Spraying reboots, remakes, sequels and prequels across cinema screens like a spirit supposedly sprays ectoplasm — gushing reimaginings, spinoffs and seemingly never-ending franchises, too — Hollywood ain't afraid of no ghosts. It loves them in horror movies, obviously, but it adores the spectre of popular intellectual property even more. These phantoms of hits gone by can be resurrected again and again, all to make a profit. They haunt both cinemas and box-office blockbuster lists, making film-goers and the industry itself constantly feel like they're being spooked by the past. With 14 of Australia's 15 top cash-earning flicks of 2021 all falling into the been-there-done-that category in one way or another, looking backwards in the name of apparently going forwards is now mainstream filmmaking 101, and the big end of town rarely likes bustin' a money-making formula. After more than a few pandemic delays, that's the world that Ghostbusters: Afterlife floats into — a world that's made worshipping previous glories one of the biggest cash-spinners show business could've ever dreamed up. The fourth feature to bear the Ghostbusters name, but a new legacy sequel to the original 1984 film, this reanimated franchise entry certainly sports a fitting subtitle; treating its source material like it's nirvana is firmly filmmaker Jason Reitman's approach. To him, it might've been. Although he established his career with indie comedies such as Thank You for Smoking and Juno, he's the son of director Ivan Reitman, who helmed the OG Ghostbusters and its 1989 follow-up Ghostbusters II. To plenty of fans, those two initial comedy-horror flicks were something special as well; however, acknowledging that fact — and trying to recreate the feeling of being a kid or teen watching the first Ghostbusters nearly four decades ago — isn't enough to fuel a new film. To be fair, the younger Reitman isn't particularly interested in making a new movie; Be Kind Rewind's "sweded" Ghostbusters clips are more original than Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Instead, he directs a homage that sprinkles in links to its predecessor so heartily that it's probably easier to name the scenes and details that don't scream "hey, this is Ghostbusters!" as loudly as possible. And, even when Reitman and co-screenwriter Gil Kenan (Poltergeist) appear to shake things up ever so slightly, it all still ties back to that kid-in-the-80s sensation. Sure, Ghostbusters: Afterlife's protagonists aren't adult New Yorkers, but they're small-town adolescents who might as well have ambled out of one of the era's other hot properties: Steven Spielberg-helmed or -produced coming-of-age adventure-comedies about life-changing, Americana-dripping, personality-shaping escapades. Phoebe (Mckenna Grace, Malignant) is one such child, and a new inhabitant of the cringingly titled Summerville, Oklahoma at that. With her mother Callie (Carrie Coon, The Nest) and brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard, The Goldfinch), she's made the move because the granddad she never knew just passed away, leaving a dilapidated rural property to his estranged family. The townsfolk speak his nickname, "dirt farmer", with mocking and intrigue, but his actual moniker — and all that equipment he's left behind — brings big changes Phoebe's way. While being Dr Egon Spengler's granddaughter doesn't initially mean too much to her, other than giving her love for science a genetic basis, she's soon segueing from testing out ghost traps with local teacher Mr Grooberson (Paul Rudd, The Shrink Next Door) to cracking Egon's secret efforts to stop a world-shattering supernatural event. Who ya gonna call? Reitman and Kenan's teen fantasies, presumably. The pair haven't taxed themselves with their screenplay, which reads like backyard cosplay. That said, when they're not getting characters to utter the obvious — including "who ya gonna call?", of course — or trotting out mini marshmallow men for no good narrative reason, Reitman and Kenan do expend ample energy differentiating Ghostbusters: Afterlife from 2016's Ghostbusters. Wrongly maligned by manchildren who claimed that women bustin' ghosts somehow ruined their childhoods despite the fact they're now ostensibly grown, the latter is a comic gem that's far nearer in tone to the 1984 flick than this new nostalgia dump. But the female-fronted film didn't linger on every Ghostbusters nod it could shoehorn in every 30 seconds or so, and definitely didn't regard all those winks as the sole reason it existed, so Ghostbusters: Afterlife is here to redress that (and, continuity-wise, to flat-out ignore that the last movie was ever made). It seems that Hollywood does want to blast away some spirits after all: the remnants of prior franchise entries that didn't thrill their diehard fans. There's no point asking if this is what blockbuster filmmaking is now, because we've all seen the proof countless times — but even Spider-Man: No Way Home's theme park-esque references to past web-slinging iterations still recognised the movies that weren't universally loved. The Matrix Resurrections plugged into its chequered history even deeper, defiantly making its two worst predecessors indispensable to the latest movie. But Ghostbusters: Afterlife doesn't dare challenge, surprise, or do anything other than pander to and try to evoke claps and cheers from viewers easily pleased by loving what they've always loved. Bringing back familiar faces, blatantly ripping off the original Ghostbusters' ending, tastelessly resurrecting (via CGI) the late Harold Ramis as Egon: there is no inspiration here, only bland, tedious, sentiment-coddling cinematic gruel. If only Reitman approached Ghostbusters: Afterlife less like inevitably inheriting the family business, and more like the smart, sharp and very funny comedies already on his resume. If only he'd brought over just a single proton-pack blast of Young Adult and Tully's disdain for idolising the past. If only he'd given the engaging Grace something more to do than act out his own path — learning to follow in her grandfather's footsteps, just as Reitman does with his dad. There's more where these laments came from, too. If only there really was something strange, unusual, wacky and silly in this movie's neighbourhood, other than Rudd never ageing. If only Ghostbusters: Afterlife wasn't just empty and easy fan service: the movie. If only it wasn't bloated, shot like a parody of an 80s all-ages adventure, far too influenced by Wolfhard's Stranger Things, wasteful of its cast, and determined to remind its audience over and over that better Ghostbusters films exist. This fourquel only has eyes for one movie, it ain't afraid to show it, and it isn't itself — and that's what it leaves you wishing you'd watched again instead.
Alexandros Kouris speaks a lot about alchemy. As the owner and founder of the Nissos Brewery on the island of Tinos, he’s not just talking about the rich golden colour of his beer; he’s talking about what makes a craft beer great. “I can’t explain it chemically to you, but there’s an alchemy,” Kouris laughs. “Happy people make good beer.” Nissos Pilsner has made it to the Australian craft beer market all the way from the sunshine and aquamarine seas of the Greek island of Tinos, 6 nautical miles from Mykonos. It’s a beer craft drinkers will be drawn to not just for its unique taste (a citrusy, refreshing and full-bodied pilsner) but as a winsome example of the craft beer ethos. Nissos beer is brewed and bottled in small quantities by 15 local Tinos islanders, using purely natural, traditional and slow brewing processes, as well as Greek ingredients. For Kouris, this local authenticity is very much the appeal, and why he believes the resurgence of craft beers is well deserved. “I’m a great believer that food and drink should be — it’s not the product, it’s not the commercial product — it’s part of our culture,” says Kouris. “So if I take from your hands the production of food and drink I take part of your identity ... I come here with my beers and taste yours and I take back yours, this is beautiful, this is human. And this is human skill and it keeps the world alive.” Kouris entered the world of craft beer following the Global Financial Crisis, when he decided to sell off what companies he had. He says that while everyone in Greece was afraid and taking money out of the country, he wanted to do the opposite. “I loved beer. I followed the craft beer movement all around the world," he says. "I love the Cycladic island of Tinos and I said, putting the two together that could create a very good business, one that will make me happy and one that will, I hope, inspire people in Greece.” It seems his gamble has paid off. Last year the small brewery came away with silver in the Pilsner category at the European Beer Competition (which Kouris describes as the “Oscars” of beer competitions) against 1613 other international beers. Impressive, given the brewery was only 17 months old and produces only one beer, but hardly surprising for a pilsner whose herbal and citrus aroma and crispness tastes like a liquid advertising campaign for life on a Greek isle. This year, the taste and story of the beer has been discovered by Nick Manettas (of Nick’s Seafood Restaurant), who has embarked on a successful campaign to bring Nissos to the Australian market and into your craft beer-ready glass. “It’s very distinct, it’s very full-bodied as a pilsner and apparently it’s very good, people love it,” smiles Kouris. “And you know, this is alchemy.” You can find Nissos on exclusive release to all of the Nick’s Restaurant and Bar Group venues before it begins wider distribution to a pub near you over the next year. So keep your eyes on your craft beers and a Greek island shanty in your heart.
Catch Left, winner of the 2014 Melbourne Fringe Festival’s People’s Choice Award, while it’s right here in Sydney. An hour-long spectacle of physical theatre performed by seven acrobats, it explores the joy of building human relationships and community, and the experiences of loss, grief and recovery. This is a heart-warming show by Australian circus company Long Answers to Simple Questions.
As the drummer for Nirvana and the frontman for Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl doesn't have many mixed bags on his resume. The music superstar has been in the spotlight for three-plus decades now, and boasts success after success to his name, complete with a list of awards and hits bound to make almost everyone else in the industry envious. But all their lives, Grohl and his fellow Foos must've dreamt of being horror movie stars — and the result, the pandemic-shot Studio 666, shouldn't entice any of them to quit their day jobs. A haunted-house horror-comedy, this rockstar lark is gonzo, gory and extremely goofy. It's a clear bit of fun for everyone involved, and it's made with overflowing love for the genre it slips into and parodies. But it's an indulgent and stretched exercise in famous folks following their whims at times like these, too. Achievement unlocked: there's Grohl's mixed bag. Studio 666's setup revolves around Grohl, drummer Taylor Hawkins, guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear, bassist Nate Mendel and keyboardist Rami Jaffee packing their bags for a live-in recording session at an Encino mansion. As the movie's 1993-set prologue shows, their temporary new home has a dark past, after the last group that inhabited the spot met bloody ends; however, ignorance is bliss for the Foo Fighters. Actually, an obligation to deliver their tenth album to their overbearing manager (Jeff Garlin, Curb Your Enthusiasm) inspires the move, as does the band's creative lull in conjuring up the record otherwise. Grohl instantly falls for the sound of the space as well, to an unhinged degree, and his bandmates begrudgingly agree to the month-long stay to make musical magic happen. Recording an album doesn't usually spark The Evil Dead-style murderous mayhem, cursed book and all, but that's Studio 666's gambit. Its Californian abode isn't just stalked by a grisly ghoul with a love of gut-rumbling tracks — it possesses Grohl with the need to craft a killer song, length be damned, and with satanic bloodlust, cannibal cravings and prima-donna rocker behaviour. Is he monstrous about doing whatever it takes to get the tune because he's bedevilled by the house's resident evil, he's on a power trip or both? That's one of the film's big gags, and also a hefty splatter of the kind of sense of humour it's working with. Winking, nudging, satirising, and sending up fame, egos and the all-devouring nature of entertainment stardom: they're all on the movie's menu, alongside as much gleefully cheap-looking viscera as any feature can manage to splash around. Amid the deaths by cymbal, barbecued faces and projectile-vomited guts — no, what's left of the Foos at the film's end won't be getting their bond back — there's zero doubt that Grohl and company are enjoying themselves. Actors, they aren't, but playfulness has always been part of Foo Fighters' mood. When the band began in 1994, initially as a one-man project by Grohl after Kurt Cobain's suicide the same year, it was instantly perkier and sillier than Nirvana. For the 'Big Me' music video from the group's self-titled first album, they shot an unforgettable Mentos ad parody in Sydney. With the 'Learn to Fly' clip in 1999, they satirised airline flicks — Airplane!, which was already a send-up, plus disaster fare Airport 1975 and Airport '77 — aided by Tenacious D's Jack Black and Kyle Gass. Getting so delightedly bloody might be new, but refusing to take themselves seriously definitely isn't. Surrounded by Lionel Ritchie cameos and Will Forte's (MacGruber) bit-part as a delivery driver-slash-wannabe muso, all in the house where they did actually record 2021's Medicine at Midnight, the Foos are in on all of the jokes — Grohl goes overboard with his eye acting, Jaffee couldn't be more buzzed to revel in New Age-y stereotypes and Smear is gloriously flippant about sleeping on the kitchen bench — but they also overestimate how entertaining their mucking around is for audiences. The ever-longer it sticks around, the more Studio 666 resembles viewing your mates' holiday videos and hearing them relive their in-gags from that trip you didn't take with them. The Grohl-originated story, as scripted by the Pet Sematary remake and latest American The Grudge flick scribe Jeff Buhler with Rebecca Hughes, a veteran of mid-00s sitcom Cracking Up, has more to it than a mere clip for a Foo Fighters song could sustain. There isn't enough for Hatchet III and Slayer music video director BJ McDonnell's 107-minute movie, though. Splitting the difference, a tight half-hour short like the Beastie Boys' 2011 Fight for Your Right Revisited might've hit the mark perfectly, but then no one could've sold cinema tickets. Studio 666 is a tad haunted by those other alliterative American music icons given that the Beastie Boys made ridiculously parodying movie genres an art in their clips for 'Sabotage' — aka the best music video ever made — and 'Body Movin'. This Foos' effort strives for the same vibe, but more is less here. There's a bit of A Hard Days Night to Studio 666, too. Obviously, The Beatles-starring 1964 film doesn't care too much for horror, or at all, but the two movies share a days-in-a-life angle that peers beyond the facade of fame. That's a nice piece of music synergy, in fact, given that Grohl was part of a makeshift band tasked with playing the British group's songs for the Backbeat soundtrack back in 1994, the same year Foo Fighters was born. Not just due to Grohl's flannelette-heavy wardrobe, the Nirvana of it all proves a monkey wrench for Studio 666. In coming up with a story that includes a hit early-90s band's demise after the suicide of their lead singer, it's impossible not to see Grohl's bad-taste cribbing from his own history — a piece of satire that doesn't land for a second, was never going to and is mind-bogglingly ill thought-out. When the film does work, however, it's a screwy, entrails-strewn jape. When it toys with horror fans' knowledge of the genre by using Halloween-style text with an opening theme to match, then reveals the track to be the product of the iconic John Carpenter (who also cameos on-screen), it's knowing in an ideal way. But, when Jason Trost of the cult-fave The FP franchise shows up briefly, Studio 666 lays bare its own demons. This Foo-driven film wants to be the best of that exact kind of midnight movie, but is really just a cover version.
If seasonal change has left you in a dizzy headspin of new colours and fabrics and prints and jackets — or if, y'know, you just like some fancy new clothes now and then — you'll be pretty pleased to know that the Big Fashion Sale is coming back to Sydney for four days this March. The name pretty much says it all. This thing is big. You'll find thousands of lush items from past collections, samples and one-offs from over 50 cult Australian and international designers, both well-known and emerging, including Opening Ceremony, Isabel Marant, Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim, Lanvin, Karla Spetic, Romance Was Born and more. With discounts of up to 80 percent off, this is one way to up your count of designer while leaving your bank balance sitting pretty too. Prices this low tend to inspire a certain level of ruthlessness in all of us, though, so practise that grabbing reflex in advance. This is every shopper for themselves. The Big Fashion Sale will be open 9am–8pm Thursday, 9am–6pm Friday and Saturday, and 10am–5pm Sunday.
When the 21st Biennale spreads its artistic arsenal across seven venues in Sydney this March, we plan to be ready. 70 artists from across the globe will be exhibiting their eclectic works under the theme of Superposition: Equilibrium & Engagement in celebration of the 45th anniversary of this explosive festival. In partnership with the Biennale of Sydney, we've curated three different itineraries to arm you with everything you need to navigate this vast and varied program. But let's not forget that an inquisitive, creative-focused brain needs nourishment, so we've thrown in the best food and drink joints nearby as well. The artistic use of video is a loose connecting thread on this tour between Haymarket and Eveleigh. From the 4A Centre of Contemporary Asian Art to the expansive space that is Carriageworks, you'll experience different takes on filmmaking from across the globe. You'll also experience a Mary's burger pizza. [caption id="attachment_654207" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Akira Takayama: McDonald's Radio University, 2017. Photograph: Masahiro Hasunuma.[/caption] 4A CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART Renowned Japanese theatre director and actor Akira Takayama has asked the fine folk of Sydney to share a poem or song significant to their family — regardless of their origins — that has been passed down from generation to generation to create a tapestry of oral histories of the city and its people. He has then invited those who submit to perform them for his film that will be shown at 4A throughout the festival. PITSTOP: THE LANSDOWNE Sydney's favourite live music venue lives and is about halfway between 4A and Carriageworks. "Music. Art. Pizza. Party" are the words used to describe the new Lansdowne on their website, so this must be the right stop off for your art-led itinerary. And have you tried their pizza? They have a Mary's burger pizza. Even better, if you're there between 12–3pm these legends offer lunch for just a tenner. CARRIAGEWORKS [caption id="attachment_654213" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Semiconductor: Earthworks, 2016. Photograph: Semiconductor.[/caption] IMMERSIVE ART The former rail yard space of Carriageworks lends well to large-scale installations, so the Biennale crew know to use this wisely and have curated something special with video at the core. Cutting-edge UK artist duo Semiconductor is set to give their take on our fascination with material things and will do so with a large five-channel video work. Also using experimental video, Chinese artist Chen Shaoxiang will work with four channels in his visual exploration of everyday life and Vietnam's Trinh Thi Nguyen will bring her filmmaker skills to a special Carriageworks piece. PITSTOP: CORNERSTONE BAR & FOOD Why exit the Carriageworks building when you can seamlessly sink into one of the couches at the on-site Cornerstone Bar & Food. This warmly lit industrial space is just the come-down you need from a day of such sensory stimulation. In fact, you may just want to come here once a week for their rotating menu of arancini balls. The hungry can tuck into a bowl of teriyaki chicken or Korean barbecue pork, but if you resisted the pizza at The Lansdowne you probably won't be able to avoid the lure of the Turkish pizza with haloumi and caramelised onion. The 21st Biennale of Sydney sets up across the city on March 16 and will run until June 11. Find out more about the program here, and check out our guides from the MCA to Cockatoo Island and the Opera House to Artspace in Woolloomooloo.
Would the latest big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's Firestarter have been better or worse if it had included The Prodigy's hit of the same name, aka the most obvious needle-drop that could've been chosen? Although we'll never know, it's hard to imagine a film with less personality than this page-to-screen remake. Using the 1996 dance-floor filler would've been a choice and a vibe — and a cliched one, whether gleefully or lazily — but it might've been preferable to the dull ashes of by-the-numbers genre filmmaking that's hit screens instead. Zac Efron looking so bored that blood drips from his eyes, dressing up King's 1980 story as a superhero tale (because of course) and having its pyrokinetic protagonist say "liar liar, pants on fire" when she's torching someone aren't a recipe for igniting movie magic, or for even occasionally just lighting a spark. That said, the best thing about Firestarter circa 2022 is actually its 'Firestarter'-free score, and with good reason. It hails from legendary original Halloween director John Carpenter, plus his son Cody Carpenter and regular collaborators Daniel A Davies (all fresh from 2018's Halloween and its follow-up Halloween Kills). It's a savvy touch not merely for the kind of atmospheric, eerie, mood-defining electro-synth sounds that only the elder Carpenter can deliver, but because he was originally slated to direct the first version of Firestarter in 1984, only to be ditched because The Thing — now a stone-cold sci-fi/horror classic — didn't do well enough at the box office. While both features could've desperately used Carpenter behind the lens, at least the initial flick didn't feel like all it was burning was the audience's time and patience. Then, now and in King's book, Firestarter follows the McGee family, whose lives would blaze brighter if they didn't have abilities most folks don't. After volunteering for a clinical trial in college, Andy (Efron, Gold) and his wife Vicky (Sydney Lemmon, Fear the Walking Dead) have telepathic and telekinetic powers; being experimented on with mind-altering chemical compounds will do that. And, from birth, their now 11-year-old daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong, It: Chapter Two) has been able to start fires with her mind. How director Keith Thomas (The Vigil) establishes this backstory says more than it should about the movie, how blandly it turns out and what it might've been with more flair. A flashback to Charlie getting fiery as a baby is laughable, and kindles exactly zero thrills, scares or unease. But, flickering over the opening credits as old video footage, Andy and Vicky's time as test subjects ripples with tension and creepiness — that's swiftly extinguished and never felt again. Unsurprisingly, the McGees have spent years attempting to blend in, hiding their powers and fleeing the shady government department, The Shop, that's responsible for their situation — and now sports a keen interest in using Charlie as a weapon. Alas, as the girl grows, holding her abilities back is becoming harder. Andy and Vicky argue about what's better: training her to suppress the flames or teaching her how to harness them. Then she literally explodes at school, The Shop head honcho Captain Hollister (Gloria Reuben, City on a Hill) puts bounty hunter John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes, Rutherford Falls) on their trail and the heat is on. (No, that track from Beverly Hills Cop, which reached cinemas the same year that the OG Firestarter did, doesn't feature here either.) When a film gets its viewers thinking about the songs that aren't on its soundtrack, and more than once, it's a flaring warning sign. It's a scorching indictment of how uninvolving the new Firestarter is, too. Its predecessor isn't great, only really proving notable for starring a nine-year-old Drew Barrymore, but at least its chase-driven plot was propulsive. Here, Thomas and screenwriter Scott Teems (another Halloween Kills alum) scale back the story to spend half of the picture dwelling in the McGee's incognito existence, barely a few scenes on the run, and then turning in the least climactic finale in The Shop's secret base they possibly could. It all smacks of trying to cash in on King fandom after It and It: Chapter Two's huge success, and also continuing producer Jason Blum's penchant for remaking, reviving or riffing on movies gone by (see also: the Groundhog Day-but-horror Happy Death Day franchise, the latest The Invisible Man, Freaky Friday-but-horror flick Freaky and the past two Halloween films). At least this Firestarter doesn't have a white actor playing its First Nations hitman, although that doesn't mean that Greyeyes — who is so great in streaming sitcom Rutherford Falls — gets anything resembling a fleshed-out part. At least his character isn't written as inappropriately fascinated with Charlie this time, a wholly unpleasant aspect of the original's narrative that's thankfully cut. Asking much of its cast isn't on the new Firestarter's agenda, though. Reuben is cartoonish and saddled with clunky dialogue ("you are a real-life superhero," she somehow spits with a straight face); Kurtwood Smith (The Dropout) goes unhinged with aplomb as the man originally behind the mind-bending drug, but is underused; Armstrong is mostly tasked with scowling a lot. And while that blood oozing from Efron's peepers isn't genuinely caused by his visible lack of interest in his role, and there's a quiet power to his passive performance, it's the most relatable thing in the movie for audiences feeling just as underwhelmed. At least Firestarter 2022 is short, too, clocking in at 20 minutes less than the initial feature; there's a difference between burning fast and dazzling, however. When the psychokinetic pyrotechnics come — less often than you'd think in a film called Firestarter — the movie just looks cheap, the budget seemingly extending to a wind machine, a smoke machine, some shoddy CGI and piles of ashes. Letting King's underlying themes blaze away instead isn't the flick's aim, either. Firestarter is still about the sins of parents playing out through their children, as well as the ills of government wreaking havoc on ordinary families, but only in the broadest and most simplistic of ways. Even the Carpenter score, as welcome and excellent as it is, unintentionally undercuts the film — reminding the audience that the iconic filmmaker did helm a King adaptation once, aka 1983's haunted car flick Christine. Rewatching that is a far better move than seeing this cold Firestarter rehash fail to catch aflame.
The Vanguard, Newtown's much-loved live music venue, is back. It has reopened in its old home, at 42 King Street, replacing Leadbelly, which had occupied the space since 2016. Before that, The Vanguard was in situ for 13 years. The return to roots is the initiative of Arash Nabavi, a Sydney orthopaedic surgeon and first-time venue owner, who bought Leadbelly back in May 2018. Since then, he's been gradually restoring its original identity. "I think, all along, we wanted to reconnect with the heritage of the place — get it back to that classic, grungy, rock dog Sydney feel has faded over the past few years," says Jodi Lewis, content marketing and programs manager at Nathan Farrell Entertainment, which books The Vanguard's live music. Central to the change is a shakeup of the gig program. "It's more contemporary and more streamlined," says Lewis. "There are Triple J acts, but, at the same, we're not straying too far from blues, jazz, country and rock." Coming up in the next month are Melbourne singer Jess Ribiero, Newtown trio Scabz and UK blues singer and guitarist Bex Marshall. A bunch of regular happenings are also on the live music lineup, including blues jams and tributes to classic bands and musicians, such as The Doors and Neil Finn. Over the Christmas break, a revamp brought in whizzbang sound equipment, an enormous green room, a renovated kitchen and new furniture. But the first things you'll thing notice are the dazzling red neon signs at the door and the massive mural by inner qest design studio April77 Creative in the laneway. "The feel is halfway between Leadbelly and the old Vanguard," says Lewis. "It's opulent, with velvet curtains and neon, but fresh and contemporary. I'd describe it as a grungy elegance." [caption id="attachment_598080" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Leadbelly by Steven Woodburn.[/caption] The food and drink offerings have gone up a notch, too. New beer taps pour a variety of local craft drops, with Young Henrys tinnies also available, and the cocktail list features a lineup of modern and inventive drops, including the Power and the Passion (dark rum, peach, blood orange and passionfruit) and the Go with the Sloe (sloe gin, cognac, fresh apple, lemon butter and nutmeg). A new food menu is expected to drop later this month, too. The Vanguard will officially launch on Thursday, January 31. A tiny number of tickets to the opening party will be available to the public via giveaway — keep an eye peeled for details on the venue's Facebook page. Otherwise, you can buy tickets to one of the many gigs, already booked at the venue, which kick off this week. The Vanguard is now open at 42 King Street, Newtown.
You've got to give it to bigotry, sexism and homophobia – they're really hanging on. Despite numerous banana peels (in the form of human empathy) and, you know, facts being thrown in their paths over the years, this hateful trio just keeps on trucking. Well, the Fringe Wives Club isn't having a bar of it. So, its resorted to other measures. This month, the group is on its way to Sydney with an ideological canon that hasn't been fired in a while: disco. In this fiercely funny (and award-winning) cabaret, Laura Frew, Rowena Hudson and Tessa Waters form the Cliterati — the most in-your-face secret society since Da Vinci Code's Opus Dei. Touting original and classic disco hits, Champagne, an array of bedazzled weapons and a goddess-like approach to diplomacy, Glittery Clittery: A Consensual Party challenges humanity's worst tendencies to a winner-takes-all dance-off. Given the Cliterati's moves (not to mention their shoes), smart money says bigotry's walking away from this one in tears. Or, at least, in flares and a hectic V-neck. Glittery Clittery: A Consensual Party will run from Monday, July 8 to Saturday, July 20 (except Sunday, July 14). For more information and to book tickets, visit the Griffin Theatre Company website.
Here's a winter short break to warm the heart and fire up the mind. Less than two hours' drive from Melbourne, Bendigo is one of this country's main hubs of arts and culture outside of the state capitals. Although it might be best known for its mining history, these days this is a town that embraces its arty side, whether it be through galleries, arts precincts, events or craft classes. There's even a tram covered in yarn from top to tail. Winter is the perfect time to get among all of Bendigo's intellectual indoor pursuits — and that cosy tram and a hot drink will aid your admiration of the area's historic exteriors too. So pull on your parka and explore the true wealth that lies in inner Victoria. GALLERIES THAT ENTICE The first stop on any culture-led trip to this area has to be the Bendigo Art Gallery. Established in 1887 and now sporting a highly Insta-worthy Karl Fender-designed extension, the gallery regularly hosts blockbuster touring exhibitions, like the current Australian exclusive, Marimekko: Design Icon 1951 to 2018, on until June 11. After that, it will host Another Day in Paradise, a gripping retrospective of work by Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran. The gallery is part of a cluster of venues making up the View Street Arts Precinct, including the La Trobe Art Institute, so make sure to have a proper poke around the area. From August 10–12, it will be the hub of the annual Bendigo Writers Festival, so particularly lively, with more than 150 writers appearing across 100 events. Another must-do institution is Bendigo Pottery, on the outskirts of town. This is actually Australia's oldest working pottery, and not only is it a stellar place to browse and buy ceramics, it's somewhere where you can get properly hands-on with clay. Casual lessons go for a sweet $18 per half hour, perfect for anyone who's been curious to test their talents at on a potter's wheel. They'll even post your creations to you after they've been fired in the kiln. [caption id="attachment_669916" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] by Elise Gow Photography[/caption] THE COSY OUTDOORS You didn't really think we were going to advocate you stay indoors the whole time, did you? You're on holiday; YOLO and all that. Fortunately, Bendigo knows how to make even outdoor activities in winter conspicuously cosy. A lot of the credit for that belongs with its Yarn Bomb Tram, which runs various routes through town. The olde-worlde no.302 tram has been kitted out by the Bendigo Yarn Bombers — with full permission from Bendigo Trams — for several years running. Festooned inside and out in daygo yarn blankets, bunting and blooms, it's been described by some as looking like a giant tea cosy. And you get to sit inside the tea cosy. What could be more comfortable? Outside of the tram, a wander down the streets and laneways of Bendigo's historic centre is a necessity, as is Rosalind Park behind the Bendigo Art Gallery. Ward off any chill breezes by doing this with a takeaway hot drink in hand — the coconut chai from laneway cafe El Gordo is made for a mission like this. ART ON A PLATE You've seen art. You've made art. You've ridden art. Now it's time to eat some art, at Bendigo's hatted restaurant, Masons of Bendigo. Run by partners in life and cheffing Nick and Sonia Anthony, Masons serves share plates with a near-Heston-level attention to presentation. Their globe-trotting menu varies with the seasons, but in winter you can expect the likes of jicama and shiitake mushroom spring rolls with fermented chilli, banana blossom, and hot and sour sauce and McIvor Farm Foods Berkshire pork belly with apple pudding, morcilla, black garlic, fennel and crackle pinwheel. Don't hesitate to leave yourself in the chefs' hands by getting the mystery 'Roaming Menu' for $65 per person. Pair your feast with a shiraz from nearby organic winery Jasper Hill — an unirrigated, minimal-intervention vineyard that hasn't seen synthetic chemicals or foreign composts since pre-1975. To try the region's finest beef (and it really is fine around here), there's no destination better than The Woodhouse. The fireplace-warmed restaurant cooks its dishes on a redgum chargrill, which imparts a deep, smokey flavour on cuts like an on-the-bone Porterhouse from Cohuna Wagyu and 28-day Inglewood dry-aged eye fillet from Kiabella Farm. The sides are lush, too. HERITAGE BUILDINGS TO WARM THE HEART It's not just the Bendigo town centre that's steeped in history — the nearby towns hide heritage buildings that are still being put to brilliant use. Start in Maryborough with a visit to the grand train station — which these days serves as the 60-seat Railway cafe, bar and art gallery — before heading on to Castlemaine. There, take a wander through The Mill, the site of an 1875 wool mill whose factories have been adapted into a hub for coffee makers, brewers, food producers and artisans. Look out for Libre Hem's epic mural, honouring the workers who once spun wool here with their hands. In nearby Ravenswood, retire for wine tasting at Killiecrankie Wines' perfectly cosy cellar door, set in an 1880s red-brick workers cottage with two cranking fireplaces. Then, back in Bendigo proper, Wine Bank on View is your ticket for a trip back in time. The 1876 building was once the city's main bank, but it's now the ultimate spot to savour a wine and cheese in stately, fire-lit surrounds. PEACEFUL SLEEPS TO RECHARGE THE MIND To percolate on all the sights and ideas you've absorbed in a day in Bendigo, you'll need a proper country manor to lay your head. The best option, if you've got enough friends to fill it, is All Saints Bendigo, an 1887 red-brick home right on View Street across from the Bendigo Art Gallery. The five-bedroom property boasts four-poster beds, Wi-Fi throughout, a pool table — all the creature comforts. If you've got a car and are happy to stay out of town, consider The Stables at Byronsvale. The 160-acre farmland boasts three self-contained apartments with one or two bedrooms, overlooking some of Bendigo's earliest vineyards. This was built as a weekend home for one of Bendigo's first mayors, so you know you're in illustrious company. Meanwhile, if it's just you and your boo, and you want the comfort of a hotel in the centre of town, the Quest Schaller Hotel is for you. New and slick, it wears its art on its sleeve, with 120 rooms inspired by the vibrant paintings of Mark Schaller. To plan your winter adventure in Bendigo and the surrounding areas, visit the Wander Victoria website.
Last month, Maurice Terzini's newest bar Bonnie's Food + Wine opened inside Bondi Beach Public Bar. Now, Sydney has scored yet another buzz-worthy venue-within-a-venue. This one sees the the team behind famed Newtown burger joint Mary's — Jake Smyth and Kenny Graham — trying their hand at another modern American favourite, launching Mary's Pizzeria within their Chippendale live music haunt, The Lansdowne Hotel. Opening Thursday, October 18, the mini-venue will take up an intimate 12-seat dining space, with room for a few extra perched by the kitchen, dishing up the sort of pizza that's destined to become your latest and greatest guilty pleasure. Matched, of course, with some natural wines or local craft brews. Here, the guys, along with Mary's Executive Chef Jimmy Garside, are riffing off their two favourite pizza styles: the New York slice and Detroit's square pizzas. They're rocking cheesy crusts and cheeky names, crafted with top-notch Aussie and Italian ingredients on 72-hour fermented dough. Expect the likes of the Hot Hot Heat, with 'nduja, buffalo mozzarella and Sicilian olives, or the square-style Smokey F***er, loaded with rosemary, smoked potato, roast garlic and a whole lotta cheese. "The interplay of childhood nostalgia mixed with current day disappointments has made us want to create a pizza menu we actually want to eat," explained Graham. Like its Newtown sibling, Mary's Pizzeria will also have its own line of merchandise, which will be available soon at the pizzeria. Mary's Pizzeria will open at The Lansdowne Hotel , 2–6 City Road, Chippendale, from Thursday, October 18. It's open from 4pm–2am Monday–Thursday and from noon–2am Friday–Sunday and bookings can be made by calling 0434 816 430.
Dappled Cities have made an electrifying return to the Australian music scene with their highly anticipated fourth record, Lake Air. The Sydney outfit are now into their 15th year as a band, and compared to their previous record — the critically acclaimed Zounds (2009) — they have this time travelled down a new avenue of sound. Their new material is drenched with disco-flavoured hooks and bold, euphoric melodies. And so, with a new album comes a brand new live show. To celebrate the release of Lake Air, the five-piece will be embarking on their first national headline tour in over two years, kicking off in Darwin and visiting all corners of the country. They'll be playing in Sydney with European electro-pop artist Jape at the Metro Theatre. https://youtube.com/watch?v=dCnnWlFfYn0
If you've been struggling to live in the teenies because you're musically and spiritually stuck in the noughties, we have some news that's going to bring you bolting straight into the present. Ministry of Sound has just announced a super-niche tour. From mid-November, they'll be paying visits to Australia's capital cities to perform, get this, their greatest clubbing moments from The Annual 2001-2004. And that'll be all, folks. Leading the lineup will be OGs John Course and Mark Dynamix, who, between them, have placed millions of CDs in club-loving hands and ears over the past couple of decades. They're the mighty duo behind Ministry of Sound's annual compilations, on which you probably first heard Roger Sanchez, Basement Jaxx, Tim Deluxe, Cassius and Groove Armada. To each gig, Course and Dynamix will be inviting a bunch of cracking support artists. Sydneysiders will be treated to an extra-special tribute to early noughties break beat at a Clubber's Guide to Breaks Room. You can count on appearances by the UK's Plump DJs, as well as by homegrown breaks guru Kid Kenobi. MINISTRY OF SOUND 2001-2004 REUNION TOUR November 18 — The Prince, Melbourne December 16 — The Metro, Sydney December 20 — HQ, Adelaide January 13 — Discovery, Darwin January 15 — Matisse Beach Club, Perth January 21 — The Met, Brisbane In the meantime, to get yourself in the mood, have a listen to this dedicated Reunion Tour play list on Spotify.
Keep Everything is dance theatre for people who can appreciate the absurdity of human social behaviour and love hearing a beat drop. This new offering from Chunky Move continues the company’s mission to playfully redefine the limits of contemporary dance. It's charming, entrancing and fun. It begins dramatically: human bodies barely visible through surging projections and thick smog. We are transported to a post-apocalyptic landscape — made magical by the music of Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes (of The Presets fame). Yet, just as soon as we’re accustomed to the electronic rhythms and droning atmosphere of this sci-fi wasteland, all the lights are up and the performers are over-exposed. The scene transitions through the piece are carefully thought-out and a joy to experience. Lighting, music and projection all work together to hurtle us along the evolutionary journey of humans — from morphing jellyfish-masses to haute-couture models. The choreography by Antony Hamilton never takes itself too seriously. It is clear to see that improvisation and repeated physical and verbal phrases have formed the basis of the work, which seems to respond to gibberish emitting from the mouths of the dancers and to laugh out loud at the direct audience address, “How are ya?” The trio of dancers (Benjamin Hancock, Lauren Langlois, Alisdair Macindoe) speak in grunts and abstract sounds and dance in digital code. They push the boundaries of their human spines and structures to create part-machine, part-animal bodies that offend our civility. They tell us the human body is simply a series of circles and angles then prove this point with a prolonged unison dance sequence so precise I dubbed it the ‘robot rebirthing’... only moments before it deteriorated into a night-club rave. At the heart of Keep Everything is an exploration of how humans connect and communicate, and the audience is forced to reflect and critique our own speech. Aren’t we all just speaking gibberish that we somehow collectively understand? “Ye-ah”, comes the dancers’ answer, as they learn onstage to make meaning out of random patterns. The set is a clean white floor, covered on one side with what appears to be pastel building-blocks, and on the other with industrial waste: from order and progress to pollution and disrepair. This bittersweet view of human evolution is maintained throughout, from the seamless switches of organic, fluid movements into robotic body isolations to the rogue 'lap dog' (brought brilliantly to life by Langlois), who refuses to submit to human control any longer. The work claims to keep everything, but is neither too long nor indulgent. It casts a questioning eye on our human behaviour and makes us laugh at how far we’ll go to try to connect. Keep Everything plays as part of Performance Space's Score season of works driven by dance, movement, music and noise. Highlights include the bodybuilding/dance mash-up that is Natalie Abbott's acclaimed MAXIMUM, Force Majeure's boundary-pushing dance lab Culminate and Psychic Synth, a digital work by Pia Van Gelder that will read your mind.
Sydneysiders, if you're currently reading this from somewhere dry, warm and cosy, we suggest that you keep it that way for the time being. After an extremely wet few days, more downpours are expected until Tuesday, March 23, with the city likely to more than double its usual average March rainfall in just a six-day period. In the 24 hours to 9am today, Sunday, March 21, a whopping 110.4 millimetres of rain was measured at Sydney's Observatory Hill. To put that figure in context, Sydney's average rainfall for the entirety of March is 131.6 millimetres — so the city fell just shy of the entire monthly average in just a single day. Up to 130 millimetres of rain is forecast for the city between today and Tuesday, too, which means that the city faces another month's worth of rain in just the next three days. The torrents of water streaming from the sky started on Thursday, March 18, with 54.4 millimetres of rain measured at Sydney's Observatory Hill in the 24 hours to 9am on Friday, March 10. That was followed by 47.6 millimetres until 9am on Saturday, March 20. Another 15–30 millimetres is forecast for the rest of Sunday, between 25–50 is expected on Monday and between 35–50 is predicted for Tuesday. At a press conference today, BOM Senior Climatologist Agata Imielska confirmed that "over the last 24 hours, we have seen very large rainfall totals are across the Greater Sydney area into the Hunter and mid-north coast. That rainfall will continue". https://twitter.com/BOM_NSW/status/1373423963334963205 This isn't any old wet weather. The Bureau of Meteorology warned midweek that heavy falls were expected and, on Friday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian asked residents across the city and state to stay close to home over the weekend due to the downpour. A severe weather warning for heavy rainfall and potential flooding was issued for Sydney on Saturday morning, and currently remains in place. Yesterday, Premier Berejiklian also called the current conditions a "deep-seated, extreme weather event" — as a result not only of the huge amounts of rain across the state, but also flooding along the mid-north coast. Elsewhere, the Parramatta River has once again broken its banks, flooding the proposed Powerhouse Museum site as it did in 2020. A mini-tornado hit Chester Hill on Saturday, too. And, Sydney's Warragamba Dam — the city's main water source — has also spilled over, starting on Saturday afternoon. Some areas in Sydney's northwest were also ordered to evacuate overnight due to rain levels in the Hawkesbury-Nepean valley area. BOM Flood Operations Manager Justin Robinson said today that "at Penrith, we are expecting river levels at Penrith to be levels near the 1961 flood. To give you some context, that is bigger than the February 2020 flood. It is bigger than the 1988 flood. It is bigger than the 1990 flood, and it is bigger than the 1964 flood — it is one of the biggest floods we are likely to see for a very long time". At the same press conference, Imielska advised that "over the next 12-24 hours, the focus will be on the mid-north coast once again". But, in some good news, "Wednesday is when we are expecting to see a proper break in the weather. There will still be a shower or two, a bit of activity, but significantly lighter rainfall. Wednesday will be the first day when we could see a bit of reprieve across the state". If you do need to head out in Sydney while the current conditions continue, don't forget to pack your umbrellas and raincoats, and to be safe in general. And, as usual with potential flooding, the SES recommends you don't walk, drive or ride your bike through flood water. As the weather conditions continue to develop, stay up to date with the latest forecast and weather warnings via the Bureau of Meteorology and the NSW State Emergency Service.
Because you're reading this, we know you're not someone who received a pet for Christmas, only to decide it wasn't for you. We know you're one of the good folks. You're probably wishing that you did receive a loveable animal as a gift, even if you already have one — or several — that you adore. We understand your yearning, and so does the RSPCA. And, to find permanent homes for pups, cats, bunnies, guinea pigs and even Sheepy the Sheep surrendered into its care from all over the country, it's lowering the adoption fee to $29 this weekend. The weekend-long initiative is called Clear the Shelters and will run from Friday, February 21 until Sunday, February 23. Although you can't put a price on the happiness a new four-legged friend will bring, it's hoped that the low adoption fee will encourage people who have been thinking about adding a pet to their fam (and have considered it thoroughly) to make the commitment this week. Last year, the RSPCA found new homes for 2654 pets Australia-wide. [caption id="attachment_761823" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jane is available for adoption in Tuggerah, Animal ID: 473147[/caption] This year, Clear the Shelters will run across Australia in all states and territories except Tasmania. The adoption fees — which usually range from $20–600 — help cover some of the costs of vaccines, training, desexing and microchipping for the animal. Whether you're in NSW, Victoria, WA or Queensland, there are hundreds of animals that need a new home full of love and pats. There's more to pet adoption than overdosing on cuteness, of course, as making the commitment to care for an animal is serious business. RSPCA's Clear the Shelters runs nationally (except Tasmania) from February 21–23. You can pre-register over here. Top image: Lady Danger is available for adoption in Sydney, Animal ID: 472000.
In the lead up to Sydney WorldPride 2023, the City of Sydney has commissioned artist Amy Blue to create a bright and colourful mural celebrating the history of Oxford Street and Sydney's LGBTQIA+ community. Current and former sites of queer joy and acts of resistance like Q Bar, The Unicorn Hotel, Universal and Exiles Bookshop will all feature on the mural alongside a range of figures and iconography tied to the history of the community across Sydney. "I wanted this collection of illustrations to capture a snippet of some of the people and events that have illuminated Oxford Street throughout its brilliant and colourful history. It's an illustrative representation capturing the 'A-Z of Oxford Street', a sort of 'GAY-B-C' if you like," said Blue. "As a community, we've experienced moments that call for triumph and celebration, but we have also faced some extremely challenging moments of adversity. This collection is a nod to some of the defining moments in that history." The Oxford Street mural will be present throughout WorldPride, an event which City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has billed as "the largest event in Sydney since the 2000 Olympics". "The City is committed to making sure Oxford Street is as attractive as possible and operating at its maximum potential through this important event," says Moore. "In 2019 we secured a significant redevelopment of City-owned Oxford Street properties, which will help ensure the strip's long-term success. That work is well underway, so to beautify the strip in the short-term we're turning construction hoardings into a massive canvas with which to tell the incredibly diverse and colourful story of Oxford Street's rainbow community." Accompanying the mural will be a range of changes to Oxford Street, assisted by $1.7 million in funding that the City of Sydney is allocating towards its development. Vacant shopfronts will be activated, pride-themed lighting will be installed at the Taylor Square fountain, the longstanding rainbow crossing is being refreshed and a host of aesthetic changes will be made across the already rainbow-filled thoroughfare. Sydney WorldPride 2023 will also feature a massive program of over 300 different events headlined by the return of the Mardi Gras parade to Oxford Street, an opening concert featuring Kylie Minogue and Charli XCX, and a monumental pride march with 50,000-plus people walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. German pop sensation Kim Petras has also just been added to the Rainbow Republic closing concert, performing alongside the likes of MUNA, G Flip, Keiynan Lonsdale and Peach PRC. Sydney WorldPride will run from Friday, February 17–Sunday, March 5, 2023. For more information on the mural, head to the City of Sydney's website — and to view the full program of events, head to the WorldPride website.
It's the beverage everyone's talking about, as well as the unofficial tipple of spring and summer. Knowing that you're going to be knocking back frosty glasses of frosé for the next six months is one thing. Knowing that you can do so in a dedicated frosé garden takes the cool refreshment of the moment to another level. Yep, it's the outdoor space that somewhere was bound to open sooner or later, with Pelicano in Double Bay doing the honours. Welcoming lovers of frozen rosé from September 23, and kicking off to celebrate the Spring Equinox, their dedicated frosé terrace boasts fruity and dry varieties of your favourite icy drink, rosé-infused cocktails on tap, and a relaxing courtyard to devour them in. For those who aren't up-to-date on the chilled alcohol trend, frosé turns sparkling rosé wine into rosé sorbet — aka what happens when you put rosé in a slushie machine, which is exactly how it first came about. It was invented at New York's Bar Primi, and became an instant sensation, quickly spreading overseas. You've seen the sea of pink cocktail pics on Instagram; you know what we're talking about. Now, you can head to Pelicano and share your own rosy frosé snaps with the online masses. Pelicano's Frosé Terrace is open from Wednesday to Saturday at 24 Bay Street, Double Bay. For more information, visit their website and Facebook page.
It visited Melbourne in June and Brisbane in September, and now Australia's sweetest dessert museum is finally heading to Sydney. Called Sugar Republic and heading our way this February, the immersive pop-up brings sugary delights to folks with a sweet tooth, boasting an array of spaces filled with all things chocolate, confectionery and dessert-oriented. Taking over the sixth floor of Myer Sydney City, the Sydney pop-up features a huge bubblegum pink ball pit, a climbable candy rainbow, a sherbet-filled bridge and a life-sized gum ball machine (the sugary list goes on and on). You're also able to bask in nostalgia inside an old-school lolly shop, a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-inspired garden and a house made from cookies. It sounds like the kind of place that Willy Wonka might own. Throughout the colourful exhibition, you'll find many edible treats, including Hubba Bubba, Halo Top, Wizz Fizz, Skittles and Starbursts, and will be able to visit a Sugar Republic cafe, which will be serving up a whole host of sugary delights. Don't tell your dentist. Worried the installation will be filled with littlies? Thankfully, it's opening on Thursday and Friday nights for adults only — so you can jump in the pit without fear of crushing a small one. Sugar Republic will pop up on the sixth floor of Myer Sydney City from February 10, 2019, and run through until the end of April. It is open from 10am–6pm every day except Wednesday, and adults-only sessions will run from 6.30–8pm on Thursday and Friday nights. Images: Lucas Dawson and Sherbet Birdie Photography. Updated: April 9, 2019.
Thisisfortunate.com presents the last instalment of #CROSSSECTION The Marketplace, the fortnightly fashion designers' market replete with music, eats and drinks in Angel Place. For the last couple of years, #CROSSSECTION has been placing emerging designers alongside their more established peers to sell direct to you. Think Project Runway meets The Grand Social at the foot of the Ivy — with a theme. 2013 was a big one for the recently rebranded initiative (formerly Bizarre Bazaar), who'll continue on in their bricks-and-mortar boutique at 62 Glebe Point Road. Make it a farewell party/shopping spree to remember on Thursday, May 9, which will feature wares by Kirsty Irwin and Plague of Man, among many other rising stars.
Darlinghurst’s TAP Gallery welcomes back the Workhorse Theatre Co with their second ever production, Stephen Adly Guirgis's 2011 play, The Motherf***ker with the Hat. The play enjoyed one of those critically acclaimed-box-office-disappointment runs in New York but managed to pick up a Tony nomination for Best Play in 2011. Guirgis teases his audience through questions of fidelity and addiction centring on high-school sweethearts Jackie and Veronica, Jackie’s sponsor Ralph D and the hat that should not be in Veronica's bed. So, Shakespearean farce meets the dark years of Robert Downey Jr? Awesome. Plus the Workhorse Theatre Co's first production That Pretty Pretty; Or, The Rape Play made a bit of a splash last year, announcing their arrival as a subversive new voice worthy of your attention. So if you feel like seeing something fresh or potentially risk-taking or maybe just something without Toby Schmitz in it, head down to the TAP and catch The Motherf**ker in the Hat.
"My plan was to die before the money ran out, but I kept and keep not dying — and here I am." When asked about her strategy as she faces financial ruin, that's Manhattan socialite Frances Price's (Michelle Pfeiffer, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) frank response. Her fortune has dwindled, the banks are about to repossess everything she owns and she doesn't know what her now-precarious future holds; however, she's most annoyed about having to answer her financial advisor's exasperated questions. Conveying Frances' reply with little else but spikiness otherwise, Pfeiffer turns this early French Exit scene into a deadpan masterclass. The character's candour, irritation and sharp edges are all personality traits, rather than specific reactions to her current predicament, and Pfeiffer makes it clear that she'd still be spitting out acerbic retorts with the same poker face if Frances had been queried about absolutely anything else. She frequently does just that afterwards, in fact, and she's a caustic delight in this wry exploration of a familiar topic: weathering life's many disappointments. Widowed for a decade, and happy to keep cultivating an eccentric reputation as the years go on, Frances hasn't dedicated even a second to tangibly preparing for her present lack of funds. That said, she soon has another plan. Surreptitiously selling off her belongings as her accountant advises — and viciously haggling over commission rates in the process — she rustles up what cash she can and absconds to Paris, where a friend's empty apartment awaits rent-free. There, she reverts to her old approach. Once her remaining money has been frittered away on wine, coffee, and oversized tips to anyone and everyone, she doesn't see the point of going on. But her dysfunctionally codependent relationship with her twentysomething son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges, Waves), his on-and-off romance with his secret fiancée Susan (Imogen Poots, Black Christmas), and a new friendship with the lonely and besotted Madame Reynard (Valerie Mahaffey, Dead to Me) all add unexpected chaos to Frances' scheme, as does a cruise ship fortune teller (Danielle Macdonald, Unbelievable) and a runaway cat who just might be her reincarnated husband. French Exit doesn't watch on as Frances tries to live a modest life and adjust her extravagant ways. It doesn't follow the unapologetically venomous woman as she learns to reassess her choices and attitude, either. Rather, it unfurls a keenly observed character study that's wrapped up in an oddball comedy — and while mining the loss of extreme wealth for chuckles has served Schitt's Creek well, too, French Exit proves as distinctive as its protagonist. It's a film about a woman called Frances who was once married to Franklin, owns a cat called Small Frank and relocates to France, after all. She leaves suddenly and without informing New York high society of her departure, of course, as the movie's title suggests. That's the type of humour pulsating through this light yet still probing picture, as directed with a fluid touch by Azazel Jacobs (The Lovers), and scripted by author Patrick deWitt from his own 2018 novel. Indeed, the fact that Frances' son isn't called Frankie, and that no one called Fran also pops up, is actually disappointing once French Exit establishes its absurdist wavelength. A haunted sensation hovers over this portrait of privilege undone, though, and not just because of Small Frank's possible backstory. Casting Pfeiffer is the movie's best choice, and must've been far too delicious to pass up — seeing the former Catwoman chase a mouser around Paris is amusing, naturally — but it's easy to see how French Exit could've and probably would've crumbled without her. Finding the perfect person for a part that no one else would've done justice can do that. This film belongs to its equally slinky and scathing star, who adds another commanding performance to a resume filled with them, but she's the overwhelming reason that Frances' wounding one-liners, larger-than-life demeanour and all-round cattishness strike a chord. Equally icy and vulnerable even when she's playing for laughs, she also ensures that Frances never feels like a caricature, or as if she has simply stepped out of a Wes Anderson or Noah Baumbach picture. (In its pithy dialogue and idiosyncratic family dynamics, French Exit overtly resembles both The Royal Tenenbaums and The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), and even offers a gender-flipped accompaniment to Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks as well). Thankfully, Pfeiffer is truly magnificent and magnetic, and the film's embrace of farce is just as compelling. The latter is refreshing, too, ignoring the usual poignant life lessons, and instead embracing the mess and mania Frances seems to cultivate every time she opens her mouth. Jacobs and deWitt haven't starved their feature of canny insights, especially in Pfeiffer's barbed words. A trace of unshakeable melancholy lingers over every sentence as her character tries to do what everyone must: figure out how to go on. But, paired with a lively pace, scenic but never gratuitously touristy Parisian cinematography, and a willingness to get silly and whimsical, French Exit bubbles rather than wallows — and while it doesn't quite find its mark consistently enough, it's a gem whenever it does. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0UbkJD2KDY
There's a bit of history to The Boys. It is playwright Gordon Graham's response to' (as in 'not directly based on') the horrific murder of Sydney nurse Anita Cobby in the late '80s. The play is an unforgiving and rigorous attempt to understand the origins of violence, determinedly avoiding the simple solution of labelling those responsible as aberrations. It debuted at Griffin in 1991 amongst a storm of controversy, an argument along the lines of 'the monsters responsible for such crimes wouldn't be so familiar, so human ... let alone so articulate'. Sam Strong's new production sets its response to this clearly upon entry, as the audience walks across grass — prickly, ordinary, suburban grass — to reach their seats. What unfolds is as devastating as it feels real, and nightmarish in its intensity. The Sprague brothers, headed by the fresh-out-of-jail Brett (Josh McConville), are constantly frustrated by their girlfriends, who are always nattering amongst themselves, making cups of tea at inconvenient times, unwilling to lend cars when requested and generally making life difficult. When acting atrociously to the women in their lives doesn't seem to be quite enough any longer, they go out to teach 'women' a lesson by raping and murdering one unlucky young lady. As comedic as this sounds, it doesn't stay funny for long. Even for those less aware of the play's past, as I was, there is a powerful resonance to this production. Much of it comes from sharing the room with such raw, visceral performances. The air in the theatre is thick with the threat of violence, punctuated by loud crashes whenever the fly screen door is slammed shut. I find myself jumping every time. While it is almost always the female characters on stage, they inevitably operate in relation to and according to the terms of the absent men. And when the 'boys' do burst in, their performances have me hunching over despite myself. Perhaps the most terrifying of all is mother Sandra Sprague, with Jeanette Cronin reaching new depths in a role she knows well. The return of this play to Griffin makes sense, and not just for reasons of nostalgia. The theatre's tiny space wreaks havoc with the intentions of many directors but for The Boys the atmosphere couldn't be better suited. As tempting as it is to be close to the action, you might prefer to sit a couple of rows back for this one.
It might've taken three years, but Netflix has finally produced its first original Aussie series. Shot entirely in Queensland, and providing fuel for late 2018 binge-watch sessions, Tidelands is a supernatural crime drama series about a fictional fishing village, dubbed Orphelin Bay, with strange inhabitants: a group of dangerous half-Sirens, half-humans called 'Tidelanders'. Cal McTeer (Charlotte Best), a young women who returns to the small village after a stint in jail, discovers the body of a local fisherman and must navigate the town's drug smuggling history while also investigating the Tidelanders, who are led by Adrielle Cuthburt (Elsa Pataky). Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gZG_ehP0Ag&feature=youtu.be Eight episodes, each running for 50 minutes, have been made by Brisbane's Emmy Award-Winning production company Hoodlum Entertainment. And Tidelands won't just gift Australian users with a new favourite series, with the show set to land in all 190 countries that Netflix is available in. Thinking you've seen plenty of Aussie stuff on Netflix already? You're not wrong, however, there's a difference between throwing old sitcoms and standup specials into a range inexplicably overflowing with new Adam Sandler movies, and actually funding brand new Australian material. Last year, it was announced that they'd join forces with the ABC to co-produce a second season of Glitch, which showed them dipping a toe in the water — but now they're completely diving in. Tidelands will join the platform's hefty stable of original series, which started back in 2013 with House of Cards, and just keeps growing (Orange Is the New Black, The Get Down, The OA, Wet Hot American Summer, Master of None, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Dear White People, BoJack Horseman, four Marvel series with one more to come — the list goes on). Given the premise, here's hoping it'll be the next Stranger Things, and not the new Hemlock Grove. Tidelands will be available globally on Netflix from December 14, 2018.
Goddess, gracious. Though Les Miserables swept the Oscars, and musicals are certainly making more of a foray into mainstream cinema, there are some musicals that still don't quite belong on the big screen. Inspired by a one-woman stage show, Goddess tells the story of English woman, Elspeth (Laura Michelle Kelly), who, after moving with her husband, James (Ronan Keating) to Tasmania, finds herself lonely while looking after their twin toddlers. In an effort to keep up her musical prowess, Elspeth uses her webcam to share her 'sink songs' with the world and soon becomes a YouTube sensation. Goddess will certainly find its audience among those that enjoy the naff story lines usually found in telemovies, but really it's the box where this story belongs. The unbelievable side stories of James's profession and the group of prim mothers who refuse to adopt Elspeth in their group are far too contrived, and while there are the odd laughs (usually from a scene-chewing Magda Szubanski as the high-flying marketing executive), most of the songs are cringe-inducing. Musicals are allowed to have shots of sweeping vistas, they're allowed to have characters that are larger than life and storylines that are a bit hard to believe. But they're also supposed to inspire an outpouring of emotion, and the only emotion that Goddess inspired, if you can call it that, was awkward.
UPDATE: May 10, 2020: Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Here's one of those sentences you never expect to see yourself writing: Hobbs & Shaw makes The Fate of the Furious look like gritty realism. Think about that for a moment. That film ended with a crew of street-racers-turned-international-super-spies being pursued by both Russian separatists and a remote-control driven nuclear submarine across an icy Siberian tundra...in Lamborghinis. And it still offered more realism and nuance than this spin-off. How is that even possible? It's better not to ask. Hobbs & Shaw is an offering that might finally have pushed things too far in a franchise defined by its ability to stretch things (plot, stunts, singlets and micro-shorts) to seemingly impossible levels. Escalation has always been the name of the game for the Fast & Furious franchise, the filmmakers forever seeking new and inventive ways of delivering essentially the same story. Like Mission: Impossible crossed with The Italian Job, each instalment sees our ragtag crew of racers tasked with pulling off ludicrous heists with fast cars and fancy driving. The villains grew larger and more megalomaniacal (from rival street racers to drug cartel bosses and Dr Evil-esque world destroyers), the cars gained enormous value (from a 1999 Nissan Skyline to the US$2 million Nissan IDx NISMO) and the cast began to approach Avengers levels of celebrity. Two of those additions were Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw. Both entered the franchise as pseudo-villains, only to then be drawn into the "family" by its patriarch Dom, played by the ever-growling Vin Diesel. As Hobbs and Shaw's popularity grew, a spin-off seemed inevitable. But whilst the demand was undoubtedly there, the delivery falls well short of expectations. This movie feels like the output of an AI that was fed the data set of the franchise but was incapable of identifying its humanity (and, dare we say, heart). Yes, it features insane stunts, amazing vehicles and unceasing bromance, but none of it ever gels. In particular, the supposed friction between the two leads lacks all substance, especially since The Fate of the Furious already saw them mostly resolve their differences and become buddies. Thrust together here and told to work together like the Russian and American agents from The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Hobbs and Shaw must track down Shaw's sister (The Crown's Vanessa Kirby) after she infects herself with a deadly virus to keep it from falling into the villain's hands (played this time around by Idris Elba). Borrowing heavily, then, from Mission: Impossible 2, the story sees the trio fight against time to extract the virus before it takes hold and wipes out most of humanity. Why? Remember, we asked you not to ask questions. Ever. Because you see, very little stands up to scrutiny. Why do Hobbs and Shaw actually hate each other? Unclear. Why are they tasked with this job when the agencies that recruit them are far better equipped and motivated? Unclear. Why is Hobbs able to pull a Blackhawk helicopter down from the sky when only moments earlier he and four other fully-laden cars weren't able to do it? Jeez, get off my back already. And sure, this is a series that not only invites you to suspend belief, but actively requires you to do so. Until now, audiences have willingly obliged. Here, though, it's one step too far. The heroes and villains are invulnerable, the plot is beffudling and logic has straight up Nos'd itself into the atmosphere. It's a pity, because there's so much to like about Johnson and Statham in these roles, especially when they work as a willing duo defined by their differences rather than simply bickering with forced (and unbearably unfunny) insults. Ultimately, Hobbs & Shaw may not have killed off the franchise, but it's certainly done it no favours. It's also a perfect example of the risk of branching too far from a clearly winning formula. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b736ZM_KfEk
With The Big Short and Nightcrawler still fresh in moviegoer's memories, Money Monster isn't the first film to ponder the impact of the global financial crisis, or peer into the television business in times of trouble. Nor is the best, boldest or even most star-studded contemplation of either topic. Instead, it's a solid thriller that may repeat a few statements we've already heard, but does so with a stellar command of tension and tone. If the pressure-fuelled dramas of the '70s combined with the beat-the-clock action efforts of the '90s, something like Money Monster would be the end result. Lee Gates (George Clooney), the host of the financial TV program that gives the movie its name, certainly seems like a remnant from another decade. His show would've been huge in the late '00s, and his exaggerated on-screen persona, loud proclamations, cheesy costumes and skimpily clad back-up dancers along with it. But a week after one of Gates' hot stock tips crashes, Money Monster's live broadcast is hijacked by the gun-wielding Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell). The Queens delivery guy has lost all his savings, wants answers, and is willing to strap a bomb to Gates' chest to get them — while the world, and the show's director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), watch on. Screenwriters Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore and Jim Kouf are content to litter their script with more than a few convenient, predictable developments: Gates knows the failing company's head honcho (Dominic West), Budwell has a pregnant girlfriend at home, and Fenn is about to jump ship for a job at a rival network. However director Jodie Foster (The Beaver) proves determined to let the unease of the situation, and the performances it inspires, drive the film. The result is a film that's stressed and enraged from beginning to end, content in the knowledge that its audience feels the same. Foster endeavours to capture the incredulous, furious reaction the bulk of the population had to recent economic circumstances, channeling it into one heightened scenario and bearing witness to the fiery results. Every technical choice, be it the grey sheen of the film's visuals, the swift speed of its editing or the terse beats of its score, is calculated to promote a very precise mood. Even when the formula behind the film is obvious – and even with Foster offering a few humorous moments to lighten things up – Money Monster still delivers an urgent, edge-of-your-seat experience. She's aided in her efforts by the top work of her cast. Playing charismatic and controlled, Clooney and Roberts demonstrate why they've stayed at the top of the acting game for so long, though it's O'Connell that commands attention. Against his high-profile co-stars, he proves a bundle of raw, restless energy perfectly suited to the film's tone.
Anyone who has spent time in an outback Australian pub will recognise The Royal Hotel's namesake watering hole, even if they've never seen this particular bar before. The filming location itself doesn't matter. Neither do the IRL details of the actual establishment that stands in for the movie's fictional boozer. What scorches itself into memory like the blistering sun beating down on the middle-of-nowhere saloon's surroundings, then, is the look and the feel of this quintessentially Aussie beer haven. From the dim lighting inside and weather-beaten facade outside to the almost exclusively male swarm of barflies that can't wait to getting sipping come quittin' time, this feature's setting could be any tavern. It could be all of them. That fact is meant to linger as filmmaker Kitty Green crafts another masterclass in tension, microagressions and the ever-looming threats that women live with daily — swapping The Assistant's Hollywood backdrop and Harvey Weinstein shadow for a remote mining town and toxic testosterone-fuelled treatment of female bartenders. Making her second fictional feature after that 2019 standout, and her fourth film overall thanks to 2013 documentary Ukraine Is Not a Brothel and 2017's Casting JonBenet before that, Green has kept as much as she's substituted between her two most recent movies. Julia Garner stars in both, albeit without breaking out an Inventing Anna-style drawl in either — although comically parroting the Aussie accent does earn a brief workout. Green's focus remains living while female. Her preferred tone is still as unsettling as any scary movie. The Royal Hotel is another of her horror films, but an inescapable villain here, as it was in The Assistant, is a world that makes existing as a woman this innately unnerving. This taut and deeply intelligent picture's sources of anxiety and danger aren't simply society; however, what it means to weather the constant possibility of peril for nothing more than your sex chromosomes is this flick's far-as-the-eye-can-see burnt earth. Backpacking Down Under by partying their way through Sydney, Hanna (Garner, Ozark) and Liv (Jessica Henwick, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery) swap boat shindigs on the harbour for a rust-hued expanse for one reason: money. With their cash drying up, the only option available to make more is a gig where the local pool is equally dusty. "Will there be kangaroos?" is their main initial question. If this pair have seen Wake in Fright, it hasn't left an imprint. They'll soon be living in their own version. Dirt, dirt and more dirt greets them fresh off the bus, then no-nonsense pub cook Carol (Ursula Yovich, Irreverent) and gruff drunk owner Billy (Hugo Weaving, Love Me), then a trial-by-fire night behind the taps to send off English tourists Jules (Alex Malone, Colin From Accounts) and Cassie (Kate Cheel, The Commons), who they're replacing. The Royal Hotel as the picture's prime locale might double for every typically Aussie watering hole, but both the setting and The Royal Hotel as a film take their cues from one specific pub. Western Australia's Denver City Hotel was immortalised in Hotel Coolgardie, the fly-on-the-wall documentary about two Finnish women who worked behind its bar and experienced the very worst of Australian drinking culture — and seeing that movie inspired writer/director Green to dive into this aggressively misogynistic world. "Fresh meat" adorns the boozer's chalkboard after Hanna and Liv arrive. Billy has barely spoken multiple sentences to them before he's dropping "cunt" with belittling force. Sexist jokes from the sozzled and arrogant customers rain down among eerie stares, brazen pick-up attempts, predatory demands and arguments between blokes over which woman they're claiming as theirs, like The Royal Hotel's latest faces have no say in it. To most of the pub's patrons, they don't. The comments, jibes and advances come from a cross-section of culprits, with Green and co-writer Oscar Redding (Van Diemen's Land) purposeful in showing that there's not only one kind of stereotypical guy whipping up discomfit. Toby Wallace's (Babyteeth) Matty knows how to charm, and how to rile up the male crowd by making women the butt of the gag. While James Frecheville (The Dry) plays the quieter, protective Teeth, those traits don't buff away his edges. With Daniel Henshall's (Mystery Road: Origin) Dolly, menace doesn't need words — and sinister entitlement drips from almost everything that he says or, to be precise, orders. There isn't just one way that women can be made to feel uneasy in male-heavy environments where they're expected to be at every guy's beck and call, and in general, as The Royal Hotel meticulously demonstrates. There definitely isn't a lone version of this gut-wrenching nightmare, nor a single way of coping when every waking minute is an exercise in monitoring your behaviour to get a job done, and just exist, without attracting the wrong attention. It's there in Hanna and Liv's varying reactions to the pub's clientele and their manners, or lack thereof; the difference between Hanna's distress and Jules and Cassie's carefree approach; and the range of factors that get Matty, Teeth, Dolly, Billy and company inciting alarm: the array of ways that Green's exceptional cast pack The Royal Hotel's powderkeg, that is. Only two things spark a straightforward read in Green's feature. The first is the eponymous everypub where nothing regal has ever graced its peeling walls and sticky floors. The second is the dread that pours out faster than visiting bartenders can pull pints. Actually, there's a third, because Kylie Minogue bopping through the soundtrack is a glorious choice. The uncertainty of this jittery environment otherwise — that someone can seem like a friend in one light and a sleaze in another, or a perturbed reaction can feel wholly justified by one of the bar's visiting women and overkill to another, for instance — only heightens the film's agitated mood. There's no one better at conveying this storm than Green, or at ripping it from reality and into her films. To watch Hanna especially is to achingly apprehend when and how often you've stood in her shoes. Green should keep Garner standing before her lens in as many movies as possible. With The Assistant and now The Royal Hotel, they're a dream team. Garner's flawless knack for conveying how life in Green's chosen scenarios is an incessant navigation and negotiation is as finely tuned as the director's; it's what made her so outstanding at playing Anna Delvey as well. As Green's now four-time cinematographer Michael Latham roves over blazing landscapes and gets claustrophobic in the tavern's dank indoors, and as composer Jed Palmer (back from Ukraine Is Not a Brothel) sets his score to faintly but still formidably jarring, that sense of steering your way through fraught terrain while trying to secure your survival proves as familiar as the outback venue at the centre of it all. With episodes of TV series Servant on her resume, Green can embrace horror traditionally, but the terrors that she digs into on the big screen aren't just frightening tales — they're piercing reflections of too much that's easy to recognise.
Fans of The Handmaid's Tale have had to wait longer than expected for its fourth season, with the dystopian series' next batch of episodes among the many things that were postponed due to the pandemic. But, come April, that delay will come to an end — and if you're wondering what's in store, another tense trailer has just dropped. This is the third time that viewers have gleaned a sneak peek at the show's next season, after a first teaser last year and a second glimpse last month. And yes, June (Elisabeth Moss) is still battling against Gilead after season three's cliffhanger ending. In fact, after everything that the oppressive regime has done to her and her loved ones — and the ways in which it has changed life for women in general — she's firmly out for justice and revenge. The new season will kick off Down Under on Thursday, April 29, airing weekly on SBS and streaming episodes via SBS On Demand in Australia and Neon in New Zealand. Based on the three trailers so far, you can expect your anxiety levels to ramp up several notches while you're watching. Of course, viewing The Handmaid's Tale has never been a stress-free experience. Given its storyline, that was always going to be absolutely impossible. Fans will be seeing where the show's narrative heads for some time to come, too, with a fifth season of The Handmaid's Tale green-lit before the fourth even airs. Toppling a totalitarian society that's taken over the former United States, tearing down its oppression of women under the guise of 'traditional values', and fighting for freedom and equality doesn't happen quickly, after all. Neither does exploring the tale initially started in Margaret Atwood's 1985 book via an award-winning TV series. Check out the latest season four trailer below: The fourth season of The Handmaid's Tale will hit start airing in Australia and New Zealand on Thursday, April 29 — on SBS TV, and to stream via SBS On Demand and Neon, with new episodes arriving weekly.
Having cemented its status as one of Melbourne's most celebrated coffee roasters and cafes, Industry Beans has taken on Sydney's caffeine scene, opening its first interstate location in the CBD last week. It's made its new home on York Street, complete with a heritage façade, state-of-the-art equipment and its trademark Industry Beans offering of creatively charged food and next-level specialty coffee. The new venue features the same customised La Marzocco Modbar that put Industry Beans' Little Collins Street store on the map, allowing customers to be front and centre to the coffee-making experience. You can watch the magic unfold as the baristas brew its signature Fitzroy Street blend and whip up treats like the bubble tea-like the specialty Bubble Coffee, featuring coffee-soaked tapioca pearls, cold brew and normal or vegan condensed milk. [caption id="attachment_706984" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Specialty Bubble Coffee.[/caption] As for the food, you can expect a seasonal lineup of cleverly executed dishes that are far from boring. The York Street cafe's southern counterpart has won many a fan for dishes like its coffee-rubbed wagyu burger, fruit sashimi topped with coffee 'caviar', and avocado smash starring beetroot dust and green tea salt — all of which have made their way onto the new menu. That's alongside a few new additions that specifically cater to the work lunch crowd, like the selection of baguettes and avo, broccoli and broad bean green bowl that can be eaten in or taken away. Expect a finely honed customer experience, too, with a dedicated grab-and-go area and an Industry Beans app, which allows you to skip the queues and order your office coffees ahead of time. Plus, when you sign up, you'll get five bucks credit so you can get your next coffee for nada. Find Industry Beans at 38–40 York Street, Sydney. It's open seven days a week, from 7am–4.30pm on weekdays and 8am–4pm on weekends.
It has been four years since the Sydney Film Festival closed out its 2014 fest with What We Do in the Shadows, giving the event one of its most memorable nights yet. To open this year's 65th anniversary celebration of cinema, SFF is once again showcasing a top New Zealand comedy — this time it's The Breaker Upperers, which Taika Waititi executive produced. The flick tells the tale of two cynical best friends who turn their romantic woes into a thriving business. Yes, as the movie's moniker suggests, they break up unhappy couples for cash. It's written and directed by its stars, Kiwi comedians Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami, both of whom actually appeared What We Do in the Shadows and Waititi's Eagle vs Shark. The former also popped up in New Zealand TV series Funny Girls and 800 Words, and the latter featured in Sione's Wedding and its sequel, plus the first season of Top of the Lake. On-screen, van Beek and Sami are joined by Boy's James Rolleston and Rosehaven's Celia Pacquola, while off-screen, their debut collaborative effort is produced by the same team behind Hunt for the Wilderpeople. The film premiered at this year's SXSW Film Festival to positive reviews, and will open in Australian cinemas on July 26 — but those heading to SFF's opening night on June 6 will get to see the movie early, obviously, with the cast and crew in attendance. Tickets for opening night will go on sale here at 9am today, Monday, April 23 — and if you're purchasing online, you'll notice the fest's website has a had a revamp. It's set to include a new discover function that'll offer up recommendations, plus a visual planner so that festival-goers can better map out their schedules. The Breaker Upperers joins SFF's growing 2018 slate, with 26 other new titles announced earlier this month, plus a David Stratton-curated retrospective focused on Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki. If you're hankering for the full lineup for the event, which runs from June 6 to 17, all will be revealed at 11am on May 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-phMlkRiWIg The 2018 Sydney Film Festival will run from June 6 to 17. Buy a ticket to opening night here or check out the currently announced titles by heading to the festival website. The full program will be released on May 9.
After three years without sugar, Damon Gameau has come off the wagon in a big, bad way. Intent on uncovering amount of processed sugar in an average Australian diet, the actor-turned-documentary filmmaker puts his own health on the line, consuming the equivalent of roughly 40 teaspoons of sugar a day. The result is a lively and eye-opening documentary on a subject that needs as much attention as it can get. Gameau’s most obvious compatriot is Morgan Spurlock, who likewise put his own health on the line back in 2004 with the Oscar nominated Supersize Me. The comparison is an obvious one, and you’d be right in thinking that That Sugar Film seems suspiciously similar. But where Gameau has an edge is that his focus is on so-called health food. When a man dines on McDonalds for a month, of course he packs on the pounds. But when you get the same results with vitamin water and low-fat yogurt, the story is suddenly very different. Behind the camera, Gameau does everything he can to keep his viewers entertained. Music and colourful graphics are in plentiful supply, giving the film an at times hyperactive quality that fits the subject matter to a tee. Information often comes delivered with the aid of unexpected celebrity cameos, including appearances by Hugh Jackman, Isabel Lucas and Stephen Fry. There’s an initial temptation to dismiss the movie out of hand; after all, Gameau’s diet doesn’t exactly constitute sound scientific method. Yet despite the film’s gloss and gimmickry, Gameau could never be accused of sugar coating the facts. That Sugar Film attacks its subject from every conceivable angle, including sugar’s effect on children’s learning habits, the correlation between high sugar diets and poverty, and perhaps most unsettling of all, the lobbying efforts of billion-dollar food corporations, whose strategies seem frighteningly similar to those of big tobacco. Still, the scariest thing about this doco is the way in which it confronts us with just how much sugar we all consume. In one of the movie's most memorable sequences, rather than eating a day’s worth of sugary food, Gameau simply eats the equivalent amount in white sugar crystals, providing viewers with a visual reference point that’s both funny and revolting. While its message can seem obvious at times, That Sugar Film has the potential to change the way people think and behave. What higher compliment can a documentary film be given?
Take Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and add it to the rare list of sequels that transcend their predecessors. Picking up the story around ten years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the opening titles paint a bleak picture of a world brought to the brink of extinction via the so-called 'Simian Flu'. Brink of extinction for humanity, that is, because the apes, by contrast, have flourished. Under the strict yet compassionate leadership of Caesar (once again made inconceivably lifelike thanks to Andy Serkis's performance and the remarkable team at WETA), the apes have now adopted a number of human traits and habits: communication through sign language, horse riding, spear wielding and even the establishment of some rudimentary written rules — chief amongst which is: APE NOT KILL APE. Given the descent into murderous anarchy by the scattered human survivors of the virus, that proclamation is intended as a critical point of difference for Caesar, a mark of pride and proof of primate primacy. It's also, unfortunately, delusory, and it is in that realm of 'innocence lost' that Dawn spends most of its time. With rivalries and jealousies brewing between both father and son and leader and lieutenant, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is something of a modern-day Richard III. What makes it so compelling is that none of the villains — ape or human — are without their justifiable reservations and prejudices. Koba, for example, is Caesar's unfailingly loyal friend and bodyguard, yet he bares the scars of cruel human testing and holds no affection for the survivors. On the human side, the leader of the survivors' colony (Gary Oldman) sees only the faces of his dead wife and children whenever confronted by apes, and his determination to restore power to the city has no room for the kind of simian compassion shown by his lieutenant (Jason Clarke). Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is smaller in both scale and ambition than Rise yet feels so much bigger and more satisfying. It's an 'us and them' tale, a prelude to war where neither side is as unified as they might think. The direction by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) is technical and delicate, aided by sumptuous cinematography and special effects that are nothing short of exquisite, with even the most intense closeup failing to betray even the tiniest flaw in design. If anything, the CGI apes outperform the humans in almost every scene in which screen time is shared. Tender, tense, intelligent and morally complex, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an outstanding film and a genuine contender for blockbuster of the year. https://youtube.com/watch?v=3sHMCRaS3ao
Eleven days of soccer action kick off in Darling Harbour this month. Held on a floating football pitch in Cockle Bay, the Big Issue Street Football Festival will bring together players and fans from across the country. The event has grown since its inception in 2011, and in 2014 will welcome hundreds of players. Incorporating government, corporate and junior events, the festival spans a range of competitions, including the national championships of the Big Issue's Community Street Soccer Program. The program supports disadvantaged people who are experiencing homelessness, disability and long-term unemployment. Check out the full event program for dates and details on other matches.
Civil War is not a relaxing film, either for its characters or viewers, but writer/director Alex Garland (Men) does give Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog) a moment to lie down among the flowers. She isn't alone among the movie's stars on her stomach on a property filled with Christmas decorations en route from New York to Washington DC. Also, with shots being fired back and forth, no one is in de-stressing mode. For viewers of Dunst's collaborations with Sofia Coppola, however — a filmmaker that her Civil War co-star Cailee Spaeny just played Priscilla Presley for in Priscilla — the sight of her face beside grass and blooms was always going to recall The Virgin Suicides. Twenty-five years have now passed since that feature, which Garland nods to as a handy piece of intertextual shorthand. As the camera's focus shifts between nature and people, there's not even a tiny instant of bliss among this sorrow, nor will there ever be, as there was the last time that Dunst was framed in a comparable fashion. Instead, Civil War tasks its lead with stepping into the shoes of a seasoned war photographer in the middle of the violent US schism that gives the movie its name (and, with January 6, 2021 so fresh in everyone's memories, into events that could very well be happening in a version of right now). The US President (Nick Offerman, Origin) is into his third term after refusing to leave office, and the fallout is both polarising and immense. Think: bombed cities, suicide attackers, death squads, torture, lynchings, ambushes, snipers, shuttering the FBI, California and Texas inexplicably forming an alliance to fight back, Florida making its own faction, journalists killed on sight, refugee camps, deserted highways, checkpoints, resistance fighters, mass graves and, amid the rampant anarchy, existence as America currently knows it clearly obliterated. (Asking "what kind of American are you?" barely seems a stretch, though.) The front line is in Charlottesville, but Dunst's Lee Smith is destined for the White House with Reuters reporter Joel (Wagner Moura, Mr & Mrs Smith), where they're hoping to evade the lethal anti-media sentiment to secure an interview with the leader who has torn the country apart. That Dunst's character, nor anyone, will never be able to shake the chaos observed and experienced, no matter the no-nonsense demeanour sported, couldn't be more evident from Civil War's opening. This is a raw and deeply resonant movie about trauma, sources for which fill its chillingly realistic visuals constantly, as Garland and cinematographer Rob Hardy (returning from all of the filmmaker's past helming work, including Ex Machina and Annihilation) bring to the screen with haunting immediacy. It's also about desensitisation to that onslaught, for Garland's players and audiences alike. Combine both, even if Lee ignores the personal impact, and you get someone who'll never feel the calm that should accompany lying on a lawn in different circumstances — because the time when she'd soak that in, and the person who could do just that, are long gone. You also get someone so accustomed being surrounded by nightmarish horror that she's no longer aware of what she's lost. Garland's fourth film behind the lens is a probingly complex character study as well. It's a snapshot of a dystopia with far more potential to come immediately true than most such tales — and it gives America and its volatile political reality the filmic treatment usually reserved for almost anywhere else — but it's always also an unpacking of what it means to spend your life immortalising humanity at its worst; pics and it definitely did happen. Navigating the ethics of the gig, Lee is adamant that the job is to chronicle, not to intervene. "We take pictures so others can ask these questions," she advises. Everything about the performance behind not just the line but the figure lives and breathes that idea. That said, she's also as firm in her belief that what she does should spark pause. "Every time I survived a war zone, I thought I was sending a warning home: don't do this," Lee says to Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson, Beau Is Afraid), a New York Times veteran and fellow member of the movie's travelling party. "But here we are," she continues with a sigh. Garland gives Dunst another contrast beyond referencing one of her prior roles: Spaeny's Jessie. (That Civil War arrives so soon after Priscilla, which Dunst recommended Spaeny to Coppola for, adds inescapable emphasis.) Introduced being saved by Lee when they first meet in the thick of a brutal fray, the green as green — and keen as keen — wide-eyed 23-year-old freelancer is similarly snapping the conflict, learning as she's going and convincing Joel to let her tag along. Her vast range of emotions couldn't be in greater opposition to Lee's dispassion. "I've never been so scared in my entire life. And I've never felt more alive," Jessie notes after the movie's most intense scene, an unforgettable nerve-shredder where the foursome and a couple of colleagues (Ahsoka's Nelson Lee and The Brothers Sun's Evan Lai) cross paths with a cruel group of soldiers (led by Dunst's IRL husband Jesse Plemons, Killers of the Flower Moon). No one needs to be familiar with Dunst and Spaeny's cinematic history, and their echoes, to feel the weight of what Civil War is portraying. Spotting the array of cast members from Garland's 2020 sci-fi/thriller TV series Devs — Spaeny, Henderson, Offerman, Sonoya Mizuno (House of the Dragon) as an embedded British correspondent, Jin Ha (Pachinko) as a sharpshooter and Karl Glusman (The Idol) as a spotter — also isn't a must to understand that the author-turned-filmmaker is in his element. Garland has always been fascinated by how folks react to humanity's inherent lust for control and power, whether perpetuating it, fleeing it, being victimised by it or getting it on the record. That was true when he was writing novel The Beach, then penning the screenplays for 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go and Dredd, too. Indeed, as Lee watches on and documents, Dunst virtually plays her director's in-film surrogate. For all of the ways that Civil War can be linked back to now, to recently, to not mere fiction or conjecture, Garland isn't here to overtly connect dots or take sides; he also began writing his script in 2020, pre-dating the Capitol attack. He knows as a given, as he gleans that everyone will, that fractures have become an entrenched part of the US. As intelligent as it is urgent, Civil War is a cautionary tale, then, but never a source of answers. What it sees is the loss, the toll and the consequences when democracy shatters, all through people, aka Lee and company, including the devastation of such grimness becoming a normality. Making The Virgin Suicides come to mind serves the picture in another way, reminding of a stunning Dunst performance laced with unflinching pain just as she's giving another one at the heart of this arresting and searing feature.
Dysfunctional siblings come together after ten years apart in The Skeleton Twins. Hardly the most original of storylines, but while it's true that this film could have easily fallen through the cracks like so many other Sundance dramedies no matter how well it was written — and make no mistake, this is a fantastic screenplay — it was to the film's incredible fortune that Saturday Night Live alumni Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader signed on to play the titular twins. The two clearly built up a rapport working together on the famed sketch comedy series for so long, and watching these two wonderful comedians play depressed sad-sacks who find comfort in each other's comedic company is a joy. They're believable as the troubled twins whose lives come crashing down in unison, and a sequence in which they mime their way through Starship's 1987 hit 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now' is a stellar, funny example of their unmatchable chemistry. Hader is Milo, so distraught over his nonexistent career in LA and a broken romance that he attempts suicide to the blaring tunes of Blondie. Wiig is Maggie, Milo's no less fragile sister, who we're introduced to with her own pile of pills in her hand and who lets Milo move in to recover alongside her and her husband, Lance (Luke Wilson). In their quaint hometown there is also Rich (Ty Burrell), a former teacher with whom Milo had an illegal affair during high school; their new-age mother (Joanna Gleason), who they blame for their problems; and an Australian scuba instructor (Boyd Holbrook) who Maggie has sex with to numb the sadness of her own disappointing life. The real surprise of the film is Hader, graduating from more juvenile cinematic entries like The To Do List and Men in Black 3 and giving a beautifully crafted performance that allows his knack for voice and facial expressions to shine in the stronger material. His reading of a line where he equates himself to a "tragic gay cliche" hums with melancholy as much as it made me guffaw. Wiig, finally finding an appropriate post-Bridesmaids vehicle, gives excellently matched work. The Skeleton Twins is a massive step forward for each of the principal talents involved and ought to make sophomore writer-director Craig Johnson a star, as well as propel Hader and Wiig into the big(ger) leagues. Perhaps more importantly, just like other recent comedies Obvious Child and Happy Christmas, Johnson's film proves that Hollywood needs to step up their game. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bn4VpK0gdyU
When the 2021 Academy Awards took place this week, much about the ceremony was different. From the format and order to the venue and vibe, change was definitely in the air. But another big shift was evident even before the gongs were handed out. Both in cinemas and via streaming, the Best Picture contenders were all available to watch Down Under before the ceremony — so you could check out Sound of Metal from your couch, for instance, then head to your local cinema to see Minari. Nomadland, which won the Best Picture prize, has also been showing in cinemas. It actually first started screening theatrically in Australia on Boxing Day last year, then returned to the big screen in early March. That's a little unusual, and so is the next piece of news: it'll be available to stream via Star on Disney+ from this Friday, April 30. A number of movies have been making the leap from the big to the small screen quite quickly of late, including while they're still in cinemas. Wonder Woman 1984 did just that after Christmas, in fact. That's how the film business has been adapting to the pandemic era. Still, being able to stream the year's Best Picture winner at home mere days after it nabbed the coveted award isn't a usual part of Oscar proceedings. The Chloé Zhao-directed and Frances McDormand-starring film follows the widowed, van-dwelling Fern — a woman who takes to the road, and to the nomad life, after the small middle-America spot she spent her married life in turns into a ghost town when the local mine is shuttered due to the global financial crisis. Charting her travels over the course of more than a year, this humanist drama serves up an observational portrait of those that society happily overlooks. It also won Zhao the Best Director gong, making her the first woman of colour and only second woman ever to nab the prize. McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar, too, and the feature was our best film of 2020 as well. Disney+ viewers will be able to watch Nomadland as part of their regular subscription, with the movie available part of its new Star brand — a just-added new section of the streaming platform that joined the service back in February. For folks yet to see the Oscar-winning film — or if you need a refresher — check out the Nomadland trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jePa57J0Ang&feature=youtu.be Nomadland will be available to stream via Star on Disney+ from Friday, April 30. Top image: Searchlight Pictures. © 2020, 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved
When it comes to televised singing battles, there's only one that matters. No matter what reality television keeps throwing our way, that's Eurovision. Back in 2015, Australia became the first country from Oceania to join the clearly Europe-centric competition, in what was supposed to be a one-off move — and to celebrate five years of belting out pop tunes on the world stage, we're getting our very own pre-Eurovision event to pick the 2019 Aussie entrant. Yes, SBS Australia is hosting a national song contest to decide who'll represent the country in the international song contest. After beaming Eurovision onto our screens for 35 years and spearheading our involvement in recent years, Eurovision - Australia Decides is the next step for the Aussie broadcaster. With the nation's participation in the 2019 Tel Aviv event confirmed, SBS will put together a series of live performance shows to highlight potential entrants, with the general public able to vote for the song and singer that'll follow in Guy Sebastian, Dani Im, Isaiah Firebrace and Jessica Mauboy's footsteps. Even better — if you've always thought that you could whip up a great pop track, this is your chance to shine, as SBS is calling on Aussie songwriters to submit their original songs. Entries are now open until November 4, all tracks mustn't have been previously made publicly available, and they need to range between two and three minutes. You won't be able to actually croon it in Israel, however, but tunes will be shortlisted later this year, paired with some of Australia's most recognised artists, and then performed live for a public vote on Friday, February 8 and Saturday, February 9, 2019. Produced in collaboration with SBS's production partner Blink TV, Eurovision - Australia Decides will be hosted by Myf Warhurst and Joel Creasey, who've hosted Australia's Eurovision coverage since 2017. A yet-to-be-named jury will also be involved in the decision-making process. And if you'd like to not only help pick the Aussie contender, but head along to Eurovision - Australia Decides to watch live in person, it'll be held on the Gold Coast in conjunction with Tourism and Events Queensland. A trip to the Goldie is cheaper than a trip to Europe, obviously. For more information about Eurovision - Australia Decides or to enter your original song, visit sbs.com.au/eurovision.
If you really want to treat yourself, Temple Skincare and Spa is the place to be. Located in the Hills Lodge boutique hotel, the wellness centre offers some of the best treatments in the city. From organic body buffs and hot stone rubs to the ultra-luxurious 105-minute massage, the spa menu has something for everyone. Other specialties include Hawaiian and native essential oil massages, mindfulness and zen facials and collagen treatments. If you're looking for a luxe spot for your next group hang, the spa also offers group packages. You and three or more mates will enjoy a couple of hours of manicures, pedicures and spa treatments, plus high tea and bubbly.
On the lookout for a dope new denim jacket? Or do you want to be rid of that weird-looking lamp taking up space in the living room? Then, by golly, you're in luck. The Garage Sale Trail works with local council partners Australia-wide to get as many trash-and-treasure troves happening on the same day as possible. More than 18,000 garages are expected to open their doors to bargain hunters, selling two million items, when the event returns for its tenth time across the weekend of Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20. Aside from the retro goodies up for grabs, the Trail is all about sustainability. Instead of ending up in landfill, unwanted clutter becomes a fantastic find. So get that tight pair of sunnies for peanuts and help the environment at the same time. The Garage Sale Trail began humbly in Bondi in 2010 and is growing bigger every year. There'll be a right slew of sales happening all around Sydney, so keep your eyes on the event website — or register online from Saturday, August 10 to make a quick buck from your old junk and hang out with the friendly folks in your hood.
With the return of The Big Design Market this September, so too comes the return of our inner art and design guru. Coming to Sydney for its fourth year, the three-day independent design extravaganza will take place at Barangaroo's precinct, The Cutaway. It'll feature more than 200 Australian and international stallholders, with everything from homewares and ceramics to clothing, jewellery and stationery — all of which are ethically made. Plus, this year, the market has stepped up its game, with the introduction of The Big Design Mentor: a well-known Aussie designer, offering advice, guidance and insights to five designers who have stalls at the event. For the inaugural mentor, the market has selected celebrated Sydney artist and designer Ken Done. Should you grow hungry mid-shop, you can grab a bite to eat from local favourites such as Shortstop, Fishbowl, Esti Garcia chocolates and Smoking Gun Bagels. Thirsty, too? You'll also find Rabbit Hole Organic Tea and Archie Rose among the many stalls, plus Tassie's Moo Brew and Willie Smith's Organic Apple Cider as well as Victoria's St Ali coffee, Billy Van Creamy ice-cream coming and Innocent Bystander wines from the Yarra Valley. There'll also be a specially commissioned, 45-metre mural by South Australian artist and jewellery designer, Maylin Evanochko of Mazdevallia, which will serve as a colourful backdrop to an already (very) vibrant fair. The Big Design Market will be open on Friday, September 20, from 10am–9pm; Saturday, September 21, from 10am–6pm; and Sunday, September 22, from 10am–5pm. Entry is $5 per person. To check out the full lineup, head this way.
Here are some things that have happened in the stories of American writer David Sedaris: A man goes in search of a stuffed owl to give to his boyfriend for Valentine's Day. Befriending a taxidermist who confirms his interest in formerly alive creatures is strictly non-professional, the man finds himself in a London basement gazing at the 400-year-old preserved head of a 14-year-old girl and the skeleton of a 19th-century Pygmy. They raise questions, uncomfortable ones. Like, 'how much are they?' A man takes a job at Macy's department store as a Christmas elf named Crumpet. He encounters fistfights, vomiting and magnificent tantrums, children with modelling contracts and children with adjectives instead of first names. He tells a child that Santa has changed his policy, and no longer brings coal if you misbehave. Instead he will break into your house, steal all your appliances, and leave you alone, in the dark, with nothing. A father imagines his children forming a jazz quartet. Hoping to make the fantasy reality, the father gifts the son 'that guitar you always wanted'. The son, while regularly petitioning for a brand-name vacuum cleaner, had never mentioned a guitar. He takes lessons from an artistically thwarted midget, until one evening the son admits to his teacher that what we really wants to do is perform a medley of television jingles in the voice of Billie Holiday. David Sedaris has developed a cult-like following for penning insightful, satirical, real-life stories like those above. His latest book is entitled Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls. You could read it, if that is a thing you would like to do. You could also read Naked, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day or any of his other fine collections available at your local bookshop. A regular contributor to This American Life, Sedaris will be touring our fine country in January 2014. As part of the summer program for Ideas at the House, he will spend one special night at the Sydney Opera House talking to you. David Sedaris is wonderful. Ideas at the House is also wonderful. Together, they are guaranteed to make your evening approximately 89 percent smarter, funnier and more profound. https://youtube.com/watch?v=1msZQjwlebU
Thanks to the ever-growing array of streaming platforms vying for your eyeballs — and the always-expanding catalogues of films and TV shows hosted on each, too — picking what to watch when you're settling down on the couch is rarely a simple exercise. Before winter is over, Australians will have another option to choose from, with new streaming service Paramount+ launching on Wednesday, August 11. The platform will actually rebrand the existing 10 All Access streaming service, with parent company Viacom CBS Australia and New Zealand bringing it into line with the global Paramount+ subscription offering that launched in America in March this year. For an $8.99 per month subscription fee, viewers can expect to scroll through — and try to pick between – more than 20,000 episodes and movies. That'll include films and series from Showtime, CBS, BET Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon, as well as from Paramount Pictures, the Smithsonian Channel and Sony Pictures Television. If you're the kind of viewer that loves rewatching your favourite flicks, you'll be able to head to Paramount+ to stream movies from the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Godfather, Mission: Impossible, Indiana Jones, Transformers, Jackass, Batman and Dark Knight Trilogy franchises. Austin Powers in Goldmember, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Grease and Good Will Hunting will also be available on the service. And, on the TV front, existing series such as The Good Fight, The Twilight Zone, Why Women Kill, Charmed and SpongeBob SquarePants will find a new home. Paramount+ is betting big on new television shows being a big drawcard, though, so you can expect to add a heap of titles to your must-watch list. The new series of Dexter is one of them — and so is the Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Old Guard)-starring TV adaptation of The Man Who Fell to Earth; The First Lady, which sees Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) play Michelle Obama; Anne Boleyn, with Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim) as the titular figure; and page-to-screen adaptation The Luminaries. New Australian dramas Five Bedrooms and Last King of The Cross are also destined for the platform, as are Melbourne-shot comedy Spreadsheet and coming-of-age feature film 6 Festivals. The list goes on, including spy drama Lioness, a TV adaptation of video game Halo and The Offer, a scripted drama about on the making of The Godfather. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eaw6mUV3c6o In the US, Paramount+ will also stream Paramount Pictures' big cinema releases — such as A Quiet Place Part II and Mission: Impossible 7 — between 30 and 45 days after they hit cinemas. Whether that'll also happen in Australia from August is yet to be revealed. Paramount+ will launch in Australia on Wednesday, August 11, rebranding the existing 10 All Access streaming platform, with subscriptions costing $8.99. For further information, head to the Paramount+ website.
The Moon Festival is a historic celebration in China, commemorating the end of the harvest season and the full moon. Usually a mid-autumn celebration, Darling Square will give the festival a spring makeover from Saturday, September 27 to Sunday, October 12. For two weeks, Darling Square will transform into a glowing hub of festivities, including lion dancing and, of course, mooncakes. Lion dancing performances are scheduled for September 27, October 4 and October 11, and are an integral part of the ancient Chinese holiday. Then, each night, hundreds of lanterns will light up Darling Square in a stunning display. Want to light one up yourself? Just spend over $30 at any Darling Square retailer on a weekday and receive one for free. For families, there's plenty of free activities to enjoy, like mooncake clay-making, lantern painting and a scavenger hunt. And for those wanting a boogie? Live music will bring the precinct to life every Friday and Saturday night. Of course, food is at the heart of the Moon Festival, and Darling Square's famous eateries are joining in with limited-edition specials. Highlights include XOPP's indulgent modern mooncake collection, 15cenchi's Salted Egg Mochi Moon Cheesecake, Lilong by Taste of Shanghai's house-made puff pastry mooncakes and Gelato Messina's festival-exclusive gelato, Over the Moon. For something savoury, Hello Auntie has curated special banquet menus designed for sharing, Auvers Dining has created a gigantic XO seafood tower, and 789 KBBQ is offering a complimentary serving of chicken thighs when you spend $150 or more during Moon Festival. From September 27 to October 12, make sure to head down to this flavour-packed celebration of Moon Festival. Find out more via the website.
At the end of each season, Sydney label enthusiasts are often rewarded with a sample sale where loyal fans of the brand can pick up pieces from the previous collections for far below the retail price. Now Ellery is hosting one of these occasions at which people tear through racks of garments hoping for something in their size. Whatever you get your hands on, expect it to be over 50% off. Kym Ellery has become one of the most important names in the Australian fashion landscape over recent years. Since launching her brand Ellery in a friend's art gallery in Surry Hills in 2007, she has secured a following both within Australia and overseas. Friday 8am - 8pm, Saturday 10am - 6pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm
While the words ‘all I want for Christmas’ usually bring to mind cheesy rom-coms and Mariah Carey’s high pitched tunes, Firstdraft Gallery have something a little different in mind — or do they? Curated by Marcus Whale, All I Want for Christmas is You is indeed a celebration of all things pop and beyond. There’s Fatti Frances’ replica of a pop live show with a twist, Marco Cher-Gibard R&B cut-ups and Michael Salerno’s exploration of technological decay. The symbols of pop music have been remixed, reworked and shuffled double time. Pop music in this exhibition is looked at as something between the “common and the divine” where, “we, the listener and the fan, create the atmosphere of simulacra that provides sustenance for pop stardom.” Other artists in the exhibition are Cassius Select, JD Reforma, Scott Morrison, O.B. De Alessi, Samuel Bruce, Romi, Thomas William (with Jonathon Watts). Oh, and there’s also celebrity fan fiction with Catcall and Kirin J. Callinan. Yup, that’s right. The $5 entry includes a sausage sandwich.
When a TV show or movie franchise returns years and years after its last instalment, there's no longer any point being surprised. It happens that often these days, with Veronica Mars, Twin Peaks, Star Wars and Jurassic Park just a few recent examples. The latest past pop culture hit set to make a comeback: Sex and the City. Thankfully, as anyone who sat through the terrible 2008 and 2010 movies of the same name will be hoping, the Sarah Jessica Parker-starring series is returning to the small screen this time around. This news was first announced back at the beginning of 2021 — and, ten months later, new HBO show And Just Like That... is now getting closer to reaching our eyeballs. Mark December in your diary and prepare to start sipping cosmopolitans over summer, as that's when this ten-episode spinoff will arrive. Parker is back, as are her initial co-stars Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon. But And Just Like That... is being badged as a "new chapter' in the Sex and the City story, rather than an additional season of the existing 1998–2004 program — and there's one clear reason for that. While the show will follow Carrie (Parker), Miranda (Nixon) and Charlotte (Davis) once more, the character of Samantha isn't part of the revival, and neither is actor Kim Cattrall, who played her. So, you'll be watching a trio of the original series' leading ladies as they navigate their lives — this time in their 50s. Although Parker, Nixon and Davis won't have Cattrall for company, the list of returning Sex and the City cast members includes Chris Noth, Mario Cantone, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler and the late Willie Garson. Yes, that's Big, Anthony, Steve, Harry and Stanford all accounted for. Also, Grey's Anatomy's Sara Ramírez will feature as well. Parker, Davis and Nixon are also named as producers on And Just Like That..., alongside Michael Patrick King, who worked as a writer, director and executive producer on the original (and on the two movies). In Australia, And Just Like That... is headed to Binge, Foxtel's stand-alone streaming service (and also home to Sex and the City's six seasons). A trailer for the new series hasn't been released yet, but HBO has dropped a date announcement video, which gives a few glimpses. Check it out below: And Just Like That... will start streaming in Australia via Binge sometime in December. We'll update you with an exact airdate once one is announced. Top image: HBO Max.
No longer does the perfect sausage roll need to be a morning-after debacle. During Sydney Craft Beer Week, the two will unite in perfect harmony. The entire week will see special baked treats creatively fused with The Grifter Brewing Co.’s Inner West brews. And on the first Saturday of SCBW, the brew team will also make a special guest appearance pouring a few of their favourite non-baked treats. So pair your beer with a pastry filled with beer. It’s the perfect carb-to-carb ratio. Beer Street Bakery is one of our top ten picks for Sydney Craft Beer Week. Check out our other nine favourite events.
Last time Ben Caplan was here in 2014, he was accompanied by a band called the Casual Smokers — a motley crew who helped their frontman spark a gnarly jamboree of pluck-and-twang folk ballads. For Sydney Festival 2019, he and his beard are back. It looks like he's fired the band, kept their instruments and taken up acting. Old Stock is being billed as a refugee love story and, with a multitude of instruments strewn about the stage, there's no chance this is going to be a spoken word gig. Seizing upon the Jewish musical tradition of the klezmer folk tale, Caplan will set about rattling off the tale of two Romanian Jews looking to make a new home in Canada in the early 20th century. If you're desperate for a seat in the front row, some sort of face-protector wouldn't go astray — Old Stock's won a bunch of plaudits and when Caplan dances, Edinburgh Fringe Awards tend to fall out of his trousers. Old Stock is part of Sydney Festival's dramatic and diverse 2019 program. Check out the full lineup here. Image: Stoo Metz Photography.
