If you want to stand out in Sydney's bottomless brunch scene, you have to up the ante. Well, Untied in Barangaroo has done just that (again). You've heard us sing the praises of its vegan bottomless brunch already — and now the rooftop bar is kicking off another weekly brunch series with more stellar food, more bottomless booze, plus its very own gospel choir. Hallelujah, Brunch with Soul is here. The menu is heavenly — think spiced granola with roasted peach and honey yoghurt, croissants and 'nduja eggs benedict. There's also a vegan option available featuring southern fried tofu benedict and beignets (deep-fried choux pastry) with coconut whip and vegan caramel. For drinks, you can expect refreshing mint and watermelon kombucha and a selection of free-flowing spritzes including the classic Aperol spritz, the Rogue Rose (rouge vermouth, fresh strawberries and lemon), the Elderflower Bisou with lavender and the Sloe Death with vanilla and blueberry puree. The best part? The roaming gospel choir will sing out your favourite tunes while you tuck into the sumptuous spread. Looks like Saturday sessions are sorted, team. Bottoms up. Brunch with Soul takes place every Saturday across two sessions — 11am and 2pm — until May 18. The brunch costs $65 per person. To make a booking, head to Untied's website.
UPDATE, May 29, 2021: With Victoria in lockdown, the St Kilda Film Festival isn't hosting any physical screenings on its final day — but you can watch Australia's Top 100 short films for free online until 11.59pm today, Saturday, May 29. You'll find big things in small packages at the St Kilda Film Festival this year. That's true every year — even last year, during lockdown — but you'll also find some changes on this year's program as well. Australia's oldest short film festival, the massive event will once again physically descend upon St Kilda in 2021; however, as it did in 2020, the lineup is also jumping online and screening to movie buffs nationally. The hybrid version of the festival will still showcase works by some of the best up-and-coming filmmakers in the country, which you can watch at 11 physical events or via 15 digital sessions. Running from Thursday, May 20–Saturday, May 29, it all kicks off with opening night at The Astor Theatre, then gives student animation, family-friendly animation, Victorian-made shorts, women filmmakers and directors under the age of 21 their time to shine at ticketed screenings. As always, the backbone of the festival is Australia's Top 100, featuring filmmakers from every corner of the country competing for prizes. You can view these short flicks online this year — and for free — as broken down into themed packages. The Australian Animation Showcase highlights Aussie animation, 'Dark Matter' showcases horror, thriller and dystopian tales, 'Suburban Keyholes' is all about life in the suburbs and 'Age of Innocence' focuses on coming-of-age stories, for instance. Image: Jim Lee
David Attenborough may have turned 94 in 2020; however the acclaimed broadcaster and natural historian isn't slowing down anytime soon. Fresh from narrating and presenting two new TV series in 2019 (Our Planet and Seven Worlds, One Planet), appearing at Glastonbury and recently joining Instagram, he's now bringing his latest movie-length documentary to your screen. Called David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, the film sees Attenborough look back on his more than nine decades on earth, the sights he has seen and the changes he has witnessed. Specifically, he reflects upon humanity's enormous and damaging impact on the natural world — and, when it hits Netflix on Sunday, October 4, it servers up quite the powerful viewing experience. Since the early 50s, Attenborough's stunningly shot documentaries have been awash with revelatory sights and detailed insights from across the planet, sharing the kind of wonders that eager audiences would be unlikely to see or discover themselves otherwise. Now, after becoming a constant, respected and beloved presence in the field, his passionate and vibrant work has earned its place in history several times over. But it might also become a record of a world, and of natural history, that's lost due to climate change. It's this possibility that's behind A Life On Our Planet — that, and the great broadcaster's efforts to motivate a response to combat both global warming and the catastrophic loss of biodiversity blighting the environment. On offer here is an urgent and far-ranging exploration of how our pale blue dot evolved to its current state, what might be in store if we continue down this path, and how and why things could and should change. Determined in his tone, Attenborough calls the documentary his witness statement several times within its frames, and it's as potent and devastating as intended. Bookended by scenes in Chernobyl that are initially designed to illustrate what can happen ecologically when bad planning and human error combine — a situation that, Attenborough posits, applies to climate change as well — A Life On Our Planet is both broad and intricate, and personal and political too. Cycling through the earth's life to-date to provide a snapshot of the planet's predicament, it delivers a comprehensive overview, a raft of telling facts and figures, and a plethora of reflections from its central figure. It also features the now-requisite array of eye-catching footage that Attenborough's hefty body of work has long become known for, served up here to not only revel in its glory and showcase his exceptional career, but to demonstrate what's fading away due to humanity's impact upon the globe. Accordingly, it's impossible not to be moved by the film. If viewers won't listen to Attenborough on this topic, and as he explains what he's seen and where he sees things heading, then they probably won't listen to anyone. In the documentary's latter third, A Life On Our Planet follows in the footsteps of Australian doco 2040, too, by pondering how the world might adapt for the better. Produced by wildlife filmmakers Silverback Films and global environmental organisation WWF, A Life On Our Planet was originally slated to play in cinemas in April — but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its release was postponed. It's currently showing on the big screen Down Under now (except Victoria), with the film paired with an exclusive cinema-only conversation between Attenborough and Michael Palin, if you'd rather see its vivid and impassioned sights in a larger format. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64R2MYUt394 David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet hits Netflix on Sunday, October 4, at 5pm AEST / 6pm ADST. It's also currently screening in Australian and New Zealand cinemas.
The gym is a fitness ecosystem inhabited by various species of exercisers. The long legs of the gazelles grace the treadmills, the lions flex their muscle on the bench press and the herds trot in tandem in their step classes. Whatever fitness pack you associate with, we all have different motivations for purchasing our membership — some want to get fit, others just want to look good, and some want both. But is there more behind our desire to run on a conveyer belt and repetitively lift heavy objects? This is what Circuit explores, flexing its muscle to expose what we are truly working out whilst we are working out. Through six intersecting and relatable monologues, we learn that we often enter the gym because we are lost. Adam (Sean Corcoran) wants to become a standout fish in the sea after breaking up with his boyfriend, Justin (Tom Mesker) runs to remind himself that his heart isn't actually broken, Janine (Aimee Timmins) wants to belong and so joins the 'Zumba movement', Darcy (Grace De Morgan) is disillusioned with the world and Kelly (Anika Herbert) has some serious Jane Fonda circa-1985-inspired mother issues that she is trying to resolve. We also have Joel (Michael Drysdale), who works at the gym yet seems neither lost nor found, largely because we never get to completely connect with him. Our investment is not rewarded and this is the single grievance with what is otherwise a very enjoyable play. When we are finally exposed to what appears to be his sensitive side, our yoga mat is pulled from underneath us as his facade is revealed. And when Adam finally takes the bold step we want him to, it is abruptly blocked by the only weak joke of the entire play. Justin's story also feels unresolved, which is a shame as Mesker is arguably the standout monologuist. The play then abruptly ends, leaving us unable to complete the emotional circuit. Having said that, Circuit is an incredibly enjoyable night of theatre. The delivery of the piece makes us feel that we have been personally chosen to become each character's workout partner. The humour is also expertly scripted and delivered, with countless one-liners hitting home — especially Justin's scientific explanation of how running gets an ex-lover out of your system. Circuit is certainly the most enjoyable way to work out in the gym for two hours without raising a sweat and will leave your theatrical chakras feeling aligned.
Sydney's $75-million state-of-the-art surf park — which finally opened in May following seven years of La Niña-hampered construction — is an obvious drawcard for any avid boarders in search of guaranteed two-metre waves. And with the imminent opening of the second of two on-site hospitality venues on Thursday, July 25, it's soon to become an equally tempting go-to for any hungry Sydneysiders who enjoy water views — albeit of the manmade variety. Urbnsurf at Sydney Olympic Park is now home to the city's second RAFI — the first being the airy rooftop diner and bar that opened in North Sydney in 2022. Operated by Applejack Hospitality — the group behind top Sydney venues such as Bopp & Tone, Forrester's and The Butler — RAFI Urbnsurf will be located on the upper level of the park's main building, with stunning views of the vast lagoon and a large al fresco terrace. With capacity for 165 guests, the restaurant's seafood-heavy menu will feature many of the most-popular dishes from its sister venue, including a raw platter starring premium Sydney rock oysters from East33, Bermagui yellowfin tuna and kingfish from South Australia's Spencer Gulf. Steamed Cone Bay barramundi served with a rich yet delicate chickpea miso and yuzu kosho sauce, and RAFI's famed crispy eggplant chips drizzled in honey and dusted with a lip-smacking mix of herbs and spices, are two more tried-and-trusted crowd pleasers on offer. RAFI Bar Manager Cameron Freno has created a cocktail menu that showcases closed-loop sustainability, making use of kitchen leftovers to craft drinks such as the Sub-Zero Oyster Martini, the Sub-Zero burnt butter and pecan old fashioned, and a riff on the mai tai using unsold Sonoma croissants from the downstairs cafe, Sandy's. RAFI Urbnsurf's stylish interiors have been designed by Luchetti Krelle, and make use of natural finishes and a palette of earth tones to create an intimate, quietly luxe space. Undulating timbre surfaces and circular motifs throughout take their cues from the rippling waters just beyond the dining room's wide windows, while brushed-brass light fixtures, woven rush dining chairs and a large-scale bespoke wool carpet by First Nations artist Colleen Ngwarraye that's inspired by bush medicine herbs add an inviting sense of warmth. The expansive terrace summons a beachier vibe, with strings of bistro lights and lush planting creating a laidback feel perfect for relaxing after catching a few waves. Find RAFI Urbnsurf at 15 Hill Road, Pod 5B, Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush, open Wednesday–Sunday, 11.30am–11pm. Head to the venue's website for more details. Images: Steven Woodburn
If you're a lover of dance but also a believer in brevity, this year's Art Month has you covered. They're hosting a night of free, five-minute dance classes to help you polish one killer move to bust out on the d-floor at the next crazy disco rave you attend, led by groover Amy Zhang. On Wednesday, March 8 in Darlinghurst, Groove Therapy — who run weekly dance classes at 107 Projects — will let you cram yourself and your closest friends (max three per session) into a safe space and learn dance unapologetically for five minutes. These classes will actually be held in neon, disco bedrooms (hence the space restrictions) so you can pretend it's just you, your floor-length mirror and YouTube. And remember: it's not about perfecting that one move, it's about grooving your butt off in a safe and non-judgement space — even if it is for only five minutes. The classes are free, but you will need to book in advance.
"We're in a war. You wanna fight?" If you've watched 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, then season one of Andor — the Disney+ prequel series to the big-screen spy thriller — then hearing those words uttered by Diego Luna (La Máquina) won't come as a surprise. Viewers know where this tale is headed, but watching the best small-screen addition to a galaxy far, far away lead us there has already proven gripping TV once. The show's namesake makes the above statements in the just-dropped first teaser trailer for Andor's long-awaited second season — and more rebellion and fighting for revolution awaits. Almost three years have passed since the Mouse House's streaming platform stepped into this story — three years that've been filled with Ahsoka, the sadly short-lived The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew. When it returns in April 2025, Andor will be just the second of Disney+'s live-action Star Wars shows to extend beyond a single season (the other: The Mandalorian), although Ahsoka is also locked in for more episodes. If you missed it the first time around, Andor takes a favourite big-screen character and steps back into their story before the events that viewers have already seen — so, like Obi-Wan Kenobi. As its title makes plain, the show focuses on its namesake, Cassian Andor, with Luna reprising his Rogue One role. Star Wars fans have already seen him as a Rebel captain and intelligence agent, and also watched how his story wraps up, hence the show's need to jump backwards. The focus: following Andor as he discovers how he can play a part in battling the Empire. Indeed, charting the rebellion, and how people and planets joined in, is the series' whole remit. In season two, as the end we all know is coming gets closer, expect higher stakes — and also Ben Mendelsohn (The New Look) as his Rogue One character Orson Krennic, plus Alan Tudyk (Grimsburg) as K-2SO. The first season of Andor saw filmmaker Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Legacy) — who co-wrote the screenplay for Rogue One — rejoin the Star Wars franchise as the series' creator and showrunner. He's back for season two. On-screen, so are Stellan Skarsgård (Dune: Part Two), Genevieve O'Reilly (Tin Star), Denise Gough (Who Is Erin Carter?), Kyle Soller (Bodies), Adria Arjona (Blink Twice), Faye Marsay (Ten Pound Poms) and Forest Whitaker (Emperor of Ocean Park) . Release-wise, the 12-episode season — which is not just Andor's second, but its final season — is being unveiled in four chapters comprising of three episodes a piece. A new chapter will hit your streaming queue each week from Wednesday, April 23 Down Under. Check out the first trailer for Andor season two below: Andor season two streams via Disney+ from Wednesday, April 23, 2025 Down Under. Read our review of season one. Images:©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Easter, no matter your religious inclinations, is a time for leisure. When that long-awaited long weekend rolls around, it's all in on chocolate, but beforehand? A particular treat becomes the focus of bakeries around the world. And, thankfully, a stack of local Sydney bakeries are here to fix your hot-crossed cravings, both the classic and unconventional, launching their goodies from kitchens and storefronts all over town. Have a read of our selections, and we guarantee that soon you'll be tucking into some handcrafted Easter buns, plump with fruit, loaded with spices and slathered with lashings of butter. From the traditional glazed version to some crafty new-world remixes, here's where to get your sweet treat fix this Easter. Humble Bakery First things first, the classics. The classic hot cross bun is a simple thing, glazed bread, the definitive cross, spiced fruit…memorable, yet humble. Where else to get a refined example of the classic than at Humble Bakery? Returning for 2026, Humble's classic hot cross bun sees freshly ground cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger mixed into dough with raisins, sultanas, apricots, cranberries and an orange peel, then baked and finished with a spiced glaze. You can get them individually in-store or pre-order online, from now until Monday, April 6. Find Humble Bakery at Shop 2, 50 Holt Street, Surry Hills, Shop 1, 333 Kent Street and Shop 19, 16-20 Loftus Lane. [caption id="attachment_1082512" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Trent Van Der Jagt[/caption] Brooklyn Boy Bagels Brooklyn Boy Bagels is adding a bit of Manhattan-style spin to the Easter menu, with not one but three hot cross bun-style choices to keep us fed throughout the Easter period. There's a classic, made with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, sultanas, cranberries, and candied orange, then finished with an orange and maple glaze. But for the unconventional, the Hot Cross Bagel reimagines the treat in bagel form with a vanilla glaze cross, and a Red Velvet Hot Cross Bun puts some colour and cocoa powder into the mix, best enjoyed with Brooklyn Boy's cultured butter, hazelnut or cream cheese spreads. Get them individually in-store or by the six packs online. Find Brooklyn Boy Bagels at 74 Reservoir St, Surry Hills and 19 Carrington Rd, Marrickville. Tokyo Lamington The masters of cubed baked goods, Tokyo Lamington, is joining the Easter season with a few different treats. This year's spin on the hot cross bun is the product of a collaboration with Benriach Distillery called the Scotch Cross Bun — which sees the fruit infused with Benriach's The Original Ten and the bun finished with a scotch glaze. There's also the Scotch Caramel Easter Lamington, pairing a chocolate sponge with a decadent whisky caramel centre. Order yours online now. Find Tokyo Lamington at 277 Australia St, Newtown and 140 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville. Kafe Kooks If you've ever tucked into a side dish of crispy roti bread and thought, "why can't I eat more meals with this?", you've clearly never been to Kafe Kooks. This Ultimo eatery heroes the humble roti with every menu item, including an unconventional but delicious-sounding Easter treat. The Hot Cross Bom reimagines things with buttery, hand-stretched roti stuffed with cinnamon and raisins — a departure from the norm, but delicious nonetheless. You can get yours in-store now until the end of Easter. Find Kafe Kooks at 63 Mountain St, Ultimo. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sonoma Artisan Bakers (@sonomabakery) Sonoma Sonoma's hand-crafted breads and pastries have long had a cult following among Sydney's sweet-tooths and carb-lovers. Of course, that includes much-loved seasonal creation, the 'Not Cross Bun' — a riff on the classic hot cross bun featuring mixed fruits, sweetly spiced dough and an orange glaze, each emblazoned with a signature Sonoma 'S'. You can order them for pickup online, then enjoy them as Sonoma recommends, with cultured butter or a scoop of ice cream if you want to really indulge. Find Sonoma at 32-44 Birmingham St, Alexandria, R10/178 Campbell Parade, Bondi, 215a Glebe Point Road, Glebe, 80 Norton St, Leichhardt, Shop 1/12-16 MacMahon Place, Menai and Shop 1, 779 New South Head Road, Rose Bay. Loulou Since its beginnings, Loulou has opened up six locations across Sydney to serve its classy French fare — and that ethos extends to its take on hot cross buns. What's more French in a baked context than brioche? Loulou's Hot Heart Buns are brioche galore, a buttery delight of a base that uses 500 grams of butter for every kilogram of dough. The three choices? Traditional, chocolate chip, or chocolate-hazelnut custard-stuffed. You can get yours at Loulou Milson's Point, Petit Loulou and Cafe Loulou. Find Loulou at 61 Lavender St, Milsons Point, 1 Elizabeth St (Cnr Elizabeth & Hunter St), Martin Place and 168 McLaren St, North Sydney. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Concrete Playground Sydney (@concreteplayground) Shadow Baking Born from the same mad culinary geniuses behind Messina, Shadow Baking treats never disappoint. That much extends to their Easter range, which is seeing Hot X Scrolls land in their stores across Sydney. These are a marriage of a croissant and a hot cross bun, with two flavour options. Classic Fruit is a laminated spiced pastry filled with spiced fruit and vanilla custard, and Dark Chocolate, which adds that very ingredient to the mix — making a treat that tastes as good as it looks. Get yours by the six-pack in-store now. Find Shadow Baking at 243 Victoria St, Darlinghurst and 1 Rich St, Marrickville. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Flour and Stone (@flourandstone) Flour and Stone Woolloomooloo's cult-favourite neighbourhood bakery is being typically quirky for their spin on the Easter season. This year, it's Easter Buns are inspired by a Florencian Easter treat named Panderamirino. These are brioche buns infused with orange zest, rosemary, cardamom and currants, glazed with egg wash and dusted with sugar. Get them in-store or pre-order for delivery online now. Find Flour and Stone at 43 Riley St, Woolloomooloo. Baker Bleu Though predominantly a Melbourne bakery, Baker Bleu does indeed have a Sydney outpost where you can find its renowned Easter treats. While you can't go wrong with the cinnamon-and-ginger-spiced traditional variety, those in the know line up for one particular product during the Easter period: the sour cherry and dark chocolate buns. The mix of acidic sour cherries, creamy 64% couverture chocolate and warming spices makes this one of the best buns in the game. And this year, to complement said buns, Baker Bleu is adding an iced hot cross bun latte, an iced cherry chocolate drink, and hot cross bun soft serves to their Easter menu. Find Baker Bleu at 2 Guilfoyle Ave, Double Bay. Martha's We've explored plenty of gourmet tune-ups on the classic recipe, and plenty of fun alternatives too, but no other bakery except Martha's has a rotating mix of hot cross buns on offer. Starting this week, three flavours will roll out once a week. First up is a classic-style bun with whipped butter and pink salt, followed by a chocolate and dulce de leche bun in week two, and a finale of a peanut butter and jelly bun: a ruby chocolate bun with strawberry compote and whipped peanut cream. Find Martha's at 312 Great N Rd, Wareemba. Norma's Deli Ordering hot cross buns individually is the sensible choice, by the six pack, that's more fun — but how about in a wheel of 30 buns? Now you're talking. For that, you need to head to Norma's Deli in Manly, where you can order a massive made-for-sharing wheel of either classic or chocolate hot cross buns. Pick it up fresh for $68 and take it straight to the table, where you and any backup you might need can tear it apart with your bare hands and no small amount of festive Easter glee. Find Norma's Deli at 74-78 The Corso, Manly. Images: supplied Like what you see? Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these straight to your inbox.
The Sydney Theatre Company has revealed a 2014 program that cements its reputation as the home of new and canonical playwriting. At the same time, it's also arguably the most experimental of seasons around, incorporating global theatre trends that look at interactivity and staging shows in unusual spaces. The centrepiece of the program is a Macbeth as you've never seen it. Starring Hugo Weaving and directed by Kip Williams, the production takes place in the auditorium of the cavernous Sydney Theatre, with the (small) audience sitting on the stage. More than a half-baked scheme, this reconfiguration paves the way for all kinds of unique imagery that flips the familiar on its head. Earlier in the year is Fight Night, from regular Belgian visitors Ontroerend Goed (A History of Everything) and Adelaide's The Border Project. The show plays out as something of a competition for votes, the progress of which is controlled by the audience via handheld devices. As well as exploring the audience-performer relationship, it aims to reflect on the flaws and manipulations of the democratic system. Other works in the season are in the more traditional, you-sit-there, we-act-here vein of theatre, but many are thrilling all the same. There are two compelling devised works on the menu: Calpurnia Descending comes from the incomparable Sisters Grimm (Little Mercy), who have roped in Paul Capsis for their own spin on the All About Eve film trope of manipulative female proteges. The Long Way Home, meanwhile, looks to be a powerful collaboration between members of the Australian Defence Force and the playwright Daniel Keene. In a project instigated by ADF Chief David Hurley, actors and servicemen will perform a piece of verbatim theatre reflecting on their experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor. Richard Roxburgh pops up at the end of the year in Cyrano de Bergerac, a role which STC artistic director Andrew Upton describes him as being "born to play", not because he's as famously ugly as the poetically gifted romantic (that may require prostheses), but because he has the rare quality of being both "a leading man and a clown". Other classics of various eras include Mojo, a rowdy, '50s London-set, testosterone-drenched play by Jez Butterworth that's sometimes said to be the 'inspiration' for Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. There's also farce Noises Off; Maxim Gorky's drama Children of the Sun, in an adaptation by Upton first performed at London's National Theatre; and a steadfast David Williamson, Travelling North, starring Baby Boomer favourites Bryan Brown and Greta Scacchi. New Australian writing comes in the form of Lachlan Philpott's fun M.Rock, based on the true story of elderly nightclub DJ Mamy Rock; Sue Smith's Kryptonite, a rich political drama that comes down to personal missed connections; and Joanna Murray-Smith's Switzerland, an unexpectedly Hitchockian thriller. Recent international writing is represented by The Effect, another socially conscious play from Lucy Prebble, writer of Enron, this time with a medical spin, and the highfalutin Perplex from German Marius von Mayenburg, a self-reflexive piece of theatre about a couple who return from holiday to find their housesitters have taken over their lives. For more information and subscription packages, see the Sydney Theatre Company website.
How good is Easter? Not only is it the longest of all long weekends, but it's also a time of celebration, of enjoying the fine things. Fine things being hot cross buns, which some may say deserve to be on the shelves year-round. But we're not here to talk about seasonal baked goods. If you're reading this, you might be lacking in the plans department for this year's Easter long weekend. If that's true, settle in, dear reader. Here's some carefully curated inspiration on how to best utilise your four treasured days of freedom. IF YOU WANT A CLASSY DOSE OF CULTURE Theatregoers need not look any further than Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour. It's a stage show quite unlike anything else on offer in Sydney and is playing two shows over the Easter weekend on Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9 at 7.30pm. But what makes this show worth your time compared to others? The play, a historically inspired ode to unrequited love and devotion, takes place on the floating stage at Fleet Steps. Part of what makes it so impressive is that it has endured over 100 years of performing on stages worldwide. But it doesn't show its age. The award-winning production design is built around the evolving nature of the characters, with a total re-design of the stage during the intermission as a highlight. Plus, it's backlit by the Sydney Opera House itself, and a fireworks display with every show. To pair with the show's spectacle and venue, you can enjoy luxury onsite dining at one of the several popup eateries and bars, because opera is always better with a full stomach and a drink in hand. IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A SHORTCUT TO A CHOCOLATE COMA What's the maximum age for participating in an easter egg hunt? Trick question, the limit does not exist. In fact, there's no greater sport. What if we told you there's a better way to enjoy Easter goodies than buying or hunting them? Instead, make your own. Such a thing is possible at the Sydney Chocolate School, where owner and master chocolatier Rebecca Knights and her team run classes on all things chocolate. While many courses are available at the Mosman venue, Easter opens up a unique masterclass in chocolate tempering, where you can craft your own sweet treats. You'll be learning the traditional method of marble tempering, a classy approach to creating oh-so-sweet treats. The treats in question will be a variety of shapes and sizes and, assuming you resist the urge to devour them upon completion, you'll get to take them home with you. TO DODGE THE CROWDS OF KIDDOS Yes, Easter is a time for celebration. Celebrations like the Sydney Royal Easter show will appear all over Sydney. However, and there's no shame in this, you might prefer to avoid those events that lean a bit more toward the family-friendly end of things. Don't worry, long weekends also mean long nights and lengthy events that are totally child-free. Take Greenwood Hotel as an example – something of a North Sydney icon for 18+ ragers. On Saturday, April 8 it's hosting DJ legends Basement Jaxx for their Australian stop of a world tour. There's also a myriad of supporting acts playing in the pub's chapel, courtyard and lounge areas from 1pm to 10pm. Alternatively, you could take to the not-so-high seas of Sydney Harbour aboard Yeah Buoy's Easter Long Weekend Boat Party. Be immersed in good tunes and good vibes from 3.30pm-7.30 pm in the biggest party you could throw on water. And if those don't take your fancy, drag queen Trixie Mattel is coming to Roundhouse in Kensington on Sunday, April 9, for the world premiere of her new Solid Pink Disco Party. Expect pink deco, drinks, DJ sets, and probably pink drag queens too. Shockingly, the dress code is also pink. It'll be a big night, kicking off at 9pm. Lucky it's a long weekend! IF YOU WANT TO EAT LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW It's Easter. If you're not planning on partaking in at least one lunch that'll set you up for a late afternoon nap, are you doing it right? All holidays have an element of food built into their traditional bones, but that doesn't mean you need to limit yourself to spiced baked goods and chocolate at Easter. To kickstart your appetite, consider the Maestria Restaurant and Bar. This decadent venue is planning an Easter buffet worthy of any holiday. It has undergone an Easter transformation by event planning pros Anna Wang and is hosting three-hour buffet sessions plus egg hunts for all ages on Saturday, April 8. Similarly, the Amora Hotel Jamison is hosting an Easter lunch event on Sunday, April 9 in the Croft restaurant. Expect fine farm-to-plate produce from land and sea alike. And for something a bit looser, book a seat aboard a three-hour scenic lunch cruise on Sydney Harbour, running on Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9 at 12.30pm. IF YOU NEED TO GET AWAY FROM IT ALL We've talked all about plans big and small, but we don't all like to stay busy. If your long-weekend plans are to dodge the hustle and bustle entirely, frankly, it'd be a waste to stay at home. Why not get up and explore some of that natural beauty we're surrounded by in Sydney? Depending on your definition of Sydney's border, there are anywhere between 50 and 250 National Parks in the greater Sydney area. This includes one of the oldest in the world, the densely packed wilderness of Royal National Park. National Parks like that boast some of the most impressive natural vistas in town, including great coastal walks, bushwalking adventures and secluded swimming spots. Adventurous folks might also want to check out some awe-inspiring caves or put some distance between you and the land altogether on a kayaking excursion. For more information about Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour, visit the website. And for more inspiration on what's worth doing in Sydney, find it here on Concrete Playground.
This news isn't like rain on your wedding day. It doesn't resemble finding a black fly in your chardonnay. And it definitely isn't anything like hitting a traffic jam when you're already late, either. But, it will have you singing those lines — and it is news that you oughta know, too — because 15-time Tony Award-nominated musical Jagged Little Pill is heading to Australia. The acclaimed production is making its first trip beyond Broadway, in fact, when it hits the Theatre Royal Sydney in September. And, when the curtains are raised, it'll help mark another milestone, reopening the Theatre Royal five years after it closed its doors in 2016. Inspired by Alanis Morissette's 1995 album of the same name, Jagged Little Pill the Musical weaves a story around songs from that iconic record. So yes, it's a jukebox musical like Mamma Mia!, We Will Rock You and Rock of Ages. Famed tracks 'Ironic', 'You Oughta Know', 'Hand in My Pocket', 'Head Over Feet' and 'You Learn' all feature, in a production that boasts music by Morissette and her album co-writer and producer Glen Ballard, lyrics by Morissette, and a book by Juno Oscar-winner Diablo Cody. And, songs such as 'Thank U', 'So Pure', 'That I Would Be Good', 'So Unsexy' and 'Hands Clean' all pop up as well, even though they hail from the musician's subsequent albums. [caption id="attachment_807910" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jagged Little Pill the Musical original Broadway cast, Matthew Murphy.[/caption] Just who'll be starring in the show is yet to be revealed, along with the exact season dates. But, narrative-wise, Jagged Little Pill the Musical tells the tale of the Healy family. They struggle their seemingly idyllic suburban lives after a troubling event in their community. Expect to hear Morissette's tunes — including two new songs written just for the show — used in a tale about social issues relevant to today, but with an overall message of hope, healing and togetherness. Whether Jagged Little Pill the Musical will be a Tony-winner by the time it hits our shores, rather than just a nominee, isn't yet known. Its 15 nominations were all announced in 2020 for the pandemic-delayed 74th Tony Awards, which won't be held until Broadway reopens. Australians keen to see the musical can sign up for the ticket waitlist, and can look forward to watching it in a venue with quite the history. The 1100-seat Theatre Royal is one of Australia's oldest theatres, dating back to the 1870s. But most folks will know it in its current form, after it reopened in the 1970s with a design by famed Australian architect Harry Seidler as a replacement for the old theatre that was demolished when the MLC Centre was built. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh49oFfh1Bw Jagged Little Pill the Musical will play the Theatre Royal Sydney at 108 King Street, Sydney, from September — with exact season dates yet to be announced. For further details and to join the ticket waitlist, head to the musical's website. Top image: Jagged Little Pill the Musical Broadway opening night curtain call, Bruce Glikas.
Maybe you were a big fan of Moon Park. Maybe you've been in for brunch. Maybe its shrimp-brined fried chicken gave you life on more than a few occasions. Whatever the reason you frequent Paper Bird, your days for popping in for tasty Korean-Japanese-Chinese snacks and wine are (very sadly) numbered. After opening in the Potts Point spot a bit over two years ago, its owners today announced that it will close its door forever on the first weekend of August. In an Instagram post this morning, the team confirmed that Paper Bird's last day of service will be Saturday, August 3. It has not given a specific reason for the closure. View this post on Instagram Sad but true, our last service will be Saturday August the 3rd. It's been a pleasure serving you all for the last 2 years and we're hoping you can make it in for a last visit in our remaining weeks. We'll be bringing back some old favourites from both Paper Bird and Moon Park, come in and say bye... A post shared by Paper Bird (@paperbirdpottspoint) on Jun 23, 2019 at 6:58pm PDT Fans of the Paper Bird team will be feeling a sense of déjà vu — its previous restaurant Moon Park closed its doors in 2016. Luckily, it looks set to bring back some favourites from both the Paper Bird and Moon Park menus during its final weeks of service. Best make a booking now and cross your fingers for some of that fried chicken. The restaurant was initially opened in July 2017 by Ned Brooks, Ben Sears and Eun Hee An as an all-day diner. Since then, it had dropped down to dinner service only with lunch on weekends. The closure of Paper Bird is, sadly, not an isolated incident. Newtown fine diner Oscillate Wildly recently announced it will close its doors soon, as will Billy Kwong. On top of that, Sydney favourites Longrain and Acme are both in their last week of service. Paper Bird will continue trading at 46A MacLeay Street, Potts Point until Saturday, August 3. Make a booking here. Image: Katje Ford.
Getting immersed in Mardi Gras? You've probably heard the news that the official after-party has been cancelled. The reason? Jesse Matheson, CEO of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, said the decision was made because Mardi Gras is already facing "significant financial loss." Fortunately, Darlinghurst's much-loved Kinselas Hotel has stepped in to host a free Mardi Gras Closing Party on Sunday, March 1. Serving up an easy, inclusive way to wrap up the weekend, this community-led event is sure to send off Pride with rainbow-filled fun. Held in Kinselas' Chapel Bar, the venue has scored itself a top-notch headline act to lead the party vibes. That'd be Keli Holiday — the alter ego of Peking Duk's Adam Hyde — fresh off his number two placing in Triple J's Hottest 100. With the party starting from midday and running late, expect a full-day extravaganza filled with supporting DJ sets from the likes of Tseba alongside non-stop dancing. Entry is free and everyone's welcome to head along and share the neon love.
The Laneway Festival 2026 sideshows have landed, giving fans a chance to catch some of the lineup's biggest international names up close before and after the main event next February. Announced today, the official run includes headline shows from Alex G, Lucy Dacus, BENEE, Wet Leg, Cavetown, Geese, Gigi Perez, Jensen McRae, Malcolm Todd, Mt. Joy, Oklou and Wisp — spanning major venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Wellington. [caption id="attachment_974758" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Laneway Festival 2024 | Charlie Hardy[/caption] The sideshows arrive ahead of Laneway's 21st anniversary edition, which will bring a refreshed route across Australia and New Zealand and a lineup featuring Chappell Roan, PinkPantheress, Wolf Alice, Role Model and Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. Sydney and Melbourne dates sold out within an hour of going on sale, marking the second consecutive year the festival has hit capacity on day one. From long-awaited returns to debut Australian performances, the sideshows promise intimate sets from some of the most talked-about names in the 2026 lineup. [caption id="attachment_897686" align="alignnone" width="1920"] BENEE[/caption] You can find the full list of Laneway 2026 sideshows, dates and tickets via Ticketek. Images: Supplied
The release of a shiny new album, Strange But Nice, was a good time as any for Sydney trio Step-Panther to take their show back on the road. Collaborating with long-time buds, Bearhug, the lads will be embarking on an East Coast album launch for the so-called New Arrivals tour. For those of you playing at home, Step-Panther are a homegrown garage-pop-rock outfit, with a sound described as 'slacker-pop'. Indeed, Step-Panther's lo-fi sound makes the perfect soundtrack for a lazy afternoon at a mate's house, preferably paired with an inflatable pool filled with ice and tinnies. Bearhug have a dreamier sound, sporting the unavoidably-dubbed 'indie' vibe without being douchey. Also hailing from Sydney, the band are also celebrating an album released — their recently-dropped second album, So Gone. Guitar-heavy with infectious melodies — these guys are onto something good. Also supported by Point Being. https://youtube.com/watch?v=2y4goxKYj7M
It's amazing what you can do with a butter cake mix, vienna cream icing and some lollies. Indeed, if you grew up in Australia or New Zealand in the past four decades, it's highly likely that you've eaten that above combination many a time. You probably also begged for it to be served in various creative shapes and configurations at all of your childhood birthday parties. And, even when you were months and months away from next blowing out your candles, we're guessing that you pored over pictures of cakes made using those ingredients for hours and hours, studiously planning which one you wanted next. Yes, we're talking about the cake recipes that line the pages of the best kids' book there is: The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. If you didn't live in a house with one of these beloved tomes on its shelves when you were young, then you turned mighty green-eyed with envy at your friends who did — and now this source of so many happy cake memories is turning 40. That's reason enough to bake a cake, naturally. If you need some help, The AWW is releasing a new hard-cover anniversary version of the classic text, too. From Monday, August 17, the limited-edition book will return to newsagents and supermarkets (and, from Tuesday, August 18, to bookstores as well), complete with over 50 of those recipes you loved and obsessed over way back when. [caption id="attachment_778934" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The original 1980 cover[/caption] That includes the famed train cake, which graces the book's cover as it always has for all these years. In case you didn't commit the entire recipe collection to memory when you were a kid, other highlights span the swimming pool cake filled with green jelly, as well as the duck cake with a beak of potato chips. Or, there's also the liquorice-heavy witch cake, plus the meringue-covered towering castle cake (and if you've ever been lucky enough to have someone spend hours making the latter for you, you'd remember it). Whether you're isolating or quarantining, or just spending more time at home cooking like everyone has been in 2020, consider that your next baking project — or several — taken care of. The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book 40th Anniversary edition hits newsagents and supermarkets from Monday, August 17 — and will be available in bookstores, too, from Tuesday, August 18.
The noble crab, with its rock hard shell, crusty legs and creepy, boggling eyes has a secret: it's delicious AF. Somehow people figured this out (what a surprise that would have been for the first person to crack open that shell and discover that perfect, perfect crabbery), including the seafood-lovin' folk at The Morrison. And so, the annual Crab Carnival was born. From March 25 to April 22, The Morrison will be putting crab in everything — we mean everything. Expect conventional crab dishes like salt and pepper crab legs, soft shell crab burger, chilli mud crab and chilli crab linguini alongside less conventional, and downright weird, offerings: crab hush puppies washed down with a 'Crabby Mary' cocktail (crab doesn't sounds like a word anymore, right?). Grab one (or five) of the Morrison's famous crab and lettuce tacos for only $5 a pop during taco happy hour (between 6pm and 7pm every day — yes it's a real thing), get your bib on for Steam Pot Thursdays, and try to win big on the hermit crab racing on every second Thursday night.
If Luca Guadagnino wants to keep making movies with Timothée Chalamet after the swooning, moving delight that was Call Me By Your Name, film lovers and Chalamet stans everywhere will be more than happy. And with Bones and All, that's exactly what he's doing again next. The Italian filmmaker is also giving fans of his 2017 queer romance — a flick that nabbed Chalamet a Best Actor Oscar nomination — another repeat gift, too. Who doesn't want to see that picture's Michael Stuhlbarg give Timothée life advice again? This time, though, it's in far bloodier circumstances. Arriving five years after Call Me By Your Name, and set to hit cinemas Down Under in November, Bones and All also sees Chalamet and Guadagnino collaborate on a love story — but with an extra bite. Forget peaches, as both the first sneak peek and the newly dropped full trailer make plain. Here, Chalamet plays one half of a cannibal couple. As Lee, the Dune, The French Dispatch and Don't Look Up actor gets gory — including with Taylor Russell's (Waves) Maren. The hybrid horror, romance and coming-of-age tale follows the pair of cannibal lovers as they road trip across America, chasing and satisfying their desires, and also grappling with what's brought them to this juncture. In both trailers so far, the vibe is yearning, swooning again, but also unsettling. It skews darker and more violent this time around, sinking its teeth into its biting premise. And when Mark Rylance (The Phantom of the Open) pops up in the two sneak peeks, he has his finger to his lips in a telling gesture of warning. Bones and All marks Guadagnino's first feature since 2018's Suspiria remake — after a detour to television with HBO series We Are Who We Are — and sees the director bring Camille DeAngelis' novel of the same name to the screen. Also featured in the film: We Are Who We Are alums Chloë Sevigny and Francesca Scorsese (yes, the daughter of filmmaker Martin Scorsese), plus André Holland (Passing), Jake Horowitz (The Vast of Night), filmmaker David Gordon Green (Halloween Kills), and Jessica Harper from both the original Suspiria and Guadagnino's version. Check out the full trailer for Bones and All below: Bones and All releases in cinemas Down Under on November 24.
When someone tells you to try to put yourself in another person's shoes to understand how they feel, it isn't meant literally. In the Freaky Friday franchise, however, the Coleman family keep taking that idea to the extreme, albeit not by choice. In 2003's mother-daughter body-swapping comedy, Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis, The Last Showgirl) and Anna (Lindsay Lohan, Our Little Secret) found themselves switching places courtesy of a fortune cookie. In 2025's sequel Freakier Friday, their lives and the circumstances have changed, but waking up as someone else is back on the agenda. It was back in 2023 that word arrived about a follow-up to the 00s version of Freaky Friday. Audiences will see the results on the big screen this winter Down Under, with Freakier Friday locking in a Thursday, August 7, 2025 release date. As for what's in store this time around for the Colemans, the sequel's just-dropped first teaser trailer promises more chaos, plenty of nods to its predecessor — a nostalgic favourite — and taking the identity-crisis scenario up a few notches. Story-wise, Anna has a daughter herself and is about to gain a stepdaughter, with the process of merging families happening just as a familiar scenario pops up. At the beginning of the debut sneak peek, Anna and Tess are told by a fortune teller (Vanessa Bayer, No Good Deed) that they've "walked in each other's paths" and "learned a lesson — a lesson that may serve you again". Cue the ground rumbling once more, plus quite the shock the next morning. When it was revealed in 2024 that the new film would feature "a multigenerational twist", we wondered if there'd be multiple swaps and if the kids would be trading places with their grandmother — and yes, the trailer has the answers. Also returning alongside Curtis and Lohan from Freaky Friday: Mark Harmon (NCIS: Origins), Chad Michael Murray (Sullivan's Crossing), Christina Vidal Mitchell (The Terminal List), Haley Hudson (Queen Gorya), Lucille Soong (Raya and the Last Dragon), Stephen Tobolowsky (The Madness) and Rosalind Chao (3 Body Problem). For more company, Julia Butters (The Fabelmans), Sophia Hammons (The Absence of Eden), Manny Jacinto (The Acolyte) and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Never Have I Ever) join the cast. Behind the lens, Nisha Ganatra (The High Note, Late Night) is directing, with Curtis and Lohan among the executive producers, all on a movie that keeps building on the Freaky Friday name. The first Curtis and Lohan team-up didn't start the franchise, of course. Instead, it began with the 1972 book by Mary Rodgers, then the 1976 Jodie Foster (True Detective: Night Country)-starring first movie adaptation, and also a 1995 remake with Gaby Hoffmann (Zero Day). After 2003's beloved Curtis- and Lohan-led take, horror flick Freaky also gave the idea a spin in 2020. Check out the first teaser trailer for Freakier Friday below: Freakier Friday releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, August 7, 2025. Images: Glen Wilson © 2024/2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
You can't beat Sydney summers on the water and Pyrmont has a front row seat. Over the past few years, the central inner-city suburb has built a solid reputation for cosmopolitan flavours, action-packed entertainment and a darn good opportunity to people watch. Craving award-winning Japanese? Look no further. How about tasty eats on a budget? You're covered. There are so many esteemed, popular restaurants packed into one hot spot, it's well worth a few repeat visits. There are plenty of reasons to venture harbourside to dine out this summer from moreish nibbles to splashy feasts. We round up some top things to eat in Pyrmont while the sun's up late. APEROL & APPETISERS AT PIZZAPERTA Ever went to treat yourself to an appetiser only to find the starting price could comfortably feed a small family. Rest easy this summer at Pizzaperta with their offering of hot and cold Italian snacks for just $5 each. That's right people, only a crisp fiver. Think cool caprese skewers, montanara mini pizzas and Siciliano snacks featuring focaccia bread with ricotta cheese, cetara anchovies, Sicilian capers and olives. You can even be a high roller (you are at The Star), order the lot and live la dolce vita. BAR SNACKS Book in a bar hop with friends at some of Pyrmont's swankier venues. This summer, the bars at Sokyo, Black and Balla are serving up summer martinis and matching bar snacks. Stroll from one to the next sampling unexpected treats. Start with Japanese-style kingfish wings in shichimi butter at Sokyo Lounge. Savour the squid ink cracker, smoked creme fraiche and mojama salt-cured tuna at Black Bar. Finish off at Balla Apertivi Bar with their wood-grilled calamari skewers, tomatoes and fenol. LOBSTER AT BALLA Forget avo on toast. Balla's slipper lobster is worth the investment. This summer only, our favourite crustacean will be served on bruschetta with crushed pea and lemon ricotta at $28 for lunch or dinner. Since joining in 2011, head chef Gabriele Taddeucci has helped Balla rack up an impressive roster of awards. So clearly, the latest offering won't disappoint. The team have dreamt up a light seafood menu that pays homage to an Italian summer. Also available to sample are splashy wood-grilled marron with extra virgin olive oil bearnaise and warrigal greens for $60 and green lobster tagliatelle with spicy Americana sauce for $32. KING SALMON AT BLACK Seafood is delicious all year round, however, the folk at Black Bar & Grill know that there's no time like summer to truly feast on the ocean's freshest delights. Scampi, caviar, lobster and marron all feature on this summer seafood menu. We recommend taking your time to enjoy the king salmon confit served with horseradish cream, cucumber and squid ink crumbs for $48. This dish takes a little longer to serve up as it's carefully prepared fresh by the team, but it is definitely worth the wait. BENTO LUNCH AT SOKYO Feast on a bento box like no other with Sokyo's summer lunch special available on Fridays and Saturdays. This highly awarded Japanese restaurant headed by chef Chase Kojima is no ordinary sushi bar. Corn-fed chicken and pork belly robata, dengakuman, asparagus tempura, mixed leaves and chef's assorted sashimi and sushi roll — it'll all go down nicely with a glass of bubbly. See everything that's going on at The Star this summer here. Thirsty? Hit these Pyrmont spots for some summer drinks.
This year, grab the fam' or a group of mates and enjoy rockin' around Darling Harbour with a plethora of free activities including Saturday fireworks, the much-loved Christmas festival and guaranteed good vibes, as well as paid pedal boat rides. From Monday, November 18, 2024, through to Wednesday, December 25, 2025, Darling Harbour will come alive. And in true Christmas spirit – the best bit is that it's mostly free. Christmas Festival A Darling Harbour fan favourite, the Christmas Festival will take place from Saturday, December 14 – Sunday, December 15 in Tumbalong Park. You can expect live performances from Samantha Jade, Anthony Callea and, of course, Santa. There will also be kids performers, including The Beanies, The Quokkas and Jayden Rodrigues' Dance Party, as well as a choir singalong to all your favourite Christmas tunes. Christmas on the Water Head down to Darling Harbour's picturesque foreshore, where the festivities will kick off with a quintessentially Aussie arrival from Santa Claus himself on Friday, December 6, on a jet ski. Stick around and check out the towering, sparkling floating Christmas tree at Cockle Bay, or watch the Christmas firework displays over Cockle Bay on December 7, 14 and 21 at 9pm. However, the thing we're most looking forward to has to be the pedal boats, which will be running from Saturday, Novemeber 30 2024 until Monday, 27 January 2025. Perfect for a cloudless Sydney summer day, enjoy the harbour's scenic views from the water with friends and family. Christmas-themed Entertainment The festive season is the ultimate time to get out and about with friends and family, and the International Convention Centre Sydney has got the perfect thing for you to do, hosting a range of live orchestra performances that will bring everyone's most cherished holiday films to life. Yes, you will be able to witness The Holiday in Concert on Saturday, December 14, or, if you're more of the Love Actually type, head down on Saturday, December 21 to get your fix. Plus, at Darling Quarter, you will find large-scale vertical garden boxes dressed in red bows from Saturday, November 16 – Thursday, December 26. Not only are they pretty cool to look at, but they make the perfect backdrop for an insta. The Harbour Village The Darling Quarter Village Green will be the place to be from Saturday, December 21 – Sunday, December 22. You will find Christmas Storytime with children's entertainers Emily Who and Nyssa and the Outback Band. The Harbour Village also offers Santa's Workshop, a free crafting station where kids can create their own paper wreaths with a unique native floral twist. Families can also enjoy a playful break with life-size lawn games like Connect Four and Wreath Ring Toss, because there's nothing like a bit of friendly competition. Santa Fun Run It's that time of year again when all of the Santas in Sydney come together for one epic run on Saturday, November 30. In support of Vision Australia, the run kicks off at 8 am at Metcalfe Park in Darling Harbour. Plus, you don't have to dress up to be part of the fun—anyone is welcome. It's all about helping raise funds for Carols by Candlelight and its Life Ready children's fundraising program. Food and Drinks Just to top it all off, in the true spirit of indulgence, you can count on Darling Harbour's many restaurants, cafes and bars to give you the energy you need to check everything out that Darling Harbour has to offer. You will find something for every craving, whether you're longing for Asian-inspired flavours at Darling Square, al fresco dining at Darling Quarter or an Italian feast at Fratelli Fresh. Visit the Darling Harbour website to find out more. Images: Anna Kucera, supplied.
This time last year, the world had gone more than 12 months without seeing a new Marvel movie. Just a few months back, no one had used the words 'squid' and 'game' right next to each other unless they were talking about cooking up a particularly impressive seafood dish. But 2021 has proven the year of both caped crusaders and a certain South Korean Netflix phenomenon — and we all have the Google search history to prove it. With the year coming to a close, the technology behemoth has revealed exactly what we've all been scouring the web for in 2021, and its film and TV lists provide quite the snapshot of everyone's viewing. When we were all eager to watch a flick, we went big, with franchises, familiar names and super-famous faces defining the top ten most-searched movies. When we were staying in — it was another year filled with lockdowns, after all — we threw plenty of love towards streaming platforms. Topping the film list: Eternals, Chloé Zhao's addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and her first film after winning this year's Best Director Oscar for the immensely dissimilar Nomadland. It was closely followed by the long-delayed Black Widow, Timothée Chalamet-starring sci-fi remake Dune, more Marvel again via Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Netflix's heist-fuelled action flick Red Notice. Next came the new Australian-shot version of Mortal Kombat, the Emma Stone-led Cruella and the return of Michael Myers in horror sequel Halloween Kills, as well as monster melee Godzilla vs Kong and straight-to-streaming zombie film Army of the Dead. When it came to the globe's binge-viewing for the year, Squid Game came in at number one — likely not only because it's all anyone seemed to be watching in September and October, but because we all became so obsessed with it that, yes, we were all searching for every piece of information about it that we could find. It was followed by Bridgerton's period soapiness, WandaVision's trippy superhero dramas, Karate Kid spinoff series Cobra Kai and more Marvel (yes, again) thanks to Loki. Also placing in the top ten: Netflix's Sweet Tooth and Lupin, the latter of which probably benefited from dropping its episodes in two batches; the streamer's Ginny and Georgia; South Korean series True Beauty; and Big Brother Brazil 2021. If you haven't watched any of the above yet, consider this a catch-up list, too. For further details about Google's 2021 trend lists, head to the Google Trends website. Top image: Noh Juan, Netflix.
Get your skates on, Sydneysiders — and you'd best don your brightest, most retro threads, too. It isn't every day that Darling Harbour becomes home to a pop-up roller rink that's hosting a month-long rollerskating festival, so you'll definitely want to dress to fit the part (and to live out your Whip It and Xanadu dreams, obviously). Meet Darling Harbour Rollerama, aka the place to be from Friday, March 25–Sunday, April 24 for anyone with rollerskates or blades strapped to their feet. Open daily across its five-weekend, four-week run, it's bringing all of the essentials. Disco ball? Tick. DJs spinning tunes? Tick again. Roller derby demonstration sessions and Rollerfit classes? Just keep on ticking. Different events will happen on different days, although you'll be gliding around to DJs on most nights. On Saturdays, Rollerfit takes over, serving up rollerskating-based exercise classes that are both fun and great for your fitness. On Thursday evenings, you'll be dressing to a theme other than just retro — with 70s, 80s and 90s-focused nights happening across the program. And, on Tuesdays, skating will cost you less across all sessions. Also, because Darling Square is currently home to Hello Kitty Town, that's being worked into Rollerama as well. So, Monday nights will be Hello Kitty nights — with dressing accordingly encouraged. If you're wondering why Rollerama is gracing Darling Harbour, the usual answer applies: why not? Also, it's to give folks who popped on some wheels during lockdowns somewhere else to skate now that stay-at-home conditions have eased — and it's obviously timed to run over the Easter holidays as well. As well as setting up the rink, which'll be located at the Pier Street Underpass near Darling Square, Rollerama is teaming up with Pumphouse Sydney Forecourt to house three separate bars. One will be a roll-up spot serving barbecue wings, smoked gouda cheeseburger, waffle stacks, and peanut butter and jelly thickshakes — and, on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as Sunday afternoons, you won't even need to undo your skates to order as staff will be zipping around to do just that. As for the others, there'll be a shipping container bar with a Rollerama-themed menu, and a Mr Black bar as well. The latter will be located in a vintage airstream trainer, and will pour espresso martinis, but only from Friday, March 25–Tuesday, March 29 and Thursday, April 21–Sunday, April 24. Eateries around Darling Harbour will also be doing specials, so you'll have other food and drink options. Rollerama tickets start from $20 most days, and $15 on Tuesdays — or $25 / $18.75 including skate hire. You can also pay extra for a coaching session if you're a roller newbie. Darling Harbour Rollerama is popping up at the Pier Street Underpass near Darling Square from Friday, March 25–Sunday, April 24. Head to the event's website for further information and to buy tickets.
It's been one year in the making, but now Marrickville's Batch Brewing Company finally has a second place to call home. On Saturday, August 3, the craft brewery is set to open a brewery and tasting room within the old shed at the back of Public House Petersham. While the Marrickville brewery will continue to turn out high quantities of the core range brews you know and love, the second Batch outpost will instead be something of a test kitchen. The tasting room will fit 100 all up and offer ten taps of experimental and limited release brews. Expect revivals of old favourites — think Plum DMC kettle sour, Wardell Nut Brown ale and 2 Peach Shakur sour — and plenty of new small batch brews, all labeled under a new sub-brand, dubbed Small Batch. "For 2 Peach Shakur, we get peaches from a farmer and it was really hard to do big batches of it," says Batch co-founder Andrew Fineran. "Now, when the harvest is ready, we'll buy enough to do just six or seven kegs worth." Heaps of collaboration brews are also on the docket, including an upcoming birthday beer for the PHP cat, Gizmo, that'll taste like black forest cake. Collab talks are also on with the likes of Bucket Boys and the Forest Lodge Hotel, too. For now, it'll be a tap and tinnie-only affair, with canned takeaways poured right off the tap as you order. The fit-out will have the same upcycled, hand-built feel that Marrickville has, though with its own vibe. Think a pallet bar with a herringbone pattern, small recycled timber furnishing and a shuffleboard table to boot. The Batch owners started looking for a second home when demand for their beers kept increasing."We were getting so much demand for our regular releases it was becoming harder for us to produce any limited releases," says Fineran. "And we want to produce more while still having our creative freedom." While the two venues will operate independently, punters are welcome to move throughout, and can bring wine and food from the pub into the brewery, or beer into the pub. The Batch tasting room will have its own dedicated menu of bar bites, created by PHP Head Chef James Elliott. The succinct menu consists of miso and beer lamb ribs, beef and stout pies, katsu eggplant sambo, a smoked fish dip and jalapeño poppers with hop mayo. If you want to be among the first to check the joint out, head along to the official launch party on August 3. The new tasting room will be open from noon and the Batch gents will be pouring fresh brews from the carpark, alongside slow-cooked pork from the kitchen and live tunes from The Van Demons. Find Batch at Public House Petersham, 292 Stanmore Road, Petersham from midday on Saturday, August 3.
With pioneers of avant-garde electronica and general oddity, Kraftwerk already announced as the headline act of Vivid LIVE 2013, the bar has been set stratospherically high for the Vivid LIVE Studio Parties. But it will come as no surprise to those of you who raised the Opera House's iconic sails at last year's celebration of underground nightlife that 2013's lineup is again jam-packed full of club-shakin', dance-till-your-feet-hurt talent. Over four nights four of Sydney's most innovative dance collectives will be lighting up the Opera House's Studio and Western Foyers. On Saturday, May 25, the house music disciples Future Classic will showcase the stylings of UK beatmaker Lapalux, Norway's bombastic fusion of hip hop and house Cashmere Cat and Van She founder Michael Di Francesco's genre-hopping Touch Sensitive. Next up are the purveyors of basement partying Goodgod Danceteria! whose biggest drawcard is the skeezy, greasy social media sensation RiFF RAFF. With his highly addictive brand of chest-beating hip hop and dirty-as-hell beats, RiFF RAFF has earned himself a whopping 33 million YouTube views and guest spots from the likes of Snoop Dogg and Skrillex. If musical innovation and trippy acid-house-techno-minfuckery are more your style (and whose isn't?) then your best bet is Detroit's Omar S and his extended Astral People set. The night will also feature a healthy dose of drum 'n' bass in the form of Britain's John Corvex and off-kilter robotronics of Africa Hitech. While the final event, featuring Sydney's premiere queer institution Club Kooky, has already sold out, the rest of the events are on sale now, so head to the Vivid LIVE website to get your hands on the hottest after-hours party Sydney has to offer this winter.
Bring any group of people together in a family home, mode of transport or lavish vacation setting, and one thing just might happen: a murder, at least if whodunnits of the page and screen are to be believed. Agatha Christie loved that exact setup, as book-to-film adaptations Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile have shown. The author's play The Mousetrap and recent flick See How They Run, which riffs on it, make the same point. And, so does the clearly Christie-inspired Knives Out franchise. Yes, the latter is a franchise now, with sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery due in cinemas for one week only mid-November, then on Netflix on Friday, December 23. Once again, Daniel Craig (No Time to Die) returns as Blanc, Benoit Blanc, in the first of two followups planned by the streaming platform — and after a first teaser trailer back in September, the film has just dropped its latest sneak peek. "Alright, when's the murder-mystery start?" is still a fabulous line, as it was in the initial trailer; however, this time there's a bit more context. The movie's cast — Craig, obviously, plus Edward Norton (The French Dispatch), Janelle Monáe (Antebellum), Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision), Leslie Odom Jr (The Many Saints of Newark), Jessica Henwick (The Gray Man), Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks), Kate Hudson (Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon) and Dave Bautista (Thor: Love and Thunder) — are in Greece, and they're about to play a murder-mystery party game. Then, there's an actual real dead body complicating their fun. If you saw the original — or any murder-mystery involving a motley crew of characters brought together in one location when someone turns up dead — then you'll know how it works from there. There's a lavish setting, that aforementioned big group of chalk-and-cheese folks, threats aplenty and just as much suspicion. Is the culprit Bautista's Duke Cody on the yacht? Hudson's Birdie Jay in the games room? Hahn's Claire Debella by the pool? You'll have to watch to find out, with the film getting sleuthing in cinemas between Wednesday, November 23–Tuesday, November 29 — a month before the movie heads to streaming. And, you'll want to get in quick, as it's only showing on the big screen for that one week. After that, you're back to waiting for an early Christmas gift at home. Just like its predecessor, Glass Onion is both written and directed by Rian Johnson, with the filmmaker moving onto the franchise after 2017's Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi — and still indulging his love of on-screen puzzles, as shone through in Brick and Looper as well. Check out the full trailer for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery below: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will hit Australian and New Zealand cinemas from Wednesday, November 23–Tuesday, November 29, then become available to stream via Netflix from Friday, December 23. Images: John Wilson/Netflix © 2022.
If you're of an age when you can remember burning your friend's So Fresh CD so you could stay up to date with the coolest songs of the season, congrats. You're old now. But also, congrats, because you will seriously enjoy this So Fresh shindig. The old-school get-together to end all old-school get-togethers is coming to Giant Dwarf on Thursday, April 25, and it'll be belting out bangers strictly of the 1990s vintage. In fact, it won't just be playing retro tunes, or letting cabaret act Lady Sings it Better croon them — it'll also be asking you to sing along with them. You can expect a disturbing percentage of Spice Girls, No Doubt, TLC, Destiny's Child, Britney Spears, Salt-N-Pepa and double denim-wearing boy bands. Love the latter? There'll be an eight-minute boy band medley, complete with dance moves. Entry will set you back $34.10, two 60-minute shows are being held — at 7pm and 8.30pm — and dressing up like it's two decades ago is heartily encouraged.
Residents of Parramatta, it's time to add some more greenery to your house, apartment or backyard. For one morning only, the city council is giving away thousands of plants — so if you live in the Local Government Area, you can head by and collect up to four per person. Both trees and shrubs will be on offer during Free Plant Day, all as part of a plan to make the city greener and more liveable. Over the past five years, the City of Parramatta has planted more than 500,000 trees, native shrubs and ground covers around the area, in fact. To nab your new green babies, head on down to the nursery in Cowells Lane Reserve, near the corner of Cowells Lane and Monroe Street in Ermington, between 8.30am–12.30pm on Saturday, March 6. As well as perusing the freebies, you can chat to clued-up staff and choose which ones to adopt. You will need to bring proof of residency with you, so don't leave home without something that lists your address.
Love may not cost a thing, as many a pop song has told us, but a nice date often requires a little cash. The good news, of course, is that taking your significant other out for dinner needn't empty out your bank account. On the other hand, if you have some money to splash around, there's always a top-notch place to do so. Sydney's dining scene caters for both scenarios and everything in between at that. If you're all about quality time rather than dolling out the cash; if your wallet is feeling healthy, but not too stuffed; and if you're eager to go all out for a special occasion (or just because) — we've teamed up with Suncorp to find a tiptop date spot for any budget. Suncorp's Platinum Credit Card* works with your existing spending habits, earning you extra points for every dollar you spend on everyday essentials like groceries, that cheeky mid-week wine or this date you're now planning. Read on to discover five places for your next date night — whether you're looking to spend under $25 each or ready to make it rain. UNDER $25 EACH: BAR UME, SURRY HILLS Tucked away in the leafy backstreets of Surry Hills, Bar Ume is a relaxed Japanese-inspired burger joint-meets-wine bar. With a range of burgers with a distinctly Japanese twist, the menu has options for the vegetarian, pescatarian, fried chicken fiend and straight up carnivore. Try the fish katsu burger served with Japanese tartare sauce or the hand-crumbed chicken katsu burger with yuzu kosho mayo and tonkatsu sauce — and make sure to get a side of renkon chips and house-made Japanese pickles. Wash it all down with a glass or two of natural vino, a nip of shochu or a bottle of Asahi. The best bit? You'll wine and dine for under $25 per person. [caption id="attachment_623522" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nikki To.[/caption] UNDER $60 EACH: DEAR SAINTE ELOISE, POTTS POINT As the week comes to a close, sometimes a plate of burrata and glass of pinot noir is all you need. If you're in the mood for a long, leisurely evening picking your way through share plates, this is the spot for you. Nestled in the heart of Potts Point, Dear Sainte Eloise delivers a wine-focused offering with a small but mighty set menu ($50 per person). The menu changes often, but you can usually expect to find the roe boats (crispy potato nests with salmon roe), a creamy pasta of sorts, fresh local fish, seasonal veg, plus a selection of cheeses or dessert to finish. Plus, with a 400-strong wine list that traverses the globe, you'll find a drop to suit your preferences whether that be a glass of something orange or oxidative, a bottle of something Georgian or, for something a bit more splashy, a magnum off the 'Big Bottles Are Best!!!' list. UNDER $80 EACH: STANBULI, ENMORE If Turkish cuisine spurs blurry memories of a late-night pide or kebab consumed curb-side, it's time to change that thinking. Perched proudly on Enmore Road, Stanbuli is an upscale Turkish eatery and meyhane (tapas bar). Its offering is made for cosy bar-side dining, with a selection of meze plates and charcoal meats designed to share. Dine on fried cauliflower, tahini and almonds and okra-braised in tomato and olive oil, paired with a serve of whole snapper or lamb and red capsicum kofte. Our tip? Let the chefs run wild and order the $75 per person set menu (baklava included, of course). UNDER $100 EACH: ESTER, CHIPPENDALE Fine dining tends to be stiff, formal and finished with a hefty bill. But, Ester doesn't like to live up to stereotypes. You won't find white table cloths or confusing sets of cutlery in this dining room. The 45-seat eatery is approachable, honest and the kind of spot where you'd likely find a group of top-notch chefs dining on their night off. Wood firing is front-and-centre on the menu, adding flavours of smokey goodness to plates of charred broccoli shoots, roasted carrots, hasselback dutch cream potatoes and slow-roasted snapper. There's plenty to sample and sip too with a hefty wine list to make your way through during the 12-item set menu ($92 per person). ONE BIG BLOWOUT: LUMI, PYRMONT Harbour-front dining and an eight-course dinner — the perfect ingredients for a truly memorable date night. At LuMi, they're pros at hosting unforgettable dining experiences, making it a must-try for those looking to spoil that special someone. As for the menu? It's a fusion of modern Italian and Japanese flavours, serving up refined seasonal produce over a series of spectacular courses that look almost too good to eat. The chef's menu ($185 per person) lets you explore it all, with the Italian-focused wine pairing highly recommended ($115 per person). Seize the day, make your everyday moments count and get rewarded all the while with Suncorp. Top image: Dear Saint Eloise by Nikki To. *Issued by Citigroup Pty Limited ABN 88 004 325 080 AFSL No. 238098 Australian credit licence 238098.
There really is a festival for everything, and come July at Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image, that includes television. Not content to let film monopolise the big screen fest space, ACMI is playing host to the world's biggest TV festival, with Series Mania heading to Australia for the first time. With a name that could also describe humanity's reaction each and every time a new season of a TV show hits a streaming platform, Series Mania comes to Melbourne from July 20 to 24 for five days of television-focused fun. The program won't be announced until July 3; however expect it to include more than 40 screenings of premiere seasons of some of the best new drama, narrative comedy and web-based series from around the world. Workshops, panel discussions, masterclasses and Q&A sessions will also be on the agenda, with the fest catering for both industry and the public. In case you're wondering just how exciting this is, Series Mania's Paris festival gives a great indication of what might be in store. In 2016, it attracted more than 40,000 attendees to see 80 shows from 20 countries, and has previously showcased Aussie efforts such as The Kettering Incident, Cleverman, The Family Law and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. The 2017 fest — aka season eight of the event — takes place from April 13 to 23. It's set to include discussions with Lost and The Leftovers writer/producer Damon Lindelof, and The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies; a tribute to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; a marathon on new TV comedies from the UK, US, Canada and Australia; and the world premiere of the Melbourne-made drama Seven Types of Ambiguity, which stars Hugo Weaving, Xavier Samuel and Suzie Porter. "We are experiencing a golden age of television around the world right now, as this medium rapidly expands into new platforms," says ACMI CEO and Director Katrina Sedgwick. "We're delighted to partner with Film Victoria to bring Series Mania to Melbourne. Our audiences will preview some of the best series coming to our screens in the year to come — and discover stunning international TV that we might not ever see otherwise." If that all sounds like your idea of a great way to spend a day or several, then prepare for an epic binge session, but out of the house and not in your pyjamas. In even better news, Series Mania will be free — but, expect tickets to get snapped up quick smart when the lineup lands. Image: Nathalie Prèbende
How easily entertained we were as children — dressing up in our finest and having play-pretend tea parties with our dolls and teddies. If you need a break from being an adult — if only for an afternoon — then head to the Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney for a high tea that will far exceed the toddler tea parties of yesteryear. Throwing a Barbie High Tea in its lower Lobby Lounge, the Shangri-La will see pastry queen Anna Polyviou (Family Food Fight, MasterChef, Sweet Street cookbooks) take over with an explosion of pink. The executive pastry chef has created a full-on, Barbie-themed tea party, complete with rainbow and bubble gum desserts, decorations galore and all the childhood nostalgia you could ask for. The usual chic surrounds have been transformed into a Barbie world. There'll even be a photo wall of 'Barbie through the years' — the girl's been around a while. For $65 a pop, you'll be munching on fairy bread cake with bubble gum and fruit loops, rainbow trifles, vanilla creme and fruit salad, macarons, apple pastries, rhubarb jelly and cinnamon crumble — all tidily arranged on towers. And it wouldn't be a tea party without butter milk scones with clotted cream and strawberries, naturally. For savoury treats, expect sushi, sausage rolls, egg and lettuce wraps and roast chicken finger sandwiches. Of course, endless pots of tea are part of the deal, plus coffee for those looking for something a little stronger. Running until July 28, Barbie High Tea has three daily sittings — 11am–12.45pm, 1.15–3pm and 3.30–5.15pm — so you can pop in for a cuppa throughout the day. Just try to keep Aqua's 'Barbie Girl' out of your head while you eat your way down memory lane. Barbie High Tea will be available in the Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney's lower Lobby Lounge from July 5–28. Sittings are 11am–12.45pm, 1.15–3pm and 3.30–5.15pm every day. Bookings can be made here.
New month, new Premier, new plan for what life looks like once Sydney's lengthy lockdown ends. That's how October is unfurling in New South Wales, with newly appointed Premier Dominic Perrottet announcing today, Thursday, October 7, that the state's roadmap out of stay-at-home conditions has just been given a tweak. Less that two weeks ago, then-Premier Gladys Berejiklian revealed the NSW's full roadmap out of lockdown; however, a lot can change in a short period, as the pandemic keeps demonstrating — and as NSW politics has this past week as well. So, Premier Perrottet has eased a number of rules and restrictions, with the changes effective next week. On Monday, October 11, Sydney's lockdown will end, as NSW has now officially hit the 70-percent fully vaccinated mark. As part of the original plan, stay-at-home conditions were always set to ease on the Monday after that threshold was met, and that's still staying the same. That said, fully vaccinated adults will be able to spend more time in more places with more people come Monday, with rules around gatherings both at home and in public loosening even further than initially outlined. So, double-jabbed folks will be allowed to have ten people over to their homes (up from the previously announced five-person limit, and not including children under 12) and also gather outdoors in groups of 30 (up from 20). Also, weddings and funerals will permit 100 attendees (up from 50). Also changing: the restrictions around indoor pools. They'll be reopening for swimming lessons, squad training, lap swimming and rehab sessions on Monday, October 11, too. We're moving forward with our staged NSW reopening. A few adjustments to Monday's 70% relaxations and further easing once we hit 80% double vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/UJtcgvrKZb — Dom Perrottet (@Dom_Perrottet) October 6, 2021 Other than that, the settings previously outlined for the 70-percent double-jabbed mark will remain in place — but Perrottet has also tweaked the roadmap for the 80-percent fully vaxxed mark as well. That second set of changes will still only apply to people who've had both jabs, a requirement that isn't shifting until the beginning of December. And, they're still set to come in on the Monday after that 80-percent threshold is met. So, when that happens — which is expected to be in just a couple of weeks — at-home visitor caps will go up to 20 for double-jabbed folks, and outdoor gathering limits will go up to 50. Also, controlled and ticketed events will be allowed to welcome in 3000 people, which is a big jump from the previously advised 500-person limit. Nightclubs will also be allowed to reopen for seated drinking – so, no dancing, Footloose-style — at 80-percent fully vaxxed. Also, that 80-percent mark is when you can stop wearing masks in office buildings. "If we continue to work together, if we continue to make the effort and make the sacrifices that we have all been making, NSW will be open again — and that ensures we get back to work and get businesses open and get the economy and society back to where it was before this pandemic began," Perrottet said. "We're incredibly confident. We have to learn to live alongside this virus. And the key to learning to live alongside the virus is a high vaccination rate. And we want everybody to go out and get vaccinated. We can get, as the Health Minister has said, close to 100 percent. We're going to get above 90 percent. We have one of the highest vaccination rates not just in the country but globally, and that means we can open up safely and never go back. And that's what we're on the cusp of," the Premier continued. Perrottet didn't announce any changes to the final change of the roadmap, which is due to kick in on Wednesday, December 1 — the phase that Berejiklian called "COVID-normal". So, at that point, the roadmap will include unvaccinated people at the same settings, which scrap limits on gatherings at home and outdoors, and implement lower density rules at venues and events. Also part of today's announcement, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard revealed that 587 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday, October 6. Wondering where you can currently get vaccinated? There's a handy online map that helps you find your nearest clinic. Keen to keep an eye on vaccination rates? A heap of online resources will help you do that as well. For more information about New South Wales' reopening roadmap, head to the NSW Government website. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website.
In a city saturated with vintage clothing stores, Fabrique Vintage is a cut above the rest. All of the stock here is hand selected and you can expect to find a huge range of items from Europe and the US when you step into this Oxford Street emporium. It's packed to the brim with great finds. Denim dominates, with jeans, shorts, overalls and jackets lining the walls. There's also a strong Americana vibe: think cowboy boots, belt buckles and kerchiefs. Like with all good vintage stores, unearthing the treasures here takes some dedication — but half the fun comes from what you find along the way. [caption id="attachment_779026" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cassandra Hannagan[/caption] Images: Cassandra Hannagan
Which movie features multiple terrible sex scenes, a ridiculous plot and way too many spoons? Oh hi The Room. When the enigmatic Tommy Wiseau decided to write, direct, produce, fund and act in his own Hollywood breakthrough flick 14 years ago, he couldn't possibly have predicted the cult fame, plastic cutlery and branded underwear that would follow — although, if you asked him today, he'd probably claim otherwise. After all, he spends one of The Room's DVD extras explaining that yes, you really can play football with your friends while wearing a tuxedo and standing three metres apart. Trust him. If it sounds like Wiseau lives in his own absurd world, he'd likely be happy with that. In fact, he once told his pal and co-star Greg Sestero that he'd like to have his own planet. Based on Sestero's behind-the-scenes book about The Room's mind-boggling production, The Disaster Artist is the movie that brings Wiseau back down to earth. Directed by and starring a pitch-perfect James Franco, with supporting performances from his brother Dave as well as Seth Rogen, Jacki Weaver, Zac Efron and Alison Brie, it's a sidesplittingly funny and thoroughly heart-warming look at the man who unwittingly started a phenomenon. A wild true story about obsessively chasing a dream, finding a friend and yearning to belong, this Ed Wood-style effort will make you want to hurl spoons at the screen with sheer joy. With limp black tresses and a vaguely European (or is it New Orleanian?) accent, Franco plays Wiseau not as a joke, but as an eager, aspiring talent who'll climb the walls if he has to. When we first see him channelling his inner Brando in a San Francisco acting class, that's literally what he does. Self-conscious and wide-eyed, 19-year-old Sestero (Dave Franco) is drawn to Wiseau's confidence — enough to ignore the concerns of his mother and move to Los Angeles with his clearly middle-aged new buddy. But the film industry doesn't exactly welcome them with open arms, so Wiseau takes their fate into his own hands. Voila, The Room is born. Much of The Disaster Artist is concerned with revealing how The Room came to be. The now-iconic lines, the stilted performances, the odd non-sequiturs: they're all there, often recreated with shot-for-shot accuracy that'll tear both fans and newcomers apart with laughter. But Franco and writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (500 Days of Summer) are interested in more than just making in-jokes and poking fun at everyone's favourite bad movie. A relatable, genuinely moving and hilarious love letter rather than a lampoon, The Disaster Artist celebrates Wiseau's eccentricity and passion, even when he's sabotaging his own efforts. As such, while there's plenty of comedy, he's never the subject of mockery. When Franco adopts his distinctive mannerisms, it's with sincerity and affection. It helps that, in a different universe, Franco could've very well lived Wiseau's life. Driven by comparable levels of enthusiasm and determination, the Oscar-nominated actor might be one of Hollywood's biggest stars, but he's had more than his share of missteps along the way – including multiple movies that he's directed and starred in that barely saw the light of day. Whether he's yelling Wiseau's unforgettable dialogue or fixing a crooked stare on his co-stars, Franco's turn as Tommy is his best to date, with authenticity as well as earnestness shining through at every moment. His decision to cast his similarly-excellent sibling as Sestero likewise proves a smart one. Together, the Francos evoke an easy familiarity in a movie that is, at its core, about the bonds of brotherhood. With The Disaster Artist, Franco has crafted a riotous film about art imitating life, one that should amuse and inspire regardless of whether you're a fan of The Room or have never heard of Wiseau at all. Not only that, but as award season arrives, it might pull in a few shiny statues too. The older Franco has already won a Gotham Award for his performance, and if he collects a few more trophies, don't be surprised to see Wiseau grace the stage with him insisting he knew it'd turn out this way all along. Whatever happens, The Disaster Artist is one of the year's best movies – and features one of the best on-screen uses of '90s dance track 'Rhythm of the Night' as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DT41LF22ZA
Randwick Council has become the latest Sydney coastal council to bring the hammer down on free parking availability in its beach carparks, with a proposal to raise funding for beach facilities by enacting paid parking in all seven of the beaches within its jurisdiction — being Clovelly, Coogee, Maroubra, Malabar, Little Bay, La Perouse and Yarra Bay. In the council pamphlet on the proposal, it's outlined that Randwick Council spends $23 million annually on upkeep of the beaches, divided between lifeguard services, beach cleaning, rubbish collection, park maintenance, coastal infrastructure and public amenities. It also outlines that collectively, the beaches draw nine million visitors every year — 56 to 84 percent of which are from outside the Randwick LGA, depending on the beach. The pamphlet also outlines which LGA's the beaches draw visitors from, with Clovelly, Coogee, Malabar and Maroubra drawing visitors mostly from Sydney, Bayside and Inner West LGAs, while Little Bay and Frenchman's beaches also attract crowds from Canterbury-Bankstown. Sydney's other major coastal councils, including Waverley, Northern Beaches, and Mosman, all enforce paid parking on their beaches, with exclusions made for residents who apply for a permit. The proposed change in Randwick will "bring Randwick's beaches into line" with those aforementioned areas, which charge non-residents as much as $11.60 an hour for beach carparks. [caption id="attachment_1081273" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] iStock[/caption] Mayor of Randwick, Dylan Parker, said, "Our beaches belong to everyone, and everyone is welcome to enjoy them. But it's only fair that people who visit our beaches also contribute to the cost of maintaining them. Right now, local ratepayers carry most of that cost, even though the bulk of beach users in summer are visitors. That's not fair or sustainable in the long term." "Providing beaches that are clean, safe and inviting is a significant cost for locals alone to bear. This proposal is about ensuring we can fairly continue serving the needs of all beachgoers. I encourage everyone to look out for the information in your letterbox and encourage you to have your say," Mayor Parker added. The proposal is open to community feedback from now until Wednesday, April 14. Image: Steven Tritton
Love of the arts in its truest sense is behind everything you will experience on a visit to the New Theatre. It runs on a volunteer basis - from actors to technicians - so the productions are built on tiny budgets and a lot of passion. The shows are raw and bold; taboo subjects are brazenly explored covering everything from historical politics to human rights to mental health. As one of the longest-running theatre companies in Sydney - it was set up in 1932 - it has been the launchpad for many careers in the arts across its more than 550 productions. Visit for an authentic theatre experience: professional execution in a community setting. Image: Bob Seary
Among the many challenges that Australians have faced over the past year, our love of travel has been hit hard — including in our own backyard. Domestic border restrictions keep changing with frequency in response to new cases and clusters in different states, meaning that planning a holiday beyond your own city has been more than a little tricky, and looks set to continue that way for the foreseeable future. If you're a New South Wales resident who's keen to take a trip to the Australian Capital Territory, however, some good news has just arrived — for most of the state, that is. Folks who've been to areas classed 'COVID-19 affected' are unable to enter the ACT under its border restrictions, which has included Greater Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong in response to the cluster that popped up just before Christmas. Since 3pm on Tuesday, January 12, however, the ACT has reduced the number of NSW spots on its list. The Central Coast and Wollongong are no longer classified as COVID-19 affected areas. Within Greater Sydney, only 11 local government areas remain on the list, too. So, folks who live in or have been to the Blacktown City, Burwood, Canada Bay City, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield City, Inner West, Liverpool City, Northern Beaches, Paramatta City and Strathfield Municipality in the last fortnight are still unable to head to the ACT — but everyone else in NSW can. https://twitter.com/ACTHealth/status/1348840551479713792 The loosened rules cover both ACT residents and non-residents, and will remain in place at least until Tuesday, January 19, when they'll next be assessed. Non ACT-residents who have been in the 11 LGAs still deemed 'COVID-19 affected' are not legally permitted to enter the ACT without applying for exemption, which'll only be given in "extraordinary circumstances". Folks who live in the ACT who fall into the same category can return, but have to fill out an online declaration first, then quarantine at home for 14 days upon arrival. For everyone else in NSW, you can now head to the ACT without a declaration or quarantining. At the time of writing, NSW has reported seven new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours until 8pm on Tuesday, January 12, which includes one local case and six acquired from overseas. For further details about the ACT's border restrictions, head to the territory's COVID-19 hub. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website.
Movie buffs who like to theme their viewing around the relevant time of year — holiday-related, primarily — are always spoiled for choice. Christmas films, spooky flicks at Halloween, Easter-relevant fare: you can build a binge session or several out of all of them. The same applies to Thanksgiving, all courtesy of the US, and The Humans is the latest addition to the November-appropriate list. This A24 release ticks a few clearcut boxes, in fact, including bringing a dysfunctional multi-generation family together to celebrate the date, steeping their get-together in the kind of awkwardness that always stalks relatives, and having big revelations spill over the course of the gathering (the calendar-mandated time for such disclosures, pouring out before the tryptophan kicks in). That said, even with such evident servings of underlying formula, The Humans is far creepier and more haunting than your usual movie about America's turkey-eating time of year. A hefty helping of existential horror will do that. Based on Stephen Karam's Tony-winning 2016 Broadway play — a Pulitzer Prize finalist as well — and adapted and directed for the screen by Karam himself, The Humans is downright unsettling, and for a few reasons. There's the tension zipping back and forth between everyone in attendance, of course — as crucial an ingredient at every Thanksgiving party as food, booze and warm bodies to consume them, at least if films are to be believed. There's also the bleak, claustrophobic, run-down setting, with the movie confined to a New York apartment close to Ground Zero, which aspiring composer Brigid (Beanie Feldstein, Booksmart) and her student boyfriend Richard (Steven Yeun, Nope) have just moved into at significant expense. And, there's the strange sounds emanating from other units, and perhaps this creaking, groaning, two-storey abode itself, which couldn't feel less welcoming. As a result, seasonal cheer is few and far between in this corner of Manhattan, where the Blake family congregates dutifully rather than agreeably or even welcomely. Also making an appearance: parents Deirdre (Only Murders in the Building's Jayne Houdyshell, reprising her Tony-winning part) and Erik (Richard Jenkins, DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), Brigid's lawyer older sister Aimee (Amy Schumer, Life & Beth), and their grandmother Momo (June Squibb, Palmer), who has dementia and uses a wheelchair. No one is happy, and everyone seems to have something that needs airing — slowly and reluctantly when it's a matter of importance, but freely and cuttingly when it's a snap judgement directed at others. Watching The Humans, the audience hopes that no one has truly had a Thanksgiving like this, while knowing how well its fraught dynamic hits the mark. Thanks to Richard, film first-timer Karam has a straightforward way to start doling out backstory — a time-honoured function of fresh attendees to on-screen family dos, and not just in movies about Thanksgiving. Erik chats, filling the newcomer in, although the talk between everyone dishes out plenty of handy details. Religious and political affiliations cause strains, as do booze and money. The clash between the big city, where the Blake family daughters now live, and their hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania also informs the discussions. Health woes, relationship struggles, generation clashes, expecting more both from and of each other but getting less: that's the baseline. Brigid stews about not being given enough cash by her parents, and therefore jeopardising her career dreams; Aimee frets about treading water at work, being alone and a medical condition; Deirdre's conservative leanings bristle against her daughters' decisions; and Erik clearly has a secret. As anxious and agitated as the situation is — and as peppered with passive aggression and outbursts alike — there's always another feeling lurking throughout the barely furnished flat. That physical, visible, inescapable emptiness also speaks volumes about Brigid, Richard and their guests, but it's impossible to shake the sensation that this might've been a joyful affair in any other location. The same troubles and attitudes would exist, and the same players, but there's no avoiding how their grim surroundings are amplifying their bickering. When they're being guarded, coy, reserved or reticent (at times, they all fit) about the things they're keeping from each other, the apartment looms large with space and desolation. When they're flinging truths back and forth, it's tight and distressed. Or, is it actually just a regular old and dilapidated place in a crushing rental market, and it's the evening's occupants and their torment that's bringing the unease? For a film so firmly grounded in one location, to the point that the cliche about the setting being a character in the movie applies, The Humans can be slippery. Is Karam's setup as simple as a family squabbling? Is there more, or do we just want there to be more because that quarrelling — and the dancing around it, when that's the Blakes' preferred option — is so discomforting? They're the questions that dwell in the unit, which cinematographer Lol Crawley (Vox Lux) shoots like it's both dispiritingly ordinary and unshakeably otherworldly. Frequently, the film looks on from afar within the space as well, framing Brigid and company through doorways that make everything resemble a show. Sometimes, it hones in on physical minutiae as conversations play out. Are all family get-togethers performances? Do we all cling close out of habit and expectation, but keep ourselves distanced by nattering about the trivial and inconsequential? They're queries that hang heavy in the stilted air, too. As The Humans stretches on, discussions about dreams and nightmares prove revealing. The feature also points out the thin line between both, whether we're slumbering or waking, several times over in its talky frames. No one on-screen really needs reminding; that's where they're caught, even if just emotionally. Across the board, The Humans' performances are similarly anchored and weighty — whatever's going on around the Blakes or isn't, the pervasive dread keeps everyone trapped and festering, and Karam's six key cast members all play their parts accordingly. The effect is compelling, especially when paired with disquieting sound design straight out of a psychological thriller. Let's be honest, isn't that all holiday celebrations with the family anyway?
More than three weeks have passed since Greater Sydney went into lockdown, with residents of Greater Sydney, Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour only currently allowed to leave the house for select reasons. If one of those permitted trips away from home will see you hop on public transport, however, you'll find fewer services operating over the next two weeks. Effective since yesterday, Monday, July 19, Transport for NSW has implemented a network-wide timetable change for services within the lockdown area, all of which have had big cuts. For the rest of the stay-at-home period, routes in these regions have been reduced by up to 50 percent — with some operating on Saturday timetables, others on Sunday and public holiday timings, and others just cutting down their frequency. Sydney Trains, NSW TrainLink Intercity services and Sydney bus services are largely running on Sunday and public holiday timetables, while Sydney ferries are working to a modified Saturday timetable. For the latter, that means hourly services other than to and from Pyrmont, which'll run ever half hour. Sydney Metro and light rail services are operating every 20 minutes, too. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Transport for NSW (@transportfornsw) In an Instagram post, Transport for NSW advised that the cuts were put in place to support Greater Sydney's stricter lockdown measures — with the rules tightened back on Friday, July 9 and again on Saturday, July 17. Under the current restrictions, as well as the four reasons to leave home, only critical retail stores can remain open, and residents of the Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool Local Government Areas are no longer be able to leave their areas for work. Announcing the changes, Transport for NSW Chief Operations Officer Howard Collins said that Sydneysiders shouldn't use public transport at "all if possible" — unless you're an essential worker or have no other option. "If you can use a private car and use other means, please do so," he said. Folks still travelling on public transport during lockdown need to wear masks, social distance, sanitise their hands, and only sit or stand on the green dots. For more information about Transport for NSW's timetable changes, head to its website.
So, you've found that special forever someone – someone who deals with your drama, puts up with your quirks and shares your passion for all the important stuff, like, say, fried chicken. Well clearly, there's just one thing left to do, and that's to seal the deal at your very own official KFC wedding. Yep – the international fried chicken brand has cooked up yet another idea we never knew we needed and has launched its own wedding service, exclusive to Australia. For real. Fried chook obsessives across the country now have the opportunity to get hitched in finger lickin' matrimony, with KFC already taking applications for its unique service. All couples, regardless of gender, sexual preference or religion, are invited to apply, by summing up their need for a KFC wedding in 200 words. There's no time to waste, though – only six lucky Aussie duos will get a call-up, with the weddings taking place from October 2019 to May 2020. So what's involved in the ultimate KFC nuptials, you ask? Well, you can bank on a KFC-themed wedding celebrant (we assume Colonel Sanders), a KFC photo booth for those all-important happy snaps, music, decorations and customised KFC buckets. And of course, the lucky newlyweds will get to dive into some freshly cooked KFC chicken hot from the KFC food truck. We can only hope the bride will be throwing buckets instead of bouquets and there'll be plenty of wet wipes to go around. It was this time last year that KFC launched a cheeky meditation website featuring the soothing sounds of chicken frying. If you're keen to kick off married life with some secret herbs and spices, you can apply for your own KFC wedding here.
Iconic institution, Mejico, has been serving Sydney-siders some of the finest Mexican cuisine and tequila for a decade now. So, what better way to celebrate ten years of hospitality than with a month-long fiesta? The festivities will kick off on Wednesday, February 22 (AKA National Margarita Day) with ten days of $10 Herradura margaritas and tacos. Patrons who visit during this time period can enjoy classic, passionfruit or jalapeno margaritas, and sets of two tacos, all for just $10 each. Then, if you're hungry for more, Mejico is bringing back ten iconic food and cocktail menu items from the past years including a lamb taco with gremolata, pico de gallo and mint mayo which you can pair with a signature Tequila Colada. The popular cocktail combines Herradura Blanco tequila, pineapple, coconut and lime. To wrap up the birthday celebrations, Mejico will be hosting a special birthday dinner on Saturday, March 4, featuring a live DJ, face painters, free tequila tastings plus, a door prize for each guest. Tickets will set you back $125 and include a four-course set menu and a cocktail on arrival. Expect to feast on some Mejico fan favourites. Think tuna tostadas and dulce de leche Churros. And, of course, plenty of their famous table-smashed Guacamole served with plantain chips. So if you're looking for a fiesta like no other, head down to Mejico and join in the celebrations. With live entertainment, delicious food and drinks, and a festive atmosphere, this is a birthday event not to be missed.
Sometimes, Disney adapts its movies and brands — names like Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar — into theme-park attractions. Sometimes, it makes streaming shows about the rides at its amusement parks as well. And, as happened with Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise and Tomorrowland, sometimes the Mouse House loves the highlights at its parks so much that it spins them out into their own films. Disney already took the latter path with The Haunted Mansion back in 2003; however, the massive entertainment company also adores revisiting its past hits (see: the upcoming live-action versions of Peter Pan & Wendy and The Little Mermaid, plus a whole lot more in recent years). So, it's ticking two boxes with Haunted Mansion, a second flick based on the Disneyland, Magic Kingdom Park and Tokyo Disneyland must-see. Obviously, the overall concept is right there in the name, but the new film's just-dropped trailer provides more story details. This time around, single mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson, Clerks III) and her son (Chase W Dillon, The Harder They Fall) bring in folks who call themselves 'spiritual experts' when they discover that they're not the abode's only residents Cue a cast that also features LaKeith Stanfield (Atlanta), Tiffany Haddish (The Afterparty), Owen Wilson (Loki), Danny DeVito (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Dan Levy (Schitt's Creek), plus 2023 Oscar-nominee Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween Ends). Plenty of the above names are keen to make some cash offering their services — and some of the movie's stars, such as Jared Leto (Morbius) as The Hatbox Ghost, get spooky. The end result will creep into cinemas in July, with Dear White People and Bad Hair filmmaker Justin Simien directing. And yes, if you want to watch the Eddie Murphy (You People)-starring original movie in the interim, you'll find it — and 2021 special Muppets Haunted Mansion — on Disney+ right now. Check out the Haunted Mansion trailer below: Haunted Mansion releases in cinemas Down Under on July 27.
If you don't believe that Fast X will be one of the Fast and Furious franchise's last films, which you shouldn't, then it's time to face a different realisation. Now 22 years old, this family-, street racing- and Corona-loving "cult with cars" saga — its own words in this latest instalment — might one day feature every actor ever in its always-expanding cast. Dying back in 2013 hasn't stopped Paul Walker from regularly appearing a decade on. He's the first of the core F&F crew to be seen in Fast X, in fact, thanks to a flashback to 2011's Fast Five that explains why the series' flamboyant new villain has beef with the usual Vin Diesel (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3)-led faces. Playing said antagonist is Jason Momoa (Dune), who adds another high-profile name to a roster that also gains Brie Larson (Ms Marvel), Rita Moreno (West Side Story), Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad), Alan Ritchson (Reacher) and Walker's daughter Meadow this time around. It's no wonder that this 11th flick in the franchise (yes spinoff Hobbs & Shaw counts) clocks in at an anything-but-swift 141 minutes. It's also hardly surprising that living on-screen life a quarter mile at a time now seems more like a variety show than a movie, at least where all that recognisable talent is involved. There are so many people to stuff into Fast X that most merely get wheeled out for their big moment or, if they're lucky, a couple. Some bring comedy (the long-running double act that is End of the Road's Ludacris and Morbius' Tyrese Gibson), others steely glares and frenetic fight scenes (The School for Good and Evil and Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves' always-welcome Charlize Theron and Michelle Rodriguez, respectively), or just reasons to keep bringing up Walker's retired Brian O'Conner (which is where Who Invited Charlie?'s Jordana Brewster still fits in). When more than a few actors pop up, it feels purely obligatory, like the F&F realm just can't exist now without a glimpse of Jason Statham's (Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre) scowl or getting Helen Mirren (Shazam! Fury of the Gods) going cockney. Do too many drivers and offsiders spoil the Point Break-but-cars hijinks? Not completely, but the high-octane saga's jam-packed cast is now a roadblock. It certainly can't have helped screenwriter Justin Lin, the director of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, F9 and initially Fast X until leaving a week into production, and his co-scribe Dan Mazeau (Wrath of the Titans). Their script sports an overarching plot, with Momoa's Dante Reyes avenging the death of his drug-lord father five films back, but it's really about servicing the required parts. Oh-so-many folks require some screentime; all the usual heist, chase and race antics have to drop in; everyone needs to jet between the US, Italy, Brazil, the UK, Antarctica and Portugal; family must be mentioned approximately 423,000 times; and Diesel's Dominic Toretto demands a few of beats to act as if Brian is dead even though he remains alive in the series' storyline. That's the to-do list that Lin, Mazeau, and Statham's The Transporter and The Transporter 2 filmmaker-turned-Fast X helmer Louis Leterrier tick through — and tick they do. Dom and the fam, including his abuelita (Moreno) and son Little Brian (Leo Abelo Perry, Cheaper by the Dozen), get an early backyard barbecue, waxing lyrical under the Los Angeles sun about the ties that bind. Then Roman (Gibson), Tej (Ludacris), Han (Sung Kang, Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel, The Invitation) go to Rome for a job that goes wrong, and ex-adversary Cipher (Theron) shows up bruised and bloody on Dom and Letty's (Rodriguez) doorstep talking about the devil. The common factor: Reyes, who has declared war on the extended Toretto brood without them knowing he exists. They should've expected him, though, given that battling family members — of past enemies and, when John Cena (Peacemaker) joined in F9 as Dom's brother Jakob, their own — is another box-checking saga staple. Almost every newcomer to the franchise, both here and in general, is related to someone else. That's how deep the series' family values go. And yet, for a saga that started embracing its ridiculousness when Dwayne Johnson (Black Adam) jumped aboard — also in Fast Five; you can't have Diesel, Johnson and later Statham bashing their sweaty heads together without having a sense of humour about it — it plays the soap opera-esque parade of kin (and the well-known actors being them) too straight. Fast X knows how outlandish it and its predecessors are with stunts, even if no one rockets to space this time. It says cheers over Mexican beers to its established cliches as well. And it joyfully has Momoa get giddily OTT as the scrunchie-wearing, "awesome!"-spouting, Joker-esque Dante, visibly having a ball doing so. But the so-earnest-it's-playful deliriousness that should always hum through these tales of petty thieves-turned-international spies is often revved over by needing to shoehorn in another character, then another, then more, whether they've been fam since day one or they're making their debut. It's doubtful that it's on purpose, but Fast X practises what Dom preaches, making its audience appreciate the simple things. There's nothing uncomplicated about the movie's hyper-stylised stunt choreography, with its giant pinballing bombs and reggaeton drag racing — the latter soundtracked by Daddy Yankee's 'Gasolina', of course — but the film is lighter and livelier when it strips itself down to its pedal-to-the-metal and fist-throwing basics. That's when there's an energy to now seven-time F&F cinematographer Stephen F Windon's whooshing and whirling lensing, too, especially when he's gliding through windshields while engines are purring in a Rio-set moment. Smartly, Theron and Rodriguez are gifted an impressively staged fray that screams for them to have their own spinoff. And when helicopters are being flung at each other by a Dodge Charger, it's pure dumb action-flick fun. While those choppers are swooping and crashing, revhead-in-training Little Brian can't help exclaiming with excitement. Fast X isn't ready to usher the saga's big-screen entries into Fast and Furious: The Next Generation just yet — it will eventually, sometime after this chapter's one confirmed sequel and likely second follow-up get motoring, although animated Netflix series Fast & Furious Spy Racers got there first — but that glee is exactly what Diesel and company want their audience to share. This is a thrill ride in fits and starts, however. At its worst, including with its stop-mid-scene cliffhanger, it's franchise-extending filler that never-ending sagas like the Marvel Cinematic Universe have made the gear-grinding norm. But when Fast X pumps the gas on turbocharged vehicular lunacy rather than playing connect-the-dots and spot-the-famous-face, giving four Oscar-winning actresses too little to do and dropping in hardly surprising guest appearances, it's an entertaining-enough spin down a well-driven road.
The Night Noodle Markets has returned for another season, whipping Sydneysiders into a frenzy of tasty things on sticks, bowls of noodles and extravagant desserts from Wednesday, October 7 to Friday, November 6. This year, instead of bumping elbows with hundreds of others in Hyde Park, you'll be able to enjoy the festival's usual lineup of tasty treats at home, in your local park or on a beach. Yes, Night Noodle Markets 2020 is coming to you via delivery. This year, the delivery-only menu showcases eight food stalls which have created special menus for the occasion. Thankfully, many of the festival favourites have made the cut. If you're feeling a bit daunted by all that decision-making and wondering how best to navigate the smorgasbord of eats, we've got your back. Here's our pick of dishes worth trying — get excited for cheesy beef-filled waffles, prawn toast doughies and Korean-style loaded toasties. [caption id="attachment_785200" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Donut Papi leche flan[/caption] LECHE FLAN DOUGHNUT BURGER, DONUT PAPI Sydney's go-to for inventive, Asian-inspired doughnut creations, Donut Papi is returning to the Night Noodle Markets with a fresh haul of crafty desserts in tow. These guys sure aren't afraid to get a little creative, as you'll know from past ingenious doughnut iterations like peanut butter birthday cake, ube Oreo and even garlic bread. But the treat you need to sink your chompers into this month is the leche flan doughnut burger ($10). A slab of lush, sticky Filipino-style crème caramel is stuffed between halves of a sugar-crusted doughnut bun, ready and waiting to ooze upon that first bite. CHEESEBURGER PUFFLE, PUFFLE Everyone loves a quirky, cheesy food creation and this one's as fun to say as it is to eat. A return favourite from last year's markets, and a riff on the egg waffles you'll find at street stalls in Hong Kong, Puffle is a savoury waffle cone made out of cheese and filled with various flavour combinations. This month, Puffle is out to win you over with two different decadent versions of its dish, including the cheeseburger ($18) — an assembly of chopped bulgogi-style beef and extra melted cheese, finished with lashings of sweet and spicy ketchup, mustard and Japanese mayo — and a KFC option with spicy Korean-style fried chicken ($18). But, whichever filling you opt for, you're in for a crunchy, oozy and delightfully messy ride. TUPUC CHICKUR AND NOTORIOUS PIG BAO, BAO BROTHERS A regular favourite at the Night Noodle Markets, Bao Brothers is back again with its modern take on the Taiwanese gua bao. This year, the four-strong menu spans Korean cauliflower, mushroom croquettes and a spicy honey prawn number. But our pick lets you try two flavours in one — the Tupuc Chickur and Notorious PIG. The former is stuffed with fried chicken, lettuce and sesame, then slathered with chilli mayo; the latter tops caramelised pork belly with pickled cucumber, a peanut praline crumb, shallots and hoisin sauce. Nab both for $16. You won't want to share, so be sure to grab a second serve if you're eating with a mate or date. [caption id="attachment_782079" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kera Wong[/caption] WAGYU BEEF DON TOASTIE, TOASTIESMITH Sydney's new toastie-themed takeaway joint — now open in Darling Square and Chatswood — will join the Night Noodle Markets lineup for the first time this year. It's offering up Korean-style sangas that pay homage to Isaac Toast, a chain that serves up this popular street eat. Like in Korea, each loaded toastie is made using thick-cut brioche and comes topped with a fluffy omelette. Of the five options available, our go-to is the wagyu beef and onion don ($12) — it's stuffed with roasted sesame slaw, seaweed and a generous dressing of truffle mayo. Other fillings include shichimi-spiced chicken with smashed avo and pineapple, fried barramundi with tartare sauce and pickled cucumbers, and grilled prawn with corn chips and sweet chilli. PRAWN TOAST DOUGHNUT, DONUT PAPI Donut Papi's menu is really doing it for us this year. While we recommended nabbing the aforementioned leche flan doughnut burger for dessert, Redfern's cult favourite sweet shop is also slinging an extra special savoury option for the Night Noodle Markets. Its prawn toast doughnut takes house-made prawn and fish mince and schmears it on a yeast-raised doughie — which is then dipped in black and white sesame seeds, panko crumbed and deep fried. The dish is also served with a plum and sweet chilli sauce for dipping. This wild new creation is sure to change your mind on what a doughnut is supposed to taste like. The Night Noodle Markets at Home menus are available via Doordash from Wednesday, October 7 to Friday, November 6 as part of Good Food Month. Check out the full food lineup here. Top image: Kera Wong
If your favourite kind of art is the stuff that's contemporary, independent and far from boring, your collection could soon be in for a boost. The Other Art Fair is bringing its boundary-pushing exhibit to The Cutaway from Thursday, July 21 to Sunday, July 24. What's in tow? Accessible art (read: affordable, starting at just $100) and good-time vibes (courtesy of live DJs, diverse street eats and a fully stocked bar). A far cry from the pretentious art fairs of old, Saatchi Art's touring event will this year showcase works from 120 contemporary artists, with the supporting program covering everything from live tattooing to drawing classes and curator-led tours. If you fancy browsing artworks with a drink in hand, you'll have plenty of options. A pop-up bar is set to pour exclusive sips and there'll be an array of food stalls to choose from, too. Whether your love of art is long-held and you've curated a collection to rival the best, or you simply appreciate artistic expression and are looking to discover emerging and independent artists (and perhaps procure your first forever-piece), The Other Art Fair will have thousands (literally) of impressive pieces for you to discover. The Other Art Fair will hit The Cutaway from Thursday, July 21 to Sunday, July 24. To secure your tickets, head to the website.
It's meant to be a relaxing getaway go-to — gathering the gang, hightailing it to an impressive spot, getting into party mode and ignoring all your troubles, that is. But what happens if there's a hurricane, then a power outage, then a series of murders? As new Pete Davidson (The Suicide Squad) and Amandla Stenberg (Dear Evan Hansen)-starring horror-comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies shows, you can instantly forget that all bliss. That's the setup behind this slasher satire, which sees a group of twentysomething friends — and one of the gang's 40-year-old boyfriend — celebrating a big storm. They've got the company, drugs, glow sticks and massive mansion for the occasion, and the party game that gives the movie its title, too. Here's how Bodies Bodies Bodies, the game, is meant to work: everyone picks a piece of paper, one of which marks the person who has it as the murderer. The lights then go out, the victim gets tapped on the shoulder, and everyone starts guessing who's behind it. It's supposed to be fun — but it depends on who the crew's finger is pointing at. Making this on-screen stint of Bodies Bodies Bodies more chaotic is those actual bodies, bodies, bodies, and plenty of blood. As the just-dropped new trailer shows, no one handles the situation well — with the cast also including Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Oscar-nominee Maria Bakalova, Shiva Baby's Rachel Sennott, Generation's Chase Sui Wonders and Industry's Myha'la Herrold. And, playing that two-decades older interloper is Pushing Daisies and Halt and Catch Fire favourite Lee Pace. Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn (Instinct) directs, and the result looks brutal, wild and hilarious all at once. Something that makes everyone's efforts to survive a murderer a struggle: bickering among themselves, digging up old baggage and not being able to get past their simmering resentments. If you're keen to sleuth (and laugh) along with it, the film will hit Australian cinemas on September 15. And yes, Bodies Bodies Bodies joins a hefty list of recent movies and TV shows that don't find getaways all that enjoyable, including The Resort, Sundown, Old, Palm Springs, The White Lotus and Nine Perfect Strangers. None of the above are also slasher flicks, though. Check out the latest Bodies Bodies Bodies trailer below: Bodies Bodies Bodies opens in Australian cinemas on September 15. Images: Erik Chakeen / Gwen Capistran.
Water. It covers a whopping 71% of Earth and makes up roughly 60% of the human body. After three days, we'd perish without it. It's the universal, life-giving resource that our globe depends on. But as we speak, it's drying up. It's being overused, and due to poor sanitation and pollution, too many people around the world are without access to clean water. This precious resource is under serious threat. The UN estimates that two-thirds of the globe will face serious water shortages by 2025. However, in Australia it's all too easy for us to take water for granted. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia CEO Dermont O'Gorman explains, "Australians understand water challenges due to the droughts and floods that affect our cities and rural communities alike, but might be missing how these challenges are interconnected to these very pressing geo-political issues as well." Photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz has witnessed the people and places already being seriously impacted. Camera in-hand, the 31-year-old documented the crisis across four continents to produce his latest exhibition, Water Stories: The Global Water Crisis in Images. Part of a larger project with the HSBC Water Programme, and in partnership with WWF, Earthwatch and WaterAid, the exhibition aims to approach the world water crisis via images of the people, landscapes and nature affected. "Water Stories shows how people in other countries deal with similar water challenges as us, but also with issues we are lucky enough not to have to face, like access to safe drinking water and sanitation," says O'Gorman. For the exhibition's Australian premiere, we spoke with Mustafah Abdulaziz to learn about five of the images whose stories have left a lasting impression on him. Here, we take you through the powerful scenes captured by Abdulaziz and the meaning behind these global snapshots. BENUE RIVER, NIGERIA. (2015) Sometimes, the significance of a photograph takes time to be revealed. As such, it requires moments of stillness to be fully understood. Captured back in 2015 on Nigeria's Benue River, a man strides across a shallow stream. Abdulaziz sees this shot as the culmination of his project, a simple image encompassing "the painful beauty of lacking". Nigeria's landscape speaks to feelings of absence. The terrain, a vague blur bleeding into the horizon. Consequently the lone figure in the image "is us, pushing through time and our environment, perhaps to get somewhere better or to escape from something worse," says Abdulaziz. Its a complex and provocative shot. Two forces meet, revealing "man and nature... together in this scene, beautiful and contrasting in scale between each other, but nevertheless entwined." CLAUDIO, PARAGUAY RIVER, MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL. (2015) Getting to the guts of a problem means getting your hands dirty. Sometimes, literally. During this shoot in Brazil's Mato Grosso along the Paraguay River, Abdulaziz studied the community of families living alongside this heavily polluted waterway. And for this image, the photographer had to follow the locals right into the depths of the dirty waters. The boy in question here is Claudio, one of the many village kids that swim and play in the murky canal, where initial pollution took place mere metres downstream — a testament to the proximity of the global water crisis to various communities. Portraits like this offer a window into the living, breathing humans implicated by this mess. Most of all, this photograph looks back at us, "staring up at the viewer, our faces and fate half in the water, surrounded by the reality we've manifested: a surface of dull, oily water we cannot escape from," explains Abdulaziz. CHILDREN JOURNEY TO COLLECT WATER, SINDH, PAKISTAN. (2013) It's hard to picture something you've never experienced. For us, running water, the ability to wash daily, drinking from the tap or from chic, minimalistic glass bottles, are all things we can so easily take for granted. For children in Sindh, Pakistan, however, water is the reason they miss school. Instead, they're forced to trek through the desert to find fresh water. These hours lashed by wind and heat are a daily ritual, one which struck Abdulaziz on a deeply personal level. Recalling William Golding's dystopian tale Lord of the Flies, this practice of water collection presented a humbling display of necessity and endurance. These children, like Golding's group of British schoolboys, are forced to fight for survival. Abdulaziz explains, "their personality, dreams and desires are irrelevant in the face of their greater need for water. This is the power that water holds over many." A FISH FARMER CUTS GRASS TO FEED CARP, HUBEI PROVINCE, CHINA. (2015) Undoubtedly one of the world's most vibrant countries, China, its spirit and its rich history are not so easy to capture. Bursting with over 1.3 billion residents, its a place difficult to keep still. However, Abdulaziz managed to do just that, and the result is a photograph that reads almost as an inconsequential moment — an arm covering the face of an anonymous man in an undisclosed location, hardly worth our attention. Such ambiguity is deliberate, Abdulaziz reveals. "I wished to photograph it all as though it was a silent film, where scenes of intensity or drama were muted." And the effect proves to jar and engage the observer. Void of clarity or explanation, the bewildered spectator is forced to decipher meaning and significance for themselves. Abdulaziz sees the image as "a moment between moments, meaningless in itself, but a reminder of something beautiful within the complexity of larger things." This stillness captured is nondescript, an everyday moment in time, but it also reminds how the water crisis is just that, an everyday status for many. DRIED RIVER BED, KANPUR, INDIA. (2014) Humans exist at the heart of the global water crisis. The factors at play vary, but one thing that remains constant is how we'll all be the ones to bear the consequences. The concern for life is fundamentally in question. During Abdulaziz's 2014 trip to Kanpur, this image was taken near the heavily polluted Ganges River, India's largest river and the world's fifth most polluted. What resulted proves to be an exercise in documentation and creative expression, delivered in equal measure. Abdulaziz explains, "there's something post-apocalyptic about the scene, where huge man-made structures rise up from a barren landscape and man himself, small in comparison, clusters together to repair a broken net." An image such as this leaves a mark. It inspired a new tact for Abdulaziz's photography, hoping to capture "a unifying perspective on the intertwining story of water and mankind." Notably for us, it demands conversation and, most of all, a drive towards change. Mustafah Abdulaziz's exhibition Water Stories: The Global Water Crisis in Images showed at Sydney's Royal Botanic Garden from Tuesday, August 15 to Tuesday, September 5. Now, the exhibition moves to Brisbane, opening on Friday, September 15. See Water Stories until Tuesday, September 26 on the South Bank Lower Boardwalk below the Clem Jones Promenade. The exhibition will be illuminated at night.
Kitty Green doesn't just direct films that demand attention; she makes movies where paying the utmost notice to small moments and details couldn't be more pivotal. With her 2013 debut Ukraine Is Not a Brothel, she deployed her documentarian's eye to explore protest group Femen with revealing and probing intimacy. With 2017's bold and unforgettable Casting JonBenet, Green honed in on the minutiae that can swirl around a crime — especially when true crime has become its own genre, sparking non-stop theories even decades later — all while structuring her picture around holding auditions for a film about the infamous case that shares the feature's name. The Melbourne-born filmmaker moved into fiction with 2019's The Assistant, and now stays there with The Royal Hotel. The shift has still seen Green unpacking reality. The Assistant is a #MeToo movie set in a film production company's office where sexual harassment at its head honcho's hands has become distressingly normalised. The Royal Hotel sprang to life after Green watched Australian documentary Hotel Coolgardie, about two Finnish women encountering the worst of Australia's drinking culture while working in Western Australia's Denver City Hotel, with the director then inspired to dramatise the situation. Diving into insidious everyday horrors in topical thrillers: that's Green's fictional niche right now, even with both The Assistant and The Royal Hotel born from facts. Getting three-time Ozark Emmy-winner Julia Garner playing women confronted with problematic gender dynamics and power imbalances in ominous spaces is also her current terrain — as is peering as closely and intently as Green can. "People keep asking about how my background in documentary helps, and I'm not sure it does really," Green tells Concrete Playground about taking her cues from Hotel Coolgardie this time around, and how her time making docos factors in. "I mean, I think maybe it affects what I watch and my references, and what sort of inspires me." "I really like the close stuff. I like movies that are about these tiny moments. That's something you can't really do in documentaries, because have to stay wide because you don't know what will happen. But with a fiction film, you can really hone in on a facial expression or gesture or a glance — these kinds of little moments that can make you know that a woman in that space feels very uncomfortable, but often get missed by the environment at large. So I was able to amplify those moments with a fiction film." The Assistant spends a day in the life of Garner's Jane, lingering claustrophobically in her New York workplace as the junior staffer navigates the impact of her boss' actions, as well as the hostilities engrained in the industry for women in general. The Royal Hotel finds its terrors in an outback pub where backpackers man the bar, with Garner's Hanna and Jessica Henwick's (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery) Liv the latest arrivals at the titular mining-town watering hole. In both, unsettling men surround young women doing a job, with The Royal Hotel's male cast reading like a who's who of Australian talent. In her first Aussie-made feature, Green enlists Hugo Weaving (Love Me) as the pub proprietor, with Toby Wallace (Babyteeth), James Frecheville (The Dry) and Daniel Henshall (Mystery Road: Origin) among the regulars. "It's been good to have it back home," Green explains of the film, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, also played Toronto and London, then opened the first-ever SXSW Sydney Screen Festival and the 2023 Adelaide Film Festival. "Honestly, we screened it in the US, in Canada, in Spain and in the UK, and I feel like while they seem to really enjoy it and it seemed to play really well, I think it there's an element, a lot of kind of nuances, that they miss. There's a lot of Australian humour that they don't really pick up on over there." With The Royal Hotel now showing in Aussie cinemas — and The Assistant a must-see since it first arrived a few years back — we spoke to Green about taking inspiration not only from Hotel Coolgardie, how her two fictional features pair well together and the importance of casting, as well as adopting a female perspective on Australia's drinking culture, working Kylie Minogue's 'The Locomotion' onto the soundtrack and the hope to do a third film with Garner. ON BEING INSPIRED TO MAKE THE ROYAL HOTEL AFTER WATCHING HOTEL COOLGARDIE "I was just immediately struck by Hotel Coolgardie, and just the dynamics at play in it. And I had seen Australian drinking culture on film before, but I haven't seen it through the eyes of two young women, foreign women, who didn't understand the rules of it and were trying to make sense of it. So that to me was really interesting and great territory for a film to take place. It became the jumping off point for our screenplay. I worked with co-writer Oscar Redding (Van Diemen's Land), who lives in regional Australia. The two of us threw around a lot of the dialogue and figured it out that way. But mostly it's based on our own experiences of being in pubs and seeing things happen, and stories our friends told us. You basically soak a bunch of things up, it sits in your brain, and then you figure out what you want to use, and what's fun and what works, and what adds to the tension. It's definitely never one thing. It's all come from a few different places, I think." ON THE ROYAL HOTEL'S PARALLELS WITH THE ASSISTANT "You always want a challenge with the next project you take on, but I also liked the idea that I could work with Julia again. It was something I knew could work in a similar way — that is, a character trying to make sense of her environment. But with The Royal Hotel, everything is up. Everything is wilder and weirder and stranger — a lot more noise and craziness. So it was a fun challenge to take on." ON RETEAMING WITH JULIA GARNER FOR THE SECOND FILM IN A ROW "We worked really well together on The Assistant. And often we don't get the biggest budgets in the world, so we have to work quite quickly. So there's a shorthand that we have, we have this ability to communicate — you don't have to discuss things at length. We get each other, in a way, so that really works. So I was hoping to work with her again, and this project, when I saw Hotel Coolgardie, I was like 'ohh this could be a role for Julia which is interesting to me' — putting her in that environment was interesting to me. So yeah, it just fit. I dragged her out here, and she did it, which was great. She was excited about the project. I think landing here, we drove them [Garner and Henwick] straight out to the middle of nowhere, and I think they were a bit freaked out for a moment there. We kind of had to live the movie a little bit. We put them up in pubs nearby our shooting location, so they really had the full experience — which, I think they had a great time, but it took them a second just feel comfortable in the place and figure out who the people were. Yeah, it took a minute, but they really, honestly, they had such a good time, the two of them. They were so happy." [caption id="attachment_927983" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Royal Hotel[/caption] ON CASTING THE ROYAL HOTEL'S MEN "The set was a pretty warm and loving place. When you call cut, it feels very safe. That was something we intentionally tried to create, which was making sure we cast the right men, essentially, to play those roles — who understood the sensitivity of the material. I think we got the right people and it was able to feel good for everyone. We wanted them all to feel a little different. We wanted them all to have their own energy. They all bring something something different. And they're all wonderful and warm and kind lovely people, which was great, too. We knew we needed someone cheeky and young to play Mattie, and Toby Wallace was available and a sweetheart, and understood what we're trying to do. Then James [Frecheville], I'd loved in Animal Kingdom, so it was exciting to get to work with him. And Dan [Henshall] was in Snowtown and was absolutely terrifying, so I knew that he could deliver in terms of Dolly. We have fun with that because I think Australians come to it with that understanding. Americans don't, but they still find him really intense. He's not like that in real life, though. Somehow we convinced them all to say yes, and put ourselves together a lovely group." ON SEEING AUSTRALIA DIFFERENTLY BY EXPLORING THE OUTBACK AND COUNTRY'S DRINKING CULTURE THROUGH THE EYES OF WOMEN "That became the agenda, I guess, in a way, but it wasn't a political thing. It was more just this is a story I want to tell, and this is something I have experienced in ways, and it felt real and it felt honest. It was about getting the right collaborators who understand what you're doing. I know that when we were pitching it around, people wanted more violence, they wanted Wolf Creek, but we weren't going to give them that. You have to just find the right partners that understand the project, and the mission statement, and once you've got the right collaborators, it should fall into place, really, from there." ON AVOIDING TURNING HANNA AND LIV'S EXPERIENCES INTO WOLF CREEK "We were looking at the type of behaviour that's the entry point for sexual violence — like how do we prevent it from ever getting to that point? And so the film is about trying to figure out when you can speak up for yourself, when you can say no before the behaviour crosses the line — just when it's dancing on the line. So the aim of it is to prevent that sort of behaviour from ever happening. If we can be a little more responsive a little earlier, then maybe we can create safer spaces for everyone. Essentially, this is the conversation that we want to have." ON PUTTING THE ROYAL HOTEL'S AUDIENCE IN HANNA'S SHOES "That's what they do really have to. They do that with The Assistant, too. I think a lot of these, it's about the behaviour that gets missed in big spaces like that where there's a lot going on. It can be someone creepy, but other people wouldn't really notice it — but Hanna's character would. So it's giving audiences a glimpse of what it's like to be that person behind the bar who's a little worried and feeling a little uncomfortable and not sure how to express it." [caption id="attachment_927984" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Royal Hotel[/caption] ON A QUINTESSENTIAL AUSSIE PUB AS A SETTING, BACKDROPPED BY THE AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE "When you're coming to a project, it's about what's the right environment for some drama and some tension, and I think an Aussie pub is a great one. Not only is it for the interior of this pub, and the claustrophobia of it and all these men — there's 60 miners in that pub and two young women serving them, just that kind of dynamic is interesting to me — but also the exteriors, and this idea that they're in the middle of nowhere in the remote setting adding to that tension, and the isolation making it feel a little terrifying. It just was a really great starting point for a story. The isolation really adds to the tension. It's nice to keep a lot of the action in the bar, and to feel that claustrophobia of being kind of trapped in there. But also the idea, that even though they're not claustrophobic outside, it's somehow just as terrifying but for very different reasons. The contrast of the two spaces was really interesting to play around with. I haven't made an Australian film since film school, so it was nice, if I'm going to make an Australian film, to take advantage of the uniqueness of the landscape and play around with that." ON GETTING KYLIE MINOGUE'S 'THE LOCOMOTION' ON THE SOUNDTRACK "It was about going 'if you're going to teach some foreigners about Australia, where do you begin?'. And so Kylie Minogue, swimming in a water hole, seeing a kangaroo — ticking a few of those boxes." ON POTENTIALLY MAKING A THIRD FILM WITH GARNER TO ROUND OUT A THEMATIC TRILOGY "We would love to do a third one. We've just got to figure out what that should look like and how to get that done, and how to make sure it's a little different. If we're going do it again, we need to play around with it. I mean, hopefully we get to get a chance to do it. It'd be great to work with Julia again." ON WHAT GETS GREEN EXCITED ABOUT A PROJECT "It has to feel like something — often it's something like a gut instinct, and it's something that I feel in my bones, like a story that needs to be told. And often it's because I haven't seen it elsewhere, or it's something that I want say. With The Assistant, we were looking at the larger picture — the news was focusing on Harvey Weinstein and we were saying that we want to look at something wider, like at the systemic problem, sexism in the industry, and how that creates an unsafe workspace and contributes to all of that sexual violence. So then with The Royal Hotel, it was looking at, I guess, just looking at my own discomfort in some of those spaces and how we can voice our concerns a little more, and kind of ripping that apart. Generally, it's just something that gets me interested in something [where] I feel like 'oh, I want to say something here'. That's the starting point, and then there's a lot of people involved. It takes a village to get a movie to the screen, so it changes as it goes, but often I go in with the kernel of an idea that I think is interesting." The Royal Hotel opened in Australian cinemas in November 23. Read our review. Images: Neon / Transmission / See-Saw Films.
Yep, that guy who use to sing with his sis and has a penchant for facial hair and not wearing shoes will be on tour in November. You'll have a chance to whistle along to Wooden Chair, or sway to End of The World, while picturing yourself and some mates having a few beers by the beach with him. Angus Stone says of his solo venture, "to play live on my own in front of those people, it's going to be a different trail of gravel and gold, but none the less very exciting." Whether there will be gravel or gold you'll have to wait and see, but what you'll definitely get is a special blend of indie folk peppered with hints of psychedelic rock, cowboy blues and country folk. The songs will be from Broken Brights, Stone's first solo album released under his own name. The influence of Angus and Julia's time spent performing together since they were kiddies can still be seen lurking beneath these songs, but the new album offers a slightly different perspective. Long term fans will be happy to find that those nostalgic sounds are as dreamy as ever, but this time Stone will be showing off new sounds and vocal styles alongside lots of new instruments. Here's to hoping there's a banjo or two. Just remember to wear shoes (pretty sure The Enmore has rules about this). https://youtube.com/watch?v=Yple4rnO8B8
A grim historical drama that recreates France's final instance of trial by combat, The Last Duel can't be described as fun. It hinges upon the rape of Marguerite (Jodie Comer, Free Guy), wife of knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon, Ford v Ferrari), by his ex-friend Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver, Annette) — aka the event that sparked the joust — so that term will obviously never apply. Instead, the movie is exquisite in its 14th-century period staging. After a slightly slow start, it's as involving and affecting as it is weighty and savage, too. When the titular battle takes place, it's ferocious and vivid. And with a #MeToo spirit, the film heartbreakingly hammers home how poorly women were regarded — the rape is considered a crime against Carrouges' property rather than against Marguerite herself — making it an expectedly sombre affair from start to finish. The Last Duel must've been fun to make from a creative standpoint, however. Damon sports a shocking mullet, and Ben Affleck (The Way Back) dons a ridiculous blonde mop while hamming up every scene he's in (and demanding that Driver drop his pants), although that isn't why. Again, the brutal events seen don't earn that term, but teasing out Marguerite, Carrouges and Le Gris' varying perspectives is fascinating. Director Ridley Scott (All the Money in the World) and his screenwriters — Good Will Hunting Oscar-winners Damon and Affleck, plus acclaimed filmmaker Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said) — have clearly seen Rashomon, the on-screen benchmark in using clashing viewpoints. In their "he said, he said, she said" tale, journeying in the iconic Japanese film's footsteps proves captivating. It must've been an enjoyable challenge for its cast, too, terrible hairstyles and all; as moments repeat, so much of the movie's potency stems from minuscule differences in tone, angle, emphasis and physicality. "The truth according to Jean de Carrouges" proclaims The Last Duel's first chapter, adapting Eric Jager's 2004 book of the same name in the process. (Le Gris and Marguerite's segments, following in that order, receive the same introduction.) Even in his own instalment, Damon plays Carrouges as a scowling and serious soldier, and as petulant and entitled. He's also a victim in his own head. That attitude only grows as Le Gris finds favour with Count Pierre d'Alençon (Affleck), cousin to teenage King Charles VI (Alex Lawther, The Translators), and starts collecting his debts — including Carrouges' own. And when the knight marries the beautiful and well-educated Marguerite, it's purely a transaction. It also deepens his acrimony towards Le Gris long before the rape, after land promised in the dowry ends up in his former pal's hands via the smarmy Pierre. Still, Carrouges is instantly willing to fight when he hears about the sexual assault. That said, it's also just another battle against Le Gris and the Count, after taking them to court and the King over their property squabble. In Le Gris' chapter, where Driver broods with an intensity that's fierce even for him, Carrouges' joylessness and pettiness is given even more flesh. Also explored here: the Count's hedonism, the ambition and greed driving the opportunistic Le Gris, and the fixation he develops with Marguerite. Scott ensures that the rape lands like the horror it is, too, leaving no doubt of its force and coercion despite Le Gris' claims otherwise. When Marguerite's turn comes, the words "the truth" linger for a few seconds longer; what follows is the most nuanced and best third of the film, with immense thanks to Holofcener and Comer. The Last Duel is often blunt movie, but there's a wealth of subtlety to this chapter — and a world of nuance in Marguerite's struggles in general and after her attack at Le Gris' hands. Holofcener doesn't rely upon big speeches, and Comer doesn't trade in big feelings. In fact, they're both economical and poignant, conveying exactly what they need to in as precise a way as possible. Both recognise that the situation, and all that Marguerite endures, is inherently abhorrent and distressing, and let those emotions radiate organically rather than with overstressed compulsion. The film's structure helps enormously, of course. After showing Carrouges glower and pout, and Le Gris pair charm with manipulation, The Last Duel makes its allegiance to Marguerite plain. That happens from the outset, actually, with the film knowingly arriving in a world where gender equality is still far from the status quo. That's why all those tiny tweaks over the three chapters couldn't be savvier or more engaging. Everyone is always the hero of their own story, but The Last Duel commits that idea to film by showing what it means in such horrendous circumstances — a life-and-death matter for Marguerite, Carrouges and Le Gris alike. This is a movie about power that examines how it manifests in broad, societal and overarching ways as well as on an everyday and intimate basis, all through its trio of perspectives. The Last Duel releases 44 years after Scott debuted with 1977's The Duellists. That nice bit of lexical symmetry is also a reminder that history and conflict have long been in his wheelhouse. As his second movie illustrated — that'd be Alien — he's similarly no stranger to tales of female survival in unforgiving conditions. Plus in Blade Runner, his third film, Scott showed his talent for getting contemplative via spectacular imagery. Both opening and closing The Last Duel, the eponymous joust is firmly a spectacle here. Visceral, exciting, tense and thrilling, it's shot and staged with rhythm, flair, grit, gore and an edge-of-your-seat level of anxiety. But this Gladiator-topping scene would ring empty if almost everything around it — not just within it — wasn't so piercing. Come for vain and selfish men brawling on horseback, stay for a compelling interrogation of the kind of world that sees them as its leaders while constantly casting women aside. Image: Patrick Redmond. © 2021 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
