the thick of it — theatres, galleries and shopping at the door, trams to the NGV, the Royal Botanic Gardens and the MCG within easy reach. There's a compact fitness centre for a quick sweat, a 12-seat meeting room for private dinners or brainstorms, and direct access to the refreshed Melbourne Walk precinct below, home to a mega JD Sports and pop-culture favourite Pop Mart (and adjacent MECCA flagship). The Hotel Indigo ethos is all about embodying its neighbourhood — and here on Little Collins Street, that means heritage facades, laneway attitude and a design language that reads like a love letter to the CBD. It's character over cookie-cutter, with enough creature comforts to make lingering feel inevitable.
When a sentence starts with the words "Nicolas Cage plays", there's no bad way to end it; however, one option is better than all the rest. Cage has given the world quite the range of different characters, including ex cons, con men, heartbroken lumberjacks, a version of Spider-Man, lonely paramedics, kooky dads milking alpacas, John Travolta, Elvis obsessives, himself — the list goes on and on, gloriously — but Cage playing Dracula is a next-level idea. Fans of 1988's Vampire's Kiss, rejoice: this is the part Cage has clearly been working towards for 35 years. All those decades ago, the actor played a man who thought he was a member of the undead, so much so that he ran around the streets shouting "I'm a vampire! I'm a vampire! I'm a vampire!" (as you do). Now, Cage is playing the most famous bloodsucker of them all — although Renfield, which has just dropped its first trailer and hits cinemas in April, actually focuses on Dracula's minion and his toxic relationship with his boss. Giving audiences two Nicks for the price of one, Renfield boasts The Great's Nicholas Hoult as titular character, who is getting unsurprisingly tired of doing his master's bidding. Catering to a vampire's every whim for centuries, even when you're given considerable powers in return, is losing its bite for the literary offsider — who, like the Count himself, does indeed hail from Bram Stoker's iconic horror novel. But ending that relationship isn't going to be easy in Renfield, as this sneak peek makes plain. The film's namesake is already doubting his allegiances to the Dark One and the Lord of Death when he crosses paths with traffic cop Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and sparks fly — just as his employer does. Accordingly, in a first glimpse that goes big on camp, Renfield mixes up its horror-comedy by giving its lead a love interest. And, if you're feeling shades of Hugh Grant in Hoult's performance, you're not alone. Filmmaker Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie) sits in the director's chair for Renfield, working with a script by Rick and Morty writer Ryan Ridley based on an idea by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman (an idea straight from everyone's dreams, too). And, joining Cage, Hoult and Awkwafina on-screen is a cast that also spans Ben Schwartz (The Afterparty) and Adrian Martinez (The Guilty). Check out the trailer for Renfield below: Renfield releases in cinemas Down Under on April 13.
