The Melbourne Festival will shine a light on the works of Wang Bing, Cyprien Gaillard, Ila Beka and Louise Lemoine, as part of their free Capitol Film Works program, running every weekend during the festival. On October 12 and 13, Living Architectures mixes the mediums of cinema and architecture, with Parisian filmmakers Beka and Lemoine taking viewers through the everyday lives of some of Europe’s most beautiful buildings, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Jubilee Church in Rome. The epic's of Chinese documentarian Wang Bing will screen at two different locations. On October 19 and 20, the Capitol Theatre will project his two magnum opi: the nine hour long West of the Tracks, about a dying industrial district in Shenyang, as well as the even longer Crude Oil, a 14-hour, real time portrayal of oil workers in Qinghai. Melbourne’s Chinese Museum will also screen Fengming: A Chinese Memoir and Man with No Name on a loop throughout the duration of the festival. Shot on an iPhone in war-torn present day Iraq, Cyprien Gaillard’s experimental Artefacts will play on repeat across October 26 and 27, bringing the Capitol Program to a close. Gaillard will also be present for a Meet the Artist Q&A, as will Beka and Lemoine.
Imagine your autobiography — meaningless, small, incomplete, full of diversions and 'ums' and 'likes' — was turned into a play. That went for 24 hours. Who'd watch that? Well, it turns out, if you're Kristin Worral of the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, who then rave about it as if possessed. The New Yorker calls you "a masterpiece" and the Guardian gives you all the stars. The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma (who are from NY; their name comes from a Kafka novel) are trying to remake everything we know about theatre, and for a company so experimental, they're also eminently watchable. The idea is that with each episode, the form shifts — from a musical to an '80s pop video, a murder mystery, an animated film and an illuminated manuscript. The first ten hours of Life and Times will be featuring at Melbourne Festival (the rest are still being developed), which you can watch over three nights or in one marathon performance broken up by a barbecue and snacks. Check out the rest of our picks for the Melbourne Festival here.
Listening to Yo La Tengo is like hanging out with an old friend. It's comforting, calming and you can't help but get nostalgic. With 13 albums to their name — count 'em — Yo La Tengo are one of the true bastions of indestructible indie rock, and they're sure to draw a crowd of diehards at this one-off show. But the evening won't all be spent dwelling on the total glory of their 1997 classic I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One. Their newest album, Fade, was released in January this year, and is proving itself testament to their adaptability and ongoing popularity. For those that like the sound of all this hype, but are maybe too young to know the full story, here's a cheat sheet to get you up to speed. You'll fit in with the diehards in no time. Check out the rest of our picks for the Melbourne Festival here.
The Melbourne Festival is known for its endorsement of experimental music, but this one is a doozie. Combining young local hip-hop artists with classical chamber music, dance, and performance poetry, the event is described as both a "multi-cultural ode to Melbourne" and a "hip-hop/classical throw down". That's a lot to digest. The kids from the MASSIVE hip-hop choir look really exciting though, and we'd love to see how it all comes together. At worst it could be a bit confusing, but at best it could be a really unique and entertaining hybrid — it's exactly the kind of adventurous project festivals like this should be supporting. Check out the rest of our picks for the Melbourne Festival here.
Provocateur. Feminist. Filmmaker. Shirley Clarke, one of the key but often overlooked figures of the New American Cinema, will be the focus of a retrospective at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) starting later this month. A feature of the New York cinema verite movement during the '50s and '60s, Clarke’s films regularly explored controversial issues of race and class disparity. Her first feature, The Connection, told the story of a fictional documentary filmmaker following a group of African-American drug addicts. The movie was acclaimed when it screened at the Cannes Film Festival, but faced censorship in the United States. Later works dealt with similar themes, including her quintessential documentary Portrait of Jason, cited by director Ingmar Bergman as "the most extraordinary film I've seen in my life." Uptown Girl: The Cinema of Shirley Clarke will showcase some of Clarke’s most iconic features and shorts, many of them newly restored by Milestone Films and the New York Museum of Modern Art.
It might sound like a cross between death metal and a trip to Scienceworks, but the utterly unique combination at the heart The Black of the Star makes this an unmissable event in this year’s Melbourne Festival. With the help of SIAL Sound Studio director Lawrence Harvey, six percussionists will be beaming in the cosmic signals of two rotating neuron stars ('pulsars'), drawing on access to the CSIRO’s Parkes telescope (made famous by Australian classic, The Dish). The energy from these signals will be translated into a sound recording that will become the metronomic pulse at the heart of an already stellar composition. The piece was created in 1990 by French avant-garde composer Gerard Grisey, and these festival performances by Speak Percussion will mark its Melbourne premiere. Speak Percussion is already made up of some of Australia’s most accomplished individual percussionists, but the ensemble will no doubt be rounded out by the sounds of these two real stars, each more than 7 million light years away.
There are few crimes more abhorrent or unsettling than the abduction of a child. Even a child's murder carries with it the singular, hollow silver lining of closure for the family, whereas abduction offers only unanswered questions. Grief requires certainty before it can begin, and anything short of that feeds desperation and a cruel modicum of hope. Cruel, because whilst it provides much-needed energy and motivation, hope also clouds reason and fuels obsession, and it's there in that dark space of violent fixation that French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve sets his new film, Prisoners. Played out in the suburbs of a dreary, unnamed American town, Prisoners centres around the kidnapping of two young girls and the lengths to which their families will go to bring them home. In particular, it follows Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), a carpenter and survivalist who becomes fixated upon the primary suspect, Alex Jones (Paul Dano). When the police let Alex go, believing him to be innocent, Dover kidnaps him in a moment of desperation and, alongside the other father (Terrence Howard), begins to torture him. It is brutal, deeply disturbing and given none of the glamour or moral justification seen in films like Taken or the 24 series. The allusions to America's war on terror and plain enough, though never so heavy-handed as to be intrusive. Much like Villeneuve's last film, Incendies (which earned him an Oscar nomination in 2010), Prisoners is uncompromising in its depiction of violence and makes no attempt to shape any character as a hero. With themes spanning the banality of evil, blood lust, compulsion, godlike vengeance, power and domination, Aaron Guzikowski's script avoids whenever possible the use of absolutes, focusing instead on the pacts even the best may make with evil and exposing the falsehood of civility in the face of aggressive self-interest. Even Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Loki, the police officer assigned to the investigation, is presented as a tortured soul and loner whose every conversation ends in abuse or argument. There is no joy in this film, nor perhaps should there be given its subject matter, but at 153 minutes it makes for a long and exhausting viewing experience. What grounds it are the performances, with Maria Bello and Viola Davis both excellent as the despairing mothers, and Melissa Leo turning in another fine and layered performance not unlike her role in 2011's Red State. Jackman is the standout, however, delivering a powerful portrayal of a man driven to the edge of sanity by anger and despair. https://youtube.com/watch?v=doPNgss-ntc
It's been a minute since we've been able to enjoy a classic pub session, but the good folk at The Builders Arms Hotel are here to fill that void. This Wednesday, September 22, the Fitzroy boozer is hosting another virtual edition of its ever-popular pub trivia, complete with banter aplenty, a prize haul and some next-level pub grub. Get set to test your knowledge of all things food, booze, tunes and local culture, as Triple R's Cam Smith reprises his role of quiz host, challenging those lockdown brains across three question rounds, including a hands-on sensory round. What's more, you can elevate your at-home pub experience by adding on one of the kitchen's curry bundles. For $35 per person, you get a finish-at-home dinner kit starring slow-cooked duck and snake bean curry (or a vegetarian alternative) served with sides like rice and tamarind relish. On the night, you'll be battling it out for both glory and some sweet prizes, with awards for the likes of Best Team Name, The Lucky Dip and The Golden Ticket. Trivia participation is free, though you'll need to register online to secure a spot and the details about how to play. Your special kit for the sensory round can be picked up from the Builders on Wednesday (2–6pm), along with any curry bundle orders. The venue's also stocking a solid curation of beer and wine, if you fancy a quiz tipple to round out the fun. [caption id="attachment_688733" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Harvard Wang[/caption] Top Images: Adam O'Sullivan
If you love movies, then you likely miss video stores. You probably have fond memories of all that time time you used to spend scouring the shelves trying to decide what to watch, as well as your attempts to find gems — or just truly weird and wonderful flicks — beyond the big new releases. Scrolling through streaming services just isn't the same, even if it has been keeping us all occupied during lockdown. The folks at the Lido and Classic cinemas clearly miss old-school video stores, too. So, during Melbourne's ongoing lockdown, the pair have set up their own lending libraries. If you live within five kilometres of either, you can head by to borrow a DVD or VHS copy of a range of movies. You'll obviously need a player to pop them in at home, though. Set up in a tower of crates outside both cinemas, these video stores encourage folks to borrow, watch, then return their flicks of choice — all without paying a cent. And, if you have some old discs or tapes at home that you don't want, you can donate them to the cause to help out your fellow locked-down movie buffs.
In the opening seconds of Ema, on a seemingly ordinary night in the Chilean port city of Valparaíso, a traffic light flickers with flames. The inky evening streets are silent and still otherwise, save for the film's eponymous protagonist (Mariana Di Girólamo, Much Ado About Nothing) — but Pablo Larraín (Jackie) well and truly starts his eighth feature as he intends to continue. Ema peers on from just a few paces away, her platinum blonde hair slicked behind a protective visor, a flamethrower strapped to her back and a nozzle in her hand. She's ready and eager to set her world alight. She's positively bursting to torch everything that's holding her back, in fact. Figuratively more than literally, she won't stop until she's watched the status quo burn. Anchoring a movie about trauma, power, family, restriction and freedom, she'll swiftly prove a blazing force, as well as an unforgettable central figure in one of Larraín's very best movies so far. Before 2021 comes to an end, the Chilean filmmaker will have given the world Spencer, a new biopic about Princess Diana featuring Kristen Stewart as the royal figure. Also on his hit list this year: Lisey's Story, a Julianne Moore-starring TV adaptation of a Stephen King book that has been scripted for the screen by the author himself. But with the release of the phenomenal piece of cinema that is Ema, he's already gifting viewers something exceptional — and something that'll be hard to top. A new project by Larraín is always cause for excitement, and this drama about a reggaeton dancer's crumbling marriage, personal and professional curiosities, and determined crusade to become a mother rewards that enthusiasm spectacularly. That it stands out amongst the director's already impressive resume is no small feat given he's the filmmaker behind stirring political drama No, exacting religious investigation The Club and poetic biopic Neruda, too. For the first time in his career, Larraín peers at life in his homeland today, rather than in the past — and, in the smouldering interrogation that results, he may as well be holding the flamethrower himself. Ema is filled with gleaming, dazzling and glowing sights like the image it first splashes onto the screen, with Larraín's now six-time cinematographer Sergio Armstrong (Tony Manero, Post Mortem) lensing an exquisite-looking picture. When its lead is first seen dancing for the company overseen by her choreographer partner Gastón (Gael García Bernal, Mozart in the Jungle), she stands before a giant blue fireball. It's a projection on a screen, but even just five minutes into the movie, it comes as no surprise when the eye-catching backdrop soon turns vibrant hues of red, orange and pink. Little else about Ema is that predictable, though, including its persistent penchant for glaring at its namesake as intently as it can. Faces and bodies fill the feature's frames, a comment that's true of most movies; however, in the probing patience it directs its protagonist's way, the intensity of its lingering shots that continually place her at the centre of the image and the kinetic fluidity of its dance sequences, this feature brilliantly, blisteringly and evocatively surveys and stares. There's much to take in, all sparked by Ema's struggles after an attempt at motherhood goes awry. With Gastón, she adopted a child — an older boy, rather than a baby — but something other than domestic bliss eventuated. Following a devastating incident and the just-as-stressful decision to relinquish the child back to the state's custody, Ema is scrambling to cope. But, in a script by Larraín, Guillermo Calderón (The Club, Neruda) and Alejandro Moreno, this isn't a situation she's simply willing to accept. Social services won't give her another chance, or even let her see the boy she still calls her son. Things with Gastón have changed irrevocably, too. To combat both, to rally against the oppressive rules and expectations thrust her way, and to reclaim her sense of self emotionally and in her career, Ema makes a series of bold decisions that reshape and reignite her existence. Unspooling its narrative like a mystery to be pieced together one enigmatic and melodramatic moment at a time, Ema is many things. Most potently, it's a portrait of a woman who is willing to make whatever move she needs to, both on the dance floor and in life in general, to rally against an unforgiving world, grasp her idea of true liberty and seize exactly what she wants. Impeccably cast as the unflinching dancer, and acting with internalised cool, control and command, the magnetic Di Girólamo exudes perseverance from her pores, as well as allure — two traits that couldn't be more crucial to Ema's plans. Whether she's showing off her best reggaeton moves against a vivid backdrop, staring pensively straight at the camera or being soaked in neon light, the film's star is hypnotic. Like the brightest of flames, she's impossible to look away from. One of Larraín's regular players, Bernal also leaves an imprint, perfecting a thorny role that ties into the film's interrogation of Chile's class and cultural divides. That said, so much of his performance involves responding to Di Girólamo that everything about Gastón would be completely different without her presence. Larraín has always had a knack for casting (see: each and every one of his movies listed above). His skill as both a visual- and emotion-driven filmmaker shines here as well, and that too isn't new. The experience of watching Ema almost feels like dancing through it alongside its titular figure, because that's how mesmerising each stunning image proves, especially when paired with an intoxicating soundtrack that sets the beat and tone all at once. Nothing about this movie fades quickly; not its ideas, inimitable protagonist, or rousing exploration of trauma, shock and their impact. Little feels like anything else in Larraín's filmography, and yet it's always still evident that he's behind the camera. Add it alongside Gaspar Noé's Climax in the list of dynamic dance movies that romp, swirl and gyrate to their own electrifying rhythm. That comparison can't paint the full picture, though, because a cinematic light this strong and scalding sparks in nobody's ashes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COrqRKMZ2KM
Closure is a beautiful thing. It's also not something that a 24-film-and-growing franchise tends to serve up all that often. Since 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has operated with the exact opposite aim, in fact — extending and expanding the series at every turn, delivering episodic cinema instalments that keep viewers hanging for the next flick, and endeavouring to ensure that the superhero saga blasts onwards forever. But it's hard to tick those boxes when you're making a movie about a character whose fate is already known. Audiences have seen where Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story) story finishes thanks to Avengers: Endgame, so Black Widow doesn't need to lay the groundwork for more films to follow. It's inexcusable that it has taken so long for the assassin-turned-Avenger to get her own solo outing. It's indefensible that this is just the second Marvel feature to solely focus on a female figure, too. But, unlike the missed opportunity that was Captain Marvel, Black Widow gives its namesake a thrilling big-screen outing — in no small part because it needn't waste time setting up an obvious Black Widow sequel. Instead, the pandemic-delayed movie gets to spend its 143 minutes doing what more MCU flicks should: building character, focusing on relationships, fleshing out its chosen world and making every inch of its narrative feel lived-in. The end result feels like a self-contained film, rather than just one chapter in a never-ending tale — which gives it the space to confidently blend family dramas with espionage antics, and to do justice to both parts of that equation. Indeed, like Black Panther, Black Widow is one of the few Marvel movies that could dispense with its ties to the saga and still not only work, but still engage and entertain with precision. And, free of the dutiful task of linking into ten, 20 or 50 future features, it sincerely leaves viewers wanting more — more jumps into the past like this with Romanoff; more of its no-nonsense, high-octane spy action; and more of Florence Pugh (Little Women), David Harbour (Stranger Things) and Rachel Weisz (The Favourite), Johansson's supremely well-cast co-stars. Harbour and Weisz play Alexei and Melina, happy Ohio residents, parents to young Natasha (Ever Anderson, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter) and Yelena (Violet McGraw, Doctor Sleep), and the portrait of all-American domesticity — or that's the ruse in 1995, at least. But Black Widow doesn't give them long to revel in small-town life, neighbourhood playtimes, 'American Pie' sing-alongs and an existence that could've been ripped from The Americans, with the quartet soon en route back to Russia via Cuba at shady puppetmaster Dreykov's (Ray Winstone, Cats) beckoning. When the film then jumps forward to 2016, and to the aftermath of that year's Captain America: Civil War, Natasha hasn't seen her faux family for decades. On the run from the authorities, she isn't palling around with the Avengers, either, with the superheroes all going their separate ways. Then the adult Yelena (Pugh) reaches out, because she too has fled her own powers-that-be: Dreykov, the fellow all-female hit squad she's been part of for the last 21 years, and the mind-control techniques that've kept her compliant, and killing, since she was a child. Vials of a brain-liberating serum are of vital importance here, and so is getting revenge on Dreykov — although they're really just the gadgets and goals that help reunite not just Natasha and Yelena, but also their ex-foster parents. Alexei, Russia's first super soldier, has slid from prominence, while Melina has fared better; however, they're all soon trying to break into Dreykov's Red Room training camp. There's an unmistakable air of Bourne and Bond to Eric Pearson's (Godzilla vs Kong) script, and to the story by Jac Schaeffer (WandaVision) and Ned Benson (The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby) he's working with. Moonraker especially comes to mind in Black Widow's visuals and action setpieces, too. But this deftly satisfying flick doesn't trade the MCU's blueprints for other franchises' templates, thankfully. With Cate Shortland in the director's chair, it spins a thoughtfully weighty story about women trapped at the mercy of others and fighting to regain their agency. If that sounds familiar, that's because the Australian filmmaker has a history with these types of notions thanks to Somersault, Lore and Berlin Syndrome. The first solo female director in the MCU, Shortland proves a savvy pick to guide Black Widow, and not only because she's in her thematic wheelhouse — or because her past films have all been about young women and their connections, as this Marvel instalment is as well. When it comes to action, she directs intense and suspenseful yet always fluid scenes. When the movie gets interpersonal, including during a memorable dinner table exchange where Natasha and Yelena demand answers from the closest thing they've ever had to a mum and dad, Shortland finds the ideal balance between raw emotion and rich character interplay. The film finds humour also, and repeatedly. Yelena's jokes at her sister's expense are a light but disarmingly realistic touch, and they always play that way. Their banter persistently reads that way, in fact. As Alexei, Harbour is given room to get goofy as well, and it never feels out of place — even in a feature with a deep vein of poignancy pumping through its frames, particularly when it comes to the childhoods that Natasha and Yelena didn't get to have. Using a breathy female cover of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', frenetic fight-scene editing that's occasionally too quick for its own good, and Winstone's unconvincing Russian accent: these are among Black Widow's rare missteps. Thoroughly deserving her time in the MCU spotlight after 11 years and eight prior big-screen appearances, a flame-haired Johansson relishes the long-awaited chance to give Natasha more depth than she's ever been afforded — and, in a generous performance, she also sparks with and bounces off of the always-impressive Pugh, who just keeps going from strength to strength (see also: Lady Macbeth, The Little Drummer Girl, Fighting with My Family and Midsommar). It doesn't need to, and it didn't spend an entire feature threatening to, but if Marvel somehow found a way to pair these two together again, it'd be more than welcome. If it keeps genuinely trying to push aside its usual formula and do more than extend its brand, that'd be welcome as well. Luckily for audiences, it's definitely handing the reins to another female filmmaker again, and soon — and now Chloe Zhao's Eternals can't come quickly enough. Black Widow is now screening in Australian cinemas, and will be available via Disney+'s Premium Access from Friday, July 9. Top image: Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Every year for the past century, the Archibald Prize has recognised exceptional works of portraiture by Australian artists. In 2021, from a field of 52 finalists, the coveted award has gone to Melbourne-based artist Peter Wegner for Portrait of Guy Warren at 100. A unanimous decision by this year's judges, Wegner's portrait of the centenarian and fellow artist obviously won the gong in a fitting year. "Guy Warren turned 100 in April — he was born the same year the Archibald Prize was first awarded in 1921," Wegner said. "This is not why I painted Guy, but the coincidence is nicely timed." Wegner's win came after an equal number of works from both male and female artists made the finalists list for the first time in Archibald history — and plenty of these pieces will be on display at the Gippsland Art Gallery in Sale this spring. From Friday, October 8–Sunday, November 21, art lovers can head to the gallery to scope out the best portraits from this year's entrants. In fact, it's the only place in Victoria that'll be showing this year's winners and finalists, all as part of the 2021 Archibald Prize Regional Tour. [caption id="attachment_813770" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Archibald Prize 2021 finalist. Kathrin Longhurst, 'Kate'. Oil on linen, 122 x 122 cm. © the artist. Photo: AGNSW, Jenni Carte.[/caption] Top image: Winner Archibald Prize 2021. Peter Wegner, Portrait of Guy Warren at 100. © the artist. Photo: AGNSW, Jenni Carter.
Thanks to Parasite's 2020 Oscar sweep and Minari's strong showing at this year's awards, it's tempting to say that it's been a big few years for Korean cinema — whether made in Korea or focusing on Korean characters in America. The country's films have been gaining greater attention with Hollywood awards bodies, that's for sure; however, Korea has been making exceptional movies for not just a few years, but for decades. For the past 12 years, the Korean Film Festival in Australia has been shining a spotlight on those top-notch flicks, celebrating all the latest and greatest movies made by Korean filmmakers — or about Korean figures. 2021 is no different, with the fest nicknamed KOFFIA set to bring its Melbourne leg to ACMI from Friday, December 10–Thursday, December 16. On the lineup: Minari, because this moving gem about a Korean family in America should keep getting all the love; entertaining and frenetic crime thriller Deliver Us From Evil, about a hitman and a kidnapping plot; Waiting for Rain, a box-office smash on home turf that follows a long-distance relationship that plays out through letters; and comedy Samjin Company English Class, about three female office workers fighting against unfair corporate practices. Other highlights include documentary The Wandering Chef, about Korean celebrity chef Im Jiho's search for authentic and unique ingredients with medicinal properties; drama Paper Flower, which follows an elderly mortician; 17th century-set action epic The Swordsman, which comes complete with eye-catching fight choreography; and mystery-thriller Recalled, about a woman who loses her memory but starts to hallucinate visions that may foretell future events.
This winter, you won't be chasing the sun and soaking in a European summer. But, thanks to eased domestic border restrictions and the trans-Tasman bubble, you can spend the chilliest part of the year surrounded by snow. Of course, whether you're planning to ski, snowboard or just build a snowman, you'll need to rug up — and whatever is currently in your wardrobe mightn't do. Each year — except 2020, for obvious reasons — Aldi hosts a big sale on snow gear, offering good quality gear at almost ridiculously low price points. It's back in 2021, so mark Saturday, May 22 in your diary. That's when you can head to your nearest Aldi supermarket to pick up everything from snow jackets and boots to face masks and beanies. Available at stores across the nation, and made to withstand extreme weather conditions, 2021's range of gear includes six different varieties of snow jackets, which start at $39.99 for something light and go up to $119.99 for windproof and waterproof numbers; four types of snow pants, including one style with adjustable leg and waist cuffs for $99.99; and ski fleece sets, featuring a hoodie and a pair of pants, for $19.99. Boots for both kids and adults start at $19.99, helmets will cost you between $19.99–$24.99, and you'll be spending between $4.99–$34.99 for masks, beanies, neck warmers, cabin socks, gloves and balaclavas. Kids clothing is part of the deal, too, if you'll be travelling with younger skiers — ranging from $19.99–$34.99. Once you're all kitted out, you're certain to stay toasty if you're making the trip to Perisher Valley, Thredbo, Falls Creek, Hotham or anywhere else local where snowy peaks are a feature. If you're hopping across the ditch instead, you'll find plenty of items to stop you getting frosty up at New Zealand's ski fields.
UPDATE Tuesday, July 13: Due to Melbourne's snap lockdown, West Set has been postponed until August. This article has been edited to reflect the new program announcement. You can keep an eye out for updates over at the website. Keep yourself warm this winter with the return of Melbourne's ten-day music fest, West Set. From Thursday, August 19 till Sunday, August 29, you can catch over 60 live music shows across 14 Footscray venues. Plus, all the venues are located within walking distance of each other — and Footscray Station — so you can bounce between gigs with ease. Start your night at West Set's festival club, dubbed Baby Snakes Bar, where you can enjoy a spicy eggplant sandwich and a glass of vino before checking out tunes. Head to Hotel Westwood to catch Cool Out Sun, Joelistics and DJ Elle Shimada on Saturday, August 21 or stop by on Friday, August 27, to see Kee'Ahn, Allara and HipHopHoe light up the Hotel Westwood stage. You can also check out Izy, Queen P Soju Gang at Kindred Bandroom on Friday, August 20. There'll also be a professional development panel featuring industry heavyweights discussing how musicians can remain agile in a post COVID-19 world. The closing day event will be stacked with DJs at the Counterweight Vinyl street party, as well as a showcase from not-for-profit Music in Exile will go down at Bluestone Church Arts Space. Plus, you can see Hayley Mary wrap up the festival on closing night at Kindred Studios. All West Set shows are free (except Hayley Mary) however registration is essential to attend. For more information and to check out the full lineup, visit the West Set website. And to register to an event, visit the Eventbrite website.
Lockdown 5.0 sees much-loved Carlton wine bar Henry Sugar moonlighting as a streetside yakitori bar. They're firing up the hibachi grill from 1–8pm Tuesday through Sunday each week to bring you a tasty lineup of skewers to grab-and-go. You'll also find bites like freshly-shucked oysters, fat toasties on house-made bread and a rotation of sweet treats. Takeaway drinks include a selection of signature cocktails and cosy serves of mulled wine.
Until 2020 hit, heading to a trivia night usually involved sitting in your favourite watering hole, sipping a few drinks and answering questions while a pub rock soundtrack played in the background. This year, however, that ritual has had a makeover — but in Isolation Trivia's latest online quiz night, those pub rock tunes remain. If you have a head full of otherwise pointless tidbits about the kinds of tunes usually blasted in pubs and bars around town, then this is a live-streamed trivia evening for you. Pub Rock Virtual Trivia is being held in collaboration with the current Pub Rock exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, so get ready to show just how much you know about everyone from AC/DC and Jimmy Barnes to Midnight Oil and Paul Kelly. If you're wondering how it works, you'll join the event from your couch, jot down your answers at home and everyone can compare scores virtually — and battle for trivia supremacy. Pub Rock Virtual Trivia takes place on from 7pm ADST Thursday, October 8. To play along, head to the event's Facebook page. And if you need some inspiration, this video just might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLBfdyJ3cpw Pub Rock Virtual Trivia takes place online from 7pm ADST on Thursday, October 8. Top image: Not On Your Rider.
Until 2020 hit, going outside to soak up nature's splendours was one of those things we all thought that we could always do whenever we wanted, and for as long as we wanted. Quickly, however, we've learned that we took the simple activity for granted — especially in a year that's brought multiple lockdowns and strict rules about leaving the house, including to exercise, to Victoria. For the next two weeks the Victoria Nature Festival is aiming to let you connect with the natural world, even if you can't do so physically to the extent that you might like. From Monday, September 28–Sunday, October 11, the online fest will feature a range of free digital events that'll take you on stunning tours, teach you new skills and let you peer at cute critters. On the agenda: an online tour of the World Heritage-listed Budj Bim landscape, a virtual forest therapy session set in the Royal Botanic Gardens' fern gully, spending time with a wombat from Healesville Sanctuary and checking out Phillip Island's popular penguin parade. That's just the beginning of the list — and while this is all timed to coincide with school holidays, you're never too old to enjoy nature's wonders. [caption id="attachment_729905" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Lake Condah, Tyson Lovett-Murray, Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation[/caption] The Victoria Nature Festival runs from Monday, September 28–Sunday, October 11.
If you're going to treat yo'self to some high-flying fare like lobster, you might as well go all out, right? Well, Melbourne's luxe seafood restaurant Pinchy's is dialling up the indulgence levels and bringing back one of its most OTT dishes: Australia's biggest lobster roll. This time, though, as Melburnians are limited to visiting restaurants within five kilometres of their homes under the stage four lockdown, the giant crustacean roll is heading on a five-week tour of Melbourne, hitting up a different suburb every Friday and Saturday. Called Made By Sea Tour, it'll land at The Old Garage in Camberwell on August 21–22, then Bentleigh's Wolfe & Molone on August 28–29, followed by Mr Jackson in Mornington and Windsor's Oppen Cafe on September 4–5 and 11–12 respectively. The tour's final hurrah will go down at Johnny's Emporium in Yarraville on September 18–19. You can check out the exact times and locations below. While the super-sized version of Pinchy's signature Maine to Melbourne lobster roll — rocking three times as much crustacean as the original, stuffed into a foot-long bun — will be the menu highlight (and most expensive item at $40), it won't be the only dish heading on tour. You'll also be able to snag a classic lobster roll ($22), crab tacos ($7), truffle fries ($10), mussel chowder ($14) and snapper croquettes ($10). To get your mitts on a big lobster roll — or anything on the menu for that matter — you must pre-order over at the website. And you'll need to move quick as some dates are already starting to sell out. MADE BY SEA TOUR The Old Garage, 2A Glen Iris Road, Camberwell — 4–8pm on Friday, August 21 and 12-8pm on Saturday, August 22 Wolfe & Molone, 282 Centre Road, Bentleigh — 4–8pm on Friday, August 28 and 12–8pm on Saturday, August 29 Mr Jackson, 1/45 Main Street, Mornington — 4–8pm on Friday, September 4 and 12–8pm on Saturday, September 5 Oppen Cafe, 20/2 Maddock Street, Windsor — 4–8pm on Friday, September 11 and 12–8pm on Saturday, September 12 Johnny's Emporium, 18A Anderson Street, Yarraville — 4–8pm on Friday, September 18 and 12–8pm on Saturday, September 19
Staying motivated to keep crushing your exercise goals can be a challenge at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a pandemic. To provide a little incentive for all those runners out there, Lululemon is hosting a virtual version of its annual Seawheeze run. With both a half marathon (21.1 kilometres) and ten kilometre available, the digital races can be completed anywhere you like. On a treadmill? Yep. By doing ten laps of your one-kilometre block? Sure can. How about 500 laps of your 20-metre balcony? Whatever floats your boat. The races just need to be recorded in a single activity on the Strava app (which you can download for free) between Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 23. It costs $28USD to sign up (about $36AUD and $43NZD), which includes a training plan by Lululemon Global Ambassador Rob Watson, a digital badge for your Strava trophy case, an IRL finisher medal and a $2USD donation to Vinyasa Yoga for Youth and Red Clay Yoga. Of course, depending on where you are in the world, there may be some other restrictions you need to abide by while completing the challenge. If you're in metropolitan Melbourne, you can only leave your house for exercise once a day for up to an hour — and you can only venture up to five kilometres from your house. When choosing your distance, keep in mind that the world record for the half, set by Geoffrey Kamworor late last year, is 58.01.
This year hasn't involved wearing as much smart casual and business attire as we imagined — come on, we all wore PJs out of frame in at least one Zoom meeting. Right? But with society starting to open back up at different rates across the country, our neglected wardrobes are going to be back in rotation very soon. And, if you've realised that you didn't really miss your 'nice' clothes during lockdown, it may be a sign you need to do a little outfit rejig. Big fan of signs? Here's another one: menswear label M.J. Bale is hosting a huge two-week sale. The Australian fashion house focuses on producing timeless pieces that'll last beyond the seasonal trends, and this month you can get your hands on some high-quality, suave styles for an absolute steal. We're talking suits for just $399 (for one week only, between September 14–20), plus casual attire like jackets for under $199, trousers for under $99 and shirts for under $69 — it's all up to a whopping 50 percent off. The sale is running from Monday, September 14 to Sunday, September 27. You can jump online here to check out what's on offer. If you live in NSW or Queensland, you can also go to your closest M.J. Bale store. The M.J. Bale Spring Bale Sale is running between September 14–27, both online and at its stores (besides Victoria).
Second wave of lockdown got you feeling a little crabby? Renowned Chef Geoff Lindsay (Dandelion, Pearl Restaurant & Bar) is dishing up the ultimate antidote with the return of his popular Crab Club feasts. Operating out of his new home in the kitchen at Lamaro's Hotel, Lindsay is offering another run of seafood banquets that are sure to turn those iso frowns upside down. The pans are firing up for an at-home edition of Crab Club, available only from Thursday, July 23, to Sunday, July 26. For $100 a head, you can have one of these five-course crab fiestas delivered to your door. It's exactly the kind of indulgence you need in your restaurant-starved life right now, featuring dishes like fluffy crab and kimchi bao, black pepper swimmer crab, and a riff on the classic Singapore chilli crab using fresh crustaceans from Noosa. Be sure to stock up on napkins, because this lineup's bound to get deliciously messy. This weekend's Crab Club menu is available for free delivery to surrounding suburbs, with a $20 flat rate for addresses further away. Or, you can pick up your feast directly from Lamaro's in South Melbourne.
On the lookout for a dope new denim jacket? Or do you want to be rid of that weird-looking lamp taking up space in the living room? Then, by golly, you're in luck. The Garage Sale Trail works with local council partners Australia-wide to get as many trash-and-treasure troves happening on the same day as possible. Last year, more than 400,000 Aussies took part, and held more than 18,000 sales. While life is a little different in 2020, 16,000 events are still expected to open their doors to bargain hunters, selling more two million items. When the event returns across the weekend of Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22, online garage sales will also be part of the trail — which is particularly great news for Melburnians. It's the first time ever that the Garage Sale Trail is going digital, too. Aside from the retro goodies up for grabs, the Trail is all about sustainability. Instead of ending up in landfill, unwanted clutter becomes a fantastic find. So get that tight pair of sunnies for peanuts and help the environment at the same time. The Garage Sale Trail began humbly in Bondi in 2010 and is growing bigger every year. There'll be a right slew of sales happening, so keep your eyes on the event website — or register online to make a quick buck from your old junk. [caption id="attachment_783811" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Jo Lowrey[/caption] The 2020 Garage Sale Trail takes place on Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22, including via virtual garage sales. Images: Garage Sale Trail.
Treat yourself to a fab and fiery afternoon packed with delicious food and show-stopping entertainment at Mejico's first-ever Smash & Slay brunch. The glamorous Beverly Kills will host the event on Saturday, May 4, at the vibrant Mexican eatery. All brunch packages include two hours of bottomless drinks and three courses of Mejico's popular dishes. You'll start with a fresh guacamole smashed table-side with crunchy plantain chips. Next up, choose from the chilaquiles, the decadent huevos rancheros taco, the breakfast torta with eggs and chorizo, or the souffle pancakes with dulce de leche and horchata ice cream. Remember to save room for the addictive churros, which are smothered with cinnamon sugar and accompanied by chocolate sauce and vanilla custard for your dipping pleasure. The one-day-only event takes place from 11:30am–2pm on Saturday, May 4. Packages start at $99 per person and can be booked at the website.
There's something oh-so-relaxing about staring at the sea, even if you're feasting your eyes on the water via the big screen. That's the concept behind the Ocean Film Festival Australia. You can't always spend all your time at the beach, by the river or in a pool — but you can spend an evening peering at the next best thing in a cinema. On two nights in March, the festival will unleash a cinematic feast of water-focused wonders onto the silver screen. This is the event's 11th year, and it's heading to RMIT Capitol on Wednesday, March 6 and the Astor Theatre on Wednesday, March 13 — both starting at 7pm. Film-wise, viewers will spend time both above and below the ocean's surface thanks to a compilation of shorts from around the world. Expect to chase big waves, explore a range of sea life and get a hefty ocean rush, plus a heap of other sea adventures. One big highlight for 2024: Ice Maiden, about Lisa Blair's attempt to become the first woman to sail solo — and also without assistance, and non-stop — around Antarctica. The full program is united by a love of the ocean, an appreciation of the creatures who dwell in its waters and a curiosity to explore the substance that comprises more than two-thirds of the earth. It's the next best thing to diving in, all without getting wet.
When a spider spins a web, the strands are designed to trap prey for the eight-legged arachnid to consume. Madame Web tries to do something similar. The fourth live-action film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, it attempts to create a movie meal by capturing bits and pieces from anywhere and everywhere. There's Spidey nods, of course, variations on the "with great power comes great responsibility" line and more than one Spidey-like figure included. Introducing a new superhero to the screen, it's an origin story, complete with a tragic past to unfurl. Set in 2003 but with ample 90s tunes in the soundtrack, it endeavours to get retro as well. In its best touch, Madame Web winks at star Dakota Johnson's (Cha Cha Real Smooth) Hollywood family history, with a pigeon bringing The Birds, as led by her grandmother Tippi Hedren (The Ghost and the Whale), to mind. And, catching inspiration just like flies, the film also strives to be a serial-killer thriller. Look out, though. Here's hoping that spiders have more luck snaring a feast than Sony has in swinging Madame Web into its not-MCU franchise. They're not officially counted as part of the saga, and they're both exceptional unlike this, but the studio's animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also help explain Madame Web's existence and approach. In trying to carve out a Spidey space around the Peter Parker version of the webslinger, who is now part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony has been throwing everything it can at the screen. In the Spider-Verse flicks, that means a kaleidoscope of spider-folk, plus dazzling visuals and creative storytelling to match, demonstrating that people in suits isn't the best way to tell caped-crusader tales in cinema. In the SSU, focusing on a heap of peripheral Spidey figures is instead the tactic — and it's as piecemeal as it sounds. Hence Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius, the upcoming Kraven the Hunter and the on-the-way third Venom title. Hence also the feeling that giving whichever bit players Sony can their own features, in the name of making a sprawling superhero saga with well-known stars because everyone else is (see also: DC), is the money-chasing move. In Madame Web's case, its namesake from the comics has scored a makeover to fit the franchise's mould — so, instead of being an elderly mutant with clairvoyant powers, who is both blind and attached to a web-like life-support system, she's 30 and sports Johnson's famous off-screen devil-may-care attitude. It's easy to wonder while watching if the film's lead took the gig just to wreak havoc on the press tour. Johnson's presence also gives viewers plenty to be thankful for. She hasn't gone for serious and solemn. She isn't playing for laughs, either. Instead, she lends the flick her charisma and knack for playing charmingly awkward, all without ever seeming bogged down by how lacklustre the movie around her is; now that's a superpower. Madame Web arrives on the big screen with one of its pieces of dialogue already sporting meme-level notoriety, except that it doesn't actually include that line. The clunky "he was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died" became the best-known aspect of the feature's trailer when the sneak peek hit in 2023, but it isn't in the finished film. Words to the same effect are, describing the fact that Johnson's Cassie Webb is the daughter of scientist Constance (Kerry Bishé, Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber), who has spun off this mortal coil — and that explorer Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim, Napoleon), the flick's big bad, was there with her. That was back in 1973. In the movie's present, Cassie has grown up in foster care, now spends her days saving lives with her work partner Ben (Adam Scott, Party Down), then starts seeing the future after a near-death experience. The full backstory, which also provides the feature's prologue, involves Constance getting bitten in Peruvian jungle under the guidance of Amazonian spider-people Las Arañas as a way of saving the unborn Cassie's life. That's the reason for the adult Cassie's visions — and, thanks to his own interaction with the magic arachnids from the area, for Ezekiel's spider-like physical abilities and dreams of his impending death. In the latter, he sees three spider-esque women ending his existence. His plan: locate them now (with the help of The Flight Attendant's Zosia Mamet and some technology that doesn't really fit 2003), murder them, live evilly for longer. Only Cassie can stop that from happening, with Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney, Anyone But You), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced, Migration — and also Dora in Dora and the Lost City of Gold) and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O'Connor, Ghostbusters: After Life) soon in her care despite not knowing her, or each other, beforehand. It doesn't bode well for veteran TV director SJ Clarkson (Succession, Vinyl, Jessica Jones) that her first cinematically released feature, which she co-wrote with producer Claire Parker (Life on Mars), also includes Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless as scribes. The pair with Dracula Untold, The Last Witch Hunter, Gods of Egypt and Power Rangers on their resume scripted Morbius, too, which is still the worst SSU movie — but generic, bland, caring zero about characters and basically sketching out scaffolding for monotonous action scenes remains their niche. Madame Web's serial-killer angle does stand out, more for feeling like it could've been the plot of a 90s effort about a psychic protecting three teen girls that had zero Spider-Man ties. That flick wouldn't have needed such routine fights and chases, either, or proven what too much caped-crusader fare constantly does: like join-the-dots filler. Enlisting ace talent such as Johnson, Sweeney and Scott, each of whom do what they can with stock-standard roles — as do Merced and O'Connor (alas, the usually stellar Rahim's part is woefully thankless) — can't paper over Madame Web's desperation to send strands Spider-Man's way. The 2003 setting could've been a Tobey Maguire (Babylon)-era nod, but with Ben's surname Parker and his pregnant sister Mary (Emma Roberts, American Horror Story) having a boy, the timing is geared to connect with the Tom Holland (The Crowded Room) iteration. A mid-movie scene blatantly yearning to make that leap also helps sum up Madame Web. At a baby shower for Mary, Cassie doesn't want to get roped into the antics, turns the room silent by talking about her mum's death and interrupts the big name reveal. Johnson kills it, but the need to link into a franchise that isn't even the SSU crashes. Unsurprisingly, pitching the whole picture to setup a future Spider-Woman trio flick feels like just as much as a stretch. Unless Madame Web becomes a box-office smash, no one, not even Cassie, would foresee a follow-up coming to fruition after this tangled mess.
In The Virgin Suicides, in a role for Sofia Coppola that he'll always be known for, Josh Hartnett played the dreamy high schooler who had Kirsten Dunst swooning. A quarter-century later, as his then-director is fresh from a Priscilla Presley biopic and his former co-star just snapped America's divisiveness at its potential worst as a photojournalist in Civil War, he's now jumped from Trip Fontaine to Trap, still with his appearance and its impact upon others a key factor. Cooper Adams, Hartnett's latest character, likely was a teen heartthrob, too. Now he's a kindly firefighter who dotes on his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue, Wolf Like Me) to the extent that he's her chaperone at the Taylor Swift-esque Lady Raven's (first-timer Saleka Night Shyamalan) Philadelphia concert. His politeness wins over people quickly, such as the merchandise-slinging Jamie (Jonathan Langdon, Run the Burbs), who's soon doing him a favour. But Trip wasn't completely the charmer that he seemed, and Cooper isn't just a nice dad doing parenting well — he's Trap's killer. It was true in The Sixth Sense of Bruce Willis (Assassin), in Unbreakable with Samuel L Jackson (Argylle), of James McAvoy (His Dark Materials) in Split and with Dave Bautista (Dune: Part Two) in Knock at the Cabin: M Night Shyamalan knows how to draw a gripping turn out of his leads. With well-known names in front of his lens, including Hartnett (The Bear), he's just as aware of how to riff on existing audience understanding and expectations. Not everyone who acts for the Glass, The Visit and Old filmmaker receives the same treatment — but when the approach works, it's worth building an entire movie around. Trap is one such flick, clueing viewers in early that Hartnett has taken a Dexter-esque step into a murderer's shoes. Then, it observes the disconnect between the perceptions of everyone around Cooper and his homicidal urges, all as the cops stage a sting at the gig to catch someone they know solely as The Butcher. When he arrives at the stadium with Riley, Cooper has no idea that attempting to capture him will be the real production of the day. He promised his giddily excited kid that she'd see her favourite singer if she earned good grades and he's delivered; that she's fallen out with her friends and needs something a distraction also factors in. Then Shyamalan, who writes and directs, draws attention to the hordes of police filtering in, plus the profiler (Hayley Mills, Death in Paradise) calling the shots. Cooper equally notices. It's all a ploy, Jamie shares without realising who he's talking to, and there's only one route out. Already juggling checking on his current detainee (Mark Bacolcol, Night Is Limpid) via webcam and being drawn into the schoolyard feud by a fellow parent (Marnie McPhail, Dream Scenario) with ensuring that Riley is having the time of her life, he's now desperately trying to stop his normal-guy facade from crumbling. The famously twist-loving Shyamalan isn't bashful about Cooper's lethal tendencies. Accordingly, that isn't among the movie's surprises. As Trap's protagonist endeavours to stay ahead of his pursuers in a cat-and-mouse game — they've no idea what he looks like, which assists immensely — and reassure Riley when she starts thinking that he's acting weird, plot shocks remain in store, but so does convenience. Frequently staring intimately at Harnett's face especially when it's wearing a loaded smile, the film aligns its perspective with Cooper's whatever-it-takes efforts to stay avoid handcuffs, yet luck has as much as sway on his path as smarts. As he does with dad jokes and awkwardness, Harnett sells every clever choice and stroke of fortune alike, and compellingly gets audiences into the killer's head, though, in a standout role for the Penny Dreadful, Wrath of Man, Black Mirror and Oppenheimer actor; Trap would struggle without his transfixing commitment. Even with opportune turns constantly coming Cooper's way, Shyamalan doesn't have a tension problem, in no small part because watching one of his films means inherently being on edge for the next twist, then the next, then the next again — and he gleefully toys with that fact. But he does have a third-act issue, especially when he branches beyond his solid setup. While that choice brings in a welcome supporting performance from Alison Pill (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) as Cooper's wife and Riley's mother Rachel, it plunges the feature into Lord of the Rings-style too-many-endings territory. Also too often, Trap's decisions feel like Shyamalan simply thinking that something would be nifty. Enlisting Mills given her The Parent Trap background, Kid Cudi's (Silent Night) winking cameo, giving Saleka such prominence: some hit the target, others wish they did. What lengths will a dad go to for his daughter? That's one of this picture's threads on- and off-screen. In a year that's seen Trap's filmmaker produce the directorial debut of one of his children, with Ishana Night Shyamalan's The Watchers reaching cinemas mere months before his own latest release, he's now penned and helmed a flick that features another of his kids as a pop sensation and has the real-life singer's own music weaved in prominently. As he has long enjoyed doing in his own movies, the Shyamalan patriarch also pops up on camera, this time to praise Saleka's Lady Raven. He's pitched Trap as a Swift gig meets The Silence of the Lambs, but it's as much about wanting to give your children everything, build them up and, when you've got other demands on your focus, still doing your best to be there for them. Aided by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (who shot Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria and Challengers for Luca Guadagnino, plus Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Memoria for Apichatpong Weerasethakul) alongside editor Noemi Katharina Preiswerk (Knock at the Cabin, Servant), Shyamalan doesn't take his gift to Saleka lightly. The concert-film elements aren't window dressing. He revels in them, sometimes savvily juxtaposing the show's massive scale with Cooper's life-or-death predicament, sometimes with the indulgence of a dad giving his kid a vehicle for her dreams. The Eras tour boasts many things, a date with screens among them, but it isn't also a psychological thriller; mix that with Grand Piano and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation's opera scene, and that's Trap's template as well. When Hartnett sings, albeit not literally, so does the film. Donoghue also does her utmost and leaves an impression. But, while engrossing, the picture they're in often plays like a warmup for a big gig that hasn't pulled off everything that it wants to.
Queer Screen doesn't just host two LGBTQIA+ film festivals in Sydney each year, with Mardi Gras Film Festival arriving in the first half and Queer Screen Film Fest in the second. It also takes those fests to the rest of Australia via online versions. So, to start September, you can get cosy on the couch while streaming your way through a number of movies from the QSFF lineup without leaving home. While the fest runs from Wednesday, August 28–Sunday, September 1, it goes virtual from Monday, September 2–Sunday, September 8. Closing night's Gondola, about female cable-car conductors expressing their emotions in the sky, is among the titles you'll be able to catch on your own screen. So are the gay, sapphic and trans and gender-diverse shorts strands, with Lukas Gage (Road House) and Keiynan Lonsdale (Swift Street) making appearances via the bite-sized Stay Lost. Plus, at-home viewers have American Parent, about a lesbian couple raising a toddler during the pandemic; Big Boys, focusing on a teen with a crush; All Shall Be Well director Ray Yeung's 2019 film Twilight's Kiss; and The Judgment, about US-based Egyptian boyfriends returning home and dealing with the supernatural, among their other choices.
The Sydney-born social enterprise Welcome Merchant has been supporting small businesses run by refugees and asylum seekers in Australia for four years now. The wonderful organisation has provided people in need with a platform and space to sell their goods while also teaching them a heap of business skills. To mark its fourth birthday and showcase the great talent worth discovering, the team is taking over Melbourne CBD's Section 8 on Saturday, March 23 with a heap of market stalls. Aheda's Kitchen will be pumping out Palestinian eats, and Sweet Cora will sell its huge range of Filipino sweet treats in the beer garden throughout the afternoon. Handmade ceramics from Liew Ceramics, African fashion and accessories from Akos Creative, skincare from Akira Grateful, gin and wine from Bandesh Wine & Spirits and stacks of other wares will be up for grabs as well. The Harmony Market brings together entrepreneurs from a diverse range of cultures, who'll be selling all kinds of unique goods. Who knows, you might just find your next go-to beauty brand or local artist on Tattersalls Lane. Get down from 12–5pm to support these local businesses, grab some drinks from Section 8's bar and groove to some live tunes. A good time for a good cause.
The next dancefloor filler from 'Love Tonight' favourites SHOUSE is on its way, but it needs your help in the best possible fashion: by taking part in a huge music party that'll fill Melbourne's St Paul's Cathedral for RISING 2024. For one of the Victorian capital's major annual arts festival's big commission for this year, Ed Service and Jack Madin are overseeing Communitas — where hundreds of people will make tunes, then a single will be released. Free to attend, Communitas wants its participants to form a choir; however, not only using their voices but dancing and making sound vibrations is on the agenda. Think of it as a huge gathering that's also a jam and a ritual, composing collectively and spontaneously as everyone parties and communes. There's no audience here, just folks joining in, connecting and chasing shared joy. The date to pop in your diary: Saturday, June 15, for what's certain to be a standout event on the full RISING lineup. The entire program of art, music, installations and performances for the fest's third year runs from Saturday, June 1–Sunday, June 16. Jon Madin is creating handmade instruments for participants to use, while Deep Soulful Sweats is in charge of the choreography. While the end result is something to experience, the single that springs will give everyone who is there a songwriting credit as it aims to share the fun beyond Communitas' one massive night.
When Friday, February 24 and Saturday, February 25 roll around, Melbourne fans of a certain former boy band star-turned-actor-turned-Coachella headliner will be heading in one direction: to Marvel Stadium to see Harry Styles finally bring his latest tour Down Under. Given the fame he's enjoyed in One Direction and now as a solo music superstar, the Grammy Award-winning, Don't Worry Darling and Dunkirk co-starring talent is going big with his postponed Aussie visit — so you'll be singing along to 'Watermelon Sugar', 'As It Was', 'Adore You' and 'Sign of the Times' in a crowd. It's a case of better late than never, of course. Styles was originally headed our way in November 2020; however, we all know how that panned out and why those shows didn't eventuate. That delay means that he doesn't just have two albums to play, but three, with Styles' third solo studio Harry's House releasing last year. And, attendees will also be listening to UK duo Wet Leg, who've scored the supporting slot.
One of the west's best-loved drinks destinations is transforming itself into an immersive party playground once more, dishing up a high-energy arvo (and evening) of tunes, food, booze and frivolity. On Saturday, February 25, you're invited to let your hair down and blow off some end-of-summer steam at Mr West's annual block party, Good Fest. Setting the tone and spilling out into the street is a dance-worthy lineup of local musical acts, including afro-funk outfit Cool Out Sun, Area3000 host DJ NayNay, funk aficionado DJ Manchild, Public Afro Opinion Orchestra side-project Afrobiotics and South African artist Kgomotso. Zambian-born journalist and author Santilla Chingaipe will take on the role of MC. To fuel your evening's adventures, there'll be vibrant Cameroonian fare from emerging favourite Vola Foods, as well as brisket snack packs and sriracha butter chicken wings courtesy of the Tisiri food truck. And of course, with Mr West's experts in the driver's seat, you can bank on some top-notch libations, too. Namely, they'll be running a pop-up outdoor cantina bar in collaboration with local drinks brand Home Grown, slinging native-heavy bottled cocktails alongside margarita slushies, low-intervention vino and a range of Hop Nation brews.
Need a bit of sunny holiday energy in your life right now? There's plenty of it waiting for you over at Repeat Offender this week, as the Latin-inspired diner celebrates its second birthday with some very tasty giveaways. On Friday, February 3, the Elwood spot — which just so happens to be gluten-free — is marking the occasion by handing out 100 free tacos and 100 frozen margaritas as soon as the clock hits midday. There's one of each up for grabs per person, with three kinds of tacos to choose from — a baja taco featuring barramundi and chipotle aioli, a roast pumpkin number and a slow-cooked red mole chicken creation with sweet potato chips. And you can wash it down with a free classic frozen marg made with Blanco tequila, triple sec and lime. Both the tacos and the cocktails will be packaged up to take away, though you're welcome to enjoy your freebies while kicking back on Repeat Offender's buzzing streetside terrace. And if you happen to dig a little deeper into the bar's hefty selection of margaritas while you're there, we're sure you won't be alone.
Iconic LGBTQIA+ celebration Midsumma is back with a bang this month and as usual, the festivities will include the iconic annual Midsumma Pride March, descending down St Kilda's Fitzroy Street on Sunday, February 5. And local pub The Espy isn't about to let the occasion pass without throwing a fittingly huge afterparty. Kicking off at 12pm, the free Post-Parade Party will see the venue go all out with rainbow decals and lighting, bold floral displays and other themed fun, while the tunes and entertainment will be rolling on through until late. Highlights include famed London DJ Severino, Sunshine Disco Faith Choir in a special staircase gig, and a slew of drag and dance performances from local and international names including Jason Conti, Cushen, Sugar Plump Fairy, Juicy Fruit, Onyx and more. Meanwhile, the bar is whipping up Pride-inspired rainbow slushies for $18 a pop, with $2 from each drink going to support the Victorian Pride Centre. The cocktails will be available from Friday, February 3–Sunday, February 5, with The Espy set to match the final fundraising tally with a donation of their own.
UPDATE, January 31, 2023: Skinamarink streams via Shudder from Thursday, February 2. Age may instil nocturnal bravery in most of us, stopping the flinching and wincing at things that routinely go bump, thump and jump in the night in our ordinary homes, but the childhood feeling of lying awake in the dark with shadows, shapes and strange sounds haunting an eerie void never seeps from memory. Close your eyes, cast your mind back, and the unsettling and uncertain sensation can easily spring again — that's how engrained it is. Or, with your peepers wide open, you could just watch new micro-budget Canadian horror movie Skinamarink. First-time feature filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball has even made this breakout hit, which cost just $15,000 to produce, in the house he grew up in. His characters: two kids, four-year-old Kevin (debutant Lucas Paul) and six-year-old Kaylee (fellow newcomer Dali Rose Tetreault), who wake up deep into the evening. The emotion he's trading in: pure primal dread, because to view this digitally shot but immensely grainy-looking flick is to be plunged back to a time when nightmares lingered the instant that the light switched off. Skinamarink does indeed jump backwards, meeting Kevin and Kaylee in 1995 when they can't find their dad (Ross Paul, Moby Dick) or mum (Jaime Hill, Give and Take) after waking. But, befitting a movie that's an immersive collage of distressing and disquieting images and noises from the get-go, it also pulsates with an air of being trapped in time. It takes its name from a nonsense nursery-rhyme song from 1910, then includes cartoons from the 1930s on Kevin and Kaylee's television to brighten up the night's relentless darkness. In its exacting, hissing sound design especially, it brings David Lynch's 1977 debut Eraserhead to mind. And the influence of 1999's The Blair Witch Project and the 2007-born Paranormal Activity franchise is just as evident, although Skinamarink is far more ambient, experimental and experiential. Ball has evolved from crafting YouTube shorts inspired by online commenters' worst dreams to this: his own creepypasta. Driven more by mood than story — sleepwalking more than driven, perhaps — Skinamarink sees its two pint-sized protagonists react to their parents' absence by embracing a childhood staple: camping out in front of the TV, where those animated shows play, with cereal, blankets and toys to help comfort them. It isn't Saturday morning, though, and they can hear odd noises echoing from the floor above. Also, those cartoons seem to be looping. Plus, this unnerving spin on Home Alone also involves doors and windows vanishing in glitches, then the toilet disappearing. Household items, such as chairs, dolls and video tapes, suddenly become attached to the ceiling and walls as well. And, amid the ASMR-style whispering that the film's central siblings utter at each other, there's a disconcerting voice attempting to get Kaylee to venture upstairs into her parents' bedroom — and to do the one thing that kids know they shouldn't at night, aka look under the bed. Has something horrific happened, leaving Skinamarink's two tots on their lonesome? Is this a case of parental neglect, abandonment or abuse? Has divorce disrupted the family unit ("I don't want to talk about mom," Kaylee says at one point), and this is the fraught and fractured aftermath? Or, are supernatural forces — demonic even — at work? Is it just panic, but in that innocent-minded way where everything seems scarier and more catastrophic in a young brain and heart that trusts in its guardians as a main source of comfort, safety and protection? And why is there no end to the agitated night, and to the accompanying atmosphere of fright? Writing plus directing, and leaning on first-time cinematographer Jamie McRae heavily, Ball lets all these questions and thoughts flow through his disorientated audience's heads. As Skinamarink sparks queries but gleefully eschews clearcut answers, saying that it sees Kevin and Kaylee isn't quite accurate. The slow-cinema effort does indeed focus on two kids alone at night when weird things occur, but that narrative summary can't cut to the movie's heart without being paired with a description of how the picture tells its tale. An exercise in precise framing and just-as-meticulous editing, it flits between patient glimpses around the potentially haunted house, all at angles as off-kilter as the events being captured. The feature peers ahead from low to the ground, mimicking a preschooler sitting — or stares upwards, spotting what someone with their eyes trained at the ceiling while they can't sleep might. It cycles between shots frequently, with little in the way of logic. And, in these barely lit snippets, faces are non-existent. Rather, legs and backs place people in sight, any glance someone's way feeling stolen, surreptitious and another signal that all isn't right. Even in its most blatant examples, and even exploring existential themes applicable to us all as the whole genre repeatedly does, horror flicks have always been a Rorschach test. What upsets one person when it's splashed across a screen mightn't raise a goosebump in another — but Skinamarink takes that concept a step further, building it into the entire process of watching its artificially grained-up imagery. Plenty that lurks in this always-flickering film is dim, fuzzy and hardly distinguishable. Scattered Lego blocks, a toddler's chatter telephone, corners of walls and ceilings, narrow hallways, fragments on the TV screen: they're among the movie's most distinctive visuals. What else one makes out in the coloured static is often up to them, although Ball does deploy some shots as jump scares. He uses the same approach to audio as well, with parts of the sparse dialogue indecipherable and almost inaudible, and not all of it earning on-screen subtitles. Most viewers of Skinamarink likely won't be watching it in their own childhood homes, but Ball wants to transport his audience there anyway: flailing around in the dark, hazily unsure of what's happening or why, stress stretched far further than one would like, and firmly anxious and alarmed. His film smartly understands how our imaginations can conjure up our biggest fears from nothing but the unknown, and gets ample mileage out of putting that idea into practice. And, when it can be seen in dark houses, it'd make a spectacular double with fellow recent horror flick We're All Going to the World's Fair. Both get creepy in everyday abodes, reflect upon screens, know the inescapable power of perturbing images, couldn't exist without online horror and feel like festering collective nightmares — insidiously and unshakeably so.
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. One person's tale can be everyone's — cinema, and storytelling in general, thrives on the fact that the deeply specific can be profoundly universal — but no one's experiences ever play out exactly as another's have. That's an essential message at the heart of To Leslie, and it's one that asks for understanding but not judgement. While watching the film's very fictional namesake on-screen, it's easy to spy parallels, to relate, and to feel what it is to be in Leslie, Sweeney or the feature's other figures' shoes. Movies are empathy machines, after all. That said, battling assumptions about what the course that Leslie's story has to follow, and what that says about her and other people who've struggled with addiction and poverty, is as important to Morris and Binaco's picture as Risebourgh's awards-worthy performance. There's such weight and soul to the actor's titular portrayal in this tale of redemption — when Leslie is at her best, worst, hovering in-between and splashing between the two extremes alike. In early footage that's repeated later, Riseborough is giddily ecstatic holding a giant cheque for $190,000 and hollering in a local news interview about what an impact it'll make (and promising to spoil her young son). She cuts a still-wiry, still-determined sight, but now fraught rather than euphoric, in the hard jump to after the cash has been drunk away, which is when she's being kicked out of her The Florida Project-style digs for not paying her bill. There's a visible difference between the two Leslies, as her grown-up boy James (Teague, The Stand) notes without saying when she reunites with him next — but much of Riseborough's efforts are about what's churning inside Leslie moment by moment, whether inebriated, desperate for whatever she can sip or stone-cold sober. When she turns up carting a pink suitcase containing all of her worldly belongings, James has one rule for Leslie's attempts to reconnect: no booze. Part of the heartbreak of To Leslie, and of Riseborough's performance, is foreseeing what might happen while witnessing how Leslie endeavours to battle against it. Similarly, part of the film's joys and surprises spring when addiction doesn't win out. With James, though, Leslie can't keep her promise. When she's sent home to Dutch (Stephen Root, Barry) and Nancy (Allison Janney, Breaking News in Yuba County), pals she was once as close as family with, she's met with the spite and bitterness of former friends rather than a son's disappointment and hurt. The bulk of the small town's residents similarly have long memories, largely treating her as a joke. And Sweeney's colleague Royal (Andre Royo, Truth Be Told) is hesitant when the former sees her sleeping outside their motel, initially runs her off, but then generously offers her both a place to stay and a cleaning job. Country music echoes within the film, heard and spoken about, in a telling choice for a movie about second, third, fourth and fifth chances (and more). Notes of Wild Rose, another feature about a woman piecing her life back together, filter in with that in mind; the two pictures have plenty of dissimilarities, too, but share exceptional leads. Indeed, simply watching Riseborough sit at a bar nursing a drink and listening to a twang-filled tune makes for an astonishing scene, with Morris shrewdly holding the moment, and cinematographer Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All At Once) lighting a lengthy closeup like it's extraordinary and ordinary all at once. In what might be her biggest acting feat in a deservedly well-regarded career, Riseborough knows how to be Leslie, not play her — in this scene and from start to finish. This isn't a performance courting attention, but one committed to conveying what's swishing and swirling within a tumultuous character whose strengths and missteps are both always in view. To Leslie's least impressive trait is its fondness for neat and conventional beats, although Riseborough ensures that even the most predictable plot developments never feel like a standard pour (as does Morris' ability to recognise what he has with Riseborough as the narrative's anchor). Stories can turn out like this, traversing the highs as well as the lows, and To Leslie certainly isn't afraid of getting messy through its protagonist and her lifetime's worth of tussles before it starts letting hope loiter. It definitely isn't scared of showing what's worth striving for, either, be it the tenderness of Leslie and Sweeney's blossoming bond, the yearning of a mother who wants to finally be able to do right by her son, or a path to a future that's safe and sustainable. Riseborough is striving, of course, but her every move and expression — alone, and when paired with the also-excellent Teague, Maron and Janney — couldn't be more raw, complex and lived in.
Another long weekend is upon us, and what better excuse to escape the city for a couple of days spent quaffing top-notch Victorian vino as you explore one of the state's top winemaking regions? That's exactly the situation that awaits you around three hours north, when wine-sipping festival Tastes of Rutherglen returns for its next instalment from Saturday, March 11–Sunday, March 12. Once again, the region's winemaking industry is putting on a show, with 17 of its cellar doors welcoming punters for a big weekend of tastings, masterclasses, chats, feasts and exclusive menus. Nab a $40 ticket and you'll enjoy two-day access to all participating venues, including De Bortoli, Campbell Wines, Scion, Jones Winery & Vineyard and Lake Moodemere Estate. Each cellar door will have a stack of tastings to put your keepsake glass to good use, plus live entertainment throughout the weekend. Many of the wineries will be putting on their own special ticketed happenings, too. Think: an evening of bubbly, beers and burgers at Cofield Wines; a vino-matched dessert degustation courtesy of Andrew Buller Wines; and a dinner among the vines helmed by All Saints Estate's new restaurant KIN. Throw in wine-tasting masterclasses, picnic parties, sundowner sessions and a dog's day out, and you've got one wine-fuelled weekend ahead. Keen to ditch the car? Tastes of Rutherglen is running a hop-on-hop-off shuttle bus service, with tickets at $30 per person per day.
Book in a date with 2 M3GAN 2 Furious now: even if it doesn't take that name, which it won't, a sequel to 2023's first guaranteed horror hit will come. Said follow-up also won't be called M3GAN 2: Electric Boogaloo, but that title would fit based on the first flick's TikTok-worthy dance sequence alone. Meme-starting fancy footwork is just one of the titular doll's skills. Earnestly singing 'Titanium' like this is Pitch Perfect, tickling the ivories with 80s classic 'Toy Soldiers', making these moments some of M3GAN's funniest: they're feats the robot achieves like it's designed to, too. Although unafraid to take wild tonal swings, and mining the established comedy-horror talents of New Zealand filmmaker Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) and screenwriter Akela Cooper (Malignant) as well, this killer-plaything flick does feel highly programmed itself, however. It's winking, knowing, silly, satirical, slick and highly engineered all at once, overtly pushing buttons and demanding a response — and, thankfully, mostly earning it. Those Child's Play-meets-Annabelle-meets-The Terminator-meets-HAL 9000 thoughts that M3GAN's basic concept instantly brings to mind? They all prove true. The eponymous droid — a Model 3 Generative Android, to be specific — is a four-foot-tall artificially intelligent doll that takes the task of protecting pre-teen Cady (Violet McGraw, Black Widow) from emotional and physical harm deadly seriously, creeping out and/or causing carnage against everyone who gets in its way. Those Frankenstein-esque sparks, exploring what happens when humanity (or Girls and Get Out's Allison Williams here, as Cady's roboticist aunt Gemma) plays god by creating life? They're just as evident, as relevant to the digital age Ex Machina-style. M3GAN is more formulaic than it should be, though, and also never as thoughtful as it wants to be, but prolific horror figures Jason Blum and James Wan produce a film that's almost always entertaining. In her job for toymaker Funki, working under brash CEO David (Ronny Chieng, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Gemma is responsible for three of the movie's most perturbing aspects. Yes, M3GAN is one of them. But the "cyborg puppet show", as David initially dubs it dismissively, comes about after his star employee installs listening software in the company's bestselling PurRpetual Pets — aka furry, troll-like trinkets that chat back, poop if you overfeed them and, as a parody-leaning ad openly says, bests IRL dogs and cats by never dying. As technology advances, ignoring how insidiously it's surveilling us is the bargain we've generally struck, but M3GAN doesn't forget it. Fleshing out a story co-conjured up by Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring's Wan, Cooper doesn't forget the other deal we've made with our smart gadgets and even just our ever-present screens, letting them make our lives easier by eradicating plenty of our human interactions. Gemma is meant to be working on a new, cheaper but shinier version of PurRpetual Pets, with a competitor undercutting Funki with a more affordable knockoff to David's dismay; however, her heart belongs to M3GAN. Then, via a tragedy, she's suddenly Cady's guardian — and because she wears flannelette, keeps collectibles and gets cranky about her overbearing neighbour's wandering pooch, she's immediately coded as anything but the mothering type. So, getting M3GAN functional serves multiple purposes, including giving Cady the kind of caregiver that her aunt instinctively isn't. "We're gonna kick Hasbro's dick!" David exclaims when he sees M3GAN in action as a walking, talking, bonding, nurturing, do-it-all bestie-slash-nanny that he can sell for $10,000 a pop. While the doll itself doesn't ever utter anything similar — she's murderous, but also child-friendly — as its AI learns and evolves, it's gonna knock about everyone who threatens Cady and its own existence. Hasbro's wares have scored the movie treatment in the Transformers, Power Rangers and GI Joe flicks and more, and M3GAN makes junk of most. They all largely did that themselves anyway, but none have this film's namesake, who makes one helluva horror nemesis. Clearly the product of ample time meticulously getting the specifics exactly right, M3GAN sports a lifelike-enough appearance that dwells deep in the uncanny valley, and could never visibly be confused for actual flesh-and-blood up close. And yet, the size is right, it pals around with Cady like they're peers and it dresses more like a stylish 70s Barbie than a standard doll. Its physical movements are preternatural, and its arch retorts and reactions — and often just its voice — would make Mean Girls' Plastics wither. Young actor Amie Donald (Sweet Tooth) plays the part, while TikTok star Jenna Davis (Maggie) provides M3GAN's vocals, with every detail pitch-perfect. Execution: M3GAN chiefly slays it, but because Gemma fluffs it (rushing to get the job done, overlooking parental controls as well as parameters for morals and ethics, and being too eager to avoid her guardian responsibilities), M3GAN savagely and repeatedly slays. As the brutal plaything's inventor and main target, Williams is fascinating, too, especially given that she comes to the part — any part — with her most famous past role's considerable baggage. She isn't playing Marnie Michaels as an expert coder here, obviously. In fact, the fact that the deranged toy she's facing patently resembles Williams is a savvy way of having the actor tear down the idea that she's crafted herself an on-screen type. Gemma isn't the uncomplicated hero of the piece, though, as a workaholic who happily outsources caring for a child to an untested gadget, revels in creating AI life to help cope with loss, then finds herself firmly standing in Victor Frankenstein's shoes. There's bite to Gemma's path, and to M3GAN's musings on motherhood, work-life balance, corporate culture and 21st-century chaos, as familiar as they all are — and, even when simply jerkily tilting its head or stealthily sneaking up unexpectedly, to M3GAN. There isn't as much blood to the film, sadly, with needing to appeal to a teen audience ensuring that it never fulfils its gory and deranged potential, including when the body count starts ramping up and the final act goes for adolescent-appropriate broke. What this sci-fi nightmare lacks in splatter, it compensates for with that gleefully campy, tongue-in-cheek and utterly self-aware vibe, forceful as it can be; M3GAN's trailer and its choreography didn't go viral months before the movie hit cinemas by accident. Indeed, Johnstone evokes the right sardonic atmosphere with the efficiency of his central robo-slasher. 2023 was already set to be the year of the big-screen doll thanks to Barbie, but M3GAN stalks the cinematic toy chest formidably and fiendishly first.
On a couple of occasions over the last year or so, McDonald's has spread some lockdown cheer by offering burger-loving customers free delivery. Now, with stores open for in-person dining around the country, it's doing something different — because there's a mighty big milestone to celebrate. Those golden arches have been towering over Australia for 50 years now, so of course Maccas is marking the occasion. On the bill: various different promotions, specials, deals and collaborations, starting with 50-cent Big Macs. You'll want to make a date with your local store on Friday, June 18, because that's when burger lovers can pick up the chain's best-known burg for just a dodecagonal coin at any of the brand's 1009 restaurants around the country. All you need to do is order through the My Macca's app, select the deal, then mosey on down to your closest McDonald's to pick it up. There'll be more promos to follow, too. This isn't the first time that the chain has run a heap of deals in a short span; however, these ones are hanging around for a while. When it comes celebrating a birthday, going big is the only option, so Macca's will be rolling out other yet-to-be-announced specials between right up until the end of August — with the details revealed each week from Friday, June 18.
Time flies when you're obsessing over a big blockbuster fantasy TV series, as HBO's biggest hit of the past decade demonstrates. This month marks ten years since Game of Thrones first hit screens and became a pop culture phenomenon — broadening the world's awareness of George RR Martin's books, pointing out how often Sean Bean meets an untoward end on-screen and delivering more dragon-fuelled drama than anyone ever knew they needed. Keen to celebrate the occasion like you're in a Westerosi tavern? That's an option, all thanks to a new collaboration between Moon Dog Brewing and Warner Bros Consumer Products. The two have joined forces on a new line of GoT beers, so get ready to sip a Breaker of Chains imperial stout and a Watchers on the Wall imperial white ale. The former features chipotle chilli, vanilla and a chocolate finish, while the latter pairs white chocolate with orange and coriander. Winter might be coming, but these brews are available now — so, in autumn — with the Melbourne-based Moon Dog pouring them at its Abbotsford and Preston sites from Friday, April 16. The brewery is also dedicating the weekend of April 16–18 to all things GoT in Preston. An Iron Throne will also be onsite, because clearly Moon Dog couldn't pass up the opportunity to let folks sit on one of the most famous chairs there is. Head to Moon Dog World to snap a photo on the famed seat from 4–7pm Friday and 11.30am–4pm Saturday and Sunday. Also on the menu: burgers and dessert specials so you can line your stomach.
The expert green thumbs behind online plant store and travelling pop-up The Plant Runner are taking a little break over winter. But before they get stuck into hibernation mode, they're having one last hurrah, heading bayside for a huge indoor plant sale. This Saturday, April 10, The Plant Runner is set to take over the car park at Hampton Bowls Club with its travelling greenhouse Fern in tow, creating a lush plant oasis where you'll be able to browse and buy a stack of new plant babies. Head in from 1.30pm to shop a wild array of indoor plant varieties, including lots of rare and unique flora. What's more, they'll be going cheap, with everything marked down by a hefty 20 percent to help clear out the stock before winter. Company founders Dominic Hooghuis and Duncan Hilder will be there to dish out some of their expert horticulturalist advice, in case you've got any burning questions. And if you're in the market for some products to help your plants live their best life, there'll also be a range of The Plant Runner's specialty potting mixes, oils and plant care items for purchase. [caption id="attachment_806718" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Plant Runner's Dominic Hooghuis and Duncan Hilder by Samee Lapham[/caption]
If you dote over your vinyl collection with obsessive passion — or even if you just casually collect whichever albums you happen to come across whenever you're in your local record store — then you probably have one Saturday in April permanently marked on your calendar. That'd be Record Store Day, the annual celebration of ace music, a beloved format and the shops that trade in both. As happened last year, RSD has been postponed in 2021. Instead of its usual timeslot, the huge vinyl event will now take place in June. But that doesn't mean that your record pile has to remain static for the next couple of months, with record companies banding together for a huge vinyl sell-off: The Great Australian Warehouse Sale. Across the weekend of Saturday, April 17–Sunday, April 18, music aficionados will be able to snap up vinyl galore via indie record stores. Record companies such as Universal, Sony, MGM, Warner and more will be diving into their vaults, clearing out their warehouses and making as much stock available as possible, while individual shops will also be adding their own spin to the fun. Different stores will have different items on offer, so going crate-digging at your favourite shops is highly recommended. For further details — including which places are taking part — head to The Great Australian Warehouse Sale website.
A beer festival that you and your doggo can enjoy together? Yep, that's a thing and it's happening this weekend at The Ascot Lot. On Saturday, April 17, the food truck park is throwing open its gates for the Beers and Boxers party, celebrating some great Aussie brews and friendly local pooches. As the name suggests, boxers are getting a special mention this time around, although four-legged mates of any breed are welcome. From 12pm, you'll enjoy tastings, tinnies, keg takeovers and other fun things from the day's guest breweries, with the lineup including Mountain Goat, Hawkers, Little Creatures, White Rabbit and Gage Roads. As well as the human beers, each stall will also be pouring some dog-friendly brews, so Rover can join in on the beer-tasting action. As always, there'll be plenty of food trucks slinging a global array of dishes and the bar will be pouring a whole range of other liquid treats to take your fancy. Entry is free and bookings are available if you want to nab your crew a good table.
There'll be bottles poppin' and bubbles flowing at The Emerson Rooftop Bar and Club come Sunday, March 28, when The Prosecco Festival pops up at the venue. It isn't hosting a full fest, but will be turning the place into an effervescent oasis from 12–4pm. If you fancy whiling away an afternoon with a glass in your hand, this celebration should entice hardcore fans and novices alike, with more than 20 exhibitors on the lineup. Your $40 ticket will score you a a real crystal Plumm wine glass, a full glass of Dal Zotto to sip upon arrival and four solid hours of prosecco heaven. Sample some of the world's best-loved bubbles — or enjoy heftier servings by buying $10 tokens for glasses of wine in advance. A DJ will be spinning tunes as well, and you can nibble your way through a menu matched to the tipples. While you're nabbing your ticket, you can preorder your food, too, if you're keen on oysters or lobster rolls.
For the past year, watching a movie has felt a bit weird. Everyone has been doing it, and frequently — but seeing huge crowds of people in one place on-screen, or life going on as normal in a film, has felt more than a little like science fiction. Fantastic Film Festival Australia knows all about cinematic weirdness. The returning fest is all about it, in fact. The flicks on its lineup don't just feel odd, out-there, OTT or mind-bending because of the last 12 months, though — they've been programmed as part of the 2021 fest because they're purposely offbeat, weird, wonderful, strange and surreal, and in the best possible way. Screening at the Lido Cinemas in Hawthorn from Friday, April 16–Saturday, May 1, this year's FFFA kicks off with a match made in movie heaven, with Prisoners of the Ghostland seeing Nicolas Cage team up with iconic Japanese auteur Sion Sono on a futuristic, post-apocalyptic western. From there, the standouts just keep coming, including documentary A Glitch in the Matrix, which ponders whether we are all really channelling our inner Keanu and living in a simulation. Other highlights include cam girl thriller PVT Chat, starring Uncut Gems' Julia Fox; French charmer Jumbo, where Portrait of a Lady on Fire's Noémie Merlant falls in love with an amusement park ride; and Siberia, with Willem Dafoe collaborating with filmmaker Abel Ferrara yet again and descending into a subconscious nightmare. Or, there's Get the Hell Out, a relentless Taiwanese zombie movie that serves up a non-stop onslaught of action, blood, chaos and literally biting political commentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IvTKnqnOck
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. Playing out in a hilltop house near the British seaside that could host any number of gothic horror tales, Saint Maud directs plenty of attention towards the push and pull between its two central characters. But Glass isn't solely interested in an adversarial relationship between a pious young woman with her whole life seemingly ahead of her and the ailing hedonist who'll soon have hers cut far too short. The ideological, psychological and emotional dance that Maud forces Amanda into is gripping to watch — and shrewdly and potently handled — but that's just one of the movie's two key clashes. The other: the war raging within Maud herself. Despite her fervour, as well as the stern but feverish way in which she pushes her devotion to her faith upon others, her own story isn't straightforward. Flashes to her past, and to her previous job in a hospital, make it plain that pain, trauma and tragedy all linger in her recent history. That Maud has changed her name from Kate in the aftermath also colours her backstory, as does her alarm when she's approached by a former colleague, and the fact that her sanity just might be fraying. Set to star in the upcoming Lord of the Rings TV series, Clark also has Love & Friendship, Crawl and The Personal History of David Copperfield on her resume; however, her performance in Saint Maud is career-defining. It's one of the best of recent years by any actor, and it isn't easily forgotten. She's subtle but also severe, two traits that can co-exist in a portrayal this exceptional. She wears Maud's devoutness like a second skin, but also conveys how it itches when anything conflicts with the character's forceful but also fragile status quo. Ehle, who is perhaps presently best-known for Contagion despite boasting three decades of credits to her name, is similarly stellar in a vastly dissimilar way. Amanda isn't an object of pity, or meant to get audiences weeping for her misfortune. Her personality, warts and all, remains steadfastly intact even as illness visibly takes its toll. And, she isn't willing to simply nod, smile and acquiesce to Maud's religious zest out of gratitude, either. Most filmmakers can only dream of guiding such powerful and delicately layered performances out of their two stars — and in their very first stint as a writer and director — but again, Glass isn't willing to rest easy. In its narrative, Saint Maud is about control on several levels, as its titular figure attempts to use her faith to keep her own life and her patient's impending death in check. Behind the lens, Glass has crafted a work of supreme mastery, including in its vivid imagery and sinister mood. Whether the film is sinking into realism, embracing horror or getting surreal, the cinematography (by The End of the F***ing World's Ben Fordesman) and production design can't be faulted. As the movie steps further inside Maud's precarious existence, nor can the score, which conjures up as much unease as the overall feature. They each contribute to a swirling sea of tension, culminating in a thunderous final shot that really couldn't be more fitting, affecting, astonishing or memorable. Part of being a horror fan is spotting the genre's webs and threads, and seeing how the best and the worst examples — and everything in-between — build upon all that's come before. Glass evokes Hereditary and Midsommar-esque levels of dread as her anti-heroine is slowly forced to reckon with her beliefs spiritually, emotionally and physically. Focusing on a young woman seen differently by the world around her, her feature recalls The Witch, too. Both as a character study and as a part-religious thriller, part-body horror flick, it also feels like the product of a 70s binge. That said, Saint Maud is firmly its own movie. Awful and average films make you wish you were watching their influences, while excellent pictures leave you ecstatic that their sources of inspiration have given rise to something so stirring — and, as it haunts from start to finish, demanding viewers' reverence, this revelatory feature falls into the latter category. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP2MlPwflX4
It's the time of the year when the days begin to shorten, the evenings get cooler and your stomach starts grumbling for comfort food. But, while that'll remain true for the next few months, only one particular day will bring free tacos. That'd be Tuesday, May 4, with Tex-Mex giant Taco Bell doing a big giveaway at all of its locations. If you haven't tried the chain's Crunchy Taco Supreme, this is your chance. If you have and you just like freebies, count yourself in as well. There is a catch, though. This free taco day is themed around the moon — because the chain has decided to name the half-moon the 'taco moon'. So, to get a taco without paying a cent, you need to mention 'taco moon' or say 'I saw the taco moon' when you get to the counter. Also, there's a limit of one free taco per person, so you won't be able to stuff your stomach full of them. What's a Crunchy Taco Supreme? A crunchy taco, as the name suggests, as filled with seasoned beef, sour cream, fresh lettuce, tomato and cheese — or black beans for vegetarians. If you happen to be one of the first 20 people through the door at each store — in Altona North, Hawthorn, Roxburgh Park and South Yarra in Victoria — you'll also score a taco moon party kit, which includes merchandise.
A sense of deja vu might've just set in across Melbourne, but Lune Croissanterie is doing its part to make the city's third lockdown better — or tastier, at least. As it did last time, Lune is bringing back its 'hot suburbs'. Obviously, that's great news if you'd like to add a few world-famous pastries to your time at home. While Lune's Fitzroy and CBD stores are still open for takeaways, Victoria's reinstated five-kilometre rule precludes plenty of folks around town from heading in to pick up a croissant, pain au chocolat, lemon curd cruffin or coconut rough. So, the eatery is popping up in select suburbs and delivering its wares within a five-kilometre radius. The areas change daily, so you'll want to keep an eye on Lune's Instagram feed for the latest details. At the time of writing, the suburbs for Tuesday, February 16 have been named — so if you live in the Bentleigh, Bentleigh East, McKinnon and Ormond areas, you might want to get ordering. You can pick two slots: from 9am–12pm and 12–3pm. Orders are only available until sold out, so getting in quickly is recommended. Images: Marcie Raw.
Margaritas remind us of warm summer breezes, tropical vacays and bevvies in beachside cabanas. While jetting to an overseas island is still off the cards, at least it's summer and the salty-sour cocktail tastes just as good here. And now is the perfect time to head to your favourite tequila watering hole to order a marg in celebration of National Margarita Month, running throughout February. To celebrate, top-notch tequila brand — and one of the last tequila-producing haciendas in the world — El Jimador is getting behind bars across the country by offering a heap of drink deals over the next 28 days. Whether you want to celebrate with a classic margarita, try a spicy watermelon number or stay cool with a Tommy's, all participating bars are slinging them — and some for a steal. And, you can bet your fine tipple will be made with El Jimador's range of 100 percent agave tequilas. This means you can knock off work and make a beeline to the local pub, or head to a riverside bar to catch the sunset — with a cheeky marg in hand, of course. Or, go all-in and head to a neighbourhood Mexican restaurant that's serving up margies galore. Wherever you want to go, just be sure to check out this handy map showing all the participating venues around town. To check out the full list of participating venues, head here.
There's nothing like watching a film at the planetarium, but it's something most of us don't do all that often. Daytime sessions cater to school groups, and the Melbourne International Film Festival's full-dome program only comes around once a year. Thankfully, Scienceworks' late-night series changes that. Every Friday evening through February and March, once the planetarium's usual working day is done, adults can have fun in its impressive space. That means sitting in the reclining chairs, looking up at the 16-metre domed ceiling, listening to the 7.1 surround sound system and soaking in the best the full-dome video projection system has to offer. Short films about space protons and the Bing Bang as well as ones based around Jules Verne and Pink Floyd's The Wall will all be showing, with sessions screening at 7.30pm and 9pm. Making things even better is the fact that the whole thing is boozy, so you can grab a drink from the bar, take it into the auditorium and sip while you watch.
