Visitors to NSW's Royal National Park may be treated to a rare spotting of an iconic Australian animal on their next visit, with nine platypuses set to be reintroduced to the park. This marks the first time the species has called the area home in 50 years. Five female platypuses were introduced this past week, with four males set to join them once the females have successfully established their territory. Originally announced back in 2021, the project is the first-ever translocation program for platypuses in NSW, coming from collaborative work between NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Taronga Conservation Society Australia, UNSW Sydney and WWF-Australia. "Shy and enigmatic, platypus are the silent victims of climate change. While their elusive behaviour keeps them from view, under the surface they are particularly susceptible to drought and environmental change," says Taronga Conservation Society Australia's Cameron Kerr. [caption id="attachment_824577" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Platypus Conservation Initiative[/caption] "This translocation not only re-establishes a population in part of their former range but allows us to refine the skills and expertise that will inevitably be required to counter the impacts of increasingly frequent and more severe climate events." The nine duck-billed pioneers were collected from southern NSW before being given health checks and fitted with transmitters at Taronga Zoo's platypus refugee. UNSW and WWF-Australia will now monitor the animals in order to determine whether the reintroduction is a success. The project was started after a 2020 UNSW study that found that the areas where platypuses live in Australia has shrunk by 22 percent in the last three decades. WWF-Australia's Rewilding Program Manager Rob Brewster says: "The last century saw the destruction of so much of Australia's wildlife and wild places. The return of platypus to the Royal National Park shows that we can move beyond just protecting what remains, and actually restore what we've lost." Please enjoy the below videos of the critters being released: @unsw Platypuses will paddle through the Royal National Park for the first time in 50 years thanks to conservation efforts by scientists from UNSW's Platypus Conservation Initiative, @tarongazoo, @wwf_australia and @nswnationalparks ♬ today was a good day - ✗ @unsw I'm so proud of you Kylie 🥲#platypus ♬ original sound - kardashianshulu You'll find more information about the platypus reintroduction project at the NSW Government website.
It's been 75 years since the curtain first went up on playwright Arthur Miller's Pulitzer-winning masterwork Death of a Salesman. And yet, while this tragic story is rooted in 1940s America, it has an uncanny prescience, eerily reflecting the cost-of-living pressures and influencer anxieties of today. Not that the production that plays at Sydney's Theatre Royal until Sunday, June 23 — following a critically acclaimed season in Melbourne — draws these contemporary parallels heavy-handedly. Created by Neil Armfield, one of Australian theatre's most visionary directors, this understated staging of the "great American play" lets a virtuosic cast bring its tale of financial struggle and generational trauma into guttingly relevant focus. And in doing so, it delivers some of the most powerful performances seen on a Sydney stage in years. Willy Loman — who is portrayed with masterful nuance by Anthony LaPaglia (Boy Swallows Universe) — has spent his life being an obedient disciple to the cult of American exceptionalism. A middle-class travelling salesman who has carted his wares up and down New England for decades, Loman is propelled by a belief that greatness awaits those who work hard enough for it. He has a quintessentially nuclear family raised in the same apple-pie mould: boisterous and athletic boys Biff (Josh Helman, Furiosa: A Mad Max Story) and Happy (Ben O'Toole, C*A*U*G*H*T), who were the envy of their classmates growing up; and dutiful wife Linda (Alison Whyte, Groundhog Day The Musical), who lives to maintain the domestic bliss of a mortgaged home filled with rented appliances. However, now in his mid-60s, Willy has found himself in a twilight realm of nostalgia and regret as he discovers the capitalist doctrine he once worshipped has betrayed him. Far from being captains of industry, his now-grown sons are lost souls desperately grasping to meet expectations far beyond their reach, while Willy's wife has become trapped by the horror of watching her husband's mind fracturing as it tries to deny an increasingly bleak reality. Dale Ferguson's minimalist set is a rusted flight of high school bleachers where the various supporting characters sit and watch the unravelling of the Lomans. It's an apt backdrop, as there is a voyeuristic, almost transgressive quality to spectating a disaster as intimate as the implosion of a family. And yet, the gut-punching emotional truth of these performances make it impossible to look away — "attention must be paid," Linda pleads, and this production demands it. LaPaglia weaves astonishing subtlety into the peaks and troughs of Willy's undoing, while Helman unleashes every ounce of desperate rage that his body can summon to express the depth of Biff's need to be released from the capitalist propaganda that his father has smothered him with all his life. It's Whyte, however, who provides the greatest revelation. While Willy has committed his life to chasing a false prophet, his wife Linda has committed hers to simply loving him, supporting him and championing him beyond success or failure. And it's in this act of simple devotion that she emerges not merely as the collateral damage to her husband's tragedy, but as the play's heroine. Images: Brett Broadman.
No matter which city you live in, if you have a fondness for trivia — and a head full of otherwise pointless tidbits just waiting to be scribbled down quickly — then you've likely been to one of the many nights dedicated to such knowledge. During stints at home, you've probably tested your skills virtually, too, to help fill all that time within your own four walls. In 2020, Isolation Trivia hit the scene as a lockdown-friendly trivia night. It's still running strong this year, too, which is particularly great news for Greater Sydney and Greater Brisbane residents under lockdown. No, all the questions aren't just about staying indoors — but because that's now a regular part of our lives, these trivia nights are live-streamed. Aimon Clark, from Brisbane's Man vs Bear and Not On Your Rider trivia events, plays quizmaster. As you join in, you'll jot down your answers at home — and everyone can compare scores virtually, and battle for trivia supremacy. Isolation Trivia pops up around once a week, but to keep an eye on the next sessions — and to play along — you're best to head to the event's Facebook page. Top image: Not On Your Rider
It's a chair made out of swords. So notes Daemon Targaryen's (Matt Smith, Morbius) description of TV's most-fought-over piece of furniture of the past 13 years: the Iron Throne. Not one but two hit HBO shows have put squabbles about the sought-after seat at their centre so far, and the second keeps proving a chip off the old block in a fantasy franchise where almost everyone meets that description. If the family trees sprawling throughout Game of Thrones for eight seasons across 2011–19 and now House of the Dragon for two since 2022 (with a third on the way) weren't so closely intertwined in all of their limbs, would feuding over everything, especially the line of succession, be such a birthright? Set within the Targaryens 172 years before Daenerys is born, House of the Dragon could've always cribbed the name of another HBO success. In season two from Monday, June 17 Down Under — via Binge in Australia and Neon in New Zealand — season one's black-versus-green factionalism remains a civil war-esque showdown over which two offspring of the late King Viserys the Peaceful (Paddy Considine, The Third Day) should wear the crown and plonk themselves in the blade-lined chair. The monarch long ago named Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy, Mothering Sunday) as his heir. But with his last breaths, his wife Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke, Slow Horses) — also Rhaenyra's childhood best friend-turned-stepmother — claims that he changed his pick to their eldest son Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney, Rogue Heroes) instead. In King's Landing, the response was speedy, with Rhaenyra supplanted as the next ruler before she'd even heard over at Dragonstone that her father had passed away. Based on Fire & Blood, which George RR Martin penned as backstory after A Song of Ice and Fire's first five books A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, House of the Dragon has also long painted Rhaenyra as the preferred type of chip off the old block. She too wants peace, not war. She also seeks stability for the realm over personal glory. If Viserys spotted that in her as a girl (Milly Alcock, Upright) when he chose her over Daemon, his brother who is now Rhaenyra's husband, he might've also predicted the dedication that she sports towards doing his legacy, and those before him, proud. Aegon, also the grandson of Viserys' hand Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans, The King's Man), sees only entitlement above all else. Martin's tales of family dynasties — the names Stark, Tully, Lannister, Baratheon and more also pop up again — trade in the cycles that course through the bonds of blood, especially in House of the Dragon. Everyone watching knows what's to come for the Targaryens in Daenerys' time, right down to an aunt-nephew romance as the counterpart to Daemon and Rhaenyra's uncle-niece relationship. (No one watching has started this prequel series, the first spinoff of likely many to Game of Thrones, without being familiar with its predecessor). Ice-blonde hair, ambition that soars as high as the dragons they raise and fly, said flame-roaring beasts of the sky, the inability to host happy reunions: these are traits passed down through generations. Some are a matter of genes. Martin continues to explore why the others persist. Season one took to its role as the next on-screen trek across Westeros with seriousness, devotion and reverence, leading to a front-ended run intrigue-wise with talk — scheming, plotting, proclaiming who should be next to sit upon several thrones — and laying the groundwork for more seasons to come monopolising the ten-years-later back half. It was exactly what fans of this TV franchise could've wanted, in no small part thanks to its fondness for overt mirroring that stresses the point that some things trickle down from parent to child no matter what. Season two has less establishing to do, and therefore a quicker pace and tighter focus. It's content in one time period. It also has not just the aftermath of a usurpation but also of a tragic death at the hands of Aegon's younger brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell, Saltburn), who bears a grudge and wears an eyepatch (the two are connected), to traverse. Rhaenys (Eve Best, Nurse Jackie), cousin to Viserys and Daemon, sums up one of the tragedies that House of the Dragon has committed itself to unpacking: that skirmishes will become such a given that no one will recall or care why the blacks (Rhaenyra's camp) and greens (Aegon and Alicent's) took up weapons and began torching each other with dragons in the first place. The audience won't forget. With images thankfully easier to discern — there's no repeat in the first four episodes of the dull-looking day-for-night atrocity of season one, its low point — the show's return witnesses the cost of pursuing the Iron Throne. It spends more time with the smallfolk, aka those beyond the royals and their cronies. It observes their reaction to the bad blood's brutality at its cruellest. And it does so even while making good on the big promise of Targaryens tearing into each other in a Seven Kingdoms period when dragons weren't a rarity: those mid-air sweeping and snapping dragon frays, which are gloriously brought to life. Scaling back the scene-setting and future-plotting is a gift to House of Dragon's cast in season two, especially to D'Arcy and Cooke. Rhaenyra's battle is really a battle with Alicent more than her son — and the two actors behind the parts expertly handle the task of conveying not only the duelling ambitions feeding the Targaryen tussle for the crown and throne, but also the emotional stakes and costs in their friends-turned-enemies portrayals. Best, as another Targaryen who should've been queen but was overlooked for Viserys, joins them in expressing what it means to walk every step with Westeros' engrained malice shaping your path beyond your control. Seeing their characters team up may now be left to fan fiction, but House of Dragon is a better series with their performances at its heart. As uttered with the snarling glibness that Smith oozes so well in his scene-stealing role, that aforementioned account from Daemon of what everyone is fighting over might sound flippant. It's designed to. But trust House of Dragon to encapsulate the undying source of its heat, and of the perpetual clashes within this conflict-riddled saga, with such a seemingly easy and ordinary turn of phrase. When the fact that leading means climbing across a path of violence, then sitting atop one, even if you're devoted to eschewing bloodshed — again, the Iron Throne is literally a chair made out of swords — and when that fact is such a routine aspect of life that no one thinks twice about it, what else but more feuding can spring? Check out the full trailer for House of the Dragon season two below: House of the Dragon season two streams Down Under via Foxtel and Binge in Australia, and SoHo, Sky Go and Neon in New Zealand, from Monday, June 17, 2024. Read our review of season one. Images: HBO.
Spinning a tale about US government-backed operatives plotting to kidnap a Mexican teenager, Sicario: Day of the Soldado was always going to strike a chord. That said, the film's storyline hits home particularly hard at the moment — a time when children are being taken from their parents at the US-Mexico border, and a tweet-happy president keeps raging about cartels and building a wall. Reality casts a long shadow over this sequel to 2015's surprise standout Sicario. Indeed, there's no way to wade into such murky, politically loaded territory without stirring up more than a few real-world parallels. In the movie as in life, the war on drugs has been overtaken by the war on immigration, and there's absolutely nothing pleasant about it. After attempting to stop the influx of illicit substances into the US in Sicario, military contractor Matt (Josh Brolin) and hitman Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) reunite to tackle the cartels' latest cash cow. With the smuggling of people rather than drugs now the US administration's main concern, the duo is given free reign to do whatever they must; there are no rules this time, as the American tells his Colombian counterpart. Opening fire in traffic, prolonged gunfights with Mexican cops, abductions in broad daylight — if it helps to secretly start a battle between rival mobsters, then it's on the agenda. Their main task: kidnap 16-year-old Isabel Reyes (Isabela Moner), the daughter of a powerful cartel boss with ties to Alejandro's own sad story, and make it appear as though another gang is responsible. It's with an expectedly unsettling air that Sicario: Day of the Soldado becomes a tense exercise in distress, dancing through dark terrain, and ramping up the anxiety and carnage at every turn. From a soundtrack that drones with each blasting note, to bright yet gritty visuals that lay bare the stark situation on the ground, to a seemingly relentless onslaught of action set-pieces, nothing about the film shies away from its uneasy content and mood. That's an achievement that the picture shares with its predecessor, although this follow-up doesn't quite belong in the same company. With the original film's director Denis Villeneuve, cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (who passed away earlier this year) all absent, it's left to their replacements Stefano Sollima (TV's Gomorrah), Dariusz Wolski (All the Money in the World) and Hildur Guðnadóttir (a cellist on the first flick) to offer up as close a copy as they can, instead of trying anything different or distinctive. 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' might be the motto behind-the-scenes, but it proves a mixed bag on-screen. As the film watches its characters coldly and brazenly apply a familiar approach to a new scenario and expect the same successful result, it doesn't escape attention that the movie does the exact same thing. Well, with one major difference, and a crucial one. Where Sicario centred on a female FBI agent (Emily Blunt) thrust into a murky realm she wasn't prepared for or willingly to go blindly along with, this second effort dispenses with the character altogether. In her absence, so too does the film do away with the idea that someone might stand up for doing what's right, rather than what the government and its ruthless agents deem necessary. That's not to say that Brolin and Del Toro don't sweat moral complexity from their furrowed brows, or that their protagonists don't get caught in situations that test even their tenuous ethical limits. They do both, although that's more thanks to the actors than returning screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Wind River). What's missing here is an outside perspective — a view on this dog-eat-dog world that doesn't just accept the bleak circumstances, the by-any-means mindset, or the cruelty that goes with it. Still, Del Toro comes closest to demonstrating the humanity that often gets caught in the crossfire, even when he's holding a weapon and training it at someone else. The path his assassin takes, and the world-weary performance Del Toro turns in, makes the otherwise grim but standard Sicario: Day of the Soldado worth watching. But the less said about the movie's sequel-baiting last few minutes and the teen gang protege subplot that accompanies it, the better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBOxhfWvVDc
In gleaming news for streaming viewers, Mick Herron's Slough House novel series boasts 12 entries so far. In another ace development, several more of the British author's books have links to the world of veteran espionage agent Jackson Lamb. If you're already a fan of Slow Horses, you'll be thrilled. For newcomers, you'll feel the same after diving into this small-screen spy delight and binging your way through it as quickly as possible. Thankfully, all those tales on the page mean that the episodic thriller based on Herron's work has plenty more stories to draw upon in its future. Now up to its third brilliant season as a television series, long may its forward path continue. Apple TV+ has clearly felt the same way since the program debuted in April 2022. In June the same year, the platform renewed Slow Horses for a third and fourth run before its second had even aired. That next chapter arrived that December and didn't disappoint. Neither does the latest and 2023's only batch of six episodes, this time taking its cues from Herron's Real Tigers — after season one used the novel Slow Horses as its basis, and season two did the same with Dead Lions — in charting the ins and outs of MI5's least-favourite department. Slough House is where the service rejects who can't be fired but aren't trusted to be proper operatives are sent to dwell in record-keeping drudgery, with Lamb (Gary Oldman, Oppenheimer) its happily cantankerous, seedy and shambolic head honcho. Each season, Lamb and his team of losers, misfits and boozers — Mick Jagger's slinky earworm of a theme tune's words — find themselves immersed in another chaotic case that everyone above them wishes that they weren't. That said, Slow Horses isn't a formulaic procedural. Sharply written, directed and acted, and also immensely wryly funny, it's instead one of the best spy series to grace television. Each repeat go-around might feature Lamb's band of disgraced agents demonstrating that they're not the write-offs that the rest of the espionage field thinks — and often wants — them to be, but every season-long predicament is meticulously detailed, as are the series' characters. It's easy to see why all things Slough House have gone the television route, rather than following Bond, Bourne and Mission: Impossible into cinema: these are people and scenarios that benefit from spending as much time with as possible. Slow Horses' astuteness, excellent cast and knack for comedy are all present in season three, which starts with two British intelligence officers in Istanbul. Sean Donovan (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Gangs of London) and Alison Dunn (Katherine Waterston, Babylon) share a bed as well as the same outpost, but there's a shadow over their bliss: he's been tasked with investigating whether she's leaking classified information. The Bourne movies come to mind in early chases, but Lamb and his spooks are still the show's focus. Accordingly, when the fallout from the opening events touches Slough House, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden, The Gold), Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves, Creation Stories), Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar, Class of '09), Marcus Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan, This Way Up), Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Dreamland), Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung, Gods of Their Own Religion) and their boss — plus his boss Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas, Rebecca) — are thrust into a game of cat-and-mouse that revolves around secret documents. In London, the situation hits home when one of the Slow Horses' own, the forever-loyal Standish, is abducted. The talented Cartwright again endeavours to illustrate why being banished to Slough House for a training mistake was MI5's error — and why caring about his team has always been one of his finest and most-reliable traits. This'd be a lesser show if Cartwright was simply a gleaming hero forced down the ladder for one false move and always excelling, however, and if Lamb's relentless cynicism about his team's highest flyer was just the bitterness of an old hand about an up-and-comer. Slow Horses doesn't ever throw around the terms in its opening song 'Strange Game' as insults, instead understanding that none of the agents on a slippery slope are perfect because no one is. Indeed, Cartwright and company don't keep chasing a ghost of a chance to get out of spy purgatory solely out of pride, but also due to skill, tenacity and resilience. Lamb's team isn't kept in their place merely because of vendettas or politics — although both factor into the ongoing storyline — but also via struggles, troubles and flaws that are hardly uncommon. All of MI5's inflated egos, uncooperative attitudes, bad tempers, problem gamblers, substance abusers and recovering alcoholics haven't been banished to Slough House, either. While there's a sense of romance to every underdog tale about ragtag outsiders finding somewhere to fit in, Slow Horses is clear-eyed about an unassailable fact: often, all that separates the Lambs and Cartwrights from the Taverners and Spiders (aka The Great's Freddie Fox as James Webb, who has long loved lording his status over his former training rival) is however the cookie happens to crumble. Season three adds extra emphasis to this truth by digging into Taverner's icy turf war with her superior Ingrid Tearney (Sophie Okonedo, The Wheel of Time); the squabbling between MI5's top two women might be more refined than among the Slow Horses, but there's still no one faultless here. As it flits between the service's upper echelons and its lowest ranks, this season also continues to hone its piercing mistrust of everything, especially bureaucratic power. John le Carré (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Night Manager, A Most Wanted Man, Our Kind of Traitor) meets Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It, In the Loop, Veep), then, and it's as glorious as that sounds. Tense, taut, riveting, rollicking, witty: throw in impeccably penned, staged, shot and acted, and that's the Slow Horses package. Giving both Scott Thomas and Okonedo more screen time gifts the series some new standout scenes, too, although there's not a moment wasted or a sequence that proves superfluous in this tight and gripping show. Of course, no one will ever best Oldman for Slow Horses' top performance — his blend of slovenly but savagely smart as Lamb is an art in everything from his can't-give-a-fuck gaze to his slicing line readings. And if Lowden pairs this stint of cloak-and-dagger antics with gadgets and martinis as 007, as keeps being rumoured, it'd be well-deserved based on his layered portrayal as Cartwright. It'd be right on theme as well, just as Oldman's jump from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to Slow Horses was; being at the summit or the foot of the spy game, and life, can just be a matter of circumstance. Check out the trailer for Slow Horses season three below: Slow Horses streams via Apple TV+.
UPDATE, October 9, 2021: Jungle Cruise is streaming via Disney+'s Premium Access, and is also screening in Sydney cinemas when they reopen on Monday, October 11. Take two charming actors, then couple them up for a feature-length volley of fast-paced banter: that's the screwball rom-com formula. Place this pleasing pair in a scenic but challenging setting — one that'll highlight their individual strengths, see them turn seeming weaknesses into new skills, and will obviously bring them closer together — and that's exactly how plenty of action-adventure movies have unfurled. Sending the always personable and likeable Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt to the Amazon, Jungle Cruise stitches together these two well-established formulas. It traverses its cinematic rapids in the slipstream of 80s fare like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Romancing the Stone (and their respective sequels), and even rollicks along in the footsteps of The Mummy franchise of the late 90s and early 00s (a series which actually gave Johnson his first big-screen roles). But, as anyone with even a passing knowledge of Disney's theme parks knows, Jungle Cruise also falls from the attraction-to-film mould that the Mouse House clearly loves. Pirates of the Caribbean is an overt influence, right down to the way that some of this new flick's villains look, and thrusting all these blatant templates to the fore — and together — doesn't quite result in movie magic. Directed by Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night and The Commuter's Jaume Collet-Serra, who makes a workmanlike but hardly memorable jump from unleashing Liam Neeson's special set of skills, Jungle Cruise wants to whisk viewers off on a spirited ride. That's the experiential aim of most theme park-based films: these flicks want audiences to feel like they've stepped inside the attraction from their cinema seat. Before the movie's title card graces the screen, two sequences endeavour to set this tone. They're jovial, boisterous and bouncy, entertaining enough but blunt, and filled with slapstick hijinks and forceful gags. These scenes establish not just Jungle Cruise's mood, but its overall approach — one that, despite the unshakeable appeal of its stars, is primarily interested in the mechanics of hitting its chosen notes. This feature has been in the works since 2004, after initially being green-lit following the first Pirates movie's success, after all. It plays like a creaky relic, in fact, and not just in its nods as far back as 1951's The African Queen. Thanks to its predictable, straightforward yet also needlessly over-plotted narrative, it feels like writers Michael Green (Murder on the Orient Express), Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Focus) have been sitting on their box-ticking script for almost two decades, too. Those first two sequences set things up story-wise, of course. It's 1916, and Dr Lily Houghton (Blunt, A Quiet Place Part II) sneaks into an all-male science society to look for a treasured arrowhead from the Amazon. She's tasked her fussy brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall, Good Omens) with deflecting the organisation's members by telling them her theories about a fabled South American tree, called the Tears of the Moon, that can cure any illness or break any curse. The men are dismissive, but she knows they will be. She's there to steal the trinket so it can lead her to the mythical plant, all while Prince Joachim of Germany (Jesse Plemons, Judas and the Black Messiah) tries to get his hands on it as well. When Lily comes out on top, the Houghtons are off to Brazil to hit the river, but they'll need a captain to guide their watery jaunt. In his introductory scene, the roguish Frank Wolff (Johnson, Jumanji: The Next Level) is spied conducting tourist trips down the Amazon, every step choreographed like an amusement park ride, and with his own pun-heavy showman patter narrating the journey. He's corny, and he has a jaguar in on the act, too. Accordingly, there are zero surprises when Lily enlists his services reluctantly and after some subterfuge on his side, or when he keeps trying to trick her into giving up her quest. Also part of the plot, and also explained before that first title card: Spanish conquistador Aguirre (Edgar Ramirez, The Undoing) and his men, who found the Tears of the Moon almost 400 years ago, tried to take its secrets for themselves, but were cursed by the tree's Indigenous protectors for their treachery. They're the foes that look like cartoonish Pirates knockoffs, to the point of distraction — and they're rendered with so much CGI that any actors could be playing them. That's a recurring trait here, even in a movie that's biggest strength is its two immensely well-known, well-established and well-liked leads. Johnson and Blunt are as delightful as they can be in a feature that isn't big on character development or depth, but the fact that Lily's most-stressed attribute is her era-inappropriate penchant for wearing pants speaks volumes about how the plucky character is seen as a symbol, rather than a person. Comedian Whitehall trades in his usual posh schtick, with MacGregor's status as Disney's first openly gay character largely appearing an afterthought. Plemons is simply saddled with a bad accent — because there's a century-old attitude towards making fun of such things on display — and Paul Giamatti's (Gunpowder Milkshake) involvement as Frank's business rival is just as sketchy. Movies can follow a formula, stick to the obvious beats and still be engaging. Jungle Cruise seems unwilling to take any risks, though, and feels not just designed by committee, but by a corporation. It'll have kids clamouring to hop on the theme park ride, and it thankfully has a tad more personality than just a film-length ad — in other words, it doesn't just scream "hey, we own this and you should like this!" like Space Jam: A New Legacy — but, coming back to its two main stars, it feels like a missed opportunity. Taking a river jaunt with this charismatic and capable pair shouldn't be a clunky, by-the-numbers affair. When yet another pointless complication splutters up, and then another and another, it shouldn't feel like a drag, either. Jungle Cruise's sunny cinematography looks a treat, however, as you'd hope of a movie that uses Hawaii as a stand-in for South America. Swooping and frequently moving camerawork makes this a visually boisterous flick, too. But, like every theme park ride, the film's modest pleasures fade oh-so-quickly afterwards.
UPDATE, January 18, 2021: The Truth is available to stream via Stan, Binge, Foxtel Now, Google Play and YouTube Movies. What does an acclaimed Japanese filmmaker do after spending his career exploring complicated family dynamics in his homeland, then winning the Cannes Film Festival's top prize for his last effort? If he's Hirokazu Kore-eda, he goes to France. Boiling The Truth down to 'Kore-eda in Paris' is simplistic, and yet it fits perfectly — and that's by no means a bad thing. Neither is dubbing this layered film Kore-eda ode's to French cinema. While the writer/director calls on many of the familiar trademarks that've made his Japanese-language features such hits, he sets them in France, filters them through French cinematic sensibilities, and deploys them in French and English. His first non-Japanese movie mightn't initially seem like the natural successor to Shoplifters, but it actually suits that role nicely. The intricate, intimate family interplay that Kore-eda has spent his filmography studying is universal, after all. When beloved acting veteran Fabienne Dangeville (Catherine Deneuve) welcomes her daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche), son-in-law Hank (Ethan Hawke) and granddaughter Charlotte (Clémentine Grenier) for a rare visit to her sprawling home, there's much to unpack — for this loving but bickering brood, and for audiences. The family reunion is in celebration of Fabienne's just-published memoir, which Lumir hasn't been given a copy of before she arrives, but has firm views on once she reads it. "I can't find any truth in here!" she comments angrily. "I'm an actress — I won't tell the unvarnished truth," is Fabienne's haughty justification. As well as throwing around the titular term liberally, The Truth follows the pair's attempts to sift through a lifetime of baggage, with the book's many embellishments revealing just how differently they each view Lumir's childhood. Also an actor, Hank watches on, hampered by his inability to speak French. Meanwhile, Charlotte obsesses over grandmother's giant pet turtle, who has the same name as her grandfather. But the fallout from Fabienne's memoir just keeps coming. Her long-term personal assistant, Luc (Alain Libolt), quits because he isn't even mentioned in the book, throwing the household into disarray. That leaves Lumir, a screenwriter, to step in, accompanying her mother as she shoots her latest big-screen role. It's in a sci-fi film called Memories of My Mother, where Fabienne's character grapples with an absent mum — all as Fabienne herself gets envious about her applauded young co-star (Manon Clavel). Not only crafting a film about a strained mother-daughter relationship, but also featuring a film within the film about the same topic, Kore-eda threatens to steer The Truth into obvious territory. But he's always been talented at exposing the complexity lingering beneath seemingly straightforward scenarios — and, perhaps more importantly, twisting such situations into revelatory and insightful family portraits that bubble with honesty. So, he does just that. Specifically, he keeps finding new ways to interrogate the film's eponymous concept, and its relationship to Fabienne and Lumir's life. The Truth ponders the playful fibs told to children, the rose-coloured glasses applied to the past, the gaps that even the most vivid memories can have, and the overt choices made to shape one's own narrative. It also tasks Lumir with scripting dialogue for both her mother and daughter that they can each pass off as their own genuine emotions. There's such depth to the movie's contemplation of its chosen subject that, if you didn't already know, you'd never guess that Kore-eda doesn't speak French himself. The film certainly looks the part, set in well-appointed surroundings, favouring a subtle colour scheme and never overly making a visual fuss. Performance-wise, though, it helps that he's working with two of France's greatest living actors — and that Deneuve couldn't be better cast. Seeing the 76-year-old play a celebrated star who chain smokes, spits out strong opinions, and cares little for her predecessors, peers or successors is a clear case of art imitating life. It's also glorious to watch. Yes, Kore-eda has found yet another way to trifle with the truth, but his film's biggest accomplishment just might be its heft as a character study of Deneuve's irrepressible Fabienne. Binoche more than holds her own in the movie's second substantial role, continuing a stellar spate of very recent performances (in Let the Sunshine In, Non-Fiction, High Life and Who You Think I Am). While Hawke makes a smaller impression, there's no dead weight here. Seeing him weather Fabienne's barbs about Hank's career — because she doesn't consider acting in a streaming series to really be acting — is a classic Kore-eda move, with the director an expert at spying the ripples caused by throwaway comments. That's part of his observational, attuned approach. Cataloguing how family members interact and react in both ordinary and heightened circumstances, he captures the texture and reality of life, including in this characteristically warm, witty, emotionally perceptive addition to his resume. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQVotRZUxg4
If you haven't already checked out this summer's blockbuster exhibition Japan supernatural: 1700s to now at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, there's something you should know: it's packed with paranormal creatures. Yōkai and yurai — mystical and ghoulish — characters are depicted in every drawing, painting, video work and graphic installation. There are 180 works about the spirit world, from rare books by 18th century folklorist Toriyama Sekien to Japan's most famous manga artist, Mizuki Shigeru. It's a world where fans of Studio Ghibli films and Brothers Grimm fairy tales will be equally inspired. If you have been to Japan supernatural it's likely you've been wonderstruck by the expansive works of contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, but we think you should look a little closer on your next visit to the Art Gallery — as there are a few creepy beings that rear their (sometimes long, snake-like) necks across multiple works, from sumo wrestling kappa (who have a terrifying backstory) to the eyeball that likes to sip sake. Concrete Playground spoke with Assistant Curator Yuki Kawakami to find out more about five particularly haunting characters in this exhibition. [caption id="attachment_756754" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Toriyama Sekien, 'Night procession of the hundred demons (Hyakki yakō zu)' (1772–81), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Sturgis Bigelow Collection[/caption] THE MYSTERIOUS LONG-NECKED WOMAN One of the first pieces you'll encounter at the Art Gallery's huge exhibition is a painted handscroll called Night procession of the hundred demons (Hyakki yakō zu) (1772–81). It's by Toriyama Sekien — a folklorist who is also a bit of an enigma. Kawakami tells us, "This particular painting is extremely rare, and though there's not that much written about Sekien, he's very well known for his depictions of these yōkai." Rokurokubi — or the Long-Necked Woman (pictured on the right) — is a shapeshifting yōkai. By day, the spirit has a perfectly ordinary human form, but by night, the spirit's neck extends, snaking around in the dark to look for bugs and oil in lamps for a late-night snack. The Long-Necked Woman is also known to attach herself to unsuspecting men. "She's depicted in a cheeky way. She draws men through her beauty; her characteristics are trickery and the act of seduction. She's just a boss woman, a man eater," says Kawakami. Rokurokubi can be found in multiple works. For bonus points, look out for her alleged lover, another long-necked creature called the Look Over Monk. Rumour has it they have a lovechild called Tōfu-kozō (Tofu Boy) who always carries a plate of tofu. [caption id="attachment_756766" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 'The heavy basket (Omoi tsuzura)' from the series 'New forms of thirty-six ghosts (Shingata sanjūrokkaisen)' (1892), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra[/caption] THE WATER-DWELLING, ORGAN-STEALING KAPPA Oh look, here's the Look Over Monk — the one with the third eye. Now draw your gaze to the green, frog-like creature that appears to be lurking in a basket. That's a kappa. Kawakami says, the kappa appear in different forms and with different names like kawataro. If you bank in Japan, you may recognise the cheeky fella as the mascot of one of the country's leading banks. But don't be deceived, these water-dwelling yōkai have a sadistic story. It's said they reach inside human bodies through the rectum to snatch at your organs. You can find the kappa in Sekien's Night procession of the hundred demons (Hyakki yako zu) and also in Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's The heavy basket (Omoi tsuzura) from the series New forms of thirty-six ghosts (Shingata sanjurokkaisen). "In this one it's quite menacing and cheeky. He also likes to challenge people in a game of sumo. There are drawings of kappa against kappa engaged in sumo by the river." The creatures have elements of frog, turtle and monkey about them — and the popular cucumber sushi rolls, kappa–maki, are named for the creature's apparent love of cucumbers. Note the pool of water on their heads: "When there's no liquid, that's when they lose their powers," says Kawakami. [caption id="attachment_756861" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 'The old woman retrieves her arm (Rōba kiwan o mochisaru zu)' from the series 'New forms of thirty-six ghosts (Shingata sanjūrokkaisen)' (1889), Art Gallery New South Wales[/caption] THE CACKLING ONE-ARMED DEMON WITCH Japan supernatural is all about manifestations of the paranormal in Japanese folklore, art, literature, theatre and film. In this exhibition you'll also meet another volatile creature, that of the oni — demon-like and menacing, but not necessarily evil. "You can tell a character is not a ghost [or yōkai] because of the claws and the green face. The oni are depicted either by green, blue or red skin — and the claws," says Kawakami. Ibaraki-doji, or the Cackling One-Armed Demon Witch, is found in Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's The old woman retrieves her arm (Rōba kiwan o mochisaru zu). Yoshitoshi was born in Edo (now Tokyo) and he was known for images of violence and ghoulish works after a period of possible mental illness. Other demon-like qualities to look for are curled toenails and fingernails. Be especially watchful during the twilight hours, when these spirits and demons are more likely to present themselves to us humans. "It's an oni, but they dress so beautifully — they have style." [caption id="attachment_756870" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chiho Aoshima, 'Off to Memorial Service' (2009), 'The Tree Where Moimois Gather' (2009). Both colour on Japanese rice paper.[/caption] THE DOE-EYED AND DISTANT MOIMOI Chiho Aoshima is part of Kaikai Kiki, the artist collective run by internationally famous artist Takashi Murakami. She's based in Kyoto, and during her time as an assistant at Murakami's studio he noticed her own yōkai drawings and he encouraged her to do more. "What I find interesting about her work is that she's really into the relationship between nature, death and humans," says Kawakami. "She likes Japanese cemeteries." A recurring character is the Moimoi, which comes in various shapes and forms. One is pictured as a black blob walking through a cemetery — like in Off to Memorial Service (2009), above — and in another she appears to embody city buildings, trees or entire beaches. "When I asked [Aoshima] where she gets the Moimoi from, she said she sees a lot of the Moimoi in herself. Whether it's a sense of isolation, or a sense of calm or peace. I read it as a sense of loneliness living in the contemporary world. She also says that when she passes she would want to become part of nature, so you see a strong relationship between nature and death in her work." [caption id="attachment_758406" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mizuki Shigeru 'Kyoto' (2008), from the series 'Fifty-three stations of the Yōkaidō (Yōkaidō gojūsan tsugi)' (2008). Art Gallery of New South Wales, Yasuko Myer Bequest Fund 2019. Mizuki Productions.[/caption] THE SAKE SIPPING, BATH-LOVING EYEBALL MAN Mizuki Shigeru is probably the most famous manga artist/historian in Japan. He created a manga series based on yōkai lore that celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. "Anyone from the 1960s onwards would easily recognise these characters. The main character is called Kitarō — and his father is the Eyeball Man, called Medama-Oyaji." Kitarō doesn't have an eye on his left socket, and in the manga drawings you can see Medama-Oyaji popping out of Kitarō's eye socket to offer him advice. "He also likes to take baths in a little bowl, and he drinks sake." Shigeru brings a playfulness to his depictions of the yōkai: mysterious creatures that are often mischievous. In The Fifty-three Stations of the Yokaido he places the yōkai within the stations of familiar cities like Kyoto and Tokyo, which you can find on the Art Gallery's walls until March. 'Japan supernatural: 1700s to now' runs until March 8, 2020 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Tickets are available to buy online. Top images: Installation view of the exhibition 'Japan supernatural' at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Photo: AGNSW, Jenni Carter. Artworks © Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
UPDATE, Thursday, March 28, 2o24: Oppenheimer is available to stream via Netflix, Binge, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Cast Cillian Murphy and a filmmaker falls in love. Danny Boyle did with 28 Days Later and Sunshine, then Christopher Nolan followed with Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Dunkirk. There's an arresting, haunting, seeps-under-your-skin soulfulness about the Irish actor, never more so than when he was wandering solo through the empty zombie-ravaged streets in his big-screen big break, then hurtling towards the sun in an underrated sci-fi gem, both for Boyle, and now playing "the father of atomic bomb" in Nolan's epic biopic Oppenheimer. Flirting with the end of the world, or just one person's end, clearly suits Murphy. Here he is in a mind-blower as the destroyer of worlds — almost, perhaps actually — and so much of this can't-look-away three-hour stunner dwells in his expressive eyes. As J Robert Oppenheimer, those peepers see purpose and possibility. They spot quantum mechanics' promise, and the whole universe lurking within that branch of physics. They ultimately spy the consequences, too, of bringing the Manhattan Project successfully to fruition during World War II. Dr Strangelove's full title could never apply to Oppenheimer, nor to its eponymous figure; neither learn to stop worrying and love the bomb. The theoretical physicist responsible for the creation of nuclear weapons did enjoy building it in Nolan's account, Murphy's telltale eyes gleaming as Oppy watches research become reality — but then darkening as he gleans what that reality means. Directing, writing and adapting the 2005 biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, Nolan charts the before and after. He probes the fission and fusion of the situation in intercut parts, the first in colour, the second in black and white. In the former, all paths lead to the history-changing Trinity test on July 16, 1945 in the New Mexico desert. In the latter, a mushroom cloud balloons through Oppenheimer's life as he perceives what the gadget, as it's called in its development stages, has unleashed. Pre-Los Alamos Oppenheimer is all nervy spark, whether he's excited about a Cambridge lecture by Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh, Death on the Nile), meeting other great minds in his field around Europe, taking his learnings home from to start the US' first quantum mechanics class, or cultivating what'll later be disparaged by a security clearance-decreeing Atomic Energy Commission panel as a far leftwing mindset. He's electric when an animated ideological chat with Communist Party member Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh, The Wonder) leads to slipping between the sheets for a tumultuous affair. When he meets botanist and biologist Kitty (Emily Blunt, The English) in the smoothest of sexual tension-dripping conversations, his inertia gets her answering "not very" when he asks if she's married. Determination mingles in, too, when Lieutenant General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon, Air) thunders into his classroom on a recruitment mission for top-secret work in a race to beat the Nazis. And, it lingers as the ball is put in motion, then keeps rolling, to construct the most fateful ball of them all. Post-Hiroshima and Nagasaki Oppenheimer is solidified in his certainty that his big bang, then the others that America's military detonated swiftly in Japan once they knew it worked, is on the wrong side of history. He's fragmented, though, by the response to his horror — including the McCarthy-esque committee mercilessly scrutinising him, his colleagues and others closet to him, while deciding whether they'll still give him access. Amid the political fallout for Oppenheimer's advocacy for scaling back afterwards, AEC commissioner Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr, Dolittle) is weaved in, also answering dissecting questions. Oppenheimer is a talky film, sound and fury echoing as heatedly in its words as when blazing light fills the screen. Both the discussions-slash-interrogations and the incendiary moment that forever altered all incendiary moments are impeccably, immaculately, thrillingly and viscerally staged. Nolan identifies chain reactions, and creates them. As he slams the movie's two parts together with his Tenet editor Jennifer Lane's exacting splicing — also letting the contrasting segments lensed so meticulously by Oscar-nominated Dunkirk cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema fling closer and bounce apart, and linking everything with Black Panther Oscar-winner Ludwig Göransson's evocative and relentless score — he crafts his most complex and complicated film yet. His subject demands it. Oppenheimer follows, digs into memory and can't sleep with what's happened. It notices what grows in darkness, shifts reality, reaches for the cosmic and hops through time, too, all in its own ways. It plays like a culmination of Nolan's work as a result — it's certainly made like exactly that — as its namesake tries "not to set the sky on fire", as Groves tells him, then attempts to kill the terrible threat of burning skies as a power-boosting military tactic. If someone told Nolan not to set the screen alight and aglow with his 12th feature in 25 years, and his second about World War II in six, he didn't listen — be it with his resonant ideas, his execution or his stars. He paints a fiery portrait of America, especially in monochrome. He unpacks the lengths that humanity will go to to gain control and garner recognition, and the grave costs. He fires moments at the screen that just keep expanding in impact, and combining like Dunkirk's onslaught from land, air and sea. An early gripping scene involving Oppenheimer as a student, an apple and cyanide is one. So is the immediate expectation to lead the cheering after the Trinity test, just as the full meaning of what's occurred dawns, in a sequence that uses dissonant sound to immersive and galvanising effect. And, piercing too is the rat-tat-tat of the interrogation dialogue. Murphy is spectacular, and has never been better as Nolan stares so intimately and contemplatively at his revealing face. How joyous it is to see Downey Jr, also never better, actually act again — his astounding, awards-destined performance is meaty, mesmerising, and something that's been sorely missed. Oppenheimer's is an explosive cast, also spanning Blunt at her steeliest; pivotal contributions by Josh Hartnett (Black Mirror), Benny Safdie (Stars at Noon) and David Krumholtz (White House Plumbers) as fellow scientists; and the influential Jason Clarke (Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty), Macon Blair (Reservation Dogs), Dane DeHaan (The Staircase) and Alden Ehrenreich (Cocaine Bear) among the lawyers, military and political aides. Present, too, each in small but significant parts: three consecutive 2017–19 Best Actor Academy Award-winners in Manchester by the Sea's Casey Affleck, Darkest Hour's Gary Oldman and Bohemian Rhapsody's Rami Malek. Nolan deploys them all in a film that bellows, billows and blasts. Watching, and plunging into Oppenheimer's mind, isn't a passive experience.
UPDATE, December 22, 2021: Annette is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Dreamy and dazzling from its first moments, rock opera Annette bursts onto the screen with a simple question: "so may we start?". As the opening credits roll, the long-awaited latest film from Holy Motors director Leos Carax addresses its audience before it poses that query — via an unseen announcer who tells viewers "you are now kindly requested to keep silent, and to hold your breath until the end of the show" — but the movie doesn't begin to truly kick into gear until the filmmaker himself asks if things can get going. Images of a recording studio flicker, with Carax on one side of the glass and Ron and Russell Mael, of art-pop duo Sparks, on the other. Carax tells his real-life daughter Nastya that the fun is about to commence, and the Mael brothers start singing and playing keyboard, with a band around them. Soon, however, everyone is on their feet and spilling out into the street, with the feature's stars Adam Driver (Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker), Marion Cotillard (We'll End Up Together) and Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory) joining them in the glorious, song-fuelled, sing-and-walk scene. No one is playing a character here yet, but they're all still playing a part. They're finally coming together for the big spectacle that is this eagerly anticipated film — which has been in the works since 2016 — and they're setting the vibe in a bold and sensational way. The tune is pure Sparks, with the pair both composing the movie's music and writing the feature itself with Carax. The tone bubbles with the pair's avant-garde sensibilities, too, and the whole song echoes with the promise of remarkable things to come. Grand and resonant despite its low-key staging and setting, Annette's memorable opening number ends with the Maels, Carax and his daughter, and some of the film's supporting cast members farewelling the feature's two protagonists — with Driver and Cotillard putting on clothing their characters will favour during the rest of the movie during the track. "Bye Henry," the crowd exclaims as the standup comic played by Driver zips off on a motorcycle. "Bye Ann," they chirp at the opera star played by Cotillard as she's chauffeured off in a black SUV. The audience is sent tumbling through the looking glass now, and diving in deep. Nine years ago, Carax gave the world a once-in-a-lifetime gem. Annette is a different film to Holy Motors, obviously, but it gleams just as brightly and with the same beguiling, inimitable, all-encompassing allure. There's an ethereal, otherworldly quality to Carax's work — of heightening reality to truly understand how people feel and act, and of experimenting with artforms to interrogate them — and that sensation seeps through every second of his gleefully melodramatic musical, which deservedly won him the Cannes Film Festival's Best Director award. Everything about Annette has been turned up several notches on every setting, from its lush and lavish imagery to its cascade of toe-tapping, sung-through tunes that keep propelling the narrative forward. Every character detail, both external and internalised, has been amplified as well. This is a movie where Driver's Henry wears the same shade of green over and over like a uniform, beaming his envy at every turn. It's a film where sex scenes involve singing, as though they're the only way these characters can really convey their innermost emotions. And, it's a feature where the titular character — the baby born of Henry McHenry and Ann Defrasnoux's mismatched but passionate and all-consuming love — is played by a marionette. This is a tragedy and a fairy tale, in other words, because life so often veers between elements of both. Henry and Ann "love each other so much", as another of Annette's catchy tunes intones repeatedly, but it's apparent from the outset that their chalk-and-cheese affair has its struggles. Early on, the film contrasts their on-stage antics to quickly but effectively express their dissimilarities. In a show called The Ape of God, Henry broods over the microphone as he struts and shakes in nothing but underwear and a bathrobe, and opines about how he loves killing his audiences with his brutal and brusque comedy. He talks about how Ann is always dying in her operas, with cuts to her sweet soprano singing and heartbreaking death scenes underscoring his point. These juxtapositions keep simmering as the paparazzi charts the couple's romance, and as Ann's pregnancy brings Annette into their lives. The girl has an astonishing gift, but her presence can't save the movie's star-crossed lovers — or moonlit paramours, to be more accurate — from continuing to weather stormy seas. The Maels and Carax haven't held back in almost every facet of the feature; that aforementioned delight of an opening number is perhaps the most restrained thing they splash across the screen. The story sprawls, the lively and clever songs keep coming, and this intricately, overtly stylised affair pushes wave after wave of hypnotic imagery, mesmerising music and heated, near-Shakespearean relationship dramas into its frames. Expectedly and welcomely given the melding of creative minds behind it, it's a movie filled with idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. It's so very Carax, as fans of the director's back catalogue will instantly spot. It's so very Sparks as well, which is evident even if you're new to the duo despite their five-decade-plus career, or if you've only just discovered them via stellar documentary The Sparks Brothers. It's "so much" just like Henry and Ann's love, and it adores it — and it happily and vibrantly melds elements of cinema, gigs, opera and live performance, all while weaving in everything from commentary about celebrity culture and stints of singing cunnilingus, and also knowing that it's constantly toeing the line between oh-so-exaggerated and oh-so-heartfelt. Annette is also long, and both looping and sometimes a little loopy. It satirises, unpacks and embraces, and it loves being multiple paradoxes at once. It thrusts forward with its own pull — but once you're caught in the thrall of its exuberance, playfulness, overwhelming emotions and surreal touches, you're as subject to its whims as Henry and Ann. Inhabiting those parts, Driver and Cotillard commit to the ride. The former visibly cycles between resembling both Ron and Russell Mael in one of the film's devilishly joyous small flourishes, and bustles through the movie like a force of nature. The latter always feels like her co-star's delicate counterweight, while also ensuring that Ann's light, grace and yearning shine through. Their strings are being pulled masterfully by Carax and Sparks, as are viewers' — and yes, we want them to start, and then to never stop.
There are few things that scream summer louder than drinks by the beach and Cronulla RSL boasts some of the best views around. Celebrate the longer days with a trip to this southern suburb and enjoy sunset drinks on the balcony overlooking the golden sand of South Cronulla Beach. It's a great spot for watching the die-hard surfers soak up the last light of the day. The club had a makeover a few years back, but its good looks haven't led to pretentiousness — it still has a friendly local vibe and is as laidback as a prawn on the barbie.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. RED ROCKET It might sound crazy, but it ain't no lie: Red Rocket's *NSYNC needle drops, the cost of which likely almost eclipsed the rest of the film's budget, provide a sensational mix of movie music moments in an all-round sensational picture. A portrait of an ex-porn star's knotty homecoming to the oil-and-gas hub that is Texas City, the feature only actually includes one song by the Justin Timberlake-fronted late-90s/early-00s boyband, but it makes the most of it. That tune is 'Bye Bye Bye', and it's a doozy. With its instantly recognisable blend of synth and violins, it first kicks in as the film itself does, and as the bruised face of Mikey Saber (Simon Rex, Scary Movie 3, 4 and 5) peers out of a bus window en route from Los Angeles. Its lyrics — "I'm doing this tonight, you're probably gonna start a fight, I know this can't be right" — couldn't fit the situation better. The infectiously catchy vibe couldn't be more perfect as well, and nor could the contrast that all those upbeat sounds have always had with the track's words. As he demonstrates with every film, Red Rocket writer/director/editor Sean Baker is one of the best and shrewdest filmmakers working today — one of the most perceptive helmers taking slice-of-life looks at American existence on the margins, too. His latest movie joins Starlet, Tangerine and The Florida Project on a resume that just keeps impressing, but there's an edge here born of open recognition that Mikey is no one's hero. He's a narcissist, sociopath and self-aggrandiser who knows how to talk his way into anything, claim success from anyone else's wins and blame the world for all his own woes. He's someone that everyone in his orbit can't take no more and wants to see out that door, as if *NSYNC's now-22-year-old lyrics were specifically penned about him. He's also a charismatic charmer who draws people in like a whirlwind. He's the beat and the words of 'Bye Bye Bye' come to life, in fact, even if the song wasn't originally in Red Rocket's script. Mikey's return after decades away isn't greeted with smiles or cheers; his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod, Shutter Island), also his ex on-screen partner, is horrified when he arrives on her doorstep unannounced with $22 to his name. It takes him mere minutes to convince her and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss) to let him crash on their couch, though — and just days to work his way back into Lexi's bed. The begrudging inevitability of their reunion echoes as firmly as Red Rocket's chosen anthem, and both keep repeating throughout the film. Unable to get a job despite his glee when explaining the big gap in his resume ("Google me," he exclaims, revealing his porn past to prospective employers), he's reluctantly given back his old weed-dealing gig by local dealer Leondra (Judy Hill), who clearly isn't thrilled. The two new connections Mikey makes — with a neighbour and a 17-year-old doughnut store cashier — also smack of the same feeling. Both relationships leave as much of an imprint upon Mikey's life as anything can — although, no matter what he contends about every bad turn he's endured, all the chaos plaguing his every waking moment is his own doing. With Lonnie (Ethan Darbone), he gets an adoring sidekick who thinks he can do no wrong and, most importantly, a driver to taxi him around town. With Strawberry (Suzanna Son, chief among the film's many first-timers), he hopes to turn his lust into a way back into the adult film industry, grooming her to make her own thrusts into porn. Both naive and aware of Mikey's brimming bullshit, Strawberry isn't quite as taken in with his promises as he imagines her to be, however. Still, she might quote "it ain't no lie, bye bye bye" about him, but she's also willing enough to go along for the ride. Read our full review. THE KING'S MAN When something shows you its true colours, believe it. The Kingsman franchise certainly did when it debuted in 2014, as viewers have been witnessing ever since. That initial entry, Kingsman: The Secret Service, gave the espionage genre an irreverent and energetic spin, and landed partway between update and parody. But, while making Taron Egerton a star and proving engaging-enough, it didn't know when to call it quits, serving up one of the most ill-judged closing moments that spy flicks have ever seen. Since then, all things Kingsman haven't known when to end either, which is why subpar sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle arrived in 2017, and now unnecessary prequel The King's Man. Another year, another dull origin story. Another year, another stretched Bond knockoff, too. Stepping from 007's latest instalments, including No Time to Die, to this pale imitation, Ralph Fiennes takes over leading man duties in this mostly World War I-centric affair. He looks as if he'd rather be bossing Bond around again, though, sporting the discomfort of someone who finds himself in a movie that doesn't shake out the way it was meant to, or should've, and mirroring the expression likely to sit on viewers' faces while watching. Simply by existing, The King's Man shows that this series just keeps pushing on when that's hardly the best option. It overextends its running time and narrative as well. But as it unfurls the beginnings of the intelligence agency hidden within a Saville Row tailor shop, it ditches everything else that made its predecessors work — when they did work, that is. Most fatally, it jettisons its class clashes and genre satire, and is instead content with being an outlandish period movie about the rich and powerful creating their own secret club. Adapted from Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar's 2012 comics, the Kingsman series hasn't cut too deeply in its past two movies, but it did make the most of its central fish-out-of-water idea. It asked: what if a kid from the supposed wrong side of the tracks entered the espionage realm that's so firmly been established as suave and well-heeled by 007? Finding out why there's even a covert spy organisation staffed by the wealthy and impeccably dressed for that young man to join is a far less intriguing idea, but returning filmmaker Matthew Vaughn — who has now helmed all three Kingsman films — and co-screenwriter Karl Gajdusek (The Last Days of American Crime) don't seem to care. Vaughn has mostly ditched the coarse sex gags this time, too, and for the better, but hasn't found much in the way of personality to replace them. It's in a prologue in 1902 that Fiennes makes his first appearance as Orlando Oxford, a duke travelling to South Africa during the Boer War — and soon made a widower, because The King's Man starts with the tiresome dead wife trope. Twelve years later, Oxford is staunchly a pacifist, so much so that he forbids his now-teenage son Conrad (Harris Dickinson, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) from enlisting when WWI breaks out. But the duke hasn't completely given away serving his country himself, overseeing an off-the-books intelligence network with the help of his servants Shola (Djimon Hounsou, A Quiet Place Part II) and Polly (Gemma Arterton, Summerland). That comes in handy when a nefarious Scottish figure known only as The Shepherd interferes in world affairs, with King George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (all cousins, and all played by Bohemian Rhapsody's Tom Hollander) his targets. Read our full review. I'M WANITA In Amy, Whitney: Can I Be Me, Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry and similar documentaries, audiences nabbed behind-the-scenes glimpses at music superstars. Via personal and candid footage not initially intended for mass consumption, viewers peeked behind the facade of celebrity — but I'm Wanita evokes the same feelings of intimacy and revelation by pointing its lens at a singer who isn't yet a household name. The self-described 'Australian queen of honky tonk', Wanita Bahtiyar hasn't given filmmaker Matthew Walker a treasure trove of archival materials to weave through his feature debut. Rather, the Tamworth local opens up her daily existence to his observational gaze. Following his 2015 short film about Wanita, Heart of the Queen, Walker spent five years capturing her life — and the resulting doco is as wily as its subject is unpredictable. I'm Wanita mightn't spring from a dream archive of existing footage, but it does dedicate its frames to a dream point of focus; its namesake is the type of subject documentarians surely pray they stumble across. Since becoming obsessed with Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn as a child, Wanita has chased music stardom. Her voice earned her ample attention from her teen years onwards, and her first album received rave reviews that she giddily quotes now; however, she's spent her adult life drinking, partying, and supplementing occasional gigs with sex work. Today, she's a legend in her own head, and also an erratic whirlwind. I'm Wanita charts her trip to Nashville to finally make the record she's always wanted, and yet it never paints her tale as a simplistic portrait of talent unrealised. At home with her beleaguered Turkish husband, rustling up the cash for her big trip with fellow muso and her now-stressed manager Gleny Rae Virus, and in the studio she's always fantasised about, Wanita consistently dances to her own song. She spits out frank and pithy quotes that Walker splashes across the screen as text a little too often, too, but her determination to succeed (and her certainty about her talent) isn't matched by any skerrick of willingness to take a plain, breezy and direct route. It's to Walker's credit that he lets I'm Wanita follow its eponymous figure on that messy and meandering journey, rather than simmering down her story to fit a neat narrative. A Star Is Born, this isn't — even with a glorious closing number that could easily cap off a Hollywood melodrama. Indeed, this is a film about challenges, clashes, contradictions, and careening from highs to lows, with every flat note in Wanita's quest for fame and acclaim largely stemming from the woman herself. It's as rich and engaging a character study that a filmmaker could hope for, because there's simply so much to examine and interrogate (be it Wanita's complicated relationship with her mother and the impact it had on her own efforts with her now mostly estranged daughter, or her belief that alcohol improves her performance versus the reality of seeing her sauced in the studio). Crucially, this is a documentary about pluck, passion, self-belief and self-sabotage, and it steadfastly sees every extreme and everything in-between with clear eyes. In other words, it's the music doco equivalent of a country song, turning hopes and heartbreak into affecting art. I'm Wanita opened in Brisbane cinemas in 2021, and now screens in Sydney and Melbourne. SHANE Paul Kelly named a song after him. Eddie Perfect went one better and wrote an entire musical. But if Shane Warne had lived out his childhood dream, he would've played AFL for St Kilda instead of becoming a tune- and stage show-inspiring star cricketer. That tidbit isn't new news; however, Warne talks it through in new Australian documentary Shane — an early inclusion that demonstrates the film's handling of its well-known central figure. Warne's sporting career rose spectacularly from his failed attempt at Aussie Rules, which he also chats through. It dipped via several scandals, professional and personal alike, which he takes to with considerably less glee. Warne is a candid and engaging interviewee and, while joined by other cricketing and celebrity figures in recounting his life to-date, he's Shane's main source of information, but the film still spins the story that he's happy to share. There's no shortage of details for directors David Alrich (Griff's Great Australian Rail Trip), Jon Carey (Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu Story) and Jackie Munro to cover, all of which they unfurl in chronological order. Warne was an AFL-obsessed kid who played under-19s and one reserves game, only to be told he wouldn't make it at the top level. He then considered tennis, but found his calling — and global renown and acclaim — in spin-bowling wickets. Even to viewers unfussed by cricket, Warne's achievements are common knowledge, as are his decades in the spotlight. So too are his controversies; the bookmaker situation, the match-fixing proposition put to him by Pakistani captain Salim Malik, the year-long suspension for taking a banned diuretic and the breakdown of his marriage all get a mention, and all earn Warne's current thoughts. He's also especially eager to discuss his prowess for sledging. Hearing famous faces tell their tales is a documentary format that'll never get old, but perhaps the most surprising thing about Shane is the balance between Warne's on- and off-field exploits. The second gets almost as much attention as the first, with his ex-wife Simone, children Brooke, Jackson and Summer, parents Keith and Bridgette, and brother Jason joining the roster of heads — and his kids are particularly frank about missing time with their dad when he spent nine months a year on the road while they were growing up. A film can be honest and also highly authorised, though, and there's never any doubt that this is an act of adoring portraiture. Like most such features, it even enlists pointless praise from unneeded celebs — in this case Ed Sheeran and Chris Martin, the latter introducing himself by explaining "I'm in the band called Coldplay". Actually, Shane does bowl another surprise viewers' way: its accessibility to the cricket-ambivalent. Even thrusting both personal and professional antics to the fore, sporting documentaries can be guilty of simply preaching to existing fans, rather than explaining why their subject has earned their own film; however, being a leg-spin fiend or spending your summers obsessing about runs and wickets isn't a prerequisite for getting something out of Shane. Indeed, cricket aficionados might even find it lacking in match footage, although the "ball of the century" — Warne's first-ever wicket with his first-ever ball in his first-ever Ashes test — unsurprisingly gets ample time in the spotlight. Also given plenty of focus: a seemingly never-ending array of former English captains sharing their takes on Warne, and the man himself doing his best 'loveable larrikin' act, because Shane knows its chosen pitch and sticks to it. THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2 In every generation, a new version of The Addams Family is born, or has been since the creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky characters debuted in print in the 1938, then made the leap from New Yorker cartoons to TV in the 60s. That hit sitcom set the bar, leaving each subsequent take on this all-together ooky crew with a difficult task: tinkering with something eerie, madcap, macabre and widely adored. When two movies attempted the feat in the 90s, however, they became instant classics. Starring Raul Julia, Anjelica Houston, Christopher Lee and Christina Ricci, 1991's The Addams Family and 1993's Addams Family Values weren't just great three decades ago — they're still excellent now, and not just due to nostalgia. The less said about their woeful direct-to-video follow-up Addams Family Reunion, the better, although it bears more in common with the current crop of animated Addams Family flicks, all of which simply think that popping their titular figures into any situation is amusing enough. At a time when Ricci is killing it on the small screen in Yellowjackets, aka one of the best new shows of the past year, the strange and deranged characters that helped push her to fame when she was a child are sadly stuck languishing in their worst iteration yet. 2019's stop-motion The Addams Family was generic at best, and kept mistaking groan-worthily obvious jokes for humour — and thinking that viewers of these weird and wonderful folks wanted the standard serving of pop culture-themed gags, throwaway lines, non sequiturs and pointless jukebox-style needle drops — a strategy that The Addams Family 2 is happy to let bubble again. Here, though, it isn't the entire eponymous group that stands out against the world around them. They still do, of course, but the focus sits with teenager Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz, Tom and Jerry), who feels she doesn't fit in with her relatives even before she's told she might've been switched at birth. As its immediate predecessor did, The Addams Family 2 boasts a few stellar strokes of voice casting, but that can't save a film that's distressingly eager to be as bland, flat and lazy as possible. Once again, returning directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon (Sausage Party) — who team up with first-time co-helmers Laura Brousseau and Kevin Pavlovic — only manage to make viewers wish that Oscar Isaac (Dune) and Charlize Theron (Fast and Furious 9) could've played Gomez and Morticia in a new live-action film, instead of lending their voices to this mess. The lines they're tasked with uttering, as penned by screenwriters Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit (Pokémon: Detective Pikachu) along with Ben Queen (Cars 2) and Susanna Fogel (Booksmart), have less life (and inspire fewer laughs) than a corpse. And, as with the first animated movie, they're still caught up in a flick that has Snoop Dogg cast Cousin Itt so that it can drop in his songs (and yes, that's supposed to be funny, apparently). Forget the dark humour that's always been the backbone of The Addams Family. Forget any sense of personality that isn't just "ooh, they're odd and they like grim things" — and forget anything that you wouldn't see in any other all-ages film, too. The script could've been written for any old characters, then had Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley (Javon 'Wanna' Walton, Utopia), Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll, Sing 2), Thing and company shoehorned in, although its family vacation setup does take all the wrong cues from the aforementioned Addams Family Reunion. It hardly helps that the animation style looks ghoulishly unpleasant, but at least the character designs nod to Charles Addams' original cartoons. Nothing else about this unwanted sequel even comes close, in a feature that proves the antithesis of its characters: mundane, safe, routine and only unnerving in how terrible it is. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on September 2, September 9, September 16, September 23 and September 30; October 7, October 14, October 21 and October 28; November 4, November 11, November 18 and November 25; December 2, December 9, December 16 and December 26; and January 1. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Streamline, Coming Home in the Dark, Pig, Big Deal, The Killing of Two Lovers, Nitram, Riders of Justice, The Alpinist, A Fire Inside, Lamb, The Last Duel, Malignant, The Harder They Fall, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, Halloween Kills, Passing, Eternals, The Many Saints of Newark, Julia, No Time to Die, The Power of the Dog, Tick, Tick... Boom!, Zola, Last Night in Soho, Blue Bayou, The Rescue, Titane, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Dune, Encanto, The Card Counter, The Lost Leonardo, The French Dispatch, Don't Look Up, Dear Evan Hansen, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Lost Daughter, The Scary of Sixty-First, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, The Matrix Resurrections, The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Worst Person in the World, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and House of Gucci.
The campaign to change the date of Australia Day to, well, any day other than January 26 — on account of the undeniable pain it causes Indigenous Australians — has been long fought. In recent years it's even been joined by local councils and the Greens and, now, local broadcaster Triple J has made a symbolic move away from the day of 'celebration'. The radio station will move the date of its annual Hottest 100 countdown to January 27 in 2018. About time. Around this time last year Triple J copped a cavalcade of requests to change the date of the countdown, which culminated in the station throwing open a survey of how listeners would feel about the change. The results were enough to make Triple J change its mind — 60 percent of listeners said they supported moving the date. In Triple J's official statement, it recognised that the Hottest 100 has become a symbol in the debate about Australia Day. "The Hottest 100 wasn't created as an Australia Day celebration. It was created to celebrate your favourite songs of the past year," it said. "It should be an event that everyone can enjoy together — for both the musicians whose songs make it in and for everyone listening in Australia and around the world. This is really important to us." It's a symbolic change, but an undoubtedly important one. The countdown on Saturday, January 27 will be followed by the Hottest 200 on Sunday, January 28. Voting will open on Tuesday, December 12. You can read all the details here.
Drop everything. Nothing is as important as this Game of Thrones-themed wine tasting. Are you still, still recovering from The Red Viper versus The Mountain? Are you feeling a little nostalgic for the days when Tyrion could lay around boozing on vino? Perhaps you should be drinking your sorrows away with some like-minded Thrones fanatics. Confused? We’ll lay it down for you. Game of Rhones is a wine-tasting event touring that's been touring Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne since 2014. Now it's expanding the empire to Sydney and Auckland, stopping by our fair city on Sunday, June 21 at Carriageworks. Featuring over 40 producers and 100 wines, it's a one-day, all-out trial by combat to determine the best offering of the grape varieties from the Rhone Valley in France — Shiraz, Grenache, and Viognier among others. There'll also be local wines, ciders and beers from every corner of Kings Landing/Australia/New Zealand all of which have been confirmed to contain no poison and you, the humble commoner, will be entrusted to pick the victor. But this isn't just a run-of-the-mill wine tasting set-up. To keep that theme solid, the Rhone Bar is where you can taste wines from ‘Beyond the Wall’ (ie: the Rhone Valley). Then, you can sign up for a blindfolded tasting in the 'torture chamber' (a highlight of previous Game of Rhones events). Suffice to say, after a few of these Rhone Valley wines, we'd probably confess to a secret or two. Of course, it wouldn't be Thrones-worthy if there weren't a few extra kickers. To accompany your wine, there will be a selection of feast-able treats available such as suckling pig and venison pie — if you’re a vego or a vegan, you've probably already guessed this is a highly meaty affair — and there's also the option to come in costume. In previous Rhone events, it appears that patrons have either gone all out, or rocked up in jeans. Obviously we suggest the former, because quite frankly it would be amazing to see a hoard of drunken Daenarys' walking the streets of Auckland. Game of Rhones is coming to Sydney on Sunday, June 21 from 1-6pm at Blacksmiths Workshop, Carriageworks. Your $50 ticket includes a special take-home Riedel Ouverture Magnum wine glass and all tastings from 1pm-6pm, however food prices are not included. For more information see the Game of Rhones website.
UPDATE: MAY 13, 2020 — Marta is reopening for dine-in service from Friday, May 15. It's taking bookings for up to ten people per sitting this Friday and Saturday, with times available from 5.15pm, 6.45pm and 8.30pm. Next week, it'll be open Wednesday–Saturday nights. Bookings are essential and can be made by emailing book@marta.com.au or calling (02) 9361 6641. Keen to gift Rushcutters Bay with an authentic taste of Rome, Flavio Carnevale has pulled up stumps on his southern Italian-inspired Popolo to make way for new venture Marta. As Popolo prepares to relocate to slightly more formal CBD digs, the space at 50 McLachlan Avenue has been transformed into a bright and buzzy neighbourhood osteria and bar, as imagined by award-winning Melbourne architects, DesignOffice (who're responsible for the epic Higher Ground). The all-embracing space is decked out in black and olive neutral tones, boasting a sunny courtyard and an array of seating options to suit any occasion. Moving away from the food of the Basilicata region, Marta's food and drink offering will take its cues from the lively venues of Rome, where Carnevale's hospitality journey began. Head Chef Christuan Jordaan is leading a menu that is both refined and full of personality, featuring dishes like bombolotti carbonara, whole-fried artichoke and tiella gaetana, a pie-like dish of thin pizza layers filled with baby calamari ragu. Daily house specials hope to inspire regular visits and it will only be open for lunch on Sundays — and dinner six nights a week. Meanwhile, a bar area with high-topped tables will be ideal for those drinks-focused drop-ins — sessions spent sipping spritzes and quaffing wines poured from Carnevale's bespoke ceramic decanters.
The days are longer. The nights are getting balmy. Yep, that's right — we are in the depths of Aperol season. And we don't doubt that you've seen Sydney's pubs and bars flooded with rounds of that most summery of drinks: the Aperol Spritz. That's why we thought it appropriate to create a list of some of our favourite places to go for a sunset spritz this season in partnership with Aperol. First and foremost, these places all make a good Aperol Spritz — that's essential. But, beyond that, each spot offers a great way to experience sunset in Sydney — whether you're soaking it up from high up on a rooftop bar or enjoying it down by the water. THE NEWPORT, NEWPORT Few waterside drinking spots compare to The Newport. This huge waterside venue has been landscaped to the nines, with each outdoor drinking and dining area given its own unique style. It's perfect for group hangs with your mates and family nights out — and it's also very dog-friendly. So, there's no leaving your four-legged friend at home for the night while you're out sipping on spritzes, eating pizza and watching the sunset by the water. Dreamy. KASBAH, DARLINGHURST This is one of the newest additions to Sydney's rooftop bar scene, having opened just before summer 2023. And it's quickly shot up to be one of our favourites. From the top of the newly renovated The Strand, you feel as if you're sitting along the Mediterranean within the city's skyline as the sun sets over the surrounding apartments and office towers. DJs and live entertainment are also up on this sun-soaked rooftop on Fridays and Saturdays until midnight and on Sundays until 10pm, so you won't have any issues stretching out your evening up here as you lounge on the comfy sofas and sip on spritzes. THE COURTHOUSE, NEWTOWN The Courty is a Newtown favourite for so many reasons. The large and welcoming pub has a bunch of different rooms for drinking and playing weekly trivia — but the massive beer garden is arguably the greatest drawcard of this Australia Street institution. Wrapping around almost the whole pub, the expansive outdoor space is a super laidback spot where many an afternoon has stretched out to nighttime. There's also a heap of coverage, too, so if the weather takes a turn, you won't have to make a dash for the nearest exit. BONDI PAV, BONDI If an Aperol Spritz is what you're after this summer, then you'd be a fool to miss out on a visit to the revamped Bondi Pavilion. The ocean-facing promenade of the legendary beach has been transformed into the new Sydney HQ for all things spritz. Several hospitality venues line the walls of the Pav for any hungry passerby. During daylight hours, you can grab a meal at Glory Days (and Surfish cafe, which is due to open soon), and after-dark diners can get their fix at Promenade Bondi Beach or Upstairs by Glory Days a few floors above. [caption id="attachment_840752" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steven Woodburn[/caption] BACKYARD AT THE ALEX, ALEXANDRIA This Alexandria watering hole has been given a total makeover by the Merivale team, who've made this a proper drinking and dining destination. But despite the dress-up, the bones of this historic pub remain the same, helping The Alex maintain the feel of an old-school boozer. And what they've done with the beer garden is masterful. There's an outdoor bar in an old shipping container, stacks of large communal tables, a basketball court for anyone wanting to shoot some hoops and an ever-changing selection of food trucks that rocks up each night. Perfect, in other words, for an afternoon sesh with mates. MANLY GREENHOUSE, MANLY Head right from the beach to the verdant sun-filled rooftop at Manly Greenhouse to get some epic sunset views. (Well, maybe wash off the sand and throw a top on first. We aren't savages.) Once you make yourself decent, grab a spritz from the central bar and enjoy uninterrupted views of Manly Beach while DJs set the mood. Don't skip the food while you're up here, either — share a plate of fresh ceviche and a round of freshly shucked oysters or get around a proper serve of fish and chips. You can even go down a level to the wine room for a slightly more sophisticated sunset viewing. For more ways to elevate your summer with Aperol, head to the website.
Update Wednesday, July 12: Bookings are now open for the W Hotel's huge Darling Harbour development. You can lock in a stay for dates from Wednesday, November 1. Five years in the making, W Hotel's luxury Darling Harbour development will finally bring the global hotel chain back to Sydney in October this year. Originally scheduled to open in 2020, the unmistakable harbourfront hotel has faced several delays and setbacks, but has now revealed key details in the lead-up to its official opening in seven months' time. Located within The Ribbon, the sleek multimillion-dollar development is designed by HASSEL architects and sits on the former IMAX theatre site — which is scheduled to also reopen this year. W Sydney is promising not just a hotel, but a luxury hideaway with this inner-city accommodation. As with every W Hotel, you can expect impeccably-designed futuristic spaces, eateries overseen by expert chefs, cocktails created by top-notch bartenders and collaborations with local artists, musicians and designers. Partnering with HASSEL is Bowler James Brindley who is handling the interior design of the luxury building. "The freedom to create an entirely new cultural space for Sydney was incredibly exciting, and we were inspired by the idea of 'the larrikin' the non-conformist spirit of the city that makes it irresistible," a Bowler James Brindley spokesperson said. "We love to design spaces that embrace the individuality and even eccentricity of their locations, and to create interiors that engage their buildings and neighbourhoods in conversations, rather than treating spaces as blank canvases." One of W Sydney's drawcards — apart from its 585 next-level rooms and suites — is the exuberant shared spaces throughout the hotel including a heated rooftop infinity pool overlooking the water, a two-storey rooftop bar, an all-day dining restaurant, a luxury spa and a gym. The meticulously designed restaurant on level three can be seen from the adjacent highway, acting as a living, breathing billboard for the hotel. Inside, the diner boasts urban design hallmarks that celebrate its place in the heart of the city, as well as concrete columns and unique ceiling lighting that combine to create a one-of-a-kind dining experience. Other notable touches include jellyfish mosaic artwork that you can discover at the bottom of the impressive 30-metre pool, silicone petals resembling those of the waratah decorating the entrance sign, a future noir-themed lobby inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis and graphic designs from renowned multidisciplinary artist Bradley Eastman (aka Beastman) throughout the hotel's spa. W Sydney will open its doors in October 2023 at 31 Wheat Road, Darling Harbour. You can find out more about it on the Darling Harbour website.
Long before getting cosy on the couch meant living the streaming dream, not all movies made it to cinemas, just as happens now. Back then, though, that's where the term 'straight to video' came in. Then, it was 'straight to DVD'. At the moment, if a film doesn't flicker in a picture palace, it's a straight-to-streaming release. Some such movies do receive a big-screen run, but only at a film festival. Others were only ever bound for watching at home. Either way, just because they didn't light up your local multiplex or arthouse go-to for weeks on end, that doesn't mean these flicks aren't worth a look. Indeed, some of 2023's viewing highlights are straight-to-streaming films — whether you're fond of Oscar-nominated documentaries, Aubrey Plaza-led heist flicks, walk-and-talk rom-coms, unsettling horror gems or intimate portraits of famous faces. With 2023 now into its second half, we've made our picks of the year's best straight-to-streaming gems from January–June. Obviously, you can watch them all now. ALL THAT BREATHES Pictures can't tell all of All That Breathes' story, with Delhi-based brothers Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud's chats saying plenty that's essential. In the documentary's observational style, their conversation flits in and out of the film — sometimes, there's narration, too — giving it many meaningful words. Still, the images that Shaunak Sen (Cities of Sleep) lets flow across the screen in this Sundance- and Cannes-winner, and also 2023 Oscar-nominee, are astonishing. And, befitting this poetic meditative and ruminative doco's pace and mood, they do flow. All That Breathes' main pair adore the black kites that take to India's skies and suffer from its toxic air quality, tending to the creatures' injuries. As Sen watches, he adores them as well. Viewers will, too. Indeed, if there wasn't a single syllable uttered, with the movie just leaning on cinematographers Ben Bernhard (Talking About the Weather), Riju Das (14 Phere) and Saumyananda Sahi's (Trial by Fire) sights, plus Niladri Shekhar Roy ('83) and Moinak Bose's (Against the Tide) sound recording, the end result still would've been revelatory. This film trills about urban development, its costs and consequences, and caring for others both animal and human — and it says oh-so-much. It notes how everything that the earth's predominant inhabitants do has environmental impacts for the creatures that we share the planet with, including quests for economic dominance and political control. All That Breathes peers on as its subjects' tasks get harder even as they earn global attention, receive more funding and build their dream hospital. It sees how they put the majestic kites' wellbeing above their own, even as the numbers of birds needing their help just keeps growing. This is a documentary about animals falling from the skies due to pollution, two siblings trying to help them soar again, why that's so vital and what the whole situation says about life on earth — and it's vital and spectacular viewing. All That Breathes streams via Binge. EMILY THE CRIMINAL Enterprising, astute, intelligent and accepting zero garbage from anyone: these are traits that Aubrey Plaza can convey in her sleep. But she definitely isn't slumbering in Emily the Criminal, which sees her turn in a performance as weighty and layered as her deservedly Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated portrayal in the second season of The White Lotus — something that she's been doing since her Parks and Recreation days anyway. Indeed, there's more than a touch of April Ludgate-Dwyer's resourcefulness to this crime-thriller's eponymous figure. Los Angeles resident Emily Benetto isn't sporting much apathy, however; she can't afford to. With $70,000 in student loans to her name for a college art degree she isn't using working as a food delivery driver, and a felony conviction that's getting in the way of securing any gig she's better qualified for for, Jersey girl Emily breaks bad to make bank when she's given a tip about a credit card fraud ring run by Youcef (Theo Rossi, Sons of Anarchy). Her simple task: purchasing everything from electronics to cars with the stolen numbers. Writer/director John Patton Ford makes his feature debut with this lean, sharp, keenly observed and tightly paced film, which works swimmingly and grippingly as a heist thriller with plenty to say about the state of America today — particularly about a society that saddles folks starting their working lives with enormous debts, turning careers in the arts into the domain of the wealthy, and makes even the slightest wrongdoing a life sentence. Emily the Criminal is angry about that state of affairs, and that ire colours every frame. But it's as a character study that this impressive film soars highest, stepping through the struggles, troubles and desperate moves of a woman trapped not by her choices but her lack of options, all while seeing her better-off classmates breeze through life. As she usually is, Plaza is mesmerising, and adds another complicated movie role to a resume that also boasts the phenomenal Ingrid Goes West and Black Bear as well. Emily the Criminal streams via Binge and Netflix. HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN The sound of cracking knuckles is one of humanity's most anxiety-inducing. The noise of clicking bones elsewhere? That's even worse. Both help provide Huesera: The Bone Woman's soundtrack — and set the mood for a deeply tense slow-burner that plunges into maternal paranoia like a Mexican riff on Rosemary's Baby, the horror subgenre's perennial all-timer, while also interrogating the reality that bringing children into the world isn't a dream for every woman no matter how much society expects otherwise. Valeria (Natalia Solián, Red Shoes) is thrilled to be pregnant, a state that hasn't come easily. After resorting to praying at a shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in desperation, neither she nor partner Raúl (Alfonso Dosal, Narcos: Mexico) could be happier, even if her sister Vero (Sonia Couoh, 40 Years Young) caustically comments that she's never seemed that interested in motherhood before. Then, two things shake up her hard-fought situation: a surprise run-in with Octavia (Mayra Batalla, Everything Will Be Fine), the ex-girlfriend she once planned to live a completely different life with; and constant glimpses of a slithering woman whose unnatural body movements echo and unsettle. Filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera (TV series Marea alta) makes her fictional narrative debut with Huesera: The Bone Woman, directing and also writing with first-timer Abia Castillo — and she makes a powerfully chilling and haunting body-horror effort about hopes, dreams, regrets and the torment of being forced into a future that you don't truly foresee as your own. Every aspect of the film, especially Nur Rubio Sherwell's (Don't Blame Karma!) exacting cinematography, reinforces how trapped that Valeria feels even if she can't admit it to herself, and how much that attempting to be the woman Raúl and her family want is eating away at her soul. Solián is fantastic at navigating this journey, including whether the movie is leaning into drama or terror at any given moment. You don't need expressive eyes to be a horror heroine, but she boasts them; she possesses a scream queen's lungs, too. Unsurprisingly, Cervera won the Nora Ephron Award for best female filmmaker at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival for this instantly memorable nightmare. Huesera: The Bone Woman streams via Shudder. ROBE OF GEMS In the very first moments of her very first feature as a director — after working as an editor on films such as 2012's Post Tenebras Lux and 2014's Jauja — Natalia López demands her audience's attention. She earns it and ensures it as well, and looking away while Robe of Gems unfurls its story is impossible afterwards. To kick things off, a patient and painterly glimpse at the rural Mexican landscape comes into sight, fading up and bringing more and more dusty grey details with it with each second. Then, without the frame moving, a frenetic man is seen bashing and slashing through the plants. Next, it becomes apparent that there's a reflection as part of the image. And, it's also quickly evident that viewers are seeing someone else's vantage as they look on at the landscape. In fact, a couple peers out, in the middle of getting intimate (and immediately before flinging wooden furniture around, strewn pieces flying everywhere). With the 'start as you mean to go on' maxim in mind, it's a helluva opening. López does indeed begin as she goes on, in a film that scored her 2022's Berlinale's Silver Bear Jury Prize. The pivotal villa belongs to Isabel's (Nailea Norvind, Julia vs Julia) family, and offers somewhat of a respite from a marriage that's splintering like that thrown-about furniture, with the clearly well-to-do woman settling in with her children Benja (first-timer Balam Toledo) and Vale (fellow debutant Sherlyn Zavala Diaz). But tension inescapably lingers, given that the onsite caretaker María (newcomer Antonia Olivares) is unsettled by the disappearance of her sister, a plot point that makes a purposeful statement. The police are investigating, the cartel has a local presence, corruption is an ever-present force, and the gap between the wealthy and not-so is glaring. Progressing carefully from that powerhouse opening, Robe of Gems quickly seeps under your skin — and as its first visuals make abundantly clearly, every second is a marvel to look at. Robe of Gems streams via Prime Video and Madman on Demand. RYE LANE When Dom (David Jonsson, Industry) and Yas (Vivian Oparah, Then You Run) are asked how they met, they tell a tale about a karaoke performance getting an entire bar cheering. Gia (Karene Peter, Emmerdale Farm), Dom's ex, is both shocked and envious, even though she cheated on him with his primary-school best friend Eric (Benjamin Sarpong-Broni, The Secret). It's the kind of story a movie couple would love to spin — the type that tends to only happen in the movies, too. But even for Rye Lane's fictional characters, it's a piece of pure imagination. Instead, the pair meet in South London, in the toilet at an art show. He's crying in a stall, they chat awkwardly through the gender-neutral space's wall, then get introduced properly outside. It's clumsy, but they keep the conversation going even when they leave the exhibition, then find themselves doing the good ol' fashioned rom-com walk and talk, then slide in for that dinner rendezvous with the flabbergasted Gia. It's easy to think of on-screen romances gone by during British filmmaker Raine Allen-Miller's feature debut — working with a script from Bloods duo Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia — which this charming Sundance-premiering flick overtly wants viewers to. There's a helluva sight gag about Love Actually, as well as a cameo to match, and the whole meandering-and-nattering setup helped make Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight an iconic trilogy. That said, as Rye Lane spends time with shy accountant Dom, who has barely left his parents' house since the breakup, and the outgoing costume designer Yas, who has her own recent relationship troubles casting a shadow, it isn't propelled by nods and winks. Rather, it's smart and savvy in a Starstruck way about paying tribute to what's come before while wandering down its own path. The lead casting is dynamic, with Jonsson and Oparah making a duo that audiences could spend hours with, and Allen-Miller's eye as a director is playful, lively, loving and probing. Rom-coms are always about watching people fall for each other, but this one plunges viewers into its swooning couple's mindset with every visual and sensory touch it can. Rye Lane streams via Disney+. DUAL New movie, familiar query: what would you do if you physically came face to face with yourself, and not just by looking in a mirror? Films about clones, including all-timer Moon and the recent Mahershala Ali (Alita: Battle Angel)-starring Swan Song, have long pondered this topic — and so has the Paul Rudd-led series Living with Yourself. In Dual, there's only one legal option. This sci-fi satire shares Swan Song's idea, allowing replicating oneself when fate deals out a bad hand. So, that's what Sarah (Karen Gillan, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) does when she's told that she has a rare but terminal disease, and that her death is certain. Cloning is meant to spare her boyfriend Peter (Beulah Koale, Shadow in the Cloud) and her mother (Maija Paunio, Next of Kin) from losing her, making a difficult situation better for Sarah's loved ones. But when she doesn't die after all, the law states that, just like in Highlander, there can be only one. To decide who lives, Sarah and her doppelgänger must fight to the death in a public dual — with Trent (Aaron Paul, Better Call Saul) helping train the OG version. Even with its twist, on paper Dual sounds like a feature that any filmmaker could've made — one that any actor could've starred in, too. But this is the meaty, meaningful and memorable movie it is thanks to writer/director Riley Stearns and his excellent lead Gillan. With his penchant for deadpan, the former pondered working out who you truly are through an unlikely battle in 2019's very funny The Art of Self-Defense, and does so again here. He's also fond of exploring the struggle to embrace one's personality, and confronting the notion we all have in our minds that a better version of ourselves exists. That said, Dual plays like a sibling to The Art of Self-Defense, rather than a clone itself. It'd certainly be a lesser flick without Gillan, who sheds her Nebula makeup, wades out of the Jumanji franchise's jungles, and turns in two powerful and nuanced performances as Sarah and Sarah 2.0. And while Paul is in supporting mode, he's a scene-stealer. Dual streams via Netflix. TETRIS The greatest game in the world can't make the leap to screens like most of its counterparts, whether they involve mashing buttons, playing campaigns or attempting to sink ships. A literal adaptation of Tetris would just involve four-piece bricks falling and falling — and while that's a tense and riveting sight when you're in charge of deciding where they land, and endeavouring to fill lines to make them disappear, it's hardly riveting movie viewing. As a film, Tetris is still gripping, however, all while telling the tale behind the puzzle video game that's been a phenomenon since the 80s. Did you have your first Tetris experience on an early Game Boy? This is the story of how that happened. Starring Taron Egerton (Black Bird) as Henk Rogers, the man who secured the rights to the Russian-born title for distribution on video game consoles worldwide, it's largely a dramatised account of the fraught negotiations when the west started to realise what a hit Tetris was, Nintendo got involved, but Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov had no power over what happened to his creation because that was life in the USSR. Egerton is perfectly cast as the resourceful, charming and determined Rogers, a Dutch-born, American-raised, Japan-residing game designer who stumbles across Tetris at a tech conference while trying to sell a version of Chinese strategy game Go. First, his assistant can't stop playing it. Soon, he's seeing blocks in his dreams, as everyone does after playing (and then forever). Director Jon S Baird (Stan & Ollie) and screenwriter Noah Pink (Genius) have a games licensing battle to unpack from there, something that mightn't have been as thrilling as it proves — and certainly is no certainty on paper — in other hands. Stacking up this real-life situation's pieces involves becoming a savvy takedown of shady business deals, a compelling Russia-set spy flick and an exploration of daily existence in Soviet times, plus an upstart underdog story. And, Tetris does all that while gleefully and playfully bringing in the game's aesthetic, and blasting an appropriately synth-heavy soundtrack. Tetris streams via Apple TV+. GUY RITCHIE'S THE COVENANT Announcing his cinematic arrival with a pair of slick, witty, twisty and fast-paced British heist flicks, Guy Ritchie achieved at the beginning of his career something that many filmmakers strive for their whole lives: he cemented exactly what his features are in the minds of audiences. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch made "Guy Ritchie movie" an instantly understood term, in fact, as the writer/director has attempted to capitalise on since with differing results (see: Revolver, RocknRolla, The Gentlemen and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre). Ritchie's third film, the Madonna-starring Swept Away, has also proven just as emblematic of his career, however. He loves pumping out stereotypical Guy Ritchie movies — he even adores making them Sherlock Holmes and King Arthur flicks, with mixed fortunes — but he also likes leaving his own conventions behind in The Man From UNCLE, Aladdin, Wrath of Man and now Guy Ritchie's The Covenant. Perhaps Ritchie's name is in the title of this Afghanistan-set action-thriller to remind viewers that the film does indeed boast him behind the lens, and as a cowriter; unlike with fellow 2023 release Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, they wouldn't guess otherwise. Clunky moniker aside, Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is pared down, gripping and intense, and home to two excellent performances by Jake Gyllenhaal (Strange World) as Master Sergeant John Kinley and Dar Salim (Tatort) as his interpreter Ahmed. As the former leads a team that's looking for IED factories, the pair's collaboration is tentative at first. Then a raid goes wrong, Ahmed saves Kinley's life, but the recognition and support that'd be afforded an American solider in the same situation doesn't go the local's way. Where Afghan interpreters who aid US troops are left after their task is complete is a weighty subject, and treated as such in this grounded and moving film. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant streams via Prime Video. STILL: A MICHAEL J FOX MOVIE Anyone who lived through the 80s and/or 90s spent a large portion of both decades watching Michael J Fox. Thanks to Family Ties on TV and the Back to the Future movies in cinemas, he was everywhere — and courtesy of Teen Wolf, Doc Hollywood, The Frighteners and Spin City as well. The list of the beloved star's work from the era goes on. Forgotten one or some? Watch Still: A Michael J Fox Movie and you'll be reminded. This intimate documentary steps through the star's life, career and Parkinson's Disease diagnosis using three main modes: splicing together clips from his resume to help illustrate his narration, chatting with Fox now in candid to-camera segments, and hanging out with him and his family as he goes about his days. Each aspect of the film adds something not just important but engaging; however, all that footage from his time as Alex P Keaton, Marty McFly and more offers firm proof, if any more was needed, that Fox was an on-screen presence like no other three and four decades back. Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth documentarian Davis Guggenheim both shows and tells, always letting Fox's own words do the talking. Still: A Michael J Fox Movie takes the birth-to-now route, observing that its titular figure was always a kid on the go, then a teen who found himself in acting — a place where he could be anyone, regardless of his short stature — and then an aspiring actor slogging it out in Hollywood until he scored not one but two big breaks. The film also examines the fame and success, Fox's thinking that this'd now be his status quo, the moment his life changed and everything that's followed since. Yes, it notes that this story would've been completely different if Eric Stoltz had kept his Back to the Future job. Also, as Fox's memoirs are on the page, it's supremely self-deprecating. Still: A Michael J Fox Movie is unflinchingly honest, too, especially about his relationship with his wife Tracy Pollan — who, when asked how she is, Fox replies "married to me, still". Still: A Michael J Fox Movie streams via Apple TV+. NIMONA Bounding from the page to the screen — well, from pixels first, initially leaping from the web to print — graphic novel-to-film adaptation Nimona goes all in on belonging. Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal) wants to fit in desperately, and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it. In this animated movie's medieval-yet-futuristic world, there's nothing more important and acclaimed than being part of the Institute for Elite Knights, so that's his aim. Slipping into armour usually isn't possible for someone who grew up on the wrong side of this realm's tracks, as he did, but Ballister has been given a chance by Queen Valerin (Lorraine Toussaint, The Equalizer), who says that anyone can now be a hero. Alas, just as he's about to have his sword placed upon his shoulder with all the world watching, tragedy strikes, then prejudice sets in. Even his fellow knight-in-training and boyfriend Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang, Star Wars: Visions), who boasts family ties to legendary monster-slaying heroine Gloreth (Karen Ryan, Under the Banner of Heaven), believes that Ballister is responsible. His only ally? Nimona's namesake (Chloë Grace Moretz, The Peripheral), a shapeshifter who offers to be his sidekick regardless of his innocence or guilt. Nimona usually appears as a human girl, but can change into anything. The shapeshifter also wants to belong — but only by being accepted as she is. Unlike Ballister's feelings of inferiority about being a commoner, Nimona is happy with morphing from a kid to a rhinoceros, a whale to a shark, then between anything else that she can think of, and wouldn't give it up for anyone. Indeed, when Ballister keeps pestering her for reasons to explain why she is like she is, and asking her to remain as a girl, she's adamant. She already is normal, and she rightly won't budge from that belief. Animated with lively and colour animation that sometimes resembles Cartoon Saloon's Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers, Nimona is a family-friendly adventure and, as penned as a comic by ND Stevenson (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power), also a clear, impassioned and sincere allegory for being true to yourself. As a film, directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (who also teamed up on Spies in Disguise) and screenwriters Robert L Baird (Big Hero 6) and Lloyd Taylor (another Spies in Disguise alum) ensure that it remains a thoughtful delight. Nimona streams via Netflix. PAMELA, A LOVE STORY If you weren't aware of Pamela Anderson's recent Broadway stint, bringing the razzle dazzle to a production of Chicago in 2022, Ryan White (Good Night Oppy)-directed documentary Pamela, A Love Story will still feature surprises. Otherwise, from Playboy to Playbill — including Baywatch, sex tapes and multiple marriages in-between — the actor's story is well-known around the globe. Much of it played out in the tabloids, especially when she married Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in a white bikini after four days together. She also graced what can easily stake a claim as the internet's first viral video, after intimate footage of Anderson and Lee was stolen, then sold. And that very experience was dramatised in 2022 limited series Pam & Tommy, including the misogynistic way she was treated compared to her spouse, how her rights to her image and privacy were considered trashed due to her nude modelling days, and the unsurprising fallout within her relationship. No matter how familiar the details are, Pamela, A Love Story does something that little else on-screen has, however: it lets Anderson tell her story herself. Much of the doco focuses on the Barb Wire and Scary Movie 3 star in her childhood home in Ladysmith on Canada's Vancouver Island, watching old videos, reading past diaries and chatting through the contents. She's recorded and written about everything in her life. Sitting in front of the camera without a trace of makeup, with her sons Brandon and Dylan sometimes talking with her, she gives her account of how she's been treated during the highs and lows of her career. The film coincides with a memoir, Love, Pamela, so this is a tale that Anderson is currently on the page and in streaming queues — but it's still a powerful portrait of a woman made famous for her appearance, turned into a sex symbol to the point that male interviewers in the 90s could barely talk about anything else, then cruelly judged and discarded. She's frank and sincere, as is the movie amid its treasure trove of archival footage. Pamela, A Love Story streams via Netflix. WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY If you've seen one music biopic, or some of the flicks that've earned actors Oscars or nominations in recent years for playing well-known rock stars — think: Bohemian Rhapsody and Elvis — then you know how this genre usually plays out. So does Weird Al Yankovic, who is strongly involved in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, co-writing, producing and even popping up on-screen. He doesn't give himself a solemn screen tribute, though. For decades, he's found pop music rife for satirising, and now his career spent spoofing hit songs gets sent up as well. The soundtrack is already hilarious, filled as it is with everything from 'My Bologna', 'I Love Rocky Road' and 'Another One Rides the Bus' to 'Eat It', 'Like a Surgeon' and 'Amish Paradise'. The casting is brilliantly hilarious as it is hilariously brilliant, too, with Daniel Radcliffe (The Lost City) sporting a mop of curls, grasping an accordion and wearing Yankovic's Hawaiian shirts like he was born to. Silly, happily self-mocking, not serious for a second: that's this joke-packed flick, which isn't quite as stuffed with gags as a typical Weird Al song, but is still filled with laughs — and still immensely funny. Unsurprisingly, much of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story plays like a collection of skits and sketches, whether visiting his childhood, showing how he scored his big break or charting his fame (which is Westworld's Evan Rachel Wood as a comical Madonna comes in), but it works. Yankovic co-writes with director Eric Appel, a parody veteran thanks to NTSF:SD:SUV, and they're joyfully on the same goofy, go-for-broke wavelength. So is Radcliffe, who keeps demonstrating that he's at his best when a certain Boy Who Lived is relegated to the past, and when he's getting as ridiculous as he possibly can. Forget the wizarding franchise — he's magical when he's at his most comic, as Miracle Workers keeps proving, and now this as well. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story streams via Paramount+. CONFESS, FLETCH Since Mad Men had Don Draper want to buy the world a Coke to end its seven-season run back in 2015, comedy has been Jon Hamm's friend. He's the ultimate TV guest star, building upon stints in 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation while Mad Men was still airing with Toast of London, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Curb Your Enthusiasm, on a resume that also includes The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, Childrens Hospital, Medical Police, Angie Tribeca, The Last Man on Earth and Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp as well. So, casting him as the new Irwin Maurice 'Fletch' Fletcher couldn't be an easier move. Having fellow Mad Men standout John Slattery (The Good Fight) also appear in the latest flick about the investigative reporter, and the first since the Chevy Chase-led movies in the 80s, is another winning touch. Even if that reunion wasn't part of the film, Hamm is so entertaining that he makes a killer case for a whole new Fletch franchise — on whatever screen the powers-that-be like — with him at its centre. Hamm clearly understands how well he suits this type of character, and the genre; he's a comic delight, and he's also one of Confess, Fletch's producers. Superbad and Adventureland's Greg Mottola directs and co-writes, scripting with Outer Range's Zev Borow — and ensuring that Hamm and Slattery aren't the only acting highlights. Working through a plot that sees Fletch chasing a stolen artwork, discovering a dead body, and both looking into the crime and considered a suspect himself, the film also features engaging turns by always-welcome Twin Peaks great Kyle MacLachlan and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar gem Annie Mumolo. There have been several attempts to revive Fletch over the past three decades, including separate projects with Ted Lasso duo Bill Lawrence and Jason Sudeikis — on the page, the character spans nine novels — but viewers should be thankful that this is the action-comedy that came to fruition, even if it skipped cinemas everywhere but the US. Confess, Fletch streams via Paramount+ and Binge. HUNGER Let's call it the reality TV effect: after years of culinary contests carving up prime-time television, the savage on-screen steps into the food world just keep bubbling. The Bear turned the hospitality industry into not just a tension-dripping dramedy, but one of 2022's best new shows. In cinemas, British pressure-cooker Boiling Point and the sleek and sublimely cast The Menu have tasted from the same intense plate. Now Hunger sits down at the table, giving viewers another thriller of a meal — this time focusing on a Thai noodle cook who wants to be special. When Aoy's (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, One for the Road) street-food dishes based on her Nanna's recipes get the attention of fellow chef Tone (Gunn Svasti Na Ayudhya, Tootsies & the Fake), he tells her that she needs to be plying her talents elsewhere. In fact, he works for Chef Paul (Nopachai Jayanama, Hurts Like Hell), who specialises in the type of fine-dining dishes that only the wealthiest of the wealthy can afford, and is as exacting and demanding as the most monstrous kitchen genius that fiction has ever dreamed up. There's more to making it in the restaurant trade than money, acclaim and status, just like there's more to life as well. As told with slickness and pace, even while clocking in at almost two-and-a-half hours, that's the lesson that director Sitisiri Mongkolsiri (Folklore) and screenwriter Kongdej Jaturanrasamee (Faces of Anne) serve Aoy. She's tempted by the glitz and recognition, and being steeped in a world far different from her own; however, all that gleams isn't always palatable. Plot-wise, Hunger uses familiar ingredients, but always ensures that they taste like their own dish — in no small part thanks to the excellent casting of Chuengcharoensukying as the film's conflicted but determined lead. A model also known as Aokbab, she proved a revelation in 2017's cheating heist thriller Bad Genius, and she's just as compelling here. The two movies would make a high-stakes pair for more than just their shared star, both sinking their teeth into class commentary as well. Yes, like The Menu before it, Hunger is also an eat-the-rich flick, and loves biting into social inequity as hard as it can. Hunger streams via Netflix. VENGEANCE When Vengeance begins with a New Yorker journalist who's desperate to start his own podcast, Soho House hangouts and relationship advice from John Mayer as himself, it begins with rich and savvy character details. Writing, starring and making his feature directorial debut after helming episodes of The Office and The Mindy Project, BJ Novak instantly establishes the kind of person that Ben Manalowitz is. He shows the East Coast world that his protagonist inhabits, too — and, by focusing on the only guy in NYC without their own audio outlet, or so it seems, plus that romantic guidance, it splashes around its sense of humour. This is a sharply amusing mystery-comedy, and a highlight on Novak's resume in all three of his guises. It's also about subverting expectations, and lampooning the first impressions and broad stereotypes that are too often — and too easily — clung to. Indeed, Vengeance bakes in that idea as many ways as it can as Ben (Novak) does the most obvious thing he can to convince his producer (Issa Rae, Insecure) that his voice is worth hearing: bursts his Big Apple bubble. The Mayer bit isn't just a gag; it helps set up Ben as the kind of person who is dating so many women that he doesn't know which one has died after he gets a bereaved phone call from Texas in the middle of the night. On the other end is Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook, The Sandman), brother to Abilene (Lio Tipton, Why Women Kill), who insists that Ben head southwest immediately to attend her funeral — she claimed that they were serious enough that she's his girlfriend, after all. Upon arrival, the out-of-towner initially regards his hosts as jokes, and their lives and Abilene's death as content. Ty thinks she was murdered, and Ben couldn't be giddier about getting it all on tape and calling the series Dead White Girl. The journo's self-interest is up there with his obliviousness about anything that doesn't fit into his NYC orbit; however, this isn't a culture-clash comedy — thankfully — but a clever, self-aware and ambitious satire. It's also strikingly shot and features a standout performance by Ashton Kutcher (That '90s Show) as a suave record producer. Vengeance streams via Netflix and Binge. Looking for more viewing highlights? Check out our list of film and TV streaming recommendations, which is updated monthly. We've also picked our top 15 movies that hit cinemas in the first half of 2023, as well as the 15 best new TV shows and 15 best returning TV shows of the year so far.
Talking to an audience, or one-to-one, former-billionaire Chris Anderson still comes across as pretty approachable. Anderson is curator — and owner — of the smart, global talk-fest, TED, where talks are notes-free and never more than 18 minutes long. Anderson was in Australia last weekend for TEDxSydney's 2012 collection of talks about robots, quantum computing, imaginary friends and the durability of dirty words. After all but one of the other speakers had taken to the stage, Anderson spoke briefly about TED-Ed, which combines videos and mash-ups into a kind of "magic blackboard", and the Worldwide Talent Search for TED2013. After he left the stage, Concrete Playground was lucky enough to sit down with Chris Anderson for almost exactly a TED Talk's worth of time. You come across, from a distance, as very gentle. Do you find that helps you run a big conference like TED? I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before. Interesting. I think I probably am gentle. Maybe I'm gentle. There's lots of ways to run a business. And I do many of them really badly: but I do have a great team. And TED has a life of its own. So, it's amazing to see it take off around the world. Every day is a surprise. Teenagers get ignored a lot in public. Why did you pick teenagers as your target for TED-Ed? Well, our existing talks are aimed at adults and are certainly devoured by a lot of university-age students. And a little bit in schools. But they're not optimised for school use. They're too long. They displace too much class time. They're aimed at adults. And so, given that ideas matter most for people whose world views are still being formed, and given how important education is to everyone's future, we kind of have no choice, but to do something for that age group. And we spent a lot of time thinking about it. And talking to teachers, and listening. And this is where we've ended up. We've got a lot of interest among 18 and up. And we just wanted to move down. And maybe, if this is successful, we'll continue the trip down. Towards, you know, birth. [laughs] What was school life like for you? You talk a lot about better ways of education. Is that informed from a bad experience or a good experience when you were younger? I was brought up in an international school in the Himalayas in India. And it was a fabulous experience, actually. In fact, if I had a wish … if every kid could spend a few years in an international school, a lot of issues would go away. Because, without even trying, you end up a global soul. And, you know, all the big problems in the world are essentially global problems. So, it would be nice if the people who were trying to solve them were taking a global perspective instead of a tribal perspective, which is why we can't solve a lot of what's out there. So, no — it was a wonderful experience. It was lots of time outdoors. Lots of time in nature. And an incredible cast of characters in the school. So, it was great. I watched the TED-Ed talk 'Questions no one knows the answers to'. I really enjoyed that one. When do you think we might know the answers to some of those questions? You're in a good position to have an idea. There was a bunch of different questions thrown into there. I mean, one of the questions — about 'Why aren't we seeing alien life?' — I think there really is chance that in the next fifteen years that we learn a lot on the question. There's a lot of technologies coming online that will allow real spectroscopic information from nearby planets. We might be able to detect vegetation. There's a lot of things that might show up. And we're involved in this project right now to open up, crowd-source, the search as well. To get millions of people looking for signals, not just a few scientists. I would die happy, if we found real contact with another intelligent species out there. It would be totally thrilling. What do you think might be some of the new questions, once we get rid of the old ones? I certainly think it's right that the more we know, the more questions we have. Reality is infinitely complex. And you have to just view it as: each step of the journey is interesting, exciting and useful. I think I've said before that learning something is a different psychological process to consuming something. That most things we do have a law of diminishing returns. You eat ice-cream, and the fourth and fifth taste aren't quite as nice as the first taste. Knowledge — it actually works the other way. The more you know about the world, the more your sense of wonder explodes. And that's actually really cool. That gives me a lot of hope for the future of TED for one thing. You've said before that there's always one talk that really surprises you. What really surprised you today? I thought the talk on quantum computing was mind-blowing. And if quantum computers come along, all bets are off as to what that means for technology. Charles C Mann wrote a great book called 1491 updating America's pre-Colombian history with things he thought every kid should know. What do you think that grown-ups, kids, should know at the moment, much more generally? I think one of the things is how flawed and quirky human nature is. We don't yet have that mental model. A lot of kids are brought up to believe that they're special snowflakes, or [that] their only job in life is to find their passion and it'll all be okay. And the truth is we're really complex biological machines. And we do a lot of things amazingly, and we do a lot of things really badly, actually. Because we evolved for a different era, and a different set of environmental requirements. And so, knowing that, and learning to navigate around that is a really important part of education. What are you reading right now? Do you have time to read? Less time. I think that's probably true of everyone. We're launching this TED Books initiative, based on shorter books. On the idea that most ideas don't have to be expressed at 80,000 or 100,000 words. They can actually be expressed in maybe 20,000 words. So, TED Talk: 2,500 words. TED book: 20,000 words. Then, non-fiction book: 80,000 words. So, there's a sort of niche there. And it means that you can sit down and read in an hour and a half. I think that's actually a great length. So that's what I'm reading right now: we're going to be publishing these new TED books, one every two weeks. And I'm reading a lot of those. And they're pretty cool. Are you happy? I am happy. Most of my life I've been happy. They say it's seventy percent hard-wired, and the rest is magic. I'm unbelievably lucky —I've got one of the world's most enjoyable jobs, surely. And you know I get to see this thing growing in a way I couldn't have imagined. I'm married to an amazing woman who's a much better impacter of the world than I am. [laughs] So, yeah. I'm a lucky person. Photo by the amazing Enzo Amato, and additional assistance by Tully Rosen.
Google has just released photos of their in-the-works augmented reality glasses prototype. And while the glasses might not be the sexiest on the market, they certainly have functional appeal. The initiative, 'Project Glass', represents the company's first attempt at a wearable product. The glasses appear and function much like regular eyeglasses...that is, if your eyeglasses' lens could stream video, text messages, maps, and the weather forecast - all in real time. Operating via voice command, these glasses can also record video or take pictures of what is being viewed through them. Project Glass' Google Plus press release stated the initiative's belief that, "technology should work for you - to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don't." The beta release of the glasses is expected to generate conversation and feedback to the company about what customers would like to see from Project Glass. https://youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4 [via PSFK]
When announcing their new head chef was one John Javier, a spokesperson for The Lord Wolseley Hotel acknowledged he was "a little overqualified" for the unassuming Ultimo pub. It's probably a fair call, given Javier comes with a resume studded with fine diners such as Momofuku Seiobo, Quay and his own place, now-closed place, Master, which wowed critics with its ambitious take on modern Chinese. The bill isn't quite to bring fine dining to a pub setting, but Javier is certainly bringing a new level of finesse to some fairly approachable food. Instead of the tried and true spaghetti bolognese, for instance, there's a capellini with lamb belly, tripe and mint ($18). It scratches the same itch as the pub classic, but brings something new to the dish and the thin, al dente strands of pasta pair well with the crunch and chewiness of tripe and the freshness of the generously ripped mint leaves. One of the memorable dishes from Javier's time at Master was a burnt cabbage and he's not afraid of introducing some judicious blackened touches to his menu here, with the Burnt Pumpkin ($20). A poached egg on top oozes over the hero vegetable, strewn with chevre cheese and crisp sage, ties it together into an unusual, earthy whole. Gnocchi is also approached from a fresh angle, with pillowy dumplings resting in a feather-light tomato emulsion and spiked with colour and bite with slivers of radish. There are two desserts on offer — the menu wisely aims for quality over breadth — with a faultless panna cotta ($12) scattered with toasted buckwheat and encircled by Vietnamese coffee. The other selection is a half-moon shaped crispy pancake ($12), filled with stewed apple and hazelnut and complemented by a dollop of thick ricotta cream. This is the kind of superior comfort food that is going to get clean plates returned to the kitchen. The vibe is laidback with brown paper in place of tablecloths, and tourist t-shirts and playbills for student theatre productions hanging on the walls. An energetic playlist, another Javier trade mark, is another plus — instead of the generic background music favoured by some Sydney restaurants you'll hear the likes of Talking Heads, Pixies and Joy Division. It's not really a lengthy wine list kind of place, but the friendly local will sort you out with craft beers, ciders and some wines by the glass, like a 2016 Teusner Shiraz ($11/49), a flavoursome drop from the Barossa Valley. All in all, it may be an unexpected stop on Javier's resume, but those lapping up a menu full of personality will be glad it's one he has made. Images: Jiwon Kim
When a clown ponders its final farewell, what does it see? Cirque du Soleil's Corteo has the answer. When this production first hit the stage in Montreal in 2005, it won over audiences by setting its acrobatic feats within a funeral procession imagined by a jester — a carnival-like parade that muses on humanity's strengths and vulnerabilities — in a space between heaven and earth. Two decades later, it's one of the troupe's most-beloved shows. Celebrating that milestone, Corteo is heading Down Under for a six-city tour in the second half of 2025 — including a visit to Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney from Thursday, September 4–Sunday, September 14. One of the tricks that's helped make Corteo such a success, with over 12-million audience members in 30 countries on four continents seeing it so far, is its unique stage setup. Watching this show means also watching your fellow viewers, because the action takes place in the middle of the arena, splitting it in half and causing patrons to face each other. This is Cirque du Soleil's first production with this layout. As its clown protagonist conjures up the festive parade that ushers him from this world, attendees will witness a poetic yet playful performance — one where the acrobatics are unique, too, and where angels watch over. LUZIA was the last Cirque du Soleil production that bounded this way, kicking off in 2024 — and notching up another first as the Montreal-based company company's debut touring show to feature rain in its acrobatic and artistic scenes. Before that, 2023 saw Cirque du Soleil bring CRYSTAL, its first-ever ice production on ice, Down Under. Images: Maja Prgomet, Johan Persson and Aldo Arguello. Updated: Wednesday, May 28, 2025.
UPDATE: AUGUST 22, 2018 — The final master plan for the GreenWay has been officially adopted by the Inner West Council, which means that design development for the missing links along the path can begin. A development application will be lodged for the 'central links' later this month, and consultation with the community on the 'southern links' will begin in September. The inner west's much-talked-about, long-dreamed-about GreenWay is one step closer to becoming a reality with the draft master plan for the project revealed last week. The car-free pedestrian, cycling and biodiversity corridor, which has been in the works for upward of ten years, will be comparable to other world-class GreenWays in the US, including New York's High Line and the Chicago 606. Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne described the 5.8-kilometre GreenWay, which'll run from Cooks River in Earlwood to Iron Cove in Leichhardt, following the light rail's route, as "an ecological and active transport corridor that facilitates a range of passive and active recreation opportunities and incorporates local places for culture and art." It's set to be a big win for cyclists, connecting popular trails the Bay Run and Cooks River Cycleway, and boasting a mix of parkland, sporting facilities and cultural sites. Key plans for the project include a series of new or improved open public spaces for the light rail corridor in Dulwich Hill and Lewisham West, upgraded road crossings, a new bridge over the Cooks River, and a new accessible shared pathway running the entire length of the Green Way. Heading up the ambitious project is Australian design firm McGregor Coxall, who also designed The Calyx in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. The bulk of the project's work will happen between 2019 and 2022, with additional works implemented over the next 15 years, depending on funding. The total project is expected to cost $57 million. Images: McGregor Coxall
Sleeping on the job is a big no-no in Western culture — despite the fact that it's been proven to increase concentration, improve alertness and be a great help in dealing with accidental work hangovers. Surry Hills mindfulness studio The Indigo Project knows that napping is the key to being generally better at everything, so they gifted Sydney with lunchtime nap classes. Built around research that shows a 20- to 30-minute nap is the optimum length for a siesta, classes run for 30 minutes from 1pm. If you're feeling a little off at work, and like you just can't get your brain to kick into gear, head down to Surry Hills for a boost of energy to help get you through the day.
The meat's in the oven, the pavlova's ready to decorate and the Christmas carols are cranked. All that's left to do is take a load off with a drink of choice. This year, that might be Four Pillars' Australian Christmas Gin, with the much-loved distillery bringing back this limited-edition release for another festive season. Conceived as holiday spirit distilled in a bottle, this tipple combines all flavours and notes you'd normally taste in a classic Christmas pudding. That means warm spices and dried fruit like nutmeg, sultanas and citrus peel alongside pine-like juniper, cassia and star anise. The result? Gin that has that familiar botanical scent, but tastes like Christmas. Now on its tenth annual release, the inspiration for Four Pillars' Christmas Gin involves more than just the mere arrival of the holiday season. Instead, Co-Founder Cameron Mackenzie wanted to replicate his late mother Wilma's Derby Day tradition. With the family listening to the races, she'd whip up a Christmas pudding, with its warming scent taking over the entire house. To make each release even more special, Four Pillars teams up with a different artist every year, asking them to produce a brand-new label that reflects what an Aussie Christmas means to them. For this merry season, 2021 label artist and 2023 Archibald Packing Room prize winner, Andrea Huelin, has composed a piece incorporating elements from every past release. "Who would've thought ten years ago that Australian Christmas Gin would still be the gift that keeps on giving? This recipe is one we'll be passing down for generations to come, and all thanks to Wilma and Cam," says Four Pillars Head Distiller Sarah Prowse. Alongside complementary stocking stuffers like jars of gin and orange relish and Christmas gin puddings, Four Pillars has also revealed four jolly cocktails in collaboration with award-winning bartender Nick Tesar. From Gin & Ginger to Strawberry Smash, these easy-to-make concoctions will make listening to your odd uncle's ravings a little more bearable. Four Pillars' Australian Christmas Gin is now available online and from select bottle shops. Head to the website for more information.
North Sydney is set to score a grand new steakhouse with a 120-seat restaurant, 40-person bar and four sunny outdoor terraces. Opening on Friday, September 1, Poetica comes from Etymon Projects, the hospitality team behind fellow North Shore standout Loulou Bistro, Boulangerie & Traiteur, as well as the CBD's The Charles Grand Brasserie and Bar and Tiva. At the heart of Poetica will be a firing charcoal oven, a custom wood-burning hearth, and an impressive 700-bottle wine wall. Head Chef Connor Hartley-Simpson (who also helms The Charles) has created a menu that fervently leans into these fiery forms of preparing produce — all of which can then be paired with the perfect drop from Head Sommelier Michael Block and Director of wine, Paolo Saccone. "In the kitchen, we're focusing on using incredible local produce, dry-ageing in-house, cooking with either charcoal or wood where it works, pickling and fermenting to play around with flavours, and really letting the produce be the hero," says Hartley-Simpson. As expected, your sirloins, t-bones and 90-day aged tomahawks all grace the sharing-based menu, but there are plenty of exciting dishes to look forward to if you're not so steak-obsessed. For starters, you can kick things off with Sydney rock oysters done differently. At Poetica, these salty delicacies can be enhanced with hot beef fat melted on top in a technique called 'flambadou' then topped with nduja and Guindilla peppers. Elsewhere, the braised leak, nori and eel starter is drizzled with oil made from charring leek tops; a chilli yuzu scallop will lead the raw section of the menu; and seafood lovers can opt for the swordfish steak, dry-aged on the bone for seven days and assembled table side with a buttery roasted fish sauce. The oven and hearth will be located within a 15-metre-long open kitchen in the dining room. Across from the kitchen will be floor-to-ceiling glass windows leading to the al fresco dining areas, calling out to host a catch-up between friends. Etymon's culinary director Sebastien Lutaud promises the restaurant will be "a welcoming vibe that works as well for entertaining clients over lunch as a dinner with friends or a drink after work." Opening on the mezzanine level of 1 Denison Street, Poetica is the latest addition to a bustling North Sydney hospitality scene — following on from another multi-space dining room RAFI which opened late last year, and a pair of new takeaway spots in Greenwood Plaza from charity-driven hospitality group Plate It Forward (Colombo Social, Coyocan Social, Kabul Social). Poetica will open at 1 Denison Street, North Sydney on Friday, September 1. The restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner Tuesday–Saturday, and the bar will be open from 12pm–late Tuesday–Saturday. Images: Steven Woodburn
One of Sydney's leading hospitality groups is set to venture outside of New South Wales for the first time, with Merivale announcing its upcoming entry into Melbourne. The industry giant, which is helmed by CEO Justin Hemmes, will take ownership of Tomasetti House at 277 Flinders Lane in the heart of the Melbourne CBD. The historic building, built in 1853, is located just off of Flinders Street — a five-minute walk from Federation Square. Merivale currently operates more than 60 venues across Sydney, including popular restaurants Totti's and Mr. Wong, Sydney stalwarts The Beresford and Vic on the Park, and expansive bars Ivy and Coogee Pavilion. Hemmes' collection of bars and restaurants has been growing in recent years, with the purchase of venues such as The Duke of Gloucester Hotel and Hotel Centennial. Earlier in 2021, Hemmes and co purchased waterside bar The Quaterdeck on the NSW south coast, marking Merivale's first venture outside of Sydney. "Melbourne's CBD has suffered terribly from the hardships of the past year. We are committed to doing everything we can to help reinvigorate the city and support it in its road to recovery," Hemmes said in a statement. "Its local hospitality industry is one of the best in the world; brimming with creative culinary talent and supported by a passionate community of diners." [caption id="attachment_702661" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Totti's by Nikki To[/caption] Originally opened as a warehouse, Tomasetti House has operated as everything from a warehouse to a bar and nightclub across its 150-plus years. Most recently, the building has been in the hands of hospitality and tourism group Millet Group who have operated The Mill House out of the building's ground floor. Merivale is set to receive the keys to the multi-storey building late this year, with further details and plans yet to be announced. Merivale will open its first Melbourne outpost at Tomasetti House, 277 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, with further details yet to be revealed. To keep an eye out for future announcements, head to the Merivale website. Top image: The Mill House
Everyone's favourite magical nanny is back — and if watching Mary Poppins Returns isn't enough of a nostalgic delight, then head on over to The Grounds of Alexandria. Until Sunday, February 3, the Sydney favourite has transformed its already impressive garden into a Poppins-themed wonderland. Think cherry blossoms, London lamps and many a kite, of course. The short-term makeover is inspired by Cherry Tree Lane, the street temporarily inhabited by Poppins when she floats down to care for the Banks family. You'll wander beneath pastel pink trees, spy more than a few umbrellas and find yourself expecting lamplighters to break into song. And yes, it's perfectly fine if you wander through the space humming the original flick's iconic tune 'Let's Go Fly a Kite' to yourself. Drop by at 10am, 12pm and 2pm each day to find bubbles filling the garden as well — and, whatever time you visit, you'll be able to tuck into a limited-edition Poppins cake made from lemon zest sponge, filled with cherry purée and cream cheese centre, and definitely featuring a spoonful of sugar. The Grounds of Alexandria is functioning as normal during the Mary Poppins Returns pop-up, and the Garden Bar, Potting Shed and cafe will be open.
To experience the work of Doug Aitken is to challenge the ways in which we think about art. The celebrated American artist, whom The Los Angeles Times has said seeks to "jar viewers awake", is bringing his boundary-pushing work to Sydney for his first-ever Southern Hemisphere exhibition. Originally scheduled to run in 2020, the exhibition – titled Doug Aitken: New Age – will finally be on display from Wednesday, October 20 as the Museum of Contemporary Art's 2021/2022 Sydney International Art Series. The show covers a quarter-century of Aitken's artistic career and will feature immersive multiscreen environments, objects and photographs. [caption id="attachment_829780" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Doug Aitken, Underwater Pavilions (installation), 2017, installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2021, 3-channel video installation (colour, sound): 3 projections, 3 aluminium and MDF screens. Image: Dan Boud[/caption] Doug Aitken: New Era lets you take a deep dive into Aitken's world and his impressive multidisciplinary art practice. While you're there, make sure you check out the large-scale sound installation — Sonic Fountain II — which is built into a rocky terrain within the gallery. There'll also be an immersive video installation exploring the history of mobile phone technology and the engineer who pioneered its development, Matin Cooper. Plus, if you're quick off the mark, you'll also have the chance to see a conversation between Aitken and MCA curator on Saturday, October 30, where you'll hear more insights into his striking work. Want to spend your summer soaking up incredible art? Doug Aitken: New Era will run from Wednesday, October 20 till Sunday, February 6 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. For more information and to book, visit the website. Top image: Doug Aitken, 'migration (empire)' (still), 2008, image courtesy of the artist, 303 Gallery, New York, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Victoria Miro, London, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © the artist.
Salt Meats Cheese do Italian food in of all its stages — we're talking providing the produce for it, cooking it, selling it and, of course, eating it. Their Bondi Junction digs are where all of the kitchen magic happens, and they'll be running a series of gluten-free cooking classes in July for those who can't stomach gluten. No longer just the wheat-filled territory of those who can glute, the two classes in the Gluten Free Series will focus on pizza and pasta respectively. Learn how to make gluten-free Italian goodness from scratch over two hours, then sit back with a glass of wine and feast on your hard work. The gluten-free classes are on Saturdays: July 14, July 21, August 24 and September 8. If wheat isn't your weakness, there's also a whole host of other cooking class options that involve gluteny flour as well.
If you think Sydney Contemporary — an international art fair held at Carriageworks — is only for art lovers with Chanel suits and investors with hedge funds, think again. Sure, more than 90 respected galleries from all over the world will be exhibiting (and selling) some of the best contemporary art money can buy, but you will also find an entire program of more affordable (and just as impressive) art on offer. It's made even more accessible by the presence of Art Money, an art loans program for works priced between $750 and $20,000. Not that commerce has to dictate your experience — wander through the installations, enjoy four days of free panel discussions and conversations, catch an array of works by video artists, and watch performances within Carriageworks and the Redfern Precinct. When Sydney Contemporary takes place between September 7 and 10, it'll do so in a big way, and not just because of its program. Usually a biennial event, 2017 marks the start of its switch to annual runs. Yes, that means more art more often from this year onwards. To give you an idea of the size and scope, more than 60,000 visitors in total attended in 2013 and 2015.
There won't be snow at this week-long Christmas in July party, but there will be plenty of mulled wine and ugly jumpers. Surry Hills' The Winery is bringing us a little (much needed) Christmas cheer, hosting a series of festival celebrations from Wednesday, July 22 to Sunday, July 26. Kicking things off will be free Christmas-themed trivia on Wednesday — jumpers essential — before a European-inspired laneway launches on Friday and Saturday from 7pm. In this laneway, you'll get a feast for $65, plus a mulled wine on arrival. One glass not enough? You can also splash out on bottomless mulled wine for $39 a head. Finally on Sunday, The Winery will be hosting an Orphan's Christmas Lunch. Expect all the Christmas essentials — and all the trimmings: gravy, potatoes, mint jelly — for $45 a head. Those wanting to get jolly can fill endless glasses from the bar's prosecco fountain for two hours, for a total of $69 (including the aforementioned food). If you miss out on the Christmas celebrations, you can still book out one of the pop-up igloos at The Winery, which are pictured below. The limits on capacity, bookings are essential and can be made over on The Winery website.
In these tumultuous modern times — these times of Pottermore, Fantastic Beasts spinoffs and The Cursed Child — it's comforting to be able to take it back to basics. Basics, here, meaning the score of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone film played live by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. That's right — the SSO are taking us back to 2001 when the first of the eight Harry Potter filmscame out. It made us cringe (the acting — so bad but so good), marvel at how not hot Neville Longbottom was (boy, would we learn) and — most importantly — float away on a magical adventure thanks to the incredible score by John Williams. For two nights in April, you'll be able relive the magic all over again when the Sydney Opera House screen the film scored by a real, live orchestra in the Concert Hall. Maybe they'll release live owls! Maybe not because that would be chaos. Maybe they'll release live rats? Actually, absolutely not — we all know rats are secretly fat old criminals hiding from magical law enforcement and waiting for the Dark Lord to rise again (lookin' at you, Pettigrew). As you might imagine, tickets are selling like pumpkin pasties so get in quick or spend eternity griping about it like some Moaning Myrtle-type character.
There's never a bad day for oysters. Good thing it's almost certainly easier — and cheaper — to dine on them throughout May with The Boathouse Group's latest promotion. Serving up these coastal delights for $2 each all day, every day, eight of the group's venues are getting involved up and down the coastline. Made possible thanks to a partnership with East 33, a leading supplier of Sydney rock oysters, now is your chance to soak up the sun at Barrenjoey House in Palm Beach or settle in for a long lunch at Manly Pavilion. You might even opt for a day trip to The Boathouse Patonga or a leisurely stroll to The Boathouse Shelly Beach — an oyster feast is a worthy reward. Other venues serving these treasures of the sea for just $2 are The Mona Social, The Boathouse Balmoral, The Boathouse Rose Bay and The Boathouse North Wollongong. So, regardless of whether you're north or south of the city, indulging in cheap but quality oysters is made easy. Once you've ordered up a freshly shucked platter, all that's left to do is squeeze a little lemon and find the perfect drink to pair them with. Consider how much you're saving on the oysters, you wouldn't be blamed for splurging on a cocktail or two.
More than a quarter-century ago, a TV sitcom about six New Yorkers made audiences a promise: that it'd be there for us. And, as well as making stars out of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow, Friends has done just that. Sure, the hit series wrapped up its ten-season run in 2004, but the show has lived on — on streaming platforms, by sending an orange couch around Australia, by screening anniversary marathons in cinemas and in boozy brunch parties, for example. In news that was bound to happen someday — no pop culture entity truly comes to an end in these reboot, remake, revival and spinoff-heavy times — Friends is living on in a much more literal sense, too. First hinted at in 2019, officially confirmed in 2020 and just releasing its first teaser trailer (and announcing a US air date), the show is coming back for a reunion special on HBO's streaming platform HBO Max. Naturally, the whole gang is involved. Yep, it's 'The One Where They Get Back Together' — which is exactly how the trailer for Friends: The Reunion describes the special. That said, it's worth noting that the special is unscripted, which means that Aniston and company aren't literally stepping back into Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey, Ross and Phoebe's and shoes. Instead, the actors behind the characters will chat about their experiences on the show — all on the same soundstage where Friends was originally shot. And, let's face it, the fact that they'll all be on-screen at the same time in the same place celebrating the series that so many folks love is probably enough for fans. Aniston, Cox and the gang will have a few other famous faces for company. More than a few, in fact. The guest list is hefty, and spans folks with connections to the show and others that must just love it — including David Beckham, Justin Bieber, BTS, James Corden, Cindy Crawford, Cara Delevingne, Lady Gaga, Elliott Gould, Kit Harington, Larry Hankin and Mindy Kaling, as well as Thomas Lennon, Christina Pickles, Tom Selleck, James Michael Tyler, Maggie Wheeler, Reese Witherspoon and Malala Yousafzai. Initially slated to air last May — with those plans delayed due to the pandemic — the special will now stream via HBO Max in the US on Thursday, May 27. For folks Down Under, just when and where it'll surface hasn't yet been revealed; however, it's bound to be here for us sooner or later. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MedRN92V6lE Friends: The Reunion will be available to stream in the US via HBO Max on Thursday, May 27. It doesn't currently have an air date or streaming date Down Under — we'll update you when one is announced.
For screen fiends who spend their winters indoors at their favourite picture palaces, there's one surefire way to know that better weather has hit: the arrival of outdoor cinema season. When Sydney's chillier temperatures give way to sunny days and warm nights, the city's spaces set up plenty of openair big screens showing flicks. One such spot: The Rocks Laneway Cinema. As you might know from past runs, this film-loving pop-up sticks around for half the year, screening movies every Wednesday night — and for free. Across the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, mark Wednesday, October 4—Wednesday, March 27 in your diary for a date on Atherden Street. Also, get ready for different monthly themes. First up: comedy classics in October, which is where Bridesmaids, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Anchorman and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me come in. Then, November will deliver five films that'll get you singing as part of its music strand: School of Rock, The Sapphires, Almost Famous, Pitch Perfect and Mamma Mia!. While exactly what'll be on the bill from there hasn't yet been unveiled, December will naturally showcase Christmas classics and January will capitalise upon vacation vibes with holiday road trip-inspired titles. Then, February will go with a summer of love focus — again, 'tis the season for it — while March is all about 80s favourites. Laneway Cinema's movies screen from 7pm each week — and although entry is free, bookings are recommended because seating is limited. Heading along also means helping a good cause, with the proceeds from every $2 bag of popcorn sold going to charity. The beneficiary changes monthly, too, with Beyond Blue receiving the funds in October, Support Act in November and the rest of the lineup to come. If you're the kind of cinemagoer that needs snacks and sips, the venues around laneway have plenty to eat and drink on offer. That means making a date with spots such as Caminetto Restaurant, P'Nut Street Noodles, El Camino Cantina and The Mercantile Hotel. Obviously, you'll need your wallet for whatever tempts your tastebuds. Images: Anna Kucera / Cassandra Hannagan.
When the first Bourne movie premiered back in 2002, it was gratefully received as a dark and gritty counterpoint to the increasing absurdity of the James Bond franchise. While Pierce Brosnan's 007 was windsurfing an arctic tidal wave forged from the dislodging of a polar ice cap by a space laser (Die Another Day), Matt Damon's Jason Bourne was stabbing a man with a biro. While Bond was driving an invisible car through an ice palace, Bourne was being driven around by an unemployed German girl in a banged up Mini. The smaller, intimate scale of the films resonated with audiences no longer amused by special effects gimmickry, and pretty soon even Bond followed suit. Ten years and two films later, the main challenge for writer Tony Gilroy (who'd also penned the previous movies) was figuring out how to slot The Bourne Legacy into the franchise without actually featuring Jason Bourne. His nifty solution was placing Legacy concurrent with the events of Bourne Ultimatum, offering audiences continuity whilst also opening up new plots and characters. As a consequence, and even without the trademark shaky cam of Paul Greengrass, Legacy feels very much a part of the Bourne universe. Taking over the reigns from Damon is current action everyman Jeremy Renner. Part hit man, part chemistry experiment, Renner's character is every bit as capable, demonstrating the requisite Man vs Wild survival skills and MacGyver-like ingenuity that helped define the series. Where Legacy diverges is in its protagonist's motivation. Unburdened by the amnesia that underscored Bourne's ambition, Renner's character simply seeks the medication needed to sustain his above-average traits. It's less pedestrian than it sounds but also far less compelling or memorable than the earlier movies. In fact, less than a day after the screening, I couldn't for the life of me remember a single character’s name aside from Jason Bourne (who's not in it) and an incidental lab technician (who's, well…entirely incidental). That's not Renner’s fault, and in a roundabout way almost fitting for a film about nameless assassins. Joining Renner on his flight from the authorities is Rachel Weisz in a role not dissimilar from her fugitive scientist in 1996's Chain Reaction. Theirs is actually a more appealing relationship than Bourne's from the original, and it's refreshing to see a genuine male/female partnership in an action film rather than the traditional hero/damsel dynamic. Edward Norton is characteristically absorbing as the agent leading their pursuit, and the only real shocker is Aussie actor Shane Jacobson popping up in a cameo that offers the textbook definition of cultural cringe. Well-paced, full of action and with an engaging leading man, Bourne Legacy ensures we've not seen the end of the franchise just yet.
Back in July, it was revealed that Byron Bay was getting a brand-new festival that's all about food and culture. That event: Caper Byron Bay Our Food and Culture Festival, which has undergone a name change since it was first announced, but features a hefty program filled with eating, drinking, checking out art, listening to tunes and being merry in gorgeous surroundings. Taking place between Thursday, November 10–Sunday, November 13, Caper boasts a hefty culinary component as curated by Chef David Moyle, who has been Chief of Food at Harvest Newrybar since 2020. Highlights include bottomless oysters and bellinis at Balcony Bar & Oyster Co, natural wine-fuelled degustations at Supernatural, distillery tours at Brookie's Gin and a sourdough workshop with Bread Social. Soon-to-open newcomer Bar Heather is doing a five-course dinner with Palisa Anderson, while 100 Mile Table at Stone & Wood is hosting a backyard barbecue — and Treehouse on Belongil is opting for a mix of beats, bubbles and brunch. A farm-to-table feast with The Farm and Three Blue Ducks and The Hut's Spanish fiesta are also on the bill, alongside pop-up yum cha — with the Brunswick Picture House being taken over by Melbourne Chinatown diner ShanDong MaMa on the Saturday and Sunday. Also making the journey, but from Brisbane: Louis Tikaram from Stanley, who'll be part of a cabaret takeover at the same space. Another standout: celebrating embrace Bundjalung Nation's Indigenous culture via a walk on Country tour led by Explore Byron Bay owner and Arakwal woman Delta Kay, then a five-course lunch curated by Karkalla chef and owner Mindy Woods. An 'anti-bad vibes circle' with OneWave Fluro Friday; free exhibitions at Yeah, Nice Gallery, art salon Gallery 7, Gallery 3 and ThomGallery; and horse-riding followed by brunch or lunch at Zephyr Shack are also on the wide-ranging agenda, with more than 30 events filling out the program If you're keen to see where the day takes you in-between the official activities, head to the Caper Village, aka a massive food, beverage, music and art precinct that's set to sprawl across the whole North Byron Hotel in the Byron Arts and Industrial Estate. It'll host live music, DJs and art installations, as well as workshops, panels and talks. Images: Jess Kearney.
Regularly screening plays and musicals held by Sydney University students, this venue is the place the get your culture fix for a bargain price (and grab some autographs before the actors become famous).
Your 2023 getaways just got cheaper — and you'll have a new way to fly off on holidays, too. First announced in 2021, Australian airline Bonza will finally take to the skies in 2023, after securing regulatory approval. The soon-to-launch carrier's aim: opening up routes to more of the country's regional destinations, flying 27 routes to 17 locations, and offering low-cost fares in the process. Today, Thursday, January 12, Bonza CEO Tim Jordan announced that the airline received its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). "This is an historic moment for Australian aviation as we get ready to launch the first high-capacity airline in more than 15 years, and the country's only independent low-cost carrier," said Jordan. "With the approval from CASA, 2023 is set to be the year of seeing more of your own backyard for less." With the required tick of approval now in place, Bonza can put flights on sale, starting with fares from its Sunshine Coast base — with flights from Melbourne, where it'll also have a base, set to follow. Passengers will hit the air in planes given names as Aussie as the airline's itself: Bazza, Shazza and Sheila. The airline hasn't yet announced when you'll be able to book, other than soon, but to do so you'll need to download the airline's app. One of Bonza's points of difference will be app-only reservations, unless you're booking via a registered local travel agent. Another: a previously announced all-Australian in-flight menu, spanning both food and craft beer. When it hits the air, the airline will service locations such as Bundaberg, Cairns, Gladstone, Mackay, Rockhampton, the Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Townsville and the Whitsundays in Queensland; Albury, Tamworth, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle and Port Macquarie in New South Wales; and Melbourne, Avalon and Mildura in Victoria — with a big focus on regional destinations. The carrier's network will see it take passengers to places they mightn't otherwise been able to fly to, with Bonza advising that 93 percent of its routes aren't currently served by any other airline — and 96 percent of them don't presently have a low-cost carrier. Bonza is launching with the backing of US private investment firm 777 Partners, which also has a hand in Canada's Flair Airlines and the Southeast Asian-based Value Alliance. Its fares won't include baggage and seat selection, which'll you need to pay extra for — and it'll be cheapest to do so when you make your booking, rather than afterwards Bonza is set to start flying sometime in 2023 — we'll update you flights go on sale. For more information, head to the airline's website, or download its app for Android and iOS.
Fine dining be damned, hawker cuisine has increasingly earned its flowers from high-minded culinary perfectionists. That includes Keng Eng Kee, a 55-year-old Singaporean zi char stall-turned-restaurant whose home-style cooking has appeared in Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown and Netflix's Street Food Asia while winning recommendations in the Michelin Guide. Having recently launched their first Singapore outpost, the ice cream experts at Gelato Messina have also taken note of Keng Eng Kee. Serving up an international collaboration for the first time as part of its Messina Eats series, the legendary hawker outfit will host a two-day car park feast from Friday, October 10–Saturday, October 11, at Messina's Marrickville HQ. Featuring a tight, but tantalising menu, guests will discover Keng Eng Kee's coffee pork bites — tender pork wok-tossed in coffee, honey and apple jam sauce, then finished with roasted sesame seeds. There's also a chilli soft-shell crab burger, chilli crab meat served with golden fried mantou, and black pepper beef with garlic rice. As expected, the sweets are also unmatched. Grab a Milo Dinosaur Sundae, layered and sprinkled with Australia's favourite malty treat. And for those who can't make the main event, a limited-run gelato — Goreng Pisang — is available for one week from Thursday, October 9, offering fried banana gelato with peanut praline and gula melaka caramel.
Legendary London bar Dandelyan and Paddington's Charlie Parker's are joining forces this winter to bring you an evening of genius mixology and extreme botany. Think never-before-tasted cocktails infused with unexpected ingredients, put together by some of the world's best bartenders. Having recently added World's Best Cocktail Menu 2018 to its bevy of awards — which also includes World's Best Cocktail Bar at the 2017 Spirited Awards and ranking second on the World's 50 Best Bars 2017 list — Dandelyan certainly knows a thing or two about mixing. It will be represented Down Under by cracking team James Wheeler and Will Meredith. They'll be working with Charlie Parker's trio Sam Egerton, Mario la Pietra and Tim LaFerla. We can't give you details of the concoctions you'll be sampling, as they'll remain top secret until you arrive at the bar. We can tell you, however, that months and months of thinking, experimenting and mixing have gone into their making. But, to give you an idea of Dandelyan's imaginative powers, the bar's current menu features the BC3 Negroni (with gin, Dandelyan pollen vermouth, propolis, Sri Lankan coconut flower spirit Ceylon Arrack, Campari and aged honey) and Settling Stones (Maker's Mark, bitter aperitif, vermouth and 'coastal' fig). "Given that our drinks are led by stories, the strength of the story tends to dictate which way the drink will go," says Meredith. "If a cocktail can hold an identity or personality whilst appealing to as many people as possible, then you're on to a winner." Beam Suntory is presenting the event, so you can count on the involvement of some of its award-winning spirits, including the Japanese craft gin ROKU, Auchentoshan American Oak, Canadian Club 1858, Jim Beam Double Oak and Maker's Mark. The Dandelyan x Charlie Parker's collaboration will take place over two evenings: Tuesday, August 28 and Wednesday, August 29. Each night will have two sittings (6pm and 8.30pm, and you'll be given the choice of just having drinks (two for $30 per person) or going all in, with three drinks and a selection of food by Danielle Alvarez of Fred's, for $80 per person. In case you won't be in Sydney in August, you might be excited to know that Dandelyan duo will also be sharing their wondrous skills at Maybe Mae in Adelaide, and Tiny's in Perth. It's not every day that two of the world's most applauded cocktail-makers breeze into town, so, chances are, spots will fill up pretty fast. To make a booking, contact Charlie Parker's via phone or website.
What do Sydney Film Festival, Taiwan Film Festival in Australia and Africa Film Fest Australia all have in common, apart from worshipping cinema and sharing that love with the Harbour City's movie fans? In 2025, each has films flickering in Sydney's most-famous venue. Australia's dedicated showcase of contemporary African cinema is the newest event of the three, only debuting in 2024. For its return this year, it's opening at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday, September 4, then also playing at the iconic Circular Quay site on Friday, September 5 before hopping to Riverside Theatres in Parramatta until Sunday, September 7. Nigerian comedy-drama I Do Not Come to You by Chance is kicking off the second Africa Film Fest Australia, with the feature based on Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's novel, telling of a university graduate and his uncle's email scams, and making its Aussie premiere at the festival. Also showing at Sydney Opera House: Fanon, which is similarly being seen Down Under for the first time, with Martinican-born philosopher and psychiatrist Frantz Fanon in the spotlight. Another impressive title on the bill is closing night's The Fisherman, also an Australian premiere, and the Ghanaian comedy that became the first film from the county to score official selection at the Venice International Film Festival. Before it wraps up the fest, audiences can catch the likes of biopic Samia, about Somali Olympic runner Samia Yusuf Omar; Berlin award-winner The Heart is a Muscle; documentary Nteregu, focusing on music in Guinea-Bissau; and fellow doco Sudan, Remember Us, with Sudanese youth activists at its centre. An initiative by Arts & Cultural Exchange, AFFA spans two short film programs, too — one animated and featuring a Q&A with Nigerian filmmaker Somto Ajuluchukwu — alongside a pre-screening opening-night Afrobeats shindig with DJ GNGR on the decks. Or, you can hit up a Screen Industry Forum. For African Australians aged between 16–25, there's also a two-day workshop about comics and visual storytelling.
A fire has broken out at the historic Mosman Rowers on Centenary Drive, with the incident starting in the fireplace on the building's second level. Emergency services were called to the site earlier this morning, with large plumes of smoke seen coming from the three-level harbourside building. Fire and Rescue NSW reported that several crews and trucks were on-site and have since controlled the blaze. The fire was was contained to the second floor, the newly opened Archie Bear cafe. According to Mosman Rowers, all staff and customers were evacuated and have been accounted for. No injuries have been recorded. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvxh6lFg3Nk/ Mosman Rowers is one of the oldest sports clubs in Sydney, and, after falling into disrepair, had reopened just last month under the Bird & Bear Group. The club announced via its Facebook page that the venue would remain closed until further. Mosman Rowers is located at 3 Centenary Drive, Mosman, and will remain closed until further notice. Image: Mosman Girl.
The City of Sydney has voted unanimously to waive fees on outdoor dining for businesses until the end of June 2025. The inner-city council has poured a mountain of support into helping encourage al fresco dining and events in the wake of the pandemic, with $5.7 million worth of funding set aside for the project last year and a series of street parties popping up across The City of Sydney over the last 12 months. The extension of this initiative sees the fee waiver for outdoor dining permits continue for an additional two years, a review of the permit system and an investigation into areas that can be permanently extended into the road for increased outdoor dining. The two-year waving of permit fees will cost the council approximately $4 million in foregone revenue. "Waiving outdoor dining fees was one of the first things we did when the pandemic hit Sydney," said City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore. "We did this to make it easier for restaurants, bars, and cafes to operate while encouraging physical distancing. People have really embraced it, with participating businesses telling us they've taken on extra staff and seen increased patronage — a crucial aid to staying afloat in these difficult times." Moore cites a March survey that showed 91 percent of businesses participating in the outdoor dining program saw the initiative as crucial to the business and 39 percent had experienced a significant increase in turnover since the introduction of outdoor dining. Moore continues: "Having brunch with friends, a wine after work or grabbing a quick bite and watching the world go by are some of the best moments of urban life. Being able to shop, dine or drink on our footpaths and roadways makes it easier for us to enjoy those things and support local businesses in a COVID-safe way." Continuing this push for outdoor dining and events, a huge series of al fresco feasts are set to take over George Street next month. Titled Open for Lunch, the takeover of the bustling CBD area will see the likes of Merivale, YCK Laneways and Porteno's Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz hosting pop-ups throughout George Street. The City of Sydney has voted unanimously to waive fees on outdoor dining permits until the end of June 2025. Images: City of Sydney
It visited Melbourne in June and Brisbane in September, and now Australia's sweetest dessert museum is finally heading to Sydney. Called Sugar Republic and heading our way this February, the immersive pop-up brings sugary delights to folks with a sweet tooth, boasting an array of spaces filled with all things chocolate, confectionery and dessert-oriented. Taking over the sixth floor of Myer Sydney City, the Sydney pop-up features a huge bubblegum pink ball pit, a climbable candy rainbow, a sherbet-filled bridge and a life-sized gum ball machine (the sugary list goes on and on). You're also able to bask in nostalgia inside an old-school lolly shop, a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-inspired garden and a house made from cookies. It sounds like the kind of place that Willy Wonka might own. Throughout the colourful exhibition, you'll find many edible treats, including Hubba Bubba, Halo Top, Wizz Fizz, Skittles and Starbursts, and will be able to visit a Sugar Republic cafe, which will be serving up a whole host of sugary delights. Don't tell your dentist. Worried the installation will be filled with littlies? Thankfully, it's opening on Thursday and Friday nights for adults only — so you can jump in the pit without fear of crushing a small one. Sugar Republic will pop up on the sixth floor of Myer Sydney City from February 10, 2019, and run through until the end of April. It is open from 10am–6pm every day except Wednesday, and adults-only sessions will run from 6.30–8pm on Thursday and Friday nights. Images: Lucas Dawson and Sherbet Birdie Photography. Updated: April 9, 2019.
