UPDATE, December 17, 2022: Strange World opened in cinemas on Thursday, November 24, and streams via Disney+ from Friday, December 23. In the Disney: The Magic of Animation exhibition that's doing the global rounds, including not one but two stops Down Under so far, spectacular concept art is the star. Walt Disney Animation Studios has made 61 films to-date, a selection of which are celebrated throughout the eye-catching showcase — and it's the intricately drawn and painted images used to help finalise the look of Fantasia, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid and more that truly shimmer. That's the magical art behind the on-screen art, with every piece proving stunning when framed on a wall. So would the work behind Strange World, the Mouse House studio's latest movie. Actually, so would each image of its titular realm in the big-screen end result. Even by Disney animation standards, saying that this flick is visibly dazzling is a hefty understatement Strange World needs to be a visual knockout; when a title nods to an extraordinary and otherworldly place, it makes a promise. Director Don Hall and co-helmer/screenwriter Qui Nguyen, who last worked together as filmmaker and scribe on the also-resplendent Raya and the Last Dragon, meet that pledge with force — aka the movie's trademark approach. Strange World goes all-in on hallucinogenic scenery, glowing creatures and luminous pops of colour (pink hues especially) that simply astound. Indeed, calling it trippy is also an understatement. The picture is equally as zealous about its various layers of messaging, spanning humanity's treatment of the planet, learning to coexist with rather than command and conquer our surroundings, and navigating multigenerational family dynamics. A feature can be assertive, arresting and entertaining, however, because this is. Clade patriarch Jaeger (Dennis Quaid, Midway) can also be described as strong-willed and unsubtle, much to his son Searcher's (Jake Gyllenhaal, Ambulance) frustration. In the mountainous land of Avalonia, the former is a heroic explorer intent on seeing what's on the other side of those peaks — a feat that's never been achieved before — but the latter pleas for staying put, spotting a curious plant on their latest expedition and wanting to investigate its possibilities. Doing anything but bounding forth isn't the Clade way, Jaeger contends, sparking an icy father-son rift. Jaeger storms off, Searcher goes home, and Avalonia is revolutionised by pando, the energy-giving fruit from that just-discovered plant, over the next quarter-century. Then, in a locale that now enjoys electricity, hovering vehicles and other mod cons, the natural resource suddenly seems to start rotting from the root. Hall and Nguyen introduce their story in perky, pithy, old-school newsreel-style, with a tone-setting montage of Jaeger and Searcher's past adventurous feats — more of which can only follow. As much as Searcher rallies against retracing his father's footsteps and openly resents the expectation that traversing the land is in his blood, the pando crisis means he's the obvious choice to join President Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu, Death to 2021) on a journey down deep to see what's going on. Over the last 25 years, Searcher has become a husband to pilot Meridian (Gabrielle Union, Truth Be Told) and a dad to 16-year-old Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White, Only Murders in the Building), though, and is content in his farmer life. In contrast, the youngest Clade is raring to go, stowing away for the trip. That said, Ethan does share his father's yearning to want for embracing his own calling, rather than merely towing the family line. From the moment that Strange World's adolescent point of focus would rather be flirting with his cute crush Diazo (Jonathan Melo, American Horror Story) than doing his pando chores, the feature's history-repeating storyline is apparent. 'Tis the year for both Disney and cinema in general to address the weight assumptions that parents put on their kids, plus the pressure to chart a prescribed path, as Pixar's Turning Red similarly did, and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, and sci-fi standout Everything Everywhere All At Once as well. If the first word in its moniker didn't make it plain, Strange World's visit to an underground realm that's upside down from the regular domain, populated with unusual creatures and perilous to humans also gives off big Stranger Things — but family-friendly — vibes. The Mouse House's Treasure Planet springs to mind, too, as do Jules Verne's contributions to literature. And, unsurprisingly when it comes to big eco messages and animation, Studio Ghibli's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke got there first. Don't discount the impact that marrying familiar ideas with magnificent and mesmerising imagery can have, however, with Strange World's captivating aesthetic offering more than just pretty pictures. Those gorgeous visuals reflect the movie's open heart about embracing a vibrant existence, which Nguyen's screenplay lets sprout and spread in a heaving forest's worth of ways. It's there in belatedly giving Disney's animated flicks their first-ever out gay teenage lead character, in letting that fact be a regular narrative detail rather than the story's focus and in having Ethan value the dreamy subterranean domain the Clades find themselves in for what it is, for starters. Strange World knows that to see is to feel, and that that applies to overdue representation and environmental messaging alike. There's also a twist that hammers home the need to appreciate and respect the living world we're lucky enough to inhabit, and to revel in all of its diversity, but the film's frames make its statement anyway from the outset. The lush flora and fauna, the landscapes that could've backdropped 60s sci-fl, the cute blob named Splat that seems to be a friend: all of this draws Strange World's audience in and makes them cherish every single last piece. Accordingly, as heavy-handed as the movie is about its parallels with the present state of the earth, and as easily pieced-together as its rollicking adventure plot is, those beguiling sights — aka the animated film's version of David Attenborough-esque visuals — back everything up. Also, given the urgent importance of recognising the planet's fossil fuel-reliant predicament, plus the need to address the climate change that's springing as a result, a lack of nuance is hardly uncalled for. And while using a flick to lay the groundwork for more to come is one of modern cinema's worst traits, especially the Mouse House's, the ambitious Strange World closes out with ample intrigue to inspire further chapters — and to keep viewers coming back to this entrancing land.
Now in its 29th year, this popular and highly anticipated event celebrates all things seafood. Held over 36 hours from 5am on Monday, December 23–5pm on Tuesday, December 24, this marathon shopping event offers Sydney's seafood lovers the opportunity to shop for fresh, sustainably sourced produce around the clock, making it perfect for those preparing festive feasts or seeking special holiday ingredients on short notice. Over 350 tonnes of seafood is expected to be sold including 120 tonnes of prawns and almost 70,000 dozen oysters. Punters can also find everything they need for the rest of their Christmas table, including fresh fruit and veggies, fresh bread, quality meat, cheese, wine, dry goods, and sweet treats. And it's not just about shopping. The marathon also features live cooking demonstrations, tastings and special deals from local vendors. The vibrant atmosphere, with its bustling stalls and live entertainment, captures the essence of Sydney's thriving food culture during the holiday season.
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 will do that, and so will plenty of people staying home because they aren't well — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Perhaps you've been under the weather. Given the hefty amount of titles 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 11 that you can watch right now at home. SALTBURN Sharp, savage and skewering, plus twisted in narrative and the incisive use of genre tropes alike: as a filmmaker, Emerald Fennell certainly has a type. With the Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman and now Saltburn, the Barbie and The Crown actor-turned-writer/director takes aim, blazes away giddily and blasts apart everything that she can. When she made a blisteringly memorable feature debut behind the lens — giving audiences one of 2021's's best Down Under releases, in fact, and deservingly earning a place among the Academy Awards' rare female Best Director nominees in the process — she honed in on the absolute worst that a patriarchal society affords women. Now, after also pointing out the protection provided to the wealthy in that first effort as a helmer, Fennell has class warfare so firmly in her gaze that Saltburn is named after a sprawling English manor. With both flicks, the end result is daringly unforgettable. This pair of pictures would make a killer double, too, although they enjoy neighbouring estates rather than frolic across the same exact turf. On her leaps from one side of the camera to the other, Fennell also keeps filling her features with such spectacular casts that other filmmakers might hope to fall into her good graces to bask in their glow — a fate that sits at the heart of Saltburn, albeit beyond the movie world. Fresh from nabbing his own Oscar nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin, Barry Keoghan adds yet another beguiling and astonishing performance to a resume that's virtually collecting them (see also: The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Dunkirk, American Animals, The Green Knight and Calm with Horses), proving mesmerisingly slippery as scholarship student Oliver Quick. Usually standing in his sights, Euphoria's Jacob Elordi perfects the part of Felix Catton, aka that effortlessly charismatic friend that everyone wishes they could spend all of their time with. And as Felix's mother Elspeth, father Sir James and "poor dear" family pal Pamela, Rosamund Pike (The Wheel of Time), Richard E Grant (Persuasion) and Carey Mulligan (Fennell's Promising Young Woman star, also an Academy Award nominee for her work) couldn't give more delicious line readings or portraits of the insular but shambolic well-to-do. Saltburn streams via Prime Video. Read our full review. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON Death comes to Killers of the Flower Moon quickly. Death comes to Killers of the Flower Moon often. While Martin Scorsese will later briefly fill the film's frames with a fiery orange vision — with what almost appears to be a lake of flames deep in oil country, as dotted with silhouettes of men — death blazes through his 26th feature from the moment that the picture starts rolling. Adapted from journalist David Grann's 2017 non-fiction novel Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, with the filmmaker himself and Dune's Eric Roth penning the screenplay, this is a masterpiece of a movie about a heartbreakingly horrible spate of deaths sparked by pure and unapologetic greed and persecution a century back. Scorsese's two favourite actors in Leonardo DiCaprio (Don't Look Up) and Robert De Niro (Amsterdam) are its stars, alongside hopefully his next go-to in Lily Gladstone (Reservation Dogs), but murder and genocide are as much at this bold and brilliant, epic yet intimate, ambitious and absorbing film's centre — all in a tale that's devastatingly true. As Mollie Kyle, a member of the Osage Nation in Grey Horse, Oklahoma, incomparable Certain Women standout Gladstone talks through some of the movie's homicides early. Before her character meets DiCaprio's World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart — nephew to De Niro's cattle rancher and self-proclaimed 'king of the Osage' William King Hale — she notes that several Indigenous Americans that have been killed, with Mollie mentioning a mere few to meet untimely ends. There's nothing easy about this list, nor is there meant to be. Some are found dead, others seen laid out for their eternal rest, and each one delivers a difficult image. But a gun fired at a young mother pushing a pram inspires a shock befitting a horror film. The genre fits here, in its way, as do many others as Killers of the Flower Moon follows Burkhart's arrival in town, his deeds under his uncle's guidance, his romance with Mollie and the tragedies that keep springing: American crime saga, aka the realm that Scorsese has virtually made his own, as well as romance, relationship drama, western, true crime and crime procedural. Killers of the Flower Moon streams via Google Play, YouTube Movies and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Martin Scorsese. THE ROYAL HOTEL Anyone who has spent time in an outback Australian pub will recognise The Royal Hotel's namesake watering hole, even if they've never seen this particular bar before. The filming location itself doesn't matter. Neither do the IRL details of the actual establishment that stands in for the movie's fictional boozer. What scorches itself into memory like the blistering sun beating down on the middle-of-nowhere saloon's surroundings, then, is the look and the feel of this quintessentially Aussie beer haven. From the dim lighting inside and weather-beaten facade outside to the almost exclusively male swarm of barflies that can't wait to getting sipping come quittin' time, this feature's setting could be any tavern. It could be all of them. That fact is meant to linger as filmmaker Kitty Green crafts another masterclass in tension, microagressions and the ever-looming threats that women live with daily — swapping The Assistant's Hollywood backdrop and Harvey Weinstein shadow for a remote mining town and toxic testosterone-fuelled treatment of female bartenders. Making her second fictional feature after that 2019 standout, and her fourth film overall thanks to 2013 documentary Ukraine Is Not a Brothel and 2017's Casting JonBenet before that, Green has kept as much as she's substituted between her two most recent movies. Julia Garner stars in both, albeit without breaking out an Inventing Anna-style drawl in either — although comically parroting the Aussie accent does earn a brief workout. Green's focus remains living while female. Her preferred tone is still as unsettling as any scary movie. The Royal Hotel is another of her horror films, but an inescapable villain here, as it was in The Assistant, is a world that makes existing as a woman this innately unnerving. This taut and deeply intelligent picture's sources of anxiety and danger aren't simply society; however, what it means to weather the constant possibility of peril for nothing more than your sex chromosomes is this flick's far-as-the-eye-can-see burnt earth. The Royal Hotel streams via Binge. Read our full review, and our interview with Kitty Green. MAESTRO When a composer pens music, it's the tune that they want the world to enjoy, not the marks on a page scribbling it into existence. When a conductor oversees an orchestra, the performance echoing rather than their own with baton in hand and arms waving is their gift. In Maestro, Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) is seen as Leonard Bernstein in both modes. His portrayal, especially in an unbroken take as the American great conducts Mahler's Resurrection Symphony at England's Ely Cathedral in 1973, is so richly textured and deeply complex that it's the career-best kind of astonishing. But Cooper as this movie's helmer, co-writer and one of its producers wants Maestro's audience to revel in the end result, not just in his exceptional on-screen contribution to bringing this virtuoso feature to fruition. And if he wants the love showered anyone's way first, it's towards Carey Mulligan (Saltburn), who the second-time director (and second-time director of a music-fuelled film, since his debut behind the lens was A Star Is Born) gives top billing for stepping so astoundingly into Felicia Montealegre Bernstein's shoes. Symphonies should erupt for Mulligan's awards-worthy turn, which deserves to claim her third Oscar nomination (after 2010's for An Education and 2021's for Promising Young Woman) at a minimum. As the Costa Rican actor — a talent herself, of the stage and small screen — hers is similarly a never-better performance. It's a chalk-and-cheese partner to Cooper's, too; his is all about playing someone whose entire reason for earning a biopic is his effort and what it wrought, while she makes everything from the screwball-esque early sparks of connection to soul-aching pain feel natural. When she says "you don't even know how much you need me, do you?", the words melt, and the moment with it. When she beams by Cooper's side during a TV interview about Leonard's achievements, the practicalities of spending your life with someone have rarely felt as giddying. When Maestro's main pair quarrel on Thanksgiving, away from their family and as the parade trots along outside the window, each word is a cut. Every scene with Mulligan lays its emotions bare so thoroughly, yet never forcefully or showily, that she virtually spirits the audience into Felicia's footwear with her. Maestro streams via Netflix. Read our full review. LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND Call it the one with Julia Roberts playing the mother of a Friends-obsessed 13-year-old girl who hasn't clocked that someone closely resembling her mum pops up in the sitcom's second season. Call it writer/director Sam Esmail still ruing humanity's technological reliance and seeing only dystopian outcomes after Mr Robot became such a small-screen success. Call Leave the World Behind an effectively unnerving psychological thriller about a mysterious communications blackout striking while one New York family holidays at another's palatial Long Island vacation home, too. Down Under, badging it the horror version of Australia's November 2023 Optus outage also fits — just with a home-invasion angle that can be read two ways; Hitchcockian suspense, sharp writing and baked-in bleakness; Barack and Michelle Obama as executive producers; and Roberts (Ticket to Paradise) starring alongside Ethan Hawke (Reservation Dogs), Mahershala Ali (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), Myha'la Herrold (Dumb Money) and Kevin Bacon (The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special). In her second chaotic getaway in two successive movies, Roberts plays Amanda Sandford, an advertising executive who prides herself on being able to read people and situations. But her professor husband Clay (Hawke) is surprised to awaken one morning to news that their brood is going away for a few days, thanks to a humanity-escaping misanthropic urge and a last-minute online booking. He and the couple's kids — the older Archie (Charlie Evans, Everything's Gonna Be Okay) and younger Rose (Farrah Mackenzie, United States of Al) — aren't complaining about the break, though. Then problems after eerie problems occur. First, an oil tanker runs ashore on the beach. Next comes the late-night knock at the door from their holiday home's owner GH Scott (Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Herrold), who've driven in all dressed up from a night at the symphony. In a movie that isn't afraid of M Night Shyamalan-esque setups on its route to potential societal collapse, a power, phone and internet outage follows, plus oddly behaving wildlife and disquieting developments from above. Leave the World Behind streams via Netflix. Read our full review. TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR Just like a great music documentary, an excellent concert film isn't solely about existing fans. That's still true when a movie arrives in a sea of friendship bracelets, focuses on one of the biggest current singers in the world, and perhaps the largest and most devoted fandom there is can be seen screaming, dancing and crying joyfully in its frames in a 70,000-plus drove. As the shows that it lenses were, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was a financial success before any Swifties experienced their version of heaven. Swift's onstage journey through 17 years of tunes sparked ticketing mayhem both as a concert and a cinema release that captures close to every moment. The Eras tour is a billion-dollar entity, with the self-produced film that's spreading it further than packed stadiums a box-office bonanza since it was announced. The 169-minute-long movie is also a dazzling spectacle that neither dedicated Swifties nor casual viewers will be able to easily shake off. When Swift told the world that she never misses a beat and she's lightning on her feet in possibly her best-known pop song, everyone should've believed her. Long before 2014 earworm 'Shake It Off' gets a spin in the 1989 segment of The Eras Tour, she's proven those words true in an indefatigable onstage effort. "Can't stop, won't stop moving" describes her efforts and the film, which is as energetically directed by Sam Wrench (Billie Eilish Live at the O2) and edited by a six-person team (with Max Richter's Sleep's Dom Whitworth as its lead) as it is performed. And, for anyone that's sat through Valentine's Day and Cats and found them hardly purring, it gives Swift the screen presence that she's been trying to amass here and there — The Giver and Amsterdam are also on her resume — for over than a decade. Watching The Eras Tour doesn't just feel like watching a concert, but a musical spectacular in its vast grandeur, complete with the lead to match. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour streams via Google Play, YouTube Movies, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. DUMB MONEY It couldn't have been hard to cast Pete Davidson as a stoner in Dumb Money, but getting the Bupkis star playing a part that barely feels like a part on paper is perfect in this ripped-from-the-headlines film. He doesn't give the movie's top performance, which goes to lead Paul Dano (The Fabelmans), but he's satisfyingly great as the DoorDash driver who's often trolling his brother online and in-person. He's also an example in Cruella and I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie's entertaining feature of one of the ideas that this true tale heartily disproves. Viewers know what they're going to get from Davidson, and he delivers. Wall Street thought it knew what it was in for when small-time investors splashed their cash on stock for US video-game store chain GameStop, too, but the frenzy that resulted demonstrated otherwise. It was in 2019 IRL when DeepFuckingValue aka Roaring Kitty aka Keith Gill first posted on subreddit r/wallstreetbets that he'd bought stock in GameStop, the Texas-born brand that had been struggling but he thought was undervalued. Dumb Money tells this story from Keith's digital enthusiasm through to the impact upon the financial markets, plus the worldwide attention that followed. In 2021, the GameStop situation wasn't just news. It was a phenomenon, and one of the great modern-day David-versus-Goliath scenarios. There's a reason that this recent chapter of history been turned into a movie, and not just because it's an easy candidate to try to emulate The Big Short: the big end of town kept pulling its usual strings, the 99 percent played their own game instead and the status quo was upended — temporarily. Dumb Money streams via Google Play, YouTube Movies, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. THEATER CAMP If you've ever wanted to turn your childhood into a movie, Theater Camp is the latest film that understands. It's also happy to laugh. Unlike Minari, Belfast, The Fabelmans, Aftersun and Past Lives, this isn't a drama, with Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin and Nick Lieberman making a sidesplittingly funny mockumentary about a place that's near and dear to them. What happens when four friends reflect upon their formative years, when they all fell in love with putting on a show? Theater Camp is the pitch-perfect answer. Looking backwards can be earnest and nostalgic, as Gordon and company know and embrace. Going for Wet Hot American Summer meets Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind, they're just as aware that it can be utterly hilarious. Watching Theater Camp means stepping into Gordon, Platt, Galvin and Lieberman's reality. None are currently camp counsellors, but the realm that they parody genuinely is personal. The film's core quartet initially came into each other's lives via youth theatre. With Gordon and Platt, the picture even boasts the receipts — aka IRL footage of the pair performing as kids — from a time when they were appearing together in Fiddler on the Roof at age four and in How to Succeed in Business at five. This team was first driven to bring their shared experiences to the screen in an improvised 2020 short also called Theater Camp. Now, they flesh out that bite-sized flick to full length as enthusiastically as any wannabe actor has ever monologued. All four co-write, while Booksmart and The Bear star Gordon directs with fellow first-time feature helmer Lieberman. Gordon, Dear Evan Hansen stage and screen lead Platt, plus Galvin — who similarly portrayed that Broadway hit's title role — act as well, playing three of the adults at AdirondACTS. Theater Camp streams via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES When children from Panem's first 12 districts are chosen to fight to the death, each year's unlucky kids conscripted into the bloodthirsty fray that gives The Hunger Games franchise its title, they aren't simply battling for survival. In this dystopian saga stemming from Suzanne Collins' novels, they're brawling to entertain the wealthy residents of the ruling Capitol — they're forced to submit to a display of power and control, too, and to demonstrate humanity's innate cruelty — all while waging war against perishing into nothingness. Arriving eight years after the series' last page-to-screen adaptation, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a swung sword, flung spear, hurled hatchet and jabbed knife in the same type of skirmish. This is a blockbuster franchise, but 2012's The Hunger Games, 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2014's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 and 2015's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2 have long faded from the big screen, which virtually means no longer existing to Tinseltown, other than as fuel to relight the flame. So kicks in the "sequels, prequels, spinoffs, continuations, TV shows, remakes, reboots, reimaginings or perish" motto that may as well be etched onto the Hollywood sign. Why The Hunger Games' battle royales exist, and what their purpose and substance are, prove topics of conversation more than once in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. A tale that features the person who created the games and the mind overseeing them — that'd be Dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage, Cyrano) and Dr Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis, Air) — ought to ponder such notions. A jump back in time in a now five-entry franchise, and a chapter that runs for 157 minutes at that, couldn't leave it out. But a sense of nothingness still swirls around this Tom Blyth (Billy the Kid)- and Rachel Zegler (Shazam! Fury of the Gods)-led picture about Coriolanus Snow's origin story, even if Collins did actually write a novel with a plot that justifies the movie's existence (unlike comparable shenanigans over in the Wizarding World, aka the Fantastic Beasts films). There's an insignificant air to this return trip to YA bleakness, as smacking of chasing cash and keeping IP bubbling in the popular consciousness was bound to inspire; this doesn't feel like a return or a bonus, but an optional extra. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes streams via Google Play, YouTube Movies, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S Nicolas Cage is sorely missed in Five Nights at Freddy's, not that he was ever on the film's cast list. He starred in 2021's Willy's Wonderland, however, which clearly took its cues from the video-game franchise that this attempt to start a corresponding movie series now officially adapts. Willy's Wonderland wasn't great, but a near-silent Cage battling demonic animatronics was always going to be worth seeing. Unsurprisingly, he's mesmerising. In comparison, the actual Five Nights at Freddy's feature stars Josh Hutcherson (Futureman) deep in his older brother phase, bringing weary charm to a by-the-numbers horror flick that's as routine as they come no matter whether you've ever mashed buttons along with its inspiration — which first dropped in 2014 and now spans nine main games, a tenth on the way and five spinoffs — or seen everyone's favourite Renfield, Pig and Color Out of Space actor give an unlicensed take a go. Writer/director Emma Tammi (The Wind), the game's creator Scott Cawthon (Scooby Doo, Where Are You? In... SPRINGTRAPPED!) and co-screenwriter Seth Cuddeback's (Mateo) movie iteration of Five Nights at Freddy's doesn't just arrive after a Cage film got there first; it hits after season 16 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia wreaked havoc on a comparable setting already in 2023. If you're looking for a pitch-black comedic skewering of eateries in the style of Chuck E Cheese, the IRL pizzeria-meets-arcade chain that Freddy Fazbear's Pizza is patently based on, that's the best of the year. So, the Five Nights at Freddy film lingers in multiple shadows. There's symmetry on- and off-screen as result: shining a torchlight around in the movie uncovers sights that its characters would rather not see, and peering even just slightly through recent pop culture shows that this picture isn't alone, either. Five Nights at Freddy's streams via Google Play, YouTube Movies, Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. THANKSGIVING Edgar Wright's Don't and Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the SS must be on their way to the big screen soon. With Thanksgiving's arrival, three of the five films teased as trailers in 2007's Grindhouse — and at the time only conceived to exist as those faux trailers — have come to full-length feature fruition. So, the double of Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof didn't just give the world biochemical zombies and a murdering stuntman, but Machete, Hobo with a Shotgun and now Eli Roth's turkey-holiday slasher horror. In this first stint behind the lens since 2021 documentary Fin, plus 2018's vastly dissimilar Death Wish and The House with a Clock in Its Walls before that, the Cabin Fever and Hostel filmmaker knows the right mood: when you're plating up a film that began as a gag ad, leaning into both tropes and a knowing vibe is the best choice for carving a path forward. There's a downside to the joke beginning and happy winking now, though: Thanksgiving sure does love sticking to a tried-and-tested recipe. Roth and screenwriter Jeff Rendell, both returning from 16 years back and sharing a story credit, have taken to the whole "Halloween but Thanksgiving" approach with the utmost dedication — because it's as plain as a roasted bird centrepiece that that's what they've purposely cooked up. The mood, the nods, the derivation: they don't add up to a new masterpiece, however, genre-defining, cult or otherwise. But there's something to be said for a film that commits to its bit with this much relish, so bluntly and openly, and with the tongue-in-cheek attitude that was baked into the Grindhouse package slathered on thick. And yes, the image that no one has forgotten for almost two decades returns, alongside other signature shots from Thanksgiving's proof-of-concept sneak peek. Thanksgiving streams via Apple TV and Prime Video. Read our full review. Looking for more viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and fast-tracked highlights from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November, too. We've kept a running list of must-stream TV from across the year, complete with full reviews. We also rounded up 2023's 15 best films, 15 best straight-to-streaming movies, 15 top flicks hardly anyone saw, 15 best new TV series of 2023, another 15 excellent new TV shows that you might've missed and 15 best returning shows as well.
FBi Social, the Sydney radio station's first ever pop-up live music venue, opened its doors last week. Housed on the second level of the refurbished Kings Cross Hotel, in stumbling distance of the Coca Cola sign, FBi is hoping to use the space to further their ever evolving mission of helping emerging local bands break through to larger audiences. With a 200-person capacity and a 24/7 license, and the aim of taking Kings Cross back to it's live music/dive bar roots, it's sure to be a very exciting couple of months. Rarely can you make me go to Kings Cross. The place evokes memories of dangerously high heels, bogan's blaring bad music from their souped up cars and being hit on by drug dealers. But FBi Social will be enough to get me, and many like me, to venture to the end of William Street. And perhaps the biggest perk is that no longer will you have to catch two buses and a train to a shoddy warehouse at the back of Marrickville to see emerging live music. It all kicks off this weekend, with Friday night's Socially Acceptable bringing you FBi's favourite emerging DJ's to assist you in all manner of hand-clapping, toe-tapping and hip-thrusting. The lineup of bands kick off on Saturday night with Dance To The Radio, featuring The Preachers, Underlights and Sister Jane. Gigs over the next two months include Ernest Ellis, Pikelet and Guineafowl, and will sit side by side with nights devoted to genres such as folk, hip hip and experimental music.
Something delightful is 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 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 over the past three months, 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=W-M4qEmF268 FREAKY Blumhouse Productions has already turned Groundhog Day into a horror flick via Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U. It gave 70s TV series Fantasy Island an unsettling makeover, too, with downright awful results. Now, it's Freaky Friday's turn. Body-swap movies span far beyond films starring Jodie Foster (in 1976) and Lindsay Lohan (in 2003), but given that Freaky sets the bulk of its action on a Friday, it's clearly nodding in the obvious direction. The movie begins with a prelude on Wednesday the 11th (yes, not only will most of the chaos go down on a Friday, but it'll happen on Friday the 13th). In the opening scene, four small-town high schoolers do what teens do in the first moments of slasher flicks: talk, party and make out in an empty old mansion, then get killed by a mask-wearing psychopath. Before the quartet meets that fate, its members explain who is responsible. The Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn) is known to have terrorised the area but, due to a lack of recent murders, the serial killer has mostly become an urban legend of late. Not only is the Butcher real, as writer/director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day and its sequel) and his co-scribe Michael Kennedy (Bordertown) quickly show, but he steals a cursed Aztec dagger that lets him swap bodies with his next victim. So, when shy teen Millie (Kathryn Newton, Big Little Lies) crosses his path, she wakes up in his very tall and male guise the next morning — and vice versa. That's great news for the Butcher, who can now blend in with the adolescents that he likes to murder. It's a troubling predicament for the bullied high schooler that suddenly looks like him, though. Given that Freaky sports a big twist right there in its premise, no one should expect a surprise-laden narrative here. It does add some depth to its high-concept horror-comedy idea, including calling out society's accepted notions of male power and making it plain that women are never seen in the same fashion, but the movie proves a patchwork affair overall. In other words, sometimes things fall into place entertainingly, and sometimes they don't. The slick, fast-paced flick is particularly engaging when it ramps up either the gore-splattered horror or the over-the-top comedy, though, and it sports top-notch lead casting choices. Indeed, without either Vaughn or Newton, it might've resembled The Hot Chick meets the worst Nightmare on Elm Street sequels rather than Freaky Friday meets Friday the 13th. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW_3aaoSOYg HILLBILLY ELEGY Adapted from the 2016 memoir that shares its name, Hillbilly Elegy is filled with Acting and a Message. Yes, those words should be capitalised. It's an awards-seeking showcase for its two big-name stars, Amy Adams and Glenn Close — neither of whom have an Oscar on their mantles despite 13 nominations between them (six for Adams, seven for Close). It's also a sombre-toned, melodramatic attempt to explain, presumably to the so-called 'coastal elites' that are often characterised as the enemy of ordinary Americans by certain sections of the country's media, that folks crudely nicknamed 'hillbillies' or 'rednecks' are people, too. And, although Ron Howard sits in the director's chair and screenwriter Vanessa Taylor also co-wrote The Shape of Water, Hillbilly Elegy is about as subtle as an Appalachian-born grandmother yelling at teenagers to get off her porch or she'll shoot them. That's something that happens in the film. There's a difference between unpacking stereotypes and propagating them and, despite its obvious intentions, Hillbilly Elegy falls firmly in the second category. A deglamourised Adams plays drug-addicted ex-nurse and single mother Bev. With just as much frizzy hair, Close steps into the shoes of Bev's mother, Mamaw, who gave birth to her when she was 13. Their lives haven't been easy, although they've each constantly strived to do what's best for their poverty-stricken family. Adams and Close give big, overt performances that make their character's struggles known in every fierce glare and public meltdown, but even their visible efforts — and the work they're putting in is always forcefully apparent — can't lift this simultaneously earnest and bland affair. The true tale is all actually seen through the eyes and memories of Bev's son and hardworking Yale law student JD (Gabriel Basso, The Big C). When his mum overdoses while he's trying to secure a summer internship with a prestigious firm in DC, he heads back home, looking back on his childhood (where the character is played by Paterson's Owen Asztalos) across both the hill country of Jackson, Kentucky and also the downtrodden Middletown, Ohio in the process. The real-life JD literally wrote the book, but all those words inspire here is formulaic, mawkish, over-the-top and often fittingly beige-hued awards-bait that noticeably says little about the world that it so superficially feigns to explore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYUO1xmwxTQ THE COMEBACK TRAIL It's never a great idea to fill a screenplay with verbal references to cinematic masterpieces gone by. If your movie doesn't come anywhere near close to matching Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho or Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, for instance, you've already inspired an unflattering comparison. Those classic titles are mentioned early in The Comeback Trail, and it's well and truly evident by then that this comedy will never sit in their company. Its predecessor certainly doesn't, with this Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones and Zach Braff-starring, 1970s-set film based on a 1982 movie of the same name. Here, De Niro and Braff play an uncle-nephew pair of movie producers, Max Barber and Walter Creason, who are known for making average-at-best flicks and even inspiring protests at their premieres — and it doesn't take long for viewers to wonder if the inescapably cheap-looking The Comeback Trail is indicative of the terrible and unsuccessful features pumped out by its central pair. After the aforementioned picketing of their latest release, the duo owe $350,000 to gangster Reggie Fontaine (Freeman). Max could sell a beloved script to a rival producer (Emile Hirsch) to rustle up the funds; however, he stumbles upon another plan instead. Soon, he's in even more debt to Reggie, but with a scam in mind — setting up a suicidal old western star, Duke Montana (Jones), for a big accident so that he can claim an insurance payout. Naturally, nothing pans out as it's supposed to, in a film filled from start to finish with laugh-free moments. Max and Walter try to explain to their female director (Kate Katzman) that she's a bad fit because they're making a manly film, which was never going to be funny. Max gets kicked by the horse he's trying to use to injure Duke, and that inspires zero hilarity, too. Contrived, predictable, strained and grating, The Comeback Trail squanders the three acting veterans among its cast. In fact, it makes you wish they'd be more selective with their on-screen choices. De Niro has worked with filmmaker George Gallo before, with the latter writing 1988 comedy Midnight Run, but their reunion couldn't be more painful — and De Niro couldn't be further away from his excellent efforts in The Irishman just last year. 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 July 2, July 9, July 16, July 23 and July 30; August 6, August 13, August 20 and August 27; September 3, September 10, September 17 and September 24; October 1, October 8, October 15, October 22 and October 29; and November 5. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as The Personal History of David Copperfield, Waves, The King of Staten Island, Babyteeth, Deerskin, Peninsula, Tenet, Les Misérables, The New Mutants, Bill & Ted Face the Music, The Translators, An American Pickle, The High Note, On the Rocks, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Antebellum, Miss Juneteenth, Savage, I Am Greta, Rebecca, Kajillionaire, Baby Done, Corpus Christi, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, The Craft: Legacy, Radioactive and Brazen Hussies. Top image: Hillbilly Elegy via Lacey Terrell/Netflix.
The life and times of 20th century music and cultural icon, Bob Marley, are explored through the deeply raw and poignant documentary, Marley. Kevin Macdonald directed the film in an attempt to allow audiences to get to know the man behind the myth a little better. The two and a half hour documentary features never before seen footage and photos from Marley's early life and final years; from his years as a mixed-race farm boy, Marley's time on the streets in Kingston's Trenchtown, his worldwide fame, through to his cancer diagnosis and slow subsequent demise. Marley reinforces the cultural significance of this Jamaican hero, who still resonates in music lovers' hearts all over the world almost 30 years after his death. Commentary is provided by the family members and friends who knew him best, and the film includes concert footage of four previously unseen songs. All of this is woven together in a seamless stream of revelations to sate the appetites of even the most ardent, die-hard Marley fans. Macdonald and Marley's children and grandchildren also wished to preserve Marley's legacy through the documentary and highlight his driven and ambitious work ethic, whilst quelling the notion that his marijuana smoking led him to lead a slow-paced or lazy lifestyle. The film powerfully captures the quirkiness of the Marley clan as well as providing a musical journey that outlines the development of the sub-culture of reggae and the instrumental role Marley had in this. Concrete Playground has ten double passes to giveaway to see Marley. To go in the running to win tickets, make sure you're subscribed to Concrete Playground then email your name and postal address to us at hello@concreteplayground.com.au
The cinnamonny college-tastic whisky known as Fireball is under fire (#sorrynotsorry) this week after some pretty unwanted materials were discovered in a European shipment of the good stuff. According to The Daily Beast, it was revealed that Fireball whisky was being recalled in Finland, Norway and Sweden because the batch contains propylene glycol. Yep, that's a casual compound starring prominently in a little ol' thing called antifreeze. ANTIFREEZE. The chemical that helps protects your car's radiator and de-ices aircraft carriers. You won't be so quick to make a GoPro wedding video downing the spicy stuff now huh? European recipients of the batch in question were understandably unimpressed when the delivery rocked up; apparently the Fireball recipe with high levels of propylene glycol is aiiiight for America though. According to Huffington Post the propylene glycol is used to enhance flavour by absorbing water and is "generally recognized as safe" for use in food by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But European (and Australian) regulations for food and drink ingredients are apparently tighter than the US — DB reminded us of the time Subway was all geared up to remove azodicarbonamide from its Australian and European bread (yeah, that's chemical commonly used in yoga mats, no biggie). Not in the States though, thing are more lax in the Yoo Ess of Ay. So, Fireball owners Sazerac are legally allowed to put more propylene glycol in their US/Canada bevvies. But don't grab your torches and pitchforks just yet. Sazerac were quick to make embers of this week's uproar, releasing a statement pointing out that propylene glycol is given the a-OK by the FDA in amounts up to 50 grams per kilogram — apparently that's about eight times the amount Fireball has hidden away in its party-starting belly. "Most people consume PG every day in soft drinks, sweeteners, some foods or alcoholic beverages," said the Fireball team, adding that "all Fireball formulas are absolutely safe to drink." "Unfortunately, Fireball shipped its North American formula to Europe and found that one ingredient is out of compliance with European regulations. Finland, Sweden and Norway have asked to recall those specific batches, which is what the brand is doing." Australian batches seem fine for now. Shots anyone? No? Fireball whiskey has antifreeze chemicals in it? So it tastes great and I won't freeze? Make mine a double! — Maddox (@maddoxrules) October 29, 2014 Via The Daily Beast and Huffington Post.
Next Thursday, March 13, will see the sixth annual, four-day Taste of Sydney festival set up shop in Centennial Park to deliver a foodie feast far more suited to our city’s more discerning palates. This year’s a biggun, primed to serve up a whole heap of delicious treats. There'll be more than 60 selected food, wine and cocktail items, including recipes designed especially for you; 100+ bespoke artisan producers and providers; a plethora of demos and masterclasses for budding cooks, chefs, bloggers and beyond; plus music and entertainment throughout for those simply after a bite and a bevvy. But before you get lost in a huge list of must-trys, it’s always important to remember that you don’t need a gastronomical portfolio rivalling Matt Preston’s cravat to know what’s good. All you need is this guide, an empty stomach and an open mind. Come Hungry An obvious tip but one to be taken seriously: there’s going to be a lot to choose from and the last thing you want to do is limit yourself because you lunched too late. For example, Surry Hills' fave Chur Burger will have you salivating over their bespoke 'Taste' burger, while the folks behind Newtown’s Bloodwood will be making their presence known. Other standouts include Popolo, Biota, 4Fourteen, Four in Hand, Jonah’s, Porteno and Longrain. Prepare for a Hangover We’re not telling you to binge drink yourself into oblivion, but the 'taste' element at Taste ain’t just solids. The Gourmet Traveller WINE Pop Up Bar by Rushcutters, for example, will be the place to sip and savour a host of selected drops. Or, if wine’s not your thing, try the new apple and guava flavour among the usual refreshingly sweet combinations at the Rekorderlig Cider Bar. The Sail & Anchor Beer Hall have hops and barley sorted through interactive sessions and tastings from Australia’s best home-grown and imported labels, while Cointreau and Galliano will be whipping up a cocktail or two. Learning is Fun! This year will see the launch of the brand new Lurpak Cookery School teaching how to best use said Danish butter, while the Plumm Wine Theatre presented by Gourmet Traveller WINE asks you to pop in and lift your wine knowledge alongside prestigious sommeliers and critics. Others not to be missed are the food and beverage matching masterclasses by Celebrity Cruises, the always popular Country Kitchen for the eco-minded among us, and Sensology’s The Art of Cocktail Making. Of course, the Taste Kitchen is back again with Sydney’s top chefs sharing the secrets of their favourite dishes, and the Dilmah Chef's Skillery in association with Australian Gourmet Traveller is the place to have all those burning questions answered. Warm Up Your Bowling Arm 2014’s Taste of Sydney has a pretty nifty little attraction brought to us by Galliano in the form of a two-lane Bocce area upon entrance, allowing multiple players the chance to enjoy a game of this boules-related funtime while sipping a cocktail or three. Look out for picket fencing and seating, or simply listen out for the laughter as pissed-up people attempt to give this a go. Tassie is Trending Not only is the Tasmanian Pavilion returning this year with its focus on all the best produce to ever grace our fair shores from the Apple Isle (we’re talking seafood, bakeries, wineries, distilleries and butchers all showcasing their gourmet delicacies), there’s also the opportunity to win a holiday for two including flights, accommodation and car hire to, you guessed it, Tassie. It Doesn't Hurt to Spoil Yourself With so much going on, it never hurts to treat yourself to a little luxury, and the Taste of Sydney VIP Lounge includes two complimentary drinks, unlimited access to the lounge and $30 worth of Crowns (festival currency) to use at any of the vendors you desire. VIP tickets also come with $20 GoodFood Gift card and a $50 UBERblack ride. After all, this festival comes but once a year and we all deserve a little extra sparkle now and again. Taste of Sydney will run from Thursday, March 13, to Sunday, March 17, 2014. Tickets start from $25 and are on sale now from Ticketek. Take advantage of the special ticket offer and book two general entry tickets for $40. Just enter the word FEAST into the promotional code box when booking. This offer is valid on advance purchase tickets only and applies to general entry tickets. Crowns (the official Taste currency) can be pre-purchased in denominations of 30 or 50 Crowns through Ticketek.
It's official: after a dream of a first season, Rose Matafeo's delightful rom-com sitcom Starstruck is back to make you fall head over heels for its firmly 21st-century take on dating a famous actor all over again. It's also official for Matafeo's (Baby Done) on-screen alter ego Jessie and Tom (Nikesh Patel, Four Weddings and a Funeral), the celebrity she had a one-night stand with on New Year's Eve, then navigated an awkward will-they-won't-they dance around every time they ran into each other in London. Once the show's newly arrived second season gets a few episodes in — it's now streaming in full via ABC iView in Australia and TVNZ OnDemand in New Zealand — they're officially dating. Starstruck's debut run ended with a glorious jump in Jessie and Tom's relationship. She was set to leave the UK to return home to New Zealand, but he showed up at just the right moment to inspire her to stay. Indeed, when the season came to a close, they sat on the backseat of a bus, blissful smiles slowly slipping as they each internally grabbled with what'd just happened, like they were were Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross 55 years back. That nod to The Graduate couldn't have been more knowing, just like the show's entire narrative arc across its first season. Co-writing the series as well as starring — and playing a movie-loving cinema employee at that — Matafeo and co-scribes Alice Snedden and Nic Sampson recognise that the best way to create a smart, savvy, affectionate and heartfelt entry in such a well-populated, often schmaltzy and cheesy genre is to call out all of the conventions and tropes. And, to play with and twist them, then layer them with truth, wit and depth. Indeed, rom-com self-awareness has always been one of Starstruck's big assets — it basically takes Notting Hill's setup and fast-forward two-plus decades, after all — and that hasn't changed in season two. This next batch of six episodes has a key question in mind, however: once you've enjoyed the wild meet-cute, ridden the courtship rollercoaster and been bowled over by a grand romantic gesture, what comes next? It's the stuff that rom-com sequels might cover, except that for all of Hollywood's eagerness to rinse and repeat its most popular fare, the romantic-comedy genre is comparatively sparse in the follow-up department. It's easy to understand why everything from Pretty Woman to Amelie hasn't sparked on-screen continuations — or the likes of Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You and, yes Notting Hill, too. Getting to live happily ever after is always the point, as well as the end point. Thankfully, merely recharting that familiar path wasn't ever going to be enough for Starstruck, as wonderful a job as it did of doing just that in its first season. As a result, season two picks up exactly where its predecessor left off. Jessie and Tom's bus ride segues into a WTF realisation, as in "WTF do we do now?". That's a query that Jessie isn't ready to answer, even though she's made the big leap and missed her flight home. So, she avoids even tackling the situation, instead dragging Tom along to play tourist for the day. He's meant to be flying off to Ireland for a new film shoot and delays leaving for Jessie, so her decision to simply ignore what they've both just done affects them both in multiple ways. The mess of any and every relationship, which rom-coms don't typically show when they end with that happily-ever-after moment, fuels Starstruck's new episodes. Like everyone, Jessie and Tom have plenty. They both have pasts and exes, which shapes how they approach romance now. They know they want to be together, but Jessie isn't as committed to putting in the effort that an ordinary, everyday, long-term relationship requires. Tom has a judgemental brother Vinay (Parth Thakerar, Vigil), too, who doesn't make a great first impression. Plus, Jessie's last boyfriend Ben (Edward Easton, Porters) reappears in her life, much to her devoted best friend and roommate Kate's (Emma Sidi, Pls Like) dismay. Starstruck wades through all of this chaos, and through the inescapable fact that getting what we want can also spark a spiral of self-sabotage one throwaway comment, pointless disagreement and lie of omission at a time. The show's second season is light but also deep, the exact opposite of one of its key watery settings, and remains a rom-com that's as aware of what relationships in 2022 are really alike as it is about how romance is typically portrayed in its genre. Matafeo, Sneddon and Sampson (who also plays Jessie's fellow Kiwi-in-the-UK pal Steve) still keep the screwball vibe alive, and the dialogue sharp and relatable, of course. They keep the fellow rom-com references weaved in as well (Love Actually and Bridget Jones' Diary fans, prepare to feel seen). There's no morning-after stride of pride to the sounds of 'Return of the Mack' this time, but everything else that made Starstruck's first season such a gem is accounted for. Matafeo is still a multi-layered marvel as Jessie, especially as the series wades through more of her tumultuous choices. Patel keeps finding the ideal balance of charisma and earthiness while playing a well-known actor who knows the trappings of his work, what he values and what he wants out of a relationship. The supporting cast — the returning Minnie Driver (Cinderella) as Tom's Agent and Russell Tovey (Years and Years) as the director of his latest project included — remains top-notch, and the direction is breezy but never fluffy or frothy. Yes, Marry Me is now flirting with the same concept on the big screen, but Starstruck is the clever and charming rom-com to truly swoon over. Check out the trailer for Starstruck's second season below: Starstruck's second season is available to stream in Australia via ABC iView and in New Zealand via TVNZ OnDemand. Read our full review of Starstruck's first season.
If a pizza delivery guy was to accidentally wander into a cryogenic chamber back in July 2013, get stuck frozen inside for ten years, then wake up in July 2023, plenty that he knows about the world will have changed. But one thing would remain a constant: Futurama. Back then, the Matt Groening-created show about life in the 31st century was still on-screen — and this winter, it'll finally be defrosted after a decade off the air. Good news, everyone! — it's back, baby, after US streaming platform Hulu first announced plans to go back to the future in 2022. When that welcome revelation hit, Futurama was renewed for a 20-episode run. Now, the platform has revealed that the first ten new instalments will arrive from Monday, July 24 in the US. Down Under, Disney+ will be reteaming with the 20th-century's Philip J Fry (voiced by Billy West), distant uncle to Planet Express cargo company Professor Hubert J Farnsworth (also voiced by West), plus the rest of the outfit's crew. Yes, that means more antics with one-eyed ship captain Turanga Leela (Katey Sagal); fellow employees Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr), Amy Wong (Lauren Tom) and Zoidberg (also West); and everyone from self-obsessed starship captain Zapp Brannigan (West again) and his amphibious 4th Lieutenant Kif Kroker (Maurice LaMarche) through to scheming corporation owner Mom (Tress MacNeille). And, yes, it Bender Bending Rodríguez will be causing chaos, with John DiMaggio also back with the cast. When the revival was first announced, that wasn't the case — but it wouldn't be Futurama without its constantly sauced robot exclaiming "bite my shiny metal ass!". You can put a beloved animated series into stasis, but someone is going to thaw it out one day — and more than once. Initially airing from 1999–2003, the futuristic animated series then returned from 2008–2013, before now being given another run. Hulu is calling this comeback season 11, even though Futurama spans a past seven seasons and four direct-to-DVD movies so far. As for what it'll be about, other than satirising life in the year 3000 and beyond, the streaming service is promising more about Fry and Leela's love story, what's in Nibbler's litter box, evil Robot Santa's secret history, and Kif and Amy's tadpoles. That, and a pandemic, plus gags about the future of vaccines, bitcoin, cancel culture and streaming TV. Check out the first teaser trailer below: Futurama's latest season will return on Hulu on Monday, July 24 Down Under — we'll update you with Australian and New Zealand specifics via Disney+ when they're announced.
How many times have you walked through Federation Square, whether rushing to Flinders Street Station, hopping on or off a tram, checking out a sporting event on the site's big screen or hitting up a nearby venue? How well do you know the public space in your mind, then? It's up there with the MCG as one of the first places that anyone thinks of when they think about Melbourne, but both locals and visitors alike will see it as they've never seen it before when June hits and RISING 2024 arrives. The Victorian capital's annual winter arts festival — because Vivid Sydney doesn't have a monopoly on citywide cultural celebrations at this time of year — will run from Saturday, June 1–Sunday, June 16. One of its centrepieces is a spot that everyone is bound to go to anyway, but turning Fed Square into a showcase of First Peoples' art and politics. The free exhibition and public program is called The Blak Infinite, and will boast Richard Bell's EMBASSY as its centrepiece. Inside the work, which is inspired by the original Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in the 70s, talks will be held every Saturday, while films will screen daily. Make sure that you spend time looking up at Fed Square during RISING 2024, too; each evening, projections will take to the heavens, telling tales of Sky Country and the cosmos. On the site's big screen, Ellen Van Neerven's speculative fiction will feature. And keep an eye out for Kait James and Tony Albert's contributions, with one digging into and subverting souvenirs via collage, and the other going big and colourful with large-scale installations. The Blak Infinite leads the highlights on RISING's full program for this year, which has been unveiled after a couple of past announcements for the June fest. So, audiences should already be excited about Counting and Cracking and Communitas. The first brings the acclaimed Sri Lankan-Australian stage saga to Melbourne finally, and the second involves 'Love Tonight' talents SHOUSE throwing a music party that'll fill Melbourne's St Paul's Cathedral with hundreds of people making tunes as part of a choir. There's 105 events featuring 480-plus artists all up — including 23 newly commissioned works, plus six that are making their world premiere — with tunes also at the heart of the newly revealed Day Tripper, a festival within the broader festival over the King's Birthday long weekend. Melbourne Town Hall will be its hub, but the event will take over an entire block, including the Capitol Theatre and Max Watt's. And, you'll only need one ticket to hit it all up. Music-wise, Yasiin Bey, who was formerly known as Mos Def, leads the Day Tripper bill with a tribute to MF Doom. The rest of the lineup includes almost every genre that you can think of from hip hop and disco to post-punk and acid house. There'll be dance works, video pieces and brass bands as well — and Bar Italia, Asha Puthli, HTRK, Richard Youngs and more taking part. Love music films? Make a date with 24 Hour Rock Show, which British Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller first staged in Finland in 2015. It'll play rock documentaries back to back for a whole day and night, and for free. If you're up for it, catching the full 24 hours will be a wild cinema endurance test. Bey isn't only appearing at Day Tripper, but also at PICA to perform his 2009 album The Ecstatic. On the rest of RISING's music roster, ONEFOUR, Fever Ray, The Dirty Three playing their home town for the first time in 14 years, Sky Ferreira, Tirzah, Blonde Redhead, Snoh Aalegra and Moktar also pop up. For trance fans, UK producer Evian Christ has an exclusive show for the festival — and, for something complete different, Deller's Acid Brass is staging free public concerts. Once more linking tunes with the big screen, Hear My Eyes is back with a screening of Hellraiser. Hieroglyphic Being aka Jamal Moss is doing an all-new score for the horror classic, while visual artist Robin Fox will add a live laser performance. RISING attendees will also be able to enjoy The First Bad Man by Ireland's Pan Pan Theatre, which is based around Miranda July's novel and described as "a performative book club" — and ILBIJERRI Theatre Company's Big Name No Blankets, which dives into the Warumpi Band's history. Or, there's the first chapter of The Cadela Força Trilogy, examining sexual violence in art history; First Peoples' futuristic drag show ECLIPSE; inclusive club night CRIP RAVE THEORY; and eight hours of 8/8/8: REST, the second part in a triptych that began at RISING 2022 with 8/8/8: WORK. At a festival that's all about showing folks something that they won't see every day, SONG HISTOIRE(S) DU THÉ TRE IV certainly fits, too: as conjured up by Flemish artist Miet Warlop, it involves musicians playing just one song over and over, all while partaking in an obstacle course featuring trampolines, treadmills and balance beams. So does FOOD, which is set at an illusionist's dinner party, and has audiences sat around the stage-sized table to dive into the history of its namesake. Also on the program: the return of The Rivers Sing, the Melbourne Art Trams unveiling their latest First Peoples' works, Bell's Pay the Rent making a Melbourne comeback over a decade since debuting in the city, plus nightly social club Night Trade. [caption id="attachment_945445" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brett Boardman[/caption] RISING 2024 runs from Saturday, June 1–Sunday, June 16 across Melbourne. Head to the festival's website for further information and tickets, with latter on sale from 12pm on Tuesday, March 12 for subscribers and 12pm on Thursday, March 14 otherwise. Top image: Damian Raggatt.
Summer might be in full swing on both sides of the ditch, but it's never too early to start thinking about your music festival plans for the year ahead, as well as how to spend the frostier months. One solution that ticks both boxes: Queenstown winter music festival and ski trip Snow Machine, which is returning in September 2023 for its huge second year. It's the hottest festival for the colder months, packed with five snow-filled days of music and adventure at two mountain-topping ski resorts this year. On the just-dropped lineup sits a heap of must-see names, including Art vs Science, Hayden James, Hilltop Hoods, The Jungle Giants and Peking Duk, all helping give Snow Machine's winter wonderland a thumping soundtrack. After launching in Japan in 2020, the festival was actually supposed to make its arrival in Aotearoa in September 2021 but was cancelled due to the pandemic. It finally debuted in September 2022, and now makes a comeback from Tuesday, September 5–Sunday, September 10, 2023. Attendees will be treated to action-packed days on the slopes, après ski events on both Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, and a hefty roster of international acts against the idyllic backdrop of New Zealand's adventure capital. Also dropping in to share the stage will be Benee, Broods, Coterie, Danny Clayton, Jacotène and Jimi The Kween, as well as Kate Fox, Neil Frances, Northeast Party House, Pete Murray, Set Mo, Shapeshifter, Stace Cadet (doing a DJ set), Sweet Mix Kids and Zahn Walker. Other than the wintry backdrop, one of the things that sets Snow Machine apart from other music fests is being able to book your entire getaway with your ticket. Packages span both five and seven nights of accommodation, and include a four-day festival ticket and five-day ski pass. If you'd rather make your own way or pass on the skiing, there are 'ticket only' options — and VIP packages if you really want to do it in style. Festival goers are also encouraged to immerse themselves in the adventure capital by adding on heli-skiing, jet boating, bungy jumping, canyon swinging and skydiving — and that's on top of Snow Machine's huge welcome party, and vintage retro day dedicated to old-school ski suits. Also returning in 2023: the second annual Polar Bare, which endeavours to set a world record for the most amount of people heading down the slopes their swimwear. SNOW MACHINE 2023 LINEUP: Art vs Science Benee Broods Coterie Danny Clayton Hayden James Hilltop Hoods Jacotène Jimi The Kween The Jungle Giants Kate Fox Neil Frances Northeast Party House Peking Duk Pete Murray Set Mo Shapeshifter Stace Cadet (DJ set) Sweet Mix Kids Zahn Walker Tom Tilley and Hugo Gruzman present First Base Snow Machine will be held from Tuesday, September 5–Sunday, September 10, 2023 in Queenstown, New Zealand. Presale tickets go on sale from 12pm AEDT on Tuesday, January 17, with general tickets available from 12pm AEDT on Wednesday, January 18. For more information, visit the festival's website. Images: Pat Stevenson/Ben Lang. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
The beginning of a new year isn't solely about deciding how you'd like to change your life for the better. That's just one January tradition. Another: plotting out where around the world you'd like to travel to across the 12 months to come. Arriving mere days into 2024, The New York Times' annual '52 Places to Go' list is a handy guide for inspiration — including for Down Under spots earning global recognition. After 2023's list included Auckland, Kangaroo Island and Australia's Red Centre to soak in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park's wonders, 2024's counterpart features New Zealand by train, the entire state of Tasmania and Queensland capital city Brisbane. Experiencing Aotearoa's charms by rail placed fourth, while the Apple Isle came in at 29 and Brissie took 39th spot. The NYT gave a 17-day journey across NZ some love for being "a simpler and more sustainable way" to see the country, calling out stops at "transcendent sites like the volcanic peaks of Tongariro National Park and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum" to begin with. Also earning a mention: getting the ferry to the South Island, then taking "a ride through world-class vineyards and along the jagged coast", plus whale- and dolphin-watching in Christchurch, before hitting the Southern Alps for "views to white-capped peaks, rushing rivers and alpine lakes". Tasmania earned its placing for enabling visitors to get out in nature via guided walks, celebrate Indigenous culture and focus on local produce. Taking a three-day trek across Bruny Island, foraging for wattle seeds and pepperberries, and chef Analiese Gregory's wild-cooking dishes all scored a specific callout. Brisbane keeps popping up on lists like this lately — see also: travel guide Frommer's, which also named the city one of 2024's best spots to visit; TIME, which put it on its world's greatest places list for 2023; and the World's Best 50 Hotels, which picked The Calile as its only Australian and Oceanic entry in its inaugural countdown in 223 — and the obvious reason was called out in the NYT's first sentence. Yes, that'd be hosting the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Queen's Wharf precinct and its towering Sky Deck, restaurant Agnes and the Brisbane Powerhouse — including eating dinner hanging off the side of the building at vertical dining experience Vertigo, and the upcoming Melt OPEN queer arts fest — all were singled out. So was The Calile, which is clearly Brissie's most-famous hotel. [caption id="attachment_921654" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Markus Ravik[/caption] Topping the '52 Places to Go' rankings for 2024: North America's path of totality, where a total solar eclipse will be take over the skies in April, followed by Paris — the host of the 2024 Olympics — and Yamaguchi in Japan. Maui in Hawaii rounded out the top five, while Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni in Arizona (the sacred Indigenous land around the Grand Canyon), Singapore, O'Higgins in Chile, Ladakh in India and Geneva in Switzerland filled the rest of the top ten. Across the full 52 picks, Manchester in England, Negombo in Sri Lanka, Morocco, Lake Toba in Indonesia and Ireland's Waterford also featured. So did Mustang in Nepal, Vienna in Austria, the Albanian Alps and Flamingo in Florida — and plenty more spots to instantly put on your must-visit list. For The New York Times' full 52 Places to Go list for 2024, head to the publication's website. Top image: Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Stay tuned. More info coming soon.
When Studio Ghibli was first formed back in 1985, the Japanese animation house came about thanks to three parties: filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki. While Miyazaki has become synonymous with the company in the three decades since and Suzuki is now one of Japan's most successful producers, Takahata deserves just as much acclaim and attention. Indeed, it was his first stint behind the camera that helped establish Ghibli on the international stage. Further, his most recent movie earned him an Academy Award nomination for best animated feature. Before his passing this week at the age of 82, Takahata's career also spanned a busy stint in television during the '60s and '70s, as well as producing roles on three important animated titles — Miyazaki's pre-Ghibli flick Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, his first studio effort Castle in the Sky, and the company's gorgeous collaboration with Dutch animator Michaël Dudok de Wit, The Red Turtle. As a filmmaker himself, he may have only helmed five features, but they're all Ghibli classics. In fact, if you're a fan of the beloved outfit, they're definite must-sees that demonstrate the studio's visual, emotional, thematic and narrative range. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vPeTSRd580 GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES The most heartbreaking animated film ever made — and one the most heartbreaking films ever made in any format, too — Grave of the Fireflies proved Studio Ghibli's first masterpiece. In fact, it's a movie the studio has never come close to matching since, even though the company's stellar flicks continually enchant and delight. Given the war drama is a rare Ghibli effort that plunges into dark territory, telling the tale of two siblings desperately struggling to survive in the last days of the Second World War, that's completely understandable. Takahata's handling of the film's moving and sorrowful story couldn't be more astonishing, from the fleshed-out characters tussling with life and death, to the striking visuals, including the titular glowing bugs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfkQlZArxw0 ONLY YESTERDAY Like his filmmaking debut, Takahata's second directorial effort doesn't resemble much of Studio Ghibli's output. Based on the 1982 manga of the same name, Only Yesterday eschews child-focused fantasies for the incredibly relatable inner turmoil of 27-year-old Tokyo worker Taeko. Rather than entering fanciful worlds, the film follows its protagonist's attempt to reconcile her childhood dreams with the life she's now living. It's a mature, thoughtful effort — and one that was only re-released two years ago, with an English-language voice cast of Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel. Upon its initial stint in cinemas in Japan in 1991, it became the highest-grossing Japanese film of the year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7cowIHjCD4 POM POKO Another box office hit — in fact, Pom Poko was the highest-grossing Japanese film in Japan in 1994 — Takahata's next flick introduced the world to mischievous racoon-like critters. Called tanuki and finding their basis in folklore, the creatures can transform into almost anything; however their habitat outside of Tokyo is under threat from developers. With ecological matters a common thread in Ghibli movies, this touching delight proves a quintessential addition to the fold, combining magical wonder with a message. It's an endearing fable, and one that matches its narrative with memorable imagery, as always. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C9ujuCPlnY MY NEIGHBOURS THE YAMADAS My Neighbours the Yamadas is the studio's most visually distinctive effort. Based on the manga Nono-chan, it's the company's first fully digital film, but it favours the look of a hand-drawn, watercolour-painted comic strip over the usual Ghibli aesthetic. The stylistic choice suits the content perfectly, not only immersing audiences into the series of vignettes about the Yamada family, but offering a visible reminder that nothing is ever as simple as it appears. That's a statement that keeps bubbling to the fore as the quirky flick delves into recognisable situations with humour and heart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9QnebAVHVk THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA In The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, the eponymous girl blossoms within a bamboo shoot. She's not the only thing that blooms in this hand-drawn beauty, which marked Takahata's first film as a director in 15 years. Rumoured at the time to be his last feature and sadly proving to be case now, it's a gentle, elegant and entrancing story that charts the princess' growth, depicts her turmoil as her own desires clash with everyone else's expectations, and evolves from a seemingly standard setup into something subversive and meaningful. And, like almost everything throughout the filmmaker's career, it's a movie that no one else could've made in the same way.
It's true of every great arts festival lineup: pick three highlights from the program at random and a clear snapshot of the event's diverse array of experiences emerges. For a trio of picks from Sydney Festival's just-announced 2025 bill that does exactly that, turning the Harbour City's Town Hall into the wild west, exploring a true-crime case in an IRL courthouse, then getting Avatar, Titanic, The Terminator and Aliens filmmaker James Cameron chatting about shipwrecks all paint a clear picture. As it has done for 49 years now, this fest adores having something for everyone on offer. Just two years after Sydney Town Hall became an indoor beach complete with 26 tonnes of sand for the festival, the venue will transform into a pioneer settlement for Dark Noon, which builds its setting in real time as the audience watches on. A hit at Edinburgh Fringe, playing Australia exclusive to Sydney Festival and heading Down Under after a run in New York, the production from Danish director Tue Biering explores the power dynamics, race relations and colonial impacts inherent in its chosen chapter of history, all by subverting the wild west tropes established by cinema over the years — and with a South African cast. [caption id="attachment_977489" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Teddy Wolff[/caption] Also a standout on the full program, which'll pack Sydney with more than 130 shows and events from Saturday, January 4–Sunday, January 26, 2025: A Model Murder at the Darlinghurst Courthouse. Playwright Melanie Tait (The Appleton Ladies' Potato Race) and director Sheridan Harbridge (44 Sex Acts in One Week) aren't just recreating model Shirley Beiger's trial for shooting her cheating boyfriend — they're staging it at the same spot where it took place seven decades ago. For something completely different, one of the biggest names in blockbuster cinema is also on the Sydney Festival lineup, with James Cameron's experience in the water — including diving to earth's deepest point — the topic of conversation on the talks section of the bill. Or, still thinking about the sea, a giant whale is popping up in Bondi, courtesy of Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. The fest's 23-day run has a date with 43 different locations around town, ensuring that every corner of Sydney gets in on the action. One such location: Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, where The Thirsty Mile is returning as a hub featuring much to see by day and night. Think: free live music across 12 evenings, yoga classes, a heap of productions, public art and, for a beverage, the Moonshine Bar, where artist Telly Tuita is decking out the joint — as he's also doing with the SS John Oxley and via ten-room 'Tongpop' installation Colour Maze. Blak Out joins the favourites making a comeback, this time with Sydney Festival's Creative Artist in Residence Jake Nash curating the program. With Barangaroo Reserve as its base, this pivotal part of the fest includes Belvoir Theatre's Jacky, album launches for DOBBY and Radical Son, a woven canopy that'll host conversations, a celebration of Redfern's 70s-era National Black Theatre and more. [caption id="attachment_977492" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tashi Hall[/caption] From there, the world premiere of Siegfried & Roy: The Unauthorised Opera, Sophocles' Antigone reimagined on the edge of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and a twist on Shakespeare via Cliff Cardinal's As You Like It or The Land Acknowledgement should get your eyes glued to the stage. Also in the same category: Back to Back Theatre's Multiple Bad Things at Sydney Opera House, Opera Australia taking on Cendrillon (Cinderella), Christie Whelan Browne exploring her childhood. First Nations drag performer Miss Ellaneous honouring a simply-the-best icon with Tina — A Tropical Love Story and Greek mythology-inspired dance piece AFTERWORLD. Elsewhere on the bill, Rufus Wainwright is heading to town, William Yang's Milestone marks his 80th birthday, Katie Noonan is paying tribute to Jeff Buckley's Grace for its 30th anniversary, Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden is hosting five gigs, the Future Frequencies bill is all about music up and comers such as Yaya Bey and Cash Savage and The Last Drinks, Sydney Symphony Under the Stars is back and audiences can take part in interactive dance piece Cowboy. [caption id="attachment_977485" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dahlia Katz[/caption] "Sydney Festival has long held summer's cultural pulse and this year is quite the heartbeat. Stories of Oceania, destiny and what we leave behind through to bold explorations of utopia and dystopia, Sydney Festival 2025 promises an exhilarating and thought-provoking journey through the arts with exceptional talent at the reins," said Festival Director Olivia Ansell, announcing her fourth — and final — program. "This January, immerse yourself in a summer of unforgettable performances, groundbreaking new works, and exclusive experiences that reimagine the world around us." There's clearly a wealth of reasons to head along, whether you're a Sydneysider making the most of your own town or you're planning an interstate trip to kick off 2025 — and the fact that the fest is also doing $49 early-bird tickets across the entire program until early December is yet another. [caption id="attachment_977488" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ben Lindberg[/caption] [caption id="attachment_977486" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jeff Busby[/caption] [caption id="attachment_977487" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bill Cooper / Royal Opera House / ArenaPAL[/caption] Sydney Festival 2025 runs from Saturday, January 4–Sunday, January 26 at venues across the city. For further details and to buy tickets from 9am AEDT on Wednesday, October 30, visit the Sydney Festival website.
Lockdown isn't fun or easy for anyone, whether you've been through a few of them now or you're weathering your second prolonged stint of stay-at-home conditions. At the moment, everyone in the Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour region falls into the latter category. Spending all that time within your own house is particularly difficult if you live alone, however — and Sydneysiders without housemates have now been at home on their lonesome for almost five weeks. It has taken more than a month — and, it seems to only have been motivated by the fact that the region will remain in lockdown for a further month — but the rules around folks who live alone are changing. Today, Wednesday, July 28, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced that the current stay-at-home rules will continue until at least 12.01am on Saturday, August 28, but singles bubbles will be introduced. So, there's bad news in general, but also some welcome news for people who've spent weeks by themselves now. What's a singles bubble? It's an arrangement that allows folks who live alone to have another person over to their homes. You'll have to designate one specific person, and only that person can visit your house — and only once per day. That nominated person is the only person who can visit you during the next four weeks (in other words, you can't have a different person over to your home each day). The singles bubbles will come into effect from 12.01 on Saturday, July 31; however, there are other caveats. With eight Sydney LGAs under stricter conditions from midnight tonight, Wednesday, July 28 — with people in the Parramatta, Georges River and Campbelltown LGAs joining folks in the Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Liverpool, Blacktown and Cumberland LGAs in not being able to leave their area for work, unless they work in emergency services, healthcare, or the aged care and disability care fields — this has an impact on singles bubbles. If you live within these eight LGAs, you have to nominate a person inside the same area, and also within ten kilometres of your house. If you live outside of the aforementioned LGAs, you must designate someone who also lives outside of them as well. https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1420195677905113092 Other than singles bubbles, the rules about visitors at home aren't changing. So, no one else can have anyone over to their home other than for care purposes, which includes intimate partners. Basically, the singles bubbles arrangement will allow people who live by themselves to have a friend over. If it sounds somewhat familiar, that's because it has been a part of Melbourne's lockdowns over the past year; however, the New South Wales Government has resisted the setup until now. For people who live alone, the rest of the current lockdown rules still apply. That means that you can still only leave the house for four specific essential reasons: to work and study if you can't do it from home; for essential shopping; for exercise outdoors in groups of two; and for compassionate reasons, which includes medical treatment, getting a COVID-19 test and getting vaccinated. Singles bubbles fall under the compassionate category. You can also only go out shopping once each day to buy essential items — and, from midnight tonight, Wednesday, July 28, you can only go shopping within ten kilometres of your house, or within your LGA. Plus, carpooling is still off the cards, and you can still only exercise in groups of two outdoors — and you can also only get sweaty within your local government area, or within ten kilometres of where you live. As always, Sydneysiders are also asked to continue to frequently check NSW Health's long list of locations and venues that positive coronavirus cases have visited. If you've been to anywhere listed on the specific dates and times, you'll need to get tested immediately and follow NSW Health's self-isolation instructions. In terms of symptoms, you should be looking out for coughs, fever, sore or scratchy throat, shortness of breath, or loss of smell or taste — and getting tested at a clinic if you have any. Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour will remain in lockdown until at least 12.01am on Saturday, August 28. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website.
For over a century now, HOYTS has been connecting Aussie audiences with all the big screen hits they've ever needed, and for the cinema chain's 116th birthday, it's giving a little something back to weekend moviegoers. In every HOYTS cinema around Australia this weekend, all day and night, tickets will be going for just $8, or $25 for HOYTS LUX tickets — now's the time to try watching a movie in recliner seating with cocktails, wine and gourmet food delivered straight to your seat. With 49 cinemas across the country, this is a treat we can all make the most of. HOYTS General Manager of Customer Engagement Brad Eaton said "We're extremely proud of our long legacy in cinema and this weekend is all about celebrating with our loyal guests. Whether you're after a new blockbuster or a fun experience with the family, there's something for everyone so all can take advantage of this exceptional offer." [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkgMaS5gbaA[/embed] So what's worth watching? New releases include Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman at their dysfunctional best in The Roses, Austin Butler getting caught in a crime caper in Caught Stealing and Liam Neeson saving the world (absurdly) in The Naked Gun. Not one but two small-screen series are getting big-screen finales at the moment, with Downton Abbey: The Final Chapter and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- Infinity Castle both screening this weekend. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAtUHeMQ1F8[/embed] Prefer something to get your pulse pounding? Settle in for The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Long Walk or Weapons. If you've got kiddos in tow, they might be keen for Sketch or The Bad Guys 2. And if you missed any of this year's winter blockbusters — Superman, F1 The Movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Jurassic World: Rebirth are all still wrapping up their theatrical runs. Find your nearest HOYTS cinema and get tickets to a screening of your choice here.
In a characteristically M.I.A. move, the iconoclastic 'Bad Girls' singer has ingeniously tapped Versace knock-offs in Power Up, a new design collaboration with Versace itself, launching online on October 16. It's admirable just how consistent M.I.A.'s self-branding moves are. She's been wearing Versace around for a while now, and after the likes of her 'XXXO' music video, the trashy glitz of the label seems perfectly tailored to her. The 19-piece Versace Versus X MIA collection has all the trappings you'd expect from both M.I.A. and the prestigious design house, with a decidedly ghetto-bling set of gold medallions and classic Medusa heads emblazoning leggings and tops alike. The shapes channel sportswear while the colour palette is dominated by black and white and kooky shades of green, gold and pink. Sanskrit-inspired script mingles with blocky geometrics, lotus blossoms and the trademark angular Greek border, all combining in prints so bold it's pretty much guaranteed that the rest of your outfit will fade into obscurity. But it's the source of the designs — Versace rip-offs touted for cheap on the grimy streets of East London — that take this particular collab to the next level. M.I.A. told WWD: "Versace's designs have always been copied, now it's Versace that copies the copies, so those that copy must copy the copies. So this will continue." Indeed, M.I.A., what a house of mirrors you allow us to inhabit. Any passerby in the know is forced to acknowledge the Power Up wearer's subversive, high-low culture, pro-yet-anti-yet-pro-capitalist fashion statement as he or she steps out in authentic, expensive imitations of imitations. Fully aware of MIA's game, photographer Jaime Martinez shot the collection's campaign on the mean streets and in front of cheapo clothing stalls. The final lookbook is, appropriately a series of souped-up, lo-fi gifs. We doff our hats to the collection. Via PSFK.
What's charm got to do with it? In What's Love Got to Do with It?, plenty. A rom-com with absolutely nothing to do with Tina Turner, the song that instantly springs to mind or the 1993 biopic about the singer's life, this British affair from the producers of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, the Bridget Jones films and Love Actually — and the more-recent Yesterday and Cyrano, too — thrives on the charisma of its leads. It has to. Lily James (Pam & Tommy) and Shazad Latif (Profile) are nicely cast, but they're also all-so-crucially required to help patch over the movie's flagrant formula. Indeed, as penned by journalist-turned-producer-turned-screenwriting first-timer Jemima Khan, and helmed by Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, What's Love Got to Do with It? interrogates its own premise in its template-like nature. Is it better to stick to a tried-and-tested route or let surprises reign? In the way it's made and the tale it tells, at least, this flick repeatedly advocates for the former. For documentarian Zoe (James) and oncologist Kazim (Latif), childhood pals, neighbours and each other's first kiss, What's Love Got to Do with It?'s big battle isn't about romantic comedies, of course. And, it certainly isn't about whether the latest entry in the genre should paint by numbers or dare to diverge from the trusty path. But the same conflict underscores Zoe and Kaz's differing approaches to love and marriage, as Zoe is shocked to discover at Kaz's brother Farooq's (Mim Shaikh, Doctors) wedding. That's where the man she's known her whole life announces he's getting hitched, even though he hasn't met someone. Happy to skip the chaos of dating, not fussed with casual hookups, and buoyed by his parents Aisha (Shabana Azmi, Halo) and Zahid's (Jeff Mirza, Eternals) success with arranged nuptials, he's putting his trust in assisted marriage to find someone to share his life with. What's Zoe got to do with Kaz's decision, other than being a friend by his side? There's the glaring answer and then there's how Khan's script keeps her central pair in each other's orbit other than just as mates. As Zoe gets knocked back for funding for her next project, she doesn't blink before suggesting examining assisted marriages in Britain instead. (My Big Fat Arranged Marriage is her producers' dream title.) Kaz is understandably reluctant, but soon Zoe's camera is capturing everything, including the parade of events that her mother Cath (Emma Thompson, Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical) chats, drinks and dances her way through. Making a doco out of Kaz's quest to tie the knot can't help Zoe avoid her mum's stereotypical pestering about her own romantic prospects, however, complete with setting her up with family vet James (Oliver Chris, Emma). Due to rom-com logic, convention and expectation, there's a dose of My Best Friend's Wedding to What's Love Got to Do with It?, although Zoe doesn't ever try to sabotage Kaz's big day. There's also more than a dash of When Harry Met Sally… to Kapur's first feature in over a decade and a half (other than a segment of New York, I Love You) as Zoe and Kaz constantly discuss their varying ideas about relationships. And, to zero astonishment as well, there's pure and simple obviousness at work. Almost any rom-com focused on these two characters, enlisting these two actors, and benefiting from James and Latif's easy chemistry — and their innate likeability in both parts, especially Toast of London and Toast of Tinseltown's Latif — is going to do exactly what the audience not only wants, but what What's Love Got to Do with It?'s genre has primed them for. Accordingly, the real questions at the heart of What's Love Got to Do with It? aren't whether Kaz's assisted-marriage plan will succeed, or if this is a sensible way to meet one's other half in these always-swiping times. A culture clash comes with the setup, with Kaz's choice hailing from his Pakistani heritage, but diving into what that tradition means for better and for worse is a mere subplot. Rather, the film asks the most straightforward query it or any romantic comedy can or ever does. The specifics vary from flick to flick, but it's the same predicament. Here, it plays out like this: how will employing Muslim matchmaker Mo (Asim Chaudhry, The Sandman), video chatting with law student Maymouna (Sajal Aly, Ishq e laa) and following what happens from there — right through to three days of colourful ceremonies in Lahore, which Zoe records and the excited Cath wouldn't miss for the world — obstruct and complicate Zoe and Kaz's unspoken but plain-as-day feelings for each other? Inevitability drips through every moment of this sunnily shot and cosily staged movie as a result, but thankfully doesn't breed contempt. Again, that's thanks to James, Latif, their engaging performances and their comfortable rapport as What's Love Got to Do with It? embraces being exactly the type of fluffily predictable romantic comedy it is. That said, Khan and Kapur do take risks, but their film ends up worse for it. Although it's an eagerly knowing touch to have a former on-screen Cinderella play a woman who frames her love life as revised fairy tales, those narrated montages — popping up intermittently and told as bedtime stories to children, but echoing over Zoe's bad dates and morning-after regrets — flounder and feel like filler. What's Love Got to Do with It? doesn't judge Zoe's romantic exploits, nor should it, just as it avoids the same with Kaz — but, while it's accepting of amorous mess and assisted marriage alike, it isn't always certain in its tone or thoughtful with its supporting characters. Thompson's role proves an inescapable example, as much of a treasure as the great English actor is (see: her phenomenal work in 2022's Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, plus too many other past parts to count). Instead of exuberant, free-spirited, or even a gleefully silly example of an older generation broadening their world, Cath comes off as one-note and cartoonish. A white woman whose personality is defined by her fixation on another culture was likely to, sadly, in a movie that's fine with skewing broad and affable over shooting for sparks.
The really great thing about summer is that entertaining flies no matter what time of day. Whether a lazy picnic, a barbeque lunch or a knockout dinner party is your fancy, you can do it on the cheap and cheerful if it's summertime. We’ll take you through a day of dining to delight the senses and suit the budget. Day: PICNIC Two words: Potluck Picnic. We love gatherings we don't have to organise ourselves nearly as much as we love impressing each other with our innovative/shameful/purchased dishes. If you want to divvy up the dishes (salad, sweets, nibbles, etc), do that, but it's even better if you can cover the bases yourself and let others fill in the blanks. For food, sort out a frittata, some dips and pull apart bread, and a good old fashioned barbecue chook for plate fillers. Some hearty salads are a must — think rice salad, pasta salad and a simple garden. Pack everything into a cooler and don't forget the bag of ice. Food storage containers are a lifesaver — if the picnic's going as great as you hope it will, you'll be distracted by the fun and games while the ants and insects* are gorging themselves on your camembert. Serve everything buffet style. Picnics are all about the bits and pieces. Some pointers: forget paper plates, paper napkins and plastic cutlery — clunky and causes loads of wastage. A set of linen napkins from a budget store are super cheap and they look fancy. Likewise, platters are good value, last forever, and quick and easy to clean. If you've got plastic KeepCups, use those for drinks. Don't forget the rug and think about music: jazz is great any time of day and a little Bill Evans goes a long way. If you're planning on your humble picnic rolling into the sunset ,just make sure your playlist can go the distance. *be a hero and bring a whopping citronella candle. Afternoon: BURGER BARBEQUE Barbeques are great because they’re all about the BYO. You can use your crockery and cutlery and get the dishwashers happening or a couple of eager beavers on the dishes to minimise cleaning up. For nibbles, forget bags of chips and packets of dips and cheese: it all adds up to dollars and a spoilt appetite. Make a batch of tortilla chips using a bag of flat bread sprinkled with oil and salt and rubbed with garlic. Cut into triangles and pop in the oven. A quick guacamole using full cream yoghurt to mix will help you out, or else one of those inexplicably excellent layered Mexican dips that still make the odd appearance at suburban baby showers. For food, hamburgers all the way — but they don't need to be boring. It's all about what you add to the mince to make it a treat. Chop up a bunch of parsley, sauté some onions, tear up some fresh bread — you want small chunks, not those fine little breadcrumbs — crack a couple of eggs and add some fresh chilli or flakes, salt and pepper. You're good to go. Grab some good buns or a good loaf of crusty bread; forget those trendy mini buns, you want something to sink the teeth into. Grilled onions and tinned beetroot are must-haves, along with chopped tomatoes and iceberg lettuce. Think bacon, cheese and pineapple for extras, or consider a homemade garlic bread. And dessert? Pavlova is super cheap to make: get a good recipe, some seasonal fruit, a nice thick cream whipped with a little caster sugar and vanilla essence, and you're everyone's best friend. Night: MOROCCAN SUMMER PARTY This summer, let's head to Morocco. There are loads of yummy vegetarian dishes which are always cheaper than meat — keeps everyone happy as long as it's delicious. Start with dips. Making your own is way cheaper and a great point of conversation. If you don't have a food processor, borrow one for the occasion. Serve hummus and capsicum dip with sprigs of coriander and fresh, bright vegetables for dipping. For drinks, do a Moroccan-style sangria by adding loads of fresh mint. Serve in whatever you’ve got — plastic coloured cups are just as good as tall glasses. If you're skint, have guests each bring a cheap bottle of red. Then all you're forking out for is a bit of white rum, tea and fruit. Dinner is a Moroccan vegetable tagine — so easy and time effective. It looks like pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini and carrots boiled up and combined with a homemade harissa paste. Make sure you add sauteed onions, garlic and chilli; whack in a few tins of tomatoes and some lemon juice; and then let it all cook up so it forms a nice sauce. Have a bunch of small bowls laid out on the table filled with finely sliced almonds, mint and coriander for sprinkling on top. Serve the tagine on a bed of quinoa (or if the budget is super low, couscous). Dessert is spicy poached pears in red wine. Skin your pears, chop them up into quarters, fill a saucepan up with red wine, chuck in a couple of sticks of cinnamon and some brown sugar and a couple of cloves, and cook for around 40 minutes. Spend what you've saved on economical cooking on a snazzy carton of vanilla ice cream. Presentation-wise keep this one simple; the load of fresh, colourful, tasty food and drink carries the evening alone. If you do want to tizz the place up, it's all about loud, bright accessories — red napkins, a loud tablecloth and bunch of bright flowers in the middle of the table for the win. Picnic image by Lindsay Smith.
Already in 2024, one huge Australian music festival that calls Byron Bay home has shut up shop, hopefully only temporarily. After Splendour in the Grass announced its dates for this year, then its lineup, only to swiftly cancel mere weeks later, another event that's synonymous with the coastal New South Wales spot is now also taking itself off the town's calendar. Bluesfest is bidding farewell — and its plans to say goodbye are definitely permanent — but it will host a final hurrah in 2025 on its way out. So, the sad news: once Thursday, April 17–Sunday, April 20, 2025 passes, Bluesfest will be no more. The silver lining is that last fest, a four-day event that'll mark the Easter long-weekend mainstay's 36th year. [caption id="attachment_969990" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joseph Mayers[/caption] "After more than 50 years in the music business, Bluesfest has been a labour of love, a celebration of music, community and the resilient spirit of our fans. But after the 2025 festival, as much as it pains me to say this, it's time to close this chapter," advised Festival Director Peter Noble in a statement. "As I said earlier this year at Bluesfest 2024, next year's festival will be happening and it definitely is, but it will be our last," Noble continued. "To my dear Bluesfest family, I want to make it the most unforgettable experience yet. If you've been thinking about it, now is your last chance to experience our beloved festival." [caption id="attachment_969986" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] There's no word yet on who'll be gracing the stages at Bluesfest's swansong, following on from 2024 headliners Tom Jones and Elvis Costello. Since 1990, everyone from Bob Dylan, BB King, Mavis Staples, Robert Plant, Paul Simon, Bonnie Rait and Santana to Kendrick Lamar, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Mary J Blige, Beck, Midnight Oil and Crowded House have played the fest. And even if you've only ever been to one Bluesfest, you've likely seen Jack Johnson and/or Ben Harper on the bill. The last few years have been tumultuous for the Byron Bay event. 2023's fest lost a number of acts, including King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Sampa the Great, after Sticky Fingers were added to the bill. Bluesfest ultimately dropped the controversial band. And while the fest went ahead in 2022 after two years of pandemic cancellations (and a thwarted temporary move to October for the same reason), it showcased a primarily Australian and New Zealand lineup. [caption id="attachment_969988" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Roger Cotgreave[/caption] Bluesfest calling time follows Mona Foma doing the same after its 2024 event — plus a lengthy list of festivals beyond Splendour that've ditched their plans this year, sometimes also without announcing their intentions for the future. Just two years after debuting, Adelaide's Harvest Rock has scrapped its 2024 fest as well. Spilt Milk cancelled its 2024 festivals, while Groovin the Moo did the same after announcing its lineup. Summergrounds Music Festival, which was meant to debut at Sydney Festival 2024, also pulled the plug. As announced in 2023, Dark Mofo took a breather in 2024. Yours and Owls has postponed its next fest until 2025, too, but is hosting a pre-party in October this year. [caption id="attachment_969989" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] [caption id="attachment_969987" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] [caption id="attachment_867504" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kurt Petersen[/caption] Bluesfest 2025 will run from Thursday, April 17–Sunday, April 20 at Byron Events Farm, Tyagarah. Early-bird tickets are on sale now — for further information, head to the Bluesfest website.
The World's 50 Best Bars list was just announced in Hong Kong, with two Australian hot spots taking out impressive rankings. Sydney's Maybe Sammy affirmed its position as Australia's most consistently awarded bar on the list, while Melbourne's Caretaker's Cottage improved its previous ranking. The annual list, which has been operating since 2009, is curated from the votes of The World's 50 Best Bars Academy, which includes expert bartenders, consultants, specialists and drinks writers. The list, as voted for by more than 800 experts across the world, represents an international guide to the best bars and drinking destinations globally. The inclusion on the list this year, at number 42, marks seven consecutive years for Sydney bar Maybe Sammy. The bar, co-founded by Vince Lombardo and Stefano Catino in 2019, has garnered an impressive array of national and international awards since its opening, including being named Best Bar in Australasia five times by The World's 50 Best Bars. Catino says, "For seven years, we've proudly put Sydney on the global cocktail map, and that consistency means everything to us. Australia is one of the best food and drink destinations in the world, and we're honoured to be part of it. Thank you to everyone who voted — it truly means the world." Caretaker's Cottage, tucked away in Wesley Place precinct in a historic bluestone building, is no doubt one of Melbourne's favourite and most awarded bars. It can now add another notch in its belt, being ranked number 19 on the list, and taking out the Best Bar in Australasia award for 2025. The World's 50 Best Bars List says of the petite-sized Melbourne hotspot, "Beneath the skyscrapers in the middle of the Melbourne CBD, there's a small, humble-looking place that was once the residence of the caretaker of the church next door. It's here you'll find a small team taking care of the thirsty, the tired and those in need of a good time…the real feat they've achieved in a small place is ensuring that — despite being Melbourne's busiest cocktail bar — every guest feels like they've found a place of their own." In another impressive feat that puts Aussies on the world stage, the double-concept venue Tigra (downstairs) and Disco Pantera (upstairs) were honoured with the Best Bar Design Award 2025. Feels like a drink is in order all round. Images: Mario Francisco. All this talk of drinks got you feeling like a bar crawl? Check out the best bars in Melbourne — weekend plans sorted.
Something delightful is 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=wu9wL8sDhXE SUPERINTELLIGENCE Playing a former couple who reconnect and reignite their spark, Melissa McCarthy and Bobby Cannavale have great chemistry together in Superintelligence. This isn't the first time they've featured in the same movie, thanks to 2015's Spy, but there's an energy to their work opposite each other here. She's Carol Peters, an ex-Yahoo executive who quit her job eight years ago with a dream of moving into philanthropy. He's George Churchill, a creative writing professor. Carol still thinks about George two years after their breakup and, when they re-meet-cute in a supermarket, he's happy to see her — although he is flying out to Ireland in three days to take up his dream academic job. There is enough to the concept just described to furnish a likeable albeit predictable rom-com that coasts by on McCarthy and Cannavale's charm and charismatic pairing. A film that simply followed the above story would be straightforward, but Superintelligence shows that it'd likely work. Alas, Superintelligence makes Carol and George's romantic antics the subplot in a movie that's actually about a sentient artificial intelligence that's trying to decide what to do about humanity, chooses Carol as an example of the most average person on earth, and pushes her to get back with George so it can observe, judge her actions and extrapolate what it might mean about people in general. Unsurprisingly, the tech side of the story crashes hard. As everything from Her and Ex Machina to the Terminator and Matrix franchises have shown, films about AI aren't new — and nor are movies about technology threatening to eradicate or enslave humanity — so a wealth of far better features have already traversed this territory. And while screenwriter Steve Mallory (The Boss) has come up with a twist on the idea that he seems to think is brilliant, it really isn't. How can it be when his killer concept just involves said artificial intelligence being voiced by James Corden, and that fact being recognised in the story because Carol is a big fan? If you're not as fond of Corden as she is (likely because you've seen Cats and The Prom), you won't be laughing. It wouldn't be funny even if you did like his work. It's a one-note gag, and a grating one at that. It also chews up far too much of Superintelligence's running time, when viewers would always rather be seeing McCarthy and Cannavale together without any silly gimmickry. The former's husband Ben Falcone directed the film, as he did with Tammy, The Boss and Life of the Party, but that can't explain why the movie squanders the best thing it has. McCarthy's career constantly swings from highs to lows (Can You Ever Forgive Me? and The Happytime Murders came out in the same year, for instance), but Superintelligence is both misguided and a missed opportunity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nmsIChFUCo DREAMLAND Back in 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street, Margot Robbie didn't simply hold her own against Leonardo DiCaprio. The Australian actor stole scenes from her then far-more-famous co-star — which, given that he put in a phenomenal performance, is no small task. Accordingly, the fact that she quickly rocketed from supporting player to the kind of lead that an entire film can hang from is hardly surprising. Her path from Suicide Squad to Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) illustrates it perfectly, in fact. Still, even Robbie's ability to lift a movie has its limits, which Dreamland tests. She's both luminous and textured in the Great Depression-set thriller. Playing a bank robber on the run, she's the most absorbing and intriguing part of the film. She's meant to be, because that's how and why her character of Allison Wells draws in Texan farm boy Eugene Evans (Finn Cole, TV's Animal Kingdom) and gets him to help her. And, Robbie is clearly invested in the movie both on- and off-screen, as she not only stars but also produces. That said, very little about Dreamland other than her performance proves anything more than standard, and noticeably so. Director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (As You Are) aims to follow in the footsteps of Badlands and Ain't Them Bodies Saints — and brings Bonnie and Clyde to mind, too — but flails in comparison to both. Dreamland does boast a gorgeously hazy, woozy aesthetic — through the hues that cinematographer Lyle Vincent (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) splashes across the screen, primarily — that gives it an enticing look and feel. In quick square-framed shots inserted to represent flashes of dreams of a life that could possibly come if everything goes Allison and Eugene's way, the film couldn't be more alluring. But, alongside Robbie's performance, that isn't enough to boost the routine storyline. Indeed, at times the movie's visual style even augments and bolsters Dreamland's been-there, done -hat air. The narrative doesn't need much help, though, with screenwriter Nicolaas Zwart (Riverdale) hitting as many recognisable beats as the cops pursuing Allison fire off shots. She's wanted in general, but also because her last stick-up with her now-dead partner saw a little girl get killed. Eugene's stern stepfather George (Travis Fimmel, Lean on Pete) is one of the deputies on her trail, so the teen's decision to let her hole up in his family's barn is instantly risky. The young man is also desperate to flee himself, to find the dad that abandoned him and his mother (Kerry Condon, Better Call Saul) years earlier on their dustbowl property, so he doesn't need much convincing to assist Allison in this all-too-familiar affair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_xZGoYU1eg CROCK OF GOLD: A FEW ROUNDS WITH SHANE MACGOWAN Frontman for The Pogues since the early 80s, and a formidable music force in-between the Celtic punk band's stints together — until the 90s, and then from the early 00s to the mid 10s — Shane MacGowan is a rare beast in his chosen industry. He's a true individual that no one could ever emulate no matter how they tried. He's also a spikier, pricklier, far more recalcitrant figure than others who've earned that description (David Bowie and Prince, for example). He certainly has more stories to tell about smoking cigarettes and drinking booze as a child, then listening to his aunt teach him the gospels and sharing her religious fervour to such an extent that he even thought about turning his childhood beliefs into his life's work. Accordingly, to delve into MacGowan's existence beyond the easy-to-Google biographical details, the usual musician-worshipping documentary was never going to do him justice. So, seasoned director Julien Temple doesn't try to fit the usual mould. The filmmaker has ample experience in the genre, with Sex Pistols rockumentary The Filth and the Fury on his resume — plus Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten and Glastonbury, too — and he's just adept at finding the right approach for the right subject. In Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, viewers hear the song that he's best known for more than once. The Pogues' 'Fairytale of New York' is an instrumental part of his story, after all. Although it was released in 1987, it's also the most popular Christmas song of the 21st century. Alongside the film's birth-to-now linear path, the use of well-known tune is the most standard part about this deep dive into MacGowan upbringing, fame and controversy. Case in point: MacGowan isn't an interviewee here in the traditional sense. Archival footage of him answering questions fits the expected mould, but in his more recent chats specifically for the doco, he talks with people he knows such as Johnny Depp, Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie and former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. It's a canny and compelling approach, likely by necessity, and just how MacGowan changes depending on his company doesn't escape attention. In the process, and amidst animated sequences, family photos and videos, and deftly deployed stock imagery, Temple lets his audience see first-hand how a man with such a strong presence and infamous reputation is still a rolling, rambling bag of contradictions and complications — although MacGowan's words, offered over more than a few drinks as the lively film's title makes plain, easily paint that picture themselves. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been throughout the year — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on July 2, July 9, July 16, July 23 and July 30; August 6, August 13, August 20 and August 27; September 3, September 10, September 17 and September 24; October 1, October 8, October 15, October 22 and October 29; and November 5, November 12, November 19 and November 26; and December 3 and December 10. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as The Personal History of David Copperfield, Waves, The King of Staten Island, Babyteeth, Deerskin, Peninsula, Tenet, Les Misérables, The New Mutants, Bill & Ted Face the Music, The Translators, An American Pickle, The High Note, On the Rocks, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Antebellum, Miss Juneteenth, Savage, I Am Greta, Rebecca, Kajillionaire, Baby Done, Corpus Christi, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, The Craft: Legacy, Radioactive, Brazen Hussies, Freaky, Mank, Monsoon, Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie's Dead Aunt), American Utopia, Possessor, Misbehaviour, Happiest Season, The Prom, Sound of Metal, The Witches, The Midnight Sky and The Furnace. Images: Superintelligence, Hopper Stone; Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, Andrew Caitlin.
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 will do that, and so will plenty of people staying home because they aren't well — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Perhaps you've been under the weather. Given the hefty amount of titles 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 seven that you can watch right now at home. Dune: Part Two Revenge is a dish best served sandy in Dune: Part Two. On the desert planet of Arrakis, where golden hills as far as the eye can see are shaped from the most-coveted and -psychedelic substance in author Frank Herbert's estimation, there's no other way. Vengeance is just one course on Paul Atreides' (Timothée Chalamet, Wonka) menu, however. Pop culture's supreme spice boy, heir to the stewardship of his adopted realm, has a prophecy to fulfil whether he likes it or not; propaganda to navigate, especially about him being the messiah; and an Indigenous population, the Fremen, to prove himself to. So mines Denis Villeneuve's soaring sequel to 2021's Dune, which continues exploring the costs and consequences of relentless quests for power — plus the justifications, compromises, tragedies and narratives that are inescapable in such pursuits. The filmmaker crafts his fourth contemplative and breathtaking sci-fi movie in a row, then, after Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 as well. The vast arid expanse that constantly pervades the frames in Dune: Part Two isn't solely a stunning sight. It looks spectacular, as the entire feature does, with Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser (The Creator) back after winning an Oscar for the first Dune; but as Paul, his widowed mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson, Silo), and Fremen Stilgar (Javier Bardem, The Little Mermaid) and Chani (Zendaya, Euphoria) traverse it, it helps carve in some of this page-to-screen saga's fundamental ideas. So does the stark monochrome when the film jumps to Giedi Prime, home world to House Harkonnen, House Atreides' enemy, plus Arrakis' ruler both before and after Paul's dad Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) got the gig in Villeneuve's initial Dune. People here are dwarfed not only by their mammoth surroundings, but by the bigger, broader, non-stop push for supremacy. While there's no shortage of detail in both Part One and Part Two — emotional, thematic and visual alike — there's also no avoiding that battling against being mere pawns in an intergalactic game of chess is another of its characters' complicated fights. Dune: Part Two streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Greig Fraser. Immaculate Add screaming to the ever-growing list of things that Sydney Sweeney can do spectacularly well. Indeed, thanks to Immaculate, which gets the Euphoria and The White Lotus star putting her pipes to stellar bellowing use, the horror genre has a brand-new queen; long may she reign if this is what audiences have to look forward to. This film about a nun who moves to a convent in the Italian countryside, then mysteriously becomes pregnant without having had sex, isn't just a job for Sweeney. She auditioned for the movie a decade back, it didn't come to fruition, but she strove to make it happen now. She stars. She produces. She enlisted Michael Mohan, who she worked with on Everything Sucks! and The Voyeurs, as its director. The passion that drove her quest to bring Immaculate to viewers is just as apparent in her formidable performance, too, including echoing with feeling — and blistering intensity— when she's shrieking. No one should just be realising now how versatile an actor that Sweeney is. Her portrayal of Sister Cecilia, who found her way to becoming a bride of Christ after a traumatic near-death incident in her younger years, is exactly what the film's title suggests: immaculate. It's also a showcase of a role that requires her to be sweet, dutiful, faithful, ferocious, indefatigable, vengeful and desperate to survive all in the same flick — and she kills it — but adaptability, resourcefulness and displaying a multitude of skills has been her on-screen wheelhouse beyond just one movie. Take Sweeney's last four cinema releases, for instance, all of which hail from 2023–24. Reality, Anyone But You, Madame Web and Immaculate couldn't be more dissimilar to each other, and neither could the actor's parts in them. Throw in her Saturday Night Live hosting stint, and she's firmly at the "is there anything that she isn't capable of?" stage of her career. Immaculate streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Michael Mohan. The Zone of Interest Quotes and observations about evil being mundane, as well as the result when people look the other way, will never stop being relevant. A gripping, unsettling masterpiece, The Zone of Interest is a window into why. The first film by Sexy Beast, Birth and Under the Skin director Jonathan Glazer in more than a decade, the Holocaust-set feature peers on as the unthinkable happens literally just over the fence, but a family goes about its ordinary life. If it seems abhorrent that anything can occur in the shadow of any concentration camp or site of World War II atrocities, that's part of the movie's point. It dwells in the Interessengebiet, the 40-square-kilometre-plus titular area that comprised and surrounded the Auschwitz complex, to interrogate how banal genocide was to those in power; commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel, Babylon Berlin), even gloats that his name will be remembered and celebrated for its connection to mass extermination. Höss was a real person, and the real Nazi SS officer overseeing Auschwitz from 1940–43. His wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall) and five children are similarly drawn from truth. But The Zone of Interest finds its way to the screen via Martin Amis' fiction novel of the same name, then hones its interest down from the book's three narrators to the Höss family; a biopic, it isn't, even as it switches its character monikers back to reflect actuality. This is a work of deep probing and contemplation — a piece that demands that its viewers confront the daily reality witnessed and face how the lives of those in power, and benefiting from it, thrived with death not only as a neighbour but an enabler. Camp prisoners tend the Höss' garden. Ashes are strewn over the soil for horticultural effect. Being turned into the same is a threat used to keep the household's staff in line. All three of these details, as with almost everything in the feature, are presented with as matter-of-fact an air as cinema is capable of. The Zone of Interest streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. How to Have Sex Movies don't have pores, but How to Have Sex might as well. Following a trip to Greece with three 16-year-old best friends who want nothing more than to party their way into womanhood — and to get laid, too — this unforgettable British drama is frequently slick with sweat. Perspiration can dampen someone when they're giddily excited about a wild getaway, finishing school and leaving adolescence behind. It can get a person glistening when they're rushing and drinking, and flitting from pools and beaches to balconies and clubs. Being flushed from being sozzled, the stickiness that comes with expending energy, the cold chill of stress and horror, the fluster of a fluttering heart upon making a connection: they're all sources of wet skin as well. Filmmaker Molly Manning Walker catalogues them all. Viewers can see the sweat in How to Have Sex, with its intimate, spirited, like-you're-there cinematography. More importantly, audiences can feel why protagonist Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce, Vampire Academy) is perspiring, and the differences scene to scene, even when she's not quite sure herself. How to Have Sex also gets those watching sweating — because spying how you've been Tara, or her pals Em (debutant Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake, Halo), or lads Badger (Shaun Thomas, Ali & Ava) and Paddy (Samuel Bottomley, The Last Rifleman) in the neighbouring resort unit, is inescapable. Walker has been there herself, with parts of her debut feature as a writer and director drawn from her own time as a Tara, Em or Skye while also making the spring break and Schoolies-like pilgrimage from England to the Mediterranean. When the movie doesn't lift details directly from her own experience, it shares them with comparable moments that are virtually ripped from western teendom. One of the feature's strokes of genius is how lived-in it proves, whether Tara and her mates are as loud and exuberant as girls are when their whole lives are ahead of them, its main character is attempting to skip her troubles in a sea of strobing lights and dancing bodies, or slipping between the sheets — but not talking about it — is changing who Tara is forever. How to Have Sex streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Molly Manning Walker. Bob Marley: One Love There's no doubting who Bob Marley: One Love is about, but the Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard)-directed biopic also brings two other big-screen portraits of music superstars to mind. There's always a dance through a legend's history flickering somewhere, or close to it, with the initial dramatised look at the reggae icon arriving after Bohemian Rhapsody and Elvis both proved major hits in recent years. Where the first, which focused on Freddie Mercury, had Live Aid, Bob Marley: One Love has the One Love Peace Concert. Both are gigs to build a movie around, and both features have done just that. Baz Luhrmann's portrait of the king of rock 'n' roll wanted its audience to understand what it was like to watch its namesake, be in his presence and feel entranced by every hip thrust — and, obviously without the gyrating pelvis, Bob Marley: One Love also opts for that approach. Enter Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley, in a vital piece of casting. Although it may not earn him an Oscar as Bohemian Rhapsody did Rami Malek (Oppenheimer), or even a nomination as Elvis scored for Austin Butler (Masters of the Air), the British actor turns in a phenomenal performance. He's worlds away from being a Ken in Barbie. He isn't in wholly new territory seeing that he played Malcolm X in One Night in Miami and Barack Obama in TV series The Comey Rule. He's also magnetic and mesmerising — and, in the process, expresses how and why Marley was magnetic and mesmerising. Ben-Adir's vocals are blended with Marley's. Accordingly, you're largely listening to the singer himself. But there's a presence about Ben-Adir in the part, perfecting Jamaican patois, getting kinetic and uninhibited in his movement while he's behind the microphone, radiating charisma, but also conveying purpose and self-possession. It's a portrayal that's as entrancing and alive as the music that's always echoing alongside it; with Marley's discography, that's saying something. Bob Marley: One Love streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton and Reinaldo Marcus Green. Riceboy Sleeps When Riceboy Sleeps charts the passage of time from 1990 to 1999 partway into the movie, the Canadian film does so with Dong-hyun at its centre. As a six-year-old (played by debutant Dohyun Noel Hwang) navigating his initial taste of school from behind his large round glasses, he's shy, sensitive, and constantly reminded that he's different by teachers and classmates. As a 15-year-old (Ethan Hwang, The Umbrella Academy) with bleached-blonde hair and faux blue eyes, he's adopted a coping mechanism: trying to blend in. Riceboy Sleeps isn't just about Dong-hyun, who takes the anglicised name David in his attempts to assimilate. It's as much about his mother So-young (fellow feature first-timer Choi Seung-yoon), who relocates him from South Korea to North America after his soldier father's suicide. Writer/director Anthony Shim's sophomore release after 2019's Daughter hones in on the act of seeing, too — gleaning what's around you, who, why, the past that lingers, the stories that echo — as Dong-hyun and So-young survey where they are, where they've been, and how their history keeps dictating their present and future. In that aforementioned time jump, Shim — who helms, pens, edits and acts — and cinematographer Christopher Lew (Quickening) make eyes the focus. When Riceboy Sleeps dwells in the first year of the 90s, Dong-hyun's spectacles are frames within the frame, giving the boy his own windows to the world that he fidgets with, seems burdened by and, in an act of bullying by his peers, has dinged up and taken away. When the movie hits the end of the decade, Dong-hyun is putting in his contacts, therefore making the lens with which he perceives his existence invisible. Semi-inspired by his own childhood as a South Korean arrival to Vancouver Island in the 90s, including attending a school where he was the only Asian student, Riceboy Sleeps is this thoughtful at every level. The movement, and later lack thereof, of Lew's camerawork is just as loaded with meaning: in Canada, it's restless in long wide shots, careening around gracefully but noticeably and finding points to fixate on; back across the Pacific Ocean in the picture's bookending segments, it's still but just as observational. Riceboy Sleeps streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. The Boys in the Boat The Social Network isn't a rowing film, but the Henley Royal Regatta sequence in David Fincher's (The Killer) 2010 triumph quickly became one of cinema's most-famous oar-sweeping moments. Prestige, money, tradition, opulence, power, competition, determination: they all wash through the tightly shot segment, which gleams with the water of the River Thames, the sweat on the crew's faces and, just as importantly, with status. Definitely a rowing film, The Boys in the Boat paddles into the same world; however, a commentator's line mid-movie sums up the focus and angle of this old-fashioned underdog sports flick. "Old money versus no money at all" is how the usual big and rich names in the field and the University of Washington's junior varsity team are compared. George Clooney's (The Tender Bar) ninth feature as a director doesn't just spot the class-clash difference there — his entire picture wades into that gulf. Drawn from 2013 non-fiction novel The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown, reuniting Clooney with his The Midnight Sky screenwriter Mark L Smith in the process, The Boys in the Boat is about the UW's rowing efforts, rower Joe Rantz and coach Al Ulbrickson, too — plus an against-the-odds quest, bold choices, the struggles of the Great Depression, the reality of an Olympics held under the Nazi regime and the looming shadow of war. But thrumming at its heart like a coxswain is setting the pace is the mission to keep afloat one stroke at a time, and not merely in the pursuit of glory and medals. What rowing means to Rantz (Callum Turner, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore), the character at its centre, as well as to the classmates-turned-crewmates catching and extracting with him under the guidance of the stoic Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton, I'm a Virgo), is pure survival first and foremost. The Boys in the Boat streams via Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Joel Edgerton. Looking for more viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and fast-tracked highlights from January, February and March 2024 (and also January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December 2023, too). We keep a running list of must-stream TV from across 2024 as well, complete with full reviews. And, we've also rounded up 2023's 15 best films, 15 best straight-to-streaming movies, 15 top flicks hardly anyone saw, 30 other films to catch up with, 15 best new TV series of 2023, another 15 excellent new TV shows that you might've missed and 15 best returning shows.
What do you get the Gelato Messina fan who has everything, including a freezer filled with ice cream, plus gelato-inspired candles, lip balm, lube and body wash, too? The perfect kicks to don while eating gelato, thinking about gelato, going out to get gelato and wishing they had more gelato, of course. While Messina already has its own clothing line, now the sweet-treat brand is launching its first-ever range of sneakers. And, like chain's wild and wonderful gelato flavours, these shoes are a limited-edition special. After fellow Sydney-born dessert chain Tokyo Lamington teamed up with the artists at Customs Den on its own footwear earlier in 2023, Messina has now gone and done the same. This time, pairs of Nike Dunk Highs have been given a handpainted makeover, which is never a small feat. With these gelato-hued shoes, each set took between eight and ten hours' work. Gelato is obviously a wide-ranging theme — as Messina fans know, the variety of flavours that the chain scoops up is limited only by its team's imaginations — so these sneakers hone in on one of its favourites. If you adore the brand's dulce de leche gelato, as everyone who tastes it does, then you'll spot why these new shoes feature caramel and cream tones. Yes, Messina's Argentinean caramelised milk, which it makes in-house, is the colour inspiration for these multi-tone kicks. Also featured on the shoes: Messina cartoons and the company's name, so everyone will know why you're sporting some truly rare footwear. Only 100 pairs are available, all numbered from one to 100, and they unsurprisingly don't come cheap. You'll pay $700 to show your love for Messina, gelato and dulce de leche on your feet — and every one will be made bespoke for each customer. Custom Den is taking pre-sale orders now until Wednesday, May 31, unless they sell out earlier. Once you've nabbed yourself a pair, you can expect them to be delivered within six-to-eight weeks. For more information about Gelato Messina's sneakers, or to buy a pair, hit up the brand's website.
Enjoy a bespoke cocktail at Sydney’s latest pop-up bar, where it's Happy Hour all night long. The new outdoor appendage of The Governor’s Table in the CBD will serve premium bevs at markdown prices, making it the perfect place to unwind after a busy week at work. Open Thursdays and Fridays from 5pm to 8pm, The Governor’s Shout! is located on the corners of Bridge Street and Phillip Street, right outside The Governor’s Table, opposite the commemorative metal bust of Governor Arthur Phillip. And really, what better way to celebrate Sydney's colonial founding father than with cheap beverages right beside the Museum of Sydney? Each week, the pop-up will showcase a new bespoke cocktail, for the terribly reasonable price of $10 each. This week, it's The Forgotten Bridge, a blend of passionfruit, fresh lime, vanilla and a healthy dose of Pampero rum. The pop-up's drinks menu also features a wide selection of wines, including The Lane 'Lois' Blanc de Blanc, La Prova Pinot Grigio, Mt Macleod Pinot Noir, Voyager Cabernet Malbec and Laughing Jack Shiraz, all at just $6 a glass. Yep, that's $6 after-work wines. It gets better. Asahi and Sydney Cider will be available for just $5, and they’ll be serving an array of bar food and snacks to keep you tied over until your inevitable dinner at The Governor's Table. This is a very, very smart move from the Governor's team, timing-wise. Once the pop-up shuts its doors for the evening at 8pm, patrons have the option of heading indoors, where they can peruse the Governor’s Table dinner menu at their leisure. The bar has just announced the launch of their monthly Winemaker Dinner series, which pairs a selection of local wines with a five-course degustation. The first takes place on Thursday, March 4, with wines from Ross Hill in Orange and a dinner by Chef Marco Adler. Find The Governor's Shout! outside The Governor's Table on the corners of Bridge and Phillip Street, next to the Museum of Sydney in the CBD. Open Thursdays and Fridays 5 - 8pm.
Do you have eyes? Do you have eyes for what looks good? Are you the kind of person who knows their way around a camera, and how to use it well? Live in Sydney and love it with a passion? Then we might have an opportunity to tweak your interest. Concrete Playground and Olympus have teamed up to offer you the chance to score a particularly excellent PEN E-P1 camera with 17mm kit (valued at $599), and at the very same time land the chance to become a Concrete Playground photographic contributor. Our photographers document Sydney's cultural life minus the boring social snaps - we don't care what you're wearing, only that you're having a good time. Now we have a brand new galleries section, we're looking for someone with an incredible eye to help us share those moments that make this city the ever-changing, never-boring place it is to be. If you think you're the right person for the gig, shoot us an email over to hello@concreteplayground.com.au with a photo you've taken that you think captures something special about Sydney. We'll upload the best snaps to an album on our Facebook page, and invite people to vote for the picture they like best. If your photo gets the most 'likes', the camera and a place in the Concrete Playground family shall be yours. Entries close May 13, 2011 at 5pm.
UPDATE, January 29, 2021: Joker is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Lonely, isolated and struggling with a lifetime of trauma, a man exorcises his demons through violence. Plagued by troubling memories and mental health issues, but devoted to caring for his ailing mother, he finds catharsis in wreaking havoc on others. When Joaquin Phoenix played this part to perfection in Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here, he explored the burdens of a crusading hitman who rescued violated children — saving them from the pain he still suffered, and punishing the abusers who treat kids as carelessly as he once was himself. And while he steps into similar shoes in Joker, the exceptional actor is now on a completely different mission, crossing the threshold from noble vigilante to deranged villain. It's impossible to watch Joker without thinking about You Were Never Really Here; by casting Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, the man who becomes one of Batman's worst enemies, that's an intended effect. It's impossible to see director Todd Phillips' (The Hangover) take on Gotham's clown prince of crime without thinking of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy as well. Phillips cakes his influences on thick and, if the connection wasn't already apparent in the film's 70s look and feel, he also enlists Robert De Niro as Arthur's favourite television host. It's a purposeful move, filtering one of popular culture's most infamous antagonists through such blatant touchstones — and, it ensures that viewers won't be contemplating the character's past guises, be it Cesar Romero's TV version, Jack Nicholson's unhinged late-80s spin, Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning portrayal or Jared Leto's cartoonish work in Suicide Squad. Focusing audiences firmly on the Joker at hand, this origin story asks a probing question: if the world's ills were to shove a tormented man over the edge in a volatile socio-political climate, what would that look like? In other words, how would You Were Never Really Here play out if its assassin killed to avenge a cruel, uncaring city's failings, rather than protect its victims? Or, what shape would Taxi Driver take if its cabbie was a bullied clown-for-hire? Phillips stops short of lifting the latter movie's dialogue, but it's easy to imagine Arthur uttering one of Taxi Driver's well-known lines: "here is a man who would not take it anymore". First seen grinning into a mirror as he puts on his makeup (and signalling the film's allegiance with his fraying mindset in the process), Arthur doesn't have much to smile about. He's beaten by street punks on the job, loses his mental health care due to citywide budget cuts and watches his mother (Frances Conroy) fruitlessly try to contact her ex-employer turned mayoral candidate, aka billionaire Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen). An aspiring comedian, Arthur is also taunted and jeered whenever he steps onstage. Basically, his life is one huge kick in the face after another. But his mum has always told him that he was put on this earth to spread joy and happiness, which he takes to heart. As Gotham descends into riots and widespread violence, Arthur finds a drastic way to put this belief into action. When Joker isn't shoehorning in undoubtedly necessary but still distracting Batman references (including yet another re-do of a scene that's been done to death), it just keeps inspiring questions. Is Arthur an inevitable product of a crumbling city that's failed its citizens in general, and its most vulnerable in particular? Or, clinging to his downtrodden status, does he capitalise upon his powder-keg surroundings, using it to excuse his psychopathic behaviour and demand that he's finally paid the attention he's certain he deserves? Penning a deliberately thorny narrative, Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver (The Fighter) keep both of these perspectives in their sights. Alas, the pair sometime struggle to juggle the opposing notions, or to flesh them out beyond the obvious. Indeed, for all the controversy that Joker has sparked since it nabbed the top prize at this year's Venice Film Festival, it's mostly happy to stick to the murky middle ground. The movie paints a thoroughly nightmarish image of modern-day capitalism and its devastating imprint on the 99 percent — one that instantly rings true — but remains content to dance along its surface rather than burrow meaningfully into its dark heart. Specifically, it calls out the conditions that lead to the Joker's rise, yet never quite decides if it's condemning, celebrating or commiserating with him. Joker is unflinchingly bold and brilliant in one inescapable fashion, though, as it was bound to be when it cast its lead. All skin, bone and sinew as he cavorts, frolics and chortles, Phoenix is in stunning, mesmerising, awards-worthy form yet again. His raspy cackle isn't easily forgotten; neither is his off-kilter demeanour, whether Arthur is connecting with his neighbour (Zazie Beetz), taking a stand against the latest folks to push his buttons or leaning as far into his crazed impulses as possible. When, towards the end of the film, Lawrence Sher's (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) textured cinematography peers up at Phoenix as he struts down some stairs, its hypnotised gaze doesn't feel out of place. In fact, it feels natural. That said, that the scene is accompanied by 'Rock and Roll, Part 2' by convicted sex offender Gary Glitter says much about a movie that's often as thematically muddled as it is emotionally and visually striking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr-Lg-_KFHU
Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week announced "Australians have earned an early mark" for the work they'd done containing COVID-19 and the announcement of some eased restrictions would take place on Friday, May 8. That day has come and we now know a little more about what Australia's road to recovery will look like. After a national cabinet meeting today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said "we're fighting this virus and we're winning", and he then outlined a three-step roadmap to a COVIDSafe Australia, with all three steps expected to be rolled out by July, 2020. Step one will "enable greater connection with friends and family", with the following allowed: Up to five visitors in your home, ten in businesses and public places Libraries, community centres, playgrounds and boot camps open Local and regional travel Shops, restaurants and cafes allowed to open, with a maximum of ten people at a time and one person per four square metres Step two, Morrison says, "will allow larger size gatherings up to 20 people, including for venues such as cinemas and galleries", ending with: "you'll be pleased to know, barre classes open once again." Gatherings of up to 20 people Gyms, beauty therapists, cinemas, theatres, amusement parks, galleries and museums open Caravan and camping grounds open Some interstate travel Step three, which will depend on the success of the previous steps, includes: Gatherings up to 100 people Nightclubs, food courts, saunas and bathhouses open All interstate travel Consider cross-Tasman, Pacific Island travel Those dreaming of an overseas jaunt will have noticed the roadmap does not include mention of international travel, except for to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. On travel to other countries, the Prime Minister has said, "there's nothing on our radar which would see us opening up international travel in the foreseeable future." On the other three steps, the Prime Minister said the intention is by July "we will have moved through the three steps", but movement from one step to the next will depend on three criteria: testing, tracing and trapping. If all goes to plan, it's expected the country will move to the next step every three weeks. But, he has also warned that as restrictions are eased, "there will be outbreaks, there will be more cases, there will be set-backs". As has been the case throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the roadmap is a guideline and it's now up to the individual states and territory leaders to implement the steps — and amend the state laws — as they see fit. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has already announced that no restrictions will be eased before Mother's Day and Queensland will ease some public gathering restrictions from this Sunday. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has said no changes will be made until Monday. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. Image: Kimberley Low
A great cocktail doesn't have to be merely a fun drink — in the right hands, it can also be a form of entertainment. This is a facet of mixology that the multi-award-winning crew at Maybe Group know intimately. At each of their venues in Sydney, including the much-lauded Maybe Sammy, theatrics and cocktails go hand in hand, so it comes as no surprise that the latest drinks selection at Maybe Group's plush penthouse bar, Dean & Nancy on 22, has more than a few surprises in store. Offering a journey beyond reality, this lofty cocktail lounge at the A by Adina Hotel (which Concrete Playground ranked as the 6th best place to drink in Sydney) is inviting Sydneysiders to explore the World of Dreams menu. Featuring 14 deliciously creative cocktails, including Dean & Nancy's first interactive sip, the new menu adds yet more whimsy courtesy of Sydney artist Sue Cadzow, who drew inspiration from her own dreams to create fantastical illustrations for each new signature mingle. Among the weird and wonderful beverages on offer is the Velvet Venom Milk Punch — served in a sea urchin-shaped vessel — which mixes Flor de Caña 12-year-old Rum infused with matcha, toasted rice, coconut, almond and vanilla to deliver an unexpected tropical sweetness from within its spiky exterior. The flavours of this cocktail slowly unfold like a hidden treasure found by those willing to plunge deeper. The Hanami Bellini brings together Roku Gin, Amaretto Disaronno, peach, Sakura Vermouth, orange and sparkling wine, evoking the beauty of cherry blossoms and the fleeting nature of dreams. For something a little more on the nose, the Bubble Dream Spritz takes inspiration from the idea that bubbles are doorways to new and thrilling realities. The star of the show is sure to be the Ayahuasca Daisy, featuring tequila, honeydew and apricot tea, berries and Montenegro amaro. Each order comes with 3D glasses so drinkers can enjoy an innovative, sensory, dreamlike experience. We won't spoil the surprise, but this drink ranks among the most ambitious beverage concepts Maybe Group has ever served. For those hoping to dream a little longer Dean & Nancy on 22 is collaborating with A by Adina Sydney to offer an overnight cocktail lover package. By booking accommodation, visitors will receive a $100 credit to spend at the hotel's penthouse bar, along with a guaranteed table reservation. And to sweeten the deal, guests can enjoy a 1pm late check-out and a box of Maybe Sammy's famous bottled cocktails. "The World of Dreams cocktail experience awakens the dreamer with every sip," says Stefano Filardi, Dean & Nancy on 22's Bar Manager. "Each cocktail is crafted to evoke wonder, mystery, and the desire to explore and enjoy the uncharted territories of your imagination." Find Dean & Nancy on 22 at 2 Hunter Street in the CBD. For reservations, head to the Dean & Nancy on 22 website.
For much of the past six months, audiences worldwide have spent their movie dates watching Sydney on-screen. When two big Hollywood productions transform the Harbour City into their production playground and setting, as both Anyone But You and The Fall Guy did, cinema's spotlight shines bright and wide. Now, for 12 winter days between Wednesday, June 5–Sunday, June 16, Sydney Film Festival patrons can turn the tables, watching the world via almost 200 flicks gracing local silver screens and fluttering before their eyes. Again curated by Festival Director Nashen Moodley as every fest since 2012 has been — which gives him that honour on 13 of the event's 71 festivals across its entire run so far, too — SFF's 2024 lineup also guides its gaze towards Sydney. Opening with a tribute to the power and the passion of Midnight Oil, with the band formed in the New South Wales capital more than half a century ago, is only one example. So, to be more accurate, this year's Sydney Film Festival continues a trend that started on Boxing Day 2023 as well as its usual annual tradition: surveying everywhere from Sydney itself to the edges of the earth, space and time. Maybe you're keen to keep a homegrown flavour to your SFF schedule this year. Perhaps you're eager to roam anywhere that you can from your cinema seat. Whether a dose of weirdness is your ideal film fest flavour, or you're buzzing to catch the latest titles that've been getting the international festival scene talking, they're all on the program. And, you'll also find all of the above among our 12 suggestions below to help you narrow down your choices. Kinds of Kindness Since winning the 2012 Sydney Film Festival prize with Alps, Yorgos Lanthimos has technically bid the Greek Weird Wave goodbye by making his movies in English. That's one clear trend among his five features after nabbing SFF's prestigious award in Moodley's first year at the helm. Another pattern applies to his last three flicks, and it's a killer move: teaming up with Emma Stone, a collaboration that scored her her second Best Actress Oscar earlier in 2024 for the Frankenstein-esque delight that is Poor Things. Kinds of Kindness isn't a Poor Things repeat, just as that wasn't a do-over of The Favourite. This time, Lanthimos and Stone have teamed up on a triptych fable that tells the tales of a man without choice, a policeman with a wife who returns after going missing and a woman on the hunt for a spiritual leader. In a feature that also stars Poor Things' Willem Dafoe (Asteroid City) and Margaret Qualley (Drive-Away Dolls), plus Hong Chau (The Menu), Joe Alwyn (Stars at Noon), Mamoudou Athie (The Burial) and Hunter Schafer (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), the picture's three-time creative partners are still making accolade-garnering magic, however, with Jesse Plemons (Killers of the Flower Moon) picking up 2024's Cannes Best Actor award. The Seed of the Sacred Fig The Seed of the Sacred Fig isn't merely another must-see SFF 2024 title, but also another new work by a Sydney Film Festival prizewinner. Mohammad Rasoulof's There Is No Evil took home the Berlinale's Golden Bear in 2020 before winning the Harbour City's ultimate movie gong in 2021 — and, as it told four stories connected to the use of the death penalty in Iran, it haunted and broke the hearts of everyone who saw it. Watching the Iranian writer/director's work has always been essential (including 2011's Goodbye, 2013's Manuscripts Don't Burn and 2017's A Man of Integrity), but more so since then. Even before playing to audiences in Sydney, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is impossible to forget due to the situation surrounding the picture off-screen. When the movie was selected by Cannes this year — where it won the Jury Special Award — Rasoulof was sentenced to a flogging and eight years in prison, sparking him to flee. On-screen, the film doesn't shy away from Iran's legal system or political unrest, following a Revolutionary Court investigator and his family amid protests sweeping the nation, and as fighting back against oppression isn't only on display on the country's streets. The Pool It's far too cold in Sydney in June for dive-in movies, but playing The Pool in its namesake location would've been a dream pairing of a film and its setting if the season had been right. SFF cinemagoers will instead get cosy indoors rather than splash around in their bathing costumes at Bondi Icebergs, but stepping through the swimming spot's history, allure and place in the Harbour City is on the itinerary regardless. Here's one guarantee: given how photogenic that the famous venue is anyway even just in everyday snaps, as everyone in Australian can instantly recognise, this documentary about it isn't going to be hard on the eyes. Filmmaker Ian Darling has a thing for chronicling Sydney icons in his two recent docos to wash across Sydney Film Festival's screens. The other: The Final Quarter, about Sydney Swans legend Adam Goodes and his treatment by the press and fans towards the end of his career, which earned a standing ovation at its State Theatre SFF world premiere in 2019. With The Pool, Darling switches from unfurling details through media clips to enlisting Icebergs regulars to share their recollections — and likely another warm hometown response beckons. Copa '71 SFF 2024 kicks off just two days after the Matildas took to the turf in Sydney to play their 14th soldout game in a row in Australia, notching up a 2–0 win over China in a friendly. It runs at the same time as Vivid is welcoming Mackenzie Arnold and Tony Gustavsson as speakers. And, it arrives almost a year after the Harbour City was one of the host spots for the 2023 Women's World Cup. So, the timing couldn't be better for Copa '71 to sit in the festival's program. This documentary jumps five decades back and heads to Mexico, to the 1971 Women's World Cup. If you think that you should know more about this event than you currently do, that's one of the movie's points as well. Filmmakers Rachel Ramsay (a producer earning her first directing credit) and James Erskine (Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard) share the competition's story. They unpack how 100,000 fans can fill a stadium to support women's football but the tournament can fade into history, too. Also, the vast disparity between how men's soccer is managed, marketed, treated and regarded compared to women's is also on the doco's agenda. The Substance It was true of 2017's Revenge, her exceptional debut feature, and the word out of Cannes is that it's also true of her seven-years-later sophomore effort: French talent Coralie Fargeat is a helluva filmmaker. Matching style with substance and a feminist statement worked strikingly in her blood-soaked vengeance movie. Now, she's in sci-fi body-horror territory as a celebrity attempts to address the warring forces of time's inevitable passing and Hollywood's obsession with youth by opting for an experimental medical treatment. (Fargeat also just received the Cannes Best Screenplay award for her efforts.) Whether or not you've ever thought that Margaret Qualley, an actor with multiple appearances on SFF 2024's lineup, resembles not only her mother Andie MacDowell (her Maid co-star) but also Demi Moore (Feud), Fargeat draws the latter connection. Qualley is Sue, Moore is Elisabeth Sparkle, with one the younger version of the other. In a film that also enlists Dennis Quaid (Lawman: Bass Reeves) as a television executive — with the actor stepping in after Ray Liotta (Cocaine Bear), who was originally cast, passed away — messing with the natural order of things via a temporary clone has consequences. The Moogai Indigenous horror film The Moogai is making its Australian premiere at 2024's Sydney Film Festival, but the pair are no strangers to each other. Before writer/director Jon Bell, a creator of Cleverman and a scribe on the Mystery Road TV series, helmed his first feature with this name, he made a 2020 short of the same moniker that played SFF (and SXSW, and was nominated for an AACTA Award). It too starred Shari Sebbens (Her Dark Reflection) and Meyne Wyatt (Strife). Expanding that short film to full length, Bell's second take on The Moogai did the rounds of both Sundance and SXSW — the Austin version — earlier this year before heading home. In the two flicks, a malevolent spirit awaits and the trauma of the Stolen Generations fuels an eerie flick. Sebbens plays Sarah, a young mother who has just had her second child with Watt's Fergus when the movie's titular figure makes its presence known. The Moogai is also a contender for Sydney Film Festival's brand-new First Nations Award, which is offering a prize of $35,000 for the winning First Nations filmmaker, with ten flicks competing for that honour. The Outrun Since the 2020s arrived and her third decade as a actor began, Saoirse Ronan has played a young wife who falls in love with fossil collector Mary Anning in Ammonite, a showgirl in The French Dispatch, a police constable in See How They Run and a woman trying to find a path through a dystopian future in Foe. Variety has always been the spice of the Irish actor's on-screen life. In The Outrun, the four-time Oscar-nominee (for Atonement, Brooklyn, Lady Bird and Little Women) is Rona, who is trying to move past a history of addiction. Ronan's involvement in any film is enough to put it high on the must-watch list, but she isn't the only drawcard here. The Outrun adapts Amy Liptrot's 2017 memoir of the same name, about the Scottish author and journalist's experiences returning to the Orkney Islands. Liptrot also co-wrote the screenplay. Hitting the keyboard with her is director Nora Fingscheidt — who might've first followed up her excellent 2019 feature System Crasher with the mixed Sandra Bullock (Bullet Train) vehicle The Unforgivable, but is a helmer to watch nonetheless. The Contestant Films about people trapped in a sole space aren't rare. But no matter what Cube or Buried or Devil conjured up, or everything from Oldboy to Bodies Bodies Bodies as well, the scenario at the heart of The Contestant stands out because it actually happened. In 1998, Tomoaki Hamatsu aka Nasubi became a TV star by doing nothing more than existing in a single room alone and sans clothing on reality series Susunu! Denpa Shōnen. To survive, he had to win competitions to obtain the necessary supplies. Also, he had no idea that audiences were watching. Of course a documentary was eventually going to to chronicle this months-long ordeal, how it happened and the repercussions, with Clair Titley (One Born Every Minute) examining the reality of a situation that could've come straight from a horror movie in The Contestant. Nasubi became immensely famous in Japan for his role in the show — footage from which is included in the doco — but as a result of a Faustian bargain with a television producer that he didn't really know that he was making. If you're not already a fan of the format at its far less extreme, this film definitely won't change that. I Saw the TV Glow In Jane Schoenbrun's We're All Going to the World's Fair, a screen became a portal to another world when its teenage protagonist embraced an online trend by playing a virtual horror game. I Saw the TV Glow, the filmmaker's next feature, also gets young eyes trained at a small screen and plunging into what they find awaiting. If you've ever loved a television show so much that you felt like it completed you, saw you and understood you far more than anything flesh and blood around you ever could — and you also couldn't stomach that series coming to an end — then you'll understand Owen (Justice Smith, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine, Atypical) in one of the most-talked-about flicks out of 2024's Sundance and Berlinale film festivals. That pop culture, including the screen dreams that we eagerly insert ourselves into in our minds while watching, is an escape isn't a new revelation. But after exploring the digital allure in We're All Going to the World's Fair, Schoenbrun now brings their perspective to a tale of connection through the broadcast stories we take into our heads and hearts. The writer/director makes deeply layered films about the loneliness and isolation of growing up, and working out who you want to be, the relationships with screens that we all have, and gender dysphoria — and their latest has Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst (Y2K) among the cast, plus Emma Stone (The Curse) and her husband Dave McCary (Brigsby Bear) as producers. Dahomey 2024's Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear-winner shares a name with a West African kingdom that existed for three centuries, on land now situated within the Republic of Benin — a place that earned the great Werner Herzog's attention in 1987's Cobra Verde and also provided the setting for 2022's The Woman King. The focus of Dahomey for Both Sides of the Blade actor and Atlantics filmmaker Mati Diop in her latest directorial effort: 26 royal treasures taken from the country in the 1800s by French colonial troops, plus their journey home now. How do these statues and objects feel about their their path? One of Diop's creative touches is to give the artifacts a voice and turn them into characters, rather than keep them as mere items discussed by everyone else. It's a telling choice in a documentary that traces the treasures' repatriation and unpacks the bigger picture not just surrounding the contents of museums around the world, but the impact of colonialism, especially in North Africa — all within 67 minutes. All We Imagine as Light Love and hope flow within All We Imagine as Light, and also in nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti, Poacher) and her roommate Anu (Divya Prabha, Family), who are each grappling with affairs of the heart in their own ways. So unfurls this sensual film that bases its characters in Mumbai, then takes them on the road to an otherworldly beach town. The romantic drama has earned love itself off-screen and proven a beacon of hope IRL as well, as writer/director Payal Kapadia makes her first fiction feature. Kapadia's full-length debut came via 2021 documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing, which premiered at that year's Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight and picked up the Golden Eye for Best Documentary. Before that, her short Afternoon Clouds also played the fest. Kapadia's ties to the French event continue with All We Imagine as Light, which made history just by being selected in competition — a feat an Indian film hasn't achieved in three decades prior. And while it didn't take out the Palme d'Or, it came as close as anything could, earning the Grand Prix, the festival's next gong, which Oscar-winner The Zone of Interest received in 2023. Problemista It's currently a great time to be a Julio Torres fan. That's been true for almost a decade thanks to his work as a writer on Saturday Night Live — 2017's famous 'Papyrus' sketch with Ryan Gosling, which earned a sequel also starring the Barbie and The Fall Guy talent in 2024, was penned by him — and then due to two seasons of glorious HBO comedy Los Espookys in 2019 and 2022. 2024 brings two treats, however, and both at the same time if you're heading to Sydney Film Festival. On the big screen, Problemista sees Torres write, direct and star, making his feature debut as a helmer and acting opposite none other than Tilda Swinton (The Killer). On the small screen, his comedy series Fantasmas will debut on Binge on Saturday, June 8. Accordingly, after you watch Problemista you can start Fantasmas, or vice versa. With Torres' new movie, he plays a man who wants to design toys in New York, then loses his job and looks set to be deported, with a job working for Swinton's demanding art collector Elizabeth his possible lifeline. Wu-Tang Clan's RZA (Minions: Rise of Gru) also pops up. So does Past Lives star Greta Lee. And narrating the whole thing? The iconic Isabella Rossellini, who also appeared in Los Espookys, and hasn't been far from screens of late courtesy of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Cat Person, Julia, La Chimera and now this. Sydney Film Festival 2024 takes place from Wednesday, June 5–Sunday, June 16 at various cinemas and venues around Sydney. For more information — and for tickets — head to the festival's website.
Clare Bowditch is a pretty busy lady. She writes killer songs, acts in Offspring (haters be quiet, that show is incredible), runs Big Hearted Business (a company aiming to help creatives make money and vice versa), has two kids and boasts a knack for making you feel like you're the only person in the room when she performs. This is rather good news for you, because she's coming to The Factory. Bowditch is lacing up the tour boots this July for her Winter Secrets Tour, the perfect lure to get out and about in the middle of winter. We probably should have mentioned she has eight successful albums and a 15 year music career to pack on the tour. Why should you go? Because Bowditch describes the shows as an 'Interactive Co-Creative Transformative Absurd Joyful Experiences between Audience and Performer'. How can you say no to that? Ex-Magic Dirt frontwoman turned solo artist, Adalita, will be the opening act in each state with tunes from her latest album All Day Venus. She'll also be joining Bowditch onstage for a joint performance. Bowditch is continuing her Winter Secrets tour tradition. One local musician in each state is getting the chance to join Bowditch on stage to perform one of her songs and be in the running to win $1000. Hello music career. This year, the song to nail will be 'I Thought You Were God'. Winners will be announced closer to each date. https://youtube.com/watch?v=aqppMH8_uYQ
When the latest version of Mulan starts its story, it does so with a crucial piece of narration that clearly signals the movie's intentions. "There have been many tales of the great warrior Mulan, but ancestors, this one is mine," Hua Mulan's father Zhou (Tzi Ma, The Farewell) advises the audience. Most viewers know the titular character's name from Disney's 1998 animated musical. The Mouse House is behind this new film, too, as part of its growing stable of live-action remakes of its own past hits (see: everything from Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast to Aladdin and The Lion King). But Mulan circa 2020 isn't interested in slavishly recreating the company's last take on the tale frame by frame, just with flesh and blood rather than illustrations — instead, it's smartly interested in retelling the Chinese legend in a rousing and vibrant way. As first transcribed in the Ballad of Mulan in the sixth century, the story of Hua Mulan holds a considerable place in history — and it is easy to understand why. When her elderly and ailing father is conscripted to serve in the Imperial Army, with no son of an acceptable age to take his place, Mulan steals his armour and sneaks off to join the forces for him. To do so, she disguises herself as a man, which none of her colleagues or superiors suspect. The fact that she has considerable martial arts, swordplay and archery skills assists, of course, but Mulan's kindly subterfuge sees her become a formidable and respected warrior who helps save her kingdom. With Whale Rider and The Zookeeper's Wife's Niki Caro in the director's chair, Mulan covers the expected tale; it wouldn't be a Mulan movie otherwise. But this story first fought its way across the big screen in a 1927 silent film, and has been no stranger to the page, stage or cinema over the past 93 years — so just repeating the 1998 movie really would've been the laziest option. Accordingly, the feature's four writers (Jurassic World's Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, plus Christmas Perfection's Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek) aren't afraid to wrangle their own version of the narrative, and Caro doesn't shy away from imparting a specific tone and focus either. Where its animated predecessor played the situation in a lighthearted but still respectful manner (think: talking dragons, cricket sidekicks and lively songs about arranged marriage), this iteration adopts a weightier mood, stressing the significance of its protagonist's journey at every turn. Cue details both familiar and new, including ditching the aforementioned Eddie Murphy-voiced dragon for a symbolism-laden (and mute) phoenix, scrapping the romantic subplot with Mulan's commander and delving into the treatment of women in multiple ways. As the Emperor's (Jet Li) military battles invading northerners led by the revenge-seeking Böri Khan (Jason Scott Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny), Mulan (Liu Yifei, Once Upon a Time) not only fights alongside her peers and tries to keep her secret from her mentor (Donnie Yen, the IP Man franchise) and her rival (Yoson An, Mortal Engines), but also comes up against shapeshifting sorceress Xianniang (Gong Li, Memoirs of a Geisha). Mulan isn't very subtle about juxtaposing the two women's plights — nuance is rarely Disney's specialty — but the comparison is always moving. And, with Liu serving up a quieter, more stoic performance and Gong getting a showier part as the outcast on the other side, they offer something that the company's movies aren't always known for: multiple visions of femininity, even in a story that literally tasks its lead with pretending to be male. As a result, Mulan feels like it's forging its own path even when it does hit recognisable notes, either from the 1998 film or from general cinematic tropes. Its central figure is given an almost superhero-esque origin story, involving her innate ability, or qi, because Disney is also the home of Marvel and Star Wars — but in charting her quest to succeed, the film never merely drums to the requisite beats. This version of Mulan was always going to heighten the inspirational angle, too, to rightly reflect today's attitudes; however the emotions it earns are genuine. When a coming-of-age story about a determined young woman defying the shackles of her gender and her culture in a groundbreaking way is treated thoughtfully and intelligently, it's always going to evoke a reaction. While viewers will be watching Mulan on a small-screen — after the feature was originally scheduled to play in cinemas in March, had its date delayed several times until July and August due to COVID-19, then opted for a streaming release via Disney+ instead — there's no missing the movie's visible spectacle, too. Australian cinematographer Mandy Walker (The Mountain Between Us, Hidden Figures) delivers a sweeping feast of lush imagery across a plethora of landscapes, and lenses energetic wuxia-inspired combat action as well. Indeed, this is one of Disney's most sumptuous-looking remakes, and one of its better examples in general anyway. The chasm between the company's best do-overs (Pete's Dragon, The Jungle Book) and its worst (Alice in Wonderland, particularly) is considerable, but this big-hearted, captivating and striking film easily falls into the first category. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK8FHdFluOQ Mulan is available to stream via Disney+ from Friday, September 4, for an extra price of AU$34.99/NZD$39.99 on top of your regular Disney+ subscription. It'll join the service for no extra fee from December 4. Top image: Jasin Boland. © 2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
If your idea of a relaxing pastime involves moseying through Australia's picturesque landscape by foot, bike or horse, then add the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail to your must-visit list. Spanning 161 kilometres, it runs through southeast Queensland from Wulkuraka, west of Ipswich to Yarraman in the Great Dividing Range. And, with its final stage completed and opened this month, it's now Australia's longest continuous hiking, cycling and horse riding trail — exceeding the Great Victorian Rail Trail's 134 kilometres in length. Inaccessible to cars, the track follows the now-defunct Brisbane Valley railway line, which dates back to the 1880s. Upon closing to trains in 1991, it was converted to a recreational trail; however the final link between Toogoolawah and Moore has only just come to fruition through $3.354 million in funding from the federal, Queensland and local governments. Visitors can now make their way through an array of scenery — including farms, country towns and bushland — across the trail's entire expanse, with the track winding through the likes of Fernvale, Lowood, Esk, Toogoolawah, Moore, Linville, Blackbutt and Yarraman, and including both coffee stops and campsites along the way. Further work is planned along the trail, including a $4.5 million upgrade to the heritage-listed Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge. Image: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail Users Association Inc.
By the time October hits, 3600 Australian pharmacies will be administering COVID-19 vaccinations with the Moderna jab. It's the third coronavirus vax to be used in Australia after AstraZeneca and Pfizer, with doses of Moderna arriving on our shores in the past few days — and now being rolled out to chemists nationwide. During the week beginning yesterday, Monday, September 20, 1800 pharmacies will receive their batches and start getting Aussies to roll up their sleeves for Moderna. Next week, from Monday, September 27, that number again will join the Moderna rollout. So, if you haven't had your jabs yet, you now have more options — both in terms of which vaccination to receive and where to get it. Exactly how many pharmacies will be stocked with Moderna in each state varies; however, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed that 721 chemists across his state will be administering the shots from this week. Obviously, which pharmacists themselves are doing Moderna jabs also varies, but the Australian Government Department of Health's Vaccine Clinic Finder website lets you find where you can get it, or the other COVID-19 vaccines if that's what you'd prefer. Moderna's vax got the nod from Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration back in August, with the TGA advising that "the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine has shown strong efficacy preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and severe COVID-19 in clinical trials." In early September, it was approved for 12–17-year-olds, too, meaning that it's now approved for all Aussies over the age of 12. The Australian Government has an agreement with Moderna for 25 million doses of the vaccine, which includes 10 million this year and 15 million in 2022. Elsewhere around the world, Moderna's jab has also received approval or authorisation to use in emergency situations in countries such as United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union, the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. Partly funded by a donation from the one and only Dolly Parton, Moderna's vaccine is actually the fourth to get the nod in Australia, following AstraZeneca, Pfizer and a jab from Johnson & Johnson — the latter of which hasn't been included in the country's vaccine rollout so far. Like the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna jab is an mRNA-based vaccine. So, it uses a synthetic genetic code called RNA, which tells the cells in our bodies how to make the coronavirus' unique spike protein. Then, once our bodies have done just that, making the protein that's encoded by the mRNA vaccine, we're able to recognise the spike protein as being foreign to our system and launch an immune response against it. Two doses of the Moderna vaccine are required — and while the AstraZeneca jabs are recommended four–12 weeks apart, and the Pfizer jabs three weeks apart, Moderna's should be administered within 28 days of each other. Wondering what that the Moderna approval means in terms of boosting Australia's vaccine ability (because actually getting a jab hasn't been particularly straightforward under the country's slow-moving rollout)? Back when the Moderna vax got the tick, Prime Minister Scott Morrison advised the 25 million doses would join the 125 million doses of Pfizer and 53 million doses of AstraZeneca that are already part of the vaccine campaign. "The first one million doses is on track to arrive next month and will go to pharmacies. Then we will have three million in October, three million in November and three million in December," the PM said. And if you'd like to keep an eye on the country's vaccination rates now that a third vax is in the mix — with those rates tied to easing restrictions nationally, and on a state by state level (as seen in the New South Wales and Victorian roadmaps out of lockdown) — we've rounded up where you can do just that. For more information about the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, head to the TGA website. To find out where you can get vaccinated, check out the Australian Government Department of Health's Vaccine Clinic Finder website.
State-versus-state and city-against-city rivalries are all part of life in Australia, but New South Wales has been lagging behind many of its counterparts when it comes to banning single-use plastics. When winter arrives in 2022, however, it'll finally kick off with the long-awaited ditching of lightweight single-use plastic bags — and then add more disposable items to the banned list before the year is out. First, the change to doing your shopping. Back in 2020, the NSW Government finally announced that it would scrap single-use plastic bags, becoming the last Australian state or territory to do so. In 2021, it revealed that it'd put that ban in place sometime in 2022 — and the date it actually happens, Wednesday, June 1, is now fast approaching. Only lightweight single-use plastic bags will get the heave-ho on that day, covering anything with handles that's 35 microns or less in thickness at any part of the bag. The ban also applies to lightweight bags made from biodegradable, compostable and bio-plastics, including any made from Australian-certified compostable plastic. That said, it won't cover bin liners, which are considered 'barrier bags'; bags for human or animal waste, which fall into the same category; bags for fresh produce and deli items; and bags used to contain medical items (other than bags given to customers by retailers to take stuff home with them). Next, come Tuesday, November 1, single-use plastic straws, cutlery and stirrers will no longer be part of NSW residents' lives. Neither will single-use plastic bowls and plates, expanded polystyrene items that are used in food service, single-use plastic cotton buds or products containing microbeads. That covers single-use plastic forks, spoons, knives, sporks, splayds, chopsticks and food picks as well, and expanded polystyrene clamshells, cups, plates and bowls. And, it applies to anything with microbeads such as face and body cleansers, exfoliants, masks, shampoo, conditioner, hair dyes and toothpaste. Again, this ban covers items made from biodegradable, compostable or bio-plastic as well, and from Australian-certified compostable plastic. With straws, though, there will be exemptions for people with a disability or who have a medical need. As advised back in 2021 when 2022 was locked in for the bans to start, NSW is aiming to reduce the total amount of waste generated per person by 10 percent by 2030, reduce litter by 60 percent by the same time, and triple the rate of plastic recycling by then, too. Similar laws regarding single-use plastics have already come into effect in South Australia and Queensland — and Victoria has set a 2023 target date. As a nation, Australia is set to phase out a heap of single-use plastic items by 2025 as well. And, that's on top of smaller-scale initiatives, not only including bag bans and container schemes, but the phasing out of single-use plastics in various guises at the company level, with Coles, McDonald's, IKEA, Coca-Cola Amatil and Qantas among those making steps in the plastic-free direction. New South Wales' single-use plastics ban will start kicking in on Wednesday, June 1. You can find out more via the NSW Government website.
Feeling like Kylo Ren but wish you could be as blissed out as Yoda? May the force — and may Headspace's new Star Wars collaboration — be with you. Yes, May the fourth is here for another year, which means celebrating like you're in a galaxy far, far away. Or, thanks to this new range of mindfulness tools, meditating like you're a jedi and falling to sleep to the sound of porgs. Already a go-to for mindfulness and meditation, Headspace has teamed up with the Star Wars franchise to mark the most important date there is for the space-opera saga's fans — and make sure that everyone's cool, calm and collected while doing so. If you're eager to de-stress, these are indeed the breathing exercises and sleepcasts you're looking for. On offer from Wednesday, May 4 — when else? — the one-to-five-minute breathing exercises all feature cute animated clips with either Yoda, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and BB-8. In the Yoda-led exercise, you'll find your focus while watching an X-Wing levitate. In the Chewie version, you'll be transported to his home planet Kashyyyk, and then use your breath to make the forest come to life. The R2-D2 exercise gets the cute little robot flashing as you inhale, recharge and reset — and the BB-8 one gets it rolling in much the same way. (Notice that C-3PO isn't included, because that droid can't help anyone relax.) Prefer banishing the dark side via sleepcasts? You have three options there, all of which use famous sounds that you'll recognise from the Star Wars movies. X-Wing Voyage is rather self-explanatory, taking you on a tour of the Star Wars galaxy in one of the eponymous vessels — and going to a different planet in each chapter. With Tatooine Sunset, you'll hone in on that particular planet instead, exploring everything from its endless sea of dunes to its moisture farms. And via Islands of Ahch-To, you'll fall asleep while visiting the very first jedi temple. If you've seen Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens, you'll remember that that's where Luke Skywalker ventured off to when he was in seclusion. And yes, you'll hear porgs. Of course you will. To access all of the above, you'll need to sign up for Headspace — but it's doing a limited-time 30-day free trial offer from Wednesday, May 4. And yes, this is answer to the plea you've never uttered: "help me Star Wars-themed Headspace content, you're my only hope for finding some bliss." To access Headspace's new Star Wars content from Wednesday, May 4, head to the service's website or app. Top image: Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker. (c) 2019 and TM Lucasfilm Ltd.
On your next weekend getaway to the Blue Mountains, you can spend the day exploring many cafes and hiking tracks, and the night exploring the sky, thanks to a new stargazing tour. Taking place at the Wentworth Falls picnic area and hosted by Dr Dimitri Douchin — who has a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics, no less — the 90-minute tour will see you ogling the likes of the Milky Way, the Orion Nebula, shooting stars (if you're lucky), Mars and Venus through a professional-grade telescope. You'll also learn about the history of the Blue Mountains and how to identify stars and constellations with your naked-eye. Plus, the $85 ticket includes a vegan hot chocolate — particularly important on the chillier nights. The nighttime tours run Thursday through Sunday most weeks, depending on weather. To see the full list of dates, head over here. If you plan on making a weekend out of the tour, we've also rounded up a list of 20 of the most enchanting getaways in the Blue Mountains, which include an Airbnb inside an actual clifftop cave. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Sydney WorldPride is making LGBTQIA+ history in 2023 as the first-ever WorldPride held in the southern hemisphere. It can't last forever, sadly, running from Friday, February 17–Sunday, March 5 — and, ending as it'll spending that whole time, it'll wrap up with one helluva party. That gig is closing night's Rainbow Republic, which features German pop star Kim Petras alongside MUNA, G Flip and more. Fresh from nabbing a Grammy nomination for 'Unholy' with Sam Smith, the 'If Jesus Was a Rockstar', 'Heart to Break', 'Future Starts Now', 'Coconut' and 'Malibu' singer will take to the stage as part of a a seven-hour show filled with live music, DJs and dancing — a queer megamix, if you like. On hosting duties: Keiynan Lonsdale (Love, Simon, The Flash, Eden), who'll also perform. Peach PRC, Alter Boy, BVT and Vetta Borne are also on the bill. Indie popsters MUNA will be making their Australian debut when they do the honours at Rainbow Republic, G Flip's pivotal slot comes after they played the AFL Grand Final, following one iconic event with another. RAINBOW REPUBLIC SYDNEY WORLDPRIDE CLOSING CONCERT LINEUP: Kim Petras MUNA G Flip Keiynan Lonsdale Peach PRC Alter Boy BVT Vetta Borne
Of all of Earth's natural ecosystems, there's nothing quite like rainforests. An incredibly important part of our global climate, these verdant kingdoms make up only three percent of our planet's surface but are home to more than half of terrestrial animals. They absorb pollutants, are crucial to the livelihoods of one in every four people and effectively act as the 'lungs' of planet Earth. We might not have a rainforest here in Sydney, but the next best thing in town is the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and its dedicated greenhouse space, The Calyx. This indoor space is home to thousands of plants year-round, and it also hosts regular exhibitions like Alchemy of a Rainforest. Having opened on Sunday, September 15, this latest exhibition is all about the rainforest. It showcases the variety and beauty of the biomes with recreations of plants, flowers, trees and animals made with recycled materials by environmental artist Jane Gillings. From humble seeds and busy butterflies to an oversized satin bowerbird bower you can walk through, the exhibition is built to immerse you in and educate you about the mysteries of nature and the little living things that make our rainforests and world go around. Before leaving, be sure to swing by The Leaf Department Cafe, the on-site eatery within The Calyx, for a cup of coffee and a hearty sandwich to enjoy indoors or on the grass outside. Have you got any events coming up? This quiet oasis is sticking around in The Calyx until well into 2025, and will be available as a function space for hire for any special occasion you can fit inside a rainforest. Alchemy of a Rainforest runs from Sunday, September 15. Entry is available with a donation. Visit the website for more information.
In the latest effort to do the environment a solid by reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, Western Australia has banned takeaway coffee cups that are lined with plastic and therefore can't be composted. Getting your caffeine fix to go in the state now means either sipping out of paperboard or bringing your own reusable cup, with WA leading the nation in scrapping the single-use item. Rules on plastics such as shopping bags, drink containers and straws vary state to state across Australia, with WA the first to completely ditch plastic-lined takeaway coffee cups. All plastic lids are also now banned, with scrapping both coming into effect on Friday, March 1, 2024. The move in Western Australia isn't sudden. It's part of the phase two of the state's Plan for Plastic, and comes into effect after a 12-month transition period, plus widespread consultation. The aim is to save 154-million-plus cups from landfill each year. And the fines for non-compliance are hefty, at up to $5000 for individuals and $25,000 for businesses. Anyone that supplies takeaway cups for hot beverages — be it coffee, tea, hot chocolate or anything else — is covered by the ban. Plastic trays for takeaway foods have also been phased out in the state at the same time, while lids for takeaway food containers, bowls, plates and trays will be ditched from Sunday, September 1, 2024, as will non-compostable plastic produce bags. Finding alternatives to disposable cups, and ways to recycle them, has been a focus across the country for years — as has encouraging folks to bring their own reusable cup. Cafes have trialled 'more recyclable' versions, given out free coffee if you have your own cup and reduced prices. Complete bans at the cafe level have popped up, too, as have reusable coffee cup sharing networks. WA's statewide ban on non-compostable takeaway coffee cups hasn't been implemented before Down Under, however, and here's hoping that other states take note. South Australia is set to do the same from September, while Queensland has announced previously that it's working to identify alternative cups and intends to ban plastic-lined versions, with no date set. The ban on non-compostable takeaway coffee cups and plastic lids in Western Australia came into effect on Friday, March 1, 2024. For more information, head to the WA state government's website.
If striking blue water set among rock formations and beach caves are your (and your dog's) thing, look no further than Currarong Beach. Located just under three hours' south of Sydney, this coastal beauty offers sheltered swimming (or kayaking) for you and your pup. It's off-leash at different times depending on the season, so check the Shoalhaven website before letting Fido roam free. On the way down south, don't forget to stop off at Shoalhaven Heads, which has its own 24-hour off-leash areas along the expansive Seven Mile Beach — it spans 12 kilometres and is located about 45-minutes north of Currarong. Image: Destination NSW
There's a whole stack of reasons to treat yourself to a stay at The Langham. The indoor pool looks like it's straight out of a Roman cinematic epic and The Day Spa is no less impressive. Embracing the motto of 'detox, renew, relax and rejuvenate', this one offers the full range of luxurious treatments, which, as expected, come at a very luxurious price. Choose from a variety of standalone facials and massages, or really settle in with a multi-treatment package — like the Velvet Experience, an all-inclusive three-hour session that includes a body exfoliation, full-body massage and tailored facial treatment. If you're keen to go all out, it's priced at $480 from Monday–Thursday (or $495 from Friday–Sunday).
The Bay Run is one of Sydney's most idyllic stretches of tarmac, skirting the inner-west's waterfront through suburbs like Leichhardt, Drummoyne, Russell Lea and Rozelle. Yet a just-released announcement is set to make Callan Park in Lilyfield an even more popular destination along the route, thanks to a brand-new $3.8 million swimming spot — the Callan Park Tidal Baths. Whether you're rising early to beat your course record or taking a stroll with friends (keep to the left, please), you'll soon be welcome to cool off with a dip. Made possible by a partnership between the NSW Government and the Inner West Council, the project was first explored in 2018, with long-held plans for the Iron Cove foreshore finally getting the go-ahead. Included in the design, the future Callan Park Tidal Baths will feature an accessible pathway and ramp alongside a generous fixed jetty, pontoon and shark net. Closely integrated with the surrounding parkland, the aim is to deliver a family-oriented recreation facility ripe for safe and accessible swimming for the whole community. "The iconic Bay Run and surrounding parklands are already a community hub for family fun, sport, relaxation and exercise, so adding a swim spot where people can cool off in summer will be the perfect addition to an already thriving public space," says Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully. So, when can you slide into your togs? Once the final approvals are in place, construction on the Callan Park Tidal Baths is expected to take around six months. That means you should be able to enjoy a post-run swim by the time summer in 2026 comes around. In the meantime, Greater Sydney Parklands is preparing a Callan Park Foreshore Master Plan for community consultation in the coming months. "The Callan Park Tidal Baths will be a spectacular addition to the Bay Run, which is already one of the best-used recreation facilities in Sydney," says Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne. "This swim site is the next step in the incredible rehabilitation of the Parramatta River and will attract swimmers and families from all over the Inner West to take a dip in Callan Park." The Callan Park Tidal Baths are expected to open by summer 2026. Head to the website for more information. Image: NSW Inner West Council
Before Sydney went into its current lengthy lockdown, whipping out your phone, opening the Service NSW app and using it to check in at venues had become a normal part of everyday life. When the city begins to reopen again — when 70-percent of New South Wales residents have had both their COVID-19 vaccinations, which is expected around mid-October — you'll be falling back into that habit. And, ideally, that's how you'll also show that you're fully vaxxed as well. Crucial to NSW's roadmap out of lockdown is loosening rules and restrictions for folks who've received both vaccination doses — as also applies with the state's current outdoor gathering rules, which came into effect in mid-September. So, unsurprisingly, the government wants to streamline the process of showing that you've been double-jabbed. Today, Wednesday, September 22, NSW Minister for Digital and Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello announced that the state will pilot an update to the existing Service NSW app that integrates vaccination certificates — which are provided by the Federal Government via its immunisation register. The aim is to start to test the update in regional NSW with 100–500 people from Tuesday, October 6, for two weeks. "Hopefully, the subject of that pilot will be strong, and as a result of that we can then open up to the rest of the state," Dominello said at NSW's COVID-19 press conference. As promised - here is an update on the vaccination integration with the Service NSW app. 1. Display - this is a draft. We have added an additional privacy feature with the show more/show less status 👍🏼 pic.twitter.com/eiUkXlBVu6 — Victor Dominello MP (@VictorDominello) September 22, 2021 At present, you can access your COVID-19 vaccination certificate via the Medicare Express app, and then either keep logging in there when you need to show it, or save it to your Google or Apple wallet. "What we will be doing is integrating that, and providing people with the option of then having it in their Service NSW app to make it really easy when they're checking into venues across NSW," the Minister said. "That way, you don't have to open up several different apps just to get into a venue. You open up one app, the Service NSW app. On that app, it'll enable you to check in, and at the same time on that same screen it'll show your vaccination status," he continued. You will need to consent to give the app authority to access your immunisation record, so it won't happen automatically. First, though, the NSW Government is still working with the Commonwealth Government regarding access to the latter's data, and is also consulting with industry on the design of how it should work. It's also planning to implement security features, such as a hologram just like on digital drivers licences, as well as another QR code. It's expected that the app might be able to be used to show your vax status when state borders reopen as well. Whether the update to the app will be ready to be rolled out statewide when Sydney comes out of lockdown isn't yet known. But, if it isn't, you'll be able to show proof of vaccination via the Medicare Express app, or your Google or Apple wallet, until it is. For more information about the Service NSW app, or to download it if you haven't already, head to the government department's website.
After spending two seasons giving viewers a glimpse at life when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Prehistoric Planet is getting icy with its just-announced third run. When the acclaimed natural-history series returns in November 2025, it's saying goodbye to Tyrannosaurus rex and its fellow dinos, and hello to woolly mammoths and snow sloths instead — and hi to sabre-toothed tigers and three-feet-tall dwarf elephants as well. Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age is also giving its megafauna-filled trip to the past a new voice. Just a few years ago, no one knew that they needed to hear David Attenborough talk about dinosaurs while watching spectacular photo-realistic recreations of the planet's ancient creatures — and then this series arrived. Attenborough returned for the second season, too. Next up, however, Tom Hiddleston (Loki) is loaning his vocal tones to narrating Prehistoric Planet's third go-around. This docuseries, which proved one of 2022's best new shows when it premiered, has always worked a particular type of magic: letting viewers peer backwards in time to the planet's past thanks to its impressive photorealistic special effects. Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age is deploying its approach to a frozen world, to spend time with the animals of its titular period, including across a variety of terrain, and through the big freeze and the big melt. While there's no Attenborough, Hans Zimmer is still providing the original score, aided by Anže Rozman and Kara Talve from Bleeding Fingers Music. And filmmaker Jon Favreau — who has used the same type of visuals on The Jungle Book and The Lion King — remains an executive producer, as does BBC Studios Natural History Unit's Mike Gunton. While audiences only had to wait a year between the first and second seasons of Prehistoric Planet, more than two-year gap will have passed between season two and Ice Age when the latter starts streaming its five-episode stint via Apple TV+ from Tuesday, November 26, 2025. In 2024, Prehistoric Planet Immersive also added to the franchise with two short episodes of five minutes and under, but only via Apple Vision Pro. There's no trailer yet for Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, but check out the sneak peeks for season one and season two below: Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age will hit Apple TV+ from Tuesday, November 26, 2025. Read our full reviews of Prehistoric Planet season one and Prehistoric Planet season two, as well as our interview with executive producer Mike Gunton and series producer Tim Walker.
A 500-hectare site at Shanes Park between Penrith and Windsor has been earmarked to become a new NSW National Park. The feral predator-free area will aim to reintroduce locally extinct species including quolls, bettongs and the brush-tailed phascogale to the area. The project was announced on Sunday, September 26 by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian with two primary goals — to create more natural public space for western Sydney residents and to assist in animal conservation efforts. The wildlife restoration project will see the reintroduction of 30 species of animals into the Shanes Park area, which is slated to open to the public in early 2023. "This is wildlife restoration on a grand scale and one of the biggest urban wildlife restoration projects in Australia's history," NSW Minister for the Environment Matt Kean said. "Visiting Shanes Park will be like stepping back in time to see the Australian bush alive with native animals as it was before foxes, cats and rabbits had such a devastating impact." The NSW Government hopes the outdoor space and abundance of native species in the park will be a drawcard for both locals and tourists, with Berejiklian calling it "one of the nation's best wildlife experiences". View this post on Instagram A post shared by Matt Kean MP (@mattkeanmp) Shane Park will join six other NSW National Parks which are established or will be established as feral-free areas. This project will take the total feral-free area across the state to almost 65,000 hectares. The government is currently consulting with local Aboriginal groups in order to ensure the new National Park is given an Aboriginal name. The park will include visitor facilities and an education centre which will run nocturnal spotlighting tours. A new National Park is set to be open to the public at Shanes Park in early 2023. Keep up to date with the latest via the NSW Government website. Top image: Quoll by Andrew Arch
These days, working out extends far beyond the gym floor. Housed in spaces that have their own personalities, boutique studios offer a type of workout for specific goals – whether that's endurance, strength, flexibility, or simply bragging rights. BFT and F45 offer high-intensity group training via circuits, while Barry's Bootcamp's sleek interiors are a luxe spin on the same sweat. If zen is more your speed, traditional mat-based yoga classes now sit alongside hammock-draped aerial yoga spaces where familiar poses are performed in the air. [caption id="attachment_1002460" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Commons[/caption] Boutique fitness classes have become so popular that studio memberships are now a standard monthly expense – and it's not a tiny one. A recent study by health insurer iSelect reveals that a year of group fitness in Australia costs around $3,343.92. The price tag on group classes might be edging into luxury expense territory, but there's a reason it's hard to give up. Ever so often, a fitness trend explodes: indoor cycling, bouldering and Zumba have all had their moments in the past decade – and the current obsession is reformer Pilates. A recent study from health insurer iSelect has confirmed what your bank account already suspected: reformer pilates is officially Australia's most expensive workout. Reformer pilates studios typically have a range of membership tiers, but unlimited access is usually the best value for frequent attendees. These passes tend to be the priciest – Canberra's studios top the charts with an average of $82.20 a week. Sydney isn't far behind at $77, then Melbourne ($75.20), Perth ($74.30), Brisbane ($70.60) and Tassie ($64). Staying fit doesn't always have to break the bank. Some gyms and health clubs include reformer pilates classes in their offering, while boutique studios are getting savvy with costs. At Melbourne's Reformer Space, classes are led via a screen without an instructor present, and the savings trickle down to a weekly fee of under $30. For those seasoned with the carriage springs, explore free-and-easy formats like Pilates 24/7 and Revo Fitness, where reformer machines are readily available for self-guided workouts. It's not just group fitness that can dent your wallet. Training for sold-out endurance events requires an immense amount of time and grit, but it also takes a toll on your wallet. It costs a whopping $630 to complete the gruelling 226-kilometre Ironman triathlon, while you can show your strength at Hyrox, a hardcore hybrid competition, for $250. There's a pattern: the bigger the spectacle, the higher the price. Following its addition to the Abbott World Marathon Major series, the Sydney Marathon now costs $330 per participant – an increase of over $100 from last year's edition. In contrast, the Gold Coast marathon offers a more affordable option at $235 per runner. For those seeking a muddy challenge, Tough Mudder's obstacle courses are priced below $200. While high-end classes and prestigious triathlons dominate the conversation today, accessible options like fringe events endure. Every Saturday, parkrun organises free 5K runs and walks across the country. Who knows? It might just deliver the same sweaty satisfaction. Images: The Commons, Strong Pilates, Iron Man
