Stop what you're doing (particularly if what you're doing is re-watching old Seinfeld episodes for the 33rd time), because Jerry Seinfeld, the man himself, is finally coming to Australia. Announced just this morning, the comedian will be gracing our shores with a five-date national stand-up tour of our capital cities — his first visit Down Under in almost 20 years. Yowsa. The Seinfeld Live tour — which will visit Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney's soon-to-open International Conference Centre — is booked in for August of next year. So you'll have ample time to rewatch seasons one through nine at least twice. It's Seinfeld's first visit to Australia since 1998, when he toured the country just after the show wrapped. On that visit he called Melbourne the "anus" of the world — we'll see what he has to say about it this time round. SEINFELD LIVE 2017 TOUR DATES PERTH: Friday, August 4 – Perth Arena ADELAIDE: Saturday, August 5 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre MELBOURNE: Sunday, August 6 – Hisense Arena BRISBANE: Wednesday, August 9 – Brisbane Entertainment Centre SYDNEY: Friday, August 11 – ICC Sydney Theatre, Darling Harbour Seinfeld Live will tour Australia in August 2017. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Monday, November 14 via Ticketek.
While the 'Vote No' skywriting above Sydney over the weekend stirred up plenty more discord in the same-sex marriage debate, it also spurred a flurry of positive action from marriage equality supporters, with five different people taking to GoFundMe to rally support for their own sky-high counter messages. Fast-forward a few days and these five staunch strangers have met and joined forces to work together on some equally unsubtle campaigning for the Yes camp. With news that the Sydney Skywriting Company — the only one of its kind in the city — is owned by active members of the Australian Christian Lobby, a piece of 'Vote Yes' skywriting was pretty unlikely. But the team scored a win when it hooked up with outdoor experimental media company Remarkable Media, who are all for supporting marriage equality. The result of this collaboration, and a very busy week of fundraising, will be pretty hard to miss. On Sunday, October 1, an enormous, 1000-square-metre rainbow flag will be towed by a helicopter across Sydney's skies. Almost $20,000 has been raised for the project, and any leftover funds will be heading to local LGBTIQ+ charities. You can donate here, and expect to see the Team Yes rainbow flag flying over Bondi at roughly 1pm this Sunday. Image: Letícia Almeida.
Almost a month after Queensland closed its borders to Greater Sydney, the Sunshine State is now shutting down to all of New South Wales. From 1am on Friday, July 23, the entirety of NSW will be declared a hotspot for four weeks, meaning that its residents won't be permitted to enter the Sunshine State — unless they qualify for an exemption, or live in an area that's been classified a border zone. It's a familiar process; whenever an Australian state experiences a new COVID-19 outbreak, a few things tend to happen, as we've all seen over the past 18 months — and this is one of them. As cases grow, restrictions are implemented, masks are mandated and other parts of the country start closing their borders. Usually, the latter happens incrementally, starting with banning folks from certain areas, then moving onto the entire city, and then the whole state if necessary. The fact that it has taken almost a month for Queensland to close its borders completely to all of NSW is a little surprising; however, the former's authorities have continually said that they've been guided by the latter's regional case numbers. The decision to declare all of NSW a hotspot now has also been motivated by changing restrictions, with the Sunshine State loosening its gathering and venue rules from 6am on Friday, July 23. https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1418008865925320704 So, if you're a Queenslander with a trip to NSW in your future (or vice versa) the pandemic has definitely interrupted your plans. Folks who've been in NSW will no longer be permitted to enter Queensland, other than in a few circumstances. Queensland residents coming home will need to go into hotel quarantine for 14 days — and non-residents will only be allowed to enter if they receive an exception, and will also need to go into hotel quarantine for a fortnight. Plus, everyone going to Queensland will need to complete one of the state's online travel declarations first, after that system was brought back into effect last month. There will be some exceptions, however, including in the border zone. "It will allow people to move around those communities for essential reasons, all the things that you would expect like to go to school to go to work, for health care or to care for others," said Deputy Premier Steven Miles, announcing the news. https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1418011948432515080 The border zone will include the Ballina, Bourke, Brewarrina, Broken Hill, Byron, Clarence Valley, Glen Innes Severn, Gwydir, Inverell, Kyogle, Lismore, Moree Plains, Richmond Valley, Tenterfield, Tweed, Unincorporated Far West and Walgett Local Government Areas and regions. For the state as a whole, it's possible that the hotspot declaration and border closure could be reviewed before the four-week period is up, although that'll depend on NSW case numbers. For more information about Queensland's COVID-19 border restrictions, or about the status of COVID-19 in the state, visit the Qld COVID-19 hub and the Queensland Health website. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website.
It might just be Australia's brightest festival, and it's returning to light up Alice Springs once again. That'd be Parrtjima - A Festival In Light, which will deliver its sixth annual program between Friday, April 9–Sunday, April 18 — returning to the autumn time slot it established in 2019. After a chaotic 2020, which saw the event postponed to September due to COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions — and offer a virtual tour, too — the fest has big plans for 2021. Once more, it'll continue its free ten-day public celebration of Indigenous arts, culture, music and storytelling, and its focus on dazzling light installations. This time around, the event is corralling its program around the theme 'future kultcha'. That means there'll be a particular focus on "intergenerational wisdom told through light, interactive workshops, art, music, films, performance and the spoken word". [caption id="attachment_799417" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Artist's impression of 'Landing Kutcha'[/caption] When it returns to the Alice Springs CBD's Alice Springs Todd Mall, as well as tourism and conservation facility Alice Springs Desert Park Precinct just out of town, Parrtjima will unveil a new set of signature installations — and yes, they're set to dazzle. While the festival's full program hasn't yet been released, the event has revealed a few key details about its luminous displays for this year. The striking 'Landing Kultcha' will use light tubes of different lengths, span 20 metres in length and provide quite the entranceway. 'Revolving Kutcha' will feature shields, coolamons and skateboards, including one large central piece that'll range between six to eight metres high, plus eight other two-metre-tall sculptures. And, 'Grounded Kultcha' will project an animated sequence of curated artworks onto the sands of Alice Springs Desert Park. There's also 'Merging Kultcha', which features a train of five illuminated camels; 'Tailoring Kultcha', with light and textiles used to transform Todd Mall; and 'Harvesting Kultcha', an interactive game for all ages that's inspired by the constant movement in a honey-ant nest. And, as it always does, the festival's main attraction will glow far and wide. Once again, a huge artwork will transform a 2.5-kilometre stretch of the majestic, 300-million-year-old MacDonnell Ranges, showering it with light each night of the festival. The installation is being called 'Spirit Kultcha' this year, and it'll include a soundscape by Electric Fields. [caption id="attachment_799418" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Artist's impression of 'Merging Kutcha'[/caption] The full Parrtjima program is set to be announced in March, with more than 55 artists involved. You'll be able to dine under the stars at the Alice Springs Desert Park Precinct — thanks to a dinner that's a first for the fest — and also see a music lineup led by Casey Donovan. Of course, Parrtjima is just one of Northern Territory's two glowing attractions in 2021, with Australia's Red Centre lighting up in multiple ways. The festival is a nice supplement to Bruce Munro's Field of Light installation, which — after multiple extensions — is now on display indefinitely. If you're keen to start making Parrtjima plans, remember to check out the Northern Territory's COVID-19 border restrictions first. Parrtjima – A Festival in Light runs from April 9–18, 2021 around Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. For more information, visit the festival website. Top images: James Horan.
Ah, Southern California: probably the most hyped place in America. If you've seen Lords of Dogtown, The OC or Baywatch, then you basically know what it's all about. The term 'SoCal' alone evokes sweet notions of sandy beaches, bronzed blondes and chilled Coronas. Along with the laidback lifestyle, Cali is famous for its rad food. The proximity to the Mexican border has always given them the upper hand when it comes to authentic Mexican fare. Throw in some regional seafood and American favourites and you've got some pretty 'dank' dishes. That's exactly how Ben Carroll and Hamish Watts (owners of Bondi Hardware and The Botanist) felt. Having visited the Golden State on a surf trip, these dudes fell in love with the food, drink and atmosphere of the southern coast. Their vision of bringing SoCal to Sydney is coming to life in a new bar and restaurant opening next month. Named after its muse, SoCal is a retro chic cantina serving up an array of Mexi-Cali specialities, including plenty of tacos, shared plates, mini dogs and good vibes. Going all they way, they're even serving Californian wines, American craft beers and, of course, lots of tequila. Soak all this up on their outdoor terrace and you might as well be in Pacific Beach. In reality, it's Neutral Bay, but you don’t have to acknowledge the difference. SoCal is opening at 1 Young Street, Neutral Bay in late November.
Here's a secret from every bartender who's ever served you: you look absolutely ridiculous doing a shot. But, if we're being fair, so does everyone. The only people who can pull it off are cowboys shooting whiskey in old Westerns and even then, it was probably fake booze. Now, cheeky British photographer Tim Charles is revealing the true face of your tequila-soaked stupor; he's giving people snapshots of their face after a shot. The project, aptly titled Shot Face, features over 30 strangers in this alarming and unguarded moment. Inspired by the ridiculous grimace his girlfriend made one night after slamming a shot at the bar, he recruited people from his friends group, casting sites and Gumtree. They were then offered tequila, gin or sambuca, and the rest came naturally. "You start to appreciate some of the subtleties people display," Charles told the Daily Mail. "My original favourite is the one of Elena (in the pink and white top), I love the way her arm is up in the air, almost as if she's saying 'stop' or 'give me a minute', it always makes me laugh when I see it." In a way, the photographs remind us of the posters for Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac. Though they're very different in context, the same sense of immediacy and intimacy is still very much present. But... now that we've said that, we've ruined the series entirely. Good luck scrolling through these and keeping your mind out of the gutter. Either way, it's some definite food for thought next time you feel like a tequila slammer on a fancy night out. Via Petapixel and Daily Mail. All photos via Tim Charles.
It's a tough time to be a little guy, with so much of the country in lockdown once again. Many of our local producers rely on farmer's markets to distribute their products, so last year, Sydney's favourite butter churners Pepe Saya Butter Co launched Aussie Artisan Week to encourage Australians to support our nations' small cheesemakers, gin distilleries and mushroom harvesters. After a successful inaugural year, Aussie Artisan Week is back and running from Monday, August 16 until Monday, August 23. Right across the week, Pepe Saya is spreading the local love and encouraging you to check out some of this country's finest artisan producers. The Aussie Artisan Week's Instagram is featuring stories from a raft of its favourite food businesses — and you'll find a growing directory of producers over on its website complete with handy links on where to buy their wares. If you're organising a next-level breakfast for Saturday morning, start with NSW's Crumpets by Merna and Bondi Yoghurt, Northern Territory's Alice Bakery, Queensland's My Berries and of course Pepe Saya Butter Co. Or, if you're planning a fancy night in, you can hit up Cupitt's Estate winery, Kangaroo Valley Olives and Great Southern Truffles. To kick things off, Pepe Saya has also just launched a collaboration with local spread Oomite to create a luxe Vegemite-esque spread that combines Pepe Saya butter, umami and Oomite marble. The Oomite butter is available online in 100-gram wheels.
In a terrifying trailer for The Shadow King, Tom E. Lewis is hunted like an animal by a four-wheel-drive; its spotlights piercing the night. Just as the trailer draws upon the imagery of classic Australian cinema, this massive undertaking from Lewis and director Michael Kantor translates the story of Shakespeare’s King Lear into a theatrical retelling of Indigenous experience. A brief documentary on the background and process for the project sees Kantor outline how the framework of Shakespeare’s tragedy has shifted in their adaptation. “For millennia people have lived and existed with the land and on the land without claiming to own the land,” he says. “This story is about a man who believes he can own land, and therefore divides it, and give it to his three daughters.” The work will be performed in a combination of English, Kriol and the performers’ own languages. “We’re taking Shakespeare’s story; not his words,” Kantor says. The ambition of the play and the scale of the production itself — with a large cast of Indigenous performers, as well as musician Bart Willoughby (Yothu Yindi) — makes this a difficult piece to overlook in the Sydney Festival. Want more Sydney Festival events? Check out our picks of the top ten events. Image by Jeff Busby.
Okay, it seems like Airbnb spend a buttload of cash to list some wacky accommodation option every other week. And while shark tanks, van Gogh's bedroom and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' secret lair are pretty bloody cool, they're nothing compared to their latest listing in Far North Queensland on the Great Barrier Reef. Let us rephrase that: their latest listing is floating on the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef floating home is what your tropical sea dreams are made of (or nightmares, if you don't like the idea of being stranded in the middle of the ocean). But let's go with dreams because this place is insane. Like, we can hardly believe it's real. Look: The floating dreamboat comfortably fits four people, and comes fitted with luxe white sails above your bed, as well as a lounge area where you can gaze out at probably the best view in the country. Your neighbours? Oh, they'll just be 600 types of soft and hard corals, 100 species of jellyfish, 3000 varieties of molluscs, 500 species of worms, 1625 types of fish, 133 varieties of sharks and rays, and more than 30 species of whales and dolphins. Hope you're cool with that. As you might have guessed, this is no ordinary listing — it's part of a competition run by Airbnb and Disney to coincide with the release of Finding Dory. One lucky fam (the T&Cs state you have to take family members) will not only get to spend one night on the floating home on July 13, but they'll also have Neil Perry cook them an epic lunch, be taken on a dive and learn a thing or two about the impact humans are having on the reef. Doing their bit to help the Reef, Airbnb have also committed to planting new wetland plants for every guest who books a place in the region for the rest of 2016. So if you haven't entered yourself and all your family members already, you can go here to do so. Godspeed.
While Australian winters can get pretty chilly, we're not often blessed with really fun cold weather (much to our disappointment). We don't really get snow — or any of the fun activities that it encourages. Thankfully, the Winterlight wonderland in Parramatta's Prince Alfred Square‚ back for a ninth year in 2019, is aiming to right this grievous wrong. From Friday, July 5, you can delve into the kind of winters you see in movies. The festival has all the icy activities you could ever want to try — from zooming down a slick ice slide to gliding gracefully across an ice pond (otherwise known as ice skating). A turn about the rink will cost $24 (including skate hire), but after you ease your tired feet back into normal shoes and try to remember how to walk, the real fun begins. Winterlight will be decked out with a delicious range of market stalls serving up belly-warming winter treats. Parramatta's Live and Local musicians will provide the soundtrack while you eat and, once you've suitably warmed yourself back up, you can enjoy the amusement rides (including a ferris wheel), circus skills workshops and the interactive neon art installation. There are a couple of themed nights on the agenda, too. First up is 'date night' on Thursday, July 11, which includes a free silent cinema. Meanwhile, Thursday, July 18 is 'neon night', which will see the ice rink lit up under vivid UV lights — plus, free UV face painting and roving neon performers. Oh, and if you visit between Monday, July 8 and Thursday, July 11, the first-ever Parramatta Night Markets will be happening nearby. Take some time to head over to Market Street and peruse the stalls offering fashion, gifts, homewares and — most importantly — some winter-appropriate food. Think bite-sized waffles on sticks, smoked meats from Blacktown's Black Bear BBQ, coffee-filled waffle cones and even a Gelato Messina station where you can build your own sundae. Winterlight will be open Sunday to Thursday from 11am till 10pm and Friday to Saturday from 10am till 11pm. To purchase tickets, head this way. Images: Katrina James, Ali Mousawi and George Gittany. Updated: July 4, 2019.
The CBD has been given an energising refresh this summer thanks to Sunset Piazza, the pop-up concert series that's transformed Cathedral Square into an outdoor cultural hub. Showcasing artists across cabaret, hip hop, comedy and opera — and located right opposite Hyde Park — the temporary gig space is where you can catch performances from both new and seasoned acts this season. February's lineup has proved popular, with many gigs already sold out. Luckily, Sunset Piazza has just announced some last-minute summer gigs, including a comedy gala on February 26. For March, you can now nab tickets to see the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir who are kicking off the Mardi Gras festivities on Friday, March 5; local singer-songwriter Ruby Fields on March 6; the ever-popular Winston Surfshirt on March 13; a mash-up of musical numbers by way of Hayes Theatre Co on March 14; and Josh Pyke on March 18. Be sure to arrive early, too, so you can tuck into some cannoli and sip on a spritz as local DJs settle you into the Italian-themed event under balmy evening skies. Of course, there's the global pandemic to be mindful, so expect COVID-safe practises to be in place. Then, keep the good times going by hitting up local bars or late-night restaurants. Keen to really make a night of it? Book yourself in for a well-deserved staycation at one of the many top hotels around town. For the full lineup — and to secure your spot — check the Sunset Piazza website. For further Sydney CBD inspiration visit whatson.sydney/rediscover, or head over to www.sydney.com.
Although SOPA and PIPA were withdrawn from Congress last month, it seems that online freedom may still face immense danger in the savage war against piracy. Recently we saw the unravelling of a bizzare set of events in the Megaupload saga, which included the shutting down of the website and the FBI's dramatic arrest and indictment of founder, Kim Schmitz. Schmitz and fellow Megaupload employees were arrested on piracy charges, as the website is said to have accounted for a staggering $500 million of losses in unauthorised content. Furthermore, it is said that the website also generated $175 million through advertising and other means. With unprecedented accessibility to media and information online, it seems almost all of us are guilty of some form of piracy, which has become normalised and largely seen as a victimless crime. Stemming from a traditional "us vs. them" attitude against corporations and a genuine love of free things, most of us don't think twice about downloading the latest episodes of Mad Men, or hopping over to Thailand to grab a few dodgy seasons of Sex and the City for the missus. Such an attitude is summarised beautifully in a Facebook response to the anti-piracy advertisements equating downloading media to physical theft: I wouldn't steal a car, but I'd download one if I could. With so much stuff out there it's hard to know what belongs to whom, to what extent we're breaking the law and who we are actually hurting when we download media. Indeed, nothing proves this more than the case of aggressive anti-piracy group BREIN, who were accused of using Melchior Rietveldt's song without permission in an anti-piracy advertisement. Besides being a most humorous and delicious slice of irony, this is also evidence of how contractual agreements for media must now be drafted with greater intricacy and detail to keep up with technology's rapid evolution. The effects of the Megaupload shutdown have scared similar websites into re-examining their services, and FileSonic, Turbobit and FileServe have largely disabled their sharing capabilities. In retaliation to the shutdown, hacktivist group Anonymous set their omnipresent eyes on the high-traffic websites of enemies in high places, and the online presence of CBS, Universal Music and the U.S. Department of Justice was temporarily inaccessible. The group has promised further attacks, and we can't help but be a little nervous as the endless list of targets is examined. A call-to-arms video for a blackout on Facebook on January 28 appeared, but its credibility was called into question and the date passed without disturbance. Thank God we were still able to check-in at our favourite restaurants and lurk our friends' photos in comfort. A relief to say the least. Nevertheless, the mere possibility of somebody taking down Facebook and destroying my treasured memories makes me extremely anxious and a little nauseous. If anything, such attacks have proven how individuals can impact others greatly from the comfort of their own bedrooms and mysterious underground hacker-dungeons. With the music and film industries seeking desperately to guard the gates to their traditional pools of revenue, there looks to be no end to the internet war against piracy. If anything, such battles will become more frequent and dispersed, and fought with greater speed and complexity.
In true country-WA style, the Southern Forests region is a horticultural hub known for diverse and delicious produce. And the community celebrates that fact each year with the Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival, where you can taste the best and juiciest local cherries, and cherry-flavoured goodies (imagine enjoying fresh cherry ice cream on a warm summer day). The perfect excuse for a weekend getaway, the festival has a bunch of different free and ticketed events, from street parades, market stalls and live entertainment, to a long table lunch among the cherry trees of Newton Orchards. There's also a cherry tour — where you can learn about food innovation and ride a tractor through one of Manjimup's oldest orchards — and Koomal Dreaming, which will allow you to experience Wadandi and Bibbulman country through the eyes of the traditional owners. Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival takes place on Saturday, December 14. Find the full program, including ticketing information, on the festival website.
Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are finally back together on the big screen. Whilst they may not be crashing weddings, they are still making everyone laugh, this time as 'dinosaur' salesmen torpedoed by the digital age. When they're forced to compete against the younger generation of brains for a prestigious position at Google, hilarity ensues (with Quidditch even appearing at one point). The Internship also stars John Goodman and Rose Byrne, and they are not the only big names involved; Google has played a large role. The film features a range of Google products as well as a cameo from co-founder Sergey Brin himself. It looks to have been a smart PR move from the internet giant, which must have learned from the hard lesson taught to Mark Zuckerberg when he opted not to be involved in the creative process of The Social Network. The Internship is in cinemas June 13, and thanks to Twentieth Century Fox, we have ten double in-season passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to our newsletter (if you haven't already) and then email hello@concreteplayground.com.au with your name and address.
Under normal circumstances, when a new-release movie starts playing in cinemas, audiences can't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the pandemic forcing film industry to make quite a few changes over the past year — widespread movie theatre closures will do that — that's no longer always the case. Perhaps you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Given the hefty amount of films now releasing each week, maybe you missed something. Or, you could be under lockdown — again. Whichever applies, that doesn't mean we aren't eager to see the latest flicks. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their recent releases from cinemas to streaming lately — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here's ten you can watch right now at home. SAINT MAUD If humanity ever managed to cure or circumvent death — or even just stop being despairingly afraid of our own mortality — the horror genre would immediately feel the difference. Lives are frequently in peril in films that are meant to spook and frighten. Fears of dying underscore everything from serial killer thrillers and body horror flicks to stories of zombies, ghosts and vampires, too. Indeed, if a scary movie isn't pondering the fact that our days are inescapably finite, it's often contemplating our easily damaged and destroyed anatomy. Or, it's recognising that our species' darkest urges can bring about brutal and fatal repercussions, or noting that the desperation to avoid our expiration dates can even spark our demise. Accordingly, Saint Maud's obsession with death isn't a rarity in an ever-growing genre that routinely serves it up, muses on it and makes audiences do the same whether they always realise it or not. In an immensely crowded realm, this striking, instantly unsettling feature debut by British writer/director Rose Glass definitely stands out, though. Bumps, jumps, shocks and scares come in all manner of shapes and sizes, as do worries and anxieties about the end that awaits us all. In Saint Maud, they're a matter of faith. The eponymous in-home nurse (Dracula and His Dark Materials' Morfydd Clark) has it. She has enough to share, actually, which she's keen to do daily. Maud is devoted to three things: Christianity, helping those in her care physically and saving them spiritually. Alas, her latest cancer-stricken patient doesn't hold the same convictions, or appreciate them. Amanda (Jennifer Ehle, Vox Lux) isn't fond of Maud's fixation on her salvation or her strict judgements about her lifestyle. She knows her time is waning, her body is failing and that she needs Maud's help, but the celebrated ex-dancer and choreographer does not want to go gently or faithfully in that good night. Instead, she'd much prefer the solace that sex and alcohol brings over her palliative care nurse's intensely devout zeal. Saint Maud is available to watch via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Read our full review. JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH The last time that Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield appeared in the same film, Get Out was the end result. Their shared scene in Jordan Peele's Oscar-winning horror movie isn't easily forgotten (if you've seen the feature, it will have instantly popped into your head while you're reading this), and neither is Judas and the Black Messiah, their next exceptional collaboration. With Kaluuya starring as the Black Panther Party's Illinois Chairman Fred Hampton and Stanfield playing William O'Neal, the man who infiltrated his inner circle as an informant for the FBI, the pair is still tackling race relations. Here, though, the duo does so in a ferocious historical drama set in the late 60s. The fact that O'Neal betrays Hampton isn't a spoiler; it's a matter of fact, and the lens through which writer/director Shaka King (Newlyweeds) and his co-scribes Kenneth Lucas, Keith Lucas (actors on Lady Dynamite) and Will Berson (Scrubs) view the last period of Hampton's life. The magnetic Kaluuya has already won a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for his performance, and is bound to be nominated for and likely win an Oscar as well — and if he wants to keep acting opposite Stanfield in movies this invigorating, ardent, resonant and essential, audiences won't complain. It's 1966 when O'Neal falls afoul of the law for trying to impersonate an FBI agent to steal a vehicle. With J Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen, Grace and Frankie) directing his employees to "prevent the rise of a 'messiah' who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement" — his real-life words — the car thief is offered a deal by actual FBI Special Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons, I'm Thinking of Ending Things). If O'Neal cosies up to Hampton, then reports back on his comings, goings, political moves and general plans, he'll avoid jail. Initially apprehensive, he acquiesces to keep his freedom. With Hampton's raging speeches earning him a firm following, and his charisma and canny strategies broadening the crowds hanging on his words, O'Neal's task isn't minor. And the further he ingratiates himself into Hampton's confidence, becoming his head of security, the more he's torn about keeping tabs and doing the government's increasingly nefarious bidding. This isn't just a story about one young Black man coerced into bringing down a rising leader and revolutionary, however. It's also a tale about the figure who mobilised the masses as Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X had, until he was shot while he slept at the age of just 21. And, it's an account of the powers-that-be's abject fear of progress, equality, and the crusaders willing to put their lives on the line to fight for justice and a better world. Judas and the Black Messiah is available to watch via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Read our full review. GODZILLA VS KONG Given that neither of Godzilla vs Kong's towering titans are truly terrors, and therefore neither should really emerge victorious over the other, getting them to face off seems pointless. "They're both big, so they can't get along" is the simplistic concept. This isn't a new train of thought, or new to the American-made Monsterverse that's been nudging the beasts closer together for seven years. Thankfully, in the hands of You're Next and The Guest director Adam Wingard, Godzilla vs Kong has as much in common with its superior Japanese predecessors as it does with 2019's terrible Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The follow-up to 2017's Kong: Skull Island, too, this new battle of the behemoths doesn't remake the duo's first screen showdown in 1962's King Kong vs Godzilla. And, sadly, it hasn't ditched the current Hollywood flicks' love of unexciting human characters. But it crucially recognises that watching its titular creatures go claw-to-paw should be entertaining. It should be a spectacle, in fact. The film also realises that if you're not going to make a movie about this pair with much in the way of substance, then you should go all out on the action and fantasy fronts. In other words, Godzilla vs Kong feels like the product of a filmmaker who loves the Japanese Godzilla flicks and Kong's maiden appearance, knows he can't do them justice thematically, but is determined to get what he can right. Wingard is still saddled with a flimsy script with a tin ear for dialogue by screenwriters Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok) and Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island), but his massive monster melees are a delight. Also welcome: Godzilla vs Kong's eagerness to lean into its genre. When it surrenders to its pixels, and to a tale that involves a journey to the centre of the earth, subterranean asteroids, altercations with giant flying lizards and an underground tunnel from Florida to Hong Kong, it's equal parts loopy and fun. That trip to the planet's interior is guided by Kong. Now kept in a dome that simulates the jungle, the jumbo primate is under the watch of researcher Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall, Tales from the Loop), and bonds with Jia (newcomer Kaylee Hottle), the orphan also in the doctor's care. But, after Godzilla surfaces for the first time in three years to attack tech corporation Apex's Miami base, CEO Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir, Chaos Walking) enlists geologist Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård, The Stand) on a mission. Testing the latter's hollow earth theory, they plan to track down an energy source that could be linked to both Zilly and Kong's existence — if Kong will lead them there. In a plot inclusion that'd do Scooby Doo proud, teenager Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown, returning from King of the Monsters) and her classmate Josh Valentine (Julian Dennison, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) are certain that Apex is up to no good and — with podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry, Superintelligence) — start meddling. Godzilla vs Kong is available to watch via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Read our full review. NOMADLAND Frances McDormand is a gift of an actor. Point a camera her way, and a performance so rich that it feels not just believable but tangible floats across the screen. That's true whether she's playing overt or understated characters, or balancing those two extremes. In Fargo, the first film that earned her an Oscar, McDormand is distinctive but grounded, spouting midwestern phrases like "you betcha" but inhabiting her part with texture and sincerity. In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, her next Academy Award-winning role, she's an impassioned mother crusading for justice and vengeance, and she ripples with deep-seated sorrow mixed with anger so fiery that it may as well be burning away her insides. Now, in Nomadland, McDormand feels stripped bare and still a commanding force to be reckoned with. She's tasked with a plucky but struggling part — defiant and determined, too; knocked around by life's ups and downs, noticeably; and, crucially, cognisant that valuing the small pleasures is the hardest but most rewarding feat. It earned her another Oscar nomination. It saw her nab a third shiny statuette just three years after her last, too. Along with the attention the movie received at the Golden Globes, both are highly deserved outcomes because hers is an exceptional performance, and this was easily 2020's best film. Here, leading a cast that also includes real people experiencing the existence that's fictionalised within the narrative, she plays the widowed, van-dwelling Fern — a woman who takes to the road, and to the nomad life, after the small middle-America spot where she spent her married years turns into a ghost town when the local mine is shuttered due to the global financial crisis. A slab of on-screen text explains her predicament, with the film then jumping into the aftermath. Following her travels over the course of more than a year, this humanist drama serves up an observational portrait of those that society happily overlooks. It's both deeply intimate and almost disarmingly empathetic in the process, as every movie made by Chloe Zhao is. This is only the writer/director's third, slotting in after 2015's Songs My Brothers Taught Me and 2017's The Rider but before 2021's Marvel flick Eternals, but it's a feature of contemplative and authentic insights into the concepts of home, identity and community. Meticulously crafted, shot and performed, it truly sees everyone in its frames, be they fictional or real. Nomandland understands their plights, and ensures its audience understands them as well. It's exquisitely layered, because its protagonist, those around her and their lives earn the same term — and Zhao never forgets that, or lets her viewers either. Nomadland is available to watch via Disney+. Read our full review. WILLY'S WONDERLAND If you've ever wondered how Nicolas Cage might've fared during cinema's silent era, Willy's Wonderland has the answer. A horror film about killer animatronic restaurant mascots, it's firmly a 2021 feature. It wasn't made a century ago, before synchronised sound forever changed the movie business, so it's definitely a talkie as well. Cage doesn't do any chattering, however. He groans and growls, and often, but doesn't utter a single word. The actor's many devotees already know that he's a talent with presence; whether he's cavorting in the streets under the delusion that he's a bloodsucker in Vampire's Kiss, grinning with his locks flowing in the wind in Con Air, dousing himself with vodka and grunting in Mandy or staring at a vibrant light in Color Out of Space, he repeatedly makes an imprint without dialogue. So, the inimitable star needn't speak to command attention — which is exactly the notion that Willy's Wonderland filmmaker Kevin Lewis (The Third Nail) put to the test. First, the great and obvious news: Cage doesn't seem to put in much effort, but he's a joy to watch. Playing a man simply known as The Janitor, he glowers like he couldn't care less that furry robots are trying to kill him. He swaggers around while cleaning the titular long-abandoned Chuck E Cheese-esque establishment, dances while hitting the pinball machine on his breaks, swigs soft drink as if it's the only beverage in the world and proves mighty handy with a mop handle when it comes to dispensing with his supernaturally demonic foes. Somehow, though, he's never as OTT as he could be. Cage plays a character who doesn't deem it necessary to convey his emotions, and that results in more restraint on his part than the film demonstrates with its undeniably silly premise. Accordingly, cue the bad news: as entertaining as Cage's wordless performance is — even without completely going for broke as only he can — Willy's Wonderland is often a ridiculous yet routine slog. Willy's Wonderland is available to watch via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Read our full review. THE LAST VERMEER Dutch artists Johannes Vermeer and Han van Meegeren picked up their brushes more than two centuries apart. Mention the latter, though, and you need to mention the former. Just why that's the case makes for a fascinating tale, as The Last Vermeer tells — one filled with twists, subterfuge, investigations, a trial and post-World War II efforts to punish anyone who conspired with the Nazis. Directed by producer turned first-time helmer Dan Friedkin (All the Money in the World, The Mule), and adapted from Jonathan Lopez's 2008 book The Man Who Made Vermeers, The Last Vermeer relays the Hollywood version of the story, of course. Big speeches and massaged details consequently abound. Attention-grabbing performances jump across this cinematic canvas, too, with Guy Pearce (Bloodshot) resembling Geoffrey Rush as van Meegeren and Claes Bang (Dracula) adding his third recent art-centric feature to his resume after The Square and The Burnt Orange Heresy. There's enough here to keep viewers interested, as there should be given the real-life basis, cast and handsome staging, but this is the type of film that's nicer to look at than to dive into. Its subject: art forgery, a topic that leaves an imprint beyond the movie's narrative. The Last Vermeer doesn't steal from elsewhere, but it also sinks into a well-populated list of other dramas about art and the war (see also: The Monuments Men and Woman in Gold ) far too easily and generically than a feature about this specific tale should. Bang plays Dutch Jewish officer Captain Joseph Piller, who is tasked with hunting down artworks illegally sold to the Nazis during the war and bringing everyone responsible to justice. That leads him to Christ and the Adulteress, a piece credited to Vermeer but found after his death — and to van Meegeren, the man who is suspected of selling it to key Nazi figure Hermann Göring in the world's biggest art sale at the time. Turning on the rakish charisma even when he's being interrogated by Piller and his offsider (Roland Møller, The Commuter), van Meegeren denies the accusation. Piller isn't convinced, but then police detective Alex De Klerks (August Diehl, A Hidden Life) tries to take over the case. Soon, van Meegeren has been secreted away, is painting while in hiding and, when eventually charged and brought to court, offers an astonishing theory. Also arising in The Last Vermeer: an exploration of the costs of and sacrifices involved in surviving wartime, although Friedkin and screenwriters John Orloff (Anonymous), Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (The Expanse) happily stick to the surface as they do elsewhere. As a mystery, the film suitably zigs and zags. As a courtroom drama, it boasts stirring moments. But, as well as wasting Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) in a thankless part, The Last Vermeer is never more than passable. The Last Vermeer is available to watch via Google Play, YouTube Movies and Amazon Video. SONGBIRD If there are any words that absolutely no one wants to see when they're watching a COVID-19-inspired movie, it's these: produced by Michael Bay. The filmmaker who gave cinema the Bad Boys franchise and five Transformers flicks isn't behind the lens of Songbird, but writer/director Adam Mason and his frequent co-scribe Simon Boyes (Hangman) have clearly mainlined Bay's work, then decided to use its worst traits as a how-to manual. Set in 2024, when a virulent mutation of the coronavirus known as COVID-23 is on the loose, their tactless thriller is gimmicky and misguided at best. It's derivative, dull and has a plot that's so stale it really should also feature a tornado full of sharks, too. Wondering what might happen if the pandemic was even more horrendous and tragic than it is — and if America's handling of it, as based on 2020's response at least, was skewed even further towards corporate interests and the rich — the film decides to opt for quarantine concentration camps and a gestapo-like sanitation department. When it's not tastelessly taking cues from the holocaust to supposedly turn a shattering event the world is still experiencing into entertainment, it also attempts to tell a Romeo and Juliet-style love story about a couple separated by lockdown. And, if you've ever wondered what might happen if a Bay wannabe remade David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Bradley Whitford's (The Handmaid's Tale) role as an oxygen-huffing record executive preying on a young singer (Alexandra Daddario, Baywatch) answers that question as well. Bicycle courier Nico (KJ Apa, Riverdale) is resistant to COVID-23, and has an immunity bracelet to prove it; however, his girlfriend Sara (Sofia Carson, Feel the Beat) and her grandmother (Elpidia Carrillo, Euphoria) aren't so lucky. The coveted wristwear can be bought on the black market, though, which is why Nico is trying to make as much cash as he can working for delivery kingpin Lester (Craig Robinson, Dolemite Is My Name). The obvious happens, of course, sending unhinged sanitation head Emmett Harland (Peter Stormare, John Wick: Chapter 2) to Sara's building — and putting a deadline on Nico's quest, which wealthy couple William (Whitfield) and Piper Griffin (Demi Moore, Rough Night) might be able to assist with. The latter are also meant to be a picture of stay-at-home disharmony, all while trying to protect their immunocompromised daughter Emma (Lia McHugh, The Lodge) from anything outside their sprawling mansion. A PTSD-afflicted ex-veteran (Paul Walter Hauser, Richard Jewell) who flies drones to experience life beyond his walls also forms part of the story, although not a single character is given enough flesh to make viewers care about their plight. Even only clocking in at 84 minutes, this thoroughly unsubtle and exploitative film overstays its welcome — and the fact that it's shot and edited like Bay's glossiest and most bombastic action fare doesn't help. Songbird is available to watch via Google Play, YouTube Movies and Amazon Video. MORTAL KOMBAT No one enjoys watching someone else mash buttons. While it's a passable way to spend a few minutes, losing interest quickly simply comes with the territory. That's how viewing Mortal Kombat feels as well, except that watching your friends play any of the martial arts video game franchise's 22 different arcade and console titles since 1992 (or any game at all) would be far more entertaining. Shot in South Australia and marking the feature debut of filmmaker Simon McQuoid, the latest attempt to bring the popular series to the big screen — following a first try in 1995 and a sequel in 1997 — feels like watching cosplay, too. The movie's cast literally dresses up in the outfits needed to recreate the game's characters, of course, but the film shouldn't so overtly resemble fans donning costumes at a pop culture convention. And yet, Mortal Kombat evokes this situation from the moment its 17th century Japan-set prologue, which is also its best scene, comes to an end. After establishing a mythic and bloody backstory for the movie's narrative as a whole, the character that'll become an undead ninja ghost called Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada, Westworld) and his prophecised descendants, this B-grade flick is happy to, in fact. It's not just the violence that's cartoonish here; it's every glare exchanged and word uttered, with much of the script trading in cliches, dramatic pauses and catchphrases. Mortal Kombat's gaming fanbase may be eager to see their beloved characters given flesh and blood, face off against each other and spout lines that usually emanate from a much smaller screen, but that doesn't make a movie engaging. Nor can a flimsy screenplay by first-timer Greg Russo and Wonder Woman 1984's Dave Callaham, which follows the battle between Earthrealm and Outworld — one that'll be lost by the former if an MMA fighter named Cole Young (Lewis Tan, Wu Assassins), who bears a dragon birthmark, doesn't team up with the other figures with the same marking to stop humanity from losing for the tenth time. That's where the no-nonsense Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee, Black Water: Abyss) comes in, and also the grating, wisecracking Kano (Josh Lawson, Long Story Short). The villainous Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim, Warrior) might be threatening to freeze all of earth's champions so that Outworld's Shang Tsung (Chin Han, Skyscraper) can rig the tournament before it even happens, but Mortal Kombat still has time — and far too much of it — to spend pondering supernatural destinies and letting an over-acting, always grating Lawson mug for attempted laughs. The end result is intentionally ridiculous, and presumably unintentionally dull, all while setting up an unearned sequel. And although brutal enough amidst the silliness for an R rating, even the film's fight scenes merely go through the motions, especially given the heights that films like The Raid and John Wick have scaled in with their eye-popping action choreography over the past decade. Mortal Kombat is available to watch via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. CHAOS WALKING Adapted from the book series of the same name, Chaos Walking has weathered a difficult path to cinemas. The tedious and generic space western releases ten years after the rights to turn Patrick Ness' novels into films were first acquired, four years since the movie was originally shot and two years after major reshoots following unfavourable test screenings. It went through a plethora of rewrites, too, with I'm Thinking of Ending Things' Charlie Kaufman on scripting duties at one point, and Ness (A Monster Calls) and Spider-Man: Homecoming's Christopher Ford getting the final credit. Navigating such a mess rarely bodes well for a movie, so the fact that Chaos Walking proves dull and derivative shouldn't come as a surprise. Even with its cast filled with impressive talent, and with Edge of Tomorrow filmmaker Doug Liman begin the lens, it's hard to see how it might've fared better, with its premise an instant struggle. Set in 2257, the film follows colonists from earth on a planet called New World, who are plagued by a strange phenomenon. A multi-coloured haze hovers around men's heads — and only men — showing their every thought. The sensation has been dubbed 'the noise', and experiencing it while watching sure is rackety. Indeed, 'noise' is the absolute right word for the entire movie. In his pioneer village, teenager Todd (Tom Holland, The Devil All the Time) can rarely control his noise. While the Mayor (Mads Mikkelsen, Another Round) is able to filter the words and images that project from his mind — and also rock a furry red coat and wide-brimmed hat far better than anyone should — few others have the same ability. Seeing what everyone is thinking is a tricky way to live at the best of times, and it applies to the entire population, because women have been wiped out in a war attributed to the planet's original inhabitants. But Todd's troubles multiply when he discovers a spaceship, as well as Viola (Daisy Ridley, Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker), its sole surviving occupant. The mayor and his followers don't take kindly to the first female in their midst for years; however, supported by his adoptive fathers Ben (Demian Bichir, The Midnight Sky) and Cillian (Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter), Todd isn't willing to surrender the only girl he's ever seen to an angry mob. Cue a tale of toxic masculinity that dates back to 2008, when first instalment The Knife of Never Letting Go hit bookshelves, and feels timely in the current social, political and cultural climate. That said, this isn't a complex, layered or thoughtful film. Instead, it's content to stress its themes in such a broad and easy manner that getting Holland to hold up a sign saying "the patriarchy is bad" would've been more subtle. Indeed, Chaos Walking really just uses these notions as a backdrop for a predictable and formulaic dystopian story, and as a handy reason to motivate its conflicts, in a movie that plays like a hodgepodge of far better sci-fi and western fare. Chaos Walking is available to watch via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Read our full review. TOM & JERRY Before Itchy and Scratchy started terrorising each other well beyond the bounds of normal cat and mouse antagonism, another feline and rodent pair got there first. Of course, The Simpsons' adversarial four-legged critters were designed to parody the characters created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera more than 80 years ago, but they've long since supplanted Tom and Jerry as popular culture's go-to fighting animal duo. Perhaps the new Tom & Jerry movie is an attempt to push its titular creatures back to prominence. Perhaps it's just the latest effort to cash in on nostalgia while hoping that a new generation of children will be interested enough to warrant more big-screen outings, and therefore more chances to make some cash. Watching this all-ages-friendly hybrid of cartoon and live-action, it doesn't seem as if anyone involved knows quite why the film exists — not director Tom Story (Ride Along and Ride Along 2), who cares more about stressing the feature's hip hop soundtrack than paying much attention to its eponymous figures; not screenwriter Kevin Costello (Brigsby Bear), who pens a dull and derivative script about celebrity wedding chaos; and definitely not a cast that spans Chloë Grace Moretz (Shadow in the Cloud), Michael Peña (Fantasy Island), Rob Delaney (Catastrophe), Ken Jeong (Boss Level), Colin Jost (Saturday Night Live) and Pallavi Sharda (Retrograde), all of whom will forever have this misfire on their resumes. The animated animal action starts with Tom's latest vendetta against his long-time rival Jerry, after the latter destroys the former's keyboard and his music stardom dreams along with it. In his quest for revenge, the cat follows the house-hunting mouse to his newest abode at Manhattan's upmarket Royal Gate hotel, where the pair soon wreak havoc. Story and Costello prefer to focus on the resourceful and human Kayla (Moretz) at almost every turn, though. After talking her way into a job onsite, she's soon given two important tasks. The first: help ensure that the nuptials of two nondescript celebs (Jost and Sharda) go smoothly, which of course doesn't happen. The second: track down Jerry, which involves hiring Tom to assist. Somehow, Tom & Jerry is both lazy and overcomplicated. It does the bare minimum with its flesh-and-blood and pixel characters alike, all while completely forgetting that viewers have always loved Tom and Jerry for its fast, smart and entertaining slapstick antics (and definitely not because one day the duo might become bit-players in yet another flick about bland wedding dramas). When the film starts with pigeons rapping A Tribe Called Quest's 'Can I Kick It?' in its entirety, it begs an obvious question: who is this for? No one that's brought this movie to fruition seems to know the answer there, either — and they certainly haven't expended any energy on trying to make the feature funny, because laughs are absent from start to finish. Tom & Jerry is available to watch via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video.
Can you feel a tingling in your toes as your feet start to defrost? That's the feeling of winter slipping away (or maybe you've been sitting cross-legged for too long) and with its demise comes the return of Australia's beloved Moonlight Cinema. Ahhh balmy nights on the grass, we have missed you. Heralding the coming of the warmer months, Moonlight Cinema is a summertime tradition that is thankfully making a comeback despite everything 2020 has thrown our way. The film program is yet to be announced, but we'll keep you updated as soon as it is. Nosh-wise, Moonlight Cinema will again let you BYO movie snacks and drinks (no alcohol in Brisbane, though), but the unorganised can also enjoy a plethora of snacks from food trucks — perfect, messy treats made for reclining on bean beds. This season includes screens in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, running from November through to April. Only vague dates have been announced for now, but expect to hear a lot more in the coming weeks. MOONLIGHT CINEMA 2019 DATES Sydney: November (Centennial Park) Brisbane: November (Roma Street Parkland) Adelaide: December (Botanic Park) Perth: December (Kings Park and Botanic Garden) Melbourne: January (Royal Botanic Gardens) The Moonlight Cinema kicks off in November. For more information and bookings here.
The sun is shining, your out of office is set and you've already spent a good amount of time curled up streaming tv shows. Now's the chance to catch up on your reading — so, find a shady spot on a beach, next to a pool or by a waterfall and start making your way through our favourite seven books (and one awesome short story) of 2017. It's a mixed bag this year, we've been turning the pages of gripping homegrown murder mysteries, stories about presidential ghosts, cookbooks and a profanity-laden self-help book. Take your pick. THE VEGETARIAN BY HAN KANG The Vegetarian took me approximately one week to get through — it's a very welcome short read at less than 200 pages — but it left something dark and heavy in my stomach for much longer. The book by Han Kang, which has been translated from Korean, reaches haunting fever dream territory almost immediately and plays out scenes of family violence, force feeding and self-harm over three parts. Its affecting twisted surrealism will remind you of Murakami; I recommend this to his fans, not his haters. — Lauren Vadnjal THE DRY BY JANE HARPER Harper's debut novel is an eerie murder mystery set in a drought-ridden rural Australian town. It's a gripping read. I sat down to start it one Sunday afternoon and didn't put it down until I'd turned the last page, four hours later. What's even more impressive is that Harper wrote the 40,000-word draft for this novel during a 12-week online writing course. She has also — already — signed a movie deal, so expect The Dry (starring Simon Baker, perhaps) to appear in cinemas some time soon. — Samantha Teague THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A F*CK BY MARK MANSON You've seen people reading it at airports, on buses and on benches. And, yes, it does fit into the category of self-help, but it's approachable, brutally honest and, thankfully, free of the overly positive language typical of other self-help books. It's not about not giving any f*cks. It's about giving the right number of f*cks about the right things. After all, there are only so many one has time to give. — Kitti Smallbone TWIN PEAKS: THE FINAL DOSSIER BY MARK FROST If you were left with more questions than answers after watching the latest — and final — series of Twin Peaks, you're not alone. Luckily, there's one more chapter left: The Final Dossier. Written by the show's co-creator, Mark Frost, the book explains some of what happened between the second and third season (a 25-year break) and ties up some loose ends. But, remember, it's David Lynch and it's Twin Peaks — you're not going to get all the answers. A must-read for anyone who watched the show this year, whether they loved it or hated it. — Sarah Ward LINCOLN IN THE BARDO BY GEORGE SAUNDERS A story steeped in history, this novel centres on the death of Abraham Lincoln's 11-year-old son William in 1862. But, don't expect a run-of-the-mill historical fiction — it's George Saunders, remember? The story is told by 166 different narrators, some of them dead, some of them alive. Saunders's first novel, it won this year's Man Booker Prize so it's definitely one that should be on your list. Start it. Be confused. Keep reading. And you'll be rewarded. Finish it and jump straight to Saunders's famed collection of short stories, Tenth of December, if you haven't already. THE POWER BY NAOMI ALDERMAN In 2017, The Handmaid's Tale once again rose to prominence with the release of the television adaptation. While Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel centres on a world in which women are stripped of all power, Alderman's The Power imagines a world where they have it all. Women gain an ability to send out powerful electric shocks from their fingertips around puberty and become the feared and dominant gender. The story travels across the globe, showing how the change unfolds in different countries. It's also written as a 'historical text', by a male author Neil Adam Armon who imagines how women rose to power thousands of years before. MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM BY LIZZY GOODMAN Goodman's in-depth look at New York's rock 'n' roll scene is juicy, fast and candid. It centres on the years between 2001 and 2011, and focuses on The Strokes — Goodman's interview with the band for Vulture is a good taste of what to expect from the text. Goodman interviewed over 200 people, and spent years immersed in the scene, to write the novel. The result is a 600-word book that doesn't give you too many chances to pause and take a breath. It's a rollercoaster worth taking. [caption id="attachment_651763" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Elinor Carucci[/caption] HONOURABLE MENTION: CAT PERSON BY KRISTEN ROUPENIAN It's a typical story. A bad relationship written from a female perspective. But it sent ripples through the internet. Thousands of people took to Twitter to discuss how much they related to it and one account took to documenting men's reactions. The piece — a short story, not a novel — is more than just an exploration of a bad relationship, though, it's about power dynamics, gender and the struggles of dating as a young woman. Many people have described reading it as akin to watching a horror movie unfold. Like most things that reach fame on the internet, it's had bad reactions, too. But you can be sure that when you read it, you'll definitely feel something.
Since Australia started easing out of COVID-19 lockdown, the country's internal border restrictions have earned plenty of attention. With tactics to stop the spread of the coronavirus implemented at a state-by-state level — and case numbers in each state varying — different parts of the country have navigated the situation in different ways when it comes to letting non-residents visit. In Western Australia, that meant a hard border and strict quarantine requirements for most of the year. For folks who didn't normally reside in WA, you could only visit the state if you were classified as an exempt traveller, applied for a G2G Pass and, if approved, then self-isolated for 14 days — or went into a mandatory state quarantine facility for the same period. That changed for most of the country in mid-November, however, and now it'll change for New South Wales and Victorian residents from 12.01am on Tuesday, December 8 as well. As announced today, Tuesday, December 1 by WA Premier Mark McGowan, the state will relax its border restrictions with the two eastern states as part of the system that's been dubbed a 'controlled interstate border'. WA currently allows travellers from very low-risk states and territories to enter under eased conditions — people from places that haven't had any community transmission of COVID-19 for 28 days, who can now head to WA without isolating — which'll be updated to include NSW and Victoria from next week. https://twitter.com/MarkMcGowanMP/status/1333570927590719488 That means that, along with folks from Queensland, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, residents from NSW and Victoria will be able to venture west without quarantining. You do still have to complete a G2G Pass declaration, and you'll undergo a temperature test and health screening upon arrival — and you're advised to be prepared to take a COVID-19 test if necessary as well. That's a hefty shift from the current situation, where NSW and Victoria are considered low-risk states — which, for travellers, presently means still self-quarantining for 14 days, then taking a COVID-19 test on the 11th day. WA has always said it would likely only consider downgrading NSW and Victoria to very low-risk once they'd chalked up 28 days without community transmission, which the latter has hit and the former is due to reach on Friday, December 4. Announcing the change, Premier McGowan said "we can take this next step, safely and cautiously, thanks to the recent success of our friends over east getting the spread of the virus under control". He continued: "Victoria's success is something all Australians should be proud of. I want to thank everyone for their understanding and co-operation — it's because of their commitment we are now able to take this next step." Folks from South Australia are currently classified as hailing from a medium-risk jurisdiction, however. That means they currently need to apply for an exemption to enter WA, and then quarantine — but that'll be reviewed on Friday, December 11. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Western Australia, and the state's corresponding restrictions, visit its online COVID-19 hub.
"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear," Buddy (Will Ferrell, The Boys) tells Jovie (Zooey Deschanel, Physical) in end-of-year staple Elf. The musical version of the hit festive flick takes that idea to heart. Debuting on Broadway in 2010, it brings the beloved movie to the stage with a swag of merry songs. Fourteen years later — and 21 years since cinemas first discovered Elf's seasonal fun — Elf: The Musical has finally locked in its Australian premiere. Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall will stand in for both the North Pole and New York City across Thursday, December 19–Sunday, December 29, 2024, as Buddy goes on a journey of self-discovery. If you've seen the film, as almost everyone has, you'll know the storyline already; however, unless you've caught Elf: The Musical overseas, including a West End season in 2015–16, you haven't seen it like this before. Buddy isn't an elf, but he was raised by them — and he doesn't realise that he isn't like Santa's other helpers until he grows up. Cue his trip to the Big Apple to discover who he is, and also who he wants to be, as first told in a movie directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Jon Favreau before he helmed Iron Man, The Jungle Book and the photorealistic version of The Lion King. The stage adaptation's Aussie debut comes courtesy of Sydney's most-famous venue and John Frost for Crossroads Live, with the pair serving up the ideal way to get jolly in the Harbour City this festive season (as well as a gift of an excuse to take a festive-season trip to the New South Wales capital if you reside elsewhere across Australia). Elf: The Musical boasts a book by Tony Award-winners Thomas Meehan (who also helped bring The Producers, Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Young Frankenstein from picture palaces to theatres) and Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone), plus songs by Tony Award-nominees Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin (more film-to-stage veterans courtesy of The Wedding Singer). The Australian run is being staged as a concert production, in a presentation designed for Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall. If it's been a while since you watched Elf, the film, check out the trailer for it below: Elf: The Musical plays Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall from Thursday, December 19–Sunday, December 29, 2024, with presale tickets from 9am on Tuesday, August 20 and general ticket sales from 9am on Friday, August 23. Head to the Sydney Opera House website for more details.
Each January, as we recover from the chaotic buzz of the holiday season and the temperatures hit record highs, the city comes into its most vibrant, colourful form with the three-week carnival that is Sydney Festival. The country's biggest annual arts fest transforms our city into a creative playground, filling the summer days and nights with a generous helping of culture — from innovative dance shows to mind-blowing circus and thought-provoking theatre. The best bit? Getting your culture on at Sydney Festival doesn't have to put a dent in the old wallet. With a panoply of offerings that are absolutely gratis, there's bound to be a free event that's right up your alley. To help you make the most of what's on offer, we've highlighted ten of the best free events — from talks and workshops to art exhibitions — on the 2018 program. While all of these events are delightfully cost-free, some require online registration, so hurry on over to the festival website to guarantee your spot. If you can only squeeze in a few shows this summer, make sure at least one of these is on your list.
Sydneysiders, your mid-winter blues just got a neon-lit, dog-parading, Ferris-wheel-spinning antidote. Bondi Festival is back this July for its biggest edition to date, with 17 days of eclectic programming in and around Bondi Pavilion. On the bill you'll a jam-packed lineup of comedy, theatre, live music, art installations and interactive experiences. They're joining beloved mainstays like the beachside ice-skating rink and the 25-metre-high Bondi Vista Ferris Wheel, as well as a brand-new food market showcasing delicious local eats in Bondi Park every Saturday throughout the festival, which takes place between Friday, July 4–Sunday, July 20. It all kicks off with the announcement of the 2025 Waverley Art Prize winners at Bondi Pavilion Art Gallery on opening night, a long-standing highlight on Sydney's contemporary arts calendar. It won't be the only art highlight — throughout the festival, the Bondi Beach Sea Wall will be transformed into a living canvas as a host of Aussie street artists create new large-scale works in real time. Opening the music program is a powerful celebration of NAIDOC Week on the first Saturday, which will see soulful Sydney songstress Mi-Kaisha and 2024 triple j Unearthed winner RIAH performing a one-night-only gig in the Seagull Room. Headlining the second week is four-time ARIA award-winner Meg Washington, who will bring her magnetic voice and soulful storytelling to Bondi Pavilion Theatre on Friday, July 18, ahead of the release of her upcoming fifth studio album. The festival also boast an impressive stage and theatre program. It begins with two massive evenings of stand-up, featuring some of Sydney's funniest people, as the Bondi Festival Comedy Gala debuts at the Pav's theatre. Experimental theatre-lovers will want to head along to POV by re:group, a three-night mash-up of stage and screen in which a film is made on stage, while Melbourne-based theatre company Alternative Facts will bring its intimate, thought-provoking play, Sincere Apologies, to Sydney for the very first time. Also making her debut at Bondi Festival this year is award-winning comedian and disability advocate Madeleine Stewart, who'll be hosting Bondi From the Barber's Chair — a three-night interview series taking place in barbershop Badlambs that'll see Bondi legends from across the arts, surf and hospitality scenes taking centre stage. There'll be a heap of returning favourites too, including the Pavilion Paw Parade — where doggos and their owners can enjoy dog-themed art activities, stalls and pup processions — and Gladdy Drawing Club's inclusive life drawing sessions, which will feature guest artists like Wendy Sharpe. And of course, no Bondi Festival is complete without its two much-loved, always-popular centrepieces — the Bondi ice-skating rink and the 25-metre-high Bondi Vista Ferris Wheel. New this year, Bondi Park will host the Blue Sky Markets over three massive Saturdays — head over between 11am–9pm for bites by some of the Eastern Suburbs' favourite eateries. [caption id="attachment_897375" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brett Boardman Photography[/caption] Bondi Festival 2025 takes place in and around Bondi Pavilion between Friday, July 4–Sunday, July 20. For more info and the full program, head to the event's website.
Sydney's booming burger obsession has spawned some pretty wild creations of late, though we doubt you've ever encountered a creature quite like Burger Head's latest menu addition. The Penrith burger store's earned itself quite the rep, since young chefs Josh DeLuca (Quay) and Richard Borg (Momofuku Seiobo) first opened the doors in January this year. But now, they're really upping the ante, having teamed up with the good folks at Twisties to create a limited edition burger inspired by everyone's favourite corn-based snack. Not for the faint of heart, or the carb-averse, The Twisties Burger is an OTT combo of Twisties-infused milk bun (yep), house-made Angus beef pattie, Twisties mayo, bacon jam, extra melty American-style cheese, pickles, onion, and mustard mayo, with a few whole cheese Twisties sandwiched in there for good measure. But of course, a feed this glorious can't stick around forever. The Twisties Burger is on offer for one short, sweet month, starting this Monday, August 21. Find the Twisties Burger at Burger Head, 98 Henry Street, Penrith, before it's relegated to the memory banks of messy, messy history.
When winter begins to thaw, with leaves growing back on trees and flowers coming into full bloom, we want to celebrate the warmer weather and the world's annual rebirth. And, come September — which is just around the corner — Australia's biggest festival of spring will once again roll around. Floriade has been drawing crowds for decades — and its 32nd year will be marked with the theme 'World in Bloom'. A celebration of all things floral, the festival will fill Canberra's Commonwealth Park with more than one million blooms. But this month-long flower festival is more than just smelling the tulips. From Saturday, September 14 until Sunday, October 13, Canberra will be filled with music, food, vino, locally crafted brews and spirits, entertainment, markets and cultural happenings galore. Those with green thumbs can also take part in workshops, while live music and markets will be open for art lovers and bargain hunters alike. To top it all off, festival entry is free. For one day only (Sunday, October 13), you'll also be able to take your four legged friend along for Dogs' Day Out. Expect to pat lots of pooches and some pup-themed food, too. Floriade runs from 9.30am until 5.30pm each day. Plus, after the sun goes down between October 3–6 (hello, long weekend in Canberra), you can wander through the gardens at Floriade's after-dark counterpart, NightFest. While you're in town, you may as well take the time to check out Canberra's best microbreweries, cafes and cultural hotspots, too. Start looking at accomodation ASAP. We're also giving you the chance to visit Floriade's NightFest for free. To be in the running, enter your details below. [competition]742011[/competition]
Okay, let’s all agree on one thing: French people sound nicer than us. It seems, then, almost guaranteed that So Frenchy So Chic in the Park is a Sydney Festival will sound over and above the usual sounds of Aussie summer. But all reductive stereotypes aside: with Lilly Wood & the Prick, Féfé and ten-piece ska band Babylon Circus, it’s got to be a good day. It's all happening at Sydney Uni’s St John’s College, and you can buy a gourmet hamper or picnic box on the day (which includes tarte tartin, provencal pork belly terrine, tortes and other French fare) for the January 18 affair. Tres bloody chic.
Spring is the season of Fringe and LGBTQIA+ Festivals all over the world, but did you know the Central Coast has its own Fringe equivalent? We're talking, of course, about the Coastal Twist Festival, a multi-venue LGBTQIA+ celebration taking place from Tuesday, October 1 to Sunday, October 6. The "sparkliest festival on the Central Coast" is all about celebrating the local queer community, with this year's theme of 'Rise and Shine' seeing cabaret, film, dance and music events taking place across Gosford, Woy Woy, Ettalong Beach and Umina. The highlight takes place on October 6, with events taking over the coast all at once to promote a happier, healthier and more welcoming Central Coast.
Why send all your unwanted wrapping paper to landfill, when you could use it to start a vegie garden? That’s what the forward thinkers at UK innovation company BEAF want to know. Last Christmas, in the UK alone, enough wrapping paper was discarded to reach around the world nine times. The statistic inspired the BEAF team to come up with a solution: a 100 percent plantable alternative called Eden’s Paper. They’re hoping to raise enough money on Kickstarter to be able to print and distribute the first run by Christmas this year. Five different types of paper are on the menu at the moment: carrots, tomato, broccoli, chilli and onion. BEAF is hoping that, in the long run, this will expand significantly, to include more edibles, as well as flowers and herbs. Eden’s paper is made from 100 percent recyclable materials and is totally environmentally friendly. Each sheet includes 700 seeds, embedded in biodegradable tissue paper — seven layers of it, in fact, interlocked by an embossing process that avoids the use of nasty glues. Plus, the ink used for printing is vegetable-based. In developing the product, BEAF worked in close collaboration with a seed supplier and a printing company. Over the past 12 months of testing, assessing and refining, they’ve planted enough wrapping papers to feed 5000 people. If you want to get behind Eden’s Paper in time to see your seeds sprout in January, then you’d better be quick. The Kickstarter campaign finishes up on Monday, 16 December. A five pound pledge will buy you one sheet, 14 pounds will buy three and 20 pounds will buy five. Shipping is available anywhere in the world.
Counting down to see legendary electronic music duo Groove Armada perform in the Auckland Domain during Spring City next month? You're not alone. The festival's new inner-city setting and exciting headliners have already seen most tickets snapped up — and now we know who'll be joining the superstylin' duo on stage. A lineup of epic local and international dance acts will bring the vibes on Saturday, November 26, so you can groove for all eight hours across the Domain's expansive lush lawns. Adding to the international setlist are electro-synthpop group Hot Chip and Californian rapper and house producer Channel Tres. You might know the latter from such house hits like 'Controller' (a 2018 Triple J favourite) or 'Fuego' with Tyler the Creator. To check out how his tunes go down on a sunny afternoon, check out his rooftop set below. Aotearoa will also be nicely represented — industry icon and ex-Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe is popping in off the back of interviewing some of the biggest names in the business like The Arctic Monkeys and Fred Again to perform a DJ set. He'll be joined by fellow locals like George FM host and DJ SIN, Indie artist Ladyhawke and Auckland rock/pop band Coast Arcade. So yeah, it's a pretty stacked lineup and one you're going to want to make the most of — so do it in the best way possible. If you want to enjoy the full celeb-worthy experience including press-lane access into the festival, entry into the VIP tent, premium toilets and access to the VIP bar you'll probably want to check out this epic CP Trips Package — it's the only way you can still get your mitts on a VIP ticket which have already sold out individually. The celeb-worthy package also includes accommodation at uber-chic inner city accommodation Hotel Britomart (including a delish daily brekkie to line the tum), lunch on Waiheke and more. If you're a local looking to party with the other normies, there are still a few final release tickets available too — head to the website to find out more. Spring City kicks off at 1.30pm at Auckland's Domain on Saturday, November 26 — for full event info head to the website. To check out our CP Trip Spring City package, head here.
When global media giant Condé Nast Traveler releases its annual Readers' Choice Awards lineup, it's usually guaranteed to instantly have you dreaming of far-flung holiday destinations. But one of this year's award winners might just foster a newfound appreciation for what's in your own backyard, with Sydney ranking among the world's top ten in the Best Cities in the World list for the second year in a row. The awards are significant as they always pull a high number of votes — this year, more than 600,000 readers participated. As happened last year, they scored so much feedback that the Best Cities list was once again split into two, separating the the top ten small cities, as well as their top ten 'big city' counterparts. Flipping the tables on the 2018 result, Sydney chalked up a win in the indulgent age-old battle with Melbourne, with the New South Wales capital earning a spot on the list over Victoria's capital. Moving down from sixth place last year, Sydney ranked tenth in 2019. The Condé Nast team once again described the city as "an ideal getaway no matter the season", praising its al fresco dining, outdoor lifestyle and cultural calendar. The magazine specifically suggests that visitors hit the beach during summer and explore the arts scene in the cooler months, specifically giving a shout-out to Paddington, Manly and the "cool kid 'hood" of Surry Hills. While Melbourne came in third in 2018 — three spots above Sydney — it hasn't made the 2019 list at all. Topped by Tokyo and Kyoto yet again (first and second, respectively, for the second year running), this year's selection also includes Singapore, Vienna and Osaka in the top five, followed by Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Taipei. If, rather than basking in Sydney's glory, you're looking for holiday suggestions, the small city list might help as well. Mérida in Mexico came in first, with Dresden in Germany in second place, Québec City in Canada in third, Salzburg in Austria in fourth and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico in fifth. Norway's Bergen, Italy's Florence, Mexico's Puebla, Monaco's Monte Carlo and Germany's Cologne round out the rankings.
When you're a film festival that's all about the best cinema from Spain and Latin America, and you've been showcasing flicks from the two regions for a quarter century, how do you mark the occasion? If you're Australia's annual Spanish Film Festival, you put together a hefty 25th-birthday festival filled with 32 movies. That's the just-announced plan for 2023's event, which will take over screens around the country across June and July complete with Spanish box-office hits, stars from beloved series, a focus on female directors and plenty more. As usual, this year's Spanish Film Festival is taking its show on the road, launching first in Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane from Wednesday, June 14, and then a day later in Melbourne, Perth and Byron Bay. Sydney's season will commence on Tuesday, June 20, avoiding a clash with Sydney Film Festival, aka the Harbour City's other huge excuse to spend winter in a darkened theatre. Kicking off this fellow SFF is the Australian premiere of culinary comedy Two Many Chefs, which follows a father-and-son pair reuniting in the high-cuisine scene in Bilbao. Also a high-profile must-see is the festival's centrepiece selection Alcarràs, the winner of the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear in 2022. It popped up at a few local fests last year, and is now finally being made available to a wider Aussie audience. Other highlights include five-time Goya Award-winner Prison 77, a smash in its homeland starring Miguel Herrán from Netflix's Money Heist; The Kings of the World, which focuses on five Medellín teenagers; and Four's a Crowd, the latest from The Bar, Witching and Bitching and As Luck Would Have It filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia. Plus, there's thriller A Singular Crime, about a wealthy businessman's disappearance in Argentina in the 80s — and Staring at Strangers, where The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent's Paco León spies on a family from inside a closet (and yes, sounds like it takes its cues from Parasite). Film lovers can also look forward to rom-com My Father's Mexican Wedding, about two Spanish siblings travelling abroad for the titular nuptials; Mighty Victoria, which sees residents of a small town try to build their own steam train in 1930s Mexico; black-and-white horror film History of the Occult; and feminist Argentinian western The Broken Land. The 2022 fest boasts an Australian link as well via Greg Mortimer, about the passengers and crew on the Australian cruise ship that left for Antarctica just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic being declared. And, the Spanish Film Festival's survey of prominent Spanish and Latin American women directors includes seven movies, while its five-title 2023 retrospective is dedicated to iconic Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, who passed away earlier in 2023. SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL 2023 DATES: Wednesday, June 14–Wednesday, July 5: Palace Electric Cinema, Canberra Wednesday, June 14–Wednesday, July 5: Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas, Adelaide Wednesday, June 14–Wednesday, July 5: Palace James Street and Palace Barracks, Brisbane Thursday, June 15–Wednesday, July 5: The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, Palace Balwyn and Pentridge Cinema, Melbourne Thursday, June 15–Wednesday, July 5: Palace Raine Square, Luna Leederville and Luna on SX, Perth Thursday, June 15–Wednesday, July 5: Palace Byron Bay, Byron Bay Tuesday, June 20–Wednesday, July 12: Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema, Sydney The 2023 Spanish Film Festival tours Australia in June and July. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the festival's website.
The Central Coast is a playground for nature lovers. With maritime destinations, dense national parks and beaches aplenty, local residents go to great efforts to ensure the region's natural beauty is preserved for future generations. It's plain to see at the annual Woytopia Sustainable Living Festival, which takes place at Woy Woy South Public School on Sunday, October 13. This all-day festival is all about encouraging attendees to look after the Central Coast peninsula with sustainable practices and conscious reductions of their carbon footprint. You can pick up some healthy new habits with green talks, gardening workshops, bushtucker classes and wildlife shows. There will also be 50+ artisan stalls selling organic food and eco-friendly products, free kids entertainment, yoga classes and more from 9am to 4pm.
Two Spiegeltents, two labyrinths and close to two hundred events are part of the program for Sydney Festival 2015, announced today. A happy 85 of the events are free this year, so it's looking like a long, wallet-friendly summer. "What’s really special about Sydney Festival is the diverse programming, with the best local and international artists from high arts — opera, theatre, and contemporary dance — to circus and family shows," says festival director Lieven Bertels. "Sydney Festival gives audiences the perfect excuse to celebrate the city in summer." Music Music at Sydney Festival has doubled this year, with Domain concerts, Spiegeltent gigs and late-night parties dominating the program. Latin and South American tunes take centre stage, from The Life Aquatic-popularised Brazilian legend Seu Jorge to Afro-Brazilian hip hop powerhouse Karol Conka and Argentinian WTF genre-spanners Frikstailers. Beats stake their claim as festival favourites this year, from Warp Records legend Nightmares on Wax to Young Turks’ Oneman, while strummers like #1 Dads and Kim Gordon’s Body/Head take things up a notch from the myriad of female folk artists on the bill — Alela Diane, Olivia Chaney, Jessica Pratt, Tiny Ruins. Anna Von Hausswolff takes to the Sydney Town Hall grand organ supported by NZ’s Aldous Harding, Moroccan trance dancers Fez Hamadcha explore Sufi sounds, co-founder of The Saints Ed Kuepper delves into a retrospective, while Ben Frost and Tim Hecker team up for a co-headline show at the Opera House. Then Tex Perkins plays Johnny Cash tunes at the historic Parramatta Gaol (check out the Parramatta program, announced yesterday over here), while Gotye realises the music of William Onyeabor with members of LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip, among others. Sydney Festival’s love for the eclectic ‘who the hell?’ wildcards shines once more, from frenetic Barcelona multi-layering duo ZA! to the unexpected J-pop-meets-noise-pop team-up of Salyu and Cornelius. International hype cards How to Dress Well, Omar Souleyman, Wye Oak and return SydFester Dan Deacon are sure to get punters' paws rubbing. Giving local artists a sophisticated SydFest high-five, one third of the program features Australian musicians. Raise a plastic cup to the likes of Client Liaison, Kirin J Callinan and Firekites among the big Tex Perkins/Gotye guns. Public art Home to much of the festival's music, two Spiegeltents will be anchoring the expanding Festival Village, one of the real successes of last year and a true hub for hanging out in. Also within it will be a huge-scale art work from Ireland's answer to Banksy, street artist Maser. The maze-like, colour-splashed, two-storey-high installation, called Higher Ground, is said to be "a dream come true for those who always wished they could step inside a painting", and will be the focus of everyone's Instagramming this festival (which for the first time in two years, is Rubber Duck-less). Maser will be the artist-in-residence at the Village, though as he operates in anonymity, we don't expect to see too much of him. Other highlights among art installations include the must-ride Waterfall Swing at Darling Harbour, a giant swing that sends you flying towards a curtain of water that, thanks to the work of sensors, parts just before you hit it. Over at Carriageworks is another super-enticing labyrinthine experience, Inside There Falls (by UK-based Mira Calix), an immersive, tissue-paper environment you walk through, guided by haunting audio and the occasional glimpse of dancers. Also at Carriageworks, you can watch the meditative, 45-minute SpongeBob SquareTimes, an accidentally shot video of a man in a SpongeBob suit trying to make friends in Times Square. Performance Another big pillar of the festival is international theatre, dance and performance works. This year the big draws are Belgium's Kiss & Cry, a cinematic romance performed by two hands (yes, hands); India's The Kitchen, a spectacle of cooking and drumming from the creator of The Manginyar Seduction; France and the UK's The Night Dances, a celebration of the words of Sylvia Plath and music of Benjamin Britten, performed by Charlotte Rampling; and France's On the Harmful Effects of Tabacco, a Chekov one-act comedy performed by Theatre Des Bouffes du Nord (former home of Peter Brook) with costumes by Christian Lacroix. These join the already announced Tabac Rouge, a festival centre piece from another French innovator, circus performer James Thierree. On the smaller and more experimental side, there's one-woman memory mission I Guess If the Stage Exploded and, told entirely through the contents of one man's shoebox, Wot? No Fish!!. There's plenty of Australian contributions too, of the likes of Kate Mulvany's Masquerade, Force Majeure's Nothing to Lose, ambitious multimedia ethical exploration The Experiment and the return of the folks from Alvin Sputnik for Falling Through Clouds. On the circus side of things, the new Aurora Spiegeltent will be home to both last year's Limbo and new minimal circus artists A Simple Space, while the USA's Wau Wau Sisters lead the cabaret lineup. Those still holding a torch for the iconic Festival First Night will have to keep holding it; there's no sign of its return any time soon. Absent that inclusive and accessible event, hit up Sounds in the Domain, the Festival Village and the POP Parramatta Opening Party for free outdoor shenanigans. The 2015 Sydney Festival is on from January 8-26. Multipack tickets go on sale on October 24 (tomorrow!) at 9am, and will get you nice discounts. Single tickets go on sale on October 27 at 9am. To buy tickets and check out the full program, see the festival website. By Rima Sabina Aouf and Shannon Connellan.
When 2022 began, it didn't kick off with the hot vax summer that Sydneysiders had been hoping for. Instead, with COVID-19 cases rising over the holidays, it started off with a spate of tightened COVID-19 restrictions across New South Wales — some coming into effect before the Christmas break, and others starting as the new year shifted into gear. Mandatory masks and density caps in hospitality venues became a reality again, and so did the banning singing and dancing in venues and at festivals. And, as announced today, Tuesday, January 25, by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, those rules are all now sticking around for another month. Until Monday, February 28, NSW residents will be required to mask up in all indoor settings other than homes, and to stick to the one person per two-square-metres density limit in hospitality venues such as pubs, clubs, restaurants, cafes and nightclubs. Also, singing and dancing will continue to be off the cards in hospitality venues, entertainment facilities, nightclubs, indoor music festivals and indoor major recreation facilities as well. Media release: The NSW Government will extend current restrictions for another month as the State continues to take a measured response to managing COVID-19 with a focus on a safe return to school and restarting non-urgent elective surgery as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/BSYBZmL2Pw — Dom Perrottet (@Dom_Perrottet) January 24, 2022 "We have always said we will respond to what is in front of us and tailor our approach as required and that is exactly what we are doing," the Premier said, announcing the extension. "We are transitioning to living with COVID and we will need to continually update our approach to ensure we are keeping people safe and protecting our health system," Perrottet continued. Masks are also strongly encouraged outdoors if you cannot maintain a safe distance from others, and QR code check-ins remain compulsory at places such as retail shops and hospitality venues. Regarding the singing and dancing ban, it still applies to everyone except at weddings, and for performers, instructors and students. NSW residents are also still encouraged to work from home where possible, too, and "to reduce mingling when eating and drinking". The extended restrictions come as the state reported 18,512 new COVID-19 cases today, Tuesday, January 25. For more information about the status of COVID-19 and the current restrictions, head over to the NSW Health website. Top image: Parker Blain.
Ever woken up from a deep sleep, only to forget what you were dreaming about? Well the problem may be that your dreams just aren't memorable enough. A new iPhone app can solve this problem, as it apparently allows sleepers to control their own dreams. The app, named Yumemiru (translates to "see the dream" in English), uses a microphone to somehow detect when you are in your deepest sleep and most prone to mental influence. It then plays a soundtrack according to which dream scenario you have selected. Yumemiru currently offers eight different scenarios for users to choose from. These include a walk through the forest, a lazy day at the beach, getting rich, flying, and falling in love. Importantly, the romantic scenario has options for both men and women. Although this is a fascinating concept, I think that some of these scenarios are pretty pedestrian. If I'm going to stimulate my own dreams, I want my subconscious to come out with both guns blazing. There should be an option that allows you to become Godzilla or rob a bank. Regardless, give this app a try and see if your sleeps become any more exciting. After all, they may be so enjoyable that you'll never want to wake up. [via PSFK]
There's no denying it, sour beers are super hot right now. And with the weather heating up, there are few things more refreshing than a crisp, tart sour or wild ale. So hop on the bandwagon and get wild with Batch Brewing Company for the first ever annual Sourfest. Famed for its 90s hip-hop inspired series of fruit-infused sour beers, Batch will be kicking things off with a full tap lineup of its sour range. Joining the boys from Batch are breweries such as Yulli's, Bucket Boys, Sauce Brewing Co, and Wayward. If this line up seems a little further apart than the traditional inner west brewery crawl, fear not — there will be a hop on/hop off bus to drop you at each brewery to make sure you don't miss out on any of these delicious brews. While entry is free to all participating venues, a ticket for the bus will set you back $10. It lets you ride between the breweries all day — with the first one leaving Batch at midday — and you can purchase it here.
From that hotbed of contentious global politics comes the latest national film festival on the Australian cultural calendar. Hosted in various Palace Cinema locations around the country, the AICE Israeli Film Festival aims to showcase the best of the Israeli film industry, with more than a dozen features and documentaries to choose from. An initiative of the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange, the festival was the subject of controversy last year after abruptly cancelling screenings of a film that depicted Israeli brutality in the West Bank. The 2014 lineup contains several pictures that explore Israeli-Palestinian relations, including the critically acclaimed opening night film Self Made and the Israeli-Palestine-US co-production Under the Same Sun. Other highlights on the program include moving doco Shadow in Baghdad and a pair Cannes-selected dramas in Next to Her and The Kindergarten Teacher. The festival is also hosting early previews of upcoming American films by noteworthy Jewish directors, in the form of Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight and Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here. For the full AICE Israeli Film Festival program, visit the festival website. Image: Next to Her.
The Sydney Rides Festival, now in its fourth year, is about so much more than cycling. From October 11-25, the city will transmogrify into a kind of two-wheeling utopia. There’ll be bike-inspired art shows, free pedal-powered smoothies, complimentary breakfast and coffee for cycle-commuters, a checkpoint challenge offering loads of prizes, public talks about cycling history in The Netherlands and much more. Whether you’re a riding addict who doesn’t leave home without your bike or a newbie who’s hesitant about taking the plunge into traffic, there’ll be something for you. And to cap it all off, there’s the grand finale: the first ever Sydney Rides the Night event. At the end of the action-packed fortnight, thousands of cyclists are expected to gather at Mrs Macquaries Point for a nocturnal mini-festival within the festival. Between 6pm and midnight on October 25, a 2.5-kilometre course, starting at The Domain and extending along Mrs Macquaries Road, will be illuminated with installations and special effects, creating a kind of surreal adventure with the Harbour as a backdrop. Attendees will be welcome to ride the loop as many times as they like. At the same time, Mrs Macquaries Point will be transformed into a free outdoor party. So, before, after and in-between rides, participants will be able to hang out on outdoor couches watching short films on a big screen, sample fare from a herd of gourmet food trucks, kick back to live DJs and get involved in a silent disco hosted by Today FM. For anyone who doesn’t have their own bike, there’ll be plenty available for hire, including several of the electric variety. And, if you’re wondering how your fitness levels are travelling, you’ll have a chance to find out. “The National Institute for the Experiential Arts are also coming along,” explains City of Sydney marketing manager for cycling James Adams. “They’re setting up an installation, where there’s a stationery bike, which people can pedal. There’ll be a projection of their ride, as well as biometric data, like temperature and heart rate.” Sydney Rides the Night is the first event of its kind for, not only Sydney, but Australia, too. “It’s not just about the bike,” Adams explains. “It’s also about the experience. It’s for people who ride all the time and for those who are new to it. On our Facebook page, we’ve had lots of people commenting that they’ll get their bikes out and fix them up. Hopefully, this will then lead to them riding more often or even commuting to work. Sydney Rides the Night and the festival are all about stimulating interest and encouraging cycling culture in Sydney.”
Museum lovers, we know you miss visiting your favourite galleries and taking in all the beautiful art the world has to offer, so we have some good news for you: you can now join The Museum of Modern Art's top curators every Thursday (or Friday, Down Under) to explore the famed museum's exhibitions. Different gallery tours will be uploaded to the museum's website every week, ranging from film exhibitions to deep dives into the work of some of America's most iconic artists, including Great Depression photographer Dorothea Lange and sculptor Donald Judd. If you prefer to get a bit more hands-on with your art, the gallery is also offering a heap of free online courses, covering everything from postwar abstract painting to fashion and photography. Top image: MoMA by Gorup de Besanez for WikiCommons
After 18 days of the world's finest and most cutting edge films back to back to back, the Melbourne International Film Festival has packed up the popcorn and projectors. Here's what our critics loved, loathed, admired and squirmed over. The Best Films MOMMY The latest film from 25-year-old enfant terrible Xavier Dolan pours unconstrained emotion into a claustrophobic space. Shot in boxy 1:1 aspect ratio, the film tells the story of fiery widow Dianne and her troubled teenager Simon, a pair of bombastic outsiders in a white-bread, buttoned-down world. Anne Dorval and Antoine Olivier Pilon are both stunningly good, their performances positively glowing with uninhibited feeling. The tightness of the frame, meanwhile, reflects Di and Simon's limited options, even as their energy threatens to force the edges apart. This is a funny, earnest, devastating film, one that's vitalised, rather than limited, by its intriguing technical conceit. -Tom Clift https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ifhu51tLv5g FORCE MAJEURE I really wish this wasn't my favourite film of the festival. For the sake of my own credibility, I would prefer that my favourite film wasn't a film released by the company for whom my wife works as marketing manager. But the heart wants what it wants, and I'm talking about both her and the film when I say that. Force Majeure, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is a film that manages to completely deconstruct the concept of masculinity while also being utterly hilarious at almost every moment. It leaves you in a state of shock, but it's so entertaining and funny, you immediately want to watch it again regardless. An amazing achievement on every level. -Lee Zachariah https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jkjn5ICqmJI LISTEN UP PHILIP The blending of ambition, arrogance, inspiration and irrelevance troubles Jason Schwartzman's titular Philip in Alex Ross Perry's third feature. His second novel isn't garnering the requisite attention, and his girlfriend, Ashley (Elisabeth Moss), is better off without him. So when his mentor, Ike (Jonathan Pryce), offers up his holiday home, Philip quickly accepts. Yet, as astute as Perry's rendering of the familiar writer's self-absorbed struggle is, the film tells not just his story but Ashley's and Ike's too. Such structural daring matches an embrace of the abrasiveness of artistry, as played with acerbic comedy, cast with perfection and shot with the warm texture of super-16mm. -Sarah Ward https://youtube.com/watch?v=cX4Hhqjt6J8 BLIND Forgive the pun, but sometimes at a festival, it's best to go in blind. A film without a huge amount of pre-MIFF buzz, the directorial debut of acclaimed Norwegian screenwriter Eskil Vogt concerns a woman named Ingrid struggling with the loss of her sight. Alone in her apartment, she constructs an elaborate fictional narrative through which she works through her fears and insecurities — particularly in regards to her husband, who she fears may be having an affair. It's compelling, self-reflexive, sensual and funny. Think Stranger than Fiction — only full of incredibly graphic sex. -TC The Boldest Experiments MAIDAN You'd think that a largely static camera quietly observing the protests in Ukraine, with no narration and very little context, would be dull as dishwater. Yet Maidan is one of the most incredible documentaries I've seen in a very long time. When the protests begin in the Ukrainian square, they are peaceful and friendly. Children sing on a stage to an appreciative crowd. As the months drag on, the authorities become more tense, and we observe the situation devolve into something horrific and violent. The final moments, which include possibly the most beautiful sequence ever captured on film, leave not a dry eye in the house. -LZ https://youtube.com/watch?v=UgwSi3XVT4E LA ULTIMA PELICULA Alex Ross Perry didn't just direct one of the best features of the festival, he also stars in a creative highlight. Focused on a filmmaker trekking through Mexico circa 2012 to make an apocalyptic effort on the last reels of celluloid, La última película channels a distinct sense of the disjointed in its pseudo-documentary callback to Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie. Formats switch alongside tone and intention, the narrative meanders and rambling improvisation reigns — yet so does affection for its thematic aspiration and aesthetic beauty. That Mark Peranson and Raya Martin's film both probes and parodies the conversation surrounding its conceit also adds to its offbeat appeal. -SW https://youtube.com/watch?v=r2GN3wdfqbA OBVIOUS CHILD A brilliant response to weirdly conservative pregnancy comedies like Juno and Knocked Up, Gillian Robespierre's Obvious Child is probably the most entertaining movie about abortion you'll ever see. Former SNL cast member Jenny Slate is hilarious as Donna Stern, a struggling New York comedian who gets pregnant after a drunken one night stand. The film's progressive, level-headed treatment of abortion makes it a rarity amongst American films, which when you think about it is fairly depressing. In any case, Obvious Child was early one of smartest, funniest comedies at the fest. -TC Most WTF Moments https://youtube.com/watch?v=ibffxoK5gs0 GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE 'Trolling' is something that is usually the domain of adolescents on social media. It's rare that an 83-year-old director will engage in such behaviour, but that's where Jean-Luc Godard — hero of the French New Wave — disagrees. Following on from his nigh-unwatchable Film Socialisme in 2010, Godard again creates something deliberately designed to irritate his audience. Goodbye to Language is filmed in 3D, and some shots contain the most impressive 3D I've ever seen. There is a depth to many of these shots that no Hollywood film has yet achieved. Yet for the majority of the running time, the 3D is specifically designed to make you cross-eyed, pushing the two angles just a little too far away from each other. Or in some cases, way, way too far away from each other. Detachable eyes are essential to watching this film without incurring a migraine. -LZ OUT 1: NOLI ME TANGERE The entirety of Jacques Rivette's 13-hour opus invites exclamation; it's not called the cinephile's holy grail without reason. Seemingly impenetrable extended sequences of experimental theatre, intertwined with a man (Jean-Pierre Leaud) caught in a conspiracy and a woman (Juliet Berto) fleecing the unsuspecting, evolve into a patchwork portrait of a time, place and mood. As it ebbs and flows, plays and provokes, everyone strives for but struggles to achieve their target. Though Out 1 offers no neatness in narrative or certainty in climax, neither does it leave the viewer unsatisfied. Instead, Rivette constructs an experience unparalleled in its insidious intrigue. Once you commit, you can't look away. -SW https://youtube.com/watch?v=_-ZtW5fWRjI WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL The shining star of the otherwise tepid Night Shift section, the latest film from Japanese splatter-head Sion Sono is a blood-soaked love letter to the movies. An absurd, exuberant mix of western, mob movie and samurai flick, the story follows a group of amateur filmmakers who get hired to 'direct' the showdown between two rival Yakuza clans. Packed with profanity, gore and over-the-top action, Why Don't You Play in Hell? is two straight hours of cinematic insanity. -TC Most Disappointing Films https://youtube.com/watch?v=aCponfeWNOI WISH I WAS HERE To say we were disappointed by Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here implies we were looking forward to it. Even those with fond memories of his debut Garden State (and hey, we count ourselves among them) will find it hard to stomach this privileged, tone-deaf family dramedy. It's a shame the phrase 'first world problems' has now been overused into oblivion, because it would be aptly deployed in this film, where very few of the problems faced by the leads are possible to sympathise with. Rich people struggling with not being quite rich enough? Yeah, it's not exactly Sophie's Choice. -LZ JACKY IN THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN It's a premise with promise and a production and pedigree with the same potential: a Monty Python-esque skewering of gender stereotypes and fundamentalism, filtered through a Cinderella-like story from graphic artist turned filmmaker Riad Sattouf (The French Kissers), and brought to life by a cast including Charlotte Gainsbourg and The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius. It's also a plain example of an idea ill served by its execution, with everything broad and blatant in the role-reversal comedy that eventuates. Laughs are few, as are subtleties, despite the spirited attempts of the director and performers. Jacky in the Kingdom of Women should boast ingenuity but instead languishes in obviousness. -SW https://youtube.com/watch?v=9KrhMbS9uh8 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby was one of the more unique entries of the program, in that it's actually two separate films that together recount the breakdown of a marriage. Eleanor Rigby: Her is told the perspective of the wife, Eleanor, played by Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain. Unfortunately, while the formal conceit is fascinating, the script leaves a lot to be desired. Dull, mopey and full of unconvincing dialogue, the first film ended up being so disappointing that we didn't even bother with part two. -TC By Tom Clift, Sarah Ward and Lee Zachariah.
If you've ever found yourself wondering how certain foods and recipes are made, you're not alone. After all, the great Australia vs New Zealand pavlova debate fails to answer the question of who in their right mind thought whipping egg whites was a good idea. Most foods go through several iterations to come to the form we know them in today. Maybe it's because we have too much time on our hands with nearly 12 million of us locked down right now, but we decided to delve into the weird and wonderful history of some of Australia's most-loved food and drinks. From dinner party favourites to footy game snacks, here are a few brief backstories that took these foods to where they are today. PRAWN COCKTAILS Prawn cocktails reigned supreme at dinner parties in the decades leading up to the turn of the century, but the legend of this dinner party delight harkens back to the 19th century. Folklore has it that a worker came to a bar in California and ordered a plate of oysters and a whiskey after a day in the mines. After downing the whiskey, the prospector emptied the oysters into the glass and combined them with ketchup, horseradish, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. When asked what he was doing, the worker replied that he had created an 'oyster cocktail'. Somehow the bar owner thought this was a winning idea and begun selling oyster cocktails, launching the seafood cocktail. The dish popped up in Australia around the 1930s. In 1936, Adelaide's The Mail newspaper published a recipe for the seafood cocktail under the title 'Drinks For The Beach'. The recipe featured grilled shellfish in a small glass of sherry with "two dashes Tabasco sauce, a teaspoon lemon juice, two tablespoons tomato sauce or catsup, a teaspoon Worcester sauce, half teaspoon chopped chives" which would be mixed well, served over ice and with brown bread. BANH MI The Vietnamese banh mi's history is tied closely to European colonialism. The French invasion in the 1800s and subsequent global trade brought France's bread and European ingredients including cold cuts into Vietnam. This would eventually lead to the banh mi's crispy bread roll, reminiscent of a French baguette. The first banh mi was a simple sandwich featuring butter, cold cuts and paté. More traditional Vietnamese fillings became popular later, but the butter and paté stayed. The sandwich was most popular in the southern warmer parts of Vietnam as an alternative to Vietnamese staples like pho. Banh mi begun to spread far and wide in the 1960s and 70s following the Vietnam War, arriving in places like Australia where the warm climate mirrored that of south Vietnam. FOUR'N TWENTY PIES In March 2020 the Four'n Twenty pie became the Official Pie of the AFL. The crowning of this humble Australian pie brand had been a long time coming, but it was a long road to get there. The Four'n Twenty was created in Bendigo in 1947 by Les McClure, a dairy farmer who opened the Dad & Dave cafe. The pies were originally named after McClure's cafe before they were, apparently, renamed as a nod to the nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' and its "four and twenty blackbirds backed in a pie". The pie's ability to be eaten with one hand while you hold a beer in the other no doubt contributed to its popularity as a stadium food, with the Four'n Twenty a frequent supplier to AFL food stands after its purchase by Peters Ice Cream in 1960. The thing that really solidified this particular brand of pies in the minds of footy fans was iconic ads that ran through the 1980s and 90s featuring catchy jingles and AFL stars. ESPRESSO MARTINI While some drinks have been around for centuries, the fun-lovin' espresso martini is fairly new to the bar scene. First created by revolutionary London bartender Dick Bradsell back in the early 80s, the cocktail's birth is attributed to a supermodel asking for a booze-fuelled drink that would simultaneously wake her up. As vodka back then was the spirit a la mode, Bradsell threw a generous shot of it in with a shot of coffee pulled from the barside espresso machine, plus some coffee liqueur (our money's on Kahlúa) and sugar syrup, then shook away before pouring it into a martini glass. It's rumoured that Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell could be the model behind the birth of the espresso martini. Initially, the drink was simply called a vodka espresso, before being known as the Pharmaceutical Stimulant in the late 90s and then the espresso martini. BOMBE ALASKA The bombe Alaska, or baked Alaska as it's known in its country of origin, has a storied past featuring former presidents and the sale of Russian land. Reports date dishes similar to the baked Alaska back to 1800s USA where President Thomas Jefferson dined on ice cream encased in a dried crust at the White House. It was apparently US inventor Sir Benjamin Thompson, the inventor of the kitchen range and a British loyalist in the American Revolutionary War, that was the first to discover meringue could be used as an insulator. The dessert's name comes from Parisian-American chef Charles Ranhofer who created a banana ice cream and walnut spiced cake version of the meal Jefferson had eaten and labeled it the Florida-Alaska. DOUGHNUTS The Smithsonian Magazine claims doughnuts have been around in some form or another for thousands of years, with archaeologists discovering fossils of doughnut-like cakes in prehistoric settlements. References to the doughnut can be found in publications as far back as 1808. A recipe from 1896 combines flour, salt, soda, cream tartar, nutmeg, cinnamon, butter, sugar, egg and sour milk to create its doughnuts. There seem to be two stories surrounding how doughnuts got their famous shape. The first is simply that the dough wouldn't cook all the way through to the middle when they were first being made so they were hollowed out. The second is a much more interesting story, involving adventures of the high seas. A New England ship captain had been given cakes from his mother to eat on a journey across the sea in order to ward off scurvy. When the captain needed to hold the wheel with both hands, he speared one of his mother's cakes onto the wheel, gifting the world the hollowed-out shape of the doughnut. MANGO PANCAKES The story of mango pancakes is one of mystery more than certainty. The bright yellow desserts are such a staple of Australian yum cha, some locals may be surprised to find out they are, for the most part, a uniquely Australian thing. The only other place across the globe that seems to have the same level of deep adoration for these creamy mango delights is Hong Kong. The dish is the signature dessert of Honeymoon Dessert, who have a strong claim to starting the craze in Hong Kong, however Honeymoon was established in 1995 and reports of Mango Pancakes online date back to the early 90s in Australia. This is all anecdotal of course, but, if there are any pancake detectives on the case, reach out as the mystery remains unsolved. Illustrations by asu_ad
Brisbane rockers DZ Deathrays are making their way to Gosford for a night of big riffs and earworm choruses as part of Great Southern Nights. Expect to hear tracks from across the band's catalogue, with the trio celebrating their double album Positivity Rising that was dropped in two parts, three years apart from one an other, as well as the ten-year anniversary of their beloved debut album Bloodstreams. Sharing the stage with the group at Drifter's Wharf will be fast-rising Queensland rapper and producer Nerve of the back of his blistering feature on DZ Deathray's Like a Version last year. Nerve's collaborations with the likes of Hooligan Hefs, JK-47, Tkay Maidza and Young Franco have already amassed millions of streams online, with things only set to get bigger for the multi-talented artist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv6wV4CjxWA Great Southern Nights is facilitating a heap of gigs across Sydney and regional NSW, ranging from icons like Jimmy Barnes in western Sydney or Archie Roach performing in Wagga Wagga, through to smaller acts like hyped young R&B singer Liyah Knight headlining a night of local music and DJs at Zetland's 107 Projects. You can find the full program at the Great Southern Nights website. Top image: Sam Charlton
Japanese izakaya Nakano Darling and cheesecake-maker 15cenchi have joined forces to create the dessert of your dreams. They've taken Nakano's signature apple chu-hi cocktail – a mix of shochu, soda and apple – and transformed it into a Basque cheesecake of the same name. Just like the drink, the cheesecake is slightly boozy, slightly tangy and slightly sweet. But, unlike the drink, it's only available until Sunday, June 1. To try it, you'll need to get along to Nakano Darling, which you'll find at 14 Steam Lane, Haymarket, before then. It's being served throughout opening hours — Sunday–Wednesday from 5pm till midnight, and Thursday–Saturday from 5pm till 2am – making it a good stop before heading home. Along with the special apple chu-hi cheesecake, Nakano Darling has also added 15cenchi's original (and extremely decadent and creamy) cheesecake to the menu for the same limited period.
The Australian Specialist Cheesemakers' Association (ASCA) is joining forces with some of the best producers in Sydney to bring you a week dedicated to all things cheese. The somewhat awkwardly named '& Cheese' series brings the ooey gooey queen of dairy front-and-centre, where she belongs, for a diverse cheese appreciation week from May 31 through to June 7. These events will go deeper than a simple wine and cheese pairing — though we'll admit it is a hard match to beat. ASCA will be putting forth unusual matches like Four Pillars gin and cheese at Moya's Juniper Lounge in Redfern, coffee and cheese at Alexandria's Mecca Coffee, and — our personal favourite — beer and cheese at Newtown craft beer haven Young Henrys. Of course, a requisite wine and cheese event will take place at urban winery Cake Wines, along with two chances to learn how to make the perfect cheese board at the Tramsheds. Tickets are on sale now, so head to the ASCA Eventbrite page for a full list of event dates and further details: May 31: Tramsheds Masterclass 1 — How to make the perfect cheese board June 1: Cake Wines — Wine and Cheese June 3: Mecca Coffee — Coffee and Cheese June 4: Young Henrys — Beer and Cheese June 6: Moya's Juniper Lounge — Four Pillars Gin and Cheese June 7: Tramsheds Masterclass 2 — How to make the perfect cheese board
Genre doesn't sit comfortably for Die! Die! Die! One moment their pop and punk roots are showing, the next they're pure experimental thrash, the next they sound like an all-girl nineties band doing the Arctic Monkeys. Which is to say that they have range. They made their second album in a broken barn, and since their third — FORM — they've been recording in an Auckland bookshop. On Wednesday March 30, they'll be getting their kit out on stage at the equally accessible Beach Road Hotel in Bondi. The New Zealand trio formed and reformed a few times before settling on their current line-up. Having started out unemployed, with the humble ambition of just making a bit of money off their shows, the group moved on to near-perpetual touring and playing support for Wolfmother and Marylin Manson. They can command some pretty big shows, and have done the Big Day Out and the arena thing as well. In Bondi, by contrast, they're playing free and relatively low-key. So if you want your music strange, thoughtful and at speed, you know where you'll need to be. Image by DB Blas. https://youtube.com/watch?v=hUxuE0urvUo
American singer-songwriter Tom Krell (aka How to Dress Well) once described his sound as a convergence of Mariah Carey and Elliott Smith. It's that juncture of emo-acoustic and twinkly sentimental balladry that's led to Krell's music being labelled as 'lo-fi R&B'. Certainly in his older records, that came through. But with 2014 album "What is This Heart?" Krell's moving away from those early roots, towards something more musically diverse. (That said, the chorus of 'Precious Love' is decisively reminiscent of an early '00s R&B ballad, and it's great.) Krell picked his stage name semi-randomly from the spine of an old book he bought from a used bookstore ten years ago — justifying it by pointing out that we don't generally choose our names. True. That preoccupation with the uber real is reflected in his music. His lyrics are at times so personal they're almost uncomfortable, but then he turns it all weirdly in on itself with alien synth sounds and a falsetto that's painfully otherworldly — like, as one YouTube commenter put it so aptly, the ghosts of dead R&B singers come back to sing in empty bathroom stalls. Take this cover of Janet Jackson's 'Again'. Without a ukulele in sight, it's a refreshing antidote to the tired trend of white singers doing twee covers of the work of black musicians. We caught up with the super well-articulated, notoriously candid Krell ahead of his appearance at Sydney Festival. Read the results here.
Stormwater drains do not immediately spring to mind as the most likely of subjects for a photography exhibition. Dank, dark and deliberately hidden from view, the humble drain is generally seen as a necessity of modern life but one that should be left in the deep underground recesses beneath our feet. Sydney artist Oliver Hopes begs to differ. After a boyhood adventure gone awry left Hopes stranded in the blackness of one of Sydney's innumerable stormwater drains, surrounded on all sides by an army of swarming cockroaches, his "most hated of animals", Hopes developed a permanent fascination with this unseen world of underground mazes. "I had a bunch of mates that would go and explore stormwater drains, and I don't know how they got the idea," Hopes told us. "We built a flaming torch out of a stick and torn T-shirt and kerosene ... and that was the first time I went down the drain." It certainly wasn't his last. These days, the artist finds himself lost in Sydney's drain system as often he can. Unlike this first encounter, which was inspired more by a sense of boyhood adventure than artistic expression, Hopes now always makes sure he has his digital camera with him and his latest exhibition is on display as part of the Head On photo festival at the Robin Gibson Gallery. Yet Hopes' art is no accident; it's the work of a man who knows how to find incredible beauty in the most unexpected of locations. The images are a cinematic delight, bathed in an evocative contrast of light and dark. If it weren't for the subtle details of the drains — the water stains and faded graffiti — the photographs could easily be mistaken for location shots from a Godfather film. Despite the grandiosity of the images, Hopes' process is amazingly DIY. Having experimented with elaborate camera set-ups, studio lights and plenty of work in the editing studio, Hopes found that often the most effective approach was also the most simple. Just a digital camera and then "it's basically me and what I see down there." "Most of them have a pretty natural cinematic quality, that special something that needs very little manipulation," Hopes said. "They are pretty powerful spaces naturally, which is what inspires me more to keep going. They are just so amazing and different and powerful." Thankfully for us, these atmospheric chiaroscuros hide some of the less appetising aspects of drains — though Hopes describes seeing everything from bats to rats to eels to cats. "You name it, it's down there," he says. Check out some of our favourite drains from Hopes' amazing collection of photographs below. Images courtesy of Robin Gibson Gallery and © Oliver Hopes.
You probably haven't heard of Lorde yet, but that won't be the case for long. Ella Yelich-O'Connor is an incredibly talented 16-year-old Kiwi girl who somehow manages to combine the acrobatic, multi-octave voice of a Regina Spektor with the inward-looking, outwardly-hedonistic R&B of The Weeknd, Drake or Miguel. She's only released one five-track EP (which you can listen to here) but has already been praised by the likes of Grimes and Diplo, and you just know she's going to be one of the Artists to Watch in 2013. (Maybe if she gets enough love on this Australian tour, we can adopt/claim her as Australian once she's a superstar and running the game?)
If you can believe it, the end of summer is nigh. To help us through it, the world has gifted us an extra day to drink by the beach while watching the sun set. In honour of the last day of summer — and the blessed leap year — the Harbord Beach Hotel is hosting a season-ending shindig in its courtyard, mere stumbling distance from Freshwater Beach. There'll be chilled rosé and cocktails flowing, and plenty of pints and tinnies from the likes of Furphy, Stone & Wood and 4 Pines. Local northern beaches artists will be responsible for the soundtrack from 4.30–11.30pm, with Nick Stenmark, Friendless, Erin Marshall & Muma Megs, and Lozd all taking to the stage. In between sets, you can refuel on snags in bread from a sizzling barbecue, as well as the likes of nachos, prawns and pork sliders. To help you get home (or kick on) at the end of the night, there'll be free buses running to Manly from 10.30pm till midnight. It's free to get in, but you can register here to secure your attendance. Top image: Jasper Ave
Ask writer/director Sally Aitken about more than a year spent celebrating her documentary about Los Angeles' hummingbirds — a movie that premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, also screened at SXSW in Austin and Hot Docs in Toronto, then made its way Sydney and Adelaide's film fests as well, and was nominated for an AACTA Award across that journey — and she answers with a sense of humour. "I was about to make a little joke about 'it's like a little hummingbird migrating everywhere'," she tells Concrete Playground. That's a parallel drawn with the utmost of affection, however, as anyone that has seen Every Little Thing and witnessed the immense care that it has for the gorgeous tiny birds in front of its cameras will instantly recognise. "It's amazing," the Australian documentarian also notes about the film's global tour, flitting to Greece, Poland, New Zealand, the UK, the Netherlands, Estonia and Sweden, too, before it opened in Australian cinemas to kick off March 2025. When Aitken turned her lens towards beloved Australian film critic David Stratton in 2017 doco David Stratton: A Cinematic Life, the end result played at Cannes. 2023's Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles, the movie immediately prior to Every Little Thing on her resume, screened at the first-ever SXSW Sydney. The last time that the filmmaker peered at nature on the big screen, in 2021's Valerie Taylor: Playing with Sharks, she also scored a Sundance premiere. Together, those four titles paint a picture not just of an Aussie director's success and recognition around the world, or of her versatility, but of her desire to dig into an array of different stories of our humanity. "I like to make films that look at this incredible world through a new lens or through the other end of the telescope," she advises about a recent resume that's spanned appreciating cinema, reappraising ocean predators, the origins of iconic childhood entertainers and now a hotline for hummingbirds. Every Little Thing is indeed about hummingbirds in LA, but it's also about a person who has dedicated decades to tending to the birds' injuries. It was Terry Masear's book Fastest Things on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood — a review of it, to begin with — about her Los Angeles Hummingbird Rescue that sparked Aitken's second film of the 2020s about women and their connection with animals. That text was a memoir of its author's endeavours since 2004, but Every Little Thing's personal aspects, stepping through Masear's experiences beyond rehabilitating the smallest mature birds there are as well, is exclusive to the documentary. In interweaving the two, Aitken has crafted a pivotal chronicle of resilience among winged critters and humans alike. Wildlife rescue is a field of highs, hopes, healing and heartbreaks, as the film captures in detail. Existence is for all creatures anyway, great and small, as the documentary also examines. A phone call for Masear, a retired UCLA professor, usually means that a hummingbird in the City of Angels is in trouble. The reality of human life in the Californian city isn't always kind to the American-native species, but Masear unceasingly is. Every Little Thing flutters through her efforts as birds after birds are brought to her door — and as she attends to them in their various stages of need, aiming to get each one back flying over LA in the wild. Cactus, Jimmy, Wasabi, Alexa, Mikhail: they're just some of the hummingbirds that flap in and out, and that Masear treats with the sincerest of compassion. [caption id="attachment_995806" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jacquie Manning[/caption] Every Little Thing surveys the ins and outs of the rehab process, including syringe-feeding fruit flies to babies as dawn breaks, taking birds through workouts to test their flying capacity, and transitioning them from incubators to aviaries and ideally back into the sunny skies. It explores the characters, feathered and human — and among the former, it is also well-aware that some under Masear's supervision won't make it. This deeply empathetic film sees the hummingbirds in all of their glory, using cameras capable of capturing their super-fast speed, and also peers at Hollywood as they do thanks to bird's-eye view imagery. Crucially, it's as much about what it means to devote your time to another creature, to commit to riding the rollercoaster of their wins and setbacks, and to truly care. After watching Every Little Thing, no one should look at feathered friends above, or at any animal life, in the same way again — and while viewing it, everyone should enjoy witnessing its critters in detail that they've likely never seen before. This is a touching movie, for audiences, those in it and the folks behind it. We also chatted with Aitken about the kindness at the picture's core, the inspiration to bring Masear's work to the screen, the film's personal turns, the extensive editing process thanks to hundreds of hours of footage, its often-breathtaking visual approach, and weathering the act that bird rehab involves both soaring joy and aching sorrow. On Every Little Thing's Year-Plus-Long Journey From Premiering at Sundance to Releasing in Australian Cinemas, Via Playing at Other Film Festivals Around the World — and the Reaction to It "It's so incredible as a filmmaker when you can see, very visibly in these kinds of scenarios like film festivals and in front of cinema audiences, how people are affected by the film. And I don't mean you perversely sitting there waiting for people to clap, or to cry or whatever, but the fact that the film is an emotional film for people. I think that's the affirming part of it, because we set out to make something that would be an invitation and something that would be a work that wasn't necessarily literal — that invited people to these ideas of compassion and kindness in a very beautiful way, with the sunny cinematography and the delicate hummingbirds — and that was supposed to also be about us as much as the birds. To have a film that premieres at Sundance is a thrill. To then be consecutively invited to all of these incredibly prestigious marquee film festivals, and then now to be in a cinema run, that's extraordinary — especially, especially right now, in the marketplace right now, where most of the offer is murdered bodies and people in office doing pretty crazy things. So, yeah, it's lovely." On What It Means as an Australian Filmmaker to Have Your Work Repeatedly Embraced by Festivals Across the Globe, as Aitken's David Stratton, Valerie Taylor, The Wiggles and Now Terry Masear Docos Have Enjoyed "It's funny because all those films are really quite different, but maybe they're also helmed by something that you're not even conscious that you're necessarily reaching for when you're making the film. I am very interested in our humanity. I like to make films that look at this incredible world through a new lens or through the other end of the telescope. So it's a thrill when that work gets invited to any of those festivals that you're mentioning. These are extraordinary environments to see work from all around the world. And I think it just speaks to the fact that we have an industry in Australia that is pretty challenged right now, and we are making work that that is as good, on par, right up there with everybody else — and that feels really good to be part of this global independent filmmaking sector." On Why Aitken Was Inspired to Bring Masear's Work with Hummingbirds to the Screen "Initially, I was sent the review of Terry's memoir and I genuinely thought 'what the heck? A hotline for hummingbirds?'. 'That is really very particular' was my initial thought. The curiosity of that was amazing to me. Not that I'm unaware that wildlife rescue happens, but I just never conceived that somebody would have such a singular focus — that hummingbirds would have this 24/7 helpline. And what on earth did that look like? So it was very much initially a curiosity, and when I read Terry's book, I realised it was so much more than that. The way she writes about the birds, it's very metaphorical. I realised in that moment there was an incredible opportunity to see these birds not just in their cinematic beauty — obviously the visual appeal of this film was always there — but that they could be this carrier of these much bigger philosophical ideas, these universal truths about our humanity. They were like a mirror to us. So I thought 'that is a really interesting film', that possibility, that invitation. It felt to me like this was much more than the story of someone just rehabilitating the hummingbirds that may be in that rehabilitation. It was actually a rehabilitation for ourselves. That was the starting point." On Making Two Films in the Past Four Years About Women and Their Work with Animals, and Their Place Among Aitken's Diverse Filmography Otherwise "It's certainly no secret that I am a huge champion of women's stories — women who are brilliant, women who are badass, women who are dastardly, women who are heroic. I think we can't scream those stories enough. But actually, what was quite funny, especially at Sundance — because Valerie Taylor: Playing with Sharks played at Sundance, and then this just played three years later — so many of the moderators, exactly like you, observed, they say 'oh, Sally was here three years ago with this film about this woman and the natural world, and what draws you to these stories of women?'. And the truth is that I make films about all kinds of things. I do true crime. I do music. I do all sorts of stories. So what I would say was 'well, fun fact, between Playing with Sharks and Every Little Thing, I made a small film about a small group called The Wiggles'. And actually the crowd, who are American by and large, they all cracked up laughing because it's so incongruous, right? This story about this childhood band in the midst of these films about ourselves and the interconnectedness with the natural, amazing, wonderful, miraculous world that we live in. But I think it's the same thing as what we were talking about before: it's finding a story that you think you know and telling this totally different story about that thing. So whether that's about sharks and the demonisation of sharks, and actually seeing them through the eyes of a woman who's quite literally been playing with them since the 1950s; or whether that's seeing the most well-known yellow-, purple-, red-, blue-clad characters that we see every day or every week on our breakfast television, and suddenly seeing them not in those colours, but seeing them as an incredible, incredible story of chasing your dreams, and this audacious idea of school teachers making it to Madison Square Garden; or whether it's hummingbirds, which in America are ubiquitous, they're just in everybody's backyard, and actually seeing them as these kind of magical fairy creatures — it's that same idea. It's just taking these things and putting a whole new lens on them, and telling a really hopefully cinematic, emotional story in the process." On How Every Little Thing Also Became About Masear's Personal Story "So it is really an act of faith, making a documentary. She says in the film she doesn't trust easily. That is true. What is also true is that when I read her book, her book doesn't talk about her personal story at all. Her book very much deals with the hummingbirds that she has looked after in the last 20-odd years, and it takes a few of those very memorable hummingbirds and explores the stories of how she came to care for those birds and what happened to those birds through rehab. That's essentially what the book is talking about. So the book is very much about her and the work with the rehabilitation. But it's this funny thing when you're making a film, especially a film that is observational — and documentaries on that kind of film, you're a very small crew. You're very, very tight. You're very intimate. And you're all signed up to this unknown adventure, because it's not like a drama. I always joke, I always think this is so much harder because we don't have a script, you don't have paid actors, you're not able to write your way out of the scene. You're actually filming real life. But she became increasingly comfortable. I'm very transparent in the way that I work. I like to tell people what my intention is, and also share my own vulnerabilities. I don't know how it's going to work out. Certainly that's not a statement that's not confident, but it's saying 'we're all in this together' — and I think that's very disarming for people, and certainly for Terry. She felt like she was among people who really valued her work, and so of course she started to trust us. And then so what actually happened is that she started opening up about her personal life — and of course, as soon as she did that, that was amazing, because so much fell into place in relation to some of the motivations for why she does the work that she does, or what might inspire her to do this work in the first place. So while that all happened, I also then, when I got into the edit with my brilliant, brilliant editor Tania Nehme [Monolith], I didn't want to make a film that was completely didactic. And so, like I said before, it was really an invitation. I wanted to draw this idea of Terry's biography, but to do it still in this lyrical, poetic way that just revealed the layers of her biography as we moved through the rehab process." On the Challenges of Editing, Including the Difficulties of Whittling Down the Footage and Deciding Which Hummingbird Stories to Tell "You are not wrong: the edit is absolutely the challenge, the moment that you go 'oh my god, I think I need to go and open a florist shop. Can I do it? It's really hard. How can these tiny birds be so goddamn heavy?'. You definitely have these moments where you think 'what?', and the volume of the footage was a big part of that. Terry takes so many calls through the season, and of course we captured as much as we could, but it's really a process, an iterative process. And so we got into the edit suite, and the one clear thing that I remember discussing with Tania was that our task in the edit was really to make the smallest things feel giant, to feel epic, to feel the stuff of grand cinema. So with that aspiration in mind, it was really just a process of working and working our way through the volume of footage. And then some of the characters, they reveal themselves to you. Jimmy is hilarious. Cactus is vulnerable. Alexa and Mikhail are thwarted love. In the mix of things, we wanted these characters to — in a way — be this mirror to the human experience as much as they were their own individual heroes, or are their own individual heroes, in the film." On Capturing Stunning Footage of Birds Known for Their Super-Fast Speed, and Pairing It with a Bird's-Eye View of Los Angeles "Right from the beginning, it felt like a film that had all of this visual potential. So if you've seen a hummingbird in real life, you know that they are incredibly fast — and magical. They look like fairies. They just whip in, they kind of come up and look at you, and then they whip off again. But the way that Terry wrote about them was very metaphoric, like I was saying. So I wanted to reach for a visual style and a visual treatment that was really replicating the way that Terry sees the birds — and the way that she sees them is otherworldly. So in the same way that a hotline for hummingbirds is quite specific, there is also a cinematographer whose specialty is hummingbirds. That's also pretty specific. So her name is Ann Johnson Prum [Terra Mater] and she lives in America. She is American. And she's an expert cinematographer with a camera called the Phantom Flex. The Phantom Flex is a camera that shoots at an incredibly high frame rate — it goes up to 1000 frames a second. And what that means is that when you film footage at a high frame rate, you can then really slow it down. So from the beginning, we wanted to lean into this idea of being able to enter into the hummingbirds' realm and not just be in our human limited sensory experience of them. And the other thing is that we have also two other cinematographers in the camera team, two Australian DPs, Dan Freene [Skategoat] and Nathan Barlow [a Valerie Taylor: Playing with Sharks alum]. And so we leant into cinematic time lenses, and that gave us macro lenses. So that gave us an ability to be really close to the birds — so close, in fact, that at times you can see their eyelashes. I mean, who knew that hummingbirds have eyelashes? So it was a huge challenge, but we really wanted to meet that challenge in order to make the birds feel worthy of this big-screen treatment, because they are worthy of a big-screen treatment. And it's really quite trippy, actually, when you know that a hummingbird is quite literally the size of your little finger, and then you're looking at it on a giant cinema screen — it's quite trippy, the experience for the viewers. So I was quite interested in playing with all of those ideas." On Every Little Thing's Crew Coping with the Casualties in Masear's Line of Work — as Newcomers to Facing It — But Ensuring That This Is a Film of Hope "That's a really perceptive question. And we were talking before about that intimate relationship — absolutely, of course, every time you make a film about whatever subject, it changes you or it affects you, not only because you're learning new things, but because you're working with, encountering, engaging with, being trusted with other people's experiences and their stories. So I found the whole experience incredibly moving. I think that, at the same time that I was in the edit — and Tania and I worked incredibly closely together. The shoot is very intense, you have the whole team, but when you're in the edit, it's really just the two of you. And the algorithms didn't make this film. It's a film that really, really does come from the heart, and it's exploring things that aren't always talked about or aren't always obvious. So to circle back to your first question, which is about the reaction, it's hugely affirming when people respond to that because it tells you that that need is there in all of us to have these stories about what is good in our humanity, what is kind, what is empathetic in a world that's actually constantly cynical — and constantly telling you that people are bad and politics is awful, and the world is existentially threatened with climate change. When you are in this news cycle, which is a horror show, when there's a story that comes along that reminds you that humans are resilient, imaginative, kind and empathetic, that's a good news story. And it's not like a Pollyanna good news — as you say, birds die. Life is tragic. Life is unfair. Life is awful. But the message, I suppose, in the film is that what matters is how you respond to that and the compassion that you put in when you're engaged in life. And I just thought that was such an extraordinary idea, along with the idea that if you take the time to get on bended knee for something that is so small, that's a giant act of your own humanity. I just thought that was such a strong, compelling call to arms for all of us, for how we can be — we can just be better." Every Little Thing opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, March 6, 2025.
Ivan Sen has always gone it alone. In the world where we live, filmmakers have set decorators, editors, production managers, post-production technicians, concept artists, storyboard artists and legions of other scurrying assistants. Not Ivan Sen. He's an Australian filmmaker who does it all himself, and his outsider approach has so far taken him from his native rural New South Wales to places like Sundance, Cannes and Berlin film festivals. This directive — hands-on, honest, thoughtful, singular filmmaking — now stretches into the guts of his latest film, an outback murder case, Mystery Road. It's a quiet, steady yet thrilling film, held together by Aaron Pedersen's staggering performance as a lone, Aboriginal detective. To talk about Ivan's films, you have to talk about equality. In Sen's film worlds (Toomelah, Beneath Clouds), as in this world, some people are more equal than others. When Julie Mason, an Indigenous girl, is found with her throat cut off Mystery Road near Massacre Creek, no one gives a shit — not the cops, not anyone. This is the crime genre plot-point that opens up to a chasm of inequality. Underneath the high skies and low plains of Mystery Road, something else surfaces — a frighteningly beautiful, dead-on look at a troubled country. THE START OF MYSTERY ROAD "It's been a bit of a journey, this film," says Ivan. "I first mentioned it to Aaron in 2006 in Kings Cross, around midnight. We were passing like ships in the night, and I said, 'brother, I got an idea for you'. And he said, 'alright'. Then five years later, I ring him up and say, 'here's this idea, here's the script, it's time to do it'. It's a story that's come from my own experiences, my own heart, from my family and their experiences. So everything you see in some way comes from reality. The whole thing about Jay Swan being this cop caught between two worlds is something that's very close to my heart, coming from a small town, growing up, not quite belonging to the Aboriginal part of town, and not quite belonging to the white part of town. That's what I've always been fascinated by: the turncoat, the black tracker, the black trooper, the Native American scout. The person who's got a foot in both worlds, walking along the edge." Mystery Road comes at the crest of a wave of Indigenous storytellers making movies for all audiences — films like Bran Nue Dae and The Sapphires. "There are all kinds of young warriors trying to change the face of the industry, trying to tell our stories," says Aaron. "I've done a lot of mainstream material before on television. People used to always tell me, 'you play too many coppers!' Not now, because all those cops got me this job! Ivan wrote the role for me. It's something I'll never forget and a job I'll never get again." "I think [the murder storyline] is something that affects a lot of Indigenous families," says Ivan. "A distant cousin of mine was found underneath the roadway in very similar circumstances, a long time ago now. The killer has never been brought to justice. If you actually pursue reality in a film, that can make things more interesting and suspenseful than all this artificial and contrived conditioning." Adds Aaron, "This film is important to this country, the lessons of healing and understanding. It's about our lives. There are a lot of cold cases in this country, a lot of people left behind after murders." THE ONE-MAN BAND What's behind the all-encompassing role of director, writer, camera operator, editor and composer? "It's just easier to do it yourself," Ivan says. "I just started doing it a long time ago, back in the 1990s. And now technology's caught up and I can edit on the laptop, soundtrack on the plane, write in a cafe. For me, why should film production be the way Hollywood says it is? What right do they have to define all these things?" "Let's hope he doesn't learn how to act, because then there'll be no work for actors!" Aaron's having a go, but you suspect he might be right. "Ivan had all these hats that he'd been wearing [on set], but I'll keep saying 'till the day I die, if he was stressed out, you wouldn't have known. Incredible leader. I was so glad to be part of the project on this big scale — not just as a hired gun, but as someone who helped implement the operation. It was kind of like ceremony in a way. It was really beautiful, really personal. You don't usually have that relationship with a director. We became brothers." SEN GOES SCI-FI I've heard Ivan's next film is a science-fiction epic set in China, his new home. "Yeah, sci-fi," says Ivan. "Set in the future. Big action, romance. Commercial." At first it seems worlds away from the art-film vibe of Mystery Road. How do you cater for the largest possible audience without turning your film to shit? "Someone like Christopher Nolan is in massive demand," Ivan continues. "He puts his heart and soul into what he does, and really wants to give the audience something unique. There's not many other guys with the talent and heart trying to give the masses something special. Because it's all controlled by suits. Chris Nolan's not a suit, but he wears one. He gets the deals without losing any freedoms or destroy his personal approach." It's true — you see a big budget movie with heart and talent and intelligence (Robert Zemeckis's classic space movie, Contact, springs to mind), and you think, hey, that's what Hollywood could be for, that's what all those big budgets and beautiful faces could be doing all the time. They could have big ideas, too. "There's a big hole there, in the commercial arena, for quality," says Ivan. "There's so many shit films for big audiences. You go to the cinema and it's like, 'which crap movie do I have to pick?'" "I actually don't go to the movies very much 'cause of that," admits Aaron. "Too many people are spoon-fed their opinions in this world. That's another audience [than the one for Mystery Road]." Ultimately, for Ivan, leaping into sci-fi just makes sense to him as a filmmaker. "I don't want to make the same film over and over. It's boring. I'm a lover of cinema. Watching cinema gave me emotions that I'd never felt before in my whole eight-year-old life. I'd never felt that connection before." Mystery Road carries this sensibility — beyond being a genre piece, is cuts to the emotional heart of a country that's been torn by dysfunction for too long. At a screening of the film in Sydney's inner west, Aaron spoke plainly, and passionately. "History did not start 225 years ago in this country ... This role is more than a job, it's a chance for me to show my ancestral trauma. This film is larger than this script: it's a cinematic campfire. Sit around it. Take something from it. Be smarter for it. Be a better nation for it."
When your nine-to-five plays out like a well-oiled machine, it can sometimes feel like each week is a little same-same. But Sydney is brimming with a fine bounty of things to experience and explore each and every day. So aside from casual laziness and a little lack of inspiration, there's really nothing stopping you from squeezing some adventure and spontaneity into your schedule. We've teamed up with Mazda3 to help you celebrate the little things that bring a sense of adventure to life. Shake things up, as we give you seven different detours to take each week in Sydney. From Monday to Sunday, enrich your everyday with one completely achievable activity that inspires you to take the scenic route as you go about your daily routine. This week, eat some of the city's best charcoal chicken, learn to make your own pasta and watch the sunrise over dumplings. Plus, we've got your future detours sorted for the new few weeks here. All require no more effort than a tiny break from the norm — what's your excuse for not trying them all?
