Ah, the poignancy of Grand Theft Auto V. We're not even kidding. There's no denying that the naturalistic light effects of GTA 5 are astoundingly realistic, and really quite beautiful to behold. Hazy daylight, golden sunsets and atmospheric nightscapes are equally convincing in the world of the game, which has been the talk of the town since its recent launch. GTA 5's aesthetic appeal has not escaped the notice of 20-year-old Brazilian SVA art student Fernando Pereira Gomes, an avid street photographer and gamer who recognised certain parallels between his two passions. He's been taking artistic stills using a character's in-game camera phone in GTA 5, composing shots just as though he were turning a camera lens on the real world, and the results are both sensitive and pretty dope. In-game photography is not new, as seen here. Gomes, who's one of those hardcore fans that stood in line to grab a copy of the game at midnight when it first launched, got the idea for his ongoing series Street Photography V when he began simply driving around GTA 5's various pixelated Los Santos landscapes and realised how the movement of the characters through digital vistas resembled scenes he'd try to capture IRL every day — not least because of the unpredictability of the scenes unfolding, and their fleeting nature. As he told The Independent, "It was very similar to photographing on actual streets — with me having to run across the road, pulling out my camera in time, framing the shot, and taking it at the right moment.” On his site he says: "The game is so realistic that it felt like being in the streets outside ... anticipating passersby’s movements and reactions. In a way, it was also incredibly frightening that these algorithms could look so real, or is it that we ourselves are becoming ever more algorithmic?" The pictures reveal what attracts Gomes's eye: frequently the images are wide angle shots with an isolated figure turned away from us, a shadow cutting the frame in half or a perfectly flat and symmetrical view of a figure or two against a wall. Be sure to check them out.
Where do artists find inspiration? The answer to that question is virtually endless, as perusing the Archibald Prize finalists every year illustrates. For the acclaimed Australian portraiture award, sometimes actors, musicians, comedians and filmmakers provide a spark. Authors, footballers, the folks doing the painting themselves: they all fit, too. Frequently, though, fellow artists inspire others to get the creative juices flowing. Among recent Archie winners, that was true for Tony Costa with Lindy Lee, Blak Douglas with Karla Dickens and Peter Wegner with Guy Warren, for instance — and, in 2025, it's also the case for Julie Fragar with her likeness of Justene Williams. This year's pick for the prestigious prize, Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), is also an instance of one Brisbane artist painting another to claim the $100,000 award. Fragar's win makes it three in a row for women at the Archies since 2023, following Laura Jones in 2024 with her portrait of author Tim Winton and Julia Gutman the year prior for a depiction of Montaigne. That said, Fragar is still just the 13th woman to win the 104-year-old art accolade. Even with recipients who've emerged victorious more than once — Judy Cassab in 1960 and 1967, and Del Kathryn Barton in2008 and 2013 — this is still only the 15th time that the prize has gone to a female talent. [caption id="attachment_1003358" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Winner Archibald Prize 2025, Julie Fragar 'Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene)', oil on canvas, 240 x 180.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter.[/caption] "You work your whole career imagining this might happen one day. Thinking back to myself as a 17-year-old showing up at the Sydney College of the Arts — a kid from country New South Wales — it's incredible to think I have won the Archibald Prize," said Fragar about her win. "Portrait painting wasn't taken as seriously in the 1990s as it is today. I have always regarded the Archibald Prize as a place that understood the value of portraiture. To be the winner of the Archibald Prize is a point of validation. It means so much to have the respect of my colleagues at the Art Gallery. It doesn't get better than that." Fragar is the Head of Painting at the Queensland College of Art and Design, where Williams is the Head of Sculpture. "Justene is incredible. I feel very fortunate that she allowed me to do this portrait. There is nobody like her. The work is a reflection on the experience of making art to deadlines, and the labour and love of being a mother," said Fragar of her now-Archibald Prize-winning subject. "Here are two of Australia's great artists in conversation about what matters most to them. Julie Fragar has a sumptuous ability to transcend reality and depict her subjects technically but also psychologically. Justene Williams is a larger-than-life character, a performer — cacophonous and joyous," noted Art Gallery of New South Wales Director Maud Page about 2025's pick. "In this work, she is surrounded by her own artworks and, most important of all, her daughter Honore as a tiny figure atop a sculpture. It speaks to me as a powerful rendition of the juggle some of us perform as mothers and professionals." Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene) was selected from a pool of 57 finalists, including another awarded two-artist combination in Abdul Abdullah's portrait of fellow creative Jason Phu, aka 2025's Packing Room Prize recipient. Other contenders included likenesses of Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Boy Swallows Universe star Felix Cameron, Miranda Otto, Grace Tame, Vincent Namatjira, filmmaker Warwick Thornton and comedian Aaron Chen, as whittled down from a total pool of 904 Archibald Prize entries for 2025. AGNSW also awards the Wynne and Sulman prizes at the same time as the Archibald — and across all three, from 2394 submissions, 2025 marks the first year that there were more finalist works by women artists in the accolades' history. [caption id="attachment_1003359" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Winner Wynne Prize 2025, Jude Rae 'Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal', oil on linen, 200 x 150.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio.[/caption] For $50,000 Wynne Prize, which is all about landscape painting — and is Australia's oldest art award — Sydney artist Jude Rae's Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal was picked from 52 finalists and 758 entries. This is the third time that Rae has made the top batch of Wynne contenders. She's also been an Archie finalist four times (in 2014, 2019, 2021 and 2022) and was a Sulman finalist in 2021. "There is something compelling about the constantly flashing gantry lights and the floodlights blasting away in those hours just before dawn. I am up at various times and love to watch the pre-dawn light, when the sky is just starting to change colour. From my bathroom window on the fifth floor of my building, I have a clear view of that scene. There is no way to photograph it — it's too subtle and too fleeting. It's a big sky and we're all really little," Rae said about her piece. [caption id="attachment_1003361" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Winner Sulman Prize 2025, Gene A'Hern 'Sky painting', oil and oil stick on board, 240 x 240 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio.[/caption] The Sulman rewards genre painting, subject painting and mural projects, with Gene A'Hern 2025's pick for the Blue Mountains-inspired Sky painting, getting the top nod for the $40,000 gong from this year's 30 finalists and 732 entries. "Painted with expansive movements to capture a sense of scale and colour, this painting unfolded as I immersed myself in skywatching, while reflecting on the ceremonial choreography of the surrounding environment. It conveys a sensation of nature's gestures, composed to resonate from within, translating an omnipresence that comes from dust and returns to dust," said A'Hern. "The work draws on charged memories — birds singing in harmony, branches sighing in the wind, the closing curtain of the setting sun, all forming a living landscape that I breathe with and through. For me, the sky and the Blue Mountains intertwine and reveal themselves as a place of origin, deep memory and belonging." 2025's winners and finalists across all three prizes are on display at AGNSW from Saturday, May 10–Sunday, August 17, 2025, before touring to Geelong Gallery, Gosford Regional Gallery, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Mudgee Arts Precinct and Shoalhaven Regional Gallery over the 11 months afterwards. Archibald Prize 2025 Exhibition Dates Saturday, May 10–Sunday, August 17, 2025 — Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, NSW Saturday, August 30–Sunday, November 9, 2025 — Geelong Gallery, Victoria Saturday, November 22, 2025–Sunday, January 11, 2026 — Gosford Regional Gallery, NSW Saturday, January 23–Saturday, March 7, 2026 — Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, NSW Friday, March 20–Saturday, May 3, 2026 — Mudgee Arts Precinct, NSW Saturday, May 16–Sunday, July 19, 2026 — Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, NSW 2025's Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prize-winners will display at various locations around the country from Saturday, May 10, 2025. If you can't make it to any of the above exhibition dates, you can check out the winners and finalists of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes on the Art Gallery of NSW website. Top image: Excerpt of winner Archibald Prize 2025, Julie Fragar 'Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene)', oil on canvas, 240 x 180.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter. Sitter: Justene Williams. Excerpt of winner Wynne Prize 2025, Jude Rae 'Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal', oil on linen, 200 x 150.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio. Excerpt of winner Sulman Prize 2025, Gene A'Hern 'Sky painting', oil and oil stick on board, 240 x 240 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio. Installation images: Installation view, 'Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2025', Art Gallery of New South Wales, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio.
In an ironic makeover, a former Chicago meatpacking plant and slaughterhouse has found a new purpose as the city's first self-sustaining, vertical farm. Located in Chi-Town's Union Stock Yards, the 93,500 square foot brick building once specialised in mass-producing red meat - one of the least environmentally-friendly industries out there. Now, it is a sci-fi-like space dedicated to non-waste-producing urban farming. Projects inside 'The Plant' include a tilapia fish farm, beer and Kombucha tea breweries, aquaponic farms which harvest vegetables, and a mushroom garden. The Plant will also host to a group of bakers and caterers that will work together in a communal kitchen area. Upcoming projects include 'living' walls, and rooftop gardens. All of these endeavors have taken up a zero net waste policy, made possible by an interconnecting indoor ecosystem of sorts. The used grains from the beer brewery will be used as fish-food for the tilapia; the waste produced by the fish will nourish the mushroom garden and hydroponic plants; those plants will clean the water, which may be cycled back up to the fish tanks. Initially aided by a combined heat and power system, as well as an anaerobic digester, the Plant will be entirely self-sustaining. The project hopes to be taken off the power grid in just a few years. By the end of this year, the Plant hopes to have five rentable tenant spaces, and its renewable energy system up and running by next June. By 2016, the building is set to be fully functional, creating 125 neighbourhood jobs, and keeping over 10,000 tons of food waste out of landfills each year. Human waste is an obvious problem, says Melanie Hoeskstra, the Plant's director of operations. The renovations made to the Plant are workable in any old building: “It’s not a perfect system, but it’s really close," she says of the Plant. Sounds like city planners should take a note or two.
Like everything creative, the pottery scene in Melbourne is huge, and Bisque Studios is right there at the forefront of it. It's all about creativity, exploration and growth here, and considering pottery is one of the oldest human art forms, the potential is limitless. Bisque Studios offers a range of courses that take place in its beautiful, light-filled studio. It offers beginner classes on the wheel where a complete novice can learn the technique of throwing, as well as trimming and glazing. At the end of each term, students will be able to take home some of their pieces after they've been fired in the kiln. There are intermediate classes for the wheel, too, as well as hand-building lessons for those who want to get more creative. [caption id="attachment_920507" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Phoebe Powell[/caption] If you're not quite ready to commit to a term, there are drop-in workshops, too. There's stacks on offer here, from bisque and nerokimi layering to marbling and kid's holiday workshops. For those with a foundational knowledge of all things clay, Bisque Studios is available for private use. For a three-month subscription, you'll have full access to its facilities, including the in-house firing service. And if you're more of a homebody, Bisque sells custom-made do-it-at-home kits so you can turn that unused space into a studio all its own. [caption id="attachment_920513" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Melissa Cowan[/caption] Top image: Melissa Cowan
Visiting New York City sits on plenty of bucket lists, and there are more than a few reasons why that's the case. But if you've always wanted to head to the Big Apple, wear designer outfits, get paid to write about your love life and, between cocktails and dates, hang out outside your apartment — sitting on the stoop with your significant other, whether you're making up or breaking up — then you obviously have Sex and the City to thank. Running from 1998–2004 (forget the terrible 2008 and 2010 movies), the hit HBO series made Manolo Blahniks a must-wear, turned cosmopolitans into the drink of choice for sips with the gang, and gave tutus their moment outside of ballet. It also showered Carrie Bradshaw's apartment stoop with ample attention, including in big, life-changing moments. Unsurprisingly, the filming location has become a tourist attraction over the last quarter-century. Always wanted to make the trip to follow in Sarah Jessica Parker's footsteps, but haven't yet had the chance? With Sex and the City spinoff And Just Like That... arriving for its second season this month — after first debuting in 2021 — Binge is bringing a replica of that famous apartment stoop to Melbourne. And if this sounds familiar, that's because it did the same a couple of years back in Sydney. This time, the 2.2-metre-wide, 4.8-metre-high stoop is popping up at the David Jones Dome at Melbourne's Chadstone Shopping Centre for three days, between Thursday, June 8–Saturday, June 10, ready to fill your Instagram feed. Just like when the Friends couch toured Australia, the Squid Game Red Light, Green Light doll towered over Sydney Harbour and a statue of Borat made an appearance at Bondi Beach — and when the Iron Throne did the rounds, and all of the other film- and TV-themed pop-ups over the years — this is all about three things: indulging one of your pop-culture obsessions, taking snaps and promotion ahead of And Just Like That...'s season two return on Thursday, June 22. It also marks 25 years since Sex and the City began. And no, as you're taking photos of yourself living out your Carrie Bradshaw stoop dreams — Manolo Blahniks optional — you won't find any Peloton fitness equipment in sight. Find the replica Sex and the City and And Just Like That... apartment stoop at the David Jones Dome at Melbourne's Chadstone Shopping Centre from 11am–3pm and 5–9pm on Thursday, June 8–Friday, June 9 — and 11am–3pm on Saturday, June 10. Images: Chris Pavlich Photography.
When Indigenous Australian artist Archie Moore made history at the 2024 La Biennale de Venezia, aka the Venice Biennale, in April 2024 by winning the event's coveted Golden Lion for Best National Participation, he also did Brisbane's major art galleries proud. When the First Nations talent earned Australia the top gong at the Olympics of the art world for the first time ever, he did so with an exhibition curated by Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art's Ellie Buttrose, and with a date with Brisbane GOMA on its 2025–26 program. kith and kin is displaying in South Brisbane between Saturday, September 27, 2025–Sunday, October 18, 2026 — and it has also been gifted to QAGOMA permanently. The piece didn't just make history with its Venice Biennale accolade. A hand-drawn genealogical chart that spans back 65,000 years, this creation also chronicles it. Both a personal and a political work, kith and kin steps through Moore's Kamilaroi, Bigambul, British and Scottish heritage across the installation's five-metre-high, 60-metre-long black walls. More than 2400 generations are covered. The exhibition uses chalk on blackboard, with a reflective pool sitting in the middle of the room and 500-plus document stacks suspended above it. Every aspect of kith and kin makes a statement. With its size and scale, it speaks to Australia's Indigenous peoples being among the world's longest-continuous living cultures. The use of black is also designed to look like a celestial map, and therefore nod to the resting place of First Nations ancestors. Highlighting the decrease in Indigenous Australian languages and dialects since colonisation, the fragility that stems from not being able to pass down knowledge and injustices such as deaths in custody are all also part of the work — with the aforementioned piles of paper primarily from coronial inquests. Images: Archie Moore / kith and kin 2024 / Australia Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024 / Photographer Andrea Rossetti / © the artist / Images courtesy of the artist and The Commercial.
We adore our sport here in Oz, perhaps more than any other nation. Some of the biggest events of the year and we're all in the mood for some good old fashioned sporting excitement, there's really nothing that beats the primal, up close and personal thrill of live competition. Happily, there are a bunch of world-class events making their way to NSW over the next few months that you'll definitely want to attend. From statewide NRL rivalries to monumental city marathons to the all-out automobile action, there's truly something for everyone. Get ready to laugh, cry, lose your voice, and, hopefully, revel in the unparalleled joy of victory.
Gone are the days of sidling into bottle shops and covertly trying to identify the second cheapest wine on the shelf. The brainchild of The Iconic founder and former managing director Cameron Votan, Spokewine is the brand new online wine store that may well revolutionise the way you think about your drinking — with a unique customer rating system. The online equivalent of a well-stocked cellar door, Spokewine features wine options from more than 70 different Australian wineries, many of which have never before been available to buy on the web. With a focus on boutique producers, customers can browse by wine type, region or individual winery, or simply take a look at what's trending with their fellow oenophiles — which, let's face it, is basically just a fancy word for knowledgeable alcoholic. Once you've found the wine that suits your palate, you can order by the case and have it delivered to you absolutely free. Shipping should take between 4-10 days, and you'll need someone over 18 to sign for it on arrival. Sorry kids, there's no gaming the system. What makes Spokewine unique is their democratic review process, which takes the power away from snooty wine critics and puts it back into the hands of the people. Basically, it's like IMDb, but for your liver. After logging in through Facebook, you can choose between 'love', 'like' and 'not for me', or get more in depth feedback through tasting notes and written reviews. After you've rated the vino, your score and everyone else's get aggregated into two separate rankings — the 'approval' rating counts the percentage of positive votes, while the 'passion' rating calculates the number of 'love' votes as a percentage of people who ranked it positively. The Spokewine venture may prove a new mode of doing business for the former Iconic head and his partners Nicholas Turner, Michael Larsen and Victor Garcia. Votan told BRW the move was a "real partnership" with winemakers, as opposed to the set-up with labels: arguing over rebates, charging fees for lost custom. Looks like Votan is going to do things a little differently this time. "Not just The Iconic but any retailer I’ve ever been involved with, whether through consulting or an operational role, is that merchants are by nature in an adversarial relationship [with suppliers],” Votan told BRW. "It would be impossible to do that with the set of vendors that we’re working with now. They just don’t work like that. They’re up for partnerships for life. They want you to come and look them in the eye, walk through their vineyard with them, understand their story and at the end shake hands and say let’s do business." Now if you'll excuse us, we've got some user-reviewed wine to order.
Australian design student Alexander Vittouris has managed to not only design an all-bamboo velobike, but has also incorporated the natural growth process of bamboos in the design of a fully sustainable vehicle, the Ajiro Bamboo Velobike. The Monash University student's design was a finalist at the 2011 Australian Design Awards. He uses the term 'growth mobility' to describe the incorporation of the "strength and rapid growth of bamboos" in the final structure of his design. Vittouris borrows from the principals of arborsculpture, or 'tree shaping' techniques, whereby the shape of a tree or plant is controlled and instructed by various techniques (leaf trimming, wiring and pruning, for example). In this case, Vittouris has used an inner skeleton structure that the bamboo grows around. He says the manipulation technique used becomes economical and environmentally-friendly, in comparison to the cost of metal and energy exerted in assembling a traditional bicycle frame. In his Australian Design Awards entry, he writes: "The skeleton frame is then proposed to be reused, for future plant generations as an ongoing cycle. In this case, the manipulation and intervention is more akin to a farming process, whereby bamboo plants need time for thorough establishment to form the required energy mass to produce new culms."
2030 will mark 28 years since one of the best zombie movies ever made first hit screens: 28 Days Later from filmmaker Danny Boyle (Yesterday). Before that milestone arrives, however, it's likely that you'll be watching a new flick from Boyle in the same franchise. It'll still be called 28 Years Later — and it's officially in the works. 28 Days Later has already spawned one follow-up thanks to 2007's 28 Weeks Later, but Boyle didn't direct it. Screenwriter Alex Garland, who also penned Sunshine for Boyle, then hopped behind the camera himself with Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men and TV series Devs, also wasn't involved with 28 Weeks Later. But they're both back for the third film in the series, which might become the middle chapter. Not only is a new movie locked in, but it's being talked about as the start of a new trilogy. As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter, Garland is writing 28 Years Later, Boyle is helming, and they're looking for studios or streamers to jump onboard. It's expected that Boyle will only direct the initial new picture, while Garland will pen the entire trio. There's no word yet if any of the OG film's stars will return, with 28 Days Later among the movies that helped bring Oppenheimer star, newly minted Golden Globe-winner and likely Oscar-recipient Cillian Murphy to fame. He played Jim, a bicycle courier who wakes up from a coma in a deserted hospital 28 days after a pandemic of the rage virus changed the world forever — and from Boyle and Garland to audiences everywhere, who wouldn't want him to reprise the role? Marking Boyle and Garland's first proper collaboration after Boyle adapted Garland's best-selling novel The Beach for the big screen two years earlier, 28 Days Later still ranks among the best work on either's resume — and on Murphy's as well, even if it didn't win him any of Hollywood's top shiny trophies. Set in the aftermath of the accidental release of a highly contagious virus, the film's images of a desolated London instantly became iconic, but this is a top-notch movie on every level. That includes its performances, with then-unknowns Murphy and Naomie Harris (the Bond franchise's current Moneypenny) finding the balance between demonstrating their characters' fierce survival instincts and their inherent vulnerability. If you wondering why 28 Months Later hasn't been made, it was talked about for years, but the time has now passed unless the new trilogy includes a flick set between 28 Weeks Later and 28 Years Later. [caption id="attachment_910048" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Oppenheimer[/caption] 28 Years Later and any following sequels don't yet have a release date — we'll update you when more details are announced. Via The Hollywood Reporter.
Right now, it seems there's no end to the list of things you can have delivered to your door. Craving a midweek bottle of wine while social distancing? Naked Wines has your back. Fancy a fresh addition to your plant collection, dropped at your doorstep monthly? You're in capable hands with Botanic Box. Want sweeping views of some stunning Sydney coastline? Well, now you can thanks to Australia Unseen's new jigsaw puzzles. Sure, you can't physically take in the sights right now, but can get hours of at-home entertainment. Because let's face it, there are only so many times you can watch Tiger King. Australia Unseen's Vincent Rommelaere takes photos of Australian beaches and rock pools and usually sells them as prints on his website, but now he's turning these pics into puzzles and bringing the beach to your living room. Seeing as you can't just go down for a quick dip at Bondi at the moment, it may be the closest you get to feeling sand between your toes for a little while. At the moment, there are five different puzzles available as either 500-piece ($49) or 1000-piece ($59) jigsaws. If you're into ocean pools, you can choose a puzzle of Bondi's famed Icebergs, the Bronte Rock Pool or Coogee's Ross Jones Memorial Pool. Otherwise, there's a shot of Clovelly or one of people sunbathing at Bondi. More puzzles are expected to hit the online store this week, too, of Sydney's northern beaches and Byron Bay. All are aerial photographs and are sure to bring Aussie summer vibes in spades. Delivery within Australia is $10 and estimated to take two or three weeks. International shipping is also available, with cost and delivery time dependent on region. Australia Unseen jigsaw puzzles are now available to buy over here.
Across its five seasons to date, Black Mirror has dedicated 22 episodes to imagining dystopian futures — and while it makes for compelling viewing, none of the sci-fi anthology series' predictions are particularly pretty. But, for all of its prognosticating, the Charlie Brooker-created show didn't foresee 2020's chaos. And now we've all endured this hectic year and are about to see it come to an end, the team behind Black Mirror has something to say about it. At 6pm AEST on Sunday, December 27, just before 2020 fades away forever, Netflix will drop a new comedy special called Death to 2020 — which is made by the Black Mirror crew. The show will look back on the year via a documentary-style special that uses real-life archival footage from the past 12 months, as well as narration from fictitious characters played by the high-profile likes of Samuel L Jackson, Hugh Grant, Lisa Kudrow, Kumail Nanjiani, Tracey Ullman, Samson Kayo, Leslie Jones, Diane Morgan, Cristin Milioti and Joe Keery. Immediately keen to see more? After revealing a teaser trailer for Death to 2020 earlier in December — when it first announced that the project even existed — Netflix has now dropped a full sneak peek. Jackson's character gets snappy, Grant's wants to make sure that a drink is close at hand, and Jones' advises she'd say 2020 "was a trainwreck and a shit show, but that'd be unfair to trains and shit". Brooker has a history of looking back at events that have just passed, as Newswipe with Charlie Brooker and his end-of-year Wipe specials between 2010–16 have all demonstrated — so satirising and savaging the year's developments definitely falls into his wheelhouse. Brooker and Netflix also love releasing new material over the holiday period, with interactive Black Mirror special Bandersnatch dropping between Christmas and New Year's Eve back in 2018. So, true to form, they're giving everyone an extra festive — and grimly funny — present this year. Check out the full Death to 2020 trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veUqfcyZ_Bo Death to 2020 will hit Netflix at 6pm AEST on Sunday, December 27 . Images: Saeed Adyani/Keith Bernstein.
The last time that Lady Gaga appeared on the big screen, she nabbed an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her troubles (and a shiny trophy for Best Original Song, too). Three years after A Star Is Born, she's heading back into cinemas in House of Gucci — and while no one should be speculating about accolades sight unseen, this true-crime fashion drama sure does scream potential awards contender. Haute couture. Murder. Disco tunes and Studio 54. Throw in one of the biggest names in fashion — and a tale that's filled with both glam and grim strands, too — and that's this Ridley Scott (The Last Duel)-directed film. Ranking highly among the most anticipated movies set to hit the big screen across the rest of 2021, it steps inside the Gucci family fashion dynasty, charting its successes and shocking moments over the course of three tumultuous decades. If you've read the book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed, which this new movie is based on, then you'll know the details. If you've seen news coverage about or can remember the events that rocked the Italian family back in 1995, you will as well. The focus: Maurizio Gucci, grandson of company founder Guccio Gucci, and the head of the fashion house throughout the 80s and early 90s — until he was assassinated by a hitman in 1995. Adam Driver slips on Maurizio's unsurprisingly stylish shoes, in what's proving a big year for him in cinemas (he also starred in The Last Duel, as well as in Annette a few months ago). As for Lady Gaga, she plays Maurizio's wife Patrizia. And, as the just-dropped new trailer shows — following on from a first sneak peek mid-year — her character isn't holding back. Obviously, there's quite the story to unpack here, and Scott seems to be going big on striking threads, 70s and 80s tunes and vibes, indulgence and luxury dripping through in every frame, and also an unavoidable air of melodrama. To help, the film's star-studded cast also includes Jared Leto (The Little Things) sporting plenty of prosthetics and makeup, as well as Al Pacino (The Irishman), Jeremy Irons (Love, Weddings and Other Disasters) and Salma Hayek (The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard). As both trailers reminds us, that's a whole lot of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated talent in one flick. Check out the latest House of Gucci trailer below: House of Gucci will release in Australian cinemas on December 26. Image: 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instead of shooting tequila and fighting back the tears while biting on a lemon, you might be better off using it as an alternative fuel. Originally seen as a potential saviour, crop-based biofuels are now criticised for competing for arable land, driving up grain prices and being grown in conditions that damage the environment. Agave, the plant used to make tequila, might just provide a solution. Since it grows in arid conditions, it doesn't compete for arable land and water supplies, and can adapt to future changes in the climate. Research into the energy and greenhouse cost of producing agave-derived bioethanol shows that it would be preferable to current biofuel crops, and one Australian company Ausagave is already giving it a try. So, the next time someone tries to force a tequila shot on you, you can refuse on the grounds that you'll need it for the drive home. Just don't put the salt or lemon in the tank... [via PSFK]
We know it breaks both the first and second cardinal rules, but we need to talk about Fight Club right now. It’s been confirmed that director David Fincher, his long-term musical consort Trent Reznor and OG author Chuck Palahniuk are collaborating on Fight Club the rock opera, for reals. It’s literally going to be the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world (in a good way). Culture journalist Jeff Goldsmith tweeted that Palahniuk confirmed the rumours in an interview, and Palahniuk tweeted a second confirmation the next day that has since been deleted. However Palahniuk did retweet Goldsmith’s tweet (isn’t Twitter such a murky swamp of Chinese whispers) so that’s all the confirmation we need. In April, Palahniuk told MTV that the Fight Club rock opera would take its place alongside previous musical legends Tommy and The Wall, and become the defining rock opera for the current generation. Although anti-materialism, anti-authority anarchist Tyler Durden probably wouldn’t approve of a glitzy, glamorous Broadway show, we sure do. And with Nine Inch Nails legend Reznor involved, it’s sure to be pretty spectacular. Reznor has scored a fair few of Fincher's films — Gone Girl, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network — and invariably his involvement turns whatever it touches to gold. No concrete dates have been mentioned by anyone involved in the project, but if you want more Fight Club while you wait, Palahniuk has released a Fight Club 2 comic book that delves into the backstory of Sebastian and Marla, and examines what Tyler Durden represents to us all. In the same MTV interview, Palahniuk says, "Tyler Durden is kind of an internal meme, a parasitical meme that has found a host or created a host in every generation going back for all of human history ... Tyler really brought Marla and Sebastian together, so they would have a child, in a way kind of bred them together, and that this child would ultimately be Tyler’s next vehicle." Unff. We are Jack’s crazy excitement. Via Spin.
Possibly the world's most beautifully located bookstore, can now be found in the form of Buenos Aires' El Ateneo Grand Splendid, a shop housed inside what was once one of Argentina's premier theatres. The theatre was originally built in 1919 by an Italian architect and used as a theatre for tango concerts and the like, before being converted into a cinema. Things began to get a bit tough, but instead of letting the beautiful building languish into disrepair, it was leased in 2000 by a publishing house and found new life in the form of a bookstore. Now over a million people come through it's doors every year. The private, velvet-upholstered boxes are now the reading rooms, the stage is an in-store cafe, and the shelves cleave perfectly to the theatre's original shape. Plus you have to admire a building that's calling itself both grand and splendid. I mean, what's not to like? In the wake of bookstores like Borders and Angus & Robertson going bust, and the threats to independent bookshops across the country from cheaper online books and other recession-related woes, places like the Ateneo might point towards a more sustainable future for the industry. By repurposing something beautiful and creating a space people actively seek out and genuinely want to be in, instead of somewhere beige, plastic and muzak-filtered, you can save not just books but the architecture that might otherwise go to waste.
As much of the TV-watching world is, Ashley Zukerman is a Succession fan. Unlike almost everyone else, however, his affection was partly built from inside of the award-winning series. In a recurring role across the HBO masterpiece's four seasons, he played political strategist Nate Sofrelli, whose past romantic relationship with Shiv Roy — portrayed by fellow Australian Sarah Snook (Memoir of a Snail) — kept spilling over into their present professional and personal spheres. But "there was periods where I didn't know if I was coming back", Zukerman tells Concrete Playground, "and there were periods where I just became more fan than part of it". A role in one of the best TV shows of the 21st century, plus a range of others in fellow international fare — big-screen horror-western The Wind and drama Language Arts; television's A Teacher, The Lost Symbol and City on Fire; and the three straight-to-streaming Fear Street movies among them — kept Zukerman away from home for years. Then In Vitro, an Aussie sci-fi thriller that premiered at the 2024 Sydney Film Festival and hit local cinemas in general release on Thursday, March 27, 2025, came his way. Before this, he hadn't worked on a homegrown project since 2017's The Easybeats miniseries Friday on My Mind. Prior to that, he'd hopped between the Australian and Aussie-made likes of The Pacific, Rush, Terra Nova, Underbelly and The Code, and Manhattan, Fear the Walking Dead, Masters of Sex and Designated Survivor overseas. Starring in In Vitro eventuated because he initially met two of the film's co-writers and fellow actors, Will Howarth (who also co-directs with Tom McKeith) and Talia Zucker, in Los Angeles when they were all stateside endeavouring to establish their careers. Due to release timing, audiences who didn't catch In Vitro on its 2024 festival run will have seen Zukerman pop up in homegrown efforts in Aussie limited series Apple Cider Vinegar first, earlier in 2025. Later this year, he also has Australian-made, New Year's Eve-set time-travel film One More Shot heading to Stan. Only In Vitro has him playing a cattle breeder in an eerie vision of the potential near future, though — a livestock farmer experimenting with biotechnology in a world, and an industry, decimated by the climate crisis and struggling to adapt to the new reality. As Jack, husband to Zucker's (Motel Acacia) Layla, Howarth (Toolies) and McKeith's (Beast) movie also tasks Zukerman with exploring the distance that clearly lingers in the the feature's central marriage, digging into the source of Jack and Layla's domestic disharmony, and unpacking the impact of controlling relationships. More than two decades have now passed since Zukerman's initial screen role, also in an Australian film, with playing Thug #2 in Tom White his debut performance. Looking back on it, "so that was my first-ever thing, and I hadn't gone to the Victorian College of the Arts yet. I had no idea what I was doing", he advises. "My family, no one in my family, was in creative industries at all. I was just trying to brute-force my way through, trying to get headshots and making cold calls and just trying", Zukerman continues. "And then when that called and I got a role, I thought it was the craziest thing in the world. Then I get there and I do it, and I'm in a scene with Colin Friels [Interceptor] and Dan Spielman [Black Snow], who I ended up playing brothers with in The Code years later. And I thought that was just very, very special at the time. Dan was on, I think, The Secret Life of Us, and Colin Friels on Water Rats, and they were heroes of mine at the time. And then to be able to revisit that with Dan years later as, I guess, equals, was very special." [caption id="attachment_997134" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Succession, David Russell/HBO[/caption] From the outside, the success that Zukerman has enjoyed over the last few years with Succession, Fear Street, City on Fire, A Teacher, The Lost Symbol and more seems huge. It is huge. He's also added Apple TV+'s Silo to his resume. For him, however, "it hasn't felt huge, but I don't think I necessarily ever have that feeling of looking at things from the outside", he reflects. "From the inside, I'd say that it's felt really fun. I know that the thing I love most is when I love the project and I feel like I'm close to the coalface of something. I thought that they were all great projects, and so that has been fun." "You're right, it's been a really nice few years, and it felt comfortable," Zukerman goes on. "I guess I'll say I've just never really stressed work. I've always known things will come, and I've always been aware that if I'm not chosen for something that it's because the person, the artist in charge of it, just doesn't need my specific colour, my specific paintbrush, and so I've never really sweated it if things haven't come to me. But the last couple of years, it's just been really enjoyable to just work on special things — and to be able to have a continuous run of that, I do feel very full now. I'm not someone who enjoys acting all the time, I don't necessarily love the experience, but I do love it when I feel that there are certain elements there, and I've been on a run projects now where those elements were largely there. It has been a really fun few years for that." From what excited Zukerman about In Vitro, his read on his complicated character and the research that went into his performance, to farewelling Succession, returning home and his initial acting dream, our chat with Zukerman covers them all — and more — as well. On What Excited Zukerman About In Vitro, and About Making His First Australian Project Since Friday on My Mind "So I knew Tahlia and Will. I'd known them before. We all met in LA when we were all younger and hustling out there. It was just this coffee shop that we all ended up frequenting, and that's where we got to know each other. It was during the pandemic that they sent the script and said 'we've been working on this, we've been thinking about you for it'. And I read it and I thought 'wow'. And I was honoured that they thought of me for it. But I thought that they had done something just really special. I think that the horror genre or the thriller genre is interesting when it's used to explore other themes. And so the thriller part of it didn't necessarily pop for me, but I thought that they were able to thread together some nuanced questions about a few issues that we're dealing with in the world, and finding a connection between them — with the climate crisis; domestic violence; how we use tech to brute-force our way through solutions; and how some people in our world don't really care about our world or the natural world or each other as the actual life that exists in it, but just what they can take from it. And I think that they were able to thread all those ideas in a very nuanced way, offering something new to the questions of 'what do we do in this world?' and 'how are we going to deal with all of these issues we have?'. The climate crisis, like so many of us, that keeps me up at night. One of the things I worry most about it is this idea that it's happening just, just slow enough that we get used to it, and it's so hard to talk about. It's so difficult to engage with it, because it's so scary for so many of us. As soon as, I know for me personally, it's hard for me when I see an article written about it for me to click on it, for me to actually open that page and delve into it. It's hard for me to watch something about it. And I thought that what they did here was they did it in a very nuanced way, where they offered something very new to that conversation, and in a way that I thought was going to be very useful and interesting — and human. It was just that the film seemed to have a very new idea to approach this issue, and that's I think what moved me about it. And then, as we went on, there were questions about the character that became far more important for me to ask. But when I first read it, that's what touched me." On Zukerman's Read on Jack and His Motivations "I think it depends how far back we go with him. If we go from what we know backwards, I think he's gotten to a stage where he has lost his sense of humanity and he's just so far down the rabbit hole on this that he can't actually turn back. I was working on this show, The Lost Symbol, the Dan Brown thing, at the time that I read this, and I was researching these secret societies and how people who were doing bad things justified them. And I came across this quote, which was from the Bible: 'to the pure, all things are pure'. I think that that is key to Jack, that because he felt he was doing something worthy and important, everything else he was doing was fine and justified … It's this idea that he's probably just a bucket with a hole in it. It doesn't matter what you pour in, he's always going to be empty. I think he's one of these just incredibly ordinary people who thinks that he's a vulnerable genius, and no one is giving him the adulation he deserves, and he will never get enough love from his partner, and that then leads to control and violence. So I think those are the things that are at play in him." On Playing a Part That's a Puzzle for the Audience as They Try to Piece Together the Full Story "Typically, the more complex a character, the less challenging I find it, because then there are just so many things underneath the surface. So those things were great, and once I knew the approach, what we were trying to do, we talked, Will, Tom and Tahlia and I talked early about this idea that we'd be doing a disservice to this story if he was arch — especially the domestic control, domestic violence story. And that he had to be so ordinary in that way, that if we were trying to portray a villain, it would do a disservice to Tahlia's story and it would be doing a disservice to the wider story. So the fact that we could let all of that complexity live in him, that gave me a lot of freedom. But you're right that the challenging thing in any of these stories is how we bury the lead when we choose to drop breadcrumbs, how we lean on awkward moments as clues for the idea — like leaving just enough the information for the audience to question what is going on to lead them down the rabbit hole with us ,but gently. That is the more challenging thing, because that's not necessarily about just living in the scene naturally. That's trying to plan the larger story. I was buoyed when I saw it — I thought we did that quite well. I really loved especially how they put it together in the edit, leaning on those awkward interactions, I thought was quite nice." On the Research That Goes Into Playing a Part Like This, Digging Into Coercive Control, Biotech and More "Typically I do love a lot of research, and I started down the path of him being an engineer. I wanted to make sure those thoughts were in there. I wanted to know where we were at with that stuff. But I think ultimately where I got to was, all that stuff — like you like feel at the end of the film — I think is window dressing in a way. I needed to know enough about that so that I could know what he was doing, but ultimately the key to him is what we're talking about — how to actually think about these men who do these things, like 'what is the wiring going on in in them?'. That's the work of understanding this character. It's the domestic work. It's the human work. And to try to explain, empathise, not absolve, but just to understand what makes these people do those things. I think that was the work with him." [caption id="attachment_997132" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Succession, Macall Polay/HBO[/caption] On Saying Goodbye to Succession, and What It Meant to Zukerman to Be a Part of It "I think it's so nice that that show will exist forever. I think it's now part of television canon, and to be a part of it, I'm just so proud. So I think it will just always have a life. I grew up loving The Sopranos and Six Feet Under and The Wire and Oz, and those seminal TV shows — and The West Wing. I knew characters that were there for an episode, that were there for three episodes. I was so aware of every little storyline on all of those shows, and I was just like 'if only I could be in something like that, that would be it'. Like, 'I would be fine'. [caption id="attachment_997133" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Succession, Peter Kramer/HBO[/caption] And I'm lucky that I got to do one of those, and I got to be there for a little bit, and I got to witness how they made it, and I got to be around those people. I just feel so lucky. I was there and I was a part of it, but I got to also be an audience just as much as, I think, in it. It's an interesting question. It was something just so special about that production that I think I'll continue to try to, I guess, understand and learn from and think about. [caption id="attachment_997137" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Succession, David Russell/HBO[/caption] All I love about any work is how close to the creative muscle I can be, and I think what was special about that show was that. I was on the periphery. There were moments when I was a little more forward in the story, but largely I was orbiting the story. And I think what was special about that is that it doesn't matter how big your role must have been — that's both the cast and crew — everyone on that set felt like they were a part of it, that they had agency to make decisions, that they were genuinely like what was being asked of them was what was special about them to only bring that. That was what was special, and that's what I'll remember. And I think it left something with me that I've taken to other things. I think it's that energy that I've brought with me after that show. " [caption id="attachment_997145" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Apple Cider Vinegar, courtesy of Netflix © 2025[/caption] On Heading Back to Australia After a Significant Run of Roles Overseas "It was never by design that I would be away. It was just that the right things didn't come up, or scheduling got in the way, or something happened for me over there that meant that I couldn't come back for various things. And it was just always I missed it. I really missed being back. I really love it here. I love the way we work. I love how fast we are, how efficient we are. We work with few resources sometimes, but it's an advantage, it creates the style of TV and film that we make. It all goes into it. It ends up on camera, that energy. And it kind of has become our visual language sometimes. [caption id="attachment_997144" align="alignnone" width="1920"] One More Shot, Ben King/Stan[/caption] And I also guess there is something about being overseas and an expat which means I'm always playing someone else in a way. There's something about home, is what I'm saying, that's important. That I know the rules of Australia. I know how people interact, that there's the micro gestures between us all, how we all interact. I guess that is home for me, that when I get back to Australia my shoulders drop and I just know how to live here. Even though the US isn't that different, it's different enough that it changes me. It requires something else of me to live there. And that's a joy sometimes. I mean, to leave is wonderful — but to come back is really, it's home. It's just a very special thing. And also, I feel very fortunate because of what I've been able to do overseas, I can now come back and work on these great things, and help these great things get up." On the Initial Dream for Zukerman's Acting Career When He Was First Starting Out "It's such a great question, because it's so rare to look back and go 'what was it that that younger person had actually wanted, and are you there now?'. That's a very special question that I don't really often give myself time to do. But I think I probably had a lot of chutzpah and a lot of ambition back then. I probably had ideas, but I didn't know what the job was, even. I didn't know what the work of being an actor was. I had a feeling that acting gave me the ability to do something I couldn't do in life, that I loved the analysis of human beings, and I loved being able to express things that I didn't express in my normal life. I loved that. But that hadn't really congealed yet, and probably at the time I just had ideas about wanting to play these big roles and do these big things, but I didn't know what it was. [caption id="attachment_997146" align="alignnone" width="1920"] City on Fire, Apple TV+[/caption] Once I started studying and I started understanding what it was, I think very quickly the only goal of mine was to have choice — just to be able to do the things I love. Like I said, it's just not always the case that I love acting, and I knew that early on that sometimes the experience can be difficult for myriad reasons. But to be able to get to a point where I can just, from project to project — based on, whether it's the quality of the work or it's the quality of the people, or both — that I could just choose to do that. I think that's nice to think about that. I think I have it, I am doing that now. I get to be pretty picky with what I do, and I get to do things for the right reasons." In Vitro opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, March 27, 2025.
Jeez Frozen was a terrific film. Catchy tunes, loveable sidekicks, a woodsman hero and – at its heart – two sisterly princesses thrown into turmoil after one of them discovers her power to manipulate ice and flees to establish an unforgiving frozen kingdom in the north. Jeez The Huntsman: Winter War isn't a terrific film. No tunes, stilted sidekicks, a woodsman hero with a comically bad Scottish(?) accent and – at its heart – two sisterly princesses thrown into turmoil after one of them discovers her power to manipulate ice and flees to establish an unforgiving frozen kingdom in the north. Perhaps you could forgive the makers of The Huntsman for trying to leverage some of the success of the former. After all, it is the ninth highest grossing film of all time. But 'beautiful girl doing cool shit with chilly water' isn't enough to constitute an entire story. You still need, well, 'a story', and it's on that front where The Huntsman: Winter War really falls apart. It begins with Liam Neeson's voice telling us we're about to see a prequel to 2012's Snow White & The Huntsman. And Neeson – like the proverbial mirror on the wall – does not lie. But then, about half an hour in, The Huntsman: Winter War suddenly turns into a sequel, making this about as close as a film will ever come to possessing a literal 'plot twist'. Eventually deciding it's set after Snow White has vanquished the evil Ravenna (Charlize Theron), we find our Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) moping about the South and mourning the loss of his wife (Jessica Chastain), before committing to foil the evil ice queen Freya (Emily Blunt) in her attempt to secure the famous mirror. The rest of the movie is little more than a collection of special effects, shaky fight scenes and a few funny lines from dwarf sidekicks Nick Frost and Rob Brydon. Theron, it must be said, lights up every scene she's in, reminding us that she is still absolutely the fairest and most interesting in the land. Alas, her screen time is also the most restricted, reducing her menacing smile and genuinely engaging relationship with her sister to mere bookends around an otherwise entirely dull affair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W65ndip7MM
Why spend your treasured lunch hour sitting in the same old spot, eating the same old sandwich? Swedes have discovered the magic of an off-beat lunch break by introducing a little mid-day clubbing. Lunch Beat, a trendy, non-profit lunchtime event, originated in Stockholm in June 2010 with a measly crowd of 14. Today, the monthly Stockholm events attract hundreds and have inspired copycat events throughout other European cities. For 100 kroner (around $15), attendees can dance to club beats beneath the flashing disco lights, enjoy a sandwich, and then return to their various jobs sweaty and energised. The party starts at noon, and lasts for an hour. "You just have to get in there and dance, because the hour ends pretty quickly," says organizer Daniel Odelstad. Lunch Beat only has two rules: no alcohol, and dance. "If you don't want to dance during your lunch hour, then you should eat your lunch somewhere else," says Odelstad. Lunch Beat draws an eclectic crowd, from the young to the old, and from secretaries to business-suited bigwigs; all have come looking for a good time. "It is absolutely fantastic!" says Asa Anderson, a coffee shop employee and Lunch Beat newcomer. "It is the first time I'm here. I'm totally happy and ecstatic, totally covered in sweat, and I'm full of energy. It does not get any better than this." [via Gawker]
There's something about summer ending that gets everyone thinking about getaways, even if everyone's favourite holiday season won't be back for another nine months. Thankfully, autumn, winter and spring are still mighty fine times to leave your daily life behind for a weekend, few days, or a week or so. To help make those yearnings for a break become a reality, Qantas has just-dropped week-long sale. You'll need to be dreaming about jetting off to somewhere in Australia, and you'll also want to travel from April. Dates vary depending on the route, but some have fares available up until mid-December — so you can book in another summer holiday after all. In total, more than one million discounted flights are on offer. Whether you're a Sydneysider thinking about a Gold Coast jaunt, a Melburnian keen to spend part of winter in Tasmania or a Brisbanite eager to hit The Whitsundays, you have options. And, on 34-plus routes, one-way flights will cost you under $150. Everywhere from Queensland's tropics to the Apple Isle's cities are covered, and from Perth to Sydney, too — alongside all the other state capitals, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour, Broken Hill and more. The two cheapest options, as tends to be the case on most flight sales, are the Sydney–Ballina and Melbourne–Launceston routes at $109. Other highlights include Adelaide to Kangaroo Island for $139 — and Sydney to the Sunshine Coast, Melbourne to Albury and Brisbane to Mackay all for $149. The sale runs until 11.59pm AEDT on Monday, March 11, so you'll want to get in quickly to get a bargain. And, as always, if fares sell out earlier, you'll miss out. Inclusions-wise, the sale covers fares with checked baggage, complimentary food and beverages, wifi and seat selection. Qantas' red tail sale runs until 11.59pm AEDT on Monday, March 11, 2024, or until sold out. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
If you liked choosing your way through Black Mirror: Bandersnatch — or telling Bear Grylls what to do in interactive series You vs. Wild — then Netflix has more where that came from. Come Tuesday, May 12, you'll be able to decide what happens to everyone's favourite kidnapping victim turned wide-eyed New Yorker in a one-off Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt special. While the Tina Fey co-created, 18-time Emmy-nominated comedy finished up its regular run with 2019's batch of episodes, which closed out the show's fourth season, it's coming back this year to put viewers in control. Netflix has actually been in the interactive game for a couple of years thanks to its children's shows like Puss in Boots, Buddy Thunderstruck and Stretch Armstrong; however this'll mark the streamer's first interactive comedy. Always wanted to curb Kimmy's (Ellie Kemper) ample enthusiasm? Keen to steer ex-socialite Jacqueline White (Jane Krakowski) towards a few sensible decisions? Think that landlord Lillian (Carol Kane) could be more eccentric and misanthropic? Just love everything that aspiring actor and singer Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess) does? Then this is for you, obviously. If you're fond of Jon Hamm's Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne, too, you're also in luck — this interactive episode is called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, after all. A whole heap of other famous faces co-star as well, including Daniel Radcliffe, Amy Sedaris, Fred Armisen, Chris Parnell, Jack McBrayer and Johnny Knoxville. Story-wise, few details have been announced, other than a wedding, a journey across three US states, explosions, an evil plan and potentially starting a war against robots. Announcing the special last year, Tina Fey explained that "fans will be able to make choices on behalf of our characters, taking different story paths with, of course, different jokes," in a Netflix statement. Check out a sneak peak below: https://twitter.com/KimmySchmidt/status/1250446252786847745 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend will hit Netflix on Tuesday, May 12. Image: Netflix.
From the minds behind Carlton's florist-meets-cafe Flovie, comes stunning new bloom-filled sibling venue La Fantaisie. Owners Jia Wang and Valerie Wang have created a café, patisserie, florist and event venue, all rolled into one aesthetic delight in the heart of Abbotsford. La Fantaisie — 'fantasy' in French — boasts enviable interiors by the renowned Bergman & Co (Poodle, Chancery Lane) and two levels filled with Provencal touches. Expect dreamy marble accents, soft archways and lots of artful bouquets on display, ready for sale. Want some coveted local knowledge? The warehouse site is actually owned by AFL legend Dustin Martin, though whether he's a regular here for pastries and flowers is unknown. La Fantaisie's gustatory pleasures include a specialty patisserie offering with Zest coffee to match. Dainty cakes run to the likes of a blueberry-filled choux number, and the Strawberry Love Bite featuring chiffon sponge and vanilla mascarpone whip. More aesthetic goodness fills the brunch menu, in dishes like the curry scrambled eggs with chilli tiger prawns ($26), a triple cheeseburger on black brioche ($24), and a chocolate sable dessert with filo and cherry gel ($23). Smashed avo comes paired with burnt corn and edamame ($22), and an eggs benny stars yuzu hollandaise ($25). There's a slew of photogenic signature drinks, too; from a rose tea latte ($8) to a strawberry mimosa ($15). And a chic high tea offering features during regular programming. Like what you see? The stunning space doubles as an event venue, available for private occasions grand and small. [caption id="attachment_841778" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lillie Thompson[/caption] Images: Lillie Thompson
It was true of season one of Outer Range and it doesn't stop proving the case in season two: thinking about Twin Peaks, Yellowstone, Lost, The X-Files, The Twilight Zone and primetime melodramas while you're watching this sci-fi western series is unavoidable. In its second go-around, throw in Dark, too, and also True Detective. Here, as streaming its latest seven episodes via Prime Video from Thursday, May 16, an eerie void on a Wyoming cattle ranch sends people hurtling through time, rather than a cave beneath a nuclear power plant — and that concept, time, is dubbed a river instead of a flat circle. The idea behind Outer Range, as conjured up creator Brian Watkins for its debut season in 2022, has always been intriguing: what if a tunnel of blackness topped by a mist of floating energy suddenly opened up in the earth? Also, where would this otherworldly chasm lead? What would be the consequences of taking a tumble into its inky expanse? What does it mean? It isn't literally a mystery box Dark Matter-style, but it also still is in everything but shape. Watkins, plus season two showrunner Charles Murray (Luke Cage, Sons of Anarchy, Criminal Minds), equally ponders what effect such a phenomena has on a rancher family that's worked the land that the ethereal cavern appears on for generations, as well as upon the broader small-town community of Wabang. Getting trippy came with the territory in season one, in an instantly entrancing blend of the out-there and the earthy. Season two doubles down, dives in deeper and gallops across its chosen soil — a mix of the surreal and the soapy as well — with even more gusto. Just like with a vacuum that materialises on an otherwise ordinary-seeming paddock, no one should be leaping into Outer Range's second season unprepared. This isn't a series to jump into with no prior knowledge, or to just pick up along the way. It isn't simply the premise that Outer Range takes its time to reveal in all of its intricacy, a process that remains ongoing in season two; the characters, including Abbott patriarch Royal (Josh Brolin, Dune: Part Two) and stranger-in-their-midst Autumn (Imogen Poots, The Teacher), receive the same treatment. Whenever it swirls up in Outer Range's modern-day scenes, the inexplicable hole makes its presence known in the Abbotts' west pasture. The patch of ground unsurprisingly has Royal's attention — and, as they each become aware of its existence and what it means, that of his sons Perry (Tom Pelphrey, Love & Death) and Rhett (Lewis Pullman, Lessons in Chemistry), and his wife Cecilia (Lili Taylor, Manhunt). Across both seasons, Autumn and Deputy Sheriff Joy Hawk (Tamara Podemski, Reservation Dogs) are individually drawn there, each to investigate in their own way. So is the neighbouring money-hungry Tillerson clan, from eccentric family head Wayne (Will Patton, Silo) to his Cain- and Abel-esque sons Luke (Shaun Sipos, Reacher) and Billy (Noah Reid, Schitt's Creek). Then there's scientist Dr Nia Bintu (Yrsa Daley-Ward, World on Fire), who persists in attempting to convince the Abbotts to let her unfurl her research. Stare into this gap in the dirt and no one's reflection glares back, but it still acts as a mirror for the show's key figures. They see in it what they want, be it past mistakes, future possibilities, a way to escape bad choices or the means to secure a better tomorrow (or power or cash). This is a series of hops back to the 19th and 20th centuries, and not as flashbacks; of adult kids palling around with their parents when they were child-free and decades younger; of a psychedelic mineral that unleashes visions (and gets Reid singing); of haunting tragedies and lingering omens; and of mind-bending flashes juxtaposed with a classic setting roved and lensed in a classical manner. It's also about the void that calls at the heart of everyone, be it Outer Range's versions of the Hatfields and the McCoys or those enmeshed in their lives, as we each inch second by second towards the oblivion that awaits us all. Dark and moody in tone even when it canters across the range at its sunniest, this is a series about battles over the pivotal piece of land, reckoning with the past's echoes, existential anxiety and crises of faith, too; no one can accuse either Watkins or Murray of not being ambitious. The fact that Royal and Cecilia's granddaughter Amy (Olive Abercrombie, The Other Zoey) disappeared at the end of season one gives season two its throughline — but scouring far and wide for a missing girl is just one of its searches, and the questions about her whereabouts add to its lengthy list of mysteries. Outer Range confronts the notion that life is sifting through the unknown and unknowable, then navigating wherever it flings you. Whether that's a matter of "cosmic destiny bullshit" or how the pieces fall into place by chance is a query that each character would answer differently, as might each viewer. While lurching from cowboys to cults, and also from rustic to dreamlike, there's a central performance in Outer Range that's paired perfectly to each of the show's array of shades. Brolin, who also makes his TV directorial debut with one of season two's episodes, is exceptional as the strong and stoic western archetype — and at unpacking it as episodes trot by. Poots embraces Autumn's status as an enigma unravelling, while Taylor rides every emotional beat of a matriarch left wondering if she can still believe in anything that she's ever known. Giving Podemski her own dedicated instalment, following Joy back to when the Shoshone were clinging to their Wabang land as homesteaders settled, is both a showcase and a reward for the grounded portrayal that she keeps serving up. It was also accurate of season one as it is now: whether skewing towards Taylor Sheridan or David Lynch, one of the delights of Outer Range is its willingness to swerve and veer like it too is a fog hovering over an obsidian abyss. Sometimes, the series hurtles itself into interpersonal minutiae. Sometimes, it's an all-out western, not just the neo- kind. It can be a kidnapping thriller, and then a drama about feuding families and yearned-for legacies. Sometimes, it's a gleeful and eager spring into absurdity. Swish them all together and Outer Range remains worth the plunge, compellingly so, as it flows towards a hopeful third season. Check out the trailer for Outer Range season two below: Outer Range season two streams via Prime Video from from Thursday, May 16. Read our review of season one.
When the theatre powers that be wondered if Moulin Rouge! could leap to the stage from the screen, the answer was simple: yes it can can can. And when the hit Broadway version notched up 14 Tony nominations, another question arose. Could Moulin Rouge! The Musical become the first Australian-produced show to win the coveted Best Musical Tony Award? Again, yes it can can can. After being delayed due to the pandemic, the 74th Annual Tony Awards were held on Monday, September 27 Australian time, recognising the best that theatre had to offer in the 2019–20 season. And, Moulin Rouge! The Musical did indeed emerge victorious. Including Best Musical, it took out ten gongs in total. Produced by the Sydney-based Global Creatures — and marking the first Australian-produced show to originate on Broadway — Moulin Rouge! also nabbed prizes for Best Direction of a Musical (f0r Alex Timbers), Best Choreography (Sonya Tayeh), Best Orchestrations (Justin Levine with Matt Stine, Katie Kresek and Charlie Rosen), Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Aaron Tveit) and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Danny Burstein). And, it won Best Scenic Design in a Musical (Derek McLane), Best Costume Design in a Musical (Catherine Zuber), Best Lighting Design in a Musical (Justin Townsend) and Best Sound Design of a Musical (Peter Hylenski) as well. The Tonys sweep comes as Australians will finally get to see the stage production later this year, after its long-awaited local premiere season in Melbourne was delayed due to lockdown. It was set to open in mid-August, but is now selling tickets for shows from early November in line with Victoria's roadmap out of stay-at-home conditions. When it was announced back in 2016 that Moulin Rouge! was being turned into a stage musical, fans around the world thought the same thing in unison: the show must go on. Since then, the lavish production hit Broadway in 2019, and now has a date with Melbourne's revamped Regent Theatre. Based on Baz Luhrmann's award-winning, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor-starring movie — which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year — the stage musical brings to life the famed Belle Époque tale of young composer Christian and his heady romance with Satine, actress and star of the legendary Moulin Rouge cabaret. Set in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, the film is known for its soundtrack, celebrating iconic tunes from across the past five decades. The stage version carries on the legacy, backing those favourites with even more hit songs that have been released in the two decades since the movie premiered. Moulin Rouge! The Musical wasn't the only production soon headed to Australia to nab a Tony, with Jagged Little Pill the Musical also collecting two ahead of its Sydney premiere in December. Elsewhere at the high-profile awards, A Christmas Carol nabbed five gongs in the play categories, while The Inheritance picked up four. Moulin Rouge! The Musical is due to make its Australian debut at The Regent Theatre, at 191 Collins Street, Melbourne from November — depending upon Victoria's COVID-19 restrictions at the time. To buy tickets, and for further details, head to the production's website. Images: Matthew Murphy.
Both in Australia's nationwide lockdown between March and June and under Victoria's current Stage Four restrictions, the country's hospitality businesses have been doing it tough. Temporary closures, pivoting to takeaway and delivery, stocking sought-after grocery items, enforcing social distancing, operating at limited capacity — these have all been on the cards across the nation to help stem the spread of COVID-19, and they've all had a sizeable impact on restaurants, cafes, pubs and bars. In fact, in Melbourne, 15 percent of hospitality venues don't think they'll be able reopen after the present stay-at-home period. The situation is comparable worldwide, of course — and in the United Kingdom, a new scheme has just come into effect to attempt to help the culinary sector. Operational since Monday, August 3 and running until Monday, August 31, the UK Government's 'Eat Out to Help Out' regime is trying to encourage folks to head out of the house and have a meal, all by offering 50 percent discounts. There are a few caveats, understandably. Nonetheless, diners will indeed score a half-price feed if they sit down for a bite at a participating venue — of which there's more than 72,000, the BBC reports. As well as restaurants, cafes, pubs and bars, the scheme also applies to canteens at workplaces and schools, plus food halls. But, it's only on offer for dine-in customers, not takeaway or delivery. [caption id="attachment_763228" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Julia Sansone[/caption] Among the other rules, the deal is only available Monday–Wednesday each week, only applies to food and non-alcoholic beverages (sorry, no booze), and only provides up to £10 (about $18 AUD) off per diner per meal. But, there's no minimum spend, no vouchers required to redeem the discount and no limit on the number of people per group. There's no cap on the amount of times a person can claim the discount, either, so UK residents could eat breakfast, lunch and dinner out of the house three days a week for the entire month if they wanted to. The UK's social distancing requirements and other COVID-19 hygiene practises still apply to anyone venturing out of their house for a meal, naturally. Still, if you're an Aussie currently thinking "that sounds like a good idea", you might want to cross your fingers that something similar is implemented closer to home — when it's safe to do so. If you're reading this from the UK, you can find more information about the 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme via the UK Government's website.
SXSW has never left Austin until this year. For the first time ever, a second iteration of the world-renowned music, screen, gaming, tech and ideas festival is popping up — and it's landed all the way over in Sydney. Running between Sunday, October 15–Sunday, October 22, the first SXSW Sydney has produced a huge lineup with hundreds of musicians performing across Surry Hills, Ultimo, Chippendale, Darling Harbour and Haymarket. The American iteration is known for breaking the next big thing and, following that trend, a who's who of Australian and international up and comers make up a bulk of the lineup — with the intention that you'll wander through the festival precinct each day and stumble upon a healthy mix of acts you know and love, as well as your next great music discovery. There are soon-to-be superstars with co-signs from the biggest names in music, free dance parties in Tumbalong Park, a huge takeover of Powerhouse Museum, hidden parties in abandoned cinemas and Chinatown restaurants, and an 11-year-old Australian rap prodigy. If this all seems like a lot, don't worry — we've got you. Here are ten gigs you should have at the top of your list if you're heading to the festival. HARVEY SUTHERLAND If you're around on Sunday, October 15, then head down to Tumbalong Park as SXSW Sydney kicks off the entire festival with a series of free events. Local funk and house producer Harvey Sutherland will be making an appearance at 8pm for a special one-off festival set that's free for everyone to attend. The Tumbalong Park program will stretch on through the whole week, so don't make a visit here a one-and-done affair. Also on offer: an outdoor cinema featuring classic films that have premiered at SXSW Austin over the years, an onstage discussion between Adam Spencer and Dr Karl, and a massive Suntory -196 vending machine which will function as a rooftop bar. REDVEIL He's already collaborated with Denzel Curry and JPEGMafia, and he's been shouted out by Tyler, the Creator and Pusha T — and he's only 19. Maryland rapper Redveil is heading to Australia for two sets at SXSW Sydney. You can catch his unique alternate hip hop stylings at the House of Vans, located at UTS Underground on Wednesday, October 18, and then at Phoenix Central Park at 8pm on Friday, October 20. Get in line early for his Friday set — it's sure to be a special one at the extremely intimate Chippendale venue. [caption id="attachment_848402" align="alignnone" width="1916"] Barkaa, Luke Currie Richardson[/caption] FBI RADIO SXSW SYDNEY PARTY The abandoned Chinatown cinema that hosted the beloved summer arts and music venue Pleasures Playhouse is being revived for SXSW Sydney — and the equally beloved community radio station FBi Radio is taking it over for a one-night party. The Haymarket space will host a stacked lineup of Australian talent spanning a heap of different genres on Thursday, October 19 from 7–11.50pm. Iconic Malyangapa and Barkindji rapper Barkaa leads the lineup alongside the psych-pop of Skeleten, future reggaeton superstar Lamira, the self-proclaimed 'Blak Britney' Miss Kaninna and the punk-hip hop hybrid duo Bract and Bayang (the Bushranger). It's an eclectic mix (as is customary with FBi Radio), and it's coming to one of the city's most interesting arts spaces. FLYANA BOSS If you've been hearing the words "hello christ, I'm 'bout to sin again" all over your TikTok feeds, these are artists responsible. Flyana Boss is a US hip hop duo who have seen a wave of success from that viral moment, including a remix of that song 'You Wish' featuring none other than Missy Elliot. The pair of multi-instrumentalists and rappers will be kicking off the whole music festival alongside Ekkstacy on Tuesday, October 17 at the opening night celebrations — hosted at The Starship on the Convention Jetty. If you miss out on this set, you can also find them performing at the House of Vans at UTS Underground at 11.20pm on Wednesday, October 18. POWERHOUSE LATE Powerhouse Late is being given the SXSW Sydney treatment with a showcase of some of the program's most exciting artists — and best of all, this one's open to everyone no whether you've got a pass to the festival or not. From 5–9pm on Thursday, October 19, you can catch sets from hugely popular Indonesian singer-songwriter Isyana Sarasvati, South Korean synth-pop group ADOY and Aussie rockers Dust on Stage One. Stage two will welcome rising local musos Tiffi, POOKIE, Big Skeez and SUPEREGO, while stage three will host electronic artists Nuum, Moss and Sonic Mutations in their debut live performance. FRIDAY* If one of your goals for the festival is to catch a local Sydney artist before they blow up, make sure you attend one of FRIDAY*'s sets. Alongside fellow SXSW artists Dylan Atlantis and Zion Garcia, as well as Sollyy and Breakfast Road, FRIDAY* is part of the bustling Western Sydney music collective recently spotlighted in the SBS short film We Just Live Here. The melodic singer-songwriter effortlessly blends pop with genres like R&B, UKG and folk. You can catch these sonic melting pots on stage at the Hollywood Hotel on Thursday, October 19; UTS Underground on Friday, October 19; and Mulan Music Restaurant on Saturday, October 20. [caption id="attachment_888440" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Otoboke Beaver by Mayumi Hirata[/caption] OTOBOKE BEAVER Japanese punk quartet Otoboke Beaver is hitting Australia for three SXSW Sydney sets, bringing their ferocious guitars to stages across Sydney. This one's not to be missed for any fans of rock music or anyone looking to experience something you won't see anywhere else in Australia this year. On Thursday, October 19 the band is playing a late-night set at The Soda Factory in Surry Hills, followed by a set at UTS Underground the next day. Then, rounding out their trio of shows for the week, you can catch them at The Factory Theatre's outdoor stage on Saturday afternoon. LANEWAY FESTIVAL SXSW SYDNEY PARTY Before it returns for its stacked 2024 festival with Stormzy, Dominic Fike and Steve Lacy, Laneway is throwing a SXSW party in a Chinatown restaurant. Mulan Music Restaurant and Bar on the corner of Dixon Street is known for its neon-lit stage and spicy seafood, but during the eight-day festival it'll be hosting a heap of gigs. Laneway's takeover is happening from 6pm on Wednesday, October 18 with a lineup of up and comers from Australia and abroad. If you were around for the height of the indie-dance era circa 2004, you'll want to check out Fcukers, who are bringing back the sound of bands like The Rapture and Hot Chip. Pop singer Cody Jon and Melbourne art-punk group Gut Health are also on the lineup, alongside Miss Kaninna, Will Swinton and RAVVE TAPES. INKABEE Another one for those looking to catch the next big thing: Western Australia's Inkabee is already killing it at the age of 11. All you have to do is watch his freestyle on Triple J's Bars of Steel with his dad, aka rapper and activist Flewnt, to see the huge potential this kid has. You can catch Inkabee on the mic at APRA AMCOS on Friday, October 20, and then downstairs at The Lord Gladstone on Saturday, October 21. [caption id="attachment_922018" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Michael Cole[/caption] SOMEDAY SOON SXSW Sydney has teamed up with The University of Sydney's Someday Soon to give attendees the chance to attend this festival popping up in the event precinct. Head to Manning Bar on Saturday, October 21 and you'll be treated to a lineup featuring What So Not, Peach PRC, 1300, Sly Withers, Northeast Party House, Royal Otis and Sweden's Kornél Kovács. The festival will feature three stages stretched across the two levels and outdoor areas of Manning Bar. A reserved number of tickets for Someday Soon are available exclusively for SXSW Sydney Platinum Badge holders, Music Badge holders and Music Festival Wristband holders on a first-come-first-serve basis — so head down early to guarantee your spot. SXSW Sydney runs from Sunday, October 15–Sunday, October 22 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details. Top image: Brittany Hallberg.
It's been almost two years since Stranger Things last graced our streaming queues, and left everyone wondering what might've become of Hawkins' beloved police chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour, Hellboy). Just when the Netflix series is set to return for its fourth season hasn't yet been announced, but the platform knows that its viewers are all waiting eagerly — and, to keep us occupied, it has started teasing new glimpses at the long-awaited next batch of episodes. The platform initially provided a sneak peek at Stranger Things season four back at the beginning of 2020, which now seems like a lifetime ago. Given that things didn't seem to end too well for Hopper at the end of the show's third season — all thanks to the mind flayer, the Russian lab below Starcourt Mall and that pesky gate to the Upside Down — that initial glimpse picked up after the third season's Russian-set post-script. That said, while it did resolve the big cliffhanger, it also only ran for 50 seconds. This time around, the two new (and also brief) clips look backwards — and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown, Godzilla vs Kong) is the focus. Both sneak peeks take place in Hawkins Laboratory, with the first peering at security camera footage, and the second listening on as Dr Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine, Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal) performs tests on kids with special abilities. The latter video then works its way down a corridor to a door marked with the number 11, and then shows a quick look at Eleven's face. So, it seems that as well as hopping over to Russia, Stranger Things is headed to the past. It's worth remembering that, when the platform announced the show's renewal for a fourth season back in 2019, it did so with the catchphrase "we're not in Hawkins anymore". We'll have to wait to see what that all means for its cast of characters — including not only Hopper and Eleven, the latter of which was last seen leaving town with Joyce (Winona Ryder, The Plot Against America), Will (Noah Schnapp, Hubie Halloween) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton, The New Mutants), but also for Mike (Finn Wolfhard, The Goldfinch), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo, The Angry Birds Movie 2), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin, Concrete Cowboy), Max (Sadie Sink, The Last Castle), Steve (Joe Keery, Spree) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer, Things Seen & Heard). Check out the two new Stranger Things season four teasers below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRIpYFIlg5U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILwLN6hV-X8 Stranger Things season four doesn't currently have a release date — we'll update you when Netflix announces its plans. Top image: Stranger Things season three.
In the kind of punishment Cersei Lannister might dream up, the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones isn't due until mid-2018 at the earliest — and sometime in 2019 at the latest. However, one London cinema is offering fans an immersive way to pass at least some of that period. Taking the movie marathon idea to the extreme, they're showing the entire series' seven-season run to date in one massive sitting. Fans of Westerosi dramas, resilient Stark siblings, formidable dragons and more can expect to get comfy in The Prince Charles Cinema for four days, as they screen all 67 episodes between November 27 and 30. It all kicks off at 7pm on Monday and runs until just after 6pm on Thursday. And while that might seem like quite the commitment — in hours, in the willingness to sit in cinema seats for that long, and in sacrificing your normal life for your favourite show — if there's one thing that GoT fans love more than shipping Jon Snow and Daenerys, it's spending as much time in the Seven Kingdoms as possible. The event is designed to promote the DVD release of the seventh season, which just finished airing in August. For anyone who happens to have a spare week, it's free to attend. There'll also be a pop-up pizza bar onsite for sustenance. If you're in London, the Game of Thrones Marathon Screening runs from November 27 to 30. Visit the event Facebook page for further details, or to register for tickets.
Let’s clear one thing up immediately: SPECTRE isn't nearly as bad as some critics are making out. We’re mercifully far from the nightmarish hellscape of Die Another Day or the '…...............huh?' of Quantum of Solace. It's just that SPECTRE isn’t quite Skyfall, either. Firstly, though, to the good bits. This film is stunning. Cinematographer and man with a Bond name Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar, Her) has crafted something magnificent here, framing every shot to perfection regardless of scale. Credit, too, to director Sam Mendes, who again proves that his dramatic background in no way hampers his ability to shoot thrilling action sequences. On that front, the film’s best is also its first: a five minute ‘uninterrupted’ tracking of Bond through the streets of Mexico during the Día de los Muertos festival. In fact, the whole first half hour of SPECTRE is so tight, its trajectory puts it on track to rival (or even surpass) its predecessor, however it's at that point where unfortunately the cracks also begin to appear. The overall viewing experience of SPECTRE might best be described as one of déjà vu. The story, to its benefit, draws heavily upon the three previous films as both an explanation for Bond’s increasingly tortured temperament and as a through-line tying the whole ‘Craig era’ together. Where things get problematic, though, is when near-identical scenes pop up from those earlier movies. Bond being fitted with an implanted tracking device in his right arm comes straight out of Casino Royale. Bond joining his beautiful French companion in a train's dining car while they discuss why he does what he does — that's Casino too. M having to the defend the 00 program from accusations of redundancy and outdatedness formed much of Judi Dench’s screen time in Skyfall, and the villain’s desert base in SPECTRE looks remarkably like the one from Quantum with a different coat of paint. Even the score by Thomas Newman feels overly familiar, with some sections essentially cut-and-paste jobs from the Skyfall soundtrack (Jellyfish to Hinx, for example). SPECTRE’s strongest scenes are its original ones, and with a reported budget of well over $200 million it’s a crime they weren’t all that way. On the performance front, Craig is reliably stony as Bond, although ‘franchise fatigue' has visibly set in. His dispassionate characterisation often slips into languor in SPECTRE, relinquishing only when opposite Léa Seydoux as his love interest Madeleine. Seydoux is the clear standout, imbuing Madeleine with every ounce of intelligence and mystery the script could provide. As the villain, Christoph Waltz receives a disappointing amount of screen time, and his character lacks much of the menace conveyed by Javier Bardem in Skyfall. Regulars M, Q and Moneypenny all hold their own (played again by Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris), while Andrew Scott of Sherlock fame puts in a nice turn as ‘C’ — the new head of MI5. Again, this is not a bad film. The confusing or absent motivations, plot holes and scene repetition notwithstanding, SPECTRE still offers up all the elements of a classic Bond. Its action scenes are gripping, its wit affords welcome chuckles and its opulence entices. Any film that came after Skyfall was always going to be like opening up birthday socks when you'd already unwrapped the new car: it was destined to disappoint. But if you can remind yourself that socks are still pretty neat too, especially $200 million dollar ones with gorgeous people, places and cars on them, then you’ll find more than enough to like about SPECTRE.
After the apocalypse arrived from above in the form of extra-terrestrials that leap upon any and every sound, audiences have already seen what happened on day 89 and day 471–7. We've also caught a glimpse of the day that started it all. But A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II prequel A Quiet Place: Day One is going right back to the beginning properly, and not just via flashbacks. The third effort in the now-franchise is also headed to New York. On the way since 2021, and just dropping its first trailer ahead of its June 2024 release, the latest A Quiet Place film steps into the alien invasion's initial impact in the Big Apple with 12 Years a Slave Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) at its centre. As the initial sneak peek shows, she's walking happily with a cat in her arms when the sky starts falling — and she soon realises that noise is what sets off earth's unwanted new visitors. When A Quiet Place hit cinemas in 2018, did stellar things with its mostly dialogue-free premise and gave films about otherworldly attackers a creative spin, it quickly proved a big box office hit. That's hardly surprising; Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) added another formidable role to her resume, John Krasinski (Jack Ryan) did great work both in front of and behind the camera, both Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) and Noah Jupe (The Undoing) turned in excellent performances, and the entire movie made the absolute most of its silence-heavy approach and its niche in the horror genre. So, not only was a sequel always likely, but more in the saga after that, with Day One giving viewers more time in the franchise's eerie dystopian world. The trailer for the new film shows snippets of the first two movies' Abbott family for context, but it's Djimon Hounsou (Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story) who returns from A Quiet Place Part II among the cast. In the sneak peek, he pops up late to help stress why surviving requires keeping your lips zipped as tightly as possible. A Quiet Place: Day One also features Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who leaves Vecna behind for different monsters. Behind the lens, instead of Krasinski sitting in the director's chair, fellow filmmaker Michael Sarnoski helms — swapping Nicolas Cage on a vengeance mission over his beloved pet in Pig for tackling invading aliens. He wrote the screenplay, too, after coming up with the story with Krasinski. Originally Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special and Loving's Jeff Nichols was set to direct, but left due to creative differences. Check out the trailer for A Quiet Place: Day One below: A Quiet Place: Day One releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, June 27, 2024. Read our reviews of A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II.
Vintage images of bygone eras are always fascinating to admire as it provides a window into the life of a different time and place and highlights the stark differences in culture 100 years makes. These photographs of Paris in 1914 are particularly enchanting not only because they go back to the denouement of the peaceful and reformatory Belle Epoque, with these Parisians unknowingly on the cusp of two devastating world wars, but also because they appear in colour. These were the sort of inspiring settings that influenced legendary writers such as Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. The vibrancy of the images add character to the scenes laid out and provide a more accurate depiction of what the streets of Paris were really like during this period. These photos poignantly capture the original iconic Moulin Rouge cabaret before it was tragically destroyed in a fire a year later, the pizzazz of a troupe of performers in period costume assemble, average Parisians in the streets, iconic buildings and theatres, as well as a one-legged soldier standing beside a cannon.
Arbory Bar and Eatery is long — 150m long, to be exact. Stretching along the length of what was the Sandridge railway platform at Flinders Street Station, this is the perfect place for some old fashioned promenading before taking a seat at the long counter bench overlooking the Yarra to enjoy a tipple while you take in the riverfront views. Named for the leafy canopy, or arbor, that the plane trees create above, Arbory is a magical pocket of green goodness in the midst of a bustling city. It is even more enchanting as the sun goes down, and the container housing the kitchen, two bars and the bathrooms emit an enticing golden glow. Arbory is open from 11am for riverside drinks and eats until late with a concise and well-chosen menu from ex-Trocadero (now Fatto) chef Nicolas Bennett. The offering is somewhat refined but still a little cheeky, focusing on sandwiches and burgers, such as its New England Lobster Roll, with shoestring fries and truffle salt and its fan-favourite double cheeseburger. Word has it that the butcher makes the patties to Bennett's specifications to create the ultimate meat-to-fat ratio and — what's more — the perfect bread-to-beef proportions. While the beef patty is definitely the star of this gig, the bacon, brioche bun, mellow and creamy Monterey cheese, sundried tomato relish, a slip of lettuce, and pickles all work together to elevate this burger to superstar status. The accompanying crinkle-cut fries complete the dish. And, from experience, more than one napkin is required. With a state-of-the-art beer system, fancy Hoshizaki ice machine, wine on tap (as well as some lovely local and Spanish wines by the bottle) and a cocktail list with all your favourites, this is a well-thought-out bar and eatery.
Inner city Melbourne just scored a hearty slice of regional Victorian flavour, as Carlton welcomes the arrival of From the Collective. Making its home in a former scrapyard warehouse, this one's both sibling and neighbour to the recently opened Tooborac Pies and Beer — the new city outpost showcasing signature offerings from the Tooborac Hotel and Brewery. At From the Collective, you'll find a bar, eatery, indoor beer garden, bottle shop and food store — all under the one lofty roof and every bit of it celebrating independent, regional Victorian makers. While it's helmed by Tooborac Hotel owners James and Valerie Carlin, what makes it all tick is the community of independent regional producers at its core. The venue's food store and bottle shop are filled with top finds crafted at least 40 kilometres out of Melbourne. Here, you can shop the likes of Locheilan Farmhouse Cheese, condiments from Kyneton's much-awarded Emelia's, smallgoods from Oakwood in Castlemaine and butter from Ocean Grove producer Lard Ass. There's wine from the likes of Armstead Estate and Ranahan's, and craft beers made by regional breweries such as Bells Beach Brewing and Red Duck. Many of these goodies are from the little guys you'll rarely see on shelves in the big smoke, but who now have a home away from home in Melbourne. An online store is also in the works. The rest of the warehouse space has been reimagined as a laid-back, light-filled hangout complete with astroturfed floors, soaring ceilings and lots of cleverly repurposed elements carried over from the site's former life. Up the back, a pint-sized kitchen sees chef Chris Taylor (Vue de Monde, Bangkok's Sweet Poppy) showcasing goodies sourced from the food store in a regularly changing menu. It's simple, but generous, with the likes of cheese and charcuterie boards; a smoked salmon and potato salad; and fettuccini with mushrooms, streaky bacon, and herb and garlic breadcrumbs. Meanwhile, the bar is pouring a rotation of regional brews, wines and spirits, along with a range of flavoured sodas. Settle in with the likes of a saison from Alfredton's Red Duck Brewery, Tooborac's own Texas BBQ smoked red ale, or a riesling from Goulburn winemakers Whistle and Hope. There's also the option to grab a bottle or six-pack from the food store fridge, to enjoy onsite for a small corkage. A mezzanine space is being transformed into a classroom offering workshops on things like cheesemaking, winemaking and charcuterie, and you can stay tuned for a program of booze tastings and region-specific bus tours. Find From the Collective at 139 Elgin Street, Carlton. It's open from 11am–11pm Wednesday–Sunday.
Get ready to swoon. Nick Cave has just announced a tour of Australia and New Zealand in November and December this year, and unencumbered by new releases, he'll be playing a wide selection of classics that stretch right back into his 30-year catalogue. Unlike Cave's 2013 Push the Sky Away tour with featured his much-loved band The Bad Seeds, this will be a rare solo outing. Prepare yourself now — you're probably going to cry when he plays 'Into My Arms'. News of this tour comes fresh after the premiere of 20,000 Days on Earth — a fictional documentary (just go with it) about this legendary musician. We enjoyed this 90 minutes of one-on-one time with the artist so much we even named the film one the best at this year's Sydney Film Festival. Now we get to make this alone time a reality; just like in the cinema, this tour will be you and Nick Cave (and a bunch of strangers) in the dark. Beginning in late November, Cave will be hitting up Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne. And, though the venues are large, the tickets will be snapped up quick. Hopefully these latter mid-December dates spell further good news for Melbourne fans though. Nick Cave at the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre, anyone? Oh god, please say it's so. Tour dates: Thursday, November 27 & Friday, November 28 - Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth Sunday, November 30 - Festival Theatre, Adelaide Wednesday, December 3 - Brisbane Convention Centre, Brisbane Thursday, December 4 - Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre, Gold Coast Saturday, December 6 & Sunday, December 7 - Civic Theatre, Auckland Monday, December 8 & Tuesday, December 9 - St James Theatre, Wellington Thursday, December 11 & Friday, December 12 - State Theatre, Sydney Tuesday, December 16 - Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, Melbourne Tickets go on sale Thursday, July 3.
When the clock struck midnight on December 31, 2019, this year began in a familiar fashion. All around Australia, beverages were raised in cheers to the next 12 months. But as we all know by now, 2020 hasn't delivered what anyone hoped for. If there has been a silver lining to this tough year, however, it has been the renewed focus on supporting local businesses. As well as spending more time at home, shopping local, eating local and sipping local have all been on the agenda. And that has been essential for two Queensland drinks companies, Brisbane's Aether Brewing and Far North Queensland's Mt Uncle Distillery. They've been forging ahead and doing what they do best — and what their local fans love — even under the most trying of circumstances. Queenslanders have certainly shown them both affection, with Aether and Mt Uncle picked as the Sunshine State's favourite tipples during the BWS Local Luvvas initiative. Aether's brews and Mt Uncle's Botanic Australis Gin will now receive an extra helping hand with getting both products stocked in more BWS stores. And we've spoken to the masterminds behind the two drops about their dream jobs, their love of making top-notch drinks and the importance of homegrown support. WHEN YOUR PASSION BECOMES YOUR JOB With Mt Uncle Distillery based on a farm in the Atherton Tablelands, head distiller and director Mark Watkins doesn't just spend his days making the most of FNQ's sultry weather — he also makes drinks perfect for those tropical climes, too. Indeed, his love of the region's climate is one of the reasons he is doing what he does today. "Given the inability to grow grapes up here, I decided to put my wine science degree to use and make rum," he explains. Watkins started his distilling journey before his studies, as a teenager. "Needless to say, I was popular with my mates," he notes. But when he dived into the botany side of his degree, he "fell in love with Australian native plants, and had the drive to pursue the production of the quintessential Australian gin" — which is where the concept of Botanic Australis began. For Aether's Dave Ward, his move into brewing arose out of a completely different field — fly-in fly-out jobs building gas plants. Meeting and working alongside his now-former business partner, they both realised that "FIFO wasn't exactly the life we wanted to live forever, and the thought of owning a brewery really just fit with what we wanted," he advises. The fact that Ward already had a lifelong passion for brewing and beer helped, unsurprisingly. Ward credits that affection for yeasty beverages, and for making them, to his father. "It is one of my earliest memories as a child, brewing with dad and his friends — the exploding bottles in the laundry, the dodgy stouts from extract and some pretty awful beer," he explains. "Those memories have stuck with me my whole life, and fuelled my love of brewing and great beer. I home-brewed on and off for most of my adult life, and eventually I found my life in a position where I was able to live my dream." GETTING CREATIVE — AND LOCAL Obviously, it takes more than just a fondness for a frothy beverage to make it in the drinks industry. As Ward advises, "brewing for me is an expression of creativity". He's now at the point where, when he's "on the brew floor or designing new beers, it comes naturally" — but he admits that getting to that point required hard work. "The real challenge started when I started studying and I realised that I knew nothing about beer. The more I learnt, the more I wanted to know, and the more I realised that my lifetime wasn't going to be enough for me to learn everything I need to be the brewer I want to be," he says. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that when asked to describe a great beer, Ward notes that it "isn't a style, or a flavour, or even a taste". Rather, he sees it as "the ability to make a beer for everyone". At Mt Uncle, Watkins has a firm view of what makes a standout spirit, too. For him — like much of his approach to his work — it reflects his location. While it'd be hard not to love distilling gin in such scenic, relaxed and leafy surroundings, Watkins can't separate his tipples from his home base. "A great spirit should reflect the environment that creates it," he tells us. In practical terms, that means that Mt Uncle sources or grows all of its ingredients locally. It's a great source of pride to the distillery, with everything in its products either stemming from around the distillery or from a stone's throw away. ADAPTING TO TOUGH TIMES WITH HOMEGROWN SUPPORT In Mt Uncle's case, you could say that what goes around comes around — in a positive manner, of course. "We are a very small business and times recently have been quite trying," Watkins says, referring to this pandemic-afflicted year. "Local support is essential and a massive part of our business' DNA. If it wasn't for our local fan base we would not be here." For Ward, the embrace of Brisbane's beer community has been just as pivotal. "Honestly, if it wasn't for the amazing support that locals gave — whether they are in our neighbourhood or we are stocked in theirs — we would more than likely have gone under when COVID-19 hit," he admits. "Over the past few years, we have seen a shift towards local; people want to know who makes their beer, food or products," Ward observes, "and the last 12 months have pushed this further into the spotlight". To find these or other Queensland drinks as part of the BWS Local Luvva's initiative, head to your nearest BWS store.
Nearly 100 years after the Titanic plunged into the freezing waters of the Atlantic, artist and inspirationalist Dodo Newman will commemorate the legendary journey and lives lost with the Titanic Project, a tribute that will combine the sorrowful history with the newest marvels of design. The project will erect a monument of the Titanic designed with luxury that the regal ship itself would not match. Newman's vision for the monument has a diamond and Swarovski crystal surface, 300 kg of jewelry and LED lighting all on a pyramid-shaped aquarium base structure. To add to the designer detail, over 50 luxury brands will be incorporated into the monument, the displays intertwined with sea life in the underwater enclosing. Newman has always been fascinated by the story of the Titanic, and has been hoping to finish the plan for the commemorative installation for the past several years. The project is intended to be finally completed by 2012, just in time to honour the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking in 1912. [via Extra Vaganzi]
If you've ever been in that particular headspace where you need to eat immediately lest you snap and entertain serious thoughts of curling into a ball and crying in public, chances are you've been hangry. The short fuse is often accompanied by a growling belly and a pre-caffeine tiredness, and there never seems to be a spot to park your car when you need one. Add children into the mix, and you might be found counting very slowly to ten under your breath, watching a child have a screaming tantrum and straight up wishing you could do the same. Kid-friendly spots for a meal all together aren't so easily found when you need them, so along with our mates at American Express, we thought we'd compile a list for you to bookmark and come back to later when your resources are low and your cravings for eggs, peace and quiet are at alarming levels. Walk on in, get some food in all of you, wave your card and Bob's your uncle: hanger attacked and conquered. Got yourself in another dining situation and need some guidance? Whatever it is, we know a place. Visit The Shortlist and we'll sort you out.
Remember the days before coffee pods, when getting your caffeinated fix didn't involve spending many a minute trying to choose a flavour? Well, that experience has arrived at an Australian pub near you. Yes, beer pods are now a reality. Carlton & United Breweries has rolled out a trial of their new Bond Brothers Fusion brand to selected venues in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, adding a whole new dimension to ordering a drink. The base lager remains the same; however once you select your variety of choice — with pink grapefruit, honey, lime, raspberry and apple options available — the appropriate pod will be slipped into the tap, infusing your yeasty beverage with flavour as it is poured. Sounds like a gimmick that's trying to jump on the craft beer bandwagon, right? Yep, it sure does, but we all thought something similar when the concept first reared its head in the coffee world. Speaking to Nine News, CUB marketing director Richard Oppy said that they were looking to "add some excitement" to drinking beer (although we thinking having a bev is pretty exciting enough), as well as extra varieties. While this is the first time you can get this type of drink in Aussie bars, the concept isn't particularly new. Launching in 2014, US company SYNEK is a countertop beer dispenser that uses cartridges to let you pour and drink your favourite brews at home, while wine, spirits and cocktail takes on the trend are also in development. Via Brews News / The Drinks Association.
These days, scrolling through miles of other people's holiday snaps is as much a part of planning that overseas jaunt as actually booking the flights. And the team at Lonely Planet have just made the whole research thing way easier thanks to their newly launched travel app, Trips. The interactive mobile platform lets users both publish their own content and perv on everyone else's, providing a simple way to discover and share travel experiences, all in the one spot. Similar to Instagram, Trips lets you upload content directly from your phone's photo library, and even bundle pics and videos together to craft stories — bringing to life your Machu Picchu adventures or that pub crawl you took through San Francisco. Creating a profile on the app allows you to follow other users, like their content and save your favourite stories, so you can keep returning to load up on inspo for your next adventure. Users can search by location or theme to discover others' trips or explore top recommendations, as curated by Lonely Planet's own team of writers and editors. Venturing into the world of apps seems a logical step for the digitally savvy travel media company, which launched a travel website long before it was cool. "We understand what the modern traveler wants and have delivered an interactive digital platform that offers an effortless, mobile-first way to document, share and discover remarkable experiences," explained Lonely Planet CEO, Daniel Houghton. Trips is currently available for free on iOS and is set to launch on Android later this year.
Are you sick of YouTube constantly delaying your enjoyment of cute animal videos? Do you want to avoid the awkwardness of sitting through an ad with a coworker who just wanted to show you a funny video of a guy ordering pizza? Need something else to add to your credit card statement? If you answered yes to all three of those questions, you might be interested to know that YouTube is launching its premium ad-free streaming service in Australia today. It's called YouTube Red and it's basically a way to make you pay for a premium version of an otherwise free service, much in the way that Spotify Premium works. It was launched in the US in November last year, and Australia is the second region to get the service. For a monthly subscription fee, you'll be freed of all advertising (including display and pre-roll ads) and be able to save videos to watch offline — which is pretty handy if you're jumping on a flight or your data provider is charging you through the roof. You'll also have access to original Red content, which at the moment includes shows from the likes CollegeHumor, Lilly Singh and PewDiePie. It's an obvious attempt to cut in on the success of Netflix's original shows (but show us a series as good as House of Cards and then we'll talk). On top of this, they've also launched their YouTube Music app, which aims to make listening to music on YouTube a much less roundabout and awkward experience. Recognising that there's a whole heap of people that use YouTube to crank tunes, YouTube Music simply arranges the mammoth amount of music content (including music videos, songs, albums, remixes, lyric videos and live performances) into a functional music browsing system. Like Spotify and Apple Music, they'll also have a radio function and will create personalise playlists according to your taste in tunes. Anyone can access YouTube Music, but if you have a Red account, you'll be able to listen ad-free as well as when you don't have the app open on your mobile. Unsure if this is a video streaming service or a music streaming service? We are too. It seems to take elements from both Spotify and Netflix's offerings, however the real drawcard will be in the original content they can produce. Price-wise, it's comparable to other streaming services — you can get a month free trial, and if you sign up before June 6, it'll cost you $9.99 a month (otherwise it's $11.99 a month). However, if you want to watch Beyoncé's Lemonade in full, you'll still need to get Tidal. Sorry.
Melbourne's famed floating bar is back for another summer season on the Yarra, this time promising to be bigger and better than ever before. Arbory Afloat, which made its debut in 2015, is being reimagined this year as a sprawling, 500-square-metre floating pontoon, installed on the river in front of sister venue, Arbory Bar & Eatery. And it's a monster. Open to the public from Wednesday, November 15, the temporary bar and restaurant clocks in at a whopping 50 metres long, with room for 407 guests. Design-wise, this year's bar riffs on the beach clubs of The Mediterranean, accented in eye-catching Klein Blue and boasting a central bar, with a mix of day beds, banquette seating and restaurant dining. The breezy Mediterranean influence extends to the food and drink offering, with Chef Nick Bennett's laidback menu featuring seafood aplenty, house-made gelato and Neapolitan-style pizzas from the woodfire oven. Sun-drenched drinking sessions here will feature fruit-driven cocktails from an extensive, Euro-influenced lineup, and bespoke gin and tonic creations, crafted on a range of small-batch tonics and clever garnishes. Meanwhile, National Good Food Guide 2018 Sommelier of the Year Raul Moreno Yagüe has worked his magic on the wine list, to deliver an offering that's fresh, vibrant and geared perfectly to summer sipping by the water. Arbory Afloat will open 7am will 1am daily (including Christmas Day) from Wednesday, November 15 at Flinders Landing. For more info visit arbory.com.au.
In great news for your wanderlust, flight sales aren't rare. Still, a round of discounted flights that starts at $26 isn't an everyday occurrence. The reason for the super-cheap fares: Jetstar is hosting its latest member-only sale. If you're a Club Jetstar member — already or if you now sign up — you've got two days to nab a bargain. Pack your suitcases for getaways to the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Tasmania, Byron Bay and more, with flights to and from all of the above from some Australian cities coming in at the $26 price. That cost will get you from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast, Melbourne to the Gold Coast, Brisbane to Hobart, Melbourne to Launceston, Melbourne to Ballina/Byron Bay, Melbourne to Adelaide and Sydney to Brisbane, or vice versa, all one-way and without checked baggage. [caption id="attachment_976496" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Darren Tierney[/caption] Other fares include Sydney to Hervey Bay from $39, Brisbane to the Whitsunday Coast from $49 and Melbourne to Uluru from $79. Or, there's flights from Perth to Adelaide from $119, Sydney to Margaret River from $129 and Darwin to Sydney from $149. The sale kicks off at 9am AEDT on Monday, October 21, running through until 11.59pm AEST on Tuesday, October 22, 2024 — or until sold out, if snapped up earlier. Accordingly, if you're keen for a holiday at reduced prices, you'll want to get in quick. In total, 26,000 discounted flights are on offer. Travel periods vary, with late-July–early-September 2025 among them. Again, you'll pay extra for checked baggage if you need it, or you'll want to travel super light. Club Jetstar membership costs $65 a year, which you can join online while making a flight booking, and also gives you 20-percent off checked bags and seat selection. [caption id="attachment_928567" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Tasmania, Luke Tscharke[/caption] The Club Jetstar member-only sale runs from 9am AEDT on Monday, October 21–11.59pm AEST on Tuesday, October 22, 2024 — or until sold out, if snapped up earlier. Top image: Jesse Shaw Photography. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
When you think of goods made out of recycled cardboard, the most common objects that would spring to mind would probably be cereal boxes, toilet paper or drink bottles. A fully-functioning bicycle would most likely not make the top of the list. Yet, now thanks to Israeli bike enthusiast, Izhar Gafni, it will certainly appear somewhere on that list. Gafni has created a bicycle made entirely of recycled cardboard, and all using only $9 of material. The bike functions just like a normal bike, is water resistant and can carry riders of up to a massive 220kg. Despite the material costing between $9-$12 for each bicycle, Gafni is looking to sell his product for $60-$90 a pop, depending on the extra addition of an electrical motor. Nevertheless, this innovative creation is believed to change the world of bicycles by being significantly more eco-friendly and well within consumer's budgets. The inspiration for the recycled bike came after Gafni saw news that an inventor had developed a canoe made from recycled cardboard. Even through the skepticism and doubt he received, Gafni persevered with his idea and three years later achieved what three different engineers had thought to be impossible. Gafni's recycled bicycle has since been made into four different prototypes including one with training wheels for children. He is currently working with investors to establish a company that can produce and distribute his bikes on a global scale.
When King Kong swung into cinemas back in 1933, it reshaped movie history — and also had viewers everywhere thinking twice about great apes. Fast-forward almost nine decades, and now another giant gorilla is making an impact. You can see King Nyani IRL, however, and not just on the silver screen. Even better: you can now climb into the 30-foot-long creature's hands at Taronga Zoo. Created by public artists Gillie and Marc Schattner, King Nyani was inspired by King Kong. Consider the bronze statue — the world's largest bronze gorilla statue, in fact — a response to that pop-culture behemoth. "In the movie, Kong is seen as a ferocious beast. That was so far from our experience meeting the actual animals. We wanted to show the world that this great creature was really a pacifist who put family above all else," says Marc. Spreading a message of conservation, King Nyani first popped up in New York City — where else? — in August 2020, and understandably received a huge reaction. Now, the the first edition of the sizeable statue sits in the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, with a second due to be installed at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. Yes, that makes Sydney's version edition three. "We decided to create three editions after seeing the unbelievable response to the original Nyani in NYC. We knew that this was a cause that many people were willing to get behind," advises Gillie. "This was a chance to inspire three times as many people to protect gorillas to save them from extinction." King Nyani is definitely big — up to three people can sit inside the bronze silverback's hands, an act that serves multiple purposes. "We wanted to create a sculpture where the public could really get close to the silverback, both physically and emotionally. Being able to sit in his hand and look up into his gentle face, we hope they will fall in love and join the movement to save the gorillas," explains Gille. At Taronga, King Nyani now sits next to the Centenary Viewing Platform, underneath a giant fig tree — and mere metres away from the zoo's harbour view. You'll need an entry ticket to Taronga to check out its new addition, and to snap those pics you know are going to be all over social media, but those funds will go towards the zoo's efforts to support, care and protect wildlife, including gorillas. King Nyani is on display next to the Centenary Viewing Platform at Taronga Zoo, Bradleys Head Road, Mosman. For more information, head to the zoo's website.
If you're fond of exclaiming "whoa!" to mark huge news — and you've been conditioned to do just that by a certain Keanu Reeves-starring sci-fi franchise — then the past year or so has given you more than a few opportunities to break out that word in the best possible ways. First came the confirmation that a fourth live-action film in The Matrix series was 100-percent happening. Then came trailers for that very flick, giving us all a few sneak peeks before we could watch the full thing. And, when Boxing Day rolled around in 2021, the movie itself — aka The Matrix Resurrections — finally arrived on the big screen. Here's another reason for you to channel your inner Keanu Reeves right now: just a month after reaching cinemas, and while still actually showing in cinemas, you can stream The Matrix Resurrections via video on demand at home. Fast-tracking films to digital is a trend that's been gathering steam during the pandemic — and if you've been a bit cautious about going out during Australia's current Omicron wave, you can still fall down the dystopian franchise's rabbit hole sooner rather than later. A hit for more than two decades now, this is the science-fiction epic that smartly recognises that it's Keanu's world and we're all just living in it, after all — and now, we can plug into all four live-action movies from our couches. Get ready for Neo (Reeves, Bill and Ted Face the Music) to once again grapple with the Matrix and everything it means for humanity — and also for Carrie-Anne Moss (Jessica Jones) and Jada Pinkett Smith (Girls Trip) to return, too. They're joined by Matrix newcomers Neil Patrick Harris (It's a Sin), Jessica Henwick (On the Rocks), Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The White Tiger), Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Candyman). And yes, Reeves and Moss once again take centre stage this time around, because casting them in the first place — and showing unwavering belief in the duo — is the greatest move that filmmakers Lana and Lilly Wachowski ever made. It was a bold decision two-and-a-bit decades ago, with Reeves a few years past sublime early-90s action hits Point Break and Speed, and Moss then known for TV bit parts (including, in a coincidence that feels like the product of computer simulation, a 1993 series called Matrix). But, as well as giving cinema their much-emulated gunfire-avoidance technique and all those other aforementioned highlights, the Wachowskis bet big on viewers caring about their central pair — and hooking into their chemistry — as leather-clad heroes saving humanity. Indeed, amid the life-is-a-lie horrors, the subjugation of flesh to mechanical overlords and the battle for autonomy, the first three Matrix films always weaved Neo and Trinity's love story through their sci-fi action. In fact, the duo's connection remained the saga's beating heart. Like any robust computer program executed over and over, The Matrix Resurrections repeats the feat — with plenty of love for what's come before, but even more for its enduring love story. Lana goes solo on The Matrix Resurrections — helming her first-ever project without her sister in their entire career — but she still goes all in on Reeves and Moss. The fifth Matrix movie overall counting The Animatrix, this new instalment doesn't initially give its key figures their familiar character names, however. Rather, it casts them as famous video game designer Thomas Anderson and motorcycle-loving mother-of-two Tiffany. One of those monikers is familiar, thanks to a surname drawled by Agent Smith back in 1999, and again in 2003 sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. But this version of Thomas Anderson only knows the agent from his own hit gaming trilogy (called The Matrix, naturally). And he doesn't really know Tiffany at all, instead admiring her from afar at Simulatte, their local coffee shop. Check out the trailer for The Matrix Resurrections below: The Matrix Resurrections is currently screening in Australian cinemas, and is also available to stream online via video on demand — including via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Read our full review.
Given how 2020 has turned out, we can all be forgiven for hoping that next year is much, much brighter. In Sydney, that'll happen literally. After cancelling its 2020 festival due to COVID-19, Vivid has announced that it'll make a comeback in 2021, returning with another jam-packed lineup of light installations, live music and interesting discussions. When Vivid re-emerges next year, it'll do so with one big change: a later time slot. Usually, the luminous fest's events and city-wide glow mark the end of autumn and the beginning of winter; however, in 2021, it'll run from August 6–28 instead. Whether you're a Sydneysider in desperate need of a bit more light in your life, or you're located elsewhere and contemplating local 2021 holidays — seeing that Australia's international border is likely to stay closed for some time — you can now look forward to a late-winter feast of projections, tunes and talks. Exactly what the program will hold hasn't yet been announced, with the lineup usually unveiled a few months before the event. [caption id="attachment_761801" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Jordan Munns[/caption] If it had gone ahead in 2020, this year's Vivid was set to be headlined by US neo-soul singer and poet Jill Scott. The festival cancelled before it released its full lineup of gigs, installations, light shows and other cultural events. As well as a change of date, it's sensible to expect that moving around Vivid might look a little different in 2021, too. The event hasn't announced anything along those lines but, in 2019, it attracted more than two million attendees. That's quite the crowd in general, and even more so in these pandemic-afflicted times. In terms of restrictions, New South Wales has been easing them, though — including announcing just this week that outdoor music gigs will be able to host up to 500 people from Friday, October 16, and that outdoor venues can double their capacity to one person per two square metres. Vivid Live 2021 will take place from August 6–28, 2021. For more information, visit the event's website. Top image: Yaya Stempler.
Little gets in the way of Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art hosting a huge midyear food festival and taking a swim sans clothes to celebrate the winter solstice, not even giving Dark Mofo a year off. In 2023, the Mona team announced that it was pressing pause on its weird and wild June festival this year, using the time to plan for the future instead ahead of coming back better than ever in 2025 — but it also revealed that some of Dark Mofo's signature festivities would still return. Now, exactly when you'll be able to hit the Apple Isle to partake in both the Winter Feast and Nude Solstice Swim has been revealed. Mark your diary: tucking into a creative meal will run from Thursday, June 13–Sunday, June 16, then again from Thursday, June 20–Sunday, June 23, while enjoying a chilly dip is occurring on Friday, June 21. Winter Feast is headed to Princes Wharf 1, again focusing on food, wine and spirits from Tassie, and with an international guest chef that's still to be announced. In 2023, Chef's Table alum Ana Roš from two-Michelin-starred Hiša Franko did the honours. Nude Solstice Swim will return to Long Beach at sunrise after 2023's event attracted a record number of folks — and it has upped its capacity for 2024. They're not the only Mona events still on the calendar for this year even without Dark Mofo tying them all together. The Mona Gala will get everyone partying on Friday, June 14 to celebrate the opening of exhibition Namedropping. It will also move from strictly invitation-only attendance to dropping tickets to buy — but only a limited amount, which will be available from March — for an event that'll showcase artistic works about status, perception and trying to look good for others. If you went to Dark Mofo in 2021, you might remember Night Shift, which is making a comeback from Friday, June 21–Saturday, June 22. On the itinerary again: hitting the dance floor, getting debauched and making the absolute most of the early hours. Dark Mofo is set to return in 2025 as the full usual shebang — not that there's anything usual about the event. "Dark Mofo has established itself as a beacon of artistic exploration and challenging ideas for a decade, immersing audiences in the depths of darkness and the heart of winter," Dark Mofo Artistic Director Chris Twite said. "This year, by taking a fallow year, we are taking a crucial step in ensuring that Dark Mofo continues to be a catalyst for artistic innovation, cultural dialogue, and shared experiences for many years to come. "While the festival rests in 2024, the solstice does not, and we are excited to gather once more to present two popular pillars of the Tasmanian midwinter, along with some exceptional extra events," Twite continued. Mona's 2024 Winter Events: Thursday, June 13–Sunday, June 16 — Winter Feast week one Friday, June 14 — The Mona Gala Saturday, June 15, 2024–Monday, April 21, 2025 — Namedropping exhibition Thursday, June 20–Sunday, June 23 — Winter Feast week two Friday, June 21 — Nude Solstice Swim Friday, June 21–Saturday, June 22 — Night Shift Dark Mofo isn't taking place in 2024, but Winter Feast, Nude Solstice Swim, Night Shift and the Mona Gala all return in June — head to the festival's website for further details. Winter feast images: Jesse Hunniford, 2023, courtesy of Dark Mofo 2023. Nude Solstice Swim images: Rémi Chauvin, 2023, courtesy of Dark Mofo 2023.
They've been making ace threads for almost two decades, and now they're making a spot in Sydney their own. Jumping from the shelves of other stores to their bricks-and-mortar outlet, denim label Ksubi has set up shop in Paddington. While they've dabbled in their own retail outlets in the past, the new digs mark the brand's only current stand-alone store in the world. Opening its doors at 130 Oxford Street as part of the designer boutique-filled The Intersection shopping precinct, the new Ksubi store turns 250 square metres into a minimalist, monochromatic space for their full clothing collection, plus YSL frames and Henson jewellery. On the shelves, think distressed denim jeans, jackets, cut-off shorts and skirts aplenty, obviously. Interior design-wise, think industrial-esque touches that evoke Ksubi's unfussy style. Indeed, inside eager shoppers will find white neon lighting, flat black fixtures, raw concrete floors, and an array of very memorable magenta change rooms complete with defaced doors. Plus, Ksubi's new digs also feature a number of permanent installations by commissioned artists. Find Ksubi at 130 Oxford Street, Paddington, or head to their website for further information.
Dark Mofo is back for another devilish year where truly anything can happen. The annual winter festival is one week in for 2023, and it has already served up a slate of highlights delighting the senses of festivalgoers and local Hobart residents. Whether you were on the hunt for packed dance floors into the early hours of the morning, unbeatably fresh feeds around a firepit or hedonistic masquerade balls, there's been no shortage of sinister activations so far to prove why the festival is such a must-attend event — and, if you haven't made it along yet, to show why it should be at top of your hit list. As the fest's second week kicks off with even more debauchery — including A Divine Comedy, an Australian premiere and an Aussie exclusive that reimagines Dante's classic examination of hell, purgatory and paradise; Soda Jerk's Hello Dankness, which compiles samples into a 70-minute survey of American politics circa 2016–21; and performances from Molchat Doma, HEALTH, RVG and Moktar — here's a look at seven standouts from the first week of Dark Mofo 2023. [caption id="attachment_905439" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rosie Hastie[/caption] THE BLUE ROSE BALL BROUGHT TOGETHER CHILDLIKE JOY AND LYNCHIAN CHAOS Hidden among the haunting grounds of Dark Park at the base of Ryoji Ikeda's awe-inspiring light beam Spectra, The Blue Rose Ball unofficially opened Dark Mofo 2023's festivities the night before things well and truly got underway. A mysterious masquerade ball with nods to David Lynch and his television classic Twin Peaks, the event seamlessly paired debauchery with unbridled glee. Dressed to the nines and faces covered, guests were met with a hedonistic ballroom encouraging them to indulge in their every desire. While wandering around the ball, attendees discovered eerie dancing teddy bears; tables piled high with lollies, cheese and charcuterie; a fairy floss machine; hidden rooms with NSFW performances; a brief interlude from a fully functional soft serve van; and a central stage with surprise sets from artists like The Huxleys — plus an open bar, of course. [caption id="attachment_905440" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Remi Chauvin[/caption] THE GATHERING KICKED THINGS OFF — AND BARKAA WAS IMMENSE After The Blue Rose Ball acted as a curtain-raiser, the ribbon was officially cut with The Gathering, a celebration of First Nations artists featuring Tasman Keith, dameeeela, Denni, Uncle Dougie Mansell and Madelena. While the night was a hit from start to finish, BARKAA brought the house down with a headlining performance that cements her as one of the nation's best and most important live performers. The dynamic set was a certified rollercoaster of emotions, seamlessly switching from heartwrenching explorations of pain to moments of love, joy and laughter — sometimes within the same song. The power of BARKAA's performances comes from her willingness not to shy away from making non-Indigenous audience members uncomfortable while celebrating the strength of the First Nations community, before bringing everyone back together to dance, sing and have an all-around great time. When she brought out her friend and collaborator Dobby to perform their 2020 track 'I Can't Breathe' together, the audience was already in the palm of BARKAA's hand. It was a momentous performance that set the tone for the next 14 days. [caption id="attachment_905437" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jesse Hunniford[/caption] THE FESTIVAL'S INTERNATIONAL ACTS DELIVERED THE GOODS While many people head down to Dark Mofo to immerse themselves in the wonders of Hobart as the chaos descends, the event also pulls some impressive big-name acts to headline the festivities. Week one of the 2023 fest saw Thundercat take to the stage to perform winding ten-plus-minute versions of his tracks, inserting long jam sessions into fan favourites like 'Them Changes' and 'Dragonball Durag'. Earlier that same night, Sleaford Mods provided a you-had-to-be-there kind of moment. The group's producer Andrew Fearn pressed play on his laptop and bobbed about, while vocalist Jason Williamson shouted tales of working-class England accompanied by erratically dance moves — all of which whipped the crowd into a euphoric frenzy. Punk legends Black Flag were in town for an Australian exclusive set and rolled out the classics, running through the band's influential catalogue of 80s and 00s heavy hitters. Max Ritcher popped up for two sombre orchestral performances of his piece VOICES, which was broadcast live across the entire city during Saturday night's performance, soundtracking people's journeys between that night's festivities. And despite bringing in a much-younger audience than the other global acts, "next big thing" singer-songwriter Ethel Cain felt squarely at home on the Dark Mofo lineup, blending dark religious imagery with her tales of small-town America — the anthemic choruses gliding over the screams of her rabid cult-like fanbase. All of this proved a Dark Mofo wonder without a mention of the likes of Squarepusher, Witch, Eartheater and Drab Majesty, who also peformed over the first week. [caption id="attachment_905450" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rosie Hastie[/caption] TRANCE PROVIDED A WILD, UNIQUE AND FULLY IMMERSIVE UNIVERSE FOR 36 HOURS Berlin-based Chinese artist Tianzhuo Chen's TRANCE offered Dark Mofo attendees the opportunity to drop in and out of an all-encompassing performance space for 36 hours across three days. Depending on when you arrived and how much time you spent in MAC2, you might've had a vastly different experience to someone else. Some audience members may have discovered a full-on rave with bass-heavy techno and screamed vocals, while others would have stumbled upon a delicate moment of dance and ambient music. A grand heavy-metal set, an intimate communal dinner, a hip hop dance circle, noisy experimental R&B, a downpouring of rain: they all featured throughout each of the three 12-hour performances, which were set in an otherworldy space filled with colourful larger-than-life characters and dream-like set designs. After wowing audiences in Asia and Europe, TRANCE found itself in the sleepy town of Hobart but couldn't have felt more right at Dark Mofo, asking attendees with an open mind and an affinity for the strange to let themselves be transported into Chen's one-of-a-kind world. [caption id="attachment_905441" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jesse Hunniford[/caption] NIGHT MASS TOOK OVER AN ENTIRE HOBART BLOCK, CREATING A DEBAUCHEROUS ARTS PRECINCT Spread across four nights over the two weeks of Dark Mofo, this year's Night Mass has taken over an entire block of downtown Hobart, filling every stage, street, alleyway, bar and theatre with music and art between 10pm–4am. The festival's centrepieces, these debaucherous six-hour parties encourage you to wander through the different spaces and stumble upon something that you've never experienced before. On entry, there's a set of burning cars manned by performance artists that look straight out of Mad Max. Wander around the corner to discover a three-storey-tall teddy bear standing over a stage serving up deep electronic tunes and uplifting ballads of friendship (you can even livestream footage from a camera in the bear's face throughout the festival). Journey across the dozens of performance spaces at Night Mass and you'll find dimly lit dens, seated shows, multi-storey house parties, DJs perched on fire escapes and heaving dance floors. There's really not much else like it. [caption id="attachment_905434" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jesse Hunniford[/caption] THE WINTER FEAST PUT ALL OF AUSTRALIA'S OTHER FOOD FESTIVALS ON NOTICE Always a highlight of Dark Mofo, the Winter Feast once again served up a showcase of the best Tasmanian food and drink. From Bruny Island oysters, top-notch local wines, truffle-topped pizza and winter warmers like mulled negronis to the headlining collaborative kitchen between Chef's Table alum Ana Roš and The Agrarian Kitchen, this culinary night market shows up its interstate rivals with the most diverse and produce-focused array of stalls of any Australian food festival. Adding to the ambience is the hall's famous cross-filled ceiling, firepits to congregate around and a constant lineup of musicians to soundtrack your meals. There were even some surprise sets from musicians on the festival lineup, with Ugandan Afrofuturist-punk collective Fulu Miziki popping up to close out the festivities with a late-night Sunday-night set that had everyone hitting the dance floor with squid on a stick and a local Moo Brew in hand. [caption id="attachment_905438" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rosie Hastie[/caption] HOBART SHOWED WHY IT IS AUSTRALIA'S MOST UNDERRATED CITY While Dark Mofo served up plenty of standouts and surprises, the backdrop for the entire festival is the beauty of Hobart. MONA remains one of the country's best galleries, serving up weird, wonderful and thought-provoking art in its stunning subterranean space; the city's pubs, bars and restaurants remain top-tier for anyone looking for quality seafood, beers, wines, whisky and produce-driven meals; and the surrounding harbour and mountains make for a spectacular backdrop for your adventures around town. In winter, just be sure to pack plenty of warm clothes. Dark Mofo 2023 runs from Thursday, June 8–Thursday, June 22 in Hobart, Tasmania. Still looking for Dark Mofo inspiration? Check out our wholesome-to-hedonistic guide, which'll help you stack your festival itinerary based on the level of chaos you're after — and our last-minute picks, too. Top image: Jesse Hunniford. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Vivid Cafe and Lounge has been up and running on Glenferrie Road in Hawthorn since March 2023, originally only serving up classic Melbourne cafe fare. But a few months after opening, Chef Nobphadon Kaewkarn (AKA Chef Bird) started slowly introducing more and more Thai eats to the menu — until the lunch offerings were dominated by curries, noodles and spicy seafood dishes. And as of February this year, the team took the leap into becoming an all-day venue, transforming into a Thai restaurant once breakfast is over — and it's now running a booming dinner trade from Wednesday–Sunday. On the menu, you'll find classics like soft-shell crab bao, spicy coconut prawns, fish cakes, roti and chicken satay to start, as well as bigger dishes like hot and spicy tom yum soup, a stack of salads, curries, pad thai, pad kra pow, slow-cooked lamb and a crispy prawn (or crab) omelette. Come weekend lunchtime, Vivid is serving one of the most affordable all-you-can-eat meals in town. For just $29 per person, you'll get 90 minutes of unlimited red, green and massaman curry, plus endless amounts of spring rolls, pad thai, pad see ew, fried rice and roti. And you get to choose what protein goes in each. We're all about bottomless brunch deals, whether it's the luxe Conservatory buffet at Crown or the old Smorgy's offerings (RIP), so this new addition to Melbourne's all-you-can-eat scene is firmly on our radar. And to top it all off, Vivid now has an alcohol license — you've got $10 wines by the glass, plus happy-hour deals on beers and cocktails. Shit's expensive these days. But Vivid is serving up genuinely good eats for so little. Get on it. You'll find Vivid Cafe and Lounge at 616 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn. It's open for breakfast from Monday–Friday, lunch from Monday– Sunday and dinner from Wednesday–Sunday. For more information, visit the venue's website.
