You've gotta love a show that tells you what to exclaim whenever you're enjoying it, just received good news about it or simply can't stop thinking about it. For the past two years, The Great has been one such series — and "huzzah!" has been the word of choice. And, thankfully, it isn't time to stop bandying the term about just yet, with this satirical take on Russian history just getting renewed for a third season. Since it first premiered back in 2020, the concept has been all killer, no filler — following the rise and reign of Catherine the Great, including her marriage to and overthrowing of Emperor Peter III, with only the slightest regard for the actual facts. And while the series has always been supremely confident in its blend of handsome period staging, the loosest of historical realities and that savage sense of humour (it does spring from Oscar-nominated The Favourite screenwriter Tony McNamara, after all), it felt even more comfortable in its skin during its second season, which arrived late in 2021. Smoother, too, yet just as biting. In fact, The Great's ability to seesaw tonally is as sharp as a shot of vodka — or several — and you'll be able to enjoy it for ten more episodes whenever that third season hits. A release date hasn't been announced as yet, but you still now have more of Elle Fanning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) as Catherine and Nicholas Hoult (Those Who Wish Me Dead) as Peter to look forward to. Given that the show's last batch of episodes saw Catherine waging war with Peter — via soldiers on the battlefield to begin with, and then in the royal court in the aftermath of her bloody coup — and also grappling with motherhood, The Great has spun quite the story already. Expect more devastatingly witty, entertaining and addictive dramas to follow, and for the series to keep living up to its name. Fanning and Hoult will be joined by returning co-stars Phoebe Fox (The Aeronauts), Adam Godley (Lodge 49), Gwilym Lee (Top End Wedding), Charity Wakefield (Bounty Hunters), Douglas Hodge (The Undoing), Sacha Dhawan (The Prince), Bayo Gbadamosi (War of the Worlds) and Belinda Bromilow (Doctor Doctor) when its third season hits, too, because this is a show with a phenomenally great cast. In case you haven't watched it yet, check out the trailer for The Great's second season below: The Great is available to stream in Australia via Stan and in New Zealand via Neon. The show's third season doesn't yet have a release date — we'll update you when one is announced.
You've, no doubt, already visited your favourite Sydney spot for a drink or meal since the city's COVID-19 restrictions eased. And, after months of baking bread and getting cocktails delivered to our doors, we don't blame you. It's nice to be able to catch up with mates over a pint or a feed that's outside of our own four walls. But, if all that cooking during iso turned into a passion, why not continue experimenting in your kitchen — and support local hospitality venues at the same time? Thanks to new online recipe journal initiative Cartilage you now can. It's no secret the hospo industry was hit hard when COVID-19 came to town, with Aussie website I Lost My Hospo Shift recording over $2 million in lost wages this week alone. Now that many restaurants, bars, pubs and cafes have reopened, life is slowly starting to go back to normal — but Sydney's dining scene is still a far cry from what it was pre-pandemic. On top of the current capacity limits and some venues experiencing no shows, many are still recovering from months of damage. So, three local legends — restaurant critic and former chef David Matthews, illustrator behind Good Food Crap Drawing Anna Vu and waiter-turned-animator James Lark — created Cartilage, which not only gives you the recipes for some of the city's most-loved dishes and drinks, but also gives back financially to venues, too. It's a win-win. [caption id="attachment_773109" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Golden Century's fried rice[/caption] "With all three of us having been so close to restaurants, we know that, often, if you have a bad few weeks that could mean the end of your business," Matthews told Concrete Playground. "So, we saw Cartilage as a way to support all the places we love." Each online recipe journal comes with three full recipes (and a small bonus one) from a local restaurant, bar or cafe, as well as annotations, illustrations, sketches and scribbles. They cost $15 each, with a tenner from every purchase going directly back to the venue. You'll find recipe collections from go-to Sydney eateries such as Mary's, Golden Century, Lankan Filling Station, Saint Peter, Ho Jiak, The Old Fitz and Pioik Bakery, plus bars including Tio's and Earl's Juke Joint. To see them all, head on over to the Cartilage website, where the journals are available to download immediately. The recipes focus on the venues' signature dishes and drinks, so expect to be recreating the likes of Mary's famed burger, fried chicken and mash 'n' gravy; Golden Century's Yang Chow fried rice, Mongolian lamb and salt and pepper squid; Saint Peter's fish and chips, sardine pissaladière and custard tart; and Tio's classic margarita, guac and popcorn chilli spice. [caption id="attachment_773108" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tio's guac [/caption] At the moment, Cartilage features 18 hospo heavyweights across six Sydney suburbs — Newtown, Haymarket, Surry Hills, East Sydney, Paddington and Pyrmont — with hopes for more suburbs and cities in the not-too-distant future. "Haymarket was one of the suburbs we really wanted to have, because Chinatown and Haymarket really suffered in the early days of COVID," says Matthews. "To support places like Boon Cafe and Ho Jiak, which had just opened a new restaurant and then had to shut their doors, and the guys at Golden Century, who have been going for 30 years and had such a drop off — those places were the priority for us." A modern take on the recipe cards of yesteryear, Cartilage's journals are designed to be simple and straightforward to use. Plus, each recipe has been selected with home-style cooking in mind, so even if you're a bit of a novice in the kitchen, you should be able to whip something up without too much hassle. "We didn't want it to be super fancy. We want people to be able to cook it at home," says Matthews. "I think everybody involved saw it as something fun that they could do, which was the tone we're going for. We didn't want it to be too serious — there's enough very serious things going on right now." Cartilage recipe journals cost $15 and are available to download from the website.
What do you get when you cross two Hunter Valley winemakers and one taco king? Love, Tilly Devine's al fresco fiesta of tacos, wine and a good time. Taking place from 5pm on Tuesday, March 22, Hunter v Hunger will feature Sydney's taco king Toby Wilson, plus winemakers Aaron Mercer and Angus Vinden, all in a takeover of restaurant and wine bar Love, Tilly Devine. Wilson, of Rico's Tacos in Chippendale, will be serving a variety of Mexican dishes — including octopus and potato deep-fried tacos, mini tostadas, and dark chocolate mousse and chipotle ash for dessert. The winemakers will be offering a variety of selections to pair with your Mexican feast. Aaron Mercer of Mercer Wines will be pouring five of his winery's 2021 drops, while Angus Vinden will accompany him with five selections from his experimental label The Vinden Headcase. The event is walk-in only and wines will be available only in super-limited quantities — so arriving early for the best chance at getting a taste is strongly recommended. Images: Bruno Stefani for Buffet Digital.
What will open with a Melbourne-set drama that won an Audience Award at Sundance for telling a Tehran-born, Australian-raised writer/director's autobiographical tale? What'll then pay tribute to Australian record executive and promoter Michael Gudinski in its centrepiece slot? And, what will feature everyone from Hugo Weaving to Michael Cera, a satire about a smartphone, and documentaries about vinyl cover art and the Australian Open, too? That'd be the 2023 Melbourne International Film Festival, with MIFF adding 20 more movies to its 2023 lineup. Cinephiles, get excited. MIFF announced opening night's Shayda as well as the world premiere of Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story back in May, but its program was only getting started. Given that the Victorian capital's annual cinema showcase spans almost a month including both its in-person and online runs — this year playing in cinemas in Melbourne from Thursday, August 3–Sunday, August 20; at regional Victorian locations from Friday, August 11–Sunday, August 13 and Friday, August 18–Sunday, August 20; and also bringing back online platform MIFF Play from Friday, August 18–Sunday, August 27 — the number of flicks on its yearly bill runs into the hundreds. So, even the just-revealed new 20 movies on its list is still only the beginning. Weaving (Love Me) will pop up in The Rooster, a thriller about a hermit and a cop who form a bond during a crisis, starring opposite Phoenix Raei (The Night Agent). Shot in regional Victoria, it's the feature directing debut of actor-turned-writer/director Mark Leonard Winter (Elvis), and it's also one of the MIFF Premiere Fund titles on the festival's 2023 program — aka homegrown movies that the fest has financially supported. Also in that camp this year: the aforementioned Shayda; The Slam, a standout for tennis aficionados from director Ili Baré (The Leadership); cine-poem Memory Film: A Filmmaker's Diary; and This Is Going to Be Big, about Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School in Bullengarook staging a John Farnham-themed musical. After appearing in Barbie in July, Cera will grace MIFF's screens in August in The Adults. Yes, he'll be awkward — of course he will be — this time as a thirtysomething heading home. That film sits within the festival's international contingent, which is overflowing with impressive names and titles. Indeed, MIFF will also screen the latest feature by acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who won a Venice Special Jury Prize for No Bears. The Iranian great directs and stars, playing a fictionalised version of himself as he's fond of doing (see also: Tehran Taxi), and blending truth and fiction to examine how artists can too easily become scapegoats. After wowing audiences in Park City earlier this year, there's also Celine Song's debut feature Past Lives, telling a bittersweet romance about two childhood friends (Russian Doll's Greta Lee and Decision to Leave's Teo Yoo) who briefly reunite after decades apart. And, the lineup also includes Bad Behaviour, the feature directorial debut of actor-turned-filmmaker Alice Englert (You Won't Be Alone) starring Jennifer Connelly (Top Gun: Maverick); BlackBerry, which delves into the smartphone's rise and fall — and satirises it — with Jay Baruchel (FUBAR) and Glenn Howerton (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) among the cast; Passages, from Love Is Strange's Ira Sachs; environmentalist tale How to Blow Up a Pipeline; and the competitive hairdressing-focused Medusa Deluxe. Plus, fans of settling in for the long haul can also see four-and-a-half hour disappearance mind-bender Trenque Lauquen. MIFF will screen The Kingdom Exodus, Lars von Trier's latest followup to 1994's miniseries The Kingdom and its 1997 second season, too. Béla Tarr's 2000 drama Werckmeister Harmonies, a slow-cinema great, will also play the fest thanks to a new 4K restoration. Lovers of movies about music can add Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis), which hails from Control's Anton Corbijn and hones in on the titular photo-design company and its contribution to record cover art, to their MIFF schedule. Louder Than You Think is similarly part of the same program strand, with Gary Young from Pavement at its centre. Throw in documentaries The Disappearance of Shere Hite (about the 70s sexologist), The Echo (about rural Mexican life) and A Storm Foretold (about Roger Stone, adviser to Donald Trump), and MIFF 2023 is already off to a massive start for its 71st edition. As for what else is in store — including which movies will compete in the festival's Bright Horizons Competition, which launched in 2022 — that'll be unveiled on Tuesday, July 11. For now, MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar is teasing "essential, incredible, unexpected cinema from the whole world before us, far beyond the streamers, far beyond the multiplex – hotly anticipated works by iconic filmmakers, alongside new and breakthrough voices waiting to be discovered". [caption id="attachment_904296" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Zan Wimberley[/caption] The 2023 Melbourne International Film Festival runs from Thursday, August 3–Sunday, August 20 at a variety of venues around Melbourne; from Friday, August 11–Sunday, August 13 and Friday, August 18–Sunday, August 20 in regional Victoria; and online nationwide with MIFF Play from Friday, August 18–Sunday, August 27. For further details, including the full program from Tuesday, July 11, visit the MIFF website.
Forget the trashy mags conveniently placed just near supermarket checkouts, and forget whatever the real-life royals are up to, too. These days, if you're keen on regal intrigue, then you're hooked on Netflix drama The Crown. And, after two eventful seasons, you're definitely eagerly awaiting the show's third batch of episodes — following the same characters but with an all-new cast. Since 2016, The Crown has peered inside both Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street, unpacking the goings-on behind Britain's houses of power. Set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the series has charted her wedding to Prince Philip, her coronation and the birth of her children (aka Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward). As well as delving into the monarch's marital ups and downs, The Crown has also explored the romantic life of her sister, Princess Margaret, plus the major political events throughout the late 40s, entire 50s and early 60s. During all this, viewers have become accustomed to seeing Claire Foy as Elizabeth, Matt Smith as Philip and Vanessa Kirby as Margaret. In the third season, however, they've all been replaced to better reflect the passing of time. Fresh from winning an Oscar for The Favourite earlier this year, Olivia Colman steps into ol' Lizzie's shoes, while Tobias Menzies and Helena Bonham Carter do the same with Philip and Margaret. Also joining the show is Josh O'Connor as Prince Charles, Erin Doherty as Princess Anne and Marion Bailey as the Queen Mother. Given the change of cast, and the fact that The Crown's last episodes hit Netflix at the end of 2017, the show's third season has been eagerly anticipated. While neither last month's first teaser nor the just-dropped new sneak peek provide much at all in the way of detail, they both offer a glimpse at Colman as the Queen — with the latest teaser making fun of Her Majesty's transition from young woman to "old bat", in the words of the royal herself. Eventually, a full trailer is bound to drop, giving fans a broader look at the show's new stars. And, hopefully, touching upon the third season's storyline, which'll chart the years between 1964–1977, including Harold Wilson's (played by The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and The Children Act's Jason Watkins) two stints as prime minister. If you're waiting for the Margaret Thatcher era, and the arrival of Princess Diana, they're expected to be covered in The Crown's fourth season. For now, check out the third season's latest teaser below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_TE8yi58S8 The Crown's third season will hit Netflix on November 17. Image: Des Willie / Netflix.
Plays like You Know We Belong Together aren't a common sight on Australia's stages, and that's one of the reasons that it exists. Created by and starring actor and writer Julia Hales (ABC's The Upside), it features a cast performers exploring the daily reality of Down syndrome — and the fact that actors with Down syndrome are so rarely featured in Australia's cultural output. The starting point is right there in the Sydney Opera House-bound production's name, which should've instantly gotten one particular song stuck in your head. You Know We Belong Together takes its moniker from the first words to Home and Away's theme tune, a soap opera that Hales has been a life-long fan of. Watching the show's Summer Bay-set antics, she also noticed the inescapable fact that she wasn't represented in its melodramatic antics. "I want people to see us for who we are and what we do as part of the world," says Hales. "I watched every single episode of Australian soap opera Home and Away since it first aired in 1988, but I've never seen another person with Down syndrome in the cast." "I used to dream of landing a role in it and finding love. So I created You Know We Belong Together. This is a story for us, by us." Hales continues. You Know We Belong Together features Hales alongside six other Western Australian actors, all of whom draw upon their own lives and personal experiences with Down syndrome. The result combines monologues, video, scenes, dance and song, and also takes place on a replica of Home and Away's diner — allowing Hales to live her Home and Away dream. Co-written by Hales with playwright Finn O'Branagáin and Clare Watson, ex-Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Perth's Black Swan State Theatre Company, the play will hit the Opera House's Drama Theatre from Tuesday, September 6–Saturday, September 10. Watson directs, too. It comes to the venue after proving a hit in WA and overseas, including seasons at Perth Festival 2018, at Black Swan State Theatre Company in 2019, and at Edinburgh International Festival and London's Southbank Centre. As well as being committed to showing how people with disability are needlessly othered, and endeavouring to rectify that, You Know We Belong Together will feature integrated Auslan interpretation and captioning during its film segments. There'll also be a quiet space in the Drama Theatre foyer during the play's Opera House run.
It's hard to say where and when the whisky highball was first invented. The story goes that English actor E.J. Ratcliffe brought the concept to America in 1894, where a bartender at the Adams House in Boston dubbed it a 'highball'. The recipe — whisky and sparkling water in a tall glass — appeared in a book called The Mixologist in 1895, under the name 'Splificator'. But over the years, the name highball stuck — and the rules for making one vary as much as the story of its invention. Here to shake up the whisky highball this spring are three of Sydney's leading bartenders: Scout's Matt Whiley, who also oversees the cocktails at Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, plus Maybe Sammy owner Stefano Catino and award-winning bartender Andrea Gualdi. Each are working with Johnnie Walker to take the well-loved drink to a new level — with twists like papaya cordial, bergamot syrup and a tropical mix of citrus and coconut. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HIGHBALL During the late 19th century, there was a phylloxera epidemic that wiped out vineyards in Europe — and wine and spirits like brandy and cognac were not as readily available as they had been. The wealthier classes, who used to mix brandy and cognac with carbonated water, instead opted for blended scotch whisky with soda. And the whisky highball was born. To make it, some say the whisky and ice needs to be stirred 13 and a half times and soda water poured down the arm of the spoon, while others tell you to keep that spoon the hell away from it. What's not debatable is the tall glass, ice, whisky and carbonated water. [caption id="attachment_743093" align="alignnone" width="1620"] Trent van der Jagt.[/caption] Artisans of the craft know there are countless combos and garnishes available, from adding mint to a smoky whisky or introducing a lemon twist when you want to highlight the citrus notes. It's designed to have a refreshing taste, to accompany a nice meal and to bring out the flavours of the whisky. Today, Blended Scotch Whisky has become an increasingly popular base for the highball — thanks largely to its diverse flavour notes. Johnnie Walker Black Label, for example, has layers of vanilla and dried fruits with a subtle smoky finish. That's because Johnnie Walker has 29 distilleries in Scotland, producing roughly 11 million casks of whisky from which they make their blends. It makes it the perfect starting point for a whisky highball as there's a variation that suits lots of people's palates. WHO'S SHAKING THINGS UP? [caption id="attachment_743900" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Trent van der Jagt.[/caption] Sydney's ultimate beach bar, Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, has tasked talented mixologist Matt Whiley with crafting a summery interpretation of the classic. The decadent new take on the whisky highball is made with just four ingredients: anise soda, verjus, bergamot syrup and Johnnie Walker Black Label. Whiley's calling it Walking on Thin Ice ($20) and to match that interesting use of citrusy bergamot in the cocktail, Icebergs has paired it with a raw seafood cracker that's as good looking as those million-dollar views over Bondi. Try the combination for $24 any day this month. [caption id="attachment_743070" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Trent van der Jagt.[/caption] In fact, Matt Whiley has come up with two creative updates to the classic whisky highball. At the Sydney outpost of the award-winning London bar Scout, Whiley's serving up a Papaya Don't Preach ($21) — he's replaced supermarket soda with tea tree distillate, papaya cordial and pluot (apricot and plum hybrid) soda, Johnnie Walker Black Label and topped it with a papaya glass garnish. We'd expect nothing less from one of the world's most celebrated bartenders — and you can taste it for yourself at Scout, the sleek cocktail bar within The Dolphin. [caption id="attachment_743912" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Trent van der Jagt.[/caption] Over in The Rocks, 50s-inspired cocktail bar Maybe Sammy (named for jazz era icon, Sammy Davis Jr) is getting just as creative. Bar owner Stefano Catino and bartender Andrea Gualdi, who was named 2017 World Class Australia Bartender of the Year, have created the deluxe Johnnie & Flamingo ($15) — a perfectly balanced and refreshing mix of housemade tropical soda, housemade flamingo cordial (citrus and coconut) and Johnnie Walker Black Label. And the excellent kitchen team is pairing it with a Smoking Gun bagel for $20, available between 4.30–6.30pm on weekdays. Make your way to the retro Las Vegas-influenced bar to taste the pairing for yourself. Far from being just a scotch and soda, the highball is surprisingly versatile, creative and has a refreshing taste. Head to Icebergs, Scout and Maybe Sammy to try the creative takes on this classic drink. Top image: Trent van der Jagt.
There's no shortage of heartbreak in Till, a shattering drama about the abduction, torture and lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955. Clemency writer/director Chinonye Chukwu tells of a boy's tragic death, a mother's pain and anger, and a country's shame and trauma — and how all three pushed along America's 20th-century civil rights movement. Heartache lingers in the needless loss of life. Fury swells at the abhorrent racism on display, including in the justifications offered by the unrepentant perpetrators. Despair buzzes in the grief, personal and national alike, that hangs heavy from the second that Emmett is dragged away in the night. Fury seethes, too, because an atrocious murder like this demands justice and change, neither of which was ever going to be easy to secure given the time and place. Indeed, the US-wide Emmett Till Antilynching Act making lynching a federal hate crime only became law in March 2022. Heartbreak builds in and bursts through Till from the outset — and in sadly everyday situations. Emmett, nicknamed Bo by his family, is played as a lively and joyful teen by the impressive Jalyn Hall (Space Jam: A New Legacy). He's confident and cheery, as his mother Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler, Station Eleven) has lovingly raised him to be in Chicago. But even department-store shopping for a trip to the Deep South is coloured by the threat of discrimination. So, as his departure to see relatives gets nearer, Mamie utters a few words of advice. She's stern and urgent, trying to impart to him the importance of adhering to Mississippi's unspoken rules. She implores him not to do anything that could be construed as looking at white people the wrong way, to apologise profusely and instantly whenever he has to, and to heed the different set of norms. "Be small down there," she says — and it's one of the movie's many crushing moments. More devastation follows, in a film that wouldn't need to exist in a better world but is essential viewing in this one. While stopping at a grocery store in the sharecropper town of Money, Emmett talks to white shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant (Haley Bennett, Cyrano) — a fateful incident with specifics that've long been disputed since, as seen in infuriating testimony in the feature's later court scene. Chukwu depicts Emmett being chatty and charming, commenting that Bryant looks like a movie star. She responds by heading outside to get a pistol. Emmett's cousins and friends are frightened, a reaction that proves well-founded when Bryant's husband and brother-in-law arrive at Mamie's uncle's (John Douglas Thompson, The 355) door a few evenings later. The next time that the film's central teenager is seen, he's a horrendously beaten and barely recognisable corpse. Scripted by Chukwu with producers Keith Beauchamp (director of 2005 documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till) and Michael Reilly, Till isn't called Emmett or Bo, and isn't just the murdered boy's story — because Mamie was determined to make her heartbreak mean something. Accordingly, the movie devotes much of its running time to the aftermath, as Emmett's mother turns unspeakable sorrow into two quests: to try to hold the culprits responsible and to do whatever she needs to stop this from occurring to anyone else. Chukwu's film is sincere and clear-eyed about Mamie's courageous fight and the fortitude it takes, but it never veers away from the loss and hurt behind it. This is a portrait of a woman who became an activist icon, and also an ode to someone who was committed to ensuring that her boy's senseless killing wouldn't be excused or forgotten. When Till does see Emmett again after he's ripped from his family, the feature is careful — but also faithful to Mamie's actions. Chukwu smartly and sensitively chooses not to show the violence that Emmett was subjected to. When farmhand Willie Reed (Darian Rolle, Hard Drive) hears screams from a barn, it's deeply chilling without anyone needing to witness a single blow. And Mamie's cries when she greets her son's coffin are unsurprisingly hard to shake. But America and the globe were confronted with exactly what this crime looks like when Mamie insisted on holding an open-casket funeral, a move that Till both dramatises and copies. Chukwu is still restrained, however, never making a spectacle out of Emmett's maimed face and body. And, she's aware that watching how Mamie and others respond to the bludgeoned boy — seeing their faces crumple in distress and torment, as they naturally do — is equally as powerful. In fact, Chukwu and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski (Archive 81) can barely bring themselves to peer away from Deadwyler, who stuns in frame after frame. With both subtlety and potency, she's the picture of nervous, protective worry even before Emmett leaves — a venture that Mamie is against but her mother Alma (Whoopi Goldberg, Harlem) believes will help him know his roots — and, when he's away, conveys the motherly fear that something awful will eventuate in every look and gesture. Then, when the worst does come, Deadwyler is phenomenal in showing how Mamie summons up strength from enduring such horror. Till is a film of mourning, but it's also a movie about galvanising that mourning. While awards bodies have been woefully inconsistent with recognising Deadwyler's exceptional performance, with the BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild offering nominations but the Golden Globes and Oscars overlooking her entirely, this is a haunting portrayal. The only Black woman employed by the US Air Force's Chicago office when Till begins, as well as a widow and a single mother, there's more to Mamie than living every mum's nightmare and crusading afterwards — and although that isn't the focus of Chukwu, Beauchamp and Reilly's screenplay, Till finds ways to layer in crucial detail. How rich the film appears, especially when it's observing Mamie, Emmett and their modest but happy life in its opening chapter, is a particularly pivotal touch. Amid the dread that Mamie patently feels about Emmett's trip, and the foreboding the audience shares as well, there's such warmth radiating from the screen early on. There's such vibrance, too, because that's the existence she had worked hard to give to her child — one she knows likely wouldn't have been possible in the south. In that and every way it can be, Till is a film about love first and foremost, even when its true tale is so heartbreakingly and irrevocably altered by hate.
Killing Them Softly is the third movie by Australian writer-director Andrew Dominik, and as with his two previous films (Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), it focuses almost entirely on the criminal underworld and those who inhabit it. Set in 2008, it follows hitman Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) as he's hired by the mob to track down and execute a trio of small-time hoods for sticking up one of their illegal card games (Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, and Vincent Curatola). Pitt absolutely excels as the shrewd, no-nonsense killer dutifully dispatching the mob's condemned subject to two important caveats: he won't kill people he knows, and he won't kill people up close. Not because it's ethically troubling or offensive to his sense of honour, but because it's awkward and a humiliating seeing old acquaintances beg and cry before they die. Cogan's preference is instead to "kill them softly", at least until he grabs the shotgun, and under Dominik's direction the violence (of which there's quite a bit) combines the graphic brutality of Casino with the stylised cinematography of Drive. It's at once horrific and mesmerising, most notably during a supremely slow-motion assassination between two cars stopped at some traffic lights. The story is largely based on Cogan's Trade, a 1974 novel by author and former assistant US attorney George V Higgins. Higgins was perhaps best known for his use of hyper-realistic dialogue, lending his stories a theatrical quality that Dominik was wise to preserve. His screenplay crackles with fantastic exchanges and wonderful one-liners ranging from the droll observations of the mob's lawyer (Richard Jenkins) to the menace of Pitt's casually veiled threats. It's a fantastic and accomplished offering, with the only heavy hand coming by way of the film's laboured political overtones. Killing Them Softly opens on the boarded storefronts and destitution of an unnamed but neglected city set against billboards from the 2008 presidential campaign and excerpts of Obama's convention speech extolling the virtues of America's promise. Later, we hear President Bush justifying the bank bailout over shots of those disenfranchised and indigent who would ultimately foot the bill. America's promise has failed, we're told again and again — empty words and empty undertakings in a world where corporatisation has transformed the country for the worse. Calvin Coolidge once remarked that the chief business of the American people was business. Crap, says Cogan. America is the business, and the American people are just trying to get one up on everybody else. It's do or be done — and if you’re doing, make sure you're damned well paid for it.
Sydney's city skyline is about to gain two dazzling new additions: a 50-storey glass skyscraper, announced earlier this year, and Sydney's tallest residential building on George Street. The latter, announced just last week, will be a 270-metre-tall, 79-storey tower taking over the space at 505-523 George Street. It'll come in just shy of the Sydney Tower, which measures 309 metres at its tallest point. Currently home to Event Cinemas, the space will be transformed into a mixed-use tower with residential, retail, a hotel and childcare facilities. Film fans can breathe a sigh of relief, too, as The Urban Developer reports that the cinema is a subject to a long-term lease and will remain part of the new design. Mirvac and Coombes Property, who bought the site in 2009 for $85 million, announced last week that Ingenhoven and Architectus had submitted the winning design for the space, beating five other international design firms. German firm Ingenhoven is best known for its stunning Marina One complex in Singapore, and recently collaboration with Sydney's Architectus to build the 28-storey high-rise at 1 Bligh Street. As well as an eye-catching design, the new George Street tower will have an environmentally sustainable edge. Solar panels will generate the building's electricity and domestic hot water and it will predominantly be constructed from materials sourced locally. The skyscraper will begin construction at 505-523 George Street in 2020. Renders: Courtesy of Ingenhoven Architects and Doug and Wolf
It might take a little convincing to get inner-city locals over the bridge. But, you'll thank us once you've paid a visit to Kirribilli's Art, Design and Fashion Market. This design-focused offering comes to Kirribilli's historic markets (established in 1976) on the second Sunday of each month. Venture under Milsons Point Station to the Burton Street tunnel and discover artisan homewares, art, vintage decor and racks of curated fashion. Whether you're looking to refresh your wardrobe or searching for that memorable one-off gift, you're bound to stumble upon the perfect find among these stalls. Once you've worked up an appetite, head for the food court area which is packed with everything from roast pork rolls to quesadillas and much more.
When Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or in 2019, it became the second movie in as many years to nab the coveted prize for exploring class and wealth inequality through a tale of family. The year prior, when Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters scored the same gong, it too examined the ties that bind, plus the societal circumstances that conspire against and complicate such bonds. Indeed, that's the Japanese filmmaker's favourite subject. In a career spanning over three decades, he keeps being drawn to people who are drawn together, sometimes by biology and sometimes because that's simply the hand that fate has played in shaping a makeshift brood. It's fitting, then, that Kore-eda's latest Broker — his second feature since that big win — stays true to his go-to topic while also starring Parasite's Song Kang-ho. This is Kore-eda's first South Korean film, following 2019's French and English The Truth, which was his first non-Japanese picture. This is vintage Kore-eda, in fact, and it's warm, wise, wonderful, canny and complex. No matter how his on-screen families come to be, if there's any actual blood between them, whether they're grifting in some way or where in the world they're located, the Japanese writer/director's work has become so beloved — so magnificent, too — due to his care and sincerity. A Kore-eda film is a film of immense empathy and, like Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister, After the Storm and The Third Murder also in the prolific talent's past decade, Broker is no different. The setup here is one of the filmmaker's murkiest, with the feature's name referring to the baby trade. But showing compassion and humanity isn't up for debate in Kore-eda's approach. He judges the reality of modern-day life that leads his characters to their actions, but doesn't judge his central figures. In the process, he makes poignant melodramas that are also deep and thoughtful character studies, and that get to the heart of the globe's ills like the most cutting slices of social realism. It isn't just to make a buck that debt-ridden laundromat owner Sang-hyun (Song, Emergency Declaration) and orphanage-raised Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won, Peninsula) take infants abandoned to the Busan Family Church's 'baby box' — a chute that's exactly what it sounds like, available to mothers who know they can't embrace that part for whatever reason — then find good families to sell them to. There's a cash component, of course, but they're convinced that their gambit is better than letting children languish in the state system. In Kore-eda's usual kindhearted manner, Broker sees them with sensitivity. Even if blue hues didn't wash through the film's frames, nothing is ever black and white in the director's movies. The same understanding and tenderness flows towards mothers like So-young (Lee Ji-eun, Hotel Del Luna, aka K-Pop star IU), whose decision to leave Woo-sung (debutant Park Ji-yong) isn't easily made but puts Broker on its course. It's on a rainy night that So-young farewells Woo-sung, placing him gently in the hatch packed with blankets and soundtracked by lullabies, and leaving a note to say that she'll be back to claim him. She's nervous and tentative, peering around to see if anyone is watching — astutely so, because two groups are waiting on her significant choice. The traffickers have their plan to enact, while detectives Su-jin (Doona Bae, The Silent Sea) and Lee (Lee Joo-young, Rose Mansion) are keen to catch them. Muddying matters for both: unlike what usually happens in this situation, So-young does genuinely return for her baby. So sparks a road trip with Sang-hyun, Dong-soo and football-loving seven-year-old Hae-jin (first-timer Seung-soo Im), a runaway orphan, to meet Woo-sung's prospective adoptive parents, all with the cops on their trail as part of a six-month investigation. Broker's plot is never straightforward, nor are the questions it incites — questions about what family truly means, what governments say it's supposed to and why a ragtag group of outsiders can find a greater sense of belonging together on the run than anywhere else. Without offering any simple justifications, answers or solutions, Kore-eda ensures that the factors that lead So-young to the baby box, and Sang-hyun and Dong-soo to the illicit adoption market, constantly demand the audience's attention. "This car is filled with liars," Dong-soo says mid-trip, but it's the why behind that statement that sits at Broker's core. Like in Shoplifters before it, Kore-eda queries the forces that've made his characters who they are, brought them to this juncture and meant that the choices they're making feel like the only ones they can. Here, that includes pondering expectations placed upon women whether or not they're mums, the baggage attached to motherhood, the alternatives to baby boxes, and the stark truth that bringing life into the world and having a family aren't the same things. If he'd decided that literature rather than cinema was his medium of choice, there's no doubting that Kore-eda would've made an excellent novelist. His plots are that layered, perceptive, generous, emotional and involving. Also, in his TV adaptation The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, one of 2023's streaming delights, he showed that he's equally as skilled at bringing tales from the page to the screen. But filmmaking is clearly Kore-eda's calling — and he's such a masterful visual storyteller, not to mention an affectionate movie craftsman, that it's forever plain to see why. Enlisting the great South Korean cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, a veteran not just of the aforementioned Parasite but also Bong's Snowpiercer and Mother, Na Hong-jin's 2016 standout The Wailing and Lee Chang-dong's sublime Burning from 2018, he gives Broker an earthy, lived-in, clear-eyed and yet eternally hopeful look. Falling rain, cramped rooms, cosy car rides, sprawling countryside, everyday phone calls: this film, and Kore-eda and Hong, make each one stun and say, well, everything. Broker's score by Jung Jae-il (another Parasite alum, and also Squid Game's composer) — plus the movie's spectacular use of Amy Mann's 'Wise Up' on its soundtrack, nods to Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and all — are just as impressively and attentively fashioned. Nothing quite makes a Kore-eda feature what it is like his way with casting, though, pairing his empathetic stories with actors who gracefully live and breathe the same trait under his gaze. Accordingly, Kore-eda and the always-exceptional Song are a match made in cinematic heaven; it's no wonder that the latter deservedly earned Cannes' 2022 Best Actor prize for his latest phenomenal performance as a complex patriarch-type. Kore-eda and Bae is just as sterling a duo, too, especially when it comes to conveying yearning within this already bittersweet tale. Every heartfelt portrayal in Broker gets its audience feeling, however, including the scene-stealing Lee as a woman facing impossible choices, and pivotal baby Park.
At this point, we should really just be running an updated list of which Sydney pubs Merivale now owns. In the past six months alone, the hospitality group has acquired Marrickville's Vic On The Park, The Colloroy on the northern beaches, The Tennyson on Botany Road and — just two weeks ago — Bondi's Royal Hotel. The latest one to be tacked onto the end? Woollahra's Hotel Centennial. As far as we know the Oxford Street pub was not up for sale — it had just appointed new executive chef Tom Deadman in October and launched a summer series last week. Merivale will take over the venue from December 12 and bring in its two chefs from up the road: Danielle Alvarez from Fred's and Ben Greeno from The Paddington. The pair will head up the venue's dining room and bar menu. With the Centennial and the Royal — which is set to be the group's first Bondi venue — Merivale seems very much se to spread its brand across the eastern suburbs. And, well, every inner-city suburb in Sydney. Image: Google Maps.
Sent to gay conversion camp after being caught with another girl on prom night, Cameron Post (Chloë Grace Moretz) lies on the ground with one of her fellow campers. They're taking part in a class exercise, but when Cameron doesn't express herself in the way that's expected, she's accused of being hostile. More than that, she's told that by remaining more reserved than her classmates — by simply being who she is — that she's attacking everyone around her. While hardly one of The Miseducation of Cameron Post's most dramatic moments, the scene perfectly encapsulates the antagonism that is often directed towards the queer community just for existing. Adapting the applauded novel of the same name and earning the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival for its efforts, The Miseducation of Cameron Post deploys the tactics mentioned above on several occasions. The film includes scenes that appear ordinary within the narrative, and don't always stand out when the end credits roll, yet still speak to something broader. In another example, Cameron peels potatoes in the camp kitchen. The 4 Non Blondes hit 'What's Up?' starts playing on the radio, and Cameron begins to sing along. She's timid at first, but as the song continues — complete with a chorus that screams "what's going on?", as well as lines about praying for a revolution — her enthusiasm grows. In specific scenes and in its overall mood, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is compassionate and sensitive — not to the concept of gay conversion therapy, but to teens who are chastised for deviating from society's narrow idea of normality. Focusing on 16-year-old Cameron, the film explores the struggles faced by those packed off to the strict God's Promise facility as they're lectured about gender confusion and instructed to bury their urges. Under the watchful eyes of Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle) and her supposedly saved brother (John Gallagher Jr.), attendees are taught how to be more stereotypically feminine or masculine. Girls are pushed away from sports, and guys with long locks are given haircuts. Unsurprisingly, Cameron is far from happy to be there, although she has like-minded company in the world-weary Jane (Sasha Lane) and the thoughtful Adam (Forrest Goodluck). While her film is set in the 90s, writer-director Desiree Akhavan wades into topical territory with her follow-up to 2014 comedy Appropriate Behaviour. It's timely, too, with The Miseducation of Cameron Post the first of two high-profile titles about gay conversion heading to screens before the year is out. (The second, Boy Erased, stars Lady Bird's Lucas Hedges, with Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe as his parents.) That said, it's not the movie's subject matter that makes it revolutionary, but its approach. Although it details a horrendous practice, this is a quiet film. It's not sharply subversive like the similarly themed But I'm a Cheerleader from 1999, and it doesn't need to be. Rather, with a big heart and some well-deployed low-key humour, The Miseducation of Cameron Post demonstrates unshakeable strength and defiance — just as its eponymous figure does when she's torn in multiple directions by her feelings, yet refuses to submit to anyone else's ideas about her sexuality or identity. It's little wonder, then, that Akhavan rarely takes the camera away from Moretz's face. When you're making a movie that's so steeped in the emotions of its protagonist, that's an understandable choice. Given that Moretz turns in a performance that's more nuanced and textured than anything else across her career, it's doubly so. The Miseducation of Cameron Post also finds ample time for the excellent Lane and Goodluck, who ensure that their supporting players feel exceptionally well-rounded. It gives other figures their small but important moments too, fleshing out the myriad of ways that places such as God's Promise can do damage. But whether Akhavan is rendering the picture's frames in muted tones that match Cameron's reserved personality, or simply capturing the pain flickering across Moretz's brow, she always adopts her lead character's perspective. This is a movie that gazes with the young woman at its centre, and strives to convey her experience in difficult circumstances, instead of merely looking at her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6yPs5Nayog
Now, this is a story all about how a 90s sitcom favourite got flipped-turned upside down. And we'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, to tell you how the show that gave Will Smith his big acting break became a new gritty reboot called Bel-Air. Yes, just by reading that last paragraph, you now have the theme tune to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air stuck in your head. But let's be honest: if you've ever watched an episode of the 1990–96 series, even if it was decades back, you've had the ridiculously catchy song immersed in your brain ever since. Whether that track will pop up in Bel-Air is yet to be seen — but the show itself will drop on Monday, February 14. In Australia, Stan will be streaming the series, which turns Smith's earliest acting claim to fame into a drama, updates it to modern-day America, but otherwise sticks to the same basic premise. Once again, a West Philadelphia-born and -raised teenager by the name of Will Smith — this time played by first-timer Jabari Banks — will make the move to the titular Los Angeles neighbourhood. Lavish gated mansions and disparate worlds colliding awaits, as do the Banks family, with Adrian Holmes (Arrow) as Will's uncle Phillip, Cassandra Freeman (The Last OG) as his aunt Vivian, and Olly Sholotan (Run Hide Fight), Coco Jones (Vampires vs the Bronx) and Akira Akbar (Captain Marvel) as his cousins Carlton, Hilary and Ashley. Also featuring: Will's pal Jazz, this time played by Jordan L Jones (Rel). As that storyline and character list shows — and the just-dropped trailer for Bel-Air, too — there's plenty that's familiar about the series, which has been developed by the IRL Smith with filmmaker Morgan Cooper based on the latter's 2019 short fan film of the same name. But the tone firmly takes a swerve to the serious, so don't expect to be giggling along with the latest classic series to resurface after years (see also: Gossip Girl, Saved by the Bell, Sex and the City sequel series And Just Like That..., just to name a few). Check out the Bel-Air trailer below: Bel-Air will start streaming in Australia on Monday, February 14 via Stan.
UPDATE: April 27, 2020: Annabelle Comes Home is available to stream via Netflix, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. There's an incredibly cynical, albeit accurate, way of looking at Annabelle Comes Home, which marks the eighth film in the Conjuring Cinematic Universe in the past six years. A second sequel to a spin-off from 2013's The Conjuring, this horror flick once again draws upon the lives and work of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga). As you can tell from the film's title, it also features the creepy doll called Annabelle, which is either a possessed plaything or a beacon for other demonic spirits, depending on narrative requirements in any given picture. This time, however, the franchise delves further into the Warrens' treasure trove of cursed and occult trinkets. There are so many other spooky and unnerving items that they literally fill a heavily padlocked room. Spying everything from jinxed samurai armour to haunted board games to prowling hellhounds, it's easy to glean what the saga's producers, including Australian filmmaker James Wan, are thinking — more eerie objects, more potential movies. New films about soul-collecting ferrymen and demented bridal dresses will likely eventuate (although, if the latter does, it'll have big shoes to fill following the fantastic, completely unrelated British movie In Fabric). That's just how the entertainment business works. Thankfully, as Annabelle Comes Home unleashes a bedevilled toy box worth of terrifying forces, it livens up the franchise's familiar template, has ample fun with the haunted house concept, and even throws in some goofy teen movie-style antics as well. The Annabelle series hasn't been great so far, so this mightn't sound like the biggest compliment, but Annabelle Comes Home is its best instalment yet. In a saga that also includes the lacklustre The Nun and The Curse of the Weeping Woman, it's also the best Conjuring Universe flick since the movie that started it all. Written and directed by Gary Dauberman — who has penned four Conjuring Universe films now, as well as 2017's It and its forthcoming sequel — Annabelle Comes Home sticks to its simple premise. After being involved in a number of violent incidents, the damned dolly is brought to the Warrens' suburban Connecticut house. Not only is it locked in their artefacts room, but it's sealed in a glass case emblazoned with multiple warnings of the "do not open" kind. And there Annabelle sits, until Ed and Lorraine go away overnight on a case, leaving their quiet, pre-teen daughter Judy (McKenna Grace) at home. Friendly, sensible babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) knows better than to snoop, touch things she shouldn't or to even invite the cute boy from across the street (Michael Cimino) over. Of course, her curious pal Daniela (Katie Sarife) doesn't share the same mindset. As a screenwriter, Dauberman's past scripts have relied heavily on formula. That doesn't substantially change in his directorial debut, however he does an impressive job of making Annabelle Comes Home seem otherwise. Two sleight-of-hand tactics drive this bump- and jump-fuelled film, and they're both effective. Firstly, viewers are aware that this is more grist for the franchise mill, and that more movies will come — at this rate, the Conjuring series will probably haunt us for so long, it'll become its own hair-raising legend. But this latest chapter has such a great time careening between its multiple spine-tingling entities that nothing ever feels overly stock-standard, other than the titular doll (and she plays a smaller part than might be expected). Secondly, audiences have experienced ominous shadows, unsettling creaks and unexpected knocks at the door before, especially in this horror saga, and yet variety is once again key. Knowing that every sinister noise and strange occurrence is caused by the same disturbing toy again and again? Tired. Being kept guessing about which demonic object will pop up at any given moment? That's not only more thrilling, but it gives the movie more range to mix up its chilling imagery. Courtesy of hazy lighting and a moody atmosphere, Annabelle Comes Home nails the creepy tone anyway, with cinematographer Michael Burgess (The Curse of the Weeping Woman) making the most of the movie's main location. If trapping a few unsupervised kids in a house while otherworldly forces wreak havoc sounds like classic 80s territory, that's the vibe the picture goes for, even though it's set in the 70s. In a welcome improvement, the teen focus also shakes up the story beats, exploring threads about bullying, grief and young love — instead of just waiting for more spooks and scares, and padding them out with an uneasy tone. The film's characters also feel less like mere narrative pawns as a result. They still make stupid decisions, including ignoring all of those locks and "keep out" signs, but they're given flesh to jump out of. Overall, it's enough to make horror buffs wish that both the broader franchise and the now three-film Annabelle series had tried a few different tricks earlier. And although this is entirely the point, it's enough to make viewers look forward to possible new spinoffs, too. As the long-running Marvel Cinematic Universe continually demonstrates, these episodic, intertwined properties can (and probably will) keep going on forever. But as long as every single chapter isn't a carbon copy of the last, just with a new figure its centre, they can still surprise and entertain. Finally, Annabelle Comes Home shows that idea can be done well, rather than routinely, in the Conjuring Universe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6M0RbShLpI
When Michael Crichton put pen to paper and conjured up a modern-day dinosaur-filled amusement park, he couldn't have known exactly what he'd done. The author easily imagined the story making its way to the big screen, because the Jurassic Park novel started out as a screenplay. He could've also perceived that a whole film franchise could follow, and that folks would be quoting the movies for decades. And yet, we're guessing that he didn't predict the latest development: a recreation of the Jurassic World movies, which started with fourth flick in the series back in 2015, made completely out of Lego. Jurassic World by Brickman first popped up in Melbourne in 2021, and now Sydneysiders will be able to wander through it, too — and peer at more than 50 dinosaurs, props and scenes from the Jurassic World movies that have all been fashioned out of the popular plastic bricks in the process. That'll all be on display at the Australian Museum from Saturday, March 5–Sunday, May 29, as part of the exhibition's tour of the country. More than six million Lego blocks have been used in the exhibition, to create the four-metre-tall park gates, the lab where the dinosaurs are genetically engineered, those instantly recognisable jeeps, a petting zoo, a heap of creatures and more. Welcome to... your Lego Jurassic World fantasy, basically. Lego dinosaurs are obviously the main attraction and, yes, this event is going big. There'll be a life-sized brachiosaurus that weighs more than two tonnes, a huge tyrannosaurus rex, two life-sized velociraptors (Blue and Delta), and everything from a stegosaurus to a triceratops, too. Just for Sydney, there'll also be a new 400-kilogram baryonyx that spans 4.8-metres in length. Plus, you'll see some prehistoric creatures in the baby dinosaur enclosure, encounter more on the loose and learn how to track them over the exhibition's recreation of Isla Nublar (while using your imagination a whole heap, obviously). If it all sounds rather sizeable, that's because Jurassic World by Brickman is the largest Lego exhibition in Australia. And if getting a closer look at Jurassic World sounds a little familiar, you might remember the non-Lego exhibition that hit Melbourne back in 2016. Lego aficionados will also be able to get building while they're there, with 2.5 million bricks to play with. Obviously, this'll be a family-friendly affair, so expect to have plenty of small dinosaur fans for company. And if you're wondering when you'll next see a Jurassic World flick on the big screen, Jurassic World Dominion — the followup to 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom — is due to release this June. Yes, Jurassic World by Brickman's Sydney timing is just as great as whatever it took to get the franchise's original trio of Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill to reunite in the upcoming flick. Jurassic World by Brickman will display at the Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Darlinghurst, from Saturday, March 5–Sunday, May 29. Tickets on sale at 10am AEDT on Thursday, February 17.
If you're planning a trip down to the Far South Coast, make your first stop Green Cape lookout, where you'll find a lighthouse surrounded by wilderness, perched on Disaster Bay's rocky northern peninsula. Forget mobile coverage. Step into the 19th century in the former keeper's cottages — which have been turned into cosy accommodation, with classic wooden furniture, claw foot baths, open fires and shady verandahs. Between May and December, you may even spot whales from the lookout point. But if you don't spot one, there's plenty of other wildlife to look out for, including fur seals, dolphins, albatrosses, gannets and sea eagles. Image: Dee Kramer Photography
Nanette Orly curates Transcendence, a new show opening at Firstdraft this month. Drawing together work from Talia Smith, Get to Work, Roberta Rich, Nathan Beard and Dana Davenport, the exhibition explores the premise of blurred cultural identity, investigating "how artists of mixed backgrounds utilise their practices to negotiate and deconstruct their own identities," offering viewers insight into how one can solidify multiple cultural backgrounds to arrive at a place of personal harmony and emotional reconciliation, or "transcendence". With several interdisciplinary artists featured, you can expect a multiplicity of mediums including video, sculpture and performance. Our pick for the highlight? The collective Get To Work (a trio of artists Georgia Taia, Paris Taia and Tracy Quan) who offer up a humorous, relatable and playful fusion of performance, dance, video, pop culture and Pacific Island traditions to examine social behaviour and identity – ridiculing the stereotyping they frequently experience as artists and culturally diverse women whilst aiming to relieve "the potential pressures, particularly in Australia, to be culturally categorised". Image: Dana Davenport, 흑인 (heugin) - Black Person, 2015, Image credit: Maria Baranova.
While Messina's main jam is crafting supremely scoffable varieties of gelato, the brand's love of food extends far beyond the freezer, as proven through a series of pop-ups it's dubbed Messina Eats. Every couple of months, the cult gelateria teams up with a savoury-focused culinary hero and throws a big ol' food party in the carpark at its Rosebery headquarters. On May 4 and 5, it's teaming up with Melbourne Filipino barbecue masters Hoy Pinoy to create a meaty menu as mouthwatering as the gelato it will be served alongside. Hoy Pinoy's skewers are always a big hit at the Night Noodle Markets, so the team will be grilling some of those (both chicken and pork belly), along with sisig (chopped pork over steamed rice) and chicken-topped fries. And for dessert Messina will be whipping up a bibingka, a rice flour and coconut cake filled with gelato and whipped butter. The whole thing will go down over Friday and Saturday in the carpark at Messina's Rosebery HQ. They'll be open from noon for lunch and dinner until sold out.
In just the past year, Fred Armisen has popped up on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, returned briefly to Saturday Night Live, played multiple characters on Documentary Now! and launched new Spanish-language horror-comedy Los Espookys. He has also co-starred with Maya Rudolph in existential dramedy Forever, voiced a hormone monster on Big Mouth and said goodbye to Portlandia. It's safe to say that he's had a busy 12 months or so. Next up for the hardworking actor and comedian is his first Australian tour, with Armisen bringing his latest show to our shores this August and September. No, he won't be donning wigs and different outfits, and pretending to be various residents from everyone's favourite Oregon hipster city. Sketch comedy does feature in this new show, however — and, this time, musicians are his target. Combining gags, songs and impressions, Comedy for Musicians But Everyone Is Welcome finds plenty of humour in the music industry, and, as Portlandia fans will know, Armisen is no stranger to combining tunes and laughs. While he's now best known for all of the aforementioned series, others like 30 Rock, Broad City and Parks & Recreation, plus as films as varied as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Battle of the Sexes and The Dictator, Armisen actually started out in Chicago punk band Trenchmouth. He also played drums for the Blue Man Group and, since it launched in 2014, he's been the bandleader and a frequent drummer for Late Night with Seth Meyers. As a result, Comedy for Musicians But Everyone Is Welcome isn't a case of a comedian poking fun at a different industry — Armisen knows what he's joking about. Heading to Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney, Comedy for Musicians But Everyone Is Welcome follows on from Armisen's Netflix special Fred Armisen: Standup for Drummers, which nabbed him a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album. If you need some amusement until Armisen hits the country, check out the Standup for Drummers trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAhvJMcLShU Fred Armisen's Comedy for Musicians But Everyone Is Welcome will play at Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre on Thursday, August 29; Perth's Astor Theatre on Sunday, September 1; The Tivoli in Brisbane on Tuesday, September 3; and Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Wednesday, September 4. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Monday, July 15 — for further details, visit the promoter's website.
Victorian distilleries have made quite the splash at the 2021 Australian Distilled Spirits Awards, claiming half of the trophies handed out at this year's award ceremony, held overnight at the Melbourne Showgrounds' Victoria Pavilion. An impressive nine trophies were awarded to local makers at the prestigious ceremony on December 1, while McLaren Vale's Never Never Distilling Co took out the top gong, awarded Champion Australian Distiller. It's been a rough couple of years, but testament to the industry's fighting 'spirit', this year's awards saw a hefty 765 entries from 191 distilleries, with 90 gold medals handed out and hundreds more silver and bronze. Among the Victorians to claim victory was Eltham's Naught Distilling, whose Australian Dry Gin scored both the Champion New World/Contemporary Gin and Champion Victorian Gin trophies. The Mornington Peninsula's Jimmy Rum was named Champion Victorian Distillery, while its Jimmy Rum Silver nabbed the brand-new award for Champion Cane Spirit. North Melbourne's Cap & Bells earned gongs for its Marionette bitter orange curacao and dry cassis, and an exciting cask collaboration from Chief's Son and Mornington Peninsula Brewery was awarded Champion Australian Small Batch Spirit. Never Never — whose name you might recognise from the recent oyster shell gin collaboration with Lucas Group restaurant Society — also took out the trophies for Champion Navy Gin (the Juniper Freak) and Champion London Dry Gin (Triple Juniper Export Strength Gin). [caption id="attachment_761553" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Archie Rose's Rye Malt Whisky[/caption] Unsurprisingly, the New South Wales spirits scene also represented, with big wins for Archie Rose's Rye Malt Whisky, Regal Rogue's Lively White vermouth, and Mobius Distilling Co's Apple Pie Liqueur and 38 Special Vodka. Meanwhile, fresh trophies for Bundaberg and South Australia's Ginny Pig Distillery now offer a few extra incentives for that boozy interstate trip you've been plotting. Running since 2015, the Australian Distilled Spirits Awards is the country's largest national spirits competition. They're hosted by not-for-profit organisation Melbourne Royal, and judged by some of Australia's top distillers, booze retailers and spirits writers. For the full list of 2021 Australian Distilled Spirits Awards winners, check out the website. Top Image: Jimmy Rum, by Chris McConville
I discovered The Church when I was fourteen, the year me and a friend undertook the task of becoming experts in every band featured on the Donnie Darko soundtrack. I also wore a lot of black that year, and spent most of my time in my bedroom. So despite the fact that The Church are one of Australia's most acclaimed bands, and were making music a decade before I was born, my associations with them have always been distinctly infused with the intensity of being fourteen. The Church got together in Sydney in 1980, and with their complex melodies and surreal, poetic lyrics, have since gone on to become one of Australia's most successful bands, recognised as such when they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame last year. Their show at The Sydney Opera House this April celebrates their thirtieth anniversary, and sees them performing songs from their back catalogue with symphonic accompaniment from the George Ellis Orchestra. Unquestionably one of the best bands Australia has produced, this event will see the beauty of their music unravel in the surroundings of Australia's most iconic performance space. The night will also see conductor George Ellis, who has previously worked with Lou Reed and Augie March, elevate songs which have graced headphones and bedroom landscapes for decades to their full orchestral splendour. https://youtube.com/watch?v=LSNGejPlTAo
UPDATE: MARCH 15, 2020 — Organisers have announced that Vivid Sydney 2020 has been cancelled "on the recommendations of the Australian Government and health authorities regarding non-essential, organised gatherings of more than 500 people". To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. If the first big-name announcement is anything to go by, it looks like this year's Vivid celebrations are going to be golden. US neo-soul singer and poet Jill Scott is heading Down Under, as part of a global anniversary tour, to perform at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid Live 2020. The Australian-exclusive shows will see 'Jilly from Philly' take to the Joan Sutherland stage for four nights this May, celebrating the 20th anniversary of her Grammy-nominated album Who is Jill Scott? Words And Sounds Vol. 1. So, expect to dance along to 'A Long Walk', 'Gettin' in the Way' and 'Love Rain' when Scott heads to Australia for just the second time ever. Scott cut her teeth in Philadelphia's 90s spoken word and R&B scene, where she performed with the likes of Will Smith and Common. After co-writing her first Grammy Award-winning song 'You Got Me' with fellow Philadelphians The Roots in 1999, Scott released her aforementioned debut album in 2000 — and then four more, including her most recent: 2015's Woman. [caption id="attachment_761802" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jill Scott[/caption] Headline acts of the huge annual festival of music and light over the past seven years have included The Cure, Solange, Morrisey and Kraftwerk with the ballots for all four selling out. The full lineup for Vivid Live is expected to drop next month — we'll let you know as soon as it does. Jill Scott will perform four shows at the Sydney Opera House's Joan Sutherland Theatre on Friday, May 22, Saturday, May 23, Monday, May 25 and Tuesday, May 26. Pre-sale begins at 9am on Friday, February 21 and general tickets are available from 9am on Monday, February 24. You can sign-up for pre-sale access over here. Top image: Club Kooky at Vivid Live 2019 by Jordan Munns.
From global behemoth Netflix to the arthouse, indie and documentary-focused Kanopy, picking a streaming platform can take as much time as actually picking something to watch on a streaming platform. The latest to enter the market has quite the point of difference, however — and not just because it's free. If viewing the likes of Bronson, Drive, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon has you on the same wavelength as filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, then you're in luck — the Danish writer/director is launching his own streaming service. Called byNWR.com, it's currently in beta testing before opening to the public at a later date this month, with the site dubbing itself "an unadulterated expressway for the arts". A venture in conjunction with existing platform Mubi as well as the Harvard Film Archive, byNWR.com will highlight a restored cult classic each month that's picked by a guest editor, The Guardian reports. Each film will be supported by content themed around the chosen flick, such as essays, videos, photos and music. And if you're wondering just what titles will be on offer, Refn detailed the first four, as well as his reasons for highlighting them. They're not the type of movies that you're likely to have watched and rewatched endlessly, or even seen on a big or small screen recently, including 1961 thriller Night Tide starring Dennis Hopper, 1965 horror effort The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds, 1974's The Burning Hell and 1967's Hot Thrills and Warm Chills. "I hope my site will inspire people to see the world a different way," the filmmaker outlined in his piece for The Guardian, while also writing about something fans of Refn's own work will be more than familiar with — pushing people out of their comfort zones. If Refn's choices sound like the kind of thing you would like to see in a cinema, Little White Lies also reports that the streaming site will be accompanied by special screenings around the globe. Via The Guardian.
If you're after a cure for your Christmas meat-and-beer hangover, don't be put off by the hordes of children swarming the Moana showings. This Boxing Day, if you can block out their shrieks, you'll be rewarded with one of Disney's best animated films to date. Although to be honest, when you look at the team behind the film, that's not really that surprising. At the helm are The Little Mermaid directors John Musker and Ron Clements, kickin' it old school and revisiting a narrative structure as old as time. Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), the title character and daughter of a Polynesian prince, is launched on a quest to save her people after a curse threatens their island. After she's chosen by the ocean (who turns out to be a major source of comedic relief), she defies her sea-fearing father and seeks out Maui (Dwayne Johnson). Maui, a shape-shifting demigod, is the one who originally put the curse on the islands by stealing the heart of the goddess Te Fiti. Once Moana finds and wrangles Maui into submission, the pair travel together to recover his magical fish hook and restore the heart. Along the way, Moana discovers something about her people – they weren't always bound to their islands. Her quest isn't about seeking family honour, love, or personal development – she's an island chief with bigger concerns. The complete lack of any romantic notions is also refreshing. Moana is a cocktail of all of the best elements of the Disney princess tropes – a desperate quest, charismatic supporting cast, catchy tunes and an animal sidekick – but with one subtle but important difference. Unlike most Disney princesses, Moana doesn't need a training montage to become a boss bitch, because she's strong to begin with. Not only is she a dutiful and diligent chief-in-training, she respects her parents, listens to her grandmother, champions the underdog and walks to the beat of her own drum. She's superficially goofy, but not in a way that undermines her capability or authority. She's a beautiful role model, and maybe the best Disney princess so far. Moreover, the movie's score, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina, and Opetaia Foa'i, is the music its heroine deserves. Prepare your ears to hear the main refrain 'How Far I'll Go' more than that damn 'Let It Go' song from Frozen. We ain't mad, though, because it's the perfect summer jam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKFuXETZUsI
If you're someone who loves indulging in a few G&Ts on a summer evening but doesn't love waking up to dehydrated, hungover skin, Four Pillars Gin and Go-To Skincare have you covered. The beloved Aussie brands are bringing back their extremely limited-edition Go-To Gin — a spirit that sent fans of Go-To founder ZFB (that's Zoë Foster-Blake for the uninitiated) into a frenzy upon its initial release in 2021, and again in 2022. When we say frenzy we mean it. The first two batches of My New Go-To Gin sold out in mere hours. So, it's time to start preparing your gin-buying fingers for 2023, with the second release dropping on Wednesday, November 22. Ready for cocktail mixing and shaking, the flavours in this coveted drop include quandong, aka native Aussie peach, plus yuzu, lime, coriander seeds and lemon myrtle. We hope you like particularly peachy sips, because this year's gin goes heavier on the quandong. And yes, the familiar peach-pink Go-To label means that you could probably add a bottle to your bathroom counter's lineup and nobody would notice anything out of the ordinary. Four Pillars co-founder and distiller Cam Mackenzie said in a statement he was aware gin and skin are an "unlikely duo". "But we knew we were onto a good thing with Go-To when we sold out faster than Taylor Swift tickets (almost). This year we've amped up quandong, freshness and a bit of peachiness to to add an extra layer of complexity," Mackenzie continued. To celebrate the launch, the skincare brand is also expanding where My New Go-To Gin will be available. For folks in Melbourne, you can hit up the Four Pillars pop-up store inside the Bourke Street Myer, and also to Lotte Duty-Free at Melbourne Airport for the first time. For everyone else, you're still headed to the Four Pillars' Sydney Laboratory and Healesville Distillery, and online. If you pick up some My New Go-To Gin from Bourke Street or Melbourne Airport, then sip a few too many drinks the night before another event (hello, festive season) you're in luck: every bottle from those two locations comes with a Go-To 'Transformazing' sheet mask to soak your skin in much-needed moisture. If last year is anything to go by, we imagine this gin is going to sell out pretty quickly, so signing up for the 2023 waitlist is highly recommended. While you're there, you'll also find a few cocktail recipes. And if you miss out, or peach isn't really your gin infusion of choice, you've got options however you choose to imbibe — Four Pillars has brought back its annual cult-favourites Bloody Shiraz Gin and Christmas gin for your festive cocktail needs. The 2023 Four Pillars Go-To Gin will go on sale online and in-store on Wednesday, November 22. Head to the Four Pillars website to sign up to the waitlist.
Sydney isn't typically a crowd-averse city, as anyone who has tried to move around town during a huge drawcard like Vivid knows. But, in 2020, gathering en masse hasn't been on the agenda due to COVID-19 — including at sporting events in the state's big stadiums. Today, Thursday, September 17, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced that's changing — for major ticketed and seated events at select venues. As the Premier explained, "the health advice now says that major stadia in NSW are able to go to 50-percent capacity rather than 25 percent". "In many ways, a large venue, so long as it has tickets and seats and zones, and very specific caveats, is available to be a managed and controlled event — and especially given it's outdoors, it also reduces the further risk," Premier Berejiklian noted. In terms of those caveats, the four-square metre rule applies, as does allocated chequerboard seating, clearcut zones splitting up the crowd's seating, and separate entry and exit areas. Also, for everyone attending, "there will be an expectation for people to wear masks when they're going to their seats," the Premier advised. She explained that once folks are seated, they won't have to keep their mask on; however "in getting to the venue and getting out of the venue, there is an expectation that everyone will be wearing a mask". https://www.facebook.com/gladysnsw/videos/335682434300669/?__xts__[0]=68.ARD5Ykoj1gaBxoq2OEObm1HZOxWHsIke2k7BAb8ohxhzy2Q_zqQSrM6i8vbXRkYHTGI0vLhJCSrEzOOiItPzMQ3PGMFb2qAJABhjkyg6hhpm49THd9LUTjqDP-gIiNK27GN-wRdYtPsgZGxQW-kAWfbX5g4PPR2yCrQxSmBUN_TPmgHXH2Q6LfBpBPi1N56GY3isoa8KAalcJmpGtsGWsv4DUW7mwWfYq2AbmcNZEnx8PelI18gUvP0kAI4Xbgf3x4zYW8hl2w3laO7-rYms29ASzEnngZKlmcujhGTw-cl2MxmsfPtA6G6-KNMBRsnjnhVerGVL9uoFt_tuvHe53PxFwoKXh-_B-ncTUQ&__tn__=-R The above changes, which come into effect from Thursday, October 1, mean that Bankwest Stadium will be able to host 15,000 people, while up to 40,000 folks can go to Stadium Australia. COVIDSafe plans for both venues have been supplied and approved, with the SCG's currently under consideration by NSW Health. If it is given the go-ahead, 23,000 will be able to head to the stadium. And if you're wondering why these capacities are being altered right now — and only for major events at major outdoor stadiums, rather than other events and types of venues — it's worth remembering the current time of year. Sure, it's spring, but NRL finals season is also approaching. It's due to kick off on Friday, October 2, with Sydney set to host the grand final on Sunday, October 25. On Wednesday, November 11, the city will also welcome one of this year's delayed State of Origin games. Indeed, it seems that the newly announced changes are wholly geared towards these major sporting events, rather than anything else. No word has been given as yet regarding whether NSW stadiums will also be able to fill to 50-percent capacity for cultural performances and concerts, with Premier Berejiklian specifically advising that she assumes "that outside of major annual events, the stadia won't be anywhere near that capacity. For ordinary matches or ordinary events, that capacity will not be achieved at all". Accordingly, it's great news if you're a Sydneysider keen to go to a big footy match in the coming months. If you're eager to attend a different type of outdoor event, like a gig or music festival, you'll have to cross your fingers that the same rules will soon apply to them as well. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. Top image: Destination NSW.
Frontrunners in the ever-brewing (sorry) craft beer scene in Sydney, Young Henrys have banded together, drunk many a Newtowner and created their very own ode to the inner west, the Small World Festival. The brand new festival features some of Sydney's best local bands and culinary wizards on the bill; set to thrown down a day-long celebration of the vibrant cultural hub that is Sydney's inner west. Scheduled for September, Small World promises to be the ultimate Sydney-centric festival, featuring music, food and the life force that inspired it all — beer — all proudly locally produced. The one-day festival will take over the beating heart of the inner west, Marrickville, the suburb where diversity is celebrated and enjoyed by locals. Marrickville remains the 17km stretch of land where you can pick up some authentic pho, take in some solid jazz tunes and enjoy the ambience of some of Sydney's sunniest cafes. Marrickville reps the essence of the inner west community, so it seems fitting to hold the festival along its beloved Jabez Street. "The idea started to take shape during a conversation over a beer, as all good ideas do. We were talking about all the amazing things that people put into the world from the inner west," explain Oscar Preston-Stanley and Rich Adamson from Newtown's YH brewery. "The conversation steered towards music of course, and we were in agreement that the music of the inner west isn't celebrated as much as it deserves to be." So who's playing? The music lineup has been handpicked by the Young Henrys crew, who are of the firm belief that music and beer should always be closely interlaced. Confirmed to headline the bill is legendary stoner rock band Tumbleweed (in tribute to their brother, bassist and friend Jay Curley), alongside garage-punk-pop trio Bloods, hip hop outfit True Vibenation, seven-strong Little Bastard, rascally rock and rollers The Snowdroppers as well as the beloved likes of Delta Riggs, Steve Smyth, The Upskirts, Pat Capocci, Royal Tennyson and Richard in Your Mind. Now that's a solid Sydney-heavy lineup. Booze will be plentiful and varied — just how we like it. Brewed to perfection, Young Henrys will be serving their golden oldies alongside some intriguing newcomers. Of course, their exclusively local Newtowner Ale will be on offer, as will their crowd-pleasing Cloudy Cider. Excitingly, the Young Henrys crew have expanded their horizons and brought something new to the table: gin. Festivalgoers will be among the first to try it. Makers have described the gin as "uniquely Australian, yet reminiscent of a classic London dry," and incorporates the combinations of juniper, oris root, Australian native bush tomato, pepperberry and Tasmanian grown hops to create a gin that is "both floral and dry, complex and smooth." Food will be served up all day, with the cream of the inner west crop getting involved in the fun. Newtown's Bloodwood will be plating polenta and gorgonzola sauce and spice BBQ squid. Recently doubled-hatted Porteño will be cranking out homemade pork chorizo or blood sausage on a roll with BBQ peppers, onions and chimichurri. Newtown burger monarchs Mary's are offering the answer to the ol' "What's in a Mary's Burger?" question: three cuts of beef patties with cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato and their house special 'Mary's Sauce' topped with a savoury seasoned pickle. Finally, Marrickville's Cornersmith are serving up a seasonal spring salad, two cheese and pickle sandwich, toasted almonds with paprika and rosemary, a blood orange sparkling cordial and pear and macadamia brownies. Then there's traditional hand spun Levantine style icecream from Booza Icecream. Needless to say, you won't go hungry. Art-wise, there'll be live demonstrations on the day from Local Artist Division (L.A. Division), a collective of some of the inner west's most talented artists including: Apeseven, Ben Brown, Glenno Smith, Keo Match, Mulga, Lachlan Bruce, Sindy Sin, UD3 and Warrick McMile. Then you'll just have to keep an eye out for roaming puppeteers by Umbrella Theatre. This chilled out community festival will be held on September 20. Enjoy a crisp beer (or a spot of gin) in the sun, savour some local fare, take in some great local tunes and take a moment or two to appreciate the top notch cultural development that has come to define the inner west. The Small World Festival will be held in Jabez Street in Marrickville on September 20. Tickets are $59 +BF and $13 +BF for kids under 13 and can be purchased here.
To celebrate its 11th birthday, Sydney-founded restaurant chain Ribs & Burgers has added a premium birthday slider to the menu. The star of the burger is a wagyu beef patty accompanied by pink sauce, red onion, pickles, American cheese, barbecue sauce and mustard. The burger is available for a limited time and can be picked up for $8.90 on its own, with chips for $13.90 or with a serving of pork ribs for $19.90. On Tuesday, November 8, Ribs & Burgers is taking the celebrations up a notch offering the sliders for $5 each —for one day only. To get your wagyu fix for just $5, head into your local store or order online on November 8. Ribs & Burgers has outposts across Australia, including The Rocks, Chatswood and Bella Vista in Sydney, Craigieburn and Hawthorn in Victoria, and Fortitude Vallery and Woolloongabba in Queensland. You can find your local store at the Ribs & Burgers website. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ribs & Burgers (@ribsandburgers) FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
In 2018, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a controversial change to the Oscars: creating an award for most popular film. The backlash was strong and swift, with the category quickly put on hold — and the fresh slate of Oscar nominees show why the new gong really isn't needed. From the Lady Gaga-starring fourth take on A Star Is Born, to Black Panther's comic book antics, to Bohemian Rhapsody's love letter to Queen, plenty of last year's huge box office hits are now multiple nominees for the 91st annual Academy Awards, which will be held on Monday, February 25 Australian time. They're joined by a heap of critical and audience favourites from 2018, including Alfonso Cuarón's highly personal drama Roma, deliciously dark historical effort The Favourite and Dick Cheney biopic Vice, plus two very different films about race relations: BlacKkKlansman and Green Book. By the numbers, Roma and The Favourite lead the charge with ten nods apiece, while A Star Is Born and Vice each scored eight, Black Panther received seven, BlacKkKlansman nabbed six, and Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book took five each. Of course, the figures only tell part of the story — some of the biggest highlights from the list of nominees are hidden behind the numbers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_i7cnOgbQ For only the sixth time in 91 years, a black filmmaker has been recognised in the best director category, with Spike Lee picking up his first-ever nomination across his lengthy career. Plus, for the first time since 1977's ceremony, two of the five best director contenders are for flicks in languages other than English — with Cuarón the favourite for Roma and Cold War's Pawel Pawlikowski a deserving but unexpected inclusion. Among the best picture field, Black Panther became the first Marvel movie to ever score a nod for the coveted award. And a movie star was born in Lady Gaga, who made history by becoming the first person to nab noms for best actress and for best original song in the same year (the latter of which, for A Star Is Born's heart-swelling banger 'Shallow', she's a shoo-in to win). On the surprise front, among Roma's huge haul, sit nods for two of its main on-screen talents, with Yalitza Aparicio in the best actress category and Marina de Tavira in the best supporting actress field. The Netflix title wasn't the streaming platform's only big contender, with the Coen Brothers-directed western anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs also picking up three nods. Of course, there are always gaps. After Greta Gerwig became just the fifth woman to be nominated for best director last year, the category went with an all-male lineup this time around — and among the exclusions, Can You Ever Forgive Me?'s Marielle Heller directed stars Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant to acting nominations, but didn't make the Oscar cut herself. And the list is light for Australian talents, with The Favourite landing the country's only contenders in the form of screenwriter Tony McNamara and production designer Fiona Crombie. The 91st Academy Awards will take place on Monday, February 25, Australian time. Here's the full list of nominations. OSCAR NOMINEES 2019 BEST MOTION PICTURE Black Panther BlacKkKlansman Bohemian Rhapsody The Favourite Green Book Roma A Star Is Born Vice BEST DIRECTOR Alfonso Cuarón, Roma Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman Adam McKay, Vice Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Yalitza Aparicio, Roma Glenn Close, The Wife Olivia Colman, The Favourite Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Christian Bale, Vice Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born Willem Dafoe, At Eternity's Gate Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody Viggo Mortensen, Green Book PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Amy Adams, Vice Marina de Tavira, Roma Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk Emma Stone, The Favourite Rachel Weisz, The Favourite PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Mahershala Ali, Green Book Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me? Sam Rockwell, Vice BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY The Favourite First Reformed Green Book Roma Vice BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY The Ballad of Buster Scruggs BlacKkKlansman Can You Ever Forgive Me? If Beale Street Could Talk A Star Is Born BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Black Panther BlacKkKlansman If Beale Street Could Talk Isle of Dogs Mary Poppins Returns BEST ORIGINAL SONG 'All the Stars', Black Panther 'I'll Fight', RBG 'The Place Where Lost Things Go', Mary Poppins Returns 'Shallow', A Star Is Born 'When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings', The Ballad of Buster Scruggs BEST FILM EDITING BlacKkKlansman Bohemian Rhapsody The Favourite Green Book Vice BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM Capernaum (Lebanon) Cold War (Poland) Never Look Away (Germany) Roma (Mexico) Shoplifters (Japan) BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Incredibles 2 Isle of Dogs Mirai Ralph Breaks the Internet Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Free Solo Hale County This Morning, This Evening Minding the Gap Of Fathers and Sons RBG BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Cold War The Favourite Never Look Away Roma A Star Is Born BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Black Panther The Favourite First Man Mary Poppins Returns Roma BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Avengers: Infinity War Christopher Robin First Man Ready Player One Solo: A Star Wars Story BEST COSTUME DESIGN The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Black Panther The Favourite Mary Poppins Returns Mary Queen of Scots BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING Border Mary Queen of Scots Vice BEST SOUND MIXING Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody First Man Roma A Star Is Born BEST SOUND EDITING Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody First Man A Quiet Place Roma BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT Black Sheep End Game Lifeboat A Night at the Garden Period. End of Sentence BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM Animal Behavior Bao Late Afternoon One Small Step Weekends BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM Detainment Fauve Marguerite Mother Skin
Need a gift at short notice? Flowers are usually a pretty safe option, but the thing about flowers is…they die — and sometimes pretty quickly too. Cacti, on the other hand, last practically forever, no matter how badly you neglect them. That's the practical reasoning behind new Sydney-based startup Little Succers anyway, who launched their same-day succulent delivery earlier this year. And now, they've launched a same-day cactus delivery, delightfully dubbed Little Pricks. Little Pricks will offer same-day delivery to the inner suburbs of Sydney — from Pyrmont to Rushcutters Bay and down to Redfern and Alexandria. Place your order by 11am (Monday to Friday only) and it'll arrive at your chosen destination by 6pm. $35 gets you a nine centimetre wide by nine centimetre tall potted cactus with neon packaging along with a handwritten card. "Fact: Love hurts," says the Little Succers team. "Pricks are among us. Maybe your BFF just got dumped and you want to send them a little prick to remind them of their ex-bae's failings? Or maybe you're just a fan of a good-lookin' cactus? Either way, these little pricks are the ballz. Get on it." To order a Little Prick, visit littlesuccers.com.au.
Martin Scorsese has given the world many things. He made Robert De Niro's film career, and also made sure Leonardo DiCaprio isn't just that guy from Growing Pains, Romeo + Juliet and Titanic. He's crafted some of the most influential movies of the last five decades, chronicled music over the same timespan and championed the history of cinema, too. There's a reason that you only need to refer to him by his last name. He's a creative force to be reckoned with — and, though many have tried, there's no one quite like him. In addition to all of the above — or, more accurately, because of it — he's the focus of a whole strand of this year's Sydney Film Festival program, Essential Scorsese. Curated by none other than David Stratton, SFF will present a showcase of ten of Martin Scorsese's essential films. In Melbourne, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image is also focusing on the legendary filmmaker in their latest four-month showcase, SCORSESE. So there's a lot of Scorsese going around at the moment. Of course, that's not all there is to the Scorsese experience — and no, we're not just talking about watching his movies. Before you get tickets to the SFF retrospective, we have a few pieces of Scorsese homework to get you well and truly prepared. Visiting New York and becoming besties with De Niro and DiCaprio isn't on our list, but if you want to try and make that happen, we're not going to stop you. LISTEN TO A SCORSESE PLAYLIST Scorsese has been quote as saying: "Music and film are inseparable. They always have been and always will be." And his career is a testament to that statement. From the moment 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' starts playing in Mean Streets to the way 'I'm Shipping Up to Boston' is used in The Departed, the soundtracks to Scorsese's movies have always proven as important as the narratives. The list goes on — and that's not even including references to his films in songs, as heard in the Arctic Monkeys' 'Knee Socks', for example. If you don't know where to start, try working through the back catalogues of The Band, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and George Harrison, all of whom have featured in Scorsese-directed documentaries and concert films. You'll also find more than one Scorsese playlist on Spotify. DISCOVER THE MOVIES THAT SHAPED HIS TASTES Filmmakers don't just make films — they watch them, too. They've grown up watching them, as Scorsese did, starting as an asthma-afflicted child who would go to the cinema because he couldn't take part in more active pursuits. That could be why he has always been so eager to rattle off his favourite flicks, with the internet overflowing with lists of his horror, must-see and all-time picks. Working your way through his selections is a good way to brush up on your movie history in general, but why not take it a step further? Scorsese has also directed and hosted two documentaries — A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies and My Voyage to Italy — that step through his thoughts and feelings about the cinema both hailing from his US homeland and linked to his Italian heritage. COOK HIS MOTHER'S RECIPES Back in 1974, Scorsese made a 49-minute documentary called Italianamerican. His parents, Charles and Catherine, feature heavily, chatting about their experiences as Italian migrants living in New York as they eat dinner. Catherine — who also pops up in Mean Streets, The King of Comedy, After Hours, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence and Casino — also talks through her meatballs recipe, which Scorsese then listed in the credits of the film. If you can't track down a copy of the movie, you can buy Italiamerican: The Scorsese Family Cookbook and then make it and 250 other Scorsese family dishes for yourself. Back in 1990, Catherine also shared the recipe for the pasta she cooks up in Goodfellas, where she played the mother of Joe Pesci's character. BINGE-WATCH HIS TELEVISION SHOWS Maybe Boardwalk Empire was your favourite TV show during its five-season run. Or perhaps you were counting down the days until Vinyl premiered back in February 2016, and then proceeded to devour every second of its '70s-set sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll fun, gratuitous name-checking and sometimes badly-cast nods to icons of the period. Whether you're an existing fan of either show, or you've been meaning to catch up with both, here's your chance to enjoy every single minute of each. Scorsese not only executive produced both series, but directed their first episodes (which explains why the Boardwalk Empire pilot reportedly cost $18 million). Yep, that's two extra pieces of Scorsese-made fare you mightn't have realised that you needed to watch. CHECK OUT HIS FILM CRITICISM Scorsese doesn't just make films, set up organisations to restore them and make lengthy programs dedicated to classics of years gone by, though he's done plenty of that. Once, back in 2000, he also guest hosted Roger Ebert & the Movies, the review television show Ebert made after the death of his former on-air partner Gene Siskel. The topic of conversation was the best movies of the '90s — and while we won't spoil Scorsese's picks, we will mention that Ebert chose Goodfellas as his number three film of the decade. Of course, Ebert and Scorsese weren't just linked on screen, with the film critic also writing Scorsese by Ebert, a book filled with essays about and interviews with the director. Essential Scorsese: Selected by David Stratton runs as part of Sydney Film Festival from June 11-19 at the Art Gallery of NSW. See the full program of at the SFF website.
Travel is at the top of nearly everyone's 'to-do' list, and we all know one of the best parts of travelling is food. Discovering new cuisines and flavours in another pocket of the world is among life's greatest pleasures and yet life itself can get in the way — not to mention the stresses of navigating the airport and seeing the credit card bill upon your return. Shangri-La, Sydney has the perfect solution that will take your taste buds to a world of spice and satisfaction without hopping on a flight. For eleven days this August, guest chefs from Shangri-La Hotel, Surabaya will be taking over the kitchen at Cafe Mix to serve up sensational Southeast Asian cuisine for a dining experience dubbed A Taste of Indonesia. For $65 on weekdays or $85 on weekends, you can indulge in a plethora of dishes, like a hearty beef rendang with hints of coconut and ayam goreng kalasan (a popular Indonesian fried chicken meal). Be sure to leave room for dessert: klepon (sweet rice balls with grated sugar), dadar gulung (pandan pancakes with sweet coconut filling) and other treats from chef Anna Polyviou. You can book a table for A Taste of Indonesia for lunch (12–2.30pm) or dinner (6–9.30pm) between August 16–26.
If there's a great Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie aching to be made, it's the one that Elizabeth Banks thinks she's in. Playing the villainous Rita Repulsa in the latest big-screen instalment of the franchise, she can barely contain her glee as she struts around the small Californian town of Angel Grove caressing faces, ripping out teeth, croaking lines about her love of gold and even devouring the shiny substance. If only the rest of the film enjoyed the same sense of fun. The '90s series didn't take much seriously – and how could it, when it featured overdubbed action footage from Japan's Super Sentai? Alas, the bulk of this reboot seems to have forgotten that. Admittedly, given that one of this new movie's first scenes involves a teenager chatting about pleasuring a bull, it initially seems that director Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) and screenwriter John Gatins (Kong: Skull Island) haven't ditched the goofiness entirely. Appearances can be deceiving, though. Just as a group of diverse high schoolers can turn out to be colour-coded superheroes, so too can a film that features a wise-cracking robot (voiced by Bill Hader), Krispy Kreme as the source of life on earth, and monsters fighting robot dinosaurs prove a bland addition to an all-too-familiar genre. Gritty origin stories — we've been there and done that over and over again. Adolescent angst, outcasts bonding in detention and kids learning that everything's better when they're part of a team — yep, we've seen that before too. That's what happens when troubled but charismatic quarterback Jason (Dacre Montgomery), "on the spectrum" nerd Billy (RJ Cyler), ostracised cheerleader Kimberly (Naomi Scott), show-off Zack (Ludi Lin) and perennial new girl Trini (Becky G.) cross paths at an abandoned mine, find glowing coins and acquire new superpowers. Thankfully, the former Ranger turned talking wall that is Zordon (Bryan Cranston) is on hand to fill them in on their mission to save the world from Rita, who has just been fished out of the ocean after 65 million years. Most of the movie is happy to watch the diverse new quintet hang out, talk about their problems, test out their skills and bond — because, if there's one thing that Hollywood loves more that zero to hero stories, it's setting the scene for future flicks. Even if it hadn't just been revealed that the producers have a six-film story arc ready and raring to go go, those intentions are evident from the outset. One day, making sure each movie is engaging on its own, rather than acting as filler for more to come, might become a priority again. Unfortunately, that's not the case here. Indeed, by the time the fighting rolls around, you could be forgiven for feeling like it's too little, too late. The final battle against Rita and her giant metallic minion Goldar offers a welcome albeit messily-shot burst of energy, as well as a glimpse of the type of tone the powers-that-be might want to adopt if five more flicks do come down the production line. It's just a shame you have to watch Power Rangers morph from The Breakfast Club to Chronicle to Fantastic Four to Transformers in order to get there. Still, at least it's better than 1995's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, which is only worth revisiting if you want to see the Rangers roam through Sydney.
Of course Tim Burton did a Dumbo remake. How could he not? For a director who's built his career around tales of misunderstood misfits, outcasts and oddities, an orphaned and absurd-looking circus elephant must've been all but irresistible. 'Edward Aero-Ears', if you will. And yet, this is more of a reimagining than a remake, melding modern themes of gender equality, animal welfare and anti-corporatisation with Burton's trademark touch of the macabre. The first notable difference between this version and the animated original from 1941 is its timeline, set now in post-war 1919. Burton certainly doesn't shy away from the bleak realities of the WWI era. His protagonist, Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), is a traumatised veteran who's lost an arm to the War and a wife to influenza. Finding work scarce and his injury an added obstacle to employment, Holt rejoins the old circus where once he dazzled as a horseback entertainer, but now merely shovels elephant manure. It's there, though, where he and his children (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins) discover Dumbo, the baby elephant with enormous ears, whose appearance sees him mocked by audiences and dismissed by the circus owner (Danny DeVito). In one of the film's more heartbreaking scenes (and there are few; this is definitely a tissues-at-the-ready situation), Dumbo's mother Jumbo is wrenched from her son and hauled away after she kills her torturous trainer and handler (a suitably loathsome Phil Zimmerman). It's not the only grim moment in the film, either. With his mother now gone, and amidst grief and despair, Dumbo's miraculous ability to fly becomes apparent, launching him into stardom and attracting the interests of an unscrupulous Walt Disney-esque theme park owner named V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton). From there, predictably, the circus's seemingly golden ticket reveals itself to be a far darker deal from which escape offers up all manner of perils. The live-action remake is Disney's new cash card (as if it needed one). Having already made bank with Beauty and the Beast, the studio is now poised to release both Aladdin and Mulan, followed later in the year by the Lion King, which will doubtless eclipse all manner of box office records. Where Disney has been successful so far is in melding human actors with their digital counterparts, and Dumbo, if you'll forgive the pun, soars in that respect. His enormous blue eyes and delicate expressions imbue him with almost more emotion than any of the actors given speaking parts, and when he flies so too does the film. Sadly, however, too much of the remainder feels entirely lacklustre, despite its exaggerated colourful palette. The characters, aside from DeVito and, to a lesser extent, Farrell, are woefully underwritten, while the performances are borderline pantomime. And in a movie named after him, not nearly enough focus is placed on Dumbo himself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocWpGdITSR4
Any Questions for Ben is much better than it sounds, and it sounds pretty good. Ben (Josh Lawson) returns to his old school to speak at a careers night, smugly sure that his success as a “strategic brands consultant” will be well-received by scores of students. After all, at 27, he’s already ticked all the obvious boxes: he’s got money, mates, a sweet pad in Melbourne, and sex on tap with Melbourne’s leggiest models. Still, there’s nothing like seeing his high school crush Alex (Rachel Taylor), now a United Nations lawyer, talk about international aid work to suddenly make rebranding vodka and selling billboards seem kinda meaningless. Even worse, the high school students are conspicuously under-awed by Ben. None of them ask him how they, too, can achieve success in advertising. Ben starts to fret that he’s all style, no substance – what exactly is a “strategic brands consultant” anyway? He free-falls into a quarter-life crisis. This film, the third full-length feature from Frontline’s Rob Sitch and rookie Australian production company Working Dog, is not without its flaws. Many of the romantic scenes misfire due to a total lack of fizz between Lawson and Taylor (possibly, while we’re being shallow, due to the hideous shoes worn by Taylor in a crucial romantic scene). It’s a love letter to Melbourne that occasionally feels like it was commissioned by the Victorian Tourism Board, and quite frankly, Ben’s life never seems all that bad. Skiing in New Zealand, dating Russian tennis stars, and short-term stints in high-paying jobs? Oh Ben, stop moaning and enjoy the clichéd ride. It’s saved, however, by the strong supporting cast and the fact that it never claims to be anything other than shallow — after all, that’s what the storyline’s all about. Ben’s dawn of realisation is well drawn, and although the film could be shorter, it’s funny, irreverent, and may make you question: well, what’s your own definition of success? Perhaps the opening card, quoting Ernest Hemingway's warning not to confuse motion with action, sums Ben’s journey and this film up best.
On the hunt for a new look or want to touch up your tresses? Located on Jaques Avenue just a few hundred metres from the ocean, Chop Shop is one of the very best barbershops in Bondi. And we're not just saying that because you can get a drink with your new 'do (although that certainly doesn't hinder the situation). Since opening in Bondi in 2008, owner Dan Dixon and his team of talented stylists have been committed to using 'professional only' products, and have built up quite a customer base as a result. Men's cuts start at $39 and include a full shampoo and a beverage, while a women's shampoo, cut and blow-dry starts at $92, and comes with your choice of tea, espresso or a cheeky glass of wine. Making small talk with your hairdresser is a hell of a lot easier when you're juuuust that little bit tipsy.
"Sometimes I think the only way to be truthful is to say nothing at all," says Thuso Lekwape's Johnny, reflecting on an evening spent with Charlotte's (Contessa Treffone) parents. The sentiment may not completely sum up Darlinghurst Theatre Company's latest production, but there is a sense that the play says an awful lot without conveying much of anything. The Mystery of Love and Sex, written by Bathsheba Doran, centres around Charlotte and Johnny, two American college students who have been friends for an age. Their relationship is easy, comfortable, solid — a bond that romance would only confuse. Charlotte's parents (Deborah Galanos and Nicholas Papademetriou) can't get their heads around this and try to nudge the pair into something more clear-cut. But Charlotte's in love with a girl from college. And Johnny has slept with a number of men he can't stand. Both are confused and as things get more complicated, the friendship starts to fray. The cast, directed by Anthony Skuse, are engaging, but the script seems to have a set-'em-up-knock-'em-down approach to the issues it explores. It tries to juggle questions about how friendship changes as we age, friendship versus marriage and how we come to terms with our sexual identities, but ends up flitting between them without ever stopping to pinpoint exactly what it's getting at. Except for an intimate scene shared by Charlotte and her mother, the second half quickly descends into an unsatisfying fairy tale. That said, Galanos' Lucinda is fantastic, pulling off a transition from quietly crumbling nicotine addict to a revolutionary for the hedonist cause within the space of the intermission. Lekwape's Johnny is understated, but he ages very convincingly over the course of the play. Papademetriou's Howard is amusingly and frustratingly paternal throughout, despite the script affording him very little development and Truffone manages a fine line with Charlotte, whose self-righteous streak might have been grating in other hands. Emma Vine's set runs pleasant interference on the naturalism of the text — a giant upside down tree sits menacingly to the side in the dusky pre-show light, while the majority of the action takes place on a large white wedge, its wonkiness geometrically jazzing up a few of the talkier scenes. "Weird is good," says Lucinda, attempting to comfort her daughter during the play. "Weird is life." The Mystery of Love and Sex, while performed capably, needs a few more doses of weirdness before it can be mistaken for the real thing.
The newly redeveloped Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) is launching a nocturnal program ARTBAR. Held on the last Friday of every month, ARTBAR aims to overhaul your experience of the art institution with an artist-curated evening of art, music, performance and, most importantly, booze. First cab off the rank is Sydney-based artist Justene Williams, whose work, Crutch Dance (2011) is currently showing as part of the Volume One: MCA Collection exhibition on level one. Her performance videos are notably outrageous, and as such her curated night is sure to be an eclectic evening of irrational and bizarre sights and sounds. The Jurassic Lounge program at the Australian Museum has proved to be a highly successful get-cool-young-kids-in-the-door model and, although ticketed, at least the regular door entry was only $15 and included one free drink, ARTBAR is $20. I am all for experiential extra-curricular museum programs, and especially those of the late night variety (yay for the MCA finally staying open late on Thursdays!), but it seems a little pricey for a program that so far (as of this writing) hasn’t released any act or content details. All rants aside, I am sure ARTBAR will prove to be a mystery-filled journey into the creative worlds of our artists. We wait with bated breath. Update: Since the writing of this article, the MCA has released the evening's list of DJs (Charlie Chux, Perfect Snatch, Touch Sensitive, Tyson Koh), as well as promises of performance art, karaoke, hot shaves for the itchy-faced, and the plausible suggestion that watching the first night of the Vivid lightshow from their balcony might be a nice thing. Still from Crutch Dance by Justene Williams.
The team at Sydney Harbour Kayaks is running a special series of after-dark kayaking tours ($155) for Sydney Solstice. Your tour of the harbour will paddle off at sunset — perfect for a pic or two — then, as the stars come out, you'll cruise past naval warships and the impressive 1874-built James Craig ship. You'll take in the sights of Glebe Island Bridge and the Anzac Bridge, before stopping for snacks and drinks. The tour starts and ends at Darling Harbour, which means you can pop over to the ice rink or food market at Darling Harbour Winter Festival when you're done. Two birds, one stone.
If you're looking to blow off some steam after a chaotic couple of years (and that's putting it mildly), you'll soon have a brand-new outlet for unleashing that pent-up frustration. Popular Viking-themed axe-throwing venue Maniax is opening the doors to its second Sydney outpost, this time in Marrickville — and this one's going to be even heftier. In fact, Maniax's new joint will be its largest yet — not only in Sydney, but across its seven sites Australia-wide. The company is going big in 2022, and not just here, with five other new hatchet-hurling spots set to pop up around the country before the year is out. For now, though, the focus is all on Marrickville. For Sydneysiders keen to get chucking in fresh surroundings, the new venue will launch sometime in April, and will become the brand's flagship site. Perched behind a large roller door on Jabez Street, it'll cater to 350 punters at full capacity, including for casual throws – if there's anything casual about chucking bladed weapons — and for events such as pre-wedding shindigs, birthday parties and date nights. Decor-wise, the new digs will be playing up the theme; think: leather banquettes, an antique mercury mirror, a huge antler chandelier and chalet-style fireplace. Oh, and a throne. Horns, shields, runes and helmets will all feature, plus ropes, furs and hides. And axes, naturally, with Alex Zabotto-Bentley and the AZB Creative team on interior-design duties. An on-site kitchen will be serving a menu of pizza and grazing platters, as well as slow-cooked meats and burgers — and banquets for pre-booked groups of eight or more. Also, since launching axes at targets can be thirsty work, the Maniax bar will be pouring a range of Viking-themed cocktails and craft brews to match. As with its siblings, the venue is designed to be enjoyed by axe-throwing junkies and total novices alike, manned by highly trained staff who'll happily coach you in the art of hurling weapons. Throwing is open to anyone over the age of 13. There are various sessions to choose from, depending on your skill level — ranging from the speedy one-hour Quick Chuck through to those aforementioned date-night packages featuring coaching for two. Annual memberships are also available. And once you've got a few throws under your belt, who knows? You might even be tempted to flex your newfound skills by joining the Maniax Axe-Throwing League. Find Maniax at 9–11 Jabez Street, Marrickville, from some time in April. For more information and bookings, head over to Maniax's website.
The fact that we are already mid-way through November is a cold slap in the face — 2022 has simply flown by. The sole relief? Christmas is almost here, and the city is starting to come alive with celebrations. The Entertainment Quarter is joining the festive list with its Ultimate Christmas Market, a one-day-only event on Sunday, December 4. As a one-off market, there's no point in dilly-dallying about whether to attend — you'll miss out on all the food and festive goodies. Plus, imagine being delightfully smug when you tick everything off your list in the one day. With over 130 stalls — selling everything from wrapping paper, wreaths, decorations and trees, to puddings and cakes aplenty — you're well and truly sorted. [caption id="attachment_879004" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Anna Kucera[/caption] There's a dedicated kid's precinct, too — so you can divide and conquer. Team one can keep them entertained with rides and activities (sand art, hair braiding, face painting, Mr Claus himself and more await), while team two can browse the aisles for a gift that'll make the early start on Christmas day worth it. The EQ Ultimate Christmas Market will hit the Entertainment Quarter from 10am to 4pm on Sunday, December 4. For more information, check out the website.
Sebastián Lelio's A Fantastic Woman has been unexpectedly popular with the pundits, which is great for two reasons. For starters, it's always encouraging when foreign language films are financially successful. But what's even better is that the film offers a sensitive, uplifting portrayal of a transgender protagonist. After taking home a deluge of awards, there's no doubt that A Fantastic Woman is a serious contender to win Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Academy Awards. Frankly, it's just a shame it wasn't nominated for Best Picture The story follows Marina Vidal, played by trans actress Daniela Vega. We meet her partner Orlando, played by Francisco Reyes, on the evening of her birthday, and get a glimpse into their tender, hopeful relationship before it all comes crumbling down. Orlando, who is a fair bit older than Marina, wakes up feeling sick – and although she rushes him to the hospital, it's all too late. The bulk of the film takes place in the aftermath of Orlando's death, as Marina is forced to deal with his family as they tear strips off her from all angles. It can't be overstated how wonderful it is to see transgender representation on the big screen (no offence Eddie Redmayne, but this is how it should be). Vega's performance as Marina feels authentic, in no small part because it is authentic. Every movement, every delivery is subtle, considered and real. To convey the character's mental state, Lelio oscillates between realism and magical realism, maintaining an elegant balance that ensures neither style feels heavy or overdone. And all the while, his leading lady is mesmerising in every scene. One of the most heartwarming elements of this film is the relationship between Marina and Orlando. It's sweet, romantic, sexy, like a healthy relationship should be. It's neither fraught nor kept secret – and while the depiction of it shouldn't feel remarkable, it absolutely does. A Fantastic Woman does great work capturing a spectrum of light and shade, love and grief, without relying on excessive violence or grim stereotypes that are so common in cinema about marginalised groups. That's not to say that this film doesn't contain disturbing scenes. Marina experiences more than her share of abuse and menacing microaggressions, enough to set your teeth on edge. And yet she's never portrayed as a helpless victim. Leilo's narrative realism and restraint, coupled with Vega's captivating performance, are proof that you don't need to use shock and awe tactics to have an impact. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJHex4ZitgA
Some film festivals take audiences to corners of the globe they won't visit in the multiplex, shine a spotlight on different cinematic voices, and showcase the wealth of talent working beyond the English-speaking realm. That's not the British Film Festival's remit. Here, you'll find recognisable names and faces aplenty as the best new movies Old Blighty has to offer embark on a tour of the antipodes. Taking place between late October and early November, this year's lineup includes Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy in opening night film Breathe, which marks the directorial debut of The Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis, as well as Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning in the eagerly anticipated How to Talk to Girls at Parties. The former tells a true tale of a couple striving to overcome a death sentence from polio, while the latter is a queer sci-fi rock-punk comedy based on a Neil Gaiman short story and directed by Hedwig and the Angry Inch's John Cameron Mitchell. Yep, this program might speak the same language as Australians, but it's serving up a variety of stories. If you're going to put one flick to put on your must-see list, make it The Death of Stalin. It's the latest from The Thick of It and Veep creator Armando Iannucci, and features everyone from Steve Buscemi to Jeffrey Tambor to Michael Palin. Other highlights include Fanning again in Mary Shelley, a biopic about the writer behind Frankenstein that's helmed by Wadjda director Haifaa Al-Mansour, as well as England is Mine, with Dunkirk's Jack Lowden playing none other than Morrissey. Elsewhere, Saoirse Ronan stars in On Chesil Beach, her latest Ian McEwan adaptation after coming to fame in Atonement, while true story 6 Days recreates the 1980 storming of the Iranian embassy in London with Mark Strong, Jamie Bell and Abbie Cornish. BFF also boasts docos about Manolo Blahnik and Eric Clapton, a biopic about AA Milne and the genesis of Winnie the Pooh, and one of the last films to feature the late John Hurt in That Good Night. Looking back as well as forward, a selection of Agatha Christie adaptations round out the lineup. Timed to coincide with the new version of Murder on the Orient Express, the program includes the 1974 take on the same tale, plus three other classics. The 2017 British Film Festival will screen at Sydney's Palace Norton Street and Palace Verona from October 24 to November 15, Melbourne's Palace Cinema Como, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay and The Astor Theatre from October 26 to November 15, and Brisbane's Palace Barracks and Palace Centro from October 25 to November 15. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
On the lookout for a dope new denim jacket? Or do you want to be rid of that weird-looking lamp taking up space in the living room? Then, by golly, you're in luck. The Garage Sale Trail works with local council partners Australia-wide to get as many trash-and-treasure troves happening on the same day as possible. More than 15,000 garages are expected to open their doors to bargain hunters, selling two million items, when the event returns for its ninth time across the weekend of October 20 and 21. Aside from the retro goodies up for grabs, the Trail is all about sustainability. Instead of ending up in landfill, unwanted clutter becomes a fantastic find. So get that tight pair of sunnies for peanuts and help the environment at the same time. The Garage Sale Trail began humbly in Bondi in 2010 and is growing bigger every year. There'll be a right slew of sales happening all around Sydney, so keep your eyes on the event website — or register online to make a quick buck from your old junk and hang out with the friendly folks in your hood.
If there's ever a month in Sydney with no shortage of art, it's March. This is the month that's called Art Month. With that mind, these five wall-splashes, colour-dashes, veiled helmets, time capsules and ghost ships are just the tip of the iceberg.
If the team behind the Insidious franchise could have their time again, we're betting they'd make a significant change. You don't need supernatural abilities to pick what they'd fix, with their decision to kill off Lin Shaye's parapsychologist Elise Rainier in the first movie something they clearly regret. In the second film, they brought her back via the spirit world, while the series' third and fourth instalments have gone down the prequel route. It's easy to understand why — as the plucky otherworldly expert tasked with helping ordinary folks battle literal demons, Shaye is the best thing the horror saga has going for it by far. Indeed, thanks to the veteran actress, the Insidious flicks deserve a little more credit than they generally get. After all, how many franchises can say they have a 74-year-old woman as their star? A genre veteran with everything from A Nightmare on Elm Street to Critters to the Ouija movies to her name, Shaye remains as committed to her role as Elise as ever, including this time around. That said, pushing a septuagenarian front and centre can't make up for the series' largely by-the-numbers construction, which grows increasingly apparent with each new chapter. It would take serious mystical abilities to breathe life into the formulaic effort that is Insidious: The Last Key, for example. Directed by Shaye's 2001 Maniacs co-star Adam Robitel, this derivative outing keeps its protagonist around by taking a tried-and-tested path: an origin story. Anchored in Elise's childhood, the movie could easily be subtitled "this time, it's personal". As an introductory segment explains, she was once a girl (Ava Kolker) with special abilities, living near a prison, with a stern executioner father (Josh Stewart) who didn't approve. In the modern-day storyline, Elise is called back to her former home by its current resident (Kirk Acevedo), who's having some paranormal troubles of his own. Set in New Mexico's Five Keys and featuring a ghoul by the name of KeyFace, Insidious: The Last Key is anything but subtle. The paranormal villain also has keys for fingers, and doors and locks are prominent throughout the film. Although he created the series and has penned every instalment to date, Australian actor and screenwriter Leigh Whannell appears to be going through the motions with the flimsy narrative, even when he tries to step into more thematically interesting territory. Part of the movie focuses on abuse and the cycles of violence it can create, but it's treated with the same clunkiness as the supposedly-comic romantic subplot that sees sidekick characters, played by Whannell and Angus Sampson, hitting on a couple of much younger women. Of course, depth isn't something the franchise has ever counted among its strengths. Nor, for that matter, is comedy. Other than Shaye's presence, it has always fared best as a genre exercise. When The Conjuring's James Wan was at the helm of the first two films, what the series lacked in smarts and story, it almost made up for with its well-executed bumps, jumps, shadowy images and unsettling atmosphere. Nodding affectionately to (and borrowing liberally from) iconic horror flicks has always been part of the package too, but Wan's handling of demonic spirits and haunted houses still struck a stylistic chord. Sadly, as this trying, generic effort demonstrates, Robitel doesn't have the same talents with aesthetics or with scares. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV7tKm6JCCU
If Pitch Perfect 2 taught us anything, it's that bigger isn't always better. The so-so 2015 sequel didn't exactly make the original look like a one-hit wonder, but in trying to repeat the same beats (only louder), it couldn't find quite the same catchy refrain. Still, it's a toe-tapping triumph compared to the third instalment in the a cappella-focused franchise. Like mid 2000s-era Britney Spears, whose 'Toxic' the film trots out more than once, Pitch Perfect 3 is desperately trying to recapture some old magic with very little success. Britney's track is actually the best thing about the movie, which is why it keeps popping up. As the Barden Bellas sing, dance and channel their inner pop star, they're doing what they love — and it shows. Sadly, director Trish Sie (Step Up 5), returning screenwriter Kay Cannon and franchise newbie/co-writer Mike White (Brad's Status) insist on overcomplicating matters again and again. And so it is that our heroes find themselves belting out the tune on a boat that's suddenly besieged with action and explosions. If you're thinking that the franchise has completely run out of ideas, then you're right. The singing silliness starts when record producer Beca (Anna Kendrick), pals Chloe (Brittany Snow) and Aubrey (Anna Camp), outspoken Australian Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) and the rest of the gang wrangle their way into a gig entertaining American troops — which then turns out to be a competition to support DJ Khaled at the finale of the tour. Unhappy in their adult lives now that college is but a distant memory, the experience sees the group back in their aca-element, hopping across Europe and riffing off against bands with actual instruments. Commentators John (John Michael Higgins) and Gail (Elizabeth Banks) tag along to make a documentary, while Fat Amy also has to deal with her estranged Aussie father (John Lithgow). While Britney gives Pitch Perfect 3 its high point, it heads in the opposite direction every time Lithgow opens his mouth. Like Quentin Tarantino in Django Unchained, it's another case of an American actor completely missing the mark when trying out an Australian accent — not that he seems to be trying that hard. The fact that it'll stick in your mind says just as much about the film around it, however, with the movie brightly shot and zippily paced but unable to rise above a bland screenplay. It doesn't help that the main cast seem barely interested, as they trot through the expected motions, jokes and character tics. At least they give the various jukebox-like musical numbers the requisite energy. Everything else in the film feels like exactly what it is: filler. The end product is a movie that, much like its characters, is happy just to relive past glories. Ironically, the film's message — about moving on and letting go of the past — is one that it seems incapable of taking on board. As a result, while Pitch Perfect 3 is packaged as the Bellas' last hurrah, no one will be surprised if we end up with a fourth instalment. If it forces the group onto a reality TV singing show — and, really, where else can they go? — then it really will be scraping the bottom of the barrel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rv_aNPMRv0
