You don't have to travel far to experience the best luxury stays in Sydney, even one right on the beachfront. Having welcomed its first guests in December, the InterContinental Sydney Coogee Beach's landmark reveal offers an indulgent 198-room stay less than ten kilometres from the CBD. However, the hotel is now ready to unveil its final sunlit sanctuary, featuring an ocean-facing infinity pool and terrace, now open to guests. Perched right above the coastline, the launch of this centrepiece pool deck will undoubtedly elevate your stay. Featuring sweeping ocean views, the water is heated all year round, so you won't have a problem diving in even when Coogee gets a little nippy in the wintertime. Meanwhile, surrounding private cabanas, sun lounges and softly layered seating invite guests to take a dip, then linger as long as they please. What's more, you can spend hours comfortably enjoying the pool and terrace thanks to adjustable screening and pergola elements that filter the light. Helping to keep guests cool when temperatures soar, carefully considered plantings include canopy palms, coastal grasses and native species that bring spurts of greenery to the pool deck and contrast with its whitewashed hues and tactile textures. When you need a break from the sun, an adjoining poolside dining offering is made for beachside bliss. Featuring a light menu stacked with inviting options, crispy beer-battered fish burgers and Morton Bay bug rolls are served alongside a lineup of nourishing bowls, including a tuna dish featuring sashimi-grade fish, brown rice, avocado and more. For a larger feed, head to Shutters or Rick Stein at Coogee to discover the renowned British chef's produce-driven seafood cuisine. "These new experiences reflect our vision to create a refined yet relaxed coastal retreat where guests can connect with Coogee's natural beauty while enjoying a truly elevated stay," says Melinda Lampier, General Manager of InterContinental Sydney Coogee Beach. "From the year-round heated pool to the ocean-facing terrace, we have designed spaces that invite both locals and international visitors to linger, unwind and experience the rhythm of the coastline." While the arrival of the infinity pool and terrace is big news for the hotel, there are still more exciting updates just around the corner. In May, the Èliva Spa will open, featuring magnesium pools, salt saunas, a crystal steam room and tailored restorative treatments. In addition, Club InterContinental will bring a discreet escape to the property, offering private luxury lounge access and a members-only open-air terrace. Oh, and some pickleball courts will get you warmed up before heading to the pool. InterContinental Sydney Coogee Beach is located at 242 Arden St, Coogee. Head to the website for more information. Like what you see? Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these straight to your inbox. Images: Supplied.
Marrickville might already be home to some of the best pubs in Sydney, but Illawarra Road newcomer The Montague is doing things a little differently. The two-level hangout — formerly The Ritz — brings together the best of both pub culture and late-night bar life, with a nod to Sydney's ever-growing love affair with multi-venue hospitality precincts. The venue comes from Public House Management Group (also behind Paddington's The Royal Hotel and The Toxteth in Glebe), with interiors by Venari Projects and a focus on delivering two distinct but connected experiences. Downstairs, The Monty is a smart take on the modern Aussie pub — think local beers, elevated comfort food and space for everyone from footy fans to families. Upstairs is Harriet's, a velvet-draped cocktail lounge that swings from sultry midweek date nights to bottomless brunches, DJs and disco balls on weekends. [caption id="attachment_1016126" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ethan Smart[/caption] There's a focus on food across both levels, and Executive Chef Scott Greve (Hatch) and Head Chef William Lesmana (ex-Hatch, 6HEAD) have crafted menus that reflect each venue's personality. At The Monty, you'll find pub classics — parmies, dry-aged steaks and nostalgic desserts — alongside more creative takes like charred prawns with salsa verde and chilli butter, fried cauliflower lifted with korma sauce, and a chargrilled pork chop with caper butter and smashed potato salad. It's still very much a pub at heart, though, with a host of weekly specials like $20 steak frites and free pool on Mondays, wings by the kilo and live sport on Thursdays, and a Sunday roast platter for two to round out the weekend. Things get a little fancier — but no less inventive — at Harriet's, with a snacks-smalls-and-shares menu that's just as suited to a low-key date night as it is to a lingering Sunday session. Here, you'll find the likes of wagyu beef tartare with pani puri, black garlic aioli and fermented green chilli; an 800g pork tomahawk with burnt apple, fennel and fermented herb salsa; and wagyu skewers with sous vide pineapple. It's confident yet eminently approachable, with pub trivia on Wednesdays, long-lunch specials on Fridays and bottomless brunch — with dishes like crab benedict, and fig and ricotta hotcakes — on weekends. The volume gets turned up on Saturday nights when the space becomes BAD Harriet's, which sees a rotating lineup of DJs spinning everything from soul and disco to big-room house from 9pm until midnight. [caption id="attachment_1016124" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Katje Ford[/caption] The drinks are just as considered for each venue. The Monty keeps things classic with rotating taps, a tight wine list and crowd-pleasing cocktails, while Harriet's brings the drama with tipples such as the Watermelon Sugar High, a mix of vodka, lime, watermelon syrup and pineapple juice that's as bright as the song it's named for, or the brooding After Hours, which layers Hennessy, cab merlot and dark chocolate with citrus and spice. If you're planning your visit around a drink or two, you're in luck. Weekday punters can take advantage of happy hour from 4–6pm, with $6.50 house schooners and vinos on offer. Swing by from 9–11pm on a Friday or Saturday night for two-for-$20 Hugo, limoncello or Aperol spritzes to cap off (or even kickstart) your evening. [caption id="attachment_1016120" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ethan Smart[/caption] Images: Ethan Smart, Katje Ford.
Can a fourth wall be smashed if it's barely even a gauze curtain? For audiences, Deadpool & Wolverine plays out on sturdy IRL surfaces that can be shattered — cinema screens first, then home entertainment's TVs and computers and phones forever afterward — but the film's to-camera asides, self-reflective jabs, in-gags, sarcasm, meta references upon meta references and all-round superhero satire aren't breaking, busting through or saying bye, bye, bye to anything. There's nothing to destroy when the idea that movies are their own worlds separate to the reality that they're viewed in simply doesn't exist in the third picture with Deadpool in its title, 11th X-Men feature and 34th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is still a flick spinning make-believe as it makes fun, but one that acknowledges how everyone interacts with pop culture: by knowing personal and industry goings-on tangential to the in-film action, such as that Ryan Reynolds (IF) is married to Gossip Girl's Blake Lively, Hugh Jackman (Faraway Downs) is Australian and newly divorced, Disney bought Fox in the battle of Hollywood studios and the MCU hasn't had the strongest of times of late. Deadpool & Wolverine may spend a fair portion of its duration in a wasteland-like place called The Void; however, viewers don't watch anything in a vacuum. This isn't the only feature to recognise that truth, nor the lone Deadpool movie to do so. That said, there's leaning into the fact that no one can completely split any art from their contextual awareness around it, and then there's this level of commitment. Comparing one of its major settings to the Mad Max realm within seconds of arriving there — and within months of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga releasing — is merely one further example. Nods, shoutouts and wisecracks go everywhere, including deep into the Marvel comics, their prior leaps to the screen, gripes about the latter, Tinseltown manoeuvrings, box-office fortunes, abandoned projects, stalled future flicks and actors' romantic lives. Reteaming after Free Guy and The Adam Project, Reynolds and director Shawn Levy co-penned the screenplay with Zeb Wells (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), plus Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (who return from 2016's Deadpool and 2018's Deadpool 2), but the internet may as well have earned a scripting credit. For those less head over heels with Deadpool's merc-with-a-mouth schtick than Reynolds visibly has been for the eight years and running, consider this the only-way-out-is-through approach: there's more stacked on top of more, then huge piles of more again, then more and more sprinklings as well, especially when it comes to jokes that can't occur without referring to details well beyond Deadpool & Wolverine's frames. Reynolds, Levy and company own the onslaught with the transparency of the film's absent barrier — and while that isn't the same as ensuring that the bit always works or avoids getting repetitive (on both, it doesn't), it firmly helps establish part of the feature's vibe. This probably should be named Deadpool with Wolverine, but adding James 'Logan' Howlett to Wade Winston Wilson isn't just about superheroes teaming up, then the bickering banter and frenemy frays that result. Deadpool & Wolverine also gains energy from the scowling, growling, unhappy-to-be there mutant with the adamantium skeleton, giving it what past Deadpool jaunts have deeply missed: some tonal balance. Spirit first, story second: that's also Deadpool & Wolverine's gambit. As it cracks the boundaries between Disney and Fox's respective Marvel domains, and endeavours to win over the naysaying Wolverine — two tasks with glaring parallels between what's happening in its narrative and for viewers — it spins a straightforward tale given stock-standard sprawling franchise complications. The world is in peril. Masses will die. Multiple villains have schemes. The ill-fated sphere needs a hero, and that hero needs aid from another. Or: told by the Time Variance Authority's Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen, Succession) that his timeline needs pruning following the events of 2017's Logan, Deadpool can only save everyone that he loves from being snuffed out by finding a new Wolverine from across the multiverse. But, they'll also have to flee The Void where unwanted intellectual property is dumped, and where Charles Xavier's maniacal twin Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin, A Murder at the End of the World) controls and manipulates everything. Although the plot doesn't lack specifics, be it Wade's eagerness to join the Avengers to impress his ex-fiancee Vanessa (Morena Baccarin, The Flash), Logan grappling with trauma and mistakes, Paradox's machine that's due to eradicate Earth-10005 or Cassandra messing with minds, the tale itself never feels like the point. While the minutiae is engaging enough, when Deadpool mentions more than once that he's now Marvel Jesus, believe the intent behind those words. After Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was a flop, with the MCU's route towards the fifth and sixth Avengers flicks requiring reworking after off-screen developments, and as 2024's only film in the series, there's some world-saving needed for this saga, too. Deadpool & Wolverine's method of going about it is crashing well-known pieces together for fun — not just its titular characters, but also via more surprises than at a Kinder factory, with one reveal particularly wittily done. There's that favouring atmosphere above all else again; refreshingly, despite teasing several times that Jackman will likely keep playing his role till he's 90, no one can accuse this movie of solely or mainly trying to lay groundwork for the franchise's 35th entries onwards. There's no missing where Deadpool & Wolverine's strengths reside, though: in Jackman, Corrin and Macfadyen. That Reynolds can irreverently and acerbically snark the hell out of Deadpool and sell the meta-ness of it all has been plain for almost a decade now, and he rides Wade's emotional journey here effectively as well, yet his co-stars couldn't be more pivotal. Sometimes slicing and stabbing at each other's regenerative flesh in a Honda Odyssey, sometimes trading barbs for glares, sometimes dispensing with foes in a side-scrolling frenzy, the odd-couple act with Jackman gleams and wipes the dull clash that 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine flatly served up from memories. In addition to donning his character's yellow suit, Jackman himself wears weariness, anger, disappointment and regret like it too is fused to his framework, getting more and more moving the longer that he dons the claws. It's been 24 years now since the debut X-Men and if there's a potential Marvel messiah here for his Real Steel helmer, it's him. Also, memorable bad-guy alert not once but twice: Corrin is an unnerving delight as Cassandra gets into peoples' heads — not just figuratively — and Macfadyen hams it up superbly. Layered within the nudging and parodying, stream of inside-baseball shots, shiny display of Disney's new IP wares, OTT violence and retro-leaning tunes — Goo Goo Dolls, Avril Lavigne, the Grease soundtrack and Madonna all echo prominently — is a takeaway that life isn't a mystery, but rather is all about acceptance. It's worth fighting for. It deserves you giving a shit, not coasting. Nonetheless, learning to come to terms with missteps and mourning, and faded dreams and paths not taken, is inescapable no matter if you have adversaries to vanquish, universes to rescue, lost loves to woo, identities to reconfigure, reputations to salvage and caped-crusader squads to wow. Cue another instance of mirroring. Levy mightn't be actively aiming to tell viewers that looking past Deadpool & Wolverine's tussles with itself is also part of this package, yet it still sticks when some of the film's scenes struggle with blandness visually and in their effects, the corporate-synergy angle is laid on thick and, regardless of what Reynolds quips, there's also a sense of holding back now that Disney is pulling the strings. Looking for a devilishly self-aware Deadpool and Wolverine romp, though? Just like a prayer, this'll take you there.
The Northern Rivers' food scene has got a new kid on the block, and it's bringing more than a little of the Big Apple with it. Tucked inside a newly renovated community business precinct in Byron Bay, Baloney's is a New York-Italian-style deli and cafe that's serving up nostalgia, deli meats and loaded sambos — no baloney. It's been brought to life by founder George McFarlane as a passion project that puts a breezy Byron spin on Italian-American food culture. And while the two-hander sandwiches might be the initial drawcard, the space itself — designed by Northern Rivers studio Happy Hour — is full of character. Inside, you'll find black-and-white checkerboard tiles, a standing espresso bar and a restored vintage church bench that serves as a nod to old-school delis, while outside, a sun-soaked, 40-person deck sets the stage for relaxed al fresco hangs. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Baloney's Deli (@baloneys_deli) If you reckon the name sounds playful, that's exactly the point. Inspired by the Americanisation of mortadella — a meat banned by the US government during the Italian migration waves of the late 19th and early 20th centuries — 'baloney' became both a regulation-friendly substitute and, in time, slang for 'nonsense'. And McFarlane is actively leaning into the word's double meaning, too: "I am not Italian or American, however I am passionate about Italian and American food so I'm a phoney baloney," he tells Concrete Playground. As for the menu? Expect stacked sandwiches with a personal twist. Each one is named after someone close to McFarlane — like the Spicy Gabita, a tribute to his partner — who, according to McFarlane, is "a little bit spicy" — that sees eggplant, mozzarella, rocket, fermented chilli and balsamic layered on fluffy focaccia. You'll also find other creative combinations like the Alt Tayo, which features lemon-spiked cannellini beans, roast capsicum and vegan basil pesto, alongside the likes of a classic Reuben and, of course, a loaded mortadella, stracciatella and green olive number. If that's not enough to get you road tripping, there's also java juice by Coffee Supreme, artisan deli goods and a rotating selection of sandwich specials. Baloney's also carries the influence of McFarlane's time cutting his proverbial teeth at Mortadeli in Torquay, Victoria, and Byron's much-loved Pixie Food & Wine. Baloney's is another feather in the cap for the burgeoning Byron food scene, which continues to evolve far beyond açai bowls and organic smoothies. Baloney's is located at 10-12 Shirley Street, Byron Bay. It's open Tuesday–Sunday, 8am–2.30pm. For more info, head to the venue's Instagram page.
At nearly 70-years-old, Kings Cross institution Piccolo Bar has been revived as a licensed aperitivo spot under the guidance of Bartender Magazine founder, Dave Spanton. Located just off the Kings Cross main strip on Roslyn Street, Piccolo Bar served as a late-night cafe and nightlife spot from 1952. But, following years of difficult conditions for Sydney's hospitality industry, the Kings Cross institution closed its doors. Rising from the ashes of lockdowns and lockouts, the inner-city stalwart is being leased by Spanton from long-time owner Vittorio Bainchi and has been given a makeover that stays true to the heritage of the bar while freshening it up. The writer and entrepreneur has also secured the venue's first-ever liquor license. Sitting at a small but mighty 20 square metres, the bar holds 12 seats indoors and eight outdoors. Come 10pm, the outdoor seating will be packed away making Piccolo Bar one of Sydney's smallest drinking holes. The food menu is reserved but a lot of fun. You'll find hot dogs made with LP's Quality Meats dogs, goat's curd and piquillo pepper toasties and a range of canned treats like spicy Italian sardines or Spanish mussels, served with crackers and pickles. Alternatively, the drinks menu stretches across eight pages, overwhelming visitors with choice. While a wide array of wine and spirits are on offer, the cocktails, aperitifs and aromatised wines are the star of the show here. Take your pick from the selection of vermouths or order a classic Americano made with Campari, house-blended vermouth and soda. Head to the bar between 4–6pm for $12 cocktails. For Spanton, it was a no-brainer when he saw the beloved venue was up for lease. "My accountant thinks it's a crazy idea," he jokes. "But there's more to life than money, and I just couldn't stand to see this place disappear." Appears in: The Best Bars in Sydney
The Bay Street boom has arrived, with two exciting new drinking and dining spots opening on the eastern suburbs thoroughfare within weeks of each other. Located within metres of one another, the new neighbourhood bar and restaurant Bartiga and the bustling izakaya Tanuki have both joined Double Bay stalwarts Bibo, The Royal Oak and Margaret on south Bay Street. The latter of the two, a bustling multi-space Japanese venue from one of the area's most beloved hospitality teams, has arrived two doors down from its Italian sibling venue Matteo. Named after a mischievous figure in Japanese folklore (see: Studio Ghibli's Pom Poko), Tanuki is a fun-loving spot offering a raw bar, internal courtyard, impressive sake collection and late-night lounge. The venue is centred around a 30-year-old Japanese liquid amber tree with a surrounding dining bench. There are several zones to discover throughout the space, whether you're dropping in for a sake and a plate of seared salmon temarizushi, or sticking around for a full feast. Leading the kitchen is Head Chef Ken Wee Lee, who brings experience from Sushi e, Zuma and Toko to the opening. Wee Lee's menu is split into sashimi, nigiri, sushi rolls, tempura, robata, steak, sides and dessert, providing a little something for everyone. There's also a pair of set menus, with the reasonably priced $80 selection rolling through edamame, kingfish sashimi, wagyu beef tartare, scallop and prawn toast, chicken karaage, the steak of the day and matcha tiramisu. Other menu highlights you can discover include Alaskan king crab cooked on the robata grill and served with truffle gratin, spatchcock presented with pickles and barley miso, and wagyu beef gyoza paired with a yuzu ponzu for dipping. An all-star cast leads the way behind the bar, with the cocktails, sake and wine lists curated by General Manager Joong Charpentier (ex-Sushi e, Hemmisphere, Darlo Country Club), Bar Manager Sean Guardian (ex-Mr Wong) and Head Sommelier Ambroise Moriceau (ex-Bennelong, Momofuku Seiobo, Armorica). "Tanuki's sake list is fun and approachable — with something for everyone, whether you're brand new to the world of sake or a seasoned expert," says Charpentier. "The wine list is not built on classics nor trends, but with personalised choices, all reflecting values of sustainability and authenticity," adds Moriceau. Alongside the extensive sake and wine selections, you can opt for an inventive highball, like the Yokozuna, which combines mandarin-infused Campari and Unico Zello yuzu vermouth, or peruse the signature cocktails — from the jasmine, lychee and elderflower Tea Ceremony to the Umeboshi, a collision of Don Julio Reposado tequila, plum umeshu, strawberry and wasabi leaf, and togarashi. It's a jack-of-all-trades-style venue, offering a myriad of experiences, all set in a moody space designed by Matters + Made. Wander in from Bay Street, find your spot and decide what type of night you're in for. Find Tanuki at 37 Bay Street, Double Bay — open 5.30pm–12am Wednesday–Friday, 12pm–12am Saturday and 12–10pm Sunday. Head to the restaurant's website for more information and to make a booking.
On the outskirts of Tokyo sits one of the city's most coveted spaces: the Studio Ghibli museum. It's also one of Japan's hottest tickets, with locals and tourists alike needing to book well in advance to get in. You'd expect that of a place that features a life-size catbus, a towering robot on its roof and Totoro sitting behind the counter of its box office. You'd expect it of any venue celebrating this beloved animation house, to be honest — even though it now has company three hours out of town thanks to Studio Ghibli's very own theme park. For almost four decades now, Studio Ghibli's movies have possessed their own kind of magic — the type that made viewers want to get spirited away by their gorgeously animated frames long before the company made a film of the same name. Indeed, in the 38 years since Studio Ghibli was formed by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata with producer Toshio Suzuki, it has introduced the world to all manner of delightful and moving on-screen experiences. Cute balls of soot, determined teenage witches and pining high-schoolers sit side-by-side in the company's filmography with war-torn tales, sitcom-style family antics and more than one ecologically minded fable. And, in the process, Studio Ghibli has achieved a significant feat: it has never made a bad movie. Including TV films and co-productions, it has 25 to its name to date in total — with the latest and Miyazaki first film in a decade, The Boy and the Heron, in cinemas Down Under now. While every single Ghibli flick is worth feasting your eyes on, we've ranked them all. Now you know where to start during your next binge-viewing session. 25. TALES FROM EARTHSEA Combine Studio Ghibli with any number of dragon-filled fantasy tales, and the result might look like Tales from Earthsea. It's actually adapted from one such series of books, Ursula K Le Guin's The Earthsea Cycle. The feature directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki's son, Gorō Miyazaki, this is the most standard of the company's features — although its characters, including a troubled prince and a young girl saved from slavers, always strike a chord. Tales from Earthsea streams via Netflix. 24. EARWIG AND THE WITCH The studio's first movie made solely using computer-generated 3D animation, Earwig and the Witch immediately stands out thanks to its plastic-looking visuals. And, despite the fact that it's about a determined young girl, features a witch, and even includes a talking cat and other helpful tiny critters, it never completely feels like a classic Ghibli film either. That said, a by-the-numbers Ghibli flock is still better than many others, especially of the family-friendly variety. Earwig and the Witch streams via Netflix. Read our full review. 23. ONLY YESTERDAY Based on the 1982 manga of the same name, Only Yesterday explores the incredibly relatable inner turmoil of 27-year-old Tokyo worker Taeko when she heads out to the countryside for a working vacation. Charting her efforts to reconcile her childhood dreams with the life she's living now, it's a mature and thoughtful film from Isao Takahata — and a wistful and sensitive one, too. Only Yesterday streams via Netflix. 22. FROM UP ON POPPY HILL Gorō Miyazaki's second feature heads to Yokohama, in 1963, when high-schooler Umi Matsuzaki lives in a boarding house. Adapted from an 1980 Japanese comic, this sweet and gentle effort charts her quest to stop a beloved school building from being demolished — and benefits from a tender screenplay co-written by none other than Hayao Miyazaki. From Up on Poppy Hill streams via Netflix. 21. PORCO ROSSO Inspired by his family's business from when he was a child — aircraft parts manufacturer Miyazaki Airplane — many of Hayao Miyazaki's movies take to the skies. Porco Rosso, with its high-flying eponymous man-pig pilot, is one of them. This wartime adventure follows the First World War veteran's clash with a group of sky pirates and the American hotshot they've hired to help, as told with wry humour and, obviously, spectacular flying sequences. Porco Rosso streams via Netflix. 20. MY NEIGHBOURS THE YAMADAS The studio's most visually distinctive effort, Isao Takahata's My Neighbours the Yamadas is based on the manga series Nono-chan, and favours the look of a hand-drawn, watercolour-painted comic strip. That stylistic choice suits the content perfectly, immersing audiences into the quirky series of vignettes about the Yamada family, and offering a visible reminder that nothing is ever as simple as it appears. My Neighbours the Yamadas streams via Netflix. 19. THE CAT RETURNS The only Studio Ghibli movie to continue on from one of its earlier films, The Cat Returns is a spinoff from Whisper of the Heart. As the name makes plain, felines take centre stage. That proves entertaining and even often enjoyably silly for audiences; however, for the film's protagonist Haru Yoshioka, it forces her into a battle with the Cat Kingdom after she saves a four-legged fur ball from being hit by a car — and is told she'll have to marry him. The Cat Returns streams via Netflix. 18. ARRIETTY For a movie filled with tiny people who live in the walls of human houses, Arrietty certainly does brandish a big heart. Based on Mary Norton's 1952 novel The Borrowers, this story was always going to fall into Studio Ghibli's wheelhouse, especially given its focus on a new friendship between unlikely pals. As soulfully relayed by director Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the film charts the connection that between its diminutive titular character and a human boy. Arrietty streams via Netflix. 17. WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE When Marnie Was There champions the importance of friendship, acceptance, understanding and looking to the past to embrace the future, all recurring themes in Studio Ghibli's work. That's hardly surprising in a melancholy and contemplative movie about a lonely foster child and her new friend, of course, but they also take on a different tone here. Made in 2014, Hiromasa Yonebayashi's film adapts Joan G Robinson's novel of the same name into a bewitching gem. When Marnie Was There streams via Netflix. Read our full review. 16. OCEAN WAVES Made for TV, this 1993 Studio Ghibli movie spends the bulk of its time in the city of Kochi, where friends Taku Morisaki and Yutaka Matsuno both become smitten with new high-school classmate Rikako Muto. When the animation studio isn't marching off to magical worlds, it's pondering the emotional turmoil bubbling within everyday characters, with this quiet and moving drama falling into the latter category. Ocean Waves streams via Netflix. 15. THE WIND RISES When it first hit cinemas, The Wind Rises was presented as Hayao Miyazaki's final film — and, if that had stayed the case, it would've been a fitting farewell. Thanks to The Boy and the Heron, the acclaimed animator hasn't said goodbye to viewers yet; however, he gets especially reflective in this rich and bittersweet fictionalised biography of aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi. Like all of Miyazaki's output, of course, there's much more to this understated gem than the obvious. The Wind Rises streams via Netflix. Read our full review. 14. PONYO As well as boasting quite the catchy theme tune, Ponyo takes inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Here, though, the story focuses on an escaped goldfish — and explores the cute critter's new bond with a five-year-old boy. Following in the footsteps of fellow Hayao Miyazaki movie My Neighbour Totoro, the film is perfect for audiences of all ages. It's also bright, bouncy, exuberant and poetic as well. Ponyo streams via Netflix. 13. THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA In The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, the eponymous girl blossoms within a bamboo shoot. She's not the only thing that blooms in this hand-drawn beauty, which marked Isao Takahata's first film as a director in 15 years — and, sadly, his last. Spinning an elegant and entrancing story, this Ghibli wonder evolves from a seemingly standard setup into something subversive and meaningful. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya streams via Netflix. 12. KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE Feisty kids are as common in Studio Ghibli movies as jaw-dropping visuals, and 13-year-old Kiki well and truly fits the mould. In this Hayao Miyazaki-helmed coming-of-age fantasy, the fledgling witch moves away from home to prove her independence — as all teen witches must at that age. As well as relaying a smart tale about finding one's place in the world, Kiki's Delivery Service boasts another big highlight: a very amusing talking cat. Kiki's Delivery Service streams via Netflix. 11. WHISPER OF THE HEART Playful, heartfelt and sometimes melancholy, Whisper of the Heart is one of Studio Ghibli's under-appreciated gems — and not just because it features two very memorable cats. It was the company's first film to be directed by someone other than Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Miyazaki wrote the screenplay, though, with Yoshifumi Kondō helming this story about a Tokyo high-schooler obsessed with the boy who borrowed all the same library books before her. Whisper of the Heart streams via Netflix. 10. LAPUTA, CASTLE IN THE SKY Studio Ghibli's first offical feature, Laputa, Castle in the Sky heads back to the late 19th century, as a young girl, Sheeta, endeavours to fend off the cunning and determined government agents on her tail. They're chasing not only a rare magic crystal, but a fabled city floating in the clouds — and as Hayao Miyazaki depicts with steampunk flair, endearing characters and a spirited statement, it all makes for an entrancing adventure. Laputa, Castle in the Sky streams via Netflix. 9. POM POKO Mischievous racoon-like critters called tanuki sit at the heart of this Isao Takahata-directed film — creatures with a basis in folklore, boasting the ability to transform into almost anything and possessing very flexible scrotums (yes, really). Alas, their habitat outside of Tokyo is under threat from developers, with this touching delight combining magical wonder with a message. It's an impassioned, affectionate fable, matching its narrative and overtly offbeat sense of humour with memorable imagery. Pom Poko is available streams via Netflix. 8. THE RED TURTLE In its first-ever collaboration, Studio Ghibli teamed up with Dutch-British illustrator Michael Dudok de Wit — and earned a Cannes Un Certain Regard special jury prize-winning for their efforts. A film of narrative simplicity but both visual and thematic intricacy, this textured and meditative feature explores the complicated splendour that springs from humanity's relationship with the world around us after a man is washed up on a deserted island. The Red Turtle streams via Beamafilm. Read our full review. 7. HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE If ever a movie encapsulated everything that's made Studio Ghibli such a beloved filmmaking force, it's Howl's Moving Castle. Energetic, creative and sensitive, this Hayao Miyazaki-helmed fantasy not only unfurls a mesmerising story — about a young milliner who is cursed by a witch, transforms into an elderly woman and becomes a wizard's housekeeper — but does so with beautiful imagery, endearing characters, and strong anti-war and pro-feminist sentiments. Howl's Moving Castle streams via Netflix. 6. THE BOY AND THE HERON Trust Hayao Miyazaki to return from a ten-year absence, and his latest purported retirement, to deliver one of the best, most breathtaking and most gorgeous movies that he ever has. This World War II-set "semi-autobiographical fantasy" follows 11-year-old Mahito after his mother is killed in an air raid, his father moves him to the countryside and the titular bird beckons him into an otherworldly realm — and every frame feels like a culmination of Miyazaki's career. The Boy and the Heron opened in Australian and New Zealand cinemas on Thursday, December 7. Read our full review. 5. MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO It's the film that immediately found a place in viewers' hearts and never left. Thanks to its heartwarming mood and emotions, astute observations, adorable characters and eager sense of adventure, Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbour Totoro has become Studio Ghibli's best-known movie for many great reasons — all as it chronicles two sisters' exploits when they not only move into a new house, but make a new pal in the forest (and discover the catbus). My Neighbour Totoro streams via Netflix. 4. PRINCESS MONONOKE Hayao Miyazaki has never shied away from making an ecological statement; however, Princess Mononoke might just send his most forceful message about humanity's impact upon the earth. As set in Japan's Muromachi period (from the 14th–16th centuries), this involving fantasy charts the paths of a young prince with a curse and a young woman raised by wolves, as well as the conflict between a modernising town and the forest it's destroying. Princess Mononoke streams via Netflix. 3. NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind technically pre-dates Studio Ghibli, but Hayao Miyazaki's post-apocalyptic fantasy has been claimed as the company's own. Charting the battles of a young princess as she fights an invading kingdom and tries to reconcile the damage ravaged upon the planet, the 1984 film became an instant classic, with its environmentally conscious story, stunning animation and stellar score all proving beguiling. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind streams via Netflix. 2. SPIRITED AWAY In Spirited Away, ten-year-old Chihiro stumbles across a magical and mysterious world, then wants nothing more than to escape back home. Viewers of Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-winning masterpiece, however, are happy spending as much time as possible in the film's wondrous realm — which, as set around a luxurious and busy bathhouse that caters to spirits, constantly surprises, delights, and revels in inventive storytelling and animation. Spirited Away streams via Netflix. 1. GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES The most heartbreaking animated film ever made, Isao Takahata's touching war drama Grave of the Fireflies is the rarest of inclusions on Studio Ghibli's cinematic resume. Plunging into dark and sombre territory, it tells the tale of two siblings desperately struggling to survive in the last days of the Second World War. From its fleshed-out characters tussling with life and death to its striking visuals, the movie's handling of its moving and sorrowful story couldn't be more astonishing. Grave of the Fireflies is available on DVD. Images: Sugoi Co / Madman.
A new wave of hotels offering more than just a room and a buffet breakfast has taken over Sydney in the last few years. From the beloved Paramount House Hotel to the new Ace Hotel or the northern beaches' freshly transformed Manly Pacific, these accommodations offer both tourists and Sydneysiders a range of lifestyle experiences during their stay. The latest boutique hotel to open in Sydney has arrived on Oxford Street with 56 luxury rooms and suites, an all-day restaurant and a Palm Springs-inspired pool bar. Oxford House is Paddington's first lifestyle hotel, offering guests stylish accommodation, a hotel pool with DJ sets and a bar, and plenty of extras you've come to expect from a top-notch hotel — all in the centre of one of Sydney's top dining and entertainment hubs. While the pool is exclusively for hotel guests, both the bar and the hotel's sleek, street-level restaurant are open for Paddington locals to come and enjoy oysters and a cocktail. The interior of Oxford House — or OH! as it's being branded — has been designed around ample natural light while complimenting the crisp, stylish aesthetic of Paddington with warm natural hues and rich textures. "Whilst we took design notes from the sleek lines and muted colours of Palm Springs, it was important that Oxford House effortlessly threaded into the cultural fabric of Paddington, so art and design were key," says the Principle Designer at Public Hospitality, Tom de Plater. "We collaborated with culture king, George Gorrow to showcase an incredible collection of art, paintings, photography, collage, printmaking and sculpture from artists including Lena Gustafson, Adam Turnbull and Niah McLeod throughout the property." Just some of the considered accompaniments you'll find in the rooms are custom-made bathrobes from Double Rainbouu, crockery from Marc Newson, hair care products from Grown Alchemist and speakers from Mashall. Away from the rooms, there are two hospitality spots built into the hotel. The first is the all-day dining, sitting at street level of Oxford Street for perfect people-watching. In the morning, Oxford House hotel guests and public diners can start their day on rolled bircher muesli, the OH-melette with woodside goats curd, or a lavish big breakfast featuring mixed sauteed mushrooms, crispy kale, truffle oil, pecorino, poached egg and sourdough. Later in the day, the menu switches to feature fresh oysters, kingfish sashimi, house dips, grilled market fish and roasted cauliflower. There's also a sun-soaked pool bar serving up poolside drinks, grilled king prawns, classic burgers and fish sourced from the Sydney Fish Markets. Come weekends, the bar will host DJ sets and digital art shows. "This was a unique opportunity to create an accommodation first for Paddington, provide a new hospitality experience for locals, and help energise an important part of town," continues de Plater. "Given the hotel's enviable location — famed shopping, nightlife and Allianz stadium, all within walking distance and the beach and city, a short drive away - we wanted to create a space that really felt like an unexpected escape; a hotel that was as relaxed as Oxford Street is lively." Rooms range from $229–499 and are available to book now. Oxford House is located at 21 Oxford Street, Paddington. The pool bar is open 7am–11.30am and midday–8pm.
Like show, like trailers: that's the approach that HBO is taking with getting everyone excited about House of the Dragon's return for season two. Fiery feuds are this show's baseline — this franchise's as well, since Game of Thrones was also full of them — so the Targaryen-focused series has scored not one but two new sneak peeks at what's to come. HBO is calling them "duelling trailers", in fact, in a first for the US network. There's also a trailer for the duelling trailers — because this pair of promos is all about getting audiences to choose a side. Given that the green and black councils are doing battle, one for King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney, Rogue Heroes) and the other for Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy, Mothering Sunday), the pair of House of the Dragon trailers also split their allegiances. Accordingly, viewers get a glimpse of the tale that's set to unravel from each camp's perspective. Just like winter, which is when House of the Dragon season two will hit Down Under — HBO also announced a Monday, June 17, 2024 premiere date with its new sneak peeks — the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons is coming, then. In the initial teaser for this season, Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best, Nurse Jackie) told her niece Rhaenyra that "there is no war so hateful to the gods as a war between kin — and no war so bloody as a war between dragons". Because this is the Game of Thrones realm, expect the events that unfurl in House of the Dragon to make good on that observation. Also returning in season two as the fight for the Iron Throne continues: Olivia Cooke (Slow Horses) as Alicent Hightower, Matt Smith (Morbius) as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Rhys Ifans (The King's Man) as Ser Otto Hightower and Steve Toussaint (It's a Sin) as Lord Corlys Velaryon, plus Fabien Frankel (The Serpent), Ewan Mitchell (Saltburn) and Sonoya Mizuno (Shortcomings). HBO is also adding new faces to the mix, with Clinton Liberty (This Is Christmas) as Addam of Hull, Jamie Kenna (Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story) as Ser Alfred Broome, Kieran Bew (Warrior) as Hugh, Tom Bennett (Black Ops) as Ulf, Tom Taylor (Love at First Sight) as Lord Cregan Stark and Vincent Regan (One Piece) as Ser Rickard Thorne. They join Abubakar Salim (Napoleon) as Alyn of Hull, Gayle Rankin (Perry Mason) as Alys Rivers, Freddie Fox (The Great) as Ser Gwayne Hightower and Simon Russell Beale (Thor: Love and Thunder) as Ser Simon Strong among the season two newcomers. When it premieres in June, House of the Dragon's second season will arrive two years after the first debuted in 2022. Game of Thrones was always going to spark spinoff shows. Indeed, when HBO started thinking about doing a prequel six years ago, before the huge fantasy hit had even finished its run, it was hardly surprising. And, when the US network kept adding ideas to its list — including a Jon Snow-focused series with Kit Harington (Eternals) reprising his famous role, novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg and an animated GoT show, to name just a few prequels and spinoffs that've been considered, but may or may not actually come to fruition — absolutely no one was astonished. So far, just House of the Dragon has hit screens; however, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, the Dunk and Egg adaptation, is now due in 2025. WithHouse of the Dragon, Game of Thrones' first spinoff jumps back into House Targaryen's history. When it initially roared into streaming queues, it became an instant success. Accordingly, as it delivered more complicated GoT realm relationships, flowing long blonde hair, dragons, stabbings and fights for power — and plenty to fuel a drinking game, as we created — it was quickly renewed for season two. The series kicked off 172 years before the birth of Daenerys and her whole dragon-flying, nephew-dating, power-seeking story, and gave HBO its largest American audience for any new original series in its history when it debuted. If you're thinking that House of the Dragon is basically a case of new show, same squabbles, as it was easy to foresee it would be, you're right. It's pretty much Game of Thrones with different faces bearing now well-known surnames — and more dragons. If you haven't yet caught up with the show so far, it dives into the battle for the Iron Throne before the one we all watched between 2011–19. Paddy Considine (The Third Day) started the series King Viserys — and it's exactly who should be his heir that sparked all the Succession-style fuss. The words "succession" and "successor" (and "heir" as well) got bandied around constantly, naturally. Also, Australian actors Milly Alcock and Ryan Corr were among the stars. This latest adaptation of George RR Martin's popular fantasy books — based on Fire & Blood, specifically — is bound to continue on for more than just two seasons, but that's all that's confirmed for the moment. Check out the duelling trailers (and the trailer for the duelling trailers) for House of the Dragon season two below: House of the Dragon streams Down Under via Foxtel and Binge in Australia, and SoHo, Sky Go and Neon in New Zealand, with season two arriving on Monday, June 17, 2024. Read our full review of season one. Images: HBO.
Not many cafes can claim their barista station once played a starring role in a record-breaking drug bust. At Bay Ten Espresso, a recycled shipping container with a dubious past takes centre stage inside a soaring, century-old warehouse that once engineered steel for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Add ten-metre-high ceilings, textured walls and the hum of trains above, and it might just be one of the city's most atmospheric spots to grab a coffee. But since opening in 2014, Bay Ten has become a North Shore staple for more than just its colourful history — there's some serious coffee on offer, with the team pouring White Horse Coffee's flagship White Knight blend. Originally envisioned as an espresso cart for the rapidly growing North Sydney area, Bay Ten has always put coffee front and centre. The food menu is straightforward, with breakfast classics in the morning giving way to protein bowls at lunch. The focus is on simple plates done well, designed to suit everyone from cyclists rolling in for a pitstop to locals enjoying a leisurely brunch in an airy, sun-washed setting. There's also a tight little booze list if your visit calls for something stronger than coffee. With its layered history, raw warehouse cool and consistently excellent brews, Bay Ten Espresso has carved out a loyal following, merging Sydney history with modern hospitality in a way that's hard to forget.
Going to an AFL game on a Saturday afternoon is about much more than those two hours of on-field action — and it all starts with having a drink and a feed beforehand. After all, you're going to need all the energy you can muster to cheer on your team. So, we've teamed up with the Sydney Swans to round up a bunch of venues near the team's home ground, the Sydney Cricket Ground, that are perfect for a schooner and spot of dinner before a night game. All of these pubs and restaurants are within a few minutes of the SCG so you can round up the troops and get to the game with a full belly and ready to cheer on your favourite players in red and white.
To say 2021 was a massive year is a bit of an understatement. But with the the new year in full swing, it's officially time to let go of the trials that last year brought and start afresh with a relaxing holiday. If you, like us, are keen to extend your summer this year, consider locking in a trip to Tropical North Queensland to enjoy some much-needed time in this balmy paradise. From private island retreats wreathed in the Great Barrier Reef to secluded treehouses poised in World Heritage-listed rainforest, we've uncovered ten luxury stays to check out. These spots are not only champions of ecotourism, with initiatives like water recycling and single-use plastic and amenities bans evident across most properties, but will also tick the box if you want to wake up immersed in nature. [caption id="attachment_827699" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Tropical North Queensland[/caption] BEDARRA ISLAND If you're looking for somewhere to truly disappear to, put Bedarra Island at the top of your list. The secluded tropical haven is part of the Family Islands National Park, approximately two hours drive south of Cairns. To get to the island, you can take a helicopter transfer from Cairns Airport or a 30-minute boat ride across the Coral Sea from the idyllic coastal village, Mission Beach. With just 11 private villas on the island (all with ocean views), Bedarra is ideal for travellers looking for secluded, laidback luxury. The island is totally off-grid and uses solar power for energy. The best part? It's an all-inclusive experience. Here, you'll have unlimited access to snorkelling gear, sea kayaks, motorised dinghies, stand-up paddleboards, tennis equipment and stunning rainforest walks. Plus, all your meals, snacks, cocktails and celebratory champagne will be organised for you. Want to take a gourmet picnic on your personal dinghy to a deserted island? How about enjoying a candlelit dinner on your private deck? At Bedarra, you can have both. [caption id="attachment_828271" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Tropical North Queensland[/caption] SILKY OAKS LODGE If you've ever wondered what it's like to live in a treehouse, just like Brendan Fraser in George of the Jungle, Silky Oaks Lodge in Mossman is the place to bring that foliage fantasy to life. Wedged between the breathtaking Daintree Rainforest and peaceful Mossman River, Silky Oaks Lodge has six treehouse-inspired stays to choose from so you can sleep among the treetops of the tropics. Each accomodation option has been designed to embrace the property's natural surrounds and will indulge your senses in the lush rainforest when it comes alive in autumn. If you want to wash off under an outdoor shower, wake up to floor-to-ceiling rainforest views and relax in a bath on your very own private deck while overlooking a cascading river, look sharp to Silky Oaks Lodge. THE REEF HOUSE BOUTIQUE HOTEL AND SPA If spending your holiday lazing opposite a palm tree-lined beach sounds like something you have to go overseas to do, guess again. The Reef House Boutique Hotel and Spa is an award-winning luxury beachfront stay in Palm Cove where you can experience that balmy (and palmy) escape without needing to dig out your now dusty passport. Your stay here includes a drink on arrival, complimentary twilight refreshments, poolside cocktail service and access to the fully stocked Honesty Bar where you can help yourself to your favourite drinks. The adults-only retreat also offers cocktail classes, wine tasting, beachfront yoga, a tranquility pool, jacuzzi, day spa, unlimited bicycle use and a library to keep you occupied in case you get tired of oscillating between the pool and the impressive Reef House Restaurant. [caption id="attachment_827698" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Tropical North Queensland[/caption] THE CANOPY TREEHOUSES If you're planning a tropical holiday with a group, look no further than The Canopy Treehouses. Set on a lush 100-acre property, this place is ideal if you want to steer clear of other holidaymakers as you venture — quite literally — off the beaten track. The two-bedroom Riverfront Treehouses sleep six guests and, as the name suggests, are built on the banks of the river surrounded by ancient rainforest. Or, if you're after something a little larger, the three-bedroom Bower House can accommodate up to eight guests and overlooks the rollings hills of the Atherton Tablelands. Both are fully self-contained and come equipped with barbecue facilities, spa baths and, most importantly, rainforest views. [caption id="attachment_827697" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Tropical North Queensland[/caption] LIZARD ISLAND RESORT If you want to see the Great Barrier Reef without spending hours on a boat, Lizard Island Resort is the ideal place to base yourself. This luxury lodge is quite literally surrounded by the reef meaning you can roll out of bed and right into one of the world's natural wonders in minutes. But it's not just its proximity to the reef that lures people to the island. The all-inclusive accomodation helps take the guesswork out of holiday planning with meals, drinks, snorkelling gear, paddleboards, sea kayaks and more included in your stay. The toughest choice you'll make during your trip will be deciding which of the opulent day spa treatments will make you feel the most relaxed. If you do want to explore a little further, the resort has an on-site naturalist that hosts guided walks to share the island's cultural heritage, particularly that of the Traditional Land Owners, Jiogurru of the Dingaal Aboriginal people. [caption id="attachment_827693" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Tropical North Queensland[/caption] CRYSTALBROOK RILEY If you want floor-to-ceiling ocean views at a centrally located hotel, Crystalbrook Riley is for you. This five-star luxury resort is perched on the Cairns Esplanade, placing you within walking distance of many of the tour operators, restaurants and bars that Cairns has to offer. For a picturesque waterfront wake up, check in to a Panoramic Sea room or Riley's Suite and you'll awaken to uninterrupted views of the Coral Sea and beyond. There's a lush pool that wraps around the entire resort, a day spa to destress at and two in-house restaurants to try — Paper Crane and rooftop bar Rocco. The resort makes an effort to reduce food miles by sourcing 80 percent of ingredients from within a 3.5-hour radius of Cairns, including all of its beef products which come from Crystalbrook's own 85,000-acre cattle station. [caption id="attachment_828717" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Wilson Archer[/caption] MT MULLIGAN LODGE When you think of Tropical North Queensland, the outback probably doesn't come to mind. But if you drive 160 kilometres northwest of Cairns to Mt Mulligan Lodge, that's exactly what you'll find. As the name suggests, this boutique accomodation overlooks the immense tabletop mountain that is Mount Mulligan. Here, you can experience an all-inclusive luxury outback stay featuring hikes, all-terrain vehicle adventures, barramundi fishing, stargazing and more. The sprawling 28,000-hectare property ensures all 20 guests it can accommodate have ample privacy during their stay. Plus, each guest room gets a buggy to buzz around the property on, so you can get from your bed to sunset drinks at the bar with ease. Mt Mulligan Lodge has lots of worthy initiatives in place, too, from a waste minimisation program to a partnership with Ganbina to help local Indigenous students secure employment after school. NIRAMAYA VILLAS AND SPA Port Douglas is a favourite for folks travelling to Tropical North Queensland. If you want to find out what all the fuss is about, take a scenic one-hour drive north of Cairns and stay at Niramaya Villas and Spa to experience the laidback coastal town for yourself. This luxury accommodation features a number of rooms that vary in size from couple-friendly one-bedroom villas to much larger options that can cater to groups of ten. Regardless of the size you need, the soaring ceilings will make you feel like rainforest royalty. Throughout the property, you'll have access to a fully equipped gym, day spa, tennis court, bike hire, saunas, pools and a restaurant and bar to keep you refreshed. [caption id="attachment_828743" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Liam Brennan, Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] DAINTREE ECOLODGE Situated in the heart of the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest, about 90 minutes north of Cairns, is Daintree Ecolodge — boutique accommodation with just 15 bayans (treehouses) perched beneath lush tropical canopies. For the adventurous traveller, this secluded rainforest retreat has its own dedicated walks and a private waterfall to explore. And for those needing something more relaxing, the on-site bar, swimming pool, wellness spa and rainforest restaurant overlooking the lagoon will provide ample opportunity to unwind and disconnect. If you want to discover more about the First Nations people in the area — the Kuku Yalanji people — book into the Culturally Curious package which includes your accommodation, a full-day Walkabout Cultural Tour, a Daintree River cruise and more. The property also assists in the reforestation of the area through a partnership with Rainforest Rescue. [caption id="attachment_828745" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Philip Waring, Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] MT QUINCAN CRATER RETREAT If you're seeking somewhere romantic for your next holiday, check out the couples-only luxury accommodation on offer at Mt Quincan Crater Retreat. Elevated 2500 feet above sea level on the edge of an extinct volcano in the Atherton Tablelands, this award-winning escape boasts breathtaking views that look over the volcanic crater and beyond. Each treehouse has its own private spa that captures these vistas. and some even have an al fresco shower for you to enjoy under the stars. Plus, there are in-room dining options available for fuss-free cook ups and tailored packages to help you celebrate special occasions. Ready to book your tropical escape? For more information and to discover more about extending your summer in Tropical North Queensland, visit the website. Image: Lizard Island, Tourism Tropical North Queensland
Anyone who takes their alcohol semi-seriously or are discontent with cookie-cutter commercial bottle shops can seek solace in The Oak Barrel. The team takes alcohol even more seriously than you do. A family-run business since 1956, and one of the city's oldest independent bottle shops, The Oak Barrel is a purveyor of the finest beer, wine and whisky available. Organic and natural wines are having a bit of a moment right now, but The Oak Barrel have long been specialists in this realm. It stocks wines from all over the world and the staff's encyclopaedic knowledge will help steer you in the right direction. Craft beer fans will geek out in The Oak Barrel's cave which holds an extensive range of local and global (mostly Belgium, US and NZ) brews that grows quite literally on a weekly basis. If you're after the harder stuff, its spirit range is equally impressive. Whisky is the main drawcard holding everything from Tasmanian single cask to private collection scotch and Kentucky rye. The shop plays host to a number of events and also runs regular tasting nights with tickets usually sitting at the $35 mark. Ranging from sake to natural wines to sour beers, these appreciation events are guided by experts who discuss the history and nuances of the drinks - basically, it's a fancy excuse to drink lots of quality booze.
Zaffi is a multi-level dining and party space on Little Hunter Street that's arrived in Sydney right as the city is in the swing of a late-night revival. Joining the likes of The Abercrombie, Club 77 and Pleasure Club on the list of new and revamped venues pushing Sydney's nightlife into the early hours of the morning, Zaffi is a versatile space boasting a 42-seat ground-floor restaurant and a 122-capacity basement bar that's committed to keeping the party rolling until 4am on weekends. Owner Chady Khouzame has enlisted the help of ex-Chin Chin and Rockpool chef Graeme Hunt to create a refined Australian-Lebanese menu for the street-level dining room. It's a sharing affair at Zaffi, with plenty of mezze options including dips and veggies paired with mains like Aleppo pepper roast prawns and char-grilled spatchcock. The two banquets menus are highly affordable, with the $60 option bringing a table-covering feast of saj, hummus, baba ganoush, eggplant fatteh, labneh, haloumi, kofta, cauliflower, spatchcock, pickles and chips — or, for an extra $29 per person, you can basically sample the entire array of eats on offer, with the addition of pan-fried snapper, slow-roasted lamb shoulder, panna cotta and cheesecake. Downstairs in Zaffi's party bunker, you'll find pink velvet-cushioned booths, neon lighting, communal tables and upbeat tunes encouraging late-night revellers to stay well past midnight. The snacks also keep coming, with highlights from upstairs including kofta, dips, chips and grilled honey and za'atar halloumi all available on the after-hours menu. Appears in: Sydney's Best Underground Bars for 2023
Have you ever been to a play where, no matter how prominent the lead was, your attention was always drawn to one of the secondary performers off to the side? That's the case with X-Men: Dark Phoenix, a film where everything's pretty decent except for anything to do with the actual title character. Ultimately it's an issue of interest. There just isn't enough in the Jean Grey character (or at least, not in this iteration of the character, played by Sophie Turner, compared to Famke Janssen's version from the origial X-Men trilogy) to justify giving her such a prominent role in a universe already jam-packed with compelling fan-favourites like Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult). To appropriate that iconic line from Mean Girls: stop trying to make Jean Grey happen. In a franchise that adroitly positioned itself as one of 'films with special effects' rather than 'special effects films', the masterstroke of the early X-Men movies was ensuring there were always human stories at their core, even if they were about super-humans and mutants. On that front, the original trilogy stands as a sublime allegory for the discrimination of minorities, no matter the kind. The franchise's first ever scene took place in a Nazi concentration camp, bars and restaurants featured mutant and non-mutant sections, and a narrow-minded mother asked her son: "have you tried... not being a mutant?" Beyond the us and them theme, they then added two more critical threads: a complex friendship between Magneto and Professor X, and a love triangle between Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean. It was these stories that made the films so engaging, whilst the special effects just added loads of cool. X-Men: Dark Phoenix forgets that lesson after its first few (excellent) scenes, placing far too much emphasis thereafter on visual pageantry that adds very little to the story. Set mostly in 1992, Dark Phoenix begins with a confronting car-crash sequence, followed by a dramatic space rescue. Both, in their own way, set in motion plot lines involving Professor X arguably overstepping his mark, which inevitably has dire consequences. The problem is, until now, Turner's Jean Grey was little more than a bit-part, so her elevation to leading lady and the subsequent transformation (or descent?) into the all-powerful Dark Phoenix both feel rushed and unearned. You know you're meant to think oh no, but you simply don't care. Added to that is a subplot so forgettable that this writer literally forgot about it until just now. An alien villain named Vuk (Jessica Chastain) pursues and manipulates Jean's transformation into Dark Phoenix for reasons that are barely clear and even less interesting. Chastain's staid, hollow stare throughout the film feels neatly reflective of the audience's expression as it watches another actor of incredible talent relegated to spouting cliched nonsense. With the exception of its early scenes, the only other high point in Dark Phoenix is its climactic battle aboard a speeding armoured train (and it speaks volumes that throughout that scene, Jean Grey is passed out and largely ignored). Mutants being mutants and deploying their abilities in means as violent as they are inventive is ultimately why you'd see this film over other, more conventional action movies. To give us so little of that condemns it to forgettable status from the get-go. Dark Phoenix is almost certainly the last entry in the franchise before the reigns are handed over to Marvel, courtesy of Disney's recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Hopefully in their capable hands we'll see a return to the quality delivered in the early days of the saga. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azvR__GRQic
While the Sydney CBD is rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the lockout laws and Western Sydney just keeps getting better and better, the Sydney suburbs that might just be having the biggest hospo boom right now could be Balmain/Rozelle. The peninsular has welcomed back historic pubs and seen luxe French diners pop up — and now, Casa Esquina, a fresh Argentinian joint from the Tequila Mockingbird and Esteban team, is about to swing open its doors. Opening on Thursday, February 15, the new arrival has taken over the historic Elliot Street space formerly occupied by Efendy and L'Unico. The focus here is flame-grilled feeds, with Head Chef Will Quartel and Atticus Hospitality Director Michael Fegent perfecting the art of the char during their time traveling through Argentina and cooking in the Australian outback. The kitchen at Casa Esquina is built around a huge open-flame parrilla grill, while out in the courtyard you'll find a barbecue spit — both of which will be firing on all cylinders, cooking high-quality meats and a variety of veggies. Torched bonito, pork chicharron, charcoal sweet potato and a variety of house sausages all grace the menu, alongside a sizeable steak selection ranging from tajima wagyu picanha to one-kilogram 60-day dry-aged angus ribeye. You can even order a whole suckling pig if you've got a spare $400 to splash. There are plenty of enticing accompaniments to the flamed-grilled menu items. You can kick your meal off with oysters or beef tartare with caperberry and pickled mushroom; order a selection of empanadas including a kangaroo and maraschino cherry variety; and pair your mains with a rocket and watercress salad, Old Bay seasoned fried and fugazzeta, an Argentinian-style stuffed pizza. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the team will be prepping the courtyard barbecue during the day and serving street eats for locals who are after a quick midweek lunch. And, on Sundays a whole lamb or pig will be cooked on the parrilla grill, introducing a fresh element to the menu. Atticus Hospitality's Paddington fave Tequila Mockingbird may have top-notch eats, but it's also known for its creative drinks menu, which the Group Bar Executive Mark Crawford has transferred over to Casa Esquina. There are plenty of nods to the group's first venue on offer, and you can even order the signature Tequila Mockingbird cocktail. There are also a few new takes on Argentinian classics. The Fernet Royale is an ode to the Fernet-Branca and Coke, a mainstay in Argentina. Casa Esquina brings the combo to Balmain with the addition of Cynar, a secret Buenos Aires bitters blend and a charred Coca-Cola foam. Head Sommelier Sophie Gitterle is in charge of the wines, with a big focus on Argentinian drops. Gitterle and Group Sommelier Chesterton Cook have been working with South American importers to craft a list that represents the area and acts as the perfect partner to the flame grill. All of this is housed within a vibrant multi-space venue. Take your pick from the ground-floor dining room and courtyard, ground-floor bar, mezzanine private dining room/wine cellar, first-floor restaurant and shady al fresco balcony. Adding to the lived-in feel of the longstanding building is a pair of 80-year-old camphor laurel trees that grow through the balcony and shade the first-floor tables. "Casa Esquina is a testament to the remarkable bones of the building, its beautiful courtyard and a salute to the lively community that surrounds it," says Fegent. "Balmain is especially close to my heart — I'm a Balmain local, and my son goes to school here. I remember the old days when the area was pumping and I want to contribute to bringing that back — now is the time with Casa Esquina." "The venue is elevated but approachable — a sophisticated take on Argentinian fire-cooked food but with a friendly, local and approachable vibe. We are putting a lot of emphasis on creating an offering where people can come in and have a well-priced meal on a Tuesday night or go all out on the weekend or for a special occasion — there's something for everyone!" Casa Esquina is located at 79 Elliot Street, Balmain. It will open on Thursday, February 15. For more information and to make a booking, head to the restaurant's website.
Sydney's Chinese regional dining scene just welcomed a bold and fiery newcomer with the arrival of 25 Spices, a visually striking new dining room dedicated to the layered, complex flavours of Hunan cuisine. Now open in Market City, the two-level restaurant is the latest venture from Vincent Wei, the chef behind cult-fave Newtown spot Pappa's Stew, and marks the chef's most ambitious chapter yet. Hailing from central China, Hunan (or Xiang) food is one of the country's eight great regional cuisines (八大菜系), and is known for its unapologetic heat, sourness and smokiness. After finding little Hunan representation in Sydney when he moved from China, Wei opened his first takeaway spot in 2016, which then led to Pappa's Stew. Now with 25 Spices, he's created what he calls "the restaurant I've dreamed of creating for many years". The menu showcases a range of Hunan signatures and explores the interplay between sour, smoke and heat. Highlights include Hunan-style chilli with eggplant and century egg, beef with pickled green chilli, and a winter-only slow-cooked lamb hot pot. It's not all firepower though — options like braised beef noodles with crunchy peanuts, tomato beef brisket pot, and wood-smoked pork belly with garlic sprouts cut back on the spice, but not the comfort. You can balance it all out with aromatic bi luo chun tea, a naturally sweet green tea from the Hunan mountains. "Hunan food isn't about numbing spice or sweetness — it's about deep heat, smoke, and soul," says Wei. "[This restaurant] represents my childhood and what I believe to be one of the most delicious Chinese cuisines." The sense of storytelling extends to the fitout — the work of Lily Zhang of Haymarket-based Latistudio. A palette of deep red and calming blue evokes both the fiery energy of Hunan and the soothing tones of Australia's coast. Walnut wood finishes throughout the space add warmth and texture, while also nodding to the Chinese tradition of wood representing stability and connection to nature. It's a fitting look for a restaurant that's just as much about cultural connection as it is about flavour. "This restaurant is about more than food," says Wei. "It's a space for anyone curious about a cuisine that's still underrepresented in Australia." 25 Spices in now open seven days a week, from 11.30am–3pm and 5–10pm. Find it on the ground floor of Market City, on the corner of Hay Street and Quay Street, Shop 1.01B, 9–13 Hay Street, Haymarket. For more information, head to the venue's website.
Take your weekly parkrun (or stroll around the block) to the next level, as New Balance and Sydney-based run crew Unofficial have teamed up to host 'The Biggest Shakeout'. Designed as an easygoing warm-up with a twist ahead of the following day's Sydney Marathon, everyone from high-performance athletes to budding walkers are invited to get a sweat on and connect on Saturday, August 30. Departing from Bradfield Park at 7am, the day's route goes far beyond your usual suburban speedwork session. Instead, you'll cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge on a five-kilometre run bound for Watersedge at Campbell's Store. Then it's time to get stuck into the post-workout celebration that'll make your early start to the weekend more than worth it. Runners can refuel from a floor-to-ceiling bagel wall adorned with tasty bites. Of course, sipping a well-caffeinated treat at the end of a run is the motivation many of us need to rise from bed at the crack of dawn, so it's a good thing Beforeyouspeak Coffee is getting down to brew their high-performance beans. What's more, upbeat DJ and runner Tigerlily will also be spinning tunes. While the thought of that hot coffee might be enough to convince you to get your trainers on, finding that get-up-and-go inspiration will come a little easier with a race-day goodie bag curated by New Balance and Unofficial. Handed out to the first 1500 runners to sign up, you'll find marathon supplies like caffeine and post-race fuel bars, alongside temporary tattoos and more that ensure you look the part while pounding pavement. Yet we haven't even covered this special event's major prize. New Balance and Unofficial are also giving one lucky runner a race bib for the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon, complete with a $3000 travel voucher. To see how hustling through the Big Apple stacks up against the Harbour City, just head to Unofficial's website and submit a one-minute video answering the question: How do you run your way? Entries close at 5pm AEST on Wednesday, August 27. "It's an honour to partner with New Balance to create The Biggest Shakeout," says Chad Cohen, Co-Founder of Unofficial. "This event is all about bringing runners together, celebrating the joy of movement and supporting one another ahead of race day — it truly captures the essence of running: community, connection and fun. We're excited to see everyone come together for what promises to be an unforgettable morning." New Balance and Unofficial's Biggest Shakeout is happening from 7am on Saturday, August 30. Head to the website for more information.
Sydney Festival is synonymous with the crackle of summer – a new year, an expanse of possibility, and a rediscovery of this here great city, drink in hand and easy grins all round. The Festival has again delivered with the ultimate soundtrack to those sweltering nights, with musical must-sees, artistic experiences and theatrical wonders all on the cards for Sydney Festival 2012. And there are few better annual parties than the Sydney Festival First Night, a celebration that brings our city together in a spirit of fun and comradeship. Roads will be closed and made available to pedestrian traffic, parks will be occupied and stocked with food and drinks, and various musical acts will seek out ears to enter. The artistic side of the Festival is in the mix from the beginning, with the Art Gallery of NSW staying open late to play with the Festival First Night crowd offering Picasso-friendly Spanish goodness in the form of film, performance and live music. Brook Andrew also brings his black and white aesthetic to Macquarie Street, peppering us with full-size caravans containing stories within for attendees to investigate in Travelling Colony. On the main stage in The Domain, world music's main man, Manu Chao, will headline at 9.30pm, supported by Washington, Gurrumul and a special Welcome To The Country. Elsewhere in the city, you can catch a reprise of last year's wildly popular Trocadero Dance Palace, performances from The Jolly Boys, Holly Throsby and Norman Jay MBE. Download the schedule and a map
How many ways can Melbourne go dotty for Yayoi Kusama? Everyone is about to find out. The National Gallery of Victoria's big summer 2024–25 exhibition is dedicated to the Japanese artist, complete with a five-metre-tall dot-covered Dancing Pumpkin sculpture in NGV International's Federation Court, plus a world record-breaking number of infinity rooms and other immersive installations, many featuring spots. There'll be polka dots inside and out around the venue, including on the plane trees on St Kilda Road. On Wednesday, November 27, 2024 — in the lead up to the exhibition's run from Sunday, December 15, 2024–Monday, April 21, 2025 — the NGV has unveiled the beginnings of Kusama's latest artwork. A version of Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees is being staged in Melbourne, with more than 60 trees outside the gallery having their trunks covered in pink-and-white polka-dotted material. The first row has been completed, which anyone in the vicinity can now check out — and by early in the week commencing Monday, December 2, 2024, all four lanes of St Kilda Road in front of the NGV will be brightly wrapped. With over 180 works set to feature, in what'll be the largest Kusama retrospective that Australia has ever seen — as well as one of the most-comprehensive retrospectives devoted to the artist to be staged globally, not to mention the closest that you'll get to experiencing her Tokyo museum without leaving the country — stepping foot inside the NGV will still be mandatory for art lovers. But Kusama is also livening up the road for everyone to enjoy all day and all night long. In the past, including when Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees debuted at the Kirishima Open Air Museum in Japan in 2002, a red-and-white colour scheme has been used; however, Melbourne has scored its own bold-pink iteration. Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees is obviously free to view, joining several other artworks that won't cost anyone a cent to see during the exhibition. The aforementioned Dancing Pumpkin is already on display. NGV International's glass waterwall is also going pink, but with black rather than white dots. Kusama's new version of Narcissus Garden, which dates back to 1966 and will feature 1400 30-centimetre-diameter silver balls this time around, is set sit in front of the waterwall and in parts of Federation Court. Plus, the yellow-and-black spheres of Dots Obsession will hang over the Great Hall. Then there's the artist's sticker-fuelled, all-ages-friendly The Obliteration Room, where audiences young and old pop coloured dots everywhere — 'obliterating', as Kusama calls it — to cover an apartment interior that's completely white otherwise. Overall, Yayoi Kusama will step through the 95-year-old artist's eight decades of making art via a thematic chronology. Some pieces hail from her childhood. Some are recent. Her output in her hometown of Matsumoto from the late 30s–50s; the results of relocating to America in 1957; archival materials covering her performances and activities in her studios, especially with a political charge, in the 60s and 70s; plenty from the past four decades: they'll all appear. [caption id="attachment_950480" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama, 2022 © YAYOI KUSAMA[/caption] Yayoi Kusama displays at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne from Sunday, December 15, 2024–Monday, April 21, 2025. Head to the NGV website for more details and tickets. Images: Yayoi Kusama's Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees, 2002/2024, on display along St Kilda Road, Melbourne for the National Gallery of Victoria's Yayoi Kusama exhibition until 21 April 2025. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photo: Tobias Titz.
There's no such thing as an ordinary dish to chef Nelly Robinson, namesake of and driving force behind Sydney restaurant NEL, as his degustation menus keep demonstrating. KFC? Lamingtons? French onion soup? Pots of honey? They can all be given a fine-dining twist, and have. Paddington Bear's marmalade sandwiches? They're next. For the Harbour City restaurant's latest 11-course feast, it's going all in on dishes inspired by England. The theme: great British memories. So, of course everyone's favourite talking bear and his sandos get a nod. So do beef wellingtons, scampi and beer, Sunday roasts and chocolate orange. This limited-time special hits NEL from Wednesday, August 16–Saturday, September 30 — and, like all of the eatery's degustations, is a bucket list-worthy meal for Sydneysiders and visitors alike. That nod to Paddington Bear? It's made with Davidson plum marmalade, and dished up in a suitcase. And those NEL-style beef wellingtons? They're whipped up from slow-cooked stout beef cheeks, which come wrapped in cime di rapa, then topped with carrot puree and English peppercorn sauce. The pub grub-esque scampi and beer is a prawn-filled tart mayonnaise seasoned with and tajin, also featuring avruga caviar, and paired with a sarsaparilla-flavoured drink. As well as the chocolate orange — which doesn't resemble the Terry's supermarket-sold version — and the riff on a roast, spins on gammon and eggs, cheese and onion, fish and chips, korma scallops, and rhubarb and custard feature. Robinson is drawing upon his own formative years. "The team knew exactly where I was coming from when crafting of this menu began. It was really special to create a whole new menu honouring my childhood and roots," the chef advises. "As always, we have paired it with some sensational wines, too." Patrons can tuck in for $185 per person, with matched beverages starting at $85 each on top. NEL's great British memories degustation is on offer on from Wednesday, August 16–Saturday, September 30 at 75 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney. For more information or to book, head to the NEL website.
When lockdowns started sweeping the globe at the beginning of the pandemic, the entertainment industry responded in different ways. With in-person events off the cards for a significant period, streamed gigs and performances kept creatives and audiences alike busy. New at-home audio experiences popped up, too — so, between making jigsaws and baking sourdough, you might've spent some time listening to eerie radio plays. For the team at immersive entertainment company Swamp Motel, the situation inspired a new three-part online project that turns a night at home — or three — into a sleuthing experience. That series: Isklander. It's proven such a hit in the UK and US that it has been optioned by Gaumont UK, the studio behind Lupin and Narcos, to be turned into a TV show. In its current playable digital and format, however, it'll be available in Australia and New Zealand from Thursday, September 23. Isklander is designed to be played in groups, but everyone can be in their respective houses. It also unfurls a different mystery in each of its different chapters. So, with Plymouth Point, you're tasked with searching for a missing person. In the titular locale, Ivy Isklander has disappeared, and you need to work through clues, solve puzzles and crack codes to get to the bottom of it. Then, in The Mermaid's Tongue, you're sent looking for the eponymous ancient artefact, which could bring about doom if the wrong person gets hold of it. Finally, there's The Kindling Hour, which is described as "a corporate espionage thriller". Accordingly, you'll need to work your way into a powerful organisation to bring it down from the inside. If you're wondering how it works, Swamp Motel is all about blurring the lines between theatre, film and gaming — and turning the results into a shared live experience. Isklander is never the same twice, and it features everything from live-action performances and newsreel footage to fourth-wall breaking research (that is, the kind you do yourself). And, while it'll have you and up to five pals using the internet to investigate as part of the game, it also resembles a film at times and an escape room at others. The fact that the cast includes Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings, Lost), Dino Fetscher (Years and Years) and theatre performer Bathsheba Pipe helps nudge Isklander in the direction of a movie, but you won't just be sitting and watching. No, this isn't like another night glued to your streaming queue. You'll be playing a part — including hacking into emails, scouring social media posts, making phone calls and looking at websites — which means that you'll be experiencing a series that's part puzzle game and part scavenger hunt as well. To keep things running, each session is also directed live by an in-character aid, with Swamp Motel's team of 30 stage managers guiding you through all three chapters of Isklander — whether you choose to play them all, or just pick one or two. And, the whole experience unfurls in real time, with a ticking clock, so you'll definitely feel a sense of urgency while you're puzzling. Check out the trailer below: Isklander will be available in Australia and New Zealand from Thursday, September 23. Images: Matt Hass.
Long before Photoshop became widely available photo hoaxes were much more noteworthy and had larger repercussions for contriving fake events. Today we are accustomed to seeing completely unrealistic and out-of-this-world scenes on photographic prints, but in bygone days society was a little more innocent. Whether used as propaganda in war times, t0 invent or perpetuate superstitions, to improve appearances, or to make ordinary events appear extraordinary, photo hoaxes have historically changed our perceptions, beliefs and even our actions. Here are ten of the most famous photo hoaxes (appropriately from The Museum of Hoaxes) throughout history. Portrait of a Photographer as a Drowned Man Hippolyte Bayard was angered by the lack of attention and recognition given to his independently developed process of direct positive printing, which was instead focused on his rival Louis Daguerre. In the 1830s during the race to perfect the printing process, Bayard was not remembered as the first to invent photography, yet he is known as the first to fake a photograph. To demonstrate his frustration, Bayard took a faux photo of himself as a suicide victim alongside a note reprimanding those who supported Daguerre as the discoverer of photography rather than himself. President Lincoln Due to Abraham Lincoln's lack of 'heroic-style' portraits, an amateur entrepreneur created the photo of Lincoln on the left by combining two other photographs. By cutting out Lincoln's head from a picture by Matthew Brady and pasting it onto an image of southern leader John Calhoun, this widespread image of a bold President Lincoln was created. The Cottingley Fairies Cousins Frances Griffith and Elsie Wright were playing in the garden of Elsie's Cottingley village home when a group of frolicking fairies seemingly decided to join in on their fun. The series of photos taken by the young girls captured the world's attention, providing 'proof' to many spiritualists that supernatural creatures really did exist. Little did the world know (until 1980) that the fairies were in fact only cardboard cutouts drawn by Elsie inspired by the book Princess Mary's Gift Book. Trotsky Vanishes Leon Trotsky, the second in command to Lenin in Soviet Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, was deported and eventually assassinated in later years after demonstrating open dissent towards Stalin's policies. This photo was taken in 1920, with the original depicting Vladimir Lenin atop a platform speaking to troops at Sverdlov Square and both Trotsky and Kamenev standing beside him on his left side. This picture is one of the most famous images in the many falsified photos using paint, razor and airbrushes as part of Stalin's attempt to eliminate all traces of the 'traitor' Trotsky. Baby Hitler In the 1930s, a photo supposedly showing a baby Adolf Hitler circulated throughout England and America. The menacing scowl upon the baby's face and greasy mop of hair covering its head was distributed by Acme Newspictures Inc. and appeared in a large number of newspapers and magazines. The photo actually portrayed a young american boy, John May Warren, whose cute and and bubbly features had been manipulated to make him look more sinister. The origin of the hoax picture has been traced back to Austria, Hitler's home country, yet the identity of the forger remains unknown. Lung-powered Flying Machine One of the most successful and widespread April Fools jokes in history, this photo was run in the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung on April 1, 1934 presenting a flying machine run by the breath from a man's lung. Many immediately thought the image to be true and International News Photo distributed the image of this 'new invention' to its American subscribers. This caused the image to go viral, with it even making it into the New York Times. The Surgeon's Photo A few months after the initial media hype following a sighting of an 'enormous monster' by a couple in the Loch Ness, a highly respected British surgeon, Colonel Robert Wilson, came forward with a picture showing a serpent rising out of the water. By far the most famous image of the 'Loch Ness Monster', this photo, named 'The Surgeon's Photo' (due to Wilson's wish to remain anonymous) was debunked in 1994, 60 years after the photo's initial release. 90 year-old Christian Spurling, on the eve of his death, revealed his role in the hoax. At his stepfather's wishes he had created a toy submarine with a sea-serpent head to appear in a photograph, which Colonel Wilson would be the frontman for. The Brown Lady of Raynham By far one of the most famous ghost pictures, the Brown Lady supposedly haunted the walls of Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England. The image was taken by two photographers for Country Life magazine, who had been setting up their cameras and apparently saw an unearthly figure floating down the stairs and subsequently snapped a photo. The appearance of the ghost has later been attributed to camera vibration, light entering the lens from the window or double exposure, yet it is unknown whether the result was produced on purpose or was accidental. The Bluff Creek Bigfoot This image represents frame 352 of Patterson and Gimlin's infamous short film about Bigfoot set in Northern California. The pair set out out to make a documentary on horseback about the beast and conveniently managed to capture footage of a female 'Bigfoot' strolling along the river bank. Skeptics argue that this image is obviously just a figure in an ape suit, yet believers counter that costumes and effects were not sophisticated enough in 1967 to create such a believable image. The quality of the film is not good enough to conclusively prove or deny the existence of the beast, so feel free to make up your own mind on the authenticity of the image. The Foetal Footprint One of the more recent photo hoaxes, this image showing the outline of the foot of a baby in utero pressing against a pregnant mother's belly has gained widespread prominence on the internet and elsewhere. Many have been fooled by this miracle photo, but in actual fact, the abdominal wall is too thick and muscular for a foetal foot to be seen so clearly, and the foot itself is also unusually large.
A seductive new Sydney dining and drinking venue by the Cîroc Collective is opening this Friday, just above Infinity Bakery on Darlo’s main drag. Housed across two levels of the contemporary, loft-style space is the Salon de Thé (translates to tearoom in French) and the Bar de Thé. The restaurant will focus on French-Vietnamese fusion cuisine, while on the upper level, the Bar de The will be Sydney’s first martini bar. You may not have heard of Cîroc Collective before, but we’re pretty sure you’ll soon be hearing a lot more of them. It’s a recent alliance between exclusive CÎROC vodka (made from fine French grapes) and five Australian entrepreneurs with their eyes on luxe drinking concepts across Australia. Acclaimed restaurateur Maurice Terzini (Icebergs, Da Orazio) has united his restaurant expertise with the crew behind the ksubi fashion label: Paul Wilson (The Flinders Hotel, Duke Bistro), George Gorrow, Dan Single and Mikey Nolan. Although the group draws upon a variety of restaurant and bar industry experience, as a collective, Salon de Thé and Bar de Thé marks the launch of their first collaborative venture. In order to suit Sydney’s more laidback lifestyle, Salon de The will be serving something a little different to the typically refined French dining options, by adding a Vietnamese twist. French chef Julien Perraudin has been lured from Melbourne to design a menu that uses seasonal produce to create food that is light, fragrant and complex. He utilises aromatic influences, and the use of infusions and tea smoking aligns perfectly with the restaurant's core concept. Casual French fare in the form of luxe street style bar food is set to complement the sophisticated cocktails at Bar de Thé. There will be the signature CÎROC tea infusion cocktails made especially from house blend organic teas — again, paying homage to the name, as well as just showing some flare. Sommelier Rocco Esposito offers patrons a selection of local and international wines, as well as an extensive champagne menu to accompany the French/Vietnamese-inspired food. Bar de Thé and Salon de Thé will be open at 225 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst on August 8. Opening hours are Monday - Saturday from 5pm - midnight. Words and images by Eddie Hart.
UPDATE, January 16, 2023: The Menu is now streaming via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Whichever new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adaptations hit screens in the future — beyond the already-slated Timothée Chalamet-starring origin story and Netflix's animated plans to whatever else might pop up — no one need cast Ralph Fiennes as Willy Wonka. The Menu has already done so, and fantastically, albeit not in name but in tour-guiding, court-holding, string-pulling and monologue-delivering spirit. In this slickly appetising culinary thriller, the ever-versatile No Time to Die, The King's Man and The Forgiven star plays Julian Slowik, the head chef at the most exclusive of exclusive restaurants: the fictional Hawthorne, which adorns its own private island, is pickier than a fussy eater about its guest list, and comes with a cult-esque crew of kitchen and hospitality staff. And at the eatery's latest sought-after sitting, Slowik takes his patrons through an unforgettable edible adventure, unfurling surprises with every meticulously selected, prepared, served and introduced degustation course. Getting "yes chef" bellowed his way by Slowik's underlings on command, Fiennes is a sinister delight in this vicious and delicious flick. With his character terrorising staff and customers alike, but similarly trapped with his employees in the hospo grind, Fiennes is also visibly having a ball in an entertainingly slippery role. He plays the part with the instant presence to make a room of well-paying patrons snap to attention just because he's there, and his facial expressions — his eyes in particular — are a masterclass in passive malevolence. There's a cruel streak in Slowik, as there is in the movie, but The Menu is a black, bleak, vengeful comedy as well. Director Mark Mylod (What's Your Number?) and writers Seth Reiss and Will Tracy (The Onion) know the best thing to eat, aka the rich, and turn their fine-dining factory into a savage, savvy and scathingly amusing satire about coveting $1250-a-head meals but letting the workers behind them slice, steam, stir and sweat through upscale kitchen drudgery. Babbling snootily about mouth-feel before even getting to Hawthorne by boat, Tyler (Nicholas Hoult, The Great) doesn't spare a passing thought for the restaurant's workers. A self-confessed foodie who can't abide by the eatery's no-photography rule for a single course, he's in fanboy heaven after finally scoring a booking — and doesn't his companion Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy, Amsterdam) know it. She's less enthused, and her lack of fawning over her surroundings, Slowik, each plate and the theatre of it all rankles her date. She's the least-excited diner of the evening's entire list, in fact, which also spans status-chasing finance bros (The Terminal List's Arturo Castro, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series' Mark St Cyr and The Now's Rob Yang), a cashed-up couple (Mass' Reed Birney and Julia's Judith Light) who attend regularly, an arrogant food critic (Janet McTeer, Ozark) and her editor (Paul Adelstein, The Greatest Beer Run Ever), and a movie star (John Leguizamo, Encanto) with his assistant (Aimee Carrero, Spirited). Mylod and Tracy share Succession on their recent resumes — the former directing 13 episodes, the latter writing two — which has them prepped for exactly this kind of dressing down; if you're going to boil down the one percent to size, there's no better cooking school. That background shows not just in the cleaver-sharp script or dedicated attention to glossy detail, but in the commitment to bite hard into a spate of targets. Where 2022 TV sensation The Bear carved up toxic kitchen life by displaying its chaos to a so-stressful-and-accurate-it-feels-like-you're-there degree, The Menu shreds and skewers by going after money and the performative culinary antics it can bring. That's part of what makes Fiennes' role so compelling, and his portrayal with it: the film's audience can see the pull that Slowik has over his staff and customers, and the screenplay spells out his professional misdeeds, but they also know what enables such behaviour. As breadless bread courses come Tyler, Margot and company's way, plus other just-as-precisely curated dishes — the feature is structured around Slowik's titular array — Charlie and the Chocolate Factory proves just one easy influence for The Menu. The Game, David Fincher's twisty quarter-century-old thriller, is another, with Slowik and his offsiders, warden-like restaurant manager Elsa (Hong Chau, Homecoming) included, pushing and prodding Hawthorne's latest intake unbeknownst to them. Yet another source of flavour springs from 1962 surrealist gem The Exterminating Angel, about guests at a lavish party who aren't permitted to leave. There's nothing subtle in The Menu's borrowings and nods, or about The Menu overall, but that doesn't make its class warfare-fuelled cinematic feast any less satisfying. In the hospitality realm, this cutting morsel is diligent in bringing together recognisable ingredients, too; satires, even delectably brutal ones, can't be vague. The Menu's audience can give some of their thanks to Ethan Tobman's (Pam & Tommy) production design and Lindsey Moran's (Animal Kingdom) art direction, providing Hawthorne with the style and sheen of Magnus Nilsson's shuttered Fäviken in Sweden, Ferran Adrià's El Bulli in Spain and René Redzepi's Danish drawcard Noma. From San Francisco's Atelier Crenn, Michelin-starred chef Dominique Crenn acted as the movie's chief technical consultant, overseeing dishes cooked by her IRL culinary partner Juan Contreras. Like The Bear, this vision of making and plating cuisine feels so authentic that you can imagine it appearing on Chef's Table — and, continuing the flick's credentials, that show's creator David Gelb is The Menu's second unit director. All the technical proficiency anyone can amass means little if the end result isn't mouthwatering, though, but that's a problem The Menu doesn't have. Also, an extravagant meal can wow the tastebuds but dull the joy if it doesn't feel like an experience, which isn't a struggle The Menu faces, either. As tense as a pressure cooker, as smooth as a squirt of the finest olive oil and bubbling with high-quality wares — Taylor-Joy and Chau join Fiennes among the cast's standouts — Mylod's film perfects a necessary balancing act as well. Amid silky lensing by cinematographer Peter Deming (Twin Peaks season three), rhythmic splicing by editor Christopher Tellefsen (The Many Saints of Newark) and a nerve-rattling score by composer Colin Stetson (Color Out of Space), The Menu knows the difference between the artistry that restaurants like Hawthorne champion and cultivate, and the woes, disparities and oppressions of the culinary world. One it still appreciates, the other it eviscerates, and battle between the two it scorches and sears, right down to the blunt but gratifying ending.
In 2020, the inaugural Great Southern Nights saw more than 1000 gigs take place across 300 NSW venues. This year it's coming back throughout March and April with a heap of live shows from artists both emerging and bonafide iconic. The diverse and far-reaching program features everyone from icons like Jimmy Barnes popping up in western Sydney through to smaller acts like hyped young R&B singer Liyah Knight headlining a night of local music and DJs at Zetland's 107 Projects. We've picked out eight of our favourite gigs on the lineup including free block parties, Triple J favourites in oft-forgotten regional hubs, and inner-city Sydney dance parties. Top help you make the most of the Great Southern Nights 2022 program, we've also paired each gig with a set of nearby venues so you can book in a memorable pre-gig meal or post-show drink.
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 January's haul of newbies. BRAND NEW STUFF YOU CAN WATCH IN FULL RIGHT NOW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UQamk0b0k8 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 clearly 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, there's 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 certain future Oscar-nominee ficitionalising their time together. One Night in Miami is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga0iTWXCGa0 LUPIN Few actors are as charming on-screen as Omar Sy. Ever since the French talent started making a big-screen splash in films such as Micmacs and The Intouchables, he has been a delight to watch. Consequently, the Mood Indigo, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Jurassic World star couldn't be better cast in Lupin — the Paris-set mystery-thriller series inspired by Maurice Leblanc's 1907–36 novels and novellas about the fictional gentleman thief of the same name. Sy plays Assane Diop, who is first introduced as a cleaner working at the Louvre. In flashbacks to recent events and to the character's childhood, viewers learn just why he's at the famous museum, and what has inspired his life of crime as well. The son of a Senegalese immigrant (Fargass Assandé, Eye of the Storm) who once worked for the wealthy Pellegrini family, Assane has a complicated history, plus a mystery to solve, Marie Antoinette's diamond necklace to steal and vengeance to exact. Each chapter of his on-screen tale is slick, engrossing and swiftly-paced, as all heist and espionage affairs should be. Based on his engaging performance, they should probably all star Sy, too. Also influential here, though, is filmmaker Louis Leterrier. His resume has more misses than hits, spanning the first two Transporter movies, The Incredible Hulk, Clash of the Titans, Now You See Me and Grimsby, but he brings a deft touch to this series — as he did to the vastly dissimilar The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Lupin's first five episodes — which comprise the first of the series' two parts — are available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uC7_PFQgCc THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC Remaking the 1981 film of the same name, Indonesian horror movie The Queen of Black Magic takes three men back to the remote orphanage they grew up in. Naturally given the setup and the genre, more than just memories await. Friends Hanif (Ario Bayu, The Bridge), Anton (Tanta Ginting, Hit & Run) and Jefri (Miller Khan, Foxtrot Six) all return to pay their respects to the man who raised them, the ailing Mr Bani (Yayu AW Unru, Brata), and they've each brought their families and spouses along — but when they arrive at the facility, there's no mistaking the eerie feeling that permeates. Hanif, his wife Nadya (Hannah Al Rashid, The Night Comes for Us) and their three children are already a little rattled after an incident during their drive. Soon, the kids are exploring the property and unearthing secrets that have long haunted their father and his pals. Just as swiftly, filmmaker Kimo Stamboel demonstrates that he isn't going to hold back on the bumps, jumps or gore, although fans of his work as part of the Mo Brothers — including Macabre, Killers and Headshot — won't be surprised by his unflinching approach. The writer/director of Satan's Slaves and Impetigore, screenwriter Joko Anwar also helps shape a picture that leans on more than a few horror tropes, but never feels like a by-the-numbers haunted house movie. And, if you'd like to compare it to the original, that's joining this new version on Shudder as well (with the current flick available now, and the initial film arriving on the platform in February). The Queen of Black Magic is available to stream via Shudder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqT77bdfEaA HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY: THE REN & STIMPY STORY When August 2021 rolls around, it'll mark 30 years since a psychotic chihuahua and a kindly cat first brought their chaos to the small screen and changed the way people think about Nickelodeon's animated shows. At the time, there was simply nothing like The Ren & Stimpy Show — and that applies to its dark humour, willingness to shock and often grotesquely detailed visuals, as well as its characters, storylines and jokes. The 52-episode show also proved immensely influential. Without it, SpongeBob SquarePants probably wouldn't exist, in fact. But the history of Ren & Stimpy is filled with both highs and lows, as documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story explores. More than just a nostalgic look back, this chronicle by first-time directors Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood covers the series' origins, evolution and success, as well as its behind-the-scenes struggles and eventual demise. It chats with the folks who made it happen to examine why it struck such a chord, and to also make plain the reality of making such a hit. And, it doesn't shy away from the accusations levelled at John Kricfalusi, Ren & Stimpy's creator and the voice of Ren, including not only the difficult working environment that sprang under his watch, but the allegations of sexual abuse and grooming that came to light in 2018. Indeed, the latter could fuel its documentary, but here it adds another layer to the tale of a TV show unlike anything else, and the ego that both made it happen and caused its downfall. Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story is available to stream via Docplay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XByiHpUvrj0 THE HISTORY OF SWEAR WORDS Listening to Nicolas Cage utter profanity is a beautiful thing. Witnessing him on-screen always earns that description, of course. Whether he's running maniacally through the streets because his character is convinced he's a vampire, or he's flirting with subtlety while also playing identical siblings, he's a pleasure to behold — which is why Netflix's decision to task cinema's undeniable king of the unhinged with hosting The History of Swear Words is a smart moves. He opens and closes each episode, and pops up intermittently as an array of comedians and language experts offer their thoughts. He doesn't appear as often everyone watching would like, but he's the comedy series' best feature. He screams "fuck" like no one else, makes jokes about his career, and paints in front of a picture of a peach that nods to Face/Off and one of the most outlandish scenes he's ever been in, too. Without him, The History of Swear Words would've been interesting, rather than entertaining. The fact that it sticks to a very brief exploration of its selected curse words (fuck, shit, bitch, dick, pussy and damn) would've been more obvious. But Cage makes the show as delightful as it can be in its chosen form, even as viewers are left wanting more not only from him, but from the series' examination of profane terms. Of course, deploying The Wire and Da 5 Bloods' Isiah Whitlock Jr. on one specific episode is a pitch-perfect move as well. The first season of The History of Swear Words is available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiTFFr5PTJk BUMP Thanks to The Secret Life of Us, Love My Way, Spirited, Puberty Blues and The Time of Our Lives, Australian TV hasn't lacked Claudia Karvan's presence over the past two decades. Bump joins them, with Karvan co-creating, co-producing and also co-starring as schoolteacher Angie Davis. The narrative focuses on Angie's teenage daughter Oly (Nathalie Morris, Black Christmas), though. An overachiever attacking Year 11 with gusto and dreaming of a career working for the United Nations, Oly isn't sure what's going on when she starts feeling pangs of pain one morning; however, after throwing up in the school toilets and being taken to hospital via ambulance, she's soon a mother to the baby she didn't even know she was expecting. That all happens in Bump's first episode, with the Stan series' ten-part first season then charting the aftermath — including the massive changes to Oly's life, to Angie and her estranged husband Dom's (Angus Sampson, No Activity), and to Oly's brooding classmate Santi Hernandez's (Carlos Sanson, Little Monsters) as well. Set in Sydney's inner west, filled with characters who actually act and talk like teens, and offering a refreshingly multicultural view of Australia, Bump finds time for both big and small moments. It doesn't shy away from melodramatic plot developments, but it's also filled with complex, well-written and excellently performed characters, Oly and Angie especially. And, it'll fill the Heartbreak High-sized hole in your life before the new version hits. Karvan did star in The Heartbreak Kid, the movie that series was spun off from, after all. The first season of Bump is available to stream via Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGdcTUMGxB0 THE RENTAL If you've ever felt a little unsettled upon checking into a holiday property, Dave Franco and Joe Swanberg understand. The Bad Neighbours, Nerve and The Disaster Artist actor turns filmmaker for the first time with The Rental, co-writing the script with Drinking Buddies, Win It All and Easy director Swanberg — and the horror-thriller that results preys upon the uneasy suspicion that we could be under surveillance when we pay to stay in someone else's house. Charlie (Dan Stevens, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga), his wife Michelle (Alison Brie, Happiest Season), his brother Josh (Jeremy Allen White, Shameless), and his business parter and Josh's girlfriend Mina (Sheila Vand, Snowpiercer) all decide to head to a picturesque seaside spot for a weekend getaway. Searching online, they find what seems like the perfect place; however, upon arrival, Mina is quickly creeped out by Taylor (Toby Huss, Halloween), the house's caretaker. The vacation goes downhill from there, not only due to Mina's lingering anxiety about their remote abode, but because the two couples' underlying struggles are thrust out into the open. Unpacking the situation, Franco doesn't always find the best balance between the narrative's horror story and its relationship dramas, but he could've focused the film on either element and it still would've proven engaging. The excellent cast help immensely, and so does the commitment all-round to ensuring this isn't just a cookie-cutter cabin-in-the-woods effort. The Rental is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. NEW AND RETURNING SHOWS TO CHECK OUT WEEK BY WEEK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBhlqe2OTt4&t=19s WANDAVISION From Iron Man to Spider-Man: Far From Home, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has notched up 23 big-screen instalments in its 13 years so far, firmly establishing a franchise template in the process. The characters in the spotlight change from film to film, but a clear formula is at work — which is why the mould-breaking goofiness of the Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy movies (Thor: Ragnarok especially) has stood out. New Disney+ series WandaVision also sits apart from the crowd. It's Marvel's biggest swing so far, in fact. It's also the company's first TV show from a hefty upcoming roster of series about characters already established in the MCU (including Loki, Falcon, the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye), and it relies upon viewers knowing Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen, Sorry for Your Loss) and Vision's (Paul Bettany, Solo: A Star Wars Story) history; however, its eagerness to do something different is worth applauding. Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, it follows its titular couple in their home life. Just how it's able to do that given details already established in the MCU is one of its mysteries. So is the reason behind its approach, with the show aping classic sitcoms such as Leave It to Beaver, Bewitched and The Brady Bunch, as well as the involvement of Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris, If Beale Street Could Talk), daughter of Captain Marvel's Air Force pilot Maria Rambeau. So far, WandaVision doesn't always hit its marks — in fact, despite Olsen, Bettany and Kathryn Hahn's (I Know This Much Is True) comic performances, it can be inescapably clunky — but it keeps its audience not only intrigued and invested, but guessing. The first four episodes of WandaVision's first season are available to stream via Disney+, with new episodes releasing each Friday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FGq5rZi1Pc SERVANT In its first season, which debuted in 2019, psychological horror series Servant introduced a distinctively disquieting scenario. Philadelphia newsreader Dorothy Turner (Lauren Ambrose, Six Feet Under) and her chef husband Sean (Toby Kebbell, Bloodshot) hire teenage nanny Leanne Grayson (Nell Tiger Free, Game of Thrones) to move in and care for their baby son Jericho — but she's really looking after a doll that Sean has been using to replace the infant, after the boy died at 13 weeks old and Dorothy couldn't cope. That's just Servant's setup, too. Initially, it gets its tension from the efforts by Sean, Leanne and Dorothy's brother Julian (Harry Potter's Rupert Grint) to maintain their ruse, and it makes ample use of the concept. Then Leanne's past comes into play, and the show shifts in different narrative directions while also maintaining its focus on grief, secrets, unhealthy family bonds and the way that darkness can fester in close quarters. M Night Shyamalan is the show's executive producer and has directed multiple episodes, but the series takes far more time to explore its creepy tale — and its sprawling claustrophobic brownstone setting — than Shyamalan's twist-heavy features. Servant's just-started second season picks up where it first left off and continues in the same engrossing fashion, all while investigating mysteries old and new. Its first two episodes also benefit from the work of Raw filmmaker Julia Ducournau behind the lens, while Ishana Night Shyamalan keeps things in the family by following her dad into the director's chair on a couple of episodes as well. The first three episodes of Servant's second season are available to stream via Apple TV+, with new episodes releasing each Friday. CULT CLASSICS TO REVISIT AND REDISCOVER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFHjOfgMstE DINOSAURS Sometimes, sitcoms about families unfurl their tales via animation, as seen in everything from The Flintstones and The Jetsons to The Simpsons and Bob's Burgers. More frequently, they fall into the live-action category, which the likes of Family Ties, Full House, Fresh Off the Boat and Modern Family can all attest. But only one family-focused TV sitcom in the television history has focused on animatronic dinosaurs. That'd be Dinosaurs, of course. The big early-90s hit is set 60,000,003 years BCE, when earth was home to the supercontinent Pangaea, and it follows the day-to-day lives of the Sinclair family. Patriarch Earl works as a tree pusher for the Wesayso Corporation, which gives you an idea of the show's satirical leanings. His youngest son Baby spouts catchphrases like "not the mama" and "I'm the baby, gotta love me", which is indicative of the series' broad humour and easy gags. The whole concept was conceived by Jim Henson, his company also produced it, and it was as kooky when it first hit screens as it now sounds. It's also a show that everyone who was a kid in the 90s has strong memories of, and it has quite the finale. And, although your much-younger self couldn't have known all that time ago, Dinosaurs also sees Jessica Walter voice one of her many TV matriarchs — before fellow family-focused sitcom Arrested Development and spy spoof Archer, that is. All four seasons of Dinosaurs are available to stream via Disney+. Images: The History of Swear Words, Adam Rose/Netflix; Lupin, Emmanuel Guimier/Netflix.
What if you were at a Titanic museum and Céline Dion was there? What if she was not only your narrator, but her songs accompanied the tale that she was telling? What if Titanic, the king of the boat-set blockbuster world, got an off-Broadway musical-comedy parody that went heavy on Dion, then? That's Titanique — and it's coming to Australia. This amusing ode to James Cameron's (Avatar: The Way of Water) movie docks in Sydney from Thursday, September 12, 2024 to make its Aussie debut. Nearing three decades since Titanic first splashed into cinemas, the film's status in popular culture will clearly go on. Near, far, wherever you are, you'll need to set sail for the Harbour City to see Titanique, which is playing an exclusive season at The Grand Electric in Surry Hills. "I am so excited that Sydney will be the next stop on Titanique's international cruise. If you love Céline Dion, if you love the film Titanic and you love having a completely silly night out, then this show is for you. Titanique is a nonstop waterfall of pure joy that will literally melt your troubles away. I can't wait to see you there!" said Tye Blue (RuPaul's Drag Race), Titanique's director and co-writer. "I am so thrilled that Titanique will make its maiden voyage to international waters in Sydney for its Australian debut, and I cannot wait to see that Aussie sense of humour embrace this hysterically funny nautical fantasia when it comes to life down under this September," added Titanique's original producer Eva Price. Titanique will dive back into the story of Jack and Rose until at least early November, with Drew Weston and Georgina Hopson stepping into Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon) and Kate Winslet's (The Regime) shoes as Jack and Rose — and Marney McQueen playing Dion. It was back in 2017 that the show premiered in Los Angeles, and in 2022 that it set a course for off-Broadway. It also has berths in Toronto, Montreal and London in its future. So far, the production has three Lucille Lortel Awards to its name, plus two Dorian Awards and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical, among other gongs. And as for the songs, co-writers Blue, Marla Mindelle (Sister Act) and Constantine Rousouli (Cruel Intentions) — with the latter two originally starring as Céline and Jack — have worked in everything from Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On', of course, to Where Does My Heart Beat Now' and 'A New Day Has Come'. Titanique plays The Grand Electric, 199 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills, Sydney from Thursday, September 12, 2024 — head to the show's website for tickets and further information. Images: NYC Off-Broadway cast, Daryl Roth Theatre, NYC, Evan Zimmerman.
Every March 17, Australia becomes a little greener. Pubs fill early, and even the most sunburnt beer gardens lean into a bit of Irish charm. St Patrick's Day might be Ireland's national day, but Australia likes to get in on the action, too. To celebrate this year's St Patrick's Day, in partnership with Irish whiskey brand Tullamore D.E.W., we asked a handful of Irish expats a simple question: what actually culturally connects these two nations year-round? Here's what they told us. Sport As A Cultural Pastime If there was one similarity among the expats, it was sport. Alex has only been living in Australia for three months, but can already see the cultural similarities between Ireland and Australia's beloved pastimes. "Sport is a huge identity in both places, with Ireland having Gaelic football and hurling, and Australia having AFL. Both take pride in our national sports and even combine for an International Rules game once in a blue moon, where the rules of Gaelic and Australian football are combined for a test match," says Alex. Ellie and Alannah, who've both been in Australia for three years, agree that sports, as well as drinking, and outdoor events like festivals, are equally popular in both countries on either side of the globe. Whether you're watching from the nosebleed seats at the MCG or catching a match in the pub, there's a good chance you'll rub shoulders with an Irish expat while enjoying your favourite game. Heading To The Pub [caption id="attachment_817241" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Mercantile Hotel[/caption] This insight probably won't come as a surprise. Another common similarity between the Irish and the Aussies is our love for the local pub. "Australian and Irish pub culture are very similar in a lot of ways, mainly because of Irish immigrants' influence on early Australian pubs," says Alex. But he adds the biggest difference is that Ireland's are smaller and cosier. "[They're] often referred to as 'old man pubs' and have more intimate atmospheres that focus on conversation." While both nationalities enjoy pub culture and a tipple with mates, the Irish expats made it known in our survey that the feel of pubs in Australia is definitely not the same as back home. "Irish pubs are local and traditional," says Alannah. "They stay open later and are probably more inviting because of the wet weather. It's a place to gather and meet people." Ellie agrees, saying, "Australian pubs are way bigger compared to a homely, cosy Irish pub." Despite the lack of "cosiness", Tara, who's been in Australia for seven years, says that Australia's beer gardens make up for it. "Aussie pubs close earlier, but there are lots of beer gardens here, which I love, and Ireland doesn't have." As Alex (succinctly) puts it, "In both countries, the pub is far more than a bar. It's a social hub where people come together to meet friends after work, watch sports, and listen to live music. This is especially strong in 'local pubs' where your local is more of a community, rather than a place to just drink." Slàinte to that. We Both Love Our Comfort Food [caption id="attachment_1010367" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cut Bar and Grill[/caption] When it comes to food, nostalgia turns up in the form of pastry. "I'd say Australia's wide range of meat pies gives a similar vibe to Irish comfort food," says Alex. "Grabbing an Aussie staple such as steak or cottage pie can weirdly feel like a cold winter's day back in Cork." Ellie and Alannah also agree that pie of any type reminds them of home, especially chicken and leek pies. Yum. Sunday roasts also loom large. When Tara was asked which Irish traditions she still holds onto, she didn't hesitate: "A Sunday roast weekly! And going to the Irish bars." The throughline is comfort food that's hearty, familiar, and best shared around a table. What's The Craic? According to the Irish expats, humour is a strong bonding mechanism between the two nations. "The Irish and Aussie sense of humour is our biggest similarity," says Alex. "The same sarcasm, self-deprecation, teasing as a sign of affection, and not taking oneself too seriously that you see in your local Aussie pubs is widespread across Ireland." Ellie agrees that our humour is quite similar, with a lot of sarcasm forming its foundation, though she adds, "Irish people, I would say, are more jokey and take themselves less seriously." Alannah sees both humours as "similar, with underlying sarcasm". "The Irish are more sarcastic and take things less seriously," says Alannah. Of course, nationalities are not monolithic, and Leah, who's spent over three years in Australia, believes Irish people are funnier. "Australians have dry humour," says Leah. Where opinions diverge, the importance of banter doesn't. As Alex says, "The banter and storytelling from both is why we historically get along so well." [caption id="attachment_1081442" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Whether you're newly arrived from Cork or born and bred in Carlton, Tullamore D.E.W. is inviting everyone to lean into that shared spirit. So, whether it's March 17 or not, gather your mates, pull on something green, and settle in at your local. If the expats are right, the formula is simple: good company, a bit of banter (or craic), and a glass raised to wherever you call home.[/caption] 18+. Drink responsibly.
Real keen to get your Sydney Festival on? If you buy in bulk, the festival folks will give you a bit of a discount. Just book three or more events at the same time, and they'll give you 10-15 per cent off the total price. Multipack discounts apply to all events, but have limited availability — so grab them while you can. For all the ins and outs, visit their website. Check out more of the best Sydney Festival events under $50 here.
What's huge, oval-shaped, usually confined to the realms of fiction, belongs to a creature that's played a key part in the biggest TV series of the past decade, and currently sitting in Melbourne this very instant? A dragon egg, of course. What can you mosey over to Federation Square to see for the next two days in all of its four-metre-tall glory? What's surrounded by dragon eyes and the flying, fire-breathing critters' silhouettes across buildings around the Victorian capital? That very egg — to the joy of wannabe Targaryens, naturally. Always felt like you belong in the Game of Thrones House with an affinity for scaly beasts? Keen to live out your George RR Martin fandom in any way you can? Need something to do before the Iron Throne visits Melbourne in September? Just so excited about GoT prequel House of the Dragon that you don't know how to cope until it starts airing on Monday, August 22?Here's your answer. If you live elsewhere in the country, though, you'll want to do one of two things: plan an impromptu trip this weekend, or get one of your mates to go along so you can live vicariously through their photos. Either way, the towering egg is only on display at Fed Square from 10am–7pm on Friday, August 19 and 8am–7pm on Saturday, August 20. And, as well as seeing it, taking snaps next to it and peering upwards to spy signs of dragons around Melbourne, you'll want to keep your ears pricked as well — there's a soundscape filled with the calls and noises of dragons echoing around the place, too. The reason for this ovoid pop-up? Promoting House of the Dragon, of course. The series is finally coming after years of speculation, development and announcements about various spinoffs are under consideration (including a Jon Snow-focused sequel) — and this egg is here to prove it. If you've somehow missed all the House of the Dragon news, the show is set 200 years before the events of GoT, and focuses on House Targaryen. Yes, that means that dragons are obviously part of the series — again, hence this giant egg. Also pivotal: a Succession-style battle over who should sit on the Iron Throne, because it wouldn't be a Game of Thrones prequel without it. Anyone in the vicinity of Fed Square can head over to see the egg for free, and get a taste of Australia's latest pop culture-themed installation — after a barber giving out The Gray Man-style goatees and moustaches also did the honours in Melbourne recently, and an Everything Everywhere All At Once-inspired multidimensional laundromat before that. Cinema Nova also decked itself out The French Dispatch-style last summer, while Sydney has seen the giant 'Red Light, Green Light' doll from Squid Game made an appearance by the harbour, and a Stranger Things rift open up on Bondi Beach. This isn't the dragon egg's first local stop, actually. It first arrived at Anglesea, on the beach, on Thursday, August 18 — which clearly would've made quite the sight. Then, it travelled along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne, ready for two days of GoT devotees in Fed Square. Check out the full House of the Dragon trailer below: Find the House of the Dragon dragon egg at Federation Square, the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets, Melbourne, from 10am–7pm on Friday, August 19 and 8am–7pm on Saturday, August 20. House of the Dragon will start airing on Monday, August 22 Down Under via Foxtel and Binge. Images: Aaron Walker Photography.
Diversity has always been at the heart of Brisbane's MELT Festival, which has celebrated all things LGBTQIA+ since 2015. The same concept sits at the core of Spencer Tunick's work as well. The acclaimed New York-based artist has spent his career staging mass photographs filled with both naked participants and an array of different bodies — and the results, including going to the Whitsundays with almost 100 Aussies in 2019 and briefly turning Bondi into a nude beach in 2022, are always stunning. Tunick initially turned his lens Australia's way in 2001 in Melbourne, when 4500 naked volunteers posed for a pic near Federation Square as part of the 2001 Fringe Festival. Since then, he's also photographed around 5000 nude people in front of the Sydney Opera House during the 2010 Mardi Gras, and returned to Victoria in 2018 shoot over 800 Melburnians in the rooftop carpark of a Prahran Woolworths. Next stop, and before spring 2023 is out: the Queensland capital during this year's Brisbane Powerhouse-run MELT. Brisbanites,or anyone who's keen to disrobe for a new piece of art will want to be in the River City on Saturday, November 18. The destination: numerous spots along the Brisbane River. And the work that's being created? It's fittingly called TIDE and will involve a series of photographic installations. "I love Australia and Australian people. Being able to create works in a new city in the context of an event celebrating LGBTQIA+ arts and culture is a real honour," said Tunick, announcing TIDE. "TIDE will hopefully speak to diverse groups of people, and everyone navigating their way through the difficult challenges of our current world. It is a privilege to be making art that centres around the LGBTQIA+ community with all its beauty and vibrance." Elsewhere, Tunick has photographed the public painted red and gold outside Munich's Bavarian State Opera, covered in veils in the Nevada desert and covered in blue in Hull in the UK. The list goes on, with more than 100 temporary installations on his resume since 1992. Exactly where in Brisbane he'll be training his camera hasn't been announced, but the Brisbane River's landscape will provide the backdrop. If you're keen to take part, Tunick is looking for volunteers. He hopes to have a diverse mix of bodies in the shoot — again, that's both MELT's and his own focus — with participants each getting a print of the photograph and, we're sure, a big boost of body confidence. Regarding the location, specific details of where the photographer's shoots take place are only given to folks who'll be in front of the lens — and, if you're not usually located in Brisbane, you will need to travel at your expense. The number of participants needed hasn't been announced as yet either, but interested parties are advised that there are only limited places — and that successful applicants will be informed via email approximately two weeks prior to the shoot. Also among the highlights on the 2023 MELT lineup from Saturday, November 11–Sunday, November 26: UK-born theatre show Overflow, which is set in nightclub toilets, and hails from British playwright and prominent trans voice Travis Alabanza; live tunes from Kah-Lo, Djanaba, Aluna and KUČKA; Rhys Nicholson on a book tour for Dish; and Paul Yore's BECOME WHAT YOU ARE, The Huxleys' Places of Worship and Multitudes by Tin Nguyen & Edward among the fest's art exhibitions. TIDE will be shot on Saturday, November 18 along the Brisbane River. Head to the installation's website to register to take part. Melt Festival 2023 runs from Saturday, November 11–Sunday, November 26 at Brisbane Powerhouse. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the fest's website now. Images: Spencer Tunick / Drew Lambert.
Australia is home to tens of thousands of species of wildflowers — many of which are grown exclusively in Australia — making it one of the biggest and most diverse collections in the world. While some bloom in seemingly endless fields of brilliant colour, others grow in hard-to-see spots, among trees and grasses. Most get started in early spring, but, in cool environments, like the Snowy Mountains, the real action doesn't kick off until summer. Here's your guide to some of the best places for wildflowers in Australia — from the alpine meadows of Kosciuszko National Park to the wattle-filled picnic areas of Warrandyte State Park, just outside Melbourne. [caption id="attachment_740494" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elinor Sheargold[/caption] NSW: KOSCIUSZKO NATIONAL PARK Once the snow has melted, Kosciuszko National Park transforms into a wonderland of wildflowers. Hundreds of species grow here, including 21 that are unique to the area. One of the nicest ways to see them — while conquering Australia's highest mountain — is along the Kosciuszko Walk, which travels for 13 kilometres from Thredbo to the summit of Mount Kosciuszko. If you're looking for an even more epic adventure, go for the Main Range Walk: a 22-kilometre loop that takes in several glacial lakes. Either way, you'll meet bright yellow billy buttons, pink everlasting daisies, yellow and purple eyebrights and alpine mint bush, among other delights. When to visit: December–January. [caption id="attachment_631474" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pam Goldie[/caption] NSW: MUOGAMARRA NATURE RESERVE Need a wildflower fix, but don't want to travel too far from the city? Make tracks to Muogamarra Nature Reserve, which lies an hour's drive north of Sydney, near the Hawkesbury River. More than 900 native species live here, from brilliant red waratahs and angophoras to pink boronias and native orchids. Plenty of animals enjoy the sights, too, so don't be surprised to come across echidnas, wedge-tailed eagles and lyrebirds. To deepen your knowledge, join a guided walk, be it the Aboriginal Heritage Walk, the Muogamarra Highlights Walk or the six-hour Peats Bight Walk. There's only one catch — Muogamarra is open just six weekends each year in August and September. When to visit: August–September. [caption id="attachment_740505" align="alignnone" width="1920"] John Spencer[/caption] NSW: TOORALE NATIONAL PARK If you're up for a road trip, make Toorale National Park your destination. You'll find it at the back of Bourke, around 11 hours' drive northwest of Sydney. Perched on the banks of Darling River, the park is made up of enormous floodplains and waterways, which create ideal conditions for flowers to bloom. See the most spectacular scenery on the Darling River Drive, a 41-kilometre loop that, in spring, passes through fields of teeny-tiny sunray daisies. After rainfall, you'll be surrounded by bluebells, native peas and pigweed. It's also an excellent route for stargazers and birdwatchers, especially those who like baby emus. You can camp by the water, too, at Yapara Paaka Thuru (Darling River Campground). When to visit: September–October. VIC: GREATER BENDIGO NATIONAL PARK Bendigo isn't only an excellent escape for culture vultures, it's also perfect for wildflower watchers. That's because the city is more or less encircled by national park. Begin your escapades at One Tree Hill Regional Park, with a three-kilometre hike to the summit. It's steep, but worth the visual rewards — expect to be immersed, not only in golden carpets of wattle, delicate wax flowers and an array of native orchids, but also by panoramic regional views. Another flowery spot nearby is Solomon Gully Nature Conservation Reserve, which is a 10-minute drive south of town. When to visit: September–December. [caption id="attachment_740501" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Julian Kingma for Visit Victoria[/caption] VIC: GRAMPIANS NATIONAL PARK A whopping one third of Victoria's wildflowers are in Grampians National Park. In fact, it was once described as the 'garden of Victoria' and, given that Victoria was once known as 'The Garden State', that's saying something. If you're visiting in early spring, head for Heatherlie Quarry, Mount Zero and Mount Stapylton — all in the Grampians' northern section. Also impressive is Wartook Valley, where acacia blooms from late August. Come spring, the best views are around Halls Gap, where the last weekend of September is dedicated to the Grampians Wildflower Show. When to visit: August–December. [caption id="attachment_703439" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nick Carson via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] VIC: WARRANDYTE STATE PARK Want wildflowers without any driving? You're in luck. Melbourne has its very own stash of blossoms in Warrandyte State Park, on the banks of the Yarra, 45 minutes' drive northeast of the CBD. It's the closest state park to the city. There's a diverse and colourful variety of flora to spot, from chocolate lilies (which are purple, not brown) and milkmaids to blue pincushions and pale sundews. Most bloom between September and December, though some, like ivy-leaf violets and common heath, last longer. In between looking down for flowers, look up for koalas. When to visit: September–December. [caption id="attachment_726968" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ben Nott for Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] QLD: GIRRAWEEN NATIONAL PARK The name's a giveaway. Girraween means 'place of flowers'. And they look even more dramatic here than in other spots — thanks to the massive granite boulders and outcrops, which create stunning backdrops. The show starts early, in late July, when thousands of wattle trees turn gold. But it's in spring that things really get going, with pea flowers bringing showers of red and purple, followed by native sarsaparilla, native bluebells and stacks of daisies, in a spectrum of colours. The cornucopia of blossoms is a magnet for flower-loving wildlife, including butterflies, crimson rosellas, wedge-tailed eagles and lyrebirds. Girraween National Park is three hours' drive southwest of Brisbane. When to visit: July–January. QLD: GURULMUNDI Not many people live in Gurulmundi, a locality in the Western Downs located five hours' drive northwest of Brisbane. So you won't be bumping elbows while photographing wildflowers. To help you make the most of the many blooms that grow here, there's a dedicated wildflower trail. Made for driving, this 100-kilometre loop officially begins in the nearby town of Miles and takes you off the beaten track, onto unsealed roads and into out-of-the-way places. Along the way, you'll cross the 5000-kilometre-long Dingo Barrier Fence: the longest fence in the world. Follow the wildflower signs for the most beautiful vistas. When to visit: September. QLD: BIRDSVILLE Birdsville might be best known for its legendary pub and spring races, but there are wildflowers, too. Lots and lots and lots of them. That's because the town is in the Diamantina River floodplains, which means fertile soil. The best time to visit is after spring rain, because it drives the seeds to sprout. And, given the terrain is so flat, the results aren't hard to see. Keep your eyes peeled on the road into Birdsville and, if you're exploring further, into Betoota and Bedourie, as well. Just some of the exotic flowers you're likely to see include poached egg daisies, the hairy darling pea, wild stock and desert nightshade. When to visit: After it rains. Top image: Wildflowers in the Grampians by Christine O'Connell; Barrington River by John Spencer; and Muogamarra by John Spencer.
The month of September is starting off with a bang — Sydney Fringe Festival's massive citywide takeover has kicked off with a 400-strong event program. Among this month-long celebration of all things arts and culture, the festivities will also be taking over the bustling precinct of Sydney Place. Strap yourselves in — there is a lot on. Kicking off on Friday, September 1, Sydney Place is transforming into a live gallery called the Art Walk, where it'll host works by the likes of world-renowned artist James Gulliver Hancock, Sydney-based illustrator Lauren Webster and First Nations artist David Cragg. You'll be met with two art vending machines, from which you'll be able to take home a piece of your own (and every purchase is donated to the Women and Girls Emergency Centre); Micke Lindebergh's huge staircase installation; and a big, intriguing red button labelled 'DO NOT PRESS' — opt to ignore the instruction and you'll discover an unexpected surprise. Plus, the fest will continue to push the envelope with a theatrical, AI-led bar — the Dream Bar — where you can generate a personally-curated drink from your dream input. There's also an colourful block party hitting the precinct on Saturday, September 9 — but it's for one night only. It'll boast roaming artists like Diesel Darling and Kerrie Stanley and a pop-up from the Poof Doof Pride Patrol truck. You can also expect live drag, and theatre and cabaret performances from the likes of Porcelain Alice, Vybe, Eli Crawford and Ivy Leaguee. You'll also be able to score special promotions from select vendors at the one-night block party — including 20-percent off ToastieSmith sandos, $5 pho and bánh mì from Eat Fuh, Dopa by Devon's $10 mini dons, $5 single scoops for C9 Chocolate & Gelato's first 50 customers and free tattoos by Thirteen Feet Tattoo for the first 30 people to hit up the parlour. Alongside the array of active installations, the festival's takeover is offering up exclusive food and drink happy hours — and there's no shortage of bites and sips to choose from. Bar Besuto will be doing $5 mini steak frites with every drink purchased, Open Sesame will serve up $5 falafel plates and the Bourke and Ward pop-up bar will boast $7 drink specials to round out the selection. These weekly specials, however, will only run on Thursdays from September 14 until September 28 from 4pm–6pm.
TIVA combines Sydney's love of luxurious bars and live music into a romantic venue underneath The Charles Grand Brasserie & Bar. Head down Wednesday through Saturday, and you're sure to find a band or a solo artist filling the room with jazz, soul, R&B or folk music until late. Plus, accompanying this roster of live entertainment is a daily program of DJs spinning tunes Monday through Saturday. The venue is reminiscent of many classic lounge bars, boasting subtle lighting, velvet booths and mirrored tables. A palette of navy and black tones pulls the room together, complimented by polished steel and marble finishes, giving it a luxe atmosphere. Once you've found your table or booth, your attention will turn to what you'll pair the night's playlist with. If you've come for a few drinks, there's plenty to choose from. "Tiva is a place you want to settle in to enjoy the music. High-end spirits, elegant cocktails, champagne, and table service with some understated theatre are the ultimate support act to the incredible entertainment planned," says Head of Bars Jonothan Carr (About Time, The Rover, Grandma's Bar). The espresso martini ($24) is elevated by the use of a high-end French press, the single malt whiskey and cognac old fashioned ($24) is served tableside in a decanter, and the Regal Margarita ($24) is complete with smoked paprika and roasted pineapple. As for food, Tiva takes queues from its upstairs sibling, The Charles Grand, serving up a French-inspired array of eats. Highlights include hashbrowns with roasted chicken cream ($10), a wagyu cheeseburger ($30) and crumbed Moreton Bay bug sandwiches ($20) — as well as caviar service ($140), of course. Pulling together champagne, impressive cocktails and French bar snacks with top-notch live music, Tiva is coming to Sydney's most romantic venues list. Head to the bar's website to see the list of performances it has coming up. Appears in: Sydney's Best Underground Bars for 2023
Australia has more festivals per capita than anywhere else in the world. That makes us spoiled for choice and overwhelmed by indecision. It also makes a list of the best festival experiences spectacularly difficult to compile. But here is Concrete Playground's shortlist of Sydney's ten best festivals to help you get the best out of the forthcoming warmer seasons. Watch this space – we'll be updating it as line-ups are announced and dates are set in stone. In the meantime, get ready to dance kids, because summer's coming. 1. St. Jerome's Laneway FestivalThe Laneway Festival was a massive revelation when it came to Sydney in 2006. After beginning life as a teeny tiny festival in Melbourne, Laneway has grown and now travels all over Australia as well as New Zealand and Singapore. And the heart of Laneway's success lies in their ability to present a line-up of consistently amazing, impeccably curated acts in some truly beautiful locations. In 2010 the Sydney event moved to the beautiful, albeit slender, site of the Sydney College of the Arts at Rozelle, which becomes pretty magic once the skies begin to darken and the lights refract upon the sandstone. It's generally a pretty sweaty affair, what with being held in the middle of February, but the crowd is always relaxed, and while there'll generally be an ironic hipster beard bristling against you in the crowd everybody is having way too much fun to mind. The acts over the past two years – Florence & The Machine, The xx, Echo & The Bunnymen, Beach House, Deerhunter – have been some of the best at any festival in the country, and 2012 has presented the kind of lineup that strikes you with awed stuttering: Feist, Laura Marling, Austra, Cults, M83, The Horrors, Toro Y Moi, and on it goes. It's a hundred different kinds of amazing. Where: Sydney College of the Arts, Rozelle When: 5th February, 2012. Web: sydney.lanewayfestival.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=r-hMISLG8nY 2. Sydney FestivalI remember having read some very scathing things said about the Sydney Festival in a Melbourne newspaper a couple of year ago. They seemed to be insinuating in a not-so-subtle manner that Sydney was making a futile attempt to encroach on their territory as Australia's arts capital. But they were right to be afraid. The reinvigorated Sydney Festival has completely transformed our city in summer (note the flagpoles which every year proclaim just that) and it's made Sydney a truly amazing place to be in January. The whole city is turned into a summer wonderland, there's something amazing to do every single night, and people flood The Domain to see sophisticated performances while merrily sipping beer, cider, goon or all three. But mostly what the Sydney Festival does is bring us some truly spectacular performers – Sufjan Stevens, Grizzly Bear, Emmylou Harris, Camera Obscura and this year's headliner, PJ Harvey, who is perhaps my favourite musician of all time. The Sydney Festival now has a total audience of about 1 million, making it the most attended cultural event in Australia. Every year the festival grows and improves, and with the state government recently giving the Festival a heap of cash to extend their program, it makes the prospects for this summer's partying very exciting indeed. Where: Numerous venues around Sydney When: January 8th - 30th, 2012 Web: sydneyfestival.org.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=NyEWTinjDQ0 3. Playground WeekenderThere are many things that are exciting about Playground Weekender, but here are my two favourites: one, you can sleep in a tepee, surrounded by other tepees; and two, you get there on a ferry. An hour and a half out of Sydney, on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, this is one of those festivals where you can let loose the kid inside of you. Spread over three days, Playground Weekender features a good mix of international and local acts – 2011 featured Kool & The Gang, Cut Copy and Caribou – but selected in such a way that you won't find yourself running frantically from one stage to the next in what's always a failed juggling act. Falling at the end of February when even the most enthusiastic festival punters are over the sweaty drunken crowds, Playground Weekender bills itself as a chilled alternative to ease you out of the festival season. Which is not to say there's no crazy, glitter-bodypaint-induced fun – Playground Weekender also features Australia's largest fancy dress party, as well as a swimming pool, cocktail bar, cabaret act and market stalls. All beside a river, with a whole lot of excellent music. Where: Del Rio Campgrounds, Wisemans Ferry When: 1st-4th March, 2012. Web: playgroundweekender.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ExV8ABNNU 4. Peats Ridge FestivalPeats Ridge is the New Year's party to attend if you, like many of us, abhor December 31st in Sydney spent desperately trying to find a spot which at once allows you to see some fireworks and not get vomited upon. Peats Ridge is an hour north of Sydney, a leisurely drive up the road if you will, surrounded by bushland and rivers. While the line up is always good – this coming festival's headliners include Gotye, Stanton Warriors and the Dum Dum Girls - it's also more than just music, with artists and performance events popping up all around you. But the best thing of all is the Fancy Dress Masquerade Ball they throw on New Year's Eve, which promises a party of Dionysian proportions. Peat's Ridge is certainly not the biggest live-in camping festivals in the country – it's half the line up of Falls, half the terrain of Woodford and half the distance from Pyramid – but it easily competes as one of the best New Year's options in the country and, for all intents and purposes, one of the best camping festivals as well. Where: Glenworth Valley, Peats Ridge (about an hour north of Sydney) When: 29th December 2011 - 1st January, 2012 Web: peatsridgefestival.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=IRcUfuxel9Y 5. VividVivid does many things – 'lights, music and ideas' is its rather broad tagline – but if you know only one thing about it, it's that it turns the Opera House into a delightful psychedelic canvas which can entrance you for hours. Vivid is just about the only winter festival we've got, and while still young at three years old, it's made itself a permanent fixture on the Sydney calendar. Each year's festival program follows the whims and fancies of a specially chosen curator – in 2010 it was Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, and in 2011 it was Modular Records founder, Steven Pavlovic. Each curator brings a different vision to the event, so sometimes you're greeted with unexpected surprises: I have distinct memories from 2010 of chanting monks and blind men in suits. 2011 saw a series of parties held at the Opera House, as well as performances from Architecture In Helsinki, Bat For Lashes, OFWGKTA and two nights of The Cure playing three of their most influential albums in their entirety, tickets for which sold out in five minutes or something equally absurd. Like Sydney Festival, Vivid is the kind of festival which immerses the entire city for weeks at a time, and we're very glad to have it. Where: Various venues in the city When: May - June 2012. Exacts dates to be announced. Web: vividsydney.com https://youtube.com/watch?v=14e1507YOLs 6. Changing LanesChanging Lanes, the brainchild of FBi Radio, turns two this year, so in the scheme of things it's really just a baby. But babies are awesome, and this one's growing fast. Presenting local Sydney music, DJs, fashion, art and food, Changing Lanes is a festival which is uniquely focused on the city. It happens in the streets and the laneways, trading in the grass fields maliciously prickling with bindis for the sprawling concrete of inner Sydney. In 2010 Changing Lanes flooded the backstreets of Newtown with a line-up of emerging Sydney-based creatives, but due to some problems with Marrickville Council this year's Changing Lanes has been duly relocated to the heart of Surry Hills. Changing Lanes is one of the most affordable festivals that Sydney has to offer and also probably the only one which is uniquely concerned with supporting emerging local talent, and because it's all in the name of raising money for FBi you can happily construe a giddy afternoon of dancing and getting drunk on Devonshire Street as an act of benevolent altruism. Where: Around Devonshire St, Surry Hills When: September 17, 2011 Web: changinglanesfestival.com https://youtube.com/watch?v=G1E9intPdz8 7. Harvest FestivalSo, let's be honest – we don't know a lot about Harvest Festival yet, but, oh my god, it sounds freakin' amazing. This is Harvest's first year, and it's designed to be the definitive music-lovers festival. Its plan is to essentially take your typical three day festival, cut out the filler, leave the best bits and pack it into one day. For their first line-up they've really managed to set the benchmark, by not only gathering together bands such as The National, The Flaming Lips, TV On The Radio, Bright Eyes and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, but convincing Portishead to return to Australia for the first time in fourteen years. They're also limiting capacity and duly excluding children, because let's face it, kids at music festivals can be awkward. Playing out in the greenery of Parramatta Park, they also promise ambient lighting and visual effects, art installations, cocktail bars, and neo-cabaret stars, which are my favourite kind of cabaret stars. If Harvest knows what they're doing, they look like they could pose a serious challenge to Laneway, but either way, we're very pleased to welcome them to the fold. Where: Parramatta Park, Parramatta When: November 13, 2011 Web: harvestfestival.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=CYlQxftpc7M 8. Secret GardenThe Secret Garden is a small, boutique festival, modelled on the kind of tiny countryside festivals you find in the UK. Secret Garden are hoping to inspire the same kind of deal in Australia. By spreading the word through Chinese whispers, they're hoping to maintain a small and familial vibe, so that if you don't know the person standing next to you, the chances are that your friend will. More importantly, all profits are donated to the Sarah Hilt foundation to raise money for sufferers of Meningococcal disease. Gathering together a good selection of local music, dance and performance, it brands itself as being magical, mysterious and enigmatic. But last year it was on a farm in Camden, which when you say it sounds less mysterious. More than anything else though, Secret Garden is a weekend-long party, with free alcohol, trippy art installations and people in fancy dress (many of whom you can see in a video from the Concrete Playground Photobooth at Secret Garden below). It's the kind of festival that gives you the chance to sleep in a tepee and cavort amongst trees decorated to give you the impression you may or may not be on acid. It's kind of like Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland rolled into one ephemeral weekend. Where: A private property in Camden When: March 2012. Exact dates to be announced. Web: secretgardenfestival.com.au 9. ParklifeParklife is pretty much Sydney's definitive indie-electro festival. You have your music, mud, the hint of illicit substances in the air, shirtless gentlemen in fluoro shorts, and Kate Moss impersonators circa Glastonbury 2005. Parklife started out in 2000, all with the aim of sharing music in outdoor greenery close to the centre of the city. While it has grown exponentially since then, it has stayed true to its purpose, and resides at the beautiful Kippax Lake as a part of the Centennial Parklands. Last year's line-up featured Missy Elliott, The Wombats, and Kele of Bloc Party fame, while this year brings us The Gossip, Santigold and Lykke Li. Parklife has become one of Sydney's biggest festivals, and tends to be pretty heavily monitored by police and sniffer dogs, which along with all the semi-naked chaps can seem a little off-putting at times. But with generally stellar line-ups and a crowd that only wants to dance, Parklife still maintains its status as one of the city's best festivals. But be warned – it seems to rain nearly every year at Parklife: channel Paddington Bear and invest in some gumboots. Where: Kippax Lake, Centennial Park When: October 2, 2011 Web: parklife.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=ODuppszMX_s 10. Good VibrationsGood Vibrations is the touring live music event owned by the mega-wealthy (but currently embroiled in controversy) Justin Hemmes. Launched in 2004, Good Vibes has been setting feet a-dancing for many years now, focusing on quality electro and hip hop acts. Past headliners have included James Brown, Kanye West, Deadmau5, Busta Rhymes and Phoenix. It is also another festival which has a reputation for being wet – in the form of both rain and sweat, and which also has a pretty strong police presence. Last festival was a little wounded by last-minute cancellations from Janelle Monae and Cee-Lo Green, and so it's been decided to move Good Vibrations from its usual February time slot to one in December, when people are not even beginning to think about de-toxing and are just gearing up for the summer. Where: Centennial Park, Sydney When: December 2012. Exact dates to be announced next year. Web: gvf.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=hBUmHYbjZb0
Despite their appearance as a fairly humble food item, sandwiches are, in fact, highly contentious. Twitter battles have erupted over whether they should be cut diagonally or straight down the middle (diagonally, of course). Physical fights occurred during 2019's 'chicken sandwich war'. And sambo fans are known to regularly line up for hours to try Katz's Delicatessen's legendary pastrami sandwich in New York City. With that in mind, we've taken the following task very seriously. To help ensure your midweek lunch is significantly more impressive than that sad dask salad you're contemplating for the third day in a row, we've scoured the city to find the tastiest things between two slices of bread. Together with American Express, we've rounded up six OTT sandwiches, from a sky-high chilli chicken sambo to a roll filled with gravy and golden-roasted pork belly.
Three Blue Ducks long ago found itself a third nest to call home. Adding to its eateries in Bronte (that is now sadly closed) and Byron Bay, the team opened within the heritage-listed Koskela warehouse in Rosebery back in 2016, formerly known to locals as the beloved Kitchen by Mike. Since then, it has become a Sydney institution and a mainstay of the Sydney culinary scene. If you've not been before, then prepare to be blown away by the grandeur of the venue. There's a front deck, two dining spaces and a courtyard, and they're all fitted out with an industrial chic design you can't help but love — even though it's all been done before. With its exposed bricks, beams and ceiling insulation, garage roller doors and concrete floors, it feels like you're walking into a very fancy garden shed. This is all well and good — but much like your ordinary backyard shed, it's quite cold and draughty in the evening, which, while it's still chilly at night, takes away from the relaxed vibe it's going for. Aesthetically, yellow tints dancing beneath huge woven basket light shades help warm the enormous space — but if you're one to feel the cold, we recommend you request to sit next to one of the few gas heaters they've got fired up. [caption id="attachment_834387" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Three Blue Ducks, Rosebery[/caption] The heating situation might not be quite worked out (Kitchen by Mike never figured it out either), but the dinner menu is a different story. You're in good hands with chefs and co-owners Darren Robertson, Mark LaBrooy and MasterChef 2012 winner and judge Andy Allen looking after things in the kitchen. There's a real focus on seasonal produce and sustainability, while its smoke and fire theme — fuelled by its woodfired oven, charcoal pits and Argentinian grill out in the garden — is represented throughout each course. But even if you're not in the mood for rich, smoky flavours, there are plenty of other dishes that'll impress. Keep it light and simple with some fresh-as-they-come oysters with ginger and shallots and perhaps yellowfin tuna with tostada, lime, cucumber and pickled ginger. Of the small share plates, the Schezuan pepper and salt squid with roast chilli and lime is a must-order. Wash it down with a schooner of Young Henry's Newtowner pale ale or a Welder Dog's 'Farmhouse' ginger beer if you're after something sweeter. If you're really hungry, we recommend tucking into a few extra starters because a potential 45-minute wait between entree and main course is a long time to ponder on your hunger pangs. Luckily, top tunes play in the background, which makes the wait for your slow-cooked lamb shoulder with pickled red cabbage and charred herb salsa an enjoyable one. A side of crispy potatoes with confit butter and rosemary salt completes the meal in style. Finish with one of the cocktails, like a spicy margarita, and there you have a mighty fine dining experience. Images: Monica Buscarino. Appears in: Where to Find the Best Breakfast in Sydney
In January 2025, Daniel Sorridimi (Cronulla and Bondi's Blackwood) and Joel Bennetts (ex-Fish Shop, Peppe's) unveiled Sana Mediterranean in South Eveleigh. Now, the mates and business partners have bookended their year a second outpost, bringing their 'fine fast dining' concept to Sydney's CBD. Set in the Wintergarden food precinct on O'Connell Street, the new Sana dishes up the hearty bowls, rolls and build-your-own protein plates that have become a staple in the inner south. Flavours from across the Med anchor the offer — the signature Sana bowl, for example, combines lamb mince, pickled zucchini noodles and spiced almonds, while the chicken mayo roll is lifted with pink turnips and Calabrian chilli oil. Most ingredients are prepared in-house by Bennetts, and nothing on the menu tops $19. For the city crowd, the team has added a compact breakfast menu with three new toast options (sourdough or gluten-free), all priced under $10 — like an avo, herb labneh, pickled onion and za'atar option — along with loaded, meat-free bowls featuring ingredients like broccoli rice, mushroom ragu and cavolo nero. Drinks include sugar-free, zero-cal house-made sodas in flavours like blackcurrant and strawberry-vanilla, cold-pressed juices and a ceremonial-grade matcha on tap. And if caffeine's your thing, a $15-per-week subscription gets you bottomless access to the self-serve coffee station, pouring both hot and cold brews.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas across the country. After months spent empty, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, Australian picture palaces are back in business — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, comedies, music documentaries, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0UbkJD2KDY FRENCH EXIT "My plan was to die before the money ran out, but I kept and keep not dying — and here I am." When asked about her strategy as she faces financial ruin, that's Manhattan socialite Frances Price's (Michelle Pfeiffer, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) frank response. Her fortune has dwindled, the banks are about to repossess everything she owns and she doesn't know what her now-precarious future holds; however, she's most annoyed about having to answer her financial advisor's exasperated questions. Conveying Frances' reply with little else but spikiness otherwise, Pfeiffer turns this early French Exit scene into a deadpan masterclass. The character's candour, irritation and sharp edges are all personality traits, rather than specific reactions to her current predicament, and Pfeiffer makes it clear that she'd still be spitting out acerbic retorts with the same poker face if Frances had been queried about absolutely anything else. She frequently does just that afterwards, in fact, and she's a caustic delight in this wry exploration of a familiar topic: weathering life's many disappointments. Widowed for a decade, and happy to keep cultivating an eccentric reputation as the years go on, Frances hasn't dedicated even a second to tangibly preparing for her present lack of funds. That said, she soon has another plan. Surreptitiously selling off her belongings as her accountant advises — and viciously haggling over commission rates in the process — she rustles up what cash she can and absconds to Paris, where a friend's empty apartment awaits rent-free. There, she reverts to her old approach. Once her remaining money has been frittered away on wine, coffee, and oversized tips to anyone and everyone, she doesn't see the point of going on. But her dysfunctionally codependent relationship with her twentysomething son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges, Waves), his on-and-off romance with his secret fiancée Susan (Imogen Poots, Black Christmas), and a new friendship with the lonely and besotted Madame Reynard (Valerie Mahaffey, Dead to Me) all add unexpected chaos to Frances' scheme, as does a cruise ship fortune teller (Danielle Macdonald, Unbelievable) and a runaway cat who just might be her reincarnated husband. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP2MlPwflX4 SAINT MAUD If humanity ever managed to cure or circumvent death — or even just stop being despairingly afraid of our own mortality — the horror genre would immediately feel the difference. Lives are frequently in peril in films that are meant to spook and frighten. Fears of dying underscore everything from serial killer thrillers and body horror flicks to stories of zombies, ghosts and vampires, too. Indeed, if a scary movie isn't pondering the fact that our days are inescapably finite, it's often contemplating our easily damaged and destroyed anatomy. Or, it's recognising that our species' darkest urges can bring about brutal and fatal repercussions, or noting that the desperation to avoid our expiration dates can even spark our demise. Accordingly, Saint Maud's obsession with death isn't a rarity in an ever-growing genre that routinely serves it up, muses on it and makes audiences do the same whether they always realise it or not. In an immensely crowded realm, this striking, instantly unsettling feature debut by British writer/director Rose Glass definitely stands out, though. Bumps, jumps, shocks and scares come in all manner of shapes and sizes, as do worries and anxieties about the end that awaits us all. In Saint Maud, they're a matter of faith. The eponymous in-home nurse (Dracula and His Dark Materials' Morfydd Clark) has it. She has enough to share, actually, which she's keen to do daily. Maud is devoted to three things: Christianity, helping those in her care physically and saving them spiritually. Alas, her latest cancer-stricken patient doesn't hold the same convictions, or appreciate them. Amanda (Jennifer Ehle, Vox Lux) isn't fond of Maud's fixation on her salvation or her strict judgements about her lifestyle. She knows her time is waning, her body is failing and that she needs Maud's help, but the celebrated ex-dancer and choreographer does not want to go gently or faithfully in that good night. Instead, she'd much prefer the solace that sex and alcohol brings over her palliative care nurse's intensely devout zeal. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=794vlC_wKJQ WHITE RIOT In 2020, as the world faced a crisis unlike any other in living memory, Gal Gadot led a bunch of fellow celebrities in an Instagram sing-along to John Lennon's 'Imagine'. The aim: to inspire a planet full of people grappling with suddenly living under lockdown. As no one could avoid (especially when we all had so little else to do and spent so much time glued to the news), the result was actually awkward and cringe-inducing. Perhaps punk rockers should've been trying to lift our spirits instead. Or, they could've used their talents and instruments to draw attention to a plethora of worthy causes — as Rock Against Racism did in the mid-to-late 70s. When right-wing views began to spread across Britain, a group of music lovers including Red Saunders, Roger Huddle, Jo Wreford and Pete Bruno decided to take action, waging a campaign to battle prejudice and discrimination. They didn't just choose to fight back via their favourite art form as an excuse to host gigs, though. From Eric Clapton to Rod Stewart, many of the country's music megastars of the era had all offered support to extremist views, and publicly. So, corralling a lineup of bands to help counter anti-immigration rhetoric became RAR's number one task, with the aim of bringing music fans together and discouraging them from adopting racist attitudes. Combining contemporary interviews, archival chats, a lively soundtrack, and a wealth of footage and photographs of its efforts in action nearly half a century ago, documentary White Riot chronicles RAR from its formation through to its 100,000-attendee 1978 national carnival — where The Clash, Tom Robinson Band, X-Ray Spex and Steel Pulse all played. Despite the movement's name, everything from reggae and soul to jazz and funk was also welcome. Britain's music lovers responded in a big way, travelling across the country to attend its gatherings and show their support for RAR's inclusive anti-hate message. Fluidly directed by first-time feature helmer Rubika Shah, White Riot steps through the grim reality of life in Britain at the time, to provide context to RAR's emphatic response. The film shows the abhorrent viewpoints uttered by politicians and their proponents, and the way in which Nazi imagery was worked into the far-right National Front party. Dense with detail, it also demonstrates how standing up to fascism was an almost-revolutionary act. If the footage had allowed it, Shah and co-writer Ed Gibbs could've made an entire docuseries about RAR and would've kept viewers glued to every second. In just 80 minutes, however, White Riot delivers a vital history lesson on a crucial piece of activism — as well as a reminder that inflammatory rhetoric always demands a response. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQaIf-Erj94 CRISIS Crisis examines America's opioid epidemic by piecing together three individual, occasionally overlapping tales. It also hits cinemas two decades to the month that the film it strongly resembles took home four Oscars. At the turn of the 21st century, Steven Soderbergh's Traffic focused on illegal narcotics rather than prescription pills, but the similarities between it and this pensive thriller from Arbitrage director Nicholas Jarecki are both striking and inescapable. Here, undercover DEA agent Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer, Rebecca) has been working to bring down a fentanyl smuggling operation. His sister Emmie (Lily-Rose Depp, The King) is an addict, so yes, it's personal. Also struggling is architect Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly, Avengers: Endgame), who has been hooked on oxycodone since an accident, attends support meetings but finds herself tested when her teenage son goes missing. Then there's Dr Tyrone Brower (Gary Oldman, Mank), a university professor who funds his research by testing new products for pharmaceutical companies. After his colleagues let his lab's trial of a new, supposedly non-addictive painkiller run a few days longer than asked, they discover that it can be fatal in mice — which company employee Dr Bill Simons (Luke Evans, Angel of Mine) is eager to keep quiet. Michelle Rodriguez (She Dies Tomorrow) also plays Jake's boss, Greg Kinnear (Misbehaviour) gives Tyrone a hard time as his disapproving college dean and Kid Cudi (Bill & Ted Face the Music) pops up an FDA employee on the latter's side — with Crisis lacking in neither stars nor good intentions. Writer/director Jarecki can't shake the familiar feeling that lingers throughout the film, though. Viewers have seen everything peddled here before, and with far more surprises and subtlety. If you've paid any attention to news headlines over the past few decades, you'll already know how insidious opioid use has become, and how ruthless and destructive the industry behind it is, too. Still, as well as evoking a been-there, seen-that sensation, Crisis often hits its emotional marks. A movie can connect easy-to-spot dots, hit obvious points vehemently and repetitively, and follow a predictable narrative — or narratives, in this case — and still offer up stirring moments and engaging performances. No one will be mentioning Crisis in another 20 years if another crime-thriller attempts to follow in Traffic's footsteps, but as 2021's take on the topic, it's watchable albeit unshakeably generic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hfUomtqljs THE GRIZZLIES When newly graduated teacher Russ Shepherd (Ben Schnetzer, Saint Judy) is sent to Kugluktuk, in the frosty Nunavut in Canada's north, he has two self-serving aims. By working in a remote area as part of a program that rewards anyone willing to take such postings, he's able to to pay back his school tuition fees. He's also hoping to use his time to secure a permanent spot at a prestigious private school down south. But Russ is still unsettled when he realises how few of his students are eager to engage in his lessons. Principal Janace (Tantoo Cardinal, Stumptown) doesn't enforce attendance, in fact, knowing that the school's pupils have chores to complete at home, families to provide for and traditional ways to uphold. She doesn't like to push the teens out of their comfort zones either, with the town's youth suicide rate the highest in North America, and dealing with intergenerational trauma also part of life in the community. Already a lacrosse devotee, Russ decides to try to start a school club to get his students motivated — a task he's instantly told will fail. But while the popular Zach (Paul Nutarariaq, Iqaluit) is initially apprehensive, as is hunter Adam (feature first-timer Ricky Marty-Pahtaykan) and the reserved Kyle (Booboo Stewart, Let Him Go), their involvement in the sport has an impact. Directed by feature debutant Miranda de Pencier, and scripted by Moira Walley-Beckett (Anne with an E) and Graham Yost (Justified), The Grizzlies draws upon the the true story of the team that gives the film its name. While steeped in reality, it also leans heavily upon the inspirational sports underdog playbook — but this rousing movie is never weighed down by its tropes or predictability. Strong, complicated performances from Nutarariaq, Marty-Pahtaykanv, Stewart and Emerald MacDonald, who plays the school's most conscientious student, all help immensely. Their characters wade through familiar beats, but they're never one-note. Indeed, The Grizzlies doesn't shy away from complexity on multiple levels, including in depicting the lack of hope blighting Kugluktuk's teenagers, as well as the path their lacrosse journey takes. And, while the role of Russ could've played into white saviour cliches, the film stresses his naiveté, his mistakes and the fact that he has as much to learn, if not more, from his students and the broader community. Icily scenic cinematography that roves over the area's arresting but harsh terrain, and a sensitive yet never mawkish approach also add texture to feature that earns its heart, spirit and warmth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c85aXHth_uQ&feature=youtu.be UNSOUND In Unsound, Finn (feature first-timer Yiana Pandelis) and Noah (Reece Noi, When They See Us) meet by chance. When the latter wanders into the club for Sydneysiders with hearing impairments that the former runs in the city's northern beaches, a connection springs, although both enter the relationship with other things on their mind. Attendance at the neighbourhood centre has been waning, and the locals complain about Finn's weekly dance parties. Tucking his long hair up under a cap while he stands behind the DJ decks by night and helps children learn Auslan by day, Finn is also slowly taking steps to cement his identity as a transgender man. As for the British-accented Noah, he's just arrived in Australia after touring the UK with his pop singer mentor Moniqua (Christine Anu), and his mother Angela (Paula Duncan, Neighbours) has hardly given him a warm welcome. So, Unsound follows Finn and Noah's romance, but that's just one of the things the film is interested in. While both lead characters receive ample screen time, Finn's experiences as a person who is deaf and with his transition are frequently thrust to the fore. That's a welcome move — not because Noah's efforts to step out of his absent father's shadow, take his career seriously and cope with his often-dismissive mum don't deserve attention, but because inclusive movies about trans men and people who are hearing impaired are rarely this thoughtful (and rarely exist at all, really). Directed by TV veteran Ian Watson (Heartbreak High, Home and Away) and penned by Ally Burnham (Nice Package), Unsound might bring both 52 Tuesdays and Sound of Metal to mind, which are excellent movies to even remotely resemble; however, this small feature with big ambitions and a heartfelt impact is always its own film. Absent touristy Sydney shots that constantly remind you where it's set, and favouring a low-key, lived-in aesthetic instead, it dedicates its running time to plunging into Finn's life and portraying it authentically, a task that it doesn't lose sight of even for a minute. The texture and detail in Burnham's script, especially in fleshing out the movie's characters, isn't just admirable but essential. It's little wonder, then, that Pandelis always makes Finn feel as if he could walk off the screen — although the performer also deserves ample credit. Noi also more than does his part justice, in a well-cast film all-round (see also: scene-stealer Olivia Beasley as one of Finn's colleagues, and a grounded turn from The Boy From Oz star Todd McKenney as Finn's father). And, the use of sound to convey the joy that Finn and his friends feel at their Saturday night dance parties is one of the picture's many astutely calibrated touches. Unsound opened in Sydney and Brisbane cinemas on March 18, after screening in Melbourne from February 11. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on January 1, January 7, January 14, January 21 and January 28; February 4, February 11, February 18 and February 25; and March 4. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Nomadland, Pieces of a Woman, The Dry, Promising Young Woman, Summerland, Ammonite, The Dig, The White Tiger, Only the Animals, Malcolm & Marie, News of the World, High Ground, Earwig and the Witch, The Nest, Assassins, Synchronic, Another Round, Minari, Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra, The Truffle Hunters, The Little Things, Chaos Walking, Raya and the Last Dragon, Max Richter's Sleep, Judas and the Black Messiah and Girls Can't Surf.
The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is over. Sadly, the Matildas didn't win. But the Sam Kerr-led squad just kept making history, including scoring Australia's best-ever placing by coming in fourth and notching up the country's most-watched TV event since 2001 — and likely ever. Those are all phenomenal feats. They're statue-worthy achievements. Also, they're the kind of accomplishments that've deservedly had the whole nation talking. And, in great news for fans of the world game, captain Kerr isn't done inspiring everyone yet. No one will ever forget the champion striker's stunning goal against England. No one will ever forget the entire Australian national women's soccer team's efforts throughout the whole competition. And, plenty of Aussies now want to be just like Kerr, Mackenzie Arnold, Caitlin Foord, Katrina Gorry, Steph Catley, Hayley Raso and their fellow footballers. Enter Kerr's own football school for kids. First, the key point for all Kerr-adoring adults: this football academy is only for children, both girls and boys, aged 3–14. Of course, seeing an Australian sporting champion helping to bring about the next generation of football heroes is truly excellent. Every kid is probably trying to recreate that spectacular goal now anyway — and now they can learn how to at Kerr's own academy. If Kerr did decide to lend her name to a version for women, it'd be huge. Who wouldn't sign up? Unsurprisingly, the replies to the Matildas and Chelsea star's Instagram post announcing the venture are filled with adults wanting their own Kerr academy. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sam Kerr (@samanthakerr20) "Sam Kerr Football will provide players with a world-class program to be delivered by high-quality coaches, all with a focus on ensuring that young players fall in love with football the same way I have," said Kerr in a video announcing the school. Participants will not only level up their soccer skills, using training plans and sessions that've been whipped up by top Aussie soccer experts, but will take part in a holistic initiative that also covers health and wellbeing. Developing self-awareness, learning to overcome adversity, regulating emotions and understanding the importance of mindset will all be covered, as well as nutrition, rest and recovery, and injury management. There'll also be digital and media training — age-appropriate, of course — including preparing players for the kind of off-field press attention that Kerr has become used to. [caption id="attachment_913581" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LittleBlinky via Wikimedia Commons.[/caption] The program will launch for enrolments in 2023, with a 2024 start date. Exactly where it will operate is yet to be announced, but there'll be multiple sites. Right now, the academy is open for expressions of interest for players — and for coaches, partners and franchises, with the latter meaning that you can own your own Sam Kerr Football School. If you have or know a child that'd love to be involved, the academy will do free trial sessions — one lesson only — and charge a fee after that. Kids will also need to don a Sam Kerr uniform, which might be the easiest uniform to get them to wear. Training days are yet to be finalised, and will vary per school, but some centres will offer holiday programs. [caption id="attachment_913019" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LittleBlinky via Wikimedia Commons.[/caption] And if your child wants to meet Kerr — don't we all? — the school advises that "Sam's expertise and oversight is an integral part of Sam Kerr Football; however, as a star athlete, opportunities for her to meet young players are limited". "There may be some events and opportunities through your child's journey with Sam Kerr Football where Sam will be available to participate. Details of these occasions will be shared as they are known." Sam Kerr Football will open for enrolments later in 2023, and launch in 2024. To register your interest or for more information, head to the Sam Kerr Football website.
Receiving three million hits per month, San Francisco-based Indie Shuffle is one of the music blogsphere's biggest movers and shakers. They're not about delivering harsh reviews or shaping Gen Y's tastes. They're mainly concerned with sharing new music and supporting upcoming acts: in their own words, "hopefully a few of us can help you find something new". Hence, Indie Shuffle Presents, a night of independent Aussie music, organised by the blog's Sydney-based cohort. The first event in this series, held in November 2012, featured local pop groups, including Made in Japan and Palms; the second is to be an electro fest. Melbourne's Rat and Co. are bringing their "homemade ambient beats" to the headline spot, fresh from the launch of their debut film clip. Support acts include Kilter, Lanterns and The Gate DJs. https://youtube.com/watch?v=D42NQXKmc3M
"The bear, it fucking did cocaine. A bear did cocaine!" That's it, that's Cocaine Bear. This based-on-a-true-story caper's title really does say it all, and those understandably concerned words in the trailer sum it up perfectly, too. Meet one of 2023's instant must-sees, complete with a ridiculously entertaining sneak peek that utterly perfects the mood a bear doing cocaine deserves. "Apex predator. High on cocaine. Out of its mind." There's another way to sum up this 80s-set flick, which does indeed follow the chaos that ensues when an American black bear unwittingly ingests a hefty package of cocaine in a Georgia forest. Everyone's exclaiming things in response, really — adults, kids, cops and drug dealers in the trailer, and you while you're watching. "It kind of seems like a thing that stays with a man forever," the sneak peek tells us. It's not wrong. Cocaine Bear marks the third feature stint behind the lens by Call Jane actor Elizabeth Banks, after previously directing Pitch Perfect 2 and Charlie's Angels. And yes, the story behind it very much happened back in 1985, after a drug-running plane crashed. Forget Yogi Bear and his penchant for picnic baskets — this growling 500-pound critter is doing blow, then seeking blood. Among those screaming on-screen about a bear doing coke: a stacked cast featuring Keri Russell (Antlers), O'Shea Jackson Jr (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Margo Martindale (The Watcher), and also including Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family), Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project) and Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones). Cocaine Bear also marks one of the last films starring the late, great Ray Liotta (The Many Saints of Newark) — and if there's ever been a time for Isiah Whitlock Jr (Da 5 Bloods) to bust out one of his famous "sheeeeeeeit"s, this is it. Cinemagoers Down Under can see the results in February, in what looks like a jaw-on-the-floor kind of good time — from the trailer and the whole 'bear does cocaine' concept, at least. Until then, the film's sneak peak is the wildest thing you'll see all day. Watching it more than once comes with the territory. Check out the trailer for Cocaine Bear below: Cocaine Bear releases in cinemas Down Under on February 23, 2023.
When the cinema powers-that-be finally decided to turn long-running and immensely popular stage musical Cats into a movie, they probably felt like the cat who got the cream. But once the film actually came into existence — once its first trailer hit, really — they likely felt more like they'd made a huge mess in the litter box. Thanks to awful CGI, terrible performances and a completely silly concept that was never going to work going to work on the big screen, Cats doesn't equate to movie magic. It certainly doesn't ascend to cinema's Heaviside Layer, either. And now the Tom Hooper-directed flick has the industry's least-wanted gong to show for it, plus a few extra not-so-shiny trophies. From its nine nominations at this year's Golden Raspberry Awards — the event's 40th ceremony — the musical picked up six prizes, including Worst Picture of the past 12 months. The Razzies also coughed awards Cats' way for Rebel Wilson for Worst Supporting Actress, James Corden for Worst Supporting Actor, Tom Hooper for Worst Director, and both Hooper his co-writer Lee Hall for Worst Screenplay. As for the singing moggy-focused movie's sixth gong, it was given for Worst Screen Combo for "any two half-feline/half-human hairballs/cats". Also recognised were John Travolta for Worst Actor for both Trading Paint and the Fred Durst (yes, that one)-directed The Fanatic; plus Hilary Duff for Worst Actress for The Haunting of Sharon Tate — none of which hit cinemas Down Under. Rambo: Last Blood picked up the award for Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel, as well as another in the new category for 2019: Worst Regard Disregard for Human Life and Public Property. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws1YIKsuTjQ The Razzies doesn't just point out everything terrible in cinema from the past year — it also gives a Redeemer Award, too. Someone who once won a Golden Raspberry gets a prize for turning things around, and this year that that someone is Eddie Murphy. He's a Razzie favourite, winning Worst Screenplay in 1990 for Harlem Nights; Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Supporting Actor for Norbit; and Worst Actor of the Decade in 2010 for The Adventures of Pluto Nash, I Spy, Imagine That, Meet Dave, Norbit and Showtime. Now, he has the Redeemer Award for his excellent performance in Dolemite Is My Name as well. Check out the full list of nominees and winners below: GOLDEN RASPBERRY NOMINEES AND WINNERS 2019: WORST PICTURE Cats The Fanatic The Haunting of Sharon Tate A Madea Family Funeral Rambo: Last Blood WORST ACTOR James Franco, Zeroville David Harbour, Hellboy (2019) Matthew McConaughey, Serenity Sylvester Stallone, Rambo: Last Blood John Travolta, The Fanatic and Trading Paint WORST ACTRESS Hilary Duff, The Haunting of Sharon Tate Anne Hathaway, The Hustle and Serenity Francesca Hayward, Cats Tyler Perry (as Medea), A Madea Family Funeral Rebel Wilson, The Hustle WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR James Corden, Cats Tyler Perry (as Joe), A Madea Family Funeral Tyler Perry (as Uncle Heathrow), A Madea Family Funeral Seth Rogan, Zeroville Bruce Willis, Glass WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Jessica Chastain, X-Men: Dark Phoenix Cassi Davis, A Madea Family Funeral Judi Dench, Cats Fenessa Pineda, Rambo: First Blood Rebel Wilson, Cats WORST SCREEN COMBO Any two half-feline/half-human hairballs in Cats Jason Derulo and his CGI-neutered "bulge" in Cats Tyler Perry and Tyler Perry (or Tyler Perry) in A Madea Family Funeral Sylvester Stallone and his impotent rage in Rambo: First Blood John Travolta and any screenplay he accepts WORST DIRECTOR Fred Durst, The Fanatic James Franco, Zeroville Adrian Grunberg, Rambo: First Blood Tom Hooper, Cats Neil Marshall, Hellboy (2019) WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL X-Men: Dark Phoenix Godzilla: King of the Monsters Hellboy (2019) A Madea Family Funeral Rambo: First Blood WORST SCREENPLAY Cats, screenplay by Lee Hall and Tom Hooper The Haunting of Sharon Tate, written by Daniel Farrands Hellboy (2019), screenplay by Andrew Cosby A Madea Family Funeral, written by Tyler Perry Rambo: First Blood, screenplay by Matthew Cirulnick and Sylvester Stallone WORST RECKLESS DISREGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE AND PUBLIC PROPERTY Dragged Across Concrete The Haunting of Sharon Tate Hellboy (2019) Joker Rambo: First Blood RAZZIE REDEEMER AWARD Eddie Murphy, Dolemite Is My Name Keanu Reeves, John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum and Toy Story 4 Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers Will Smith, Aladdin
The elevated dishes at British-born chef Nelly Robinson's Surry Hills degustation restaurant NEL bear little resemblance to the burgers and parmis you'll find at the local boozer. However, pub grub, albeit of a different sort, has been on the mind of this culinary maestro for some time. Classic corner pub The Nag's Head — a Glebe institution since 1836 — is now home to Robinson's first new venue in a decade: Winstons, a refined UK-themed gastropub concept, opening September 19, where guests will experience the multi-course wizardry Robinson is famed for via a seven-dish tasting menu inspired by Great British cuisine. [caption id="attachment_973555" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Winstons[/caption] Launching a new restaurant has been on Robinson's to-do list for several years. "NEL is ten years old next year, which I don't think a lot of people realise," he explains. "I've been mulling over taking on other projects for a while and for a long time, I thought that would mean going overseas, looking to earn some Michelin stars. But when [the owners of The Nag's Head] approached me, it was just such an exciting idea. I was brought up in British pubs, so getting to launch this project is all about nostalgia for me. It's about thinking about my father, my grandfather and really channelling the spirit of the pubs I grew up around." While many Aussie hotels can claim to have excellent food offerings, Robinson is aiming to set a new gold standard. Winstons is the nation's first true gastropub — that is to say, a fine dining restaurant within a pub in the same vein as the lauded chef-led ventures that have proven so popular in the UK, such as Heston Blumenthal's Michelin-starred The Hind's Head in Bray, or The Three Fishes, helmed by Robinson's former mentor Nigel Haworth. [caption id="attachment_973556" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Beef cheek Wellington[/caption] "I was training with Nigel [Haworth] when I was 17 and that's when he decided to open the first gastropub in the UK. I was fortunate enough to be part of that opening team, so seeing that you can take restaurant-level food and do it like that, in that setting, that's been in my brain ever since," Robinson shares. "But when I got to Sydney 13 years ago, I realised there really wasn't anything like that here. So I saw that gap in the market and thought, well let's wait, let's work. Of course, NEL was the first venue I launched and that has been my passion for the past ten years, but the gastropub thing has always been in the back of my mind. "What really inspired me to pull the trigger on it now was a trip I took back to the UK two years ago. I ate at Heston's in Bray, Tom Kitchen's pub in Edinburgh, Jason Atherton's [The Blind Pig] too, and it really brought it home to me, that as a chef, once you have your signature restaurant — and you know, NEL is my home — you can branch out and do other things. So now, launching a gastropub, I really want it to be something different, somewhere where people come to be with family and friends." "I was brought up in British pubs, so getting to launch this project is all about nostalgia for me." Winstons is only one part of Robinson's reinvention of The Nag's Head's dining options. In addition to the degustation offering — which stars the beef-cheek Wellington that was ranked the second best dish in the world in 2023 by The World's 50 Best Restaurants' "Taste Hunters" — the front bar, known simply as The Pub, is serving a less formal menu celebrating the favourite feeds of the British. Traditional dishes, like fish pies, beef cheek and peppercorn pies, and fish and chips are on offer alongside nods to the UK's more worldly fare, such as a fried tandoori chicken burger as a wink to the Brits' obsession with curry, and prawn toast, just like the kind from the local Chinese takeaway. [caption id="attachment_973558" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Beef cheek and peppercorn pie[/caption] Every Sunday, punters can enjoy a traditional British roast, complete with Robinson's gourmet flare, for $35. The meats — be it a house-smoked chicken with truffle butter, a slow-cooked lamb shoulder with mint jelly or a succulent beef joint — will rotate weekly, served with all the trimmings, including the all-important roast potatoes and of course, Yorkshire puddings. In addition to the trio of dining options already available — The Pub menu, Winstons' tasting menu and the Sunday roast — Robinson has one more quintessentially British experience to share with Sydney: afternoon tea, which will include a range of sweet and savoury treats alongside speciality teas and signature cocktails — served in teapots, naturally. This menu will be available later in the summer. [caption id="attachment_973559" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Nag's Head Sunday roast[/caption] The rear of The Nag's Head has already undergone a slick renovation to accommodate Winstons, but Robinson's long-term vision for the pub includes yet more upgrades that will transform the building into a multi-venue dining destination. Part of the front bar is set to become a deli, where customers can buy a Nelly Robinson fish pie or beef cheek pie to cook at home, along with other luxury groceries. A new in-house brewery and distillery is also incoming, producing craft ales and boutique spirits. A new fitout throughout the rest of the venue will underline the traditional British theme, while on the upper floor there will be spaces for larger parties and functions. [caption id="attachment_973560" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kingfish tandoori, available in The Pub[/caption] While this multifaceted endeavour may sound ambitious, particularly in an economic status quo that has forced an unsettling number of Sydney restaurants to fold, Robinson believes that creating a venue as versatile and unique as The Nag's Head will be a hit with Sydneysiders. "The point is, this is a place that people can enjoy. There's no pressure. You want a snack and a pint? You can get that in The Pub. You feel like something a bit more special. You can get that at Winstons for $80. You want somewhere you can bring the family, the kids, friends? That's what we're doing here. We want it to be a place that's fun. I think Sydney's ready for that." [caption id="attachment_973561" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Curried mussels, available in The Pub[/caption] Find The Nag's Head at 162 St Johns Road, Glebe, open Sunday–Tuesday, midday–10pm; Wednesday–Thursday, midday–11pm; and Friday–Saturday, midday to midnight. For more details, visit The Nag's Head website. Images: Paul R Fear
Pull out that old Discman, break out the cargo pants and start practising your smoothest 90s and early 00s dance moves — the pop tour of your wildest teenage dreams is hitting Australian shores this summer and it's got more stars than a TV Hits sticker collection. Come Thursday, February 16, the So Pop festival is set to deliver a huge serve of nostalgia to Sydney's Big Top, pulling together a juicy lineup of old-school icons, starting with none other than Vengaboys — celebrating their 25th anniversary, too. Heading up the show, Vengaboys will bring Cowboy Donny, Captain Kim, PartyGirl D'Nice and SailorBoy Robin to sing their party-starting smash hits like 'Boom Boom Boom Boom!!' and 'We Like to Party! (The Vengabus)' from the Netherlands — and yes, you now have both tunes stuck in your head from reading this. They'll be joined by Danish artist and producer Whigfield, who'll break out 'Sexy Eyes'; the UK's N-Trance, which means hearing 'Set You Free', 'Stayin' Alive', 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy' and 'Forever'; and Reel 2 Real teaming up with The Mad Stuntman, which is where 'I Like To Move It' and 'Go On Move' come in. Dutch trance/pop outfit Alice DJ is also on the lineup, so get ready to hear 'Back in My Life', 'Will I Ever' and 'Better Off Alone'. And, Nick Skitz is on DJing duties — after releasing Skitmix 59 (DJ Mix) in 2021. SO POP 2023 LINEUP: Vengaboys Whigfield Alice DJ N-Trance Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman Nick Skitz
Mosman has welcomed Amalfi Coast-inspired gem St Siandra to The Spit's waterfront, bringing with it a touch of coastal luxury and permanent vacation vibes. Tasteful golden-hued interiors, terracotta tiling and white marble bar give way to stunning beachfront views and a tantalising menu that promises a journey through the Mediterranean — all without the airfare. Come in via the sun-soaked wharf entrance and take a seat on the woven loveseats — sourced from Italy — and take in the thoughtful interiors designed by Sally Taylor, who has previously curated venues including Felix and Queen Chow. Up the winding stairs is the dedicated event space Bluebird Room & Deck, awash in calming blue hues and natural light. It can host up to 70 guests and has its own private bar and stunning views of the waters below. Continuing the Euro-summer vibes, the menu features fresh seafood, vibrant seasonal produce and classic Mediterranean flavours with a sprinkling of Middle Eastern spices. The spot is slinging brunch most days with dishes like stracciatella toast with caramelised onion, pistachio and chilli oil, and fried chicken and waffles with sage dukkah and date caramel syrup. Heading over for the lunchtime or dinner menu, instead? Tuna crudo and the Spring Bay mussels are crowd favourites as are the classic tray of Sydney rock oysters with champagne mignonette. For a meat-focused main, opt for the Angus MB4 short rib skewer or the lamb shoulder accompanied by broccoli gremolata, pomegranate and za'atar. Sail your way through cocktails, each with nautical themes or named after local luxury yachts or a bottle of bubbly. Dessert runs to the likes of spiced persimmon pavlova, Sicilian citrus tart with toasted meringue and strawberry; and the classic ricotta fritters with cinnamon sugar and banana caramel. St Siandra was conceived by the hospitality duo, Mitchell Davis and Gavin Gray, the team behind Great Eats. Collaborating with the visionary Head Chef Sam McCallum, formerly of Nomad, and Adam George, the ensemble is a seasoned all-star cast ready to bring maritime allure to Mosman. Images: Steve Woodburn
