It's difficult to imagine how an art exhibition focusing on Venezuela could be anything but a documentation of carnage. With one of the highest murder rates in the world, a hyper-inflated economy and police guarding the scant food rations, Venezuela today is the battered remnant of Hugo Chavez's socialist revolution. Venezuelan-born Sydney artist Nadia Hernandez saw all of this in a recent trip back to her homeland — but she also saw coffee vendors on the street, beautiful mountains, and people protesting against corruption and rising crime. The vision of Venezuela that she depicts is one where hope and decay compete in equal measure. Her latest exhibition, Cosas Antes y Despues (Things Before and After), is a combination of painting, collage, craft and text. "My work is about finding oneself through folklore in order to call for reflection, solidarity and union," says Hernandez. The exhibition, a Mild Manners project, is squirrelled away in an improvised gallery space on Devonshire street in Surry Hills. It may take a bit of Google-mapping to get there, but the reward is a glimpse of a Venezuela that doesn't often make the headlines. Image: Kurt Davis.
Does it feel like everyone you know went to Europe this winter but you? Us too. Luckily, Firefly has a solution. This buzzing Neutral Bay bar will temporarily ease the temptation to book flights with its bottomless sangria banquet. For a long, dreamy, boozy afternoon, you'll sip a glass that never empties, all while feasting on five courses of Mediterranean delights. The sangria on offer isn't a concoction you'll find anywhere else — it's Firefly's signature rosé elixir, made in-house and spiked with white rum, rose syrup and lemon juice. Once the sangria is flowing, a steady parade of share plates will make its way to your table. Look out for moreish zucchini fries, zingy juniper-cured ocean trout and baked pumpkin with caramelised raddichio and salsa verde. The banquet is rounded out with crispy drunken chicken pancakes and sous-vide pork loin served with pink peppercorns and charred squash. It's pretty hard to think of a more delicious, decadent way to drift through a spring or summer afternoon. Or of a better excuse for catching up with your crew, without needing a special occasion. That said, if a birthday, engagement, wedding, graduation, divorce or some other celebration does happen to be on the horizon, then your organising is now sorted. Firefly's bottomless sangria banquet is available on Saturdays, between midday and 4pm, and, at $59 per person, is a damn fine deal. This price includes endless sangria for two glorious hours, plus all the aforementioned food. We have a hunch that spots are going to fill up quicker than you can say salud, so, head to the website to make a booking pronto. Images: Jesse Jaco.
The in-flight experience will soon exit the amateur days of free peanuts and on-demand movies with the latest luxury seating design by Contour Aerospace and Factorydesign. A futuristic chair paired with the ultimate gaming experience is the newest plan for flying in style. The Not for Wimps (NFW) game simulator is built into passenger seats and includes a full sized monitor suspended at eye-level in front of each seat, surround sound with speakers on each side of the headrest and an abundance of leg room for a stimulating, realistic gaming experience that will have you wishing your flight lasted longer. Each seat is also encased in what can only be described as a noise-cancellation bubble, that prevents other passengers from hearing any sound effects or ambient noises except those from their own games. The NFW is only in the prototype stage and is being proposed at the Aircraft Interiors Expo at the German Messe in Hamburg this week, but gamers everywhere will be chomping at the bit for news of the go-ahead to jump-start this futuristic feature of flying. [via PR Newswire]
Across Australia, tactics to stop the spread of the coronavirus are implemented at a state-by-state level, which means that different parts of the country have been navigating the situation in different ways. That's where the nation's varying, seemingly ever-changing domestic border restrictions come in — and why hopping across the country has been a rather complex task for much of the past 12 months. In Western Australia, the state initially implemented a hard border and strict quarantine requirements with the rest of the nation. WA's border system then changed late in 2020, moving to a controlled interstate border that classifies other states according to their COVID-19 risk and puts restrictions in place accordingly. But if you live in or have visited a state that's deemed medium risk or higher, it has still meant that you can't go to WA unless you receive an exemption. New South Wales has been in that camp since December 20, and Queensland has as well since January 9; however, come 12.01am on Monday, January 25, both states will revert back to the low-risk category. So, as announced on Friday, January 22, NSW and Queensland residents, plus those who've been in either state in the past 14 days, can now head west — although there is still a quarantine requirement. Low-risk states have had fewer than five community cases per day across the past 14 days — but travellers from the area are still required to self-quarantine for 14 days. You'll also need to get a health screening at Perth Airport if arriving via air and at a border checkpoint if arriving by land, then also take a COVID-19 test on the 11th day of your quarantine no matter how you've made it over to WA. If you don't have somewhere to self-quarantine, you'll have to do so at a government-approved site at your own expense. And, you'll still need to apply for a G2G Pass, which is mandatory for everyone entering the state. To move down to the very low-risk category, WA requires NSW and Queensland to have no community cases for at least 28 days. As at Friday, January 22, NSW had hit seven days, while Queensland was at 15 days — with WA's Chief Health Officer advising that the latter could move down to very low-risk on February 1 if it continues to record zero local cases. At present, the Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania are all considered very low-risk by WA, while Victoria joined the low-risk category on Monday, January 18. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Western Australia, and the state's corresponding restrictions, visit its online COVID-19 hub.
Get your calendars out, it's time to book in some epic sunshine-soaked parties at The Golden Sheaf. Until Sunday, January 1, this Double Bay favourite (with its buzzy beer garden and rooftop bar) is hosting five summer soirées across the biggest days in the silly season calendar — and entry is completely free. The festivities kick off when Touch Sensitive takes over the decks for a big night of good-times and grooves on Saturday, December 17. Grab your mates, book a table and expect a non-stop flow of bangers over the night as the Sydney local and stand-out talent takes to the decks. [caption id="attachment_880632" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cybele Malinowski[/caption] Next up is Sneaky Sound System headlining what's being called the "biggest Christmas Eve party the Sheaf has seen". Get ready for the duo to play hits UFO and Pictures alongside their newer jams. Spending the night before the big day with fixtures of the Aussie music scene? Massive win. A few days later, on Boxing Day, the Sheaf hands the reigns over to Blueprint, producers of (and experts in) underground house and techno music in Australia. They've gathered over 20 acts to perform throughout the day and night — including Robbie Lowe, Aaiste, Binary and Frida. What's for sure? It's a great chaser to Christmas Day's family gatherings. On New Year's Eve, say goodbye to 2022 with stacks of DJs before counting down to midnight. Again, the event is free, so all outdoor spaces are expected to reach capacity — book your table, stat. [caption id="attachment_880615" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nicole Cooper[/caption] If the party is still going by New Year's Day or you just feel like starting it up again, head to the Sheaf's NYD Courtyard Party. From 2pm, the DJs are hopping back out to the beer garden and playing till midnight. Have a few hair of the dogs, chill all arvo and then dance the night away (again) — making sure you're starting 2023 with all the good vibes. In between these massive summer parties, thrown in partnership with Patron and Balter, The Golden Sheaf will continue to host stellar days and nights chock-full of delicious food, ice-cold beers and live entertainment. Oh, and when they're not hosting parties, your doggo is free to hang out in the beer garden with you too! This festive season, head to one (or all) of The Golden Sheaf's summer parties. Entry is free but you'll need to book a table. Grab your gang then head to the website to secure your spot.
If you're doing your best to be an eco-conscious citizen, but find yourself stuck, bagless, at the checkout way too often, you're not alone. At least now, when you've again forgotten your reusable bag and are staring down the barrel of yet another purchase of a 15-cent plastic number, you could have a different, more planet-friendly option. Supermarket joint Woolworths has kicked off a new trial offering recyclable paper bags in 21 of its stores nationwide. Stores — including Marrickville Metro and Bondi in Sydney, Melbourne's St Kilda and the QV Centre, and Pacific Fair and Surfers Paradise in Queensland — are now offering customers the option of packing their groceries into 20-cent paper bags, which are made from 80 percent recycled paper. They're also a breeze to recycle in your regular curbside collection. The trial will be used to gauge customer demand and Woollies says it'll be monitoring feedback closely. In the meantime, all Australian Woolworths stores will continue to offer the 15-cent reusable plastic bags, as well as those signature green Bag for Good varieties priced at 99 cents. The reusable plastic ones can be recycled through the REDcycle collection bins found in-store, though plenty of us can probably attest to the fact that most of them end up collecting dust under the sink. As for the supermarket chain's sturdier green counterparts, they'll continue to raise much-needed funds for the Woolworths Junior Landcare Grants program. If one of yours gets damaged, Woolies will even replace it for free, regardless of how long ago it was purchased. The company says it has cut over three billion single-use plastic bags from circulation since it began phasing them out across its stores in June 2018. Here's which Woolworths stores are trialling the paper bags: Bondi, NSW Coogee, NSW Double Bay, NSW Marrickville Metro, NSW Neutral Bay, NSW Paddington, NSW Rose Bay, NSW Rouse Hill, NSW Rozelle, NSW Town Hall, NSW Cairns, Qld Pacific Fair, Qld Surfers Paradise, Qld Armadale, Vic Black Rock, Vic Burwood Brickworks, Vic Hawksburn, Vic Hawthorn, Vic QV, Vic South Yarra, Vic St Kilda, Vic
In excellent news for anyone who loves scouting out new tunes from fresh local talent, the folks at Rare Finds have announced an east coast touring circuit, kicking off in January 2018. The Sydney-based PR and artist management company has long been a champion of emerging Aussie artists, hosting regular showcases in Brisbane and Sydney over the past two years. Now it's teamed up with Oporto and creative collective Pilerats to bring its latest musical finds to a stage near you. Touring once a month across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, each Rare Finds circuit will feature a curation of up-and-coming acts, providing an all-important live platform for these emerging artists. Headlining the first tour in January 2018 is Sunshine Coast songstress Ayla, off the back of her second EP Let's Talk Monday. She'll be joined by a different lineup in each city: Asha Jefferies, Royal & The Southern Echo and DJ Tom Bloomfield in Brisbane; Otious, Magnets and British India DJs in Melbourne; and Aikonawena, The Longboys and Rare Finds DJs on the Sydney leg. Catch the first iteration of the Rare Finds circuit on January 12 at Brisbane's Black Bear Lodge, January 19 at Melbourne's Penny Black and January 20 at Oxford Art Factory's Gallery Bar in Sydney. Tickets to the Sydney and Brisbane shows are less than $15 and the Melbourne gig is free. The Rare Finds east coast circuit will take place in January 2018 in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. For more info and to buy tickets, visit rarefinds.com.au.
If you're a vegetarian, worshipper of eggplant or just a keen home cook, chances are Yotam Ottolenghi has had some impact on your life. In fact, we bet you've got at least one of his bestselling cookbooks in your cupboard. Next year, you'll be able to learn a few more tips and tricks from the renowned Israeli chef as he heads to Australia for a speaking tour. The trailblazing chef, author, TV personality and restaurateur whose name has become its own cooking style is touring Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth in 2021 off the back of his new book Ottolenghi Flavour, which builds on his love for innovative vegetable-based recipes. Yotam Ottolenghi — Flavour of Life will tour the country throughout June — and, as well as dishing up a few spicy secrets behind mouthwatering hits like miso butter onions and spicy mushroom lasagne, the show will provide an opportunity to hear directly from the man himself about his influences and experiences. It also promises to delve into Ottolenghi's experience as the owner of famed London restaurants Nopi and Rovi, how he approached home cooking during the COVID-19 pandemic and how you can dial up the flavour in your own kitchen. [caption id="attachment_768174" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Flickr/Stijn Nieuwendijk[/caption] YOTAM OTTOLENGHI AUSTRALIAN TOUR: Perth: Tuesday, June 8 at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre Adelaide: Wednesday, June 9 at Adelaide Convention Centre Gold Coast: Friday, June 11 at The Star Gold Coast Melbourne: Saturday, June 12 at Hamer Hall Sydney: Sunday, June 13 at ICC Sydney The Yotam Ottolenghi — Flavour of Life speaking tour is scheduled to hit Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth in June 2021. Ticket presales for all cities except Melbourne start at 10am on Wednesday, December 16, with general public sales kicking off at 11am on Monday, December 21. Melbourne presales will commence at 10am on Monday, February 1.
If you're the sort of person who likes to eat meat until you start shaking with the meat sweats and can (m)eat no more, then a festival very relevant to your interests is coming to town. Meatstock Festival, a two-day celebration of all things animal, is setting up its smoky self in the Sydney Showgrounds on the weekend of Saturday, August 21–Sunday, August 22. Not just your regular food festival, Meatstock also features live tunes. Sure, there'll be less music than there is at Woodstock, but there will be 200 percent more tasty meat-related foods. The food stars of the show usually span the likes of Burn City Smokers, Limp Brisket, Black Barrel BBQ, Hoy Pinoy and more. Try some of each, or make your way through all of the food stalls and then fall into a sweaty, cholesterol-heavy heap — don't say we didn't warn you. Finally, for a little old-fashioned rivalry, the festival will be running its Butcher Wars, which will basically be a bunch of hopefully unbloodied people running around competing and wielding various knives. There's also Barbecue Wars too, heating up the grill in more ways than one. What a weekend.
Good news, Sydney commuters: the new Sydney Metro line connecting Sydenham in the southwest with Chatswood north of the harbour is ready to welcome its first passengers. No, really this time. The original August 4 opening date was cancelled with only two days' notice due to a (quite literally) shocking accident during the line's final tests, which resulted in a firefighter participating in safety drills being electrocuted, although they were thankfully not seriously injured. The national independent safety regular is now satisfied that the new train system is finally passenger-worthy, clearing the way for all nine stations on the new extension of the Metro to open on Monday, August 19. The announcement is not only good news for passengers but also for the hospitality businesses at the Metro's new stations. Major dining hubs at Martin Place, Victoria Cross and Waterloo have been developed to take advantage of the new influx of Metro passengers. The first of the new Metro services is set to ride the rails from 4.54am on Monday, August 19, when the first ever northbound service from Sydenham departs on its way to Chatswood. The new driverless train system will whisk Sydneysiders across the city at incredible speeds, making the 15.5-kilometre journey from Sydenham to Chatswood in just 22 minutes and the journey from Central Station to Martin Place in just four minutes. The next phase of the Sydney Metro extension works is already underway. The line between Sydenham and Bankstown will be closed for 12 months as new tracks, stations and other vital infrastructure are installed. When it opens in 2025, the Metro will offer the city's fastest ever travel between the far west and the CBD. For more details about services on new City and Southwest Metro Line, visit the Sydney Metro website. Images: Transport for NSW
Good news for Sydneysiders of a wordy bent: the Emerging Writers' Festival Roadshow is returning, and they're bringing with them one of their always winning programs of engaging writing, thought-provoking panels and talented peeps. As usual, the main event is a full-day affair at the NSW Writers' Centre with a line-up featuring a whole bunch of cool people who do good things with words. Benjamin Law and Delia Falconer give you writing advice in a segment called The 5 X 5 Rules of Writing, members of the SWEATSHOP writing group share their workshopping process, and emerging indigenous writers tell stories in the garden. Fuel your mind with Mexican food from Mobile Cantina, and then join everyone for drinks on the verandah and bask in your inspired end-of-the-day buzz. There are also a handful of events happening either side of the Saturday festival — the sadly sold-out Inside the Publishing House, a seminar on writing digital literature, and the hit Melbourne event celebrating great ladies, Amazing Babes. The EWF Roadshow is all about connecting writers and forming communities. So go ahead: connect, form, do amazing things!
Lazing on the beach all summer might flood your vitamin D levels and calm your heart rate, but it does nothing for your mental faculties. For that, we have the Sydney Festival, our summer side dish of culture, new music worth listening to, mind-bending public art and general brain food. Spiegeltents, labyrinths, The Life Aquatic cameos and unlikely Japanese team-ups — it's the kind of substance that makes the whole season stick in the mind for years afterwards. The festival is on from January 8-26, but if you want to enjoy those bright 2.5 weeks, it's best to get booking now. Here are just ten of our favourite things to see from the nearly 200 events across music, performance and public art. ATOMIC BOMB! THE MUSIC OF WILLIAM ONYEABOR William Onyeabor is perhaps the most mysterious man ever to have fused Afro-funk with space-age jams. After powering through the creation of eight albums over just as many years, he suddenly decided to stop talking: about himself or his music. However, it's a well-known fact that it takes an awful lot to 'stop the funk'. So, in what's certain to be one of the hands-down most epic musical events of Sydney Festival, an 18-strong band made up of artists from all over the world are getting together to jam on Onyeabor's music at the Enmore Theatre. Led by Sinkane, Money Mark, Luke Jenner (The Rapture), Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) and Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem), the performance will feature special guests in the form of Gotye and the legendary Mahotella Queens. 16 and 17 January, 8pm at Enmore Theatre. Tickets $85/77. INSIDE THERE FALLS UK artist Mira Calix teams up with the Sydney Dance Company's Rafael Bonachela for this stunning installation, combining sculpture, dance, spoken word and music. Over the past year or two, Calix has been busy in her studio, shaping vast sheets of paper into an ethereal labyrinth, which will be transported to Carriageworks for the Sydney Festival. On entering, visitors will find themselves immersed in a surreal, shimmering world, where they'll hear snippets of poetic prose spoken by actor Hayley Atwell, strains of classical music and, every now and again, catch sight of a dancer. Even though the dancing has been choreographed, performances won't be scheduled: it'll be a matter of taking your chances. Sounds like the perfect, dreamy summer escape. 8-17 January at Carriageworks. Free. DAN DEACON If you're heading to Dan Deacon's show, don't forget your smartphone, whatever you do. Because it's your key to becoming an actual, live part of his gig. Before rocking up, audience members are asked to download an app, which will enable them to play an active role in his spectacular, synchronised sound and light extravaganza. Deacon, who hails from Baltimore, will be in rare solo form and is set to deliver one of his wildest, most chaotic and most fun performances yet. 22 January, 11.45pm at Festival Village. Tickets $39. KISS & CRY The hands can say so much. Think of all the gestures of welcome, surrender and (perhaps most memorably) offence we use when words fail us. Yet what we didn't expect to see is a stage show entirely starring two hands, communicating that complexity we all know so achingly well: love. An old woman reflects back on the encounters that shaped her life in this poetic ballet, puppet show and live film experience, performed in a miniature set. Presented by Belgium's Charleroi Danses, Kiss & Cry comes from the bonafide talents of choreographer Michele Anne De Mey (a founding member of Rosas dance company) and filmmaker Jaco Van Dormael, director of 2009 sci-fi film Mr Nobody. 22-25 January at Carriageworks. Tickets $59-75. CORNELIUS PRESENTS SALYU X SALYU All the way from Japan, this collaboration between noise pop guru Cornelius and enigmatic J-pop vocalist Salyu will make its Australian premiere at the Sydney Festival. They're a potent match: while Cornelius has the beats finesse to keep any crowd on its feet until the wee hours, Salyu has the vocal skill and dynamic to keep him on his toes. She is, after all, the artist responsible for 'Kaifuku No Kizu', from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Expect plenty of surprises. 23 January, 5.15pm at Festival Village. Tickets $49. HIGHER GROUND Home to much of the festival's music, two Spiegeltents will be anchoring the expanding Festival Village, one of the real successes of last year and a true hub for hanging out in. Also within it will be a huge-scale art work from Ireland's answer to Banksy, street artist Maser. The maze-like, colour-splashed, two-storey-high installation, called Higher Ground, is said to be "a dream come true for those who always wished they could step inside a painting", and will be the focus of everyone's Instagramming this festival (which for the first time in two years, is Rubber Duck-less). Maser will be the artist-in-residence at the Village, though as he operates in anonymity, we don't expect to see too much of him. January 8-25 at Hyde Park North. Free. NOTHING TO LOSE When Kevin Bacon stood up in Footloose and said, "This is our time to dance. It is our way of celebrating life." What he didn't say was "but only for slim, athletic people". And yet, that seems to be what we mean these days. Fat dancers and performers aren't often seen, and so many people seem to have so many opinions on fatness and how fat people move through our society. Well, fat activist and artists Kelli Jean Drinkwater and resigning Force Majeure artistic director Kate Champion want us to broaden our outlook on the body and the act of dancing. This work is important, topical and, coming from dance-theatre masters Force Majeure (Never Did Me Any Harm, Food), sure to be powerful and original. Read our chat Kelli Jean Drinkwater and Kate Champion here. 21-25 January at Carriageworks. Tickets $59-65. SEU JORGE There's not many a cover artist can teach David Bowie about music. But when the art-rock king heard Seu Jorge perform his hits acoustically, in Portuguese, for The Life Aquatic, he said he heard a whole "new level of beauty". That is certainly no easily earned praise. Seu Jorge, who cut his deep yet irresistibly tender voice in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will make his debut Australian performance at Sydney Festival. He'll be playing an array of his famous, unique interpretations, as well as a bunch of originals, accompanied by a delicious mix of Latin and Caribbean beats, in both live and electronic form. Read our chat with Seu Jorge right here. 10 January, 8pm in The Domain (free) and 11 January, 8pm at The Star Event Centre. Tickets $45-89. ADRIENNE TRUSCOTT'S ASKING FOR IT It's a longstanding qualm some people have with female comedians that they're always talking about their genitalia. Those people might not enjoy this show. Returning to Australia for the second time in 2014, US comedian, performance artist and one half of the Wau Wau Sisters Adrienne Truscott is quite literally bearing all in a one-woman show about rape culture. Dressed only from the waist up, Truscott is taking aim at the likes of Daniel Tosh and his controversial comments of 2013, and is dragging the art of the 'rape joke' to breaking point. After five-star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, this is likely to be one the most-talked about shows of the festival (for better or worse). 14-18 January at Seymour Centre. Tickets $35. https://youtube.com/watch?v=p1uwQVtHHOQ WATERFALL SWING "This interactive waterfall swing won't make you wish you're a kid again, it will make you forget you're an adult," wrote Techly earlier this year, after Dash 7 Design's Waterfall Swing made waves in Rockefeller Plaza and across the US and Europe. And we wouldn't be Concrete Playground if we didn't get a bit excited by a souped up piece of play equipment in the middle of the city. Waterfall Swing sends you flying towards a curtain of water that, thanks to the work of sensors, parts just before you hit it. Magic. 8-24 January at Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour. Free. By the Concrete Playground team.
Before the division, Terry Hooley (Richard Dormer) was a popular man. But then his native Belfast bitterly split along sectarian lines, leaving the gregarious but staunchly apolitical Hooley to his own devices. He's DJing to nobody at a sad bar surrounded by barbed wire and run by the baleful Pat (Dylan Moran) when he finds a kindred soul in outsider Ruth (Jodie Whittaker). Emboldened by the support of Ruth, Dooley then decides on a whim that what his ailing city needs is a record store and he borrows over his head to set up the shop on a street famously known as the most bombed in Europe. Despite its perilous location, Hooley's boundless enthusiasm for the soothing power of music proves infectious and he watches in delight as it becomes a real cultural hub, quickly expanding into a record label as the city's burgeoning punk scene sparks into life. It's hard to think of another film which captures the fervour of discovery of music as thrillingly as Good Vibrations. You'll be won over by this scrappily loveable ode to the energy and abandon of punk rock. Read our full review here. Good Vibrations is in cinemas on June 12, and thanks to Curious Distribution, we have ten double in-season passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=SE17U5ML9dQ
It's easy to forget Jack Nicholson is safe and well sometimes, and the reason is a classic 70s film by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni called The Passenger. It oozes gloom and foreboding the way others flicks leak detonations or kisses. As a film, or even the inspired Iggy Pop song, it's a title that crams itself with coming menace. Sydney performance group the Deconvertors — who have brought you Aussie kitch as part of Loading Zone at the 2009 This Is Not Art festival, and The Hideous Demise of Detective Slate at last year's Sydney Fringe — are offering you a unique mobile dramatic experience, and just to lighten the mood they've named it The Passenger. It's not often a play asks you to accept a disclaimer before booking your tickets. The Passenger does this. It takes place in a real moving vehicle, picking you up near the old Glebe Town Hall before the actors drive you through the story, Sydney's backstreets and take you to the mysterious 'destination'. Driving carefully, the Deconvertors want you to live. But they may not want you to feel good about it. The only way to know for sure is book a ticket, stand on a quiet corner and wait for your ride. The Passenger offers four performances a night on Wednesday the 27th and Friday the 29th of April. Booking is essential.
As part of the 2013–14 Sydney International Art Series and part of an exclusive deal with the NSW government, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) and Destination NSW present, War Is Over! (if you want it): Yoko Ono. Legendary artist, musician, activist and perhaps one of the most controversial figures in the history of rock 'n' roll, Yoko Ono has developed her first solo exhibition made up of five decades worth of art in diverse media. Over the past decade skeptics of Ono and her involvement with the Beatles disintegration in 1970, have let the past go and have started to embrace Ono's musical and artistic endeavours. Ono brings back to life the iconic message, 'War Is Over!' that she and her late husband John Lennon spent years spreading around the world. First appearing in 1969 across billboards worldwide, the message may be the most recognised symbol of public outcry for peace during the Vietnam War. Over the past decade some of those who were once skeptical of Ono and her possible involvement in the Beatles 1970 disintegration, have let the past go and begun to embrace Ono's musical and artistic endeavours. MCA Senior Curator Rachel Kent has worked closely with Ono on the survey. The exhibition reaffirms Ono's belief in a better future. Sydney's MCA will be the only Australian venue for Ono's artwork which includes performances, sculpture, written texts, films, sound compositions, and participatory pieces of art that involve the viewers. The exhibit is to be presented throughout the Level Three Galleries in November of next year. Ono is expected to attend.
In the 70s and 80s, it was Countdown. In the 90s and early 00s, it was Recovery. Last year, the ABC added The Set to its roster of music-focused TV shows. Fronted by triple j's Linda Marigliano and newly minted Wimbledon quad doubles champion Dylan Alcott, the newcomer was a hit — and now it's returning for a second season in August. Screening on ABC weekly from 9.30pm on Wednesday, August 28, The Set features live music performances in front of a live studio audience — and will once again spotlight a different main band each week, who'll then invite two guest acts to perform as well. To end each show, the week's artists all team up in a one-off musical collaboration, because the series has a definite party atmosphere. That extends to the audience; with the whole thing taking place on a purpose-built share house set, which also includes a backyard, 250 folks get to head along, in person, enjoying the gig. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_pcuYplrTg While this year's bands haven't yet been announced, 2018's lineup included Baker Boy, Vera Blue, Ball Park Music and The Presets, as well as Illy, Odette, Wafia, Mallrat, Angie McMahon, Tia Gostelow, LANKS and Kult Kyss. The Set's second season will screen from Wednesday, August 28 till Wednesday, October 9, which each week's episode available on iView after it airs.
Now that you can start inviting friends round for an overdue catch up, we'd like to help you out with a refresher on how to play host. Sure, maybe you want to show off all those loaves of sourdough you've been baking (and we won't stop you), but to truly rise to the occasion, why not pair it with some delicatessen quality cheeses and a celebratory round of passion fruit martinis? It's an unusual pairing, but these are unusual times. We've partnered with Pernod Ricard to bring you four indulgent food and drink pairings that'll bring you back to not-so socially distant times with classic matches like freshly shucked oysters and rosé to more surprising flavour matches, such as a massaman curry with sour cocktails. Bonus: each one can all be delivered to your doorstep, so you can keep the best of lockdown convenience next time you're having your mates over. [caption id="attachment_626153" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stinking Bishops[/caption] MATCH A PLATTER OF CHEESE WITH PORN STAR MARTINIS We know the classic pairing is white wine with mild cheese and red (or more tannin-heavy styles) with blues and mature cheeses, but we'd like to suggest a more playful match that adds a little fizz to the mix. The London-born cocktail porn star martini is sweet and celebratory — it's traditionally served with a shot glass of champagne — and pairs particularly well with blue cheese, comté and brie. The sweet concoction cuts through most creamy cheeses, as well as dense dried fruits and quince. What to order: Sydneysiders can order European and Australian farmhouse cheeses direct from Formaggi Ocello, or from Stinking Bishops via Doordash. In Melbourne, you can order hampers of 'all Victorian' or 'all soft' cheeses from Milk the Cow. Speciality cheese shop Harper and Blohm also delivers cloth-bound cheddars, gooey soft cheeses and stinky blues from its Brunswick store. And Brisbanites should head to Le Fromage Yard who is delivering a combo of three cheeses, quince and crackers for $55. Pair with: a round of porn star martinis made with Absolut Vanilla. [caption id="attachment_768195" align="alignnone" width="1920"] East 33[/caption] SHARE A DECADENT SEAFOOD FEAST WITH BONE-DRY ROSE You'll hardly be surprised to hear that a delicate, textural rosé sits well with a platter of grilled prawns. It's practically a national drink pairing come summer, so we're here to say make the most of those lingering warm days and fire up the barbie. There are nuances you can consider when matching your rosé to your ocean catch; light, dry styles (often pinot noir based) work well with raw and lightly cooked shellfish, and medium-dry or sweeter wines (such as zinfandel) work best with salads, dessert or foods with a bit of spice. What to order: In Sydney, sustainable seafood eatery Fish & Co delivers cold cooked king prawns and fresh oysters via Deliveroo. When you want to go all out, order from East 33 — supplier to the country's best restaurants. In Melbourne, there's been no better time to indulge in a delivery from fine diner Minamishima — order the box-pressed hakozushi, a specialty of chef Hide. And in Brisbane, Sushi Edo has nigiri and aburi nigiri available via Deliveroo. Pair with: a cold bottle of Jacob's Creek Le Petit Rosé. The blend of pinot noir, grenache and mataro is a perfect match for seafood. [caption id="attachment_696538" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Continental Deli by Kitti Gould[/caption] GRAZE ON CHARCUTERIE WITH A SUBTLE SPANISH RED It's a similar method for matching wine with cured meats — lighter styles of wine are better bedfellows for lighter flavoured meats. And while a charcuterie board is an assembly of cured meats, we also like to add cheese, fruit, cornichons and nuts to the mix, so look at the flavour balance as a whole. Generally speaking, saltier foods are best paired with acidic wines and those with bolder tannins complement smoky flavoured meats. What to order: In Sydney, Bel and Brio has ready-to-serve charcuterie platters (including white truffle honey, prosciutto, salame felino and mortadella) via Deliveroo. Or, order Continental Deli's cheese and charcuterie platter (with brie, comté, jamón and sopressa) via Bopple. Melburnians can pick up from Windsor's Tipico, which has salumi misti as well as pizza, pasta and dessert. And D.O.C. also has local delivery and takeaway of its salumi and cheese boards from $17. In Brisbane, there's a dedicated charcuterie delivery service called Say Cheese, which is packing boxes of platter-ready cheeses, cured meats, olives, dips and crackers to all suburbs, as well as Rosalie Gourmet Market which has a decadent charcuterie box for $84.99. Pair with: a bottle of Campo Viejo Tempranillo — expect woody and vanilla notes with ripe red fruits and spices. [caption id="attachment_686214" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chin Chin[/caption] PAIR A THAI FEAST WITH SOUR PINK COCKTAILS As Thai dishes balance sweet, sour, salt, spice, bitterness and aromatic flavours, you can pair them with almost any sweet–sour cocktail. If it's been a while since you've enjoyed a table full of share plates and chinked glasses with loved ones, perhaps you can take a step towards bringing the flavour party back home with a round of colourful cocktails. Whether you prefer whisky, gin or tequila as your base, go big or go home on theatrics. We suggest shaking up this pink concoction with strawberry-infused gin. What to order: In Sydney, you can get speciality dishes from award-winning restaurant Spice I Am, such as the pad prik pao pork belly. And in Melbourne and Sydney, Southeast Asian restaurant Chin Chin is offering a takeaway service direct from its website, including curries, roasts and barbecued dishes. In Brisbane, Phat Elephant has whole barramundi platters and mixed entree plates via Deliveroo, and Same Same in Fortitude Valley is running a daily delivery service of its curries and salads. Pair with: London dry gin Beefeater Pink. Right now, Pernod Ricard is offering a $10 Deliveroo voucher for every $50 spent on a select range of its wine and spirits — bought online or in-store at its partner liquor stores. Find out more, here. Top image: Continental Deli by Kimberley Low.
Summer in Australia means sun, surf, sand — and, increasingly, sweltering weather of heatwave proportions. The country clocked up its third-warmest year on record in 2018, and while we don't know just yet if 2019 will match it, we do know that a spate of particularly toasty days is on its way. It is the time of the year for it, of course; however the next run of warm weather will blast temperatures up, with the mercury hitting the 30s in every capital city except Hobart. The sweaty conditions will be travelling over from the western side of the country, where Perth has been has been enduring a multi-day run of temps around the 40-degree mark this week. On Thursday, the WA spot hit 39, while Friday reached 40, and tops of 41 and 40 are forecast on Saturday and Sunday. As that heat moves east over the week, the impact will differ around the country, with inland locations expected to bear the brunt. In the capitals, Sydney is expected to hit 33 degrees on Thursday, Brisbane will max out at 38 degrees on Monday before hovering around 30 for the rest of the week, Melbourne is due to hit 36 on Thursday and 41 on Friday, Adelaide will experience four days over 40 from Tuesday–Friday, and Canberra will top out at 42 on Thursday. And again, while sultry days are part and parcel of this time of year, each of the aforementioned cities except Brisbane will experience temps above its average maximum for December. https://twitter.com/BOM_au/status/1205670711156789248 As the ABC reports, the Bureau of Meteorology predicts that, inland, the country may even break the heat record for the hottest day ever recorded. It currently stands at 50.7 degrees at Oodnadatta in South Australia, and dates back to January 1960. The warmest temp ever recorded in December is 49.5 degrees, which Birdsville in Queensland hit on Christmas Eve in 1972. BOM has already predicted that this summer will be warmer and drier than average, like 2019 overall — and that those conditions will continue well into 2020.
If you're seeking creative inspiration and would like to find it in a lovely environment, look no further. Muse + Maker is a weekend-long retreat where you can expand on your creative practice with some of the finest who do it. The March retreat will include inspiring workshops with fine art photographers Atong Atem and Tamara Dean, multidisciplinary sculptor Lisa Sammut, and dance artist Emma Saunders. Each Muse + Maker retreat takes groups of only 20 guests so each individual will receive direct collaboration and access with the artists. [caption id="attachment_944929" align="alignnone" width="1920"] "Full Circle" by Lisa Sammut[/caption] Between finding your muse with the sessions with these extraordinary Australian creatives, you'll also enjoy the experience of staying at The Robertson Hotel which includes all meals and a special dinner from produce-focused local restaurant Moonacres Kitchen helmed by chef Stephen Santucci. The Muse + Maker series was conceived by filmmaker and artist Jasmin Tarasin with the intention of bringing together like-minded people to create, get inspired and share ideas - whether you're a novice or more experienced artist. It sounds positively dreamy. Book in as a last minute addition to the March weekend or bookmark the website to get on board for the Autumn (May) and Winter (August) events. Main image: "I wrap my face in her cloak of petals and breathe deeply" by Tamara Dean
Some stores don't care for their customers. And some stores don't care to be creative. But for Some stores those things are imperative. The faces behind Fitzroy Street's Somedays store fit into the latter category. They sell us beautiful clothes, shoes and accessories from local and international designers. But what's more, they've spent the last year working their fingers to the bone to bring us issue three of their annual Sometimes magazine. This Wednesday, April 9, you’re invited to their Surry Hills store to launch Sometimes' release. Made with help from partners The National Grid, The Thousands, The Embassy of Sweden, Finsbury Green and Corona, Sailor Jerry and Kirin Cider, Sometimes showcases Some store's current inspiration and the creative types they've been working with. Happening from 6-8pm, the launch celebrates something they've made for you to love and keep. And let's face it; many stores wouldn't care to do the same.
This article is sponsored by our partner The City of Sydney. Paddington. Paddo. The Pad. This high-end fashion haunt is perhaps one of Sydney's clearest examples of the theory of innovation diffusion. Some of our most originative designs (and bravest designers) have made their mark here, pleasuring the palettes of tastemakers before being replicated for the masses. Indeed, a score of international fashion houses also call the leafy suburb home, keeping the streets well-trodden by those on the hunt for their next statement piece. Although the area has suffered a bit of a blow since luxury shoppers started to default to the CBD's Westfield, leading to some store closures, Paddington remains one of Sydney's nicest places to stroll while dropping some cash. Whether browsing Paddington Bazaar or scouring Oxford Street, you are almost guaranteed to discover something chic. Or at least outrageously unique. Now the City of Sydney is partnering with over 40 different local vendors to launch Paddington is Fashion. The winter fashion fiesta will run across the weekend of 24-25 August, a key feature of the extended Sydney is Fashion festival. With 'meet the designer' events, complimentary style advice (plus free cupcakes, free yoga classes and free champagne) and mammoth discounts, your opportunity to dive into the high end has arrived. Find out more at the Sydney is Fashion website. Image: Margaret Zhang for Alistair Trung.
There are many, many excellent and very familiar things to do in New South Wales — from climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge to watching the sunset from the Cape Byron Lighthouse. But there are loads of other, more unusual possibilities, too. And some of them might never have crossed your mind. How about snorkelling with fur seals in the wild? Riding a camel along a beach? Crawling through an 1880s mine shaft? Get ready to throw out your old adventure playbook and re-write it. Here are seven things you didn't know you could do in Australia's most populated state. RIDE A CAMEL ON THE BEACH You might be aware that Australia has the biggest herd of wild camels in the world — there are over one million roaming around out there. But, did you know that, in New South Wales, you can ride one of the mighty humped beasts with waves crashing at your feet? This wondrous adventure is less than three hours away from Sydney. In Port Stephens, Oakfield Ranch leads camel rides along sweeping Stockton Beach. Should you be contemplating further escapades in the area, check out our weekender's guide to the area. SAND BOARD THE BIGGEST MOVING SAND DUNES IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Just behind Stockton Beach are the Stockton Sand Dunes, the biggest moving sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere. Once you're immersed, you'll feel as though you're in some far-off desert. That's one of the reasons why the first Mad Max film was shot here. Hands-down, the most fun way to experience them is with a sand board under your arm. After climbing your way to the top, slide back down head first (or, if your balance is good, standing) at epic speeds. You'll need to book with a local operator — or, to avoid enormous tour groups, go with the small, family-owned Sand Dune Safaris. SNORKEL WITH FUR SEALS IN THE WILD Around five hours south of Sydney is the coastal town of Narooma and, nine kilometres offshore, lies Barunguba (otherwise known as Montague Island). This pristine nature reserve is home to around 90 bird species, 12,000 little penguins and the biggest fur seal colony in New South Wales, which attracts 2500 seasonal residents — some of which you can snorkel with. Several tour operators are available and it's possible to add time exploring Montague Island. If you're keen to spend more time on the Far South Coast, our road tripper's guide might come in handy. GO HOT AIR BALLOONING ABOVE A 23 MILLION-YEAR-OLD VOLCANIC CRATER North and west of Byron Bay is the Tweed hinterland, a land of ancient rainforest, wild rivers and rugged mountain peaks. Twenty-three million years ago, a volcano erupted here, creating a caldera 40 kilometres wide and 1000 metres deep. To see it in all its lush beauty, wake up before sunrise and ride a hot air balloon with Byron Bay Ballooning. This dreamy escapade takes you way up into the air for an hour or so and, on landing, treats you to a champagne breakfast. EAT DOUBLE-HATTED FARE OVERLOOKING THE TASMAN SEA There's no shortage of delicious fare wherever you go in New South Wales, but there aren't many spots where you can feast on two-hatted dishes while gazing at the Tasman Sea. Paper Daisy Restaurant, within Halcyon House, near Cabarita Beach on the Tweed Coast, is one of them. Here, Executive Chef Jason Barratt (ex-Circa, The Prince, Attica) is in the kitchen whipping up ocean-inspired combinations. Start with lobster, white radish and granny smith apple, before moving onto kingfish baked in local kelp, sweet corn, smoked onion and dried prawn. Then, for dessert, pear with spiced date, almond and roasted fennel ice cream. CRAWL THROUGH AN 1880s COAL MINE On the road between Broken Hill and Silverton — around 1200 kilometres west of Sydney — lies Day Dream, one of Australia's first coal mines. Built in the 1880s, it's now a tourist attraction, where you can experience a day-in-the-life of a 19th century miner. Prepare for darkness, dust and lots of squeezing through teeny-tiny spaces — all 30 metres underground. Mining is still a dangerous business, but was way more terrifying back then. In fact, workers did it so tough that their bosses handed out opium to ease the pain. When that wore off, horehound beer, which caused temporary blindness, was the next refuge. You'll hear these and other tales on a 1.5-hour tour. Find more tips for exploring Broken Hill over here. VISIT THE (HUGE) TELESCOPE THAT HELPED BROADCAST MAN'S FIRST WALK ON THE MOON You might recognise this one from The Dish, the 2000 indie comedy by Australian writer-director Rob Sitch, who's also responsible for The Castle. Located around 360 kilometres west of Sydney near Parkes, the 64-metre-wide telescope helped broadcast man's first moonwalk and has since found more than half of the 2000 known pulsars. When you're finished marvelling at its architecture, feast on a beef and red wine pie in the on-site cafe and check out the memorabilia in the gift shop. Should you be travelling by vehicle, our road tripper's guide to Central NSW might help. Discover more adventures around NSW at visitnsw.com. All images: Destination NSW
Lego is awesome. It is brightly coloured, easy to use and small enough to fit in your pocket and take to the park. Until you step and fall on a piece when you're trying to do something important like run to answer the phone or stumble to the kitchen for coffee and aspirin because you're hungover. Those pointy edges hurt like hell. Small children, and grown ups who were once children, have been making mind-boggling things from Lego for quite a while, but while pinball machines, iPods and even a camera might be impressive, it's always seemed harder to create real-live people out of the coloured plastic bricks. However, Fine Clonier, specialists in Lego minifig customisation, ran a competition inviting people to create historical literary figures out of lego. The winning design went to Mark Twain, the man who wrote Huckleberry Finn, sporting a particularly dashing haircut, and who sagely proclaimed "go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company." But other literary Legos were also included which are equally worthy of your attention. A smug F.Scott Fitzgerald, a brooding Ernest Hemingway, and a very French and goateed Rene Descartes round out the literary Lego figures and give some much needed bookish cred to the otherwise sober Danish amusement. [Via Booklicious]
A shot-by-shot remake is an infinitely worthy cinematic venture, as recently proven by James Franco and Seth Rogen's tender tribute to Kimye, 'Bound 3'. But even this was not as raw, nor as pure as it could have been, had it been a truly zero-budget affair in the noble tradition of 'Badder Romance' and Be Kind Rewind. But now The Redux Project offers you the chance to appear in ultra lo-fi remakes of scenes from iconic Australian favourites like Muriel's Wedding and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. All in the name of humorously critiquing the world of modern cinema. Who's behind this idea? Performance Space in association with Sydney Festival and Carriageworks present the project masterminded by the UK's Richard DeDomenici, an old hand at the budget remake, having produced Reduxes the world over, starring whichever enthusiastic locals applied. The artist is seeking volunteers now to appear in movie scenes for The Redux Project: Mega Aussie Redux, the results of which will be edited and screened at Carriageworks along with the original films that inspired them. Which films are we talking? Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, The Matrix, Priscilla and Muriel will all be getting the royal (/peasant) treatment. I myself am absolutely volunteering, in the hope of bestriding the 438 bus, swaddled in 15 metres of aluminium foil a la Priscilla. The shoots will take place in the first week of January 2014 (Monday 6th – Sunday 12th), at locations across inner-city Sydney. If you would like to volunteer, shoot an email to redux@performancespace.com.au with the subject ‘REDUX: Count me in’. Let them know if there is a particular shoot you would like to be part of, and send a photo to assist with casting. Image from DeDomenici's Dawn of The Dead: Redux (shot in Westmoreland Shopping Centre, England).
April 9th, 2011 was an important day for the residents of Fayetteville, Arkansas and bacon-lovers everywhere. Why? The third annual Bacon Day took place, of course, and did so with more of a 'bang' than expected. Bacon Day began as a private event, and although it was only opened to the public for the first time last year attendance has increased significantly. The event is an all day feast, but it's B.Y.O.B (bring your own bacon) for a potluck style dinner. Nick Hamon, co-founder of the Bacon Day celebrations, brings a little extra to the table each year with his sculptures and devices made out of bacon. In previous years he's delivered the BA-K-47 and the Bacon AT-AT, but this year he made bacon history. On the day of the event, Hamon lead the inaugural launch of his new bacon-based contraption, the BA-Zooka. The BA-Zooka, unlike past bacon designs, is fully-functional. The sausage-launching contraption was successful in its first fire in Fayetteville's Agri Park in front of the crowd of admiring bacon enthusiasts in attendance. I guess playing with your food isn't always a bad thing. https://youtube.com/watch?v=sz-sq7yF4bs
Gluttonous adventure is coming to Newtown and Enmore, with venues across the two suburbs teaming up to present food and beverage lovers with a tapas trail. Featuring 15 potential stops — including Beach Burrito Company, Newtown Social Club, Midnight Special and the Carlisle Castle — the trail will see each venue spruiking their own signature tapas dish, some with accompanying beverages. Just as on the best adventures, to start you'll need a passport. These can be downloaded via the Newtown Tapas Trail website, or picked up at any of the venues. This passport contains a map of the tapas route, and room for your adventure to be documented with stamps from each venue you've visited. Once you've collected five stamps, you'll be in the running for prizes such as art prints, dining vouchers, a Young Henrys brewery tour. The Tapas Trail is on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 from 6pm. So grab your friends, raise your glass and definitely don't forget your passport.
John Bell returns to STC in Florian Zeller's tense, fractured thriller that places the audience inside the mind of a man afflicted with dementia. Andre has always kept two watches — the one on his wrist and the one in his head. But with Alzheimer's his new self-appointed timekeeper, Andre's clocks have begun to run amuck. People walk in and out of his house at odd hours, some familiar and some not, despite many of them wearing the same face. Andre gets the sense that someone wants to throw him out of his house, but he can't remember who. He is a man besieged by his own limitations, bitter and suspicious of all who cross his path, lest they prove to be an enemy he cannot recall. Disorienting and terrifying, The Father is a Lear-inflected spiral into oblivion. Be sure to bring a torch — the darkness is unrelenting.
The 2013 smart ARTS mini-fest is back for the month of April with great art exhibitions, an awesome launch party and free workshops. smart ARTS aims to expand the creative minds of young people by "providing a forum for young people to express themselves and inspire each other through creative mediums". The festival also hopes to connect young people with networks and industry contacts in the arts, entertainment, and events. It's on until April 24 as part of National Youth Week. And the best part? All events at the festival are free. Check out the festival website and the Facebook event for a full program.
Who knew ballet and rock music make such a beautiful team? The newest production from the Australian Ballet, Chroma, features four contemporary works and proves that ballet is not just classical orchestration and frou-frou. The White Stripes combine with contemporary costume and minimalist set design to make this not your mum’s ballet. The quadruple bill takes its title from one of the works within, Chroma, a legendary piece originally created by Wayne McGregor for The Royal Ballet of London and using the aforementioned music from the Whites. McGregor’s ballet differentiates itself from the classical style, with jerky movements meant to push the limits of the dancers’ bodies. “The movement can be freaky at times and shows off every joint our bodies have, sometimes all at once," says Daniel Gaudiello, the male lead in Chroma. "The body is such an amazing instrument and you witness it at its limits." Also slated for performance are twin pieces choreographed by Jirí Kylián, Petite Mort (also featuring Gaudiello) and Sechs Tanze, as well as a new original work, Art to Sky, by the Australian Ballet's resident choreographer Stephen Baynes. The contemporary dances by Kylián and Baynes are paired with the classical music of Mozart and Tchaikovsky, creating a blend of old and new ballet styles. Both Chroma and Kylián's works will feature dancers in all white or neutral costumes, highlighting the motions of the dancers. “We are in these little camisole-like chiffon outfits that are designed to complement our skin tones," says Gaudiello. "The result I think is an inside-out view of ballet through an androgynous lens.” The intensity of ballet, particularly when paired with the music of The White Stripes, shows off the pure athleticism of the dancers. “I feel Australia is such an athletic country and so is the ballet," says Gaudiello. "We all feel so lucky to have the chance to try such a coveted work and I really believe we will strive in every show to put in the raw intention, attack and groove that such a difficult piece like Chroma demands." As for the stories the choreography conveys, Gaudiello tries not to sway us. “That is the beauty of contemporary ballet, sometimes the ending is up to you,” he says. Chroma is on at the Sydney Opera House from May 2-17. Tickets can be purchased through the Sydney Opera House website.
The famous Victorian writer Louisa May Alcott once said, "life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!" Well Vaucluse House is offering you the chance to earn some by taking a trip back in time to experience life in the Victorian era at Vintage Sundays — Victorian. No 19th century stone is being left unturned, with authentic activities of the time available for enjoyment throughout the day including the slapstick puppet classic Punch and Judy, skittles and croquet on the lawn for Victorian sport aficionados, and waltz classes for anyone wanting to just feel as opulent as Queen Victoria herself. There will also be historical tours and discussions held across the property and live soprano and piano performances will aptly soundtrack the day, so you really can take your pick of what to do. Whatever you do though, make sure to try the hot cider punch being brewed on the day in the kitchens. The event is part of Vintage Sundays, which are held at different historical sites around Sydney on selected Sundays.
When Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' enjoyed its initial sublime movie moment in Trainspotting, it soundtracked a descent into heroin's depths, including literally via the film's visual choices. For three decades since, that's been the tune's definitive on-screen use. Now drifts in Perfect Days, the Oscar-nominated Japan-set drama from German filmmaker Wim Wenders (Submergence). This slice-of-life movie takes its name from the song. It also places the iconic David Bowie-produced classic among the tracks listened to by toilet cleaner Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho, Vivant) as he goes about his daily routine. Fond of 60s- and 70s-era music, the Tokyo native's picks say everything about his mindset, both day by day and in his zen approach to his modest existence. 'Perfect Day' and Nina Simone's 'Feeling Good' each also sum up the feeling of watching this gorgeous ode to making the most of what you have, seeing beauty in the everyday and being in the moment. Not every tune that Hirayama pops into his van's tape deck — cassettes are still his format of choice — has the same type of title. Patti Smith's 'Redondo Beach', The Animals' 'The House of the Rising Sun', Otis Redding's '(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay' and The Rolling Stones' '(Walkin' Thru the) Sleepy City' also rank among his go-tos, all reflecting his mood in their own ways. If there's a wistfulness to Hirayama's music selections, it's in the manner that comes over all of us when we hark back to something that we first loved when we were younger. Perfect Days' protagonist is at peace with his life, however. Subtly layered into the film is the idea that things were once far different and more-conventionally successful, but Hirayama wasn't as content as he now is doing the rounds of the Japanese capital's public bathrooms, blasting his favourite songs between stops, eating lunch in a leafy park and photographing trees with an analogue camera. As proves accurate for most folks, the cycle that Wenders and co-screenwriter Takuma Takasaki (an advertising creative director and an author) have scripted for Perfect Days doesn't vary wildly as time elapses. While the sky is still dark, Hirayama awakens in his minimalist flat, slips into his work overalls and gets a canned caffeine fix from the vending machine outside. From there, he drives from toilet to toilet, putting out his sign to notify those passing that the commodes are getting a wash, meticulously scrubbing porcelain and wiping basins, and barely being paid any attention. His midday break brings greenery, that snap and maybe rescuing a sapling to take home to nurture. By evening, he reads William Faulkner, Patricia Highsmith and Aya Kōda. Unless it's his day off, when he turns his cleaning skills to his apartment — and does laundry, gets his photos developed, purchases new books and has dinner out — the pattern repeats. Wenders, making his best fictional feature in years and a movie every bit as magnificent as his Berlin-set 1987 masterpiece Wings of Desire, goes zen himself with his handling of Perfect Days. He's happy with cinematographer Franz Lustig (who also lensed his most-recent documentary Anselm) largely peering on documentary-style patiently and gracefully, taking in the ins and outs of Hirayama's days as serenely as Hirayama navigates them. Perfect Days spies the revealing minutiae, though, including a gesture that's extraordinary in its simplicity, ease and impact. Each morning, as black starts to turn grey in the heavens above as he departs for work, Hirayama stands on his doorstep, peeks at the weather in store, then smiles. A face merely tilting upwards has rarely felt so profoundly tender, touching and essential — and like it says everything about the most blissful way to cope with living. Yakusho won the 2023 Cannes Best Actor prize, alongside gongs from the Japanese Academy and Asian Film Awards, for his rich and majestic performance as Hirayama. The Tampopo, Shall We Dance?, Memoirs of a Geisha and Babel star isn't required to utter much, but this could easily be a dialogue-free movie — except the lyrics of all-important tunes, of course — thanks to his deeply internalised portrayal. To witness his efforts as Hirayama is to understand all that's within the character, usually behind an expression of pure dedication, tranquility or both — and regardless of whether he has assistant Takashi (Tokio Emoto, House of Ninjas) along for the ride, or the latter's girlfriend Aya (Aoi Yamada, First Love); is playing noughts and crosses with a stranger in an endearing fashion; suddenly has his niece Niko (Arisa Nakano, Anata no shiranai kowai hanashi gekijouban) for company; or is lending an ear to someone else's troubles over the quiet drinks he's sipping by the water. With such a diligently naturalistic performance at its centre, Perfect Days tells you how to view it: by soaking up every minuscule piece of this entrancing film. Wenders wants his audience taking it in as Hirayama does all that surrounds him, valuing the small details as much as the bigger picture. The next step: holding onto that feeling and perspective after the projector stops rolling. Can a drama embody mindfulness so completely that watching it leaves its viewers embracing the ups and downs of their own standard existence afterwards, reassessing what they truly want, and rethinking how they approach the full spectrum of emotions from disappointment and monotony to joy and satisfaction? In answering that, there's before Perfect Days and after Perfect Days, because this transcendent picture gives the heartiest yes possible to that question. To grasp fulfilment in your work, to treat your ears to great music and your mind to excellent reading, to clutch as much time as you can in nature, to appreciate everything around you: that's Perfect Days' prescription for perfect days. It's a recipe for an ideal movie experience, too — and how committed the feature is to mirroring what it depicts doesn't go unnoticed. Take its toilets, which are all architectural wonders around the Shibuya neighbourhood. As everyone should, and as they're crafted to inspire, Perfect Days rejoices in their design, as well as in the fact that such striking creations cater for humanity's most-basic bodily functions. They're real. Tours now take visitors between them. There's no playing tourist with what that they, Hirayama and Perfect Days represent, though — finding value, meaning and perfection in life's ebbs and flows can only be a genuine pursuit.
Everyone's favourite magical nanny is back — and if watching Mary Poppins Returns isn't enough of a nostalgic delight, then head on over to The Grounds of Alexandria. Until Sunday, February 3, the Sydney favourite has transformed its already impressive garden into a Poppins-themed wonderland. Think cherry blossoms, London lamps and many a kite, of course. The short-term makeover is inspired by Cherry Tree Lane, the street temporarily inhabited by Poppins when she floats down to care for the Banks family. You'll wander beneath pastel pink trees, spy more than a few umbrellas and find yourself expecting lamplighters to break into song. And yes, it's perfectly fine if you wander through the space humming the original flick's iconic tune 'Let's Go Fly a Kite' to yourself. Drop by at 10am, 12pm and 2pm each day to find bubbles filling the garden as well — and, whatever time you visit, you'll be able to tuck into a limited-edition Poppins cake made from lemon zest sponge, filled with cherry purée and cream cheese centre, and definitely featuring a spoonful of sugar. The Grounds of Alexandria is functioning as normal during the Mary Poppins Returns pop-up, and the Garden Bar, Potting Shed and cafe will be open.
The annual French Film Festival is touring the country next month and is set to be an entertaining delight for film lovers of all tastes and ages. The festival is a wing of the Alliance Française, an independent, not-for-profit organisation devoted to promoting the spread of French language and culture worldwide. With a presence in over 146 nations and over 30 Alliance Françaises in Australia alone, it is safe to say the organisation has done well in achieving these goals. The Alliance Françaises of Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, and Sydney have joined forces to develop the Film Festival, now in its 24th year. And the 43 films set to screen at this year's festival will certainly not disappoint. The festival has a huge array of productions on offer, sure to sate the appetites of the soppy romantics, the arty, youngsters, those simply looking for a bit of a laugh, nostalgia-sufferers, and even thrillseekers. These films are some of most acclaimed productions to have come out of France over the last 12 months and will have you adoring both the language and the artistic creativity of the French by the time the credits roll. Opening the festival is Haute Cuisine, light fare about a successful chef who is appointed to head the President's kitchen in the Elysee Palace. During the festival you can see Renoir (pictured), a sumptuous film about the feuds of great painters; the erotic tableaux of FEU by Christian Louboutin; the Cannes closer and Audrey Tautou vehicle Therese Desqueyroux; and the pre-Freudian Augustine. The French Film Festival will tour to major capital cities during March and April. Visit their website to see the full program. Concrete Playground has six double passes per city to give away to see the French Film Festival in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The passes entitle you to receive two complimentary tickets to one festival session of choice. To go in the running, subscribe to Concrete Playground (if you haven't already) then email your name and postal address to us at hello@concreteplayground.com.au
Just when we thought we couldn't have any more sweets, along comes Sweetfest — a two-day-long sugar party featuring the likes of Katherine Sabbath, Andy Bowdy, Lorraine's Patisserie and Mak Mak. It's not all about eating sugar though. An assortment of masterclasses, like Andy Bowdy's soft serve desserts class, will be held across the two days. This event is one of our top ten picks of Good Food Month 2015. Check out the other nine. Image: Pinbone.
Dishing up desserts across Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland the Australian Capital Territory, Gelato Messina obviously specialises in frosty sweet treats. But, because the chain has amassed quite the following, it also has a range of merchandise. Earlier this year, for instance, you could nab one of its gelato-scented candles (and presumably give yourself a constant craving for a few scoops). Now, you can also grab yourself an item of clothing decked out with a picture of its towering ice cream cones. Messina's new 2020 merch line is now available to purchase, spanning black and grey hoodies, grey and navy sweatshirts, and t-shirts in white, navy, rust (aka a red-orange colour) and black. Each has an image of gelato on the front or back — with those pics varying between different styles of clothing and different colours. After releasing a selection of flavours inspired by fashion brands back in October, all to celebrate Incu's 18th birthday, Messina has teamed back up with the retailer on its new threads. It's also showcasing the work of artist Ella Grace, who specialises in detailed watercolour paintings and illustrations — as you'll see from the images of gelato on Messina's merch. Yep, expect it to make you mighty hungry. For those keen on wearing gelato-adorned items while eating gelato, you'll pay $45 for a t-shirt, $65 for a sweatshirt and $75 for a hoodie. All garments are unisex, and made from 100-percent cotton — and they ship Australia-wide. For tiny dessert fiends, Messina's online store also has onesies for babies — because you're never too young to love ice cream. And, you can grab Messina caps with its logo and socks with its wallpaper print as well. For more information about Gelato Messina's merchandise — and to make a purchase — head to its website.
Often described as "the white wine for red wine lovers", orange wines are certainly going through a moment, thanks to their big, dry flavours. Whether you consider yourself a vino aficionado or you're just getting into the orange wine scene, you won't want to miss an evening dedicated to the sunrise-hued drop coming to Sorry Thanks I Love You this week. Don't worry, this is not a stuffy traditional wine tasting. It's less of a lesson and instead more of an opportunity for casual drinks with a friend or loved one — with a little wine education on the side. Running on Thursday, June 2 from 6.30-8pm, tickets will set you back $50. That lands you four different orange wine varietals — and complimentary snacks — over the 90 minute period. As you sip and scoff, roaming sommelier Sarah Devine from P&V Wine + Liquor Merchants be taking you through the finer points of orange wine. Attendees keen to learn can get schooled up on the history and culture, while those just there for date night can focus on gasbagging with their partner. It's up to you. Set in the mini-atrium of the Martin Place store, you can check out some of the high-end fashion, gourmet food, craft beverages, jewellery and accessories while you're there. Organisers say space is extremely limited, so book your wine-tasting table sooner rather than later. [caption id="attachment_855737" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Garreth Paul[/caption]
Another beloved film is heading to the theatre — this time, iconic Australian effort Starstruck. It follows in the footsteps of a growing number of Aussie flicks-turned-musicals; think Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Muriel's Wedding and Moulin Rouge!. Like its predecessors, it's easy to see why the film is getting the stage musical treatment. In fact, given the movie's storyline, it's a wonder that a large-scale production of hasn't been made before. Directed by Gillian Armstrong and first released in 1982, the comedy-drama tells the tale of Sydney teenager Jackie Mullens, who works in her mum's pub by the harbour but wants to become a rock star — and her cousin Angus, an aspiring manager, plans to get Jackie on a national TV talent series to help her dreams become a reality. An all-singing, all-dancing affair that'll be filled with 80s pop just like the movie, Starstruck — The Stage Musical will see RGM Productions, the folks behind the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert musical, team up with the National Institute of Dramatic Art. For the show's initial run at Sydney's Parade Theatre in 2019, it'll showcase NIDA's graduating class; however the production will also act as pilot for future commercial seasons. Dates haven't yet been announced, but it's expected to take to the stage towards the end of next year. As well as Priscilla Queen of The Desert, The Musical producer Garry McQuinn and his partner Rina Gill, the behind-the-scenes talent includes director Simon Phillips (Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Ladies in Black, Muriel's Wedding) and choreographer Andrew Hallsworth (Anything Goes, Sweet Charity), with the book by actor, singer, writer and director Mitchell Butel (Two Hands, Gettin' Square, Holding the Man). "It'll be an exciting adventure to see this warm-hearted little Australian film take shape on the stage," says Phillips. "The story about a couple of self-invented Ozzie kids trying to save their family pub is full of joy and adolescent energy, and NIDA feels like the perfect place to road-test its charms." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucf3bzv-e9M
In some cities, it'll happen in October. In others, it'll occur in November. Either way, folks in a heap of places around Australia are about to learn a very important truth. If you've watched Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun on Netflix — aka the platform's best comedy of 2020 — then you'll have already heard this crucial nugget of wisdom. Everyone could use a reminder, though, because knowing that everything's a drum is just that essential. Aunty Donna, purveyors of such powerful tidbits, are following up their streaming success by spreading the word — and the absurdist gags — countrywide. For the first time in more than three years, the comedy trio is hitting the road and heading to stages in Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart. Even if you haven't yet had your cup of morning brown yet, you'll know that this is exciting news. Writers and performers Mark Samual Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane will be breaking out their distinctive brand of humour between Wednesday, October 6–Friday, November 12, as part of a roadshow they're calling The Magical Dead Cat Tour. They've released a trailer to explain why these gigs have that name, and it's as silly and hilarious as you'd expect. Also part of the clip: the very wise recommendation that wannabe attendees should get their tickets quickly. Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun was just the dose of hilarity we all needed last year, so the troupe's tour is certain to prove the same this year — but in-person. Fingers crossed for more Crazy John's, Four'n Twenty pies, Eagle Boys Pizza, the Hoodoo Gurus and Grant Denyer references. And yes, plenty of funny folks are about to hit the road and bring their amusing shows to Aussie cities — with Aunty Donna touring at around the same time as Bill Bailey and Hannah Gadsby. Check out the trailer for Aunty Donna's The Magical Dead Cat Tour below — and the full tour dates, too: AUNTY DONNA'S THE MAGICAL DEAD CAT TOUR 2021: Wednesday, October 6–Thursday, October 7 — Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane Saturday, October 9–Sunday, October 10 — The Playhouse, Canberra Wednesday, October 13 — Astor Theatre, Perth Thursday, October 21 — Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide Wednesday, October 27–Thursday, October 28 — Enmore Theatre, Sydney Tuesday, November 2–Saturday, November 6 — Arts Centre, Melbourne Friday, November 12 — Theatre Royal, Hobart Aunty Donna's The Magical Dead Cat tour will make its way around the country this October and November. For pre-sale tickets until 10am on Thursday, June 17, or for general ticket sales afterwards — and for further information — head to the Aunty Donna website. Top image: Netflix.
If 2015's slate of documentaries has taught audiences anything — and filmmakers, too — it's the value of personal recordings, private scribblings and lost tapes. Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Amy and Listen to Me Marlon all used previously unheard ramblings, unread notes or unseen footage as their basis, all to great effect. Their accounts of famous subjects unfolded in the best manner possible: in their own unguarded words. Sourcing its treasure trove of audio from a shoebox stashed in a basement for decades, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict endeavours to do the same as it peers back at the achievements of its titular socialite and collector. Indeed, her musings, all immortalised in the late 1970s by her biographer, provide the highlights of an otherwise cursory film. Guggenheim is a fascinating figure who lived a life most can only dream of, and her personality drips through in her voice and recollections. The material assembled around it, while plentiful, can only feel ordinary in comparison. It traces over the same details, rather than filling in the gaps. Meanwhile, Guggenheim's own mutterings and the accompanying chats, clips and images, seem content with offering description rather than depth. They still tell quite the tale, of course. Born into one of New York's wealthiest Jewish families, the daughter of Titanic victim Benjamin and niece of museum namesake Solomon, Peggy eagerly took on the role of rebel and black sheep, with her refusal to conform to expectations one of the strengths of her ventures in the art world. In Paris in the 1920s, she started buying pieces that caught her eye, and continued to do so until her death in Italy in 1979. In between, she befriended many an artist, founded galleries in Europe and the US, saved pieces from the Nazis and unearthed emerging talent such as Jackson Pollock. When director Lisa Immordino Vreeland isn't letting Guggenheim do the talking, she's compiling the usual mix of archival footage and interviews, with Marina Abramovic and Robert De Niro among those featured. It's the same tactic the filmmaker used in her last effort, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel — but while both movies are straightforward in their approach, there's considerably less energy and personality this time around. Vreeland's struggle with tone — never quite knowing whether to interrogate the gossip that surrounded Guggenheim's personal affairs or to simply recount the rumours — certainly contributes to the film's lack of liveliness, as does its insistence on serving up a standard biographical documentary instead of a true reflection of its subject. It still makes for pleasant-enough viewing, particularly for art addicts themselves, but it never manages to fully do Guggenheim justice. In fact, it's only her vocal presence that stops the movie from amounting to little more than an interesting video of a Wikipedia listing.
For four decades, The Shining has been responsible for many a nightmare — not only due to Stephen King's 1977 bestseller, which helped cement him as a horror maestro, but courtesy of Stanley Kubrick's unnerving and acclaimed 1980 film. If you've ever been spooked by twins, garish hexagonal hotel carpet designs, sprawling hedge mazes, elevators filled with blood, someone shouting "here's Johnny!" or just Jack Nicholson in general, you have this macabre masterpiece to thank. From parodies to homages to overt recreations, The Shining is also the unsettling gift that keeps giving. Everything from The Simpsons to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Ready Player One has nodded the movie's way — as has documentary Room 237, which attempted to delve into its many secrets, meanings, theories and interpretations, too. But they've got nothing on the actual sequel to the eerie story. It picks up decades later, following the now-adult Danny Torrance as he tries to cope with the fallout from his supernatural gift. (Oh, and the memory of being terrorised by his axe-wielding dad as well.) In the just-released first trailer for Doctor Sleep — which is based on Stephen King's 2013 novel of the same name — all work and no play make Danny (Ewan McGregor) something something. He's perturbed, mainly, as he grapples with the trauma he experienced in The Shining. Then he meets a mysterious teenager (Kyliegh Curran) who also has the gift, and things get creepier than a ghastly woman peering out of a bath or the word 'redrum' written on a mirror. In a teaser filled with references to its predecessor, both of these appear. Rebecca Ferguson, Bruce Greenwood and Room's Jacob Tremblay also star, with The Haunting of Hill House's Mike Flanagan in the director's chair. While King was famously unhappy with Kubrick's take on The Shining — even writing the script for a three-part TV mini-series version in the 90s — here's hoping that he approves of Flanagan's vision. This is actually the filmmaker's second King adaptation, after Netflix flick Gerald's Game. Check out the Doctor Sleep trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFEVyTlTqYo Doctor Sleep releases in Australian cinemas on November 7, 2019.
After only one Australian bar earned a spot in The World's 50 Best Bars extended 51–100 longlist for 2023, two Aussie watering holes have now made the ranking's actual top 50. In the latest chapter in the Sydney–Melbourne rivalry, both cities are represented, including a perennial favourite in the Harbour City and a fast-rising spot in the Victorian capital. The regular placeholder? The nation's highest-ranking spot to get sipping in 2023 is Sydney's Maybe Sammy, which sits on the list for the fifth year in a row. The innovative bar in The Rocks has improved its ranking from 2022, too, moving up to 15th place from 29th. It came in 22nd in 2021 after placing 11th in 2020 and 43rd in 2019. In Melbourne, Caretaker's Cottage is the other Aussie venue in the top 50, coming in at 23rd. The Little Lonsdale Street only entered the longlist in 2022, when it placed 60th, so enjoys a significant rise up the rankings in its second year. [caption id="attachment_744474" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Maybe Sammy[/caption] For those yet to get acquainted with Maybe Sammy in The Rocks, its luxurious styling nods to old-school Vegas glamour, all blush pink velvet banquettes and lush indoor greenery, while the list of theatrical signature drinks pays homage to the classics. The World's 50 Best Bars has praised it for being "the Sydney cocktail bar where great stories begin", all "thanks to the emphasis on guest experience" — and calls out its latest beverage menu, which it calls the venue's "best selection of drinks yet". Maybe Sammy's 15th placing also makes it not only the best bar in Australia, but also the list's official best bar in Australasia. Hailing from bartenders and owners Rob Libecans, Ryan Nordics and Matt Stirling, Caretaker's Cottage earned some love for being "a subtle temple to great drinks". The World's Best 50 Bars called out "the lighting, the sound, the natural timber adorning much of the room" while noting that "everything conveys warmth and understated elegance". And as for the sips, "Melbourne's best Guinness" and "what is probably Australia's coldest Martini" scored a specific mention. Maybe Sammy and Caretaker's Cottage's top-50 placings give Australia three spots in the ranking's best 100, with the Victorian capital's Byrdi sitting at 61st. And Maybe Sammy doesn't just notch up five years on the list, but five times being named the best bar on the continent. Announced in Singapore on Tuesday, October 17, the 2023 list named Sips in Barcelona as the top spot for a tipple worldwide, as part of a best 50 that spans watering holes from 28 cities. It takes over from 2022's Paradiso, which makes it two years in a row that the most applauded bar has been found in Barcelona. Sitting between Sips in first place and Maybe Sammy in 15th: New York's Double Chicken Please in second, Mexico City's Handshake Speakeasy in third, Paradiso dropping to fourth, London's Connaught Bar sitting fifth after winning in 2020 and 2021, Little Red Door in Paris at sixth, and Mexico City's Licorería Limantour in seventh spot — as well as Tayēr + Elementary in London at eighth, Cartagena's Alquímico in ninth position, Himkok in Oslo sitting tenth, Tres Monos in Buenos Aires placing 11th, Athens' Line coming in 12th, BKK Social Club in Bangkok at 13th and Jigger & Pony in Singapore at 14th. Wondering who's making the calls? The annual World's 50 Best Bars awards are voted on by bar industry experts from around the world, including bartenders, consultants, drinks writers and cocktail specialists. [caption id="attachment_860284" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Maybe Sammy[/caption] [caption id="attachment_871415" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Caretaker's Cottage[/caption] [caption id="attachment_743915" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Maybe Sammy, Trent van der Jagt[/caption] For the full list of the World's 50 Best Bars for 2023 (and past years' lists), head to the ranking's website. Top image: Maybe Sammy, Oficina.
It's no secret that Sydney loves its outdoor markets. Markets in May is giving you even more to enjoy about them. The celebration, which lasts the entire month of May, aims to highlight all the great things about markets — from offering locally sourced food to supporting small businesses. The kick-off is happening with a pop-up at Martin Place that will feature vendors from various markets around the city. The pop-up market promises to be a nice respite from the busyness of the CBD and a chance to discover some the best stalls. Arlingtons, Brasserie Bread, Gwydir Grove olive oil, Inside Out Nutritious Goods, Tarlart Thai, and Pod Cuisine are just a sample of the food stands featured at the launch. Free tastings, here we come. The month-long program will see a variety of special activities at your local market. Talks from farmers, cooking demonstrations, discounts, tours and musical performances are some of the events slated for the inaugural Markets in May.
Before the pandemic, when a new-release movie started playing in cinemas, audiences couldn't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the past few years forcing film industry to make quite a few changes — widespread movie theatre closures and plenty of people staying home in iso will do that — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you've been under the weather. Perhaps you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Given the hefty amount of films now releasing each week, maybe you simply missed something. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here are 19 that you can watch right now at home. WHITE NOISE We're all dying. We're all shopping. We're all prattling relentlessly about our days and routines, and about big ideas and tiny specifics as well. As we cycle through this list over and over, again and again, rinsing and repeating, we're also all clinging to whatever distracts us from our ever-looming demise, our mortality hovering like a black billowing cloud. In White Noise, all of the above is a constant. For the film's second of three chapters, a dark swarm in the sky is literal, too. Adapted from Don DeLillo's 1985 novel of the same name — a book thought unfilmable for the best part of four decades — by Marriage Story writer/director Noah Baumbach, this bold, playful survey of existential malaise via middle-class suburbia and academia overflows with life, death, consumerism and the cacophony of chaos echoing through our every living moment. Oh, and there's a glorious supermarket dance number as one helluva finale, because why not? "All plots move deathward" protagonist Jack Gladney (Adam Driver, House of Gucci) contends, one of his words of wisdom in the 'Hitler studies' course he's taught for 16 years at College-on-the-Hill. Yes, that early declaration signals the feature's biggest point of fascination — knowing that eternal rest awaits us all, that is — as does White Noise's car crash-filled very first frames. In the latter, Jack's colleague Murray Siskind (Don Cheadle, No Sudden Move) holds court, addressing students about the meaning of and catharsis found in on-screen accidents, plunging into their use of violence and catastrophe as entertainment, and showing clips. In the aforementioned mid-section of the movie, when White Noise turns into a disaster flick thanks to a tanker truck colliding with a train and a wild road trip with Jack's fourth wife Babette (Greta Gerwig, 20th Century Women) and their kids Heinrich (Sam Nivola, With/In), Steffie (May Nivola, The Pursuit of Love), Denise (Raffey Cassidy, Vox Lux) and Wilder (debutants Henry and Dean Moore), you can bet that Murray's insights and concepts bubble up again. White Noise is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. BARBARIAN "Safe as houses" isn't a term that applies much in horror. It isn't difficult to glean why. Even if scary movies routinely followed folks worrying about their investments — one meaning of the phrase — it's always going to be tricky for the sentiment to stick when such flicks love plaguing homes, lodges and other dwellings with bumps, jumps and bone-chilling terror. Barbarian, however, could break out the expression and mean it, in a way. At its centre sits a spruced-up Detroit cottage listed on Airbnb and earning its owner a trusty income. In the film's setup, the house in question is actually doing double duty, with two guests booked for clashing stays over the same dates. It's hardly a spoiler to say that their time in the spot, the nicest-looking residence in a rundown neighbourhood, leaves them feeling anything but safe. Late on a gloomy, rainy, horror-movie-101 kind of night — an eerie and tense evening from the moment that writer/director Zach Cregger's first feature as a solo director begins — Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell, Suspicion) arrives at Barbarian's pivotal Michigan property. She's in town for a job interview, but discovers the lockbox empty, keys nowhere to be found. Also, the home already has an occupant in Keith Toshko (Bill Skarsgård, Eternals), who made his reservation via a different website. With a medical convention filling the city's hotels, sharing the cottage seems the only option, even if Tess is understandably cautious about cohabitating with a man she's literally just met. Ambiguity is part of Barbarian from the get-go, spanning whether Keith can be trusted, what's behind their double booking and, when things start moving overnight, what's going on in the abode. That's only the start of Barbarian's hellish story. Barbarian is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. SHE SAID Questions flow freely in She Said, the powerful and methodical All the President's Men and Spotlight-style newspaper drama from director Maria Schrader (I'm Your Man) and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Small Axe) that tells the story behind the past decade's biggest entertainment story. On-screen, Zoe Kazan (Clickbait) and Carey Mulligan (The Dig) tend to be doing the asking, playing now Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. They query Harvey Weinstein's actions, including his treatment of women. They gently and respectfully press actors and Miramax employees about their traumatic dealings with the Hollywood honcho, and they politely see if some — if any — will go on the record about their experiences. And, they question Weinstein and others at his studio about accusations that'll lead to this famous headline: "Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades". As the entire world read at the time, those nine words were published on October 5, 2017, along with the distressing article that detailed some — but definitely not all — of Weinstein's behaviour. Everyone has witnessed the fallout, too, with Kantor and Twohey's story helping spark the #MeToo movement, electrifying the ongoing fight against sexual assault and gender inequality in the entertainment industry, and shining a spotlight on the gross misuses of authority that have long plagued Tinseltown. The piece also brought about Weinstein's swift downfall. As well as being sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York in 2020, he's currently standing trial for further charges in Los Angeles. Watching She Said, however, more questions spring for the audience. Here's the biggest heartbreaker: how easily could Kantor and Twohey's article never have come to fruition at all, leaving Weinstein free to continue his predatory harassment? She Said is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery opens with a puzzle box inside a puzzle box. The former is a wooden cube delivered out of the blue, the latter the followup to 2019 murder-mystery hit Knives Out, and both are as tightly, meticulously, cleverly and cannily orchestrated as each other. The physical version has siblings, all sent to summon a motley crew of characters to the same place, as these types of flicks need to boast. The film clearly has its own brethren, and slots in beside its predecessor as one of the genre's gleaming standouts. More Knives Out movies will follow as well, which the two so far deserve to keep spawning as long as writer/director Rian Johnson (Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi) and Benoit Blanc-playing star Daniel Craig (No Time to Die) will make them. Long may they keep the franchise's key detective and audience alike sleuthing. Long may they have everyone revelling in every twist, trick and revelation, as the breezy blast that is Glass Onion itself starts with. What do Connecticut Governor and US Senate candidate Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn, WandaVision), model-slash-designer-slash-entrepreneur Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon), scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr, The Many Saints of Newark) and gun-toting, YouTube-posting men's rights activist Duke Cody (Dave Bautista, Thor: Love and Thunder) all have in common when this smart and savvy sequel kicks off? They each receive those literal puzzle boxes, of course, and they visibly enjoy their time working out what they're about. The cartons are the key to their getaway to Greece — their invites from tech mogul Miles Bron (Edward Norton, The French Dispatch), in fact — and also perfectly emblematic of this entire feature. It's noteworthy that this quartet carefully but playfully piece together clues to unveil the contents inside, aka Glass Onion's exact modus operandi. That said, it's also significant that a fifth recipient of these elaborate squares, Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe, Antebellum), simply decides to smash their way inside with a hammer. As Brick and Looper also showed, Johnson knows when to attentively dole out exactly what he needs to, including when the body count starts. He also knows when to let everything spill out, and when to put the cravat-wearing Blanc on the case. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. ROALD DAHL'S MATILDA THE MUSICAL Mischievous and magical in equal measure (and spirited, and gleefully snarky and spiky), Roald Dahl's Matilda has been a balm for souls since 1988. If you were a voracious reader as a kid, happiest escaping into the page — or if you felt out of place at home, cast aside for favoured siblings, bullied at school or unappreciated in general — then it wasn't just a novel. Rather, it was a diary capturing your bubbling feelings in perfect detail, just penned by one of the great children's authors. When Matilda first reached the screen in 1996, Americanised and starring Mara Wilson as the pint-sized bookworm who finds solace in imagined worlds (and puts bleach in her dad's hair tonic, and glue on his hat band), the film captured the same sensation. So has the song-and-dance stage version since 2010, too, because this heartfelt yet irreverent tale was always primed for the musical treatment. Over a decade later, after nabbing seven Olivier Awards for its West End run, five Tony Awards on Broadway and 13 of Australia's own Helpmann Awards as well, that theatre show's movie adaptation arrives with its revolting children and its little bit of naughtiness. Tim Minchin's music and lyrics still provide the soundtrack to Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical, boasting the Aussie entertainer's usual blend of clever wordplay and comedy. Both the stage iteration's original director Matthew Warchus and playwright Dennis Kelly return, the former hopping back behind the camera after 2014's Pride and the latter adding a new screen project to his resume after The Third Day. The library full of charm remains, as does a story that's always relatable for all ages. Horrors and hilarity, a heroine (Alisha Weir, Darklands) for the ages, a hulking villain of a headmistress (Emma Thompson, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), the beloved Miss Honey (Lashana Lynch, The Woman King), telekinetic powers: they're all also accounted for. Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. STARS AT NOON Sweat, skin, sex, schisms, secrets and survival: a great film by French auteur Claire Denis typically has them all. Stars at Noon is one of them, even if her adaptation of the 1986 novel of nearly the same name — her picture drops the 'the', as a certain social network did — doesn't quite soar to the same astonishing heights as High Life, her last English-language release. Evocative, enveloping, atmospheric, dripping with unease: they're also traits that the two flicks share, like much of the Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum and White Material filmmaker's work. Here, all the sultriness and stress swells around two gleamingly attractive strangers, Trish (Margaret Qualley, Maid) and Daniel (Joe Alwyn, Conversations with Friends), who meet in a Central American hotel bar, slip between the sheets and find themselves tangled up in plenty beyond lips and limbs. Shining at each other when so much else obscures their glow, Stars at Noon's central duo are jumbled up in enough individually anyway. For the first half hour-ish, the erotic thriller slinks along with Trish's routine, which sees perspiration plastered across her face from the Nicaraguan heat, the lack of air-conditioning in her motel and the struggle to enjoy a cold drink. The rum she's often swilling, recalling that aforementioned Denis-directed feature's moniker, hardly helps. Neither does the transactional use of her body with a local law enforcement officer (Nick Romano, Shadows) and a government official (Stephan Proaño, Crónica de un amor). Imbibing is clearly a coping and confidence-giving mechanism, while those amorous tumbles afford her protection in a precarious political situation, with her passport confiscated, her actions being scrutinised and funds for a plane ticket home wholly absent. Stars at Noon is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. SERIOUSLY RED When working nine to five isn't panning out for Raylene 'Red 'Delaney (Krew Boylan, A Place to Call Home), she does what all folks should: takes Dolly Parton's advice. Pouring yourself a cup of ambition is never simple, but when you're a Parton-obsessed Australian eager to make all things Dolly your living, it's a dream that no one should be allowed to shatter. That's the delightful idea behind Seriously Red, which pushes Parton worship to the next level — and idolising celebrities in general — while tracking Red's quest to make it, cascading blonde wigs atop her natural flame-hued tresses and all, as a Dolly impersonator. That's a wonderfully flamboyant concept, too, as brought to the screen with a surreal 'Copy World' filled with other faux superstars; enlisting Rose Byrne (Physical) as an Elvis mimic is particularly inspired. Seriously Red doesn't just get its namesake adhering to Parton's wisdom, whether sung or spoken over the icon's 55-year career. It also splashes the country music queen's adages like "find out who you are and do it on purpose" across its frames as well. They help give the film structure and assist in setting the tone, as this rhinestone-studded movie comedically but earnestly explores two universal struggles. Everyone wants to be true to themselves, and to work out what that means. We all yearn to spend our days chasing our heart's real desires, too. As penned by Boylan in her debut script, and directed by fellow feature first-timer Gracie Otto (after documentaries The Last Impresario and Under the Volcano, plus episodes of The Other Guy, Bump, Heartbreak High and more), Seriously Red spots a big question lurking in these missions for Red, however — because what does it mean when being yourself and scoring your dream gig means being someone else? Seriously Red is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS Everyone wants to be the person at the party that the dance floor revolves around, and life in general as well, or so Alejandro González Iñárritu contends in Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths. In one of the film's many spectacularly shot scenes — with the dual Best Director Oscar-winning Birdman and The Revenant helmer benefiting from astonishing lensing by Armageddon Time cinematographer Darius Khondji — the camera swirls and twirls around Silverio Gama (Daniel Giménez Cacho, Memoria), the movie's protagonist, making him the only person that matters in a heaving crowd. Isolated vocals from David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' boom, and with all the more power without music behind them, echoing as if they're only singing to Silverio. Iñárritu is right: everyone does want a moment like this. Amid the intoxicating visuals and vibe, he's also right that such instances are fleeting. And, across his sprawling and surreal 159-minute flick, he's right that such basking glory and lose-yourself-to-dance bliss can never be as fulfilling as anyone wants. That sequence comes partway through Bardo, one of several that stun through sheer beauty and atmosphere, and that Iñárritu layers with the disappointment of being himself. Everyone wants to be the filmmaker with all the fame and success, breaking records, winning prestigious awards and conquering Hollywood, he also contends. Alas, when you're this Mexican director, that isn't as joyous or uncomplicated an experience as it sounds. On-screen, his blatant alter ego is a feted documentarian rather than a helmer of prized fiction. He's a rare Latino recipient of a coveted accolade, one of Bardo's anchoring events. He's known to make ambitious works with hefty titles — False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is both the IRL movie's subtitle and the name of Silverio's last project — and he's been largely based in the US for decades. Yes, parallels abound. Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. THE WOMAN KING Since 2016's Suicide Squad, the DC Extended Universe has tasked Viola Davis with corralling super-powered folks, including villains forced to do the state's bidding (as also seen in The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker) and regular world-saving superheroes (the just-released Black Adam). In The Woman King, however, she's more formidable, powerful and magnificent than any spandex-wearing character she's ever shared a frame with — or ever will in that comic-to-screen realm. Here, she plays the dedicated and determined General Nanisca, leader of the Agojie circa 1823. This is an "inspired by true events" tale, and the all-female warrior troupe was very much real, protecting the now-defunct west African kingdom of Dahomey during its existence in what's now modern-day Benin. Suddenly thinking about a different superhero domain and its own redoubtable women-only army, aka the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Dora Milaje in Wakanda? Yes, Black Panther took inspiration from the Agojie. If you're thinking about Wonder Woman's Amazons, too, the Agojie obviously pre-dates them as well. Links to two huge franchises in various fashions aren't anywhere near The Woman King's main attraction, of course. Davis and her fellow exceptional cast members, such as Lashana Lynch (No Time to Die), Thuso Mbedu and Sheila Atim (both co-stars in The Underground Railroad); The Old Guard filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood and her grand and kinetic direction, especially in fight scenes; stunningly detailed costumes and production design that's both vibrant and textured; a story that still boasts humour and heart: they all rank far higher among this feature's drawcards. So does the fact that this is a lavish historical epic in the Braveheart and Gladiator mould, but about ass-kicking Black women badged "the bloodiest bitches in Africa". Also, while serving up an empowering vision, The Woman King also openly grapples with many difficulties inherent in Dahomey's IRL history (albeit in a mass consumption-friendly, picking-and-choosing manner). The Woman King is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BROS Buy this for a dollar: a history-making gay rom-com that's smart, sweet, self-aware and funny, and also deep knows the genre it slips into, including the heteronormative tropes and cliches that viewers have seen ad nauseam. Actually, Billy Eichner would clearly prefer that audiences purchase tickets for Bros for more that that sum of money, even if he spent five seasons offering it to New Yorkers in Billy on the Street while sprinting along the sidewalk and yelling about pop culture. Thinking about that comedy series comes with the territory here, however, and not just because Eichner brought it back to promote this very movie. Starring and co-written by the Parks and Recreation and The Lion King actor — with Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the Bad Neighbours franchise's Nicholas Stoller directing and co-scripting — Bros both presents and unpacks the public persona that helped make Billy on the Street such a hit: opinionated, forceful and wry, as well as acidic and cranky. No one person, be it the version of himself that Eichner plays in the series that helped push him to fame or the fictional character he brings to the screen in Bros — or, in-between, his struggling comedian and actor part in three-season sitcom Difficult People, too — is just those five traits, of course. One of Bros' strengths is how it examines why it's easy to lean into that personality, where the sheen of caustic irritability comes from, the neuroses it's covering up and what all that means when it comes to relationships. The movie does so knowingly as well. It's well aware that Eichner's fans are familiar with his on-screen type, and that even newcomers likely are also. Accordingly, when Bros begins, Eichner's in-film alter ego is shouting about pop culture and being adamant, grumpy and cutting about it. In fact, he's on a podcast, where he's relaying his failed attempt to pen a script for exactly the kind of flick he's in. Bros is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BLACK ADAM "I kneel before no one," says Teth-Adam, aka Black Adam, aka the DC Comics character that dates back to 1945, and that Dwayne Johnson (Red Notice) has long wanted to play. That proclamation is made early in the film that bears the burly, flying, impervious-to-everything figure's name, echoing as a statement of might as well as mood: he doesn't need to bow down to anyone or anything, and if he did he wouldn't anyway. Yet the DC Extended Universe flick that Black Adam is in — the 11th in a saga that's rarely great — kneels frequently to almost everything. It bends the knee to the dispiritingly by-the-numbers template that keeps lurking behind this comic book-inspired series' most forgettable entries, and the whole franchise's efforts to emulate the rival (and more successful) Marvel Cinematic Universe, for starters. It also shows deference to the lack of spark and personality that makes the lesser DC-based features so routine at best, too. Even worse, Black Adam kneels to the idea that slipping Johnson into a sprawling superhero franchise means robbing the wrestler-turned-actor himself of any on-screen personality. Glowering and gloomy is a personality, for sure, but it's not what's made The Rock such a box office drawcard — and, rather than branching out, breaking the mould or suiting the character, he just appears to be pouting and coasting. He looks the physical part, of course, as he needs to playing a slave-turned-champion who now can't be killed or hurt. It's hard not to wish that the Fast and Furious franchise's humour seeped into his performance, however, or even the goofy corniness of Jungle Cruise, Johnson's last collaboration with filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra. The latter has template-esque action flicks Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night and The Commuter on his resume before that, and helms his current star here like he'd rather still directing Liam Neeson. Black Adam is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. MILLIE LIES LOW A scene-stealer in 2018's The Breaker Upperers, Ana Scotney now leads the show in Millie Lies Low. She's just as magnetic. The New Zealand actor plays the film's eponymous Wellington university student, who has a panic attack aboard a plane bound for New York — where a prestigious architecture internship awaits — and has to disembark before her flight leaves. A new ticket costs $2000, which she doesn't have. And, trying to rustle up cash from her best friend and classmate (Jillian Nguyen, Hungry Ghosts), mother (Rachel House, Cousins) and even a quick-loan business (run by Cohen Holloway, The Power of the Dog) still leaves her empty-handed. Millie's solution: faking it till she makes it, searching for ways to stump up the funds while hiding out in her hometown, telling everyone she's actually already in the Big Apple and posting faux Instagram snaps MacGyvered out of whatever she can find (big sacks of flour standing in for snow, for instance) to sell the ruse. There's a caper vibe to Millie's efforts skulking around Wellington while endeavouring to finance her ticket to her dreams — and to the picture of her supposedly perfect existence that she's trying to push upon herself as much as her loved ones. Making her feature debut, director and co-writer Michelle Savill has imposter syndrome and the shame spiral it sparks firmly in her sights, and finds much to mine in both an insightful and darkly comedic manner. As she follows her protagonist between episodic efforts to print the legend — or post it one Insta picture at a time — her keenly observed film also treads in Frances Ha's footsteps. Both movies examine the self-destructive life choices of a twentysomething with a clear idea of what she wants everyone to think of her, but far less of a grasp on who she really is and what she genuinely needs. While some framing and music choices make that connection obvious, the astute delight that is Millie Lies Low is never a Wellington-set copy. Millie Lies Low is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. STRANGE WORLD Strange World needs to be a visual knockout; when a title nods to an extraordinary and otherworldly place, it makes a promise. Director Don Hall and co-helmer/screenwriter Qui Nguyen, who last worked together as filmmaker and scribe on the also-resplendent Raya and the Last Dragon, meet that pledge with force — aka the movie's trademark approach. Strange World goes all-in on hallucinogenic scenery, glowing creatures and luminous pops of colour (pink hues especially) that simply astound. Indeed, calling it trippy is also an understatement. The picture is equally as zealous about its various layers of messaging, spanning humanity's treatment of the planet, learning to coexist with rather than command and conquer our surroundings, and navigating multigenerational family dynamics. A feature can be assertive, arresting and entertaining, however, because this is. Clade patriarch Jaeger (Dennis Quaid, Midway) can also be described as strong-willed and unsubtle, much to his son Searcher's (Jake Gyllenhaal, Ambulance) frustration. In the mountainous land of Avalonia, the former is a heroic explorer intent on seeing what's on the other side of those peaks — a feat that's never been achieved before — but the latter pleas for staying put, spotting a curious plant on their latest expedition and wanting to investigate its possibilities. Doing anything but bounding forth isn't the Clade way, Jaeger contends, sparking an icy father-son rift. Jaeger storms off, Searcher goes home, and Avalonia is revolutionised by pando, the energy-giving fruit from that just-discovered plant, over the next quarter-century. Then, in a locale that now enjoys electricity, hovering vehicles and other mod cons, the natural resource suddenly seems to start rotting from the root. Strange World is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO Guillermo del Toro hasn't yet directed a version of Frankenstein, except that he now has in a way. Officially, he's chosen another much-adapted, widely beloved story — one usually considered less dark — but there's no missing the similarities between the Nightmare Alley and The Shape of Water filmmaker's stop-motion Pinocchio and Mary Shelley's ever-influential horror masterpiece. Both carve out tales about creations made by grief-stricken men consumed by loss. Both see those tinkerers help give life to things that don't usually have it, gifting existence to the inanimate because they can't cope with mortality's reality. Both notch up the fallout when those central humans struggles with the results of their handiwork, even though all that the beings that spring from their efforts want is pure and simple love and acceptance. Del Toro's take on Pinocchio still has a talking cricket, a blue-hued source of magic and songs, too, but it clearly and definitely isn't a Disney movie. Instead, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is an enchanting iteration of a story that everyone knows, and that's graced screens so many times that this is the third flick in 2022 alone. Yes, the director's name is officially in the film's title. Yes, it's likely there to stop the movie getting confused with that array of other page-to-screen adaptations, all springing from Carlo Collodi's 19th-century Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio. That said, even if the list of features about the timber puppet wasn't longer than said critter's nose when he's lying, del Toro would earn the possessory credit anyway. No matter which narrative he's unfurling — including this one about a boy fashioned out of pine (voiced by Gregory Mann, Victoria) by master woodcarver Geppetto (David Bradley, Catherine Called Birdy) after the death of his son — the Mexican Oscar-winner's distinctive fingerprints are always as welcomely apparent as his gothic-loving sensibilities. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. MURU Defiant, powerful and passionate at every turn, Muru depicts a relentless police raid on New Zealand's Rūātoki community. Equally alive with anger, the Aotearoan action-thriller and drama shows law enforcement storming into the district to apprehend what's incorrectly deemed a terrorist cell, but is actually activist and artist Tāme Iti — playing himself — and his fellow Tūhoe people. If October 2007 springs to mind while watching, it's meant to. Written and directed by Poi E: The Story of Our Song and Mt Zion filmmaker Tearepa Kahi, this isn't a mere dramatisation of well-known events, however. There's a reason that Muru begins by stamping its purpose on the screen, and its whole rationale for existing: "this film is not a recreation… it is a response". That the feature's name is also taken from a Māori process of redressing transgressions is both telling and fitting as well. Kahi's film is indeed a reaction, a reply, a counter — and a way of processing past wrongs. In a fashion, it's Sir Isaac Newton's third law of motion turned into cinema, because a spate of instances across New Zealand over a century-plus has sparked this on-screen answer. Muru's script draws from 15 years back; also from the police shooting of Steven Wallace in Waitara in 2000 before that; and from the arrest of Rua Kēnana in Maungapōhatu even further ago, in 1916. While the movie finds inspiration in the screenplay Toa by Jason Nathan beyond those real-life events, it's always in dialogue with things that truly happened, and not just once, and not only recently. If every action causes an opposite reaction, Muru is Kahi's way of sifting through, rallying against and fighting back after too many occasions where the long arm of the NZ law, and of colonialism, has overreached. Muru is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT War makes meat, disposable labour and easy sacrifices of us all. In battles for power, as they always are, bodies are used to take territory, threaten enemies and shed blood to legitimise a cause. On the ground, whether in muddy trenches or streaming across mine-strewn fields, war sees the masses rather than the individuals, too — but All Quiet on the Western Front has always been a heartbreaking retort to and clear-eyed reality check for that horrific truth. Penned in 1928 by German World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque, initially adapted for the screen by Hollywood in 1930 and then turned into a US TV movie in 1979, the staunchly anti-war story now gets its first adaptation in its native tongue. Combat's agonies echo no matter the language giving them voice, but Edward Berger's new film is a stunning, gripping and moving piece of cinema. Helming and scripting — the latter with feature first-timers Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell — All My Loving director Berger starts All Quiet on the Western Front with a remarkable sequence. The film will come to settle on 17-year-old Paul Bäumer (astonishing debutant Felix Kammerer) and his ordeal after naively enlisting in 1917, thinking with his mates that they'd be marching on Paris within weeks, but it begins with a different young soldier, Heinrich Gerber (Jakob Schmidt, Babylon Berlin), in the eponymous region. He's thrust into the action in no man's land and the inevitable happens. Then, stained with blood and pierced by bullets, his uniform is stripped from his body, sent to a military laundry, mended and passed on. The recipient: the eager Paul, who notices the past wearer's name on the label and buys the excuse that it just didn't fit him. No one dares waste a scrap of clothing — only the flesh that dons it, and the existences its owners don't want to lose. All Quiet on the Western Front is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. HALLOWEEN ENDS Whenever a kitchen knife gleams, a warped mask slips over a killer's face or a piano score tinkles in a horror movie — whenever a jack-o'-lantern burns bright, a babysitter is alone in someone else's home with only kids for company or October 31 hits, too — one film comes to mind. It has for four-plus decades now and always will, because Halloween's influence over an entire genre, slasher flicks within it and final girls filling such frames is that immense. That seminal first altercation between then 17-year-old Laurie Strode and psychiatric institution escapee Michael Myers, as brought to the screen so unnervingly by now-legendary director John Carpenter, also valued a concept that couldn't be more pivotal, however. Halloween was never just a movie about an unhinged murderer in stolen mechanic's overalls stalking Haddonfield, Illinois when most of the town was trick-or-treating. In Laurie's determination to survive Michael's relentless stabbing, it was a film about trauma and fighting back. As played by Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once) for 44 years — her big-screen debut made her an OG scream queen, and she's returned six times since, including now in Halloween Ends — Laurie has never been anyone's mere victim. In the choose-your-own-adventure antics that've filled the franchise's ever-branching narrative over 13 entries, her tale has twisted and turned. The saga's has in general, including chapters sans Laurie and Michael, films that've killed one or both off, and remakes. But mustering up the strength to persist, refusing to let Michael win and attacking back has remained a constant of Laurie's story. That's all kept pushing to the fore in the current trilogy within the series, which started with 2018's Halloween, continued with 2021's Halloween Kills and now wraps up with an instalment that flashes its finality in its moniker. Laurie keeps fighting, no matter the odds, because that's coping with trauma. This time, though, is a weary Haddonfield ready to battle with her? Halloween Ends is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. VIOLENT NIGHT When it comes to originality, place Violent Night on cinema's naughty list: Die Hard meets Home Alone meets Bad Santa meets The Christmas Chronicles in this grab-bag action-comedy, meets Stranger Things favourite David Harbour donning the red suit (leather here, still fur-trimmed) and doing a John Wick impression. The film's beer-swigging, sledgehammer-swinging version of Saint Nick has a magic sack that contains the right presents for the right person each time he reaches into it, and screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller must've felt that way themselves while piecing together their script. Pilfering from the festive canon, and from celluloid history in general, happens heartily and often in this Yuletide effort. Co-scribes on Sonic the Hedgehog and its sequel, the pair are clearly experienced in the movie version of regifting. And while they haven't solely wrapped up lumps of coal in their latest effort, Violent Night's true presents are few and far between. The main gift, in the gruff-but-charming mode that's worked such a treat on Stranger Things and in Black Widow, is Harbour. It's easy to see how Violent Night's formula — not to mention its raiding of the Christmas and action genres for parts — got the tick of approval with his casting. He's visibly having a blast, too, from the moment his version of Santa is introduced downing drinks in a British bar, bellyaching about the lack of festive spirit in kids today, thinking about packing it all in and then spewing actual vomit to go with his apathy (and urine) from the side of his midair sleigh. Whenever Harbour isn't in the frame, which occurs more often than it should, Violent Night is a far worse picture. When you're shopping for the season, you have to commit to your present purchases, but this film can't always decide if it wants to be salty or sweet. Violent Night is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. MONA LISA AND THE BLOOD MOON When Ana Lily Amirpour made her spectacular feature filmmaking debut in 2014, and made one of the best movies of that year in the process, she did so with a flick with a killer title: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. That moniker also summed up the picture's plot perfectly, even if the Persian-language horror western vampire film couldn't be easily categorised. Take note of that seven-word name, and that genre-bending approach. When Amirpour next made wrote and directed The Bad Batch, the 2016 dystopian cannibal romance started with a woman meandering solo, albeit in the Texan desert in daylight, and also heartily embraced a throw-it-all-in philosophy. Now arrives her third stint behind the lens, the hyper-saturated, gleefully sleazy, New Orleans-set blend of superheroes, scams and strippers that is Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon — which, yes, features a female protagonist (Jeon Jong-seo, Burning) strolling unescorted again, back under the cover of darkness this time. Mona initially walks out of a home instead of towards one, however. And Amirpour isn't really repeating herself; rather, she has a penchant for stories about the exploited fighting back. Here, Mona has been stuck in an institution for "mentally insane adolescents" for at least a decade — longer than its receptionist (Rosha Washington, Interview with the Vampire) can remember — and breaks out during the titular lunar event after gruesomely tussling with an uncaring nurse (Lauren Bowles, How to Get Away with Murder). The Big Easy's nocturnal chaos then awaits, and Bourbon Street's specifically, as does instantly intrigued drug dealer Fuzz (Ed Skrein, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) and a determined but decent cop (Craig Robinson, Killing It). With opportunistic pole-dancer Bonnie Belle (Kate Hudson, Music), Mona thinks she finds an ally. With her new pal's kind-hearted latchkey kid Charlie (Evan Whitten, Words on Bathroom Walls), she finds a genuine friend as well. Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Looking for more at-home viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and our best new films, new TV shows, returning TV shows and straight-to-streaming movies, plus movies you might've missed and television standouts of 2022 you mightn't have gotten to.
This article is sponsored by our partner lastminute.com.au. You've seen the big ball drop in Times Square on the telly every New Year's Eve. Cue the snow, earmuffs and shots of rosy-nosed couples pashing as the clock strikes midnight, a stark contrast to our summery celebrations. If you and your mate/significant other have ever dreamt of experiencing NYE in NYC style but can't seem to scrape up enough cash to make it a reality, this could be your chance. lastminute.com.au is giving away an awesome prize package to two lucky people for an adventure in the Concrete Jungle this December. The package includes two return tickets to New York City, four nights' accommodation in midtown Manhattan's Affinia 50 hotel, two tickets to an NYE celebration in Times Square, and an elite styling session and $1000 wardrobe, courtesy of THE ICONIC. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to us. So enter now to win NYE in NYC and share the hell out of it on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, because every friend referral earns you another entry to boost your chances of winning. Now is the time to be that annoying friend who is incessantly posting about competitions. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rxO05nQXFY8
Here's a scary statistic: in Australia alone, three million coffee pods go into the bin daily. Over eight days, that's enough trash to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Wish your caffeine habit weren't such a messy strain on the planet? We'd like you to meet Tripod Coffee's brand new coffee capsule. Not only biodegradable, these coffee pods are certified compostable, too. Plus, they fit into your Nespresso machine (or the like). After making yourself a brew, simply toss the pod into your green bin, and it'll break down within 90 days at a commercial composting facility — this handy diagram shows how the pod's transformation rate compares to traditional coffee pods. "Traditional capsules are aluminium or plastic with foil lids, but ours are a compostable biopolymer, with a paper lid," says Ed Cowan, who co-founded Tripod with fellow cricket star Steve Cazzulino while in between matches. For the unacquainted, biopolymer is a macromolecule (like protein) that grows inside a living organism. It comes from the Earth, so it's happy to make its return, without leaving a trace behind. That's why Tripod's capsules are different to most others. Sure, there are plenty of other biodegradable pods around, but most of them aren't compostable. "Every compostable capsule by definition is biodegradable," says Cowan. "But not every biodegradable capsule is compostable." The first of Tripod's coffees in the new capsules is The Green Gatsby, a 100% certified organic coffee from Papua New Guinea, and over the next few months, the brand's six other signature blends will follow suit. Find these mean green waste-fighting machines online here. Learn more about Tripod Coffee on their website.
Adapting Mark Haddon's Whitbread-winning novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has finished chewing up Broadway and the West End, and is now on its way to Sydney. When Christopher Boone discovers the corpse of his neighbour's dog, he immediately becomes a suspect and sets out to clear his name. But while he sees himself as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, everyone else sees an autistic teenager asking awkward questions. Regardless, the question remains: who stabbed Mrs. Shears' poodle with a pitchfork? Haddon describes the book as "peculiarly internal", in that its protagonist struggles more than most to escape the bounds of his own head. Playwright Simon Stephens and the UK's National Theatre have made the most of this by having the audience see the world as Christopher does. A set consisting of a black grid and myriad projections evokes physical locations, as well as the ordered and fiercely logical flow of Christopher's cognitive process. A Holmesian whodunnit as investigated by an Adrian Mole-esque outsider, The Curious Incident is both a celebration of difference and a decent argument against offing yappy pooches with gardening implements.
Anyone afraid that the team at Pixar may have lost their edge can officially put those concerns to rest. After an uncharacteristic run of (relative) disappointments in the form of Cars 2, Brave and Monsters University, their most recent effort, Inside Out, signals a stunning return to form. With a wonderfully inventive premise supported by a cerebral sense of humour along with vibrant animation and a bucketload of pathos, this isn’t just one of Pixar’s best films of the past few years, but one of their best films full stop. And yes, it is going to make you cry. Co-written and directed by Pixar regular Pete Docter, who previously manned the ship on both Monsters Inc and Up, Inside Out takes place inside the brain of 11-year-old Riley, home to Joy, Fear, Disgust, Anger and Sadness. Voiced by Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Lewis Black and MVP Phyllis Smith, respectively, the mismatched group are in control of Riley’s mood and take care of her core memories — memories which in turn create the basis for her personality. But things get more complicated when Riley’s family decide to move to San Francisco, a change that neither Riley nor her emotions quite know how to handle. Aesthetically speaking, it should almost go without saying that Inside Out is astounding. The fantastical setting gives the animators full license to unleash their imaginations, an opportunity they obviously relish. The world of Riley’s brain is one of life and vivid colour, a cartoon fairyland that you’ll never want to leave. Each of her five emotions boasts its own unique and expressive design, while the voice cast is terrific across the board. Of course it helps that both cast and production team are working with one of Pixar’s best ever scripts, one that’s not only highly original but very, very funny. There’s tons of straightforward physical humour for the kids, but the true gems of Docter’s screenplay are the jokes about the mind itself. After Joy and Sadness are inadvertently transported to the outer recesses of Riley’s brain, the return journey takes them through such territories as Imagination Land and Long Term Memory, as well as the Hollywood-style studio responsible for producing Riley’s dreams. A trip through Abstract Thinking will fly straight over a six-year-old’s head, but anyone who’s ever taken an Introduction to Psychology class will be rolling in the aisles. But the most incredible thing about Inside Out is how it deals with sadness. Plenty of Pixar movies have the capacity to make people cry, but Inside Out is about why we cry. While Joy spends a majority of the film trying to stop Sadness from affecting how Riley feels, the reality is that sometimes Sadness is the most important emotion of all. Without her, and the catharsis that she provides, how does anyone learn to cope with pain or loss? Sometimes there’s nothing better than a good cry. That’s an incredibly important lesson, and not just for the kids.
In the Greater Sydney region, the past few days have seen health alerts issued, mask mandates reinstated and restrictions reimplemented, all in response to the city's two recent locally acquired COVID-19 cases. A growing number of venues have also been identified as COVID-19 exposure sites this week — with folks who visited them required to take a range of actions, usually involving getting tested and self-isolating. Eight places were initially highlighted on Wednesday, with others added since. Thankfully, no new cases were identified overnight — in the 24 hours up until 8pm on Thursday, May 6, as reported by NSW Health today — but the list of spots to note includes venues everywhere from the CBD, Paddington and Haymarket to Bondi Beach and Bondi Junction. In terms of dates, it also covers visits between Tuesday, April 27–Tuesday, May 4. A few big ones to note from the now 23-location rundown: Fratelli Fresh in Westfield Sydney from 1.15–2.15pm on Tuesday, April 27, Barbetta from 1.30–2.30pm on Friday, April 30, District Brasserie between 11am–12pm the same day, and Woolworths Double Bay from 4.05–4.15pm on Tuesday, May 4. [caption id="attachment_629203" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] District Brasserie[/caption] If you're wondering what actions you need to take, and which venues are highlighted at the time of writing, check out the full list of places, dates and times below: MONITOR FOR SYMPTOMS The Meat Store, Bondi Junction — 3–4pm, Sunday, May 2 GET TESTED AND SELF-ISOLATE UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A NEGATIVE RESULT Fratelli Fresh, Westfield Sydney — 1.15–2.15pm, Tuesday, April 27 XOPP, Haymarket — 1.30–2.30pm, Wednesday, April 28 Bondi Trattoria, Bondi Beach — 12.45–1.30pm, Thursday, April 29 Joe's Barbeques & Heating, Silverwater — 1.30–2.30pm, Saturday, May 1 Tucker Barbecues, Silverwater — 1.30–2.30pm, Saturday, May 1 Barbeques Galore Annandale — 2–3pm, Saturday, May 1 Barbeques Galore, Casula — 3.35–4.05pm, Saturday, May 1 BP Runway, Mascot — 4.30–5pm, Saturday, May 1 Azure Cafe, Moore Park — 12.30–1pm, Monday, May 3 Chemist Warehouse, Double Bay — 3.45–4pm, Tuesday, May 4 Woolworths, Double Bay — 4.05–4.15pm, Tuesday, May 4 GET TESTED AND SELF-ISOLATE UNTIL NSW HEALTH PROVIDES FURTHER INFORMATION The Stadium Club, Moore Park — 11.30am–12.30pm, Monday, May 3 Rug Cleaning Repairs Hand Rug Wash Sydney, Brookvale — 12.30–1pm, Tuesday, May 4 Smith Made, Balgowlah — 2.30–2.45pm, Tuesday, May 4 GET TESTED AND SELF-ISOLATE FOR 14 DAYS District Brasserie, Sydney — 11am–12pm, Friday, April 30 Hine Sight Optometrist, Sydney — 12–1pm, Friday, April 30 Barbetta, Paddington — 1.30–2.30pm, Friday, April 30 Screening of The Courier at Event Cinemas, Bondi Junction — 6–8pm, Friday, April 30 Figo Restaurant, Rushcutters Bay — 8.45–11pm, Friday, April 30 The Royal Sydney Golf Club, Rose Bay — 5.30–9pm, Monday, May 3 Alfresco Emporium Shop, Collaroy — 1–1.30pm, Tuesday, May 4 Alfresco Emporium Cafe, Collaroy — 1.30–2pm, Tuesday, May 4 As it has throughout the pandemic, NSW Health is maintaining an ongoing register of locations that have been visited by positive COVID-19 cases — you can check out the entire list on its website. And, if you need a reminder, the symptoms to look out for are coughs, fever, sore or scratchy throat, shortness of breath, or loss of smell or taste. You can find a rundown of testing clinic locations online as well. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website. Top image: Barbetta, Paddington by Nikki To.
The pursuit of the American Dream at any cost has long been a fertile device for screenwriters. Just recently, both American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street showcased the extraordinary true stories of money-hungry shysters determined to rise above their humble or inauspicious beginnings, no matter the consequences. Similarly, Margin Call and The Big Short offered portraits of success attained by comparably distasteful (if rather more legitimate) means. In the context of these films, Gold, by writer-director Stephen Gaghan falls somewhere in between. Based on the real life events of the 1990s Bre-X Minerals fiasco, the film chronicles the rise and fall of a simple American prospector turned overnight millionaire named Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey). Balding, overweight and down to his last dime, Kenny's a third generation mining prospector staving off foreclosure of his family business, a predicament that renders him more than willing to embrace all that wealth and power can provide once they're suddenly within his grasp. Where the film departs from the norm, at least notionally, is that Kenny always maintains that his drive and determination is grounded in the discovery of gold, not the money that it provides. Gold hence finds itself in the peculiar position of framing the story as one of 'us versus them' in which both the us (simple prospectors) and them (hedge fund managers and mining companies) are ludicrously wealthy. Money itself is not the point of distinction but rather how that money was acquired: 'dirt in the nails grit' versus 'manhattan investment', so to speak. McConaughey delivers a committed and captivating performance; one for which he gained a full 18kgs to ensure his sizeable beer gut required neither special effects nor prosthetics. Gripped by a fever determined to kill him, and grappling with a Hail Mary mining prospect in the jungles of Indonesia that refuses to yield even a hint of gilded hope, McConaughey's performance oozes doggedness and desperation in equal measures. Opposite him, Édgar Ramírez puts in a far more reserved turn as Wells' geologist and business partner Michael Acosta. Together they make a likeable duo, and it's a crying shame how little of the film Ramírez actually occupies. Unfortunately, despite the fine work of the cast, Gold feels like a story unsure of how best to be told, flicking between Scorsese-esque drama and quirky irreverence. None of the characters feel entirely fleshed out, and are instead presented more like passengers on a plot line that prioritises events over individuals. The movie's eventual 'twist', meanwhile, is legitimately surprising to those unfamiliar with the Bre-X story, however its reveal so close to the end renders the remaining few minutes far too rushed to sufficiently deal with its impact and implications. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdLXPv5NsA4
