If your new year's resolutions included more live theatre, you probably can't beat the visionary one-person show that is the Sydney Theatre Company's blockbuster production of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Following a run of shows last year and a trip to Melbourne, Kip Williams' groundbreaking adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel is returning to Sydney for a limited run of shows. The brilliant Eryn Jean Norvill also returns to own the stage, playing all 26 of the show's characters in a mind-blowing performance. The immense response to the production's consistently sold out runs should tell you just how dazzling an achievement that Norvill manages to carry off. If you're wondering how it's even possible to convert this storied tale into a one-woman show, the play is brought to life using a clever mix of staging tricks, live camera work, projections, recordings and stage acting. Audiences will find themselves drawn into the witty world of Wilde's Dorian Gray as the story dives into society's relentless obsession with youth and beauty. If you have so far missed out on experiencing this production, it returns to the Roslyn Packer Theatre for just 14 shows between Friday, February 3–Saturday, February 18. Tickets are available for $70–133, with discounted prices available to theatregoers under 30. Act quick because these will continue to be among the hottest tickets in town. [caption id="attachment_856346" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dan Boud[/caption] Images: Dan Boud
Sydney's Japanese festival, Japanaroo, was forced online this year due to the city's lengthy lockdown. But there's one big, delicious silver lining — organisers have rallied to launch Japanaroo+, an extension of the original program, running across Friday, December 3 to Sunday, December 19. It's a two-week, wall-to-wall celebration of everything Japanese — and everything Sydney. Here's the best bit: As part of Japanaroo+, the Fukuoka tourism board are teaming up with some of the city's best Japanese restaurants and hottest chefs to offer a limited-edition Tonkotsu ramen tasting trail as part of Flavours of Fukuoka. It kicks off on Saturday, December 4, with four restaurants set to serve up traditional Fukuoka dishes and a double helping of omotenashi (a term for Japanese hospitality). Tonkotsu-style ramen, a thick noodle soup usually starring a pork bone broth that's been simmered for hours, actually comes from Fukuoka city, on the southern island of Kyushu. The four restaurants participating in Flavours of Fukuoka will be GOGYO in Surrey Hills, Sekka Dining in St Leonards, Ramen Zundo in World Square and Chatswood, and Sakana-Ya in Crow's Nest, each doing a slightly different spin on the classic dish. Gogyo and Sekka will both serve up a traditional Tonkotsu ramen — order it with gyoza or a grilled M7 wagyu skewer from respective restaurants, and you'll also score a free Japanese bevvy. Ramen Zundo has created a Tonkotsu Ramen Fukuoka Special at both World Square and Chatswood locations, while Sakana-Ya will offer its range of hot and cold udon as well as a Fukuoka chicken teriyaki special. The special Fukuoka menus will be available for dine-in and takeaway. Dine-in guests will also get a free glass of wine or sake with their tonkotsu. [caption id="attachment_760761" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Julia Sansone[/caption]
If you've been struggling to live in the teenies because you're musically and spiritually stuck in the noughties, we have some news that's going to bring you bolting straight into the present. Ministry of Sound has just announced a super-niche tour. From mid-November, they'll be paying visits to Australia's capital cities to perform, get this, their greatest clubbing moments from The Annual 2001-2004. And that'll be all, folks. Leading the lineup will be OGs John Course and Mark Dynamix, who, between them, have placed millions of CDs in club-loving hands and ears over the past couple of decades. They're the mighty duo behind Ministry of Sound's annual compilations, on which you probably first heard Roger Sanchez, Basement Jaxx, Tim Deluxe, Cassius and Groove Armada. To each gig, Course and Dynamix will be inviting a bunch of cracking support artists. Sydneysiders will be treated to an extra-special tribute to early noughties break beat at a Clubber's Guide to Breaks Room. You can count on appearances by the UK's Plump DJs, as well as by homegrown breaks guru Kid Kenobi. MINISTRY OF SOUND 2001-2004 REUNION TOUR November 18 — The Prince, Melbourne December 16 — The Metro, Sydney December 20 — HQ, Adelaide January 13 — Discovery, Darwin January 15 — Matisse Beach Club, Perth January 21 — The Met, Brisbane In the meantime, to get yourself in the mood, have a listen to this dedicated Reunion Tour play list on Spotify.
With design conference Semi Permanent set to hit Carriageworks later this month, the two entities are joining forces to present La Rosa Social Club. The space is the brainchild of LA-based filmmaker, curator and cultural icon Aaron Rose who's headed for Sydney following pop-ups in Berlin and at the LA Art Book Fair. The multifaceted project is part-exhibition hall, part-bar and part-performance space, and it will pop up at Carriageworks' Elston Room from Wednesday, May 24 to Thursday, June 1. La Rosa Social Club will serve as a gathering place for international creatives, serving up live performances and art exhibitions alongside food by Sammy's Burger Bar and a selection of local wine, beer, sangria and, most importantly, Negronis from Bondi's Corner House. Everything in the space is sourced from recycled material or thrift and vintage stores, then customised by Rose and his crew of artists — including the floral ceiling installation by Holly Hipwell, handpainted cushions by Madeline Simms and a suspended mural by Natalie Krim. The drinks menu, wine bottles and limited edition cocktail napkins will also be created by the group of artists. The pop-up will start with a launch party on the Wednesday and a private event for Semi Permanent ticket holders on the Thursday. Entry is free, but you should RSVP here ahead of time to ensure you get in. La Rosa Social Club will run from May 24–27 and on May 31 and June 1, from 5–10.30pm. UPDATE Friday, May 26: Triple j Unearthed rapper Genesis Osuwu is performing a free gig at La Rosa Social Club on Saturday, May 27 at 8pm. All you need to do is RSVP at larosasocialclub.com to gain entry.
It happened with The Nutcracker, Mary Poppins Returns, Aladdin, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Frozen II, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, just to name a few past Disney movies, and it's occurring again for Snow White: to immerse everyone in the world of the Mouse House's new film beyond cinemas, The Grounds of Alexandria in Sydney has given itself a temporary makeover. Expect social media feeds to be filled with snaps of this enchanted garden, plus the themed dishes now on the menu for the next couple of months — and expect Harbour City locals and visitors alike to flock in. How have all things Snow White taken over? With scenery that looks like it's been transported out of the film — greenery aplenty, plus woodland creatures as well — and everything from red apple mocktails to sweet treats inspired by the movie on offer. Yes, there's a magic mirror on the wall. And also yes, you'll spot more than a few apples. You've got until Sunday, May 25, 2025 to head by, and to sip that Evil to the Core drink (made with red apple, raspberry and citrus) at The Cafe, The Garden and The Potting Shed at The Grounds of Alexandria. Food-wise, Waiting on a Wish (a toasted almond sponge with pear cream and blackberry compote) is on the menu in The Cafe and the Poison Apple for two (spiced caramelised apple, dulcey crèmeux and mascarpone cream) is available in The Potting Shed over the same period. The film in the spotlight releases in cinemas on Thursday, March 20, starring Rachel Zegler (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) as Snow White and Gal Gadot (Heart of Stone) as her evil stepmother. Marc Webb (The Only Living Boy in New York, Gifted, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro) is behind the lens.
Keep Everything is dance theatre for people who can appreciate the absurdity of human social behaviour and love hearing a beat drop. This new offering from Chunky Move continues the company’s mission to playfully redefine the limits of contemporary dance. It's charming, entrancing and fun. It begins dramatically: human bodies barely visible through surging projections and thick smog. We are transported to a post-apocalyptic landscape — made magical by the music of Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes (of The Presets fame). Yet, just as soon as we’re accustomed to the electronic rhythms and droning atmosphere of this sci-fi wasteland, all the lights are up and the performers are over-exposed. The scene transitions through the piece are carefully thought-out and a joy to experience. Lighting, music and projection all work together to hurtle us along the evolutionary journey of humans — from morphing jellyfish-masses to haute-couture models. The choreography by Antony Hamilton never takes itself too seriously. It is clear to see that improvisation and repeated physical and verbal phrases have formed the basis of the work, which seems to respond to gibberish emitting from the mouths of the dancers and to laugh out loud at the direct audience address, “How are ya?” The trio of dancers (Benjamin Hancock, Lauren Langlois, Alisdair Macindoe) speak in grunts and abstract sounds and dance in digital code. They push the boundaries of their human spines and structures to create part-machine, part-animal bodies that offend our civility. They tell us the human body is simply a series of circles and angles then prove this point with a prolonged unison dance sequence so precise I dubbed it the ‘robot rebirthing’... only moments before it deteriorated into a night-club rave. At the heart of Keep Everything is an exploration of how humans connect and communicate, and the audience is forced to reflect and critique our own speech. Aren’t we all just speaking gibberish that we somehow collectively understand? “Ye-ah”, comes the dancers’ answer, as they learn onstage to make meaning out of random patterns. The set is a clean white floor, covered on one side with what appears to be pastel building-blocks, and on the other with industrial waste: from order and progress to pollution and disrepair. This bittersweet view of human evolution is maintained throughout, from the seamless switches of organic, fluid movements into robotic body isolations to the rogue 'lap dog' (brought brilliantly to life by Langlois), who refuses to submit to human control any longer. The work claims to keep everything, but is neither too long nor indulgent. It casts a questioning eye on our human behaviour and makes us laugh at how far we’ll go to try to connect. Keep Everything plays as part of Performance Space's Score season of works driven by dance, movement, music and noise. Highlights include the bodybuilding/dance mash-up that is Natalie Abbott's acclaimed MAXIMUM, Force Majeure's boundary-pushing dance lab Culminate and Psychic Synth, a digital work by Pia Van Gelder that will read your mind.
Omega Ensemble is widely recognised as one of Australia's most dynamic and forward-thinking classical music groups. Their next tour, Distant World, brings together a lineup of four emotionally charged works that explore humanity's relationship with nature, and what happens when that relationship breaks down. The program opens with Arvo Pärt's cult-favourite Spiegel im Spiegel – a deceptively simple duet written for piano and cello that you may have heard in shows like 'Ted Lasso' and Guy Ritchie's 'Swept Away'. "It doesn't tell you how to feel," says Omega's Artistic Director David Rowden of the piece. "But it somehow allows you to feel more deeply." From there, the mood shifts. Jabra Latham's Fire Music, composed after the Tasmanian bushfires, captures both devastation and renewal. "You can hear the full range of the fire's impact," says Rowden. "From brutal ferocity to gentle smouldering and the quiet resilience of a landscape beginning to heal." [caption id="attachment_1002879" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Laura Manariti[/caption] There's also the world premiere of DuskLit by Melbourne composer Miriama Young, which is a new work built from voice memos and soundscapes submitted by young people across regional Victoria. Haunting, hopeful, and rooted in real stories of place and change, "It's like being transported to a private, sacred memory," says Rowden. "Audiences will be taken on a journey of reflection, from the stillness of Arvo Pärt to the profound resonance of local voices like Jabra Latham and Miriama Young. It's music that invites you to pause, feel and consider our world as well as our place within it." Distant World is far from background music. It's a live experience that invites you to feel, and be completely present in a room full of people, for 90 unforgettable minutes. Sydney: 'Distant World' is playing at ACO On The Pier in Sydney on Saturday, May 17 at 2pm and 7pm. Secure your tickets now at Omega Ensemble.
You've got a new CBD restaurant to make a beeline to as soon as the office bell rings. And it's run by a lineup of Sydney hospitality legends. The duo behind Love, Tilly Devine and Dear Sainte Éloise, Matthew Swieboda and Nathanial Hatwell, have teamed up with chef Scott Williams (Bacco Osteria e Espresso, MoVida) and front-of-house star Felix Colman (Dear Sainte Éloise) to open Angel Place's new pasta joint and minimal-intervention wine bar: Ragazzi. Just as Love, Tilly Devine champions Aussie drops and Dear Sainte Éloise focuses more on the French, Ragazzi does the same for Italian varieties — showcasing small Italian producers and Australian wineries that use Italian grapes. Though classic Australian and French wines are also up for grabs here, too. The 38-seat wine bar features textured concrete walls, leather banquette seating and a ten-seat, wraparound brass bar. It serves up daily-changing wines by the glass, along with a whopping 300 by the bottle — so there really is a heap to choose from. To round it all out (or kick-start it all), there are also 20 different amari and aperitifs. Alongside the natural wines is a succinct food menu that changes regularly and showcases regional Italian pasta dishes. Expect the likes of agnolotti dal plin served in a broth with white asparagus, maltagliati with cuttlefish and broad beans, and cavatelli with pipis and sausage. The sausage is made in-house using whichever meat is available on the day. [caption id="attachment_747368" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nikki To for Buffet[/caption] This focus on no-waste and nose-to-tail eating is present throughout the menu, with Williams sourcing whole cuts of meat and breaking them down to create a range of dishes. At the moment, you'll find pork belly used in croquettes, pork cutlets served as a main and other parts of the animal turned into a pork and fennel sausage. When in season, expect sea urchin to be a regular feature on the menu, too, with Ragazzi receiving deliveries from a south Sydney diver. While pasta is the star of the food show here, Williams also showcases the Spanish cooking techniques he learned in the kitchens of Madrid and Barcelona. So, expect to dig into Spanish-inflected bar snacks, such as Cantabrian anchovies on sourdough, on the regular. A few simple salads (such as shaved cabbage with hazelnut and pecorino) make the cut, too, along with daily-churned gelato for dessert. Regazzi has been bustling from the start, so do yourself a favour and make a booking here. Ragazzi is now open at Shop 3, 2–12 Angel Place, Sydney. Hours are Monday through Friday from 11am–midnight and Saturday from 3pm–midnight. Images: Nikki To for Buffet
Sydneysiders, if you're currently reading this from somewhere dry, warm and cosy, we suggest that you keep it that way for the time being. After an extremely wet few days, more downpours are expected until Tuesday, March 23, with the city likely to more than double its usual average March rainfall in just a six-day period. In the 24 hours to 9am today, Sunday, March 21, a whopping 110.4 millimetres of rain was measured at Sydney's Observatory Hill. To put that figure in context, Sydney's average rainfall for the entirety of March is 131.6 millimetres — so the city fell just shy of the entire monthly average in just a single day. Up to 130 millimetres of rain is forecast for the city between today and Tuesday, too, which means that the city faces another month's worth of rain in just the next three days. The torrents of water streaming from the sky started on Thursday, March 18, with 54.4 millimetres of rain measured at Sydney's Observatory Hill in the 24 hours to 9am on Friday, March 10. That was followed by 47.6 millimetres until 9am on Saturday, March 20. Another 15–30 millimetres is forecast for the rest of Sunday, between 25–50 is expected on Monday and between 35–50 is predicted for Tuesday. At a press conference today, BOM Senior Climatologist Agata Imielska confirmed that "over the last 24 hours, we have seen very large rainfall totals are across the Greater Sydney area into the Hunter and mid-north coast. That rainfall will continue". https://twitter.com/BOM_NSW/status/1373423963334963205 This isn't any old wet weather. The Bureau of Meteorology warned midweek that heavy falls were expected and, on Friday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian asked residents across the city and state to stay close to home over the weekend due to the downpour. A severe weather warning for heavy rainfall and potential flooding was issued for Sydney on Saturday morning, and currently remains in place. Yesterday, Premier Berejiklian also called the current conditions a "deep-seated, extreme weather event" — as a result not only of the huge amounts of rain across the state, but also flooding along the mid-north coast. Elsewhere, the Parramatta River has once again broken its banks, flooding the proposed Powerhouse Museum site as it did in 2020. A mini-tornado hit Chester Hill on Saturday, too. And, Sydney's Warragamba Dam — the city's main water source — has also spilled over, starting on Saturday afternoon. Some areas in Sydney's northwest were also ordered to evacuate overnight due to rain levels in the Hawkesbury-Nepean valley area. BOM Flood Operations Manager Justin Robinson said today that "at Penrith, we are expecting river levels at Penrith to be levels near the 1961 flood. To give you some context, that is bigger than the February 2020 flood. It is bigger than the 1988 flood. It is bigger than the 1990 flood, and it is bigger than the 1964 flood — it is one of the biggest floods we are likely to see for a very long time". At the same press conference, Imielska advised that "over the next 12-24 hours, the focus will be on the mid-north coast once again". But, in some good news, "Wednesday is when we are expecting to see a proper break in the weather. There will still be a shower or two, a bit of activity, but significantly lighter rainfall. Wednesday will be the first day when we could see a bit of reprieve across the state". If you do need to head out in Sydney while the current conditions continue, don't forget to pack your umbrellas and raincoats, and to be safe in general. And, as usual with potential flooding, the SES recommends you don't walk, drive or ride your bike through flood water. As the weather conditions continue to develop, stay up to date with the latest forecast and weather warnings via the Bureau of Meteorology and the NSW State Emergency Service.
A veteran of Bondi Road, Sam's was one of the suburb's first fully organic food distributors over 20 years ago, and it remains a trailblazer of the health-conscious meat movement that provides for the best Bondi barbecues. The owner himself is always behind the counter, ready to chat, and accompanied by a gorgeous selection of hanging meats; he has an intimate knowledge of the produce in-store and is happy to guide you. This pristine, white-tiled butchery has a surprisingly warm feeling to it, with crowded tables stacked to the max and everything from artisan foie gras to honeycomb tripe. Locals trust Sam to always stocks the best — so come with an open mind (and an empty stomach).
News just in: another beloved Sydney venue is set to close its doors at the end of this year. Following the closure of a slew of local favourites, including Ron's Upstairs, Stanbuli, Marigold and Golden Century, Chippendale's Automata has announced it will be packing up for good after Saturday, December 17. "I always knew I wanted to walk away from Automata when I still loved everything about it," Head Chef and co-owner Clayton Wells said in a statement on Instagram. "It might not make sense to many, but those who know me well know I always move onto the next challenge once I have something just how I like it." Automata opened its doors in association with the neighbouring Old Clare Hotel back in 2015 and has stood tall as a pillar of Chippendale's hospitality boom in the six years since. "My vision for Automata was always to bring more fun into fine dining, I wanted to serve delicious food and drinks, I wanted it to be energetic, I wanted it to be accessible, I wanted our guests to be able to let their hair down, I wanted it to be a bit rock'n'roll. I think we did everything we set out to do," Wells' statement continues. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Clayton Wells (@c_j_wells) The award-winning Kensington Street eatery will continue with regular service for the next five months until its last day of trade on Saturday, December 17. While the news of Automata's closing is devastating, a new restaurant is set to soften the blow to Chippendale's hospitality community. Hartsyard's Dorothy Lee and Jarrod Wash will be taking over the food and drink offerings at the Old Clare with plans to expand into a new space next to Automata. If you want to reserve a spot for your first or your fiftieth visit to Automata, you can reserve a table at the restaurant's website. Automata is located at 5 Kensington St, Chippendale and is open from 6pm Wednesday–Friday and from midday Saturdays. Its final day of trade will be on Saturday, December 17. Top image: Nikki To
In the ballad of the Barden Bellas, it's time for another verse. That gang of college pals is back — aspiring record producer Becca (Anna Kendrick), group stalwart Chloe (Brittany Snow) and outspoken Australian Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) included — and they're trying to sing their way to supremacy once more. Is their second outing a toe-tapping rehash of their catchy debut tune, or does it drag on past the natural fade-out point? The answer is both. Pitch Perfect 2 alternates between the cinematic equivalent of the catchy melody you don't mind having stuck in your head, and the earworm you quickly grow tired of. Just three short years ago, an a cappella comedy was considered a gamble, but now we don't just have a repeat effort — we have a ready-made formula to follow as well. With mashups of songs old and new, rivalries getting heated, against-the-odds challenges to overcome, and one-liners a plenty, there's not much that's different, save for a new character setting up for a potential third instalment. That'd be freshman Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), a wannabe Bella since birth thanks to her ex-member mother. Fresh blood aside, everyone is older this time around, given that three years have passed in the film as well. They're also clouded in scandal, after an important show exposes too much of Fat Amy, leaving the Bellas banned from performing as punishment. Chloe finds a loophole that will see them on stage again, but only if they can beat their stereotypically tough-talking German counterparts at the world championships. Becca's focus is elsewhere, though, as she's thinking of life beyond study and competitive singing. It was the jukebox-like playlist of tracks and the loveable cast playing quirky characters that helped Pitch Perfect hit the high notes the first time around, so here, it isn't surprising to see a whole lot of doubling down on both. Expect an eclectic compilation of Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus tunes, as well as '90s hiphop jamz and songs about butts. Expect Kendrick and the group cycling through sing-offs, fall outs, bonding sessions and realisations about what's really important — and copious amounts of harmonising. What you shouldn't expect is anything beyond a more is more approach — more music, actors, complications and reminders that it's all about a singing sisterhood, that is. If it sounds routine, that's because returning screenwriter Kay Cannon, once again taking inspiration from the book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory, doesn't stretch anything very far. Pushing boundaries is left to Wilson, who steals the show all over again. In a lineup that includes Arrested Development's David Cross, Key and Peele's Keegan Michael-Key, Snoop Lion and the Green Bay Packers (yep, the American footballers), it helps that she's the only one who doesn't seem like she's just going through the motions. Of course, it's always difficult for a sequel to a breakout hit to pave its own way, a problem Pitch Perfect 2 clearly struggles with. Sitting in the director's chair as well as popping up again as sarcastic commentator Gail, Elizabeth Banks bubbles over with enthusiasm, but not with flair. She's pitch-slapping audiences and staying in key; however, her film isn't a fun new must-listen track — it's more like movie karaoke. The verdict (sing it with me): aca-average.
Because you're reading this, we know you're not someone who received a pet for Christmas, only to decide it wasn't for you. We know you're one of the good folks. You're probably wishing that you did receive a loveable animal as a gift, even if you already have one — or several — that you adore. We understand your yearning, and so does the RSPCA. And, to find permanent homes for pups, cats, bunnies, guinea pigs and even Sheepy the Sheep surrendered into its care from all over the country, it's lowering the adoption fee to $29 this weekend. The weekend-long initiative is called Clear the Shelters and will run from Friday, February 21 until Sunday, February 23. Although you can't put a price on the happiness a new four-legged friend will bring, it's hoped that the low adoption fee will encourage people who have been thinking about adding a pet to their fam (and have considered it thoroughly) to make the commitment this week. Last year, the RSPCA found new homes for 2654 pets Australia-wide. [caption id="attachment_761823" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jane is available for adoption in Tuggerah, Animal ID: 473147[/caption] This year, Clear the Shelters will run across Australia in all states and territories except Tasmania. The adoption fees — which usually range from $20–600 — help cover some of the costs of vaccines, training, desexing and microchipping for the animal. Whether you're in NSW, Victoria, WA or Queensland, there are hundreds of animals that need a new home full of love and pats. There's more to pet adoption than overdosing on cuteness, of course, as making the commitment to care for an animal is serious business. RSPCA's Clear the Shelters runs nationally (except Tasmania) from February 21–23. You can pre-register over here. Top image: Lady Danger is available for adoption in Sydney, Animal ID: 472000.
In the lead up to Sydney WorldPride 2023, the City of Sydney has commissioned artist Amy Blue to create a bright and colourful mural celebrating the history of Oxford Street and Sydney's LGBTQIA+ community. Current and former sites of queer joy and acts of resistance like Q Bar, The Unicorn Hotel, Universal and Exiles Bookshop will all feature on the mural alongside a range of figures and iconography tied to the history of the community across Sydney. "I wanted this collection of illustrations to capture a snippet of some of the people and events that have illuminated Oxford Street throughout its brilliant and colourful history. It's an illustrative representation capturing the 'A-Z of Oxford Street', a sort of 'GAY-B-C' if you like," said Blue. "As a community, we've experienced moments that call for triumph and celebration, but we have also faced some extremely challenging moments of adversity. This collection is a nod to some of the defining moments in that history." The Oxford Street mural will be present throughout WorldPride, an event which City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has billed as "the largest event in Sydney since the 2000 Olympics". "The City is committed to making sure Oxford Street is as attractive as possible and operating at its maximum potential through this important event," says Moore. "In 2019 we secured a significant redevelopment of City-owned Oxford Street properties, which will help ensure the strip's long-term success. That work is well underway, so to beautify the strip in the short-term we're turning construction hoardings into a massive canvas with which to tell the incredibly diverse and colourful story of Oxford Street's rainbow community." Accompanying the mural will be a range of changes to Oxford Street, assisted by $1.7 million in funding that the City of Sydney is allocating towards its development. Vacant shopfronts will be activated, pride-themed lighting will be installed at the Taylor Square fountain, the longstanding rainbow crossing is being refreshed and a host of aesthetic changes will be made across the already rainbow-filled thoroughfare. Sydney WorldPride 2023 will also feature a massive program of over 300 different events headlined by the return of the Mardi Gras parade to Oxford Street, an opening concert featuring Kylie Minogue and Charli XCX, and a monumental pride march with 50,000-plus people walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. German pop sensation Kim Petras has also just been added to the Rainbow Republic closing concert, performing alongside the likes of MUNA, G Flip, Keiynan Lonsdale and Peach PRC. Sydney WorldPride will run from Friday, February 17–Sunday, March 5, 2023. For more information on the mural, head to the City of Sydney's website — and to view the full program of events, head to the WorldPride website.
It's the beverage everyone's talking about, as well as the unofficial tipple of spring and summer. Knowing that you're going to be knocking back frosty glasses of frosé for the next six months is one thing. Knowing that you can do so in a dedicated frosé garden takes the cool refreshment of the moment to another level. Yep, it's the outdoor space that somewhere was bound to open sooner or later, with Pelicano in Double Bay doing the honours. Welcoming lovers of frozen rosé from September 23, and kicking off to celebrate the Spring Equinox, their dedicated frosé terrace boasts fruity and dry varieties of your favourite icy drink, rosé-infused cocktails on tap, and a relaxing courtyard to devour them in. For those who aren't up-to-date on the chilled alcohol trend, frosé turns sparkling rosé wine into rosé sorbet — aka what happens when you put rosé in a slushie machine, which is exactly how it first came about. It was invented at New York's Bar Primi, and became an instant sensation, quickly spreading overseas. You've seen the sea of pink cocktail pics on Instagram; you know what we're talking about. Now, you can head to Pelicano and share your own rosy frosé snaps with the online masses. Pelicano's Frosé Terrace is open from Wednesday to Saturday at 24 Bay Street, Double Bay. For more information, visit their website and Facebook page.
In the non-stop rush of our lives, it's incredibly easy to focus on the here and the now. It would be overly simple to say that the solution is to disappear off the grid for a while. But perhaps there are other ways to reconnect with nature. World-renowned artists Christopher Bucklow and Simone Douglas — who have previously worked internationally across museums including Tate and MoMa — have come up with an alternative. Their first collaborative photographic exhibition, Sun to Sun, is on one level a celebration of man's relationship with nature and the universe. It can also be taken as Bucklow's and Douglas' love letter to photography: for them, the modern medium of light. Bucklow's ethereal silhouettes are taken through pinhole (or 'camera-less') photography, of which he's a pioneer. Douglas, meanwhile, creates abstract conceptions of light, combining them with her evocative portraits of nature. Get a little elemental with them during this exhibition.
As if the hit Chinese dating show If You Are the One hasn't already brought enough glee into our dreary little lives, it's about to bring even more. And noodles. In almost inexplicable news, cheeky host Meng Fei is opening his own Chinese noodle restaurant in Melbourne, aptly named Mr Meng. Although we know Grandpa Meng as a television host who asks tough questions ("The question is, whether the girls can tolerate your shortcomings?"), he's actually a Kim K level celeb in China thanks to his shenanigans on the cult dating show, which has been airing in Australia on SBS 2 (now SBS VICELAND) since 2013. He's teamed up with Guo Degang, a popular Chinese comedian and actor, to open the noodle restaurant, quite out of nowhere. Why? Literally dunno. His team were tight lipped on motivations — but stay tuned for a report on the opening. In the meantime, get excited for some no-nonsense Chinese food and Chongqing-style noodle dishes. Mr Meng's is opening soon on Elizabeth Street and serving up 'delicious noodles for lunch and dinner, loved by everyone'. We only hope Meng's noodles are as spicy as his insults. In other relevant and exciting news, after eight seasons of humiliating Chinese men on air, the show is undergoing a seismic shift and reboot. A brand new 'boys special' will air on SBS VICELAND on July 2, which will be a taste of things to come before the new series relaunches in December. Mr Meng will open on Monday, May 22 at 382-384 Elizabeth Street. We'll report back on the opening.
It visited Melbourne in June and Brisbane in September, and now Australia's sweetest dessert museum is finally heading to Sydney. Called Sugar Republic and heading our way this February, the immersive pop-up brings sugary delights to folks with a sweet tooth, boasting an array of spaces filled with all things chocolate, confectionery and dessert-oriented. Taking over the sixth floor of Myer Sydney City, the Sydney pop-up features a huge bubblegum pink ball pit, a climbable candy rainbow, a sherbet-filled bridge and a life-sized gum ball machine (the sugary list goes on and on). You're also able to bask in nostalgia inside an old-school lolly shop, a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-inspired garden and a house made from cookies. It sounds like the kind of place that Willy Wonka might own. Throughout the colourful exhibition, you'll find many edible treats, including Hubba Bubba, Halo Top, Wizz Fizz, Skittles and Starbursts, and will be able to visit a Sugar Republic cafe, which will be serving up a whole host of sugary delights. Don't tell your dentist. Worried the installation will be filled with littlies? Thankfully, it's opening on Thursday and Friday nights for adults only — so you can jump in the pit without fear of crushing a small one. Sugar Republic will pop up on the sixth floor of Myer Sydney City from February 10, 2019, and run through until the end of April. It is open from 10am–6pm every day except Wednesday, and adults-only sessions will run from 6.30–8pm on Thursday and Friday nights. Images: Lucas Dawson and Sherbet Birdie Photography. Updated: April 9, 2019.
This spring, you can immerse yourself in the wilderness without leaving the city, when the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year exhibition takes over the Powerhouse Museum. More than 100 photographs will transport you to spectacular scenery and put you eye-to-eye with crested-horn sharks, short-beaked echidnas and flying foxes. As well as being completely captivating, the images show the incredible natural diversity of Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea. The photos will take you from NSW's snow-capped Australian Main Range to waterfalls in Tasmania and WA's Cheynes Beach, where the winning photo was taken. The acclaimed shot by local photographer Mat Beetson features a giant dead fin whale that's being circled by bronze whalers and great whites. It's the first photo taken with a drone to win the competition, with the judges saying the image is "unique and exciting, it reveals incredible beauty in death". The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition is produced by the South Australian Museum, and its entrees are judged on timing, patience, artistry and technique by photography veterans. You can read all about the other finalists over here. Images: Fin Whale's Demise by Mat Beetson, Mountain Echidna by Charles Davis and The Heat Run by Scott Portelli.
With restaurants opening in Sydney every other day, it can turn into a full-time task trying to keep in-the-know. Advice on where to eat from someone who really knows their stuff is your one-way ticket to a finger-licking, stomach-patting culinary experience. Who better to ask than up-and-coming and top-of-their-game Sydney chefs? These guys are the lauded creatives who live and breathe food and are here to tell us where to eat no matter the occasion. Dan Hong eats at Golden Century Dan Hong has been climbing the ranks of Merivale since 2008. Hong opened super cool Asian diner Ms G's in 2010 and moved on to the epic Mr. Wong just last year. He has also headed up a string of recent El Loco pop-ups. My favourite late-night eat is ... "Golden Century is hands-down number one because it's open until 4am in the morning and they have fantastic live seafood." If Hong had to take an international chef out for a bite his preference would be to lead them on a "massive eating expedition in Cabramatta to show them how good our Vietnamese/Cambodian/Lao/Chinese food really is". Andrew 'Gomez' Braham eats at Sixpenny Adam 'Gomez' Braham has been around the cheffing traps for quite sometime. He started working in Sydney for hatters like Quay and Aria before flexing his egg-beating muscles in Europe and then in Monaco cooking for Russian billionaires. If I were to entertain a visiting chef I would take them to ... "Sixpenny because they showcase the best Australian produce in their food. You can go to restaurants for a view, but at the end of the day all a chef wants to look at is the kitchen, the plates and the food that comes out on them." For a late-night feed, Braham's choice would be Arisun for their deep-fried chicken in "all its mouth-watering glory," accompanied by a mini five litre keg of beer for the table. Image credit: Joseph Ng. Jamie Thomas eats at 3 Weeds Jaime Thomas hails from the mother country and has been in the business for about 22 years. Being English, a love of old pubs with loads of character is practically in Thomas' DNA, so it makes perfect sense he's executive chef at the Drink n' Dine Group which includes The Abercrombie, The Norfolk and The Forresters. For a casual meal, nothing beats ... "A beer and a burger at 3 Weeds in Rozelle." Lauren Murdoch has just taken over as chef at this popular pub, which has a separate restaurant serving dishes like crumbed lamb brains, and pork belly and chorizo meatballs. Brent Savage eats at Quay Brent Savage, the chef that took the stiff back out of fine dining with his restaurant Bentley, has done it again. Hi latest venture, Monopole, is a casual eatery with a wine list at its heart. If I had to take a chef out, I'd take them to ... "Quay or Sepia for the technique-driven food and for the full fine dining experience." Savage's late-night choice is Chat Thai and of a Sunday? You'll find him sipping green tea and eating dim sum at Zilver Restaurant in front of Capitol Square. One of the best places for yum cha in town, so we're told. Daniel Puskas eats at Fleetwood Macchiato Daniel Puskas is one half of the duo behind Stanmore eatery Sixpenny. A night at this place is most definitely something special. Local produce is key with both Puskas and co-owner James Parry growing their own produce on a lot in the Southern Highlands. Then of course there's their famous kitchen garden out back. On Sundays I eat at ... "Fleetwood Macchiato or newbie Brickfields for family day with my daughter Isobel and partner Alicia. Brickfields has a seriously tempting array of sweet, crumbly things whipped up by Simon Cancio who previously worked his floury magic at Luxe. And if eating with a foreigner? "If it was before midday most likely Zilver for dumplings and if after a night out it'd most likely be Golden Century or Arisun. In between, some of my favourite places to take people are Rockpool Bar & Grill for a burger, Berta or Billy Kwong and for something special it would be Quay, Marque or Sepia," said Puskas. Chui Lee Luk eats at Din Tai Fung Chui Lee Luk stepped into very large shoes when she took over Claude's as its fourth owner, a mainstay of Sydney's dining scene for the past 36 years. Luk's Asian heritage has helped keep Claude's relevant; she's added unexpected flavours to the menu while maintaining the restaurant's French heritage. She's also split the restaurant in two, with a more casual space downstairs and the full degustation experience upstairs. If eating with a fellow chef, I'd take them to ... "Northern Dixon Street in Chinatown because it's full of Chinese regional cuisines like Xinjiang, showing how Eastern cuisine translates overseas. Black Star Pastry is also great for new and old-fashioned pastries, and to experience Newtown." If Luk was looking for a bite under $15, she would hit up Din Tai Fung for dumplings, Northern Noodle House for zhajiang mian and Ichiban Boshi for ramen. Steven Skelly eats at Sean's Panorama Steven Skelly is British-born but now a fixture of Sydney's dining scene after quickly making a name for himself when he moved here ten years ago. Landing first at Hugo's in Bondi, he moved to Bilson's and won the restaurant its third hat. He now calls The Sailors Club, an apt place for him to express his love of Australian seafood. For a casual Sunday, Skelly eats at ... "Sean's Panorama for its laid-back attitude more than anything else. They rarely have a double sitting so it can turn into a long BYO-allowed lunch!" Steven also tells us he's had great meals at Marque and Sepia.
Upstairs at the Beresford is opening up its doors and letting the creatives loose on May 1 for liveMUSIC vs liveART. The night is all about interplay — local bands will take to the stage as artists of the visual persuasion let the music inspire them and go to town on a blank canvas for our viewing pleasure. The artworks will then be auctioned off for charity. The Merivale family has brought together a stellar lineup of local music talent, including the new worst-band-in-Sydney, Teenage Hand Models, and She Rex. On the paint and pencils side of things, Jodee Knowles' piece is sure to pull a few bidders with her moody illustrations that would have rendered the young Tim Burton her infatuated slave in decades past. Other artists practising their under-pressure game faces for the night are Brett Chan, Nico, Fesselet, Daimon Downey, Bafcat, Love Arial and Terho, while Quantum Force, Leper & Crooks and Firesaint round out the band lineup. The night is 100 percent all proceeds to charity and is going for a decided environmental tone, with both chosen funds working for wildlife protection (WWF and Wildlife Warriors).
The Tamarama Rock Surfers, formerly of Old Fitz fame, are one of the few truly local, truly committed to emerging work and artists, truly theatrical theatre companies out there, and just to prove it, they have given us Cut & Paste. A bi-monthly get-together of artists, attention seekers, actors and writers, these are the kind of nights that friendships are based on. There are no guarantees of what will end up stage; you could escape with a terribly civilised play reading or find yourself playing tonsil hockey with Bron Batten. What is guaranteed is a chance for smaller names to get some stage time, test out new works and showcase where they have been putting their blood, sweat and tears for $15 a ticket. Not a bad deal and they throw in a view — it's at Bondi Pavilion — free of charge. Photo by Lucy Parakhina.
Thisisfortunate.com presents the last instalment of #CROSSSECTION The Marketplace, the fortnightly fashion designers' market replete with music, eats and drinks in Angel Place. For the last couple of years, #CROSSSECTION has been placing emerging designers alongside their more established peers to sell direct to you. Think Project Runway meets The Grand Social at the foot of the Ivy — with a theme. 2013 was a big one for the recently rebranded initiative (formerly Bizarre Bazaar), who'll continue on in their bricks-and-mortar boutique at 62 Glebe Point Road. Make it a farewell party/shopping spree to remember on Thursday, May 9, which will feature wares by Kirsty Irwin and Plague of Man, among many other rising stars.
Darlinghurst’s TAP Gallery welcomes back the Workhorse Theatre Co with their second ever production, Stephen Adly Guirgis's 2011 play, The Motherf***ker with the Hat. The play enjoyed one of those critically acclaimed-box-office-disappointment runs in New York but managed to pick up a Tony nomination for Best Play in 2011. Guirgis teases his audience through questions of fidelity and addiction centring on high-school sweethearts Jackie and Veronica, Jackie’s sponsor Ralph D and the hat that should not be in Veronica's bed. So, Shakespearean farce meets the dark years of Robert Downey Jr? Awesome. Plus the Workhorse Theatre Co's first production That Pretty Pretty; Or, The Rape Play made a bit of a splash last year, announcing their arrival as a subversive new voice worthy of your attention. So if you feel like seeing something fresh or potentially risk-taking or maybe just something without Toby Schmitz in it, head down to the TAP and catch The Motherf**ker in the Hat.
"My plan was to die before the money ran out, but I kept and keep not dying — and here I am." When asked about her strategy as she faces financial ruin, that's Manhattan socialite Frances Price's (Michelle Pfeiffer, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) frank response. Her fortune has dwindled, the banks are about to repossess everything she owns and she doesn't know what her now-precarious future holds; however, she's most annoyed about having to answer her financial advisor's exasperated questions. Conveying Frances' reply with little else but spikiness otherwise, Pfeiffer turns this early French Exit scene into a deadpan masterclass. The character's candour, irritation and sharp edges are all personality traits, rather than specific reactions to her current predicament, and Pfeiffer makes it clear that she'd still be spitting out acerbic retorts with the same poker face if Frances had been queried about absolutely anything else. She frequently does just that afterwards, in fact, and she's a caustic delight in this wry exploration of a familiar topic: weathering life's many disappointments. Widowed for a decade, and happy to keep cultivating an eccentric reputation as the years go on, Frances hasn't dedicated even a second to tangibly preparing for her present lack of funds. That said, she soon has another plan. Surreptitiously selling off her belongings as her accountant advises — and viciously haggling over commission rates in the process — she rustles up what cash she can and absconds to Paris, where a friend's empty apartment awaits rent-free. There, she reverts to her old approach. Once her remaining money has been frittered away on wine, coffee, and oversized tips to anyone and everyone, she doesn't see the point of going on. But her dysfunctionally codependent relationship with her twentysomething son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges, Waves), his on-and-off romance with his secret fiancée Susan (Imogen Poots, Black Christmas), and a new friendship with the lonely and besotted Madame Reynard (Valerie Mahaffey, Dead to Me) all add unexpected chaos to Frances' scheme, as does a cruise ship fortune teller (Danielle Macdonald, Unbelievable) and a runaway cat who just might be her reincarnated husband. French Exit doesn't watch on as Frances tries to live a modest life and adjust her extravagant ways. It doesn't follow the unapologetically venomous woman as she learns to reassess her choices and attitude, either. Rather, it unfurls a keenly observed character study that's wrapped up in an oddball comedy — and while mining the loss of extreme wealth for chuckles has served Schitt's Creek well, too, French Exit proves as distinctive as its protagonist. It's a film about a woman called Frances who was once married to Franklin, owns a cat called Small Frank and relocates to France, after all. She leaves suddenly and without informing New York high society of her departure, of course, as the movie's title suggests. That's the type of humour pulsating through this light yet still probing picture, as directed with a fluid touch by Azazel Jacobs (The Lovers), and scripted by author Patrick deWitt from his own 2018 novel. Indeed, the fact that Frances' son isn't called Frankie, and that no one called Fran also pops up, is actually disappointing once French Exit establishes its absurdist wavelength. A haunted sensation hovers over this portrait of privilege undone, though, and not just because of Small Frank's possible backstory. Casting Pfeiffer is the movie's best choice, and must've been far too delicious to pass up — seeing the former Catwoman chase a mouser around Paris is amusing, naturally — but it's easy to see how French Exit could've and probably would've crumbled without her. Finding the perfect person for a part that no one else would've done justice can do that. This film belongs to its equally slinky and scathing star, who adds another commanding performance to a resume filled with them, but she's the overwhelming reason that Frances' wounding one-liners, larger-than-life demeanour and all-round cattishness strike a chord. Equally icy and vulnerable even when she's playing for laughs, she also ensures that Frances never feels like a caricature, or as if she has simply stepped out of a Wes Anderson or Noah Baumbach picture. (In its pithy dialogue and idiosyncratic family dynamics, French Exit overtly resembles both The Royal Tenenbaums and The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), and even offers a gender-flipped accompaniment to Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks as well). Thankfully, Pfeiffer is truly magnificent and magnetic, and the film's embrace of farce is just as compelling. The latter is refreshing, too, ignoring the usual poignant life lessons, and instead embracing the mess and mania Frances seems to cultivate every time she opens her mouth. Jacobs and deWitt haven't starved their feature of canny insights, especially in Pfeiffer's barbed words. A trace of unshakeable melancholy lingers over every sentence as her character tries to do what everyone must: figure out how to go on. But, paired with a lively pace, scenic but never gratuitously touristy Parisian cinematography, and a willingness to get silly and whimsical, French Exit bubbles rather than wallows — and while it doesn't quite find its mark consistently enough, it's a gem whenever it does. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0UbkJD2KDY
There's a bit of history to The Boys. It is playwright Gordon Graham's response to' (as in 'not directly based on') the horrific murder of Sydney nurse Anita Cobby in the late '80s. The play is an unforgiving and rigorous attempt to understand the origins of violence, determinedly avoiding the simple solution of labelling those responsible as aberrations. It debuted at Griffin in 1991 amongst a storm of controversy, an argument along the lines of 'the monsters responsible for such crimes wouldn't be so familiar, so human ... let alone so articulate'. Sam Strong's new production sets its response to this clearly upon entry, as the audience walks across grass — prickly, ordinary, suburban grass — to reach their seats. What unfolds is as devastating as it feels real, and nightmarish in its intensity. The Sprague brothers, headed by the fresh-out-of-jail Brett (Josh McConville), are constantly frustrated by their girlfriends, who are always nattering amongst themselves, making cups of tea at inconvenient times, unwilling to lend cars when requested and generally making life difficult. When acting atrociously to the women in their lives doesn't seem to be quite enough any longer, they go out to teach 'women' a lesson by raping and murdering one unlucky young lady. As comedic as this sounds, it doesn't stay funny for long. Even for those less aware of the play's past, as I was, there is a powerful resonance to this production. Much of it comes from sharing the room with such raw, visceral performances. The air in the theatre is thick with the threat of violence, punctuated by loud crashes whenever the fly screen door is slammed shut. I find myself jumping every time. While it is almost always the female characters on stage, they inevitably operate in relation to and according to the terms of the absent men. And when the 'boys' do burst in, their performances have me hunching over despite myself. Perhaps the most terrifying of all is mother Sandra Sprague, with Jeanette Cronin reaching new depths in a role she knows well. The return of this play to Griffin makes sense, and not just for reasons of nostalgia. The theatre's tiny space wreaks havoc with the intentions of many directors but for The Boys the atmosphere couldn't be better suited. As tempting as it is to be close to the action, you might prefer to sit a couple of rows back for this one.
It might've taken three years, but Netflix has finally produced its first original Aussie series. Shot entirely in Queensland, and providing fuel for late 2018 binge-watch sessions, Tidelands is a supernatural crime drama series about a fictional fishing village, dubbed Orphelin Bay, with strange inhabitants: a group of dangerous half-Sirens, half-humans called 'Tidelanders'. Cal McTeer (Charlotte Best), a young women who returns to the small village after a stint in jail, discovers the body of a local fisherman and must navigate the town's drug smuggling history while also investigating the Tidelanders, who are led by Adrielle Cuthburt (Elsa Pataky). Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gZG_ehP0Ag&feature=youtu.be Eight episodes, each running for 50 minutes, have been made by Brisbane's Emmy Award-Winning production company Hoodlum Entertainment. And Tidelands won't just gift Australian users with a new favourite series, with the show set to land in all 190 countries that Netflix is available in. Thinking you've seen plenty of Aussie stuff on Netflix already? You're not wrong, however, there's a difference between throwing old sitcoms and standup specials into a range inexplicably overflowing with new Adam Sandler movies, and actually funding brand new Australian material. Last year, it was announced that they'd join forces with the ABC to co-produce a second season of Glitch, which showed them dipping a toe in the water — but now they're completely diving in. Tidelands will join the platform's hefty stable of original series, which started back in 2013 with House of Cards, and just keeps growing (Orange Is the New Black, The Get Down, The OA, Wet Hot American Summer, Master of None, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Dear White People, BoJack Horseman, four Marvel series with one more to come — the list goes on). Given the premise, here's hoping it'll be the next Stranger Things, and not the new Hemlock Grove. Tidelands will be available globally on Netflix from December 14, 2018.
Cafes are no longer just serving great coffee. They're serving great locally roasted coffee in many forms (from cold drip to batch and single origin espresso), great fare that caters to all dietaries. They also boast interesting decors and are passionate about sustainability and the ethical sourcing of ingredients. And our favourite cafes of the year do an impressive job at covering it all. From charcoal 'sushi' croissants and house-baked bread to all-day eateries and a minimalist Japanese cafe serving pork katsu breakfast rolls, these six cafes are doing it all. At Concrete Playground we encourage exploration and showcase innovation in our city every day, so we thought it fitting to reward those most talented whippersnappers pushing Sydney to be a better, braver city. And so, we nominated these six newbies for Best New Cafe in Concrete Playground's Best of 2018 Awards. You can check out all the winners over here.
Most of us are spending a lot of time at home at the moment, meaning we may have more time to cook, but prepping meals to scoff down in your home office isn't how all of us wish to spend our Sundays. And, while you can still head down to your local pizza joint to pick up a takeaway feed or order from Uber Eats, you may be craving more nourishing food as time goes by while you're in isolation. Thankfully, healthy food delivery service Nourish'd is dropping off nutrition-packed meals to doors across the country. Its main selling point is the variety of gluten, dairy, preservative and sugar free dishes on its menu. Nourish'd delivers fresh, chef-prepared dishes to your door and is suitable for anyone looking for a tasty, nutritious meal without all the prep work. It'll also save you a trip to the supermarket, so you can practise social distancing without skipping your daily quota of veggies. You'll be tucking into a diverse range of meals, too, with everything from a nourishing chickpea dahl to pad thai, jerk chicken, veggie lasagne and chipotle shredded beef on the 55-dish menu. So, you can say goodbye to eating the same leftovers day-in and day-out. There are options for vegans and vegetarians; those on diets such as keto and paleo; and people with allergies and intolerances. Prices start from $11 per dish, with six different packs available. You can opt for the ease of a subscription-style service, delivered to your door weekly, or the flexibility of one-off orders, meaning you can tailor it to suit your needs, as well as your dietaries. Plus, you don't have to commit to anything longterm. Nourish'd is available across NSW, Qld, Tas, Vic, ACT and SA, with orders delivered every week. Meal plans start at $69.35 per week. For more information and to sign up, head here. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
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. Maybe you're in lockdown. 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. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here's nine you can watch right now at home. JUNGLE CRUISE Take two charming actors, then couple them up for a feature-length volley of fast-paced banter: that's the screwball rom-com formula. Place this pleasing pair in a scenic but challenging setting — one that'll highlight their individual strengths, see them turn seeming weaknesses into new skills, and will obviously bring them closer together — and that's exactly how plenty of action-adventure movies have unfurled. Sending the always personable and likeable Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt to the Amazon, Jungle Cruise stitches together these two well-established formulas. It traverses its cinematic rapids in the slipstream of 80s fare like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Romancing the Stone (and their respective sequels), and even rollicks along in the footsteps of The Mummy franchise of the late 90s and early 00s (a series which actually gave Johnson his first big-screen roles). But, as anyone with even a passing knowledge of Disney's theme parks knows, Jungle Cruise also falls from the attraction-to-film mould that the Mouse House clearly loves. Pirates of the Caribbean is an overt influence, right down to the way that some of this new flick's villains look, and thrusting all these blatant templates to the fore — and together — doesn't quite result in movie magic. Indeed, despite Johnson and Blunt's charismatic and capable pairing, as well as the movie's visually boisterous imagery, the film's modest pleasures all fade oh-so-quickly, as happens with every amusement ride. Directed by Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night and The Commuter's Jaume Collet-Serra, who makes a workmanlike but hardly memorable jump from unleashing Liam Neeson's special set of skills, Jungle Cruise wants to whisk viewers off on a spirited ride. That's the experiential aim of most theme park-based films: these flicks want audiences to feel like they've stepped inside the attraction from their cinema seat. So, before the movie's title card graces the screen, two sequences endeavour to set this tone. It's 1916, and Dr Lily Houghton (Blunt, A Quiet Place Part II) sneaks into an all-male science society to look for a treasured arrowhead from the Amazon. She's tasked her fussy brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall, Good Omens) with deflecting the organisation's members by telling them her theories about a fabled South American tree, called the Tears of the Moon, that can cure any illness or break any curse. The men are dismissive, but she knows they will be. She's there to steal the trinket so it can lead her to the mythical plant, all while Prince Joachim of Germany (Jesse Plemons, Judas and the Black Messiah) tries to get his hands on it as well. When Lily comes out on top, the Houghtons are off to Brazil to hit the river, but they'll need a captain to guide their watery jaunt. In his introductory scene, the roguish Frank Wolff (Johnson, Jumanji: The Next Level) is spied conducting tourist trips down the Amazon, every step choreographed like an amusement park ride, and with his own pun-heavy showman patter narrating the journey. He's corny, and he has a jaguar in on the act, too. Accordingly, there are zero surprises when Lily enlists his services reluctantly and after some subterfuge on his side, or when he keeps trying to trick her into giving up her quest. Jungle Cruise is available to stream via Disney+ with Premier Access. Read our full review. TALL POPPY — A SKATER'S STORY When skateboarding makes its debut as an Olympic sport in Tokyo this winter, it'll do so with Poppy Starr Olsen flying the flag for Australia. A world champion since her teens, she first hit the Bondi Skate Park at the age of eight, and proclaimed at the time that she'd like to spend her adult life carving, ollieing, flipping and grinding — one of those childhood wishes that, in this case, has proven more than just a kid's outlandish fantasy. Audiences know about this youthful exclamation because it was caught on camera. Yes, Tall Poppy — A Skater's Story belongs in the camp of documentaries that are inescapably blessed by the constant lens through which many of our lives have been captured since video cameras became a household gadget and then a standard mobile phone feature. Accordingly, making her first feature-length doco, filmmaker Justine Moyle has ample material to draw upon as she weaves together a portrait of Olsen's life from pint-sized bowl-rider to Australia's best female skater, the fourth best woman on a board in the world and an Olympian, all by the age of 21. This isn't just a film compiled from home videos, though, although the feature. In front of Dane Howell's (Without a Tracey) lens as she has grown up, Olsen is candid, open and relaxed as she literally comes of age before the camera, and her skateboarding skills are just as riveting to watch. You can tell much about Olsen by just seeing her in the bowl or on the park, no matter her age, wherever she happens to be at the time, or if she's competing, practicing or just skating for fun. It hardly comes as a surprise that she takes to the pastime because it feels so freeing; as she rolls up and down in Bondi after first giving skateboarding a try, she may as well be flying. Tall Poppy — A Skater's Story captures the rollercoaster ride from there, as she's eager and enthusiastic at both local and international competitions, visibly nervous at her first X Games, and also a little disillusioned once she's put on an Olympic path. She's a teenager, in other words, and her emotional ups and downs mirror those on the board. This is a film about resilience, perseverance and taking on the world on your own terms, however, as Olsen works out who she wants to be and how that ripples through in her skateboarding. She's already a role model, whether or not you want to follow in her footsteps. Here, she's doubly so for her personal ebbs and flows, including through COVID-19, as much as her professional achievements. Tall Poppy — A Skater's Story is an affectionate movie, of course. Its release is also impeccably timed, it's as deservedly loving towards female skaters as the fictional Skate Kitchen and its TV spinoff Betty, and it shows the beauty in every commonplace and exceptional skateboarding trick. But Olsen's presence, passion and prowess drive this rousing documentary above all else. Tall Poppy — A Skater's Story is available to stream via ABC iView, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Prime Video. FAST AND FURIOUS 9 Fast cars, furious action stars, a love of family and oh-so-many Coronas: across ten movies over 20 years, that's the Fast and Furious franchise. It might've started out as a high-octane spin on Point Break, but this long-running series has kept motoring across nine flicks in its main storyline, and also via a 2019 spinoff. The latter, Hobbs & Shaw, actually casts a shadow over the saga's latest instalment. Because Dwayne Johnson was part of that sidestep, he doesn't show up in Fast and Furious 9. He's missed, regardless of whether you're usually a diehard fan of the wrestler-turned-actor, because he's managed to perfect the F&F tone. Over his decade-long involvement to-date, Johnson always seems amused in his Fast and Furious performances. He's always sweaty, too, but that's another matter. Entering the F&F realm in Fast Five, he instantly oozed the kind of attitude the franchise needs. He knows that by taking the outlandish stunts, eye-catching setpieces and penchant for family with the utmost seriousness, these films border on comedic — and by navigating five flicks with that mood, he's been the saga's playful and entertaining barometer. Without Johnson, Fast and Furious 9 isn't as willing to admit that it's often downright silly. It's nowhere near as fun, either. Hobbs & Shaw wasn't a franchise standout, but Fast and Furious 9 mainly revs in one gear, even in a movie that features a high-speed car chase through Central American jungles, a plane with a magnet that can scoop up fast-driving vehicles and a trip to space in a rocket car. The latest F&F is as ridiculous as ever, and it's the least-eager F&F film to acknowledge that fact. It's also mostly a soap opera. It leans heavily on its favourite theme — yes, family — by not only swapping in a different wrestler-turned-actor as Dominic Toretto's (Vin Diesel, Bloodshot) long-lost sibling, but also by fleshing out the warring brothers' backstory through flashbacks to their tragic past. Fast and Furious 9 starts with an 80s-era Universal logo, because that's the time period it heads to first — to introduce a teen Dom (Vinnie Bennett, Ghost in the Shell), his never-before-mentioned younger brother Jakob (Finn Cole, Dreamland) and their dad Jack (JD Pardo, Mayans MC). It's 1989, the elder Toretto is behind the wheel on the racetrack, and his sons are part of his pit crew. Then tragedy strikes, tearing the Toretto family apart. In the present day, Dom and Jakob (John Cena, Playing with Fire) definitely don't get along. Indeed, when Roman (Tyrese Gibson, The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two), Tej (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Show Dogs) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel, Four Weddings and a Funeral) drive up to the rural hideout that Dom has been calling home with wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez, Crisis) and toddler son Brian (first-timers Isaac and Immanuel Holtane) since the events of 2017's The Fate of the Furious, he doesn't even want to hear about the latest mission that demands their help. The only thing that changes his mind: realising that Jakob is involved and up to no good. Fast and Furious 9 is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Prime Video. Read our full review. GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE Cutesy name, likeable stars, stylised brutality, a familiar revenge scenario: blend them all together, and that's Gunpowder Milkshake. There's one particular ingredient that's missing from this action-thriller's recipe, though, and its absence is surprising — because much about the film feels like it has jumped from the pages of a comic book. That's one of the movie's best traits, in fact. The world already has too many comics-to-cinema adaptations, but although Gunpowder Milkshake doesn't stem from a graphic novel, it actually looks the part. Its precise framing and camera placement, hyper-vibrant colours and love of neon could've easily been printed in inky hues on paper, then splattered across the screen like the blood and bullets the feature sprays again and again. Writer/director Navot Papushado (Big Bad Wolves) and cinematographer Michael Seresin (War for the Planet of the Apes) have made a visually appealing film, and a movie with evident aesthetic flair. All that gloss is paired with a generic assassin storyline, however, and a half-baked feminist thrust. It's Sin City meets John Wick but gender-flipped, except that the Kill Bill movies and Atomic Blonde have been there and done that. Crafting a film that's entertaining enough, but largely in a mechanical way, Papushado and co-scribe Ehud Lavski (a feature first-timer) attempt to complicate their narrative. The basics are hardly complex, though. As skilled killer Sam (Karen Gillan, Avengers: Endgame) notes in the movie's opening narration, she works for a group of men called The Firm, cleaning up its messes with her deadly prowess. It's an inherited gig, in a way. Fifteen years earlier, she was a fresh-faced teen (Freya Allan, The Witcher) with a mum, Scarlet (Lena Headey, Game of Thrones), who did the same thing. Then her mother abandoned her after a diner shootout, leaving Sam to fend herself — and, to ultimately get her jobs from Nathan (Paul Giamatti, Billions), one of The Firm's flunkies. It's on just that kind of gig that Sam kills the son of a rival crime hotshot (Ralph Ineson, Chernobyl), and he wants revenge. Soon, her employers are also on her trail, after she takes another assignment in an attempt to sort out her first problem, then ends up trying to save eight-year-old Emily (Chloe Coleman, Big Little Lies) from violent kidnappers. The cast also spans the impressive trio of Angela Bassett (Black Panther), Michelle Yeoh (Last Christmas) and Carla Gugino (a Sin City alum), albeit sparingly, with all of Gunpowder Milkshake's female figures solely tasked with navigating an inescapably clear-cut scenario. Gunpowder Milkshake is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Prime Video. Read our full review. SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY In the misfire that's always been 1996's Space Jam, basketball superstar-turned-unconvincing actor Michael Jordan is asked to hurry up. "C'mon Michael, it's game time! Get your Hanes on, lace up your Nikes, grab your Wheaties and your Gatorade, and we'll pick up a Big Mac on the way to the ballpark," he's told. Spoken by go-to 90s schemester Wayne Knight (aka Seinfeld's Newman), this line couldn't better sum up the film or the franchise it has now spawned. The Space Jam movies aren't really about the comedic chaos that springs when a famous sportsperson pals around with cartoons. That's the plot, complicated in the original flick and now 25-years-later sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy by evil forces that turn a basketball game into a battle ground; however, it's also just a means to an end. These features are truly about bringing brands together in a case of mutual leveraging, as product placement always is. Connect Looney Tunes with the NBA, and audiences will think of both when they think of either, the strategy aims. It has worked, of course — and with A New Legacy, the approach is put to even broader and more shameless use. Everyone who has ever even just heard of Space Jam in passing knows its central equation: Looney Tunes + hoop dreams. The first Space Jam's viewers mightn't also remember the aforementioned product name-drops, but Warner Bros, the studio behind this saga, hopes A New Legacy's audience will forever recall its new references. All the brands shoehorned in here are WB's own, with its other pop culture franchises and properties mentioned repeatedly. The company also has Harry Potter, The Matrix, the DC Extended Universe flicks such as Wonder Woman, and Mad Max: Fury Road in its stable. Its catalogue includes Game of Thrones, Rick and Morty, The Lord of the Rings, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons like The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, too. And, it holds the rights to everything from The Wizard of Oz, Metropolis and Casablanca to A Clockwork Orange and IT. A New Legacy wants to forcefully and brazenly impress these titles into viewers' minds so that they'll always equate them with the studio. In other words, this is just a Warner Bros ad with LeBron James and Looney Tunes as its spokespeople. You don't need to be a cynic or have zero nostalgia for the OG Space Jam to see A New Legacy as purely a marketing exercise, though, because corporate synergy is literally what the movie's villain, an algorithm named Al G Rhythm (Don Cheadle, Avengers: Endgame) that runs the on-screen Warner Bros, aims to achieve in this shambles of a film. Space Jam: A New Legacy is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Prime Video. Read our full review. DREAM HORSE Life-changing conversations can happen in bars — as Jan Vokes well and truly knows. Played in Dream Horse by Toni Collette (I'm Thinking of Ending Things), the Welsh supermarket employee and pub barmaid overheard Howard Davies (Damian Lewis, Billions) chatting about his past success as a racehorse owner. In his beer-fuelled boasting, he doesn't discuss how it almost left him bankrupt and divorced, but Jan is still inspired to both follow his lead and enlist his help. Having bred whippets and racing pigeons before, and won prizes for doing so, she decides she'll turn her attention to horses. Husband Brian (Owen Teale, Game of Thrones) isn't initially convinced, but soon she's studying guides, finding a mare and then a stallion, and convincing her friends and neighbours to put away a tenner a week to pay for this little endeavour. The syndicate's focus: a foal they name Dream Alliance, who spends his early days being raised on the Vokes' allotment, and eventually ends up with racing hotshot Philip Hobbs (Nicholas Farrell, The Nevers) as its trainer. Dream Horse wouldn't exist if success didn't follow, and it leaves no doubt that that's the case; however, director Euros Lyn (The Library Suicides) and screenwriter Neil McKay (Mad Money) chart lows as well as highs, and always ensure their characters are their primary focus. Dream Alliance was always going to gallop into cinemas, of course — and not just via 2015 documentary Dark Horse: The Incredible True Story of Dream Alliance. His is a story too crowd-pleasing for filmmakers to ignore, especially given the UK's penchant for against-the-odds tales about motley crews of struggling salt-of-the-earth characters who band together over an unusual but swiftly shared interest that ends up revitalising their lives in more ways than one. That's the template Dream Horse plays to, even though it's based on a true tale and an actual horse. The Full Monty, Calendar Girls and similar feel-good flicks provide as much inspiration here as the actual real-life details, in fact. Accordingly, this is a movie that's easy to get caught up in. It's almost impossible not to, really. That said, it's also a film that wears its warmth, sentimentality and shameless heartstring-pulling as a badge of honour. As a result, it's also impossible to ignore the buttons the movie keeps gleefully pushing, and the parts of the tale that must've been smoothed out to elicit the desired cheer-inducing response — even around Collette's committed performance. But this happily mawkish feature and its characters are all doing it for the "hwyl", a Welsh term that means "emotional motivation and energy", and neither is willing to let that mission dwindle even for a second. Dream Horse is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Prime Video. SNAKE EYES: GI JOE ORIGINS Every film doesn't have to spawn a franchise, and most shouldn't; however, when a Hollywood studio teams up with a toy manufacturer to turn action figures into a movie, and then wants to keep using the latter to sell the former, apparently that stops being the case. That's why cinema audiences have been forced to suffer through the Transformers movies over the years, and why we also now have Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins, the latest addition that no one wanted to a dull saga that started with 2009's GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and then continued via 2013's GI Joe: Retaliation. Channing Tatum isn't part of the story this time around, with the focus shifting to the eponymous Snakes Eyes (Henry Golding, Monsoon). Before the character becomes a member of the GI Joe team, he's a man out to avenge the murder of his father (Steven Allerick, Westworld) from back when he was a kid. That quest first leads him into the employ of yakuza kingpin Kenta (Takehiro Hira, Girl/Haji), where he helps smuggle guns in giant dead fish. From there, he gets his shot with the Arashikage clan — a family-run enclave of Japanese powerbrokers that the ambitious Tommy (Andrew Koji, Warrior) thinks he'll lead next, is unsurprisingly wary of outsiders, but eventually and after much suspicion from head of security Akiko (Haruka Abe, Cruella) lets Snake Eyes undertake its secretive testing process to become a member. It's a credit to director Robert Schwentke (Insurgent and Allegiant), and to writers Evan Spiliotopoulos (The Unholy), Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse (Rebecca), that Snake Eyes isn't obsessed with obnoxiously stressing its franchise ties. It does all lead up to uttering a well-known GI Joe adversary's name, other recognisable characters such as Scarlett (Samara Weaving, Bill & Ted Face the Music) and Baroness (Úrsula Corberó, Money Heist) pop up, and nefarious terrorist organisation Cobra plays a part, but none of these links ever feel like the movie's primary purpose. Still, that half-heartedness speaks volumes about a movie that displays that trait again and again, is fine with remaining a generic Tokyo-set ninja revenge movie — complete with gratingly obvious shots of Mount Fuji, the Shibuya scramble crossing and Tokyo Tower — and also works giant snakes rendered in visually abhorrent CGI into the mix. The best element: Golding, who has never been less than charismatic in any of his on-screen roles (see also: Last Christmas, A Simple Favour and Crazy Rich Asians). He can't lift this formulaic franchise-extending slog, though, and neither can his rapport with both Koji and Abe, Schwentke's eye for his settings or the movie's often eye-catching costuming. The film's unenthused action scenes prove an apt weathervane, because they're by-the-numbers at best, even when The Raid's Iko Uwais is involved. Snake Eyes is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies and Amazon Prime Video. SIR ALEX FERGUSON: NEVER GIVE IN Even among sports agnostics who know next to nothing about football of any code, and don't want to, Sir Alex Ferguson's name still likely rings a bell. The prodigiously successful soccer manager was synonymous with equally prosperous English Premier League team Manchester United for almost three decades between 1986–2013, leading them to 38 different trophies — including 13 EPL titles. He oversaw an era that featured star players such as David Beckham, Eric Cantona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, all famous names that are also known beyond sports fans. Accordingly, Ferguson is a highly obvious candidate for a documentary, particularly an authorised film directed by his own son Jason. But the best docos don't just preach to the already celebratory and converted. A piece of non-fiction cinema has the potential to turn any viewer into an aficionado, and to get everyone watching not only paying attention, but wholly invested. As the vastly dissimilar, not-at-all sports-related The Sparks Brothers also does, that's what Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In achieves. It steps through its eponymous subject's life story, all with the man himself narrating the details, sharing his memories and musings, and looking back on an extraordinary career. Helpfully when it comes to standing out from the crowded sports doco crowd, Never Give In has an angle: in 2018, Sir Alex was rushed to hospital and into surgery due to a brain haemorrhage. At the time, his biggest fear was losing his memories, which the younger Ferguson uses as an entry point — and as a touchstone throughout the birth-to-now recollections that fill the film otherwise. This approach helps reinforce exactly what Sir Alex has to recall, and what it all means to him. It also makes his plight relatable, a feat his footballing achievements were never going to muster (we can all understand the terror of having our lives' best moments ripped from our consciousness, but few people can claim to know what his level of professional success feels like). In his Scottish brogue, the elder Ferguson proves a lively storyteller, talking through his upbringing in Glasgow, his childhood adoration of Rangers Football Club, his ups and downs as a player — including taking to the pitch for Rangers and against them — and the path that led him to coaching first in Scotland, then for Manchester United. A wealth of archival footage assists in fleshing out the tale, as do interviews with players such as Cantona and Ryan Griggs. The result: an easy win of a film, but a nonetheless compelling and skilful one, too. Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Prime Video. SPIRIT UNTAMED The first time that a Kiger Mustang named Spirit cantered across the silver screen, it was in 2002's Oscar-nominated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Back then, the film marked just the sixth theatrical feature that Dreamworks Animation had brought to cinemas — following Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken Run and Shrek — and if anything stood out, it was the movie's hand-drawn animation. Almost two decades later, Spirit Untamed returns the energetic and determined horse back to theatres. The movie he's in still looks gorgeous, even if computers have replaced pencils in bringing him to life. That said, this isn't actually the franchise's second step, with Netflix series Spirit Riding Free also telling the apple-loving animal's story across 78 episodes since 2017. In both look and feel, Spirit Untamed has more in common with its streaming counterpart than its big-screen predecessor, unsurprisingly. It's happy to primarily court the show's young audience, too. Indeed, while voice work by Jake Gyllenhaal (Spider-Man: Far From Home), Julianne Moore (Lisey's Story), Walton Goggins (Fatman), Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Eiza González (Godzilla vs Kong) is designed to appeal to adults, there's little else but scant traces of nostalgia and pastel-hued imagery to keep anyone past their teens interested. Her vocals stem from a different actor — with Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) doing the honours — but Fortuna Esperanza "Lucky" Prescott still sits at the heart of Spirit Untamed. Like Spirit Riding Free, the new film tells of Lucky's arrival in the frontier town of Miradero, her connection with Spirit and her efforts to save him from wranglers (led by Goggins). Also covered: her budding friendship with fellow horse-lovers Pru (voiced here by Little's Marsai Martin) and Abigail (Mckenna Grace, Annabelle Comes Home). They're the pals she needs when Spirit and his wild companions are snatched up by the nefarious rustlers, who plan to ship the horses off and sell them. Together, the pre-teen trio then sets off across the dangerous plains, determined to save the galloping animals and do the right thing. There's an obvious but still welcome and powerful message in Lucky's story, as she ignores her worried dad's (Gyllenhaal) warnings and her doting aunt's (Moore) fussing, choosing to follow her own heart and path instead. (Her father frets because her mother, voiced by González, worked as a horse-riding stunt performer and died during a show.) Similarly pleasing, even if the movie basically just remakes the TV show's first episode: that this all-ages wild west tale heroes women, although it pales in comparison to the recent Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary. Spirit Untamed is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Prime Video. Looking for more at-home viewing options? Check out our lists of movies fast-tracked from cinemas to streaming back in May, June and July. You can also take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows.
Step into the strange and seductive world of Greek cinema as it lights up the screen at Palace Norton Street, as well as cinemas around the country. Now in its 23rd year, the latest edition of the Greek Film Festival boasts an expectedly eclectic program, ranging from fiction features to documentaries and a couple of Australian productions as well. The festival will begin with an opening night screening of Worlds Apart, a romantic anthology film from writer-director-actor Christopher Papakaliatis co-starring Oscar winner J.K. Simmons. It's one of a number of critically acclaimed contemporary films on the bill, with skewering social satire Chevalier and darkly comic thriller Suntan both deserving of a look. Other highlights including a pair of local productions by Greek-Australian filmmakers, in bold religious drama Sacred Heart and medicinal marijuana documentary A Life of Its Own. There's a lot to see, but find our picks of the five must-see films at this year's Greek Film Festival below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfE7zzOXR3A CHEVALIER One of our very favourite films of this year's Melbourne International Film Festival, Chevalier offers of deadpan critique on male insecurity. Directed by Attenberg's Athina Rachel Tsangari, who also co-wrote the screenplay with regular Lanthimos collaborator Efthymis Filippouk, the film is about six men on a yacht as they compete to determine who is "the best in general". How quickly can you solve a Rubik's cube? How good are you at household chores? Everything — and we mean everything — becomes fodder for their ridiculous contest, in a film that is both hilarious and profoundly sad. In addition to sessions at this year's Greek Film Festival, Chevalier is screening in Melbourne at ACMI until October 20. Read our full review here. SUNTAN Where Chevalier offers a cringingly funny look into the middle-aged male psyche, Suntan provides a more sinister view of a similar subject. Makis Papadimitriou stars as Kostis, a doctor who takes a job as a GP on a small Greek island, only to fall hard for a beautiful young tourist. But infatuation soon gives way to misanthropic obsession, as director Argyris Papadimitropoulos leads viewers down a path they may not wish to tread. The sun-soaked cinematography belies the darkness at the heart of this picture, which proves an uncomfortably compelling watch. A LIFE OF ITS OWN As the Australian medical community continues to debate the potential benefits of medicinal marijuana, Greek-Australian journalist and broadcaster Helen Kapalos delves into the controversial subject for herself. Inspired by her encounter with cancer sufferer Dan Haslam, who used cannabis to relieve his excruciating pain, A Life Of Its Own: The Truth About Medical Marijuana explores the social and political factors that shape legislation around the drug, while chronicling groundbreaking research that could make a world of difference. Kapalos will be on hand for public Q&As following screenings in Sydney and Melbourne. SMAC Critically acclaimed in its native Greece, Elias Demetriou's SMAC won the audience awards at both the Athens Outview Film Festival and Cyprus Film Days International Film Festival, and shapes up as essential viewing at this year's GFF. Evangelia Andreadaki stars as Eleni, a middle-aged lesbian woman struggling with a cancer diagnosis. In order to quell her fears of dying alone, Eleni invites a homeless man to live with her, leading to an unlikely friendship. Whatever you do, don't forget to bring a pack of tissues. BENEATH THE OLIVE TREE Inspired by secret journals written by imprisoned female political dissidents during the Greek Civil War between 1946 and 1949, Beneath the Olive Tree is described in the GFF program as "an exposé of courage, ideals, forgiveness, healing, and the important role our past plays in our present and future". Using a mix of archival footage, contemporary interviewers and motion capture animation, young New York-based documentarian Stavroula Toska recounts the remarkable stories of incredible women accused of crimes they didn't commit. The Greek Film Festival will run at Palace Norton Street in Leichhardt from Tuesday, October 11 until Sunday, October 23. For the full program, visit greekfilmfestival.com.au.
Goddess, gracious. Though Les Miserables swept the Oscars, and musicals are certainly making more of a foray into mainstream cinema, there are some musicals that still don't quite belong on the big screen. Inspired by a one-woman stage show, Goddess tells the story of English woman, Elspeth (Laura Michelle Kelly), who, after moving with her husband, James (Ronan Keating) to Tasmania, finds herself lonely while looking after their twin toddlers. In an effort to keep up her musical prowess, Elspeth uses her webcam to share her 'sink songs' with the world and soon becomes a YouTube sensation. Goddess will certainly find its audience among those that enjoy the naff story lines usually found in telemovies, but really it's the box where this story belongs. The unbelievable side stories of James's profession and the group of prim mothers who refuse to adopt Elspeth in their group are far too contrived, and while there are the odd laughs (usually from a scene-chewing Magda Szubanski as the high-flying marketing executive), most of the songs are cringe-inducing. Musicals are allowed to have shots of sweeping vistas, they're allowed to have characters that are larger than life and storylines that are a bit hard to believe. But they're also supposed to inspire an outpouring of emotion, and the only emotion that Goddess inspired, if you can call it that, was awkward.
Set near Barrington Tops National Park, three hours north of Sydney, the Riverwood Downs campground offers riverside sites, hot showers, laundry facilities, a kiosk and — most importantly — welcomes your pup with open arms. Campers can choose between powered and unpowered tent sites, both of which sit near the mountain river that extends five kilometres through the Monkerai Valley campsite. Located 2.5 hours north of Sydney, this 750-acre, award-winning property lets your pet roam on- and off-lead, with plenty of mountains trails and watering holes in reach. There's also an onsite restaurant that offers a dedicated pooch menu to boot.
Playing an Australian freshly arrived in Florida in Rough Night, Kate McKinnon bafflingly calls everyone's favourite Italian meal "pizzer". When she's hungry, she pulls a jar of Vegemite out of her bag. And for some unexplained reason, she asks for toilet tissue rather than toilet paper. These are three things likely to make Aussie audiences cringe. And yet despite this, they're actually attached to the best part of the film. Much as she was in Ghostbusters, Masterminds and Office Christmas Party, McKinnon is in Rough Night a downright comic delight, the best part of an ensemble cast that also includes Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer and Zoe Kravitz. If only the material matched her skills. Unfortunately this unremarkable comedy proves to be little more than a blend of Very Bad Things, The Hangover and Weekend at Bernie's, with a few familiar, sentimental musings about female friendship thrown in. Indeed, writer-director Lucia Aniello and her co-scribe Paul W. Downs — both Broad City alum — are happy sticking to a formula. If their script simply read "women behave badly, then hug", we wouldn't be surprised. You already know exactly how this film is going to play out: aspiring state senator Jess (Johansson) and her pals Alice (Bell), Blair (Kravitz), Frankie (Glazer) and Pippa (McKinnon) converge on Miami for 55 hours of drinking, partying, penis-shaped paraphernalia and selfie-worthy raucousness. That's all well and good, until they hire a male stripper and then accidentally kill him. Following in the footsteps of Bridesmaids and Bad Moms, it's great that female-led comedies are finally hitting cinemas in increasing numbers, albeit slowly. It's also great that Rough Night is helmed and co-scripted by a woman and features five ace ladies in the lead roles. Still, we can't help but wish that the film delivered more than just by-the-book observations and stereotypical characters. Sensible, envious, posh, feisty, kooky Aussie: the women here have about as much dimension as members of a '90s girl band. Outside of McKinnon, the biggest chuckles stem from cutaways to Jess' fiance's bachelor party, which involves a civilised evening of wine tasting rather than knocking back shots and snorting drugs. Of course, the fact that more amusement stems from the men in the movie than the women is an enormous problem. With most of its great ladies sadly underused, Rough Night feels like a wasted opportunity. What the world wants is more smart, funny, female-led flicks. What the world didn't need is lazy gender-swapped hijinks packaged as girls-gone-wild fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlDvkRYrIlU
Sydney Good Food Month, the city's always jam-packed month filled with one-off and limited-time food and drink events, is returning for a special summer edition in January. Usually held in October, the annual culinary festival puts Sydney's world-class food scene front and centre, taking over restaurants around town, hosting food pop-ups and serving up dinners from some of the world's best chefs. While lockdowns prevented Sydney Good Food Month from running in its usual October slot in 2021, the festival is back for its 23rd year throughout January. Top of the bill for the 2022 edition includes a First Nations takeover of Rockpool Bar & Grill; a pastry-heavy vegan brunch at Alibi Bar & Kitchen; a pop-up from Brisbane chef Alanna Sapwell at Ezra; and a night of regional Italian cuisine at a'Mare from Guy Grossi, Alessandro Paconi (Ormeggio at The Spit), Giovanni Pilu (Pilu at Freshwater) and Jacqui Challinor (Nomad). Those looking for something less on the fine-dining side of things can head to Butter and Rising Sun Workshop's 'Ain't nuthin but a Chicken' party — or there's also An Evening in Morocco, which will see Nomad and Golden Age Cinema come together to present a feast of Moroccan dishes and a screening of Casablanca; and a falafel masterclass and Middle Eastern dinner at Above Par. Loyal fans of The Good Weekend Quiz can rejoice, as the live iteration of the weekend ritual is returning. The quiz will be hosted at Rockpool and will, of course, be food and drink-themed. Round up your smartest mates for this, folks. Across the month, close to 50 events, deals and classes will pop up across Sydney, and also in regional New South Wales. Outside of the capital, you'll find wine tastings, long lunches and farm-to-table feats. Head to Pipit on the north NSW coast for a duck salumi masterclass, too, or to Newcastle's Subo for a celebration of the area's local producers. The Night Noodle Markets, which generally run as part of Good Food Month, aren't returning during 2022's festival; however, they will be back as a standalone event sometime later in the year. Suddenly and unsurprisingly hungry? You can find the full 2022 program at the Good Food Month website. Top image: Ezra by Cassandra Hannagan
In Busted, artist Shannon Field continues his investigation of gender and what it is to be cast amongst that most problematic and misunderstood of tribes, the Australian heterosexual male. Using multiple mediums and a direct visual style akin to Outsider or Naïve artists, in Busted Field reconstructs the visages of a number of key characters from our colonial past and questions what role this past has played in the construction of the contemporary Australian masculine identity. Alongside a number of convict first-fleeters are well known figures such as Elizabeth Macquarie and Burke and Wills. That dynamic duo seems a particularly appropriate choice in a discussion of Australian masculinity. Nothing says ‘she’ll be right’ or ‘no worries’ like an impromptu trip from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria led by someone with little to no skills in exploration. The resulting images are by turns visceral, alarming and wryly humorous. The nature of masculinity is a fraught topic to take on, and those of us who have zero ability to produce a rugged crop of facial hair in the time between breakfast and smoko should go just to thank Field for his efforts and concerns for our plight. Everyone else should just go for the art. Image: Shannon Field, Lydia Munro 2011
Whether you're buying for your mother, partner or sister, we've rounded up some of the top gifts for her, with a little bit of help from Amazon to help you out. We've sought out goodies for foodies, fashionistas, fitness-lovers and beauty queens. Plus, if you've left gifts to the last minute, Amazon has some of the latest delivery days out there, which is good news for those of us who tend to resort to last-minute Christmas shopping. 1. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life This book by authors Héctor García and Francesc Miralles is all about how to live a happy, healthy and long life, and who doesn't want to learn how to do that? The word Ikigai is the Japanese word for 'a reason to live' or 'a reason to jump out of bed in the morning'. This book will help you work out what your ikigai is and how to change your life for the better. A great read for anyone you know who's looking for a certain spark or loves learning about concepts from other cultures. 2. Asēdos Floral Vanilla Eau De Parfum You can never go wrong with gifting a new perfume. This spray from Asēdos is the perfect subtle and sweet option to gift to a woman like your mother-in-law, who has been non-specific about what scent they prefer. The top notes are pear, coffee, lemon and bergamot, while the middle notes are jasmine sambac and orange blossom. Scents of patchouli, cedar and musk round it out. 3. Gym Bag Perfect for the gym, yoga, the beach or even as a weekend bag (that fits for carry-on luggage), this duffle bag for women from VNPONV is roomy, practical and looks good. The bag comes in beige, black or grey and features a zippered waterproof PVC-lined pocket for wet clothes or towels and swimsuits, an extra-small makeup bag for easy storage and a separate shoe compartment with vents. Plus, it is made with durable and water-resistant nylon to protect your items. 4. Design Lives Here This one's for all the design lovers out there. Design Lives Here: Australian interiors, furniture and lighting is a hardcover coffee table book detailing the ins and outs of Australian design and is the perfect gift for anyone you know who spends hours watching Grand Designs re-runs. The book showcases the best of Australian residential architecture and interiors, featuring many homes from local designers and makers. 5. Bracelet Watch The Anne Klein Women's Genuine Diamond Dial Bracelet Watch is so gorgeous to look at. It's hard to imagine anyone would be disappointed finding this under the Christmas tree this year. The intricate watch features a mineral crystal lens with a green sunray dial with rose gold-tone hands and markers. The allure doesn't stop there – a rose gold-tone adjustable link bracelet, jewellery clasp and extender paired with Japanese quartz movement are the perfect finishing touches. 6. Bamboo Bathtub Tray The ultimate gift for the women out there who don't take any time to relax, this Wooden Bath Caddy Tray is perfect for long, relaxing baths with a book and a glass of wine. Its extendable design means you can adjust the tray to fit your tub with slots, so when you slide the wine glass into the slot, it won't tip over. Its sleek bamboo design is also perfect for elevating the overall bathroom aesthetic. 7. Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love Another gem from the massively popular cook Ottolenghi, The Ottolenghi Test Kitchen is all about creating inspired recipes using humble ingredients. Whether you're buying for a newbie in the kitchen or for a seasoned cook who sometimes wants to keep things simple and easy, this book is a godsend. Expect dishes like a one-pan route to confit tandoori chickpeas and a tomato salad, just to name a few. 8. Ceramic Bowl Set A great gift for the women in your life who have an obsession with ceramics and homewares or for someone who just moved house, this set of six bowls from HUIRUMM is the perfect colourful addition to any kitchen. The bowls are safe for dishwashers, microwaves, ovens and freezers and the perfect size for cereals, soups, ice cream and side salads. 9. Louis Vuitton Catwalk If you know a lady who loves fashion, then this hardcover book by Jo Ellison may be the perfect gift. The book details the story of luxury brand Louis Vuitton, opening with a concise history of the house, followed by brief biographical profiles of Marc Jacobs, the first creative director, and Nicolas Ghesquière, who helms the brand today, before exploring the collections themselves, organised chronologically. Even if they don't read it, having this perched on the bookshelf is almost as fashionable as the clothes from the brand itself. 10. Ceramic Jewelry Tray Dish Have you noticed your girlfriend or sister's jewellery strewn all over the house? Enter the BIGPIPI Ceramic Jewelry Tray Dish. Designed in a cloud shape, this tray features a smooth, ceramic surface and will help organise and protect jewellery and other items you reach for daily, like keys, skincare and makeup. Plus, it also makes a nice decoration on the bedside table. Images: Supplied. This article contains affiliate links, Concrete Playground may earn a commission when you make a purchase through links on our site.
UPDATE, December 18, 2020: Long Shot is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Binge, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Kick arse in huge action franchises. Steal scenes in beloved sitcoms. Find dark humour in different stages of womanhood. Is there anything that Charlize Theron can't do? A decade and a half ago, she rightfully won an Oscar for transforming into a serial killer in Monster, but the biggest coup of her career just might be her ability to keep evolving on-screen. After a five-year stretch that's included Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde and Tully, Long Shot is the latest example of Theron's chameleonic talents — a political rom-com that's as irreverent (and often inappropriate) as you'd expect of a flick that also stars Seth Rogen, and genuinely heartfelt and hilarious as well. Charlize Theron, romantic-comedy standout? You'd better believe it. With an accessible air of elegance and a can-do attitude but zero sharp edges, Theron plays US Secretary of State Charlotte Field, the youngest person to ever hold that position. When the current TV star-turned-"dumb-fuck president" (Bob Odenkirk) — the film's exact words — decides not to seek re-election because he'd rather move into movies, Charlotte secures his endorsement to run for the top job. But first, she has to win over the public. Her strategists warn that her wave is a problem, that she might want to cosy up to the attractive Canadian Prime Minister (Alexander Skarsgard), and that she should spearhead a new "bees, trees and seas" environmental initiative around the globe. Also, she needs to be funnier. Thanks to a chance reunion with Fred Flarsky (Rogen), a recently unemployed investigative journalist who she used to babysit when they were kids, she soon has a new speechwriter. He makes her laugh and this is a rom-com, so it's not long until more than jokes start flying, obviously. As well as referencing one of the film's climactic gags, Long Shot's title calls out both a cliche and a fantasy, as does its casting. Based on aesthetics alone, society has primed audiences to believe that this chalk-and-cheese pairing shouldn't work — although decades of movies have made the opposite case. As directed by Jonathan Levine (The Night Before) and written by Dan Sterling (The Interview) and Liz Hannah (The Post), Long Shot knows the status quo, but finds middle ground on a character level. There's plenty about the film's plot that's exaggerated for the sake of comedy, to make amusingly astute political parallels and even to bask in an idealised rom-com glow. However the importance of simply carving out engaging, multifaceted characters who complement each other in a messy and realistic way can't be underestimated. There's something else that can't be overlooked, and it's a pivotal factor in making Long Shot's protagonists work so well: chemistry. Forget all of the awkwardness that blights badly cast love stories, in which romantic leads gel about as well as the real-life US president and the truth — that's never the case here. The rapport between Theron and Rogen is loose and easy, and both the film and its characters are all the better for it. Theron brings depth (and grace, vulnerability, determination and humour) to her role, Rogen ensures that his part is never just a schlubby stoner stereotype, and they bounce off of each other from start to finish. They're surrounded by stellar comic talent, too, from obvious candidates such as Odenkirk, Andy Serkis (as a slimy Murdoch-like media mogul) and June Diane Raphael (as Charlotte's chief advisor), to Skarsgard's amusing turn (as a Trudeau-like figure) and an excellent O'Shea Jackson Jr (as Fred's best pal). Levine, who also worked with Rogen on poignant cancer comedy 50/50, deserves his own dose of credit — specifically for the snappy, outrageously funny film's pace and tone. While a two-hour rom-com might seem like a stretch, Long Shot never lags. And even with a Boyz II Men live performance, a drug-addled hostage negotiation in the situation room, a female-empowerment vibe, topical jokes and a Roxette-scored dance scene to fit in, the movie has room to breathe as well. With the latter sequence, the film gives an overt nod to the song's first big-screen appearance in 90s romance Pretty Woman. The Julia Roberts and Richard Gere vehicle mightn't be the best role model, but Long Shot gestures in its direction with more than nostalgia in mind. All rom-coms come with a dash of fairytale, however this refreshing flick saves its daydreams for making over (and making fun of) parts of the political sphere, while serving up its opposites-attract central pairing with relatable chaos and charm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ5X75F1YJw
This four-kilometre walking track follows Talbingo's first mountain road — a remnant of the Kiandra Gold Rush of the 1860s — and takes you up a short but reasonably challenging track, so be prepared to get the heart pumping. At the top, you'll find yourself at one heck of a lookout offering stunning views of the surrounding areas such as Bogong Peaks, Jounama Pondage and Blowering Reservoir (pictured above). Along the way, keep your eyes peeled for mountain wildflowers, grey kangaroos and all manner of native birdlife.
UPDATE: May 10, 2020: Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Here's one of those sentences you never expect to see yourself writing: Hobbs & Shaw makes The Fate of the Furious look like gritty realism. Think about that for a moment. That film ended with a crew of street-racers-turned-international-super-spies being pursued by both Russian separatists and a remote-control driven nuclear submarine across an icy Siberian tundra...in Lamborghinis. And it still offered more realism and nuance than this spin-off. How is that even possible? It's better not to ask. Hobbs & Shaw is an offering that might finally have pushed things too far in a franchise defined by its ability to stretch things (plot, stunts, singlets and micro-shorts) to seemingly impossible levels. Escalation has always been the name of the game for the Fast & Furious franchise, the filmmakers forever seeking new and inventive ways of delivering essentially the same story. Like Mission: Impossible crossed with The Italian Job, each instalment sees our ragtag crew of racers tasked with pulling off ludicrous heists with fast cars and fancy driving. The villains grew larger and more megalomaniacal (from rival street racers to drug cartel bosses and Dr Evil-esque world destroyers), the cars gained enormous value (from a 1999 Nissan Skyline to the US$2 million Nissan IDx NISMO) and the cast began to approach Avengers levels of celebrity. Two of those additions were Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw. Both entered the franchise as pseudo-villains, only to then be drawn into the "family" by its patriarch Dom, played by the ever-growling Vin Diesel. As Hobbs and Shaw's popularity grew, a spin-off seemed inevitable. But whilst the demand was undoubtedly there, the delivery falls well short of expectations. This movie feels like the output of an AI that was fed the data set of the franchise but was incapable of identifying its humanity (and, dare we say, heart). Yes, it features insane stunts, amazing vehicles and unceasing bromance, but none of it ever gels. In particular, the supposed friction between the two leads lacks all substance, especially since The Fate of the Furious already saw them mostly resolve their differences and become buddies. Thrust together here and told to work together like the Russian and American agents from The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Hobbs and Shaw must track down Shaw's sister (The Crown's Vanessa Kirby) after she infects herself with a deadly virus to keep it from falling into the villain's hands (played this time around by Idris Elba). Borrowing heavily, then, from Mission: Impossible 2, the story sees the trio fight against time to extract the virus before it takes hold and wipes out most of humanity. Why? Remember, we asked you not to ask questions. Ever. Because you see, very little stands up to scrutiny. Why do Hobbs and Shaw actually hate each other? Unclear. Why are they tasked with this job when the agencies that recruit them are far better equipped and motivated? Unclear. Why is Hobbs able to pull a Blackhawk helicopter down from the sky when only moments earlier he and four other fully-laden cars weren't able to do it? Jeez, get off my back already. And sure, this is a series that not only invites you to suspend belief, but actively requires you to do so. Until now, audiences have willingly obliged. Here, though, it's one step too far. The heroes and villains are invulnerable, the plot is beffudling and logic has straight up Nos'd itself into the atmosphere. It's a pity, because there's so much to like about Johnson and Statham in these roles, especially when they work as a willing duo defined by their differences rather than simply bickering with forced (and unbearably unfunny) insults. Ultimately, Hobbs & Shaw may not have killed off the franchise, but it's certainly done it no favours. It's also a perfect example of the risk of branching too far from a clearly winning formula. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b736ZM_KfEk
Borambola Wines is a winery with history. Located in the Gundagai wine-growing region, it dates back 25 years to 1995, and it wraps around a homestead that was built in the late 19th century. Its paddocks were also once home to 1947 Melbourne Cup winner Hiraji, who was raised there, trained there and also spent its post-race life there as well. Given the latter fact, it's no wonder that one of Borambola's top drops is the Hiraji's Spell shiraz. Fruity in flavour, and with firm but light tannins, it's a flavoursome yet smooth wine. And, it's just one of the 100-percent estate-grown vinos on the company's list, with its range extending to chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, rosé, cabernet sauvignon and sparkling brut (and, to beer and cider as well). Wine lovers can make the trip to Borambola's picturesque site for tastings by appointment, with sips on offer seven days a week — and for tours as well. The venue also hosts events, functions and weddings.
With The Big Short and Nightcrawler still fresh in moviegoer's memories, Money Monster isn't the first film to ponder the impact of the global financial crisis, or peer into the television business in times of trouble. Nor is the best, boldest or even most star-studded contemplation of either topic. Instead, it's a solid thriller that may repeat a few statements we've already heard, but does so with a stellar command of tension and tone. If the pressure-fuelled dramas of the '70s combined with the beat-the-clock action efforts of the '90s, something like Money Monster would be the end result. Lee Gates (George Clooney), the host of the financial TV program that gives the movie its name, certainly seems like a remnant from another decade. His show would've been huge in the late '00s, and his exaggerated on-screen persona, loud proclamations, cheesy costumes and skimpily clad back-up dancers along with it. But a week after one of Gates' hot stock tips crashes, Money Monster's live broadcast is hijacked by the gun-wielding Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell). The Queens delivery guy has lost all his savings, wants answers, and is willing to strap a bomb to Gates' chest to get them — while the world, and the show's director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), watch on. Screenwriters Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore and Jim Kouf are content to litter their script with more than a few convenient, predictable developments: Gates knows the failing company's head honcho (Dominic West), Budwell has a pregnant girlfriend at home, and Fenn is about to jump ship for a job at a rival network. However director Jodie Foster (The Beaver) proves determined to let the unease of the situation, and the performances it inspires, drive the film. The result is a film that's stressed and enraged from beginning to end, content in the knowledge that its audience feels the same. Foster endeavours to capture the incredulous, furious reaction the bulk of the population had to recent economic circumstances, channeling it into one heightened scenario and bearing witness to the fiery results. Every technical choice, be it the grey sheen of the film's visuals, the swift speed of its editing or the terse beats of its score, is calculated to promote a very precise mood. Even when the formula behind the film is obvious – and even with Foster offering a few humorous moments to lighten things up – Money Monster still delivers an urgent, edge-of-your-seat experience. She's aided in her efforts by the top work of her cast. Playing charismatic and controlled, Clooney and Roberts demonstrate why they've stayed at the top of the acting game for so long, though it's O'Connell that commands attention. Against his high-profile co-stars, he proves a bundle of raw, restless energy perfectly suited to the film's tone.
Anyone who has spent time in an outback Australian pub will recognise The Royal Hotel's namesake watering hole, even if they've never seen this particular bar before. The filming location itself doesn't matter. Neither do the IRL details of the actual establishment that stands in for the movie's fictional boozer. What scorches itself into memory like the blistering sun beating down on the middle-of-nowhere saloon's surroundings, then, is the look and the feel of this quintessentially Aussie beer haven. From the dim lighting inside and weather-beaten facade outside to the almost exclusively male swarm of barflies that can't wait to getting sipping come quittin' time, this feature's setting could be any tavern. It could be all of them. That fact is meant to linger as filmmaker Kitty Green crafts another masterclass in tension, microagressions and the ever-looming threats that women live with daily — swapping The Assistant's Hollywood backdrop and Harvey Weinstein shadow for a remote mining town and toxic testosterone-fuelled treatment of female bartenders. Making her second fictional feature after that 2019 standout, and her fourth film overall thanks to 2013 documentary Ukraine Is Not a Brothel and 2017's Casting JonBenet before that, Green has kept as much as she's substituted between her two most recent movies. Julia Garner stars in both, albeit without breaking out an Inventing Anna-style drawl in either — although comically parroting the Aussie accent does earn a brief workout. Green's focus remains living while female. Her preferred tone is still as unsettling as any scary movie. The Royal Hotel is another of her horror films, but an inescapable villain here, as it was in The Assistant, is a world that makes existing as a woman this innately unnerving. This taut and deeply intelligent picture's sources of anxiety and danger aren't simply society; however, what it means to weather the constant possibility of peril for nothing more than your sex chromosomes is this flick's far-as-the-eye-can-see burnt earth. Backpacking Down Under by partying their way through Sydney, Hanna (Garner, Ozark) and Liv (Jessica Henwick, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery) swap boat shindigs on the harbour for a rust-hued expanse for one reason: money. With their cash drying up, the only option available to make more is a gig where the local pool is equally dusty. "Will there be kangaroos?" is their main initial question. If this pair have seen Wake in Fright, it hasn't left an imprint. They'll soon be living in their own version. Dirt, dirt and more dirt greets them fresh off the bus, then no-nonsense pub cook Carol (Ursula Yovich, Irreverent) and gruff drunk owner Billy (Hugo Weaving, Love Me), then a trial-by-fire night behind the taps to send off English tourists Jules (Alex Malone, Colin From Accounts) and Cassie (Kate Cheel, The Commons), who they're replacing. The Royal Hotel as the picture's prime locale might double for every typically Aussie watering hole, but both the setting and The Royal Hotel as a film take their cues from one specific pub. Western Australia's Denver City Hotel was immortalised in Hotel Coolgardie, the fly-on-the-wall documentary about two Finnish women who worked behind its bar and experienced the very worst of Australian drinking culture — and seeing that movie inspired writer/director Green to dive into this aggressively misogynistic world. "Fresh meat" adorns the boozer's chalkboard after Hanna and Liv arrive. Billy has barely spoken multiple sentences to them before he's dropping "cunt" with belittling force. Sexist jokes from the sozzled and arrogant customers rain down among eerie stares, brazen pick-up attempts, predatory demands and arguments between blokes over which woman they're claiming as theirs, like The Royal Hotel's latest faces have no say in it. To most of the pub's patrons, they don't. The comments, jibes and advances come from a cross-section of culprits, with Green and co-writer Oscar Redding (Van Diemen's Land) purposeful in showing that there's not only one kind of stereotypical guy whipping up discomfit. Toby Wallace's (Babyteeth) Matty knows how to charm, and how to rile up the male crowd by making women the butt of the gag. While James Frecheville (The Dry) plays the quieter, protective Teeth, those traits don't buff away his edges. With Daniel Henshall's (Mystery Road: Origin) Dolly, menace doesn't need words — and sinister entitlement drips from almost everything that he says or, to be precise, orders. There isn't just one way that women can be made to feel uneasy in male-heavy environments where they're expected to be at every guy's beck and call, and in general, as The Royal Hotel meticulously demonstrates. There definitely isn't a lone version of this gut-wrenching nightmare, nor a single way of coping when every waking minute is an exercise in monitoring your behaviour to get a job done, and just exist, without attracting the wrong attention. It's there in Hanna and Liv's varying reactions to the pub's clientele and their manners, or lack thereof; the difference between Hanna's distress and Jules and Cassie's carefree approach; and the range of factors that get Matty, Teeth, Dolly, Billy and company inciting alarm: the array of ways that Green's exceptional cast pack The Royal Hotel's powderkeg, that is. Only two things spark a straightforward read in Green's feature. The first is the eponymous everypub where nothing regal has ever graced its peeling walls and sticky floors. The second is the dread that pours out faster than visiting bartenders can pull pints. Actually, there's a third, because Kylie Minogue bopping through the soundtrack is a glorious choice. The uncertainty of this jittery environment otherwise — that someone can seem like a friend in one light and a sleaze in another, or a perturbed reaction can feel wholly justified by one of the bar's visiting women and overkill to another, for instance — only heightens the film's agitated mood. There's no one better at conveying this storm than Green, or at ripping it from reality and into her films. To watch Hanna especially is to achingly apprehend when and how often you've stood in her shoes. Green should keep Garner standing before her lens in as many movies as possible. With The Assistant and now The Royal Hotel, they're a dream team. Garner's flawless knack for conveying how life in Green's chosen scenarios is an incessant navigation and negotiation is as finely tuned as the director's; it's what made her so outstanding at playing Anna Delvey as well. As Green's now four-time cinematographer Michael Latham roves over blazing landscapes and gets claustrophobic in the tavern's dank indoors, and as composer Jed Palmer (back from Ukraine Is Not a Brothel) sets his score to faintly but still formidably jarring, that sense of steering your way through fraught terrain while trying to secure your survival proves as familiar as the outback venue at the centre of it all. With episodes of TV series Servant on her resume, Green can embrace horror traditionally, but the terrors that she digs into on the big screen aren't just frightening tales — they're piercing reflections of too much that's easy to recognise.
When Suicide Squad opened in cinemas back in 2016, it received plenty of attention. The film really wasn't great — it was worse than that, in fact — so some ridiculous fans wanted to shut down Rotten Tomatoes because the movie received negative reviews. No one should ever try to get websites taken down because other people didn't like a flick they loved, obviously, and thankfully the same thing didn't occur with this year's The Suicide Squad. Something that did happen: a smaller Australian release due to Sydney and Melbourne's lockdowns. Yes, missing movies you'd like to see in a cinema is sadly a part of pandemic life. So is watching those same films at home much sooner than you normally would've, with a lengthy list of flicks making the leap from the big to the small screen over the past 18 months or so. Before the pandemic, big-name movies wouldn't ever be available to view at home within a month or so, because films that release in cinemas usually didn't make the jump to home entertainment for 90 days. Fast-tracking to digital happens all the time now, however, so it isn't surprising that The Suicide Squad is doing just that — including while it's still in theatres in some parts of the country. Come Thursday, September 2, fans of the DC Extended Universe — the interconnected franchise that started with Man of Steel, and also includes Wonder Woman and its sequel, Aquaman and Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) — can stream this second stab at bringing the eponymous supervillain crew to the screen. It'll be available to buy and rent via video on demand, including from digital movie services such as Google Play, YouTube Movies, Amazon Video and iTunes. Accordingly, if you've already sat down to watch an extended new version of Justice League this year like it's still 2017, you can now pretend it's still 2016 with this confusingly named franchise effort — because no one has challenged themselves thinking of The Suicide Squad's moniker. Plot-wise, this sequel follows its titular gang as they're sent to the island of Corto Maltese on a deadly quest — to save the world in secret, and after being given zero choice by shady parts of the US Government, of course. Margot Robbie (Dreamland) returns as Harley Quinn and proves one of the best things about the movie, while Idris Elba (Cats) as Bloodsport is also a standout. They're joined by Joel Kinnaman (The Secrets We Keep) making a comeback as Rick Flag, Australian actor Jai Courtney (Honest Thief) doing the same as Captain Boomerang, and 2021 Oscar-nominee Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) returning as the agent overseeing this band of world-saving supervillains. John Cena (Playing with Fire), Peter Capaldi (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Pete Davidson (The King of Staten Island), Sylvester Stallone (Rambo: Last Blood) and Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) show up, too — and so do Guardians of the Galaxy alums Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn, which makes complete sense given that GotG filmmaker James Gunn is behind the lens and also penned the screenplay. Check out the trailer for The Suicide Squad below: The Suicide Squad is currently screening in cinemas in Australia — where cinemas are open — and will also be available to stream online via video on demand from Thursday, September 2.
Fans of The Handmaid's Tale have had to wait longer than expected for its fourth season, with the dystopian series' next batch of episodes among the many things that were postponed due to the pandemic. But, come April, that delay will come to an end — and if you're wondering what's in store, another tense trailer has just dropped. This is the third time that viewers have gleaned a sneak peek at the show's next season, after a first teaser last year and a second glimpse last month. And yes, June (Elisabeth Moss) is still battling against Gilead after season three's cliffhanger ending. In fact, after everything that the oppressive regime has done to her and her loved ones — and the ways in which it has changed life for women in general — she's firmly out for justice and revenge. The new season will kick off Down Under on Thursday, April 29, airing weekly on SBS and streaming episodes via SBS On Demand in Australia and Neon in New Zealand. Based on the three trailers so far, you can expect your anxiety levels to ramp up several notches while you're watching. Of course, viewing The Handmaid's Tale has never been a stress-free experience. Given its storyline, that was always going to be absolutely impossible. Fans will be seeing where the show's narrative heads for some time to come, too, with a fifth season of The Handmaid's Tale green-lit before the fourth even airs. Toppling a totalitarian society that's taken over the former United States, tearing down its oppression of women under the guise of 'traditional values', and fighting for freedom and equality doesn't happen quickly, after all. Neither does exploring the tale initially started in Margaret Atwood's 1985 book via an award-winning TV series. Check out the latest season four trailer below: The fourth season of The Handmaid's Tale will hit start airing in Australia and New Zealand on Thursday, April 29 — on SBS TV, and to stream via SBS On Demand and Neon, with new episodes arriving weekly.
Having cemented its status as one of Melbourne's most celebrated coffee roasters and cafes, Industry Beans has taken on Sydney's caffeine scene, opening its first interstate location in the CBD last week. It's made its new home on York Street, complete with a heritage façade, state-of-the-art equipment and its trademark Industry Beans offering of creatively charged food and next-level specialty coffee. The new venue features the same customised La Marzocco Modbar that put Industry Beans' Little Collins Street store on the map, allowing customers to be front and centre to the coffee-making experience. You can watch the magic unfold as the baristas brew its signature Fitzroy Street blend and whip up treats like the bubble tea-like the specialty Bubble Coffee, featuring coffee-soaked tapioca pearls, cold brew and normal or vegan condensed milk. [caption id="attachment_706984" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Specialty Bubble Coffee.[/caption] As for the food, you can expect a seasonal lineup of cleverly executed dishes that are far from boring. The York Street cafe's southern counterpart has won many a fan for dishes like its coffee-rubbed wagyu burger, fruit sashimi topped with coffee 'caviar', and avocado smash starring beetroot dust and green tea salt — all of which have made their way onto the new menu. That's alongside a few new additions that specifically cater to the work lunch crowd, like the selection of baguettes and avo, broccoli and broad bean green bowl that can be eaten in or taken away. Expect a finely honed customer experience, too, with a dedicated grab-and-go area and an Industry Beans app, which allows you to skip the queues and order your office coffees ahead of time. Plus, when you sign up, you'll get five bucks credit so you can get your next coffee for nada. Find Industry Beans at 38–40 York Street, Sydney. It's open seven days a week, from 7am–4.30pm on weekdays and 8am–4pm on weekends.
It has been four years since the Sydney Film Festival closed out its 2014 fest with What We Do in the Shadows, giving the event one of its most memorable nights yet. To open this year's 65th anniversary celebration of cinema, SFF is once again showcasing a top New Zealand comedy — this time it's The Breaker Upperers, which Taika Waititi executive produced. The flick tells the tale of two cynical best friends who turn their romantic woes into a thriving business. Yes, as the movie's moniker suggests, they break up unhappy couples for cash. It's written and directed by its stars, Kiwi comedians Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami, both of whom actually appeared What We Do in the Shadows and Waititi's Eagle vs Shark. The former also popped up in New Zealand TV series Funny Girls and 800 Words, and the latter featured in Sione's Wedding and its sequel, plus the first season of Top of the Lake. On-screen, van Beek and Sami are joined by Boy's James Rolleston and Rosehaven's Celia Pacquola, while off-screen, their debut collaborative effort is produced by the same team behind Hunt for the Wilderpeople. The film premiered at this year's SXSW Film Festival to positive reviews, and will open in Australian cinemas on July 26 — but those heading to SFF's opening night on June 6 will get to see the movie early, obviously, with the cast and crew in attendance. Tickets for opening night will go on sale here at 9am today, Monday, April 23 — and if you're purchasing online, you'll notice the fest's website has a had a revamp. It's set to include a new discover function that'll offer up recommendations, plus a visual planner so that festival-goers can better map out their schedules. The Breaker Upperers joins SFF's growing 2018 slate, with 26 other new titles announced earlier this month, plus a David Stratton-curated retrospective focused on Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki. If you're hankering for the full lineup for the event, which runs from June 6 to 17, all will be revealed at 11am on May 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-phMlkRiWIg The 2018 Sydney Film Festival will run from June 6 to 17. Buy a ticket to opening night here or check out the currently announced titles by heading to the festival website. The full program will be released on May 9.
The Lansdowne Hotel's storied history is set for another chapter, with the team over at the Oxford Art Factory announcing that it has agreed to take over the reins. The OAF crew revealed it has reached an agreement with the beloved venue's owners, putting a halt to plans that would have seen the Chippendale spot close down. Back in February, longtime custodians Mary's announced they would be stepping away from the beloved pub and live music venue, following news that the owners were turning the upstairs live music space into hostel accommodation. The announcement stated that live music would cease at the venue in April; however, gigs have continued through May, sparking speculation that the venue could be saved. Oxford Art Factory CEO and Founder Mark Gerber has now confirmed that the OAF team will be stepping in to take over the venue. "Oxford Art Factory can confirm the rumours. We are pleased to announce that we have agreed with the owners to put aside any plans that could see the demise of this iconic venue of Sydney and Australia's live music and arts scene," the OAF crew said in a statement. The Lansdowne has stood proudly on the corner of Broadway and City Road for decades, acting as a breeding ground for local up-and-coming bands from the 80s and 90s through till today. After closing in 2015, it was revitalised two years later by Jake Smyth and Kenny Graham of Mary's. Gerber and co also revealed that renovations on the venue have started, with plans to give the pub a makeover complete with improved ammenities, bathrooms and audio-visual systems, alongside new food and drink offerings. "Music and art can never die. They make us stronger and live longer!" said Gerber. "Sydney doesn't need to lose any more live music venues; it has suffered enough. The lockout laws and COVID-19 have severely impacted a once flourishing and vibrant nightlife, and I wasn't going to let yet another music venue fall by the wayside — not on my watch!" To celebrate the good news, The Lansdowne will play host to a free Rejuve(nation) party on Saturday, June 25. The gig will run for 12 hours from 5pm–5am, and will feature a lineup of local favourite bands and DJs. You can expect more details be announced soon. The Lansdowne Hotel is located at 2–6 City Road, Chippendale.
