Returning for 2025, SMASH!, the much-loved annual Sydney Manga and Anime Show, will take over the ICC Sydney from Friday, July 11–Sunday, July 13. It's set to be a weekend filled with lots of dancing, good food and tasty drinks. During the weekend, live DJ performances will take place from 12–4pm, featuring anime-inspired tunes and party beats to get you in the mood. At the convention, visitors can also expect an artist market, unique panels and workshops, as well as a host of free activities. A range of international guests, including cosplayer Thames Malerose, voice actor Erica Mendez, VTuber Virtulantes and illustrator Hokuyuu will also be taking the stage. Just a short walk from Darling Square, there is a range of food and drink options and exclusive deals for SMASH!-goers. Dress up in cosplay and get 10 percent off your order at Toastiesmith, or 10 percent off at authentic Indonesian eatery Dapur Sate. You can also find deals at pasta shop Spago, as well as everyone's favourite place for chicken, Wingboys. To drink, 15cenchi and Batch Brewing Co. have teamed up to bring you the perfect dessert and drink combo. Purchase a slice of 15cenchi's basque cheesecake and enjoy a small glass of Elsie the Milk Stout or sparkling white from Batch Brewing Co. for just $5. Images: Supplied.
One of Australia's most famous venues is changing face once again, as Qudos Bank Arena transforms into Afterpay Arena in a new deal with the buy-now-pay-later platform Afterpay. Announced this morning, it'll see the stadium refreshed not only visually but also functionally — with Afterpay and Square point-of-sale technology integrated throughout the stadium. Qudos Bank Arena first opened its doors in 1999 as the Sydney SuperDome. Since then, it has become a go-to destination for sporting events, concert tours, comedians, family events and cultural experiences, selling over 15 million tickets and in 2025, was ranked by Billboard as the fifth-best live music venue in the world. Harvey Lister AM, President and Chief Executive of the venue's owner and operator Legends Global (Asia-Pacific and Middle East) said, "More than 1.1 million people walk through this arena's doors every year, and this partnership represents a significant evolution in how Australians access live entertainment." The deal is scheduled to begin its initial five years sometime in the coming months and will include new signage and internal refreshes, as well as Afterpay added as a payment method at retailers, bars, merch stands and ticket booths throughout the arena. The transformation of Qudos Bank Arena into Afterpay Arena is currently underway and is expected to be completed later this year. The events calendar will not be affected during the transition period. Like what you see? Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these straight to your inbox. Images: Supplied.
The Powerhouse Museum's first exhibition of 2021 is an incredible retrospective of photographer and Turkish-Cypriot immigrant Bayram Ali (1920–95). When Ali was 15 years old he joined the British Army and fought in World War II, allowing him to come to Australia in 1949 (along with over two million post-war migrants that arrived in 1965). Ali worked for the Snowy Mountains Authority for over 20 years until the late 1970s, documenting his work with a camera. His photographs show what life and work was like during the time huge engineering feats were achieved at Lake Eucumbene, Talbingo Dam and Tooma Dam — all of which are considered to be some the greatest hydroelectric builds in the world. The unique prints on display are taken from 35 millimetre transparencies and are part of the amateur photography archives in the Powerhouse Collection. Image: Bayram Ali, Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, Powerhouse Collection
The best Italian restaurants are often appealingly small in scale, offering just a handful of carefully selected dishes in an intimate space. Matteo Downtown, however, is a convincing argument in the other direction: the space is sprawling, with teams of chefs efficiently moving around an open-air kitchen and woodfired ovens. The menu is also extensive, stretching to an array of cheeses, antipasto sharing plates, pasta, meat and seafood and pizzas from the woodfired oven. Any place with a dedicated mozzarella station already has a lot going for it, and Matteo Downtown's version offers the likes of an elegant cow's milk burrata ($21) which sits atop a dark green swirl of wild nettles and sea vegetables is topped with glossy, vivid orange pearls of trout roe. Waiters in smart blazers add to the upscale feel and the cocktail list has plenty of sophistication, not to mention numerous varieties of the king of cocktails: the negroni. Try the well-balanced Downtown Negroni ($19), which offers just a slight tweak to the classic with added bitters. The Matteo Spritz ($19) is the type of luxurious tipple you can imagine sipping poolside at a resort, the rhubarb bitters and blood orange make their presence felt without dominating. For a touch of theatre, opt for the classic beef tartare ($26), which is chopped and dressed on a tableside trolley and can be mopped up with slices of schiacciata, the scrumptious Tuscan flatbread. It's simple but refined, the kind of dish that is deceptively hard to pull off successfully and that goes to the very heart of Italian cuisine. As well as a negroni list, the drinks menu features a spritz selection that changes with the seasons — kicking off with the Downtown Spritz, made with Aperol, elderflower liqueur, grapefruit bitters and homemade cucumber soda — house wines are on tap and a broad-ranging, 300-strong collection of bottled wines, which make a masterpiece of the dining room's back wall. It makes sense to opt for at least one of the woodfired options on offer, whether that's a classic pizza or a main of tiger prawns ($35) served simply with a wedge of lemon. Sourced from Skull Island off the Northern Territory, they're plump, flavoursome and slightly smoky. The Downtown team is just as handy with the pans as the woodfire oven; the free-range quail ($36) is a delight, with crisp skin giving way to tender meat. Sides of endive, slightly blackened at the edges, and a farro salad, add a welcome bit of textural variety to the dish. If you're still not sated, desserts on offer include the Sicilia, three bite-sized sweet morsels from the Mediterranean island, including the obligatory cannoli and an unusual dome-shaped delicacy with a neon green shell and a mascarpone centre. All this just scratches the surface of Matteo Downtown's menu, but you'll likely be inspired enough for a return visit.
Everyone likes their home to be comfortable, but the Danish take this idea to new levels. Pronounced hoo-gah, the term hygge goes beyond simply having a cosy place to live. It's a philosophy that encourages you to turn your home into a space that promotes togetherness, personal wellbeing and maximum amounts of chill. The Danes are some of the happiest people in the world — even in winter — which is even more reason to take a leaf out of their book. Luckily, Sydney has plenty of shops that sell all the Scandinavian-inspired homewares and pieces you need to kit your room (or entire home) out like a cosier version of an IKEA showroom. We've teamed up with American Express to find eight local boutiques across the city that'll help you do just that. All of these shops let you pay for your new wares with your American Express Card, too. So, not only are you supporting some amazing small businesses, you're also reaping the sweet rewards of being a Card Member. Read on to discover some top spots to go full hygge and drop your hard-earned dollars on stuff for your home.
Australia is wrapped in tens of thousands of beaches — is it really possible to choose a definitive list of the best? When it comes to New South Wales, it's icon after icon. Along the coastline, there's a whopping 892 recorded beaches, some are known all over the world (looking at you, Bondi), while others are preciously guarded local favourites. When it comes to choosing favourites, we have our own opinions when it comes to the best beaches in Sydney, but there's a lot more ground to cover. For that, we've turned to the travel experts at Lonely Planet, who shared with us their selections — which you can read in full in the newly published Best Beaches Australia guide. [caption id="attachment_1075487" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Shutterstock[/caption] Zenith Beach, Port Stephens Soaking up the panoramic coastal views from the 161m (528ft) summit of Tomaree Head is a quintessential Port Stephens experience. Directly below is one of several glorious beaches naturally carved from this rugged stretch of coastline north of Newcastle/Muloobinba, perfect for cooling off after the steep hike up Tomaree Head. Framed by ancient volcanic headlands cloaked in the native forests of Tomaree National Park, unpatrolled Zenith Beach feels deceptively remote – Shoal Bay, the closest village, is less than 1km (0.6 miles) down the road. Just 120m (394ft) from the car park, its clear waters beckon confident swimmers and surfers, with June to August bringing the best waves and whale‐watching opportunities. Dolphins are frequent visitors, and an array of birdlife can be seen here throughout the year. Zenith Beach also marks the beginning of the Tomaree Coastal Walk, a three‐day, 27km (17‐mile) walking adventure linking secluded beaches, coastal villages and koala habitats on Worimi traditional lands. Getting there: Zenith Beach is 220km (137 miles) or nearly three hours' drive north of Sydney/Warrane. The 130 bus from Newcastle to Fingal Head stops at Zenith Beach, via Nelson Bay. [caption id="attachment_1075489" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Shutterstock[/caption] Broken Head Beach, Broken Head Nature Reserve The long and wild beach stretching 7km (4.5 miles) south from the historic Cape Byron Lighthouse comes to a dramatic end at Broken Head Beach. Surrounded by the coastal rainforest of the Broken Head Nature Reserve, 'Broken' remains largely unchanged from the beach that road‐tripping surfers 'discovered' in the 1960s; a small caravan park is the only beachside development and limited parking restricts crowds. A long, hollow right‐hander peels around the rocky point in the right conditions (look for a southeasterly swell with a southwesterly offshore wind) and there are rock pools to discover at low tide. Follow the 1.6km (1‐mile) return Three Sisters Walking Track around the headland for glorious views and to learn about Broken's significance to its Arakwal Traditional Custodians. Known as the Three Sisters, the series of rocky outcrops rising from the water beyond the headland tell the story of three sisters turned to stone by their ancestors. They're a warning to future generations about the importance of respecting cultural traditions – and to take care at this beach patrolled only in the summer school holidays (late December through January). Getting there: Located on the New South Wales North Coast, Broken Head Beach is 9km (5.6 miles) or a 15‐minute drive south of Byron Bay. [caption id="attachment_1075491" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Shutterstock[/caption] Hyams Beach, Jervis Bay It's often described as having the world's whitest sand (a 2006 study found Western Australia's Lucky Bay to be even whiter), but there's no denying that Hyams Beach is as white as the waters of the vast Jervis Bay are blue. The contrast between its snow‐white sand and the over‐exposed gradient of blue water darkening into the depths made Hyams so social‐media famous that in 2019 the local Shoalhaven council appointed traffic controllers to redirect visitors from the tiny Hyams beach village. As you may have guessed, this is a beach best avoided during the summer (and autumn and spring) school holidays, especially weekends. Aim for a windless, off‐season weekday, and you won't just have a better chance at scoring a parking spot – Hyams' dreamy blues will beam you straight to heaven on Earth. Bring a snorkel and look for groupers and stingrays at the northern end of the beach, known as Little Hyams. Getting there: Hyams Beach is 200km (124 miles) or around three hours' drive south of Sydney/Warrane. Park at Greenfield Beach and take the White Sands Walk (1.7km/1 mile) to Hyams Beach, which takes you past the similarly sublime Chinamans Beach. [caption id="attachment_1075492" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Getty Images[/caption] Emily Bay, Norfolk Island Aat first, this small Australian island looks like a chunk of New Zealand's bucolic North Island that has broken off and drifted 1100km (683 miles) north. But despite being only 8km (5 miles) long and 5km (3 miles) wide, Norfolk Island is vividly, defiantly, more than just a Mini‐Me of its two largest neighbours. For one thing, its history reads like an epic adventure tale: from the seafaring Polynesian settlers who called the island home from 1200 to 1600; to two brutal convict eras, during which Norfolk became known as the 'Hell in the Pacific'; to the arrival, in 1856, of 194 Pitcairn Islanders descended from HMS Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian families, whose culture and language still infuse daily life on Norfolk. Ringed by high volcanic sea cliffs and surrounded by deep ocean trenches and undersea mountains, Norfolk Island is also ruggedly natural. There's a national park, multiple walking trails, and a botanical garden. The eponymous pine trees grow everywhere; even the main settlement is called Burnt Pine. And because of strict biosecurity regulations, most of Norfolk's food is grown, caught, foraged or made on the island, even coffee and wine. It all comes together at Emily Bay. One of the island's best swimming beaches – and picnic spots – just happens to be within the Kingston UNESCO World Heritage Site, surrounded by Norfolk Marine Park. It's a stone's throw from the ruins of the island's notorious penal settlement, and includes a pier, boathouses, prisoners' barracks and a cemetery overlooking the sea. You can swim in water that's as clear as a glacial stream but warm all year round, because Norfolk lies at the same latitude as Byron Bay in Northern New South Wales. The sandy beach isn't patrolled, but low headlands partially enclose the bay, keeping its waters calm and family friendly. Swim out a little way and you can even snorkel over a coral reef, though the snorkelling is arguably better at neighbouring Slaughter Bay (which is more inviting than its name). A turquoise lagoon fringed by coral, its temperate and tropical fish like wrasse and parrotfish are known to swim right up to your mask. Getting there: Norfolk Island is 1400km (870 miles) east of Byron Bay. Flights to the island depart from Brisbane/Meanjin, Sydney/Warrane and Auckland. Emily Bay is 5 to 10 minutes' drive from the main township of Burnt Pine (be mindful of the island's cows, which have right of way). [caption id="attachment_1075494" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Shutterstock[/caption] Number One Beach, Seal Rocks The first beach you see on your left as you drive into the hamlet of Seal Rocks, Number One is a north‐facing beauty with a gentle right‐hand point break at its eastern end, and calm waters ideal for families. The caravan park is just across the road, there are picnic tables and an accessibility ramp. Up and over the hill, past Seal Rocks' only shop, lies Boat Beach, where tractors launch small fishing boats straight off the sand. It's ideal for both swimming and snorkelling; the three‐hump rock island just off the beach is a sanctuary for grey nurse sharks. And just south of Seal Rocks, a gravel road leads to three more beaches popular with experienced surfers: Lighthouse (Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse stands at its northern end), Treachery (synonymous with its sprawling family‐owned campground behind the dunes) and Submarine Beach (named after a 1945 Dutch submarine‐wreck), also called Yagon after the national park campground located at its northern end. Getting there: Seal Rocks is a tiny town encircled by Myall Lakes National Park, 239km (148.5 miles) north of Sydney/Warrane. The nearest train station is in Taree, on the Sydney–Brisbane XPT line. From Taree, it's about 90 minutes by car to Seal Rocks. [caption id="attachment_1075496" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Shutterstock[/caption] Balmoral Beach, Sydney/Warrane With more than 100 beaches to choose from in Sydney/Warrane, the city's excellent harbour beaches are often overlooked. Captured in the works of some of Australia's most prolific painters – from Arthur Streeton to Ken Done – unpatrolled Balmoral Beach is a special place for many Sydneysiders, and its calm waters popular with families. Separated from Edwards Beach by the tiny Rocky Point Island, the 840m (2638ft) arc of Balmoral Beach lies on the traditional lands of the Cammeraygal people of Sydney's North Shore, who have camped, hunted and feasted along this caramel sandstone coastline for generations. A tramline from the city opened in 1922, improving access to Balmoral's enclosed bathing area built in 1899. A grand bathing pavilion, a rotunda for brass‐band concerts and a wide promenade was added in the 1930s. While the tram is long gone, the Balmoral Baths and the Art‐Deco rotunda and pavilion (now a celebrated restaurant) remain, adding an air of regality fitting for a beach named for Queen Victoria's Scottish castle. Getting there: Buses from the city (Wynyard) take approximately 20 minutes to reach the junction of Spit Rd and Awaba St. From here it's a steep 600m (1968ft) downhill walk to the beach. There's limited beachfront parking. These excerpts were supplied by 'Lonely Planet' from their 'Best Beaches Australia' guide — available online and at bookstores near you now. Images: supplied
Potts Points proudly welcomes Parisian-inspired Le Frérot. The all-day diner serves crisp croissants from first thing in the morning and slings midday salads and sandwiches before transforming into an elegant yet easy-going bistro come evening. Standing alongside its older sibling, Franca Brasserie, which you might save for a special occasion, Le Frérot is designed to be a casual and inviting space to be enjoyed seven days a week, for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Le Frérot is the latest venture from Rivage Hospitality, which follows the success of their upscale, elegant French brasserie Franca, serving reimagined French classics such as a chicken liver parfait eclair with hazelnut praline and a pumpkin tarte tatin with blue cheese. Andrew Becher, Managing Director of the group, says, "We're absolutely delighted to be opening Le Frérot in the heart of Potts Point. This new cafe, bar and bistro will bring a fresh French concept to the neighbourhood, right alongside our beloved Franca…Le Frérot gives our guests an all-day dining experience while adding an exciting new layer to what we offer across Franca and Armorica. It's a natural little brother to Franca, with familiar nods to what has made it so successful, but with its own unique character and energy." Taking the lead in the kitchen is José Saulog, Group Executive Chef, who brings classic technique and a creative vision to create a menu that is both luxe and accessible. Mornings are made easier with fresh boulangerie baked goods, woodfired tartines, as well as more lavish dishes such as steak and eggs, Moreton Bay bug benedict and spanner crab omelettes. Classy lunch options include a smoked duck salad or a classic tuna nicoise, as well as speedy sandwiches. Bottomless fries are the star of the show come evening. Served alongside mussels in white wine and kombu butter, pork cutlets, roast duck breast and Black Angus hanger steak, they'll keep coming, as long as you keep eating. Le Frérot has introduced a series of weeknight specials that are too good to pass up. Making Mondays more manageable is Le Frérot's M&M Mondays, where margaritas and martinis are available for just $10 each. At that price, expect a rough wake-up on Tuesday morning because you'll be hard-pressed to stop at just one. And if you're looking to make the mid-week grind a little more exciting, why not try Le Frérot's T Bone Tuesdays? Grab a whopping one-kilogram T-bone steak, served with bottomless fries, for just $99, (just be prepared for the meat sweats). Images: Supplied.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas across the country. After months spent empty, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, Australian picture palaces are back in business — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, comedies, music documentaries, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wnmC7uLTNQ THE DISSIDENT If you know even the slightest thing about the circumstances surrounding Jamal Khashoggi's death, it's impossible to watch The Dissident without feeling angry. That's most viewers' starting mood, given that the Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist's assassination has garnered ample media attention — and Oscar-winning director Brian Fogel (Icarus) is well aware of how much coverage the subject has received, and of how the world feels about the situation. Indeed, his thorough and exacting documentary both feeds upon and fuels that shock and ire. The mood is tense, the commentary is pointed and the prevailing sentiment is savage. Both rage and outrage permeate each frame, unsurprisingly so, as the film lays bare the brutal facts surrounding Khashoggi's murder, its lead-up and its aftermath. No other tone would be acceptable. Nothing other than dismay, abhorrence and anger would be either. When you're making a movie about a man who entered his nation's embassy to obtain paperwork so that he could get married, then left it in dismembered pieces while his bride-to-be waited outside, how could anything other than fury, horror and alarm eventuate? Although the details have already been well-documented since October 2, 2018, they're still reassembled in The Dissident. Accordingly, the doco tells of Khashoggi's visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul just over a year after fleeing his country, after which he was never seen alive again. He wanted to marry academic Hatice Cengiz, his Turkish fiancée. To do so, he needed a document certifying that he was no longer wed to his prior wife. He'd first sought that necessary certification from the embassy just a few days earlier, so they knew that he'd be returning — and once he stepped inside once more, he was ambushed, attacked and killed by a newly arrived team of Saudi agents. Cengiz contacted the authorities when the man she thought she'd be spending the rest of her life with didn't surface, but the Saudi government claimed that the exiled reporter had left via a back entrance. It didn't take long to ascertain the truth, as was suspected from the moment he failed to reemerge. The official story changed several times, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman denied any knowledge of a premeditated plot, but the fact remains that Khashoggi was slaughtered by operatives from his homeland. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGLmTd8q3Ec&t=7s THE UNITED STATES VS BILLIE HOLIDAY More than 80 years after it was first sung and heard, Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' still isn't easily forgotten. Drawn from a poem penned to protest lynchings, it's meant to shock and haunt. It's designed to galvanise and mobilise, too, as drawing attention to the extrajudicial killings of Black Americans should. Indeed, so vivid is the song in its language — "Black bodies swingin' in the southern breeze" describes the third line — US authorities demanded that Holiday stop performing it. She refused repeatedly, so there were repercussions. Concerned that the track would spark change, inspire Holiday's fans to fight for civil rights and justice, and perhaps motivate riots against against oppression and discrimination as well, the US Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics went after the musician for her drug use. If it couldn't get her to cease crooning the controversial tune via other means, such as overt warnings and a prominent police presence at her shows, it'd do whatever it could to keep her from reaching the stage night after night. With Andra Day (Marshall) turning in an intense, impassioned, career-defining portrayal as its eponymous figure (and in her first lead film role, too), so tells The United States vs Billie Holiday, the latest Oscar-nominated biopic to step through its namesake's life. Back in 1972, Lady Sings the Blues loosely adapted Holiday's autobiography of the same name, enlisting Diana Ross to play the singer — but, in taking inspiration instead from Johann Hari's non-fiction book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, this latest big-screen vision of the music icon's story adopts its own angle. Holiday's troubled childhood and youth has its part in this tale, which is scripted for the screen by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. Her addiction, and the personal woes that she tried to blot out, clearly don't escape filmmaker Lee Daniels' (The Butler) attention, either. But The United States vs Billie Holiday also falls in alongside Seberg, MLK/FBI and Judas and the Black Messiah in interrogating bleak truths about mid-20th century America. In a film that manages to be both rousing and standard, that includes surveying the misplaced priorities of its government during multiple administrations, and the blatant determination shown by an array of agencies under various presidents to undermine, persecute and silence those considered a supposedly un-American threat to the status quo. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNE7ap2lOnU MORTAL KOMBAT No one enjoys watching someone else mash buttons. While it's a passable way to spend a few minutes, losing interest quickly simply comes with the territory. That's how viewing Mortal Kombat feels as well, except that watching your friends play any of the martial arts video game franchise's 22 different arcade and console titles since 1992 (or any game at all) would be far more entertaining. Shot in South Australia and marking the feature debut of filmmaker Simon McQuoid, the latest attempt to bring the popular series to the big screen — following a first try in 1995 and a sequel in 1997 — feels like watching cosplay, too. The movie's cast literally dresses up in the outfits needed to recreate the game's characters, of course, but the film shouldn't so overtly resemble fans donning costumes at a pop culture convention. And yet, Mortal Kombat evokes this situation from the moment its 17th century Japan-set prologue, which is also its best scene, comes to an end. After establishing a mythic and bloody backstory for the movie's narrative as a whole, the character that'll become an undead ninja ghost called Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada, Westworld) and his prophecised descendants, this B-grade flick is happy to, in fact. It's not just the violence that's cartoonish here; it's every glare exchanged and word uttered, with much of the script trading in cliches, dramatic pauses and catchphrases. Mortal Kombat's gaming fanbase may be eager to see their beloved characters given flesh and blood, face off against each other and spout lines that usually emanate from a much smaller screen, but that doesn't make a movie engaging. Nor can a flimsy screenplay by first-timer Greg Russo and Wonder Woman 1984's Dave Callaham, which follows the battle between Earthrealm and Outworld — one that'll be lost by the former if an MMA fighter named Cole Young (Lewis Tan, Wu Assassins), who bears a dragon birthmark, doesn't team up with the other figures with the same marking to stop humanity from losing for the tenth time. That's where the no-nonsense Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee, Black Water: Abyss) comes in, and also the grating, wisecracking Kano (Josh Lawson, Long Story Short). The villainous Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim, Warrior) might be threatening to freeze all of earth's champions so that Outworld's Shang Tsung (Chin Han, Skyscraper) can rig the tournament before it even happens, but Mortal Kombat still has time — and far too much of it — to spend pondering supernatural destinies and letting an over-acting, always grating Lawson mug for attempted laughs. The end result is intentionally ridiculous, and presumably unintentionally dull, all while setting up an unearned sequel. And although brutal enough amidst the silliness for an R rating, even the film's fight scenes merely go through the motions, especially given the heights that films like The Raid and John Wick have scaled in with their eye-popping action choreography over the past decade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YZuNQLSJlQ EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE In The Nightingale, Sam Claflin wasn't charming, kindly or gallant. He was worlds away from his roles in rom-com Love, Rosie, weepie drama Me Before You and the page-to-screen Hunger Games franchise — and, playing a supporting but still key part in the exceptional 2019 film, he was excellent. Alas, while he remains in darker territory with Every Breath You Take, this psychological thriller isn't a highlight on his or anyone's resume. The good news: it doesn't feature the 1983 single by The Police that shares the film's title. The not-so-great news: it is indeed about someone surveilling others, so it must've taken the production's entire reserves of restraint not to include that song. Little subtlety seems to be displayed elsewhere, including by Claflin, and little intelligence, either. In development for almost a decade, once set to be directed by Misery's Rob Reiner, and also slated to star Harrison Ford and Zac Efron over the years, the film focuses on the fallout from a psychologist's decision to talk to one of his patients about his own problems. Not long after gushing to a lecture hall filled with students about his successful new technique, however, he finds himself the target of a vindictive stalker who is intent on destroying his entire family's lives. Debut screenwriter David Murray has clearly seen Fatal Attraction, Unfaithful, Cape Fear and Fear, and The Silence of the Lambs as well, and he's not afraid to mash pieces of each together here. Looking pensive, grappling with family woes again but worlds away from his Oscar-winning performance in Manchester by the Sea, Casey Affleck (The Old Man and the Gun) plays Philip, the analyst in question. He crosses paths with James (Claflin, Enola Holmes) at the scene of a tragedy, then finds him knocking on his door — and soon his wife Grace (Michelle Monaghan, The Craft: Legacy) and teenage daughter Lucy (India Eisley, Dead Reckoning) are both bumping into the newcomer seemingly everywhere they go. In an already tense household thanks to an accident years earlier, James easily upsets the status quo. When Philip starts having professional problems as well, the trio's struggles only deepen. It's hard to guess what attracted this starry cast to such a routine film, but it definitely isn't the pulpy script or Vaughn Stein's (Inheritance) overboiled direction. Indeed, in a movie that somehow thinks that being as blatant as possible will ramp up the suspense — which, unsurprisingly, it doesn't — only the icy visuals by cinematographer Michael Merriman (another Inheritance alum) garner much attention. Well, that and the screechy score by Marlon Espino (also returning from Inheritance), although the latter does so with the same obviousness that characterises almost everything about the feature. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COLOJaM3k_M SISTER More than once during Sister, An Ran (Zhang Zifeng, Detective Chinatown 3) is reminded that her status as a sibling — and as a woman — is burdened with strong expectations in China. With her much-younger brother An Ziheng (Kim Darren Yowon) earning pride of place in her parents' hearts, and in Chinese society's patriarchal hierarchy in general, she's meant to defer her dreams and desires in favour of her family's male heir. That's just what's done, and always has been. And, after the pair's mother and father are killed in a car accident, no one can quite understand why An Ran is determined to buck convention. But, after weathering a childhood coloured by her dad's disappointment about her gender, she has spent years trying to break free from her past. A nurse hoping to gain acceptance into medical school so that she can become a doctor, and so distanced from her parents and brother that she doesn't even know the latter, she doesn't just vehemently disagree with the idea that she should now devote her life to An Ziheng; she refuses to abide by it. Instead, An Ran wants to sell the family apartment, find adoptive parents for her sibling and continue working towards her own future. Neither director Yin Ruoxin (Farewell, My Lad) nor screenwriter You Xiaoying (Love Education) shies away from the harsh reality facing their protagonist in Sister, or from the fact that her plight is emblematic of the nation's women in a much broader sense. And, for most of its duration, their sensitive but clear-eyed drama firmly and unflinchingly tackles the ramifications of simply being born female in China. The continued pressure directed An Ran's way and the treatment she receives for not toeing the line aren't the film's only sources of conflict, with class differences and the way that power structures play out both domestically and professionally also playing their part in the movie's layered narrative. They're aided by Zhang's weighty performance, too — a portrayal that segues seamlessly back and forth from defiant and committed to exhausted and exasperated, and shows both the will to eschew norms and the weariness from the constant battle on multiple levels. The film's boldness is eventually undercut, though. Budding within its naturalistically lit imagery and its often roving and restless frames is an awareness that the bonds of blood will eventually pull at An Ran. The script ensures that her growing bond with her brother feels genuine; however, it's also a far more sentimental turn of events than Sister indulges otherwise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SodO2VN0iYY SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT Eddie Izzard takes inspiration from her home town of Bexhill-on-Sea in Six Minutes to Midnight, using its pre-World War II history as the basis for an intriguing but also muddled thriller. Before the conflict broke out, the coastal spot was home to the Augusta Victoria College, where the daughters of high-ranking Germans were sent to finish their education. In Izzard's hands as the film's star, executive producer and co-writer — the latter with Celyn Jones (The Vanishing) and director Andy Goddard (A Kind of Murder) — this real-life scenario gives rise to espionage antics. She plays Thomas Miller, the school's new teacher, and also a spy sent to keep tabs on the students' whereabouts for British intelligence. Headmistress Miss Rocholl (Judi Dench, Blithe Spirit) dotes on the girls, and naively sees only camaraderie in the college's existence, but Miller and his superiors are concerned that the institution's pupils could be smuggled out in secret. It doesn't help that Ilse Keller (Carla Juri, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit), the school's only German employee, hardly seems trustworthy. The pro-Nazi ideology infused into her lessons is hardly a promising sign, but soon it's Miller that is the object of suspicion, despite his efforts to uncover just who in English society has been pledging their allegiance abroad. No one can fault Izzard's interest in Augusta Victoria College, or her eagerness to bring its little-known place in Britain's past to the screen. But Six Minutes to Midnight is so caught up in being a spy film — and one that takes its cues from Alfred Hitchcock at that — that it serves up a paper-thin story that's on the verge of blowing over in the East Sussex breeze. Twists, double crosses, wavering loyalty, murder, chases, interrogations and clandestine plots all ensue, but with few surprises, and with exactly why the students' possible return to Germany would be so catastrophic never fully fleshed out. Handsome seaside scenery does abound, though, and so does a committed performance from Izzard. She spends much of her screen-time running, as she often does in reality — completing 43 marathons in 51 days in 2009, 27 in 27 days in 2016 and 32 in 31 days earlier this year — but her wit and charisma are always evident. Saddled with a one-note role, Dench is less convincing, but supporting players Jim Broadbent (King of Thieves) and James D'Arcy (Avengers: Endgame) make the most of their small parts as a kindly bus driver and a wily detective respectively. As for the young women, the fact that they're primarily regarded as a group, rather than given the time and space to convey their personalities, speaks volumes about their function as the feature's MacGuffin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xXFm78O6P8 MOON ROCK FOR MONDAY Kurt Martin, the first-time feature writer/director behind Moon Rock for Monday, must owe much of his film education to Australian cinema of the 90s. His road-trip drama — which is also a coming-of-age tale and a crime thriller, and happens to be set in the 90s, too — takes clearcut cues from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Two Hands. Here, though, a 12-year-old girl and an older teen sit at the centre of the narrative. Thankfully, while the nods towards other prominent homegrown movies are obvious, these sources of inspiration don't cast an overbearing shadow. There isn't much about Moon Rock for Monday that proves overtly novel, but it doesn't simply trudge in other films' footsteps, either. The importance of the feature's canny casting can't be understated, with fellow debutant Ashlyn Louden-Gamble a winsome presence as the titular pre-teen and George Pullar (Playing for Keeps) infusing his wayward but well-meaning jewellery store thief-turned-fugitive with more depth than might be expected. Indeed, their rapport as their characters first evade the police on Sydney's streets, then take to the highway towards the Northern Territory, gives this warm-hearted movie enough charm to do more than simply coast by. Named for the day she was born, Monday's (Louden-Gamble) entire life has revolved around an illness that requires frequent medical treatment. But, despite the lived-in weariness and worry perennially plastered across the face of her dad Bob (Aaron Jeffrey, The Flood), she handles the situation with a sunny disposition, an eagerness to see the world and an obsession with Uluru — or Moon Rock, as she calls it. Then, this father-daughter duo stumble into Tyler's (Pullar) orbit. Soon Monday is by the latter's side, indulging her thirst for adventure and tagging along as he hightails it out of town. Bob isn't the only one desperate to find them, with Detective Lionell (David Field, Mortal Kombat) also on their trail in the aftermath of Tyler's light-fingered ways. From the outset, even before Monday and Tyler start heading west, there's an episodic feel to Moon Rock for Monday; however, flitting from one narrative incident to the next suits the road-trip premise. When nothing but landscape surrounds its central pair, that dusty red expanse does plenty of heavy lifting — a scene outside of Coober Pedy is particularly striking, both visually and emotionally — but this is still a promising big-screen start for its director and leads alike. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyopYXVJNmQ THIS LITTLE LOVE OF MINE Blatantly formulaic rom-coms are cinema's version of junk food, as Netflix has been trying to use to its advantage. Scroll through the platform's catalogue, especially around Christmas, and a wealth of straight-to-streaming movies that eagerly play up every trope and cliche await — but being easy to make and undemanding to consume isn't the same as being worth watching. This Little Love of Mine is debuting in cinemas; however, it'll feel at home when it does find its way into a streaming service's lineup. Its story is that predictable and its dialogue is that hoary. The setup: ambitious workaholic lawyer Laura (Saskia Hampele, The Heights) is certain that she'll finally make partner and be able to start doing worthwhile work helping small business owners if she convinces a building magnate's (Martin Portus, Home and Away) island-dwelling boat captain grandson Chip (Liam McIntyre, Them) to take over his billion-dollar development company. The catch: the island, Sapphire Cove, is where she grew up before she left for her high-powered, big-city life in San Francisco, and Chip is the childhood best friend she's thought of fondly over the years, but hasn't seen since she departed. Romantic comedies don't need to trade in surprises. When you're just aiming to bring two characters together so that they can presumably live happily ever after, twists aren't a necessary feature. But viewers should enjoy their time watching said central figures overcome the obligatory obstacles that come their way on the inevitable path to becoming a couple. They should get invested in their plights, be charmed by their personalities and care about their fates —and, even with the ultimate outcome remaining obvious to anyone and everyone, no one should feel as if they're just peering on as a movie works through a checklist. While Hampele and McIntyre do their best to liven up Georgia Harrison's (Rip Tide) rote script, they can't nudge This Little Love of Mine into engaging waters. The same applies to Lynn Gilmartin (How Do You Know Chris?) as Laura and Chip's fellow lifelong friend Gem, who proves the kind of dutiful sidekick-slash-trusty confidant character that could've strolled out of almost every rom-com ever made. Also unable to lift the material: the eye-catching Far North Queensland backdrop, which sets a suitably swoon-worthy scene; however, the repeated palm tree and beach shots peppered throughout the film by first-time director Christine Luby and cinematographer Simon Harding (Ruben Guthrie) begin to feel like filler quickly. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on January 1, January 7, January 14, January 21 and January 28; February 4, February 11, February 18 and February 25; March 4, March 11, March 18 and March 25; and April 1 and April 8. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Nomadland, Pieces of a Woman, The Dry, Promising Young Woman, Summerland, Ammonite, The Dig, The White Tiger, Only the Animals, Malcolm & Marie, News of the World, High Ground, Earwig and the Witch, The Nest, Assassins, Synchronic, Another Round, Minari, Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra, The Truffle Hunters, The Little Things, Chaos Walking, Raya and the Last Dragon, Max Richter's Sleep, Judas and the Black Messiah, Girls Can't Surf, French Exit, Saint Maud, Godzilla vs Kong, The Painter and the Thief, Nobody, The Father, Willy's Wonderland, Collective, Voyagers, Gunda and Supernova. Top image: Takashi Seida.
Formerly a craft beer bar with a dedication to the Sunday roast, The Taphouse in Darlinghurst was reborn in 2023 under the guidance of Applejack Hospitality (RAFI, Forrester's, The Butler). The new iteration of the multi-storey pub is breezier, specialising in approachable drinks and nostalgic eats indebted to suburban Chinese restaurants. After resurrecting Forrester's a few years back, the team turned its attention to this historic corner pub, maintaining the heart of the original while giving its fit-out and menus a makeover. The result is a classic ground-floor watering hole and a breezy rooftop bar, all with cracking Cantonese eats. The menu has been curated by Applejack's Director of Culinary Patrick Friesen, (ex-Queen Chow, Ms.G's) and The Taphouse's new Head Chef Sam Ng, who comes to the pub after previously working across acclaimed Hong Kong venues Ho Lee Fook, Praya and Stanley. The resulting menu is a hearty and crowd-pleasing affair. Entrees include prawn wontons, barbecue pork buns, salt and pepper oyster mushrooms, pork spare ribs and spring rolls with a plum sauce. Further down the menu, you'll stumble upon steam scallops, wok-fried mud crab, sweet and south pork, and egg noodles topped with braised wagyu beef rib. Craft beer enthusiasts will be pleased that despite its new owners, The Taphouse still has a hefty roster of brews on offer, including Mountain Culture Status Quo, Grifter Serpents Kiss and Hawke's Patio Ale. There's also long necks of Tsingtao, adding to the playfulness of the venue and providing the perfect counterpoint to the menu of Cantonese favourites. Applejack's love affair with wine has really shone through its North Sydney restaurant RAFI, and this passion for vino continues at The Taphouse. Alongside your classic chardonnay and shiraz, you'll find Applejack's own Luce Del Sole pinot grigio available on tap, a few skin-contact drops, and Unico Zelo's Fresh AF Nero Bled, served chilled. If you need even more of an excuse to head in, there are some sizable weekly specials on offer. Visit during lunch hours Monday–Friday and you'll find a range of hefty dishes available for just $18. This includes sweet and sour pork, wagyu beef and broccolini, and wok-fried market vegetables with tofu. Every Monday, you can enjoy a pork chop curry dinner with steamed rice for $12; on Sundays, frozen cocktails and bloody marys are on offer for $15; and $7.50 beers and wines are available during one of the city's longest happy hours, 12–6pm Monday–Friday. Images: Steven Woodburn
While Australia's population continues to grow, it's a sporadic mix of where. The same can be said for Sydney, a famously multicultural city of over five million people, but that population ebbs and flows. Now, new data compiled by the Sydney Morning Herald has provided a snapshot into the future of the Harbour City by analysing its population in detail — revealing which suburbs saw the most change in 2025. Affordability plays an important role in population statistics, and this study proves it. Overall, in 2025, Sydney saw the most residents move away of all Australian capital cities, bidding farewell to over 33,000 residents. At a more local level, a shift is underway that hints at an interesting future for the city. [caption id="attachment_756230" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Destination NSW[/caption] In 2025, some of Sydney's most stereotypically popular suburbs saw a decline in population. High prices in the sunny Eastern Suburbs are pushing residents out, with Coogee and Clovelly losing over 100 permanent residents, and the Rose Bay/Vaucluse/Watsons Bay area also seeing a total loss, albeit by just 33 residents. Suburbs that saw the steepest declines are home to ageing populations, with Sydney's upper North Shore losing approximately 160 residents between Wahroonga, Turramurra, Gordon/Killara and Lindfield/Roseville — in total, 42 Sydney suburbs saw more deaths than births over the year. The suburb with the biggest loss overall was in Kariong, west of Gosford, which lost a total of 1.6 percent of its population, followed by a 1.4 percent loss in Castle Hill East. [caption id="attachment_1092348" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] iStock[/caption] Meanwhile, growth was almost unanimous in Western Sydney. The most growth was in the Box Hill to Nelson area, which saw a growth of 17 percent (approximately 3911 people). That was followed by the Austral/Greendale area at almost 16 percent growth and the Marsden Park/Shanes Park area at almost 12 percent growth. Despite the net loss of 33,282 residents, Sydney's population continued to grow last year — albeit at the slowest rate since the depths of the COVID pandemic — welcoming over 75,000 new residents. In terms of density, Sydney's inner-city reigns supreme, with Haymarket/Sydney South, Chippendale and Ultimo taking the top three positions for population density at 22,903, 20,476 and 18,851 residents per square kilometre, respectively. KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley told SMH that the data reveals Western Sydney has a bright future, saying, "Housing affordability in the eastern suburbs is pushing people out, whereas the west is proving a stable option for many young families." Pair these findings with the Western Sydney Airport and Metro West projects, both new arteries in the region, and the new dawn of Sydney could be where the sun sets. Like what you see? Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these straight to your inbox.
Bondi doesn't have a shortage of places to brunch, so if you're going to get in on the game, the stakes are high. You'll be betting your best breakfast bowls and baked eggs, and training like a madman to make sure your milk frothing skills are honed to a tee; locals will be willing to take a chance on you, but they won't show any faith until you've had some consistent wins. With this in mind, you've got to wonder why you'd want to sign up at all. But The Nine, having opened earlier this month, is fresh out on the field — and they seem to be playing the game correctly. They're a Bondi cafe in every sense of the word: the menu is mostly organic, locally-sourced and healthy, the interior is blonde, blue and open. It's small, but it doesn't feel too cramped — although you may have trouble getting a spot on a sunny Sunday morning. This possibly has something to do with the dishes being churned out of the kitchen. They're so damn pretty, the plating up alone deserves some kind of award. Just try to walk past without the nine grain Bircher — which is topped with bright slices of mango and edible flowers ($14) — or the crazy colourful mountain of toast with avo, tomato, stone fruit, ricotta and pesto ($15) catching your eye. The scrambled eggs with kale, feta and perfect-crunch broccoli ($18) is a great breakfast choice, if not a little exxy with just one piece of toast on the plate. Similarly, the basic shakshouka comes in a bit high at $18 — especially considering it's an extra $3 just to add chorizo. Lunch lends itself to seafood, with a prawn and crab brioche burger on the menu, along with some beetroot-cured salmon which is a very pleasant colour indeed (both $18). And while you can get a very good Five Senses coffee, you're also able to order from the mostly biodynamic wine list. Service wasn't exactly as well refined as the well-designed dishes. On our visit, we were forgotten about multiple times and had a considerable wait for food, even with the space being quite small and not that busy. It's a sore point amongst some really good ones — but with Lox Stock & Barrel just up the road and Brown Sugar around the corner, there's stiff competition. With hopes to open for dinner in the near future, The Nine might still be finding their prime position.
Straight up: MOLO is turning out some of the best Italian fare we've had in Sydney. Located on the wharf at Woolloomooloo, the new aperitivo wine bar is part of fine diner Manta — it's technically a pop-up, but one that's meant to stick around long-term. The small bar is set outdoors, but with heaters to keep guests cosy on the impending winter nights. The entire operation is gloriously simple, from the tables and chairs to the stemless wine glasses and the food on offer. The cicchetti are a great example of this — think next-level provolone and spicy pimento peppers with thin slices of Australian-produced prosciutto that bests any co-owner Riccardo Bernabei found in Italy. He's looking to continue to source more and more produce from Australia; their bread is already specially made for the restaurant by Tramsheds' Dust Bakery. Though MOLO shares Manta's executive chef Daniel Hughes and head chef Steve Hetherington, the menu is a distinct departure from the restaurant next door in that it is not only a seasonal one but is also very specifically dictated by available produce. On our visit, we are lucky enough to be two of three people to try some extremely rare wild-grown porcini mushrooms that have been foraged in Adelaide that same morning. The chef serves these delicate, soft mushrooms on crostini with parmigiana and just-pressed, still-cloudy olive oil. This simple combo is a prime example of how MOLO's dishes let the produce speak for itself; along with the central element, they tend to only contain three to four other ingredients, with the requisite salt, pepper and olive oil making regular appearances. Though the idea is to drop by for a bite and a drink, the menu is certainly substantial enough to serve as a full meal, especially for those who like to pick from a variety of dishes. Order the impossibly creamy buffalo burrata topped with Swedish caviar ($32) and Cantabrian sardines served with Italian butter and extra olive oil for drizzle ($18). The ricotta with zucchini and Sicilian anchovy ($17) is a truly balanced dish — the incredibly fresh cheese is punched up by the salty anchovy, then finished off with a spicy-sweet hit of paper-thin zucchini that's then topped with house-made chilli flakes. The current menu also features a dish of shaved Venetian white asparagus ($19) that's only in season until June — it's worth rushing to MOLO just to try this. But this is a bar, after all, and the wine list is expertly curated by Mario Mondo, who really knows how to pair the list with the ever-changing food menu. Specialty wines include a Franciacorta — similar to Champagne in that it is certified to only be produced in a specific region — and an extremely exclusive wine from Salina. This tiny Aeolian Island wine region produces volcanic wine that has a dry, mineral characteristic on the nose and palate and pairs beautifully with the sardines. The mentality at MOLO is that "the produce will write the menu" and — much like their food — this simple concept says a lot with little. We just hope this pop-up turns into something permanent.
The UK city of Kingston upon Hull (better known as Hull) made big news this weekend as over 3000 locals and visitors walked the streets naked, painted in four different shades of blue. While this sounds like something Tobias Fünke would inadvertently find himself in the middle of, the nudity was all in the name of art — specifically, for New York-based artist, Spencer Tunick's latest installation. The artwork, appropriately titled Sea of Hull, is a celebration of the seaside town and its relationship with the sea. The 3200 blue participants, which came from 20 countries, traipsed across many of the city's most historic sites for installation and photographing. They even posed on the Scale Lane Bridge, an award-winning swing bridge that crosses the River Hull. The installation is the largest of its kind to be staged in the UK, beating Tunick's previous installations in Gateshead (2005) and Salford (2010). A photo posted by The Best Picture of the Day (@zumapress) on Jul 10, 2016 at 12:09pm PDT A photo posted by La Vanguardia (@lavanguardia) on Jul 9, 2016 at 9:53am PDT Tunick's newest piece was commissioned by Hull's Ferens Art Gallery, who will highlight this piece in their 2017 program. Next year will be a big one for the city, as Hull has once again secured the bid for UK City of Culture, which they also hosted in 2013. The award is given every four years to a city that demonstrates the belief in the power of culture, and Hull City Council is promising to deliver a 365-day program of transformative cultural activity in 2017. Having staged over 90 installations, Tunick's art has encouraged mass nakedness worldwide, including his nude shoot for diversity in front of the Sydney Opera House back in 2010. Other such locations — apart from New York, of course — include the Dead Sea, Mexico City and Cleveland, Ohio. Via SMH.
Just in time to celebrate the brand's 20th anniversary, Sydney Brewery Alexandria is up and running in a sprawling, industry-chic space. Having acquired the former home of Rocks Brewing Company — a casualty of Australia's struggling craft beer scene — Sydney Brewery now enjoys vastly improved brewing capacity, not to mention a sweet location with enough room for 300 guests. Leading the acquisition was Dr Jerry Schwartz of the Schwartz Family Company, owners of Sydney Brewery. Following the announcement, the tap house was renamed Sydney Brewery Alexandria, building upon the brand's existing operations, which include Sydney Brewery Surry Hills and the Sydney Brewery production facility in the Hunter Valley. With the brand's craft beers and ciders in hot demand, the extra brewing capability is more than welcome. Besides a good-quality brew, food will be a major focus at Sydney Brewery Alexandria. In the kitchen, Head Chef Chris Reynolds and his team have shaped a bold menu brimming with fresh, shareable options. Elevating your usual pub feed, expect house-made pasta like gnocchi alla vodka and garlic prawn linguine, alongside premium burgers and staples like chicken schnitzel and steak frites. Also on offer are Nepalese dumplings, chicken wings, or salt and pepper calamari to share with your pals. From its central Alexandria spot, guests will have plenty of space to spread out, with covered and al fresco seating primed for casual catch-ups and group gatherings. Decked out with exposed brick, steel accents and striking street art, the venue offers an inviting ambience whether you're hanging out with a few drinks or seeking a fully-fledged feed. "The milestone is important not just for Sydney Brewery, but for the whole industry," said Dr Schwartz about the brand's 20th anniversary. "When I established Sydney Brewery, the craft brewing sector was in its infancy, and we have managed to grow our capacity and range progressively ever since then." Founded in the basement of the Macquarie Hotel under the Schwartz Brewery name, Sydney Brewery was born in 2012, aspiring to champion the city's emerging craft scene. Before long, a major production facility launched in Lovedale, then a Surry Hills venue followed in 2018. Now, the Alexandria site offers an additional 20hL brewing capacity, ensuring the brand has just what it needs to meet demand for the foreseeable future. Sydney Brewery Alexandria is open at Sydney Corporate Park, 160 Bourke Road, Alexandria. Head to the website for more information.
Hanami and Japan go hand in hand, but what if you could indulge in the art of flower viewing (yes, that's what the term translates to in English) a bit closer to home? Well, that's where the Sydney Cherry Blossom Festival comes in. It's a celebration of everyone's favourite pink flora in Sydney's west. Between Saturday, August 17 and Sunday, August 25, the Auburn Botanic Gardens will transform its Japanese Gardens into a beautiful, blooming wonderland. You'll be able to ramp up your appreciation of the fleeting natural phenomena that is cherry blossom season by attending a massive viewing party in the lead up to spring. Tis the season, after all. And taking in the spectacular scenery isn't the only thing you'll be doing. Over the two weekends of the festival (that is August 17-18 and 24-25), you'll be able to get your fill of Japanese entertainment. There'll be guided shinrin-yoku or 'forest bathing' therapy in the gardens, live Japanese blues music and ikebana (the Japanese art of flower arrangement) workshops. For the kidults, you can also expect a cinema dedicated to one of Japan's most popular characters Gudetama (Lazy Egg), laser tag in an anime-themed arena and Hello Kitty makeovers and stage shows. This year, the festival is ramping up its food offering, too. As well as eating your way through an array of Japanese food trucks, you'll also be able to try a heap of cherry blossom-inspired eats. Former Masterchef Australia winner (and national treasure) Adam Liaw has even created a Cherry Blossom Festival Bento Box for the occasion. A pop-up izakaya will serve up sake and Japanese craft beer, too, and Sydney's Sakeshop will be selling limited cups of Hanamikura Aya sake — which is made from a yeast extracted from the cherry blossom flower. If you've got a day off and want to skip the crowds, it'll also be opening during the week (August 19–23), with Costa from ABC's show Gardening Australia hosting a jam-packed, hands-on gardening day on the Tuesday and an educational day on the Friday. Tickets cost $7.50 for early birds, $10 for general admission and is free for Cumberland residents. Early bird tickets are now on sale for the Sydney Cherry Blossom Festival and can be purchased here. Images: Destination NSW.
In the opening monologue of The Glass Menagerie, Tom Wingfield (Luke Mullins), a thinly veiled portrait of Tennessee Williams, informs the audience that he intends to give them "truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion". Soon after, he casually remarks that "The play is memory … it is sentimental, it is not realistic." So which is it to be? Truth or sentiment? Belvoir’s latest production grapples not only with Williams’ text but also his disdain for the theatrical conventions of his time. The Glass Menagerie was Williams’ first commercially successful work and a very personal one; the story of a struggling writer abandoning his volatile mother and fragile sister reflected, to a greater or lesser degree, his own experiences as a younger man. Adamant that it should not be performed naturalistically, however, Williams located the play in the uneasy space between memory and theatrical contrivance, a fact that director Eamon Flack and his cast have exploited to great effect. The stage has more than a whiff of the film set about it. The kitchen and sitting room of the Wingfield residence take up the majority of the space, flanked by two big screens and a huge bank of lights which, at the appropriate time, bathe these rooms in dazzling artificial sunlight. Several cameras dotted about the place complete the effect. In addition to the action on stage, Tom periodically crosses the boundaries of the house into the theatre and commandeers a camera, recording these bastardised memories or perhaps scrutinising them for any signs of the original. The black-and-white live feed footage Hollywood-ises the scene it has captured, pinning its subject and romanticising it relentlessly before finally letting it go. A slight (though deliberate) lag in the footage continually confounds the lip-synch, a message from Tennessee Williams himself — "Doesn’t matter how good it looks. It can never be like it was." Of course, none of this would matter if you didn’t have a cast who could carry the text. Pamela Rabe is excellent as Amanda, a force of nature in a lacy pink dress, flattening anything she comes into contact with. Rose Riley brings a great charm and tenderness to Laura and her latter scenes are riveting. Mullins is impressive as Tom, a man yet to find himself, and Harry Greenwood’s perpetually surprised Jim is funny, but also wonderfully gentle when he needs to be. Belvoir’s The Glass Menagerie is not only compelling theatre, it is proof that you needn’t take a hatchet to the classics if you want to make them say something new.
If you've ever needed a positive example of how one night can change everything, just chat to Nema Adel. He had no intention of becoming an artist. In fact, he had just completed a university degree in a completely unrelated field when he went to a Flying Lotus performance at the Sydney Opera House that sparked a new passion for real-time digital art. Four and a half years on, Adel is now a sought-after digital artist who has created activations for festivals such as Liveworks and Vivid. He is also one of the visionary artists to team up with Miller Design Lab in 2020 to celebrate our nightlife and its impact on culture to deliver exceptional moments to you and your home. Deciding to forge a career in a relatively new — and quite niche — artistic field has meant Adel's path has been anything but traditional, so Concrete Playground sat down with the artist to discuss his creative process. Read on to discover how he seeks inspiration and the importance of nightlife to his art, then check out the video above to see him in action. In addition to the Flying Lotus gig, Adel pinpoints one other serendipitous moment that propelled his career. At his first ever event in 2016, which involved digital projections on a bank of trees over a river, Adel met an artist from Germany who liked his work. What followed was a six-month stint touring Germany and Austria doing shows. "And that was my education," he says. Adel explains that because digital art is such a new and ever-evolving art form he is mostly self-taught. "If I go on Google, I won't get any answers to the things I want to know, because nobody has really done it before," he says. Instead, Adel relies on connecting with others around the world who work in similar artistic spaces, particularly through Instagram, to share ideas, new techniques and advice. In particular, he notes San Francisco-based company All Of It Now and its Creative Director Kev Zhu, who shares tutorials online and has worked with Drake on custom projections for arena tours, as a key source of inspiration and knowledge sharing. But mostly, "it's just loads of experimentation. Unlike fine arts and classical arts, where [there is a] technique that we've perfected over hundreds of years." Customisation is present throughout Adel's entire process. "The design mainly happens on the computer, but I don't know how that actually looks unless I set up the projection and understand it in reality. Then, I'll take it back to the computer, then back to reality, and keep ping-ponging back and forth." For that reason, Adel doesn't really have a traditional workspace. He has a studio at Marrickville's Create Or Die, a creative hub filled with artists that he loves to bounce ideas off or collaborate with, including graffiti artist Iro Kitamura. "He might be painting murals and I'll be projecting onto the mural painting. I really enjoy it as I don't have those fine art skills," he says. Adel also likes that his work takes him out and about. "I love my style of work so much because the space changes — different venues and different galleries — and that'll always inform how you're going to work." And he mostly works at night. "On the most basic level, I cannot do my craft in the middle of the day… the natural light will wash out my projection light. Without the nighttime, I don't have a craft." Beyond that, he acknowledges the symbiotic relationship art and nightlife have: "I work in a lot of events and I was able to keep practising through the nightlife that we have — whether it's working with musical artists or exhibitions. If you have an extensive nightlife, [artists] can keep rolling and keep becoming better". Of course, much of that has changed in the past few months due to restrictions on public gatherings. Adel has had many jobs cancelled and has made the decision to temporarily move out of his Marrickville studio for safety reasons. Though he knows many other creatives are trying to keep up the collaboration and creativity in this time, he isn't. For someone who believes that "creativity is a mirror" and will reflect the artist's mood or current situation, it makes sense that he'd prefer to pause on creating for now. "I've consciously decided to use this as a bit more of a rest period, and that's partly due to the fact that there is a lot less inspiration in my life at the moment," he explains. Instead, he is viewing this time as a "study period" by doing some online tutorials, perfecting techniques and keeping up to date on the software tools he relies on. But when normal life resumes and he is ready to boost what he calls his creativity "metre" again, Adel has a few tried and tested techniques for seeking inspiration. "Travelling or seeing a new place and taking photos — that'll always bring new ideas to me," he says. He also mentions going out to see live music as a huge influence, naming Freda's in Chippendale and Camelot Lounge in Marrickville as his go-tos. "When there are events on with artists from other countries, I love it. I have no idea what to expect… but their art has been formed in a different way. You want to get as many perspectives as you possibly can under your belt. "I'm also very inspired by the Studio Ghibli films…. They've managed to create rich stories from imagery, and I think for me that is the ultimate goal: not just creating things that look nice, but things which convey meaning. That's hopefully what I aim for in the next ten years." For more, check out Nema's collaboration with Miller Genuine Draft here. For more ways to celebrate your city's nightlife and recreate its energy in your own space, head this way. Images: Reuben Gibbes
Winner of Concrete Playground's Best New Pub of 2015. Standing proud in Millers Point, the Hotel Palisade forms a unique and improbable part of Sydney's foreshore history; when it was built a century ago, it was the city's highest building. Having sat sadly vacant for years, it's now been revived with a smart new maritime design by Sibella Court which nods to the area's industrial and nautical heritage. There are diagrams of seafaring knots on the distressed walls and the inscription 'Think Like a Pirate' on one arched doorway, as well as a painting of a ship battling treacherous seas. Old school pub tiling, vintage lamps and some priceless old signage round out the olde world feel. A rooftop cocktail bar is due to open soon and will offer extensive views of the bright lights of the Barangaroo complex. But for now there's the downstairs pub, which pumps out food that avoids the familiar schnitzels and steak sandwiches and opts instead for snacks like creamy chicken liver pate with a sweet Young Henrys cider jelly ($12). There's also a salmon tartare with plenty of freshness and flavour from crunchy cress, roe, thin sliced radish and citrus creme fraiche. A beef brisket sanga ($18) is filled with meat soft enough to fall apart at the touch of a butter knife and comes with a mug of salt and vinegar chips. Once a popular drinking hole for workers building the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Palisade now offers a diverse drinks list which includes top-notch craft beers like Little Creatures Pale Ale ($6.50) as well as wines from across the nation. Go for the fruity Cooter & Cooter Shiraz ($9/$42) or one of the thematically fitting rums, like a Pirate's Grog ($13) or Sailor Jerry ($8.50). The cocktail list by Mikey Enright (of The Barber Shop) is also on point. It includes a refreshing Governors Gimlet ($16) with house-made celery liqueur and dehydrated lime, and a Spiced Negroni ($17), which is heavy on cinnamon, cloves and star anise. A Larrikin Old Fashioned ($17) adds IIegal mezcal for a cheeky twist on the evergreen cocktail. Heartbreak Hotel ($17) is probably the pick though, and not just for jilted lovers. Combining Chivas whisky, Pierre Ferrand cognac, rockmelon, fennel seed honey and bitters, it's floral, smoky and sweet all at once — an ideal drink to raise in celebration to this reborn gem of Sydney harbour history. Images: Destination NSW
When it comes to decking out your home with impressive but affordable homewares, Kmart has been giving IKEA a run for its money in recent years. Indeed, if you're already a convert, you probably know just how popular the Aussie department store gets whenever it drops a new range — or, you've likely seen everyone else's Instagram snaps that prove it. Spent too much timing staring at your same old furniture this winter, thanks to the cold and the pandemic? Wish you were somewhere beachy? Always wanted to kit out your place with a bohemian vibe? Today, Thursday, July 28, Kmart has just unveiled its latest home-focused lineup, and it takes care of all of the above. Expect it to fly off the shelves as always. With prices starting at $1.75 — for bowls, should your kitchenware need a revamp — the August Living range goes heavy on pastel hues, natural materials and coloured glass. There are two main themes: timeless and urban. The former skews soft, delicate and homely, with curvy shapes, chambray fabrics and pops of block colour. The latter, which is still designed to mix-and-match with the rest of the range, is where bold silhouettes and gleaming surfaces come in. Covering items for the dining room, bathroom, bedroom and living room as well, Kmart's current drop spans everything from fringed cushions and swivelling single-seater couches through to coastal pics, palm tree-adorned bed linen and cane bathroom furniture. Yes, it's all very 70s chic, too, especially the pink, brown, mustard and other earthy colours. Among the standout pieces: two-packs of cute sea shell-shaped candles for $5, shaggy cushions for $14, cane chairs to pop them on for $149 each, and wicker lampshades and bases ranging from $39–59. If you'd like to throw in some marble, there's three different tables, all with metal bases, including a $49 side table, $69 hallway table and $89 coffee table. And white-panelled bathroom storage starts at $69. You know how they say that change is as good as a holiday? It isn't, obviously, but swapping your home decor to the kinds of items that you might find in a Byron Bay beachhouse should help lift the vibe at least. The August living range is on sale online and in-store from Thursday, July 28–Wednesday, August 17, and also includes wallpaper, flooring, curtains and blinds, as well as a new DIY line. Kmart's August Living range is on sale online and in-store from Thursday, July 28–Wednesday, August 17.
Marrickville Bowlo combines bowling with live music — and is a bona fide inner west institution. Gigs are held most Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and run the gauntlet from local rock to blues and soul to DJs that get the whole venue having a boogie. During the day, it's all about the bowls. While it does host competitions, the venue's barefoot bowls is a more casual affair, and costs just $15 per person for around two hours of game time. Instructions are even thrown in. Should your sweet victory (or close losses) make you hungry, pop into the bowlo's bistro for a feed. The menu includes hearty pub classics like burgers, nachos, steaks and potato wedges. The kitchen stays open until 8.30pm, so you can grab a snack before a gig, too. Image: Kate Murphy.
Travel is a salve to all of life's problems. There's something truly healing about that first dip into a faraway sea, a bite of a food you've never heard of before, or the background hum of a language you can't understand. But sometimes, all it takes is a hotel to have you packing your bags and buckling into your plane seat. There's no better place to find that holiday feeling than in Asia. From the patchwork blue seas of the Komodo Islands to the tranquil jungles of Ubud and into the hawker centres of Singapore, Asia is dotted with spectacular hotels that are worth making the trip for. As a Marriott Bonvoy member, you can access exclusive rates immediately on stays at participating properties (700 of them in Asia alone). Membership is free, so once you've signed up, book with the app and earn points for future stays worldwide. [caption id="attachment_1045361" align="alignnone" width="1920"] TA'AKTANA, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa[/caption] TA'AKTANA, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia Depending on who you ask, there are anywhere from 16,000 to 18,000 islands in Indonesia. Flores, Bali's quiet neighbour, may just be the most underrated of them all. The town of Labuan Bajo on Flores is the gateway to the Komodo Islands—a patchwork of sparkling blue water, technicolour coral reefs and sacred Komodo dragons. It's quickly becoming Indonesia's best-kept treasure and is only a one-hour flight from Bali. When in town, TA'AKATANA, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa is the place to stay. The resort's over-water villas draw inspiration from Flores' distinctive spider-web style rice paddies, offering epic views that look out over the Komodo Islands. Here, your villa also includes a luxurious butler service. Inspired by the mystical caves of Rangko and Batu Cermin, Di'a Spa is where hot tubs and cold plunge pools overlook the turquoise Flores Sea, offering not just relaxation but also renewal. It's your chance for a soulful pause in one of Indonesia's most captivating settings. [caption id="attachment_1045362" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Athenee Hotel, A Luxury Collection Hotel[/caption] The Athenee Hotel, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok is a direct flight away from most Australian capitals, but the second your feet hit the buzzing streets, you feel a world away. You arrive to tropical warmth, towering, gilded temples, and fragrant, heaped bowls of street food passing by on vendors' carts. Not to mention, Bangkok is quickly earning a reputation as one of South East Asia's creative hotspots with galleries, bars, endless vintage shopping and local fashion labels popping up across the city. When in town, our editors check into The Athenee Hotel. Here, you're staying on the grounds of Kandhavas, the palace of Princess Valaya Alongkorn, the daughter of King Rama V. The five-star, luxury hotel is also located right in the heart of Bangkok—perfect for a trip spent hitting the city's exceptional shopping malls like Siam Paragon. After a day exploring Bangkok, head back to your hotel to de-stress with a holistic treatment at the Athenee Spa. W Singapore - Sentosa Cove, Singapore Sentosa Island is Singapore's island getaway—yet, you're still connected to the mainland. Singapore's hawker centres, futuristic skyline and unrivalled shopping make it one of the best city breaks going. W Singapore - Sentosa Cove is one of the coolest places to stay when you're in town. The hotel's sleek design and freshly-renovated rooms were born from blending city and sanctuary. The result is a space that channels the tropical microcosm that is Singapore: abundant energy, buzzing atmosphere, and an element of surrealism. While on Sentosa Island, check out Universal Studios, laze your day away at Siloso Beach or Palawan Beach (the southernmost point of continental Asia) or simply unwind in W Singapore's free-form outdoor pools. Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Ubud, Indonesia Found deep inside the Balinese jungle, on the shores of the Ayung River, sits Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve property. Ubud, a green, spiritual enclave in Bali, is often overlooked in favour of beach clubs. But, check into Mandapa — within an Indigenous village — and you'll soon realise that this is the best way to experience Bali. You'll find 35 suites, 25 pool villas and four unique dining concepts dotted across the resort's lush grounds. The best part, though, is their restorative spa and Disconnect to Reconnect Wellness Journey Program. You'll receive a personalised wellbeing and health program tailored just for you. The experience is guided by three pillars: wellness, gastronomy, and sustainability. For those seeking a stay that truly renews, this is your sanctuary. [caption id="attachment_1043648" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Juliana Barquero[/caption] Aloft Osaka Dojima, Japan If you're anything like us, your social feeds are currently filled with friends living it up in Japan. And, with ski season approaching, your jealousy is about to get worse. If you've always wanted to go, let this be your sign to book that trip now. The vibrant, technicoloured streetscapes of Osaka's litter social feeds everywhere — especially with the city's vintage designer shopping. But they're really just the backdrop of Aloft Osaka Dojima. The sleek, design-focused hotel is for the traveller who likes being in the heart of the city. Stay here, and you're never more than a short walk from Osaka's viral food spots and expansive train network. Take a day trip to Kyoto or Nara, stop into Universal Studios or try the world-famous Kobe beef before heading back to base. [caption id="attachment_1051746" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Perhentian Marriott Resort & Spa, Malaysia[/caption] Perhentian Marriott Resort & Spa, Malaysia Think of Malaysia, and chances are your mind rushes to steaming bowls of fragrant laksa, a buzzing Kuala Lumpur and its Petronas Towers at night (or that scene from Entrapment). But, did you know its coastline is dotted with tropical islands and pristine beaches? One of our editors' favourites is the Perhentian Islands on the east coast of Terengganu. It's here, on Perhentian Kecil, that you'll find Perhentian Marriott Resort & Spa. Their private villas are perched on the cliffside with panoramic views out onto the azure shores of the Perhentians, and even come complete with a private pool and luxurious baths. Outside the resort grounds, island hop the day away, swim with turtles and snorkel through pristine coral reefs, then watch the sun slip below the horizon on a sunset cruise. Become a Marriott Bonvoy member (for free) for access to the best rates on the website. Then, download the app to discover a world of unparalleled rewards and earn and redeem points for your next trip with Marriott International's award-winning travel program and marketplace. And, to celebrate the end of 2025, you can even earn 2,025 bonus points when you book if you register at Marriott's website.
If you're just a hunk, a hunk of burning love for the one and only Elvis Presley, and you live in Australia, you've been having quite the few years. A massive exhibition dedicated to the king of rock 'n' roll came our way, Baz Luhrmann's AACTA-winning and Oscar-nominated biopic Elvis wowed fans, and Sofia Coppola's Cailee Spaeny-starring Priscilla has also hit the big screen. Also on offer: a new Presley-focused stage musical that debuted in Sydney last year — and is coming back from Sunday, February 4. Called Elvis: A Musical Revolution, this production features more than 40 of the singer's hits, because there's just that many songs to include. All of the expected favourites are worked into the biographical musical, which means everything from 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Hound Dog', 'That's All Right' and 'All Shook Up' through to 'Suspicious Minds', 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Burning Love' and 'Blue Suede Shoes'. 'Good Rockin' Tonight', 'Earth Angel', 'Don't Be Cruel' and 'Are You Lonesome' get a whirl as well, as do 'Blue Moon of Kentucky', 'See See Rider', 'Can't Help Falling in Love' and 'A Little Less Conversation'. That's what the show's audience hears. As for what everyone sees — what makes the musical one for the money, naturally — the production's story tells Elvis' tale from his childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi through to his triumphant '68 Comeback Special. If you've seen the aforementioned Elvis, none of it will be new news, but Elvis: A Musical Revolution works its hip-swinging magic anyway. In Sydney, Elvis will be in the building at the State Theatre again. Starring Rob Mallett (House Husbands, Singin' in the Rain), Elvis: A Musical Revolution hails from David Venn Enterprises, which has also been behind Cruel Intentions: The '90s Musical, The Wedding Singer and Bring It On: The Musical — and arrives via a partnership with Authentic Brands Group, the owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises. Also behind the scenes, the musical's book comes courtesy of David Abbinanti and Sean Cercone — who have Saturday Night Fever: The Musical and Ghost: The Musical on their resumes — with Abbinanti also composing the orchestrations, arrangements, and additional musical and lyrics. Images: Ken Leanfore / Daniel Boud.
Most families have road-trip stories and vacation tales embedded not only in their memories, but in their lore. Cherished holiday moments, whether joyous, chaotic or everything in-between, help cement the picture of who a brood is beyond the bonds of blood. So too does recalling those getaways in frequently wheeled-out anecdotes. This is all true for the Hammar family, which spent every summer during now-journalist, TV presenter and writer Filip's childhood heading from Sweden to France. With patriarch Lars behind the wheel, they'd venture for a stint of fun and sun — plus Lars whipping up ratatouille in the kitchen — at Beaulieu-sur-Mar in the French Riviera. Plenty of families talk about recapturing that magic years later. Some make the same pilgrimage again. For Filip, taking Lars back to the spot between Nice and Monaco, driving there in the same type of orange Renault 4, staying in the apartment they always did, and re-orchestrating some of treasured incidents and instances, wasn't just about nostalgia, however. That's an undeniable aspect of the trip captured in documentary The Last Journey, but so is rekindling the now-octogenarian Lars' lust for life — which was flagging after retiring from his beloved job as a teacher after 40 years and biding most of his time in an armchair at home, with his energy, physical and emotional alike, waning. Co-directed with Fredrik Wikingsson, who Filip has collaborated with professionally for a quarter of a century, the film that chronicles the Hammars' new south-of-France jaunt is now Sweden's highest-grossing doco in history. "We didn't expect this," Filip tells Concrete Playground about the reaction to the movie, which premiered in March 2024 in Swedish cinemas, was selected as the Scandinavian country's submission for the 2025 Oscars' Best International Feature category, and opens in Australia on Thursday, February 27, 2025 and in New Zealand on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Included in that sentiment: the response to the film as it has played well beyond Filip, Lars and Fredrik's homeland. "This was just a small, small project that we thought would be very domestic in a way," Filip continues. "Yeah, this is incredible for us," adds Fredrik. With Fredrik also travelling to Beaulieu-sur-Mar with Filip and his father, this is a deeply personal picture. A son trying to help his dad reclaim his zest for living was always going to be — even if the travelling party hadn't had to navigate setbacks such as Lars' hotel-room fall, which results in a broken bone, a hospital stay and almost calling the whole thing off. But as specific to the Hammars as the whole endeavour is, as filled with recreated moments for Lars and Filip, and as layered with minutiae from their family's experiences, The Last Journey also achieves the holy grail of personal filmmaking: ensuring that such an individual quest is always movingly universal. Again, road trips and fondly remembered holidays, tales about them, nostalgia and wanting to recapture family glory days are familiar to almost everyone; however, The Last Journey resonates well beyond the obvious, and long past the broad strokes. While they mightn't have when they were starting work on the movie, Filip and Fredrik — as they're known in Sweden, including via TV shows such as Sunday Party with Filip and Fredrik and Breaking News with Filip and Fredrik — understand this as filmmakers. Their documentary charts their French trip, plus Filip's journey to accept his dad's ageing and his grappling with mortality, through Filip's eyes, but its guiding forces now know that their viewers will see themselves in every Hammar family-centric detail. [caption id="attachment_991498" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Margareta Bloom Sandebäck[/caption] There's a moment in the film in France, in the apartment that he visited yearly when he was a boy, where Filip comments that being there now feels like being in a museum — and that the memories of his dad from past holidays are everywhere you look. There's so much in that statement about the way that we adore and look back on memories and experiences with our loved ones, as there is in the film. Indeed, amid The Last Journey's efforts to recreate key memories for Lars, and its commitment to not shying away from tough moments, Filip's words and the sensation they describe — a feeling that viewers will be able to recognise instantly in their own lives — perfectly sums up the entire documentary. That's an immense achievement for a movie that its directors were "very nervous about this being a very personal, small story that maybe nobody would give a shit" about, as Fredrik advises — even if they did come to realise that for audiences, "when you watch the film, you probably sit and think about the stuff you did with your parents when you grew up and the places you stayed at," Filip notes. Digging into the reaction to the doco, exploring why it's so relatable, unpacking that museum-like sensation, stepping through Lars' seemingly reluctance at various stages, examining why it was so crucial to include difficult moments, uncovering what Filip learned along the way: that's all a part of our chat with Filip and Fredrik as well. On Filip and Fredrik's Journey with the Film So Far, Including Notching Up the Highest-Grossing Swedish Documentary in History Fredrik: "First and foremost, we were very nervous about this being a very personal, small story that maybe nobody would give a shit, because it was just like maybe people will think 'good for you, good for your dad, you made a trip, why should we care?'. And especially abroad, that's even crazier. But the reactions from so many people, we got emails and text messages and stuff of people having seen the film and made their own versions of this journey. Like going to Italy with their 97-year-old grandfather, having one last beer at his favourite restaurant, or a smaller, more reasonable version — 'I just went to a museum with my mother' — and that whole almost-movement has been incredibly rewarding." Filip: "I think that when you start out, when we had this idea — this started out as just me and my dad going on a trip without cameras, when me and Fredrik started talking, 'maybe we should document this somehow'. And we decided to do that. I'm not sure it's a good idea if you start thinking about 'will this resonate?'. Of course you ask yourself those questions, like 'what's the story here?', but I don't think we understood how well it would resonate with people. Because this was my sort of issue — I felt like 'this is me, this is my dad, I want to reverse time, I want him to be the guy he used to be'. I think we underestimated how common that is in a way, how people could truly relate to this. And first off, we discovered that 'hey, they can relate to this in Sweden' — and then we started slowly to screen it outside of Sweden, and then you realise that 'hey, this is a very universal thing'. I mean, it's not that we're stupid. We knew that some people would relate. But I think it's really common now where you don't want your parents to get old, because it also makes you aware of your own mortality. And you also love your parents. So it's a very universal story, I think." On the Movie's Museum Comment, How It Sums Up the Film and How We All See Our Memories in Spaces That Are Important to Us Filip: "Thank you, first of all — that was just something I improvised. It just came." Fredrik: "Yeah, yeah." Filip: "I think people could relate to that as well. I remember, just a while ago, I went down to an apartment, my grandad's apartment — that's not in France, that's in Sweden — and I opened the door and immediately the smell was the same, and I immediately see my granddad was sitting there in his oversized bathrobe in the mornings, whatever. So there are several museums, because you associate places with certain things and memories. And I think that for everyone, like Fredrik talks about — I mean, in the beginning of the film, I talked about that last bend. We drive down to France and my dad always said 'kids, this is the last band. Then we arrive in our paradise'. But Fredrik had his own paradise. You probably had your own paradise. And those are museums, I guess, for all of us. So that's also one of the reason I think you can relate, because when you watch the film, you probably sit and think about the stuff you did with your parents when you grew up and the places you stayed at." On the Quest to Help Lars Recapture His Lust for Life — Even with His Seeming Reluctance About the Journey at Times Fredrik: "I've known Filip since the mid-90s and I've known Lars for as long. And he knows me well, and we love each other. We had a very, very small crew — and I think there is a part of him being a teacher for 40 years, a very beloved teacher. And he was he was beloved because he was also a performer. He was one of those like Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society-type teachers. So I think in a way, I think the camera for him was like a return to performing again." Filip: "That's true. You never said that before." Fredrik: "So even though it could be strange to be on-camera for a person who's not used to it, he was such a natural, if you want to call it that. Also, I think the camera made Lars listen better, because he has all kinds of diagnoses, so he is not the greatest of listeners. But everything, because of the camera, because we filmed everything, the tempo was really slow, and I think he just loved being seen and heard because he hadn't been that for a while sitting at home." Filip: "Some people perceive it as him being reluctant, and that's true at times, but also everything, I try to with my mum, I want her to greenlight everything first. She really approved of this idea. She felt he has to do this. She's there with him every day, and if you're depressed, like my dad is, you rather say 'no' than 'yes' — because you are worried, that's just part of it. We wouldn't, of course, have pushed him if he said 'no, no, no, no, no'. We wouldn't have done it. Or if a doctor would say 'this is not possible'. But I know my dad good enough, my mum knows her husband good enough, to understand that, well, you need to convince him — and sometimes you just need to tell him 'Lars, this is what you've got to do', because we knew that he would enjoy this. There were times when he's worried, of course, because he's lost a lot of self-confidence maybe. But he also enjoyed it. Even Fredrik knows this, because he'd seen my dad throughout the years. You can see when he suddenly tells the story about the parrot, when he starts remembering stuff that happened during the heydays of his life on the French Riviera, he smiles. He loves this. He forgets that he's depressed." On the Importance of Recreating Pivotal Moments From Lars and Filip's Family Holidays — and Managing to Pull Them Off Fredrik: "I think this trip could have been only sunsets and beautiful dinners, and having a good lunch with some great French food, but for us that would not do justice to who Filip's dad is. He is original, and the way he looks at France is not like the typical Eat, Pray, Love bullshit, which is all like the good food and stuff." Filip: "Fredrik sometimes calls this film 'an Eat, Pray, Love for smart people'." Fredrik: "Occasionally. But we wanted this to be a fun trip for him, and we wanted it to be like a reverse bucket list, if you will. Instead of doing things he never did before, let's make him — and for god's sake also let Filip, because he wanted this as well — experience the greatest moments of their lives together, and maybe that could reignite his zest for life. It didn't really work out that way, but I think it made the movie better. And also I think that it made the journey more memorable for him." Filip: "Instead of having him experience new things, like 'oh, my dad wants to swim with dolphins' — for some reason that's always on top of a lot of people's lists. It's hanging in there for decades. It's still there — for him, I think we knew that it's better. It's like you get a ticket to your own museum. Let's do this. And I think that was the key to why it felt, for us, relevant to make this film. And also, this is a film about a good human being — but like Fredrik said, then if it could be only like sunset sand great talks, what's good? There's an edge to this film as well that we're both proud of, and I think it's a funny film, and I think those moments we want him to re-experience are obviously not your average moments. It's like having him retell a pretty shitty story about Harry Belafonte, but he loves that story, and it was part of our summers when he tells this story about Harry Belafonte. And I think that's important for the film. Otherwise film could have become quite ... " Fredrik: "Predictable, I guess." Filip: "Yeah, I guess — and bland, like nothing. There is an oddness to it. But still a relatability. Because you probably have that story in your family when your dad is about to — and 'okay, here we go again, he's going to tell this story'. So we all have our Harry Belafonte stories in our families." On Knowing How Crucial It Was to Share the Tough Turns Along the Film's Journey Fredrik: "You never plan for those. When Lars claims, Filip's dad claims, that he makes the best ratatouille in Europe — and every summer, he made that once every summer, and that was the highlight of his summer, spending hours in the kitchen — so of course we wanted that to happen again. And when you plan that as a co-traveller and also filmmakers, you have an idea, 'this is going to be a beautiful scene, one last ratatouille'. And then when you realise quickly that 'oh my god, he can't even cut through the vegetables anymore because he's too frail', your first instinct is panic, to feel like 'oh whoa, this is not what we planned'. But after a while, if you embrace the truth of the moment, which is 'okay, this is a different Lars now, and maybe this means something for this whole experience' — then, if you include that in the film, which we of course did, it becomes more true, and I think even more relatable. Filip: "This film plays a bit, I think, like a feature. It's a doc, but it could just as well almost been a film based on some book or a script or whatever. But what we love is, talking about whatever plot points, that scene, we didn't see it coming. It was just like 'hey, have dinner'. But we realised that, wow, me being desperate — I can't, I don't remember this hardly — how desperate I am trying to find a sharper knife because I really want my dad to be able to cut through that eggplant. That's a very surprising plot point, but that is probably the scene where I give up, or where I come to terms with my dad's age. 'Hey, he's not going to be the same again'. It's hard to write that. That's why I love making documentaries. It's a scene that would have been hard to come up with if you just fantasise. On What Filip Learned on His Trip with His Dad and Fredrik — and From Making a Documentary About It Filip: "It sounds like it's a film about my dad, like his last journey, but I think the person that makes the biggest journey is definitely me. Because I think I really come to terms, or I finally just come to terms, with 'okay, my dad is not going to be who he once was. This is who he is now. But please, Filip, enjoy this'." Fredrik: "Embrace it." Filip: "And embrace it. This chapter in his life and in our lives together also has a silver lining. So I think that has really, truly changed me. And I think maybe people can relate to that as well. Or if you haven't really come to terms with that, maybe people will. And now me and my dad's relationship is better. Before this, every time I called him, I really pushed him. I told him 'come on, stop being depressed, show some fighting spirit' or whatever. Now I feel like 'okay, it's fine. Let's complain, if you want to do that. Then we can talk about other things'. Because I think he felt the pressure before to sort of perform to make me happy, by saying 'no, I'm really trying, Filip'. So that is good. There's a moment in the film where he says 'I hope you're not disappointed with me', and that sort of reveals a lot how, I guess, a lot of parents feel — how they feel like 'oh, I want to be someone else because my kids want me to be who I once was'. I think that's sad. When I think about that line, I think that changed me in a way. 'Of course, I'm not disappointed in you, dad. You can be whoever you want.'" The Last Journey opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday, February 27, 2025 and in New Zealand on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson are in Australia for preview screening with Q&As on Sunday, 16 February at Sydney's Hayden Orpheum Cremorne, and on Tuesday, February 18 at Cinema Nova and The Astor Theatre in Melbourne.
Huge news: Darlinghurst is set to be home to Soho House Sydney, Australia's first outpost for the ultra-exclusive membership club. The much-hyped global brand which has locations across the world from Berlin to Miami, is now looking to transform a building on the corner of Crown and Foley Street above Shady Pines Saloon, with ambitious plans in the works to completely reshape the space. Plans for an estimated $24-million multi-storey mega-venue have been lodged, with the proposed building featuring a restaurant and bar, gym, cabaret facilities and a rooftop terrace and pool. The plans also reveal anticipated changes to the facade, replacing the building's fairly rundown exterior with a simple, sleek and modern cream and brown design in line with other Soho Houses around the world. The Darlinghurst building has a storied history, taking many forms over the years including Bolot's Embassy Dancing Academy between 1924–30, the Playbox Theatre and Stanley Twig's auction house in the 1930s and, most recently, housing several retail tenants throughout the 2000s including an espresso bar, convenience store and a nail salon. Fans of affordable drinks and Americana aesthetics, never fear: it looks like Shady Pines won't be disrupted by the opening of Soho House Sydney, with the floor plan revealing an allocated zone for "tenancy" on the basement floor where the bar currently resides. Concrete Playground reached out to the Swillhouse team for comment on the future of the site, but they didn't get back to us in time for publication. Australia's first ever Soho House was originally set to open on Domain Road in Melbourne's South Yarra, but developers were forced to ditch plans at the direction of VCAT in late October, after strong opposition from local councils and a residents' group. Now boasting over 40 houses across the globe, Soho House first opened in London in 1995 as a private members club for clientele in the creative sphere. It has since spread throughout Europe and North America, opening restaurants, cinemas, workspaces, spas and bedrooms alongside the traditional clubs. From New York to Istanbul, exclusivity is a common global denominator. If you want to apply for a membership, you can explore all of the options and lodge an application at the Soho House membership page. [caption id="attachment_653445" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shady Pines[/caption] Soho House Sydney is set to open at 256 Crown Street, Darlinghurst.
Redfern hotel Woolpack Hotel is a local favourite for its craft brews and creative pub fare. On its taps, you'll find top-notch Aussie craft beers from the likes of Moon Dog, Colonial, Akasha and Moo Brew. For eats, there's plenty of classic pub grub like fish 'n' chips, schnitties and parmas, plus osso bucco, jalapeño chicken burgers and sticky date pudding. Every Tuesday, Woolpack's chefs whip up homestyle feasts for $26, With it, you'll get you a house wine or craft beer and a meal — think jerk chicken maryland with slaw, roast potatoes and grilled corn, or vegan eggplant pepperonata with cauliflower bechamel and couscous. Images: Cassandra Hannagan
For those in search of culinary variety, food courts used to be the natural go-to. Then came the age of precincts, which boomed in the wake of the pandemic as businesses within walkable footprints banded together to form easily navigable options for a venue-hopping night out. Over the past couple of years, however, a new breed of dining destination has emerged combining the calibre of stand-alone venues that used to be the preserve of precincts with the under-one-roof convenience that was once the food court's monopoly. Hospitality hubs are fast becoming the apex predators of Sydney's dining scene, with many of the most compelling openings of 2024 falling into this ascendant category of venue. Typically operated by a single hospitality group, these multi-venue, often multi-level and, crucially, multi-purpose establishments can simultaneously cater to punters seeking very different experiences, be that a pre-dinner cocktail and a restaurant booking, a laidback after-work drink, a cute date spot or somewhere to let loose with a dancefloor. We've picked out the best of the bunch in Sydney, including two newcomers set to open within weeks. Which will you visit first? Recommended reads: The Best Italian Restaurants in Sydney The Mexican Restaurants in Sydney The Best Pizza in Sydney The Best French Restaurants in Sydney
Poirot goes horror in A Haunting in Venice. As unsettling as it was in its pointlessness and indulgence, Death on the Nile's moustache origin story doesn't quite count as doing the same. With Kenneth Branagh (Belfast) back directing, producing and starring as the hirsute Belgian sleuth for the third time — 2017's Murder on the Orient Express came first — Agatha Christie's famous detective now gets steeped in gothic touches and also scores the best outing yet under his guidance. The source material: the acclaimed mystery writer's 1969 novel Hallowe'en Party. Returning screenwriter Michael Green (Jungle Cruise) has given the book more than a few twists, the canal-lined Italian setting being one. Venice makes an atmospheric locale, especially on October 31, in the post-World War II era and amid a dark storm. But perhaps the most important move that A Haunting in Venice makes is Branagh reining in the showboating that became so grating in his first two Poirot movies. Even if you've never read Christie's work or seen Poirot on the screen before, three details have become as widely known as the figure's existence: he's a detective, he's eccentric and, to the benefit of solving cases upon cases, he's obsessive. Thankfully, three also seems to be the magic number in letting the investigator's quirks feel lived in during his current cinema run, rather than constantly overemphasising every idiosyncrasy. Both A Haunting in Venice and Branagh's performance are all the better for that choice. When not just puzzling but also spooking is on offer, such a shift is essential, allowing bumps, jumps and eeriness to set the mood and style over an overdone central portrayal. Branagh is helming a haunted-house story this time around, after all — and while ghost tales need people to torment, overblown identities shouldn't be the most disquieting thing about them. He's also made a picture about grief and trauma, two experiences that change personalities. In relocating to the sinking island city and withdrawing from the whodunnit game, his new status quo when the film begins, A Haunting in Venice's Poirot has already done his own toning down. It's 1947, a decade after the events seen in A Death on the Nile, and bodyguard Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio, The Translators) helps keep life quiet by sending away everyone who seeks the sleuth's help. The exception: Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey, Only Murders in the Building), a Christie surrogate who is not only also a celebrated author, but writes crime fiction based on Poirot (with Fey slipping into her shoes, she's a playful source of humour, too). When the scribe comes a-knocking, it's with an invite to a séance, where she's hoping that her pal will help her to discredit the medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once), who has the town talking. The supernatural isn't Poirot's thing, unsurprisingly. Usually, that applies to the stories that he's in and his perspective. But Ariadne herself is starting to be convinced that Joyce might be the real deal, as she explains while persuading her friend into assisting. In A Haunting in Venice, belief isn't much Poirot's thing either — although unnerving visions do begin lingering in his view. As much as Branagh, cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos (another veteran of the first two pictures), composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (an Oscar-winner for Joker) and editor Lucy Donaldson (The Midnight Club) have fun diving into horror, and they do, embracing the occult was never going to be on the cards for movie's main character. Instead, getting his mystery-solving mojo back is part of the predictable plot; more than in Branagh's past two Poirot flicks, A Haunting in Venice feels comfortable rather than inert in its formula. From that setup, the film unfurls over one night and in a sole spot: a grand yet crumbling palazzo. The building was previously an orphanage where many kids met their death and has seen other folks follow them since, with local legend chalking up the abode's misfortunes to "the children's vendetta". Ex-opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly, Yellowstone) now owns the structure — and it's her daughter Alicia's (feature debutant Rowan Robinson) passing that's inspired her to enlist Reynolds' services. Count her among the suspects when a body shows up, alongside Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan, The Tourist), Drake's family doctor; Leopold (Jude Hill, Branagh's Belfast breakout), his precocious son; Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin, Call My Agent!), the mansion's housemaid; Desdemona and Nicholas Holland (The Crowded Room's Emma Laird and Everyone Else Burns' Ali Khan), brother-and-sister war refugees; and Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen, West Side Story), Alicia's American former fiancé. The expected Poirot template still dictates A Haunting in Venice's basics; few deductive skills are needed to see why Hallowe'en Party's name and city were changed to fit the franchise's mould, for instance. So, murders occur, fingers are pointed, everyone has a motive and the movie's main man gives his brain a workout. Also, getting the pool of accused jostling — and the actors playing them, of course — remains as baked into the feature as in its predecessors. This rogues' gallery makes a finer job of it than the past talents in the same position with Branagh. They're more cohesive as a group, and even as well. Fey sparkles with acerbic wit, Yeoh is confidently serene, Cottin frays nervily, Laird is a picture of unease, and having Dornan and Hill play father and son again after Belfast is a nice touch. With Branagh bringing more nuance to his role than ever, his co-stars never feel like they're being thrust into the shadows by their director and lead. There's zero subtlety in the filmmaking, though, nor should there be in a gleeful gothic-horror spin on Poirot. Cue a wealth of visual flourishes that convey a murder-mystery with purposefully disorientating excess — and shine. Thanks to Venice, the horror genre's fans will already be thinking about 70s great Don't Look Now, which arrived in cinemas before that decade's Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. Spotting odes to Italian giallo master Dario Argento are easy to find, too. Close ups, tilted angles, wide-angle shots, leaping from high to low perspectives, tight focus, making the utmost of the Venetian architecture: they all add to the macabre-and-loving-it air. They also boost a much-needed point of difference in these whodunnit-heavy times. Branagh's flicks have been outshone comically by everything from Knives Out and its sequel to the small screen's Only Murders in the Building and The Afterparty, so getting creepy proves a successful way of fending off their spirits; fittingly, it's a canny trick and enough of a treat.
We should all be well aware of the vast benefits that recycling brings to us individually, to our communities, and, of course, to the environment, and many of us make an effort to contribute as much as we can to this vital movement. Yet, some more than others have taken this dedication to reusing and recycling to an entirely new level. Artists and architects around the world have, over recent years, come up with ingenious creations made completely from recycled paper and cardboard. Buildings constructed using recycled paper are not only incredibly environmentally friendly but also cheap, lightweight, and easy to assemble. The structures can also be particularly distinguishable and aesthetically pleasing thanks to the creative methods needed to make use of the renewable materials. Here are seven of the most eco-friendly and remarkable structures made entirely from recycled paper. Dratz&Dratz Architekten's Office After passing by a recycling station and being inspired by the unexpected durability and functionality of recycled paper, Ben and Daniel Dratz of Berlin constructed this unique 2045 square foot workspace made from 550 bales of compressed recycled paper. The duo funded the project through a $200,000 grant from Essen's Zollverein School of Management and Design to build this pioneering 'paper house' on the grounds of a former mining complex and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The duo stacked and designed the building so that it could withstand several days of rain and then dry in the sun. Not only is this a wondrous architectural feat but it is also a mysterious construction with countless scraps of information and hidden secrets embedded deep within its walls. Shigeru Ban's Takatori Catholic Church One of the most famous paper structures from one of the world's most famous paper architects, the Takatori Catholic Church is not only an unfathomable achievement in architectural design, but it is also an incredibly important construction, which helped rebuild the spirit and unity of the Takatori community following the devastating Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. Paper tubes were used as the structural elements of the rescue base and church — hence its nickname, 'Paper Dome' — and in 2005 these were then transferred to Taiwan to help the victims from the 921 Earthquake before being reused as a place of worship. Mode:lina Architekci's TRIWA Pop-up Store Nine hundred cardboard tubes were required to pull off this distinctive store for the up-market Swedish watch brand TRIWA. Aside from wanting to gain an alternative edge over their competitors, the company wanted low-cost, renewable materials that could quickly and easily be erected and which would increase their global brand awareness. The store is located in Poznan Plaza Shopping Mall in Poznan, Poland and consists of cabinets made from chunky chipboard panels, placed upon stacks of cardboard tubes made from OSB wood panels. Zouk Architect's Paper Tube Office Zouk Architects decided to adopt some eco-friendly methods for the construction of their very own open-plan office. Rather than simply discarding the unwanted moving waste when relocating their office, they decided to take full advantage of the cheap and highly structural materials to create an avant-garde office with a modern and renewable twist. Sumer Erek's Newspaper House In 2007, artist Sumer Erek made a call-out to the people of London to collate the newspapers lying inside their homes and scattered on the streets and add them to his creation, made entirely of 120,000 rolled newspapers. The transformative art- and think-piece is aimed to alter the perceptions of how Londonites, and everyone the world over, view rubbish and the mess we all contribute to. In an attempt to address the growing issue of free papers littering the streets of England, Erek wanted to reinforce the idea of 'reduce, reuse, recycle' and make the public realise that everyone is part of the problem, as well as the solution. Erek's expressive project was revealed in March 2008 and has since toured around England and various parts of Europe. Masahiro Chatani's Origamic Architecture On a slightly smaller scale, Masahiro Chatani's origamic architecture demonstrates the ways reused paper can be (re)used to create amazingly detailed and accurate depictions of famous buildings from around the world. Chatani invented the art of cutting paper simply using a knife to produce complex and beautiful paper structures in 1981 and since then many other artists have taken up the trend and added their own flair to it. Shigeru Ban's Tea House This tea house made entirely from recycled paper is another awe-inspiring creation from the hands of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, yet with a slightly more commercial edge. Ban wants to send out a message to the world, as many of these architects do, to stress the importance of reusing and recycling in order to save our planet from the heavy burdens we place upon it through the never-ending mounds of waste we continually create. Following true Japanese tradition, this 5-metre-long construction is complete with a table and four chairs as well as a waiting area with a bench — the perfect environmentally friendly location to sit back and enjoy a rejuvenating green tea.
The Astral People crew is no stranger to throwing a party, and one of its most exciting series of get-togethers is Summer Dance. The openair raves have been popping up in Sydney with lineups boasting some of the most beloved and boundary-pushing DJs locally and afar, and finally Summer Dance will return with two huge events on Saturday, March 23. Taking over The Courts at Moore Park's Liberty Hall, the afternoon edition will run from 3–9pm with a lineup of dance music powerhouses. If you're keen on a sunlit boogie, you'll be treated to a headline set from Moktar. In case you need any convincing of the acclaimed producer's prowess behind the decks, look no further than his Boiler Room set at last year's edition of Sugar Mountain. Support acts for the daytime session will be Berlin techno mainstay Plams Trax and local tastemaker Disco Dora. Once the clock strikes 9pm, Summer Dance After Dark will kick off inside Liberty Hall. The late-night lineup will serve up a trio of sets from DjRUM, Batu and CARISTA. This is the final edition of Summer Dance before we succumb to the chillier seasons, so if you're looking to really cap off silly season, this is your opportunity. Tickets for both shows can be purchased separately for $66 — or if you want to party all the way from 3pm–3am, you can purchase a multi-pass for $118.
Four decades back, concert film history was made. In December 1983, David Byrne walked out onto a Hollywood stage with a tape deck, pressed play and, while standing there solo, began to sing 'Psycho Killer'. Then-future The Silence of the Lambs Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme directed cameras towards the legendary Talking Heads' frontman, recording the results for Stop Making Sense. The best way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the event behind the greatest concert film ever made arrived in 2024, and in cinemas. That'd be watching it on the big screen, of course, with cult-favourite independent film and TV company A24 — and Madman Down Under — releasing a complete restoration of Stop Making Sense. What's the second-best way to celebrate the occasion and the movie? Catching that new 4K version at home now that it's on Madman's documentary streaming service DocPlay from Thursday, June 13. Wearing big suits is optional. Now able to burn down your house — not literally, naturally — the 4K restoration premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, and also had a date with SXSW Sydney's Screen Festival in 2023. So, no it isn't the same as it ever was: Stop Making Sense is now even better. The film isn't just iconic for how it starts, which definitely isn't how concerts usually kick off. From there, as captured at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre in December 1983, David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison put on one helluva show in support of their previous year's album Speaking in Tongues. Expect a lineup of hits, a playful approach, Byrne's famous oversized attire and even heftier stage presence, and the feeling that you're virtually in the room. Indeed, everything about this energetic and precisely executed documentary, which records the set from start to finish, couldn't be further from the standard concert flick. As 'Once in a Lifetime', 'Heaven', 'Burning Down the House', Life During Wartime', 'This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)', 'Genius of Love' and more get a whirl, each element of the movie is that fine-tuned, and every aspect of the band's performance, too. And if it feels like Byrne was on-screen not that long ago, that's because his Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods)-directed solo concert flick American Utopia did the rounds of Aussie cinemas back in 2020 — and proved one of that year's absolute best films. Check out the trailer for Stop Making Sense's 4K restoration below: Stop Making Sense is available to stream via DocPlay from Thursday, June 13, 2024. Images: Jordan Cronenweth, Courtesy of A24.
You needn't look any further than The Chippendale Hotel for your next vegan feed. That's right — the locally beloved Sydney stalwart has introduced an all-vegan offering, dubbing itself 'Australia's first-ever fully vegan pub'. The owner of the Chippo, Bhavani Baumann, aka Mama B (The Green Lion, Sanga), has led the charge, reimagining the locale's menu, which now sports an all-vegan take on pub classics to pair with its refurbished venue. "Together, we're crafting a venue that's not just a pub, but a go-to spot for the community, from students and professionals to friends and family," said Baumann. Aside from a fresh coat of paint, the Chippo is now home to an airy courtyard, as well as comfortable lounge seating and a new breakout space — replacing its pokies room — fit for business meetings, private dining, study sessions or a casual hang. Plus, its underground live performance venue, The Den, is ready to accommodate all sorts of talent, from comedians to live music acts. As for its fully vegan fare, expect familiar dishes to make an appearance. Vegan variations of the chicken parmy, fish and chips, stacked burgers, and bangers and mash kick off the selection, with a hefty Sunday roast available at the end of the week. To round out the offerings, a 'Fancy Shit' menu featuring a vegan cheese platter and caviar waffles is soon to join the lineup. The Chippo's sips have also scored a revamp, with newly launched cocktails and a custom Mama B Pale Ale by Yulli's Brews on offer alongside the classics. "The Chippo is a community where everybody is welcome, and as a heritage location that holds a special place in Sydney's heart, we feel so lucky to be a part of its next chapter," said Baumann. You'll find The Chippendale Hotel with its new fully vegan offering at 87-91 Abercrombie Street in Chippendale, open from 4pm–10pm on Monday and Tuesday, 12pm–12am Thursday–Saturday and 12pm–10pm on Sunday.
No one's saying streaming isn't convenient, but most of the time, there's no denying movies hit different on the big screen. With plenty of discourse in recent weeks about the future of the humble movie theatre, Palace Cinemas has just revealed a brand-new discount designed to get more people watching flicks not on the couch, but where they were meant to be seen. As a national-first initiative, Australia's premier independent cinema group has announced the Royal Discount, where movie-lovers can score discounted tickets on Mondays and Tuesdays across every Palace Cinemas location. Launching on Monday, February 2, this cost-saving discount means more chances to catch must-see flicks for a stellar price every week. "Royal Discount is our way of keeping great cinema accessible while also ensuring our cinemas stay full during off-peak times. It is good for audiences, good for film culture and good for the long-term health of cinemas," says Palace Cinemas CEO Benjamin Zeccola. Priced at $10 for Palace Movie Club members or $12 for non-members, you'll have more room in your budget for a night at the cinema — or at least more to spend at the candy bar. According to Zeccola, it's not just about lowering ticket prices, but maintaining the cultural importance of cinema. "In an increasingly private and digital world, that shared experience matters more than ever," he says. That idea was echoed by a host of stars at the recent Golden Globes, with beloved actor Stellan Skarsgård offering up a similar message in his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor in Sentimental Value. "In a cinema where the lights go down, and eventually you share the pulse with some other people — that's magic. Cinema should be seen in cinemas." And with loads of highly anticipated films and Oscar contenders now screening — think Marty Supreme, Hamnet, Blue Moon, It Was Just an Accident, and No Other Choice — trading the remote for the big screen makes perfect sense. "No matter where you are in Australia, you will know that Monday and Tuesday are your Royal Discount days at Palace Cinemas," says Zeccola. Palace Cinemas' Royal Discount is launching nationwide on Monday, February 2. Head to the website for more information.
Mixed-media legend Nikolaus Dolman is renowned for deconstructing pop culture. He's taken on the selfie, clickbait and the 'Western lifestyle economy' all by way of collage and image manipulation. He's copied, cut and pasted his way onto the Australian art scene, garnering attention by subverting our popular obsessions and the repetitiveness of mass media through the infinitesimal forms images can take. And this week, you can see Nikolaus' views on the modern world and how he recontextualises it in his own way at Wild Turkey Way at The Annandale Hotel. There, classic bourbon, iconic Sydney burgers and some of Australia's best artists come together at the inner west pub, for a night of doing things the Wild Turkey way, which is to say, your own way. So to honour this bourbon fete and the spirit of forging your own path, we sat down with Nikolaus to learn about his craft and how he's doing things his very own way. How did you get started as an artist? Everyone in my family is creative in their own way, and has definitely influenced me towards a career in the visual arts. Did your style evolve into collage from something else? I studied printmaking in my undergrad at Southern Cross University in Lismore, NSW, and from there, my practice evolved into different mediums — all closely related to paper, surface and texture. [I've been influenced by] the tactile qualities of paper and infinite possibilities of image reproduction. Where do you source your material from? I source material from commercial and domestic advertising as a start, then it gets lost and transformed through process into a subversion of its original context and form. I'm attracted to pattern and how certain images tessellate, or at least attempt to. What's the message behind your work with its focus on topics like selfies, advertising and popular culture? My work reflects the western lifestyle economy and culture through mainstream media and advertising. Through my work, I explore the repetitious and obsessive qualities of living in an image-saturated world, and the effects such immediacy and disposability have in our everyday. I'm interested in how we are represented in advertising, and how it evokes certain desires. I guess social identity plays a big part in my thought process when I am conjuring up new ideas for works. What's the piece of work that you're most proud of? I've just completed [my] largest piece to date, which I'm excited to show in an upcoming solo show at Firstdraft in Woolloomooloo, opening June 7. Have you ever received any backlash or criticism about your artwork? Yes, mostly because I am personally entrenched in the subject and in challenging certain aspects of it. I try to take an observational stance and eliminate a negative tone by using irony and humour. Also, the act of 'borrowing' content to make work from is sometimes frowned upon. But isn't it just another way of viewing already familiar evocations? Nikolaus Dolman's work, along with other Aussie artists 'doing things their way', will be on display at The Annandale Hotel as part of the Wild Turkey Way pop-up this Friday, May 26. Find more info about the event here.
On a Saturday morning, nabbing a table at Contessa Balmain proves an almighty challenge. The Sydney cafe has been an institution on Darling Street since 1992 — making it one of the suburb's oldest residents. And its popularity comes with good reason. The menu fuses American classics with traditional Italian flavours. Expect freshly baked bread alongside Contessa's take on Sydney's brunch staples. For those looking to indulge after a big Friday night, the 'ultimate' hickory-smoked bacon and egg roll will do the trick. As the day rolls on, the house-made pasta, burgers, and salads are sure to keep you fuelled and firing. From the dedicated omelette section of the menu, order a classic smoked salmon omelette with shallots, caramelised onion, Tasmanian salmon and fresh dill. For something a little larger, either opt for a big tuna salad, a burger from the cafe's quartet of a protein options, or one of the particularly insane meatball melts which only the brave should attempt to conquer. There is also a really decent range of pastas, toasties and cocktails on offer. Contessa's got the lot. And it never fails to do it all well. Images: Arvin Prem Kumar Appears in: Where to Find the Best Breakfast in Sydney
Since opening his up-market Greek diner The Apollo in a smart corner premises on Potts Point's Macleay Street back in 2012, Jonathan Barthelmess' empire has not only gone interstate but international, with a second Sydney eatery, two venues in Brisbane and The Apollo's sister restaurant in Tokyo. Now, Barthelmess and his team are turning their attention back to the Harbour City, with a new Greek concept set to open in Surry Hills later this year — his sixth venue. [caption id="attachment_907763" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Apollo, Potts Point. Image: Nikki To[/caption] Olympus will be a 200-seat garden restaurant in the dining precinct of the mammoth Surry Hills Village development nearing completion on Cleveland and Baptist Streets. It will offer an airy contrast to The Apollo's intimate, candle-lit vibes while serving a similarly modern-Hellenic menu inspired by Barthelmess' recent visits to Greece. Long-time collaborator and award-winning interiors maven George Livissianis will be overseeing the look of the new space. In addition to delivering the sleek, sophisticated design of The Apollo, he is also responsible for the minimalist yet colourful decor of Barthelmess's Japanese diner Yoko Dining in Brisbane. [caption id="attachment_692660" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Surry Hills Village[/caption] Barthelmess is not the only restaurateur laying claim to a share of this enticing new dining destination. House Made Hospitality, who are preparing to open four new venues in the $60-million renovation of the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth in the CBD, are also set to deliver three eateries on Wunderlich Lane — the name of Surry Hills Village's hospitality hub. The development will also feature The Eve, a 102-key boutique hotel, as well as high-end retail outlets and more than 100 apartments. The Surry Hills Village development has been under construction since 2021 on the former site of the Surry Hills Shopping Village (aka 'murder mall', so named after an urban myth about a fictional slaying). It is due to open in November 2024. [caption id="attachment_934025" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Surry Hills Village[/caption] Find Olympus on 2 Baptist Street, Surry Hills, from November 2024. Head to the venue's website for future updates. Top image: Nikki To
Once upon a time, a list of the best vegan restaurants in Sydney would be incredibly short. But over the past decade or so, stacks of plant-based eateries have popped up all over the city — in the form of neighbourhood gastropubs, hole-in-the-wall takeaway joints and luxe fine diners. These spots have upped their game when it comes to the diverse range of food that can be made without any kind of animal product. No longer are Sydney vegans forced to choose between a sad-looking salad, a lentil burger and some lacklustre salt and pepper tofu. These days, the best vegan restaurants in Sydney (and the vegetarian restaurants that have heaps of vegan options) are graced with highly skilled chefs who put a heap of love and creative flair into their vegan eats. Some also have a strong spiritual connection to veganism, which is apparent in the menus and all-round atmosphere. No matter why you're deciding to go meat- and dairy-free, any of these Sydney vegan restaurants will deliver the goods. Recommended reads: The Best Vegetarian Restaurants in Sydney Sydney Date-Night Spots for When One of You Eats Plant-Based But the Other Doesn't (Yet) The Best Vegan Cafes in Sydney
First-time visitors to Singapore have a lot on their plate with the city's cuisine, museums, attractions and parks. But dig a little deeper and you'll find a diversity of rich experiences that'll help you get under the skin of the city. Whether this is your first trip or your fifth, these off-the-radar destinations in Singapore will help you delve into the island's vibrant history. Along the way you'll explore pristine natural spots, see unique architecture, try exquisite eats and rub shoulders with locals. We've partnered with the Singapore Tourism Board to showcase some of the best hidden gems across the country. From former military enclaves and heritage neighbourhoods to beautifully repurposed spaces and island destinations, these spots will elevate your next Singapore adventure. [caption id="attachment_864395" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lim Wei Xiang (Singapore Tourism Board)[/caption] THE RAIL CORRIDOR A shining example of Singapore's bid to be hyper-modern while honouring its history, the Rail Corridor is a 24km-long green passage through the city's heartlands. The former railway track is a classic example of Singapore's commitment to being 'a city in a garden', while allowing wildlife to move between major green spaces. Parts of the corridor are still in development, but highlights include a former quarry, the Upper Bukit Timah Truss Bridge which was built in 1932 and a wealth of parklands. Visitors can also access the revamped (but non-operational) Bukit Timah Railway station, a conserved heritage building that first opened in 1903. [caption id="attachment_864396" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Robert Sim (Flickr)[/caption] CHANGI CHAPEL AND MUSEUM This poignant museum honours the prisoners of war and civilians that were held at the notorious Changi prison camp under the Japanese Occupation of World War II in February 1942. The families of those who were once interned at the camp have donated personal items, so the museum now offers unprecedented insights into the the fall of Singapore and prisoners' daily lives. The collection highlights include a 400-page prisoner diary and replicas of the murals painted by English bombardier and artist Stanley Warren. [caption id="attachment_864411" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tony Hisgett (Flickr)[/caption] HAW PAR VILLA Created by Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par — the sibling heirs to the Tiger Balm empire — this giant theme park in Pasir Panjang houses over 1,000 statues and 150 large-scale dioramas showcasing snippets of Chinese mythology and history. Built in the 1930s, the park was meant to provide moral guidance according to Chinese traditions. Though the original building was bombed during World War II, it was rebuilt and now features the newly revamped Hell's Museum — inspired by gruesome scenes from Chinese folklore — and dioramas depicting tales like the Legend of the White Snake and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These days, visitors can take part in a scavenger hunt through the park for Zodiac animals or do a self-guided 'Instagram walk'. [caption id="attachment_864415" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Marklin Ang (Singapore Tourism Board)[/caption] SUNGEI BULOH WETLAND RESERVE It might be a bright, modern metropolis but Singapore is home to plenty of green spaces and nature reserves, too. At Sungei Buloh, the city's first wetland reserve, you can wander through 87 hectares of rare mangroves. Along the way, you might see some of the cheeky native inhabitants which include water monitors, mud lobsters, monkeys, mudskippers, sandpipers and the odd estuarine crocodile. There are plenty of observation posts to stop at so you can take in the impressive natural grandeur of the area. And, it's far enough off the beaten path that you probably won't be rubbing shoulders with hordes of tourists. [caption id="attachment_864423" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Singapore Tourism Board[/caption] JOO CHIAT/KATONG Named for a wealthy Chinese landowner, the Joo Chiat/Katong neighbourhood was once a coconut plantation and weekend retreat for well-heeled residents. Over the 20th century, it developed into a residential enclave for middle-class, English-speaking Peranakans and Eurasians. The area retains its eclectic pre-war architecture, though the colourful heritage shophouses have been turned into charming eateries including 328 Katong Laksa, The 1925 Brewing Co., Birds of Paradise and Rumah Bebe, as well as boutiques like Cat Socrates that stock stylish homewares, decor and accessories. There are also numerous museums exploring the area's history and culture — The Intan, Katong Antique House, and Eurasian Heritage Gallery are all worth visiting. [caption id="attachment_864426" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Singapore Tourism Board[/caption] FORT CANNING Singapore is full of history but few places capture as much of the city's past as Fort Canning Park. Over the centuries, it has been the seat of 14th century Malay kings, served as the headquarters of the Far East Command Centre for the British Army and witnessed the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942. These days, the 18-hectare space boasts nine historical gardens, the boutique Hotel Fort Canning, military history attraction The Battle Box and hosts cultural events such as Shakespeare in the Park. There's also the Instagram-friendly tree tunnel, with its spiral staircase and enormous Rain Tree. [caption id="attachment_864441" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Singapore Tourism Board[/caption] THE ISLANDS Singapore might be a city-state known for its gleaming skyscrapers and modern infrastructure, but just off its shores there's an archipelago well worth exploring. St John's Island, once a designated quarantine centre for major diseases, is now a popular destination for pristine beaches and outdoor adventures, while Kusu Island (pictured above) — named for the Chinese word for tortoise — has hidden lagoons, religious monuments and quirky folklore. Another popular spot, Pulau Ubin, is a former granite quarry that draws visitors for its military history, adventure sports, 1960s vibes and the biodiverse Chek Jawa Wetlands. [caption id="attachment_864446" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Singapore Tourism Board[/caption] DEMPSEY HILL Named for Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey, a British soldier who had a decorated military career, Dempsey Hill was once an enormous nutmeg plantation called Mount Harriet and later in the 1850s became the British-run Tanglin Barracks. Since 2007, this has been a go-to dining and entertainment district. Sample Michelin-starred Peranakan dining at Candlenut, steaks and beers at Red Dot Brewhouse and local bites at Samy's Curry Restaurant. Then, browse the retail offerings at the iconic global fashion boutique Dover Street Market (pictured above), try a pottery class at Impressions Art Studio or visit Singapore's first gin distillery at Tanglin Gin. For more incredible ways to experience Singapore, head to Singapore Tourism Board's website. Top image: Yik Keat (Singapore Tourism Board)
In 1955, J.R.R. Tolkien claimed that 'cellar door' was one of the most phonically beautiful phrases in the English language. We really have to agree, but it's mostly because of what's behind the cellar door: wine and cheese. And hidden away in Chippendale is a cellar that we're really keen to explore. Handpicked Cellar Door sits on the corner of Kensington and Outram Streets, much to the delight of Sydney wine enthusiasts. It's the project of Handpicked Wines, a young but celebrated winery, with vineyards operating across Australia, Italy, Chile and New Zealand. Their cellar door project aims to bring wines from across their vineyards together in one place — along with charcuterie, of course. Handpicked Cellar Door is pushing the whole 'cellar' vibe, decorating with exposed brick and littering the venue with fermenting wine tanks. Guests can also be educated by interactive iPad experience or go deep with 30-minute tutorials and tastings. Even better (if possible) is the fact that HCD will also operate as your new off-license and booze delivery service. Take away wine by the bottle or order online and have it delivered straight to you. Oh, and the cheese! The selection's being curated (along with other charcuterie staples) by Formaggi Ocello, cheese specialists from Surry Hills.
Haymarket's Civic Underground offers party vibes aplenty in its neon-lit surrounds. Red lights line the bar, colour-changing LED panels light up the ceiling and a top-notch sound system — complete with an Allen and Health V6 and a Ramsa SX-1 FOH mixer, for the music-tech nerds among us — makes the sunken dance floor the place to be on a Saturday night. Hosting both live acts and DJs (in a movable booth with plasma installations, no less), Civic has something for every clubgoer. When you're not on the dance floor, take a break in one of the white booths with a drink in hand. Image: Kitti Smallbone
Bagels are a contentious food. When Cynthia Nixon ran for Governor of New York in 2018, the internet reeled when she revealed her breakfast of choice was smoked salmon and cream cheese on a cinnamon and raisin bagel. In Sydney, a city far less obsessed with bagels, Nixon's faux pas barely registered. Bagels landed here a long time ago, but have really picked up steam in the past half-decade. So what earns something the title of Sydney's best bagel? A bagel always needs to be chewy. The gluten developed by boiling a bagel in poaching liquid before whacking it in a blistering oven is the secret to its distinctive texture and taste. At a minimum, you're looking for something with a little more chew than a bread roll. From there, bagel bliss is achieved by layering toppings and striking a harmonious balance. Each bite should be texturally interesting, with a smack of salt, sugar and tang. This is why lox (smoked salmon), cream cheese, onions, and capers is such a classic choice. You can find them in places old and new all over our city. Here are Sydney's best bagel shops to please everyone from beginners to die-hard fanatics. Recommended reads: The Best Cafes in Sydney The Best Coffee Shops in Sydney's CBD The Best Bakeries in Sydney
This Easter, the Berry Donut Van is hosting a special golden egg ticket hunt in collaboration with fellow sweets lover, The Berry Chocolatier. With the lucky winner taking home an exclusive handcrafted Easter chocolate bundle, this jam-packed reward will cover all your dessert needs for the long weekend — let's hope you have the Midas touch. Held throughout the four-day holiday, a smattering of tickets will be hidden inside Nutella doughnut orders every day, with a handful of winners claiming a special prize. If that's you, just head over to The Berry Chocolatier to redeem your ticket for a decadent reward. Filled to the brim with seasonal treats, expect a basket loaded with chocolate bunnies, eggs and other Easter delights. "We wanted to bring a little extra joy and excitement to our Easter celebrations," said Teresa Nazareth, owner of the Berry Donut Van. "Our donuts are already a must-have holiday treat, and now there's an added layer of fun with the chance to win some of the finest chocolates in town. Easter is all about indulgence – delicious sweets, rich chocolate, and moments of joy shared with loved ones. This giveaway is our way of making that experience even more special." Trust that the Berry Donut Van knows a thing or two about Easter celebrations. After all, they've been whipping up mouthwatering desserts and savoury treats since 1974. Prior to finding a permanent spot, the famous donut van cruised across Australia for a year, serving crowd-pleasing creations to customers nationwide. However, it soon found its home in the charming South Coast village of Berry – about two hours' drive south of Sydney. While The Berry Chocolatier doesn't have quite as many years under its belt, since purchasing the business in 2019, owners Cam Ayrton and Troy Weigall have made it a go-to regional highlight for handcrafted chocolate, Genovese-style coffee and Italian gelato. "This collaboration with Berry Donut Van is the perfect way to spread sweetness throughout Berry this Easter," said Ayrton. "We're excited to join forces and share our handcrafted Easter chocolates with the lucky winners, making this festive season even sweeter for the community." The Berry Donut Van is open Tuesday–Thursday from 8.30am–4.45pm and Friday–Monday from 8.30am–6.45pm at 73 Queen Street, Berry. Meanwhile, The Berry Chocolatier is open Monday–Friday from 8.45am–4pm and Saturday–Sunday from 8.45am–5pm at 4/113 Queen Street, Berry.
"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear," Buddy (Will Ferrell, The Boys) tells Jovie (Zooey Deschanel, Physical) in end-of-year staple Elf. The musical version of the hit festive flick takes that idea to heart. Debuting on Broadway in 2010, it brings the beloved movie to the stage with a swag of merry songs. Fourteen years later — and 21 years since cinemas first discovered Elf's seasonal fun — Elf: The Musical has finally locked in its Australian premiere. Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall will stand in for both the North Pole and New York City across Thursday, December 19–Sunday, December 29, 2024, as Buddy goes on a journey of self-discovery. If you've seen the film, as almost everyone has, you'll know the storyline already; however, unless you've caught Elf: The Musical overseas, including a West End season in 2015–16, you haven't seen it like this before. Buddy isn't an elf, but he was raised by them — and he doesn't realise that he isn't like Santa's other helpers until he grows up. Cue his trip to the Big Apple to discover who he is, and also who he wants to be, as first told in a movie directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Jon Favreau before he helmed Iron Man, The Jungle Book and the photorealistic version of The Lion King. The stage adaptation's Aussie debut comes courtesy of Sydney's most-famous venue and John Frost for Crossroads Live, with the pair serving up the ideal way to get jolly in the Harbour City this festive season (as well as a gift of an excuse to take a festive-season trip to the New South Wales capital if you reside elsewhere across Australia). Elf: The Musical boasts a book by Tony Award-winners Thomas Meehan (who also helped bring The Producers, Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Young Frankenstein from picture palaces to theatres) and Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone), plus songs by Tony Award-nominees Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin (more film-to-stage veterans courtesy of The Wedding Singer). The Australian run is being staged as a concert production, in a presentation designed for Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall. If it's been a while since you watched Elf, the film, check out the trailer for it below: Elf: The Musical plays Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall from Thursday, December 19–Sunday, December 29, 2024, with presale tickets from 9am on Tuesday, August 20 and general ticket sales from 9am on Friday, August 23. Head to the Sydney Opera House website for more details.
If you find yourself in the mood for some world-class pizza this week and you happen to be in Melbourne, you won't have to travel very far at all to get it. Simply head to 48h Pizza e Gnocchi Bar in South Yarra, where you'll experience the Best Pizzeria in the Asia Pacific, as decided by the experts for this year's 50 Top Pizza awards. The Victorian spot took out the prestigious title earlier this week at an awards ceremony in Bangkok, where the annual international pizzeria guide named its top 50 picks for the Asia Pacific region. The awards judge venues not just on the merit of their slices, but on each pizzeria as a whole, rating the food, drinks, service and overall ambiance. Running for the last five years, the 50 Top Pizza awards are chosen by around 1000 experts across the globe, who visit the pizzerias anonymously to judge and rank their offerings. 150 pizzeria 'inspectors' took on the task for the Asia and Oceania area specifically. With this new regional crown, 48h now scores an entry in the worldwide ranking, the 50 Top Pizza World 2022 competition, which will be announced in Naples on September 7. Of course, the southside pizzeria is no stranger to international praise, having claimed the title of Best Pizzeria In Oceania in last year's 50 Top Pizza awards. The chain's pizzas themselves, which are on offer at its Elsternwick and Spotswood venues as well, have also nabbed a stack of awards, including being crowned #1 Pizza in Australia at the Pizza World Championships in 2019. A handful of other Aussie venues were also named in this year's Asia Pacific top 50, including Sydney's Al Taglio (14), Bella Brutta (25), Gigi Pizzeria (27), Lucio Pizzeria (43) and Via Napoli (49); fellow Melburnians A25 (35), SPQR (37), Mozzarella Bar (39) and La Svolta (40); and Adelaide's Etica Pizza (42). Find 48h Pizza e Gnocchi Bar at 373 Malvern Road, South Yarra; 15 Gordon Street, Elsternwick; and Grazeland, Spotswood. For the full 50 Top Pizza Asia Pacific awards list, jump over to the website. Craving a slice, Melburnians? Check out our top picks for pizza in Melbourne.
Located just a short stroll from Orange's central business district, de Russie Boutique Hotel is an excellent choice for both corporate and leisure travellers seeking a luxurious stay in the area. The hotel boasts 25 stylishly designed self-contained rooms, each equipped with modern amenities to ensure a comfortable and enjoyable stay. Whether you're in the mood for fine dining, boutique shopping, or a visit to one of the region's award-winning cold-climate vineyards, de Russie has got you covered. Enjoy a restful night's sleep on your comfortable king bed with high-quality pillows, and a modern ensuite bathroom. Additionally, the in-room kitchenette facilities provide guests with the convenience of preparing their own meals. Open up your Juliet balcony for a breath of fresh air and take in views of the surrounding area. Whether you're in town for business or leisure, de Russie Boutique Hotel promises a comfortable and memorable stay in Orange.
Vivid Sydney is always a calendar highlight and, after two consecutive cancellations, we need it more than ever. The 2022 iteration is the first festival helmed by director Gill Minervini and it promises to be bigger, better and brighter. The famous Light Walk now stretches an impressive eight kilometres from the Sydney Opera House to Central Station, new venues have been added to the program and there are city-wide events that celebrate all that makes Sydney great through a lens of creativity. It's practically impossible to narrow down the recommendations to just a handful of events but here are seven highlights that represent the best of Vivid Sydney 2022 and deserve a place on your hit list.
Laneway Festival has revealed its full 2026 lineup, marking a milestone 21st anniversary edition of the beloved summer series. Returning next February, the festival will expand its route across Australia and New Zealand, adding three new venues to the circuit. Fans can expect another year of sold-out crowds after the 2025 festival drew over 200,000 attendees across main dates and a further 40,000 at sideshows. "It's incredible to be celebrating 21 years of Laneway. What began as a little street party in a Melbourne laneway has grown into a summer ritual across Australia and New Zealand," festival co-founders Danny Rogers and Jerome Borazio said. "Every year we're blown away by the response from the artists, fans, and community that make Laneway so special — 2026 is about honouring that history while looking to the future." See the full lineup below. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laneway Festival (@lanewayfest) Laneway 2026 will run from February 5–15, with shows confirmed for Auckland, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Tickets and more information are available now from the Laneway Festival website.
If you're chronically online and/or partial to an Instagram photodump, you'll have noticed the quiet, yet decided, return of the vintage camera. Gen Z and millennials have been trawling Depop and eBay for point-and-shoots that bring back the joy (and chaos) of unfiltered photography, and those with more patience have rediscovered the magic of film. With the 24/7 convenience and technological sophistication of our pocket smartphones, this pull towards cumbersome (and often expensive) retro photography makes one thing clear — we're not looking for perfection, we want nostalgia, texture and fun. But as charming as those old cameras are, there's no avoiding the frustrations of outdated tech: short battery lives, low-resolution screens and the slow process of getting photos from an SD card to your library. Film, too, has its downsides — it's slower, pricier and less sustainable, and if you've ever experienced the heartbreak of a ruined roll, you'll know it's not always kind. Fujifilm's new X-T30 III promises the best of all worlds: the imperfection and spontaneity of early digital and film photography, paired with the reliability and ease of 2025 technology — and we got to test it out. [caption id="attachment_1037100" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The new Fujifilm X-T30 III in Silver.[/caption] Over the last few weeks, we swapped our phones for the X-T30 III — taking it to gigs, park hangs with friends and out for dinner — to see what it's like to shoot on a real camera again. The first thing we noticed was how different it feels to take photos without a phone. There's no rush to post, no automatic filters, no instant scroll. Just the act of noticing something, lifting the camera, and deciding what you want the photo to feel like. Learning simple things — such as how aperture affects depth and how exposure changes a mood — made us think more deliberately about what we were shooting. We started framing scenes with intention instead of snapping aimlessly. [caption id="attachment_1037071" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shot on the Fujifilm X-T30 III.[/caption] And maybe best of all, we were more present. Without a phone in hand, we weren't bouncing between apps or notifications — we were actually in the moment, noticing the light, the colours, the details. Design-wise, the X-T30 III nails that balance between retro and modern. Compact but weighty, it feels like something from the early 00s — a brushed-metal body with tactile dials and a subtle vintage edge. It's intuitive enough for beginners but still gives you room to play. At just 378 grams, it's light enough to carry everywhere yet solid enough to feel serious. [caption id="attachment_1037070" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shot on the Fujifilm X-T30 III.[/caption] Fujifilm has long been known for its colour science, and the X-T30 III feels like a love letter to that legacy. The new Film Simulation Dial, borrowed from Fujifilm's premium X Series models, makes it easy to switch between iconic looks — from the soft, creamy tones of 'Nostalgic Neg' to the crisp clarity of 'Reala Ace'. There are 20 film simulations in total, each with its own texture and tone, plus three customisable slots so you can save your own 'recipes' for different styles. It's like carrying a film lab in your pocket — but one that never runs out of rolls. With a 26.1-megapixel X-Trans CMOS 4 sensor and Fujifilm's latest X-Processor 5 engine, it's quick, sharp and reliable. Autofocus tracks everything from faces to fast-moving subjects, while the 6.2K video option and new 9:16 movie mode make it simple to capture both cinematic clips and vertical social content. It also features a built-in flash, tilting LCD screen and Wi-Fi connectivity for instant sharing or printing straight to Fujifilm's Instax Link printers. [caption id="attachment_1037072" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shot on the Fujifilm X-T30 III.[/caption] And while shooting on the X-T30 III felt like a welcome break from our phones, it's still built for the world we live in. Through the Fujifilm Camera Remote app, photos transfer wirelessly to your phone in seconds — ready to post, send or edit on the go. You can even use your phone as a remote control, perfect for self-portraits or group shots when you want to be both in front of and behind the lens at once. We're no photography experts, and that's what made this camera such a pleasant surprise. It's genuinely beginner-friendly — from the one-touch Auto Mode lever that takes the guesswork out of exposure, to subject-detection autofocus that quietly does the heavy lifting. Once we started experimenting, we realised how much more intentional (and creative) our shooting became. Instead of solely focusing on the subject or landscape we were shooting, there was the ability to customise the feeling we were trying to capture — a little blur, deliberate overexposure, a hint of movement. [caption id="attachment_1037081" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shot on the Fujifilm X-T30 III.[/caption] And maybe that's the real appeal of the X-T30 III: it makes you fall back in love with taking photos. It's not about chasing perfection — it's about slowing down and seeing everyday moments differently. Not unlike the deliberately B-roll shots peppered through an IG dump, shooting on a camera with this much versatility allows you to tell a whole story. We loved the Fujifilm X-T30 III for its ability to speak to the nostalgia of the film and digicam revival, but modern enough to keep up with today's tech and creative demands. It delivers film-style warmth and depth straight out of camera, while staying light, fast and intuitive enough for spontaneous shooting. [caption id="attachment_1037080" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shot on the Fujifilm X-T30 III.[/caption] For casual photographers or creative explorers, it's the perfect in-between: accessible without being basic, aesthetic without being gimmicky, and compact enough to live in your tote or handbag. In short, it might just replace your digi cam, your film camera — and (hopefully) your phone. The brand new Fujifilm X-T30 III will be available from late November 2025. Find out more. Images: Supplied | Eliza Campbell, shot on the Fujifilm X-T30 III.
2023 marks 65 years since Australia's film and television industry first started recognising its best work of the year with accolades. Back then, the gongs were called the AFI Awards. When the Australian Film Institute created the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts in 2011, the awards changed names to the AACTAs. The country's standout flicks and TV highlights are still rewarded with shiny trophies, though — and, since making the switch in monikers in 2012, the big winners paint quite the picture of Australia's screen output. Red Dog, The Sapphires, The Great Gatsby, The Babadook, The Water Diviner, Mad Max: Fury Road, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion, Sweet Country, The Nightingale, Babyteeth, Nitram and Elvis have all been anointed Australia's top movie. Among the small-screen recipients, Best Drama has gone to East West 101, Puberty Blues, Redfern Now, The Code, Glitch, Wentworth, Top of the Lake: China Girl, Mystery Road, Total Control, The Newsreader and Mystery Road: Origin. They all now have company, with the 2024 awards looking back on 2023's highlights announced on Saturday, February 10. Talk to Me was named Best Film, while The Newsreader claimed Best Drama again. The AACTAs are known to concentrate the love towards a few titles each year. 2024 is different, however. The list of winners goes on, and makes an ace must-see lineup of top-notch Aussie movies and TV shows to catch up on or revisit from the past year. Here's 13 that you can watch now: Movie Must-Sees Talk to Me An embalmed hand can't click its fingers, not even when it's the spirit-conducing appendage at the heart of Talk to Me. This is an absolute finger snap of a horror film, however, and a fist pump of a debut by Australian twins Danny and Michael Philippou. As RackaRacka, the Adelaide-born pair have racked up six-million-plus subscribers on YouTube via viral comedy, horror and action combos. As feature filmmakers, they're just as energetic, eager and assured, not to mention intense about giving their all. Talk to Me opens with a party that's soon blighted by both a stabbing and a suicide. It segues swiftly into a Sia sing-along, then the violent loss of one half of the Aussie coat of arms. A breakout hit at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it sparked a distribution bidding war won by indie favourite A24, it's constantly clicking, snapping and ensuring that viewers are paying attention — with terror-inducing imagery, a savvy sense of humour, both nerve and the keenness to unnerve, and a helluva scary-movie premise that's exceptionally well-executed. The picture's outstretched mitt is the Philippous' Ouija board. That withered and scribbled-on paw is also a wildly unconventional way to get high. In a screenplay penned by Danny with fellow first-timer Bill Hinzman, but based on Bluey and Content executive producer Daley Pearson's short-film concept — yes, that Bluey — shaking hands with the distinctive meat hook is a party trick and dare as well. When the living are palm to palm with this dead duke, in flows a conjuring. A candle is lit, "talk to me" must be uttered, then "I let you in". Once heads are kicking back and the voices start, no one should grasp on for more than 90 seconds, as Hayley (Zoe Terakes, Nine Perfect Strangers) and Joss (Chris Alosio, Millie Lies Low) explain. But, as she navigates the anniversary of her mother's death, Mia (Sophie Wilde, Boy Swallows Universe) is up for going as far as she can. Here, being consumed by sinister spirits, not consuming booze, is an escape. That, and filming whatever twisted chaos happens when you connect with the otherworldly. It isn't all fun and frights and games, though; when her best friend Jade's (Alexandra Jensen, Joe vs Carole) 14-year-old brother Riley (Joe Bird, First Day) takes part, traumatic consequences spring. AACTAs Won: Best Film, Best Direction (Danny and Michael Philippou), Best Lead Actress (Sophie Wilde), Best Editing, Best Hair and Makeup, Best Original Score, Best Screenplay, Best Sound. Where to watch it: Talk to Me streams via Netflix, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Danny Philippou. Limbo When Ivan Sen sent a police detective chasing a murdered girl and a missing woman in the Australian outback in 2013's Mystery Road and its 2016 sequel Goldstone, he saw the country's dusty, rust-hued expanse in sun-bleached and eye-scorching colour. In the process, the writer, director, co-producer, cinematographer, editor and composer used his first two Aussie noir films and their immaculately shot sights to call attention to how the nation treats people of colour — historically since its colonial days and still now well over two centuries later. Seven years after the last Jay Swan movie, following a period that's seen that character make the leap to the small screen in three television seasons, Sen returned with a disappearance, a cop, all that inimitable terrain and the crimes against its Indigenous inhabitants that nothing can hide. Amid evident similarities, there's a plethora of differences between the Mystery Road franchise and Limbo; however, one of its simplest is also one of its most glaring and powerful: shooting Australia's ochre-toned landscape in black and white. Limbo's setting: Coober Pedy, the globally famous "opal capital of the world" that's known for its underground dwellings beneath the blazing South Australian earth, but reimagined as the fictional locale that shares the film's name — a place unmistakably sporting an otherworldly topography dotted by dugouts to avoid the baking heat, and that hasn't been able to overcome the murder of a local Indigenous girl two decades earlier. The title is symbolic several times over, including to the visiting Travis Hurley (Simon Baker, Boy Swallows Universe), whose first task upon arrival is checking into his subterranean hotel, rolling up his sleeves and indulging his heroin addiction. Later, he'll be told that he looks more like a drug dealer than a police officer — but, long before then, it's obvious that his line of work and the sorrows he surveys along the way have kept him hovering in a void. While he'll also unburden a few biographical details about mistakes made and regrets held before the film comes to an end, such as while talking to the missing Charlotte Hayes' brother Charlie (Rob Collins, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) and sister Emma (Natasha Wanganeen, The Survival of Kindness), this tattooed cop with wings inked onto his back is already in limbo before he's literally in Limbo talking. AACTAs Won: Best Indie Film. Where to watch it: Limbo streams via iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Ivan Sen and Simon Baker. The New Boy Warwick Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Deborah Mailman, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis: name a better Australian quintet. The director of Samson & Delilah and Sweet Country, the two-time Oscar-winner and Tár tour de force, the local screen mainstay, and the Bad Seeds bandmates and seasoned film composers all combine not for the ultimate Aussie dinner party, but for The New Boy. None are debuting in their jobs. All are exceptional. They're each made better, however, by the luminous and entrancing Aswan Reid. As well as playing the titular part, the 11-year-old first-time actor lives it among such a wealth of acclaimed and experienced talent — and he's such a find in such excellent company, while saying little in words but everything in every other way, that Thornton's third fictional feature owes him as much of a debt as its applauded and awarded household names. There's a spark to Reid from the moment that he's first spied grappling with outback law enforcement under blazing rays as Cave and Ellis' (This Much I Know to Be True) latest rousing score plays. His sun-bleached hair couldn't be more fitting, or symbolic, but it's the confident way in which he holds himself as New Boy, plus the determined look on his face, that sears. Wily and wiry, the feature's eponymous figure is toppled by a boomerang, then bagged up and transported to the remote Catholic orphanage doted on by Sister Eileen (Blanchett, Nightmare Alley) in the 1940s. The cop doing the escorting notes that the kid is a bolter, but the nun is just as fast in her kindness. She sees what Thornton wants his audience to see: a boy that beams with his presence and through his sense of self, even though he's been snatched up, taken from his Country and forced into a Christian institution against his will. Sister Eileen is as drawn to him as the movie, but — and not just due to the red wine she likes sipping and the subterfuge she's keeping up about the resident father's absence — she isn't as certain about what to do. AACTAs Won: Best Lead Actor in Film (Aswan Reid), Best Supporting Actress (Deborah Mailman), Best Cinematography, Best Production Design. Where to watch it: The New Boy streams via Binge, Prime Video, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Read our full review, and our interview with Warwick Thornton. John Farnham: Finding the Voice There's no need to try to understand it: John Farnham's 1986 anthem 'You're the Voice' is an instant barnstormer of a tune. An earworm then, now and for eternity, it was the Australian song of the 80s. With its layered beats, swelling force and rousing emotion, all recorded in a garage studio, it's as much of a delight when it's soundtracking comedy films like the Andy Samberg-starring Hot Rod and the Steve Coogan-led Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa as it is echoing out of every Aussie pub's jukebox. Making a noise and making it clear, 'You're the Voice' is also one of the reasons that Farnham's 1986 album Whispering Jack remains the best-selling homegrown release ever nearing four decades since it first dropped. But, as John Farnham: Finding the Voice tells, this iconic match of track and talent — this career-catapulting hit for a singer who'd initially tasted fame as a teen pop idol two decades prior — almost didn't happen. Whispering Jack also almost didn't come to fruition at all, a revelation so immense that imagining Australia without that album is like entering Back to the Future Part II's alternative 80s. Writer/director Poppy Stockwell (Scrum, Nepal Quake: Terror on Everest) and her co-scribe Paul Clarke (a co-creator of Spicks and Specks) know this, smartly dedicating a significant portion of Finding the Voice to that record and its first single. The titbits and behind-the-scenes anecdotes flow, giving context to a song almost every Aussie alive since it arrived knows in their bones. Gaynor Wheatley, the wife of Farnham's late best friend and manager Glenn, talks about how they mortgaged their house to fund the release when no label would touch the former 'Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)' crooner. Chris Thompson, the English-born, New Zealand-raised Manfred Mann's Earth Band musician who co-penned 'You're the Voice', chats about initially declining Farnham's request to turn the tune into a single after the latter fell for it via a demo. AACTAs Won: Best Documentary. Where to watch it: John Farnham: Finding the Voice streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Shayda Whether or not Noora Niasari was ever explicitly told to write what she knew, the Iranian Australian filmmaker has taken that advice to heart. Her mother listened to the same guidance first, even if it was never spoken to her, either. The latter penned a memoir that has gone unpublished, but helped form the basis of the powerful and affecting Shayda. This account of a mum and her daughter attempting to start anew in a women's shelter doesn't entirely stick to the facts that writer/director Niasari and her mother lived through. The Sundance-premiering, Melbourne International Film Festival-opening, Oscars-entered feature — it was Australia's contender for Best International Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards, but wasn't nominated — isn't afraid to fictionalise details in search of the best screen story. Still, the tale that's told of courage, resilience, rebuilding lives and finding a new community is deeply and patently personal. Perhaps even better, it's inescapably authentic. Niasari peers back at being barely of primary-school age and making a new home. Fleeing to a women's shelter is the only option that the film's eponymous figure (Zar Amir Ebrahimi, 2022's Cannes Best Actress-winner for Holy Spider) has to get away from the abusive Hossein (Osamah Sami, Savage River), whose controlling nature is matched by that of their patriarchal culture. So, Shayda leaves with six-year-old Mona (debutant Selina Zahednia). As she waits for her divorce proceedings to go through — a complicated task under Iranian law and customs — she seeks refuge at a secret site overseen by the caring Joyce (Leah Purcell, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart). Even surrounded by kindness and filled with desperation for a better future, every iota of Shayda's decision is fraught and tense; Niasari starts the film with Mona at an airport being told what to do if she's ever there with her father, should he try to take her not only away from her mum but also back to Iran. AACTAs Won: Best Casting. Where to watch it: Shayda streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Noora Niasari. Carmen Breaking down a classic tale best known as an opera, rebuilding it as a lovers-on-the-run drama set across the US–Mexico border and making every moment burst with emotion, Benjamin Millepied's Carmen is a movie that moves. While its director is a feature debutant, his background as a dancer and choreographer — he did both on Black Swan, the latter on Vox Lux as well, then designed the latest Dune films' sandwalk — perhaps means that the former New York City Ballet principal and Paris Opera Ballet Director of Dance was fated to helm rhythmic, fluid and rousing cinema. His loose take on Georges Bizet's singing-driven show and Prosper Mérimée's novella before it, plus Alexander Pushkin's poem The Gypsies that the first is thought to be based on, is evocative and sensual. It's sumptuous and a swirl of feelings, too, as aided in no small part by its penchant for dance. And, it pirouettes with swoon-inducing strength with help from its stunningly cast leads: Scream queen and In the Heights star Melissa Barrera, plus Normal People breakout and Aftersun Oscar-nominee Paul Mescal. When Mescal earned the world's attention in streaming's initial Sally Rooney adaptation, he had viewers dreaming of fleeing somewhere — Ireland or anywhere — with him. Carmen's namesake (Barrera) absconds first, then has PTSD-afflicted Marine Aidan (Mescal) join her attempt to escape to Los Angeles. Carmen runs after her mother Zilah (flamenco dancer Marina Tamayo) greets the cartel with thunderous footwork, but can't stave off their violence. Aidan enters the story once Carmen is smuggled stateside, where he's a reluctant volunteer border guard in Texas alongside the trigger-happy Mike (Benedict Hardie, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson). As the picture's central pair soon hurtle towards California, to Zilah's lifelong friend Masilda's (Rossy de Palma, Parallel Mothers) bar, they try to fly to whatever safety and security they can find. That may be fleeting, however, and might also be in each other's arms. AACTAs Won: Best Costume Design. Where to watch it: Carmen streams via Stan, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Benjamin Millepied. The Giants Nature documentaries rarely simply spy the earth's wonders, point cameras that way and let the planet itself do the talking. Instead, films such as 2017's The Ancient Woods are by far the exception rather than the rule. And yet, the best footage within any movie about our pale blue dot makes viewers wish that more favoured the "a picture is worth a thousand words" approach. Take The Giants, for instance. When it includes talk, which is often, it's no lesser a feature. The conversation and commentary offered is illuminating, in fact. But when it wanders through Tasmania's colossal foliage within the Styx Valley, Southern Forests and the Tarkine, which is also regularly, it feels like it barely needs to utter a single thing. This isn't merely a factual affair about flora, with environmental campaigner and pioneering former Greens senator Bob Brown firmly at its core, but The Giants knows that paying tribute to both is best done by staring at leafy surroundings as much as it can. It's no everyday feat to get a movie-watching audience admiring the natural world while peering at a screen, even if the frequency with which David Attenborough's docos arrive has helped everyone both think and expect otherwise. Indeed, notching up that achievement is a mammoth accomplishment on the part of The Giants' filmmakers Laurence Billiet (Freeman) and Rachel Antony, plus cinematographer Sherwin Akbarzadeh (Carbon — The Unauthorised Biography). Crucially, it assists what was always going to be a fascinating ode to bloom as much as any plant that it waters with attention. When you're crafting a documentary that intertwines a love letter to Australia's ancient native forests and their ecosystems with a powerful portrait of a hefty figure who has devoted much of his life to fighting for them, showing all the green splendour it possibly can is equally a must and a masterstroke. AACTAs Won: Best Cinematography in a Documentary. Where to watch it: The Giants streams via DocPlay, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story Post-viewing soundtrack, sorted: to watch Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story is to take a trip down memory lane with the Australian music industry and hear homegrown standouts from the past five decades along the way. Unsurprisingly, this documentary already has an album to go with it, a stacked release which'd instantly do its eponymous figure proud. His tick of approval wouldn't just stem from the artists surveyed, but because Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story's accompanying tunes comprise a three-disc number like Mushroom Records' first-ever drop, a 1973 Sunbury Festival live LP. To tell the tale of Gudinski, the record executive and promoter who became a household name, is to tell of Skyhooks, Split Enz, Hunters & Collectors, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly, Kylie Minogue, Archie Roach, Yothu Yindi, Bliss n Esso, The Temper Trap, Gordi and Vance Joy, too — and to listen to them. Need this on-screen tribute to give you some kind of sign that the Gudinski and Mushroom story spans a heap of genres? Both the film and the album alike include Peter Andre. Any journey through Michael Gudinski's life and career, from his childhood entrepreneurship selling car parks on his family's vacant lot to his years and years getting Aussie music to the masses — and, on the touring side, bringing massively popular overseas artists to Aussies — needs to also be an ode to the industry that he adored. The man and scene are inseparable. But perhaps Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story plays as such an overt love letter to Australian music because it's an unashamed hagiography of Gudinski. Although the movie doesn't deliver wall-to-wall praise, it comes close. When it begins to hint at any traces of arrogance, moodiness or ruthlessness, it quickly does the doco equivalent of skipping to the next track. Australian Rules and Suburban Mayhem director Paul Goldman, a seasoned hand at music videos as well, has called his feature Ego and there's no doubting his subject had one; however, the takeaway in this highly authorised biography is that anything that doesn't gleam was simply part of his natural mischievousness and eager push for success. AACTAs Won: Best Sound in a Documentary. Where to watch it: Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Small-Screen Standouts Deadloch Trust Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, Australia's favourite Kates and funniest double act, to make a killer TV show about chasing a killer that's the perfect sum of two excellent halves. Given their individual and shared backgrounds, including creating and starring in cooking show sendup The Katering Show and morning television spoof Get Krack!n, the pair unsurprisingly add another reason to get chuckling to their resumes; however, with Deadloch, they also turn their attention to crime procedurals. The Kates already know how to make viewers laugh. They've established their talents as brilliant satirists and lovers of the absurd in the process. Now, splashing around those skills in Deadloch's exceptional eight-episode first season lead by Kate Box (Stateless) and Madeleine Sami (The Breaker Upperers), they've also crafted a dead-set stellar murder-mystery series that ranks among The Kates' best work in almost every way. The only time that it doesn't? Not putting the tremendous pair on-screen themselves. Taking place in a sleepy small town, commencing with a body on a beach, and following both the local cop trying to solve the case and the gung-ho blow-in from a big city leading the enquiries, Deadloch has all the crime genre basics covered from the get-go. The Tasmanian spot scandalised by the death is a sitcom-esque quirky community, another television staple that McCartney and McLennan nail. Parody requires deep knowledge and understanding; you can't comically rip into and riff on something if you aren't familiar with its every in and out. That said, Deadloch isn't in the business of simply mining well-worn TV setups and their myriad of conventions for giggles, although it does that expertly. With whip-smart writing, the Australian series is intelligent, hilarious, and all-round cracking as a whodunnit-style noir drama and as a comedy alike — and, as Box's by-the-book Senior Sergeant Dulcie Collins and Sami's loose and chaotic Darwin blow-in Eddie Redcliffe are forced to team up, it's also one of the streaming highlights of the past year. AACTAs Won: Best Acting in a Comedy (Kate Box), Best Casting in Television, Best Editing in Television, Best Original Score in Television, Best Screenplay in Television. Where to watch it: Deadloch streams via Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart In The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, blooms are rarely out of sight and petals never evade attention. Adapted from Holly Ringland's 2018 novel, the seven-part Australian miniseries is set on a farm that cultivates native flora. It dubs the women who tend to them, an ensemble from various backgrounds largely seeking refuge from abusive pasts, "flowers" as well. Whether stem by stem or in bunches, its characters use florets as their own secret language. And yet, as much as bouquets linger, getting all things floral on the mind, star Sigourney Weaver burns rather than blossoms. Fire is another of the show's strong recurring motifs, so it's still fitting that its biggest name is as all-consuming as a blaze. She needs to be that scorching: this is a story about endeavouring to survive while weathering woes that ignite everything in their path. Weaver also draws upon almost five decades of thriving before the camera, often playing steely, smart and sometimes-raging women. Her on-screen career began sparking with Alien, the film that made her an instant icon. Since then, everyone has heard her performances scream — and, in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, she's again dazzling. Flowers frequently surround Weaver's June Hart far and wide. With a carefully selected cutting, the shotgun-toting matriarch of Thornfield Flower Farm can say all she needs to. That's what the eponymous Alice (Ayla Browne, Nine Perfect Strangers) quickly learns about her grandmother when she arrives at the property following a tragedy, becoming one of the farm's flowers after losing her pregnant mother Agnes (Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Hotel Mumbai) and violent father Clem (Charlie Vickers, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power). The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is a tale about traumas, secrets and lies that lurk as deeply as the earth — about the choices and cycles that take root in such fraught soil, too. When nine-year-old Alice relocates fresh from hospital, the determined June, her doting partner Twig (Leah Purcell, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) and their adopted daughter Candy Blue (Frankie Adams, The Expanse) aim to shower the girl with sunlight to blaze away her horrors. You can't just bury problems, however, then hope that something vivid and colourful will grow over the top. Dedicating its first half to Alice's childhood and its second to 14 years later, when she's in her early twenties (Alycia Debnam-Carey, Fear the Walking Dead), The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart understands this immutable fact in its core. AACTAs Won: Best Miniseries, Best Cinematography in Television, Best Production Design in Television, Best Sound in Television. Where to watch it: The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart streams via Prime Video. Read our full review. Colin From Accounts A girl, a guy and a meet-cute over an adorable animal: that's the delightful and very funny Colin From Accounts' underlying formula. When medical student Ashley (Harriet Dyer, The Invisible Man) and microbrewery owner Gordon (Patrick Brammall, Evil) cross paths in the street one otherwise standard Sydney morning, they literally come to an impasse. He lets her go first, she flashes her nipple as thanks, then he's so distracted that he hits a stray dog with his car. As these circumstances demonstrate, Colin From Accounts isn't afraid to get awkward, much to the benefit of audiences. There's a syrupy way to proceed from the show's debut moments, intertwining sparks flying with idyllic dates, plus zero doubts of a happy ending for humans and pooches alike. If this was a movie, that's how it'd happen. Then there's Dyer and Brammall's way, with the duo creating and writing the series as well as starring in it, and focusing as much on ordinary existential mayhem — working out who you want to be, navigating complex relationships and learning to appreciate the simple pleasure of someone else's company, for example — as pushing its leads together. Just like in the Hollywood versions of this kind of tale, romance does blossom. That Dyer and Brammall are behind Colin From Accounts, their past chemistry on fellow Aussie comedy No Activity and the fact that they're married IRL means that pairing them up as more than new pals was always going to be on the show's agenda. It's how the series fleshes out each character and their baggage — including those who-am-I questions, Ash's difficult dynamic with her attention-seeking mother Lynelle (Helen Thomson, Elvis), and the responsibility that running your own business and committing to care for other people each bring — that helps give it depth. Colin From Accounts lets Ash and Gordon unfurl their woes and wishes, and also lets them grow. Sometimes, that happens by peeing and pooping in the wrong place, because that's also the type of comedy this is. Sometimes, it's because the show's central couple have taken a risk, or faced their struggles, or genuinely found solace in each other. Always, this Aussie gem is breezy and weighty — and instantly bingeable. AACTAs Won: Best Narrative Comedy Series. Where to watch it: Colin From Accounts streams via Binge. Read our full review. The Newsreader Aspiring Australian actors, take note: modelling your career after Anna Torv's so far is highly recommended. She's among the lengthy list of Aussies to call The Secret Life of Us one of her launch pads (another: Joel Edgerton). For five seasons and 100 episodes, she led fantastic US sci-fi series Fringe opposite Joshua Jackson (Fatal Attraction). The Daughter and Force of Nature: The Dry 2 in cinemas, plus Secret City, Mindhunter and The Last of Us on TV: they're also on her resume, which boasts both Hollywood and homegrown standouts. In the latter category, so is The Newsreader. Debuting with a six-episode first season in 2021, returning for the same stretch in 2023 and with another half-dozen on the way in 2024, it casts Torv as Helen Norville, News at Six's first-ever female newsreader. With the show set in the 80s, that gig isn't easy as misogyny and sexism run rife in the media industry — and as major real-life events, including the Challenger explosion, the Azaria Chamberlain case, Chernobyl and the 1987 federal election, are weaved in, all requiring news coverage. Torv is unsurprisingly excellent as Helen, and also in great company. As Dale Jennings, who starts the series as a budding reporter, Sam Reid is every bit up to the task. (He'a also someone whose own filmography is impressive both at home and abroad, thanks to past parts in The Railway Man, Belle, '71, Prime Suspect 1973, Lambs of God, The Drover's Wife the Legend of Molly Johnson and the Interview with the Vampire TV series.) The Newsreader isn't just anchored by two stellar leads, however, or guided by a cast that also includes Robert Taylor (Scrublands), William McInnes (NCIS: Sydney), Michelle Lim Davidson (After the Trial), Marg Downey (Jones Family Christmas), Chum Ehelepola (Preppers) and Stephen Peacocke (Five Bedrooms). It's textured at the character level, and also enthralling in its newsroom antics and glance backwards at Australia's past. Indeed, it's no wonder that more seasons keep coming. AACTAs Won: Best Drama Series, Best Lead Actress in a Drama (Anna Torv), Best Supporting Actor in a Drama (Hunter Page-Lochard), Best Costume Design in Television, Best Direction in Drama or Comedy. Where to watch it: The Newsreader streams via ABC iView. Love Me Add Love Me to the list of Aussie dramas set in Melbourne and featuring starry casts, alongside The Secret Life of Us, Tangle and Offspring. In this one, which first arrived in 2021, then returned in 2023, the ensemble runs deep — starting with Hugo Weaving (The Royal Hotel) and Bojana Novakovic (Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)). Bob Morley (In Limbo), Celia Pacquola (Utopia), Heather Mitchell (Jones Family Christmas), William Lodder (Bali 2002) and Shalom Brune-Franklin (The Tourist) also feature. Kim Gyngell (The Artful Dodger), Eryn Jean Norvill (Preppers) and Frank Woodley (The Ex-PM) each pop up as well. Given that this is a series about a family and their complicated romantic relationships, the who's who-esque roster of familiar Aussie talent is particularly fitting. The show steps inside the Mathieson clan's amorous ups and downs, in this Aussie adaptation of Sweden's Älska mig, and with such superb casting instantly creating a sense of intimacy in an effort that marked Binge's first local series when it initially debuted. Weaving's Glenn is the father of Novakovic's Clara and Lodder's Aaron. They quickly have death to deal with, as well as love; that life is messy thrums through the series from the outset. What stands out isn't always every minute detail in the plot, as universal and relatable as the storylines are, but the folks navigating it. That, again, is a testament to such savvy casting. Of course, putting Weaving is anything is usually reason enough to press play, especially when he's in thoughtful and layered mode as an everyman grappling with the fact that existence brings pain as well as joy. Amid the scenic vision of Melbourne roved over by helmers Emma Freeman (The Newsreader) and Bonnie Moir (Foe's second-unit director), this series brings characters to the screen with deeply engaging performances that feel layered and lived-in, and worth spending time with. AACTAs Won: Best Lead Actor in a Drama (Hugo Weaving), Best Supporting Actress in a Drama (Heather Mitchell). Where to watch it: Love Me streams via Binge.
If you have a case of herpetophobia, this mightn't be for you. If you're fascinated by crocodiles, however, an array of Australian museums have snapped up a showcase that'll pique your interest. Making its world premiere in Brisbane, Croc! Lost Giants to Living Legends is the next exhibition that's headed to Queensland Museum Kurilpa, celebrating one toothy creature. It also has three other stops around the country locked in. Exact dates for Croc! Lost Giants to Living Legends' debut run in the Queensland capital haven't yet been announced, but it will pop up before 2025 is out. After that, with timing also still to come, the exhibition will chomp its way into the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, plus the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin. Townsville will also welcome the showcase in the future, too. And if you're wondering why news of Croc! Lost Giants to Living Legends has arrived right now without dates to go with it, the announcement has dropped to mark World Croc Day on Tuesday, June 17. Queensland Museum Kurilpa, Australian National Maritime Museum, and Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory are behind this ode to a critter that some famously love and many deeply fear — and an apex predator that Queensland Museum CEO Dr Jim Thompson dubs "the ultimate survivors". They're "older than the dinosaurs, feared across cultures and still inspiring awe today," Thompson continues, also describing Croc! Lost Giants to Living Legends as a "tale of evolution, culture, conservation and curiosity." "This groundbreaking exhibition showcases the incredible story of crocodiles — from prehistoric superpredators to cultural icons — through cutting-edge science, rich cultural knowledge and captivating interactive experiences. Crocodiles have long fascinated and challenged us, and this exhibition offers visitors of all ages the chance to see these remarkable creatures in a whole new light." The history of crocodiles, how they've outlived dinosaurs and survived mass extinctions, their evolution, the critters today, Egyptian god Sobek, their standing in First Nations knowledge, conservation efforts: expect this all to be covered. How crocodiles have sunk their teeth into pop culture, including movies and music, will also be in focus — if you don't already Elton John's 'Crocodile Rock' stuck in your head. Visitors will peer at specimens and life-sized models, as well as immersive visuals — and getting hands-on is also part of the family-friendly exhibition. "Croc! Lost Giants to Living Legends plunges visitors into the astonishing world of crocodiles — ancient survivors, apex predators and masters of adaptation," adds Australian National Maritime Museum Director and CEO Daryl Karp. "This exhibition not only celebrates the science and natural history of crocodiles but also shines a light on the deep and enduring connections First Nations communities have with these animals. Prepare to meet the crocodile as you've never seen it — powerful, mysterious and more relevant to our world than ever." 'Croc! Lost Giants to Living Legends' is set to premiere at Queensland Museum Kurilpa, South Brisbane, before 2025 is out — and also has dates with Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, plus Townsville in its future. We'll update you when more details are announced. Keep an eye on the Queensland Museum website for more details in the interim. Images: Gary Cranitch / Queensland Museum.
