In an unassuming shopfront on High St in Northcote, Melbourne, sits one of Australia's most low-key Indian restaurants. Owned and run by Michael Vass, who took over the family business in 2013 after opening its doors back in 1995, Curry Cafe is the type of place to lounge back over three or four dishes with a group of mates while swilling tap beer in a vain attempt to ward off the spice. Curry Cafe is unique in that the team roasts their own spices here, rather than buying them in bulk from wholesalers. They then grind them using a grinder imported from India and add them to their curries, which is fortunate — for a place named Curry House, it's probably best your curries are world class. And they certainly are. The range of curries feature crowd-pleasers such as butter chicken, lamb rogan josh and fish masala. For the more adventurous, there's the lamb pasanda (slow-cooked lamb in a creamy sauce of cloves, cardamom, cashews and raisins) and beef rogan, cooked overnight in a creamy cardamom and fennel-infused sauce. Vegetarians need not be afraid, nor vegans, as its menu caters to all. Try dal mushroom, eggplant curry and pumpkin masala with mustard seeds, curry leaves and coconut milk. And if it doesn't have what you're looking for, ask the chef. It's likely they'll be able to make what you'd like. You won't find this in many other restaurants in Melbourne. Wash it down with the house red or white or a local pet-nat. But for those who are in for the long haul, a pint of lager or three is perfect with their mild, medium and hot concoctions.
Usually when we see a teenage romance at the heart of a film we're watching a film made for teens. Goodbye First Love is no such film. The young lovers Camille and Sullivan do not kiss under the speckled light of a disco ball at prom. Mia Hansen-Love's third film weaves neatly into her emerging lineage of intimate, slow-burn portraits of fractured relationships. Concrete Playground spoke to the very talented young filmmaker ahead of her film's Australian release. Many adults would say there is no such thing as real love between teenagers. Even if they remember the heartache they felt as a teenager, with time they come to laugh at it. For Camille there's no laughing when she looks back. One of my motivations for making this film was a fight I had with my mother when I was a teenager. She would not believe the depth of my love for my boyfriend, the hold it would have on me for the rest of my life. In a way this film is a revenge piece! No, no that's not really true. I made this film for myself. It was a cathartic process. It's interesting you say that because in an interview about your last film (Father of My Children, 2009) when asked about the autobiographical dimension of the film, you said that you made the film to understand why you came to be a filmmaker. Tell me, why did you make Goodbye First Love now? All the themes I have worked with across my previous films can be linked back to the love I felt as a teenager. And so, to continue making autobiographical films without dealing with this part of my life would have been a lie. Honestly, I could only move on, only grow as a filmmaker, if I told this part of my life. In french we have an expression mensonge par omission I guess that would translate to 'Something that you don't tell is a kind of lie'. When Camille and Sullivan see a movie together, Sullivan says, "Really, you liked it? I don't understand you. Come on, it was so French! The actors are annoying. It was talky, complacent. It was awful." What is your relationship with French cinema and how do you see your films settling into this category? I guess I am very French! But that is not something I feel ashamed of. It's so French to not like French films. I think Australians love to hate their films even more! Oh, really? Well, that scene was written not so much to criticise French films but to criticise those who criticise [laughs]. French cinephiles can be so narcissistic. Yes, I had fun writing that scene. But, of course, what it's actually meant to express is that two people might not understand each other but they can still love each other. That sounds very intensive. Directors often refer to their films as their babies. Do you think of your films as your babies? [laughs] My films were my babies until I actually did have a baby — then you realise these things have nothing in common! Like children, do you dare compare them against one another? Oh I really don't like it when people ask me to compare. So, yes, in that way films and children are similar ... I give all that I am to my films. And so the film becomes a part of who I am. At this stage into the process I am in so deep I have no perspective and I don't know if what I'm making is any good. For this reason I have so much empathy for everything I make. I guess that could be confused with defensiveness. But it's not because I am so proud of what I have done but because I know them so well. I spend two years of my life with each film thinking only of them and when the process is over, only then do I realise that the film is something outside of me. That sounds more like a love affair than a mother-child relationship. Yes, exactly. And I really do have such a hard time when the process is over. For maybe one week I am very happy, very satisfied, but then the two or three months between the finish of the editing on one film and the beginning of scripting on the next, well, that is a very painful period. I think George Lucas was paraphrasing Da Vinci when he said, "a film is never finished it is only abandoned." Ah, yes! I know this quote and it's so true. Truffaut said something like "life for me is making films", and since my first film I would say the same goes for me. If I could not make films, I could not go on. Making films is like building a house. With each film I feel I am stacking another stone and at the end there is a space where I fell well, I feel safe. Actually, that's one of the reasons Camille becomes an architect — she wants to take control of the spaces and ways in which she lives. Speaking of the domestic, your films to date seem to be concerned with intimate character portraits set within domestic relationships. Have you deliberately established yourself within this territory or do you plan, at some point, to work beyond these borders? Hmm. Well, my next film is about the electro music scene and a DJ's place in it. Okay, so it isn't domestic but it's centred around the details rather than the big, dramatic moments. Read our review of Goodbye First Love here.
Melburnians were once skeptical about combining chicken and waffles. But times have changed, thanks to spots like Bowery to Williamsburg that have spent years destigmatising the classic breakfast dish from America's south. An illuminated subway sign reading 'Bowery to Williamsburg' welcomes diners into the eatery and pays homage to the New York subway stations. Sandwiches are served with a pickle and pretzels to instantly transcend you to a New York deli, but the food is not restricted just to that of waffles — it also serves a range of shakshukas and some killer sandwiches come lunchtime. Those with a little more time can sit and enjoy a Reese's cup with their coffee and breakfast, otherwise takeaway is available. The venue itself features a large communal dining table designed to spark up conversation with a stranger, a very New York touch, while there are tables outside on the street and cozy spots to hide away in. The customers are an eclectic mix of business people scoffing down a bagel and knocking back a coffee, new parents with prams catching up for brunch as well as young professionals with a laptop needing a break from the home office. The bagels start out with plain, onion, cinnamon & raisin and 'Everything' offers, while the fillings include the classic such as cream cheese, smoked salmon, roast garlic and dill. The bagel sandwiches are more adventurous with the mushroom and haloumi with roast garlic chive schmear and basil oil standing out. There is also a list of classic sandwiches such as the turkey club and the reuben at Bowery to Williamsburg. Appears in: Where to Find the Best Bagels in Melbourne for 2023
Sydney has just joined the likes of Bangkok, Hainan, Hanoi, Shanghai and Singapore as a home to the luxury hotel group Capella. The award-winning accommodation provider officially opened Capella Sydney today, Wednesday, March 15, bringing 192 luxury rooms to a historic inner-city building. Housed within the sandstone Department of Education Building on the corner of Bridge Street and Loftus Street just across from Macquarie Place Park, the expansive hotel adds another dose of lavish luxury to Sydney's hotel scene. The restoration and reimagination of the century-old building took seven years in the hands of the Pontiac Land Group. The nine-storey building has been transformed with a glamourous interior brought together by muted tones of white and brown giving the hotel both a vintage and timeless quality. "Pontiac Land has always been passionate about creating meaningful developments that contribute and help shape their communities. Capella Sydney was an ideal opportunity for us to sensitively repurpose this culturally significant landmark in the heart of downtown Sydney and transform it into a more public offering as a leading luxury hotel for everyone to be able to experience," says Pontiac Land Group Chief Executive Officer David Tsang. Guests are greeted with a flurry of acquired and commissioned art within the lobby including works from the likes of Judy Watson and Otis Hope Carey, as well as a robotic light installation titled Meadow from Dutch art duo DRIFT. Once you've navigated the lobby, you'll find elegant guestrooms fitted with Italian Frette linen, a standalone bathtub and sustainable vegan amenities created in partnership with Haeckels. And, there's plenty to love outside your room as well. There are two shared spaces for guests to unwind in, a spa offering relaxing rejuvenation treatments, a fitness centre, a heated 20-metre indoor pool and two dining areas. The first is the more laidback McRae Bar. While this hotel bar is still overflowing with luxury, boasting gold trimmings and a hefty cocktail menu, it's hard to compete with the sheer exuberance of Brasserie 1930. This European-influenced dining room comes from the acclaimed hospitality crew behind Bentley Restaurant and Bar, Monopole, Yellow and Cirrus, offering the likes of oysters, brown-butter scallops, beef tartare, Eastern rock lobster, whole roasted duck and three different steak options ramping up to the $110 Coppertree Farm rib eye. To mark the opening, Capella is kicking things off with a special Capella History Journey package. The $1500 experience for two includes a night's stay in a deluxe guestroom, breakfast at Brasserie 1920, a bespoke welcome amenity, a Capella Culturist experience that will take you on a curated journey through the history of the building and Sydney's Sandstone Precinct, 24-hour access to the fitness centre and valet parking. The package is bookable until Friday, June 30. Capella Sydney is now open at 35–29 Bridge Street, Sydney. Feeling inspired to book a truly unique getaway? Head to Concrete Playground Trips to explore a range of holidays curated by our editorial team. We've teamed up with all the best providers of flights, stays and experiences to bring you a series of unforgettable trips in destinations all over the world.
Andreas Amador's life is a beach, playing in the sand...literally. Although for Amador, 'playing' in the sand proves to be a little more intense than it may sound. A working morning for Amador consists of meticulously carving enormous scaled designs into the sand - all under the time crunch of the ocean tide. Up before sunrise, Amador arrives at his local San Francisco, California beaches around low-tide, creating the biggest possible space for a beach canvas. He then executes his pre-conceived, generally abstract and organic, designs. The sand is contoured with rakes, giving it a multidimensional look that hopefully Amador can capture in a birds-eye photo before tide rushes in. He generally designates about two hours to the process, but there is always the risk of his work being washed away too quickly. Of course, all of his sand drawings are effervescent by nature, only adding to their beauty. Amador sells prints and postcards of his photographed works, and offers other art services as well. He leads team-building workshops, birthday celebrations, and personal transformation journeys; he also creates commissioned pieces, including sand-scrawled marriage proposals. Simon Beck is another artist with a similar technique; his medium, however, is snow. https://youtube.com/watch?v=mP0O4Yu0kYE [via Gizmodo]
Imagine that you had become an international superstar playing Harry Potter, then spent more than a decade as the beloved character in one of the biggest movie franchises there is. Once your wizarding time was over, you'd probably want to take on a whole range of weird, wonderful and vastly different projects. Daniel Radcliffe, the only person who fits the above description, certainly seems to be following that path — and his latest action-comedy might just be the wildest entry on his post-Boy Who Lived resume so far. Since the HP films wrapped up back in 2011, Radcliffe has played a man who wakes up with horns protruding from his head in the aptly titled Horns, as well as Victor Frankenstein's apprentice Igor in the terrible movie that's conveniently named Victor Frankenstein. He also transforms into a corpse in Swiss Army Man — a corpse whose farts make it skim across the ocean like a jet ski. And, in the first season of great TV sitcom Miracle Workers, he's an angel trying to save the world from a slacker God (Steve Buscemi). Next, though, Radcliffe is stepping into the shoes of a snarky video game developer — one who is forced into a real-life fight-to-the-death game. His ordeal is also being live-streamed as part of an illegal death-match fight club channel called Skizm. Oh, and he has guns bolted to his hands. That's the premise of Guns Akimbo, which seems to combine elements of Battle Royale, Man of Tai Chi, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Nerve into one clearly, gleefully over-the-top package. As seen in the movie's just-dropped new trailer, Radcliffe's character, Miles, has to try to survive when he's thrust into the city-wide game — and navigate a world where brutal gladiator-style fights have become mass entertainment. The film also stars Ready or Not's Samara Weaving and Flight of the Conchords' Rhys Darby, with New Zealand filmmaker Jason Lei Howden (Deathgasm) behind the lens. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOFatKD0Vzo&feature=emb_logo Guns Akimbo will start screening around Australia on February 28 at special event screenings.
Opened in mid 2021, the Melbourne Marriott Hotel Docklands is the suburb's only five-star hotel, featuring a whole swag of onsite hospitality venues, including a swanky rooftop bar and pool. The site boasts 189 luxury rooms kitted out with features like 'retail-inspired wardrobes' and 55-inch LCD TVs. The whole design aesthetic of the petal-shaped building is inspired by the contours of a yacht, so expect sleek curves aplenty, backed by plenty of curated art installations and sculptured statement pieces. It's no wonder why this new addition to the luxury accommodation scene is one of Melbourne's top hotels. Then, there's the hefty collection of food and drink offerings presented in collaboration with the Peter Rowland Group, including one adjacent to the hotel's crowning glory — the stunning infinity pool, complemented by sweeping views to the west. Up here, you'll be swimming in a 28-metre wet-edge pool — or lounging on a day bed enjoying cocktails and high-end panoramas. Rooftop bar Sunset House is a buzzy Palm Springs-inspired destination where punters can lounge while grazing on chic snacks, signature cocktails and a range of Everleigh's bottled spritzes. Think, katsu sandos, duck jaffles, Moreton Bay bug rolls, and tuna sashimi teamed with a green chilli sambal and sesame tofu. Plus, a program of nighttime DJ sets to match. Meanwhile, elegant all-day restaurant Archer's is championing local ingredients and producers through a menu of bold, technique-driven plates. It's got two standout breakfast offerings, while lunch and dinner might feature the likes of ricotta and parmesan gnocchi with wild mushrooms and broad beans, and roast spring chicken with radicchio and sweetcorn. A considered drinks program pours plenty of sips starring local spirits, too. Casual all-day haunt Corsia serves primo St Ali coffee alongside Euro-leaning lunch dishes, pastries and Italian-style desserts. And sophisticated cocktail lounge Ada's is slinging chic bar snacks, revamped classic cocktails and an impressive range of non-alcoholic creations. [caption id="attachment_837297" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dining at Archer's[/caption] Images: Dianna Snape and Peter Rowland Group Appears in: The Best Hotels in Melbourne
In the densely packed area of Southbank, Blondie Bar provides casual dining with a bit of class for patrons looking for something better than a chain store pre or post theatre. You can choose to sit at the bar for a quick snack and drink or the main dining hall. The menu is an original mix of Asian and French inspired dishes. Some of the favourites include miso eggplant with smoked tofu, bean sprouts radish and herbs ($16), and the pork and potato croquettes with pineapple chutney aioli ($8). Providing a breather from Southbank's standard thoroughfare, there's nothing to complain about Blondie Bar.
Transforming Docklands into a glowing after-dark haven, Firelight Festival returns this winter from Friday, July 4–Sunday, July 6. Radiating with a family-friendly program, each of the festival's three jam-packed nights is filled with dazzling flames, immersive art, show-stopping music and warming winter bites. Presented in Melbourne for the first time, internationally renowned Tasmanian artist Amanda Parer will debut her large-scale inflatable sculptures, Man and Fantastic Planet. In another first, the festival will extend onto the Yarra River, with the 'Light the Night Boat Display' inviting boat owners to decorate their vessels with twinkling lights and compete for the Firelight Festival People's Choice Award. Throughout the weekend, almost 50 fire artists, dancers, musicians and roving performers will keep this free festival's vibe burning bright. Plus, 40 or so food trucks will help stave off winter's chill, dishing up a soul-stirring selection of winter treats, from sizzling street food to seasonal favourites like s'mores and hot chocolate. "Firelight Festival is the blazing hearth of Melbourne's winter events calendar — the perfect way to spend a night out with friends or family," says Lord Mayor Nick Reece. "Alongside fiery favourites like fire pits and flame jets, this festival will shine even brighter with Amanda Parer's luminous, larger-than-life art installations."
Skip the airfare but enjoy the party: that's the wallet-friendly outcome when Don't Let Daddy Know makes its Australian debut this summer. First held in Ibiza in 2012, the dance music festival has spread to 20 countries around the world since, including events in the UK, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Belgium and The Netherlands. Now, it has just announced its first trip Down Under. Next stops: Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. DLDK will hit Australia's east coast in January 2024, on a three-stop tour over one big weekend. The tunes will start at Qudos Bank Arena on Friday, January 12, then take over Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Saturday, January 13, before hitting up Eatons Hill Outdoors on Sunday, January 14. While getting everyone feeling like they're on an island in the Mediterranean Sea isn't an easy task, DLDK will be letting its tunes take care of the vibe. Enter a lineup featuring AFROJACK, Timmy Trumpet, MORTEN and Sub Zero Project, as well as RESTRICTED, Dimatik and Bobby Neon. So, that means dancing to 'Take Over Control', 'Freaks', 'Domestic', 'Darkest Hour' and more, at a festival that's dedicated to pairing well-known dance music names with up and comers. Australia keeps welcoming local stints for well-known overseas fests and parties, after This Never Happened Presents made its first Aussie visit this winter, and also Palm Tree Music Festival in autumn. DON'T LET DADDY KNOW 2024 AUSTRALIAN DATES: Friday, January 12 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Saturday, January 13 — Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne Sunday, January 14 — Eatons Hill Outdoors, Brisbane DON'T LET DADDY KNOW 2024 AUSTRALIAN LINEUP: AFROJACK Timmy Trumpet MORTEN Sub Zero Project RESTRICTED Bobby Neon Dimatik Don't Let Daddy Know will tour Australia in January 2024. Ticket pre sales start from 12pm local time on Wednesday, October 11, with general sales from 12pm local time on Tuesday, October 17 — head to the festival's website for further details.
After months of speculation, it seems Amazon's much-hyped Australian launch finally has a start date. And that date is tomorrow. As business information researchers IBISWorld confirmed, emails were sent out to a bunch of Amazon Marketplace sellers on Tuesday, suggesting that the online retail giant would be kicking off an 'internal testing phase' here in Australia at 2pm Thursday, November 23 — just in time for that hectic, pre-Christmas retail rush. There's not a whole lot of info to go on, though sellers are being told to ensure their pricing and stock is up-to-date, and that their accounts are ready for purchases from the start of this soft launch. They're also being given the opportunity to opt out of the testing phase, by temporarily deactivating their account. It looks like the rest of us will have to wait until tomorrow to see which, and how many products are available during the launch period — though if we know anything about Amazon, it's that they don't do things by halves. According to Senior Industry Analyst for IBISWorld Kim Do, Amazon's arrival in Australia is set to give the local retail industry a solid shake-up. "The company intends to challenge domestic retail prices by offering items for 30 percent less than domestic retailers," she explained, adding that technology products are expected to be Amazon's highest selling category. Let the retail therapy begin!
The Kid LAROI hasn't locked in exact dates for his rescheduled Down Under shows for 2024 as yet, after his first-ever Down Under stadium tour was postponed from February, and will now take place in October instead. You can still spend time with the Australian singer-songwriter before summer is over, however, thanks to the just-announced Kids Are Growing Up — because The Kid LAROI is getting the feature-length documentary treatment. Directed by Michael D Ratner, the film features interviews with The Kid LAROI, obviously, as well as Justin Bieber, Post Malone and more. Fans will know the general story that the doco follows, exploring how Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard became a teenage star with global fame. But, as it charts not just the successes but also the pressures along the way — especially for someone Howard's age — this is a behind-the-scenes story. Arriving on Prime Video worldwide on Thursday, February 29, Kids Are Growing Up started filming before 'Stay' became a huge hit, and also covers Howard navigating his mentor Juice WRLD's death. The path from being an unknown talent to selling out arenas is also covered, as is mental health, love, and getting ready for The Kid LAROI's first studio album The First Time and corresponding world tour — plus the quest for happiness along the way. "I can't wait for audiences to see this behind-the-scenes portrayal of my journey, which perfectly encapsulates some of the most rewarding and challenging years of my life and career so far," said Howard, announcing the documentary. Director Ratner also helmed 2021's Justin Bieber: Our World, and founded OBB Pictures, the production company behind both Bieber's and now The Kid LAROI's films. There's no word yet when the 'Without You', 'Thousand Miles', 'Love Again' musician's Down Under shows will lock in their new dates, after they were postponed so that Howard could confirm a "really big surprise and special guest" — alongside ONEFOUR, who will also be on the bill — and also due to "a bunch of other logistical stuff". In the interim, he's touring Europe in April. Kids Are Growing Up will be available via Prime Video from Thursday, February 29. Top image: Adam Kargenian.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas across the country. After months spent empty, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, Australian picture palaces are back in business — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, comedies, music documentaries, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jWZ6P1rWy4 FIRST COW Gone are the days when every image that flickered across the screen did so within an almost square-shaped frame. That time has long passed, in fact, with widescreen formats replacing the 1.375:1 Academy aspect ratio that once was standard in cinemas, and its 4:3 television counterpart. So, when a director today fits their visuals into a much tighter space than the now-expansive norm, it's an intentional choice. They're not just nodding to the past, even if their film takes place in times gone by. With First Cow, for instance, Kelly Reichardt unfurls a story set in 19th-century America, but she's also honing her audience's focus. The Meek's Cutoff, Night Moves and Certain Women filmmaker wants those guiding their eyeballs towards this exquisite movie to truly survey everything that it peers at. She wants them to see its central characters — chef Otis 'Cookie' Figowitz (John Magaro, Overlord) and Chinese entrepreneur King-Lu (Orion Lee, Zack Snyder's Justice League) — and to realise that neither are ever afforded such attention by the others in their fictional midst. Thoughtfully exploring the existence of figures on the margins has long been Reichardt's remit, as River of Grass, Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy have shown as well, but she forces First Cow's viewers to be more than just passive observers in this process. There's much to take in throughout this magnificently told tale, which heads to Oregon as most of Reichardt's movies have. In its own quiet, closely observed, deeply affectionate and warm-hearted fashion, First Cow is a heist movie, although the filmmaker's gentle and insightful spin on the usually slick and twist-filled genre bucks every convention there is. Initially, after watching an industrial barge power down a river, First Cow follows a woman (Alia Shawkat, Search Party) and her dog as they discover a couple of skeletons nearby. Then, jumping back two centuries and seeing another boat on the same waterway, it meets Cookie as he's searching for food. Whatever he finds, or doesn't, the fur-trapper team he works with never has a kind word to spare. But then Cookie stumbles across King-Lu one night, helps him evade the Russians on his tail, and the seeds of friendship are sown. When the duo next crosses paths, they spend an alcohol-addled night sharing their respective ideas for the future. Those ambitious visions get a helping hand after the Chief Factor (Toby Jones, Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom) ships in the region's highly coveted first cow, with Cookie and King-Lu secretly milking the animal in the dark of night, then using the stolen liquid to make highly sought-after — and highly profitable — oily cakes. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcOP5kQrABk WRATH OF MAN With revenge thriller Wrath of Man, filmmaker Guy Ritchie (The Gentlemen) and actor Jason Statham (The Meg) reunite. The pair both came to fame with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, repeated the feat with Snatch, then unsuccessfully tried again with Revolver, but they've spend the past 16 years heading in their own directions. During that stretch, the former subjected the world to his terrible Sherlock Holmes films, fared better with left-field additions to his resume like The Man From UNCLE and Aladdin, but didn't quite know what to do with King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. The latter has become an action go-to over the same time — with both forgettable and memorable flicks resulting, including three Fast and Furious movies and a stint scowling at Dwayne Johnson in the franchise's odd-couple spinoff Hobbs & Shaw. Thankfully, now that they're collaborating again, they're not just interested in rehashing their shared past glories. From Wrath of Man's first moments, with its tense, droning score, its high-strung mood and its filming of an armoured van robbery from inside the vehicle, a relentlessly grim tone is established. When Statham shows up shortly afterwards, he's firmly in stoic mode, too. He does spout a few quippy lines, and Ritchie once again unfurls his narrative by jumping between different people, events and time periods, but Lock, Stock Again or Snatch Harder this isn't. Instead, Wrath of Man is a remake of 2004 French film Le Convoyeur. While walking in someone else's shoes turned out horrendously for Ritchie with the Madonna-starring Swept Away, that isn't the case with this efficient, effective and engaging crime-fuelled effort, which finds its niche — and it's a new one for its central duo, at least together. Statham plays Patrick Hill, the newest employee at the Los Angeles-based cash truck company Fortico Securities. On his first day, his colleague Bullet (Holt McCallany, Mindhunter) dubs him H — "like the bomb, or Jesus H," he says — and the nickname quickly sticks. H joins the outfit a few months after the aforementioned holdup, with the memory of the two coworkers and civilian killed in the incident still fresh in everyone's minds. So, when gunmen interrupt his first post-training run with Bullet and Boy Sweat Dave (Josh Hartnett, Penny Dreadful), they're unsurprisingly jumpy; however, H deals with the situation with lethal efficiency. Cue glowing praise from Fortico's owner (Rob Delaney, Tom & Jerry), concern from his by-the-book manager (Eddie Marsan, Vice) and intrigue about his past from the rest of the team (such as Angel Has Fallen's Rocci Williams and Calm with Horses' Niamh Algar). Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MGhAbSsKtQ LAND Pitting humanity against nature is one of cinema's favourite setups; however, when movies dwarf a lone soul in their expansive surroundings, then watch them try to survive, the medium endeavours to explore exactly what makes us tick. The mere sight of a single figure attempting to endure against the elements can send a potent message, reminding viewers of how small we each are compared to the planet we live on, how fleeting our existence ultimately proves in its lengthy history and how witnessing one day following the next is never a given for anyone in any situation. Like everything from Into the Wild and The Grey to All Is Lost and Arctic before it, Land conjures up these ideas and themes within its hauntingly beautiful frames. It also boasts the space and patience to ponder the impressions our traumas and tragedies leave, too. None of these notions are new or unique, and Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam's (Submergence) screenplay doesn't ever pretend otherwise or treat them as such. Rather, this thoughtful drama knows that it's traversing well-worn and universal territory, and that films past and future will continue to walk similar paths — but director and star Robin Wright (Wonder Woman 1984) is also well aware that continually interrogating and reevaluating why we're here, where we fit into this world, what we choose to do with our lives, and how we change and evolve along the way is what makes us human. In her filmmaking debut after helming ten episodes of House of Cards over the years, Wright plays Edee, a woman who can only see one way to cope with the type of pain, loss and heartbreak that has forever upended life as she once knew it. With a trailer filled with tinned and dry food, she escapes to the Wyoming wilderness, where nothing but a rustic cabin, clear lakes, trees and mountains as far as the eye can see, and the occasional animal awaits. But when a bear destroys her food supplies and the region's frosty winters prove punishing beyond her expectations, Edee struggles to find the peace she seeks. Enter the kindly Miguel (Demián Bichir, Godzilla vs Kong), a kindred spirit with his own troubles to work through, and with his own draw to the land as well. When done badly, movies about finding solace and strength in the great outdoors threaten to turn the "nature is healing" trope into a movie, but Land isn't that feature. It doesn't unravel a romance against cinematographer Bobby Bukowski's (Irresistible) scenic imagery, either. Instead, it watches as Edee works through the minutiae of her chosen new existence, faces challenges, rediscovers the value of having even just one person to reach out to and slowly comes to terms with who she is after all she's been through. Wright's internalised performance is phenomenal, and although its final act moves too quickly, this is always a compassionate, poignant and affecting film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrpibk1CgUw CLIFF WALKERS 2016's Matt Damon-starring The Great Wall might've threatened to prove otherwise, but when Zhang Yimou makes a movie, it usually demands attention. The Chinese filmmaker's 1988 debut Red Sorghum won Berlinale's Golden Bear, 1991's Raise the Red Lantern remains stunning on multiple levels, and 2002's Hero, 2004's House of Flying Daggers and 2018's Shadow remain dazzling examples of the wuxia genre at its finest. With new release Cliff Walkers, the acclaimed director toys with an espionage narrative. Jumping into the spy realm is new for him, but when the film starts with sweeping shots of snowy Manchukuo — a Japanese-controlled state in China's northeast in the 30s and 40s, and the site of a death camp that's pivotal to the story — it's clear that he's behind the lens. Indeed, these frosty moments are so visually striking that, when the white landscape gives way to terse, tense altercations on trains and then within the city of Harbin, feeling disappointed is an instant side effect. Zhang has a meticulous eye for streets and interiors, too, however. And, for secret exchanges and fraught chases also. Benefiting from the filmmaker's regular director of photography Zhao Xiaoding as well, there isn't a single shot in Cliff Walkers that doesn't demand attention. Even the sight of fallen snow collecting in the brims of the hats worn by the feature's characters boasts its own beauty. Within its eye-catching frames and amidst its entrancing era-appropriate production design, Cliff Walkers tracks four Chinese operatives who've been tasked with rescuing a survivor of a massacre at the Manchukuo camp from the Japanese authorities — a job that's filled with peril from the outset. After parachuting into the snow in the feature's vivid and alluring opening, Zhang (Zhang Yi, The Eight Hundred) and Lan (Liu Haocun, A Little Red Flower) tackle one part of the mission, while their romantic partners Yu (Qin Hailu, The Best Is Yet to Come) and Chuliang (Zhu Yawen, The Captain) are paired up and saddled with the other. It's the 30s, and double-crossing, double agents and danger all follow, as does betrayal, heartbreak, tests of loyalty and hard choices. The film that unfurls doesn't overflow with surprises, plot-wise, but Zhang and first-time feature screenwriter Quan Yongxian focus on the details, making every coded interaction and suspenseful altercation as gripping as the movie's multi-layered cat-and-mouse games. After his previous picture, One Second, was pulled from the 2019 Berlinale at the last moment — officially due to "technical difficulties" — Cliff Walkers' patriotic leanings don't come as a shock; however, it doesn't dampen the film's visual splendour or involving narrative, either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24umxshK1f8 TWIST Forget watches, calendars and social media reminders that tell you what you were doing on this day years ago whether you like it or not — when it comes to conveying the passing of time, the entertainment industry has a surefire tactic. There's nothing quite like seeing the now-grown child of a famous face start appearing on-screen to make you realise how quickly the seconds, minutes, hours and more melt away. Twist is the latest film to have that effect, thanks to the first-time lead actor that plays the titular Charles Dickens-penned character. Rafferty Law looks exactly like his father, sounds like him and has the same stare that's worked so well for the latter for years, including in The Third Day and The Nest of late. He also appears here opposite Michael Caine, who Jude Law co-starred with in 2007's Sleuth; however, this isn't quite the start to his big-screen career that the younger Law would've hoped for. A modern version of Oliver Twist that reframes the famed orphan as a freerunner and graffiti artist who leaps between London's rooftops and tags the tallest of buildings, it's the update that no one could've asked for — including the teenage audience it's targeting. And, at a time when even Guy Ritchie is moving on from his usual bag of tricks with Wrath of Man, it enthusiastically follows in his decades-old footsteps. Presumably director Martin Owen (Killers Anonymous), screenwriters John Wrathall (The Liability) and Sally Collett (The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud), and the seven other folks given either idea or additional material credits just couldn't handle living in a world where Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Dickens hadn't crossed paths. There are no gruelling orphanage scenes in Twist, but there is a criminal mastermind called Fagin (Caine, Tenet), a gang of light-fingered pickpockets led by Dodge (Rita Ora, Fifty Shades Freed) and an abusive villain named Sikes (Lena Headey, Game of Thrones). When the eponymous teenager falls into their company, he's rightly apprehensive; however, he just wants to belong, even if that means becoming part of an art heist. If it wasn't for fellow building-leaping crew member Nancy (Sophie Simnett, Daybreak), Twist mightn't fall in as thickly with the thieves as he does. But Owen and his fellow creatives never let a cliche pass by. Similarly, as their hero and his new pals plot to pilfer paintings from gallery owner Losberne (David Walliams, Murder Mystery), the film doesn't miss an opportunity to spout hackneyed dialogue, fill its soundtrack with oh-so-literal choices and throw in more parkour whenever it seems that a few minutes might tick along without it. Caine should've left his Dickensian escapades to The Muppets Christmas Carol, while everyone else should've expended more than a couple of seconds thinking about this flimsy wannabe caper. And, while Rafferty Law's presence might remind the audience that time passes so quickly that multiple generations of families keep popping up on our screens (see also: Scott Eastwood in Wrath of Man, Lily-Rose Depp in Voyagers and John David Washington in Tenet, just to name a few), Twist makes its 88-minute running time feel like an eternity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN9RO5SnnCs THE DEVIL HAS A NAME In one of the many courtroom scenes in The Devil Has a Name's second half, Californian almond farmer Fred Stern (David Strathairn, Nomadland) takes the stand in the $2 billion lawsuit that he has brought against Shore Oil. He's demanding compensation for the poisoning of the land beneath his property for the past ten years, and the questioning and corresponding testimony turns to matters of intention and knowledge — with Stern pointing out that the energy behemoth mightn't have deliberately contaminated his farm initially, but it also didn't change its ways once it discovered the environmental effects of its actions. Instead, regional director Gigi Cutler (Kate Bosworth, Force of Nature) sent a flunky (Haley Joel Osment, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile) to try to buy Stern off. The latter's foreman Santiago (Edward James Olmos, Mayans MC) immediately questioned the motives behind the deal, but it took the sight of toxic water streaming out of his shower to inspire Stern to fight. As told in flashbacks by a whisky-swilling Cutler to Shore Oil's slimy CEO (Alfred Molina, Promising Young Woman), the resulting battle sees lawyers both crusading (Martin Sheen, Judas and the Black Messiah) and corporate (Katie Aselton, The Unholy) become involved, a villainous fellow company employee (Pablo Schreiber, First Man) endeavour to derail Cutler, Stern's property threatened and Santiago's undocumented status given a public airing. Olmos also directs The Devil Has a Name, working with a script by first-timer Robert McEveety. Just like the company at its centre, their film has an intention-versus-reality problem. Taking its cues from the very real water contamination wars in Central Valley, passion, anger and a worthy point pump through the feature. But The Devil Has a Name isn't merely the latest in a long line of sincere dramas about corporate exploitation of natural resources and the very real consequences for everyday folks, as seen with Dark Waters, Promised Land and Erin Brockovich. Thanks to its overboiled tone, Bosworth and Molina's scenery-chewing, Schreiber and Osment's utter cartoonishness, and its eager bluntness, it strives for the comic causticity that Thank You for Smoking applied to the tobacco industry and I Care a Lot to legal guardianship. Finding a sense of balance between earnest and darkly comedic isn't Olmos' strength, though, and nor is pairing social activism with exaggerated melodrama. It doesn't help that Reynaldo Villalobos' (Windows on the World) cinematography always appears to be moving, with little reason, or that Bosworth is only ever asked to be in femme fatale or hysterical mode. When any combination of Strathairn, Olmos and Sheen share the screen, however, it's easy to see how The Devil Has a Name would've worked without its soapy, over-the-top quirks — but that's not the movie that Olmos has made, sadly. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on January 1, January 7, January 14, January 21 and January 28; February 4, February 11, February 18 and February 25; March 4, March 11, March 18 and March 25; and April 1, April 8, April 15 and April 22. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Nomadland, Pieces of a Woman, The Dry, Promising Young Woman, Summerland, Ammonite, The Dig, The White Tiger, Only the Animals, Malcolm & Marie, News of the World, High Ground, Earwig and the Witch, The Nest, Assassins, Synchronic, Another Round, Minari, Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra, The Truffle Hunters, The Little Things, Chaos Walking, Raya and the Last Dragon, Max Richter's Sleep, Judas and the Black Messiah, Girls Can't Surf, French Exit, Saint Maud, Godzilla vs Kong, The Painter and the Thief, Nobody, The Father, Willy's Wonderland, Collective, Voyagers, Gunda, Supernova, The Dissident and The United States vs Billie Holiday.
Eco-warrior Joost Bakker (Greenhouse by Joost, Brothl) is at it again, acting as creative consultant for what may become the world's most sustainable shopping centre. Teaming up with Frasers Property Australia, Bakker will design a 2000-square-metre rooftop farm and restaurant at the heart of the new Burwood Brickworks development — set to begin construction in mid 2018, just 15 kilometres south of the Melbourne CBD. The rooftop's massive agricultural hub will sit within the complex's 12,700-square-metres of retail and hospitality space, with the urban farm split between greenhouse, external planter box and landscaped growing areas. Some of the sustainable elements Bakker plans to implement include a closed-loop water system, composting capability, and minimal transportation of food and waste. It has yet to be decided which restaurateur will run the space, with Frasers currently seeking expression of interest from established food and drink providores. The rooftop is already sounding like an inner-city gem and we are eager to see which tenant takes this massive project on. "There is such a hunger for this kind of development throughout the world," says Bakker. It really fills a gap in the market to feed and nurture conscious consumers... [that] want to shop, eat and relax in environments that truly support a sustainable world." The design of the wider mixed-use development will also focus on sustainability, using a large solar PV system and an embedded electricity network to target a minimum five-star green rating, with the aim of becoming Australia's first six-star Green Star Design — and to achieve Living Building Challenge accreditation. This accreditation is seriously hard to obtain and means the building must have a net zero carbon footprint, produce more electricity than it consumes, grow agriculture on 20 percent of the site, and prove net water and waste positive. It must also be constructed using non-toxic and recycled materials, and have other social benefits like access to natural daylight and indoor air quality. Once completed in October 2019, the Burwood Brickworks development will join the challenge to determine if they meet the criteria to be considered the world's most sustainable shopping centre. Here's hoping Frasers puts their money where their mouth is.
In the quarter-century since Pokémon first burst into the world, its slogan has gotten quite the workout. The entire franchise is about catching 'em all, but that sentiment has proven rather adaptable. When it comes to Pokémon video games, you've gotta play 'em all. Love the cards and merchandise? You've gotta collect 'em all. Adore seeing pocket monsters on-screen? You've gotta watch 'em all. Like Pokémon-themed doughnuts? You need to devour 'em all. Hang on, Pokémon-themed doughnuts? Yes, they're a real thing that you can indeed munch your way through now, all thanks to Krispy Kreme. And, in the spirit of the franchise, you really do need to catch them separately if you're eager to get your fix in-store, with a different variety of doughy goodness dropping every fortnight from Tuesday, September 7. On the menu: Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle and Poké Ball doughnuts, with each type decked out in the appropriate colours and decorations. Obviously, if you're saying "I choose you" to a Pikachu doughnut, you're tucking into yellow icing — atop a doughnut that's filled with choc crème, then dipped in white truffle, and then decked out with a Pikachu white chocolate plaque. If you're grabbing a Poké Ball variety, you'll find it covered in white icing and red sprinkles, and also with an appropriate white choc plaque. The Bulbasaur type features green apple icing, sand sugar and a crème swirl, while the Charmander kind is orange-hued and filled with vanilla custard. And, when it comes to the light blue-toned Squirtle, it's jammed with strawberry filling. You'll find the Pokémon doughnuts at Krispy Kreme stores across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and Auckland — or, if you fancy catching 'em all in once, you can grab a 12-pack (featuring one Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle and Poké Ball doughnut, two Pikachu doughnuts and six original glazed doughnuts) online. And if you're wondering why you're now able to eat 'em all, that's because Krispy Kreme is celebrating Pokémon's 25th anniversary. If you want to bust out Pokémon Go while you're snacking, or watch Detective Pikachu, that's perfectly understandable. Krispy Kreme's Pokémon range is available from Tuesday, September 7 — with a different doughnut on offer in-store every fortnight (for $3.75 each) and the full collection available online (in dozen packs for $29.95).
Grief. Asking for forgiveness. Moving forward. Thematically, that's the initial three-season plan for Shrinking, Apple TV+'s Jason Segel (Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty)-, Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny)- and Jessica Williams (Road House)-starring comedy series about therapists endeavouring to help their patients while rarely having all of the answers to their own problems. Audiences will get to see at least that journey from this kind-hearted gem, which was co-created by TV veteran Bill Lawrence fresh off Ted Lasso's success, teaming up with the soccer-themed hit's Brett Goldstein, aka Roy Kent, as well as Segel. Just as Shrinking's second season started airing in mid-October 2024, the show was renewed for a third season. "That is the beginning, middle and end of this story, without a shadow of a doubt. And I think people know from what I do that there has to be an undercurrent of hope and optimism in there," Lawrence tells Concrete Playground. "I'm not going to say everything would be nicely cut and dried, but I'm not sure people would ever watch my shows again if the end of this was 'Jimmy moved into the mountains and decided to be sad and alone forever'. You know what I mean? 'Don't even bother trying!'." Lawrence, who was also behind Spin City in the 90s, Scrubs and Cougar Town in the 00s, plus 2024 newcomer Bad Monkey, isn't saying that's all there'll be to Shrinking's on-screen journey — there's a way forward if, once season three rolls around, it earns another renewal again from there. "We knew that that was the end of this particular story. I think that's what's fun about television now, is you tell stories with a beginning, middle and end. Doesn't mean that the show can't go on, it just means if we go beyond these three seasons, I treat it like a book," he advises. "Bad Monkey, there's another book by Carl Hiaasen with some of the same characters, at least the ones that aren't dead. It's a completely new story, with a completely new inception point, and I love it just as much as the previous one. So I love the idea of doing that with a TV show like this, hopefully." Since its early 2023 debut, Shrinking has spent its time with Segel's Jimmy Laird, Ford and Williams as his colleagues Paul Rhoades and Gaby Evans, plus Jimmy's teenage daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell, AfrAId), best friend Brian (Michael Urie, Goodrich), patient Sean (Luke Tennie, CSI: Vegas), and neighbours Liz (Christa Miller, Head of the Class) and Derek (Ted McGinley, The Baxters). When the show began its tale, Jimmy was consumed by loss and pain after the death of his wife in a car accident. With Alice, he'd largely been absent since tragedy changed their lives forever, and his friends had been picking up the slack. With the folks paying him for his professional assistance, Jimmy then began trying to push them out of their comfort zones. "I think one of the things that actually was a real breakthrough for me from participating in the show is understanding that one of the real pitfalls of therapy is getting caught in a weekly loop of talking about your problems, but not actually trying to change them. I hadn't really thought of that," Segel explains. "You have people who've been in therapy for years and years and years, but haven't really made any progress. And so I think that that's one of the things that was frustrating Jimmy, is feeling like his patients were caught in a rut — and 'what do I start doing to change your behaviour? What do we do that's actionable today?'. So that's been really cool, and I think it's been cool for the viewers, too, to think about it in that way." Shrinking is another of Lawrence's series with hug-inducing levels of warmth at its core, as Ted Lasso was so welcomely. As with Scrubs, it finds both deep emotion and humour in healthcare's vicinity. And as everything on his resume since Spin City has been, it's about the families that we make not just through the bonds of blood. Vulnerability sits at its heart, too, which Segel appreciates, especially as the Freaks and Geeks, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, How I Met Your Mother star's concept of what that means has evolved over his quarter-century-plus acting career. "I think that my idea of vulnerability has become more sophisticated as I have gotten older," he notes. "When I was a young man, to me the most-vulnerable thing was doing full-frontal nudity during a breakup, and that's just literally vulnerable. But I think that in this show, I've started to realise more and more that real grown-up vulnerability is saying 'I'm afraid' or saying 'I'm struggling and I need help'. Asking for help, what a vulnerable thing. And so I think that you'll see a lot of characters committing real acts of vulnerability and bravery by asking each other for help." Shrinking's 12-episode second season picks up with Jimmy being confronted with consequences from his new strategy for therapy, and Alice — and everyone else — concerned that he'll return to his self-destructive spiral. As it digs into seeking not just assistance but forgiveness, it also brings Goldstein (The Garfield Movie) in front of the camera, and forces its characters to begin reckoning with what it truly means to even think about allowing yourself to forge a path beyond past sorrows, mistakes and fears. How does Lawrence approach his now-trademark mix of emotional complexity and comedy, including while championing kindness? How crucial is Segel's involvement, especially in conveying details that don't need to be written on the page? And how did Ford come to be onboard? What does Segel learn working beside the acting icon — and how does he tackle a project when he's so intricately involved off-screen? We chatted to Lawrence and Segel about all of the above and more. On Making Sitcoms with Emotional Complexity, Including Ted Lasso and Shrinking Both Heroing Kindness, Self-Belief and Asking for Help Bill: "Everybody that you get to talk to that does what I do, they without a doubt had influences and idolised different shows and writers when they grew up. And for me, I grew up on that type of TV. People forget, because they aren't as old as I am, M*A*S*H was this show that was like the biggest show in America — a sitcom that would be broad and silly and goofy, and it would turn on a dime and you would find yourself sobbing about a patient that passes away or a story that you didn't see coming. You'd just get blindsided. And I always gravitated to TV like that. Even The Office, which I think is so brilliant and silly, and Michael Scott is a ridiculous character, they somehow found ways that he could still turn on a switch and hit you emotionally. I like shows like 30 Rock and Veep, which are a testament to amazing joke-writing, and sardonic and satire, and I wish I could do them — I can't. But I got very lucky. I knew with the show Scrubs that I wanted to try and do this, and see if you could do shows with big comedy that then would maybe sometimes have hairpin curves into emotional depth. And I remember when I tried to sell Scrubs, one of the executives that I sell to said 'I'm not sure you can do broad, silly comedies and then make people care — like, a fantasy, and then make people care if a patient lives or dies or not'. And I used to say 'I think you can, if you just turn the lights down and play some indie music'. I was joking, but it turned out to be right. I think there's a lot of people out there that laugh their way through pain, and I think that's why maybe sometimes these shows work, hopefully." On Shrinking's Focus on a Therapist Trying to Help Others While Needing Help Himself Jason: "I think that just on its face, the premise of somebody practising therapy while they themselves are going through a nervous breakdown is an electric idea. That's what comedy is, right? It's setting up these two opposing walls, and comedy is the space in between. Forgetting Sarah Marshall's about a guy trying to get over a breakup and running into his ex and her new boyfriend. It's these things in opposition to each other. So someone trying to help other people get well while they themselves are not well, it's just a great place to start." On the Balancing Act Between Silly Comedic Moments and Deep Emotion That Touches Audiences Bill: "It could be disastrous. I'll tell you right now, the stuff I've done in my career that's failed, have failed because of our inability to navigate those moments, and it just ends up seeming inauthentic. And without patting myself on the back, because I have very little to do with it, there's a chemistry to a TV show. Shows like this work often because the cast, there's actors and actresses top to bottom on Shrinking and on Ted Lasso and on Scrubs that have the ability to be making you laugh and being goofy and silly one second, and then to literally gather themselves and take a breath, and be pulling at your heartstrings the next. It's a special talent for actors and actresses. One of the great gifts of this stage of my career is getting to watch Harrison Ford do that. I knew what a great actor he was. I didn't know how funny he was. And I certainly didn't know how smooth he'd be at making the turn from one spot to another." Jason: "I think that we try to stay, if this makes sense, as true to life as possible, because my experience of life is it's not a whole bunch of hugging and learning. It's clunky and awkward, and the great thing about having friends you really trust and believe in is, yeah, there's some hugging and learning, but there's also a whole lot of 'get off your ass, we're going out to dinner'. There's a lot of 'dump that guy, he's a you-know-what?', as opposed to sitting around moping. 'Let's get revenge on him', you know. This is the way I think we actually behave — we make each other laugh and we hold each other by the hand and drag each other along. And so I actually think it's easier than it might seem, that the more honestly you write, the funnier it is." On Getting Harrison Ford for His First Main Role in a TV Comedy — and Learning From Him Bill: "I gave him my soul. He's a mystical creature and I signed my soul away. No, he's not. It's still crazy. When I was 25, I created the show Spin City with my mentor with Gary Goldberg, and the fact that Michael J Fox was doing it, I couldn't comprehend it. It was the first big job I ever had and he turned out to be exactly the type of person that you would hope he would be being a fan. And I did not expect to have that experience again as a guy in my 50s. And Harrison, to his credit, he's like 'yo, man, I'm trying new stuff. I've never done a TV show. I've never done a comedy'. A couple months ago he's like 'I've never done a Marvel movie'. I'm like 'you work harder than anybody I know, and you're 82'. It makes you almost feel guilty if you're ever complaining about being tired. It's been a career highlight for me that I did not expect to have at this point in my life." Jason: "Harrison and I both want this thing to turn out great, and we both work really hard and do our prep and all that stuff. But one of the things I learned from Harrison is that I really feel a sense of ownership and stress about it turning out well. And I think one of the things that I've learned from Harrison is 'hey kid, you've earned the right to trust knowing that you're good at this, and it's going to be good. You don't have to be scared until it's good. You know it's going to be good. You've done all the work. You know you're good at this. Do your prep. Show up. Nail it. It's going to be good'. That has been really helpful for me, because I'm sort of holding my breath until the finished product comes out and I like it. And I would enjoy myself a lot more in this job and in this life if I just had a little more ease about it always seems to work out. I still haven't bought that lesson yet. 'What if this time it doesn't?', you know." On the Importance of Segel's Casting — and What He Can Convey with His Face That Doesn't Need to Be on the Page Bill: "We talked a little bit about what the prototypes for my shows are. And he's such an inherently likeable actor. I'll tell you something I haven't told everybody. We made it a joke in the writers' room. He's playing some heavy stuff, and the tendency for writers is to overwrite it, to have characters say 'I'm really sad' or to say 'that thing that you did hurt me'. And Jason, one time, one time only, we said 'do we have to write this line or can you do it with your face?' — and he's like 'oh, I can do it with my face'. That has become shorthand in the writers' room. He's so good that we're like 'do we have to, can we go home, or do we have to write something here? It depends whether or not Jason can do it with his face'. But even though it's a joke, I watch some of these stories play out on his face and see what he's doing. Man, he's so good. He's so good and such a talented writer and just a good guy. Don't tell him I said it, but I really like him." On Segel Co-Creating and Co-Writing Shrinking, as Well as Acting Jason: "It's interesting because that's been actually the majority of my career, is writing something and shepherding it from the beginning, and so I'm very comfortable and familiar with that idea. I think that one of the benefits it has, for this show in particular, is that I get to quarterback the scenes when I'm on set that I'm in, knowing what we're trying to accomplish from a more bird's-eye view than you have when you're an actor for hire. I also love just being an actor for hire on projects where I do that. There's something very relaxing about it, because you're like 'most of this is somebody else's problem'. But I think that when I'm on Shrinking, I feel very protective of it. And I want it to be great and I want to help my castmates shine, and I just love it very, very much." On Families of Circumstance Sitting at the Heart of Lawrence's TV Shows, From Spin City and Scrubs to Ted Lasso and Shrinking Bill: "Found family, definitely. Mentorship, definitely. Oh shoot, I just do the same thing over. No, I'm joking. I cherish it in my own life. I was an only child. I built worlds around me of people that I loved and loved spending time with, and a family as well. And I think one of the things that maybe lay people don't know about Hollywood, because Hollywood's got a bad rap — deservedly so in some cases — but the positives are most people got in due to mentorship, and the best experiences people have involved found family and building a community on a show or a play or a movie. I still spend time with the cast and crew of Scrubs, not because we're working together, but because I sincerely love them. And I'm only good at writing what I know. So it's either writing about that or writing about a guy who's deathly afraid of his wife. She's so good. I'm just kidding. I'm just trying to get a laugh. She's awesome, man." On Segel Always Drawing Upon His Personal Life, Whether He's Writing, Acting or Both Jason: "I would say that everything that I participate in the writing process, or act in, is drawn from my personal life. It's the only way I know how to make art. I don't think we manifest it out of nowhere. I think it's more about transmutation. Like, what comes in and then what do you turn it into? I don't think that the kind of grief that we're exploring needs to be specifically about having lost a partner. I think it's the same kind of grief we experience from a big breakup. I think it's the same kind of grief we felt after COVID when there was lost time, when all of a sudden two years of our lives were gone and we'll never get them back. And so, yeah, there are moments in the exploration of Jimmy getting over losing his wife when I think about breakups, or I think about paths of my life that could have been taken that I didn't take, things that will never be that I really believed were going to happen. So I think it's all personal. That's the only way I know how to do it." On Segel's Favourite Shrinking Character Jason: "It may be surprising, but my favourite character is Derek, Ted McGinley's character, because to me, he is the best of us. He represents being unencumbered by doubt. He's just a guy who wants everyone to be having a good time. Don't sweat the small stuff. I wish my life felt more like that. I wish that my life felt more like how Derek feels on a day-to-day basis. Like 'oh hey great, we get to take a drive today? Oh, hot dogs — great!' What a way to live, right?" On What Gets Lawrence Excited About a New Project After Making TV for More Than Three Decades Bill: "I think that the day that I'm not excited to get paid to write stories for a living, I will go teach and hang it up, because I don't need any extra juice to get me going. I'm so lucky to do this. The only other job I ever had was painting the houses, and I wasn't that good at it. And so I hope people know that I'm grateful every day. I think the thing that makes me excited to do it now is I get to work with young people that want to get into this industry. I get to work with people that still show up and are like 'wow, a TV show!', and it's impossible to be cynical and jaded when you get to be around that. I get to talk to people like yourself that, I would argue, would not be doing this unless they grew up as TV and movie nerds like I did, and wanted to talk about all this stuff. I didn't expect to have a career renaissance in my 50s, but I'm going to ride it out as long as I can, and until people realise that they've made a grave mistake, and just keep having fun and working with friends." Shrinking streams via Apple TV+. Read our review of season one.
There's an astonishing story at the heart of I, Daniel Blake, the latest film from veteran director Ken Loach, and the winner of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. After suffering a heart attack while standing on scaffolding on a building site, the titular character (Dave Johns) seeks government assistance. Alas, despite his doctor's advice that he needs rest to recover, a series of bureaucrats deem him fit to work, and refuse to listen to his pleas about his health. His situation isn't unique; at the local benefits office, he meets a single mother, Katie (Hayley Squires), similarly battling an uncaring system. Exposing the punitive barriers those in need are forced to face when they're looking for help, the movie has been garnering a strong reaction as it travels around the world. However, there's another incredible tale driving I, Daniel Blake. Lead actor Johns is a stand-up comedian who has appeared on British panel TV shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8 Out of Ten Cats, and now makes the leap to film to star in his first feature at the age of 59. His is a devastatingly naturalistic performance in a heartbreaking piece of social realist cinema, and one that lingers long after viewing. With I, Daniel Blake releasing in Australian cinemas after playing at the British Film Festival, we chatted with Johns about making his first movie, receiving the script page-by-page as shooting progressed, and the responsibility of making a film that hits so close to home for so many people. ON MAKING THE JUMP FROM STAND-UP TO STARRING IN A KEN LOACH FILM "I was aware of Ken's work — and just to meet Ken, I said to people, friends of mine, 'If I could just get in and do the improv with him, that'd just be a great experience'. So I never dreamt that I would be offered the part. We shot it for ten weeks up in the northeast of England, around the area where I was brought up as a kid. And I remember the first day, I mean, I'd done plays and stuff like that, but I hadn't walked on set and seen the enormity of what I'd taken on. 'Oh my god, I'm the lead of this film,' I remember thinking. 'Oh, have I bitten off too much?' And now people say to me, 'You know, what's it like, your first film?' — and I go 'Well, if it's my first film and it's won the Palme d'Or, I think I've set my bar a little too high'. Now I'm up for best actor at the European Film Awards this year in Poland. I'm up for best actor and best newcomer and the British Independent Film Awards. Variety magazine in America have tipped me as number 20 to win an Oscar behind Jake Gyllenhaal and Colin Farrell, so it is pretty surreal. I think your career should be a bit of an adventure. And if you do one thing in your life that you can be proud of, to be in a Ken Loach film that has made such an impact and won the Palme d'Or, I'm very proud and very honoured to be in this position." ON DISCOVERING THE STORYLINE AS HE WENT "The thing with the way Ken works is he doesn't tell you much about the film. You don't get the full script, you only get a couple of pages each day — and he shoots chronologically, so basically you are thrown into this life where you're just living this life everyday. And you don't really know what's coming until you get the two or three pages of script in the evening that you go away and learn and bring in the next day. I think that's so you don't have that sort of [situation] where you and the other person you're doing the scene with, you can't look at page 26 of the script, and go, 'Oh look, this is our big scene'. Ken doesn't want you to pre-empt what's going to happen. He wants it all to be in the moment. A lot of people think there's a lot of improvisation in Ken's films — I mean all that script is all scripted, it's just that Paul Laverty [Loach's long-time screenwriter] and Ken, they give you the chance to own the words. That's how it comes across. And because he shoots chronologically, and because he has no closed sets — he puts you in real situations — it has that gritty, real feel about it." ON REACTING TRUTHFULLY RATHER THAN ACTING "I think you rely on truth. You rely on your true emotions, and you actually respond truthfully. You don't have any chance to pre-empt how you're going to feel. The first day, Ken said to me on set, 'When you're in scenes with Hayley, when you're in the scene together, if you just listen to each other and you find the truth, it will look like that on the screen'. So that's the notes I got, so I just took that on board. Just basically, like, he would say to me, 'You're getting a phone call today on set'. And I'd go, 'All right, who's it from?' And he'd go, 'You'll find out when you get the phone call'. It's a very fascinating process. It makes you rely more on your gut reaction rather than any technique you might have as an actor, I would imagine. In any of the scenes I had with the kids or the neighbours or with Hayley, I think I was reacting to and responding to how she was playing it to me, you know. I think it was just being honest if something touched you, and then you brought the honest emotion to it. I think that's the only way you can do it when it's like that." ON FORGETTING THAT HE'S MAKING A MOVIE "The way Ken shoots, he doesn't have loads of people on set. There's no makeup touching you up before the scene, there's no checking your costume before every take, it's basically, you leave the unit and that's it. And basically, if we were in my flat, it'd just be the camera in the corner of the room — he never tells you what lens he's got on the camera, so you don't know how close the shot is. And there were times when in scenes I forgot I was in a film, really. I was just reacting to what Katie, the character, was telling us. And that was a pretty amazing feeling, when there were times when you forgot you were making a film and you were just talking with this person." ON THE REALITY BEHIND THE FILM "The first thing Ken said to me when we did preparations — I had to learn how to carve the wooden fish, did a little woodwork course, just a couple of days — and then he said to me, 'Fill that 52 page assessment form in.' And I was like, 'What?' And I came back and went, 'I can't do this, this is insane'. And then it got me thinking, imagine if you were sick, and you had to fill that in, and if you filled it in wrong. And so it was revealed to me how unjust the system is. And I think it is because it is a system that is spread by this austerity which has been played around the world. I mean, every film festival — I took the summer off to go to film festivals with this — and at every film festival I went, at Locarno in Switzerland, in Spain, in Italy, in Slovakia, everywhere we went with this film, people came up afterwards and said 'This is happening in our country as well'. Because of the big banking crash and because of the finances, the way globalisation is going, you see the poorest and the less able are taking the biggest burden. And that's what's happening with the welfare system. I think they've lost sight of the person and they are just trying to save money, and it is bureaucracy, and it is outsourced to a company, and these questions are insane." ON THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PLAYING A PART THAT HITS SO CLOSE TO HOME FOR SO MANY PEOPLE "You can't just do this film and go, 'Well, that's it, I'm done.' You go on and you do other work, but you still come back to it because you do feel a responsibility to it. I mean, I spoke at the Labor party conference this year — I've never done that in my life before, you know. So I do feel a bit that we have to see this film through, you know, and I don't think it is the sort of film that is going to go away. I think it's going to change things, because people here are angry, and people in America. People have said it will speak to the working poor who're in America. And it has already been mentioned in the House of Commons here by the opposition to Theresa May, so it is having an effect. I'm very pleased for Ken and for Paul, who, you know, thank the heavens that we have people like Paul Laverty and Ken Loach who are still making films that give a voice to people who don't have one." I, Daniel Blake is now screening in Australian cinemas. You can read our review here.
When politicians start talking about public transport again, it's safe to say a state election is in the works. And, while the usual spiel is about the benefits of Myki (lol) and the inherent evilness of fare evaders, this morning's announcement is actually something to get excited about. Premier Denis Napthine today announced that if re-elected in November, his government will make trams in the CBD free of charge, and all zone 2 tickets will be capped at zone 1 prices. Better yet, Opposition leader Daniel Andrews backed the move, stating that if Labor takes office, the proposed changes will go ahead as planned. In conclusion, no matter who you vote for, this is actually happening. The changes are especially welcome news for commuters in the outer suburbs whose ticket prices will be dropping by $4.96 a day, equating to savings of around $1,200 per year. This will undoubtedly make a big difference to those struggling to keep up with Melbourne's rising cost of living — we are now ranked as the sixth most expensive city in the world. The news of free trams is even more explosive. No longer do you need to watch your back while hitching a ride from the State Library to Fed Square (seriously, I once got a $212 fine for this three-block trip); trams in both the CBD grid and Docklands will be unpoliced and free to ride from January 1. The free area will include everything between Flinders Street, La Trobe Street, and Spring Street with the added inclusion of Queen Victoria Markets. However, once you pass these zones you will have to touch on (and I'm sure the likeable folks of Public Transport Victoria will be waiting with open arms). Though the move will cost the state government upwards of $100 million, it's a win for a number of reasons. Firstly, it will ease congestion and speed up CBD travel with no one incessantly tapping their Mykis on and off, and the tourism industry will also flourish as visitors will no longer need to purchase non-refundable Myki tickets or forlornly wait for the slow and ineffective City Circle tram. However, concerns have been raised about the repercussions of such changes. Tony Morton, President of the Public Transport Users Association told The Age, ‘‘We absolutely believe that what this will do is increase fares overall." "When zone 3 tickets were abolished, any saving that there was from that was more than clawed back with increases to zone 1 and 2 fares,’’ he said. For the moment, we're remaining cautiously optimistic. Any changes that endorse and strengthen our public transport system are obviously a step in the right direction towards long-term sustainability. But at the same time, we've been burnt in the past. Via The Age. Image credit: Michael Aulia.
If a certain 70s-made, 50s-set musical rom-com about an Australian transfer student falling in love with an American high schooler in California is the one that you want — always — then you'll know that Grease isn't just about the hit 1978 movie. Before it became a silver-screen classic, it was a popular stage musical. After its movie success, it spawned a 1982 Michelle Pfeiffer-starring sequel, too. And now, in 2023, it'll span a prequel streaming series as well: Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. Welcome back to Rydell High, but before Danny (John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) were hopelessly devoted to each other. Rise of the Pink Ladies is set in 1954, four years prior to the events of Grease. Clearly, there's no prizes for guessing which group of students earn the new show's focus. Here, in a ten-episode series set to stream via Paramount+ in Australia on Friday, April 7 — with New Zealand airing details yet to be revealed — the eponymous girl gang gets an origin story. Yes, even Grease is jumping on the bandwagon, with explaining the stories behind already proven hits pop culture's favourite thing of late. In the just-dropped first trailer for the series, the titular young women are given words of warning about appropriate behaviour. "Ladies, you must be careful with whom you associate," Assistant Principal McGee (Jackie Hoffman, Only Murders in the Building) tells them. "A girl's reputation is all that she has." Pink jackets, T-Birds, dance scenes (including while wearing mechanics' overalls), a new take on a familiar track advising that Grease is indeed the word: they're all included in the debut sneak peek, which also promises that "things are about to get wild". Cast-wise, Marisa Davila (Love and Baseball), first-timer Cheyenne Isabel Wells, Ari Notartomaso (Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin) and Tricia Fukuhara (Loot) play the four teens who start the Pink Ladies, and are joined on-screen by Shanel Bailey (The Good Fight), Madison Thompson (Emergency), Johnathan Nieves (Penny Dreadful: City of Angels), Jason Schmidt (FBI: Most Wanted) and Maxwell Whittington-Cooper (The Photograph). This isn't the last time that all things Grease will pop up again, either — not including the stage musical and OG movie's enduring popularity, of course — with a Danny and Sandy-focused prequel flick Summer Lovin' also in the works. Check out the first trailer for Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies below: Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies starts streaming via Paramount+ in Australia on Friday, April 7. New Zealand release details haven't yet been revealed — we'll update you when further information comes to hand.
Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from the smallest inventions. A little over two weeks ago three Sydney-based butter enthusiasts launched a Kickstarter campaign for a butter knife with one slight design modification. Since then, they've raised over $220,000 in funding, attracted a steady flow of global media attention, and made hundreds of thousands of readers drool and slap their keyboards in excitable butter-loving anticipation. So, what's the deal? Humble though it may seem, this little piece of cutlery claims to solves one of humanity's age-old problems — how to evenly spread cold butter onto bread. "Say goodbye to hard clumps of butter ripping apart your morning toast," reads the product's Kickstarter page. The Stupendous Splendiferous ButterUp — yep, that's it's real name — "turns cold, hard butter into sumptuous easy to spread ribbons of dairy goodness." With a grater function incorporated into the knife's blade, the ButterUp slices up your unholy fridge butter and weirdly makes you feel like you're decorating your toast with cheese stringers. In case you can't fathom the enormity of this genius, here's a handy gif: Of course, this is a nice little invention. Anything that aids the consumption of butter generally gets a big fat thumbs up from us. But the response to the product has been truly staggering. Articles about the invention have been published by The Daily Mail, Wired, LostatEMinor, CBS, and Mashable. The project has ten days to go, and they've already surpassed their funding goal by over $180,000. "I have seldom previously had such a visceral reaction to something so simple," reads a comment on their Kickstarter page. "Too-hard butter has been a lifelong irritation and source of idle family chat as long as I can remember," said another supporter of the project. In fact, most responses from their nearly 9,000 backers have sounded a little like the actors from infomercials that seem to struggle with every daily tasks. Nevertheless, if you'd like to be part of the impending butter revolution, you can pledge money to ButterUp's Kickstarter campaign up until Wednesday, September 3. You can snag one for yourself for as little as $12 (or $15 if you want it delivered by Christmas). Either that or you can make like all of Europe and just leave your butter on the kitchen counter. For more information head to ButterUp's Kickstarter page.
Do you guys ever think about all the new movies that didn't get as much love while everyone was seeing Barbie and the rest of 2023's huge box-office hits? If you haven't so far, the time to do so is now. This year's's slate of cinema releases is like the year's biggest blockbuster, serving up multiple variations for everyone. So, while The Super Mario Bros Movie, Oppenheimer, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, John Wick: Chapter 4, The Little Mermaid, Elemental and Fast X were among the typical successes (and 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as well), the massive money earners are just a fraction the flicks that've graced the silver screen over the last 12 months. All of the aforementioned pictures made piles of cash from Australia audiences, and earned attention and chatter along the way. Elsewhere, stunning thrillers, warped mindbenders, thoughtful dramas, queer romances, propulsive action efforts, twisty delights and gorgeous animation also awaited — and they're worth catching up with ASAP. As we have since 2014 (see also: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022), we've picked a heap of must-see movies that you likely didn't see in 2023, because that's what the cinema takings tell us, but you should definitely add to your list. Thanks to our 15 selections, don't say that you don't have anything new to watch. HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE Every story is built upon cause and effect. One thing happens, then another as a result, and so a narrative springs. Inspired by Andreas Malm's non-fiction book of the same name, How to Blow Up a Pipeline isn't just strung together by causality — it's firmly, actively and overtly about starting points, consequences and the connections between. Here's one source for this impassioned tale about determined and drastic environmental activism: the warming world. Here's an originator for that, too: fossil fuels, humanity's reliance upon them and the profits reaped from that status quo. Now, a few outcomes: pollution, catastrophic weather changes, terminal illnesses, stolen and seized land, corporate interests prioritised over ecological necessities, and a growing group that's driven to act because existence is at stake. Turning a text subtitled Learning to Fight in a World on Fire into a fictional feature, How to Blow Up a Pipeline joins all of the above, stressing links like it is looping string from pin to pin, and clue to clue, on a detective's corkboard. In his second feature after 2018's smart and effective camgirl horror Cam, writer/director Daniel Goldhaber isn't trying to be subtle about what dovetails in where. With co-screenwriters Jordan Sjol (a story editor on Cam) and Ariela Barer (also one of How to Blow Up a Pipeline's stars), he isn't attempting to rein in the film's agenda or complexity. This movie tells the tale that's right there in its name, as eight people from across America congregate in Texas' west with a plan — an octet of folks who mostly would've remained loosely connected, some strangers and others lovers and friends, if they weren't desperate to send a message that genuinely garners attention. Goldhaber's latest is explosive in its potency and thrills, and startling in its urgency, as it focuses on a decision of last resort, the preparation and the individual rationales before that. How to blow up hedging bets on-screen? That's also this tightly wound, instantly gripping, always rage-dripping picture. Read our full review. INFINITY POOL Making his latest body-horror spectacle an eat-the-rich sci-fi satire as well, Brandon Cronenberg couldn't have given Infinity Pool a better title. Teardowns of the wealthy and entitled now seem to flow on forever, glistening endlessly against the film and television horizon; however, the characters in this particularly savage addition to the genre might wish they were in The White Lotus or Succession instead. In those two hits, having more money than sense doesn't mean witnessing your own bloody execution but still living to tell the tale. It doesn't see anyone caught up in cloning at its most vicious and macabre, either. And, it doesn't involve dipping into a purgatory that sports the Antiviral and Possessor filmmaker's penchant for futuristic corporeal terrors, as clearly influenced by his father David Cronenberg (see: Crimes of the Future, Videodrome and The Fly), while also creating a surreal hellscape that'd do Twin Peaks great David Lynch, Climax's Gaspar Noe and The Neon Demon's Nicolas Winding Refn proud. Succession veteran Alexander Skarsgård plunges into Infinity Pool's torments playing another member of the one percent, this time solely by marriage. "Where are we?", author James Foster asks his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman, Dopesick) while surveying the gleaming surfaces, palatial villas and scenic beaches on the fictional island nation of Li Tolqa — a question that keeps silently pulsating throughout the movie, and also comes tinged with the reality that James once knew a life far more routine than this cashed-up extravagance. Cronenberg lets his query linger from the get-go, with help from returning Possessor cinematographer Karim Hussain. Within minutes, the feature visually inverts its stroll through its lavish setting, the camera circling and lurching. As rafters spin into view, then tumble into the pristine sky, no one in this film's frames is in Kansas anymore. Then, when fellow guest Gabi (Mia Goth, Pearl) gets James and Em into a tragic accident, which is followed by arrests, death sentences and a wild get-out-of-jail-free situation, no one is anywhere they want to be, either. Read our full review. BROKER No matter how Hirokazu Kore-eda's on-screen families come to be, if there's any actual blood between them, whether they're grifting in some way or where in the world they're located, the Japanese writer/director and Shoplifters Palme d'Or winner's work has become so beloved — so magnificent, too — due to his care and sincerity. A Kore-eda film is a film of immense empathy and, like Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister, After the Storm and The Third Murder also in the prolific talent's past decade, Broker is no different. The setup here is one of the filmmaker's murkiest, with the feature's name referring to the baby trade. But showing compassion and humanity isn't up for debate in Kore-eda's approach. He judges the reality of modern-day life that leads his characters to their actions, but doesn't judge his central figures. In the process, he makes poignant melodramas that are also deep and thoughtful character studies, and that get to the heart of the globe's ills like the most cutting slices of social realism. It isn't just to make a buck that debt-ridden laundromat owner Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho, Parasite) and orphanage-raised Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won, Peninsula) take infants abandoned to the Busan Family Church's 'baby box' — a chute that's exactly what it sounds like, available to mothers who know they can't embrace that part for whatever reason — then find good families to sell them to. There's a cash component, of course, but they're convinced that their gambit is better than letting children languish in the state system. In Kore-eda's usual kindhearted manner, Broker sees them with sensitivity. Even if blue hues didn't wash through the film's frames, nothing is ever black and white in the director's movies. The same understanding and tenderness flows towards mothers like So-young (Lee Ji-eun, Hotel Del Luna, aka K-Pop star IU), whose decision to leave Woo-sung (debutant Park Ji-yong) isn't easily made but puts Broker on its course. Read our full review. REALITY Sydney Sweeney is ready for her closeup. Playwright-turned-filmmaker Tina Satter obliges. A household name of late due to her exceptional work in both Euphoria and The White Lotus, Sweeney has earned the camera's attention for over a decade; however, she's never been peered at with the unflinching intensity of Satter's debut feature Reality. For much of this short, sharp and stunning docudrama, the film's star lingers within the frame. Plenty of the movie's 83-minute running time devotes its focus to her face, staring intimately and scrutinising what it sees. Within Reality's stranger-than-fiction narrative, that imagery spies a US Air Force veteran and National Security Agency translator in her mid-twenties, on what she thought was an ordinary Saturday. It's June 3, 2017, with the picture's protagonist returning from buying groceries to find FBI agents awaiting at her rented Augusta, Georgia home, then accusing her of "the possible mishandling of classified information". Reality spots a woman facing grave charges, a suspect under interrogation and a whistleblower whose fate is already known to the world. It provides a thriller of a procedural with agents, questions, allegations and arrests; an informer saga that cuts to the heart of 21st-century American politics, and its specific chaos since 2016; and an impossible-to-shake tragedy about how authority savagely responds to being held to account. Bringing her stage production Is This a Room: Reality Winner Verbatim Transcription to the screen after it wowed off-Broadway and then Broadway, Satter dedicates Reality's bulk to that one day and those anxious minutes, unfurling in close to real time — but, pivotally, it kicks off three weeks earlier with its namesake at work while Fox News plays around her office. Why would someone leak to the media a restricted NSA report about Russian interference in getting Donald Trump elected? Before it recreates the words genuinely spoken between its eponymous figure and law enforcement, Reality sees the answer as well. Read our full review. CORSAGE Britain's two Queen Elizabeths have enjoyed their fair share of film and TV depictions, aided by Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Margot Robbie, Helen Mirren, Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, Imelda Staunton and more — to name just a few — but they're not the only royals of that first name to grace the screen. While the spelling differs slightly and she's played as more of a Diana-style people's princess in her latest stint in cinemas, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (also Queen of Hungary) has received several celluloid and pixel resurrections of her own. Corsage ranks among the best of them, as famed as Austria's Sissi films from the 50s are and as recently as Netflix's The Empress hit streaming, in no small part due to two other outstanding women. One is Luxembourgish actor Vicky Krieps (Bergman Island), who is shrewd, wry and wily as the Bavarian-born wife to Emperor Franz Joseph I. The other is Austrian writer/director Marie Kreutzer (The Ground Beneath My Feet), whose handsomely staged and smartly anachronistic feature is no mere dutiful biopic. Corsage's lead casting is the dream it instantly seems on paper; if you're wondering why, see: Krieps' scene-stealing work opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in 2017's Phantom Thread. Here, she's been earning deserved awards — the Best Performance prize in the 2022 Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard section among them — for a portrayal that never feels like she's stepping into someone else's shoes or jumping back to the past for a part. Krieps is, naturally. Also, given that Sissi lived between 1837–1898, viewers have no way of knowing how close this characterisation is. But Krieps' fierce, dynamic and layered performance goes far further than easy impersonation, or providing a period-appropriate rendering of the Empress based on how history dictates that women of the era behaved (or what flicks set then or focusing on regal women back then have served up before). Corsage is a portrait of a lady, after all, and not of a time. Read our full review. SCRAPPER Trust a movie that's all about connection and pluck to boast plenty itself. The second of cinema's 2023 father-daughter pictures out of Britain that's directed by a first-time feature filmmaker called Charlotte — the first: Charlotte Wells' Aftersun — Charlotte Regan's Scrapper couldn't be better cast or any more fearless about telling its tale. Starring as 12-year-old Georgie, a pre-teen striving to survive on her own with any help from adults or the authorities after her mum Vicky's (Olivia Brady, The Phantom of the Open) death from cancer, debutant Lola Campbell is an electrifying find. Fresh from playing a model in Triangle of Sadness, Harris Dickinson is now an absent rather than ideal dad, a part that he infuses with equal doses of soul, sorrow, charisma and cheek. And, recognising that she's hardly skipping through new narrative territory, writer/director Regan heaps on character and personality. This is a perky, bright and bubbly take on a kitchen-sink story. There's sadness in 2023's Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winner, too, with Scrapper scoring its award in the fest's World Cinema Dramatic Competition. There's anger as well, especially about a society that has Georgie convinced that staying solo in the council flat she lived in with her mother — a space that she's now fastidious about keeping exactly as it was before heartbreak struck — is her top choice. But Regan sees colour amid the grey, plus possibilities alongside struggles. Her view is clear-eyed but never steely. Regan unblinkingly witnesses the realities of working-class existence, yet also spies joy and whimsy, and similarly isn't afraid of getting surreal. This is a flick with talking spiders — cue literal bubbles, of the speech variety — alongside scrapping to get by. Read our full review. SHAYDA Whether or not Noora Niasari was ever explicitly told to write what she knew, the Iranian Australian filmmaker has taken that advice to heart. Her mother listened to the same guidance first, even if it was never spoken to her, either. The latter penned a memoir that has gone unpublished, but helped form the basis of the powerful and affecting Shayda. This account of a mum and her daughter attempting to start anew in a women's shelter doesn't entirely stick to the facts that writer/director Niasari and her mother lived through. The Sundance-premiering, Melbourne International Film Festival-opening, Oscar-contending feature — it's Australia's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards — isn't afraid to fictionalise details in search of the best screen story. Still, the tale that's told of courage, resilience, rebuilding lives and finding a new community is deeply and patently personal. Perhaps even better, it's inescapably authentic. Niasari peers back at being barely of primary-school age and making a new home. Fleeing to a women's shelter is the only option that the film's eponymous figure (Zar Amir Ebrahimi, 2022's Cannes Best Actress-winner for Holy Spider) has to get away from the abusive Hossein (Osamah Sami, Savage River), whose controlling nature is matched by that of their patriarchal culture. So, Shayda leaves with six-year-old Mona (debutant Selina Zahednia). As she waits for her divorce proceedings to go through — a complicated task under Iranian law and customs — she seeks refuge at a secret site overseen by the caring Joyce (Leah Purcell, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart). Even surrounded by kindness and filled with desperation for a better future, every iota of Shayda's decision is fraught and tense; Niasari starts the film with Mona at an airport being told what to do if she's ever there with her father, should he try to take her not only away from her mum but also back to Iran. Read our full review, and our interview with Noora Niasari. OF AN AGE You Won't Be Alone isn't just the name of Macedonian Australian writer/director Goran Stolevski's debut feature, which hit cinemas in 2022. It's also a phrase that applies now that his second film is here. Of an Age initially premiered in the same year as well, bowing in Melbourne International Film Festival's opening-night slot — and, while it tells of growing up queer in 90s Melbourne, falling in love for the first time, then sifting through the aftermath a decade later, it's a glorious companion piece to its predecessor. No one is chosen by a sorceress here. The place isn't Macedonia, the period isn't the 19th century and supernatural shapeshifting isn't part of the narrative. But even just a mere duo of movies into his helming career, Stolevski makes pictures that profoundly ruminate upon two of life's purest truths: that absolutely everything changes and, consequently, nothing completely lasts forever. 1999 is inching towards becoming Y2K when Of an Age begins, and 17-year-old Nikola aka Kol (Elias Anton, Australia Day) is only hours from taking to the floor at a Melbourne dance championship. That's how his day is meant to pan out, at least, and what he's preparing for when the film meets him practising his smooth ballroom moves in his suburban garage — conjuring up visions of John Travolta in a flick made famous two decades prior, in fact. Kol's ordinary morning fever breaks, however, thanks to friend and dance partner Ebony (Hattie Hook, Savage River) and her bender of an evening. She's awoken on the beach in Altona with no idea where she is, scrounging up change for the payphone call to say she thinks she'll miss the recital unless Kol can pick her up. To attempt to make his big performance, he has to convince Ebony's older brother Adam (Thom Green, Eden) to play taxi — and he's still all aflutter with anxiety, and just the inertia of being so keyed up from endeavouring to sort things out, when he slides into the twentysomething's brown car and feels sparks fly instantly. Read our full review. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL Laure Calamy doesn't star in everything that's hitting screens big and small from France right now, but from Call My Agent! and Only the Animals to Full Time and The Origin of Evil, audiences can be forgiven for feeling otherwise. Calamy isn't new to acting, either, with a resume dating back to 2001; however, her in-demand status at present keeps showering viewers with stellar performances. Indeed, The Origin of Evil is a magnificent Calamy masterclass. She's playing a part while playing a part, and she makes both look effortless. The Antoinette in the Cévennes César Best Actress-winner is also a picture of unnerving determination and yearning, and resourcefulness and anxiety, too, as a seafood-factory worker usually tinning anchovies, then packing herself into a mix of Knives Out, Succession, The Talented Mr Ripley and Triangle of Sadness. Unleashing in-fighting upon a wealthy family residing on Côte d'Azur island Porquerolles, this instantly twisty and gripping thriller from Faultless and School's Out writer/director Sébastien Marnier (who collaborates on the screenplay with Amore mio scribe Fanny Burdino) takes a setting that'd do The White Lotus proud as well, then wreaks havoc. On the agenda in such lavish and scenic surroundings, which come filled with an unsettling menagerie of taxidermied animals: witnessing savage squabbling over who'll inherit a business empire, bathing in the kind of bitterness that only the bonds of blood among the affluent and entitled can bring, more than one person wishing that patriarch Serge Dumontet (Jacques Weber, The World of Yesterday) would shuffle off this mortal coil and, just as crucially, not everything being what it seems. Read our full review. FINGERNAILS In the world of Fingernails, 'Only You' isn't just a 1982 pop song that was made famous by Yazoo, is easy to get stuck in your head, and is now heard in this film in both French and English. It's also the philosophy that the first English-language feature by Apples filmmaker Christos Nikou has subscribed its characters to as it cooks up a fascinating sci-fi take on romance. In a setup somewhat reminiscent of Elizabeth Holmes' claims to have revolutionised blood testing (see: The Dropout), Fingernails proposes an alternative present where love can be scientifically diagnosed. All that's needed: an extracted plate of keratin, aka the titular digit-protecting covering. At organisations such as The Love Institute, couples willingly have their nails pulled out — one apiece — then popped into what resembles a toaster oven to receive their all-important score. Only three results are possible, with 100 percent the ultimate in swooning, 50 percent meaning that only one of the pair is head over heels and the unwanted zero a harbinger of heartbreak. When Fingernails begins, it's been three years since teacher Anna (Jessie Buckley, Women Talking) and her partner Ryan (Jeremy Allen White, The Bear) underwent the exam, with the long-term duo earning the best possible outcome — a score that's coveted but rare. Around them, negative results have led to breakups and divorces as society's faith is placed not in hearts and souls, but in a number, a gimmick and some tech gadgetry (one of the sales pitches, though, is that finding out before getting hitched will stop failed marriages). As their friends go the retesting route — satirising the need for certainty in affairs of the heart pumps firmly through this movie's veins — Anna hasn't been able to convince Ryan to attend The Love Institute as a client. She's soon spending her days there, however, feeding her intrigue with the whole scenario as an employee. When she takes a job counselling other pairs towards hopeful ever-after happiness, she keeps the career shift from her own significant other. Quickly, she has something else she can't tell Ryan: a blossoming bond with her colleague Amir (Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal). Read our full review. THE INSPECTION If war is hell, then military boot camp is purgatory. So told Full Metal Jacket, with Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece making that observation echo and pierce with the relentlessness of machine-gun fire. Now, The Inspection stresses the same point nearing four decades later, plunging into the story of a gay Black man enlisting, then navigating the nightmare that is basic training. This too is a clear-eyed step inside the United States Marine Corps, but drawn from first-time fictional feature filmmaker Elegance Bratton's own experiences. New Yorker Ellis French (Jeremy Pope, One Night in Miami) is the Pier Kids documentarian's on-screen alter ego — an out queer man who has spent a decade from his teens to his mid-20s homeless after being kicked out by his ashamed mother Inez (Gabrielle Union, Strange World), and pledges his post 9/11 freedom away for a place to fit in, even if that means descending into a world of institutional homophobia and racism. It would've been easy for Bratton to just sear and scorch in The Inspection; his film is set in 2005, "don't ask, don't tell" was still the US military forces' policy and discrimination against anyone who isn't a straight white man is horrendously brutal. Life being moulded into naval-infantry soldiers is savage anyway; "our job is not to make Marines, it's to make monsters," says Leland Laws (Bokeem Woodbine, Wu-Tang: An American Saga), Ellis' commanding officer and chief state-sanctioned tormentor. And yet, crafting a film that's as haunting as it is because it's supremely personal, Bratton never shies away from Ellis' embrace of the Marines in his quest to work out how he can be himself. There's nothing simple about someone signing up for such heartbreaking anguish because that's the only option that they can imagine, but this stunning movie is anything but simple. Read our full review. SISU Lean, mean and a Nazi-killing machine: that's Sisu and its handy-with-a-hunting-knife (and pickaxe) protagonist alike. This stunningly choreographed Finnish action film's title doesn't have a literal equivalent in English, but writer/director Jalmari Helander's (Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale) latest effort means stoic, tenacious, resolute, brave and gritty all in that four-letter term; again, both the movie and the man at its centre fit the description. Former soldier Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila, also Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale) has one aim. After he strikes gold and plenty of it in Lapland's far reaches, he's keen to cash in. For someone who has already lost everyone and everything to World War II, that requires transporting his haul; however, the year is 1944 and German troops still lurk even as the combat winds down. Accordingly, getting those gleaming nuggets from the wilderness to a bank means facing a greedy and unrelenting platoon led by Helldorf (Aksel Hennie, The Cloverfield Paradox), who can spy a payday and an exit strategy for himself. Before anything yellow shimmers, Nazi-filled tanks are sighted, a single shot is fired or a blow swung, Sisu explains its moniker as "a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination". Text on-screen also advises that "sisu manifests itself when all hope is lost." As a film, Sisu may as well be shorthand for John Wick meets Inglourious Basterds meets Django, the iconic 1966 spaghetti western that Quentin Tarantino riffed on with Django Unchained, too — plus all of that meets the work of legendary spaghetti western director Sergio Leone as well. The carnage is that balletic. The Nazi offings are that brutal, roguish and inventive. And valuing deeds over dialogue as a lone figure dispatches with nefarious forces against an unforgiving landscape, and no matter what they throw at him, is firmly the setup. Read our full review. COBWEB When Song Kang-ho hasn't been starring in Bong Joon-ho's films, he's been featuring Park Chan-wook's and Kim Jee-woon's, plus Lee Chang-dong's and Hong Sang-soo's as well. One of Korea's acting greats boasts a resume filled with the country's directing greats — so getting the Memories of Murder, The Host, Thirst, Snowpiercer and Parasite star, plus Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Lady Vengeance and Secret Sunshine talent, to play a filmmaker for his The Good the Bad the Weird and The Age of Shadows filmmaker feels like perfect casting even before Cobweb starts spinning its reels. Song's career highlights are already many, complete with a Cannes Best Actor Award for working with Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda in Broker. Here, he's reliably and rakishly charming in a movie-making ode and on-set farce. For his own director Kim, Song plays a director Kim — but on-screen version Kim Ki-yeol is living in the 70s, and also in a rut. Once an assistant to a famed and acclaimed helmer who has passed away, now he's openly mocked by critics for his trashy fare in one of Cobweb's first scenes. He's made most of a masterpiece, however, or so he believes. The only thing that's required to ensure it's a complete classic is two more days to undertake re-shoots. His film is meant to be finished, but he's adamant that the cast and crew reteam (and his producer foot the bill) to ensure that the creative visions that keep haunting his dreams can become a feted triumph. Convincing everyone that he needs to isn't the only tricky feat, with challenges upon challenges unspooling the longer that the fictional Kim and his colleagues spend bustling. Read our full review. THE BLUE CAFTAN In The Blue Caftan, a tailor's hands say everything that needs conveying about how he holds himself in the world. That garment-maker is Halim (Saleh Bakri, My Zoe), and he plies he trade in the Moroccan city of Salé, in a humble store overseen by his no-nonsense wife Mina (Lubna Azabal, Rebel). Refusing to use machines, Halim is meticulous in his work. He's patient, careful and thorough, as one needs to be in the painstakingly detailed job of hand-embroidering women's traditional tunics. As a result of his precision and artistry, he isn't short on customers — and that rigour and commitment seeps from him like breath whether he's letting Mina run the show; training Youssef (first-timer Ayoub Missioui), the apprentice brought on to help meet the demand for his exquisite wares; or finding ways to deal with his feelings, including the pull he feels towards his new protege. For her sophomore feature after the also-tender and moving Adam, writer/director Maryam Touzani again makes a delicately layered and intricately woven film — a movie that digs deep into a subject considered taboo in Morocco, too, via an exceptionally well-observed triple character study. If her pictures say everything they need to about the filmmaker herself, then Touzani clearly values intimate and weighty connections, examining the needless pressures enforced by antiquated attitudes, the bonds that spring in such complex circumstances, and heartbreakingly poignant pictures about that list. She both appreciates and elicits sensitive performances, too, with Adam alum Azabal again superb under the helmer's gaze, and Bakri just as wonderful. It's no wonder that The Blue Caftan, with its resonant tale, rich cinematography and willingness to surprise while remaining emotionally raw as well, was chosen as Morocco's 2023 Best International Feature Oscar contender. MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON Every couple has in-jokes, a valuable currency in all relationships, but only Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp have turned a cute private gag into Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. The Parks and Recreation actor and the Fraud director are no longer together romantically, marrying and divorcing in the 13 years since they first gave the world the cutest talking shell anyone could've imagined; however, they've now reteamed professionally for an adorable film based on their 2010, 2011 and 2014 shorts. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On also gave rise to two best-selling children's picture books, unsurprisingly, following a familiar internet-stardom path from online sensation to print and now the big screen. Neither Slate and Fleischer-Camp's faded love nor their joint project's history are ignored by their footwear-sporting seashell's cinematic debut, either; in fact, acknowledging both, whether subtly or overtly, is one of the things that makes this sweet, endearing, happily silly, often hilarious and deeply insightful movie such an all-round gem. That inside jest? A voice put on by Slate, which became the one-inch-high anthropomorphic Marcel's charming vocals. In Marcel the Shell with Shoes On's three initial mockumentary clips, the tiny critter chats to an unseen filmmaker chronicling his life, with earnestness dripping from every word. ("My name is Marcel and I'm partially a shell, as you can see on my body, but I also have shoes and a face. So I like that about myself, and I like myself and I have a lot of other great qualities as well," he advises in his self-introduction.) The same approach, tone and voice sits at the heart of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On's feature-length leap, of course, but so does a touching meditation upon loss, change and valuing what's truly important. Fleischer-Camp plays the movie's documentarian, mostly off-camera, who meets Marcel and his grandmother Connie (voiced by Isabella Rossellini, Cat Person) after moving into an Airbnb following a relationship breakup — and, yes, their work together becomes a viral phenomenon. Read our full review.
Australia is home to tens of thousands of species of wildflowers — many of which are grown exclusively in Australia — making it one of the biggest and most diverse collections in the world. While some bloom in seemingly endless fields of brilliant colour, others grow in hard-to-see spots, among trees and grasses. Most get started in early spring, but, in cool environments, like the Snowy Mountains, the real action doesn't kick off until summer. Here's your guide to some of the best places for wildflowers in Australia — from the alpine meadows of Kosciuszko National Park to the wattle-filled picnic areas of Warrandyte State Park, just outside Melbourne. [caption id="attachment_740494" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elinor Sheargold[/caption] NSW: KOSCIUSZKO NATIONAL PARK Once the snow has melted, Kosciuszko National Park transforms into a wonderland of wildflowers. Hundreds of species grow here, including 21 that are unique to the area. One of the nicest ways to see them — while conquering Australia's highest mountain — is along the Kosciuszko Walk, which travels for 13 kilometres from Thredbo to the summit of Mount Kosciuszko. If you're looking for an even more epic adventure, go for the Main Range Walk: a 22-kilometre loop that takes in several glacial lakes. Either way, you'll meet bright yellow billy buttons, pink everlasting daisies, yellow and purple eyebrights and alpine mint bush, among other delights. When to visit: December–January. [caption id="attachment_631474" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pam Goldie[/caption] NSW: MUOGAMARRA NATURE RESERVE Need a wildflower fix, but don't want to travel too far from the city? Make tracks to Muogamarra Nature Reserve, which lies an hour's drive north of Sydney, near the Hawkesbury River. More than 900 native species live here, from brilliant red waratahs and angophoras to pink boronias and native orchids. Plenty of animals enjoy the sights, too, so don't be surprised to come across echidnas, wedge-tailed eagles and lyrebirds. To deepen your knowledge, join a guided walk, be it the Aboriginal Heritage Walk, the Muogamarra Highlights Walk or the six-hour Peats Bight Walk. There's only one catch — Muogamarra is open just six weekends each year in August and September. When to visit: August–September. [caption id="attachment_740505" align="alignnone" width="1920"] John Spencer[/caption] NSW: TOORALE NATIONAL PARK If you're up for a road trip, make Toorale National Park your destination. You'll find it at the back of Bourke, around 11 hours' drive northwest of Sydney. Perched on the banks of Darling River, the park is made up of enormous floodplains and waterways, which create ideal conditions for flowers to bloom. See the most spectacular scenery on the Darling River Drive, a 41-kilometre loop that, in spring, passes through fields of teeny-tiny sunray daisies. After rainfall, you'll be surrounded by bluebells, native peas and pigweed. It's also an excellent route for stargazers and birdwatchers, especially those who like baby emus. You can camp by the water, too, at Yapara Paaka Thuru (Darling River Campground). When to visit: September–October. VIC: GREATER BENDIGO NATIONAL PARK Bendigo isn't only an excellent escape for culture vultures, it's also perfect for wildflower watchers. That's because the city is more or less encircled by national park. Begin your escapades at One Tree Hill Regional Park, with a three-kilometre hike to the summit. It's steep, but worth the visual rewards — expect to be immersed, not only in golden carpets of wattle, delicate wax flowers and an array of native orchids, but also by panoramic regional views. Another flowery spot nearby is Solomon Gully Nature Conservation Reserve, which is a 10-minute drive south of town. When to visit: September–December. [caption id="attachment_740501" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Julian Kingma for Visit Victoria[/caption] VIC: GRAMPIANS NATIONAL PARK A whopping one third of Victoria's wildflowers are in Grampians National Park. In fact, it was once described as the 'garden of Victoria' and, given that Victoria was once known as 'The Garden State', that's saying something. If you're visiting in early spring, head for Heatherlie Quarry, Mount Zero and Mount Stapylton — all in the Grampians' northern section. Also impressive is Wartook Valley, where acacia blooms from late August. Come spring, the best views are around Halls Gap, where the last weekend of September is dedicated to the Grampians Wildflower Show. When to visit: August–December. [caption id="attachment_703439" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nick Carson via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] VIC: WARRANDYTE STATE PARK Want wildflowers without any driving? You're in luck. Melbourne has its very own stash of blossoms in Warrandyte State Park, on the banks of the Yarra, 45 minutes' drive northeast of the CBD. It's the closest state park to the city. There's a diverse and colourful variety of flora to spot, from chocolate lilies (which are purple, not brown) and milkmaids to blue pincushions and pale sundews. Most bloom between September and December, though some, like ivy-leaf violets and common heath, last longer. In between looking down for flowers, look up for koalas. When to visit: September–December. [caption id="attachment_726968" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ben Nott for Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] QLD: GIRRAWEEN NATIONAL PARK The name's a giveaway. Girraween means 'place of flowers'. And they look even more dramatic here than in other spots — thanks to the massive granite boulders and outcrops, which create stunning backdrops. The show starts early, in late July, when thousands of wattle trees turn gold. But it's in spring that things really get going, with pea flowers bringing showers of red and purple, followed by native sarsaparilla, native bluebells and stacks of daisies, in a spectrum of colours. The cornucopia of blossoms is a magnet for flower-loving wildlife, including butterflies, crimson rosellas, wedge-tailed eagles and lyrebirds. Girraween National Park is three hours' drive southwest of Brisbane. When to visit: July–January. QLD: GURULMUNDI Not many people live in Gurulmundi, a locality in the Western Downs located five hours' drive northwest of Brisbane. So you won't be bumping elbows while photographing wildflowers. To help you make the most of the many blooms that grow here, there's a dedicated wildflower trail. Made for driving, this 100-kilometre loop officially begins in the nearby town of Miles and takes you off the beaten track, onto unsealed roads and into out-of-the-way places. Along the way, you'll cross the 5000-kilometre-long Dingo Barrier Fence: the longest fence in the world. Follow the wildflower signs for the most beautiful vistas. When to visit: September. QLD: BIRDSVILLE Birdsville might be best known for its legendary pub and spring races, but there are wildflowers, too. Lots and lots and lots of them. That's because the town is in the Diamantina River floodplains, which means fertile soil. The best time to visit is after spring rain, because it drives the seeds to sprout. And, given the terrain is so flat, the results aren't hard to see. Keep your eyes peeled on the road into Birdsville and, if you're exploring further, into Betoota and Bedourie, as well. Just some of the exotic flowers you're likely to see include poached egg daisies, the hairy darling pea, wild stock and desert nightshade. When to visit: After it rains. Top image: Wildflowers in the Grampians by Christine O'Connell; Barrington River by John Spencer; and Muogamarra by John Spencer.
Two decades ago, a new Christmas tradition was born: watching a whole heap of stars revel in romance, comedy and the festive spirit in what's now the quintessential British seasonal rom-com. It was back in 2003 that Love Actually debuted on the big screen, bringing with it familiar faces, songs and eight intertwined tales. Everyone knows how that went, especially given that no one has stopped talking about it since. When the end of the year hits, if you get 'Christmas is All Around' sung by Bill Nighy (Living) stuck in your head, then you're definitely aware of Love Actually's popularity. If you've ever held up a piece of cardboard to tell the object of your affection that to you they're perfect, you do as well. Missed it on the big screen 20 years back, whether you gave it a pass or weren't old enough to be interested in English romantic comedies? It's now returning to cinemas in December to celebrate its anniversary. Getting festive watching Nighy, Hugh Grant (Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre), Liam Neeson (Retribution), Colin Firth (Empire of Light), Laura Linney (Ozark), Alan Rickman (Eye in the Sky), Emma Thompson (Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical), Keira Knightley (Boston Strangler), Martin Freeman (Secret Invasion), Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Man Who Fell to Earth) and Andrew Lincoln (The Walking Dead) in the same movie on the silver screen hasn't been absent from anyone's calendars of late. Outdoor cinemas give Love Actually a spin at this time of year, and an in-concert version does the rounds. But instead of getting one-off sessions here and there, the film is heading back to picture palaces in general release from Thursday, December 7. Accordingly, your December routine — one that's shared by many — can now include hitting up your local like it's 2003 again to revisit the Richard Curtis-written and -directed flick. Love Actually marked Curtis' first effort as a helmer after penning the screenplays for the Grant-starring Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones' Diary, and also writing for Blackadder and French and Saunders. On offer: interweaved Yuletide stories of romance, with Christmas and love all around everyone from rock 'n' roll singers, the Prime Minister of the UK and long-married couples to film stand-ins and school kids with crushes. Love Actually's anniversary season will screen the movie in a new 4K presentation, and feature ten minutes with the feature's cast and crew as they look back on their involvement in the film. Check out the trailer for Love Actually below: Love Actually will return to cinemas from Thursday, December 7, 2023.
If you have an opinion about crying in baseball — if you're a big fan of baseball Down Under in general, actually — then you might have classic 1992 film A League of Their Own to thank. It starred Geena Davis, Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell as members of a 1940s women's baseball team, with Tom Hanks playing their manager — and famously deciding that tears didn't have a part in the bat-swinging game. Like almost everything ever made, including from the 90s, that movie has now scored a remake — and it's sliding into your streaming queue this winter. This time around, Broad City's Abbi Jacobson leads the show, and also co-created and executive produced it. She's joined by Voyagers' Chanté Adams and The Good Place's D'Arcy Carden among her teammates, plus Parks and Recreation favourite Nick Offerman as well. The new A League of Their Own marks Jacobson's first ongoing on-screen TV role since Broad City said goodbye — and it'll follow the same story as its big-screen predecessor. So, when it hits Prime Video from August 12, it'll again jump back to World War II, and follow a group of women who dream of playing professional baseball. That said, the new series also promises to expand further, charting a whole generation of baseball-loving ladies with that dream — and looking at both race and sexuality on and off the field in the process. All eight episodes of A League of Their Own will drop on the same day, ready for binging. And, Prime Video has just released a sneak peek teaser trailer of exactly what's in store. Also appearing on-screen alongside Jacobson, Adams, Carden and Offerman: Gbemisola Ikumelo (The Power), Roberta Colindrez (Vida), Saidah Arrika Ekulona (Better Call Saul), Kate Berlant (Search Party), Kendall Johnson (Sexless), Kelly McCormack (George & Tammy), Alex Désert (Better Things), Priscilla Delgado (Julieta), Aaron Jennings (Grand Crew), Molly Ephraim (Perry Mason), Melanie Field (The Alienist) and Dale Dickey (Palm Springs). Check out the first teaser trailer for A League of Their Own below: A League of Their Own will start streaming via Prime Video on August 12.
J-horror fans, rejoice: Australia's Japanese Film Festival is back for 2023, and it boasts a couple of highlights for lovers of scary cinema. If you're a fan of Japan's contribution to frightening flicks, then The Forbidden Play is your first must-see. Behind the lens is Hideo Nakata, the director of 1998's iconic Ringu, aka the movie that helped spark a global obsession (and the American spinoffs, too). This time, the filmmaker tells of a son wanting to bring his mother back to life, so much so that he keeps chanting a resurrection spell that awakens something evil. This year's JFF isn't just about unsettling titles, but it does also feature Immersion, which hails from Ju-On: The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu (who also helmed the first US remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar). In his latest effort, he's playing with grudges again, as well as traditional Japanese superstitions, virtual reality and a secluded island — which is never a good setting for a horror film. In Melbourne, the 2023 festival arrives in October and November — and in two parts. One of the delightful aspects about this film festival is its two-pronged approach, giving both recent and retrospective titles their own time to shine. So, new releases will get a spin at The Kino and Palace Balwyn from Monday, October 23–Sunday, October 29, then classics at ACMI from Thursday, November 2–Sunday, November 5. Officially opening the event for 2023: We're Broke, My Lord!, a character-driven story about an unexpected inheritance from director Tetsu Maeda (And So the Baton Is Passed). From there, audiences can also look forward to the aforementioned to J-horror pictures; the animated Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom; Citizen Kitano's tribute to actor, comedian and filmmaker Takeshi Kitano (Outrage Coda); and Yokaipedia, which is about three boys on a monster-filled quest. Fellow standouts include Yudo: The Way of the Bath, a comedy about bathhouse rituals; romance We Made a Beautiful Bouquet; Natchan's Little Secret, where three drag queens head to a funeral; and Single8, with director Kazuya Konaka's paying tribute to filmmaking before the digital era. And, in the special series — aka the fest's retrospective thread — post-war Japanese cinema figure Kо̄ Nakahira is in the spotlight. JFF will screen 1956's Juvenile Jungle and Milkman Frankie, 1957's Temptation, 1962's Danger's Where The Money Is!, and 1963's Mud Spattered Purity, as well as Flora on the Sand, Only on Mondays and The Hunter's Diary from 1964, plus 1965's The Black Gambler. Top image: © 2023 IMMERSION Production Committee.
Greek restaurants are a dime a dozen in the diasporic heartland of Oakleigh, but Greek wine bars are a less common phenomenon. Enter Olympia, a venture from former DJ Nick Flaounas. Above Oakleigh Market, Olympia is spread across two levels. There's an indoor wine bar on the first floor and a rooftop bar in what used to be the market's carpark. The instantly recognisable blue and white colour scheme — synonymous with Greece — olive trees on the rooftop transport you instantly to the Mediterranean. The share menu has mouth-watering bites like Fremantle pickled octopus, saganaki croquettes, shallow-fried calamari, marinated pork skewers, and lobster and prawn rolls. Food is far from an afterthought at Olympia. If you don't feel like making decisions, 'Yiayia's Selection' is a pre-selected feed-me menu designed precisely for that. Greece is as well-known for its wine as it is for its cuisine. At Olympia, you'll find local wines peppered in amongst sauvignon blanc from the Peloponnese, syrah from Aigialeia and sparkling rose from Naoussa. House cocktails span the likes of espresso martinis and Tommy's margaritas while seasonal cocktails spotlight ingredients like Greek coffee liqueur in the Kafethaki Martini and the black wine grape of Mavrodafni in the mulled wine.
UK singer-songwriter Olivia Dean will make her ARIA Awards debut in Sydney this November, performing live just one day before a special headline show. ARIA confirmed the news today, announcing that Dean will take the stage at the Hordern Pavilion on Wednesday, November 19. The London-born artist will stick around for a one-off Sydney gig the following evening, before returning in 2026 for a full arena tour. "I love Australia and I'm so excited to perform at the 2025 ARIA Awards," Dean said in a statement. "This will be my first time at the awards ceremony, it's going to be lots of fun!" The announcement follows the release of Dean's sophomore album The Art of Loving, which dropped last week and is already climbing the ARIA charts. Its third single, 'Man I Need,' is sitting at #2 on the Singles chart and is tipped to go Platinum within a fortnight. This year's ARIA Awards are shaping up to be a big one, with Ninajirachi, Dom Dolla and RÜFÜS DU SOL among the top nominees. The ceremony will stream live on Paramount+ and air on Channel 10. Check out the full list of ARIA Award nominees. Images: Getty
Make the start of the cold season a little brighter by getting down to the Riviera Winter Wonderland. Presented at Elwood's Riviera Beach Club, in partnership with the Happen Group, until Sunday, August 3, this prime coastal setting features a myriad of kid-friendly activities by daylight. Head out onto the custom-made ice-skating rink, complete with real ice, snow blizzards and skate aids. When it's time to warm up, consider booking a private igloo and catering package. Meanwhile, a charming market will feature festive snacks, from popcorn to snow cones. Yet as sunset hits, it's time for the kids to depart, as this upbeat beach club returns to its roots for nightly adult-only fun. Think DJs and disco skating, alongside private igloos flowing with premium alcohol packages. And the market? Those snack stalls now feature mulled wine and cocktails. "We are really excited to transform this iconic venue into a winter wonderland experience," says Happen Group Director Daniel McFadyen. "We have ensured that we have catered to both families with young children and the adults so that everyone can enjoy this event by the bay in Melbourne."
The team behind one of Melbourne's most acclaimed Japanese restaurants, Ishizuka, has opened their second venue, Oden, on Bourke Street in Melbourne's CBD. The new restaurant offers Melburnians a refined interpretation of the traditional and treasured Japanese dish oden, a hot pot dish of various ingredients such as vegetables and fish cakes simmered gently in a light broth. Executive Chef Katsuji Yoshino explains, "Oden is deeply rooted in Japanese history and offers unparalleled comfort, especially suited to Melbourne's cool winters." Yoshino will follow the lead of traditional oden establishments in Japan and take inspiration from locally sourced, seasonal ingredients. Yoshino's menu includes individual oden pots, appetisers, and grilled skewers. The incredible list of ingredients available to add to the oden pots includes prawn balls, octopus cakes, avocado, abalone, sausage, fish cake, fried tofu patties and enoki mushrooms. There are also luxe signature add-ins on offer, such as a half-boiled egg with truffle, a caviar tomato and an eel omelette. The restaurant's elegant and refined concept is reflected in its design. The sleek fit-out is the work of award-winning architecture group Russell & George, which has taken inspiration from traditional oden cooking pots to bring the hammered copper aesthetic to life. Owner Melanie Zhang is no stranger to refined Japanese cuisine. Her fine-dining establishment, Ishizuka, showcases the Japanese craft of kaiseki, a decadent yet delicate degustation-style meal. "Oden has long been one of my favourite dishes, and being able to bring this iconic culinary tradition to Australia in such a sophisticated way is truly a proud moment", says Zhang. "We are creating a space that honours both the traditional roots of Oden while elevating it to a new level, offering our guests a luxurious yet comforting dining experience." Images: Jana Langhorst
Golf courses have always tried to mimic the natural: undulating hills, thick forests, deep water and unforgiving sand. It's been a trend of recent years to flip this, instead opting for the unusual: whether that be the lush greens and rolling sand dunes of Dubai's desert golf, the foreboding doom presented by a recently dormant volcano at Lanzarote or the thrill (chill?) of ice golf in Uummannaq in Greenland. So we really shouldn't be surprised to discover a recent venture from Troon Golf and Dutch Docklands to create an 18-hole floating golf course in the Maldives, should we? A series of man-made floating platforms containing a number of holes each will be linked together by underwater tunnels. Although seemingly an exercise in extravagance, it is not without conscience. The project will be entirely carbon neutral, using solar energy, sustainable desalination and water cooling technology. The Maldives approval of the project is more than just a cash grab. With rising sea levels, precipitated by climate change, predicted to submerge a series of the Maldives islands, the government is looking offshore for solutions. President Mahamed Nasheed is even looking to purchase new land in other countries to house his people. The verdict is still out on the project, drawing out such loaded terms as 'obscene' and 'indulgent' but also 'responsible' and 'socially inclusive'.
If you're a fan of Australian music festivals, a feeling of déjà vu might be sinking in right now. In 2024, both Groovin the Moo and Splendour in the Grass announced dates and big lineups, then scrapped their festivals mere weeks afterwards. In 2025, one week after another, both fests have now cancelled their 2025 plans as well. After Splendour confirmed that it wouldn't be back this year, Groovin the Moo has done the same. The latter hasn't advised that it will definitely will return in 2026, either — but the team behind it are asking for lineup suggestions for future fests. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Groovin the Moo (@groovinthemoo) "Groovin the Moo won't be happening in 2025, while we work on finding the most-sustainable model for Australia's most-loved regional touring festival," the event's organisers said via social media. "We will really miss seeing the smiling faces of all our beloved Moo crew — and that means you! In the meantime, which artist would you most like to see on a GTM lineup?" In 2024, the long-running regional music event was due to play six stops: Adelaide, Canberra, Bendigo, the Sunshine Coast, Bunbury and Newcastle, with the latter marking its debut in the New South Wales city. Wu-Tang Clan's GZA, Spice Girl Melanie C doing a DJ set, The Kooks, The Beaches and Alison Wonderland were among the talents on the bill, alongside Stephen Sanchez, Armani White, Kenya Grace, King Stingray, DMA's, Jet, The Jungle Giants, Mallrat and San Cisco, plus Hot Dub Time Machine, Mura Masa, Claire Rosinkranz, Jessie Reyez, Meduza and The Rions — and others. When Groovin the Moo pulled the plug last year, it named poor ticket sales as the reason. "We are extremely disappointed to announce that the Groovin the Moo 2024 tour has been forced to cancel," advised the statement at the time. "Ticket sales have not been sufficient to deliver a regional festival of this kind." "We hope to be able to bring Groovin the Moo back to regional communities in the future." Groovin the Moo won't be taking place in 2025. For more information, head to the festival's Instagram. Images: Jordan Munns.
If there's ever a range of films that proves that every movie deserves to be seen in a cinema, it's Studio Ghibli's output. If you had your first experience with Spirited Away or My Neighbour Totoro at home, then felt compelled to catch a retrospective showing at your local picture palace, you'll understand. Indeed, Australian theatres get it, too, given how often the Japanese animation house's movies return to the silver screen. The Imaginary isn't a Studio Ghibli release, but it has a Ghibli pedigree. The second feature from Studio Ponoc after 2017's Mary and the Witch's Flower, it's both directed and penned by Ghibli alumni — the latter of which founded Ponoc. It made its Aussie debut on streaming this year, but is now getting a well-deserved big-screen outing at the 2024 Japanese Film Festival as one of its must-see titles. The just-dropped lineup for this year's JFF will give audiences the chance to see this enchanting tale about imaginary friends — 2024's third such film after Blumhouse horror movie Imaginary and the John Krasinski (A Quiet Place Part II)-directed IF, and the best of them — as well as nine other new Japanese features. The latest flicks out of its country of choice are just one part of the JFF setup, however. In four of its five cities, audiences will also enjoy a retrospective season that focuses on classics by Shohei Imamura, a two-time Palme d'Or winner courtesy of The Ballad of Narayama and The Eel. Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney will receive the full festival treatment, while just the new releases will play Perth. The festival kicks off with its retro sessions in the nation's capital in late September, before making its way around the country throughout October and into November. [caption id="attachment_971203" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Let's Go Karaoke! Film Partners[/caption] Opening the fest: Mom, Is That You?! , a mix of heartwarming comedy and workplace commentary from prolific director Yoji Yamada (Kinema no Kamisama). Other highlights include chaotic karaoke antics in Let's Go Karaoke!, with a choir boy and a yakuza striking up a friendship over singing lessons; fellow manga adaptation Sand Land; World War II-set historical drama Shadow of Fire; and rom-com Our Secret Diary. Or, there's more laughs via A Samurai in Time and The Dancing Okami, with the first paying tribute to samurai stuntman Seizo Fukumoto and the second inspired by an IRL tourism campaign — and also thrills via Matched and Out, following a wedding planner who connects with a suspected serial killer without knowing via online dating, plus a former juvenile gang leader's quest for redemption. [caption id="attachment_971204" align="alignnone" width="1920"] MIRAIEIGASHA[/caption] 2024 marks the Japanese Film Festival's 28th year in Australia — and the event's in-person lineup comes after its online program screened in the middle of the year. "Australia has always been a second home to Japanese film, with an exponentially growing audience captivated by Japanese cinema every year," said Manisay Oudomvilay from The Japan Foundation, Sydney, announcing the 2024 JFF bill. "Each of the featured films this year dissects the common human experience from a uniquely Japanese perspective, which will resonate with everyone regardless of their familiarity with Japanese culture." [caption id="attachment_971205" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sand Land Film Partners[/caption] Japanese Film Festival 2024 Dates: Canberra: Latest releases: Wednesday, October 9–Tuesday, October 15 at Palace Electric Special series: Tuesday, September 24–Wednesday, September 25 and Saturday, September 28–Sunday, September 29 at NFSA Perth: Latest releases: Monday, October 14–Tuesday, October 22 at Palace Raine Square Brisbane: Latest releases: Thursday, October 17–Tuesday, October 22 at Palace Barracks Special series: Monday, October 7–Wednesday, October 16 at QAGOMA Melbourne: Latest releases: Monday, October 21–Tuesday, October 29 at The Kino Special series: Thursday, October 31–Sunday, November 3 at ACMI Sydney: Latest releases: Thursday, October 24–Monday, October 28 at Palace Norton Street and Palace Moore Park Special series: Wednesday, October 9–Sunday, November 10 at AGNSW [caption id="attachment_971206" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Dancing Okami Film Partners[/caption] The 2024 Japanese Film Festival tours Australia from September–November. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website. Top image: Studio Ponoc.
What's better than one IMAX in Sydney? Two, obviously, which is a big-screen dream that's about to become a reality. A second IMAX experience is on its way to the Harbour City, setting up shop in an Event Cinemas location. The where and when haven't yet been revealed — but this is still literally massive news. Between 2016 and spring 2023, movie lovers in the New South Wales capital would've been content with just one IMAX, of course, after Sydney's IMAX at Darling Harbour closed down to get demolished and then rebuilt. The venue was originally meant to get its projectors running again in 2019, then in 2021; however, that didn't happen. Thankfully, giant flicks have been back on the agenda since October on one of the biggest cinema screens in the world, which measures 692 square metres. The news of a second Sydney IMAX comes via EVT and IMAX Corporation. The former is the hospitality company behind IMAX Sydney, Event Cinemas, Moonlight Cinema, the Skyline Drive-In and the State Theatre; the arrival of surround-screen viewing Down Under; a heap of bars and restaurants; QT Hotels, Rydges and other hotel chains; plus IMAX venues in Auckland and Queensgate in New Zealand, as well as IMAX Karlsruhe in Germany. The latter is self-explanatory. Together, the duo announced a deal for five new state-of-the-art IMAX setups, but only one in coming to Australia. To check out the other four, you'll need to head to Germany. "Expanding our collaboration with IMAX aligns to our strategy of providing customers with choice on how they want to watch a movie. The right combination of our proprietary cinema experiences such as gold class, boutique and V-Max alongside global premium formats like IMAX is proving to be successful," said EVT CEO Jane Hastings, announcing the news. "IMAX performs exceptionally well at our current locations in Sydney, New Zealand and Germany, and we are thrilled to bring state-of-the-art IMAX with Laser systems to more locations in Australia and Germany in the near future," Hastings continued. "On the heels of the wildly successful debut of IMAX Sydney, we are excited to expand our collaboration with EVT, a partner that transcends exhibition in creating premium experiences that span cinema, hospitality, leisure and more," added IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond. "Australia and Germany are two markets where consumer demand for IMAX vastly outstrips our footprint, and this deal is great for our fans in both countries and our continued network growth worldwide." That Sydney success that Gelfond mentioned? Within mere weeks of opening, the new IMAX Sydney has become IMAX's highest-grossing location outside of the United States and United Kingdom. Wherever the second Sydney IMAX experience pops up, it'll combine Laser by IMAX technology, which means 4K laser projection showing the flicks, plus EVT's range of seating. At Darling Harbour, choices to get comfortable include standard places to sit, as well as getting comfortable in a full recliner, cosying up with your plus one in a couples' recliner and going with a private box for up to four people on an elevated platform. Film fans outside of Sydney, you'll have a second spot to add to your must-visit list when you visit the Harbour City — especially if you're in a city like Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth that doesn't have its own IMAX. IMAX Sydney is now open at Darling Harbour, 1/35 Wheat Road, Sydney, from Wednesday, October 11. Details of the city's second IMAX experience, including where it'll be located and when it will open, are yet to be announced — we'll update you when more information is revealed. Images: IMAX Sydney.
The first of Red Rock Deli's Secret Suppers has been and gone, with MasterChef Australia 2010 winner Adam Liaw kicking things off in May. The exclusive supper series — running until September at secret locations across Sydney and Melbourne — sees some of Australia's most talented chefs whipping up mouth-watering, three-course feasts inspired by Red Rock Deli's new limited-edition range. And when we say exclusive, we mean it — only 20 lucky guests get to tuck into each lavish dinner. On Wednesday, May 15, Malaysian Australian chef Adam Liaw put up an Asian-fusion feast. After guests were picked up from Central Station's Grand Concourse entrance and whisked away to a mystery location, Liaw dished up plates inspired by Red Rock Deli's Thai red chilli and creamy coconut chips. In the first course, Liaw made chilli the hero with a Korean bo ssam of pork, prawns and herb kimchi, while his dessert of coconut and lychee pavlova with mango sauce incorporated the creamy texture of coconut. But it was the melt-in-your-mouth braised ox cheeks in red chilli and coconut curry that was the real winner — to recreate it at home, check out the recipe here. If Liaw's dinner is anything to go by, the upcoming suppers will be quite something. Duncan Welgemoed of Adelaide's famed African-inspired wood fire joint, Africola, is up next. The dinner will take place on Thursday, June 20 and will be inspired by Red Rock Deli's flame grilled steak and chimichurri flavour. To nab tickets for Sydney's upcoming Red Rock Deli supper, enter the ballot here to be given the chance to purchase tickets. Images: Conrad Coleby and Kitti Gould.
A great meal should satisfy your tastebuds and your stomach. When Vertigo opens in Brisbane, it'll also get your blood pumping and pulse racing. A brand-new addition to the River City's iconic Brisbane Powerhouse, this soon-to-launch eatery is joining the sky-high ranks, but with a difference: it isn't just located on top of the riverside New Farm venue, but hangs off of the site's industrial facade. Forget just living on the edge — this is dining on the edge, and literally. Obviously, the views will be spectacular. Given that you'll be climbing out to your seat while donning a safety harness, then eating four stories (and 17 metres) up, so will the thrills. An Australian-first vertical dining experience, Vertigo will start serving up — and levelling up — dinner with a view from October, with bookings now being taken for dates from Thursday, October 12 onwards. Once open, it'll operate four nights a week, from Thursday–Sunday, welcoming in tables of two. The one caveat: naturally, this adrenaline-pumping restaurant will be at the mercy of the weather, which will certainly play a factor over Brisbane's stormy summers. If it's only lightly raining, however, the night's sitting will still go ahead. The other key point: if you're not fond of heights, this won't be for you. But if you're fine with towering not just atop but over the side of an old power station-turned-arts precinct that dates back to the 1920s — whether you're a Brisbane local or a tourists — you'll be in for quite the unique experience. A third caveat: you can't head up if you've been drinking, with everyone breathalysed first and required to return a 0.00-percent blood alcohol reading. Brisbane Powerhouse's Bar Alto downstairs will be providing Vertigo's food across its eight tables — and each reservation's two-hour sitting — with the two-course menu featuring local ingredients to go with what's certain to become a local attraction. Unsurprisingly, a visit here won't come cheap, costing $250 per person. While you need to be sober to climb over the edge, a matched glass of wine will be served with dinner. You'll also get a post-descent champagne, beer or soft drink. To make the evening even more dramatic, diners can also choose to come back to earth post-meal via dropline down the facade. Or, if that's too much adventure for you — especially after eating — you can just head back to the ground through the venue. "Vertigo is unlike anything else in the world, it is an unexpected combination of adventure tourism and fine-dining on a heritage site," said Brisbane Powerhouse CEO/Artistic Director Kate Gould, announcing the restaurant. "Stepping off the roof of Brisbane Powerhouse to take a seat suspended at your table, four stories above the ground, will be the ultimate thrill. Experience silver service dining — albeit one with unbreakable crockery and cutlery attached to the table!" [caption id="attachment_850754" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Atmosphere Photography[/caption] "We are creating a uniquely Brisbane dining experience, at height. You will be on the edge of your seat in the open air before descending via an unforgettable exit," added Riverlife creator and co-founder John Sharpe, with the outdoor tour operator partnering with Powerhouse on the venture. "Vertigo will inspire fear but with the knowledge that safety is the priority of our experienced team of adventure tourism guides." If star chef Luke Mangan achieves his dream of setting up a restaurant on the Story Bridge, too, Brisbane might need to rename itself the Sky-High City. [caption id="attachment_776880" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kgbo via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Vertigo is set to open at Brisbane Powerhouse, 119 Lamington Street, New Farm, Brisbane from Thursday, October 12 — head to the venue's website for further details and bookings.
Surfing has been a part of the Australian vernacular for generations now, with the likes of Bondi, Byron Bay and the Gold Coast all contributing to a stellar international reputation that draws millions to our shores. But when it comes to getting out of town with your own board to enjoy a well-earned (surf) break, you know you'll want to find a classic Aussie surf spot where you and your mates don't have to fight a bobbing crowd of strangers to catch a wave. Nothing brings Aussies together like a bloody good surf break, so we've teamed up with Jim Beam to do the leg work and track down six of the top lesser-travelled surf spots around Australia, perfect for bringing together your fellow lovers of surf and spray for an adventure. From remote reefs to spectacular peninsulas, these local spots are often kept close to the chest, but we've highlighted just a few that will have you plunging right into Aussie surf culture in no time. And as always, make sure you respect the locals, wherever you go. [caption id="attachment_720257" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dee Kramer.[/caption] Aussie Pipe AKA Black Rock, NSW Depending on who you ask, this section of the New South Wales coastline has a few different names. Whether you call it Aussie Pipe, Black Rock, Summercloud Bay or South Coast Pipe, the waves here are so very special regardless and some of Australia's most photogenic breaks. You'll often find locals paddling out during mid-tide to catch the ideal wave as the swell begins to pick up. Located in the Aboriginal community of Wreck Bay Village, the surf spot is said to be the 'unofficial home of Indigenous surfing'. And be aware — this spot is most suited to those who already have some surfing experience under their belt. [caption id="attachment_720293" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Waitpinga Beach by Jesse Ehlers.[/caption] Fleurieu Peninsula, SA Situated just a 45-minute drive from Adelaide, the Fleurieu Peninsula provides some of the finest waves in South Australia. Along this picturesque stretch of rugged coastline, the surf breaks vary greatly with everyone from beginners to pro surfers having no problem finding a spot that suits their skill level. Goolwa Beach and Middleton Beach are where you want to head for some relatively mellow waves, while Waitpinga Beach and Parsons Beach have large swells more often. One of the best parts about the Fleurieu Peninsula is that even when the crowds arrive in high summer, there's still plenty of space for everyone. [caption id="attachment_720269" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW.[/caption] Angourie Point, NSW Set amid the Yuraygir National Park, Angourie Point was one of the first sections of the Australian coastline to be recognised as a protected surfing reserve. It's been a popular surf break for locals since the 1950s when the Yamba Life Saving Club would cruise the many nearby beaches looking for waves to catch. Jutting out into the ocean, Angourie Point's somewhat odd shape means it's exposed to the occasional storm clouds that roll in over the water. But there are also some consistently majestic barrels, which is what the locals look to catch pretty much all day, every day. When you've finished surfing, head to the Blue and Green Pools for a dip in the striking rock pool formed in old quarrying sites. [caption id="attachment_984691" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] OZBEACHES via iStock[/caption] Burleigh Headland, QLD The Gold Coast is home to some of the most famous beaches in the country, many with half-decent surf breaks, but you're going to have to battle a horde of tourists to get through to them. Burleigh Headland is close to the beaten track, but in the narrow stretch of surf along its rocky shoreline lies a surf break that, when on its game, is one of the best in the state. It's not the lava headland that makes these barrels roll but the outpour of current and fine river sand from the mouth of Tallebudgera Creek just to the south. It's not exactly beginner-friendly, and you'll be board-to-board with experienced locals, but time it right, and you'll have a real treat here. [caption id="attachment_720280" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism WA.[/caption] Red Bluff AKA Quobba Station, WA By far the most remote surf spot on this list, Red Bluff is about a thousand kilometres north of Perth, on the southernmost tip of Ningaloo Reef. But if you're willing to make the journey to this idyllic coast, you can be certain that the surf won't let you down. Known for its powerful waves that experienced surfies can't get enough of, Red Bluff gets busy throughout winter when those in the know make their way here. There aren't too many towns within reach ('nearby' Carnavon is 125 kilometres south), so be prepared to be self-sufficient. However, you'll be rewarded with great fishing, native wildlife, humpback whale sightings, panoramic views of the Indian Ocean and some of the country's top breaks. [caption id="attachment_720275" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Visit Victoria.[/caption] Winkipop, VIC Winkipop might not be the unknown surf break that it once was, but if you manage to avoid the crowds, there are some world-class waves on offer. Forming part of Victoria's famous Bells Beach with its spectacular limestone cliffs, the two main take-offs are named Uppers and Lowers. The latter tends to stay a little quieter, but that's probably because the waves here are quick and hollow, making for a challenging experience. Winki is great for surfing in just about any tide. Take a trip here and discover why it remains a favourite for many of the world's most talented surfers. Like Jim Beam, surfing and other outdoor adventures are all about bringing people together, so get out there this summer and find your tribe in the great outdoors. Top image: Red Bluff, courtesy of Tourism Western Australia.
One of the best things about Williamstown is its bayside location, which you can make the most of with dinner on the water at Pier Farm. Think Italian-style pizza, fresh seafood and Mediterranean-inspired eats, all enjoyed with a serene view. There's a maritime feel to the restaurant and its new seven-metre bar, without the over-the-top nautical theme that was once common at waterfront venues. Pier Farm even has 20 visitor berths for public mooring — meaning you can cruise right on in on your boat for dinner on the deck. Stand out bites include natural oysters with a raspberry vinaigrette, wagyu bresaola and woodfired pizza with San Daniele prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella.
Before our always-on devices and the internet meant that everyone could discover almost anything in seconds, how did anyone know about spectacular surfing spots that weren't in their own backyard, or near enough — and about what people were doing on those waves? When the sport was just becoming popular in Australia in the 50s, taking advantage of the fact that this is indeed a nation girt by sea, how did word of where the best breaks are spread, and the latest techniques? The answer to these questions sits at the heart of Australian documentary You Should Have Been Here Yesterday. To be exact, the solution to sharing tips on where and how to hit the waves provides the bulk of the film. By rustling up 16mm cameras however they could, the era's surfers shot their own footage, then screened the results far and wide to eager crowds. Filmmaker Jolyon Hoff — also a surfer — now splices his latest feature together from such material. First, he made another surfing-related film — and if it wasn't for 2009's Searching for Michael Petersen, about one of the country's legends of 70s surfing, You Should Have Been Here Yesterday wouldn't exist, either. "It all started with that film. I was a film student when I first started making that film — and Michael Peterson was the ultimate iconic mythological character of 1970s Australian surfing. But when I went to make the film, he was also schizophrenic and whenever he saw a camera or an interview, he couldn't talk to people, he couldn't be around people, he found that very difficult," Hoff tells Concrete Playground. [caption id="attachment_981744" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steve Otton[/caption] "When you're setting out to make a film about someone like that, you've got to find some footage — and you've got to find some surfing footage. You can't show the rubbish stuff because it's the icon, he's this mythological character. So that journey took me to Dick Hoole's garage up behind Byron Bay," Hoff continues. Inside, he went into one of the surf photographer and fellow filmmaker's rooms, which was filled with 16mm films and surfing paraphernalia. "And we found some footage of Michael, but that whole time — and this is what, 2007, maybe 2008? — I was looking around at all these other film reels and thinking 'wow, I wonder what other gold is hidden in those?'. So that's where the kernel of the idea began." More than a decade and a half later, You Should Have Been Here Yesterday weaves that rediscovered gold into a cinematic poem that takes inspiration from non-surfing docos Moonage Daydream and Mountain. As Bret Morgen's stunning David Bowie tribute and Australian director Jennifer Peedom's ode to towering peaks both are, it's also designed to be as immersive as a movie can be. The best surfing films can't replace the real-life experience, of course, but they can make you yearn to catch waves yourself — or to see them ebb and flow in front of you with the naked eye. They also give non-surfers and surfers alike a close-up look at one of the planet's great joys, and ensure that a quote from Point Break always rings true: "surfing's the source, it'll change your life". [caption id="attachment_981743" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hamish Ludbrook[/caption] Australian lives were changed by surfing, and Australia was as well, as You Should Have Been Here Yesterday explores via its gorgeous restored footage. As clip after clip of waves rolling across the Aussie coastline fills the screen, scratches and other markers of the material's heritage still visible, voices give the imagery context. Morning of the Earth director Albe Falzon, surfer and surfboard shaper Wayne Lynch, 1993 Women's World Champion Pauline Menczer, author Tim Winton and others get talking. The documentary covers how jumping on a board became the nation's new youth culture, the response to the filmed material at the time, how surfing connected the land Down Under to the world, the sport's local commercialisation, the reaction to women riding the waves and more. You can also see You Should Have Been Here Yesterday as compiling examples of behaviour that's oh-so-familiar today: people taking the art of capturing their experiences, and of sharing stories as well, into their own hands. They filmed waves; today, anyone with a phone can record anything. We chatted to Hoff about that, too, and about making movies about surfing, why surfing has such big-screen appeal, his inspirations, retaining the imperfections in the imagery and what surfing culture means to Australia. [caption id="attachment_981747" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andrew McAlpine[/caption] On Getting Into Making Documentaries About Surfing and Australian Surf Culture "I'm a lifelong surfer, and then by trade I'm more of a filmmaker — I'm a filmmaker who surfs rather than a surfer that makes films. With Searching for Michael Peterson, I was fascinated by the idea of heroes and legends, and what it is about these people that captures our imagination, that we just become so enamoured about this person and somehow project all of our ideas onto that person. So that film was really about heroes and myths, and why we're drawn to these kind of people, troubled people in particular. This film, You Should Have Been Here Yesterday, it was a little bit different. It was a bit of a response to something that I feel. Well, it's a few things. I feel that surfing undersells itself in a whole lot of ways. So back in the 60s and 70s, surfing was the leading youth culture, and youth culture was part of this movement within Australia where everything was changing. Everything was shifting as a country — modern Australia, I'm talking about — we were becoming more confident, we're starting to do things for ourselves, making our own films, our own art movement, the Australian film industry began. And surfing was right there at that moment. [caption id="attachment_981746" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bob Evans[/caption] We were a leader in so many things that are now deeply part of the Australian cultural DNA — when we headed up the coast and experimented with not working for the man, and healthy living and connecting to country, connecting to nature. Beginning to explore Eastern philosophies and different ways of living, all of this was part of surfing. And surfing was there, because the young people were so desperate to go catch waves, it was there before the hippies and before a lot of those other more well-known movements. So in one way, I wanted to remind surfers who we are and how important that was as part of a shift in modern Australia — and maybe remind the rest of the world to look back at that time in Australia, a beautiful time in Australia. It feels to me like an adolescent period of Australia. There was this freedom, but also this naivety, like an adolescent — full of energy and going everywhere, but we made some mistakes. At the same time, there were beautiful things about that period. I'd like maybe as Australia moves forward to look back and go 'what was brilliant, what was fantastic about that that period in Australia?'. So that was the motivation behind this film." [caption id="attachment_981750" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steve Otton[/caption] On the "I Need to Make This Movie" Moment with You Should Have Been Here Yesterday "I think it gestated a long time. I must have thought about that moment when I was in Dick Hoole's garage in 2007 and 2008, thinking what other gold is on those film reels. Film technology became better, so you could go back and rescan that old 16mm film. I became a father, I've got teenage children, my interest in that generational change and how information is transferred across generations became stronger. I think these ideas are just always kicking around in the brain and little pieces pop together. The first moment would be would be Dick Hoole's garage, and the idea that maybe there's some gold, some really important pieces of Australian history, in those film real scattered around his garage. [caption id="attachment_981754" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andrew McAlpine[/caption] And it is important. It was important. Those surf filmmakers that went out and started filming their mates, their friends, that was the first time kids started filming themselves, ever. Before that you would have seen ABC, channel networks, Channel 9 or whatever it was, government propaganda — that was the only film footage you saw. And this was kids going 'we're not interested in that bullshit. This is what we think is important. This is what we think is invaluable'. Then they got their hands on cameras, and at great expense and great lengths, to film those moments, whether it's surfing or life or what their friends were doing. And that's the process that's gone through until now. You see now that kids everywhere, whatever they're doing, they're filming their friends and they're sharing it with each other. And that whole conversation is taking place. So they really changed the landscape, and it was part of this process of change in that mediascape that's just continuing at at a rapid rate now." [caption id="attachment_981748" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alan Rich[/caption] On the Appeal of Surf Films as a Genre — Especially on the Big Screen "It's just beautiful. It's just incredible shots. There are a whole lot of things within those early surf films that, to me, are everything that film is about. So in those days, you couldn't see surfing anywhere else. So if you're a surfer and you're in New South Wales, you want to know what the Queenslanders were doing or what was happening in Hawaii, you had to go to the surf film — you couldn't see it anywhere else. So in that way, it became the way that we shared stories and transferred information. [caption id="attachment_981751" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Esta Handfield[/caption] Then those kids from New South Wales would see what somebody's doing in Hawaii, and then they try and copy it, and then they'd come out with a new way, and then that film would go back. And so, along with the conversation, it became really important as a community-building exercise — and cinema as a community-building and information-, knowledge-sharing kind of place. To me, that's what storytelling and filmmaking is all about: bringing us together around these stories. But surfing specifically, you've got giant waves, you've got water, everything's moving all the time. It's like one huge, giant special effect. If you can have a giant wave 50-foot high on the screen in front of you and it comes crashing over you, it's still just an amazing, visceral feeling. [caption id="attachment_981760" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andrew McAlpine[/caption] Surf films are a genre. This film is more of an experimental form than your standard surf adventure film. But surf films as adventure films do have a genre. They're about escapism. Surfers left the cities in Australia in our film in the 50s and 60s to go and explore new ways to live, and I think that still there's a yearning to be out there in nature, and to be enveloped by nature and to be free. So much of our lives is driven by work and consumerism, and we're always constantly being put in a box, that you have to behave like this and that, and follow this rule and follow that rule. And surfing and catching waves, and other adventure sports as well that have grown from this, just provide this opportunity to feel free of all of that, and to be connected to nature and connected to the world in those place, rather than stuck in these regimented boxes that so many of us find ourselves in." [caption id="attachment_981753" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dennis MacDonald[/caption] On You Should Have Been Here Yesterday Taking Inspiration From Moonage Daydream and Mountain "Because we had all of this archive footage — we had 150 hours of archive footage, and it was all beautiful. And so we wanted to, like Moonage Daydream and Mountain, we wanted to get at an idea. Mountain is using absolutely stunning footage to get at an idea of why are we drawn to the mountain. Why are you drawn to climb a mountain? It's a madness in many ways. Why would you do that? It's dangerous. You could die. It's cold. I don't climb mountains, but it was trying to get at the idea of what it is that draws us to these places. And so in that way, Mountain by the incredible Jen Peedom, an amazing Australian filmmaker, inspired us. And then Moonage Daydream, just the form, that was just so radical — that form of 'hey, you don't need to have talking heads. You don't need somebody to come up and tell you what to think at any one moment. You can just sit back and absorb a film'. Moonage Daydream is an experience. It was a cinematic experience. You come out of that and you're jingly jangly — you're like 'what did I just see?'. [caption id="attachment_981761" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bob Evans[/caption] I was really hoping to get that feeling of surfing across, and that idea of being in nature and being connected to the world. So Moonage Daydream really gave us the confidence that we could do this film. For the first 90 percent, 95 percent of the film, there's no talking heads. It's just footage and voice. And I love that everybody in the audience takes their own journey through the film. It evokes something in them. They're not told 'this is what you should be thinking now. This is the moment'. Usually the talking head comes up and tells you 'well, that was a really great moment, we were all amazed'. I don't want to be derogatory, it's a really great filmmaking technique, but I wanted people to take their own journey through it and experience it. I tried make an experiential film." [caption id="attachment_981755" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bob Evans[/caption] On Retaining the Imperfections in the Restored Footage So That It Really Does Look Like a Treasure Trove of Material On-Screen "We love it. It was too much to fix it all up, and then why would you? It would have cost a fortune and taken years. And I love that idea of everything not being perfect. Some of the most-imperfect footage is some of my favourite, actually — some of the scratchy stuff that you can just barely see. I think those imperfections speak to where it's come from — that it was lost and it was made by essentially amateur filmmakers, and it was made by kids. And they went out there and they gave it a good shot. It wasn't polished. It was innocent and naive, the films. It was innocent and naive times. And then the footage, this is what we've managed to capture. [caption id="attachment_981757" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dick Hoole[/caption] So I really just adore those imperfections. Maybe it's getting older or something, and I go 'oh well' — and I look around at all the older people around me, and I think we're all, once we've been through things, once we've been on journeys, we all collect all these imperfections along the way. The footage is like that. We love it, and we couldn't do anything different. So we cleaned it up. Kade [Bucheli, who also worked on Hoff's 2022 documentary Watandar, My Countryman, about former Afghan Refugee and photographer Muzafar Ali] spent 14 months scanning. And literally the process, it's a physical process — like white gloves and cleaning it, and fixing splices, and then maybe a little bit of a certain solvent. But that was it. And then when we got it as good as we could physically, then we scanned it, and went 'well, we've given it love and care'. [caption id="attachment_981758" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bob Evans[/caption] It feels as it should to me. I've seen some films that have been restored. What they do with surfboards now, the analogy is maybe surfboards — they fix up the old surfboards, and then sometimes they fix up the old surfboards to the point that they look brand new. And then everyone goes 'oh, it just looks brand new. I loved that little ding or that little bit of discolouration or that mark that it had'. So I think it's like that. And I've seen that in some restorations as well, that it just ends up looking like any old digital kind of modern-affected piece, and you're losing something that's now a part of that artefact. Those blemishes now belong to that footage. They are what that footage is now." [caption id="attachment_981759" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alan Rich[/caption] On What Surfing Culture Both Means to Australia and Says About Australia "I don't know what it means to Australia, but what I think about is that — I'm talking modern Australia, we came over here and then really post-Second World War, we started to get more confident, and that's when the kids decided they were going to head out of the cities. And they found these beautiful places up and down the coast, and around Australia. And then they came to them to surf, to ride waves. But I have begun to think — I'm really interested in this idea of connection to Country. And I see that surfers are getting more and more connected to these places. They revere these places. We go on pilgrimages to these places. We love these places. And I sometimes question whether it's the land, this ancient land that we find ourselves on, calling us to come — and to come to us. Because surfers, we don't go there to farm it or to make money or anything. We go there to have joy, to meet friends, to have beautiful times together. Or maybe for solace, to dive into the water and wash away our difficulties. [caption id="attachment_981752" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andrew McAlpine[/caption] So I think it's a part of the process of this country beginning to speak to us as a people, as a modern Australian people, and draw us away from that really big British empire or imperialist force that keeps us really locked into these very regimented lives. Surfing's been a leader culture in a lot of different ways, and I feel that maybe in this way, maybe in the most humblest of senses, maybe it's the beginning of a connection to Country that Indigenous people have had for 40,000, 60,000 years. And maybe it's the beginning of us being able to understand what maybe a sacred site means, or what maybe it means to be connected to Country. So I think it's a little window into that. But it could be a whole lot more, a whole lot of other things as well." You Should Have Been Here Yesterday opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, November 21, 2024. Top image: Dick Hoole.
Before the pandemic, when a new-release movie started playing in cinemas, audiences couldn't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the past few years forcing film industry to make quite a few changes — widespread movie theatre closures and plenty of people staying home in iso will do that — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you've had a close-contact run-in. Perhaps you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Given the hefty amount of films now releasing each week, maybe you simply missed something. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here are 20 that you can watch right now at home. THE NORTHMAN Satanic goats don't talk in The Northman. Heartthrobs don't masturbate while fondling mermaid figurines, either. Still, within ten minutes, pre-teen Viking prince Amleth (Oscar Novak, The Batman), his glory-seeking warrior father King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke, Moon Knight) and jester-meets-shaman Heimir (Willem Dafoe, Nightmare Alley) descend into a fire-lit cave to take hallucinogens, growl, grunt, bark like wolves and fart like it's a god-given superpower. If viewers didn't know who's behind this bold, brutal, brilliant, and blood- and guts-strewn Scandinavian opus before then, there's no doubt from this trippy scene onwards: after The Witch and The Lighthouse, writer/director Robert Eggers' touch, approach and style have become that distinctive just three remarkable features into his helming career. In Eggers' new untamed and laid-bare portrait of the past, something is rotten in the state of Iceland — as it was in Denmark via William Shakespeare, and in the Pride Lands of Africa in both versions of The Lion King. "I will avenge you, father. I will save you, mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir," says Amleth as a boy on a north Atlantic island in 895, when he witnesses the latter's (Claes Bang, Locked Down) treachery. He flees after hearing his uncle bay for his head, too, and seeing him carry off Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos) as a spoil of his victory. Two decades later, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård, Succession) is a hulking, wolfskin-clad Viking berserker, living life flinging whatever weaponry he can find while viciously pillaging through the lands of the Rus. But amid the bloodlust, gore and piling-up body count, the intense marauder is thrust back onto his vengeance-seeking path. A Slavic seeress (Björk, in her first film role since 2005) whispers stark truths about his current savagery and lapsed mission against Fjölnir, reigniting his yearning for that promised slaughter — and the single-minded behemoth learns that his uncle is now sheep-farming in Iceland, having lost the kingdom in another coup. The Northman is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THE GRAY MAN It's been four years since Ryan Gosling last graced screens, rocketing to the moon in First Man. No, Barbie set photos pored over on every internet-connected device don't count. Since he played Neil Armstrong, much has happened. There's the obvious off-screen, of course — but then there's Chris Evans farewelling Captain America, and also appearing in Knives Out with the scene-stealing Ana de Armas. After co-starring in Blade Runner 2049 with Gosling back in 2017, she leapt from that Evans-featuring whodunnit to palling around with 007 in No Time to Die. Also during that time, Bridgerton pushed Regé-Jean Page to fame, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood earmarked Julia Butters as a young talent to watch. This isn't just a history lesson on The Gray Man's cast — well, some of them, given that Billy Bob Thornton (Goliath), Jessica Henwick (The Matrix Resurrections), Dhanush (Maaran), Wagner Moura (Shining Girls) and Alfre Woodard (The Lion King) also pop up, plus Australia's own Callan Mulvey (Firebite) — for the hell of it, though. Back in 2018, before all of the above played out, it's unlikely that this exact film with this exact cast would've eventuated. Making an action-thriller about attempting to snuff out hyper-competent assassins isn't new — both John Wick and Atomic Blonde have already been there and done that, and the Bourne and Bond movies — but the combination of this collection of current actors and that familiar setup isn't without its charms. Gosling plays Court Gentry, aka Sierra Six; "007 was taken," he jokes. Before he's given his codename and paid to do the CIA's dirty work, he's in prison for murder, then recruited by Donald Fitzroy (Thornton). Fast-forward 18 years and Six is a huge hit at two things: being a ghost, because he no longer officially exists; and covertly wreaking whatever havoc the government tells him to, including knocking off whichever nefarious figure they need gone. But one stint of the latter leaves him in possession of a USB drive that his arrogant new direct superior Carmichael (Page) will ruthlessly kill to destroy. Actually, to be precise, he'll pay Lloyd Hansen (Evans) of Hansen Government Services to do just that, and to do the dirty work that's too dirty for the criminals-turned-government hitmen in the Sierra program, with Six the number-one target. The Gray Man is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. PETITE MAMAN Forget the "find someone who looks at you like…" meme. That's great advice in general, and absolutely mandatory if you've ever seen a Céline Sciamma film. No one peers at on-screen characters with as much affection, attention, emotion and empathy as the French director. Few filmmakers even come close, and most don't ever even try. That's been bewitchingly on display in her past features Water Lillies, Tomboy, Girlhood and Portrait of a Lady on Fire, any of which another helmer would kill to have on their resume. It's just as apparent in Petite Maman, her entrancing latest release, as well. Now 15 years into her directorial career, Sciamma's talent for truly seeing into hearts and minds is unshakeable, unparalleled and such a lovely wonder to watch — especially when it shines as sublimely and touchingly as it does here. In Sciamma's new delicate and exquisite masterpiece, the filmmaker follows eight-year-old Nelly (debutant Joséphine Sanz) on a trip to her mother's (Nina Meurisse, Camille) childhood home. The girl's maternal grandmother (Margot Abascal, The Sower) has died, the house needs packing up, and the trip is loaded with feelings on all sides. Her mum wades between sorrow and attending to the task. With melancholy, she pushes back against her daughter's attempts to help, too. Nelly's laidback father (Stéphane Varupenne, Monsieur Chocolat) assists as well, but with a sense of distance; going through the lifelong belongings of someone else's mother, even your spouse's, isn't the same as sifting through your own mum's items for the last time. While her parents work, the curious Nelly roves around the surrounding woods — picture-perfect and oh-so-enticing as they are — and discovers Marion (fellow newcomer Gabrielle Sanz), a girl who could be her twin. Petite Maman is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Read our full review. THIS MUCH I KNOW TO BE TRUE How do you make a concert film when no concerts can be held to film? Australian director Andrew Dominik (Chopper, Killing Them Softly) and his now two-time subjects Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have the answer. How do you create a personal documentary that cuts to the heart of these Aussie music icons when, whether stated or implied in their vibe, both are hardly enamoured with having their lives recorded? Again, see: Dominik's new Cave and Ellis-focused This Much I Know to Be True. Performances in cavernous empty British spaces fill the movie's frames but, via stunning lighting, staging and lensing, they're as dazzling as any IRL gig. The interludes between tunes are brief, and also intimate and revealing. The result: a phenomenal doco that's a portrait of expression, a musing on an exceptional collaboration and a rumination upon existence, as well as a piece of haunting cinematic heaven whether you're an existing Cave and Ellis devotee, a newcomer or something in-between. Dominik, Cave and Ellis initially teamed up when the latter duo scored the former's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Later this year, when upcoming Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde hits screens, the same arrangement will provide its soundtrack. But in the middle sits 2016 doco One More Time with Feeling and now This Much I Know to Be True, as entrancing a pair as the music documentary genre has gifted viewers. The first factual flick found Cave and Ellis recording the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Skeleton Tree, as Cave also grappled with the death of one of his sons. Here, its follow-up is shaped by the first performances of Cave and Ellis' latest albums — the Bad Seeds 2019 release Ghosteen, and Cave and Ellis' 2021 record Carnage — plus the pandemic and the lingering effects of grief. This Much I Know to Be True is available to stream via Mubi. Read our full review. DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS Somewhere in the multiverse, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is terrific. In a different realm, it's terrible. Here in our dimension, the 28th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe teeters and twirls in the middle. The second movie to focus on surgeon-turned-sorcerer Dr Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog), it's at its best when it embraces everything its director is known for. That said, it's also at its worst when it seems that harnessing Sam Raimi's trademarks — his visual style, bombast, comic tone and Evil Dead background, for instance — is merely another Marvel ploy. Multiverse of Madness is trippy, dark, sports a bleak sense of humour and is as close as the MCU has gotten to horror, all immensely appreciated traits in this sprawling, box office-courting, never-ending franchise. But it stands out for the wrong reasons, too, especially how brazenly it tries to appear as if it's twisting and fracturing the typical MCU template when it definitely isn't. Welcomely weirder than the average superhero flick (although not by too much), but also bluntly calculating: that's Multiverse of Madness, and that's a messy combination. It's apt given its eponymous caped crusader has always hailed from Marvel's looser, goofier and, yes, stranger side since his MCU debut in 2016's plainly titled Doctor Strange; however, it's hard to believe that such formulaic chaos was truly the plan for this follow-up. The last time that audiences saw Stephen Strange, he reluctantly tinkered with things he shouldn't to help Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Those actions had consequences, and recalling Raimi's time with Spidey came with the territory. Strange's reality-bending trickery has repercussions here as well, because Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen, Sorry for Your Loss) isn't thrilled about her fellow super-powered pal's exploits. Yes, Multiverse of Madness assumes viewers have not only watched all 27 past MCU movies, but also its small-screen offshoots — or WandaVision at least, where the enchantress that's also Scarlet Witch broke rules herself and wasn't still deemed a hero. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. MEN Since popping up over the last decade, the term 'elevated horror' has always been unnecessary. Used to describe The Babadook, It Follows, The Witch, Get Out, Hereditary, Us, Midsommar and more, it pointlessly claims that such unsettling flicks have risen above their genre. Each of these movies is excellent. They all boast weight and depth, trade in metaphors with smarts and savvy, and have style to go with their creeps and thrills. But thinking that's new in horror — that pairing unease with topical woes or societal fears is as well — is as misguided as dubbing Michael Myers a hero. With a name that makes its #MeToo-era point plain, Men has been badged 'elevated', too, yet it also does what horror has at its best and worst cases for decades. That the world can be a nightmare for women at the hands of men isn't a fresh observation, and it's long been a scary movie go-to. Still, Men stresses that fact in an inescapably blunt but also unforgettable manner. Hailing from Ex Machina, Annihilation and Devs' Alex Garland, Men's setting is an English manor, where Harper Marlowe (Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter) hopes for a solo stint of rest, relaxation and recuperation. Processing a tragedy, shattering memories of which haunt the movie as much as its protagonist, she's seeking an escape and a way to start anew. The initial hint that she won't find bliss comes swiftly and obviously, and with a sledgehammer's subtlety. Arriving at an idyllic-looking British countryside estate, Harper is greeted by an apple tree. She plucks one from the abundant branches, then takes a bite. Soon, she's told by her host Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear, Our Flag Means Death) that it's forbidden fruit. He also says he's joking — but in this garden, a woman will again shoulder a society's blame and burdens. Men is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. NUDE TUESDAY Relationships are all about communication. So much about life is, too. And, so is storytelling. With absurdist comedy Nude Tuesday, expressing emotions, connections and narrative details all boils down to two things, though: gibberish and bodies. This extremely amusing New Zealand film from writer/director Armagan Ballantyne (The Strength of Water) and writer/star Jackie van Beek (The Breaker Upperers) does indeed strip its performers bare, as its name makes plain — but it saddles them with conveying almost everything about their characters via body language long before that. The reason: every piece of dialogue spoken in the movie is uttered in gibberish, with completely made-up and wholly improvised words that take a few cues from The Muppets' Swedish Chef in cadence. While they're subtitled in English by British comedian and writer Julia Davis (Camping), that text was penned after shooting, in one of the film's other gleefully silly twists. The result is patently ridiculous, and marvellously so — and hilariously, too. It's such a clever touch, making a movie about marital disharmony and the communication breakdown baked within that's so reliant upon reading tone and posture, as couples on the prowl for the tiniest of micro-aggressions hone in on. Van Beek and Australian The Tourist actor Damon Herriman play that pair, Laura and Bruno. Living on the fictional pacific island of Zǿbftąņ, they're as stuck in a rut as any married, middle-class duo can be, and they're gifted a getaway to ẄØnÐĘULÄ to help. But this mountainside commune, run by the charismatic and lustful sex guru Bjorg Rassmussen (Jemaine Clement, I Used to Go Here), wants them to bare all in multiple ways. The film doesn't live up to its moniker until its last third, but its perceptive and side-splittingly funny from the get-go. Nude Tuesday is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. THE DROVER'S WIFE THE LEGEND OF MOLLY JOHNSON Leah Purcell's resume isn't short on highlights — think: Black Comedy, Wentworth and Redfern Now, plus Lantana, Somersault and Last Cab to Darwin (to name just a few projects) — but the Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri actor, director and writer clearly has a passion project. In 2016, she adapted Henry Lawson's short story The Drover's Wife for the stage. In 2019, she moved it back to the page. Now, she brings it to the big screen via The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson. Only minutes into her searing feature filmmaking debut, why Purcell keeps needing to tell this 19th century-set tale is patently apparent. In her hands, it's a story of anger, power, prejudice and revenge, and also a portrait of a history that's treated both women and Indigenous Australians abhorrently. Aussie cinema hasn't shied away from the nation's problematic past in recent times (see also: Sweet Country, The Nightingale, The Furnace and High Ground); however, this is an unforgettably potent and piercing movie. In a fiery performance that bristles with steeliness, Purcell plays the eponymous and heavily pregnant Molly. In the process, she gives flesh, blood and a name to a character who wasn't ever afforded the latter in Lawson's version: a 19th-century Indigenous Australian woman left alone with her children on a remote property for lengthy stretches while her husband works. During his latest absence, new sergeant Nate Clintoff (Sam Reid, The Newsreader) and Aboriginal fugitive Yadaka (Rob Collins, Firebite) separately venture Molly's way. From there, this sometimes-stagey but always blistering western digs sharply into issues of race, gender and identity — and eagerly, shrewdly and ferociously draws cinematic blood. The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THE BOB'S BURGERS MOVIE Across its 12-season order to-date, the best episodes of Bob's Burgers have always resembled exactly what they should: a delicious serving of the meat-and-bread combination that shares the hit sitcom's name. There's a knack to a great burg — to a tastebud-thrilling, so-appetising-I-need-more-now example of this extremely accessible culinary art — and it's all about perfecting the absolute basics. No matter what else gets slotted in (and plenty of other ingredients can), every burger's staples should be the stars of the show. Indeed, a top-notch burg needn't be flashy. It definitely mustn't be overcomplicated, either. And, crucially, it should taste as comforting as wrapping your hands around its buns feels. On the small screen since 2011, Bob's Burgers has kept its version of that very recipe close to its animated, irreverent, gleefully offbeat heart. Unsurprisingly, the show's creators whip up the same kind of dish for The Bob's Burgers Movie, too. It's a winning formula, and creator Loren Bouchard knows not to mess with it while taking his beloved characters to the big screen. As always, the action centres on the film's namesake — the diner where patriarch Bob (H Jon Benjamin, Archer) sizzles up punningly named burgs to both make a living and live out his dream. And, as the show has covered frequently, financial woes mean that Bob and his wife Linda (John Roberts, Gravity Falls) have more to worry about than cooking, serving customers, and their kids Tina (Dan Mintz, Veep), Gene (Eugene Mirman, Flight of the Conchords) and Louise (Kristen Schaal, What We Do in the Shadows). Their solution: a burger, of course. But their bank manager isn't munching when they try to use food to grease their pleas for an extension on their loan. That mortgage also involves their restaurant equipment, leaving them out of business if they can't pay up. As their seven-day time limit to stump up the cash ticks by, Bob sweats over the grill and Linda oozes her usual optimism — only for a sinkhole to form literally at their door. The Bob's Burgers Movie is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. HATCHING With a savvily sinister-meets-satirical blend, Hatching begins by unpacking a fallacy as fractured as Humpty Dumpty after the nursery-rhyme character's fall — and that still keeps being lapped up anyway. In suburban Finland, among homes so identical that the song 'Little Boxes' instantly pops into your head, 12-year-old gymnast Tinja (debutant Siiri Solalinna), her younger brother Matias (fellow first-timer Oiva Ollila), and their mother (Sophia Heikkilä, Dual) and father Jani Volanen, Dogs Don't Wear Pants) are living their best lives. More than that, as the soft lensing and music that helps open the movie establishes, they're also beaming that picture of pink, white and pastel-hued domestic perfection to the world. Tinja's unnamed mum is a vlogger, and these scenes are being captured for her cloyingly named blog Lovely Everyday Life. Naturally, showing that this family of four's daily existence is anything but enchanting is one of Bergholm's first aims. In Finnish writer/director Hanna Bergholm's bold and memorable body-horror, twisted fairy tale and dark coming-of-age thriller, the initial crack comes from outside, crashing through the window to ruin a posed shot alight with fake smiles and, of course, being filmed with a selfie stick. Soon, broken glass, vases and lamps are strewn throughout a lounge room so immaculately arranged that it looks straight out of a supermarket-shelf home-and-garden magazine — and the crowning glory, the chandelier, has descended from a luminous pièce de résistance to a shattered mess. A garden-variety crow is the culprit, which Tinja carefully captures. She hands it to her mother, thinking that they'll then release it outside. But her mum, placid but seething that anything could disrupt her manufactured picture of bliss, ignores that idea with a cruel snap and instructions to dispose of the animal in the organic waste. When Tinja disobeys that order, taking the egg into her care, nurturing it tenderly and placing it inside a teddy bear for safe keeping, she gains her own little universe to dote over. Then the egg keeps growing, and a human-sized chick emerges. Hatching is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THE INNOCENTS Thanks to his Oscar-nominated work co-penning The Worst Person in the World's screenplay, Eskil Vogt has already helped give the world one devastatingly accurate slice-of-life portrait in the past year. That applauded film is so insightful and relatable about being in your twenties, and also about weathering quarter-life malaise, uncertainty and crisis, that it feels inescapably lifted from reality — and it's sublime. The Innocents, the Norwegian filmmaker's latest movie, couldn't be more different in tone and narrative; however, it too bears the fingerprints of achingly perceptive and deep-seated truth. Perhaps that should be mindprints, though. Making his second feature as a director after 2014's exceptional Blind, Vogt hones in on childhood, and on the way that kids behave with each other when adults are absent or oblivious — and on tykes and preteens who can wreak havoc solely using their mental faculties. Another riff on Firestarter, this thankfully isn't. The Innocents hasn't simply jumped on the Stranger Things bandwagon, either. Thanks to the latter, on-screen tales about young 'uns battling with the supernatural are one of Hollywood's current favourite trends — see also: the awful Ghostbusters: Afterlife — but all that this Nordic horror movie's group of kids are tussling with is themselves. Their fight starts when nine-year-old Ida (debutant Rakel Lenora Fløttum) and her 11-year-old sister Anna (fellow first-timer Alva Brynsmo Ramstad), who is on the autism spectrum, move to an apartment block in Romsås, Oslo with their mother (Blind's Ellen Dorrit Petersen) and father (Morten Svartveit, Ninjababy). It's summer, the days are long, and the two girls are largely left to their own devices outside in the complex's communal spaces. That's where Ida befriends Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) and Ben (Sam Ashraf), albeit not together, and starts to learn about their abilities. The Innocents to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. ITHAKA To look at John Shipton is to see the obvious, even if you've never laid eyes upon him before. The family resemblance is immediately clear, and the traits that've likely been passed down from father to son — determination and persistence, blatantly — become apparent within minutes. Shipton needs to be resolute for the battle that documentary Ithaka captures. It's a fight that's been waged for a decade now, publicly, and not just in embassies and courtrooms but across news headlines worldwide. He's visibly Julian Assange's dad, and he's been helping spearhead the campaign for the WikiLeaks founder's release. Assange fell afoul of US authorities in 2010, when his non-profit whistleblower organisation published documents about the American military's war crimes leaked by army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. As Ithaka makes plain, The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel revealed the same information at the same time; however, only Assange now sits in London's Belmarsh prison. Plenty about the past 12 years since Manning's leaks were exposed to the world is filled with numbers. Plenty about the ten years this June since Assange first took refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in London is as well. The Australian editor and publisher spent almost seven years in that diplomatic space, seeking political asylum from sexual misconduct allegations in Sweden that he contended would be used to extradite him to America. If the US succeeds in its efforts, and in its espionage charges against him, he faces up to 175 years in incarceration. The list of figures goes on, but filmmaker Ben Lawrence (Hearts and Bones) makes two pivotal choices. Firstly, he surveys Assange's current struggle not through the Aussie himself, but through both Shipton and Stella Moris, his South African-born lawyer and now wife. Secondly, although those aforementioned numbers are inescapable, the riveting and affecting Ithaka brings humanity to this well-publicised plight. Ithaka is available to stream via ABC iview. Read our full review. ABLAZE A documentary that's deeply personal for one of its directors, intensely powerful in surveying Australia's treatment of its First Peoples and crucial in celebrating perhaps the country's first-ever Aboriginal filmmaker, Ablaze makes for astonishing viewing. But while watching, two ideas jostle for attention. Both remain unspoken, yet each is unshakeable. Firstly, if the history of Australia had been different, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta man William 'Bill' Onus would be a household name. If that was the case, not only his work behind the camera, but his activism for Indigenous Aussies at a time when voting and even being included in the census wasn't permitted — plus his devotion to ensuring that white Australians were aware of the nation's colonial violence — would be as well-known as Captain Cook. That said, if history had been better still, Bill wouldn't have needed to fight so vehemently, or at all. Alas, neither of those possibilities came to a fruition. Ablaze can't change the past, but it can and does document it with a hope to influencing how the world sees and appreciates Bill's part in it. Indeed, shining the spotlight on its subject, everything his life stood for, and all that he battled for and against is firmly and proudly the feature's aim. First-time filmmaker Tiriki Onus looks back on his own grandfather, narrating his story as well — and, as aided by co-helmer Alec Morgan (Hunt Angels, Lousy Little Sixpence), the result is a movie brimming with feeling, meaning and importance. While Aussie cinema keeps reckoning with the nation's history regarding race relations, as it should and absolutely must, Ablaze is as potent and essential as everything from Sweet Country, The Nightingale and The Australian Dream to The Furnace, High Ground and The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson. Ablaze is available to stream via ABC iview, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA The movies have come to Downton Abbey and Violet Crawley, the acid-tongued Dowager Countess of Grantham so delightfully played by Maggie Smith (The Lady in the Van) since 2010, is none too fussed about it. "Hard same," all but the most devoted fans of the upstairs-downstairs TV drama may find themselves thinking as she expresses that sentiment — at least where Downton Abbey: A New Era, an exercise in extending the series/raking in more box-office cash, is concerned. Violet, as only she can, declares she'd "rather eat pebbles" than watch a film crew at work within the extravagant walls of her family's home. The rest of us mightn't be quite so venomous, but that's not the same as being entertained. The storyline involving said film crew is actually one of the most engaging parts of A New Era; however, the fact that much of it is clearly ripped off from cinematic classic Singin' in the Rain speaks volumes, and gratingly. A New Era begins with a wedding, picking up where its predecessor left off as former chauffeur Tom Branson (Allen Leech, Bohemian Rhapsody) marries Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton, Mank) with everyone expected — the well-to-do Crawleys and their relatives, plus their maids, butlers, cooks, footmen and other servants — in attendance. But the film really starts with two revelations that disrupt the Downton status quo. Firstly, Violet receives word that she's inherited a villa in the south of France from an ex-paramour, who has recently passed away. His surviving wife (Nathalie Baye, Call My Agent!) is displeased with the arrangement, threatening lawsuits, but his son (Jonathan Zaccaï, The White Crow) invites the Crawleys to visit to hash out the details. Secondly, a movie production wants to use Downton for a shoot, which the pragmatic Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery, Anatomy of a Scandal) talks the family into because — paralleling the powers-that-be behind A New Era itself — the aristocratic brood would like the money. Downton Abbey: A New Era is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. FIRESTARTER Would the latest big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's Firestarter have been better or worse if it had included The Prodigy's hit of the same name, aka the most obvious needle-drop that could've been chosen? Although we'll never know, it's hard to imagine a film with less personality than this page-to-screen remake. Using the 1996 dance-floor filler would've been a choice and a vibe — and a cliched one, whether gleefully or lazily — but it might've been preferable to the dull ashes of by-the-numbers genre filmmaking from director Keith Thomas (The Vigil) that's hit screens instead. Zac Efron looking so bored that blood drips from his eyes, dressing up King's 1980 story as a superhero tale (because of course) and having its pyrokinetic protagonist say "liar liar, pants on fire" when she's torching someone aren't a recipe for igniting movie magic, or for even occasionally just lighting a spark. As the first version of Firestarter in 1984 did, and King's book as well, Firestarter follows the McGee family, whose lives would blaze brighter if they didn't have abilities most folks don't. After volunteering for a clinical trial in college, Andy (Efron, Gold) and his wife Vicky (Sydney Lemmon, Fear the Walking Dead) have telepathic and telekinetic powers; being experimented on with mind-altering chemical compounds will do that. And, from birth, their now 11-year-old daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong, It: Chapter Two) has been able to start fires with her mind. Unsurprisingly, the McGees have spent years attempting to blend in, hiding their powers and fleeing the shady government department, The Shop, that's responsible for their situation — and now sports a keen interest in using Charlie as a weapon. Then she literally explodes at school, The Shop head honcho Captain Hollister (Gloria Reuben, City on a Hill) puts bounty hunter John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes, Rutherford Falls) on their trail and the heat is on. (No, that track from Beverly Hills Cop, which reached cinemas the same year that the OG Firestarter did, doesn't feature here either.) Firestarter is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. HOW TO PLEASE A WOMAN When Magic Mike stripped its way into cinemas a decade ago, it didn't just turn Channing Tatum's IRL background into a movie and give his chiselled torso oh-so-much attention; it understood that women like sex, boast libidos and have desires, too. Its sequel, Magic Mike XXL, doubled down on that idea, and winningly so — even if the saga dances with a notion so blatant that it definitely shouldn't feel revelatory to see it thrust front and centre in a big-budget Hollywood film. There's no trace of Tatum in How to Please a Woman, and it has nothing to do with the saucy franchise that has a third flick on the way, but this Aussie comedy nonetheless follows in Magic Mike's footsteps. Here, women also like sex, boast libidos and have desires, and that's something that the stuck-in-a-rut Gina (Sally Phillips, Off the Rails) turns into a lucrative business. When first-time feature writer/director Renée Webster begins her sunnily shot, eagerly crowd-pleasing leap to the big screen — following helming gigs on TV's The Heights and Aftertaste — Gina's relationship with sex is non-existent. She has long been wed to lawyer Adrian (Cameron Daddo, Home and Away), but he still thinks that having a tumble on their last holiday years ago is enough bedroom action to keep their marriage going. Gina's resigned to that fact, too, until her ocean swimming club pals book her a stripping surprise for her birthday. Tom (Alexander England, Little Monsters) shows up at her door, starts gyrating and undressing, and says he'll do whatever she wants. Although her friends are later horrified, Gina asks him to clean her house instead — and its their eagerness to truly take Tom up on his offer that inspires a plan to turn a removalist company she thinks she can save into a male escort service, covering scrubbing and shagging alike. How to Please a Woman is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. HELMUT NEWTON: THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL One of the great treats in Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful stems from perhaps the film's simplest move: letting viewers peer at the often-provocative photographer's works in such a large format. Being able to do just that is the reason why the Exhibition On Screen series of movies exists, surveying showcases dedicated to artists such as Vincent van Gogh, David Hockney and Frida Kahlo over the years — and this documentary isn't part of that, but it understands the same idea. There's nothing like staring at an artist's work to understand what makes them tick. Writer/director Gero von Boehm (Henry Miller: Prophet of Desire) fills The Bad and the Beautiful with plenty more, from archival footage to recent interviews, but it'd all ring empty without seeing the imagery captured by Newton's lens firsthand. Every word that's said about the German photographer, or by him, is deepened by roving your eyes across the frequently contentious snaps that he sent Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Playboy and other magazines' ways. Those photos aren't run-of-the-mill fashion pics. Largely, the highly stylised images are of naked women — naked famous women, if not then then now, such as Isabella Rossellini, Charlotte Rampling, Grace Jones and Claudia Schiffer — and they're as fetishistic as the artform gets. They're the kinds of snaps that saw Susan Sontag call Newton out for being a misogynist to his face, as seen in a French TV clip featured in the film. The Bad and the Beautiful is an affectionate doco, but it also dives headfirst into the trains of thought that his work has sparked for decades. Anna Wintour explains that when someone books Newton, "you're not going to get a pretty girl on a beach". Women who posed for him, including the aforementioned stars, plus Marianne Faithfull, Arja Toyryla, Nadja Auermann and Hanna Schygulla, all talk through their differing experiences as well — and the portrait painted is varied. Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. LAST SEEN ALIVE Perhaps the most positive thing that can be said about Last Seen Alive is this: it's definitely a Gerard Butler-starring kidnapping thriller. That isn't meant as praise, though; rather, the film simply manages to be exactly what viewers would expect given its star and premise. There's clearly far less cash behind it than the also-terrible trio of Olympus Has Fallen, London Has Fallen and Angel Has Fallen — or Geostorm, Den of Thieves, Hunter Killer and Greenland among the Scottish actor's career lowlights over the past decade, either. There's visibly less effort, too, and more of a phoning-it-in vibe. The second collaboration between actor-turned-filmmaker Brian Goodman (What Doesn't Kill You) and producer/writer Marc Frydman after 2017's Black Butterfly, it plays like something that a streaming platform's algorithm might spit out in an AI-driven future where new movies are swiftly spliced together from pieces of past flicks. Yes, among Butler's output and with its abduction storyline, it's that derivative. Butler plays Will Spann, a real estate developer who already isn't having a great day when the film begins — but it's about to get worse. He's driving his unhappy wife Lisa (Jaimie Alexander, Loki) to her parents' home, where she's keen to decamp to find herself and take a break from their marriage, and Will is desperate to convince her to change her plans en route. His charm offensive isn't working when they stop at a petrol station mere minutes away from their destination, and he has zero charisma for anyone when Lisa unexpectedly disappears while he's filling the tank. Fuming that local police detective Paterson (Russell Hornsby, Lost in Space) hasn't just dropped everything immediately, and that he also has questions about their relationship, Will decides to chase down any lead he can himself. Meanwhile, Lisa's unsurprisingly wary parents (Queen Bees' Cindy Hogan and Master's Bruce Altman) direct their suspicions his way. Last Seen Alive is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. INTERCEPTOR Four decades back, Interceptor would've happily sat on a crowded video-store shelf alongside a wealth of other mindless, machismo-fuelled action thrillers. It would've been the epitome of one of the genre's straight-to-VHS flicks, in fact. Don't just call it a throwback, though; instead of testosterone oozing from every actor within sight, except perhaps a token wife worrying at home, this nuclear attack movie from Australian author Matthew Reilly focuses on a woman making waves in a male-dominated world. That's firmly a 2022 move, reflecting today's gender politics. So too is the fact that said protagonist, US Army Captain JJ Collins (Elsa Pataky, Tidelands), has just been reassigned after putting in a sexual harassment complaint against one of her past superiors. Don't go thinking that Interceptor doesn't tick every other box its 80s counterparts did, however. It couldn't lean harder on all of the cliches that've ever been involved with world-in-peril, military-driven movies, and with action fare at its most inane in general. A global success for his airport novels, writer Reilly doesn't just turn screenwriter here — with assistance from Collateral, Tomorrow, When the War Began and Obi-Wan Kenobi's Stuart Beattie — but also jumps behind the lens for the first time. Alas, his directorial instincts prove as flat and by-the-numbers as Interceptor's wanly boilerplate plot, as well as its clunky-as-clunky dialogue. And, that storyline really couldn't be more formulaic. In her new post on a remote platform in the Pacific Ocean, Collins soon finds herself under attack by terrorists led by the grating Alexander Kessel (Luke Bracey, Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan). Her sea-surrounded station is one of two sites, alongside Alaska's Fort Greely, that can intercept a nuclear warhead launch on the US. Naturally, Kessel and his men have already taken out the other one, and have also pilfered nukes from the Russians in their possession. Interceptor is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. FATHER STU The last time that Mark Wahlberg played a real-life boxer, The Fighter was the end result. The last time that Mel Gibson played the burger-chain owner's father, the world was forced to suffer through Daddy's Home 2. Combine this mismatched pair and you don't quite get Father Stu, the former Marky Mark's first step into faith-based films — but even watching the latter, the second instalment in his woeful comedy franchise with Will Ferrell, is preferable to this mawkish true tale. Drawn from the IRL Stuart Long's life, it's meant to be an inspirational affair, covering the familiar religious-favourite beats about sinners being redeemed, wayward souls seizing second chances and learning to accept physical suffering as a chance to get closer to the divine. First-time feature writer/director Rosalind Ross is earnest about those messages, and her film visibly looks more competent than most sermon-delivering recent cinema releases, but what preaching-to-the-choir sentiments they are. How ableist they are as well. When Wahlberg (Uncharted) first graces the screen as Long, he could've stepped in from plenty of his other movies. In his younger days, the titular future priest is a foul-mouthed amateur boxer from Montana, but he has big dreams — and when he hits Los Angeles with acting stars in his eyes, viewers can be forgiven for thinking of Boogie Nights. Porn isn't Long's calling, of course, although salacious propositions do come his way in the City of Angels, in one of the film's hardly subtle efforts to equate the secular and the sordid. It's actually lust that pushes the feature's protagonist on the path to the priesthood, however, after he spies volunteer Sunday school teacher Carmen (Teresa Ruiz, The Marksman) while he's working in a grocery store. To have a chance with her, he even gets baptised. Then, a drink-driving accident brings a vision of the Virgin Mary, sparking Long's determination to make Catholicism his calling. Next, a shock health diagnosis both tests and cements his faith. Father Stu is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Looking for more at-home viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and our best new TV shows, returning TV shows and straight-to-streaming movies from the first half of 2022. Or, check out the movies that were fast-tracked to digital in January, February, March, April, May and June.
International sportswear label Adidas continues its efforts to save the world's oceans, announcing it will contribute $1.5 million USD to the Parley Ocean School Program. The catch? It will donate $1 for every kilometre run, so grab your joggers and pound the pavement for a good cause. Runners can clock their kilometres by joining the Run for the Oceans group within the app Runtastic, which is free to download on iPhone and android. There are also a slew of Adidas and Parley running events happening across Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, New York, Paris, Berlin, London, Barcelona, Milan and Shanghai, which you can also partake in. The initiative is running globally from June 8–16, 2019, and is capped at $1.5 million USD. Last year, 12 million kilometres were run and $1 million USD were raised for the same initiative. https://www.facebook.com/adidasAU/photos/a.614311325637497/779507399117888/?type=3&theater Parley Ocean School Program is a branch of environmental charity Parley for the Oceans that educates and empowers the next generation about the importance of the ocean, the dangers of plastic waste and what we can do to protect the ocean and its marine live. Together with Parley, this is just Adidas' latest campaign to help save the ocean and reach its 2024 goal of eliminating the use of virgin polyester from all products. The 2019 Parley apparel range will also see the the company produce 11 million pairs of shoes made from recycled plastic pulled from the beach. The planet-friendly range features the new slick Alphabounce+ running shoes, water bottles, training tights and backpacks. Adidas' Run for the Oceans initiative runs from June 8–16, 2019. To find out more info and to signup head to adidas.com.au/runfortheoceans.
The humble hotel restaurant-and-bar combo is levelling up with each new opening. And Melbourne's latest, housed within the newly launched Next Hotel Melbourne, is an absolute doozy. La Madonna opens its doors on Thursday, April 1, showing off a warmly chic space that spreads across the hotel's entire third floor — and cementing its status as one of the most hyped new additions to the ever-growing 80 Collins Street precinct. At once swanky and understated, the venue is decked out in a mix of old-world and mid-century modern features, with a healthy dose of marble, sumptuous textures and rich leather lounges. You'll spy a soaring glass cabinet brimming with cheese and charcuterie, while a striking ceramics installation crafted by artist Jodie Gray hangs from the ceiling. Heading up the kitchen is the dynamic duo of Daniel Natoli and Adrian Li — two renowned Melbourne chefs who've previously worked together at the likes of Donovan's, Saigon Sally and Tokyo Tina. Here, the pair is joining forces to deliver a creatively charged seasonal offering that pays homage to their respective Sicilian and Hong Kong heritages. For the snackers, there are crafty bites like salt and vinegar zucchini fritto, a smoked eel dip finished with Yarra Valley roe, and grilled ox tongue skewers with a bonito glaze and salsa verde. Pasta options might include pappardelle dressed in a rich ragu of pork, beef and fennel, while larger plates run to the likes of baked John Dory matched with Sichuan flavours and a warm tomato vinaigrette. You might remember hearing that Next Melbourne is the first Australian hotel to barrel age its own spirits. And up here on level three is where the magic happens. At the heart of La Madonna is The Barrel Room — a cosy chamber lined with barrels where Spirits Master Phil Smithers is helming an innovative barrel maturation program, featuring an array of different spirits, cocktails and herbal liquors. You can wrangle one of the eight Barrel Room seats for a close-up tasting experience, or see the program's results at play throughout the rest of La Madonna's offering. The drinks list showcases plenty of these barrel-matured creations, across sips like a rhubarb and tonka bean soda, a gimlet starring river mint cordial, and a daiquiri that blends aged rum with mango and a chamomile grappa. Soon, you'll be able to sit down to a special tasting pairing cheese with variously aged spirits, and you'll likely spy the results of some barrel-aged condiment experimentation hitting the food menu — and sip barrel-aged wine, too. On the vino front, the diverse curation largely heroes sustainable winemakers and small-scale local labels. Find La Madonna on Level 3 of Next Hotel Melbourne, from Thursday, April 1 — open daily from 7am till late. Entry is via 103 Little Collins Street, Melbourne.
In life and onstage, singer-songwriters Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter shared plenty. On-screen over the past year, they shared frames in exceptional documentary Wash My Soul in the Rivers Flow, too. And, come 2023, the pair will share a sculpture celebrating and commemorating their work and legacies, which is set to become a permanent fixture in Fitzroy. The Melbourne suburb will welcome a piece that hasn't yet been commissioned and designed, but will be overseen by the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and Yarra City Council, as well as Roach and Hunter's family members. That process will start now, in preparation for unveiling next year, with the Victorian Government putting $287,000 towards the statue. [caption id="attachment_859315" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jacinta Keefe[/caption] "I remember good times with my dear baby brother Archie in Fitzroy and with Ruby right beside him," said Roach's sister Myrtle Evans in a statement announcing the news. "We shared many good times here together as a family. Being back here reminds me of those times. I miss those times now. May the spirit of dear Archie and Ruby always be here." Both Roach and Hunter, who passed away earlier in 2022 and in 2010 respectively, enjoyed careers worthy of the heartiest of tributes. It's aimed for the statue to become a landmark for fans to visit, including from within Melbourne, across Victoria, interstate and beyond. The pair's individual achievements are immense, with Ruby's 1994 record Thoughts Within the first solo album released by a First Nations female artist — and Roach's 'Took the Children Away' a powerful anthem for the stolen generations since 1990. Ruby was inducted into the National Indigenous Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2020, and Archie was named Victorian of the Year the same year. The statue will also recognise Roach and Hunter's work with Melbourne's First Peoples communities, including via the Archie Roach Foundation since 2014. "Uncle Archie's and Aunty Ruby's passion for their people inspired these gifted songwriters. They produced lyrics that not only touched the hearts of millions but educated a nation on the Stolen Generations," said Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Colin Hunter. Fitzroy's new sculpture celebrating Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter will be installed and unveiled sometime in 2023. We'll update you when further details are announced — and keep an eye on the City of Yarra website in the interim. Top image: Wash My Soul in the Rivers Flow, Sandy Scheltem.
We're still slightly mourning the early-2017 closure of Fitzroy stalwart Hammer & Tong, so the arrival of Light Years — from the former Fitzroy cafe's executive chef and the owners of Chapel Street's Journeyman — is a welcome one. Given the experience of the people behind it, we're unsurprised that the cafe has shone a beam of light across the developing grey suburban stretch of Camberwell Road. Everything about it is beautiful. The way the light filters through the yellow glass door and the windows that reach from floor to ceiling. The giant circular light fitting that hangs above the heads of diners. The coffee made using the balanced blend from Dukes Coffee Roasters. And the food is no exception. The avocado is not smashed, but 'pixelated' (read: diced into tiny squares) and laced with tangy Japanese flavours of pickled radish, nori and lime ($18). The dish also features a poached egg and chilli air-dried kale standing magnificently on a tasty bed of edamame hummus. Asian flavours feature prominently on the menu with the inclusion of miso scrambled eggs ($18) and matcha waffles with dark chocolate sauce and popping candy ($21). A vego ramen ($19) also makes the cut, a welcome reprise of Hammer & Tong's much-loved bacon breakfast ramen. For something a bit meatier, there's the barbecue duck croquettes with charred broccolini, crunchy snow peas, compressed radicchio, and pickled onions and cucumber are drizzled with five spice jus ($20). If you're really hungry, go for the sweet and sour pork burger with slaw, kewpie mayo, coriander, spring onion and lime ($19) and a side of crispy sweet potato waffle fries ($6). Importantly, it isn't another of those big, noisy, intimidating cafes; the space is generous with high, industrial ceilings, but the rows of plants and carefully-placed booths create pockets of quiet. The fare is reliable but intriguing enough that you'll return to try something else on the menu. While we're always sad to see cafes close, Light Years proves that good things can come from closure — and Hawthorn East is lucky to reap the rewards of this shake-up. Images: Kristoffer Paulsen.
There's nothing overtly amusing about Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in Phantom Thread. As '50s-era London dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock, he's tenacious in his attitude but delicate in his approach, inhabiting the demanding, obsessive and fastidious figure to absolute perfection. And yet, there's a joke behind his character that says much about this meticulous, mesmerising melodrama. In trying to find a name for the protagonist in their second big screen collaboration, Day-Lewis and There Will Be Blood writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson were simply trying to make each other chuckle. Mission: accomplished. Similarly, Phantom Thread isn't a film that drips with laugh-out-loud humour, but the comic origins of Woodcock's moniker — and their contrast with the movie's tense and refined air — really couldn't be more appropriate. Far removed from his last wander through the ups and downs of romance in Punch-Drunk Love, here Anderson plunges into the depths of a dark, difficult and devious love story. That said, given the story concerns a volatile couple who turn power plays and tussles for control into an intense form of foreplay, it's only fitting that he imbues proceedings with a sly, mischievous streak. When Woodcock first encounters Alma (Vicky Krieps) in a countryside restaurant, it seems a simple case of sophisticated man meets shy young woman; of opposites attracting in familiar circumstances. While he usually only has room in his life for his work, his no-nonsense sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) and his dead but never forgotten mother, Woodcock is drawn to the clumsy waitress, as she is to him. But it soon becomes clear that his designs on their relationship aren't the same as hers. Though he's fond of having a live-in muse, dress model and sometime lover, despite appearances she's not the type to meekly bend to his moody whims. With Cyril ever-present, the House of Woodcock soon starts to unravel — something that'd never happen to one of the high-end frocks his ceaselessly fusses over, obviously. Every textile metaphor you can think of applies to Phantom Thread. It's a film that's carefully woven from the fabric of human urges, teeming with hidden layers and positively bursting at the seams with emotional detail. It's also one made by the finest possible craftspeople, with Anderson and his three stars fashioning the cinematic equivalent of haute couture. In a role he says will be his last, three-time Oscar-winner Day-Lewis shows just why that's such utterly devastating news for audiences and the acting profession alike. Matching him immaculately are Krieps and Manville. Think of the former as the intricate beading that attracts the eye on an already breathtaking gown, and the latter as the painstaking stitching attentively holding everything together. As for Anderson, the filmmaker behind Boogie Nights, Magnolia and The Master sews another unique patch into his filmography. Making a movie about a perfectionist dressmaker, he's as exacting as Reynolds — and possesses the same eye for exquisite beauty in a film he shot on 35mm himself. Marvel at the way he infuses the household's breakfast routine with palpable tension over something as routine as buttering toast, and try to tear your gaze away from his stunningly framed images and the exceptional frocks within them. Even the ornate wallpaper manages to captivate. Anderson again finds his musical match in Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, who provides the equally effective, darkly seductive score. Sensuous, evocative and completely entrancing, if the end result was a garment, you wouldn't want to take it off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCYB28iknIM
It's a question that film festivals face each and every year: how do you kick off? For the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2025, the answer comes courtesy of an award-winner with Australian ties that'll enjoy its Aussie premiere in the Victorian capital. The movie opening the fest on Thursday, August 7: If I Had Legs I'd Kick You starring Rose Byrne (Physical). The dramedy initially debuted at Sundance to significant acclaim, then made its way to the Berlin International Film Festival — and saw Byrne take home that fest's Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance. Scoring the opening-night slot at MIFF is no small feat, either, with attendees set to watch its lead portraying Linda, a psychologist struggling with balancing her clients, an ill child and an abyss on her building's roof. [caption id="attachment_1011660" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nick Robertson[/caption] Fellow Aussie Danielle Macdonald (The Last Anniversary) co-stars, as does Conan O'Brien (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Christian Slater (Dexter: Original Sin) and A$AP Rocky (Highest 2 Lowest). Also among the cast: If I Had Legs I'd Kick You's writer/director Mary Bronstein (Yeast). "I am beyond thrilled to be bringing If I Had Legs I'd Kick You to MIFF. That would have been enough, but I am further honoured and gobsmacked to have been selected to open the festival," said the filmmaker. "My film is built around an unprecedented performance by one of the most-talented actors that has ever come out of Australia: Rose Byrne. It is all the more meaningful for me to be able to personally share Rose's soul-shattering work, along with the stunningly raw co-starring performance of fellow Australian Danielle MacDonald, with such celebration and reverence in their home country." "This New Yorker has never been to the other side of the globe before and I can't think of a better way to first experience beautiful Melbourne than through such deep appreciation for not just my film, but cinema in general, as MIFF is known around the world for." [caption id="attachment_1011661" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nick Robertson[/caption] Added MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar, "I'm so thrilled the electrifying If I Had Legs I'd Kick You opens this year's MIFF with some of the most intensely accomplished filmmaking you'll see this year. Urgent, funny, and audacious, we couldn't be prouder that Bronstein's singular vision will set the start to MIFF's 18-day immensity of cinema-going, as we welcome Melbourne audiences back once more to our 300-plus film adventure through the world's imagination." Melbourne International Film Festival runs from Thursday, August 7–Sunday, August 24 in 2025, and began announcing this year's lineup back in June, ahead of the full program dropping on Thursday, July 10. Other highlights so far include Parasite composer Jung Jae-il coming to Australia to conduct the movie's score live in an Aussie exclusive, Jafar Panahi's Cannes Palme d'Or-winning It Was Just an Accident, almost-100-year-old masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc with a new score by Julia Holter performed live, an Australian time-loop comedy involving tequila, a Baker Boy- and Hugh Jackman (Deadpool & Wolverine)-narrated tribute to David Gulpilil, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind filmmaker Michel Gondry's latest and the world-premiere of natural disaster-focused virtual-reality documentary When the World Came Flooding In. The 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival runs from Thursday, August 7–Sunday, August 24 at a variety of venues around Melbourne; from Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 17 and Friday, August 22–Sunday, August 24 in regional Victoria; and online nationwide from Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 31. For further details, including the full program from Thursday, July 10, visit the MIFF website.
It's impossible to think about Mythic Quest without the fellow television show that helped it come to fruition also springing to mind. If there was no It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, this Apple TV+ series about a video-game studio wouldn't exist. 2025 marks two decades since the world first met the Paddy's Pub gang in Rob McElhenney's initial small-screen hit. Midyear, TV's longest-running live-action sitcom will drop its 17th season. With his It's Always Sunny co-star Charlie Day and Megan Ganz, one of the show's writers, he also created Mythic Quest in 2020 — and five years later, it's been streaming its fourth season since late in January, will be accompanied by a companion anthology series Side Quest in March and has cemented itself as another beloved workplace-set favourite. One of the reasons that Mythic Quest has returned not once, not twice, but three times now since its debut run: its stellar cast. McElhenney (Deadpool & Wolverine) plays Ian Grimm, the man behind both the studio that shares the show's name and the hugely successful game that it makes; however, this is an ensemble effort. As crucial at MQ as its original architect is Australian Poppy Li, the lead engineer who has joined Ian as co-creative director over the years. On the business side of the company, high-strung executive producer David Brittlesbee endeavours to keep everything running smoothly. Charlotte Nicdao (The Strange Chores) and David Hornsby (Merry Little Batman) are among the show's standouts — but when the roster of talent also includes Community alum Danny Pudi as a ruthless money man, Ashly Burch (Chibiverse) and Imani Hakim (Will Trent) starting out as testers, and Jessie Ennis (Better Call Saul) as a determined personal assistant, there's no weak links. With Mythic Quest, Nicdao continues a mini trend across her career: tales with media ties. For Australian comedy queens Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney (Deadloch), she was part of breakfast TV-skewering delight Get Krack!n. Then came the also-excellent Content, the short-form web series that enlisted Nicdao as a wannabe influencer willing to do pretty much anything for fame. Building on a resume that also spans A gURLs wURLd, The Slap, Please Like Me, Top of the Lake and Bluey, her path to Poppy hasn't always stuck to the topic, but she's happily at home portraying a successful woman in the gaming world — a well-rounded character with ups and downs, as Concrete Playground describes the role to her; "really flawed and kind of an arsehole" is Nicdao's take, she tells us. And, she's also eagerly expanding the world's view of Australians on-screen. Nicdao's Filipino Australian dad Alfred Nicdao was one of the first Asian actors on Aussie television. Although she initially auditioned for Mythic Quest with an American accent, getting to bring her Asian Australian heritage — keeping her natural voice in the process — to international TV is a rare feat, as she's well aware. "Honestly, it's an honour for me. I don't think that that's overstating it," she advises. When he joined Mythic Quest at the outset, Hornsby came onboard not just as a star but also as an executive producer. Thanks to It's Always Sunny, it's a balancing act that he knows well — and it was "working with friends" that got him excited about being part of the MQ cast alongside playing Sunny's Rickety Cricket, plus his off-camera roles on both, he notes. On the two shows, the Pearl Harbour, Minority Report, Six Feet Under, Flags of Our Fathers, Jake in Progress, How to Be a Gentleman, Idiotsitter and Good Girls actor is also among the writers. Mythic Quest's second-ever episode was penned by him, in fact. Plenty has indeed changed for both Poppy and David over the course of the show so far — and evolves again in the fourth season, too, through romances, pregnancies, friendships and the like. They're both far more sure of who they are and what they want, and willing to fight for it. They're both much more comfortable beyond MQ. This is a workplace comedy, but it's also a series about dreams and fulfilment, and the mental and emotional toll of chasing both. Increasingly, it's as interested in not forgetting to put yourself first, even when you might be working on your dream. Indeed, one of the key themes of its latest batch of episodes is knowing when to make space for something beyond your job or an obsession — and that working on, creating, overseeing or loving something doesn't need to be anyone's defining trait. As a series, Mythic Quest keeps levelling up and broadening its focus, including among MQ team members, their loved ones and players within the narrative. That all-embracing approach equally applies off-screen. Hornsby and Nicdao have both made their directorial debuts with the show — the former in season three, the latter this season on an episode that Hornsby wrote. Burch, Pudi and Hakim have stepped behind the lens as well. Hornsby sees Mythic Quest as facilitating its key players reaching new stages together. "It moves the marker forward and makes you feel like you're growing in your life, and in your in your profession," he advises. Our chat with him and Nicdao also covered the initial appeal of being in a workplace sitcom set in a video-game studio, stepping into the shoes of layered characters as David and Poppy, potential Aussie It's Always Sunny episodes and more. On What Interested Nicdao and Hornsby About Starring in a Workplace Sitcom Set in a Video-Game Studio When Mythic Quest First Came Their Ways David: "It was a job." David to Charlotte: "Is that what your answer's going to be?" Charlotte: "Well, definitely — I mean, at the time, I was very much an unemployed actor. So yeah, it was a job. But also, I say this all the time, I feel like I manifested this show into existence. Because I feel like if you had've asked me to write down my absolute dream gig before I was cast in Mythic Quest, it would have been a heartwarming workplace comedy that was really funny, where I got to stretch my dramatic chops sometimes. And one of my favourite shows ever was Community, and I think Always Sunny is one of the greatest shows on TV. So the fact that now I get to be on this show that I feel like I dreamed up with these people who have already created some of the greatest shows of our time, I'm like 'how did I land this?'." David: "I think a workplace comedy is really great, just because it's really relatable. You can set the tone from the beginning — and I'm really, really happy with the tone that we've forged over these four seasons, of being able to be ridiculous and absurd sometimes, but always hopefully tethered to reality. And then being able to break away and explore some different episodes that really pay tribute to the complexities of stories related to video games. It felt like it was surprising, I think, when it came across my desk of sorts, that there was not already a show that truly lived in the video-game world that was an office-based comedy." On the Number of Projects, From Get Krack!n and Content in Australia to Mythic Quest, with a Media Angle on Nicdao's Resume Charlotte: "That's so funny. I hadn't thought about that before, but you're right, there is kind of a media bent to a lot of my work. I don't know what that is, and sometimes I wonder if it's — I mean, all of those things are fairly contemporary or modern themes to get into, and so sometimes I wonder that's something that I'm particularly comfortable in, for whatever reason. Those projects that you mentioned — Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, who created Get Krak!n, are the some of the funniest people working in Australian television, and everything that they do is brilliant. So the fact that they wrote that role in for me was really exciting. And then with Content, Daley Pearson brought me that project. I'd worked with Ludo Studios before on an animated show, and when he brought me Content I was like 'I've never seen anything like this before and I have no idea how we're even going to shoot it, but I definitely want to be part of that'. So I'm glad that it lives on." On What Excited Hornsby About Taking His Collaboration with the It's Always Sunny Team Into a New Series David: "Working with friends, initially — it usually starts with Rob and Charlie calling me up and asking 'hey, we've got a part for you. We were thinking of a new show. We were thinking of you. Would you want to act on it and write on it?'. What more can you want except to do the thing that you love with your friends, who make you laugh and raise your bar? That in itself is a door I'm willing to walk through and then see what adventure it leads to." On What Nicdao Draws Upon to Play a Smart, Successful Woman in the Gaming World — But Also a Very Well-Round Character with Flaws and Struggles Charlotte: "I love that you're calling it well-rounded, when really what we all mean is that she's really flawed and kind of an arsehole. Yeah, that's a great question. Coming into the role without that gaming background — and I certainly didn't know anything about programming, that's definitely not how my brain works — I did speak to some game developers about what drew them to their particular jobs. And I loved hearing about this idea of programming being very much about solving puzzles, like being able to take something apart and put it back together in new ways that you wouldn't expect. So I feel like that was my way into understanding a little bit about how Poppy's mind works. It's like she doesn't really have control over most of her life, but this is a space that she fully understands and she can do anything in this world of programming. And that's kind of what makes her so good at her job, is that confidence that she has in this area and maybe no other area. I feel like I relate to that a little bit in terms of — I don't think, I would never think, that I am as good at acting as Poppy is at coding, but I definitely know that feeling of when you lock into something that you love doing and the rest of the world fades away, and you finish shooting a scene and you're like 'whoa, where am I?'. I don't really do that, but that's the feeling." On Hornsby's Task Playing the Most Sensitive and Vulnerable Character in the Series — and One Who Is Steering the Ship, But Is Also Often the Butt of the Office's Jokes David: "It involves me taking my ring off and walking in front of a camera, and then when I'm done, I put my ring on and I go home. No, it's really fun. I enjoy pushing the stories forward and serving the crazier egos in the show, but also having, when I was able to be the wolf back in a previous season, something like that. The specificity of this character and being able to then have earned that storyline is, is super fun. The wins taste sweeter, the victories taste sweeter, for this character when he gets them. So whether he's being a pawn in Brad's game or being overlooked by Poppy or Ian, it's always fun for me, for this character, to get a little victory here and there, and just to see what he does with it." On Knowing When to Make Space Beyond Work or an Obsession Being a Key Theme in Season Four — But Not a Sign That the Show Is Winding Down Charlotte: "I also hope that it's not leading to the end of the show. I don't think that's the intention. I actually think it opens up a whole lot of new story actually. And specifically with Poppy, this season is very much about her trying to discover who she could be outside of work. We see that right in the very first episode, with her having a boyfriend, which is something you never — I never, certainly — expected for the character. But I also think that it's something that we continue to explore and realise, that her whole life, since she was a child, has been about work. And in episode six we get introduced to her sister, who's played by another Asian Australian actress, Natasha Liu Bordizzo [Ahsoka], who I'm sure you know is fantastic — and a close friend. And we had so much fun on set. And this character comes in and reveals a little bit to the audience about who Poppy has always been — and I think that makes it all the more poignant that Poppy is now trying to break outside of that way of being. And I would be really interested to see, with the progress that Poppy makes this season, what that would mean for her in seasons to come in terms of her relationship with Ian and with the game." On the Parallels Between Mythic Quest Broadening Its Focus Among Its Characters and the Show's Cast, Such as Nicdao and Hornsby, Expanding Their Involvement by Writing and Directing David: "When a show's cast well, I think sometimes it's a fine line between who we are and who the characters are — certainly with my character in some ways — but we've all grown into our characters more. We've grown into ourselves more over time. A lot has happened since we started the show. We went through COVID and the pandemic. We made a show during it. That brings us together. That shows us what we're capable of. We've got to do our own makeup. We've got to shoot our own thing. We grow to appreciate the other person's job, especially when you have to do your own makeup. So at the end of the day, at five years later, I think we all have grown and feel, having gone through all this together — from professional firsts, like directing when I did it or when she did it, to doing a new episode or going to a new place with your character — it does make you, it moves the marker forward and makes you feel like you're growing in your life, and in your in your profession." On What It Means for Nicdao to Help Expand the World's View of Australians — and Initially Auditioning for Mythic Quest with an American Accent Charlotte: "Yeah, it's honestly, it's an honour for me. I don't think that that's overstating it. I feel like the world has a very particular idea of what an Australian looks like, and the fact that I get to show a different kind of Australian on an international level is, yeah, I'm really proud of that. And I'm so grateful that during that audition process, I think it was Rob, that was like 'wait, wait, stop'." Charlotte to David: "Well, maybe it was even you. I definitely remember you being in some of my early auditions and this conversation starting around 'well, but what if you just did your natural accent?'. I was so used to auditioning in my American accent at that time." David: "I wanted us to all become Australian." Charlotte: "He wanted everyone to do an Australian accent." David: "But then it just came like 'no, what if she just does it?'." Charlotte: "Yeah, it was like 'maybe just the Australian should do it'. But yeah, I was particularly proud of the episode 'Sarian' in season three that portrays Poppy with her young Filipino Australian family. Filipinos are the fifth-largest migrant group in Australia, there's a big community of us there. And since that episode has come out, I've spoken to people who have stopped me on the street in Australia, in Melbourne, who were like 'I loved that episode because that's what my family looked like growing up — like we spoke Tagalog at home and we had Australian accents at school'. I'm so grateful to the show for helping to tell that story." Concrete Playground: "Everyone becoming Australian sounds like it's going to be a future episode of It's Always Sunny." Charlotte: "Yes! 'The Gang Goes Australian'." David: "Yeah — yeah, that's fun." Mythic Quest streams via Apple TV+. Read our reviews of season one, season two and season three.
Another streaming service is about to boost your viewing options, focusing on Australian movies and television while letting you watch for free. We might live in peak online-viewing times, with no shortage of platforms vying for eyeballs, but Brollie is launching with a couple of clear points of difference. Firstly, there's the lack of price tag. Secondly, there's the homegrown love. When Brollie arrives on Thursday, November 23, it will hail from independent Australian and New Zealand distributor Umbrella Entertainment — hence the name — and draw upon the company's catalogue. Open debut, that'll mean 300-plus titles ready to view. While the Aussie contingent is a big drawcard, there'll also be overseas releases among the range. So, get ready to watch local-made gems such as The Babadook and Two Hands; classics like Walkabout and Storm Boy that feature the late, great David Gulpilil; the Kylie Minogue-starring Cut; Hugh Jackman (The Son) in Erskineville Kings; and the Nicole Kidman (Special Ops: Lioness)-led BMX Bandits. Documentaries such as Servant or Slave and Ablaze will also be available. Or, get excited about Joaquin Phoenix (Beau Is Afraid)-led masterpiece You Were Never Really Here, the live-action OG Super Mario Bros, and mind-bender Vivarium with Jesse Eisenberg (Fleishman Is in Trouble) and Imogen Poots (Outer Range) among the international titles. You'll be watching along via Apple TV, Google TV, Android TV, Chromecast with Google TV and on your browser. Because Brollie is free, however, the caveat is that you'll also be watching ads. To help viewers sort through the Brollie collection, the service's team will highlight its best-of picks twice monthly, and also hero Aussie horror via an Australian Nightmares collection. "We know these iconic films and TV shows can find new and old audiences instead of gathering dust on the shelf. Brollie is about helping Aussies to access this world-class storytelling easily and, most importantly, for free so everyone can enjoy our epic screen legacy," said Ari Harrison, General Manager and Head of Sales & Acquisitions, announcing Brollie's arrival. Brollie will launch on Thursday, November 23 — head to the streaming platform's website to subscribe and for further details.
Bright lights, fame and the chance to become something special all beckon in The Neon Demon. For small-town teen and aspiring model Jesse (Elle Fanning), they're intoxicating — and to the others she meets in her quest for success, so is her innocence and youth. Still, there's a reason that, when Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn first introduces his wide-eyed protagonist, she's splattered in blood and looking not long for this world. She's posing for a photo, but it's immediately apparent that she has wandered into an oh-so-vicious realm. Refn isn't known for being the subtlest of filmmakers, as the manic intensity of Bronson and the detached violence of Only God Forgives both show. He's also a man fond of ensuring that everything audiences see and hear — every colour choice, camera angle, throbbing beat, telling line and moment of silence — is both powerful and entrancing. Combine that with his fondness for dallying with dark tales of human behaviour, and his output tends to be quite polarising. The Neon Demon certainly fits that mould. In fact, it feels like the movie he's been building towards his entire career. Take that as cause for celebration, or a word of warning, depending on how you've felt about his work so far. It's with a parade of suitably neon-saturated images — and with opening credits emblazoned with his own initials — that Refn recounts Jesse's twisted, violent fairytale excursion to Los Angeles. When she meets makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone), she's plunged deeper into an industry and a city that seems gorgeous and glamorous on the outside, yet remains shallow, false and all-consuming underneath. More experienced, older, surgically enhanced models Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee) don't quite befriend the fresh-faced wannabe, but they do take an envious interest. The competitive edge to their interactions only grows the more that the eager Jesse attracts attention. Skewering the superficiality of society's obsession with appearances is hardly new or novel. But it's not what Refn is saying in The Neon Demon that makes it so seductive. Rather, it's how he says it. In turning a stars-in-their-eyes story into a moody, psychological horror film, his scathing satirical edge is always evident. Every stylistic choice draws audiences in, then slowly reveals that they should have kept their distance. He's aided by a pulsating score from regular collaborator Cliff Martinez that's both melodic and just the slightest bit unnerving. Likewise the film's images, which could have been ripped from the front page of a fashion mag, yet retain an insidious air. Everything looks pretty, even when the movie's true nature proves otherwise. To put it simply, Refn wants to both lure people in while threatening all the while to spit them out — and he does so in eye-popping fashion, as does his entire cast. Fanning plays the seeming ingenue with pinpoint precision, and, though there's a stilted air to Aussies Heathcote and Lee, that's clearly by design. Keanu Reeves and Christina Hendricks are both memorable in small, well-used parts as a seedy landlord and a no-nonsense agent, but if there's a supporting player that the film belongs to, it's Malone. In The Neon Demon's most subtle performance, she's caught in the middle of the many extremes swirling around her, and she knows it. Viewers will relate, even if they're too busy either loving or hating Refn's latest big-screen effort to appreciate it. For the record, we're well and truly in the former camp.
Some shows commence with a dead girl wrapped in plastic. Others begin with a plane crash on a spooky island. With Outer Range, it all kicks off with a void. On the Abbott family ranch in Wyoming, in the western reach that gives the show its name, a chasm suddenly appears. A perfect circle swirling with otherworldly mist and resembling an oversized golf hole, it's just one of several troubles plaguing patriarch Royal (Josh Brolin, Dune), however. There is indeed a touch of Twin Peaks and Lost to Outer Range. A dash of Yellowstone, The Twilight Zone, The X-Files and whichever family-focused prime-time soap opera takes your fancy, too. As a result, while Royal is visibly disconcerted by the unexpected opening staring at him in an otherwise ordinary field, he has other worries. His rich, ostentatious and increasingly madcap neighbour Wayne Tillerson (Will Patton, Halloween Kills) suddenly wants a parcel of the Abbotts' turf, claiming mapping inaccuracies. One of Tillerson's mouthy and entitled sons, Trevor (Matt Lauria, CSI: Vegas), ends up in a bar spat with Royal's sons Rhett (Lewis Pullman, Them That Follow) and Perry (Tom Pelphrey, Mank). And there's also the matter of Perry's missing wife, who disappeared nine months back, leaving both her husband and their young daughter Amy (Olive Abercrombie, The Haunting of Hill House) searching since. Into this sea of faith-testing chaos amid such serene and dreamlike scenery, a stranger arrives as well: "hippie chick" backpacker Autumn Rivers (Imogen Poots, The Father). She just wants to camp for a few days on the Abbotts' stunning and sprawling land, she says. She just happened this way, she claims in the process. But the always-guarded, fiercely protective Royal is immediately suspicious — and while he still takes the fat wad of cash she waves around as payment to stay on the outskirts of the property that's been owned by his wife Cecilia's (Lili Taylor, Perry Mason) ancestors for generations, he remains openly and grimly wary. That's Outer Range's setup, although it's also just where the genre-bending new addition to Prime Video launches into its many mysteries. Across its eight-episode first season, it's a ranch-dwelling western, complete with a family battling secrets and struggles of both the internal and external kind, and left grappling with existential doubts when they keep being stripped of everything they believe in. It's an offbeat enigma, too, where bottomless gaps in the centre of the earth aren't the only things that can't be easily explained. Thanks to said hole and surrounding supernatural occurrences, it dives into eerie sci-fi as well. And with Indigenous acting sheriff Joy (Tamara Podemski, Run) trying to work out what's going on on several levels, all while campaigning to be elected to her job outright, it's also a detective quest and a thriller. In other words, it's a puzzle box of a program — and the weirder that Outer Range gets, and moodier as well, the more it intrigues and engrosses. Its giant twists are obviously best discovered by watching, but its small quirks are quickly compelling. This is a series where an ethereal feeling permeates the land, even when Royal is nowhere near the void he's desperate to keep hidden. It's a show where one of the other neighbour sons, the quiet yet perturbing Billy (Noah Reid, Schitt's Creek), loves breaking out into song, crooning 80s and 90s pop and rock hits at odd moments. At a funeral, he even sings Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush duet 'Don't Give Up', covering both parts himself and leaving mourners utterly bewildered. Reid is unnervingly difficult to peel your eyes away from in Outer Range, but the series is well-cast in every part — starting with Brolin as Royal, naturally. While the Milk Oscar-nominee has been happily dallying with sci-fi of late, including getting villainous in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Deadpool 2, his is a grounded performance here. He sidles in as a stern-and-silent western archetype, unfurling more of Royal's layers — and unpacking what it means to embody that portrait of western masculinity in the process — with each grimace and glare. Taylor does phenomenal work in support, and although Poots sometimes suffers from the thinner writing establishing Autumn's moves and motivations, she still commands the frame. Family, faith, fate, the land, legacies, the ties of love, the disappointments of life, the inexplicable elements inherent in all of the above: they're all baked into Outer Range, providing plenty of puzzle pieces for its actors to play with. That said, as created and co-written by TV first-timer Brian Watkins, the series turns those familiar components into something shadowy and surreal. Its narrative path isn't always tricky to predict — one huge late revelation especially — however, it constantly surprises in how it tackles its moments and dynamics on a scene-by-scene basis. That's what lingers in Billy's songs, overtly so. It's there in Cecilia's response to every trying development that's sent the Abbotts' way, usually with her at home, on the sidelines, yet no less impacted. And it blazes through in the choice of shots, which bask in the glory of nature's vast expanse but also see far more than just postcard-perfect wonders. The latter stem from a strong roster of contributors, spanning filmmakers such as She Dies Tomorrow's Amy Seimetz and A Cop Movie's Alonso Ruizpalacios in the director's chair, as well as cinematographers such as Waves and Red Rocket's Drew Daniels, The Last Black Man in San Francisco's Adam Newport-Berra, and Seimetz regular Jay Keitel. Helping ramp up the tension, composers Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans' (Windfall, Becoming Cousteau, The White Tiger) anxiety-inducing score drips with tension, too. Pondering big ideas with heaving style and hefty ambition, Outer Range frequently looks and sounds cinematic — and, from the moment it first spies its gaping chasm, swiftly makes for beguiling viewing. With Jordan Peele's latest horror epic Nope also on its way in the coming months, 2022 seems set to be a big year for disquieting screen stories set amid vast American ranches and springing from stellar talent. What that film will bring is currently yet to be seen, of course, but Outer Range gives this entrancing trend an impressive start. Check out the trailer for Outer Range below: Outer Range's first two episodes are available to stream via Prime Video from Friday, April 15, with two new episodes dropping weekly until Friday, May 6.
