A lavish European-influenced brasserie is swinging open its doors in Sydney's CBD. Brasserie 1930 will officially arrive on Wednesday, March 15, coming to the new luxury hotel Capella Sydney from the Bentley Restaurant Group. The acclaimed hospitality crew behind Bentley Restaurant and Bar, Monopole, Yellow and Cirrus will bring an elegant dining room, next-level eats and a meticulously curated wine program to the expansive inner-city hotel — the first Australian opening from the Capella hotel group. Named after the year the Young Street section of the building was completed, Brasserie 1930 takes the idea of an elevated French diner and injects it with local Australian produce and Sydney-favourite dishes. Expect to kick off your meal with Sydney rock or Tasmanian pacific oysters, as well as prawns paired with fermented chilli mayonnaise. Highlights from the starters section of the menu include beef tartare, brown butter scallops, spanner crab alla chitarra with sea urchin sauce and glazed quail paired with whipped feta. [caption id="attachment_892588" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kris Paulsen[/caption] Then there's the mains. Starting from $48, this portion of the offerings is full of no-holds-barred luxury. The seafood selections, for example, include coral trout with potato yoghurt puree and leek, coal-roasted Murray cod with pepperberry butter and eastern rock lobster. There are three steaks on offer if that's what you're craving. Take your pick from the Yarabah wagyu rump cap, O'Connor's bone-in sirloin or Coppertree Farms 600-gram rib eye that'll set you back an easy $110. And, rounding out the mains is the whole-roasted duck which you can order for the table. This $190 share dish comes accompanied by duck-neck sausage, roasted plum, fennel, spinach and glazed eschalots. [caption id="attachment_892592" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Timothy Kaye[/caption] Bentley Restaurant Group's co-owner and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt has pulled together a massive wine list to compliment the elegant menu. More than 400 producers from across Australia and Europe are on show, with the by-the-glass menu set to evolve and change over time, spotlighting picks from the hospitality group's wine vault. All of this is housed within an equally grand dining space. Original architectural features of the nearly century-old building have been restored, then complemented with sleek modern furnishings and light fixtures. Brasserie 1930 will join the McRae Bar in the 192-room, eight-storey Capella Sydney hotel. The luxury accommodation will become Australia's first Capella when it also opens on Wednesday, March 15, offering guests an elevated inner-city stay featuring swimming and vitality pools, a fitness centre and a spa alongside the impressive dining options. [caption id="attachment_892589" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kris Paulsen[/caption] Capella Sydney and Brasserie 1930 both open on Wednesday, March 15 at 2–4 Farrer Place, Sydney. Top image: Kris Paulsen.
Chiswick Cellars is another family-run operation, which celebrated 26 years in the business in 2020. Located on Blackwall Point Road, the small business boasts a friendly team that is more than happy to help you decide what to purchase. The focus here is on the wine, though a basic liquor and beer offering is also on the docket. It's best to spend some time perusing the shelves — with so much on offer, you won't want to rush. Apart from all the booze, there's also a sizeable deli attached, so it's a great place to test your skills with wine and food pairing.
As affordability becomes the top priority for Australians while the economy buckles under global affairs we have no control over, we're all adapting our savings differently. The methods of saving vary widely, but as costs like groceries, rent and fuel force us to eat into our savings, millions of Australians have targeted one of those major costs by resorting to shared living, as revealed in a new study by Finder. Finder completed a survey of 1,011 respondents to capture a snapshot of data representative of the wider Australian population, and found that one-fifth of Aussies have started saving by moving in with others in the last 12 months — that's 4.1 million people around the country. However, the majority (33 percent) of those respondents live in Victoria. Of those surveyed who have given up on bachelor and bachelorette pads, the most common category of roommate is parents or grandparents, with ten percent of respondents moving back home over the last year. That was followed by seven percent of respondents moving in with siblings, four percent with friends and a desperate three percent who turned to moving in with former partners. [caption id="attachment_1092312" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Lisa Maree Williams/Getty[/caption] Of the respondents who've turned to shared living, 39 percent were Gen Z, and 27 percent were Millennials, showing how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting young people most of all. Finder's Cost of Living Pressure Gauge, which compiles data on pressure from rent, mortgages, savings, debt, credit card repayments and more, is currently sitting in the red at 75 percent pressure. Taylor Blackburn, a personal finance advisor at Finder, explained that millions of Aussies are staring down uncomfortable living as a salve to housing security, saying, "Between soaring rents, rising interest rates and general cost-of-living pressures, the ability to live alone is slipping out of reach for many." To be prepared for the expenses we might not see coming, and the general financial wear and tear of the 2020s, Blackburn says to "design your life so you can manage a drought. One surprising expense that sinks you isn't a surprise – it's a design flaw. Maintaining even a modest financial buffer can be the difference between staying in control and being forced into living situations you never imagined." Lead image: iStock Like what you see? Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these straight to your inbox.
It's ten years since Danny Rogers and Jerome Borazio decided to fill a Melbourne alleyway with tunes in 2005. Since then, a relatively unknown Gotye played in a basement, Chk Chk Chk ran across the Sydney College of the Arts rooftop, Lorde happened and Laneway became the very first Australian festival to migrate overseas. This year, the once quiet achiever of the Australian festival scene, Laneway Festival blows out the candles with one of its biggest (but not necessarily commercial) lineups yet. Kicking off in Singapore on Saturday, January 24 in The Meadow, Gardens by the Bay, Laneway will run through seven dates, including Sydney's Sydney College of the Arts on February 1 and Melbourne's Footscray Community Arts Centre and River's Edge on February 7, finishing up at its new home in Fremantle's Esplanade Reserve and West End on Sunday, February 8. But where did Laneway all start (in case you're in the dark)? What did The Avalanches and a dare have to do with it? How did they manage to survive the festival circuit in the face of common Australian festival crash-and-burnery? Let's take a little saunter through the alleyways, warehouse lots and overseas ventures of Laneway — the Australian festival who settled into the country's infrastructure from the smallest of veins. Where it all hatched. St. Jerome's Laneway Festival was born in 2005, when Danny Rogers helped Jerome Borazio book music for his Melbourne laneway bar, St. Jerome's. The every-Sunday 'Summer Series' was born (where The Presets and Architecture in Helsinki played small sets) and the two decided to expand the idea into a Saturday night residency for their mates, The Avalanches. Said Avalanches challenged Rogers and Borazio to make a big ol' birthday shindig for St. Jerome's bar, which would have to close the whole lane. "We said ‘Why not throw a first birthday party for the bar?’ We got excited and then thought ‘Well why don’t we try and close this Laneway down?" recounts Borazio on the Laneway site. "After a few drinks with The Avalanches one night we asked, ‘If we closed this lane down would you guys play? They said ‘You won’t be able to close this lane. So if you do, we’ll play.’ About 1400 showed up and watched Architecture In Helsinki, Art of Fighting, Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set, The Dears, Eskimo Joe, Gersey and Ground Components and those jokey dare-makers The Avalanches play the very first Laneway. Sydney's turn. Keeping the fire stoked in Melbourne, the Laneway crew decided to expand the concept to Sydney after a chance meeting with super promoter Michael Chugg. "I bumped into Michael Chugg at a health retreat and said to him, 'We have this festival in Melbourne. Check it out, see what you think. He called the next day and got us up to Sydney," says Jerome Borazio on the Laneway website. Thanks to Chugg and his team, Sydney got the green light. Snuggled amongst Circular Quay's Macquarie Square, Reiby Place and The Basement, Laneway saw a rainy but successful run in Sydney that year. Headliners Broken Social Scene were the squealworthy element of the time, alongside Art of Fighting, Augie March, Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set, Cut Copy, Dane Tucquet, Darren Hanlon, Decoder Ring, Faker, Gersey, Jens Lekman, Les Savy Fav, Mercy Arms, Mountains in the Sky, New Buffalo, Pivot, Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Pop Frenzy Sound Unit, The Posies, The Raveonettes, The Temper Trap, Wolf & Cub and Youth Group over the two cities. Brisbane joins the crew. With Melbourne and Sydney's Laneway chapters under control, Brisbane's first Laneway was held in '07 behind the city's beloved venue, The Zoo. The lineup saw the likes of The Walkmen, Yo La Tengo, Camera Obscura, Peter Bjorn and John, Snowman, Archie Bronson Outfit, Bumblebeez, Casino Twilight Dogs, Dan Kelly, Dappled Cities Fly, Expatriate, Fionn Regan, Gerling, Gersey, Ground Components, Holly Throsby, Love Is All, Macromantics, Midnight Juggernauts, My Disco, The BellRays, The Crayon Fields, The Shaky Hands, The Sleepy Jackson, The Temper Trap and Youth Group play in the teeny laneway out the back — as well as Sydney and Melbourne's laneway set-ups. The Laneway Empire was growing. Oh hey, Adelaide. Heading south-west, Laneway 2008 saw Feist, Gotye, Dan Deacon, The Presets, Stars, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Panics, The Vasco Era and Okkervil River all smooshed themselves into Fowler's Live, all up in the North Terrace. They were joined by Violent Soho, The Cool Kids, The Holidays, Via Tania, Batrider, Bridezilla, Devastations, Little Red, Rudley Interrupted and The Brunettes. Meanwhile, the Melbourne festival expanded — out of Caledonian Lane to Drewery Lane and Londsdale Street. The times were a-changin'. Perth, you're up. Heading to Western Australia for the first time, Laneway 2009 found a new, additional home in the Perth Cultural Centre. Beats were the dominant force this year, with Girl Talk, Stereolab, Buraka Som Sistema, Pivot (with the vowels intact) and Four Tet sharing the stage with Tame Impala, Architecture In Helsinki, Born Ruffians, Canyons, Cut Off Your Hands, Daedelus, El Guincho, Holly Throsby, Jay Reatard, John Steel Singers, Mountains In The Sky, No Age, Port O’Brien, Still Flyin, Tame Impala, Tim Fite, The Drones, The Hold Steady and The Temper Trap. The Laneway crew talk of 2009 as the year of visible expansion in Perth of course, but particularly in the other citie. According to the Laneway website, "a rapidly expanded site, shifting regulations, wild hype and high temperatures contributed to the Melbourne show very suddenly (and publicly) outgrowing itself. Overcrowding and long queues soured an otherwise strong musical showing. And while a realignment of stages in Adelaide was deemed a success by the growing crowds, Sydney’s Macquarie Park location also began showing signs of its limitations." Woah, things got a little turbo-charged in 2010. With one of its biggest lineups yet, Laneway expanded their venues in several cities. Melbourne moved from its hallowed home to the riverside Footscray Community Arts Centre, while Sydney farewelled Circular Quay for Rozelle’s historic Sydney College of the Arts. With Mumford and Sons, Florence and the Machine, and The xx all making their Australian debut at Laneway (not too shabby), the venues were upsized to accommodate Bachelorette, Black Lips, Chris Knox and The Nothing, Cut Off Your Hands, Daniel Johnston, Dappled Cities, Dirty Three, Echo & the Bunnymen, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Hockey, Kid Sam, N.A.S.A., Midnight Juggernauts, Radioclit, Sarah Blasko, Street Chant, The 3Ds, The Middle East, The Naked and Famous, The Very Best, Warpaint, Whitley and Wild Beasts. But Laneway also made its first venture overseas, launching its first instalment in Auckland. According to Laneway, the crew teamed up with Chugg and New Zealand locals Ben Howe, Manolo Echave and Mark Kneebone to create the first Kiwi chapter of Laneway in Auckland's warehouse-dotted Britomart Quarter. And I mean, look at that bloody lineup, no wonder they had to find a bigger boat. Singapore, what's up. Held at Fort Canning Park, the first Singapore Laneway Festival was drenched in torrential rain — but that didn't douse the spirits of thousands of punters. Lineup-wise, goals were kicked yet again by the Laneway team: !!!, The Antlers, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Beach House, Bear in Heaven, Blonde Redhead, Cloud Control, Cut Copy, Deerhunter, Foals, Gotye, The Holidays, Holy Fuck, Jenny & Johnny, Les Savy Fav, Local Natives, Menomena, PVT, Rat Vs Possum, Stornoway, Two Door Cinema Club, Violent Soho, Warpaint, World's End Press and Yeasayer made their way to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Singapore and Auckland (who moved their camp from the Britomart Quarter to Aotea Square in 2011). Auckland finally bunkers down in Silo Park in the Wynard Quarter — its present home. This was a pretty big year for Laneway, steering the lineup toward top-of-the-alternative headliners: M83, SBTRKT live, John Talabot, Feist, Active Child and Jonti joined Anna Calvi, Austra, Bullion, Chairlift, Cults, The Drums, DZ Deathrays, EMA, Geoffrey O’Connor, Girls, Givers, Glasser, The Horrors, Husky, Laura Marling, Oneman, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Pajama Club, The Panics, Portugal. The Man, Toro y Moi, Total Control, Twin Shadow, Washed Out and Yuck. Detroit ahoy. Heading over to the US for their very first Detroit Laneway at Oakland University, the team capitalised on previously successful showcases as the likes of SXSW to bring in an American audience — making them the first Australian festival to migrate to the US. The likes of ADULT., AlunaGeorge, Beacon, Chet Faker, CHVRCHES, Deerhunter, The Dismemberment Plan, Flume, Frightened Rabbit, HAERTS, Heathered Pearls, Icona Pop, Matthew Dear, My Brightest Diamond, The National, Phosphorescent, Run the Jewels (El-P & Killer Mike), Savages, Shigeto, Sigur Ros, Solange, Warpaint, Washed Out and Youth Lagoon cranked out sets in Detroit — a huge undertaking for the Laneway crew. In Australalasia, the likes of alt-J, Flume, Jessie Ware, Chet Faker, Bat For Lashes, Divine Fits, El-P, Japandroids and Nicolas Jaar played alongside Alpine, Cloud Nothings, Henry Wagons & The Unwelcome Company, High Highs, Holy Other, Julia Holter, Kings of Convenience, MS MR, Nite Jewel, Of Monsters and Men, Perfume Genius, Poliça, Pond, Real Estate, Shlohmo, Snakadaktal, The Men, The Neighbourhood, The Rubens, Twerps and Yeasayer. A big ol' year. The year of our Lorde. Hitting #1 in the US, the NZ teenager cranked out memorable Pure Heroine sets at Laneway's most veering-toward-commercial year yet. The soon-to-be Grammy winner was joined by the likes of HAIM, Earl Sweatshirt, James Blake, King Krule, Warpaint, Run the Jewels (El-P & Killer Mike), Jaguar Ma and Vance Joy alongside Adalita, Autre Ne Veut, Cashmere Cat, Cass McCombs, CHVRCHES, Cloud Control, Danny Brown, Daughter, Dick Diver, Doprah, Drenge, Four Tet, Frightened Rabbit, GEMA, Ghost Wave, Jamie xx, Kirin J Callinan, Kurt Vile, Mount Kimbie, MT WARNING, Parquet Courts, PCP Eagles, Rackets, Savages, Scenic, The Growl, The Jezabels, The Observatory, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Vandetta, Watercolours, XXYYXX and Youth Lagoon. Epic. Here we are, ten years later and Laneway's making big moves to remain closer to the up-and-coming pulse than the superheadliners. As of this week, Laneway 2015 is upon us and the lineup is predictably kickass. Returning to the Australian touring circuit is UK on-repeat outfit Jungle, festival jaw-droppers Future Islands and Melbourne's lives-up-to-the-hype queen Courtney Barnett. Two of the biggest hypecards of the bunch, FKA Twigs and BANKS, will fight for the midnight hushed vocal crown. Then there's the ever-epic St. Vincent, punk-as-fuck UK band Eagulls, smooooooth king Flying Lotus, Harlem's top-of-the-game hip hop outfit Ratking and the triumphant returns of Rustie, Jon Hopkins, POND and crisp-as-blazes Caribou, alongside Andy Bull, Angel Olsen, Benjamin Booker, Caribou, Connan Mockasin, Dune Rats, Eves, Flight Facilities, Highasakite, Jesse Davidson, Jon Hopkins, Little Dragon, Mansionair, Perfect Pussy, Peter Bibby, Raury, Royal Blood, Seekae, Sohn, St Vincent and Vic Mensa. And last but not least, Mac DeMarco and his mum, Agnes. What a legend. Happy tenner, Laneway. Cheers to showing punters where the Good Music at, avoiding slapdash, off-brand superheadliners, keeping a finger on many overseas pulses and making onsite attention to detail a colossal priority. We're raising a plastic cup to another ten. Images: Laneway Festival - Simon Fergusson, Daniel Boud, Adrianna Polcyn, Alvin Ho, Nina Sandejas, Chris Schwegler, Annette Geneva, Yael Yaya Stempler.
Christmas can often be a crazy time, and we can't think of anything worse than running around a shopping centre trying to sort out gifts. We all know the drill, and it's carnage, to say the least. Amazon is our go-to for simple gift ideas that you can pre-order from the comfort of your home, which means avoiding the carnage and taking your time to choose the right gifts. To get you started, we have ten gift ideas you can buy from Amazon right now. Whether you're buying for your impossible-to-buy-for teenage cousin, skin-care-obsessed auntie or for the kids in your life, we've got you covered. 1. Ottolenghi SIMPLE Perfect for any aspiring chef or summer entertainer — it's nearly guaranteed that everyone will love Ottolenghi SIMPLE, a cookbook and a great gift idea for someone you don't know too well or someone hard to buy for. The book features 130 of chef Yotam Ottolenghi's award-winning recipes that are easy enough to cook at home but turn out restaurant-quality (if cooked correctly). Better, if you're invited to a dinner party by whoever you gift the book to, you know you'll be in for a treat. 2. Ultimate Ears Boom 3 Portable Bluetooth Speaker Another easy gift idea that most people would be stoked to receive, the Ultimate Ears Boom 3 Portable Bluetooth Speaker is a great summer gift item, since it's completely waterproof that also floats. Who knows? Maybe you'll get to reap the benefits of this gift at some stage. It also comes in seven different colours, so you can find a good match for whoever you're buying for. You can thank us later. 3. Cocktail Set The silly season is the perfect time to drink cocktails at home or to host parties (obviously with a cocktail bar), hands down. And gifting this sleek, stainless steel cocktail set for Christmas may be the perfect timing. The set includes pourers, a strainer, a muddling stick, two Boston shakers and two bartender spoons. A great gift idea for any aspiring mixologists out there, whether they're a beginner or pro. 4. Crocs Jibbitz Shoe Charms If you haven't heard of Jibbitz, you've clearly managed to steer clear of the front page of social media. A trend that no one saw coming, having a few extra charms on your Crocs is now actually, well, elite. Great for kids or adults who love rocking their Crocs, Jibbitz is an easy way to personalise the classic shoes, with a variety of charms that pop into your shoes' holes, instantly making Crocs even cooler. 5. The Ordinary Skincare It seems that everyone is in their self-care era at the moment, which means skincare is a top priority. Gifting a friend or loved one with The Ordinary The Daily Set is bound to be a practical gift that actually gets used. The set includes three gentle and hydrating formulas suitable for all skin types across all seasons for daily use, including The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid with B5 and The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA. 6. LEGO® One of Amazon's top picks when it comes to gift ideas, the LEGO® Creator flatbed truck with a helicopter, fuel vehicle, hot rod SUV and car toys is one of the best simple gift ideas for kids, as well as big kids. LEGO® Creator 3 in 1 sets give the giftee a choice as well, since the pieces can be used to assemble three different sets. Timeless, ageless, genderless and always entertaining, you really can't go wrong with LEGO® as a gift. 7. Noise Cancelling Earbuds If you ask us, noise-cancelling earbuds are no longer a luxury but an essential. If you're trying to find a Christmas gift for your friend who is always travelling or listening to tunes, or you noticed a mate with ancient corded headphones, then the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds may be the way to go. They feature technology that analyses each ear and adapts sound so that the active noise-cancelling earbuds are custom-tailored, plus they come with nine soft ear tips and stability bands for ultimate comfort. 8. Mortar and Pestle Sometimes, the best gift is a simple one. Enter the granite Mortar and Pestle. There's no kitchen tool simpler than this. Made from solid granite, this kitchen staple is great for crushing herbs, spices, garlic, basil and whatever else you so desire. It's a great gift for those in your life who love cooking. And, if it turns out they don't like cooking, then it also makes for an aesthetic piece of decor on the kitchen bench, So it's a win-win. 9. Minecraft Board Game If we could place a bet on whether the kids in your life play Minecraft, we would confidently put money on it being a yes. They can't get enough, and gifting them with anything Minecraft-related is sure to be a hit. This Minecraft Board Game from Ravensburger is an easy-to-learn strategy board game where players explore the Overworld, mine resources, build structures, collect weapons and fight mobs. Perfect for Minecraft lovers, it's also fun even if you have never played Minecraft. 10. Fitness Tracker Do you have any fitness freaks in your friendship circle? Or maybe your old man is looking to get back in shape? Look no further than the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Health & Fitness Tracker. This sleek little thing helps you track workouts and health metrics with over 150 sports modes, continuous heart rate monitoring, SpO2 measurement, and sleep analysis. It also looks cool and comes in a range of different colours. Images: Supplied by Amazon. Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links, Concrete Playground may earn a commission when you make a purchase through links on our site.
Fiji has cemented its ongoing status as one of the go-to island holiday destinations for Australian travellers. It's a little further abroad than local spots like The Whitsundays and Bali, but the beaches and rainforests of the South Pacific are magical enough to warrant the extra miles. While you may have spotted honeymooners and influencers paddling about luxury bungalows on stilts in the middle of a private bay (and wished to join) you don't have to empty the bank account to enjoy some of these 300 islands. Instead, you can island hop at your own pace and budget, finding the best hidden beaches and reefs within the archipelago. Here are some of our favourite spots to help you start planning your next Fiji trip. [caption id="attachment_877268" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Fiji[/caption] YASAWA ISLANDS This group of 20 volcanic islands is known for being accessible to people on just about any budget. Within small villages, you can find family-run hostels and hotels as well as larger luxury resorts. But one of the most appealing parts of visiting the Yasawa Islands is the culture. Here, you are significantly more likely to come across locals living a traditional island life, running small eateries and fishing off the shores. Unlike the privately owned islands, these haven't been paved and manicured for tourists. Getting around the islands is also super easy. You can arrive here by ferry and island hop using their Bula Pass — it's essentially a hop-on, hop-off boat pass for the local islands. No need to get a helicopter or private boat to see the best of these authentic parts of the country. [caption id="attachment_877285" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Get Lost[/caption] KADAVU ISLAND Kadavu is Fiji's fourth largest island and perfect for travellers looking for adventure. The island has been purposely kept wild, letting nature do its thing. Head to Kadavu Island for hikes up into dense vine-covered forests to find hidden waterfalls and natural springs. Or take to the water on sea kayak tours, paddling from lagoon to lagoon, stopping off at small coral reefs and local villages along the way. You can also take longer treks out to The Great Astrolabe Reef, one of the largest barrier reefs in the world, for more snorkelling and incredible bucket list scuba diving. Despite being just a 50-minute flight from Nadi (where international flights arrive and depart), this island feels far off the beaten path. The stress and hustle of the big city grind will seem a million miles away while you explore this tropical wilderness. [caption id="attachment_877276" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kokomo Private Island[/caption] MAMANUCA ISLANDS These famous islands are more orderly and landscaped than the previously mentioned destinations but they're far from being a Joni Mitchell song: they haven't totally paved this paradise yet. You'll find some of most beautiful white sand beaches in these parts alongside a smattering of resorts and private beach clubs. Spend your days island hopping by boat, jet ski or kayak to explore some of the 20 picturesque islands. Great surf breaks are also a starring feature in these parts, with the famous heart-shaped Tiny Tavurua and Namotu island resorts being perfectly situated for any activities involving stellar waves. Another big drawcard for the Mamanuca Islands, is the ease at which you can get here. It takes about 20 minutes to get here from Nadi via ferry. And, thanks to its popularity, it's also simple to organise trips around the islands — either ask your accommodation to recommend a good one or find your favourite guide hawking their tours on the beach. Editor's tip: book a romantic seven-night holiday at an adult's only resort here (which includes all transfers, a couple's massage and a dolphin safari tour). [caption id="attachment_877272" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Malamala Beach Club by Brook Sabin[/caption] VANUA LEVU If you're truly wanting to get away from the tourist crowds head to Vanua Levu, the second largest island in Fiji. Here, you'll find just one paved road which connects the two main towns of Labasa and Savusavu (as well as plenty of dirt tracks where the buses and cars will still traverse). Explore the rambling countryside, hike up into the hills and hit up some of the peaceful beaches. When staying here, make sure you also visit the neighbouring island of Taveuni. It's another of Fiji's forgotten islands (at least when it comes to international travellers), but boasts the stunning Bouma National Heritage Park — a haven for hikers and bird watchers, and home to the famous Tavoro Falls and pools. [caption id="attachment_877286" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elliot Grafton[/caption] LOMAIVITI ISLANDS A collection of 16 islands make up this region to the east of Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji, and they are significantly less touristy than the Mamanucas and Yasawa Islands. The inner islands of this group are relatively developed and welcome a small number of tourists regularly. But, as soon as you get to those on the outer islands and the even-further-afield Lau islands, you find yourselves significantly more isolated. It's a lot harder to travel these parts, with only the most patient and well-prepared travellers heading beyond — to be well rewarded for their efforts. When visiting the Lomaiviti Islands, we recommend you stay on Ovalau or one of its nearby islands which are all connected by colourful coral reefs. Come here to get away from the crowds and experience a more chill island life. [caption id="attachment_877270" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Fiji[/caption] Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world. Top images: Turtle Island Resort
When the term 'direct-to-video' was uttered in decades gone by, it was rarely used in a positive way. 'Direct-to-DVD' wasn't either, when the switch from VHS to discs hit — but shaking up the idea that a film that skips cinemas can't also be exceptional is one of the many consequences of the streaming era. Every week — every day, it sometimes seems — brand new movies join the seemingly endless array of streaming platforms. That's been especially handy during 2021, which saw us all spend more time at home than usual (yes, again), and also delivered plenty of straight-to-streaming highlights. Indeed, some of this year's finest movies didn't flicker across the silver screen. Some were meant to, others were never destined to, but they're all exceptional either way. Here are the 12 best films that should've made their way to your streaming queue in 2021 — and if you haven't watched them yet, you can remedy that at the click of a few buttons. THE GREEN KNIGHT Mesmerising and magnetic from its first moments till its last, The Green Knight is a moving musing on destiny, pride, virtue, choice, myths and sacrifice, all wrapped in a sublime spectacle. The medieval fantasy hums with haunting beauty and potency as it tells of Arthurian figure Gawain (Dev Patel, The Personal History of David Copperfield), nephew to the King (Sean Harris, Mission: Impossible — Fallout), and the only man who accepts a bold challenge when the eponymous figure (Ralph Ineson, Gunpowder Milkshake) — a mystical part-tree, part-knight — demands a duel one Christmas. The catch: whichever blows the eager-to-prove-himself Gawain inflicts on this towering interloper, he'll receive back in a year's time. So, when this initial altercation ends in a beheading (and with the Green Knight scooping up his noggin and riding off), Gawain faces a grim future. Twelve months later, that bargain inspires a quest, which The Green Knight treats as both a nightmare and a dream. There's an ethereal look and feel to every inch of this stunning movie, where the greenery is verdant, and the bloodshed and battlefield of skeletons just as prominent. Playing a man yearning for glory yet faced with life's stark realities, Patel is in career-best form — and the latter can also be said of writer/director/editor David Lowery. Every film he makes has proven a gem, from Ain't The Bodies Saints and Pete's Dragon to A Ghost Story and The Old Man and The Gun; however, The Green Knight is a startling and riveting feast of a feature that's as as contemplative as it is visionary. The Green Knight is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND Excellent filmmakers helming exceptional documentaries about music icons just might be 2021's best movie trend. It isn't new — see: Martin Scorsese's filmography as just one example — but any year that delivers both Edgar Wright's The Sparks Brothers and Todd Haynes' The Velvet Underground is a great year indeed. Both docos are made by clear fans of the bands they celebrate. Both films find creative and engaging ways to approach a tried-and-tested on-screen formula, too. And, both movies will make fans out of newcomers, all while delighting existing devotees. They each have killer soundtracks as well, obviously. They're each tailored to suit their subjects, rather than leaning on the standard music bio-doc template. As a result, they each prove the kind of rich, in-depth and electrifying features that only these two directors could've made. With The Velvet Underground and Haynes, none of this comes as a surprise. As well as the astonishing Carol and the just-as-devastating Dark Waters, he has experimental short Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, glam-rock portrait Velvet Goldmine and the Bob Dylan-focused I'm Not There on his resume, after all. Here, he makes two perceptive choices: splitting his screen Andy Warhol-style to show both archival materials and new interviews simultaneously, and avoiding the allure of giving the late, great Lou Reed all his attention. The result is an inventive, impassioned and wide-ranging doco that charts the band's story and impact; captures the time, place and attitudes that gave rise to them; and proves as dazzling as The Velvet Underground themselves. The Velvet Underground is available to stream via Apple TV+. PROCESSION For filmmaker Robert Greene, it started with a press conference, where six sexually abused men sought justice — and publicly so — for the horrors they endured at the hands of the Catholic Church. After reaching out to their lawyer Rebecca Randles, and also bringing drama therapist Monica Phinney onboard, Procession started to take shape — a film that tells their stories like no other documentary would've. Anyone who's seen Greene's also exceptional Kate Plays Christine and Bisbee '17 will know that he sifts through trauma via re-enactments, an approach used to interrogate dark incidents and abhorrent moments. Here, it's deployed as a healing technique, too. To watch Tom Viviano, Joe Eldred, Ed Gavagan, Michael Sandridge, Dan Laurine and Mike Foreman participate in Procession is to watch them not just grapple with what was done to them, but to try to undercut its power. Talking-head interviews still litter the documentary, but Procession is far more interested in the short films that Viviano, Eldred, Gavagan, Sandridge, Laurine and Foreman conceive and make — starring child actor Terrick Trobough as all of them — based on their own experiences. Greene captures the behind-the-scenes process, and also presents the finished product, both of which trawl through memories that none of his subjects will ever forget. Unsurprisingly, this isn't an easy movie to watch. It's essential and unforgettable viewing, though, examining heartbreakingly awful acts, the men who've spent a lifetime trying to cope, the cathartic nature of art and the resilience needed to soldier on. Procession is available to stream via Netflix. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI Pondering the conversations that might've occurred between four pivotal historical figures on one very real evening they spent in each other's company, One Night in Miami boasts the kind of talk-heavy concept that'd obviously work well on the stage. That's where it first began back in 2013 — but adapting theatre pieces for the cinema doesn't always end in success, especially when they primarily involve large swathes of dialogue exchanged in one setting. If Beale Street Could Talk Oscar-winner and Watchmen Emmy-winner Regina King doesn't make a single wrong move here, however. The actor's feature directorial debut proves a film not only of exceptional power and feeling, but of abundant texture and detail as well. It's a movie about people and ideas, including the role the former can play in both bolstering and counteracting the latter, and the Florida-set picture takes as much care with its quartet of protagonists as it does with the matters of race, politics and oppression they talk about. Given the folks involved on-screen, there's clearly much to discuss. The film takes place on February 25, 1964, which has become immortalised in history as the night that Cassius Clay (Eli Goree, Riverdale) won his first title fight. Before and after the bout, the future Muhammad Ali hangs out with his equally important pals — activist Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir, High Fidelity), footballer Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge, The Invisible Man) and musician Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr, Hamilton) — with this equally meticulous and moving Oscar-nominee ficitionalising their time together. One Night in Miami is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. NO SUDDEN MOVE Up until late August, No Sudden Move couldn't have sat on this list. The latest film from prolific director Steven Soderbergh (Unsane), it was scheduled to release in Australian cinemas; however, then lengthy lockdowns hit Sydney and Melbourne, and its theatrical run was sadly canned across the country. This crime thriller would've looked dazzling on a big screen, and for a plethora of reasons. Soderbergh is no stranger to helming capers — he has Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen on his jam-packed resume, plus both Out of Sight and Logan Lucky — and No Sudden Move is as energetic as the rest of his heist fare. Here, he also revels in period details, with this Ed Solomon (Bill & Ted Face the Music)-scripted tale unfurling in the 1950s. As he's known to do, Soderbergh both shot and edited the movie himself, too, and that exceptional craftsmanship is another of this playful neo-noir's many delights. Spinning an engaging story steeped in Detroit's crime scene, No Sudden Move has something to say as well. Don Cheadle (Space Jam: A New Legacy) in is career-best form as Curt Goynes, who gets out of prison, then gets enlisted for a job by a middleman known as Jones (Brendan Fraser, Trust). That gig? With two colleagues (The French Dispatch's Benicio Del Toro and Succession's Kieran Culkin), he's tasked with babysitting the Wertz family (Archenemy's Amy Seimetz, A Quiet Place Part II's Noah Jupe and debutant Lucy Holt), all so the Wertz patriarch (David Harbour, Black Widow) can steal a document from his work. There's no shortage of plot — No Sudden Move keeps twisting from there — but capitalism's worst consequences also bubble prominently underneath. Soderbergh and Solomon savvily tease out the details, though, keeping their audience guessing as much as their characters. No Sudden Movie is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. BO BURNHAM: INSIDE Watching Bo Burnham: Inside, a stunning fact becomes evident — a life-changing realisation, really. During a period when most people tried to make sourdough, pieced together jigsaws and spent too much time on Zoom, Bo Burnham created a comedy masterpiece. How does he ever top a special this raw, insightful, funny, clever and of the moment? How did he make it to begin with? How does anyone ever manage to capture every emotion that we've all felt about lockdowns — and about the world's general chaos, spending too much time on the internet, capitalism's exploitation and just the general hellscape that is our modern lives, too — in one 90-minute musical-comedy whirlwind? Filmed in one room of his house over several months (and with the growth of his hair and beard helping to mark the time), Inside unfurls via songs about being stuck indoors, video chats, today's performative society, sexting, ageing and mental health. Burnham sings and acts, and also wrote, directed, shot, edited and produced the whole thing, and there's not a moment, image or line that goes to waste. Being trapped in that room with the Promising Young Woman star and Eighth Grade filmmaker, and therefore being stuck inside the closest thing he can find to manifesting his mind outside his skull, becomes the best kind of rollercoaster ride. Just try getting Burnham's tunes out of your head afterwards, too, because this is an oh-so-relatable and insightful special that lingers. It's also the best thing that's been made about this pandemic yet, hands down. Bo Burnham: Inside is available to stream via Netflix. BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR Throughout 2021, on screens big and small, few films have been as fun as Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. Nothing has been as ridiculously, hilariously, gleefully silly, either — as you'd expect of a movie about a titular twosome who obsess over culottes, and where Jamie Dornan (Synchronic) kicks sand on the beach while singing a prayer to seagulls. A talking crab features, too, as do dance remixes of Celine Dion tunes, because this is the delightfully entertaining comedy that has it all. The setup: middle-aged Soft Rock residents Barb (Annie Mumolo, Queenpins) and Star (Kristen Wiig, Wonder Woman 1984) head to Florida for a holiday, despite their apprehension to break up their routine, while nervous, lovesick henchman Edgar Pagét (Dornan) also makes the same trip, but to help nefarious villain Sharon Fisherman (also Wiig) with her plan to kill everyone. Wiig and Mumolo also wrote Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, as they did Bridesmaids. This time, though, they've piled in enough glorious absurdity to fill several beaches. From its throwaway gags to its big musical numbers — and including its character details — there's nothing too goofy for this infectious frolic. Sometimes the film is a Romy and Michele's High School Reunion-style ode to female friendship, sometimes it's a kooky world-domination comedy, and it's also a fish-out-of-water satire and a goofy holiday flick as well. It wouldn't work quite as well if its cast weren't so committed to their parts, and to the offbeat sense of humour — and if director Josh Greenbaum (New Girl) didn't ensure that every element of the movie goes all-in on every single joke. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. BURNING "This could be the new normal," a snippet from a news report comments early in Burning. The reason for the statement: Black Summer, the Australian bushfire season of 2019–20 that decimated large swathes of the country, sent smoke floating around the world and attracted international media attention. Australians don't need a documentary to confirm how horrific the situation was, and this is now the second in months — after the gripping first-person accounts in A Fire Inside — but this powerful film from Chasing Asylum's Eva Orner also lays bare all the factors that coalesced in the tragic events of just two years ago. Accordingly, this is a doco about inaction, government indifference to the point of failure, and the valuing of fossil fuels over their destruction of the environment. It's a movie about climate change as well, clearly, because any film telling this tale has to be. Orner, an Oscar-winner for producing 2007's Taxi to the Dark Side and an Emmy-winner for 2016's Out of Iraq, takes a three-pronged approach: providing context to the bushfires, including charting the Australian government's choices before and after; amassing expert and experienced testimonies, spanning activists and those on the ground alike; and bearing witness. Facts — such as the three billion animals killed — sit side by side with personal recollections and devastating images. The latter includes not only the fires and their ashy aftermath, but political arguing and Scott Morrison's Hawaiian holiday; all hit like a punch to the gut. The result is urgent, important and stunning — and absolutely essential viewing. Burning is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. I CARE A LOT She didn't end up with an Oscar for her efforts, but Rosamund Pike's Golden Globe win for I Care a Lot was thoroughly well-deserved. The Radioactive and Gone Girl star is stellar in a tricky part in a thorny film — because this dark comic-thriller isn't here to play nice. Pike plays Marla Grayson, a legal guardian to as many elderly Americans as she can convince the courts to send her way. She's more interested in the cash that comes with the job, however, rather than actually looking after her charges. Indeed, with her girlfriend and business partner Fran (Eiza González, Bloodshot), plus an unscrupulous doctor on her payroll, she specifically targets wealthy senior citizens with no family, gets them committed to her care, packs them off to retirement facilities and plunders their bank accounts. Then one such ploy catches the attention of gangster Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones), who dispatches his minions to nudge Marla in a different direction. She isn't willing to acquiesce, though, sparking both a game of cat and mouse and a showdown. Dinklage makes the most of his role, too, but I Care a Lot is always the icy Pike's movie. Well, hers and writer/director J Blakeson's (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), with the latter crafting a takedown of capitalism that's savagely blunt but also blisteringly entertaining. I Care a Lot is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. CODA When CODA screened at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, it made history. Film distributors always clamour to snap up the event's big hits, and this four-time award-winner — which received the fest's US Grand Jury Prize, US Dramatic Audience Award, a Special Jury Ensemble Cast Award and Best Director — was picked up by Apple TV+ for US$25 million. Even though the sophomore feature from writer/director Sian Heder (Tallulah) remakes 2014 French hit La Famille Bélier, that's still a significant amount of money; however, thanks to its warmth, engaging performances and a welcome lack of cheesiness, it's easy to see why the streaming platform opened its wallet. Fans of the earlier movie will recognise the storyline, which sees 17-year-old Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones, Locke & Key) struggle to balance her family commitments with her dreams of attending music school. She's a talented singer, but she's only just discovered just how skilled she is because she's also the child of deaf adults (hence the film's title). At home, she also plays a key part in keeping the family's fishing business afloat, including by spending mornings before class out on the trawler wither her dad Frank (Troy Kotsur, No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie) and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant, Switched at Birth). Heder helms this still sweet and moving feature with a distinct lack of over-exaggeration, which plagued its predecessor. The fact that Kotsur, Durant and Marlee Matlin (Entangled), the latter as the Rossi matriarch, are all actors who are deaf playing characters who are deaf really couldn't be more important. Their portrayals are naturalistic and lived-in, as is much about this rousing but gentle crowd-pleaser — including tomboy Ruby's blossoming romance with fellow wannabe musician Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Sing Street). CODA is available to stream via Apple TV+. THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN If there's a real-life figure that needs to be brought to the screen, call Benedict Cumberbatch. He's done just that in The Imitation Game, The Current War and The Courier, and also in everything from The Other Boleyn Girl and Creation to 12 Years a Slave and The Fifth Estate as well. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain sees the British actor add another such role to his resume; however, while it steps through its eponymous artist's life and career, this biopic instantly stands out from the rest of the pack. The key: a fabulous decision by director Will Sharpe (Flowers) to style this poignant and lively film after its subject and his work. When he came to fame in the late 19th century, Wain was known for his surreal cat paintings, after all — and while this is a movie that also tracks his sorrows, as well as his struggles with his mental health, it does so with a winning mix of energy and sincerity. Indeed, it'll come as no surprise that The Electrical Life of Louis Wain was shot by Erik Wilson, the same cinematographer who added such a whimsical look to both Paddington and Paddington 2. Animals abound amidst these entrancing visuals, too, but none of the cats that Wain (Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog) becomes obsessed with eat marmalade. That feline fixation stems from a frowned-upon romance with Emily Richardson (Claire Foy, The Girl in the Spider's Web), the governess to his younger sisters — and it, just like Richardson, changes his life. Playing an eccentric artist who firmly took his own route, and was also just as fascinated with electricity as adorable mousers, Cumberbatch finds both the enchanting and the melancholy sides to Wain, while the rest of the stellar cast even includes Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter) on narration duties, plus Richard Ayoade, Taika Waititi and Nick Cave in cameos. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. SLAXX Ask any style guru for their opinion on denim, and they'll all likely give the same answer. Everyone needs a pair of killer jeans, after all — the type that fit perfectly, flatter every inch of your lower half, and that you just don't want to ever take off. In Slaxx, CCC is the store aiming to make all of the above happen. Already priding itself on its eco-friendly, sustainable, sweatshop-free threads, the chain is set to launch a new range of denim that moulds to the wearer's body, with the company's buzzword-spouting CEO (Stephen Bogaert, IT: Chapter Two) certain that they'll change the fashion industry. On the night before the jeans hit the shelves, employees at one store are tasked with making sure everything goes smoothly; however, as new hire Libby (Romane Denis, My Salinger Year), apathetic veteran employee Shruti (Sehar Bhojani, Sex & Ethnicity) and their over-eager boss Craig (Brett Donahue, Private Eyes) soon learn, these are killer jeans in a very literal sense. Quickly, the ravenous pants start stalking and slaying their way through the store. It's a concept that'd do Rubber's Quentin Dupieux proud and, in the hands of Canadian filmmaker Elza Kephart (Go in the Wilderness), the results are highly entertaining. Slaxx wears its equally silly and savage attitude like a second skin, smartly skewers consumerism and retail trends, and possesses stellar special effects that bring its denim to life — and, although never subtle (including in its performances), it's exactly as fun as a film about killer jeans should be. Slaxx is available to stream via Shudder. Looking for more viewing highlights? You can also check out our list of film and TV streaming recommendations, which is updated monthly. Plus, we picked ten standout new straight-to-streaming movies and specials in the middle of the year, too.
Life was already pretty dandy for the residents of Summer Hill. This leafy inner-west slice of paradise is well-known for its large family parks, tennis courts, trendy cafes and a local barber who stands out the front of his shop greeting everyone who walks by. Now, just to rub it in our faces, they have a really awesome small bar. Located on the main intersection, where Smith Street meets Lackey, The Temperance Society sprawls over two narrow levels, weaving in and out of rooms like a family home. Upstairs there's a brightly wallpapered library filled with Chesterfield lounges, leather-bound books and the smell of rich mahogany. It looks like they've taken inspiration from Ron Burgundy's apartment. Downstairs there's the bar, a fairy-lit courtyard and various intimate nooks on the way. The primary focus is the drinks list, which showcases quality bevvies from within a 7km radius. On tap there's Young Henrys cider; a fruity German-style Zonnebeke witbier by Marrickville's Batch Brewery; a malty, red rye ale by Chippendale's Ironbridge Brewery; and a clean and grassy Convict Lager by The Rocks Brewing Co. Drinks can be bought via the pot/pint/jug ($5/$10/$17.50) depending on the intensity of your night, and for most, it's just a short stumble home to bed anyway. Lucky bastards. Cocktails also play up the local theme. The Lackey Street Lush ($14) combines vodka and cloudy apple, every 20-year-old's favourite drink, or there's the Smith St Society Classic ($18), a thick and spicy tropical punch filled with hunks of fresh orange, dark rum, caramelised brown sugar and ginger beer. The crowd-pleaser is the Little Myrtle ($18), which is made with Botanica's lemon myrtle liqueur, elderflower syrup and a toothpick threaded with blueberries. It has the delicious lemon fizz of a melted Calippo. The star of the spirits list is the Sullivan's Cove ($68), a luxury small batch whisky recently named best Australian single malt at the World Whiskies Awards, although you'll need to have a few drinks first before you're convinced to hand over the cash. Bar snacks consist of quick and easy cold charcuterie platters. Choose from a rabbit, quail and pistachio terrine ($9), sourced from Marrickville's Black Forrest Smokehouse and served with pickled green tomatoes, or there's a cheese plate ($9) with Hunter Valley Cheese Co. cheddar, pickles, onion and relish. The dip platter ($5.50) includes two dips homemade by a local Lebanese resident and served with a mountain of sliced sourdough. For the ridiculously cheap prices, it's surprising to find the serving sizes extra generous. One plate between two will have you cancelling your dinner plans. The Temperance Society is a charming old-world bar serving quality local drinks at unbeatable prices. I hate you Summer Hill.
Since 2012, Sydney has dedicated one day each year to pretending that Japan isn't nearly 8000 kilometres away. Whether you're hopping on a plane to Tokyo in the near future, have always dreamed of wandering around Kyoto come cherry blossom season, or just love sake and gyoza (and who doesn't?), Matsuri Japan Festival celebrates everything the nation has to offer — and it has become Sydney's biggest Japanese celebration in the process. Indeed, last year more than 30,000 people went along to watch traditional and contemporary performances, knock back a few Orion beers, get their matcha fix, sip yuzu lemonade, learn calligraphy and origami, and devour sushi. And with all of that on this year's bill as well, plus karate and sumo demonstrations, audience cosplay, plenty of Japanese food and more, expect the fest to be fun and frenzied when it returns. The 2017 festival takes place from 11am on December 9 at Tumbalong Park in Darling Harbour. Entry is free, but we can't promise that the accompanying yearning to plan your next holiday won't cost you anything.
For many Australians, the Wendy's moniker refers to the local ice cream franchise and shopping centre staple born in the 70s. But in the USA, it's the name of a famed hamburger chain that's known for its square-shaped burgers, fries and shakes. And it's the latter's signature fast food goodies that you'll be able to get your mitts on — for free — at a one-day-only pop-up in The Rocks. Today, Thursday, May 13, the USA-born Wendy's is hitting Sydney for a special visit, taking over the site at 22 Playfair Street. From 10.30am, it'll be handing out complimentary serves of the brand's Dave's Single cheeseburger and the Classic Chocolate Wendy's Frosty — a creamy dessert that's somewhere between a thickshake and an ice cream. Of course, there'll be a limited amount of freebies available for each item, so you'll want to get in as early as possible to nab yourself one. [caption id="attachment_811853" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] PRNewsfoto/The Wendy's Company[/caption] The pop-up comes as Wendy's continues its expansion across the globe — so if the temporary visit proves popular, there's a chance that the brand could decide to set up shop permanently in Sydney. Plenty of other iconic US fast food brands have made the foray Down Under in the past few years — Carl's Jnr hit Australian shores in 2014, Taco Bell opened its first Aussie store in Queensland in 2017, Five Guys is set to hit our shores and actor Mark Wahlberg's burger joint Wahlburgers announced its Australian launch earlier this year. Wendy's was first born back in 1969 in Ohio and now boasts over 6800 restaurants around the world. Find the Wendy's pop-up at 22 Playfair Street, The Rocks, Sydney, from 10.30am on Thursday, May 13. Top image: Mike Mozart via Flickr.
In the latest example of movie land crossing over into reality, a Japanese team has created a four-metre-tall Transformers-style robot that can switch between walking mode and vehicle mode in about a minute. The work of robot software company Asratec, a prototype of the J-deite RIDE robot was unveiled last week, and will be on show at the GoldenWeek DOKIDOKI Festa All Working Cars Assemble in Tokyo on May 5. The design is operated both by wireless network remote control and by a steering wheel in the cockpit, with two people able to ride inside at once. Asratec's unique V-Sido robot control systems allow the robot to transform from a driveable car to a walking humanoid giant, though clocking in at around 60 seconds, it's fair to say the process isn't quite as speedy as in the movies. A group called Sansei Technologies is now looking to develop the technology for 'robot-type amusement rides' — it sounds like transforming go-karts could be just around the corner.
Sydneysiders from all corners of the city flock to Addison Road each weekend for Marrickville's organic market, which takes place every Sunday from 9am–3pm. In addition to all the fruit, veg, eggs, pastries, breads, cakes, tarts, quiches and pies — all of which are organic — the market also offers all manner of other treasures, including vintage clothes, secondhand books and records, house plants, bespoke homewares, eco products, and even healing crystals and tarot readings. There are also plenty of affordable eats to fuel you during your shopping spree, from pho, loaded bagels and lamb rolls to raw vegan treats, specialty coffee and loaded yoghurt cups. When you're not perusing the many stalls, we suggest you stretch out on the grass behind the community hall where you can enjoy live music and other entertainment. And while you're in the area, be sure to pay a visit to Marrickville's legendary Reverse Garbage workshop, where you can transform discarded materials into unique items of jewellery, clothing and art.
Some say NSW's Central Coast is the Venice of Australia, which may sound like a stretch, but there are, actually, many similarities: great pizza, alfresco spritzes, aperitivo hours and stunning beaches. And, as a bonus, there are (hopefully) less floods and less tourists. It's also located less than two hours from Sydney — an easy road trip to accomplish in a weekend. The Central Coast is expansive — stretching all the way from the Hawkesbury River to Lake Macquarie — and encompasses more than 40 beaches, so this weekender's guide is in no way comprehensive. Instead, it's a handpicked list of our favourite places to eat and drink, the Central Coast's top accommodations, and the most exciting things to do when looking to fill a weekend. [caption id="attachment_696971" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Glass Onion Society[/caption] EAT AND DRINK To start a weekend right on the Central Coast, you should start it by the water. And aptly named The Box on the Water offers just that. Located on the redeveloped Ettalong Beach foreshore, the eatery offers sprawling views across Broken Bay, great dog spotting and tasty fare from breakfast to dinner. If you're there at sundown, stop by for one of five spritzes and a picture-perfect sunset. A 20-minute drive away, you'll find Burnt Honey Bakery directly opposite Copacabana Beach, which has some of the best handmade pastries in the area. Drive a little further north and you'll hit the environmentally conscious Like Minds Avoca. A stone's throw from Avoca Lake, the hip cafe has a chandelier made from repurposed milk jugs, it hosts regular produce swaps in its garden and serves locally roasted Fat Poppy Coffee. For more great coffee, head over to Glee in Erina Heights — another local roaster, which has three spots on the east coast. On a stretch of the Central Coast that has more similarities to Newtown than Venice, Long Jetty, you'll find The Glass Onion Society. It, too, would be comfortable relocating to Sydney's inner west, decked out with retro lounges, plants and eclectic knick-knacks. It has many vegan-friendly options, including a particularly tasty mushroom and hash brown brekkie burger. For your final daytime eating spot, make tracks to Saddles — a stunning homestead-like restaurant and bakehouse located on a 28-acre property in Mount White. [caption id="attachment_696973" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mumbo Jumbo's[/caption] As the sun starts to dip, you (like us) might start contemplating a refreshing cocktail or two. Which is fair, you're on holidays after all. For this, there are many options. Terrigal's Pocket Bar — sister to Sydney's Stitch Bar and Button Bar — pairs modern twists on classic cocktails (including watermelon martinis) with fun bar snacks; the Caribbean-themed Mumbo Jumbo's down the road has espresso martinis on tap and a rooftop bar that looks out across the water; and Avoca Surf House is serving up many spritzes and sparkling wines right on the beach. Another spot doing great drinks is The Lucky Bee, but we really recommend heading here for dinner. It's run by Matty Bennett and Rupert Noffs, who closed their acclaimed NYC eatery of the same name, swapped the city for the beach and opened on the Central Coast. Located at Hardys Bay, The Lucky Bee's Southeast Asian fare is fiery, the drinks extravagant and the atmosphere always buzzing — so make a reservation. Young Barons, run by another young couple, is yet another restaurant hitting all the right notes, with pasta and gelato made fresh daily and bottles of natural wine served up in an unassuming spot around the corner. If you're back down in Terrigal, stop by Rhonda's. It really embraces the coastal Italian feel of the area, serving up Roman-style woodfired pizza, handmade pasta and house-made limoncello in a breezy, plant-filled space. It has a rooftop bar, too, where you continue drinking spritzes well into the evening. [caption id="attachment_696974" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mr Goaty Gelato at Distillery Botanica[/caption] DO If just the thought of all that food makes you want to embark on a digestive stroll, you're in luck — there are many on the Central Coast. Back at Ettalong Beach, you can walk along the shore to Umina Beach (an easy three kilometres away) looking out across Broken Bay to Palm Beach. Another short trek is the one-kilometre Maitland Bay Track, which carries you through rainforest to Maitland Bay. Here, at low-tide, you're able to see the shipwrecked remains of PS Maitland at the bay's eastern end. For something longer, the nearby Bouddi Coastal Trail, an 8.5-kilometre hike, winds pass lookouts and beaches. Pack your snorkelling gear and explore one of them — we recommend heading to the sheltered Lobster Beach and keeping an eye out for dolphins. [caption id="attachment_524126" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Maitland Bay[/caption] Prefer shopping to snorkelling? There are lots of vintage stores and boutiques scattered around the Coast, too. Back at the inner west-like Long Jetty, pop into Long Jetty Vintage, Websters Vintage and Plain Janes. While you're there, visit the town's namesake: the 351-metre Long Jetty stretching out into the middle of Tuggerah Lake. Once you've shopped up a thirst, Distillery Botanica is the next order of the day. This stunning garden distillery is from the distiller behind Mr Black cold drip coffee liqueur — which you can sample and purchase here, too. The distillery's gins, also named Distillery Botanica, are made using botanicals grown in the garden and taste how you'd image spring would. The distillery is also home to Mr Goaty, an award-winning gelato made on the Central Coast. Founded by Dan Hughes, formerly a chef at Sydney's Three Blue Ducks, the brand is known for its signature flavours made using goat's milk, which is lighter in sugar but equally creamy. Many of the flavours — goat's milk, cow's milk and dairy-free — are made using plants grown in the distillery garden, too, including the honeycomb and lavender and lemon myrtle macadamia. [caption id="attachment_696978" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Copacabana Beach House[/caption] SLEEP Perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Tasman is Copacabana Beach House. Spread across three storeys, the restored 70s house is the perfect spot to stay if you're heading away with a crew — it has three bedrooms and sleeps up to eight people — or if you're looking for a very spacious (yet affordable) property for two. It's even equipped for winter visits, fitted out with a crackling indoor fireplace, a decked-out kitchen and outdoor fire pit. During the cooler months, you might even be able to spot humpback whales migrating right past your window. But the Beach House is ideal in warmer months, too, when you can wander down Del Monte Place to Copacabana Beach for a morning dip, and eat fresh seafood on the house's sprawling balconies. For something smaller, but also by the water, Terrigal's The Clan has 21 waterfront rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the beach or lagoon. Top image: Copacabana Beach FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. 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Woodford Folk Festival is a veritable smorgasbord of all things music, performance, creativity and so much more, with this year's lineup boasting over 400 events and 2000 performers over six days that straddle this year and the next. With artists making the trek to the small town of Woodford from all over the world, the festival presents the best that Australia and the world have to offer in the broad category of folk. The town of Woodford, about 70km north of Brisbane, boasts a population of just over two and a half thousand people, so rather than blow that number out of the water for a few days every year, the festival is held about five minutes out of Woodford, on the 500-acre headquarters of Woodfordia, a not-for-profit organisation that produces the festival. The region is a quiet, rural area, nestled in some truly beautiful surroundings and not too far from the beaches at Moreton Bay. With that in mind, why not take a detour from your routine, and build an itinerary that includes the festival, as well as a few other side quests that you wouldn't normally set out on. We've teamed up with our pals at Mazda3 to get your ideas going for where to stay, what to eat and what to do while you're in town. [caption id="attachment_642063" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image credit: Woodford Folk Festival via Flickr.[/caption] EAT AND DRINK While at the festival, you'd be mad to not gorge yourself on the slew of food on offer within the festival itself. Far from your classic dagwood dog and can of Fanta combo, the streets of the festival village are filled with the scents of cuisine from all over the world. From Mexican to Indian, German to Vietnamese, you can get your fix for any hankering in the festival's boundaries. There are cafes for the mornings and bars for the evening, so whatever your poison, the Festival of Food's got you covered. For the remainder of your stay, however, it's worth taking a few trips off the beaten track to find somewhere more unique to eat and, with rugged mountains providing the stunning backdrop to the areas surrounding Woodford, there's no harm in chasing a good view to wash it down with. Perched atop Mount Mee and enjoying views that range from farms to beaches, Birches Restaurant serves classic bistro food with an emphasis on seafood, a trait not uncommon throughout the region. A little further south, in Ocean View, you'll also find Ocean View Estates, a local winery with a cellar door and restaurant thrown in for good measure. As well as a menu drawing influence from Japan and French cuisines, the winery also added craft beer to their acumen only last year, so it's a just chance to check out the local brews, too. Given that Woodford and its neighbours ride the boundary line between inland rural and coastal beaches, it's not surprising that the region is home to some excellent country pubs. Not that inner-city-bar-pretending-to-be-a-country-pub sort of pub, but an actual pub in the country where the aesthetic is legitimate. So, if the winery hasn't slaked your thirst, sit yourself down at the nearest local and blow the froth off a couple. The Village Garden Bar & Grill in Woodford Village Hotel, for example, provides exactly what it says on the label, dishing out pub grub and beverages in a lovely beer garden. DO The Woodford Folk Festival is more than just a few bands performing over a few days. It's more like a Mary Poppins bag bursting with workshops, comedy, cabaret, talks and debates, a film festival, art, meditation, dance, circus and a whole manner of sins. As well as live musical acts like Sampa the Great, Husky, Montaigne, Kate Miller-Heidke, John Butler and Rising Appalachia, the full program offers a million ways to explore the festival. Brisbane-based slam poet Anisa Nandaula will be in attendance, discussing her own brand of political lyricism, and executive director of the Climate Foundation Dr Brian von Herzen will be discussing a range of issues — and potential solutions to them — facing marine life. From the Circadia circus workshops to 80s dance workshops, Chenda Melam's traditional music from southern India to Kim Kirman and Brian Martin with the Seraphim Baroque ensemble, there's never a dull moment, drinking in traditional folk culture from around the world. And, if you feel like getting out of the throng and into the calm embrace of Mother Nature, there's even the option of an organised walk to check out the local mushrooms. [caption id="attachment_642064" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] D'aguilar National Park, Troy Bell via Flickr.[/caption] Beyond the festival, it would be a sin to pass up the abundant bushlands and national parks that run through Woodford and the surrounding towns. It's a quick drive from town into the D'Aguilar National Park that runs almost all the way south to Brisbane. In addition to a spot of bushwalking, the park also allows four-wheel driving, trail bike riding, and horse riding. The Somerset Trail, which crawls up Mount Mee, is perfect for pretty much everyone who might be down to see the diverse ecology of the area and is pretty close to Woodford. It's an easy track that takes about three to four hours, so if you've brought kids along for the trip, they'll be able to handle it, no worries. The trail takes you through scribbly gum groves, rainforests and ultimately to a lookout that gives an incredible view over the whole Moreton Bay region. STAY With such a huge swathe of land available for the festival, camping is, of course, the traditional method of experiencing the festival. If you're the kind of person who already owns camping stuff, you can bring that along, and the General Store in town will have most things you might not have. Alternatively, there's the option of the Tent Motel, where you can just rent out a pre-erected tent for the duration of your stay. Shower facilities are available for all campers because even though we're sleeping outside, we don't have to be animals. If, however, you're the kind of person who prefers to sleep in a bed, in a room, in a building, there are still places to rest your weary head around the area. The nearby town of D'Aguilar is home to the freshly renovated Dag Pub and Motel, for example, with reasonably priced rooms and a bar and bistro with solid eats and a penchant for memorabilia. If you're making the road trip, it's always good for a city kid to dive into some greener scenery, and a trip to the Moreton Bay area is the perfect opportunity to do just that. With so many national parks such a short drive away, perhaps an unwinding couple of nights at Conondale's Eco Retreat might get you a little bit more in touch with nature. But, if you're looking to get even closer to the trees and the mountains, a stay at Glass on Glasshouse might be the ticket, where your accommodation is a cabin made of floor-to-ceiling windows, snug among the rainforest itself. Woodford Folk Festival takes place at Woodfordia from December 27 to January 1. Top image: Woodford Folk Festival via Flickr. Personalise your next adventure via The Playmaker, driven by Mazda3.
If you've ever wanted to see what Sydney would look like in an anime world, you're in a spot of luck. Redrawn and traced from photos, Central Station, Hyde Park and the Harbour Bridge been rendered with that wondrously glowing anime magic for a new episode of Japanese anime series Free!. Aired on September 17 for Free! Eternal Summer, Sydney's anime makeover comes from an adorably air-punching storyline. An episode enthusiastically dubbed 'A Swim-Off in a Foreign Land!' sees two of the main characters, Rin and Haruka (besties and athletes in the show's Iwatobi Swimming Club), head to Australia to swim alongside our national team at Sydney Aquatic Centre — as you do. The pair cruise around Sydney meeting up with their homestay parents, chillin' at Bondi and reigniting Haruka's love for dominating the lanes. Go team. Check it out, Sydney's wearing gorgeous, anime-style pants. Images: imgur.
Boasting a raft of awards, it's not hard to see why The Darling Spa is considered one of Sydney's most luxurious. Not only is it home to 11 treatment rooms, a steam room, Moroccan Hammam chamber and two opulent couples suites, but the Pyrmont venue also offers an extensive range of therapies that prove well worth the splurge. The entry-level facial costs $110 and the treatments quickly go north from there, but so too does the quality. Treat yourself to a balancing full-body massage (from $195), or perhaps surrender to an indulgent three-hour package that includes a full-body exfoliation, body wrap, scalp massage, hand and foot treatment and facial for $580. [caption id="attachment_847463" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW[/caption]
Top-of-class bars and restaurants have been a major focus of the mammoth $60-million renovation of the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth. House Made Hospitality has delivered four new hospitality concepts within the upgraded hotel: earlier in October, the first two venues – Tilda and Bar Tilda – located on the ground floor, were opened to the public and now, two more plush spaces are ready to welcome their first guests. French-Vietnamese fusion restaurant Delta Rue channels the vibrant old-world spirit of Hanoi but with a refined sense of luxury. With seating for 150 diners, plus space for an additional 60 on the sweeping horse-shoe terrace, this impressive restaurant seamlessly blends al fresco charm with indoor elegance. On arrival, guests can visit the intimate champagne bar, where seven by-the-glass sips — from single-village grower champagnes to vintage selections — are on offer. The 390-square-metre dining room's interior design, by Fender Katsalidis, also sets a luxe tone, taking its cues from French-colonial architecture and Vietnamese-style textiles and prints. "In this space, east meets west, vibrancy and structure collide, and there's a magical balance of neutrals and colour," says Karen Morris of Fender Katsalidis. A soft, nature-inspired palette of muted greens and greys counterpoints the verdant wallpaper, designed by artist Kerrie Brown, featuring lush foliage and exotic birds, while seating crafted from solid reclaimed teak with woven rope backs underlines the 1920s colonial era look. On the menu, fresh, crisp, quintessentially Vietnamese flavours take centre stage. Crafted by the hotel's Executive Chef Elliott Pinn, who has formerly overseen the dining offering at House Made's other major dining hub Hinchcliff House, there are some playful flourishes for diners to enjoy, such as the bánh mì trolley, which constructs the crowd-pleasing Vietnamese sandwich tableside to the diners' taste, before it's sliced into bite-sized pieces for easy sharing. Many of the mains are also social affairs designed to share. Guests can get hands-on with roasted duck legs, a whole roasted snapper or a dry-aged steak, accompanied by nuoc cham, rice paper, butter lettuce, and pickles, to create classic Vietnamese wraps. A fresh crab and green mango salad loaded with fresh herbs or a banana blossom salad featuring a textural mix of shaved banana blossom, pineapple, and chilli make for the perfect side dishes. Washing that down is a wine list that skews 70 per cent French alongside a range of local and international fortified and dessert wines. The cocktail list is also French-leaning with some homegrown winks thrown in, such as the French 75 featuring Pommery champagne, Unico Zelo pomelo vermouth, pear eau de vie and finger lime extract. Located on the same level as Delta Rue, Wentworth Bar is a lush terrace watering hole that looks fated to become a top go-to for an inner-city sundowner. Also designed by Fender Katsalidis, the space is sophisticated yet relaxed. Conceived to cater to punters throughout the day, there are a variety of seating options, from low-slung chairs for sun-basking, cocktail in hand, to high tables with stools for those looking to perch for a quick drink and generous seating areas intended for group gatherings. Terrazzo tables and verdant planting centred around an impressive focal point — a mature tree — transport guests far from the urban hustle just five storeys below, while DJ sets keep the good times rolling. The cocktail menu amps up the fun with playful mixes that are easy to drink. A signature will be Wentworth Bar's party cocktails. Priced at $220, they come served in a showstopping glass fountain which holds 12 standard drinks. Get the party started with the Tai Chi Mumma, a refreshing mix of Ketel One vodka, rosé, and prosecco, rounded out with raspberry, lemon, and lychee or the Strawberry Yuzu Spritz - a bright blend of white wine, herbal aperitif, yuzu, and a fruity hit of mango, passionfruit, and grapefruit. Delta Rue and Bar Wentworth open to diners from Friday, October 25. For more details and opening hours, head the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth website. Images: Steven Woodburn
The food and drink revolution of Circular Quay continues with a new venue from the Hinchcliff House team opening just across the road from the OG. Only a few days after the bustling waterfront suburb welcomed Lotus Dining Group's sleek new Cantonese restaurant Pearl, an expensive new Mediterranean-inspire terrace has arrived at Quay Quater Tower from House Made Hospitality. Martinez Terrace is the first element of a two-pronged new offering from the acclaimed hospitality team. The colourful 160-person outdoor bar will be joined by the vibrant Martinez dining room on Thursday, October 12. For now, the attention is all on the openair watering hole, which you'll find slinging spritzes and oysters at the end of a quick elevator ride up from Young Street. "We want Martinez to capture the relaxed style of drinking and dining that is synonymous with holidays on the Mediterranean coast, and for the Terrace Bar to give you memories of drinking the afternoon away in a seaside spot," says House Made Hospitality Director Scott Brown. House Made Hospitality's producer-led approach to wine continues at Martinez, with a selection of drops that the team has had a hand in making themselves sitting alongside a variety of Australian and European whites, reds and rosé. The terrace is also the kind of venue that encourages you to just get the bottle to share with your friends. There's even a whole page of the extended drinks list dedicated exclusively to magnums of wine. As a little opening celebration, the bar is encouraging you to make a group booking and go big, offering a rotating selection of rosé magnums for $99 a bottle until 4pm Monday–Saturday throughout October. Elsewhere on the beverage selection, you'll find a wide variety of craft beers and five signature cocktails on tap — including a vodka, coconut and mango spritz primed for warm afternoons out on the terrace. To partner with your magnum of wine, the food menu is also designed to be shared. Executive Chef Alex Wong (Lana) suggests the baguette with cultured butter and caper salt, sesame seed fougasse, whipped roe with bottarga, LP's saucisson and Ortiz anchovies with seaweed persillade butter on a Grana baguette. Chilled mussels with Yarra Valley roe, duck terrine and a next-level ham, mustard and fennel sandwich are among the other highlights on the snack side of Martinez's menu — while there are a few heftier options including steak frites and grilled swordfish. Emilie Delalande of Etic (Barangaroo House) has led the design work across the venue, with both the terrace and the dining room containing odes to artist residencies in the south of France. The bar is designed to facilitate any occasion — there are intimate two-person tables and long benches designed for group catch-ups. And if you're lucky, you might even nab a spot with views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Martinez Terrace is now open at Quay Quarter Tower, 50 Bridge Street, Circular Quay. Its adjoining restaurant is set to open on Thursday, October 12. For more information head to the Martinez website. Images: Steven Woodburn and Jason Loucus.
From an elevated 11-course spin on KFC and Disney degustations to nostalgia-driven menus themed around great British memories, Surry Hills fine-diner NEL continues to push the boundaries of creativity and invention with its contemporary takes on any theme it sets its attention toward. The restaurant's Executive Chef and Owner Nelly Robinson is leading the charge on these inventive degustations, assisted by a team of chefs with expert craftsmanship and a knack for inventing. Each time you venture to the Wentworth Avenue venue, you can expect something different — and something exceptional. When you opt to dine in this time, however, you'll have the chance to experience a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the creative process with the return of the NEL test kitchen. The limited lunch series will pop back up on Saturday, September 30th, offering an exclusive sneak peek into the inner workings of the venue's creation process. NEL's test kitchen will return for a single instalment, offering a nine-course set menu of seasonally-inspired dishes dedicated to "all things spring". The acclaimed restaurant's chefs will build new, exciting dishes, some of which may feature on NEL's future menu — and you'll be among the first to trial them. On this particular journey, you'll be met with a stunning kaleidoscope of colour paired with flavours that'll lead you on a sensory exploration of the season. Keep up to date with the event's details at NEL's official website.
Stepping into Berlin's Markos Dance Academy on a grey, rainy 1977 day, Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) is a picture of nervous excitement. The former Ohio Mennonite clutches at her meagre belongings with equal parts eagerness and apprehension, her eyes darting keenly. But once she's through the school's doors, she's willing to surrender to whatever comes her way. It's an attitude that everyone watching Suspiria should take note of, for Susie is the perfect viewer surrogate in this delightfully dark, seductive, twitchy and witchy remake. Like the American in Germany pursuing her dream and accepting everything that happens next, giving yourself over to the movie's horrors and charms is truly the audience's only option. If ever a remake yearned to be judged on its own merits, it's Suspiria. After the sun-dappled Italian vistas and melancholic romance of his sublime Call Me By Your Name, filmmaker Luca Guadagnino takes Dario Argento's iconic 1977 film — and really takes to it. Made with evident love for the original, but never trying to slavishly recreate it, Guadagnino's Suspiria is a new dreamlike interpretation of an already dreamlike classic. It's the feverish nightmare you might have after letting the initial flick needle its way into your brain and mix with your own subconscious. Perhaps that's what happened to Guadagnino and his second-time screenwriter David Kajganich (A Bigger Splash). Either way, their protagonist also experiences her own disturbing nocturnal visions, and they're gloriously unhinged. In a city still grappling with the aftermath of catastrophic conflict three decades on, where Red Army Faction terror attacks have become a daily occurrence, bad dreams are the least of Susie and her fellow dancers' concerns. Amid preparations for the academy's latest show — a re-staging of a piece created by head teacher Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) after the Second World War — their star goes missing. It's with an air of unease that the unsettled group moves forward after Patricia's (Chloë Grace Moretz) disappearance, which the school's teachers link to the far-left RAF's disorder in the streets. Thankfully, newcomer Susie is both willing and able to step into Patricia's shoes, with her breathy passion more than catching Madame Blanc's eye. While Argento's Suspiria teased out its big twist, Guadagnino's version lays it all out on the dance floor from the outset. Rather than a company of dancers, complete with experienced instructors overseeing the next generation, this is a coven. Rather than training for their next recital, they're readying their new sacrifices for a ritual. Removing the mystery around the film's otherworldly elements doesn't remove the mystery from the film, however. With an elderly psychiatrist (an actor credited as 'Lutz Ebersdorf') searching for Patricia with the eventual help of Markos dancer Sara (Mia Goth), there's intrigue aplenty. The intense teacher-pupil, pseudo mother-daughter bond between Susie and Madame Blanc also keeps everyone guessing. Scored to Thom Yorke's moody tunes and edited with a sense of anxiety, Suspiria isn't a character study. It doesn't probe the recesses of Susie's mind to explore what makes her tick, or delve deeply into Madame Blanc's motivations. Instead, it largely leaves its key duo at the mercy of the movie's macabre plot. That's what horror movies typically do, as seen in this year's other dance-horror flick, Gaspar Noe's Climax. Nonetheless, Johnson and Swinton instantly demand the audience's attention, drawing viewers in in much the same way that their characters are drawn to each other. The combination of vulnerability and determination that made Johnson the best thing about the Fifty Shades trilogy is firmly on display, as is Swinton's well-established allure in multiple guises. Everything else that Guadagnino and Kajganich place within Suspiria's frames is also designed to reel the audience in; to encourage surrender, if not willingly then by force. A movie as densely layered as the rhythmic yet jarring dance moves that it thrusts to the fore, Suspiria is laden with intoxicating, inescapable detail. Thematically, it delves into the scars of war, the historical subjugation of women and the way that one childhood moment can shape someone's life. In its aesthetics, it's an all-out horror onslaught that evolves from creepily atmospheric to violently sensual to gleefully bloody (oh-so-bloody!) across its 152-minute running time. The film's strong visuals shouldn't come as a surprise, although not for reasons that original Suspiria fans might expect. Where Argento's movie glowed with deep jewel tones, Guadagnino favours grim shades enlivened by more than a dash of red. With a filmography that also includes Swinton in I Am Love, and both Swinton and Johnson in A Bigger Splash, Guadagnino has long known how to throw gorgeous pictures across the screen. He's not the first filmmaker to demonstrate that horrific imagery can also be bewitching but, aided by the suitably restless camerawork of cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me By Your Name), he makes the case in a stunning fashion. Two scenes stand out — Susie's telekinetic audition, and the movie's over-the-top climax — but the entirety of Suspiria stamps itself onto viewers' eyeballs. Perhaps Susie and her cackling company won't be the only ones having lurid, disturbing and spellbinding dreams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q6jwH5_MKQ
This breezy, often boisterous Surry Hills establishment is another example of a previously overlooked drinking hole which has been revitalised around craft beer. It's a modern space with well-presented pub grub, but it's in their expertly curated beer offerings where the Dove & Olive really shines. Grab a beer paddle and select from a range of unusual tipples on tap. If you're here for a nosh, the D&O also features four-course dinners where each stage of the meal is matched to a beer, while their Craft Beer Fight Club — where brewers 'fight to the death' for the chance to get their brew on tap for a month — is quickly becoming the stuff of legend. Plus, the trivia here is some Sydney's best and most boisterous.
SXSW Sydney is still three months away (yes, we're counting), but the first-ever South by Southwest to be held outside of the US just keeps getting bigger and bigger. So far, the conference-slash-festival has dropped an initial round of speakers, a batch of music highlights and must-attend parties, and details of its gaming strand. Now, it has unveiled more fascinating folks who'll be chatting behind a microphone. The SXSW Sydney Screen Festival hasn't yet revealed what it'll be showing; however, SXSW's Sydney debut has just added a stellar session on First Nations storytelling with three impressive filmmakers on the bill. Leah Purcell (The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson), Kodie Bedford (Mystery Road: Origin) and Jub Clerc (Sweet As) will all take to the stage at The Next Gen Blak Storytellers, which is about Indigenous talents telling 'modern' Blak stories. On moderating duties: Brooke Boney. Also familiar from plenty of screens is Osher Günsberg, who'll be on the SXSW Sydney bill recording an episode of his podcast Better Than Yesterday with a yet-to-be-announced special guest. Hailing from behind the scenes, Gone Girl, The Nightingale, The Dry, Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers producer Bruna Papandrea joins the lineup as a featured speaker, as does Binge's Executive Director Alison Hurbert-Burns. And, the SXSW Sessions lineup now includes Silverchair's Ben Gillies talking about creating music videos with AI, plus other talks on video-game collecting at the National Film and Sound Archive, plus death and dying in video games. Another of SXSW Sydney's new high-profile names: Layne Beachley, with the seven-time World Surfing Champion discussing facing retirement at 36 and reinventing herself afterwards. Fellow just-announced speakers include Indonesian Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, plus Expedia Group Chief Technology Officer and President Rathi Murthy. Also joining the program: connecting our minds to hands-free digital devices, e-waste, AI in the workforce, Aussie startups, NFTs, the future of news media, protecting the oceans, swiping right, sessions on lab-grown meat and more. Obviously, all of the above names and sessions — plus others already announced — are still just the beginning of what's promising to be SXSW's massive Sydney arrival. The entire event will happen within a walkable precinct in the Sydney CBD, Haymarket, Darling Harbour, Ultimo, Chippendale and more, with the fest's footprint operating as a huge hub. SXSW will also be packed with festivals within the bigger fest, exhibitions, talks, networking opportunities and streetside activations popping up everywhere. So far, venues named include Powerhouse Museum, ICC Sydney, UTS, Central Park Mall, the Goods Line Walk, The Abercrombie and Lansdowne Hotel. Attendees can hit up the SXSW Sydney Conference, which is where those keynotes, presentations, panels, workshops and mentor sessions come in — more than 400 of them. And, there's the SXSW Sydney Technology & Innovation Exhibitions, which is all about innovative and emerging tech and entertainment companies from across the Asia-Pacific region. Plus, at the Startup Village, up-and-comers from all industries and sectors will have space to meet, present and chat. SXSW's arts fests will span the SXSW Sydney 2023 Music Festival, which will be focused on live music venues in central Sydney — and the aforementioned SXSW Sydney Gaming Festival, complete with more than 100 local and international independent games to play at venues (alongside demonstrations, launches performances, exhibitions and social gatherings). Movie and TV lovers, get excited — because the SXSW Sydney Screen Festival isn't just a film fest. There'll be flicks to see, including at red-carpet premieres; episodic content; and digital, XR and social content. Expect Q&As and panel discussions with the folks behind them as well. SXSW Sydney will run from Sunday, October 15–Sunday, October 22 at various Sydney venues — head to the festival's website for further details. If you're keen to make the most of Australia's first SXSW, take advantage of our special reader offer. Purchase your SXSW Sydney 2023 Official Badge via Concrete Playground Trips and you'll score a $150 credit to use on your choice of Sydney accommodation. Book now via the website.
If there's anyone in Sydney who knows where to find the best street art, the smartest galleries and the most fun art gatherings, it's Scott Marsh. Even if you don't know his name, chances are, you know his work. His most famous piece is undoubtedly Kanye Loves Kanye, a seven-metre-tall mural of two Kanyes kissing one another, which appeared in Teggs Lane, Chippendale, in April 2016. Within a month, someone paid Marsh $100,000 to buff (graffiti-speak for paint over) it. Also among his international headline-grabbing works are Casino Mike, a satirical portrait of former NSW premier Mike Baird painted as a protest against the lockout laws, and Tony Loves Tony, an image of Tony Abbott marrying himself. In partnership with Pullman Hotels and Resorts, we're helping you explore more on your next holiday and make sure you get those experiences that the area's most switched-on residents wouldn't want their visitors to miss. In Sydney, we've called in Scott, whose favourite spots range from Wendy Whiteley's dreamy harbourside garden to the best shops for premium spray paint. A stay in one of Pullman's two locations in central Sydney — Hyde Park and Quay Grand Sydney Harbour (there's also two more at Sydney Airport and Sydney Olympic Park) — will not only put you in the thick of all this action, it will let you contemplate all you've seen in five-star luxury at the end of the day. Read on for Scott's perspective on Sydney's artistic hot spots, and check out the rest of our Explore More content series to hone your itinerary for some of Australia's best holiday destinations. SUNDAY WALLS AT THE LORD GLADSTONE Since June 2015, artists and musicians have been gathering once a month at the Lord Gladstone in Chippendale for Sunday Walls. From 2 until 10pm, an emerging or established graffiti artist works on a temporary mural with a stack of spray cans, while live hip hop DJs provide a soundtrack. Punters hang around to watch, eat $10 fried chicken and share $15 jugs of Frank Strongs. The Lord Gladstone attracts a pretty laidback, eclectic crowd, and watching a new art work appear before your eyes can't not be fun. GOODSPACE GALLERY OPENINGS Goodspace Gallery gives Chippendale a weekly art fix with exhibition openings on Wednesday evenings from 6pm–9pm. Artists score a good deal because the space doesn't charge rent or take commissions. Plus, both local and international talent features. In early November, Sydney-based photographer James Simpson exhibited Endless Summer, a collection of photos influenced by French and Italian cinema of the '60s and '70s. The week before, photographer Joshua Valageorgiou, who splits his time between Sydney and Athens, took over the space with Cluster, a black-and-white analogue series. [caption id="attachment_644404" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] by Luke Shirlaw[/caption] IRONLAK ART AND DESIGN About a year ago, this graffiti-dedicated retail space opened on the ground floor of Central Park, Broadway. It's the Sydney flagship of Ironlak, a premium spray-paint brand founded in the early 2000s by Australian graffiti artist Luke Shirlaw, in collaboration with brothers Levi and Heath Ramsay, and now sold internationally. Not only is Ironlak Art and Design a great place to check out quality products and meet artists, the walls are covered in street art. Plus, it's open until 8pm 363 days a year, so even if you're in a full-time job, you can drop by and get what you need to start your next project. REDFERN AND NEWTOWN GRAFFITI AND STREET ART There's a few great street art spots around Redfern and Newtown that I check out whenever I can. More often than not, I find something new to see. In Redfern, expect to catch me around The Block or Phillip Lane, where there's a lot of Indigenous street art, including works by Reko Rennie and Hego, telling stories of history, identity and resistance. When I'm in Newtown, I take a wander down Wilford and Gladstone Streets. Young Henrys is nearby, which means it's pretty tempting to stop for a beer sample or two. FINTAN MAGEE'S HOUSING BUBBLE MURAL This is my favourite mural in Sydney. It's called The Housing Bubble and it's on the side of the Urban hotel, on the corner of Enmore and Station Streets. Fintan Magee, an artist who was born in Lismore and grew up in Brisbane, painted it over the course of four days during Marrickville Council's Perfect Match street art festival in July 2015. Every year, the event brings a bunch of new works to Sydney, by providing artists with spaces and encouraging crowds to watch as they sketch, paint and spray. [caption id="attachment_644637" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] by Newtown Graffiti[/caption] SYDNEY STEEL ROAD, MARRICKVILLE Found just a short walk from Sydenham Station, Sydney Steel Road puts a whole lot of excellent art, colour and vibrancy into an otherwise industrial area. There's everything from realistic portraits to political statements to giant, surrealist murals. When you're done here, wander across Camdenville Park to May Lane, which gives you a stack more work to see. A shopkeeper started a graffiti wall there more than 15 years ago because he wanted to create a space where artists could work legally. May Lane is a fixture on the Perfect Match program, so major new works are added each year. 567 KING Newtown's graffiti writers have been stocking up here since August 2005, and these days, artists of all kinds drop by. Whether you want spray paint, pencils, paints or paper, you can get it. Plus, if listening to a bit of hip hop on vinyl or CD while you're working is your thing, you can make your picks in the shop and ask the crew to deliver them to your door. There's also a handy commissioning service: get in touch with a request for an artwork and 567King will hook you up with the right artist for the job. BRETT WHITELEY STUDIO When Brett Whiteley died in Thirroul in 1992, he left behind this studio in Surry Hills, where he'd worked and lived since 1985. Walking in here is a bit like stepping back in time, into Whiteley's private and artistic life. There are paintings he started but never finished, piles of books that gave him inspiration and quotes scrawled across the wall. In the adjoining gallery, temporary exhibitions showcase works owned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Whiteley Estate and private collectors, so there's always a new reason to visit. WENDY'S SECRET GARDEN Across the harbour, in Lavender Bay, is the creative work of the other half of the legendary Whiteley partnership: Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden. From 1970, for the best part of 20 years, the Whiteleys lived in a house nearby. When Brett passed away, Wendy coped with her grief by setting to work on the land, which back then, was disused railway property, covered in rubbish and weeds. Now, it's a haven of blood leaf, ginger, angel's trumpets, palms, fig trees and sandstone walls overhung with rambling vines, where I come to escape, sketch and drink coffee. MCA ARTBAR MCA ARTBAR combines art with music and live performance to create something entirely new. The happening takes over various parts of the gallery on the last Friday of every month, and even if you've checked out the program, you never can tell quite what you're in for. In July 2017, Latai Taumoepeau curated Archipela_GO ....this is not a drill, a mix of live performances and interactive works exploring climate change. Before that, in May, Vivid 2017 artist Julia Gorman brought together samba dancers, DJs, artists and a pop-up jewellery stall for a night of colour and light. Explore more with Pullman. Book your next hotel stay with Pullman and enjoy a great breakfast for just $1.
In April, we farewelled Merivale's American-themed Manly eatery Papi Chulo — and now the hospitality group's second Queen Chow has taken its place. Papi Chulo shut up shop back in April, and the East Esplanade space has since undergone a small refurbishment. Group tables are now topped with lazy susans, tanks filled with live seafood greet guests at the door, and deep greens and dark timbers echo the hues of Queen Chow's sister restaurant in Newtown. With the restaurant also bringing over its signature barbecue roast duck and honey-glazed char siu pork platters, what has remained from the site's former guise is the stunning view out across the sparkling Sydney Harbour. In the kitchen, executive chef Patrick Friesen and dumpling master Eric Koh use Australian ingredients to recreate dishes served up at neighbourhood Chinese restaurants. Oysters — served from an impressive zinc-clad oyster bar — come topped with finger lime, Australian pipis are wok-fried with XO, and Moreton Bay bugs are doused in butter and black pepper. You'll also find Chinese-Australian staples such as sticky honey prawns, Mongolian lamb and deep-fried ice cream. Koh's famed dumplings are expectedly a highlight of the menu, with a lineup of steamed or fried scallop and prawn siu mai, pork xiao long bao, prawn har gau and more. Alongside the food menu, Merivale's group sommelier Frank Moreau has pulled together another impressive wine list, with over 200 wines from across Australia and the world. Queen Chow's reopening is part of Manly Wharf's $9 million dollar makeover, and the restaurant will soon by joined by Rockpool Dining Group's Fratelli Fresh and Sake Restaurants — which are set to open later this year on the Wharf's second storey.
By day, Gaku serves up steaming bowls of ramen. By night, it's an innovative izakaya with ingredients and techniques borrowed from across Europe and Asia. But first: the ramen. Gaku serves up four different types: a yuzu-spiked duck broth with smoked duck and duck meatballs, a seafood bowl with salty clam consommé and poached clams and a chicken tonkotsu with pork char siu served standard or spicy. Sydney has no shortage of ramen, but Gaku makes it unlike anywhere else in the city. Chefs Haru Inukai (owner of the now-closed Sussex Centre Ramen Ikkyu and Elizabeth Bay's BlancHaru) and Shimon Hanakura (ex-Aria) add modern twists to the dishes without sacrificing technique — they successfully combine their experience making traditional ramen and working at fine dining establishments. The only problem you'll have with the ramen is getting your hands on a bowl. Only 40 portions are made each day, and they're not sold takeaway. Meaning, you'll have to head into the restaurant — a compact, but not overcrowded space on Darlinghurst Road with exposed bricks and wooden details — between midday and 2pm, any day of the week. If you can, grab a seat at the long wooden bar overlooking the kitchen and watch Inukai and Hanakura at work. Try and get a seat at the bar at night, too. You'll want to come back to check out the equally innovative dinner menu. At first glance, it's what you'd expect from a Japanese grill: karaage, wagyu, sashimi and pork belly. But look closer and you'll find ingredients and techniques borrowed from France, Italy and China. The wagyu is bresaola, cured and thinly sliced and served with Padrón peppers and a shichimi buttermilk. There's a burrata salad, too, with chunks of tomato and salty bonito flakes. Inukai's signature, a riff on Hakka salt-baked chicken, is a whole spatchcock cooked and served in a shiso and koji salt bake. It's both impressive to look at and to eat — the salt crust sealing in the flavours and the juice. It's not all innovation and experimenting, either — some dishes are refreshingly simple. Often sourced that morning (you can keep an eye on the daily catches via Instagram), the sashimi is served with wasabi and pickled kohlrabi. The grilled Angus or wagyu steaks are sliced and presented with a plate of sauces: black pepper, wasabi and soy. Gaku may seem like a typical izakaya but Inukai and Hanakura's use of fine dining techniques — at both lunch and dinner — and its eclectic and interesting ingredient list make it anything but. As word of Gaku spreads, it's only getting busier (and harder to snag a midday bowl of ramen) so we recommend booking a visit, tout de suite. Images: Trent van der Jagt
Family-friendly favourite Taronga Zoo is undergoing a midyear transformation this June, reimagining the zoo as a winter wonderland complete with pop-up food stalls, hot chocolate and an openair ice rink. That's what's on the agenda at Taronga's Frozen Zoo, which will kick off from Saturday, June 25 and run for the duration of the school holidays. Sydneysiders looking to get out and about this chilly season can head to Mosman for the zoo's 3500 animals, stunning city views and a spin around the ice rink. Set in front of the zoo's heritage gates, the pop-up rink is designed for all ages, from little skaters getting their footing on the ice for the first time through to adult skating aficionados. And with the zoo open daily until 8pm, the winter activities also offer an idyllic date spot for couples looking to mix things up from the regular dinner-and-movie night. The ice skating sessions will run for 45 minutes, with access to the rink ranging from $20–23. To access the Frozen Zoo, you don't need to buy a ticket to Taronga; however, if you want to head to both, you can package all your tickets together and score a discount. Alongside the winter activations, the zoo also offers a high ropes course and countless animal exhibits, including Taronga's two latest family members: Taro the tree kangaroo joey and Humphrey the koala joey. If you need some extra time to explore the place and you're looking for a one-of-a-kind staycation, Taronga is also home to a 62-room eco-retreat. The retreat is located in a sanctuary where koalas, wallabies, red kangaroos, echidnas and platypus live, so you can wander out to spot some at your own leisure, or else join a tour of the still-quiet zoo at sunrise. [caption id="attachment_816458" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Taro the Tree Joey, Guy Dixon[/caption] Frozen Zoo will run Saturday, June 26–Sunday, July 11, 10am–8pm seven days a week. Taronga Zoo is located at Bradleys Head Road, Mosman.
Traditional horizontal gardens are a fantastic aesthetically pleasing addition to any house, park or natural area. Yet by simply rotating these gardens 90° to make them vertical, their purpose, possibilities and magnificence can completely and utterly transform. Vertical gardens are a recent craze, which are taking the world by storm. Gardens on museum walls, on the outside of buildings, in shopping centres or as feature pieces are popping up in almost every major city of the globe. Aside from adding a wonderful visual and organic element to the concrete shackles of urban centres, vertical gardens also offer a host of environmental benefits. Adding a vertical garden to any space can help improve air quality and respiratory functions, keep the air cool and humidity comfortable through the process of transpiration, reduce harmful levels of CO2 and provide natural insulation and acoustic absorption; not to mention the instinctive elated sensation humans feel when in close proximity to plant life, called biophilia. Here are ten of the most beautiful, useful and impressive vertical gardens from around the world that will make even the most elaborate horizontal garden look boring and mundane. Miami Art Museum Patrick Blanc is the world's most renowned vertical garden specialist and his incredible creations have spread like wildfire across the globe. With his designs appearing in every continent, and his recent publication, 'The Vertical Garden: from Nature to the Cities' being widely acknowledged as the expert book on this new trend, you simply can't go past Blanc's inspired works of art. This amazing garden from the Miami Art Museum is one of Blanc's projects, designed together with Herzog & De Meuron. Who needs the Hanging Gardens of Babylon when we have our own hanging gardens of Miami? Alpha Park II Les Clayes sous Bois At 2,000m², the Alpha Park II Les Clayes sous Bois just West of Paris will become the largest vegetal facade in the world. The shopping centre is being reopened sometime this month with its new organic coating of various plants and flowers. Melbourne Greenhouse Restaurant Joost Vertical Gardens are an up-and-coming business in Australia, which specialises in living walls and columns. Their vertical gardens have appeared in art exhibitions, sculptural installations and high-end architectural fitouts, highlighting their aesthetic value and practical purpose. Through popular demand, Joost's unique designs are now available online and by consultation for restaurants and both domestic and commercial spaces. Vertical Garden Institute Philip and Vicki Yates set up the Vertical Garden Institute in 2007 after witnessing the awe of Blanc's huge vertical garden in Spain. They wanted to promote vertical gardens through sales, research, education and the development of vertical garden partnerships throughout the globe. This vertical art garden was released in July 2010. Berlin Another stunning design from Patrick Blanc, this garden wall in Berlin is a beautiful and eco-friendly addition to the city's streets. Increased temperatures in cities can partially be attributed to the absorption of heat by concrete buildings and roads. However, the natural processes of transpiration in plants ensures that they never go 5°C above the atmospheric temperature, thus helping to keep the urban area cooler. Madrid Caixa Forum This feature wall in the capital of Spain is a magnificent piece of natural artistry that provides a perfect place for tourists and locals alike to marvel at. The building was a former power plant built in 1899 and a rare example of industrial architecture in the old part of the city. The vertical garden is another design from Patrick Blanc and reaches four stories high, with over 15,000 plants from over 250 species. Tokyo AKROS Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall This 15-stepped terrace was shifted from a 10,000m² park in the city centre of Tokyo by US architect, Emilio Ambesz. To stand out from other city park areas, Ambesz opted instead for a garden resembling a mountain, culminating in a belvedere, which offers magnificent views of the harbour. The building is 14 floors above ground and 4 below, making it one of the largest vertical gardens in the group. Bangkok Siam Paragon Shopping Center The vertical garden craze has also reached Thailand, with this example of beautiful plants lining the balconies of the Siam Paragon Shopping Centre in Bangkok. Gardens appear not only in this courtyard of the shopping mall but they also decorate the elevator shaft as well as even some of the shopping booths. Living Walls, Netherlands Rather than being concrete, this colourful wall is made up of a thin layer of felt and rock wool material. To keep the vertical garden alive and vibrant, it also has water pumping through the material. This Dutch house is a perfect example of how easy it is to spice up any building with some floral flair. Bilbao Guggenheim Art Museum Outside the Guggenheim Art Museum in Bilbao, Spain, one would find a giant 43-foot tall 'plant puppy' made out of a steel substructure and an array of colourful vegetation. Jeff Koons created this cute and vibrant vertical garden masterpiece in the mid-1990s and we just couldn't go past this impressive creation. Especially since it made its own notable visit to the lawns of Sydney's MCA in 1995.
Take a must-visit Paris art museum, an acclaimed Victorian gallery, an iconic French painter and one of the world's most influential architects, mix them all together, and Australia's latest huge exhibition is the end result. So is something unsurprisingly stunning: the world premiere of Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi at the NGV International in Melbourne. The National Gallery of Victoria's revolving door of blockbuster exhibitions shows no sign of slowing, with this exceptional meeting of creative minds gracing its halls from Friday, June 9–Sunday, October 8. When the temperature dips each year, the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series kicks in — and, as created in collaboration with the Musée d'Orsay, home to the world's largest collection of Bonnard works, this ode to Bonnard and Mahdavi is the current centrepiece. On display: more than 100 pieces by the famed French artist, but seen through a fresh lens. Helping provide that new perspective is scenography by internationally renowned architect and designer Mahdavi, in a major showcase that was originally slated to debut in 2020 before the pandemic did its thing. An icon of late 19th- and early 20th-century art, and a good mate of Henri Matisse, Bonnard is known for his colourful, textural depictions of French life, offering stylised yet subtle glimpses of intimate domestic scenes, urban backdrops and natural landscapes. Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi includes a hefty collection of the artist's own paintings, drawings, photographs, prints and other decorative objects, alongside works from his contemporaries — including Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Félix Vallotton and cinematic pioneers the Lumière brothers. Attendees can expect to step through Bonnard's early artistic days in the 1890s, highlighting his focus on Parisian street life; his evolution from there, including when he started focusing on more domestic scenes as inspired by his relationship with his companion Marthe Bonnard; and his love of landscape, especially from 1910 onwards, and as influenced by his fellow pal Claude Monet. Numerous pieces are on loan from the Musée d'Orsay, as well as other museums and private collections in Europe, Australia and the USA. The NGV's own collection also includes significant works, however, including Bonnard's 1900 painting La Sieste (Siesta). Considered one of the world's most influential architects, multi-award-winning Mahdavi has been commissioned to help bring the historic pieces to life via her scenography, tasked with creating a setting that complements Bonnard's signature use of colour and light. The results aren't just spectacular — they're dreamy. Images: Installation view of Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi, on display from June 9–October 8, 2023 at NGV International, Melbourne. Photos: Lillie Thompson.
Hej! Spring has arrived, the sun is out and colourful dresses complete with Swedish clogs have started to reappear on the streets. There’s no better time to head over to Sydney’s unofficial Swedish enclave, the relaxed beachside 'burb of Manly. This trendy north-shore hub has an enviable collection of Nordic design stores, and amongst the mix you’ll find Fika Swedish Kitchen. The breezy, chic cafe was founded by expats whose wistful thoughts of home resulted in the brainwave of bringing the best of Swedish culture to the heart of Manly. It channels a Scandinavian summerhouse vibe and seems staffed entirely by attractive blondes like something from a Swedish travel brochure. The sunshine streams into the neatly curated space, illuminating the modern whitewash interior, rendered concrete benchtop and simple artwork. The minimalism is balanced with homely touches of wooden furnishings, scattered cushions, pops of vibrant yellow and decorative jars of Swedish sweets. Fika translates as ‘taking a break for coffee and a bite to eat', and with that welcoming attitude and the open pavement dining, it buzzes with laidback Manly locals over the warmer months. We decide to take a time out from our Marimekko homeware shopping, and dabble in some Swedish fare — but first we crack open a Rekorderlig cider while we peruse the lunch menu casually scrawled across the back wall. The obvious crowd-pleaser is the Swedish meatballs with potato mash, gravy and lingonberry jam ($18), comfortingly served up on canteen-style enamel plates. If you miss the lunch hours, open sandwiches are available throughout the afternoon. Try the gravlax cured salmon skagen, a lavish open sandwich heaped with mashed egg and håvmästar sauce. If you are feeling a little indecisive there is always the smörgåstårta, a sandwich as complicated as its name is to pronounce. It's a three-layer stack of smashed egg, prawn skagen, gravlax, meatball, ham and Jarlsberg ($15). Our table quickly became a smorgasbord, which literally translates to ‘sandwich table’. There was so much sandwich on our table that there was hardly any table. Not for long though. There were only a few crumbs left on our plates to remind us of what once was. Now, everyone knows that hanging out in Manly is like being on holiday, and on holiday one always has room for dessert. With such an endearing name, it was impossible to go past Grandma Elly’s Apple Pie ($8) — the just-out-the-oven golden goodness served with a hearty dollop of vanilla whip made me momentarily wish I were related to Grandma Elly. For an authentic brew, try the refillable Swedish coffee ($2), which is perfect coupled with a cinnamon bun ($5) from the freshly baked batch sitting enticingly on the counter. After you tear into this traditional pastry, you’ll be tempted to order a few as souvenirs to take on the trip home. With such sincere fare, simple Scandi design and the happy chatter of Swedish expats enjoying a taste of home, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that you aren’t actually in Stockholm.
UPDATE, February 17, 2021: Dark Waters is available to stream via Binge, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Charting a lawyer's quest to expose a chemical company's harmful actions, Dark Waters seems, on paper at least, like a standard crusading legal drama. In Erin Brockovich and The Insider's footsteps (and All the President's Men and The Report's, too), this little guy-versus-the system, truth-versus-cover-up film appears to follow. Based on grim recent history, it also seems worlds away from its director's usual oeuvre. For three decades, Todd Haynes has given cinema many gifts — the anarchic 70s glam of Velvet Goldmine, the sweeping 50s-style melodrama of Far From Heaven, the imaginative Bob Dylan-inspired I'm Not There and the yearning queer romance that is Carol — but never anything as ostensibly straightforward as this anxious, serious-minded procedural. Dark Waters doesn't shy away from or try to reinvent its genre. Any move in that direction wouldn't do its real-life details justice. But this is definitely a Haynes movie in the way that matters most: its emotional impact. Visually, the director doesn't stage the elaborate, eye-catching scenes that his work has become known for. He doesn't load his frames with sentiment-dripping colour, either. His perceptive, detail-oriented approach is still evident, however, in every closed-in, grey-toned peek inside everyday corporate and small-town surroundings. So too is his ability to tell a complex tale with layered minutiae and piercing nuance, all while ensuring that his audience shares every iota of pain and passion felt by his characters. With Haynes' eighth feature taking its specifics from Nathaniel Rich's 2016 New York Times Magazine article 'The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare', there's much for everyone — on-screen and off — to feel. When viewers first meet Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), he's a corporate defence lawyer who has just made partner at an Ohio law firm that works for the big end of town. If West Virginian farmer Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp) hadn't marched into the office demanding his help, that's the course Bilott's career probably would've stuck to. He's not just reluctant to listen to his unexpected visitor, but initially dismissive. It's only because Tennant knows Bilott's grandmother that he even gives the matter a second thought. Whether exploring a woman's certainty that she's allergic to the world around her in 1995's Safe or chronicling two children's search for their parents across two different timelines in 2017's Wonderstruck, Haynes has always specialised in characters who are committed to following their hearts and senses of self, no matter the cost. When Bilott visits Tennant's property, learns that 190 cattle have died from strange medical conditions — including blackened teeth and tumours — and gleans the possible connection between this heartbreaking carnage and DuPont's use of neighbouring land as a dumping ground, he becomes one of them. Unsurprisingly, his employers aren't overly thrilled about the case, although his boss (Tim Robbins) still lets him pursue it. Of course, to just as little astonishment, the more that Bilott digs, the more he unearths. Ruffalo has stepped into this kind of dogged, determined territory before in Zodiac and Spotlight — and, as both of those excellent films showed, he's exceptional at it. With each, he serves up different shades from a recognisable palette rather than replicating the same role again and again. Indeed, throw in his seven-movie Marvel stint as Bruce Banner/the Hulk, and the three-time Oscar nominee has spent a hefty chunk of his career as smart, resolute, world-weary but still tenacious men hunting insidious killers, organisations and other forces of evil. Make no mistake, that's the story that Dark Waters unfurls, even if it never has a finger-snapping Thanos to chase. It would've been so easy to give DuPont a villainous on-screen figurehead, and to square the blame for the company's literally toxic actions at one person's feet. But Haynes and screenwriters Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan (21 Bridges) know that life is never that simplistic. Obviously, bringing a huge multinational outfit peddling dangerous substances to account requires painstaking devotion, aka the type of unglamorous, highly necessary grunt work that Dark Waters focuses on. Perhaps not so obviously, enabling such a widespread catastrophe to take place — poisoning the environment, animals and people, and getting away with it until Bilott's lawsuit came along — requires just as much manpower, just from a completely different angle, which Dark Waters is equally as fervent about stressing. While tight, taut and involving from start to finish, the end result doesn't hit every note it aims for. Anne Hathaway's role as Bilott's wife is underwritten, and Bill Pullman hams it up in his brief supporting appearance. Still, there's no shaking this solid, compelling film's potency, its scandalous true tale and its takeaway message. As Bilott discovers when he switches sides, many a powerful entity will only do the right thing when they're made to by the masses. With that in mind, Haynes hasn't just brought an essential story to the screen (and inspired his audience to start questioning all the chemicals in their lives), but crafted the ideal movie for a world where the entire planet is increasingly at the mercy of corporate giants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBGi3SzxkKk&feature=share
Dimitri's Pizzeria and its eye-catching red-and-white sign had been a permanent fixture on Crown Street since the 70s; while it moved once (around 20 years ago), it had never left the strip — until this year. In July, the Surry Hills pizza stalwart uprooted its tables (literally) and relocated to Oxford Street, setting up shop in the building previously home to Hunky Dory Social Club. Right now, it's just operating on the ground floor, but it plans to occupy all three levels — meaning the pizzeria will eventually grow six times in size. On the ground floor, it's the pretty much the same old Dimitri's, but bigger and better. Owners Ken Williams and Drew Huston have finally gotten their hands on a woodfired pizza oven and are making the type of pizza they've been wanting to do for "a long time". "It's a massive improvement on the pizza we were serving before," says Williams. And Huston agrees: "We're cooking our ideal pizza right now, I reckon." The woodfired oven can get up to 150 degrees hotter than the restaurant's previous oven (meaning the pizzas only have to spend a third of the time inside) and the pair is also making a new 100-percent sourdough base that is fermented for much longer — a minimum of 48 hours. What does all this mean for you? The dough is lighter, easier to digest and a whole lot tastier (and the pizzas land on your table much quicker). The dough is similar to that of Neapolitan-style pizzas, but Williams is quick to point out that their pizzas are not 'traditional' Neapolitan. And while the dough itself is fairly traditional — despite its use of a blend of Australian organic stone-ground flour — the toppings certainly aren't. Expect to find brussels sprouts, honey (from Williams' mum's beehive), radicchio, rainbow chard and even corn atop the pies. As well as the necessary mozzarella, which is stretched daily in-house. The pair plan to alter the toppings with the seasons, too, making the most of short-season produce like pine mushrooms and truffles. You'll be eating all of this on the old Dimitri's tables — which have been repurposed by Williams' brother Lex, a furniture builder and designer — surrounded by exposed brick walls, art, fairy lights and the restaurant's namesake: a striking red neon Dimitri. With a total capacity of around 150 people, the top two levels will be home to "Dimitri's but in bar form", which means Grifter beer on tap and all-natural wines — including the likes of Das Juice, Gut Oggau and Delinquente — and a short and sharp cocktail list. Williams says to expect "really good quality drinks, a chilled atmosphere and good times". These good times will extend to the third-level open terrace, too, where you'll be able to drink looking out on the street below. And on the rooftop — yes, it keeps going — there'll be a garden, where Williams will be growing herbs and some veggies for super-fresh pizza toppings. Images: Kimberley Low. Appears in: Where to Find the Best Pizza in Sydney for 2023
Paddington's charming South Dowling Street trattoria Zafferano has a lot of history. It originally opened as a café in 2021, before relaunching as a spot for afternoon drinks, long weekend lunches and hearty Sicilian dinners — but its history stretches far beyond that. The venue acts as a spiritual sibling and tribute to Trattoria Francu U' Piscaturi, a seafood restaurant that Head Chef Simone Crivello's father has been operating out of Capo Zafferano in Sicily since the 1970s. Crivello and his partner Isobel Galloway bring this long connection to Sicilian cuisine to the bustling Paddington street, offering diners a laidback slice of the Mediterranean within the hustle and bustle of Sydney's inner-city. "South Dowling Street has no shortage of iconic brunch and lunch options, from South Dowling Sandwiches to Bootsdarling and the Organic Bread Bar," said Crivello. "Bella and I spend a lot of time talking to our diners, the one thing we kept hearing was how desperately the street needed a Trattoria, for lingering afternoon drinks, turned cheerful evenings with friends and food." Crivello and Galloway have compiled a purposefully reserved and ever-changing menu based around Sicilian wine, staples from Capo Zadderano, fresh produce and minimal waste. The sfincione — Sicily's version of a pizza — emerges from the oven thick and fluffy, the pasta is topped with a mountain of parmesan and the risotto marinara is packed with mussels, clams, cuttlefish, prawns and crab. The latter is a recipe passed down from Francesco, Crivello's father, and has been on the menu at Trattoria Francu U' Piscaturi for 50 years. The final touch of Sicily is through the fit-out, styled by Isobel's father — ex-fashion designer Stephen Galloway. Zafferano Trattoria Mediterranea features a forest green and marble design, adorned with clay Testa di Moro heads, a signature of Sicily. And on the walls, you'll find photos from Trattoria Francu U' Piscaturi and from the town's best fishing spots. Appears in: The Best Italian Restaurants in Sydney for 2023
Araby Steen is the first to admit that her work is a little difficult to describe.In her first show since finishing at the National Art School – who failed to give her a certificate of graduation, although they did remember to award her a prize – Steen will exhibit fifteen oil-on-canvas works as part of her artist residency at the Trophy Room gallery.While the delicately rendered paintings seem straightforward at first, a closer look will show that the boy in a set of three small canvasses is actually pissing, and that the ibis filling a larger canvas is actually dead. At the same time, the paintings, all of which were photographs in their first incarnation, sustain softness in their sense of time and place. This contradiction is the closest Steen’s show gets to a theme – unsurprising for a show simply entitled New Work, but a lovely un-surprise all the same.
Wollongong's Babyface Kitchen turned two this year and has not wavered from its promise to deliver farm fresh dishes. The modest restaurant is owned by Burnsbury Hospitality, which also owns the nearby 2 Smoking Barrels barbecue joint and food truck. The team's commitment to top-notch Aussie produce means the offering changes regularly and focuses on organic and native ingredients — most of which come from local producers, while some is foraged by the chefs. Japanese and Korean cooking methods and ingredients also feature on the menu. To this end, the kitchen makes six different miso, plus its own cultured butter, pickles, vinegar, ferments and koji (a fungus used to make soy sauce and fermented bean paste). The succinct menu spans raw starters and smalls to large plates and sides. For starters, there are dry-aged duck dumplings with a black garlic, soy and red vinegar dipping sauce ($3.5 each); a rye and wattleseed tart topped with Moreton Bay bug roe, whipped feta and leek ash ($4 each); and roasted cauliflower with pistachio miso and cultured butter on a kombu cracker ($17). Organic veggies are showcased in the Epicurean Harvest dish of smoked pumpkin, radish, carrot and Japanese leeks with fried buckwheat and feta ($24). Another featuring Asian-inspired ingredients is the Mooloolaba king prawns in a shoyu koji and cultured butter sauce ($49). To try a bit of everything, there's also a nine-dish tasting menu for $85 per person, or a four-course chef's menu for $70 — available for both lunch and dinner. On the drinks side, the compact wine list focuses on Australian and minimal intervention drops, as you'd expect from this crew. Babyface Kitchen also runs regular collaboration dinners with wineries, producers and brewers, so keep an eye on their website for upcoming events. Restaurant interiors: Quicksand Food.
Film fans, your spider-senses should be tingling: there's a new batch of Spider-Man-adjacent characters swinging onto the big screen. Get ready to meet Dakota Johnson (Cha Cha Real Smooth) as Madame Web, aka clairvoyant paramedic Cassandra Webb. Get ready, too, for Sydney Sweeney (Reality) as Julia Carpenter, who has a stint as Spider-Woman in her story in the comic books. Johnson and Sweeney lead Madame Web, the fourth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. That's the name for the studio's franchise of flicks that have been spun off from its Spider-Man movies — so from Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home — but aren't part of the the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hitting cinemas on Wednesday, February 14, 2024, it slings in alongside Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Morbius, plus the delayed Kraven the Hunter when it arrives later the same year, to spread another web of superhero-related pictures. Given its name, there's no chance of thinking that Madame Web would be subtle about its Spidey links. The just-dropped first trailer for the film makes that plain not just in multiple Spider-Woman sightings, but in an explanatory line from Johnson designed to drop some backstory: "he was in the Amazon with my mum when she was researching spiders right before she died". In the first SSU movie with a female lead, the man that Webb is talking about is Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim, Extrapolations), a character who also hails from the page. He factors into a narrative that has Webb almost drowning, then discovering that she can see the future, with not just Sims but Carpenter linked to her fortunes. Also, would this be a Spider-Man-related movie, or a comic book movie in general, if a complicated past didn't also play a part? Also featuring on-screen in Madame Web: Celeste O'Connor (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Isabela Merced (Rosaline), Mike Epps (I'm a Virgo), Emma Roberts (American Horror Story) and Adam Scott (Party Down). Veteran TV helmer SJ Clarkson (Succession, Vinyl, Jessica Jones) directs, and also co-wrote the script with producer Claire Parker (Life on Mars). Check out the trailer for Madame Web below: Madame Web opens in cinemas Down Under on Wednesday, February 14, 2024.
Not all that long ago, the idea of getting cosy on your couch, clicking a few buttons, and having thousands of films and television shows at your fingertips seemed like something out of science fiction. Now, it's just an ordinary night — whether you're virtually gathering the gang to text along, cuddling up to your significant other or shutting the world out for some much needed me-time. Of course, given the wealth of options to choose from, there's nothing ordinary about making a date with your chosen streaming platform. The question isn't "should I watch something?" — it's "what on earth should I choose?". Hundreds of titles are added to Australia's online viewing services each and every month, all vying for a spot on your must-see list. And, so you don't spend 45 minutes scrolling and then being too tired to actually commit to watching anything, we're here to help. From the latest and greatest to old favourites, here are our picks for your streaming queue from March's haul of newbies. BRAND NEW STUFF YOU CAN WATCH IN FULL RIGHT NOW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBUwi9eXtXM SLAXX Ask any style guru for their opinion on denim, and they'll all likely give the same answer. Everyone needs a pair of killer jeans, after all — the type that fit perfectly, flatter every inch of your lower half, and that you just don't want to ever take off. In Slaxx, CCC is the store aiming to make all of the above happen. Already priding itself on its eco-friendly, sustainable, sweatshop-free threads, the chain is set to launch a new range of denim that moulds to the wearer's body, with the company's buzzword-spouting CEO (Stephen Bogaert, IT: Chapter Two) certain that they'll change the fashion industry. On the night before the jeans hit the shelves, employees at one store are tasked with making sure everything goes smoothly; however, as new hire Libby (Romane Denis, My Salinger Year), apathetic veteran employee Shruti (Sehar Bhojani, Sex & Ethnicity) and their over-eager boss Craig (Brett Donahue, Private Eyes) soon learn, these are killer jeans in a very literal sense. Quickly, the ravenous pants start stalking and slaying their way through the store. It's a concept that'd do Rubber's Quentin Dupieux proud and, in the hands of Canadian filmmaker Elza Kephart (Go in the Wilderness), the results are highly entertaining. Slaxx wears its equally silly and savage attitude like a second skin, smartly skewers consumerism and retail trends, and possesses stellar special effects that bring its denim to life — and, although never subtle (including in its performances), it's exactly as fun as a film about killer jeans should be. Slaxx is available to stream via Shudder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf34qI1hjKU MOXIE When Amy Poehler made her feature directorial debut with 2019's Wine Country, movie magic wasn't splashed across the small screen. But thankfully Moxie is now here to wipe that underwhelming comedy out of viewers' minds — and to demonstrate Poehler's knack at helming a high school-set tale of blossoming feminist activism. Adapted from the 2015 novel of the same name, the film follows 16-year-old Vivian (Hadley Robinson, I'm Thinking of Ending Things). Quiet, studious and happy hanging out with her similarly introverted best friend Claudia (Lauren Tsai, Legion), she has always known that her male classmates have an attitude problem, and that their teachers and the general status quo both enable it. But, until newcomer Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Pena, Saved by the Bell) arrives, she's never been willing to rock the boat and fight for change. Inspired by her mother's (Poehler) crusading teen years, she starts a zine that calls out the toxic behaviour around her. That's where the film gets its title, and her school is scandalised by the homemade publication's pages. Story-wise, Moxie isn't big on surprises, especially if you've seen more than a couple of teen flicks in your time, as everyone has. Nonetheless, it's always as impassioned about its tale and as angry about the way the world treats anyone who isn't a white male as it is engaging and hopeful. And, as it follows the quest for equality being passed from one generation to another, it boasts a stellar soundtrack — including Bikini KIll's 'Rebel Girl', of course. Moxie is available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfpzdSJlv6o CALLS Everyone has heard about the response that The War of the Worlds reportedly sparked back in 1938. That's when Orson Welles adapted HG Wells' novel into a radio play, and the result was so convincing that it reportedly incited panic among listeners. Watching Calls, it's easy to understand how. 'Watching' isn't exactly the right term for this mystery series, though. Like all those folks glued to their radios 83 years ago, Calls' audience is forced to listen intently. Indeed, in terms of visuals, the series only provides two types: words transcribing the conversations heard, and abstract visuals that move and shift with each sentence uttered and every suspenseful pause left lingering. Accordingly, focusing on the snippets of phone chats that tell the program's stories is what Calls is all about. Remaking the French show of the same name, and directed by Evil Dead and Don't Breathe's Fede Álvarez, something much more than a small-screen version of a story-fuelled podcast eventuates. A starry cast voices the chats — including everyone from Parks and Recreation duo Aubrey Plaza and Ben Schwartz to Wonder Woman 1984's Pedro Pascal and The Lodge's Riley Keough — but it's the tension and power of their words that leaves an impression. Each of the nine episodes tells a short story that eventually builds an overall picture, and getting caught up in them all is far easier than the underlying concept might initially make you think. Calls is available to stream via Apple TV+. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceXaKIhuyOA SOLAR OPPOSITES For a significant portion of the past few years, TV fans have had a Rick and Morty-shaped hole in their hearts. After the anarchic animated series' third season came to an end late in 2017, it took more than two years for its fourth season to reach screens — and that wrapped up in the first half of last year. More Rick and Morty is coming, and more schwiftiness with it. But, in the interim, Solar Opposites is here to fill the gap. It too is created by Justin Roiland, and also features his voice work. And, it's a chaotic, raucous and very funny sci-fi sitcom that unleashes all manner of strangeness upon a suburban family as well. The immediate difference: the family here are aliens. Korvo (Roiland), his partner Terry (Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley), and the younger Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone, The Goldbergs) and Jesse (stand-up comedian Mary Mack) have crash-landed on Earth and are trying to make the best of it, but they're well aware that their new home pales in comparison to their old one. From that basic setup, anything and everything can and does happen, as seasoned R&M fans will easily expect. Going in, you can be forgiven for thinking that this'll come off as a clone of a beloved show, and there's no missing their shared DNA; however, Solar Opposites flies its own immensely funny, often flat-out ridiculous and always astute path. The first season of Solar Opposites is available to stream via Disney+. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYl1DVIgbAg SHIRLEY In 2020, Elisabeth Moss had a great year. While the Mad Men and The Handmaid's Tale star has enjoyed a fantastic past decade, she turned in two of her best performances over the past 12 months. First came The Invisible Man, which twisted the classic horror tale in modern directions, including exploring gaslighting and the lack of willingness to believe women. Then, in Shirley, she stepped into the shoes of horror and mystery novelist Shirley Jackson. This is a movie by Madeline's Madeline director Josephine Decker, though, so it as never going to be a standard biopic about the The Haunting of Hill House author. Indeed, Shirley is drawn from a fictional novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, focusing on Jackson's home life with her husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name) during a 1964 period when teaching aide Fred Nemser (Logan Lerman, Hunters) and his wife Rose (Australian The Daughter star Odessa Young) come to stay. An agoraphobic, Jackson's routine is unsettled by her new houseguests, although an unexpected connection springs with unlikely kindred spirit Rose. In telling this story, Decker is far more interested in capturing the essence of Jackson and her sensibilities than slavishly sticking to facts, and her film all the better for it. Indeed, this subjective and engaging character study is daring, disarming, dark and, unsurprisingly, anchored by a pitch-perfect lead performance. Shirley is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otu7hGMgmcQ VIOLATION The rape-revenge genre isn't new, but two of the most powerful films to reach Australian audiences this year step into it with unflinching confidence. They do more than that, though. They savagely dissect society's willingness to accept that sexual assault is part of our culture — and misogyny, too. They demand that their audience not only spend almost two hours thinking about a subject so many would rather avoid, but that they have a visceral reaction. The movies: Promising Young Woman and Violation. Both are the product of first-time feature directors. Both include women among their filmmakers, either solely or as half of a duo. Both are anchored by blistering lead performances as well, and neither fades quickly (or at all) from memory. They'd make a stellar double bill; however, tonally, they each march to their own beat. In Violation's case, co-writer and co-director Madeleine Sims-Fewer (Operation Avalanche) stars as Miriam. As she visits her sister Greta (Anna Maguire, The Hummingbird Project) and brother-in-law Dylan (Jesse LaVercombe, Murdoch Mysteries), it soon becomes obvious that more than just a happy reunion is on the cards. Playing a traumatised woman soon grappling the reality of vengeance in a primal and tangible way, Sims-Fewer puts in a performance that it's impossible to look away from, but that's just one of the savvy steps that the actor/filmmaker and her co-director Dusty Mancinelli take. Violation is available to stream via Shudder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFHj8e7mU_I OPERATION VARSITY BLUES: THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL 'Eat the rich' isn't a Netflix category. But with Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal joining Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened in the streamer's catalogue, perhaps it should be. The former certainly makes the case for it, covering a criminal conspiracy that smacks of the wealthy abusing their cash and status in an egregious manner. No one could've avoided the headlines and reports when news broke about affluent, influential and/or famous Americans, including actors Lori Loughlin (Full House) and Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), deciding that they needed to bribe college officials to send their already privileged children to prestigious schools. Operation Varsity Blues neither assumes any knowledge on the viewer's part nor needlessly repeats itself, but those acquainted with the details and folks with just a passing interest so far will both find themselves swept through the ups and downs. The film's dramatisations — starring Matthew Modine (Stranger Things, Wrong Turn) as Rick Singer, the scheme's central figure — can feel clunky at times, but director Chris Smith (Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond — Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton) knows how to step through this tale. It worked for him on Fyre, after all, which he also helmed, and it works again in a documentary that's as much about a broken system as it the people who cheated it. Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal is available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzqevBnUUZU THE ASSISTANT Charting an ordinary day in the life of a junior staff member at a film production office, The Assistant is as unsettling as anything else that has reached screens recently. Jane (Julia Garner, Ozark) has the titular position, working an entry-level job for a demanding head honcho who everyone in the office indulges — although viewers never get to meet him. She arrives at work before daylight, trudges through menial tasks and is treated poorly by her male colleagues. She's expect to anticipate everything that her boss could ever need or want, or face his wrath if she doesn't. And, as the day progresses, she realises just how toxic her workplace's culture is and how deep its inappropriate conduct burrows. Seeing how predatory the man she works for acts on a daily basis, and how his behaviour has a significant impact, she also learns how those who even try to speak out can still be powerless to effect change to stop it. If you've kept abreast of the #MeToo movement over the past few years, you'll know exactly what has inspired The Assistant, of course. However, Australian filmmaker Kitty Green wants her audience to experience this devastating scenario via Jane, rather than merely read about it. She doesn't just succeed; although she's working in fiction here, she directs a film as searing and perceptive as her last project, the excellent documentary Casting JonBenet. The Assistant is available to stream via Binge. NEW SHOWS TO CHECK OUT WEEK BY WEEK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bfAVpuko5o INVINCIBLE If you've ever shopped for a specific item on Amazon and found multiple similar versions of the same thing, then you already know what it can be like to dive into Amazon Prime Video's streaming catalogue. Many of its new additions instantly bring other shows in its catalogue to mind by sharing and mimicking elements, and Invincible follows that trend. At first, it'll have you thinking about The Boys. Next, you'll start recalling Undone. Those two series mightn't seem like a natural fit, but the combination of superheroes and existential malaise works well here. Animated like the latter, but willing to get bleak and dark with caped crusaders as the former does repeatedly, Invincible focuses on Mark Grayson (voiced by newly minted Oscar nominee Steven Yeun, Minari). The 17-year-old son of the well-known Omni-Man (J Simmons, Palm Springs), he's been waiting for his own powers to kick in — and, when they do, he's forced to grapple with exactly what that means. Among the star-studded cast, Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), Mark Hamill (Star Wars) and Mahershala Ali (Green Book) all lend their vocal tones. Off-screen, The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman is responsible for not only doing the same with the Invincible comic book, but with the series. What lingers most here is the mood, though, with the show at its best when it's getting contemplative and introspective with its teen protagonist. The first three episodes of Invincible are available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, with new episodes dropping weekly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWBsDaFWyTE THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER First things first: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier isn't WandaVision. It's much more conventional, and it doesn't boast a fabulous performance by Parks and Recreation's Kathryn Hahn, either. But, it does explore the everyday existence of both Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie, Synchronic) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan, The Devil All the Time), who team up in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame — and it gives both characters space to be more than just supporting figures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As proved the case in its fellow 2021 Disney+ newcomer, that's a welcome change in a realm that usually pushes action to the fore. Seeing how these two function as people, and as folks who know they've never been the stars of the show, too, brings depth to a franchise that doesn't always have it. Wilson is recognised everywhere including when applying for a loan for his family business, for instance, but fame and getting by financially don't always go hand in hand. Barnes has his murky history to deal with, and it weighs upon him as he tries to get through every day. But, of course, pooling their talents to stop villainous forces is still the name of the game in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — as is is weaving in the returning Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl, The Alienist: Angel of Darkness) and Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp, The Resident), and introducing Captain America replacement John Walker (Wyatt Russell, The Good Lord Bird). The first two episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are available to stream via Disney+, with new episodes dropping weekly. Top images: Slaxx, Bertrand Calmeau/Shudder; The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2020.
Let's face it, you can't buy a whole lot for 50 cents in 2022. But on one day — Wednesday, April 6 to be exact — you can consider that little dodecagonal coin your best friend. That's all you'll need to grab a cheeseburger at McDonald's on that date, with the fast-food giant treating the whole country to 50-cent burgs. If this sounds familiar, that's because Macca's has dished up this deal a few times now. On this current occasion, which coincides with the launch of McDonald's new chicken range, there are 350,000 50-cent cheeseburgers available Australia-wide. So, you'll want to get in early to get this classic combo for pocket change — beef, bun, onion, pickles, ketchup, cheese and all — because that cheap price will apply on a first-in, first-served basis. To claim your 50-cent burger, you'll first need to download the MyMacca's app via the Apple Store or Google Play. Then, log on, check the My Rewards section and boom — Ronald's your uncle. Unfortunately, there's a limit of one 50-cent cheeseburger per customer, which probably isn't enough to make a meal of. But we're sure there are a few other Macca's menu items that might tempt your tastebuds while you're there. Because you have to use the MyMacca's app, you'll only be able to get your cheap burg via takeaway, drive-thru or in-store — not through McDelivery. McDonald's 350,000 50-cent cheeseburgers are available on Wednesday, April 6 until sold out via the MyMacca's app.
First opened in 1999, Brass Monkey has made a name for itself as the venue to catch live music in Cronulla. Over its more than two decades of operation, it has played host to live music acts from all over the world. Although the genre selection tends to favour jazz, it is not unlikely to find musicians turning out blues, roots, funk, pop, indie and world music on the stage, too. The old-world charm of this venue will transport you back to another era, with its mood lighting, velvet stage curtains, red leather booth seating and wood-panelled bar. If you've got an event to plan and a long guest list, the team at Brass Monkey can look after up to 140 people with tailored packages available to suit. And, they even offer the entire venue as an exclusive hire. Although music venues aren't typically known for their food offerings, the menu here is solid, taking its cues from Mediterranean home-style cooking.
Described as a "high-sensory experience," the latest exhibition from Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas promises to have you seeing light and darkness in an entirely new way. The inaugural installation at Art Gallery NSW's former wartime oil bunker known as the Tank, The End of Imagination is powered by a maelstrom of code dubbed the Time Engine. It generates hypothetical scenarios across millions of years before filling the space with mindbending light sculptures inspired by said situations. In 2021, Rojas 'downloaded' the virtual sculptures and painstakingly recreated them in mixed media before transporting them across the world from his home country. Displayed in a pitch-black environment teeming with moving lights, Rojas' creations seek to answer environmental, socio-political and anthropological quandaries we haven't even yet begun to ask ourselves. Images: Installation view of Adrian Villar Rojas 'The End of Imagination' 2022 in the Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales © Adrian Villar Rojas, photo © Jörg Baumann
Whatever your plans are on Thursday, April 20, 2023, it won't just be an ordinary day. No matter where you are across Australia, a solar eclipse will be making its presence known in the sky. Just like the song that you probably have stuck in your head, there'll be a total eclipse in one part of the country, in the Ningaloo region in Western Australia — and also a partial eclipse elsewhere. This eclipse isn't any ordinary eclipse, not that the moon passing between the sun and the earth, casting its shadow on the planet we call home and blocking out our source of natural light ever is. This one is a hybrid solar eclipse, which means that it switches between a ring-shaped or annual eclipse and a total solar eclipse according to Space.com — and the last time that happened was in 2013. After this, it won't occur again until 2031 and then 2164. Wondering what else you need to know? When it'll be happening, where and what to do? We've run through all the details below. WHAT IS IT? As we noted above, a solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, casting its shadow on the latter and blocking out the former. When it's a total solar eclipse, the moon completely blocks the sun. During a partial eclipse, that only partly occurs, as the term suggests. During a total eclipse, there's a period of totality, which is the amount of time that the sun is completely obscured. It can only last for up to seven minutes — and it only happens on the path that the moon's shadow takes as the planet's natural satellite moves over the earth's surface. That's known as the path of totality. There's also two types of shadows: the umbra, which is the dark space in the centre; and the penumbra, which is partially illuminated. WHAT KIND OF SOLAR ECLIPSE IS THIS? This is both a total and a partial eclipse, depending on where you're located in Australia. If you're in the Ningaloo region, including in Exmouth, you'll witness a total eclipse, with the path of totality passing over. According to the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA), that will last will last around a minute, and the eclipsed sun will be 54 degrees above the horizon. For the rest of the country, it's a partial eclipse. As also explained above, this is a hybrid solar eclipse, too. So, it switches between a ring-shaped or annual eclipse and a total solar eclipse — which will only happen one more time this century. WHEN IS IT HAPPENING? In Exmouth, totality will start at 11.29am AWST — 50 seconds past that exact minute, to be exact — and will last about one minute, according to the ASA. Still in WA, in Perth, the partial eclipse will start at 10am, peak at 11.20am and finish at 12.47pm. Sydney's times for all of the above are 1.37pm AEST, 2.29pm and 3.19pm. In Melbourne, it's 1.15pm, 2.09pm and 3.01pm. For Brisbane, take note of 1.44pm, 2.45pm and 3.42pm. And in Adelaide, it's 12.24pm, 1.30pm and 2.35pm. WHERE IS IT HAPPENING? The short answer: everywhere across Australia. That said, do not look directly at the solar eclipse — see more details below. So, you might want to hit the livestream, which Perth Observatory will be doing with TimeAndDate.com. Hop online from 11.30am AEST. CAN I LOOK UP AT THE SOLAR ECLIPSE? Again, the short answer: not directly. We repeat: do not look directly at the solar eclipse. As the ASA advises, "it is never safe to look directly at a partial solar eclipse or the partial phases of a total solar eclipse without the proper equipment and techniques". Dr Hessom Razavi of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) and the Lions Eye Institute explains: "never look directly at the sun. It can cause serious and permanent eye damage, and that's true even during a solar eclipse." So, the ASA notes that best ways to observe an eclipse are by using eclipse glasses, which are special-purpose spectacles for the occasion and meet the ISO 12312 2 standard; hand-held solar viewers that have solar filters up to the international standard; and pinhole projection using a large card with a two-millimetre hole in the middle, which then projects an image of the sun onto a different surface around a metre away. Accordingly, definitely do not just look up with your naked eyes, or even just while wearing your normal glasses of sunglasses. The ASA has more details on its website. If you're wondering why you can't peer directly at a solar eclipse, that's because exposing your retinas to intense light will damage the eye's rod and cone cells, which are extremely light-sensitive. In fact, RANZCO says that even the special eclipse glasses come with some risks, and advises that "the only way to guarantee the prevention of solar retinopathy is to avoid all forms of direct sun viewing". It has also put together further details. WHEN WILL A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OCCUR IN AUSTRALIA AGAIN? Australia is about to become a haven for total solar eclipses, with five taking place in our skies in a 15-year period. The first is this one on Thursday, April 20, but then more will follow in 2028, 2030, 2037 and 2038. On July 22, 2028, it'll cross the Kimberley in Western Australia, as well as the Northern Territory, southwest Queensland and New South Wales, including passing over Sydney. Then, on November 25, 2030, it'll cross South Australia, northwest NSW and southern Queensland — and end at sunset in southeast Queensland. Come July 13, 2037, the eclipse will pass over southern WA, southern NT and western Queensland, including over Brisbane and the Gold Coast. And, on Boxing Day in 2038, it'll go over central WA, SA, and also along the NSW/Victorian border. The solar eclipse will take place on Thursday, April 20, 2023. For further information, head to the Astronomical Society of Australia website. Images: Terry Cuttle.
Trust Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, Australia's favourite Kates and funniest double act, to make a killer TV show about chasing a killer that's the perfect sum of two excellent halves. Given their individual and shared backgrounds, including creating and starring in cooking show sendup The Katering Show and morning television spoof Get Krack!n, the pair unsurprisingly add another reason to get chuckling to their resumes; however, with Deadloch, they also turn their attention to crime procedurals. The Kates already know how to make viewers laugh. They've established their talents as brilliant satirists and lovers of the absurd in the process. Now, splashing around those skills in Deadloch's exceptional eight-episode first season — which streams via Prime Video from Friday, June 2 — they've also crafted a dead-set stellar murder-mystery series. Taking place in a sleepy small town, commencing with a body on a beach, and following both the local cop trying to solve the case and the gung-ho blow-in from a big city leading the enquiries, Deadloch has all the crime genre basics covered from the get-go. The spot scandalised by the death is a sitcom-esque quirky community, another television staple that McCartney and McLennan nail. Parody requires deep knowledge and understanding; you can't comically rip into and riff on something if you aren't familiar with its every in and out. That said, Deadloch isn't in the business of simply mining well-worn TV setups and their myriad of conventions for giggles, although it does that expertly. With whip-smart writing, the Australian series is intelligent, hilarious, and all-round cracking as a whodunnit-style noir drama and as a comedy alike — and one of the streaming highlights of the year. The place: Tasmania, in the fictional locale that gives Deadloch its name (that Deadloch Lake means 'dead lake lake' doesn't go unmentioned). That first body: a local gym owner and ProBro entrepreneur ("it's protein for bros," is the sales pitch), who'll soon have burning pubic hair, too ("holy shit, his dick's on fire," is the response). The key police duo: Senior Sergeant Dulcie Collins (Kate Box, Stateless), a by-the-book type who traded being a stressed Sydney homicide detective for a quieter life for her vet wife Cath (Alicia Gardiner, Wakefield); and Darwin Major Crimes division's Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami, The Breaker Upperers), who asks "how long has shrivel dick been dead for?" about the deceased, is as loud as her Hawaiian shirts and fluoro camouflage getup, and intends to catch the easy culprit ASAP so she can hightail it back north. That Deadloch's initial victim is male gives the standard dead-girl trope an instant a gender-switched twist — even the genre's best, from Twin Peaks and The Killing to True Detective and Top of the Lake, have leaned upon it — but that isn't the source of Deadloch's humour, nor should it be. As recent comedy hits Only Murders in the Building and The Afterparty also know, murder itself isn't amusing either. Rather, it's the chaos around it and the people who get caught up in it that can be comic, which is where Deadloch frequently tickles ribs — that, and lampooning everything from small-town gentrification and tourist-courting winter festivals to arrogant detective archetypes and the male-centric world order, plus the show's glorious way with dialogue and Aussie swearing. Again, the series isn't funny because heterosexual white men comprise its rising body count, or because women are doing the investigating. The way that Deadloch's blokes react, the pressure piled on from the top and the frenzy swirling around is pointedly sidesplitting, though. This is a whodunnit with something to say, because there's no escaping the vast difference between the urgent demands for action from its fictional males and the off-screen reality when women are killed. Who did it? As Eddie leaps to obvious conclusions amid spitting out a non-stop barrage of insults, Dulcie's detective muscle memory kicks in. Deadloch's odd couple have help from constables Abby Matsuda (Nina Oyama, Koala Man) and Sven Alderman (Tom Ballard, Fully Furnished) — one as eager as can be, especially with forensics; the other affable but seeing policing as just as job — and hear theories from almost everyone. That includes doctor and mayor Aleyna Rahme (Susie Youssef, Rosehaven), the driving force behind Deadloch's just-commenced Dark Mofo-influenced Winter Feastival, who is determined to keep the festivities going. And, as Eddie struggles with baggage from back home and Dulcie grapples with investigating her friends, their quest also leads them to Margaret Carruthers (Pamela Rabe, Wentworth), the town's most powerful figure, whose husband was Deadloch's previous mayor. Also adding thoughts and complications: new widow Vanessa Latham (Katie Robinson, Five Bedrooms); bakery owner Vic O'Dwyer (Kris McQuade, Irreverent) and her gastropub chef daughter Skye (Holly Austin, Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears); the rabble-rousing Phil McGangus (Shaun Martindale, Sissy); obnoxious pathologist James King (Nick Simpson-Deeks, Winners & Losers); and aspiring AFLW player Tammy Hampson (Leonie Whyman, Mystery Road: Origin) and her studious cousin Miranda Hoskins (Kartanya Maynard, The Messenger). The list goes on, with the pool of suspects similarly broad. Whether they're vocally vicious — Phil spews misogynist vitriol, particularly about Deadloch's influx of lesbian tree-changers — or seemingly oblivious, this cast of characters is also aware that the town's facade isn't as calm and cosy as it appears. Indeed, McCartney and McLennan examine Australia's horrific race-relations history as well as the country's gender politics, interrogating how both blighted the show's setting long before multiple murders upset its supposed idyll. If The Kates had penned Deadloch as a book, it'd be a can't-put-down page-turner. On streaming, as cinematographers Katie Milwright (The Clearing) and Simon Ozolins (Heartbreak High) revel in a Tasmanian gothic look, their tale is that propulsive and addictive. And, the show's deeply layered writing — with Sami, Kim Wilson (Wentworth), Christian White (Clickbait), Anchuli Felicia King (Class of '07) and Kirsty Fisher (Mustangs FC) scripting with McCartney and McLennan — couldn't have a better roster of actors bringing it to life under directors Ben Chessell (The Great), Gracie Otto (Seriously Red) and Beck Cole (Black Comedy). Playing it straight and giving the series its emotional centre, Box could've walked straight in from Broadchurch. Tasked with thundering in, Sami is a comic genius as Eddie, ensuring that the character's unflinching honesty couldn't be more pivotal, and that Eddie is never a one-note OTT outsider. Trust McCartney and McLennan to give TV another tremendous pairing, swapping their own The Katering Show and Get Krack!n dynamic for Box and Sami killing it. Trust them to leave viewers with the feeling that every The Kates' project leaves: wanting more right now. Their time as a food intolerant and an intolerable foodie ran over two seasons, then their breakfast television stint repeated the feat. Here's hoping that Deadloch at least matches them — while its creators don't grace the screen this time, this crime-comedy ranks among The Kates' best work in every other way. Check out the trailer for Deadloch below: Deadloch streams via Prime Video from Friday, June 2.
Another race week in Melbourne has zoomed past like a McLaren. The highly-anticipated race week always carries a certain buzz: packed trams, streets humming with excitement and pubs around the city overflowing with devoted fans. To celebrate, Jack Daniel's brought the hype (and noise) off-track with a bunch of racing experiences across the city. Here's what went down. The Hub of Middle Park With the race track situated in Albert Park, the next-door suburb of Middle Park became a hub of fan activity. Local pub, Middle Park Hotel, was the destination for catching all of the race week action. There was a festival-like energy all weekend, with fans spilling out of the circuit and into the surrounding events. Jack Daniel's took over the entire venue, with replica McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team uniforms and helmets on display throughout the hotel, along with games, competitions, and prizes. Outside, the Jack Daniel's Marquee became a natural meeting point for racegoers, offering a place to regroup after the track action while staying immersed in the buzzing atmosphere. With screens broadcasting the action live, fans never missed a moment, and the mix of music, conversation and post-race excitement kept the crowd's energy high and rolling well into the evening. On Thursday, there was a race warm-up party inside the marquee with a surprise appearance from Melbourne's own racing star, Oscar Piastri. It gave fans a memorable race week moment to talk about long after the weekend wrapped. Jack's Bus Goes VIP Also in Middle Park was Jack's Bus. Parked out the front of Middle Park Hotel, Jack's Bus was decked out in race paraphernalia and offered punters a more elevated experience within the chaos of race weekend. Guests could learn about Jack Daniel's, try whiskey tastings and enjoy the cool, air-conditioned bus. Watching the festival-like atmosphere unfold from the bus gave it a VIP feel (without the price tag). Live Music at Jack's Garage The live music highlight of the weekend came via Jack's Garage, the four-night gig series that took over the Gershwin Room at St Kilda institution, The Espy. Fans got to see four legendary Australian acts across the weekend: The Presets, Slowly Slowly, Anna Lunoe and Keli Holiday. The combination of racing fans and music lovers created an exciting crossover crowd and heightened the race week hype felt across the city. Even after a full day spent at the track, the audience clearly had plenty left in the tank for each act. Conversations about lap times and overtakes easily gave way to sing-alongs and packed dance floors, with the live sets becoming a natural continuation of the race-week energy. Karaoke Time Also held in St Kilda was Jack Daniel's karaoke competition. In The Espy's Engine Room, participants were encouraged to step up and grab the mic in a high-stakes competition, with $5K in cash on the line. The audience got behind their favourite performers with the crowd reactions and sing-alongs turning into one of the most unexpectedly entertaining parts of the race weekend. Across the weekend, Jack Daniel's blended racing culture with Melbourne's exciting city buzz. From live music and watch parties to karaoke and surprise driver appearances, the whole weekend was a nonstop celebration that kept fans immersed in the energy of race week. Let's do it all again next year. Image Credit: Laura Du Vue
Well-known for his visual distinctive style and fondness for symmetry across films such as The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson is now playing museum curator. Alongside his partner, set designer and illustrator Juman Malouf, he's put together an exhibition for Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum: Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and Other Treasures. The creative couple were given a task that plenty would envy: trawling through the Kunsthistorisches Museum's more than four million objects, and selecting their favourites from the incredibly broad collection of in-house artifacts. The end result includes items from all 14 of the museum's collections, which span old master paintings, Greek and Roman antiquities, Imperial coins and more. Think pieces like historical musical instruments, suits of armour, foreign antiques, carriages and sleighs, plus a fully illustrated catalogue. If you're wondering what inspired Anderson, he explains in the exhibition catalogue that, with Malouf, he harbours "the humble aspiration that the unconventional groupings and arrangement of the works on display may influence the study of art and antiquity in minor, even trivial, but nevertheless detectable ways for many future generations to come". And if you're not planning to be in Austria before April 28, 2019 — or in Italy afterwards, with the exhibition set to travel to the Fondazione Prada in Milan at a yet-to-be-announced date — here's a look at what's on offer. [caption id="attachment_703302" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Exhibition view. © KHM-Museumsverband[/caption] Exhibition view. © KHM-Museumsverband [caption id="attachment_703299" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Exhibition view. © KHM-Museumsverband[/caption] Exhibition view. © KHM-Museumsverband Exhibition view. © KHM-Museumsverband Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and Other Treasures exhibits at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum until April 28, 2019. Images: © KHM-Museumsverband.
Pilates had a major moment in Sydney in 2025, from the runaway popularity of glossy reformer pilates studios to novelty concepts like floating classes held on Bellamy Beach's surf. This year, Studio Red is bringing an innovative spin on the century-old workout: it's paired with a dose of red light therapy. Opening on January 31, Studio Red is rolling out pilates, yoga and HIIT classes in rooms jazzed up with infrared red lights. Besides making a statement, red light therapy speeds up muscle recovery by boosting cellular energy and easing inflammation at the right wavelengths. It's a clever workaround for the inevitable post-class aches, especially in tandem with movement and heat. Pilates might be a low-impact workout, but it's far from low-effort. As a former national powerlifter and bodybuilding athlete, founder Libby Angus folds strength and conditioning into the flow at Studio Red. "Strength training plays a critical role in long-term health. We're able to support movement quality while also addressing strength and bone density, which is something many women don't get enough of in traditional group fitness," Libby says. There are two heated options: an hour of vinyasa yoga or a slightly more intense 50-minute mat pilates session. High-intensity interval training is ideal for busy days — it's the most hardcore offering on the schedule and wraps up in 45 minutes. Expect plenty of weight work and form checks from the instructors here. With intimate groups capped at 12, there's no hiding in the back of the class. Images supplied
Situated on Kent Street alongside the likes of Papa Gede's and PS40 is Vinabar — a cosy microbar hidden behind a door disguised as a banh mi cart. If you're simply walking by, it could easily be mistaken as a spot for a quick bite as you venture through the city. Each detail throughout the moody yet sophisticated fitout tells a story. The space is adorned with vibrant silk lanterns hanging from its ceiling — which have been imported from Hoi An — a replica of the Golden Hand Bridge from Da Nang, and photographs of pre- and post-opening memories along its walls. Take a seat on either the comfortable lounge seating or at the sleek bar, and you'll be in for a treat. The brainchild of Ashwin Arumugam and Reymark Tesalona takes cues from Vietnam's lively nightlife and hospitality scene, with the intimate cocktail bar serving up stellar, Asian-inspired sips until 2am every night. Vinabar's food offering simply consists of a baby pork banh mi accompanied by a shot of Vietnamese coffee, which serves as a small bite to sustain casual drinking, or the perfect snack to satiate those hankering for a treat. The cocktail menu, however, focuses on inventive drinks with a creative Asian twist, with a new special launched every fortnight. Vinabar's main menu has four signature cocktails and one signature shot, alongside a short selection of beers, wines and mocktails. Highlights include the lychee-forward Rumble in the Jungle; a Vietnamese spin on the espresso martini known as the Cã-Phê martini; an martini inspired by banh mi; and the ginger, calamansi and tequila-starring Gaslighter — which appears similar to water but is made up almost entirely of alcohol. Plus, all of the classics are available upon request. Whether you're out on the town bar-hopping through Kent Street, enjoying an intimate night with a mate or a date, or keen for a small celebration, Vinabar is the spot for you, with space for up to 32 people. Vinabar is located at 332 Kent St, Sydney, open from 5pm–2am daily. Find out more at the venue's website. Image credit: James Scevola
Sydney is doing the time warp again. The latest blast from the past is a 70s-inspired enoteca from the folks behind Restaurant Hubert, Frankie's and Shady Pines Saloon. Called Alberto Lounge, the retro eatery has moved into Berta's old pad, and naturally, he's done a little renovating. Celebrating the shades of the 70s — brown, brown and brown — the venue has been given a groovy new fit-out, which includes teak shelving, chocolate-coloured carpet and buff stucco walls hung with framed poster art. Design crimes they may be, but somehow the space manages to feel warm, funky and fun. While the decor may be unashamedly old school, don't expect to find foil-wrapped garlic bread on the menu or curly parsley garnishes on your spag bol. Leading the charge on the food front is the gran maestro himself, Dan Pepperell (Restaurant Hubert, 10 William Street, Attica), who has created an Italo-Australian menu that takes classic cookery and makes it cool again. Forget watery table wine, Alberto takes its vino seriously, as you can probably guess from the wine menu-slash-manuscript, which has been painstakingly arranged by colour and weight. The list also includes a bright yellow section in the middle for nebbiolo, simply because "nebbiolo is awesome" explains our waiter. He's not wrong, Alberto's nebbiolo is awesome. As is its food, hell, even its decor. Alberto is certainly one hip joint. Images: Kitti Gould. Appears in: The Best Italian Restaurants in Sydney for 2023
Perhaps it's because we watch them in our homes, and in our lounge rooms and bedrooms where we're at our comfiest. Maybe it's because spending hours getting to know on-screen characters makes us feel like we know them. Either way, a beloved TV show is like an old friend — we miss them when they're gone and we can't wait for them to return. In 2022, including after hefty pandemic-related delays in some cases, the small screen welcomed back a lengthy list of already-proven hits. Some served up second seasons as ace as their first. Others have several years worth of past ace episodes under their belts (or in their coffins). And, because all good things really do come to an end, a few said goodbye. Whichever category fits whichever show, the past year hasn't been short on excellent TV among repeat players, spanning everything from crime dramas and savvy comedies through to mind-bending animation and playful murder-mysteries. Midyear, we rounded up our standout shows between January and June. A number held their place in our hearts over the full year — but they have new company. Ready for end-of-year catch-ups and 2023 revisits, here are the best 15 returning TV shows that hit television and streaming across 2022. BETTER CALL SAUL The best show on television for the past seven years — other than the one-season return of Twin Peaks — came to an end in 2022. Viewers knew this was coming but it's still monumental, especially given that Better Call Saul is the spinoff to an also-phenomenal series. Alas, unlike when Breaking Bad wrapped, there's no future immediately in sight for this excellent franchise. Perhaps that's fitting; everything has to fade away at some point, including the canny and resourceful run of an Albuquerque-based lawyer born Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk, Nobody), nicknamed 'Slippin' Jimmy' during his early con-artist days and rebadged Gene Takavic when he flees for a Cinnabon-serving new Nebraskan life. Of course, this franchise best knows him as Saul Goodman after he leans into shady criminal law with well-oiled charm, becoming a charismatic but shifty defence attorney aiding Walter White (Bryan Cranston, Your Honor) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul, Westworld). Thanks to Breaking Bad and its gripping New Mexico-set crime-drama antics, we knew where Saul's choices were heading. Better Call Saul's sixth season reckons with that knowledge. It interrogates it, toys with it and expands upon it as well. But in the first trailer for the show's swan song, which was broken into two parts — the first started in April, the second returned in July — fellow Breaking Bad favourite-turned-Better Call Saul key player Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks, The Comey Rule) might've said it best. "Whatever happens next, it's not gonna go down the way you think it is," the ex-cop advised. How true that proved as creator Vince Gilligan chronicled life's bleak and heartbreaking realities via a meticulous and twisty character study, including the fates awaiting Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn, Veep), Salamanca family footsoldier Nacho Varga (Michael Mando, Spider-Man: Homecoming), and Hector Salamanca's (Mark Margolis, Snowpiercer) alluringly crafty nephew Lalo (Tony Dalton, Hawkeye). TV rarely gets any better than this, and didn't in 2022. Better Call Saul streams via Stan. Read our full review of season six. THE WHITE LOTUS Lives of extravagant luxury. Globe-hopping getaways. Whiling away cocktail-soaked days in gorgeous beachy locales. Throw in the level of wealth and comfort needed to make those three things an easy, breezy everyday reality, and the world's sweetest dreams are supposedly made of this. On TV since 2021, HBO's hit dramedy The White Lotus has been, too. Indeed, in its Emmy-winning first season, the series was a phenomenon of a biting satire, scorching the one percent, colonialism and class divides in a twisty, astute, savage and hilarious fashion. It struck such a chord, in fact, that what was meant to be a one-and-done limited season was renewed for a second go-around, sparking an anthology. That Sicily-set second effort once again examines sex, status, staring head-on at mortality and accepting the unshakeable fact that life is short for everyone but truly sweet for oh-so-few regardless of bank balance — and with writer/director/creator Mike White (Brad's Status) still overseeing proceedings, the several suitcase loads of smart, scathing, sunnily shot chaos that The White Lotus brings to screens this time around are well worth unpacking again. Here, another group of well-off holidaymakers slip into another splashy, flashy White Lotus property and work through their jumbled existences. Another death lingers over their trip, with The White Lotus again starting with an unnamed body — bodies, actually — then jumping back seven days to tell its tale from the beginning. Running the Taormina outpost of the high-end resort chain, Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore, Across the River and Into the Trees) is barely surprised by the corpse that kicks off season two. She's barely surprised about much beforehand, either. That includes her dealings with the returning Tanya McQuoid-Hunt (Jennifer Coolidge, The Watcher), her husband Greg (Jon Gries, Dream Corp LLC) and assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson, After Yang); three generations of Di Grasso men, aka Bert (F Murray Abraham, Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities), Hollywood hotshot Dominic (Michael Imperioli, The Many Saints of Newark) and the Stanford-educated Albie (Adam DiMarco, The Order); and tech whiz Ethan (Will Sharpe, Defending the Guilty) and his wife Harper (Aubrey Plaza, Best Sellers), plus his finance-bro college roommate Cameron (Theo James, The Time Traveller's Wife) and his stay-at-home wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy, The Bold Type). The White Lotus streams via Binge. Read our full review of season two. RESERVATION DOGS One of the best new TV shows of 2021 returned for a second season in 2022 — and it quickly cemented its spot on this list. That series: the gloriously heartfelt and perceptive Reservation Dogs, which may riff on a Quentin Tarantino movie with its moniker, and also started with a heist when it first hit the screen, but proves dedicated to diving deep into what it's like to be an Indigenous North American teenager today. Bear (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Beans), Elora (Devery Jacobs, Rutherford Falls), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) and Cheese (debutant Lane Factor) are those restless Oklahoma adolescents, and they've shared a California dream since the show began. But when the first season wrapped up with a tornado, as well as a figurative storm of hard truths and buried feelings, the gang's relocation fantasy didn't play out as expected. The lure of family and culture remained strong, as did holding onto a past that's brought happiness as well as pain (getting a fresh start after losing a friend is a big motivation for their escape plan). That said, Elora still attempts to go anyway. In season two, the more things change, the more they stay the same — until they don't. For Bear, Willie Jack and Cheese, staying on the reservation requires facing life on the reservation. For Elora, being on the road with enemy-turned-travelling companion Jackie (Elva Guerra, Dark Winds) gets tumultuous. Made with such an evident commitment to minutiae, and to feeling lived-in at every moments, Reservation Dogs spins both its episodic stories and its long-running coming-of-age arcs, themes and emotions into something wonderful again and again. Co-creator/executive producer/writer Sterlin Harjo (Mekko) deserves all the kudos that can be showered his way, and so does Taika Waititi as one of the series' fellow creators, executive producers and writers. There are many reasons to be thankful for the New Zealand filmmaker as his resume keeps attesting (including fellow recent sitcom Our Flag Means Death); however, using his fame to help bring this insightful gift into the world is one of them. Reservation Dogs streams via Binge. Read our full review of season two. BARRY Three seasons into the sitcom that bears his name, all that Barry Berkman (Bill Hader, Noelle) wants is to be an actor — and to also no longer kill people for a living. That's what he's yearned for across the bulk of this HBO gem, which has given Saturday Night Live alum Hader his best-ever role; however, segueing from being an assassin to treading the boards or standing in front of the camera is unsurprisingly complicated. One of the smartest elements of the always-fantastic Barry is how determined it is to weather all the chaos, darkness, rough edges and heart-wrenching consequences of its central figure's choices, though. That's true of his actions not only in the past, but in the show's present. Hader and series co-creator Alec Berg (Silicon Valley) know that viewers like Barry. You're meant to. But that doesn't mean ignoring that he's a hitman, or that his time murdering people — and his military career before that — has repercussions, including for those around him. One of the most layered and complex comedies currently airing, Barry's third season is as intricate, thorny, textured and hilarious as the first two. Indeed, it's ridiculously easy to see how cartoonish its premise would be in lesser hands, or how it might've leaned on a simple odd-couple setup given that Anthony Carrigan (Bill & Ted Face the Music) plays Chechen gangster Noho Hank with such delightful flair. But Barry keeps digging into what makes its namesake tick, why, and the ripples he causes. It does the same with his beloved acting teacher Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler, The French Dispatch) as well. With visual precision on par with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, it's also as phenomenal at staging action scenes as it is at diving deep into its characters — and, as every smartly penned episode just keeps proving, it's downright stellar at that. Barry streams via Binge. Read our full review of season three. MYSTERY ROAD: ORIGIN Origin stories: everyone's getting them. Caped crusaders like Batman and Spider-Man have several; Hercule Poirot's moustache even has its own. Originally played by Aaron Pedersen on both the big and small screens, Mystery Road's Jay Swan doesn't particularly need one, given that plenty about why he's the man and detective he is, and the balancing act he's forced to undertake as an Indigenous cop as well, has already been teased out. But Mystery Road: Origin isn't jumping on a trend, repeating itself or prolonging a long-running saga. It isn't trying to justify having someone else play Swan, either. Rather, this latest entry in Australia's best crime saga leaps backwards because this franchise has always danced with history anyway. It has to; you can't explore the reality of life in Australia today, the racial and cultural divides that've long festered across this sunburnt country, and all that Swan encounters and tussles with, otherwise. In Mystery Road: Origin, it's 1999 — and, when its six episodes begin, Swan isn't quite a detective yet. He's already a man of weighty thoughts and few words, though, and he's played by Mark Coles Smith (Occupation: Rainfall), who couldn't do a more impressive job of stepping into Pedersen's (High Ground) shoes. The series initially spies Swan as he's driving along sweeping salt plains. His destination: Jardine, his Western Australian home town, population 1000. Resident sergeant Peter Lovric (Steve Bisley, Doctor Doctor) welcomes Swan back eagerly, but his return isn't all cheers, especially when he stumbles across a robbery en route and gets cuffed by senior constable Max Armine (Hayley McElhinney, How to Please a Woman). Tensions also linger with Swan's estranged dad Jack (Kelton Pell, The Circuit), the town's old rodeo hero, and with his hard-drinking elder brother Sputty (Clarence Ryan, Moon Rock for Monday). Indeed, that early stickup, the crimewave waged by culprits in Ned Kelly masks that it's soon a part of, and those persistent family struggles will all define the detective's homecoming. Mystery Road: Origin streams via ABC iview. Read our full review. ATLANTA You can't escape yourself. As Atlanta sent Earnest 'Earn' Marks (Donald Glover, Guava Island), his cousin and rapper Alfred 'Paper Boi' Miles (Brian Tyree Henry, Bullet Train), their Nigerian American pal Darius (Lakeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah) and Earn's ex Vanessa (Zazie Beetz, also Bullet Train) around Europe in the show's third season — and first of two in 2022 — that truth became inescapable, too. Hopping everywhere from Amsterdam to Paris and London, the group saw the daily reality of being Black Americans linger with them at every destination — and their personal ups and downs as well — no matter how wild, weird, bleak or hopeful the circumstances they were in. Arriving mere months later, season four kicked off by also exploring that point, including in a debut episode that sees Atlanta, the city, haunt the show's main players. They're back home and there's no way they couldn't know it, whether they're on scavenger hunts, stuck in carparks or being chased. Across its ten-episode run, Atlanta's fourth season also examines another truth that's always sat at the core of the show: that for better and for worse, there's no place like home. That applies to the physical location, but also to the homes we make with other people — family, friends and everything in-between. Earn and Van gravitate closer together, but their relationship has always ebbed and flowed. Al keeps pondering what success really means, too, and Darius does the same with reality. In the process, Glover's superbly smart, blistering and often-surreal unpacking of race relations lays bare the nation it usually calls home, as it did so incisively in its first two seasons, while never failing to challenge, surprise and swing big. That the show's final season also clearly muses on legacies obviously couldn't be more fitting — and ending in a thoroughly unpredictable and yet also ridiculously apt way, it'll always be a great on Glover, Henry, Stanfield and Beetz's resumes. Atlanta streams via SBS On Demand. Read our full review of season three. KEVIN CAN F**K HIMSELF Not once, not even jokingly, does Annie Murphy utter the words "ew, David" in Kevin Can F**k Himself. She's never ever just a little bit Alexis, either. Murphy is just as exceptional and awards-worthy here, however, in a superb show that's a clever and cutting dark comedy — and, perhaps more accurately, offers a clear-eyed unpacking of what sitcoms usually mean (Schitt's Creek excluded, obviously) for women. In its first season in 2021, Kevin Can F**k Himself cast its star as Allison Devine-McRoberts, wife to the manchild of a titular figure (Eric Petersen, Sydney to the Max), and clearly in the kind of TV show about obnoxious husbands and their put-upon spouses that've been a small-screen mainstay for far too long. In those segments of the series, the lights glow, the McRoberts home looks like every other abode in every other program of its ilk, multiple cameras observe the action and viewers can be forgiven for expecting Kevin James to show up. Also, canned laughter chuckles — always unearned. Consider the above setup Kevin Can F**k Himself's starting point, though, because the show itself does. From there, creator Valerie Armstrong (Lodge 49) exposes what life is truly like for Allison — who is considered Kevin's wife first and foremost by almost everyone around her — including by switching looks, hues and camera arrangements whenever its namesake isn't around. The visible change is smart and effective, with this two-season show keeping digging into Allison's bleak situation from there. In the spirit of the series' title, she's trying to rid herself of her horrible marriage, including with help from neighbour Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden, The Righteous Gemstones). Alas, as this second and sadly last batch of episodes shows — as its first did as well — nothing is ever that easy. In a better world, Kevin Can F**k Himself would've had more time to unfurl and interrogate its story, but in this world it doesn't put a foot wrong with the time it's been given. Murphy and Inboden make one of TV's best duos, too; fingers crossed that someone reteams them again sometime soon. Kevin can F**k Himself streams via AMC+. Read our full review of 2021's season one. WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS Live life long enough and anything can happen. Enjoy an undead existence for hundreds of years and that feeling only multiplies, or so the wealth of movies and TV shows that've let vampires stalk through their frames frequently remind viewers. A sharehouse-set mockumentary focused on bloodsucking roommates who've seen more than a few centuries between them, What We Do in the Shadows embraces that idea like little else — as a Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi-starring movie, aka one of the funniest New Zealand comedies of this century, and then as a hilarious American TV spinoff. The premise has always been ridiculously straightforward, and always reliably entertaining. A camera crew captures the lives of the fanged and not-at-all furious, squabbles about chores, a rising body count and avoiding sunlight all included. Their domesticity may involve sinking their teeth into necks, blood splatters aplenty, sleeping in coffins and shapeshifting into bats, but it also covers arguing about paying bills, keeping the house clean and dealing with the neighbours. The TV version's stellar fourth season picks up after a climactic end to the show's prior batch of episodes, which only finished airing back in October 2021. Its bloodsucking roommates were all set for their own adventures, but a year has passed in the show, bringing them back together. Nandor (Kayvan Novak, Cruella) returns from exploring his ancestral homeland, and he's more determined than ever to find a wife. He also thinks that one of his many from the Middle Ages could be the one again; bringing back a Djinn (Anoop Desai, Russian Doll) to grant his wishes helps. After a stint in London with the Supreme Vampiric Council, Nadja has big ambitions, too, setting her sights on opening a vampire nightclub. As for her beloved Laszlo (Matt Berry, Toast of London and Toast of Tinseltown), he's still taking care of the baby-turned-boy that burst its way out of energy vampire Colin Robinson's (Mark Proksch, The Office) body. For the fourth time around, nothing about this delight sucks, not for a second, with season four as wonderful as ever. What We Do in the Shadows streams via Binge. Read our full review of season four. GIRLS5EVA When it first hit streaming in 2021 with an avalanche of quickfire jokes — as all Tina Fey-executive produced sitcoms do, such as 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Great News and Mr Mayor — Girls5eva introduced viewers to its eponymous band. One-hit wonders in the late 90s and early 00s, their fame had fizzled. Indeed, reclaiming their stardom wasn't even a blip on their radars — until, unexpectedly, it was. Dawn Solano (Sara Bareilles, Broadway's Waitress), Wickie Roy (Renée Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton), Summer Dutkowsky (Busy Philipps, I Feel Pretty) and Gloria McManus (Paula Pell, AP Bio) had left their days as America's answer to the Spice Girls behind, barely staying in contact since the group split and their fifth member, Ashley Gold (Ashley Park, Emily in Paris), later died in an infinity pool accident. But then rapper Lil Stinker (Jeremiah Craft, Bill & Ted Face the Music) sampled their single 'Famous 5eva', and they were asked to perform backing vocals during his Tonight Show gig. Jumping back into the spotlight reignited dreams that the surviving Girls5eva members thought they'd extinguished long ago — well, other than walking attention-magnet Wickie, who crashed and burned in her attempts to go solo, and was happy to fake it till she made it again. That's the tale the show charts once more in its second season, which is filled with more rapid-fire pop-culture references and digs; the same knowing, light but still sincere tone; and a new parade of delightful tunes composed by Jeff Richmond, Fey's husband and source of music across every sitcom she's produced. One of the joys of Girls5eva — one of many — is how gleefully absurd it skews, all while fleshing out its central quartet, their hopes and desires, and their experiences navigating an industry that treats them as commodities at best. The comedy's sophomore run finds much to satirise, of course, but also dives deeper and pushing Wickie, Dawn, Summer and Gloria to grow. Obviously, it's another gem. Girls5eva streams via Stan. Read our full review of season two. STARSTRUCK It's official: after a dream of a first season, Rose Matafeo's rom-com sitcom Starstruck worked its magic a second time. In season two, it makes viewers fall head over heels for its 21st-century take on dating a famous actor all over again. It's also official for Matafeo's (Baby Done) Jessie, who is now dating Tom (Nikesh Patel, Four Weddings and a Funeral), the celebrity she had a one-night stand with on New Year's Eve, then navigated an awkward will-they-won't-they dance around every time they ran into each other in London. But this next batch of six episodes poses a key question: once you've enjoyed the wild meet-cute, ridden the courtship rollercoaster and been bowled over by a grand romantic gesture (see: Starstruck's The Graduate-style season-one finale), what comes next? It's the stuff that rom-com movie sequels might cover, except that for all of Hollywood's eagerness to rinse and repeat its most popular fare, this genre is sparse in the follow-up department. Season two picks up exactly where its predecessor left off, with Jessie and Tom's bus ride segueing into a WTF realisation — as in "WTF do we do now?". That's a query that Jessie isn't ready to answer, even though she's made the big leap and missed her flight home. So, she avoids even tackling the situation at first, and then eschews fully committing even when she's meant to be in the throes of romantic bliss. Basically, it's messy, and the kind of chaos that rom-coms don't show when they end with a happily-ever-after moment. Like everyone, Jessie and Tom endure plenty. In the process, this gem of a show's second season is light but also deep, a screwball delight while also sharp and relatable, and still filled with fellow romantic-comedy references. And, as well as continuing to showcase Matafeo at her best, it remains a rom-com that's as aware of what relationships in 2022 are really like as it is about how romance is typically portrayed in its genre. Starstruck streams via ABC iView. Read our full review of season two. RAMY In the dramedy that bears his name, Ramy Youssef (Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot) is a quintuple threat. He created Ramy, plays Ramy, executive produces, and also frequently writes and directs — and, in a show about a Queens-born first-generation American Muslim raised in New Jersey to Egyptian parents, as Youssef himself is, there's no doubting that the stories he's telling are personal. There's a difference between bringing your own exact existence to the screen and conveying the truth behind your experiences, however, with Ramy falling into the second category as it charts its eponymous figure's struggles as his faith conflicts with his lifestyle. Since its first season in 2019, the series has always been so deeply steeped in the lived reality of feeling torn between two cultures, and so specific in its details, too. And yet, it's also so universal and relatable in its emotions and insights. None of the above changes in season three, welcomely so, in what's one of Ramy's finest moments yet. In this ten-episode third run, the lives of Ramy and his loved ones are rarely blessed with fine moments — and Ramy Hassan, Youssef's on-screen alter-ego, keeps threatening his own heart, mind and soul with his choices. Season two ended with a short-lived marriage and the fallout still lingers, but Ramy has thrown himself into making his Uncle Naseem's (Laith Nakli, Ms Marvel) diamond business a success as a distraction. He has money, his own place and, soon, his own jewellery outfit, although that doesn't herald happiness. For his sister Dena (May Calamawy, Moon Knight), nor has striving hard to take the bar exam, especially when her parents Maysa (Hiam Abbass, Succession) and Farouk (Amr Waked, Wonder Woman 1984) are open about how differently they see her and her future to Ramy. As the elder Hassans also grapple with Farouk being out of work, plus decades of feeling like they're treading water, Ramy remains a stunningly perceptive and engaging exploration of the battle to remain true to oneself — and one's hopes, dreams and religion — while also proving a rich, poignant and devastatingly well-acted comedy. May more come. Ramy streams via Stan. Read our full review of season three. UNDONE Returning for its second season three years after its first — which was one of the best shows of 2019 — the gorgeously and thoughtfully trippy multiverse series Undone is fixated on one idea: that life's flaws can be fixed. It always has been from the moment its eight-episode initial season appeared with its vivid rotoscoped animation and entrancing leaps into surreal territory; however, in season two it doubles down. Hailing from BoJack Horseman duo Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg, it also remains unsurprisingly concerned with mental illness, and still sees its protagonist caught in an existential crisis. (The pair have a type, but Undone isn't BoJack Horseman 2.0). And, it deeply understands that it's spinning a "what if?" story, and also one about deep-seated unhappiness. Indeed, learning to cope with being stuck in an imperfect life, being unable to wish it away and accepting that fate beams brightly away at the heart of the show. During its debut outing, Undone introduced viewers to 28-year-old Alma Winograd-Diaz (Rosa Salazar, Alita: Battle Angel), who found everything she thought she knew pushed askew after a near-fatal car accident. Suddenly, she started experiencing time and her memories differently — including those of her father, Jacob Winograd (Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul), who died over 20 years earlier. In a vision, he tasked her with investigating his death, which became a quest to patch up the past to stop tragedy from striking. Undone didn't necessarily need a second season, but this repeat dive into Alma's story ponders what happens in a timeline where everything seems to glimmer with all that its protagonist has ever wanted, and yet sorrow still lingers. Once again, the end result is deeply rich and resonant, as intelligent and affecting as sci-fi and animation alike get, and dedicated to thinking and feeling big while confronting everyday truths. Undone streams via Prime Video. Read our full review of season two. HACKS In 2021, Hacks' first season quickly cemented itself as one of 2021's best new TV shows — one of two knockout newbies starring Jean Smart last year, thanks to Mare of Easttown as well — and it's just as ace the second time around. It's still searingly funny, nailing that often-elusive blend of insight, intelligence and hilarity. It retains its observational, wry tone, and remains devastatingly relatable even if you've never been a woman trying to make it in comedy. And it's happy to linger where it needs to to truly understand its characters, but never simply dwells in the same place as its last batch of episodes. Season two is literally about hitting the road, so covering fresh territory is baked into the story; however, Hacks' trio of key behind-the-scenes creatives — writer Jen Statsky (The Good Place), writer/director Lucia Aniello (Rough Night) and writer/director/co-star Paul W Downs (The Other Two) — aren't content to merely repeat themselves with a different backdrop. Those guiding hands started Hacks after helping to make Broad City a hit. Clearly, they all know a thing or two about moving on from the past. That's the decision both veteran comedian Deborah Vance (Smart) and her twentysomething writer-turned-assistant Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder, North Hollywood) had to make themselves in season one, with the show's second season now charting the fallout. So, Deborah has farewelled her residency and the dependable gags that kept pulling in crowds, opting to test out new and far-more-personal material on a cross-country tour instead. Ava has accepted her role by Deborah's side, and is willing to see it as a valid career move rather than an embarrassing stopgap. But that journey comes a few narrative bumps. Of course, Hacks has always been willing to see that actions have consequences, not only for an industry that repeatedly marginalises women, but for its imperfect leading ladies. Hacks streams via Stan. Read our full review of season two. ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING Born out of the world's recent true-crime and podcasting obsessions — and the intersection of the two in the likes of Serial — Only Murders in the Building boasts its own version of Sarah Koenig. In this marvellous murder-mystery comedy, she's called Cinda Canning (Tina Fey, Girls5eva). As viewers of the show's impressive and entertaining first season know, though, she's not the main focus. Instead, Only Murders in the Building hones in on three New Yorkers residing in the Arconia apartment complex — where, as the program's name makes plain, there's a murder. There's several, but it only takes one to initially bring actor Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin, It's Complicated), theatre producer Oliver Putnam (Martin Short, Schmigadoon!) and the much-younger Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez, The Dead Don't Die) together. The trio then turn amateur detectives, and turn that sleuthing into their own podcast, which also shares the show's title. In season two, the series returns to the same scene. Yes, there's another killing. No time has passed for Only Murders in the Building's characters — and, while plenty has changed since the series' debut episode last year, plenty remains the same. Viewers now know Charles, Oliver and Mabel better, and they all know each other better, but that only makes things more complicated. Indeed, there's a lived-in vibe to the program and its main figures this time around, rather than every episode feeling like a new discovery. Among the many things that Only Murders in the Building does exceptionally well, finding multiple ways to parallel on- and off-screen experiences ranks right up there. That applies to true-crime and podcast fixations, naturally, and also to getting to know someone, learning their ins and outs, and finding your comfort zone even when life's curveballs keep coming. Only Murders in the Building streams via Disney+. Read our full review of season two. EUPHORIA From the very first frames of its debut episode back in June 2019, when just-out-of-rehab 17-year-old Rue Bennett (Zendaya, Spider-Man: No Way Home) gave viewers the lowdown on her life, mindset, baggage, friends, family and everyday chaos, Euphoria has courted attention — or, mirroring the tumultuous teens at the centre of its dramas, the Emmy-winning HBO series just knew that eyeballs would come its way no matter what it did. The brainchild of filmmaker Sam Levinson (Malcolm & Marie), adapted from an Israeli series by the same name, and featuring phenomenal work by its entire cast, it's flashy, gritty, tense, raw, stark and wild, and manages to be both hyper-stylised to visually striking degree and deeply empathetic. In other words, if teen dramas reflect the times they're made — and from Degrassi, Press Gang and Beverly Hills 90210 through to The OC, Friday Night Lights and Skins, they repeatedly have — Euphoria has always been a glittery eyeshadow-strewn sign of today's times. That hasn't changed in the show's second season. Almost two and a half years might've elapsed between Euphoria's first and second batch of episodes — a pair of out-of-season instalments in late 2020 and early 2021 aside — but it's still as potent, intense and addictive as ever. And, as dark, as Rue's life and those of her pals (with the cast including Hunter Schafer, The King of Staten Island's Maude Apatow, The Kissing Booth franchise's Jacob Elordi, The White Lotus' Sydney Sweeney, The Afterparty's Barbie Ferreira, North Hollywood's Angus Cloud and Waves' Alexa Demie) bobs and weaves through everything from suicidal despair, Russian Roulette, bloody genitals, unforgettable school plays, raucous parties and just garden-variety 2022-era teen angst. The list always goes on; in fact, as once again relayed in Levinson's non-stop, hyper-pop style, the relentlessness that is being a teenager today, trying to work out who you are and navigating all that the world throws at you is Euphoria's point. Euphoria streams via Binge. Looking for more viewing highlights? We also rounded up 15 excellent new TV shows of 2022 that you might've missed. Plus, we've kept a running list of must-stream TV from across the year, complete with full reviews. And, you can check out our regular rundown of film and TV streaming recommendations, which is updated monthly.
Let's face it: plastic is a major problem. A petroleum-based, entirely man-made substance, plastic is the super-villain extraordinaire in the fight against pollution. Despite our recycling efforts, a lot of plastic tends to end up in the ocean, causing enormous wastelands such as the Great Garbage Patch in the Pacific where plastic to marine life ratios have reached 6:1. You'd think by now we'd have come up with an alternative. In 2009, Coca Cola released a sustainable plastic bottle of which a ground-breaking 30% was made with raw bio materials. Not good enough for PepsiCo, who announced yesterday the successful development of a 100% plant-based bottle. The prototype is made of switch grass, pine bark and corn husks, and the company plans to use orange peel, oat hulls and potato in future versions. The bottle retains a similar molecular structure to plastic, meaning it looks and feels the same – minus the environmental impact. It's a major step forward in the future of sustainable packaging. Pepsi plans to test the logistics of mass-producing the bottle in 2012, and if all goes well they'll make the switch. Let's hope they share the idea so the phase-out of plastic production can begin. [Via Fast Company]
You've heard the old adage that it's the little things in life that make us happy, right? Well, something as simple as a cheap but damn fine coffee certainly fits that bill — and given that new cafe Little Evie Redfern roasts theirs in house and charges an affordable $3 per cup, they must agree. Setting up shop on Bourke Street, the inner west's latest boutique coffee spot will satisfy your daytime caffeine cravings every day or the week. They'll also serve up homemade cakes to go with it, because taking care of business on the premises is what this new eatery is all about. Fancy a just-baked peanut butter cookie with your fresh-roasted cuppa, anyone? If you're after something more substantial food-wise, expect banana bread with ricotta and strawberry, breakfast bruschetta with horizon and haloumi, and lemon myrtle-cured salmon with scrambled eggs on Little Evie's all-day brekkie menu. Lunchtime options include sandwiches, salads, burgers and soups, aka the perfect kind of homemade fare. And if you're not a coffee fiend — because they do exist — then jugs of house-made soda, six types of cold-pressed juices, a range of shakes and smoothies, a sizeable wine and choice of four Aussie beers should satisfy your thirst.
Google's innovation in geo-location tools and imaging has significantly changed how we view and interact with our world. What with Street Art View, allowing users to tag their favourite street art; People Finders connecting friends and loved ones in times of disaster; and artists capturing incredible images from Google Earth, Google blurs physical existence with digital presence to connect us in amazing ways. Whether you want to check out a destination before hitting the road or travel to the other side of the globe without leaving your seat, Google Street View can take you there. With the launch of an all new look and enhanced interactivity, real-world navigation from your net browser has never been so awesome. When you load up Google Maps, areas outlined in blue highlight where Google Street View is available. Google's loveable stick-figure Pegman will light up yellow too. Drag him onto your desired location to view the 'hood, and click on the arrows on the ground to take a little stroll. Back in 2007 at Street View's inception, only select major cities had the feature. Since then, teams of photographers have worked tirelessly to compile incredible images from around the world. Stitched together, the images form 360 degree panoramas which afford gorgeous glimpses of far away places - so good it feels like you're really there. https://youtube.com/watch?v=MwCrjfmCgO0 [Via Mashable]
